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With their destination coming up ahead, the two siblings shared a knowing look as each had their plans to carry out and soon they would go their separate ways. There were mechanical sounds coming from the chamber ahead and also what sounded like someone shaking a ball full of broken glass. Thom frowned as the two got closer, slowing down, until they finally were a couple of steps away from the left-facing door.

As the two brothers approached the door to the containment chamber, the tunnels shook once again and Feraligatr turned to his Trainers to check he was doing fine. The younger human had noticed a green light in his phone and fumbled while checking it. A few steps ahead, Ravir looked back at him.

"My friends... they show up online but... still nothing," the younger said. He looked back the corridor, uneasy, then turned back to his brother. "You sure that person you called got to them in time?"

Ravir raised an eyebrow. "He said he would, so he will. Bah- let's say he already did, since your friends *do* show up as online," he added, pointing with his chin to the phone blinking green.

Thom and Feraligatr seemed to both sigh together, the Pokémon rumbling and bating at the floor with his tail. "But shouldn't I-?" asked the younger, pointing to the way they came.

"Thom!" Ravir interrupted him, clenching his free fist. "We already signed in into this mess." He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then added angrily. "These people and the floor plans have to make it out! Can I count with you two or not?"

Thom heard a hint of guilt in his brother's voice and looked up to him. As usual these days, he looked older than he was. Hair fuzzier and disorderly and clothes ragged after the tremors and the incidents in the previous floors. If anything, even in distress the two were much alike, gone through various hardships in the last year.

"You- I mean..."

The two went without breaking eye contact despite the ominous sounds up ahead, and with the swishing of Feraligatr's tail as their only company; this lasted for a moment until Thom nodded finally and gave his phone a final look. The Trilumina “Nebula” soon disappeared into his pocket and instead came out two Pokéballs.

"Yeah, we'll shove them to the right exit."

The corridor shook again and the lights went out for a moment, leaving only the eerie blue lights from the chamber being projected into a wall ahead of them. As the lights returned, a chime was heard from the communicator.

"Ravir, ESB down to 36%. If we're going to clear the facility it has to be now. Over."

"Over." Ravir straightened his grip on his bag. "This is it then."

The two siblings walked into the opening to see a spherical chamber extending at least three layers tall of the Borefront - two above them and at least one below, although when Thom peeked past the guardrail and into the abyss below pitch black was all he could see. He had to assume this empty space was the reason why the upper layers were armoured and they could not get any look at it from the stairwell. 

Thom heard his brother moving along and his eyes went then up and focused on five suspended platforms, one flat and circular like a giant coin suspended in the middle of the room and the other four shaped like dinner tables upside down and held floating by what seemed to be some balloons in the room; all the platforms were still about six meters above the siblings' eye level.

"...W-what is that up there?" asked Thom.

His eyes had trailed off to the next layer above them and to a large blue bubble of circulating energy and hard-light panels, within which a shape could be seen, struggling to break free, crashing against the panels and causing the glass-like sound that Thom and his brother had been hearing.

Ravir merely tapped his comm as he headed towards a nearby platform. "Containment 3-C is open. Repeat, open."

"I'll just assume that means bad news," ventured Thom as he followed along.

Some lights turned on around the ceiling and along the walls, illuminating the upper half and dimming the previously dominating blue light. Suspended from a number of wires and chains anchored all around the wall Thom could see two large machines, bell-shaped and each at least a Tyranitar's size, which were fed some olive goo from tubes coming from the wall. Both machines chugged constantly and emitted thick streams of energy that went around the room, tagging and apparently feeding the four balloons with energy. Between the colouring and the sound they produced, Thom recalled them as a construction similar to the machines he had seen at the Oceanic Pillar that used Ghost-aligned materials to provide a fast movement mechanism.

"...Whoa, a gravit-humm circuit!" exclaimed Thom.

Ravir nodded and took a look at the chamber walls. "Sounds like a good way to spend all Bug-type energy... not to mention a bait the Ísparus dragons will be eager to get their grip on. Let's see..."

Thom and Feraligatr followed the elder brother until he reached a a platform leaning into the abyss and from which a large metallic pole could be seen heading up to nowhere. Ravir glanced around, nodded and kneeled to the ground, preparing his bag.

"Could use Aggron's help here but until he arrives I'm handling this with Gyarados. You," he added sternly as he turned to Thom, "should be going with our plan and pursuing from the other tunnel," he added, pointing to an exit above and the opposite side of the chamber, leading to the upper layer.

"R-right, I just want to make sure you are fine," was Thom's response.

Ravir produced two small machines from his bag: long mono-propeller batons with a curved exhaust on top that gave the wielder some modicum of mobility in the air. He plugged small batteries into each and then tossed one to his brother, attached the other to his right arm via a strap. He fastened his Pokéball belt and finally he produced a small case which he gave to his brother. 

A sudden crashing sound came from the bubble above and both brothers stared as they saw some of the light panels change colour to yellow before dispersing into particles of light. The room shook and Thom could make what seemed to be a large arm, coated in energy, scratching across the inner surface of the bubble.

"Ravir, we're at 31%," came Salar's voice from the comm unit.

Ravir turned to Thom. "We'll be fine, we just have to hold this thing here for long enough until it is safe to bring the entire cave system down. You, lead those people to the arranged exit and make sure to make lots of noise. This has my GPS beacon and audio recording."

Thom took the case, understanding what he had to do, and then the two brothers shared a curt hug. Ravir stepped back and turned to Feraligatr.

"Am gonna need your help here, if you would?" he asked, lifting the bag.

Feraligatr growled inquisitively and looked at his Trainer, who just glanced at Ravir in exchange. The elder brother picked the bag up and offered it to the reptilian Pokémon, who just picked it up and stared back at them confused. Half-suppressing a giggle, Thom went ahead and patted him, then wrapped the military bag around his torso.

"You can climb the walls so it's safer for you to reach the platforms that way. We'll meet you there."

After seeing the reptilian Pokémon off and watching him dig his claws into the wall and start climbing, the two brothers activated their propellers. A long plume of energy came from each and started rotating and the rods - now functioning as a makeshift personal helicopter - took Ravir and his brother flying up to one of the table platforms, upon which given their lack of experience they landed somewhat ungracefully.

Now atop the platofrm, Thom looked at the balloon holding it as a pulse of energy flew through it, letting out an eerily rhythmic sound. Following the stream of light around the room Thom's eyes went to his next destination - the gate at the other end of the room, past whatever threat hid inside that bubble.

"I'd advise conserving your propeller's energy," suggested his brother as he readied his balls, having noticed his brother's focus. "You think you can shot up to the balloon and use the energy stream to fly zip across the room?"

Thom nodded, recalling his earlier adventures with the various Ghost-type mechanisms and decided it would not be too hard. He turned to his brother and the two of them smiled at each other, then focused on Feraligatr climbing the wall just past their height.

"You get going then," Ravir added, picking two Pokéballs.

"I'd rather stay- just a bit... to see what's inside that thing," Thom retorted confidently, pointing to the blue bubble.

Both siblings heard a warning growl and they stepped back just in time for Feraligatr to land from a leap onto their platform, bag in tow, shaking it for a moment before things returned to normality. The Pokémon, looking only a bit tired, allowed Ravir to take the bag off him and then warbled his intentions to help in the fight, even if he understood Thom and him had their orders.

"Aaaah! Well, maybe next time you can join. As for now..."

Thom made a gesture giving to understand that he would be collecting on that word and recalled Feraligatr to his Pokéball. Finally, Ravir activated his communicator.

"Salar, how are things up there? Over?"

"Uhm... Let's just say everyone's coming. And"

"Damn... I guess this thing is too delicious," joked Thom nodding at the two goo machines, wondering if it truly was that good a bait to bug-types that the dragons would want to fight everyone else for it.

"Yeah..." came the voice from Salar, sounding somewhat raspy. "No pressure!"

Ravir sighed. "A'ight, we are set for battle. Repeat, set for battle."

Thom winced at the reply, wishing that everything turned out alright.

"Understood. Disabling the Energy Sequestration Bipoles now..." A moment of silence. "Good luck."

A screech came from above and the two machines feeding olive goo started pulsating slower and losing their colour; at the same time, the panels around the blue bubble also seemed to lose tone as the various wires detached from them. 

Both brothers dashed to the end of the platform; Thom leapt out, using his propeller to reach the balloon some ten meters above him, while Ravir tossed two Pokéballs high into the air, which opened for two arcing beams of light to materialize Electabuzz and Gyarados at the nearest edge of the central platform. Electabuzz announced his presence with a roar while Gyarados took a long look at the rapidly fading bubble and shuffled about, overcome by the promise of a difficult battle.

The last few panels covering the bubble vanished and the emergency alarms blared, the room suddenly catching on a new tint under many red lights. Past the shielding Thom could for the first time get a better image from the creature inside, some sort of robot-like construct of round shapes and comically large hands that churned and rocked about as it pressed its hands against the last remnants of the shielding around it.

A whizzling sound came from Thom's left - the stream of energy circulating around the room. Knowing the time was prime to take his transport, he let himself lay back against the balloon and as soon as he heard the balloon chiming he gripped his baton hard and slid down backwards, coming to meet the crossing stream as it exited the balloon the opposite end. Thom's jacket reacted to the energy stream and acted as a parachute, causing him to be carried around the room and towards the next balloon. 

"Gyarados!" yelled Ravir. "I want you cutting that thing's escape off. Water jets, Blizzard, whatever slows it down or pins it to the ground. Electabuzz is in charge of actual damage."

Approaching his next target fast, Thom fired up his monopropeller to brake and control his trajectory, managing to bump onto the balloon and grab on. He took a look at the creature in the center platform as it finally punched through the barrier and fell down to the ground; he noticed that, much like the other creature his friends had described, this one also had a pattern of small orbs or lights in whatever counted as its "face". That one he had found out to be a "Regice", he wondered for an instant what would be this one his brother was now to face.

The new Pokémon growled and clacked and tested the ground for a moment and then swung his arms around wildly, as if tasting freedom. Well, not that fast; it seemed to finally notice the two Pokémon some distance from him, and as it turned to face them its grows became louder and more mechanical.

Thom focused on the stream still circulating and sat on top of the balloon, waiting for it to come back to take him to the final balloon. He hoped- he knew his brother could hold this creature for long enough and make it out safe. But right now, he had his own work to do.