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"Max...Max...Max!"

"What!"

The section of Victory Road shook as the emboar snorted loudly, almost punching the culprit who'd interrupted his sleep cycle. He was supposed to be woken up about a half hour later while their trainer slept. This place was unforgiving, the inhabitants willing to attack at any instance. The fire pokemon stared groggily at the lumbering snow white figure. He merely spat a bunch of embers at the beartic.

"What do you want, Hyde? I'm sleeping here."

The beartic spat back a small frozen breeze. He tapped his paw on the floor lightly. "Well, if you could get your fat ass moving, I'd like to call a bit of a meeting." the snow bear pokemon whispered.

A meeting? What the hell did they have to meet for? He could see his trainer lightly snoring, his hat obscuring his face. The boar instinctively slept near him, a result of being paired up with him at the start of this crazy journey. Righting himself, Maximus shuffled over, a green glob taking his spot. The contents looked as if someone had shoved a deformed human figure in there. The emboar snorted once more, kind of uncomfortable that he'd leave the new guy -Ara, was it?- with him, but whatever. If Hyde cut off his sleep, it had to be important.

The two giant pokemon moved a few meters away from their location, the rest of their companions in a circle of sorts. The steel armored dinosaur, the green monkey, and the eel thing.

The dinosaur yawned loudly, picking at one of his horns. "Okay, Hyde. The hell do you want that you robbed us of our sleep?" Diadem rumbled, soon scratching his plated stomach.

The other two merely stayed silent, the Aggron expressing their collective thoughts. The beartic sighed, walking towards the center and cupping his icicle beard. "Well...I've been thinking."

"Really? One would think that way you fight, you'd be a mindless brute." the eel creature piped up. Hyde gritted his teeth, his claws glowing purple. Maximus waved him off.

"Quiet, Paradox. I wanna hear what he has to say." the emboar said, crossing his arms and nodding toward the ice type.

"So as I was saying...I was thinking. These Team Plasma guys. We've confronted them multiple times and throughout all this, we haven't given our trainer's words a second thought. He's treated us as equals, even Paradox of all things."

The eelektross let out something akin to a hiss.

"But yeah, i was wondering, look at the other side of things. We've had it good from this point. What about all the other pokemon that have had the short end of the stick? Look at Darian, he was left to give to our little group." the beartic mouthed a "sorry" in the simisage's direction.

"So to my point: do you really think what we're doing is right?" Hyde finished with a heavy sigh. All four of the oldest members looked at each other.

They hadn't thought of that. Their entire journey had given them enough experience and knowledge to make an opinion on this. It wasn't easy though. Max was the first to speak.

"Well, I can see why you left Ara out of this. Aside from the fact that no one knows what goes on in his head half the time, he doesn't have as much experience with Plasma as us."

Hyde nodded, letting the emboar continue.

"Before I answer though, I gotta wonder what brought this on. I don't think the vast expanse of Victory Road gave you this." Maximus said.

"You'd be right. And as much as I dislike saying this...Cheren brought this on, along with the Celestial Tower. While my conversations with them have been limited compared to yours, they seem to love him to death and would fight for him as such. I can't help but feel that Cheren himself can come off kind of cold."

Maximus simply nodded. He had a point there. Samurott and Max were the best of friends, but he couldn't help but think about the guy and wondering what kind of training he put his team through, and how Cheren acted in general.

"As for the Celestial Tower, after getting Shadow Claw, striking down those ghosts felt amazing since i had no way to in the first place. As we kept advancing, I heard something, but i ignored it for the most part. Later on, i came to the conclusion that it had to be those deceased pokemon.I know, it sounds weird, but it happened." Hyde put up his paws for any sort of jeering Paradox and the others would give.

"Dunno how I heard it, but I did. I heard whispers of horrible trainers and such, along with some good trainers going suddenly bad." The beartic hesitated the last few words, glancing at Maximus and Darian especially. The two had the closest connection to their trainer, more than the others did.

Darian shuddered a bit, hugging himself. The memories of his prior trainer cropped up. While it hadn't been anything bad, being ignored like that and seeing his brothers simply given away like toys took a toll on him. The emboar laid a supportive arm on shoulder.

Paradox simply snorted, Diadem jabbing him with a horn to keep him shut. The electric type hissed a bit, but complied.

"Another point there. I doubt anything like that would happen with us. I do wish Zero and the others were here as well to support this-"

"But they're at Juniper's place on standby, I know."

"You have some valid points, Hyde, all I'm going on is experience and faith." the emboar shrugged his shoulders.

Hyde smiled a bit. "So to finish up..I'm doubtful. While I do think that Team Plasma's approach is mad at best, I do think that their goal in general does seem like a nice idea..." he said, letting the words turn into a whisper.

He didn't regret joining the ranks of his trainer, not in the slightest. A small part of him did feel that he didn't even need to be here. The Persian -Zero-, Nidoking -Theo- , and the Quagsire -Ami- were all sent to Juniper's, the current replacements standing right there. The same could easily happen to them all, save Maximus probably. Why did he have to be here? He could easily live his life back in the Cold Storage or wherever he may have ended up in the future.

"...I agree with the bear." Paradox hissed.

All eyes were on the Eelektross as he hobbled up, his eyes gleaming with electricity.

"At this stage, going back to the wild and being left alone sounds like paradise. I do admit, I've grown a bit attached to the human, but that thought always crops up once in a while. Don't act like it hasn't, especially you, Maximus."

The group was silent for a few moments, everyone nodding slowly.

"Exactly. So you're not alone on this, bear. We all have our doubts, doesn't mean you have to be melodramatic about It." the eel hissed before going quiet. After being forcibly captured from his little home, he made the human's life a living hell. From a Tynamo and on, Paradox never gave the human any slack, and it resulted in his evolution after their final gym battle.

Diadem snorted. "Yeah, it does sound nice, but those goons screwed up what home i had left. I'm out for a bit of payback, so whether their idea sounds nice or not don't matter to me. All I want is to find a damn cave like this to snooze in."

"While Paradox does have a point...it really doesn't excuse what they've done so far to achieve this goal of theirs. That green haired kid is utterly insane. Something is not right with him." Maximus commented before moving on. "I didn't think things would get this tough when I first started out, and look what happened. I think we're all better for it in some way. If our trainer suddenly does do something...unsatisfactory, I feel it's up to us to snap his ass out of It." the emboar rumbled, punching his palm, his flames coming to life for a moment.

The five of them nodded at that comment. That green haired guy was indeed off his damn rocker. Forcibly waking up what was supposed to stay dormant and forcing them into this, or rather, their trainer into this. He said he sensed something in him that made him want to use him as a dummy to test whatever he had in mind.

"And knowing all this, are we still going to go through with this and give it our all?" Maximus questioned.

Darian and Dia nodded in agreement, the latter dozing off to sleep, the former beaming with a smile. Being the smallest and the weakest due to his lack of drive concerning fighting didn't give him much sway or a way with words, but the many faces he made spoke for him.

"Yup." Hyde nodded firmly, shaking Max's paw strongly, the two chuckling before parting. Paradox nodded in agreement, levitating off into the darkness for some food. You could hear the sounds of pokemon squealing in pain and his oh so familiar hissing. The fact that he could do that was creepy. The fact that he was rendered with no weaknesses also scared him some extent.

"Really wish they could have stuck around longer to let me finish." the fire type scowled. "We'll be up against some of the strongest humans in this region along with that green madman should things go south. We really can't afford to slack."

"All the better we get going to sleep." Hyde countered.

"You were the one that called this meeting." Max punched Hyde on the shoulder, the beartic not even budging at the hit. The ice type rolled his eyes, going back to his look out post, the emboar returning to his spot.

The reuniclus stood, or rather hovered in front of the human before allowing Maximus to move. As the two passed, the psychic type spoke.

"For the record...I think you guys are idiots."

Max's fur bristled, his flames going off.

"But you're idiots with a spark of intelligence. Most pokemon I've seen are like you: willing to follow the trainer to the bitter end no matter what he or she does. Sad, really. least you guys are asking the what-ifs, the other scenarios, that shows something. As for that green haired guy, he's my kind of insane, but he could tone back a bit. I'd hate to see someone with his power go to waste." Ara commented.

Max just blinked rapidly, trying to comprehend what just happened.

"Yeah...kinda hard to not eavesdrop when you're me. Plus you guys made a pretty good ruckus. Took me sometime to shatter some minds of the pokemon that fancied having you for a meal." Ara shrugged his nonexistent shoulders. Maximus' flames sparked up for a moment out of protection.

Ara just waved him off. "Don't worry; they'll be fine if the Eelektross doesn't get to them. Besides, you'd kill me if I let any harm befall our poor, heavy sleeping leader." he said, glancing toward the still sleeping human before going to his post. With that said, Ara spared one more message before finally leaving.

"You think I'm a bit off, and you'd be right. I won't do anything to harm you guys. That is, if you stand in the way of what I have planned."

Maximus slept with one eye open that night. That green blob was definitely off, and if he didn't trust him before, he certainly didn't now. Offering his services to his trainer was seemingly odd at best, considering he didn't even need him fight or get stronger. His mind racked with paranoid thoughts, the boar snuggled up to the human with a smile. He had a hell of a day in store tomorrow and he had to be rested and ready.