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"Swampert, on your guard!" Sol called at once, his Swampert bracing himself for the Gible's rush. It didn't do much to help at all, easily being flung back and worse for wear just after the one attack. But that aura hadn't gone unnoticed. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, I'm well aware of your apparent role. However, you seem to lack class. I've seen more accomplished thugs in my earlier years here than you lot. At least, they don't use Pokemon with such a destructive bone as these specimens."

Cera was practically frozen in the air after she saw the aura, her face pale. "Was... what kind of chi was that!?" She asked herself, staring at the Gible responsible for it.

Odd had been caught a bit off guard by the explosion from outside. Ok, let's be honest, it rocked him to his core. Lykas and Kaya were in the same situation, though Lykas seemed more interested in what had caused it while Kaya was obviously fearing for his life.

"Blind bravery only goes so far, huh, Kaya?" Odd asked once he'd regained his composure. Lykas laughed a slightly nervous laugh as he followed Sol towards the door.

"What could have caused that?" Kaya asked as he crept after Lykas, ignoring Odd's jibe at his usual false confidence.

"I'd wager something big." Odd replied, certain it had to have been a Pokemon no smaller than an Aggron if it were even a biological cause. It had sounded almost like explosives had gone off somewhere, to him. But then, as he neared the door, a wave of sickness washed over him. He tell the cause was some kind of chi but it felt twisted. Distorted. Nausea-inducingly corrupted.

"What is that?!" Lykas asked as the chi began to come into his more limited range. "There's no way this is natural, is there?" He asked, unsure if this might be what Poison types' chi felt like.

"Are those Pokemon?" Kaya asked as the three finally made it outside with Sol and the others who'd made it out ahead of them.

Nuregami, seeing the two Pokemon with their disgusting auras of hideous chi, sent an Ice Beam flying towards the Gible right away, intending to lock it down like the Bagon had been a few moments ago.

Adagio followed suit by hurling a massive orb of indigo flames at Trapinch with Inferno, intent on capturing the insect in a fiery prison and simply burning it away to nothing.

Kaya could only stare in shock and awe for now. Primrose was released as he watched though he had no idea what to tell her for now. If she got too close to either of those two attacks, she'd be done in by friendly fire(quite literally in the Lampent's case) before she could do any good at all.

Nuregami was hit by Gible's attack, launched backwards by the seemingly solid wall of sound that slammed into him. The Water-type groaned as he pulled himself back upright, summoning up the energy to fire a Hydro Pump at the little Ground/Dragon.

Adagio was not pleased when her attack was not only swallowed but spit back up at her ally. In an attempt to protect the Grass/Bug-type Primrose, she launched herself toward the mantis-like Pokemon, a ball of whit-ish energy forming between her arms. Thankfully, the naturally bright light from the desert region helped her charge up quickly, countering the ball of flames just before it reached her and Primrose.

"Prim! Use your Razor Wind to help fight that Pokemon!" Kaya called to his partner, who nodded and began to charge up for her strongest attack, intent to strike the Trapinch her master had pointed out.

The Razor Wind and Blizzard combined created a fierce storm which could freeze, slice, and stab the enemy with sharped icicle, that swallowed the two strange Pokemon whole and including the thugs. In the most comical and cliche away, the gust of wind would send the crooks and their strange Pokemon flying off into the distance...rather crashing into and falling through the roof of a building. "...dude." Was all Toren could say.

"The combination itself, I expected. But not results like that... not that it bothers me. They were giving Pyrite's own a bad name. Those Pokemon, though. In all my years, I can't say I've seen anything like them." Sol answered, finally recalling Swampert so he could rest. "Let alone feel the kind of chi they gave off. It's almost like they weaponized pure malice."

"Well, dun look at me, I dunno any more than anyone else about this. Just that the chi's very different. More than even that meteorite a while back was." Cera spoke up.

"Regardless, you and GRAY might remain our best bets at discerning the actual case here. I've a feeling this won't be our only encounter with Pokemon of that sort, and if even GRAY can't reach us, you may have to step up. Speaking of him..." Sol took out his SNAG and decided to speak into it. "GRAY, if you can hear us, we're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Any pointers on dealing with them?"

Cera just buried her face into her hands at that.

"There was a Gible and Trapinch similar to the Bagon from earlier, owned by a couple of thugs. You could argue they got blasted off in a whirlwind." Sol answered. "Are there any others in the area, on that note? I'm guessing not for you to be able to reach us."

Keiko had only just entered her room in Snagem HQ when her SNAG went off. Shortly after training with Lykas, she had picked up a lead on what had happened to Al recently, and chased after that. After getting some closure from their meeting, she returned to get a firm welcome by GRAY, as well as instructions as to why HQ was so empty. Eager to help, if she could at all, Keiko requested that GRAY have Claydol teleport her to Pyrite. Once at the Pokemon Center, though, she had to find her own way to the rest of the group.

About this time, Chaos was leaving the house in Celadon that he and Rose bought. The young woman had used JT to contact him so she could apologize for trying to push Chaos's family on him. JT's usual uninterested tone masked the feelings Rose was going through, but Chaos agreed at any rate. Once they met, the two spent a great deal of time discussing their unique situation

Unlike Keiko, Chaos took his SNAG with him, and made a point to ignore the frantic ringing it made during GRAY's repeated attempts to get in contact with him. Once Chaos and Rose agreed to continue their relationship at a distance, as Chaos refused to leave the team a second time, Chaos finally gave in to the incessant ringing and heard about the situation in Pyrite, causing him to appear via Claydol teleportation to the Pyrite Pokemon Gym mere moments after Keiko left the building in search of the team.