It has been a long time since ya'll have seen me or this story. Sorry about that. I have only school, work, and my own burnout to blame for this. However, I'm glad to finally be able to update. Now, I've received a lot of questions from many of you of whether this story was abandoned or not, since it has been well over a year since I updated it and you guys haven't seen this story throughout all of 2019. Well, don't worry, it's still being worked on and I have all intentions to finish this story and saga. However, it's no longer a writing priority for me because I'm still working on my own novel, so this story is more of a hobby than my passion project. Now, that doesn't mean that it's not important for me or that I'm only going to update every year or so again. Quite the contrary. I will be post as soon as I can get a chapter done. For now, please enjoy this chapter and Happy 2020 everyone!

"speech"= talking out loud or conversing

*speech*= thoughts

speech= Pokemon moves

speech= telepathic communication

The Team Rocket facility was dark, darker than the guards at the front door have ever seen it be before. Despite this, for some reason, the automatic lights have not turned on and their watches still depicted that it was the middle of the afternoon. They could only see as far as their vision could afford them, but all they saw was a deep pitch black. The guards stayed at their posts, looking into the void that stood before them. A growl was heard from within the darkness, snapping the guards to attention and making them release their Pokemon, a Mightyena and a Weezing. The Pokemon looked towards the direction of the growl and stepped forward, growling as well. After a moment of this, they began to appear deeply afraid of whatever was within the darkness. They looked at each other and turned tail and ran off in the opposite direction. The guards looked at their fleeing Pokemon and raised their weapons in the direction of the growl.

One of the guards walked forward, pointing his gun while shaking in his nervousness. The second guard looked around, trying to make sure that nothing snuck around them. He heard something fall and turned around to see his companion's gun on the ground, but no sign of his companion. The remaining guard pointed his gun at the area where the other guard originally was and took a step forward. The darkness made it very hard to see and this fact scared him even more. He looked around and saw two red eyes appear and glare at him. A growl came from their direction before they vanished. The guard waited a moment, unsure as to what he had just seen. He was paralyzed with fear, so much so that he could not pull the trigger of his gun. All was quiet for a moment, until he was suddenly tackled onto a wall and had his hand and neck pinned to the wall. He turned his eyes to see what had a hold of him and saw Rick glaring at him with glowing eyes.

Rick said to him, "Call for help and I will kill you. You are going to answer a question for me. Understood?"

The guard nodded, "Whatever you want, man!"

"Where is Project Omicron?"

"He should be in the innermost area of the base with the other Projects that were assigned to watch over him until the heat died down. They didn't think you would find this place so easily."

"What Projects are here?"

"Omicron, Lambda, Beta, Chi, and Iota."

"I see. Thanks for the information."

The guard then asked nervously, "You're letting me go, right?"

Rick drew an armblade and said, "I never promised that."

Rick then spun around and impaled the guard with an armblade, watching as the guard fell motionless onto the floor. He leaned down and took the guard's radio and keycards, to aid him as he advanced.

The rest of the team soon joined him with Jean saying, "We took out the rest of the guards. Allen and Silver have also taken care of their surveillance. They're completely dark."

"Good. Let's get in there." Rick said, swinging his arm to clean it of the blood.

Dartz asked, "How?"

Rick looked around and said, "It won't be smart for all of us to go in the same way. Let's split into multiple teams and hit each point of entry, including the roof. I'll take a team with me to the roof and get the doors open."

A quickly said to him, "I'll go with you."

Rick turned and looked at the human and asked, "Why? You'll be more useful taking a team and hitting an entrance."

"Trust me; I should go with you. Once you're inside, you could possibly be swarmed by enemies. Remember, we're in enemy territory right now. You need all the muscle you can get."

"And you believe that you're the muscle I need?"

A nodded, not breaking his eye contact with Rick, "I am an Arceus Knight, afterall."

Rick kept his eyes on him, debating what he wanted to do. With a sigh, he turned around and said, "Fine! You, Wayland, and Vlad will join me inside. If you see anyone, you kill them without a second thought. Got it?"

Each member of the team was silent for a moment, not used to hearing Rick give a kill command so easily. Despite this, they all silently nodded, which was enough for the enraged Gallade.

The team quickly mobilized into multiple squads and began to move to their designated attack points. Rick and his squad silently climbed their way onto the roof of the lowest part of the building. Rick looked around and wondered how to infiltrate the building without simply punching through the roof and alerting everyone to their presence.

Vladimir went looking to see if he could spot something and stopped when he spotted a spitting fan blade. He silently called out, "Rick! We can get in through the ventilation system. Might be a bit cramped, but I think we could do this."

Rick looked at the vent and said, "Get rid of the fan. This is the best we have."

Vladimir nodded, quickly firing off an Ice Beam, which froze the fan until it stopped moving. Vladimir pulled off the grate that covered it and then pulled off the fan and its mechanism. Rick took point and slid down first, being mindful to not make a lot of noise. The rest of the team joined him, silently crawling down the metal tunnel.

Rick crawled through the vent, looking through each vent openings to see if he could see any enemies nearby. The base was mostly peaceful and few sounds could be heard, aside from distant chatter. He stopped and looked around as he got closer to where the entrance was. He could see the door console nearby and saw two guards sitting around, appearing bored.

A crawled nearer to Rick and saw the guards and the console, "We can open the door here to let another group in. We just need to take out the guards. I can probably control the metal around them to restrain them while we storm the base."

Rick looked at him and back to the guards, "No need. I'll take care of them."

"Rick, we don't need to kill anymore people. We're just here for Omicron. I think restraining is better right now."

A growl escaped Rick's lips and a black aura suddenly emerged from his body. The aura escaped the vent and shot out into the hallway, riding the walls as a shadow. A looked at the guards and saw the shadow approaching them.

A grabbed Rick and told him, "Stop!"

Rick scoffed and said, "Umm...no."

A heard the guards begin to groan and looked back to see them grabbing at their necks, as if trying to pry something off of them. He looked at the shadow and saw it wrapped around the necks of the guards' shadows, strangling them.

"Rick!"

Rick smirked and two audible cracks could be heard. A turned and saw the two guards on the ground, clearly dead. Rick took off the grate from the vent and jumped down. He walked over to the console and opened the door, letting in more of his team.

A hand gripped Rick's shoulder and Rick could hear A saying, "That wasn't necessary."

"This is war, A. If you want to keep me from killing more of these imbeciles, finish the mission as fast as you can that or kill me. Your choice."

"This isn't like you. What's going on in that head of yours?"

Rick turned and roared at A, revealing his longer canines and the energy that was surrounding him.

A drew his sword and pointed it at Rick, "Alpha? How am I not surprised?"

Rick began to laugh and Alpha's voice came through, "Hello there, Arceus' little pawn. It's been a while. How's the wife?"

"Nowhere you can bother her. Why are you here!?"

"Before you say anything else, just know that your friend here has given me permission to take over for a bit."

"Did he give you permission or are you overstepping your permissions?"

"A little of both. Point is, I'm just going to do what I have to so you guys can kill Omicron. Now, if you don't mind, I have grunts to kill."

A's sword began to glow and the metal around Alpha shot from the walls and wrapped around him, "You are going nowhere until you give Rick back his body!"

Alpha sighed and began to bend the metal that was restraining him, "You honestly believe that metal can contain me. Want me to prove your powers moot? You can't contain me."

A again caused more metal to wrap around Alpha, encasing him in a metal cocoon, "Bite me!"

Alpha's laugh could be heard, "If you insist."

A shadow shot from below and Alpha materialized from it and bit down on A's arm, drawing blood. Alpha teleported away before A could retaliate and laughed at the Arceus Knight.

He reappeared standing on the ceiling, spitting out some blood, "What's wrong? Not fast enough to hit me back? Oh well. I don't have time to deal with you. I have some killing to set off. Be a good knight and crusade through this place with me."

A glared at him and fired off a stream of fire towards him. Alpha grinned again and vanished from sight, avoiding the attack. A looked around and cursed his luck, knowing he had to attempt to stop the rampaging demon.

He called out to the group, "I'm going to go stop him! You guys get the doors open and disable the alarm." He then ran off, trying to locate Rick before he could slaughter scores of grunts and Pokemon.

Jean sighed, obviously uncomfortable over what was going on. He ran towards the control room and kicked open the door. The Team Rocket members in the room jumped in surprise and scrambled to engage him. Vlad quickly jumped in and fired off an Icy Wind, freezing everyone in the room with the frigid air, leaving them frozen in the middle of motion. Vlad walked over to the console, pushing aside the grunt that was frozen in the seat. He sat down and looked through the console and found the commands to open all exits of the facility. He then looked around and killed the alarms of the facility while he was at it.

"Alright, we're all in and Team Rocket is still in the dark." Vlad said to Jean, with a content smile on his face.

Jean smiled back and said, "Let's find this guy...after we help contain Rick."

Vlad replied, "We really have to find a way to get that demon out of him. It's getting too involved."

Jean groaned, feeling the same sentiment as his Weavile friend, "Believe me; I know."

The power in the building suddenly shut down, but the cameras and computers appeared to still be running on emergency battery power. Jean looked at the screen and saw the rest of the team going in after dismantling the main generator that powered the building.

Jean smirked, "Good! They have no way to call for help, but they might start thinking that something is amiss." A series of crashes and blasts also began to ring out, causing Jean to groan in frustration, "Aaaaaand now they should know that we're here."

Vlad pointed to the door, "That's Rick! Let's stop him!"

Jean nodded as he and Vlad charged out of the room and saw the hallway in complete disarray. The walls had holes in them, bodies lined the floor, and streaks of blood painted the walls. They turned the corner and saw Seras looking around, worried.

Jean ran up to her and told her, "Rick's gone berserk. We have to stop him."

Seras didn't bother asking any questions and took off, leaving Jean and Vlad in her dust as she ran down the multiple halls, finding dead or dying Team Rocket grunts. The walls were covered in blood, to indicate Rick's possible route, and the sound of distant growling rang out through the halls. She turned another corner and saw A glaring into a room.

Seras asked, "Michael, have you seen Rick?"

"Here's in here. I wouldn't mess with him, though; he's kinda gone off the deep end." A replied as he pointed into the room.

"I was worrying about that when I saw the trail of gore. If he keeps feeding this demonic side of himself, it will consume him."

A asked angrily, "So what do we do? If we interfere, he'll take out that rage on us."

"Just snap him out of it. Surprisingly, we just need to freeze him for a minute."

A appeared confused by what she said, as to him, it appeared mundane, "You mean like actually freezing him, or simply holding him in place?"

"Freezing him with ice. It worked last time he went on a rampage during a mission when we were mercenaries." Seras explained, trying not to sound ridiculous.

A looked into the room and saw Rick throwing a grunt out of the window and begin to scan the room once more. He motioned for her to move quietly, "Stay behind me."

He walked toward the room, preparing his ability to cast ice. He moved forward and had to dodge a corpse being thrown at him. He looked inside and saw Rick drawing his blades to kill a female grunt who was cowering in the corner. A immediately held his hands out toward him and blasted him with the freezing beam, putting a lot of power to get the maximum effect. Rick quickly turned around and fired off a beam from his mouth to stop the attack. Rick began to growl angrily and turned from the grunt. He glared at A and drew claws from his fingertips and began to charge towards him.

A jumped and flipped in the air, punching him with a frost-laden fist intended to encase him in ice. Rick was hit and his shoulder was covered in a thick sheet of ice. Rick smashed it and vanished. A whirled around, looking for the power-enraged Gallade. He couldn't see anything in the room with him, but the lingering feeling of dread permeated throughout the room. He could feel a cold chill and felt a slash on his shoulder. A hissed and backed away, blasting the area he just left and leaving it covered with more ice.

Rick vanished again and Seras walked in. She sighed and looked around with glowing eyes. She then released her aura familiar and used its massive hands to catch Rick and hold him in place, with him thrashing about and roaring. A immediately dashed and stopped in front of him, then tightly gripped his shoulders and began using his abilities to freeze him in place. Rick stopped thrashing and froze solid in place.

A sighed in relief and stepped back, saying to Seras, "Thanks for the assist."

Seras gave him a slight smile and said, "You're welcome. How's your shoulder?"

A looked to see what damage had been done. He looked at the slashes and noticed that the arm armor had blocked the blow. A grunted, remarking, "Actually, it's fine. Looks like this armor- whatever the alloy is- is also very durable when it comes to physical blows."

Seras seemed relieved and said to him, "Good! You managed to avoid getting a direct hit from those claws. Anyways, Rick should wake up as his usual self. I found out that this works a long time ago when he lost it with Jean. Richter hit him with an Ice Beam and froze him in place for a few minutes. He came out of it completely normal again. I guess he uses the time to get Alpha to back off. It's worked ever since."

Seras and A could hear whimpering and crying and turned to see the female grunt, who was still in the corner, terrified.

A looked at her and said, "Oh yeah. I forgot about her."

Seras looked at her as well and commented, "Goodness! She's just a kid. What's she doing in Team Rocket?"

Seras walked over, took on her human form, and knelt next to the girl, who was cowering as best as she could, "Get away from me!"

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. Are you hurt?" Seras asked in a gentle tone.

The girl shook her head, "No, but I almost died."

"We noticed. Tell me, why are you in Team Rocket? You seem no older than fifteen."

"I am fifteen."

"Then what are you doing with Team Rocket!?"

"I was told we were working on studying Pokemon for research and they needed people out there to capture Pokemon for research."

"So you had no idea about what they actually were, even after the first time they were brought down and then the second time they were revealed to be a criminal syndicate." Seras turned and looked at A, seeing him trying hard not to smirk.

Seras picked the girl up and dusted her off. The girl was still crying from fear, shaking as the terror still had hold of her. Seras wiped the tears from her eyes, "There there. No need to still be fearful. Is this your room?"

The girl nodded, "Yes."

"Pack your things and I'll get you out of here. Where are you from?"

"Goldenrod City."

"Alright, I'll get you there. Get your things." She turned to A and pointed out the door, "Go on without me. I'll be fine. Go get this over with."

A gave her a slight nod and ran off, intent to find Omicron and end the madness of the last couple of days.

In the room, Seras saw as the girl put her belongings in a suitcase and said to her, "Consider yourself lucky that our leader didn't come alone or who knows what he would have done to you. This isn't a place for a kid or anyone for that matter."

"I see that now. To be honest, I knew someone odd was up when more and more Pokemon kept being sent down to the pens. I didn't know how they were getting so many Pokemon and, when I asked, they told me not to worry about it. That the boss had his ways. Then I saw what some of the more seasoned members were calling the Projects. Out of them, the one that was most present was the Absol. She's absolutely nuts. Like, straight up batshit."

"Yeah, we're aware. That's Project Lambda. She's a psychopath that has full liberty to do to others as she wishes. She's extremely intelligent and uses it to hurt and mangle others. She's caused us a great deal of trouble over the years and has been the cause of a lot of deaths. Don't worry, though; we intend of getting rid of her soon enough...if we can find her."

"Well, just so you know, she's here in the base."

Seras nodded, "That much I expected. Then I guess I should go pay her a visit. Anyways, are you done?"

The girl finished closing her suitcase and nodded, "Yes."

Seras closed her eyes to concentrate and a few moments later, Dartz ran into the room, asking, "What's going on? Why did you call me?"

"Can you do me a favor? Can you please open a portal to Goldenrod City so this girl can get home?"

Dartz looked at the girl and asked, "Why would I do that for a Team Rocket member?"

"She joined because she was deceived. We stopped Rick from killing her. Trust me; I went through her head. She just wants to go home."

Dartz looked back at the girl and then back at Seras. He sighed and opened a portal, "There. She has one minute to get in it."

The girl nodded and said, "Thank you very much! I won't forget this."

Seras said to her, "Just stay away from any organization with the word "Team" in the title. Go to your family and live peacefully."

"I will. Thank you again."

The girl turned and dashed into the portal. Dartz closed it behind her and said, "You're too nice sometimes."

"Why would that be?" Seras asked, looking at her brother quizzically.

"She's the enemy and you let her live."

"She was a kid that made a poor decision. I could not justify killing her."

"Let's hope you won't regret that."

Seras stood and walked over to her brother, "I know I won't." She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "If you would excuse me, there's something here that requires my attention."

Dartz stepped out of her way and she walked off down the hall. Dartz turned and ran off, trying to find their target.

[Iota]

Iota stepped out of a portal, covered in blood and appearing rather crestfallen. He threw his sword to the side and shifted back to this normal Houndoom form, laying down on the cold ground. He scanned the darkened room around him and noted the oddity of the lack of lights illuminating the facility. It did not matter to him. As far as he was concerned, he did what was required of him. He had freed captive Pokemon from as many Team Rocket facilities as he could, and killed many guards that were there to guard them. He erupted into a pillar of flame, which destroyed all trace of the blood that was on him and almost as quickly put himself out.

He was conflicted and tired. He thought hard on his past and what he had lost and what he wanted to reclaim. He thought back on his family, his late wife and his two kids. How he wanted them back and how losing them ruined him. He held in his sadness, knowing that there was little he could do to regain them. He could not bring his wife back from the dead and he could not reclaim the love of his children.

Iota felt a presence in the room and sighed, "Why are you here, Xeron?"

He looked up and saw Xeron sitting in a chair across from him, "Can't I visit an old friend who's down on his luck? You look like hell, bud."

"Life is hell. You should know that. You didn't even make it to an old age."

"Aye! I didn't, but I didn't let that keep me down. I'm here, aren't I?"

"Much to my chagrin. Are you here to torment me? Are you a ghost looking to haunt me?"

Xeron thought for a moment and chuckled, "I have no ill-will towards you. I can't even hate you. You did what you did out of sorrow. I can't be angry at a broken man."

"Why are you here then!?" Iota demanded, beginning to lose his patience.

Xeron got up and walked over to him, sitting down next to the prone Houndoom, "I'm here because I wanted to see you. I can sense your distress and came to try to offer some comfort."

"What comfort can you possibly offer me!?"

"How about the comfort of a friend? You really need one."

Iota was silent to what he had said, preferring to rest. However, he could admit to himself that he was not angered by the Gallade's presence.

Xeron lay down next to him and said, "I wish there was no ceiling so we can gaze into the stars. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Iota opened his eyes and looked at him, "Are you a child?"

"Adulting is just a state of mind. It's more fun to sometimes be a kid at heart. Besides, when you were a kid, you liked doing that."

"Do I look like a kid to you?"

"You look like you need a nap and a belly rub."

Iota rolled his eyes and put his head back down, "What would you know?"

"I definitely have a higher kill count than you do and have faced even worse enemies in battle. Trust me, I'm tired too. Look outside the window at the black sky. It's early afternoon and Arceus has decided that plagues will fall onto you guys until you correct a mistake. I'll admit, you did well so far. So that's why the plagues have been halted for the moment."

"What was I to expect?"

"Well, your skin hasn't broken out in boils and you're not being tormented by insects. However, it's going to start raining fire or rather burning ice. I don't remember Arceus' main way of dishing out plagues is like. It's been millenia and I've never seen it. I just go by old stories. So far the darkness is a thing and the water into blood. So I guess that's accurate."

"What else do I have to do to stop this stupidity?"

"I don't know."

Iota glared at him and said, "If you weren't dead, I would have killed you."

"Too late, son." Xeron sat up and looked down the hallway, "Get ready. Someone is coming for a scrap." Xeron then suddenly vanished, leaving Iota to look around.

Iota's ears perked up as he heard footsteps in the darkness in front of him and could see glowing red eyes glaring daggers at him. Iota quickly summoned his sword, which he wrapped his tail around, and swung, blocking flying sickles that were coming towards him. He jumped to his feet and snarled at the approaching figure.

Iota barked, "Attacking me now, Lambda!?"

Lambda emerged from the shadows and replied, "What else should I do to you? You think I don't know what you did!? All those Pokemon! All those potential test subjects...GONE!"

"Sorry to ruin your twisted fun, but I chose to do what was right!"

"Since when have you given a single cunting damn about what was right or wrong!? You were always the "do what your mission entails you to do" guy. You have never cared about anything else here."

"Maybe it's because I don't care about any one of you fools! I've had so many years to think and ponder what the hell I'm doing. I've lost everything and it led here. I didn't stop to think about the damage I caused all because of my boiling anger and hatred of the life I ended with. However, there are still some things I still care about. I have to be better than this. Enslaving others and letting you play mad scientist on them is wrong and I will have the blood of thousands on me for the rest of my life. It ends here. Team Rocket ends. I won't bring about its downfall, but I took away its bargaining chips."

Lambda's eyes narrowed to angered points, "Do you want me to kill you for treason now or painfully dissect you later? Either way, you will die."

"You don't have the power to kill me."

"You always underestimate those around you. You'll see how that can quickly spell your end."

She suddenly vanished and reappeared next to him, trying to slash him with her sickle. Iota quickly reacted by swinging his sword at her and blocking the attack. Iota then spun around and lunged forward, slamming her with his horns and sending her rolling on the ground. Lambda stood back up and snarled at Iota.

Iota said to her, "Just stop already. You're just a scientist. Nothing more."

Lambda glared at him again but then suddenly began to chuckle, "Is that what you think? Well then, let me show you what a scientist could do."

She jumped back and vanished into the darkness. Iota looked around and quickly switched back into his humanoid form, grasping his blade in preparation for an attack. He listened and could hear something wisping through the air. He slashed upwards, knocking back a sickle. He quickly spun around and knocked away another sickle, this one coming from behind him.

Iota thought back as much as he could, but realized that he had no idea what Lambda's powers entailed. He heard multiple sickles flying through the air, forcing him to drop to the ground to avoid all of them, with each one clashing with each other.

Iota jumped to his feet and blew out a large plume of fire around the room, creating fires to light the room. Around the room, he could see multiple portals on the walls. Lambda came out of one of them in her humanoid form and lunged at him with her hand scythe and sickle. Iota blocked one weapon and was forced to dodge the other. Lambda kept up the pressure and slashed as quickly as she could, eventually succeeding in slashing him on the arm.

Now angered, Iota collected flames in his mouth and shot out a Flamethrower at her. Lambda quickly jumped back and jumped into a portal to avoid the flames. She jumped out of one at the end of the hall and threw out a chained sickle and whipped it at Iota. Iota caught the sickle and pulled as hard as he could, sending Lambda stumbling towards him. He lined up a swing and swung his sword at Lambda. Lambda quickly leaned back, dodging the swing, and then kicked upwards, knocking Iota's sword from his hands. Lambda recalled her sickle and swung at Iota. Iota avoided the attack and grabbed her wrist, and then caught the other hand as she tried to counter. Iota used his superior strength and threw into a door, sending her flying into another hallway.

Lambda rolled on the ground, groaning in pain. She lifted herself onto her hands and feet, but was suddenly kicked by an angry Iota. He got on top of her and began to punch down towards her. Lambda leaned her head to the side and avoided the punch, retaliating by raking Iota's eyes. With him recoiling in pain, she took advantage and punched him off of her. She rolled to her feet and kicked his head as he tried to get back up. She summoned her chained sickle and quickly wrapped the chain around Iota's throat and pulled back as much as she could. Iota grabbed the chain and tried to pull it off his throat.

Lambda kept a tight hold on the chain, trying to keep Iota from breaking free. Iota rolled his eyes and erupted into a pillar of fire, obliterating the chain and hurting Lambda in the process. She staggered back and yelled in pain from the burns. Iota got back up and walked up to Lambda and slapped her across the face, causing her to stumble onto a chair that was in the hall. Iota approached her and grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up. Lambda quickly summoned a hand scythe to her hand and slashed back, slashing his chest, causing him to let go. She then grabbed the chair and bashed it over his head, causing him to fall to a knee. He tried to get back up, but was hit again with the metal chair. He stumbled, nearly falling, but regained his composure and tried to rise once more. Lambda lifted the bent chair again and swung it at him, but Iota quickly blasted it with flames and destroyed the chair.

Barking angrily, Iota bashed her with his horns again, sending her crashing onto the wall. He lunged forward and caught her head and bashed it into the wall repeatedly, soon letting her go and letting her fall to the ground, groaning in great pain. Iota stepped back, groaning from his own injuries. His head was pounding from the blows with the chairs and he had to admit to himself that he was tired from the battle and the slaughter he partook in prior to it.

He said to Lambda, "This is dumb! You can't beat me. Just stop."

Lambda crawled over to another chair and used it to help herself stand. She collapsed on it, sitting down and panting, "We just got into the equivalent of a bar brawl. The fight is just starting."

She stood up and Iota could see her purple aura appearing, with the 'L' on her chest beginning to glow. Lambda then raised a hand, covering it with her energy and slammed it onto the nearby wall. The room quickly took on a purple tint and Lambda pointed towards him. Chains suddenly shot out of the walls and homed in on Iota. Iota jumped back to try to avoid the chains, but more appear and came for him as well. He blasted them back with a Dark Pulse and avoided the ones that weren't hit. For the next wave, he tried to jump back, but his leg was caught by a chain that came from the ground. He was immediately set upon by the other chains, which wrapped themselves around his limbs and left him open and restrained.

Lambda walked over, while saying, "Welcome to my restraining field. In this field, you're at my mercy. It took a while to manipulate my energy to create this, but this is one of my weakest techniques, but it worked great one you."

Iota growled and pulled against the chains, "I'll get out of this and you'll die."

"Try all you want. If you break them, more will come to tie you up again. So shut up and take what's coming for you."

She summoned a sickle to her hand and slashed his chest and then stabbed him in the shoulder with her hand scythe. Iota held in a groan of pain, but instead snarled at her.

Lambda slapped him across the face and said, "Put those fangs back in your mouth before I force you to swallow them."

Iota moved his head back to its original position, but was met with a punch from Lambda. Lambda again sank the scythe tip into his shoulder.

"Come on! Scream! Why are you staying so calm!?"

Iota chuckled and said, "Because I know you love to hear the screams of your victims and you love to see them squirm. I'm not giving you the courtesy."

She kneed him in the gut as a result of what he said and slashed his chest again, leaving a visible 'X', "I've just about had it!"

Iota replied, "Same here. You really need to pay attention."

"Huh?" Lambda asked, confused by what he was referring to.

Iota suddenly erupted with his dark aura and let out a roar that shook the room. Lambda looked around and saw the field she had placed onto the room crack and then shatter, releasing Iota.

Iota, now free from his restraints, swiftly tackled Lambda and sank his fangs into her arm, forcing her to let go to the hand scythe. She tried to retaliate with her sickle, but Iota stepped on her other arm to stop it. He stood up, putting pressure onto her arm, and came down with a fist onto her face. He jumped off of her and blasted her with Fire Blast as she got up, launching her away and causing an explosion on the far side of the hallway, leaving a thick cloud of smoke.

Groaning in pain, Iota staggered back, leaving him leaning on a wall for support. He concentrated energy into his wounds and began to close them as best as he could, but he was too tired to do it as quickly as he could before. He looked over to the smoke and could see a light beginning to poke through it. He readied himself and saw a large purple Void Cannon coming towards him. Iota opened his hand and his sword came flying towards him. He caught it and began to concentrate energy into the blade and fired out a Kage Nami towards the beam. The two attacks clashed for a moment, but the Kage Nami began to cut through the beam, quickly overpowering it. Lambda noticed them and vanished, letting the attack pass by without harming her.

Iota looked around for her, knowing that he had no hit her. His ears perked up at a sound, causing him to swing his blade above him and block a dive attack from her. She jumped off the clash and lunged for him, which he blocked, putting the two of them into another clash for power.

Their struggle kept going until a bash came from the wall near them. They stopped and looked at the wall, as it cracked with another bash. The two turned readied themselves for anything that could be coming through the wall. The hiss of energy gather filled the air as the wall blew into pieces and Seras walked into the hallway, glaring at the two Projects.

Iota was surprised at seeing her, not expecting her to be there, "Seras? What are you doing here?"

Lambda laughed for a moment and said, "I forgot to say that this facility is currently under attack by Project Alpha and his cronies. I was on my way to deal with them until I sensed your energy returning and wanted to face you instead. Just so you know, the others are already engaged or on their way to engage with them. I suspect they're here to get revenge on Project Omicron. Oh well! Let them kill the fool."

Seras let her aura out and said angrily, "For what your damn organization did to Ashlyn and to so many other Pokemon...I will never forgive you."

Iota saw her rage and could feel her power rising as her anger grew, "Seras, wait! Let's not do anything drastic. Relax!"

Seras looked at him and said, "You are the last person who can command me!"

Lambda chuckled, which then turned to laughter, "So you came to fight us? I'm sorry, dearie. However, we were already having our own little scuffle. How about you leave now before I'm forced to cut you to ribbons as well. If you're smart, you should take this opportunity I'm giving you to run away now. It's Iota I want to cut up right now. Though, I am not opposed to shedding your blood as well. You are all positively annoying to me at the moment. All of you have been getting in the way of my research."

Iota looked over at Lambda and said, "If YOU were smart, you would stop patronizing her!" He looked at Seras and put his sword on the ground, "Relax! I'm not here to fight you. I understand why you're angry and I'm sorry for what happened to Ashlyn. However, taking this gamble of fighting us is not going to bring her back. This whole mission for revenge is meaningless. You can kill Omicron, but is he truly in control of himself? You guys killed the love of his life and Giovanni has him housing tiny nanomachines in his body to keep him obedient. Is he really guilty of everything you want to kill him over?"

"Why are you being so nice to her?" Lambda asked, "She's our enemy."

"Let's just say that there's a certain respect I have for these fools, considering how many times I've had to deal with them. Project Alpha is the only one I usually fight out of principle. I hold no ill will to them."

Seras glared at him and yelled, "Be silent!"

She erupted into a column of blue aura and appeared in her Demon Seras form, eyeing her two targets.

Lambda looked on in amazement and smirked, "Oh now I'm interested! I need to study this power."

Iota sighed and said, "Damn it all!"

Seras took a step forward and readied her fists, "This base will your tomb."

Well, there we go. I'm so happy to finally have another chapter out and I'll begin work on the next one. So let's hope it doesn't take me another year and four months to get another chapter out. I highly doubt it will, at least I'll try not to. So leave me a review or a comment and let me know what you think of the latest chapter. Thanks so much, guys! Bye!