SHK 16: Journey to Mauville
#16 of School of Hard Knocks: A Home for the Not-so-Normal Pokemon
SHK 16: Journey to Mauville Crossroads In the beautiful part of mainland Hoenn, with its many pristine lakes, its beautiful fruit trees, and its many gated communities and a Pokemon reserve known as the Safari, three recruiters found themselves strapped for a way to get to Mauville. It's extremely important that they make their decision quickly but precisely because there are ghosts in this beautiful area from the nearby Mt. Pyre that love nothing more that to feed off of negative feelings. Windslash fiddles with the map trying to determine he relative dangers of each path. "North would take longer but had few predators, only worrying about the waterways and the mountains, both of which had pathways over or around them. South has more ghosts especially around the mountain of the dead, known as Mt. Pyre by the humans. Not to mention the river..." He shuddered just thinking about it. It's a natural thing for sandshrews to fear water as it irritates their dry skin, but his was above the norm. However, his fears went largely unrecognized by his two female companions: one was busy daydreaming and the other perched, highly irritable in the morning sun. *It will be only a matter of time before I finally get Yin to be my mate instead of Connie. All I need to do is find his home,* she thought to herself, reflecting on an interesting development in her heartfelt and outwardly misguided attempts to secure a love that hadn't really been given. She had no intention of heading south for absols live primarily in the north near Fortree City in mid to upper latitudes. Surely, whatever she sought could be found there. "I think we should go north. And let's also make a detour to Fortree city to.... Stock up on supplies." Windslash just sighed and looked up to the tree. "You have an opinion of where we should go, Maddy?" She hissed and covered her face from the sunlight. The lack of sleep since this adventure started was getting to her. It's always bright and early with one hour of sleep before her before insomnia would take over. She couldn't figure out why she wasn't sleeping. "I don't give a crap where we go! Just as long as we finish this stupid idea to recruit pokemon, Crystal, pick whatever the fuck you want." Windslash threw up a rock at her. "Quit the attitude. Besides she wasn't the one asking of your opinion..." Not that the daydreaming eevee cared to anyway. "Let's go north," shouted Crystal up to the grouchy crow. "There are land bridges that will help us cross bodies of water and there are plenty of trees to block the sunlight. This way, you can possibly stop complaining and Wind will stop worrying about getting wet. Besides, with all the anger SUNSHINE has for me, a shuppet will bug us." Windslash turned pale. The last people who talked to her that way got tortured and obliterated in such a way that it inspires fear in spectators... and that was when she was feeling fine. The shrew curled up in a ball and expected the worst from the near belligerent murkrow. A blur of feathers streamed down the side of the tree and raced towards Crystal, who had started to move backwards, only to trip over the rock. And just when Matilda drew near, she stopped in her tracks. She breathed in heavily and smiled. "I would prefer if you called me Matilda or Maddy, please. Now let's go!" she shouted joyously. Crystal and Windslash looked at each other with confusion and kept their distance from her as she led the way north into the marshland of Hoenn. "Why the sudden change in tone, Sunshine?" mumbled Crystal. Instantly, Maddy turned around and went straight for Crystal bombarding her with loads of drill pecks, chasing her into the swamps, boiling with rage.
Soon after they left, a shuppet collapsed on the ground. "Too...full...but boss I got them good. I convinced them to go north, playing off of that creepy rocket pokemon." The guy on the other side smiled. "Well, well, those two play my game too well. They obviously want to spy on the secret Enforcer Central Command, something that only its employees and high ranks know of." The shuppet began to quiver. "But sir, you were counting on only two of them? They have a KBI sandshrew agent with them. They made already know where our base is." The smile disappeared. "God damn it! I better have the next agent bring his trainer along so that we can end it before they get close." ---- Swamp Trek Crystal walked cheerfully through the swamp; even with the raging headache Matilda gave her, she was fixated on her plan to seize Yin's heart from the grasps of Connie. She seemed totally unaware of the dangers that lurked in this rainy patch of the continent. Maddy seemed even worse at determining danger levels as she had never been in the wild before. However, their male sandshrew partner crept along the pathways, looking around high and low, searching for any predator that may come their way. "Slow down guys. This place isn't the safest area." They would slow down momentarily, and then build up to their usual pace. Once in a while, they would ear a splash and a mild shriek of their partner as he scrambled out of a pool of water, heart beating rapidly and pupils dilated like a stantler in headlights. The trio passed pools of stagnant water where surskits often hunted for small fry and insects. Windslash couldn't stand being near water, especially when it smelled so awful. A lot of the pools smelled like fecal matter and decaying bodies. Between some of the pools, slime on the ground indicated the presence of one of the dangerous things about the water: whiscash. "There's water everywhere! Why did I pick this place???" shouted the panicky shrew as he grasped for the paltry cover of Crystal's bushy tail. Of course, fear attracts the dark crow's nasty smile. She perched again, this time on his head, causing him to topple over quite a bit. "Let's see, fear of the stage, fear of pain, fear of water, and fear of death. Any more phobias?" Windslash could only hang his head in shame. "I don't fear death..." Maddy took to the sky. "Pitiful." Sensing the burning shame of her friend, Crystal tries to cheer him up. "But wait, I see you practice at the beach everyday, moving the sand around beautifully not showing the slightest fear of water." Windslash just brushed if off. "I stand 100 feet away from the high tide point... I'm still afraid of it." Crystal patted his head and moved on, taking it slow with him so that he wouldn't have to worry about the water quite as much. Maddy continued her variably faster pace. They continued on for hours until dusk. Suddenly, Maddy stopped. "I heard something." Suddenly, a familiar red-and-white sphere struck Maddy on the head, knocking her out of the air and onto Crystal. The three heard a bit of cursing and the launch of a second ball bearing a net pattern. "Go Whiscash!" shouted the trainer. A large fish splashed forth from the detestable water, dousing Wind in lots of gunk. His eyes dilated and he ran around in circles, tumbling occasionally, hoping to get it all off before the pain got too great. The whiscash flailed about, causing the ground to quake and keeping crystal from counterattacking. Luckily Matilda was back in the air by now, fuming from the headache she was only getting a taste of. "Her eyes glowed in the darkness, seemingly lulling their attacker to sleep. However, the fish only started to snore loudly, adding to Matilda's headache. "Windslash, you pussy, do something!" she screamed as her flight faltered. His panic attack would have to wait. He calmed himself down and imagined that peaceful area in which he would practice his techniques. Realizing that this whiscash wouldn't be tricked by a sandstorm, he had to use his trapping technique to escape this situation. "Sand Tomb!" The trainer and his fish sunk into a quicksand pit . Crystal could only stand by and watch those two fight... she had no battle skill whatsoever. Even Windslash with his entire set of phobias was quite strong not to mention the child prodigy Matilda. But as her missing friend Reika put it, "I can't believe I was hit by her. I mean, she can't battle to save her life." It was like being the first person eliminated from the tournament...which was her. *I wish I could be useful to somebody. In these situations... be strong enough for even Yin to love.* Soon, Windslash grabbed her paw and started to flee, with Matilda briskly flying overhead. The trainer is administering medicine to the whiscash, gearing up for another round, something they can't afford to have. "Fuck this battle!" shouted Maddy, as turned tail to fly off. "We can't win with that whiscash having terrain advantage and a trainer." For a while, they ran almost 2 miles off course, instead headed straight into a trap they won't be expecting.
Kudzco: That guy and his trainer failed. Let's do this ourselves... ???: Are you sure? You generally are ill-mannered in these things. Not to mention we can't verify the facts. Kudzco: I know what I'm saying, mistress. ???: Stop saying that... Kudzco: Aw, come on. Let's find out where they will camp out.
Sweet Dreams Windslash curled up in a ball and fell asleep underneath the roots of a tree, peaceful as ever, although quite a bit of drool pooled around him. He made little shrew sounds and muttering out the name of a few attacks. According to Jose, they warned that he was quite the sleep talker ad that interesting tidbits sometimes came out. "Watch me... I will become... the protector...stop the fear...*snore*..." Crystal chuckled a bit hearing this and slept near a decaying log, where it would provide heat in exchange for her to have to smell that dampness. It reminded her of her mom's human. It invoked memories of his constant nakedness, his riding whip strapped to his side somehow, and that dreaded wicked sneer that told her and her half-brothers that mom would be gone for a while. "I can't stand to see mommy like this... and I don't want my half-brothers to die like my older siblings did..." It was almost as if it was happening again... too real for her. "I can't stand there and watch my mom be raped sadistically with that man smiling like a demon over her." But she couldn't as her twin brothers were whining for food. None of what was happening made sense to them; they were born only a few weeks ago. Crystal went to them and laid on her side, with her barely developed nipples showing. She knew no milk would come out, but maybe to appease their need to suckle until mom was done. It felt all too real to her... everything about it. Why did it feel so real? She wouldn't know though as she was sucked into her memories as she slept, apparently looking not the slightest bit agitated. Unlike the other two, Matilda just couldn't sleep. Her eyes felt heavy and she felt tired and yet no sleep. She tried all sorts of methods like counting mareep, thinking of extremely long and boring problems, but she figured them all out and still didn't feel sleepy. Soon, she felt her body become light and hollow. She felt fully rested, and yet uncomfortable. Something in the back of her mind told her to turn around. "O... my... GOD!!!" She covered her beak to see in anyone heard. No one stirred. She flew to where she perched.... where she was still perched. It felt surreal to actually see herself hanging off the branch like a bat, except her physical body was vacant looking. "Does this mean that I died???" She shuddered at the thought.... that is until another feeling swarmed over her. Suddenly, her feathers grew larger and she transformed into her anthro form. Her harpy like appearance also came with a personality change. Immediately, her purple eyes filled with intense hatred. She flew to the ground and looked around the campsite in hunger for something to destroy. "It's been a while, hehehehe. Sleep was stifling to me." If anyone could hear her, they would swear someone else was in the camp for the voice sounded darker and less-kidlike. --- This uncontrollable side of her appeared not long after she was born. As being the first test tube baby at Rocket Corp., she didn't really know her parents or anyone else for about six months. In fact, all she had was isolation. She was tested around the clock for any structural, physiological, and biological problem. Of course, everything checked out. In a rush to get her prepped for training, they never bothered to look at what would happen with her imprinting stage of life. She apparently developed insomnia and tended to be found in a comatose state where all vital stats were normal except for very low brain activity. At six months, she was moved into a dorm with the other five or so test tube babies. The morning after their first night together, two of them died. Autopsies showed that they had died of adrenaline poisoning. Shocked by this, the scientists decided to separate them and place each one with a normal pokemon. Halfway through the night, after Matilda tossed and turned trying to sleep, her eyes dilated and she took on the comatose state. "Oh my god! Wake that fourth pokemon up now!!!" "We can't wake up the Murkrow!" "Idiot, wake up the normal pokemon! Its pulse has jumped up significantly and his heart rate is increasing very rapidly. " "I can't! Something is terribly wrong." Luckily, the pokemon survived, albeit showing high levels of irritation and uneasiness for days. The scientist weren't about to throw her away. Instead, she 'slept' in isolation. Other pokemon in the facility knew of her and steered clear of her. Friendlessness is a powerful motivation for her, as she learns to hate and crush all. She became the youngest pokemon ever to have a naming ceremony but she also drove many instructors crazy. --- Her spirit floated over to Windslash, who slept comfortably, shrewing in his sleep. Her spirit merged with his body... sort of. Soon the world became dark with the exception of electrical storms around his brain. She flew though expertly, as if she had rehearsed this frequently. Finally, she stopped flying around the most active area and landed. But instead of landing, she converted herself into energy and went inside the tissue. The world immediately became brighter. Somehow, she was on the ground, feeling exhausted, and feeling like herself. She had her purple eyes back and she was in her feral form. A light guitar played in the background, a simple strolling tune that one could picture hearing while doing mundane things like shopping in the local markets or meeting at the park with a close friend. "Where... where am I?" She looked around and saw palm trees dotted across the sandbar landscape. But being in the swamp, there are no sandbars. She could hear the soothing sound of ocean waves crashing into shore and pulling some of the lad with it as it rushes back, as if to blend into the crowd. The pale yellow sky seemed to give this place a surreal tranquility. Everything was pastel, not too vibrant, and yet calming and soothing to her dark side. "I need to find those two..." She held her head in pain and took to the skies to get a better scope of things. She saw a few wingull flying about, squawking, and looking for scraps on the cool sand. Suddenly, they scattered as a sandstorm kicked up. "Finally, someone is here." For safety reasons, she felt the need to watch whoever was practicing some more before meeting them. Peering, she could see a spiny-backed desert pokemon, directing sand here and there, mixing in small poisoned tipped darts. "Sandstorm, Poison Sting, Rock Slide, Sand Tomb, Swords Dance, Sandstorm, Slash." He chanted this as he repeated a pattern of offensive and defensive attacks. The voice was familiar to her and suddenly, things started to make sense to her. Gazing up at the saffron sky, then at the proximity of the training pokemon to the short, and finally at the pastel colors, she finally reached a conclusion. "This is a fucking dream. Wait... I didn't fall asleep, so that means I'm in..." She looks closely at the training pokemon. It was indeed Windslash. She watched carefully. "I see he intends on being a sandslash in his dreams, although I must say I don't understand why he looks fucking older here. Is he so worthless that he has to dream of being strong because in his reality, he is afraid of his shadow?" He continued practicing and inched closer to the shore, rather than the shore come closer to him. "Windslash, you have been practicing for ages. Have some lemonade, my strong mate." Matilda looked to see who said that, but the face and body for the most part was obscured by a shadow of no source. "Thank you my dear," he said, drinking it down. His mate smiled and pulled him into the shadow. "Blast, they are gone. I gotta follow them and find out what...what..." She felt something weird in the pit of her stomach. Something wanted to bubble up. She could feel its evil presence. But not knowing what it was, she pressed on with childlike curiosity. She ended up in another part of the beach where there were no wingull, fewer waves, and a pinkish sky. The background music had changed, now some sort of trance music that echoes off of invisible walls that seemed to be about the horizon. She followed the trail in the sand left by Windslash and the shadow girl, noting times where the tail of the fem slapped the ground and sent lots of sand up, for there would be small amounts of brown fur at the impact points. Other times, there was only one set of prints. She followed the trail until an unfamiliar sound startled her into a tree. "What the fuck made that sound? It sounded like one of those big beasts." Maddy calmed herself down, scoping out new hiding spots until she saw Windslash... but he was doing something to the girl. "Oh gods, Windy. I love the way you make me feel!" moaned the fem. He nuzzled his shaded lover and continued to hammer into her sweet oblivion, furry bodies in motion pushing each other to the throes of nirvana. Sweat beads covered their two bodies as their fervent mating even had an effect on the surrounding area. Grass started to sprout and flowers began to bloom everywhere. The ground was literally orgasming to life. Matilda was even being affected, growing wet between her legs. It was the first time she ever felt that, that need to copulate, to at least rub her pink slit. She couldn't help herself; she was never touched and never masturbated before, but now she needed something. What it was, she had no idea, but she needed it now. She began to rub herself against the coarse bark of the tree, moaning in pleasure and liquids quickly accumulated under the tree. The electrify pleasure was almost too much for her young mind to handle. She felt like the world span around her and insanity was just at her shores, and yet she could not stop herself from rubbing her clit over and over again. She even envisioned her being in the hidden girl's position, her small opening being ravaged and pounded by the sandslash. No one had even gotten that close to her ever in her life but she cared not. The bark rubbed against her clit and soon her need was satiated, her first orgasm, indelible in someone else's dream. She fell out of the tree into her own erotic puddle, soaking her skin with her scent. The murkrow's vision was a bit blurry but she could barely make out the two lovers who sparked that sudden need in her. But something caught her eye that immediately snapped her out of her daze. The shadow's face was visible for a second, just a split second. His lover was an eevee, and not just any one either. "Oh Crystal, I loooooooove..." he no longer had the ability to speak as his voice raised to a squeaky high level as torrents of his virile semen bust forth into his eevee lover's treasure. All the flowers around them blossomed and the sounds of heaven filled the air. Soon, the eevee disappeared and things returned to normal, except for the sky...a choleric tone had taken over the area. For some reason, he decided to look at the tree. It is there where he saw Maddy, covered in her fluids, body shaking as the darkness inside bubbled over. Her head was down so no one could tell what was going on. "Uh, uh I'm sorry you saw that. Hey what are you doing in my dream?" She looked up at him with red eyes. "Oh nothing..." The sky started darkening and clouds gathered around. She changed form from her feral form to that of her morph. "Now perish." Windslash got into a defensive stance and try to change into a sandslash morph, but instead he turned into his real form, a mere sandshrew. Soon the waters of the ocean receded miles back. "Have a taste of death... you coward." He tried running, knowing from videos he watched what it was, but he was just too slow. A wall of water crashed through his dream and soon he was drowning in one of the things he hated so much. Matilda made copies of her and dragged him deeper, deeper into the darkness, enjoying his panicked and pain-laced face as he used up his available oxygen internally screaming at the pain as water and pressure caused his body to mass produce adrenaline. But even Maddy started to feel weird... the world about her was shaking. "I'll deal with you later." Her spirit left him in that state, and returned to the body. Matilda slowly came to consciousness and felt the dryness in her eyes... then she noticed that she was no longer perched on a branch but instead on a bar of a cell. "Hey, what's going on?" She saw Crystal crying in the corner; her eyes looked heavy from endless crying episodes. "What's wrong Crystal?" "Windslash woke up... nearly in a heart attack. They rushed him to the emergency room. We also all got locked up by Kudzco for being spies or something like that." She wiped some of her tears and looked at Maddy. "That is strange... I dreamt of...I don't remember. So what happened that we got caught?" "Well..." ---- In the predawn hours, Crystal got roused herself from one of her deep, dark dreams to attend a call of the wild. She departed from the main camp area into a nearby bush to relieve herself. Quietly moving around the bushes, she squatted a bit, tensing a bit before the yellow shower poured out of her small hole, allowing her to sigh in mild relief. This was one of her little fetishes she managed to keep hidden from all her peers and friends. Her paws moved on their own to her slit, wet from both the urine and from a bit of arousal. She rubbed the outside, then the nub of flesh that she so enjoyed. She had not done anything since before they left, so this was a small window of opportunity to give her body what it desired. "Oh, Yin..." she moaned arching her head back, feeling as though Yin was right there, holding her and dripping his phallus deep. Her hands obliged in following her obsession, mimicking the way she felt. Going fast, then slow and deep, changing speeds at random. Of course, it was only her masturbating on the same ground she urinated on, something she can wash off. But before she could finish, a rustle in trees nearby startled her. "Who's there?" The wind picked up in the area and a large figure landed in front of her. It may have been dark, but his yellow irises and wicked smile gave it all away. "Kudzco?" She took a defensive stance preparing for an attack, but he was already attacking, knocking her back quite a distance into a nearby tree. She desperately hoped for a cordial image, engaging in self-deception. "Why are you attacking me???" she yelled, hiding behind a bush. The shiftry hopped back into the tress and rushed all around the place as a way to confuse her. "I am arresting Team Rocket scum for crimes they committed," he barked back, launching a shadow ball into the tree bush she hid behind, cutting her with some of the twigs. Scurrying to her feet, she attempted to use a technique. "Shadow Ball technique!" she shouted, but it only fizzled out. As if being a bad fighter wasn't bad enough, but Kudzco lives in forests, making it exceptionally easy for him to win here. His cruel laughter pierced the darkness, almost frightening her out of her fur. "I have your epileptic feathered friend and your shrew friend. And he ain't looking too hot ahahaha." "What did you do to him?!?!" she shouted. "He is not even Team Rocket. "I knew that, and I didn't touch him, but it is easy to say you two kidnapped him and hurt him," cackled Kudzco. His voice seemed to come from all directions. Crystal shrieked at his wickedness. "I can't believe you are doing all this for petty reasons. It's all about the tournament isn't it? ISN'T IT?" She got her answer when she barely dodged a Nature Power. She tried to counterattack with body slams and bites but he was just too fast for her. After a minute, he struck her directly with a Brick Break and sent her into another tree, imbedding the little pokemon in the trunk. She could barely stay conscious now. Symbols began appearing all over him, swirls of dark energy covered his body, and all of the light seemed to flee at this instant. "You are as pitiful as Yin, who can't even walk now. You and your motley of criminals and will be captured or killed by me." But just as he was about to explode, something bright shone from Crystal and paralyzed him. Something drained him of power and he fell on the ground, steam rising from his body. "What... did...? I...how..." Her surprise soon waned as a net bag captured her. "Tsk, Tsk little eevee, I don't know what you did, but you are mine." Crystal looked up at the female voice, her eyes fearfully quivering. ---- Matilda flew down to Eevee after she recounted her story. "As I am so sure that you beat Kuddy, I at least know where we are now. Good work protecting us because we are at the Deep Forest Base Zone. Crystal glared at Maddy, and for a second forgot her grief and replaced it with intense anger. *I am not as worthless as you think, Matilda.* Soon, the door opened and the two were taken out. They were held close to a female body. "Hello, little eevee." Deep Forest Base Zone Two trainers and their pokemon guarded the entrance. They looked like ordinary campers, so nothing suspicious would be drawn to the area they camped. One of them was a well-seasoned vet with a familiar Typhlosion; the other was on his first day, sweating nervously, having a small Teddiursa that wore glasses.. "You seem upset newbie. Don't worry; this wasn't what I expected today. After all, they apparently captured important agents of the Rockets today, and..." "No, no, it isn't that... they found out that Sabrina of KBI allowed them to come through, explaining that they were recruiting pokemon." The vet grunted and ceased conversing with the new person. His pokemon continued to converse with his younger partner about random things. Hours passed and nothing happened. "This is certainly the easiest day of my life. No more getting hurt, no more crazy pokemon," said the typhlosion. "Elliot, sir? How come you are so happy not to fight for good?" asked the young bear pokemon. "Well, it's simple. I don't want more broken bones, Nikita." Elliot sighed and got back to work, lounging on a nearby log. A few more hours passed, and the teddiursa got antsier. "He should be here by now..." he muttered, barely catching the attention of his typhlosion partner. Both humans were oblivious to their speech, so nothing triggered a weird response. "Hey would you like to go and pick up some fruits to eat?" asked Nikita innocently. "I'm hungry and honey isn't what I want right now." He looked around the area and saw nothing suspect, so he took Nikita to some of the fruit trees. Not long after they left, t he guards caught a glimpse of a sonnet-wearing stumbling figure, too small to be human. Normally, this wouldn't trigger any reaction by the campers, but for some reason, even they were curious. Lifting off the bonnet, they could see it was a spinda with spiral ears that were not mirror images, and certainly not a girl. What they couldn't see was a smile plastered on his face as they examined him more. Surely, this would be the easiest thing he has done. ---- The teen girl that carried the two females hummed a particularly sweet tune. Crystal was calmer now as was Matilda. "I had no idea that you two were a part of the recruitment crew. My shiftry neglected to tell me many of these details. I can usually trust him, but now, I am not sure." Crystal looked up at the girl in confusion. She had white hair like that of a ghost and a hardened expression on her face, yet she seemed quite youthful and nice anyway. Her attention shifted down behind the girl where a rather dejected Kudzco followed. No one ever thought of Kudzco having a human, much less a sweet one such as her. "I also heard you guys need a good guide to take you to Mauville. T happens to be over the mountains to the west that will also pass over the Fortree area." Soon, she put them down and went into the control room with Kudzco. "Did you see..." asked Crystal "I know... what a loser," replied Matilda. "Do we really need a guide?" "You really think I am dumb? I am twelve and I outrank you. Of course I know what is going on!" "Why are you so cruel concerning me? Can't you see that I do this for love?" "No, it's a stupid infatuation with a taken person." Matilda flew away from the eevee, thoroughly annoyed with her banter. "You totally forgot about Windslash, Crystal. Let's just find him and go across the fucking mountains. I am already tired of the both of you. You want to be with Yin. 'Oh Yin, I'll do anything. I'll kill myself so you will love meeeeeee!' Seriously, you are a shitty partner in this. You can't do anything and you are willing to walk us into danger for the sake of fucking Yin. I don't know what you are planning to do in Fortree City, but we aren't going. Then there's fucking wind with all the phobia ever acknowledged to exist..." Crystal leered at the murkrow. "You know that you don't have friends because of the vomit you say. Shut up and help me look for him." It went quiet after that, no one member of the team content with one another. They searched for something that said "sick ward" or "hospital." They didn't need to look far though as they saw their friend walking with one of the chansey nurses with an IV bag strapped to his arm. His eyes looked a bit sullen from the internal trauma he got from the adrenaline burst. He looked weak and was leaking a bit of poison from his glands. In fact, his nurse handled him with gloves so as to not get poisoned herself. "He will get better in a few hours at least with his motor skills. He might behave more-or-less like a zombie for the better part of a day. But don't expect much out of him in terms of travel. We are prepping someone to handle taking you guys there." With that, she handed Windslash over to them. Matilda could not help but feel unusually uncomfortable around him, something about his demeanor made her ill at ease. He did keep staring at her with something between a frown and a scowl, like he had choice words to say to her but his mouth wouldn't agree. "What are you looking at?" asked the crow. Crystal looked at her and sighed. She had never seen Windslash looking angry like that before. "What happened to you, Wind?" ---- A bruised typhlosion crawled out of a pool of nasally obtrusive musk and made his way to the alarm. "You frigging spy. I am going to get you." He collapsed on the wall, unable to continue straining his body, his paw very close to the alarm... ---- Free of the guards, Nisix slipped into the base, chucking the bonnet after removing a red and blue disk from it. "Now, the data storage rooms." Right behind him was one of the supposed guards of the front. "Hurry up and shut down the alarms before someone sees us, Nikita." But it was too late. System alert: Code Blue was activated. Blue lights filled the hallways as the intercom told everyone of the progression of the intruder. "I thought I took care of you, Elliot," muttered the teddiursa. "Go on and do what you need to do. I am out of here before he catches up with me." Nisix started walking away. "Your identity is compromised. However, you did enough for me so go now to your person." Nisix tosses him a little folder with an address. "My master tells me that this guy is in need of your services." Deep Forest Base Zone: Panic Mode The trio of recruiters hears the alarm sound and start heading for one of the exits. "What's going on?" asked Crystal and she and Matilda helped Wind walk a bit faster. "This isn't a good thing to happen in a so called secret base. They had no idea what was going on, but they got out of the base before long amidst the violence. There were a few dead people here and there, but they didn't care to help out right now. They wanted so bad to be out of the forest. Windslash, who was being carried by them, caught an exchange between Nisix and a teddiursa carrying a red and blue disk. He couldn't really do anything at this point though as he was incapacitated and pretty much devoid of true cognitive skills at this point. They took to the hills under the cover of smoke. Maddy led the way to the mountains west of the base, over which was the city of Mauville... after crossing a river. "I know it's those guys that infiltrated the Salac Tournament that is also behind this. I just know it," mumbled Crystal as an afterthought. Something inside of her told her that what they were after was a lot of her research that had been submitted to the KBI via their own spying. But she didn't know what gave her the idea that they did. Nothing was laid out and she never saw the attackers. *Oh, well. I still remember my stuff.* Hours later and they would cross the mountains and get to the river, with Windslash back on his feet but still lacking cognition. ---- Kudzco and Karen went flying into a wall after being clocked by a strong dizzy punch. "Ahahahah, your skills are crap. Fear me!" Kudzco stood up and spat out a bit of herbal blood. "Don't think it's over yet, you little shit." Karen directed him into a Brick Break volley. Right punch, left punch, left, right, a switch-up, and yet nothing was working. Even on the rare instances in which he would get hit, no damage could be seen. "Ahaha, you fucking suck. Now enjoy my crush combo." The little spinda started dancing about spinning his fists, dizzying Kudzco and Karen. Her world spun around her, up was bottom right. Part of her body felt lighter than the other and in an attempt to equalize it, fell on a nearby cabinet, falling unconscious due to concussion. Kudzco meanwhile saw this and got enraged. Marks appeared all over his body as he began charging his dark energy. "I'll kill you with this attack." Nisix ignored him and started the second part of his attack, charging a shadow ball in his paws. But just as the shiftry tried to attack, his ability to stand was affected by imbalance. He fell onto his knees trying to focus his energies to blowing up the invader, but it was too late. "Focus Ball! (Focus Punch/ Shadow Ball combo)" A darkness befell the room and nothing could be seen for almost a minute. When it cleared, Kudzco was three rooms over, punched all the way through. "Tell me, who was going to die? I bet it wasn't me!" Nisix cackled some more. He spotted his disk on the ground. "Mission complete. Now that demon tree thing has to go." However, the appearance of more agents hastened his exit. Celia the Clefable was on the scene as well. "Quickly clean this up now. Collect all the hard drives and check for content. I hope what happened did not happen." She looked around, picking up rubble here and there. *The place is over 50% destroyed, but the foundation is still secure. I'm not sure of the data here, but most paper copies are lost here. There are a few dead pokemon and agents from this. * She looked at a discharge paper that wasn't damaged next to a scratched up Chansey. "Windslash... he was here." Looking around, she found Kudzco carrying his trainer on his back, looking much scratched up. "I can't believe all that stuff is gone. It's only been one month on the job and we already got crushed... by a spinda and a spy." Celia wrote this info down and looked again at the few papers that were left. "You know, this spinda character was present at the Salac Tournament. He barged in one time and used his mind-bending techniques to bend me, but he also had a strong melee side, considering that he beat up a hot dog seller with just one fist. You remember any identifying features?" Kudzco shrugged. "Ok, still without a real suspect, except for the spy who was a student, but of whom?" ---- "Master Miku, everything went as planned. I even chipped in the severe damaging of a major government installation as well as destroyed any trace and data on our organization or its members." Nisix bowed, hoping that another question wouldn't crop up. "Nisix, did I not say to retrieve the data first," the cloaked figure moves towards him. "I could not avoid damaging the facility due to our spy's failure to incapacitate the alarm sounder. However, they no longer know of our existence." Nisix paused for a second to gauge his response. "Very well, " spoke his dark master. "You will not be punished. However, you will have to go out again and this time, take your worthless friend with you. Franz is coming back now and Arashi will need you two to stay with her while she gets the resources in check." Nisix obediently bows and runs out. He heads immediately for Bawek's room otherwise known as the R&D room. "I take that you have the red and blue disk that I gave you before." "Of course, but I don't understand. Why hide this from Master?" "It has more than he believes in it. I need to examine this for myself for experiment clues." He inserts the disk into a computer and it transforms into a Porygon2. "Data downloading now into PDF files. 44 files for a total of 659GB of information," said the virtual pokemon in a robotic style. "Perfect... hanks for your help Nisix." "No problem, big bro. Make sure that Franz doesn't start poking his nose into your affairs."