We split up into teams to search. Luckily, Rudi and I were paired together, but only because we were Unovan Superheroes. If caught, it would make more sense that we were together rather than getting mixed up with the ex-Champions of Unova.

I still had to replay the events over the past forty-eight hours. It took two days to plan this ambush we were doing. Seeing as Nox had found the two possible locations Team Oblivion could be at, we had to be ready for anything.

A part of me wanted to use this as an opportunity to warn Rudi about what I saw at Officer Jenny's, but as I looked over at him, seeing his eyes focused on whatever was ahead of us, I realized now might not be the time.

Instead of pestering, I looked ahead to see what was going on. According to Nox, we would be needed at Virbank City. While we were there, Hilbert and Hilda would be at Humilau City. The set up was due to how heavily populated Virbank was compared to Humilau. Rudi and I had our alter egos of Braviary Man and Swanna Girl to keep us under the radar, but Hilbert and Hilda didn't.

They weren't ready to face the world until Team Oblivion was stopped once and for all. After their disappearance, I wouldn't be surprised if people would bombard them with questions. That was what happened to Rudi when everyone figured out he was Braviary Man.

I wasn't there to see it. I was still in Kalos. I just remember the phone call he had made to the Pokémon Center that night. Rudi was confused, and...

I shook my head. Now was not the time to think about what happened back in Kalos. That was in the past. Right now, we had bigger issues to focus on. Thinking about or bringing up what had happened back in Kalos would only slow us down.

"Sylvia," Rudi snapped me out of that memory before it could come.

I snapped my head over to see what he was talking about. My eyes widened. Team Oblivion never created a big scene with their attacks, but this was different. People were running around, trying to get away from the attacks of the Dark, Ghost, and Psychic-types. I was just glad the members didn't attack the civilians without their Pokémon.

That's what I could see against all the fog.

"Swanna," I instructed, seeing the harbor, "land me there."

"Braviary, follow suit," Rudi called.

Our Pokémon swooped down land us by the harbor. It was the only place in all of Virbank that didn't have any kind of smog as it was well lit. How a place could have so much pollution collected in one place surprised me, and I'd been in Lumiose City, which was one of the biggest cities in the world. That place paled in comparison to the amount of pollution here. If only I'd known earlier, I might have asked Rena to make a full face mask that could somehow cover my nose. At this point, I wouldn't have cared if there was some sort of embarrassing beak on it.

I leapt off of Swanna and onto the port. Rudi landed beside me, instantly plugging his nose.

"Of all places, we had to come here," Rudi commented.

"Seems like a place Team Miasma would hide," I added.

Rudi shook his head. "They're surprisingly smarter than that. So, what's the game plan? Do we use the water to our advantage, do we sneak around the city..."

"I have a better idea," a new voice intervened.

We turned our heads to see a group of them. Four grunts standing beside a woman with short red hair and glowing brown eyes. She leaned up against the street lamp, her arms crossed over her chest. Unlike the last admin I'd seen working for Team Oblivion, this woman looked like she was going out for a run, wearing a form-fitting athletic black zip-up and yoga pants. To top off the outfit, she wore black tennis shoes.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The woman smirked. "Well, you've already met Shade, and I'm sure the Unovan champs told you all about me."

In the corner of my eye, I saw Rudi scratching the side of this head. "Don't mean to burst your bubble here, but they haven't."

"Oh," the woman sighed. "Guess they wanted you to all die."

Wait! There was one name Hilbert warned me about. It wasn't much, only during our training sessions. I quickly grabbed Mienfoo and Musharna's Poké Ball with my right hand and took a step back.

"Dusk," I remembered.

"Very good," the woman, Dusk, congratulated me. "I knew you were the smart one. Alas, I don't think that's really going to matter. Boys, go for it."

The four grunts threw out their Poké Balls. I glanced over towards Rudi, who had his Ralts out for battle as well.

At that moment, I realized how screwed we were. Four grunts, each with two Pokémon each, and that was not even the half of it. Our Pokémon all had to run together without command and start their own battle.

Instead of helping them out, Rudi and I had company of our own. The grunts came at us full speed.

Why did these things always had to end up in a physical fight? Were they trying to get us killed?

To make matters worse, only one went in Rudi's direction, the biggest of the three grunts ran right towards me. The shortest one coming after me was about Hilbert's height, which I could work with, but the other two were the definition of giants.

At least there was one thing that happened. The two taller ones came running towards me and aimed their punches towards my head. I swooped down and quickly crawled under one of their legs, tripping the poor grunt down, face first, into the water. Hopefully the guy knew how to swim. Then again, maybe it was better for my well-being that he didn't.

Someone grabbed me by the waist before I could get up. In a split second, I saw that the red haired woman was about ready to attack Rudi from behind. He was too busy keeping the grunt, the one that decided to fight him, in a headlock.

"Braviary Man, behind you," I warned.

Rudi swung the grunt around, using him to nearly knockout Dusk. That was all I saw as I realized I had other problems to deal with. The grunt that had me was starting to take off.

I quickly kicked my legs and flailed my arms around. If I made it harder for myself to become a target, then it would be harder for him to fight me. At least Hilbert was right about something. Despite not knowing how to fight, I had to use what I had to my advantage.

During the process, I was able to slip out of the grunt's grasp. I turned around and tried to kick him. The grunt was faster as he grabbed my leg and shoved me away. I stumbled backwards until I was standing on the edge of the harbor, nearly falling in.

The three grunts surrounded me, one was sopping wet from before.

"Looks like you have nowhere to go this time," he said.

I looked up, seeing a glimmer of hope. "That's what you think."

Before they could all lunge to attack me, I jumped up and grabbed Swanna's leg. All three of the grunts that were attacking me had dove into the water instead.

At least they got their shower in for the night.

The battlefield looked pretty even. Rudi was fighting Dusk and a grunt, but he didn't seem to be breaking a sweat like his opponent. As for their Pokémon, I could see a lot of them already fainted, but none were on my side. Despite that fact, I still wanted to heal them and make sure they were alright.

If I did that though, they wouldn't hold back in fighting me.

Swanna flew me away from the harbor and into the polluted foggy part of the city. The minute I landed, I could hear someone yell my name in excitement. There was no time to take praise that Swanna Girl was here. The sooner I could get this done, the better.

"Looks like you're not going to listen to my warnings, are you," a familiar voice taunted.

I turned around to see Lethe standing there with Stunky by his side. I held my breath as I looked at him. His shaggy brown hair was falling out of his black beanie, as if he didn't put in any effort into looking like his fellow low-ranked members.

"When you stop messing with my region, then I will," I threaten.

"You do realize Joy's life's on the line, right?" Lethe challenged.

"You do realize that you lay a finger on her, and I will make sure every last one of you suffer," I retorted.

Lethe smirked. "You wouldn't even hurt a Cutiefly."

What the heck was a Cutiefly? If it was a Pokémon, then it was one I didn't know of. Maybe I should've paid attention more in my classes.

Swanna landed in front of me. "Try me."

"Stunky, use Fury Swipes!" Lethe started the battle.

The purple Pokémon leapt towards Swanna, but we were quicker as I whispered my next attack. By the time his opponent landed the attack, Swanna's body disappeared, surrounded Stunky with many different copies.

Lethe growled. "That's a cheap move. Stunky, use Taunt."

We couldn't dodge the attack as Stunky seemed to be intimidating Swanna in some way. Stunky intimidated Swanna in a way that all of his copies disappeared. I could see the anger boiling in Swanna's veins.

"Swanna, use Ice Beam!" I yelled.

"Use Feint Attack," Lethe countered.

Surely enough, Stunky avoided the attack as he disappeared. The Ice Beam did make contact with another opponent. My eyes widened as Lethe's feet were frozen to the ground.

Talk about deja vu as I remembered what it was like being frozen with nothing to do. True, it wasn't me that was being hurt right now, but I couldn't help but to feel his pain. Lethe looked down as he tried pulling his legs out of the ice. He didn't have any luck.

Meanwhile, Stunky hit Swanna from behind and knocked him right into Lethe. The grunt fell down on his butt; feet still stuck in the small ice pile.

I watched as Lethe shoved Swanna off of him.

"That's just cold," Lethe said.

Swanna turned around towards Stunky, giving his opponent the stink eye. By the looks of things, Swanna didn't want to stop fighting. If anything, he seemed pumped, like he wanted to have Stunky fall.

Before I could say anything, Swanna swopped towards Stunky and started to use his peck attack on him.

"Swanna, stop it!" I yelled.

But Swanna didn't stop, instead he kept attacking Stunky. My Pokémon left me no choice but to return him into his Poké Ball, but Swanna avoided the red beam and glared at me.

Oh no.

It was then Lethe gave a malicious laugh. "You know, it's not always about attacking the Pokémon with brute force. Between Taunt and Swagger, your Pokémon's going to want to use physical attacks, but that's going to be hard now that he's confused."

As if to prove his point, Swanna dove towards me, using his Aerial Ace attack. I barely dodged the attack, wondering when Lethe had his Stunky use the latter move.

Then it hit me. The moment I was distracted by Lethe being hit by the ice beam. I saw his mouth move, but I just thought it was out of shock.

Before I could say anything, I saw a Water Gun attack barreling towards me. I dove out of the way, realizing the mistake I'd made.

"Audino," I called as I threw out his Poké Ball, "I need your help!"

My pink Pokémon was thrown out of his Poké Ball, readying himself for a battle. As soon as he saw his friend flying towards him, he realized what was going on and deflected it with a Double Slap. I sighed in relief, realizing how hard it was going to be for those two to battle each other, but at least everything was going to be alright.

I turned around seeing Stunky standing by her Trainer, glaring at me. Lethe didn't seem to notice as he tried pulling his feet out of the ice.

Remembering how much the ice hurt me, I didn't think twice on my actions. I quickly ran over and knelt down beside Stunky.

"Use Bite on the ice," I told the Pokemon.

Both Lethe and his Pokémon looked at me in shock.

"We might be on opposing sides," I pointed out, "but think of it as payback for saving me back in Nacrene."

Lethe looked at his Pokémon and gave him a quick nod. I placed my hands on Lethe's shoulders and pulled him back the minute Stunky loosened the ice with her bite. Once out, I heard someone yelling my name. Well, my superhero name that was.

I looked up to see Rudi running full speed with all of our Pokémon close behind him. The only thing that would make this scene better is if Swanna and Audino had joined them, but because of what happened, they were a bit preoccupied.

He stopped the minute I stood up, looking down at Lethe.

"Fight's over," Rudi scoffed. "Why aren't you retreating?"

I looked around, noticing this battle was anything but over. Trainers and Pokémon were still fighting the grunts that were around, as if they weren't going to give up.

"You think just because you've defeated Dusk, this think is over?"Lethe questioned as he took a step in front of me. "That's the difference between Team Oblivion and any other organization. Our admins may be defeated, but we all know not to back down until we have what we want."

After his little speech, I saw Audino running up from behind me, trying to run away from Swanna. My Flying-type ended up missing his target, hitting Lethe right in the back of the head. The poor grunt fell head first to the ground.

I didn't know why, but my nursing instinct took over as I bent down and felt for a pulse on his neck. It was there. Lethe was just knocked out cold.

Rudi didn't look too happy when I looked up at him. "We need to go. Rena's place has been hit."

I looked around, seeing the fighting still brewing. "You go, I'll stay here until this whole thing blows over."

When I looked back at Rudi, I could see his shocked expression. I quickly averted my eyes, looking down at Lethe's Stunky, who was trying to nudge her Trainer awake. It was all too familiar, but unlike me, this Stunky was going to be alright as her Trainer was going to be just fine.

While looking down, I noticed two other Poké Balls clipped to Lethe's belt, one of which was a Great Ball. I bent down and pulled the only empty-looking one out.

"You're going to need to get in here," I urged. "Your Trainer is fine, but I can't say the same for you if you stay out."

Stunky looked a bit hesitant, but she slowly pressed her head on the center of the Poké Ball, returning herself back into the capsule for who knew how long.

"What are you planning on doing?" Rudi asked.

"Save whatever's left of this place," I honestly told him. "Trainers need help, Team Oblivion isn't going to—"

"I meant with him," Rudi asked coldly.

I looked up at him as he crossed his arms over his chest. It was then I realized why Rudi was starting to act a bit strange. He, like everyone else, didn't trust Lethe. Here, I had just spared him. We didn't kill, but we did have to fight in this fight against Oblivion.

While I agreed to help, I did so on my own terms.

"I—I don't know, but—" I started to say before Rudi bent down to push the grunt over to his side.

Lethe's sunglasses fell off his face, but his eyes were closed. Nothing seemed abnormal about him. I just didn't understand why they wore the sunglasses.

I looked over at Rudi, who looked at his Braviary. Rena's workshop was being attacked. If that was true, then this entire thing was a diversion. It was as if Team Oblivion knew we would split up to go to two different places at once.

"Go," I told Rudi, "I'll call Landon for back up, and take care of things from here."

Rudi snapped his head over towards me. "You're—"

"Go," I urged.

That was all that was needed for him to nod, hop onto his Pokémon, and fly away. I watched as he quickly disappeared into the fog.

Swanna nudged me on the shoulder. I looked over at him, seeing a shameful expression flushing over his face. I smiled, scratching him under the beak. He didn't mean to fight; it wasn't his fault.

Musharna quickly cuddled beside me while Audino and Mienfoo stood there by Lethe, not entirely sure what to do.

"Keep an eye on him," I commanded to Mienfoo and Audino. "Don't let him get away. I have an idea. Swanna, it's not your fault, but I need your help to get rid of these guys. Musharna, I need your help too."

My Pokémon all nodded their heads, knowing what to do. While they all flew or ran to their stations, I turned around, freezing the moment I did.

Dusk stood there, standing with a sense of authority as she had her hands on her hips. I froze. She—she was at the harbor fighting Rudi last I checked. No, Rudi said the fight was over. That meant this red-head had to have been defeated, right?

I closed my hands in fists, as I took in my surroundings. She had two grunts—both girls this time, with light blonde hair pulled in a ponytail—standing behind her. Without Rudi, or anyone on my team, I could tell I was about to encounter the hardest fight yet.

There were many times I was knocked out too. This couldn't be good.

As if sensing my insecurities about this fight, Mienfoo and Audino ran in front of me, abandoning their posts to make sure Lethe wouldn't try anything now. I didn't say a word in disagreement as I knew this would probably be better.

"Lethe's always been too soft," sneered Dusk. "My comrades don't think it's something to worry about, but that doesn't mean that you can't be too careful."

Dusk nodded her head, giving the signal for the two grunts to send out their two Pokémon: a Pawniard and a Purrloin. Meanwhile, Dusk juggled a Poké Ball in her own hands, one that made me think I was seeing things. It wasn't like any Poké Ball I'd seen before, and I'd seen my fair share due to working at the Pokémon Center. This one was completely black with the staple silver line running across the middle.

As the two grunts yelled for their first attacks, I noticed Mienfoo and Audino quickly leap into action, leaving me with my cuddly Musharna and Swanna.

"You two take care of the Pokémon, I'm dealing with Swanna Girl myself," Dusk claimed cooly.

Just like that, she released the Pokémon that was inside the Poké Ball. My eyes widened as I saw it. This Pokémon reminded me of the shadows, especially how its dark body moved rippled through the wind. Blue eyes pierced through its head as it glared at me.

"Darkrai loves feeding on those who fear a lot," Dusk gloated, "and seeing as Shade told me all about your fears, well, this will be fun."

The Pokémon floated towards me, creating a dark sphere in its hand. Before it could release it, I found myself running out of the way, running right into Pawniard. The Dark-type Pokémon grabbed me with its arms to hold me still. This gave Darkrai an easy target.

This was why Hilbert wanted me to start training with two people instead of just him. Hate to admit it, but I wished I went through that lesson before starting this fight.

Darkrai released the dark sphere, but something inside me woke up. I flipped my body over Pawniard, causing the Pokémon to receive the hit rather than me. The two of us were pushed back, until I landed on the ground with Pawniard on top of me.

I needed to think of something fast.

"Musharna!" I yelled as I saw her watching Lethe sleep. She turned to look at me. Her eyes widened once she saw the predicament I was in.

Within seconds, she head butted Pawniard out of the way. With the Pokémon off of me, Darkrai decided to try another attack, but Swanna leapt in the way, deflecting the attack with a Water Gun.

"Pokémon battles are a bit safer than attacking someone," I warned.

Dusk growled, "Have it your way, Darkrai, Ominous Wind!"

Before the attack could be sent, I blocked my face with my arm. The harsh winds blew past Swanna. While I couldn't know how he was doing against such power, I could honestly say I wasn't faring so well. I slid backwards until my knees bent to allow my feet to root themselves in the ground.

By the time the attack was done, I looked up, seeing Swanna still flying there. He was pretty banged up, but he was still flying.

Which meant we couldn't waste a minute.

"Use Ice Beam!" I yelled.

Swanna shot the attack without missing a beat. This meant Dusk didn't have time to counter or dodge the attack in any way. Darkrai was hit, but due to the immense power it held, the Pokémon didn't seem like it did much damage.

I tried remembering what I learned back at school about these particular Pokémon. I remembered it was a Dark-type, possibly part Ghost-type too. If that was right, Water Gun and Ice Beam were our best bet against this thing.

But what else was I missing about this Pokémon?

"Enough play," Dusk demanded. "Darkrai, Hypnosis."

"Protect!" I quickly yelled.

I watched as the beam of light started winding itself around Swanna, but my Pokémon was faster. His protective shield protected him from getting hit by the attack. I sighed in relief.

How much longer did I have to battle? It felt like I was fighting and battling all night. As I looked up, I realized that might have been the case. We came here right as the sun set. Now, the moon was nowhere to be found, and the stars were fading away. That would explain why I was so exhausted from this entire thing.

Dusk growled. "Keep doing it until you knock both that Swanna and its pathetic Trainer out!"

Uh-oh.

Darkrai seemed to have noticed the same thing as well. Its head turned towards me, knowing that Swanna could only save one of us.

"Swanna," I whispered, "save yourself and the others first. Don't worry about me."

My Pokémon was reluctant, but lowered his head in agreement.

I watched as Darkrai sent a Hypnosis attack towards me. It flew around Swanna, missing him by mere inches, but then, I watched as the little ball of light started to circle around me.

Within seconds, the flying light stopped, but I wasn't asleep. I looked up to take in my surroundings. Mienfoo and Audino were both fighting the Purrloin at this point, seeing as the other Dark-type Pokémon was already out of it. I took a deep breath as the two grunts were fighting hand to hand combat with two brunettes.

My eyes widened. If this was for real, then it raised the question: when did Hilda and Hilbert get here?

It didn't matter as Dusk screamed. "Traitor!"

Her eyes weren't on me or anyone that was fighting at that moment. I slowly turned around to see Lethe kneeling beside me as he was petting my Musharna. His Stunky wasn't anywhere to be found, but a sleek-looking Pokémon stood beside him. I recognized it as one of the many Eeveelutions, Umbreon. It was one of the few Pokémon that seemed to be unforgettable due to the simplicity of it.

Lethe smirked as stood up, leaving my Musharna sitting there confused. "Mission's complete. If you were listening that earpiece of yours, you'd have known we just received orders to retreat."

I turned back to look at Dusk, who scowled. "Fine, but this isn't the last time you've seen us."

Before anything could be said, Dusk and the other two grunts returned their Pokémon before they threw something down at the ground. The fog was bad enough here, but that didn't hide the fact that they had disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

My hand covered my mouth as I coughed, and from a distance, I could hear Hilda and Hilbert doing the same. When the smoke cleared, the three members of Team Oblivion had disappeared.

Hilda and Hilbert looked at me, while I grabbed three Poké Balls from my belt. I quickly returned Mienfoo and Audino into their Poké Balls, and turned around to do the same with Musharna.

Only, when I turned around, I realized Musharna was missing. Lethe and the Umbreon that was by his side, they, too, had disappeared.

The only thing in their place was a note, but the first thing that crossed my mind wasn't about where Lethe went. Instead, it was the fact that my Pokémon went missing.

Musharna wasn't around much, but one thing was for sure. Things changed the minute she got here.

I just hoped she was okay.

Author's Note:

Looks like Lethe has an Umbreon, which is my favorite eeveelutions. What's your favorite eeveelution?

Hope you're enjoying the book so far. Take care.