We jump into the fray with all nineteen of our Pokemon, ready to fight. Shauna has a ridiculous number of Hyper Potions, which is sure to come in handy, although her Pokemon are criminally underleveled with the exception of Thistle. Worse than that, she can't use the skills she's apparently learned as a Goldeneye, which would probably be very useful right about now.

Bronze and I are side by side, yelling out orders, and our Pokemon are doing their best to keep up with the large numbers of grunt Pokemon.

"Pich! On your left!" Pich banks to the right quickly as a bolt of electricity shoots past her, causing her to land on top of one of the machines. The rapid bolts of electricity have already destroyed many of them, and the one she's on is steaming dangerously. "Get up!" I yell over the chaos of battle, but I don't know if she can hear me. Hopefully my urgency will be enough to warn her something is wrong, but I can't count on that. I close my eyes, try to stifle all of my emotions and calm down, and flash to her. I feel her panic immediately as the machine begins to quickly overhead. We join as one and we lift our wings and take off, dodging more bolts of lightning. With our new improved vision, I catch the culprit immediately. It's a Manectric.

"Crypt, help us out!" Crypt stomps forwards and uses Earthquake. Ozzy, who is riding his back, uses a powerful DragonBreath to ensure that it's really down for good, but it shows no signs of movement.

We take advantage of our bird's eye view to locate our allies. Shauna has found Crypt and is now healing his wounds quickly as possible as he knocks out multiple fire and electric types (which seem to be very common amongst the grunts) with Earthquake and Rock Slide. Thistle joins in beside them, swinging at Houndours three at a time with Hammer Arm before he takes a Flamethrower to the face.

We hear Shauna's cry of shock before the fire clears and it appears Thistle has formed some sort of barricade with his arms, a move that Pich recognizes as Spiky Shield. Multiple Houndour snarl and attack from the back, but Shauna yells something and Luna and Escargot appear. Crypt swings around to face the onslaught of attackers as well. They seem to be alright so soar down over the battlefield, seeking out others to assist.

Nico is fending off at least ten Pokemon at once, working side by side with the police's Pokemon, who he seems to have barked some orders to as to enable them to cover more ground.

Rune and Shruikan are by Bronze, who's eyes also shine gold. We swoop down and assault the other grunts with our claws, but are instantly shot back once on the ground by a Dark Pulse. We look around and see we're nowhere near any dark types.

Pain ripples across my body, and I feel instant pain as my connection with Pich slips. No one attacked her, they directly attacked me. I snap back to consciousness to find Rune smacking a Houndoom off of my body. I'm cut up all over but Rune helps me back up. "No honor at all." He murmurs. "Are you alright? We tried to protect you because well, you were occupied, but..."

I clutch my head, groaning in pain.

"Dark Pulse does horrible things, doesn't it? Just... just try to rest." I sense panic in his voice. "We'll be out soon."

I hear a loud and angry roar from somewhere in the middle of the factory. Crypt is angry. My heart beats as fast as my head throbs. Is Shauna alright? Is Crypt wounded? Will one of them die?

I try to reach out to them mentally but I can't concentrate. Everything hurts and my mind is complete mush. Rune holds me up but I know if he let go I would fall, and Bronze is falling back with Shruikan at his side.

There's another loud cry, this one more of an angry screech, and an eight foot monster barrels through the front lines, shaking powder everywhere. "Eat poison, bastards!" Chrona lands beside me, sliding across the ground. "Give her to me."

Rune helps me onto her back. "Don't worry, honey. I must have fifty Pokemon seeded right now. I'm recovering health faster than I could ever hope to lose it." A Sneasel rushes our way, covered in vines, and jumps upwards to slice down on Chrona's head. She catches it middair, wincing as the Sneasel chops through it, and has only a second to react before Rune slams it downwards with his flaming stick, breathing heavily.

"Make that fourty-nine." she says. "No big loss. Anyhow, we're getting slaughtered out there. They've lost substantial amounts of their Pokemon but so have we, and there are Admins out there now. I don't think we'll hold out much longer."

I try to get up but I can barely move. Her words buzz in my head as everything around me blurs with pain. Rune is fending back opponents, who are screaming things like, "Demonspawn!" "Witch!" and "Goldeneye freak!"

"They fear what they do not understand." heaves Nico, coming our way. He's limping, as one of his legs has been bludgeoned with something large. Bloodstains are visible across his face and almost his entire chest is stained with it, but he bears few scars. "Admin. Took down... three Pokemon."

"And Crypt's about to take down the rest. Look!" Rune yells, and I slide down towards Chrona's head to see not just Crypt but another giant, purple shape beside him, and they're shooting blindly at two sharp blurs of speed and color.

Most of the grunt Pokemon lay defeated. As much as I'd like to say that we helped the most, many of Team Flare's Pokemon lay burned by Arcanines and pummeled by Stoutlands, along with a variety of starter Pokemon from other regions.

I hear a loud crack and I see Crypt holding a limp yellow form in his jaws. It's a Manetric, but with the noise my eyes are seeing another yellow form in the jaws of an even larger red monster, and my back burns with pain that my body has not yet forgotten.

I feel tears in my eyes and I clench my hands around my head again as the pain from the Dark Pulse intensifies. I don't know how long it is before I feel hands on my back and I look up to see Bronze who whispers, "It's okay. It's over."

He knows too. He was the one who watched me die on the side of the lake, who watched me slip into the void.

"It's over now. You'll be alright."

It's not okay.

I look up and something falls into my hands, rotten and putrid. It smells terrible and my nose wrinkles in disgust, but that only makes my head hurt more. A Goodra stands above me, cooing sadly, as if mourning. "He died a hero."

Shauna slides off her Goodra's back. Her eyes are full of tears. "I- Lilly- I couldn't- Crypt is crazy over it but I promise, I promise we did everything to try to save him." She cries into Escargot's neck.

Through the pain, my mind blankly realizes that the form is not just scorched meat or an ugly reminder of something awful.

It's Ozzy.

The officers tend to their own fallen, of which there must be at least ten, and Team Flare grunts are escorted out in chains.

Meanwhile, the empty and broken factory is filled with the sounds of Crypt mourning.