Of Shadows and Pokemon

Wiping stray strands of teal colored hair away from his eyes, Alphonse Engel, a boy who appeared to be no older than sixteen years of age, smirked in the face of his challenger. Slowly the dual spotlights on their battle focused in on the Riolu in front of him and his pale face. Catching a sliver of the pale light, his gray eyes seemed to shimmer with determination as his hands, which he wore black fingerless gloves over, rested in the pockets of his black jeans which were custom dyed to fade to red below the knee. This pokemon battle was almost over and that fear could be seen in the eyes of his opponent and his opponent's Bisharp. Smoothing out the wrinkles of his red shirt with sleeves that stopped at his wrist which was covered by a black vest as he waited for his opponent's next move, the eyes of the youth with a skinny build were glued to the scoreboard. It was a typical three on three battle and he had all three of his pokemon while his opponent was down to his last pokemon.

"B-Bisharp, use Metal Claw!"

Alphonse could hear the panic and worry behind the older man's voice and he knew then for sure that this battle was in the bag. Using a form of communication with his Riolu so that the Fighting Type wouldn't telegraph all of it's attack pattern, Roen gave a barely audible snap of his fingers once and then twice in quick succession. Each snap of his fingers related to a move which his Riolu knew with one and two snaps being Swords Dance and Force Palm. Leaping into action with a grace that could only belong to a female fighting pokemon, Riolu was literally dancing between the Bisharp's swift movements as she waited for the perfect moment to exploit a weakness in the enemy's guard. Spotting that precise opening, the female Riolu's right paw drew backwards as it glowed white before she slammed it into the Bisharp's chest right as it's arms were lifted to strike his Riolu in the head. Flying backwards from the sheer force of that Force Palm, the Bisharp skidded across the rocky field until it's back slammed into a large rock mound. Seconds passed into minutes as the Bisharp laid there unconscious before the referee made his decision.

"Bisharp is unable to battle, Riolu wins. The victory goes to Alponse Engel of Castelia City."

Hopping around her trainer's legs, Riolu performed her own little victory dance. It was cute and all but too bad his victory didn't matter much. The battle tournament they had just competed in was an unofficial one located in Johto so while it was nice to win it didn't actually help his standings to compete in the Indigo League in the long run. Then again he only joined the tournament in the first place because it seemed like it was fun. We should get going soon. I want to reach Shamouti Island before nightfall if at all possible.

"Come on, Aura. We don't want to be late." Alphonse stated urgently as he scooped the Fighting Type up in his arms so he wouldn't have to worry about her falling behind.

By the time the duo of trainer and pokemon had left the lobby in Goldenrod City it was already getting dark out and the smell of rain lingered in the air. There was no way that they were going to get to Shamouti Island by nightfall it seemed. I really wanted to see the Legendary Birds too. Unfortunately there wasn't much that he was even able to do about that because it was honestly too dark to see in order to fly so he decided to stop at the pokemon center for the night. Besides the fact that he was too tired to fly, the Pokemon Center also had the advantage of it's facilities being free to use by traveling trainers. It was a great thing when one tires of camping out in the dirt.

Too bad he never even got to the doors when a girl in orange with a Dratini rushed by with a man in black hot on her heels. Not one to waste time, Alphonse took off after the man and the woman with the assumption that the woman and her Dratini were in trouble. Rounding the corner of the Pokemon Center and bounding into a dark alleyway. Nothing good could happen in a dark alleyway and he was right when the man sent out a Lucario and demanded the woman give up the Dratini or else. Unable to watch the scene before him any longer without interfering for the woman's sake, Alphonse snapped his fingers four times before snapping them three times. Rushing forwards at high speeds, Aura gave her best glass shattering screech to the Lucario before coming in with Sky Uppercut. Taking this distraction as a good chance to escape, the woman whispered her gratitude as she ran past with her Dratini.

"What the!?" The man dressed entirely in black except for his cap which had a large red C on it exclaimed in a furious manner, "You little punk! Looks like I'm going to have to settle for stealing your Riolu."

"What? No, there's no way you're taking Aura from me!" Alphonse refused vehemently, now clutching his best friend and partner close to his chest.

"Fine, seems like I'll have to do this the hard way. Lucario, use Shadow Combat!" The man roared to his Lucario, who under close inspection had only been distracted by Aura's Sky Uppercut.

Shadow Combat? That's not a real move. Unfortunately the blue haired teen didn't have much time to ponder that much as the Lucario charged with it's hands and feet enveloped in some sort of malevolent black aura. Thinking on his feet, Alphonse silently gave the command for Swords Dance and Force Palm in hopes that his Riolu was fast enough to dodge. As it turns out Alphonse had completely miscalculated the strange Lucario's speed and the Riolu and trainer were berated with a flurry of punches and kicks too fast for his eyes to track. If it wasn't hard to tell at that point, Alphonse was sent flying backwards with Aura still in his arms.

"Did ya like that? This baby is what we in Cipher like to call a Shadow Pokemon." The man who had revealed himself to be an agent of Cipher cackled in some perverse sense of amusement.

"S-Shadow P-Pokemon...?" Alphonse barely managed to ask as a thin trickle of blood ran down the side of his mouth.

"Just the name sends chills of excitement down my spine. In order to increase their battle potential we at Cipher close a Pokemon's heart to make them a Shadow Pokemon. We steal these pokemon from their original trainers and by the time the process is complete the pokemon has lost all emotions and only remembers that it's made for battle." The Cipher agent declared with a sick form of pride in his voice.

"T-That's... horrible... P-Pokemon aren't... t-tools... of w-war." Alphonse barely managed to stammer as his vision flickered in and out due to the force of that Shadow Combat.

"A brat like you wouldn't understand. Finish him Lucario!" The man barked as his pulled out an object which looked vaguely like a pistol pointed at him but the thing was so blurry that the teen wasn't able to make heads or tails of it.

Sensing his imminent demise, Alphonse squeezed his eyes shut as he prepared for the worst when a roar broke the silence. Blinking in confusion at what he just heard, Roen as a high pressure spray of water slammed into his attackers. Standing up shakily, the blue haired youth caught sight of blue canine shaped blur which looked like Suicune for some reason. He wasn't sure whether he was in fact seeing things or what but he noticed that whatever had saved him dropped a pair of glasses with purple lenses and blue frames. Maybe it was the Close Combat messing with his head but the instance his eyes caught sight of them he felt drawn to them. Were they meant to be his? Without really thinking about his actions, Alphonse slipped on the glasses and boy did he notice the effect. His field of vision immediately cleared and he felt reinvigorated as if he were a pokemon and someone had just used a hyper potion on him right when the Cipher agent took out some strange device and vanished into thin air.

"He left his pokemon behind." Alphonse muttered as Aura bounced onto his right shoulder with loads of energy. At that moment the youth noticed that the Lucario, which had appeared to be a regular Lucario before he had slipped on his new glasses, suddenly gave off a malicious aura. Any traces of black on the lucario became red, any traces of blue became grey, and it's eyes were glowing golden. No... Not suddenly. This must be how it always looks. Overcome with remorse over what must of happened to the poor creature Alphonse tossed an Ultraball at the bipedal pokemon in hopes of helping it. Of course he wasn't expecting the capture to work honestly which was why he was surprised when the Shadow Lucario was sucked into the ball and captured immediately.

I'm thoroughly confused by all of this but meh I'll see where this takes me. Picking the ball up from off the ground, the teen couldn't help but notice the fact that the pokeball had turned gray in color and had a giant S where the button on most pokeballs were. Noticing the blue canine pokemon which he instantly recognized as Suicune, Alphonse had to wonder if something was in fact wrong. From what he knew about Suicune Alphonse knew that Suicune usually bounded from lake to lake purifying impurities. It was rare to even encounter in a big city like Goldenrod.

"Get on my back. I have a lot to explain to you and very little time." The majestic water pokemon barked in a forceful yet feminine voice.

"Sure as long as this doesn't turn into some long exposition scene which just feels rushed and bad." complied the youth as he tentatively planted himself upon the legendary's back while placing the Lucario's ball in his pants pocket.

"Just shut up and let me explain." Suicune barked in annoyance as she took off in a high speed run.

If Suicune wasn't in such a rush in her explanation then maybe Alphonse could of enjoyed the thrill of dashing over water. A forceful breeze was constantly in his face making it hard for him to speak so he just listened intently while fingering Lucario's pokeball. She told him about Cipher who was apparently an evil organization dedicated to closing the hearts of pokemon and turning them into battle machines. Apparently Cipher had done this twice before but now they had one of every single pokemon species from Kanto to Unova except for the legendaries. It was sad to listen to honestly. How could someone be so cruel as do that to a pokemon which in turn prevented any kind of growth? Even if Suicune didn't demand it of it, Alphonse decided then and there that he wasn't going to allow Cipher to hurt more innocent pokemon.

"All I have to do is snag them and purify them right?" Alphonse parroted.

"Correct."

"And how do I actually purify them?" Alphonse questioned when he realized that he had no clue how to purify pokemon.

"Ah that... That's up to you to figure out but I'll give you hint. It's right in front of your eyes." Suicune giggled as she threw Roen and Aura off down in the middle of a quaint looking town before bounding off again.

"That's helpful." the boy grumbled as he rubbed his back, "Where are we anyways."

At that the pale skinned teen reached into his pocket and pulled out a Silver device with faded paint. It was his PDA and it literally had almost everything a trainer could need, except for food, and some unnecessary things like the Mail Box and the Shadow Moniter. Wait what? Scrolling back down through the list of apps on the main screen, Alphonse found himself clicking on the Shadow Moniter icon out of curiosity. A maniac grin painted itself upon his face when he realized what it's purpose was and thanked whatever deity decided to give it to him.

"Why are you so happy, Master?" Aura, confused about what was so important, questioned.

"Well this thing has everything we need to know about the Shadow Pokemon including their trainers, levels, and attacks so maybe things won't be so bad." Alphonse chimed in for his confused pokemon.

With that said the duo proceeded to find the nearest pokemon shelter for shelter and to plan where to go next. All he actually knew was that he was in Nuvema Town so getting to know the area just a little better was a good idea. Is what I'm going to do really right though? Wouldn't this be considered stealing pokemon? I guess it's only wrong per say if I actually keep thing once this whole blasted journey is said and done with. Surprisingly enough it was actually very easy to find the Pokemon Center. He had assumed that it would take forever in all honesty. I've spent too much time in Goldenrod City.

Alphonse was unsure of what time it was by the time they had rented a room but whatever time it was the teen immediately passed out once his body his the bed. Aura had fallen asleep on his head before they even rented the room so he didn't bother her much. What in the world have I got myself into this time. Can I even purify Shadow Pokemon? Those were the thoughts drifting across his mind before he passed out. Whatever the answers to those questions were, Alphonse was sure to be in for a wild ride.

Author's Notes: Okay. If you haven't read the summary first then this was inspired by animatedrose's Quest to Capture the shadow pokemon. If anybody happens to read this by chance then I would appreciate if you would submit Ocs for both the snagger's side and Cipher's. I really just want their name, age, gender, personality, appearance, and their pokemon team. Stuff like History I'll make up on the fly unless you specify. This might of seemed like a minor thing but I edited this bit a little so the journey would take place in Unova.