Scizor lowered its claw, the pale purple glow dissipating into the crimson red sheen common for Scizor. It stood tall, taking two steps back as it focused its fearsome eyes on the unmoving form of its opponent. The Primeape stayed completely still as it was face down in the rain, the raindrops moving quickly and filling up the small crater of the arena that Primeape found itself in.

'Primeape, no!' The Pokémon's trainer, Marcus wailed. He sighed and slicked his wet, fair hair back, blue eyes looking past his baggy orange hoody to the three unused pokéballs on his belt. Whoever he next chose to battle would determine the fate of this wager. He looked around at his surroundings, desperate to find something that he could have one of his Pokémon use to his advantage. There wasn't much; the arena itself was outside, hence the non-existent shelter from the rain. It was built into a forest; any trees that were in the space of the arena left no trace now. It was roughly fifty by twenty metres and although the paint marks were worn, they were still perfectly visible.

'Are you ready?' the opposing trainer, Michelle asked. She cocked her head to the side innocently, hiding one foot behind the other and tilting her pink parasol on its side. She was wearing a tight black jumper with a puffy, ivy green cotton scarf wrapped comfortably round her neck. On her legs was a pair of black tights that reached up and met a tartan skirt.

Marcus looked up at Michelle and met her gaze with his own. He couldn't believe that his seventeen-year-old adversary, Michelle was still so far ahead of him, even after all of his training. He had worked so hard to evolve his Mankey, and it had paid off when it took on the Kanto Gym Leader Brock: Primeape took all three of his Pokémon on without need for a substitution. That time, he had won his fourth badge in his 'mix-up gym challenge'.

This was not a gym battle, but it may as well have been. In the detached region they were in, Grecion, one had to pay to compete in their Gym Challenge. The tickets were ridiculously expensive, and thus most of the competitors won them in weekly lotteries. The most recent winner, Aaron, wasn't a Pokémon trainer and thus decided to host a small, unofficial tournament to bring about somebody to win the ticket. This battle, between two childhood friends, was the final.

'Yeah.' Marcus said calmly, grabbing a great ball from his pocket. 'I'm ready.' He hurled the great ball into the air and after a few seconds of flight it reached its peak, opening up and emitting a liquid red aura which headed straight toward the ground. The great ball flew back into Marcus hand while the aura took the shape of, and eventually formed into, an Electabuzz.

'Alright, now you're finally done, it's time to finish-' Michelle said, but she was cut off mid-sentence by Marcus' yelling.

'Electabuzz, discharge!' Marcus yelled, taking a few steps back. He glanced up and let out a sigh of relief as he saw the thick leaves of the tall tree he now stood below. He was no longer in contact with the rain.

The Electabuzz roared with pride, an energetic blue aura building up around it as it released various jolts of similarly coloured electricity loose into the surroundings. Ordinarily, Michelle's Scizor would have been able to avoid this attack. But in these conditions, it had only one option…

'Protect.' Michelle said calmly, straightening her parasol to ensure that the volt-charged rain made no contact with her. Scizor obeyed, a shimmering sphere of transparent white, purple and blue energy enveloping it, looking much like a giant bubble. The discharge attack simply surrounded the sphere, but didn't manage to get through.

'Protect shields your Pokémon from the opponent's next move.' Marcus said calmly.

'Well stated, genius.' Michelle replied sarcastically, brushing a hand through her silky black hair.

'But you can't use it two times in succession. So this time you'll have to dodge my move, or tank it.' Michelle hesitated to reply, realising at once what Marcus was planning.

'Scizor!' Michelle roared, stretching her hand forward. 'Use night slash! Destroy him!' Scizor blasted forward with a blurring speed, the sphere of protection simply fading away with the electricity around it.

'Not fast enough.' Marcus said, taking another step back and bringing his arm to obscure his eyes. 'Electabuzz. Thunder. Full voltage.'

Electabuzz slammed his fists together, once again roaring as he prepared to attack. He ignored the fact that Scizor was soaring toward himself with a frightening speed. If Michelle had ordered to Scizor attack Electabuzz before he let his discharge loose, Scizor would have arrived first. However, the powerful force of the discharge, although not damaging Scizor in the slightest, had forced him back several feet. That gave Electabuzz plenty more time to attack. Michelle glared with anger as she finally realised that this moment was planned. As she watched her Scizor take the full, rain-empowered force of Electabuzz' deadly thunder, she realised that Marcus had subconsciously planned this moment so that Michelle would lower her guard…inevitably leaving a window to take out Scizor, her most prized Pokémon.

'Scizor,' Michelle said stubbornly, holding up her pokéball. 'Return.' Scizor returned to its pokéball.

'What's that tone for?' Marcus asked, mockingly cocking his head to the side, like Michelle had only seconds earlier.

'I can't believe you'd sacrifice your only two Pokémon just for this moment.'

'You're completely wrong.'

'How?!'

'Well,' Marcus began, smiling. 'One, they were not sacrificed. You took them out fairly, and, two,' Marcus raised his great ball, gently pressing the button in the middle, causing a red aura to be emitted from it and surround Electabuzz before liquefying him and returning him to his mobile home. Michelle's eyes widened in horror.

'You only took out one!' Marcus yelled, hurling a pokéball into the air. A Ludicolo was released from it, which instantly began dancing with life.

'What?!' Michelle roared, shock all over her face. 'Your Ludicolo was taken out with my Scizor's razor wind!' Marcus simply shook his head and smiled.

'No.' Marcus replied, looking up at the heavy rain. 'He took a lot of damage, but he was still just about able to fight. But, do you remember the last move I had him cast before I returned him?' Michelle's eyes drifted to the ground as she struggled to remember. Marcus grinned as he saw the shock in them as she remembered.

Michelle looked up to the sky and spoke. 'Rain dance…!'

'That's right. And what's my Ludicolo's ability? Would you like to hazard a guess?' Marcus said, still smiling.

'…Rain Dish.'

'That is also correct.'

Michelle couldn't believe the level of this young boy's deception. He knew that her team was superior, so he made it a battle of the minds…a battle he was currently winning. 'So you had your Ludicolo use rain dance as he was about to be felled, so he could heal himself just enough to continue fighting?' She asked calmly, steeling herself.

'Yes.' Marcus replied, looking down at his perky Ludicolo. As every second passed his dance became that more lively; feet raised just that little bit higher; hands opened just that bit more cheerfully. Yes, this Ludicolo was naturally gifted in recovering quickly with his Rain Dish ability.

'Now, would you kindly choose your next Pokémon?' Marcus asked, gesturing to the field. Michelle complied silently, hurling a Pokéball forward. The Pokémon released met Ludicolo with a menacing glare.

Michelle's Pidgeotto flexed out its wings, flapping them a couple of times in quick succession with a hardy vigour. Its feathers shimmered in the heavy rain, the rain drops glistening as they rebounded off of the powerfully thrusted wings.

'Pidgeotto, one-shot him before he can get to full health! Air slash!' Michelle called, calm returning to her tone. Pidgeotto soared up a few feet into the rain, flapping its wings vigorously. From the winds created by the motion, numerous light blue, v-shaped slices of energy which all sped towards Ludicolo in v-formation, like a flock of birds fleeing from a predator.

'Same strategy as when we were in Dewford?' Marcus asked as the air slashes soared towards his dancing Ludicolo. 'You really don't think much of us, do you? Ludicolo, nature power.'

Ludicolo stopped dancing immediately, clasping his hands and staring down at them with a deep focus.

'Hah!' Michelle shouted. 'Your Ludicolo won't have enough time to defend against the air slash! It's way too fast!' But Michelle was to be astonished. Ludicolo opened his hands slowly, a small white sphere appearing in between. He aimed it towards the air slashes, and to Michelle's surprise, they did not hit Ludicolo. They simply revolved around the sphere for a few seconds in an elegant dance before being assimilated by it.

'What?!' Michelle yelled, her eyes wide with fear. The sphere was now a liquid blue, filled with the power of not only the surroundings, but of Michelle's Pidgeotto too.

'Fire!' Marcus yelled and Ludicolo obeyed, jumping up with a charming pizazz and firing the powerfully large blue sphere of watery energy towards Pidgeotto.

'Dodge it, Pidgeotto!' Michelle yelled, her voice evidently nervous. Pidgeotto complied, twisting side over side three times in the air, only narrowly avoiding the liquid sphere as it soared by like a bullet, and collided with the branch of a nearby tree. It exploded in a flurry of lacerating water, slicing seven branches off and leaving them to fall to their doom.

'Ludicolo, now!' Marcus yelled. Michelle was in the middle of a sigh of relief, struggling to realise that Ludicolo had already leapt to Pidgeotto's side as it slowly recovered from its mid-air manoeuvre. 'Blizzard!'

Ludicolo once again clasped his hands, leaning toward Pidgeotto on one foot as he prepared to end this brief battle. He thrusted his palms out with a cheeky 'Colo!' as if gesturing goodbye. From his palms erupted a large blizzard; numerous small blobs of snow all being carried by a cold, vicious wind. Pidgeotto was helpless but to be swept up by the blizzard, the blobs of snow colliding with it head on and sending it tumbling on to the ground.

Pidgeotto rolled over, eyes squeezed shut in pain. It had taken on a pale blue hue due to the blizzard, and it was now shivering ever so slightly.

'Return, Pidgeotto.' Michelle ordered, the felled bird returning to its pokéball. Michelle kissed the ball, holding it against her chest for a second before attaching it to her belt solemnly, and grabbing hold of another pokéball.

Michelle glanced up at Ludicolo. He had danced his way back to a few feet in front of Marcus, the only reason for Ludicolo not being closer being the rain trickling into his dish and nourishing his body. He's turned the tables on me, so well. She thought to herself. It was one against three only a few moments ago… Now it's my one against his two. This next strike has to take Ludicolo out.

'Go, Alakazam!' Michelle roared, tossing a pokéball forward into the rain. The Alakazam that emerged did nothing interesting. No entry dance, no battle cry, it simply stared at Ludicolo with its deep black eyes.

'Psycho cut!' Michelle called, swinging her parasol to the side. Suddenly the rain didn't matter. The light frost of the morning cold didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was crushing Marcus' team into the ground.

'Hidden power!' Marcus yelled. The two Pokémon at once moved to prepare their moves. Alakazam's spoons gained a luminescent purple aura as it pulled one arm back and slashed forward with sharp concentration, before doing the same with its other arm. The result was two similar crescent-shaped slashes that streamed straight toward Ludicolo at an alarming rate. Alakazam made no effort to preserve the surroundings, instead having the tips of the slashes slice through the earth to preserve their accuracy at the sacrifice of some speed. The mud was simply sliced, leaving only a large, thin line where the slices had travelled.

'Oh Arceus that's fast!' Marcus yelled, flinching. Ludicolo aimed its palms towards the slashes, a white sphere gathering in between, but it was too slow. The two slashes impacted almost at the same moment, causing an explosion that scattered a cloud of thick purple and grey soot across the battlefield. Michelle brought her parasol across her torso, shielding herself from the smoke while Marcus could only raise a sleeve and look away as he was enveloped by the smoke.

Marcus retched as his body forced him to reject the foul-smelling smoke, holding his chest as he struggled to continue standing tall.

'The smoke too much for you?' Michelle taunted from across the battlefield. 'Alakazam, move it.' Suddenly the smoke was enveloped by a pale purple aura which tore it in two, dragging the two masses of smoke aside before dissipating them. At the centre of the power was Alakazam, spoons raised, and eyes glowing a bright turquoise.

Marcus cleared his throat, running his hair out of his face and recoiled as he saw his Ludicolo flat on his back, eyes wide open. Marcus returned the carefree Pokémon to his pokéball without a word, grabbing Electabuzz' pokéball once again and releasing him into the battlefield.

Michelle raised her parasol above her head once again, twirling it slowly, back and forth and watching the raindrops frolic as they were hurled from the surface of the circular object. She nuzzled her chin deep into her scarf, sighing and watching as her breath was condensed in the air, before vanishing before her eyes.

Marcus stared hard at Michelle's Alakazam, who was staring right back at him. His eyes were incredibly challenging, and put Marcus on edge. It looked like it'd rather strike Marcus than his own Pokémon. That was when Alakazam smiled.

Marcus recoiled slightly. Did it read my thoughts…? He asked himself, and the Alakazam's smile widened. What a devious Pokémon. I bet he knows what move I'm going to make before I choose it myself. This will be tricky.

'Are you ready?' Michelle asked, panting slightly. The cold and the tension of this battle had got to her, just like it had Marcus.

'Yes.' Marcus replied, standing tall once more. Electabuzz mimicked his master, small jolts of electricity dancing by his antennae.

'Come at me with everything you've got, Marcus.' Marcus nodded, closing his eyes with a brief smile. Still as tough as ever.

'Sir, how are the readings looking?' One of Takada's aides asked.

'Forgive me for using a cliché,' another aide replied, beaming with joy. 'But they're actually pretty perfect. At the rate this is going, we should be able to fire by Friday, or Sunday the latest.'

'Three days, you think?' Takada said, strolling up to the aides.

'Yes.'

'That's brilliant.' Takada looked up at the painting above the screen, practically the one part of this building that wasn't mechanical. It was one of the three legendary Pokémon Dialga, Palkia and Giratina attacking what looked like a Kyogre shaped submarine. There were many men painted onboard who were wearing strange white and blue striped pirate outfits. They all had a look of terror on their eyes as their ship was being torn apart.

'Soon, we'll finally be able to bring peace to this world. We won't have to rely on little ten-year-old kids named after colours to take care of the scum of this world.' Takada said, smiling. Takada was an honest man. Or at least, he had honest intentions. But he was willing to do almost anything to achieve them. That's why, forty-one years down the line, he was right here, preparing a machine with power to change the world drastically. He looked fairly young for his age – his face was still youthful, and his shaggy, jet black hair had no signs of being dulled by age just yet. He towered above his two aides, although in fairness, they were pretty small. Today he was wearing a large brown trench coat over his office gear, and he held his black bowler hat in his hand. Having just entered from the rain, he was almost soaked. The wettest areas seemed to be his shoulders, chest and of course, his hat. He tapped the hat three times before holding it up in front of his face, and a mechanical arm extended from one of the dull blue walls and took the hat from him, retracting before becoming limp.

Takada placed one hand on each of the aides' shoulders and stared hard at the screen in front of him with a confident smile. 'Gentlemen, just remember, even though this is almost complete…not a word of this is spoken outside of this building. Not to family or friends alike. Understood?' he said.

'Understood.' The two aides said in unison, not even looking back at their employer to acknowledge his brief gaze.

'Good. I'll see you gentlemen in two days to see how the launch is coming along.' One of the aides nodded. The other turned to look at Takada.

'Where are you going, Professor Takada?' he asked.

'I have to go into the Frenzied Forest. My son's staying over at his Grandmother's house for a few nights and I'm going to bring them all back to witness the launch.' Takada replied.

'But sir, I thought you said nobody else should know about this?'

'They don't know.' Takada rolled his eyes. 'But I'll want them to witness the what I call 'surprise' when it finally happens. I can easily say that we're going to be having a fireworks display or something.'

'That's true, Professor. I might do the same with my family.' Takada chuckled, patting the aide on the back.

'Of course you should!' Takada said heartily. 'Lighten up, this isn't evil we're plotting; it's justice!' Takada turned and strolled out before either of the two aides could reply, still chuckling to himself ever so slightly.

'Hand over the key and I won't hurt you.' A stern voice said. Takada turned to look at the man who had spoken. His outfit was all too familiar. Black trousers; grey boots; white belt; white gloves; black paper boy hat; and of course, black jumper with a crimson, capital 'R' displayed across it. He was being threatened by a Rocket Grunt.

'Excuse me?' Takada replied angrily, raising a brow.

'You heard me!' the grunt roared, his Golbat emerging from behind his back. 'Give me the key to the machine now, or I'll force you to!'

'Blaze, Blast Burn.' Takada said calmly. The Rocket Grunt looked around sceptically, wondering who the tall man was talking to. He found out soon enough. A Typhlosion burst from the corner of the other end of the corridor, stopping and glaring at the Rocket Grunt before breaking into a sprint on all fours towards the man.

'Golbat!' The Rocket Grunt squealed, taking a few hasty steps back. 'Hyper beam!' the Golbat's large mouth was lit up with a hot white as it prepared to obey its master, flapping its wings furiously as it moved towards Typhlosion.

'Rackaa!' The Typhlosion roared as it slammed its legs down into the ground, falling into a crouch as the air around it boiled with heat. The ground and walls by Typhlosion began to burn an orange-red, and they seemed to distort under the heavy heat of Typhlosion's body.

It fired when Golbat was within twenty metres, its body shuddering as it spat out a large blast of crimson flames towards the Golbat. The attack connected instantly, the Golbat screeching as it felt the heat of a thousand flames envelop its front and blast it back.

'No!' The Rocket Grunt yelled, taking a few more paces back. 'Oh, no! No no no no no no no!' he turned and fled as his Golbat soared towards him, the heat from the attack causing the whole corridor to waver and distort as the blast flew past.

'Oh, what lovely earrings!' Emily said, putting the pair of Luvdisc-shaped earrings to her ears and looking into the mirror. 'They're so beautiful! How much for them?' She looked at the owner of the stall, a miserable old lady who was wearing nothing but a pink skirt and a large, overly-sized blue hoodie with the hood pulled over her face.

'Three-hundred pokédollars, honey.' The woman replied, disgust in her tone.

'Oh…' Emily looked down, gesturing at the earrings. 'Can we not come to a deal?'

'Yeah.' The old lady looked down at Emily's Medicham, who blushed once it realised that it was being stared at and hid behind Emily's slender legs.

'You can have 'em and those cascade earrings as well if you gimme your Medicham,' The old woman sneered, laughing afterwards.

'No way!' Emily yelled, dropping the earrings back into the rectangular wooden box and hugging her Medicham to her chest. 'He's not for sale!'

'Then you can get lost before I-' the woman was cut off by the sound of glass smashing. The three all turned to look instantly at the Yanmana building, and gasped as a blast of flames erupted from one of the windows, the heat so vast that even at that distance they still felt it.

'Wait, is that-?!' Emily asked, but she knew. At the receiving end of the flames was a scorched man wearing all black and white, save for the red 'R' across his jumper, with a Golbat right by his back. He was flying right towards them.

'Oh nooooo!' The stall owner screamed, trying to tug at her stall to move it.

'Medicham, psychic!'

The stall owner slammed her eyes shut as she sprawled herself unflatteringly over her stall, trying to protect her livelihood. After a few seconds of silence, she looked up and recoiled with surprise.

'You. You saved my stall?!' The stall owner said, astonished. The Rocket Grunt and Golbat were floating above Medicham in a daze. Medicham stared at them with blue eyes before relaxing, its eyes losing its glow as it lost interest and dropped the two on the floor.

'Thank you so much, honey!' The stall owner said with a smile. 'I owe you everything, this stall is my life! Take the earrings! Heck, take whatever you darn well please!' Emily smiled and jumped up and down, clapping and squealing. She took the earrings without a second thought and looked to Medicham.

'What do you want, Max?' she asked, staring at him. Max the Medicham simply stared down at a small piece of purple, crystalline rock.

'That's a rare treasure.' The stall owner replied, following Max' gaze. 'Your Max is a real clever 'un to seek after that. It's all the way from Hoenn. This treasure was two-thousand pokédollars…but for the saviour of my stall, you may take it, free of charge.' Emily smiled and beckoned Max to take the rock, and it did.

'I'll see you later.' Emily said, patting Max on the head and turning away.

'Goodbye. And again, thank you!' the stall owner said.

Emily stepped over the seared Rocket Grunt, treading gently around him as she stared at the smoke rising from him. If he was anybody else, she'd be rushing to help him. But he was from a despicable team that wanted to steal other people's Pokémon – he didn't deserve her help.

'These are so lovely.' Emily said, gazing down at her new Luvdisc-earrings and putting them in her Mudkip head-shaped satchel. She fiddled around in there afterwards, before eventually pulling out her Pokégear. Hers was a solid pink, rather than the conventional white with red for girls. She opened it as it vibrated, staring down at it to see who was calling her.

'Hmm, it's Brandon Hayabusa.' Emily said, leaving her thumb just above the answer button. She looked up to the sky and put a finger on her chin. 'Who's Brandon Hayabusa?' Max brought his palm to his face, before nudging Emily's arm slightly and looking up at her.

'What is it, Max?' Emily asked, looking down at him. Before she could react, his eyes glowed the familiar bright turquoise of psychic Pokémon and she was somewhere else. Emily looked about and realised where she was fairly quickly: she was in the town of Arieon. She saw herself and her Medicham get stopped by a tall brunette boy who was holding a Meowth between his arms. She wasn't near enough to hear what they were saying, but for some reason, she understood them. The boy suddenly whipped out a blue object: his Pokégear. He began typing in slowly with one hand, while looking back up at Emily in between every three numbers. He was taking her Pokégear number. Suddenly the image shuddered and turned into a blue wind, which brushed around Emily before vanishing into her mind.

'Oh, cute Meowth guy!' Emily said, instantly accepting the call and putting it to her ear. 'Don't do that to me again without warning, Max!'

'Uh, what?' The boy on the other side of the call, Brandon replied, startled. Max looked away with a sigh.

'Oh, sorry! Hey, how are you?'

'Yeah, I'm alright…is this a bad time?'

'No, no! I was just talking to my Max – you remember Max, right?'

'Your cute little Medicham? I do! How is he?'

'He's doing great; he saved a market stall today and earned me some free earrings!' Emily patted Max on the head and began walking down the narrow stone road on the way to her home. The Yanmana building was on one side – that marked the industrial side of Yanmana, the town they were in. Beside it were numerous small factories that were heaving copious amounts of soot into the air above. To the other side were many small cottages and houses. They were evidently made at a much earlier date than the buildings on the industrial side of town: most of them were lacking in any form of metal in their core designs. The path itself was dotted with trees on each side, and from the branches of those trees hung many small torches, which served to light the way in the darkest of nights.

'That's good to hear!' Brandon replied, joy in his voice.

'How is…Matt, was it?' Emily replied, nervousness on her face.

'Matt's doing very well, thanks. He's made a good recovery now and is very close to battling gyms!'

'Oh, that's so lovely! I remember when I saw him he looked quite weary. I'm so happy to hear that he's all okay.'

'Thank you.' Emily paused for a brief second to turn the corner, smiling as she no longer had any sight of the industrial side of the town. She preferred her rural, agricultural home side.

'So, what's up?' Emily asked, breaking the silence.

'Well,' Brandon said, hesitating. 'I was wondering if you wanted to come round for dinner.' Emily blushed.

'Tonight?'

'Yes…it's no problem if you can't, though.'

'No, no!' Emily grinned as her blush worsened: she was so happy that this conversation was over their Pokégears and not face to face.

'Umm…' Emily replied, looking down at Max. Max raised his eyebrows cheekily, causing Emily to blush even more. 'Hold on a second.' Emily lowered her Pokégear, glaring into the distance as she saw a shadowy figure watch her in the distance.

'Is everything okay?' Brandon asked as he heard Emily bring the Pokégear back to her face.

'No, it's nothing. So, yes, I'd love to! What time?'

'Brilliant!' Brandon replied, sounding overjoyed. 'Well, we don't usually eat until around eight so if you'd like to come around then? My address is 48 Seawater Drive.' That made Emily even happier. Seawater Drive was not only less than a ten minute walk from her house, but it was more importantly not in the industrial side of town. So no soot in her face tonight.

'Sounds great! Can I bring Max?' Emily said, now overjoyed as well.

'Of course!' Brandon replied. 'Matt would love to meet Max now that he's feeling well again.'

'Okay, that's great then. I'll be there for eight.'

'Okay. See you later!'

'Bye bye!' Emily disconnected the call and put her Pokégear in her bag at once, looking back into the distance. The shadowy figure was gone. Did she imagine him, just now?

Emily shook her head, blinking furiously. 'Must have.' She muttered to herself before continuing on home.

'Electabuzz, thunder!' Marcus roared, extending his hand toward his Electabuzz. Electabuzz complied with a zealous roar, beating his own chest as he released a flurry of vibrant cyan volts into the rain. Once again they were conducted by the rain, and once again they immediately went through the raindrops and straight to Alakazam.

'Sunny day.' Michelle commanded calmly. Alakazam waited until the thunder attack was seconds away from striking before raising his right spoon towards the sky. The spoon glowed a bright orange and the rain instantly stopped as a laser of tangerine light soared towards the clouds above from the spoon, separating them with ferocity.

'Now dodge it, Alakazam.' Michelle ordered, her voice still completely calm. Marcus thought that he had this; although the rain had been cleverly dispelled, it didn't stop the fact that the thunder attack was still right in front of Alakazam's face. It had somehow slipped his mind, however, that Alakazam was not the kind to sit around and take attacks.

There was a blue of blue rectangles that seemed to be etched into the space ahead of Alakazam as he himself vanished. The thunder attack collided with the ground, the heat from it scorching the mud below and causing the water in it to evaporate straight away.

'Where'd he go?!' Marcus yelled, looking around with fear. His question was soon answered; Alakazam reappeared right behind Alakazam, legs crossed as he floated in the air at an angle.

'Electabuzz!' Marcus screamed. 'Behind you! Use iron tail!'

'Alakazam, use mega punch!' Michelle yelled, and the two attacks clashed less than a second later. One was a metallic silver tail, backed with the energy of a hundred generators; the other was a yellow fist wielding a tough spoon, backed with the strength of a hundred mighty minds. The two clashed and created a large explosion that scattered another cloud of smoke and dust across the battlefield.

Marcus pulled his arm across his face again, squinting as the dirt tried to get into his eyes. 'Electabuzz, don't give up! Discharge!'

'He was taken out that easily?' Slime asked, staring with amazement at the small handheld monitor in front of him.

'Yes.' Gunge replied, switching the black monitor off and putting it in her small backpack. 'The leader of that company isn't a pushover; he's a very elite Pokémon trainer.'

'Hmm…' Slime placed his chin on his fist, looking down from his Honchcrow at the small half industrial, half agricultural town of Yanmana. 'If we send a whole host if infantry it'll be pretty apparent before we even get to him. We'll have to ambush him before he manages to activate the machine and take the key then.'

'Good idea, Slime. Do you want me to send some of my Pokémon to watch over him?'

'Yes, yours will be the best for that. Send about two or three and have one follow him home, and the other two scout out the building for anything interesting.'

'Okay.' Gunge reached for her belt and grabbed three Pokéballs before tossing them all into the sky ahead of her, making sure to release them by the cover of one of the factories.

'Gengar, Banette, Shuppet. You heard what he said. Go do it, now!' Gunge ordered and the three Ghost Pokémon sunk into the ceiling of the factory without further orders.

'You know, I'm wondering why they haven't done anything about our circling the town.' Slime said, looking down as he passed the Yanmana police station. It was almost as tall as the factories, and almost two times as wide as them. He was sure that they had a capable enough police force inside there.

'They're probably trying to avoid any form of confrontation right now. I'm betting they're still week after we had the Rhydon corps ransack their measly excuse of a town.' Gunge said, brushing a hand through her silky, waist-length lime hair arrogantly.

'You mean, try to ransack their town. They barely made it past the exit of the forest before they were forced to flee.' Gunge replied with a scowl.

'Well, if we'd attacked from the forest and from the sea like I suggested, then perhaps he would have gotten further.'

'No. We don't want to invade them just yet. Any sign of invasion and they most probably would have ceased construction on the Yanmana cannon.'

'That's true.' Gunge looked away in bitter defeat.

'Alakazam, stop him with psychic!' Michelle ordered, and Alakazam was quick to oblige, recovering from his mid-air flight with only slight cosmetic damage. He crossed his spoons together and enveloped himself with a violet aura as the tentacle-like bolts of electricity flew towards him. Just as they were about to make contact, he struck his spoons together, pulling his arms viciously to the side. The bolts moved in unison with his arms, flailing wildly to the side before dissipating into nothing.

'Alright then, we'll just try something up close! Fire punch!' Marcus roared, looking up towards the sunset. The sky was still shining brightly due to Alakazam's sunny day.

Electabuzz sped towards Alakazam furiously, right arm pulled back as a cloak of flames enveloped his fist.

'Focus blast!' Michelle roared. Alakazam put his spoons together once again, and a golden sphere of bright energy began to form between the two tips. Alakazam fired shortly after, thrusting both spoons towards Electabuzz with the sphere catapulting ahead.

'Electabuzz now, jump!' Marcus roared, and Electabuzz jumped within a second of Marcus finishing his command, soaring towards Alakazam with his flame-backed fist at the ready. The flames doubled in volume as Electabuzz roared, ready to deliver the final, burning blow.

BOOM! Another cloud of smoke appeared, but this one did not sweep the battlefield. Marcus looked on in shock and dismay as Electabuzz shot across the battlefield in his direction, scraping in the mud painfully and rolling over just in front of him, eyes squeezed shut. He was down.

'W-what?!' Marcus asked, blinking rapidly. 'H-how?!' He gestured to his Electabuzz, then to Alakazam, and back to his Electabuzz.

'What?' Michelle asked, taunting evident in her tone.

'Focus blast needs time to recharge, so how did it strike Electabuzz with another move?!'

'Who said that Electabuzz was hit by a different move?' Marcus' jaw snapped wide open.

'Anyway, you fought well. You've grown so much, and I hope you've learned from this encounter as much as I have. I'm going to get the ticket now. I'll be challenging the Yanmana gym at 2pm sharp tomorrow. I hope you can make it.' Michelle said with a smile, lowering and closing her parasol. And with that, she turned and headed towards Yanmana, the forest being spread wide and tall; but the chimneys of the factories reaching further into the sky. Alakazam looked back at Marcus and smiled once again, but this smile was one of sincerity. As Marcus stood there, shocked and unmoving, he thought he heard a voice inside his head. "Thank you for a great battle" It seemed to say.

Marcus smiled, closing his eyes once again before staring Alakazam hard in the eyes. 'You're welcome.' He muttered, and Alakazam nodded and turned to follow Michelle. Marcus however, simply slumped next to Electabuzz and put a hand on his cheek, causing the latter's eyes to open slightly.

'You did a brilliant job, Electabuzz.' Marcus said with a weak smile. 'I'm sorry that I let you down… I should have seen that teleport combo coming and had you do an aerial flip or something.' He patted Electabuzz' stomach firmly. 'We'll get 'em next time, buddy.' Electabuzz smiled before closing his eyes, and Marcus returned him to his Pokéball.

Brandon strolled into the main entrance of the Yanmana police station, heading instantly for the front desk with Matt the Meowth following eagerly.

'Hello,' Janet, the receptionist said. She smiled up at Brandon with scarlet lips. 'How can I help?'

'Hello Miss Porter,' Brandon began, getting out his Pokégear and placing it on the smooth wooden desk. 'I'm here to see my dad, Officer Hayabusa.'

'Of course. He's on the third floor, in his office.' Brandon cocked an eyebrow.

'Aren't you going to check my identification?' Janet blinked and looked down at Brandon's Pokégear.

'Oh, no,' Janet replied, smiling. 'You've been here enough times for me to know that it's you. Go right ahead.' Janet's smile widened and she tilted her head to the side with a smile.

'Okay.' Brandon said cautiously, taking his Pokégear and putting it into the pocket of his jeans. 'Thanks.' He strolled towards the back door on Janet's left and waited for it to open automatically before walking through. Matt only narrowly made it past the wrath of the automatic closing of the doors.

'Third floor, hmm.' Brandon muttered to himself, heading down the dull, narrow grey corridor. There was nothing to it but a tiny window on his right every ten metres to let the light in. Even when it was coming close to dusk, the lights still weren't on: they were conserving their electricity. This had been on-going for about two weeks now. It was a town-wide rule that had become compulsory. Brandon had no clue why it had been drafted in so suddenly.

Brandon finally reached the only interesting part of this building: the ground slide. That's what he called it. They were seven by four metre steel plates that were on simple rails. Once the person or persons were on comfortable, the plate would begin sliding across the rails, taking them to their destination. Brandon's destination was the lift room which was only one ride forward.

The door opened and all three of the plates were readily docked. He stepped on the middle one and beckoned Matt to follow. Matt did, hastily, jumping on and gripping on to Brandon's leg.

'Oh, Matt!' Brandon said with a smile. 'It's not that scary!' The plate began to move fairly slowly, and it began moving through the glass tunnel. Brandon peered to his right, this time: last time he peered to his left. At first he saw one of the few large factories. It was shovelling soot into the atmosphere and for a slim second Brandon saw inside it through a slim hole in the steel walls: there were four-armed, muscular shadows that were shovelling some sort of mineral or rock from one pile into a large machine that had a bright, red-hot glow coming from the core.

'Okay, we're here Matt. The ride's over, for now.' Brandon said, patting Matt on the head. He stepped off of the plate onto the wide, steel platform and pressed the green button, which resulted in the door opening with a sleek screech.

Brandon and Matt stepped through and Brandon reached to press the call button for the lift in front but something grabbed his attention. He turned around, looking with an eerie look of confusion. 'Do you feel that, Matt?' Brandon asked. Matt looked up at Brandon with worried eyes and nodded, taking a step closer to him.

Brandon grabbed a Pokéball from his belt with great speed and chucked it forward. 'Rio, I choose you! Use your aura to survey the surroundings!' he said calmly. A small but fierce-looking Riolu emerged from the Pokéball, and it closed its eyes, its small antennae raising as it surveyed the area.

'Rio!' Rio called, pointing at the corner of the wall with wide open eyes.

'What is it, Rio?' Brandon asked, looking at the wall, then back at Rio. He saw nothing. Rio slowly lowered his hand, his antennae and head instantly slumping in a sulk.

'Don't worry about it, Rio.' Brandon said cheerfully, patting Rio's head. 'It was probably nothing.' Rio nodded with a weak smile and pushed on his own Pokéball, returning inside without any time for response.

'Hmmm…' Brandon said, deep in thought. The DING-DONG of the arriving lift behind him tore him away from any thoughts that he was currently processing. He turned around as the doors opened and strolled in with Matt, pressing the button with a "3" on it before looking down at the ground as the doors closed.