//------------------------------// // 331. Explosively Evident Entry. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Airship Mauled, Sekhet’s Pyramid, Celestia- “So if you hear anything about it, don’t say a word.” I stated with clear seriousness. “Fine, fine, but just so you know Luna is going to pin it on Jaded since they are still at war with one another, surprisingly Luna seems to be on the short end of the stick there. That’s with Jaded plotting to change Saddle Arabia’s name to something else, thereby destroying it… in a sense.” Sekhet grumbled as she lazed about like the sphinx she was. “So about the marmalade thing… did that actually happen?” “Yes, and Novo is never going to live it down.” I was fairly unamused when Sekhet snorted loudly and started giggling. “So Jaded is going with destroying the name 'Saddle Arabia' itself, at least she’s not doing the slow flooding thing again. The Saddle Arabians were definitely spooked by that one considering the set up would have taken anyone else years to accomplish with what she did in a week.” “My sister Bastet is definitely going to enjoy what’s coming with your plan.” Most likely because you know who any sort of chaos tends to attract Sekhet. Discord was going to have his work cut out for him avoiding the flail tail sized goddess known as Baast. “Still… playing favorites with mortals, what will people think?” “She’s a Sun Priestess and you’re a daughter of Ra, you were already playing favorites in your mortal watching.” I pointed out bluntly. She stared back at me with a slight bit of amusement. “What, I don’t like just cats, I like dogs too and I’m going to be talking to Anubis when the next therapy session rolls around. Apparently beaches are very relaxing for barbecues and I like grilled vegetables with a bit of salt.” -Pokémon Realm, Ransei Region, Aurora, Aurora Castle, Maiden Jig- “So I’m officially ordering your team to assist Terrera in their defense against Cragspur and make inroads to opening a dialogue with them.” Evan stated while trying, and failing, to look at least little firm with what he was saying. “Why?” Jiri asked, someone else was guarding the northern bridge today. “Also shouldn’t we be focusing on getting the Skitty Squad to Illusio, it sounds like there’s something really bad happening over that way and Terrera can hold out for longer. Pom’s personal Harmony Team might need our assistance.” “It’s… actually part of a deal I made with Motonari, we also need Pugilis to send an assisting unit and maybe get the Keldeo on board with investigating the troubling news of what’s going on in Valora if he’s around while you’re passing through with your unit. All the western kingdoms are preparing for the trouble that the next door world might be bringing straight to us. No offense meant to the current envoy or his bodyguard.” King Evan stated and I gave him a look, before glancing at Calumon the digital world envoy with his bodyguard Sideline the Digibot. They didn’t need to be here in attendance, but Sideline was more of an envoy than the Digimon Calumon was. “That said, I’m quite sorry, there’s a lot going on around here. We’re beginning the actions and motions to take on a war based footing and we have some news from Violight to be on the lookout for portal based assaults from a demented version of the Legendary Hoopa.” “That’s okay, I don’t know how to be an envoy anyway… want to play something?” Maybe Calumon could get Evan’s mind off of things, I glanced at Sideline and he seemed to be stoic and mostly friendly for a dog themed ‘Steel Type’ like entity. “One last order of business Evan… Hideyoshi?” I wanted to know, what did Motonari do with the fire monkey who was once a farmer? Motonari was a level headed leafy leader next door, so it couldn’t be too bad. “Thankfully enough… the verdict left him alive, Motonari said that killing him would have been too easy and he needs to live with his regrettable actions and make up for them to the best of his abilities. Though Hideyoshi should not go near Greenleaf anytime within his lifetime unless absolutely necessary, Hideyoshi is taking all the blame for letting things get out of paw in his kingdom. Greenleaf are surprisingly allowing trade again, not that Grass Types have much need for anything other than weapons, armor or shields to train with. Ignis has the forges for that and the people are getting help regardless of what they have done by overstepping the boundaries of their less than civil war. The bridge between our kingdoms will also be fixed by the contractors that have recently arrived.” Evan sighed audibly. “Everyone around us are entering a war footing, even Motochika to the south is prepping for something large what with the east in turmoil and the rumors coming out of Valora about huge problems with unusual monsters. Nixtorm is not at war, but is scarily silent and currently under constant blizzard conditions as far as Rauco could tell me when his unit did a quick flyby across the ocean. All that said… I would like to play with you Calumon, it might help me relax from all the stress the negotiations put on me.” Heavy is the crown on he who has a good heart, that’s why he has me to try and figure out ways to help him and ease the burden of having to think so hard about all the troubles around us. “I’ll prepare my unit and then will set out for Pugilis immediately and will try to contact the border guard of Terrera when I get there.” Jiri stated with a bow to Evan, then she turned to me so I could give her the orders in writing. She saw me already prepping them and turned back to Evan. “I might even hire some mild assistance from Helper’s Hamlet, if anyone is willing to assist us in this endeavor, it’ll bring me some peace of mind that someone might take up the cause to assist us even if there is likely no pay in it for them.” -Illusio skies, a fair distance from Cerebrum City, late evening, Cotton- “That… that can’t be true!” Lumber Spry said with disbelief and a look of horror, I decided to tell the most innocent one the bad news and the Ponyta looked fairly upset that I did. I would be too if I was just told something that I wouldn’t be able to believe and it shakes your entire world view about the people you think you know. I thought the medic, of all the Ponyta, needed to be notified about something rather important. “Believe me or not, but it’s a fact. In fact, the evidence is where I say it is. Just watch your back and try not to give anything away now that you know, you hear me? Your crew was a means to an end to get me into Cerebrum all proper like and that’s all, but since some of you’ve been so accommodating I decided to do you a proper small favor and warn you of what’s coming so that you might be prepared for it. Being all nice like is something I’m known for, I’m hardly ever wrong and it is my Ex-Per-Tease as a spy of Avia.” I turned and meandered away with a grin a beak and a glint in my eye. Let’s see what will come of this, it might work or it might not, it’s a fifty fifty Poké coin flip and I’m betting on the medic to have a good heart. “We’re all going to be in terrible danger when we get to Cerebrum… and I can hardly wait. You don’t be having much time to go looking for that information, try and prove me wrong by not finding it while no one is paying you any mind at all.” I rubbed my wings together gleefully as I started plotting my next course of action, I wonder if good old Xatu is in the city? Couldn’t find him groundside sniffing around the teleporters when I skulked and scouted the area. Guy might even be working up a cold sweat when he sees my shadow coming. -Deck, Smolder- This airship was slow, but then again with the kind of propulsion they are using… to be expected. Also we kind of needed to be slow and not really fast and attention drawing anyway. That Inkay ink stuff was weird in being able to make this entire ship float through the sky. “So does Tianhuo have the last name Lambchop like you do and what was hers? Is Pom Lambchop even your full name? How are you feeling about what we’re about to do?” I asked distractedly, Pom wouldn’t be helping if fighting broke out. She still needed time to recover and this world had plenty of ways to recover. Unfortunately we knew what Pom was like and she would insist on it, she doesn’t like fighting, but she knows how to take down multiple light opponents and Dolly was going to be watching her closely. “What’s with all the questions Smolder?” You shouldn’t have given off a weak giggle Pom, also the coughing afterwards was worrying. “Just wanted to know a bit more about you, before we get into some real trouble again.” Honestly our caretaker has been so busy with everything, she could stand to be on the backline in the next bit of fighting and I’m of the mind there would be a fight to get into the city in the first place. “Tianhuo did take on my last name yes, I already told you that she used to be bully and eventually grew up under a Huoshan Guard to become who she is nowadays and was adopted by all the guard as a whole. Understandably she takes pride in being the head of the guard and a champion of her people, but she’s not going to forget her past. As for my full name, it’s Pom Pawdore Lambchop, not that that’s really important.” Okay how can someone so scarred and battle hardened like Pom still sound so adorable, even her full name is adorable. “You probably know how I feel if you asked Ocellus about it, but if you haven’t then I’m fairly worried how bad the situation we’re going into is and I would have rather left all of you back in Chrysalia to make your way back to Aurora… but then I wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on you and Shanty might have come anyway. Goodness knows Dolly is going to follow me for the rest of my life… however short that is.” “Hey, don’t talk like that, you’re not going to die anytime soon, not if we can help it!” I received a glance and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I know, that is exactly what you are worried about. Look at it this way, Shanty has gotten really good and managed to hold up fairly well to one of the most dangerous guys imaginable.” “I get a feeling that Lu Bu could have been more dangerous somehow, plus he did almost kill Shanty and Dodo outright.” Before taking a sword to the back via Hideyoshi, who somehow magically grabbed a sure fire lethal attack out of the air without getting hurt. The guy was said to be a farmer right, what kind of farmer has an ability to stop such an attack like that cold? Was that why he was King of Ignis? “We’re not forgetting the fact that Cu Chulainn basically did kill you, provided those reviver seeds work the way the Kecleon say they do.” Punctured through the lungs and heart, yeah that’s not something Pom would have survived if not for the magical seeds. “Not seconds after reviving did you injure yourself pretty badly there too, which is kind of asking us to step up to make sure you don’t have to do so much for our sakes.” “I’m always willing to do everything for you girls, Dodo and any of our other friends.” You were willing to outright die for us is still a terrifying prospect Pom, even if you meant that to sound comforting and it wasn’t. “You’re not asking too much of me, I’m always willing even if I’m not exactly completely able.” “I be seeing one, whoa… they be looking really weird!” We were distracted from our conversation, which was quickly turning morbid via Pom’s problem, and looked to see Shanty using wielding a spyglass. I wasn’t about to question where Shanty could have gotten that, we are on an airship so their might have been one lying around. “What are you seeing?” Pom asked as we made our way over to her. “I be seeing what a Sigilyph be looking like, they are being very weird.” Shanty reiterated and held out the spyglass to Pom who took it and got a good look at the aerial defense force around Cerebrum City, the massive multi-layered city that floated over Central Illusio. “Hey give me, Favela, a chance to look!” Shanty passed the spyglass to Favela and she started looking through it. “It’s a good thing Sigilyph rely on sight more than sound to detect things, at this range we’re still silent to them.” A ponyta stated as they too were getting a good look at whatever a Sigilyph was through another Spyglass. “To port, five degrees! We want to stay directly out of their line of sight and there’s a cloud moving with us, we can use to get closer before we’re possible open to being spotted or detected!” “How do Sigilyph detect things normally?” I turned to the Ponyta. “Mostly with psychic energy field, anything entering the field will be noticed within a certain distance of them if it disturbs them enough to act. We’re currently masking the ships presence with an abundance of psychic energy from the crystals we gathered. Otherwise they have poor hearing, but exceedingly great eyesight to the point that a thick fog won’t block their sight if they Miracle Eye through it. It’s why you would want something between you and them if they lock onto you, because they are going to hit you or a target regardless of visibility.” The male Ponyta answered as they continued to watch the skies ahead of us and the massive floating mass we were on approach for, they looked almost the same as the female Ponyta except there were some major differences. There were absolutely massive crystals sticking out at the bottom of the landmasses inwards sloping stone and rock, apparently we were aiming for the unused airship docks on the underside of Cerebrum City. “If any of them spot us and manage to alert all the other Sigilyph in the area, then we’re not liable to make it into the city alive. If we do make it to the city at all, but if we can get in the city and dock without being noticed we’re be fine. If we do get noticed, then we just need to make them lose line of sight on us and abandon ship to find places to hide. If the ship starts burning for any reason it’s done for. I’m Friare Buck by the way, we might not be able to talk much later, but I just want to thank you guys and the Leavanny for getting us in the air again for however long that may last.” Speaking of Leavanny, I want to check on Fleer, the two Leavanny and Charjabug to see how they were doing. -Ten minutes later, Pom- We were all very quiet as we floated closer, we managed to avoid the sight of the Sigilyph so far and were getting a bit closer to the unused airship docks at the bottom of the city. There were docks on the top of the city as well, but the chances of getting in through there was impossible with the number of Sigilyph watching the top of the city exceeding the number down here through a lower entrance. The Chrysalia guys were set up for defensive fire on the port and starboard sides of the boat, not that any of their artillery fire would do anything to the Sigilyph directly, but they could stop attacks from hitting the ship. The Morpeko were also set up as a small defensive measure on top of the wagon, emphasizing their small hamster sizes. Dodo was hitched up to the wagon and was ready to try and make a jump for it if the ship is shot down as we’re getting into the docks. Sami, Frizzle and the Pokémon Companions were waiting quietly in the wagon tied down on the deck. First sign of trouble they would release the straps holding the wagon in place and we all hoped we were close enough for a jump if we needed to make one. If we fell out of the sky, we’d have to think of a different way to get into Cerebrum City and make sure everyone survived the fall somehow. Dodo looked like he was willing and determined to try at least make a jump from here. “Thanks for letting me get into contact with my team, I’m quite proud of them and they are carrying the spirit of hockey to a planet that apparently has hockey already… just not as much religious fervor for the sport as one would hope.” Canard stated as he came up next to me with crossed arms. I was currently getting a good look at one of the Sigilyph for myself once Shanty and Favela were done with the Spyglass. Sigilyph looked like an I-shaped Unown spiking out of the top center of a large round body with two weird large feathered… well it was a bit of a stretch to even call them wings. Said ‘wings’ were sticking out of the spherical body on both sides of the one eye. Below two said wings were two three fingered tuning forks for a lack of a better term that didn’t look like appendages, between which and slightly lower than the central sphere portion were two eye like markings that might actually be eyes that never blinked. Below the eyes were two white spikes sticking out at an angle to the beings front. At the very bottom is what loosely could be described a tail with four long and large feathers. The creature was bizarrely colored too… it was almost like it was a painting you’d do on the ground in chalk in appearance what with it’s yellow, black and green body, and blue with red stripes tipped feathers. They were hovering about everywhere and I’m fairly glad we hadn’t garnered their attention, there was something about them that was very eerie as they silently moved about in the air sweeping their eyes from left to right. They didn’t even move their wings or tails very much, which might be the only appendages on their body aside from their singular eyes at the top of the body that do. “Steady now, we don’t want to make a mistake at this juncture.” Inky Dye stated quietly to her crew as we were closing in. “I’m an alien, but even those things look more alien than anything on the world my friends ended up on.” Canard grumbled quietly, not even sure if hockey existed on this world. Five minutes passed and we were almost to the docks, the silence was pervasive and out approach was rather tense. So far it looked like we’d make it into Cerebrum without any... “Hey, everybody, look here!” Cotton stated loudly while waving her wings wildly from above… what was she doing?! “Look where we are, we’re all going to get into the city quite easily if you don’t stop us! I am being as loud as possible, which is my Ex-Per-Tease!” Why was Cotton intentionally drawing the attention of the Sigilyph?! Looking around all the Sigilyph around suddenly turned in the direction of the airship. “Canard, we need to get in the wagon with everyone else!” I stated as I ran for the wagon and at least three Sigilyph were draw to towards looking at the balloon and things were obviously about to get really, really bad. “Is she actually using Confide to draw them straight to us?!” Shine stated loudly with worry. If I remember right, Cotton basically told us upfront that her moves were. Confide weakened special attacks and was pretty much loudly declaring a secret to everyone around you, the secret being here is that we were even present to begin with. That seemed like an exceedingly dumb move for a spy to have to me and Cotton had just turned on us… or had she? I was kind of confused as to why she would do this so close to the city when she’s not guaranteed to get into it like she wanted. Roost was a healing move most Flying Type bird Pokémon have to heal from a variety of injuries. Feather Dance slow targets down and makes it harder for them to attack when they are getting covered in a mass of quick grown feathers. The only move that Cotton knows that would be of any real concern was Confuse Ray, a Ghost Type move that can confuse just about anything on contact and it did no damage directly. What it did do was make it hard to focus on an anything and might cause problems in the confusion. As I got into the wagon, Cotton decided to throw more confusion into the mix. “I-ma firing my lasers, geh-heh-heh!” Cotton cackled as the three beams erupted from her beak in quick succession striking the incoming Sigilyph, their singular eyes on the top of each of the Sigilyph started swirling oddly and then the two eyes on their spheres started glowing as they seemed to start targeting… each other? So that’s what a Confuse Ray looks like, good to know. “Hopefully see you guys never more, hahaha-hehehehe!” “I don’t think we can ever be friends with Cotton after this…” My flat tone was met with a round of nods. As a powerful flash of energy fired at us as we were between the three Sigilyph and narrowly avoided hitting the balloon, powerful beam of psychic energy erupted from another and a bit of the airships railing was scorched enough to catch fire. One of the Ponyta quickly excised the wood from the rest of the ship with their glowing horn quickly cutting it out and levitating it away as it rapidly started to ash before my very eyes. They weren’t kidding, the wood this ship was made of burned exceedingly fast… makes me wonder why they would make an airship out of the stuff. Unless it was among one of the mostly available resources in Titania and was fairly sturdy otherwise aside from the insanely bad flammability. The Sigilyph hit by the two attacks that had been fired hadn’t taken any injure, they were immune to ranged attacks and it showed quite clearly what we were getting into here as the third Sigilyph fired on the first with blast of air that sent it flying away and apparently launched us forward on the same blast of wind. The entire ship shook and rocked forward threatening to dump us into the sky until it leveled out and continued flying straight again, Dodo warbled in protest of having to hold the wagon still. The three Sigilyph firing at us were drawing the attention of many other Sigilyph in the area and we were about to be swarmed. “Flash Cannon, Psybeam and Whirlwind… those are definitely not moves I want to be seeing near us, full forward now!” Inky Dye called out as the ship lurched forward, but it wasn’t going that much fast. It was a really slow airship and we were at least approaching the scoop that made up the airship docks ahead. “We need to be over the docks before we take any hits we can’t actually recover from!” “Incoming attacks on all sides!” A ponyta yelled. The four Araquanids started spraying boiling water into the air to block green spheres of energy, psybeams, flash cannons couldn’t be blocked but were narrowly dodged. The air was getting quite busy around the underside of Cerebrum City and now that I think about it, Cotton was using us as a major distraction to get into the city quietly for some reason. “Don’t let them hit the balloon, the ship can take a few hits!” There was nothing I could exactly do here but wait to give the signal for the Araquanids to board the wagon and then make a jump for it as Shedinja directed the artillery Pokemon and even used their own body to block the various incoming attacks. But the twelve or so Sigilyph incoming were starting to overwhelm the ship, as if the three randomly firing into the air at each other wasn’t bad enough, and even more Sigilyph were on the way. With the variety of firepower on display, something exploded below us and the entire ship lifted up for a few seconds and then dropped back down. “They must have hit one of the psychic crystals… start using the crystals to ward them off!” Inky called out, the Psychic Type Ponyta started levitating out Crystals and fling them into the Sigilyph, the physical ammunition doing a little bit of damage when they could hit. Sigilyph were immune to most forms of ranged attack, barring being hit with something that was largely physical in nature like a large crystal. Basically my bark blasts or Thousand Spears would do nothing here, but maybe Shine throwing a rock would do some damage. “Are we going to be okay?” The female Leavanny asked from where she was sitting next to the male Leavanny, they were still somewhat haunted by their insanity and in no condition to be dealing with this kind of stress. A bolt of lightning from the Morpeko deflected an attack from hitting the wagon and the deck crumpled a bit near us. “Okay, release the wagons restraints!” I called, Mundo, Dazzle, Quetal and Favela all quickly did so. “Dodo, get ready to jump ship, all Araquanids on the wagon now, defensive retreat!” Dodo warbled back at us worriedly and then looked to the front of the ship to the close aerial dock that was like giant scoop for airships to land it. “You can be doing it Dodo, especially when we be getting closer!” Shanty cheered and Dodo perked up a bit. The ship was struck by several attacks as the Araquanids retreated into the wagon, everyone but the Ponyta were onboard, that was when the upper deck behind us was struck. “Fire, we’re on fire, the ship’s going to explode soon!” One of the Ponyta screamed. “What do you mean?!” I cried out as Cleffa fired a solar beam lighting up the night sky beneath the floating city to block several attacks heading our way with the beam. “A little fairy wood burns quickly, a lot fairy wood explodes violently if enough of it catches on fire all at once!” Why is it only now that a Ponyta Prowler is telling us this ridiculous fact about fairy wood?! “Pom…” Dolly looked ready to get out there and go on the offensive. “No Dolly, we’re abandoning ship and not getting into a hopeless fight here.” I said calmly and turned to Canard to give him a nod. “Dodo, go!” Canard eventually called out as the last Araquanid loaded up and he gripped the side of the wagon. “Everyone hold onto something!” Dodo quickly started forward across the deck with three bounds dragging us behind him as he jumped and his wings spread out and the undersides of them lit up with energy as he angled them forward and his legs folded so that his feet were pointing backwards and doing the same as jets of energy erupted from Dodo. -Inside the mechanical ostrich’s head- “Eggmobile flight jets functionality engaged, forward propulsion only, full flight capabilities not online until full growth of new systems has been achieved. Fully diverting power to jets for some extra lift.” One of the six Harmony Magical Operating System programs in the back of Dodo’s skull stated, as the function didn’t have enough power for lift yet. “Come on, don’t fail us now.” “Don’t forget to make cupcakes for Shanty after this!” PinkPie.exe stated jubilantly. “Oh, and bread for Frizzle too!” “I thought we locked her in the closet once she started the whole bread machine program!” One of the programs stated in slight discomfort. “I got out of the closet, nobody locked the door!” PinkePie.exe responded pleasantly. “Also there’s no lock to begin with.” The rest of the programs groaned out loud. -Pom- There was screaming as Dodo leapt up, streamlined his body and then blasted us all forwards we rocketed away before an attack could hit the wagon and everyone was clinging on for dear life. We barely cleared the edge of the airship dock scoop and I looked behind us at the flaming ship slowly following us into the dock. “RUN!” Everyone shouted to the dazed Dodo, who was immediately up on his legs and started pulling us into the lower sections of the city of Cerebrum proper despite looking dazed from the botched landing where his head slammed into the floor of the dock. The Sigilyph were focusing on the airship behind us as we made our way up the scoops ramp. -Cotton- Hmm… they be making it, gyeh-heh-heh~! I as the large metal bird start sliding on his belly barely making it into the dock scoop and was then up and running with a shout from everyone inside the wagon. The slightly dazed look on the metal birds face was priceless as he began pulling the wagon to safety and soon they be stopping before completely disappearing from my sight. The airship’s balloon burst and ink splattered everywhere setting the ship below it entirely on fire, instead of mostly on fire, as the Ponyta Prowlers leapt off the ship which hit the lip of the scoop and started to flip upside down. The six of them were running under constant fire from the Sigilyph and their ship slowly falling right on top of them. Pom and the wagon had already left, boy were they going to be upset with me, In-dee-dee-do! They narrowly made it out from under the ship and around a corner before the airship exploded and the physical shockwave took out a number of Sigilyph. The Sigilyph that were still active, and not blasted by an explosion, were too busy catching their fainted brethren to really worry about the Ponyta Prowlers or Pom’s group. Now to go find my friend Xatu, Gyeh-heh-heh-heh-heh~! Making a mess of so many things was going to be so fun, also there was so much to do and so little time to be an absolute Aipom wrench. -Pom- “Okay, the Ponyta Prowlers made it out, if barely… Now that we’re trapped in Cerebrum City, surrounded by enemies and we don’t know where our hidden allies are, where do we go from here?” I turned back to look to the front as we looked at the shiny inner buildings of the cities lower layer. “We don’t exactly know how to find the rebels against Gilgamesh and it won’t be long before those Sigilyph start hunting for us.” “Let’s find a spot to lay low first, then we can worry about the Sigilyph later, for now let’s avoid all contact for now. I’ve been in this kind of hot drop situation before and I know how to lead a rebellion… well what was left of one. So I might have a few ideas of where to look for this Kenshin guy’s group.” Canard looked at Dodo as he seemed dizzy and tired, probably used up a lot of energy bursting us forward like he had. Certainly couldn’t do that before. “Pull into the alleyway right there Dodo, we need to get out of sight of the streets for a bit to breathe!” Dodo did so and we saw a number of purple stars with red glowing crystals in the middle of them go flying by the alleyway towards the burning, slightly exploded, docks. “Shed can you watch the Ponyta Prowlers? They might need some assistance with getting away.” Ninjask watched as Sheninja bobbed in the air once and then took off silently. “Sheddy will find us later.” -Elsewhere in Cerebrum City lower layer, Lumber Spry- It was true, while I might not like how Cotton handled the situation and might have an idea as to why she did that, she didn’t lie and I found out the truth. The evidence was there and I have it now… I… don’t know who to trust. I didn’t know if saying anything now would make things worse or not, so I would keep my tongue for the time being. I didn’t have to tell my friends about it, I just shouldered my bag with my medical supplies and quickly followed them into the lower sections of Cerebrum city. We had a job to do here and we also needed to find a way out of here, there’s also what Cotton told me and the information I’m holding onto in my bag. Why did Cotton choose me for this?! I’m just the healer for my group and… I guess nobody would suspect that I know the truth. Oh Titania, what am I going to do?! King Oberon had to be notified immediately, but how would I get a message to him without any of the other Prowlers noticing… maybe I can utilize a psychic crystal to send a mental message that far? “Let’s move, Friare, you’re on point. Lumber in the center with me, you’re important in keeping us alive and moving. We can’t have you taking hits.” Inky led us forward and I thought I saw something shadowing us from above, but I didn’t see the glow of Miracle Eye so it probably wasn’t a Sigilyph. My world’s been flipped upside-down and everything’s gone completely insane! -Northwestern outer circle region of Illusio, Mentalis- Kadabraville had been successfully evacuated, but not without a cost and not for the fact that we were beset by large numbers of Drowzee. I wonder if Pom and her group made it Cerebrum, in any case it might be a while before we can even meet them there if they did. “Everyone okay?” A number of Abra sent back a message that they were fine, even as they slept they were upset about our lost homes. Gilgamesh didn’t like us interfering with his torture of that poor canine and now I had even more reason to be against him, by taking actually an active stand now. “Then let’s move out.” -Upper Cerebrum City, ???- I felt the city shake with a powerful explosion from below, which would be around… “An explosion in the lower docks? Interesting, nobody in the rebellion should be near there.” I cradled my sheathed blade and didn’t know whether or not it was time to bring back the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu, I was loathe to do it though. I didn’t want to be the leader of this rebellion and I really didn’t want to kill again, but my friend the king was murdered and I was quite unhappy with the one who did it. “Can you find out what happened down there Sanosuke?” I would go, but as a very well-known Gallade, I wasn’t exactly inconspicuous and had a target painted on my back as the leader of the rebellion. My Medicham friend with the bandana around his forehead was less likely to be paid attention to, but… he kind of drew an unwanted attention as well. “Of course I can Kenshin!” My friend Sanosuke stated boisterously while flexing his muscle. “I’m Pure Power remember, who needs Psychic Type moves!” “Please do it a bit more quietly... and stealthily.” I whined, with friends like these… -Castle of Illusion, Gilgamesh- In the dark I sit, a grin spreading on my face.