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Description
In the cavern in the very center of the peaceful town of Celestic, a Team Sigma commander was coordinating his underlings around an array of electronics and computers. He had been on so many of these missions before, it was starting to lose its thrill. Of course he was a grunt back then. He and a research team would be sent out to various places in Sinnoh, looking for these old hieroglyphics and mysterious runes on their leader's command. Though this wasn't the fun part, what he really enjoyed were the opportunities to capture rare and powerful pokemon that always seemed to dwell in these remote locations. This is how he came to be a commander in Team Sigma, by capturing the lean and mean Toxicroak that wore a black control collar and follows him around against its will.

Now, ever since he became a commander, all he can really do is make sure his subordinates didn't screw up whenever he was put in charge of a mission. Unfortunately, this happened way too often, like a grunt that just happened to trip over a power cable and nearly knock over a piece of equipment at that moment.

The Team Sigma commander glowered at the clumsy grunt before scolding him, "Watch it grunt, do you know how expensive that analyzer is?"

The grunt cowered and shrank away to do something else. Preferably something that kept him out of the commander's sight.

'This is why I need to get back on the field,' The Team Sigma commander sighed heavily.

"Sir! Commander!"

'Crap, here we go again,' the commander groaned. It was either another grunt that broke another piece of equipment, or someone had lost their code card to their work station…again.

Another grunt ground to a halt in front of the fuming commander. He was winded from sprinting back into the shrine from outside; seriously, they need to work a better training routine for them.

"Geez, what is it now grunt, and didn't you have a pair of Meditite with you? Arceus damn it, you lost these ones too?!" the commander called the grunt out, but the grunt himself didn't seem to acknowledge the scolding all that very much.

"*pant* Sir, I'm sorry, but this is an emergency," The grunt finally got out, "There are PEF members in the town and are heading this way."

"Already here!"

Standing silhouetted against the shrine's cavern entrance were said PEF members Jake and Sarah with their pokemon alongside the village elder.

The village elder pushed past her younger companions and threw an accusing finger in the Team Sigma commander's direction, "Commander, tell me, what are you truly doing in my peaceful town?"

The commander seemed unintimidated by the semi-threatening tone and replied calmly, "I guess there's no sense in denying it anymore."

The village elder looked confused and hurt at the same time by the commander's insinuation. Somewhere inside, she still hoped that this was still just a big misunderstanding, and they could resolve this peacefully.

"Grunts," the commander called his subordinates for attention, "We're done here. Pack up the gear; Team A, take care of these brats. Team B, set the charges to bury everything else, we don't need anything else from here."

The grunts set off to their tasks immediately; the village elder stood frozen in shock by the commander's orders. She watched in a surreal daze as a group of grunts opened a container off to the left and extracted a bunch of black rectangular devices from inside. The group scattered about the shrine cavern, setting the devices into the crevices of the cavern walls. With the push of a button on each of the devices the cavern echoed in a chorus of high pitched whines, a clear indicator of the devices' lethal purpose.

"Stop!" Jake shouted and charged forward with his pokemon to intercept the grunts.

He was cut off by another set of grunts with an assortment of pokemon with control collars. 'Team A', as they were designated, formed a defensive wall against the PEF members while 'Team B' continued their work.

"Arceus damn it, we don't have time to keep doing this," Haze huffed.

Jake had to agree, there was just no time to waste here, especially with the other grunts that were threatening to entomb the cavern along with anyone left inside. A hand moved out in front him in his moment of thought, pushing him out of the way. It was the village elder who did it, a fierce look of determination on her weathered face with her Rhyperior by her side.

"Young man, don't worry about these scoundrels," The elder said, "Please, stop the others from destroying our sacred cavern."

Jake wanted to argue, say that he would take care of it, yet another hand reached out and found his shoulder.

Sarah gave him a gentle yet reassuring squeeze, "You go after the commander, and I'll stay here with the elder to take care of these grunts."

"But what about those charges?" Jake asked worriedly.

Sarah shook her head, "Don't worry, I can take care of those. Now go get that commander before he slips away."

It was decided then and Jake, Haze and Dagger barreled through a gap in the defensive line and sprinted onward.

"Hey you, get back here," One grunt growled but stopped short as a burst of electricity struck the ground at his foot.

Fade smirked, his fur bristling with arcs of electricity in anticipation.

"You, girl! Tell your mutt to back off. We don't want to have to end up beating you or the old hag too badly."

"Mutt?!" Fade roared. Even Sarah fumed over the belittlement of them thinking she was just a defenseless child.

A slight vein was popping out on the elder's forehead, feeling utterly insulted, "Dear you man, you should be more respectful of your elders."

The elder's Rhyperior, Brutus, stormed forward, causing small earthquakes in his wake, "No one threatens my master!"

At the sight of the pissed off Rhyperior, some of the grunts started to reconsider their position under the looming behemoth of a ground-type.

Dagger blasted the last Zangoose away from the second team grunts that guarded the commander. With only a few grunts left between the PEF members and him, commander worked furiously on a computer terminal in front of some old cave drawings.

Jake stood valiantly behind the commander after dispatching the last grunt that tried to attack him head on, "Stop right there. In the name of the Pokemon Elite Forces, I order you to surrender."

Haze swore in her head as she now owed ten bucks to Dagger over what they thought would be Jake's most cliché line on a mission. Jake himself would soon find himself five bucks richer after the mission as well.

"Nice try kid," the commander said dismissively, pocketing a flash drive from the terminal he was working on, "but I've got somewhere else to be."

With the same hand that he used to put away the flash drive, the commander reached further into the pocket to retrieve another device. In his hand, a detonator. If that was for what Jake was thinking of, then he had to stop him now.

*click* *BOOM*

Too late; the world shook with a resounding force. Jake and his pokemon were thrown to the ground by the shock waves where they waited for the eventual collapse of the cave on top of them…Waiting a few more moments and feeling only a few bits of dirt raining down on the PEF member, Jake resumed breathing normally. Daring to take a peek, he recovered enough from his prone position and squinted past the dusty air.

"Haze? Dagger!" He called out between dust clogged coughing fits.

Haze was first to respond, "He is going to pay for that." She said in her typical pissed off tone.

"I'm here as well," Dagger sounded off.

With more of the air-borne debris settling down, they all realized that the entire cave hadn't collapsed in on itself much to their relief. Though looking around, they did find a portion of the wall to their right had been blasted away to reveal a new tunnel.

"Jake, he must have fled through the tunnel. Let's follow him," Dagger said.

As much as Jake wanted to, another thought took hold of him and he looked over his shoulder. On the opposite side of the cave, Sarah and the elder continued to fight off the grunts that they were left to deal with and moved along the cave's interior to examine each of the explosive charges in hopes of defuses them all in time. He looked on worriedly as he saw that their team was starting to slow down from fatigue in their efforts.

"Hold on, we have to go back to help," Jake turned to run back, but was caught by the shoulder by Dagger.

"Jake, I understand your concern, but we have our own task to deal with."

Gritting his teeth, he struggled to shake the Gallade off his shoulder, but didn't put too much effort into it as he thought about how Dagger's logic made sense…but Sarah needed his help. For a moment, he broke free of Dagger's grip, prepared to jump into another fray. Though another moment later he found himself locking eyes with Sarah. They stared at each other, suspended in a time locked gaze. Sarah broke from the trance first, flashing a bright smile that said she was fine and motioned Jake to continue on with his task.

Jake turned back around to address his pokemon, "Ok, we have our mission, so let's get after that commander before he escapes."

Haze cracked her knuckles, grinning slyly, "Alright, now you're talking."

Dagger gave an agreeing nod and joined Haze as they ran into the snaking tunnel way after the fleeing Team Sigma member. Jake did the same, but not without sparing one last over the shoulder glance to watch Sarah dodge nimbly between Team Sigma's pokemon's attacks. He gave a silent prayer to Arceus that she would be alright and ran off into the darkness of the Team Sigma commander's escape route.

---

"Well this is boring as ever," One grunt yawns and leaned up against a machine that spewed out an endless stream of mist to the west from their position on route 312.

Another grunt grumbled, fed up with hearing the first's constant complaints, "We get it, you're bored. Shut up already; and stop leaning against that thing before you knock it over again. Arceus only knows we need to get into even more trouble from you breaking stuff."

The first grunt ignored the second and continued his rant, "Man, something better happen soon. I don't care what, just as long as it's exciting."

*Kaboom*

The two grunts hit the ground hard, shielding their heads with their arms against any dangerous debris. Though with no other signs of danger, they stood back up to assess where the explosion came from. They immediately snapped to attention as their commander emerged from a newly made entrance in the eastern mountain side that bordered Celestic Town.

"Sir, what are you doing here?" the first grunt asked in a nervous tone. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the other grunt give him a look of 'you had to say something, didn't you'.

The Team Sigma commander brushed bits of dust off his shoulders, hardly acknowledging the grunts question at first. He looked up and saw the two grunts standing at attention and finally remembered their duty before asking them what they were doing standing around out here for.

"You two, pack up the mist cloakers and prepare to leave. We're done here."

The first grunt snapped a glance at the second grunt, 'ha, about time' which was replied with a sharp elbow to the ribs. They immediately went to do their instructed task, wondering what their new mission might be and hoping it wasn't something as boring as guarding a few 'smoke machines'. The commander himself busied himself with a PDA like device that he pulled out from his pocket along with the thumb drive he collected from the cavern. HE looked over some data on the PDA and when satisfied replaced the precious device back in his pocket.

"What, not even a proper goodbye before you leave?" The commander heard someone shout at him from behind.

He was only slightly surprised that the PEF member had caught up so quickly, but he hardly gave it another thought.

"Sorry kid, but like I've said. I've got somewhere else to be," the commander smirked and climbed into one of the Jeeps that were parked a little ways off, "You two," He addressed the grunts, "Deal with this nuisance."

"Yes sir!" "Yes sir!"

"Jeez, how many of these idiots is he going to keep throwing at us?" Haze huffed

Jake agreed but didn't argue as he and his pokemon prepared to fight. There was just no way two grunts could hold them back for long. A sharp churn of an ignition caught Jake's attention and he watched the Jeep roar to life at the influence of the Team Sigma commander. Haze and Jake exchanged a nod of understanding; in a split second, Haze spouted out a pillar of flames that blocked the grunts off from the PEF members.

"Move," Haze called out.

The Jeep began to back up, burning out in the dirt till it could drift into a 180. Burning out again; it crept off in the dirt trying to find traction to speed off like it intended. Jake propelled himself forward, 'Oh no you don't'. His fingertips barely brushed the chrome of the bumper of the vehicle before a shadow appeared out of the corner of his eye. With no time to think, Jake kicked back and away from the moving vehicle just in time to avoid the deadly edge of the Scyther's claw arm. The jeep's wheels squealed and propelled the entire vehicle forward. Jake watched in anger as the jeep drove off into the dense mist to the east, the commander now gone. Jake redirected his attention back to the grunts and their pokemon who had blocked his efforts to capture the Team Sigma commander.

Across from the Team Sigma grunts, Dagger was helping Haze up from the ground. Apparently a Machoke, one of the grunts' pokemon, charged through the wall of fire and tackled the distracted Blaziken while the Scyther went after Jake.

"Haze, you ok?" Jake ran back to his partners.

Haze shook her head to reorient herself, "I'm fine; prick got me with a lucky Sucker Punch attack."

"They'll pay for that one," Dagger growled under his breath.

The grunts barely gave them enough time to recover before they commanded their pokemon to attack again. Dagger and the Scyther broke away from the group to duke it out one-on-one. This left Haze and Jake with the Machoke to deal with themselves.

The PEF members took turns tagging in to fight the raging fighting-type. Much to their surprise, this Machoke was no push over and far stronger than most Team Sigma controlled pokemon they've fought before. It easily kept up with the heroic duo, matching the PEF members' strength and speed with little effort. Jake let his guard down to hopefully catch a glimpse of Haze and tag out; this left him to taking a clipping blow to the side from their opponent, knocking the wind out of him. Before he could recover though, he was already flipping through over onto his back by the Machoke's Low Sweep attack. Stars exploded in his vision further disorienting Jake, but he could still barely make out the looming mass of muscle bearing over him.

He was still too dizzy to pick himself up properly and curled his arms over his face in a final defense against the Machoke. Though the Machoke never delivered its hammering blow as Haze tackled the pokemon to the ground away from her partner. She wailed on from atop of the collar bound pokemon, the Machoke now forced to shield itself from the onslaught. Haze didn't let up though and continued to chip away at the Machoke's fatiguing defense. In its last ditch effort, the Machoke threw another Sucker Punch, but Haze was ready and leapt away from the incoming attack.

"Now Jake!"

Jake instantly reacted, charging forward while the Machoke grounded itself to a knee. The Machoke was still too dizzy to see the charging human and took a powerful roundhouse kick to the temple, knocking it out cold.

On another part of the field, Flashes of sparks etched the air through the mist. Both Dagger and the Scyther locked their bladed arms against each other, each trying to overpower the other. They pushed each other away, staring each other down in a standoff. The Scyther growled venomously, its wings beating feverously as it anxiously waited for the next exchange. Dagger watched the Bug-type twitch from side to side, unable to predict its attack pattern. Without warning, the Scyther lunged; its blade arms a whirlwind of deadly slashes. Dagger could barely keep up with the Scyther's wild frenzy, deflecting the claws mere inches away from his body.
The Scyther caught one of Dagger's arms, locking it in its grasps; Dagger gasped. Another arm raised from below, the glint of the sharp blade edging ever closer toward Dagger's throat. In a split second, Dagger's eyes shifted from their normally lucid blue coloration to a much lighter shade of azure, the faintest of sparkling glints also adorning them. With a mere flick of his free arm, Dagger sent the wild Scyther flying with a blast of raw psychic power. The Scyther cried out in pain before slamming to the ground, knocked out.

Dagger breathed hard, using Calm Mind and controlled breathing to calm himself down. His eyes soon died down to their signature lucid blue that he was known for. He only allowed himself to relax when he was absolutely sure he had full control over his mind.

After each of their battles, the PEF members returned to each other in the center of the field where they expected to fight the two grunts directly who had sent the collared pokemon to fight them. But what they found was an empty space in the middle of the mist and the all too familiar stir of a jeep engine roaring to life. Just within the veil of mist, the PEF members saw the previously mentioned grunts coaxing their escape vehicle to speed away.

The vehicle was already too far away as it was for Jake and his team to even try catching up and were forced to watch as the grunts ran, leaving nothing besides their defeated pokemon behind.

"Cowards," Haze huffed under her breath.

As tired as they all were, Jake didn't allow himself to rest and quickly worked with his team to free the Team Sigma pokemon from their control collars. This was important as all PEF members knew, but a far more pressing concern was bubbling at Jake's forethoughts. With the Machoke and Scyther free and returning to their homes, Jake called both Haze and Dagger over to him. He could see the fatigue in both their expression, but neither complained or commented as they listened intently

"Ok, I know we're tired, but we need to get back to the cavern. Sarah may need our help and-"

*Kaboom*

The words died in his mouth as if the explosion killed them itself. HE felt his entire body go numb from the resounding blast, a new fear rising and constricting in his chest. He ignored his partners' warnings to stay put, and charged back into the cavern through the open mountain side where the explosion reverberated from.

Description
In the cavern in the very center of the peaceful town of Celestic, a Team Sigma commander was coordinating his underlings around an array of electronics and computers. He had been on so many of these missions before, it was starting to lose its thrill. Of course he was a grunt back then. He and a research team would be sent out to various places in Sinnoh, looking for these old hieroglyphics and mysterious runes on their leader's command. Though this wasn't the fun part, what he really enjoyed were the opportunities to capture rare and powerful pokemon that always seemed to dwell in these remote locations. This is how he came to be a commander in Team Sigma, by capturing the lean and mean Toxicroak that wore a black control collar and follows him around against its will.

Now, ever since he became a commander, all he can really do is make sure his subordinates didn't screw up whenever he was put in charge of a mission. Unfortunately, this happened way too often, like a grunt that just happened to trip over a power cable and nearly knock over a piece of equipment at that moment.

The Team Sigma commander glowered at the clumsy grunt before scolding him, "Watch it grunt, do you know how expensive that analyzer is?"

The grunt cowered and shrank away to do something else. Preferably something that kept him out of the commander's sight.

'This is why I need to get back on the field,' The Team Sigma commander sighed heavily.

"Sir! Commander!"

'Crap, here we go again,' the commander groaned. It was either another grunt that broke another piece of equipment, or someone had lost their code card to their work station…again.

Another grunt ground to a halt in front of the fuming commander. He was winded from sprinting back into the shrine from outside; seriously, they need to work a better training routine for them.

"Geez, what is it now grunt, and didn't you have a pair of Meditite with you? Arceus damn it, you lost these ones too?!" the commander called the grunt out, but the grunt himself didn't seem to acknowledge the scolding all that very much.

"*pant* Sir, I'm sorry, but this is an emergency," The grunt finally got out, "There are PEF members in the town and are heading this way."

"Already here!"

Standing silhouetted against the shrine's cavern entrance were said PEF members Jake and Sarah with their pokemon alongside the village elder.

The village elder pushed past her younger companions and threw an accusing finger in the Team Sigma commander's direction, "Commander, tell me, what are you truly doing in my peaceful town?"

The commander seemed unintimidated by the semi-threatening tone and replied calmly, "I guess there's no sense in denying it anymore."

The village elder looked confused and hurt at the same time by the commander's insinuation. Somewhere inside, she still hoped that this was still just a big misunderstanding, and they could resolve this peacefully.

"Grunts," the commander called his subordinates for attention, "We're done here. Pack up the gear; Team A, take care of these brats. Team B, set the charges to bury everything else, we don't need anything else from here."

The grunts set off to their tasks immediately; the village elder stood frozen in shock by the commander's orders. She watched in a surreal daze as a group of grunts opened a container off to the left and extracted a bunch of black rectangular devices from inside. The group scattered about the shrine cavern, setting the devices into the crevices of the cavern walls. With the push of a button on each of the devices the cavern echoed in a chorus of high pitched whines, a clear indicator of the devices' lethal purpose.

"Stop!" Jake shouted and charged forward with his pokemon to intercept the grunts.

He was cut off by another set of grunts with an assortment of pokemon with control collars. 'Team A', as they were designated, formed a defensive wall against the PEF members while 'Team B' continued their work.

"Arceus damn it, we don't have time to keep doing this," Haze huffed.

Jake had to agree, there was just no time to waste here, especially with the other grunts that were threatening to entomb the cavern along with anyone left inside. A hand moved out in front him in his moment of thought, pushing him out of the way. It was the village elder who did it, a fierce look of determination on her weathered face with her Rhyperior by her side.

"Young man, don't worry about these scoundrels," The elder said, "Please, stop the others from destroying our sacred cavern."

Jake wanted to argue, say that he would take care of it, yet another hand reached out and found his shoulder.

Sarah gave him a gentle yet reassuring squeeze, "You go after the commander, and I'll stay here with the elder to take care of these grunts."

"But what about those charges?" Jake asked worriedly.

Sarah shook her head, "Don't worry, I can take care of those. Now go get that commander before he slips away."

It was decided then and Jake, Haze and Dagger barreled through a gap in the defensive line and sprinted onward.

"Hey you, get back here," One grunt growled but stopped short as a burst of electricity struck the ground at his foot.

Fade smirked, his fur bristling with arcs of electricity in anticipation.

"You, girl! Tell your mutt to back off. We don't want to have to end up beating you or the old hag too badly."

"Mutt?!" Fade roared. Even Sarah fumed over the belittlement of them thinking she was just a defenseless child.

A slight vein was popping out on the elder's forehead, feeling utterly insulted, "Dear you man, you should be more respectful of your elders."

The elder's Rhyperior, Brutus, stormed forward, causing small earthquakes in his wake, "No one threatens my master!"

At the sight of the pissed off Rhyperior, some of the grunts started to reconsider their position under the looming behemoth of a ground-type.

Dagger blasted the last Zangoose away from the second team grunts that guarded the commander. With only a few grunts left between the PEF members and him, commander worked furiously on a computer terminal in front of some old cave drawings.

Jake stood valiantly behind the commander after dispatching the last grunt that tried to attack him head on, "Stop right there. In the name of the Pokemon Elite Forces, I order you to surrender."

Haze swore in her head as she now owed ten bucks to Dagger over what they thought would be Jake's most cliché line on a mission. Jake himself would soon find himself five bucks richer after the mission as well.

"Nice try kid," the commander said dismissively, pocketing a flash drive from the terminal he was working on, "but I've got somewhere else to be."

With the same hand that he used to put away the flash drive, the commander reached further into the pocket to retrieve another device. In his hand, a detonator. If that was for what Jake was thinking of, then he had to stop him now.

*click* *BOOM*

Too late; the world shook with a resounding force. Jake and his pokemon were thrown to the ground by the shock waves where they waited for the eventual collapse of the cave on top of them…Waiting a few more moments and feeling only a few bits of dirt raining down on the PEF member, Jake resumed breathing normally. Daring to take a peek, he recovered enough from his prone position and squinted past the dusty air.

"Haze? Dagger!" He called out between dust clogged coughing fits.

Haze was first to respond, "He is going to pay for that." She said in her typical pissed off tone.

"I'm here as well," Dagger sounded off.

With more of the air-borne debris settling down, they all realized that the entire cave hadn't collapsed in on itself much to their relief. Though looking around, they did find a portion of the wall to their right had been blasted away to reveal a new tunnel.

"Jake, he must have fled through the tunnel. Let's follow him," Dagger said.

As much as Jake wanted to, another thought took hold of him and he looked over his shoulder. On the opposite side of the cave, Sarah and the elder continued to fight off the grunts that they were left to deal with and moved along the cave's interior to examine each of the explosive charges in hopes of defuses them all in time. He looked on worriedly as he saw that their team was starting to slow down from fatigue in their efforts.

"Hold on, we have to go back to help," Jake turned to run back, but was caught by the shoulder by Dagger.

"Jake, I understand your concern, but we have our own task to deal with."

Gritting his teeth, he struggled to shake the Gallade off his shoulder, but didn't put too much effort into it as he thought about how Dagger's logic made sense…but Sarah needed his help. For a moment, he broke free of Dagger's grip, prepared to jump into another fray. Though another moment later he found himself locking eyes with Sarah. They stared at each other, suspended in a time locked gaze. Sarah broke from the trance first, flashing a bright smile that said she was fine and motioned Jake to continue on with his task.

Jake turned back around to address his pokemon, "Ok, we have our mission, so let's get after that commander before he escapes."

Haze cracked her knuckles, grinning slyly, "Alright, now you're talking."

Dagger gave an agreeing nod and joined Haze as they ran into the snaking tunnel way after the fleeing Team Sigma member. Jake did the same, but not without sparing one last over the shoulder glance to watch Sarah dodge nimbly between Team Sigma's pokemon's attacks. He gave a silent prayer to Arceus that she would be alright and ran off into the darkness of the Team Sigma commander's escape route.

---

"Well this is boring as ever," One grunt yawns and leaned up against a machine that spewed out an endless stream of mist to the west from their position on route 312.

Another grunt grumbled, fed up with hearing the first's constant complaints, "We get it, you're bored. Shut up already; and stop leaning against that thing before you knock it over again. Arceus only knows we need to get into even more trouble from you breaking stuff."

The first grunt ignored the second and continued his rant, "Man, something better happen soon. I don't care what, just as long as it's exciting."

*Kaboom*

The two grunts hit the ground hard, shielding their heads with their arms against any dangerous debris. Though with no other signs of danger, they stood back up to assess where the explosion came from. They immediately snapped to attention as their commander emerged from a newly made entrance in the eastern mountain side that bordered Celestic Town.

"Sir, what are you doing here?" the first grunt asked in a nervous tone. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the other grunt give him a look of 'you had to say something, didn't you'.

The Team Sigma commander brushed bits of dust off his shoulders, hardly acknowledging the grunts question at first. He looked up and saw the two grunts standing at attention and finally remembered their duty before asking them what they were doing standing around out here for.

"You two, pack up the mist cloakers and prepare to leave. We're done here."

The first grunt snapped a glance at the second grunt, 'ha, about time' which was replied with a sharp elbow to the ribs. They immediately went to do their instructed task, wondering what their new mission might be and hoping it wasn't something as boring as guarding a few 'smoke machines'. The commander himself busied himself with a PDA like device that he pulled out from his pocket along with the thumb drive he collected from the cavern. HE looked over some data on the PDA and when satisfied replaced the precious device back in his pocket.

"What, not even a proper goodbye before you leave?" The commander heard someone shout at him from behind.

He was only slightly surprised that the PEF member had caught up so quickly, but he hardly gave it another thought.

"Sorry kid, but like I've said. I've got somewhere else to be," the commander smirked and climbed into one of the Jeeps that were parked a little ways off, "You two," He addressed the grunts, "Deal with this nuisance."

"Yes sir!" "Yes sir!"

"Jeez, how many of these idiots is he going to keep throwing at us?" Haze huffed

Jake agreed but didn't argue as he and his pokemon prepared to fight. There was just no way two grunts could hold them back for long. A sharp churn of an ignition caught Jake's attention and he watched the Jeep roar to life at the influence of the Team Sigma commander. Haze and Jake exchanged a nod of understanding; in a split second, Haze spouted out a pillar of flames that blocked the grunts off from the PEF members.

"Move," Haze called out.

The Jeep began to back up, burning out in the dirt till it could drift into a 180. Burning out again; it crept off in the dirt trying to find traction to speed off like it intended. Jake propelled himself forward, 'Oh no you don't'. His fingertips barely brushed the chrome of the bumper of the vehicle before a shadow appeared out of the corner of his eye. With no time to think, Jake kicked back and away from the moving vehicle just in time to avoid the deadly edge of the Scyther's claw arm. The jeep's wheels squealed and propelled the entire vehicle forward. Jake watched in anger as the jeep drove off into the dense mist to the east, the commander now gone. Jake redirected his attention back to the grunts and their pokemon who had blocked his efforts to capture the Team Sigma commander.

Across from the Team Sigma grunts, Dagger was helping Haze up from the ground. Apparently a Machoke, one of the grunts' pokemon, charged through the wall of fire and tackled the distracted Blaziken while the Scyther went after Jake.

"Haze, you ok?" Jake ran back to his partners.

Haze shook her head to reorient herself, "I'm fine; prick got me with a lucky Sucker Punch attack."

"They'll pay for that one," Dagger growled under his breath.

The grunts barely gave them enough time to recover before they commanded their pokemon to attack again. Dagger and the Scyther broke away from the group to duke it out one-on-one. This left Haze and Jake with the Machoke to deal with themselves.

The PEF members took turns tagging in to fight the raging fighting-type. Much to their surprise, this Machoke was no push over and far stronger than most Team Sigma controlled pokemon they've fought before. It easily kept up with the heroic duo, matching the PEF members' strength and speed with little effort. Jake let his guard down to hopefully catch a glimpse of Haze and tag out; this left him to taking a clipping blow to the side from their opponent, knocking the wind out of him. Before he could recover though, he was already flipping through over onto his back by the Machoke's Low Sweep attack. Stars exploded in his vision further disorienting Jake, but he could still barely make out the looming mass of muscle bearing over him.

He was still too dizzy to pick himself up properly and curled his arms over his face in a final defense against the Machoke. Though the Machoke never delivered its hammering blow as Haze tackled the pokemon to the ground away from her partner. She wailed on from atop of the collar bound pokemon, the Machoke now forced to shield itself from the onslaught. Haze didn't let up though and continued to chip away at the Machoke's fatiguing defense. In its last ditch effort, the Machoke threw another Sucker Punch, but Haze was ready and leapt away from the incoming attack.

"Now Jake!"

Jake instantly reacted, charging forward while the Machoke grounded itself to a knee. The Machoke was still too dizzy to see the charging human and took a powerful roundhouse kick to the temple, knocking it out cold.

On another part of the field, Flashes of sparks etched the air through the mist. Both Dagger and the Scyther locked their bladed arms against each other, each trying to overpower the other. They pushed each other away, staring each other down in a standoff. The Scyther growled venomously, its wings beating feverously as it anxiously waited for the next exchange. Dagger watched the Bug-type twitch from side to side, unable to predict its attack pattern. Without warning, the Scyther lunged; its blade arms a whirlwind of deadly slashes. Dagger could barely keep up with the Scyther's wild frenzy, deflecting the claws mere inches away from his body.
The Scyther caught one of Dagger's arms, locking it in its grasps; Dagger gasped. Another arm raised from below, the glint of the sharp blade edging ever closer toward Dagger's throat. In a split second, Dagger's eyes shifted from their normally lucid blue coloration to a much lighter shade of azure, the faintest of sparkling glints also adorning them. With a mere flick of his free arm, Dagger sent the wild Scyther flying with a blast of raw psychic power. The Scyther cried out in pain before slamming to the ground, knocked out.

Dagger breathed hard, using Calm Mind and controlled breathing to calm himself down. His eyes soon died down to their signature lucid blue that he was known for. He only allowed himself to relax when he was absolutely sure he had full control over his mind.

After each of their battles, the PEF members returned to each other in the center of the field where they expected to fight the two grunts directly who had sent the collared pokemon to fight them. But what they found was an empty space in the middle of the mist and the all too familiar stir of a jeep engine roaring to life. Just within the veil of mist, the PEF members saw the previously mentioned grunts coaxing their escape vehicle to speed away.

The vehicle was already too far away as it was for Jake and his team to even try catching up and were forced to watch as the grunts ran, leaving nothing besides their defeated pokemon behind.

"Cowards," Haze huffed under her breath.

As tired as they all were, Jake didn't allow himself to rest and quickly worked with his team to free the Team Sigma pokemon from their control collars. This was important as all PEF members knew, but a far more pressing concern was bubbling at Jake's forethoughts. With the Machoke and Scyther free and returning to their homes, Jake called both Haze and Dagger over to him. He could see the fatigue in both their expression, but neither complained or commented as they listened intently

"Ok, I know we're tired, but we need to get back to the cavern. Sarah may need our help and-"

*Kaboom*

The words died in his mouth as if the explosion killed them itself. HE felt his entire body go numb from the resounding blast, a new fear rising and constricting in his chest. He ignored his partners' warnings to stay put, and charged back into the cavern through the open mountain side where the explosion reverberated from.