LOKI'S POV

I felt my heart pitted at the sight in front of me. Leon was standing next to me, shovel in paw. It looked like he had attempted to dig up the corpse in a hurry...I could quickly tell with all the scattered dirt in different directions.

"N-No..." I could only mutter. The feeling was horrible...why would anyone want to do this again?

"S-Shit..." Leon sucked a sharp breath through his fangs. The jackal turned to face me with a saddened grimace. "I-I couldn't do it...I couldn't dig him up in time."

"It's...it's okay..." I managed to regain the breath I exhaled to reassure the Lucario. "You did your b-best..."

I still can't stop shaking. My mind wants to be the stronger person and reassure Leon about his vain attempt, but my body wants to run away. If I weren't in shock, nothing would be stopping me from crying...but I guess I should take advantage of that situation.

"O-Okay...we need to warn everyone else, right?" I initiated, earning a small hum from the jackal.

"Yeah...just...look for whoever was nearby." Leon heaved a long sigh. "It was very recent."

"Right..." I shuddered and dashed around the shed.

To think this would happen again...I don't know what I expected. There will always be someone ready to betray us all, I just have to be mentally prepared for it.

THIRD PERSON

It only took about five minutes for Loki to warn nearly the entire mansion about the recent death. Everyone had gathered almost immediately at the back of the specified shed.

The following reactions were easily expected; screaming, arguing, etcetera.

However, there was one question that lingered in one of the Pokemon.

"This is weird..." Rayne frowned at the corpse below her—which had been taken out of the casket temporarily. "Something about this feels so off."

"What do you mean?" Vanta tilted his head at the Manectric.

"Is he...really dead?" Rayne turned to glare at the Lucario next to her. "You said it was incredibly recent, right? Maybe there is someone who could save him?"

"Unfortunately I am not a doctor...but I can sense when someone is dead." Leon returned the frown as his gaze lowered to Vince's body. "And he is dead. There is no life force emanating from him."

"I see." Rayne backed away and kept her stern glare on the jackal. "Then Leon is the culprit."

A sharp pause cut through all the noise in the group.

"W-What..?" Grace stammered, clearly affected by the Greninja's death. She was only starting to get to know him better—after all, she was the only one who even remotely knew Vince. "How?"

"Yeah, what the hell are you on about?" Sherwood—to everyone's surprise—was the next person to come to Leon's defense.

"I thought it was obvious." The Manectric scoffed and turned to the Greninja below her. "Last time we had a murder occur, there was an announcement that played whenever we found the body."

"So?" Inu crossed her arms and waited for her answer.

"Where's the announcement now?" Rayne turned to the sky. "She definitely has speakers loud enough for us to hear outside."

"That's right, actually..." Vanta sat on his haunches to place a thoughtful paw on his chin. "She also wouldn't make that announcement on someone who's alive."

"Then in that case." Inu dropped her arms and cupped her hands in her mouth. "Sam! You're late! Get over here, bitch!"

"That was way too loud." Loki flinched at the noise before shooting a stern gaze at the Infernape.

"I don't care. I'm not fucking around with her." The ape huffed.

The group waited in silence for a few seconds until...

Nothing happened.

"Hello?" Vanta was the next to call. After no response, the Umbreon sighed. "Is she really not here?"

"What the hell is going on?" Sherwood scoffed. "Scuffed ass game she's got here."

"I guess you could say it is." As she calmly paced toward the group, Sammy announced her presence with those words. "Sam is a bit busy...so I can actually help you now."

"Huh?" Grace's ear perked up at the sound of her voice. "What do you mean?"

"As you can imagine, Sam is able to listen to whatever you all are talking about at any time. This is why planning an escape is difficult." Sammy seemed to be paying extra attention to her surroundings as she spoke. "However, that's because of a device she wears at nearly all times."

"Okay...so how do we know if she has it on?" Vanta stepped forward and curiously tilted his head at the Braixen.

"You can't. But just know that she doesn't have it on right now because someone is currently escaping." The vixen crossed her arms and answered flatly, acting as if her words weren't concerning.

"Wait, what!?" Inu—speaking for everyone—was the first to butt in and question. "What do you mean someone's escaping?"

"I don't know who, but it definitely caught Sam by surprise." She huffed in response and closed her eyes to think. "I remember it happening earlier today."

"You mean...we were all still inside the mansion?" Loki seemed to mutter to herself.

"Who would be escapin', then?" Sherwood turned to analyze the group. "Looks like there's a few of us still here...'cept there's not all of us."

"So the person escaping would have to be one of the people still in the mansion?" Rayne also sat on her haunches to glare at the Braixen. "And you're sure this is happening right now? It seems like it would be more of a big deal for you and Sam."

"It is a big deal. Sam wouldn't ring any alarm because that would cause more chaos...it's better to deal with the issue behind the scenes." Sammy sighed and turned away from the group. "Although I also can't promise they will come back alive. Knowing Sam, if the breach was done sloppily then she won't have any remorse."

"Hm...that implies that she'd spare them if it was done perfectly." Leon chimed in with a small frown.

"Well, if it was done perfectly...then they're already home free." Sammy shrugged and dismissively waved at the Lucario. "But yes...if she's impressed with how they planned it, then she might spare them."

"That's strange." Vanta scoffed. "She really is fucked up in the head."

There was a small crack of silence that eased into the group once the Umbreon finished speaking, leading to Loki opening her mouth to speak...but not before being interrupted by Sammy pulling her arms onto her head in pain.

The Braixen sucked sharp air through her teeth before flashing a worried gaze at the Pokemon in front of her. "D-Don't worry...it doesn't hurt that bad. This just means I have to return back to my room."

Before anyone could question her health, she was quickly dragged away by a purple arm that had made itself tangible to teleport the vixen.

"What was that?" Loki flinched when Sammy was pulled off into thin air.

"Nothing to worry about!" Sam's voice would call out from behind, leading everyone to turn toward her. "You all are fine..!"

"Sam. What's going on?" Rayne stepped closer to the sinister Braixen—who didn't stop walking until she was inches away from the Manectric.

"A little fun performance." The vixen's voice lowered to a dull tone—something no one was quite used to. "They've been dealt with, luckily."

"Dealt with?" Leon echoed, his concern raising at the thought.

"Did you kill them?" Inu worriedly groaned.

Sam stayed silent for a few seconds before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"The fuck are you laughing for?" Vanta grimaced and paced up next to Rayne.

"Haahh...that was just too funny." The Braixen exhaled as a conclusion to her giggles. "I could never be that serious. Anyways, take them before I actually kill them."

With the snap of her paw, two large portals would emerge from both sides of the vixen.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the both of them, acting as if they could manage to stare at two things at once.

From the right portal, a Blaziken was tossed out, leaving him tumbling on the gravel and grunting in pain.

From the left...

A Greninja, also sent flying out of the portal and landing smoothly next to the bird.

Once they closed, Sam would also disappear with it, leaving tons of discussion and confusion to linger in the air.

"Fuck!" Zantai spat on the ground below him as he dusted off his bloodied arm. "We almost fuckin' made it!

"Urgh..." Vince—the Pokemon everyone was looking at—brushed his scarf tongue off and shook his head in response. "Of course, she's got a shitty code locked in there..."

"Vince..." Grace paced up to the Greninja in absolute awe. "Y-You're...alive..?"

The blue frog seemed to hide the majority of his face deeper into his tongue scarf before sighing profoundly. "Yeah..."

"And you tried to escape?" Vanta scoffed. "Right, that's very smart of you. You could have died, you know."

"We almost made it!" Zantai growled down at the Umbreon.

"We?" Vanta turned his attention to the Blaziken. "Do you guys not hate each other? Or did I dream about that fight?"

"We...have a lot of explaining." Vince chuckled and tore his eye contact from the very worried Eevee below him. It seems as if he's too guilty to even look at her.

ZANTAI'S POV

It took a lot of time to get everything through to everyone. I wouldn't blame them, something as dangerous as trying to leave this place would need a lot of explanation.

But from what we did, they know our plan.

Vince was the main mastermind of this whole breach, I was kind of the...brute force of it. For some unknown reason, figuring out the layout of the walls wasn't difficult for him at all.

He told me something about his past that made it all too familiar to him, so he went up to the very north of the steel cage and pressed a bunch of hidden buttons. Eventually, a small latch took down a portion of the metal, leading us to be able to leave.

We ended up passing through a lot of confined hallways undetected, and luckily, there were no guards patrolling any halls.

Our main hurdle was a steel door I was forced to bash through—which caused a lot of awareness.

Whenever we came across a large vault-looking exit, we thought it was home-free...until a wave of Inteleon guards came swarming in.

The two of us were actually quite the duo, and we lasted up until the situation was notified to Sam.

What stopped us was a very—and I mean very—large Lucario, who seemed to have mastered his aura in a way that could be used as psychic powers. His arms were covered in scars and his expression was emotionless, almost as if he's done this monstrous thing a million times.

Whoever he is, that is the reason Sam is so confident. Her guards are rather doable...but I couldn't move a muscle against him.

"Hey, you're spacing out." Laker pricked at my arm with his claws.

"Ow! That hurts, man." I turned to my arm to realize there had already been bandages wrapped around them. "Oh.."

"Yeah, you're definitely feeling off." Laker chuckled and shuffled with his bag. "Anyway, is there any chance I could rip your motive card off ya?"

"Hell no." I scoffed but still flashed him a small smile. "I'm not dazed enough for that."

"Right." The Weavile mimicked my laugh and pulled up a card in a flashy manner. "I'll trade you for Vince's."

"Wait...Vince's card?" I raised a brow. "How the hell would you have that?"

"He may be tricky, but he's accepted his past. I'm giving you a chance too." Laker waved the envelope with a serious face. "Your choice."

It was tempting. Laker is also pretty tricky...but knowing Vince planned our escape method on a whim based on his past makes me interested...so I sold my soul.

I slipped out the folded envelope from the fur on my chest and held it out for him to take. Laker didn't even read it, he just dropped it into his bag and handed me Vince's card to read.

His expression was unmoving, so I moved my attention to the card I opened...

"Vince is a retired magician who is infamous for his most famous trick; faking his own death and leaving the face of the Earth. He is responsible for the suicide of his brother, which was caused because of his fake death."