Disclaimer:

Sadly, I do not own any of the Pokémon franchise.

SubZeroDragon, you up for another cover–art? I just love what you did in the other fanfic of mine, even though it did get a little cut off.

Shadows

Chapter One

Kidnapped

A liepard picked up her purrloin by the scruff and set her down to sit in front of her mother. Shade sat on the dirt and sand floor of her family's house, looking around in confusion. She was still very young, and did not really understand anything very much. Nonetheless, her mother tried to inform her of the extraordinary power she possessed.

"Shade, you have great power. I know you probably don't understand most of what I'm saying, but you possess the gift of Dimensional Scream. You see, it is –"

"Meow!" Shade blinked her eyes charmingly and looked up at her mother, totally clueless as to what her mom was trying to say to her. "Mew?" She meowed again. Her mother sighed, smiling.

"I guess that is a speech for another time, then." Laughed Shade's mother. "Go on, you may go outside and play now!" The liepard pointed her tail towards the door that was left open because of the heat of the afternoon. That was the one gesture Shade actually understood. She quickly, but clumsily, got up on her four paws and scampered outside to play in the grass.

One month later…

A nearly fluorescent jolteon padded swiftly and silently through the dense forests towards Shade's home. About twenty manectric and electrike followed, with some taillow and pidove taking the aerial positions. A taillow flew down and landed in front of him. Arrow halted his march and looked the taillow in its small, beady eyes.

"Master Arrow, the target's area of accommodation is not far, relatively due east from here." Arrow nodded and signaled for his troops to follow him as he made the correct turns. He was not sure how much of a fight they would put up or how large Shade's family was; he didn't even know how old the target Pokémon was! All he knew was that she possessed the very rare and useful Dimensional Scream ability. He was glad that when he was in a close enough proximity to her location, he could only scent two liepards, most likely her parents, and Shade herself. He lingered for a little while near the entrance of their home, ensuring that the family was asleep before his troops burst in. "A few seconds can make the difference between victory", his father, a well-respected general, taught him. A raging, but futile battle ensued. Arrow's troops kept Shade's parents busy as he headed for Shade's nest. When he lifted the kit by her scruff, the battle ended. Each liepard had a manectric's paw on its neck and chest, and electrike baring their pearly whites at the enemy's faces.

"No! You can't take –" Shade's father got off as a manectric pressed harder down on his neck. Arrow placed the squealing kit down on the ground and gently placed a forepaw on her stomach to prevent her from scurrying away.

"Let him speak." The manectric obeyed his leader's orders and lifted his paw slightly. The liepard gasped for breath and shook his head to clear his nausea and dizziness.

"What are you going to do to her? She is merely a kit! Not even three weeks old yet! Why would you take a purrloin that has little use to you?" Shade's father growled.

"Oh, she has much use to me. A little bird told me she has the Dimensional Scream ability. Literally." Arrow looked at a taillow standing by his side. "I have done extensive research into the ability, and its benefits. If I can get her to tell me what she sees in her visions, I can become near invincible! I will know the future!" Arrow grinned and picked up Shade by the back of her neck, getting a light squeal in response. He slightly nodded to a manectric holding Shade's mother down. All the troops dealt a heavy attack, which knocked the two liepards unconscious.

Arrow left Shade's house, with his posse following closely behind. "I'm really grateful of my taillow that overheard her parents and told me about her ability, she could be very beneficial to me." Arrow glanced behind him every few miles, making sure the flying–types were doing their assignment of brushing away footprints and blowing away scent. He swiveled his ears around, making sure there were no Pokémon besides his posse and himself there, before entering the dark tunnel that led to his base of operations, a cave right on the ocean. He looked down at the small purrloin he was carrying. She mewed and swiped her paws around as he moved. "Once you are strong enough and evolved… we will start our training."

About one and a half years later…

Shade was guided to a mainly gray room with many training dummies scattered about, all different shapes, sizes, colors… wait, was that one… on fire? Oh, well. It didn't matter. Today was the day of special training, for her exam due in a few weeks. She had the best mentor anyone could wish for, Arrow himself. She had no idea why he took so much interest in her over the other apprentices under his care; maybe it was because he rescued her after her abandonment on a road by her parents.

Arrow's organization focused on training those with the Dimensional Scream ability. Most come here when they're but a few weeks old. It's more of a… boarding school in a sense; she had spent most of her life there, anyway. From what she understood about the Dimensional Scream, it is activated when touching an item majorly linked to the past, present, or future, and often requires intense mental, physical, and intellectual training to achieve the highest mastery of said ability.

She stood rigid when her mentor arrived. He shook out his fur, sending brilliant sparks out. Arrow nodded to his student.

"Your exam is in exactly twenty–one days and ten hours from now; you will presently begin your last training sessions for it. Firstly, we will focus on the physical aspect of your training. We will begin one–on–one spars to test your fighting ability. To make the battle "fair", I will not use my static ability, and you won't get electrocuted when making contact with my fur. Please take in mind that no battle in life is fair, and the exam battles won't be fair either. The exam does not use sparring, but in fact requires your claws unsheathed throughout the exercise. You will get bloody. This training exercise will be claws sheathed, but the next time we spar, it won't." Arrow stared at her as he listed out the protocol of the exam and the training sessions. Shade rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, rules and regulations." She rolled her eyes, lashing her tail. "Let's just get on with the sparring!" Shade was raring to go. Arrow rolled his eyes as well. Sometimes she was so impatient. He got into fighting stance and readied himself for her attacks. She usually attacked with a rushing river of slashes, throwing caution and finesse to the wind.

"Maybe she'll change… Hopefully she read that book I assigned her on combat." He thought as she made the first move. Shade had adopted a slightly more graceful fighting style, probably a result of reading that book, but she was still rather predictable. Arrow dodged her moves with ease, occasionally releasing a Thunderbolt attack at her. He bolted at her and nailed the shoulder of his student with a strong Thunder Fang. Shade hissed and retaliated with a simple Bite attack, which was barely enough to get his fangs off her.

"Hey! Take it easy! I have literature right after this!" She growled as she loosed a Shadow Ball vaguely in his direction. Arrow smiled at her progress.

"Alright, alright. Enough sparring." He leaped up on a stone pedestal and sat down. "You can attack the training dummies for practice. I expect you to slash open all of them in thirty seconds." Arrow stared down at her gaping, slightly amused at her surprised countenance. Shade sighed and took her place at the first of twelve sacs of wood chips and sand. She unsheathed her claws and readied a Night Slash attack. "Go."

She slashed open one with two hits. She dashed over to the second, a rather small sac.

"One," Arrow counted. She sweatdropped and hit the sac with a Bite attack followed by a Night Slash. It split open. She looked up at her mentor. "Well? What are you waiting for? It's already been ten seconds!" Shade almost screamed in terror as she rushed over to the next dummy, then the next, and the next… She was left panting when she slashed open the last dummy. "Actually, I lied. You finished in twenty–five seconds." Arrow kind of chuckled. Shade scowled. "Alright, hustle out! My next class is coming in and you need to get to your other training classes." Arrow lied about that too. He was actually holding a conference with one of his high–ranking allies, a croconaw named Jaw.

He nodded to his comrade. "Any new ones?" He asked. Jaw nodded and revealed a small poochyena pup that he had curled his tail around. Arrow examined the young poochyena.

"He was found just north of World Abyss." The croconaw said. Arrow nodded his approval, slowly blinking.

"Good. In an exotic location like that, it is unlikely a Rescue Team will be suspicious. Wait… found? He wasn't kidnapped?" Arrow said. He was oblivious that Shade was listening in. Thankfully, she had only caught the following words: "He… was found… north… Abyss… Rescue Team…" She cocked her head and rushed off to her next class.

"Yeah. This time he actually got abandoned." The croconaw huffed.

"Hm. Do you know his name? It's important that we know it." Arrow inquired.

"His name is Hail. He's about half a year old by my estimate."

"Okay. Take him to the nursery; I'm sure Feather will take care of him." Arrow looked at him as he departed for the nursery.

Shade looked outside the window on the door of her 'mental training class' as Arrow often called it, and saw Jaw carrying a poochyena somewhere.

"Huh… a new one… eh?" She thought, jolting back to her studies as her teacher snarled at her.

A/N:

How do you guys like it? Any changes I could make? Plot suggestions? Character suggestions? Leave them in your reviews! I will accept all constructive criticism, no fights! No fights at all! Please review, maybe follow and favorite if you like it?