Megan's head was turned to the side, her cheek slowly going red as it throbbed in pain. Aries glared down at her with his hand still raised. He waited for her to do something. Cry, scream, yell, attack him in exchange for him striking her. To be honest the last thing he expected her to do was-

Chuckle?

'What's funny?' he demanded 'Spit it out, you slu--.'

'I'd be careful about what you call me, Isaac.'

His eyes widened at her calm voice, and he watched as she slowly turned her head to him. She smirked, letting her legs swing over the bed and leaning on her palms behind her.

'So you found out, huh?' She stated boredly 'I have to applaud you. That was a lot faster than I anticipated.'

Luke and Laura exchanged glances from across the room. Why was she calm? Why was she smiling? What had she done to make Aries slap her so sharply? Questions filled both their heads as their eyes once again fixed on the scene in front of them.

'How the hell did you brainwash them?' the blonde muttered behind gritted teeth.

'Hm? What was that?' Megan tilted her head, trying to get a better look at the male's hidden face.

'How did you brainwash Leo and Sagittarius? How did you get them to willingly waltz over to the Aether house, and spout out every secret about us? How did you get them to betray--'

'Stop that.'

Aries growled at the interruption 'What?'

'Stop sounding like you care about them.' Megan gave him a look of disapproval 'It's sick.'

It's true. He didn't care about the boys. In fact, he'd gladly punish them both himself as harshly as he pleased for their betrayal. The reason he was angry was because the A.L.I was so close to being demolished. Along with his plans he was so close to carrying out. He clenched his jaw.

'How did you get them to do it, Artemus?' He grabbed the girl by the collar of her shirt 'How did you get them to betray us, when I know they would never--'

'On the contrary. They were never on your side in the first place.' Megan placed a hand on top of his, removing it from her clothing before sighing 'High security organisation, you guys said this was?'

The fuck?

'I'm pretty sure if y'all were as high and mighty as you say you are, you would pick up on their behaviour quickly.' she continued in a mocking tone 'It would be a shame if the security camera footage somehow made it to the police, exposing your 'work' wouldn't it?'

Aries clenched his jaw 'What did you do?'

'Me? I didn't do anything.' The girl stuck up her chin 'I've been in this cell the entire time, how could I? Now, a professional hacker on the other hand... he could get the info needed in seconds.'

Sagittarius

Aries cursed 'You're gonna regret--'

'No I won't.' Megan cut him off 'You've put me through so much, that I literally don't care what happens to me. I'm just happy to know that you're f*cked up experiments will be put to a stop.'

Laura turned to her brother again 'Our sister can be pretty f*cking scary when she wants to be...' She shivered, and Luke immediately nodded in agreement.

Megan smirked at the lost expression on the blonde's face. All his research. All his information. Everything he worked for. It would all be for not.

Un-f*cking-acceptable.

Aries grabbed Megan by her hair, yanking her up to standing position and pulling her face up to his. She winced as his knuckles dug into her scalp, yet she refused to make any noises of discomfort as that was probably what he wanted. She felt his hot breath against her face, causing her to scrunch up her nose.

'What's wrong?' He sneered 'This an uncomfortable position for you?'

'It's not that...' She cracked one eye open 'You're breathing on me and I don't wanna catch stupidity; I heard it's contagious.'

Okay that's the last straw

Aries began dragging Megan towards the cell door by her hair, causing her breathing to become ragged and tears to form in her eyes from the pain.

'You are coming with me.' Aries spoke in a low, demanding voice 'It's time for you to meet the boss.'

Um, no thanks...

'Hell, to the f*cking no!'

Laura began charging towards the male, her body hunched over in hopes she could floor him easily.

Unfortunately, she didn't succeed.

Aries made a swift turn and dealt a blow right into the woman's gut, causing her to fall to the floor immediately in a fit of gasps and coughs. The blonde huffed and pulled out a remote, zapping Luke and Laura to the point they couldn't stand. He grabbed Megan's waist to prevent her from running to her siblings.

Megan shrieked. She began thrashing about, attempting to claw Aries' off her but failing. You're probably thinking she could just transform to get out of her situation, but of course the disciplinary cuff on her arm prevented her from doing so. Damn it

'I don't have enough patience to deal with you freaks.' Aries opened the cell door and violently yanked Megan out. 'Just accept that if we're going down, you're going down with us.'

(Gladion POV)

'Down there.'

Avory's arm stretched out from behind me, pointing down at a spot close to the cave. I told Draco to land there, and held my breath as I felt him descend.

Yup. Still hate flying...

Avory, who was riding with me placed a hand on my shoulder 'You okay, man? You're kinda tense.'

'Y-Yea...' I nodded shakily 'I just... I always ride with Megan if we're flying anywhere. I'm not a fan of the s-sky.'

Draco reached the ground, landing on his feet with a large this and allowing us to climb off. I did without hesitation.

The others landed not too far from us. Sun and Ein on Charizard, Hau and Lillie on Decidueye and Red and Green on Pidgeot. Ashley, Rose and Guzma stayed behind, and would be giving us information on the base through the system, which was hacked by Ein.

'Okay, so you can tell us where the entrance is, right?' Green asked Avory as he and the others walked up to us. The male nodded.

'Yep. But once we do you have to carry out the plan.' He responded in a serious tone 'If we make any wrong moves it could result in all of us getting captured.'

'We gotta keep our stealth levels up. These guys don't take intrusions lightly.' Ein continued, crossing his arms 'So don't do anything dumb.'

Sun eyed him 'You're telling the kids who took on the entire Aether Foundation, summoned the Legendary Solgaleo, entered Ultra Space, fought a giant Tentacruel-like woman, and attacked a mentally unstable genius head on without any idea on how he'd react, to not do anything dumb.' he stated blankly 'Do you even know-'

'Sun!' Lillie scolded.

Sun rolled his eyes 'Anyway, we can handle it.'

'Uh-huh...' Ein narrowed his eyes, before turning away from the ravenette and making eye contact with Avory 'You gave everyone earpieces, right?'

Avory nodded.

'Good.' The male reached up to activate his earpiece 'Ashley, can you hear me?'

'Yes I can hear you loud and clear, Ein.' Ashley's voice could be heard through our earpieces.

'Good, cause I'm gonna need you on standby until we get into the labs'

'Gotcha. Ready when you are.'

'Great thanks, stay in touch.'

He lowered his arm, and waltzed into the cave without another word. Before popping his head round the corner and staring at us 'Come on, then. Your friends aren't gonna save themselves.'

We flinched, shaking our heads before rushing after the sleepy-eyed male. 'R-Right!'

We followed Ein and Avory through the cave, eying them carefully in case they made any attempts to bail. Or rather, I was eying them carefully. I still didn't trust them. This all could be a trap- a chance for those scums to destroy our friends' chances of escap--

Wait. I'm doing it again.

I mentally slapped myself. Why was I so untrusting? It's what got all of us in this mess in the first place. I blanked out Matt and Liz-- I mean Luke and Laura, because I was suspicious of them making any more ridiculous claims, which probably gave the A.L.I an opening to grab them. I accused my mother of being the cause of this, starting a fight between Megan and I. And if it wasn't for me being so shut in and refusing help from my own girlfriend, she probably wouldn't have been caught.

It probably is all my fault...

I thought back to when we confronted Leven. I hadn't really considered what he said, as I was too set on getting my friends back. But now...

-killed that little baby growing inside her belly! I bet she doesn't even know it's dead yet!

I clenched my jaw. My child- our child -was gone. Because of them. Yet, I'm trusting two of them to lead me to Megan. Why? Why should I trust them? Is it because they lost family members to the 'mutation experiment'? No. Leven lost his entire family to that, and look how he turned out. To this day I still long to snap him in half and throw him to the Sharpedo.

...I think I made that threat about Hau once... heh

'Gladion?' I felt a hand on my shoulder, snapping me back into reality and causing my head to whip round to face the person. It was Lillie.

'We're here.' She stated, pointing towards a stony wall we were all facing. I raised an eyebrow.

'It... looks like a regular wall...'

'Well, duh!' Ein scoffed, leaning against a rock 'What part of 'high class security' didn't you--'

'Ein!' Avory sent him a glare.

Ein huffed, softening his tone only slightly 'We wanted to exclude any chances of being discovered. Hence why the location and bizarre password.'

'I never would've guessed.' Sun rolled his eyes sarcastically, and Ein pouted at his response.

Huh...

'Anyway.' Avory coughed 'Remember your roles in the plan. Do you guys remember who to stick by?'

'The same people we rode here with, right?' Green questioned.

'Correct. Stay by them at all times, and follow Ashley, Rose and Guzma's instructions exactly. I don't want any of you getting separated, because if you are-'

'Game over.' I finished for him, irritation clear in my tone of voice 'We get it. We'll be careful.'

'And we'll get our friends outta there!' Hau spoke determinedly, holding his fist out in front of him. Lillie shared his determination as she nodded.

'Nice determination.' Ein crossed his arms 'Now let's see if you can be sneaky, too.'

'I mean, Sun, Gladion and I snuck into Aether Paradise that one time.' Hau rubbed the back of his neck 'Plus Gladion and Lillie stole some Pokémon from there and made it out undetected.'

'Almost.' Lillie muttered.

Ein seemed uninterested, turning to Red and Green and saying sarcastically 'You guys got any stealth missions you wanna share with us?'

'Well... Red did single handedly take down Team Rocket.' Green claimed, Red nodding next to him.

Ein sighed 'Whatever, we're losing daylight.'

Sun looked around the area 'We're in a cave, how can you tell?'

Ein ignored him 'Let's get in, grab 'em and get out. Gladion, do you wanna do the honours of opening the hell that'll stand before us?'

I shrugged, muttering a quick 'sure' and stepping towards the wall. With a sign I spoke out loud the code Leven told me at the Police Station.

'lusus naturae.'

A/N: Soooo.... This took a lot longer to write than I would've liked.

Seriously, my schedule is like, all over the place right now. It's College, then assignments, then meditation, then write this, then practice lines, then chores, then write this, then eat, then college, then some time to myself, then (try to) sleep. And so on.

Stress. Is. At. An. All. Time. High.

Honestly I'm glad I don't go to school anymore. Don't think the bullying I went through would be a great add on to all this.

Plus, January was a really rough month for me. My dog died, as well as my grandma, my friend got kicked out of college, my mum's getting really stressed out with work and home and other stuff she doesn't talk to me about, my therapy is close to ending and I still can't do jack sh*t without having a panic attack, my sister's going through the most stressful year of school, I'm going through the longest writers block ever, AND all my friends seem to be turning on each other, with me trapped in the middle. Do you want me to go further than the past two weeks?!

J E S U S

Can 2018 like, calm down with throwing sh*t at me for like, two days? And It's only January!

*Breathes*... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to vent like that. I'm just used to being nothing more than a shadow, and now that people depend on me, as well as pressure me to be more social and getting a part time job... It's hard, ya know?

Okay, I'm done. Now onto plans for this story.

The next chapter will be a two parter. One for Gladion, Avory, Sun, Ein, Hau and Lillie sneaking into the A.L.I labs. And another for Megan going to meet the boss. Oh, and they'll both end in cliffehangers, so look forward to that.

Now for when this book ends. I'm planning on making a book dedicated entirely on Sun, set after the events of this book. It ain't certain, but it's definately on my possibilities list. After that... Well, it's a secret ;)

Alright, I've been here long enough. I'm sorry for being so slow, and for blowing up like that. Stay tuned for next chapter(s)

Sayonara

-Silver