I, Demonstration Ultimatum/Shawn Frost claim no ownership over Pokémon, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Skarmory, Mightyena or any other official Pokémon characters. They are trademarks of Nintendo, GAME FREAK and Creatures. This is just a work of fiction by a fan.

I however do own the characters of this story, the storyline followed in this work, and all unofficial details of the Pokémon world found in the story unless I state so.

Chapter I

Taming the Sun

9th September, 1911.

A crimson ball blazed through the sky, giving life and nourishment to everything and everyone. As it set, the atmosphere of dusk began to rise. Dozens of birds flocked to their homes, plucked leaves and sticks and even valuables stolen from the humans. The grass was withering, and the only thing completely out of place in this everyday scenery in the countryside was the burnt remains of a house. It had stood there for eighteen years and the house had been burnt six years earlier. And in front of it stood a young boy with a dog-like creature, holding a bunch of flowers.

He gazed at the house with a mixture of hatred and love. He had shared fond memories in that house, with his parents and older brother. And now, it was as if an era had passed, making the house dead, burnt and rotten. He laid down the flowers upon the ground, and went off back to the town of Preolith.

The boy looked down upon the dog. "He would've turned sixteen today, wouldn't he?" The dog, or the mightyena, looked back at the house. He was a part of its memories as well, a fellow playmate of the boys when they were young.

The boy was Sean, a well-known trainer living in the eastern regions of Eritz. He had lived in the town Preolith until he was eight, until the catastrophe of the Native Eritz Rebellion, until the near-destruction of the town. And then he had vowed to become a Pokémon trainer, at the mere age of eight.

He walked down the beautiful countryside road until he came to the very town itself. Preolith was valley towns, enclosed by mountains on three sides, only open in the west. Farmers made the crops all over the land, and the profit was great, for the rivers here brought much water for farming and there was enough arable land. It was not too famous and not too well known either so it wasn't devastated by a huge crop selling companies that usually dominated much of the western countryside. Sean walked briskly toward the centre of the town, stopping before a three-story building.

He opened the door without bothering to knock. He knew very well the door was never locked, until after supper was served. The house belonged to his grandparents. They were mechanics, and still active for their age. Every now and then they would invent a new type of this and that, fix machines or even invent new types of Pokéballs. The balls here were old-fashioned, but effective nonetheless. They still looked mechanical, with the changing gears and a special speck of energy that always burnt. They were protected with steel coverings and some even colored on. Sean knew in the west, there were different types of Pokéballs. They never showed the gears and the light, but they were small and were red at the top and white on the bottom. They were cheaper, and like all cheaper things, were weaker.

"Hey Grandma, is dinner ready yet? I need to leave for the Central East. Got important work there.", Sean said aloud from the door, even though the hall was empty. He knew they were in the next room; they always were as it was their workshop.

There was no reply. He made his way across the hall the workshop leaving the mightyena sitting at the door. "Hey Grandma, is din-!" He gasped. The workshop was in a mess. There were bits and bolts lying everywhere, and metal gears fallen on the floor. There was a broken window, and the ceiling light was burnt out. Obviously someone had broken in. But it wasn't the carnage that caught his attention the most. It was the burnt message on the wall.

"Come to the tower at dusk."

And smeared across the wooden wall in paint was a symbol. It was an emblem to be exact. It had the image of two symmetrical eyes. Sean instantly knew what it was. It was a challenge by a "Trainer Faction". Sean went to the guest room, sidestepped the bed and made his way to the bedside table. He pulled out the drawer, and picked up two metal balls. He could vividly see the symbols of the creatures kept within. One had a silver colored symbol of a bird with great wings. The other had a green symbol of a large tyrannous creature, with spiky thorns and a large body.

He set out on his way, taking the mightyena with him. He would be useful for detecting an ambush. The tower wasn't very far. It was about a ten minute walk. But ten minutes was valuable time so he took out one of his Pokéballs, the silver one, and threw it in the air. Just as it reached mid-air, the gears started spinning and the ball was engulfed in blue lightning. The lightning began to take a form, and soon a spiky metal bird was in the air. Sean caught the ball as it dropped from the last remnants of the lightning. In the west, the cheaper Pokéballs released the pokemon faster and in a flash of white light. But the balls could only hold weak Pokémon and it took a lot of time to weaken a powerful Pokémon almost to near-death to put it into one.

The skarmory flew down and landed on the ground. It gave a loud wail and flapped its wings. "Calm down Skar, calm down..." Sean climbed onto the Skarmory, and picked up mightyena.

"Where go?" Skar told plainly in whatever language Skarmory used. The universal translator on Sean's wrist beeped and showed the meaning.

"Go to the old tower, Skar!" She gave a whirlwind as she flew up and went off. And soon, the tower came into view. It was large and old. The dome on the top was cracked, and the last remnants of the tiles were rusted with age. The paint had come off half a decade ago, and it wasn't still repainted. Most of the windows were broken, and the doors were either not present or too stuck to be moved. So the only way to reasonably enter the tower was through the top, by a hole that was put there during a heavy storm.

Skarmory swooped down and perched on the rails on top of the dome. Sean dropped down into the tower, and put mightyena to work. He quickly sniffed the air, and started growling uncontrollably. And just as quickly as it began, it stopped. Mighyena began to whimper.

"Come out and face your opponent.", Sean shouted. And soon a dark figure stepped out from behind the bell. Two dog-like creatures followed. They had horns, and flames protruding here and there. Sean quickly realized what they were. They were Houndooms.

"I'd like to battle you, Sean." The dark figure said. His face was hidden in the dark, but Sean could make out some details. He was wearing a robe of some sort, and he had long hair. Obviously he was some fan of the darkness and psychics. But there was one thing that was sharply visible, almost too clearly to be true. It was a shiny purple symbol of an eye. It was staring blankly at Sean. He quickly noticed that there wasn't the other eye there.

"I accept."

The dark figure quickly told one of his houndooms to move forward. Sean exclaimed to the dome, "Skar, it's your turn." And the skarmory blasted through the dome's glass and landed on the floor. The battle had begun.

"Fire Blast!", screamed the dark assailant. Houndoom began making a burning ball in its mouth and fire it in utmost fury. The crimson ray scorched through the dome and missed Skar who had instinctively jumped. It barely missed the wooden walls and hit the glass dome, melting it.

"Skar, whirlwind it!" Skarmory dived and abruptedly stopped and flapped its wings so hard the all three of Sean's opponents were blown away twenty feet to the other side of the tower. They all crashed onto the wall, and the Houndooms flames caught the wall on fire but the sheer power of the wind worn it off. The opponent Houndoom managed to get up, but was still struggling against the wind.

And then came the flash of green and red lightning. The wind slowed down, and Skarmory was no longer visible, just faint bits of red sparks where Skarmory had been. Instead, there was a huge spiky creature with great red eyes and monstrous claws and feet. It looked clad in armor, and it had a green body which made it even more terrifying in the dark. A feeling of wind circling around the tower began to rise.

"What the! Houndooms, use Hidden Power!" The man screamed at the top of his lungs. The houndooms' paws, tails and heads glowed amber and released an inexplicable aura, each different from the other. They obviously aimed very well as the aura hit Tyranitar in the underside where it was vulnerable. But the hidden power was weak. It did almost nothing to Tyranitar.

"Stone Edge! Do it now, Valiant!" Sean ordered. Tyranitar loosened some spiky rock from its body and made it into a gauntlet. He raced toward both the Houndoom who were still firing and smashed the stone on their face. The impact was disastrous. Both went sprawling across the floor with bits of flesh torn of their face. Blood began to run down, and the man still ordered them to fight.

Is he mad! He obviously lost, and still ordering to fight was out of the question! It could be fatal to those Houndooms!

"You! Call them back. I don't have any intention of fighting you now. You lost. Admit it. Trying to move on would make you filthy and bring shame on your faction." Sean told calmly even though rage was burning in his head.

"I DON'T CARE! I JUST WANT THAT BOUNTY THAT WAS PLACED ON BEATING YOU, YOU SNAKE!"

Sean ignored the insult. He called out skarmory and flew away, but not before asking where his grandparents were.

"I don't know a thing about those old-timers. I was told that you lived there."

As he was flying away, the man screamed out. "Just tell me the secret of you being the youngest person ever to receive the A-Rank Trainer qualification!"

He uttered one word. It silenced everything around them when he said it.

"Vengeance"

In Chapter II, the Train Bandits...

Sean startled as he woke up from his nightmare. What was more disturbing than the nightmare was that there was a Conkeldurr staring at him wide eyed with its bull-like face.

Sean screamed. The conkeldurr, obviously surprised threw his arm to shut him up. But the muscle of a hand hit him so hard he went sprawling. That's when he realized why the train was so unpleasantly silent. Almost all the passengers were held at fire-point by Flareons.

And he was the only one to get a conkeldurr!