Last time: The time thought of just relaxing after what they've through but were ordered for a commission for a mission to explore a location, unaware that their foes have been planning for their next encounter.

Location: Town of Hermes, docks

Early in the morning, the sun was rising over the horizon for a new day and several Pokémon were at the docks, one of the teams having Sapphire who looked restless and eager for their mission along with Rune and two others, one looking like a small kitten looking Pokémon with a light pink fur and crescent moon patterned face. A Skitty the Kitten Pokémon. The other looked to be a balled-up pile of green vines with red shoes. A shiny Tangela, the vine Pokémon.

Across from them was Team Shade Walker, with Raider, Havoc, and Lime leaning on a wall trying to wait peacefully, only to be annoyed over an argument happening just around the corner. One where their last member Rusty was fighting some Pokémon, the Morgerm he fought a few days ago, both throwing punch after punch. "Overgrown emo boy!" Rusty shouts as he lands a slug into Morgerm's face only to get one for himself, square in the face.

"You're one to talk punk! Look at you and that dumb mohawk!" Morgerm shouts back only to get hit in the face again.

"How dare you! This is how all Scrafty looks! Take this Finn!" Rusty yelled, throwing yet another punch at the Morgerm named Finn. As they kept on fighting, they didn't care about the crowd watching and cheering at the fighting, some were water-type Pokémon who worked in the docks or from the Atlantis kingdom or Ghost from Underland. Captain Kraken was collecting bets.

"C'mon boys, who will go down first! We have twenty-nine bets on Morgerm, while twenty-four on Scrafty!" Captain Kraken said as he was counting the money.

"Ha! I got more Pokémon betting on me! Take that and this!" Finn the Morgerm shouts in victory before landing a blow on their gut making them lower their head, only for Rusty to lunge forward and headbutt with full force at Finn's forehead. Finn stumbled back for a moment before lunging at him, biting their head. As they bit them, they were hit by something, a metal object that forced them to fall down and fall unconscious.

The one who knocked them out was a small pink body with light near white, pink hair on the top of their head with pieces of metal on the sides of their waste, in their hand was a large metal hammer that was in her hands. It was Tinkatuff, the Hammer Pokémon. "I draw the line at biting someone," Tinkatuff said before picking up Finn and dragging them away.

A Pokémon helped out, shadowy hands that came from what looked like an armless Pikachu, more like a rag over something, they also had a drawn-on face and a wooden stick behind them. A Mimikyu, the Disguise Pokémon. "Let me help you." The Mimikyu said to the Tinkatuff.

The crowd booed about this and demanded a refund only for Kraken to point at a sign that was keeping score with writing below the scores saying "No Refunds" in bold black letters. "Sorry folks, no refunds." Kraken explained with so many of the Pokémon looking disappointed.

"Aw! C'mon, no fair!"

"There goes my food money for this week."

"My paycheck and poor wallet!"

As the crowd was disbanding, one of the Pokémon that looked disappointed the most was Kanemaki as they had some bets too. Team Hope with Bianco, Halo, and Nero just arrived to see what was going on. They discussed taking Clay the Golurk with them but were told to keep him in the guild as they tried to understand him and the box they always carried. "Looked like Rusty and Finn were at it again," Bianco said as he understood what had happened from just the sign that Kraken was cleaning.

"The Morgerm from when we came to town, whoa, do they fight often?" Nero asked with Bianco nodding his head.

"Sadly, shame too, they were friends growing up too but after they evolved, they started to compete with each other, a classic tale old as time." Bianco explained to them. "I for one never understood why so many of our members fight others, even some with others in their own team."

"But don't you fight--" Nero was about to talk about Viola when Bianco turned his head around and charged back. Nero looked to where he was going to see Viola and Team Toxic as they entered the docks, Viola picked up speed and charged at them. "--Viola, of course," Nero said noticing Blu and Rosa, he waved to them, and they waved back.

The crowd from earlier then started to rush past the children and surround the now-fighting pair. Their cheers were interrupted by the sound of a roar or scream from a monster, they all turned to see what looked like an old ship made of dark wood with seaweed and barnacles covering almost the whole bottom, it had a set of three propellers the back of it pushing it forward, three-mast that had purple balloons rather than sails, each with what looked like a Pokeball over scepter-looking object with horns, the bow of the ship looked as if it was horizontally ripped open from the inside, almost forming a mouth with sharp teeth.

From the bridge of the ship, Zagreus could be seen looking down, the ship started to lower itself close to the ground with the Shiny Trevenant leaping off the edge of the ship to fall closer to the ground and land between the fighting Zangoose and Seviper's little fight. "Save the fighting for when it is needed and for enemies, as for everyone else..." Zagreus said as he looked around, almost instantly all the ghosts swarmed around and rushed to the ship while the other Pokémon went back to doing their own jobs. Zagreus' attention turned to the five teams he requested. "Now then, do you five know why I picked you all?" Zagreus asked.

"Because we're the best!" Rusty said as he raised his fist into the air with excitement. All the other Pokémon from the guild didn't agree with three out of the five.

"No, it's because I drew your team names out of a hat. We also won't be going along, with four knights joining us" Zagreus said to them as both the Dewott from a few days ago that Nero recognized with a Samurott next to them, there was also an Absol and Galarian Farfetch'd, what he said earlier wasn't a lie though for three of them, Dark Fairy, Truth Seekers, and Toxic since Shade Walker and Hope were already picked. "Now then, we are moving to a location to look into due to the high rise of bandit activity. We'll be taking crown jewel ship, the Flying Dutchmen." He pointed up to the floating ship. "Any other questions?"

"Why is that ship flying?" Halo said as she raised a paw in the air, she was confused.

"Ghost. Alright, let's get ready!" Zagreus said as they led everyone to below the ship, the bottom of the boat then opened up with chains and a lift held by chains lowered down. Some of them used the lift while others held on to the chains that lifted them up to the ship with the bottom closing.

Everyone was on the ship, they moved from below to the deck of the ship. It looked almost like a haunted house for Nero, a little scary but in a fun way. He looked at a barrel that was shaking and came closer to it, then a ball of gas popped out, a Gasly, the Gas Pokémon had scared Nero. He was spooked for a minute and jumped back before laughing. The Gasly was caught off guard for a minute before laughing too as it liked how Nero was laughing at the quick scare he had. Nero then looked around and most of the others were either relaxing or getting ready.

Rusty and Team Dark Fairy were resting at the side while Shade Walker was talking about what they needed to get ready for when they arrived. He saw Halo and Blu sitting with a Dusclops who was doing a cup trick, the set of three, and using a ball, shifting them around very slowly. He then noticed that both Viola and Bianco were already tied to different masts away from each other, he was confused before someone spoke behind him, a voice that sounded hollow with an echo to it. "We tied them up since we knew they would have fought each other..." Nero turned around to see a Lampent. "Hello there... I am Thanatos."

"Um, hi Thanatos," Nero said waving at them. "Can I ask you something?"

"No, we have a restroom so you can't go over the side..." Thanatos said almost instantly to the Riolu who was caught off guard and questioned if they were joking or not.

"N-No not that! I was wondering why we get picked. If it was at random, wouldn't get pick teams more qualified?" Nero asked.

"No... we picked you all because it was first choice... and to know..." Thanatos said before floating away into the ship. Nero wanted to stop them and ask them what they were talking about, but the Lampent was already inside the ship going through the wall of the ship.

"Know what?" Nero questioned.

"Nero!" The Riolu turned around to see Sapphire walking up to him and waving to him. "Hey, how are you doing?" she asked genuinely.

"Hey Sapphire, I forgot you were on the mission too." Nero said before looking behind her to see Rune with the shiny Tangla and Skitty with him using a chock board to explain to them and a Gasly that was eating popcorn. They offered some to the Tangla that ate a little. "Is that your team?"

"Yeah, those are my closest friends, Emerald the Tangla and Ruby the Skitty." Sapphire said as she smiled about her friends being mentioned. "They are shiny Pokémon like me, and they had human stuff too." Sapphire said which caught Nero's attention. "Oh, yeah, they had some stuff from the age of humans, Emerald had some books from the age of humans and Ruby had something that takes images, her family collected it in case they wanted to sell it and I bought it from them. After that we became friends, and we took some of Rune's lessons about history." Sapphire explained to Nero.

"Oh, that sounds great, I guess if some Pokémon have anything from humans will catch your eye and become friends with them huh?" Nero said a little jokingly.

"Of course, I would, I want to be friends with anyone who knows about humans. I actually have a dream to teach people about humans and put a stop to Pokémon disliking the history of humans." Sapphire said before turning back to her friends and Rune as they continued the lesson. "Oh, I need to go back to friends and lessons. After the mission let's talk about the journal so more. Later Nero." Sapphire said before running back to her team, he waved her off as he felt like they could be great friends.

Inside the ship, Thanatos stopped at a door with a sign that said, "Captain quarters, stay out or be tossed overboard!" Sasaki the Dewott was outside the room staying on guard along with the Galarian Farfetch'd where they noticed Thanatos who joined them. "Captain Davy said another hour..." Thanatos said as the Farfetch'd tapped on the door with a set of three knocks with his leek, hearing back another set of knocks, they just tapped the door once before standing guard.

"Hmm, you knights of Olympia are strange," Sasaki said to the Farfetch'd who shrugged them off.

"We know how to communicate without words or letters, what's wrong with that?"

Inside the captain's quarters, a slightly bigger room with a desk on one side of the room, a rackety-looking bed on one side away from the door, and next to the feet of it had a chest with writing on it that said: "No Gold, stay out Midas." with a sticky note under it. "But I want your gold. Some Ex-Pirate you are Davy! Love Midas~" In the room was Zagreus resting on the side of the bed, with the Absol and Kanemaki the Samurott sitting on chairs. "Looks like an hour from our destination." Absol said to the others.

"Good, and thank you again, Pythia, Kanemaki, for coming along. I feel at ease knowing I won't be the only one to go through with this." Zagreus said to the two who didn't look at ease as him.

"I bet you only brought us along as scapegoats in case things go south for you, you'll have someone to blame," Kanemaki said with them lying down on the floor, their front legs crossed.

"That is if someone slips and talks about what this is really about, we just need one of us to watch them and learn what we can." Zagreus explained to the two, recapping their plan. "The location has been full of wilds and suspected of holding bandits as a camp, it is highly unlikely."

"Shouldn't be hard, I'll have Jason go with them--" Pythia the Absol said before getting interrupted by Kanemaki.

"Nope, Sasaki will watch them closely," Kanemaki said almost like it was decided. The two then started to argue back and forth, talking about who was going and who wasn't like children. They even looked like they were about to fight before Zagreus stepped between them.

"How about you send both! Sasaki and Jaso could go with them and ask them questions. They'll also keep up the mission of looking around for bandits, so far only we three know there are none so if we do run into any they won't be surprised. Got it?" Zagreus asked the two who stepped back from each other and nodded in agreement. "Good. Until then we relax and talk about other matters, such as these Cross-Voids."

Back on the deck of the ship, Nero was wandering around, he would sometimes look over the side to see how high off the ground they were seeing the amazing sights. He would sometimes think about the journal, but he left it with Apollonia to keep it safe. He then walked over to Bianco who was sticking their tongue out at Viola, who was doing the same, the moment he was close they asked them something. "Nero, quick, break the chains so I can fight Viola!"

"Oh, you want to fight dirty! Blu, get over her and break MY chains so I can bite Bianco's neck!" Viola said from her mast.

"Yo. No." Blu said from a distance.

"Sorry Bianco, but they said to keep you both from fighting each other, so we have to keep you tied up." Nero said, his friend noticed Nero looked concerned about something.

"You okay Nero?" Bianco asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking, why did you want this mission so badly?" Nero asked Bianco who had a look of pure confidence on his face.

"Hehe, you see Nero, I need the reward for items, we Zangeese aren't too powerful, but we use our skills and items for hunts and battles often," Bianco said with no shame, he wasn't hiding this fact either. "Some Pokémon think items for fights like blast seeds or spikes are for weaklings or take up too much space. We don't care, items are meant to be used. I don't care as long as I reach my dream."

"What is your dream?" Nero asked with curiosity.

"To become a high-ranking member of the goal, if I do that then I'll see the world!" Bianco explained as he looked over to the horizon with a blissful face with a clear look of determination. "Masters could travel the world, some places are too dangerous for normal Pokémon so if I become a high-ranking member I can see those places and see the whole world with no issue. As a child, I never had a dream like that before my mother told me this dream."

"Wait, your mother? She wanted to see the world?" Nero asked as he believed he understood what he was talking about before seeing the smile on Bianco's face died down slightly, he still had a smile but there was a downheartedness in his eyes.

"Yeah, as a pup my mother said she wanted to see the world before I was born, she said when I grew older I could either stay with our pack or travel with her to see the world. But then she got sick and... I promised her that I would see the world so I will see the world!" Bianco said as he wanted to burst out of the chains holding him to the mast, to break free to express his spirit.

"That sounds like a cool dream and... I'm sorry about your mother... I never knew mine." Nero said sounding downcast. He sat next to Bianco who had a sympathetic look, he tried to pull his claws free to pull him into a comforted hug but was stuck, he instead just leaned his head on Nero's head to show that he cared about him. "So, you joined the guild for that? See the world?"

Bianco then raised his head as he continued his story, maybe changing the subject wouldn't make Nero upset. "Yeah, I left my pack 4 years ago, I think I was around your age. It was a neighboring region close to here, Hoenn, where we lived as hunters, living off the land. I left for my mother's dream and..." Bianco stopped himself, he didn't want to explain the whole story. Nero looked concerned as placed a hand on his shoulder, he wanted to ask but they just blurred out an answer. "And because I wanted to! Yeah, that's it. Hahaha!" Bianco said with a cheerful expression, Nero could tell it looked forced, he wanted that to be his answer.

"Alright... can I ask you something else?" Nero asked with Bianco nodding his head with confidence. "What about your dad, you didn't bring him up?" With that Bianco's confidence crumbled before he looked stiff as a stone statue, if had been drinking something, he would have taken a spit take.

"Oh, um... never met once, my mom and elders of my pack said she went out to start her journey, but she came back with my egg a few months later. She said she attacked a Seviper--"

"Wait, she attacked? It wasn't the other way around?" Nero asked.

"No, she attacked them, she proudly admitted it to everyone including me. Anyway, she said she was losing but was saved by my father, he wanted to see the world too, they traveled for a bit before some bad Pokémon came and... took him away... she couldn't just leave me so she put her dreams on hold and found her way back to them before I hatched. Hehe, they welcomed her back with open arms." Bianco said with a cheerful look, looking real this time.

"Do you plan on going back to them someday?" Neor asked with Bianco starting to laugh hysterically before turning to nervously.

"Hehehe Hahaha! Nope! I don't think I can, I did burn a few bridges for running away after losing my mom. Didn't tell a single soul what I was doing or why!" Bianco explained before shaking nervously. "Especially one particular bridge with a girl who had a dream of giving me her heart that I probably broke by running away and making things worse she is our pack leader's daughter! Hahaha! Oh, I will definitely die if I go back, I mean her brother is like a brother to me but he treats her like if she's hurt the world needs to burn down and let her do it since she's the strongest among us, yeah definitely dead! Why are most girls I meet scary?!"

"Um, is it that bad?" Nero asked with Bianco's laughing increasing. "Oh, it's that bad."

Location: Mercury Mountains, forbidden sector

The haunted Airship, the Flying Dutchman, flew over a wide mountain range with twists and turns to avoid crashing into the sides of the mountains. It was a strange sight for Nero as the mountains were all silver-like metal, coated in mercury, guess that's how it got the name. There was also little vegetation or greenery on the bases of the mountains, nor grass or trees on them. They all then saw their destination, it looked like a building, an office building around seven stories high, but it was off, there was a chunk of the ceiling missing and it had walls you'd normally find in a castle surrounding it with a huge amount of the wall near the entrance missing. At the top of the entrance were three flag poles, the one on the left bending over, just the slightest movement would make it tumble over. "This is where we're supposed to be?" Nero asked.

He then heard the rattling of chains before a loud slamming sound, he turned sound to see Raider standing over both Bianco and Viola, pressing their heads to the ground with his hands. "How long was that?" Raider asked as Rusty was holding a stopwatch.

"Just about under a second, right when we untied the chains they tried to jump each other." Rusty said as he held in a laugh.

"I guess I couldn't help it..." Bianco said with his face still on the deck of the ship. "Guess I deserved to get "decked" for my actions." Bianco jokingly said with no hint of shame in his voice, only for Raider to press his hand tougher and force the floor to creak.

"I'd stop that if I were you!" Said Zagreus as he, Kanemaki the Samurott, and Pythia the Absol stepped outside. "Unless you want to deal with Captain Davy, you know he hates it when someone damages the Flying Dutchman."

Raider looked at them and then at what he was holding before turning his pressing hands into grips as he picked up the two and looked at them dead in their eyes. "No fighting while on the mission." He then dropped Viola but tossed Bianco who rolled on the ground after landing and crashing into the mast he was tied to.

"Alright, swift briefing. This location is the Forbidden Sector of Mercury Mountain, here is an accent structure from hundreds of years ago, it was kept and maintained by the three kingdoms but was abandoned twenty years ago due to a siege. It was used as a research facility we called Silph No. 4." Zagreus said as he looked to Thanatos who had what looked like a map of the building and walls surrounding it. "Currently, there are seven floors, each floor needs to be searched carefully. After looking into each floor, you are to report your findings, like we said we suspect low-level bandits, but we can't be too sure. Normally we wouldn't mind small groups of low-level bandits, but even though this place is abandoned and no longer in use, which doesn't excuse them being on the property of the three main kingdoms of Inizio for their villainous ways. For the teams comprised primarily of rookies, suggest going with a Knight of Inizio."

"Huh, seriously, we have to work with knights. Will this affect our reward in any way? I mean, teams have to split their rewards on Commissions." Bianco said as he looked dumbfounded by this fact, he wanted to only split the reward with his teammates, sure an extra person would make dividing it easier than just three but that would also mean cutting costs.

"No, each knight is given their own separate payment at the end of the mission. As for who is going, we may have made a slight miscalculation, we had four knights but after learning that Teams Dark Fairy and Shade Walkers are of mid-to-high level members, they won't have knights with them." Zagreus explained.

"Good, we don't want to be showboated by some knights and totally annoying claims about honor or how they are "the true defenders of Inizio" and other blah blah blah they won't shut up about." Havoc said before turning to the Knights they were standing next to. "No offense... actually, yeah, total offense," Havoc said with pride in his statement with Rusty giving them a high five and a thumbs up from Raider.

"In any case, we have enough guarding and protecting the ship from anything. My trusted guards Thanatos and Charon will be going along with Truth Seeker since they have mainly low-level members and the same goes for Toxic." Zagreus said as Thanatos flew over and over Rune and Sapphire's team, the Skitty leaped up and tried to swat at the ribbon on the brooch they had. Charon the Duskclops slowly walked over to Team Toxic with Blu offering a fist bump. Charon balled his hand into a fist and at a painfully slow speed bumped his fist with the Crogunk. "That leaves the last two knights, Jason and Sasaki. We would like it if Team Hope went with both of them."

The moment their names were said, the Galarian Farfetch'd and Sasaki the Dewott stepped out of the ship, his eyes met with Nero as they both looked stunned to see each other. "Huh, you again?" Sasaki said surprise.

"The Dewott from a few days ago?!" Nero said pointing them out. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm a Knight of Inizio from Atlantis, I am serving under King Poseidon. Why are YOU here?" Sasaki said irritated over the fact that Nero's attitude, they viewed it as rude.

"Calm yourself, Sasaki, which is the one you'll be teaming with on this mission, they are Nero the Riolu." Kanemaki explained before Sasaki started to look panicked. Kanemaki, his uncle and mentor, told him to work with him, but he remembered that he had slightly insulted him. It wasn't too late to try and talk to them.

"Then forgive my current words I spoke. My name is Sasaki, I will be working with you." Sasaki said as he walked up to Nero, bowed his head, the looked at them in the eyes.

"Sauce-Key? Strange name." Nero said as he pinched his chin before waving it off. "Yeah, no. I don't think we can work together."

Sasaki was taken aback and balled a fist while trying to look tame and not lash out at Nero. "First, my name is Sasaki, Sa-Sa-Ki, not Sauce-Key. We will work together on this mission." he said with clenched teeth.

"No thanks, I don't feel like working with someone who insulted my friends." Nero said before looking at the Galarian Farfetch'd and remembered the other name mentioned. "Are you Jason?" Nero asked with the Galarian Farfetch'd named Jason nodding their head, confirming their name. "Sweet, we'll be working with you then."

"Hold on, I was told your team leader was a Zangoose named Bianco, shouldn't be his say on the matter and not just you!" Sasaki said to Nero who turned to Bianco who nodded.

"He's right, it should be my call, and if Nero doesn't want you on the team, then that means you're out--" Bianco tried to explain before Zagreus stepped in.

"Sadly, it isn't your say, more members on a team means more ground to cover. I also agreed for both Knights to be on your team just so Pythia and Kanemaki wouldn't fight like an old married couple. Sigh, now then, once we get close enough, that's when the mission begins. I need to rest." Zagreus said before walking off.

Sasaki looked at team Hope with bitter spit for how both the leader and Nero were acting, plus Nero's decision to refuse to work with him because of what he told him, some sound advice to him and other Knights would believe. Jason was about to pat them on the back, but Sasaki grabbed him by the wing and held it. "Hey, lighten up Sauce-Key," Jason said intentionally saying his name wrong before having his wing grabbed on tighter than it was a second ago. "AH! Worth it!"

Location: Silph No. 4 Floor???

In a room that looked like a laboratory with machinery, chemicals, and medical equipment, the Beheyeem named Doctor Orcus was working at a desk with some tools. He heard a beeping sound and turned to see a set of monitors showing the Flying Dutchman, scoffing at this as he pulled out what looked to be a silver pocket watch, instead of a clock inside it had a screen that showed a digital clock. "I knew it, they're late." He put down his tools next to a small box with small red and white balls with a button in the center, they then picked up a silver shield-looking badge with a yellow plus in the middle, placed it on his chest then pressed the plus before it turned blue and the badge turning red.

"Does it work, Doctor?" The voice of Corinth the Gallade, he turned to see him leaning against a wall. Orcus didn't answer, only nodding his head, a single for Corinth to toss a yellow ball the size of a ping-pong ball directly at their face. It got into their eyes as suddenly his body was covered in electricity. He was paralyzed, the effect of it anyway where electric energy was stored in a Pokémon's body, shocking them at nearly random. Then suddenly Corinth was hit by this effect too. "AH! Synchronize, I know this ability, but your ability is Telepathy." Corinth said as he pulled out two berries that looked like cherries, a set of Cheri berries, tossing one to Orcus that they both ate to cure their status effects.

"It works, I only have three that are ready, luckily that is more than enough," Orcus said as he turned at three figures hidden in the shadows. Their silhouettes showed only the resemblance of a large bull with three tails, a large cobra, and a small lion with a four-pointed star at the edge of their tail. "You three handle the weaker teams after with my prototype equipment, my Ability Badge, and remodeled Pokeballs, Corinth, you and your sister are to take on the stronger ones, I'll take care of the company outside alone, and as for Ivan, I'll need him to stay here and watch out for--"

"Ivan's already left through the air vents... he doesn't know the layout of the vents," Corinth said as Doctor Orcus didn't move or make a sound, he probably wasn't even breathing. They could hear rumbling in the vents moving fast.

Location: Silph No. 4 (inside)

The teams all decided to take different floors, the first floor, mainly the entrance was nearly empty so they all did a quick search to find nothing. Before going up, they thought they could split up on each floor to get the job done quicker, Dark Fairy and Shade Walker taking more of the upper floors while Truth Seekers would take the second floor, Toxic on the third floor, and as for the last team, Hope, they got the fourth floor. The mission was going well and quietly, for Nero, it was slightly boring. Were there even bandits?! "Are there bandits here at all? I haven't seen anyone at all." Nero asked Jason.

"Maybe, we said it was only suspected of holding them, it could be they moved out and changed locations," Jason said as the team entered a small room, that looked like an office. Jason walked over to the desk to open it to find nothing but dust. "Bandits tend to fall under two categories, the disorganized kind that that just do nothing but attack like barbarians and the other being the organized and well kept, but no matter what they'll always leave something behind, notes, supplies, bonfires, just find anything."

As they continued to search, Halo looked into a desk where she pulled out a piece of paper that Sasaki had taken only to discard it as it was just blank. "So far there isn't anything," Nero said as he scratched the back of his head confused as to what was up with this location. "Maybe they cleaned up?"

"No way, bandits leave something behind all the time as proof they were here," Jason said as he looked under the desk to find nothing. They all walked out of the room, traveling deeper into the hallway, when they saw a room and it was empty they would skip it and move to the next one. Jason looked over his shoulder to see Sasaki who nodded his head. Jason then looked at Nero to ask him some questions. "Hey Nero, right? Where are you from?" Jason asked, it was only towards Nero and no one else.

"Huh? Where I'm from? Um..." Nero had to think, he didn't know if his old town was still around or if it was in this world. Maybe he should either make up a town, but they would look into it. "Um... I'm actually from nowhere..." Nero explained.

"Haha, my teacher always told me that no one is from nowhere, we're all from somewhere," Jason said amused.

"Well, I see it as nowhere... I Kinda wants to forget where I'm from, it wasn't a good home and I wanted to get away from someone..." Nero said surprising Jason as to what he was talking about, he had a feeling that Nero was a victim of some sort of abuse. Nero then stopped as he felt something. "Hey, do you guys feel something?" Nero said as he turned around to see something that was watching them around a corner before it moved out of sight.

"What is it?" Sasaki said as he turned around to nothing. At first, he thought Nero might have just heard something before hearing footsteps close by. The pendant on one shell started to glow before turning into a sword that he placed a paw on.

Jason noticed this with him holding his leek tightly with his own pendant turning into a sword with the handle having a blue cloth and the guard having a blue eye on the center of it. The sword was actually Honedge, the Sword Pokémon. The Honedge then drew itself off of the shelf and the ribbon wrapped around his wing. "Bandit?" Jason asked as the others stood in their fighting position.

"Possibly, stay on guard," Sasaki replied. They had to as they were deep inside the building away from their only exit, they had no idea who they were about to face or if they were alone.

"Mister Sauce-Key, what are we expecting?" Halo said as didn't know what to expect.

"We don't know and-- Did you just call me Sauc-" Sasaki was interrupted as he heard something other than footsteps, a crackling noise. "Back away!" Sasaki said as he jumped forward grabbing both Nero and Halo away and Jason used his leek to push Bianco out of the way as a blast of electricity came from behind them and hit the ground.

As they managed to dodge the attack, Nero stood up, he felt like he knew that attack from somewhere. "That was Thunder Shock!" Nero said as he looked around before they saw where the attack came from. "Over there!" Nero yelled as he pointed to the origin of the attack.

What stepped into view was a small lion with a blue coat of fur on their face, upper body, and ears while that had a short mane around their head and their lower body was jet black, they had yellow rings around their forelegs and had a four-pointed star on their tail. It was Luxio, the Spark Pokémon. "Total of five huh? This should be interesting." Luxio said with a smug look on his face as he stood in position for a fight. His eyes then started to glow as a wave of intimidation washed over everyone with them all feeling weaker from the stairs.

Was that intimidate? Nero thought as he knew that Luxio with that being one of their abilities.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?!" Bianco demanded an answer as he stood back up to take position.

"I know him," Sasaki said as he stood next to Bianco with his sword in hand. "This Luxio is part of a small group of low-level bandits, more like a trio of thugs who work as highwaymen, robbing unprotected merchant carts and groups," Sasaki explained.

"Impressive, not just anyone could figure out who I am on the spot, normally you Knights of Inizio care very little about small-time bandits like us, how did you know since I'm low level?" Luxio said curiously.

"I make it my business to know any criminal in the region, no matter how small they are." Sasaki responded back as the others stood next to him ready for a fight.

"Alright then, my name is Nemean, I am the leader of the trio-bandit group called "Stay Away Trio" We are here to take down everyone..." The Luxio named Nemean said before turning his sights on Nero. "Are main target being a Riolu named Nero."

"Nero?" Bianco said worried and confused about this factor.

"Me?" Nero said equally confused before realizing something. "They might be working with the Cross-Voids? Wait, a trio?"

"Yeah, we're a trio, plus guests," Nemean explained.

As the group dealt with Nemean, just the floor below them, Team Truth Seekers were searching the floor for anything, emphasis on searching as Sapphire was gleaming over everything, looking as if she was in pure nirvana as it was mostly due to the fact that this building was made by humans. "This is amazing!" She said as she twirled around like a ballerina from the excitement. "Look at this place! Humans made this building I know it!"

"You're really eager about this place huh Sapphire?" Said the shiny Tangla as they used their vine-like tentacles to move things around, it was mostly either junk or other stuff.

"How can I not Emerald!" Sapphire said as she stopped spinning around. She made her way to a door, opened it and looked into the room, it was empty but still exciting her. "Look at this place, the structures are just like how Rune taught us! Heeeee!" She squealed at how amazing this place was for it was so much to her.

"You... he taught you; we just sit in on those lessons for the sneaks he offers and because we're friends." The Tangla named Emerald said as she helped the other member of their team, a shiny Skitty up onto a table they were struggling onto and they started to run around on top of it, the Knight that followed them, Thanatos the Lampet, was floating above them, the Skitty then tried to jump up to saw at the ribbon on their porch. "Saw you talking to the new recruit too, Nero, right?"

"Yeah, he was the Pokémon who gave me the journal yesterday, it was full of so much information. Not only that but he also can read the human language too." Sapphire said to her friend as she kept on looking. "Although, there doesn't seem to be much here." Sapphire said as she was confused about the lack of everything.

"Keen eye Sapphire." Said Rune as he entered the room to see the four. "I already checked around but haven't found anything. We should get ready to move to the upper floors." Rune said as they started to leave, there was something off about the location, it was empty, too empty. There wasn't anything, not even dust, it was cleaned up before they arrived. He wanted the young members to leave before they ran into a threat, the fact the room was so clean was a red flag as there should still be something there.

Rune stopped as they heard something behind them, turning their heads they saw nothing he thought he heard something on the ground, it wasn't steps or anything but a slithering sound from a snake. He then realized he wasn't looking in the right direction, he looked up. Something fell from the ceiling, hidden within it. They had a large purple cobra-shaped body with the neck having what looked like a face-like pattern with red eyes and irises that looked like either they were squinting or like small flames while it had a wide black smile. It was an Arbok, the Cobra Pokémon.

What caught Rune's attention the most was their tail wrapped around a stick-like object with various orange spikes around it. Rune knew what it was, a wand that they started to wave in front of him. "Two-edge Wand!" They yelled with a feminine voice, the spikes on the wand launching of the wand and all struck Rune with him having no time to dodge as he was hit with everything, forcing him to take a knee. He looked up at the Arbok to see the wand still wrapped in her tail started to glow, her body covered in a red aura before it disappeared. "The draw back to that wand sucks, the effect is worth it if you ask me."

"What was that?!" Emerald said confused about what had happened as she checked up on Rune to see he was hurt.

"Two-edge wand... it takes all but 1 of a Pokémon's HP... however, the user loses half of their own..." Thanatos explained as he stepped forward to fight. "Isn't that right...? Medusa of the Stay Away Trio...!"

"My, my, you know about us?" The Arbok named Madusa said as she slithered around to stand tall and above them. "Then you should know that we don't fight far. We were told to take you all on and take you down." Medusa explained as she started to move with her releasing an intimidating look in her eyes as a wave washed over them all, making them feel weaker. "Now then, let's fight!"

On an upper floor, Team Toxic was just looking into everything they could, Charon was helping by phasing through doors that were locked and unlocking them to open them. Sometimes he would just punch a door to open it. They checked all over and found nothing. They thought about just going to the next upper floor before hearing something.

Charon stopped near the exit to the room and backed up, pushing Team Toxic back as he moved back as something burst out from the door. It was a large black-looking bull with three tails, and three iron-looking spots lined up on their forehead. It was Tauros, the Wild Bull Pokémon, a combat breed one at that. A wave of intimidation washed over the party. "I am Minator of the Stay Away Trio, which is all I'll say, we'll now fight!" The Tauros named Minator said as he ready to charge at the four.

The upper floors were being looked at by the other two more senior teams, such as Shade Walker on the fifth floor and Dark Fairy on the Sixth. On the fifth floor, Shade Walker was like the others, looking for about anything out of place in this location, but then they heard something. Looking behind them they saw a Gardivoir walking about, the look on her face was innocent with a smile before a bright light shined from her body and lights appeared around her. "Dazzling Glare!" The Gardivoir said as she fired the lights at Team Shade Walker.

The floor above heard what sounded like an explosion below them, they thought it was strange, perhaps one of their comrades had run into something. This thought was cut off as Tinkatuff opened a door before jumping backward to dodge a punch from a Gallade, Corinth the Gallade. "That explosion must have been Eretria, she likes to start things off flashy," Corinth said casually as if there weren't any threats around him other than the three that surrounded him. He just looked around and got ready to fight.

Outside the building, Zagreus, Kanemaki, and Pythia were watching the area carefully. They looked up because they heard an explosion that was made up and above on the fifth floor of the building which surprised them. "What was that? An explosion?!" Pythia questioned what had happened.

"That was definitely a bad sign. We should get ready to--" Zagreus said before stopping himself from moving. He noticed a shadow on the ground, something was above them. Turning around they saw Orcus floating in the air observing them all. Zagreus knew who they were, from what Bianco explained to them all, they were one of the Cross-Voids.

"Three knights," Orcus said before turning to the ship, the Flying Dutchmen. "Hmm, this could be something interesting. Let's begin." Orcus said as he floated down to the ground, seeing the three to see them at eye level.

End of Chapter