At the Olivine Place

(After this post)

The Pangoro fighting Marmalade manages to take the Dragon Claw well and is only sent rolling a couple of meters; she quickly calls out to Marmalade.

Pangoro: <Oooh, you feel like playing close? Come on, I have a hug for you!>

-and runs to leaps at Marmalade with a Shadow Claw-

Meanwhile one of the two Houndour is blasted against the debris by Spathi's Dragon Claw; the other one yelps and manages to avoid the attack, then, looking at his partner still getting up, decides to play it smart and separate from him so that the two can target Spathi separately. The Houndour at the debris attacks with a Flamethrower, while the other tries to circle Spathi's overall position while spewing some Smog.

Salamence breaking the hatch has revealed a [ladder] going down, and if looking closely the lights of some motion detectors can be seen, some of them already have been activated and left behind a couple of spikes on the walls of the shaft.

A relative distance away

The two ????? Ciphers are running for their lives across the underneath passage, until they reach a large room with some supply boxes.

Cipher 1: What do we do now? The traps are not going to hold dragon Pokémon for too long.

Cipher A: Well we notify the bosses, for one. -- heads to one of the supply crates and starts looking for something -- But in the meantime we need to delay that guy for as long as we can.

They quickly discuss a plan as they grab some supplies and a Pokéball, and then they start breaking the lamps in the room to cast it in darkness.

In the Dark Room

At the other end of the room a Shadow Meganium can be seen. The Pokémon looks empowered and irked by the sudden burst of light. The first thing he does is a roar, then an Energy Ball aimed at Breeze.

Outside

With distressed yelps, one of the two Houndour is swept away and knocked out; the other one takes a lot of damage from the Stone Edge shards, and realizing he's about to faint Roars at Marmalade. The Pangoro, meanwhile, uses his fur to blunt the hit from the two dragons's attacks, and being savvy enough to realize she can't do much while the dragons remain in long-range, summons a [Rain Dance].

In the Room

The Shadow Meganium turns his flank to try and take the bulk of the Silver Wind and the Flamethrower. The Pokémon then growls and leaps to a nearby crate, then uses his vines to fling two crates at Diesel and Salamence.

Outside

The Pangoro only manages to see a burst of light before being struck by the Dragon Pulse, is blown away and falls to the ground in btween the debris of the safehouse, barely standing. The remaining Houndour, seeing this, gets closer to the Pangoro and attempts to Smog at Spathi.

Outside

The Houndounr is finally sent flying unconscious, leaving the area cleared except for the Pangoro, who knowing herself defeated takes advantage of the Rain Dance and Earthquakes the already crumbled over house, stirring the debris.

This has the effect of partially flooding the shaft with the ladder and then blocking it with some of the debris.

Tired!Panrogo -to Spathi: <There... try to go find the human now... or even the dragon, she's [doomed]...> -- drops in all fours panting -- <They have a monster down there... heard the stories... saw what it can do...>

Inside

The Meganium leaps around to avoid one of the crates, is hit by the other and knocked back. He growls again and leaps past a couple of crates, then using his vines to support his self Body Slams Breeze.

Meanwhile a trail of water innocently reaches the room by the same corridor Ever came from.

In the battle

The Meganium takes both attacks more or less to the face, having been too occupied to be able to respond. He crashes against a small crate, breaking it and revealing its unimportant contents; what the Meganium does though is tear one of the sides of the crate appart and toss it at Salamence as a distraction while readying himself to release a Shadow Wave, the only visible warning being the slight frilling of his neckflower.

Outside of battle

The Pangoro, her job done, is promptly and conveniently knocked unconscious in a nonlethal manner adequate for further [Snagging].

Though she is still just inconsiderate enough to collapse on top of the shaft, blocking access for no raisin.

Outside

A troop of Rattata, escaping from the underground flood, start emerging from the shaft and pushing the heavy Pangoro aside just as Spathi was lamenting.

However if Spathi was careful he would notice the mons seem to be afraid of something [else].

In the Battle

Or what was left of it. The Meganium is knocked out finally and falls to the ground.

The path is now clear to the only other corridor leading out of the room, this time an illuminated, slightly ascending tunnel from where some people can be heard arguing.

The sound of [rotors] can also be heard.

Inside

The tunnel itself is pretty boring (except for the buried UFO that the tunnel structure misses by about 5 m and a change).

At the end of the tunnel there is a staircase going up to a cottage; outside the sound of rotors can still be heard and is also more intense, nearly muffling the voices of some people arguing that they have to leave soon. One of the people there mention that they have the [lasers] ready.

Inside, more or less

They do, as in they're starting to get away. Coming to the

Outside

there is an airstrip and Ardos can be seen about to board a charter. dressed in a modified uniform and without his glasses. Behind him there are a couple of minions hurriedly loading some boxes and documents.

Two of them who were guarding the airstrip would notice Ever emerging and, after giving the alarm, would quickly run towards him to intercept.

Ardos merely stares at Ever for a moment and signals the charter pilot to hurry up.

Outside

Salamence's Flamethrower reaches the charter but doesn't seem to do much damage; though at least it forces the staff inside and they try to rush Ardos inside as well but he refuses; instead he just looks at Ever while the Hyper Beam is fired.

Ardos: "Wow... such eagerness. Very inconvenient."

-And starts fiddling with a device on top of the charter that, once activated, exerts an energy field that deflects the Hyper Beam in a random direction, probably hitting someone else fatally-

Ardos -stares at Ever: "Aaahhh... so it's you who is insisting, not the other one." -- drags a big cylinder out of the plane and pushes some buttons on it -- "Do you recall this? You showed quite an interest on this tool..."

-Then the cylinder slowly levitates out of the forcefield and onto the airstrip, where it anchors itself to the ground and emits an eerie purple light-

-And in response to that, a [roar] can be heard from the innards of earth and the entire field around the airstrip starts shaking and collapsing at places-

-A moment after the ground breaks and a Shadow [Nidoking] emerges, accompanied by a couple of other Shadow Pokémon, namely an Electivire and a Swellow.-

Ardos: "You and those phone people have been a thorn at my side. Sadly I am limited to try and dispose of you right now, so I leave you this. Pilot, prepare."

-And he enters the still protected charter, while giving instructions to the Shadow Pokémon to start by killing the dragon (Salamence) and then continue onto the others-

In the airstrip

The Nidoking also stares at Ever, apparently recognizing him, but does nothing more than just stand there breathing hard. The Swellow and Electivire move in to engage in battle - Ardos commands them to start dishing out a lot of damage and thus the first thing the Swellow does is to try and maneuver thru the Fire Blast to aim himself in a Giga Impact at Spathi with whatever stamina he can conserve.

The Electivire meanwhile manages to block part of Marmalade's attack by rolling with the move, then leaps and swirls for a Dual Chop.

Earlier in time shenanigans

The Electivire takes the hit from the Earthquake at short range and falls to the ground, unable to move for a moment. This causes the Nidoking to notice as he is taking the Psychic attack, growling in pain; he redirects his attention to Marmalade and attacks with an Ice Beam while marching slowly towards the recovering Salamence.

The Swellow swings to avoid the Night Slash but all that gets him is getting knocked out of the air by Salamence's Ice Beam, and he crashes against the charter leaving a dent.

Ardos frowns and gives some more instructions nonchalantly, while signaling to the pilot that it's time to get going. With the new set of instructions the Electivire gets up and tries to put Marmalade in the line of fire then use her as a shield to Thunderbolt Spathi. The Swellow meanwhile gets up and after a quick scout around goes Pluck at Breeze furiously.

PEFE Goldenrod, some time later than the above shenanigans

Silent is in a secured medical room deep in the building, checking some vials and bandages while in the other end of the room there is a Nidoking lying on a large table, his body spasming and tensing despite the Pokémon being in painkillers and in a very dazed state.

Maekrite: <...they...> -- flicks ears around with much difficulty -- <[size]...where are...?[/size]>

The Nidoking is still self-aware enough to notice that his body and shape are now much different from before, that everything looks and feels smaller and that something has been taken away deep from within him. He does know that there was a mirror in the other end of the room that would reveal his new shape, though as of now it has been [covered] with a couple of lab coats.

Maekrite: <...can't return... like this...>

He growls in pain and then lashes out at the sound of his own voice, breaking a couple of strings restraining him in his place; he does manage to regain enough composure to quiet himself down, if only because of the pain.

After he's done, Silent puts the bandages and medications on a bag and walks to the table, with Sol following in silence and watching with a hint of feeling sorry. The [Espeon] arcs up and places her forelegs on the table to climb up, but as she sees the Nidoking's tail swirl out of control, she decides to return closer to Silent and sit by his side. The human sits in a chair to start examining his Pokémon, who frowns and turns his face away.

The first thing Silent does is to brush his Pokémon's body carefully, trying to avoid where it's possible to cause the sensory inputs that would remind Maekrite that he is now a Nidoking, not to mention other bad things that have happened to him.

"I'm sorry..."

Maekrite notices the bag and the room around him and lets himself mourn about things that he and Silent understand; seeing the human stressed and sad Sol decides that it might be a good idea for her to lean her head on his lap for petting, and lets out a reassuring purr.

"First I'm going to clean you up... and we'll see afterwards..."

Silent then decides to move the machines and wires away and clean Maekrite's wounds himself, instead of letting the now-Nidoking go under more pain at the handling of machines that he dislikes so much.

Ilex Forest

A certain Staraptor is minding his own business, namely trying to sleep, while perched on a low branch near a clearing in the forest. He yawns and gives his chick a concerned look as she is still busy pecking the opening of a small, wooden altar.

Roc: <...Shahinne, you really shouldn't do that.>

Shahinne emerges from the other side of the altar and hops closer to her biological father.

Shahinne: <Mom said that I had to learn to ask for help and the other mons always talk of coming here to ask for help.>

-And she returns to pecking the wooden altar-

Roc -sighs: <Chick, first, you got the wrong forest. The pincushion's forest is the one east of the city.> -- takes of and circles around for a moment, before quckly snatching the Starly in his talons -- <Second, the owner if this place wouldn't like their house to be pecked.>

Shahinne struggles for a moment before being deposited safely on a high branch, where she lets out a nervous chirp.

Shahinne -ruffles feathers nervously: <Trainer was sad. Parents are also sad.>

Roc merely looks around disdainfully.

Shahinne: <...Are you not sad?> -- paces around Roc for a moment.

Roc: <I was worried. Now things are okay.>

Shahinne: <Not okay!> -- puffs chest -- <The others are ill like when Dintel->

Roc stomps, calling his chick for attention.

Shahinne: <...Eeeep!> -- hops away.

Roc: <Still this is not your place, Shahinne. Some things just have to be let go.>

And the two birds just stay there, Roc taking some time to try and explain Shahinne that things will mostly be well; he also cautiously chastises her for pecking other peoplemons's homes, in particular if they are important peoplemons™.