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The Flare grunt continued to cower before Freth, flinching with each step she took towards him. By the time she got up to him he was visibly trembling. "Bottom floor!" He shouted, shaking and sweating. "You'll find the way out there...in a body bag." The grunt said with a grin which stretched across his entire skull before his 'skin' peeled back to a black fox-like face and and green eyes. The 'grunt' would vanish with a puff of dark energy and in his place a Zorua would appear, immediately lunging at Freth where it would attempt to jump on her chest. The Zorua would only need a brief moment to charge up the Dark energy it required as it swirled around him before it unleashed an explosion of energy, that sent it flying back and momentarily took on the form of Freth herself. As the Zorua landed the shadow copy would punch Freth similar to how she uses Frustration, the trickster Pokemon utilizing a Foul Play to turn her strength against her. Once it got its punched in the fake Freth would disappear without a trace.

-----

Aile's Excadrill would successfully drill through the door with enough time, allowing her access to the office inside. While she received no tangible response from whoever was on the other side of the camera her gut instincts told her someone was watching, as if she felt their menacing presence.

The office inside was still tidy and orderly, just as Aliana left it. There wasn't much in the way of physical documents, the entire Flare science team didn't invest much in the idea of paper, instead everything was stored on USB sticks, all locked away in a small cabinet next to Aliana's desk, her Holo-Caster PC sitting on top of it. Most of it was useless to Aile and Snagem, information they already had involving the 'Ultimate Weapon' and their plans for Unova, which was no longer relevant. Aile would find one thing of incredible interest, a recent log in on Aliana's PC. No changes were made but it would appear whoever logged in had done so right after the destruction of Black City, could Xerosic really have made it back this fast? Regardless there wasn't much else here important, all except for a key card located in a desk drawer devoid of anything else. It was familiar to Aile as it went to Xerosic's personal testing chamber, mainly used for the Expansion Suit testing and a few other things he liked to make Aile do. That room was on the bottom most floor if she recalled correctly.

-----

Reno, Beau, and the unconscious Pokemon would make it to floor B2, just one floor short of the bottom. Apparently the elevator decided it would go no further. Even stranger was the fact that the doors would no open and no amount of button pressing would make them. One of the knocked out Pokemon would stir, the Simisear, moaning and groaning as if coming to. However, it would no nothing more than that, instead it was the Flareon that might take the Psychic Channeler himself by surprise.

The "Flareon" would leap off the ground and transform into its true form in mid air, the Zorua tackling Reno as its body gave off a glow of Dark energy as it utilized a Payback.

Reno would glance down towards the Simisear as it began to stir. Just what he needed, an uppity monkey with fire attacks on a stuck elevator. As he began to make a motion towards the Simisear, the flash of the Zorua transforming would take him by surprised. Taking the Payback attack straight to his side, Reno would slam into the side of the elevator car with his mind scrambled from the adverse effects of the energy mixture currently in his body.

With the only other occupant able to readily yell out commands, Beau would spring into action. "Nalu, Thunder Wave! Aleister, Focus Blast!" Beau shouted, drawing his sword as he spoke to dash towards the Zorua. While this wasn't the truly best move in the crowded elevator car, Beau was aiming to channel the Thunder Wave along his sword to guarantee it reached the Zorua to paralyze it for the oncoming Focus Blast. After that, they could worry about the elevator being stuck.

Nalu would succeed in paralyzing the Zorua, much to its annoyance as it struggled with all its might to move but alas its plight was in vain. The Focus Blast would smack into the trickster and finally allow it to 'move' again, however unceremoniously as it was thrown against the elevator wall, slamming into it and promptly knocked out. It wasn't going to pull off anymore tricks for awhile.

While Aile and Eisley exited the office and Beau and Reno now pondered how to get out of the elevator something else was going on, a certain hybrid was getting frustrated with the situation she found herself in and decided to take a more aggressive and direct approach to resolving her dilemma.

Mamoswine's mighty stomp would shake the entire complex, Aile, Beau, and Reno all finding it all but impossible to stay standing as the entire place shook fierce. The elevator would rattle like a tin can being kicked around before finally the cables which supported it snapped and sent the entire car hurtling down to the bottom of the shaft at an alarming speed.

Where Mamoswine had stomped a fissure would indeed open, a wide crack forming in the floor below, allowing Freth and Tristen to see into the next floor. It didn't stop there though, the next floor cracked as well and so did the next, each smaller than the last but enough to get through all the way to the bottom floor, B3. Aile would have a sight to return to once she found she no longer had to use the arrow pads to get back to Freth, the Fissure having deactivated them. Almost the entire top floor which Aile, Freth, and Tristen were on was cleaved in twain, fortunately the Snagems on the same side of the Fissure. How this thing wasn't completely caved in by now was a mystery, and for that matter if the outside world didn't know they were in here they do now. They needed to move faster now and fortunately for Aile the floor she needed to use that key card on was right at the bottom of this chasm.

As for Reno and Beau, once the elevator made its violent stop at the bottom of the shaft the cart would sit there silently for a few seconds before giving off a pleasant 'ding' sound, the doors gently opening to allow them access to floor B3, where Aile and the others should be arriving soon. If there was anything to find in this place it was on this floor, and more than likely in the testing chamber which Aile had the key to.

"That was kind of reckless, Freth..." Tristen actually had to agree on that one. "We could have waited for someone to get us out, or let me try to find where that Zorua went."

"Not like we got the time or the mercy from Flare to do that." Freth said. "Thanks Mamoswine. Might need you later. Come back for now." she recalled the massive beast that was trying to keep his footing on the now wrecked floor with a massive gaping fissure exposing the lab below. Freth then made her way down, dropping to the floor below, looking up towards the fissure. "Come on Tristen." The boy made his way to the fissure and slid himself to the edge, then after a few seconds dropped from above, Freth catching him and putting him safely down.

"Alright, that's that...where's Aile...she already made her way deep in this place while I was distracted with those grunts...or...grunt...with a Zorua..." Freth still couldn't believe that was pulled on her, and in a way...not really able to make too much sense out of it. "Whatever. We got to find that prisoner while we're down here...bah, I don't even know where to look. Blizzard and I only saw what we could see from the elevator exit when Lysandre brought us down here to boast in our faces."

"Hey! Over here! Hey!" A voice called out, coming not too far from where Reno and Beau were previously piled up with the knocked out Flare Pokemon. "You! You're from La Ruche, right? Help me out of here!" The voice continued as the owner of the voice apparently could only see Beau from their point of view. Whoever followed the voice would find a largely destroyed hallway lined with holding cells, the majority of them now filed in with debris, their bars crushed, or their walls crumbled no longer providing for any type of 'holding'. Unfortunately one of the few cells to remain in take held a young woman, no older than sixteen. She was wearing a dirty and torn up Flare uniform, the only thing betraying her appearance as another grunt was the blond roots of her long dyed red hair. She had been in here for awhile it seemed.

As for Aile her key card would work just fine and the sliding doors would part to reveal what was to her a somber sight. It was a largely empty room, very similar to the Super Training Room back at Snagem HQ but bigger and tweak slightly to be more lethal. It was Lysandre Labs that had created the technology so it wasn't a surprise that theirs was a step up. However that was not why this place was troubling for Aile. It was here that she suffered so much abuse at the hands of Xerosic for his experiments, just for the slight hope that she would get her parents back. Every pain she suffered she could just imagine Xerosic, smiling behind that one way mirror set high up on the wall. Many of a time she thought to kick in the door fair beneath but she never did, never risking it. But today was different.

One way or another Aile would go through that door and up the steps, passing the little control rooms off to the side of the stairs, they were of no importance. No, if there was anything to be found, if he was to be found, it was at the very top, with just one more door in her way but that too would prove no challenge. Once her last obstacle was gone she would find Xerosic's office, same as it always was, littered with his machines, blueprints, half finished inventions, and so forth. None of that mattered, all that did was the man sitting in the chair in front of her, his back facing her as he seemed to stay out the one-way mirror, just like he did so many times while she was suffering. Xerosic did not acknowledge her entrance.

Freth and Tristen were close enough to both Beau and Aile to interact with or follow either one.

Beau would stumble over to where Freth had indicated, staring at the keyhole for a moment before simply jamming his wrist against the thing and coating the thing in black Powder. Looking over at how close the ice woman was, Beau would stealthily pull out his lighter and spark the thing with no warning, doing his best to blast the unprepared hybrid like he had been introduced to an elevator floor. And like he was now introduced to the rubble and other wall across the way from his own stunt.

Stepping past the explosion and scattering of bodies, the resident telepath of Snagem would simply extend his right hand towards the woman formerly incarcerated in the cell. "Care to come along? I promise we have a much better fashion sense than these jokers." Reno told their likely mole.

"Yeah, I'm the mole. What took the resistance so long to send someone!?" She asked, a little annoyed, but caught herself with a sigh and stood back away from the bars upon hearing Freth talk about blowing the lock. She would jump and put her hands over her head when the explosion went off, it wasn't as bad as she expected it but it was still startling. When she uncovered her head Reno was standing before her offering a hand, which she would take and step out of the ruined cell with him.

"Thank you, all of you." She thanked the Snagems. "Heh, don't even get me started on their fashion. Do you know it's required to dye your hair weekly? My poor hair is probably ruined." The woman grunted, stroking her hair. "So, what else are you looking for?" She asked Freth. "...is it him? Xerosic? He was been acting strange since he came back. He doesn't speak around me and when I do see him he always has this twisted smile on his face, it's not human. But he's kept busy, with what I'm not exactly sure but every now and then when he thinks I'm out of hearing range I hear him mention something about ale. How he must get 'ale'. Maybe he's turned to drinking? I don't know." She shrugged.

-----

"They?" Xerosic asked in a raspy voice. "I don't know who you're talking about." He continued, never turning around. "But it is so nice to see you again, Aile. I've missed you. You know who else has missed you?" He asked, a tiny bit of glee in his voice.

Tristen's hybrid senses would suddenly trip and warn him of something coming, or perhaps he smelled it first either way he would be alerted to the danger before Xerosic even finished his sentence.

Smashing through one of the walls came a 'friend' from Black City, a certain cybernetic Tyrantrum, looking healthier, and even more deadlier, if that were possible, than before. And angrier, it would be a mistake not to note the absolute rage in this creature's eyes as it rushed Aile and Tristen, aiming to snap them up in its jaws and if that didn't work it would swing its mighty glowing tail at them as it executed a Dragon Tail.

Xerosic would not move from his chair.