Chapter 9

	Faint and constant pecking sounds of iron thorns hitting a stump target rung through the Verde Forest.  In the back of the forest, that little designated spot that they usually go to for training, Pecha and Oran spent the humid afternoon throwing the slim barbs of metal that the guildmistress gave them at their assigned targets ten feet away from them.  Ambipom, their combat instructor, stood beside them to provide advice on better techniques to throw them- and prevent the kids from poking their eyes out, while he's at it.  Of her ten thorns, Pecha managed to stick seven into the rings of her target; Oran only managed to get two.

	“Oh-ho, what's wrong, Oran?” the instructor asked, looming over him.  “Your sister is beating you good; you just gonna take that?”

	The Riolu returned from his target, with a handful of ten refreshed thorns.  The next iron thorn ready to be pitched twirled and spun in his paw as if he couldn't find a comfortable way to hold  it.  Just holding the spike normally felt awkward to him, no matter where he gripped, one of its three prongs would stick him.  “I don't understand,” he told the monkey, “how do I even throw these things?”

	“Here, grab your next thorn, and lemme show ya something, oh-ho.”  As the pup picked his next spike and held it in his right paw, the monkey caressed his paw with both tails, shuffling the thorn around with care; by the time he was finished Oran held the long end of the metal spike between his first and second digits, its sharp tip pointing towards him.  “There,” the instructor said, smiling, “You were putting too much muscle in your throws; relax your body.  Don't just throw the thorn- let it glide out of your paw like a dart.  Keep your back straight, your body calm, and your right foot in front of the left.”

	“Okay.” Oran took his eyes off his teacher, and aimed back at the wooden structure designated to be his target.  Just as the monkey advised: a deep breath or two loosened him from within, and his back erected straight.  It took him a few wind-ups to mark where he expected the piece of metal to go, in the center dot; when he felt he built up enough confidence, he let it loose from between his fingers, a little wobbly while it spun in the air, but in the end, the spike managed to stick deep into the right of the center, in the last of the three rings.  What an awkward routine to go through.

	“Not bad,” Ambipom congratulated him with a smirk, patting him on the back with his left tail, “needs a little more practice, but not bad, oh-ho.”

	Oran's eyes drifted toward his left, to where his older sister came back from harvesting her thorns from her cedar target.  She threw each one as he was instructed to, only left-handed, and to his discouragement, the Buneary threw each spike into a tight, correlated group, just barely hovering underneath the bullseye- and she was just as much a beginner as he.  “How come she's a lot better at it than me?”  Oran pouted to Ambipom.

	“I just am,” his sister intercepted the question, gloating.

	“Some Pokémon are just naturals at it,” Ambipom told him.  “Some learn faster than others; I guess it didn't take your sister too long to figure it out, oh-ho.”

	“Don't tell me you're giving up on this,” the Buneary joked, flipping her left, uncoiled ear with a flick of her paw.  “Oh well, it wouldn't surprise me- I'm the older sibling, after all- talent just comes to me-” all of a sudden her pile of thorns grew larger as Oran dumped his handful into hers.  She gazed at her new quantity with a dash of confusion in her eyes, then told her brother, “You aren't any fun; I was at least expecting some competition.”

	“Nah,” he replied with hands behind his head, shrugging his shoulders.  “I just don't care for them; I don't see the point.  You're much better at it than me; you can have this win.”

	Hearing his forfeit was like a dream come true to the Buneary's ears as she kept the tears in her eyes from falling.  Ever since he came into her life, she threw herself in constant competition with the jackal- whether for affection or attention- which was the reason she put so much pride in her seniority in the first place.  She never thought she'd see the day he'd give up without a fight- it nearly brought her to tears!  But she had to keep that visage of superiority strong, wiping excess water from her eyes with a quick stroke of her arm, then puffing out her chest a little as she bragged, “I guess you just aren't cut out for this, after all, Oran: this is much too sophisticated for you.”

	The pup chuckled as if agreeing, “Yeah, you're right about that, Pecha.  And you know what else?  You can take them with you during our missions!  That way, you can help me and Scyther fight for once.”

	“Are you calling me useless?” she snapped at her brother like a piece of twine under a candle flame.  “I'll show you who's the useless one!”  Dropping the spikes in her hand she pounced on her little brother, sending the duo to the ground, clutching each other as they tumbled around in the sea of short grass.

	Ambipom stood as he watched the children deliver a flurry of punches, kicks, and slaps to each other.  To some degree it was amusing to him, almost comedic, watching them go at it, but at some point he had to put a stop to it before they start yanking each other bald.  Grabbing the both of them by their napes with his slender tails, he yanked them apart from their little squabble, and hoisted them into the air.  “Does Scyther have to put up with this?” he asked the two with a hint of irritation breaking in his voice.

	“Yeah, all the time,” the Riolu replied.  “We're just playin' with each other.”

	Gingerly Ambipom placed the duo back on their hind paws, back on solid ground.  “You can kill each other, later,” he told them with a scowl, “But right now, we're practicing, oh-ho.”

	“Yes, sir,” the kids said in a defeated groan, looking down to his feet.


	Thirty feet below the guild's surface sat a Diglett in a dark corridor, his only source of light beaming from a hatch located in the assembly hall above ground.  He had what he considered a simple duty: to alert the establishment above to any foreign threat.  The other Pokémon would go insane, staying in what looked like a hole, doing nothing all day, but not him; he enjoyed the quiet solitude it provided.

	He sensed a slight vibration in the ground he protruded from, feeling it grow in intensity until it was akin to a harsh shake.  However, not all of the floor quaked around him, feeling too precise and focused to be an earthquake; someone was down there with him, tunneling their way in his direction!

	Before he had the chance to alert the guild above, something crashed through the wall in front of him, the harsh light emitting from its claws stunned the mole from identifying the invader.  A streak of brilliant orange swung like an ax across the Mole Pokémon's necks, and suddenly the walls around him gained a fresh, uneven coat of red.  Scarlet blood emptied from the open tear in his throat into a growing puddle around him, and with each ounce spilled his consciousness dissolved to just enough strength to keep his eyes open.  “Intru...,” he squeezed out a painful wail, “intru...”

	“How about you take a rest?” the intruder's coarse whisper asked Diglett.

	The longer he forced his weary eyes to stay open, the heavier his eyelids weighed in his blinking.  His vision became a blur, and breathing dwindled to just short huffs at a time.  Before fading away, the soft hue emitting from his attacker's claws allowed him to at least capture an idea of who it was: from the darkness, the soft orange glow revealed blue scales, and the ruby red underbelly of a towering dragonic body belonging to a Garchomp.  The feeling of drowsiness soon overpowered the little Ground-type, slouching over himself as he gave a final, weak sigh.

	“The alarm's been dealt with,” the shark said to his two associates lined behind him.

	The team of three gathered in the corridor that was once the Diglett's station, immersing themselves in the amount of surprising elbow room it provided.  Giving his teammates some time to stretch, the leader asked his strategist, “Lono- our location-”

	“Well, since that was a Diglett sentry you filleted, a safe guess would be: we're beneath the guild's assembly hall,” he replied back in a whisper.

	“Perfect,” the Garchomp replied.  “Hand me the orb, Lono; now's about the time we use it.”  Just as instructed the Gabite fished out the sphere from the belly of his satchel and handed it to his leader, its hot pink core illuminating the room to some degree.  “Once we use it, we'll only have ten minutes of its effect,” Ku told his subordinates, taking the glass sphere between his claws.  “But ten minutes will be just enough time to cause damage; that should draw the guildmistress and her team out from their quarters.  After which, we'll force them to spill the location of their treasury.  Both of you- cover your eyes.”

	The pair of Gabite flinched behind the fins hanging below their arms, as sounds of the Inverse Orb cracking in the Garchomp's grip filled the area.  Falling apart into an innumerable amount of shards underneath the dragon's mighty pressure, a surge of magenta light that was once the sphere's core exploded into a flash bang.


	After a good hour or two counting Poké on her desk, Guildmistress Florges finished accounting her guild's budget collected over the week: fifty-thousand Poké.  A treasure chest slept underneath her desk, where she put the last few bags of coins into its interior, and closing it with a satisfying click.  

	A sudden cry from deep within the guild caught her ears, causing her to jump out of her seat; if the nervous pitter-patters of her dancing heart were to be believed, she had a hunch what might have caused the distress. 


	The Florges rushed herself to the assembly hall, meeting with her teammates, Azumarill and Granbull, to find three dragons standing in front of the entrance: two Gabite, and a heavily scarred Garchomp- just as Bisharp's alert illustrated. And it seemed they found their way through the Diglett sentry's hatch, which emitted a heavy smoke of dust behind them.

	“Good afternoon, Florges Guild,” the large Garchomp addressed the scared stiff members in his daunting, yet calm voice.  “We are Team Sharktooth.  We came with a simple demand: either relinquish your treasury to us, or watch your precious guild fall like rain water; we're not leaving until we accomplish one of those.”

	“What have you done with the Diglett sentry?” Granbull demanded the Dragon-type in a menacing growl.

	The Garchomp gave a subtle smirk to the dog.  “That's a good question, mutt,” he replied, “although you won't like the answer.  Let's just say: he'll need that hole of his more than ever, now.”

	Hearing that sent the Fairy-type through a fit of trembling rage.  “You,” he huffed furiously, tightening his knuckles until blisters would appear, “you monsters!”  A simple step turned into a bloodthirsty dash towards the shark, even slipping out of his guildmistress restraining grasp; all he wanted for the moment was the dragon's head as his trophy.

	In response the Mach Pokémon primed his right claw in a feral orange light.

	“That won't work on me, idiot!” the Granbull shouted.  In a blink of an eye his long, sharp fangs turned icy blue, and he frothed a cold, wintery haze from his mouth.  Taking a powerful leap at the dragon, he opened his maw wide, revealing those icicles for teeth ready to shred into his skin.

	“Let's find out!”  Ku responded with a heavy swing with his Dragon Claw, cleaving straight through the Granbull's abdomen, and even amputating his left arm just below the shoulder joint with simple force.  Even his expression of shock read deliciously predictable to Ku: “how is this even possible?”

	The mangled dog landed straight on his back with a heavy thud.  The shock in his eyes remained permanent while he twitched and shook, the open wound in his chest continued spraying his vital life essence like a sprinkler, and his newly stubbed arm coated him in a red puddle.  He sat there as his slayer stepped over him; when he took a look at his fresh kill, the Granbull was no more than discarded trash in the Garchomp's eyes.  “Disgusting.”  With a bump from the back of his right foot, Ku kicked the defeated mutt into the blown Diglett hole, wanting to forget about the mess he made of him. Though instead of hearing a satisfying scream, all the dragon ever heard was a faint “thump”.

	“Disgusting,” the dragon said once more to the shivering guild members, “he even died like a mutt; what a waste of time.  Who else is feeling particularly brave?”

	No one wanted to face that monster.  They stood in place, either shivering out of their own skins, or keeping themselves from balling their eyes out.  Even the guildmistress dared not to budge from her stasis, freezing her left hand in front of her mouth as to keep herself from throwing up from tension.  “E-evacuate,” Florges squeezed from her mouth.  She tried once more, but with a stronger roar,  “Everyone- evacuate!  Now! Evacuate to the back of Verde Forest!”

	“Y-YOU HEARD HER, EVERYONE,” Loudred's voice broke from the silence, “MOVE IT TO THE BACK OF THE VERDE! MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!”

	At first it took them a while to gain the courage to even break from their statue-like stances, but with the Loudred leading them, an organized stampeded ensued, heading for the back of the Assembly Hall which led to the forest outside.  

	“Ku, they're all getting away,” Pele whispered as she jogged to his side.  “What should we do?”

	The Garchomp responded with silence at first.  But after a few seconds, he told her, “Leave them be.”

	“But they're eye witnesses,” she whispered back in an angered growl.  “We can't just let them go!”

	“And what are they going to tell the officials?” he asked her back.  “All they can do is spread our influence.  Don't waste your energy on those guppies; we have bigger fish right in front of us-”

	After the guild cleared of all potential distractions, all who stood in the outlaws' way were the guildmistress, and her assistant.  Ku gave a slight smirk: telling by the shaken expressions worn by the opposing side, his team had the psychological advantage.  “What's wrong, ladies?” he taunted the Florges and Azumarill pair.  “You're acting like you saw a ghost.  I assume the both of you are the strongest in the guild, yet here you are, frightened like a pair of newcomers.  Go on, then- defend your pathetic guild!  Show no mercy to us!”

	“G-Guildmistress, I'm scared,” the Azumarill squeaked to her.

	“It will be all right,” Florges assured her.  She then asked her invaders, “I have but one question for you: the Inverse Orb- are you under its influence?  What you did to Granbull was unnatural, a Dragon-type move hurting a Fairy-type; even if that was your natural strength you've trained specifically for countering us, you still wouldn't be able to even bruise us. If you are under its effects, then I assume our Fairy-type attacks are ineffective, correct?”

	“You have an eye for observation,” the dragon replied with an intrigued smirk.  “I'll answer your question with a question of my own: do you want to find out?”

	The second the Garchomp tilted over for a charge, a curtain of blue flame engulfed him, taking everyone by surprise! A tall Delphox approached from one of the many hallways connected to the assembly hall, with a wooden staff aimed at the outlaws in one hand, and her daughter in the other.  “Go, now, Cheri,” she told her pup, placing her on the ground, “go find the evacuation party.”

	“But, mother-!”

	“There's no time for arguments!” the mother roared, causing her child to cower.  Taking a few steps back, the Fennekin pup took her mother's advice, running off to find the rest of the guild members.  Wherever they were, at least she would be safer there than here.

	Ku fanned away the sea of fire with a single swing of his left fin; thick clouds of gray smoke filled the hall from its embers attempting to burn the moist grass of the guild floor.  Despite being in the belly of an overwhelming inferno, he showed no scorches or burns across his entire body.  “You'll pay for that,” he hissed at the fox.

	“Forgive my intrusion, guildmistress, but I would like to join in on the fun,” she told Florges with an air of confidence.  “I simply won't allow these barbarians to destroy my home; I've recently made one journey to move here, I refuse to make another.”

	It wasn't much, but the sight of Delphox brought a wave of relief surging through the guildmistress.  “Thank you for joining,” Florges told her, smiling.

	With the addition of the fox on her side, it was now three against three.  “What an interesting development,” the Garchomp said to himself.  “Regardless, adding more people into the fray won't increase their odds of winning- it only increases the number of bodies.”  He shouted to his teammates, “Lono- take the Azumarill; Pele- take the Delphox; I'll have a little talk with our guildmistress.”

	Her collar of hydrangeas glowing pure white, Florges took her hands up to her chest, charging a small ball of greenish-blue energy between her palms; once it grew to the size of a bowling ball, she hurled it at the Garchomp.  Swinging his left claw down like a hammer, Ku responded by Slashing the ball of energy in two, detonating it in front of him.

	Drawing a circle of fire in the air with the end of her staff, Delphox collapsed it into a single point before spewing a tense stream of bright sapphire flame at the female Gabite.  Pele reacted with a stream of flame of her own, colliding her Flamethrower with the fox's Mystical Fire to create a great curtain of inferno that spread across the guild floor.

	Azumarill took a deep breath, and soon fired a high pressured jet of water from her mouth, aiming to take the male Gabite out in a single attack. Covering his chest with both arms, Lono took the impact of her Hydro Pump, trying to hold his ground while the jet of water pushed him back with boulder-crushing force, waiting for the Aqua Rabbit to tire.

	A suspicious noise latched on to Ambipom's ears, making him turn his attention away from his student's practice.  An entire crowd of Pokemon gathered around the teacher and his disciples, though curiosity or amazement wasn't what dragged them out in the forest.

	“Ambipom, what's wrong with them?” Oran asked, observing the same scene the monkey was.

	“Oran, stay with Pecha,” he told him.  “I'll go figure out what's happening, oh-ho.”

	Leaving his students for a second, the double-tailed monkey met with the sudden crowd, but something wasn't right with them to him.  Some hid their faces in paws full of tears; others spaced out with empty eyes as if escaping from an active battlefield. “What has gotten into everyone, oh-ho?” he asked himself.  Among the bunch he saw Loudred, as quiet as a Whismur for once.  “Loudred, what's going on?” Ambipom asked.

	“SOMETHING TRULY TERRIBLE, THAT'S WHAT!” he replied with a shout loud enough to rumble a mountain, everyone around him covering their ears to keep from going deaf.  “THREE OUTLAWS JUST SHOWED UP OUTTA NOWHERE AND STARTED ATTACKING THE GUILD!  THEY EVEN WHACKED GRANBULL!”

	“That's terrible!”  Ambipom screamed.  “What about the Guildmistress?  Is she still all right?”

	“SHE AND AZUMARILL ARE STILL IN THERE,” he explained, “TRYING TO PROTECT THE GUILD.  BUT SOMETHING ABOUT THOSE OUTLAWS ARE JUST WEIRD, I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG FLORGES CAN LAST AGAINST THEM. YOU'RE A TRAINED EXPLORER, AMBIPOM; WHY DON'T YOU GO IN THERE AND HELP?”

	He didn't care how strong the invaders were, or why they want to wreck the guild.  Ambipom had only one answer, and he blurted it without a second thought, “Oh-ho, yeah, like I would ever let those punks destroy my guild!  Watch Pecha and Oran for me; make sure they don't leave the group, oh-ho.  I'm going in to help Guildmistress Florges!”

	“BUT, AMBIPOM, I AIN'T GOOD AROUND-!”	 Having started his run for the guild, Ambipom made a great effort to ignore Loudred's complaint, never looking back to acknowledge him.  “KIDS,” the Loudred sighed.  His perpetually open mouth took on the form of a frown.  “GREAT,” he said to himself, “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KEEP THOSE KIDS AWAY FROM THE GUILD? I'M NOT SO MUCH WORRIED ABOUT THE GIRL; SHE SEEMS TO BE ENJOYIN HER PRACTICE.  IT'S-”

	He felt two light on his right leg.  Looking down, he saw a curious looking Riolu hovering near his kneecap.  “hey, Loudred, do you know what's going on?” Oran asked. “Where's Ambipom going?”

	“NOTHING,” he replied, “NOTHING IS HAPPENING.  WE'RE DEFINITELY NOT BEING ATTACKED BY A GANG OF SUPER STRONG OUTLAWS OR ANYTHING; THAT'S JUST SILLY.  AMBIPOM JUST FORGOT A FEW THINGS, SO HE'LL BE BACK IN A MINUTE OR TWO.”

	“But you just said a second ago-”

	“I SAY A LOT OF THINGS!” the Loudred screamed.  “I'M LITERALLY JUST A BIG MOUTH WITH LEGS- IT'S WHAT I DO! NOW GO BACK TO PRACTICING THROWING YOUR IRON BARBS, OR WHATEVER.”

	“You mean, 'iron thorns'?” Oran corrected him. His eyes drifted away, and his hands locked behind his head. “Nah, I don't like those things all that much; I just feel like heading back inside, and-”

	To his surprise Oran found himself lifted up with ease, Loudred hoisting him by his sides, and suspending him over his head to observe the forest's thick skyline of rich, emerald foliage.  “HEY, LOOK, KID- NATURE!” Loudred exclaimed in a falsely excited tone.  “YA LIKE NATURE, DON'T YA, KID?”

	“Well, of course,” Oran replied back, watching the blanket of leaves above head sway to the slightest touch of wind.  “I live in nature.  I get to see it every day; it gets kinda boring, though, after seeing it so many times, y'know-?”

	“MY MASTER PLAN IS WORKING,” the Loudred thought to himself as the Riolu pup rambled on without much of a care.


	Meanwhile, the guild remained an active war zone.  The moist grass floor became a thin smokescreen from the Gabite and Delphox spreading their fire around; everything below the fighters' feet was a mystery.

	Azumarill, the first to fall in battle, laid on her stomach unconscious, with several light gashes and scratches lining her cerulean body.  Lono loomed over her as the victor, though looking down on her wrote a grimace of self-disgust across his face.  Even after going easy on her, refraining from doing any major damage to her, he felt sick to his stomach just looking at what he was able to do.  If he wasn't under the Inverse Orb's effects, maybe she'd be in better condition.

	His sister's shout caught his ear, “Hey, Lono, get your butt over here!  This one's really starting to get under my scales!”  When he looked over to her battle, he realized she wasn't kidding.  It's been only two minutes since they started fighting, and already Pele huffed and wheezed as if she just ran a marathon; she never learned how to conserve her energy during fights.  

	“Take this!”  Again the Delphox drew a circle of flame midair with her staff, collapsing it into savage stream of inferno.  Except this time, her opponent had tired herself too much to counter, deciding to engulf herself in the ravenous sapphire flames.  But as the Gabite's screams of discomfort suggested, she was unaware the Inverse Orb weakened her natural resistance to fire.

	“Lono!  Don't just stand there,” she shrieked in pain, rolling around the ground in a panic, “do something, you idiot!”  Lono kicked up a small stream of sand with his left fin, using his Sand Attack to douse out the flames devouring his sister before they did any major harm to her.  Pele's cries for mercy turned into a series of coughing fits as she laid flat on her belly.  “Took you long enough,” she coughed out.  Just like Ku, her body failed to register a single scorch mark, even after being turned into a giant ball of fire.

	“Mystical Fire doesn't act like other Fire-type moves,” the Delphox explained to them.  “It lacks the ability to burn, yet your body still registers the sensation of burning.  Being both a Dragon-type and a Ground-type you should have resisted it fairly easily, yet, your reaction to it was interesting.”

	Pele stood herself onto her knees, refusing to lose the fight.  “Why don't ya shut your mouth, ya dumb broad?” she blurted out.  “Your voice makes me wanna puke!”

	Seeing such revolting disrespect from her opponent sent a twitching fit through the fox's right eye brow.  “Is that how you treat your elders?” Delphox growled at her, flinging a ripple of blue inferno at the Gabite with her staff.  But a line of sand intercepted the fire attack, snuffing it about before reaching Pele.  The Fox Pokémon passed an apathetic glance towards the brother, suspecting him of throwing the Sand Attack.  “I prefer you not to interfere,” said the fox witch.

	“You got something in your eyes!”  Whipping his tail across the foggy black ground summoned a splash of sand, aiming directly for the Fire-type's head.  Delphox nudged her head to the left, missing the Dragon's pathetic  Sand Attack.  

	“Fool,” Delphox called the Gabite.  “Did you really think that would work after you called it out?”

	“No,” Lono answered with a confident grin, “but thanks for taking the bait, anyways.”

	At first she had no idea what he was talking about, But then it suddenly dawned on her.  Delphox only took her eyes off her real opponent for a few seconds, but that gave the female Gabite enough time to get up close to her, practically breathing up her robes.  There wasn't enough time to charge another Mystical Fire; in a split-second decision, her deep blue eyes turned entirely purple with psychic energy, erecting an invisible, paper-thin barrier between her and the Gabite.

	Passing through it certainly slowed the Dragon-type down to a noticeable degree, but it failed to stop her from attacking.  Swiping at her lower abdomen with her right claw, to start off her Dual Chop attack, it connected with a light mist of blood.  Then the second claw came, cutting diagonally downward to intersect with the first wound; a little more fluid left the fox's stomach as she toppled like a falling tree, hitting the ground hard on her back. 

	Delphox groaned while wiggling on the ground, using her thick coat arms to slow the heavy bleeding; All she felt in her stomach was a deep burning sensation from her open wounds getting some air.  Had she not used her Reflect, she feared the dragon's claws could have gone deeper.

	As the Fox Pokémon used the wall to her right to help prop her to her knees, the victor towered over her, a smug grin stretching across her face.  “Had enough, yet?” Pele taunted in glee.  “I guess so; you're just all bark, and no bite.”

	“You little, arrogant brat,” Delphox growled in pain.  “I will not allow myself to be talked down by the likes of you-!” in the middle of forcing herself up her knees gave in, and she toppled back to the ground on her stomach.
	The Cave Pokémon burst out laughing at the sight of her enemy falling down, her obnoxious howls rung through the guild like a banshee's wail.  “Look at you; you're a mess!” she hollered, tears nearly trickling down her face.  “Don't think about getting back up- you look better as a rug, anyways!”

	“Leave her alone, already,” Lono told his sister.  “You've won your fight; there's no need to brag about it.”

	Suddenly her desire to laugh died out to a resentful silence.  “Gee, just suck the fun outta everything, why don't ya,” she groaned in a disheartened tone.  That was her brother for her, all right: an enemy to all that is fun.  


	
	Her fight with the Garchomp didn't even remotely feel like a real fight to the Guildmistress.  Her once perfect, porcelain skin now adorned several deep purplish bruises and lightly bleeding scrapes.  With not a single scratch on his scales, it was like he was toying with her, playing with her like she was some child's doll.  To her- he was taunting her abilities.

	“Tired already?” the dragon mocked.  “We haven't even begun, yet.”

	As mush as she wanted to tell him otherwise, the flower wasn't in any condition to lie.  Each irregular breath was heavier than a Stoutland's overheated panting. Even while she slumped to the ground for a few quick gasps, the desert in her mouth kept getting dryer, making it harder to breathe. All of her muscles felt stiff and heavy, having expended so much energy to punish the foe with no payoff.  

	“What you did to Diglett and Granbull, was truly horrendous,” she huffed.  “As Guildmistress, I will stop your terror; no more members will be harmed by your hand!”  Struggling to get back up, she continued, “Even if I must fall, I will not allow your evil to destroy my guild!  As every guildmaster must be, I am prepared to die, to protect the home of so many Pokémon-!”

	Ku's enormous tail slammed into the guildmistress' gut with boulder-shattering strength, knocking the wind out of her lungs and the Florges off her tail, flinging her outside of the guild's entrance to the Verde Forest.  “I've been courteous enough to go easy on you,” said the Garchomp as he strolled to her.  “With this power of mine I could have killed you the moment we started fighting; I kept you alive this long to tell me where your treasury is located.”

	Laying on her back in the pebble-filled dirt, a spot of sun hit her in the eyes.  It gave her an idea: closing her eyes, her collar of blue hydrangeas turned snow white, drawing in energy from the sunlight around her.  The Synthesis continued to draw in the surrounding light, reinvigorating the Garden Pokémon with newfound energy; she didn't need much, just enough to keep her fighting.

	Ku's hefty left foot crashed down on the Florges' arm, disrupting her Synthesis, and pulverizing her left humerus into bone powder.  Biting down on her lip almost hard enough to draw blood, she locked a scream of pain inside of her mouth, filtering it to sound like a discomforting groan to the dragon.  Florges turned her head, trying to rob her opponent the pleasure to watch a heavy flow of tears trickle down her face, but no matter which way she turned, there would always be one eye revealed.

	Grinding his left foot with her arm underneath forced those exquisite screams right out from her throat, and her tears flowed heavier than streams out of a crumbling dam.  “Talk,” he told her in a calm demeanor.  “Where is your treasury?  Your guild will be left unharmed, if you just tell me where it is.”

	Despite squirming around on the ground like an earthworm, filling the air with her stomach-churning howls, Florges kept her lips shut to the hammerhead.  

	Ku bellowed a low growl at the sight of the guildmistress' noncompliance; a new persuasion tactic was needed.  He lifted his foot off the Garden Pokémon's broken arm, only to place his right foot on the side of her head, placing firm pressure, but not enough to squish it like a grape.  Ku ground her face into the dirt, until she was locked in place to stare at the inside of her guild through watery eyes.  

	“Look, Guildmistress,” the dragon told her, “look at your guild.  Watch what your stubbornness rewarded you with.”  The leader called out to his observing teammates from the inside, “Lono, Pele: destroy the guild!  Leave nothing standing!”

	The female Gabite was all too happy to carry out his order.  A calm vortex of sand formed around her at first, but the entire inside of the assembly hall was soon devoured by the devastating storm.  Fine particles of earth produced by her Sand Tomb wore down the walls at an alarming rate, until the ceiling overhead collapsed from having nothing left supporting it.  Like meteors from the sky, the ceiling collapsed into large chunks of stone, burying both the unconscious Azumarill and Delphox underneath hills of rubble.

	Her entire pride and joy was being destroyed by a simple sandstorm- and she was forced to watch every second of it.  She was forced to watch her guild, her home, be converted into an unrecognizable ruin in a hand-made desert.  Florges tried wiggling her head out of her captor's grasp, to avoid another moment of devastation, but Ku's foothold held strong and firm; the more she struggled, the harder he pressed down.

	“Stop,” the guildmistress gave in, begging while catching a mouthful of dirt, “please, stop!  I'll do as you ask- just leave the rest of my guild alone!  I'm begging you!”

	The dragon lifted his foot from her tear-soaked face, believing in her surrender.  Signaling for his teammate to put a cap on her Sand Tomb,  He told the guildmistress, “Then be a good girl, and tell me: where is your treasury?  If this is a trick, I have no qualms with squashing your head like a berry underneath my foot.”

	At first she couldn't speak coherently underneath her heavy sobbing.  But she took a few seconds to collect some calmness to speak, “The- the treasury is underneath my desk, in my office, west wing.  It's all collected inside a treasure chest.  We are a- we're a rural guild- we don't receive much, anyways; it's all we have.  So, please, just take it, and leave,” she told him before her tears started running, again.  

	The dragon gave a slight smirk, satisfied with his prey giving in to his demands. “There; was that so hard?” he asked as if belittling her.

	A furious shout broke from behind the Garchomp as he turned his back and started walking for the guild, “Hey, you!  Get away from the guildmistress!”  An aggressive Ambipom caught up to him, ten feet in the air, preparing to strike him with a savage punch from one of his tails.

	Ku blocked the attack from his right tail by covering his upper body with his arm fins, unflinching at its sheer impact as it drove him backwards.  Ambipom landed several feet away by ricocheting off his opponent; the Garchomp's entire left fin was nearly turned black, but he read no signs of pain from his face.  

	“Oh-ho, how are you still standing?” Ambipom demanded.  “That punch was strong enough to even fall a redwood tree; how did it not break your arms?”

	“Oh?  Was I supposed to feel something?” the shark taunted, a wide, toothy smile stretching across his face.  “Because I didn't feel a thing.”  He turned to his teammates inside the ruins, “Lono, Pele: find the treasury,” he ordered.  “I'll deal with this monkey, myself.”  Given the order, the Gabite pair ran off deeper into the guild, hunting for their treasure.

	“You'll pay for-”

	Ku cut him off, “For destroying your home- I know; I can't go five seconds without you worms reminding me.  It disturbs me that so many of you fell for that guise.  Do you know what a guild really is?  What it really is: is a work camp, leeching off what little their 'explorers' rake in.  You risk your life, possibly even die, to earn just a measly handful of Poké, while the Guildmaster gets comfy with your earnings.”

	A look of confusion struck the two-tailed monkey, unable to decipher what he's saying.  “Oh-ho?  Which guild did you come from that does that?”

	“Why does it matter to you?” Ku asked.  “You're going to die in a few moments!”  Digging his right foot beneath the Florges' barely conscious body, he flung her at Ambipom!

	Distracted by his flying guildmistress, he took his eyes off his opponent for a few seconds to catch her in his scrawny arms; for someone built like a slender flower, she packed some serious weight!

	A sudden shadow blotted out the sun; in just a few short moments, Ku towered over the monkey, poised to strike!  He brought his right claw down with the weight of a sledgehammer, but the nimble Ambipom dodged by jumping backwards several feet.

	“What an attack,” the Normal-type remarked to himself, observing the thick cloud of dirt that engulfed the dragon whole.  “Had I taken it, Florges and I would've been torn apart like paper, oh-ho!  I can't mess around with this guy; first, I need to find a safe spot to put the guildmistress down.  But where is 'safe'?”

	“Nowhere's safe,” Ku remarked, as his veil of earth cleared, revealing him once more.  “If you lay her down, who's to say I won't attack her?”

	“You're a monster!” screamed Ambipom.  “What are you gaining from attacking us?”

	“That's a good question,” Ku replied.  “A good question that I don't have the time to answer!”  From underneath his feet he summoned a whirling maelstrom of sand, using it as a veil to block his opponent's line of sight.

	The storm howled relentlessly, causing the Ambipom to close his eyes shut; his whole body stung from resisting the sand blasting him at a high velocity.  But through it all he kept the guildmistress close to his chest.  “You're Sand Tomb doesn't faze me!” Ambipom's scream broke through the storm.  “You're gonna have to try a lot harder if you wanna beat me!”

	The sandstorm died off, but there was no trace of the Dragon-type anywhere; only a large hole was left where he used to stand.  His heart beat like a racing Rapidash, and his nerves hardened to steel. The inside of his head buzzed like a hive of angry Combee, turning every direction in a frantic sweep.

	“Where could he be, oh-ho?” he asked himself.  “It's unlikely he's retreating- he doesn't seem like that kind of Pokémon.  So, is he going to attack me from the front?  Or maybe from behind?”  A loud gulp rung through his throat, “What if he's planning a sneak attack on the evacuation party?”

	Following the sound of the earth exploding behind him, a sharp pain traveled up his spine, causing him to drop his leader from his tight grasp. Turning around, he saw the outlaw reappear, but with both of his tails laying beside him.  

	Hyperventilating, he patted down the bleeding stubs where his precious extensions used to be, hoping this was some kind of dream.  It wasn't.  “What did you do to my tails?” screamed Ambipom.

	“The same thing I'm going to do to you,” the outlaw replied.	


	Obnoxious fumes of foliage and chlorophyll invaded the land sharks' nostrils as they entered a small room housing no more than a hand-grown garden of various colors, and a desk; it was like walking in to an Aromatisse parlor!  What a bland, little office: nothing gave the room any sort of personality, aside from the few cornrows of dirt that sprouted a plethora of different flowers.  

	“Where could it be?” Pele asked.

	Her brother responded, “She said she kept a treasure box under her desk.”

	“Oh, really?”  She walked up to the dark oak desk; placing her claws underneath its ledges, she tossed it at a nearby wall, smashing it into a broken heap of wood.  There it was, begging to be taken: a wooden box with a dark finish, large enough for the both of them to carry.

	Bending over, Pele tried picking it up by herself.  It wouldn't budge, her single-clawed hands were unable to get a solid grip; very time she pulled up, it would just slip out of her grasp.

	“You can do better than that, Pele,” Lono remarked.

	The sister took several huffs, not of exhaustion, but out of frustration.  “Oh, forget this!” She reeled her left leg back, and delivered a swift kick to the box, its top exploding into a spray of fine splinters.  Inside were several sacs, some big, and some small.  “Lono, fill your bag up with these,” she told him.

	Lining the inside of his bag with the numerous coin purses, its single strap thrown over his right shoulder started choking him from its accumulating weight.  Just one big sac of Poke was almost enough to fill his pouch entirely!  “I don't think they can all fit.”

	“Shut up, and do !” the sister exploded, startling her brother into a faster pace of scooping up the loot.  

	By the time he was finished, his bag was overfilling with Poke; he felt like he was put in a chokehold by the strap over his shoulder.  “Okay, Pele, let's go,” he wheezed, “you have no idea how uncomfortable this is.”


	Ambipom crashed into the face of a large tree back first, kicking all air out of his lungs.  Black spots littered his purple body, and a massive shiner closed his left eye entirely; his body became too weak and broken to even stand himself up.  Consciousness came as quickly as it went, often blurring his vision of the dragon towering over him.

	 “I'm surprised you still decided to stay and fight,” he told him, “considering I've crippled your only means of effective attack.  Either: you stayed out of obligation, or desperation.”

	Ambipom said nothing to him, focusing his remaining energy on breathing, albeit they were very weak.  

	Ku looked down upon the hurting creature, with not a single shred of regret.  But something about the sight of him disgusted the Dragon-type: his broken appearance reminded him of his own pain from long ago. 

	“Look at you,” he snarled, “all broken and vulnerable; you disgust me.  You are probably thinking to yourself: 'if I were any stronger, I could have prevented this'.  Regardless of how many times the weak convince themselves they're strong, there's always something to prove them wrong.  You think relying on the guild makes you strong?  Look-” his right eye shifted to the downed Fairy-type, “your caretaker couldn't do anything to stop this.  What does that say about your dependency? Such a reliance is why weak spirits as yourself exist.”  He turned back to the monkey, “And that reliance on her got you in the state you are in, now.  I can see it in your eye: you want it to end.  Don't worry- it will.”  Extending his right fin, he placed it firmly across the battered Ambipom's throat.  

	All the monkey could do was grip at the fin, kicking up mounds of dirt to try and break free.  Breathing soon turned to constricted gurgling, and tears tread down his open eye.  After a few seconds his strength started failing him, his grip on the dragon turning limp.  It didn't take long until his arms fell to his side, hanging lifelessly as he drew a long sigh.  As soon as Ku let go, the monkey flopped onto the ground.

	Ku stared at the lifeless husk, now sleeping peacefully on the grassy floor.  He wanted a formidable fight from the guild; in the past ten minutes, he had nothing that even resembled a fight.  Three members have died, while three more remained critically injured.  All the while he stood victorious without a scratch.  The Inverse Orb was to blame, for the most part: it made all those “fights” boring to him.  No wonder why it was banned from use in the first place.

	“Ku!” A male voice broke from the background calling for him, grabbing his attention.  He saw both Lono and Pele back from the Guildmistress' office, but with no aforementioned chest.  Instead, Lono's satchel was full to the brim with its loot.  “Our time is up,” Lono cried, “We need to go!”

	“I couldn't agree more,” he shouted back, “it's no fun fighting these worms, anyways.”  

	Ku felt like he was forgetting something.  As he stepped over the unconscious body of the guildmistress, he gazed down at her from his shoulder.  Florges looked so peaceful in her sleep, except her left arm bent in a twisted, mangled way.  She was left wide open; he could kill her in an instant, and she won't even know it.  But that would be no fun.  “I'll let despair do the job for me,” he told himself as he turned away from her.

	When he stepped back into the destroyed assembly hall, the soft sand covering the ground, getting in between his toes, reminded him of the desert he used to call home.  But now wasn't the time for reminiscing.   

	“My taste for battle has grown stagnant,” he told his team members in an unsatisfied growl.  “I expected them to give me a fight, but apparently that was asking too much of them.  Even killing them felt like I was doing them a favor.  Disgusting.”  He turned to Lono, and asked, “Do you have all of it?”

	The Gabite flipped his faded brown pouch open, revealing the many sacs of Poke stacked over its brim.  “Pele couldn't lift the chest,” he told him, “so she had to improvise.  But, yes, we got it all.”

	“Good.  Very good,” Ku said.  “Now, I don't have to spend another second meddling with these degenerates.”

	“There, there, good,” a mysterious female's voice rung through the eastern hallway, accompanied by the quiet screech of an object grazing against a wall.  Telling by her tone she was rushed, like she quickly needed to be somewhere.  “You're doing fine,” she said to someone unknown, “just a little further, then we'll make it with everyone else.” 

	Seconds later, two Pokemon emerged from the corridor: one of them was a Blissey, adorning a pure white gown and nurse's cap.  She hovered next to a Scyther, directing him as he slowly made his way through the hall.  The Bug-type looked taped together, many little white strips and bandages patched all over his mint green exoskeleton.  They must have been late to taking the evacuation call.
	
	“Just keep walking,” the nurse told him.  “We're almost-” she stopped in her tracks.  

	“Nurse?  What is it?” the Scyther asked.  “Why did you stop?”  When he looked in front of him, he found himself speechless.   Three Pokemon unknown to him stood in what used to be the assembly hall, which was now a makeshift wasteland.  To his horror, he noticed Azumarill and Delphox buried under a mound of debris passed out, or possibly even worse.

	“Who are you three?” Blissey demanded them in a frightened squeal.  “What have you done to the guild?”

	“You two were late to the party,” Ku told the nurse and her patient.  “We don't take kindly to latecomers.”

	Gazing around the room in shock, it didn't take the pink egg very long to realize the dragons' sheer strength.  Her muscles locked up in tension, only being able to tremble.  “C-could you let us pass through, please?” she asked them in a quivering voice.  “I-I-I wasn't trained to fight; I-I'm just a nurse!”

	“All the more reason to quash you!” Pele snapped at her, sending a shock down her spine.  A stream of intense fire left the Gabite's mouth, roaring straight for the nurse with the intent of cooking her like the frightened egg she was.

	In a quick moment of selflessness, the Scyther stepped in front of the Blissey, taking her place to be engulfed by the flames as her shield.  His blood-curdling roars drowned out the crackling of the flames, and he collapsed to the ground rolling, hoping to use the soft earth to snuff out the blaze.  But the Flamethrower still persisted, constantly adding new fire before the old inferno had a chance to die out.

	It only stopped after a few seconds when Pele interrupted it with a sudden cough.  Puffs of smoke now bellowed from her maw as she hacked up a storm.  “Man, what was up with that just now?” she asked herself in a scratchy voice, before clearing her throat again.

	Scyther's bonfire dissipated to just a few embers, revealing the full horrors of his condition to the Blissey: his bright lime skin was now charcoal black.  His thin wings completely burned away like they were made of paper.  His body raised and lowered faintly, showing her that he was still conscious- for now.

	“S-Scyther!” Blissey shouted as tears ran down her cheeks.

	Before she attempted to touch him, Ku barked, “You there: run!  Do you want to share a similar fate?”

	The Happiness Pokemon stood frozen in fear, overloaded by her thoughts.  She wanted to do as he said and run; on the other hand, she couldn't just leave Scyther by himself in his burned state.  

	“Run!” Ku barked at her even louder.  Eventually, she gave in to him before he gave in to his rage, and waddled out to the forest where everyone else was.

	“Why'd you let her go?” Pele questioned him.  “Do you know who that was?”

	“I'm well aware,” Ku answered.  “She would have been a nuisance had we fought her: even with our combined efforts, it would take all day just to scratch her.  My patience has been stretched far enough with this pathetic place.  We have what we came for- so let's just leave.”

	One moment, the team hid behind a violent vortex of sand; in the next, they were gone, with a large gaping crater appearing where they used to be.


	For the past ten minutes, strange noises and smoke emitted from the guild.  The occasional screams of familiar voices got on everyone's mind, even Oran's.  From the sounds of it, something interesting was happening, and here he was, suspended five feet in the air by Loudred, only able to observe the clouds above.  If he wanted to free himself, he had to devise a quick plan.

	“Hey, Loudred,” he said, “I have to pee.”

	“HUH?  OH, OKAY.”  The moment he placed him on the ground and let go, the Riolu dashed straight for the guild!  “ORAN, YOU LITTLE LIAR!  WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!” the Loudred shouted, finally realizing what the blue jackal pup was planning.  “DON'T GO THAT WAY!  ORAN!”

	“Loudred, what's going on?” Pecha asked, taking time off her practice to notice almost everybody had gathered outside.  “What's happening?”

	“NOTHING, NOTHING'S HAPPENING,” Loudred assured her nervously.  “I ASSURE YOU, I HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL; THE GUILD ISN'T BEING DESTROYED, AND OUTLAWS ARE DEFINITELY NOT ATTACKING US.  JUST KEEP PRACTICING YOUR IRON BARBS, WHILE I FETCH YOUR BROTHER.”  Loudred gave chase to the little Riolu pup.

	The trees zoomed past him like brown blurs as he made his run.  Suddenly he put on his brakes, sliding across the dirt floor before stopping in front of his first warning sign.  Ambipom's body laid in front of a tree, while his severed tails were strewn everywhere.  The guildmistress herself was in no better condition, having fainted in the middle of the trail, with her left arm bending in a naturally impossible angle.  

	Hovering above the downed leader, he saw Blissey flipping Florges' unconscious body around to examine every bruise and broken bone.  “No fatal injuries, as far as I can tell,” she said to herself, “but you need attention, pronto.”

	“Hey, miss, what happened?” Oran asked, startling the nurse from her work.  

	She took a large sigh of relief, “Oh, Oran, you startled me.  It was those outlaws- they did all this!  First, they burned Scyther right in front of me, and now I see they've knocked Guildmistress Florges unconscious, and killed Ambipom!  And  I'm sure that's not even all they did!”

	“What?”  His tightening fist croaked loudly and trembled; anger swelled inside him like a boiler under pressure.  He couldn't create a single consistent thought about the scene before him, but one: “unforgivable”.  Who could have done such a thing?  But one thing he was sure of: whoever did this must be very strong.

	Leaping over the leader's body, he dashed straight for the guild, without a second thought.  Most rational Pokemon would turn away after witnessing what he saw; he used it as a reason to push forward.

	“W-wait, Oran,” Blissey cried for him, “don't go in there!  You don't know the danger you're getting yourself into!”

	Oran tuned her out.


	Oran's hind paws sunk into the soft sand that flooded the floor as he entered the assembly hall- or what's left of it, anyways.  The stone dome that once sheltered him was converted into a sun roof, while large chunks of ceiling laid on top the ground like monoliths sitting in a wasteland.  The surrounding walls showed varied signs of erosion, from light scratches, to deep, compromising scars.

	A strange object caught the edge of his eye: it was black, charred, like a large piece of charcoal.  He ran over to it to have a closer look: he noticed two thin blades laying beside the object, singed to a toasty brown color.  

	“S-Scyther?”  The pile of ash still had a recognizable form, and it still showed weak signs of breathing.  But even just the softest touch from Oran sent the bug in a screaming frenzy, flailing about like he's gone mad from the pain.

	He startled the Riolu into backing away immediately, tumbling onto his butt.  For a few seconds Oran's heart galloped, calmed by a gulp of air.  

	The bug finally calmed from his tormented rampage.  A mellow wave of guilt formed at the bottom of the jackal's stomach; Scyther would have been better off had he not decided to touch him.  “Scyther,” Oran said to himself under a low voice, “who did this to you?”

	He turned to his left, and spotted a massive hole that took up at least a third of the floor that he somehow missed.  Lightly jogging toward it, he peered down from its edge: not much of the bottom was visible within the thick veil of darkness.  Though it seemed shallow enough to jump in without much injury.

	“ORAN!  ORAN! COME BACK!”  Loudred's roaring cries grew louder as he approached closer; from the sounds of it, he was almost to the entrance.

	Oran gazed down the darkness once more.  “If I let Loudred catch me, I won't find who did this,” he told himself.  “No way I'm gonna let'em get away with this!  If no one can beat these guys- then I will!”  Lead by his determination to avenge his fallen home, the pup reeled back a step, before leaping into the crater of darkness.

	“ORAN!” Loudred burst into the destroyed room, shouting for the little pup, but Oran didn't respond back.  Light sweat soaked his lavender skin, giving it somewhat of a shine in the bright sunlight.  His winded panting sounded more like disgruntled roaring.  For just running a few miles, he felt like he was about to pass out.

	His eyes scanned the miniature wasteland for the blue pup- nothing but sand, sand, and more sand.  But he felt his stomach drop at the sight of a blackened, charred husk, sickening him that he immediately recognized it: Scyther.  “O-OH, NO,” he told himself in a slight panic, shaking his head multiple times.  “OH, NO-NO-NO-NO.  THIS AIN'T GOOD; THIS AIN'T GOOD AT ALL.  EVEN SCYTHER, THEY GOT SCYTHER, TOO?”

	A discomforting groan from within the large hole tugged at the Normal-type's ears.  Peeping down, he noticed the defiant Riolu hiding in the dark, rubbing his calves to massage the pain away.  “ORAN,” his voice reverberated down the hole, somehow becoming louder than it naturally was, “ARE YOU OKAY, KID?”

	“Y-yeah, I'm fine,” he answered back in a sore whimper.  “I just hurt my legs a little; it's nothing much.  This hole was deeper than I thought!”

	“WELL THEN, GET YOUR BUTT BACK UP HERE,” the Normal-type told him.  “YOU'LL BE SAFER UP HERE!”

	Oran sprung back up to his feet, and argued back, “Well, I'm not doing this to be safe: I'm doing this to get back at whoever did this to the guild!  Are you telling me you're just gonna let'em get away with this?”

	“YES!” Loudred bluntly shouted.

	“Where's your guild pride?” Oran asked.

	“KID, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT 'GUILD PRIDE'?” Loudred asked back.  “WHAT YOU'RE DOING ISN'T GUILD PRIDE- IT'S SUICIDE!  DIDN'T YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID TO AMBIPOM, SCYTHER, AND THE GUILDMISTRESS?  YOU'LL-!”

	“Yeah, I know- I'm gonna avenge'em!” Oran told him with a confident smile.  “Don't worry, I'll save some bad guys for you, too; come down here, and join me!”

	“NO THANKS,” the Loudred said, “I'D RATHER STAY UP HERE, AND HAVE YOU COME UP, SO I CAN CATCH YOU.”

	“Suit yourself!”  The Riolu didn't turn back.  Even with the Normal-type calling for him several times more, warning him to come back, Oran blocked him out as he dashed deeper into the one-way tunnel.  

	Loudred stood motionless from the edge of the hole.  He had one simple job- and he blew it.  But the job itself wasn't what riled his nerves to hardened steel.  “WELP, I TRIED,” he told himself.  “I GUESS THIS IS THE END: WHEN LOPUNNY FINDS OUT ABOUT THIS, IT'LL BE GOODBYE ME, FOR SURE.  WHAT A WAY TO BE DONE IN.”



	Team Sharktooth landed themselves into a strange cave that emitted its own light, which eliminated any darkness that would otherwise be considered normal.  They quickly concluded it was a Mystery Dungeon, though it was the smallest they've been in.  A Graveler tried throwing them a welcome party; he became no more than a heap of rubble.

	Piles of gold coin were spread in front of the dragons in small piles. The male Gabite's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he finished counting each one.  “Whoa, fifty-thousand Poke,” he exclaimed in the most astonished tone he could muster, which could easily be misheard as sarcasm.  “We were actually lucky, for once: we must have pillaged them on one of their good weeks.”

	“Hmm,” the standing Garchomp on lookout hummed to himself.  “No, it's still not enough.”

	“What do you mean, 'this still isn't enough'?” Lono asked.  “It's enough for us to retire right now, though I prefer to have a little more: Pele could blow through this all too easily-”

	“Hey!” The sister jumped from her sitting position to approach her brother in a hostile manner.  “If you got something to say, say it straight to my face!” Pele screamed above him.

	Lono only gave her a side glance from his sleepy glare.  “You're so loud,” he told her, “You don't need to blow your top off so close to me-”

	“Stop arguing!” Ku burst into a furious roar almost loud enough to collapse the cave on top of their heads.  “You two are getting on my very last nerve!” The twins remained silent to prevent from provoking him any further.  After a moment Ku's burning, venomous glare softened to a collected calm, and he told them, “That Poke is not enough; I want more.  We're not gonna stop until we hit every guild.  We were sloppy the first time; this time we won't be.”

	“Then let's hit Slowking Guild, next,” Lono suggested.  “It's the closest one to Florges Guild.  And from what I've heard, they're rolling in Poke- practically drowning in it-”

	“We are hitting Machamp Guild, next,” Ku said.

	“What?  Why?” Lono demanded, raising his mellow voice to a somewhat frustrated growl.  “They're located in the heart of the Espectro Badlands: even if we dig our way there, it's at least gonna take us a week to get there!  Azul Shores will only take us about a day to get there, maybe even less!  Don't tell me you want to go all the way to Espectro just because you're bored!”

	“That is exactly my reason,” Ku told him.  “Florges Guild left a bad taste in my mouth; they were weaker than I anticipated.  I need something to rekindle my taste for battle- and Machamp Guild will do exactly that.  I don't care how long it takes us to get there; it'll be worth watching that guild tumble and fall.”
	
	A suspicious sound bellowed from their tunnel, like an intruder was trying to climb their way to them.  A few seconds later, a strange dog-like Pokemon emerged, small in stature and clad in blue and black, with his crimson eyes hiding behind a mask-like fur pattern.  “Whew, I finally made it,” the pup huffed, catching his energy from the elevated climb.

	He stared down three hammerheads from the other side of the cave, all three looking back at him in various degrees of confused silence.  Who was this strange Pokemon?  For that matter, what  was this strange Pokemon?

	“You should head home to your mommy, little one,” Ku finally broke the silence.  “If you came here to fight, it's not in your best interests.  I've had enough weaklings to deal with to last me a while.”

	“That's why I'm here,” Oran shouted at him, “you guys trashed my home pretty bad!”  The young pup raised his fist to the dragon leader, and shouted once more, “None of the other members could stop you- but I will!  Believe it or not, I had a dream like this, once: I faced a Pokemon that looked just like you, but with less scars.  That was the first reason I wanted to fight you, because I couldn't finish that dream; now you gave me an even better reason!  I won't let you get away with what you did to the guild!”

	The Garchomp left himself in a stupefied daze, and his face froze in an expression unable to fathom the sheer idiocy he was fed.  Something was loose in this child's head, he just knew it.

	“Can you believe this kid?” Pele whispered to him.  “The audacity on this one; it's just unbelievable!”

	Ku broke free from his stupor, morphing his face into a listless grimace.  He decided how to deal with the intruder: the boy wanted a fight, so he'll get his fight.  “Very well, child,” Ku told him, “I will grant your wish to battle- just you and me.”

	“Ku, you can't be serious-” Lono whispered to him.

	“At least let me fight this pipsqueak,” Pele growled.

	The Garchomp ignored them, continuing on, “I will give you one free shot- use any move you wish against me- make it count.”

	The Riolu didn't even need to think about the move he was going to use.  Blue mist swirled in between his paws, collecting and condensing into an orb the size of a grapefruit.  It was no ordinary Aura Sphere: he poured all of his determination, all of his hopes of defeating the enemy within this one attack.  Once ready, he let it loose in a blue blur, the sphere screamed with a loud whisper-like wail before burying the Garchomp in a violent explosion of dust and earth.

	Lono's face froze agape, and his eyes widened from their tired gaze.  “What an attack,” he said to himself, after witnessing his leader being smitten in front of him.  “I didn't realize this Pokemon knew such a powerful technique.”  Telling by his sister's same expression of surprise, they were on the same page for once.

	A quiet, yet unsettling chuckle came from within the thick veil of earth.  The dust settled, unraveling the Dragon-type with not a single scratch on his body.  “Pathetic, I didn't even feel that,” Ku hissed at the pup.  

	“You were supposed to blow up!” Oran shouted, pointing at the dragon.  “Why didn't you blow up?”

	“I gave you a free shot, and you wasted it so casually,” he remarked.  “Now, it's my turn.”


	Lopunny's snoring roared through all of Unido.  Taking a day off from her explorer duties she decided to spend it sleeping in- ever since this morning arrived, she fell into a heavy, coma-like slumber.  Every now and then a girlish groan escaped her mouth, following her tossing and turning in bed from whatever indecent dream her lewd mind cooked up.

	Something tickled the inside of her nose, irritating enough to disturb the Normal-type from her wonderful dreams; snorting only made it worse.  Her thunderous sneeze rumbled the surrounding foundation, causing her to scramble around into sitting upright in a blink of an eye.   

	Her crimson eyes couldn't see a thing in her room: everything hid behind a dense fog of dust.  “Ugh,” she groaned in disgust into her elbow, covering her mouth, “where did all this stuff come from?  How long have I been breathin' this in?”  Unrolling her cloak from its pillow form, she tied it around her nose and mouth, then walked out of her room.


	“Oran?  Pecha?” Lopunny called out, muffled by her mask, but no response returned.  No matter where she went, the air was heavily laced with dust; It seemed to her the farther she walked into the guild, the more sand she tracked in her cream colored feet.  “Ugh,” she groaned to herself, “so much sand laying around; I'd rather be in bed, than deal with this.”

	She reached the end of the hallway, and the full horror kicked in: the entire assembly hall disappeared, turned into a field of rubble with only the walls remaining.  Nurse Blissey roamed about with several of her Double Team duplicates, clearing debris, and pulling the unconscious bodies of both Delphox and Azumarill from the wreckage.  One Blissey kept herself busy analyzing what looked to be a burned up, shriveled corpse, while a handful more gathered three bulky, bloodied tarps, laying each one side by side.  The real nurse remained with the guildmistress, mending her left arm back in working condition underneath a strange pulse of energy.

	“Whoa, what happened here?” Lopunny asked.  “Did you guys throw a party?  Without me?”

	“LOPUNNY!” Loudred sprinted towards her as if his life depended on it.  From the looks of him, he was short on breath, and about ready to suffer a nervous breakdown.  “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THIS ENTIRE TIME?”

	“Sleeping,” she told him in a tired, disgruntled tone.  “What did I miss?”

	“THREE OUTLAWS CAME OUTTA NOWHERE, AND DESTROYED US- THAT'S WHAT!”  Loudred shouted.  “AND WORSE THAN THAT: ORAN RAN OFF TO FIGHT THEM ON HIS OWN!  OUR BEST EXPLORERS COULDN'T EVEN SCRATCH THEM; WHAT DO YA THINK THEY'LL DO TO A KID LIKE HIM?”

	“Yeah, that does sound kinda bad,” Lopunny replied, scratching her left cheek.  “All right: I'll go get Oran, then.”  She gazed to her right, spotting a ginormous gaping opening near the entrance to Verde Forest.  “Lemme guess: he went down there, right?” she asked him, pointing at it.

	“YEAH,” he said.  “I TRIED STOPPIN' HIM, BUT HE JUST WOULDN'T LISTEN!  I'M TELLIN' YA, THOSE OUTLAWS WILL BE TOO MUCH FOR HIM; HE'S GONNA END UP HURT, OR WORSE!”

	“I gotcha, no need to say more!  I'll go rescue him!”  Darting for the hole, she hopped down its gullet, descending about thirty feet into its dark belly before hitting the bottom.  
She glimpsed down its pitch black corridor, running faster than her like could muster towards the faint glimmer of light at the end.  Her voice echoed, “And maybe while I'm at it, I'll even take care of those outlaws!”


	From the dragon leaning slightly toward him, the Riolu knew he was about to do something.  In a quick decision he reverted behind his arms, which were stiffly crossed in front of his chest in a defensive stance.

	Ku smirked, recognizing the formation his opponent instantly adopted: his foe was attempting to Counter his attack.  “Smart boy,” he said, “but you jumped too quickly to assumptions!”  Swinging his right fin with tremendous force, he kicked up a ravenous Sand Tomb which devoured the blue pup in no less than a second.  

	He broke from his stance, moving his arms in front of his face to keep the rapid streams of dust from blinding him.  Trapped inside a merciless vortex, he felt his body being stripped of his fur one strand at a time by the plucking sands.  

	All of a sudden the storm stopped, disappearing as if it never happened.  By the time Oran opened his eyes and realized why, it was already too late: the Garchomp was just inches away from him, too close for him to react in time.  The dragon swerved to his right, slamming the full girth of his tail into him, knocking him off his feet with little difficulty.

	Oran was thrown as easily as a ball into a right side wall many feet away, the sudden collision taking most of the air out of his lungs as he flopped back on to the ground.  He gasped loudly several times like a Magicarp out of water, grasping his throat.

	Looking up with shaky eyes, the Garchomp was already towering above him.  Ku spun around for another whip of his tail, throwing the young pup off the ground once again, and violently tumbling across the hard rock floor many feet away from him.  

	The impact knocked the wind right back into his lungs, but the pup's cerulean fur became dotted with innumerable scarlet scratches and cuts from skipping and rolling across the rugged surface.  His breathing spotty and rough, Oran struggled to push himself back up to his feet, as if a tremendous weight was strapped to his back.  Even as he stood, he seemed barely conscious, often fighting back a collapse; his determination alone kept him awake.

	“You picked a fight with the wrong shark, boy,” the dragon told him.  

	Oran let out a desperate roar as he charged at the Mach Pokemon.  While being flailed at his left knee, Ku felt nothing, not even a slight thumping from each hit, before punting the jackal away from him.  “You disappoint me,” he told the Riolu, walking towards him from his side.  “Where has all your pride gone?  I wanted to see more of your ambition, but it was nothing but talk.”

	Defeat never sat well with the child.  While pushing himself off his belly his feeble arms trembled, ready to give in to his own weight.  Blood dripped from the Riolu's snout onto the floor beneath in a little red puddle.  Faint grunts of frustration and anger filled his breath, accompanying an occasional painful cough that left his throat aching after clearing.

	Even with a young body as ragged and broken as his, he still remained adamant to fight; the boy confused desperation for gallantry.  “You are a waste of my time,” Ku growled.  “Now that I think about it, I don't know why I chose to battle a child, if there was really nothing to gain from it.  At least that mutt and monkey put up something resembling a fight; killing you won't even be pleasurable.”

	“You...you killed Ambipom,” he growled in a wrathful whisper.  “You killed Granbull.  You keep hurting my friends!” Oran roared to the sky, “There no way I'm gonna let you get away!  No matter what I'll beat you, here and now-!”

	Ku dropped his right foot like a sledgehammer on both of the Riolu's legs, crunching them between a hundred pounds of weight and the hard, rocky surface, silencing the pup for a moment.  When the pain caught up, hurt accompanied his roar instead of rage, his cries for the pain to stop was like nails on a chalkboard.  Tears fell out of his eyes like waterfalls, while he screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to rake his way out of the dragon's hold. 

	“It disgusts me watching someone cry during battle,” the dragon bellowed. “You wanted to fight me; the least you can do is have some dignity while in pain.”  Slowly twisting his foot around, the jackal's screams grew to a deafening screech.  Oran soaked the rock floor beneath in a heavy flow of tears, while the painfulness compelled his unrestrained body to flop about for freedom from the dragon's foothold; once again, his efforts were in vain.

	“Enough crying!” the dragon exploded in a fit of rage.  With all of his unbridled fury, he delivered a kick to the Riolu's stomach with almost enough power to break him in two.  When the blue pup finally hit the floor ten feet away, he became unable to left himself back up to continue the fight.  Instead he laid broken, with only the occasional muscle spasm to indicate he's still alive.  “Pathetic,” Ku remarked.

	He stepped closer to his beaten prey, his claws wishing to spill more blood to cure his displeasure.  He had no qualms with having a child join his list of victims- he had it coming.

	Just as he approached the broken pup for the finishing kill, the Gabite brother rushed to stand between his leader and his victim, wearing a mask of disapproval and disgust.

	“Out of my way,” Ku demanded in a calm demeanor.

	“Not not letting you kill this one,” Lono told him.

	“Oh?  Then tell me, are you going to finish him off for me?” the leader asked.

	“Watching you kill all those Pokemon was one thing,” Lono said.  His usually laid back tone erupted in a roar of anger, “but this is a child you are wanting to kill!  Does he really need to die just because he made a stupid decision to fight you?”

	“Yes,” The Garchomp said bluntly.  “He was wanting to fight me: this is merely his punishment.  Are you going to stop me?”

	the Gabite hesitated to speak, deciding to first gulp down his nerves.  “I'll try,” he muttered.  “I'm done playing outlaw with you; I'm done watching other Pokemon suffer because of us!  If you want to kill this child, first, you have to get through me-!”

	Ku made sure he made his disobedient team member regret those words.  In a heavy, yet swift motion, he swung at the Gabite with the back of his right claw like a hammer to his rib cage, throwing the smaller dragon out of his sight.

	Fifteen feet away the Gabite crashed back onto the hard surface back first.  He coughed into the ground beneath him, splattering it with little droplets of blood.  He gritted his teeth together as he pushed himself back up, but a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest kept him pinned to the floor.

	“Don't be so impatient to die, Lono,” Ku told him, “you'll have your turn: after I'm finished with the child, I'll kill you next.”

	A suspicious sound of quick footsteps came from the tunnel Ku dug earlier- another guest was soon to be expected.  A blur shot straight from the tunnel's mouth, and soon after, a Lopunny landed back onto the cave floor with the grace of a trained gymnast.  Even in this cavern she couldn't escape the heavy blanket of dust wafting in the air, heavy enough to fog up her vision somewhat.  But what she could make out was her son, appearing broken and near death to her laying on the ground, with a hulking dragon towering over him.

	“Hey, you,” she shouted at the Garchomp, pointing straight at him, “get away from my son!”

	“Oh?  So this odd creature is your son?” Garchomp asked.  “Funny, I don't recall Buneary looking like this.  But no matter: he wanted to fight me, and I obliged him. Sadly, I'm not in the mood for company.”  He the remaining Gabite, “Pele, be a good girl, and take care of our unwanted guest.”

	“Right!”  Pele charged straight for the Normal-type, accompanied by a fierce battle cry.

	In a blink of an eye, Lopunny disappeared in a bright light blueish flash, and suddenly Pele's body went numb, and was unable to move.  It happened in a blink of her eye and didn't feel anything, but she found herself encased in a thick chunk of ice, with only her head being able to move freely.  “H-hey!  How did you do this?” Pele wiggled about frantically, but it wasn't enough to loosen herself out of the ice.  “This isn't funny,” she shouted, “it's actually starting to get really cold!  Get me out of here!”

	The downed Gabite watched with amazement.   His sister may not have seen what happened, but his eyes were able to identify the move: an Ice Beam, weaker than most he's seen, but it served its purpose.

	Underneath his angered grimace, the incident lit some intrigue into Ku, though he refused to show it through his perpetual frown.  

	“I'll tell you one last time,” the Lopunny warned in a stern tone, “get away from my son.”

	She could make all the warnings she wanted to him, he knew she was just a Lopunny: her kind was below him.  What was the worst she could do?  “And if I refuse-?”

	In under a second she appeared before him as if teleporting to him, lodging her right foot into his chest, too fast to react to.  The kick shot him into the face of a cave wall, digging him deep enough to meld with it.  

	The look on Lono's face witnessing it morphed from surprise to utter terror, his eyes shooting wide open and jaw dropping to the floor.  One second he saw Ku, and in a blink of an eye, he disappeared into a side of the cave.  Never had he seen the kind of power she displayed: even Dragon-types had to train for years to even reach that kind of strength.  Just thinking about what else she was capable of sent an arctic chill down his back, distracting him from the stabbing pain of his broken rib.

	Lopunny kneeled down to Oran, who still remained a twitching husk.  Both his legs were flat and crinkled from the knees down like paper cutouts plastered below his hip.  She held him in her gentle caress, feeling the tears form behind her eyes at the unsightly mess that dragon turned her son into.  Stripping her lower face of its makeshift mask, she bundled the Riolu in her cream colored cloak, and pinning her explorer badge to keep the wrapping from uncoiling.  She tapped its brilliant sapphire eye, and her son vanished from her hold in a blinding glare.

	Slowly getting up from her knees, she started walking to the tunnel back to the guild.  A voice cried out to her, “Hey, you!  Help me out!”  She turned around, now realizing the beaten Gabite she missed earlier laying on his belly across the stone surface.  “Can you help me, please?”

	“You one of the outlaws, huh?” Lopunny asked.  “Why should I help you out-?”

	“Because if it weren't for me, your son would have already!” Lono shouted in the strongest voice he mustered. “Look, be mad with us all you want: but if you help me out, I'll turn myself in; I'll tell the authorities everything I know!” A dry, troublesome cough interrupted his plea, irritating his throat.  “Just before you showed up, I defended that Pokemon from him- that's why I look like this, now.  The least you can do is help me out!”

	“Rrgh.”  An angered growl escaped from the Garchomp, catching the Lopunny by surprise that he was still alive.  He peeled out from his earthly mold, planting his knees into the solid ground below.   Blood spilled into a growing puddle around his knees from his now opened chest scar, ruptured wide apart at its seam from the kick he earlier received, with some trickling down his bottom jaw, in between his jagged teeth.  “And where do you think you're going?” he snarled at her in a weak undertone.

	“Back to the guild,” she replied.  “I already did what I came to do, so there's no reason to stay.  But I gotta admit, you're a pretty tough guy if you can take one of my kicks the way you did.  Props for that.”

	The Garchomp's scowl turned to a toothy grin, exploding into a fit of disturbing chuckles that echoed throughout Pequeño Cave, and not long after a moment, the giggles evolved into roars of laughter.

	 “What's so funny?” she asked, feeling left out from the joke.

	“This pain,” he told her in a jagged smile, “it's finally starting to sink in.  It's been so long since I last felt something like this.” His heart galloped like a wild stampede of Bouffalant, a feeling he thought long went extinct.  Each beat stretched that toothy smile more and more, allowing him to soak in the adrenaline his mortal wound brought.  

	“What power you have,” he praised the Normal-type, an acknowledgment he rarely gave out.  “In all my years, I haven't met a single Pokemon with strength like yours.  I never knew a Lopunny, of all Pokemon, was capable of such power!  For most of today, I failed to find a single battle that satisfied me.  But in a single moment you made prey out of me- and it excites me!  Stay and finish the job; show me more of that power of yours!  Don't hold back!”

	Ku lunged forward, soaring above the floor like a jet. He was hooked on a single taste of the Lopunny's strength, and he wanted more.  As respect for his opponent he held nothing back, because she gave him something he searched long and hard for: a worthy foe.
