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Lucario’s Bone Rush slams fierce, one blow after another, aided by the likes of the Screech attack, trying to keep up the momentum of the attack and give this monstrosity no room to retaliate. However, the chimera would manage to back away. Lucario kept up the pursuit, aura staff in tow, but as he tried to resume to beat this science project into the floor, the creature in question had a different agenda. The empowered Water Shuriken gets tossed. Instinctively, Lucario would try to guard against the fierce spinning attack with the aura staff, but it would give away almost near instantly, snapping in two and slamming right into Lucario. “RAAA!” The Lucario shouted as he was blown back.

“Lucario!” I shouted. The Pokémon would end up slamming into one of the tanks and hitting the floor. The aura staff halves dissipating in the Lucario’s hands. “Lucario! You okay!?”

“Rraaa…” Apparently he got rocked pretty hard. We needed to be a bit more careful than that.

“Okay then, try Extremespeed!” I shouted. Lucario sprinted, rushing down by the tanks, even spring boarding off of a couple to make sure that he wasn’t going to get picked off all that easily, then once he landed back on the floor, went full speed, blazing a trail straight for Ein’s project, driving a speed-empowered fist right into the Greninja. As Lucario engaged with the creature once again, I looked down, trying to get life back into Tristen again. “Come on, get up. This isn’t the time to be sleeping on the job.” I said. “Blast it, what did that thing do to you?” It started to become safe to say that Tristen, should we live through this, was out for the rest of this mission. Great.

Meanwhile, as the fight continued to heat up between the other Snagems and Ein’s creature, Type: Null was on the hunt for the way out. Weaving about the various tanks and machines that had been laid out. He was trying to at least find the far wall so he could follow it and find a door. Any door. Any window. He didn’t know where he was, other than this was a horror show like no other and enemies abound with no sign of his former trainer. Null knew that he didn’t have long; if nothing else the oni would be back on its case with a vengeance. Null tried to pick up on some sort of clues about the area; most of which were either worn to the neglect of the past couple of years at least or destroyed, presumably by what the others were dealing with right at this second.

[Group One]

Cera remained frozen in place as the chimera attacked and hit Lucario pretty hard, Sharpedo's screeching ringing in her ears and forcing just enough movement to curl up in the air to try and mitigate it and the sights. This thing shouldn't be here, so why was it?

"Come on Squall, I need you off..." Amaranth remarked, unable to get to her feet until Squall managed to get to his own, lifting himself from the ground and finally letting her get up. She looked over at Cera briefly, wishing she could help snap her back to reality, but the situation was calling for quick action as it was. Luckily, she had an opening, even if it was at a rough cost with Lucario taking the hit he did. "Squall, give us some breathing room and make sure that thing doesn't try hiding again. Defog!"

Seeing other attempts to attack the chimera go about as smooth as his skin, Sharpedo wasn't fond of seeing that the only assumed way out was through that thing. Despite the fear gripping him, he already assumed Cera was going to be useless to him and would have to force himself over some other way. Using the water still beneath him to launch himself, he'd throw himself towards the chimera with Aqua Jet to provide a little extra punch as Lucario was already closing in with Extreme Speed.

"...why... why can't I move!? I've dealt with worse than this thing! We all have! So why am I too scared to move!?" Cera asked herself as the others kept on, practically holding her head in her hands. "I need to do something!" In the moment, psychic energy kept bursting forth around her, letting out explosive force before rapidly condensing itself into a pink bubble. Then a second one, then a third, each one threatening to rock the room and the tanks before condensing and circling around her.

"Cera, you need to calm down!" Amaranth shouted, looking back over. "Stop this! Please!"

The Mew wouldn't take to the call, though, instead causing more blasts that'd form themselves into more bubbles to circle her. "G-get out. Get out get out GET OUT!" With her last shout, the bubbles would suddenly fly forth from her, flying and weaving in the air as they approached the chimera and started circling around and above them. Their arrival would be all the warning given to anyone before they moved to close in on the chimera, each one glowing and primed to burst as they converged.

[Group Four]

"Right, keep at it!" Sol couldn't say he was sure if the room warping and becoming more bizarre was a good thing, or a result of whatever Reno commented about, but it was turning the room into even more of a wreck and playing into the constant motion. He wouldn't be ready for the eventual 'pop' that'd suddenly change their surroundings into a different room entirely. The phone would be the first thing he'd see, followed by the two Pokemon in the distance. Judging by the collars, he could quickly intuit the likely source of the distortions if Trick Room really was involved.

"I'd like to ask the same," he interjected, glancing towards Ulla. He'd note the resemblance, but being less familiar with Ulla's past, he wouldn't pick up on much else. "We were nearly gassed and ended up in a study after we escaped that." He'd look towards Ulla again, figuring further response was best off coming from her as he moved to take a look at the collars himself.

Ulla felt the change in the room happening as the sudden change in the room threw her a bit off balance. She sighed of relief as she looked back at her team mates. "Now that we are out of that room, let's regroup with the others and-"

"Ulla?"

Ulla stopped in her tracks as she turned to see the scientist and adventurers. Now facing her, she can see why people thought they looked so alike. She was face to face with her deceased biological mother. The Fairy Child's stomach turned, as it was taking every effort to stop herself from running to her and hugging her. Lucario stood in between them as he was also shocked to see her mother. Ulla's lip quivered wanting to say so much, but...her mind and her own channeling was telling her. This wasn't her mom. She had to becareful how to speak to her, seeing how Cynthia reacted to the name Snagem. How would her mother react to her being part of it? The Fairy Child couldn't help but think...what was their daughter Ulla was like? "We...We were looking for you and dad!" She said as she looked back at her allies. "I was told from the other scientist that they lost contact with you. So I asked some of my friends here to help me find you." She explained as she looked at Lucario to calm down.

Lucario merely nodded and stood beside his master. Ulla looked around the room then at the Pokemon that were unconscious. "Were these the Pokemon that got us stuck in that room?"

Seeing all three of his shots had struck true, Wren had to fight back the urge to celebrate for a moment. They needed to be fast at getting out of here so he cold dispel the foam. He'd learned by now that it could be dangerous to leave the stuff on living things for too long and, unfortunately, he couldn't feel any signs of the foam parasitizing anything in Cynthia. That meant either the fungus infecting her was strong enough to resist, requiring something akin to those Command Spores he'd needed to start clearing out Lentimas or she simply wasn't infected. He didn't like either of those possibilities because they both meant this couldn't be resolved without some degree of violence whether that be aimed at Cynthia or someone else.

"Let's go!" He urged Hemlock as the Cacturned returned to his side. Stowing away his Artifact, he heard Sub call out, saying it looked like Spooky had found n escape route. Recalling how he'd seen the Ghost-type poking around the wall not long ago, he headed toward where he'd last seen it. "Hemlock, use Brick Break on the wall! There!" He directed his Scarecrow Pokemon as he approached. Hemlock nodded and slammed an energy-soaked punch intothe center of the wall, right where Spooky had been moments before. Once the way was opened, whether it be from Hemlock's single blow or not, he'd give the cactus one more directive. "Fill me up, buddy. Use Magical Leaf!" He directed, funneling the glowing flower petals into his Artifact's waiting "mouth" via his channeling.

"Go!" He urged the others, letting them through before following. As soon as he made it through behind the others, he turned back to the hole they'd made, aiming and firing his Artifact. Shimmering golden threads shot from it's barrel, weaving themselves into a gold-colored silken sheet pulled taut and large enough to cover the hole. "Now Pin Missile! Keep it in place!" He urged Hemlock, watching as a barrage of needles fired toward the wall, stabbing into the sheet and pinning it to the wall. If Cynthia or Garchomp touched it, they'd find their side was covered in countless nearly imperceptible needles. It was going to hurt to just tear it down. Energy attacks would take a great deal more than expected to get through as well, the many needles easily dispersing them.

After pinning up their silken defense against pursuit, he'd allow the foam on Cynthia and Garchomp to dry up and crumble away as he recalled Hemlock and followed the others. "Hopefully that'll be enough to slow them down while we get away." He told the rest of the group, giving a worried glance backard once he caught up.

Crystal nodded as she read ATHRA’s reply to her, giving an internal sigh. She’d take being based on, and not actually somehow wired in. Less qualms about ditching it. She was about to open her mouth to thank it when Leslie then spoke up, asking about why she was talking to it like it knew what Ultra Beasts were. And how they would rank above Ultra Beasts. Her ears tilted for a moment before Crystal watched the blocks move again, with her free hand balling up into a fist as she read them. “Leslie…. It didn’t attack on the immediate outside of when you slammed the hammer. It-” She would pause when the word INVADED showed up, with the sudden rising of the block punctuating its thoughts on them now. “We were fine with us having a peaceful conversation,” she yelled as the woman launched backwards off of her square, almost reflexively making herself a light platform to land on. “Right then. This thing is made of bricks like Stakataka, let’s see if we can make ourselves a hole!” Darting towards the right, the cat woman would swing the hammer a few times in mid air before letting it go towards the wall, hoping to give an opening lust long enough for them to get out. Hopefully. Yelling at Leslie, as much as she wanted to let loose on the girl, was going to have to wait until they were out of this predicament.

[Group One]

Sharpedo barely had enough time to fling himself away by the time the bubbles had converged, eyes briefly darting towards Cera as he sped to safety. He, along with Amaranth and Squall, watched as the spheres attacked the chimera and and rended through it, and he had to do a double take to confirm that it was in fact coming from her. He had no idea what kind of attack that was, and even with his double take, he couldn't believe she was doing anything like she was in the moment. The pink flash that followed meant they were shielded from seeing the worst of the effects, though the pop would ring clear.

By the time it cleared, Cera panting and finally uncurling herself, the chimera was gone with its original parts in their place. There'd barely be enough time to see the Ekans or Greninja move to hide, leaving a Flaaffy bleating in defiance. "How...?" The Mew would ask, unsure of what she'd performed or how it seemingly undid Ein's effects.

Finding it hard to be terribly intimidated by the Flaaffy before them, Amaranth would finally speak up. "I'm alright, I think... but Cera, what was that? It looked a lot like that attack you used on XD002..."

"I'm... not sure what that was. I haven't been able to replicate what I did back then, so I don't think it was that... or how I did that instead of destroying them," Cera answered, looking at the Flaaffy in more confusion than anything else. It was hard to believe she was afraid of what they were part of only moments prior. But she could tell there was confusion, if not a shared fear. "You. You're safe now! Well, kinda, this is still a really unsafe place... but there's no reason for us to keep fighting!"

"We really need to get out of here, if only for Tristen's sake..." As Amaranth looked around, she'd notice the center of the room, and the central console feeding into the tubes. "Maybe that has something. Either about these or a way out." She'd motion for her Braviary to keep an eye out as she walked over to the console, a few curious taps following to see if she'd find anything on it.

"Er..." Looking at Amaranth, then Blizzard, she'd close her eyes for a cursory search... but all the Ebonite made searching beyond the room difficult. "I can't sense them. You think they found some other way out in the fighting? Chum, do you see anything?"

The Sharpedo's glancing revealed little to him either, failing to discover the air vent. In his defense, he was more wary of the Flaaffy, staring them down more than he cared to find two other weird Pokemon that were fighting each other.

[Group Four]

"Leave it to him to go for the more permanent option," Sol remarked grimly, noting how the collar was woven into the Pokemon's flesh. "Wouldn't be the first time he's used them either... they're our culprits, but I wouldn't say they had much of a choice in the matter. Or in their lives, given how they look. Not even sure if getting them into a Pokeball would buy enough time, unless one of you all happens to be a doctor."

Glacing back for a second, he'd pick up on what Ulla's mother was saying, figuring to confirm more of what was observed. "For us, it was the opposite effect. We had the same phone and its ringing would get louder and push us back. The more we stayed still, the more everything seemed to intensify until we started making a huge wreck of the room. Not sure I'd want to imagine what would've happened if the connection didn't sever when it did."

Leslie could also feel the universe shift as it took into consideration what she had pointed out. Exactly how codependent had Ein made this thing that it required it to be pointed out that it should potentially figure who its talking to? There would be time to answer that question later when this thing stopped trying to smash them. Speaking of, Leslie would be following behind Crystal in diving off the the suddenly rising platform to start running towards where her hammer was hopefully about to punch through the wall. But she was at least going to try something while they were on the retreat. After all, it didn't identify them, it just had failed to find them in its initial search "ATHRA! We're new Cipher members! Ein got detained and Zera is trying to get things so we can break him out!" She shouted in her sprint towards the door, hoping the statement would at least confuse the thing enough to make it have to sit and analyze before it kept up its vague attempt to kill them.

----

"I don't think I have anything for massive overstrain, ludicrous exhaustion, and whatever damages were caused to implant these collars. But can at least try something here..." Reno added to Sol's statement, plucking out a pair of Revives from his bag and attempting to utilize them on the pair of downed Pokemon. Even if it didn't do much of anything, hopefully a little attempt at medicine would at least ease what was happening.

Turning towards where Ulla's mother was while he let his attempt at field medicine do what it could, Reno would give a curt nod. "Hello there. I'm the Co-Leader of Team Snagem. And we would have organized a more formal visit but due to those recent...allegations, it was deemed worth the risk to come out here in our search for evidence to clear them without the potential to inadvertently inform our former captors." Keeping his telepathy open to see if any thoughts that might betray any of these expedition team members as less than helpful for the quartet of Snagems, he continued. "Speaking of, you wouldn't happen to know if there are any identified video archives in this place?"

Group One:


Amaranth was absolutely right, even as Blizz was holding Tristen he would be able to feel the kid's body temperature fluctuating in his arms, flushed hot and then deathly cold and everything in between. If they didn't get out of this tower and get him some kind of medical attention, that poison was going to do a number.

However, Amaranth's brief tapping would yield some... interesting results as the console powers up. Inside the database would be a list of files, alongside project notes for every single one of Ein's biological experiments - XD002 amongst them, as well as S-22, Cera, and even Amaranth herself. If they had been looking for some answers, this might be a spot to start with.

A lot of it was science mumbo-jumbo, but there were some very interesting notes about failed weaponization test subjects S-1 through S-21, including mug shots. A lot of them looked like your average shaved and blinded test subjects but one of them would immediately stand out as the team had been confronted by them a very short time ago. Agent White stood amongst the group of experiments, code name S-17. Apparently he had demonstrated a deep, profound, empathy for the Pokemon he was to be hybridized with and as a result was deemed psychologically unfit to be utilized and was set to be disposed of. There were some videos of the psychological screening that might be worth perusing later, but according to the records here he was presumed dead - a status that was becoming less and less certain.

XD002's file also had some interesting tidbits, particularly some strongly-worded research notes by Ein directly, set in his encrypted username, as well as some video of the research experiments where he claimed to have acted solely on his own in the creation of XD002, along with a lot of scientifically-minded professional cursing of Sub at double-crossing him to go and create Mewtwo with Rocket. This would definitely contradict SWIPE's story about being in cahoots with Ein, and the timestamps would prove it too. There was a disc drive along with a stack of discs handy, undisturbed other than a patina of dust. If Amaranth were so enticed she could write all that information to a CD and get it out of the tower right here and now.

"Flaaaaa!" The little sheep peeps up at Amaranth's elbow, nestled between her and Cera. Despite her cute exterior, whatever the pink sheep had gone through the Flaaffy was not willing to be ignored at the moment, insisting that one of the two of the team paid attention to it, a grumpy frown on its face.



Knowing this was getting out of hand, and that there was no time for an extended battle, Ogerpon grits her teeth behind her mask as she sways high above the Orre dunes below them. She had to find some way to bring this Pokemon to heel, or at least back to the rest of Darts' team in her mind. The pipe creaks from their combined weight, doubtless, this wasn't something the blueprint designer had planned for as the wind whistles by them both. She was going to have to make this quick, if she could, to try and haul the weapon back inside. She watches Type: Null start making a beeline for the end of the pipe and hustles forwards, her feet click-clacking off the top of the metal as she presses lightly and leaps, cartwheeling lightly in the air before her vines lash out. Two long, flexible, dextrous ropes wind themselves around the Synthetic Pokemon's legs, and Ogerpon uses the momentum from the bounce to fall between the pipe and the edge of the tower, winding up and over it once while attached to Type: Null before swinging around again, firmly pulling with a menacing yank attached to the end.

Because her weight was so light compared to her heavier prey, she was going to have to use a little physics, not that she knew it was called that. Her mouth grits in concentration, not an ounce of fear behind the mask as she swings. Winding the vines around the pipe a few times, she uses gravity combined with the centrifugal force of her fall to turn the outside of the tower into a miniature trebuchet, effectively counterweighting and attempting to slingshot Type: Null back into the tower the way it came, back through the crack and out into the air vent like a miniature missile. If everything worked the way she wanted, she'd come up the way she came riding its momentum and be able to get back inside too. The brackets holding the pipe to the wall scream in protest, threatening to give way at any second as she attempts her ill-conceived maneuver hundreds of feet above the sand below.

Group Two:



Darts isn't as quick on the draw as the other two Snagems, and he's quickly sandwiched between the two pillars. His hands shoot up reflexively, and there's a hiss as Outrage pours through his body, the two pillars shivering from the kickback of the force that the Giratina hybrid is exerting to keep them from smashing him to bits. There's cracks running through the pillars where his golden hands dig deep, palms radiating energy as he tries to overhead press the bricks off of the top of himself. "Did we think about what we were saying before we said it?" He asks acridly through clenched teeth, giving him just enough time to jump away before the pillars impact, sending pieces of silicon and brick flying everywhere as their weakened state impacts each other. The gambler skips across the floor, as more and more pillars come up and attempt to impact him each step of the way, forcing him to keep running as his jacket trails behind always an instant before the two pillars clap shut.

The hybrid's red eyes scan the walls of the room for any kind of clue, but as more and more pillars snap shut behind him it became very clear to Darts that he was being herded into a certain spot for a certain reason, trying to get him back near Crystal and Leslie. Walls would reshape where he was running almost as soon as he thought about going there, forcing him to wind up and double palm strike his way through with a rush of Dragon-type energy - Dragon Claw shearing him a path through a several-brick wide wall.

Meanwhile, as Darts attempted to try and diverge from where his teammates were, Crystal's idea to send the hammer through the wall works as well as the other hybrid's attempt to smash up some of the pillars, breaking it in a splintering smash of stone as chunks go flying every which way. However, there would quickly become an obvious problem. The door was no longer anywhere near where it was previously - they would see it rotate past, upwards to the top of the ceiling and then drift back across the entirety of the room, the 'square' it was contained on transferred along in the shuffling of the massive AI-powered organism.

Leslie's pleas would come too little too late - ATHRA probably would have believed that had they not just been proven liars to the AI moments before hand about the invasion, logically it didn't see a reason to not just crush these people now and sort out the issues with Ein later. He often believed in things like 'unavoidable casualties'. The floor below both hybrids would open up as the pillars they were standing on move left and right, dropping them straight down onto what would quickly look like spikes, the bricks twisting and reshaping into triangular points. The walls would also come back together at the same time, attempting to simultaneously skewer and mash the girls all at once.

Group Three:



The four Snagems would make their way to the center of the maze, illuminated, as the Snagem leader had so perceptibly outlined, due to the large bank of monitors at the center of it, clustering around one singular plain-looking PC, sitting there innocently, humming away with a light layer of dust and debris from disuse but still very obviously active.

There was a question of what would be so sensitive to Ein as to need to build a giant maze around it, so whatever was hidden inside this computer was incredibly personal, and unlike Amaranth elsewhere in the tower, there were no convenient discs to try and export it. Not to mention, the computer was password locked, and not even by a traditional password. There's a jumbled combination of letters in a singular row, the cursor below it flashing in a text field. On brand, considering, it was a literal cipher and was wanting someone to translate whatever it was into text to solve their way into this machine.

Maybe overkill considering this was in the middle of the mad scientist's fortress in the MIDDLE of another gigantic ebonite maze, but that should lend itself to some kind of credence as to just how important whatever was stored on this PC's disc drive.

They would hear the explosion, far off in the distance, as Sub's improvised 'bomb' with his Snag Machine detonates in Cynthia's face, adding the proverbial middle finger to the Champion. She knew he had tricked her, and she knew where they were. There was essentially two main options - they could attempt to crack the code here and attempt to make their escape. Or they could unplug the machine and hope whatever was on it wouldn't be damaged by doing so.

Either way, there's a rending scream as something tears through Wren's silken Pin Missile wall, a good indication that Cynthia had managed to get through that particular barricade and was en route. What will it be, little Snagems in the maze?

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Group Four:



Reno's brief ministrations seem to buy the prone Pokemon some relief, and other members of the research team crowd them as well, offering Potions and other remedies to attempt to nurse the little Pokemon back to health. None of them wanted to end up in another Trick Room hell, but these were living creatures and should be spared suffering if they could.

None of the expedition members seemed to have anything out of the ordinary thought-wise for the Snagems - some of them recognized the name from the news, but emotions and concepts ranged from 'oh cool, I've heard of these people' to 'I hope they aren't criminals here to rob us.' and everything in between. Ulla hasn't answered her mother yet, but she shakes her head in response to the psychic's question. "Mmm mm. No, not that we've come across. I have no doubt they're in here, but as you can tell..." She waves her hand to kind of indicate the entierety of the situation they had just been through. "You just can never tell what you're going to end up with when you go into any given room." She bites her lip, anxiously leaning to look past Reno at where members of their team, her husband included, was trying to care for the downed Pokemon. "We should try and get going out of here if we can, and make our way back to the main room. Did you say you were here looking for proof of your innocence? Does that mean you'll be wandering further into the tower?" Ulla's mother frowns, doing a decent impression of her fairy childe daughter when faced with a complicated situation. "I don't know that I'd recommend that..." Her eyes light on Ulla, clearly concerned about her well being now that the main danger was past. "Considering..."