ToT Chapter 4-1 - The Rouge in allied Lines Part 3

Once they made it back to the group did Nox sighted a bit, as he could see that the gas actually got into the checkpoint too but also glad to see them allright. Sonya also looked rather relived that they are allright as they weren't alarmed or alerted either. "Darn... how are you guys?" was he asking the others, who were still guarding this place during all this as it seems that Madeline didn't rushed past them as him. The Sentret instantly rushed over to the shiny male Umbreon, hugging him tight on one of the paws of his to see him beeing okay.

"Thank god, you're all still alive. Marco kept trembeling the whole time when you guys were in there, especially when he heared the explosion that we heared later on." was the female shiny Umbreon talking towards him with a relieved look on her face. The caped Lucario rushed to the Sylveons side in a panicked and worried look when seeing the shiny Mienfoo like that "Yang?!" Lunette also gasped to see Yang knocked out, asking worried "Is she okay?!" Which caused Nox nod softly as he heared the concerns of both "She's still alive."

He soon looked over to Sonya to nod towards her, who motions for Reef to take her as he gently lifts up their friend and carefully holds her close to him. "She wasn't hurt, just knocked out. Madeline knows Sucker Punch and snuck up behind Yang because she could sense auras." was she informing them with narrowed eyes, causing the freckled Fennekin to gulp softly when she heared that. "Madeline's one cunning woman and very difficult to be caught... Sonya and I will go back in and try to flush the witch out quickly." was Nox telling them.

"I'll come with you two!" did the female shiny Umbreon spoke out quickly to him at the same time the others were talking "No little sis, she's able to transform... right now is she running around as me with silver rings." was Nox informing them in return. Lunette gasp a bit shocked as she asked "So she saw you... casting your... magic?" Hearing that caused the freckled Fennekin to fiddle a bit uncomfortable on her position as he nodded to that "She did saw me that way, but It's the best way to get her, since the others don't know me with silver rings."

"Keep a firm eye out Reef. If she finds out you too can see auras will she try to do the same to you." was Sonya informing the Lucario about what happened to the shiny Mienfoo. Reef looked rather upset as he spoked out "Let me come with you both! I can help since Yang can't!" It immidiatly made her shook her head  "You need to guard this checkpoint Reef. You're needed here because Yang is knocked out. Only you can be sure Madeline doesn't trick anyone else like she did to us. Plus she can transform in to anyone she sees, which means the less of us are there, the less option she haves to avoid you all in this checkpoint."

She looked a bit worried but determinated towards Nox as she spoked out "We have to smoke her out and lead her here or there. Madeline wants to run and not fight. So let's make her run where we want her to." "Allright.. stay safe you two." was the shiny female Umbreon Lunette agreeing to them with a soft sigh. "Pwease stay sawe..." was the little Sentret speaking up with his trembeling body, causing Nox to pet his head. "I will, go back to Luna now, okay? We'll get the mean old Madeline so she won't scary you anymore!"

With that did Marco nodded towards him, returning back to Lunette to get onto her back again. The male shiny Umbreon nods calmly to the young Lucario, then looked over to the freckled Fennekin who looked disbelived and a bit scared towards them. "Ah... right." was the shiny male Umbreon speaking up in a soft tone, while almost everyone in this group knew about his and Lunettes secrets besides Peach. "I know about your secret Miss Peach... but worry not. Neither Lunette nor I are bad witches, so you can stay relaxed around us, okay?"

She jolted in a shocked surprise, then looked towards the Sylveon who shook her head softly, causing her to stutter nervously as he continued "I umm... I can sense witch auras Miss Peach... but I can feel you're not a bad witch." Hearing that caused Peach to give out a shaky sigh as she then grew silent while seeing Sonyas soft sympathic look towards her, causing her to look silently to the side. The Sylveon looked over to the shiny Mienfoo again as she sighted softly, speaking to the worried looking Lucario "Keep a careful eye out little brother."

With that cleared did the shiny male Umbreon looked back to the Sylveon and nodded towards her as he could hear Reef say "Please stay safe you two!" "We will." were both responding at the same time as they both headed into the deeper cave again. This time were both Eeveelutions making sure to stick close with each other, so neither of them won't have trouble with their insticts again. Nox was in full alert while thinking of a way to fool the rouge schoolar, while Sonya tried to calm down while she kept beeing in full alert.

"Nox..." was she speaking up to him nervously, causing his ears to perk up to listen to her. "I'll do my best to keep myself in check, but if I lose it you have to get away from me." was she speaking up with serious concern as they both were still looking around for any sign of the witch. The last part was mumbled from her, but he still could catch her saying with honesty "I don't want to hurt you..." He looked a bit taken back to hear her saying something like that towards him, but gave her a clear answer to that "Like hell will I do that."

She looked glared towards him quickly when her plea got denied as she started to say "I'm not kidding I-" Her words suddently stopped as she was surprised when she felt how he grabbed one of her feelers very softly with his paw. At first was Sonya looking uncomfortable from Noxs sudden movement, which turned into a confused yet surprised look towards him as she could feel how worried he was for her. He was also nervous on his own, yet she could also feel the boiiling anger towards Madeline that keeps him on the edge just like her.

"Your both Yang and my friend Sonya. I'd rather knock you out and drag you back to her then let you alone." was he speaking up with honesty as a soft blush forms on his face. The shiny Umbreon still had the Sylveons ribbon in his paw as she looked toughful towards him, beeing lost from his words and touched too. "I don't want to loose you..."  did he mutters quietly as he looked shyly away, which her ears caught up as she looked taken back from that. She still could feel his concerns and... wait, is that the same feeling he felt back in Yawaru?

Before she could figure that out did he letted go of her ribbon, which made her look rather eagerly to talk more about what just happened, but it got interrupted by a noise not far away from their location. Both Eeveelutions tensed up a bit as their ears perked up, letting him say to her "Sonya... let's be back to back. Madeline might want to try to knock us out with her intimidating knowlegde of science." She nodded to him as they both took passive stances, only to see a barrage of Ice Shards flying towards their direction aimed at them.

The shiny Umbreon growled out as he pushed the Sylveon to the side, causing her to grunt softly while he took some scratches from the attack. She prepared a Shadow Ball attack to cover his dash forward his tail getting coated in glowing metallic grey as he launched himself to attack a shade in the gas! Iron Tail missed it's target, as it reveals a Weavile infront of him, only to look rather dumbfounded when the opponent didn't attacked them anymore. "Heh... glad to know that you're not her." was the familair voice of Samarra speaking up, which caused him to get a rather unhappy gesture on his face as he cheased the stance.

"You again... Samara was it, right? Why the heck did you attacked us!!" was he asking her rather annoyed, which on the other hand made her chuckle a bit. "You know the phrase attack first then ask later, right?" was the Weavile talking to him, while Sonya relaxed as she letted the Shadow Ball she prepared dissapear as she approached them while still beeing alerted for Madeline to appear. "Besides, that way was I sure that you guys weren't Madeline, cause she doesn't attack." was Samara instantly speaking up after that phrase.

"Also, nice choice of evolution, Nox, suits your character well." He just gave a short huffing noise from that as Sonya sitted down with her usual look on her face next to Nox. "Friend of yours?" was she asking with her usuall suspicion, causing both of them to shake their head in unison as they both responded at the same time "Not really." The shiny Umbreon instantly continued with "We met each other back in Yawaru during the scouting when you headed back for Yang Sonya. Though, this is the first time she's seeing me as an Umbreon."

Samara looked between the two Eeveelutions, then started to smirk when whispering to him "So this is your girl, huh? Figures that you Eeveelutions stick together." The Sylveon  got a surprised look from that remark, causing her face to start blushing up sooftly while he blushed softly too as he instantly said to her "S-shut up! Y-you really love to tease me, don't you?!" Sonya frowned but remained silent, while the Weavile chuckled softly as she responded with a teasing voice  "Of course~ I love the way you react after all! It's fun~"

Her paws folded together infront of both Eeveelutions after she calmed down a bit, returning to be serious "Anyway... since we're here, have you two met Madeline during your search? She didn't tried to break through the chocke point that we're guarding nor have I seen her in the half of the cave that I got through." Nox looked over to Sonya, then back to her as he nodded "Yeah. Madeline is currently running around as me, but got silver rings instead of my navy blue rings... don't ask me why, I don't know either why she got them."

Hearing that caused the Weavile to raise one of her brows "She walks around as you, but got different colored rings? Heh... that might be the fact that she's a witch, which makes it much easier to find her." With that did she started to head out again "Stay safe you two, and no flirting during the work!" The shiny Umbreon grumbles a bit annoyed to that as Samara was away again, then looked over to the Sylveon, who had a rather deep frown and blush across her face as she looked away from him as she shook her head softly to calm down.

"I don't like her that much... at least is she competent, though I wonder how her teamleader is." was he speaking up after sighting out softly. She sighted too, then responded with her usual attire "Whatever. At least she wasn't Madeline and gave us valuable information." Nox nodded calmly to hear that despite having a soft blush across his face, while Sonya continued to speak up. "Madeline hasn't made it near the other checkpoint that's guarded by the others. So that means she's still in our section and we can still lead her in to a trap."

She looked around with narrowed eyes "Either she'll chase me if I manage to grab one of the totems, or if we can lead her to the others can we catch her and grab them at the same time." Nox nodded in agreement as they both stared to move out again "Yeah...Let's search for her, I don't know how long the shamanic protectionwill last." With that were the two Eeveelutions searching for Madeline again, who was still in their sector as they both were fully alerted again while he still had quite a frown across his face despite calming down.

It took a while for them to wander around, but they soon could feel the witch energy of Madeline again, who was chuckleing on her own as it echoed softly "I really love this new transformation, who would have known that a young male Umbreon like him was capable to have such a strong Protect move! With that can I easily do as I please and get away harmfree~ Nothing's going to stand in my way anymore, not even Menthe, Vader of the Trackers and the old hag Sela with her pup Gemma of the Keepers and even Morgan!"

Both Eeveelutions crowched down low to hear that, all while Nox ears to lower down, all while his anger was starting to boil up inside him as he whispers "Darn it... she really is starting to piss me off!" "The witch power got her so much that she doesn't realise that my protection is running on magic... so that can be our chance to catch her or a totem to lead her to the others!" His silver eyes looked over to Sonya as he placed a paw onto her shoulder "But I won't let your witch-hunter instincts get you in this situation, my dear friend!"

She took a deep breath and looked uncertain to Nox when she felt his paw, yet determined at the same time. Nodding to him was that a sign that she's trusting him as she reponds quietly yet toughful "She doesn't seem to know what I was so I can relax just a bit better." Looking over to her did she told her plan" Perhaps I can lead her to believe that I don't know it's her. Try to let her guard down by pretending to think she's the real you. Then you appear to surprise her, which will loose her focus as I grab one of the totems from her so she'll follow us."

Nox looked a bit worried her as he had slight doubt and worriness of that plan "It's a risky idea Sonya... but I'll try to intercept should she not belive you." The male shiny Umbreon took a deep breath and unintentionally nuzzled his cheek softly against the Sylveon to calm them both down as she looked forward uncertainly. "I trust you enough that you'll keep your instincts in control during this difficult task." was he reassuring her, then moved his head away from hers. "Madeline properbly doesn't know me well enough to copy me completly."

She was about to step forward but then blinked by his words getting a new idea through that as she speaks out "Copy? Wait, that's it! We'll make her go where we want by copying us." Sonyas violet eyes looked with seriousness towards Noxs silver eyes as she explained her new plan "We'll make her go where we want by corraling her where the others are at. I'll go to her first thinking it's you and push her in the direction here. She'll probably turn in to me after that and you'll meet her next and continue to push her in the same direction discreetly."

An uncertain sigh escapes her as she continued to speak "It's still risky, but we have to corner her with the others and the only way to do that is make her go to one of the checkpoints. It's a better way to make her think she's a good enough copy of us and make her run in the right direction." One of her feelers from her ear bow moved down to her face, as quickly bit down on it, causing her to wince softly at the brief pain from doing such a thing.

Nox whole body twitched softly from hearin that, only to see how Sonya waslick up the soft blood drips from the feeler she bit down and and then notices the fine puncturing marks on that particular feeler as she showed it towards him. "This is your clue incase she does turn in to me or we got separated. It's small enough that she shouldn't notice it should she transform into me, while your rings are my indicator. We just need to lead her back to the others and we have her." was she speaking up in seriousness he nods in agreement to that.

"Allright. It's at least less risky then the plan you had before Sonya. But how much space should we let for each other to fool Madeline into walking to the direction of our allies? At least am I sure that she can't sense magic yet." as he was looking a bit uncetrain if the rouge schoolar will fall for that trick. A soft sigh escapes him as he looks towards the shamanic leafs that were on their muzzle, worried how long it'll still last "But we've to hurry. I've a bad feeling that the leafs might start to give up their work the longer we stay in this poisiounus gas..."

"Once we do got Madeline should we send out one of our group to the other group so they can retreat too... I'm just not sure how big the totems will be when we got her." was Nox speaking up with a concerned undertone while Sony readied herself to move out.  "We'll figure things out as we go. Main focus is not losing sight of her and getting her back to the others to corner her." was she speaking out to him. "You'll go first Sonya, just keep focus on my own aura should you get the feeling to loose control of your reasoning again, okay?"

"I'm not Yang silly. But thanks." was she responding with a snickering smirk as he heads back to the group of them. A moment passed by as a Sylveon was approaching another crosspath in the tunnels and into the real shiny Umbreon. His rings were silver as he looked towards her figure, calling her out "Sonya, over here!" She approached him, not knowing that Nox knew about what was going on as he looked for the bite mark on one of the feelers. There was none of it, which told him that it was the witch as she acted as natural as possible as Sonya.

"Is something wrong Nox?" was the fake Sylveon asking him as he nods to her question "Yeah, I bumped into Madeline again, but lost sight of her." was he responding with a frown, as she tried to look as shocked as she could. Though, she wasn't aware that he played along as he knew that it was the rouge scholar infront of him. "I'll go looking this way for that raven mother." as he points to the left tunnel that was from the viewpoint of where she came from "You'll stay here incase she tries to sneak by. Is that okay for you Sonya?"

The impersonating Madeline nodded in aknowledgement and responded "Allright, make her pay for what she did." Nox nodded with confidence in his silver eyes "Heck yeah! I'm still pissed for what she did to the others after all!" With that did he dashed off into the direction he pointed to, leaving the witch alone as she looked around first, then sighted out after a minute went by "Phew, that was also a close one. Better keep moving as him again." She transformed into Nox with silver rings again when she headed to the opposite direction.

Speaking of him was the real Nox at the edge of a corner as he kept an eye on her, smirking softly to see that. *It's working Sonya, she's falling for it! Madeline's getting to our allies and into the trap!* were his thoughs as he silently followed her with distance between them, stopping when he sees the real Sonya interacting with the witch again. They both waited at seperate places to see her continue moving on as him with silver rings, which told him that Madeline magic was depleting as she was was starting to become tired from all the transformations.

Nox aught up in time to Sonya with some distance to Madeline that was impersonating him, soon looking at the bow ribbons to see the bite marks of hers on it "Good, looks like our plan worked Sonya!" She nodded towards him with a statisfiied smirk as they were close to the group of theirs. From the position the Eeveelutions were could he see that the Riolu was at the way outside with the passed out shiny Mienfoo friend of theirs, while the female shiny Umbreon was already aware that infront of her was Madeline and not Nox.

Peach seemed to be nervous about that as she looked towards the witch, while the Sentret ended up sneezing, causing the ground to freeze from the Ice Beam that he firied through that. "Now!" was the real shiny Umbreon shouting as he apushed Madeline onto the Ice, making her slide in surprise towards the freckled Fennekin that looked shocked at first, before she closed her eyes to form a Barrier infront of him, which Madeline crashed right into! Lunette quickly took over and knocked the fake Nox out with a well aimed Swift attack!

The Sylveon sighted out in relief when the sudden ambush of the rouge scholar worked very smoothly, while Nox grinned brightly from the silent teamwork of the group while the plan of Sonya worked out perfectly. "Nice work everyone, especially you!" was he saying in in a praising voice to the group, causing Peach to look rather shyly away from that as she started to hum quietly. Marco was a bit confused until he finally found out what happened as the knocked out Madeline transformed back into her Banette form with Zoroark features.

Their shiny Mienfoo friend was stiill unconcious, but both Sonya and Nox sighted out softly when they saw that everyone was okay. With a loud thud did the totems fell down onto the ground as they got into the real size of them. One looked like a yellow bird head, the second one like a pink bug with a curled mouth at the bottom, the third one like a red colored bull and the last one like a violet swordfish, as it caught the Sonyas curiosity through that. "Now all we have to do i-" before the Nox could finish his sentance was the shamanic leaf falling off.

He instantly holded his breath as he realisied that he's standing unprotected in the gas, not  know what to do, as he was only able to hold his breath just a minute long. "You've to get out quickly big brother! We'll be bringing the totems back. Sonya, please go with him!" was Lunette crying out to hiim as he did started to rush towards the exit as quickly as he could do! She jumped in shock to hear that, then nodded as she rushed after him concerned while yelling out towards the group "Make sure to get everyone out of here Reef!!!"

"I will big sis!! Leave it to me! Just help out Nox!!!" was the Lucarios voice calling out iin distance as it was fading away for both of them. "Keep going forward Nox! Hold in in as best as you can!" was she yelling out towards him with a concerned voice as she tried her best to catch up to him. Nox kept pushing himself to his top speed as he kept rushing towards the exit of the cave system, but his holded breath was used up the further he kept running, as he was starting to get slower and slower, causing Sonya to catch up to him fairly easily.

She grits her teeth in worry as she was running side by side with him to see how his face was starting to turn blue underneath his jet-black fur. Keeping his mouth shut despite the instinct to breath caused him to start struggeling, as he looks rather paniced and in pain towards her when he kept pusing forward with sluggish movements. The entrance was still a bit far away from them as he realised *Shoot... at this rate will I... breath in the poisionus gas! I... might end up in a much worser condition then Alice... forgive me Yang... Sonya... I can't hold in my breath anymore!*

Starting to get closer to chocke from the missing fresh air that his lunghs desperatly need did he stopped his movements! Right when Sonya looked back to him as she wanted to say something, but skidded to a stop as she had a franatic look on her face "Nox-!" He looked down for a moment, then back up to her in the way that says 'Forgive me' as he was at his limit! The Sylveon gasped out loudly as she saw that, desperatly thinking of something as she yells out "Don't even think about it!" The idea she got was quite risky, but it would work.

She quickly took a deep breath as her chest ribbon feelers on her chest move up to her mouth, only to remove the shamanic leaf from her face! The shiny Umbreons eyes widened in shock from that as he was about to give into his breathing instinct, causing him to breath out through the leaf that she placed on his mouth right on time! She kept her feelers on the leaf until it was steady enough, all while he coughed out loudly from finally breathing in. filtered air. A weeze escapes him as his lunghs finally gets filled with fresh, filtered and much needed air.

"Thank you..." was he speaking out weakly during pants as he sees her smile and relief in her violet eyes despite her cheeks beeing puffed out like that. Her feelers returned back to the bow as she turned around quickly to dash for the exit as now she's the one now who didn't got any shamanic protection! The shiny Umbreon started to catch up after the Sylveon as soon as he had caught his breath and was was confident enough to run with full sppeed again. That was uuntl he headed Sonya groaning out, which caused his silver eyes to widen.

"Sonya!" was he yelling out very worried for her, thinking that she might have caught some gas through that despite that it was getting thinner the closer they got towards the exit of the cave. Once Nox was next to her did he made sure to support her, as they both kept running for the exit of the cave, just in time as the other shamanic leaf lost it's protection! Both Eeveelutions breathed out loudly once their fur could feel the breeze of fresh air, panting strongly from running like bitten by a Galvantula for the exit as fast as they could.

He instantly looked very worried towards her when she coughted up a bit "We have to bring you the sick bay!" The Sylveon was about to deny it as she coughed up again, only to gasp out when Nox instantly moved underneath her and lifted her up onto his back withoug giving her time to react to it. Her reaction to that was a shocked yet embarrassed look with a soft blush across her face. "N-Nox wait I can-" was she trying to say only to coughing up yet again as she started to wheeze. She slumped onto the shiny Umbreons back as he started to run as fast as he can again towards the temporare base of the guilds in Fever Flats.

No longer struggling or arguing was Sonya giving into her weariness while focusing on her breathing so she won't pass out, letting Nox carry her to the sick bay. Thanks to Lunette taking over the lead when Nox and Sonya rushed for the exit did the group managed to get in contact with the other group. They worked together to get the totems, as they all were able to get out of the cave exit very safely before their shamanic leaves will give off, bringing them and the captured, yet unconcious rouge scholar and witch Madeline along.