“I don’t care, you are going to explain to me exactly what you did.” Protocol told Ethan with a stern voice as the group continued to travel towards their destination. They had just been traveling for a small while beforel Protocol had asked Ethan about what he had done in that room with the pegasus. He did not appreciate the fact that Ethan and Jenny had just gone ahead and done their own thing. No matter whether or not they got the information out of him, they were in Equestria and there were certain rules that they had to follow. Letting him and his men do their work was one of those things.

“I told you, I did nothing but talk to him.” Ethan said once more. He could understand why Protocol was angry with him. Law enforcement existed for a reason after all. It was him and Jenny that was at a fault there. But even so, Ethan did not think that what they did was wrong, they had gotten the information after all, and he would not hesitate if he would have to do something similar again. “I thought that I could manage to convince him that what he worked for was wrong, that I could manage to turn his own mind and beliefs against him. And I’m sorry, but I'm not sure that I could have done that with all of you present.” But even if he said that, he knew that his excuse would not be good enough for Protocol. He was a pony that, as Ethan had learnt, always did things by the book.

“That still does not change that what you did was wrong!” Protocol raised his voice again. “How do I even know that you are telling the truth? You could have done anything to him, to make him talk!” Before either of them could say anything else, Jenny came up to the two of them.

“It’s not his fault.” Jenny said, much to Ethan's surprise. “I… I was the one that wanted to go ahead without waiting for you.” Jenny spoke with a lowered head, as she was ashamed and disgusted with herself. She had originally stayed with Ethan because she had taken it upon herself to keep him on the right tracks. But now she had strayed off her own path, and she knew it. Therefore she had sworn to herself that she would better herself once again. To regain what she had lost. “I was afraid that what would happen if we did not get the information out of him.” Protocol's face softened slightly as Jenny spoke.

“And pray tell, what did you think that you would be able to do to get him to talk that we would not?” That was indeed the thing that she was ashamed of, and scared of what would have actually happened if Ethan had not stepped in. “What were you planning on doing?” Protocol pressed her. He was, just as Ethan, very good at reading individuals, especially telling when they had something to hide.

“I…” But seeing as Jenny had stepped in to assist Ethan as he was being reprimanded, it was his time to help her.

“She just thought that she could make the suspect talk before you showed up since we did not know how much time we had on our hands. She used to be an officer of the law so she knows much about interrogation methods, perhaps even some that you don't have here in Equestria. I just saw something in the suspect that I could exploit so I decided to take advantage of that, if anyone is to blame here then it is me.” This time it was Jenny who were surprised. But even despite their effort to cover for each other, it mattered little to Protocol.

“What is done is done, we can't change that.” He huffed as he looked in between Jenny and Ethan. “But that does not change that around here, we do things by the book. I am allowing you to join us on this case because you have been useful so far. But if you keep up with things like what you did back there, then that will change quickly. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes sir!” Jenny answered quickly. She had no doubt that if Protocol knew of everything that they had done behind his back then he would have been outright furious with them. But as things were, they benefitted from each other and Jenny wanted to keep things that way. Ethan may have shown her that there were certain plus sides to working outside the law on occasions, but there were benefits to working within it too.

“I’m sorry, we will keep you in the loop from now on.” Ethan answered. He was no stranger to working outside the law, but he had to agree with Jenny that the information and help they could get by cooperating with the officials were certainly helpful. That being said, he would not hesitate even for a second to ignore the law to do what needed to be done like he had done back on Earth if things came to that.

“You better. And don't think that we are done talking about this either. But for now, we have something else to deal with.” Protocol told the two of them, and Ethan had no doubt that he would chew them out the moment they finished and came back.

“Yeah, speaking of that, do we have a plan of sorts?” Jenny asked. “We have no idea what we are running into here.”

“No, we don't have a plan, yet. But one of our pegasi was scouting the area ahead. She will survey the area and report back. When she returns, hopefully with info about what we are running into, then we will form a proper plan.” Jenny couldn't really argue with that logic. Though she felt a bit embarrassed that she had not noticed that one of the pegasi that had been traveling with them at the start had gone missing; she was growing sloppy. “If possible, I would have liked to have sent word to the princesses and possibly asked for a few royal guards to assist us with this, but as it stands, we are short on time. I have planned to have one of my men travel to Canterlot to inform the princesses about everything we know after this is all over.”

Ethan had listened to what Protocol had told Jenny before he slowed down a bit, letting Jenny and Protocol get a bit further ahead of him.

“So did you hear that?” Ethan asked as he had fallen a bit further behind to where Scylla and Mary were. He had wanted to talk to Brawly too, but he had been keeping to himself mostly, off to the side, and Ethan was still not sure if he was avoiding him or not.

“Hear what?” Scylla looked down at him. She and Mary had been keeping up the rear end of the traveling group for a while now. Scylla had calmed down long enough to realize that she had no idea where she had actually been going after she had been leading for a while and had slowed down enough for Protocol and his men to overtake the lead. After that, she had slowly but surely slowed down until she got to the back of the group together with Mary. Her size made it to that it was a slight inconvenience if she traveled too close to anypony else, that is why she had chosen to do what she did.

“Y-yeah? What is going on up there?” Mary asked. Ethan had been a bit worried at the start that she would not be able to keep up with all of them. But after she had convinced one of the police ponies to carry one of her saddlebags, that proved to not be a problem.

“They have sent one of the pegasi ahead of us to see what we are getting ourselves into.” Ethan noticed that, as he said that, Scylla's grin deepened. “You do know, that there is a chance that there will be nothing waiting for us there right? That we are indeed too late.” Ethan felt like he had to state that to Scylla, especially with how eager she had been ever since he had told her about what had been happening and asked for her help.

“Of course I know, I'm not stupid.” Scylla sneered at him, making Mary squeak in surprise. “But the possibility is still there. The possibility that I will get to fight! To feel my foes crumble underneath me… It is a feeling that I miss so.” There it was again. Ethan understood Scylla's need to be strong. But it went beyond that. She wanted, or rather, needed to be superior in strength and her opponents needed to know that. Not only her opponents, it was like the constantly felt a need to show and boast her strength. Not only that, but her need ran so deep within her. It made Ethan wonder what she had to go through for it to turn out that way.

“D-do you really love to fight that much?” Mary said in a low voice, making Scylla crane her neck to look at her as she walked besides her.

Ethan could understand Mary's scepticism perfectly. Even as a former human, he did not understand that need for power at all times, but perhaps that was partly because he was not a trainer himself. But even if Scylla's fascination with strength had gone a bit too far, Pokémon evolve through fighting and growing stronger. It is a fundamental part of themselves, and it is probably something that is completely alien to Mary as a pony.

“Of course I do!” Scylla exclaimed, the force of her voice making both Mary and Ethan stagger slightly. They really needed to work on her volume control. “What is there not to love? The feeling of- ” Ethan walked a bit away from Scylla and Mary as Scylla continued to preach about her love for battle to Mary.

Ethan looked off to the side where he could spot his friend Brawly, who was walking alone and had been doing so for the most part of their travel. It worried him slightly, it was not usual for him to be acting in that manner. He had always known Brawly to put on a smile and to be reassuring no matter the circumstances, even if it was just an act to make everyone around him feel better. But lately, he had been keeping more and more to himself, and it was the first time in a while that Ethan could notice that something was possibly bothering his friend. That something heavy looked to be on his mind.

With those thoughts in mind, Ethan made his way over to where Brawly was walking.

“Hey there.” Ethan smiled as Brawly's head almost snapped to him. He really had been walking there, deep within his own thoughts. “Something on your mind?” Ethan asked. He saw no reason to beat around the bush with it.

“What? Oh, no, it’s nothing.” Brawly gave Ethan his normal carefree smile as he shook his head. “ Just thinking a little about something.”

“Oh yeah? What about?” Ethan asked as the two of them walked mostly by themselves, Ethan could still hear Scylla and Mary discuss over with the rest of the group though. He had been doing a lot of thinking himself recently too.

“Oh you know, just stuff.” And that was Brawly's usual answer whenever it was something that he did not want to talk about. He was usually a pretty open guy, but Ethan had learned to not trust that answer from all the years that they had known each other.

“So you don't want to talk about it, eh?” It was kind of ironic. He had been walking around, hiding something from his friend for so, so long. And now he was the one that was asking about what someone else was hiding. Ethan looked over to Brawly who were still wearing his trademark smile, he kept looking ahead as they walked, not even looking at Ethan when he made his comment.

“It’s not like that, mate.” Brawly said as his smile faltered. It was only for a split second, but it was enough that Ethan noticed it. “I just…It’s nothing special, man. Just some stupid stuff that I need to figure out. I just need a little time to think, sorry, dude.” And with that, Brawly pushed on ahead, leaving Ethan behind with a slightly hurt look on his face.

It was clear to Ethan that Brawly wanted to be left alone, at least for now. That was a totally new feeling to Ethan. No matter what either of them were going through, he had never experienced that Brawly was pushing him away like that. But what made Ethan the most worried, was the possibility that Brawly had figured out how he felt about him. If Zoey had managed to notice it, then maybe he had too. It made Ethan's stomach twist as he were worried that he was the one that may have been pushing his friend away.

Ethan let out a long sigh, maybe he was just overthinking things, putting problems where there actually were none. He had been feeling more and more nervous after his talk with Zoey, after all.

But before Ethan could think any more on the subject, he noticed a very distinct sound. Flapping of wings, and it was coming from in front of the group, heading straight towards them, fast.

Ethan couldn't help but smile as he spotted the source of the sound, descending through some of the foliage above them and landing in front of Protocol and Jenny, who stopped. It had seemed that their scout had returned.

The whole group slowly, but surely came to a stop as everyone and everypony gathered around Protocol and Jenny. Scylla slithered around the group, so she could more easily come up to the front and hopefully listen in on what were going on. She was just as, if not more curious than anyone else.

As Ethan too, made his way up to the front, he caught the end of the conversation it seemed, and Protocol was not looking particularly happy.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked, as he tried his best to ignore the huge blue head that was hanging above them and listening in too. He was just a little curious about how Scylla was simply just listening and hadn't voiced herself just yet. Then again, since she had been part of that mercenary group, perhaps she was used to situations like they were currently in. Being briefed on what was ahead of them and what not. It was just a thought that Ethan considered for a moment before moving his focus back on Protocol.

“We have finally found the mine, and it seems to be some activity going on there.” At those words, Scylla grinned wide and Ethan was sure that he could also hear a low chuckle coming from her. “It seems to be at least a few ponies on the outside, going in and out of the mine with a single unicorn ordering them around. But we can't know how many more are inside. What makes things worse, is that there were some Pokémon outside too.”

“You mean held captive?” Jenny asked, but Protocol shook his head with a grim look on his face.

“No… it seemed like they were walking around freely, and even seemed friendly with the ponies that could be seen. I dont know why they would be helping those scums, but this is going to be a little tougher than we first thought.” It was something that may have thrown Protocol off-guard, but it made sense to Ethan.

“What do you want me to tell the rest, sir?” The pegasus who had scouted ahead asked Protocol, who seemed to be thinking things over. He was slowly chewing on his lower lip as he went over the possible plans in his head.

“Tell them exactly what you told me. And inform them that we will still be going for plan one. Everyone already has their positions, they know what to do.” With that the pegasus nodded before quickly walking to inform the rest of the police ponies.

“What exactly is the plan then?” Ethan asked as Protocol shifted his attention back to them.

“The plan is basic, but it should work. We are basically going to surround them, making sure that they have no escape route. At least not from where we can see it. We are going to try to strike as quickly as possible to take any visible subjects down in case they have some other escape route within the mine. Sadly that is not something that we know. But on the note of those Pokémon, so you have any idea why they would be helping those criminals?” While they had been talking, Brawly had too made his way over to where they were standing.

“It’s not that uncommon. I’m sure they have their own reasons.” He chipped in, much to Protocol's confusion. Ethan decided to explain a little further what Brawly actually meant.

“There were many criminal organizations back on Earth as well, and there were Pokémon that were working willingly for them too.” Realization began to dawn on Protocol as Jenny continued.

“He is right. Sadly, there is just too many possibilities for us to know why they might be helping them. There is also the possibility that some of them might be forced to do so. There is simply no way of knowing without meeting and talking with them.”

“Heh, it matters little, I will happily crush every single one of them.” Scylla said in a low tone, before chuckling to herself.

“About that.” Protocol looked over all of the Pokémon that were currently present. “What can you do? I want to rely on you, as I really think that we are going to need your help to make this go as smoothly as possible. But we need to make some sort of plan regarding the lot of you aswell.” The group traded glances between each other. But everyone's surprise, Scylla was the one who spoke up first.

“Let me storm in first.” She told the lot of them. “I could grab the attention of most of them, and even take most of them out.” Her smile started to grow wider as she spoke. “I will lay waste to them.”

“As risky as it sounds, I think she has a point Protocol,” Ethan spoke up. “She is probably the strongest here. If she took on the brunt of their force, it would make things easier for the rest of us. Are you sure about this though?” He asked as he looked up to Scylla. “You would be putting yourself in harm's way.”

“They are the ones that should be afraid when I come for them.” Ethan had to admit, he should have seen that reply coming.

“Very well… I'll be counting on you them.” Protocol spoke up once more. “But if possible, could you block the entrance to the mine? In the perfect situation we would want to strike so fast and hard that they would not have any time to alert anypony else, or flee, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Sure.”

“And what about the rest of you? I know to an extent about the two of you.” He looked at Ethan and Jenny. “But I have not met you before.”

“Name’s Brawly… And I don't know, where ever you think I would fit in best. I know how to take care of myself.” Again Ethan decided to speak up.

“He is probably the strongest here apart from Scylla.” Ethan knew that Brawly was not one to boast, so he would be the one to do it for him.

“If I may,” Jenny cut in. “I believe that placing him with a group of your unicorns would be the best course of action.” Jenny had overseen some of Brawly's training sessions herself and knew at least to some extent, what he could do. “That way, they could provide him with ranged support. I don’t mean to question the ability of your ponies, but if the enemy has Pokémon on their side, being cautious is probably for the best.” Jenny said as she looked at Brawly who seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding.

“I can get behind that.”

“Very well, I will trust your judgement on this one.” Jenny had been assisting Protocol and their police force on several occasions so she had created some trust there. “This is how things will go down-”

In the end, Brawly and Jenny were each put with their own small group of ponies that they would assist once the attack commenced. Ethan on the other paw, was put together with Scylla on his own suggestion. He was not too much of a fighter and he knew it, so he would only provide minimal support if it was needed, and fall back to help Mary if any injuries occurred. No, Ethan had gone off along with Scylla because he had a few words he needed to say to her, things that he wanted to say in private. As far as he knew, no one else besides maybe Zoey really know that much about Scylla's anger issues. And Ethan wanted to keep it that way.

“Let's head closer, we are too far away.” Scylla complained to Ethan. The two of them were standing in the middle of the forest, waiting for the time to start. They would give every group time to get to their position and Scylla and his charge would then serve as a signal for everypony else.

“We are close enough as it is. You are not exactly silent when you move, you know. Any closer and you might just blow our cover before we start.”

“Bah, you are being too careful.” Scylla huffed at him, but did not push the subject any further.

“Now I'm not sure if I need to say this but, don't kill anyone.” Ethan was really not sure how the group that Scylla used to be with did things, but if they were mercenaries he guessed that they were not strangers to getting their hands… or fins in this case, dirty.

“I know, I know.” Scylla repeated in a low mock voice.

“I’m serious.” Ethan snapped at her in a low voice. “That is not how things are done around here.”

“Why do you care?” She asked to Ethan's surprise. “From what I hear, you are no stranger to getting your paws bloody either.” It was no surprise to Ethan that Scylla knew about his past, since she had admitted that they had a bounty on him after all. And even though he was pretty sure that she did not mean that much with the comment, he had to calm himself.

“Never mind… “ Ethan sighed as he leaned up against a nearby tree. They had refined the plan slightly after having talked a little more with Protocol. Scylla was indeed going to rush in head first to grab everyone's attention, with Ethan following shortly after.

If the info from the pegasus was correct, there were a number of Pokémon outside the entrance to the mine along with the ponies. The pegasus had tried his best to describe all the Pokémon that were present, but with his limited knowledge they were not completely sure on what they would be walking into. All they knew for sure was that there was at least five Pokémon present that were seemingly working with them. In short, they had more firepower.

So in turn Scylla was supposed to do her best to keep most of the attention on her, or help anyone out should they need it. They would in turn take care of as many of the ponies as quickly as they could and help out Scylla afterwards. Her job was basically to stall, though Ethan had no doubt that she would be trying to take every opponent down herself.

“Are you sure that you are okay with this plan?” Ethan asked. “You are probably going to receive a lot of punishment.” Ethan knew that she was a tough girl and she definitely knew how to take care of herself. But she was his patient, so he couldn't really help but care. And no matter how strong of good at fighting she was, taking on multiple Pokémon at once was not something that you did without coming out without taking some hits yourself.

“Of course I am. I’m not only okay with it, I’m looking forward to it.” Ethan let out an amused sigh, he really had not been expecting any other answer. “Have we waited long enough?”

Ethan did not respond immediately. In truth, they had waited long enough. All the others should be at their positions and ready for the attack. He had hoped that Scylla would calm down slightly before they began, but it seemed to be just the opposite. The closer they got, the more excited she became. She did not show it like she did before, her boasting and loud voice had been reduced ever since they had split up. But he could see how tense she really was, her muscles coiling under her skin, ready to lash out in a split second. And from the look on her face, she was loving every second of it. No, there was not any reason to wait any longer.

“Yeah let’s-” Ethan felt a rush of air at his side and his ears was pulled forward from the current as Scylla positively rocketed out from where she had been laying, leaving Ethan behind. “-go.” Cursing himself for letting himself get distracted, Ethan set off after Scylla as quickly as he could.

Ethan ran after Scylla as quickly as he could. Hopping over every obstacle in his way as he forced himself to go as fast as possible. But even with how fast he was, Scylla was faster and he had no hope in catching up to her. Luckily, she was easy to follow. And it was not long before Ethan could hear the distinct sound of something heavy slamming into something else, along with a roar that definitely belonged to their friendly Gyarados. He guessed that Scylla had already arrived.

The trees around him started to thin out soon enough as he ran and it did not take long before Ethan could see the entrance to the mine and all that was happening around it. Ethan guessed that he could only have been a minute behind Scylla at the moment he arrived, but a lot can happen in one minute.

What first stood out to Ethan was Scylla herself and the battle that she was currently immersed in. She had positioned herself in front of the mine entrance, effectively blocking anypony from entering or exiting that way. And she was currently surrounded by three Pokémon. An Arbok who danced around her, taking quick and cheap hits on her whenever it could. A Granbull who already looked like it was down for the count. Ethan could hear it groaning as it kept trying to get back up from the ditch it was currently buried in. And lastly, a Tangrowth who surprisingly kept trading blows with Scylla. Refusing to back down.

But what was worse was what all the ponies around was doing. There were not too many of them. The pegasi kept their distance from the battle in front of them, yelling and cheering on their own Pokémon from the sounds of it, he was even sure that he could hear a few of them betting between themselves. He could not spot any earth ponies, but he saw several unicorns who had their horns aimed straight at Scylla and was sending various attacks her way.

Scylla was a tough lady, and she was holding her own extremely well, possibly even winning from what Ethan could see at the moment when he arrived. But she needed some help, that much was obvious.

So without hesitating, Ethan continued his sprint up to the closest unicorn who were sending some sort of magical attacks towards Scylla.

He could hear one of the ponies yell something and the unicorn he was speeding towards reacted to it. He raised his head and looked to his right, where Ethan was just a few moments away from him. He could see the overconfidence on his face quickly turn into uncertainty in that split second before when their eyes met. But as quickly as it had come, it disappeared again as the unicorn lowered its head against him and he could only guess that he was about to receive the same treatment that Scylla had been getting.

“Oh no you don’t. Quick Attack!” Ethan shouted out, his body going into overdrive. In the blink of an eye, before the unicorn before him could unleash whatever spell he had planned, Ethan slammed into him shoulder first.

Now Ethan had been training to use his Quick Attack every now and then after his initial session with Zoey. And it had not been until recently that he had begun to get the hang of it. But even if he had the basics behind the attack down, he still had a lot to learn.

Ethan grunted in pain as the unicorn was thrown to the ground, Ethan having hit him straight on in the head. He held the shoulder that he had hit the unicorn with, it seemed that had hit him at a really awkward angle. He could see the unicorn was struggling to get back up, but before he had a chance to do so, reinforcements came.

Protocol's ponies coming out from all sides, if the unicorn that Ethan had attacked had been focusing on Ethan initially, he definitely had other things to worry about now.

Ethan looked around briefly in the chaos looking to see if there was anything that needed his immediate attention. When Protocol and his ponies along with Jenny and Brawly had arrived it had basically developed into every pony for himself. They might have more Pokémon, but they had the upper hand in the number of ponies.

“This is Protocol of the Neighagra Falls Sanctuary police force! We have you surrounded. Surrender now, and I promise you that we will treat you accordingly!” He heard Protocol's loud voice call out. But sadly it did not seem to have the effect that they wanted. If things had not been chaotic enough before, they certainly were now.

He noticed that Jenny along with her group was seemingly engaging a Loudred, or rather he had heard it first. It was impossible to ignore the shouts of an Loudred. It was getting support from a few pegasi who were hovering around it. He had seen a few of them try to escape when the chaos started, but with Protocol's pegasi already in the air, waiting for them should they try to escape that way, they had decided to fight instead of fleeing. A lot of the pegasi that had come along with Protocol were volunteers instead of full time police members. But with how small of a town they lived in, such a thing was not unusual.

But with the Loudred, that still only made four of the five Pokémon that their pegasus scout had sighted.

“Ethan! Watch out!” Ethan heard Brawly call out to him. He tore his eyes away from Jenny and her small group towards the voice. Only to discover that something large and grey was currently filling his vision.

“Brick Break!” That was the last thing that Ethan saw and heard before he felt an intense pain in his side, and he was sent flying.

Things were kind of a haze for Ethan after that. The entire world blurred out for a few moments before slowly coming back into focus. He had apparently been knocked down, he knew that much initially as he tried to get back up only to double over in pain as his side positively throbbed in pain.

“The others get a worthy opponent and all I get is you?” Ethan looked up towards the voice to see the same grey thing he has seen earlier, a Machoke, and it was walking towards him. “At least entertain me for a bit longer.” It said, cracking its knuckles threateningly.

Ethan forced himself up, still clutching his side from the previous blow. He had never really given it that much thought how much an effective attack would hurt. But now that he had been on the receiving end of one, he also really understood how easy Brawly had been going on his when they had been training.

“S-stay away,” he heard the words leave his mouth even if he had not meant to say them. Fear had been instilled in his mind from that one blow, and he found himself slowly backing away from the Machoke. Everything else that was going on around him at that point was irrelevant, he just needed to get away. He was no fighter, he had been made overconfident ever since he had gotten the body of a Pokémon. Most of the fights he had ever been in had consisted of sneak attacks and careful planning.

“Really?” The Machoke scoffed at him. “I guess this will end faster than I thought.” and with that, it started to charge at him.

He knew that he would not be able to run away, he could not even stand properly. No, to hell with being scared. If he was going down then he was at the very least going to put up a fight.

“Karate Chop!” Ethan's eyes widened as he threw himself to the side, just barely dodging the fighting move.

Ethan skurried away as best as he could, creating a few feet between him and the Machoke. Perhaps putting up a fight would be the wrong thing to say, rather, prolonging the inevitable.

“Stand and fight me!” The Machoke yelled as it crossed the distance between the two of them in a flash. “Low Sweep!” It lashed out with a low kick aimed at Ethan's legs.

“No, I don't think I will do that.” Only for Ethan to jump over the attack effectively dodging it. But dodging in this way, meant that Ethan had no possible way to get out of the way for the follow up attack.

“Seismic Toss!” Ethan could feel two extremely powerful arms wrap around him before the Machoke spun around and threw Ethan hard down into the ground.

He wanted to scream from the pain he felt, but his lungs had no more air to give, all of it having been knocked out from his impact with the ground. It had not hurt as badly as the Brick Break, but by Arceus, he felt it.

Ethan knew that he needed to get up, the Machoke would not just let him lay there and rest for long. He had the feeling that it had been going easy, having been playing with him, why else would it have allowed him to get away those few times.

“That was disappointing, now to-” out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw a flash of white and red and the Machoke was cut off, its voice replaced by a scream of pain instead.

Above Ethan stood a very familiar Zangoose. She was standing in a crouched, protective manner in front of him, fresh blood dripping from her claws, and the fur on her neck raised in a show of aggressiveness.

“No one hurts my family!”