¤Game¤ Dragon Tamers Battle Range v.23 {MA Pidgeot}

[*Murkrow]

Can I have an extension to this scenario as well, please?

[Wolfsong]

Gabi and Hannah you both get the extensiions. I know that i am going to need one. Hopefully when i finish this weeks assignments i can work on my story for the last scenario x.x;;. Extension for this scenario please.

[Lady Vulpix]

You get the extension, Amy.

Wow, everyone's asking for an extension these days. Everyone but Ade. How does he do it?

[AntiAsh Superstar]

My excuse is that I don't have many hobbies that aren't writing and drawing and when I start on either I don't stop for about two hours. (not having schoolwork or exams or stuff from work that eats into my free time helps, too, as does being happy on about six hours sleep a night).

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Aaanayways, here's me Rhiannon RBG, have fun trying to make sense out of it. Somebody toss an RBG for Scratchy out of the Nature Protection Agency please? *pays 7 stamps* ^_^

-----

For Rhiannon the day had started off in a reasonably cheerful manner. It was nice every now and then, the Jolteon had to concede, to wake up in the morning and not have to worry about dangers from supernatural realms or killer scientific experiments or anything of that nature. And with over half of the usual rabble either out training or otherwise occupied she finally had a decent opportunity to relax.
“Ah, this is the life!” the Jolteon smiled lazily as she stretched out in the gentle sunshine that shone down in our expansive back garden, warming all around with its soft glow. Yes, a life of adventure and magic was all very well and good – hell, even this easy-going side of Rhiannon would have been at a bit of a loss had the world no use for her talents – but some days just called for a spot in the sunshine with a saucer of tea and a CD of over the top love songs playing in the background. “No stress, no worry... just niiiiice and relaxing. Shame necromancy isn't one of my talents, the only thing missing here's a certain someone to snuggle up with.” Here Rhiannon paused. “Agh! What is up with me? I mean, he was wonderful... and noble... and kind... well, maybe scratch that one, he could be very vicious to anyone that wasn't me but...” The Jolteon sighed wistfully, her mind racing back to days that seemed darker in some ways but more fulfilling in others. The days of the Dark Cloak, and the days of whirlwind romance. The days of Amon, a smart, charismatic sergeant in the pokémon army and the only one who would ever possess Rhiannon's heart. “Damn it, she's being mercifully quiet lately and still I can't keep my mind off this stupid subject.” Once more the Jolteon sighed, rolling upright so as to take a lap of her tea. “Why did you have to be so damn irresistible, Amon? Or why did you have to go get yourself killed? You could've done one or the other but both just isn't fair.” Rhiannon knew she was being stupid. For her it was actually quite simple to get back in contact with her dead lover. Her very aura seemed to be able to sustain him and his best friend as spirits in the real world for short periods of time. But that wasn't enough. It would never be enough. “Ugh. Well done, Rhi, you've just ruined another perfectly lovely day by dwelling on the past too much.” By now the Jolteon's mood was totally ruined, in fact already she found the tears welling up in her eyes. “Curse you, me!” And with this the Jolteon darted away, trying to find some place to hide until her melancholy mood passed. Sometimes it was hard to shake the feeling that the split personalities were only the start of her problems.

The creature watched her leave with interest. Here was a soul quite unlike any of the other tasteless morsels it had snacked on during the course of its journey. Here was a challenge at last. A challenge that it was going to enjoy overcoming.

A short while later and Rhiannon's brain had resorted to its usual less than helpful tactic for dealing with unwanted stress; it had shut down completely and let somebody else take over for a while. Not that Rhiannon's other persona was any better equipped for dealing with melancholia. If anything she actually took such feelings worse than her childlike side. But to the adult side of her mind feeling inwardly small and pitiful and in need of a reassuring nuzzle from one she knew would never be able to nuzzle her again was just a normal state of affairs. Especially now that she didn't have any ongoing problems to deal with other than these internal ones.
“As Milliardo keeps telling us, we really shouldn't have much trouble in finding something to keep us occupied.” Whereas her other self was the sort who liked lounging in the sun, this Rhiannon had found a new perch on the rooftops staring out at the green suburban paradise in front of her. She should have been feeling at peace in a place like this, where every house was well-maintained and everyone was open and friendly towards each other. But she didn't. She felt restless. She felt as if she didn't keep moving that her heartbreak would consume her. “So why do we have so much difficulty in moving on?” Here the Jolteon winced slightly as a sudden pain dug into the side of her head, the mental equivalent of a sharp tap.
“Because you're a pain in the butt, that's why!” Rhiannon complained to herself. “You know, I was perfectly happy just playing about and having a bit of a sunbathe but then you interrupted and dragged us up onto the stupid rooftop!”
“I... I'm sorry. It was selfish of me.”
“Oh don't you get me started on you being selfish! Who decided we had to go join the Dark Cloak anyway? Who decided we had to undergo all those experiments? Who came up with every single bad idea we've ever come up with? You, that's who. All for your own bloody benefit.” This voice was sounding decidedly annoyed. Rhiannon didn't tend to do it very often, only at those times when she was feeling at her most fragile and unstable, but sometimes both facets of her persona seemed to occupy her body at the same time. The results were never pleasant and usually ended up with whichever one was left at the end of it (this was usually the adult Rhiannon as her other self was usually rather riled during these incidents and had a nasty habit of metaphysically storming off in a sulk mid-argument) feeling a thousand times worse than she had to begin with.
“Will you get over that?” Rhiannon snapped to herself, her patience finally wearing thin. “As I keep trying to explain...”
“Yeah, yeah, we wouldn't be here now if we hadn't been through all of that crap, yadda yadda. Would that have been such a bad thing, though? The last time I worked the figures out, I'll have you know, hundreds in Ulthuan have really good reasons to hate us, even more have really good reasons to fear us and if that isn't enough if someone so much as mentions the word 'Amon' to you in particular you stop working for hours at a time.”
“I wouldn't have expected you to understand. All you care about is your doll collection, you have no idea how the heart works.”
“Hey!” All of a sudden Rhiannon sounded close to tears. “That's mean! Just because I don't act like I'm thinking about him all the time doesn't mean I don't care! I'll have you know I loved him just as much as you did, and you're probably right about not being able to love anyone else but... but...” Here her voice was very little more than a whimper. “...I hate feeling like this, is it too much to ask to pretend everything's okay every once in a while? The past hurts too much to live in it all the time.” There was a long pause. Inside Rhiannon's head there was a rather odd sensation that couldn't be described but was best explained as a rather awkward hug between her two selves.
“I'm sorry. We should both try harder to get along. We're not such polar opposites that this would be impossible. And I know that you cared just as much as...” All of a sudden Rhiannon's stomach lurched, as if something horrible was on the horizon. “Maybe we can finish this exchange some other time.” The Jolteon's eyes scanned the horizon but found nothing out of the ordinary. Yet there was something. She could sense it. “Whatever you are you had best show your face this instant!”
“Or what will you do?” A rather cruel, metallic voice rang out from the level of the street. Cautiously Rhiannon peered down to see a most unlikely figure. Staring up at her was a most unusual Porygon2... not in apparence, for that was actually quite ordinary; it was the sheer aura of the pokémon that gave Rhiannon cause to worry. This creature was far more than it appeared to be. “I'm waiting for an answer.”
“You will get none before you answer a few questions of our own.” Effortlessly Rhiannon jumped down from the roof and landed neatly in front of the robotic pokémon. “Why have you been watching us? What do you want?”
“You're... interesting,” the Porygon2 smirked. “So much stronger than the others around here. You intrigue me. You make me wonder... you make me wonder what one such as you would taste like.”
“We have heard some particularly bizarre introductions in our time, friend,” Rhiannon snorted, saying the word 'friend' as if it meant the exact opposite, “but this ranks particularly highly in its oddity. State your name and business or else we shall no longer entertain your presence here.”
“My name? I cannot say. You know how it works. I give you my name and I give you my power.”
“Naturally,” Rhiannon nodded, now totally convinced of the nature of the being she was dealing with. Oh why did that annoying Enigma have to be right all the time? “But that doesn't stop you from explaining your business here.”
“My business?” The opther pokémon laughed suddenly. “How about I give you a short demonstration? And don't worry, it's going to be very short.” All of a sudden the Porygon2 darted forward, attempting to strike Rhiannon with a beak too sharp to be real. The Jolteon rolled her eyes in despair. Just another half-crazed lunatic who had heard of her reputation and was trying to earn respect by defeating her in combat. Well, she had destroyed many of its like before and was certain that another head on the pile wasn't exactly going to hurt.
“It will be short, we guarantee you,” the Jolteon snarled, striking up a fighting pose. “Whether it goes the way you want it to, however, is a totally different matter.”

FIGHT!!! L13 Jolteon v L13 Porygon2!

To be perfectly honest Rhiannon really wasn't too sure as to what to expect from this particular opponent. She had sensed that it was not strictly of this world from the outset, hence it was highly unlikely that it would play by this world's rules. Sure enough her opponent's actions proved her right when all of a sudden it shot forward in an attempt to Tackle her that wouldn't have been out of place coming from Katnip. Rhiannon only just managed to flip out of the way, using her powers to wrap a protective barrier around herself as she did so. There was no telling what was going to happen in this battle, after all, and it was best to be prepared for every eventuality!
“You're fast!” her opponent commented.
“We happen to be a Jolteon,” Rhiannon shot back with a venom that truly marked her out as Milliardo's sister. “Were you expecting us to be sluggish and clumsy?”
“No, however, I wasn't expecting you to be so skilled,” her opponent grimaced. “I may have to start trying now.”
“Not if we beat you to it,” Rhiannon commented dully, concentrating hard so that her powers reached further back than the energy that had been artificially given to her and instead tapped into a source that had been at her side since birth. “We're far from a one-trick pokémon, you see.” All of a sudden twin, thick green vines erupted from either side of the Jolteon and snaked their way over to her opponent with deadly intent.
“Interesting,” the Porygon2 smirked. “Shame I know almost the exact same trick, really.” Almost instantly the vines seemed to turn back on themselves and shoot towards Rhiannon instead. The Jolteon frowned, trying to put her full force into returning the vines back to their original course. But it was no use. Somehow or other her opponent's mastery of Grass Hidden Power was far superior to her own, so in the end she really had little choice but to simply dive out of the way at the last second. Rhiannon frowned. This wasn't right! She could count the number of creatures she couldn't overpower in a battle of spiritual energies on the toes of one paw... or so she had thought. But now this creature had come along and was firing vines at her in a barrage that would have been impossible for any ordinary pokémon to maintain control of, a barrage so great that even Rhiannon couldn't hope to dodge them all. Instead the best she could manage was to try an minimise the damage as best as she could. Which wasn't easy in the least. Even the strength of her opponent's blows was something other than natural, enough to topple even her.
“We're sick of playing games,” the Jolteon snarled, picking herself up from where a particularly well-placed attack had knocked her and fixing her opponent with an icy glare. “Time we taught you not to interfere with others!” Growling angrily Rhiannon began to store up the electrical charge within her body, preparing to unleash the full might of her natural power as a Jolteon. And yet her opponent didn't seem concerned at all. Not even when the full might of her Thunderbolt escaped her body and blasted the Porygon2 with a huge electrical current. All it did was wince slightly and smirk to itself. “What, exactly, do you find so amusing?”
“How feeble your attempts at attacking are. Go ahead, try again. I dare you.”
“What kind of a fool do you take us for?” Rhiannon snapped, feeling more than a little insulted by this pitifully see-through ploy. “Whatever you're trying to do depends upon us taking up the offensive, doesn't it? Well sorry but we have been up against far better tactics than yours!” Quickly Rhiannon shot forward, skidding in the dirt and kicking a large cloud of it into the eyes of her opponent. A dirty trick, maybe, but until the Porygon2 showed its hand she didn't have much choice but to stall for time, did she? Even this, however, didn't seem to bother the bizarre pokémon much.
“A pity I underestimated you,” the Porygon smirked in its mechanical voice. “You're also a lot smarter than I was expecting. No matter. The damage has already been done. Your Thunderbolt earlier was plenty enough for my purposes.”
“What?” All of a sudden Rhiannon realised what her opponent had been trying to do. It had been using Bide all this time. She could tell just from the incredible battle aura building around the pokémon, something many times the strength of the attacks it had suffered. It was a risky, almost suicidal trick most of the time, as many who attempted it either found themselves dispatched while they stored energy or found their opponent wising up to their tricks and only using defensive techniques until they tried something else. But in this case it had actually paid off, Rhiannon suddenly finding herself buffeted by a huge torrent of energy that returned the damage she had inflicted in double. Twice the strength. Twice the force. Twice the sheer agony. “Ah!” The Jolteon was finally blown off her paws and flung hard to the ground, landing awkwardly on one of her legs. The sickening snap of bone was unmistakable, as was the sharp pain that accompanied it. It was almost enough to bring tears to Rhiannon's eyes. Almost. But this side of her was more than used to pain and refused to so much as whimper. For that would be showing weakness. A critical error when your opponent was quite clearly not holding anything back.
“Give up,” the Porygon2 sneered. “Surrender yourself to me. Your body would be far more fitting than this clumsy oaf I've currently borrowed.”
“We suspected you weren't as you appeared to be,” Rhiannon snarled, trying to focus in spite of the pain. “Who are you really?”
“Me? I'm merely a wanderer. I hunt down the strongest, most adept fighters... then I claim their souls for my own. Yours will be a fine addition to my collection.”
“You couldn't handle our souls,” Rhiannon growled angrily. “Arrogance is a weakness, so don't think this is over yet!” Rhiannon quickly focused her power upon her injuries. It couldn't be said that the Jolteon was an expert on regeneration. Not like her old friend Alto, whose powers worked all the time and made the Scizor practically immortal. Hell, even Thunderblast was a better healer than Rhiannon was. But what the Jolteon did know was more than enough to patch up her injured leg and give her just enough energy to spring up suddenly and strike her opponent with a strong Tackle that seemed to come out of nowhere.
“Why you!” the Porygon2 snarled and Rhiannon bounced off its side and landed upright, preparing for her next attack. “Have you not learned? I shall just bounce whatever you use next back in your face!”
“There's one slight flaw in that plan,” Rhiannon commented calmly, feeling the electrical charge building up within her body. “That only works if you happen to survive our next attack.” And with this she unleashed a terrible, terrible blast of electricity at her opponent, a second Thunderbolt fueled with all the fighting spirit that she could muster. It proved simply too much for the possessed pokémon, who gave a terrible screech of pain before slumping to the floor, its energy totally drained. “We don't know where you come from or why you're here,” Rhiannon said coolly to her opponent's still form. “But unless you want us to unleash our true power you had best leave this place at once.” The Jolteon glared down at her foe. Why did she have the horrible feeling that this wasn't quite over yet?

Rhiannon wins!
Rhiannon grew to L14!

“Well done!” Just as Rhiannon was about to leave an all too familiar voice rang out from the rooftops where she had been sitting just a few moments ago. “See, I just knew you'd be worth watching!”
“Enigma?” Rhiannon asked in mock despair. Why was this not exactly unexpected?
“Hi Rhi!” A small, fluffy Eevee with a bright red ruff seemed to blink into existence out of nowhere to a point directly in front of Rhiannon, so that its bright, cheery eyes were directly in the Jolteon's face. “Or should that be the great and powerful Lady Rhiannon? I can never quite know what I should be addressing you as, you know.”
“Rhi will do just fine,” Rhinannon groaned. “The other sounds far too sarcastic for our liking. What on earth are you doing here?”
“Oh, the usual... you know, spying on you because Lord Absol thinks you're a walking daemon magnet.” Suddenly Enigma's eyes alighted on the fallen Porygon2 and her eyes lit up even further, if it was indeed possible for the Eevee to look any more annoyingly perky. “And what do you know? He was right! Thanks a bunch. You've no idea how much of a pain it is to track down these body-hopping ones, you've saved us possibly weeks of tracking here.” Enigma's eyes flashed an odd turquoise colour and a cage of bright blue flame surrounded Rhiannon's vanquished opponent.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure it can't escape,” Enigma explained. “As one of the Porygon family it could quite happily turn into the element I make the cage out of and in most cases escape unharmed. But, as you probably know, one pokémon element has a rather odd property of being able to defeat itself.”
“So you surround it with dragon fire,” Rhiannon finished. “If it tries to escape then its traits convert it to a Dragon type and the cage hurts it twice as much. Not bad.”
“Well, I am an old hand at this, not to mention about a hundred times smarter than your average Eevee,” Enigma chuckled with a typical lack of modesty. “Anyway, I'll be taking this one back with me to my Order. We'll have it back to normal in a few hours and the world will be one less monster better off. But first... well, I've got bigger fish to fry than you at the moment so I guess this will be goodbye for a while.” Enigma looked almost glum. “Shame, really, you are a walking magnet for trouble, it's been rather fun hanging around you.” Suddenly she perked up again. “Anyway, seeing as I'm so nice and all I'm willing to give you something as compensation for all the spying I've been doing. Just name what you want and it'll be done.”
“You're serious?” Rhiannon asked cautiously.
“Sure am. Just don't ask for anything impossible like free entry to the White Tower's library or random raising of the dead. Some things just aren't meant to be.”
“Fine. Then...” Rhiannon paused for a moment, thinking hard. “Let us have something that you've not once given us all the time we've known you. We want answers, Enigma. Tell us about yourself. Tell us how you ended up working for the Order of the Dragon. We suspect this is going to be our only chance to find out and you've been doing a remarkably good job of arousing our curiosity over the past few months.”
“Ouch,” Enigma winced. “I had this horrible feeling you might say something like that.” The Eevee sighed deeply. “Okay, a deal's a deal. I'll tell you what you want to know... no, even better... I'll show you.”
“You'll what?” Rhiannon asked, watching as her companion's eyes began to glow a rather odd, pure white colour. Enigma turned to her with a rather wicked glint in her glowing eyes.
“Relax. You ought to be used to the reality-hopping bit. This won't bother you in the slightest. We're just going to a quick stroll through my memory, that's all.” And at that point everything went black.

The two pokémon found themselves in the thick of a large forest, a forest that Rhiannon couldn't quite place. Which was odd, really. In her time as a general she had pored rather frequently over maps of Ulthuan, she had learned the terrain extensively. But this place... there was something odd about it beyond it being a part of her current companion's memory. She just couldn't place what.
“Oh, you might want to watch out for the gigantic shiny Beedrill of doom over there,” Enigma chuckled, breaking Rhiannon's concentration for long enough to point out exactly that; an oversized and oddly coloured Beedrill flying straight for the two pokémon. Rhiannon sidestepped quickly, causing the creature to overshoot and collide with a nearby oak tree. “Bye bye, gigantic shiny Beedrill of doom!” the Eevee laughed. “Although this does raise a fascinating question, doesn't it?”
“It does?” Rhiannon asked cautiously, having hours worth of fascinating questions she wanted to ask and yet feeling quite certain that not a single one of them was going to be the one Enigma was thinking of.
“Of course. What kind of state is a creature in if it's unconscious in a reality that only exists in someone else's subconsciousness anyway?”
“An irrelevant one,” Rhiannon concluded, putting an end to this particular topic before it even started. “Were you not supposed to be explaining why you're in the job you're in, Enigma?”
“Ah yes. We're getting to that bit. Follow me.” Together the two pokémon made their way through the forest, past some quite bizarre examples of flora and fauna that made most genetics experiments look quite sane. There was a tree whose trunk seemed to be formed out of three smaller trunks plaited together. There was a Magmar whose flames flickered an odd purple colour. Eventually Rhiannon spoke up about this.
“It strikes us that we haven't seen a single instance of a standard specimen of any species at all since we entered this forest,” the Jolteon commented. “Was it actually like this or are we merely witnessing a by-product of your strange imagination?”
“I was wondering how long it'd take you to notice that, Rhiannon,” Enigma chuckled, hopping nimbly over a twisted tree root that tried to grab at her as she passed. “Let me fill you in a little here. We're actually in the forest of Kalaria Faern... well, what used to be called Kalaria Faern by the ancients, at any rate, I neither know nor care what mankind has renamed it simply because elven is a much prettier language I find. It translates to 'Magic Grove', you know, which kind of proves my point. Anyway...” Here the Eevee ducked under a low-flying Yanma. “...it grew on the site of an ancient battlefield. The war itself is so old that even our sources are pretty sketchy on the details, but this particular battle left the land irradiated with some very potent magic. So practically everything being born here ends up altered somehow by the little magical power that remains.”
“Altered?” The penny dropped. “We presume this is where you were born, correct? And your rather... unusual Hidden Power is your personal mutation.”
“Bingo!”
“And the scent as well?”
“Ah.” Enigma gave a rather uncomfortable grin. “No, the lack of scent is my fault entirely. I wanted to become as hard to detect as possible so I got my Order to have my scent glands surgically removed.”
“Enigma, the more we learn of you the more we find ourselves wishing we had just listened to you when you told us certain things were secrets.”
“I know, you'll learn soon enough that I'm always right about everything, especially about when not to ask questions,” the Eevee beamed. “Brilliant, isn't it?” Suddenly she drew to a halt and gestured for Rhiannon to do the same. “Ssh! We're here. Take a peek over that shrubbery just ahead of you.” Cautiously the Jolteon made her way forward and did as she was told, pushing her head through a conveniently yellow bush that allowed her to blend right in with her surroundings. Her eyes landed upon a little clearing with a babbling brook where a little family played. There was the mother, a petite Espeon whose fur was coloured the green of the grass instead of the usual lilac of her species. And the father, a strong Vaporeon with a pure white frill. And three little cubs with ruffs of fur coloured in red, yellow and blue respectively.
“Is that... we mean, was that you, Enigma?” Rhiannon asked, her eyes alighting on the Eevee cub with the bright red ruff. It was a silly question, really, given the context of their visit but the Jolteon spoke it anyway.
“Yup!” Enigma's head pushed its way forward until it was level with Rhiannon's. “Cute, wasn't I? By the way, you don't have to be so cautious. They can't hear you. Or see you, for that matter. This, after all, is just a memory, it's not like it's real and we've travelled in time or anything. Which, given what will be happening in... ooh, roughly two minutes time, is probably just as well for us.”
“Why? What happens in two minutes?”
“If I wanted to tell you I would have just done so instead of going to all this trouble to actually show you, so quit with the questions before I smack you over that notorious little head of yours.” Rhiannon opened her mouth to chastise the Eevee for her lack of respect but the words didn't quite come out. It was an odd sensation, as if she had somehow missed the point where Enigma had pushed her luck far enough to warrant retaliation and as a result they were now in a new, previously uncharted place where any further luck-pushing seemed so outrageous that it could cause the brain to totally seize up. In the end Rhiannon reluctantly had to concede that here, at least, her companion was in charge and hence all she could do was to watch and wait.

Two minutes passed. And nothing happened.
“Well?” Rhiannon asked Enigma.
“Relax. As it so happens I factored in the time it'd take for you to turn to me impatiently and ask why nothing was happening. It wouldn't be the same without the dramatic pause before the action starts. Turn your head roughly forty-five degrees to the right and you'll see what you need to see.” Stifling the urge to do something unspeakably violent to the Eevee – for Enigma had mastered the art of being thoroughly annoying to such a degree that even Rhiannon's adult mind found its usually unlimited patience tested – the Jolteon cautiously turned her head. To find the start of a scene that even her imagination could not have forseen. There tearing through the forest was a Nidoking... only this was no ordinary Nidoking. Its eyes were shot with fear and panic. Traces of foam were coming from its mouth. And it's arm... oh, it's arm! The entire right arm of the pokémon was totally missing, replaced instead by several tentacles that seemed as black as the night sky and yet somehow glowed with an ethereal light. The last time Rhiannon had set eyes upon such a sight was... well, it had been deep within her own subconsciousness as the experiments of the Dark Cloak rather crudely forced her spirit to fuse with that of a demon. Back then she had been within carefully monitored conditions, there had been no outcome available than for her own consciousness to extinguish that of the intruder and claim its power for her own. But, the Jolteon found herself wondering, what would happen if she had been the one to lose the inner struggle?
“It's possessed,” Rhiannon found herself saying dumbly.
“Of course it is. Very soon that Nidoking isn't going to be existing as a Nidoking at all. Daemonic possession is a far more common occurrence than you'd like to believe, Rhiannon. All it takes is for a pokémon to stumble into the wrong ruins and touch the wrong hidden artifact – or indeed just walk across the wrong piece of land – and bam! They've left themselves wide open. The ancients have a lot to answer for, Rhiannon. They left Ulthuan so drenched in magical energy that scenes like this happen almost every day. It's why most of us in the Order of the Dragon hardly get any sleep. There's always some idiot who's managed to lose their body to the forces of darkness.” There was an uncharacteristically stony expression upon Enigma's face. “You want to know why I'm happy to play the demon hunter, Rhiannon? Watch, and then tell me you still don't understand.”
“Enigma?” Rhiannon frowned before returning her gaze to the clearing. By now the frantic Nidoking had reached the clearing, leaving the Eevee cubs cowering behind their parents, both of whom seemed more concerned than scared.
“Garad, what's happened to you?” the Vaporeon finally said to the intruder. “What happened, my friend?”
“Karasho, it hurts,” the Nidoking whimpered pitifully. “It hurts so much and it's pressing so hard, it presses so hard and won't stop!” Suddenly it howed wildly, its tentacles seeming to rush for the Water-type's throat and then halting at the last moment. “Karasho, get away from me! Get away, all of you, I can't keep it at bay for much longer!”
“Garad, how can we possibly leave you when you seem so distressed?” Personally Rhiannon thought Enigma's father either incredibly compassionate or incredibly stupid. And seeing as he had a family to protect her judgement was swinging more towards the latter option. “Come on, old friend. We'll find a way to help you. After all we've been through together I won't abandon you now. How did this happen to you?”
“I...” The Nidoking blinked at the Vaporeon with tear-stained eyes, for a moment wresting control of his gradually dwindling sanity. “It was in the forest's centre... I was exploring, you see, and I came across these strange ruins and... well, I knew I shouldn't but I went in and then... and then...” Suddenly the pokémon's eyes widened and it cried out in pain. “Karasho, you must leave me! At once!”
“Garad, I...” The Vaporeon took a step forward. A step which proved to be a terrible mistake. All of a sudden the tentacles shot forward and pierced the pokémon several times as if they were sharpened blades. “Garad?” the Water-type asked pitifully before falling silent for good.
“YOU MUST ALL LEAVE!!!” the Nidoking suddenly shrieked before tentacles seemed to burst from every inch of flesh it possessed, what was once a pokémon torn apart in an instant to reveal a twisted mass of tentacles surrounding a single, blood-red eye, like some kind of nightmarish Tangela with a taste for blood. It turned its pupil upon the remaining terrified members of the Eevee family, the pups cowering helplessly behind their mother, who was trying very hard to put a brave face on for her children but was quite obviously at the very edge of her sanity. “YOU MUST... ALL... DIE!” Again the nightmarish tendrils shot forward, scattering the pokémon as they tried desperately to run for cover. Not that this did much good. One fell. And then another. And then another. Until only the red-ruffed cub remained, the monster advancing upon the little creature as it cowered in the corner of the clearing, its limits of fear pushed far beyond the point that anyone should have had to endure. “Now... just you, little one.” A tendril began to snake its way towards the little pokémon, who closed its eyes waiting for the inevitable end to this nightmare.

That end never came.

“Kest tanar'ri!” A harsh, commanding voice called out from an unknown point, the sort of voice it was impossible to ignore. Rhiannon recognised it almost instantly and very quickly deduced the remainder of this plot. Still, it was interesting to see how all this was going to play out. She watched as several silver arrows flew out of the surrounding forest, each pinning a tentacle to a nearby tree until the monster was totally helpless and secreting a clear, acidic goo from several minor injuries.
“How can you stand to watch all this, Enigma?” the Jolteon whispered to her companion, who hadn't so much as flinched as she watched what must have been a terribly traumatic event from her past played all over again. If it had been Rhiannon herself, she reflected, she would have gone to pieces long before now. There was no greater torment than seeing those you love hurt, after all.
“It's just a fact of life, Rhiannon,” the Eevee replied calmly. “The strong prey upon the weak. Those of us born weak have to just accept our fate and that of those around us. Besides, this was all a long time ago and what's done is done, right? No point crying over spilt milk and all that.” Enigma offered a cheery smile but it was the sort of cheery smile that Rhiannon was more used to seeing from her brother when he was making jokes about Team Rocket. The mood was perfect, the words seemed perfectly in character, but there was just that little something behind them that indicated that everything wasn't quite as rosy as it should have been. “Now watch, would you? This is your first and last chance to see the amazing Enigma cinematic experience so you may as well make the most of it instead of getting all bewildered that my emotions don't work in the same way as yours.” Reluctantly Rhiannon returned her attention to the scene in front of her. She still had so many questions, so much she wanted to say! Enigma was a spunky little irritant who more than lived up to her name, surely, but despite herself Rhiannon desperately wanted to befriend the Eevee in spite of the fact that their respective natures almost certainly meant that such a relationship would have been impossible. “Look, would you?” the Eevee scolded, noticing that Rhiannon was still not giving the scene her full attention. Up in the clearing a tall, thin man with almost impossibly pale skin and thick black hair had stepped out brandishing a gemstone-studded bow that was already poised to fire a final arrow directly into the eye of his quarry. The clothing was slightly less cumbersome than Rhiannon remembered – here the usual padding had been dropped for a less cumbersome black tunic embroidered in silver runes that still covered up most of the man's body - but it was still quite obviously Enigma's trainer, the equally mysterious Lord Absol. This time he wasn't hiding behind his sunglasses, revealing narrow yellow eyes that burned with a fierce passion, and his currently bare hands revealed a complex network of tattoos upon their backs. This was a Lord Absol that was actually revealing something, even if Rhiannon couldn't quite comprehend what that something was.
“You'd do best not to try anything, deviant,” Lord Absol warned the squirming monster, his eyes not leaving it for a second. “My next arrow will go straight through what passes for your blackened heart.”
“Mightier than you have tried and failed,” the monster smirked. “Your bonds will not hold me for long.”
“I have no need for them to,” came the calm retort. “They will hold long enough for me to salvage the damage you have caused, at which point you can do what you will. But I warn you, deviant, I have banished far fouler than you.”
“Your threats mean nothing to me, mortal,” the demon spat.
“And your ignorance astounds me.” By now Lord Absol had walked over to the monster and was staring it straight in the eye. “Even the most vulgar daemons have at least some comprehension of the grand scheme!” All of a sudden the bow had been dropped and Lord Absol was holding a silver dagger to the monster's eye. “You will at least recognise me for what I am, devil, or I terminate your existance on this plane right now and nobody shall save you from the wrath of whichever master you happen to serve.”
“Wha?” Rhiannon turned to Enigma, confused by this exchange.
“Oh, if you spend enough time in Lord Absol's company like I have you'll see not even he's without weakness,” the Eevee explained. “My theory is that he took the whole 'mortal' thing to be an insult. The demon was comparing him to other men, you see, and if there's one thing that guy's got waaay too much of it's pride.” The two pokémon continued their observation of the scene in front of them.
“You...” the demon panted. “You are an insignificant worm who is full of empty threats.”
“And you...” Lord Absol shook his head sadly. “You are clearly not even a true daemon. You are merely hellspawn, a piece of flotsam on the tides of the netherworld with no master, no purpose and quite obviously no use to me. Begone. Ta'udun, bael a'baradcol!” As he yelled the words he placed a hand on his captive's grotesque hide, the tattoos on the back of it glowing with an ethereal light, a light that soon spread over his entire hand and through the demon, causing it to howl in agony, an inhuman shriek that send shivers through the bones of all who heard it. The light engulfed the creature and very soon had seemed to burn it to cinders. For a moment Lord Absol stood still, muttering something under his breath before standing up and turning his attention to the still cowering young Enigma. “Ah, poor thing,” he sighed with a totally uncharacteristic gentleness in his voice. “To have had to witness all of that... it's truly unfair.” Here he stooped down and reached a hand over to the petrified Eevee who, rather understandably, scooted away rather quickly. “No, no... shh, it's alright. I am a friend. I won't hurt you.” Gently he reached over and placed his palm upon the Eevee's quivering flank. “Glath'jaliss.” Again the tattoos glowed, but this time their only effect seemed to be to calm the little pokémon down. It put up no fight at all as Lord Absol picked it up and placed it upon his lap, stroking it gently behind the ears. “To have been hurt so by those who should not even be... I feel for you, my little palantiri. Come, I shall take you back with me. We can help to ease the wounds of body and of spirit. One so young should not have to suffer so.” Quietly he stood up with the seemingly sedated Eevee in his arms and strode smartly out of the clearing, still cooing words of encouragement to the pokémon in his arms. For her part Rhiannon seemed rather dumbstruck.
“So there you are,” Enigma commented without emotion. “When back at the quarters of the Order of the Dragon I was nursed back to health. For a while I hung around Li... Lord Absol simply because I didn't know anyone else. And he was always good to me. They all were. Whatever you may think of us, Rhiannon, we exist to make sure the world turns as it should and I'm very sorry if this means we must occasionally be enemies with the likes of you and the Dragon Tamers. But we always have the greater good at heart.” The Eevee smiled slightly. “Anyway, somewhere along the line we discovered my complete mastery of Hidden Power. That, plus the fact that as you can imagine I've always been rather keen to avoid that sort of situation happening again, swung it in terms of me actually undergoing training at Lord Absol's hands. I, my dear Rhiannon, am proud to be the first pokémon enlisted into the Order of the Dragon. So I got the whole training in overcoming demons and spirits thing, and I got a bit carried away and got my scent glands removed to aid in remaining undetected, and now here I am, I live for my job and my Order and totally confusing certain Jolteons. You're fun, Rhiannon, it's a bit of a shame I don't have to stalk you any longer.” Enigma grinned broadly.
“You get on our nerves a remarkable amount,” the Jolteon noted. “But it's been amusing having you around regardless. Should you have a spare moment we'd be happy to have you round for a cup of tea or two.”
“I'm honoured, Rhiannon, really I am, but I have to admit that I'm so busy if you see me around it's generally because something really, really awful is about to happen.” The Eevee looked a little sorrowful. “Anyway, time I got back to my master and that party-obsessed bozo you used to call a teammate, I guess. Unless you've any more questions while I'm actually in the mood to answer them?”
“We've many,” Rhiannon replied. “For a start, we rather suspect that your master is something other than human, are we correct? And if he was so compassionate towards you why did he hurt Pandora so in an attempt to waylay Ade? And...”
“Let's just leave it there for now, Rhiannon,” Enigma interrupted. “While you're still asking questions you can already guess the correct answers to. What do you think my answers would be to those?”
“That he isn't human, that he, like Teclis, is a survivor of those who ruled Ulthuan before mankind? And that he knew perfectly well that Pandora would escape and become stronger for her experiences, with the added benefit that we would all be too busy worrying about her to try investigating into matters that he considered his jurisdiction? Or maybe we're reading too much into that. Maybe he was simply in a bad mood that day. We can't begin to guess at his behaviour patterns.”
“I didn't breathe a word,” Enigma grinned. “All I'm saying is that you're smarter than you look, Rhiannon. Just don't you dare mention this to anyone, okay? For all you can overpower most creatures on this planet, I've had specialist training in kicking your ass and I'd be pretty annoyed if you went around blurting out all my secrets.” The Eevee chuckled slightly. “Anyway, I'm sure I'll see you around sooner or later. In the meantime... back to reality with us, I guess!” All of a sudden the eyes of the Eevee began to glow a familiar shade of white. And then everything returned to black.

“Rhi? Rhi where the %&^* are you?” Rhiannon found herself back in reality at a height of roughly twenty feet around ground level, her odd powers having allowed her to land on a cushion of solidified air. Beneath her she could see her brother, Milliardo, prowling the gardens, calling out her name. He was obviously worried about her. And it was just as obvious as to how she should make her entrance. “Damn it, where the hell are you, Rhi?” The Umbreon paused, looking most annoyed. When finally his sister decided to show herself in the most annoying way possible.
“Death from above!!!!” Suddenly a loud cry from above rang out, causing Milliardo to instinctively roll out of the way and his assailant to crash face first into the ground with a loud thud.
“More like death from the ground, I'd say,” the Umbreon noted, rolling over his semi-dazed sister with a front paw. “Sorry, Rhi, looks like I prove my superiority yet again, not only in avoiding your attacks but also in resisting the temptation to use catchphrases from stupid webcomics. You lose.”
“Dammit...” Rhiannon grumbled, picking herself up. “What do I have to do to catch you off guard.”
“Freeze me in time first.”
“Want me to?” the Jolteon asked with a wicked smile upon her face. “Stasis isn't a very hard condition to enduce with magic for a short while...”
“...and when the spell has worn off your brother will kill you,” Milliardo finished. “Don't bother. Anyway, what's going on with you, Rhi? We'd all gone off for ice cream and I know you, you can sense all sweets within a ten mile radius. What happened?”
“Oh, I just needed some time alone for a while...”
“I know you're lying. You have the same look on your face that I do when I'm trying to cover something up. What's going on?”
“Nothing. At least not now. In fact I'd say it's all finally over.” Rhiannon stared up at the sky, wondering where Enigma had got to. In a way it was good to be free of the irritating Eevee but... in some ways she already missed her. “Come on, Milliardo, wanna go see if there's any ice cream left?” Without waiting for an answer the Jolteon shot for the front gate, her brother hot on her heels. All of a sudden things started, in some bizarre way, to make a certain sense. And that sense was telling her to go and live life to the full, for the past didn't truly matter. It provided understanding, but very rarely true answers after all.

[Wolfsong]

He will be battling a Cyndaquil.

[classy_cat18]

Finally, done with Katana's RBG! Wow, this has to be the longest DT story that I've ever written. Can I have an RBG for Beacon from the Nature Protection Agency? She's my L12 Mareep.

NOTE: I got a Thundershock TM from the EMT and gave it to Katana.

Katana’s POV

I rolled over on my bed as a headache pounded in my head. I had to endure hours of loud music as the others celebrated the defeat of the Crimson Blades and Lily’s double evolution. Now they were the ones sleeping and I was wide awake. I remembered about my report that I was to make to Diablo and cringed. This was the first time I was afraid to face him. He and I had been looking forward to the day when he could kill Shonta. But now I wasn’t so sure.

The human named Shonta and the other Dragon Tamers were different from other humans. They seemed to actually care about their Pokemon. They treated them like family. And the Pokemon seemed to care about their trainers…like I once did. Sure, there were those that wanted to fight me. But the Castform belonging to the human named Jeff told me that they actually cared about me. Were they telling the truth?

I rolled off of my pillow and headed out of the house, pleased that Shonta cut in a hole in the front door for me to come and go as I wanted. That was another reason why I couldn’t make my mind up about Shonta and the others. They didn’t confine me. Even though they clearly knew what I could do during my free time they didn’t make any attempt to stop me, although Lily would give me a concerned look every time I left for business. It almost made me stop and turn back.

I stopped in an alley and tried to clear my head of those thoughts. What was I thinking? No one cared about me. Except, that is, for the Demons. They were the ones that were there when my family was nowhere to be found. I needed no one else!

But what happened when the Demons were in trouble? Who came to their rescue? Lily came and battled the Charmeleon for the safety of my friends even though she had a clear disadvantage over him. Bandit went as well even though the Demons thought of him as a traitor. I sat and looked down at my now unsheathed claws. Those claws had shed so much blood. Would they ever completely come clean?

“There you are, Lady Katana!”

I looked up to see that one of my assistants, the Machop that helped me move into Shonta’s home, had found me. I sighed. I had approached the point of no return. “Lead the way, Machop,” I ordered.

I followed him to the abandoned warehouse that they were staying in when they were attacked by the Crimson Blades. A few of the younger Demons were already sleeping, but I knew that Diablo would be wide awake. He always looked forward to my visits.

Machop led me to the back where a pair of Diablo’s red eyes watched us in the darkness. He kneeled in front of the Houndoom and cleared his throat. “Sir, Lady Katana is here to see you.”

I kneeled beside Machop. “Sir, I am here to give my report.”

“Leave us,” Diablo told Machop in a menacing voice.

Machop nodded and left me alone with the pair of red eyes. I managed to look humble and fearful, just the way he likes me to be when we’re not completely alone. I still looked like it when Machop was nowhere to be seen. I was not looking forward to what came next.

Diablo sauntered toward me, looking at me with a smirk on his face. “Hello, Katana. How have you been?” He took a closer look at my slightly shaking form and frowned. “What’s the matter? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Of course I am, sir,” I said stiffly.

“Still calling me ‘sir’?” He made a “tsk, tsk” sound. “When will you stop with the formalities, my dear Katana?”

When you go back to acting normal, I almost said out loud. “Sir, you are my superior,” I reminded him.

He ran his tail under my chin, forcing me to look up at his eyes. “I wasn’t always your superior. Don’t you remember, love?”

I felt my eyes water. Yes, I remembered. He wasn’t always the leader of the Demons. He used to be something more to me. I swallowed hard. “Yes, I remember. Should I give my report now?”

He sighed heavily, knowing that he wouldn’t get much out of me. He sat in his bed and glared at me, once again my boss. “Report, Katana.”

“My mission is complete. The Crimson Blades are defeated and the target is still unharmed.” I paused before finishing. “I am waiting for your next orders.”

Diablo sat silent for a while and then started chuckling. That chuckling soon became maniacal laughter. His laugh bounced off the walls, chilled my blood and made my fur stand on end. Then he stopped his laughing and looked at me with a wide grin, showing his sharp fangs. “Finally! That human is going to get what she deserves!”

I clenched my teeth. That fool’s probably forgotten why he was going after Shonta in the first place! “Sir, why are you after Shonta in the first place?”

“Isn’t it obvious? That human girl is manipulative and deceiving. Humans like her will convince our beloved Demons to turn to a life of battling and confinement in those horrid pokeballs.”

For a few seconds I wanted nothing more than to tell him that he was wrong, that Shonta didn’t make her team battle and live in pokeballs. But why did I want to defend her? Was it because she actually grew on me? My tail twitched uneasily as I kept my eyes on the floor. I finally decided to keep quiet.

Diablo paced in front of me, his eyes wide while he panted excitedly. “I could kill her tonight! Pounce on her while she’s asleep in her little bed and rip her throat out! No, I can do better. I could rip her heart out and burn her body beyond recognition!”

“NO!” I cried out suddenly before I could stop myself.

He stopped and looked at me with a surprised face. “Do have an objection to my plan? Aren’t you happy that this human will finally be out of your hair?”

My eyes watered again. I told the other Pokemon that my heart was taken away from me a long time ago. Now it seems that it had come back and it was telling me to not let that maniac kill my trainer. But I couldn’t cry. Diablo might actually decide that I was getting too soft for his tastes. I managed a small smile. “No, sir. I was saying that…”

“That what?”

I hesitated. I had to figure out a plan to keep Diablo from killing Shonta. I had to…stall him! “The human is taking a trip to Ellyrion,” I said calmly.

Diablo’s eyes narrowed and he lowered his head to get a closer look at my face. I couldn’t show any signs that I was lying or my head would be on a silver platter. “Is that so? Well, I’ll just have to wait. For now you are still her guardian, Katana. But that role is over when you come back from Ellyrion. You resume your earlier duties and let me have the pleasure of killing her.”

I nodded. “Yes, sir.” I turned around to leave but stopped when I heard him clear his throat. I looked back and saw that he was, for a brief moment, the Diablo that he was before he was a Demon.

“Katana? On your ears. Are those…?”

“Yes, sir. They increase my special attack.”

“Katana, when are you going to come back to me? You haven’t lived with me since…”

“I know, sir,” I interrupted. “I’ll sleep on it.” I walked out of the warehouse at a hurried pace, my walk turning into a flat-out run as soon as I was out of the Demons’ sight. I didn’t stop until I got in the house. I was half-panting, half-crying when I curled back in my bed. My head was swimming with thoughts. Which path do I take? Do I continue being a Demon, slaying others under Diablo’s command? Or do I turn back and take the other path as a trained Pokemon once more? Can I turn back? And what will I do when I decide to turn back? I can’t ask someone to put their life on the line for me. The sound of my own crying soon lulled me to sleep.

“Katana!” Aero the Pidgeotto cried as he swooped down and landed on a low branch. He looked really messed up. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

I looked up from my meal, an unfortunate Rattata. “What is it, Aero?” I asked him.

“You better come to your den. Something bad has happened!” He took off again in the direction of my den.

My heart was pounding in my chest as I raced for the den. Please let them be okay! Let nothing bad happen to them! I reached the den and poked my head in. They were all curled up but something red stained their fur. I reached in and poked one. He didn’t move. My heart felt like it had stopped and I put a paw over it to make sure it hadn’t. They were dead. Aero and I stood silent for a while before I spoke. “Aero, who did this?”

He closed his eyes and looked away, no longer wanting to look at the curled up forms of bloody fur. “Humans, Katana. Humans did it. And one of them was your former trainer.”

Once again my heart seemed to stop. My trainer? But my trainer loves Pokemon. Why would she kill them? “Are you sure it was my former trainer?”

“I saw it with my own eyes. She was mumbling something about teaching you a lesson.”

My eyes were watery with tears but nothing came out of my mouth. Finally I dropped to my knees and started to cry. “I didn’t mean to make her mad! Oh, what will I do without them?”

“Katana?” I looked up to see a Houndoom approach. His scent was slightly different but I knew who he was. He had evolved. But how? “I came to see how you were doing. Are you alright?”

I was so glad to see him that I didn’t hesitate to run to him and nuzzle him. “Diablo, they’re…they’re dead. All of them. Aero told me that humans came and killed them and that one of them was my former trainer. Please tell him he’s wrong!”

Diablo’s eyes widened and he stepped back from me and went to the den. He poked one of the bodies with a paw, went back to me with a solemn look on his face, and pulled me close to him. “Katana, I don’t know if your former trainer killed them. But I doubt that Aero would lie about it.”

I cried in his chest for what seemed like forever. Then he broke the silence. “Those humans will pay for what they did. Together we will kill them all.”

“What!?!” Aero exclaimed.

I pushed him away from me, amazed by what he said. “But she’s my friend! I can’t kill her!”

Diablo stuck his face in mine, his expression serious. There was something else in that face too, something I didn’t like. “You are too soft, Katana. Throw away your feelings for your so-called friend and give her the lesson that she deserves.”

“But I can’t,” I whimpered, not liking how Diablo was talking.

“Remember that she took away something that you cared about and that you can’t get it back. She killed them in cold blood, Katana. She must receive punishment.” He rested a paw on my head.

I gasped as I could almost feel my heart harden. All the feelings I had about my trainer drained from me. But hate remained.

My eyes snapped open as my dream ended. No, not a dream. Memories. I looked out the window and saw that the sun was about to rise. I wasn’t going to get any more sleep so I just headed for the roof.

Lily’s POV

I woke up as the sun’s rays rested on my eyes. Dawn was always my favorite time of day. Seeing the day start was a great way to start the day in my opinion. Everyone else was asleep but Katana wasn’t there with us. That’s strange. Katana’s always back in her bed by the time I wake up. Well, maybe she’s up and about already.

I walked to the living room and up the stairs to the roof. That’s where I found her. She had her back to me and was staring at the sky, sitting silently. “There you are, Katana. I was worried that you were somewhere else,” I told her.

Katana kept her back to me while she sighed and spoke. “Lily, there’s no need to worry about me so much. I can take care of myself.”

“I can’t help it! I keep thinking that you’ll run into some nasty Pokemon that’ll tear you apart!”

“Like I said, I can take care of myself.”

“But what about Diablo? What about the scars he gave you?” That earned a gasp from her. Then I heard her breathing loudly followed by crying. I walked around to her front and saw tears streaming down her face. Crying was something that Katana did rarely if ever. I reached up and wiped them off of her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” she sobbed. “Lily, what I’m about to tell you must stay between the two of us. Okay?” I nodded. “Diablo wasn’t always…insane. He used to be sweet and loving. Look under my paw.”

I did. There was something that looked like a picture frame under it. I pulled it out and found out it was a picture frame. In the picture was a sweet looking girl in pigtails and a shiny Zangoose that had a glare that looked a lot like Katana’s. “Who are they?” I asked Katana.

“The girl’s name is Emily and the Zangoose’s name is Zoe. Zoe’s my mother.”

I gasped. “This is your mom? But you’re normal colored!”

“I know. I was the odd one out. Out of three offspring I was the only one that was normal colored. And if you’re thinking about my father, I’ve never seen him before. My mother told me that he belonged to another trainer.”

I looked at the picture again, another question floating up to the surface of my mind. “Aren’t you wild?”

She shook her head. “No. I am feral. So is Diablo. My mother lived as a pampered contest Pokemon, getting everything her heart desired. I didn’t like that life and wanted so much to leave it. My siblings got adopted but I did not. One day I was playing in the backyard. I wandered away from there and onto a neighbor’s yard. That was when I met Diablo.

“He was rooting through the neighbor’s trash, hoping for scraps. He was just a Houndour so he didn’t seem that menacing. Plus he was kind of goofy. He took one look at me, yelped in surprise and fell in the trashcan.” She chuckled a bit at that. “We talked for awhile and quickly fell in love with each other.”

I dropped the picture in surprise. “You…and him?”

She smiled sadly. “Yes. We loved each other so much. He would visit me every day and I would sneak off to spend nights with him. One night he asked me if I had a wish that he could grant. I told him that I had two wishes: to live in the wild with him and to be a mother.” She blushed. “He granted those two wishes in the same night.”

“Wow, you two must’ve been an item. What happened for him to be so insane?” I clapped my hands over my mouth but it was too late. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to call him insane!”

“That’s okay. To be honest I now think he’s getting a little insane myself. We lived in a forest for a while, me taking care of the little buns in the oven and him bringing home the bacon…and everything else he could get. But over time he started to change. He became more aggressive and he started to mumble to himself over every little thing. It was as if he would be talking to an annoying invisible person. But when I spoke to him or touched him he went to his old self again. That, however, got less effective as time went by.”

“I wonder what got into him,” I said.

“Me too. Anyway, a few weeks after the babies were born I went out to find something to eat. See, Diablo said he needed to go on a long journey to fetch something for me and I was alone with no one to feed me. Aero would watch them from time to time but he had his siblings to look after. While I was gone, the humans killed them. They killed my babies!” She went back to crying. “Aero told me the news. He tried to stop them but they overwhelmed him. One of the humans was my trainer.”

“No way!”

“Yes. She was mumbling something about teaching me a lesson. Diablo arrived there a little too late. He told me to forget all of my feelings for Emily and to kill her. He did something to me, Lily. It was like all of the love and admiration for her drained out of me. All that was left was anger and hate. So I did it. I did that dirty deed.”

“You killed her? What about your mom?”

“I don’t remember. I don’t remember much about that night. She was gone by the time my mind came back. I did the same to the other humans that Aero identified. For some reason the police didn’t even link the crimes to me. I liked it, Lily. God help me, I liked it.” She wiped some more tears off of her face and went back to looking at the sky.

I gave her the tightest hug I could give her, fighting back tears of my own. “Don’t say that. You know that’s not true.”

“It is true. But now I don’t know how I feel about it anymore. You and your team touched me, Lily. You touched me like Diablo did. This time the emotions came back. All the sorrow, the fear, the grief. Also…” She held my hand. “All the happiness, the love, the joy that I had for life. That discussion that I had with Gabi’s Pokemon really helped me.” She hugged me.

“I’m glad we could be of help. Is there anything else we could do?”

“In fact there is.” Her expression became serious as she pulled away from me. “We need to get Shonta to Ellyrion as quickly as possible.”

“Why? What’s the rush?”

“I told Diablo she was going taking a trip there today. I had to tell him something! He was going to kill her last night!”

A chill was sent up my spine. “And if he finds out you were lying then you would be in trouble, too.”

“That’s right, so let’s wake her up. But don’t tell her the truth about why she needs to leave.”

I ran with her back down to Shonta’s room. She jumped up on the bed and leaned in to Shonta’s ear. “Get up, you idiot! We have things to do today!” she shouted.

Shonta eyes shot open. “What? Are we under attack again?” she asked, startled but still sounding drowsy.

“No! We’re going to Ellyrion today so Beacon can see her family.”

“Why today?”

Katana put her face close to hers. “Because I’m bored. And you don’t want me bored, do you?”

Shonta gulped. Thoughts of her terrorizing poor Beacon and Bandit probably went through her mind. “Okay, I’ll see if there’s a train leaving for Ellyrion today.” She rolled out of bed and looked down at me. “Do you mind going to Ellyrion, Lily?”

“Of course not! In fact, it’ll be a nice vacation from the hustle and bustle of everyday life,” I said in a pleasant voice.

“Then wake up the others and tell them to get ready. Get Bandit to look up the departure times of the train, okay?”

I saluted. “Yes, ma’am!” I promptly ran to my teammates’ room and yelled at the top of my lungs. “Wake up, everyone! We’re going on vacation!”

Trinity was the first to fully wake up. “Ooh, vay-cay! Are we going to the beach?”

“No, to Ellyrion.”

Beacon’s head shot up. “Ellyrion? Oh boy! I get to see Mom and Dad!” She trotted past me and down the hall.

Slowly everyone else woke up until the only one still asleep was Bandit. I poked him on the shoulder. “Wake up,” I said softly.

Bandit stirred a little and opened an eye. “That’s funny. I thought I heard an annoying Bellossom telling me to wake up but hopefully it’s just a dream.”

“It’s not a dream. Hey, I’m not annoying! Why are you talking like Trinity when she’s grumpy?”

“Because you basically woke me up at sunrise.” Nevertheless he got up and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

An hour and a half later we were ready to go to the train station. Bandit said that we didn’t have a lot of time to get there so Shonta quickly hailed a taxi and rode there with the rest of us in our pokeballs. When I was finally let out I was sitting by Bandit in a train seat across from Shonta. Bandit was looking out the window silently but turned his head to me when I spoke to him. “Katana’s not that bad, Bandit.”

Bandit’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think I was thinking about that psycho?”

“I was just bringing her up. I wasn’t assuming that you were thinking about her.”

He stuck a finger in my face as his expression got angrier. “Look, even though she has those creepy yet alluring eyes and that silky fur and that nice voice doesn’t mean that I think about her every waking second of my life!”

A wide smile appeared on my face. “You think she’s pretty, don’t you?”

“Of course she’s pretty! It’s her attitude I don’t like!”

“But what if she changed her attitude? Would you like her then?”

He smirked and crossed his arms. “The day she changes her attitude is the day I sprout wings and fly!”

I pouted but didn’t say anything else for the rest of the trip. Bandit’s wrong. Katana has changed. She just doesn’t want anyone else to know yet. As we got closer to Ellyrion I noticed a tall white mountain in the horizon. “Wow! That’s so pretty!” I said in awe.

“That’s White Mountain. We must be getting pretty close to Ellyrion. Look at those green hills,” Shonta commented.

Thirty minutes later the train stopped at our. Shonta, Bandit and I stepped out. A minute later, much to our surprise, Katana also stepped out. She had on her usual sour face but wasn’t making any attempt to torture Bandit. “That was a long ride. I slept most of the way there,” she said to us.

Shonta put her hands on her hips. “When did you get out?” she asked Katana.

Katana gave Shonta her usual glare. “Around the time you were asleep and the other two were lost in their thoughts. I told you I didn’t like being confined to those things.”

“Whatever. Let’s just find out where we supposed to go next. Beacon told us it was the stop before Tor Elyr but she didn’t even say what this place was.” She took out a pokeball and let Beacon out. “Okay Beacon, where does your mom and dad live?”

She looked at what could’ve been the largest building in the small village, a large house or inn. “Mom now belongs to the owner of that inn. We could stay there during our vacation.”

“For free, I hope,” Bandit grumbled.

We gathered our suitcase from the pile of luggage on the side of the train and left for the inn. We passed humble shops and houses and saw herds of various Pokemon off in the distance, mostly Mareep. A few people glanced at us as we walked by them but they were mostly interested in Beacon.

We reached the inn, dubbed The Black Ampharos. A picture of a black Ampharos with yellow stripes where there should’ve been black stripes adorned the hanging sign in front. It looked like one of those inns from colonial times. We entered and went up to the front desk where an old but strong looking bearded man stood. He towered over all of us. To me he looked like a giant. “What can I do for you?” he asked us.

“For one thing, could you tell me the name of this town?” Shonta asked him.

He took a closer look at her. Shonta shrunk back a bit. “You must be city folk. Everyone else knows about Beacon Village.”

My head instantly snapped to Beacon. “Beacon! This village is named after you!”

Beacon blushed. “Actually, I’m named after the village,” she corrected. She walked around the counter and smiled at the man. “Ben! It’s me, Beacon!”

Ben’s face lit up as he looked down at Beacon. “Beacon! My my, it’s great to see you!” He reached down and patted her head. “You’ve gotten bigger and stronger since the last time I’ve seen you.”

“Yeah, and I have my trainer to thank.” The two of them walked back around the counter. Ben shook Shonta’s hand with a smile. “This is Shonta and these are some of her Pokemon. The Bellossom is Lily, the Kecleon is Bandit, and the Zangoose is Katana.” The three of us waved, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to understand us.

“Shonta, Lily, Bandit, and Katana. It’s nice to meet you all. I’m Ben. I own this inn and live here with my lovely wife. Beacon’s parents aren’t here right now. They’re looking for Rose.”

Beacon sighed. “What did she get herself into now?”

“Nothing. She just wandered away from the inn and we got worried. You know how unlucky Rose could be.”

“Who’s Rose?” Shonta asked Ben.

“Rose is a Roselia. I know, dead giveaway. Tell you what. If you retrieve Rose, I’ll let you stay for free. Free room, free meals for you and your Pokemon.”

“Free!?! You got yourself a deal!” Bandit exclaimed happily.

“You got yourself a deal,” Shonta said with a grin.

We exited the inn with Beacon in the front. We needed her Odor Sleuth to track down Rose. In the end it paid off. Katana’s ears perked up as the trail got stronger. She pointed to some bushes further up the road. “Something’s behind those,” she said. We crept closer to it. Just when Shonta was about to peek into them something burst out and hid behind her. It was a Roselia, just what we were looking for. “I guess you were the one screaming.”

“Don’t let him get me,” the Roselia whimpered.

“Rose, what exactly are you hiding from?” Beacon asked her.

At that moment a Sentret calmly walked out of the bushes. “Shoot, where did that Roselia go?” He saw Rose as she peeked out from behind Shonta’s legs. “There you are! Master Char wants a word with you!”

“Tell Char I don’t want to talk to him!” Rose shouted. She started to run toward the inn as soon as she finished her sentence. The Sentret ran for her for a while then rolled up into a ball and started to roll after her. He was faster while rolling than he was while running.

“He’s gaining on her! We have to do something!” I cried.

Without warning Katana broke away from the group and ran after the Sentret, quickly gaining up with him. She ran past the Sentret and stopped in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. “Not so fast,” she growled at him.

We ran to the three Pokemon. “Wow, she’s fast!” Shonta commented.

Rose, realizing that she was no longer being chased, stopped and stood behind Katana. “Thank you so much,” Rose told her.

Katana ignored Rose’s thanks and continued glaring at the Sentret. Sentret pointed at Katana with a look of surprise on his face. “Lady Katana! What are you doing here?”

Bandit’s jaw dropped. “That Sentret knows Katana?” he asked.

“Lady Katana? Only Demons call her that,” Shonta said with a serious expression.

I remembered when Katana told me that she was part of the Sector Alpha chapter of the Demons. That meant that there were Demons all over Ulthuan. It made my blood freeze knowing that Diablo had touched so many Pokemon. Or did the Demons touch him?

“This Roselia is under my protection. You’ll have to go through me to get to her,” Katana said to the Sentret. She bared her teeth to emphasize her point.

“Very well. I hope you know that you’re committing treason against the Demons by doing this,” the Sentret told her.

She ignored his threat. “Rose, go to Shonta and the other Pokemon.” Rose nodded and ran to us.

Shonta threw a TM box to Katana. “It’s Thundershock! Use it well!”

L6 Female Zangoose (Katana) vs. L6 Male Sentret

“Take this!” Katana shouted as her paw slammed into the ground. Pillars of rock burst out of the ground toward the Sentret, who quickly rolled into a ball and rolled away before the last pillar of rock could hit him. He rolled straight for Katana.

“Katana! He can’t see well while he’s rolling!” I shouted.

Katana slammed her paw on the ground one more time, making one more rock pillar appear in the rolling Sentret’s path. It was too late for him to dodge the last one so he crashed into it, rolled back, and unrolled. Katana then raced for him on two legs, her claws extended so she could slash him while he was still stunned. Sentret jumped up and hit the rock pillar that he rolled into with a glowing tail. The Iron Tail smashed the pillar into smaller rocks, some of the pieces flying in Katana’s direction. She quickly changed direction to avoid the rocks.

“She’s so fast,” Rose commented.

“Yeah? I could be as fast as her if I wanted to,” Bandit said grumpily.

Katana must’ve decided that her Hidden Power Rock could still be of some use. She ran to the nearest rock pillar and hid behind it just as the Sentret unleashed a Flamethrower at her. Just when I thought that she was to avoid the attack, it went around the pillar and struck her.

“How could that happen?” Rose wondered.

“I’m thinking Hidden Power Psychic,” Shonta guessed.

When the Sentret stopped he panted heavily, probably because he was inexperienced with such two strong attacks that he wouldn’t learn naturally. Katana took this as an opportunity to attack him. But instead of running around the pillar and charging him, she scrambled up and over it. She pounced on the Sentret with claws unsheathed, leaving deep scratches on his body.

“She’s so agile, too,” Rose said. “I wish I was just like her.”

“No, you don’t,” Bandit snapped. “That witch is bad news.”

At this I was surprised that the Sentret was still standing. With Katana’s high attack stat and normal type, Slash was her most powerful attack. Or so I thought.

“Usually I would’ve beaten you by now but I thought it would be fun to see how you battle,” Katana said.

The Sentret glared at Katana fiercely. “I will defeat you, Lady Katana, for the glory of the Demons. But not with my Flamethrower. I will use another attack.”

“Then fire away,” Katana taunted. She made a “come hither” gesture and stood there, her position neutral.

“I don’t get it. Why is he trying to beat her and calling her a traitor while still calling her Lady Katana?” Shonta asked herself.

“Maybe it’s about respect. Or maybe the title doesn’t mean anything to him, like how people that don’t even have doctorates are still called doctor,” Bandit guessed.

The Sentret put his paws up, palms facing each other. An orb of blue light materialized between them. Katana changed into an attack stance. She was too far away from the rock pillars to use them to block the attack. The blue orb shot out a beam at Katana who, at the last second, slammed the ground again. Another rock pillar shot out and took the blow. It was now a pillar of rock and ice.

“Fast, agile, resourceful…” Rose ticked off.

“Rude, cold, unforgiving…” Bandit ticked off.

Katana was not going to go anywhere with just dodging and blocking attacks but as soon as she appears from behind the ice pillar she was going to be attacked again. What are you going to do, Katana? It was then that a breeze picked up. No wind had blown during the entire battle. Why now?

“Come on out, Katana. Come out so I can defeat and humiliate you,” the Sentret said in a singing voice.

Katana leapt out from behind the ice pillar. She crossed her arms and uncrossed them at the same time the Sentret unleashed another Flamethrower. Blades of light materialized, shot out, and quickly sliced through the Flamethrower. They kept going and slashed the Sentret badly. The Sentret stood for a few seconds, took a step, and fell flat on his face.

Katana won and grew to level 7! She learned Quick Attack!

Rose was the first one to rush to Katana. “Katana-sempai! Are you alright? Do you need to rest?”

Katana winced but smiled at the Roselia. “Yes, but I’m afraid that I won’t be getting much rest. Char will be notified of my treason and he will come for me.”

That got a gasp from Rose. “You are risking your life to protect me? Come! We will get you in a nice bed.”

[The Blue Avenger]

Okay, finally, here's my Crimson Blades scenario. A few notes: I skipped over some parts that would be really redundant with Gabi's story in an effort to speed things up (oh yeah, that worked great), and some of the dialogue is a little different from Gabi's, just for aesthetic reasons. So now, here we are... "Last Call for Brawl."

“Well, Mr. Azure, you’ve been checked out fully and there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. On that note, you are free to leave the hospital whenever you wish.” The nurse held out two Pokeballs. “Here, I believe these are yours. These two Pokemon came in with you. They both seem completely healthy as well.”

Jeff nodded and grabbed the Pokeballs, setting them into the belt running around his waist. “Thank you.” He quickly made for the door, his thoughts already turning from the mysterious man he had just encountered to the Guild meeting.

As he walked through the streets of Caledor, Jeff pondered the nature of the meeting. The Guild almost never calls emergency meetings like that… it’s got to be something big. But what? With Jeff’s mind clouded by these thoughts, he didn’t notice the three Pokemon on the sidewalk until he almost tripped over them. He shook his head, muttered a hasty apology, and took a look at the Pokemon: it was a pair of Ninetales, as well as a Vulpix. The Vulpix looked odd to Jeff for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on, but he attributed it to his mind playing tricks on him.

The Vulpix stared at Jeff sharply for a moment before speaking. "Have I seen you before?"

“Um... er… I don't believe so... Who are you?” Jeff stuttered, slightly unnerved.

“Ah, sorry, it must have been a mix-up or something. My name is Solitude,” the Vulpix replied.

Jeff regained his composure. "My name's Jeff. D'you need help or something? You and your friends look kinda lost."

One of the Ninetales spoke up. "I'm Ray, and she's my mate Firestar. We're looking for..." He glanced at Solitude. "What exactly are we looking for?"

“The Dragon Tamers, I guess,” Solitude replied.

Jeff smiled a little. "Oh yes, the Dragon Tamers. I'm a member myself. What do you need?"

“We've heard that something terrible is about to happen and that you guys are trying to stop it,” said the other Ninetales, Firestar. “We'd like to help.”

"...Something terrible?" Jeff thought for a second. "That must have been what the meeting was called for...” He paused. “Hey, I'll take you to headquarters. I need to find out what's going on too."

Firestar smiled warmly. “Thank you.”

"Oh, don't worry. It's not a problem at all,” Jeff replied, grinning. Without saying anything else, they began to walk toward the Guild.

Once they got there, Solitude halted. “Is it okay if I wait for you outside and ask you all not to mention me?” she asked quietly.

“Why?” Ray asked.

Solitude grimaced. “You know... The two things I'd rather not see right now...”

“You never said what those things were, but I don't think avoiding a problem will solve anything,” Firestar replied.

Solitude turned on her. “I'm not avoiding a problem. I'm just avoiding...” She paused for a moment in thought. “Who am I kidding? I'm not avoiding anything at all. I guess it doesn't make a difference after all,” she sighed.

Jeff glanced from Solitude to Firestar, a small degree of confusion evident in his face. “Um, okay, well, if that's settled, I'm heading inside,” he mumbled.

Solitude continued talking as if she hadn’t heard Jeff. “He'll hate me, though. He's going to hurt me. I can't help that.”

Jeff stopped in midstep. “Who exactly are you talking about?”

Solitude looked sadly towards him. “A Ninetales. He's there in that building.”

“...a Ninetales...?” Jeff muttered quietly. He thought for a moment. “The only one I can think of would be Gabi's Ninetales, Hero. But why would he hurt you? He's one of the friendliest Pokemon around!”

“Solitude, you're freaking me out and I'm used to freaking out others. What the hell are you talking about?” Ray asked frankly.

Solitude sighed again. “It's a long story. He's mad at me. He must think I'm playing with him or something. I'm not.”

Jeff frowned. “Look, if it is Hero, I'm sure he'd understand...”

“How could he understand? For all his virtues, he's got the thickest head in this side of the planet,” Solitude replied.

“Who's this Hero?” Firestar interrupted.

Solitude turned to her. “He's the one we knew as Speedy.”

Ray’s eyes widened. “He's here?! Wait, why are you afraid of him?” he asked. “He'd never do anything to hurt you!”

Solitude frowned. “He'll yell at me, and that will hurt me whether he wants it or not. He will say that I've been hiding things from him, and that I'm too much of a coward to show my face. And what's worse is that he'll be right. But he doesn't know why I've been doing it.” She paused. “Maybe I should look for Tracker first. Or wait until she finds me, which might be faster.”

“…is she coming here too?” Jeff asked softly.

“Well, if something big is going to happen, she won't miss it. Especially if she finds our tracks,” Solitude explained.

“You have nothing to be afraid of. I'll talk to Speedy. He'll listen to me,” Ray said reassuringly.

“Or we could try that,” she admitted.

“And regardless, if something big is going down, we don't exactly have a lot of time to waste. I'm sure Hero will appreciate the magnitude of the situation,” Jeff interjected.

“Maybe you're right,” Solitude relented. “Just don't call him Speedy, Ray; he's never liked that name.”

Jeff smiled. “Okay, then if everything's settled, we should head on inside?” The fire foxes nodded, and they finally stepped inside the main Guild building…

…only to find that it was completely empty. Jeff slapped his forehead. “I guess the meeting’s over…” he muttered under his breath.

Solitude sighed. “Maybe we should go to the barracks.”

“Yeah... that might not be a bad idea,” Jeff replied. “I should pick up the rest of my team.” He considered this for a moment, and began to walk in the direction of the barracks, followed by Ray, Firestar and Solitude.

“What are the barracks?” Ray asked.

“They’re a part of the Guild where trainers can practice their battling techniques,” Jeff answered. “They also happen to be where my team and I are staying.”

“Really?” Solitude asked. “That's odd, the Guild used to provide homes for its members.”

“Well, it's been a very complicated time. Gabi assures me, though, that they're working on it,” Jeff explained.

Firestar turned to Solitude. “May I ask how you know that, or is it one of those things you'll leave us wondering?”

“No mystery there. I've been staying with a Guild member for a while,” Solitude responded while eyeing Firestar.

Jeff glanced toward Solitude. “Really? Who?”

“A trainer who goes by the names of Ivan and Golden Growlithe.”

Jeff thought for a moment. “Hmmm… I don’t believe I know him.”

“He's not very famous,” Solitude explained. “Neither of us is trying to achieve fame anyway.”

“Fair enough,” Jeff conceded. “Maybe I’ll run into him someday… at any rate, here we are. Here are the barracks.”

Ray looked impressed. “Mm, nice place! There's quite a lot of things one could get busy with.”

Firestar turned toward him and grinned. “I didn't know you were looking for ways to get busy. You could have asked me,” she said with a wink.

Solitude rolled her eyes. “Easy, children, we have a job to do.”

“In case you haven't noticed, we're not children anymore. And we're bigger than you too,” Firestar replied, sounding insulted.

“You still act like children,” Solitude retorted.

“Children don't actually -” Firestar started before Ray broke in with a “Let's drop it.”

Jeff looked slightly bewildered. “...Er, um, anyway, allow me to go gather some members of my team.” He quickly walked to his corner of the barracks, where he found Trezzatura, Kurtzwick, Bobbery, Cam, and Mercandos. Mercandos and Bobbery were playing cards with each other, Cam was amusing himself by Transforming into a desk lamp, and Trezzatura was trying to distract Kurtzwick from stealing some things other trainers had left. Jeff got Trezzatura’s attention and asked, “Where’s everyone else?”

“Lady Bow's out somewhere with Bolovayr, Kiva and Anzu are having a practice match against 99 and Groove Guy, and Mona and Previsiona decided to go to a park with Raini,” Trezzatura replied. He glanced at the three visitors. “...So who are these guys?”

Jeff glanced at them. “They were looking for the Guild. The meeting already ended, so we decided to come back here.”

Firestar stepped forward. “My name is Firestar, he's Ray and she's Solitude. You are Jeff's friends, right? What are your names?”

“I’m Trezzatura,” Trezzatura said. He gestured to the Pokemon behind him. “The Snorlax is Bobbery, the Ditto is Cambiamente, the Mr. Mime is Mercandos, and the Dratini is... Hey, where'd Kurtzwick go?” he added, glancing around.

Kurtzwick suddenly popped up behind Firestar. “Howdy!” he said, grinning widely.

Firestar jumped. “Hey!” she stammered.

Ray gave an unfriendly look toward the Dratini. “Is he bothering you? I can stop him from doing that.”

Jeff blushed. “Err... don't worry about him. But do keep a close watch on anything you find valuable.”

“I guess it is a good thing that I'm not carrying anything valuable anymore,” sighed Solitude.

Kurtzwick smiled. “Hey, hey, don’t worry. It’s not like I’m going to steal anything from you anyway.”

“Except that’s basically what you do,” countered Bobbery, looking up from his card game.

Ignoring them, Firestar asked, “How are we going to find out what we're supposed to do?”

Jeff thought for a moment. “Well, I'd imagine that either Gabi or Ade would know the most about what's going on at the moment.”

“I suggest we just wait until one of them comes,” Solitude said. “Is there a place where I can lie down in the meantime? I'm tired.”

Jeff pointed in the direction of his bed. “Um, take my bed. It’s right over there.”

Solitude nodded, and hopped on the bed. “Thank you.” She curled up in a ball and closed her eyes.

Jeff turned back to the other Pokemon and shook his head. “Anyway, I would hope that someone would be kind enough to let me know what's going on eventually...” he sighed.

At this, Solitude sighed. “I’m not ready yet…” she mumbled.

Jeff shook his head again. “No, I didn’t mean you, Solitude,” he replied.

As soon as he said that, however, the door to the barracks opened, and a familiar voice resonated throughout the building. “Is anyone here?”

Everyone turned their attention to the door. “Oh! Hi, Gabi!” greeted Jeff, grinning. “What’s up?”

Gabi grinned back. “Hi, Jeff! How are you doing?”

Jeff lowered his head. “Very, very confused…” he mumbled.

“Confused? Why?”

Pointing at the Ninetales, Jeff said, “We have guests.”

Gabi glanced at them. “Where did they come from?”

Ray spoke up first, answering, “From the Pridelands, but we were all born in Caledor.”

Jeff jumped in as well. “...Yeah. They were at the airport when I left the hospital and wanted to get to the Guild.”

Gabi regarded the vulpine Pokemon with a questioning eye. “Really? What brings you all here, and who are you?”

“I’m Ray,” Ray answered. “This is Firestar, and the Vulpix over there,” he nodded toward Solitude, “is Solitude.”

Gabi’s eyes widened as she turned to stare at the Vulpix resting on the bed.

Solitude let loose a very pronounced sigh. “Right, you can stop piercing me with that look,” she said grimly. “We've finally met.” Solitude opened her eyes and looked at Gabi.

Gabi returned the look with a small smile. “Yes, we meet at last. And I can finally get to thank you for your gift.”

“For a moment, I thought you'd be mad at me for staying in the shadows all this time,” Solitude replied, looking slightly relieved. “You're welcome; I knew you'd make good use of it.”

Jeff glanced between Gabi and Solitude. “Care to fill me in?”

“Sorry, I'll try to explain... It's a long story...” Gabi started.

Solitude stepped in, saying, “I found a valuable object once. I kept it for some time, but then I left it for her to find.”

“Yes, that's how it happened,” Gabi agreed. “And it's been very useful to me since then. Not only has it helped me understand every Pokemon that talks to me, but it has also warned me of some dangers in the past.”

Solitude continued. “It hasn't. It only made your own warnings clearer.”

“Right,” Gabi said, “I think we have figured out what it does. It enhances psychic abilities, right?” Solitude nodded in concurrence.

Jeff blinked. “Wait, you couldn’t understand Pokemon before you got this object?”

At the same time, Firestar asked, “Psychic abilities? What’s this all about?”

“One at a time, please,” Gabi responded.

Jeff blushed slightly. “Err, sorry. Um, Firestar can go first.”

“I think I'll respond to your question first. It's easier,” Gabi said. “It took me a while to understand my own team without the stone, and I still can't understand Pokemon who have no psychic abilities and I don't share a bond with if I'm not touching it.”

Jeff frowned. “That’s strange…” he mumbled, and then added, “…and is that pretty much standard for everyone?”

“I think so, yes. Why?”

“…I can understand most Pokemon anyway. I mean, that’s how I knew these guys wanted to get to the Guild.”

“I see... Well, some people have shown that ability in the past. It's not too strange to see people or pokemon with special talents around here,” Gabi reassured.

Jeff’s frown lessened somewhat. “Well, okay... it still puzzles me, though... But anyway. Uhm... what brought you here, Gabi?”

“We had a meeting earlier today. I didn't see you there, so I thought it best to tell you about it. The leader of the Crimson Blades has 'invited' us all to their base in the Shifting Isles. We know that it's a trap, but it was decided that we will go anyway, and try to overpower them somehow.”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Oh, joy. Thanks. ...If I had to take a guess at it, that's why Firestar, Ray, and Solitude are here too...”

Solitude cut in. “Exactly. So, the Shifting Isles? That's far away, isn't it?”

“I hope we can tag along,” Firestar commented. “And I also hope you guys explain to me what's this about psychic powers.”

Jeff scratched his head. “Well, that's something you'd have to ask Gabi, not me.”

Gabi turned to Firestar. “Different abilities based on the power of the mind. Like telepathy, precognition...”

Firestar glowered. “I know what psychic powers are. Why do you have them? And...” she turned to Solitude, “…you too, right?”

Solitude sighed again. “I knew this would happen sooner or later. I do have some precognitive abilities. I don't know why, it's just the way things are. I never asked to be different.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being different,” Gabi replied “The world would be quite boring if everyone was.” She paused for a moment. “And for the record, I don't know why either. I believe we may all have the potential to develop those abilities, just not everyone does, and clearly not to the same extent.”

“There's probably something genetic in it too.,” commented Jeff. “Like, say, your parents have limited psychic abilities, you might inherit it.”

“If my parents have those abilities, they're probably dismissing them as something else because they don't believe in them,” Gabi said.

“I never said it was the only way to have those abilities; rather, it's just an option.”

“Yes, it's an option,” Gabi answered. “Anyway, as interesting as it would be to continue with this conversation, I'll have to ask you. What will you do?”

Jeff raised an eyebrow. “Um, what do you mean? I can't stay behind. The man destroyed my home!”

“I just want to consider the risks and make a conscious decision. It's a very dangerous mission. We may not return from it unharmed. We might not return at all.”

“Regardless of the risks, this could be our only chance to stop DiAnnio,” Jeff said thoughtfully. “I think the possible benefits far outweigh the possible risks.”

“I guess so,” Gabi conceded. “We may be doomed if we don't go, which I think is why it was decided that we should accept the invitation.”

Silence fell for a moment before Jeff spoke up again. “So how are we getting there?”

“Rhiannon suggested going in several waves and attacking from different directions. There's no transport arranged for all of us this time, but I'm going with Pidgeot, and Lagi has offered to carry another team if she's needed.”

Jeff rolled his eyes up in thought. “Well, if this place is far away, I'm guessing Maza won't be able to Teleport us there... and I don't have any Flying Pokemon either.”

“I’m sure Lagi will be glad to help you get there,” Gabi replied, eliciting thanks from Jeff.

“What about us?” Firestar asked.

“You could probably hitch a ride with me, if Lagi doesn't mind...” Jeff answered.

“I hope this Lagi's strong enough to carry us all,” Ray said quietly.

Jeff spoke up again. “That would be something to ask Gabi.”

“No, that would be something to ask Lagi,” Gabi corrected.

“…Right,” Jeff mumbled. “So where might Lagi be?”

“Most of my Pokemon stayed at home, getting ready for the trip.”

“That’s probably what I should be doing too,” Jeff sighed. He began mumbling to himself. “I wonder who I should take with me?”

“I think that's something you and your team should decide. In my team everyone is going,” Gabi replied.

Jeff frowned in thought. “Well, it's something to mull over. Is there a set time that everyone's leaving at?”

“We've been given 48 hours,” Gabi said, “which means we have to leave tomorrow, though there isn't a set time as far as I know. I guess each wave will have to arrange that.”

Jeff thought about that for a moment. “Okay, so who’s in charge of what group?” he asked.

Gabi sighed. “The more questions you ask me, the more I worry about how badly organized this may be.”

“Oh, sorry,” Jeff muttered, blushing slightly.

Gabi turned on him. “What are you sorry about? I'm sorry that I didn't come up with all these questions during the meeting. That's something I'm really bad at, knowing what to ask.”

“Maybe I should stop going to the hospital so often and actually attend these meetings,” Jeff said while rolling his eyes.

“It’s not your fault,” Gabi said, and then added, “But it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.”

“So which group is everyone going in?”

“Ade and I will be on different teams. There will be at least one other team, I don't know who'll be in it yet,” Gabi replied. “Pidgeot, Tsunami and Water Angel will stay with my group. The others haven't decided which group to go with yet.”

“Is there any difference between the teams’ objectives?” Jeff asked.

“Not really. We'll just try to strike from different points to have a better chance at breaching them. It's sort of a divide & conquer strategy.”

“So it doesn’t really matter which group I go in, then?” Jeff said.

Gabi shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

After pondering that for a second, Jeff replied, “Well, maybe I’ll just go with the third group, then.” He turned to the vulpine trio. “What about you?”

“The third group sounds about right,” Solitude responded.

“I guess it's the same, as long as we get there. But I think the three of us should go together,” Ray interjected.

Jeff grinned slightly. “Well then, we probably will be traveling together, won't we?”

“Yes, we are. I'm just wondering...” Ray started, but after a sideways glance to Firestar and Solitude, he said, “Nothing. Forget it.”

Jeff pursued the topic. “What?”

“I was going to say something but I don't want Solitude to snap at me.”

“Oh. Okay, fair enough,” Jeff conceded. He turned to Gabi. “Uhm, Gabi, when you head back, could I come with you and ask Lagi for her help?”

Gabi nodded. “Sure. I was thinking of offering you that myself.”

“Thanks,” Jeff said. “What about these guys?” he asked, gesturing to Ray, Firestar, and Solitude. “Should they come as well?”

Solitude stood up from the bed and stretched. “It looks like I'm not getting any rest today,” she muttered. Jeff apologized, but she stopped him. “It's not your fault. Sometimes I wonder if there's some kind of fate ruling my life and stopping me from actually living it.”

Jeff brought his hand to his chin. “I’ve wondered that before myself.”

Gabi frowned. “Why is everyone so negative? I know we're going through bad times, but things are about to change. And we can do something so that the change is for the better.”

“That's true, but I wasn't trying to be negative; rather, I was just looking at how the events in my life have played out,” Jeff answered. “I come here because a psycho destroyed my hometown, and when I come here, not only do I run across a whole bunch of people from my past, like Cam for example, but the same psycho is presenting us with an opportunity to strike at him. It seems a little too convenient.”

“Yes, we do tend to come across the same beings again and again. That's another interesting thing to wonder about when we have the time,” Gabi said. “For now... we need to get ready for the assault, and hope it turns out better than the time we faced the Dark Cloak. Shall we go to my place now, or does anyone need to do anything else here?”

Motioning for her to hold on for a second, Jeff picked up five of the Pokeballs sitting on the bedside table. He recalled Trezzatura, Bobbery, Cam, Merc, and Kurtzwick, before sticking his out of the window. “Hey! Kiva! Anzu! 99! GG! I'm heading over to Gabi's. I'll explain more when I get back.” Jeff pulled back inside and turned to Gabi. “Okay, I’m good.”

The group set out of the barracks, eliciting yet another sigh from Solitude. Jeff ignored her and asked, “So where is it you live? I don’t know where any of the other Guild members live, actually.”

“Not far from here. 251 Rainbow Street. You'd think they chose the place by looking at my clothes. It's funny because the garden is about as big as the rest of the house. I guess they foresaw how big Sylvan and Water Angel were going to get,” Gabi chuckled.

Jeff nodded. “Cool. Do Soo and Ade live around here as well?”

“Ade and Soo live on 2 Windfall Crescent. A bit further from the Guild's HQ but not too far either.”

After a few minutes of walking in relative silence, the group stood on Rainbow Street, directly in front of house number 251. “So this is your house, huh?” Jeff asked, sizing up the building. “Pretty slick.”

“Scott gave it to me back when there were just a few of us in our division. I can’t say I have any complaints, other than a few electrical problems every now and then,” Gabi replied. She gestured to the door. “Come in, everyone should be waiting inside.” With that eloquent remark, she, Jeff, and the three foxes filed their way inside.

After a long conversation involving Solitude being recognized by everyone who entered the room, Jeff and Solitude exited the comfy atmosphere of Gabi’s house to begin the trek back to the barracks, Solitude opting to spend the night where nobody knew her name. As soon as she entered the barracks, Solitude immediately leapt onto the bed and fell asleep.

Jeff, on the other hand, sat down heavily in a small chair near his desk. He took out a small pad of paper and a pencil and began rapidly jotting down notes in it. After a moment, he stood up and went outside, just in time to see the rest of his team filing towards the door. He stopped them.

“Hey guys…” Jeff began. “Tomorrow, I will be heading to the Shifting Isles to help the Tamers in their crusade against the Blades. I want you guys to stay here, all right? Keep an eye on things for me?”

A silence fell over the small group. It was broken a few moments later by 99: “So… who are you taking with you?”

“I’m bringing Kurtzwick, Maza, Groviglio, Cam, Bobbery, Merc, and Trezzatura,” Jeff replied. He paused, and turned away from the group. “Should I…” he started, and began to stumble on his words, “Should I not come back, I want you guys to help the Guild however you can, all right?”

Previsiona floated over next to him. “Don’t talk like that, Jeff,” she murmured. “You’ll get through this perfectly, just like you always do.”

Lady Bow floated to his other side. “She is correct,” Bow grinned. “Those Blades will not pose any challenge to you. You’ll cut through them like a hot knife through butter,” she finished, chuckling.

Jeff smiled. “Thanks,” he said quietly. With that said, he went back inside.

The night passed quickly, and more importantly, uneventfully. Solitude didn’t wake up until the next morning, and even then she didn’t say a word. Before Jeff knew it, he was standing in a building on the Shifting Isles, thanking Lagi for her help. Solitude, Ray, Firestar, Iael, Hero, and a small group of Pokemon apparently from the Dark Cave had accompanied him there.

“So, Jeff, what exactly are our specific objectives here?” Groviglio spoke up.

“We wouldn't be able to go up against Armand himself, so I guess we just need to stall some Blades long enough for someone else to get in there,” Jeff replied. “Since our mission is pretty vague, I guess I'm pretty much open to suggestions from any or all of you.”

Hero grinned grimly. “I was thinking of finding some Blades and making them regret the day they set their eyes on Sector Alpha.”

Maza grinned as well. “Yeah!” he cheered. “Let’s go bash some heads!”

“I don't get why Tracker had to stay, she could have helped us a lot,” Hero added under his breath.

“Someone has to watch over the city to ensure we have a place to return to after this mission,” Lagi said.

Jeff spoke, apparently oblivious to that conversation. “Okay, since we want to take down as many of these thugs as possible, here's what I think we should do. We should fan out a bit - my Pokemon and I, Lagi, Iael, and the Dark Cave Pokemon, and Hero, Ray, Firestar, and Solitude. Is that acceptable?”

Almost immediately, Maza disagreed. “Jeff, maybe we should wait on splitting up until we actually get to a point where it would be to our advantage to do so.”

Jeff paused. “...Yeah, okay, that's true. Staying in one group right now would probably be the best, to avoid any potential ambushes,” he mumbled. However, as if to completely contradict him, a jet of water blasted past him, scattering the myriad fire Pokemon following him. Shocked, Jeff turned around – only to see a man dressed in a red uniform standing behind a leering Poliwag.

The Blade leered at Jeff too. “Hey, kid. Aren't you a little too young to be here? Shouldn't you be at home with your mommy?”

“A Poliwag? That's all? Haven't you noticed that I'm standing here with a Dragonite, 3 Ninetales, and other such Pokemon all much more powerful than a Poliwag?” Jeff replied, frowning.

“Be careful, Jeff. Underestimating your opponent may be the last mistake you ever make,” Hero muttered.

The Blade chuckled. “Don't try that with me, kid. I can tell those aren't your Pokemon. Besides, I don't want to battle them.”

Jeff sighed. “...I'll keep that in mind, Hero. And what makes you think you get a say in who you get to battle?”

The Blade pressed his hand to his chin in mock thought. “Hmm, I'd say I have about 7 or 8 very good reasons.” He snapped his fingers, and the sound of guns cocking echoed throughout the corridor. Jeff glanced around in the darkness, noting about eight vague red shapes circling the group.

Hero growled in frustration. “Oh, no, not AGAIN!”

Jeff turned to him. “What do you mean, again? When did this happen before?”

“There was a time when most Rockets used to threaten use with fire weapons. I even got hit by a bullet once.”

“This reminds me too much of the Black Battalion massacre. I seriously hope this doesn't end the same way,” Lagi said.

“I'd be more worried if it ended the opposite way,” Hero replied.

Jeff groaned. “Ugh. Don't worry, I have an idea.” He very subtly released Kurtzwick from his Pokeball and bent down to him. “Hey, you see the assorted men with guns all pointed at us? Can you go and carefully get those weapons from them?”

Kurtzwick smiled. “You got it,” he said, and slithered off past the Blade, unaware that anything had just occurred.

Jeff stood back up. “Okay, Blade, you’ve got a battle.”

“Let’s see… let’s go for the weakest first,” the Blade sneered. “I’m thinking your Abra looks like a good target.”

Maza growled. “Hey! I am NOT weak!”

“Don’t antagonize the guy, Maza,” Jeff said quietly. “Let’s just give him a battle, huh?”

“Heh,” chuckled the Blade, “that Abra is just fodder for my Poliwag. Let’s go!”

Battle time! Maza versus the Crimson Blade Poliwag!
Maza – “Henshin a-go-go, baby!”
~
Poliwag – “Prepare to be ensnared, mystified, and devoured!”

Maza quickly jumped at the Poliwag, who stood its ground, bracing itself. However, at the last minute, Maza Teleported behind the tadpole and hammered it with a frozen fist. The Poliwag turned to Maza, scowling, and began to slowly swirl the pattern on its stomach. Maza watched it with an eyebrow raised, almost as if to say, “This is it?” But soon, his eyelids began to droop. A small voice piped up inside his head. “You've had it rough. Why not just take a little nap? Nobody'll mind...” Maza nodded slightly and fell to the ground, snoring.

The Blade raised a fist and laughed. “Now, Poliwag, go in for the kill!”

“Maza!” Jeff yelled. “Come on! Wake up!”

Groviglio frowned. “Maza! You're not gonna let this chump get the best of you, are you?” He closed his eyes, and a cloud of purple energy began to envelop him; soon, it flew towards Maza and disappeared into his head. Maza started to stir, but not to awaken: instead, he began moaning and thrashing.

“I don't think that will help him,” Lagi said sternly.

“Hey, if he begins to have nightmares, maybe he'll wake up faster,” Groviglio defended.

Jeff frowned. “Lagi's right, Grove, I don't think that's helping!”

“He’s suffering…” Lagi said sadly.

The Poliwag grinned and took a step or two back. It closed its eyes and opened its mouth wide, and suddenly a massive ice-laden wind began to whip up. The wind swirled around, selecting Maza as a target and totally obscuring him from view. After what seemed like an eternity, the wind cleared, revealing a very blue – and very awake – Maza.

He shivered. “Th-that was a cheap shot! You’re g-going to get it n-now!” Maza lit both of his fists on fire, and the layer of snow encasing him immediately melted off. He sighed in relief. “Ah… warmth. Much better.” Keeping one of his fists alight, but extinguishing the other in favor of an icy coating, Maza jumped at the Poliwag again… only to have the Poliwag sidestep the attack easily, leaving Maza to crash into the ground.

Hero made an appreciative noise. “Nice combo! That’s not something you see every day.”

Maza glared at the Poliwag. “Let’s try this!” he growled, and jumped at the Poliwag again. The Poliwag, grinning, sidestepped it again, but Maza Teleported to his other side and clapped him on both sides of the face with the dual-elemental punch. Poliwag reeled and, scarcely taking a moment to breathe, shot a blast of ice at the Abra. Maza smirked and put up his fists: the fire surrounding them melted the ice harmlessly away. Changing tactics, Poliwag blasted a huge jet of water at Maza, but he Teleported away again, leaving the Hydro Pump to hit whoever was behind Maza: in this case, the Blade himself.

The Blade skidded back several feet and wiped the water from his face. “You idiot!” he yelled. “Don't attack me!”

Hero glowered. “Tsk. Typical. Are you sure you’re a Blade? You’d fit in much better with Team Rocket.”

The Blade glowered right back. “Hey! Nobody asked you!”

Meanwhile, Maza took advantage of the momentary ceasefire and Teleported into the air, holding himself aloft with his natural psychic powers. After hovering for a moment and adjusting his position, he lit one fist on fire and encased the other one in ice. Maza let himself go and plummeted towards the unsuspecting Poliwag – the resulting blow threw the Poliwag back, completely unconscious. Maza stood up and grinned triumphantly.

“No way!” the Blade stammered. “How did you beat me with... that weakling of a Pokemon?!” He snapped his fingers. “Get them! FIRE!”

The sound of fabric rustling against fabric echoed throughout the room as the Blades surrounding the party moved into position. At that exact moment, however, Kurtzwick reappeared beside Jeff, carrying a large pile of semi-automatic weapons.

Jeff smiled slightly. “So, Kurtzwick,” he addressed the young Dratini, “what are they actually firing?”

“Sticks, mostly,” Kurtzwick replied, looking more than a little pleased with himself.

Iael laughed. “That's better than my plan! What should we do about these guys?”

Jeff turned. “I think we can pretty much knock ‘em out, now.”

Hero chuckled. “Of course. Just like the rest of their kind, they're worthless without their weapons.”

Battle over! Maza gained 2 levels, to level 16!

Lagi pulled her attention from the conversation, and turned to look at the victor of the battle, who was currently glowing a brilliant white. “Maza?” she asked, sounding slightly concerned.

From inside the light, Maza’s body lengthened and grew. When he finally became visible, a clearly enthusiastic Kadabra was standing there. He took a moment to admire himself, and then joined Jeff in a rousing chorus of “Hey! Cool!” accompanied by Lagi’s “Congratulations!”

Jeff reached into his backpack and pulled out a small cube, no bigger than the palm of his hand. It was colored red. He handed it to Maza, saying, “I was saving this for you, buddy.”

Maza opened it, and the red dust sprinkled over him. “Hey, thanks!”

Maza has learned Confusion, Kinesis, and Blaze Kick!

“...So now that we've whipped this Blade and scared a whole pack of them away, shall we keep moving?” Groviglio grunted, standing in a corner, tapping his foot.

“Sure, there are bound to be more cowards ahead,” Hero answered. “Time to charge forward Hero style!” He winked and dashed ahead through the darkness.

Jeff glanced around him for a moment before running after the Ninetales. “Hey, Hero, wait up!”

Groviglio groaned. “They’re both gonna get hurt if they keep running ahead like that…”

“What else is new?” Iael replied. “Let’s all go together.”

“That is probably a very good idea,” Maza said, twilling the end of his moustache in his fingers and following the path into the next room. The rest of the group followed suit.

The next room was cloaked in an almost impenetrable darkness, much like the first room. A foreboding sense of uncertainty descended upon the group, causing more than one Pokemon to shiver. Maza lit his fist and glanced around the room, noting with some dismay that his trainer and their vulpine friend were conspicuously absent.

Ray raised an eyebrow. “Where did they go?”

“Yeah, that is strange,” Kurtzwick said. “There don’t seem to be any other exits here, either.”

“Maybe they Teleported,” Iael murmured thoughtfully. However, he was interrupted from that current train of though when a mournful and haunted voice rang out, seemingly from the very walls of the room itself.

“Your friends have fallen victim to the traps here. I can lead you to them, if you wish...”

The room was silent for a moment, before Groviglio spoke up. “Noooo, that’s not weird at all.”

“If we could trust you, you wouldn't be hiding like that,” Lagi said.

Another silent moment passed before a Gastly faded into view. “Well, excuse me for trying to create an aura of mystery! The offer still stands. I can lead you to your friends, or not. It's up to you.”

Maza turned to the rest of the group. “On the one hand, this reeks of a trap. On the other hand, though, we don't know where Hero and Jeff are, and they could be in danger. I say we go for it; I'm sure all of us combined can handle a Gastly if things go awry. But that’s just me.” He spread his arms. “Any objections?”

“I'd say it's crazy to follow him, but not any crazier than coming here in the first place, so let's go and see where this gets us,” Iael responded.

The Gastly grinned in a vaguely uncomforting way. “Excellent. Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment...” He glowed a dull pink, and the room began to tremble. After a minute or so, a hole opened up in the floor, revealing a rather dank, dark passageway. The Gastly turned to the group. “If you travel down that path, eventually you will come across two sealed doors. This is important: You must take the left door. The right has not been used in years, and leads up to an area that is now flooded.” He nodded. “Now, I must take my leave of you. I have a hunch that we will meet again later, but until then, I bid you adieu.” With that, the Gastly faded once again from view.

“So, how do we go about walking into this trap?” Ray asked.

The Misdreavus from the Dark Cave sighed. “Why are we doing this anyway?”

“To help our friends, of course!” Ray replied.

Maza glowered at the Ghost. “Our trainer is in danger. If you don't want to come with us, fine. But I'm going, and so are Groviglio and Kurtzwick.” He stormed away from the Misdreavus, striding purposefully into the passage. Groviglio and Kurtzwick followed him close behind, as did the rest of the group – with the notable exception of the Dark Cave Pokemon.

The darkness in the passage, as with the rest of the building, was almost suffocating. Maza lit his fist again, noting the burnt-out torches on the wall and shut his eyes. He quickly opened them again. “I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad sign, but I'm not sensing anything. Lagi? Can you?”

Lagi frowned. “There's someone over there, but that's as much as I can perceive.”

Maza sighed. “Okay, thanks. We’re just going to have to hope they don’t ambush us.”

Iael jumped in, saying, “And be ready in case they do.”

“Whatever they throw at us, we can handle it,” Groviglio said smugly. “I mean, we just beat down a bunch of Blades who had us at gunpoint.”

That last comment echoed forcefully though the hall and threw the group into silence. Nobody said anything until the group reached a pair of large, ornately decorated (albeit rusted), imposing doors. One of them had a pool of water collecting at the bottom.

Maza put his ear to the leaking door. “That Gastly was right about this; there is definitely a lot of water behind this door. Wait...” He paused. “That's weird. It sounds like there's someone swimming around...”

“Swimming?” Ray asked. “I have a feeling we shouldn't open that door. Unless... could Hero and Jeff be there?”

“Think,” Groviglio replied snidely, “if someone's swimming in there and we open that door, we're going to get drenched.” He smirked. “Besides, that Gastly's been right so far. He's probably right about telling us not to go through that door.”

Firestar nodded. “Definitely not a good idea.”

“Besides, if Jeff had come through here, this floor would be a lot more wet,” Maza said. “He can't Teleport, and I doubt Hero would willingly Teleport himself into a body of water.”

“Not unless it was to save someone,” Ray countered.

Maza sighed. “Okay, you have a point. Lagi, are you able normally to sense your teammates when they are close?”

Lagi lowered her head. “Normally yes, but something has been blocking me since they disappeared.”

“Okay, well, since most of us wouldn't like being drenched with however many gallons of water, I propose we take the other route,” Maza replied.

“It seems to be the safest,” Firestar agreed.

“Then if we can't find our friends, we can come back here,” Maza continued. “Agreed?”

The passage reverberated with the sounds of several different affirmations.

Maza pointed to the other door. “Okay then, let’s set out.” They opened the door and passed through it.

Before they had time to travel very far, however, a third door blocked their way, as imposing and ornate as the first two, although not nearly as leaky.

Maza tried to push it open, but jumped back suddenly. He growled quietly. “It’s electrified… Ideas, anyone?”

“We could try hitting it with long range attacks until it gives in,” Iael suggested.

“Sounds good to me!” Groviglio said. Suddenly, a massive jet of water appeared in front of him and rammed into the door. Small blue sparks played across the water, before shooting down the water and zapping the Tangela. He fell back, sizzling slightly. “Ouch…”

Ray shot a sideways glance at Groviglio. “Let's try with fire,” he said, shooting a blistering stream of fire at the door.

Maza nodded and closed his eyes, sending psychic waves at the door as well. The door creaked and sparked, bending slightly in the center. Maza grinned. “Let's hit it harder!”

Ray continued the fiery assault as Solitude and Firestar fired at it as well. The door creaked louder as large sparks flew off of it. Suddenly, it blew inward, revealing a large, simply decorated room. A large, cushy chair sat in the center, with its back facing the door.

Ray took a tentative step inside. “Hello? Is anyone in here?” As if to answer him, a muffled groaning emanated from the chair.

Iael frowned. “All of a sudden, I'm starting to think like Bolovayr.”

Groviglio scowled. “Despite all the obvious jokes one could make about him, he's one of the clearest thinkers I know.”

Maza chose not to say anything, instead approaching the chair cautiously. Quickly, he spun it around. The entire group gasped, as Iael murmured, “You were right after all, Groviglio.

The chair held none other than a tied up and gagged Jeff. However, before any of the Pokemon could do anything about him, a loud thump from the door indicated someone’s arrival. It was a reasonably tall man, wearing a black suit with a large R plastered on the front. His curly black hair peeked out from under the hat, and his green eyes glinted dangerously.

“A Rocket grunt?” Iael said incredulously. “Now this I wasn’t expecting! I thought you guys were after the Blades as well.”

The man ignored Iael. “All these Pokemon are yours, Azure? My, my, you have been busy since last we met.”

Jeff grumbled.

Groviglio glared at the Rocket. “Okay, so there's Jeff, but where's Hero?”

The Rocket looked confident. “Who...? Oh, you mean the Ninetales. He's in good hands, don't worry. But wow, 3 Ninetales? Mr. Azure, I never realized you had such a thing for foxes.” At this, Groviglio, Maza, and Kurtzwick stepped forward.

“They're not Jeff's Pokemon. We are,” Groviglio growled.

“Is that so?” the Rocket chuckled. “Well, then I suppose that makes this whole thing considerably easier. If I want to off this guy, then I just have to go through you three.” He pointed a finger at Groviglio. “You don't look terribly tough anyway.”

“How did he understand you?” Ray mumbled to Groviglio.

“My good Ninetales, I can understand any Pokemon effortlessly,” the Rocket smiled. He pointed at his ear. “I happen to have a hearing aid of my own invention. It allows me complete comprehension of anything a Pokemon says.” His grin grew even wider, and he clapped his hands twice. A very familiar Gastly faded into view. “Cassius!” the Rocket called.

“Yes?” the Gastly answered.

“You have done excellent work,” the Rocket replied. “Bringing me all of Mr. Azure's Pokemon here... it'll save me the trouble of hunting them down.”

Maza scratched his head. “Hold on. Why are you attacking my trainer in particular?”

“Let's just say... your trainer and I go way back,” the Rocket glowered. “Now that I think about it... you weren't there, were you? The first time was with the Smeargle and the Snorlax... the second time was with that blasted Castform...”

“What are you talking about?” Groviglio said.

Maza cut him off. “Wait, no, Jeff's mentioned this before. If I'm right, those were the first and third times he went to the hospital, respectively.”

Kurtzwick glanced between the two of them, a look of bemusement crossing his face. “Okay, you all must be really dense. Why don't we just ask Jeff?” He slithered to the chair and untied the ropes binding the young trainer.

Jeff spit out the gag. “Thanks, Kurtzwick. Uhm, guys, Hero is fine. There's a false wall in the back. He's back there.” He turned and glared at the Rocket. “But you’re right, Maza. This guy was at the center of all of those incidents.”

“But what your trainer won’t tell you,” the Rocket started, “is that because of him I was ejected from the Blades! I had it all… until HE came along!”

Maza blinked. “Wait, wait, are you trying to make us feel sympathy for you?”

“No, not really,” the Rocket sighed. “This was more of an expository type thing. However, I wasn’t joking about what your trainer did. As you could imagine, I’m more than a little put off about that. Why else do you think I lured you here?” He stomped his foot on the ground to emphasize his statement. “To get REVENGE!” He snapped a Pokeball off of his belt.

Maza crouched and put his fists up, but Groviglio jumped in front of him. “You’ve already battled, Maza,” Groviglio said. “Besides, this guy called me weak.”

The Rocket threw the Pokeball out, punctuating its drop with a cry of “DESTROY THEM!” The ball burst open, revealing a small, beige-colored creature with a set of massive jaws affixed to the back of its head – a Mawile. Groviglio groaned.

“Sure, Groviglio, don’t let the guy with Fire attacks battle the Steel Pokemon. I’m sure Grass attacks will work juuust fine,” Maza said, rolling his eyes.

Groviglio said nothing, instead glaring at his opponent.

Battle time! Groviglio versus the Rocket Mawile!
Groviglio – “Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!”
~
Mawile – “Heh heh, don’t bite off more than you can chew!”

Mawile began the match, jumping at Groviglio and whipping him with its jaws. Groviglio stumbled back and growled. A moment later, the Mawile found itself trying to weave around several jets of water, seemingly originating from the concrete ground. One spray found its mark and hurled the Mawile across the room. Groviglio chuckled, but was suddenly cut short when the Mawile lobbed a ball of sludge at him. He gasped and quickly doused himself in a stream of water.

“That was dirty pool,” Groviglio scowled. He dashed at the Mawile, extending a vine… but the Mawile neatly ducked under it and grabbed it in its jaws. Groviglio cringed, and then noticed a sickly purple secretion oozing from the Mawile’s fangs. He howled in pain and tried to whip the vine away. Mawile reluctantly surrendered the vine. Groviglio retracted it, beginning to nurse it. The Mawile took a few steps backwards and charged at Groviglio, but Groviglio neatly stepped aside and tripped it. The Tangela closed his eyes, and suddenly, water began to bubble underneath the Mawile. Before it could react, a stream of water erupted from the ground and slammed the Steel beast into the ceiling. The water regressed, and the Mawile fell limply to the ground. The Rocket sighed and recalled it.

Battle over! Groviglio grew to level 13! Groviglio learned Growth!

Groviglio muttered something to himself and continued to nurse his vine. The Rocket stared at him for a second before turning to Jeff.

“Bring out your next Pokemon!” the Rocket commanded. “Or, at least, that’s what I would normally say… but it would be unwise to continue this here. Cassius!” He snapped his fingers, and the Gastly floated over to him. “Know this, Azure… We will meet again…” The Gastly glowed pink, and the pair disappeared.

Jeff walked over to Groviglio and pulled a small spray bottle out of his bag. He sprayed it lightly on the hurt vine, and soon, all traces of any injury were gone. Without saying anything, Jeff moved back towards the far wall and splayed his hands on it. After a few moments of moving his hands up and down the wall, he tapped one spot in particular. The room rumbled and the wall began to shift and groan, eventually spinning to parallel with the adjoining two walls. Behind the wall, two huddled masses of fur were easily visible – one orange and one white. Jeff dashed to the white mass, as did the rest of the group. He pulled a Pokeball from his belt and opened it, revealing his Ditto, Cambiamente.

“Cam,” Jeff muttered. “Do your stuff.”

Cam nodded and cloaked himself in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, a Chansey stood there. The Chansey took its egg and began to feed it to the white mass. Slowly, groggily, the figure opened its eyes and glanced at the group surrounding it.

Ray summed it up quite nicely. “HERO!”

One long conversation and a Teleportation to the second floor later, the group found itself (sans Lagi, who had gone to look for the Dark Cave Pokemon) inside yet another large room, this one, however, filled with several trainers and Blades alike, them and their Pokemon alike brawling it out. Jeff quickly scanned the room, and noticed a familiar face. He began to wave, incredibly relieved.

A few moments later, Gabi and her Pokemon made their way to him. “Hi,” Gabi began. ‘It’s good to see you’re all safe. …Where’s Lagi?”

“She couldn't get up the stairs - she's coming up from outside. But oh man!” Jeff exclaimed. “You have no idea how good it is to see another friendly face!... Or maybe you do. Whatever. My point still stands.”

Gabi smiled slightly. “Ah, good. I was scared for a moment. Of course I know how good it feels!”

“I was attacked by a crazy Sharpedo. It didn't even say a word in the whole battle!” Tsunami said loudly.
“I got attacked by a crazy Rocket, who has this insane grudge against me,” Jeff countered.

“Hey, at least you weren’t fighting his Mawile!” Groviglio spat.

“I'd rather have that than a killer Arcanine who makes incoherent threats and bites like a vampire,” Hero said grimly. “I still have the marks to prove it.”

“Uh-oh. I hope you won't be turning any time soon,” Tsunami chuckled.

“Well, at least that Arcanine hasn't shot you twice in the past,” Jeff continued.

Hero turned to the two of them. “That's right, one shot in my life was more than enough. What’s that about turning?”

Tsunami apologized. “It’s just… good to have you back.”

“Yeah, same here,” Hero conceded.

At that point, Jeff glanced past Gabi and noticed a very familiar pair huddled in a corner. It appeared to be a Skitty and a Lickitung, the Skitty viciously guarding a canvas bag. “Okay, just out of curiosity, but why are those thieves here?” Jeff asked.

“That's the same thing I've been wondering all this time,” Pidgeot remarked.

“We found them lurking in the base. They stayed with us out of fear of some Blade killing them,” Tsunami started, but he was interrupted by a shout. The two thieves yelped as Kurtzwick managed to sneak up on them.

Jeff sighed. “Yep, that sounds like them. Oh well. They wouldn’t dare try anything here.”

“Has anyone seen Ade? Or anyone from the first group?” Gabi asked.

“No, sorry,” Hero apologized, “but I bet that’s were the real fun is.”

“I haven’t,” Jeff broke in, “but presumably Ade went to deal with DiAnnio personally.”

Gabi glanced away. “That’s what I feared. I hope nothing bad happens to him. He does have Rhiannon with him, but still...”

“Ade's a resilient guy. I'm sure he'll be fine,” Jeff said.

“I think we should worry about what's coming to us right now. This isn't exactly a safe place to converse,” Solitude interrupted.

Groviglio stared at her. “Well, what do you suggest we do, then?”

Before he could get an answer, however, a loud laugh rang out from behind the group. Jeff turned to look, and saw yet another Rocket grunt standing behind him. He sighed. “Okay, skip the theatrics. Just battle us,” Jeff said.

Hero grinned. “Couldn’t have said it better myself!”

The Rocket put his hand to his chin in mock thought. “Oh, sorry, I won’t be doing that.” He made a mad dash for the nearby window and jumped out. As he fell, his words flew back into the room: “Just know that you had the honor of being robbed by the world's greatest thief!”

Jeff looked puzzled, as both Kurtzwick and Popple stopped their argument to yell “What did he say?!”

Gabi frowned. “I don’t like this. What did he do?”

Jeff absent-mindedly passed his hand over his trainer’s belt. He frowned, and did it again. Then his face changed to one of panic. “Oh no! He’s got my Pokeballs!” He pulled one Pokeball off of the belt. “Except for this one…” He opened it, revealing the nervous-looking Beldum, Trezzatura.

“We must get them back,” Pidgeot replied. “I'd hate to think of what would happen to our friends if they remained in his hands.”

[The Blue Avenger]

Continued...

“Cam, do your stuff!” Jeff said, obviously getting an idea. Cam Transformed quickly into a carbon copy of Pidgeot, and lowered Jeff to the ground, two stories below. The original Pidgeot flew a few Pokemon down, while Hero and Maza Teleported the remaining teammates.

As soon as Jeff hit the ground, he started running. He leaned down and tapped a small button on his boots, extending sets of wheels from the soles, and he began to skate. Hero and Cam (currently in the form of a Ninjask) were the only ones keeping up with him; the rest of the team lagged behind with Maza, Ray, and Iael heading off attacks. As they ran, Hero turned to Cam.

“Once this is over, you’ll have to tell me how to do that,” he told Cam.

Cam looked at him questioningly. “What do you mean?”

“Transforming into Pokemon that aren’t around.”

Cam was quiet for a moment, then said, “That’s not normal?”

“As far as I know no other Ditto has done that. But I'll take that as a sign that you don't know either.”

“Yeah. It's not something that’s ever crossed my mind.”

Jeff interrupted them. “Hey, Cam, so long as you’re Transforming, how about something to slow this Rocket down, huh?”

“Sure thing,” Cam replied. He Transformed into an Abra and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The group soon caught up to the Rocket, who was unable to proceed due to a Snorlax in his way. The Rocket cursed at it. “Get out of my way, you blasted thing!”

“Not likely. Especially not since my backup just arrived,” Cam (for that was who the Snorlax was) replied, gesturing behind the Rocket. The Rocket turned around, panicked, and threw down a Pokeball, revealing a very large, very rocky form… the Rocket’s Onix roared and loomed over the group. The Rocket climbed up on it and pointed up; the Onix swooped forward, but was unable to escape Cam’s Block attack.

Jeff called up to him. “Okay, we have you severely outnumbered. Why don't you just surrender now? Hand over my Pokeballs!”

“No! So long as I can still get away, I never back down!” the Rocket called back. He snapped, and his Onix flew forward, obviously trying to create a path with Tackle. However, the Onix halted in mid-swoop as a resounding ‘clank’ echoed over the field. The Onix recoiled, revealing a barely-shaken Trezzatura.

“I may not like to battle,” Trezzatura said quietly, “but I still would never let anyone get away with my friends.”

Kurtzwick slithered up beside him. “And if you think I'm gonna let you call yourself the best thief around, you're sorely mistaken! That title belongs to me!”

Pidgeot groaned. “I can’t believe that’s what he worries about!”

Maza shrugged. “Hey, motivation is motivation.”

The Rocket pulled out a second Pokeball. He jumped down from his Onix and opened the second ball, revealing a rather smug Exeggcute. They struck a pose next to the Onix.

Trezzatura and Kurtzwick versus Rocket Exeggcute and Rocket Onix!
Trezzatura – “If I must…”
Kurtzwick – “Slash, slay, and haul it all away!”
~
Onix – “You’re in for a rocky battle!”
Exeggcute – “I’ll be your executioner!”

Trezzatura, surprisingly, made the first strike, plowing through the Exeggcute with a powerful Take Down, his Pokemon Collar glinting in the light. Kurtzwick followed after, zapping the Exeggcute at close range with a Hidden Power. The eggs didn’t seem terribly affected by it, however, and began to hurl a barrage of small dark orbs at Kurtzwick. Five of them hit the Dratini in succession, knocking him back and causing him to shudder. Just then, the Onix charged through, ramming Trezzatura with a Take Down of his own, although it didn’t seem to affect the Beldum that much.

Trezzatura, almost imperceptibly, brightened. “I’m a Steel type. What’s that gonna do?” he chuckled. However, nobody answered that question, as the Exeggcute through a slightly larger orb at him… and he was unpleasantly surprised to find that it exploded on contact. He flew back, slightly charred. Kurtzwick skidded in and quickly engaged the Exeggcute in a Wrap attack, meanwhile zapping it with his Hidden Power. Suddenly, as Trezzatura was recovering from the Egg Bomb, Onix fell over him and grabbed the Beldum in his mouth, grinding his teeth on the Steel-type.

Hero groaned. “Argh! Is everyone going to do that today?”

Jeff, on the other hand, was looking fairly worried. “C'mon, Trezzatura! You can do this!”

Trezzatura nodded slightly, and began to use his inborn magnetism to float higher and higher above the ground. The Onix failed to let go, even when the rock snake was not able to touch the ground any more – and then Trezzatura stopped floating. The two Pokemon sailed down, Onix crashing in a massive heap and releasing Trezzatura. Trezzatura took the opportunity to charge at the Onix with a Take Down, but it fled out of the way almost immediately, leaving Trezzatura to plow straight into a psychically propelled Kurtzwick, courtesy of Exeggcute. The two stumbled back dizzily, both groaning. They managed to stumble out of the way just in time, however, as both the Exeggcute and the Onix had chosen that moment to charge. With their potential targets moved, the two Pokemon nailed each other with a resounding ‘clunk.’

Battle over! Trezzatura and Kurtzwick gain a level! Trezzatura is now level 13! Kurtzwick is now level 6!

As the Rocket grimly recalled his Pokemon, Trezzatura sighed. “I’m glad that’s over…”

The Rocket only grinned. “I'm sorry, do you think this is really done?” he asked, surreptitiously releasing two more Pokemon: a Magby and a Grovyle. Kurtzwick balked.

“No… I can’t take another battle…” he groaned.

“Y'see, that's exactly what I'm counting on! Get them!” the grunt yelled. However, before his Pokemon could follow through on that order, a familiar Skitty pushed his way through to the battle. A Lickitung followed after.

The Skitty snarled. “No way! Look, that Dratini may have me beat in stealing, but you're miles away from me, see? I've got a score to settle with you! Let’s go, Rookie!”

Battle time! Popple and Rookie versus the Rocket Grovyle and the Rocket Magby!
Popple – “Let’s squash these drips, see?”
Rookie – “Yes, boss!”
~
Grovyle – “It’s time for you to go squish! Ehehe!”
Magby – “Let’s stoke this fire!”

Popple jumped out first, aiming a scorching Flamethrower straight at Grovyle. It hit point-blank, charring the lizard and throwing it back. Rookie took up the rear, picking up the Magby and hurling it at its teammate. Grovyle charged back into the fray, but it scarcely got back before Popple beat it about the face with a Double-Slap. Rookie summoned a swarm of rocks from the ground, and began to point out their targets: before long, both Magby and Grovyle were being pelted with rocks, grunting with each impact.

Popple turned to Rookie. “Rookie! Let’s finish this off now!” he hissed. Rookie nodded and picked up his boss. Winding up like a baseball pitcher, Rookie chucked Popple towards their foes. Popple started exhaling another Flamethrower, coating himself in the flames. He impacted hard against Grovyle and rebounded onto Magby. Both of the enemy Pokemon collapsed on impact. Popple bounded back near his partner.

Battle over! Popple and Rookie win!

Popple laughed. “That was it?” he asked, amazed. “No way was that all you’ve got, see?”

Even Rookie chuckled a little. “I have to admit, that wasn't much of a challenge...”

The Rocket stayed silent, instead choosing for the moment to gape.

The Dark Cave Noctowl turned to address the group. “I'm going to look for Lagi now.” Without saying anything else, she took off, followed by her two compatriots. As Jeff wished them luck, he walked over to Gabi, who looked troubled.

“What’s wrong?” he asked softly.

After thinking for a second, Gabi replied, “Aside from everything, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on,” Tsunami chastised her, “what would Caledor say if he heard you say that?”

Groviglio rolled his eyes. “He’d probably try to start an impromptu party on the battlefield.”

Tsunami nodded. “Yes, he definitely would.”

Gabi shook her head. “I don't know, I have the feeling we could do more than we're doing, but I don't know what the right thing to do would be…”

Maza glanced from face to face before cutting her off. “Hold on a sec. Am I the only one noticing that the guy who stole our buddies is getting away?” he asked incredulously.

“C'mon, Maza, chill a little. Things are under control,” Jeff replied.

“I doubt he'll be able to leave the island before this is over,” Gabi muttered.

Jeff grinned. “Actually, I have things even more under control than that.”

Iael blinked. “What do you mean?”

Jeff stuck two fingers into his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. Suddenly, the near-invisible Kurtzwick came into view again, holding a series of Pokeballs. “Yeah, boss?” Kurtzwick responded.

“Ah, that,” Iael said as Jeff put the balls back on his belt. The trainer knelt down and congratulated his Dratini.

“There's still the chance that he'll manage to escape before he's arrested,” Pidgeot interjected.

Jeff put his hands up. “Oh, relax a little. I told you, I have things under control!” He gave another whistle, and another Pidgeot flew towards the crowd, carrying an unconscious Rocket grunt in his talons.

Gabi’s Pidgeot conceded. “Alright. I must commend you guys.” Cam thanked him as he shifted back to a Ditto.

Hero abruptly changed the subject. “How long do you think it will be before the police joins us?” he asked Gabi.

Gabi didn’t answer that question, instead gazing skyward. “I think we should all look up right now,” she replied.

Indeed, a climactic battle was taking place in the skies above the Shifting Isles. A gigantic Salamence, Reaper, was blasting numerous foes that were trying to nail her with attacks from all sides. The battle was brought to a sudden end, however, when a Charizard drove its claws into the small jewel on Reaper’s forehead, shattering it. The Salamence plummeted. As the group below it scattered, they watched the dragon descend into the nearby abyss. Also watching the dragon was the big man himself – DiAnnio. Jeff made note of that fact.

“No way! Is that DiAnnio?” Jeff yelled. Gabi affirmed his statement, and silence fell over the group again. DiAnnio, after a few moments, jumped into the impenetrable darkness of the abyss. Jeff sighed, but remained silent.

“I always knew the man was insane,” Pidgeot said quietly. “We'd better wait here in case anything happens, but you don't all have to look…”

Jeff cut him off. “No, I think I need to see this.”

A few minutes passed where nothing happened. True to form, Groviglio was the one to break the silence. “Okay, if the head honcho here is gone, then his henchmen should be pretty easy to round up. Once the Rockets find their boss, they should skedaddle too. I propose we try and find some more Tamers.”

Lagi flew back and joined the group, followed by the Dark Cave Pokemon. Cam explained to her what she missed, but that and the entire rest of the conversation fell on the deaf ears of Jeff and Maza. The two stared down into the abyss, where quite possibly the most loathed man of their lives had just died.

No, Jeff though. Not the most loathed… that’s someone else… But that thought was quickly pushed to the back of his mind. It all happened so quickly… I didn’t even get to have a shot at him… he thought remorsefully. I couldn’t even get revenge for my town… Those thoughts continued to turn over in his head, even as Groviglio led him and Maza to the awaiting Pidgeot-Cambiamente, to fly home.

Back at the barracks, Jeff went straight for his bunk. The eager faces of his trusted companions surrounded him, but he ushered them away. Only Maza was able to get near him, and even then, he had to wait for the next day

Jeff grunted in frustration. “I should have done more, Maza! The man destroyed my home! Why couldn’t I just get one shot at him?!”

Maza sighed. “It would not have solved anything, Jeff. You’ve gone against him before, remember? Reaper utterly stomped us.”

Jeff groaned as he remembered that day. “But still… I’m failed… My only goal was to take him down, and I failed!” He collapsed onto his pillow.

“Jeff…” Maza started. “I wanted revenge on this man just as much as you did, for what he did to my friends. But he’s gone now, and that’s all that’s important. You played an integral part in that, as well – you helped clear the way for Ade to find DiAnnio. That’s pretty important.”

Jeff sighed again. “I… I guess you’re right… Look, I’m sorry. This should be a happy occasion… Why don’t you and everybody else head down to the headquarters and see what’s going on? I need to just stay here for a while…”

Maza nodded. Leaving Jeff to his thoughts, he silently slipped out the door.

[Lady Vulpix]

"Sorry for the late reply" seems to be my customary greeting these days. It still holds, nonetheless.

Okay, 2 scary stories and one with a bitersweet ending which I will refrain from rating since I had a part in it, but I must say I liked it a lot. Where's everyone else? I wish Karin hadn't resigned, I miss her here, and she seems to be more active than I am these days.

Ade: it was good to learn more about Enigma. Is Rhi really a magnet fordemons? She seems to have come across more in the last year or so than most others meet in a lifetime! It was surprising to see Lord Absol show such compassion; I guess everyone has soft points. And Enigma almost said his name! She's not that good at pretending to be insensitive. As it happens, I started my story for the current scenario a while ago and was forced to interrupt it due to lack of free time, but in that story I had said something about Lord Absol actig like a Man In Black; this story confirms my opinion even more. And now for a random comment, Rhiannon makes a much better use of the word 'irrelevant' than most people I know. And I've seen her war cry before. Take 20 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

Shonta: that was a great story!I'd like to see Bandit living up to his words (sprouting wings and flying, I mean). What does 'sempai' mean? The ending looked a bit rushed, but I liked the interaction between Rose and Bandit during the battle. And Rose's name... dead giveaway? I know a Ditto named Rose who would find that comment funny. On a more serious note, I especially liked the new view on Katana's thoughts and feelings. Take 21 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

Jeff, I hope someone rates your story soon.

[classy_cat18]

Gabi: Actually it's supposed to be -senpai. -senpai is a Japanese title used for upperclassmen or other people of a higher rank. However, I thought later that -sama would've been a better fit, which is used for people of utmost respect. Now how about that RBG for my L12 Mareep?

[Lady Vulpix]

Oops! Sorry. Beacon's going to battle a Torchic.
And thanks for the explanation!

[The Blue Avenger]

Um, I had spare time in abundance this weekend, so I went ahead and did the current scenario as well. A warning: this story WILL NOT make sense unless you've played EarthBound, particularly the ending. If you can make sense out of it, good for you. Now, let me present "The Obligatory Video Game Parody Part Two: Revenge of the Parody."

---

“Okay, Jeff, I understand that you’re still depressed about losing your chance to go after DiAnnio. But five days is far too long to be moping around in the barracks, not doing anything.”

“Yeah! The least you could do is mope around somewhere else!”

“Uhm… hush, please, Mona.”

“Sorry.”

“Now, look, Jeff, the Guild set up something they’re calling the Maze. They made a particular note of the fact that it’s non-lethal, and purely for training and entertainment purposes.”

“Bobbery, I don’t know…”

“That’s okay, because frankly, you have no choice in the matter. We’re going.”

“And if I choose not to?”

“Jeff, I’m a Snorlax. If you elect not to go, I will physically carry you there, and there’s not a thing you can do about it. I outweigh you by almost a ton.”

The young trainer sighed. “I guess you’re right. Maybe this will do me some good. Who else has expressed an interest in coming?”

“Let’s see… me, Mona, Maza, Mercandos, and, surprisingly enough, Raini.”

“Really?” A look of shock passed over Jeff’s face. “Well, okay then… Let me grab my bag.” Jeff walked back to his bunk and slung a backpack over his shoulder. As he turned around, a sudden jerk in his pack made him stumble. Pausing for a moment, he realized the cause: “Oh, hi, Raini.” The Meowth peeked her head out of the top of the bag and mewed, abstaining from speech for the moment. He turned back to Bobbery and Mona. “Well then, we ought to be off before the place gets too crowded.”

Before long, Jeff found himself standing just inside the door to the Maze. The building stretched out around him like the labyrinths of legend, albeit a labyrinth with nicely polished white tile and tastefully done window treatments. Two paths branched out in front of him; one led to a staircase leading to the upper stories of the building, the other presumably leading into the bowels of the ground floor. However, a thick wall, standing up to the ceiling, obscured his view of the rest of the floor.

Jeff turned to the four Pokemon surrounding him (and the one riding in his pack). “Well, guys?” he asked. “What do you think?”

“Right!”

“Left!”

Jeff palmed his forehead and sighed. “Okay, let’s go for a tiebreaker. Raini, what do you think?”

Raini, without a moment’s hesitation, pointed down the corridor, away from the staircase.

“Okay, then first floor it is,” Jeff said, smiling, unaware of Mona behind his back sticking her tongue out at Bobbery and Mercandos. They took their first steps down the hallway…

…Only to be rudely interrupted by a loud, grating klaxon blaring. A small hatch opened in the wall, and, after the horn quieted, a harsh, robotic voice emanated from it.

“The famous song ‘---terday’. Can you fill in the blank? Yes or no?”

Jeff scratched his head. “Hey, what? What do you mean -”

“The famous song ‘---terday’. Can you fill in the blank? Yes or no?” the voice repeated.

“Um… I guess so, yes,” Jeff replied.

“Excellent! Congratulations!” The hatch closed as a small shower of confetti streamed over the group.

Jeff stood there for a few seconds, stunned. “Guys?” he began slowly. “What just happened?”

“Quite honestly?” Bobbery replied. “I have no clue. I think whoever runs this place must just have an eccentric sense of humor.”

“Or a stupid one,” Mona mumbled, before continuing absent-mindedly down the hallway. Jeff, Maza, Merc, and Bobbery looked at each other, shrugged, and followed her.

Soon, however, they were stopped yet again, this time by another fork in the path. Three hallways stretched out into the distance: one forward, one left and one right, each one running for what seemed to be miles, with even more branches running off of them. The strange things about the fork, however, were the people standing guard over each of the branches. The three men were exactly identical, each one with bleached white hair, dark sunglasses, a muscled and tan physique, and a Hawaiian shirt. They did not move, instead just staring straight ahead.

Mona walked up to one of them and tapped them on the chest. “Um, excuse me… Can you move? We need to get past you. You’re in our way – we want to get to the end of this maze and I don’t know if you’re just other trainers who came to challenge the maze or what, but it doesn’t seem very nice of you to block the way like that. I mean, you would never catch me doing that to anyone, particularly if they were trying to do something quickly, and even more particularly if that someone were as cute as myself - ”

She was stooped abruptly as the man grabbed her arm. “Hello,” the man stated simply.

“Um… hello?” Mona replied, failing to notice the Gastly materializing behind the buff man.

“Hello…” the man said again, “and goodbye!”

“Wait, what?” Mona asked, before the Gastly glowed pink. Suddenly, the world spun around her and went dark…

***

“Ugh… what happened…?” Jeff groaned.

“I dunno…” Mercandos mumbled, “But I think something lumpy landed on me. That’s not you, is it, Jeff?”

“No, I think it’s my pack,” Jeff replied, standing up slowly. They were in an entirely different part of the Maze. Glancing out the nearby window, it seemed to Jeff that they were on the second or third floor… on the opposite side of the building.

“Man, what was that?” Maza said, standing up as well.

“And why is it so dusty up here?” Mona asked, coughing.

“It’s dusty?” Maza asked. “I hadn’t noticed.” That was as far as he got before he started coughing as well.

Jeff passed his hand through the air, noting the white, green, purple, deep brown and black specks of dust that collected on his hand. “Aw, nuts,” he groaned. “The TMs in my pack must have broken…” He blinked. “Oh no! Raini!” Hurriedly taking off his backpack, he opened it, revealing the wide innocent eyes of the young Meowth. Jeff sighed and took her out of the bag. Placing her quickly on the ground, he frowned. “Raini, why are you soaked?” Not waiting for an answer, he checked in his pack. A plastic bottle lay at the bottom, a wide gash split down the side. “Oh well, there goes another bottle of water… Sorry, Raini, I don’t have a towel with me.”

Bobbery tapped Jeff on the shoulder. “Not to be, y’know, annoying or anything like that, but mind telling me what TMs we happen to be inhaling?”

Jeff blushed. “Right. The ones that didn’t crack… let’s see here… Triple Kick, Block, Doom Desire, Dragon Claw, Arm Thrust, Beat Up, and Mach Punch. That leaves six unaccounted for. But what were they…?”

Mercandos shrugged. “Eh. It’s no big deal. I guess we’ll find out eventually. Let’s keep moving, huh?”

Jeff nodded, swinging his pack back on. “Besides, it’s not like having new moves will be a bad thing, right?” he chuckled as he started walking down the nearest corridor.

Mercandos mumbled something about ‘being unconcerned for our safety’ but quickly followed Jeff, as did Bobbery, Raini, and Mona. Only Maza stayed. He started to go after his teammates, but stumbled, and leaned on the wall for support.

“Ugh… man,” the Kadabra moaned. “I don’t feel so hot… you’d think I’d be used to Teleportation by now…”

A voice called down the hallway. “Hey Maza! Where’d you get to?”

Maza snapped back up. “I’ll be there in a second, guys!” he called. As he dashed after his friends, he mumbled to himself, “Oh well, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

As he caught up with the group, he found Jeff staring intently at a sheet of paper. “What’s going on?” he asked.

Jeff looked up. “Um, well…” He blushed. “I found a list of my TMs in another section of my pack. I think the ones that cracked were Dizzy Punch, Magical Leaf, Dynamic Punch, Luster Purge, Torment, and Psycho Boost.”

Maza blanched. “What was that last one?”

“Uhh…” Jeff consulted the list. “Psycho Boost.”

Why is that ringing bells? Maza thought to himself.

Bobbery learned Dynamic Punch!
Mercandos learned Dizzy Punch, Magical Leaf, and Luster Purge!
Raini learned Torment!
Maza learned Psycho Boost!

However, before he could answer that question, the lights above them began flickering, and with a loud ‘thoom,’ the floor was plunged into darkness. The confused cries of the other trainers in the maze rang through the air. Jeff heard a loud “URK!” but was unable to gauge from who, or what it came.

Just as quickly as they shut off, though, the lights returned to the building, met with sighs of relief from the people inside. A noise like static emanated from the wall near Jeff, and he noticed that there was a loudspeaker near the ceiling. Someone cleared their throat on the other side of the microphone, and began to speak.

“Attention, trainer Jeff… Trainer Jeff, from Happy-Happy Village. Mona is waiting for you at the exit. Repeat, Mona is waiting for you at the exit. …Gwaaargh!”

Jeff frowned. “That’s odd. Mona’s right here…” He turned around, and sure enough, Mona was no longer standing with the rest of the Pokemon. Jeff swore under his breath.

“Calm down, Jeff,” Bobbery said. “Look, I’m sure it’s just one of the challenges here. They knew your name and hometown, so more likely than not, that means that was someone from the Guild on the loudspeaker.”

“But what about that last part of the announcement?” Maza asked. “That ‘gwaaargh’ bit?”

“Eh,” grunted Bobbery. “It’s probably just for dramatic effect.”

“Whatever the reason,” Jeff interrupted, “we probably ought to get to the exit sooner rather than later. You know Mona; she’ll probably talk her captor to death.”

“Agreed,” Maza replied. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, wait, hold on, guys,” Mercandos said, staring at something on the wall. “Did you guys see this sign?” The group gathered around him.

There was indeed a sign on the wall. “When you’ve found the four ropes, you’re almost to the exit. …Brick Road,” Jeff read aloud. “What does that mean?”

“Well, I’d imagine that there are four ropes somewhere in the building, Jeff,” Mercandos said, rolling his eyes. “They’re probably, oh, I don’t know, somewhere near the exit.”

Jeff scowled. “Thanks, Merc. I got that. I was referring to the last line, ‘Brick Road.’”

“Maybe it’s someone’s name?” Bobbery suggested.

“Man, I’d hate to have that name,” Merc chuckled. “What bad parents!”

Jeff sighed. “Okay, now that we’ve read the sign, can we move on?” The rest of the group nodded and they continued down the corridor.

Their progress was once again halted. This time, however, it was not because of a buff man in a Hawaiian shirt, but rather a thick, metallic door. There was a square set in the center of the door, with three circles surrounding it. Jeff leaned towards the door, noticing the small text inside the square.

“For those who wish to get pass me,
Regretfully I must challenge thee.
Hit me with the elements three,” Jeff read. “The elements three? I wonder which elements those are. Maybe it’s hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon? Or maybe argon, krypton, and neon?”

“Wait, Jeff, there’s more there,” Maza said. He began to read out loud. “ADDENDUM: Each one opposes another, see?” He thought for a moment. “Maybe that means each element cancels another one out.”

“Or,” started Bobbery, “what if the door’s not referring to the periodic table elements? Maybe it means elements, like the term is used in magic – y’know, wind, ice, that sort of thing.”

“Or, maybe it means elements of Pokemon attacks!” Mercandos continued triumphantly. “That means it wants three attacks that are super-effective against one another!”

“And, luckily enough,” Jeff finished with a glint in his eye, “we’ve got attacks like that right now! Maza, try a Fire Punch!”

Maza nodded and enflamed his fist. He smacked the door. The fire disappeared, and one of the circles lit up red.

“Now, Bobbery, try a Surf!”

Bobbery raised his arms. A nearby water fountain buckled and started spraying water at the door – the water vanished, and the second circle lit up blue.

“Hmm… now we need grass, right? Mercandos, you got that Magical Leaf TM, right? Go for it!”

Mercandos waved his hands, and leaves began to magically appear in front of him. Glowing slightly, they zoomed straight for the door. They, too, disappeared after impact, and the final circle lit up green. The group fell silent as the three circles begin to drain themselves of color.

“Maybe we didn’t do it right…” Bobbery whispered.

“No, wait…” Merc responded. The door slowly began to swing inwards, creaking ominously. The group peered inside…

…and saw a very familiar man. He wore dark sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt, and had bleached hair. Before they could say anything, he pulled a Pokeball from behind his back.

“Hello,” he said simply. He tossed the Pokeball to the ground, and it burst open, revealing a young and eager-looking Rattata. “Go, Rowdy Mouse.” The Rattata sneered.

“So, who’s gonna battle me?” it asked.

Before Jeff could choose a Pokemon, Raini leaped out from behind him. She hissed.

“Let’s go,” she said simply.

Battle time! Raini versus the Tough Guy’s Rattata, Rowdy Mouse!
Raini – “Hmm hmm hmm…”
~
Rowdy Mouse – “Smaaaash!”

The Rattata jumped at Raini. Raini nimbly stepped aside, but the Rattata jumped back and began to glow red. Before Raini could react, a vortex of fire surrounded the rat. The flames exploded forth, scorching Raini before she could move.

However, what happened next caught everyone by surprise. Jeff and his team, as well as the Tough Guy and Rowdy Mouse, watched, amazed, as Raini’s normal black fur slowly changed hues, being replaced by a bright red.

“Raini! Are you okay?” Jeff called. Raini didn’t say anything. Instead, she just glared at the Rowdy Mouse. She stood on her hind legs and hissed at the rat, continuing on to jump over to it. Raini immediately extended her claws and began to slash at Rowdy Mouse’s face. The rat began to glow red again, but the flames it tried to summon failed to appear; instead, it just coughed out a cloud of smoke.

Raini grinned evilly. “Torment is a nasty thing, no?” she hissed. The Rattata didn’t appear fazed, and instead blasted a jet of bubbles at the Meowth. Raini skidded backwards and shook off her fur. Once again, her fur started changing hues, this time from red to a deep blue.

Jeff clapped his hand to his forehead. “I get it now!” he exclaimed. “She got soaked with the Kecleon Juice I had in my bag!”

Raini ignored him and spread her arms. A series of large, yellow stars appeared in the air. They began to circle around her, until she pointed at her foe; they immediately cut through the air and plowed into Rowdy Mouse. The rat flew backwards, but was immediately halted in the air, held aloft by some unseen force. Rowdy Mouse hovered in the air for a second, and was then unceremoniously smash into the ground. The Rattata whimpered weakly, but was again brought into the air, where it was thrown into the ground again. It floated back up a third time, but this time, instead of falling to the ground again, Rowdy Mouse was thrown backwards. It bounced off of a wall and collapsed on the ground, unmoving. The Tough Guy, an expression of disbelief on his face, recalled the abused Rattata.

Battle over! Raini wins! She grows 1 level, to level 6!

Everyone fell silent, staring at the cat (whose fur had by now returned to its original black). Mercandos was the first one to break the silence, saying, “Wow. Overkill much?” Raini just looked up at him and mewed.

The Tough Guy coughed. As everyone turned to look at him, he began to speak again. “Hello,” he started, “and goodbye. Shall I?”

Jeff quickly jumped in. “No! No, that’s okay, we’ll just stay -” He was cut off as he felt the familiar sensation of being teleported again.

The group fell in a heap in yet another part of the maze. Jeff groaned. “I’m starting to hate this place…”

“Ugh, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head,” mumbled Merc. “The people who created this place are sadistic…” Just then, the ever-present intercom crackled into life.

“Trainer Jeff… Trainer Jeff… gwaaargh! Please come and pick up Mona! …Gwaaargh! At the exit!”

Jeff grunted. “At this rate, it will be forever before we actually get there…”

Maza placed a hand on his shoulder. “It may be sooner than you think, Jeff.” He pointed towards a nearby wall…

…where four ropes extended down from holes in the ceiling. Jeff smiled. “Four ropes. Excellent. Well, guys, why don’t we see if this Brick Road knows what he’s talking about?” He dashed over to the ropes and tugged on one of them. “They seem stable enough,” he mumbled to himself before picking one and shimmying up it.

The rope led up into a small conference room. The only exit was a door, which, Jeff realized after staring through the window next to it, led outside. This hypothesis was strengthened further by the sign hanging above the door, which read, “Goodbye Exit.” He jiggled the doorknob, only to find it locked. Jeff cursed mildly under his breath.

“Good day,” someone said suddenly from behind him. Jumping, Jeff turned. The person standing behind him was, without a doubt, a bizarre character. He had the stature and size of a 10- or 11-year-old boy, but in place of a head, the boy had a giant jack-o-lantern, replete with stereotypical toothy grin. “No doubt,” the boy continued, “You’re the Trainer Jeff, here to save your Smeargle. Is this true?”

“Y-yes,” Jeff replied, strangely intimidated by the kid.

“I suppose I ought to introduce myself, shouldn’t I?” the kid said, swapping topics suddenly. “I never give out my real name. However, you may address me as the Trick or Trick Kid.”

“Right, the Trick or Treat Kid,” Jeff repeated.

“No, numbskull. Trick or Trick Kid. I don’t want any treats. I just spend my time playing tricks on people!” the kid sneered. “Look, I suppose you’ll be wanting your Smeargle back. You may have guessed already, but there’s a little challenge that you’ll have to go through first.”

“And that would be…?” Jeff asked, slightly irritated.

“You’ll have to battle me!” Trick or Trick Kid grinned. “When I’m done with you, you’ll go to… well, you won’t go to heaven!” He pulled the top off of his pumpkin head and pulled a Pokeball out from inside – a fairly unnerving sight, to be sure – before tossing it to the ground. A Vulpix burst forth, smiling innocently. “Let’s go, Wild n’ Wooly Shambler!”

Jeff grinned. “Okay, let’s see how you like this! Let’s go, Mercandos!” Mercandos stepped out in front of his trainer and leered at the Vulpix. “Hey, Merc, try this,” Jeff whispered. He handed Mercandos a small earring, and Merc quickly put it on. “It should boost your special attacks!”

“Thanks, Jeff,” Merc mumbled back.

Battle time! Mercandos versus Wild n’ Wooly Shambler!
Mercandos – “It’s time to win!”
~
Wild n’ Wooly Shambler – “Spooked yet?”

Mercandos charged at the Vulpix and managed to deliver a powerful punch before the Vulpix could even register anything happening. Small, yellow birds seemed to fly over Shambler’s head as it managed to shake off the confusion. The Vulpix reared back and launched a massive gout of flame at Merc, sending the Mr. Mime skidding back, slightly crispy.

“C’mon, Merc! Don’t let it get in the lead!” Jeff called. Mercandos nodded, and stomped back towards the fox. He closed his eyes, and a golden power began to emanate from him. It settled behind him, in the form of a massive dragon, and roared. Shambler took a few steps back, a look of fear in its eyes, before the dragon rushed at her. The collision resulted in the Vulpix flying several feet back, gold sparkles surrounding it. It stood back up and growled at Merc.

“Now, Shambler! Try our special attack!” Trick or Trick Kid chuckled. “Soul Consuming Flame!”

Jeff gasped. “Soul Consuming WHAT?!” He turned to Merc. “Be careful, Merc! That sounds lethal!” Mercandos frowned.

“Well then,” he muttered. “Let’s try and deal some damage!” Again, the mime closed his eyes. This time, however, he began to glow a light purple. “Luster Purge!” he yelled, before the entire room went white. The sound of a heavy impact could be heard, as could the sound of rushing wind. The whiteness cleared, and Mercandos smirked: the Vulpix looked bruised and dazed.

“Shambler!” the kid cried out in panic.

“Now, let’s have some fun,” Mercandos chuckled. He lifted his hands, and began to wiggle his fingers. Suddenly, the wind began to pick up inside the conference room. A small, centralized whirlwind started to form around the panicked Vulpix; it quickly grew and tossed Shambler around the room. However, Shambler quickly regained its bearings and charged at Merc. The Vulpix impacted hard, knocking the wind out of Merc and throwing him back several feet. He stood up and scowled at the now-smug Shambler.

“Come on, Merc! Pull out one of your special combination moves or something!” Maza called.

“You can beat this punk!” Bobbery yelled.

Right… Merc thought. Let’s see… what can I do with my new attacks? Suddenly, it came to him. He closed his eyes once more, the familiar golden energy gushing forth. However, this time the energy did not form a dragon. It wrapped itself around Mercandos’ fist. He charged at the Vulpix, and just as he punched it in the face, he yelled, “Dragon Punch!” The Vulpix flew away, propelled by the force of the blow, and landed hard, completely unconscious. Trick or Trick Kid sighed.

Battle over! Mercandos grows two levels, to level 12!

The kid sadly recalled his Vulpix. “All right,” he groaned. “I hate to admit it, but you are good. You can have your Smeargle back.” He snapped his fingers, and a Haunter faded into view. “Go fetch Miss Mona, please,” the boy asked. Haunter nodded and disappeared. A few moments later, it reappeared with Mona in tow, who has jabbering wildly about nothing in particular. Trick or Trick Kid turned to face Jeff. “It is unlikely we’ll ever see each other again. Even so, I must be making my departure.” He snapped his fingers again, and he and the Haunter began to disappear. Before he faded entirely from view, he said one last thing. “Happy Halloween!”

Mona rushed over to Jeff and hugged his leg, halting the stream of words from her mouth momentarily. Jeff knelt down and hugged her back. “It’s good to see you again, Mona. I’m glad to see you’re not hurt.”

He stood back up and tried the door again. To his relief, it was unlocked. As he and his party walked out the door, a fanfare played over the intercom system. They stopped and glanced around. Suddenly, a man dropped down from the sky. He wore dark glasses, a tuxedo, and a tall top hat, and he was holding an old-fashioned camera.

“Pictures taken instantly!” the man grinned. “I’m a photographic genius, if I do say so myself.” He held up the camera. “Look at the camera… say, ‘Fuzzy Pickles!’” Without waiting for a response, he snapped a photo. “Ah, what a great photo!” he said. “It will always bring back the fondest of memories!” With that, the man ran off into the distance.

The group stood there quietly. It was Bobbery who spoke up first. “I have an idea,” he said quietly. “Let’s just go home and forget that just happened.” The rest of the group agreed with him, and they set off.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Okay... Jeff, finally got round to rating yer Blades scenario... very nicely done and it was interesting to see your thoughts on the whole matter. The battles seemed a touch short but the rest more than made up for that. Take 20 stamps. I'll rate your other story after the weekend as I've got Soo's parents coming over and won't have much time to do anything online until Monday. However, I'm rather looking forward to reading it; an Earthbound spoof coming from you is just BOUND to be interesting.

Gabi: As I said in PM, sorry for the inactivity. And you've seen Rhi's war cry before? Are you suggesting that it, in fact, is not totally original and has actually been stolen from a talking cat in some daft fantasy webcomic? :O

EDIT: Jeff, take 16 stamps for your Maze scenario... I'll overlook what liberties you may have taken with how the Guild would organise an event because that was prolly the daftest thing I've seen written here for a while and made me literally laugh out loud at some points. Nice (albeit silly) way of getting around the different floors thing btw. So tell me, during that photo at the end did you strike a pose while your companions all stood there like nothing was happening or what?

[classy_cat18]

Okay, Beacon's RBG. The battle's a little blah but oh well.

EDIT: Can I have an RBG for Moriko? This'll come from the Professional Sports Breeding System. She's my L9 Heracross.

Lily’s POV

I smiled to myself as Rose talked to Katana, worrying about the small burns that were on Katana’s body. “We do have some Burn Heal at the inn,” Rose suggested.

“These burns are too small to damage me any further,” Katana assured her.

“At least let me give you a Potion or a Berry, Katana-sama.”

Katana smiled a little. “Okay, a Berry would be nice, especially after that Flamethrower.”

Bandit walked by me, muttering. “She’s not even modest. I know she loves the way that poor Roselia fawns over her.”

“Well, it would be impolite to just push her away. Rose thinks of Katana as a role model. Katana’s strength, speed, intelligence…” I started.

“Do I have to point out her bad characteristics again?”

“Let’s not disappoint the Roselia, Bandit. Or should I point out your bad characteristics to her?”

Bandit went silent but still had a frustrated look on his face until we got to the inn. Ben gave us the key to our room, reprimanded Rose for wandering away, and went back to his duties.

The room was pretty basic. Wooden floors, a big bed that took up half of the room, and a door leading to a small bathroom. I might’ve been exaggerating about the bed but the room was still pretty small. The Pokemon would be sleeping in their pokeballs tonight. “Oh well. At least Shonta will sleep well tonight,” I said to myself.

“Katana-sama can sleep now if she wants to,” Rose offered.

Katana opened her mouth, probably to protest, but closed it again. “Okay, I’ll take a nap on one condition. Shonta, I seem to recall that you got new TMs for some members for the team. I want the team to practice those attacks and any attacks that they have not used.”

Rose turned to Shonta and batted her eyes innocently. Shonta gave in. “Okay, take five, Katana. The rest of the team will practice their attacks.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~

The rest of us gathered in a field behind the inn. Not long after the others were let out, a flock of Mareep gazed at us. Shonta dug through her backpack and pulled out a few TM boxes. “Moriko, I got a doozy for you. Megahorn.” She tossed the box to Moriko.

“Score! The most powerful Bug-type attack and I have it!” Moriko shouted happily.

“Jewel, I got you Skill Swap. It allows you to exchange traits with your opponent.” She walked to Jewel and sprinkled the contents of the TM box on her. “I want you to practice that for now. Trinity, practice your Teleport. Lily, your Sludge Bomb and Magical Leaf. Nama and Athena, just practice any attacks you think you haven’t gotten the hang of yet.” She kneeled in front of Rose. “Do you need a new attack?”

Rose blinked. “Yes, but I’m sure you need your TMs for the rest of your team,” she said.

“I have an extra TM that you can have.” She pulled out a Magical Leaf TM. “You can practice with Lily.”

Rose smiled widely as Shonta emptied the contents of the TM on her. “Thank you so much!”

“Good thing she got it,” a voice behind me said. I turned around and found myself staring at an Ampharos. But this was no ordinary Ampharos. This one’s colors were inverted. She reminded me of the picture of the Ampharos on the inn’s size.

“Mama?” Beacon asked. “Mama!” She ran up to her mother and nuzzled her chest. “I’ve missed you so much!”

The black Ampharos smiled. “How have you been, little Beacon? Have you been practicing your attacks?”

“A lot, Mama! I’ve even learned a few more!”

“Beacon has been a good Pokemon to work with,” Shonta told the black Ampharos. “I’m Shonta, Beacon’s trainer.”

The black Ampharos let Shonta shake her hand. “Ben told me about you. I’m Volt, Beacon’s mother. I help look after Mrs. Johnson’s flock of Mareep.”

“Mrs. Johnson?”

“Ben’s wife. She and her son help with the farming and Ben looks after the inn. It’s going to be one heck of a retirement fund soon.” She laughed a little at that. “Anyway, I’ll be more than happy to help with any training.”

“I should warn you about the danger that’s headed our way,” Jewel told Volt. “The Sentret that attacked Rose will be back with reinforcements.”

“You should be in bed, Katana-sama!” Rose said angrily.

“And miss out on the fun? I don’t think so,” Katana said with a smile.

Volt smiled. “The flock and I can take care of ourselves. It’s you I’ll be worried about. I’m assuming it’s those Demons that I’ve heard about?”

Katana nodded. “There’s a group of Demons in this area, mostly Fire types, that have been inactive until now. Do you have any idea why they’re after Rose?”

“I’m afraid not. We have lived in peace until today. Then they started going after Rose.”

“They must know that Beacon knows Rose. That Diablo…” She unsheathed her claws and growled louder.

“I take it that Diablo leads these scoundrels?”

“Not in this region, but he and Char are close friends. If you want to, you can help us defend against him.”

“Who? Char or Diablo?”

“Both. Diablo’s been threatening our team in Sector Alpha and none of us are strong enough to defeat him. You said that you and the flock are strong enough to defeat Char so you might also help against Diablo.”

Volt smiled again, rather wickedly this time. “It will be my pleasure.”

This can’t be Beacon’s mother. She’s too…confident. She’s more like Katana than Beacon. I walked to Rose, who was trying to execute a Magical Leaf. “Just fling your arms in the direction you want it to go. And think of the beauty of the attack,” I suggested.

Rose closed her eyes and flung her arms to the left. Leaves shot out from her flowers, made a loop and went straight up in the sky. My jaw dropped. “How did you do that loop?” I asked Rose.

She blushed. “Well…” she started before her head snapped toward the horizon. It was a sight that was terrible to behold. A dozen fire type Pokemon were racing for us! Rose shook her head in disbelief. “I didn’t think that they’ll come this early!”

“Yeah, me neither!” I looked at the team. One by one they noticed the sight of the Pokemon and heard their battle cries. “It’s time to battle!”

Volt boldly walked to the head of the group and spread her arms wide. “Demons! You shall not threaten these Pokemon any longer! Mareep, to the front of the line!” The flock of Mareep, including Beacon, obediently made a line in front of Volt. “Release your Thunderbolt!”

I gasped. All of these Mareep know Thunderbolt?

Every one of the Mareep sparked furiously and released a barrage of lightning bolts that tore up the ground in front of the charging Pokemon, making them stop in their tracks. The Fire types glared at them, opened their mouths, and unleashed barrage of fire at the Mareep. “Light Screen!” Volt commanded. Once more the Mareep obeyed her, raising what looked like a pane of glass but was in fact a magical shield. The Mareep were still hit but the damage was cut in half.

“We aren’t going to just stand by and let these Mareep get run over!” Shonta cried. “Pokemon, go!”

“No, Shonta! You are our guests. We can handle this,” Rose told Shonta.

A Torchic walked up to the Mareep in the middle of the line – Beacon – with his eyes narrowed. “Master Char sent us for your body, Mareep. Your dead body.”

Beacon looked down at the Torchic with confusion. “And you think that you can kill me?”

“Why not? You look pretty weak to me.”

“Then you won’t mind proving it.”

“Very well!” He nodded to his comrades and watched them back away, forming a semicircle. Volt and the other Mareep, along with me and my teammates and Rose, formed another semicircle behind Beacon. “Let the battle to the death begin!”

L12 Female Mareep (Beacon) vs. L12 Male Torchic

I couldn’t help but laugh as Torchic attempted to stare Beacon down. Beacon wasn’t tough but at least she was bigger than him. She lowered her head and charged for Torchic but he jumped up onto her head and started to scratch on it with his talons, making her scream out. Whether it was from pain or whatever I didn’t know.

“Beacon, he’s on your head! Thunderbolt him!” Volt cried.

Torchic realized his mistake too late. Beacon shocked him as hard as she could before he could jump off. Torchic was flung off of her body and back onto the ground. He didn’t move.

“Is he dead?” Rose asked.

I took a step forward to check but stepped back when I saw his feet twitch. He jumped off and laughed at Beacon. “You cannot defeat me that easily! Not with my Endure attack!”

“But that only leaves you with a little bit of health. You’re hanging by a thread,” Beacon said.

“That’s right, Beacon! Now hit him with another Thunderbolt!” Volt told her.

Beacon unleashed another Thunderbolt but one Torchic quickly became six. It was Double Team, coming to his rescue. The clones around her, laughing. “Guess which one is the real one!” they crowed.

Beacon just smiled sweetly. “Don’t have to.” She pointed her nose in the air and sniffed. The clones disappeared, leaving the real one still running around her. “Would you like to give up now?”

“I never give up!” He opened his beak and shot a Flamethrower at Beacon. Beacon ran to avoid the attack but ended up with her tail singed. Her tail orb, however, still shone brightly. Torchic shot another Flamethrower before she could catch her breath. She only had enough time to raise a Light Screen. She was still standing afterwards but she did not look well.

“She’s going to lose,” Trinity said with despair.

“No, she’s not. Have faith in my daughter,” Volt said.

Beacon was standing on shaking legs, no longer looking confident. In fact, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Volt never lost confidence in her. “You can still beat him, Beacon! Believe in yourself!” Volt yelled. The flock bleated in agreement.

Beacon grinned and charged for Torchic again. Torchic jumped in the air again but this time Beacon was prepared. She looked up and unleashed her Hidden Power Ice at him. Torchic missed his target and landed next to her, knocked out.

Beacon won! She grew to level 13!

Bandit’s POV

I couldn’t believe that that little Torchic thought he could face Beacon and actually kill her. What a wimp! Nonetheless, he was a good battler. I elbowed Katana and laughed. “Didn’t think the little lamb chop could win, did you? Well, ha and ha!”

“Actually, I thought that she would have a better chance winning against him than you did,” Katana said seriously. “So ha and ha.”

I glared at her and looked at the setting sun. Only now the sun looked like it had a sunspot. “Wait, that’s not a sunspot. It’s…everyone run!”

Everyone, including the Demons, looked at me and then at the unknown object. The Demons grinned at each other. “It’s Char!” they said happily.

“So Char’s a Charizard. Big surprise there,” Katana said sarcastically.

“Mareep! Retreat! That means you, Beacon!” Volt commanded.

The Mareep ran out of the way, towards a large barn. Char got closer, getting bigger and more recognizable. Soon he was above us, flapping his mighty wings and narrowing his eyes at us. “Where is the Mareep that is owned by you, human? Diablo said that you were getting to be a real thorn in his side. I want to devour her in front of your eyes.”

“Dude, that’s gross!” I exclaimed. “Have you tried being a vegan?”

“You’re not getting to my daughter, you foul beast,” Volt said. She dropped to all fours and pointed her tail orb at Char.

“So you wish to defy me? As you wish. I shall eat you first,” Char said.

I looked back at Volt and felt my eyes bug out. A massive amount of electricity was building up in her tail orb, making it glow brightly. I blinked to get the spots out of my eyes. “Is this…does she know…?”

“Yes. She’s about to use Zap Cannon,” Katana said with a smirk.

Char chuckled and opened his mouth, charging up an attack of his own. I was guessing that it was Hyper Beam. He released it at the same time Volt released her Zap Cannon. The two attacks collided and pushed against each other. Volt gave one big yell and made her attack break Char’s. Char was entirely engulfed in the attack. He tumbled to the ground.

Volt walked up to the Charizard and hopped on his chest. “Will you still be eating me? Or will you run away like a coward?”

Char roughly pushed her off of him and got to his feet. “We’ll settle this on another day. I’m not done with you yet.” He turned and left with his Demon crew.

Katana approached Volt and put a hand on her back. “We thank you for this. You’ve done a great thing,” Katana told her.

Volt smiled. “Yes. Now let’s take care of that Diablo fellow.”

“Are you sure? It’s not your problem.”

“Anyone that is threatening my daughter’s life will deal with me.”

Beacon ran to her and nuzzled her. “Mama, I’m stronger now. I don’t need your protection from you.”

“Very well. But Mr. Johnson will give you his number. If the Diablo problem gets too much out of control for you, give him a call and he’ll send me over there.”

“Thank you, my friend,” Katana said, smiling warmly for the first time.

Wait a minute! Katana never smiles like that! “I’m going to go get some glue and feathers,” I said.

“Why?” Lily asked.

“So I can grow wings and fly!”

[Wolfsong]

That was a nice story Shonta. Take 10 stamps. Katana is an interesting character adn Beacon did a good job. As for your RBG, Moriko will be battlign a Makuhita

[classy_cat18]

No, this isn't Moriko's RBG. I decided to write out this scenario before writing that. Sorry if the battles are blah.

Bandit’s POV

We spent another day at Beacon Village before returning to Sector Alpha. Since Katana didn’t tell Diablo how many days we would spend there, we figured that we would have time to relax and enjoy ourselves. We even brought Rose back with us so she wouldn’t have to worry about Char roasting her. We just had two problems. One was the Meditite that lost every battle she fought when she was in the adopted Pokemon tournament. Shonta thought that adopting her would boost her confidence and achieve her dream of becoming a Medicham. But she wouldn’t stop challenging us! She was constantly asking for trouble. The second problem was the e-g-g.

“No,” Katana said as she stared me down to the ground.

I spread my arms wide. “Why?”

“Because you’ll break it.”

“I won’t break it! Jewel was the one that almost broke it!” My hand inched closer to the egg that was sitting on the pillow but Katana’s expression grew scarier until she was snarling at me. “You’re so stingy!”

“I’m the only one in this team that is qualified to take care of this egg.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because…” Lily started but closed her mouth. She sounded so desperate to take Katana’s side. But why? Why would she let such a cutthroat take care of an innocent egg?

“There are many things about me that you don’t know,” Katana said to me in a low voice.

“Believe me; I don’t want to know those things.” I looked around at the other team members. Except for Lily, none of them had even started speaking up for either side. But I know that any second now that Nama would open that mouth of hers and say something.

And I was right. “We don’t know about Katana’s credentials but we do know that she’s been somewhat careful around the egg, unlike some Pokemon.” She smirked at Trinity with that lazy smile of hers.

“I said I was sorry! Anyway, she can have the egg for all I care! I don’t want anything to do with it!” she yelled.

<Then it’s agreed? Instead of Shonta taking care of the egg we want Katana?> Jewel asked. <We should vote. Whoever wants Katana to take care of the egg, raise their hand or paw or whatever. Since I have neither, I’ll just say yes.>

My jaw dropped in disbelief. “Why in the world would you let this maniac take care of our future teammate?” I asked her frantically.

“She is not a maniac!” Lily shouted suddenly, making me jump in surprise. “Katana has taken care of more children than you have!” She clapped her hands over her mouth after that comment as if she didn’t mean to say it.

That was it. The secret was out. “What do you mean by that, Lily?”

“Nothing! Absolutely nothing!” she said with her arms still over her mouth.

Katana sighed. “She means that I have had children before so I have experience with them,” she said softly.

I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn’t believe this! “Please tell me that you mean that you’ve been a babysitter or something,” I said to Katana.

“No, you idiot. I’ve been a mother.”

I nearly fell over in surprise. No way! This assassin was once a mom? How did that happen? And what happened to her kids? “Prove it! Prove that you’ve been a mother!”

“She can’t,” Lily interrupted. “Her children are dead. They were killed by humans.”

“How do you know this?” I asked her.

She looked down at the floor. “She told me. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone else but it just slipped out.”

Now I felt like a real ass. I should’ve known that Demons weren’t all blood and death. I was one of them. But Katana always seemed so into the Demon act. Was she a good mother? Did she do things like sing her kids to sleep or break up their fights? There was only one way to find out…

“Go ahead. Take care of the darn egg,” I told Katana. “I’m probably bad with kids anyway.”

One by one the other Pokemon raised their hands or paws. After Lily raised her arm she said, “We’ll be happy to help you whenever you need help.”

Katana nodded. “I’m sure that I’ll need help sooner or later. You can start by helping me find this egg a blanket. It’s getting a little cold in here.”

Athena walked out the room and returned with a baby blue blanket. “Shonta bought this especially for him.”

“Him, huh? For a minute there I thought that it was going to be a girl,” I said as Katana wrapped the blanket around the egg. “Now how about letting me hold the egg?”

“No,” Katana said sternly.

“Why?”

“Because you’ll break it.”

“Oh, let’s not go through this again!”

Shonta stuck her head through the doorway, looking excited. “Hey guys! Big training opportunity!”

Ali perked up. “Where? What is it?”

“The Dragon’s Guild set up this multilevel maze right here in Sector Alpha. It could be fun. But the thing is that I can’t bring all of you. Too much could be a crowd.”

“Good thing! I suggest that Trinity and Athena stay behind!” Ali said cheerfully.

“What?” Athena and Trinity said together.

“I’m sorry, but Pokemon that don’t have the passion to battle should leave it to those that do have it.” She crossed her arms and nodded.

“Who says I don’t have the passion to battle?” Trinity raged. “Look, Missy! I have more experience in my nine tails than you do in your entire body!”

“That’s not saying much,” Ali said, not backing down to Trinity. “Shonta told me herself that you’re just a little stronger than I am.”

“I’m strong enough to torch your pathetic butt!”

“Enough!” Athena cried out. She pushed Trinity away from Ali and looked her straight in the eye. “Let Ali go with Shonta. But you’ll go with them. Just because you probably won’t battle doesn’t mean you can’t have fun in the maze.”

Trinity groaned loudly but nodded afterwards. “Okay. Just to shut her up I’ll let her go.”

“Okay, so Ali and Trinity are going. Bandit, I have a feeling that we’ll be needing you too. Katana and Beacon are also going. Finally we’ll need an experienced psychic so Jewel will be joining us.”

“I’m not going,” Katana said seriously. “I need to stay and take care of the egg.”

“We can take the egg with us. We just need extra padding in my backpack to make sure it doesn’t break.” She opened her backpack to show Katana that there were a couple of blankets in there.

Katana seemed to think it over for a minute before saying, "Alright." She carefully placed the egg in the backpack and followed the maze group out the front door. On the way to the maze she kept glancing at the backpack, twitching her ears every time she thought there was movement.

"What's the matter? Are you afraid your baby's in trouble?" I teased.

"Shut up. He's not my baby. I'm just looking out for him," she growled.

"Whatever."

We approached the maze, a three-story building with no windows. Shonta hesitated a bit before opening the door and entering. "Okay, since we have our choice of floors, I suggest we take the top floor. Anyone disagree?" she asked us.

"No," we answered.

We climbed the stairs to the top floor. Ali, being her easily excitable self, ran ahead of us. She did fine until right before we got to the fork in the path. She seemed to spring up in the air and stay there. I took a closer look and saw that she was caught in a net that was painted in the same color as the floor. "Um, a little help here?" she nervously asked us.

"Say that I'm the queen of the world and I'll let you out," Trinity told her.

"Hmph. I'd rather stay up here."

"I'll let her out," Katana offered. She jumped up and slashed the ropes, freeing Ali and making her tumble to the ground. Katana gracefully landed on her feet while Ali fell flat on her back. "I hope you've learned your lesson about being patient."

"Yes, I have." She returned to us and followed us to the left path.

We walked down another long corridor. Beacon stayed close to Shonta. "These traps...none of them are dangerous, right?" she asked Shonta.

"That's what the Guild said. But we should still stay on our toes. We'll never know what we'll run into next."

We approached a room covered in white and blue tiles. Shonta looked left and right and then stepped into the room. The doors waited until we were all inside before closing themselves. "I don't like the looks of this," Shonta muttered.

Some of the blue tiles slid up, revealing small cannons. "I really don't like the looks of this!" I shouted.

The cannons fired. But instead of cannonballs or anything else that could hurt us they shot Nerf balls. That didn't stop them from being annoying, though. They pummeled us as Jewel bounced over to a yellow tile at the center of the room and pressed down on it. <Everyone stand on a white tile,> she calmly told us. We did as she said and the cannons stepped firing and hid themselves in the walls. The doors slid opened again. <Now walk across the room and don't step on the blue tiles.>

We carefully walked across the room, remembering to only step on the white tiles. The cannons didn't open up again and the doors didn't close. When I we got out of the room I asked Jewel how did she know how to stop the cannons from shooting. <I noticed that as soon as Shonta stepped on a blue tile the doors closed. That was probably a warning. I kept myself from telling you anything until I could be sure that the blue tiles were causing things to happen in this room. I finally knew when Beacon stepped on another blue tile. That was when the cannons revealed themselves and started to fire.>

"And the yellow tile?" I asked her.

<It only showed itself when the cannons started to fire. I knew it also had an effect with the room but I didn't know what kind of an effect.>

"Good thinking, Jewel," Shonta complimented. "Now let's go find that exit." She walked down the corridor and took a right. We soon arrived at another room with tiles, only this time they were only on the walls. The tiles on the walls had pictures of Unown on them. There was a sign on the door at the other side of the room reading "This Way to Exit".

"Yahoo! Exit!" Ali said happily. She raced and got to the middle of the room before she was slowly lifted off the floor by an unknown force. "Hey! Don't come in here! There are Lunatone holding me off the ground!"

I curiously peeked in the room. Sure enough, there were a pair of Lunatone with their eyes glowing blue. I peered across the room and saw another pair just waiting for us to enter. "Well, I guess we go in. There's no other way to the exit anyway." I boldly stepped to the center of the room and felt myself being lifted off the floor by the Lunatone's Confusion.

An intercom lowered itself from the ceiling and spoke to us. "Attention, participants of the Maze. Answer this riddle correctly and you will be set free. 'I am at first small and red and totally weak but when I evolve I am quite the freak.'"

"What in the world is that supposed to mean!?!" I shouted in frustration.

"It's Magikarp," Ali said with a smile on her face. "At first it's small, red, and weak. But when it evolves it's known as the Atrocious Pokemon."

I scratched the back of my head. "I knew that. I was just giving you the chance to figure it out. So why aren't we standing on our own two feet now?"

"I think it has something to do with the Unown. Each one represents a certain letter of the alphabet, right? Let's punch in 'Magikarp' and see what happens." She swam to the other side of the room, kicked off the wall, and sailed toward the Unown M tile, giving it an Ice Punch. The tile sunk in and lit up. She repeated this process to the other tiles until the ones needed were lit up.

The intercom clicked on again. "That is correct. You may proceed to the exit," it told us. The Lunatone gently set us down on the floor.

I gave Ali a high five. "Alright! I didn't know you had such a brain!" I told her.

"This is kind of a weakness of mine but I like riddles," she said shyly.

"At least we know you can think with more than just your fists," Trinity said smugly.

Ali laughed lamely. "Come on. The exit awaits us!"

We ran down the last couple of corridors and soon came face to face with a girl dressed in all black. Black shirt, black jeans, black lipstick. At first I was going to make some crack about her going to a funeral but I stopped myself from saying it.

"Is that the exit behind you?" Shonta asked the girl.

"Yes, it is. But you're going to have to battle me before you get out. So whip out your Pokemon so I can whip you!" the girl said confidently.

"Are you ready, Ali?" Shonta asked the Meditite.

"I was born ready!" Ali told her.

The goth girl threw a pokeball in the air. "Go, Chikorita!"

The Chikorita materialized and pointed at Ali. "You're going down!" she said.

L7 Female Meditite (Ali) vs. L8 Female Chikorita

“I can take you out with one attack!” Ali boasted as she faced Chikorita. She ran for Chikorita and swung her icy fist at her but Chikorita jumped back and avoided the attack. She kept jumping back as Ali kept swinging at her. “Would you stand still and let me hit you?”

“I’m sorry that I won’t let you defeat me. How can I make it up to you? Oh, I know! Here!” She slammed her vines into Ali, sending her tumbling backwards. Then she tackled Ali while she was getting up.

“Ouch. Heh heh. That ought to teach her a lesson about underestimating others,” Trinity snickered. The others shushed her.

Chikorita ran for another Tackle but Ali sprang up and slammed into her. Chikorita flew back and crashed into her trainer. She must’ve been hit by Ali’s Bide. “Ugh,” she groaned as she got up and jumped off of her trainer. “Take this, Ali!” She extended her vines for Ali again, who thought that it would be a good idea to jump up and avoid the attack. She was wrong. It turned out that that was what Chikorita wanted her to do. Her vines swung up and wrapped themselves around Ali’s arms. Then she gave a loud grunt and slammed the vines – and Ali – on the floor.

“Get up, Ali! You can still do this!” Shonta cheered.

“Yeah! Get off of your butt and beat that Chikorita!” I yelled.

Ali slowly got up and looked back at us. “I guess you’re right. But how to hit her?” Then her face lit up. “I know!” She ran for Chikorita again. Chikorita crouched low, ready to jump up and over Ali. As soon as she did, however, Ali jumped up and kicked her. She once more crashed into her trainer.

“Yes!” Katana said quietly.

“Are you actually enjoying this?” I asked her. She just glanced at me and went back to watching the battle.

Chikorita was just now getting up. She glared at Ali. “I’m not defeated yet!” She swung her head leaf around, summoning leaves and throwing them at Ali. Ali went for Chikorita again, Ice Punching any leaves that came her way. She got to Ali and punched her with her icy fist. Chikorita stayed still as her body slowly froze.

Ali won! She grew to level 8!

The goth girl smiled as she returned Chikorita. “I haven’t had such a good battle in quite a while. Ready for your next opponent? This one will be tougher.”

“Beacon’s up to the challenge. Aren’t you, girl?” Shonta asked Beacon.

Beacon hesitated before nodding. “Let’s do it,” she said as bravely as she could.

“We’re ready,” Shonta told the goth girl.

The girl nodded and threw another pokeball. “Go Vulpix!” The fox-like Pokemon jumped out of her pokeball and blinked at Shonta and Beacon. “Let the second battle begin!”

L13 Female Mareep (Beacon) vs. L15 Female Vulpix

“Vulpix, Flamethrower!” the goth girl commanded. Flames promptly spewed out of Vulpix’s mouth.

“Beacon, dodge!” Shonta told Beacon. The Mareep scrambled to the other side of the room, dodging the attack. She then shot a Thunderbolt at Vulpix who nimbly jumped to the side of the attack.

“Vulpix, use Will O’ Wisp!” Vulpix obeyed her trainer and spread her tails wide. A blue flame appeared on the tip of each one. Vulpix flung her tails at Beacon and scorched her with those blue flames.

“Man, I wish I knew Will O’ Wisp!” Trinity huffed. “Come on Beacon, beat her!”

Beacon shot another Thunderbolt at Vulpix. Vulpix dodged again and shot a Flamethrower at Beacon. Beacon barely dodged the attack and shot a Hidden Power Ice as Vulpix was running to get a better shot at her. But Beacon wasn’t aiming for Vulpix; she was aiming for the floor. And Vulpix fell for it. Literally. She slipped and fell on the patch of ice that Beacon made for her. That gave the Mareep the chance to give her a quick Thunderbolt.

“Vulpix!” the goth girl cried out.

The poor Vulpix was barely standing. Beacon hesitated before charging for her, colliding into her and pinning her against the wall. The impact nearly knocked the Vulpix unconscious. Then Beacon seemed to hesitate again before giving her a close range Thunderbolt. That clenched it. Vulpix was out and Beacon had won.

Beacon won! She grew to level 15!

"That was short," Ali commented. "Where's the style, the fancy stuff?"

Beacon was standing still, giggling to herself. "Girls, I have this tingly feeling and it's tickling me."

"A tingly feeling? Beacon, are you going to...?" Shonta started to ask.

We stepped back as Beacon started to glow brightly. I turned away from the light and looked back at Beacon when she was finished evolving.

Beacon evolved into a Flaaffy!

"Eww! Put some clothes on! You look naked!" I teased.

Beacon blushed. "I feel naked," she said quietly. "And cold. Would somebody please turn off the AC?"

"Congrats, Beacon," Shonta said. "And don't pay attention to Bandit; you look fine." She hugged Beacon and looked up at the goth girl. "Good battles. I hope we can battle again someday."

"Same to you," the goth girl said cheerfully. She stepped out of the way. "You are free to go."

Shonta smiled and walked past her with us following her. As we went down the stairs and out of the back door I looked back at the maze. Why do I get the feeling that we're going to see it again?

Katana's POV

I held onto the egg tightly as I rocked back and forth in my pillow. I haven't felt this much at peace for a long time. While Shonta carried the egg in her backpack I felt like something was missing. Now that something was back. I would take care of this child like it was my own. I lost my own children but I wouldn't let anything happen to this little one. "Hush little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird..." I began to sing.

"So you do sing your kids to sleep," Bandit said from the darkness of the hallway. "But the kid's still not yours."

I snarled at him. "Mind your own business!" I said quietly so the others wouldn't wake up. "I know the kid's not mine!"

"Then why are you calling yourself Mama?"

"It's just a song!"

He walked to me. "Whatever. You still have a nice singing voice. Why didn't you tell us you could sing?"

"You didn't ask."

"Man, I'm going to teach this kid so much stuff when it hatches." He ran his hand over the egg. "How to belch, how to make prank phone calls..." He stopped talking and started rubbing one particular spot. "Katana, I feel something."

My ears perked. "What do you feel?"

"A crack. At least I think it’s a crack.”

I rubbed at the same spot that Bandit was rubbing. I felt the same thing. Then I started to hear the egg cracking. “Bandit, wake up everyone. The egg is hatching.”

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Shonta, nice story, I think your characters are really developing well. Especially Katana, it's been interesting to see a different side to her than the one she entered your stories showing. And whatever gives you the idea that you'll see the maze again? Just coz this I think is prolly its fourth appearance in Ulthuan over the years... Anyways, take 16 stamps.

[Lady Vulpix]

Shonta, I want you to know I've read your story and I liked it. Especially the way Katana's acting towards the egg. Now I'd like to see the baby. And congratulations on Beacon's evolution!

Now, I've finally finished my story which I've been writing for... how long? Over a month, certainly. So sorry if it's long, I was sort of mocking myself with the whole taking an extremely long path thing. You also get to take a peek at Ventura's mind in the end. Sorry if she jumps between thoughts too much, she may be even worse than me in that respect and that's saying a lot. Ok, here's the story.

<Gabi's POV>

I truly loved peace. I loved every aspect of it except for one: having to catch up with all the late work. It was the same old story; I had to spend most of my time going through huge piles of Guild and Dragon Tamers work, and to make things worse the DT staff was one valuable member shorter. Karin resigned shortly after the war was over; she was still a Dragon Tamer, and I was glad to know she wasn't going anywhere, but she couldn't cope with the burden of being a staff member, which increased the load for the rest of us whether she wanted it or not. Not that I could blame her. I'd much rather have spent my time training my team, seeing my friends, reading, writing or doing anything I wanted than have been stuck with a seemingly endless pile of paperwork. But I knew the work had to be done and, sadly enough, it wouldn't get done by itself. To state an example, there were pokemon who had been in the Adoption Center for about a month and we still didn't have all their data in our database, which meant they weren't ready to be adopted. I couldn't think of those poor homeless pokemon without feeling guilty for wanting to put my smaller needs over theirs. So, I kept working, watching as the rest of my team left the house every now and then while I couldn't, and being grateful that they were all so independent. If I had adopted a young and inexperienced pokemon at that moment, I wouldn't have been able to fulfill their needs.

It was after one of those excursions to the outside world that Hero came home with the news that a fourth maze had been built, and would be available for free for a limited time. A feeling of nostalgia overcame me as I thought of the 3 old mazes, especially the last one, where I had found the shining white stone that enhanced psychic abilities, which I was now using as a pendant. I refrained from commenting on that, though, as I wasn't ready for another rant from Hero about how mad he was at Solitude, the Vulpix who had left the stone in the maze for me to find it. In any case, I wanted to check out the new maze as much as Hero did, and most of my team shared our enthusiasm. Well... my whole team, actually. As hard as it was for all eleven of us to come to an agreement on the simplest things, we all needed a stress relief. Even Amber, who wasn't keen on friendly battles, looked forward to the exciting, non-lethal adventure the maze promised. Since the maze didn't welcome pokemon without their trainers (luckily for me - I didn't want to miss it either), we all agreed that we'd find a way to visit it before it closed its doors.

So, we all worked diligently in order to get things done as quickly as possible. Some were more diligent than others, I admit (Amber worked especially hard, helping with both the paperwork and some of the house chores), but everyone did something to help. The females ended up working mostly at home and the males outside, but that was a coincidence. The terrible trio offered to go to the Guild's HQ for me whenever there was something to do there that didn't require my physical presence. I was a bit afraid of the troubles they might cause (Hero's dare and the pillow fight came to my mind), but I decided to give them a chance. They were adult pokemon, even if they struggled to show the opposite (especially Caledor), and they could perform a serious task without messing it up if they truly wanted to. Caledor left me a bit worried after one of his visits to the office. He told me Glyph had talked to him and said his trainer had been found out by Lord Absol. Apparently, the current mysterious figure of the Dragon's Guild had let him be, but now we knew he was watching him, and few things could flare up a feeling of paranoia like being watched by Lord Absol could. That explained why I hadn't received any e-mails or phone calls from him lately. I'd been thinking of calling him, but I decided against it. I didn't want to be interrogated by Lord Absol like Eshree had. As if to escape from my gloomy thoughts, my mind gave me a comment I couldn't help but chuckle at: Lord Absol was really acting like a Man In Black!

I got another piece of bad news from the Guild that same day, in the form of an impersonal e-mail from Lady Ninetales. It said that the deadline for all Pokemon Facts reports had been set to Wednesday, December 21st. An exception would be made for those who celebrated the Winter Solstice, who would be allowed to hand it in the following day. Sure, it seemed like a long time from that moment, but I hadn't even got started with my Ponyta report and I knew it would be harder and more complex than any other report I'd handed in before. I was so rushed for time I was even considering making the mock title "Ponytas in high places" the official title of the report so that I wouldn't have to spend time thinking of a better name. And to make things worse, the deadline also added pressure to my other plan, the one I hadn't mentioned to anyone yet except for vague comments made to Ade at library meetings. It meant I'd have to think extra fast, and it also meant our long-awaited period of peace would be much shorter than I hoped. I thought about dropping my plan and enjoying peace for a few more moments, maybe even months. But would I really be able to enjoy myself knowing that some evil presence was profaning White Mountain and ruining the lives of those who sought answers and peace of mind? What if that thing suddenly decided to make a move and strike us after I had lost my only foreseeable chance to stop it? And it was White Mountain... White Mountain! Of all my reasons to go, that was the one that mattered the least, but White Mountain had always been a special place for me even since I'd first found it, and I felt any wrongs done to it as a personal attack, just like Lagi felt about the Dark Cave, worsened by the guilt I felt for having failed to protect the daughter whose future Pegasus had left in my hands, as well as Lagi's eldest daughter, from the evil that had taken over the sacred place. No, I had to do something, and I had to do it fast. But I wouldn't be able to achieve anything without a clear mind. I'd talk to my friends, we'd come up with a plan together. But first, I'd go to the maze. My heart hurt from so many negative thoughts and I needed a brief distraction,
for the sake of my health and even for the success of the still vaguely outlined plan.

I shared my thoughts with Ade and the Guild members under our charge during our next meeting. Fortunately for me, they were eager to help. It was a blessing to have a part of that huge weight lifted from my shoulders. Now all I needed was to request permission to go to the maze before anyone would ask me how my report was going. I had arranged a mental list of explanations about why I needed to go and how that would improve my performance at Guild-related tasks as well as the condition of the pokemon I trained. Never would I have imagined things would turn out the way they did: as soon as I stepped into Lady Ninetales's office, the first thing she asked was whether I was going to visit the maze. If life had been an anime, my jaw would have dropped. Luckily it wasn't, it would have felt quite awkward. I'd come up with a dozen excuses to do something and it turned out I was expected to do it! I found out that this time around the maze had been set up entirely by the Mercenary Trainers Union, which was not only a branch of the Dragon's Guild, but also one which had close ties with our own. Well, I wasn't going to reject that special chance I'd been given to do what I wanted and save myself an argument at the same time. "What do you know, sometimes things are simpler than I make them out to be," I thought, brushing away the question about whether those times were the majority or the minority.

<Caledor's POV>

When we finally made it to the maze, I felt like I'd been waiting an eternity to get there. It's not that I hadn't had fun during the previous days, I'd had some good moments, like when we got Bandit to join Calebeckamonamania (don't ask), or when we played a massive ball game, or when I snuggled up with Kiara, or when I heard about a certain excursion to the Tower of Hoeth which indirectly gave me another reason to celebrate... and going further back there was the banquet and the shooting competition between Hero and Tsunami, and there was all the games we play just for the sake of it (as if an excuse was ever needed to play a game), but I hadn't had a real challenge since the war and that was not exactly the kind of challenge I enjoyed the most. This one sounded promising.

From the outside, the place didn't look too different from the previous maze. That was good for me, the third one had been the best. I'd missed the first one and the second one had been boring and embarrassing (Tsunami had only just stopped reminding me how I'd accidentally zapped him back then). The entrance had no surprises, just the usual apathetic workerwriting down Gabi's codename and telling her to have a good time without even looking at the rest of us (we could have brought an outside pokemon to help us and he probably wouldn't have noticed he or she wasn't our teammate, but it would be more fun to find the exit on our own). As it was, we were a group of 10: everyone in the team except for Water Angel, who decided to stay at home because chances were she was going to miss everything anyway, and insisted that everyone else should go because we could all be needed and none of us deserved to miss the fun, and she didn't mind being on her own for a few hours, no, really, she would actually appreciate a few moments of silence. That was more or less the way she said it. We wouldn't buy it until Lagi said it was ok, but once she did there was no reason to keep arguing, though it left me wondering why it is that females want so much time for themselves.

As soon as we stepped into the maze, Gabi started technobabbling. She said something about backtracking and algorithms and whatever. The only thing I did get was that we should stay together this time because the maze was bigger than the previous ones and it would be hard to meet again if we split up. With that, and an additional "watch out for the traps", she started walking and the rest of us just followed. She seemed to know what she was doing, or at least she looked confident enough to fool us. Still, Tsunami seemed to have another idea.

"Do you remember Estel, the Shelgon from Templa Taure?," he asked.
"Yes, I remember him," Gabi said. "I wonder how he's doing."
"Yeah, me too, but that's not what I meant. He once said that whenever you're in a maze, you have to turn left whenever you can."
"That's a possible strategy," Gabi replied. "Following all the left walls normally does lead you to the exit in the long run. Note that following all the right walls does too. But backtracking is faster. In honor of Estel, though, we'll give left turns precedence over right turns. It's as good a choice as any. Let's do it like this: always take the left-most option that we haven't visited yet. When we reach a dead end, we go back to the most recent crossroads with unexplored paths."
"Why not use intuition better?," suggested Hero. "It's more fun that way."
"Sorry to say this, Hero, but didn't that strategy cause you some serious blood loss at the Blades' base?," Iael reminded him.
"That won't happen here," the Ninetales replied. "It's a controlled environment, you know. It's supposed to be fun. Why ruin the fun with boring strategies disguised as scientific stuff? Any idiot knows that if you explore all the options you'll find an exit eventually, but where's the fun in taking away the choices?"
"It helps us keep track of the paths we've already taken. But if you want to do it your way and keep track of all your choices yourself, you're welcome to try."
"No, no, no, Gabi, you're doing it wrong," Tsunami began. "Never tell Hero to do things his way. Not unless it's a battle. He's good at fighting, but he messes up pretty much everything else."
"When was the last time you looked at a mirror?," Hero retorted.
"Hmm... this morning. The one in the bathroom. I cleaned it too, there was some dust on it."
"Ok, this conversation is getting nowhere fast, let's just get moving and decide what to do along the way," Gabi suggested.
"And while you're at it, don't step on the tile that releases the cage that's hanging from the ceiling," Ventura said in a casual tone.

We all looked up. There was indeed a cage above us.
"If that's the quality of the traps in this maze I'm seriously disappointed," Hero commented.
"It's probably just a warm-up," Gabi said. "They must get more complex as we advance."
"Well, I for one am glad it didn't fall on me. I hate cages," Pidgeot stated.
"We all know you do," Tsunami told him. "You've only said it like a million times. And you also hate poison and Team Rocket. See? Your hate-list is famous, now you can stop repeating it."
Pidgeot looked like he was trying to come up with an answer, but he wasn't nearly as good at comebacks as Tsunami was, so he snorted and gave up.
"What's the tile?," Amber asked Vetura.
The Venomoth indicated the location of the booby-trapped tile in her usual way: with a psychic pulse. Some of us thanked her and some others avoided the tile in silence. Gabi took her hands to her head but didn't say anything.

We reached a narrow corridor (you can move a space in that phrase and it will still be right). This time it was Gabi who stopped us.
"Watch out for the thread," she said.
"What thread?," I asked her. I couldn't see anything other than the floor, the ceiling and the walls, which had some interesting Egyptian-like paintings on them.
"The one that goes from wall to wall about 20 centimeters above the floor," Pidgeot answered.
I looked carefully, focusing as much as I could on finding something in the location Pidgeot had described. After a few seconds, I noticed the faint glow of something as thin and hard to notice as a spider's web.
"Why do the two of you have such a good eyesight?," I protested.
"Hmm... because we're all different and have abilities that complement each other's? Someone who can use such a wide array of electric, fire, water, psychic and dark attacks shouldn't be complaining about someone else having good eyesight."
"Ah, right. And don't forget the glow!," I reminded her. "I can glow in the dark. Isn't that a cool power? If we get lost in the Arctic and a rescue mission comes for us I can use my glow to help them find us."
"Trust Caledor to come up with one of the scenarios that are least likely to happen," Hero laughed. "You'll be more useful next time we have a blackout."
"Double so because I can serve as a temporary source of electricity," I grinned. "But shouldn't we complain to the Guild about the electrical problems? Others don't get low tension and blackouts as often as we do."
"Already have," Gabi replied. "They filed my request under the non-critical category. They make take a look at it in 20 years or so. Even in the accommodation department they have more important things to do than fix a small electrical problem. Remember Jeff and his team?"
"Oh, right! How can they be so slow? I'd compare them to Slakoths, but they'd lose in the comparison, especially with Nama around. Maybe Slowpokes? But no, even a Slowpoke would have found a house by now."
"Remember we've just been through a war, they've put most of their recent efforts in rebuilding the city," Gabi said.
"Ok, they may have an excuse, but why are we so slow?," Hero questioned us. "We talk too much and move too little. I feel tempted to activate a trap on purpose so that we can at least get some action. So what if a little cage falls on me?, I can always teleport out of it."
"Go ahead," Gabi shrugged. "It's all supposed to be harmless after all."

Anyone who knew Hero well enough would have known he wouldn't step back at that moment. I bet he took Gabi's words as a challenge, and he'd never back off from a challenge. So he just went and stepped on the web-like thread. At that moment, dozens of holes opened in the painted walls (one where each hieroglyph used to be), and a shower of suction-cupped arrows rained on Hero. I have to grant it to him, he managed to dodge quite a lot of them, but they were just too many and by the time he reached the end of the corridor he had 5 arrows stuck on him: 2 on his right flank, one on his left, one on his sacrum and one on his muzzle, close to his nose. He looked really funny. He kneeled down with his head against the floor and pressed the arrow with his right paw, pulling back with his head until it came out with a resounding pop. From the way Hero pressed his eyelids against each other I could guess it had hurt. He then stood up and pulled the remaining arrows away with his teeth.
"Okay, that was some action," he finally conceded.
The rest of us avoided the thread as we crossed, in case there were more arrows stored behind the walls. I don't know if the incident had anything to do with the unspoken decision, but we all started taking all the left turns after that.

We reached a few dead ends and after going back a few times we ended up taking a right turn and reaching a log maze. For those not in the know, a log maze is a maze in which all the walls are made of logs. Not too original, right? We all thought this one would be a boring test of patience, and started following Gabi blindly, hoping to reach the exit and find something more interesting ahead. We started to get really annoyed when we reached the starting point, having exhausted all the possibilities.
"I think your backtracking is flawed," Hero told Gabi.
"No, it isn't," Gabi defended her strategy. "We must have accidentally skipped a path."
"I was keeping track too," said Amber. "We took all the possible turns. At least all the visible ones."
"That's right, we took only the visible turns!," Gabi realized. "There must be some hidden ones. We'll have to touch the logs and see if we find anything."
"As long as they're not booby-trapped," Sylvan noted. "Ventura, will you please warn us before we activate another trap?"
"I was wondering when someone would turn to me for help. Yes, I will, don't worry," the Venomoth replied. "The traps in the log maze are silly anyway. Some logs on opposite walls are connected to each other. My guess is if you puss one the other will come down and hit you. Of course you'd have to push it really hard for the blow to cause you more than a lump or a bruise, and someone with such strength isn't bound to suffer too much from the blow anyway."
"Have you guys noticed how Ventura can make solving mazes a lot less fun?," I pointed out.
"That's why I didn't speak earlier," Ventura revealed. "I didn't want to ruin your game. A radar sense can be useful for many things, but it makes mazes quite dull. I'll just be there to answer your questions when you ask them."

We all agreed and started searching for anything we might have missed the first time. Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long. The right side wall by the entrance turned out to be moveable. Amber pushed it and revealed a hidden section. It had the size of a cubicle, but it was big enough for its purpose, which was hosting...
"The long-awaited, highly acclaimed lever of ultimate power!!"
"How do you await a lever?," Gabi questioned me.
"It's Caledor we're talking about, don't try to find logic in his words," Tsunami said.
"Oh, but look at this!," I insisted. "It's all long, and metallic, and round-ended, and amazingly levery."
"Keep at it and our brains are going to shut down," Hero threatened.
"Hey, we need to put some fun into this game, don't we?" I said. "What do you think this lever does?"
"I guess we'll figure out if we pull it," Gabi stated before turning to Ventura. "Is it safe?"
"I don't know, actually. It's connected to several parts of the maze, but I don't know enough about electronics to know what it does."
"If it's connected to other parts of the maze, it may not affect us directly if we pull it," Amber reflected.
"I guess it's worth a shot," Gabi decided, pulling the lever.
At that moment, a rambling noise resounded all over the log maze.
"Neat," Ventura approved.
"Did that just do what I think it did?," Gabi asked her.
"That depends. What do you think it did?"
"Change the configuration of the maze."
"Nice deduction. Yes, that's what happened. How did you know?"
"Years of playing puzzle games haven't gone to waste," Gabi answered. "Now I guess we'll have to go through the maze again and see what it's like this time around. And also see if we find any more levers. This complicates the algorithm a little. I'll have to recalculate some things."
"No, not the dreaded algorithm of endless boredom!," I pleaded.
"Do you have any better ideas?"
"Yes. Ask Ventura for a map."
"Incoming!," Ventura warned her. Not that the warning served any purpose; Gabi looked as mad a second later as she would have if Ventura hadn't spoken.
"You really do have a sadistic streak in you, don't you?," she scolded Ventura.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Was there any purpose to that other than to cause me a headache?"
"I was giving you a map of the log maze."
"Well, it didn't work, and don't do it again. It was too much input sent at once and I can't keep it all in my mind long enough to draw a map. Not even long enough to take a pen and a bus ticket out of my pack."
"Don't tell me you meant to draw a map on a bus ticket," Tsunami laughed.
"Well, it's the only kind of writable paper I carry, and it's quite practical if you have a small handwriting," Gabi defended herself. "I doubt I'll be able to draw a map out of psychic pulses, though. Ventura, why don't you guide us?"
"What about your algorithm?," Ventura queried.
"I trust you to find your way through a maze. You may use the algorithm or discard it, that's up to you. I was only leading the way because no one else seemed to have a better idea."
"But if I lead because you ask me to, doesn't that mean you're still leading?"
"You're impossible," Gabi laughed. "After all these years... haven't you realized that I don't care who's on the lead, nor if anyone is at all, as long as things get done the way they should?"
"And with that policy you have ended as one of the leaders of the Dragon Tamers and running your own little branch of the Dragon's Guild."
"You'd be amazed at how many things I end up doing just because they need to be done and no one else will see to them."
"I've noticed. You'll have to learn to delegate sooner or later."
"Lagi tells me that everyday. I'm trying to learn, really."
Lagi nodded.
"Ok, then. Leave this task to me," Ventura accepted. "I think I've found the next lever. Follow me."

We ended up pulling about 5 levers, getting past a rather deep hole on the floor and even finding an empty pokeball along the way. We concluded that someone must have dropped it and agreed to give it to the staff when we left, but before we came to that conclusion I speculated about it being a magical pokeball left there by a mysterious creature who wanted us to increase our abilities for our upcoming quest, which cost me a rather nasty Quick-Attack on my ribs. I guessed someone was still touchy about the subject of a certain precognitive Vulpix. Things were changing around us, but we still had no idea of where that would all lead us. That was until the now familiar rambling noise came from above us. Tired of wandering, we quickly made for the spot where a square space had opened on the ceiling, and flew right through it with the help of Pidgeot, Lagi and Amber. Sylvan made the trip to the second floor inside her pokeball, since she was too heavy to be carried by any of them. And Ventura just flew up on her own.

<Amber's POV>

The view we encountered when we flew up the hole was quite interesting. It was a rather dark space, with dark blue curtains serving as walls, and a ceiling that resembled a starry evening sky. I could have stayed there and watched the sparkling galaxies circle around for a while (yes, the images on the ceiling were moving in circles) but the monotonous synthesized music could get annoying quite fast. Since we were surrounded by curtains rather than walls, we decided to push one of them and see where it took us. We ended up in a similar room... too similar for my comfort. The only differences were that there was no hole on the floor, and that here the movement of the stars described an arc rather than a full circle; but that had to be because this room and the previous one shared the same ceiling, and the first one was in the center of what we began to call the curtain maze. One may wonder what the deal is with a curtain maze. You can easily push all the curtains until you get to the other side... or so we thought. The first few paths we tried led us to solid walls, and we soon concluded that finding the exit wouldn't be as easy as it had seemed. To make things worse, it was hard to keep track of what rooms we had visited, since they all looked the same, except for the one with the hole in it, and the stars above us kept moving from one room to another. We could get an idea of how far we were from the center by the width of the arcs they described, but that only gave us a vague measure of radius and not an exact location. And to complicate things further, some other rooms had holes on the floor as well, which seemed to open and close randomly. We had to watch our steps carefully. And after a few minutes of wandering the background music became clearly irritating.

"Why don't we go down one of those holes?," suggested Hero. "No one did say we had to stay away from the ground floor. If it closes before we all get through, we can wait until it opens again."
"Hmm..." Ventura evaluated the situation, "no."
"Why not?," Hero wanted to know.
"Because we may not be in the same place once the hole opens again. If we did what you suggest we'd end up scattered in different parts of the ground floor."
"How come? Is the whole maze spinning or something?"
"Exactly."
Hero looked shocked at his own deduction. "Oh."
"So it's not the ceiling that's moving," I deduced. "It's us. It's impressive, though... how they can make such a large room spin without making a noise and without any rambling beneath our feet."
"Yes, it moves amazingly smoothly," Gabi agreed. "Though I wouldn't be so sure about the noise. Maybe the music is covering it."
"And I thought it was just there to annoy us!," Tsunami commented.
"How will we get out of here," asked Sylvan.
"Don't look at me, I'm starting to get dizzy," Ventura said. "I'm afraid this spinning maze within a maze overloads my senses."
"I think I will draw a map after all," Gabi decided. "Light, please?"
"Sure!," Caledor ran to Gabi's side, enveloped in a golden glow. I could have used my tail as a light source, but Caledor enjoyed it so much I wouldn't have dreamt of taking that pleasure away from him.

Gabi somehow managed to chart all the rooms we went through on a bus ticket as we moved around (when questioned she would only say it was a big bus ticket), and believe it or not, it helped. It made keeping track of visited rooms much easier, and helped us remember when the solid walls were. That way we could begin to ignore the curtains and treat this maze like a normal one. After a while, we reached a room where we'd certainly never been before. We knew it because the floor had (approximately) a 30 degree inclination. We didn't think much of it, and took it as a landmark, but soon we found more rooms with ascending, descending or sideways slopes and, while that made charting easier, it made moving harder and confused our sense of perspective (one more cause of dizziness, if there weren't enough yet).

After going up and down and to either side for a while, we ended up finding another solid wall, only this one felt different: when we touched it, it felt like it was moving. Which, we deduced, meant that it wasn't (relativity aside). We stood there and waited until we reached an opening, and then pushed the curtain to get to the other side. We all celebrated being out of the curtain maze!

It took me a while to get used to the light again, but when I did, I found the new sight beautiful! It was like a miniatureversion of the jungle room, with different kinds of trees and bushes all over the place, a grassy carpet covering the floor, and a small pond in the center of the room.
"Now this is a part of the maze I do like!," Sylvan exclaimed.
"So do I," I told her. "Then again, we have similar tastes for landscapes, don't we?"
"Yes, we have too much in common... I mean... we have much in common."
"Too much?," Sylvan's words left me puzzled. "Do you mind having so much in common with me?"
"Me? No, not at all!," Sylvan assured. "Quite the opposite, really. I mean... I don't know what I mean, just ignore me. I guess the curtain maze has made me dizzy. I'll stop talking now."
"You don't have to," I told her.
I couldn't help but worry about her. It might be nothing, but she often started saying things and then didn't want to keep talking about them. It made me feel something might be wrong with her, but whenever I asked she assured me that everything was alright. Lagi had told me not to insist in those cases, so I didn't push the issue any further. "Maybe I am worrying too much," I thought. "Sylvan and I have been close friends for years. She'd trust me and let me help if she had a problem. We always help each other. I must be overanalyzing things."

"Am I the only one who's thirsty?," Caledor quickly changed the subject.
"No, but you're the only one who might think of drinking water from a maze filled with traps, if that's indeed what you're thinking," Tsunami told him.
"Oh, come on! It can't be toxic. They don't want to hurt us, remember?"
"Not seriously, and not permanently, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something nasty in the water," Tsunami reasoned. "It could stun you, give you a stomachache, leave you with a long-lasting bad taste in your mouth..."
"Okay, okay, I got it," Caledor sighed. "Why does someone always have to ruin the fun with logic?"
"Because lack of logic can ruin it a lot more painfully," the Vaporeon replied.
"Remember this so you can stop accusing me of having the trademark on stupid ideas," Hero remarked.
"I never said you had it," Tsunami stated. "You do have the trademark on getting in trouble by mindlessly dashing forward at the worst possible places, though."
"Well, at least I have A trademark, seeing as I can't claim the trademark on Quick-Attack because some dumb pokemon league registered it first, and even if they hadn't Katnip would want to dispute it forever anyway. By the way, are there any traps we should watch out for, or can we finally get moving?"
"I'm scanning the area," Ventura replied. "Hm... neat. They've brought one of those the paralyzing bushes. That brings back some sweet memories."
"It brings back some nasty memories as well," Sylvan groaned.
"But I thought the bush you fought was a different one," Ventura said.
"It was in the Jungle Room as well. It's not hard to make a connection."
"Everything will be ok as long as you and Sylvan don't touch the bush, right?," Hero wanted to confirm.
"Well, there are some traps near the trees too, but nothing too elaborate. I think you'll be able to notice them," Ventura answered.
"Not elaborate? Like what, holes on the floor covered with leaves and branches?," Caledor guessed.
"Not exactly. More like..." Ventura began, but was interrupted by a swooshing sound.
Caledor had stepped on a rope as he spoke, and when we turned to look we saw him hanging from a tree, with the rope tied around one of his front legs.
"More like that," Ventura finished.
"Ah, I get it," Caledor said, casually. "Pidgeot, will you come here, please?"
"Sure. What do you want?"
"Just one more step... no, two. There. Hold on a moment."
He used an Ember to burn the rope that held him, and fell right on Pidgeot's back.
"Thanks, friend," he said. "It's great to have someone so fluffy in the team."
"I'd say you're welcome if I didn't feel I'm being treated like a pillow."
"Oh, come on, it's all in good fun. But if you were a pillow, you'd be the best."
"Let's get out of here, shall we?," Hero insisted. "I don't want to spend all day in this maze."
"Come to think of it, it is taking us a bit too long to get to the other side," Tsunami noted. "We must have missed some of the shorter paths. How many areas do you think we have left?"
"At least one more, but we have a clearer choice this time," Gabi answered.
"Huh?"
"I'm referring to the signs on top of the doors. Water, mirrors and... boulders. We can choose."
"Ok, I'm not going to ask how you read that from this distance," Hero told her. "Just note that I'm not going for the water option. Mirrors I can handle. Boulders... I've faced them in battle more than once. But I'm not planning to get soaked for no reason today, and I doubt they keep the water warm enough to be comfortable. Not to mention Amber would probably have trouble keeping her tail flame safe."
"Okay, point taken!," Gabi stopped him. "If you don't mind, I think we should go for the boulders option. The mirrors may get as confusing as the curtains were."
"Not unless they're spinning, but I guess some old-fashioned boulders might be more useful as a stress relief," opined Ventura.

So we opted for the boulder door. Should it be any surprise that we found our way blocked by a massive boulder as soon as we walked through it? It was so large and heavy that I couldn't lift it, and I had to resort to pushing it. When I reached a crossroads and was finally able to stop pushing, I sighed and turned around to face my team.

"That was much heavier than the rocks in the first maze," I told them. "Next time I would appreciate some help."
"I think you and Sindel may have spent too much time together at the Guild's kitchen," Tsunami replied. "If you need help, just ask. Don't jump at the task and then complain that no one else is helping you."
"I'm not complaining, I'm just asking for help now because it turned out to be harder than I expected. I was used to the boulders from the first maze which I could push around easily. Besides, I'm the one who always ends up doing everything that requires brute force."
"And everything that requires deep logical analysis as well," Sylvan remarked. "You shouldn't be complaining, you know. You're both smart and physically strong, not many get both skills."
"And let's not forget your ability to speak from inside a pokeball!," Caledor added. "You'll have to teach me how to do that someday."
"How to do it? I don't know... I just felt like saying something and made a little pressure... mentally, anyway. I don't know how I did it, I guess it was intuition."
"Smart, strong and intuitive," Hero listed. "Any more qualities to add to the list? We can make this Flatter Amber Day."
"Well, she's also sweet and caring," Sylvan added immediately.
"Guys, stop it! You're making me blush!"
"A blushing Charizard! You don't see that everyday!," Hero laughed. "Let's see... you're also creative, and you can fly, that's always a plus... and... let's see..."
"Ok, really, that's enough. I don't know why you're doing this but it's not comfortable to be flattered like that for no reason."
"I was doing it for fun. I don't know about the others," Hero said.
"Ok, let's play a different game. How about finding the way out of the maze?"
"I was getting bored of that game. We've been playing it for hours," Hero protested.
"True, but now we have boulders!," Caledor commented randomly with a grin. "And they're big and round and..."
"If you say 'bouldery', I'll bite you," Tsunami threatened him.
"Ok, I won't say it," Caledor conceded. "But they are."

They stopped bugging me after that. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind compliments, but they were making them for no reason and making a game out of it, it wasn't exactly nice. After many boulders were pushed and many more video game references were made, we reached what looked like an open space. We looked at each other and began to walk, and then to run as the floor suddenly started crumbling at our feet and the ceiling was too close for anyone but Ventura to fly. As we were running, nobody noticed when we activated one of the traps, until we heard the loud ramble of a large rock rolling after us. Then we had to run faster in search for any possible openings that would let us avoid the rock, until Hero had an idea. He dashed forward as was his tradition, but this time with a purpose. I lost sight of him after the first turn (which had an inconvenient enough downward slope that allowed the rock to keep following us after we took it), and when I saw him again he had his paws busy digging a hole on the soft floor. He looked up and jumped back when he heard us coming, and called for us to go where he was. We did, and looked back as the rock reached Hero's hole. I wasn't sure if that would be enough to stop it, and apparently neither was Hero, as he started digging a new hole just in case, but the first one did the trick and the rock stopped chasing us.

"Phew!," Hero sighed. "Now that was brilliant planning!"
"We might be inclined to think that if you hadn't say it yourself," Tsunami replied.
"Wow, I felt like Indiana Jones," Caledor laughed. "With a couple of extra legs. They're useful for running."
"Have you seen the Indiana Jones movies or just some of the million imitations?," Tsunami asked.
"I saw them on TV a few months ago. What about you?"
"I saw a part of one of them years ago, when I sneaked into the old farmhouse. But I got caught before the end, so I couldn't finish watching it."
"Oh. Well, I'm sure they'll show them again soon. They may even have them at the Eevee House."

"How long have we been here?," I asked Gabi.
"I didn't look at the time when we got in, but it must have been at least 2 hours. We spent a lot of time in the log and curtain mazes."
"Who votes for getting out of here?," Hero proposed.
"I think we all do," Tsunami said.
"It's funny how you're always speaking for everyone," Hero told him.
"Well, someone has to say what everyone thinks, and no one else is willing to. Now, if we take this turn... bridge!"

Tsunami was walking ahead at that moment, and when the rest of us caught up we saw what he was referring to: a metallic bridge, lain in the center of a path otherwise filled with sharp spikes. On the other side was a small platform, and a metallic door.

"Ok, what's the catch?," Hero asked. "This looks way too easy."
"Hmm..." Ventura scanned the area. "Most of the floor between us and the bridge is a giant switch. The bridge has thick wires and mechanisms connected to it on both ends and it's split in the middle."
"So if we step on the floor before getting on the bridge, it will move?," Hero guessed.
"It would seem so," Ventura said.
"That's easy, then. All we have to do is get right on the bridge. It won't be hard to reach it from here, even without teleporting."

He took some distance and started running. When he reached us, he leapt forward and landed right on the bridge. Against his predictions, however, the bridge started bending upwards, making him lose balance and fall on the switch. Then, the bridge went back to its original position.
"That was funny," Tsunami laughed.
"Nifty trick; it managed to fool even Ventura's senses," Hero said.
"I told you everything I perceived," Ventura said. "You drew your own conclusions."
"True, but you said I was right."
"I only said it would seem so. I never said I was certain."
"Ok, so if we step on the bridge, it splits and sends us back here," Tsunami deduced.
"Unless we step on the switch," I added. "I'll step on it and let you all get through, then I can fly to the other side."
"It does sound more fun than teleporting," Hero accepted.

I stepped on the switch and Hero ran to the other side with ease, but when the next bunch stepped on the bridge together, it threw them down on top of me.
"Ouch. I guess there's more to it than we thought," I concluded.
"It may be a matter of weight," Gabi reasoned. "Maybe there has to be more weight on the switch than on the bridge."
"In that case I'll stand on the switch with Amber, and you can go one by one. That way we'll all get through."

That plan worked for the most part. Lagi and I had to step aside when it was Sylvan's turn to pass because there wasn't room for the 3 of us on the switch, and then stood behind her when she placed her forelegs on the bridge. Ventura and Pidgeot flew over to the other side and everyone else walked along the bridge without problems. When only Lagi and I were left, we flew as well. Then it was time to deal with the metallic door.

"How do we open it?," Gabi wondered.
"There must be a pad somewhere," Tsunami suggested.
"Or a lever!," Caledor grinned.
"A lever would be too easy," Tsunami contradicted it. "I bet there's a number pad and Gabi will have to figure out the right combination."
"Why me?," Gabi asked.
"Among all of us, you're the one who best fits the profile of a hacker," he replied.
"Well, I'm not a hacker. I've never been interested in learning how to hack a system."
"What about the Singlehorn Project files on Team Rocket's computer?," Tsunami reminded her.
"They were very badly protected," Gabi replied. "It was as if they wanted us to find them. And judging by Gia's attitude when she met us at the lab, they probably did."
"Speaking of Gia, do you think she's still alive?," asked Pidgeot.
"We haven't heard of any Team Rocket members since the war," Lagi said. "But they must be gathering forces and trying to recover from the blow. I wouldn't put my hopes up about not seeing them again, sorry."
"There was something scary about that woman," Gabi confessed.
"She liked to pretend she had everything under control," Lagi said. "But she was really scared. It took me a while to perceive it, she masked it well. But there was a deep-rooted fear in her."
"All the better for us," Pidgeot said. "I hope she chokes in it. Now, where's the pad?"
"I don't sense any pads," Ventura said. "But doesn't anyone find that set of tiles intriguing?"

We all looked in the direction she was looking. There were many small tiles on the floor, but they were mostly plain or with mesh patterns. These ones had different shapes drawn on them: circles, squares, waves, triangles, dots and several combinations of the former. We walked towards them, and some of us kneeled down to get a closer look at them.

"Does any of them have wires below it?," I asked.
"All of them do," answered Ventura.
"Then what are we supposed to do?," asked Sylvan.
"Maybe find the odd one out?," Gabi suggested.
"They all look similar," Tsunami said. "There's a dot, a circle with a dot, a triangle with a dot, a triangle with a circle, a square with a triangle, a square with a circle, a square with waves on it..."
"We can all see them," Gabi told him. "Let me concentrate, please."
We all looked at the tiles carefully. There were 32 of them, each with one or more of the five original shapes. I couldn't find any two alike.
"It may be the one with two sets of waves," Gabi concluded after thinking for a while. "It's the only one that has the same shape twice."
"Alright," then touch it.
Gabi made a slow motion towards the tile and touched it with her hand. She quickly took it off with an "Ow!", and shook it fast.
"What happened?," asked Tsunami.
"I got a discharge of electricity."
"Oh. Sorry for telling you to touch it. Next time Caledor will try."
"Why me?," asked Caledor.
"You zapped me more than once. If you make a mistake, you can't complain about getting it back."
"I didn't do it on purpose!," Caledor complained.
"I'll do it," Sylvan offered. "I'll touch the tiles with my vines, they should block some of the electricity. Just tell me which vines to touch."
"I'm starting to think this is not about finding the odd one out," Gabi said.
"I can't find any repeated ones either," I told her. "Maybe it's a sequence? Some have just a shape, others have 2 and some others have 3 or 4... Maybe we have totouch them in the right order."
"That could work," Gabi agreed. "Oh, but look, this one has all 5 shapes. I think it's the only one that has them all. And how can we know which shape precedes the other?"
"Maybe by looking at which ones go inside and which ones go outside?," Ventura suggested. "The dot is always inside other shapes, and the circle's inside everything but the dot."
"And the waves are always on top," Tsunami noted. "Which means I'm on top of everything."
"Do I want to know how you came to that conclusion?," Hero questioned.
"Easy. I'm the king of waves. If waves are on top of everything else and I'm on top of them..."
"I was afraid it would be something dumb like that," Hero said.
"What's with the wave on top of the other wave? It still makes no sense," Gabi said.
"Why don't we leave that one for later and start with the easier ones?," I suggested. "I think the dot should be first."
"I'll trust you," Sylvan said, touching the dot tile with the tip of her vine.
Everyone looked at her. Nothing happened... to her, at least. The tile she touched sank down a few millimeters and stayed there.
"Great, we've found the first one!," Caledor cheered.
"We?," Tsunami shifted his eyes at him.
"We're a team, aren't we?"
"Then the circle must be next," Gabi suggested. Once more, the choice was right.
"What's next? The triangle?," I wondered. "Or maybe the circle with the dot inside?"
"That depends..." Gabi said. "Do all the single shapes go first? That would be like a numbering system, with each shape being a digit?"
"You lost me there," Tsunami told her.
"That would make sense," Ventura realized. "If the dot is zero and the circle is one, then the trianglewould be 2, the square would be 3 and the waves would be 4."
"Right! It's a base 5 numbering system!," beamed Gabi.
Sylvan tried to follow and touched the triangle, but then the 2 tiles that were pressed popped back up, and she got zapped.
"Don't worry, it was just a tickle," she assured.
"Hmm, something must be wrong in our reasoning," Gabi concluded. "Let's press the dot and the circle again."
She did so, and they sank again.
"Maybe it's not a numbering system after all," I said. "If they were numbers, wouldn't we have more tiles with two identical shapes? We have one with 2 waves, but none with 2 dots, circles, triangles or squares."
"That's right, I should have noticed that," Gabi scolded herself. "Then it's another kind of logical sequence."
"It could be cumulative. Why don't we try the circle with the dot in it?," I suggested.
I must admit I was surprised when I saw my choice had worked. Gabi caught the idea immediately.
"The triangle has to be next," she said. "There are triangles with circles inside, and squares with triangles inside. The sequence is dot, circle, triangle, square, wave, but each shape only comes into play when all the previous ones have been used."
Sylvan hit the triangle, and it sank, seemingly confirming the new theory.
"What's next, then?," she asked.
"Triangle and dot," I told her.
We went on like that. Triangle and circle, triangle with a circle and a dot, square, square with a dot, square with a circle, square with a circle and a dot, square with a triangle, and so on until we got all 4 shapes each one inside the others. Then it seemed logical to push the single set of waves, and repeat the previous sequence with all the tiles with waves on them. Then even the pair of waves turned out to be a logical conclusion: it was like the other wave tile, with a wave on top. Once Sylvan touched it, the metallic door opened.

"Yay!," cheered Caledor. "Let's cross the door and see what's on the other side."
"Hey, don't dash forward! That's my copyright!," Hero warned him.
We were all happy to cross the door, and even happier to see a human waiting on the other side. He had straight, brown hair and was all dressed in dark green, with a vest that looked like it was made of snake skin.
"Welcome to the exit!," he greeted us."I'm Aaron, and I'll be your host today. Or, rather, your challenger."
"Nice to meet you," Gabi said. "I'm Gabi."
"Oh, I know who you are, Lady Vulpix," Aaron said. "I spend most of the time away from the spotlight, but I've been with the MTU since before it became an official union."
"Oh. Then you must been here for the best and worst part of Caledor's history. It's hard to find trainers who have been here for so long."
"I guess all those wars must have scared most of your people away as it did ours," he reflected. "I thought of leaving more than once, but I wouldn't have known where to go. My whole life is here."
"Yes, I've often thought of leaving myself, but I couldn't turn my back on those who needed me, and I didn't want to leave my friends behind, even if some of them ended up leaving me. But there are always others worth staying for."
"Yes, I know the feeling. So, what do you think of the new maze?"
"I think it's great... But it may be a bit too big, it took us hours to get out. Every part was good, but put all of them together and it gets rather tiring."
"Ah, you must have taken one of the long paths. There are shorter ones. Did you come through the curtain section?"
"Yes, right after the log maze."
"Ow, that's the worst entry point. Two labyrinths in a row. Anyway, it's good that you all made it."
"I liked the logical sequence in the end."
"Ah, I don't know who made that one. But if I find out I'll let them know."
"Speak for yourself, Gabi," Hero said. "Only you, Amber and Ventura seemed to have a clue about what you were doing. And maybe Tsunami."
"Of course I knew what we were doing!," Tsunami defended himself. "They just figured it out faster, that's all."
At that moment, one of Aaron's pokeballs opened and a red beam came out of it, subsequently assuming the form of a Charizard.
"Sorry, I couldn't wait in there any longer," the Charizard said. "Did I hear right? Amber is here and she helped solve the puzzle?"
"I'm here," I told him. "And yes, we solved it together. Are you..."
"Eliot," he revealed. "You may not remember me, but..."
"Of course I remember you! I just didn't recognize you at first; you were a Charmeleon last time I saw you."
"So were you," he replied. "I must tell you, the Charizard look suits you well."
"Thanks," I blushed.
"Honest. You look better as a Charizard than you did as a Charmeleon. And somehow you still manage to keep that sweet and friendly look. Do you know how many Charizards I've seen who can smile like that?"
"I don't know, but I know 3 who can: myself, my mother, and you."
Now it was Eliot who blushed.
"Guilty as charged," he chuckled. "It's been a long time, Amber. I wasn't sure if I would see you again. It's good to know you've made so much progress."
"Hey, don't treat me like a pupil. That didn't work out well the last time you tried it."
"That was because I misjudged you back then. I wanted to teach you something and you ended up doing exactly the opposite. Do you still hold to that decision of not battling your friends?"
"Firmly. I can't get myself to intentionally hurt the ones I care for, and I don't think I ever will."
"No one gets seriously hurt in friendly battles and you can learn a lot from them, but I can see your point. And I can see you've had your share of battles anyway, otherwise you wouldn't have evolved."
"Yes, Team Rocket, the Crimson Blades and the Black Dragon have kept me on a busy training schedule."
"I bet you two have a lot of catching up to do," Tsunami told us, "But could you please make room for those of us who want to battle while you're at it?"
"What did he just say?," asked Aaron.
"He asked the Charizards to make room for those who wanted to battle," Gabi translated.
"Ah, right, the battles! Sorry, I was stunned by the way Eliot reacted to your Charizard."
"They're old friends," Gabi explained. "From 3 of the incarnations of the Training Grounds."
"Ah. Right, we've been to all of the Training Grounds. But the last time Eliot had to leave early because he won a battle on the first day and then he didn't fit the level range anymore. That had happened once before too."
"Were you at the Dragon's Games Training Grounds?"
"Yes, we were at the Caledor site."
"Ah, that explains why we didn't meet. We went to Yvresse."
"I heard Yvresse was fun. I would have liked to see the floating island, even if it wasn't floating anymore. But when we got the news it was already too late to travel. The Caledor site was interesting anyway, it was bigger than any other version of the Training Grounds. My Murkrow went to the Domain of Impenetrable Darkness... He said it was mind-boggling."
"Really? It must have been much better than the one in Yvresse, because that one was quite boring," Ventura commented.
"That must be because sight is just a complementary sense to you," Tsunami told her. "Are we going to battle? Who's going to battle?"
"I guess you can, if you're so eager," Gabi offered.
"Is your Vaporeon going to battle?," Aaron asked.
Gabi nodded.
"Alright. I was supposed to choose first, but if you're ok with this Lady Banette won't have to find out. Let me check what his level is... Good, Forrest is close enough to his level. A bit higher, but I don't think that will be a problem for a Dragon Games finalist."
"I can't believe it! Someone still remembers!," exclaimed Tsunami.
"Don't be so surprised, I've always liked to watch the tournaments and learn from the strategies others used."
"Which in Tsunami's case was just 'endure as many blows as possible until your opponent wears out'," Hero mocked him.
"Hey, it worked, didn't it? But I've been working on other tactics since then."
"Yes. Chase your opponent with a giant wave until someone reminds you there's still food on the table," now it was Caledor who spoke.
"Ok, laugh all you want, but I'm winning this battle. Who's Forrest anyway?"
"I think he's ready," Gabi told Aaron.
"Alright, Forrest, are you ready for a battle?"

As Aaron spoke, he looked at one of the pokeballs in his belt and out of it came...
"A Forretress? Figures," Tsunami snorted.
"What's wrong?," Aaron asked.
"I guess he thinks naming a Forretress Forrest is unoriginal," Gabi explained.
"He was a Pineco when I gave him that name, and he... Why am I explaining? It's just a name. My name originally means wardrobe, I don't think names are such an important thing. It's just a way to call others so they know you're referring to them."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Gabi apologized.
"You didn't. Forrest, how about getting started with the battle?"
"Sure," Forrest nodded.

Level 62 Vaporeon vs. Level 69 Forretress

Tsunami made quite an obvious start, sending a wave towards the Forretress, but Forrest was left untouched, an invisible shield diverting the flow of the water away from him. The funny part came when they both asked each other why they had done that, and the answer from both sides was the same: "I was testing you." Then Tsunami couldn't help himself.
"Did I pass the test?," he asked with a chuckle.
"Show me something else," Forrest replied. "Surf is overused."
"Overused?! It's one of the best attacks ever created, and I'm not about to stop using it just because it bores you."
"Alright, keep using Surf, then."
"I'll do whatever I want, thank you."
Now Tsunami sounded annoyed. Not that it wasn't understandable. Not often does your opponent try to tell you what to do in a battle. That had only happened once to me, and it had been Eliot who did it. Which made me wonder... did Aaron encourage his pokemon to do that? What could the use be? Except perhaps...
"Stay calm," I told Tsunami. "Don't let him make you lose focus."
"Will everyone please stop telling me what to do?," Tsunami complained. "I know how to battle, alright? I've won more battles than I've kept track of. More than you, even."
"Sorry, I was just trying to help," I apologized.
I wanted to tall him that even the wisest and most experienced may use some advice, but that was not the time and I didn't want to irritate him and bring about the opposite of what I wanted.

Sorry, the forum cut my story here. I'll have to make another post for the rest of the story. I knew it was long. >< Sorry again.

[Lady Vulpix]

Tsunami looked at Forrest carefully, analyzing him... or maybe reviewing his own options. He seemed to decide to stall for time (rather unsurprisingly), and disappeared inside a small whirlpool of water summoned in a second.
"You're doing it again, aren't you?," Forrest questioned him. "Making the battle as long as you can in hopes that I wear out before you do. I expected you to have some new tricks in store."
"I'm not here to please you," Tsunami said. "Not to mention you haven't done anything interesting yourself. You just set up a shield and started fussing about everything I do. You're here to battle, not to watch a show."
"Ah, I see. You're saying that if I want to see something new I'll have to get it out of you myself."
"Basically."
"Alright. I can do that," Forrest accepted.

He didn't move, but we could all feel what he was doing. The air became warmer and the light around us more intense.
"That won't make the battle any less boring," Tsunami warned him. "It'll just make it longer."
"And who says that only works for you?," Forrest confronted him.
Tsunami thought for a moment and then chuckled.
"Either that's the most ridiculous bluff I've ever heard... or you have some incredible wildcard up your metaphorical sleeve. Whatever it is, I will find out. And if it's the former, you'll be ashamed."
"Not really. If I'm bluffing, and it is indeed the most ridiculous bluff you've heard, then I should be proud that I've made you doubt. But quit talking, if you make the Sunny Day wear out I'll just cast it again, so stalling won't help you."
"I can't believe it!," exclaimed Hero. "Tsunami's found his match! This is a stubbornness competition!"
"Not that you're any less stubborn when it comes to arguing with him," Caledor told him.
"It's not the same. I prefer to keep things moving. These two are both stalling!"

Tsunami didn't seem to know what to do. He stood there, thinking and observing the Forretress. After a few seconds, he smiled.
"Ok, show me what you've got."
"You shouldn't have asked," said Forrest, unleashing a wide and powerful beam of light. It hit Tsunami full on and sent him rolling backwards. He pushed himself to the side and stood up, coughing.
"Ok, that was strong," he admitted, "but it takes a lot more than that to bring me down."
"Are you coming back for more? You didn't strike me as the kind who would enjoy being beaten."
"You don't get it, do you?"
"Get what?"
"What I said, it's not so easy to bring me down. We could do this forever, your Solarbeam is strong, but not strong enough that I can't recover from it, and your Sunny Day won't last forever."
"At least I'm doing something. I haven't seen you attack at all after that pathetic Surf."
"First of all, don't call my Surf pathetic. And second, I know your type, literally speaking. I've had a few battles with a Scizor before and I know that most of my attacks will not work well on you. I can tell you this because it's just a friendly battle. So, yes, I'm stalling, what's wrong with that? It takes me a long time to get tired - longer than it's taken any of the opponents I've faced. I can wait until the conditions are favorable."
"So you're saying you're planning to wait until the Sunny Day wears out and then try another Surf on me?"
"I didn't say that. It's a possibility, but I may do something different."
"You're too predictable, really."
"Am I? I guess time will tell."
"Now who's bluffing?"
Tsunami chuckled. "We'll see."

Forrest did release another Solarbeam, which Tsunami recovered from as effectively as before. They seemed to be testing each other's patience, but it was the audience's patience that was starting to run out. Especially Hero's: the Ninetales started yawning and asking whether the rest of us couldn't just leave, though I noticed he didn't take his eyes off Tsunami and Forrest regardless of his words. I also noticed the air was not so warm anymore.

"Your Sunny Day wore off," Tsunami pointed out to Forrest. "You'll have to do something different now."
"Oh, I will, I will..." Forrest replied.
As he spoke, an air current rose and circled around him, lifting a pile of dust off the ground. The dusty tornado started heading Tsunami's way.
"Ghack," Tsunami uttered, as he created an opposing current. Some of Tsunami's wind managed to get past the sandstorm and reach Forrest, but it didn't seem to do much, and the dust still hit him. He closed his eyes to protect them from the sand, or whatever it was, and Forrest took the chance to jump through the storm and land on the Vaporeon's back. The cloud of dust didn't let me see what was going on clearly, but I guessed what Forrest was doing from Tsunami's reaction. A pair of pitch-black eyes stood out through the sandstorm as they flashed open, and just a split-second later they'd disappeared again, and Forrest was crashing against a wall, pushed by the force of an unforgiving Hydro Pump.

"Hey, where did that come from?!," asked Forrest, obviously caught off-guard.
"Tsk..." Pidgeot shook his head. "I hadn't seen that one in a while. He must have used Giga Drain"
"Don't do that again," Tsunami warned Forrest.
"Hey, sorry! I never thought a Giga Drain would bother you more than a Solarbeam."
"Well, you know now," Tsunami answered bitterly. "Make your next move and let's get this over with."

"Wow..." Iael commented. "His attitude has changed completely. It's almost like..."
"Like you?," Caledor joked.
"I wasn't thinking about me, but now that you say it... is there a reason why Giga Drain affects him so much?"
"I don't know," Caledor admitted. "It's always been like that since I've met him. We all know Pidgeot's history with poison, but Tsu's never spoken much about his past. Not the bad things, anyway, he does talk about TV and frozen lakes and such. I've never asked because... well, you know."
Iael looked at Caledor for a moment. "Yes... I think I know what you mean," he finally said.

I wasn't sure I understood him myself. Caledor always avoided touching on negative subjects as if his life depended on it, so trying to engage him in a conversation about sad or painful memories for longer than a minute was as futile as trying to move a house across the street with your bare hands. Maybe that was why he hadn't asked, because it wasn't the kind of subject he'd like to talk about. Or maybe out of respect to Tsunami, who knows. I hadn't asked either, but in my case it was just because I hadn't thought about it. We all have things we don't like, and Tsunami hadn't been Giga-drained so many times for the issue to take precedence over the many things I had to focus on. But Iael had a point... for something to strike a nerve the nerve has to be there in the first place, and there's always a reason for that. I made up my mind to ask Tsunami after the battle was over. If he didn't want to talk about it, he could always just say it.

As I reflected on my friends' ways of acting, Forrest got on the move again, this timespinning around Tsunami and whipping him with all his appendages. He hit the floor with a thud when he was done, but he didn't seem to mind. He watched the Sandstorm attack Tsunami again with a look of satisfaction in his eyes. The sand enveloped Tsunami until he was no longer visible, and when he came back into sight... he did so by rising above the storm on a wave of his own creation, and jumping back just in time to drop a stock of sandy water on his opponent, which sent him rolling back to the wall as the remnants of his storm receded. Forrest did manage to stop himself before hitting the wall this time, but didn't look so content anymore. A Forretress's face isn't the most expressive, but his eyes showed signs of tiredness. Tsunami was winning the endurance match.

"I think... I have only one thing left to do," he said.

He launched himself against Tsunami once more, but this time his blows were more precise, more focused. I could tell it was a different attack, and it was hitting Tsunami hard all over his body. The Vaporeon had to summon another wave just to push him away. Only this time Forrest had no strength left to stop himself, having put everything into his last attack.

Tsunami won! He grew to level 63!

The Vaporeon sight once his victory was announced. He looked at Forrest and then at the rest of us. Then he walked to Hero's side.
"He's tough," I heard him say. "For a moment I wasn't sure I would last longer than him. When he did that last attack... I wondered if I should have used another Recover. If the Sandstorm had lasted any longer..."
"Don't sweat it, kid," Hero told him. "It's over now. You won. Next time you'll know better and won't be so cocky. And especially, you won't come so close to boring us all to death."
"You're evil, you know?"
"Let me think... No, I'm not. Just trying to help you. I'll think about being evil when I don't have something important to say."
"And what's the important thing you have to say?"
"That you should have learnt something from this battle."
"Of course. I always learn from experience."
"That answer's meaningless. The important thing is you can't always rely on just one strategy. And while I've noticed you do have backup plans, you take too long to decide it's time to use them. Besides, no matter how good a strategy is, or how original you may think it is, you shouldn't be so full of yourself as to believe you're the only one who can use it."
"Look who's talking about being full of oneself."
"Come on, you know me better than that."
Tsunami paused for a few moments.
"Yes, I do know you better than that," he conceded. "But you always act like you are, others will believe it."
"All the worse for them. They'll miss knowing the real me," Hero winked.

Forrest started moving again, and both Eliot and Aaron went over to check on him. Before going back into his pokeball, he bowed to Tsunami and said it had been a pleasure to battle him.
"Same here," Tsunami replied.

Aaron was about to pick up another pokeball when he was interrupted by an unexpected visit: a very elegant-looking pokemon who looked almost like a female human in a long white dress.

<Ventura's POV>

My attention was focused on the Visitor. From Aaron's greeting, I learnt her name was Emmie. She spoke to the human telepathically.

"Hello, Aaron. I see you're still engaged in a battle. Or is it over yet?"
"Still one more to go," Aaron replied. "Am I needed?"
"Not urgently, no. I just came to see how things are going, and whether I could help speed them up a little bit."
"Speed them up?"
"You'll see... it's getting late. And I have a friend outside who's waiting for someone who in turn is waiting for the battles to finish, so I thought I could do her a favor by accelerating the process."
"Okay, but how do you intend to do that?"
"Hold on a minute." She turned to look at me. "Excuse me, Ms..."
"My name's Ventura," I told her.
"Ms. Ventura. It's not polite to listen to other pokemon's telepathic conversations."
"I'd never heard of that rule before," I said. "But it can't be any less polite than walking into a room and talking to someone while ignoring everyone else."
"Oh. For that I apologize. I was lost in my thoughts. I'll make up for it now, my name is Emmie, and I'm currently working for the Mercenary Trainers Union. Pleased to meet you."
"Emmie, this is Lady Vulpix from the Pokemon Research and Training Department and the Dragon Tamers, and her team," Aaron introduced us in a biased manner which was probably the only one he could manage. "Everyone, this is Emmie, one of the newest and most colorful members of the MTU."
"Colorful? I only see white and green," Caledor said. "This is colorful."
He started glowing red, and then golden, and then I stopped looking, at just about the same time as Emmie started giggling while covering her mouth with her right hand. Something about the way she moved and spoke was making me feel very uncomfortable, but no one else seemed to feel that way.
"So... you were saying?," Aaron resumed the conversation.
"I was saying... I was thinking of battling for you, if you and your friends don't mind."
"I don't think anyone will mind, but how will that speed up the process?"
"Most of my battles have been rather quick... one way or another."
"And the average length of my pokemon's battles is the longest among the MTU according to the latest statistics," Aaron finished making Emmie's point. "I understand, I guess it's fine, as long as our opponents don't mind."
"It's ok, we didn't know who we were going to battle anyway," Gabi said. "Can I check my pokedex?"
"Of course," Emmie nodded.

Gabi searched her backpack for about a minute until she found what she was looking for. I was almost surprised to see it still worked, as I hadn't seen her use it 2 or 3 years, except for the cellphone function which she used each time there was a world crisis.
"I think this will be a job for group C," she concluded. "Leaving out Amber, that makes Caledor, Sylvan or Ventura. Does any of you feel like battling a psychic pokemon?"
As I expected, Sylvan remained quiet, but Caledor said he wouldn't mind at the same time as I said "Me". Gabi looked at both of us and considered the options. She finally turned to Caledor.
"I think Ventura sounded more eager to battle," she said. "Is it ok if we leave your battle for next time?"
"Whenever next time is..." Caledor answered. "It's ok, I can always go somewhere and throw a party or something. Ventura doesn't know that many ways to have fun."
I must admit his comment hurt me. "I know how to have fun," I thought. "I just... Not everything in life revolves around having fun... But I must admit it feels good to have it sometimes."

"So, Ms. Ventura..." Emmie smiled. "The circumstances have temporarily turned us into opponents. This should be an interesting match. Would you like to battle with or without Super Effective moves?"
"Your call. Do you have any items?"
"Just a Spirit Guard," she said, pointing at her oval pendant with swirling colors and a pair of silvery feathers hanging from it. "What about you?"
"Magical Glass Koffing Sculpture."
"I'm afraid I haven't come across that item before. What does it do?"
"It's a relic. It may randomly poison my opponent. What does a Spirit Guard do?"
"It's a treasure I brought from one of my journeys. It prevents my accuracy from being reduced."
"I don't care for accuracy-reducing moves. They leave too much to chance."
"Do you use any bug-type moves?"
"A couple."
"Then how about battling with no items and no Super Effective moves?"
"If it works for you, it works for me. SE moves or not, it's a good challenge either way. And no items sounds fair."
I stored my sculpture in Gabi's pack while Emmie took off her amulet and asked Aaron to take care of it for her.

"Ready?," she asked.
"I'm ready when you are," I told her. That was our last exchange of words for the rest of the battle. Not that it bothered me; words are overrated.

Level 53 Venomoth vs. Level 60 Gardevoir

Emmie acted fast... but I moved faster. I felt her build up a current of hot air and, having seen Hero pull out that move before, I was ready to teleport away from harm's way. I wondered for a moment whether she was cheating or not, but concluded she wasn't: while Will-o-wisp was a fire-type move, it wouldn't have affected me more than it would others. since we were still going by the rules, I decided there was no reason to use any spores just yet, and used my Hidden Power instead. She took in the poison without complaints; she already had something in store for me, and as soon as my attack was over, a Shadow Ball phased through me, leaving an annoying tingling inside me. And I had the feeling she was just starting to warm up. As much as I didn't want to enact a rerun of the previous battle, I thought a Sunny Day would be my best choice.

As soon as the room became illuminated, a brighter light came my way and struck me with an incredible force. No wonder she didn't mind battling with no SE moves. Anyone who could pack a Thunderbolt like that didn't need much else to win a battle. Only with the help of a Morning Sun powered up by the effect of my Sunny Day was I able to endure the second one. And even the Solarbeam I shot next seemed to have little effect on her. After a third Thunderbolt, I knew it was time. I rose about my opponent and sprinkled some sleep powder on her.

That seemed to do the trick. All Emmie managed to do was use her arms to cushion her fall. I used Morning Sun once more to recover from all the blows I had taken before my Sunny Day faded away, and then just dumped more poison on her twice before she woke up. She looked at me and smiled. Then she hit me with another Thunderbolt, which hurt even more than the previous ones. She seemed to have a way of making my whole body tickle no matter what attack she used. I wasn't used to feeling tickles, but now that I was getting familiar with them I decided I didn't like them.

I used my Hidden Power again. Emmie didn't even try to dodge. She just closed her eyes and smiled, and then fell with the grace of an actress. That was really annoying.

But I won anyway, and grew to level 55.

"Ok, what was that all about?," I asked everyone and no one in particular.
"What's wrong?," Gabi asked me.
"It all seemed like a game to her."
"It was a game," Caledor said. "Seriously, you need to learn to relax. And to be less serious. But you can't seriously learn to be less serious, or can you?"
"Someone slap him. I'm too bored to move," Hero interjected.
"Is everything alright?," asked Aaron.
"Yes, just my friends being themselves," Gabi told him. "Maybe a little more irritable than usual because we've spent a long time here."
"In that case I won't hold you any longer. You've completed your quest. You may leave the maze now."
"Just tell me one thing," Caledor send a psychic message to Aaron. "Is it real snake skin?"

Aaron gave Caledor a surprised look and then looked around, until he realized he was asking about his vest.
"This? Ah, no, it's just an imitation. Good, isn't it?"
"It's... scaly."
"That's it," Hero decided. "Let's get outta here before he says any more stupid things."
"I just want to know one thing," I stopped the group to send a message of my own to Aaron. "What's the deal with her?"
"Emmie?," Aaron looked at the Gardevoir and then back at me. When I nodded, he told me what he knew. "She's from abroad. Hoenn, I think. She used to be trained by a pokemon researcher until they were both summoned by the Dragon's Guild and came to settle in Ulthuan. Then they both agreed to take separate paths and Emmie joined the MTU, though they still live together."
"So she's her own trainer now?," I asked.
"Basically, I guess you can say that."
"Interesting."

All of a sudden my opinion of her improved. She did make ridiculous gestures and decorate her speech with lots of useless words, but she'd done something with her life and had gone further than most pokemon ever had. For that, she had my respect.

I heard some background talk between Amber and Eliot, then between Amber and Tsunami and finally, once Emmie stood up, between her and -what a surprise- Amber. The only thing worth listening to was when Tsunami revealed his secret, which wasn't that big of a secret after all: he just hated it when others took advantage of him, and for some reason Giga Drain fell under that category in his mind. Amber and Emmie talked about Guild reports and pokemon research. It turns out Amber had once read an essay written by Emmie's old trainer, Willow Byrd. Amber asked if Emmie had ever helped Willow with her research, to which Emmie replied they had sometimes discussed a few ideas but scientific research had never been her forte. It was Emmie who put an end to the conversation.

"Oh, my goodness! I forgot! I'm causing exactly the opposite of what I came here for!"
"Speeding things up?," Tsunami asked.
"By now I think we could all write a book about how to slow things down," Hero complained. "How about we do something right for a change and leave?"
"Whatever you say, Mr. Hedgehog," Tsunami told him.
"Hedgehog? Are you comparing me to Sonic?"
"No, I was thinking of what you looked like with all the arrows stuck on you. But come to think of it, I think Sonic could work too, you're just as impatient."
"If you're going to compare me to him, better do it for something good, like... you know... his most obvious attribute?"
"No way. I'm the one who's blue and spiky."
"I give up. You're doing it on purpose."
Tsunami grinned.

We said goodbye to Aaron, and Amber and Eliot exchanged addresses in hopes of meeting again someday... maybe next year. Emmie said goodbye too, but when she turned to me and bowed saying "it was a pleasure to battle you, Ms. Ventura," I couldn't take it any longer.
"It was a good battle, but... will you PLEASE stop acting like that?!"
"Acting like what?," she gave me a puzzled look.
"Like that. All those moves and words that mean nothing and just look and sound ridiculous. I don't get why you do it."
"I'm not sure I know what you mean... But in any case you should look at yourself before judging others. My manners don't hurt anyone, but you have been sounding very aggressive all this time. I don't think I've done anything to deserve your anger."
"Just... drop it," I sighed.
Maybe she couldn't help it. Sadly and scarily enough, everyone's marked by the way we've been raised. Some marks are just more noticeable than others. And some hurt more than others.
"Let's get out of here," I said, joining the group on their way out.

We still had one surprise left, but being as tired as I was I didn't stay around to enjoy it. It was mostly for Hero anyway. Tracker was waiting for us outside the maze. She'd been there for about an hour, and had been wondering what was taking us so long. Then when she saw her friend (guess who), she'd asked her to help us get out faster. The thought of Emmie and Tracker being friends left me thinking for a while: I had to decide whether that made sense or not. In the end I decided it did; while they didn't seem to have anything to do with each other at first sight, they were both strong-willed and independent, and they'd both travelled a lot. Having things like those in common can help a friendship last... but it takes a lot more than that to make it worthy... to make it real. Did I have any real friends?

I thought about it for a while. Gabi was my friend, I concluded. We had arguments quite frequently, but we respected and cared for each other; we knew we'd always be there for each other when it was needed, and isn't that what friendship is all about? Gabi, I realized, had long since stopped acting like my trainer. She gave me advice about as often as she asked me for it, and her advice hardly ever had anything to do with battles. She treated me as an equal, and had even delegated some of the training tasks to me a few times. More than once I'd thought of leaving... not considering it too seriously, but wondering what kept me here, with her and the rest of the team. Now, I felt, I knew the answer. I stayed because I cared about that motley and often unruly bunch. It wasn't just that I'd grown used to them, I knew my life wouldn't be the same without them. And although that went against everything I had learned in my youth, I was surprised to find out I didn't mind... I like it! Of course I might lose them, and if that happened I'd have to survive on my own, and I would survive if it was up to me; but why spend my life worrying about something that might never happen? And why miss something so good when I had the chance to enjoy it? If life ended up taking them away, at least I'd have the memories. Otherwise I'd just end up with nothing... and there had been too much of nothing in my life so far. I left the team with Tracker and went home to think a little, and talk to Water Angel who, I remembered, was a good friend as well. After that, I would give the idea of having fun a few more thoughts. Maybe there was more to it than I knew. I found it hard to believe that any kind of activities could drastically improve my life, but if it was so important to my friends there had to be something about it that I was missing. It was worth a shot.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Gabi... wow, some of that really had me spluttering all over my computer, like the scarily accurate analysis of Sindel, tho Caledor's comments about levers really made me laugh out loud. Verrry good battle with some nifty little portions to the maze. 25 stamps for you.

And now for me Scratchy RBG... and can he have another from the Universal Adoption Centre please?
---
To be honest some days the temptation to just give in and go play about with everybody else was immense. It seemed as if those who, as the Paras would put it, 'put their dignity on the shelf', had so much more fun than the creature known as Scratchy. All he seemed to be able to find it within his pride to do was stay away from the others and when anyone else approached make rather scathing comments about how stupid he found their ways of passing the time. Which, for the most part, suited him fine. He didn't actually care too much about such things as having friends or socialising. He just liked to keep himself to himself. But occasionally, just occasionally, the Paras would look out across the garden and watch as, say, Milliardo and Katnip raced back and forth across the garden sparring, still trying hard to settle the question of which would fail first, the Umbreon's stamina and guile or the Raticate's agility and technical prowess; as far as Scratchy knew it was pretty even so far. Or sometimes he would spy on Rhiannon in her more childish moods, watching with an odd mixture of contempt and envy as she raced around the garden pretending to be Ryo-Ohki's horse as he played Cowboys and Indians with the downright tomboyish Kassandra. And during these times Scratchy was filled with an inexplicable longing, bizarre pangs of emotions normally foreign to him crossing his mind. Envy. Regret. Even loneliness. Some days he really secretly yearned to be a part of the group but simply refused to allow himself the chance. For sooner or later he would once again desire his space and by that time the damage would have been done. There would be no peace ever again. So he just contented himself with watching. It was all that he could do.

That day had started off in a less than innocuous fashion. Oh, the usual chaos in the morning was nothing new. I was perfectly accustomed to waking up in the morning to find my fiancée in a fluster as she only had ten minutes to catch a train, to find Thunderblast, Katnip and Kassandra arguing over the last piece of bacon or to find Sindel close to throwing half of the kitchen utensils at Milliardo's head after he had overstepped the mark yet again. Things like that seemed to be a part of everyday life for our little rabble. However, what I wasn't accustomed to was getting phone calls roughly ten minutes after I had finished breakfast, the voice on the other end of the line being the unmistakably official voice of my boss, the woman who called herself Lady Ninetales and the head of the pokémon related arm of the Dragons Guild.
“Good morning, Lord Umbreon,” the polite but brisk voice sounded. “I hope I haven't called at a bad time.” Like you care I thought to myself, although rather wisely I decided to keep that particular comment confined to my head.
“No, no, not at all, I've been up for hours,” I found myself saying. “I just wasn't expecting you to call.”
“Normally I wouldn't,” Lady Ninetales replied calmly. “But now that things have calmed down after the Crimson Blades and the Guild is beginning to return to some state of order I want to make sure my researchers are actually doing their jobs.”
“Is that some kind of sly dig?”
“Not at all, and I'm sorry if it came across as that. Simply put, I was looking at your profile and thinking about conversations we've had in the past. Your history is peppered with periods of wandering, isn't it?”
“Yeah but I don't see...”
“I've an assignment for you that might well satisfy any wanderlust you've still got. Would a spot of field research interest you?”
“Hell yeah!” Now this had caught my interest! Domestic life was all very well and good but I often longed for an excuse to go and roam, nostalgia for my old way of life too great to resist any opportunity for adventure. “I mean... that sounds pretty interesting, Lady Ninetales. What did you have in mind?”
“Come to my office before noon and I'll explain things to you then,” the woman said with a slight chuckle in her voice. “Don't worry, the assignment's going nowhere so you've no need to rush.”
“I got it.” I winced inwardly. Was I really that predictable? “See you soon, then.”
“I'll be waiting.” With this the phone went dead, leaving me staring at it rather bemusedly. What on earth did the Guild want from me now? Whatever it was probably beat sitting around at home, though.
“Something wrong, Ade?” A nudging at my leg snapped me out of my thoughts. Looking down I saw the curious faces of Pearl and Rhiannon staring up at me. Somehow I didn't think I wanted to know why they were stalking the house together.
“Do you just like the way the phone looks?” Rhiannon giggled.
“Somehow I think there's more to it than that,” Pearl noted. “The last time I saw that look on his face we ended up being entered in the pokémon Winter Olympics. So come on, Ade. Out with it. What was that call about?”
“Well...” I mused. “I'm not entirely sure yet. Seems like the Guild might have an interesting job for us.”
“Interesting?” Rhiannon rolled her eyes. “Really, their idea of 'interesting' is sitting around looking at nesting Pidgeys all day. Count me out, I'm gonna go play with Celeste.” With this the Jolteon scooted off at full speed, evidently having lost interest in the conversation the instant I mentioned my employers. At least that still left my Ninetales by my side.
“Are you going to run off on me too, Pearl?” I asked. Laughing, the Fire-type shook her head.
“After all this time you still need to ask me that?” Softly she nuzzled my leg, causing me to reach down and pet her gently. “I'm going nowhere, except wherever you're going. We've been together too long for me to leave you on your own now!”
“At least I can always count on you for moral support,” I smiled. “So then, shall we go over and see what all of the fuss is about?”

Roughly an hour later I was stood outside the office of Lady Ninetales, my own pokémon of my boss' chosen species sat patiently at my feet waiting patiently for me to gather the nerve to knock. Truth be told, I hated having formal, work-related meetings like this. I was much happier just getting on with things in my own way. I especially dreaded meetings with Lady Ninetales who, whilst she was no doubt a good person at heart, was never going to win awards for being the most personable creature on the planet.
“Come on, Ade, she probably knows you're here and is wondering why you're stood outside like a dummy,” Pearl sighed. “Waiting isn't going to make talking to her any easier you know.”
“I know,” I conceded finally. Forcing my reluctant body to actually motivate itself, I reached over and rapped on the oaken door three times. For a moment there was no response; in fact I was just about to knock a second time when a rather irritable 'Come in!' sounded from inside the office. The tone made my heart sink. Today was obviously not going to be my day! Cautiously I opened the door to find the flame-haired Guild official almost buried under an armful of papers. She looked just about ready to topple over.
“Here, let me give you a hand,” I quickly rushed over to her side and took half of the load.
“Thanks. That shelf over there, please.” I quickly placed the papers over to where Lady Ninetales was gesturing with a nod of her head, at which point she rather quickly offloaded the rest of her burden on me and sat down behind her desk with a rather forced sigh. “Apologies in advance is I sound a little irritable today, Lord Umbreon. Now all the fuss surrounding the Crimson Blades has died down those of us who aren't lucky enough to not have to deal with paperwork are finding ourselves with a ridiculous backlog of the stuff.” Was that a hint of jealously I heard? It couldn't have been. “Anyway, you're here about our conversation earlier, right?”
“Yeah.” I bit back the sarcasm that was just itching to be used as a response to that particular question. “You've got me interested.”
“Here.” The instant I took a seat opposite my boss she shoved a thick beige folder in my direction. “A rather large piece of field research that needs to be done has just turned up and I instantly thought of you. After all you're rather infamous for wandering, I thought you might like the chance to do some on company time for once. Well, that and...”
“...the subject matter,” I finished, briefly skimming the contents of the folder. “This has got something to do with the Paras family, I see, and I'm the only one you can think of with any experience of them.”
“Yes, there is that,” Lady Ninetales admitted. “Of course, if you're not interested I can always send somebody else...”
“No, I'm interested alright!” I interrupted hastily. “Very interested.” I skimmed through the folder once more, several document headers catching my attention. “So this is all about Paras... migration? Hm, that's a new one on me. I didn't realise they migrated at all.”
“Neither did the rest of us.” Lady Ninetales leaned forward conspiratorially. “Truth be told this assignment isn't so much a research project as an investigation. Something strange is happening to the Paras population in a particular forest in Avelorn. It seems almost as if they're being driven away from the reports we've been getting. I'd like you to go do what you Dragon Tamers do best and poke your nose around there a little, see what's actually going on.”
“Is that an off-the-record request for some help from the Tamers?” I asked.
“No. It's a request from a manager who has a problem to one of her employees who has a track record of getting to the bottom of similar problems before,” Lady Ninetales almost smiled at this point. “Everything you need to know is in that file. Beyond that I'll leave this up to you. Just please keep me informed of your progress. I've had quite enough of Guild members not telling each other anything to last me a lifetime.”
“Understood,” I grinned. For all her faults it was easy to tell that Lady Ninetales' heart lay in the right place. “I'll give you a call when I've got there, then. Was there anything else?”
“No. Aside from...” Here Lady Ninetales paused for a moment. “...good luck. I hope you get to the bottom of this quickly.”
“So do I,” I replied. “So do I.”

“...So that's how it is.” I found myself with the rather expected problem of explaining why I'd be missing for the next week or so the instant I returned home. “The Guild thinks I'd be best off doing some field research and I happen to agree with them.” I attempted to comb my long, unruly hair in a mirror, the hair that seemed never to know whether it was orange or golden in colour. Much like my eyes, which flickered between blue, grey and green depending on the light. My colouration, much like my mind, was frequently indecisive.
“Oh.” I had been expecting Soo to put up a fight, but once again she had totally confounded my expectations. At least we could have this conversation seeing as she had long ago realised the usefulness of Hokiri, her teleporting Ponyta, for getting her home to have some lunch. “You sure you're going to be okay?”
“Sure I am,” I grinned winsomely. “I've done this sort of thing loads of times before we met.”
“That's what worries me.” Soo rolled her unnaturally blue eyes. “If your accounts are anything to go by, before we met you were a total mess.”
“Before we met you we were actually saner than we are now,” Milliardo chipped in unhelpfully, unable to resist having a subtle dig at my partner. After all, it was a long-running joke now, my Umbreon's faux disdain of Soo. He didn't actually mean it. Nor did Soo mean any retort she came up with. At least I hoped not, for they were usually of the 'stop being mean, you know you love me really' variety.
“Yeah, right.” Evidently she wasn't going to rise to the bait this time. “So, umm, see you guys tonight, yeah?”
“I dunno...” I mused for a second. Sure, I knew what Soo was implying. It was simplicity itself to return to the comforts of home when you had a pokémon who could teleport, especially when said pokémon was a psychic as powerful as my Alakazam, Sindel. But sometimes I felt the instant recall to a safe place was almost cheating in a way. “Mind if we camp for a few days? I'd rather like to concentrate on my training while I have the chance. Which, incidentally...”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, sadly some of us have proper jobs, okay?” Soo pouted. “If my work actually left me more than three hours in the evening before I went to bed then I would train more.”
“Or if you concentrated more on your pokémon than you do your Neopets...”
“Ade, you're a meanie!” the world's most bizarre Espeon fanatic whined. “Anyway, I do train my pokémon! Look! Get the mean man, Kirei!” At this point I was rather abruptly knocked to the floor by a pink Espeon with a stupidly large grin upon her face.
“Espers one, moody goths nil!” Kirei beamed before jumping into her trainer's arms. “We rock, Eper!”
“We rule the school, Eper!” Soo replied with a rather manic look in her eyes. Every time I thought my immeasurably silly fiancée had reached her limits she pulled out something new. If it wasn't a bizarre desire to become a superstar than it was a sudden and inexplicable conviction that she was an Espeon. But then, I liked eccentric. Face it, I was hardly conventional myself, given so much to random whims and outbursts that if I was any more impulsive I would have been Thunderblast.
“Please. Shoot them now before they spread.” Milliardo pretended to be pissed off with the pair all the time but it was quite obvious for the bemused grin on his face that he was less than irritated by them. “Anyway, Ade, you going to get off the floor now and lead us into danger for the millionth time or do I have to drag you by the collar all the way to Avelorn myself?”
“No, I can manage to get there without your help, thanks all the same.” I chuckled to myself. “Anyway, the way I see it I'll be taking most of the team, although I don't need all fifteen of you if some of you fancy staying behind.”
“Oh that's good to hear!” Sindel beamed broadly. “Truth be told I wouldn't mind taking a break and actually missing this one out. Er... you lot can cook for yourselves, right? Only it's been so long since you didn't have me to do it for you and all...”
“This is not a good start,” I moaned, rolling my eyes. “If I didn't know better I'd swear you were starting to sound like Milliardo, Sindel.”
“It's a little known disease, you know,” Beckham explained. “Milliardoitis. It generally affects the mouth and brain...”
“...doubling the brain's intelligence, although in Thingy's case this just increases her amount of brain cells from two to four,” my Umbreon interrupted, being as he was quite possibly the only creature on the planet louder than my garrulous Wartortle. “And allowing the mouth to come up with all kind of highly amusing quips that it would normally be incapable of using.”
“I'm guessing it causes incredible swelling of the ego as well,” I chuckled. “Don't you ever get tired of promoting yourself, Milliardo?”
“No.”
“I guessed as much. Anyway, anyone else wanna duck out of this one while they have the chance?”
“Me,” Ryo-Ohki yawned. “It sounds boring.”
“Anyone else? Rhi? Brandy? Scratchy?” I turned to the three on my team I had been most expecting to run a mile from a Guild assignment. “None of you prefer to stay at home?”
“W... well if I can help you at all... I... I'd love to,” my Onix stammered, peering into the room through the large patio doors that led out onto the garden. “Unless you w...want me to stay here, of course, then I will! W...whatever's easiest for you.”
“Brandy, if you want to help out then I'd love to have you along.”
“As for me...” Rhiannon yawned, normally one of the first to run a mile when the word 'business' was mentioned, “sure, if this was a lameass journey to study the nesting habits of wild Fearow or something I'd be packing my bags and saying I'm off to the Bahamas for the week but you did say 'official investigation', didn't you? Sounds kinda cool actually, do you think we'll end up doing some mad James Bond kinda stuff?”
“I hope not,” I shuddered. “I've done enough of that in the past to last me a lifetime! What about you, Scratchy?” As it turned out the reaction from my Paras was completely unexpected.
“Actually,” he yawned, “I think I'll come with you.” Noting the surprised looks on everyone's faces Scratchy rolled his eyes. “Look, didn't you say this was about the Paras population? I don't think I have much of a choice if you intend on returning this year, it's probably because I'm on your team that you were given this assignment, right?”
“Actually yes.”
“Well then. Looks like you're all stuck with me.” There was something about the way my Paras was acting that indicated that there was something more to it than him just accepting his usefulness on this particular adventure. But finding out what that was, I had to concede, would have to wait. Right now we had one hell of a lot of packing to do and an investigation to commence. Everything else would have to wait.

A mere eight hours later and we were in a situation totally alien to some of our group but all too familiar to others. Sitting out on the open plains on the outskirts of Caledor after a few hours of a frenzied motorbike ride designed purely to put as much distance between ourselves and civilization as possible, a roaring fire in front of us and a few comfortable tents erected to rest inside. The pure, cloudless twilight sky above us, an awe-inspiring mixture of red and dark blue, only hinted at the potential mysteries to come. In short, this was a magical experience, one which I would never tire of as long as I lived.
“You know, this takes me back,” Beckham reflected, leaning back with a can of cider that he had mysteriously pulled out of his shell, evidently having been obtained from what was swiftly being dubbed 'the weird Becks drinks supply'. “We used to do this sort of thing all the time didn't we Ade? Go a-roamin' and live the wild life, just us, the stars and a magical supply of marshmallows to toast on the campfire. Remember that time we ran across a farm plagued with Bug types?”
“Yeah. I remember,” I chuckled. “We offered our help and you 'magically' defeated a wild Caterpie by sitting on it, didn't you?”
“So how many centuries ago was that?” Milliardo chuckled, lazing almost directly in front of the campfire with Pandora and Marius, all three having such a resistance to heat for one reason or another that they had rather swiftly managed to find the optimum place to warm up – as in so close they were practically touching the flames. “I mean, that was before my time 'coz I sure as hell don't remember it, and wasn't I part of your team during that historic time The Beatles came to Ulthuan?”
“You're kinda admitting what an old man you are there, Milliardo.”
“Nonsense! I'll have you know when I wake up in the morning I feel a young and sprightly pokémon!”
“I'll bet you do,” Kasumi giggled. “She's called Pandora.”
“Er... exactly what I was insinuating. Good God, no wonder I'm not as much of a hit on the comedy circuit as I should be when my audience is comprised of such morons.”
“You know...” All of a sudden Scratchy spoke up. “I sort of regret coming. I forgot what imbeciles I would have to deal with.”
“There is actually more to determining a well-balanced individual than intellect and maturity, you know,” Marius commented with a rather acidic tone in his voice. “For instance, the ability to successfully interact in social situations is a rather important facet of personality, not to mention having enough decency to not resort to insulting comments whenever you hear humour that isn't totally to your liking.”
“Oh what would you know?” my Paras snorted. “Look who raised you, for goodness' sake.”
“Hey, what's that supposed to mean?” Pandora interrupted rather angrily.
“Guys...” I interrupted before the situation could get out of hand, “just leave each other alone for once please? Scratchy, really, can't you just try and get along with everyone? Surely it's less effort than getting into an argument every time you speak up?”
“And it's even less effort not to speak at all,” Scratchy snorted sulkily. “Which is what I intend on doing. If anybody's interested I'll be over keeping watch. Somebody has to think of these things after all.” With a last glower the world's most antisocial Paras scuttled off to a point a safe distance from everybody else.
“Sorry about that,” I sighed, the mood having soured quite considerably all of a sudden. “Honestly, it's been over three years now and I still don't think I'm any closer to understanding that one than I was when we first started out.”
“Don't fret about it,” Pearl offered. “He's so set in his ways now that the thought of changing them probably scares him. But I can guarantee you that there's a nicer pokémon on the inside than the one he shows everyone.”
“So how do you figure that?” Milliardo scoffed.
“He's still part of our team isn't he?” my Ninetales shrugged. “If he meant even half he said he would have left long ago. Because face it, Ade isn't a very strict master and if Scratchy really wanted to be anywhere else he would have said. Although... for some reason I kind of think there's something that's bugging him beyond the routine grouchiness this time. I do hope he lets us know what's on his mind.”
“Pff, it'd be easier to get blood out of a stone,” my Umbreon snorted.
“I hate to say it but you're probably right.” Pearl sighed deeply. “But we can but hope.”

A comfortable distance away from the main camp Scratchy settled down with his eyes cast across his teammates and sighed to himself. To be perfectly honest not even he understood quite why he had to be so aggressive towards his teammates these days. Sure, back when there were just a handful he had every right to yell whenever the conversation grew too stupid. But now? Why, whenever the likes of Beckham or Thunderblast started on one of their rants there were always other, more intelligent sources of conversation to be found. So why did he feel this terrible desire to shun the others all the time and wallow in his solitude? Probably because company made him feel uncomfortable. He didn't know how to react, how to get close to others so he didn't. He either ignored them or went on the offensive, to the point where even his friends were little more than acquaintances.
“Oh why am I getting all worked up about this?” the Paras snorted irritably to himself as he settled down for a few hours keeping watch. “This is the way it's always been.” That was a slight untruth, of course. There was a time, long ago... but that period of his life was well and truly behind him now and in his mind there was no sense in dwelling upon it. Better to just concentrate on the present, to do his duty and nothing more. It was the only way he knew how to live these days.

Hours passed and Scratchy had observed his teammates having their usual manic rabble of a good time with a pang of envy in his heart. He had observed the arguments. The rambling, nonsensical conversations. The impromptu games of chase. And then he had watched as everybody retired to bed, the campfire set to blaze away throughout the night after a quick and subtle dose of magic on Rhiannon's part that was designed to prolong its life until somebody woke up. It was kind of calming, just detaching himself from the rest and observing. In an odd way it allowed the Paras to share in their fun without actually having to be at the very heart of the action. And also, in keeping an eye on the camp like this he actually felt a strange sense of pride. He actually felt like he was performing a useful service this way, instead of getting dragged into the daily bickering that seemed to be a way of life for his companions.
“So nothing's out there,” Scratchy mused to himself after some time with only the soft rushing of the breeze for company. “I suppose it's better this way.”
“You don't sound convinced about that,” a voice echoed from the top of a large tree that the Paras had been comfortably propped up against, causing him to almost jump in alarm.
“Who is that?” Scratchy yelled angrily, composing himself in an instant. “Show yourself!”
“Hey, hey, chill, would you? I'll be right down.” All of a sudden a little Cyndaquil dropped down from the branches of the tree, landing nimbly at a point only a short distance in front of Scratchy's face. “Sorry, buddy, I didn't mean to startle you.”
“Who said you startled me?” Scratchy snorted. “I yelled because I'm supposed to be keeping watch, and I always treat unknown voices with suspicion funnily enough. Who are you and what were you doing spying on me anyway?”
“Hey, I wasn't spying on you!” the Cyndaquil replied defensively. “I'd gone up that tree to have a rest where it was safe... can't be too careful around here if you're on your own, there's plenty of bigger pokémon just waiting to make a meal out of you if you look like you've got a bit of meat on you. Anyway, when I went up there you weren't here and when I awoke you were, so really I think I've more right to ask you who you are and what you're up to!”
“None of your business,” Scratchy snorted, turning his back on the Fire type once he realised that it wasn't likely to be a threat to anybody.
“True, but I'm curious.” Evidently the Cyndaquil couldn't take a hint, for it scooted around until it was in Scratchy's line of vision again. “You said you were supposed to be keeping watch. Who for? You got friends around here? Is that it? And how come you sounded so fed up when you thought there was nothing out there?”
“You're not going to leave me alone until you get an answer are you?”
“Nope.”
“Fine. Then I'm keeping a watch on my trainer – and I use that term loosely since we haven't trained properly in years – and teammates who are camping out over there.” The Paras gestured vaguely in the direction of the campsite with a pincer. “So yes, I have friends around here I suppose. And I'm fed up because it's a very, very dull night and I was hoping that maybe something might happen so I didn't start the morning thinking I'd wasted my time doing this.”
“So...” The Cyndaquil seemed deep in thought. “You're a trained pokémon who doesn't do much training and offered to be lookout so you could train yourself on anything that came too near, right?”
“I guess that's one way of looking at it, yes. Satisfied?”
“Uh huh.” The Cyndaquil paused for a few moments. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“I'm too near. Aren't you going to drive me away?”
“What are you blabbering about?” Scratchy snapped tetchily.
“Well if you wanted to train up on wild pokémon while everyone was asleep, which you pretty much admitted you were planning on doing, you're not doing a very good job of it seeing as there's one right under whatever passes for a Paras' nose.”
“Pff. Knowing my luck whilst I pummel you an actual threat will approach the campsite.”
“Hey. It's a dull night. You said so yourself. Come on, nothing's going to happen, and I could use a spar myself. Bring it on, bug boy!” Here the little pokémon began to hop excitedly from one paw to another. “I dare you!”
“Well, if I must... I won't go easy on you, though.”
“Good. Neither will I. Let's get it on, man!”

FIGHT!!! L16 Paras v L16 Cyndaquil!

Scratchy was no fool when it came to battle, and he knew exactly what his limitations were. So when the sparring session commenced with the little Cyndaquil shooting towards him at top speed he wasn't in the least bit surprised. He was slow and he was anything but agile. Most creatures could run rings around him. He just accepted it and got in his attacks when he could. For at least he was physically tough. Tough enough to withstand an incoming Quick Attack and respond with the most rapid Scratch he could manage whilst his opponent was in close range, at least.
“Yow!” Instinctively Scratchy's opponent darted away again as his pincers left thin lines of blood across one of its cheeks. “That's the last time I get in that close!”
“Oh come on, if you're that bothered by a single scratch then why are you battling at all?” Scratchy grumbled, well aware that the Cyndaquil would probably now be ultra cautious in its offense.
“Eh, I'm not really but it pays to be cautious,” the little pokémon shrugged. “Anyway, see how you like this!” Abruptly the flame-like energy protruding from its back seemed to double in size. The pokémon was clearly building up its power for some attack or other. And Scratchy really didn't fancy finding out what that attack was.
“Oh no you don't!” the Paras yelled, scuttling over to his opponent as fast as his sluggish form would let him. Not that it did him much good. Just before he was within striking distance the Cyndaquil exhaled deeply, spitting out a large ball of flame directly into his face. The pain was excruciating. It felt as if he were being burned away completely. But he knew better than to think that was the case. It was simply the parasitic fungus on his back trying to force him to get out of harm's way. And by now Scratchy was an expert at totally ignoring those impulses. Instead he forced his way through the fire, his carapace smoldering with the heat, to where his opponent stood dumbstruck. He raised a pincer. And then brought it hard across the Cyndaquil's side with as much force as he could possibly muster. The Fire type yelled out in pain and darted away once again, leaving droplets of blood as it went from a thick gash where Scratchy's Slash attack had struck home.
“How are you still standing?” it yelped. “I thought your kind were weak against fire!”
“We are,” Scratchy snarled. “In fact I hurt all over. But I'm not letting you have the satisfaction of beating me. I will not lose to some random Cyndaquil who only just hopped out of a tree!”
“Blimey, you are a stubborn bugger aren't you?” The Cyndaquil shook its head in disbelief. “Fine. I guess I'll have to do something to counteract that attitude of yours!” Again the Fire type exhaled. But this time, instead of flame, thick black smoke emanated from its mouth, wrapping both pokémon in a shroud of darkness. “I'd like to see you survive much longer when you can't even see me!”
“Really. How pathetic.” Inwardly Scratchy was feeling very smug indeed. This was just the opportunity he had been waiting for. The opportunity to try out the latest trick in his arsenal. For he had been training himself, well away from everybody else, and he had finally tapped into his Hidden Power as a result. And now was the perfect time to see if it worked as well in battle as it did randomly being used in a secluded corner of the garden. The Paras narrowed his eyes, concentrating hard.

The smoke... the darkness... it was all his to command....

All of a sudden the smoke seemed to shift form, turning from mere billowing smog into something darker, more sinister. A shadow as black as a starless night. A shadow that constricted. And constricted. And constricted some more. Until is only existed at one single point, a small sphere just large enough to contain a single Cyndaquil.
“Ah! Let me out! Let me out! It's... it's choking me!”
“As you wish.” The experiment had been a success. Scratchy's mastery of Dark Hidden Power was complete. So he let his captive go, letting the Cyndaquil drop to the floor coughing and spluttering. It shot Scratchy one terrified glance and then sped away as fast as it possibly could. Leaving the Paras with just his satisfaction for company.

....and the desire to collapse that he had been fighting off since fighting through the Ember attack. All of a sudden his legs buckled underneath him and he fell to the floor, a sweet darkness overwhelming his senses. The fight, it seemed, had been far too much even for him. But at least he could call it a victory of sorts, right?

Scratchy wins!
Scratchy grew to L17!

“Ade! Ade, wake up, you lazy twat!” To be honest I could have thought of better things to wake up to than a more than an agitated Pandora. Actually, thinking about it most things were better to wake up to than an agitated Pandora. Trouble was never the best of starts to the morning. “Ade, this is, like, urgent and stuff, will you move or do I have to bite you awake?”
“I'm up! I'm up!”! I grumbled, sitting up in my sleeping bag and fumbling for my glasses. “What is it?”
“Well oh great and caring trainer it might interest you to know that our least favourite bug is passed out just outside the camp.” My Houndour scowled. “We should have never have let him keep watch on his own. This was almost inevitable.”
“Say what?” I groaned, my half-asleep brain still having trouble fitting the pieces together.
“Er, Scratchy. You know, the grouchy Paras? We just found him flat out outside the campsite. Do you want to have a look or shall we just leave him to rot?”
“What????”
“Ade, you heard. I'm not going to repeat myself just because you're feeling dozy.” Pandora fixed me with her best 'I'm going to kill somebody if you don't start paying attention' glare, a look she usually only reserved for when Milliardo was too busy bragging to notice what was going on around him. “Come on, I'll show you.”
“I'm right behind you.” Quickly grabbing a shirt and throwing it over my body I tore after my Houndour, anxious to find out what was going on. Hardly a minute later, of course, I found out exactly what the problem was. For indeed my Paras was collapse unconscious upon the ground, a worried cluster of his teammates surrounding him. What on earth had happened here?
“Scratchy?” I gasped, pushing through my pokémon to reach the fallen Paras. “Scratchy, what happened? Scratchy, speak to me!”
“Typical...” Slowly but surely my Bug-type opened one eye lazily, a familiar expression of contempt in his gaze even now. “Nobody actually bothers showing any concern until you're at the brink of death do they?”
“Brink of death?” Milliardo scoffed from the sidelines, having seen enough action to know the difference between a pokémon who was close to the end and a pokémon who had collapsed from exhaustion. “You wouldn't know what that was if it ran you over with a juggernaut.”
“Well you try being pummeled by a pokémon who in theory outclassed you in every way!”
“I've done that bit,” my Umbreon reminded Scratchy with a rather acidic tone in his voice. “Last time I lost a toe because of that sort of situation so if you want any sympathy from me kindly stop being such a drama queen. At least you're still in one piece.” There was a long silence. Even Scratchy, a pokémon who tended to care little for the feelings of anyone else, knew that continuing the conversation on this tangent probably wasn't the smartest of moves. Not only was Milliardo one of the most dangerous members of the team when riled but... well he had a point.
“Alright...” Scratchy sighed. “I got into a battle and wore myself out, okay? Now will you all stop fussing over me???”
“No can do, buddy,” I grinned. “Whether you like it or not I for one actually care for your wellbeing. Anyway...” After deliberately annoying my Paras by petting him on the head I got to my feet. “Who's for helping fix some breakfast now we're all up? It's a long way to go to Avelorn, after all.”

[The Blue Avenger]

Uhm... I'd like an RBG for 99, my Porygon2, from the Universal Adoption Center, please. *hands over 7 stamps*

[Wolfsong]

99 will be battleing a Wynaut ^^;;

[Lady Vulpix]

Now that will be an odd battle! I'd like to see what the Wynaut can pull out.

Sorry for the delay, Ade, I had too much work... and a good book, I must admit, but I just had to read it! It was one of the books Amy recommended to me years ago and I'd been waiting for years to get my hands on it, so please accept my apologies.

Let's go through my handwritten comments in no particular order... I was impressed at the coincidences in our vision of Lady Ninetales. And I liked Pearl's attitude throughout the story; I always do, but this time wasn't the exception. I can relate to Soo's problem, and her sheer silliness made me laugh. Where can I get one of those magical supplies of marshmallows? And wow, someone remembers the bug scenario! The only scenario ever to be introduced with a bad pun! (I'm not afraid to mock I because I made it myself). As for Milliardoitis, you're right, it's contagious; everyone's coming up with witty retorts lately; Kasumi's was good, but Milliardo isn't really that old, he's younger than most of my team, I still remember his birth. And it was good to learn more about Scratchy, though I get the feeling this is only the beginning. He reminded me a bit of Ventura, though he's gone much further than she'd ever dream of down the self-censoring path. How long is your trip going to last, by the way? Take 22 stamps! ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Why thankies, Gabi. Continuity-wise the trip is prolly only going to last about a week but I suspect the time it takes to write will be much longer than that. ^^;; As for your other comments... hehe, I pretty much remember every scenario I took part in even tho I'm a total ditz with other stuff - have you not noticed I play the obscure references to years-old events card a lot? ^_^ And yes Soo's silliness is ALWAYS chuckle-worthy, tho I really don't doubt that I chronicled events exactly as they would have happened had the non-story Soo access to a hyperactive pink Espeon.

btw, I asked for an RBG at the start of me story but nobody's granted it yet... bearing that in mind am I too late to change it to a double RBG with Scratchy and Marius against opponents from the Universal Adpotion centre? The way my intro's going atm is demanding Marius gets a slice of the action too. ^^;;

[Lady Vulpix]

Oh, sorry, I thought Amy had granted it.

Scratchy and Marius will battle a Misdreavus and a Gligar.

I'm not going to rush you because you write at a speed I wouldn't even imagine if I hadn't witnessed it, but I'm planning to write a new scenario one of these days, when my little free time allows it.

[The Blue Avenger]

Okay, this story is going to require a little bit of explanation. It's probably one of the most bizarre things I've ever written, and it rides the line of 'this shouldn't actually be happening' several times. If some things escape you, I apologize. Also, the games being referenced are, in order, Robopon 2 (GBA), Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS), Baten Kaitos (GCN), and Advance Wars (GBA). So, without further ado, enjoy "Hacked."

---

“This is ridiculous. I refuse,” the Porygon2 hissed sharply at the Pokemon standing in front of him.

“Aww, come on, 99!” Mona whined. “This is a mo… momento… er, huge undertaking in the advancement of internet sciences! Think of all of the practical applications! Trading and battling Pokemon suddenly become much easier! Pokemon who live across the country from their trainers could now see them in person! If you don’t do it, you’re just holding up scientific advancement, and that means that – ”

99 cut her off. “You are forgetting one vital thing. The Pokemon in question would all have to be Porygon or Porygon2. According to the latest census out of the Dragon’s Guild, less than 10 percent of trainers in Ulthuan have either of those. Thus, the applications of this system suddenly become much less practical.”

“Don’t be so serious all the time!” a voice spoke up from behind 99. He jumped and turned, finding the transparent Kurtzwick. “Why not just do it because it’s fun? I know I would.”

“Negative,” 99 replied. “You would do it so that you could empty someone’s bank account.” Kurtzwick scowled, but didn’t say anything to the contrary.

“Pleeease?” another voice called, this time from Anzu, sitting lazily on a lab table next to Kiva. “It’d mean so much…” She widened her eyes and stuck out her bottom lip.

Kiva chuckled quietly. “Now you’ve done it. No one can resist Anzu’s puppy-dog look.”

99 scanned the faces across the room and sighed. “All right. I will agree to your terms if you refrain from asking me to do it again.” Mona clapped her paws together and grinned as 99 floated across the otherwise empty laboratory. He landed in front of a computer terminal (modified for use by Pokemon), sitting next to a wide scanner.

Trezzatura, finally speaking up, floated next to him. “Okay, let’s get this thing started. 99, float above the scanner if you please.” 99 reluctantly levitated himself above the aforementioned scanner. “Now, Kiva, I need you to start up the scanner. Anzu, boot up the computer and get an active Internet connection.” Kiva jumped down from the table, followed shortly by Anzu. The former stopped near a complicated-looking control panel behind 99 and pressed an invitingly large red button. The scanner hummed softly to itself and began to glow a faint white. Meanwhile, Anzu expertly turned on the computer and quickly tapped into the cable modem.

“You ready, 99?” Trezzatura asked, a gleam in his eye.

“Affirmative,” 99 answered, betraying no emotion.

“Then let’s get things started.” Trezzatura threw down a switch on the control panel, and the scanner began to hum louder. The glow surrounding it began to shine even brighter, completely shrouding 99 from view. A slight hissing sound filled the otherwise silent room as the light eventually began to fade, leaving nobody on the scanner. On the computer screen, a small icon of a black-and-grey Porygon2 moved swiftly towards a browser icon. Upon reaching it, the 99 icon disappeared with a soft blip.

Kiva broke the silence first. “You guys do know Jeff’s gonna kill us for not having some way to keep in contact with 99, right?”

Anzu gave a sheepish grin. “Well, it’s too late for that now. All we can do is hope he gets back okay.”

***

Meanwhile, in the vast expanses of cyberspace, 99 floated solemnly. “Analysis,” he thought to himself. “For something with such a veritable wealth of information and constant activity, the Internet is very calm.” Indeed, it seemed very much like one would expect outer space to look: mostly dark and relatively isolated, with the occasional light or object breaking the monotony.

Suddenly, a large window popped up in front of him. He gasped sharply, but immediately calmed himself when he recognized what it was: a gigantic IM window. A message was written in blue on it, beginning with the name ThiefKurtzwick, and going on to say, “I’m assuming this is 99.”

“Hello, Kurtzwick,” 99 said, watching as his words appeared in the window. A small picture of Kurtzwick appeared in the corner, and the Dratini avatar grinned and nodded.

“Oy, 99, glad we found you. We suddenly realized that Jeff would kill us if anything happened to you, and then Trezzatura had the bright idea of using instant messenger… and since I’m the only one here with IM they let me talk to ya.”

“You have nothing to worry about,” 99 replied. “A careful analysis reveals that - ” He was cut short as the IM window disappeared in a crackle of electricity. Meanwhile, the few lights surrounding him extinguished themselves, leaving complete and total darkness that would have shrouded 99 even if he wasn’t black.

A low chuckle emanated from some point in front of 99, the darkness making it impossible to pinpoint. “So… there’s finally some prey up on this dusty old server,” a quiet voice hissed. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone around these parts. That much time… well… I’ve gotten a bit hungry…”

“Show yourself!” 99 growled.

“Gladly,” the voice said snidely. Suddenly, the entire area lit up with a dull green glow. A light green blob hung in the air in front of 99, a blob composed entirely of zeroes and ones. Another chuckle emanated from somewhere inside the blob. “Ooh, and you’re a Porygon2, as well… excellent. That just makes you all the more susceptible…”

99 narrowed his eyes and scanned the blob. A pop-up window jumped up near him and began to rapidly display text.

“Identification: Computer Virus
Class: 7
Abilities: Masking, stealing information, destroying files.”

The blob growled and extended one psuedopod, lashing it forward through the window. The pop-up fizzled and dissolved into green numbers with a noise much like acid reacting. “However, it would be unsporting to give you no chance,” the virus chuckled. “So, without further ado…” The blob began to shrink in size, giving off an intense green glow. When it had all but disappeared, the blob expanded into a different shape. The green light faded, revealing…

“Negative. Opponent can not be serious,” 99 mumbled. “Opponent can not be a Wynaut.”

However, the virus was: where a hideous green glob once floated, there then stood a cheerful Wynaut. It opened its eyes for a brief moment, revealing a sharp green glow. “Let’s go,” the virus hissed.

Battle time! 99 versus the Computer Virus (Wynaut Form)!
99 – “Target acquired. Initializing victory cycle.”
~
Computer Virus – “You’ll just be another meal!”

99 began to crackle with electrical energy, but was abruptly stopped by his opponent yelling, “Halt!” The Wynaut raised one arm, glowing with a faint green energy.

Suddenly, the world around 99 burst into life. The blank space surrounding the combatants began to fill with color, and several text boxes popped up beneath them. The background’s form eventually settled into a peaceful, grassy field. Tress decorated the scenery, and a few small, green, humanoid creatures with flowers on their heads peered out at the battle. The boxes turned a light blue and printed information: the one below 99 read, “99. Attack, Defend, Item, Escape,” with ‘Item’ and ‘Escape’ shaded out. One final blue box floated to above the field and began to roll like a slot machine.

Location: Kappa Village

99 scowled, obviously irritated. He focused on the menu and selected the word ‘Attack,’ which fanned out into two more options: ‘Software’ and ‘Basic Attack.’ He chose ‘Software,’ and yet another list popped up, this time displaying ‘Electric, Lightning, Copy.’

“Got the hang of it yet?” the virus asked from across the field, having already chosen its action. 99 refrained from answering, instead only glaring at the Wynaut. He selected Lightning, and 99 felt his body crackle with the familiar electrical energy. The energy culminated in a huge Thunderbolt, arcing majestically towards Wynaut. The virus didn’t counter, instead choosing only to adopt a defensive stance as the bolt struck it.

“Well… so you do have some fight in you!” Wynaut smirked, smoldering slightly. “But how will you withstand my ultimate attack?”

“Easily,” 99 said coldly. “Wynaut are capable of Mirror Coat, Counter, Splash, Charm, Destiny Bond, Safeguard, and Encore. I am capable of handling any of those at this moment.”

“Wrong, boy!” the virus snickered. “How about Psychoboost?”

“Impossible.”

“Or is it? I am a virus, you know…”

99 considered this. “All right. I will prepare for that eventuality,” he mumbled to himself. He flew through the menus again, this time selecting ‘Copy.’ He glowed a bright white, and a purple light flew from Wynaut to himself. “The Conversion operation will protect me from Psychic attacks,” 99 said.

The virus didn’t speak, instead only laughing. It began to clap its arms together rhythmically… The sound drowned out all of the background noise, and the rhythmic movement of the Wynaut’s arms drew 99’s focus. One thought began to repeat in his head, over and over again: “Conversion.” 99 slowly went through the menus, again selecting Copy. The familiar light filled the arena, this time failing to do anything.

Meanwhile, Wynaut just smiled to itself. It shrouded itself in a white veil, which vanished from sight immediately. 99 Converted again, still failing to accomplish anything. The virus took the opportunity to wink at the Porygon2, small hearts surrounding both Pokemon.

“What is this?” 99 thought to himself. “Target appears… cute…” He scowled and shook his head. “Encore sequence ended.” He cycled through the menu again, this time selecting ‘Basic Attack.’

“Tackle, eh?” Wynaut chuckled. “What do you think that will do? Your attack power is in shreds!”

“Do not mock me,” 99 replied solemnly. He launched himself at the virus, but directly before impact, he froze… along with the rest of the world. “What is this treachery?” he thought furiously. Without warning, the blue slot machine box above him floated down to his level and halted its spin, revealing one word in glowing yellow letters: “Jackpot!” The slot rolled down one square, revealing a different phrase: “Double Damage!” The box glowed white and disappeared; the light flowed into 99 as the world regained its motion. A white brilliance emanated from the Porygon2 as he slammed into the Wynaut, the fear evident in the virus’s eyes.

“Wait… wait!” it stuttered, before raising one arm, swathed in an eerie green glow. The green light grew steadily larger, before it cloaked the entire area. It quickly disappeared, however, leaving 99 and the virus in yet another location. It appeared to be a large stadium with a stage in the middle, the stage empty save for the two Pokemon. The seats surrounding it were filled with small, purple, mushroom-like creatures. They cheered loudly as 99 and the virus adopted fighting stances. Four cubes, each one a separate color, appeared above 99’s head. One was labeled Attack, the next Sp. Attack, the third Item, and the fourth Run, with the third and the fourth shaded gray.

Location: Koopaseum

The crowd began to cheer even louder as a few of their members held up a cardboard sign: on it was a picture of a Wynaut. Several more audience members pulled out large, red-and-white mushrooms and passed them across to the sign-holders, who in turn grabbed them and tossed them down to the virus.

The Wynaut sighed as he quickly ate the fungi. “Aah… much better. I’ll win this yet!” it said smugly.

99 squinted and turned to look at the blocks above him. Experimentally, he tapped the one labeled ‘Attack’ with his beak. The blocks disappeared and were replaced with a red arrow, floating over Wynaut, as well as a single block labeled ‘Confirm’ floating over 99. He tapped the single remaining block, and found himself rushing over to Tackle the virus again.

“Uh-uh-uh…” the virus said, grinning. Just before 99 reached it, the Wynaut, amazingly, pulled a mallet out from behind its back. It held the hammer high above its head and brought it down with a swift ‘thud’ on 99’s head. 99 stumbled back and moaned. “That, my dear prey, was what we call a ‘hammer counter.’ Appropriate, right?”

Just then, the crowd let out another loud cheer. This time, they held up a sign of a black-and-gray Porygon2. 99 sighed. “Finally,” he thought, “maybe I can get healed a little…” Several audience members pulled out mushrooms, this time colored purple and blue, and passed them to the sign carriers, who again threw them down at the virus. This time, Wynaut hit each of them like a golf ball with its mallet; they flew over to 99, his mouth open wide…

…but instead of the nourishing mushrooms that had been passed out earlier, these were as hard as rock. They collided with the virtual Pokemon with a sickening thump; 99 recoiled, his natural levitating abilities beginning to give way.

“Aww, has ickle Porygon got a boo-boo?” Wynaut taunted. 99 grimaced and weakly reached up to tap one of the blocks again. He slowly lifted up his head and fired a few small rings of electricity at the virus, who tried to block the attack with its mallet to no avail. “What the heck kinda attack was that? You’ve forgotten: I have a Safeguard up!” Wynaut said, smirking. “No matter. I can sense that you’re at the end of the line. This will be over soon.”

However, as if to contradict it, the audience began to cheer: they again held up 99’s picture, but this time passed the regular red-and-white mushrooms straight to him. 99 ate them haltingly, and after a few moments, he floated back up in the air.

“Conclusion: cease talking and finish match,” 99 muttered.

“Aheheh…” the Wynaut chuckled. “Of course. This wouldn’t be any fun if you went down that easily.” He raised one arm and again enveloped the area in a green glow, and, once again, when it cleared, they were in an entirely different setting – a dark forest, entirely unremarkable except for the small, stinger-tailed dragons taking roost in the trees.

Location: Moonguile Forest

“I’ll roll you up!” the virus shouted gleefully as it leered at 99.

99 reared back to charge at his foe, but was suddenly halted when a row of cards, of all things, popped up in front of him. There were 5 cards: one was a picture of a sword, one was labeled ‘Shock Bolt,’ one was labeled ‘Shock Bolt II,’ and the final two were ‘Shift’ one and two. He looked at the cards, then glared at the virus. “You can not be serious. Card battling is an old and dated way of conducting serious matches.”

“Oh, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” the virus replied slyly.

99 frowned and pecked one of the cards with his beak – Shock Bolt II. Suddenly, he found himself rising into the air, surrounding by a blue glow, and he felt compelled to yell “Shock Bolt!” The blue glow changed into a bolt-like form, and zapped toward the Wynaut…

…who calmly selected one card in front of it and let it light up, its glow washing over its body. The Thunderbolt struck it, but when it fizzled, the Wynaut looked completely unharmed. Instead, it just held up the same card again, and the Thunderbolt reappeared, this time headed for 99. His eyes widened, and he hurriedly picked out a new card. The card began to glow, and 99 slowly began to turn a shade of brown. The Thunderbolt struck, but just like the Wynaut, 99 was unharmed.

“Oh-ho,” the virus chuckled. “Using a Conversion attack to avoid my Mirror Coat. Clever.” The row of cards flew back into a larger stack of cards beside it, as the words “Shuffling the Deck” appeared in cursive above its head. “But let’s see how you handle…” It paused and surveyed the new hand it had drawn. “What? This hand is horrible! I got 5 Splash cards!”

“Isn’t that a shame,” 99 replied in a monotone. “And here I am, with a fresh Thunderbolt.” He selected the card and sent off another bolt of electricity; this time, it hit spot-on before the Wynaut could counter it. Wynaut flew back, sizzling and extra-crispy. It slowly stood back up and coughed up a cloud of soot.

“Ugh… okay, look, I know when I’m beaten,” the virus mumbled, sounding pained. He raised his arm. “Truce?”

99 paused before answering. “Calculate odds that virus is lying,” he muttered to himself. “Factor in damage to virus and health of its foe, i.e. me… there is a 26:1 chance that it does not intend a truce. Conclusion: take offer.” He looked up at the Wynaut. “Affirmative, fighting will - ” His sentence was drawn to a halt as he realized that the Wynaut was glowing green.

“Sucker,” it grinned. “All I need is one more round, and I can take you down!” The green glow once again obscured the entire area. When it cleared, 99 found himself hovering high over what appeared to be a cross between a chessboard and a world map. Several people and machines stood on the ground, all separated into two colors: red and gray. They looked vaguely disproportionate, as if they were toys.

Location: Orange Star countryside

99 frowned. This was a type of battle where he couldn’t immediately see what to do. He leaned back and started to charge at the Wynaut, but he stopped when he realized that some of the people on the ground had responded to his action: a group of the red-clothed soldiers moved ahead and fired rifles at a group of the gray soldiers. Some of the grays fell over and disappeared. 99 turned his attention back to his opponent, who was glowing white. Back on the ground, the remaining gray soldiers in the group fired back on the red ones, knocking them all down. As each of the soldiers disappeared, 99 felt a sharp jolt of pain… almost as if they were damaging him.

“Do you get it yet?” Wynaut asked. “Those soldiers represent us. And with my superior skill at war games and counter-attacking, I’ll stomp you!”

99 frowned as a legion of the gray soldiers in tanks surrounding an unlucky pair of the red ones. The red ones fired at them, but the tanks shrugged the hit off and fired back. 99 felt another sharp jolt, as if he had been punched in the gut.

***

Meanwhile, in an entirely different world, Jeff sat down on his bed and opened his laptop. As it booted up, he cradled his head. The barracks had become very noisy lately, ever since he brought that Solarbeam TM home… as it was, Bobbery, Groviglio, and Mercandos were fighting over it. Anyone who’s ever listened to any one of them could vouch for how loud they could be, but the three of them could be a force to be reckoned with.

The computer finished booting up, and Jeff pulled out a pair of headphones, plugging them into the computer. He sighed and put on some music, which was unfortunately just quiet enough to avoid drowning out the bickering Pokemon.

“Let’s see what going on in the news today…” he mumbled quietly, clicking on the Internet link to Ulthuan’s daily news service. Suddenly, his screen flashed green, totally obscuring any news that may have happened. The light cleared, and Jeff saw a screen very much like a chessboard overlaid on a map: small soldiers were scattered all over the board, with gray ones greatly outnumbering the red ones. He scrolled the screen up, and saw a very familiar Porygon2 alongside an undeniably creepy Wynaut. Jeff paused, calmly shut down the laptop, and stood up. Suddenly, Kurtzwick’s cryptic comment that morning made much more sense.

”Hey, Jeff, we’re gonna go do some experiments with 99 about the Internet. Later.”

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t terribly cryptic.

Jeff grabbed his knapsack, snatched the TM out from the center of the argument, and dashed out the door.

***

A few mere moments later, a very out-of-breath Jeff arrived at the lab. He barreled past Kurtzwick and Trezzatura and placed the TM on the scanner. He flipped the switch, watched the TM disappear, and then turned back around to berate his teammates.

***

99 watched resignedly as the gray soldiers eliminated one more red soldier. He didn’t have much choice; the Wynaut kept him in a perpetual Encore of Tackles, allowing the gray soldiers to counterattack and pick off his weakened red team. Suddenly, a brilliant white glow alerted both combatants to a new presence: when it faded, a small light green cube floated in front of 99. It burst, scattering a green dust all over the Porygon2, which immediately disappeared. At the same time, 99 noticed a small meter over his head, which read 99 and had a small row of stars at the bottom, had completely lit up. He tapped the meter somewhat painfully, and it disappeared, only to be replaced by the phrase “CO Power.” 99 turned to the Wynaut, who had backed up, quivering.

“N-no! That’s cheating! You can’t do that!” it whined.

“Observation: computer virus is a coward. Solution: elimination,” 99 clicked as a beam of sunlight appeared from nowhere and absorbed itself into his body. After a few moments, the beam, reborn as a powerful green-and-yellow blast, shot forth, plowing straight into the Wynaut. 99 glanced down at the field, and noticed that the sole remaining red soldier had managed to KO every last gray one.

“The pain is… horrendous…” the virus moaned. “I am… done for.” With that elegant parting phrase, the Wynaut transformed slowly back into its original, blob-like form, and dissipated.

Battle over! 99 gains a level! 99 has learned Solarbeam!

Immediately after the virus vanished, 99 felt his body begin to fade away as well. He closed his eyes as the world around him melted away…

…and when he opened them again, he was floating in front of Jeff, back in the lab. Everyone in it (with the exception of the trainer) looked thoroughly embarrassed.

“99! Are you okay?” Jeff exclaimed upon seeing him.

“…Affirmative,” 99 replied after a pause. “However, I have no desire to go back any time soon.”

“That’s okay, nobody will force you,” Jeff said, ignoring a disappointed groan from Kurtzwick and Mona. “Now, let’s head back.” With that said, the team exited the lab against the backdrop of a setting sun.

[Skye]

Hn, I was wondering if I could get a few things. First, I would like an extension for this scenario, it sounds too interesting to pass up. second, I would like to see if I could get a refund for my RBG of Rayne against a Poochyena (Page 3). Thirdly and lastly, I would like a 2 on 2 RBG for Menos and Radek at the Caledor's Nature Protection Agency. Please and thank you. ^^; *pays 14 Stamps*

[Lady Vulpix]

Darkfire: you get the extension, and your pokemon will battle a Growlithe and a Trapinch. As for the refund... they're not contemplated in the rules, so for now I'll have to say no, sorry. I'll discuss the issue with the others when I can find them, but I don't promise any changes.

Jeff: yes, it was inded odd. Now that I think of it, it reminds me of Reboot. 99 speaks funny, by the way. Is ThiefKurtzwick a real AIM account? How does he manage to type? Take 13 stamps. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

[The Blue Avenger]

ThiefKurtzwick is a real account, yes. Had it registered solely for this story. And as for how he can type, I believe that's filed alongside "how can he carry things with no arms?" Nobody knows as of yet except for Kurtzwick himself.

[Wolfsong]

Sorry just wanted to get the first part of the story for the previous scenario done before I had to go out of town. I’ll try to get the other part finished during or after my trip which is hopefully lasting only one night. Had some trouble getting started writing and I haven’t been able to write for fun in a while so bear with me if I seem rusty. I also had trouble getting started so I just started forcing myself to write and towards the end it was getting easier. Also I though I was supposed to leave Sunday and stay till Monday but I’m supposed to go tomorrow afternoon and I’ll most likely be back Sunday night unless the weather gets bad.

Before story notes: I gave Ebony the Blaze Kick Tm that I have had in my possession for a while now. I also gave Jasmine the slam Tm that I had bought from Darkfire. I also bought then traded a hidden power tm to becca for her aurora beam tm that I gave to Colby. Darin evolved at the eevee house where he got a psychic tm from becca and Ares as a late birthday present. As far as the character’s colors, Darin now has the color purple, Tiny – maroon, Colby – Navy, and Ebony – black. Last but not lease I shuffled a few items around. I took the gold berries from sweetie and jasmine and gave them stat modification dies. I also gave one of those stat modification dies to flame. I bought a collar for tiny and gave Colby the beach ball that I had. Ebony also gets the earring that I had. I also bought blazer a crunch tm. I’ve decided to give Darin the psycho boost and mind reader tms that I had.

(Amy’s POV)

I sighed, rubbing my temples as I watched the tape of Armand DiAnnio’s broadcast that Flame had recorded. It just so happened that the broadcast had aired when I was returning from what seemed like my first vacation in ages. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t even that much of a vacation. It was basically a three day trip home to visit my parents as well as meeting up with an old friend. She was taking a new job and wanted to see me before she moved. We had grown up together. Anyways, I didn’t see the broadcast because the plane that I had taken didn’t have a TV on it. With everything that had been going on, I had asked my team their opinion before I had made arrangements for my trip. They had all agreed that I should go though Darin had been unusually quiet. At the time, I just figured that hew as still trying to adjust to being an espeon.

Anyways time to get back to the present. I immediately knew that something was up by the looks on my team’s face when I walked in the door. They quickly filled me in on what had happened while I was gone as well as showing me the message that had aired while I was on the airplane. I shook my head as I hurried into the den and turned on my computer. As soon as I could, I signed on to the internet and began checking my messages. Sure enough, there were plenty of them. To make things worse, I had even missed a meeting. I was just about to log off of the computer when I was alerted to an instant message. It was Gabi. She basically filled me in on what I had missed and told me what she knew about the plan. When she asked me which wave I was going with, I admitted that I didn’t know at the time.

* * *

(Kiara’s POV)

After Amy had finished with the computer, she logged off. After which, we had a team discussion where it was decided that Amy, Kovu, Sweetie, Yana, Dodger, and myself would go with the first wave. Flame, Blazer, Sugar, and Talut were going with the second wave. It was also agreed upon that Jasmine, Colby, Tiny, Ebony, Sinopa, and Darin would stay at home.

Once we had decided on who was going with which wave Amy set about making the necessary calls. When she had finished with the calls, she checked her pack to see if she had the necessary supplies before she headed off to bed. The plane ride had tired her out and who knew how late we would be up tomorrow. Most of the team decided to follow Amy’s lead. Before I headed to bed, I checked in on Darin and the others that were staying home and I had to smile. They had gone through Amy’s stack of movies and pulled out all the comedies that she owned and were beginning to watch them.

* * *

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was glad that Caledor was here with me. As we walked, I glanced over at the espeon beside me and smiled briefly. Pretty soon it was time for the stun spore group to do their part. At first, I was surprised to see that Kovu had joined them but it wasn’t long before I remembered that he knew how to use the move mimic.

“I was expecting chaos, but not so soon. What should we do?” Caledor asked.

“I guess we make do the best we can under these circumstances.” I answered as I looked around. It really was complete and utter chaos. I shook my head slowly.

Amber was the next to speak. I don’t think it will be long before some Crimson Blades can breach the barrier. Maybe we should go ahead and try to strike first.” She suggested. The two charizards took off but were quickly met by a pair of altarias.

From somewhere in the crowd behind the stun spore line came a female’s voice. She seemed to be shouting commands at the two altarias that were trying to force the stun spore towards us but ultimately failing. “It’s not working. Take down the charizards and make room for Briar to walk through.”

“Any ideas on what we should do?” I asked.
“I think we should go ahead and try to stop this Briar, whoever it is.” Caledor suggested. I nodded my head in agreement. “Good idea.” I told him.

Amy turned to look at us. I’m going ahead to see if I can see what kind of pokemon this Briar is.” Sweetie stepped forward. “I’m not letting you go alone. I’m coming with you.” Amy nodded her head in acceptance before turning to look at the rest of our small little group. “All right. Anyone else?”When no one else volunteered, the two of them took off.

I was watching Amy and Sweetie so I failed to see the altaria until a split second before it hit Caledor. Even then I only managed to catch a brief glimpse of blue and white out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head in time to see Caledor hit it with a psychic blast. Shortly after that, Amber arrived. Glancing back in the direction that the altaria had came from, which happened to be the same one that Amy and Sweetie had been heading towards, I saw a large venusaur forcibly making its way through the crowd. That must be Briar I thought to myself.

My mouth dropped open when I saw a cloud of light blue spores heading towards Amy and Sweetie. To my horror the two of them collapsed to the ground, sound asleep. Thinking quickly, I turned to face Caledor. “Caledor, can you use a fire attack on me?” I asked. “It doesn’t matter which one.”

“Sure!” Caledor agreed. He then began to glow red before launching a flamethrower at me. I felt the temperature of my body rise powering up my fire attacks as my flash fire ability was activated. “Thanks.” I called over my shoulder as I ran forwards and placed myself between Briar and the sleeping forms of Amy and Sweetie. “Anytime!” I heard him say.

Kiara L.44 F Flareon Vs. Briar L.45 M Venusaur

As I stared at him, I quickly realized that he hadn’t noticed me yet so I decided to make the most of my brief advantage. I quickly used double team and I had six clones effectively surrounding Briar in a circle. Needless to say, it was hard for Briar not to notice me now.

I wasn’t prepared for the speed with which Briar was moving. Two vines shot out from the underside of the flower on his back and slammed into the clone that was closest to me on my right. That was close, I thought to myself as I took a deep breath before exhaling a swirling cyclone of flames that enveloped Briar and trapped him.

I heard a whooshing sound shortly before a flurry of leaves shot out from the innards of the fire spin. As I watched, the leaves tore through one clone after the other before slamming into me. I did the best that I could to focus my energies on the battle that I was currently in. I knew that I couldn’t afford a single mistake.

The next object to come hurtling out of the fire spin was a sludge bomb. I tried to jump out of the way, but I was positive that it was going to hit. Then, all of a sudden, things seemed like they were moving in slow motion and I managed to avoid getting pelted by the sticky sludge. I was confused at first, but quickly figured out that it must have been because of the detect move that I knew.

As I watched, the fire spin faded from sight revealing an angry venusaur. With a mighty roar, three seeds shot out of the flower on his back and hit me. I gasped in surprise as the seeds buried themselves within my fur and slowly began to sap my health. My fur began crackling with electricity as I concentrated on my hidden power and soon a lightning bolt shot from my mane and struck Briar.

A familiar cloud of light blue spores was heading straight towards me. My eyes widened as I used all the speed that I had in my body to propel myself out of the attack’s path.

Briar just smirked at me. I eyed him warily, wondering what he was planning. It wasn’t long before I found out. Where only a minute ago a single venusaur had stood, there were now two. I took a deep breath before using fire blast. Unfortunately, my attack hit the only clone.

Briar began laughing as he stomped the ground and within seconds the earth began to shake. Almost immediately, I was knocked off my paws. I knew that I was going to be sore tomorrow from the way I was being bounced around. Finally, the earth stopped shaking. If it hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer.

Weakly, I climbed to my paws. When I looked up, Briar was charging towards me. I took a deep breath before exhaling a huge star shaped wall of flames that slammed into Briar. He was immediately knocked unconscious but his momentum was still carrying him forwards. I quick attacked out o the way and stood there on wobbling legs.

I won!
I grew to L.46

I’ll try to get the second battle for this scenario done soon, but I would like an extension for the current scenario please, and I’ll see everyone hopefully Sunday night.

[Ace64]

I'm not sure whether this scenario is going to change soon or not, but I'd like to know if I could get an extension. Might as well try my hand at this battle thing, and see how I do.

[Lady Vulpix]

Ace, you get the extension.

The scenario will change by the end of the upcoming week.

Amy, take 7 stamps for your battle. Sorry for the delay. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢
By the way, you said something about Amber and then said the two Charizards took off, but never mentioned who the other was. I think adding some more detail would improve your stories.

[Skye]

Notes -
1. Crappy
2. I'm mad cause I lost my floppy disk with the original battle on it
3. All Pokemon legally adopted/bred...
4. At least it's done, lol
5. ... Hola?

"Maybe it was the other way," a voice admitted grudgingly.

"Maybe?" pressed a similar but softer voice.

"Okay, we should have taken a left, so sue me,"

"Well, we need to go back,"

"And we’re going to get past the giant boulders… how…?" the first voice replied with bitter sarcasm.

"Okay," the winged serpent sighed, gliding effortlessly next to a human woman. "Maybe we can find our way around."

"Around? Hah, I’d rather see if this trail leads to Sector Alpha on its own," replied a voice from the woman’s backpack. Shortly after his comment, a second serpent poked his head out of the woman’s bag. "Darkfire, can I have a Berry?"

"No, Radek. Menos, why don’t you fly up and see what’s ahead?" the woman asked, for once getting say in where they were traveling. The winged Dratini nodded his head and flapped his great wings to catch a sudden thermal that had arisen. Soon, he was soaring high overhead. Darkfire stopped and felt something walk into her leg. Drystan muttered a soft apology and yawned, feeling drowsy from the long trek.

"It’s alright, we’re all getting affected by the traveling," Darkfire knelt down and stroked the Bagon’s head softly. Radek yawned in response, and Darkfire yawned as well. Drystan chuckled softly at the chain reaction and all of them watched as Menos began to descend from the sky.

Feeling refreshed, he rested on the ground next to Drystan and opened his mouth to begin his report when he yawned. He looked at them for a moment, suspicious as everyone chuckled.

“We are about three days away from Sector Alpha if we stay on this path,” he turned in the soft snow and began to sketch a map with the tip of his tail while everyone watched. “Though we will have to brush across some more mountains. Thankfully, they appear to be more stable, so the chances of another rockslide are slim to none.” He concluded, drawing incomplete triangles to symbolize what he was talking about, and a city off to the side.

Darkfire nodded thoughtfully as she looked at the map. “Good work, Menos,” she praised him. He shrugged his wings and tucked them against his sides, tired of flying. Darkfire crouched down so Radek could slither out of her bag and down her arm. Soon he was next to his brother. They looked like twins, one an angel and one a devil. Radek had always said he was the devil of the group, and Darkfire had to agree. He was a vicious joker, sometimes pulling nearly dangerous pranks. But she knew his father well, and knew he was a lot like him.

One thing she knew was that if you scolded him for his pranks, he wouldn’t listen. Instead, he would get angry and lash out furiously in his training exercises until he had calmed down. Then he would go back to his carefree, sarcastic lifestyle without even giving it a thought. In fact, he had held grudges, long and vicious, against Darkfire for taking away his fun. They were in friendly territory again, but she didn’t understand where he was coming from. It was as if he just couldn’t recognize just how dangerous some of his games were. His twin brother was the exact opposite.

The angel, Menos passively watched his brother pull his pranks, advising him against it to little effect. However, Menos was the only one who Radek had never held a grudge against, and probably never would. They were closer than Darkfire could understand. They cared deeply for each other, even though Menos never showed it and Radek was too wild to openly admit to it. However, neither denied it either.

Darkfire straightened and resumed the trek to Sector Alpha, Drystan following at a walk and the Dratini twins following at a hypnotic glide across the otherwise prefect snow. The cold powder eventually gave way to rocks and hard, icy stone that bit into the Dratinis’ tender underbellies and the climbs soon began to exhaust Drystan’s short legs and arms. Darkfire managed to convince the Bagon to rest in his Pokéball, but could not convince the Dratinis to return. They followed stubbornly until Radek had to crawl unto Darkfire’s shoulders and Menos had to take wing again.

Hours later, as the sun reached its zenith, they arrived on a plateau devoid of snow and ice and took a break for lunch. Darkfire released Drystan and examined the scratched on the Dratinis’ bellies. No one was hurt enough to bleed and refused her help once again. With a sigh, she pulled out a sandwich for herself and snacks for her Pokémon. They accepted the food, at least.

Soon, a clattering was heard as a Growlithe and Trapinch climbed up on the plateau as well, a large egg in the Trapinch’s mouth. He set the egg down, both Pokémon oblivious to the fact they were being watched. The Growlithe turned to the egg and breathed in deeply before the Trapinch stepped in front of her.

“What are you doing? We can’t cook the egg like that. We need to hard boil it,” he growled. The Growlithe snorted.

“Scrambled is much better than hard boiled. And where are we going to get water, Mr. Genius?” she retorted.

“Somewhere. We got the egg, didn’t we?” he then noticed the human and Pokémon not native to this part of Ulthuan. “What are you doing here? Go away, shoo!”

Darkfire had heard enough. That egg belonged to a pair of frightened parents, and those poachers were preparing to eat it. “Give me that egg,” she demanded, putting her lunch aside. Menos and Drystan got up to show their support while Radek resumed eating. He didn’t really seem to care, but to Darkfire’s eye she saw him watching the egg with extreme interest.

“No way,” the Trapinch seemed very young, maybe not that much older than the Dratinis. He stepped close to the egg, but leapt away when a blast of ice was shot at him. He glared at the patch of ice, then at Radek, who moved arrogantly up beside his brother.

“Let’s rock their world,” he smirked, eager for his very first battle. Menos nodded and Drystan backed down, not wanting to cheat in battle and make it a three against two. He was almost too honest for his own good.

Menos and Radek Level 5 Vs. Trapinch and Growlithe Level 5

Menos flew up high and dove at the Trapinch, who countered with a large Gust. Menos cried out, shocked, as he was sucked into the tornado and thrown around. He crashed into the ground and skidded into this brother, who had been charging a powerful Ice Beam. Radek lost control and released his Ice Beam and missed by yards.

Growlithe laughed and advanced, beginning to give off waves of heat until even Menos was flinching from the temperature. She opened her mouth and out poured a tsunami of flames what reared up and crashed down onto the Dratini. Menos screamed out in pain from the Heat Wave, his beautiful wings singed badly. Radek wrapped himself protectively around his brother as they endured the powerful Fire attack. When it was done, Menos was lying very still, his wing charred and smoking.

“Menos… Menos!” Radek shouted, scared. It was the first time Darkfire had seen him look so afraid. He nosed his brother, not seeming to notice his own burns. Menos gave a soft whine but didn’t open his eyes, in too much pain.

Growlithe laughed loudly. “Now THAT’s a cooked snake, Sige!” she sneered cruelly. The Trapinch observed the now sobbing Radek with grim, uncertain eyes. Darkfire figured he must be Sige.

“Damn you!” he cried, tears streaming down his face and eyes blazing with hatred. He fired a hard Ice Beam suddenly, knocking into Sige hard and blasting him off of the edge of the plateau. The Trapinch screamed, then was suddenly silent as he met the end of his fall. Now he faced the Growlithe, eyes narrowed coldly. Her arrogant smirk was gone, replaced by fear of the Dragon what would kill in battle.

“Now, easy there,” she began and barely dodged an Ice Beam. She backed away as he advanced, looking scared now. She opened her mouth and fired another Heat Wave at him, giving him the full blast of the attack. Only by sheer will was he able to pull through the attack. He glared angrily and opened his mouth to deliver the strongest attack he had ever used.

A beam of ice shot at Growlithe, freezing her to the spot. The impact was just enough to knock her out, and freeze her to the ground so she wouldn’t go over the cliff. Radek let the power of his Ice Beam dwindle into nothingness as he looked back and saw Menos sitting up with a weak grin on his face.

Radek grew to Level 6!
Menos grew to Level 6!

The brothers went to each other and nosed the other’s wounds while Drystan recovered the egg. Darkfire, however, went to the edge of the icy summit and peered over at the Trapinch, Sige. He was lying at the bottom, scratched up and unconscious. Worried, she slid down the bank and climbed over to him.

Sige opened his eyes and tried to crawl away. “Hush, Sige. I’m going to help you,” Darkfire soothed him. He probably wasn’t a bad Pokémon at all, unlike that Growlithe. He held still as she picked him up. Then he gave a pained cry as she cradled him against her chest. He was pretty badly hurt, but nothing life threatening from what she could tell. At least not immediately.

Drystan watched her climb back up over the edge of the plateau, holding the wounded Trapinch in one arm. Her strength always surprised him. She had been a horse trainer back in a land called America, and she had picked up good habits training these horses. He hoped they would help her train them. Training horses and training Pokémon couldn’t be that different, could it?

“How is the egg?” Darkfire asked as she laid Sige next to it. The Trapinch looked guiltily at the egg and closed his eyes in shame. Drystan kept his eyes on the Trapinch as he replied,

“It’s about ready to hatch,” the Bagon replied. Sige sighed and Darkfire began to bandage his wounds. A few gashes were deep, but nothing was broken, torn, or otherwise damaged beyond the ability of time and rest to repair.

“Alright,” she said finally. “You’re all ready to go.”

“Thank you, ma’am…” he murmured, not looking up to moving right that second. She nodded and headed over to Menos and Radek, noticing that they had gotten their Shed Skin abilities to work. Patches of old, burnt scales and charred feathers littered the ground, and both Pokémon shone with their new flesh and feathers. Darkfire smiled at them.

“Good battle, you guys… Radek, you really ought to try to control your temper a tad more,” she added.

“Temper? What temper?” Radek stretched himself as if he had never worried over his brother. “Why did you help that… bug?” he added a sneer of disgust at Sige, who was just getting up. Menos sighed, things were back to normal.

“Because we must know how to be kind to one another,” Darkfire replied. “I’m sure Sige is a good Pokémon at heart, he’s just a little misguided.”

“Feh, I should throw him off the cliff again!” Radek threatened, but the threat was empty. Still, Sige cringed away from Radek and actually hid behind Drystan.

“Ignore him,” the Bagon advised the Trapinch. “He’s a great windbag.”

“Windbag!” a few unmentionable words and threats accompanied Radek’s trademark outburst of anger. Sige flinched again. Suddenly, the egg near Drystan began to crack. Everyone gathered around and murmured excitedly, all but Sige, as a tiny Charmander rolled out of the egg shell. He opened his tiny eyes and looked right up at Darkfire. He crawled over to her and lay across her foot, just tiny enough to do so.

“Awe,” she crooned and stroked the baby gently. He nipped at her fingers playfully, wagging a tail with a small flame already burning on the end of it. “I think I’ll name him Matthias.”

Menos rolled his eyes. Darkfire would take in anything that looked cute. Any chance that they had had of returning the baby to his parents had obviously vanished. For now, it was a member of the team, whether he wanted to be or not. He had imprinted on Darkfire now, and had her scent all over himself. No parent would be able to distinguish the child, and if it was a wild Pokémon it might not even take him back if it could.

“Uh… human?” Sige asked, turning to face Darkfire.

“Yeah?”

“Could I join you…? I want to get stronger,” he added swiftly as if Darkfire would say no on the spot without an explanation. His relief was evident when she nodded.

“Of course. Welcome to the team, Sige. We’re on out way to Sector Alpha to join the Dragon’s Guild.”

“Sounds promising,” the Trapinch nodded. “I know a path that leads through a forest to a human city. It might be Sector Alpha.”

“Then let’s go!” Darkfire cheered. She offered Sige a shiny new Pokéball and smiled when he went in without a fight. Now a new friend was on their team.

[Lady Vulpix]

Nice start, Darkfire. Sorry to hear that you lost the old version, but the new one was good. By the way, your new character seems to be very different from the old Darkfire. Even though she mentioned knowing the Dratinis' father; will we hear more about him? And it was a bit strange when she said "we must know how to be kind to one another", it felt like she was helping Sige out of obligation and not because she wanted to. Was that intentional? And how did she understand Sige's words?, does she have psychic abilities or something? Or is it something we'll get to know as the story progresses? Take 12 stamps. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢

Ah, and hola.

[Skye]

Muchas gracias. Yes, she is what the real Darkfire is like, and VERY much different than the last time I was trying this out. We'll more than likely see, if not hear, from Rayne soon. Maybe in a few chapters. Yes, I still consider each entry as a chapter. ^^; I'm just not writing them out like one. And that wasn't intentional that she sounded like it was an obligation. I was thinking that it was more of a required moral or something. ^^; And you'll learn about her abilities soon, or luck rather. I like to write my stories so that they unravel slowly. The only reason no one is shocked about her ability yet is Sige was still recovering from the attack and Growlithe didn't notice, Matthias is too young to understand what's happening and the twins are used to it already.

Anyway, I'm a day early but I would like another RBG for Drystan my Bagon at Caledor's Nature Protection Agency please. It might take a few RBGs to lead up to the scenario since a lot is going to happen between the mountains and Sector Alpha. ^^ *pays 7 Stamps and keeps 5*

[Wolfsong]

Drystan will be battling a vulpix

[Lady Vulpix]

Since at least one person has a pending extension for the Crimson Blades scenario, I'm going to postpone the next scenario until tomorrow. Please contact me if you have any problems reaching the deadline. Otherwise the scenario will change in approximately 19-20 hours from now.

[Lady Vulpix]

Alright, the time has come. Sorry about your extension, Amy. I hope you can get back to writing soon. Maybe you can wrap things upa little in your next story, making a short recap of what happened to Yana at the Crimson Blades base.

ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤

The time came when it was impossible to put it off. The break had been taken, the reconstruction was mostly over, the reports on the war had been filed and everything was running smoothly once more. To most people in Ulthuan, and especially in Sector Alpha, that meant life was going back to normal. To a few Dragon Tamers and Dragon's Guild members, it meant it was time to go on yet another dangerous mission, with little to no information regarding what they would find.

Gabi made the call, just like in the old times. It had been her idea, after all, and she was the one in charge of writing the report on the mission... or on "Ponytas in high places" anyway. The guidelines were few: all those who wanted to assist would go to the base of White Mountain in the southern part of Ellyrion, and conduct some research in small groups, looking for anything strange or suspicious, on or around the mountain. Those who decided to stay in Caledor, were free to go about challenging other trainers and doing whatever they normally did. Those who chose to go, would have to be particularly careful: they might find nothing, but there was known to be a very dangerous presence somewhere in the mountain... feeding slowly on the souls of those who sought glory, or a change in their lives... presumably waiting for the moment to strike. But that was, once more, mostly speculation: the Dragon Tamers knew there was a female green dragon named Yssera, who had been known to hide in the mountain and lure humans and pokemon alike with false promises, putting them into a trance that felt like a prophetic dream, and from which they woke up half the beings they used to be, with no bonds to anything or anyone, and no purpose in life; and they all seemed to feel grateful to her somehow. But that was all they knew for certain.

Yssera had already spent a few years in the mountain, which used to be a peaceful sanctuary before her arrival. Unbeknownst to the Dragon Tamers, she managed to gather a force of pokemon determined to follow her and protect her, if only because her promises of fame, glory and a bright future just for being on her side were all they had left. These pokemon would try to stop any attempts to find Yssera in terms other than her own, by persuasion or by force.

Note: the mission is optional, and open to Dragon Tamers and Dreagon's Guild members alike. If you want to stay, you can still have friendly battles in Sector Alpha. You can fight up to 2 pokemon from the list, as usual. You simply have a little more variety to choose from this time.

(up to level 15)
Bulbasaur and/or Spearow LV8 +1 level
Beedrill and/or Pikachu LV15 +2 levels

(level 15.5-25)
Houndour and/or Bagon LV19 +1 level
Houndoom and/or Kadabra LV25 +2 levels

(level 25.5-35)
Charmeleon and/or Swablu LV28 +1 level
Vibrava and/or Shelgon LV35 +2 levels

(level 35.5-45)
Ponyta and/or Haunter LV38 +1 level
Meganium and/or Rapidash LV45 +2 levels

(level 45.5-55)
Fearow and/or Dragonair LV49 +1 level
Altaria and/or Gengar LV55 +2 levels

(level 55.5-70)
Heracross and/or Girafarig LV62 +1 level
Charizard and/or Blaziken LV70 +2 levels

(level 70.5-85)
Tropius and/or Flygon LV76 +1 level
Dragonite and/or Alakazam LV85 +2 levels

(None of us has pokemon above level 85, so another category would be useless.)

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

[*Murkrow]

I am not here....this is just somebody else randomly logging onto my account while I'm busy revising.

Honest.

If we have an extension for the Crimson Blades scenario, am I right in thinking that you can post your battles and gain the levels, but you just won't get any Stamps for them? Or can you just not post and have to automatically skip to the next scenario?

Though regardless, I might just do the latter...meh, I hated trying to write for that last Blades one. Something just bugged me. *Shrugs*

Thanks anyway. *Goes back to revision*