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October 2, 2012. Lagaldex waited in his room for days, anticipating the return of his sister, Vredarigox. His psychic powers had yet to detect her thoughts, and his Superior, Machelix, had yet to contact him about her last mission. Where had he sent her? Why had she not returned? Lagaldex needed answers. Rising from his bed and leaving his room, the Silent Psychic made for the stairs. Machelix would be on his computer in the lobby of Memory’s Skyscraper; surely he would be able to tell him where his sister was.

He could sense Machelix’s mind racing even before he heard the telltale clacking of computer keys. Lagaldex chose not to interrupt him, instead stepping into the lobby to confront his Superior face to face. The lobby carpeting muffled the tread of his boots. The lack of light besides the computer screen hid him, he assumed, or else Machelix focused too hard on the displayed computer image. Lagaldex hadn’t intended to hide, but Machelix’s work environment worked against his perception of guests.

He did step back once when one of the Mage’s blue-gray eyes glanced up to see him. “Ah, Lagaldex, how can I help you?” Behind his Superior’s calm smile, Lagaldex could see the files being ripped from his mental filing cabinet, flying through his mind and falling like snow.

‘Where is my sister?’

The chaos in Machelix’s mind halted, one file aloft being snatched and brought to the forefront. “Vredarigox returned to the Pokémon Regions after her last mission. I would guess she’s escorting Battlefield’s latest revived victim. Why it’s taking so long, though, I don’t know.”

There was no deceit in Machelix’s words or his head. Lagaldex released his breath, and with it his worry. Back in their home world on a simple escort mission, his sister would be fine. Another question arose in his mind: ‘Where is everyone else?’

More mental reports were collected. “After your sister’s reconnaissance, the threat of Battlefield to the World Order has been deemed too severe to be left alone.”

His Superior’s cringe prompted Lagaldex to probe further. Hidden behind the blizzard of mental documents rested one piece of stationary… stationary sticking out of an envelope. A letter? Lagaldex couldn’t read the fine print behind the still-settling documents, but maybe he didn’t have to. ‘What is that letter?’ he asked.

“You saw that, did you?” Machelix’s expression soured as he dug the physical copy of the letter out of his computer desk drawer. “I received this little ‘friendly reminder’ a while ago, concerning our capture of Kratos. Apparently he was summoned to a get-together in the Sony System. Unfortunately, he had been taken to Battlefield by then. The others were sent there to clean up all of the fights they came across while also looking for Kratos.”

‘Why have you not sent me to follow up my sister’s mission, then?’

“I wanted to keep a reserve unit to confront Kratos and his combatant when we found them. I would rather that reservist be one who fought Kratos initially. That’s where you come in. Trust me, I wouldn’t have hesitated to put one of my frontliners into the fight without good reason. It’s just that there haven’t been any reports of Kratos’ whereabouts…”

Lagaldex turned towards the glass doors leading to the perpetually darkened streets outside. A familiar presence entered his range before passing through the doors: one of Machelix’s Ninja Nobody assistants. ‘Kratos has been sighted, my liege.’

A smile crossed Machelix’s face. “Speak of the devil. Where is he hiding?”

‘He is currently engaged with a being named Spawn in a temple.’

“In a temple? No wonder we were having so much trouble finding him. Most of the recorded fights in Battlefield have been outside.” A quick turn and another set of keyboard clacks later, Machelix regarded his Ninja again. “Captain, escort Lagaldex to the scene as soon as he’s prepared. Once you’ve both made contact with Kratos, you tell the others they can return to base once their other objectives are complete.”

The Ninja Captain bowed and said, ‘As you command, my liege.’

“Lagaldex, I don’t know who this Spawn character is, but he must be powerful for the rulers of Battlefield to pair him against Kratos. Exercise caution.”

‘You do not need to worry about me.’ Lagaldex’s hands dug into the pockets of his trench coat and took two weapons from them: sickles attached to chains. Both of the blades on either sickle glowed with purple light.

“Heh, I guess I don’t. Captain, he’s all yours.”

A nod signaled his answer before Captain led Lagaldex through the glass exit.

…

Flickering flames, lit torches stuck on the walls, illuminated the passage of the Entourage agents from the dark portal. The only other light source from the far end behind them failed to penetrate the hallway’s depths. Lagaldex watched the walls, occasionally glancing forward to make sure he was following Captain properly. Not that there seemed to be much risk of that: the walls around them were carved out of solid stone. No turns, no doors, hardly even cracks or hanging cobwebs to suggest deterioration. The ceiling so close to his head and narrow walls may have triggered fits of claustrophobia in someone else, but even a Nobody Pokemon was indifferent to tight spaces: a different kind of evolution.

‘Kratos is just ahead,’ Captain said.

The Silent Psychic didn’t need the Ninja to tell him that. A breeze stinking of sweat and blood ruffled the turquoise spikes of his short mohawk, one of the features that clearly differentiated him from Vredarigox. She had laughed when he told her he liked how it represented his “bad boy” nature as much as his spiked collar. Without thinking, Lagaldex ran a hand through the slicked-back green covering the rest of his scalp. Here he was, minutes before heading into battle, thinking about his peace-loving sister.

Echoes of combat met their ears. For the battle to reach him before the combatants’ thoughts, it must have been intense. Lagaldex pushed past Captain and began running down the hallway. Even his footfalls in this narrow corridor were overpowered by the furious shouts and clashes of steel. ‘Good, they are hand-to-hand fighting.’ It made sense in the straightforward chamber without cover.

Once he passed through the square archway leading into the next section of the temple, the best weapon choice became less clear-cut. The space opened considerably in all directions. Columns of single-block stone supported the ceiling within alcoves on either side. Fewer torches meant reduced levels of light within these ancient prison cells. From their initial fight, Lagaldex knew that Kratos was a brawler, an aggressive mid-range swordsman. ‘He would not make use of this terrain.’ The familiar straight gashes carved into the floor and walls below the columns’ bases confirmed his choice of weaponry.

A glinting object in the doorway across the chamber caught his eye. Lagaldex still couldn’t hear the warriors’ thoughts. ‘The battle is receding farther in; for now it is safe.’ He rushed across the room. His eyes never left the item shining in the dim firelight. It was a small bullet casing, a trinket uncommon to nature and unlikely in this temple. Lagaldex grabbed the casing with a scowl. ‘There are no gun men with good intentions.’

Captain caught up with him while he tried to crush the offending object. ‘Master Lagaldex, why have you stopped?’

‘They are using guns,’ replied the Psychic. ‘At least Spawn is. We must be careful.’ He kept himself crouched as he climbed the stairs in this part of the hallway.

Their targets’ thoughts continued to outdistance his detection range, but a new presence filled the high-ceiling room like smoke. Nauseating, suffocating… his ascent slowed with the burning in his lungs. This energy gripped his chest and dragged him down until he was forced to one knee.

Captain was next to him in a heartbeat. ‘Master Lagaldex, are you alright?’

Lagaldex raised a sleeve to his face and coughed. His eye not held shut looked to the Ninja minion kneeling beside him. Captain was unaffected by this tainted atmosphere with that scarf tied tightly around his face and the Ninja “training”…

‘Let us retreat for now. You are not well.’

‘No, no. They are here now, and this condition will not pass so long as Spawn is involved. Kratos does not give off an aura this thick, this malignant…’ Hacking more into his sleeve, Lagaldex shakily stood up and marched the rest of the way up the stairs. ‘I will make him suffer as I have suffered,’ he added with gritted teeth.

At the top he discovered a large gap between him and where the hallway continued. The edges weren’t crumbling but were of perfectly square construction. ‘Who would construct a temple like this?’ wondered Lagaldex.

‘Shall I search across the gap for them?’

An explosion of red and green energies lighting the darkness below them answered that question. ‘We move now.’ Lagaldex held up one of his arms and summoned his signature weapon: a curved green sword blade attached at the elbow. He leapt into the abyss, clinging to the wall; his blade dug into the stone like a knife through a ship’s sail to slow his descent. Captain ran along the wall beside him.

Blue light illuminated the dark chasm below them. Lagaldex had seen the glow before, only closer up. ‘The Blade of Olympus. It took four of us to subdue Kratos after he drew that sword in our last battle.’ The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out twice, and two severed lengths of chain flew up to meet the Nobodies quickly closing in on the source.

Lagaldex’s boots squeaking against the stone blended with ribs cracking and the squish of Kratos’s sword through organs. The glow of the great sword was hidden by Kratos’s muscular, ash-covered back to Lagaldex. Even with his view of the victim blocked, the Psychic smiled. ‘Death blow. Captain, tell Machelix and my sister that I will be back soon.’

‘As you wish.’ The Ninja disappeared through another dark portal.

It seemed a mystery why the air down here was easier to breathe, but the battle must have exhausted Spawn and depleted his aggressive aura. Lagaldex recalled the sword disappeared from his arm as he walked up to confront Kratos.

A sudden flash of green behind Kratos spooked Lagaldex from his task. A red cloth cape appeared from the flash and hid Kratos as well as the figure wearing it. A black hand gripping him around the mouth lifted him back into view. The glowing sword clattered to the ground. “Die!” A spike driven through Kratos’s mouth out the back of his head painted another blood spatter on the temple walls. The ash-covered warrior went limp in the ebony grasp.

‘What just happened?’ A stab to the abdomen usually killed. But there was no hesitation, not even a scream. To have survived a blow like that and then to defeat Kratos so easily was an insult or a testament to his power. This Spawn, was he part Ghost-type?

His psychic powers, not his ears, heard a female voice. ‘There is another one.’ He could hear something sinister in her, something as hostile as the aura he had felt climbing the stairs above.

Spawn must have heard the voice as well. “Really…?” He turned towards Lagaldex, his red cape outlining his black-clad body against the darkness receding into the torch-less temple hallway behind him. Glowing green eyes narrowed within the strip of white crossing his face. Lagaldex couldn’t see any trace of cut skin despite the obvious blow he had seen Kratos land on this, his opponent. Even the skin-tight suit showed no scars. “What do you want?”

‘You have what our Organization wants,’ Lagaldex replied, pointing to Kratos.

“Him?” Spawn raised Kratos’s limp body to his face. The Psychic detected some faint thoughts in the Spartan’s head, the anger of which reflected in Spawn’s eyes. “You’re a little late.” He threw the body behind him. The spike still stuck out of his hand until he retracted it with a clench of his fist. “I still have some time to kill if you’re interested. I sense hatred from you.”

To disrespect his opponent like that, treating him like a ragdoll: Spawn didn’t need to read his mind to feel the hate. Lagaldex’s arms trembled in the sleeves of his jacket, the elbow blades once more sliding through the slits sewn in. ‘Then prepare yourself!’

“If you insist.” Spawn thrust his arms out to his sides. The suit covering his arms stretched and surged into his hands, forming weapons Lagaldex had dreaded seeing: advanced-looking assault rifles. Before a single bullet could be fired, the Silent Psychic bent his head and rushed the gunman. Spawn chased him with gunfire, occasionally catching Lagaldex in the shoulders.

Lagaldex ran through the pain. He would not show weakness to this fiendish man. When within attacking range, he brought up one of his arms to recreate the wound Kratos was supposed to have inflicted.

His attack passed through the green flash from before. Running through it resulted in the same malice gripping his chest. Lagaldex fell onto his hands and knees, gripping his chest and violently coughing. It was only when he felt chains wrap around his body that he remembered the second part of the ruse that had ended Kratos. The chains constricted him to the wall of muscle that further bound him with two thick arms. Tightness caused Lagaldex one source of pain, the other resulting from thorns steadily piercing him all over like a bear hug from a rose bush. “Give up before I get serious,” Spawn hissed.

‘Show me serious, then.’ Lagaldex bent his head forward before forcefully arching it back into Spawn’s own. The sudden blow caused the spiked arms to release him. In Spawn’s distraction, the Psychic broke the chains’ hold on him. Landing gently on the stone floor, he quickly distanced himself from Spawn and turned back to face him. His naturally red irises glared coldly.

The chains that had once bound him slowly receded back to reform Spawn’s suit. Growling he threw out his arms again. His cape rippled with an unforeseen wind that carried him into the air. The cape had become wings! Green energy collected in his hands as his green eyes focused upon his target.

With his opponent out of his swords’ range, Lagaldex sought another angle of attack. The purple glow of his sickles, the Claws of Hades, reappeared.

Seeing the new weapons, Spawn brought his hands together and discharged all the energy he had amassed as a single payload. Lagaldex dodged it by leaping backwards, watching the attack strike the stone slab floor and dissipate in front of him.

Lagaldex looked up; Spawn had disappeared! The Psychic immediately turned around expecting another attack from behind, but nothing. He scanned the walls of the upward shaft. Still nothing; Spawn was hiding.

Bringing his rapid breathing under control, Lagaldex closed his eyes and opened his mind. Silence all around him, but a female voice whined, ‘I can’t get any energy off of him. He’s hostile but not evil.’

Lagaldex smirked. ‘Found you.’ He swung one of the sickle sets beside him like a boarding like before sending it flying at the wall behind him. The sickle stuck before striking the stone, the anchor point letting loose a horrific shriek straight into his brain. Wincing at the nails on the blackboard of his mind, Lagaldex readied the second Claw and launched it at Spawn. Not even teleporting would help Spawn now that he was hooked, especially since the first strike had made him visible. Both Claws soon lodged in Spawn’s cape. Swiftly, but with some pain, the Psychic yanked back on the chains and exposed the points of his elbow blades to his catch. It could not be denied that Spawn suffered these wounds: both swords stuck out his back. A quick kick forced him off of the swords and stumbling backwards, still on the hooks.

The wounds immediately began to sew themselves back up. “How did you find me…?”

‘Your assistant in your suit gave you away. Allow me to silence her for you.’ Lagaldex gripped the sickles’ handles and pulled them away from each other. The screeching continued; Lagaldex only raised the volume, increasing the pressure.

“You’re using necro magic!?” Spawn reared back to deliver a punch.

Lagaldex rolled under the blow and continued through Spawn’s legs, keeping his hold on the sickles’ chains. ‘Whoever is in the suit must have control over Spawn’s power.’ There was no way he would lose an opportunity like this to get rid of— ‘Sister?’

‘Brother!’

There in front of him stood Vredarigox next to Captain! ‘Sister, why are you here?’ To the Ninja he snapped, ‘Why did you bring her here?’

‘Mistress Vredarigox worried about your safety when you failed to return to base,’ Captain replied. His sister nodded in agreement.

‘Vredaigox, leave,’ Lagaldex sternly said. ‘This foe is too dangerous.’

Suddenly he realized it: the screaming from behind had softened to whimpering. The chains slid through his fingers before their rattling echoed down the corridor. A breeze punctuated by intensifying growls blew past him. Vredarigox’s pink-eyed gaze focused above him in fear, looking into Spawn’s blazing emeralds. Lagaldex made to get up, but a hand gripped his neck and bodily picked him up. “You wanted to see serious?” Spawn hissed in his ear. “Here is serious!” Lagaldex rose even higher in the suffocating grip, trying to claw enough space for breath.

Vredarigox’s eyes narrowed as she watched her brother struggle. ‘Let go of him!’ Spawn hardly glanced at her. ‘Actions speak louder than words,’ she remembered. If her words weren’t enough, then she would act so that he couldn’t ignore. Fists held tightly, she ran at Spawn with total abandon.

Chains shot out from her brother’s aggressor, but Vredarigox countered the offensive measure with defense. Her hands she held open before her, creating a wall of solid, transparent psychic energy. The chains whipped the wall wildly until Vredarigox stood before Spawn, split her barrier in half, and pushed the chains away with the two halves. ‘I said let him go!’ Her eyes locked onto his as she brought her high heel straight up between Spawn’s legs.

The chains ceased their onslaught, Spawn’s grip on Lagaldex loosened with a groan, and the latter landed on the floor gasping for breath. ‘When did you start to fight with such fury?’ he asked his sister as she escorted him a safe distance away.

‘Since I was last here, when a Pokemon was killed,’ she answered. ‘You were being threatened, almost killed yourself, and I just…’

Lagaldex could see the tears forming in her eyes, those pearls that had regained their delicateness. ‘It’s okay now,’ he told her, bringing her closer with a hug.

To have corrupted his sister with violence, it wasn’t just Spawn giving off an evil aura; this entire world changed people. Both sources needed to be expunged. Looking to Captain, Lagaldex said, ‘Bring me the Claws of Hades. They are in the hallway behind Spawn.’

A simple nod signaled the Ninjas understanding before a dark portal took him.

The Silent Psychic brought his sister to her feet, turning towards Spawn. The green-eyes assailant shook off the indecent kick and extended his hands towards the twins. “Burn!” Red flames filled his hands, and he unleashed them like a flamethrower.

Vredarigox stepped in front of the flames with her hands before her, creating a Light Screen barrier especially effective against elemental attacks. She wasn’t the Entourage’s Defensive Damsel for nothing. They stood safe behind the flames, but Spawn’s fire also kept them pinned to this safe zone. ‘What should we do?’

‘We need to kill the suit,’ Lagaldex answered. ‘He will be weaker without it.’

‘He seems to be weakening now.’ Captain appeared next to them and handed the Claws of Hades over to Lagaldex before pointing to Spawn.

The fires diminished before their source cut them off completely. Even from their safe distance Lagaldex could see Spawn breathing heavily. ‘Why is he giving up so soon?’ asked the Damsel.

‘His living suit said that she draws off of evil energy. He must be running out. We need to act now. Hold this and pull when I say.’ He handed her one of the chains to his weapons before dashing at Spawn.

The ebony warrior stood his ground and held out his arms to intercept Lagaldex. “I’ll end this quickly,” he growled.

Lagaldex smirked at the bold words. ‘You could not even if you tried. This fight is ours.’ As Spawn closed in on him for a grapple, the Psychic leaped up through his arms, kneed him in the head, and continued over him.

He quickly turned back towards the red cape as he fell and planted the Claws of Hades once more into the living fabric. ‘Vredariox, now!’ he shouted as he distanced himself from his opponent. Like a game of Tug-of-War with Spawn in the center, the twins gripped their chains and pulled. Lagaldex’s wounded shoulders balanced out his sister’s lesser upper body strength, both of the siblings applying equal forces to pull the screaming suit apart. Slowly the cape split, stretched, and dragged off the rest of the suit between the two sets of hooks. Even before the gruesome job was finished the shrieks clawing at Lagaldex’s mind faded into nothing more than echoes. The last suit remnants pulled from Spawn flew back, dissolving and leaving not a scrap behind. Both Lagaldex and Vredarigox fell backwards: the rope broke; the equality had maintained.

The fight still continued. Left naked, Spawn rushed at Vredarigox. Before she could stand or get out of the way, he gripped her neck, shoved her against the wall, and slowly dragged her up the stone surface. His emerald eyes glared at her as if trying to nail her permanently to the wall. His ravaged face twisted to say, “You two are pissing me off! I will avenge Leetha with your deaths!”

‘Release. Her. NOW.’ Lagaldex was back on his feet with white-knuckled fists.

Spawn ignored him, tightening his own fist. The one he held prepared to punch glowed with demonic green energy.

Destroying the suit hadn’t eliminated Spawn’s powers like Lagaldex had hoped, and now his sister struggled in that same grip that had once held him. At this rate, that fiend would continue wearing them down until they both ended up battered like Kratos…

Trace movements and the grinding of metal against stone met his ears. A bloody cough drew his eyes to Kratos’s body close by, twitching with his hand still on the Blade of Olympus. ‘Use my sword,’ the Psychic heard the fallen warrior say through his mind. The hole through his mouth prevented otherwise.

Spawn had recovered from it last time, but perhaps now that his suit was gone it would prove more effective. Lagaldex gripped the Blade’s handle and heaved it up with both hands, turning once more to Spawn and Vredarigox. The white veil his sister always wore had been stained with fresh blood and singed around her mouth. There would be no warning this time for the one who stained their hands with her blood. All pain in his arms forgotten, Lagaldex ran at Spawn with the sword as big as himself.

Before another punch could land, the Blade severed his hand off. A second slash took off his head. Lagaldex stabbed and nailed the head to the wall.

The Silent Psychic staggered back and fell to his knees. The deed was done; Spawn was dead. The decapitated corpse collapsed into a puddle of its own blood. His sister landed on her feet, regarding her brother with wide eyes. More tears appeared as she knelt and hugged him. He winced back the pain from his wounds, wrapping his arms around her as well. ‘It is over, sister,’ he said with a sigh. ‘We did it.’

And by “we,” he also meant Kratos. Easing himself back to his feet, he reached out a hand to grab the Blade of Olympus’s hilt. Noticing his efforts, Vredarigox also grabbed the sword and assisted in pulling it out. Lagaldex removed the head still impaled upon it and punted it down the corridor away from its body. ‘One cannot be too careful,’ he explained.

The twins walked over to the sword’s owner. Captain had reached Kratos and effortlessly supported him like a crutch. ‘Where were you?’ Lagaldex asked the Ninja.

‘My weapons would have done nothing,’ Captain replied. Transporters and messengers, those were Machelix’s Ninjas. Armed with only throwing stars, Lagaldex had to admit they would have only proven an annoyance to Spawn.

Serving their role, Captain extended a hand and brought forth a dark portal against the wall. ‘Shall we be off? We should seek medical attention for you all.’

Lagaldex looked to the bloody veil covering the lower half of his sister’s face and then to Kratos and the hole through his. The ashen warrior could hardly move. His brain still worked, as even now Lagaldex could detect thoughts. A girl flashed through Kratos’s mind, stepping from the shadows and looking right at the Psychic. ‘Thank you,’ she said. Who was she? Kratos’s daughter, perhaps? Her clothes looked to be from the right era, the right style.

He knew that he would get his chance to find out. As the unofficial interrogator of the Espionage Entourage, he would get to ask Kratos all the questions he wanted, so long as he asked the ones Machelix desired. Kratos would have to get patched up, first. That operation and recovery could take days, weeks, even.

At least Lagaldex could wait out those days recovering with his sister.

For now, he handed the Blade of Olympus back to Kratos. Regarding Captain, Lagaldex said, ‘Yes, let us be going,’ before walking into the portal hand in hand with his sister, leaving the temple behind them as reverently as a couple after their wedding.

Description
October 2, 2012. Lagaldex waited in his room for days, anticipating the return of his sister, Vredarigox. His psychic powers had yet to detect her thoughts, and his Superior, Machelix, had yet to contact him about her last mission. Where had he sent her? Why had she not returned? Lagaldex needed answers. Rising from his bed and leaving his room, the Silent Psychic made for the stairs. Machelix would be on his computer in the lobby of Memory’s Skyscraper; surely he would be able to tell him where his sister was.

He could sense Machelix’s mind racing even before he heard the telltale clacking of computer keys. Lagaldex chose not to interrupt him, instead stepping into the lobby to confront his Superior face to face. The lobby carpeting muffled the tread of his boots. The lack of light besides the computer screen hid him, he assumed, or else Machelix focused too hard on the displayed computer image. Lagaldex hadn’t intended to hide, but Machelix’s work environment worked against his perception of guests.

He did step back once when one of the Mage’s blue-gray eyes glanced up to see him. “Ah, Lagaldex, how can I help you?” Behind his Superior’s calm smile, Lagaldex could see the files being ripped from his mental filing cabinet, flying through his mind and falling like snow.

‘Where is my sister?’

The chaos in Machelix’s mind halted, one file aloft being snatched and brought to the forefront. “Vredarigox returned to the Pokémon Regions after her last mission. I would guess she’s escorting Battlefield’s latest revived victim. Why it’s taking so long, though, I don’t know.”

There was no deceit in Machelix’s words or his head. Lagaldex released his breath, and with it his worry. Back in their home world on a simple escort mission, his sister would be fine. Another question arose in his mind: ‘Where is everyone else?’

More mental reports were collected. “After your sister’s reconnaissance, the threat of Battlefield to the World Order has been deemed too severe to be left alone.”

His Superior’s cringe prompted Lagaldex to probe further. Hidden behind the blizzard of mental documents rested one piece of stationary… stationary sticking out of an envelope. A letter? Lagaldex couldn’t read the fine print behind the still-settling documents, but maybe he didn’t have to. ‘What is that letter?’ he asked.

“You saw that, did you?” Machelix’s expression soured as he dug the physical copy of the letter out of his computer desk drawer. “I received this little ‘friendly reminder’ a while ago, concerning our capture of Kratos. Apparently he was summoned to a get-together in the Sony System. Unfortunately, he had been taken to Battlefield by then. The others were sent there to clean up all of the fights they came across while also looking for Kratos.”

‘Why have you not sent me to follow up my sister’s mission, then?’

“I wanted to keep a reserve unit to confront Kratos and his combatant when we found them. I would rather that reservist be one who fought Kratos initially. That’s where you come in. Trust me, I wouldn’t have hesitated to put one of my frontliners into the fight without good reason. It’s just that there haven’t been any reports of Kratos’ whereabouts…”

Lagaldex turned towards the glass doors leading to the perpetually darkened streets outside. A familiar presence entered his range before passing through the doors: one of Machelix’s Ninja Nobody assistants. ‘Kratos has been sighted, my liege.’

A smile crossed Machelix’s face. “Speak of the devil. Where is he hiding?”

‘He is currently engaged with a being named Spawn in a temple.’

“In a temple? No wonder we were having so much trouble finding him. Most of the recorded fights in Battlefield have been outside.” A quick turn and another set of keyboard clacks later, Machelix regarded his Ninja again. “Captain, escort Lagaldex to the scene as soon as he’s prepared. Once you’ve both made contact with Kratos, you tell the others they can return to base once their other objectives are complete.”

The Ninja Captain bowed and said, ‘As you command, my liege.’

“Lagaldex, I don’t know who this Spawn character is, but he must be powerful for the rulers of Battlefield to pair him against Kratos. Exercise caution.”

‘You do not need to worry about me.’ Lagaldex’s hands dug into the pockets of his trench coat and took two weapons from them: sickles attached to chains. Both of the blades on either sickle glowed with purple light.

“Heh, I guess I don’t. Captain, he’s all yours.”

A nod signaled his answer before Captain led Lagaldex through the glass exit.

…

Flickering flames, lit torches stuck on the walls, illuminated the passage of the Entourage agents from the dark portal. The only other light source from the far end behind them failed to penetrate the hallway’s depths. Lagaldex watched the walls, occasionally glancing forward to make sure he was following Captain properly. Not that there seemed to be much risk of that: the walls around them were carved out of solid stone. No turns, no doors, hardly even cracks or hanging cobwebs to suggest deterioration. The ceiling so close to his head and narrow walls may have triggered fits of claustrophobia in someone else, but even a Nobody Pokemon was indifferent to tight spaces: a different kind of evolution.

‘Kratos is just ahead,’ Captain said.

The Silent Psychic didn’t need the Ninja to tell him that. A breeze stinking of sweat and blood ruffled the turquoise spikes of his short mohawk, one of the features that clearly differentiated him from Vredarigox. She had laughed when he told her he liked how it represented his “bad boy” nature as much as his spiked collar. Without thinking, Lagaldex ran a hand through the slicked-back green covering the rest of his scalp. Here he was, minutes before heading into battle, thinking about his peace-loving sister.

Echoes of combat met their ears. For the battle to reach him before the combatants’ thoughts, it must have been intense. Lagaldex pushed past Captain and began running down the hallway. Even his footfalls in this narrow corridor were overpowered by the furious shouts and clashes of steel. ‘Good, they are hand-to-hand fighting.’ It made sense in the straightforward chamber without cover.

Once he passed through the square archway leading into the next section of the temple, the best weapon choice became less clear-cut. The space opened considerably in all directions. Columns of single-block stone supported the ceiling within alcoves on either side. Fewer torches meant reduced levels of light within these ancient prison cells. From their initial fight, Lagaldex knew that Kratos was a brawler, an aggressive mid-range swordsman. ‘He would not make use of this terrain.’ The familiar straight gashes carved into the floor and walls below the columns’ bases confirmed his choice of weaponry.

A glinting object in the doorway across the chamber caught his eye. Lagaldex still couldn’t hear the warriors’ thoughts. ‘The battle is receding farther in; for now it is safe.’ He rushed across the room. His eyes never left the item shining in the dim firelight. It was a small bullet casing, a trinket uncommon to nature and unlikely in this temple. Lagaldex grabbed the casing with a scowl. ‘There are no gun men with good intentions.’

Captain caught up with him while he tried to crush the offending object. ‘Master Lagaldex, why have you stopped?’

‘They are using guns,’ replied the Psychic. ‘At least Spawn is. We must be careful.’ He kept himself crouched as he climbed the stairs in this part of the hallway.

Their targets’ thoughts continued to outdistance his detection range, but a new presence filled the high-ceiling room like smoke. Nauseating, suffocating… his ascent slowed with the burning in his lungs. This energy gripped his chest and dragged him down until he was forced to one knee.

Captain was next to him in a heartbeat. ‘Master Lagaldex, are you alright?’

Lagaldex raised a sleeve to his face and coughed. His eye not held shut looked to the Ninja minion kneeling beside him. Captain was unaffected by this tainted atmosphere with that scarf tied tightly around his face and the Ninja “training”…

‘Let us retreat for now. You are not well.’

‘No, no. They are here now, and this condition will not pass so long as Spawn is involved. Kratos does not give off an aura this thick, this malignant…’ Hacking more into his sleeve, Lagaldex shakily stood up and marched the rest of the way up the stairs. ‘I will make him suffer as I have suffered,’ he added with gritted teeth.

At the top he discovered a large gap between him and where the hallway continued. The edges weren’t crumbling but were of perfectly square construction. ‘Who would construct a temple like this?’ wondered Lagaldex.

‘Shall I search across the gap for them?’

An explosion of red and green energies lighting the darkness below them answered that question. ‘We move now.’ Lagaldex held up one of his arms and summoned his signature weapon: a curved green sword blade attached at the elbow. He leapt into the abyss, clinging to the wall; his blade dug into the stone like a knife through a ship’s sail to slow his descent. Captain ran along the wall beside him.

Blue light illuminated the dark chasm below them. Lagaldex had seen the glow before, only closer up. ‘The Blade of Olympus. It took four of us to subdue Kratos after he drew that sword in our last battle.’ The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out twice, and two severed lengths of chain flew up to meet the Nobodies quickly closing in on the source.

Lagaldex’s boots squeaking against the stone blended with ribs cracking and the squish of Kratos’s sword through organs. The glow of the great sword was hidden by Kratos’s muscular, ash-covered back to Lagaldex. Even with his view of the victim blocked, the Psychic smiled. ‘Death blow. Captain, tell Machelix and my sister that I will be back soon.’

‘As you wish.’ The Ninja disappeared through another dark portal.

It seemed a mystery why the air down here was easier to breathe, but the battle must have exhausted Spawn and depleted his aggressive aura. Lagaldex recalled the sword disappeared from his arm as he walked up to confront Kratos.

A sudden flash of green behind Kratos spooked Lagaldex from his task. A red cloth cape appeared from the flash and hid Kratos as well as the figure wearing it. A black hand gripping him around the mouth lifted him back into view. The glowing sword clattered to the ground. “Die!” A spike driven through Kratos’s mouth out the back of his head painted another blood spatter on the temple walls. The ash-covered warrior went limp in the ebony grasp.

‘What just happened?’ A stab to the abdomen usually killed. But there was no hesitation, not even a scream. To have survived a blow like that and then to defeat Kratos so easily was an insult or a testament to his power. This Spawn, was he part Ghost-type?

His psychic powers, not his ears, heard a female voice. ‘There is another one.’ He could hear something sinister in her, something as hostile as the aura he had felt climbing the stairs above.

Spawn must have heard the voice as well. “Really…?” He turned towards Lagaldex, his red cape outlining his black-clad body against the darkness receding into the torch-less temple hallway behind him. Glowing green eyes narrowed within the strip of white crossing his face. Lagaldex couldn’t see any trace of cut skin despite the obvious blow he had seen Kratos land on this, his opponent. Even the skin-tight suit showed no scars. “What do you want?”

‘You have what our Organization wants,’ Lagaldex replied, pointing to Kratos.

“Him?” Spawn raised Kratos’s limp body to his face. The Psychic detected some faint thoughts in the Spartan’s head, the anger of which reflected in Spawn’s eyes. “You’re a little late.” He threw the body behind him. The spike still stuck out of his hand until he retracted it with a clench of his fist. “I still have some time to kill if you’re interested. I sense hatred from you.”

To disrespect his opponent like that, treating him like a ragdoll: Spawn didn’t need to read his mind to feel the hate. Lagaldex’s arms trembled in the sleeves of his jacket, the elbow blades once more sliding through the slits sewn in. ‘Then prepare yourself!’

“If you insist.” Spawn thrust his arms out to his sides. The suit covering his arms stretched and surged into his hands, forming weapons Lagaldex had dreaded seeing: advanced-looking assault rifles. Before a single bullet could be fired, the Silent Psychic bent his head and rushed the gunman. Spawn chased him with gunfire, occasionally catching Lagaldex in the shoulders.

Lagaldex ran through the pain. He would not show weakness to this fiendish man. When within attacking range, he brought up one of his arms to recreate the wound Kratos was supposed to have inflicted.

His attack passed through the green flash from before. Running through it resulted in the same malice gripping his chest. Lagaldex fell onto his hands and knees, gripping his chest and violently coughing. It was only when he felt chains wrap around his body that he remembered the second part of the ruse that had ended Kratos. The chains constricted him to the wall of muscle that further bound him with two thick arms. Tightness caused Lagaldex one source of pain, the other resulting from thorns steadily piercing him all over like a bear hug from a rose bush. “Give up before I get serious,” Spawn hissed.

‘Show me serious, then.’ Lagaldex bent his head forward before forcefully arching it back into Spawn’s own. The sudden blow caused the spiked arms to release him. In Spawn’s distraction, the Psychic broke the chains’ hold on him. Landing gently on the stone floor, he quickly distanced himself from Spawn and turned back to face him. His naturally red irises glared coldly.

The chains that had once bound him slowly receded back to reform Spawn’s suit. Growling he threw out his arms again. His cape rippled with an unforeseen wind that carried him into the air. The cape had become wings! Green energy collected in his hands as his green eyes focused upon his target.

With his opponent out of his swords’ range, Lagaldex sought another angle of attack. The purple glow of his sickles, the Claws of Hades, reappeared.

Seeing the new weapons, Spawn brought his hands together and discharged all the energy he had amassed as a single payload. Lagaldex dodged it by leaping backwards, watching the attack strike the stone slab floor and dissipate in front of him.

Lagaldex looked up; Spawn had disappeared! The Psychic immediately turned around expecting another attack from behind, but nothing. He scanned the walls of the upward shaft. Still nothing; Spawn was hiding.

Bringing his rapid breathing under control, Lagaldex closed his eyes and opened his mind. Silence all around him, but a female voice whined, ‘I can’t get any energy off of him. He’s hostile but not evil.’

Lagaldex smirked. ‘Found you.’ He swung one of the sickle sets beside him like a boarding like before sending it flying at the wall behind him. The sickle stuck before striking the stone, the anchor point letting loose a horrific shriek straight into his brain. Wincing at the nails on the blackboard of his mind, Lagaldex readied the second Claw and launched it at Spawn. Not even teleporting would help Spawn now that he was hooked, especially since the first strike had made him visible. Both Claws soon lodged in Spawn’s cape. Swiftly, but with some pain, the Psychic yanked back on the chains and exposed the points of his elbow blades to his catch. It could not be denied that Spawn suffered these wounds: both swords stuck out his back. A quick kick forced him off of the swords and stumbling backwards, still on the hooks.

The wounds immediately began to sew themselves back up. “How did you find me…?”

‘Your assistant in your suit gave you away. Allow me to silence her for you.’ Lagaldex gripped the sickles’ handles and pulled them away from each other. The screeching continued; Lagaldex only raised the volume, increasing the pressure.

“You’re using necro magic!?” Spawn reared back to deliver a punch.

Lagaldex rolled under the blow and continued through Spawn’s legs, keeping his hold on the sickles’ chains. ‘Whoever is in the suit must have control over Spawn’s power.’ There was no way he would lose an opportunity like this to get rid of— ‘Sister?’

‘Brother!’

There in front of him stood Vredarigox next to Captain! ‘Sister, why are you here?’ To the Ninja he snapped, ‘Why did you bring her here?’

‘Mistress Vredarigox worried about your safety when you failed to return to base,’ Captain replied. His sister nodded in agreement.

‘Vredaigox, leave,’ Lagaldex sternly said. ‘This foe is too dangerous.’

Suddenly he realized it: the screaming from behind had softened to whimpering. The chains slid through his fingers before their rattling echoed down the corridor. A breeze punctuated by intensifying growls blew past him. Vredarigox’s pink-eyed gaze focused above him in fear, looking into Spawn’s blazing emeralds. Lagaldex made to get up, but a hand gripped his neck and bodily picked him up. “You wanted to see serious?” Spawn hissed in his ear. “Here is serious!” Lagaldex rose even higher in the suffocating grip, trying to claw enough space for breath.

Vredarigox’s eyes narrowed as she watched her brother struggle. ‘Let go of him!’ Spawn hardly glanced at her. ‘Actions speak louder than words,’ she remembered. If her words weren’t enough, then she would act so that he couldn’t ignore. Fists held tightly, she ran at Spawn with total abandon.

Chains shot out from her brother’s aggressor, but Vredarigox countered the offensive measure with defense. Her hands she held open before her, creating a wall of solid, transparent psychic energy. The chains whipped the wall wildly until Vredarigox stood before Spawn, split her barrier in half, and pushed the chains away with the two halves. ‘I said let him go!’ Her eyes locked onto his as she brought her high heel straight up between Spawn’s legs.

The chains ceased their onslaught, Spawn’s grip on Lagaldex loosened with a groan, and the latter landed on the floor gasping for breath. ‘When did you start to fight with such fury?’ he asked his sister as she escorted him a safe distance away.

‘Since I was last here, when a Pokemon was killed,’ she answered. ‘You were being threatened, almost killed yourself, and I just…’

Lagaldex could see the tears forming in her eyes, those pearls that had regained their delicateness. ‘It’s okay now,’ he told her, bringing her closer with a hug.

To have corrupted his sister with violence, it wasn’t just Spawn giving off an evil aura; this entire world changed people. Both sources needed to be expunged. Looking to Captain, Lagaldex said, ‘Bring me the Claws of Hades. They are in the hallway behind Spawn.’

A simple nod signaled the Ninjas understanding before a dark portal took him.

The Silent Psychic brought his sister to her feet, turning towards Spawn. The green-eyes assailant shook off the indecent kick and extended his hands towards the twins. “Burn!” Red flames filled his hands, and he unleashed them like a flamethrower.

Vredarigox stepped in front of the flames with her hands before her, creating a Light Screen barrier especially effective against elemental attacks. She wasn’t the Entourage’s Defensive Damsel for nothing. They stood safe behind the flames, but Spawn’s fire also kept them pinned to this safe zone. ‘What should we do?’

‘We need to kill the suit,’ Lagaldex answered. ‘He will be weaker without it.’

‘He seems to be weakening now.’ Captain appeared next to them and handed the Claws of Hades over to Lagaldex before pointing to Spawn.

The fires diminished before their source cut them off completely. Even from their safe distance Lagaldex could see Spawn breathing heavily. ‘Why is he giving up so soon?’ asked the Damsel.

‘His living suit said that she draws off of evil energy. He must be running out. We need to act now. Hold this and pull when I say.’ He handed her one of the chains to his weapons before dashing at Spawn.

The ebony warrior stood his ground and held out his arms to intercept Lagaldex. “I’ll end this quickly,” he growled.

Lagaldex smirked at the bold words. ‘You could not even if you tried. This fight is ours.’ As Spawn closed in on him for a grapple, the Psychic leaped up through his arms, kneed him in the head, and continued over him.

He quickly turned back towards the red cape as he fell and planted the Claws of Hades once more into the living fabric. ‘Vredariox, now!’ he shouted as he distanced himself from his opponent. Like a game of Tug-of-War with Spawn in the center, the twins gripped their chains and pulled. Lagaldex’s wounded shoulders balanced out his sister’s lesser upper body strength, both of the siblings applying equal forces to pull the screaming suit apart. Slowly the cape split, stretched, and dragged off the rest of the suit between the two sets of hooks. Even before the gruesome job was finished the shrieks clawing at Lagaldex’s mind faded into nothing more than echoes. The last suit remnants pulled from Spawn flew back, dissolving and leaving not a scrap behind. Both Lagaldex and Vredarigox fell backwards: the rope broke; the equality had maintained.

The fight still continued. Left naked, Spawn rushed at Vredarigox. Before she could stand or get out of the way, he gripped her neck, shoved her against the wall, and slowly dragged her up the stone surface. His emerald eyes glared at her as if trying to nail her permanently to the wall. His ravaged face twisted to say, “You two are pissing me off! I will avenge Leetha with your deaths!”

‘Release. Her. NOW.’ Lagaldex was back on his feet with white-knuckled fists.

Spawn ignored him, tightening his own fist. The one he held prepared to punch glowed with demonic green energy.

Destroying the suit hadn’t eliminated Spawn’s powers like Lagaldex had hoped, and now his sister struggled in that same grip that had once held him. At this rate, that fiend would continue wearing them down until they both ended up battered like Kratos…

Trace movements and the grinding of metal against stone met his ears. A bloody cough drew his eyes to Kratos’s body close by, twitching with his hand still on the Blade of Olympus. ‘Use my sword,’ the Psychic heard the fallen warrior say through his mind. The hole through his mouth prevented otherwise.

Spawn had recovered from it last time, but perhaps now that his suit was gone it would prove more effective. Lagaldex gripped the Blade’s handle and heaved it up with both hands, turning once more to Spawn and Vredarigox. The white veil his sister always wore had been stained with fresh blood and singed around her mouth. There would be no warning this time for the one who stained their hands with her blood. All pain in his arms forgotten, Lagaldex ran at Spawn with the sword as big as himself.

Before another punch could land, the Blade severed his hand off. A second slash took off his head. Lagaldex stabbed and nailed the head to the wall.

The Silent Psychic staggered back and fell to his knees. The deed was done; Spawn was dead. The decapitated corpse collapsed into a puddle of its own blood. His sister landed on her feet, regarding her brother with wide eyes. More tears appeared as she knelt and hugged him. He winced back the pain from his wounds, wrapping his arms around her as well. ‘It is over, sister,’ he said with a sigh. ‘We did it.’

And by “we,” he also meant Kratos. Easing himself back to his feet, he reached out a hand to grab the Blade of Olympus’s hilt. Noticing his efforts, Vredarigox also grabbed the sword and assisted in pulling it out. Lagaldex removed the head still impaled upon it and punted it down the corridor away from its body. ‘One cannot be too careful,’ he explained.

The twins walked over to the sword’s owner. Captain had reached Kratos and effortlessly supported him like a crutch. ‘Where were you?’ Lagaldex asked the Ninja.

‘My weapons would have done nothing,’ Captain replied. Transporters and messengers, those were Machelix’s Ninjas. Armed with only throwing stars, Lagaldex had to admit they would have only proven an annoyance to Spawn.

Serving their role, Captain extended a hand and brought forth a dark portal against the wall. ‘Shall we be off? We should seek medical attention for you all.’

Lagaldex looked to the bloody veil covering the lower half of his sister’s face and then to Kratos and the hole through his. The ashen warrior could hardly move. His brain still worked, as even now Lagaldex could detect thoughts. A girl flashed through Kratos’s mind, stepping from the shadows and looking right at the Psychic. ‘Thank you,’ she said. Who was she? Kratos’s daughter, perhaps? Her clothes looked to be from the right era, the right style.

He knew that he would get his chance to find out. As the unofficial interrogator of the Espionage Entourage, he would get to ask Kratos all the questions he wanted, so long as he asked the ones Machelix desired. Kratos would have to get patched up, first. That operation and recovery could take days, weeks, even.

At least Lagaldex could wait out those days recovering with his sister.

For now, he handed the Blade of Olympus back to Kratos. Regarding Captain, Lagaldex said, ‘Yes, let us be going,’ before walking into the portal hand in hand with his sister, leaving the temple behind them as reverently as a couple after their wedding.