Prologue
Hi Bentley the great here. This is my first pokemon story helpful criticism is appreciated and I would like to thank DarkJeremy who helped me fix up this chap.

I looked DragonSlayer in the eyes as he made his request for me to tell him my story, Bounce and Fel were flanking me, a fact I took notice of enough to know they meant me no harm, so with a sigh I started to explain.

I sniffed the breeze, sneezing as the smell of rotting bodies of both Pokémon and humans hit me. The knowledge that the fighting had reached here was enough to make me bare my teeth and growl. I looked up at my trainer and watched as he cried silently, his tears rolling down his dirt streaked face as he viewed the carnage surrounding us. As he cried, I shifted my weight against him to try and comfort him with my presence, he looked down at me with a sad smile.

"We were late again, huh, Cinder?" I responded with a deep throated growl, looking at the remains of Veilstone. My trainer patted my head softly before turning away from our home town, still shedding tears. We started on our journey east towards Solance town. As we walked, I thought about the beginnings of what people and Pokémon were calling the Defining War. The four major teams had been assembled under one man, Gram Harding. The man was a strategical genius, a brilliant mind, and completely evil and ruthless.

I thought back to when my trainer and I first found out that Gram had united the teams; We were in the Canalave City Pokémon Center getting a key to our rooms when we overheard two young men arguing.

"All four great criminal teams combined into one? That's just a stupid rumor," one of them scoffed.

"I swear it's true," The other whined. "Some guy called Gram… something combined them all into a team called Team Dusk. They've been stealing Pokémon all other the place. Some say they're preparing to start a war."

The other guy laughed, "Sure, a Pokémon war… and Digletts can learn fly. Come on, we're next."

My trainer's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "We'll camp here for the night, Cinder can you light a fire?" I barked an affirmative and I shot a small flamethrower onto the group of sticks my trainer had gathered, and then lay down next to it, waiting to be fed. We had a simple dinner: a bowl of berries for me, stew again for my trainer. This pattern continued for the next couple of day: walk all day, eat same meal, sleep and get up at dawn again every so often we found ourselves battling a wild Pokémon which was a surprise to me; most of them had been captured for the war with both sides hoping for more numbers. Now it was almost possible to walk from Jubilife to Hearthome and not meet a wild Pokémon. But after several days we made it to Solaceon.

What we walked into was a ghost town. I sniffed the air hoping to sense something but all I could smell was decay. My trainer was looking around and nodded to one building whose door wasn't boarded up before murmuring, "We'll check in there, gather some supplies, then get out the way we came. I have a bad feeling about this place; Dusk's troops may be here, so stay silent." I flicked my tails: our little sign to show I understood. My trainer checked the door, finding it unlocked, and we slowly entered into the gloom.

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I slowly looked around the room, seeing we had entered a rather wrecked living room. I heard my trainer gasp as he also noticed the wreckage; tables over turned, chairs everywhere, rips in the walls, and tracks of mud showed something large had been scurrying around. I growled as I looked at the tracks; I had a feeling that whatever made them was gone, but I didn't want to take any chances. Fortunately, my trainer felt the same as he quickly made his way across the room towards the kitchen door, well door frame in this case, as the actual door was missing. As we crossed the room I did my utmost to remain clean. I probably should mention this now: I hate dirt. A lot.

We raided the kitchen for all its worth, which honestly wasn't much. We packed our bags and started walking towards the doorway we heard a loud "Roar!" My trainer swore. "Garchomp, what the hell is one of those doing round here?!" He looked down at me "You ready Cinder? We're in for an actual battle here." I gave a small growl. I smelled the fear coming from my trainer as we entered the living room. Luckily the Garchomp had its back to us. As soon as I saw that I tensed for the familiar battle starter which was received in mere moments

"Cinder, Flamethrower!"

My jaws opened wide and a long stream of fire burst out of my mouth, super heating the air around us. The Garchomp, which looking at it now is much bigger than normal, turned to look at me before replying, "So, you're the intruders to my abode huh? A girly, dirty puppy and a human?" I could feel my ears folding back, a sure sign of anger. I've been in the room with it for less than two minutes now and I already hated it, but looking at it again its size gave me an idea so I looked it in the eyes.

"Being that large, are you overcompensating for being mate-less or having a little brain, I'm not sure?" I asked with a small smile, trying to make my voice as sarcastic and curious as I could. The Garchomp roared looking just a little insane obviously deciding to attack back with a rather large Rock Tomb. My eyes widened in surprise and I didn't need my trainer's advice to get the hell out of the way. I looked up at the Garchomp again. "Umm you do realize you just killed half the battle field with rock pillars right?" Unfortunately, he decided to answer my question with another Rock Tomb, this time with obvious intent to kill off my maneuvering space.

After another unsuccessful Rock Tomb, I had another idea. I ran forward, jumping quickly on the one of the larger rock pillars, launching a flamethrower from where I was standing and hitting the Garchomp in the stomach. While doing this did little damage, it helped distract him from another Rock Tomb. As soon as he looked down at me, I gave a grin and quickly jumped from the next one and launched another flamethrower and repeating the cycle. As I jumped, I muttered a silent prayer to Mew for the fact I had a trainer with enough sense to stay quiet now.

Unfortunately my good idea couldn't last forever.

After the fourteenth time I hit the Garchomp with a little effective flamethrower, he began to grow a little annoyed. I stopped painting for breath as he looked up at the ceiling giving a loud roar before powering up Hyper Beam. "Ahhh… Bidoof," I muttered, knowing nothing in my arsenal would stop a fully powered hyper beam in its tracks, so I did the only thing I could when he finally launched it; I jumped, launching a flamethrower at the ground to give me a little boost and as I hovered midair, I heard the screams of my trainer, who couldn't get out of the way. I started to fall from my extending jump, tears welling up in my eyes as I thought that my trainer, my master, my friend was gone. I landed awkwardly on one of the pillars before looking up at the Garchomp. "I'm going to kill you!" I screamed.

"Oh, really now? The little pup wants to play seriously now, huh? Okay have a free hit, I guess. I owe you that much." The Garchomp grinned after saying this, an insolent grin which I knew I was going to wipe off his damn face come hell or high water. I tensed all my muscles focusing on the energy rushing through me before launching just one attack which name I screamed to the heavens.

"PAYBACK!" the light emanating from my body was a pure white. I could feel the anger, the pain, all welling up trying to escape into the light. I heard the Garchomp gasp before everything turned white. A very large thump was heard before I followed suit.

I awoke hours later in that smashed up living room. I shuddered as I felt the dirt from the battle clinging to me and whimpered softly at the pain I felt in my legs. I lay there for what felt like hours before the front door was pushed open, and I heard what must have been angels.

"Are you sure this is the place Fel? This is Rage's home you know," one angel spoke up.

A rather timid voice replied, "I'm sure, Bounce. There was a bright light and a scream, I know there was."

"Well lets hurry up and check it out," Angel One said, "we might find something of interest." I could hear footsteps coming closer towards my spot. From what I can hear, bless the legendary who decided to give Ninetails good hearing, there was a biped and a quadruped. Unfortunately, I couldn't determine whether they were friend or foe.

"Hello?" I called, throwing caution to the winds. Friend or foe, I need help and I may be able to convince either side to heal me. I heard two very feminine gasps as two incredibly beautiful Pokémon walked into my view. One was a Lopunny; tall, muscular, and a long tail (an unusual characteristic for their specie, but one I have to say was a nice view), the other was a normal, albeit attractive, Glameow, and by the look in both their eyes they were determined and intelligent. I grinned. My kind of girls.

"So did it hurt the creator to let you two beauties go?" I asked, giving my most winning smile. The next thing I knew, I was on the other side of the room as the Lopunny had just double kicked me in the face.

"Bounce! Don't do that, you might hurt him," the Glameow said reproachfully.

"Bounce, a beautiful name for a beautiful lady," I said, receiving another kick in the head

"Would you shut up?" Bounce said, turning to the Glameow. "He needs medical treatment, with the way he flirts. I doubt he's with DB. We'll take him to DragonSlayer, he'll know what to do." My imagination went into overdrive trying to work out what kind of creature DragonSlayer would be my first thought was a mighty Tyranitar. With that image in my head, I gulped.

"Dragonslayer?" I asked. "What kind of creature is he?"

Bounce laughed. "He, Ninetails, is a fearsome creature a Pokémon of great stature, intelligence and skill. He will be the one to judge your worthiness. He may even let you live if you're good. Now stay quiet. We need to find some way of transporting you." I, for once, did as I was told and stayed silent as Bounce and Fel found a bit of curtain which, after a few minutes and using some of the broken furniture, was made into a makeshift stretcher.

"Sleep now," Fel said with a warm smile. "I'll wake you when you get there." I nodded drowsily, the pain in my head getting the better of me, coupled with the exhaustion of using the massive Payback.

I awoke in a strange room. The first thing I noticed was Bounce leaning against the wall "Good you're awake," She said. "Dragonslayer will see you now and remember to be polite and don't say anything unless bidden to." I nodded. As much as I would of loved for a chance to make an 'alone with a pretty girl' joke, I didn't know how dangerous these people were or how I was going to be treated, so I got up on to my still slightly aching feet and walked to the door, following Bounce down a few corridors to a completely different room. As we walked, I noticed everything was made of wood: floor, ceiling, walls and furniture, which made me start trying to list the biggest, meanest grass Pokémon I could in my head, making sure I would be able to combat them if necessary. Finally, we arrived in a giant circular room.

"Come in my son and daughter. May the legendaries be shining their light on your health and good fortune," a voice called out. Bounce bowed, murmuring the last part of the phrase. Not to seem impolite I did the same. "So this is the Ninetails Fel has been describing. I must ask: Were all your paws black when you were born?" I looked around the room trying to find the speaker but it seemed only Bounce and myself were there

"Ummm… they were. Is it of importance?"

The voice chuckled, "Not really I've always a curiosity for shinies and strange markings. Oh, and if you're looking for me, I'm in the center of the room."

My eyes snapped to the center, again seeing nothing. I growled without meaning to; I hate tricks like this. "Where are you? And where am I? What is going on?" I snapped. Before I knew it, I was flat on my back, all my tails tied to my feet, and my front legs were bound, and there was a Weedle on my chest staring at me. I blinked in surprise. There is no way a Weedle could get a drop on me. I looked at the Weedle a little closer, again blinking in surprise. The stinger on its head was too long and also its colours weren't quite right; it was dark green on top, dark brown on the bottom. All it needed to do here was roll on its back and it would be almost invisible.

"I am DragonSlayer," the Weedle said and I couldn't help myself. I cracked up laughing. I woke up 5 minutes later with Fel feeding me a Pecha Berry. "You are an insolent youngster," DragonSlayer said, now sitting now on Fel's head. "Tell me how you got here, and if I believe you're not working with DB, I'll tell you mine."

I nodded my body still in discomfort from the poison "Well see, it all went like this…"

And that's it for this chapter I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are appreciated so please feel free and I'll try as hard as I can to reply to as many as possible. Again thanks for reading and I'll see you next chapter.