He froze midstep, no more than ten feet out of the door, with the entire rest of the group stopping behind him at the unidentified voice.

A speaker panel near the swivel-mounted security camera crackled to life again. "Or perhaps a better question would be where you have been, hmm?"

He didn't dare turn around; he could feel the questioning looks on his back from both Will and Tenrou, and Sanakou was practically glaring daggers through him. And they had nearly escaped, too. But there was no escaping for them now, not after they had been seen, not after he had been seen. He sighed,

His absol looked up at him with a queer combination of accusation and fear. The white-furred pokémon turned around and looked back to the camera.

Again, a sigh. He turned around, avoiding eye contact with the other three humans he was with, but speaking to them regardless. "We're done. There's nothing to do but go back in, but do exactly as I say."

The tinny voicebox on the wall spoke again, "Come back inside. All of you." A short pause, then it continued, adding meaningful emphasis to its next words. "We have a little catching up to do with one of you, don't we?"

Axl hardly reacted to the words that were so obviously meant for him, it was as if he were completely emotionless- an empty shell of a person. "There isn't much time for me to say this, but you need to do what I say- exactly as I say. Understand?" He still avoided their gaze as he began moving slowly back towards the door to the truck loading zone.

"Excuse me?!?" It was Sanakou who raised an objection to this. "It was your stupid plan that got us stuck in this mess to begin with! Why the hell should we trust you now!?!"

Axl didn't reply; he didn't have to. No sooner had she said this, than there was a menacing growl from her feet as Terry held her tail blade against the back of Sanakou's legs. The absol addressed her directly Sanakou nearly jumped, but was quick to regain her rage and started to say something to rebut the insult, but she was cut off. Terry waited a moment, then caught Tenrou and Will's attention as she spoke to them as well. Her tone was chillingly final, and she put the slightest bit of pressure against Sanakou's leg with her tail blade; there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was fully serious.

Sanakou looked wide-eyed to Axl, then down at the deadly-sharp blades of the absol at her feet. The redhead looked her in the eye for the first time since the intercom had called him out. "That's a blunt way to put it, but it's true." He locked eyes now with the black and white pokémon. "Terry, let her go- this will solve nothing." His eyes came back up and he spoke to the three trainers with him. "Sanakou, I won't sugar-coat it. What Terry said is one-hundred-percent true. She and I know these people, so if you want any of us to have a chance of walking away from this you need to listen to us, even if you don't trust us." He shook his head sadly. "Heck, after all this, I don't know if even I would trust myself..." His head snapped back up again as he proceeded to lay out their situation. "First things first, we need to start walking in before they get suspicious of us."

The group did an about-face and began heading back inside, where they had been trying to sneak away only moments before. Axl led them in, with the demeanor of a condemned man walking to the executioner's block; Terry pawed her way along by his side, her head defiantly held high. Will and Tenrou walked behind him side-by-side, with Mina between them. The shiny zangoose no longer had to drag her companion along, but the both of them were in a state of shock beyond being able to object, respond to, or even acknowledge Axl's words. Will still carried Mayumi in his arms, and Poochyena still followed at his heels, but the lot of them now radiated fear, where before it had merely been anxiety and curiosity. Sanakou pulled up the rear, more in a disbelieving stupor than any of the others. The way her prinplup attempted to hide behind her legs would have been comical in any other situation.

The whole bunch of them got inside and began walking towards the door back to the control room. Axl kept his eyes dead ahead as he talked to the others. "Listen well: when we get inside and meet these people, nobody speak unless they address you, and don't make any flippant remarks. They don't need much excuse to do whatever they want, so don't give them any." Sanakou gulped. "Also: do not, under any circumstances, recall your pokémon or even touch a pokéball. At all. Just trust me on this one." Will's mind was too deadened by the stress of the situation to think of any questions. They were inside the control room now, heading for the center of the room, in front of the door they had first entered from. "And finally, no matter what happens do not believe a word they say. They make their lives on manipulation and lies, and they're frighteningly good at just that. No matter how convincing or true it may seem, even if part of what they say is true, don't believe a word of it unless you can see for yourself that it's entirely true." Tenrou and Mina shared a look that would have held a large measure of skepticism had they been able to think at all. "If we get out of here I need to have a good long discussion with all of you and explain this- you deserve at least that much."

They stopped when they were standing back in the center of the room among the rows of stacked computers. The discarded full restore Will had used earlier could be seen lying off to the right, next to one of the machines. They stood there a moment, and before they could feel unsure of what to do next the door to the main hallway opened. The sudden movement made every human and pokémon among them flinch, but when the door opened, the only one on the other side was a man no taller than five-eight dressed in dark, baggy clothing. The man spoke in an unaccented voice that was entirely forgettable yet one which demanded obedience on penalty of death. "You will follow me." He turned and, without waiting to see that they indeed were following, began to walk away from the door. Everyone looked to Axl for direction, and he simply nodded then, as a whole, they started after the man.

He led them down the main hall for about twenty feet or so, then turned right and opened a door which revealed a stairwell leading upwards. They all climbed in silence, following the man as he got out of the stairway on the second floor. As soon as they did, it was obvious where they were headed- a colossal garchomp stood hunched over in front of a room, its head stooped down to avoid scraping the drop-ceiling. Their guide walked them over to the room where the mach pokémon stood, knocking on the closed door once, then stepping back and kneeling. A moment later the door was opened by another man dressed identically to the man who had led the group here. The one who opened the door looked down and saw his compatriot, then looked behind him and saw the others then grunted. He looked back over his shoulder and muttered something incomprehensible to someone in the room with him, then stepped back from the door, leaving it slightly ajar.

Less than two seconds later, a fair-skinned hand reached out of the room and grabbed the handle of the door, pulling it farther open that its owner might step outside. As the door was pushed aside, Axl and the others could see that the woman before them was about five-nine and had a very light stature. She had cold, gray eyes and platinum-blonde hair which she let fall back behind her shoulders. Her all-black outfit consisted of a black muffler, low-cut top covered by a flowing light jacket which swept down to below her knees, a pair of black slacks, and fine, angular heels. She looked down to the man kneeling in front of the doorway and gave him a dismissive wave of the hand. "All right" she said, "You can go inside and wait for me now."

The assassin wasted no time following her commands, and walked around her and into the room, where he was lost to sight in the darkness of the chamber. The woman then spoke to Axl. "So, I can see that you've been making a few friends since you ran off, haven't you?" She wore a sadistic smile on her face and continued. "You know that you can't just leave like that, and so do I. It may not have been our purpose here to retrieve you- there are others whose job that was- but you will come with me, and your friends will accompany us as well."

"Leave them out of this." Axl growled, not making eye contact with her. "You may be able to do what you want to me, but you leave them out of your schemes, hear me Cynthia?"

She smiled all the wider at this. "You aren't really in much of a position to argue anything, much less to make me go against an order from the council themselves. Your disappearance caused a few certain council members quite a deal of concern, you see, so I'm afraid I can't allow any of these trainers here to leave." She looked at the three humans standing timidly behind Axl- Will was still holding Kirlia, and both of them had hollow expressions on their faces as they both retreated from the reality of what was happening, and Poochyena sat behind him, trying not to attract the attention of the hungry-looking garchomp standing next to Cynthia. Tenrou and Mina stood next to Will, and both of them looked like they were beginning to come to terms with the situation, but they both still had a distant look to them. Behind all the others, Sanakou stood shaking from fear with her prinplup doing much the same and trying to hide behind her. Cynthia almost felt sorry for these kids, that they had to be involved in this- almost. She would get a deal of enjoyment from them first, of that she was sure.

The door behind Cynthia opened and a weavile walked out, looking up at her with disdain. It spoke in plain English, "We all have the right to speak with them, do we not? After all, who's to say you won't be more lenient because of..."

"Fine." Cynthia cut the short pokémon off. "If you want to speak with them then be my guest, but I'll be keeping an eye on things- we want them all alive, and I wouldn't want your own prejudices interfering with that." She made a point of looking up to the garchomp towering above them all.

"Feh, if you think that overgrown brute could take me down, you've got another thing coming, but whatever." The pokémon inspected its claws, and a quick breath coated them in solid ice, as if to make a point. It then turned from the human with her garchomp and faced Axl and his companions. "You have interrupted a very dicey operation here, and no matter what blondie there says, I would be entirely justified if I were to gut you all right now and feed your entrails to that dragon there." The pokémon gave them all a look colder than any ice it could summon. "So you will explain this to me- what were you doing here, and why should I not do exactly as I described?"

Axl spoke first, looking down at the weavile with no small measure of anger. "You should know better than even I do what happens to anyone who disobeys orders from a superior, much less one operating on orders directly from the council. Your threats carry no water, and trying to intimidate me with force won't work, so get bent." The dark type pokémon looked stunned for a second, and her expression flashed with a quick show of rage, as she took half a step back into a fighting stance. Before she could do anything more, Axl was kneeling in front of her and, in a flash, his hands were positioned so that his first two fingers on either were firmly prodding into the base of her neck from both sides.

"I may not have the natural abilities of a weavile, or any pokémon for that matter," Axl said darkly, looking the weavile in they eye, his face inches from her own. "But even so, I am more than a match for you." He increased the pressure that his fingers were exerting on her neck, and she winced in pain as he kept a pincer-grip around her trachea and simultaneously cut off circulation to her head. "So take your threats elsewhere, before you do something you'll regret." He held his hands where they were for a moment more, to let his point sink in, then released her and stood back up, returning to the group.

Weavile fell to her knees, gasping for air despite herself, then stood back up and grinned at Axl. "So you are as sharp as they said." She turned back around and walked past Cynthia into the dark room once more. "You're right," the pokémon said offhandedly, "I'll save my questions for later. Let's get to work."

Cynthia nodded and turned her attention back to her captives. "You will do as I say, understood?" They all nodded silently. "Good. What we are about to do is finish off these pests and free the workers of this power plant. You four and your companions will stay in this room here and will not touch anything. Am I clear?" Another round of bobbing heads. "Alright then, follow me." She glided backwards and through the open door into the blackness beyond. Axl and the rest followed and were momentarily blinded by the sudden loss of illumination, but a moment later their eyes had adjusted and they could see that they were standing in the facility's security room, which had audio/video feed from every security camera in the building. No wonder they had been found out.

The four of them were directed to sit in a far corner while Cynthia and her companions coordinated their attack on the lower floors. Once they were seated, she and her group began looking for the video feeds which would show them the basement level where Mars and her crew were holed up with the hostages. "Dammit," the blonde growled. Every monitor which would have shown them anything of use was blacked out or static-filled: the Galactics had known to destroy the cameras. "Well this complicates matters..." She turned from the screens and began to pace.

Weavile, on the other hand, was not daunted by this in the least. "This changes nothing!" she nearly yelled, "We know where they are, and there is absolutely no chance that they could see us going in if you send me and my team." She stepped in front of Cynthia and pushed a hooked claw lightly into her stomach, forcing her to stop and look down at her. "We can get past them, take their commanders hostage, and force them to release their hostages. Once that's done we're free and clear to clean them up as we first planned."

Cynthia stepped back from the audacious Weavile and pondered this for a moment. Axl interjected before she could reply however. "You'd betray them? You'd make a deal to get what you want then just kill them?" There was a fire in his eyes when he yelled this, and he continued. "If that's the way you deal with outsiders, even if they are a criminal syndicate, then it's no wonder you never show your face in daylight." He spat on the floor. "At least have the honor to confront them head-on and risk what you will if you don't have the guts to strike a fair deal."

Weavile didn't hesitate, and before anyone could react, she was on his shoulders from behind, with her claws drawn across his throat. "Oh? Then what would you have us do? Let these criminals, these scum walk free simply because we can't ensure the safety of the innocent without dishonesty? Grow up." She pushed a little harder with her claws, and broke the skin of his neck; a trickle of blood seeped down from the spot. "Unless you have a better plan, you had best pipe down, before I remove your voicebox for you." A sick, twisted grin spread across her dark-furred face, and she pulled her claw a few inches across his skin, increasing the flow of blood.

A bright flash of light, and both Axl and Weavile were on the floor, writhing against invisible bonds. Across the room, Cynthia had both hands fully outstretched to the both of them, and her eyes glowed brightly from within with a flickering blue flame. "Enough!" She yelled, "You Weavile need to learn to control your temper, and you Axl need to learn to hold your tongue." She flicked her wrists upwards and the two were brought into standing positions and then seemed to be released from whatever power had held them.

The fire behind her eyes died, but the intensity of her gaze did not as Cynthia continued. "Axl is right here; we cannot resort to underhanded tactics like this, but at the same time Weavile is also right: we cannot simply let them walk free in good conscience." She gave them both hard stares, and then walked over to the three trainers in the corner, who had been watching the whole exchange frozen in silence. "You, with the kirlia," she said, pointing to Will. "What is your name?"

Will hesitated for a moment before responding, "M- My name... My name is Will, ma'am."

Cynthia looked as if she were lost in thought for a moment, before nodding, and asking "Okay Will, what do you think? What should we do here?"

"M- ME?!" Will nearly choked. A slow nod from Cynthia, and Will slowly began. "Well... I don't really know what they were trying to do here, but I know that a lot of them have done awfully nasty things before, and if you let them go, they'll probably do more." He stopped for a moment, then gathered his thoughts and went on. "Still, they're human, just like you and I-" There was a loud cough from behind Cynthia, and she whirled about to glare at the offender. She turned back to him and nodded, indicating for him to go on. "Well, they're not perfect; nobody is, so if you give them a second chance, they might turn it around." He waited to see a reaction, but when there wasn't any, he explained further. "We all make bad decisions, and even if some of these people are truly evil at heart, I think there's at least a few who just made some really bad decisions. If you just kill them all, you'll never be able to know if they could have been good members of society or if they really were just common thugs and crooks."

"That's a good point, thank you Will." Cynthia didn't smile at all as she said this; she simply turned around to continue thinking.

"That's a sentimental load of crap is what that was," scoffed Weavile. "We don't have time to ask them 'are you really a good person, Mr. galactic or are you a backstabbing murderer?' before they try to kill us all, so give it up."

"I'll be the judge of that," Cynthia interjected. "Don't you forget who the leader of this operation is, after all." She glared at the others behind the dark/ice pokémon, and they all returned her gaze. "We cannot simply kill them all, as then we would appear the villains here, regardless of the reality behind it. Since we can't do that, we should proceed with the original plan- to a point." She moved to the video console and leaned back against it. "It's true that it would be a good idea to take their commanders hostage since they would be more likely to trade them over for the prisoners. But if we only do so to trick them then as I have said, things would look bad. Instead, we should then bring them back here and use them to assess their own troops. Who would know their own people better than a commander who had handpicked each and every person on the site?" She made a point of looking right at Weavile as she said this.

"Fine, so we bring Mars up here, I can follow that." Weavile spoke up. "But then how are we supposed to get her to talk, huh? Who's to say she'd be willing to say 'that one's bad, kill him' or 'oh, he's a good guy, let him live' hmm? That's basically what you're proposing, isn't it?"

At this, Cynthia smiled and walked over to the upstart pokémon and knelt down to its eye level. "That's simple. We just use what's available." She waited a moment then stood back up with a cold expression back on her face. "You'll do as I say, and I'll worry about what to do from there." Weavile growled at being demeaned in such a manner, but did as she was told. The pokémon grunted to the two black-garbed men and the three of them swiftly swept across the room, leaving to execute their orders.

"And don't forget." Cynthia called after them as they left. "There may not be cameras for me to watch with, but don't think I won't know if something... untoward... should happen to any of them while you're down there." The three dark figures paused, looked back, then continued out the door, leaving Cynthia, Scizor, and Golduck in the room with Axl, Will, Tenrou, Sanakou, and their pokémon.

Axl had now calmed down, and he and Terry had sat down on the floor against the wall, her head resting in his lap as he scratched the fur around the base of her horn. Tenrou seemed to have gained more of his composure, and he and Mina had taken a spot next to Axl, clenching each other's hand as they waited for whatever was going to happen to them. After being questioned by Cynthia, Will had taken a seat in the far corner of the room from the group of strangers, and Poochyena and Kirlia both shared his lap as they tried not to shake in fear. Sanakou had mostly recovered from her shock by now, but still seemed detached from the situation as she sat on the ground between Will and Tenrou, with Napoleon still trying futilely to hide himself behind her. The whole group of them were at this point simply waiting to see what would happen next, and how it might affect them, and they didn't have long to wait.

Within moments of the door closing behind Weavile and company, Cynthia made a quiet comment to the two pokémon assassins left in the room, and they nodded and slowly walked out of the room, where they stood next to the towering Garchomp in the hallway. Cynthia then turned to the four trainers in the corner and began speaking. "No doubt your friends here," She nodded her head to Axl and Terry, "Have told you that I'm not someone to trust, to not take me for my word, and in general that myself and my... colleagues... are generally some very bad people." She waited, and after a silent pause, continued while Axl and Terry both threw withering looks at her. "I can assure you that while we may seem uncaring, it isn't that we don't, it's that we can't afford to in these situations." She looked to the door to her left. "I'm sure you have gathered this much for yourselves by now, but those Team Galactic members have holed themselves up in the basement of this facility and have taken the entire staff of the Windworks as hostages. If we hesitate or show the slightest sign of weakness, those people will all die."

Now she walked over to stand nearly in front and above them, as she continued explaining. "I had to ask the other two to leave, because what I'm going to tell you now, they wouldn't like at all." She saw that she had the unwavering attention of the three trainers she was talking to, then said, "You probably saw how cocky and unpersonable Weavile was to you four and myself, while she was at least professional towards her own human companions. This is because she, like all of the pokémon members of this team are fiercely independent, and the thought of pokémon trainers is nearly insulting to them. Most of them dislike humans in general, but the idea of one keeping them at their beck and call like they assume trainers do is enough to make their blood boil, and they would likely have killed you all for simply owning pokéballs in the first place, had I not told them not to." Another brief pause, then she knelt down with one hand on her knee and looked to Axl. "Perhaps you would care to confirm this, to prove that what I've said isn't just fabrication?"

Axl nodded, then turned to the right, seeing the other three looking raptly at him. "She's right," he admitted, "they don't want anything to do with trainers, and they have the skill and motivation to kill you all. I might last a second longer, but with five of them we wouldn't have a prayer of a chance."

Cynthia smiled a thin smile, and looked back to her audience. "Thank you, Axl. Now here is what is about to happen: we are going to take the Galactic Commander in charge of this operation, Mars, hostage as a bargaining token to negotiate the release of the hostages. We're confident that this will work, because most of the rank-and-file down there are so uninformed that without her, they won't be able to make any sort of decision about what to do, which will give us enough advantage to secure the hostages and free them." She then looked to Will with a crooked grin. "You had a good idea Will, one which I was surprised by and which, coincidentally, you are in a unique position to make possible."

"What?" Will blurted. "What do you-?"

Cynthia gently held up a hand to silence him. "Shush. You suggested that we not kill them all, because some of them are quite likely not responsible for the atrocities of their comrades, and because they may be pure of heart or intention. That was surprisingly insightful, and if it hadn't been for you speaking up, I likely would have simply had them killed to a man." She then stopped for a breath and asked him "Do you agree with what Weavile said, that it was unlikely for us to get that sort of information from Mars?" A nod from Will, and she gave him another smile. "But she certainly must know that information, right?" Again, a nod. "So if she knows, but won't tell us, then what can we do to get that knowledge from her accurately?" She gave a hinting look to the two creatures cowering in Will's crossed legs.

Will's eyes went wide as he realized what she was driving at, and what that implied. Before he could even speak a single word in protest, Axl snarled with anger and bellowed at Cynthia. "How DARE you!" He was on his feet in less than a second. "How dare you force that on him, and especially on Kirlia! You know damn well how difficult that sort of decision is, and to make her do that would leave her feeling personally responsible for each person she condemned." He leveled an accusing finger at her. "You may have been telling the truth before, but I can't believe you're playing this kind of a game. You can't possibly expect me to believe that you don't have a single psychic pokémon with you, or at least one capable of telepathy and mind-reading!"

Axl's sudden outburst had actually startled Cynthia, and she almost fell from her kneeling position, but caught herself and rose to her full height, which was very nearly as tall as Axl was. She gave him a dangerous look and coolly replied, "You are already in a world of trouble, thanks in no small part to your little disappearing act, so I suggest you take a seat and remain quiet." The two locked gazes, but after a few mere seconds, Axl backed down, and he resumed his position on the wall, looking much more distraught and defeated than he had before.

Cynthia then looked back down to Will and said, much less gently than she had before "It's your choice. You can let your pokémon help us and save the lives of some of those below, or you can spare her that responsibility and let them all be killed arbitrarily by what Mars says." She extended a hand, as if to help him up. "It's your choice."

Will's thoughts raced for a moment as he tried to decide what the better course of action was- if he allowed Mayumi to read that Mars woman's thoughts then there was no telling how scarred she might feel because of the deaths that would ensue, but if she didn't then it was all up to hoping that Mars would be honest, which was an awfully big assumption. There was no way he could let Mayumi have to experience that kind of thing, yet there was no other way to get out of this. he called to her telepathically. He felt guilty having to ask her this.

came the timid reply. The small psychic pokémon buried her head in his shoulder and started crying. Will replied,

After a brief pause, Cynthia nodded to him and he asked her,Chapter End Notes:So now we add a few hundred more questions that won't be answered for a while, and it looks like Axl's in deep trouble, while Tenrou and Sanakou kinda sit along for the ride. Will ad Mayumi, on the other hand seem to have become our "involuntary volunteers" haven't they? Or perhaps the title refers to Commander Mars? Or maybe it's someone else entirely... Who knows?

Anyways, there's gonna be our big, climactic finish to this little escapade within a chapter or two (take that to mean whatever length of time you will :P) and then our haphazard posse of trainers and pokémon will get a brief reprieve. Maybe.

Also, it appears that the whole "literature section going crazy" bit has done a number on TRLT, cutting off almost all of at least on chapter, so I'll be trying to go back and fix that ASAP, but until then if anything looks out-of-place or just plain retarded it's probably that a bit of thought-speech got baleeted by the story system here, so until it gets worked out you can just check the story out at my site (nonasuomi.freehostia.com) or my DA acount (nonasuomi.deviantart.com) where they should appear properly.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it