Chapter One

The Darkness Emerges

The Eevee moved through the bustling Market Village, looking through the crowd nervously. It seemed to her as though each of them were looking to attack her at any moment, and it was no different when she had reached the hills on the skirts of town.

At the top of one of the hills, she found the familiar clump of trees where her saviour lived, though she had never seen what he looked like.

"Did you find it?" he asked calmly. "Did you find the Stone?"

The Eevee looked at her feet; she was still unaccustomed to having four. "No," she whimpered.

Her saviour sighed. "Emma," he growled, "after I had saved you, you had agreed to help me as payment and, although you have failed time and time again, I have continued to keep your origins as a human secret. Is that fair on me?"

Emma looked into the trees, tears welling in her brown eyes.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" the other Pokémon snapped.

"I'm sorry, sir," Emma sobbed, "it's just that I've never seen the Stone. How am I supposed to know where it is, if I wouldn't even know it if I saw it?"

"That's not my problem, Emma. It's yours."

"I know, sir. I know..."

"Now, get out of my sight. You reek of failure," her saviour said firmly.

Emma took a rattling breath and turned away. Looking back sadly, she could have seen white fur through the gap in the trees, and, taking it as a trick of the light, she walked away.

This time, she avoided the village altogether, walking back to her home at the foot of a vertical cliff-face. What she saw there made her gasp.

A Scizor and a Medicham were attacking her home! What made things worse was the fact that they were part of her saviour's gang.

"What are you doing?" Emma called, distraught.

"Absol doesn't like mistakes, Emma," Scizor sneered. "We were sent to ensure you get that message."

Emma looked up, disbelieving, at the thick plume of smoke billowing from her house.

"Please!" she implored.

"Not a chance," said Medicham pompously. "You have to learn little one. Unless you want to be the one to stop us?"

The two larger Pokémon grinned at each other as Emma looked at her feet again. She started to cry.

"Look, Cham," Scizor laughed, "the little baby's crying."

"Yeah, crying and all alone in this big, bad world," Medicham chuckled.

"She's not alone!" a voice called from above and, in a shower of leaves, a Bellossom floated down. "And you're going to leave her."

"Oh, are we now?" Medicham smiled. "Says who?"

"Says me," Bellossom replied, thrusting her arm forward, and knocking Medicham back into the cliff with an Energy Ball. Medicham didn't move.

"Would you like some of that, too?" Bellossom continued, walking to Scizor.

"I'm a Steel-type Pokémon," Scizor gloated, rather unconvincingly. "What can you do to me?"

Emma slammed sideways into Scizor, as Bellossom closed her eyes. She was surrounded by a ring of small red glowing spheres. Scizor smashed into Emma, sending her skidding. She struggled to her feet, wondering where she was getting all this strength from.

"Hey, Scizor!" Bellossom shouted, still surrounded by the ring of spheres. "Do you recognise this attack? I just learned it before I came to this region. I'd heard about the so-called 'Terrors of the Mountains' and thought I'd prepare myself."

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" Scizor scoffed. "Of course I know what attack that is! It's Hidden Power; a Normal-type move."

"Technically correct," Bellossom said knowingly, "but there's more to it. The move takes an energy from within oneself and transfers it. Each Pokémon's energy has its own type."

Scizor's eyes widened. "Y-Yeah... So?"

Bellossom grinned, her eyes narrowing. "Wanna know my inner type?"

Scizor froze.

"It's Fire, and, with you being a Bug- and Steel-type, this does not bode well does it?" She laughed, then looked at Emma. "Hey, you'd better move."

Emma ran to the side and watched the spheres of light fly from around Bellossom and smash into Scizor, small flames erupting at each point of contact. Scizor screamed and hit the ground.

Emma ran to Bellossom. "Thank you, so much!"

Bellossom stepped back, a stern look on her face. "Emma, was it? From what I've heard, you've been mixed up with the wrong crowd. What do you know about the Pokémon you work for?"

Emma shrugged. "Pretty much nothing. I only just found out that his name was Absol."

Bellossom frowned before turning away. "Follow me. There's something you should know."