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Jason was rather saddened by the Charmander's determination even though it goes against his well-being. Still, that was something to be expected of soldiers, so Jason didn't object. He DID give Charlie the freedom to choose their next move. "Alright, c'mon." He placed the Charmander's right arm over his shoulder as he supported Charlie upright. "Also, looking further ahead with my aura, I can see that the blast came from the barracks."

"Wow..." The Charmander said, still panting against the dizziness. "Even though the barracks isn't that far away, that explosion seemed a little bit much for an accident."

"You think it was an attack?" he asked as they slowly proceeded forward.

"It has to be."

"More people sneaking past Avalon's surveillance." The Riolu grimaced, fearing for the worst. The Riolu stopped on his tracks forcing the Charmander to stop as well. "If this was an attack, as you say, it would be best if I do take you to the medics first."

"But we're almost there!" The Charmander protested. "It's just beyond that ridge--"

"You're no good to anyone if you can't even walk on your own." Jason sternly replied. "If I could just heal you a bit more, sure; but right now I--" Jason stopped talking as something started poking around in his head, a sensation jabbing against his head like a sharp needle. He turned to his side, following where his aura guided him. Beyond the smoke, fire and ash, he could feel an unknown presence. It wasn't of Avalon at all, the cloaked pokemon in the distance was shrouded in mystery, in fact...

"It's them." Jason said as he grit his teeth, gripping on the Charmander's arm tighter as he started walking at a faster pace.

"Who them?" the Charmander asked.

"It's one of the people who attacked us last week!"

"Then go!" Charlie exclaimed as he freed his arm from the Riolu's grip. "I'm only slowing you down, chase after him. I'll be right here."

Jason nodded seeing no better alternative. Leaving the Charmander behind, he chased after the unknown pokemon. He ran fast but stayed low and quiet; whoever that intruder was, he wasn't aware of the Riolu approaching yet... or so the Riolu thought.

Jason wasn't even able to sense the intruder's next move, he wasn't even able to react at all. The intruder, which turned out to be a Hypno, teleported instantaneously, crouched behind the young Riolu giving Jason little to no time to react. Jason stopped where he stood, unable to move his body at all as the Hypno placed his left hand right in front of the Riolu's face, a faint purple light shining from it and into the Riolu's open eyes.

"Hey there, kid." The Hypno said in a soft and mesmerizing voice, enthralling the Riolu with his power.

"Ngh..." The Riolu gasped, unable to control his own body as his eyes only widened and stared more intently into the Hypno's hand.

"The boss-man wants to meet with you." the Hypno said, his right hand holding the back of Jason's head, his fingers rubbing against his fur. "But for security purposes, that I'm sure you'd understand, he'd rather you be tamed before I bring you to him. Now, be a good boy and turn around for me." The Riolu pretty much didn't have any choice in this one as his body began to turn on his own. Soon, the Riolu found himself facing the Hypno, staring into his glowing eyes.

"Yes, that's it." The Hypno whispered with a wide smile on his face. The panic soon flowed out of the Riolu's body, but not his mind. As much as Jason's mind tried his very best to rebel, his body relaxed more and more by the second. "Stare into my eyes... and surrender your will..." the Hypno whispered as the Riolu lost it. Jason's vision slowly darkened as he was pushed deep down his own mind, unable to crawl his way back up. His body stood there motionlessly, staring at the Hypno with a glaze over his eyes.

"That's good." The Hypno hummed as he stood up and patted the hypnotized Riolu on the head. "Now come, it's time to bring you to the boss." With his right hand behind the Riolu's head, he gently urged him forward. All was going according to plan and he was feeling rather confident about himself... up until the felt the Riolu suddenly grip his wrist and painfully flipped him on his back with a loud thud.

Immediately after that, the Riolu turned the Hypno over making him lie on his stomach and retrained the Hypno's right hand behind him. The Riolu stomped on the Hypno's left arm with his left foot, pinning it painfully in place. A faint blue aura cloaked the Riolu's body, increasing his weight almost twofold, making holding down the Hypno an easier job.

"Gah!" The Hypno exclaimed as he struggled against the surprising weight of the Riolu. The Riolu was probably using his aura to firmly plant the two of them to the ground, but he wasn't informed that a Riolu was capable of such mastery over the aura. "How have you snapped out of it!? I can still feel my grip on you!"

The Hypno felt the Riolu's grip against his right arm tighten and heard a chuckle come from the Riolu. "Great acting skills huh?" the Riolu's playful voice could be heard from behind the Hypno. "And about your 'grip' on me, resolved by a simple veil of aura surrounding my brain. What you're holding on to is nothing but a layer of aura which will never bow down to your will."

The Hypno grumbled in anger as he was completely dominated by the Riolu. "You bast--" the Hypno wasn't even able to finish his cursing when a spine-tingling Pop resounded when the Riolu broke the Hypno's arm. "AAARRDDD!!!"

"Okay," the Riolu whispered coldly to the Hypno's ear. "I'm pretty sure you know full well how this'll go. I'll take you in for interrogation where the grown-ups will take it from here. You're going to tell them everything you know and perhaps we'll show you mercy even after what your kind has done."

The Hypno let out a grunt, gritting his teeth as he fought back the pain. "You think I'm afraid of you... punk? You think that Avalon's military prowess is superior?" the Hypno let out a chuckle. "Oh how wrong you are. If anything, Avalon is one of the most dysfunctional powers in all of history."

"Bullshit!" Charlie exclaimed from behind them. The Charmander's somehow made his way towards where they were. Jason was somewhat gladdened that Charlie was there. Not only did he have backup, but he's at least sure that the Charmander's recovered a bit. "Avalon's soldiers' physical capabilities greatly surpass that of any other--"

"But at what cost?" the Hypno asked, letting out yet another sinister chuckle.

"Quiet." A voice scolded from a distance as thick roots burst from the ground, wrapping themselves around the Hypno's neck and waist and lifted the intruder off of the ground causing the Riolu to fall off. From behind the Charmander approached a familiar Sceptile, the one in the assessment room, the one Jason saw talking with Ignatius. "I've had enough of your babbling." The Sceptile coldly said grinning as, with a flick of his finger, raised the Hypno up higher.

The Hypno began struggling, using his psychic powers to try and loosen the roots' grip on him but to no avail. He then tried using hypnosis against the Sceptile, but Jason felt the Hypno's next move and used his aura to disrupt the flow of the Hypno's psychic energy. Soon enough, the Hypno's consciousness was ebbing away and his body slowly began to go limp.

"Welp, that takes care of him." The Sceptile said with a cheerful tone as the roots slowly lowered the Hypno, still holding on to the criminal, but loosened now to avoid further damage. "I'll take things from here. Thank you, Jason and Charlie, for helping us apprehend this criminal."

"What will you be doing with him?" asked the Riolu.

"Well, for starters, we'll be doing exactly what you told him." Replied the Sceptile. "We'll extract every last bit of information he holds in his head. The rest will depend on what we learn. And before you ask: how we'll be extracting said information will remain classified to those of your rank, I'm afraid."

"I wasn't really about to ask that, sir." the Riolu nervously replied. "Rather, I was going to ask about the explosion."

The Sceptile's expression darkened. "We lost a lot of men in that explosion. Several soldiers lining up to take arms for their terrorist hunting, all of them caught in the blast."

The news hit both the Riolu and the Charmander, but both were equally exhausted to react normally.

"And the cause of the blast?" Charlie asked hastily, stepping forward from behind Jason.

The Sceptile shook his head grimly. "Unknown as of now. Whatever caused the blast doesn't seem to have physically come from any known pokemon. It's elemental affinity isn't anything that we've ever seen. Pokemon from several elements were affected and none of them gave any resistance whatsoever. Not any fire type, nor steel, dragon or even ghost. It's just... impossible."

With the time spent on their conversation, the dust had finally set and the fires finally died. Jason glanced to the side and saw clearly the devastation caused by the blast: an empty, flattened area where the barracks used to be and slowly growing piles of rubble further away from the blast's center; a huge portion of the Military District, the supposed superpower of all superpowers, destroyed in a matter of seconds.

From beside Jason, the Charmander was also staring at the devastation before them. "This destruction... how could anyone have done this?"

"Well," the Sceptile cleared his throat and patted the thick root that holds the unconscious Hypno. "I should be taking this in for interrogation. The two of you should rest for the day until new orders are given."

The Sceptile turned to leaved, the root moving across the ground to follow, but before he could take another step further, Jason called out. "Wait, sir."

The Sceptile stopped walking, though still had his back turned. "Yes?"

"The Hypno mentioned that... the Blood of Avalon, will all the advantages that it gives us, has a downside." The Riolu paused a moment. "Do you know what it is?"

Jason felt the Charmander's curiosity peak as well, though he spoke none of it. What Jason felt from the Sceptile, however, was a mixture of curiosity and amusement, though the tone of his voice and the expression on his face showed none of it. The Sceptile turned around to answer Jason's question properly. "Tomorrow, come find me in the Academy; where there, you'll have to find out for yourself. For now, though, get some rest. That's an order." He said kindly as he left the two on their own.

"We're completely vulnerable..." Charlie mumbled causing Jason to turn around. The Charmander returned to staring at the destruction before them. "Almost all of our soldiers... those restocking on equipment... those waiting for their mission... those taking a break... all of them... gone..." For a moment, Jason could swear that he could see tears welling up inside the Charmander's eyes. Then again, he couldn't blame him. If anything, the Military District was the closest to his heart than anything else. To see it and several of its people laid waste before him must have been painful.

"Charlie..." Jason said as he approached the Charmander to comfort him. He was afraid that Charlie would get a panic attack, considering the increased heart rate and breathing. Although Charlie really wasn't one to get a panic attack, Jason thought that there was nothing wrong with comforting a friend.

"What time is it?" Charlie asked suddenly with a stern tone in his voice.

"I guess it's..." Jason instinctively looked at his left wrist for his watch, until he remembered that his original arm was further behind along with his watch. "Hm..." he looked up and squinted as he noted the sun's position in the sky. "Not much time's passed actually... I'm guessing it's somewhere between ten and eleven in the morning..."

"The explosion happened minutes ago." the Chamander said. "We're at least sure that most of the soldiers were already out on the A.M. patrols so we're looking at maybe only ten to fifteen percent of our men gone."

Jason frowned and raised an eyebrow, eyeing the Charmander with a mixture of odd suspicion and sarcasm. "Wow... that's quite a way to look at the bright side..."

"That's because I wasn't looking at the bright side!" The Charmander exclaimed furiously. "I'm assessing the situation!"

Jason raised his hands to try and calm down the situation. "Alright, alright..." he said as he pocketed he hands and walked away towards his discarded arm to retrieve his watch before leaving. "Anyway, I'm really tired right now especially considering I've overused my aura... we should considering it a miracle that I'm still conscious... I'll go ahead and hit the hay. You should take a break as well."

As much as the Charmander wanted to protest, his body agreed with the Riolu. Perhaps a napping for an hour or two as well have eating lunch would be for the best before he thinks about what to do next. "Alright..." the Charmander sighed. "Take care of yourself out there... Arceus knows what's going to happen next..."