There may or may not be spoilers within this chapter for ThatOneVolcarona's story A New World, A New Journey. Read at your own risk.

Vincent had been having a normal day. Work with the power he'd accrued. Meditate. And then he heard someone think his name.

Then he took notice of the violence happening in the city. Between the PLA and the rebels that had pursued them.

And he was pissed.

This ends now, he broadcast as he warped in.

“Sev, what’s going on?” the nearby mare asked.

“Help is on the way," the snake replied.

“Sev that does not answer my question!” the pony replied.

Protect, Vincent said as he raised a hand. A blue wall sprung up between the two fighting armies, arrows bouncing harmlessly off of it. I will give you all this warning and this warning alone. Leave and never return, and I will not harm you. He apparently didn’t want to hurt the rebels if it could be avoided…

There were several shouts of anger and frustration in the native zebra tongue from the rebels, before it all went quiet.

Sev poked his head through a window. “It appears they have left. No matter, they will be back. There are always more. Life and videogames have taught me that.”

“I have no idea what the heck is going on.” the mare said to herself, before sighing and looking for the Alakazam, “Hey, so like, we’re not here looking for trouble. These guys ambushed us and all, not our fault. We’re just here for my friend’s wedding, so if you could let us go, that’d be awesome.”

I know, I had a quick peek, Vincent replied. It wasn’t your fault at all. Sev never causes the problems, they just...flock to him like children to sweets. I’d advise waiting for those guys to get a little further away before you leave, though. The barrier fell, though the Alakazam remained, looking up at the snake in the window. Sev, you, ah...have a little...something, there.

“The arrow is not important,” Sev said nonchalantly.

“He’ll be fine.” the pony chuckled, “So, you two know each other, good, fighting those idiots was getting tiring and boring.” Yet before she could say anything else, a fast silver blur passed above them, crashing into the building and destroying half of it as it landed right in front of Pockets, before revealing four large spider-like metallic legs, a golden cross in the middle of his face, and two vibrant yet cold red eyes, a flash cannon charging up as he placed Pockets in a Psychic shield,

“Identify yourself, Alakazam.” He said in a rough, monotone voice.

Sev was eating tacos from a popcorn basket as this went on. “This day is going the way of my liking and I blueberry supreme…..” Sev stopped what he was doing. “The arrow went in a bit wrong…….eh.” He continued eating.

My name is Vincent, the Alakazam said simply. And do you know how pissy Captain Ace is going to be over that property damage you just caused? It’ll be bad enough I was anywhere near this.

“Layton, dude, chill out. He’s with us.” the mare said from behind him, rolling her eyes as this was just getting ridiculous.

Yet Layton on the other hand simply blinked in surprise, “Impossible… you are speaking telepathically with me? Not many are able to simply go through my barriers. How are you able to have such control? Explain yourself, Alakazam.”

Oh, here, maybe this will help you a little. The psychic fox mockingly cleared his throat before reintroducing himself. My name is Vincent Nurem.

Layton remained silent, scanning the Psychic in front of him for any signs of untruth, and found none. “Such a name is nothing to be proud of, Alakazam. Give me one reason why I should not imprison you and deliver you to Arceus.”

Simple, Vincent said with a smile. He only ever called me Subject Thirty-Seven.

Layton’s eyes widened slightly, before releasing Pockets from his grip and lowering his stance, “I see, I had to be careful, not everyday you find a Psychic with power levels like yours. I am Layton, my most sincere apologies, Mister Vincent.”

The Alakazam nodded before walking over to Sev and slowly lifting a hand to hover near the arrow in his head. Sev, I’d like to remove the arrow before it does more damage to whatever is left of your brain. Will you permit me to do this?

Sev glared at the Alakazam. He would not be racist, unless he was and even then he wasn’t. He had plenty Leopards and Alakazam companions…..The second still ticked him off. “Talk with your mouth.” He simply said, a flicker of anger flashing in his eyes.

Vincent nodded and cleared his throat. “Test- oh wow, it’s been a while since I did,” the Alakazam said, his voice sounding scratchy and weak for a moment. “Got real used to using my powers...but yeah, like I said. Can I pull it out? I’d like to think there’s enough there worth saving, Sev.”

“That’s what he said!” the mare's voice came from behind them, as Layton helped her get off the building.

“Pull it,” Sev ordered. Vincent grasped the arrow and yanked on it as hard as he could in an effort to remove the errant projectile from the head of his friend.

“Allow me.” Layton said calmly as he reached the duo, pointing at the arrow with one of his claws, he pushed it away with his magnetic power, causing it to bounce off a silver plate, a wall, a passing by bird, and finally reaching a halt… inside the same spot where it came from, Sev’s head, “It seems like the arrow likes you, Commander.”

“I do not like it,” Sev pulled out the arrow with his own coils. Another soldier quickly went to bandage it up. “I have to do most everything myself, anyways.”

“Sorry, it’s these noodly Alakazam arms of mine,” Vincent said. “I can walk around and hold up my head, but any physical prowess I might have had is gone.”

“The chances of failure in the arrow’s extraction were of 0.0000001%, I guess we were just unlucky.” Layton added as well, before an annoyed voice interrupted them.

“You bastard need to stop flying away like that!” A dry, half-drunk Sylveon said as he clumsily walked towards him, “Steven ordered you to take care of us for Arceus’ sake! Oh hey Pockets, how are ya?” Behind him, a Jolteon with a small Whismur riding on her back catched up as well, seeing the strange trio of Pokémon in front of them.

Yet something sparked in the Whismur’s head, as she quickly jumped off Alexia and slowly walked towards Vincent.

“Wendy! You came as well?” Pockets asked surprised, ready to hug the little Normal type, yet stopping as she saw the strange expression on her face. The Whismur walked up to the Alakazam and twitched her ears…

Before the psychic fox hugged her and rubbed her behind them. “Of course I remember you, Wendy,” he said. “I could never forget you.”

“Wait a minute… Vincent Nurem… Vincent… Vin-vin? You are Vin-vin?” Pockets asked in surprise before chuckling, “We’ve been searching for you like since months ago! Wendy hasn’t stopped telling us about you!”

“Once you understand her, she’s quite a chatterbox,” the psychic agreed. “Or a menace with her marker.”

Wendy’s ears twitched again, and Vincent shook his head. “Oh you know it too. There was the time you did it to Christine...I swear, we lost more rooms that way.”

“Uhm excuse me, I’m totally not sorry for interrupting this sweet meeting and all, but we have a wedding in a week, and we still need to at least find a hotel. Nice meeting y’all yada-yada, Pockets, Layton, get going.” Frederick grunted as he turned around and checked the area to try to spot for any more hotel signs.

“Can you not be a dick for at least a minute?” Alexia sighed before smiling warmly, “Hello, I’m Alexia and this is Frederick, we’re friends of Pockets.”

“You know,” Vincent mused aloud. “If he asked me nicely, then I could find if there are any open rooms in the city…”

“Really? Oh that’d be great!” Alexia chirped.

Yet her mate did not agree, “Oh no, nonononono. I am not being nice to some random stranger, I’m not even nice to my own friends. Forget about it, we’ll find something ourselves.” And with that, he began walking away with a huff. Yet he was stopped by a loud Thunder that landed right in front of him; shivering, he turned around to see the mother of all death glares from Alexia.

“Listen here you son of a gun, we’ve been walking for hours without anyplace to rest at because you couldn’t reserve a hotel beforehand. Now you’ll go ahead and ask this guy if he can help us, nicely, or else no more sex for a year, capiche?”

Frederick’s legs trembled from the glare only, before he gulped and walked towards Vincent with a sigh, “Yeah, ok, help us or whatever.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” the psychic said before putting a hand to his head and listening to the voices in his head. “Hmm…” he hummed. “Not looking promising so far…”

“I knew it wasn’t worth it.” Frederick sighed.

“Oh come on dude, don’t be so darn negative. I’m sure he’ll find something soon enough, right?” Pockets said with a confident grin.

“Eh, it’s not looking like it,” the psychic sighed. “Guess we’re just popular around this time of year.” He then held up a hand. “Fortunately, I have a backup proposal. I’m the manager of one of the local apartment buildings, and the second floor is open at the moment. You can come in and take one of the rooms...as long as your lovely friend here is willing to charge the generator in the basement for the duration of your stay.”

“Ok, listen here bud, making me be slightly nice is one thing, but wanting to use my fian-”

“Sure, I’ll do it.” Alexia said calmly.

“Wh-what, hell no you won’t!” The Sylveon complained, “I won’t let my future wife be used as a battery!”

“He’s offering us a place to stay, without him we’d probably end up sleeping in the streets. So stop being an idiot and just take it!” Alexia growled.

“...Fine.”

“Great! Then it’s a deal. We’ll take the room.” She said with a soft grin, “And don’t worry, I’ll keep him under control.”

“Three things,” Vincent said as he raised a hand. “It wouldn’t be a constant thing, you keeping the generator charged, just when you felt you could spare the juice. We have a Berry garden. And if my children pick up any of his colorful vocabulary, I am cutting back on whatever his favorite berry happens to be.”

“No problem.” Alexia smiled, “Thank you so much, I’ll do my best, and I know that this little fellow here will as well.”

“He better.” Pockets chuckled, “Because I’m staying with you guys, no offense Sev but I feel more comfortable with them around, and I’d rather keep some of my sanity thank you very much.”

“Sanity is for those who do not wish to see the unlimited potential of everything,” Sev snorted.

“I have some pending business in the city, yet I shall keep an eye on you in case you request my assistance.” Layton nodded, taking off before anyone could ask anything.

“Well then,” Pockets smiled, ignoring Layton’s shenanigans, “Vincent, lead the way!”

“Gather round,” Vincent said as one hand started to glow blue. “I’ll Teleport us all there.”

“Oh! Exciting!” Alexia said as she dragged her fiance towards the group.

“I am already regretting this.” He replied back, before they were all taken away in the blink of an eye.

“Welcome,” Vincent said as their party appeared in front of mostly non-descript apartment building. “To the Unity Building.”

It looked like any other building around...except for the part of the wall that was metallic. And had what could only be a laser cannon sticking out of it.

“Excuse me,” Lala heard as she was reading a book, “Can I get some help over here?”

Lala put a bookmark in her book, looked over at the latest tenant, and nodded once. “What do you need assistance with?”

“Yeah, I’m looking for this guy, an Alakazam. Vincent Nurem? Know where I could find him?” He asked without much interest to his voice.

“The Nurem family lives on the third floor, room 301,” she said. “Is there a problem?” The way she said it implied...all sorts of things. Mostly dangerous ones.

“Yeah…. but it doesn’t matter, I just want to talk with him about a rather… delicate topic.” He said coldly without paying much attention to the Grass type, “Thank you, I’ll be on my way.” He simply walked away from the counter and proceeded to climb up the stairs.

"Curious," the grass-type said, before returning to her book.

Vincent had been meditating when he heard the mind right outside his door.That depends entirely on what you need help with, he sent to the one on the other side.

‘I need to talk to you in private, I’m outside your room, and I’d prefer you not hearing my thoughts, thank you very much.’ He heard in reply.

A place comes to mind, and it’s close by as well...hold on. There was a blue flash, and when his vision cleared, the Sylveon and the Alakazam were in the basement.

“No offense, but you’re fucking creepy, like any good Alakazam.” Frederick grunted as he recovered from the sudden teleport, reminding him why he hated Psychic types so much.

“It could be worse,” the psychic said. “Like it was when I evolved. It could be so very much worse. I’ve been working on being relatively normal.”

“Let me tell you,” The Sylveon chuckled, “You’re not doing much progress with that.” Yet, after some seconds, his expression changed to one of sorrow, he wanted to go straight to the point, but he couldn’t. “You… used to be an experiment, right? From Doctor Nurem’s lab.”

“First and oldest,” the Alakazam said with a nod. “I can recall everything that’s happened to me, which is not something I would burden anyone else with.”

“Do you… perhaps recall a female Eevee, named Valerie?” Frederick continued, as every word he said pained him, “She… used to be one too, ended up as some sort of Poison eeveelution.”

“I do recall her, yes,” the Alakazam said. “And in some of my...darker, moments, I may have...hugged her on purpose, in an effort to put an end to the pain.” He sighed and shook his head. “Once the others realized what I had been trying to do, I was quickly restrained from seeing her when I was like that ever again.”

“She is quite a good hugger…” Frederick chuckled, a tear falling from one of his eyes, “What…. what about the two Eevees that came with her?”

“...That is not a story you want to hear,” Vincent said. “It...does not end well.”

“I do.” Frederick said firmly, “Marc and Eric, what happened to them? I need to know what happened to my brothers.” He said with a broken voice, as more tears began running on his cheeks.

“...Allow me to preface it with this,” the psychic said. “All the surviving test subjects made it to this world.”

“I FUCKING KNOW THEY’RE DEAD!” He growled, “Valerie told me! I just… I just need to know how… why, why them. What did that bastard do to them?”

“He was attempting to discover new Eevolution types,” the psychic said. “Valerie was the first successful one. Marc was taken first, though. And then a Steel Coat was melted down…”

“Steel type… really?” He chuckled in anger, “Was that animal that stupid? Marc was never the strongest one, he… looked up to me, fucking...”

“The test was a failure,” Vincent said with a sigh. “Valerie was next, a Toxic Orb was the item used...and it was thanks to his quick thinking that she survived the process. Of course, they didn’t know just how deadly she was, and she was put back in the same room as Eric…”

“Eric liked hugging Valerie as much as he liked teasing her…” Frederick said with a wicked smile, “They’d be scared, of course they’d cuddle up together…”

“...I begged and pleaded to save him,” Vincent sighed. “To use an antidote, a pecha berry, something, anything. Do you know what he said?” The psychic paused before stating the reply in as dead a voice as he could muster. “‘Even if it was an unplanned experiment, his death could still yield us useful data as to the nature of the poison she wields.’”

“Data?...” Frederick stopped cold, before laughing, laughing like a maniac as his eyes went dead, “His death, data? Fucking data?” He continued laughing, before stretching his ribbons, and placing them around his own neck, “I can’t, believe it. My fucking fault, they’re dead! I HAD TO TAKE CARE OF THEM! I HAD TO BE A RESPONSIBLE OLDER BROTHER! I could have… I could have…” He said, his mind shattering into pieces. “WHY WASN’T IT ME INSTEAD!?”

“You think you have it rough?” Vincent intoned. “Every single one of them. They were my friends. I bonded with them, tried to comfort them and bring them peace. And out of all the subjects there, I was one of those few that didn’t die. I carry more than two deaths around my neck. Though it may not have been by my hands that they died...I will never forget any of them.”

Frederick went silent for a moment. “I haven’t been able to sleep properly for months now. Life took everything away from me, gave me something back, and then took it as well. I grew up alone, I lost all feelings of love or happiness, I became the most hated being of the forest I lived in, became a true asshole, used them all to my advantage, almost killed a child… and I did not care a bit.” He chuckled, before his legs failed him and he fell on the floor, “And I hate myself for it all. If only… I’m sorry. I should have not come here, I knew this was a stupid idea.”

“Then let me give you a simple bit of advice,” Vincent said. “Find a new reason to live, and find someone to live for. Start again. It may seem simple, but it works wonders for those with burdens like ours.”

“Someone…” The Sylveon said coldly, falling silent for a time. Eventually, Frederick sighed, clearing his tears with his ribbons, “Thanks I guess, but please don’t you mention this to anyone, specially Alexia. I’d prefer to keep this ‘I’m-over-it’ facade for a bit longer until it becomes reality.”

“I understand,” Vincent replied. “And no worries, I can keep a secret.”

“Well then. If you mind showing me the way out. I have something I must do.” Frederick said with his normal cold attitude. Vincent merely smiled at him before raising a glowing hand. With a flash of blue, the Sylveon found himself back outside of room 301 again.

Vincent was sitting, cross-legged and a foot off the ground, meditating and getting a feel for the general mood of the city. As well, he was practicing his fine control. Trying to hear a little but not everything. Emotions, not words. Feelings, not images. It was tricky.

Yet his meditation was cut short, when he heard his name being called mentally by someone nearby.

‘Vincent, we must speak immediately. This is an urgent matter.’ A monotone cold voice said.

‘Layton, was it? You remind me of Xavier so much, it’s hard to imagine any other type of ‘mon with your sorts of voices.’ Vincent lowered himself to the ground and stood up, stretching a little as he started to walk out of his room. ‘Where are you anyways?’

‘Rooftop’ He replied, ‘If you are able to meet me here, It would be appreciated.’ And with a quick teleport, Vincent found himself face to face with the hovering shiny Metagross, who greeted him with a nod.

“Okay, so what’s the big deal?” Vincent asked. “I was in the middle of meditating.”

“We have a situation, your friends and family may be in danger, you need to strengthen your defenses and remain inside. There is someone who might be trying to hunt you all.” Layton explained calmly, not showing a slight bit of emotion on his face.

“That is not how I deal with my problems,” Vincent said calmly. “I dissuade, I persuade. And if all else fails, then...did you know, I beat a Charizard that likely could have done very well against the Elite Four to get this form? I’m no pushover.”

“I am afraid this is different. You can not persuade a being that has lost all humanity and sense of what is ‘good’, and I am afraid fighting him without a strategy is not a good idea either.” Layton rebutted, “I do not want to risk him capturing you nor Nurem’s former experiments, so please do listen to my advice.”

“There is a mantra to my family,” Vincent said softly. “I’m going to have it carved into the door to our room. You do not mess with the Nurem family. Whatever is going on, you can forget about persuading me to not strike back.” The Alakazam clenched and unclenched his hands. “I couldn’t fight back for fifteen years. I’m sure as hell not pulling any punches now.”

Layton remained silent, as he detected the determination and will to fight that Vincent had, changing his mind was not an option, “Shadow Crawler, former royal scientist and now a monster made of sheer dark magic. He captures Pokémon and forces them to obey him through the use of a special serum. The resulting ‘servants’ are stronger, faster, more agile than normal, yet they lose all sense of free-will, the only way of breaking the curse being inflicting serious damage to them.” He explained, “We heard rumors of his henchmen roaming the streets, and as far as experience tells us, any rumor about him is most likely true. We can’t risk him having you and your friends in his army.”

“Then let me help you,” Vincent said, before gesturing to the city at large. “Las Pegasus...if I shut down my barriers and listen to it, I can hear it all. I can tell you where they are, how many, what they are. I can hear everything that happens in this city. Will you accept my help?”

Layton thought for a few seconds, analyzing the possibilities, the outcomes, what was most likely to happen. None of them looked good, except for two possible outcomes, both of which involved Vincent. “Very w-” Layton cut himself short, before widening his eyes, “Vincent, I need you to run a check on all of the experiments living in the city, how many there are, and how many there are supposed to be.”

“It’s just five of us here,” Vincent said. “Me, Lucy, Christine, Sam, and Mary.” Yet...Mary was missing. “...They messed with my family,” Vincent said slowly. “They messed. With my. Family.”

“This is not looking good.” Layton hummed as he thought on what to do, “I know what you may be thinking, yet I need you to remain calm. Shadow Crawler is a master of his own game, he probably kidnapped her in order to anger you. I shall see what I can find about his whereabouts, meanwhile, I need you to tell the rest about the current situation, keep yourself protected, we do not need to give him more power.”

“I failed Mary once before,” Vincent growled. “I’m not failing anyone ever again. You can say that all you want, but I’m finding her and rescuing her now.”

“You won’t be able to help her if he catches you.” Layton rebutted, “I was not able to defeat his forces by myself, I doubt that even with all your power, your attempt will be any different. Please, believe in me. I promise you, we will rescue her, I just need more time to do this safely.”

“I am not sitting this one out,” Vincent said with a shake of his head. “I’m going to go, the only real question you have to answer is, am I going with you, or simply on my own.”

Layton remained static. None of those options benefited him. Checking on his superiors, he finally gave a nod to Vincent, “Very well. You shall come with me, yet… you must promise me that what you will see and hear will stay within you, a secret if you will. None can know about this, understood?”

“I can agree to that,” Vincent replied. “If it means helping to rescue my dear friend, then I can agree to those terms.”

“Very well.” Layton nodded, “Griffin’s Horde Casino, third floor underground, they’re waiting for us there. In fact, they’re very eager to meet you.”

“Oh good,” Vincent said as he suspended quite a few of his subconscious routines that helped him burn off his excess power. “So am I.”

A flash, and they were gone. Another flash, and they appeared in the middle of a complex, technology-filled room with several creatures of different kinds. Everything was bright and shiny, several noises caught Vincent of guard, before his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, in front of him, a griffin, a minotaur, and an earth pony in white robes looked at them with sly smiles, as a massive logo behind them, a sword crossed with a feather, read ‘Golden Swords, Justice And Security Over All’

“Welcome, Mister Nurem. We finally meet.” The griffin said with a strong Canterlot accent, “My name is Golden Feather, leader of the Equestrian division of the Golden Swords.”

“Charmed,” Vincent said as he kept himself restrained from lashing out, barely. “Layton, why are we here?”

“Agent Layton told us you wanted to help in finding Shadow Crawler,” The Minotaur said in a strong deep tone, “We’ve been after the bastard for a year now, if anyone can find what he’s up to, it’s us.”

“If he’s in this city, I can find him in a few seconds,” Vincent retorted. “Las Pegasus is my home, and I hear everything unless I’m actively ignoring it.”

“We know of ‘yer abilities, my boy.” The earth pony interrupted, “But I’m ‘fraid he ain’t around, he never is. He works from the shadows ya see, has his own pocket dimension from where he leads his lil army. It’d be impossible for ye to find him.”

“He has my friend,” Vincent growled. “I would tear this city down, brick by brick, if it meant making sure those that have suffered, no longer have to.”

“We know, Mister Nurem. Layton informed us of your little predicament. Hence why we agreed to you coming here.” Golden Sword said as he swiftly took out his sword and pointed at a pony in an upper platform, “File #374, Pegasus Air incident.” The pony nodded and a projector slowly descended from the roof, before showing a picture of the warehouse with Bit’s massive Signal Beam erupting from the roof. “We’ve kept an eye on you and your friends, we know your overall story, we even started listing as many of you as we can find, believe me it’s no easy task.” The projector turned off and ascended once more into its place, “Your powers are admirable, Mister Nurem, yet neither you nor your friends will be able to defeat Crawler by your own. So we have a proposition…”

“I’m listening,” Vincent replied. “As long as we get Mary back, that is.”

“We’ll make sure of getting your friend back to safety, as long… as you share some of the results of Dr. Nurem’s experiments with us.”

“Nothing that would compromise ya of course,” The earth pony explained further, “Just general info that’d help us understand a tiny lil bit more about you Pokemans.”

“Sir, with all due respect.” Layton interrupted, “I do not believe that would be appropriate.”

“I believe it is a fair trade. We have the experience, the equipment, the data. It is only a fair trade.” Golden Sword said calmly as he raised his right claw, “What do you say?”

“Counterproposal,” Vincent said. “I’ll tell you about the ones that could be a danger to themselves or others. Some of them simply aren’t, and I can’t imagine that they want more than to live their lives. But there are a few...that should be looked for, watched.”

Golden Sword chuckled softly as he looked at his companions, “See? I told you this guy was smart!”

“I like your attitude, kid.” The minotaur nodded.

“A win for us all, partner.” The earth pony added.

“Vincent Nurem,” Golden Sword chuckled, “You got yourself a deal!” He said as he once again stretched his claw, “You will not regret this.”

“Very well, as long as you all understand something,” Vincent said as he placed his hand in the griffon’s claw. “I told Layton this, I’m telling you this. Trying to keep me away from the front lines is a futile endeavor. Either I’m going with to help in the retrieval of my friend, or I’ll blaze my own path.”

“Agent Layton’s ways differ from mine, Mister Nurem.” Golden Star smiled, “I very much want you in the front lines, if you somehow manage to beat, or even better, kill Shadow Crawler, you’d be getting a heavy weight out of the world’s shoulders.”

“Sir!” A female pegasus called out, “We have reports of a Partrat being followed by two Machamp near midtown, we identified it as Subject 22, Peter, sir.”

“Time to be a hero, Mister Nurem. I trust you and Agent Layton will do a magnificent work. Rescue him, and leave, the faster the better. Try to not get captured.” Golden Sword smiled as he pointed at a changeling, “Tell our agents there to keep an eye out for Crawler. We can’t afford losing these two. Everyone into positions!”

“Very well, Vincent. Shall we leave?” Layton asked calmly.

“Just keep in mind, Layton. Don’t look into his eyes.” Vincent raised a glowing hand. “Point him out to me and I can take us there.”

“Grand Hotel, midtown. North from here.” A zebra exclaimed, “You should hurry, the Machamps are closing in.”

“Off we go,” Vincent said. “I’ll even split them with you Layton.” The Teleport took them both away before the Metagross could retort.

Sunset Skies was a regular pony going to her regular work at a casino. Her life was fairly normal, and her routine normal as well. So when she saw a small Patrat run between her legs she considered it rather odd. And when she was felt the strong vibrations on the ground and the shouts of fear coming, she panicked. And she together with several other civilians ran for their lives as two large Machamp with darkened skins and dead eyes punched and kicked their way towards the Patrat, who was having a hard time keeping a distance. The small gopher-looking creature squeaked and kept running. He’d tried putting them to sleep when they first cornered him...it didn’t work. So now he was just running. Running, and hoping that somebody would stop them.

Several guards and officers attempted to stop the two titans, yet they were simply shoved away like flies as soon as they got close, and not even a couple of kind Pokémon who tried to help managed to stop their wrath. They were powerful, extremely powerful, even more powerful than a normal Machamp would be.

Yet in a twist of fate, he tripped. Everything was lost, one of the duo of Fighting types stretched his arm and attempted to grab the Patrat, yet suddenly, he found himself hitting nothing but a blue wall. A Protect? But from who?

“Get behind us,” Peter heard, and looked up to see an Alakazam and a Metagross staring the two titans of muscle down.

“I will face the left one.” Layton said calmly, as he charged up a Meteor Mash, “Clean and straight shots, we do not want to stay here more than needed.”

“Agreed,” Vincent said before pulling his spoons to his hands and channeled a Calm Mind on himself. “These two look formidable.”

“Do not trust our type advantage, they are ‘programmed’ to deal with any kind of Pokémon.” Layton nodded, “Please do be careful.” And with that, he shot off towards the ground, reaching Mach 1 in mere seconds before punching one of the Machamp with all his might, causing a strong shock wave which caused nearby glass to crack. Yet the Machamp simply groaned as he regained his senses, crying out in rage before shooting a Power-up Punch at him, failing by mere inches as Layton dodged it just in time.

Vincent, on the other hand, leveled his spoon at the Machamp that was across from him. He let loose with a mighty Psychic, it visibly distorted the air before it made contact with the Fighting-type who roared in pain as he tried to get whatever was in his head, out of there. Yet surprisingly enough, he was still standing, and he was mad. His left fist charged up in flames, before rushing with amazing speeds towards Vincent, a Fire Punch in hand.

Meanwhile, Layton dodged several elemental punches that the mighty beast had thrown at him, before retaliating with another Meteor Mash, which still failed to knock out the Machamp. Furious, he tackled Layton and pinned him to the wall, preparing a Return which he landed, doing a great amount of damage yet still leaving the Metagross as cold and collected as always. Stretching his own limbs, he managed to get a hold of his attacker, which he sent flying with a simple toss, only to smack them back with Zen Headbutt as soon as he was close to landing.

Vincent had, upon seeing the Fire Punch coming his way, Teleported into the air above the Machamp and let loose with a Psybeam, attempting to confuse the mighty ‘mon, and succeeding. With his last breath, the Machamp struggled to stand up and fight back, before his companion crashed into him as a result of the Metagross’ Zen Headbutt, causing both to land unconscious on top of each other.

Getting closer to the now unconscious Machamp, Layton noticed how their skin tone brightened up, becoming its usual bluish gray, instead of mostly gray. “As I feared, this is indeed the work of Shadow Crawler. These Pokémon have been cursed by his serum, dark magic was running through them. They should be fine as soon as they regain consciousness. I shall ask for a cleaning crew.” Layton said calmly before sending a fast mental message to Golden Feather, “Keep your eyes open, we do not want to be ambushed by Shadow Crawler.”

“I would detect him if he were here,” Vincent grumbled. “And while I am grateful that another former Subject did not fall into his grasp, we need to rescue the ones that are, and dissuade him from coming after us ever again.”

“Speaking of which, where is the Patrat?” Layton asked as he scanned the area, as they both turned around to see a simple trashcan, from which the Normal type peeked.

“There he is,” Vincent said as he carefully averted his eyes.

“Greetings,” Layton said as he kept his gaze up, “Are you perhaps hurt?”

“N-No,” the little Patrat said. “You guys...got them before they got me...but...why did you come?”

“It is a long story,” Layton answered, “But we need you to come with us to safety, we do not know who may be lurking.”

“O-Okay,” the little Normal type said as he slowly drew closer. “Where are you gonna take me?”

Layton looked at Vincent as he himself wondered the same. He did not know of any place where the Patrat would be safe, as taking him back to the Golden Swords would be a bad idea.

“He can stay at my place,” Vincent said. “With all the security we’ve got, it would take a psuedo-Legendary or an actual Legendary to break in.”

“Perfect.” Layton said as he prepared to take off, “I trust you will take him to safety. My superiors are requesting to see me, so we must part ways for now. I will keep you informed with any new information we gather, but for now, warn the others.”

“No fear of that,” Vincent said as he carefully drew closer to Peter before laying a hand on him. “Once I’ve got him settled, though, you’d better believe I’m going to start gathering intel on what sort of soldiers he’s got and where Mary is. I’m not leaving her in his grasp for a second longer than I have to.”

“Just be careful.” Layton nodded before taking off and leaving sight.

Vincent carefully escorted Peter into the apartment building, making sure that Lala knew there was a new addition, at least for a little while. Christine would be more than capable of looking out for the little guy, and she at least knew to also never look him in the eyes.

Once that was done, he hovered above the roof and meditated again. This time, though, he decided that it was time he heard everything, or at the very least, scanned for the one that had been taken. He wouldn’t leave Mary in his grasp for any longer than he could avoid.

Vincent’s psychic influence spread out, invisibly, through the town. Every normal mind, he listened to for a moment before discarding that line of thought and going to the next one. It would take him some time to find anyone like this, unless they were actively thinking of him and trying to get his attention.

Still, it was better than nothing. What he really needed was a way to search through the minds…

“Help! Help me!” A panicked voice called from the distance. Vincent focused on that one a bit more. This sounded like the voice of a victim, which is what that creature in pony’s skin was making more of…

“Stay away from its spikes! We don’t want to lose another soldier.” Another voice said from nearby the victim, “Damn freaks!”

Spikes causing trouble? That could be a few, but only Cary came to mind. And freaks? All the Subjects were.

Time to-

No. Time to get backup first. Or at least tell the backup where he was going.

“Ok this is getting ridiculous, if she keeps struggling like that I’m killing her no questions asked.” The same voice as before grunted. Vincent growled before firing off a quick message to Layton.

“I found them, I’m going to stop them before they kill one of the Subjects,” he said to the Metagross. “I’m going to...here. Come as soon as you can. I might need help.” With that, Vincent Teleported himself as quick as he could to the side of the one that had called for help.

“Kill? That does not sound right… Vincent! Stop in this instant! It’s a tr-”

“Well… well… well. We finally meet, Vincent Nurem.” A sly, reverberating voice chuckled, as around him there was nothing but darkness, no one nor nothing in sight.

“Help! Help me!” The voice of Cary called, before the Cacnea slowly walked towards him from within the shadows… yet she was different. Her colors were dull, her expression cold and emotionless, and her eyes, her eyes were completely dead, “Help me!” She repeated again.

“You sick little,” Vincent growled. “I would ask how many you have, but by the time I’m through with your army, they’ll all be free, if only to fucking spite you.” Already his spoons had been pulled through space to be grasped in his hands, both the normal one, and the Twisted one.

“So scary!” The voice chuckled, before a spotlight shone behind Vincent, revealing a tall, slim pony figure, except it was not like any other pony he had ever seen before. His coat was completely black, his face missing all its components but its white shining smile, with a flash, the Cacnea appeared in front of him, levitating and working as a living shield, “We don’t want to hurt our little friend, now do we?”

“Actually, I’ve been told that the only way to free them is to hurt them,” Vincent said with a vicious smile of his own. “And the pain I would inflict would be temporary, and nothing compared to what she’s already lived through. Nice try though. Would have definitely worked in other circumstances...if not for the fact that I’m getting far better with fine control every day. So maybe not.”

Shadow Crawler laughed at this response, before dropping the Cacturne on the ground and letting out a devilish smile, “Then go ahead. Hit me with your all and free your precious little friends. Show me your power.” And with a twisted smile, he blasted the Cacturne with his magic into unconsciousness, “Kill me, I dare you.”

“I’d rather render you powerless and alone, before torturing you with the memories of everything that’s ever happened to me and the ones I was imprisoned with,” Vincent said. “Y’see, when you fight me, you have to take into account one simple thing.” Vincent’s spoons started glowing bright blue. “Trauma forges the sharpest swords. My mind is a fortress, my heart is its weapon.” With that, he began channeling a Calm Mind onto himself so that he could more accurately take in the situation and not overreact. “If you think you can best me, I think I only have one thing to say to you. Come at me.”

“Very well.” Crawler smiled, before the entire room filled with light, showing a massive storage room filled to the brim with shadow Pokémon, surrounding him, “I can already feel your power, Vincent Nurem! Oh you’ll be such a gem in my army.” A black platform formed beneath the unicorn’s hooves, as it raised him far up in the sky, above them all, “And once I catch you, I’ll go after all your little friends, then after Layton, Sev, Rayquaza, Arceus… My power shall find no limits!” And with a flash of his horn and a maniacal laughter, the several Pokémon roared and began their assault.

“Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? After all, if there’s one thing I’ve learned the darkness fears…” Vincent raised one glowing hand before finishing the statement with an overcharged Dazzling Gleam. “IT IS THE LIGHT!” The move filled the room, blinding everyone with the pure and blinding light Vincent had called forward. Giving him more than enough time to maneuver out of the middle of their attack as they reacted to being so suddenly blinded.

“Yet when the light dies, darkness reigns.” Crawler grunted as he sent a powerful blast of dark magic straight at the dodging Vincent, failing once, twice, until the third one managed to scratch him, yet still didn’t make it, “And when I’m over with you, there will be no light left inside you!”

“You think there’s light inside of me?” Vincent said with a hollow laugh. “I have more dark memories, more terrible knowledge about how Pokemon work than anyone should. I lived with a madman for fifteen years as his lab-rat! I have seen things that cannot be unseen, I know things I can never forget!” With that, he let off a powerful Psychic at a few of his attackers, trying his best to winnow out the number of Pokemon attacking him. Not only so it’d be easier to dodge the unicorn, but as he’d said…

He was doing this out of spite, now.

“Then you’ll have no problem when I start messing with your genetic build to find more about the wonderful work of Doctor Nurem.” Shadow Crawler grinned, as a Charizard and a Chandelure launched two consecutive Heat Waves to close Vincent off, “I’ve been studying some of your friends, your father was truly a genius!”

“A mad one, but yes, he did have several degrees. Which is why I know exactly how to hit some of your soldiers,” Vincent said as he Protected himself from their Heat Waves. That couldn’t last forever, though, and once it wore off, he fired off a Psybeam at the Charizard. “There’s one thing you should know about an Alakazam. We can’t forget anything we’ve seen, from when we were first born. So I know more about Pokemon physiology than you’ll likely ever learn. For example. Your Charizard friend is now highly confused.”

“Wonderful!” Crawler laughed, “You are perfect! You shall be my new advisor, with you under my command, I will finally create the perfect army!” And as he said this, several black tentacles rose from beneath Vincent, attempting to grab him as they wiggled in apparently random patterns.

Vincent replied by firing off another Dazzling Gleam, before self-levitating up into the air under his own power. “Seriously, I just did that to dispel your shadow tricks before. I know you don’t have my memory, but try to keep up,” Vincent teased.

“Oh, don’t worry. You see, I never do things without a plan.” Crawler smirked before creating a portal in the middle of the room, inches away from Vincent. From within, a jaguar-like creature jumped at him and pinned him down, as the rest of the Pokémon closed in to keep their attacks coming. Even with its slim figure and rather lightweight, it easily managed to not let Vincent go, his own corporal mass and physical strength not doing him any favors.

The Alakazam grunted before pointing one hand at the thing atop him. “Psycho Cut,” he said, before a large, violet blade of pure mental energy slammed into the creature on him. Yet it did nothing.

“Nice try, Vincent. But you see, your father was not the only one that could alter genetics. These creatures, inhabitants from my Shadow dimension, they have all been injected with special mixtures I’ve made. This one in particular, shares the same type advantages as a Dark type Pokémon.” And with a smile, he shot a barrage of beams at Vincent, with the sole purpose of knocking him down.

Except, Vincent didn’t go down. He’d known pain for most of his life. This was hardly anything in comparison to some of the tests his father had run on him. “You forget, the Darkness has a weakness, one I’ve illustrated a few times now,” the psychic grunted before his entire body shone with the third Dazzling Gleam that fight. “Suck on my Fairy moves, you bastard!”

The creature roared in pain and was set back, freeing Vincent. Yet not before an Aegislash and a Lopunny closed in to strike him with a Night Slash and a Low Kick respectively, soon joined by a slash from the creature.

“Keep throwing as many attacks as you want, Nurem, my army can take it all, I force them to take the pain and embrace it, even if it ends up killing them, like if I cared about them.” Crawler said calmly, continuing his assault from above.

Vincent grunted as he took the pain, before firing up another move of his. One that was...different compared to others using it.

When normal Psychic-types used Psyshock, they were limited to things like rocks being used to assault their foes.

Vincent picked up the Pokemon assaulting him and used them to assault the dark creature, causing both parties great physical pain.

“Impressive! This is the first time I’ve seen someone use Psyshock like that, and I see many things on a regular basis.” Crawler giggled, “Now I can sort of understand why Nurem was so interested in you. Do you know how I learned your name, Vincent? She screamed it, she called for your help while I was testing her.” He said with a grin as more Pokémon approached Vincent, including a Hydreigon who charged up a Dark Pulse, and an Aggron that prepared to wall the Dark type from any fairy moves.

“Then let me tell you how I got my name, you little shit,” Vincent said. “I was born with it. That fucker you so idolize? He experimented on his own Xerneas-loved son. You think you can match my will to survive, my will to cause pain? I was born human, and I will show you why we were the dominate species on Earth!” With a flick of his wrist, the Aggron was sent flying into the Hydreigon.

This is exactly what Crawler wanted, for him to show his full potential, his anger which increased his power, which broke his moral limits. He wanted Vincent to show him all his power, he wanted to see first-handed the true power of Nurem’s most successful experiment. “Want to know what I did to her? The Sandslash?” He smiled as a Volcarona and a Flygon closed in, the first one shooting a Bug Buzz while the second one attempted to Dragon Claw him. “Injected her with several serums, make her screech in pain as I tested her endurance…” A Lucario closed in with a Close Combat, a Scizor with an X-Scissor aiming for his head, “And then I began taking samples, forcing the claws out of her paws without any sort of anesthesia or pain killer, all that blood.”

“PSYCHIC!” Vincent bellowed, firing off one that was far stronger than even he thought he could do. The mental scream of hate and rage tore into the minds of those near him, even as he followed it up with another Dazzling Gleam, to make sure the Flygon didn’t get any ideas. “I swear, when I get my hands on you, there won’t be enough for an urn, much less a body bag!”

“Then come at me!” Shadow Crawler laughed as he ordered his forces to retreat, letting a free space between him and Vincent, “Or I will tear apart every molecule from her body while she cries out for help, for your name.”

Vincent breathed deeply before he focused another Calm Mind on himself. He needed to think this through. If he just went charging in, he would likely end up beaten. To that end, he appeared to do nothing. If he was going to end this, he was going to do it right.

Such a shame his best move required so much charging time, but there was nothing he could do about it.

“What? Do you care so little about her?” Crawler smiled, “Will you just stand there and do nothing to stop me? While I hunt your family down and cut them open for the sake of my research?”

“I’m not giving you the satisfaction,” Vincent said simply. “I could very well blast this pony in front of me...and it wouldn’t be you. Because only now that I stop to listen, do I hear their cries for freedom. You know, I could have ended all my fights with one simple move? The first move my real father taught me?” The Alakazam opened his eyes and smiled, before raising one hand and saying the name. “Hypnosis.” The wave of psychic suggestion crossed the distance and slammed into the pony, telling it to go to sleep.

‘Shadow Crawler’ began feeling drowsy, chuckling as his plans had been foiled, “So close, yet so far. Imagine the burden you’d have to deal with, killing an innocent civilian from pure rage. The monster is inside you, Vincent, and I’ll pull it out and make him mine. Just wait and see.” And with that, his spell vanished, leaving a female earth pony sleeping unconscious on the ground. Around him, all the shadow Pokémon disappeared in the blink of an eye, being taken away by Shadow Crawler’s portals, the only Pokémon not going with them being the unconscious Cacturne, “You’ve earned your reward, Vincent, yet I still have the main prize with me. Perhaps next time you’ll be able to claim her.”

“You think I won’t track you down to the ends of the world to save her from you?” Vincent fumed. “Just leave a portal open, fucker. I’d gladly hop in to get her back.”

A devilish laugh was the only thing he got in return.

And just at that moment, Layton broke through the roof, Shadow Crawler’s magic no longer interfering with his sensors, “Vincent! What happened, are you ok?” He said as he ran several scans on him, not finding any trace of dark magic.

“He used another subject to bait me into coming. Then he had the gall to think I was easily taken down, and to use a proxy to make this all possible.” To say the Alakazam was fuming would be severely understating it. “I want him fucking found, Layton. I want to rescue Mary from him, I want to tear that asshole limb from limb with my own powers!”

“Patience, Vincent. I have suffered a lot thanks to him as well. Fear and anger, those are his tools. We have tracks of his magic, and there’s an expert from Canterlot traveling here as we speak to see if we can at least know where he’ll appear next.” Layton replied calmly as he levitated both the pony and the Cacturne and got them closer to him, “You should not have done that, it was a huge risk. Next time, try to be more careful with your actions, you will not be able to save your friend if you yourself are in a lab tube next to her.”

“I did find something out that you might want to know, though,” Vincent said. “Hypnosis will stop any fight easily. Knocking them out breaks the control. Next time I’m packing a load of Leppa berries and just knocking all of his army out with one move if at all possible. Only if needed will I actually fight.”

“Hypnosis…” Layton hummed, “He might be prepared for it next time, yet there is no harm in trying. I shall inform my superiors about this discovery, yet for now, we must return you home and heal your wounds. I’d like to accompany you if you do not mind, some rest might do me some good.”

“Only if you promise that once you find him, you will tell me,” Vincent told the Metagross. “I’m not sitting any mission out that revolves around him. I’ll even fucking spy on Golden Feather and his friends if I have to get information. I want in on this.”

“You are already involved, as of now you know as much as I do about Crawler’s operations in Las Pegasus. Our agents are working on keeping an eye all over the city, if they see anything suspicious, you and I will be between the firsts to be informed.”

“That’ll...do for now,” Vincent sighed. “...She had a life, a trainer. Once she escaped, all she wanted was to get back to cooking with him. There’s a restaurant that’s missing their Pokemon chef now. A griffon that is missing a partner. A city that is just a little bit poorer for her loss. She deserves to live her own life, after everything that was already done to her.”

“We will make sure to get her back, Vincent.” Layton said softly, “But for now, we must be prepared for Crawler’s next move. We’ll require the help of everyone if we want to defeat him, and there is no doubt now that he will try to storm Unity Tower. We must go there and make sure everything’s fine.”

“Between the laser, the door-mon, the inhabitants, and our semi-close relationship with the Guard, I’d have to say there’s very few sane beings that would mess with us, especially when I return home,” Vincent said. “But if you insist…”

“He destroyed a castle built by Starswirl the Bearded, protected by one of his apprentices and her pet dragon, in one blast.” Layton replied, “Do not underestimate him, Vincent.”

“He shouldn’t underestimate me,” Vincent retorted. “I didn’t even use my strongest move on him, and believe me, when I find him, I will. It’ll likely be breaking a promise I made, but he fucking qualifies.” With that, the Alakazam picked up the Cacnea in his power and teleported them all back to his home.

Ace was having a bad night. Four casinos had told her that there was a cheating 'mon in them, and for once, it wasn't Vincent. She had just hit the fifth one when she saw what looked like a match for the description. “Hey you, stop!” she cried. Doing as it was told, the officers to reached the mon in question, who dropped his bags of chips as he raised his feelers in the air.

“What seems to be the problem officers?” He asked calmly, a smile on his face, the smell of alcohol filling their nostrils.

“Oh, only that five separate casinos seem to think that you’ve been cheating,” Ace said as she walked up between them. “There are rules here for a reason, and while you may not be a Psychic, I’m willing to bet they’re right over you.”

“Me?” Frederick gasped in a faked indignant tone, “But officer, I’m just a regular guy tired with life, trying to make a profit from a bunch of losers who are just not… good enough.” He chuckled, “So please let this honest winner change his money and go back home with his fiancee.”

“Oh, I got a good, long look at the ‘honest winner’ doing his best to win the game just now,” Ace said. “Caught all of your tricks too. The way I see it, you can just hand over your winnings right now, or I can charge you and let the casinos decide your fate.”

“Tempting… but I think I shall pass.” Frederick chuckled, as his feelers began shining a strong white glow, “Get out of my way gorgeous, and I promise it won’t hurt… too much.”

“So now I have you on resisting arrest and attempted assault of an officer of the law,” Ace said. “That’s more than enough for a night in jail in my books.” With that, her horn shone. “Last chance. Either hand them over, or you can enjoy my hospitality.”

“If by hospitality you mean anything that isn't a night of hot loving, then I’ll pass.” The Sylveon giggled coldly, before filling the room with a light brighter than the entire casino, blinding them temporarily as he made his way to the exit, grabbing someone else’s bag of chips as he did. “Nice try suckers!”

Ace’s response was to blanket the room in stun bolts, trusting that at least one of them would hit the mark and stop the cheating Sylveon before he escaped. Yet luck was not on her side, as one of the bolts managed to hit her target, yet it only did a massive hole on the bag of chips he was carrying, causing him to grunt in annoyance as he dropped them and turned around quickly to shoot another Shadow Ball.

“You imbecile made me lose my loot!” He grunted, before tackling some guards that tried to stop him and making his way into the streets.

“Don’t let him get away!” Ace cried as she blinked away the blindness and fired even more bolts after him. She didn’t really care if she hit one of her own, they were paid for this sort of thing. Plus she had good aim when she could see.

Frederick managed to see the incoming projectiles, and called for a Protect before dashing to the side, mixing himself with the crowds as he pushed civilians away, he didn’t want to get caught days prior his wedding, Alexia would kill him. He then saw his opportunity, he knew the cops would catch up if kept going trough the streets, so what better way to lose some officers of the law than entering a shady looking bar? He knew Ace could probably see him, yet that made the idea just far more appealing to him. And so, he jumped to the left and went inside a small establishment that simply read “Bar” on top.

The guard burst in not a moment later, looking through the crowd for the Fairy-type. “Search the crowd,” Ace ordered them. “He can’t have gone too far just yet.”

“Is there a problem, officer?” The bartender asked as a bunch of tanky, scar-filled individuals looked at them, “I believe you’re running a search on my establishment without any type of documents.”

“We’re chasing someone that was ripping off the casinos,” Ace replied, before a devious idea occurred to her. “She ducked in here, so we’re looking for her.”

“Excuse me!?” A voice exclaimed from the crowd, “That’s both low and racist!”

“Racism?” A really deep voice said from nearby.

“Is that officer being racist?” A sly voice asked.

“We do not take racism lightly here.” Another one added.

And with that, they all stood up and grunted at the officer, taking out several weapons and clenching their fists.

A massive minotaur, barely fitting in the small bar, took a stepped forwards and looked at Ace eye-to-eye, “We no like racist pony, we smash racist pony if pony doesn’t leave.” He lisped, as he raised his axe.

“I was just trying to draw him out,” Ace said. “Now that I’ve confirmed that he is here, you all can either be charged with obstruction of justice and assaulting an officer and spend the next month or two in jail, or you can get out of my bucking way.” Ace’s voice dropped as her horn glowed, ready to stun the entire bar if she had to.

“It’s fine, gentlemen.” Frederick sighed as he stepped forwards, “I do not want to risk your safety. My kind has always been treated this way, as feminine scoundrels, as nothing but a joke, as even worse than garbage. And all of this, because we’re cursed with this pink color in our fur. So is life’s way, I shall accompany this racist officer so she and her companions can keep bullying me for my color. There is no other way.” He said dramatically before turning to Ace and letting out a devilish smirk.

“RACIST PONY NO TAKE CUTE PINK GUY!” The Minotaur raged, “WE KILL RACIST PONY FIRST!” And with that, he and the rest of the customers launched forwards with their weapons, surrounding them.

Ace responded the only way she knew how: stun bolts. Stun bolts everywhere. One for everyone that would assault her or her guards.

And now, on the floor, several bodies lay unconsciously, including the bar’s mob, and the other officers. Yet one had managed to dodge every single bolt. A chuckling Sylveon looked at her with an annoying smirk, as he clapped his ribbons in a mocking manner.

“Good job, officer of the year. You came out as racist, stunned several civilians AND officers, and still failed at catching the suspect.” He said calmly, taking a sip from a cup of whiskey he found laying around.

“Except now there’s nothing stopping me from getting you,” she said, charging her horn once more.

“Oh really?” He smirked, “ I am a wanted criminal in several cities of Kalos, I’ve robbed both the government and the mafia. I honestly have no idea how I managed to get here. So yeah hon, I want to see you try.” He turned around, burped, and raised his tail before flashing his butt to the officer, wiggling it tauntingly, “Come and get this, bitch.”

Ace responded the only way she could have in that moment.

She fired a stun bolt at Frederick’s butt.

The Sylveon disappeared in a cloud of smoke, before revealing a small dark green doll which fell on the floor. Ace could feel how something jumped from a hole in the ceiling, bounced on her head, and made its way to the exit.

“Too predictable!” He shouted as he grabbed one of the unconscious officer’s hats and placed it on his head, “Don’t get left behind beauty, the fun’s just starting!”

“Get back here!” Ace growled as she gave chase. If this went on too much longer, she’d have to call her husband in, and he’d be completely insufferable about it.

The chase went back to the streets, yet without the help of the other officers Ace knew this was going to be far harder. Then the chase went to one place she really hoped it wouldn't.

‘The Gentlecolt’s Club’

Ace carefully entered the establishment as she scanned the crowd, looking for any hint of pink among the patrons there. She wasn’t going to let him get away any longer. This chase ended now.

Yet luck was once again not by her side, as a large sign in neon lights read ‘Pink day’. And true to the sign, every single exotic dancer was wearing pink lingerie, the lights were pink, the floor was pink, even the guards wore pink jackets and pink-tinted sunglasses .

One of the waitress walked towards her with swinging hips, “Hey there officer, what may I help you with? We have both male dancers and females that swing both ways, if that’s more of your liking.” She said in a seductive tone.

“Not interested,” the officer said. “I’m just looking for someone. Seen a Sylveon come by?”

The dancer giggled as she took a small paper from a nearby shelf, “Of course! In the true spirit of Pink Day, we have a new show. The Sylveon Siblings are a fan-favorite, the show will start soon enough, so just sit down and enjoy~” And with that, she turned around and left to ‘please’ another costumer.

“Just my bucking luck,” Ace grumbled. “I know he’s here, though…” With that, she decided to walk through the crowd, searching for him the old-fashioned way.

“Mares and gentlecolts. The Gentlecolt’s Club welcomes you all to our special presentation of the night. Straight from Kalos, Earth. The wonders in pink, the pixie charmers, the marvelous… Sylveon Siblings!”

The crowd cheered as they all gathered around the main stage, the room turning dark as the spotlights pointed at the closed curtain. Sensual jazz music began playing in the background, before revealing five Sylveon in different types of lingerie doing a reverence.

They started their show, as the crowd cheered for them to come closer and tease them, yet there was one that seemed to be going for a more free-styled show, earning some glares from the other performers, a Sylveon that was not meant to be there. While Ace had been loathe to look at the show…

Now she knew where her suspect was, and smiled deviously before making to stand near the stage access. She whispered to the one guarding it and told him that the one that was standing out was a criminal that had been eluding her all night, and she’d stun him and charge him with obstruction if he didn’t let her back there once the ‘show’ was over.

Frederick chuckled as he saw this, and got closer to the main dancer, who nodded in understandment and decided to help his brethren. Taking the microphone, he called for the attention of the audience and the spotlight shone on him.

“I am sorry for interrupting our little show, yet we couldn’t help but notice that there is one member of the audience who is not joining in on the fun.” He said in an extremely snesual voice that sent shivers down several female’s spines.

The crowd booed at this, as several others immediately pushed Ace into the crowd, placing her right in front of Frederick who simply smirked. The music changed to an even slower tune, as he simply leaned closer to her and chuckled.

“Well hello there, gorgeous. Come here often?” He whispered with a smirk.

“I’ll have you in a cell for years,” she replied with gritted teeth.

“Oh my, so aggressive~” He chuckled, running a feeler down her cheek before walking back and dancing with the iron pole next to him, “Then why don’t you stop the show? You’ve gotten in too much trouble already, one more can’t hurt, right?”

“I could do,” the mare said. “But I try to use force as a last resort. Except when somebody agitates an entire room against me.” She glared at the Sylveon. “You could still come quietly, you know. Put an end to this chase.”

“But I’m having so much fun!” He said as he purred in a random griffin’s face, caressing her feathers with his feelers before returning to Ace, “You’re way too tense, you should take some time and relax, enjoy life.” He whispered as he booped her nose tauntingly, keeping the show going. For being the first time doing this, he was actually pretty darn good.

“If you don’t stop, then I’m stunning you,” Ace said. “I’ll interrupt this night to catch you. I don’t care what they do.”

“You remind me so much of a certain old friend of mine…” Frederick chuckled, as he wiggled his tush in front of Ace before turning around with a smirk, “You have me here right in front of you, enjoying life without a care in the world. You can literally end this right here, right now. So why don’t you just shoot?”

“I still have a slight image to maintain,” she grumbled. “Though I might just take you up on that offer...in fact, screw it.” With a light of her horn, she announced, “GUARD BUSINESS!” and shot a stunning bolt at Frederick.

Frederick thanked his drunkenness for his increased ability to dance. With a swift movement of his body, the blast barely scratched his fur, before bouncing off the metal pole and into a guard who fell on the ground with a thud. “Predictable.” He chuckled, before jumping to the main stage, the audience panicking and fleeing the scene as the guards ran towards them to help Ace out. Yet she was not the only one getting some help, as the other four Sylveons sensually made their way towards Frederick. “This is getting rather interesting don’t you think?” He smirked as he shot a Moonblast at Ace.

“It’s time for this to end,” Ace growled as her horn lit up, only no spell came out. Her body nimbly dodged to one side as she focused on the message she was sending. She didn’t want to have to do this, but she would, just to catch this bloody annoying fairy!

The club’s guards meanwhile faced off against the Sylveon, yet it was obvious who had the advantage. If they didn’t end up falling in love with them due to their Cute Charm ability, they ended up knocked out by their rather powerful attacks. Frederick smiled in curiosity as he noted Ace’s strange attitude, “What do you think you’re doing?” He asked as he kept his distance, “Come on, let’s fight it out hon, let’s make this night exciting!”

That was about when something large impacted the club with a dull thudding noise. The entire building vibrated a little.

“I am,” Ace smirked.

The Sylveon Siblings backed off, leaving a confused Frederick behind as they ran away from danger. “What the heck did you do lady?” He asked confused, preparing a Shadow Ball to try to take down whatever she had called.

A thestral came in the front door and smirked. “Hey honey, miss me? I got your call, and I brought backup,” he said.

Then a Noivern followed after, barely squeezing into the room before glaring at the Fairy-type.

“Honey?” Frederick blinked, “Damn and here I thought Pockets had a bad taste.” He chuckled, before glaring at the Noivern with a defiant glare, “And a dragon? Oh boy! This is getting way more interesting all of the sudden.” And with a smirk, he canceled his Shadow Ball and went for the Double Team instead, several copies of himself surrounding the duo as he chuckled.

The Noivern was unimpressed and flapped her wings a few times, before they glinted in the light and shone with a metallic edge. “I know how to take out troublemakers like you!” she shouted.

“Oh wow, feisty.” The copies chuckled, as they all charged up a Moonblast attack, “You’re all tense and boring, here, let me help you relax!” And with a groan he shot the Moonblast, pointing the real one at the Noivern in hopes of at least crippling her.

She folded her metal-edged wings over her chest and took the blast full on, before unfurling them with a murderous glare. “Would you just go down already?” she yelled at him before firing off her Steel Wing attack at the Sylveon and all his copies.

Frederick grunted with a smile as he took the hit, his copies vanishing in the air. “I’ve taken worse hits from my girlfriend. I’m drunk and dead inside, do you think that’ll take me down?” He smiled before breathing deeply and releasing a loud cry that filled the room. His Pixelate Hyper Voice struck the trio, as he was hoping they’d end up too deaf to keep going after him.

Unfortunately for the Sylveon, Blackstone’s thestral ears could more than take the punishment, and the first thing he did once the attack passed was attempt to tackle the fairy so that Ace could stun him and cuff him.

Yet Frederick was one sneaky fellow, and as soon as Blackstone tried to pin him down, he jumped and bounced on his head, shooting a Shadow Ball to rocket-jump his way above them and Flash to blind them temporarily. “I’m outta here suckas!” He chuckled as he made his way to the exit.

Only to run into the Noivern. While she couldn’t see him, she could still hear him. Her hearing had recovered and she’d made to block the exit once she heard where he was going. Her wings glinted with a metallic edge as she listened for the Sylveon. One more step and she’d know where to slice…

Slash. Drops of blood fell to the ground as the Sylveon had managed to stop just in time. He now wore a cut on his forehead, yet felt nothing as the alcohol levels in his body did their best to keep him away from feeling any sort of pain. “Oh boy, well I’m in trouble now aren’t I?” He chuckled as he charged up two Moonblast orbs, checking both sides as they had surrounded him, “What shall I do now! Oh how cruel is fate.” He chuckled.

“Give up now, and we won’t take it too hard on you when charging you,” Blackstone said as they still got ready to pounce.

“Listen chaps, it has been fun and all… but I’m not quite ready to go to jail, you see?” Frederick sighed as he took a random cup he found on a nearby table, taking in whatever was in there. His ribbons glowed as he took the new shot, before letting out a loud Yawn while looking at the Noivern, “I’m getting rather tired, in fact.” And he smiled. With the Noivern out cold sleeping, he could easily escape.

Of course, the moment he moved, it was to the feeling of one of Ace’s stun bolts landing right next to his paw. “Take one more step, I bucking dare you,” Ace hissed. “I’m not letting you leave.”

“Oh, but I don’t have to.” Frederick smiled, before both Ace and Blackstone felt the gentle touch of a ribbon on their back, two soft yawns soothing their ears. The three fell drowsy, their eyes closing in as the Sylveon Siblings giggled.

“Good night officers, it’s been a blast.” Frederick smirked.

“I’ll...get you…” Ace muttered as she took one step forward. “Nobody...escapes Ace…”

Las Pegasus was usually the place to relax, to throw decency out the window and just enjoy yourself.

Yet this was not the case for the ones at Unity Tower. Report of several Shadow Pokemon roaming the streets, of strange events surrounding disappearing Pokémon, the sightings of the zebra rebels in the area surrounding them. They knew Shadow Crawler was up to something, they knew they had to be careful. He had one objective, one task, and he would not rest until he captured every single Pokémon living there. And they knew he’d do everything in his power to do so.

Layton knew they’d need help, and so, he called the one person who he knew could lead them to victory.

And so, in the middle of the afternoon, the sight of a shiny Scizor riding a tall slim Skarmory brought him some relief. He had managed to send a messenger to Tall Tale to ask for his assistance, and for him to bring some special items that could quite possibly turn the tides of the incoming battle.

If anyone knew how to defeat Shadow Crawler, it was Steven Stone.

“I am glad you could make it, Steven.” Layton greeted as soon as the former champion and his Skarmory entered the lobby.

“You should have told me sooner, bud. Had I known before that Shadow Crawler was here, I’d have brought the entire team to battle. Yet here I am, glad to see you are all still in one piece.” He joked, before saluting at the ones present with a reverence, “Greetings everyone, my name is Steven Stone, Layton told me they could use some help.”

“That we could,” Vincent said. “I would much rather this unicorn not get his hands on my family. I have sons, after all. They could do without experiencing the things I have.”

“I’ll try my b-” Steven stopped as his eye twitched at the sight of a very familiar Seviper, “C-commander Sev. Did not… expect to see you here.”

“My brothers and sisters here in this land are in danger,” Sev scoffed. “As the great and powerful Commander Sev, it is my duty to destroy this menace. Not only does he threaten Equestria, but my family.” His smile turned wicked. “I’ve always wanted to kill a shadow. Do they bleed or just disappear?”

Steven sighed, he did not like dealing with the Commander, his bare existence went against logic, but he was happy they at least were on the same side. “Very well. I’ll go to the point. I can’t promise you we’ll stop Shadow Crawler for good, even if he dares to show his true self, he’s far too sneaky and powerful. Many times have I come close to stop him, just for him to vanish into the darkness only to reappear several days afterwards. Yet that does not mean we can’t foil his plans.” He signaled his Skarmory, Tania, as she tossed him a bag. With a smile, he lifted three small spheres in the air, crystalline gemstones with a strange pattern they all recognized, Mega Stones, “Layton told me you could use this.”

“Likely we could,” Vincent said. “There’s more than a few of us here who could Mega Evolve if we had the right stone, but currently we only have a Lucarionite. We could use...At least three more, for the rest of the family. And that’s not even counting the amount of Keystones we would need to activate them all.”

“I have it under control.” Steven said calmly, as he tossed Vincent one of the stones, “That’s an Alakazite,” He said, before tossing him another one, “Garchompite,” And then he tossed the third one, “And my own personal Scizorite. I believe that should cover your family. And as for Keystones:” He grabbed a large green orb with his pincer and showed it to everyone, “This is a gift from Lord Rayquaza, the Jade Orb holds raw Mega Energy, energy belonging to the first Keystone, we just need to plant this on the tallest part of the building, and it should cover our Mega Stones.” He finished before looking at Sev who was about to say something, “No, Commander, we have not found such a thing as a Seviperite.”

“The universe is just not ready to handle such a Sev that would be if that is so,” Sev growled, but then smirked. “Thankfully I am all that and more already. Perhaps one day it shall be so, until then I shall be the best of the best who has bestest the record of bestness.” He struck a pose. “Bask in such best and you shall be victorious!”

Pockets chuckled while Steven just facepalmed. Clearing his throat, he decided to finish off, “Any questions before we start our preparations?”

“None whatsoever,” Lucy said.

“If you’d like,” Vincent offered, “I’ll put that up on the roof. You can go over strategy or what’s likely to happen while I do.” He tapped the side of his head. “I’ll likely still hear it.”

He walked towards Vincent and gave him the Jade Orb, yet stopped as he was about to grab it, “I don’t know if it’s worth something at this point in time… but I’d like to apologize. As a former member of the Pokemon League, and regional champion, it was my duty to keep Pokémon as yourself away from the hands of people like Dr. Nurem. So I apologize for not succeeding.” He whispered to him, with a rather saddened tone.

“I burned out all my anger regarding that on the Rangers,” Vincent said. “And it’s not the past that defines us. It’s how we go forward that matters more.” With that, he smiled softly at the champion. “I’ve made my peace.”

Steven smiled as he nodded in respect, “I am glad to hear that. I am sure my girlfriend would have loved to meet you. She too, suffered in the hands of Nurem. Perhaps one day will you two meet, she’d love to meet others like her.”

“Perhaps,” Vincent said, still waiting for the orb.

Steven nodded and let go of the orb, before turning around and signaling to Tania, who took off to do some reconnaissance, as Vincent too disappeared to perform his own task. “Very well. I’m going to need to learn everything about your abilities in combat. Crawler will not be afraid of using everything, so expect to see demons, monsters, megas, everything. So let’s get to work.” He said as he stretched his wings. He couldn’t let Shadow Crawler get a hold of Nurem’s former experiments, specially Vincent. This was a battle he could just not lose, even if it meant destroying half of Las Pegasus in the process, it was either that or the world.

The sky was calm, the stars were shining, the wind was blowing, it was rather silent for a night in Las Pegasus. They had warned the authorities to keep a watch over civilians, many had left the area while others stayed at home. Steven had enough experience to know that Crawler was going to attack that same night.

The four Pokémon waited patiently on the rooftop of Unity Tower, Vincent, Sev, and Steven with Layton right behind him simply waited. And they did not have to wait long.

From below, in the middle of the street, a small black portal opened, the bridge, as a black unicorn walked into the main dimension. Looking back, a Gardevoir followed behind him, with an unconscious, damaged Sandslash in her arms. He knew they were waiting for him, and he did not care.

“So he brought his little slave,” Steven hummed, before noticing the unconscious Ground type, “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that the Sandslash is your friend, Mary.” Steven asked Vincent.

“Yeah,” Vincent said in a strangled voice. “That’s little greenie, alright.” Even though the spines were a bright red. “I’ll kill him, Steven. I swear to Xerneas I will.”

“Stay calm, Vincent. He’s luring you into a trap. At least we know she’s here, but that also means he’ll use her to his advantage.” Steven replied, “At this point, I don’t mind if we capture him dead or alive, yet I still need you to stay calm and collected, follow the plan.”

“Yes, the plan.” Sev nodded. “The plan that has been planned…..That was planned without me.” He glared at Steven. “Tell me the plan that has been planned.”

“Summarized? Don’t get captured, rescue the Sandslash. Each group has their specific tasks, if they all succeed, we might have a chance.” Steven sighed, before signaling at Layton, who nodded.

“I have control over the Jade Orb. As soon as the time demands it, our Mega Stones shall react and transform us. Remember that your personality and actions may change during this state, even though during training the change seemed to be minimal, we do not know how you will react during battle. Remember, we must not lose our judgement.” Layton explained before tucking his legs in, as the Jade Orb above them began glowing softly in preparation.

Meanwhile, on the ground level, Shadow Crawler had enough with the waiting. So as any good bad guy, he decided to take the lead with the introductions. “Greetings, Unity Tower!” He exclaimed with a voice-amplifier spell, “I am Shadow Crawler, the one who shall bring you all into slavery. Yet because I’m feeling rather kind, I have a proposition to make. Deliver Vincent Nurem to me, and this little Sandslash in my possession shall not die, and I will stop my invasion even before it starts.” And to demonstrate, he levitated the ground type in front of him, before creating a large blade of dark magic that pointed at her head. “A once in a lifetime opportunity indeed.”

“I was tortured for fifteen years,” Vincent shot back at him. “By one who should have protected me from himself. And now I can’t forget a single moment of it. If you think you can handle my pain, come and get some!”

“One of my best friends is a mad doctor who tortures mon for fun and is a dark type supremacist,” Sev tapped his chin. “Or were we frenemies? It’s hard to remember sometimes, but we fought regularly and he was badass. You don’t have that badass attitude.”

“That’s a no then.” Crawler chuckled, “ Glad to see you have joined us, Commander Sev. Same to you, Layton, even though it should have been expected, you always manage to be there to foolishly try to stop me.” He sighed, before smiling wickedly, “Three powerful beings in one place at the same time. Once I have you all under my control, not even that idiot Rayquaza should be able to stop me.” And with a soft laugh, his horn shone a strong dark purple glow, as several portals spawned around him, from which a variety of Pokémon walked from, marching in unison as they prepared for the attack. They were easily hundreds, an entire army ready to take on Unity Tower. “I’ve been busy, as you can see. Kidnapping Pokémon from all over the world is no easy task. But here it is, the entirety of my army.”

“Just as I thought, this won’t be easy.” Steven said calmly, as he simply hoped for the best.

“If only we had a dart cannon,” Sev turned his head to Vincent. “Do you have a dart cannon?”

“I have the next best thing,” Vincent said, before sending a signal down to Lala, who had been in the lobby waiting for it. With a whirr, the building’s automatic laser cannon turned on and began targeting the attackers. “Have I ever thanked you for this, Sev? I really think I haven’t done it enough.”

“You need to do it more,” Sev chuckled. “For my genius cannot be thanked enough. You are very much welcome for it.”

“Good luck everyone. May Arceus be with us.” Steven sighed, before nodding at Layton. The Jade Orb’s glow intensified, beams of light covering the entire building as energy flowed through their bodies. Their each respective Mega Stone reacted to the energy within the orb, and their bodies began morphing, their bodies and mind strengthening as their power levels reached a new high. A flash of light, and a the symbol of Mega Evolution flashed over the tower. Steven smiled as he felt his power increase, extending his wings and brewing a Tailwind as he prepared for battle, “How does it feel, Vincent?”

“I can feel it,” Vincent whispered as he looked to the heavens. “I can hear the cosmos.” He’d gained a massive beard and three new spoons out of nowhere, while his armor had turned purple. A red gem now glowed in the center of his head.

Steven chuckled at that, he knew how good it felt, to have such ancient power to your disposal, “Try to not kill us all with your power, please.” He joked, as he tested his enhanced senses, “Are you guys ready for battle?”

“Oh yes,” Vincent said. “I should say so. This will be...I think the word I’m looking for is fun.”

“Indeed it will be.” Layton chuckled as he tested his fists, his new personality taking over, “Ready to kick some butts, Commander?”

“I cannot kick,” Sev flicked his tail. “I simply strike.”

“Are you guys done?” Crawler chuckled in amusement, “I can wait all night for you to finish your chit-chat, but it doesn’t matter if you’re regular or mega, either way you’re going down.” And with a smile, and a glow from his horn, his army started to march towards Unity Tower, Fighting and Normal types taking the lead, ranged attackers from behind, and the healers in the back, “Now die.”

And with another flash, several Thunders, Hyper Beams, Dragon Pulses, and other attacks were shot at Unity Tower, aiming for different parts of the building. Vincent merely held out a hand and took ahold of his Twisted Spoon, and a blue wall sprung up in front of the building. It cracked at some of the attacks, but held out for long enough for most of the damage to be prevented.

“Oh I love my new state,” the Mega Alakazam said giddily.

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Layton chuckled before launching himself down, a fist ready as he prepared to collide with the floor. Punching the ground just as he landed, he called for an Earthquake, causing the streets to crack and several spikes to erupt from beneath the pavement, striking several of the Pokémon away.

“Fire!” Sev shouted to his soldiers, before firing a Dark Pulse in between a group, blasting them apart. The resounding blasts accompanying him, while not as large given the size of the group, was still the usual bit of effectiveness in his army. Left and right, pokemon of Crawler’s were blown off their feet, or whatever they had.

“I’ll protect the Jade Orb. Even in my Mega Form I’m nothing compared to you powerwise. Focus in finding your friend, making a way through the crowds should prove easy enough for you.” Steven said to Vincent with a calm expression, “Just be careful.”

“You’re forgetting about the rest of my family already?” Vincent asked as Lucy and Sam, in their Mega forms as well, burst out of the front door and prepared to bust some faces themselves.

“Snip snip,” Sam said as he flexed his now massive pincers. “This’ll be a snap.”

Whereas Lucy had her eyes closed. “The aura howls,” she said simply. “It is out of balance here.” She charged up an Aura Sphere on both paws. “I shall bring it back by any means necessary.”

“The battle is down there, go ahead and have fun.” Steven smiled, suddenly, he felt far more confident.

Vincent nodded and looked to see where Mary had ended up. There she was, levitating right next to Shadow Crawler who simply stood in the middle of his advancing army, a Tyranitar, an Aggron, a Rhyperior and a Pangoro surrounding them and acting as defenses. Recalling how he’d ended the last fight, the Alakazam unleashed a wave of psychic suggestion at them all. It wouldn’t affect half of them, but if he could send any of them to sleep and take them out of the fight, then he’d bloody take it.

Several of the front liners fell for the Hypnosis, yet somehow some others remained unmoved, drowsy, yet still unaffected.

“He can’t be that stupid to fall for that,” Sev commented as he battered a Golbat aside casually. “A mind jacker is never stupid.” His gaze turned dark. “To navigate the mind, you have to navigate your own. So they are clever in of themselves, but less so outside.”

“I sense traces of Chesto berries,” Layton explained through the mental link that was previously set up, analyzing an unconscious body he grabbed from the ground, “Most likely injected, Hypnosis will not work on most of them.”

“It was worth a shot,” Vincent said with a shrug, before giving Lucy a mental picture of a route to follow that would lead her to Mary. The Mega Lucario nodded and began blasting her way through the lines. She, out of all of them, would be the best suited to dealing with the protectors.

“They are incoming, and fast.” Crawler’s Gardevoir commented, to what he just chuckled.

“Let them come. Let them feel like they’re powerful enough to beat me. They fail to notice that we’re barely attacking, that our lines of defenses are being too frail.” He hummed as he checked the battlefield, “You have a very special job to do, dear. Keep Vincent Nurem busy, take the hostage with you if you want. It doesn’t matter if you fail, because you most likely will, but if you manage to hold them back long enough, I won’t punish you.”

“But I don’t fight… I- I can’t possibly face them.” She stuttered, before being silenced by Crawler.

“Exactly, and that’s precisely why I am making you face Nurem himself. I trust the powers I gave you will be useful to hold him back… but please, try to not lead him to suicide like last time.”

The Gardevoir simply remained shut, wanting to cry, yet she knew that’d be bad. She could simply obey. “Yes… Shadow Crawler.”

The unicorn chuckled, and prepared to teleported away. He had to fulfil his role, the chessmaster, the one moving all the pieces to his advantage. “And don’t you dare give away my position, or betray me. Just remember what happened last time you did.”

And he was gone, dropping the unconscious Sandslash on the ground. The Fairy picked her up, and held her in her soft white arms, “I am so sorry, little one…”

Meanwhile, the other technician saw with distrust from the roof how well his side was doing. Usually, there’d be giant beast roaming the skies, an all-out attack with everything on their firepower, attempts to infiltrate Unity Tower and take them all out from the inside. But there was none of it. Steven had a bad feeling about this.

“Alexia, come in. How’s the generator doing?” He checked, through the previously set up mental link, on the Electric type.

“I still have energy to keep this thing going, but please try to not take too long.” She replied calmly.

“Layton, report.”

“No shadow is going through me. The entrance is safe.” He replied.

Things were going smoothly, too smoothly. Checking on other groups, the PLA members who tried their best to attack from afar while keeping the inside secure, Titania who was giving him a constant image from the skies, the police force who did their best to contain the battle to a small area, and the other Pokémon that had agreed to help as well, and were either battling or helping out. There was one last group to check.

“Vincent, come in. What’s your status?” He asked, hoping that nothing bad had happened... yet.

“Nothing’s happened to make my family sweat just yet...well, except for Christine. Then again, she’s holding her own. You never mess with a nesting mother…”

“Good. Remember to keep yourself alert. Oh, and if you see a Gardevoir who’s not a shadow, avoid her at all costs. She’s extremely dangerous, especially to Psychic types. She may seem sweet and innocent, but don’t risk it, she’s Crawler’s best weapon so far.” He said with a tone of disdain, hating what the pony had turned her into.

Yet just as he said this, right in front of them, on a tall platform of dark magic, stood a lone Gardevoir with an unconscious Sandslash in her arms, looking at her with a saddened expression.

“I have yet begun to fight,” Vincent replied before vanishing and reappearing right in front of her. “Give her over,” the Mega Alakazam said. “And you can walk away.”

“She must be your friend.” She hummed as she simply cradled the Ground type in her arms, “She’s cute when she’s asleep.”

“I said,” Vincent intoned. “Give. Her. Over.”

“YOU COULD SAY PLEASE!” Sev called over. “That works eighty-five percent of the time, surprisingly enough. I once even said please and the cops let me go. It could have had something to do with Gard, but I chalk it down to my powerful magnetism.”

Both ignored the Seviper as a Golem rolled over him and took him away (just to be used as a bowling ball which sent several Pokémon flying, bowling sound effects and everything). The Gardevoir remained silent, scratching the Sandslash’ nose playfully. Smiling, she raised her head and looked at Vincent with a saddened expression.

“I wish I could. She has gone through so much, both in the past and… by my own hands. I’m sorry...” A small tear left her left eye, as she levitated the Sandslash behind her, before preparing a Moonblast, “Please… be gentle.” And using the power of the moon which shone above them, she shot a powerful beam of pink energy at Vincent.

The Mega Alakazam took the brunt of the attack without a word of complaint, now actually listening to her mind. “I can hear it,” he said to her. “I can hear...your pain. Your sorrow. My senses are so magnified now, I would have to be deaf to ignore your hurt. You never wanted any of this, did you?”

The Gardevoir’s eyes widened, before shaking her head, “Please, no. Just finish this and let me rest until the next time I’m summoned. Take your friend with you and leave.” She said softly as she shot a Shadow Ball at him. Vincent responded with a weak Dazzling Gleam, dispelling the attack without hurting her.

“I will not hurt you,” he said simply. “My father, my real father, the first one who cared, was a Gallade. He taught me so much. He was so kind. And I will return that kindness to you.” He extended a hand to her. “I won’t say it’ll be painless, no path is. But it’d be a better one than the one you’re on.”

“Kindness…” She said mentally. That word, she hadn’t heard that word in so long. She wanted to stretch her hand, take the Alakazam’s hand and simply leave Crawler behind. But she couldn’t. The image of Crawler, his devious smile, his power overtaking her. She remembered, the reason why she stood with him, “No… no. Please just… I can’t. I will hurt you, I don’t belong with anyone but him. I am nothing but a tool, you… I will hurt you.”

Vincent stepped forward with a small frown on his face. “Has he really broken you that badly? Can you no longer imagine anything but being by his side, at his feet? Because believe me...I kept my heart intact for fifteen years. I kept hope. I would hope that you could believe in me for five minutes.”

“What’s this now?” Sev patted a small bandage on a cut on the side of his head. “She’s still on it? Hmm,” he tapped his chin and then smiled. “One good laugh ought to do it. That always loosens up a person’s fears and dread.” He threw a cream pie into Vincent’s face.

She covered her mouth in shock and… giggled. When was the time she had giggled? Why did she feel so… amused. Her expression changed again, to a face of confusion, “No… this is not right. He did not break me… he fixed me. My powers.. he found me and told me he could help me control my powers. He gives me hope, he says if I follow him he’ll fix me for good!” She shouted, before covering her mouth as more tears fell from her eyes, “H-he. He’s in my head, fixing it, telling me what to do… to be fixed.”

“I became what I am for love,” Vincent said. “I became what I am to help guard my family. To help protect the next generation. To see to it they will never experience the horrors we have. Can he claim such noble goals? He only wants you for what you are. He only cares about power. If you come with me, I can help you. I will help you. I promise...all are welcome.”

She whimpered, as she dubiously stretched her arm to grab his hand. and touched it. And everything went downhill from there. Her eyes went black, and her powers were released.

Vincent felt pain, extreme pain as his mental barriers were assaulted with screams and groans of sorrow. He saw his life pass by him, his worst memories flash in front of him, the Gardevoir unintentionally was trying to make him feel as much pain as she felt, she wanted him to be broken once again, just like she was.

“You think you can break me?” Vincent said. “I haven’t forgotten anything! I have so much pain stored up! You think I’ve been fighting at all? I’ve been holding back!” Vincent pushed back against the tide with his own power, looking for the ‘mon underneath, trying to see if she was still in there. He wanted to save the ‘mon. Everyone that could be, deserved to be saved.

He’d seen enough of death already.

“NO!” A demonic voice replied, as the intensity of the attack increased. He could feel his barriers shattering, this was not the power of a Psychic anymore, this was far more than that, this was dark magic in its purest form. “YOU CAN’T SAVE YOURSELF, THINK YOU CAN SAVE HER!? YOU C.A.N.T.”

“The darkness shall always give way to the light,” Vincent said as he started to glow with the soft light of a Dazzling Gleam. “Fear shall always give way to understanding. Hatred shall bow before kindness. Cooler heads shall prevail over anger, and one thing shall always remain true, so long as one being is willing to fight for it. LOVE. SHALL CONQUER. ALL!”

She screeched, her mind screeched. She began chanting in some unknown language to both of them, as her mind was set back by Vincent’s power, the darkness inside her retreating back to where it came from.

And everything was silent.

Vincent found himself in the middle of nowhere, the room was dark, and the only thing there besides him was a small Ralts, crying. Flashes of the terrifying face of an eyeless Gardevoir came and went, as the Ralts kept crying, sobbing. He then realized where he was, the deepest part of her mind, her subconscious. He slowly walked over to her and knelt down next to her, waiting for her to say something first.

The poor thing must have been so...twisted and broken when he took her in. He’d...forced this on her. Vincent wasn’t even aware that that could be done outside of the lab.

“Who… am I?” The small Ralts whimpered. “I woke up, he.. was there. Promised me… happiness.” Although it was for just a second, Vincent saw something strange… as if, the Ralts had been replaced by a human child, and then back to a Ralts. His eyes couldn’t fool him. “Come… closer please.” She said as she stopped sobbing, her head still down.

Vincent sat a little closer and then, gently and slowly, reached out to hug her.

Yet when she turned her head, the horrifying sight of an eyeless, no, soulless Ralts welcomed him with a wicked toothless smile, a high-pitched laugh filling the room. “So you’ve made it. You survived her attack. I’m impressed, Vincent Nurem, I really am.”

“I’ve done more than that,” Vincent said. “I’m more than fucking willing to clean you out from her mind and put her back together again. Hell, I think she’d welcome the pain at this point.” Vincent’s form glowed blue as he began to channel all his power into this final move of his.

“Oh, go ahead. Try. She’s far beyond the saving point by now. She’s my most successful experiment yet, fusing Pokemon and Dark Magic together… it’s wonderful. And all it took, was to erase her memories, and make her think she was born with this curse. But…” He hummed, “Fine, go ahead and keep her. I’ll be fun to see how she betrays you, how she stabs you in the back even against her will. You can’t stop darkness, she’s evil by nature, she’ll destroy you and your little family… PIECE BY PIECE.”

“So you think,” Vincent said. “All it takes is a little...reminder, to what’s left of her. A calling out to the human she used to be. All I have to do...is give her spirit a reason to fight, and she will. That’s the most wonderful thing about humans, you know. Put a wall in their way...they’ll break right through it. You wanted to know how strong I was? Then behold my strongest move, you fucker. Behold...my Future Sight.”

And with that, the Gardevoir’s mind was flooded with images of worlds that could be. Lives that could have been lived. Pokemon and ponies living together, over and over and over again. A million, billion, nigh-infinite amount of scenes of goodness and purity and hope, hoof in hand. It went on, and on, and on.

It did nothing against Shadow Crawler who was pure evil and saw those images as nothing but an annoyance, yet… to the Gardevoir he was controlling, it meant the world. Focusing, she screamed in agony, as she tried to do what she had never done before, shove the darkness away, believe, hope, dream. She had enough of her ‘master’. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” She screamed with all her passion, fueled by the images she had just seen, fueled by what could be, what could happen. She wanted to be happy, she wanted to stop suffering. She wanted it.

And then, she opened her eyes. Panting and coughing, she found herself on her knees as her head suffered the greatest of headaches, yet… she was alive, and had awoken. She felt different, like if a burden had been taken away from her… yet she could still feel it, the darkness in her head was still there… yet it was not hurting her.

“Hello there,” Vincent said to her. “I’m glad you came back out of that. I will admit, I had my doubts that there was enough left of you to save. I’m happy you proved me wrong though.”

“You..” She panted, “He’s gone. Crawler’s voice is gone. How… how did you do that?”

“You did that,” the Alakazam replied. “I just provided you the fuel. You’re strong enough on your own to do anything you want to. You just have to be reminded of it.”

“I… I did?” She said bewildered. “You…” Tears began forming in her eyes again, yet these ones were different. There was no sorrow or pain in them, only relief and joy, emotions she had never felt before. Launching herself forwards, she hugged Vincent with loud sobs, her pain, it was gone, at least for now. “Thank you, so much…”

“You’re welcome,” Vincent said, before looking up. “Could you bring my friend back down, though? I’d like to make sure you’re both safe.”

She giggled softly, and looked behind her, blinking and letting the Sandslash gracefully fall on the ground. “I’m sorry for what I did to her… he… forced me to get in her head, get as much information as I could… I’m so sorry.” She whispered as she lowered her gaze.

“What happened is in the past,” Vincent said. “As long as you regret your actions, then there is a place for you as a fellow Subject. I will admit, I wasn’t expecting there to be more of them once we shifted to Equus...but I would be cruel to deny you a place to stay.”

“I… that would be nice. My earliest memory is being on Crawler’s lair… I have no place to go, no family really.” She said shyly, “Are you sure I won’t be a bother?”

“We still have room,” Vincent replied as he went to gather Mary. Yet as he got closer, a devilish laugh called his attention, as tentacles spawned from around the Sandslash, preparing to grab her and drag her down into the portal that had just appeared.

“Oh no you don’t,” Vincent said as he let loose another Dazzling Gleam, in an effort to dispel the darkness once again. Yet what he did not expect, was a black giant elephant-like hoof stepping on Mary, swallowing her in its darkness, and taking the Dazzling Gleam like if it was nothing.

“Watch out!” The Gardevoir exclaimed as she tackled Vincent out of the beast’s way, the laugh of Crawler showing how amusing this was to him. Looking up, Vincent saw a creature that was not meant to exist, a being of pure darkness. It was gigantic, easily as tall as a skyscraper, with long sharp horns on its maw and forehead, and sharp black fangs.

“The party has just started! We’re taking down that tower even if it’s the last thing we do!” Crawler laughed, as he rode the beast into battle. He looked at Vincent with a smile, as tentacles appeared from the ground beneath him, holding an upside-down Mary next to him.

“Attention everyone! Clear the path, let the cannon deal with the beast!” Steven ordered, this was exactly what he was expecting. The battle was far from over.

A building away, a Garchomp was doing her best to keep the back door clear of any intruders. Doing her best, and barely succeeding. She was thankful now for the myriad of moves she knew, they let her deal with most situations…

She was assigned to protect the backdoor in order to keep anyone from sneaking in, yet she was doing that task alone, and with the number of Pokémon trying to go by her, it was just ridiculous. And while she had received a Garchompite from the strange Metagross, it seemed to her that it was more of a joke than an aid, seeing as how it hadn’t even activated yet.

Yet she kept trying. Until now, nothing too powerful had tried to storm the back entrance… yet that would not be the case for long. Strange giggles could be heard, as shadows dashed from side to side, blurs she could not make out.

“Flamethrower!” the Garchomp cried out before spewing the fire everywhere, a tactic that had served her well before.

The Pokemon were forced back with several groans, yet the giggles continued. They could be heard everywhere, left, right, ahead, above. She had to be attentive.

And then, a screech from the left, something was rushing to strike her, and fast.

“Dragon Claw!” she replied, drawing both of her claws across to counter whatever this thing was. It screeched in pain and fainted on the spot, letting her have a better look at whatever that was. It was small, strange, and really ugly. Two pointy ears and long noodle-arms which ended in sharp claws, black skin helped it disguise in the shadows. If any creature came close to it in looks, it’d be a goblin.

More giggles irritated her, as several other goblins rushed to her, accompanied by a Hitmonchan, a Metang, and a Wigglytuff. The dragon growled before channeling another Flamethrower and drawing a semicircle around herself, making sure the goblins wouldn’t be able to get close without being revealed. Plus it’d irritate the metal-skinned one and the marshmellow.

The goblins chanted a happy demonic-sounding tune, as they giggled and bounced around the fire, their terrifying smiles. More giggles came, as bright yellow eyes blinked in the windows of nearby buildings, all while more Pokémon went her way lead by their master. She was not liking the looks of things. And so, they all launched towards her, trying to take the lone Dragon down.

“Screw this noise,” she said, before slamming the ground with her feet. “EARTHQUAKE!” The ground rumbled and shook under the feet of her attackers. “And now for a bit of good old FLAMETHROWER!” The fires erupted from her mouth and were focused on each of her attackers in turn, burning them horribly.

And with so, they were down. Every single one of them unconscious, not able to keep going. But it was still not over yet, the final battle had yet to begin.

One single giggle, a deep, demonic giggle, came from the shadows, as a massive goblin covered in armor, holding a shield in one hand and a bloody butcher knife in the other one, simply stepped on the fire like if it was nothing. He looked at his fallen brothers, and simply smiled. He was going to enjoy cutting that dragon to pieces.

“Oh screw this noise!” Christine said as her form started to glow. “You think I’m afraid of you? You’re just another damn target to me! I’m not letting anything into this building! I will fight each and every last one of you fuckers until there’s no more breath in my body...and then I’ll fucking get up and fight you again!”

By the time she’d finished her speech, her form had stopped glowing, and she let out a mighty, powerful roar as a Mega-Garchomp was standing in her place. She let out another Flamethrower at him, though as she did, her skin turned a bright red. The attack seemed somehow...more intense than before.

The goblin raised his shield and tried to protect himself, yet he could still feel the heat of the flames that surrounded him. This was no normal attack, this was far too powerful to be a normal attack. As the attack ended, the goblin decided to cut the battle short, rushing towards her and swinging his butcher knife.

Her eyes glinted before she caught the knife with one of her newly-evolved blade-fins. She glared at him, the Mega-Garchomp not amused in the slightest. “This is the part where you run away,” she said to him as a glow filled the back of her mouth, another Flamethrower already being prepared.

Goblins could not fear. If they did, they were deemed weak. The fact that an Alpha Goblin’s legs began shaking, that was the point where he realized that no matter what Crawler had offered them, the goblins were better off not participating in this fight. Dropping its weapons in fear, the goblin kneed down and asked for forgiveness in his own tongue, not wanting to die young.

“If you value your life and lives of your little friends here, you’ll clear the fuck out while I deal with the others,” Christine growled at him. “Better yet, hamper them wherever you damn well can. Then I might not kill you when all is said and done for threatening my eggs.”

“Y-yes.” The goblin stuttered, rapidly rushing around her to pick his fallen brothers, and nodding in fear, before rushing away, hopefully he’d find a swamp where they could live in, far, far away from any sort of Dragon.

Christine growled before banging her blade-fins against one another and howling at the assembled ‘mon. “Come get some!” she bellowed. And not being able to feel fear, they simply obliged with groans and cries, rushing towards her. Suddenly, her job had become far easier. She simply raised a foot as her form flashed brown, before she unleashed a boosted Earthquake around her.

“Let’s shake it up, boys!” she shouted as the earth rumbled around her.

Sev drove his Poison Blade into the side of a Raticate, knocking it out a window. “Foolish imbéciles think they can defeat me?” He whacked a Quagsire away with his tail that was charging towards one of his zebra soldiers. “I laugh at Shadow’s feeble attempts.” He laughed, headbutting a Sunflora and knocking it out.

He was about to slash another incoming Pokémon, yet he stopped when he realized said Pokémon was wearing a really messed up PLA uniform, several scars and bruises all over the Sneasel’s body.

“Commander Sev, I’m so sorry but I can’t keep going. They are too many!” The dark type huffed as she shivered in pain. “I need to go back and patch myself up.”

“Then get inside already,” Sev hissed, before stopping and staring at her. “Say the password first.”

The Sneasel’s eyes widened up as she stuttered, “Uhm… Sev Rocks?” She said dubiously.

“Isn’t that cute,” Sev chuckled. “BUT IT’S WRONG!” He bonked her on the head, knocking her out. He gently brought her inside to one of the zebra shamans. “Get the taint out of her and grab some of your anti-dark energy potions.” The zebra shaman nodded and went to work.

A couple minutes later, came a severely injured Zebra soldier, panting, and dragging his own body to the still fighting Sev, “Sir, I need some rest. I can’t keep going any longer! They are far too many!”

“Such talk shall not be permitted here,” Sev snorted. “Neither will I take any chances with a dark mage about. Password.”

“Well, that’s.. erhm easy. The password is,” The zebra gulped, “One, two, three, four, five” He said.

Sev bonked him unconscious. “That’s my lunch box number.” He passed him inside. “I feel like this is going to be a trend.”

“Sir!” A Whimsicott with a PLA uniform huffed, “Commander Sev, I must go inside and search for supplies for the injured soldiers. Please allow me to pass and fetch them.” She requested as she gasped for air.

“A password I ask of thee,” Sev intoned. “Then ye shall pass onwards, free as a bee.”

“The password…” She hummed, “Taco Tuesday.” She smiled innocently.

Sev nodded behind him. “Get in and be quick. You are very lucky you added Taco to that answer. In a few moments, I would have changed it.”

“Thanks Commander!” She said chirpily, before advancing into Unity Tower. Yet, unseen to the Seviper, the Grass type let out a devilish smile, about to burst out in laughter. Yet she found herself face to the ground, an unconscious pidgeotto had been tossed to her by a battling Sev, and had cut her evil laughter off. She grumbled and kept going, passing by Layton who was too busy fighting off enemies, and the two guards who opened the doors to her.

“Finally… time to end this joke.”

Sadly for her, there was still a guard on duty in the lobby, and the Leavanny was not so easily fooled. There was a blur of motion from the desk, and the next thing the corrupted Whimsicott knew, a bit of her fluff was falling in front of her face. “I saw that,” Lala said. “The next one is going to be far more lethal.”

“Of course, it was far too simple for my liking.” The Grass type grunted, before letting out a wicked smile, “Yet this body has served its purpose. I’m inside, and now, there’s nothing from stopping me.” Darkness began filling the room, as portals began appearing behind the Whimsicott, as several Shadow Pokemon dashed from it with loud battle cries.

“Breach,” the Leavanny thought across the previously established link before crossing her arm-blades in front of her. “My kind are known as the Nurturing Pokemon,” she informed the enemy. “I became a member of Checkmate for anything but my motherly skills.” With that, she unleashed several Leaf Blades in rapid succession, cutting at every ‘mon that dared to enter a place she was protecting.

“Pockets, we need you in the lobby!” Steven called calmly, hoping the Leavanny could hold on long enough, yet not wanting to take a risk.

“Got it! On my way,” she replied, happy she could finally get some action.

How the heck did they get a breach? Both entrances were protected, and the only way to be allowed in was by… “Sev! Why is there a breach? You’re the one in charge of who goes in and who goes out!”

“She said ‘Taco Tuesday’,” Sev called over. “That was the password at the moment. If she had come a moment later, it would have been different! We had a password system for a reason. I just wanted to knock everyone on the head, since all my soldiers are inside, but no! We had to have a password system.”

“You set your password to ‘Taco Tuesday’!?” Steven facepalmed, “Even I would have guessed it with enough time! Ahg, doesn’t matter. We need reinforcements in the lobby, either send some of your soldiers or you go help out. We can’t lose the building from the inside!”

“Defend this spot!” Sev ordered his soldiers, receiving a salute and ‘Yes, sir’. He raced into the lobby, blasting a few away with a powerful Dark Pulse.

Lala had moved on to using X-Scissor on those that would dare think this building an easy target, each one feeling the powerful sting of her blades as she dashed around the room. Once the fight had begun, she’d used Agility, both hoping she wouldn’t need to be any faster, and preparing in case she did.

A Raichu dashed to her with a Volt Switch, which Lala responded to with yet another Leaf Blade, right across the face. She took the brief moment of nothing attacking her to use a Swords Dance and improve her attack even more. And in came a Pidgeot with an Aerial Ace directed right at her, faster than the previous Electric Type, which she was forced to rely on a normal Slash to counter. Clearly, she needed to be even faster, so she channeled another Agility on herself and wondered when the backup would get here.

And with each two Pokemon she took out, four more came, slowly filling the room with attacks before they were too many for her to keep up to, including a Talonflame who was about to Brave Bird her from behind. Only to be sent back by a wave of air, followed by a blast of magic which stunned two other incoming Pokémon, and ending it up with a magical blade which cut through four of them.

At around the same time, a Grovyle went at her from the front with an X-Scissor. Sev caught him by wrapping his tail around his ankle and smashing him into the floor. He did so twice more, before using the Grovyle as a bat to swat aside three other mon.

And with a stylish backflip from both sides, both Sev and Pockets stood next to the Levanny in their battle stances, prepared for the next wave.

“Sorry for the delay, traffic was heavy.” The unicorn smiled as she slashed and then blasted a Houndoom away. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Best them in a show of skill so great that they all become blinded by it’s combined awesomeness,” Sev commented. “Or we can aim for the mon spewing the portal. That could work, but it’s the more boring option.”

“I think I’ll ask the both of you to duck,” Lala said. “I’m about to clear the room.”

Both Sev and Pockets did as said, leaving the Leavanny free to unleash her Leaf Storm in the room. The area filled with grass and leaves as she dashed around and slashed each one personally. It was always fun unleashing this move when needed, but also sad when it was over and she was left feeling weaker for it. Yet it had done the trick, all Pokemon were cleared out, yet they knew that wouldn’t last too long, as the portals were still open.

“Ok, I can’t believe I’m saying this but we’re going with Sev’s idea.” Pockets said as she took deep breaths, “Try to not let them get too far, while I attempt to close them with my own magic… somehow.”

Lala nodded and took up a defensive stance in front of the unicorn, before looking over at Sev. “Very well,” Sev smirked. “This shan’t be a challenge.” He fired a Flamethrower straight into a Bellossom’s chest, sending her flying into another group and back through the portal. He ducked underneath a Sudowoodo’s swing and knocked his feet from under him and fired a Dark Pulse into a Granbull’s head, knocking it out.

Lala meanwhile was using Leaf Blade to its fullest potential, slashing and knocking back every attacker that came close. A Quagsire learned the hard way why not to mess with a member of Checkmate. As did a Stantler and an Ursaring. She took a brief moment of respite to boost her attack again with another Swords Dance, before taking up the fight anew with X-Scissor and Slash.

The portals began flashing, the flow of Pokemon slowing down as Pockets’ magic tried to close them down, focusing her good thoughts and memories on the darkness. Yet she still wasn’t able to close them down, not quite yet at least. “Someone stop Crawler’s avatar!” She grunted. And just as she said this, Crawler chuckled, finding the pony’s attempt rather amusing. He had remained static, calmly watching his army storm them and give them no breaks. It was amusing indeed.

Well it was amusing till his avatar took a frying pan to the face, knocking the being out swiftly. “I grow tired of you,” Sev huffed. “This shadow thing of yours is one note.” He smacked a Nuzleaf that was charging behind him up and into the ceiling without even looking at her.

And with one final mental push, Pockets managed to close the portals, as Lala and Sev took care of the remaining Shadow Pokemon inside. Huffing and taking deep breaths, she chuckled, and raised her head to look at her two teammates, “We did it!”

And just as she said this a massive portal opened right in front of them, showing a giant arm which tried to grab whatever it could, earning an “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?” Shout from the unicorn, before Sev fired a Venoshock, knocking the arm away from Pockets. He ducked under a swing and brought himself before her, slashing at the fingers and stabbing with Poison Jab. Lala pitched in with several Leaf Blades, slashing at the massive thing wherever and however she could, before switching it up for an X-Scissor attack. If these shadows were anything like the Dark type, they’d be weak to Bug attacks more than Grass ones. A loud screech came from the arm, before Pockets, mainly in annoyance, shot several beams of magic at it, causing it to retreat before she was able to close the portal. “Geez, that was close. Steven, the breach is sealed, nothing’s getting through here.”

Steven sighed as he took a look at the battlefield. Things were looking rather good for them. Their forces although far inferior in numbers, had managed to push back the attackers, and slow down the invasion. Yet he knew he couldn’t call this a win quite yet, the beast was still there, advancing and ready to destroy the building as soon as it reached it, commanded by Crawler who Steven knew was looking at him.

The automated laser cannon was doing its work, dealing massive blows to the creature, yet not managing to end it up for good as Crawler continuously healed its wounds. Yet he noticed something… odd.

Was Crawler upset? What was that expression on its almost blank face. It seemed like disdain, annoyance, worry. He just had to use that to his advantage.

“Attention. Layton, Vincent, Sev. You are the strongest ones here, I need you to travel up to Crawler inmediatly. The cannon is providing enough cover fire for you to reach that point without much trouble. Understood? We need to finish this now before its too late!” He called out, wanting so much to go to the battle himself, yet he knew better, he had a role to follow, and if he dared not to, the whole fight could become a mess.

“Understood!” Layton nodded, before sending a barrage of different punches at incoming Pokémon, leaving at least 15 unconscious on the ground, “Good enough.” He shrugged, before taking off like a bullet towards the beast’s head.

“Well this Shadow is certainly pushing his luck,” Sev snickered. “Let’s push it over the edge for him.” With that, he took off like lightning, knocking aside mon with twirls, flicks of his tail, or a well placed Dark Pulses/Flamethrowers.

Vincent appeared on the roof with a familiar Gardevoir in tow, offering no explanation or reason before he also looked at the creature. “This ends now,” he said. “Forgive me father, for I must break my promise.”

“Vincent, wait!” The Gardevoir held her hand in front of him to stop him, “You can’t do this, you literally can’t kill Crawler, if you defeat him, he’ll come back again.”

“You misunderstand,” Vincent said. “I have no intention of killing him. I’ll just make him wish he was dead.”

The Gardevoir blinked in surprise, before lowering her hand and nodding in understanding, “Just… be careful. This is the real Shadow Crawler, don’t underestimate him.” She said softly, lowering her gaze, “Please be careful.”

“I promise the first thing I’ll do if things go sideways is get myself and Sev out of there,” the Mega Alakazam told her. “Not gonna leave anyone to him if I can avoid it.”

“Before you go… here.” She whispered as she formed a circle with her hands and focused, before causing a small amulet to appear, which she gave to him, “It only has one use left… yet perhaps it will help. If he tries to take over your mind, this will protect you.”

Vincent nodded and slipped it over his head, letting it rest around his neck. “I am still very new to this whole psychic thing, I appreciate any help you have to give,” he said. “Stay here, stay safe. We don’t need him getting you again.”

She nodded, and stepped back, “Good luck, Vincent Nurem.” And with this, he teleported away.

Crawler was mad, really mad. Plan after plan had been foiled, he was supposed to just sit back and enjoy the show, yet he couldn’t, his army was still far too incompetent, too imperfect. And now? He had to ask for the aid of one of the ten demonic beasts to take down the tower. “As soon as I get my hooves on them… I swear I’ll-”

One frying pan to the face later, Sev yawned. “I didn’t get much sleep on the trip here and you chose now of all times to be a jerk? This is unbelievable.” He whacked Crawler on top of the head as he tried to stand, really not looking at him. “Is this the luck the universe gives the great and powerful Commander Sev? If it is, I shall send it back to you in a combustible form, perhaps in lemon flavor as well.”

“Oh Sev, really, we should let him talk a little,” Vincent said as he warped in. “It’d be interesting to hear if he can think of something that hasn’t already been done to me, at least.”

“I doubt that would be possible, he is not that creative from what my experience tells.” Layton chuckled as he landed next to them, “But sure. Let’s hear it.”

If Crawler had had any eyes, they would be twitching. This was humiliating, just straight up sad, he just wanted to cast a spell and kill them on the spot, yet he didn’t, he now wanted to prove them wrong, “As I was saying, as soon as I get my hooves on you, I’ll extract your brain, chop it down in small little squares, and feed it to Sev to see if he becomes smarter!” He said rather proudly.

“One hundred and twenty,” Vincent replied. “Try again, corpse disposal was sometimes our duty as well. Which is why I stopped eating the paste provided to us.”

“That was one of my father’s pastimes,” Sev deadpanned. “My childhood wasn’t pleasant either. At least yours didn’t try and take over the world, which I have done so but in a better way that does not make me worse.”

“In other words, nice try, except not really.” The Mega Metagross chuckled.

“Then I’ll rip you apart limb by limb and mix your parts together to arm my ultimate monster!” Crawler growled, not wanting to be defeated that easily.

“Seventy-six,” Vincent replied, idly examining one of his spoons.

“I tried that once,” Sev intoned. “Lessons were learned that day… Lessons were learned.”

“Our limbs are actually connected through magnetism,” Layton hummed, “It is fairly common for an injured Metang or Metagross to utilize dead body’s parts to fix themselves.”

Crawler roared in anger as he stomped the ground with force, causing the floor beneath them to shake, before clenching his teeth, “THEN I’LL JUST KILL YOU!” He shouted as he shot several tentacles from beneath him, which homed on them and prepared to drown them in darkness.

“Oooh!” Vincent said. “Twelve.”

“Making the tentacles out of darkness is new,” Sev pointed out. “Wait, you did that last time.”

“As I said, not really that creative.” The Steel type smiled before Meteor Mashing the tentacles into nothingness, “Well then comrades, should we keep mocking this poor excuse of a bad guy, or end this as soon as we can?”

“If we keep mocking him, he’ll probably die of a heart attack,” Vincent said. “That’d be novel for my collection of death threats. Death by mocking.”

“It is a fun way of ending an opponent,” Sev nodded.

“ENOUGH” Crawler exclaimed as his voice changed to a deeper, darker more demonic one, “You dare mock me!? I am the future ruler of this world, a GOD. And you dare to mock ME!?”

“Why yes, indeed that’s what we are doing.” Layton said calmly.

“I… WILL. CRUSH YOU.” Crawler grunted before a dome of darkness surrounded them, the trio being trapped atop the beast. With a wicked laughter, several tentacles began surrounding him, fusing together before forming a bipedal black creature with sharp fangs and red eyes, covering Crawler entirely as some sort of mech-suit, and with a snap of the beast’s fingers, Mary, who had been hanging upside down next to him, was sunk into the goo of darkness below them, “Want to get her back, Nurem? You’ll have to defeat me first!”

“I can already guess what duty I’m going to be on,” Vincent said as he held up one hand, causing it to glow brightly as he channeled a Dazzling Gleam. “Better hurry up, I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” he said to the others, before firing his light at the monster Crawler had become.

“Sev, left flank. I’ll attack right, understood?” Layton nodded as he charged up four Meteor Mashes, one in each fist, “Let’s end this.”

“Gladly,” Sev cackled before slithering like a lightning bolt to the beast’s left. He narrowly avoided a strike and fired a Flamethrower into the beast’s right ear.

Layton rushed towards him and began his assault, punching and dashing, repeating the process as the beast roared in anger. Yet if his experience with these creatures had taught him something, it was that these were durable.

“Fools!” Crawler roared as he sent a wave of dark magic at them, pushing Layton back and stopping the attacks, “You’ll need far more than that to defeat ME.” And with a flash of light, several pillars spawned from the ground, before turning around like giant worms and aiming at them. Layton dashed to the side, yet the pillar followed him, another dodge, and yet another, yet it was restless. Angered, he charged up Bullet Punch and proceeded to repeatedly strike the pillar down, yet to no avail, they would slow down, yet there was no sign of them getting destroyed.

“Gah,” Sev narrowly slipped around one column and jumped back from another. “This level is getting annoying.” Sev twirled around another and chuckled. “Though you give me an excellent idea.” He dodged once more, before chasing towards another. The columns behind him kept on his tail, to which he wanted them to. At the last second, he dodged to the right as they crashed into each other. “Typical column behavior.”

Layton on his side was getting annoyed, so he simply stood still and waited for the columns to get to him. They surrounded his limbs, and began climbing towards his body, just what he expected. With a flash of his X, his claws began glowing silver, before shooting four beams of Flash Cannon at the four columns that tried to take him over, destroying them completely, “Fragile from the inside and not that smart. Good attempt, Crawler, yet not good enough.”

Vincent had a simpler answer. With a flash of Dazzling Gleam to cover his Teleport, the Alakazam hovered in the middle of all the columns and waited. It wasn’t long before they all lunged for him at once, at which point he teleported again and let them destroy one another. “Seriously, it’s like you made these things to be bested.”

“Ahg!” Crawler grunted, as long claws formed in his suit’s paws, “Fine! You want a real challenge, then that is what you will get!” And with a roar, he lunged forwards at a speed faster than what the eye could see. When Layton felt him coming, it was too late, a slash from his claws pushed him away and dealt great damage upon his body, the same happening to Sev and Vincent, none of them expected this speed, “Try to keep up with that, you inferior species!”

Layton grunted as he shifted to a more defensive stance. He knew Crawler would not waste time, and so, when the shadow dashed towards him to strike again, he simply held one of his claws in the direction from where he came from, and blocked the attack. Crawler dashed and striked again, being blocked by the sharp Metagross who analyzed his movements, his patterns. Crawler roared in anger, annoyed by how easily Layton managed to block his attack, and in rage he swinged both of his paws, and damaged the Metagross’ left side, causing him to hold in the pain, only to be retaliated by a powerful Meteor Mash that forced him to back down.

With another roar, he rushed towards his next target, Sev. As Crawler raced towards him, Sev met his charge with his own. As Crawler advanced and threw a punch, Sev somersaulted forwards and slashed the beast’s wrist with a Poison Blade. Of course it couldn’t kill the magic based monstrosity, but it pulled back. However, the beast swung its foot and smashed it into Sev. Sev acted quickly even through the pain and latched his tail around a toe, so once it brought its foot down, he jumped off and slashed again. He gave himself a bit of distance when Crawler stepped back and wheezed as he collected himself from the kick.

He then decided to go for the most fragile of the trio, and with a roar, he dashed back before assaulting Vincent, two claws ready to slash and eyes full of blood lust. The Alakazam sighed before Teleporting again, before unleashing a powerful Psybeam at the creature, who screeched in pain before turning around swiftly and slashing once more, only to be blocked by a suddenly appearing blue wall.

“Oh just pack it in already,” Vincent griped before firing off a more powerful Psychic attack. “We’re so not impressed!”

“Do you think I do this to impress anyone?” Crawler chuckled, “I just wanted to capture you and turn you into my slaves… but now? I’d rather turn you into the first test subjects of my next project, corpse reanimation!” And with yet another ear-shattering screech, he shot several beams of magic at the trio, which Layton simply blocked with his body, barely hurt by them.

“You can not win, Crawler, not with the three of us here facing you.” Layton said calmly.

“You are right… in fact, you just gave me an idea.” He chuckled, before dismissing his already damaged battle suit, “It does not matter what I throw at you, I can’t possibly defeat you in an unfair 3 vs. 1 battle, so let’s make it fair, shall we?” And with a glow of his horn, a scary-looking face of green smoke formed above him, it looked at the three Pokemon in front of him, and made his choice. With some ancient forbidden chanting, it launched forwards and surrounded Sev, filling his nostrils with smoke and putting him in a trance. In a matter of seconds, he found himself alone in a large dark room in the middle of nowhere, and everything at the same time.

“Shadow!” Sev shouted. “What have you done? Have you finally admitted your poor eyesight, or just don’t want to show your face anymore?”

Yet the only reply he got was a soft laughter, before he was punched back by a four-armed bodiless creature that came out of the blue, sending him back before saying something in Crawler’s arcane prohibited language.

“Bleeding coward,” Sev hissed in anger before shooting a Venoshock into the beast’s face, yet it seemed to do almost nothing, as it just shrugged it off before rushing to deliver several more punches at him.Yet he was immediately stopped as a powerful wave of darkness sent them both flying away, as yet another terrifying creature came into place. It seemed to be floating, with two long wavy arms and several daggers floating around it, a creepy eye (bigger than his two other regular ones) in his forehead blinking and watching the duo, before sending a wave of dark energy at Sev.

Sev fired a Dark Pulse into the wave, causing the two attacks to negate one another and blow apart. “Your illusionary tricks won’t work on me, Shadow.”

“I would not be so sure about that.” Came a soft yet dark voice from nowhere, “Let’s see how long you survive against two of the greatest monsters that have ever lived.”

Vincent stood guard as he awaited for the two monsters in front of him to attack. The floating, four-armed floating chunk of darkness and the long five-eyed venomous cobra-like creature had proved to be extremely powerful, he had to take them out.

He would have to get inside their heads, hear what they were planning, so that he could dodge it and strike without being hit. He took the brief moment of respite to hone himself with another Calm Mind as he sat back and listened once again.

Besides, this could just be a trick of Crawler’s. Listening undid them in the past. He could hear something, what seemed to be rational words hidden between static-like sounds and demonic chanting, yet he had no time to focus further as the four-armed beast decided to strike him once again, rushing at him with a raised fist.

Vincent raised another Protect, catching the fist on a blue wall of power that barely held, before returning fire with a Psybeam. Dammit all, he was supposed to be an Alakazam! A Mega-Alakazam! I.Q. of 5000, one of the stronger minds on this planet!

He should be able to focus through a little dark magic! He closed his eyes and tried once again. To listen, to hear.

Layton kept his eyes open as he struck the three eyed beast, stopped by a wall of dark magic which he was not able to break. He looked back at the cobra who held his distance, he found this extremely strange, yet he could not take any risk to stop and think on what was happening. He had to break free from the spell.

“I need to find a way out of this. Perhaps if I defeat these creatures before they defeat me.” He thought, charging up a Meteor Mash to strike the floating creature down as soon as his defenses were out, they couldn’t last forever now could they?

Sev slammed his tail into the beast’s side, making it stumble as he fired a Flamethrower to push it further. “Your tricks against the one are futile, for I am an army unto myself.” He glared at the being. “There is no denying your defeat.”

“We will see about that.” Crawler simply replied, enjoying this little duel.

Layton grunted in pain as the blast of energy hit him, turning around, he slammed the cobra away, panting as he felt pain taking over, yet he would not give up, he still had a long way to go, “I will not fall so easily, Crawler. These beasts may be strong, yet I am no weakling, you will be defeated.”

“We will see about that.” The pony replied with a giggle.

Vincent had gathered every spare scrap of power for one purpose.

This couldn’t be real. So he was going to do something about this darkness around him. He even had a little rhyme for the occasion.

“I call upon existence

And all that is truly real

Help me break free of

this nightmarish seal.”

It would probably do nothing but be dramatic, but he had a small thing for being dramatic these days. He focused his mind on two other minds. The ones he had just been with.

He would not be denied in this. He would talk to Sev and Layton, wherever they were.

“Come in Corporal Cobra and Four-Arms. Where the hell are you?!”

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD, ALAKAZAM!” Sev shouted. “YOU CAN TALK NORMALLY. SHADOW, YOU ARE GOING TO RECEIVE MY IMPROMPTU ANGER ON TOP OF YOUR SKULL!”

“Sev? Vincent?” Layton said in surprise, “That explains the power and the shapes. Are you two alright?”

“None the worse for wear...and now we have to work on shattering this seeming.”

“I shall contact Loom,” Sev shouted. “He’ll know.” The snake-mon held up a small, mobile device. “These things are getting smaller by the day,” he muttered as he started to type in the code. “Ah-ha!”

Loom’s image appeared on it. “Commander,” he saluted. “What can I do you for?”

“I have much, but for now, I have but one.” Sev intoned.

“From intelectual to intelectual, be honest with me.” Mega Layton chuckled, as he looked at Vincent while Loom and Sev talked it out, “Have you figured out how Sev works yet?”

“If I figured that out, one of the great mysteries of the universe would be solved,” Vincent said. “Hmm. This was constructed so we would fight one another. I have no idea how it is sustained, but perhaps when he sees we aren’t, he’ll drop it?”

“Or he will sustain it for an eternity and keep us out of his way.” Layton hummed, “This is a high level spell it seems, meaning not even our minds could break it, as they are two completely different types of energy. I am trying to analyze all possible options, yet I do not have enough information to come up with a plan, I’m afraid… unless, we somehow manage to strike Crawler from the outside, to force him to break the spell. But how could we do that?”

“I think I can create a sonic pitch that can disrupt the spell,” Loom spoke as he scrounged about his laboratory. An explosion or two could be heard.

“And how long will this-” An explosion came out of the screen and enveloped his head. Sev’s head was covered in smoke and coughed. “It appears our chaotic, chess playing violins didn’t work out then.”

“Oh no,” Loom shook his head as he screwed around with his side of the phone. “Far too destructive. I’ll work on them later. Just give me a sec with this.”

“This ‘sec’ better be quick,” Sev snorted.

“Meanwhile, maybe we can work together to weaken it from within,” Vincent said to Layton.

“How do you suggest we do that?” Layton asked calmly as he cleared some dust from his goatee.

“I heard something besides you when I was just listening,” Vincent said. “If I open my mind up again, maybe I’ll hear something worthwhile.” He closed his eyes and began to do just that.

Layton closed his own eyes and began meditating as well, although his mind was not as powerful as Vincent’s, it didn’t hurt to try and search with him.

Both of them focused, most was darkness, static, chanting, nothing noticeable, nothing different. Taking deep breaths, they focused further, the chanting became louder, yet the static began disappearing. And this was when Vincent managed to find a spot of light in the middle of the shadows.

Focusing on that spot, he saw something which could be described as odd, and slightly terrifying. A skinny, dark gray unicorn was held captive by four chains, each of them holding a respective limb, symbols printed in blood shining in the invisible wall behind him.

“Power… must. Protect.” The unicorn whispered, repeating the same line over and over as he kept his gaze down.

“I found something,” Vincent said as he guided Layton to look in the same direction he was. And in the matter of seconds, Layton’s mind wandered next to Vincent’s own, as they both looked at the scene in front of them with curiosity and wonder.

“I wonder if…” Layton hummed, before focusing his mind and attempting to speak with the imprisoned unicorn, “Database.”

The unicorn stopped whispering, and raised his gaze. His tired eyes, his wicked smile, his messy hair, it all simply shouted ‘crazy’. “Name, yes. My name. Data.”

“This is...sad,” Vincent said. “Would I have found something similar had I had these powers back on Earth and looked into my father’s mind?”

“I do not know, yet it is possible.” Layton nodded, “This is how a former noble colt looks after being consumed by greed. Wanting to shine and become a hero, he let the darkness take over him. Thanks to you, we have reached Crawler’s subconscious, and found who he used to be.”

“Hero… Celestia. I help, power.” The unicorn chuckled creepily.

“Then I have but one course of action,” Vincent said. “I’ve already done this once today. What’s twice, in the long run?” He closed his eyes and focused his mind, before intoning again. “You who lust after power, I shall show you humility. You who are greedy for more, I shall show you generosity. You who are lost, let you be found.” He opened his eyes and brought a shining hand up. “You who cower in the darkness. Let there be light.” With that, the second Future Sight attack of that day had been called for and let loose upon the deepest parts of a person.

Yet once the images stopped flashing in front of him, the pony simply giggled, chuckled, laughed and shouted in amusement, “YES! MORE! HERO, I WANT THAT! I MUST GATHER POWER AND BE A HERO! CELESTIA AND THE WORLD WILL PRAISE ME!”

The chanting picked up in intensity and speed, as several shadows rose from around them and started spinning in circles, as Database simply laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until he was engulfed by the darkness, resulting in a dark good sprouting from his mouth and eyes, landing in the floor beneath him before forming into the dark mage unicorn whose wicked smile was even more terrifying that before..

“This is too rich, oh how amusing you are!” Shadow Crawler chuckled as the shadows disappeared, breaking the chains and walking towards them, “Do you think you can just free me with some good warm feelings like you did with her? Please. Database is not doing this against his will, he wants this. His objective is noble, to protect Equestria, and you just fueled his wish.” He chuckled as he felt how his powers became stronger, “I shall help him in his task, by taking over the world, and making him their saviour, their hero, their god.”

“It was worth a shot,” Vincent said. “Father, forgive me,” he whispered. “Time to show the soul within you the cost of progress. I call upon the dead, I call upon the living. I call upon my life. Feel my pain, Database, as I felt it. Total Recall.” With that, the worst attack in the Alakazam’s arsenal was brought to bear on the demon before them. Crawler’s mind filled up with pain and misery, images, memories that did not belong, pain that was not his own. Streams of tears ran on his cheeks, as his legs became weaker, his head spun, and he… giggled.

“You… just don’t get it don’t you?” He smiled, “I AM THE DARKNESS YOU IDIOT. What did that do to me? It made me happy. Happy to see how messed up your world was...and now I feel angered, because this world can’t be like that. But that’s nothing that can’t be fixed.” He stood up and the tears transformed into dark goo, which entered back through his eyes as his laughter intensified, as the duo felt how something tried to pull them away. “I ALLOWED YOU IN HERE, AND I CAN TAKE YOU OUT.”

“I am not done yet.” Layton grunted, as he pinned his legs into the ground and charged up a Flash Cannon, before firing it at Crawler, missing by inches.

“Fool! You can’t even aim properly!”

“I was not aiming at you.” Was the only thing that Layton said, before a loud screech hurt their ears, as Database who was hiding behind him, had just been hit by a powerful Steel type attack. Crawler began sealing his own mind, and pushing them away from it, cursing in every known language as a powerful headache kept him from focusing.

So when Layton and Vincent came back to Sev, they managed to see the walls that kept them sealed, cracked.

“Sev, what’s the plan you and Loom came up with?” Mega Layton asked as he tried to communicate even with the screeches in the background.

“In short,” Sev held up his phone, having put on a pair of earmuffs. “This,” to which a high pitched sonic noise screeched out of the device. The already shattered walls did not break even further into pieces, no, it had completely turned into nothing but black dust as the high-pitched noise broke it all, revealing the night sky of Las Pegasus and the blast from the laser cannon hitting the beast they were riding on the stomach.

As soon as they came back to reality, they were greeted by a powerful blast of black magic that covered the trio, dealing great damage to both Sev and Layton while Vincent had barely managed to Protect himself, he knew he wasn’t as resistant as the other two.

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with.” The unicorn hissed, “I am older than your GODS, smarter than your LEGENDARIES, and more powerful than ANY OF YOU multiplied by a thousand. I am the darkness itself! And once I take over this place and am fred of this mortal prison of flesh and bones, I will kill you all, revive you, and kill you again”

“Discord trapped you in a bottle, Starswirl turned you into a book and burned you to ashes, Celestia sealed you away and prohibited the sheer mention of your name, and the elements of Harmony broke your control over Luna” Layton replied calmly, “You and your kin, the shadows, the forces of evil, are far from unbeatable. And now, we shall demonstrate this, ending you, for good.”

The Metagross glared at both Sev and Vincent, he didn’t need to read their minds to know that they were all thinking the same. It was time to end this once and for all.

“Hyper Beam.” Layton called out calmly, as an orb of energy formed in front of him, charging up and growing in size.

“Future Sight,” Vincent called out, channeling a normal one instead of his tweaked version.

“Flamethrower,” Sev called out, flames licking at his lips.

Crawler gritted his teeth, this was not looking good. “If you think this will stop me for good, you’re so wrong. I will be back, stronger, smarter, and I’ll finish what I started!”

Layton chuckled as he looked at the other two, “Who wants to do the honors? Or shall we say it together?”

“Prepare for the moment of utter defeat, Shadow.” Sev cackled. “For you shall bear the brunt of Commander Sev’s doubly aided flame attack, or Hypersight Flame!”

Crawler casted a protective shield upon him, then another, and then a third one to be sure. Yet it did not matter at all. The Flames heated up the first shield and melted it into nothingness, the Hyper Beam blasting through the next one and shattering it into pieces, while the Future Sight sent waves after waves of mental energy which caused the final shield to blow up, giving them an opening for the trio of attacks, which fused together into a massive beam of energy, one Crawler could not survive, not him nor the beast he was riding, which after receiving several beams of energy, finally began trembling, not healing the wounds caused by the explosions that resulted from Unity Tower’s cannon.

And then, the beast exploded, sending dark goo all over the city, which soon began to evaporate into smoke. The shadow Pokemon, freed from their curse, fainted on the spot, too exhausted and confused to keep going, the demons poofed into the air, and everything was calm once again.

Layton, Vincent and Sev found themselves gracefully falling on the ground, victory was theirs.

“You did it...” The Gardevoir greeted them, “You actually defeated him…”

“Not for long. This is the third time he has died. As long as Database and the shadow are one, they will keep respawning.” Layton nodded, “But indeed, we did it.”

“And hopefully, we taught him what not to do,” Vincent said. “Such as, attempt to attack me, mine, or my friends ever again.”

“Yes,” Sev snorted. “Not to attack you, but my soldiers are fair game.” He hissed in agitation. “Layton, I would have thought you would have dealt with this Shadow by now. He’s stronger than last time we met.”

“I’m afraid I’m having a hard time beating him up, he’s almost immortal after all.” Layton chuckled, “But today he suffered a great loss, it should be a while until he tries to attack again.”

“And Shadow Crawler is a proud stallion, he would not dare to attack neither the PLA nor Unity Tower again. So you should all be safe from him.” The Gardevoir said with a soft grin, “But even if he did, he’d still find himself in trouble.”

“We’ll make sure of that.” Steven’s voice came from behind her, followed by the several Pokémon that aided in the battle in one way or another, “This is over, and the damage to the city is rather minimal. Against all odds, we succeeded.”

“One minor thing,” Vincent said as he raised a hand. “Where’s Mary? She’s sort of the reason I got into this.”

Layton ran a scan all over the fallen demon’s corpse, and sent a weakened Flash Cannon which cleared some debri away, revealing the unconscious body of the Ground type, “There she is. I sense vital signs, she’s ok.”

“Thank Xerneas,” Vincent sighed as he reflexively Teleported over to her and gathered her up with his power. “I’ll just make sure myself. Wouldn’t want to take chances.”

“Of course.” Layton nodded, before turning to Steven, “We must clean this place up, and try to return the fallen Pokémon that were under Crawler’s control back to their respective home.”

“Indeed. Let’s go everyone.” Steven nodded as he signaled Tania to go back down.

Yet they would not need to do any cleaning. A loud demonic screech called their attention as they all got into a defensive stance, before portals all over the place began appearing, seemingly sucking the fallen Pokémon towards them.

“HELP! NO, PLEASE, DON’T LET HIM TAKE ME!” Came the voice of the Gardevoir who was not far from them, as a giant four-fingered hand grasped her and tried to drag her down.

“Oh no you fucking don’t,” Vincent said. “Hold onto your lunches! TELEPORT!”

Each and every fallen ‘mon that Vincent could grab a hold of, was teleported from where they lay to somewhere, anywhere that those portals weren’t. He wasn’t going to let Crawler get his army back, and he was still Mega, And so, thanks to him, more than half of the fallen Pokemon made it somewhere safe, yet even with his power, they were still far too many to save them all.

Yet for some reason, the Gardevoir was still being dragged down, the teleport did not work on her as unlike the rest, this Pokémon was far too special for Crawler to simply let go.

“This is getting ridiculous.” Layton grunted as his four claws began shining a strong silver color, “I suggest everyone to back off, and to you Miss, you better teleport as soon as I make contact.”

“Just free me.. please. Don’t let me go back.” She whimpered as half her body was already in the portal. The others did as Layton requested, and then, they simply saw a blur and then a wave of power which pushed them back slightly. The Gardevoir managed to break free and teleport away immediately as soon as the hand let her go due to the pain, and it went back through the hole it came from.

“Th-thank you.” The Fairy gasped for air.

Sev patted her on the back. “You are very welcome. Do not worry about the psychological torment you received. It will always be there in the back of your mind, but it’s a great motivator for being better than you are now. It’s a running theme in my army.” He held out a badge and gave her a sincere smile. “If you need someplace to go, the PLA is always open, or you can mooch off Vincent.”

“Hey, I would help her find something productive to do,” Vincent riposted. “She wouldn’t have to mooch forever. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t afford it anyways.”

The Gardevoir giggled softly before doing a reverence to Sev, “Thank you kindly, but I already made my decision to stay with Mister Nurem. But you will forever be in my mind as the first one who made me feel amused, so once again, thank you.”

“I’m pretty sure that if someone can help you, it’s Vincent.” Steven chuckled, as Titania descended next to him with the Jade Orb in her claws, “Well, I’m sure you’ve enjoyed yourself and your Mega forms, yet this Orb has limited power, and I may need it again. So Layton, if you may.”

The Metagross nodded and focused on the orb, as his energy began leaving his body and disappearing into nothingness, the same with Vincent and the other Megas in the area, who all turned once again into their normal selves. “Completed.”

Vincent winced and held a hand up to his head, focusing his power for a moment before sighing. “Okay, that’s...jarring. I went from running free and clear on more power than I’d had in a while to having to actively block out the voices again. And for a moment...yeesh.”

“You heard it all again?” Lucy asked as she walked up next to him.

“Basically, yeah,” the Alakazam agreed.

“Aww, my claws were awesome,” Sam whined. “Ah well. I suppose you’ll be wanting this back?” He held up the Scizorite as if to pass it back to Steven.

Steven thought for a few seconds before taking the stone and taking a good look at it, “I will most likely need this one in the future… yet... “ He tossed it to Titania, who grabbed it with her beak, “You can keep the other two. It seems like you enjoyed being Mega.”

“Fuck yes I did!” Christine cheered as she showed off the fact that she’d mega-evolved during the fight. “My ability is awesome now!”

“It seems like my prediction was right. Now you see why I requested for a Garchompite, Steven?” Layton said coldly, earning a chuckle from the Scizor, “Congratulations, Miss.”

Sev’s tongue flickered out. “Christine, where is that fool Scep? And where are the soldiers I posted to guard you and him?”

“I sent ‘em to guard you,” the Landshark shrugged. “You’re a bit more important than me. And it’s not like I need ‘em anymore anyways. Look!” With that, she fired off a small Flamethrower at the street, her skin flashing red as she did. Then she pulled off a Dragon Claw, which caused her body to flash purple. “Boo-fucking-ya! My useless ability has become seven kinds of kickass now!”

“Incredible…” Steven said in awe, “Is that Protean… on a Garchomp?”

“I can feel Terra’s jealousy from here,” Titania giggled as she recalled Cynthia’s Garchomp.

“And you can all see why I made her a general,” Sev grinned with pride. “We shall have much success with you in our fold and I see great things for them in the future. Truly, you are a mother to be feared. Well, any mother is to be feared, but that’s something else entirely.”

“Well,” Vincent said. “This is certainly an...interesting development.”

“Terrifying is more like it,” Sam said. “Especially if her kids are anything like her.”

“Oh, just be happy for her,” Lucy said as she walked up and gave Christine a hug. “I know I am.”

“And I’m back with the groceries,” Scep cheerfully called out as he pushed a large cart that had a few jewels jingling out of the bags. “And I swear, most of it was obtained legally this time dudette...Oh hey Commander Sev,” he gave him a lazy salute. “What are you guys doing out here? Seems like you’ve had quite the party without me.” He pouted.

Christine just waited for him to notice…

“Oh you went Mega,” Scep stared at her for a moment, before his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. “Should I quiver in fear or kiss you?”

“Tell me after you see this,” the Garchomp said as she showed off for Scep, firing a small Flamethrower at the ground as her skin changed color at the same time.

Pockets got closer to him and simply whispered, “I think a mixture of love and fear is appropriate, don’t make her mad, champ.”

“That’s basically the name of the game,” Scep shrugged. “I’ve survived this long, haven’t I? What’s one sexy evolution going to change…..except make her sexier?”

The Landshark blushed before hooking one fin around her mate and drawing him in for a kiss. Scep grinned and pulled her closer. Of course, he also unashamedly dropped one hand to her bottom...which was a bit bigger than before mind you.

“Mmm,” she murred once the kiss broke. “Somebody’s angling for some fun in the bed.”

“Well then. It looks like we all got a happy ending after all.” Pockets chuckled before a loud scream hurt her ears, “Or not..”

“YOU DID WHAT!?” Came the Jolteon’s voice from afar. One broken window later, and the sounds of thunders followed behind Frederick, who with a face of sheer panic bounced on everyone’s heads as he tried to get as far away as possible from his angry girlfriend, before being caught in a magical grip by Pockets.

“What did you do?” She sighed with a raised eyebrow.

“May or may not have gotten way too drunk, scammed several casinos, fled the police, and… fucked four different Sylveon at the same time…” Was the answer.

“I don’t know how you’re not single yet…” The unicorn sighed, “Vincent, mind teleporting him back to his lovely girlfriend so they can have some… talking?”

“Not a problem,” Vincent said as one hand glowed blue...before nothing happened. “Whoops. Guess I used up a lot of my Teleport power a few minutes ago…”

“Well then… guess I’m gonna have to escort him there before the Jolteon destroys the entire building we’ve spent the whole day protecting. C’ya guys later.” The unicorn grumbled.

“And I must return to check on some business back in Tall Tale before coming back here for the wedding… unless it postpones, time will tell.” Steven sighed as well, “It has been an honor, Vincent Nurem. You’re a formidable and respectable ‘mon”

“As are you,” the Alakazam replied with a bow. “Take care on your journey.”

Tania did a reverence and grabbed Steven in her claws, “Next stop, Tall Tale.”

“I shall speak with the authorities in regard to Fredericks’ actions. See you at a later time, Vincent Nurem.” Layton nodded before taking off.

“And thus our story comes to a close,” Sev nodded, before glaring at Scep. “Scep, you missed out on the action! Why must your timing be bad?”

“I was getting groceries,” Scep said, pulling out a golden necklace. “Like this one. I thought Christine would look good in this, but...she’s kind of a bit too big for it. Not that I’m complaining. More to love and all that. ‘Sides, ain’t no one hurting our kids with her around.”

“You can get me a better one tomorrow,” the Landshark said before pulling him into a hug. “Besides, I just Mega-Evolved. Do you know what that means?”

“That I need to steal bigger clothes?” Scep sincerely asked. Christine bent down to whisper something in his ear. He turned bright red and stuttered, “O-oh yeah,” he gulped.

“Come on, hurry up,” Christine said. “The sooner you get those things upstairs and put away, the sooner you can help me~” And with that, she had all but disappeared, dashing inside the tower.

Like a bolt, he took off into the building and threw the cart into its place. “You guys get it, see you later, bye!” He dashed upstairs.

“Ah love,” Sev chuckled. “I remember when I was young and lively, taking Umbra whenever I want and now I have the sads.” He frowned. “I shall have to destroy them later, possibly with mushy sitcoms or teleporting to Umbra.”

Christine landed on the bed, bouncing a few times before she finally stopped, waiting to see how long her mate would take to join her. Of course, it didn’t take long for Scep to get there as well. The Sceptile panted as he leaned on the door. “Why are there so many stairs?”

“I practically flew up them,” the Garchomp said. “Oooh, that’s another thing I’m going to have to learn from a fellow ‘chomp. But I rather think I would enjoy a more...personal lesson from my mate first.”

“And I’m not tired anymore,” Scep straightened up, his tail doing so with a cartoonish ‘poing’. “Though I don’t think we’ll have a bed after this, really….or a room. The whole ‘final’ evolution thing gets a bit crazy for a while, trust me.”

“Then you better do your best to restrain me,” the Garchomp said. “Make sure that we still have a room to sleep in afterwards. I’m pretty sure you’d have to do a lot of stealing to afford rebuilding an entire room. I can deal with not having a bed, we’ll just put the mattress on the floor.”

“I don’t care,” Scep growled. “I’ll get another one.” With that, he pounced on top of her. She drew him in close with her arm-fins and kissed him, just holding him there for a moment. Scep hooked his arms around her waist, which wasn’t as easy as before but still pretty doable. Not that he was complaining, since her waist felt just as amazing. His tongue teased its way into her own. For a time, the two just lay there, basking in each other’s warmth. Eventually, the kiss broke, and Christine said two very simple words.

“Do it.”

Scep grinned and nuzzled her snout. “Don’t have to tell me twice,” he unhooked his arms, moving them lower to grasp her waist. He kneaded them for a while, savoring the feel of her bigger bottom. “I’m never going to get tired of this.”

“Hopefully not,” the Garchomp said. “After we raise these two, if you do a good enough job, I might just let you make some more.”

“I was talking more of the big bottom, but that’s good to know.” Scep chuckled. Letting himself relax, he maneuvered the tip of his tail to tease her opening, parting it and gently playing with the folds. She moaned a little, before looking up at him and growling.

“Quit teasing already,” she said. “I wanna feel it.”

Scep rolled his eyes. “Sheesh, and mon call me hasty.” He gave her a kiss as his member quickly unsheathed itself. He couldn’t help but feel anxious with her new form, but also so exhilarated. He held it in position and his member gently rubbed her own sex, before he started to delve into her.

Christine loved how it fit perfectly now, rather than how it had before, where she nearly couldn’t take it. Her fins instinctively reached up to grab around his hips and she tried to force him to push into her faster.

Scep yelped as he felt her strength. He couldn’t exactly tease her like before now when he had a ‘level’ advantage of sorts, but he didn’t mind. He gripped her waist tighter and with one thrust, buried himself deep into her.

The Garchomp moaned and held him there for a moment, before she realized what she was doing and slowly unhooked her fins from around him. If he was on top, then he was supposed to be in control. She’d let him set the pace for now...but if he didn’t do her hard enough, she’d go back to pulling him in.

Scep wanted to keep going at that moment. He wanted to pound her so badly, but he needed a second. She wasn’t as constricting as before. He always had to hold himself back a bit in case he hurt her, but that wasn’t the case anymore. She fit him like a glove and it felt oh so good. He wanted to savor this for a moment, but then again, he knew she’d get impatient. So he pulled back and struck home again.

Christine moaned, loving the way he filled her now. “Yesss…” she hissed out. “That feels so good now…” She was having to fight her instincts on turning the tables on him. Round two, she promised herself.

Scep wasted no time. He definitely was going to savor this night, whether he went slowly or not. So he started with timed great thrusts and slow drawbacks. He honestly found it hard to leave her. Those walls caressed him so finely that it was like a little bit of heaven. Still, he gave it back as hard as he could.

Eventually, though, Christine couldn’t help herself, and moaned out a few words. “Harder, faster,” she said between pants. “More. I need it.”

Scep leaned closer to her. “You asked for it,” and so he doubled the speed, pounding her a bit faster each few intervals. She let out a deep, throaty moan and fell back into just enjoying the moment. It was so good, getting fucked like this.

He felt free now that he didn’t have to hold back for her. A thief wasn’t all that great a person when it came to giving, but he wanted to change that. He gave her his all, going faster and harder as he could without using his special abilities. He gave, but he was going to also plunder these depths like no tomorrow.

Christine let out another moan as she tried to hook her legs around his waist, so that she had something to hold onto. He helped her, moving his hands along her slender legs. Getting a firmer grip and lifting her a tad, he started to thrust deeper into her snatch, massaging her walls.

The Garchomp could do nothing but hold on for the ride at this point, and she liked it this way. If he kept it up, then it felt like in the next few minutes...or maybe even moments…

Scep’s breath grew more rapid as he kept at the pace. The way she clutched around his shaft felt so alien, yet familiar was driving him wild. He wanted more and he kept trying to go deeper and faster into her. He didn’t want to leave her perfect hole, so he kept trying to enter her as quickly as he could.

And that was about when he felt those walls clamp down around him and start trying to milk him of his seed, as Christine came with a loud roar. Scep hissed in pleasure as he felt her cum, squeezing him with all her might. He could feel himself on the edge and he thought of pulling out. Her legs hooked around him weren’t going to let him though and he didn’t care. So he kissed her, touching his chest to hers as he tumbled over the edge and came harder than he had ever before.

“Fuuuuuck,” Christine said as she felt him fill her. “You...are just lucky I’m not in season right now...I’m barely dealing with the thought of two little hatchlings to raise. I don’t think I could handle the idea of more.”

Scep huffed. “Tell that to your bone-crushing legs. I couldn’t pull out if I wanted to, dudette. Remember, you’re stronger than you were a few hours ago.”

“Mmm, bigger and fuller too,” she said as one claw patted her abdomen. “So why don’t we rest for a minute before we keep getting me...acquainted with my new body’s strength?”

Scep chuckled and nuzzled her lovingly. “Whatever you say, dudette. Whatever you say.”

Frederick woke up with a groan as the light of the sun covered him lovingly, a sign that this was going to be a bad day for him. He looked to his left and noticed that his mate was not there, this was definitely going to be a bad day. He then looked around and… found no one.

“Did they abandon me here or something? What the heck!?”

He bounced off the bed and shook his body, washed his face without much effort and proceeded to simply think on what to do. Why did they leave him like that? Where could they possibly be? He went towards his bags to try and find his favorite ball to play with, there was no one there so none could watch him, he was free to have some fun. He opened the bag and found the small white ball, with a note sticked to it.

“I’ll be getting ready all day long. Don’t forget to pick up your suit and be at the casino at least an hour before the event. If you dare to leave me hanging I’m cutting your balls off and leaving you forever… well she’s mad. What does she even mean with this? Why do I need a su-” Frederick remained silent, before facepawing and rushing to the door, how could he forget?

This was the day he’d get married.

The day, as he predicted, went horribly. There were far too many ponies in the streets for his liking, the suit was not ready in time for some reason (so he had to force them to finish them and leave the other customers hanging), and he still had to check on the hotel to see that they had everything ready for the reception.

So when he rushed into the hotel with a messy suit, a bunch of boxes, and a sweaty forehead, he was so relieved to find Pockets talking with the manager, a list in hand, who noticed the Fairy as he came in.

“Dude, where the heck have you been? You were supposed to be here like an hour ago!” The unicorn rolled her eyes.

“Shush, tell me everything’s ready.”

Pockets nodded, and the Sylveon took off, disappearing once again into the crowds. He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

And so, he kept doing wedding stuff, stuff he should have done days ago, stuff he somehow managed to pull off, fix, and force others to fix. So when he went back to Unity Tower as a complete mess, he simply landed on the lobby’s floor defeated.

Lucy had been sitting there, meditating, and looked up at the Fairy type all but collapsing. As was a reflex by now, she simply unleashed a Heal Pulse. Questions could come later.

“Whoever did that just now, I could kiss you.” He grunted without lifting his face from the floor, “Please do it again, I think my brain is still molten.”

“Of course,” Lucy replied as she let loose with another one. “Feeling better now?”

“Yeah…” He answered as he got back up, shaking his body before sitting on his butt and closing his eyes to sigh, “Do you know of any place where I could safely hide from an angry bride for like, an eternity or so?”

“You could simply try here, but I believe Vincent would turn you over the moment she came looking for you,” the Lucario said.

“Damn snitches…” He chuckled, before groaning as he remembered the situation he was in, “Question, you are about to get married, and you have two options. A, run away into the desert and change your name to Federico Garcia, or B, accept it and be locked into one ‘mon for the rest of your life, what do you do?”

That was about when a small Abra teleported onto Lucy’s head, before a Riolu came running down the stairs and jumping into her arms. As the children hugged their mother, Lucy looked at Frederick and stated, quite simply, “You are asking the wrong question. The correct question is, is this worth the risk? To which I would reply, yes, a thousand times over.”

Frederick would have just ignored her by giving her a generic answer, like he did with any other wise ‘mon trying to advise him. Yet… he didn’t. He was genuinely interested in what the Lucario had to say, “But who’s to say things won’t just go downhill? I mean, I’m a huge idiot, and quite possibly the worse ‘mon in existence. Who’s to say I won’t… mess it up?” He said as he changed those last words in order to keep the children away from his ‘colorful’ vocabulary.

“Vincent asks himself that question every day, as do I,” Lucy said. “The answer is, the only thing stopping your life from turning out horrible, is you actively doing something about it. If you lay about and let terrible things happen, then yes, your life will go terribly. But if you try hard enough, then you will find that there are things in life worth fighting for. And then you will actually fight for them. And I know you are not a terrible ‘mon. After all, you’re here. That’s proof enough.”

Frederick remained silent for a few seconds, as he realized that she was right. He loved Alexia, and she loved him as well, even with all his imperfections, she did. And this would be the proof of that, of their unbreakable bond, of what they had become. “Were you always this wise? Or is that a thing you get when you become a mom? Do us males get one too when we have children or is it gender exclusive?” He chuckled as he cleaned the dust off from his suit.

“It’s partially what I learned when I went to train in what makes a Lucario a Lucario, and mostly my own musings when I meditate,” the female said. “I’m sure if you had time to think deeply about the things that matter to you, truly matter to you, you would come up with something just as wise.”

“Yeah… you don’t know me well enough.” He smirked, “Well then, gotta get going. I’m getting married in about two hours and I look like a hobo who spent all his life losing at a casino. Thanks for the talk stranger Lucario mom, see ya around.”

“Take care,” Lucy said. “And remember that bad times, are just times that are bad.”

The room was bursting with chats as they all got ready for the main event. Friends and family of both Alexia and Frederick awaited for the main event, while Frederick simply tapped the ground in anxiety.

“Do I still look good? Tell me I still look good. No, be honest, if I look like shit tell me.” He asked his best man, or well, the closest thing to a friend he could find in an afternoon.

Layton turned to him with his somehow perfectly fitting suit, and nodded. He had no idea why he agreed to this, but he did.

“Where the heck is she? If she doesn’t come here soon I’ll vomit the drinks from a couple of days ago.” The fairy grunted as he checked on the clock. Yet his question was answered, when the crowd went silent and the Tentacruel began playing the piano, announcing the arrival of the Jolteon.

Frederick’s jaw dropped.

She was wearing a long white dress with no head piece, yet the dress alone was simply stunning. It was the perfect mix between gorgeous and sexy, with a shape that defined her curves, and details that simply showed the dedication whoever made the dress put into it. A soft yellow aura was left behind as she slowly walked to the altar, reaching it in a matter of minutes. And so, with a wide grin, both eeveelutions looked at their priest… or rather the one guy they could find in an hour who could marry them, due to the fact that the priest had a serious case of the flu.

“We are gathered here today to ponder one of the greatest questions of our lifetime,” Sev started. “For we have here, two souls bound by an invisible lifeline. A woman with a sound mind and that asshole character you always want to punch in the face. How this came about I don’t know and I don’t care. In fact, I’m trying to give a damn at this very moment, but Alexia reminds me a bit of my own daughter, so I know she’ll make something work.”

“Just go to the point.” Frederick deadpanned.

“Please?” Alexia smiled, “We’d appreciate it.”

“The magic word always wins me over,” Sev chuckled. “Very well, Alexia. Do you take this being who I hesitate to call a mon, your husband?”

“Yes, as much as the sane part of my brain tells me not to, my heart tells me that I do.” She smiled at the Fairy.

“Do you take this woman who is far and beyond your league?” Sev eyed Frederick with a harsh glare. “To have and to hold and to never cheat or hurt her?”

And at that point, Frederick wanted to run away. Simply leave everything behind and live for his own sake like he alway did. Escape responsibility, be the free ‘mon he was so used to be, do anything, anywhere, with anyone. He knew Sev was right, she was out of his league, she deserved so much better, yet still she chose him...

“I do.” He simply said. Just as the Lucario said, it would be worth it, “This little piece of shit does.”

“Then you are now mates for life,” Sev said. “You may now kiss.”

Some said that on that day, that the Sylveon’s small heart grew three sizes. The truth is, that is dumb, he’d be dead if that was true. But what did happen, was that the Sylveon grabbed Alexia in his ribbons and pulled her in for a deep, passionate kiss, as the spectators clapped and cheered for the couple. Both Alexia and Frederick’s eyes watered, and they nuzzled each other lovingly, before turning to the crowd and raising their paws together. “Question, when did Sev get the right to marry ‘mons?”

“Don’t question it, just smile and wave.” Alexia chuckled, “If you behave well enough, tonight you’ll get a small little treat.”

“You just rented a saint.” He immediately replied. Perhaps that day was not going to be as bad as he thought it would.

And all night long, they all celebrated. Surprisingly enough, the party was not that crazy, with just a couple of expected shenanigans occurring between Frederick and his uncle, between other things.

And that night, both were thankful that Vincent managed to get them a soundproof room. Now they were married, meaning they could get into the more kinky stuff without worries. And that is how Frederick found happiness, even if he did not want to admit it. He had found something, or rather someone to live for, to keep going. But he still would keep being an asshole, at this point, it was just fun.

The End.

The calmness of the night was interrupted by grunting and struggling, and it was not coming from the recently married couple’s room, but rather from the room of the newcomer to Unity Tower.

“No… get away. Stop it!”

The Gardevoir kicked the air, and whimpered, as she found herself running away from the disfigured figure of Shadow Crawler. She tried to attack, but failed, she tried to run, but he was catching up. It was just a matter of time, before he reached her. Darkness surrounded her as the smoke entered her eyes and mouth, causing her mind to shiver and her consciousness to fade away.

“Help… Vincent…”

Then there was light, pure and blinding as the Alakazam stood between her and the darkness. “You are not welcome here,” he said simply.

“Revenge…” The shadow whispered, before launching itself towards Vincent, trying to devour him with his fanged mouth. Vincent merely held up a hand and a glowing blue wall separated him from the creature.

“Go back to the shadows from whence you came,” the psychic said. “So long as I guard her mind, you shall not have her.”

The shadows hissed, before disappearing into nothingness. And with that, the Gardevoir woke up, panting for air and rapidly standing up to clear her mind. “Thank you.. Vincent.”

“You’re welcome,” she heard. “Tomorrow, join me for meditation practice. I shall instruct you like my mentors instructed me. With time and effort, you shall be able to hold the darkness at bay on your own.”

“Understood…” She replied, before sitting on her bed, and closing her eyes, using a Calm Mind just like she had seen Vincent do before, to relax, and regain sleep.

Yet when she lay on the bed, she spotted a small drip of dark goo in her hand, terrified, she teleported it away, not wanting to see that thing ever again.

It was getting worse, the dark magic inside her was materializing. She only hoped that Vincent would be able to help her… because otherwise, she would find a lot of blood in her hands, and the Nurem family just seemed too nice…

“No, no dark thoughts. I must be strong, be like them, strong.” She said to herself softly yet full of confidence, before closing her eyes.

Author's Notes:

And now we are bloody ready for Book Two.