TAOM: Combee - Bee Yourself

"The boardroom is in use today by the Counter Guardians – please stay out of their way guys. Also Tash is running Fire Marshall training at three in training room five-"

Watching Miss Hari-Hat speak was like listening to those funny people with white collars talk about this God person, Combee thought. You knew they were saying something important and grown up... but because she was a baby she didn't understand any of it. That did not mean that did not have opinions on it regardless. For instance, she'd always thought that this God person sounded a little weird (and that was her talking!), but apparently he had a nice fluffy beard like Santa Claus, so he must be an okay person.

Miss Hari-Hat did not have a beard (that would be silly!) but when she talked, everyone listened. Combee knew it because she went to the meetings with Daddy every morning and watched everyone sit up straight when Miss Hari-Hat entered the room. It was like she had invisible strings attached to their backs like those puppets that Mister Davey liked to watch on TV, and she pulled them straight every time she walked through the door. One day, Combee was going to find those strings and make everyone jump up and down in their seats. That would be even funnier than the time she made a paper tornado out of the documents on Daddy's desk!

Seated around the table, she found the people who were really special to her. Miss Hari-Hat obviously, with her pretty brightly coloured clothes and her beautiful smile. Auntie Miri was yawning. Daddy said she had been on a 'night ship' or something like that, where she got to stay up past bed time and watch TVs. Combee thought that sounded like a great idea, though she wondered why it was called a ship. She hoped that Auntie Miri would let Tailsy out to play soon. She missed her big sister-like friend.

Auntie Tashy was sitting next to Daddy, chewing on a pen and pausing occasionally to take notes. Combee liked Auntie Tashy. She was tough and always knew what to do if there was a problem. Plus she was pretty when she set herself on fire like a big Moltres. Something small, white and furry put its paws on the table and peered over the surface with huge violet eyes. Mister Kitty was in Auntie Tashy's lap. Combee giggled. Only special people got to sit there, and she was one of them.

And then there was Daddy, in who's lap she currently sat. Tilting her head upwards, she saw him, with his head resting on one of his hands, gazing off in a vacant way. That usually meant that he was pretending to listen. Daddy was a very good pretender, Combee thought. He liked to pretend that he was fine a lot of the time, when he wasn't really. It made her worry. Today though, he seemed really fine. He had had a lot of fun playing that funny video game that he enjoyed with Auntie Tashy, with the rocks and the big trees and green monsters that made things go boom. That always made him smile.

Combee took a deep breath. She smelt Daddy first, as she was sitting in his arms. She wriggled her nose at the smell of mint and soap. It made her feel safe. Taking another deep sniff, she honed in on the next smell. Bergamot (Auntie Tashy) and apple (Mister Kitty), followed by a mishmash of a lot of people – strawberries, grass, oranges, violets, tea, spices. She couldn't smell Auntie Miri because she was too far away, but she knew she smelt of pine, like the huge Christmas trees that she liked to bounce on.

"Last item on today's agenda," Miss Hari-Hat (who smelt of juicy papayas) was saying in a loud voice. "Today is Bring Your Pokemon To Work Day! So feel free to let your teams out to stretch their legs!"

There were a few raised eyebrows. Apparently this event was spontaneous.

"Sweet!" Michael broke the silence, and Combee grinned. More friends to play with sounded like a great idea to her.

"Half of us do that anyway," Alice pointed out, gesturing to herself and Robert, who had Litwicks on their shoulders.

"Yes, but this time its official," Harriet stated grandly. "Which makes it an even better idea than before!"

As she spoke, she plucked a Poke Ball from her waist and threw it in the air. Mudkip appeared in a flash, chasing its tail around the table. Michael and Tash, being leaders and wanting to set a good example, released their own Pokemon onto the table, and Combee leaped into the chaos giggling with glee. More enthusiastic flashes of light burst into the room, and Combee found herself quickly being squished into a corner by the mass of bodies.

"Okay who's bright idea was it to release their Tropius in such a small space?" Harriet's voice appeared from the middle of the room.

"Sorry, that's mine," Alice called.

"No she's not. She's mine," Adrian objected. "That one throwing bananas at Michael's Infernape is yours!"

"Oh yeah, sorry..."

"Ow!" Ben whimpered. "That's an Aggron on my foot!"

"Oh he's mine!" Kyle yelled. "Sorry! Aggron, stop breaking Ben! That's Shirley's job!"

There were two loud roars, and a pair of Gyarados in the corner began snapping at each other furiously.

"So this is one of your better ideas, Harriet?" Michael asked dryly.

"I'm the leader!" Harriet protested, from where she was squished against the table. "All my ideas are better!"

From high in the air, Combee giggled to herself. Today was going to be an excellent day.

OOO

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

Michael looked up from his paperwork just in time to be tackled by his excited youngster.

"Sorry, the door was open," Tash quipped, stepping over the threshold and kicking a stack of paperwork over before it could bite at her ankles.

"Daddy!" Combee bounced in his lap in excitement. "We have amazing news! Auntie Tashy was on bulby-pedia and she found that there are more attacks that I can learn! But she says I have to be tooted them! Will you tooter me the moves? Please Daddy? Please?"

All six eyes became impossibly wide, as she gazed up at her father. Behind his glasses, Michael took a moment to digest all of the information before replying with a grin.

"Well if it's on the internet, it must be true!" He patted her on the head. "What moves would you like to learn, baby?"

"YAY!" Combee nuzzled at his neck excitedly. "Thank you Daddy! I want to learn a new flying attack! So Auntie Tashy said I should learn Air Cutter!" She nodded decisively. "There was attacks like Mud-Slap and Snore, but that's silly, because anyone can do those if you're in a muddy puddle or very sleepy!"

"Why don't you let your Daddy pick an attack too," Tash suggested gently. "Since he is the one who will be tutoring you. Then you can go to the training rooms and get started?"

There was a fluttering of papers accompanied by a "ZOOOOM!" as Combee sped from the room at top speed to claim a training room. The closer she got, the more noise she could make out. The sounds of explosions and high energy attacks being blasted around. It sounded like her kind of party! But still, she had to wait for her Daddy, so she slowed down and came to a stop outside the door.

"I'm a bee. I drink tea. Won't you bounce around with me...?" She paused in her excited bouncing as a short figure in a blue waistcoat came trotting down the hallway. "Ooo! Miss Emmy!"

And she plunged down Emily's waistcoat and snuggled her chest. "Ooo! You're growing pillows on you like a marshmallow!" she giggled.

Blushing red (and reminding herself to go bra shopping again soon) Emily plucked the excitable Pokemon out. "Hey Combee baby. What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for Daddy and Auntie Tashy to stop being Slowpokes," Combee explained. "Daddy is going to teach me a new trick!" she frowned, as from the recesses of her scatterbrained mind, she remembered something. "Ooo! Auntie Tashy was looking for you! I remember! She was on bulby-pedia and said she had something for you, and then we started looking up me and what moves I can be tooted, and then we went to go find Daddy!" She smiled, pleased with herself for remembering.

It took Emily all of a second to translate from Combee-speak, by which point, Tash had flashstepped around the corner, panting.

"Damn, she moves fast!" she said.

"Auntie Tashy!" Combee leaped out of Emily's arms and began snuggling her relative. "Miss Emmy is there, and you has something to give her!"

"Yes I do," Tash nodded, picking Combee up and holding her at eye level. "But do you remember what I said about it, Combee?"

"Umm..." Combee thought for a moment, before all three of her faces grinned again. "Yes! You said it was a very important and very fwagile thing and I have to be calm around it."

"Very good," Tash nodded, before handing her back to an exhausted looking Michael.

"Daddy!" Combee only just seemed to have noticed he was there. "Let's go train! Let's go train!"

"In a minute..." Michael gasped. "Just give me a sec, to catch my breath..."

Confused, Combee tilted her head. "Catch it? D'you need a net?" Her attention was caught as Tash pulled something small and round out of her bag. Combee's eyes went wide. "Ooo! An egg!"

Sure enough, it was an egg, about the size of an ostrich egg, and covered in jagged patterns of yellow and black. Combee sniffed it, and smiled.

"Its pretty! Who's egg is it?" she asked.

"Shimeti's," Tash said. "She had it two nights ago. Emily's going to raise it."

Carefully she passed it over to Emily, who cuddled it safely to her chest. "Are you sure Shimeti doesn't mind?"

Tash nodded. "We talked about it. She wants it to have a good trainer, and you're one of the few people she actually likes."

"Silly Auntie Tashy," Combee admonished. "Everyone likes Miss Emmy! And everyone likes you Auntie Tashy! And everyone likes Daddy! Everyone likes everyone in here!" she giggled.

Tash gave a dry smile. "Hmm... I wish that were true Combee." There was a groan from behind her, and she turned to see Michael getting back to his feet. "Back with us then?"

"Huh? Did Daddy go somewhere?" Combee asked curiously. Everyone facepalmed.

"Never mind, sweetheart," Michael said, already exhausted from running after his wayward child. "Let's go train."

OOO

"Okay Combee, one more time. Ominous Wind!"

Combee took a deep breath, her face screwed up in concentration.

"Wooo!" she said as dramatically as she could. "Fear my scariness! ...heehee! I'm sorry Daddy! I can't do it! It's so silly!"

She barrel rolled a few times, as Michael planted his face in the palm of his hand again. A red imprint was beginning to show on his forehead.

"Maybe this wasn't the best attack I could have picked for you..."

"Face it Michael," called Emily, from the next ring over. "Combee can't do scary."

She was interrupted by a bang as Yumi, her Masquerain, went flying into the ring wall once more. Wincing, Emily jogged to her stricken bug Pokemon's aid, her movement hampered by the small rucksack being worn over her chest to contain the egg.

"And Yumi can't seem to do Water Pulse," Michael threw back. "So we're both about as successful as the other." He sighed heavily. "At least there were no problems with Air Cutter."

Catching the end of the conversation, Combee flapped her wings, sending sharp blue slivers of energy bursting from her tiny wings, shredding a wall panel in the ring to tiny pieces of chipboard.

"...wow, cheap construction," quipped a new voice.

"Nice to see you too Alice," Michael deadpanned. "And it's not cheap, Combee is just badass."

"Cheep cheep!" Combee giggled, thinking the word to be referencing the bird call. "Cheep cheep!"

The Society's self proclaimed Pet Search Engine, folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head. "Oh yeah... that's totally terrifying." she deadpanned. Michael flushed.

Bored with the grown up humour (which was going over her head) Combee buzzed back to her starting point in the ring. The Pokemon training room (which oddly had never been discovered until today) was a vast space, with nine individual training rings lined neatly in rows of three down it. There was a space at one end by the door, where punch bags, dummies, bars, bouncy balls and other training aids were kept, and bowls and bottles of water ready and waiting to refresh Pokemon and human alike.

Combee was pleased to see Alice and Robert taking the middle ring, diagonally across from Michael and Combee's corner ring. Emily and Yumi were on the left directly opposite the door, and Tash was just vacating the ring behind them, with a pair of binoculars strung around her neck, and Thoth trotting serenely behind her. They made a beeline for the water station.

"One more time Combee," Michael sighed. "Ominious Wind!"

Drawing another deep breath, Combee began to spin rapidly, an unsubtle and unscary 'woooooooo!' coming from her mouth. It did not last long, bursting into a hail of giggles as she lost control and rolled like a wheel into the ring barrier once more.

"Heeheehee!"

Shoulders slumping, Michael sat down at the edge of the ring, and rubbed the dent his glasses were leaving in the bridge of his nose.

"Having problems?" a new voice asked above his head. Michael looked up to see an amused looking Jared looming over him.

"Problems of a concentration nature... Combee just isn't scary – she finds herself too funny to be frightening."

"Ewww!" Combee declared, having got over her dizzy spell and straightened up into a low hover. "What smells?"

"That would be me," came a highly affronted voice, and Combee found her nose inches from Jared's humourless looking Muk.

"Oh... sorry," Combee sheepishly put on her most winning smile.

"Its okay Combee," Muk replied dryly. "We all know you can't help it."

And he oozed into Tash's recently vacated ring, with Jared right behind him, both ducking as the ring behind them exploded into a blazing aura of energy, and a frazzled looking Gareth began shouting apologies. Apparently he had just broken his third TM of the day.

"There has to be some way to make this attack work," Michael was wracking his brains. "It must be possible – the internet says it is!"

"Have you tried putting her in front of someone who's afraid of bees?" Alice asked.

"No, because Tashy's afraid of bees and she adores Combee," Michael explained.

"Course I adore Combee!" the Society leader announced, approaching the ring, and sweeping Combee into a giant cuddle. "She's so adorable!"

"Yay! I'm adorable!" the bumblebee Pokemon giggled.

"That's the problem," Michael deadpanned. "In this situation at least."

"You're adorable, Daddy!" Combee chirruped, as the humans snorted with laughter. Michael went pink again, and scowled (clearly the Darkness was enjoying himself a little too much at his host's expense).

There was a bang as a ring of water blasted its way through the barrier surrounding the next ring. Soaking wet, Emily and Yumi both began performing a victory dance, which Combee was only too happy to join in with, bouncing off the walls and floor like a beach ball.

"Tada! Yumi learned Water Pulse!" Emily cheered, dripping steadily onto the floor. A few people applauded.

"Better dry that egg off," Michael advised, throwing her a towel from the side of his ring, lifting an eyebrow as Tash deposited her belongings next to their ring. "Why did you bring binoculars?"

"I need them to find Thoth when he's doing Aerial Ace," Tash explained. "It saves me having to put my glasses on."

"Oooooh! Daddy!" Combee had pressed two of her eyes against the small end of the binoculars. "Yumi put weight on!"

"No baby, that's just the binoculars making things look big," Michael explained in a patient voice.

But Combee was having far too much fun now as she nosed the binoculars around the room.

"Ooooh! Auntie Tashy! You're MASSIVE!" she giggled.

"Let me see?" Alice bent down to have a peek and burst out laughing.

"Maybe its a sign you should cut back on the brownies?" Louise suggested, as she approached with her Litwick on her shoulder. Robert's Chingling bounced excitedly, and the two went off to play together.

Rolling her eyes, Tash reclaimed her binoculars, turned them around the wrong way, and peered through the large ends of the scopes.

"Oh look Louise – you got shorter," she grinned, ducking the hand on a collision course with her skull. "Hey! No beating the leader!"

"Now now children, play nicely," came a decidedly northern accent, from the other side of the ring. Dave had squirreled himself in the far corner and appeared to be attempting to teach Zena the Zoroark how to use Shadow Claw.

"Whaaaat?" Alice's face was a picture of total innocence, and Louise hid the binoculars behind her back, leaving Tash to rub at her abused skull. Combee couldn't help but notice a vacant look on Robert's face, and it made her curious.

"I wonder if Mister Robbie isn't sleeping properly..." she thought to herself. "Maybe that's why he looks all dreamy. He needs someone to tuck him into bed at night like Daddy does with me... ooooh! Maybe Miss Ali can do it! He likes Miss Ali! I'll bet he'd let her tuck him into bed!"

Pleased with her deduction, she made a mental note to tell Daddy about her thoughts later.

There was another bang, and Gareth's ring filled with smoke. From within, everyone could hear the Society's inventor sighing heavily and deciding to call it a day. His Vaporeon emerged from the smoke cloud, with an unamused expression.

"Okay Combee. Just one more time," Michael said slowly. "Then we'll call it a day too."

"No progress then?" Tash asked sadly, leaning over the edge of the ring to watch.

"Nothing," Michael sighed. "I remember it being hard to teach her Swift, but this is just... on another level."

"You sure Bulbapedia wasn't lying to you Michael?" Emily suggested, toweling the last of the water off her hair and recalling Yumi.

"It was on the internet! It must be true!" Michael proclaimed firmly.

"Isn't that what you said about that 'sue' in Bioshock?" a new voice asked in an amused manner. "Y'know, the one who turned out to be canon-"

"Shut up Adrian..." Michael grumbled.

"Oh look Alice!" Louise said loudly, holding up the binoculars the wrong way around to her eyes. "It's a big pompous gorilla! There in the distance!"

She handed the binoculars to Alice, who laughed.

"Oh yeah. Actually that's a very nice way of looking at Adrian!"

"Very far away?"

"Yeah."

"Daddy!" a voice chirruped over everyone's conversations. "I found what I need for my scary attack!"

Dreading what he might find, Michael turned to face the voice... and screamed like a girl.

"See?!" Combee giggled, peering through the six badly cut eyeholes. "Its a sheet! And it works!"

Everyone chortled into their hands as Michael straightened his glasses and tried to affect a look of dignity. He plucked the bedsheet off Combee's head (wondering in passing where she had got it from) and pointed at the middle of the ring. "Ominous Wind!"

Combee took a deep breath and flapped her wings hard, wind whistling around everyone's ears. A cloud of purple smoke began to gather before her and swirl around in the tornado, which gathered in energy before thundering out over the ring with a deafening roar.

"Yay!" Combee squealed as the cloud dispersed. "I did it!"

There was a round of applause from the ring, and Combee gave a bow in midair.

"I did it! I did it! I did i – Daddy?" Combee peered down at the dazed lump. "Why are you on the floor?"

"Nyeeeeehh..."

"I think you may have got him with your scary attack Combee."

"Oh... whoopsie!"

OOO

There were a few things that Combee understood completely in life - and one of those things was secrets. She knew about secrets. She had a few of her own, like her secret honey and Watmel recipe that she was going to try out when Miss Rhi-Rhi left her kitchen unlocked. And she kept a few for other people, like Auntie Tashy's passcode to the safe in her office, which Combee had found out by complete accident when she had barged into the room without knocking (Daddy had told her off about that a lot of times, though she hadn't understood why - it wasn't like she hadn't seen Auntie Tashy's bare bottom before).

Her biggest and latest secret was about the Dumbleydore man in the Twilight fandom, and she had promised to Daddy on her very secret recipe that she would not tell anyone. Daddy had said it would be dangerous if anyone else knew about it, and she must never let anyone know about him ever. In exchange, she was allowed to go with Daddy when he visited the Dumbleydore man in the hospital. He had been there for weeks now, and had not stirred once. Combee was very worried. She had given him many of her kisses, but he did not seem to be getting any better. She was sure that one of Daddy's kisses, which were far more magical than hers and could heal all her owies in an instant, would make the Dumbleydore man right as rain in a matter of moments. But Daddy had ignored all her suggestions to do so, much to Combee's bemusement.

She had not initially understood why Daddy wanted it to stay a secret. But now she was starting to have an inkling.

Combee was not very technologically able or literate, so the finer points about (a) slipped her by. All she knew was that she was a Soup person, who for some reason, was not kept in the basement. She popped up at random moments and giggled in a strange fashion in a voice that echoed through the halls of the Library. Despite (a)'s mental age being only a bit older than hers, Combee herself found her a little worrying. She looked like a very skinny Abomasnow in that outfit, and Combee did not like Abomasnows. They had bad tempers and made her very cold. And everyone knew that cold was bad for bumblebees.

"Please tell me Combee?" @ begged, her hands clasped in a prayer as she gazed beseechingly at the Pokemon, perfectly three dimensional and hard-light thanks to a nearby holographic projector. On a normal human being, this look of desperation and purity of intention would have had anyone eating out of the palm of the Sue's hand...fortunately for the Society however, Combee was not normal.

"I'm sorry Miss At, but I can't tell you anything," Combee said honestly, chomping her way through another stalk. The Watmel berry dropped neatly into the basket. Alone of everyone else in the world, Combee did not give @ a nickname. She was far too uneasy about her to offer endearments.

"Please?" @ asked again, and Combee wished that she would leave her alone. This was a delicate operation she was attempting, and @'s presence was distracting her. Baring her teeth, she chomped hard through the next stalk, her Bug Bite attack making quick work of it. Another berry plopped into the basket.

"What if I gave you your own Watmel tree if you told me?" @ tried. Combee's mind went blank with excitement at the thought of that much sweetness. But fortunately for the Society, a tiny worm of common sense caused this excitement to abruptly peeter out as she remembered her own limitations.

"That wouldn't work Miss At. How would I water it? I don't have any hands." She shook her head with a smile. "Silly."

Another berry. Her basket was getting quite full.

"I'm not silly!" the Sue objected. "I'm just... lonely."

"Lonely?" Combee paused in selecting another Watmel. She could still carry a few more...

"I have friends in the Twilight fandom," @ explained. "And I can't speak to them because of the precautions that the Librarian put up around it."

"Yeah, they're to stop anyone seeing..." Combee shut up, realising that she was treading dangerous water (which was bad, because bumblebees couldn't swim). As a Pokemon she relied on her sixth sense, and right now she had the horrible feeling that she had when she was up against another Pokemon using Double Team - the feeling that she was about to be tricked.

"Seeing what?" @ urged.

"Nothing!" Combee whined, picking another berry in her mouth. Her teeth punctured the skin and the sweet juices ran onto her tongue. "I'm not telling you anything! Stop being mean! You is a bully, trying to trick me into saying-"

A key rattled in the lock, and both Combee and @ went still.

"Uh oh!" Combee gulped. She would not have time to carry that heavy basket up the way she came in, so she picked up another berry in her second mouth, and the basket in her third. As the lock turned and slid backwards, Combee swung the basket and flung it straight into @'s startled arms. She zoomed off up the ventilation shaft with her two prizes before the Sue could call after her.

"@!" she could hear Alice's surprised and alarmed voice as she made her escape. "What are you doing with that basket?!"

"Its not mine!" @ wailed desperately. "I'm just holding it for-"

She never got any further, as an enraged voice interrupted her spluttered explanations.

"MY TREE!" Castform, usually docile and smiley in nature, now sounded apocalyptically pissed off. "YOU STOLE ALL THE FRUIT!"

"No! Wait! OW!"

There was a flash like the first spark on a campfire, followed by a crash and a smell of burning wicker. Pleased with her daring adventure, Combee buzzed off in the direction of her Daddy's room to eat her prizes in peace.

OOO

"Ooo! Daddy!" Combee squealed in excitement, her six eyes wide. "What's that?!"

Michael looked skyward, causing Combee to tumble off his head with a giggle. "That looks like Adrian's Wailord to me."

"Oooh yes! So it is!" Combee giggled. "But why is Naughty sharing a tank with Fish Finger?"

Michael sighed. "Probably because he's too big to fit anywhere else."

Naughty – proper name Nautilus – sailed serenely through the water above their heads. It really was a testament to how big the Library's aquarium was, for the four hundred kilo whale Pokemon and the pet Liopleurodon had yet to cross paths (it was possible that Fish Finger had smelt how big her new roommate was and was wisely keeping a wide berth).

"Don't worry baby," Michael patted his charge on the head. "Its only Bring Your Pokemon to Work Day today, so I'm sure Adrian will recall Nautilus this evening and give Fish Finger her room back."

"Good!" Combee smiled. "I like Fish Finger. She smiles at me."

Banishing the terrifying thought of Fish Finger and her rows of interlocking teeth smiling at his infant Pokemon, Michael cuddled Combee to his chest and hurried off down the corridor.

"Miiiiichael!" a voice called, and he turned to see Emily racing towards him. She was pink cheeked, and had clearly been running for a while. The rucksack and egg were still hanging off her chest.

"Hello Emily," Michael said. "Are you trying to work up steps for your egg?"

Sighing in only a manner that a disgruntled teen could manage, Emily rolled her eyes. "No! I'm looking for Mimi. Have you seen her?"

"Which one is Mimi again?" Michael asked, scratching his head.

"Oooh!" Combee bounced excitedly in Michael's arms. "I see Mimi! I see Mimi!"

Michael turned back towards the tank...and blanched dramatically.

"Oh dear God!"

He hastily covered Combee's eyes.

"Heeeeeey!" Combee squirmed, trying to look over them.

"Huh..." a new voice appeared, causing Michael to jump. "I always wondered if Hot Skitty on Wailord Action was actually anatomically possible."

"Well there's your answer Tash," Gareth said musingly.

"ADRIAN!" Emily exploded as the Librarian himself arrived on the scene, turning as pale as his fur as he took in the actions in the tank above them. "WHAT IS YOUR WAILORD DOING TO MY SKITTY?!"

Adrian spluttered before answering. "I think what you should be asking is what is your Skitty doing to my Wailord – seems to me that the cat is dominant in there!"

"Daddyyyy!" Combee wailed. "Lemme seeee!"

She peeked over the top of Michael's hands, long enough to see a slowly building crowd of Society agents (Miss Hari-Hat had pulled out her phone and was taking pictures) peering up at Fish Finger's tank, where a flash of pink was just visible behind the huge hulking whale.

"Adrian, if this results in an egg, you had better take responsibility for our child!"

"Why do I have to take responsibility?! Your Skitty is the horny one!"

Michael covered Combee's eyes again and sprinted away.

"Daddy! What was everyone looking at?!" Combee demanded, bopping her father on the head as soon as he released her. Michael rubbed his head and looked pained.

"I'll tell you when you're older baby..."

OOO

The Library was rarely quiet. Combee knew this. Even when the agents slept, a whole new host of interesting noises came out. Snoring, sleep talking, happy giggles from couples having kissy time.

Now, as people fought over plates and banged cutlery together as they shovelled food into their mouths, silence was a million miles away. And Combee liked it this way – people having fun made her day much better. Even Miss Rhi-Rhi's Pokemon, who were helping keep the kitchen clean, were having fun drying the dishes and storing (or eating) the leftovers.

Unfortunately it was difficult to have fun when two of your friends were growling at each other, static sparks bursting randomly off their fur. Combee was a little anxious – electricity was no good for flying creatures, and she was very close to being a crispy fried bee. They did this a lot, but tonight seemed a little more ferocious than usual.

"Thothy," she nudged the tall Xatu in the side. "We should tell Auntie Tashy and Mister Davey!"

Thoth, who had been standing sentry with only his right eye open, blinked both of them owlishly at her. "Not necessary Combee," he told her, in his high born accent. "Its their Rivalry ability. It will die down in a little while."

Another rush of electricity rippled over blue fur.

"She does have a point," Infernape said anxiously, backing away into Michael's chair leg. "They look way more irritated than usual."

"Shimeti's a bit on edge," Yumi said wisely. "Hormones and all that."

"Five poffins on Asuka!" Flare (Adrian's Ninetails) said.

"And just where will you get those? The poffin fairy?" Typhlosion asked dryly, stealing bits of food off Tash's plate when she wasn't looking. Combee's eyes went wide.

"There's a poffin fairy!" she squealed, bouncing up and down. "Yay! Can we go find it! Can we?! Can we?!"

She squealed in alarm as a bolt of lightning lashed out not far from her bowl. Rolling out of her nosedive, she straightened, and faced the two flash Pokemon with a scowl. There were more important things than the mystical poffin fairy right now...

"Suki! Shimi!" she put her best grown up face on (which unbeknownst to her caused her to inflate like an enraged Jigglypuff) and flew between the feuding parties. "Daddy says you shouldn't start fights with your friends!"

"...really?" Infernape asked. "That sounds... way too passive for Michael."

"Inferny, don't interrupt me when I'm being sophistimicated!" Combee pouted, her butchering of the English language causing a few people to snicker. Asuka and Shimeti's coats dulled slightly, but they retained their crouched positions.

"You almost frazzled us!" Combee continued, trying to regain her firm tone. "And I don't wanna be a crispy bee! And Thothy doesn't wanna be a crispy duck!"

Thoth squawked indignantly. "I beg your pardon?!"

"So you be nice, and you say sorry, and then you come help me find the poffin fairy!" Combee declared, looking giddy once more at the thought of all those delicious baked goods.

Asuka and Shimeti's stances did not budge an inch, both of them staring at each other, daring their respective rival to make the first move. Combee inflated further.

"DON'T MAKE ME MAKE YOU HUG!" she bellowed, in one of her rare fits of irritation. In fact they were so rare that they attracted the attention of everyone in the room, human and Pokemon alike. Asuka and Shimeti cowered against the floor.

"Sorry!" they both squeaked fearfully, and Combee immediately shrank back to her usual beachball size, her most endearing smile on her face.

"Much better! Now come on! Let's go find the poffin fairy and get tasty treats!"

And she bounced out of the room, humming to herself. Over the table with the humans, Michael silently thanked every deity in existence for Everstones.

The humming was cut short by a glow of light from down the corridor. For a horrifying moment, Michael worried that he had just jinxed himself.

"Oooh shiny!" Came Combee's predictable response. "Miss Emmy! Its shiny!"

The glow rose to a blinding sight that caught the attention of every living creature in the kitchen. Knives clattered forgotten against plates, as everyone willed the walls to vanish so that they could see what was happening as the glow died down.

There was a long silence through the whole Library... and then from somewhere in the corridor, Emily's voice squealed a fangirlish manner.

"SHINY!"

Dave poked his head out of the kitchen, and smiled. "Why yes. Yes she is."

OOO

The Shinx was a girl, and Emily named her Sanura. She was black and gold from her fuzzy round ears to the tips of her very ticklish paws, with not a hint of blue anywhere.

"Is shininess genetic in Pokemon?" Emily wondered aloud, as she tickled the newest member of her party under the chin. The flash Pokemon mewled and rubbed her head against her hand.

"No idea," Harriet shrugged. "Though I'm sure if you asked Alice nicely she could compile a nice encyclopaedia of research on the genetics and breeding of Pokemon – I mean you've seen her mountains of genetic research on cats, right?"

Emily frowned at the thought of that much reading. "Ehh... maybe not. Too much effort." She pulled a face. "And besides, I learned more about breeding today from all that H.S.O.W.A earlier than I ever wanted to know in my life."

"Daddy!" Combee headbutted her father in the elbow. "What's hache ess oow double yew ay mean?"

Michael rubbed his forehead. "I'll tell you another day sweetie..."

"Okay," Combee smiled, causing her trainer to sigh in relief. Fortunately Combee had such a short attention span – otherwise she'd probably still be trying to organise an expedition to catch the poffin fairy...

"Daddy?" Combee frowned, with the look of somebody who had just remembered a question that had been plaguing them all day.

"Yes baby?"

"...where do babies come from?"

Michael turned a funny shade of pink at that, but he quickly realised he had an easy escape route. "From eggs, baby. You know that."

"I know that," Combee nodded, blinking up at him innocently. "But where do the eggs come from? How do they get made?"

The colour deepened to a brilliant shade of crimson. "Uhh..."

"Oh I always knew this day would come," the Darkness was practically giggling. "Sorry host, but you're on your own this time!"

"Fuck you very much for your support..."

Those inquisitive eyes probed him even more, raising a tide of emotions in Michael. Embarrassment, exasperation and – despite all of these – a great deal of paternal affection for his adorable little baby.

"Well Combee..." Michael took a deep breath, and decided he might as well go with the traditional broad strokes. "When a man and a woman – or a male and female Pokemon – love each other very much..."

Insert Dramatic Rescue Here (part 2 of 3)

"Where do we think we are?" Stacey asked as she led the way around another bookshelf with her staff. "I mean, I know we're in this pretty damn big library, but where's the library in relation…to well, whatever this place is? I haven't seen a single window or sign of the outside since we went through that portal."

"Don't look me, I didn't bring a Triple-A Multiverse Map." Terrie said as she let her fingers wander across some of the tomes, none of them written in a language she could understand or even begin to guess.

Valerie slid past the pair, Ari flitting over her shoulder. "And my senses are still kind a funny-I can't really sense anyone besides us. And Ari can't slip between to get out of here. She says it's like there's nowhere to go to. Even other parts of this place are blocked…just where we've been and what we can see are open to us."

"Can't raise anyone on the Communicator, either." Danielle banged the device against a bookshelf in irritation, as if giving the device physical harm would suddenly cause it to shape up and stop displaying the static snow that had become the primetime hit on every channel. "Not even a single bar…"

"You know…" The empath suddenly had a thoughtful expression on her face as they rounded a corner and made their way down an alleyway of bookshelves. "That trap back in the mansion was triggered when Adrian said it was a trap and Runoa obviously set it up so that it'd be triggered by saying that cliché line…"

"Yeah, so?" Stacy had to gently pull the empath to the side a little to avoid a stand with a vase on it, so lost in thought the brunette was.

"I think that Runoa has set this whole base up or at least this section, using some clichés and probably most of them tied to video games. The reason my senses don't quite work and Ari can't move between except to where we've been is that we're dungeon-crawling. A lot of the dungeon is shrouded in 'darkness' and will be until we explore it. For all we know, she's littered keys to the doors under pots or set up some inane puzzle like crawling through an air duct to pull a lever that has no business being in an air duct to open a hatch in the ceiling that'll drop a boulder on a pressure plate that'll open the door."

The other three members of her team gave her dubious looks and it was Terrie who spoke up. "Why the hell would she do that? I mean, we've been walking for at least half an hour and not run into anyone or any locked doors or anything. It makes it sound she's giving us a chance, when we know she's ruthless enough that she'd just set a trap, lock us in a room or gas us or something."

"That's a possibility, too…" Val nodded and gave a frown. "Knowing her, she's probably set up so many layers of deception and false appearances to make it look what I described or maybe it is like that she set things up so that it'd look like she was setting it up so it wasn't.'

"She's probably just trying to make us over think." Danielle suggested. "She's always making plans that are as multi-layered as a double-decker sandwich and she knows we know that she does. If she keeps us guessing and trying to figure out what's she's doing, we're as good as paralyzed because we'll wind up being afraid to make a move for fear of setting a trap off."

"There is lot of merit to that, actually." Valerie agreed. "Still, I think we should stay on our guard and be pretty careful. There's no telling what she's planning for us."

"Or it could be that Lady Runoa simply has no plan for you, because eventually, all outcomes end at you becoming corpses."

The team tensed at the voice and readied their weapons, Seiryu hissing to life as its light illuminated some of the shadows the shelves cast. Emerging out of the darkness ahead of them was a tall man, dressed in slate-gray robes that matches his eyes and neatly cropped hair. He stood nearly a head taller than any of the girls and didn't break stride when he caught sight of their weapons.

Val tenses as the man's aura brushed against her own. "He's a Sovereign-class… we need to run!" But even as the four began to turn, he was flipping over them to land in their way. "Crap…"

The man dropped into a boxing stance. "I am the Sovereign Order. You are all going to die."

Danielle blinked and missed when he moved, his backhand catching her across the face and sending her flying into the darkness between shelves. Even as the others reacted, his foot lashed out and snapped straight through Stacey's staff like it wasn't even there, the blow to her stomach hurtling her off her feet and into a shelf. It teetered from the impact, Stacey dropping to the ground with a moan.

A blue arrow zipped over his shoulder then and he turned on his heel to see a full volley heading his way. Ignoring them, he started to advance on the empath, the arrows striking his form and simply shattering apart.

Val backed up and continued firing, the arrows striking the ground and exploding, kicking up dust and debris. Taking advantage of the few seconds that it bought, she began to charge up a shot... only for Order to simply appear in front of her, his hand casually gripping the arrow and shattering it with a simply flex. "You-"

"Enough." His other fist slammed into her face, throwing her back a half-dozen feet in a limp heap. "This is over."

"Not yet..." Valerie forced herself up, despite the blood leaking from her lips and nose, eyes remaining steadily focused on Order.

"You are outclassed, yet you continue to fight. The height of stupidity..." The Sovereign advanced a few more steps, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You look at me so firmly, without battle rage or bloodlust, as if beating me is something you can do through sheer force of will." His foot caught Val in the gut, hurling her back against the wall with ease. "Useless!"

Again, the empath got to her feet, her eyes fixed on them and this time, his own eyes widened at the sight of pity and compassion brimming in them. "How annoying!" He was suddenly in front of her, fist cocked back to punch her face out the other side of her skull.

But a slim fist slammed into his face instead, sending the Sovereign crashing to the ground. He came out of it in a controlled roll and snapped a glare up. "Who-" Then the only sight he had was a foot in front of him, which slammed into his side and sent him through a pair of bookshelves. Skidding to a stop, he jack-knifed to his feet only to find that the titanic shelves behind him were teetering and falling towards him, their contents spilling down at him like a tidal wave.

Paper and wood shredded as the Sovereign punched the air, the motion somehow unleashing a blast of razor-like air that tore clean through the shelves. Even as the pages fell like snow around him, he felt motion behind him and turned just in time to catch a heel to his head, snapping it around. This was swiftly followed by a punch to the gut that lifted him off his feet and they slammed their hands into chest, energy and flame roaring forth from the impact point and blasting Order down the room like a bullet from a gun and burying him under bookshelves and stone from debris.

"I forgot about you..." Order shouldered his way free of the rubble, the upper portion of his clothes gone and he was covered in dust, but displayed no other injury or sign that he'd been attacked. "The familiar..."

Soft light footsteps echoed throughout the room and he leapt up after the shadowed figure running and leaping across the shelf tops. "You will be the first to die."

The figure's only response was to whirl to face him, a pair of eyes flashing and then a dragon's roar filling the room.

OOO

"That stupid bastard!" Flame marked the path of Tash's sword as she sliced through a stone-like creature in a single blow. Continuing the motion, she used her blade like a baseball bat, smacking the top half into an advancing creature made of ice so hard that it shattered into fragments. "Where the hell does he get off doing that!"

Flash-stepping away from a gout of water that erupted from the floor, she reappeared behind the living wave of water that had driven it's hands into the floor and thrust her hand into it. It immediately try to flow around her and trap her in a bubble of water. But flames roared forth from her body and instantly turned the creature to vapor and steam. "Dead for nine months and then he goes off being stupidly heroic in less than day!"

A fireball slammed into her, but it was simply sucked into her sword and the leader whipped the weapon at the giant winged eyeball that had tried to toast her, skewering it and pinning it to ceiling. "It pisses me off! Stupid Adrian being so stupidly heroic and stupidly sexy and stupidly right and stupidly kitten! It's so STUPID!" A kick accompanied her shout that sent a creature with blades sprouting from its body hurtling into a wall, it's own form trapping it there.

She flew up and wrenched her sword free, flash-frying the eyeball monster in the process. "I'll tie him up and give him a lap dance and then I'll give one to Phoenixia while he watches and when he can't take anymore, I won't give him anything, not even a kiss, for a month!"

Michael, who was standing to the side alongside an equally dazed Claire and Miri at Tash's fighting, chose to open his mouth without really realizing what he was saying. "But... you guys do that kind of thing anyway and he always winds up seducing you... how is being sexy like really a punishment?"

A enlarged version of Tash's head, complete with fangs, flaming eyes and anger marks appeared in front of the three Agents, who were suddenly now chibis. "IT IS BECAUSE I SAY IT IS!" Her shout, having made the three other Society member's hair stand straight back, sent Micheal and Miri hiding scurrying behind Claire, trembling in fear.

"Scary Tash is scary..." Miri poked her head over Claire's shoulder, the three chibis wincing and 'eeking' as Tash ripped and smashed her way through the creatures, punctuated by the occasional roar of flame.

"Scarier than Slenderman, that's for sure..." Michael winced at the fighting and then yelped and ducked back behind Claire as a Tash's rambling and enraged shouting continued.

"Real brave, guys..." Claire sighed and shook her head at the pair, then squeaked in fear as a what looked like a piece of what had once been wood embbeded itself in the stone floor between her feet. "Who do I hide behind!"

Then a beeping caught her attention and she glanced up at her raised hand, where she had just remembered was the pinecone grenade that she had pulled out and armed when the creatures showed up. "ACKIES! It's going to blow!"

A orange blur swooped by her, the grenade vanishing and the three of them watched as Tash stuffed the device into another stone creature's mouth, kicking it into the far wall. An explosion rocked the hallway and when it cleared, there wasn't so much left of the creature as there was now a pile of pebbles.

"We have a door now!" Tash pointed at the new hole in the wall. "Let's go so I can find my man and beat his furry little brains in for being so stupidly cute!" Without waiting or explaining what she meant, she stomped through it, the other three scrambling to catch up.

The room they entered was cavernous to say the least, resembling the interior of a cathedral-all gothic arches and filled with shadows, the domed ceiling nearly lost in darkness above.

"This place is incredible..." Claire glanced around and then gave a gasp, pointing in front of them. "Look!"

At the far end of the room was a glass panel mounted about half up the wall...and visible through was Aster strapped to table, naked and her small body battered, bruised and bloodied. Wires had been poked her body and every seconds, they'd glow and the fae would convulse and writhe in agony, her mouth stretched in a scream that the group could not hear.

"ASTER!" Anger forgotten and replaced by righteous rage, Tash lead the charge as the four ran forwards, wings sprouting from her back. "We're coming."

"Not yet, you are not." A swirl of darkness below the glass peeled away to reveal a titanic throne with Runoa seated on it casually, resting her cheek on her hand. "You have to get through me, first."

"Sounds like fun!" Tash's blade leveled at Runoa even as Darkness flowed around Michael's form dangerously.

"Please. Two Leaders and two Agents against me in a straight up fight... you and Michael might survive, but the other two will be busy decorating my walls with their entrails." Runoa chuckled as the two Leaders lowered their weapons after a moment's hesitation. "I thought so..."

"But I'm pragmatic, not a monster." She smirked. "And it'll amuse me to have some fun, since I haven't done any fighting in a long time. So why don't we duel? If you win, I'll let you have your fae back."

Then she snapped her fingers and suddenly the hole in the wall repaired itself and a speaker was apparently on, as now Aster's agonized high-pitched screams were suddenly audible. "And you don't have a choice, do you? After all, I'm sure these screams aren't as enjoyable to you as they are me."

"You bitch!" Claire snapped out and the four of them rapidly produced Duel Disks. "We'll tear you apart!" All of them activated their disks.

Runoa, rather than activate a duel disk like the others, didn't even more from her throne. Rather, she swept her hand in a rather bored motion, and before her appeared five massive duel monsters cards.

"Let's duel!" Michael, Claire, Miri and Tash shouted.

"Yes, yes, let's duel," Runoa said. She snapped her fingers again and the screams were silent, but she looked mildly amused by the whole situation.

(Claire: 8000) - - - - (Miri: 8000) - - - - (Tash: 8000) - - - - (Michael: 8000) - - - - (Runoa: 8000)

"I'll go first, if you don't mind," Runoa said with a bored sweep of her hand. Another card appeared beside the other 5 cards. She pointed to one, and it flipped around. "I'll play Spellbook of the Pot. With this card, we all draw 3 cards."

Giving one another confused looks, the Society members drew three cards, while another 3 cards appeared beside Runoa's others. Then, pointing to three in particular, all three of them flipped around to reveal the same spell card.

"Now I play Fiends Sanctuary. I can summon three Metal Fiend Tokens to my side of the field in attack mode."

In front of her appeared three figures that seemed to be made out of metal beads. All of them merely floated there. (0/0 X 3)

"But don't worry, they're not going to stay much longer. I sacrifice all three of them for one of the heavy hitters in this deck."

All three of them were suddenly swept into a massive tornado of energy. The entire metal room began to shake as a new figure suddenly appeared directly in front of Runoa. Anyone who played the game knew the exact card that had appeared. As big as the throne room, with massive muscles and rocky, blue skin. The face was an eternal grimace of anger and pain. It released a roar of rage, its muscles flexing.

"I sacrifice all of them to summon… Obelisk the Tormentor."(4000/4000)

OOO

Energy warped and twisted a shotgun blast hit its head, but then snapped back into a cackling face who's voice was filled with a humming undercurrent.

Phoenixia cursed in a language that no human would recognize as she skipped back and then ducked to avoid the vaguely humanoid creature's whip-like arms. "Would you like to trade dance partners?"

"I don't see why we should." Adrian jumped the giant serpent of sand that smashed into where he had been standing, losing cohesion and collapsing in a pile. Even as it hit the ground, tentacles of sand sprouted up to ensnare him. The Librarian acrobatically twisted around them and then flung out a palm, a blast of chill wind from it instantly iced the creature over and left it immobilized. "You always told me you could take on any man you wanted and make him your plaything."

"It tends to work better when they're flesh and blood, m'love!" The russet haired woman rolled to avoid the lashing arms and came up in a run, stepping up the wall and then kicking off to flip over the creature. However, instead of turning around, it's body simply 'phased' through itself and it leered with another electrical cackle even as the shotgun barked twice, the blasts to either side of the creature's head.

A moment later, bits of debris caught the creature's attention and then it looked up in time to see a large portion of the ceiling give way and smash it flat, tendrils sparking and flailing, but the creature too flat to gather its mass enough to move.

Adrian nodded his approval as he walked over to it. "Nice to see you're actually good for something." He didn't flinch as a trio of bullets whizzed past his face, one of them making a kitty ear twitch. "Love you, too?"

Phoenixia casually lowered her pistol and gestured behind him. A glance over his shoulder revealed she had just slain a trio of pale humanoids, bullets between their eyes. A few twitches of their limbs revealed that they also had what looked like suckers all over their hands. "Oh... well, good shot."

"Thank you." Stepping up onto the rumble, she gestured to the hole above them. "Shall we? We aren't finding anything on this floor."

"Let's." The pair leapt up to the next floor, which was significantly darker than the previous on. "Hmm..." The Librarian held out a hand and muttered something, a small sphere of light appearing above his palm and then moving to hover a few feet in front and above him. "There, that should do it."

He suddenly gave a soft sigh of relaxation. "That feels nice..." A blink as he realized that his tail was being rubbed and he turned. "Phoenixia!"

"Yeah, what?" The buxom ex-hologram didn't stop rubbing his tail against her cheek. "Ooooh, this is soft! No wonder Tash likes petting it so much!" She give a little giggle as it twitched against her face and then pouted as it's owner yanked it away. "Hey!"

"Will you control yourself?" Smoothing down his fur, Adrian gave her a look. "Or I'll disable the portable projector and you'll have to wait out the mission in the Zord." Then he was going cross-eyed as Phoenixia leaned in and kissed his nose.

"Silly kitty." She patted him on the head and started down the hall, purposefully sashaying a bit and swaying her hips. "I'm all real now, Adrian. Flesh and blood and a certifiable sexy badass."

"You're certifiable, alright..." He muttered as he rolled his eyes and followed her. "Just not in the way you think you are..."

They walked for several minutes in silence and it was then Adrian noticed that Phoenixia had slowed her pace to walk beside him and had managed to lace her arm with his. "Yes?"

"Just making sure you don't run off and be stupidly heroic." She flashed a smile at him. "Tash would never forgive me and that would be bad."

"Pfft." An ear twitched. "What can she do to you? She's already immune to your charms."

"She can stop buying Lush products."

"Oh, no, whatever will you do without bath products and hair care items? What a disaster." Adrian said dryly.

"Ass." Her foot landed on his leg and he winced, hobbling a few steps, but both of them had smiles on their faces.

Another few minutes passed, then she gave a long look. "After this, Tash and I are going to have words with you."

"Don't get started with me." He gave her a frown as they walked. "I died doing my job and keeping people safe. That's what matters."

"What matters is that you broke your fucking promise!" she snapped back angrily and yanked them to a stop, squaring off to look him the eye. "You left me alone! You left Tash alone!"

"You both knew it was a possibility!" he snapped back. "I am a Librarian and a Counter Guardian! My whole job is nothing but life or death situations! And there isn't anyone else to do them and if I don't, then people die!"

"'The good of the many over the good of a few'" she snarked at him. "You always use that line! Well, what about our good? What about your good? You act like some a goddamn martyr sometimes and I know that you have reason to, but that doesn't mean that you have to be on the forefront all the time!"

"It's better that I take it all than the others! I might die, they will die!" He snarked back. "When you have the power no else does, it's lonely at the top because you draw lightning from all sides! If I don't use it, what good is it? What good am I?"

"What good are you...?" Disbelief coated her voice and then she slapped him across the face. "You fucking idiot! How dare you-"

Then his hand clamped over her mouth and raised a finger for silence. She glared, the look promising that their conversation wasn't over and they both could suddenly hear a pair of voices drifting down a corner of the hall, which was better lit than theirs. Adrian extinguished the their light and crept towards the corner, peering around it.

Then he leaned back to her and started moving them in sign language. Guards. Far end of the hall in front of door. Will see us instantly when we turn corner. Alarm near them.

She nodded and replied. Plan?

A small smirk. You do what you do best.

About three minutes later, the one of the guards nudged the other with butt of his rifle. "Hey. Check that out."

The other one glanced up from his phone and gave a slow whistle. "Ooooooh, baby..."

Phoenixia sauntered down the hall. Her Battle Dress' corset had been removed to display all of her cleavage and her curves jiggled a little as she moved, a sexy smirk on her face.

"Hey, boys." She stopped in front of them. "How's it going?"

Though both of them were more or less openly staring at her cleavage, one of them had the presence of mind to point his weapon at her. "It's going fine. But why are you here? I don't recognize you. And this is the restricted section, especially on the lockdown we're under."

"Oh, I'm new..." Phoenixia simply smiled suggestively at him and rolled her shoulders a bit, watching as their eyes zeroed in to her chest. "And I kinda got lost... I was given mission to a hentai fandom and then the alarms started and I tried to avoid the fighting and wound up here. Could you two big brave boys give me some help?" A suggestive eyebrow lift. "And perhaps some practice?"

The second guard grinned and chuckled. "Oh, sure, ma'am. We'll gladly help you. It what's we're here for."

"Thanks, boys. I-whoops, boot's untied." She bent over rather slowly and their eyes followed her, sure she'd pop out of her top...

And leaving them open for the white cat that had been cling to her back to leap off with a snarling hiss. Their heads flashed up just in time for them to see the cat turn back into Adrian, fist and foot smashing into their temples and dropping them like rocks.

"Works every time." Phoenixia straightened and casually kicked their bodies out of the way as Adrian opened the door. "Why didn't you just flash-step or blast them?"

"The corridor was too long for me to be sure I could hit them from around the corner and flash-step meant I'd risk being unable to stop myself in time." They entered the room and he grinned. "Hey, look. Something for you screw with."

"Weak joke." Punching him in the arm, she strolled up to the absolutely massive computer and it's dozen or so monitors in the back of the room. "But it does look promising." Sitting down in one of the chairs, her eyes gained a faraway look and began to flicker even as her fingers danced across the keys. A second later, the monitors sprang to life. "I'm in."

"That fast? Wow, I could still see your fingers move..." Adrian stepped up behind her and started looking over the monitors.

"I can use my mind too, love." A moment of silence as she processed what she was finding. "Looks like this is Runoa's base and she's home. And the things we've been fighting are Usurped-Sues and Stus that failed to survive the Immaculation process. And-wow, the process is amazing! I've never see anything like this-is that what I think it is? I-"

"Focus. Find Aster and disable any traps or shields or whatnot, including the barrier around the mansion. Then guide the others through this base if you can and do whatever you can to sabotage things. If you find anything useful, download it for later."

"On it." Her eyes flicked again as she punched in a key combination and then Adrian's communicator beeped. "There. That's a map to Aster. And..."

"Yeah, I know." The Librarian whirled, magic dancing around his fingertips as group of Usurped began to charge down the hall.

"You're going to encounter a lot of them... this whole place is littered with them."

"It wouldn't be fun otherwise." Then he flash-stepped out of sight and was suddenly in the group of Usurped, explosions and roars of pain filling the air.

OOO

Ben was the first to notice. As another stroke of his fingers against Bahamut sent another of the diamond creatures flying across the atrium, a heavy blow to his side sent him flying backwards and straight through the closed mansion door. He skidded to a halt, and as he heard Lily scream his name, and several people yell to see if he was okay, he realised just what was different.

"The barrier! Its down!"

"Back outside!" Marcus roared. Though not technically in charge (that honour was Harriet's), he was by far the loudest person there, and no one was going to argue – they needed more room to fight, and the atrium was so crammed with Runoa's twisted abominations that there was barely room to breathe. Battle weary, and injured, the Society ran for the newly freed exit.

"We need backup!" Aimee was yelling, struggling to stay out of the way of any danger, and tend to those who needed medical assistance. One of the creatures raised a fist above her head, and quickly went up in flames, as Willie rushed to her aid.

"I'm on it!" Jess yelled, bringing her communicator to her mouth as she caused another of the creatures to burst into flames. "Emily! Emily, we need you!"

She yelped and dropped the device as a blast of arctic wind extinguished her flames. She drew back as the ground beneath her feet froze, and she slipped ungracefully onto her ass as she tried to flee.

A man dressed in an icy blue that matched his hair, shook his head at her, snapping his fingers, and sending another wave of ice creeping along the floor.

"I don't even need to touch you to know that you are sinful..."

"Purity, be polite," a melodious voice chastised, as a slender form appeared behind him. She smiled peacefully at the group, and everyone's will to fight seemed to drain away in an instant. The woman was petite, but at the moment, she commanded everyone's attention.

"Who are you?" Harriet was thoughtful enough to ask through her sudden bout of pacifism. The woman smiled.

"I'm Harmony. And this is my good friend Purity."

She gestured gently to the man in blue, who had also fallen still at her presence.

"Well now..." Harmony clapped her hands together and beamed disarmingly. "We don't really need to fight about this...do we?"

OOO

The twigs gave a light snap, as the long thin silver barrel rose up another few centimetres. The eye squinted through the telescopic lens, and lips curved into a smirk. Beyond the little cross in her scope, a sleek, silver spacecraft was rising up from the forest clearing, and thanks to the magnifying effect of the lens, she had a clear view of the mop of brown hair sitting at the controls.

"Watch the birdie, little girl..."

Her finger squeezed the trigger...and her gun went spinning off into the trees, a boot now inches from her hands. She leaped back with lightning speed, and landed gracefully on both feet. As she lifted her head, she came face to face with a brown haired man, who's pinkish eyes watched her almost playfully.

"Hello Elegance...long time no see."

The Sovereign's eyes widened. "You?"

"Me?" Zero quipped, sword resting casually over one shoulder. "Unless you know any other incomplete copies of the Librarian...?"

He stopped to bring his sword up into a guard, as she vanished and reappeared inches from him, two vicious looking knives in both hands. Her surprise was gone, replaced instead with a blank mask.

"No talk. I will finish you here on Runoa's behalf."

"Aww... she's too lazy to come and deal with me herself?" Zero wiped away a fake tear. "She breaks my heart!"

His mirth vanished as she came at him again, as silent as a breeze, emerging from the darkness to strike at his throat. He parried, and dodged between the trees, hearing her light footsteps race after him in pursuit.

"I hope the Society know what they're doing..." he thought, wincing as he heard something large crash in the vicinity of the main entrance with a rumble that sent tremors running through the ground. "Then again...when do they ever know what they're doing?"

OOO

"Bloody computers..." Phoenixia muttered, her fingers flying across the computer keys. "Subpar search engine, and now a goddamn anti-virus…" Her muttering ceased as a successful beep from the computer indicated that another of the traps in the building had been disabled. But the anti-virus was in full swing now, and while it wasn't powerful enough to kick her out, it was making her brain feel sluggish.

"Come on...come on!" she was so close to throttling the computer, but she knew that wouldn't make the search engine run faster. Her eyes flashed across the screen at inhuman speed as she read the lines of binary. "Tell me where the rest of the traps are!"

"Aww! Is poor little Phoenixia getting stressed?"

The ex-hologram jumped violently, and almost fell out of her seat.

"Fuck off!" she snarled, her fingers slipping on the keyboard and causing several gross misspellings. "I do not have time to deal with you!"

"Rushing to save your lover?" the voice sneered. "He doesn't want you. Why do you think he left you here? He doesn't want you getting in his way."

"He left me here to destroy the traps!" Phoenixia growled, the ding of the computer disabling another trap barely penetrating her mind. "And that's what I've done! I'm doing my job."

"Oh please! A five year old amputee could do what you're doing! You don't belong here Phoenixia. Your place is in his bed with your legs spread wide, and he knows it. You must be such a burden to him. Getting in his way. Demanding that you help even though you're useless..."

"Shut up..." the woman growled, pressing her sweating hands against the side of her head. "Just shut up!"

"Do you think he's going to die here again?" the voice mused, laughing cruelly as Phoenixia drew her breath in sharply. "Ooo that would be so ironic, and tragically cliché. Do you think that Runoa bitch will snap his spine? Rip his limbs off one by one? Or maybe cut his throat and leave him to drown in his ownblood... gurgling and spluttering his last breath..." The voice dissolved into a breathy moan. "Or maybe... you'll get in the way again..."

"No..." her voice was weak now.

"...Oh yes...you would march in, gun flying...maybe blow his pretty little head off accidentally. You're a crap enough shot. One slip of the finger and there goes Adrian's brains! All over the wall!"

The wicked voice seemed to descend into hysterical giggles at the thought, and Phoenixia screwed up her eyes against the image of her lover dying...blown to pieces by Incandescent Silverreign...

"Never!" her fists slammed into the desk, sending a pot of pencils over on its side. "Never!"

The voice dropped to a low parting whisper.

"Never say 'never' Phoenixia..."

OOO

"Really now," Runoa said as she rubbed her eyes. "You're facing down one of the Egyptian God cards, you're all down past you're original scores, and I can flatten anything you can summon."

(Claire: 2800) - - - - (Miri: 2000) - - - - (Tash: 4400) - - - - (Michael: 1700) - - - - (Runoa: 8000)

Indeed, it did not look good for the Society members. Claire only had a Gellenduo, two fairies that simply floated there in defense mode, floating about each other with only a facedown between them and Claire. Miri had Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, one of her favorite cards, a mish-mash of two other heroes, the metal dog, Wroughtweiler, and a facedown card. Michael had his own cards, the Children of Horus, Yalaks, a metallic, emerald buzzard and Gyeth, a smaller, lead colored crow, and two facedowns of his own. Tash had her Phoenix cards, Phoenix Warrior, a heavy set warrior with golden armor and a massive axe, and Phoenix Scribe, a smaller, thinner looking Spellcaster with thick glasses, a tome in his right hand, and a phoenix helmet atop his head, with a facedown of her own.

"You have no chance of winning, you know," she said, "All you're good for right now is target practice, and not even good ones at that. So I'll just end my turn then, and let Obelisk rest for a bit."

Obelisk was of course still there, scowling at the much smaller monsters that dared challenge it.

Miri took a deep breath. Come on Miri, there's gotta be something you can do… don't just sit there like a lug, do something!

And she drew her card, which she grinned at. "Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about! I'll start my turn by playing Fusion Recovery!" The spell appeared on the field. "This lets me take a monster I've fused already, and a Polymerization in my graveyard and add them to my hand!'

She took the aforementioned spell card, and the monster, Elemental Hero Avian, back to her hand and showed it to the opponent.

"Now I'll play E-Emergency Call, letting me add a low level hero card from my deck to my hand, and I'll do so with Sparkman!"

She added the monster to her hand from her deck, and immediately slapped her spell card, Polymerization into her disk after adding it. "Now I'll play Polymerization, to bring out MY heavy hitter! I fuse Elemental Hero Sparkman, and Flame Wingman…"

Both monsters appeared on the field and flew up into the air, combining into a bright orb of light, floating down further onto the field. There, it began to take form. It was humanoid, for sure, wearing bright, silver and platinum armor around its body, massive shining wings behind it, and a ray beam on its left armor. (2500/2100)

"Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman!" Miri grinned and pointed at Runoa. "And let me tell you something, you lousy bitch! He gets 300 attack for every Elemental Hero in my graveyard, and last time I checked, there's just enough to beat your card!"

Indeed, glowing brighter and brighter, Sparkman, Flame Wingman, Burstinatrix, Bubbleman, Clayman, and Prisma all appeared before being absorbed into the bright form of Shining Flare Wingman. Gesturing, the hero glowed even brighter and pointed it's gun at Obelisk. (2500/2100) - (4300/2100)

Runoa narrowed her eyes and frowned a little bit as Miri shouted, "Elemental Hero Flare Wingman! Attack Obelisk the Tormentor with Shining Shoot!"

Shining Flare Wingman flew up into the air, his wings spreading out wide behind her and flew down, fist first towards Obelisk. The fist stuck the face of the monster, and a bright explosion followed. Obelisk roared loudly through the blindness. As the light cleared, there was nothing left but a smoldering crater on Runoas field. Looking up, Runoa saw the Elemental Hero was now standing directly in front of her.

"Now that he destroyed your monster, he deals you damage equal to his attack!" He began to glow brighter again, "I hope you have your sun block!"

Runoa winced a little bit as the light got too much, even for her, and she had to hold a hand up to block it. "Hm…" She said, frowning.

(Claire: 2800) - - - - (Miri: 2000) - - - - (Tash: 4400) - - - - (Michael: 1700) - - - - (Runoa: 3700)

The damage done, Flare Wingman floated back over to Miri's side. "All right, Miri!" Claire said, clapping her hands.

"Good job, Miri!" Tash said with a happy grin on his face.

"Eh, I've seen better," Michael teased. Miri answered by socking him in the arm, walking back over to her field. "Ow…can't I joke now a days?"

"You know…" Runoa said as she stood up a little straighter, compared to how she was simply slacking over the rest of the duel. "I was going to at least give you a fighting chance. But now, you've made me mad. And it's my turn." She drew her card.

She gestured to her facedown, saying, "I play my facedown card, Metal Reflect Slime."

The trap card suddenly flipped face up, and a rather interesting looking creature appeared. It looked like a mace, made entirely out of reflective slime. (0/3000)

"See this, brat?" She asked Miri, showing her a spell. "I have a Polymerization too, and I plan on using it as well."

The spell appeared again, and this time beside Metal Reflect Slime appeared a slime with a grimace of pain around its face. "I'll fuse together my Metal Reflect Slime, and Revival Jam in order to summon my Egyptian God Slime."

Both monsters, rather than fly into the air, quickly melded together in front of the five duelists. It shaped itself and somehow grew larger and larger in front of them, quickly forming into something just as big as Obelisk.

Hell, at first glance it looked like it WAS Obelisk. But rather than tall and strong looking, it was clear and wobbly, made entirely out of slime. (3000/3000)

"You may be wondering why I would bother to summon this," She said, glaring at them all. "Well shut up and let me finish. I'll play Monster Reborn."

The entire room began to shake and rumble again, and once more, from the ground, Obelisk rose beside the exact copy of his own, glaring down at them all. (4000/4000)

"Now then, I can summon my next god, do you know why? Because Egytpian God Slime, for all intents and purposes, counts as two tributes when it comes to tributing. So I'll tribute both of them!"

Both of the massive, monolithic creatures quickly vanished from view as the entire room exploded into light, even brighter than Shining Flare Wingman, a massive, glowing golden orb that merely floated there.

Runoa sighed a little bit and rubbed her eyes. "Right, right, of course." She cleared her throat and shouted, "Great beast of the sky, please hear my cry! Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight. Envelope the desert in your glow and cast your rage upon my foe! Unlock the powers from deep within so that together we may win! Appear in this shadow game as I call your name, The Winged Dragon of Ra!"

The orb began to glow even brighter, and finally the room was, once again, erupted in a bright light. When the light vanished, a much larger creature appeared in front of them, causing the Society Agents to take a cautious step back.

The creature was the massive Winged Dragon of Ra, a dragon that looked like it was made of golden metal, a fearsome look on its face, and bright red eyes. It released a shrieking roar at the duelists.

"And, as I'm sure you know, his attack is the same as the monsters used to tribute summon it. Making it quite a threat even now."

Ra growled again as its stats rose quickly to 7000/7000.

"I could destroy any of you right now, of course…but you…" She looked directly at Miri, the smaller agent gulped heavily. "You have the gall to strike me. So you're first." She pointed at her. "Ra, demolish her."

Ra inhaled deeply, and released a torrent of flames from its maw. The flames enveloped Shining Flare Wingman who released an agonized scream of pain before he exploded into pixels. The flames continued down towards Miri, and the smaller agent was quickly enveloped.

The screams echoed in the large metallic room as the others looked over to Miri, eyes wide in fear. When the flames dissipated, Miri stood there, her body and hair smoldering before she fell to her knees, gave one final whimper of pain and fell onto her stomach.

"MIRI!"

(Claire: 2800) - - - - (Miri: 0) - - - - (Tash: 4400) - - - - (Michael: 1700) - - - - (Runoa: 3700)

"I'll continue on with my turn, now that one of you little pests is out of the way," Runoa said, now leaning back in her seat again. "I'll use Ra's effect. By paying 1000 of my Life Points, I'm allowed to change him into his Phoenix Mode, and destroy one card on my opponents side of the field."

Looking over the opponents, her eyes locked on Claire. "Since I don't like that little shield there, I'll use his effect on those annoying little bastards. Ra, Phoenix Mode on Gellenduo!"

Ra roared again and fly into the air…somehow, the room expanded to fit the massive monster doing so, watching as it disappeared into the darkness. When he did appear, he was entirely covered in fire and divebombed Claire's side of the field. Gellenduo shattered, but Claire screamed as the flames struck her a little and she went flying back, skidding on her back and landed with a groan.

"CLAIRE!" Michael shouted in surprise. He rushed over to her and picked her up. "Babe, are you okay?"

"Yeah…" She coughed a little bit, shaking her head and dusting herself off. "Yeah, I'm fine babe, don't worry…"

"You bitch!" Michael shouted angrily, "You're climbing really high up my shit list!"

"Yes, that's to be expected. I did hurt your younger sibling, as well as your wife. So unless you'd like to prolong their suffering, perhaps we can move this along then? I'm getting rather bored."

"Oh, you're in for it now!" He helped Claire to her feet, wobbly though she may have been, and drew his card. "My turn! I play my trap card, Call of the Haunted, to revive Children of Horus – Bhoys!" In a swirl of light, a large, platinum falcon appeared with a loud cry. (2000/800)

"But they're not staying for much longer! I tribute all three of them for a heavy hitter of my own! I tribute Yalaks, Bhoys, and Gyeth…" The three armored avians shrieked and vanished at the same time, and in their place was a VERY impressively sized shadow. A massive black raven, covered entirely in metal, appeared with a massive crash, and a loud shriek. (3300/2700). "And summon Children of Horus – Sethros!"

"Yes, well, it may be large, and impressively attacked, I'm sure, but it's all in vain in terms of my Egyptian God Card. You simply won't be able to destroy him." Indeed, Ra roared again to showcase his might.

"Yeah, well in terms with my writing prowess, that's exactly what I intend to do! I play my trap, Heir of the Deity! Now with this card, I can inflict damage to myself equal to my Children of Horus' attack! But I'm sure you know how much Children work at this point, hm?"

"Yes, yes, they have the ability to absorb all burn damage and hurt me in some other form. So, what does your giant chicken do?"

"Don't call my monsters chickens!" He shouted, eye twitching.

Tash giggled. "Now he knows how I feel…"

"Simple! By absorbing the damage I would have taken, it's all absorbed into Sethros, and inflicted onto your monster! In other words, your monster loses 3300 Attack points!"

Sethros roared loudly, throwing his head back and shot a black beam of energy directly at Ra. The beam struck, and Ra limped over a little bit, snarling in anger as his attack fell to 3700.

"Even better, unlike the rest of the Children, I can use the effect more than once! In fact, I'll show you! I play Blazing Wings, allowing me to add another low level Children of Horus monster from my deck to my hand, at the cost of taking damage equal to it's attack!" he held up a copy of Children of Horus – Qlaus for her to see. "And it has 900 attack, making it just weak enough!"

Another blast of dark energy erupted from the beak of the massive crow, striking Ra and lowing it to 2800, now almost hunched over from the pain.

Michael pointed a hand forward, shouting, "Sethros, take down Ra with Nocturne Eruption!"

The crow released another shriek and fired a much larger beam of energy that struck the Sun God. Ra released another roar, this time of pain, exploded like shards of glass.

Runoa, however, didn't seem to mind the fact that his monster was just destroyed. Rather, she gestured, and her other facedown flipped face up. "I play my trap, God's Ritualistic Sacrifices. When my Divine-Beast monster is destroyed, all damage done to me is reduced to 0, and I get three Sacrificial Tokens to my side of the field."

Three puffs of smoke erupted on his side of the field, revealing three spirits with glowing red eyes. (0/0 X 3)

"Hm…' Michael said, narrowing his eyes. "Fine. I end my turn."

"I'll draw then," Runoa said, gesturing as another card appeared in front of her. "I'll play Card of Sanctity. This card allows all of us to draw until we have six cards in our hands."

The three remaining duelists drew until they held a hand, and six more card appeared in front of Runoa's hand.

"Perfect. Now I'll sacrifice all three of my tokens to summon my new beast."

A massive bolt of lightning shot down from the top of the room, incinerating the three tokens as the lightning seemed to take corporal form and wrap itself around Runoas throne. The new monster, a massive, winged dragon with a red hide and two mouths up near its face, releasing a low growl as both opened and released a breath of hot air from each mouth.

"And summon Slifer the Sky Dragon. I'm sure even you annoying little peons know how he works."

Indeed, the five remaining cards in her hand began to glow an shot energy up into the dragon, who released another roar of power. (5000/5000)

"Now then… you annoy me now," She said, looking over at Michael. "Slifer, kill him, or knock him out, or whatever."

The main mouth on Slifer opened, and a ball of crackling lightning suddenly appeared just in front of it. With an earth-shattering kaboom, the blast shot forward and struck Sethros, destroying the massive raven and blowing a hole through it. The beam continued on and struck Michael, causing the Gary Stu Gutter to scream in pain and fly backwards into the wall. With a groan, his body twitching, Michael fell onto his stomach, his body convulsing.

"MICHAEL!" Claire screamed, rushing over to her downed husband and knelt beside him. "Michael, Michael wake up!"

"And then there were three," Runoa cackled as the massive dragon released another roar, shaking the entire room as it did, "Perhaps you really should consider surrendering, if not to save yourself. Honestly, it'll be boring with just you two now."

"Piss off, you bitch!" Tash shouted. "Now you just got us mad! We're gonna kick your ass now!"

"And it's my turn! DRAW!" Claire shouted, with renewed vigor in her voice, drawing her card and looking down at it. "I play Shinato's Ark! By giving up Guardian Angel Joan…" She held up and showed her ace card, discarding it as a massive ark appeared, where cracks began to form, "I can Ritual Summon Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!"

The giant ship suddenly exploded into fragments of wood as only a single figure was left amongst the wreckage. It had blue skin like Obelisk, a peaceful, serene look on its face, six massive golden wings behind it, and a billowing dress that floated behind it. Its hands came together in a silent prayer. (3300/3000)

"I would be even a little worried, if not for Slifer's effect," Runoa declared, throwing a hand forward, "By reducing the attack of any monster you summon by 2000, making him even weaker!"

The second mouth of the massive, crimson dragon opened its second mouth, and a smaller blast of lightning shot out at the large fairy. The blast struck him, and he bent over a little, smoke rising from his massive figure. (1300/3000)

Claire completely ignored her and played another Spell card, screaming, "I play Angelic Choir! By removing a Fairy monster in my graveyard, Shinato gains that many attack!"

Guardian Angel Joan appeared behind Shinato, holding up a glowing orb and placing it gently into his body. Shinato rose to 4100 Attack points.

"Cute, really, but-"

"Yeah, we get it, he's not strong enough. But I have just the thing to fix that!" Tash shouted and pointed to her facedown. "Phoenix Charge! By tributing one Phoenix on my side of the field, one monster on the field gains ATK equal to his own! Even better, one monster on your side of the field is switched to defense mode!"
Phoenix Berserker erupted into flames and flew forward towards Shinato, enshrouding the body of the
monster in a brilliant aura of flames (6200/3000). Slifer did not move, however, but it was intended to show it was in defense mode.

"Shinato!" Claire shouted. "Destroy Slifer the Sky Dragon!"

Shinato held out both of his hands as nine glowing motes of light appeared, each carrying a Japanese sigil. He threw it forward at the massive dragon, striking him directly in the face and causing a massive eruption of energy to rip the dragon apart. Once more, Runoa did not seem pleased.

"And that means we won! Because when Shinato destroys a defense position monster, he deals damage to your Life Points equal to your monsters attack!"

Runoa winced a little bit as an aura of energy surrounded her body, grunting as her life points, indeed, fell to 0.

As the holograms faded and the knocked down duelists got up, she rose from her throne and dusted herself off. "Well, that was entertaining." A flash of silver light and she was suddenly wearing the massive armor of the Divine Dragoon. Yanking the huge sword free, she swept it through the air and the shockwave of the swing punched out a giant portion of a pillar. "Now let's get started, shall we?"

OOO

The corridor was deserted, and only the sounds of the distant generator could be heard this deep in the building. The end of the corridor held only a single heavy looking door, with a large lock. Flanking it, were two guards, dressed all in black, and clutching their weapons loosely in both hands.

The guard on the left sighed deeply, and stretched, bored. He felt something tickling his nose and he sneezed, and then sneezed again three times in succession, hard. The guard on the right looked him over to see if the sneeze fit was over.

"Bless you."

"Tanks." The guard's nose was immediately stuffed up.

A minute passed, in which the guard on the right could not help but notice his partner shifting uncomfortably. As he glanced quickly over, he was alarmed to see the other guard's skin turning a violent shade of pink.

He frowned. "Hey, are you all right?"

His partner started to scratch at his neck. "I don' kno..." The poor guy was so stuffed up that he couldn't quite pronounce his words. "I'm havin' a reaction to somethin'...but I'm only allergic ta cats..." He sniffled and shifted uncomfortably again.

Making up his mind, the guard on the right shouldered his gun and gripped the other man's shoulder. "Come on. You can't stay here like this. Let's see the boss about sending you home for the night..."

And ignoring his companion's complaints, he steered him off down the corridor.

Adrian stepped out of the shadows, one ear quirked to follow the guards passage down the hall. He snorted softly and shook his head, a wry grin on his face.

"That was the easiest infiltration I've ever done." He became thoughtful for a moment. "I wonder if I'll be able to do it again one day..."

Flicking his ears back towards the door, he hauled his leg back and kicked it open. His eyes opened wide at the sight.

A pair of pale eyes looked back at him, a small form chained and limp against the wall. A face bruised to the point it was nearly recognizable. A wing, bent and twisted, while the other looked like it was simply stuck to connection point, rather than correctly attached. Swollen and cracked lips parted, the action causing them to split open and bleed. "You... you... I knew you'd come..." A bloodstained smile even as the figure slumped in their bonds. "Knew... you'd... be the hero... to... save me..."