[Latio-Nytro]

Blizzard was probably not happy about how I dealt with Quake after his defeat, considering the serious look on his face, and the way he almost instantly unsheathed his rapier to destroy another arrow shot. His eyes brimmed with a hidden fury, his red eye having more menace, his purple eye having a more sickening effect to it. His clothes were rather regular by Volteer standards, had it not been for the sole image of the Arbitarian eye that was situated over where his heart was.

I was instantly sickened by his very presence, and the happy feeling that came as a result of the though of me killing him was coming from the same place that generated my guilt before. It was as if-no, I knew it full and well, It was my conscious saying it was right to kill the Loyalists or others that follow the Arbiters of their own accord. Those kinds of people didn’t deserve the worst fate I could do to them.

"Ah, Avalon...If I had known, I'd probably have already brought in the Sentinels." He said, remaining calm despite every gun being pointed at his body.

"The whats?"

Blizzard snapped his fingers, and four other vortexes formed behind him, larger than usual. It took little time for four things to pop out of them.

These objects in question were basically steel giants with no limbs at all. They had three orbs in a fashion to resemble a torso, each bearing a small hole with an arrow inside it. Each shoulder orb had similar arrows. The arms had the smoking effect that signified an Arbit-Burn, and the four orbs that were in place of legs were also Arbit-Burning, spinning around at a smooth pace. Their heads included three Arbitarian Eyes, and when they saw us, the hand-orbs suddenly spouted three swords, and the four orbs beneath them suddenly started spinning far faster. Their bodies were slightly duller than the Illicit Blessing.

"Oh. Those." I said, simply. Despite the simple words, I was ready and more to teach another lesson to these Arbiters…Who, speaking of which, now decided a massive horde of them was necessary on the other side of the fort.

I ran straight at the one of the Sentinels, jumping over it’s spinning orbs of death and attempting to slash at it’s head. The attack worked enough to leave a slash mark, but it wouldn’t serve truly well: I had only destroyed one eye with the Arbit-Burning Illicit Blessing/Starblazer combo, and the resulting Arbit-Burn from having came into contact with it was quickly snuffed.

The Sentinel then snagged me with the blades, and instead of stabbing me, the massive contraption of orbs threw me to the companion that directly put Blizzard in between, had he been tall enough to have made any kind of wall. As I started passing over him, I barely avoided a blade on his shoe-wait, were those ice skates?!

I took a second look as the second Sentinel caught me with a painful, iron grip. Sure as hell, they were ice skates, albeit retractable ones. Considering he tried cutting me with them, I knew what he planned with an otherwise hard to explain choice of footwear. Before I tried countering it, I checked to see if it was possible to manipulate these robots. Sadly for me, the ability to manipulate metal excluded these massive contraptions, as they were far too infused with the Arbitarian energy to consider such an option.

"I wonder what you fight for." I said as I was taking another toss to the same Sentinel that had thrown me before.

Blizzard's skate once again came up to try and cut me, and his leg speed, however fast, wasn’t enough to stop my plan. I successfully grabbed his leg and took him with me.

Blizzard tried slashing me, but I let go of him as the whole station shook with a crash-the Calypso freeing a ship from the parking lot, probably. The Sentinel in front stumbled, and whatever wasn't a Sentinel or in midair fell down. Seizing the chance, I kicked off the head of the Sentinel and managed to briefly see Blizzard suddenly get cut by it's hand, on accident of course. Upon such incident, the Sentinel's orbs instantly fell, all Arbit-Burning away. Blizzard fell upon one of the larger orbs on the stomach, knocking some of the wind out of him but far from doing any real damage.

As I touched ground, Blizzard shot a shard of ice at me. It cut my arm, but feebly fell to the ground nearby, leaving only a minor cut that was already healing.

Iris then grabbed me by the midriff and threw the both of us aside, preventing the shard's sudden expansion from catching us in it's frozen grip. I got Iris off of me, giving her a thumbs up. As I did that, I noticed a little light behind me, and turning around to attack whatever it was, Blizzard's rapier, now actually Arbit-Burning, was there to meet the attack, and like any good Volteer, Blizzard used kinetic energy to strengthen his blows.

"Did you forget the question? Why do you fight for the Arbiters?" I said, quickly.

Then we both let loose a stunning fury of sword attacks. We parried, lunged, slashed, crossed blades, tried sword slapping, and even with all of our variety and expertise, neither of us could gain the upper hand. Whenever I tried making direct eye contact with Blizzard, he closed his eyes. The station shook with fury as the Calypso fired another Cardinal round-whatever they were. As we both tumbled down, I could tell that the Arbiters had accidentally stabbed themselves with their own weapons, falling on top of each other considering their numbers. Meanwhile, an explosion nearby us caught my attention, and turning around, I could catch a Sentinel's head dropping to the floor, Arbit-Burning. Blizzard was looking at this too, but quickly got up off of me.

I jumped upward in response, and shot a bold of Paradoxial Lightning at Blizzard from above. Blizzard himself dropped through a spatial hole, and very quickly froze the area to where it led, as well as around himself in a half-sphere. The red thunder hit him, but it was weakened by having to go through the ice, and considering how much energy the red thunder uses, it was useless to continue the attempt.

An idea popped up. I used my flying ability, to shoot straight through the spatial hole, spinning rapidly, with the Illicit Blessing in front of me, still merged with the Starblazer. The attack tore through the ice with the Arbit Burn, and thanks to another attack on the station's lockdown doors, Blizzard was tripped up from the shock. I stabbed him straight through the heart with my spinning blade, and I ceased motion at that.

Blizzard was alive, and unfortunately, the heart was absent from where it should have been. Blizzard's blood, a pitch-black color, was to be seen pouring out of it, but Blizzard was alive. The Arbit-Burn I had going on my blade seemed to have been suppressed. I wasn't exactly high on energy to try much more without a brief rest, so I let Blizzard off my blade, touching ground.

"Lucky you. You don't have a heart where you should have..." I said, allowing Blizzard to freeze a small part of his body to fit the wound, making the correct placement of veins and arteries apparent by the blood clearly seen from it. It was rather disgusting, truth be told.

We both were draining static from the air, and I allowed Blizzard to get up. "But, again, why do you fight? Is it just for this Paradise you keep talking about...Or is there more to it than just that?" I asked again.

"I stand mute." Said Blizzard, in a dangerously cold voice, eyes still closed. At least it was a response...

Suddenly, a violent blast occurred, right in the nearby, inaccessible parking zone. The floor crumbled beneath us, and we fell into the second floor, right in the middle of the civilians.

Once the dust cleared, people panicked by Blizzard's appearance there, and started to run in whatever direction that would get them as far as possible from the Loyalist. I took the opportunity to attack Blizzard again, jumping up and kicking him down on his head next to a wall of rubble.

Blizzard's next move was a surprise: He managed to start walking up the wall, using my head to keep his balance on the wall, using impossible motions by human standards. He then released himself from under my foot, and jumped over me, and it was only for my quick turn-around and block that he failed in getting a cheap shot at me. An array of icy needles shot at me once Blizzard touched ground, and I shot them backwards at the wall I was facing with telekinesis, allowing them to expand quickly and freeze there.

Iris, now back in her Pokemon form, had dropped down right then and there, just in time for what was apparently Blizzard's next move. Suddenly, Gravity shifted, sending us hurtling towards the frozen wall and the rubble hurtling towards us. Blizzard was the only one truly prepared for such a thing, and he was out of the way before he had to even worry. Me and Iris made a mad scramble to get to the safety of a non-frozen wall before it landed, and we both made it, albeit we went opposite directions.

The rubble then was Arbit-Burned, and it quickly vanished altogether, and Blizzard was to be seen...Ice Skating.

I raised an eyebrow at this scene. Blizzard let out a Pokemon from somewhere hidden in his jacket, and the Pokemon that came out was a Weavile, which looked exactly like Blizzard, minus the lack of him being a Pokemon, or having an amber jewel on his forehead. Or the claws. The Weavile began skating alongside his master without a word.

They were making a simple figure-eight along the ice...The strategic value of this was quite confusing.

"Avalon, whatever you do, don't-"

Iris' mouth kept moving, but I couldn't hear her speak. She seemed to have realized this as well-all sound went mute. The cries of the people, Iris' yelling, and the shots coming from above were all suddenly silenced. I knew it was some kind of spatial distortion. I tried contacting Iris via telepathy, and despite a pressure from something trying to stop me other than Blizzard, I prevailed.

<"What's with the silence?!"> I telepathed.

"He's using Spatial distortion to muzzle out the sound. Leave it be, I was getting an earache...Just avoid-"

Iris was cut off by the distinct sound of ice suddenly forming beneath our feet, as thin as glass.

Then, suddenly the floor and ceiling were also frozen in similar manners, and two walls of pure ice shot into existence behind our backs. I tried breaking it with my fist, but the ice was kinetically reinforced. I was trapped.

I kept looking at Blizzard, all the time...He had his rapier drawn, and he had his eyes closed...At last, it made sense.

Blizzard's strategy was to keep a constant barrage of attacks coming at you in as many ways as possible, as fast as possible, until he can slip past all of your defenses and finish the job...He wasn't using any kind of psychic attack or Arbitarian attack, not counting removing the wreckage and all of the sound...And he didn't relent. Ever.

This was a setup for our deaths. I had to stop it now.

Knowing that he'd put up a fight, but not knowing how strong he'd be, I charged up Arbitarian energy, and shot it into the ice under where Blizzard was skating. Before it could touch either party, they had jumped up and landed on where the floor was, still skating, even if gravity currently dictated they should have been on the wall...And snuffed it quite quickly, leaving the ice intact.

I sent out Lesha, an idea brewing. Once she got her bearings, Lesha was simply staring at Blizzard and his Weavile, mace ready.

Blizzard then skated straight at the wall that I was nearly pressed to, and made his figure-eight wider. I took a quick step backwards to avoid being cut by Blizzard sticking his ice skate out, and a second step was required almost immediately afterward because he attempted a slash with his rapier. The Weavile unnecessarily clawed the air that I wasn't occupying, making the gesture useless.

Blizzard then made a spectacular jump, doing midair flips and turns no professional figure-skater would ever scoff at, landing with precision and grace I found myself admiring, then scolding myself for admiring it. His figure eight-pattern was resuming, and his chosen landing spot would allow him to come close enough to Iris to attack.

Iris's situation started similar-a similar leg sticking out to try and slash her, then a rapier making her take a step backwards. The Weavile started it's claw motion, but Iris, assuming that it would just swipe air like before, didn't dodge.

Big mistake: The Weavile jumped high enough to cut Iris' chest with chilled claws, freezing her left side and breaking off from Blizzard, now landing on the wall me and Iris were still on. Lesha was still watching the Weavile and Blizzard, and was starting to shake. The room of ice was cold, so that was explainable.

I jumped over to the wall opposite Blizzard when the Weavile started to close in, but Lesha remained still, shaking further. I couldn't sound off a warning, and I wouldn't waste energy trying to telepath a message that wouldn't get there in time.

"B****RD!!!"

Lesha's scream singlehandedly managed to destroy the distortion, returning with it's absence every last sound from the outside, and Blizzard’s rage was shown only in a twitch on his mouth. Lesha's figure became enveloped in a soft green light for a brief instant, and when it vanished, so did she. Though Blizzard barely took note, his Weavile lost all calm and frantically searched the room for the Pikachu, me and Iris joining in simply to locate where my partner went.

"Where'd-Oh, hi...Leshas?"

Leshas? I looked where Scyez was, and remembered that Lesha was not your average Pikachu...Or Pikachus, in this case.

FIVE Pikachu, all exactly like the other and Lesha, down to the pure expression of rage on their faces and the way they held their maces, appeared around Blizzard's Weavile simotaniously, and just happened to be jumping on the poor Pokemon in the process. The defenseless Weavile was totally unable to prevent a five-pronged attack in different directions like that.

One made contact, and swept the Weavile off his feet, letting it slide to a corner of the room, where Blizzard was nearby. He was breaking from his pattern and coming to help, but the other four Leshas were there before then, and I could visibly see blood coming from all directions, and one Lesha jumped on board Blizzard himself and started smacking him in the face, forcing Blizzard to stumble. I quickly ran to the platform I recognized as the floor before the ice broke by the attack of someone else outside-Mario. Yes, I had a vision of this. They were as common as the sight of my hand.

With only me looking any bit serious, this had to be quite the scene for Mario. The quintet of Pikachu were making Blizzard's poor Weavile bleed all over, the Lesha clones managing to cuss more than Issac did when angry, while Blizzard fell over from taking a mace to his face and struggling to remove it’s owner as it indiscriminately slammed the mace down again and again, while Iris fell over from the loss of omnipresent gravity pressing against the walls. Blizzard, not overwhelmed by simply one Pikachu after she got off his face, reached for his PokeBall and quickly withdrew his Weavile before it got any worse, and threw off the sole attacker. I ran at him before he got up, along with the group of Leshas who now targeted Blizzard for removing their victim from their grasp.

Then four of the five Lesha's suddenly turned into small green orbs, quickly reuniting to the fifth one, the sole remaining attacker that was rushing at Blizzard. He turned to face the more intimidating threat, me, and at last, our eyes made true contact.

"So, you fight for your father, someone who you know can kill you..."

Blizzard stopped, just enough to let Lesha bang Blizzard on his icy bandage and to let me stab him where his lungs were.

"Real smarts." I said, sarcastically, as Blizzard vanished within a quickly-formed vortex.

"You fell into the Dice, Blizzard's best deathtrap, and live."

I turned around, and saw Mario's friendly face as I started to get really tired again. Adrenaline can confuse the best Volteers into thinking you've got more energy than you do. I saw a small bar being thrown at me in some blue wrapper, and as tired as I was, I didn't hesitate to tear open the wrapper and take a bite out of the chocolate inside.

Instantly, I felt much better. It was probably containing more energy than your usual energy bar, and it was chocolate with caramel and peanut butter. I ate the other two bites and felt fully recovered, minus the few cuts here and there.

"You're never alone. You get yourself attracted to so much trouble that I keep an eye on you via telepathy...For someone who's mind has an impenetrable mental fog, you're surface thoughts are really open." Mario said. "I broke open the doors to the civilian ships only, just to guarantee that the Onlisk won't be coming out to hunt us." he added. "The kid's alright, don't fret about him."

"So, the Civilians are all safe, and all that?" I asked.

"Yhea, we were using some different ammunition to blow open the doors inside so we weren't hurting the ships...Those Hailfire missiles are stronger than the Cardinals..."

"Hailfire missiles?! Those are completely confidential!" Iris roared.

"...And thank the missiles for that shake-up, I knew Blizz was prepping the Dice trap during your interval." Continued Mario, ignoring Iris' shouting.

"Let's chat on the way there..." I said, noticing the group of pale-skinned humanoids coming down the nearby staircase, talking to each other in a foreign tongue. Mario agreed with a shake of the head as I withdrew Lesha.

As we walked down, Mario continued chatting. "I found the gloves Iris identified. Karazin said they were Arbitarian in origin. The golden lines on it are really patterns, and Karazin said it was in the Arbiters' very first language, but it's dead. The Arbiters don't even know how they lost it. They use English now." he said.

"I see." I said.

I looked around, and could catch Iris' blue hair bead on the stairwell behind us. I gestured to Mario, and we stopped talking.

We walked on past the chatting humanoids, who seemed a little puzzled by their inability to get past the Lockdown door. We walked on, to the point where a hole was ripped open. On the ground was the wreckage of the station, the Arbiter's corpses and limbs, and when I looked down, a small PokeBall.

The PokeBall in question had a golden upper half, a silver lower half, and the letters "GS" on the point where the button was. The golden half had a golden heart made up of two wings embedded, the lower one showing a fierce looking silver spirit instead. I pocketed this odd and decorated PokeBall, thinking of Karazin.

<"You fought very well, from what I can tell...I must admit, we wouldn't have been able to combat a string of attacks so...fierce as that."> A voice said; specifically, a slightly cold one that was almost mistakable for the wind. I turned and saw the ten remaining members of the group of pale-skinned humanoids.

<"Don't get too pleased with yourself, though."> The voice added.

"That's a hell of a compliment, coming from them." Mario whispered.