Act 4: A New Threat

"Holy shit." Eilumi says, looking to where Josh was attacked. He points his gun to where the ball came from. He looks towards Loona.
 "Loona, take this." He tosses his knife towards her. She catches it mid-air and nods. "But stay behind Nine and Me. Khaun should be here with the dropship any second. But in the mean time we'll have to delay this... thing as long as we can."

They see someone walking in, it is a bipedal, canine-like Pokémon with predominantly blue and black fur but it also has some cream-colored fur that covers the whole torso. He possesses a short, round spike on the back of each forepaw, in addition to a third on his chest. The blue fur on his thighs seem to resemble shorts for some reason. He seems to have two swords too, one is already on his paw while the other one is in one of the it's scabbards on his back. They can see that he is glaring at them with his red eyes.

"This isn't good." Loona comments. 
"Loona, what's wrong?" Nine asks. 
"That's a lucario." Loona informs her comrade. "And, well, they're pretty powerful. And pretty skilled fighters." 
"As in how skilled?" Eilumi asks. 
"Well I can't speak for this one." Loona replies. "But typically, they'd be trouble even without Iron."

As the smoke clears around Joshua, it is revealed that the attack has left a big hole in his cloak, and all attempts of it cloaking again are just flickering and failing. But he is in one piece. 
"What...what the hell is that?!" Quil shouts when he looks up at this unknown creature. 
"So there you are, you strange monster..." The Lucario said as he stepped forward, pointing one his swords at the human. He then looks to Avali and the Protogen. "...And you are?"

"Good, he's talking at least, if we can keep him talking perhaps we can buy time for khaun to get here with the dropship" He whispers to everyone. 
"Captain Eilumi, Avali Exploratory Fleet Serial Number 9742, 21st Highwind Regiment, Ghost Bear Pack." Eilumi says with his pistol still drawn. 
"Unit 9, Avali Exploratory Fleet Serial Number 1357, 21st Highwind Regiment, Ghost Bear Pack. Ex-Miniknog defector." 
"I'm.... Loona. Just.... Loona." Loona replies. 
"She's a trainee." Eilumi explains. 
"And as for these guys here..." Eilumi looks at the Quil and the Buizel. "They're nobody you need to worry about. Just a couple of rapist shitbags we were... having a chat with in order to find another rapist shitbag." 
"Unidentified Lucario... Call your name, unit designation, mission, and current objective."

"I have no idea what was that gibberish that came out of your mouth." He said with disdain. Although he will try to state as much as they did just to let them know the gravity of the situation here. "My name is Luca, Ace rank guild member, i am in search of the culprit responsible for the death of a Gold Rank guild member. They said he was a Pikachu but I know better...it must have been you, such a weak creature like a rat couldn't have done that without help." 
"And...please tell me you are going to be rescuing us from these guy!" The Buizel shouted, his friend also joined in with pleading for help. 
The Lucario didn't pay any mind to them, he is acting as if these don't even exist, that's just how much he 'cares' about them.

"I suppose informing you that the reason said guild member was killed was because he was trying to rape said pikachu is next to useless to you?" Eilumi asks.
The others remain silent.

"That is irrelevant to my case." 
"Wait." Joshua stepped forward. "You are right, the Pikachu didn't do it without any help, but even then you got no proof that it was any of us." But he can sense that there might be something more, this Lucario doesn't look like he is keen on leaving them. 
"Yes, but he is near, your aura signatures were flying before appearing down here. But there are another things that interests me." He is looking to the Avali, the protogen and the human. "My guild will be very interested in finding out what you are, you will be coming with me."

"Sounds to me like your guild is not exactly in the business of protecting the weak and innocent." Eilumi comments. "Tell me, does the word 'Miniknog' mean anything to you?"

"No it does not. And talking is no longer going to prolong the Inevitable." Luca looks like he is ready to begin striking... 
"Does the word 'Human' means anything to you then, ace?" Joshua asked before anything could happen, trying to swing the Lucario's interest back into talking. 
".........Yes, yes it does." 
"This is making my head hurt..." Quil grumbled. 
Johua takes an step forward, but it was more of a stomp then anything else. "Well, then i am a human." he reached over to his mask to remove it, which revealed his face to the pokémon. he has short facial hair covering the lower part of his face and a very potent gaze in his brown-colored eyes. "And if you are as educated on the topic as you claim to be you will know that standing in my way is detrimental for all of your kind. I order you to stand aside, right now." 
This reveal makes Luca go silent for a moment. At first it would look like things are going their way, until he smirks. "Really then...? Is that how a human looks like? Well it is a honor to meet you, human." The fact that he isn't lowering his weapon means things aren't settling down though. "Well i'm mostly convinced...you take higher priority now, so come with me." 
This Lucario is STILL demanding him to come? "Why? I already said i was human, just let us-" 
"You don't get it do you? The last human that came here left us these." He gestures to his weapon. "Iron, it is a wonderful tool, just look how much it changed us all...for the worse." 
This pretty much means that he must be aware of everything that is wrong. 
"Then...?!" Joshua can now not just sound but look angry without his mask. He feels like revealing himself like this was a very bad idea. "What are you getting at?" 
"I want your secrets, Human. I want you to give us something much better than Iron, something that will let us change things for the better."

"Well, good on the first point at least." Eilumi says once hears that this Lucario doesn't know anything about the Miniknog. "That means you don't have any technology you should really not have."
"You shut the fuck up." Loona growls at Quil when he whines about his head hurting.
"So THATS what a human looks like." Loona says to herself when Josh takes his mask off. 
"Well, yeah." Eilumi says. "I mean, I had a picture of one on me, but-" 
"Let me guess, it's a porno pic of that harlot from Lustia?" Nine grumbles. 
"Well, yeah. Why do you think I didn't want to show her?" Eilumi argues back. 
"What's Lustia?" Loona asks. "Wait... 'lustia'? Is it a-" 
"Yes, yes it is." Nine finishes. Loona lets out an annoyed growl.
"So it's technology you want. Although, for what end?" Eilumi asks once the lucario demands the human come with him so he can give him something better than Iron. "So you can conquer your world? So you can drive these so-called 'savages' into further oppression? Because from what I've seen of your 'Guilds' on this planet, they seem to be little better than glorified bandits."

"So we can finally depose the nobles and whoever supports them with what they rightfully deserve, swift deaths. The savages will have their uses, the able bodied ones at least." Luca draws his other sword, he doesn't look like he is going to be listening anymore, he is impatient now. 
Joshua can already see that the time for talking is over, this pokémon is about to start advancing. He himself has already had quite enough of hearing him talk, so before Luca can speak out any further demands the human was already rushing forward and throwing caution out the window just for the chance to hit him. He expected Luca to react by swinging his swords so his first move was to scoop sand in his hand to throw it at his face. 
The Lucario closed his eyes before any of it could get into them, he still swung one his weapons at the human but hit nothing since his target kept some distance to avoid retaliation.

"Well, this is entertaining and everything, but..." Eilumi growls, tired of being ignored. He fires a warning shot right across the lucario's left ear, barely missing as the hypersonic bullet whizzing by at incredible speeds. "You seem to be forgetting that there are four of us, shitbag. And we all have weapons... And I've got a gun. If you even know what that is."

That caused the fight to stop for a moment between the two. Luca took this time to look at Eilumi and that weapon he is point at him, so that's what did that just now? Then he is going to have to deal with the ranged fighters first. 
Joshua doesn't want to even give a chance to such a guild member of this rank to act if he can help it. He tries to hit the Lucario with a downward punch right on the top of his head, which didn't connect due to the Jackal seeing it coming. 
Luca is clearly being extra careful with the human, is being very defensive against him, he must want to Joshua to be as pristine as possible. Now he takes this chance to go after the ones further in the back behind the human, to do this he takes the opportunity presented right now to jump on Joshua's shoulder for it to serve as a foothold for a even bigger leap towards the Avali with the gun. Simply shooting him is not just going to be simple unfortunately, given how as soon as he leaped he...became three?

Eilumi leaps out of the way, still shootting at the lucario coming his way, or at least the images. He aims for the legs. 
Nine meanwhile leaps towards the lucario, hammer in hand, and takes a swing, at one of the lucario's legs. It seems they too want him in at least passible condition. 
Well, the upper part anyway. Loona looks at the fight going on, unsure of what to do.

His attention went to the most immediate threat, the Protogen. "Hmpft!" He swings both of his swords against the head of the incoming large blunt weapon, managing to put enough force in it to stop it, his swords weren't damaged either so their quality speaks for itself. 
Joshua saw the chance for a perfect, albeit quick strike while the Lucario is where he is, in the air with his priority being his defense against Nine's hammer. He just ran over and delivered a strong kick to the Pokémon's side before he could even plant his feet back on the ground, was enough to knock him some distance away from the others too. 
Luca still managed to recover and land his feet, still able to fight. The strength of that human's blow was surprising though, left him groaning and panting from the pain. He prepares himself for Eilumi, knowing that he might shoot up again, he raised his swords up like he is preparing to block the shots that come his way.

Eilumi, seeing what he's about to do, instead reaches into his coat pocket and takes out something. It's a small, cylindrical object with holes in it, and a handle of some sort. The avali pulls a pin-like object from it, and then tosses the strange cylindrical object at Luca. It lands right at his feet.

Joshua is familiar with objects like this, so he kept his distance from the eventual blast radius that is about to happen. 
Luca looks down at the object, a little confused. But he sensed a threatening feel from Eilumi's aura when he tossed that, like this was some sort of attack directed at him, he comes to the realization that this must be something dangerous and tries to step back from it as fast as he can. 
While the fighting is still going on, the Buizel and Quilava see that everyone else seems to be distracted, taking this as a chance to try to escape. The idea here is just getting up and running, but getting without using their arms is...not really easy.

Unfortunately, he is a tad too late. The second Luca tries to step away, the device explodes with a bright flash, and a very loud bang that rings his ears badly. 
Loona, still in the same position as she was before, notices the two of them trying to escape. "OH NO YOU DONT!" She growls angrily as she lunges for the Quilava, knocking him back down. She rolls him on his back, and holds her knife to the Quilava's throat. She cannot do the same for the Buizel, as she is just one mon that can only be in one position at the same time. However, she comes to a realization. 
They really only need one of them. The other, she thinks, she hopes, will eventually starve to death in the maze or become the victim of meat hunters or run afoul of the wrong mon's mate. It's only a matter of time. And of the two of them... It was the Quilava she wanted to take down the most.

The Lucario screamed as his vision was assaulted by the flash and his ears were blasted by the loud noise. This left him specially vulnerable. 
Joshua had expected an explosion of shrapnel or another lethal thing, but this helps too. The flash affected his vision leaving everything blurry to him but he doesn't close his eyes and prepares to throw another punch against the jackal. Not all of his most important senses have left him at the moment though, Luca still feel aura, and he can sense the shape of something coming his way with a monstrous disposition to slaughter. This is enough to give him quite a scare and he instinctively swings one his swords up at whatever it is, and he manages to cut SOMETHING. 
Joshua's severed right hand flew in an arc and landed nearby, staining the sand with blood. The creature that body part was attached to though, did not relented, apparently getting even angrier. "THAT'S ENOUGH YOU MONSTER!" He shouted as he pulled his arm back just a little bit before proceeding with the maneuver anyways, punching the Lucario on in the side of the head with bloody stump where his hand used to be, the exposed bone provided some form of puncture to this blow but nothing lethal, in the end it just knocked the Pokémon down. 
Luca is still very disoriented and that blow to his head did not helped either, he doesn't know where up and down is by this point but still tries moving, only to met with something stepping on his left arm to holding it there, he tried to thrust the sword unto whatever is on top of him right now but it gets stopped just as quickly.
Joshua has his right foot of the Lucario's left arm, and as for sword he was thrusting with, Joshua is holding it firmly by the blade with his remaining hand, right around the base of it, his fingers are bleeding from doing this though. Something best be done to further restrain or stop the Lucario as the human's hand will certainly slip and he will lose fingers on top of being stabbed. 
"D-damn it...!" The Quilava's struggle was short lived, when Loona put the dagger near his throat he stopped. "Zel! Do something!" He shouted to the Buizel, who is managing to get up. 
"No way, I'm getting out of here!" Zel is more interested in saving his own hide though.

Nine very quickly steps in, and whacks the back of Luca's head with his hammer while he's distracted by Joshua holding his arm. Not hard enough to kill him, but hopefully hard enough to put him down for a long moment. 
Loona watches the Buizel run, wishing she could get after him too. But as she already knew now, they needed only one for the brain scanner thingie. And as long as the one who raped her gets his comeuppance... well, the Buizel can run for today. But there will always be another time. 
A very loud hum starts to fill the air. Once that's familiar to the crew.

"NO! You bastard!" Quil screams as his former 'friend' runs away and leaves him for what is very likely death. "Don't leave me here damn You!" 
Joshua watched as Nine came and knocked the Lucario out, but he still held on to him for a bit to be sure. 
Only when he felt that Luca's grip on the sword relaxed to the point he let go was he sure that the Jackal was knocked out. Now to other pressing matters, his severed hand, he looked at the bloody stump which is still bleeding, he wraps his remaining hand around the wrist while holding it up to stop the bleeding as best as he can. He really hopes that the Avali have something that can help.

Eilumi, hearing that the dropship was arriving, and that Luca was knocked out, puts his own weapons away.
"Nine, secure the ... Lucario, I think it was?" He orders. Nine nods, and begins to bind the lucario's arms together.
"Seems like you're going to be the one coming with us, shitbag." he says to the downed Luca. Can't wait to scan this shitbag's head to see what's going on in there." 
"Loona-" He looks towards Loona, who is holding down the Quil. 
"Seems one of them got away." Eilumi comments. 
"I'm sorry." Loona sighed. "I couldn't grab both of them." 
"Don't worry, you did good. Thanks to you, we still have one of them." He smiles, giving her a thumbs up. A small blush forms on her face, and a small smile. 
"And Josh..." He grabs the severed hand. "Khaun will have to reattach this. I had hoped to continue the investigation down here, but it seems we have other priorities right now." 
"Sorry... Shia." Loona utters. 
The dropship comes into full view, hovering above them. 
"Well, everyone. You know the drill by now." 
Loona nods. She pulls Quil up, and yanks them over to the group assembling in the middle underneath it. 
"Now we're going for a little trip. And if you even THINK about trying to start trouble" She warns him. "Nine is going to break all of your bones." She hands Quil off to Nine, who roughly grabs him by the shoulders with one paw, while hanging onto Loona with another.
Eilumi has Josh's hand in one claw, and grabs onto Josh himself with his other. 
Before long, everyone is bathed in light, and is back on the dropship.