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I looked over, taking note to Cera taking the plunge and going to open the door using the password that allowed us to access Ein. The doors would pop open and quickly I charged an Ice Beam in the palm of my hand, aiming it for the door. If something was bound to leap out at us, it wasn’t going to be without resistance, I figured. I wanted to take no chances when it came to Ein’s turf. With the room able to be accessed, I was one of the first to make my way in, Tristen close behind. Noting how dimly lit the place was, Tristen’s fur would light up with his Flash, to put a lot into view. As I scanned the room, keeping that Ice Beam charge ready for anything, the charge would finally dim when it finally looked like there was not anything in here. It was just an abandoned room, with older tech long forgotten and waiting to be excavated by the working crews below. There didn’t seem to be anything in here substantial.

The room would then suddenly jump to life. Tristen would have to jump back out of fear of getting crushed, if not bisected, by the dividers that quickly rose up. I then looked over, hearing a faint hissing noise. I couldn’t only stare in confusion for a second, but then looked towards Tristen who was wincing a bit. “Ugh, that smell. It’s some kind of gas!” Tristen shouted. I then perked up, looking back, seeing the one who didn’t get caught up by this mess. Cynthia…she trapped us. But it didn’t make sense…who was ‘he’? Knew that we would have the password? Knew that we would be back? Was Ein back? But then why would she be on his side? And for that matter, how was Ein back? There was more to this picture we weren’t seeing. Conversely, Tristen stared, full of suspicion at that. The last time he seen anything like this was incidentally back in Paldea. If Ein wasn’t back, then maybe whoever dealt in those mind-manipulating mushrooms could be it. Mela, one of the Team Star squad leaders, thought she was in close contact with now fallen Elite and Flare Admin Malva, acting quite similarly to how Cynthia was just now. The ‘symptoms’ checked out, that he could recall. For that matter, last he checked, no one actually managed to track that guy responsible for making Team Star do what they did, in spite of Reno’s efforts. No one actually knows who was responsible. Regardless, if Cynthia was hallucinating this sort of thing, under the effects of that mushroom assailant, then it stood to reason that this assailant also ingrained himself in some important ranks somewhere where he could actually infect Cynthia, and perhaps others.

Regardless, we couldn’t stay here and figure that out for certain. We had to get out. Fast. I immediately blasted the vent that fed into the section Tristen, Ogerpon, Cera, Ammy, and I was stuck in with an Ice Beam, clogging it with a thick sheet of ice to stop any more gas from coming in. “That’s not going to last forever.” I said to the few with me.

“Okay, even so, you only given us a few extra minutes before we instead suffocate in here.” Tristen said. “Now what?” I quickly looked over at one of the partitions and took a massively hard swing at it. All it accomplished was a resounding thud. “Please tell me you weren’t still holding back.” He then said.

“Not that time.” I said, shaking my hand after the impact. I then took a feel of a glass. Even your bog-standard reinforced glass would have taken a great deal of damage from that. I started to take a feel about it. “Typical. Ebonite.” I said. “God, you think the world was made of the stuff.” I took a stomp on the floor to get a feel about it as well. Dropping to the floor below wasn’t happening either. “Blast it, what sort of Saw level bull crap is this? I’m game for suggestions people! The sooner the better!” I then shouted to the rest of the Snagems.

Well, this wasn't going to plan. If what Cynthia was saying was true, then someone knew Snagem was going to return here. The question was, who knew, and why were they trying so freaking hard to get the team out of the way? The logical explanation was that someone wanted to try and take over the world or spread the Shadow Virus so far that it couldn't be contained. She could think of several groups that would benefit from the chaos that would come from such a situation. However, that didn't help them right now. How were they going to get out of this?

She heard the crackle of ice and watched as Blizzard froze over the vent in the section he and a few others were trapped in. Seeing this as an idea to keep them from passing out, she let Turace out and had her do the same, if only to prevent them passing out from the gas. "Deo, that's not going to work," she said, her voice quiet. "Ebonite is resistant to brute force." At least, she thought it was, based on what she could see from both Blizzard and Deo's actions against the walls. Trying to weaken the walls with Pokemon attacks was out of the question, too, as what she wanted to do would either suffocate them quicker, or ignite the gas and cook them all. Neither option was particularly preferable, so there was nothing Amber could really contribute as far as ideas went.

That being said, she did turn to Cynthia. "Who the hell is this 'he' you're talking about?" she yelled, irritated at the Champion's sudden mental shift. This wasn't the Cynthia she'd heard about; this was a madwoman in someone else's skin. Hmm, perhaps she could put that to use? "Hey, Cynthia, you must really be proud of yourself," she said, her voice derisive. "Sneaking around isn't your thing. You're more one to brute force your way into getting what you want. Is that how you became Champion? By strong-arming your opponents into forfeiting before you battled them? Or did you pay someone off to get the position?"

Ughhhh...

Monique took a breath and felt it. It was like her limbs were starting to go weak. She looked around, the others in her group starting to show ill effects—especially Ulla, a Fairy child as she was against Poison energy.

She wanted to move. But she had to conserve her breath. She had to hold it. But she couldn't hold it in any longer when she heard her.

Sleep tight, Snagem... your judgment is at hand...

For a moment, time stood still in Monique Kaʻanaʻana's mind. She was not in a cell in a tiny tower, no. Her mind wasn't in Orre. It wasn't in 2025. It wasn't in this reality. It was back home in 2071, under the broken Dome, as the Guzzlord came forth and brought the Smog with them. It was in the outdoors of the castle, where she lay, slowly succumbing, her and her Pokémon incapable of fighting the threat to the Last Bastion. The Smog was grayish-brown and thick, unlike the gas being controlled by Cynthia of Sinnoh, but it didn't matter. To her, in her mind, in that instant, it was all the same.

The Smog, of course, was an innovation brought forth by none other than Cipher. By Ein. By his minions. By the unchecked use of the "blessings" Cipher's technologists "gave" the world. Her mind wasn't thinking in complete sentences, but the shape of the ideas was the same. Cipher. Smog. Her world. Cipher. Smog. Here and now. I can't die here to the thing that killed my world and the people that killed my world and the people that will kill this world!

The thought coursed through Monique's neural synapses at a rate faster than the toxic gas could course through her body. She banged on the partition, saving her breath, looking at Kalama as she struggled to stay awake, attuned to yet hurt by the Ghost-type elements in the gas. Without warning, the stressed Zoroark hybrid let loose a shock of Night Daze, inadvertently knocking out her own partner Pokémon. It seemed to power her up for just enough to bring out a Pokémon that was infinitely more suited for an environment like this.

She looked at Poloka and, without speaking, mimed to it weakly, hoping she could encourage it to use Brick Break without an utterance while she threatened to lose consciousness and the Pokémon that meant the most to her lay fainted in the cell. No, she was saving her words for someone else.

"NOT NOW, b***h!"

This was the worst possible scenario. First, she meets her worst enemy (who acts like her best friend for some horrible reason), now the person they were trying to work with betrays them and tries to knock them out for who knows what reason. Keiko was nearing her breaking point. She didn't deserve this. She hadn't even worked for the team since the World Championship Cup, save for that one stint with that brainwashing b***h. She hadn't even seen Ein when she was here the last time.

Keiko sighed in exasperation. "I'm done."

Despite the pinkish-red aura flaring out from her body, the tell-tale sign that she was using Frustration, Keiko wasn't really angry. In fact, it was kind of hard to feel anyhting. She was coming pretty close to the numbness I feel when I suppress my emotional state. But that's not the whole truth. Though the frustration she felt wasn't as firey-hot as her anger got - it was weirdly cold, in fact - it was still there, and it was pretty strong if the energy flaring about her body was any indication.

Shortly after her aura started flaring up, she began punching the wall, but she did so slowly at first. She was trying to use the muscle she had built up over the years of working out with Absinthe. But as time went by, her punches got faster, sacrificing a small amount of their intensity for that speed. Once she had starting punching as fast as she could, she began making energy clones of her arms - the result of Frustration amplifying her Dizzy Punch. It didn't take her long to reach full force with her punches after that. And yes, punching a literal wall WAS in fact huritng her hands. But that didn't matter anymore.

Either the wall would break, or she would break. Quite frankly, she was past caring which of the two ended up happening.

Sub remained calm as the trap was triggered, having come here prepared for exactly this sort of thing, in fact he was certain it would only be a matter of time in this place before they triggered something that wished to kill them. The Dark One has extensive experience skulking around the laboratories of the mad scientists after all. Hearing Cynthia Sub chose to ignore the woman as the gases being to kick in, the man grimacing a bit as the effects of the fumes tried to work their dark magic, however it wouldn't take the man down quick enough. After tapping the button on the Dusk Ball he was touching Sub would knock the device on his belt before falling to one knee. "Stay calm guys." He reassured his teammates.

"Weez-ing!" Bohdan the Galarian Weezing cried out as he appeared from the swirling darkness of the Dusk Ball.

"Bohdan! A little help." Sub groaned, not that the Weezing needed instructions to do what it did naturally but being made aware of the situation would help speed things up.

Looking to its trainer on the ground Bohdan would take a deep breath inhaling the gasses, quickly registering them as something harmful. "Weez weez!" Both heads of the Weezing cried out as they began to rapidly inhaling the fumes and exhale from their 'smokestacks' harmless white 'smoke'. Its natural Neutralizing Gas ability might work but Bohdan put in some extra effort to hopefully speed this along as white smoke with a faint blue tint began to jet out of the orifices across its body as it used Clear Smog. If this didn't take care of the gasses Sub didn't know what would.

Reno had been correct to assume caution around this door and all the potentials it could bring. Except the betrayal came from behind them at Cynthia's hand, a thing that had him beginning to debate on how flexible his morals could be on mental invasion of anyone even remotely weird if it stopped moments like this. But that would only be something he could correct once these panes of Ebonite and what appeared to be Purite were removed. Especially since the way she was talking, it seemed Cynthia had crossed paths with the Mycelium Man.

“Alright, I have an idea. Just might…need some extra punch behind it to go straight through.” Reno told his less affected companions, watching as Monique began to feel the effects of the gas more acutely. Including her Pokémon managing to throw out a Brick Break that slammed directly into the wall. Cracking open a Pokeball as he kept his gaze locked onto the spot that had been impacted, he shouted, “Phemes, Hammer Arm! Make your fingers into a point and slam it into that spot on the wall!” The Metagross would barely take a moment to see Reno before clenching her hand together into a large spike and slamming it home onto the spot that had previously been hit. “Aleister! Hit the back of Phemes’ arm and punch it straight through with another Hammer Arm!” His Reuniclus would be following up on the hit, slamming an axe handle blow into the elbow of Phemes’ arm to drive the ramshackle window breaker through the material. And if anyone else wanted to back up the plan, now was the time.

—--


It didn't take any instruction for Leslie to figure that applying her hammer to this nail of a problem would be her best way to do something. However, the mouth design of her weapon of choice was not a useful demolition tool in its normal form. Reaching up on the handle, she would swing out a small pull-handle and pull it towards herself. The four flaps of the mouth on each side of the hammer would begin to flare out as Leslie pulled down, looking almost like they were aiming to snap closed around something. And as she reached the end of the pull, the mouths would snap shut and essentially form a traditional sledgehammer head as the flaps of the mouths overlapped each other and the tips folded towards the handle.

Giving a smirk at the reformed bludgeon, she would shuffle over to where Crystal was battering the wall and join in with a few swings of her hammer. And as each swing impacted, it seemed like it was kicking up a cloud of dust and spurred Leslie on to keep swinging faster and faster. She almost seemed to disappear into the dust cloud, although the occasional flailing limb, hammer swing, and her own head popping out for air would prove that she was still within this bizarre smokescreen. Hopefully her little bit of Playing Rough would prove equally as effective at demolition as it did at disturbing the dust.

Blizz's assumptions about one portion of the room may have been a bit premature...



As the Luxray's vision scans the room, he would encounter the ceiling, risen partition, and walls horrid black and impossible to see through just like everything else either made out of or no doubt infused with that Ebonite goop. However, due to the nature of the floor having to shift and move to allow for the slate to rise, the hybrid would be able to see right through it, as it clearly had to be constructed out of something other than Ebonite. The cross-shaped barricade looked to split the room below them into similar sections, but if somebody was able to bust it each group would be able to fall down below and potentially escape the gas. Hopefully he found a way to be able to communicate that to the other groups.

Group One:




Watching the rest of the group hammer away at the walls with little success, Ogerpon tilting her head back and forth as she thought about the situation. Blizzard's ice clogging the vent was buying them a bit of time, but it was far from air-tight and even as the rest of the group worked, Aura Spheres and Sharpedo impacts smashing into the same spot, they would all see cracks begin to run up and down and along the wall inside the surface of the ebonite, but true to the prison's design it wasn't bending nor even unsealing, the cracks merely superficial damage to the massive stone's structure.

The Masked Pokemon rears up and launches off of its back legs, the Teal Mask glittering through the translucent gas as it puts its strong legs to work right alongside the others. Bam-bam! Bam-bam! The impacts ring out loudly in the confined space as it follows the Aura Sphere up with a Double Kick, doing little more than continuing to feebly scratch at the wall.

"Pyoooo *yawwwwn* Pon...." It groans, starting to feel the effects of the gas with the exertion of everyone else. I'm... getting sleepy....

Group Two:




Darts catches on to what the other two had planned and fires up a burst of Outrage to join in to freeing them from the cell, hammering away with his own two fists right alongside them. He was trying to hold back a little, as he wasn't sure he wanted to burn all of his energy trying to get them out of this cell but as their force only disperses more and more spiderwebs of cracks internally with very little external effects, the gambler begins to wonder if their Zangooses were going to be cooked. Also, he was getting.... awful tired, being part Ghost-type. Crystal seemed intensely focused from the stern profound expression on her face as she slammed away, they were going to need that fighting spirit to get out of here. Keiko was very fired up too and their impacts ring out with massive bangs at each strike, splintering and chipping away at the wall. Regardless, they were making maybe a little more progress than Group One due to the sheer impact of force but quite honestly that wasn't saying much as the wall refused to yield even with all four of them smashing on it. They also weren't doing much to stymie the gas and it was filling their section of the room much faster as a result.

Group Three:



Amber and Wren's combined efforts to gum up the vent alongside Sub's ingenious idea of using a Galarian Weezing to try and filter out the gas that DID get in meant that Group Three's efforts were the best of the bunch at keeping their chamber free of gas. That said, it wasn't like they were going to be able to keep it all out forever, the insidious miasma still creeping in around the edges eating at their connection to consciousness. Amber was right, if the efforts in the other two sections of the room weren't breaking the translucent divider, Deo's barehanded slams were not going to get the job done.

Two of them ALSO accosted their captor, safe on the other side of the barrier. She heard them, as it wasn't like each section of the room was soundproofed but she seemed content to cackle at their misfortune from the other side of it. She reaches a manicured hand out to turn the vents up, double-time injecting more gas into all the cells to drown out their taunts and queries.

Group Four:



Outside of maybe Group Three, Ulla's purification of the poison was best of the bunch, top-notch, allowing her to be able to pull Monique to her feet post-transformation. However, it wasn't going to be one hundred percent effective. And, similarly as the other groups actively attacking the walls around them, even with a pinpoint targeted Brick Break, Metagross and Reuniclus' combined efforts on the Hammer Arm, the wall was imitating the other two group's successes. This material had been designed to distribute the force within itself, and despite the 'super-effective' nature of the attacks, this new hybrid material showed little regard for fighting type moves as it easily disperses the impacts out through its cracks. Giving a little bit, just to give people hope. Before snuffing it out when it doesn't break. Very apropos. For all of the efforts, with the redoubled gas it would be only a short period of time before all of the Snagems found themselves unconscious on the ground... unless they tried something else.

Sol's ace in the hole, if he saw a combined Leslie, Darts, Crystal, and Keiko effort wasn't breaking their wall, was maybe better utilized in a different direction.

Sub watched as Bohdan succeeded in filtering out the gas allowing the four of them to actually breath. Standing up Sub scanned the room noting the gas still trying to seep in around the foam and ice, which meant Bohdan would need to keep filtering until they managed to find a way out but thankfully it was easy enough for Bohdan to do at this rate.

True hope of safety would come in the form of Deo who alerted him to the composition of the floor beneath them, something he could see through. "That means it's not made of ebonite. That's our ticket out of here. Good job, Deo." Hearing Cynthia's laughter Sub grimaced in her direction spotting the intensified seeping of gas, the man noticing his Galarian Weezing beginning to struggle with keeping up its filtration. They weren't safe after all, instead on borrowed time.

"Amber." Sub called out to the hybrid as he devised a plan. "If Deo's right about the floor you should be able to phase through it. I know you don't have a lot of experience with taking others with you but we have to try." He said to the Froslass hybrid. Had to be her and not a regular Ghost Pokemon, it was her partial human side that allowed her to make other humans, partial or whole, intangible. As he took his new Escape Rope out of his and began to tie it around Bohdan. "Boy am I glad I traded out my old now." With the rope tied around Bohdan he handed the other end to Amber. "I know you can't actually fly so if you go through the floor there would be no way for you to come back up which doesn't help the rest of us and we need Bohdan up here for now to filter. Hold onto this rope." Once Amber had the rope Sub would call out to a certain Pokemon.

"Griswald!" He shouted, his shadow coming to life and taking on the form of his cackling Spiritomb. "Wrap yourself around Amber's hand." With a snicker Griswald would do just that, wrapping its ghostly form around Amber's hand and lower forearm. "Griswald, as partially Dark type, will keep your hand physical so you can keep a hold on the rope when you go intangible. One at a time Deo and Wren will hold onto you and have you go intangible and pass through the floor. They'll let go then you can pull yourself back up. I'll go last so I can recall Bohdan and Griswald before it's my turn and we'll simply drop through together." He explained the idea to Amber.