The group arrived to the rural village of Aldam. Their intended target: David Strais. Being a high ranking individual in Rebirth's army, David had been targeted for his enormous contribution in Rebirth's massive slave industry. By eliminating Strais, the industry would lose a valuable player in turning the tide of the war, which was creeping in the shadows.

Taking down Strais was no simple task. He had concealed himself within Aldam's walls; a village long overrun by Rebirth's army. The village was completely controlled by Rebirth, the citizens kneeled before them, not fighting against a force much stronger than themselves. Now, the poor village was swarming with Rebirth troops, the military expanding a mile outside the vicinity of Aldam. The task of getting near Aldam itself was a task difficult as it was dangerous.

It took several weeks but the hunters slipped through the gaps in Rebirth's defences, sneaking through the lands of Aldam with not a sound to their feet. It was now the middle of the night and only a small band of patrols were surveying the village streets.

The Shadow Blades were now breaching over the roof of a military household, avoiding the eyes of any wandering troops.

Daelus gestured to his partner and Jarek quickly followed. "Hop on the roof and provide us some cover in the event that things get edgy."

Jarek nodded and sprinted towards Daelus, who immediately boosted him up to higher position. Jarek disappeared onto the roof above.

Daelus quickly made his way around the buildings, diving into a bush at the sound of incoming Rebirth troops. With a silent step, Daelus lurked through the shadows, detecting several individuals looming in the night. After several minutes, his movement was cut short when a pair of soldiers stopped ahead of him. They were still unaware of his presence and were shirking their orders and relaxing behind the cover of a building.

Daelus grabbed the soldier at his right, muting his speech and impaling him through the back with a large dagger. The other immediately noticed the struggle and reached for his blade.

The action was cut short when an individual landed on him from above. Not wasting a second, the attacker quickly dragged a knife across his throat, ending his life.

Daelus nodded in appreciation. Tiryul only grunted in response and they both shortened the distance between themselves and the main building.




Daelus gestured towards his eyes before pointing below him, towards the window. Jarek, still perched on the roof of another building, shook his head as a negative. Daelus quickly grabbed Tiryul's attention and made a three fingers gesture. Tyrul immediately understood. He took off a small pack before tossing two small, black spheres towards Daelus, who caught them in an instant.

Putting plan B in motion, they both crept towards the sides of the main building before hanging themselves just outside each window. They immediately broke through the glass with the objects, Daelus moving alongside the edge to get another window.

Daelus noticed that the objects, upon impacting against solid ground, began to exude a heavy green smoke, and he immediately pulled himself back on the roof. "Gah. Abel, your little toys better be worth the trouble," Daelus muttered to himself.

A period of silence followed.

Then it was interrupted by three explosions of toxic gas. The chemicals permeated through the entire building, suffocating the victims trapped inside. Daelus put part two in motion. He gave a two fingers gesture to Jarek, who revealed his arrows of myth.

The long bow creaked with tension and Jarek watched as his legendary arrow burst into flame. It sprouted from the base of the arrow (where the feathers were) and traveled up to the arrowhead, glimmering brightly.

With a sharp "twang", the arrow rocketed towards its target, the toxic fumes.

Every individual around the vicinity of Aldam heard the explosion. Daelus and Tiryul were nearly deafened by it. They took a moment to shake off their daze before Daelus got Tiryul's attention. "Cover up and confirm the kill!"

They leapt through the windows opposite from each other and Daelus screened his face from the smell of burning flesh. There was still a semblance of toxic fumes wafting through the building, but were now harmless.

Daelus and Tiryul spent several minutes searching for David Strais, in their heads the clear illustration that was on the kill order. The target finally revealed himself, bloodied and charred. He was crawling across a blackened floor towards an empty room, possibly to find a weapon.

Strais was in his early thirties with messy gray hair, now singed at the tips. He had a five o'clock shadow accenting his chin, and large gray eyes that had seen far too much in his young life. His face was broad and square-like, with several stress wrinkles lining his forehead. A section of his left cheek had been badly scorched with the explosion and most of his body was covered in third degree burns.

He had not noticed the two until they finally spoke. "Why hello there, Mister Strais."

David's eyes widened in slight fear, and he crawled faster in a vain attempt to escape. His efforts were unfruitful as the two assassins restrained him, pulling him inside the room. Despite his cries of pain, they made no attempt to lessen his agony, instead opting to make him feel worst.

Soon enough, he was tied to a chair, his arms and legs restrained, with a noose dangling loosely around his neck.

"I can't wait for all of you bloody Shadow Blade pigs to die, so we can finally this world of that filth," Strais spoke quietly, referring to Justice.

He took a second to squirm in his seat slightly. "You think you're heroes! You try to stop the evolution of a new era, one where we do not have to fear the presence of the animals in our midst!" The trio listened to his ramblings, if only to humor the deluded soldier.

"This world is harsh and sick! We can finally of be rid of this pokémon menace, but you bloody pigs show us down at every turn." David struggled against his bonds as his anger began to burn. "You animals think you can stop us? Rebirth will prevail, and you will be capable of doing nothing but watch as the world sets forth the birth of a new era!"

Now Strais was incredibly aggravated, yanking at the ropes tying his hands and feet. "I curse all of you Shadow Blade filth! I hope that you all burn in the bloody pits of the Distorted W-guurck," his ramble was cut short as the noose now clutching his neck was yanked upwards, and was pulled up to the point where the chair was no longer touching the ground. Tyrul tied the end of the rope down to an immovable object, and Strais hung from his neck, choking and coughing to death.

With his hands and feet tied down, Strais could only swing on the chair as the two watched him slowly die. There wasn't a hint of remorse in their eyes. They simply watched him. He could feel death's cold hands embracing him, his hands and feet going numb, a ghostly chill traveling up his spine. Rebirth would prevail, and the Shadow Blade scum would grovel on their knees when it's plans overcame their broken military.

He would wait for them when they arrived in the Distortion World.




The entire complex shook with the concussive blasts that came from several buildings away.

"What was that!" A colonel stood up of his seat.

The entire village was immediately awash in an uproar of alert bells. Four different bells resonated with each other to alert all forces of an invasion. A sergeant rushed into the command room, covered in sweat. He didn't waste a second in informing his commanding officer. "Sir, there has been a breach in all three slave departments!"

"Colonel! The debriefing facility has been attacked!"

Several different alerts name from a variety of informants, the Colonel was stunned at the impossibility of this assault. Until he understood who responsible for all these simultaneous attacks. They were the only ones capable of this sort of scenario. "It's the Shadow Blades!"

The colonel shouted towards every individual in the room, "I want every available canine unit dispatched towards all the afflicted areas! I want all men ensuring that the slaves have been contained, not a single prisoner is allowed to escape this place! By the time this is over, I want every one of those Shadow Blade bastards' heads on a stake and all those Pokémon locked in the darkest basement in this village! If anything goes wrong, all of you can say goodbye to your ranks in this organization!"

Needless to say, all personnel jumped to work, running in and out with haste. The area was a jumbled mess of people and within minutes the barks of canines echoed around the village. Meanwhile, the colonel trembled in his chair, not of anger but of fear.

'If things go sour the commander will be preparing me for a batch of angry Sharprdo.'




"I want minimal casualties. If you can avoid it, try not to kill any of their Pokémon forces. This is supposed to be an assassination mission, I know, but I want to put a dent in their firepower for future conflict," Daelus said to each one of his teammates. "Keep in mind, Pokémon are not mindless and will attack if afraid. We need make our intention clear to them, do not rush forward at them. They will decide if they want to be saved or not. Of course... some may need a little nudge, but ensure that they understand what your intentions are."

"Yes, sir," the other three chimed in.

"In the event, that the Pokémon attack you, you are to step aside and let some of the others appeal to their species. They will most likely be more lenient towards someone of the same race."

The three nodded and Daelus continued.

"Once again, I do not want any slave casualties. It may be an acception for the Triad, but I will take it as a failure," Daelus turned to his comrades. "...and you all know how I feel about failures."

The team shuddered, remembering the last time they failed an assassination attempt so many years ago. Daelus ran over their attack strategies until it was drilled into their heads that failure was not an option.

They immediately stiffened, giving a brief "sir" in response.

"Outside of missions I am your friend. But during missions, before I am friend, I am your captain and you will follow orders accordingly," Daelus droned before turning his back to them. "You know what to do, men."

They all took off towards a section of the village ahead.




Tiryul clearly remembered his captain's orders as he led the Pokémon out of the village, directing them towards a large, empty cave. Everything, for the most part, was going according as planned. The idea was to attract the attention of all the personnel in the village, and direct them towards two of the closest slave buildings that had already been hollowed out by them from the start. Stealth allowed Tiryul make quick work of the guards protecting the each of the decoy buildings, and simply making bigger Pokémon dig an exit leading outside of the village allowed for an unnoticed escape. The explosion was caused by a Flygon, who eagerly agreed to unleash a Hyper Beam on the building.

Two more explosions were heard all around, indicating to him that he was to attack the most heavily guarded slave facility. This last building was too well protected, so stealth was not a viable option.

They would need the entire team to effectively take the building. It was lined with archers all around, followed by soldiers protected with kiteshields guarding the area from below. Tiryul was the only one capable of defending from the archers, he was carrying a Nidoking hide berserker shield, which was why he was entitled to eliminating all the archers for the others to rush into the building without the threat of arrows.

Sneaking silently through the bushes, he made his way near the wall before taking off in a sprint. The guards spotted him just as he reached the wall but by the time they reached him, he had already made too high. Quick as a spider, Tiryul used the protruding bricks as a ladder, using any of the prison windows to leap to a higher position. It took only seconds before he was on the roof the of the building. He equipped his shield just before vaulting over the ledge. As soon as he lunged over, an arrow ricocheted off the shield's tough surface.

Some of the archers surrounding Tiryul brandished small daggers to defend themselves, while others hung back to strike him down with arrows. Another one of the archers fired off an arrow, only for it to be deflected. Tiryul didn't give him a second, rushing him and bashing his skull with thick hide. The archer sailed off the building screaming as all other archers attacked.

Instantly, the rooftop became a miniature battlefield. Tiryul was blocking this way and slashing that way. A bash of a shield sent archers flying off the roof and blood was staining the rooftop.

Tiryul smacked away an incoming dagger, stabbing the owner of said weapon in the throat with a sword. He spotted an archer prepping an arrow and moved his shield to deflect it as he parried a short sword. Booting a man off the roof, he turned to face another.
Tiryul spotted the same archer as before prepared another arrow, out of the corner of his eye. He quickly impaled the man in front of him, before turning the body with him. The arrow struck his human shield's shoulder and he dropped the body, rushing the archer. Tiryul bashed the archer's head to the side, making him drop to one knee. With a quick swipe, the archer's head was sent rolling to the floor.

Tyrul turned just in time to block a dagger coming for his gut. All he received was a glancing blow but he still felt it. The dagger fell out of his attacker's hand from the shield bash, leaving the archer defenseless. Tiryul impaled the archer's chest on his blade. He quickly withdrew his blade from the man's chest before shielding from another arrow coming from his side.

The archer was sent flying off the building.

There were only two archers left. When they saw Tiryul standing amongst all the bloodshed, virtually unarmed, they fled knowing full well what the future held for them if they attempted to fight.

Tiryul, looking pleased with himself, relayed his signal to the sky. In an instant, the other three burst out of the and unleashed hell on the remaining guards below. Having minimal combat experience and lacking training, the guards were quickly dispatched. Blood decorated the floor and a path of bodies was made that led towards the jail's entrance.

The four Shadow Blades quickly rushed inside the building where they were walled off by more guards. Daelus called out to his teammates as he parried a downward slash, "We don't have much time! We need to get in there, Now!"

The others complied to the best of their ability, bashing and cutting their way into the crowded facility. After several grueling minutes that felt like hours, the crowd of Rebirth began to slowly diminished.

The team was finally able gain some leeway and Daelus took advantage of it. "Tiryul, Jarek, to the sky!"

Tiryul didn't waste a second, turning his shield to face Jarek. The fellow archer sheathed his short sword before equipping his bow once more, he launched himself at the shield. Using the shield as a springboard, Jarek was sent rocketing in the air. With his adept skills in archery he caught the wall of soldiers off guard, firing off several arrows at the backs of unsuspecting prison guards.

The rest took advantage of the villains' surprise and finished them off while they turned to cover their backs.

The area was finally clear enough to continue as the last guard fell to the ground. The team took off down separate halls, already knowing what their orders

Daelus arrived to one of the holding rooms with little trouble, only one or two guards blocking his path. When he reached the holding cells he almost retched when a horrid odor assaulted his nose. The stench of blood, feces, and rotten corpses permeated in the entire room, only a testament of what had truly occurred in there. Daelus ignored his gag reflex and lifted the steel bar from the door containing everything that awaited him inside.

Opening the door, Daelus called to the captured pokémon. "Any of you who can fi-"

Daelus almost failed to stop the bile that crept into his mouth. There were four mangled bodies of unfortunate victims strewn across the cell floors. The prisoners that remained stayed in the dark corners of their cells, ultimately broken.