Utter silence.

There's nothing but the whirr of gears in the distance as all of us stand in defeat before the closed door. Even though Shauna won, something about the victory is immensely hollow.

"I can't believe anyone could be so cruel." Korrina says softly, her hand sliding down the cold silver door.

"What a..." Ferro is about to yell, but he's abruptly cut off as Shika slams her hand against his mouth. He screams a muffled protest under her hand but it's to no avail.

"There are kids here." she tells him, her tone much like that of a schoolteacher.

Ferro pulls her hand off indignantly. "Oh yeah? Well I-"

"Not the time!" Bronze growls, turning around. The rest of us wheel around to find that we're completely surrounded by Team Flare Grunts. Remembering Lysandre's words, I wince a bit just seeing them, but I keep my mouth shut.

No one is going to die today.

They won't believe us until this is all over.

"Alright! Clear a line through the middle of the path, flanking on either side. Cycle back to the middle if you're hurt." Bronze tells the team, and we nod.

"On a scale of yes to no, is it okay if I beat the crap out of their Pokemon with my Goldeneye powers?" Ferro yells, exceptionally chatty to fill the void where our shock has left the conversation barren.

"Let's try 'hell yes'." Dill says, his eyes bright Gold as he releases Klaki. Seeing the familiar face fills me with warmth for the first time in a while, and as my other, larger Pokemon release from their Pokeballs, I let my emotions find their way away from me and into the battle. It's the only way I can shake the disgusting fight off of my back.

My team fights bravely as ever, though the desperation of such a small party against so many gives their attacks extra firepower. Chrona has twenty enemies seeded at once, taking back insane amounts of health before anyone can hurt her (just as well, seeing as most of her enemies are fire types). Rune fights long distance while Akita and Nico fight melee, guarding him on every angle as his torch lights massive fireballs which explode onto the ranks of angry Mightyenas, Manectrics, and even some Golbats. Pich soars above with talons extended, my eyes in the sky. I can only flash to her for short distances of time, as I need to keep physically walking (and I wouldn't put it past some of these grunts to attack me instead of my Pokemon). Regardless, she's ridiculously useful and the aerial view of our domination of the battlefield is great. Finally, there's Crypt, and as any towering thunder lizard would, he's slamming dozens aside with his tail. I yell out commands and guide his actions, trying to keep him from killing anyone. So far, it's going pretty well.

On the ground, Bronze and I are cornered by a red-haired woman. "Hello, deary! Welcome to the Lysandre Labs. Enjoying your stay?"

"You wouldn't if you knew what was going on." Bronze says.

"The impending destruction of humanity? Deary, that's been our plan this whole time. You can't honestly think Lysandre's kept us in the dark." she says it so dryly and apathetically that it takes all my effort not to electric kick her in the stomach as hard as I can.

Bronze's fists clench. "I know I've seen your face somewhere."

"I'm just another Admin. It doesn't matter where you have or haven't seen me." she replies coolly. "Now, let's find out if I have that key, shall we?" She sends out a Mightyena and a Druddigon.

Before Bronze can do much of anything, the rest of the team steps in, completely surrounding the Admin.

The Mightyena snarls at Hazel, who snarls back with bright golden eyes as Korrina and her flash. An even stronger aura radiates around her as Korrina quietly places her finger over the Mega Ring and Hazel goes mega, golden fur and dark streaks quickly overtaking her blue fur.

"Force Palm!" they call as one, and the Mightyena is completely defenseless against their lightning quick attacks. It manages to bite down on Hazel's paw, but she readies an Aura Sphere inside its mouth and with a loud boom, the Mightyena is slammed against the wall, breathing out smoke.

Crypt swings a Dragon Tail in the Druddigon's direction, knocking out several Pokemon on its way.

The Druddigon catches Crypt's tail with pure brute strength. With a colossal heave, it throws Crypt aside, sending him falling against the wall. Crypt screeches in pain, a sound that rips at my own heart. The Druddigon turns on Escargot, who's already been weakened, and readies a Dragon Claw just in time for a Dragonite to Dragon Rush it into the ground with a flaming blue burst of light.

Looking up, I see Sky waving. "Nice job, Carrot!"

The Dragonite proudly waves back, distracting it from the Druddigon. Carrot turns around with an "Oh shit-" as the Druddigon gets up and races at it, but by now both Crypt and Escargot have aimed a Dragon Pulse straight for the Druddigon's face. Both beams of purple light hit head on from different angles, and the Druddigon collapses.

As we fight on, we encounter two more of the Team Flare admins, both of whom look familiar. Their brightly colored hair and deplorable fashion are akin to two other grunts we fought at the Pokeball Factory.

"Wait, are you..." I ask.

"I've been waiting for revenge on you creeps after you took us out at the Pokeball Factory." says the purple haired girl. "It's me, Bryony, in case you weren't paying attention"

"Oooh, a double battle! Two on two?" Celosia says by her side, amused.

"Try two on twenty." Korrina calls. The others have pushed through the back once again.

They send out a Manectric, a Drapion, a Liepard, and a Bisharp, all four of the dark types snarling for action. Luckily, the team is prepared with fighting types.

Nico and Hazel fight side by side, their attacks incredibly fast as they prepare team Aura Spheres the size of a pumpkin, one after another in quick succession. By their sides are a Pangoro, a Meinshao, and a Monferno, all of them owned by team members.

"Focus Punch!" yells Khrys, his Pangoro obeying with a curt nod. It's odd seeing Khrys of all people owning a huge, bulky fighting type like Pangoro, but the two of them seem to be close.

The Meinshao guards Monferno, who's clearly quite a few levels under our opponents. Even with the extra precautions, it takes very little time for us to decimate their teams and for them to run away to who knows where.

The room is empty at this point except for the last Admin, who must have the Elevator Key. Coming closer, I remember her as Mable, who we last fought at Frost Cavern. She has her hands straight up and she's visibly shaking. Her visor is pushed away from her face, revealing pale eyes with large, terrified pupils. She lowers a hand into her shirt pocket and holds out the Elevator Key, her hand shaking slightly. "T-there it is. Don't come any closer. I have my Pokemon for my own defense."

"Where will this take us?"

"I don't know." She says, aloof.

Bronze pins her against the wall, blazing fist raised high.

"I swear I don't know! None of us are allowed down there! All I've seen is Lysandre... and... and a man! White hair! Screaming about his Floette. That's all. That's all I know!"
Bronze releases her, and I pull him back with my hand. Something about his presence in battling is unsettlingly terrifying, and I don't want to lose him to the feral side of his nature. Luckily, his hand relaxes in my grip.

"We should go." I say, approaching the elevator and inserting the key. The elevator blips loudly and between the up and down arrows is a bright golden eye, illuminated like the other two normally would. A door opens, revealing a skinny container barely capable of holding half of us.

"Everyone, back in the Pokeball." I say.

Without complaint, my Pokemon retreat and I cram in. "Not everyone's going to fit." I point out.

"Well, if we need to choose a team..." Korrina mutters.

"Khrys and Sky, of course." nominates Dusty. "They're the power couple!"

"Oh, you." Sky says cheerily, though she seems more concerned than anything else.

"He's right." Khrys adds.

"Toxis and Dill?" I raise my hand.

"Aw yeah! Let's do this battle Dillstiel style!" Dill jumps into the elevator.
"For the last time, that is not our ship name." Toxis follows him.

"We definitely can't have a team without Bronze." adds Chompers. Everyone watches as Bronze enters, though there's still definitely some room in there.

"I'm not going without Lilly." Bronze objects. He holds out his hand and I take it.

"I'm coming too." Shauna says. "Whatever this is, whatever's been started... Part of it is up to me. I need to see this man. I need to end this."

"Welcome aboard!" Dill cheers, allowing her into the cramped elevator.

Korrina plunges in with the rest of us, turning the elevator from cramped to borderline Goldeneye abuse. "Sorry, can't let you guys go into some dangerous elevator without a highly trained Gym Leader capable of Mega Evolution. League standards."

"Alright, is that everyone? You're making all of us who quietly refrained jealous." Ferro says.

"Seems about right." Korrina gives them the thumbs up. "You guys make sure no one gets in after us."

"Good luck." Shika tells us. "We're counting on you."

Toxis begins, "For all of us with hearts of gold-"

The elevator slams shut as the light goes out and without warning, we're plunged into nothingness.