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The Cave

Ratio's lair wasn't cavernous like the kinds of caves that served as Route junctions, but it was big enough to have nooks and crannys to explore. ((Wtf is a nook or cranny anyway)). Light seeped out from one of these spots, a room in the cave shaped like an igloo that kept most of the sound inside. Here is where Moze had spent many nights for the past four years.

His makeshift bedroom was as sparse as the computer room, carrying mostly essentials. A bed, a place to put clothes, a laptop. The one thing that stuck out was a grand piano. Kero let him keep it around since the room was almost soundproof. It helped him focus.

Right now Moze was deep in meditation, letting his fingers go over the keys with his eyes closed to play Bolero. Cottonballs floated like snowflakes around the room while Shepard Fairey bobbed up and down on a whirlwind in time to the song.

There was a time where playing music would bring him peace. Now it was all he could do to keep the thought of killing Horton Balibar at bay. The painful Aura backlash he received when he drove his sword through that man was unlike anything he had ever experienced. He knew, rationally, that this pain was not his own. And now he believed wholeheartedly that Horton deserved it. Yet Moze kept feeling flashes of what Horton went through in his final seconds.

Is this what it's like to die?

Kero must have been used to this by now. Moze made a note to ask him if it ever got easier. Right now, he could sense the Aura of his master's new guest, a girl he'd been speaking of for a few days now. In fact, this girl had some surface connection with Salieri. Moze wanted to ask about that too.

Until then, he played on to stave off the feeling of someone else's death. There was all the time in the world for introductions.

The Cave

Helena had been told that she could leave when she was ready. She had been told that she could give her answer later, but it had to be soon. Ratio had told her that they were running out of time.

The scale of it all threatened to crush her, but she played it safe, kept herself strong. As she wandered the caves, the sosund of a piano danced its way to her ears. Curious, and amused at the idea of Ratio playing the piano, Helena went to investigate. It was dark here, and scary, but she didn't feel scared anymore. Not even nervous, not as the presence of the madman.

Unless the door was locked, in which case she would knock, Helena would open Moze's door, to catch the sight of him playing.

Shalour City Cafe

"She has this whole thing about a conspiracy, that you're trying to overthrow the government, that trainers like me are in danger. Most of what she said about you is that you're bossy, rude, violent, and angry. Most of what she talked about was her, her brother, mom, this Radio guy." Grant shrugged.

Grant looked at the Cleffa, and then the Vaporeon. One half of these Pokemon wasn't exactly suited for the league challenge, but Grant wouldn't judge. He'd been doing it too many years to not advocate people having fun with it, but as he looked back across the table at Salieri it made him worry about her progress.

"Want a rematch?"

The Cave

Helena stepped into the room and looked over at Moze, seated at his piano. "I'm okay standing," she said. The teen hadn't expected anyone else to be here, but she guessed that it made sense. "How many of you are there?"

Just like that, they'd made it. Well, not JUST like that. The chaos seemed to take one last push at them all, with those on the ground rushing forward and losing someone. It wasn't someone Ben recognized, actually. Whoever they were, he hoped nobody would be waiting for them, because there was almost no chance anyone would be able to find something to bury or the identity.

The repel caused an effect even on his pokemon, each one shuddering with revulsion as they passed through. It was the sort of thing that didn't last long, or work nearly as well, when trainers used it, but he suspected that that had something to do with capitalism.

What was more important was the oil field itself. Not that they had arrived, he had been fairly turned around for a time before they'd gotten there... But now there was a more sinister feeling. Manny used a calm mind, and let the sensation flow to any other in the link, Benedict's and any other trainer's. It would help, he thought, deal with walking through a repel.

He would focus, and continue to use calm minds, on finding their enemy then. Not just their aura, here it felt thick to him, as if he could feel it in the air, taste it... Now, Manny hunted unfamiliar minds, anything at all that could be their stalker.

You know, I think this story is a hell of a lot more than I thought it was. Manny thinks our Stalker is here. The thought was followed by an emotion that might be equated to a nervous laugh.

Caboose was hovering closer to the ground, and closer to the pokemon there, waiting for their next step, though he would move if the group if they were still moving.

Assuming Manny would find what he was looking for, everyone in the link would be given its location in relation to themselves.

Shalour City Café

[No, I'll do it myself,] Reynard declared, falling on deaf ears. [This fight is mine.] She looked to Oberon. [Do you even wanna do this?]

Oberon was too busy trying to squeeze every last drop of Sal's tea into her mouth.

Sal cleared her check and walked down to the beach. On her way she thought about how these two Pokémon would work together. Oberon was just a space baby, so she didn't expect much out of her now. When she saw Grant's two Pokémon, she groaned internally. Two tanks. Reynard was something of a tank herself, probably being the most offensive of the four, and she didn't even know what Oberon's stats were like. This could suck.

"Sure." She didn't feel the need to pull out the Pokédex that she hadn't noticed had been stolen by Ska earlier when she was napping. Instead, she wanted to see how much of her Cleffa's movelist she had memorized. "Okay, Rey-"

Without warning, her Vaporeon melted into water and immediately slithered into the ocean, solidifying underwater and looking up at Mandibuzz. She could see the bird clearly but Mandibuzz would probably have a harder time looking past the reflection of the sun. "Uh, okay, whatever." Sal pointed to Oberon. "Misty Terrain!"

Atomicka the Warrior Princess of Glacknor had a fair understanding of what her powers were like on this planet by now. She would have chosen to intensify Gravity in order to bring down the vulture and use her decorative bones as ceremonial pieces representing her dominance as a barbarian. But things were different on Earth, and if she wanted to eat more of the delicious rations her human provided her, she would continue to follow Salieri's orders and appease to the human reaction known as 'cuteness aggression'.

So Oberon winked at everybody and let a pink mist curl onto the battlefield.

The Cave

"Sounds like her, yeah." Moze scratched his head, blowing a stray cottonball out of his face. It floated past Helena with the others.

"How do you know my little sister?" Quickly, he tacked on his real question. "How's she doing?"

Hidden Oil Field

Alexa didn't say a word as she snapped picture after picture. As far as she could tell, there were no workers on site, which was very odd. More physical labor in jobs like these utilized Pokémon but she couldn't see any of those either. No foremen, nobody in the control tower. The facility was devoid of people, but it was still active.

She saw a crack in a containment pod near the rigs and pumps, where slick black oil leaked out onto the ground in a puddle so large it was practically a pond. If the facility was automated, it must not have been checked in a long time. Security cameras lined the roof of the main building and on posts dotted in strategic locations. They were still on. The Verdralife company logo and name were right on the side of the main building's wall.

"This place is definitely not up to code. Jullien is never this sloppy," Alexa mused out loud and mentally to the link. "Unless this is all a sick joke."

As Manny's mind became calm the range of his Telepathy grew, and he found the one mind around not connected to his own. It was that of a Trevenant, a very patient and old Trevenant. But soon he'd see that looking for it was not going to be a problem.

"Uhhhh what is that?" Liam pointed at the horizon.

On the other side of the building, a mass of wriggling trees grew higher and higher. Its shape was unclear until it got tall enough to show that it had arms, and what they had been looking at was a head. In the center of the grey bark and green leaves was a red glow, an eye. "I've....beeeeen...waaaaaaiting...."

The tree titan stood up, revealing its hundred foot tall humanoid form, entirely made up of wriggling trees. The arms were out of proportion, long even for its size with four pointed fingers. It loomed high enough to block out the sun for even the travelers in the sky. Manny's mental search would place the Trevenant in the center of the tree titan's chest, where a heart would be.

It took a step, and though it walked at the same speed a human would, that step covered a lot of ground, taking it out from behind the building and off to its side. When its truck sized foot touched the ground, an Earthquake followed, sending a tremor at all on the ground. Kabutops and Drifblim were not the only ones with stat buffs. The level 60 Trevenant's stats were maxed a long time ago. It hadn't been in a Pokéball for years. In fact, the travelers might realize after Manny's search that there was no trainer to be found.

The Earthquake upturned the earth, making a wave of earth that threatened to crush the twins, Gogoat, Bridgette and her Pokémon, and anyone not bound by gravity that was low to the ground.

Hidden Oil Field

Drifblim felt the power of Trevenant. Not because he could use aura, but because he was linked to it. He glew, as he connected to it, and used its power for his own self. Statistically boosting in an instant, as Bridgette arrived, the pre-teen would smile.

Benedict, I can finish this in a single blow, just give me the chance.

As the body of their enemy rose up, Bridgette kept her cool. If there was anything that she was confident in, it was the bond between her Pokemon. Drifblim and Kabutops both disappeared in a flash of light. Kabs, then Driffy.

When I call these names came the echo of a memory, one only Manny would feel, because of his telepathic bond. take off your limiters

Flashes of Memory

It was two years ago, on their first journey together. Bridgette sat with her two Pokemon, Drifloon and Kabuto.

"When you're taken to the statistical maximum your moves could potentially be fatal. If you're ever at that point, be careful, unless I call you by these names." Kabs had been a fossil, woken up a long time later, to a world he barely knew. Bridgette had helped teach it to him. It was a fun fueled adventure. The two Pokemon loved her, and she loved them.

They sat around a campfire as the girl spoke, a growth spurt had made her prosthetics obsolete, and so now she was searching through a pile of extras for a replacement that would fit. "If you don't hear these names, you have to be extremely careful. Even if you lose, okay? I'd rather we lose than seriously hurt anyone."

It was one year ago. Kabutops, Drifblim, and Bridgette had encountered a beached Wailord. He was dying, whimpering at the crowd. It wasn't being beached that had doomed him, but the horrilbe wounds upon his body. He would never be able to convey the battle he had been in, but one month later, he would hear the speech himself.

Their true names.

Oil Field - Present Day

"Go," Psych Up, mimicing Trevenant's boosts, into Baton Pass, brought out Kabutops at his current statistical maximum. "Musashi", history's greatest swordsman. Musashi emerged, and Drifblim emerged a moment later. Another Psych up as Bridgette moved onto his head, and they rocketed off toward the growing tree.

"Go!" Bridgette shouted as the giant tree lifted its foot to bring down its Earthquake. Baton Pass, as the foot began to fall, and Bridgette brought up her Pokeball. She couldn't defeat the tree monster, not even with, "Longinus", the spear of Destiny, but there was another.

Manny just needed to give her the location.

As Warlord emerged, it was with a Bounce, using its massive strength to smash into the foot, even with its Earthquake power, it would be offset, and it would have Musashi rocketing off after, to destroy the excess with his powerful blades, to try and slow the beast.

Warlord's size dwarfed that of a truck. Unless the foot expanded greatly and abandoned its Earthquake, it would be forced to face Warlord's power, and fail to hit the rest of the crew.

The rest of you, if you can feel his power, try to mimic it. She meant Drifblim, who emerged again for the final Psych Up, for himself. The telepathic bond would make it easier, though only Manny and Essence could use the move, it would allow them all to reach their current maximum potential.

Drifblim was the only one who hadn't stepped into action yet, but he hadn't been called upon.

Not yet. Bridgette stood, faced before their giant foe, at his foot, Drifblim ready to save her if it was necessary. First they needed a location.

((I think cause Manny searched to give it, and Jump gave it, that Bridgette has it now?))

There it was. A pulse through the link, that told them all where its heart was.

Go.

Drifblim slipped into the shadows. He knew as she thought it, what he was meant to do. The Pokemon had been with Bridgette long than she had been a trainer.

Eight Years Ago.

This is my earliest memory it wasn't a thought, merely a fact, that would be given to Manny. It was just an instant, in which he would be given all of this. He would know it like his own, as opposed to living it - perks of so many Calm Minds.

"What did the doctor say?" squeaked the frail voice of a four year old Bridgette. She looked at her father, bigger than life, years before the stress had shriveled him away into wrinkles and grey hair.

"It's spreading too fast," her father said, struggling to hold back his tears. Her mother was there, too, stroking her hair. "but they think they can stop the cancer. They just have to take your arms and legs, all four of them."

Bridgette smiled. "It's okay, daddy. Please don't cry." She didn't know what it meant to be strong, but she didn't know the scale of any of this either. The girl had grown up in a hospital bed, she couldn't miss the outdoors.

But in the four years that followed, she learned to long for it.

Four Years Ago

"But the doctor says my physical therapy is going great! Can I please please please go outside?"

Her mother sighed, and looked at her daughter. Bubbly, full of energy, always happy. She danced more than she walked, skipped more than she ran, all on prosthetics that she had grown so used to. Whenever she grew, she got used to them, faster and faster, but today she wobbled on her new legs.

"I know, sweetheart, but your immune system is still recovering from your last bout of chemo." Bridgette pouted, and her mother pulled the tiny, frail girl into a hug.

On the table where her mother sat, Bridgette saw the bills. That was one thing she had learned about in her eight years of life. They were her hospital bills. She had no concept of the money, but she knew that seeing them was stressful.

Especially since her father had quit his old job to build her prosthetics, to revolutionize the industry, to make his daughter as normal as possible.

"Fine," Bridgette continued to pout. Her mother accepted the apology, since Bridgette had never betrayed that trust, not until that night.

Fractured memories continued to pour in. The Drifloon that tapped at her window. Bridgette, who opened it and was whisked away.

There was a car accident, when her parents gave chase. Being held in her mother's arms. Being told it wasn't her fault.

Blaming Drifloon, who continued to come back. Memories of a funeral, and obtaining a concept of death. Bridgette realized her own mortality that day.

Drifloon was a constant memory that her mother was gone, that she was dead. Bridgette blamed him, and her father did too, until one day he took her again.

It was to a man's house. There were many other children there, and Bridgette managed to get help. Hundreds of kids were buried in his backyard, a dozen more in the basement. The balloon Pokemon had just wanted to save them.

It was that night that she had told the Pokemon that it wasn't his fault, and then she fought to keep him.

"The mad God!" she had called the Pokemon, chanting it, "the mad god, the mad god, the king of the dead!" It was a game that nobody else could understand.

When they had begun training, it was with that very concept in mind.

Oil Field - Present Day

Use The Phantom Force, the world of shadows, the ghostly energies therein, to muster ghostly energies upon arrival. All these years in it, Drifblim had become a master of it.

When Drifblim emerged before Trevenant, it was without a second of waste. At their levels, with the statistical levels, it would take two Shadow Balls to defeat Trevenant. Drifblim carried both, and moved to slam and/or throw them upon his foe, and end this in an instant.

Pluto.

Even if the balls missed, they packed enough power that the resulting explosions were likely visible, if not outright external, to all who watched.