Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since Henrietta wasn't commanding Bastion to capture N any longer, Tk lowered his arms and turned to face the green haired trainers direction. Iron Hide trotted over to his trainers side.

"So? are you really leaving us?" Tk asked, His expression saddening. kind of like a kicked puppy would wear.

She was stunned - but only for a moment. A betrayal played before her, as her memories were restored. But she had seen worse. A man who'd want her dead had saved her, burned and dying. A man who was her enemy siding with her because her plan would save the forest.

They weren't bad people, not all of them. Not N.

But the green haired girl?

Henrietta bit her lip, blood trickled and crystals formed to cover the wound. She ignored her rage.

"You've made an error," Henrietta announced as she returned to speaking through the megaphone.

"Your words are mechanical, technical but timid. Shy." Much like herself. Awkward, but N was more purposeful, like he was reading from a script, from a formula.

The very big difference between them was obvious when you spent half a week with the guy. "You don't understand human nature."

They would struggle. Many times after this, Henrietta was sure, they would struggle. "You're afraid, aren't you, N? Because you can't predict this, you can only assume that it'll end badly. We're your friends, even if you oppose us." Henrietta looked down upon N.

"Go. Meet us again, fight us if you must. But we won't stop, we can't stop. The circumstances are unfortunate, but I won't hate you. I will - we will - however, oppose you."

She closed her eyes and sighed. "But not today. Let us part as friends, understanding each other."

Robby shrugged his shoulders when it turned out what he'd done wasn't an attack. If it had been, the obese lad would have willingly fought Norbert. But as it was, he agreed with Henrietta.

"Y'ain' right." He said simply. "I don' think y'are. But I won' fight ya right now." He glanced at TK, then back towards Sally. She might still fight. But they could probably collectively stop her.

"Good luck." And the lad would extend a hand to shake.

Silph Co.

Floor 44. Elizabeth hurried down the empty corridor, Aegis shifting and unbolting
doors as she approached. Her echoing footsteps slowed to a halt as she came
upon the final door. The blue light of Aegis' scanner washed over her, and Elizabeth
walked through the server room entrance and into a cold, cylindrical chamber.

Her breath hung on the air. The room was dark except for the tiny blinking lights
on the consoles that were built against the walls. They illuminated a large central
column with AEGIS written on the side. Elizabeth huffed another breath, taking slow
steps forward.

"So this is you," she said, staring at the lettering.

["Correct."] Aegis replied, her synthetic voice sounding stronger somehow. Fuller.
It was as if the room itself gave her greater presence. ["All data accumulated by
Silph Co. is processed and stored in this room. It is where I... live."]

Elizabeth nodded, kneeling down by the maintenance hatch at the base of Aegis'
central server. It came undone easily. There were more locks inside the hatch;
panels, grates, bolts, which were automatically undone and removed in front
of Elizabeth's eyes.

A black box sat at the heart of the machine, connected by metal contact strips
rather than wires. All Elizabeth had to do was reach out and take it. She hesitated.

["...You are concerned for Infant Katelyn,"] Aegis said. Even an AI could read
Elizabeth's face. But she'd made a mistake. Captain Harrock was protecting Katelyn,
keeping her away from the murderous intruder. She was safe, for now.

"I'm worried about you, Aegis," Elizabeth said. She had no face to speak to, so she
directed her eyes at the black box. "If this server is destroyed--"

["I will cease to function."] The air went dead. Elizabeth felt the chill from the icy
cold room. ["You should not fear for me, Mistress. It is as President Silph said:
I am not alive."]

"You know that's bullshit," Elizabeth said, gritting her teeth, hair falling past her
eyes as she dropped her head slightly. Her lips parted.

"I saw a lot of people die in Sinnoh," she said quietly, "Good people. They weren't
all soldiers either. Sometimes they were just ordinary men and women, caught
up in the crossfire. Killed for reasons that had nothing to do with them...

"I never went back there, you know? Sinnoh. Couldn't face it. Sometimes I have
nightmares. Sometimes they're memories, flashes. Other times it's my imagination.
They're always about the same thing; people dying. It's like it's happening all over
again. I hate it. I hate knowing that there are monsters out there who don't think
twice about murdering people. And now you're asking me to kill you. I cant. Going that
far, it's just not in me."

The control panel began to whirr. Half a dozen of Aegis' tiny mechanical arms unfolded
from various slots, pulling the black box-shaped data drive out of its port. They turned
it over and held it out for Elizabeth to take.

["Not all monsters are bad,"] Aegis said as Elizabeth picked up the black drive.

She thought of Zack, of Jump, Jackie and Artemis. They had fought - and killed - even
after the Sinnoh War. On some level, did she hate them too? No. They were her
friends. Their murders were necessary evils, weren't they? Not the kind of mindless
slaughter that the intruder was performing.

["Now,"] Aegis said as Elizabeth rose to her feet, ["Fulfil your program, so that
I might fulfil mine."]

The central server's outer shell split down the middle, revealing a complex framework
of circuitry. Ice-air poured out in great, rolling clouds. Elizabeth flexed her cheek
and clenched a fist. She was not a monster. This was a necessary evil. She flared.

---

The chopper's blades began to build up momentum. City lights dotted the night's
sky as rain lashed down in great waves, cut up by powerful gusts of wind. Captain
Harrock led President Silph across the helipad by the arm, Elizabeth's little girl,
Katelyn, at his side. Silph climbed onto the chopper first, helping to pull the child
up as Harrock fed her into his hands.

"How much longer until we can leave?" Silph yelled over the roar of the chopper
and wrath of the storm.

"We can't leave until I get every man under my command onto this aircraft," Harrock
shouted back. "Aegis just went down. I ordered my men to pull back as soon as
that happened."

"How. Much. Longer!" Silph shouted as Katelyn peered around him, looking for
her mother.

Harrock barely opened his mouth to respond when the door behind him flashed
a bright light, then exploded off its hinges. The intruder stepped out into the rain,
hood covering his cracked black helmet, his tattered cloak billowing around
him in the strong winds. He had his sword drawn, rain washing away the blood.

The men downstairs... It looks like they'd have less time to escape than Harrock
thought. He turned back to the chopper, roaring to the pilot to get going. Silph went
white as he fell backwards, his granddaughter clinging to his sides, the metal doors
of the chopper closing mechanically.

Winds grew more intense. The intruder walked towards the chopper as it began to
take off. It broke away from the helipad, flying above the city. And the intruder raised
his sword to the air. Harrock could barely believe his eyes as lightning flew down from
the sky as if summoned, striking through the chopper's rotor blades, blowing them
apart, the remaining splinters of metal red-hot and melted at the ends.

Silph's chopper began to spiral, tail crashing into the side of the rooftop, blowing
off into a shower of flame. The scrap metal fell freely. The intruder held his sword
out again. Rainwater seemed to shimmer as it bounced off of him. Harrock couldn't
sense Aura - he had never undergone any sort of infusion - but he supposed that
the intruder must be using it now.

As the intruder's sword was lifted into the air, so too was the chopper. No longer falling,
it was now being raised as if held up by invisible strings. The intruder swiped his
sword to the side and the chopper was thrown in the same direction, crashing and
tumbling and scraping against the helipad floor until it hit a wall. The dead machine
came to a halt, yawning as its structure buckled under its own weight before slamming
down into a final rest.

The girl! Harrock found the thought rise to the forefront of his mind as he looked
at the wreck. He shook it free, considering more pressing issues. What kind of powers
does this man possess? They can't be his own.

---

Ratio observed the wreckage quietly. He had followed the trail upwards until reaching
the roof, only to find President Silph attempting to flee while others died for him.
Silph would know precisely where the server room was. Until the time came where
he would no longer be useful, Ratio intended to keep the old coward alive.

Judging from the black and red armour, the man standing across the rooftop was
Captain of the Guard. Harrock The final obstacle. Rank meant nothing to Ratio; if
he chose to resist, then this man would die. Ratio tilted his head, rain pounding
like a vicious drumbeat against his helmet. Harrock had his vent gun raised.

Ratio needn't even bother avoiding these shots; his armour was designed to resist
the attacks. Even if it wasn't, his Natural Infusion could render the shot meaningless.
He started walking forward, letting his sword sing as he drew it from its sheath
once again.

Harrock pulled the trigger and the blast had one hell of a kick. Ratio's head snapped
back and he staggered. He brought his fingers to his helmet as the cracks caused
by Silph's android deepened, spreading around the mask like a spider's web. It
finally shattered, crumbling around his hand, shards hitting the floor with a clatter.

Ratio slowly stood up straight, looking at Harrock from beneath the shadow of his hood.
Harrock favoured a live weapon. Perhaps the World Government's strict gun control
meant that he was of the privileged few allowed to handle a lethal firearm. Ratio set a
pair of deep, dark brown eyes on the guard captain, who took a frightened step away,
jolting when his foot nearly slipped off the edge of the roof. Rain roared as thunder
rumbled in the distance.

Harrock aimed back at Ratio, firing again. Ratio swung his sword effortlessly, blade
clanging against the bullets as they came. One. And his sword shimmered with a
crackle of orange electricity. Two. It happened again, angrily. Harrock unloaded his
clip, and Ratio slashed through the air. Bullets were deflected, pinging into the floor
and walls. Ratio's wave of invisible power parted the rain, speeding forward until it
struck Harrock on the chest, sending him flailing clear of the roof, noiselessly.

Ratio sheathed his sword and started back towards the wreck. He looked it over, found
a weak spot, then shoved his fingers through the metal shell. His Aura radiating, he
began to tear away a strip. Then pain shot through him. He turned on reflex, swinging
his sword out and clubbing his attacker with the grip.

She was thrown back, hitting the helipad floor hard. The woman wasn't armoured or
even, it appeared, a soldier. She picked herself up, clothes soaked to her rain-slick
skin, black hair tied back but still a mess. She regarded him with hatred, but he ignored
her, calmly pulling the metal spike out of his side.

It was a shard from his shattered helmet, red with his blood, driven with enough force
to pierce his body armour. The woman was not a warrior, but she had undergone
Artificial Infusion.

He knew who she was. He'd been watching her for the better part of a week.

"Elizabeth Redgrave," Ratio said, deep and powerful, as he turned to look at her dead-
on. Her eyes opened wider. She noticed the resemblance; in the strong face, the eyes,
the dark auburn hair that hung past his shoulders.

"Who...?" Elizabeth's voice cracked. She was barely on her feet, her Aura slowly
regenerating from the flare that had penetrated Ratio's armour. She rephrased herself
firmly, "Who the hell are you?"

---

He didn't answer. Instead, he started towards her, sword at his side. Elizabeth
scrambled away, still on her feet, fingers scratching for one of those mask shards.

For all the good it would do. But she needed a weapon. She needed him to be focusing
his attention on her. All she could find were metallic crumbs. She'd already used the
largest shard she could find in her sneak attack, and it didn't even seem to be slowing
the intruder down.

This will do, she thought, grabbing a long splinter, careful that she didn't slice her own
hand open by picking it up.

"What's your name?" Elizabeth asked, backing away slowly, keeping herself low to the
ground. It sounded stupid as soon as she said it, wanting to know the name of the
man who was trying to kill her. But she needed time.

He looked at her. So much like Kero, but younger. Not quite like Zack, though they
certainly shared features. Their eyes were the same. Except that when Elizabeth looked
in Zack's eyes, she saw something. It was a sense of warmth, of caring, something that
told her he was more than he let people think. All she could see from this man was
emptiness. Like his eyes may as well be black pits. There was no warmth, and no love.

"Ratio Seraphim," he said, answering her. She felt her heart leap as Ratio spoke, half
expecting him to have remained quiet. Even his name sounded wrong. "Where is the
server room?"

"Go to hell!" Elizabeth spat. If he was going to kill her anyway, there was no way she'd
die obediently.

Ratio held his sword towards the chopper's wreckage, leant up against a wall.
The blade crackled as he let his Aura radiate. "Your father and daughter are inside."

The radiation intensified and Elizabeth felt it course through the length of Ratio's blade,
mounting in a lightning strike that crashed against the wreck with a clap of thunder.
Elizabeth screamed, but she was drowned out by the sonic boom. She felt the heat
against her skin, the smell of burning metal doused quickly by rain.

Elizabeth radiated Aura and her Zangoose, Xen, crashed through the nearby wall, claws
slicing the air. Ratio reacted quickly, far faster than she thought possible. He met Xen's
claws with his sword, blocking the first barrage. But underestimated the Zangoose's
strength.

Once she had Ratio's attention, Elizabeth had instructed Xen via Aura link. He'd been
preparing, using Swords Dance to maximise his offensive power. Ratio would have to
flare his Aura to even have a hope of matching Xen's strength. He swung his arm back
for his second assault.

Shadows trailed Xen's claws, imbuing them with a ghostly strength that collided with
Ratio's weapon and sent it flying across the rooftop. The wind seemed to catch it as it
span in the sky, speeding back down, crackling with a powerful jet of orange electricity.
The sword was planted, point-first, in the helipad, a good distance away from its owner.

Good job, Xen! Elizabeth thought, excitement rushing through her. She used their Aura
link to relay more commands, and Xen followed through, using Double Team to split into
two copies, which flew either side of Ratio, both bringing down a Crush Claw. Only the
real Xen landed his blow, the fake fading away like mist.

Ratio staggered, his armour shattering around the wound Elizabeth had inflicted earlier.
Elizabeth almost let herself feel triumphant, but then Ratio snatched a hand out, and
grabbed Xen by the throat.

He didn't seem angry, or even to be feeling any pain. He viewed the pokémon with the
apathy of a man stepping on a bug. Elizabeth felt his Aura flare, and quickly flared her
own.

Electricity shot through Xen's body. If the lightning before had been powerful, then this
was godlike. His body spasmed and fried. Instead of turning into sand-like particles,
as had happened to the final guard in the lobby, Xen was simply set aflame. Elizabeth's
flaring had kept him from being disintegrated.

She shot out a recall beam and brought Xen back into his pokéball. Attaching it to her
belt. That single attack put the Zangoose out of commission. She grit her teeth,
hesitating, then threw out her second, and last, pokéball.

Fatass flew through the air, limbs outstretched, his battle cry a mixture of a roar and a
yawn. Ratio barely even moved as the gargantuan creature hurtled towards him. He
raised his hand, and his sword flew out of the ground, into his grasp. As Fatass closed
in on him, Ratio radiated his aura, then swung horizontally through the Snorlax's gut.

The pokémon immediately split into halves, upper body soaring overhead, crashing with
a small quake, warping the ground. The lower body landed at Ratio's feet. He was coated,
thick with blood that immediately began to wash off in the rain. Elizabeth covered her
mouth in horror, eyes wide. She shot out another recall beam, but it bounced off of the
Snorlax's skin ineffectually. She tried again. Nothing.

Ratio lifted his sword, and the two parts of the pokémon flew into the air. He directed his
sword towards the building edge like an opera conductor, and the body parts followed,
tossed away. Trash.

"I won't ask you again," Ratio said, walking towards Elizabeth. She fell to her knees. Even
with Aura, her strength gave way. Wind and rain wore away at her, almost blinding her
eyes, filling her ears with its howling noise. Ratio's feet splashed water up, his cloak flailing
this way and that, at the will of the wind. Electricity danced along the sword in his hand.

Lightning flashed, immediately followed by thunder. By an immense heat that had no place
in the freezing wet of the Silph Co. rooftop. Elizabeth felt it draw closer, burning her cheek.
The thick black clouds parted, rippling as the light brightened, the thunder's rumble growing
louder until she felt the air itself begin to vibrate, like a shuttle preparing to launch.

She tore her eyes away from Ratio, and noticed that he was looking at it too. His normally
hollow eyes sparking with excitement. The surge of air threw her backwards, hitting the
floor with her elbow. The sky ignited into flame.

Zack crash-landed, his flames still hanging from his body, feet grinding tracks into the
concrete rooftop until he stopped between Ratio and Elizabeth. Rage drew across his
face, his Aura radiating powerful pulses that made rain hiss against his flesh. His muscles
tensed, ready, screaming for battle. He took one look at Ratio. And he flared.

Entralink Base

Jacqueline's arm shot up and caught the empty chip bag by one of her Aura
threads,which extended from her wrist. It shot right through the bag, holding
rigid like a spike and her Aura radiated slightly. The bag immediately seemed
to crumple itself up before the Aura thread went lax and she slung the bag
into a nearby trash bin.

Then the thread quickly dissolved, giving the impression that it was retracting
back into the wrist.

As this was going on, she only seemed to be half listening to Jump's list of
occupations. Her skin, tan as it was, went even darker when he mentioned
dancing. It was a strange feeling, and she felt the urge to punch Jump to
make him stop talking.

"Well I bet you could deliver newspapers like nobody's business," she said,
"Would you want to do that instead? At least now we get to make a differe-
nce. When disaster strikes, we're the first to know about it. You can't tell me
that playing hero doesn't suit your ego."

Pokeland

Chen Zhen released the vines on Salieri's arms, seeing as how after Henrietta had been lit up by N's Aura the Battle Girl didn't just rip through them on her own to get at N's throat.

She couldn't believe that they were so ready to accept that N was going to be their enemy. It was even more perplexing to her that they'd still want to be friends with him.

"This is ridiculous." Sal stood straight and looked up at Henrietta. "We never really tried to find out where Darumi was after Gorm took him, did we? I bet N had him this whole time. Lancer too. You only had to get in a fight and lose your memories to this psycho-b***h and her alien to get him back."

E pouted. "That's not very nice-"

"Shut the ******** up!" E closed her mouth but kept her smug smirk. Salieri pointed at N, who remained still. "He's the leader of Team Plasma! You all joined this team because you knew you'd be fighting them eventually. They're the enemy. So why would you let their boss go? How could you wish him well after the things Team Plasma has done to you?!"

She lowered her arm, instead focusing in on N with a glare. "A liar, a thief, wanting to split the world apart, backed up by a bunch of lunatics that want us out of the way no matter the cost...what kind of a friend is that?"

Entralink Base

"Hey, that's not true. Actually, yeah." Jump rubbed the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. "Being a hero is tight."

He couldn't deny it. Even with all the hardship, the pain, the suffering that came alongside it, being a hero was fulfilling. But if Jump learned anything in his many travels from all the strange and exotic people he'd met, good and bad, he had learned-

"You don't have to do what we do to make a difference, though. Anybody can be a hero, in their own way. Music can be the inspiration of brilliance, food can literally save people's lives, teachers...well, teachers aren't my heroes personally. You know what I mean. I like fighting, but it can't be the only thing we do."

Jump paused. He had come here in hopes of getting Jackie to open up to him, and hadn't planned on getting things off his own chest. Connecting with other people went both ways. "I'm getting tired. And I know you are too, Jackie. If you keep yourself on such a short leash, you're gonna keep fighting til you're like a super deluxe tactical war robot, and a machine is all that's left of you."

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed his empty bottle into the same trash bin. "You gotta get out of the house and check out the backyard."

PokéLand

"Yeah," Wayne said, "Stupid like riding a Blastoise across the city and spraying
a ton of people with water. Then stealing a megaphone and shouting s**t across
a theme park. You can get, like, arrested for that stuff. Definitely wouldn't want
to go about doing that."

He gave Salieri a thumbs up, "For the record, if you wanna go beat up N, I'm
behind you 100% I'd go more but that's kind of impossible."

Entralink Base

Jacqueline frowned. Jump was getting tired? What about her? Talking to him was
exhausting... She let out a short sigh and crossed her arms.

"What do you suggest then?" she asked, regretting it almost immediately. He's
going to say 'dancing' isn't he?