FSE

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"Anything?" the Sceptile asked as the older Gallade let go of the large block of ice that encased the Hypno.

The six pokemon, the Charizard, Blaziken, Blastoise, Sceptile and the two Gallades, were in the cell where they held the Hypno. It was a rather impressive cell, made of high density platinum that even steel types would have difficulty molding. There were cameras positioned so that there were no blind spots anywhere and vents that would secrete sedatives in the event that the prisoner got hostile. But in this case, the prisoner was in a solid block of ice wearing a suit that supresses his psychic energy.

The older Gallade shook his head. "Nothing. It's like he's gone brain-dead in there. There's nothing in his mind but emptiness."

"Could he have died in there?" the Blaziken asked.

"It's possible..." the Blastoise replied. "I'd rather not thaw him out yet though."

"He's still alive." The younger Gallade said. "I can still feel his life force. It's probably just because he can hide his thoughts from my dad's probing." He then let out a sigh. "When we first arrived here at Avalon, we didn't think that you're all facing a problem THIS difficult."

"Just what's going on here anyway?" the older Gallade asked.

The Charizard and the Blaziken exchanged glances. "We ourselves aren't sure." The Charizard answered. "We called for your help hoping that perhaps you guys can read this one's mind and get some answers."

"Hm... this'd take much longer than we anticipated..." the older Gallade said as he knelt down in front of the block of ice and pressed his right hand against it, focusing his psychic energy once more. "This Hypno's just on a higher level of psychic prowess compared to me."

"If it's not too much to ask, is there anyone in Arkha who's skilled enough to match his?" the Sceptile asked.

"Not anyone who's available right now." The younger Gallade shook his head. "You see, we're pretty much faced with a similar situation. Admittedly, my father and I aren't really what you could say 'the best Arkha's got to offer', but we were the only capable ones available."

"I understand." The Sceptile said.

"If the Hypno's THAT good, how was Jason able to resist him?" the Blastoise asked.

His question sparked the curiosity from the crowd, all of them looking at the other for any sort of idea, theory or answer. "Jason had pretty decent mental barriers set up." The younger Gallade pointed out. "Perhaps--"

"That event took place before Jason trained under my Garchomp associate." The Sceptile spoke up. "What Jason did was encasing his mind inside his aura. Somehow, that was able to stop the Hypno's hypnosis."

"Hmph..." the older Gallade chuckled. "He reminds me of someone I knew back in high school. She was a very remarkable woman, more skilful than I am in terms of mind reading. I am a Gallade after all. My power is divided between my psychic and fighting affinity, making my psychic powers weaker than the others." He paused. "But she... she was the least likely in our class to be as skilful as she was."

"This... acquaintance of yours..." the Charizard spoke. "Is she--"

"Don't bother asking me if she can help." The older Gallade said with a chuckle. "I haven't seen her since our graduation ceremony. I don't even know where she is--"

The door behind them creaked open slightly as the Garchomp peeked in and knocked to get their attention. "Um, sirs, I brought in someone who can help, at your request."

"Good," the Sceptile cooed. "bring her in."

The door swung fully open as the Garchomp walked in and held the door open for the Lucario woman who walked in. The Blaziken's wife, Natalie, was the one the Sceptile called in to help them. "So, you guys needed help in--" the Lucario paused and just stared at the older Sceptile who was staring as well. There was an awkward feeling in the atmosphere of the cell as the two pokemon remained silent and motionless, just staring at the other.

"Um, dad, is something wrong?" the younger Gallade asked.

The older Gallade cleared his throat and looked away nervously. "Lisbon..." he said, referring to the Lucario.

"Pearce..." the Lucario said back, she too was looking elsewhere. She cleared her throat. "Anyway, you guys needed help with something?"

"Awkwardness aside," the Sceptile tried his best to look as professional as possible, holding back the snicker. "We were hoping you could use your aura to assist Matthew here in breaking into the Hypno's mind."

"I see." She nodded her head slowly. "I'm guessing our psychic associates had a difficult time with him."

"But can you do it?" the Charizard urged.

The Lucario glanced at him from the corner of her eye, her crimson eyes radiating with confidence and glowing with power. "Give me fifteen minutes."

"That's the Natalie I remember." the older Gallade whispered as softly as physically possible. In the end, everyone in the room still heard him and his face flushed bright red as he directed his attention back to the block of ice before him.

"What's up, Nat?" the Blaziken asked. "Why are the two of you so awkward around each other?"

"It's nothing." The Lucario mumbled quietly as she turned to the frozen prisoner to avoid having them see her blushing face. "Let's just get to work. Matthew, would you might giving me a hand?"

"Of course." The older Gallade did an excellent job masking the awkwardness in his voice.

"Great." The Lucario clapped her hands together. "Right, can everyone else leave the room? It'll be much easier for me to concentrate with less people around."

The others were willing enough to follow her request, but the Blaziken and the younger Gallade were a bit hesitant. Still, they didn't protest, they soon followed the others out of the cell.

Once the two of them were alone, regardless of the knowledge that they were still being watched, the air of awkwardness around them subsided. The tension between them eased up and the two of them actually breathed a sigh of relief, even chuckling a bit.

"So..." the Gallade started. "I honestly didn't expect you ending up here."

"Neither did I." the Lucario cooed as she walked over to the block of ice. "But... I fell in love with a man. Then this turned to that... and eventually we started a family.

"So, the Riolu from earlier is your son isn't he?" the older Gallade asked.

"You've met Jason, then?" the Lucario asked back. "Yeah... he's our little miracle."

"Your husband is that Blaziken isn't he?"

"mm-hm."

"No surrogate parents?"

"None."

"And Jason was born without any problem?"

"None."

"Wow..." the Gallade was awestruck. Their conflicting blood and genes shouldn't be compatible at all that the chance of having a baby is almost non-existent. If a baby were to somehow be born, they would be riddled with birth defects that they die just days if not hours after birth.

"Unless you consider fire powers as a birth defect, Jason's just fine." The Lucario chuckled. "Anyway, enough of this for now, let's focus on the Hypno. I told them to give us fifteen minutes for this..."

"Of course. How may I help?"

The Lucario knelt down in front of the block of ice and pressed her hands against the cold surface. "I can use my aura to enter his mind and view what's inside. But if this Hypno's as good as you guys think he is, then I'll need your help interpreting the 'gibberish' that we'll be seeing."

"On it." The Gallade said as he knelt behind the Lucario and held both his hands beside the Lucario's head.

A blue, mist-like aura began emanating from the Lucario's hands. The aura seemed to seep through the solid ice and travel towards the Hypno frozen inside. The mist travelled towards the Hypno's head and began enveloping it. Tendrils of her aura began moving inside the Hypno through his ears, nostrils, eyes and even forcing their way into his closed lips. Pretty soon, the Lucario and the Gallade began probing into the Hypno's mind.

A very displeased sound emanated from within the block of ice as the Hypno seemed to have woken from his self-induced slumber. Immediately, Natalie began feeling the resistance from the Hypno but her aura prevailed. The Hypno could do nothing to keep her from breaching his mind. Cracks began forming around the block of ice as the Hypno forced as much of his psychic energy out that even the suit couldn't keep it all in.

"Well he seems upset." The Lucario chuckled.

"Will the ice hold?" the Gallade asked.

_"It should hold."_The Blastoise' voice spoke from the speakers, surprising the Gallade and almost breaking his concentration.

"You heard him." The Lucario said.

The two were silent afterwards, concentrating on the task at hand. The only sounds to be heard in the cell were the soft humming of the Lucario's aura and the Hypno's muffled infuriated moans. After a few minutes of probing with her aura, the Lucario finally managed to break through and immediately the two of them were sifting through all the data that the Hypno kept hidden. The Gallade couldn't help but feel giddy about this. It's been years since he and Natalie saw each other and now they're working together again.

"We're in." the Lucario announced loudly for the speakers to hear. "I told you, we only needed fifteen minutes."

Meanwhile, the Sceptile and the Garchomp were positioned just outside the cell door while the rest of them were watching from the security office. As much as everyone had a reason to be anxious, the Blaziken was more nervous than the others.

"They look like they know each other." The younger Gallade said.

"It would seem so..." the Blaziken replied.

"Did you know about this?" the Gallade asked.

"No..."

"How is it that she does a better job with this than you father?" the Blastoise asked the Gallade.

"I don't know." The Gallade answered. "Maybe my dad would ask her and all we have to do is listen."

"In any case, I'm glad Joseph's recruited her help." The Charizard said.

"A bit out of the blue if you ask me..." the Blaziken mumbled.

"They're finished." The Charizard said as he saw the Lucario let go of the block of ice and the two proceed out of the cell. They all left the security office to meet with the others and ask them what they found out.

"Anything?" the Sceptile asked as the Lucario and the Gallade walked out of the cell.

"One thing's for sure, someone or something else was controlling the Hypno." The Lucario announced. "And that we'll be dealing with a threat I hoped we wouldn't have to deal with."

"Who?" the Charizard asked as their group arrived.

The Lucario gulped down her fears as she caught her husband's gaze. If anything, she feared for his reaction the most. Nevertheless, regardless of what would happen, they had to know, they had to be prepared for it. "We were right in assuming that Lucius leads these terrorists."

A mix of emotions swirled around the Avalonians as the announcement came down on them. They each bore different expressions on their faces. The Charizard seems upset, angry in fact with his knit eyebrows and grit teeth. The Sceptile appeared calm on the outside, but the Lucario could sense that his brain was working in overdrive with what their next move should be. The Blastoise looked... concerned... he wasn't shocked nor was he too calm about it considering they were already discussing the possibility. But like Aiden, they were all once friends with the Luxray.

'Aiden...' the Lucario thought to herself as she looked at her husband with worry-filled eyes. As much as everyone in the room already knew that Lucius was involved with the enemies, the confirmation that he was their leader still affected them, Aiden more so. Natalie's worry now is that Aiden wouldn't take this burden on himself.

The two Gallades, on the other hand, just stood there, oblivious as for the reason of the cocktail of emotions stirring in the room. As much as they were curious, they remained silent.

"Mm-hm..." the Charizard cleared his throat. "Well, that confirms our suspicions. Anything else you were able to gather?"

The Lucario nodded her head. "I wanted to stay true to my 'fifteen minute' deadline so I wasn't able to decipher what it meant, but we were able to retrieve a list of several locations. What these locations mean, we're not sure."

"Can you give us the list?" the Sceptile asked.

"Of course." The Lucario said. "I just need a piece of--"

"My son can give you the list." The older Gallade interrupted.

"Father?"

"Here." the older Gallade approached his son and placed a hand on his son's forehead. The hand glowed with psychic energy as the young Gallade closed his eyes and began receiving the information telepathically. "Now, accompany them to the meeting room and you can plot the locations on the war table."

"What about you?" the younger Gallade asked.

"I still have a few questions for her." He said. "And besides, she and I were high school classmates. I feel like we have a lot of catching up to do."

"You didn't tell me the two of you were classmates." The Blaziken said to the Lucario.

"I didn't see the information as important." The Lucario said. She then turned to the older Gallade. "And yeah... I guess I do owe you an explanation for all those years.

"Alright." The Sceptil nodded and pulled the older pokemon away as well as gesturing for the young Gallade to follow. "We'll be in the conference room if ever you're done walking down memory lane~." And with that, the Lucario and the Gallade were left alone once more.

"Ha ha ha..." the Gallade chuckled. "How do you do it? Using your aura to overpower even strong psychic types I mean. If anything, you should've been at a type disadvantage, yet they somehow can't fully resist you."

"I don't know myself really..." the Lucario replied quietly. "My family's... well... a select few in my lineage has always had a special kind of aura around them. Our aura's different compared to the other pokemon. Some scholars and researches can testify that our aura can be closely linked to that of the energy of the gods of old."

"Incredible." The Gallade said. "What else can your special aura do?"

The Lucario honestly didn't hear the Gallade's next question. After her speech about her aura, her thoughts immediately shifted to her son Jason and how much of a target he's become. Not only is he a healthy hybrid of both divine bloodlines, and that he has mutated into acquiring special fire powers, his early proficiency with the aura could mean that he was one of their lineage to have that special aura. What makes matters worse was confirmation that Lucius truly lead the terrorist group... her family's just in too deep of a mess, she's afraid that--

"Natalie, are you alright?" Matthew asked as he placed a hand on the Lucario's shoulder.

"Hm?" the Gallade's touch started the Lucario, shocking her consciousness back into reality. "Oh, uh... yeah...

"I've never seen you this worried before. You used to be that hyperactive ball confidence back at the university."

"Yeah..." the Lucario chuckled. "I wish things could just go back to those days. It's just... I'm worried about my son..."

"Considering how your kid is the one in charge of keeping my daughter safe and his background, so am I."

"By the way... do you know where they are right now?"