Chapter 15: The Star of Nexus

Otto shakes off the remainder of his sleep before leaping up and slashing Noctowl again with his icy claws, giving the bird a smirk as he passes.

Meanwhile, Tully darts out of the melee briefly, taking a moment to prepare and analyze what's going on around him before his next strike.

Kuki grits her teeth as the gap widens. Still, her victory conditions have not changed. She charges at Tully and drives her knife into his side and takes it out, causing a rush of blood to seep out the wound. Yozora looks at Kuki wide-eyed as the attacker continues to have her composure. "It wasn't supposed to go like this." She cries as she drops to Noctowl.

Coincidentally, Marietta throws the sleeping potion at Yozora just as she drops, causing it to miss by a wide margin. But her quick thinking pays off as she releases Alakazam at the time of her throw. He then lifts Yozora in the air to subdue her for the time being.

Pelipper spreads his wings and boosts himself up to the unreachable sky(25ft)

----------------------------------------------------

Yozora manages to regain her center of gravity with ease. 
"Hehe, looks like we've been slacking on our battling tactics these last few years. Wasn't a need to fight anyone." Marietta says with a smile. 

Yozora looks at Jace and Sana with their pokemon. "I-I'm not a fighter, and Kuki is making herself relive her days when she wasn't with us! We can't continue fighting like this!" she cries to her partner.
"I don't give a crap about Paradiso so I would've given up a long time ago, Yozora. But we're doing this for Lady Tatsumaki, we owe more than our lives to her, so I'm not letting her wishes get trampled on!" Kuki yells as she prepares to go another round with Tully.

"So you did destroy the Regibot lying over there!" says Yozora

"S-selfcentered!?" Sana's comment cuts through Kuki. Her rage reaches the precipice, the boiling blood evaporates. Her vision turns red, then hazy, then pitch black.

Along with Whimsy's taunt, Sana's comment of Paradiso's selfishness ran Kuki to the brink of her conscious. If she were to take a breather and think clearly maybe the battle would have drawn on. Yozora runs to her partner, once everything seems to be ok she asks, "Why go this far? I know we all have our differences, but we got along right?"

Pelipper comes crashing down from the sky, adjusting aim to Tully, transforming into a spiraling catastrophe. That it until Yozora, whom is carrying Kukiboj her back, whistles to Pelipper. He gently floats down and opens his spacious beak, allowing her to drop Kuki inside.

"Ok! Is there anywhere for you three to escape to? There's a train system here that will take you to Hayden City and onward." Yozora suggests. You recall from Marietta's timeline that the Regibots are deployed from somewhere near Hayden City. "I think they make be tracking..." She pauses. "The signal coming from the SkyMall devices, but removing them won't help in the long run."

For the group to leave, they had to re-enter the labs for their devices. Upon entering, you see Tatsumaki and the assistant reapplying bandages Marietta's mother, Brooklyn.

"Please tell me you got good news." The assistant breaks the silence.

"You're pulling a bit too... tightly." Brooklyn winces at the ongoing procedure. Her eye, faded with despair back at the Paradiso underground, now shines with a new hope. You take note that her missing foot is replaced with a wooden peg. Tatsumaki's laugh turns into yips. It seems that Chance took this opportunity to prank the trainers yet again. "Ah mom! You shouldn't be active ri- gah whatever! We're leaving Umbridge Town for a bit, I'll be back!"

Marietta without giving explanation, she runs to the drawer and grabs Jace and Tully's SkyMall devices. The six (with Chance) are off!
-----------------------------

Back on the road! The trainers nearly make it out of the forest. Sana senses two fairy-like sources a quarter mile ahead. Still moving at the same pace as when we first sensed them.

Yozora pops a vein after listening to Sana's mannerisms. "Do you not have any flying pokemon? We'll only make sneaking around harder when we stick together like this. Also the Regibot will never reach a certain altitude."

She hops on Pelipper's back. With the weight of her and Kuki in this mouth, it's somewhat of a struggle for him to take off yet he manages. "Lippy's tired so he can't fly well. I'll meet you in the train station and scope out the place." She says in a concerning voice while petting the bird. Yozora takes to the skies.

After some distance...
The forest unveils the pair of Regibots to you. Unaware of your presence, only your location, they begin shifting their mechanical bodies in your direction.

-----------------------------------------

The three trainers hop aboard Magni. Tully carried in its arms, Jace weightlessly hanging on his left screw and Sana on top. Magni slowly hovers over the pair of machines. He can only feel sorry for them as they mindlessly do as their master orders them. He also quickly corrects Jace and Sana's orientation to not get detected. After that obstacle, they find themselves at the Umbridge train station.

A sizzling voice on the intercom greets all passerby's. "An inbound train to Umbridge Town is set to arrive in ten minutes. The outbound train to Hildak Village s leaving in three minutes! Please make sure you've packed all your belongings and said goodbye to your loved ones. We hope to see you again!"

You spot Yozora and Pelipper idling at one of the benches nearby. Kuki is still unconscious lying on Yozora's lap, while the latter feeds the carrier bird poffins.

Yozora stops feeding Pelipper. "It's not your fault, Sana." She says meeting eye to eye. "Kuki's was always like this before she met Tatsumaki. She wanted to be cool, calm, and collected like our Lady. They had a similar upbringing so she though it was possible, but Lady Tatsumaki is such an amazing person she suppresses it completely. When she comes to I have no doubt you did her a favor by release that pent up rage." She smiles before glancing a the travel itinerary.

"So what's next? We can't exactly intervene with Zed, being on the same team and all."

"Coming through!" The group hears the sharp chime of a bike bell. Marietta, who was believed to be walking with them at the time of their departure, storms in riding a bicycle. Weaving through the crowded trainstop until she reaches the bike rack, Marietta jumps off as the bike crashes with the others. "Looks like I made it just in time. Ika gave me train passes for all of us! You think we can ride these beasts for free? Nah!"

Yozora furls her brows. "Hold on!" She stops Jace near the end of his last sentence. "You're planning under the assumption we'll do the impossible and thwart the Boss. I agreed to help you to Zed's lab and stop our pursuit of the Masterball. I'll forget you ever mentioned that to me." She resists the urge to pound her thigh in objection as she remembers Kuki is still knocked out there. Her betrayal of Paradiso also means betraying Tatsumaki and that will be no easy task to prove otherwise. "As you can probably tell, Zed's lab is hidden within a forest. We know a backdoor where we can maneuver ourselves undetected."

Gengar runs off with the devices, boarding the soon leaving train. "Hayden City is just a couple of stops away, we'll get there in no time." Says Marietta. 

The shadow pokemon carefully places the SkyMall devices deep in the crevices of a storage compartment. Once he double checks all angles he makes his way back to the platform... until someone spots him. "Hey man~ What's with that sneaky grin? Well, there ain't any helping it since you're a Gengar right?" The awestruck man continues to watch Gengar as he pokemon is caught in a shock. "I'm gonna do some super secret spy stuff. You wanna come my way man~? It'll be a blast I promise!" 

Yozora drops her jaw is disbelief. She was about ready to blow her own gasket until someone starts to giggle underneath her.
"Hahaha, Tully you're a cut above the rest you know that?" Kuki raises from her bed. Having now mastered her anger, she continues to laugh. "This fool is asking us grunts to help him, I think he may have lost his sense of self-preservation these last couple of days hahaha!"

Kuki grabs her cell phone from her pocket, dialing a few numbers. "I'm in, I'm pretty sure Paradiso's labor union doesn't have a rule dictating replacement via doppelganger." Before Yozora can express herself, Kuki silences her. "If we don't do this, then there's a chance Lady Tatsumaki can be in danger too. Don't worry, we'll still be doing the minimum for these three!"

"Hello Lady Tatsumaki, I asked them about the Masterball. Unfortunately your request was declined... Nonono I didn't take it too far! It was a pretty respectful negotiation.... They're heading south to Hildak Village.... Yup, see you in a bit!" After saying her goodbyes, she tosses her phone into Pelipper's mouth.