Kanto Shadows

by DaScene

Leon is on his way to defeating Cipher. Can he do it alone? Or will Cipher take over the world, one city at a time? Whole story in this page. bleh. ill fix it later

Kanto shadows

(Note: most characters are fictional yet a few may be based on actual people.)

The Beginning

Saffron slums

"Okay, time to get my first pokemon!" said the young soon to be trainer. "Just where to get it." Leon was a kid, an orphan who never had a parent to raise him. He has however seemed to be able to tell what a pokemon or another human was thinking. "I'm of the right age, 13 years old but how do you get pokemon if you have no money, no connections, nothing at all." Then his problems were solved.

Leon saw an ad on the wall about a rental battling contest for all ages 10 and up. "This is perfect; I've seen real live battles before so this should be easy right! Let's see where to go." Leon stared at the posters to see the date and location, but instead not being to well educated he took the poster to a trusted friend that he knew can read.

Daycare center

"Hey Mister Reeve I found something important that I can't read!" said Leon barging into the daycare center for pokemon.

Mr. Reeve was the type of guy who would give you the shirt off his back. He had the eyes that were so calm and gentle that anyone would feel safe just staring into them. "Leon what brings you here it's still 5:00." said Reeve teasing.

"I saw this ad that had something to do with rental pokemon battles, and if you win you get to keep a pokemon, just when is it and where?"

"Oh is that it," said reeve petting his meowth an old friend of his. A pokemon that is usually nocturnal and liked shiny stuff. Leon often played with it, but he was extremely excited about the tournament. "Let me see, it says here that it will be held in Celadon city which is west of saffron, but you know that and it will be held tomorrow at 3:00 pm so, I think you should go now"

"This isn't good I'm going to have run all the way too!" said Leon heart broken.

"But I can always take you there on my Dragonite and rent a hotel for you," said reeve, relieving Leon.

"Really, thanks a lot; I promise once I become famous or at least a strong trainer I will help you take care of your day care center." vowed Leon. "Can we leave now though, because I think I have to register?"

"Sure why not?" answered reeves, "go Drago!" Reeve then sent out a large yellow dragon pokemon. Then he hopped on and said "Friend can you take me and Leon here to Celadon city.

The large dragon ferocious it may seem was a kind and gentle creature that was always willing to help out a friend, so it replied with a roar that Leon heard as why not. Have I ever turned down a favor! So they left the daycare center riding on the dragon and the land got smaller and smaller and soon they were as high as the sylph. Co. building in saffron. Then quicker than a blink of the eye because of dragonite's speed they were above celadon.

Celadon

"Okay Drago land over there" Reeve said pointing to a large building apparently the hotel that reeve was talking about.

Once they landed, Leon went strait into the hotel. "Wow this place is better than I imagined," Leon saw the place like a palace since the place was decorated with lights and the floors were polished greatly, Leon who was wearing ripped clothes from a charity stood out from the finely dressed people in the area. Reeve felt ashamed since it seemed as if he was a grandparent of a kid who dressed like a hobo even though he was dressed like a noble.

"Leon, after I rent the room I want you to stay in there and occupy yourself while I go to the Dept. store and buy you some clothes, okay?"

"Uh… sure I guess, but why?"

"Uh… once you start traveling you will need good clothes for different weather and plus your clothes don't really suit you," he said nervously.

"I'll stay, but do you think they have a Nintendo 64 that I can use to play pokemon Stadium 2?"

"Sure I'll ask them" Reeve then went up to the receptionist and started talking to her about the hotel. Mean while Leon saw a couple of shady men by the door way, they both had on shady jackets and a hat pulled over their faces.

Man1 said in a gruff voice "what do we do with these pokemon the boss gave us; they look really strong why would he let us use them?"

Man2 said in emotionless tone "we target the tournament pokemon and snag them with this snag machine," said the man pointing to the robotic armor covering his ally's right arm. Then noticing Leon eavesdropping even though he didn't look like it, left and took his ally with him.

"Alright Leon this lady hear will take you to your room got it?" said Reeve pointing to the receptionist. Leon was led to his room and he entered it. The room was a little more casual looking so Leon liked it.

"Use that telephone there and press the service button if you need anything okay," said the receptionist in a kind voice.

"Yes ma'am, thanks," said Leon. Leon then went to the N64 instantly. "Okay time to play pokemon stadium 2!"

Pokemon Trainer Leon

VS

Pokemon stadium 2 CPU

Go Arcanine!

CPU sent out Machoke!

"Okay what to use against a Machoke a fighting type. They're weak against flying attacks so I'll use Aerial Ace!"

Arcanine leapt up into the air and came crashing down instantly on Machoke.

Super effective hit!

Machoke retaliated with counter and ran towards Arcanine with a glowing intensity. It punched Arcanine and KOd it.

"Not good I should pay more attention to the opponents move set as well as there types and abilities."

Leon sent out Espeon!

"I should use a weak attack that will still finish it off so I can save PP. I should use psybeam!"

Espeon fired a rainbow colored beam from its mouth while its eyes were glowing blue, knocking out Machoke.

CPU sent out scyther!

"A bug type, since Espeon is weak against it I'll recall Espeon and send out my Skarmory!"

Leon recalled Espeon, go Skarmory!

"I'll use an air cutter attack for its critical hit ratio and advantage."

Scyther used sword dance gaining attack while spinning like a typhoon.

Skarmory used air cutter flying into the sky and flapping its wings throwing extremely sharp numbers of air at the giant praying mantis. Taking out ½ its HP.

"Darn that wasn't as strong as I had expected, but one more time lets go"

Scyther used slash. It dashed strait towards Skarmory flapping its own wings raising its scythe and cutting the metal taking ½ of skarmory's HP.

Critical Hit!

Skarmory then used air cutter, defeating scyther.

CPU sent out manectric

"An electric type, maybe toxic will work"

Skarmory flew up to manectric's face and sprayed a purple and foul acid that toxified it.

Manectric then used thunder and ko'd Skarmory.

"Darn, well at least it's poisoned."

Leon sent out espeon!

"I'll just finish it off with a psycho boost attack!"

Espeon glowed with a blue aura and shot it directly towards manectric. Manectric was blown away from the impact ending the match.

CPU is defeated

"Wow, you're a pretty good tactician!" said the receptionist obviously impressed.

"Waaaah! You were here all this time watching me talk to myself!" Said Leon panicked.

"Oh, sorry. I just wanted to see you battle. There isn't anything wrong with that right?" asked the receptionist. "Oh sorry again, I haven't told you my name yet even though I've been watching you battle. My name is Eve."

"Oh gee, thanks for complimenting my skills, I'm Leon."

"I've heard about you from Reeve, he said you were entering the tourney too."

"Wait, what do you mean by too?" said Leon confused.

"I'm entering as well, but I don't have that many battle skills so can you teach me? Oh, I'll give you a pokédex as well" said Eve holding out the legendary device given only to trustworthy people.

"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!?!?!" said Leon astounded yet baffled, because the pokedex's color wasn't red like he heard, but black. "Why is it black?"

"I know, professor Oak gave this to me and I don't know why, but he gave me two saying one for me and another for the person who I think will use it right, oh and in fact I'm Daisy Oak's cousin" Eve said calmly looking at Leon's face looking as if he was going to faint. "The pokédex is black because it once belonged to 3 team rocket executives, Oca, Storc and Jagura."

Leon recalled remembering hearing from Reeve about those 3 team rocket members that were working for Giovanni. Yet he never heard that they even had such a high tech device, or that they can even make one for that matter.

"Well will you teach me?" pleaded Eve.

"Oh, sure of course, but how?"

"That's easy we'll just borrow Reeves pokemon and battle wild ones!"

"Okay then, but first let's get some sleep…" and Leon drifted off to sleep, and Eve left the room quietly.

END

Chapter 1- Leon's first Tourney and Pokemon

The next morning, Leon woke up finding a fresh gear of clothes near his bed, and remembered that he had obtained a pokédex as well. He was really motivated to start training with Eve to brush up on his skills. He was also excited to test out the pokédex. So Leon got up and changed into the fresh clothes, it was a red jacket in case it was cold which was similar to Green who was Leon's favorite legendary trainer, black T-shirts, blue jeans, and a fresh pair of sneakers, and obviously some plain socks.

Leon went out of his room and looked outside for Eve or Reeve so he can start his training. Outside he saw that same suspicious duo talking.

"So we try to snag some of these pokemon here a shadowfy them right?" the gruffer one said.

"Correct and it's best we steal the elite ones to please the boss." said the enigmatic man. "Darn that kid is watching us again, I feel it." and he turned and left.

"I got to try and stop them…" said Leon yet he felt hopeless for he had no pokemon. "Oh hey, is that, oh Eve!" Leon yelled at the receptionist who was no longer in her uniform, but a more common outfit. Eve turned and greeted Leon.

"Okay I've already asked permission from Reeve and he said yes, but we only have around half an hour to go so we should leave now to east of celadon. And the pokemon I borrowed are meowth and nidorino." said Eve holding out the 2 pokemon and releasing the 2. Meowth the scratch-cat pokemon and nidorino the poison-point pokemon who had spikes across its back and a venomous horn on the forehead. Its color was mainly light purple accept for the insides of its ears which were blue. The ear was large and meant to help avoid predators. "And here goes your pokédex, why don't you try it out," Eve gave the small electronic encyclopedia to Leon.

"But how do I use it?" questioned Leon with a quizzical face staring at the pokédex.

"That's easy all you have to do is point the pokedex's beam towards the pokemon and it will give you data about it. You can also press a certain button so that it will give you other data as well," said Eve pointing to the many buttons. Leon could make out some of the words which were words like type, weaknesses, moves, evolution chains and etc.

"Okay then what are we waiting for let's go and train." said Leon running off towards celadon's west gate.

"Hey, wait up you might get hurt!" and Eve ran off after him.

Route 7

*pant pant* "okay nidorino lets go!" Said Leon hastily. Okay buddy let me check out your stats and stuff okay.

Nidorino nodded as if it said yes.

Nidorino the poison point pokemon. It is easily angered. By swinging its well developed horn wildly, it can even punch through diamond.

Strong 2 stats are attack and speed.

"Wow…." Leon said in awe. "And there's even more information! I got no time for this though I have to train."

"So had fun with the pokédex yet?"

"Yeah, sure did! Well if you want to train and you have weak or new pokemon you should train with the wild ones ok." Leon said

"Alright I'll use Meowth! Hey those Eevees look pretty easy for us."

"Yeah they shouldn't be too hard since me and meowth battled some before. So lets battle"

Street boy Leon & Lass Eve

VS.

Wild eevees

Leon sends out Nidorino

Eve sends out Meowth

"Alright since they're both of the normal type they should be weak against fighting! Okay"

"Wow I didn't even have to use the pokédex since your hear"

"But it's best we either buff our pokemon or weaken the enemy"

"Like moves like leer and sword dance?"

"Right, but since Nidorino is stronger in the attack stat we should buff him. But I don't know which enemy to weaken 1st."

"Try using the pokédex it tells you about the enemy's individual stats." Eve checks the pokédex. "Let me see… It says that eevee 1 is lower in lv. than #2 but it has higher stats, I wonder why…"

"It's probably had more experience in training and battling stronger pokemon then the other, so we attack the higher lv. one right?"

Meowth uses Tail whip, Meowth ran towards eevee 2 and started wagging its tail and lulling the enemy into a false sense of security, Lowering defense.

Nidorino used focus energy, energy then began to glow around Nidorino and it roared to have it gain an even stronger morale for battling, making Nidorino pumped up and ready to cause a critical hit.

Eevee 1 used charm on Meowth acting like a cute little puppy would, harshly lowering Meowth's attack.

Eevee 2 used quick attack on nidorino, it ran so fast it was barely visible if it weren't brown in color and did little damage. But upon making contact with Nidorino it hit one of its poison barbs on its back poisoning eevee 2.

"Cool now that eevee 2 is poisoned we can take it out quickly so we should go after it with Meowth" said Leon observing with his pokédex (a feature he found out about by himself.)

Meowth used thunderbolt, Meowth charged up electrical energy around itself getting ready to zap eevee 2 and finally let the stored energy loose zooming towards 2 at a fast speed.

Eevee 2 fled

"What, wild pokemon can run too?" said Eve shocked.

"Yeah, it's annoying when you're trying to lv. up but unless we have a blocking type move we can't do anything." said Leon slightly annoyed.

Nidorino used double kick, it ran towards 1 and turned around and kicked 1 twice with its hind legs one of the kicks being critical and knocking 1 out.

End

"Oh no, the tourney is about to start we better run there fast!" said Eve taking a look at her pokenav which was a device which was extremely like a cell phone.

Celadon

"This is amazing," those were the 1st 3 words that Leon had said upon getting into the festival. "So Eve, where do we go?"

"We're already here we just tell her who we are and she'll show us the way." Eve said pointing to a lady and walked up to her and asked her a few stuff. "Ok, Leon I go into that blue tent and you go into the red one, my match will be the 2nd one and yours will be the 4th. Just wait if they call your name. And hears how the tourney tree looks like.

"Nice, well I should get ready." so Eve left.

After what felt like a long time it was time for Leon to choose his pokemon and he chose Charmander for his 1st round pokemon. "Thank you for choosing, it is now round 2 would you like to see?"

"Round 2? Sure I'll go!" and Leon was lead into the stadium and he found a seat in the front row. It was a really energetic crowd not the kind Leon would like, but he wanted to see his friend battle.

It was Eve against a boy named Rex who seemed to be a young kid who liked dinosaurs.

"Okay this will be like a regular match but no items unless held are allowed, understand?" yelled the referee. And the 2 responded in unison and went to their respective sides.

Lady Eve

VS

Youngster Rex

Eve sent out Mareep

Rex sent out kabuto

Mareep was a sheep pokemon with cream colored wool and had an electric colored gem at the end of its tail. Kabuto was an ancient pokemon whose eyes were a demonic red and was basically a horseshoe crab type pokemon.

"Mareep use thunder wave!" and Mareep charged up a small amount of electricity and fired it towards kabuto.

"No fair, well try to use scratch!" Kabuto was too paralyzed from the attack to retaliate.

"Now Mareep use shock wave." Mareep charged up electricity but instead of a weak jolt it was a blindingly fast and strong attack and was fired strait towards the pokemon.

"Come on kabuto, dodge it!" Rex said desperately, but the pokemon was too slow and got zapped by the attack and was instantly knocked out due to the weakness.

"Yay Mareep we did it!" Eve said jumping up and down from her first official win.

"What, how can an ancient pokemon lose to a sheep?" said Rex miserably.

End

"Wow Eve battled like she battled before!" said Leon astounded by the quick battle. "Well I better get back to my tent now." Leon waited for 5 minutes after the 3rd round was finished and found out the winner of that round was a man named Largo.

"It is now your turn, are you ready?" asked a woman.

"You bet I am!" said Leon energetically running out into the stadium. Once Leon entered the stadium it was as if he was in a whole new world, he saw people cheering him on and saw people roaring for the battle to begin, and Leon felt the he won't turn back no matter what now.

"This will be a normal match excluding items, understood you two!" Yelled the ref.

"Right," said the 2 contestants in unison.

"Alright, little boy, you're going down!" said Leon's opponent who barely seemed any older than Leon was.

"Uh… right, whatever," said Leon indifferently.

Street boy Leon

Vs.

Picnicker Lily

"Let's see what how you handle my little lizard! Go Charmander!" Then came out the small orange colored lizard, which had a flame at the tip of its tail.

"A Charmander, please... go Seedot!" And out came an acorn shaped pokemon.

"Is this it…? I was expecting more of a challenge," said Leon with a sad expression on his face. "Go and use blast burn…"

Charmander began to glow an intense red and roared, not the might of a charizard but more than that of a charmelion. Then Charmander ran up towards the Seedot with a mouthful of fire and spat it all right on top of the Seedot causing a major explosion, instantly knocking out the pokemon.

"WHAT! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!" said the picnicker enraged. But Leon just ran up towards the already fainted Seedot after recalling his Charmander and used a max revive on it and rocked the baby acorn pokemon till it felt like sleeping.

End

"Wow this trainer isn't only a powerful battler, but he's compassionate towards his opponents, this trainer is beginning to become one of my favorites" said the MC. "Well what do you people think out there!" he said yelling towards the audience and they yelled in approval.

"Wow, so this is what it's like to feels admire…" said Leon trailing off staring at the crowed and he noticed Reeve and Eve and he waved towards them. "Well I better get back to my tent" Leon said feeling content and leaving behind the picnicker who was having a breakdown.

"Well that was the quickest battle I've seen so far in this tourney," said the lady. "Now it's time for you to pick your 2nd pokemon, got it?" She said holding out seven pokeballs. "The last one is the Seedot you just defeated." The other six was a riolu, a munchlax, a pichu, an azurill, a torchic, and a cyndaquill.

"I think I'll go with the… riolu," said Leon choosing the small puppy like pokemon that stood on its hind legs. It was a blue pokemon that was of the fight type.

"Well the next match is starting, would you like to see?"

"Sure."

Once Leon got into the stadium the match had already started, and the man called Knox was the same shady guy he saw back at the hotel. He was using a Machoke, but for some reason he saw a purple air around it. "Hey reeve, do you see anything strange about that Machoke that man is using?"

"Why no, not at all Leon, why?"

"It's nothing…" Leon said watching the battle.

"Machoke, use shad double edge…" The man Knox ordered what sounded like double edge, but when Leon saw it he saw that strange purple air get stronger and severely injured the opposing pokemon instantly knocking it out, and that was Eve's 2nd pokemon.

"Whoa, didn't anyone see that!" Leon yelled.

"Yes, that was a powerful double edge," replied Reeve.

"Huh…?" said Leon baffled. But he just went to the stadium preparing for the next match. After just a few minutes the man Largo came to the stadium and was wearing that odd gauntlet thing. "Hey aren't you that guy's friend?" asked Leon who recognized his big bulkiness.

"Yeah, and?"

"I noticed that strange pokemon your pal was using, don't try to lie! I heard that roar and it wasn't the normal kind of pokemon roar, it was more of a painful kind" said Leon angrily.

"Wow how did you know we had shadow pokemon?" the obviously dumb man asked.

"So there shadow pokemon?" Leon asked.

"Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that?"

"So this is an illegal act?" asked Leon getting enraged, this was all happening while the whole crowd was watching.

"DARN IT! LARGO YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO ZIP IT YOU IDIOT!" Yelled Knox. And he also jumped into the stadium sending out his Machoke. "Since everyone knows we may as well make this ciphers criminal public debut. Listen people of Celadon, we are a group called cipher. As some of you know, we are a criminal organization that hails from the region of Orré. We use powerful pokemon that we have artificially modified making them fighting machines," Said Knox in a mocking type of voice. "And now we shall demonstrate the true hidden potential of pokemon on this young lad right here!" he said pointing to Leon.

"Alright, go sandslash!" Largo sent out a spiky hedgehog-like pokemon and like the Machoke it had a shadowy aura.

"Hey, that is not fair!" said Reeve.

"Who says we were playing by the rules old man?" replied Knox.

"Then I will join as well, this will be a double battle two pokemon each! Understood?"

"Fine we'll let you join, how much trouble can an old man be, huh Largo?" he said taunting Reeve.

"Hey, take that back!" yelled Leon.

"Make us." said Largo. "Oh and to make things much more interesting, lets wager all of these rental pokemon, but then again what does it matter, we can just steal them all with this Snag machine!" He said pointing to the gauntlet.

"Well then why don't we just have you wager that gauntlet than." Asked Reeve.

"Sure why not? There's nothing more for you to lose and we can't. So I accept"

"Alright then why don't I choose first, go Drago!" and the enormous dragon roared with fury towards the enemy.

"Well I choose Riolu!" said Leon sending out the small pokemon.

"Humph, that small thing against our superior pokemon? But then again you also have that big thing." said Largo.

Street boy Leon and gentleman Reeve

Vs.

Cipher peons Knox and Largo

"I'll make the 1st move! Riolu use vacuum blade!" and Riolu ran with a burning rage towards the enemy ran extremely quick dashing through the machoke while at the same time slicing air.

"Machoke retaliate with shadow end!" Machoke's aura turned a violent shade of crimson and went charging towards Riolu.

"Gah, Riolu watch out!" and Leon dived in front of Riolu to stop the attack, but Drago flew in and used protect.

"Riolu get ready to use focus punch ok." and Riolu replied as if saying yes and closed its eyes.

"Sandslash use shadow end on that overgrown lizard!" ordered Largo.

"Drago use meteoric swarm and show them your fury!" said Reeve gravely. Dragonite began to glow a shade of crimson as well but this was natural once it finished charging up, and right before sandslash made contact drago blasted the oncoming shrew with a deadly explosion that awe-struck the audience causing smoke to haze up the area. When it cleared Riolu was already running up toward the Machoke with its fist crackling with energy and when it made contact it slammed the machoke towards the wall. Both enemies were knocked out.

End

"Kn-Knox, what do we do? They're to strong for us!" said Largo panicked.

"We have no choice but to run," and he pressed a button on a remote making a helicopter appear from above.

"Oh no you don't, not without the snag machine any way?" said reeve.

"Don't worry reeve I can handle this, Riolu use Thief and steal that snag machine!"

"Aright time to make those people pay for what they did to those pokemon!" Riolu said.

Riolu ran up towards Largo and Knox, jumped, did a tornado kick, towards their face and stealing the snag machine all at once.

And Riolu used taunt at them smacking its but and wagging its tail saying "Ha Ha you can't catch me!" and ran towards Leon and jumped in his arms.

While Dragonite flew in front of Leon as if to say "Back off" with a glare.

"Let's just leave, we are no match here right now." said Knox and climbed up the ladder into the chopper with his ally.

"Wow, did you just see what this young man has done?" said the M.C. "He just saved us and our pokemon from being stolen and he stole that snag machine! So, Leon right? How do you feel, to be honored?" He asked.

"Uh… I… uh… well it feels… great, but either way I couldn't let them get away with what they were about to do, I mean when I heard those pokemon, I heard a cry of pain turned into rage I couldn't let them do that to these pokemon, and especially this Riolu, he helped me out to, but I guess its because he sensed what I wanted to do and we had the same wants so I guess that's why we made a good team."

"Well, do you want to keep that Riolu, it likes you and you two work well together."

"I'd never say no to this little guy for helping me out, sure I'd love to, and the more we work together the better we get and some day we'll enter the pokemon league." Leon said with fire in his eyes staring at Riolu "So Riolu what do you say?"

"Sure I'd take down all those Cipher people along the way too!" Leon heard yet obviously no one else heard.

"Well that settles it; it's going to be me and Riolu!" Leon said.

"Well good luck, cuz you're going to need it."

Back at the Hotel

"Leon congratulations on your victory!" yelled Eve.

"Thanks, Reeve do you know anything about Cipher?" asked Leon.

"Well yes I do, you heard what they said but I know more." Reeve said. "That device on your arm (which seemed to be able to adjust its size to the user) is actually a legendary device, it can steal any pokemon, it was originally illegal but it was actually the main tool that was used to take down cipher. Shadow pokemon are pokemon that have their hearts closed but the snag machine was used to steal them so you can purify them. The tool that was used to purify them was called the purify chamber. However I know someone who knows more about this."

"Really, who?"

"That man is currently in Pallet town, his name is professor Krane." said Reeve, "and I want you to go there Right now, I'll have my Alakazam teleport us there, okay."

"Right, well Riolu we got a whole lot of learning to do." said Leon.

"Well we'll do it!" said Riolu.

"Ala, I want you to teleport us to Pallet town okay?' Reeve asked his Alakazam.

"Right, I'll do as you wish" Alakazam's eyes became blue and he raised his two spoons and in a blink of an eye they disappeared.

END

Chapter 2 Training?

Pallet town

"Wow Pallet town looks like a pretty quiet village," said Leon.

"But its home to three of the most powerful trainers in Kanto." said Reeve.

"Yup, Red, Green and Blue." said Leon.

"Are we just going to talk or are we going to my grandpa's house to meet the professors?" asked Eve a little impatiently.

"Oh sorry, let's go" said Leon walking off, but then he stopped, "which way is it?"

"Just follow me…" said Eve dragging Leon off.

Professor Oak's lab

"Oak!" Reeve said.

"Reeve!" the old man named oak said.

"Grandpa!" said Eve running up to Professor Oak and hugging him.

"Hello Eve," Oak said hugging her back "is this the boy you thought should be the next pokedex holder?" he said looking at Leon.

"Yes sir" said Leon all stiff being In front of the legendary professor.

"Relax, just because I'll test you if you're worthy or not doesn't mean I'm going to hurt you."

"Sorry, I guess I should relax a little." said Leon embarrassed.

Just then a girl wearing biker shorts with blue hair just walked in. "Oh professor, I didn't know you were having more guests today, I know who two of them are but who's this boy?"

"Oh whoa aren't you Crystal, the girl who caught every single species of pokemon? I'm Leon."

"Heh, I never knew I was so famous." said Crystal.

"Well Crystal can you go call Professor Krane over, we need to discus things and you should be a part of this as well." said the professor. "Oh and Eve you lost the tourney didn't you?"

"Yes, but I became runner-up since cipher entered using un-rented shadow pokemon." said Eve.

"Well no worries I'll give you a pokemon, what will it be?" offered Oak.

"Really how about, an oddish?" asked Eve.

"No problem! I can do that easily." and Professor oak left to get a pokeball with an oddish in it. "Here this oddish is really a kind sweet heart, you two will get along fine."

"Thank you grandpa"

"No problem"

"I'm back!" said crystal coming in the room, followed by another professor yet this one still had color in his hair. "Leon, Eve this is professor Krane."

"Hello we're hear to discuss the shadow pokemon crisis right?" said Krane.

"Yes we are." said Oak.

"Well a couple years ago there was a young man named Michael, he was actually the 2nd person to bring down cipher once it re-rose. Around 3 years before that a man named Wes was the one to bring him down, we are currently unsure of where Wes is right now, we believe he is in Johto, but haven't been able to find him; Michael is in training at Hen in a region where we can't contact him. So we need someone new to bring down cipher." He said staring at Leon. "So Leon, can we count on you to purify every pokemon cipher darkened?"

"Of course! And it won't be just me you'll count on; Riolu is here to help to!" Said Leon with passion. "Right Riolu?"

"Right," Riolu said also with passion.

"That settles it then, Leon will help us, and now it's time for you to learn how to snag." said oak. "Krane?"

"Oh, right the snag machine! I'll modify it once you finish training okay Leon, and it's basically nothing special all you have to do is throw the pokeball with the machine and you can snag." said Krane.

"But what is my training going to be?" asked Leon.

"Nothing special, you already now how to skillfully battle but you have never caught a pokemon before right?" said oak.

"Never," answered Leon.

"Well Crystal here will teach you." Oak said. "But for now it's getting late so you should turn in, and that means you too Eve."

"Alright…" Eve said reluctantly.

The next day

"Alright you slacker time to get up!"

"Wait what time is it?" Leon asked.

"Time for you to start training!" yelled Crys. "Now get up! I didn't become an expert by slacking and neither will you!"

"Fine…" he said with no energy whatsoever.

Route 1

"Here take these," Crys said handing over some pokeballs to Leon. "And throw them at that target and I want you to hit the target at least ten times in a row, understand?"

"Alright, I guess," Leon said without much motivation.

"Come on Leon you can do it!" said Riolu bouncing up and down with excitement.

Leon tossed the ball and it hit nowhere near the target, in fact it didn't even hit anything but the ground. "Did I hit it?"

"Uhh… maybe you're not cut out to be a snagger, that or you need a lot more training."

"What! Okay I'll try hard." Leon threw the ball a 2nd time and it hit the target board but not the center. "Well I hit it…"

"Don't give up that was only two tries!"

Leon practice for hours and only managed to hit the target four times in a row. "Man I'll never get good enough, can I take a break now?"

"Fine, maybe you shouldn't be the snagger, but you do have skills as a trainer. You'll get the hang of it someday." She said.

All of a sudden Eve came running up from Pallet town heading towards Viridian without bothering to stop. "Hey you two, there's some trouble in Viridian city! We got to go there right away, Green just said he saw some shady characters right now but there are a lot of them." She said in a panicked voice. "Oh and Leon, professor Krane modified the snag machine and he made three," She said handing one over for Crys and Leon. "The one for Crys is going to be for the third pokedex holder, yet I have no idea who is that." She said running off toward Viridian.

Viridian City

"Okay Leon you check the Market and Eve you check in the pokemon center, I'll be helping Green in the gym." She said running off. "And when you're finished go straight to the gym, I have a feeling that is their main target."

"Riolu you ready?" Leon asked his ripple pokemon partner.

"Yeah, I'm not going to lose to some psychos!"

Viridian market

"HELP!" yelled a woman cowering in a corner.

"Don't worry ma'am I'm here to help!" Leon said holding out his hand.

"Ha, you fell for it!" said the woman ripping off her disguise revealing a funny robot looking uniform.

Leon snickered then broke out into laughter, "You look so ridiculous; if all of you are going to be dressing like that I'm going to die of laughter! Right Riolu?" he said asking the baby pokemon.

"Can't…Talk…So…Funny!"

Leon wiped the tears out of his eyes and said, "Well you're a criminal so I guess I better get ready for a battle."

"You better…" said the woman with a sour face. "Go eevee."

"At least the pokemon aren't dressed up…Hey that's a shadow pokemon!" Said Leon, sensing the strong foul aura coming from the eevee. "You can sense it too, right Riolu, after all, you are a ripple pokemon and that is a type of aura right?"

"Yeah and it's time to get serious!" said Riolu in a combative stance.

////////////////////////////////Trainer Leon////////////////////////////////

/////////////////////////////////////vs./////////////////////////////////////////

/////////////////////////////////cipher peon////////////////////////////////

"Okay Riolu use Palette Punch!"

Riolu sped up at a fast pace while his arm glowed a metallic grey making contact with the eevee.

"Eevee use bite!" The eevees fangs sunk into riolu's arm doing minor damage.

"You're not too much of a good trainer are you? Use counter!"

"Get off me you!" Riolu grabbed the eevee and tossed it into the wall doing twice as much damage the eevee did.

"Let me see how week this eevee is, hey I didn't know this can show whether or not it's a shadow pokemon." Leon said bringing out the pokedex and checking the opponent's health. "Eh still half full, so Riolu use, hey I got an idea. Riolu hurl this pokeball at that eevee to do damage and catch it, got it?"

"Right, Okay," said Riolu remembering how trainers throw the balls. "Go pokeball!" said Riolu imitating Ash on the animé shows. But before Riolu threw it eevee used thief.

"Hey no fair! That was mine!" said Leon wining.

"Too bad, shouldn't let you're pokemon do everything after all, Eevee use Shadow blitz!"

"VEE!" yelled the eevee with the aura becoming more visible to the peon and fouler to Leon.

"Ahh, no you're hurting it!" Then Leon threw the snag ball right before the eevee made contact with Riolu.

/////////////////////////////////////end////////////////////////////////

"NO! You stole my shadow pokemon," said the peon in despair, and she fled.

"I won't let cipher get away with hurting innocent pokemon!" said Leon staring in the distance.

"Yeah, you better run!" said Riolu chasing the peon away threatening to bite hair.

"Don't worry little Eevee, I'll take care of you." said Leon looking into the ball seeing the tired yet troubled eevee. "Well I better start looking for any prisoners," Said Leon looking around the mart. "Hey Riolu think you can use foresight to find any hidden people?"

"I got it Leon," Riolu placed his hand on his chest and closed his little eyes. Riolu sensed a faint ripple of energy coming from his right and pointed that way. "Right there."

"Thanks," Leon said opening the door in that direction and seeing a tied up woman. "Don't worry I'll untie you," Said Leon untying the Loose ropes.

"Thank you, kid. I owe you, wait here take this," said the woman holding out a case filled with sweet scents. "It's a cologne case, it is filled with scents to make pokemon happy," she said handing to Leon.

"Thanks, I could use this, I think," said Leon running out and toward the viridian gym.

Viridian Gym

"Hey Crys!" said Leon once he entered the gym. Leon saw many gym trainers battling the same uniformed people that Leon fought.

"Leon you came right on time, go help the gym trainers battle the cipher peons." ordered Crys.

"Got it! Riolu are you ready?" asked Leon.

"Yeah sure let's help."

Leon saw no shadow pokemon but the one that was in a battle, other than the one that was in a battle against a teen wearing a black shirt and green pants. "Riolu use mach punch on that peon right there," he said pointing towards the peon with a caterpie. Leon knocked that peon out and after a while the trainers managed to drive the peons away.

"Hey kid," said the teen. "What's your name?"

"Aren't you green?" asked Leon.

"Answer my question and I'll answer yours."

"Oh yeah sorry, my name's Leon."

"Leon? Pleased to meet you, Green."

"Really, you're Green?" exclaimed Leon.

"Yeah, and you're the new snagger right?"

"Uh… yeah…"

"Then how about you train here a little, it might help."

"Oh, sure!"

Green made a gesture to Leon meaning to follow him. "Okay this is the training room for future challengers or students," Green said showing Leon the whole room.

"Wow." Leon said seemingly easily impressed.

"Now why don't you show me what you got?" Said Green drawing out a pokeball.

"But you're a… never mind, let's go Riolu!"

"Since you're just a rookie I'll go easy. Go, Gabite!" After the legendary pokedex holder tossed the pokeball and a medium sized blue dragon materialized in front of him. It had rough skin and had shark-like fins on its body.

Leon pondered what kind of pokemon it was and he took out his pokedex. "This is a Gabite, so it's a ground type dragon. Its best stats are speed. So Riolu shouldn't have much trouble keeping up."

////////////////////////////////Trainer Leon/////////////////////////////////////////////////

////////////////////////////////////////vs.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

///////////////////////////////Leader Green//////////////////////////////////////////////

"Since you're the rookie I'll let you go first!" Taunted Green.

"You'll be sorry for that, Riolu use double team then speed up with mach punch!" The little fighter pokemon split into many clones and immediately charged up, heading strait towards the land shark.

"Dodge and use sand tome!" The Gabite dug under ground, and when Riolu missed and went over the hole a vicious sand storm kicked in and trapped Riolu.

"Ah!" screamed Riolu, "I can't get out!"

"Now use Iron head, Gabite!" Ordered Green.

"You're out after this" The Gabite leapt out of the ground as a real shark would out of water and reared its head and instantly began running towards the helpless baby pokemon.

Leon had to think fast if he wanted to at least lengthen the battle. [What to do] then he suddenly remembered that this riolu had all its egg moves, "Riolu use iron defense!"

Right before the Gabite banged into riolu, riolu had began to glow a shiny silver and hardened. Once Gabite made impact with riolu it was launched free out of the vortex.

"Nice strategy, but think you can handle this? Use twister!" Gabite kicked up another vortex except this one was blown towards riolu to damage rather than trap. "Now follow up with outrage!" The Gabite glowed a fierce red and charged towards Riolu.

"Use detect!" Riolu managed to get out of the way, but Gabite just kept coming.

"If this keeps up I'm done for!" Said riolu panicked while dodging the deadly attacks. Suddenly one of the gabite's arms smacked riolu and ended the match.

////////////////////////////////////////end/////////////////////////////////////////

"Riolu return…" Leon pointed the ball towards his friend and zapped him in. "Whew, you're too hard for me to even get close to beating." Sighed Leon.

"Don't worry, with all these events happening, you'll eventually become an expert." He said, staring blankly towards the 13 year old. "Oh and I have a mission for you."

"Yeah…"

"Go to Pewter city, the gym leader there is going to need help defending the museum in case cipher attempts to rob the place, he also wants to defend Mt. moon and the rare pokemon in it so cipher doesn't corrupt the place." Green pointed to a city on a map north of viridian. "We have enough force here with me and the professor so we don't exactly need you or Eve."

"So me and Eve are going to work together at Pewter right?"

"Correct, but before you head out you should heal." He said pointing towards the machine. "Oh and currently the professors are importing the purification machine, but in the mean time you should use something called a cologne case. Do you have one?"

Leon pulled out the item that the store clerk had given him, "Do you mean this thingy? How do I use it?"

"All you have to do is store some scents into it, like from pokemon or you can buy it. Then you expose or massage the scent onto the pokemon. Oh and take this also." Green handed over a green badge shaped like a leaf.

"Wow isn't this the earth badge? Thanks."

"Yes it's a badge that heightens your pokemon's abilities, you'll need it."

End

Chapter 3 – Onwards to Pewter

Route 2 (Viridian Forest)

"Hey, Eve are you sure that we have to go through the forest?" complained Leon sagging his way through.

"Yeah and plus it'll make good training for us if we encounter tough pokemon." She said explaining the situation. Then suddenly Leon disappeared. "Uhh… Leon, where did you go?" Eve asked yet to no avail. "Stop it, this isn't funny!" Then out of the bushes something leapt while she wasn't looking. "Ah!" Screeched Eve.

Out of nowhere right behind Eve was Leon sneaking right behind and getting ready to grab her then. "Oddish use petal dance!"

"Wah!" both Riolu and Leon screamed upon being bombarded by the many colorful leaves.

"Don't ever try to scare me again!" Eve began walking away quite annoyed.

"It was a joke!" said a Flower covered Leon. "Right Riolu?"

"Right…" said the small pokemon who was too covered with petals to really answer.

"Well this is serious; we're trying to get to Pewter ASAP! Got it?" said Eve who was getting more and more annoyed at the moment.

"Yeah ok…"

Something rustled behind a tree however.

"What was that?" asked Leon noticing it.

"I hear nothing and there's nothing you can do to scare me!" she said impatiently.

"Ah whatever."

Since it was getting late the two decided to take a break. Leon decided to try to use the cologne case. "Hey Eve, does your Oddish know sweet scent?"

"Uh yeah why?" she replied.

"Well…" Leon took out the cologne case and showed it to Eve. "I need to use it to help purify my Eevee."

"Oh I'll take care of it then, I used to work in a daycare center." Leon sent out the eevee and the two young trainers massaged the eevee with a few sweet scents throughout most of the nights, eventually they fell asleep.

That night Leon had a dream. He saw a small green fairy flying around him as if trying to get him to follow it. The fairy had a warm radiant light that seemed to soothe Leon, as if he was looking at an old friend. So Leon followed. Leon eventually came to a set of ruins and the fairy pointed to Leon's pokeball. Leon looked through the pokeball and Leon saw that the ball was emanating a malicious aura. The fairy began pointing to the small shrine. Leon thought that it wanted him to put the pokemon into the shrine so he did. Then he heard a voice as if in his head

"By the next full moon, pray to the lunar gods that this pokemon will recover.

Then Leon woke up puzzled, wondering what the dream meant, and when he looked at his eevee it was still emanating a vicious aura. When he looked up he noticed the moon wasn't full and it was still night time. Realizing that he let Eve get her sleep but began to go train Riolu and his Eevee.

Leon spent a long time trying to find away to figure out what his dream meant while training his pokemon's speed. He looked at his Eevee and noticed how troubled it seemed, it looked ready to kill, which was an abnormal behavior for an Eevee. "Ok, from this day forward I promise to bring down cipher with my pokemon and free all pokemon from the grasp of darkness." Leon was about to go rest from training until he heard a twig snap right behind him. "Riolu use vacuum blade!" Leon ordered while pointing towards the direction he had heard the noise.

"Got it!" and Riolu sent a ripple of energy towards the area and cut down the tree revealing a cipher peon.

"You guys again! Damn stalkers… what are you doing following me?" Barked Leon. Leon got ready to use a snag machine but realized he took it off when he went to sleep. "Darn…"

"What feeling sorry that you left yourself unguarded during the night, huh, young one?"

"You'll be sorry for underestimating me!" Leon replied getting angrier.

"Well then, how about your friend? Fufufufu… I do think she is sleeping, no?" said the man in the cipher suit.

"Oh no… well it's just you and I bet you can't find her before I do!" Leon said confidently.

"Oh, but it's not just me, I have a student with me who is currently searching for that friend of yours as we speak."

"Darn it and I take it you're going to try and battle me just to stall right?" he asked.

"Correct, and I'll start the battle off! Go Haunter." The man tossed the pokeball and out came a ghost pokemon. It was basically made of gas and smoke and the main part of its body was the head while it did have two disembodied hands. "This is the perfect time for a ghost pokemon battle, no?"

"Hey riolu, I'm going to have you search for Eve and get her to help me out in this battle, I'm beginning to think I can trust this eevee ok?" said Leon making sure the man wasn't interfering.

"Ok, don't worry, I'll be quick." And with that Riolu ran off using his foresight to locate Eve.

"Ah, so you're going to split up your party even more, how many pokemon do you have left? One, am I correct?" The old man said intrusively.

"All I need is one pokemon to get through that shadow-ghost type pokemon of yours." Leon tossed his pokemon out and sent out eevee. "Alright, this is my eevee's first battle with me but I'm sure it'll pull through."

"Ah, so now you're going with an unreliable pokemon while you're unprepared? This is going to be quite the easy match…Fu…Fu…Fu…"

///////////////////////////////////Trainer Leon/////////////////////////

////////////////////////////////////////Vs./////////////////////////////////

////////////////////////////////Cipher peon Ale/////////////////////

"You'll take that comment back once I'm through with you!" yelled Leon who was enraged at the many insults the peon was throwing at him.

"But aren't you at a disadvantage with a normal type pokemon such as that? It can barely do any other worth while moves…" he observed.

"Eevee use bite!" Eevee leapt up towards the ghost and sunk its teeth into the ghost. The haunter just shrugged it off.

"Give it some Payback!" Haunter began to resend the damage back towards eevee plus some by flailing the floating hands all towards the small ferret-like creature.

"Eevee hang in there! Use shadow ball." Eevee blasted a ball of dark energy from its mouth to the ghost. "Alright that looked like some heavy damage!"

"That really did seem to hurt, but why don't you use a shadow rush!" The man commanded the lethal attack to his pokemon and the haunter charged up getting ready to send its arms flying to eevee.

"Eevee dodge by using double team!" the eevee split into many clones and dodged the floating arms. "I can't knock this pokemon out if I really want to catch it… I guess I'll have to stall."

"Are you sure you can really snag this haunter? You're little friend hasn't found the girl yet, are you sure pokemon trusts you enough?"

"Oh I'll make you pay for what you said, you damn hypocrite! Eevee, use double team to confuse the ghost and use dig to avoid it!" The eevee clones separated into many more copies and once it went underground there were many holes for the enemy to choose from. "Hah, I bet you can't get the right eevee in just a few turns, use wish!" The eevee's leapt out of the hole to make a wish, and the stars began to shine brightly on the many holes.

"Darn it, you'll probably have time to recover, but in the mean while let's have some fun haunter, use Toxic!" The haunter got ready to spew out a bunch of poisons.

"That won't work, my eevee is hidden."

"Oh but I'm not targeting your eevee," the haunter spat out the toxic poison "I'm targeting the unprepared you!"

"What!" the toxic nearly hit Leon until a brown little blur popped out of the hole and knocked Leon out of the way. "Eevee?" yet in doing so the small pokemon got hit by the attack. "I told you to dig so you'd be safe…" Said Leon staring at his pokemon. "But thanks anyway," he smirked.

"Ah, so this shadow eevee actually does trust you, I wonder why?"

"Do you want to know why?" Leon said while he was getting up, "It's because, I unlike you have a sense of humanity, I will protect the pokemon from people like you at all costs. And I vow to the pokemon gods of not only the moon but the pokemon gods of all!" Suddenly the Earth badge began to glow. "Wha-What's happening?" Eevee's dark aura began to get partly replaced with a glowing green aura, similar to that of the earth badge.

"I feel so much better, I feel slightly freer, and this is awesome!"

"This is quite odd, the eevee is still a shadow pokemon, yet it seems the final lock is almost undone, I must get rid of you before you become a nuisance to our plans… Haunter use energy ball!" The haunter baffled by the glowing intensity was too afraid to move. "Why won't you attack? Fool of a pokemon."

"Eevee, use your hidden power!"

"Here goes!" The eevee which had miraculously healed from the light began to get even more healed due to wish and had summoned up orbs of many shades. "VEE!" Once the eevee yelled the orbs began to chase after the petrified ghost and nearly knocked it out.

"Hey Leon, I'm here. Sorry I'm late for the party but I snagged the enemy's togepi." Said Eve holding up the pokeball.

"Just hurry up and snag this haunter!" Leon ordered hastily.

"Okay…" Eve spun around and tossed the empty pokeball towards the battered ghost; it shook once, twice, three times and was caught.

"No! How dare you snag my haunter! I must retreat… Anne, time to go. But this isn't the last of me!" Ale got defeated and ran off with his student.

////////////////////////////////end///////////////////////////////

"That was a rough battle…" sighed Leon, "But eevee you were awesome-" Then Leon noticed the glow had faded and reverted to a dull purple. "Eevee…"

"Leon, let's get going, the sooner we get rid of cipher the better." Eve said trying to reassure Leon.

After the long and dreadful battle they began to realize what enemies lay ahead of them, and how long this war will become.

End

Chapter 4- Mission 1 (defend the museum and the mountain)

Pewter city

Leon and Eve made it to Pewter city and decided to check up on the gym leader of the area. They came across a gym building and went inside.

Pewter Gym

The area was all rocky and rugged, a perfect battle field for rock-type users such as Brock. "Hey Brock… Are you in here?" Yelled Eve.

"How come you know so many gym leaders? The only gym leader I know is Sabrina." Leon said with envy.

"It's because my cousin is a gym leader and my granddaddy is the world-famous professor." Eve said with much pride.

"You two must be Leon and Eve, correct?" Said a man walking down a hallway.

"Uh… yeah, we're here to help." Leon replied enthusiastically.

"Right now I have gym duties so you guys will have to stand guard over at the museum, after we think they lose interest in the area we'll go explore and see if they have tried to establish a base there, understand?"

"Yeah, I get it." Replied Eve.

"Why don't you guys take a break though, you have been traveling all night right?" Brock offered. "You can stay at my place."

"Sure thanks."

"Oh, but don't forget if you've found anything suspicious along the way here don't forget to record it, and take this P*DA, it'll keep track of all the shadow pokemon you've met so far, ok."

"Thanks sir," said Leon taking the tools.

After they rested up Leon decided to go "guard the museum" while Eve went to go stock up on supplies and record the events.

Pewter museum

Leon got assigned to the skeletal exhibits for guarding; it was a really quiet room where just one step can raise your suspicions on someone or something. The Fossils were large and quite intimidating to Leon. "I'm bored!" Leon complained. "I may as well send everyone out to help me patrol…" Leon sent out his too pokemon Riolu and Eevee. "Ok, Riolu, you stand guard over there, and if you sense anything tell us, ok." He said pointing towards the north end. "And eevee you stay with me as a body guard, ok?"

"Got it!" Riolu ran off after that towards the other end and began to use foresight on the whole room. Eevee just began to sleep next to Leon.

"I'm bored…Oh I know!" Leon took out his P*DA (which has a cell phone feature) and began to call Eve.

{Hello?} "Hey Eve, where are you at right now?" {Oh I'm at the museum right now, I'm in the main lobby, what about you?} "Oh I'm in an empty exhibit that nobody seems to be visiting… I feel unwanted and unneeded." {Oh, poor Leon, maybe when we have a break we'll do something together. What are you doing now anyway, just sitting there?} "Well I have Riolu securing one area and eevee and I are securing the other, but eevee seems to be sleeping… So I'm bored" {Oh well I'm kinda busy right now so I got to go."}

Leon sat there in the darkness of the empty room awaiting something to happen. "Darn it, if nothing happens I'm going to go crazy!" Then suddenly one of the windows got crashed through. "Maybe I should be more careful about what I wish for…" Leon said quite astonished about what happened. When Leon got a good view of whom it was He saw that this cipher member looked as if he was a whole ladder above the others. "Eevee, use quick attack and knock that guy down!" Eevee instantly woke up and charged blindingly fast towards the Cipher member.

"Oh nice try, little guy!" The man smacked eevee away hitting a fossil and nearly causing it to collapse.

"Wow that was too close… I have to be careful here, Eevee are you all right?" Leon rushed over to his hurt pokemon, wondering how the man saw the quick attack.

"Hey, we came as soon as we heard the explosion!" Brock said as he came running in, followed by Eve and a whole group of cops. Yet as soon as they came running in another wave of cipher troops came running as well.

"Darn, this is like what happened at Viridian gym." He began looking for the person who swatted away his eevee as if it was a fly. "That guys mine! Come on eevee Riolu, let's get him back" Leon said running with his eevee and Riolu getting ready to leap and punch the guy, yet Leon got swatted away just as easily as his eevee.

"I have no business with a little runt like… hey is that our snag machine!" The admin had said while beginning to take interest in Leon.

"And so what if is?" He said challengingly.

"I'll have a little battle with you little runt, even if you barely look the challenge."

"Says the guy who leads an army of robot geeks!"

"You'll take that back kid, my big sister designed those!"

"Maybe I will if you can beat me! Let's go,-"

"Hold it, that guy's an admin; he's out of your league!" Brock said. "If you're going to battle him, then let's make this a double battle."

"Fine, then. At least this battle shall be more interesting with the so called gym leader of this city." And with that the man sent out to pokemon. One was a bastiodon and the other a rampardos. Bastiodon was a yellow creature which had a mask like face and was much like a triceratops except without horns. Rampardos was a blue dinosaur-like pokemon with a large skull.

"Nice, so you're a rock user as well?" Brock had said in an intrigued fashion.

"Neither of these are shadow pokemon, I guess he has a third one just waiting for us." Observed Leon.

"Go Kabutops!" Out of Brock's pokeball came forth a brown pokemon with a spiky back, it also had scythes for its forelimbs.

"I'll go with Riolu then."

////////////////Trainer Leon and Leader Brock////////////////////

///////////////////////////////////Vs./////////////////////////////////////////

////////////////////////Cipher admin Rocky//////////////////////////

"Riolu start this match off with a bullet punch!" Riolu hardened his fist and charged forward to the Rampardos and barely made a scratch despite it being super effective.

"Uh-oh," Riolu got intimidated by the dinosaur's large size and attempted to back up after making contact.

"Rampardos, use zen-headbutt!" Rampardos reared its head and banged riolu towards the wall. "What a pathetic pokemon, it can barely handle my pokemon's attacks. This isn't even my strongest."

"Leon, hang in there. Your Riolu isn't weak; it seems to have a lot of hidden potential. Kabutops use nightslash on the Rampardos!" Brock said pointing towards the giant lizard.

"Oh no you don't, Bastiodon use protect and shield Rampardos." Bastiodon attempted to protect Rampardos from the Kabutops and nearly succeeded but…

"Feint!" Riolu came running and broke the Bastiodon's shield.

"Now what?! Am I still a little runt?" Said the little Riolu with a mocking voice, while still jumping away to allow Kabutops to attack.

"Why, you little bastard!" Rocky said ferociously, as if attempting to get in the battle himself. Kabutops executed its attack by causing its scythe to glow with dark energy and slashed both enemies, one in front the other behind.

"Now Riolu, use cross-chop on the Rampardos!" Riolu ran while (obviously) crossing his arm and uncrossing it only once it got to the enemies weak point. The Rampardos screamed in pain showing that it was a critical hit.

"Bastiodon use iron head and knock that little runt out of the field!"

"Kabutops use mudshot and give riolu time to escape!" Kabutops shot out a strong jet of muddy gunk dazing the bastiodon yet not strong enough to significantly hurt it, but it did give riolu time to escape and prepare for an attack.

"Riolu use double team and get ready for a focus punch!" Riolu split into many doubles.

"Rampardos use earthquake!" Rampardos got ready to raise its left leg and…

"If it uses that attack the museum will be ruined!" Yelled Brock.

Kabutops was too busy distracting Bastiodon to cancel Rampardos' attack.

"So this is all up to me and my focus punch! All right here goes!" Riolu's fist began to crackle with large amounts of energy. Once it had finished charging, Riolu had instead of running up towards the Rampardos shot all that energy directly at Rampardos' face causing a major explosion.

Once the dust had cleared they had noticed that Rampardos got knocked out. "Wow what move was that?" said an astonished Leon.

"I think that was a focus blast, a strong yet inaccurate move." Replied Brock.

"Wow, I never knew he can do that."

"Me neither" said Riolu surprised at his own strength.

"Ah, whatever just because you took out my rampardos doesn't mean you'll knock this shadow pokemon out." And with that Rocky sent out a probopass.

"This is a shadow pokemon…" Leon prepared to snag the pokemon.

"Kabutops use aqua jet and knock the bastiodon out!" Kabutops started to summon a large amount of water around itself and jetted towards Bastiodon.

"Use irondefense!" Bastiodon's body flashed and hardened to defend itself from the water attack.

"Well let's use a blaze kick and finish it off!" Riolu's leg began to burn and then Riolu did a flying kick towards Bastiodon's behind knocking it towards Kabutop's aqua jet. After that Rocky zapped Bastiodon back.

"Darn it I'll just make sure you don't catch my pokemon, Probopass use Explosion!" Rocky said in a suicidal fashion.

"What are you crazy?! We'll all die if you do that!" said Brock.

"That's a risk I'll have to take then, won't it." Rocky said smiling. Probopass began to shine an intense bright color. It began to glow even more intensely and finally flashed through out the whole room.

"Use Protect" both Brock and Leon said in unison. A barrier formed around both pokemon to protect their self. But after the light faded Team Cipher was missing.

/////////////////////////////////////end//////////////////////////////////////

"Darn, it turns out that there was either a damp pokemon present or it was just a flash attack…" said Brock disappointedly.

"They tricked us." Leon looked around, there was a lot of damage in the museum but nothing important seemed to be missing except for one thing. "Hey wasn't there supposed to be an ancient script-like thing here?" Leon asked while looking at the empty area.

"Oh that, I think it has some ancient text on it, it says something about pokemon gods, and legends." To Leon the voice was unknown.

"Who are you?" asked Leon.

"I'm Fred, my Dad's in charge of the police force. You look familiar…" Fred said while trying to figure out who Leon was. "What's your name?"

"Leon, why?"

"Oh, so you're the guy who helped out in Celadon city, right?" Fred said while getting more and more interested.

"Yeah, uh, nice to meet you." Leon held out his hand expecting a shake and Fred shook it.

"You're going to be helping me protect . But for now, just get some rest, you'll need it." Fred said walking off.

"Fred's right, Leon you really do look like you can use some rest, the gym and the police force can take care of things here.

Brock's house

"Eve, the plan for tomorrow is to drive Cipher out of right?" Leon asked. Leon and Eve were discussing tomorrow's mission, it was in Leon's guest room which was pretty much empty except for a bed.

"Yes, and after that mission we're going to split up to cover more ground in Kanto, we'll eventually meet up though…" Eve said wondering how events will unfold.

"Hey, do you know when the next full moon is?" Leon asked.

"Um… I think it's tomorrow, and I hear the best place to see a full moon is at . Why do you ask?"

"Uh… it's nothing. We better get some sleep…" Eve left Leon's room and they each went to bed in their respective rooms.

The next day, Leon, Eve, and Fred reached along with other squads. "So all we're basically doing is scouting?"

"Yeah, but if we see the enemy we'll eliminate them without hesitation, got it?" Fred said. The three trainers ventured into the rugged mountain with Fred as their guide. The place was crawling with geodudes and onixes and other cave dwelling pokemon.

"Hey riolu," Leon said wondering where his little buddy was.

"Yeah," Riolu said, even though only Leon could understand him.

"Think you can use your foresight to see if there's anything suspicious here?"

"Got it," Riolu closed his eyes and a blue aura began to surround him, yet he sensed nothing. "Sorry."

"Well it was a good try…" said, Eve. Eventually they began to venture extremely deep into the cave and finally they found or to be correct heard something suspicious. "What was that?" Eve had asked upon hearing the loud roar.

"I do not know, but I think we're going to find out, Riolu!" Riolu knew exactly what to do and began to lead the way. They turned many walls and corners and jumped many ledges, and they ran into someone.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the kid who tried to beat me…" Said Rocky stepping into the scene.

"We're not going to let you get away this time!" Said Leon angrily. "And I'll snag that probopass right out your hands!"

"Oh, really? You don't have a gym leader to help you out this time, and you think you can win." Scoffed, Rocky. "Why don't all of you choose two pokemon each and I'll just use three! That's how confident I think I am."

"Oh you'll regret that greatly!" Leon said with a passion. "I'll start the match off with Riolu!"

"Hey, next time won't you wait, this guy's tough, we should've called for backup!" Fred scolded Leon, "But since we're all ready in the battle we may as well take it… I'll go first, Leon you're the snagger, we need to weaken him first!" Fred tossed out a pokeball and a small penguin pokemon popped out. It was blue and had short stubby legs and fins that made it look like a doll. "Piplup should have an advantage against you."

"Fine then, go Bastiodon!" The same creature as before was sent out as if it never really was in a battle.

////////////////////////////////////////Trainers Fred, Eve and Leon/////////////////////////////

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////Vs.///////////////////////////////////////////////////

/////////////////////////////////////////////Admin Rocky////////////////////////////////////////////

"Piplup use aqua ring!" Fred's piplup began to shield itself with a healing type of water.

"Bastiodon use thunderbolt!" The bastiodon gathered electricity around its body and then blasted it towards Piplup, creating light in the damp dark cave.

"Darn, that did extra damage… Not good… I'll use hydropump then!" Fred said while giving the command. Piplup inhaled a full breathe of air and exhaled a strong and large and powerful jet of water that hit Bastiodon right in the face.

"What, that strong move at such a low level?" Rocky said astonished. "Ah, well it doesn't matter cause I've got metal burst on my side." With that Bastiodon understood exactly what to do, it gathered up all of the energy and began to glow a glossy silver, once it finished it ran up to piplup and a wave of energy exploded from the dinosaur, knocking the piplup out.

"That was fast… I'll just send out cyndaquill then." Once the cyndaquill got sent out a little mouse-like pokemon came out and with a blazing back. It had blue fur on it's upper part of it's body but the belly and the feet were a creamy yellow. "This little buddy has been with me for years!" cyndaquill use Flare blitz!" Cyndaquill began to get its back blazing at an intense heat that it lit up the whole area then it ran at an amazing speed. Once it made contact it caused a nearly suicidal explosion that parts of the cave were caving in and rocks came sliding down hitting the pokemon quite harshly.

"Hey Fred, try to be a little more careful if you're using recoil moves ok?" Eve said, while nearly having a rock hit her head.

"I swear you're trying to kill yourself with moves like that, Cuz all I need is one hit and you're out, Bastiodon use stone edge!" The yellow creature summoned up floating-sharp edged stones that were sent to chase and knock out cyndaquill.

"Cyndaquill use endure!" Cyndaquill braced itself for the potentially lethal attack and stood it's ground. The many stones made contact with the small mouse but the pokemon survived the whole wave. "Now it's my turn to knock you out! Use reversal!" Cyndaquill's low energy boosted its power and once cyndaquill bashed into the enemy and caused heavy damage it sent the bastiodon flying into the nearby wall leaving a large indent once it got zapped into it's ball. The cyndaquill however put its remaining ounce of strength into the attack and also fell onto the rocky floor. "Ah, well I knocked out one of your members, and you only have two left."

"Don't get too cocky, I am an elite, don't you forget that!" Rocky sent out his next pokemon which was the same as the one from the museum, a Rampardos.

"I guess it's my turn next, go togepi!" Eve tossed out her pokemon and out of the light materialized a shadow togepi, it was a pokemon in a decorated egg with a spiky head. I'll start this off with toxic!" the little spike ball rolled over to the large monster and spewed a toxic acid all over the enemy.

"Well I'll just use hammer arm!" Rampardos brought its right arm up and got ready to slam it down.

"Use protect and then wish!" Togepi created a small barrier around itself and repelled the attack then made a wish causing light to appear out of nowhere.

"Iron tail and scramble that egg!" Rampardos' tail began to glow silver and whacked togepi into the nearby wall. After the impact however togepi began to get surrounded by light and recovered from the attack. "You don't know when to quit do you?"

"Oh, I was never taught that in school, too bad, togepi use metronome!" Togepi wagged it's little fingers and then togepi and rampardos began to get surrounded by a dark force field, however no one noticed it but Eve.

"Hah, what was that?! I'll finish this with a head smash!" Rampardos ran up to the togepi and nearly crushed it yet was strangely protected.

"Togepi, return! Now for my oddish!" Eve took out her pokeball and came forth an oddish. It was a little blue-ish round pokemon with small feet and had grass growing out of the head.

"I'll finish this quickly; use head smash one more time!" Rampardos reared its head back as usual but this time it just stood there without charging forward. "Well what are you waiting for?" Then Rampardos looked back and then started to turn a sick purple and fainted. "Hey what happened, it should've at least attempted to attack that runt!" Rocky said astonished while looking at his pokemon.

"You should've paid more attention to the metronome, that was grudge that helped me stall for time… This shows your ignorance to your pokemon by not paying attention to what happens to it."

"That doesn't matter; I'll just end this with probopass." The same pokemon that had caused the trick appeared, and was still shadow, it was like a tiki-rock with a moustache.

"Let's make this more interesting, Probopass use magnet rise!" Rocky hopped onto his tiki pokemon and crashed through the roof of the cave revealing the moon, when he landed he was on the roof safe from damage.

"That was dumb… Now he can't attack us right?" Leon said a little disappointedly. "You better not be trying to run again!"

"Use rock slide!" Rocky yelled from far away. A few seconds later rocks began falling from the roof of the cave and eventually the roof collapsed.

"Ack, no! Riolu protect us, keep breaking the rocks, you two eevee!" Leon said panicked while trying to dodge the rocks as if he was dancing. Fred who had no pokemon available was also jumping around.

"Oddish, use razor leaf!" The three pokemon kept breaking the rocks, oddish hacked and slashed at them with thrown leaves, Riolu broke the rocks with bullet punches and brick breaks while eevee tackled them away. Once the rocks had cleared there was so much debris floating around that Leon could barely see what was happening. Leon could though make out a floating figure in the air and he assumed that Eve saw it as well.

"I don't even need to see you little kids to attack you, Probopass use shadow sky!" After that command Probopass sent a ball of shadow energy towards the sky and the sky grew darker and began to block of the moon with purple menacing clouds. "Now use magnet bomb!" Out of the dust a silver bomb came strait towards oddish and exploded on contact.

"I didn't see that coming…" Once the dust cleared up Eve got a good view of where to attack. "Oddish use stun spore!" A large amount of pollen was shot strait to the rock-steel pokemon and made contact. "You know maybe having a big nose isn't too good when it's allergy season!" Once it made contact both Rocky and Probopass fell to the ground paralyzed.

"Now I'll just finish this off!" Eve got ready to use her snag machine but then Rocky gave a command.

"Lock-on and use zap cannon!" Probopass pointed directly towards Eve and oddish and blasted an electrical ball with strongly concentrated energy.

"Ah!" Eve and oddish were both blasted and got severely hurt and paralyzed. "I…can't…move…my…body…" Eve said extremely hurt. She did manage to recall oddish however.

"Eve!" Leon said running over to his fallen ally along with Fred. "How could you! Attacking someone in a battle! That's not fair!" Leon said getting angry.

"Well why do you think we designed these pokemon like this, they are the perfect weapon after all." Rocky said arrogantly.

Leon looked at Eve, her body was still shaking from the electricity that attacked her. Then Leon looked towards Rocky with his eyes burning like fire. "I'll make you pay for using such an underhanded tactics! I vow to the gods of the moon that I will get revenge on you and your whole team!" Leon looked up the moon was full and he hoped that his dream was true.

"Hah, gods, that's a bunch of bologna, and pokemon, are designed to be weapons for mankind!" Then suddenly eevee's pokeball opened up by itself and out came the tiny pokemon glowing with the same warm glow the fairy had in Leon's dream. "Hey what's happening?"

Everyone, even the paralyzed Eve looked up to see what the light show was about. "So this is what purification looks like…" said Leon astonished at the brilliant light. The light swirled around the eevee and danced around it then suddenly flashed, signifying the end of the dance.

"Ok, now I'm back to get revenge on you guys!" said eevee finally regaining its true personality.

Leon checked his eevee with the pokedex and it confirmed that it was purified by having all the correct data on the information page.

"Leon, thanks for helping me out, I promise I'll repay the favor by sticking with you!" the eevee said nobly even though it was quite small.

"Come on, let's use our trump card! And keep it up for five times strait!"

"Alright, here goes!" eevee gathered up energy and began started charging towards the paralyzed probopass.

"Use thunderwave!" Rocky gave the command but probopass was too paralyzed to move. The eevee got close and bashed the probopass into the air knocking Rocky off of it, then it hit it a 2nd time, in midair then a 3rd time downwards onto the ground, the 4th time it spiraled down onto it and crushed it on the floor and the 5th time it pummeled it even deeper.

"Time to snag this thing!" Leon took a step back and threw the pokeball, it opened up and released the snagging energy and grabbed the pokemon into the ball. Ending the battle.

///////////////////////////////////////end//////////////////////////////////////

"What, no how could you?" Rocky threw out a 4th pokemon yet to escape; the pokemon was a large pterodactyl-like pokemon. Rocky could barely get on top of it but still managed to fly away.

"Darn, they got away." Eevee said looking depressed.

"Don't worry eevee, at least we snagged the pokemon and drove them out," said Leon reassuringly while recalling his pokemon. He started to pick Eve up by her shoulder with the help of Fred and began to walk home. And on the way Leon realized he was at the peak of the mountain and he looked up, he saw the moon radiantly shining down upon him. "I promise…"

End

Chapter 5- A new snagger joins the fray. Updated

Brock's house

Leon's next mission was supposed to be towards Vermillion but since Eve got injured badly he would be helping her in her next mission. "Leon, I heard your progress reports, and you said something about the gym badge shining brightly." Brock said confused.

"It did, why?"

"Well I've never really heard of it doing that before, even though the badges do have helpful powers that boost your pokemon's abilities. But I never realized it can temporarily purify a pokemon." Upon saying that, Brock took out 2 boulder badges and handed them to Leon, "The other one is for Eve, and the boulder badge is said to boost your pokemon's attack, but I wonder what else it can do…" Brock said while trailing off as if he was talking to himself. "If we knew that, we could've used that technology to help purify pokemon, and the purification machine is going to be built here soon, but eventually we'll give you a mobile one that may function with your badges." Brock said while pointing to 2 of Leon's badges.

"Well if a purification machine is being built here then can I leave my Probopass with you then?" Leon said while still looking at the dark pokemon. "I don't think I can handle it after what it did to Eve; I mean they're supposed to be really aggressive if they're at a higher level right?"

"Don't worry I'll take care of it, but once you become a better skilled trainer, I want you to do the rest of the purifications through your own work." Brock said while taking the Probopass.

"Thanks, so what's my next mission anyway?" said Leon.

"Oh, you'll be headed towards Cerulean while serving as a bodyguard to Bill, the inventor. You'll also meet up with the 3rd snagger and helping to drive out the cipher admin in that area along with the gymleader of that city." Brock pointed to a map and pointed to a city to the East of Pewter. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" Leon was wondering if he should include why his eevee had become self-purified and if his dream had any significance.

"No," Leon had made up his mind not to tell since everything seemed farfetched. "So am I going to have to walk through again?"

"Not this time, we had you walk through Viridian as scouts for any possible cipher bases, and Green and his gym trainers are currently making sure the whole place is empty. "So we'll have this Alakazam teleport you there." Brock said while sending out an Alakazam. "Get Eve when you're ready."

Pewter city

Leon had left Brock's house and called Eve wondering where she was. "Hey Eve, where are you?" [I'm at the pokémart, why?] "Well I picked up the next mission briefing and we're headed out to Cerulean via teleportation." [Great, when I'm done stocking up on supplies I'll be there! Bye] "See ya"

Leon had waited for around ten minutes until Eve had gotten there. "Hey, are you sure your ok, walking around like that from yesterday's attack?" Leon said, sounding concerned.

"Well the doctor says I need the exercise but I'm not allowed to over-do it, and I still feel kind of tired from that attack…" Eve said while remembering the frightful night from the shadow probopass.

"Oh and by the way, if you think the haunter's going to be too much for you, maybe you can give it to Brock for safe-keeping, the Purification machine is being built here soon anyway."

"Sure, I'll do that," Eve and Leon went into Brock's house and told him they were ready to leave. Brock showed them to the Alakazam. When they were ready to teleport the Alakazam's eyes turned a blue shade and all of a sudden the three figures disappeared.

Cerulean city

Once Leon and Eve finished teleporting they appeared in front of a large mansion. "What's with all the fancy places these days…?" Leon said while staring at the mansion. The gate was large and was open as if to welcome them in.

"I heard the gymleader Misty owns a mansion, I guess this is it…" Eve said while walking the long way to the front door.

"She owns this place!" Leon said awestruck, "I wish this mission will never end!" Leon eagerly ran up to the door and rang the doorbell. When Leon rang the doorbell a long bell chimed, yet immediately the door opened to reveal a pretty maid.

Cerulean mansion

"You must be Leon and Eve; my mistress informed me of you two, please come in." The maid said while allowing the two in. The two snaggers were both stunned at how nice the place looked, they saw indoor pools, a large fountain portraying a legendary pokemon and one human standing as if commanding the creature, large stairways and many portraits of important looking people, including the gymleader herself and the four pokedex holders of Kanto. When they finished walking, which took a while Leon and Eve were sent to a waiting room.

"This place is too cool!" Leon said once the maid left; he began looking around as if a little kid playing in an art museum.

"Oh, act your age," Eve said even though she couldn't help looking around herself. "This place is nice though…" Then one of the doors opened, and revealed a gymleader in her casual outfit, rather than what you'd expect from an owner of a mansion. It was shorts and a short sleeved shirt. Almost right away Leon sat down as if he did something wrong.

"You two are the new snaggers right?" Misty asked.

"Yea, Leon reporting for duty!" said Leon getting up straight and tall, saluting her. Both girls had laughed.

"Relax, I'm a gymleader like everyone else, no need for any special attention," Misty said, waving her arms as if trying to make Leon sit. "Well you guys are here for more in depth details on what to do right?"

"Correct," Eve had said, still sitting politely.

"Well in day one, you guys are to protect Bill the inventor, he lives up at the Cerulean cape, right now it's the 3rd snaggers shift but soon it'll be your turns. Any questions?" Misty had asked. Yet they nodded in an understanding way. "You guys will go up to the cape and get yourselves acquainted with Bill and the third snagger, his name is Miguel."

"Ok, I think we got what to do for today, but do you have any idea of where Cipher might be hiding?" Eve asked.

"We're not exactly sure yet but we think they're trying to hide near the cape but they may also try to enter the cerulean dungeon, but me and my gym has that area." Misty said. "You two along with the third snagger will have a rotating cycle in this mission to protect Bill in different areas until we get rid of their base."

"Ok, we got the idea, but what should we do right now?" Leon asked.

"Well I think you guys should get acquainted with the third snagger." Then a nearby door opened to reveal a girl, this girl was around the same age as Eve and Leon and she didn't seem to be a maid like the rest of the female's in the mansion. She was dressed in trainer gear. "This is Meghan; she'll be taking you to meet Miguel." Misty said once the girl stepped in.

"What! Hey, I thought you were going to help me train today, not run some silly errands!" The girl said infuriated. "All you told me to do was meet these trainers, NOT introduce them to Miguel."

"Uh…" Misty said thinking. "Actually I said I wanted you to meet the trainers, I never said that'll be all you'll be doing. Don't worry; we'll get to your training." Misty said with a little twinkle in her eye.

"Fine… But I'm not doing any other errands!" Meghan retorted. "Follow me…" She said beckoning them to follow.

Route 25

"Well, in there should be Miguel," She said while pointing to an average sized house. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go back to the gym" Meghan said.

"Thanks anyway!" Leon said waving good bye. After she had left Leon and Eve began walking towards Bill's house. When they opened the door they noticed no one was there.

"Excuse me? Is anyone here?" Eve asked the question yet it was rhetorically responded. They looked around; the place was piled with all different kinds of technological stuff such as computers and other uncomprehendable do-hickeys.

"I guess nobodies home…" Leon said after he looked around. Then all of a sudden someone ran into the house attempting to tackle Leon. "Ah!" Leon was caught off guard and was sent flying backwards. "Are you Miguel?" Leon asked without getting up.

"This person can't be Miguel; he's dressed up in a cipher outfit!" Eve said while actually looking.

"What! I got tackled by some geek in a robot suit!" Leon said trying to antagonize the peon.

"Darn… If you guys are asking for Miguel you can't be Miguel…" The peon said as if talking to himself. "Oh well, if I can kidnap you guys this will be good practice." The peon said while ignoring the snag machine on his arm.

"You've got to be kidding me… you're in team cipher and you don't know who you might be dealing with." Eve said while thinking the battle wouldn't even be worth it. "I'll battle you anyway; I'll give you a chance for promotion.

"Thanks, your very kind!" said the peon.

"This guy doesn't even see an insult when it's right in front of him…" Leon said beginning to think cipher was a diverse group. "Let's get out of here before he wrecks anything"

"Good idea," said the eccentric peon and they all stepped outside.

////////////////////////////////Trainer Eve/////////////////////////////////

/////////////////////////////////////Vs.////////////////////////////////////////

/////////////////////////Dumb Cipher Peon/////////////////////////////

"Go, oddish!" Eve said while calling out her trusty pokemon grass-poison type pokemon.

"Well spinda, I choose you!" Said the peon while tossing out a pokeball. The pokeball revealed a small teddy-bear like pokemon which had eyes that looked as if it were dizzy. The way it moved gave you the impression that it was drunk. It was a creamy yellow in color but had orange spots on its fur.

"I'll start the battle off with a razor leaf attack!" Oddish shook its head causing leaves to float off, then oddish spun around and directed the leaves toward the small panda.

"Dance, spinda dance!" Ordered the peon while beginning to dance himself.

"This has to be the weirdest guy I've ever met…" said, Leon. But to his surprise the Spinda began to avoid all the leaves that were directed at it. "This guy's got some moves…" Said, Leon impressed at how well the idiot was doing.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be rooting for the enemy." Eve said while getting slightly frustrated.

"Now teeterdance!" the spinda began dancing around the oddish trying to get it dizzy as well.

"Oddish use substitute before you get confused!" the oddish's body grew limp and a ghostly figure of oddish flew out, making a decoy for the battle. "Now ingrain!" The oddish floated back to its body and planted roots on the ground and then floated back out.

"Well I'll use dizzy punch!" The spinda began dancing towards the ghostly yet still damageable form of eevee and punched it as if it was drunk. Oddish took no damage and regained health due to substitute and ingrain.

"Let's end this phase of the battle with petal dance!" Oddish then spun around as it did with razor leaf yet this time colorful and sharp edged flowers sprung out of oddish's leaves and began to chase spinda with great precision hitting it severely.

"Oh, no. My plan failed, I guess I'll just send out my shadow pokemon now!" The odd peon than zapped his spinda in and sent out a small green pokemon wearing a white dress. "Kirlia, show, those losers how to dance!"

Eve used her shadow scanner on her P*DA and confirmed that the pokemon was a shadow type. "I'll snag that pokemon from you easily!" Eve said confidently, yet all of a sudden the oddish began to shudder and then started to glow a radiant light. "Is this, what I think it is?" The oddish began to take another shape and grew larger and it had developed red petals with white spots on it. "Oh, yippy, my oddish turned into a gloom!"

"Oh, congratulations Eve!" Leon said while examining the new pokemon.

"Yay, I can end this quicker, sleep powder!" Then a green powder started to spew out of gloom's petals and headed strait for the Kirlia knocking it to sleep. But then gloom fell asleep as well.

"You forgot about Kirlia's ability, synchronize! Now you can't attack!" The peon said.

"Well, you forgot that I'm going to snag that Kirlia right out of your possession!" Eve said while getting ready to throw the pokeball.

"You just got owned…!" Leon said while making fun of the peon. Then Eve tossed the pokeball and it hit the sleeping Kirlia on the forehead, instantly catching it.

"That was easy." Said, Eve disappointedly.

///////////////////////////////////end/////////////////////////////

"Whoa, how was I supposed to know that you were a snagger just because you have an awesome piece of armor on your arm?" The peon said while beginning to back up. "Well I should report this!" And the peon began to run off at a very fast pace.

"That guy's fast, I wonder if he's on crack," said Leon forgetting that he was getting away.

"Hey, what are you waiting for?" said Eve wondering what Leon was thinking about.

"Oh, right, he's getting away!" Leon began to run after the guy but then he saw someone else running out of nowhere, he was wearing a black hoodie and a black shirt underneath with black jeans. He was running towards the peon.

"Rah!" yelled the guy as he bashed into the peon. When he charged into the peon they both fell backwards and stopped running.

"Yow, that hurt!" said the peon before falling unconscious.

"I've heard of you two," said the guy while taking off his hood. "You two are Leon and Eve, the other snaggers."

"And you must be Miguel," said Leon staring at Miguel in the face.

Eve was busy playing with her newly evolved Gloom while Leon and Miguel were having a stare down. They both had a feeling what the other was thinking and they both felt a strong urge to settle something. "I'll see you once we're done our shifts…" said Miguel.

"So be it!" Leon said with confidence at his newly gained rival.

"NéNé," Miguel said while sending out his little pokemon. It was a small ghost that was shaped like a hand-puppet. It was also purple in color yet had blue eyes. "See that this criminal gets to the police, got it?" Miguel said while still imagining what future battles may hold in store.

"I won't be letting you get the glory of catching the idiot next time…" Leon said with his eyes on fire.

End

Chapter 6 – Different shifts and an Enigma? (update)

(Note: I shall be doing first person views this chapter and will probably switch in the middle of the chapter to different character views.)

Leon's view

Bill's house

After I had a little stare-off with Miguel I met Bill. He was a really smart guy; I can see why Cipher would try to kidnap him. "I'll try to come up with a way to purify your pokemon using the badges ok?" Bill had said when I met him. "In the meanwhile though, try to keep Cipher away until we drive them out of Cerulean."

"You got it, but by the way, is the only reason team cipher is after you is because you're a really famous inventor?" I asked.

"I'm not sure exactly but I think they want a quicker shadowing process or a permanent kind of shadowing." Bill said pondering the question himself.

"Well, Leon." Miguel said directly to me. "When I'm done with my shift, we're battling! Don't keep try to chicken out just because I'm so good!"

"We'll see about that!" I responded. Bill had left and Miguel left as well to continue his shift. "Hey, Eve." I said.

"Yea?"

"Exactly why do we have shifts this time, I mean why can't we just stick together in a group?" I asked thinking about the possible tactic.

"Oh, that's simple, it's because we'll attract less attention if we're in a small group. And Bill he may need a body guard but he can handle himself if he needs to, and if we keep rotating, the enemy won't be able to catch on and we'll be able to rest." Eve said explaining the whole plan and I nodded understanding every aspect. After she said that she went outside as well. I had nothing else to do so I decided to train my pokemon while I was waiting.

I went into a nearby area where Eve was grooming her pokemon. I tossed out both my eevee and riolu.

"Hey, boss. What are we doing today?" said my oddly serious eevee.

"Oh, just a little training and then some body-guarding today, nothing big…" I informed him.

"Well then what's Eve doing? I never really see her train," Riolu asked.

"Uh, yea what is she doing?" I said to myself. So I asked her. "Yo, Eve!" I said while waving to her.

"Yeah?" She said while walking over with her gloom, the gloom had a big grin on, as if it was proud of pleasing its trainer so well. It made me happy to see how happy it was being with her.

"What exactly are you doing, I never really see you train that much?"

"Oh, well…" she began to get red in the face.

"Oh, I don't mean you're slacking off!" I said trying to make sure she didn't get angry with me.

"Oh, really? Well I'm grooming my pokemon; I think the more time you spend with your pokemon is just as good as training along side it." She said with a smile while picking up her gloom and hugging it. "I'm also extracting some of gloom's leaves that seem to be coming off; they make a really good herbal tea for when you get sick or hurt." Eve said while showing me the orange colored herbs.

"Really, do you know how to make them? Cuz' if you do, I want to try some," I began to imagine the taste of the warm tea warming me up in the coming winter.

"Oh, sure. It'll be a good thing to make if anyone gets sick, so that'll be good." Eve said also with a day-dreamy look on her face.

Then an idea just sparked in my head. "Hey, listen while we're waiting, you know what we should do?"

"What…?" She asked.

"We should explore Cerulean cave, it'll be good training while we're waiting for Miguel and we'll be helping the mission speed up!" I said beginning to wonder just what could lie in the cave.

"But, wait," Eve said trying to keep me from going ahead. "Didn't Misty say that the place was crawling with tough pokemon?" Eve said sounding worried.

"It'll be ok, we're a team right, and we have a couple escape ropes if we really need them." I said sounding prepared.

"Sure, but if we run into any trouble we're going strait back out!" Eve said sternly.

"Sure, no problem!" Then we left to Cerulean cave.

Route 24

"Are you sure you want to go in there?" Eve asked as if trying to get me to change my mind.

"I want to see what's in here, and if there's another reason why they're in Cerulean." I said. "Don't you want to find out what cipher's up to?"

"Yeah… but, fine…" Eve said giving up.

"Look, I'll go in first and if everything's safe I'll tell you," I volunteered. "If it's safe you don't have to follow me. Okay?"

"OK, just go and tell me if it's ok!" she said seeming to get annoyed with me. So I stepped into the cave…

Miguel's view

Route 9

"Hey, Bill. What do you think of that Leon guy?" I said while walking with him around the route searching for any abnormal sights or pokemon.

"He seems like a good kid why?" Bill asked. "You're already a good snagger and battler thanks to Crys' training. I don't think he'll be able to stand a chance against you." Bill said encouragingly.

"Humph, you better not be saying that!" I said making sure he wasn't just trying to be nice.

"Well when you and your friend Meghan got here I saw how good you two were and I immediately contacted professor Oak," Bill said while talking to me strait in the eye. "I didn't think talent like that should go to waste! So I asked if he knew any expert trainers that could've helped you train, since I knew of Cipher's return before-hand."

"Yeah, and that's how I met Crys, yeah. I don't know why I'm worried about a battle with that guy; all he did was help announce cipher's return, big deal." I said trying to belittle the new snagger even though he wasn't around.

"Hey, watch that ego of yours," Bill said catching me. "That's your biggest flaw as a trainer though, you get carried away." He said wearily.

"Oh, well." I said, and then I turned to my shuppet – NéNé she was always been with me, since I was a little kid. "We're going to win no matter what, right NéNé?"

"Shup, shup!" it seemed to be saying yes so I understood it. Then NéNé tensed up.

"What it is it?" But I already sensed something nearby as well, like a rock falling. So I turned my shadow sensor on. I looked around the place. All I saw were rugged rock walls and random shrubs growing around, nothing really suspicious… at least so far.

"You see-" Bill was beginning to ask but I interrupted him, telling him to stay quiet. I sent my aipom out; it was also a close friend of mines even though I just recently purified it, its name was striker. Aipoms are small purple monkeys with a tail with the end being shaped like a hand.

"Striker, I need you to climb up those cliffs and signal us if you see anything." I said while telling my small friend a usual order that we usually use when we play a small game. I looked up in the sky and saw the sun shining down upon me, it was a cloudless day but that doesn't always mean it's going to be a clear mission I thought in my head.

"Ay, ay, aipom!" Striker began to jump up and down frequently and began pointing in a random direction, yet its tail was pointing towards the sky, towards a flying pokemon.

"There…" I scanned the pokemon with the scanner and it read shadow… "NéNé, go up there and use faint attack, and if your frisk ability senses any items, knock it off." I watched as my shuppet stealthily flew up behind the bird pokemon and saw it attack the avian being.

The bird got hit and dropped something, "Striker, use your pick-up ability and catch the object!" Striker ran, jumped off the cliff and caught the object in mid-air and safely landed on a nearby branch. "Great work now let me see what this is…" I took the held item from striker and saw that it was a camera… "We're being spied on Bill, RUN!" I immediately yelled towards Bill.

"Got, it." Bill sped off towards Cerulean. "Hey, NéNé, think you can use screech and drive out that blasted bird and its owner!" I said beginning to get savage-like while putting on my ear-protectors and returned striker.

NéNé began to screech loudly that even with my protectors on it was a little painful to deal with. Then I heard an ear piercing shriek from nearby, my guess was right, the camera had audio recording. "Good work NéNé," I went in the direction where I heard the agonizing shriek and found a cipher peon holding her ears as if in shock. "Well, well, well, NéNé. It looks like we have a spy for an enemy today…" I said while getting ready to get my shuppet to send her to the cops. But then she got up and made a whistle.

"You'll regret making that screech!" said the peon.

"What?" Then out of nowhere I saw a bird flying strait towards me, I let down my guard and paid the price. Its beak sent a blow towards my torso knocking me backwards. "Is… that it?" I said getting annoyed at the Peon. "I've seen baby natu fly better than that! NéNé get ready for a battle!" I said immediately getting back up on my feet.

"Oh, I'm just getting started kid!" said the young female peon. "Let's go staravia!" And the peon whistled a different higher tune than before, and the staravia, which had grey and white feathers and had a white spot on its forehead, landed on the peon's arm.

///////////////////////Trainer Miguel/////////////////////

///////////////////////////////Vs./////////////////////////////

//////////////////////Cipher Peon //////////////////////

"You know, of all the trainers I fought, you have to the unluckiest!" I said trying to psyche out the enemy.

"Why is that?" said the peon curiously.

I checked my pokedex on NéNé's stats. It showed that all NéNé needed was one more piece of experience to level up and evolve. "Oh, you'll see in the middle of the battle, if not then the beginning!"

"Oh, well!" the girl whistled loud tone and the Staravia took off.

"Do you have to give order by whispering?" I said getting annoyed. Then I noticed NéNé getting slightly fearful, it was the effects of intimidate. "Don't worry NéNé; you'll be causing the terror soon. Let's start the battle off with taunt!" Then NéNé began to stick its tongue out and started making a rude noise.

"What, hey! I guess we have no choice but to attack!" I heard a two-toned whistle and the bird took flight and it had an intense aura surround it that had a purple color.

It began to fly towards NéNé but I shouted. "Sucker Punch!" and after that NéNé intercepted the attack and launched itself towards the underbelly of the bird and hit it upwards with its horn.

"No fair! You weren't supposed to see that coming!" complained the girl.

"Did you forget that our snag machine has a shadow scanner?" I began mocking the girl with much spite.

"Grr…"

"Now, use will ó wisp!" Yet for some reason NéNé began to shudder. "NéNé?" Then all of a sudden my shuppet began to glow. I was filled with joy, after all these years with NéNé it finally evolved! "Ok, NéNé, let's show off our new power!" I said getting more excited after every passing second. After NéNé finished evolving it turned into a marionette pokemon. It was also purple in color yet had red eyes. Its mouth was a zipper that seemed rusted and its tail seemed to be pinned with many needles. I smirked with confidence.

"What, no, I can't lose this easily!" shrieked the girl.

"Let's block off its hearing now, shall we, NéNé?" Then I put my ear-protectors on and NéNé knew exactly what to do. It screeched the hell out of the girl's ear and the staravia's. Both were unable to move due to the shock of the loud sound and I noticed that the Staravia didn't know what to do now because of what happened. "Let's follow up with will ó wisp!" My newly found pokemon raised its hands and smiled in a menacing way, blue balls of fire floated upward surrounding NéNé and on my command it directly hit the staravia, burning it. The girl was still on the floor holding her ears, hurt by the screech. I pitied her, but an enemy is an enemy. But I decided to end the battle quickly. "Time to end this!" I put a pokeball in the snag machine causing the ball to convert into a snag ball. But instead of tossing it like most other trainers, I tossed the ball into the air and I jumped sideways so that my body was parallel to the ground and my body was spinning at a rapid speed, I saw the pokeball near my foot and brought my foot with force towards the pokeball. Then I landed on both feet. I did a dragon whiptail kick. When I looked up I saw that I had accurately and strongly hit the staravia on the white spot on its forehead, the pokeball absorbed the pokemon and didn't even need to shake to confirm that it had been caught. I walked towards the pokeball and picked up my newly caught staravia, I thought of a nickname and I decided. "I'll name you Ace, just because you hit me directly in the center of my chest…" I said smirking.

///////////////////////////////////////end////////////////////////////////////

Then I looked towards NéNé, "Well let's get back to Cerulean with this girl, we're done our shift." I said thinking of how that Leon kid stood no chance of winning and began walking back to Misty's mansion.

Fred's view

Cerulean city's police HQ

I heard that a cipher peon was caught even though it was the first day that Leon and Eve were on that mission. "So, Bill. You say cipher's making a move in this mission, correct?" I asked the famed inventor.

"Yeah, I was just attacked by one and Miguel caught another one a little earlier today." Bill said informing me, I began taking notes.

"Well, I'll just go and see that peon right now then." I walked into the prison cell where the peon was being kept.

"You might want to be careful; this one's kind of mental…" Bill said, I was wondering about what he had meant by mental so I got intrigued even more. "But this is the guy." He said pointing to the peon.

"You there, you were caught today, correct?" I asked sternly, bracing myself for any kind of craziness.

"Depends on what today is…" said the peon.

"What do you mean what today is! It's November 3 you idiot, and your files state that you were caught today!" I said beginning to get annoyed with the guy's stupidity.

"Well then why'd you ask? I mean if you have records on me, then why don't you check the records?" the peon said.

"Just, shut up!" I said getting annoyed at the guy's annoyance. I couldn't even tell if he meant what he was saying though. "Now tell me…"

"But you just told me to shut up!" said the peon getting indignant towards me.

"Just answer my questions, got it!" I said getting a little impatient.

"Yea, sure, kid!"

"I might be able to help you get free if you tell me, where your base is." I said with a kind voice.

"But if I do then you'll go after the base right?" said the dense peon.

"But if you tell me you'll be free to help your team out, eventually." I said while trying to get the peon to tell me some kind of information.

"Oh really?" asked the peon his eyes brightening up. I was a little surprised at how he easy this guy was at being interrogated. "Well actually, recently I think our base has been attacked at Cerulean cape by some weird pokemon… I was one of the few people along with my cousin and the boss who escaped… Do I get free because of that?"

"Wait, what do you mean by weird pokemon," I said while secretly dropping a minimized pokeball holding my cyndaquill to the floor behind the criminal. I narrowed my eyes and distracted him from my quilava which had snuck out of its pokeball. "I thought you guys had abnormal pokemon!"

"Yeah well this one was abnormaler, it was really strong and pretty much wiped out most of the team." He didn't seem to get anymore nervous than he should've been so I decided he was telling the truth, plus if he was nervous he would've noticed quilava popping out, or at least beginning to heat his chair to a slight degree.

"Thank you, I'll free you when you're supposed to be freed, ok?" I said cheerfully.

"Oh, really when is that?" asked the peon.

"After your team doesn't need help anymore." I said while leaving the cell and closing the door.

"Really? Yay!" celebrated the peon, who was originally going to be freed at that time. I was slightly disgusted at how easily the peon was tricked, but he gave some useful clues nonetheless.

"So how'd it go?" Bill asked.

"Well, I've found some useful clues, but that was a terrible interrogation, it was more like a questionnaire…" I said disappointed.

"That's good right?" Bill said without understanding my passions with psychology.

"Right, whatever… anyway, I found out that the base is really at Cerulean cave, but he didn't specify where…" I looked at my P*DA for notes I took. "He also said something about an odd pokemon foiling their plans…and that only he, his boss, and one other survived the attack." I tried thinking of what he could've meant.

"Well, you know. There was an abnormal pokemon that once lived there but it moved somewhere else."

"I'm assuming that the one that attacked you is the second peon that escaped?" I asked.

"Yeah."

So that only leaves the admin to find, he may still be in the base…" I said. "Oh, and tell the police around here to call the hospital for that guy, I think he has a brain tumor or something!" After that comment I took off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Bill asked me.

"I'm going to explore the cave, why not?" I said. But when I reached the door I bumped into someone. "Hey, Idiot, watch where you're going!" I retorted getting angry at the boring day.

"Oh, sorry, I'm just here to turn in a criminal I just caught." Said a guy in a black hoodie, who was wearing a gauntlet similar to Leon's.

"Wait, is your name Miguel?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"So you're the third snagger." I said, then I looked around and I saw a cipher peon next to him. "Excellent, you got the missing cipher peon."

"What? I just caught this person trying to spy on Bill." Said, Miguel. "Uh, what's your name?"

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Fred." I said, but I was anxious in trying to interrogate the peon. "Let's turn this person in, oh, and if you're wondering whether or not Bill's ok he is. He's inside right now."

"Ok, then…" said Miguel, with a puzzled look on his face. When we returned to the cell where the peon was, this time we turned the second one in. Miguel met up with Bill. "So you made it safely huh?"

"Yes and I got this really good interrogator. You met him right?" Bill said while looking at me.

"Huh, that guy?" Miguel said astonished. "But he's my age!"

"You, got a problem? Cuz' I already got some info and I'm about to get some more!" I said.

"Oh, you're going to have to wait for a while if you do that." Miguel said right away.

"Why is that?" I said getting annoyed.

"Cuz' she's kind of hurt, I messed up her ears pretty badly and she's unconscious so she won't wake up for a while. Even if you try screaming in her ears she wouldn't hear it that well…" He said while beginning to trail off. I got sad due to the fact that I really had no one to interrogate. "Hey, Bill."

"What is it?"

"Isn't it supposed to be Leon's shift right about now?"

"Yeah, it is…" Bill said. I began to listen intently on what was happening. "Where is he?"

"I don't know, but I'll try calling him." I picked up the P*DA and attempted to call Leon. He didn't pick up. "He won't answer…"

"What the hell is that guy doing?" Miguel said while showing a distorted and angry face. "We're supposed to be on a mission! Not goofing off!" He yelled.

"Hey, Leon's not a bad guy, trust him. Ok." I said trying to defend my friend. "Let me try Eve." I tried calling her as well yet there was no answer either.

"BOTH OF THEM ARE GOOFING OFF!" Miguel yelled.

"Darn, well in the meantime, I'm checking out Cerulean cave!" I said while leaving the door trying to figure out what Leon was doing…

Leon's view

Once I stepped into the cave everything seemed to go dark. Yet I could make out in the darkness a small dragonfly pokemon. But this one was a shadow pokemon. "Hey, wait up!" I said while chasing after the pokemon. It flew through many twists and turns and I was having trouble keeping up. "Riolu, help me out and help me follow that pokemon!"

"You got it." Riolu began running with me and followed the pokemon.

Then it took a sharp turn ahead of me and I stopped. I decided to do a sneak attack on the pokemon and then try to catch it. "Okay, riolu, charge up your focus blast and then fire when you see the pokemon." Riolu nodded yes. Then I turned the corner but then I ran into a dead end. "What, hey what gives?" I said getting frustrated.

"Maybe the dragonfly teleported?" said riolu.

"But that didn't look like a teleporting pokemon; the dragonfly seemed like a flying pokemon." I explained to Riolu. I looked around the dead end for any secret passageways, but then when I looked carefully I noticed that the wall had some engravings on it, as if it was an ancient text. It looked familiar to me somehow, but I couldn't remember where I saw it.

"Looking, for something?" said a voice behind me.

"Whoa," I turned around and saw a man standing around five steps behind me. He had a black coat on with black pants. He also had a red shirt underneath his coat. He had pale skin but his eyes were an electric blue which seemed as if it glowed within the darkness of the cave. Yet the most menacing part of this guy was the fact that he was wearing a grey scarf and his red hair that seems to be billowing with the wind, without the wind! And his clothes were ragged and torn as if he just came from a fight. "Wh-who are you?" I asked getting a little scared. I began to back up against the wall, yet when I took a step back I felt as if I was about to fall. I looked back, the wall had disappeared and when I looked down, the rugged floor wasn't rugged; it was intricately designed with an ancient text. When I looked forward the man was still standing where he was but smiling, as if he knew what was happening and enjoyed seeing me confused.

Heavenly stadium

When I looked for any of the walls whatsoever I found that they were gone, as if we were standing on a circular floating platform. "What's going on?" I said extremely scared and confused. I tried reaching into my bag for an escape rope, yet I found nothing inside of the bag.

"Leon, what's happening?" asked Riolu, but I wanted to know the answer myself.

"Do you really want to know what's happening?" He said directly towards me as if he read my mind.

"Hell yeah, and if you're a part of cipher then you better quit the act right now, because I'm getting really angry!" I said.

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong kid." That guy smirked a malicious smile. "I'm not from cipher kid, and even if I was, you wouldn't be able to do anything to me!" he said while drawing out an ancient looking pokeball. "Do you think you can defeat me? Are you sure you're angry and not scared or confused?" The man said mockingly to me. He was right, I was more scared than angry, but I couldn't just back down like that.

"I'll battle you, and you'll take back everything you said, got it?" I said yet still unsure due to the odd background, at least his scarf made sense now. "Riolu, are you ready for this?"

"I'll try…" said riolu.

///////////////////////////////Trainer Leon//////////////////////////////

/////////////////////////////////////Vs.//////////////////////////////////////

////////////////////////Enigmatic trainer//////////////////////////////

"You shouldn't lie to yourself kid, if you're scared you can just tell me, it's not going to change how I see you." He said viciously, and then he tossed the pokeball and sent out an umbreon. It was an evolved form of an eevee. It was a solid black in color yet it had glowing rings around parts of its body, like its ears and tail. Except, for some reason this one had blue rings than the usual yellow, so I got ready for a serious battle.

"I'll show you I'm not afraid of you!" I said trying to throw the guy off guard. "Riolu use focus blast!"

"Ok…" Riolu began to charge up power in his right arm and it began to become surrounded by a red-orange aura. "Get ready, for this attack!" Riolu said getting hyped up. But the man just stood there with his umbreon looking content. Then Riolu shot the focus blast strait towards the ring on the umbreon's forehead causing a major explosion.

"Awesome, that was a direct hit!" I said getting relaxed upon seeing the attack make impact.

"Would you like to elaborate on that?" said the guy. Then after the smoke cleared the umbreon was still standing there without a single scratch on its forehead. "What did you do, protect?" I said while trying to figure out what he did. I tried to see if I at least had my pokedex and I did! "Let me see what level your Umbreon is…" I checked the pokedex and its stats were off the charts, it didn't even say what level it was! "What, who are you?"

"If you have to know, my name is Xarid." He said. "Now, umbreon use shadow ball!" The umbreon gathered a ghostly energy and hurled the dark blob towards riolu, I panicked. I knew the umbreon had abnormal stats.

"Use detect and get out of the way!" Riolu jumped out of the way and landed safely on the western side of the field while umbreon was on the northern side. When the ball exploded it sent a strong shockwave, almost knocking me off balance. "That was way stronger than I thought! Let's go for a high jump kick!" Riolu began running strait towards the umbreon and then did a somersault jump into the air and brought its foot down forward onto the umbreon's head.

"That tickled, I think I'll use some thing else!" Then the umbreon's tail began to turn a metallic color. Riolu was still landing on its feet once the enemy finished charging, I began to panic. Riolu looked up and was frozen with fear as much as I was. Then the umbreon swung its stiff tail right into riolu sending it flying towards the south-eastern part of the field.

"Help!" Riolu called out as I saw him get hit. I began running on instinct, towards the area where Riolu was sent. I didn't know what I was going to do but I knew I had to do something before Riolu fell off.

"Go ahead, run, run towards your so-called partner, if you really do care for him that is…" I jumped for Riolu, he was flying at a fast rate, and if I didn't catch him it'd be all over. I saw the guys face at the corner of my eye, he wasn't exactly smiling but he was watching intently. I felt the wind brushing against my body, as if trying to keep me away from catching riolu. Then I finally caught him in my arms away from that endless pitfall. "Good, umbreon use sunny day!" the umbreon's rings began to glow and it shot light up towards the sky, revealing what it should've been outside of the cave, if that is, I was still in the cave in the first place.

"There, I caught him, I saved him, what else do you have to put me through!" I said getting indignant.

"Oh, but I'm just helping you, that's all…" Xarid said with a smile.

"What do you mean…?" I asked beginning to wonder who this guy really is.

"Le-Leon, I feel weird…" Riolu began to shudder and I got angry at how hard that umbreon hit Riolu.

"What did you to him!?" I yelled.

"I helped him…" The sun began to shine down upon Riolu, enveloping him in a luminescent light. I watched as Riolu began to radiate with a light of his own. "Evolve…" Riolu grew larger and his ears grew more pointed. Single spike protruded out of the back of riolu's hands and then another out of his chest. When Riolu finished glowing he was pretty much the same color except his torso had a yellow color.

"Oh, hey I evolved!" said my new pokemon, he began to test out his new body by shooting out random blasts of energy and shot random punches and kicks. I checked my pokedex; it said Riolu had evolved into a lucario.

"Riolu, or Lucario, or ah…" I tried thinking of what to call him but then I remembered you can give pokemon nicknames. "I think I'll call you Ken!" I sad beaming with glee as I finished witnessing lucario evolve.

"Fine by me," Ken said. "I think it's time to finish this battle!"

"Oh, you read my mind!" I said watching Ken build up an aura for a strong attack, but then something I was holding began to shine. It was my boulder badge. "Wah…" Then its energy was directed to lucario and ken's aura began to turn a grayish-white.

"Wow, I feel so much stronger now, I don't think I can lose!" Ken said.

"Do you think you can end this battle now?" asked Xarid. "Do you think you and Ken have enough trust to overthrow me?!"

"I know me and Ken have enough trust to win!" I said with confidence. "Now, let's fire an aura sphere!" Ken focused most of the aura into his hands and he put them together, but instead of the usual blue it was a gray aura sphere. "NOW!" Ken fired the sphere towards umbreon and caused another explosion just as strong as the focus blast due to Ken's boosted strength. The attack made impact and actually seemed to damage the umbreon this time. "We're not going to let go yet! Use your foresight to see through the smoke, and then go in for close combat!" I ordered.

"Hmph, you seem to be fighting with more confidence…" He said as he watched Ken run into the smoke.

"I've got to thank you, I'm not sure whether you're my enemy or not, but I know at least you're not with cipher." I said while looking Xarid in a different way. Ken launched the umbreon into the air and jumped after it. He got ready to do a blaze kick but Umbreon acted without order and knocked Ken down with an iron tail. Ken landed on his feet. I looked at the umbreon; its rings began to glow again. "Ken, watch out, it's charging up for an attack!" I said. "Counter it with your new focus blast!" Ken's aura began to waver vigorously as if it was a burning colorless fire. He put his hands in front of him and blasted a large gray ball of energy and at the same time umbreon launched his while in the air, yet it was an orange colored beam. Both attacks collided and created a deafening explosion, and creating a strong shock wave that ripped across the platform knocking me and Ken off of our feet, off of the floating platform into the bottomless pit. "No…"

"This battle was good enough…" I heard Xarid say, but I blacked out before I found out what was happening.

////////////////////////end////////////////////////////////////////

End

Chapter 7 – Everyone's hurt

Eve's view

"Damn it, where's Leon…" I've been waiting for around half-an hour for Leon and he still hasn't come back. "I try calling him, no reception. If I go look for him he might come back." I was extremely worried sick about what was happening. Finally I cracked. "That's it! I'm going in!" I was thinking to myself that this had better not be another trick to scare me.

Cerulean cave

I looked inside the cave and just in case Leon did get out I thought of an idea. "Gloom, come on out!"

"Gloom," said my little flower pokemon as it popped out of its pokeball.

"Ok, I need you to use your acid attack on the walls as a trail so Leon can find us if he gets out." I said.

"Gloom, gloom!" gloom started to use acid on the walls starting at the entrance. I kept searching for some clue as to where Leon was but there was nothing. Then all of a sudden a little brown streak of fur ran right in front and started jumping up and down as if trying to get my attention.

"Oh, hey eevee!" I said excitedly realizing that Leon must have been nearby. But then I realized that eevee must be worried to go around looking for someone. "Is Leon in trouble?" I said while my face beginning to get worried. The eevee responded by nodding its head yes and ran off. I followed along with gloom leaving a trail behind so we wouldn't get lost. Eventually we came to a dead end where I saw a figure lying on the floor. "LEON!" I immediately ran to him and tried to see if he was conscious. "Leon, wake up!" I checked his pulse and I saw that he was at least alive…

Miguel's view

I decided to check out Cerulean cave along with Fred. Bill however decided to stay behind and work on the purification machine which was nearly complete. Meghan also tagged along since she was taking a break from training. "Darn it, what are those two doing?" I said angrily.

"We have to go look for them because Leon's late for his shift?" Meghan asked.

"Well you don't but for Bill's sake and ours we do." Fred said. We looked inside the cave and we noticed a trail of acid on the wall. We followed it and we eventually came to wall encrypted with ancient text. Fred sent out a prinplup which was the evolved form of piplup, it looked pretty much the same, just larger with a darker shade of blue and with a crest on its head. He took out an air-mail from his bag and scribbled some stuff down on it. "Give this to Bill and he'll know what to do." He said and with that the penguin pokemon left with the mail in its beak. We followed the trail of acid and we found eevee and Eve huddled near a figure lying on the floor.

"Eve?" Eve looked back with a panicked look on her face. "What happened?" I asked.

"I actually just came in here and I found him lying on the ground here, he's unconscious!" she said.

"Well," Fred said. "Do you have an escape rope?" She nodded. "You'll inform us with all the details afterwards." He said.

"What are you guys doing in here?" she asked.

"We're looking for the admin of this area!" I retorted while looking at how badly in shape Leon was. "Hey, eevee. Where's Riolu?" I asked sternly. The eevee looked towards Leon's bag and nudged it and I understood what it meant.

"I guess I'll just leave now…" Eve said while picking up Leon and using the escape rope, and instantly she vanished along with Leon.

"Well, now for the admin!" I stated, yet as we searched I began to wonder, how come Eve got to become a snagger and a pokedex holder when Meghan couldn't, Eve didn't seem that responsible or strong, and Meghan was already a tough battler…

We went even deeper into the caves but then we found this high-tech door. "This must be their base…" Meghan said. I looked at how big it was and it seemed to have a bad lock that didn't work.

"Well, unless the pokemon was a ghost or a psychic type and it actually was a pokemon, then we can just push this door open." Fred said logically. I charged into the door and it gave way pretty easily. I was expecting a really high-tech base when I stepped in, but this place looked like a friggin horror scene. It had broken machines and the lights were flickering on and off. There were little stuff that were actually intact.

"What the hell happened here?" I said bewildered, but the worst part of the place was that there were unconscious cipher members lying around! "Hey, Fred think you can get some police to clean this mess up?" I asked. Just looking at the place made me think of how powerful the pokemon that did this had to be.

"Yeah…" and he left the place. Meghan and I decided to look around for any clues of who actually did this. I found a little report paper and I read it. It said; November 5, we were attacked by a single yet powerful pokemon, it was almost godly in power, we all together stood no chance of winning – cipher peon.

"Hey, Meghan look at this," she walked over after looking at the state of the peons. "Unless someone did a confusion technique they really were attacked by a powerful pokemon!" I stood there re-reading the note just trying to make sure there weren't any powerful pokemon in this cave.

"Ok, we better find the admin fast!" Meghan said. "And all of these Peons seem to be in a coma state! They're not waking up!" I began to panic, what if that pokemon came after us, we wouldn't be able to win…

"This… isn't… good…" I said shaking just by staring at the letter. Finally I pulled myself together. "Well, we better get going." I said looking around. "The admin isn't in here obviously…"

"Yeah…" Meghan said. "Oh, this place gives me the creeps!" We left the place with no clues yet a chill in our spines, knowing that something powerful is out there…

Eve's view

Cerulean pokemon center

"Hey, Eve!" said Bill after I came back to the pokemon center. "The purification machine is finished… Hey what happened to Leon?" he asked.

"I don't know, I found him lying in the cave in a coma and then Miguel and they showed up." I responded miserably. "I should've stopped him from going in…" I went to the nurse and asked if she could check up on Leon and Riolu to see if they're ok. The eevee looked at me with a sad face wondering if Leon's ok. "I don't know eevee… I'm so sorry," I felt sad wondering if Leon's going to be ok myself. I decided to at least make use of the time and use the purification machine. Bill explained to me how to use it, it seemed pretty simple to use. When I looked at the machine it was really just a chamber where you place a pokeball into it. I looked at my togepi and it was ready to be purified so I put it in the tray and stuck it into the slot. I saw a warm green light floating around the pokeball as if cleansing it from all the taint of the shadow aura. "At least one thing is going good…" I said solemnly. "It's all my fault Leon's hurt, he might have been attacked by cipher or something…" When the light show was done I took out the togepi and it had no aura around it. I took it out of its pokeball and it instantly began to glow. "Wha?!" It grew larger and wings sprouted out of its back and its neck also grew longer. "Wow, you're a togetic now!" It brightened up my day because I knew that togepis wouldn't evolve unless they had complete happiness with their trainer. "You've only been with me for a short while but you already evolve, Yay!" I said while hugging the angelic pokemon and swinging it around.

Then I suddenly had an idea. I brought out my gloom just for the plan and brought Kirlia out to bond with it. "Gloom I want you to keep shedding some of your leaves so when he wakes up he can have our famous Oak-gloom tea!" Then I turned to togetic. "You can help me mash up the leaves and actually make it." I turned to Kirlia. "Don't worry; you'll have some of the tea when we're done too!" All my pokemon responded with happy faces and eager expressions. I began to get to work, with a little bit of hope that Leon will be ok.

Leon's view

Leon's dreams? In a small room

When I came to, I realized that all I really had with me was Ken and my pokedex still. I wondered where I was and it turned out that I was sleeping in a small room. "Hey Ken," I said while taking out my pokemon.

"Yeah, Leon, what is it?" He asked.

"Why are we in this room again, last I remember we were in a cave…" I said trying to call upon my foggy memory. Then I remembered having a battle with a strong opponent and that it ended with me and Ken falling off the stage. But that couldn't happen, so I decided that it was a dream.

"I'm not sure what's happening anymore…" he said.

I decided to leave the room and I took a step out the door, but when I looked out it was nothing that I've ever seen before! "Welcome, Leon, to the Crescent moon coliseum!" said a voice coming from the spectators.

Crescent moon coliseum

"What's happening?!" I said growing impatient of all the confusing events. I looked at the spectators, there were thirty-four people watching me in all, each in really intricate clothing (that seemed really out of date). I saw Ken who looked just as confused as I was.

"We just want to see our little snagger who's trying to take down cipher!" Said an old man from the stadium. "Hey, who here thinks that this kid actually has what it takes?" he asked as if trying to spite me. I looked around wondering how they knew about me and my life, and what makes them think they can just ask something like that out of no where. Only four out of that many people raised their hands, yet two of them looked vaguely familiar, I couldn't tell who… "Well, then. Cecelia, why don't you test the boy in your stadium to prove if he's truly worth it!"

"So be it." Said a lady, who had long blond hair that was pretty much strait, it seemed to glisten in the starry sky with the moonlight shining brightly. She had a Blue dress on yet when the dress got to her legs or arms it turned purple and at the very rims it was pink. I had glitter on it as if it was she had stars all around her dress. "You there, Leon was it?" She asked.

"Yeah," I said while tensing up.

"Relax will you, we're not going to kill you!" she said, and I relaxed slightly. "Just going to have a little fun with you, that's all." I got a little more tensed up after that. Let's go lunatone!" She tossed out a pokeball which was similar to Xarid's pokeball. It contained a crescent moon shaped pokemon and had blue eyes; it also floated in the air as if it was an actual moon. "All you have to do is show us what you can do, that is, if you can take the pain!"

//////////////////////Snagger Leon////////////////////////

////////////////////////////Vs./////////////////////////////////

/////////////////Trainer Cecelia////////////////////////

"All I want to do is get back to my friends and finish the damn mission!" I said getting angry at the people who were staring down on me.

"Then we'll let you go once we think you're good enough!" said an old man in the highest thrown.

"Fine, let's end this quick Ken!" I said.

"With pleasure." Ken said.

"Use icebeam!" said the lady. The lunatone gathered a ball of energy and shot it out as an icy blue beam.

"Ken dodge it!" I yelled realizing how lethal this attack may be even if it had a type disadvantage. Ken jumped aside but when the beam hit the floor a large chunk of ice formed where the beam hit. "Wow," I was amazed at how spiky the chunk looked, and I realized it would've been bad if Ken did get hit. "Let's use Water Pulse!" Ken pointed at an area right below the lunatone and that area began to glow.

"Lunatone dodge it!" then a pillar of water rose up from the pointed area but lunatone dodged in time. "Now use Icebeam!" Lunatone froze the pillar and at the same time shot the beam towards Ken and he nearly got hit. I thought of a plan to help complicate the field.

"Ken, keep using water pulse!"

"Got it!" Ken began firing numerous pillars of water at once. He shot five in a row and he shot five scattered ones, yet each and everyone was frozen. Eventually Ken ran out of pp yet the field was covered with pillars of ice. It made it hard to see where someone was, but with Ken's foresight he doesn't need to see, all he needs is to sense. I thought the plan was pretty good.

"Are you trying to hide?" said the lady. "Because if you are, it's futile. I'll just have lunatone break each pillar until I find you," she said, but I smirked because that'll give me time to prepare for powerful attacks. "Or I'll have it use blizzard!" Lunatone gathered up energy the same way it did with icebeam but instead shot it out as a large gust of icy cold wind, I had to hide behind the large chunk of ice just to avoid being frozen. "Ken, are you ok?" I asked trying to look through the snowy field; it was pretty much a winter wonderland.

"I'm a little chilly and it did hit me, but I'm ok," he replied.

"Now, gather up energy for a blazing tornado kick!" I said. Ken began to burn up his two feet and it was blazing in the cold night and stood out giving much light. Then he jumped up and started spinning creating a small heat wave, it didn't hit anybody but that wasn't the purpose. It began to hit and melt some of the ice pillars that Ken created launching them like cannonballs of water and ice, or slush.

"What are you doing…?" said Cecelia with a puzzled look, but then she figured out that I was trying to hit lunatone with the chunks of ice and water due to its weakness to water. Then suddenly a large chunk of snow hit lunatone in the face followed up by a heavy splash of hot water.

"Too much water!" the lunatone said as it got hit by water. "Too cold," it said as it got hit by ice. "Too hot!" it said as it got hit by steaming hot water. I saw it get irritated from the attacks so I decided to bring something else up.

"Ken, grab that pillar of ice!" I said pointing to a fresh chunk of ice still frozen. Ken picked up the pillar. "Now bone rush that lunatone ice-style!" Ken ran up to the lunatone and swung the pillar causing Ken to spin yet knocked Lunatone flying.

"What kind of tactic is this?" Cecilia asked. Then Ken jumped up to where lunatone was and smashed it down with the pillar.

"It's called taking advantage of your environment!" I said mocking her. Then Ken fell down and swung the pillar like a golf club knocking lunatone into the air and caused Ken to spin again. "Now fling it!" I said, and then while Ken was still spinning he tossed the pillar in the lunatone's direction and the pillar began spinning to it as if it was a boomerang, and smacked it, causing the pillar to shatter. "It should be done now!" I said confidently.

"Think again!" Cecelia said angrily. When I looked up at the lunatone it was sparkling just as brightly as the stars in the sky were. Then I realized that it was using cosmic power the whole time Ken was bone rushing it. Then I realized that this battle wasn't going to be anywhere near easy…

Miguel's view

We were still looking for the admin still with the thought of being attacked in our minds, so Meghan and I were extremely sensitive to any noise that didn't come from us. "Hey, NéNé," I said calling my ghost pokemon out. "Think you can search through these walls with your foresight?" NéNé eagerly agreed. I was pleased at how much my banette trusted me and how willing it was to help me out, that soothed me a little bit. Then I heard a screech, yet this one wasn't coming from NéNé… it sounded like a girl on a horror movie. Then I realized what happened, it was some female admin who was afraid of ghosts and had found NéNé. So we ran towards the sound along with NéNé and we found someone clutching a pokeball.

"So you're the cipher admin around here?" Meghan asked the female person who wasn't in a cipher outfit.

"So what if I am?" asked the girl who looked as if she had seen a ghost.

"But you're not in cipher uniform…" I said.

"Well we admins can dress however we want!" said the girl beginning to smile as if she had found something she had lost. "Oh and my name's Ammatemaru!" she said.

I was at disbelief of whether her name really was that long but I let it slide. "Get ready to battle, criminal!"

///////////////////Trainers Miguel and Meghan/////////////////////

//////////////////////////////////Vs.///////////////////////////////////////////

///////////////////Cipher admin Ammatemarru/////////////////////

"Let's go Gallant!" the admin sent out a blazing horse pokemon. I identified it as a ponyta.

"Come on poliwhirl!" Meghan said interrupting me from ordering NéNé to attack.

"Wait; is this a double battle or single?" I asked trying to figure out what was going on.

"We'll make this double, four pokemon a team!" the admin answered. Then she sent out a second pokemon, it was a small squirrel pokemon. It had a white coat of fur and an electric blue stripe going across the back and had yellow cheeks similar to a pikachu. "Meet my pachirisu, Pachi!" and the squirrel pokemon jumped up happily.

I was a little confused at the reason why a pokemon this happy can be with a criminal but I also let that slide. "NéNé, let's start the match off with a shadow sneak!" NéNé instantly dove into the floor and a shadow went strait to the ponyta and the shadow leapt upwards as if upper cutting the horse.

"Poliwhirl, use bubblebeam on the ponyta!" Meghan said, and the poliwhirl inhaled a breath of air through the swirl on its chest and began blowing out a strong jet of bubbles to the horse pokemon.

"Pachi, counter the beam by using your charge beam!" then the small squirrel ran in front of the horse and charged up electricity and blasted a beam strait through poliwhirl's bubblebeam and at the same time hitting it on its weak spot.

I began to have doubts on whether or not this person was really with cipher, or if she was messing with us, but I didn't let down my guard.

"Gallant, use flare blitz on that ghost!" yelled the admin. The ponyta summoned up fire all around its body and it ran strait to NéNé, injuring itself and my trusted pokemon.

"Oh, you'll pay for that!" I said after they made impact which caused devastating damage. "NéNé use shadow claw!" NéNé gathered up a ghostly aura near its left hand and it floated upwards above ponyta and flew down hitting it and nearly causing it to fall.

"Now, poliwhirl use iceball on that squirrel!" yelled Meghan. Then poliwhirl gathered up ice around its body. Once it finished it slid towards the pachirisu and was heading towards it.

"Pachi counter with rollout and shatter the ice!" Pachi rolled up and to my astonishment nearly threw poliwhirl off guard once they made impact. "Gallant, use firespin and stop that banette from helping!"

"Sucker punch!" I yelled. Then before NéNé became engulfed in flames, it became a shadow and punched the ponyta in the face. "NéNé, hang in there!" I yelled watching my pokemon being tormented by the fire and watching the poliwhirl going at it with pachirisu.

"Now, end the ghost with flare blitz!" yelled the admin. I panicked, there was pretty much nothing for me to do but one technique and even then it would be risky. The blazing horse kept coming towards NéNé both engulfed in flames, and then right before the ponyta bashed into NéNé I yelled out.

"Destiny BOND!" And a black field engulfed both NéNé and the ponyta.

"No, Gallant watch out!" said the admin panicking. But it was too late for my enemy; the horse crashed into NéNé causing another explosion and knocked out NéNé.

"You did good NéNé; all you had to do was take down one opponent!" I said. And I watched the enemy's 'Gallant' steed fall to the ground from the effects of destiny bond. We each zapped our pokemon back and sent out another. "Go Striker!" and my little aipom came out dancing all around.

"Let's go Ren!" Ammatemarru said while sending out a weasel pokemon. It had a yellow floaty device around its shoulders and was orange in color, and instead of the usual one tail it had two.

"Poliwhirl go attack that weasel with a body slam!" Poliwhirl ran up to the weasel pokemon and crashed into it, knocking the floatzel into a wall.

"Pachi, use thunderbolt and knock that poliwhirl out!" then the pachirisu gathered up electricity yet instead of as a beam it was fired as actual electricity and zapped my partner's poliwhirl out. Meghan zapped poliwhirl into its pokeball and sent out another.

"Go bayleaf!" and a yellow skinned dinosaur-like pokemon came out. It had a ring of leaves around its neck and also had a leaf on its head that appeared to be bitten. "Knock out that darn squirrel with an energy ball!" Bayleaf gathered energy and shot out a green gooey looking ball out of its mouth, when it hit pachirisu it popped and caused some heavy damage also knocking it out.

There, she had no pokemon left. This had to be her shadow pokemon unless she wasn't a part of team cipher, I thought in my head. I got my snag machine ready and when she sent out her pokemon it revealed a small blossom pokemon, my pokedex said it was a cherrim. But when I checked the scanner, to my surprise there was no shadow reading. "Hey, that isn't fair!" I yelled making my whole voice echo throughout the cave.

"What isn't?" she said smiling.

"You aren't letting us snag your shadow pokemon!" said Meghan.

"Unless, you're not really a part of team cipher…" and it finally dawned on me, this person was just battling us. "You had better not be wasting our time!" I began to get a little angry.

"Do you really want to know the truth?" she asked still smiling a mischievous smile.

"The hell do you mean by the truth?" I asked.

"I'm a part of team cipher and I'm an underage admin," she said cheerily.

"Continue…" I said getting irritated by her happy demeanor.

"But, I'm not with cipher!"

"WHAT!" I yelled at her. "How can you be with cipher and not be with cipher?!"

"Ok, I'm actually a spy hired by the indigo league to stop team cipher, due to my skills I got in as an admin!" she said a little too happily. Meghan just stared at the girl with utter hatred, as if she was going to strangle her. I was hurt that I was tricked and made a fool of.

////////////////////////////////////////////end///////////////////////////////

"So you made us battle for nothing?" I asked. "And you were probably the person who beat up those peons; you probably used a confusion technique to do it!" I yelled.

"Well I battled you to see if you were really worth snagging material and no I wasn't the person who beat up those peons, but the person who did that is undercover at the moment. So I'm not telling you who it is." She said.

"Well, can you at least show us if there are any shadow pokemon near the base?" asked Meghan.

"Well… There really weren't many brought over here because they didn't trust a young admin, but there were three and I gave one of them to the person who ransacked the base."

"You're no help at all…" I said getting annoyed with dealing with the girl. "Can you at least tell us what you and your undercover friend did to the peons?" I asked.

"Wait, Miguel," Meghan said. "What good is that question?"

"I think that your friend somehow encountered our friend Leon and I think he's in the exact same situation as those peons!" I said accusingly. "I think he put Leon into a coma!"

Then that wiped the smile off her face. She seemed to have a more worried look now, and that told me I hit the jack-pot. "That… I…" she trailed off.

"I'm waiting; I was planning to have a battle with him today!" I said angrily.

"How, could you!" she said to me. "You only concern yourself with him just because you were planning a stupid battle with him!" she said. "And for your information I don't know what happened to him…"

I had a feeling she was lying but I got impatient. "Let's go!" and I started to leave.

"Wait!" and she stepped forward. "I may not be sure about what happened but…"

"But WHAT?" I said yelling at her.

"I may be able to help." She said looking at me in the face.

Fred's view

When I got back to the headquarters I contacted the police force. I told them about what happened and I told them about the letter and that every single peon was knocked out. I told them exactly where it was as well. After that I was feeling a little run down so I decided to go rest at the pokemon center. I noticed Bill busy with developing a new machine and he nearby was the ancient text similar to the one in Pewter museum, it was the one from Cerulean cave. "Hey, Bill."

"Oh, how was the mission?" he asked.

"It was scary as hell!" I told him exactly what we found and what had happened.

"You're kidding." He said.

"No," Then I noticed my Prinplup walking by and I immediately went over to it to see how it was doing and also to praise it. "Hey, if you finish that, tell me, it may have something to do with that powerful pokemon that wiped out those peons."

"Sure," he answered.

I decided to check up on Leon. When I went into the room I smelled something that would've made you drop unconscious if you even sniffed it while you were sleepy. "Oh, hi Eve." I noticed that she had made the tea and was drinking it with her pokemon.

"Would you like some gloom-leaf tea?" she asked holding up a burgundy colored tea. "It's good for your health and it tastes good." She said. I decided to pour myself a cup and sat down.

"So," I began. "How's Leon?" I asked doubting he'd be alright.

"He's in a coma…" she said solemnly. I began to wonder if Leon had encountered that powerful pokemon as well. "They say Leon's not going to be recovered until two weeks and that's only if a miracle happens…" I thought of how the missions would go with one snagger missing, he'll just have to be replaced if things are going to go smoothly. "Well we'll just have to replace him somehow until he somehow gets stronger while he's sleeping…"

"That'll never happen…" she replied.

"I have some good news though," I said trying to cheer Eve up. "We found cipher's base in the cave and we captured every single member except for the admin." I said and she looked up. "Each and every one of them were… in a coma just like Leon," Eve started listening even more. "We also found out from a small note that they were attacked by a powerful pokemon," I said. "It is either that or someone used a confusion attack, but I think it's a legendary pokemon because of an ancient wall engraved with ancient text." Then all of a sudden the door flew open and in came Miguel, Meghan and one other person I didn't know.

"Oh my god is that gloom leaf tea?" said the girl who I did not know. She instantly walked over to the tea pot and poured herself some without our consent.

"You said you might be able to help us…" Miguel said impatiently.

"Don't worry," said the girl. Eve was getting a little annoyed at the guest who didn't even introduce herself and so was I. "I need to relax before I do anything first, and plus I said might."

"What is she here for?" asked Eve.

"Now where is Leon at?" asked the girl ignoring Eve's question. "Oh, sorry, I'm here to see if I can help Leon get out of his coma." Eve hesitated on whether or not she can trust a stranger but she pointed to where Leon was anyway. The girl went into Leon's room and we followed. "So this is Leon…" The bothersome girl said while taking something out from her pocket and putting her hand over Leon's forehead. She closed her eyes and grasped whatever she was holding in her left hand. I was beginning to wonder what this person was doing then all of a sudden her right hand started to glow.

Leon's view

I was getting tired of the cold battle field. I was still battling the damn Lunatone with just Ken. We were both worn out but the enemy just seemed like a tank, we couldn't take it down. "Ken use aura sphere!" He was weary but he still managed to concentrate some energy into the palm of his hand and shot it. The sphere made contact but didn't seem to do much against the darn moon.

"Are you giving up already?" asked Cecelia. "Maybe you aren't fit to be a snagger."

"SHUT UP!" I yelled. "I'll make you guys get me back home whether you like it or not! Ken use focus blast…" Ken began charging up the next shot in the snowy field and a reddish aura surrounded him.

"Use Icebeam!" she ordered. The lunatone charged up the beam of ice and directed at Ken, he was too tired to do any dodging and he was pretty much doing all the fighting. I didn't know what it was that made me do it but I think the snow sort of froze my brain into insanity. I leapt forward to take the shot and my right shoulder got frozen. I screamed in agony.

"Leon?!" Ken said astonished.

"Don't worry, if we beat them we'll get better, somehow." I said smiling like a madman. Ken jumped forward and he shot the blast directly in the lunatone's face causing significant damage but it wasn't enough to win. "Darn… it…"

"This kid has more spunk than I thought," said a familiar voice, but I was too tired and injured to see who it was but before I blacked out I noticed another figure in the crowd, talking to the old man in the highest thrown.

/////////////////////////end///////////////////////////////

When I woke up I saw a face beaming down on me. It was as if an angel had awakened me from a devastating nightmare. The person had black hair that went down to her shoulders and she had light-tan skin as well. She was wearing a blue sweater and blue jeans, which was pretty much expected since it was fall. Was that a dream that I had just experienced, or was it reality?

"Hey, sleeping handsome," the girl said. "Were you expecting a lovely knight in shining armor to give you a kiss or someone like me to just wake you up?" she asked in a teasing voice.

"I think I might've liked the lovely knight if it was a girl," I said jokingly. "Who are you?" I asked while yawning. Then I looked around and I saw Eve, Bill, Miguel, Fred and Meghan all staring at us with astonished faces.

"Oops, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Ammatemarru!" she said.

"Ammate-whatta?" I said trying to figure out what her name was.

"Just call me Ammy for short," she said giggling at the puzzled look on my face.

"I think that would be much easier, I'm-" I said but I was interrupted.

"Leon, I know," she said, and I was smiling at the new friend I obtained and everyone smiled back seeing me safe.

END

Chapter 8 – Prove it!

Cerulean city

3rd person view

Despite everyone's protest Leon was still itching for a battle, he and Miguel that is. They each had waited long enough to see the other's strength and were going to prove to the other who was better. "Leon, are you sure you're ok?" asked Eve.

"I told you already, I'm perfectly fine, now let me battle Miguel," Leon said as if he was a little boy.

"Eve, Leon's perfectly fine," said Ammy who was interested in watching the battle. "Thanks to me and your special tea he made a miraculous recovery, even the doctors say so!" Despite all this Eve was still a little worried about who attacked Leon and how.

"How did you heal him?" Eve asked.

"Uh… I… Uh…" Ammy said stuttering. "It's a… secret! Oh, hey well what do you know, the battle's starting!" She said quickly trying to change the subject. Eve still wanted to know but had let it slide and decided to go to the purification chamber to see if her Kirlia was anywhere near purification from all the tea and grooming she spent with it.

////////////////////////Trainer Leon/////////////////////////

//////////////////////////////Vs./////////////////////////////////

/////////////////////Trainer Miguel//////////////////////

"Let's make this a two on two match since I know you don't have a third pokemon," said Miguel.

"Who says I didn't get a new pokemon?" Leon said with glee.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he sent out Ace.

"Let's go Vibrava!" Leon said as he sent out his shadow-dragon-ground dragonfly pokemon. Miguel checked his shadow radar and it was a shadow pokemon.

"I thought Ammy gave that pokemon away to someone else…" Miguel said under his breath. Ammy too was puzzled as to why Leon had obtained the shadow pokemon but then she understood that her friend must have given it to him.

"Vibrava, start the match off with dragon breath!" Vibrava inhaled and exhaled a yellow colored breath filled with energy. But then he noticed that the enemy's intimidate ability took effect.

"Fly upwards!" Ace kicked up a gust of wind and began soaring above vibrava.

"Vibrava follow and keep firing with dragon breath!" Vibrava flew into the air and kept exhaling dragon breathes.

"Leave it behind and use agility!" Ace kept dodging the dragon breath attacks while spinning around and doing somersaults and began speeding up in doing so. "Now follow up with aerial ace!" The grey and white bird pokemon flew higher and higher than did a spiral bomb towards vibrava. The attack made impact and did some damage.

"Counter with faint attack!" Vibrava retaliated with the attack in midair and swiped tha enemy away doing just as much damage.

Ace was falling towards the ground at a fast rate but eventually regained balanced, but then both shadow pokemon began to glow with a visible red aura. "Oh, no," Miguel said panicked. "They're going into reverse mode!" Miguel said. "The only way to snap them out of it is to constantly call their name," So each trainer respectively kept calling their pokemon's name. Yet at the same time they were so high up trying to kill each other that they wouldn't listen.

"VIBRAVA!" yelled Leon. "SNAP OUT OF IT!"

"COME BACK TO YOUR SENSES ACE!" Miguel said yelling just as loudly. Then both pokemon began to calm down and the red aura faded.

"Let's attack with quick attack!" Leon yelled from far away.

"Do just the same!" Miguel said. And both pokemon sped up in an aerial battle trying to knock the other out of the skies. Both pokemon collided and both were still standing (flying) and charged again.

"Use dragon breath!"

"Blow the breath away with whirlwind!" Ace whipped up a gust of wind knocking vibrava off balance and blowing away the dragon breath.

"Dragon-" Leon started.

"You know what to do Ace." Miguel said. Ace whipped up a whirlwind like last time but…

"Pulse!" Leon said. Then vibrava began to glow with a blue aura and it shot the pulse directly at the bird strait through the gust of wind.

"What happened?" Miguel said. "It was supposed to get blown away!"

"Moves like dragon pulse aren't affected by the wind, its energy based, it can travel through mediums like air," Leon said sounding smart.

"How the hell do you know this?" Miguel asked.

"I have no idea…" Leon said beginning to wonder himself. "Ah, why am I wondering about this, vibrava use gust and try to knock it off balance!" Vibrava kicked up a gust of wind and started a small tornado heading towards Ace.

"Let's show them our secret technique Ace, BRAVE BIRD!" Then Ace began glowing with a blue light and it dove strait into the gust of wind.

"What?" Leon was amazed at how strong his opponent was. Then it came out onto the other side of the whirlwind and was heading strait to vibrava like a meteor. "Get out of the way!" Leon said panicked.

"There's no point in trying to dodge it when you're this close!" and Ace crashed directly into vibrava and sent it flying towards the ground.

"Vibrava you did great," Leon said while zapping his pokemon back before it had a crash landing. So Miguel had won round one.

Meanwhile, Eve had purified her Kirlia effortlessly. "Wow, you got purified so fast, I wonder if it's because of all the tea I gave you," Eve said delightedly.

"Kirlia, kir!" replied the Kirlia happily.

"Hey, Eve." Said Meghan walking into the room. "Why aren't you training like Miguel and Leon are?"

"Training isn't always the most important thing a trainer does," Eve said. "You have to bond with your pokemon as well."

"You sure that isn't some lame excuse?" said Meghan. "Why don't you battle me and prove to me that training isn't always best!" She said while getting ready for a battle.

/////////////////Trainer Eve//////////////////

//////////////////////Vs./////////////////////////

//////////////Trainer Meghan/////////////

"Let's make this a quick one-on-one battle, got it?" and both trainers sent out their respective pokemon. Meghan sent out her Bayleaf. Eve sent out her Kirlia. "Let's start this match off with razor leaf!" Then bayleaf shot out an array of razor sharp leaves flying towards Kirlia.

"Counter it with magical leaf!" Both sets of leaves crashed into each other and cancelled the others attacks. "Now use psychic!" Kirlia's horns began to glow and it then began to dance. After every twirl it made a blue aura grew around it. Then once it finished it was shot to bayleaf.

"Block it with light screen!" Meghan said and Bayleaf created a barrier of light surrounding itself that protected it from most of the psychic attack. However some of the attack got through. "Now use sunny day!" Bayleaf began glowing with a warm light and then it shot it upwards towards the sky as if it were fireworks.

"Imprison!" Then Kirlia began dancing once again and this time circles appeared around both Kirlia and bayleaf.

"What's happening?" Meghan asked with a baffled look on her face.

"This move prevents your bayleaf from doing any move that my Kirlia knows," Eve said. "And that's a lot of moves!" Then all of a sudden the circles floated and became absorbed by each pokemon.

"Let's go with solar beam!" Bayleaf's leaves began to glow with solar energy and then it shot a powerful beam at Kirlia.

"Kirlia use light screen just like bayleaf did," said Eve and Kirlia made a barrier of light not unlike the one that bayleaf used. It also minimized the damage that bayleaf would've caused and made the beam smaller once it passed through the barrier. "Now send over a shadow ball!" Kirlia created a ball of ghostly energy and shot the bomb-like attack at bayleaf.

"Use light screen!" But this time bayleaf didn't do a thing but stand there and take the hit. "Darn, this is how imprison works… Well let's make it up with vine whip!" then vines sprang out from bayleaf's neck and began to go after Kirlia.

"Take advantage of the sun light and use fire punch to drive the vines away!" Then Kirlia's hands began to blaze with a glorious flame and it begun spinning around and warded off the vines. It just kept dancing with the blazing hands with the vines dancing around it elegantly like a ballerina in a talent show.

"Darn it, get your vines back!" ordered Meghan who saw it useless trying to attack it like that.

"Now fire it with will ó wisp!" then Kirlia stopped spinning and aimed its burning hands at bayleaf and the fire turned blue, then it shot the ghostly wisps of ember and it hit bayleaf, causing it to become burnt.

"That won't work!" Meghan said as soon as bayleaf got burnt. "Use aromatherapy!" Then a breeze with fresh scents blew and instantly the fire cleared up. "See?" Meghan said showing off her skills.

"That's enough Meghan!" said a stern voice.

"Misty?" Meghan said. "Were you watching me win this battle?" she asked as the red-headed gymleader stepped into the scene.

"I was watching, and I admit you were doing really well, but as soon as Eve used imprison your loss was sealed!" Misty said. "Of all the things I forgot to teach you was how to quickly study an opponent's tactics and skills, I should've taught you that first." Misty said.

"What?" Meghan said while looking at Eve.

/////////////////////end///////////////////

"Eve has the ability to quickly bond and control all of her pokemon," Misty said while looking at Eve. "You are both equally matched if you had a full team battle but Eve's pokemon are a bit more on the safer side if they had to go on the long run, I'm sorry I didn't train you hard enough," Misty said. "From this day on I'll devote my training to yours until you become an expert!" Misty said towards her student.

"Thank you Misty," Said Meghan. "I'm sorry Eve, for misjudging you…" Meghan said. "But from this day on I'll get even better and better and someday I'll be nowhere near your level!" Meghan said as she began to walk towards Misty's mansion.

"Well I'll be busy training against cipher so maybe I'll be way past your level by the time we battle again." Yelled Eve good-naturedly. Misty walked away knowing how great her student will become and how greatly that rival of Meghan's will push her. Eve decided to go take a break in the pokemon center.

Cerulean city pokemon center

Meanwhile Fred and Bill were busy trying to figure out what the ancient text meant while using Bill's newly invented translator. Fred was expecting for the machine to be done around half an hour ago, so he was pretty impatient on what the text said. "Bill, can't you go any faster!" Fred yelled. "I want to find out if there's any new legendary pokemon to be discovered!"

"Well have patience!" Bill snapped. "I'm not a robot just because I'm smart!" He said while trying to pick up a ratchet. "But it couldn't have been a legendary since Amy said her friend did it…" That part seemed to stump Fred. He began to literally pull at his hair just trying to think of what the text says.

"Well, maybe Amy's friend caught the legendary and used it on Leon and they want to keep it a secret so team cipher won't try to catch it!" Fred said enthusiastically. "That works!"

"But why would he attack Leon with a legendary?" Bill said while putting on the final screw.

"Maybe he thought Leon was a cipher peon and attacked him!" Fred said. He seemed oblivious to what Bill was doing with his machine due to the fact that he was consumed by the mystery.

"But don't all cipher peon's dress the same?" asked Bill as he pushed a button on the machine.

"Maybe he thought he was a new a new recruit!" Fred said.

"Oh, whatever." Bill said. "I give up!"

"What? No, you can't give up when I'm like this!" Fred whined. "You have to finish the machine or I'll go crazy!"

"Oh, I gave up on trying to argue with you, not on finishing the machine," Bill said relieving Fred. "Besides, I'm already done and it's already halfway done processing the information."

"Why didn't you tell me then?" asked Fred.

"You didn't give me chance," Bill said smiling. Bill hooked the machine up to his computer and it began to show up in English on the computer. They each looked curiously at the computer to see what it said.

On the computer the text said: In an age advanced in technological tools and warfare, there shall be a disease that will threaten to plague the entire earth. A disease caused from a holy entity that had once loved the earth. Will cause devastation and suffering to the worlds that the gods love and adore, it will even cause the warriors of the gods to become sick unless a soldier or more created by the gods in the form of the contaminators will descend upon the earth and will have that as their only destiny.

"What the hell is this?" Fred asked. "This sounds like a load of religious shit…"

"Well most ancient people make these texts out of religion!" Bill said annoyed. "And maybe there's a knew legendary pokemon out there that will somehow strike down cipher, maybe even more." Said Bill.

"Wait you actually believe this stuff?" asked Fred.

"Well, if it's true then that's most likely what this means, I mean legendaries are really intelligent pokemon that often help us humans out, so maybe a new legendary pokemon will awaken and strike down cipher!" Bill said.

"Well whatever it is we should tell everyone else…" Fred said while giving a letter to each of his pokemon and told them all to give it to any one that he knows. "Well that should take care of that!" Fred said as he went to go to his room at the police department.

Meanwhile Leon and Miguel were continuing their battle. Leon had sent out his small eevee while Miguel had aipom on his side. Each was a normal type pokemon and both were fast and tricky. "I won't let you win this round!" Leon said.

"Let's start this match off with Bounce!" then striker ran and jumped high into the air and was pretty much out of sight.

"Well, let's take advantage of this attack and use double team!" then many doubles of eevee were created around where the original one was. "Now dig before it hits the ground!" Then the eevee clones burrowed underground.

"Hey, that isn't fair!" Miguel said.

"You could've done the same…" Leon said as he watched the aipom helplessly fall into one of the eevee holes. "Now eevee attack it with iron tail continuously until it gets out of the hole!" Then underground you could see a flashy white light and random noises representing aipom getting hit.

Miguel had a feeling that either the real eevee was in that hole or that the holes were connected, so either way he could attack the whole area. Miguel listened for the next time striker got hit, he really wanted to get out of the situation. Then he heard it and he knew what to do; "Striker use counter!" he said.

"Darn it," Leon said as he watched the ground dis-shape. The aipom called striker tossed eevee right through the ground causing all doubles to disappear and creating significant damage. "Eevee are you ok?"

"Yeah, I can finish that guy off. that did hurt though…" said the eevee to his trainer.

"Now eevee, if you want revenge let's finish this battle off with our last resort!" Ordered Leon.

"Come one Leon!" yelled Ammy who was intently watching with all of her pokemon, which was sakura (cherrim), Gallant (ponyta), Ren (floatzel), Pachi (pachirisu). Some were cheering for Leon and some for Miguel. All of the noise however was slightly distracting Leon. Eevee did however manage to use last resort. The attack caused stars not unlike those of swift to float around eevee. Then the eevee began to smile with a malicious smile, which was quite unsettling on a cute eevee. "I guess this eevee likes to battle," said Ammy. "It looks kinda cute with a face like that…"

"What kind of attack is that…" wondered Miguel as he watched the eevee prepare for an attack. He began to panic as if trying to see what to do, a protect would've been too weak for an attack like last resort but it was too late. Eevee and its million stars made contact with aipom. When it did the stars flashed and began to make cuts upon aipom fur and once the stars evaporated eevee charged into aipom with a warm star-like light and made aipom go flying across the battle field. So Miguel had lost round 2.

"So it's down to round three to decide who wins, huh?" Asked Ammy intently watching. Leon and Miguel stared at each other.

"I haven't had this good of a battle in a while…" said Miguel.

"I'll remember this as one of my first rival battles!" said Leon and each stared fiercely into the other's eyes. "Hey Ammy think you can wish me and Ken good luck?" Leon asked.

"Sure, good luck," Ammy said. "Not that I think you need any luck" she said confidently.

"Wish I had someone to cheer me and my pokemon on…" Miguel said as he got ready to send NéNé out. Then as soon as they were about to toss their respective pokemon and the pokeball was basically at the tips of their fingers. Then suddenly a blazing ball of fire interrupted both trainers causing each of them to fall face front onto the ground.

"Oh, hello there quilava!" said Ammy. "You really had a dynamic entry right there," she said while picking up the mail from quilava. She read it aloud. "Everyone, whenever you're done with whatever you are doing please report to the pokemon center and Bill will tell you on what we found out on the ancient text…" after she said that last word she began to trail off. "Well why don't we finish this battle first?" asked Ammy. So both trainers sent out their remaining pokemon.

"So we're finally battling Miguel?" said Ken as he materialized. And to Miguel's surprise he was a lucario.

"Bé-nette-Bé?" asked the banette as if asking the same things that Ken had just asked. And Leon also had a confused look on his face when he saw the Banette.

"NéNé, this is going to be a fight to be remembered!" said Miguel. "Let's start this match off with a screech!" then NéNé blasted a loud sound wave that made Leon clench his ears tightly.

"LET'S COUNTER THIS WITH METAL SOUND!" Leon yelled over the screech and Ken made a triumphant roar of his own which seemed to be more of a nuisance than an actual battle at the moment. "Follow this up with shadow ball!" Ken gathered a shadow ball in his hand and shot it towards NéNé.

"Let's counter it with ours!" NéNé did the same except it came from its mouth. The two attacks made a small explosion and lifted dust up fogging up the trainers' vision. "Use shadow sneak!" and NéNé dove into the shadows without Leon's or Ken's knowing.

"Let's use foresight to find out where it is!" Ken closed his eyes in the dusty field of grass instantly saw a shadow moving in the ground.

"There!" Ken said as he gathered light into the palm of his hands. When NéNé popped out he shot the aura sphere yet to his surprise it didn't hit it, it passed strait through it!

"What happened?" Leon said astonished. "Aura sphere isn't supposed to miss!" he said as NéNé swiped at Ken while he was unguarded.

"Fighting type attacks can't hurt pokemon like NéNé which are ghost type!" Miguel said as the dust cleared up. "Now use shadow claw and knock towards the sky!" and NéNé uppercutted the fighting type pokemon.

"Ken hang in there!" Leon said trying to think of what to do.

"Now keep using pursuit and keep it in the air!" Miguel said keeping his rival at bay. NéNé just kept swiping at Ken in the middle of the air with Ken helpless of doing anything.

"Use Dark Pulse!" Ken curled up and a dark sphere surrounded him while NéNé was attacking him. Then he uncurled and many small black spheres knocked NéNé aside causing Ken to fall gracefully to the ground. "Now follow this up with a blaze Kick!" Ken's feet caught fire and he dashed towards the ghost quickly and got ready to kick it.

"Get rid of it with sucker punch!" Then NéNé dodged the attack and punched Ken out of the way.

"Use stone edge!" Ken pointed towards the earth and sharp edged rocks sprung forth, then he pointed to NéNé as if ordering the rocks to attack it.

"Dodge it with double team!" And NéNé split into various clones, and the stones nearly stopped.

"You think that'll work with Ken's foresight?" Leon asked as he knew that the attack would've hit regardless.

"Darn…" Miguel complained as he watched NéNé get stabbed and scratched by the rocks. "Thunderbolt!" and NéNé gathered up electricity around its body and fired it towards Ken.

"Oh, yeah?" Leon said with a smile. "Water pulse!" Then a ring of light formed around NéNé and shot water upwards while it was still conducting electricity, which surprised Miguel and NéNé. Both pokemon seemed to be very tired from the attacks that they threw at each other.

"Let's finish this match off with a shadow claw!" yelled Miguel as NéNé already began to gather up energy into his left claw.

"Well, Me first!" Leon yelled as Ken began to imitate what NéNé had done. They each lunged forwards to the other pokemon and both clawed at each other causing both pokemon to stumble backwards. "Use dragon pulse!" and Ken began to glow with a blue aura and he shot the blast out as a dragon's head.

"Send it back with psychic!" And NéNé glowed with a blue aura as well but this shot took shape as a random shot. Both pokemon were pretty close to each other so the attacks collided quickly and caused a loud explosion. When the dust cleared both pokemon were down and unconscious so the match ended as a draw.

end

"Wow," Ammy said impressed. "I didn't expect to see draw…"

"Well that was a nice match," Leon said panting for air due to all the suspense.

"Maybe we should take them to the pokemon center." He said while looking at his partners.

"And see if our shadow pokemon can be purified," Leon said. "Wait didn't the letter say we had to go to the center anyway and check up on Bill?"

"Yeah we should,"

"You coming, Ammy?" Leon asked looking back.

"Yeah, sure," she said sounding not to pleased.

Cerulean city pokemon center

After Leon and Miguel healed their pokemon they looked for Bill who was in the main lobby. "Hey, Bill what did you want?" Leon asked.

"Well me and Fred deciphered what the text on the wall said," Bill said explaining the situation. "But we have no idea what it means," Then Misty walked into the well polished center who apparently got the invitation as well. The room was pretty much empty for Bill's purpose of research.

"You guys are all here?" Misty said as she watched Eve walking down the stairs into the lobby. "Well I may as well give you your badges for helping out and give you guys you next mission when Bill's done explaining things." Misty said looking around the empty room; she seemed kind of sleepy due to the fact that it was night time.

Then Bill showed everyone the computer. Leon however couldn't read due to the fact that he was an orphan, but this time someone else spoke up.

"I'm sorry, I can't read this…" Ammy said.

"What?" Bill shouted. "You're looking at the computer right?" he asked.

"I was an orphan and I really didn't go to school…" she said. Then he understood what the case was and read the text out loud and Leon couldn't get all of it so he looked at the wall and actually tried to read it.

When Leon read the text on the wall he understood it completely for some reason. Everyone else was discussing things and then started to ask Ammy all of these complicated questions. "I'm sorry; I told you all I'm not allowed to answer these questions!" Ammy said beginning to yell.

"But this actually might help us find out how to get rid of cipher!" Bill said beginning to pressure Ammy.

"But… I was told not to tell anyone of this!" Ammy said running out the door towards Cerulean cape.

"Ammy, wait!" Leon said seeing what had just happened. "Look, if she said she can't help then she can't help!" Leon said angered. "The people she works with are good, I battled the person and he helped me evolve Ken!" He said raising his voice. "I don't get their full intentions but I think they're trying to somehow help us!" Leon said running out the door and began looking for Ammy.

Leon's view

Cerulean cape

I don't know what drove me to say what I said back there or why I'm even trying to help this stranger I just met but for some reason it just all happened. I saw that girl, Ammy standing at the edge of the cape looking out towards the sea. She seemed to be crying alone as if she had no one but herself to be with. It hurt me as well to see my savior to be pained. "It's ok," I said calling out to her, she seemed to stiffen up. "I know how it feels to be alone…" I said remembering how miserable my life could've been if I had never met Reeve.

"How would you know!" she snapped at me looking back. "How it feels to have no friends, no family, no one to take care of you, no one to love you…" she said trailing off.

"Because," I said. "I'm just like you… I started off alone…" She turned back and we looked into the other's face, we each had tired and empty eyes.

"Oh," was all she said. "I never would've thought…" she said.

"If I never met Reeve," I said. "I probably would've been some thief in the saffron streets or something…" I said remembering the day I met the old man. "It was a pretty cold winter night, I was freezing and starving out of my mind," She listened intently; at least I caught her attention. "So I decided to pick on an old man… Not exactly the most honorable thing to do…" I said while envisioning the flash-back in my head. "I had a knife with me so I lunged at him, I would've killed him to if he didn't look back at me," I said remembering the old man's eyes. "He said 'Put the knife down, you don't seem to be the type who'd do something like that…' I replied so what! I'm hungry, cold and starving! If you don't give me all of your money I'll kill you!"

"…" Ammy had nothing to say so I continued.

"He said to me 'Look, I won't give you any money, but if you come to my house I'll get something prepared; besides' He said. 'I don't have enough money with me to feed you.' When he said those words I just looked at him shocked, no one's ever shown me any kindness before. I just stood there holding the knife up but my hand began to quiver, I didn't know what to do. Most people I saw in the streets just looked at me whenever I begged for anything…" I said glad to meet Reeve.

"He sounds like a really kind guy, that Reeve…" Ammy said showing that she was listening to me.

"Well I decided to follow but I still didn't want to trust Reeve at first and I had my knife ready," I said. "He noticed how nervous I was and he told me to relax, when I stepped into his house it felt like I was in a whole different world, it was so warm and cozy in the room that I nearly fell asleep once the door closed," I looked at Ammy again and she seemed to have stopped crying. "He gave me all this food and I just didn't know where to start, so I thanked him right away… Then after I finished eating I didn't know why but I felt tired, I don't know if it was from the food or the warmth or even the dreamlike event but I just collapsed once I was about to open the door and leave." I said nostalgically. "So that's how me and him met, he changed my life, I just started being friends with him and it just happened…" Then I looked at her. "What's your story, how'd you meet Xarid?"

"Well, at first I started out in a foster home and I can't remember much before that," she said starting off hesitantly. "I got tired of being bumped from foster home to foster home and some of them were even abusive…" she said quietly, "Then I got sick and tired of it, everyone telling me what and what not to do, bossing me around, telling me to be grateful and all that, but I never liked anyone I met so I ran away…" I listened. "I was somewhere in Celadon city and so most of the places were clean and shiny but I took to the allies. There I hid from the police that tried searching for me, but why would they look hard for some orphan who nobody ever cared about?" Ammy said with spite. "So they quickly gave up, and I was free to do whatever I wanted, but…" she said pausing. "It wasn't as great as I thought it would've been, I had no food, it was cold at night, and I had nowhere to go when it rained or snowed." She said wondering whether or not she should go on.

"Go on…" I said encouragingly.

"Well that's when I met Xarid; I was pretty much on the brink of despair when I accidentally trespassed onto a persian's territory. I was in a dark alley and the Persian was threatening to kill me, I noticed that I was right next to its stash of shiny stuff and it lunged at me, I didn't care whether or not I was going to die so I didn't do anything." Her voice began to struggle making sounds.

"If you want to stop go ahead…" I said understanding what she had been through.

"No, I'll keep going. I just stood there looking at the cat and I thought I was going to die when all of a sudden someone shot a hyperbeam at the persian. I was too scared to look up and I just hoped for everything to be over with. Xarid looked at me and said "I'll take you in if you want to live," And I didn't know what to do, no one ever did anything like that for me. "If you want to stay out here in this alley way it's fine by me but most people prefer warmer places." I just looked at his worn out clothing, they looked worse than mine," she chuckled. "I decided to give life one last chance since someone decided to keep me alive. He nursed me back to health but we never really bonded or anything. He started having me train pokemon and that's how I got my ponyta, then he began to have me do these missions like spying on people, I didn't know what it was for but I found out that it had to do with cipher." I listened. "So I've been working since this day to help repay my debt and if I told anyone what he was doing, I'd feel like I'm betraying him." She said. "He's the only person who actually showed concern for me and then after all these years of knowing him he finally tells me that he once knew my mother…" she said. Then she pulled a necklace out, it had a small object symbolizing the sun. "This is all I have to even think about her…" she said staring at her necklace and just looking at the necklace caused me to remember something that I had, and I pulled it out.

"Funny, we have something else in common," I said as I pulled out a necklace of mine, it head an object symbolizing a crescent moon. "I've had this necklace from as long as I could remember, I treasure it closely and I've never shown this to anyone else, but I've yet to meet my parents either." I said while feeling my eyes stinging.

"So we really do have something in common…" Ammy said softly.

"I know!" I said trying to change the mood of the conversation. "After we finish this whole fight with cipher we'll look for our parents together!" I said enthusiastically. "And I won't give up until I find my parents and yours!"

"Really?" she said emotionally. "Thank you, so much…" Then she began to get closer to my face with a funny look, as if something funny was sticking out of it.

"Huh, is there something on my face?" I said raising both of my hands to my cheek trying to wipe something off.

Then she mumbled something I couldn't hear but I decided to forget about it. "No, there's nothing on your face anymore…" she said tired. Then all of a sudden eevee just sprang out of his pokeball.

"Hey, boss!" said the tiny pokemon. "Who's this, she seemed like she was about to use a bite attack on your face, want me to get rid of her!" Eevee said protectively of me.

"Oh, you're so cute, protecting Leon like that!" Ammy said while getting ready to pet eevee. "Don't worry, I'm a friend of Leon's, I'm not going to bite anyone." She said completely understanding what eevee said.

"Is this true?" asked eevee.

I felt slightly annoyed at what eevee had just done and said but I couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry eevee; she saved me from sleeping too long!" I said reassuringly.

"She's a friend, then that means I have a better reason to get stronger if there are more people to protect!" said my heroic eevee.

"I have an eevee too, but right now she's sleeping, she doesn't like the night-time." She said pointing to a pokeball, but her eevee just popped out on her own as well.

"Hey, who's this sharp looking eevee?" said Ammy's eevee who began to observe my evee.

"Hey, I thought you didn't like night time." Ammy said picking on her eevee.

"This is my eevee," Then I got a little annoyed at the naming similarities. "Why don't we give out eevees nicknames?" I suggested.

"Sure, whatever you want boss," said my eevee.

"Well since you always seem to make your appearances in the dark, why not Dusk?" I suggested.

"Hmm, normally I'd say whatever but I kinda like the sound of that…" said eevee aka Dusk.

"Well since you always seem to wake up at the crack of Dawn I think I'll name you Dawn!" Said Ammy.

"I like that too!" said Dawn the eevee.

Then I suddenly remembered that everyone was waiting for us. "Shoot, Ammy everyone's waiting for us at the pokemon center!" I said running back to Cerulean city with Dusk trailing behind me. "Are you coming?" I asked waiting for her.

"Sure, I want to know where you're headed, just in case I need anyone to cheer me up!" she said happily.

Cerulean center

When I got back to the pokemon center it was empty. "Darn, I didn't realize I was talking to you that long…" I said noticing a note on the counter.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to occupy your time, I was planning on getting away from you guys remember?" she said with a smile. I read the note and beside was a small pouch with something in it. "Darn, I can't read this…" I said looking in the pouch, and inside was the cascade badge. I did notice the word pouch, badge, mission, and Misty's name. "Wow, I guess I was supposed to get this, I'll just get my mission briefing tomorrow…"

"Well, I guess I'll see you later then…" Ammy said walking away and out the door.

"I'll see you someday soon, and don't forget, I will help you find your parents someday!" I said going back to Misty's mansion to get some sleep.

End

Chapter 9 (Note: a trainer can understand their own pokemon if they have developed a strong bond towards each other, Leon is one exception, he can understand any pokemon)

Eve's view

Vermillion city

I couldn't believe Leon would just run after someone he just met like that. Ammy did save him but she still seems a little shady. I decided to call Leon to at least make sure he made it back to the mansion. [Hello…] Leon said quite groggily. "Hey, where were you yesterday?!" I yelled. "Everyone was worried!" [Darn it, Eve you don't have to yell, I just decided to make friends with Ammy, that's all and don't worry I just found out what and where I have to go from Misty… She yelled at me too.] "Well than at least try to call us and tell us you're ok, we're friends too!" I said getting irritable. [Sorry, but there was nothing to worry about, oh and my Vibrava just got purified, I'm naming her Vivia!] Leon said enthusiastically. "What ever, just do your mission right and help Miguel out if he needs it, ok?" [Sure, whatever! You can count on me!] He said a little sagaciously. Then I hung up after we said bye. I looked around. I was in the port city of Vermillion, it had a nice view of the ocean and the beaches were beautiful. The ocean sparkled with the sunset as I had just made it into Vermillion city. I knew where the gym was but Lt. Surge the gym leader of this city was someone who I wasn't exactly acquainted with. He was supposedly a gruff American and he was somewhat intimidating from what I heard. I stepped in front of the gym and walked in. The gym had uncharged electric walls for gym battles, it made you feel as if you were a prisoner who specialized in torture. Then I saw a man in an air force jacket and camo colored pants walk in from one of the doors in the gym. He had an arrogant smile on his face that made him look as if he thought he had power over all, and he had spiky blond hair that would rival a jolteon's fur. "Excuse me, but do you know where I can find the gym leader here?" I asked quietly.

"What? You're going to have to speak up, I don't think I heard what you just said kid!" said the man with a booming voice.

"I said, do you know where the gym leader is?" I said clearly this time.

"What!"

"I SAID, TELL ME WHERE THE GYMLEADER IS!" I yelled losing my patience with the man.

"I thought that's what you said," That sentence hurt me hard. "I can't believe you don't know who I am!" he said annoyed. "I'm the gymleader of Vermillion city, a.k.a. The Lightning American!" He said raising his fist into the air. "I'm Lt. Surge!"

"Oh, you're Surge…" I said getting slightly intimidated by Surge's booming demeanor.

"It's Lt. Surge to you!" He corrected me. "What the hell do you want anyway?" he said brusquely.

"I'm Eve, I'm here to help drive off team cipher," I said proudly.

"Wait, you're the snagger sent here?" The Lt. asked in disbelief. "I was expecting someone with more muscle or spunk, or at least more respect for a gym leader like me!" He said arrogantly.

"Well, you're going to have to deal with what you've got!" I yelled back at him getting impatient, for some reason he got me angry pretty quickly.

"How about this, if you defeat one of my students in this gym, I'll consider letting you help protect my city!" He said while immediately drawing out a phone. He chatted on the phone pretty quickly without waiting for a response from me. "Ok, your opponent will be arriving shortly," Surge said with that aggravating smile of his.

"You should've at least waited for an answer to see if I wanted to battle first!" I said quite annoyed.

"Is that a sign of withdrawal?" The American said challengingly.

"Definitely NOT!" I retorted. I didn't have to wait too long to see my opponent. The person was a female around my age and she was a brunette. Her hair wasn't exactly long and she also seemed to be of an American heritage. But I realized I knew who this person was, it was a childhood friend of mine. "Savannah?" I said recognizing my friend.

"Oh, Eve?" Asked the person who had just entered the room. "You're my opponent?" My old friend stared at me in disbelief just as how Lt. Surge had. I met this person when I was around six when she had just moved from America to Kanto.

"You're a gym trainer to this guy?" I asked looking at my old friend.

"Oh, him," Savannah said blatantly. "He's my uncle, it's free if I train under him," Savannah said smiling.

"Savannah, come on!" Said her tough uncle. "Don't you wanna make your uncle proud?"

"Sorry uncle, I'll get serious now," then she faced me. "I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're my friend," She said getting out her pokeball and tossing it into the air.

///////////////Trainer Eve////////////////

/////////////////////Vs.//////////////////////

//////////Trainer Savannah//////////

"Let's make this a two-on-two double battle!" Eve said confidently.

"Sure," she said as a steel-electric type pokemon popped out of its pokeball and a pokemon resembling a chicken that seemed to be of the grass and fighting type. "Meet my magneton and breloom!" Savannah said proudly. "This breloom has been with me for a long time!"

"Well then I'll use gloom and togetic!" I said while drawing out both of my pokemon. Then all of a sudden the walls began to get charged with electricity. "What's going on?" I asked puzzled.

"This is part of the gym's field; every gym has some type of field advantage!"

"Togetic use flamethrower!" I ordered. Then togetic inhaled a breath of fire and got ready to exhale. "Gloom use solar beam and take advantage of the light!" gloom began to gather light energy.

"Try to dodge the attacks!" Savannah commanded her pokemon. Then my little angel pokemon spewed out a breath of fire and my flower pokemon almost instantaneously blasted a beam of light, the fire attack was heading towards the breloom and it dodged the attack by taking a sidestep to the right and the blazing attack made contact with the electric wall and caused and explosion. The explosion caused the breloom to get knocked forward while the beam of light was heading strait towards it.

"Magneton, block the solar beam with a light screen!" then the three-orbed pokemon shielded its ally with a wall of light causing the beam to minimize in power and size. "Now use tri-attack!" Each of the three heads on the magneton began to become surrounded by different kids of energy, one hot red, one icy blue, and one electric yellow. Then the attack was shot towards Togetic.

"Togetic, use safeguard!" The attack made contact with togetic but any added affects were negated. "Let's take advantage of the field with a shock wave!" Then togetic began draw electricity from around its body and sent the attack towards breloom shocking it.

"Darn it, this attack isn't going to stop!" Savannah said panicked. "Magneton use your zap cannon!"

Then all of a sudden I remembered how lethal that attack was and I realized it would be more lethal in a stage like this. "Togetic, stop the attack and use protect, you two gloom!" Both of my pokemon created a green barrier around their self as the steel type pokemon shot the powerful attack at them, and when it made contact the barrier didn't shatter but the attack caused a major explosion causing the electric walls to become precarious.

"Breloom attack them with mach punch NOW!" The grass type pokemon leapt out from the clouds of smoke and socked gloom to the electric walls.

"GLOOM!" I said as I began to panic.

"Now follow the attack up with thunderpunch!" The breloom gathered electricity in its right fist and was about to pound gloom back into the electric wall.

"Use follow me!" then togetic leapt in front of gloom and flew away taunting the enemy into attacking it.

"Hey, wrong target!" Savannah said as she watched her pokemon disobey orders.

As soon as the breloom was about to attack togetic I gave another order. "Togetic use double team!" And instead of hitting togetic it hit an illusion.

"Magneton use thunderbolt and try to find the right togetic!" each two magnets on the magneton charged up electricity and blasted it all out randomly, in vain trying to shock togetic.

"Gloom use ingrain!" and gloom planted roots going through the concrete floor restoring some health.

"I can't seem to land a hit…"

"Now use sunny day, gloom!" I was getting more and more confident by the minute. And gloom shot an artificial sun towards the ceiling of the arena making the whole room shine with artificial sun light. "Now Togetic use flamethrower and gloom use solarbeam again!" This time the many clones of togetic inhaled and exhaled an attack that heated up the whole room and caused the opponent to not know where to dodge and gloom instantly shot the beam of light this time without having to wait.

"Darn it…" Savannah said as both of her pokemon were staying still as if trapped by a mean look, causing them to be attacked and then faint.

////////end/////////

"That was a shocking turn of events," Lt. Surge said lamely. Then he handed me something. "It's the thunder badge, it boosts your pokemon's speed." He began and I looked at the small yellow object. "But according to some recent reports there have been known to be extra added affects in special circumstances depending on the badge…" He said beginning to talk to himself.

"Thanks, I guess…" I said.

"Oh, Lieutenant how is Eve going to help around the city anyway?" Savannah asked.

"She's going to help Yellow attack team cipher at this end of diglett's tunnel. I think that would be all." Lt. Surge said.

"Sounds like an easy mission," I said.

"Easy or not, you're never going to get the job done tomorrow if you don't get some rest, so I'll show you where you'll be staying." He led me to an empty room with a single bed in it.

"This is a crappy guest room…" I said.

"Hey, I wasn't expecting to have anyone but my niece staying with me when I had this gym remodeled!" he yelled.

"Thanks anyway," I said while going outside to use the healing machine inside the gym. Once I finished I went back inside my room. And sent out all of my pokemon to get some room.

Yay, we won the battle! said my bright angel pokemon flying up and down frantically.

Yawn, that battle was tiring… said my mild natured gloom.

"You both did great! And tomorrow, Kirlia's going to help us battle too." I said beginning to groom each of my pokemon after the fantastic skills they displayed in the battle.

The next day in Vermillion city

Wakie, wakie

"Ugh…" I said while feeling a weak breeze of wind on my face.

You know you want to! I attempted to swat whatever it was that was trying to wake me up with a pillow.

Isn't it time to get ready for today's mission asked a calmer voice. Upon hearing that I instantly got up and got ready for the day.

Hey, gloom said my Togetic around an hour after I got ready.

Yeah? answered my gloom.

Why do humans take so long just to get ready for the day? Asked my togetic while floating beside me.

I don't know, why do you take so long to get ready? my gloom asked. I chuckled.

"Well it's because us humans like to feel nice and well groomed, that's why I groom you guys too sometimes!" I responded while walking to the port to see the sites. I looked towards the sea; the sun was in broad day-light. I must have been sleeping for a while. "The ocean looks beautiful!"

Too bad none of us knows how to swim, said my Kirlia.

"Yeah, but we should get ready for our mission." I said walking to the gym.

Vermillion gym

"Eve, are you ready for the mission yet?" The Lt. asked.

"Uh, yeah we're heading to diglett's tunnel where Yellow's team is herding the cipher group to us, right?" I said making sure.

"Good, I see that you understand the mission so I guess we should head over there right now, Yellow's already started," He said walking off with his gym trainers to diglett's tunnel.

Diglett's tunnel

The place seemed to look pretty dark and dank once I looked around, it was also crawling with small little pokemon that had their heads sticking out of holes. They were small and brown with a pink-ish nose, I guess they were digletts. Then I heard a boom coming from deeper into the tunnel and I saw team cipher running towards us with their shadow pokemon. "Get ready for a brawl!" Lt. Surge yelled.

I've heard of brawls, they're really different from normal pokemon battles, ancient people had used this style of battling and it's still used today for war purposes. "I really don't like this…" I said reluctantly sending out all of my pokemon.

Gah, what in the world is this?! yelled my Kirlia upon seeing the chaotic scene.

It's party time! yelled my togetic upon seeing the numerous amount of people and pokemon.

Is this some kind of battle? asked my gloom.

"Unfortunately yes, and I think they picked the wrong person for this mission…" I said beginning to lose confidence within myself. Then I noticed Lt. Surge do something crazy, he was in the middle of a battle with an admin, and not just any admin, Rocky! And his gym trainers put up four pillars making a square shaped ring of electricity around them. "That man is barbaric!"

What in the world are we supposed to do? asked Kirlia.

We're here to paaaaaaaaaaartyyyyyyyyyyy! yelled togetic.

Do we just attack anyone who's in some crazy outfit? gloom asked.

"Frankly, that's the way to put it…" Then my shadow radar started beeping, I turned to my left and I saw a girl using a shadow ninetales. "Come on, Kirlia use shadow ball on that ninetales!" Kirlia shot the shadow ball towards the fox's nine tails, and it exploded right on it.

"Who did that!" said it's trainer looking directly at me.

"Now gloom use stun spore on them all!" Gloom shot a yellow colored powder towards its enemies but something got in the way. It had used will ó wisp to cancel out the attack.

I don't like fire… said Gloom with a panicked voice.

"Togetic use safeguard and protect gloom!"

YAY! Time to show off my moves! and Togetic got in the way of the fire without getting burnt. But then someone shot something at togetic knocking him to the floor. It was a rock type pokemon this time, and it seemed to have come from the electric cage that Rocky and Surge were in.

"That was ancient power!" I yelled noticing the attack. And Rocky smiled knowing that he had at least hit an unintentional target.

"Let's take advantage of this and use heat wave!" and Ninetales exhaled a strong gust of fire attacking everyone in the tunnel. I noticed random blasts of electricity shocking many other trainers but I also noticed shadow attacks hoarding other trainers as well, it was an extremely chaotic scene.

"Gloom let's use Petal dance and go crazy!" And gloom sent out sharp and colorful petals damaging any of her opponents that got in her way. "Togetic use silver wind!" Togetic flapped his wings and sent shiny gusts of wind to his enemies. "And Kirlia use psychic!" Kirlia began twirling and sent psychic attacks to any of her nearby enemies. But the enemy kept on retaliating with attacks such as heat wave or ancient power or shadow attacks and damaged our team.

I don't think I like this party anymore… said togetic.

We never were partying! Responded Kirlia. Then that's when I noticed the enemy's ninetales get tired, so I decided to catch it while it was still down. I tossed the snag ball that was glowing in my snag machine and it swallowed up the ninetales. The ball shook once then twice and it ended with a PING, signifying that the ninetales was now mine. I decided to go against on sending the pokemon out fearing that it would turn against me.

"Yo!" Surge yelled towards me. "If you want to retreat go ahead, we've already caught most of the enemy!" Yet Surge was still in the electric cage battling Rocky who was using an aerodactyl. It was a large pterodactyl-like pokemon that was of the rock type and flying as well. However it didn't seem to be able to move in that cramped up cage. "This guy doesn't have any shadow pokemon with him for some reason so go whenever you need to!"

I was relieved how there were very few shadow pokemon in this battle, everyone either captured a cipher member and arrested them and took their shadow pokemon or they had none. "So do you guys still want to leave?" I asked my pokemon.

I can still battle! answered my faithful gloom. So I decided to stay with gloom but I recalled Kirlia and Togetic.

"Well let's use razor leaf and get rid of these scumbags!" I yelled and gloom sent leaves towards the remaining cipher peons but then someone came running in.

"HELP!" said the pedestrian. "Some people are stealing some of Vermillion's ships! And they're also stealing the parts for the purification machine for this city!" Yelled the panicked man. "And we have no one to stop them!"

"What?!" Yelled Surge. "What the hell are those sailors doing then?!"

"Uh… Most of them seem to be over here or they were imposters…" answered the guy. Then I noticed Rocky smiling with pleasure.

"Use earthquake!" and Aerodactyl stomped on the ground and caused everyone to lose balance and caused the electric cage to deactivate. "Now rock slide!" he yelled as he hopped onto his pokemon and went to seal off the entrance.

"RUN!" Surge yelled but I didn't need an order to know what to do I zoomed to the exit along with gloom and made it out and watched as Rocky flew away once more. The rest of the group however was unlucky.

"Hey, you guys need any help?!" I tried to communicate with them.

"Don't worry, we'll just walk towards the other end of the tunnel, we'll teleport over to the port once we get an Alakazam!" Surge yelled towards me. "But in the mean time get that ass of yours over to the port! They need someone there already!" Upon hearing that I ran off to the Vermillion port.

Vermillion Port

As soon as I got there I saw Savannah waiting for me on a small motor boat that was rocking violently in the water. "You took long enough!" She yelled towards me. "Some guy told me to wait for someone to get here and said that they'd be quick,"

"Just shut up and drive already!" I barked not wanting to get any lectures at the moment. And once I stepped onto the boat it blasted off quickly towards the already distant S.S. Anne. I looked towards the sky, it didn't seem that bright, and it almost seemed to be forbidding us to chase after cipher.

Gulf of Kanto

The boat was already moving at an extremely fast pace and yet we still weren't any where near the ship, yet we were catching up. "How long does it take to catch up to a ship?" I asked.

"Oh, not too long if we really want to go fast…" Savannah said while pulling on a knob and then instantly we were going at mach speed. I noticed that cipher had stolen more than one ship and were all ready getting away but we were nearly there. "Now!" She said while pushing a button and then hooks came out from the side of the boat and were blasted onto the ship attaching the two. "You want to go first?" she asked and I didn't know what to do. "Then I'll go," she said as she climbed up the ropes and landed on the ship. And she also sent out one of her pokemon, it was a red octopus like pokemon with a very hard looking skull. "Meet octillery, oh and are you getting up here or not?" But just to be safe I sent out my togetic to help make sure I stayed on the ropes while I climbed up.

Oh, are we going on a cruise now? said the overly excited pokemon.

"No, just help me climb up to that ship!" I said irritably. Then I noticed Savannah had already started battling someone, she seemed to look like an admin. When I got up to the ship the enemy blasted a gush of water at me with her pokemon attempting to knock me down. "This day doesn't end does it? Togetic are you ready for a battle?"

Not really, I think we're all still tired… But I'll try my best! said togetic.

"Oh, you're really expecting to defeat team cipher when you nearly let us get away?" she asked.

"We'll see what you have to say about that!" I said getting ready for a battle.

"This will be a two-on-two pokemon battle, understand?" asked the admin. "Oh, and by the way my name's Aqua, don't forget it!" she said haughtily.

"I'll remember to put you in prison for committing a crime!" I retorted and the battle began.

///Trainers Eva and Savannah///

////////////////////Vs./////////////////////

/////////////Admin Aqua//////////////

"Let's show these girls how real women fight!" And the annoying admin sent out another pokemon alongside her rabbit-like pokemon. The first pokemon had large floppy ears and was blue with white dots on it, while the one that was just sent out was a duck pokemon that stood on two legs and was blue yet had a small gem stuck on its forehead.

"So they're using a golduck and an azumarril, alright then!" Savannah said analyzing her opponents. "Let's start this match off with octazooka!" and her octopus pokemon shot a ball of ink at the golduck temporally blinding it.

"Togetic take advantage of the situation and use shock wave!"

Sure let's add some lights to this cruise! and togetic began flying around and shot a jolt of electricity at the golduck.

"Azumarril use rollout and knock that dumb fairy down!" and azumarril curled up and then rolled to the winged pokemon and tackled it. "Golduck use water sport and clean off the ink!" and the blue duck pokemon shot a gush of water towards the sky and cleansed its eyes off.

"Well you wasted your time cuz' a gunk shot is coming up next!" yelled Savannah and octillery shot out a poisonous-vile looking ball at the opponent and it exploded and caused a really messy field.

"Oh, you filthy little pokemon!" Yelled Aqua as she noticed her clothes getting dirty. "After I'm through with you I'm going to make you both my slaves!" she yelled with an intimidating looking face.

"Togetic use silver wind and dry them off!"

Yay, more shiny stuff! yelled the immature little angel as it sent wind filled with shiny particles to his opponents.

"That's it I'm getting angry! Use Hydro Pump!" And both of her pokemon gushed out a strong jet of water that instantly knocked togetic out.

Owie… and I recalled my quirky friend.

"Let's go Kirlia!" and my more elegant pokemon came into the battle.

I'm still tired but if it's to take cipher down so fine. she said logically.

"Let's hit that rabbit with a charge beam!" and Kirlia gathered electricity into the palm of her hands and then shot it out as a beam of energy, yet some of the electricity stayed in her body, strengthening her special attack. The beam made contact with the duck yet it just shrugged it off.

"Is that all? Let's show them a real beam! Use HYPERBEAM!" Then the golduck raised one hand to the gem on its forehead and began concentrating energy into its fingers.

"Darn it, our pokemon aren't going to be strong enough to withstand this attack!" Savannah said.

"Well, Kirlia try to use Light screen!" Kirlia created a wall of light around her allies and yet it didn't seem strong enough to deflect the attack. Then the attack came, it came from golduck's fingers as a crimson colored beam with energy that was coursing through it. It made impact upon Kirlia's barrier and for a moment I thought Kirlia was going to make it, I thought wrong. The beam merely halted at the barrier before it broke directly through it, hitting both of our pokemon and nearly sending them into the sea.

"She's too strong…" Savannah said as she got discouraged.

"We'll just have to bide time until your uncle gets here," I said trying to sound optimistic. I sent out my last remaining pokemon that was allowed into the battle and Savannah sent out her second, it was a blue fish pokemon that obviously had fins. It had yellow scales where its eyes were making it look as if it were wearing a mask, and its tail had yellow scales on the bottom tip, but it also had an illuminator jutting out from its head.

"Meet lanturn!" Savannah said as she sent out her pokemon.

"Sorry gloom, I didn't want to send you out into the battle this early but this admin is strong, as much as I hate to admit it, we might actually lose this time…" I said really getting worried. "We need to stall if we're going to get help," I informed gloom.

Stalling? That's fine, my gloom said trying to sound confident. How many pokemon did togetic and Kirlia take out?

"Zero…" And at that gloom tensed up. "Let's use solar beam!" and gloom began absorbing light into her petals.

"Azumarril use rain dance!" Upon hearing and witnessing the move right before my ears and eyes my day really began to get cloudy, no pun intended. The rabbit pokemon shot a ball of water into a cloud in the air and the cloud darkened, expanded and began to pour rain on us, let alone block out all the light we needed for our attack.

"Lanturn take advantage of the weather and use thunder!" and then Lanturn shot a bolt of lightning into the clouds and then it became dark again. Yet a few seconds later a flash of light illuminated the area and struck golduck down while it was still recovering from its last attack.

"Worthless pokemon!" She said as she recalled her pokemon back into its pokeball. "Let's show them how to really fight dewgong!" The pokemon popped out as light and then materialized as a sea-lion shaped pokemon, it was pale blue in color and had a single horn on its head; nothing left to be said.

I noticed that the solar beam attack was going to take too long so I decided to change plans. "Gloom let's stop the attack and switch to petal dance!" And gloom shot out many colored leaves as it had done many times before, hitting the dewgong. Then I noticed my shadow radar beeping, the dewgong was a shadow pokemon!

"Dewgong, let's get rid of this annoying flower and use shadow ice!" Dewgong took a deep breath and shot out a beam not-unlike that of an icebeam but this one was purple in colored and seemed to cause the dewgong to roar in pain. The dark clouds were enough to spite me as I saw right before my eyes my gloom freeze in front of me.

"GLOOM!" and gloom was immobile in that chunk of ice. The sky flashed with lightning as if to mourn the loss with me, rocking the ship, causing waves to drench everyone on board. Yet as if my troubles weren't bad enough a cargo load slid out due to the rough waves and began sliding towards my frozen gloom. I was too petrified to know what to do as I watched the shipment knock gloom overboard and into the sea. I didn't, couldn't believe what was happening. It all happened so fast, too fast. "No…" I felt just as frozen as my gloom was. "No…" I couldn't move, what was there to do anyway? "This can't be…" Savannah, my friend couldn't believe what had just happened either. And I saw that admin smile with an evil smile, so disgusting it made me want to hurl.

"Lanturn, chase after gloom and see if you can find it!" my friend had ordered to her pokemon, not wanting to just give in.

"You can't just send a pokemon out of battle like that!" yelled the admin. "Unless you have another pokemon with you, it's the same as withdrawing!" Lanturn dove into the violent body of water anyway.

"I have another pokemon with me and that was only my second pokemon!" Savannah yelled. She sent out her next pokemon. It was an orange colored rat pokemon that had a long wiry tail that had a thunderbolt shaped tip. Its ears were curved and it had yellow cheeks. I recognized it as the well known raichu.

"Do you really expect to win with that worthless rodent?" she asked looking at us pitifully. "I guess you two are going to become my slave after all!"

"Over my dead body!" Savannah still seemed energized greatly. I just sat there hopelessly, and then I realized that if I ever wanted to stop any of this I had to at least snag that pokemon from her.

"I'm not giving up…" I said using the rails to support my weight. "Savannah, we might not be able to defeat the admin but we can still at least get close to victory as possible!" I said getting the snag machine ready.

"Alright, Raichu use thunderwave!" And Raichu sent a weak jolt of electricity to the dewgong. "Now follow up with discharge!" and Raichu planted its thin tail onto the ground and focused all of the electricity surging through the ship towards the enemies' side of the field, shocking them all. Then I saw the moment to snag the dewgong and I tossed to pokeball, it shook once, twice but then it popped out, causing things to get complicated.

"Azumarril use aqua tail!" and the opponent slammed its tail onto the wet surface of the ship causing a tidal wave to hit everyone on our side of the deck.

"Once more!" I said tossing the ball at the dewgong.

"It's useless, even if you manage to defeat and snag dewgong and me, you still won't win this phase of the war!" Then the ball shook once, twice, and this time ended with a PING. At least one good thing came out of this battle. But it wasn't enough to help lift my heavy heart. "You girls have ten seconds to run…" The admin said as she hopped off board with her rabbit pokemon. We heard a beeping from somewhere and it was a time bomb, she was planning to blow this ship up from the start. We jumped off the ship onto the motor boat.

//////////end////////

Seven seconds left

We cut the ropes attaching the vehicles.

Three seconds left

Savannah started the engines, and we were ready to leave.

One second left

My heart wept as we left. The ship exploded and all of the cargo that was on it did to, yet the enemy still had the other ships with their other cargo. Lanturn came up from the surface with a radiant light, yet it came back with a depressed face, empty handed. We left to Vermillion city.

Vermillion city

We got there and Savannah explained everything, Surge and everyone else had only just arrived. It was too late to retrieve the ships and the stolen goods, and there was no purification machine for the city to use.

It was entirely my fault.

I let everyone down, Surge, the city, the region, the world, and worst of all gloom. I should've just retreated. Everyone was tired from battling, I was no match for an admin who basically commanded an armada. I went to my room disgusted with myself. I looked at the pokemon I had just snagged. I was disgusted with it, and it looked back at me with a similar face through the pokeball. I didn't want to face anyone, I didn't deserve to be snagger, or a trainer, or anything, I didn't want to continue on with the mission. I just went to my empty room, staring at nothing.

I deserve to die

END

Chapter 10 Act 1– A hectic mission (note: the term shadow is a synonym of possess. And all ghost pokemon have the ability to shadow someone for a limited amount of time)

Miguel's view

Power Plant

I was feeling quite sleepy in the morning. I had just arrived at the power plant to make sure the place was running smoothly, it was looking good but one thing was wrong.

"THE ELECTRIC GENERATOR IS MISSING!" yelled the man who seemed to be in charge of the place. He was obviously infuriated, but I don't think he needed to yell at me when I asked him the question.

"Man, you don't have to yell…" I said pinning my ears shut. "What's so important about some stupid generator?" I asked.

"THAT STUPID GENERATOR GENERATES ELECTRICITY FOR THE MAGNET TRAIN TO TRAVEL ACROSS JOHTO TO KANTO IN A BLINK OF AN EYE!" he said with a voice that would've rivaled NéNé's.

"But can't you just get some money and buy a new one?" I asked.

"THAT GENERATOR WAS a one of a kind generator that costs a lot of money and we really don't get paid much as is!" he said whining like a little kid.

"But why would anyone want an engine like that, can't they just settle for something cheaper and efficient?" I asked. "And was team cipher the group of people that took it?"

"I have no idea WHO took it but if anyone gets there hand on that generator they can do almost anything that has to do with speedy travels, weapons of mass destruction, mass production or anything massive." That struck fear into my spine once I heard that last suggestion, mass production…

"They might be making more shadow pokemon this minute…" Realizing the urgency of this mission I chose to speed this mission up and locate that generator.

Rock tunnel

It was annoyingly pitch black in the stupid cave. "I can't see a thing!" I said nearly tripping on a rock. "Stupid rock…" Then I decided to see if NéNé could help. So I called her out.

YAY, I'm out, said my ghost pokemon as it materialized from her pokeball. Why are we in a cave?

"Cuz' we have to get out of the cave," I said giving her the lame answer. "Think you can use flash so I can see better in here…" Then I realized something, if team cipher saw any suspicious light in here, they would be sure to capture me, especially if I'm alone. "Try to make the light dim though, we can't let cipher see us.

Okay, here I go! NéNé said enthusiastically as she made a small amount of light shine from her. So I looked around, no sign of any humans disturbing the peace so I moved on, yet for some reason I couldn't help but feel a chilling presence somewhere near me, and it wasn't banette. We trekked on for hours and still found nothing of interest, just some geodudes and onixes, nothing special.

"Hey, NéNé think you can see if anyone's watching us?" I asked my pokemon.

What? Is wittle Miguelito afraid of the dark? NéNé said with a teasing voice.

"What? Of course not! If I was why would you be my first pokemon?" I said knowing that she was teasing.

Suuuuuuuuuuure… But she began to search with her foresight anyway. Nope, nothing here, just rocks, rocks, and lotsa craggy rocks!

"It's alright if you don't see anything anyway, I never trained you for this type of stuff." I said continuing on my road-less adventure. Then we finally found something; human activity! And it wasn't just any human activity, it was evil human activity, and it wasn't just any evil human activity, it was team Cipher! "Alright, lights out!" I said giving the command to NéNé.

Lights off! and NéNé clapped twice and after the second clap there wasn't a speck of light coming from us.

"Keep it down, we've spotted cipher, do you want them to spot us too?" I whispered to NéNé.

Well, if I could beat them all up yes, but in this case no. Even though I'd like to. we spotted a cipher peon walking by paying no attention to us bickering, so I saw him as the perfect person.

"NéNé, go and shadow that peon and see if you can find a map out of here or a big generator, but if you run into any trouble get back here immediately, I don't want them to make you into a shadow pokemon." I said while sounding like my mother.

Understood, commander! And NéNé gave a salute and began to get serious, in NéNé's own little way. She dove into the peon's back and gained control for a limited time, I knew that NéNé's limit of shadowing was around ten minutes from all the practices we did together so I knew that if she took longer than fifteen minutes to get back she would probably be in trouble. I watched the peon (who was now possessed by NéNé) walk off to a path stretching somewhere to the left of where I was. My mind began to wonder on exactly what cipher wanted to do with the generator; they actually could make a weapon of mass destruction too, if they wanted to… I began to wonder exactly what they were doing in this stupid cave, making me come over here in the pitch black darkness where no one could see. I guess it does make an ideal hideout, those caves. But they better have a bit more creativity on the next hideout I find, it had better not be another cave or tunnel, or I'm gonna kick their butts. I took a look at my pokétch, it had only been six minutes, there was still four minutes left so I decided to kick back a little, and sit back and relax. I had a nice dream while I was sleeping, it consisted of a battle, I was in a tournament and I was pawning all of my opponents with a few attacks. No one could beat me. I defeated EVERY SINGLE person I knew. But then when I went against some random opponent my pokemon began to disobey me, they attacked me. They lashed out at me with anger and hatred, even NéNé was trying to kill me. Kill me. I got scared, I didn't know what was going on, I couldn't understand what was going on. Then I ran into this extremely intimidating masked man.

He said, "Hah, you look pathetic!" he looked at me with a mask, covered in blood, gore, he looked like he was about to die himself. "Not being able to control your pokemon, you're pathetic compared to your relatives!" He spat those words at me with a sting as harsh as an arbok's bite. I didn't know what to say, just his looks alone were enough to leave me speechless, let alone what's been happening.

"Just shut up!" I had nothing else to say.

"You're pokemon betrayed you when you thought you were a good trainer, an expert trainer, a loved trainer…" Then he snickered. "You're pathetic; maybe I should put you out of your misery!" Then he drew out a sword. My breathing grew heavier, fiercer, and harder. My body seemed to be paralyzed, or turned to stone or something, it wouldn't move no matter how much I wanted to. I couldn't snap out of it. My limbs seemed to have been made of stone for all it was worth, and I just watched as he raised his sword, glinting in the light and got ready to kill me. Just do it already if I'm so pathetic! I thought in my head, and he swung it and I closed my eyes expecting to feel something cool touch my skin at the least, but nothing happened. I know I heard him swing it; he couldn't have stopped it even if he wanted to. I opened my eyes, it was the pitch black darkness of nothingness again, and I was in the tunnel. I reminded myself it was all just a dream, a nightmare. I was breathing really hard, and I was sweaty.

"That was nothing," I said shaking, almost as if I'd go unconscious again, but what if it was true. What if I didn't deserve my pokemon's respect, it was all directed to my cousin anyway. She had all the luck in the world; she had the skills in the family. She knew how to control and bond with her pokemon, what was I? I was just some stupid snagger doing all of this hero crap without any of the recognition! Even that Leon guy had some fame, and wasn't he supposed to be some street kid? He didn't start out with anything, and how did he end up with fame? No one knew who I was, no one knew about my skills. That Leon guy even had a draw with me and I still don't have any fame as a pokemon trainer. I'm the grandkid of an elite for crying out loud. I should at least be vaguely recognized, if not for my skill. Than I looked at my watch, it was almost time for NéNé to return, there was around three minutes left and eight minutes until she can shadow someone again. Then I had that chilling feeling again, as if an eerie presence was right next to me. I took in my surroundings for the first time once my eyes got adjusted and I saw nothing but rocks. So I got up and I was still pretty dizzy. I used the craggy walls to support myself up, leaning on it. My head hurt, it was either because of all the thinking I was doing or because of the dream. I tried to shake off all the thoughts in my head and I closed my eyes. I tried to calm down. I unclosed my eyes and saw a ghost standing, or floating right in front of me, we were face to face. But this wasn't NéNé, this ghost didn't have a smile on its face, it was more expressionless, but I knew this thing didn't mean to make friends. "Shit…" I muttered under my breath.

"Dusk…" said the intimidating ghost. It had a single piercing red eye, yet the rest of its body was grey with gold colored outlines. Its torso had a pattern that looked as if it had a face, with the smile and the eyes. Its arms looked overstretched but I guess it made up for its lack of feet and legs, and instead it had one of those wispy tails that ghosts have. Then it raised its fist as if to punch me yet this time I was able to move and dodge the attack.

MIGUEL! yelled NéNé as she came floating from one of the walls. I came as soon as I found out that some ghost was going to beat you up!

"A little sooner would've been better…" I said as the pokemon landed a punch on me this time. I was usually quicker than this, what was wrong with me? "Wait whaddyamean you found out?" I said steadying myself.

That's a trainer's pokemon, you can't snag it though cuz' it's not shadow! Hey, you stay away from my trainer this instant! And NéNé leapt into the battle.

///////////////Trainer Miguel////////////

//////////////////////Vs.//////////////////////

/////////Somebody's pokemon///////

"Let me see what kind of pokemon this is!" I said drawing out my pokedex. It said that it was a dusknoir and it was obviously of the ghost type, I realized that my cousin trained the pre-evolution of this specie. "It's at a high level though, but that's nothing we can't handle!"

Right! and NéNé got ready for a command. But then NéNé unexpectedly got hit by a shadow punch.

"NéNé watch out, this pokemon is going to be unpredictable and hard to battle!"

Ok, I see that now,

"Let's go with a shadow sneak!" NéNé dashed into the safety of the darkness and then popped out in front of the pokemon and landed an attack. Yet the pokemon just shrugged the attack off. "Now shadow claw!" NéNé continuously swiped at the opponent and landed every single attack yet barely even left a scratch. Just when NéNé was about to make her last attack the dusknoir's fist began to crackle with electricity and swatted NéNé away as if she was a fly.

That was… shocking, hehehe NéNé said still slightly dazed from the attack.

"Let's hit it with payback!" And NéNé ran up to Dusknoir and sent a barrage of punches at it stimulated by the last attack. But again Dusknoir just took the attacks as if it were nothing. Then its fist began to light up with a blazing heat that slightly illuminated the room. "It's using firepunch, use your sucker punch!" And NéNé punched Dusknoir so hard that it sent itself flying backwards while still causing significant damage.

That hit the spot! NéNé said confidently. Then I heard an echo of a footstep, as if someone was marching a whole army after me.

"Good work Dusknoir! We can take it from here!" An old man said from behind me. "You didn't seem to amuse my dusknoir that much; I don't think he moved judging from the lack of breathing coming from it." And I faced him; he seemed to be with cipher. "My apologies, I forgot my manners back at base," He said as if he was of royalty. "My name is Ale, what would yours be young man?"

"What would it matter to you?" I asked.

"Just so I can write it on your grave once you die," He said menacingly. "Unless you would like to serve me and my fellow cipher brethren…"

"In your dreams!" I retorted.

"Ah, well, my squad shall be here shortly, and you'll be forced to either join our ranks or perish, no?" He said as if the answer would be yes. But the pressure stood firm, I was no match for these people and I had no way of winning.

"NéNé use flash and confuse ray!" Then I covered my eyes and ran, with NéNé following me, creating a dazzling light. I ran as fast as I could, taking one of the routs without a lead. "NéNé did you at least get a map or something?"

Sorry, they were out of stock, seriously! She said with a strait face.

"Well, hurry up and get out of this tunnel, you'll get strait out and go and get help from someone!" I yelled. "I'll be fine with Striker and Ace!" And NéNé faded through the walls and left me without light, even if she didn't get help, at least she'll be safe.

///////end/////////

I promise I'll be back! I ran through the tunnels, thinking how nice an escape that was. But wait, if NéNé can float through walls that easily then can't a dusknoir do the same just as well? Then that's when I noticed the dusknoir right behind me and I ran off. I could barely run, my legs felt like twigs, as if someone had sucked the life out of me.

"There's no use in running!" Ale said with his voice echoing through the tunnel. "My dusknoir can see you wherever you go!" And he began to laugh with a shrill voice. "Besides, I know you don't even know where you're going, you can't run away from me!"

"Shut up already!" I yelled sensing the pokemon right on my tail. Apart from Ale's voice the place was so quiet that you can hear my footsteps echo. Then I came upon a large section of the cave with a few giant boulders.

"You can't even defeat me, your pokemon are useless against me!" He said while stepping into the room with his ghost pokemon. "Let's attack with shadow ball!" and dusknoir shot a shadow ball at me and I dodged, the attack hit a large boulder.

"You missed," I said taunting him. "Besides, I'm the grandkid of an elite, do you really expect to defeat me in battle?!" I said with a head full of dignity.

"Oh, but I do. And I know you can't fully control your pokemon, it's written all over your face!" He said as if he knew about my dream.

I muttered to myself. Then his dusknoir got ready for an attack, it was a hyper beam attack, but it wasn't directed at me, it was directed at the whole room. "Are you insane?!" I yelled at him. "You're going to cave us all in!"

"Well I guess this is the day I become one with the dead!" He said, his eyes bulging with madness.

"You ARE crazy!" I said as he fired the hyper beam at the roof of the cave, it caused rocks to come crashing down, bombarding both of us yet luckily most of them seemed to have collapsed on him. "I'm lucky…" I said as most of the rocks began to stop falling. And I looked around, the place was a mess, but there was one small passage way and there was no other way out. I squeezed through the gap and I began to explore the place feeling proud of myself. "He killed himself, which makes this mission a whole lot easier!" And I chuckled to myself, thinking how I can make this into a heroic tale.

"Oh, but I am not dead my dear young friend!" said Ale's voice from thin air. "Once more, shall I implore, for you to return to our base and join team cipher, it is definitely a waste for a trainer such as yourself to die an unfortunate death!"

"Who said I was going to die?" I asked looking around for the source of the voice. "I didn't, that's for sure!"

"Who has ever decided their own fate, on whether or not they will live?" Said Ale. "No one has, they all eventually died, but I may be able to postpone that death if you join team cipher!"

"Cipher sucks, there's no way I'm joining a bunch of losers like you!" I said hiding my fear.

"Then it cannot be evaded, dusknoir has predicted your fate and you shall perish, under my command!" Ale yelled with his voice echoing inside of the tunnel.

"Y-You and what army, cipher can't help you out here?!" I yelled my hearting beating faster and faster.

"Me and this army!" He said as he stepped into my range of vision with his steps echoing across the tunnel. But this wasn't all I saw, he didn't just step into my vision, he faded into the path, with numerous other copies of himself.

"What the… what's going on?" I said out of fright looking to my left and to my right.

"It's simple!" He said as he began to surround me with his million copies. "Because I am one with death, I am death!" He said as one of the many Ale's in front of me drew out a mask, the mask with the gory stains, the one with trickles of blood, the one depicting death…

"This, you… you can't be from my dream, you can't exist, no… you're not supposed to exist, this is all a dream! Go away!" I screamed in denial at the fact, while I swiped at the man. I made a gesture as to get my pokeball but for some reason I hesitated.

"Why do you hesitate?" Asked, the masked man. "Why do you hesitate to draw forth your pokemon? Is it because you fear for them, that you're afraid of them getting hurt?" He asked, stepping closer to me with a hand reaching out to me. "Or…" He began but then stopped.

"Or what!" I said clenching the pokeball in my fist.

"Or is it because you're afraid of them, that you mistrust them, that they mistrust you?" He said again drawing nearer and nearer to me, every step heard, echoed across the place.

This can't be. I thought as I had a recollection of my dream. He seemed to know every single aspect of it. "You, you lie!" I said, my feet shaking and my arms shivering. "This isn't fear; this is just-just…."

"An excuse; you fear of not being a strict enough of a trainer; you fear being nobody; of having no one to recognize you, to care for you, but joining us that will all change." He said still staring at me with a cold look.

"No, never, I'll get fame my own way!" I said getting ready to sock the guy in the face but when I did my fist flew strait through him. "What are you?" I said freezing in terror.

"I am just as I have said before, I am death!" And the masked Ale struck his hand strait into my chest; it seemed to have sent a pulse through my body, shaking my very soul. Everything went blurry, everything got dark, and everything went black…

Act 1 end

Chapter 10 Act 2- A hectic mission (Note: Dense fog is a made up move. It brings in the weather effect fog, and blocks out the enemy's accuracy, it boosts the evasion of ghost types)

When I woke up I felt as if all my energy was drained from my body. I wasn't sure where I was but I assumed it was still at team cipher's Rock tunnel base. I guess I wasn't dead yet. I looked around, I seemed to be in a cell, captured. I tried to get up, my legs didn't seem to want to move, as if some strong force was holding me down. I tried using my arms to support myself but it was no use, I was too tired. But my arms did feel slightly lighter for some reason. Then it hit me. My snag machine was taken by the enemy. I checked my arm to make sure I just wasn't delirious but my arm was really free from the device. "I really am a failure…" I said looking down on the moldy floor. My eyes began to get hot, they began to sting. I held the tears back however, I didn't want to show any weakness to anybody, just because I'm a failure now doesn't mean I can't spring back, and grab the honor that's rightfully mine. I checked my pockets and my back. They had taken all of my supplies and pokemon as well. I didn't want to give up just now; I went to the bars of my tiny cell and yelled for attention. "Let me out of this dump!" I said grabbing onto the bars, but then my hands were singed as they made contact with the bars. I drew them back; the bars were somehow hot, just to keep me from breaking free. "Why did I have to get this mission…?" I said miserably slumping into one of the dark corners of my cell.

Miguel… Said a voice that brought hope back to my heart.

"NéNé," I whispered, making sure not to draw attention.

I got help and it's on their way! She said concealed by the shadows. I can't tell you much just in case someone's listening but we're going to get you free soon! Then we silenced as a peon walked by on patrol. But then he gasped for air right in front of me, and I knew what the symptoms pointed at. He was being shadowed.

"By the way NéNé, I need you or whoever that's going to help us to get back my snag machine, Striker and Ace." I said still sensing NéNé nearby.

Way ahead of you buddy, me and my ghost friends are on our way! and she sped off with the shadows, and the possessed peon smiled at me and walked off. My heart felt better, that dream meant nothing, and Ale couldn't kill me. He could use all the crazy tricks in the book and then some; he won't make me lose trust in my pokemon. I got too my feet again and leaned against the walls, waiting for the moment when I will be free, so I can get back at Cipher. It took a while but a cipher member (or what it appeared to be) opened up my cell and freed me, the possessed peon gave me my pokeballs and my snag machine; it fitted well on my arm. Then I heard a lot of crashing and bashing.

"I guess NéNé's ghost friends did the trick!" I said running off to the exit of the base. Then NéNé flew up right next to me. "NéNé, you're awesome, I'm lucky to have you as my starter!"

I know, but that's mainly cuz' I have an awesome trainer like you! I said happily. Then I heard a loud yelp and I barely recognized it as Ale's voice.

"Hey, NéNé, who is helping us anyway?" I said with NéNé guiding me towards the exit.

Uh… NéNé said trailing off.

"You don't know who's helping us?"

It's not that, it's just that I want to keep it a surprise!

"Ah, whatever," I said seeing radiant light of hope. How I longed to see light after going through that horrible experience. "We're free!" I said panting for air. I felt a little worn out, a little more than usual. I guess it's because of that harsh battle. "So, do we just wait here or do we go into town?" I asked.

Our helper said that they'd meet us in town, NéNé answered. But once we get there I think you should get some rest! She said floating to Lavender town. I followed along, thinking of how to thank the person who saved me.

Lavender town

The town seemed quite gloomy. I've been to Lavender town before, in fact, it's actually my hometown. "We haven't been here for a while NéNé…" I said to NéNé.

Yeah… I said knowing what she must've been thinking of. Well, let's go to the house! and I trailed after NéNé, observing the scenery. The place seemed different, the air seemed colder but that was expected since it was December. The famous pokemon tower looked more foreboding than usual. It housed deceased pokemon, yet it let in visitors as long as you were quiet and peaceful. There was supposed to be a festival some time this year honoring the dead, yet no one seemed to be ready for anything. The whole sky was cloudy and the trees were bare. It was definitely the stereotype of Lavender town. That wasn't how it was supposed to look this time of year…

Hey, Miguel, What's wrong with you? NéNé asked me, knocking me out of my trance. You seem to be thinking quite hard.

"NéNé, doesn't home seem a little different since last time?" I asked.

Now that you mention it, yeah… But it's probably just some minor change or something! NéNé said with her casual, cheery self.

"Yeah, I'm probably just tired…" Then NéNé suddenly just halted. "Are we here?" I asked.

Not yet, but close your eyes! NéNé commanded me.

"Hey, I'm your trainer, you can't boss me around!" I teased, but I closed and covered my eyes anyway.

Now follow me, NéNé said while pushing me forward. It took around five minutes just for us to get there. I began to wonder about what NéNé was trying to surprise me with, so I went along with it. We're here! and I opened my eyes, and I saw in front of me a mansion. But it wasn't just any mansion, it was a familiar one, one with cherished memories, it was the mansion of my grandmother. "No way, Grandma's back?!" I said astonished.

Yeah, and she's here to help!

"This is awesome!" I said. "And just in time for the festival too!" I said feeling as light as NéNé. "And I can show grandma how many badges I've gotten and how many pokemon I have with me…" I said just thinking of how fun this mission's going to get. And I barged into the door, hoping to smell the familiar scents of incenses, to feel the warmth of the room, and to see the face of my grandma, but all I saw was an empty room, apart from the furnace, that is. "Where's grandma?" I asked while walking into my old room, where I used to stay with grandma.

She's the one who was helping us, gosh Miguel; you have to be tired if you can't piece something like that together! She said as I plopped myself onto my bed.

"You bet your zipper I'm tired!" I said instantly dozing off, without bothering to change my clothes or even close the door.

I seemed to have had a dream again. I was in the lavender town pokemon tower. The whole atmosphere seemed to be gloomy. The graves seemed intimidating, as if they had some type of anger in them. There were small orbs of purple fire floating around, it was supposed to be bad luck if you ever saw one. "Where is everyone…" Then out of nowhere, a large ferocious dragon, adorned with golden bones as if it were armor had came into focus. And beside it was a man wearing a mask. "No, not you again!" The man and his pokemon edged closer, and the wisps of fire surrounded me, chilling my spine even further.

"Are you afraid…?" He said through his mask. "Perhaps it would be easier if you just rest in this place for all eternity!"

"Miguel!" Then I woke up. "Good to see you up and awake, but I think you may be suffering from nightmares."

I looked up, it was grandma. "How do you know I've been having nightmares?"

"Because judging from the way you were tossing and turning in your sleep anyone could've guessed," Then she got up and took a piece of paper lying around, she scribbled something on it and she lifted up my shirt and stuck it onto my back.

"Eh? What's this?" I asked.

"Don't you remember?" She sighed. "It's one of the family's scroll tags, it wards of malevolent ghosts and spirits."

"Oh, yeah…" I wasn't exactly all into those ghosts and supernatural stuff, the family was too into that sort of thing and it usually bothers me.

"Now, I think you should get some sleep, but in the meantime, it would be ok for me to become acquainted with your pokemon, right?" However she didn't bother for an answer and released my remaining two pokemon, and I had dozed off to sleep once again.

The next day I felt so much better, as if a heavy fog had been lifted from my head. I went to the kitchen to get some breakfast and no one was around. "Where did everyone go?" Even my pokemon were missing, but I had no reason to worry, they should be safe with grandma. I grabbed some stuff to eat, took a shower, got dressed. All the usual stuff and then I headed out the door. And there playing near a tree were my pokemon.

Hey, you're finally up, Miguel! So can we play today? Striker said as he ran over and hopped onto my shoulders. Ace however, was somewhat solmn and quiet, I still haven't bonded with the shadow pokemon yet, but it's only a matter of time.

"Hey, NéNé." I called towards my starter. "Where's grandma at?"

Oh, Granny Aggie is at the grocery store at the moment, but once she gets back she's gonna help us make Ace start talking!

"Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea." I said. "Hey, Ace get over here!" I said and the bird obediently flew over, he at least obeys me. "Let's see what you can do!" And the bird gave a nod. "Striker, go climb up the trees and NéNé you go and find a place to hide and spring out at random moments!" Then I turned to my bird. "Ok, I want you to catch or hit all the objects that Striker throws at you, NéNé however will try to disrupt you by attemting to make you flinch." Then everyone got ready and the little game commenced.

Striker jumped from branch to branch, and from tree to tree throwing twigs and sticks up into the air. This will test Ace's accuracy and flight agility, it will test Striker's aim and lastly this will test NéNé's stealth. So far, Ace managed to hit all the twigs with no problem, but then NéNé jumped out lashing out at Ace, not too hard though, after all this was just training. "Now, Striker use double team and agility! NéNé, I want you to use *dense fog! Ace, just keep on attacking the twigs but feel free to make this easier!" Suddenly the scenery thickened with fog and I myself couldn't see what was happening, but I trust that at least someone is doing well in this training.

Hey, NéNé, are you really scaring Ace? said Striker's voice. Cuz' he ain't letting up one bit!

How about you, are you even throwing those blasted twigs, Strikerito?! NéNé teased back.

Then a strong wind kicked up and the fog also lessened, "So, Ace is using defog!" And I didn't do any commands because I was curious as to what the three were going to do. Then all of a sudden.

"Miguel, you're doing well in your training."

"Gah!" I yelped. It was grandma. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"What's the matter, it's like you've seen a ghost!"

"Not funny…" I said as I turned to face grandma, and NéNé rushed over, my grandma is kind of like her grandma too, she was hatched from an egg and was given to me as a starter pokemon.

Hiya grandma! NéNé said excitedly, who had completely forgotten about training, but I let it slip. SO…. What did you bring us?!

"Just food…" chuckled grandma. "Miguel, why don't you introduce your pokemon to me, you haven't done it formally yet."

I paused and turned over, Striker got somewhat timid all of a sudden and Ace just obediently flew over. "Come on Striker, it's just my grandma here. I want to introduce her to you guys." Striker ran over and hid behind my leg as if it was a small child. "Well, you already know who NéNé is, but she did grow a lot since you've last seen her!"

"As much as you have…" she interrupted.

"You really think so?!" I said excitedly.

Well he is a good trainer, and I am the best pokemon ever! NéNé said proudly.

"Just go on…"

"Oh, well and this little shy guy is Striker, but he's usually hyper and crazy…" I said.

You wanna see crazy…? Striker threatened and started jumping up and down.

"My, my, you're a little toughie too…" Grandma said.

Really, I mean, or course I am Striker said in a way not unlike NéNé's.

"And lastly this is Ace… He's a shadow pokemon, I'm sure you've heard of them right?" I asked.

"Well of course I have!" Grandma said as if she had just lost her temper, she really had a short fuse like that. But she's still my grandma, what can I do? "I mean, why would I be over here, and not at the pokemon league doing my elite duties?" She seemed angry, and I flinched. "To help you get rid of team cipher! Of course the gym leaders are doing there gym duties, but it's a second purpose as well, it's too train all trainers, and at the same time giving out badges to the worthy so the worthy can participate in the pokemon league and then challenge each other, then the top five will challenge the current top five at the pokemon league and then decide to become elites or gym leader or champions!" She was out of breath, I couldn't blame, and I don't think I can even finish a sentence that long. "Well…"

"Oh, my bad!" I apologized.

"Is that all you have to say?" She said.

"Yes…" And all four of us froze; me, NéNé, Striker and even Ace, I guess he's beginning to get some of his anima*(word of the chapter) back.

"Well, you've grown but you don't seem to have changed…" She sighed. "But, you're still a snagger, and you're here to get a clearer mission briefing."

"Uh, right." I said still stiff.

"Well, it turns out that one of your allies has finished her own mission, its Eve I think, yet it's partly failed. However this has nothing to do with your mission so I'll move along." I couldn't believe it, Eve failed her mission, yet Misty and Meghan saw talent in her? "Your mission is now slightly longer, one of the first caught shadow pokemon are purified however one of them aren't, and that would be this Haunter." She said holding out a pokeball. I looked through the see-through part of the pokeball and saw the shadow pokemon, floating menacingly in the pokeball, it looked perfectly normal unless you used the radar.

"Why couldn't the original snagger purify it?" I asked, assuming that it was probably Eve's.

"Well, this pokemon became rambunctious and destructive so Brock suggested that the best place to purify it would be in its birthplace, and he's tracked its birthplace down to Lavender town." I looked at the pokemon, I felt sorry for it, being mutated and abducted against its will, despicable. "Three of you have something in common so I'd say most of you would get along with each other!" And she walked off after handing it to me.

"I accept!" I said taking the pokemon into my responsibility. "I promise I'll do better than the previous owner, and I will be the best snagger, and grandma." I yelled out. She stopped walking and listened. "I promise, with all my heart, I will surpass you and I will become famous and I will become at least the next 3rd elite!" She turned back and looked at me directly in the eye.

And with me by his side there's no way grandma's going to beat us! NéNé said with passion in her eyes, I guess mines were the same.

"I'll be waiting anxiously for when that day comes, and I will do my best not to keep you down but to bring you to become a better trainer, but don't forget." She said. "Just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm letting up to you youngsters one bit, I'm Agatha of the elite four, and the oldest member ever!" And with that she smiled and walked inside the house to put the grocery away.

"Well guys, getting praise from grandma is really rare!" I said. "You should be proud!"

That was praise? More like a death-threat to knock us down… I haven't heard that voice yet. I turned, it was Ace finally speaking, and at least I connected with him. But regardless of what it is, I'll stick by you; this seems to be an interesting challenge…

"Hah, I'd like to see if you'd say the same once you're purified!" I said delighted. "Come on!" And I recalled everyone and sped of towards the pokemon center.

Pokemon Center

I purified Ace and the fancy-smancy light show happened, nothing really new but I'll describe it anyway since I haven't yet. I put Ace's pokeball into the chamber and the machine started. The purple fog began to evaporate with all of the green light pouring down onto it, nothing special eh? Well other people have explained this but oh well, I shall bore you with repetitiveness! The purple aura that I saw through the window of the chamber faded away and then was replaced with a colorless aura. The end… Not of the chapter of course. "So, Ace how do you feel?" I asked.

I feel better, as if a heavy burden has been lifted from me, and has been replaced with the feathers of an angel… Ace said.

"Right… Whatever that means…" I responded, emo bird, or was it poetic, I couldn't really tell. "Is that supposed to be good or bad?"

What do you think? He said as if he was still shadow, but he was purified, this didn't make sense…

"Uh… no?" I answered.

And you're supposed to be the one giving orders during battle… He said.

"Hey, I know that's supposed to be insult!" I yelled.

And what are you going to do about it, I told you I'm going to stick with you anyway! He said smirking.

"Return…" I said while giving up on trying to figure out what the bird brain truly meant.

After that little scene I decided to walk around town. It was supposed to be festival time, why wasn't anyone doing anything! "What's wrong with everyone today?" I yelled out loud. The place was so gloomy with the trees looming over the city as if they were hands grasping out to pull the town into an abyss. "Maybe I should go ask Mr. Fuji." And I ran over to a small house by a mini cemetery.

[Flashback]Mr. Fuji was a kind old man, he took care of abandoned pokemon when they were injured and he's also really forgiving. A long time ago, when he moved into the neighborhood I decided to do some snooping around with NéNé when she was still a young shuppet. I was really curious as to what kind of person he was, so I sort of ended up trespassing. The day was pretty dark, and it was during the winter festival, which is this time of year. I figured no one would catch me; just a quick peek and then we'd leave. But I was wrong, when I crawled into the window I sort of crashed landed on the floor. It was the living room, things were still packaged and the house looked pretty run-down, I thought he'd be at the festival or at least away from home.

But he yelled, "Who's there?" and I froze, I was in the middle of looking through one of the boxes. And he looked at me with a pretty stony face. Then he walked up to me, I sort of started to get scared, not that I cried or anything. He asked "What's your name son?" I couldn't think of what to say. "Well maybe I should start off saying my name first; I'm Mr. Fuji, what's yours?" And he held out his hand as if to shake.

"M-Miguel…" I didn't shake his hand.

"Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you." His eyes were calm and were a cool light blue, I figured I could trust this guy, at least for now… So I shook his hand. "I see you've been looking through my stuff…"

"Sorry!"

"That's one of my oldest friends, we haven't been getting along lately, but I know we'll eventually become good friends again…" He was talking as if I had done nothing wrong. I realized I was grabbing a picture frame, it had the picture of what I'm assuming to be a younger Mr. Fuji and his friend, Mr. Fuji's friend was in a lab coat and he was holding a growlithe up to the photo while Mr. Fuji was holding up a pidgey. I looked at him; his eyes seem to look a little watery.

"Are you okay?" The little me said.

"Yeah…" I almost felt sorry for that man, well I guess I did, he seemed to be lonely and he just moved in, must be hard for an old man.

"You know what!" I said putting the frame down and clenching my fists. "Hey, why don't I be your first friend in this new town?"

"W-Wha…?" Mr. Fuji seemed to be frozen this time, ha-ha!

"Yeah, I mean why not?" I said, hoping this would get me out of trouble, well partly anyway.

"Sure," He agreed. "And don't worry, I promise I won't tell anyone you broke into my house."

"Eh… well," He seemed to have read my mind. "I'll make sure no one else breaks in!"

That's how I met Mr. Fuji, and we got along since then.

I stopped in my tracks; I guess I was walking to his house while reminiscing over the past. I was right in front of the house, I could've just knocked on the door but I thought otherwise. We sort of made it a game now, Mr. Fuji does his best to lock me out, while I do my best to break in. And with the newly evolved NéNé this would be perfect; I just hope she doesn't accidentally get a heart-attack.

"NéNé, let's go!" And NéNé popped out.

Oh, hey, are we visiting grandpa Fuji now? She asked. I guess Mr. Fuji was kind of like a grandpa to me now; I never really got to meet mine.

"Yes, we're going to meet gramps!" And I whispered my plan to NéNé, I don't want to say what I'm going to do, it should be obvious, but for those of you who don't know I'll not spoil it for you. NéNé floated into the house, duh, and from then on, I really don't know what happened, I can only guess she obeyed orders. I waited for a few minutes and then the door opened, it was an old man. The same person from my memories. I walked right in without saying hello, he didn't object. In fact he stepped aside and gave a little bow. You didn't expect this didya? I stepped in and made myself comfortable inside of the dining room. It was completely different then the room from my memories, it had photos of Mr. Fuji and his friends, and also some newer ones that included me in it, and some of his old pokemon; he once had a doduo, but it, died…

"Okay, NéNé you can stop shadowing him now." And with that, Mr. Fuji's face changed from expressionless I left that detail out on purpose to content. While at the same time NéNé's body floated out of him.

"I see you've come up with a new trick, Miguel." Mr. Fuji said finally saying something.

I chuckled. "Don't worry I won't use that unless it's a last resort, I don't need to knock anymore!"

Yay, we tricked gramps! NéNé said jumping up and down.

"I see you've returned from your pokemon journey, but why so soon?" he asked.

"You sound like you're unpleased to see me again," I joked. "Well," I pointed to my left-arm. "This thing here is a snag machine, and I'm now a shadow snagger!" I said. "I'm here to cleanse the region of shadow pokemon and get rid of team cipher!" I looked at the old man. "You've heard of them in the news, correct?" I asked. "After all, I did ask that you'd look for me to see when I've become famous!"

"Hehehe, yes you did, and I have been watching the news," He said looking towards the TV. "And yes I have heard of cipher and the likes," and then he looked at the picture of his doduo.

"Oh, I've got a question to ask you," And his attention reverted to me. "Why is the whole town so gloomy, I haven't been gone that long?" I yelled getting annoyed. "It's almost time for the festival too!"

"Well, team cipher is to be blamed for that!" He said darkly.

"Cipher, they're in Lavender town too?" I said slamming my hands onto the table. "Why?"

"I really don't know, but… Well they're in the tower, the cemetery tower…"

"Darn it…" I muttered under my breath. I should've stayed home, and then maybe cipher wouldn't have conquered the tower. That's why the festival's cancelled, because if anything happens to that tall looming tower than the whole town is said to be cursed with bad luck. There's supposed to be ghosts in that place, and if anyone disturbs them they take it out on the town, not that I believed it but the rest of the town believes it and it's a part of the culture too, I can't let them take away the party and their superstitions. "Thanks, Mr. Fuji!" And I ran out the door, knowing what to do.

"Hey, where are you going?" Mr. Fuji yelled out the door.

"To the tower, and don't try to stop me, cuz' I don't believe in that hocus-pocus crap!" I bellowed out to him while running with NéNé following behind.

You know how he is, you can't change his mind even when there's living, er… well dead, er… well breathing proof right in front of him! NéNé yelled back; I believe pokemon are an exception, they're a manifestation of ghosts, they're not exactly ghosts themselves, other people believe otherwise.

"I'm not trying to stop you, but you better come back safe and sound!" That Mr. Fuji, being safe and being sound are two different things to me.

Lavender tower

"Well, let's go in!" I said with NéNé right at my head, I sped up the stairs, without bothering to look around. At least they didn't taint the place with some freaky gadgets and gizmos and actually left the place alone. There were tombstones in scattered areas; it was kind of depressing to look at all the dead pokemon.

The place feels different somehow… She said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Well the energy around the place seems angry, I think we'll be dealing with more than one forces than just cipher…

"Whatever…" I walked around, I was already on the second to last floor but I couldn't seem to find the staircase. The place (I don't know how) gets ridiculously thick with fog the higher up you go. Then all of a sudden I slipped. Ouch! "Nobody saw that!" I said immediately getting up and brush some slimy green goo off. Wait a second. I paused and looked at what I was brushing off, slimy green goo; ah there must be some sort of poison type lying around. Wait poison. "AHHHHHHH"

Miguel, what's wrong? She said through the dense fog.

"POISONNNNNNNNNN!" I sent Ace out. "ACE HURRY UP AND USE WHIRLWIND AND BLOW THIS GOO OFF!" I yelled.

I can't see… He said.

"WELL THEN USE DEFOG!" but he seemed to have been using that move while I was panicking. Then when the fog cleared then he blew all the weird shit off my shirt. I checked to make sure my shirt was ok, good; it wasn't burning or being decomposed from that green goo, could've been acid for all I know. "Hey, is there any shit left on me?"

Uh, yea, said Ace.

"Where, where, where?!"

There's some shit on your face… He said.

"Huh, wait hey… that's an insult!" I yelled and instantly recalled him. Well now that I can see clearly I took a look around and saw that the stair case was right ahead of me. I ran strait for it, and I ran as fast as I could, just to make sure I don't get attacked by that poison type.

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Okay," I said enraged. "I've been running for five friggin minutes and every time I blinked my eyes the stair case seems even farther!"

*sigh* Will you believe in ghosts now? she asked.

"No, but do something about it anyway please."

Whatever, and NéNé's eyes glowed red and the place seemed to distort a little, the staircase got closer and closer and than a faded figure appeared in front of me.

"Hey, is that a…" I trailed off and got out my pokedex, the device scanned the pokemon but for some reason the data page was malfunctioning. "Huh, hey what's wrong…?" The page at least gave an image and a name. It was a marowak, the grave keeper pokemon. "Oh, hey this pokemon is rare and strong, I wanna catch it!"

*sigh* sometimes I wonder if you're my trainer or my little brother…

"Hey, I'm older than you, so if I'm your brother than I'm your big brother!" I said, both knowing the other was joking. "Well, now let's get serious!"

Uh, that's a ghost in the manifestation of a pokemon, we're not going to do much if we tried… And NéNé sat down.

"Fine, you and your beliefs, I'll have Ace get this match!" And I sent out the mean bird.

Have you gotten any smarter yet? asked the bird.

"Shuddup, and help us win this battle!" I said.

With pleasure, not the shut up part though.

/////////////////Trainer Miguel///////////

/////////////////////Vs.////////////////////////

///////////////////Marowak/////////////////

I smirked that marowak was just standing there, little did it know that it was going to be caught, "A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, we'll win this one, Ace use aerial ace!"

Ace dove towards the brown bodied pokemon yet the enemy head butted Ace while using its mask made of a pokemon's skull, knocking him back to me.

He's actually kind of strong… Ace said with interest.

You guys aren't going to hurt him… said NéNé.

"Well I'll prove you wrong, Ace use wing attack!" and Ace charged in with his wings outspread, his wingspan was definitely amazingly long, like around four to five feet. But to my surprise Marowak intercepted the attack with his bone club and attacked Ace. "Use somersault!" And right after Ace got hit he did a flip and his pokeball recalled him after he made the hit.

Or so it seems he hit it. "Hey, what happened, it didn't block, move, or hit anything, Ace made contact with it, there should be a scratch on that Marowak!"

"Maro… wak…" It seemed to be really disturbed and angry; its eyes began to turn a ferocious crimson shade.

"Miguel give it up!" I turned back, it was grandma…

//////////end//////////

"But why?" I yelled. "Didn't you want me to become a better trainer?"

Grandma sighed. "You can't fight ghosts through normal means… Usually kids believe in ghost stories if they lived in lavender town but it seems you're a quirk."

"Wait so that thing really is a ghost?" I was surprised, I took a look at the Marowak, and it did slightly explain what happened to me…

I told you, but you didn't want to believe me… NéNé said exasperated.

"Usually kids are sent to the lavender town tower when they come of age, it's either that or a pokemon journey, and you chose the journey because you saw more challenge in it…" She said explaining things. "That way we have people to protect the culture and people to represent this town out in the real world." I listened. "I agree with your decision, in fact I was a lot like you when I was your age, rash, rebellious, mischievous, talented, high headed, and most of all ambitious. But you really should believe in ghosts, just don't believe what everyone tells you… And the reason why ghosts haven't attacked you before was because you were protected by youth and by the seers and monks and priests in this place."

"I understand…" I said astonished that I was actually fighting a ghost. I recalled Ace, besides I energy to whoop cipher's ass. Grandma walked to the ghost.

"Marowak, please let us through, we're here to help the tower, not taint it…" And she walked up the stairs. I ran after her but Marowak stepped in my way.

"Uh, grandma…"

"He's with me…" When I climbed the last set of stairs I saw the last room. It looked more like a hallway, but was completely empty. Except for one man…

"YOU!" I yelled after the admin.

"Ah… Miguel," The old man said slowly. "So we meet again…"

"Miguel, is this the man who had captured you?" Grandma asked.

"Yeah, this is Ale, grandma…" I responded through gritted teeth.

"Hmmm, this old lady looks quite familiar…" Ale began to peer through his spectacles. "Ah, so you're the grandson of Agatha of the elite four, no?" He asked rhetorically.

"What's it to you?!" I yelled hoarsely.

"You could've fooled me, I mean, if you underestimate powers of illusions and spirits then surely you can't be of her descent…" He said as if to mock me. My mind was pulsing with fury, or… was it fear that was pulsing inside of me, banging at my chest, getting me ready to leap towards the enemy.

I took a deep breath. "Well, I know what tricks you're going to try on me, and it's not going to work!"

"Enough talk!" Grandma yelled. We both were silenced. "You there have done harm to my grandson,"

"And so what if I did?!" Ale said in his old man voice.

"Yeah, my grandma's gonna sweep the floor with you!" I said confidently.

"And, he will regain his glory, by defeating you!" I don't think my grandma heard me.

"What?"

"Aren't you a man, then maybe you should at least try your best to defeat him!" Grandma yelled she can be scary sometimes. "And isn't this your mission?" She yelled.

"Ah, no problem, I can beat this guy easily!" I said confidently and NéNé floating beside me got ready to fight. "NéNé, I'm going to send you out once he sends out his shadow pokemon or his dusknoir, ok?"

Got it, NéNé nodded.

/////Trainer Miguel///////

/////////////Vs.///////////////

////////Admin Ale/////////

"Just out of curiosity, how many pokemon are you using?" Ale asked.

"I'll beat you with four!" I yelled out.

"Well, since an elite member is here, I shall go all out!" And he drew out six pokeballs.

"Damn…" This is going to be a hard battle, I thought. And his dusknoir alone was troublesome enough, and it wasn't even a shadow pokemon.

"Let's go baltoy!" and a small brown pokemon popped out. It was shaped like a spinning top and had two small arms sticking out from its sides.

"A baltoy…" I said as I watched the pokemon come out, I've heard that it was a ground and psychic type pokemon, this shouldn't too hard. "Let's go haunter!" And in a flash of light, the purple ghost pokemon came from the pokeball.

"A shadow haunter, this haunter was originally mined before it was snagged, I will make sure you hand it over once I finish this mission!" He said with a twinge of anger. "A little incompetent boy stalled me and gave some girl time to snag my haunter!"

"Oh, please, you sound like a little kid, whining like that!" Yelled grandma.

"Haunter use shadow ball!" yet the haunter disobeyed orders and turned towards me. "What the hell are you doing?!" The ghostly pokemon gathered up an orb of energy that grew larger and larger with every second, and finally it shot it towards me.

"Looks like you and Leon are much alike…" Ale said. "However I think your fate is going to end in failure!"

"Crobat use protect!" And a swift and purple figure leapt in front of me and blocked the attack.

"Eh…?" I looked up; it was grandma's crobat, a large purple bat with two wings, and a pair of feet that have morphed into a second set of wings.

"Try not to do anything risky like using a new pokemon again!" Grandma sounded exasperated.

"Baltoy use psybeam!" And the small spinning top hit my haunter with shining rainbow colored beam.

"Haun…ter…" the ghost pokemon groaned. And then it raised a claw and swiped at the baltoy, causing some damage as well.

"I should be able to regain this pokemon quite easily, baltoy use gyro ball!" Baltoy began spinning so fast that a silver light illuminated from the pokemon, then it charged at haunter and knocked it back a bit.

"Haunter, listen to me if you want to win this battle and gain your freedom!" I yelled. The haunter seemed to understand what I was saying. "Calm down, I know you're angry at the human race, but not all of us are as crazy as this lunatic!"

"Ter…" I caught his attention.

"If we want to win this, then please listen to me!" And the haunter nodded. "Now, use dense fog!" and the fog around the place which Ace had so recently cleared up had reappeared, yet this time thicker and denser. So dense that my shadow radar couldn't even see haunter's shadow aura. "Now, I know you can see the enemy so fire at will with shadow ball or dark pulse!" I heard explosions from all around, and it seemed to hit something.

Return and I heard the familiar sound of the pokeball zapping the pokemon back. "I underestimated you; this seems to be my problem Miguel…" Then he sent out another pokemon. The fog was still a little thick so I couldn't see what was happening, but when it cleared haunter was knocked out.

"I guess this pokemon is strong…" When I recalled haunter, I noticed the pokemon had a stone at the center of its body, or core. It was a ghost type with a purple body and the face seemed to be made of an aura emanating from the stone. I used the pokedex; it said that the pokemon was a spiritomb, quite a rare species of ghost types. Then my shadow radar responded. A barely visible purple aura floated from the spiritomb. "NéNé…" NéNé got ready for battle.

"Shadow sky!" Yelled Ale. The spiritomb sent a bit of its aura towards the ceiling and caused the whole room to grow dark, slowly ebbing at NéNé's health.

"NéNé, use shadow claw!" NéNé ran up and swiped at the keystone belonging to spiritomb, and forced the ghost to go flying with it.

"Dark pulse!" Spiritomb sent a dark wave of energy towards NéNé and knocked it back. "Now ominous wind!" And spiritomb forced a purple stream of wind to blow NéNé farther back.

That hurt… moaned NéNé.

"Well, let's get back by using will ó wisp!" And NéNé raised group of small blue flames and sent it towards the rival ghost, burning it.

"Use toxic!" And the enemy spewed a vile acid towards NéNé, corroding her health.

Miguel, I don't feel so well… NéNé, looked more purple than usual…

"Now attack with thunder!" Yelled Ale.

"Protect!" NéNé raised a green shield while Spiritomb had charged up electricity and sent it all towards NéNé in a flash of light. Once the glare of light faded, NéNé was on the floor unconscious. "Darn, the weather effect and toxic really took a toll on NéNé." I recalled NéNé and sent someone else out, I was already down to half my team and this guy barely lost one. "Let's show them what we got, Ace!" and the jerk of a bird came out. Then I took a look at the enemy's pokemon, it was wearing down due to the attack, so I should be able to snag it now. A pokeball generated in the snag machine.

"Spiritomb try to attack his arm with a shadow ball attack!" I clenched the pokeball in my fist, the ghost shot out a black blob from its body. There wasn't enough time; the attack was going to collide! I closed my eyes, anticipating the attack; I could almost hear the attack coming towards me. But, nothing came. I opened my eyes and there was something in front of me, it was Ace.

"Ace, you saved me!" And I threw the pokeball at the shadow pokemon.

I only did it cuz' I knew I wasn't going to get hurt… the bird replied. I seriously am getting fed up with this bird.

"Whatever, you helped me out and we're going to win!" And the spiritomb was swallowed up by the snag ball.

"Hmph, that was just a weak pokemon, let's see how you deal with this dusknoir!" Then in an instant, a memory of all that had happened surged back into my head. I began to tremble, as if spirits were weighing me down.

Miguel, are you okay? He had not experienced the suffering that I had gone through, and I am not planning to let anyone go through it.

"Yeah…" My head pulsed with anger.

"It seems as if you're trembling with fear, no?" Ale asked.

"Miguel, if you wish to take a break, you are excused." Grandma said getting ready to step in.

"No, I'll continue."

"I'd leave this place if I were you…" Ale smiled. "You never know what may happen to those that are connected to you…"

"What?" He seemed to be speaking nonsense again. "Ace, let's show this idiot what we can do!" I gave an order. "Use feather dance!" Ace flew above the ghost and drowned the dusknoir with down.

"Like that will make much of a difference, use ice punch!" Dusknoir's fist became coated with ice and then it floated up to Ace and it punched it. However due to the down, the attack was cushioned.

"Brave bird!" And Ace flew up higher, yet still trying not to bump into the ceiling and then made a dive bomb, and quickly gained momentum.

"Gravity!" Dusknoir created a void of gravity around Ace and instantly forced him to come crashing down, from that high altitude, preventing the attack to be directed at him.

"Ace!" I panicked now, birds are hopeless when they're flightless unless they're flightless birds, and Ace isn't supposed to be flightless.

"Thunderpunch!" Dusknoir's fist cackled with electricity and then it disappeared then reappeared in front of Ace and punched the light out of it, paralyzing it and rendering him useless in battle.

"No…" I recalled Ace and got ready to send out Striker.

"Miguel wait, Striker will only be a wasted effort if you use him, I suggest you take a break, you did fine…" Grandma got ready for battle.

"Alright."

////////end/////////

All of a sudden however, there was a scream. And Ale smiled. "Looks like one of my underlings have done their role, and now mine is done as well."

"Hold it; I'm not through with you!" But when he attempts to make his escape, his movements seem to be restricted.

"Huh, what's happening to me?" He said with fear in his eyes. Then a ghostly figure materialized right behind him and his dusknoir. It was the ghost marowak.

"I guess the spirits can handle it from here…" Grandma replied, but work was not over, and night had fallen, there was still trouble running amok. But I took a look back, I saw that even the dusknoir seemed to be troubled, I guess there were more than just one ghost in this place, whether you can see it or not.

Lavender town

I looked outside, it was dark, and the clouds grey, yet the streets were flooded with panicked people. Team cipher had struck. But what was their purpose for attacking my home-town. Whatever their reason was, it wouldn't be legitimate. I ran off, and I went to see if Mr. Fuji was ok.

When I got to his house the lights were on, was he still home aware of what was happening, or was he being attacked. The door however looked as if it had been forced open, that wasn't good.

I rushed inside, the whole house looked a mess, the furniture was lying around and there were signs of a struggle, I hope I wasn't too late. I rush upstairs, and there they were. Two people, a cipher peon and Mr. Fuji himself.

"Miguel," Mr. Fuji said with a shaky look in his eyes. "Run while you still can!"

"Give it up old man, you're coming with us whether you like it or not, you're the only person worth coming for in this whole dump of a town." Said the peon.

"You, better not have hurt the old man!" I said getting ready to sock the peon, he wasn't that much larger than me, I could handle him.

"Oh yeah?" The peon raised his fists as well, but I landed a punch on him first. "Bastard!" He retaliated with a punch of his own, making my head turn sideways, to Mr. Fuji's direction. I noticed that he had scribbled something down onto a piece of paper and he gave me a meaningful look. What did he mean; surely I can't just look at the paper while I'm in a fight. I threw a punch at the person's gut and then picked up a text book and whacked him upside the head.

"Take that!" I yelled as I gave him another hit. But then he retaliated as well, but with a kick this time, he did so by landing on his hands and pushing upwards, launching his feet into the air, knocking my jaw up. I stumbled backwards a little and tried to regain my balance. The guy was coming at me fast, for a bunch of weirdly dressed weirdoes they sure do know how to fight. He raised his hand, clenched in a fist and threw it at me, this time I caught it. "You wanna see some fancy foot-work?"

I did the same move he did to me, but this time I added another hit, I jumped into the air and kicked him downward. I landed and noticed he was unconscious. I looked at Mr. Fuji and smiled he seemed to be making a gesture to look back, but then I smelled something atrocious. I was about to go cover my mouth but then I began to lose the ability to stand myself, I looked behind myself before I fell, it was a cipher member, with a pokemon…

Pokemon center

I woke up. My head felt heavy but I had a feeling something was wrong. "Mr. Fuji!" I yelled out loud. I tried to get out of bed, but I couldn't move, I noticed I was in a hospital gowns. Boy did I hate those things.

"I see you're finally up." Said a familiar voice.

"Fred?" I turned and saw the detective to be, sitting on a chair, reading the lavender town newspaper.

"If it's about the festival, relax, everything's going to proceed thanks to you but…" Fred trailed off.

"Mr. Fuji's been kidnapped hasn't he?" I said hoping for a no.

"Well, I looked around his house to see if he had left any clues as to where to find him but all he left was this note for you…" Fred said taking out a letter from his pocket. I got out of bed, I was still unsteady with my steps but I could at least make it to get the note and then rest.

"Thanks…" And after I took the note he left. I went back to my bed to read what Mr. Fuji had left me.

Miguel, I know that you are worried about my condition but please do not do anything rash to help me. Team cipher will not bring any harm to me, there is a reason why but for now I do not wish to right it in this letter for fear of team cipher getting to this. I have left something for you, it is somewhere in the roof of the lavender tower, use NéNé's abilities to seek out a special flute. That flute has special properties, there are only two of them in this world, and it is my gift to you. It is also something good to use for the festival if you wish to take part in it.

"He says he's ok…" But my curiosity intrigued me, what was this special flute? I guess I should go to the tower once more and check.

Lavender town

After I had regained all of my equipment I ran towards the tower, I didn't take the time to enjoy the scenery; the place was really well decorated though. The trees were decorated with lights and such. There were booths with games and prizes and stands were someone would give a speech of do a performance. It was a yearly tradition and an offering to the ghosts, later there would be a play honoring the beginning of this event. But I just ran strait through the bustling crowds, they really are behind schedule, maybe I should help set things up when I'm done.

Lavender tower

This place again… I sighed, I really am still not too adjusted towards the aspect of ghosts but I took up my courage and went in. I walked up the flights of stairs, the fog didn't seem as strong as last time, I guess it's because team cipher's not bothering the spirits today. When I got to the last flight of stairs the same ghost that I had both attacked and was helped by was there. I sent out NéNé just to be safe.

"Marowak…" said the ghosts, I had a feeling I knew what it meant though, it gave me a piercing look.

"Don't worry I'm not here to battle you today, I'm just here to retrieve Mr. Fuji's pokeflute."

The marowak nodded and acknowledged me, it stepped aside as if to let me go and get the flute. I was in the same hallway as last time, where I had battled Ale and basically lost. I wonder what happened to him. Did he get captured by the police or was he spirited away…

I looked around, the room seemed empty. Hey Miguel what exactly are we looking for?

"Here, read this…" I said handing her a note.

Uh, you do remember that I'm a pokemon who doesn't know how to read right?

"Oh, well we're here to look for a special flute, and Mr. Fuji said to have you help me look for it, I'm not sure how…"

A flute? Then NéNé began to search behind the walls and in suspicious places. After a few minutes I heard a click and a secret chamber opened.

"Wow, a secret room…" I walked towards it, the room was in between two statues and it was filled with a lot of cobwebs, in the small chamber there was a small dusty looking chest. I walked towards it to open it up, and inside there was an old looking flute. "This thing is the special pokeflute?" I said a little disappointed. It was made out of wood and was intricately designed with inscriptions, well since Mr. Fuji left it for me I guess I should at least keep it safe.

After that I left the creepy building.

Lavender town

I had an idea; maybe I should let all my pokemon out so they can enjoy the scenery, so everyone popped out.

So Miguel, is this how home is supposed to look like? asked Striker.

Of course it is you dimwit… Said Ace.

Hey, stop being so mean Ace! Yelled NéNé. My other two pokemon just floated there silently.

I decided to go to the police station, maybe I can find some leads as to where Mr. Fuji was.

Lavender police station

Inside the place was really clean, and it looked as if it was a dentist's office. I looked around, I noticed Fred at a desk doing some paper work. "Hey…"

Fred looked up. "Hello there," He replied. "What brings you here, if it's about Mr. Fuji we haven't gotten anything out of team cipher, the peons seem to be just taking orders…"

"Oh, well how about an admin leader named Ale, did you even get him?" I asked wondering if that guy may know anything.

"Uh, well we found a body of an old man, but he seems to be in a coma, but I think he's just traumatized from being in that creepy tower for so long…" I froze; I guess that marowak definitely did a number on him. "Well, is there anything important in that letter?"

"He told us not to worry too much about him, and he gave me this pokeflute…"

"A pokeflute?" He asked. "I've never saw one before but I heard they're really special, and they can also have various effects on pokemon, one known effect is that they can wake a sleeping pokemon up, there's only one other known flute and that one's held by Kanto region's champion Red.

Lavender town

I began to get a little more curious as to what this flute can do, so I went outside and after polishing and cleaning it off a little I began to play it in front of my pokemon. I didn't know how to play this flute but the power just flowed within me, I guess the flute seemed to be playing itself rather than me playing it. After I finished playing it, I looked up. My pokemon seemed to have content looks on their faces.

What beautiful tone… Said NéNé with a dreamy look on her face.

Play it again! Said Striker bouncing up and down.

Eh, it's not bad… Ace said looking away and beginning to preen his feathers. I checked my shadow radar, the purple aura seemed to be burning out, like a fire exposed to cold air.

Then I got up. "Hey, you guys want to stay around for the festival?" I said walking towards a familiar booth.

Sure. NéNé and Striker said at the same time.

Why not? and I walked over to the host of the party. They informed me of everything and what our group can do. The pokemon can play tricks and stuff and I can be giving off commands, I liked the sound of that.

A few hours later.

The festival has officially started. People did various plays. There were comedians, story tellers, magicians, and seers. There were also stunt artists and other people here to. The booths consisted of snack lines, fortune tellers, and other stuff too. But it was my turn to go up on stage next. I got my flute ready and three of my non-shadow pokemon, haunter and spiritomb were sitting on the sidelines. Then I started it off.

I played a single note, as if to say go. The air seemed to get foggier, that was NéNé's job, to scare the heck out of the audience. Then Striker threw small objects into the air. I played some more notes as if to command Ace. While the objects were high in the air Ace reacted to the notes and he attacked the objects one by one. The first one popped, it was filled with water. Another note, another popped, this one was filled with slime. More objects were thrown, and more notes were played and then more objects were popped. Then out of no where a screech was heard, it was NéNé, scaring the audience, but then I noticed haunter join in on the fright fest, I checked him with the shadow radar, and he seemed ok. Both haunter and Spiritomb were enjoying their selves. It was a tradition to enjoy a good scare and cause a few in all of lavender's festivals. Then my performance ended, the slime, confetti, feathered, covered crowd cheered. They enjoyed my performance and my pokemon enjoyed performing.

Yahoo! Cried a new voice. That was awesome! It was haunter, he was at his last stage of purification.

That was great, I admit it… Said spiritomb as well. I recalled all of my pokemon and hurried towards the pokemon center, I put both of my shadow pokemon in and they were purified.

It was night time again and I decided to turn in for the day, I didn't bother seeing the last performance, I was tired as is. The next day is when I start my next mission, even if this one wasn't a total success, I still met my main objectives…

The next day

I woke up, I decided to leave spiritomb with grandma to help protect the town, but I kept haunter with me, all of a sudden however he began to glow, I heard that when a haunter exchanges trainers they evolve. His hands merged with his body and his body grew more solid looking. Legs protruded from the bottom of his body and his back became to look somewhat spiky. Haunter evolved into gengar. "I think I'll name you spooky!"

End

Chapter 11 – Christmas time catastrophic!

Leon's view

Saffron city

"I'm back in saffron city…" I said in a nostalgic tone. I didn't think I'd be back so soon, in fact I really felt like getting away from the place. "It looks so much the same as that day." It was snowing. Not a soul in site, it was night time, all was quiet, there wasn't even a rattata scurrying about. "Where to begin…" I had only just got my mission briefing and had just gotten yelled at by a few people… Of all the things they told me, they didn't tell me who to go to, just go. I walked around, I decided to go to the gym, and maybe Sabrina can help me out.

But then I heard a cry for help. It was coming from not too far from where I was. I broke into a run. I dashed through allies and streets. The person was still crying for help, and the cries were getting louder. I grabbed a metal pipe lying around and a trash-can lid, I didn't want to use pokemon in case the person was just a random thug. And then there they were, two cloaked thugs crowding around a small innocent looking child. The nerve of these people attacking a little kid, which pumped me up, strength surged through my legs and arms.

"RAAAAHHHH!" I leapt forward with a mighty yell, clenching the metal pipe as if it were a sword and keeping the lid in front of me as a shield. The two thugs one slim and the other bulky turned around, I attacked the bulky one first with a swing of my pipe. It hit his waist pretty hard, he stepped back a few steps and tried to see who I was. Then I brought my pipe back. I turned to face the little kid. "Hurry up and run or get help but try not to come back here!"

"Th-thank you." And the boy nodded and ran off towards a tall building…

"Who is this psycho?" Yelled the skinner of the two. I lunged at that one and jabbed him with the piece of metal I wielded. "That hurt…"

Then the larger guy leapt at me and threw a punch at my face, but I blocked it with my trash-can lid. The two were closing in on me but then I spun around with my pipe and knocked both of them away.

"Wait a second," Said the skinny guy.

"This guy looks familiar." Said the other.

"And what's it to you?" I asked panting.

"Hey Knox, it's Leon!" Said the larger guy whose hood had just fallen off.

"You're right Largo; I'd recognize that snag machine anywhere!" Largo said whose hood had also fallen off. His eye was focusing on my left arm which was where I held my trash-can lid, but was also where my snagger was located.

"Well, it's nice to see you two idiots again!" I yelled sarcastically getting angry, yet immediately dropped my weapons and got ready to send out two of my pokemon, luckily I had purified vibrava; now dubbed Vivia, at the pokemon center. And Vivia and Dusk had emerged from their respective pokeballs.

"Such a warm welcome in this chilly atmosphere!" Replied Knox.

"Why don't we give him one in return?" Largo said cracking his knuckles. They each had sent out two non-shadow pokemon, a pink and blue colored pokemon that looked like it was shaped from building blocks for kids while the other was a sumo-wrestler type pokemon. I checked my pokedex; it was a porygon and a hariyama, a normal type and a fighting type.

//////////////Trainer Leon///////////

///////////////////Vs.////////////////////

/////Peons Largo and Knox/////

"Vivia use gust!"

"Got it Leon, I'll try my best!" Replied Vivia, she flapped her wings strong and hard and it forced Hariyama and porygon to stay in place,

"Now Dusk, use the wind and attack hariyama with quick attack!" Dusk sped off, with his limber and lithe body he charged against the large pokemon, making it fall on the ground.

"Porygon use psybeam on that vibrava!" And porygon's eyes glowed blue and it fired a rainbow colored beam at Vivia, causing her to stop creating gusts of wind.

"Now hariyama, before it can escape, use arm thrust on Eevee!" And hariyama got up and started to attack Dusk.

"Dusk evade the attack!"

"You really think this fatty can really catch me?" Dusk dodged most of the attacks and got a little cocky and that was when he got hit.

"Vivia quick, use dragon breath on Hariyama!" Vivia inhaled a breath of air and spewed a scarlet colored breath of air at hariyama. The fat pokemon got hit hard and tried to take the hit, only to get a little tired after the attack let up.

"Hariyama's probably paralyzed by now!" I saw Largo give a snarl. "Now, use double quick attack on Hariyama!" Both Vivia and Dusk ran towards hariyama.

"Porygon, block the attack and use conversion 2!" Porygon glowed a stony grey color and leapt in front of hariyama, both Dusk and Vivia crashed into porygon and bounced back.

"What happened?" I said a little puzzled.

"Conversion and conversion 2, they both change the type of the user into a more useful type of attack!" Knox said, well obviously Largo wasn't going to answer.

"Yeah what he said!" Then we saw hariyama leap from behind porygon and raise a fist. "Use dynamic punch!" Hariyama's fist began shining with energy and it brought the fist down to where Dusk was.

"Dusk dodge it!" Dusk leapt out of the way.

"That was close!" Dusk said as he saw an explosion come from where he previously was, and it wouldn't be a pretty sight to see an eevee get hit by that attack.

"Well, Vivia use dragon pulse on porygon!"

"Charge beam!" The two attacks collided and sent snow flying around the place, this gave me an idea.

"Dusk use sand attack on Hariyama!"

"But there is no sand…"Said Largo, oblivious as to what I'm going to do. Dusk put his hind legs forwards and started kicking up snow to hariyama, the bulky pokemon tried to shoo the snow away yet it was in vain.

"Vivia use secret power!" And Vivia's body began glowing with light and the snow around her began shooting towards Hariyama.

"You idiot, he's trying to bury your hariyama in snow!" Then he looked at me. "Porygon use ice beam!" I realized he was aiming for Vivia.

"Vivia get out of the way!" But it was too late; Vivia got hit hard by the attack and was knocked out due to her major weakness. "Let's go Ken!" And my trusted starter pokemon came out.

"I see we're here for a reunion!" Ken said getting in a fighting stance by bringing his fists close to his face and making small jumps.

"That blasted riolu evolved into a lucario already?" Yelled Knox.

"It looks bigger…" Said Largo.

"And they're as dumb as ever!" Both me and Ken said at the same time.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, take a look at that hariyama," Dusk was just finishing making a fat snowman out of hariyama. "While we were talking that hariyama was being turned into a living snowman!"

"Hariyama break free!" The snow stirred to my surprise. And eventually the snow was sent flying all around. But once it got out, it was a pale blue. Let me think, whenever I touch something hot, it always seems hotter when I'm cold; or I can just put it through more coldness and freeze it.

"Ken use blaze kick on hariyama!" Ken dashed to hariyama and his feet caught fire, melting the snow wherever he treaded.

"Whirlwind!" And hariyama inhaled air and blew a strong gust of wind out, diminishing Ken's fire blazed feet, it still made contact though.

"That was still supposed to hurt!" I said watching hariyama take the kick as if nothing happened.

"Hariyama's thick fat protects him from hot and cold attacks!" Largo yelled smiling; I was surprised he knew something.

"Dusk attack hariyama with a trump card!" Dusk got charged with energy and shot the energy out at the pokemon, causing some damage.

"Porygon use thunderbolt!" And the sharply shaped pokemon blasted electricity in all directions.

"Ken use psychic and do some damage too!" While porygon blasted electricity, Ken began to call upon a fierce blue aura and it blocked him from the attack, Dusk wasn't so skill full in such attack so he dodge some but still got shocked. When the enemy's attack ceded Ken sent a full blown psychic attack at the hariyama and knocked it out.

"Take that you sumo!" Ken said confidently.

"Largo, go and get that kid, he might've found help by now!" Knox said giving a command.

"Sure thing!" And the bulky peon ran off.

"You do know that you're outnumbered now right?" I asked.

"Oh, no need to worry, porygon discharge some energy!" Porygon's body gathered electricity and blasted it in all directions.

"Dusk use helping hand before you get hit!" Dusk began to cheer Ken on. "Ken use aura sphere!" Ken began to focus a concentrated ball of blue energy into his right hand, but both had gotten zapped by electricity, Ken however remained standing and charging. "Return!" Dusk was recalled and once dusk was recalled, Ken fired his aura sphere.

"Porygon try to dodge it!" But it was no use, that blue orb couldn't miss by normal means and once it made its mark it caused the porygon to collapse. Knox recalled the porygon and smiled. "Time to really go crazy!" And he sent out a pokemon, it was a brown pokemon with a skull as a mask. It wielded a bone as a club. I checked the pokedex, it said it was a ground type and it was a Marowak, that wasn't it. The pokemon had a purple aura coming from it.

"A shadow pokemon…"

"No time to relax Leon, we have to try harder!" Ken said getting pumped up.

"Ok, Ken use force palm!" Ken rushed forward and leaned towards the enemy, then it thrust its palm into marowak's stomach, the shadow pokemon gave a small shudder; that should mean it's paralyzed.

"Bone club!" Marowak didn't give Ken time to run and knocked it back to our side of the field. Ken landed on his feet though and regained balance, his steadfast ability seemed to have kicked in.

"Quick attack!" Ken ran towards Marowak even faster than before and tackled it yet did no damage. "Use flash cannon!" Ken raised his hand together and blasted out a shining white light, blasting marowak away.

"Use a bonemerang!" After marowak regained balance it threw its club at Ken like a boomerang.

"Jump!" Ken dodged the attack.

"Is that all?" Ken taunted.

"Use shadow end!" Marowak's aura began glowing fiercely and it reared its head forward ready to hit Ken.

"Try to take the hit!" Ken raised his hands up to block the hit, but then the marowak's club attacked Ken from behind.

"Argh!" Ken yelled as he was afterwards rammed towards the sky.

"While you're in the air get ready for a focus punch!" Ken's fist began glowing while he was in the air.

"Marowak use your focus punch!" Marowak's aura began turning a fierce red while his fist was glowing, that wasn't good. When Ken landed he had finished charging and was already running to Marowak who had also finished charging. The two pokemon got face to face and hit the other's fist with the attack, causing an explosion to erupt.

I took this chance to take the enemy by surprise and to snag the marowak, the snag ball appeared in my snag machine and I clenched it. Once the shadow pokemon came into view I threw the pokeball towards the aura and the marowak was engulfed in light.

"NO!" Knox yelled. The marowak was caught, yet the fierce red aura was still blazing within the pokeball, I picked it up, Knox ran off. I recalled Ken.

/////////end///////

"That was a nice fight there Ken…" Then I looked around, the only footprints visible were those of Knox's, the battle had washed away the steps of the small kid. I decided to take out the marowak and see if I could becalm it.

"Maro…" Marowak's eyes were ablaze with fury maybe it wasn't such a good idea to call it out now, the aura seemed like a burning fire too.

"It's ok marowak, hey maybe I should name you wako for your crazy look!" Then all of a sudden the ferocious marowak raised its club and struck my right arm, I heard a crack, I immediately grabbed my arm with my left hand. "Ahh!" then it whacked my head, the last thing I saw was a flash of light and two figures, than everything went black…"

Somewhere…

I woke up. And the first thing I sensed was the searing pain in my head. "Blasted marowak, I was only joking when I said that…" I tried to rub my head to see if I had any bruises but then another pain emerged and it was in my right arm, it was broken. "Ahh… man this hurts so much!" I said plopping back onto the bed I was on. Wait, since when was I on a bed. I looked around; the room was really a nice looking room. It wasn't a hospital but it made me feel a little bit calmer; I doubt team cipher would put me in such a nice room unless they're trying to trick me. Besides, why would they leave all of my stuff on a table right beside me, they even changed my clothes for me, wait that isn't good… Well at least they didn't completely strip me; my undergarments were feeling a little wet from the snow… The bed was so soft and plushy and the pillow was as fluffy as a pidgey. I could sleep here forever… But then I remembered the little kid. I immediately got out of the bed and sprang to my feet despite the throbbing pain in my head or the burning agony in my arm. I had trouble getting my equipment on and I seemed to have dropped all of my stuff on the floor due to the fact that I only had one arm to use.

Bang

The door burst open. "Oh, so you're finally awake?" and a young girl stepped in, she was probably a year younger than me and she dressed as if she was extremely rich.

"Eh, who're you?" I said abruptly and standing as still as a statue.

"Oh, I'm Molly; you saved my little brother from those peons!" She said walking up to me and switching the lights on. "You really took a beating!" She said sounding concerned.

"Eh, well it wasn't from those thugs in case you're wondering," I said with the marowak in my mind.

"By the way, that marowak is yours right, I mean your lucario was battling it while you were unconscious."

"Yeah, they're both mine." I said. "Where am I?"

"Oh, you're in the Silph family mansion!"

"WHAT!"

"Here, come take a look around the house." She said walking out the door. I hastily put all my stuff on the bed and ran out the door, clenching my arm.

"Wait up!" I said and once I got out the door I saw a large entrance, even bigger than Misty's mansion.

"Mikey!!!" Molly yelled. "That's my little brother in case you're wondering." And as soon as she called the boy's name he instantly ran up to see me.

"Hey there…" I said. The small kid had the same complexion as his sister; light skinned and Asian. They both also had sleek black hair; Mikey seemed to be around 6-8 years old.

"Hi, I'm Mikey; you beat those thugs up remember!" He said with innocent looking eyes.

"Uh… yeah…"

"We were supposed to get a bodyguard some time today but it seems he didn't show up yet," Molly said.

"Wait a bodyguard?" I asked getting intrigued. "I think I'm supposed to be your bodyguard, I got assigned to an important family, I just forgot who it was supposed to be, let me confirm this!" And I slipped back into my room and got out my P*DA and called Misty.

[Hello, Leon, did you find the people you're supposed to be guarding yet?] Misty asked.

"I think so, it's Silph right?"

[Good you found them] And she hung up.

I walked out the room. "I'm you're bodyguard, Leon the shadow snagger at your service!" I said proudly.

"Awesome; hey, hey, think you can teach me how to battle huh?" Mikey said enthusiastically.

"Uh… Well I guess so, but shouldn't I meet your parents first?" I asked.

"Yeah," Molly said. "But you can meet them during dinner and it's almost time." I checked my P*DA; it was 6:00.

"Ok, then." My stomach growled. "Hehehe, I guess I'm hungry!" Then my arm began to hurt.

"Are you ok?" Molly asked.

"I think my arm got broken…"

"Oh, then you should see the doctor fast!" Mikey said.

After Mikey and Molly took me to their family doctor, he took and X-ray of my arm and head. "This doesn't look too good…" The doctor said.

"Great, our bodyguard gets here but he's beaten up…" Molly said with a sigh.

"But then can't I still battle?" I asked.

"Yes but you may want to stay away from big battles until your arm gets remotely better, I think you should wear a cast."

"Wha?" But then he injected me with something and for the second time that day things got fuzzy and I blacked out.

When I woke up it was way past six, it was eleven o'clock. "Darn it… I miss out on a perfectly good meal today…" I noticed my arm was in a cast and my head was bandaged up. I got out of bed, it was the same one as before and I left the room. Everyone seemed to be sleeping, so I decided to go back to my room.

"Hey there!"

"GAH!" And right in front of me, was Mikey.

"Quiet down, can't you tell people are sleeping!" He said in a harsh whisper. "I thought I should stay up and show you around the house!"

"Kid, isn't it way past your bed time?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter, I can't sleep anyway." He said yawning and he pulled me away from my room. He led me through the hallways to a nearby door. "This here is Molly's room, but she doesn't like people barging in when she's sleeping. Then he led me to another area. "This is my room…" And on and on again. He showed me where his parents bedroom was, the doctor's office, the swimming pool and where their pokemon were kept; not that they had that many and most were usually with their trainers. He also showed me where the kitchen was and where the bathroom was, but there was already one in my room.

"Mikey…" Said a girl's voice from behind us.

"Oh, hey sis!" He said waving as if it were in the afternoon.

"Go to sleep; it's past your bed time and plus I bet you're bothering Leon too!" Molly said scolding Mikey.

"But Molly I was showing Leon around the house…"

"I doubt you'd get through the whole house, and besides once you finish; if you do; then it'll be morning by then." Then she faced me. "Leon, aren't you getting tired too?"

"Uh…" I didn't really want to hurt the kid's feeling so I lied. "No, actually I'm feeling quite fine!" But then I yawned; that gave it away.

"See!" Mikey said oblivious to my yawn.

"Come on…" She said pulling me away from Mikey. "I doubt you're going to find your room in the dark by yourself, and Mikey isn't going to let you sleep, he's too excited with a trainer like you around…" Then we came to my room.

"Molly, why can't Leon stay up?" he asked.

"He can, it's just that he doesn't want to and you can't, now go-to-bed!" She said in a growl. And he left sulking. "You'll have time to talk to Leon in the morning; he's guarding us all day, remember?" and with that we each went to our respective beds.

Silph mansion

After I got some sleep.

"Rise and shine!" someone said while jumping onto my chest while someone else pulled the curtains open.

"Ack." I said towards the harsh wake-up call.

"Mikey get off him, he's hurt remember?" Molly said.

"I'm ok…" I said getting off the bed still feeling sleepy. Then a flash of light came forth.

"Hey boss, is this small human hurting you; cuz' if he is then he's gonna pay for it!" The protective eevee said while baring its teeth.

"No, he's just very playful Dusk…" I answered still half asleep.

"Oh, what a cute eevee!" Molly said getting ready to pet Dusk but then he sank his fangs into her hand. "Ahh!"

"Uh, Dusk we're supposed to keep them safe, not hurt them."

"Oops." And Dusk began to lick Molly's hand as if to say sorry.

"Oh, so cute…" She said petting him as if she forgot what he just did. "You know, you should probably go get a shower, it's almost breakfast and didn't you say you wanted to meet our parents?" Molly asked and suggested.

"Good idea…" I said reaching for the door. "Can you guys feed my pokemon well, keep my marowak here, I don't want you guys getting hurt."

"Sure thing!" Mikey said and he grabbed all my pokemon but left one behind, Molly picked Dusk up and carried him to breakfast.

After I had gotten a shower, I felt so new and refreshed. I noticed a new set of clothes laid out on my bed. There was a note attached to it, it said.

Leon,

This is a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Silph, we decided to give you a new set of clothes for the winter since we assumed you'd probably be cold, there are also bullet proof vests and other such garments on the bed for you. We hope these will never be needed but this is just a precaution to ensure that our bodyguard is safe.

Kinda ironic how they're trying to keep me safe instead of the other way around… But I got dressed anyway and grabbed marowak's pokeball; the aura changed back to purple at least. I made my way to the dining room; I'm not sure how I remember where it is so don't ask, and I grabbed a seat. "Good morning everyone,"

"Hiya Leon!" Molly and Mikey said in unison. "This is our mom and dad!" Mikey said going to two adults; probably around their thirties.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Silph." I said looking at them.

"You must be Leon, we hired a bodyguard from Cerulean city and we were hoping it would be someone around Mikey or Molly's age so that you can get along better with them." Mr. Silph said.

"Mikey's pretty excited about having a bodyguard his age!" Mrs. Silph said.

"Uh, well I have a question;"

"Fire away Leon."

"It's about me guarding your children,"

"Oh, Mikey, Molly please, leave the table for a moment." Mr. Silph said.

"But." Molly exclaimed along with Mikey.

"Now…" The two kids left reluctantly.

"Ok, exactly who is it that you want me to protect your children from, team cipher right?" I said getting serious.

"Correct."

"Why is it that they're after your children of all things?"

"Well they're not exactly after Mikey and Molly but they are probably going to target them to take as hostages, and we don't with to scar them with such a memory…"

"What are they really after then?" I asked.

"Well they're not only after our technology and wealth but they're after our employees as well, we can't afford to let them ruin our business." Mr. Silph said with a strait face. "Besides, we were already once under the influence of another criminal organization for the same reasons, we can't let that happen again, they've already killed our eldest son, only Molly remembers him but Mikey has a faint memory of him, and he's been wanting a big brother ever since!"

"I understand, I'll do my best to protect those two," Then I turned around, Dusk, Vivia and Ken were eating at another table but they were listening just as intently as I was. They seemed to understand everything that was being discussed. "You guys promise to protect those two too right?"

"Whatever you say boss!" Dusk said, while sitting down with his head tall; for an eevee.

"I already promised to take down cipher didn't I?" Ken said smiling. "And if this is going to mess them up then why not?"

"You men just jump into saying anything don't you!" Vivia said scolding the two. "Dusk what if Leon told you to kill those two and then jump off a cliff, would you do it?" And then she turned to Ken. "What if killing those two were the only things that would help take down cipher, would you still do it, huh Ken?"

"Uh…"

"Eh…"

"So my answer is yes but my reason is because it's the right thing to do!" Vivia said proudly.

"Lame answer…" Ken said annoyed.

"I agree…" Dusk said nodding his head. And then the three began to yell over the table and go into random discussions.

"Uh, well you get the point, they want to help!" I said trying to cover up the situation. Then I whispered back. "Guys, you're making me look bad to these important people…" Then all three stopped, Ken was in the middle of charging up a small aura sphere, Dusk was shining and getting ready for a last resort while Vivia was getting ready to attack with dragon pulse.

"Fine!" All three said at once.

I sighed, I never thought just having four pokemon would cause so many problems. "Where were we…?" Then all of a sudden the door burst open and the two Silph siblings fell in.

"I wasn't eavesdropping!" Both said guiltily. I laughed; the two were a funny duo. "We didn't hear anything at all, Leon's pokemon were being too loud!" Mikey said, giving the whole lie away.

"As long as you guys didn't hear anything it's all fine!" I said cheerily. "Besides, we're done discussing things anyway so hah, if you were eavesdropping!" After that fiasco Mikey and Molly decided that they wanted to go swimming.

The pool was indoors and boy was it warm inside the place. The whole area was blue and it even had a small kiddy pool and another pool for any pokemon that didn't know how to swim; that was where Ken went. Vivia and Dusk didn't exactly like water and neither did I. Besides, I couldn't get my cast wet.

"Hey, Leon think you can read me a bedtime story to put me to sleep tonight, I'd ask Molly but she's too lazy to." Darn it; reading, I didn't know how to read, I can read a few basic words but heck that was it, I barely even knew the alphabet for crying out loud.

"Uh… I'm going to have to come clean on you with this." I said embarrassed. "I was born an orphan; I was never taught how to read…"

"You don't know how to read?" Molly asked swimming towards the edge. "Well then," I felt so ashamed. "I can teach you, I mean you never had the chance to learn so we can't misjudge you for that!"

"Huh?" I couldn't believe my ears, most people begin to shun me upon hearing that or they give me a disdainful look.

"I've always considered becoming a teacher just in case I can't take over the company!" Molly said thoughtfully.

"And plus, if we're mean to you, you wouldn't want to guard us or hang out with us!" Mikey said still in the swimming pool.

"I'll give you night lessons, as a way to pay you back for putting up with us, and for guarding us!" Molly said.

"Thanks…" I sighed a sigh of relief, I thought I would've gotten fired; I get paid for this two you know.

"Oh, I almost forgot, I have a pokemon of my own!" She said getting a pokeball out from a nearby container and releasing the pokemon into the pool. The pool erupted with water and the pool overflowed a bit, the pokemon was massive. It had a long neck and a large spiky shell on its back, the pokemon had a cream underbelly and was light blue with a few navy blue spots on it. The head had a small horn and ear-like protrusion jutting out from the back of the head. I even forgot to check out what kind of pokemon it was. "Say hello to Nessy the lapras!" She said while hopping onto the pokemon's back.

"Hi" The lapras said shyly.

"Don't be scared, I'm actually here to help protect you!" I said to the lapras.

"Really, Molly is this guy really here to help us?" Nessy asked.

"Y-"She began.

"Yeah, and so are my pokemon, we're a team!" I said pointing to the five of us, including marowak who was in a pokeball.

"Wait, you can understand lapras already?" Molly asked.

"What do you mean; of course I can understand lapras?" I said; these people sure are funny.

"Usually you have to bond with a pokemon before you can understand one, and we have never met before…" the lapras said.

"Really?" I asked. "I guess I'm special then…" Mikey and Molly laughed. I guess this is what it's like to be in a family…

"Hey, why don't we have a battle, to see if Leon really is worth being called our body guard?" Mikey said.

"I guess this will be a one-on-one battle, huh?" I asked.

"Yeah, Mikey doesn't exactly have his own pokemon yet!" Molly said. And all she did was press a button and the whole swimming pool changed, small platforms emerged for land based pokemon or amphibious kinds and the pool grew larger and was split into two sections with a pokeball shaped platform in the middle to mark it.

////Bodyguard Leon////

//////////////Vs./////////////

///////Client Molly//////

"Ok, so which of you want to take part in this battle?" I asked looking towards my three available pokemon.

"I hate water but if boss says I have to go and no one else wants to go then fine, I'll go, but only if no one else will go!" Dusk said.

"I'm hopeless if I get hit by water, so no." Vivia answered frankly.

"If no one else wants to go then I guess I'll battle Nessy!" Ken said jumping on a platform on our side of the field.

"Okay, time to start this match off with surf!" Molly said as she got on her side of the field. Lapras gave off a roar and then the water in the pool began to create ripples and then the water came down on Ken, swamping him.

"KEN!" I tried to see if he can hear me, wait; lucarios can read a person's mind right, and it doesn't matter where the person is they can still communicate… {Ken, can you hear me?}

{Leon, what do I do, I don't know how to swim!}

I thought for a moment, Ken needed a way to blast himself out of the water so maybe… {Ken use water pulse to propel yourself out of there!}

"Leon, are you ok, you're not talking…" Molly asked.

I smiled. "Don't worry Ken and I have more than one way to fight and communicate!" Then all of a sudden light began to emerge from where Ken had been submerged and then Ken flew out of the water with his body engulfed in supporting water, propelling him around the field until he landed on a platform and then the water grew lifeless, dropping back into the pool.

"That was awesome!" Mikey exclaimed as he watched Ken do the amazing trick.

"I've never seen anyone use a move like that before…" Molly said.

"Yeah well neither did I, Ken use aura sphere!" Ken gathered energy in both of his palms.

"Nessy use hydro pump!" Nessy blasted a strong jet of water towards Ken.

"Detect!" Ken's eyes twinkled and the moment when the blast was going to hit him he dodged it and landed on another nearby platform, throwing the spheres while platform hopping.

"Nessy dive!" Nessy dived underwater. But it seemed to be all in vain, the attacks exploded underwater.

{They can't hide from us; your foresight ability should help you find her!} I thought to Ken.

{Alright then.} Ken closed his eyes and a blue aura radiated from him, he put his hand on his chest and the other out as if to douse around for the enemy. {THERE!}

"Nessy use whirlpool!" Ken opened his eyes, he was slightly disrupted, the platforms began spinning and a whirlpool was created, sucking Ken's platform along with him towards it.

{Let them pull you in, just brace yourself for an attack to make an attack!} Ken crouched down on his platform and was sucked into the vortex.

Then Nessy surfaced. {Now attack with a focus blast!}

"Hit them with ice beam!" Ken was still falling into the vortex yet he still managed to shoot his attack, it made contact but that wasn't the only thing that hit something, the icebeam froze Ken. "Looks like Ken's a frozen iceberg now!"

"I wouldn't count your eggs before they hatch…" I said still confident. {Ken use blaze kick or dark pulse to break free!} Then Ken's block of ice began to glow with black energy and then it exploded, sending many shards of ice in all directions.

"No way!" Molly said.

"Ken and I are basically sick and tired of ice at the moment and we don't want anymore!" I said grinning. {Ken finish this off, calm your mind then hit them with dragon pulse!} Ken closed his eyes, a more vicious aura emanating from him and then he blasted that aura at Nessy, causing her to faint.

///////end/////

"You really are a fantastic battler Leon!" Molly said as she recalled Nessy and then switched the pool back to normal.

"You're not bad either, that lapras of yours is really strong…" I complimented.

"I told you he was awesome!" Mikey said.

"Ken, how are you?" I asked.

"Wet…" He said as he shook off all the water from his body. "I dislike water and snow and ice in so many levels now…" He said shivering.

I laughed. "We should let Ken dry off first." And Ken went to a heater.

"Hah, Ken got swamped!" Vivia teased.

"You'd get swamped too, Vivia!" Dusk said.

"Ken and I aren't the only ones who can't swim Dusk!" Vivia retorted.

"Take that back!"

"So cold…" Ken said out of nowhere.

"Hey you guys, quit arguing," I said exasperated.

Night time

Everyone decided to go out and explore the city a bit after that battle. Then we decided to go back and it was time for me to study. Man; and I'm the one who's supposed to be doing a job too; oh well. Today I learned a bunch of stuff. Either Molly's a good teacher; I'm a good listener/learner or both. I guess my lessons aren't going to be taking to long. I hope I learn all this stuff before I have to leave…

The next day

I actually had some sleep this time. Some. This time marowak had popped out of his pokeball and woke me up. "What is it?" I asked; I still sensed his purple aura emanating from him; it didn't die out that much at all.

"I want a battle…" Vicious marowak…

"Look, you can't go around picking fights with random people marowak and I'm sorry for teasing you a bit but I'm just trying to, well become friends with you; understand?"

"Friends…?" The marowak seemed confused. It's amazing how I was once like him…

"Look, if you don't want to be friends then how about we make peace, huh?" I said extending my good hand. "And can you at least try to cooperate with me a little, I want to have you battle but I'm afraid you'll go overboard…"

"Fine."

"Hmm, so you'll agree to my terms?"

"If it allows me to battle then yes, if I go overboard then you may recall me…" Weird marowak, giving me orders.

I forced a smile. "Ok then, I'll try to find someone to battle you…" I got up, it was still 7:30, and I doubt anyone would be awake. I thought of where I was going to go. Then I had an idea, the Saffron gym, or maybe the saffron dojo, either one would be a good place to go train. I left a note; it said that I will either be at the saffron gym or the saffron dojo, call me if you need me.

"Wow, it's amazing how well Molly can teach; there are probably a couple of errors there though, but I guess it's legible." Then I left the mansion and headed towards the Saffron gym, maybe I should become acquainted with Sabrina and get a gym badge.

Saffron gym

When I stepped inside I noticed the registration booth. "Hello, I'm here to sign up for a challenge!"

"Please sign your name here…" I signed my name, I noticed someone else had signed up for a gym battle around half an hour ago, his name was Séraphin Régis. What a weird name… "Now you may go in and watch the current match…" I went through the door, and I took a seat in the stadium. There were two trainers on the field and each of them was on their last pokemon. It was a three on three match too. The challenger was using a pokemon I have never even seen in a text book before and Mr. Reeve has plenty of those that have pictures in them, and no one has ever dropped one off in his daycare.

The boy – Séraphin was using a phoenix-like pokemon, it was barely bigger than him, probably the size of a pidgeotto. It had bright red shining feathers and white ones too. Well this description is getting you nowhere. O-kay starting over. The bird was medium sized, its base color was yellow but there was a pattern. Below the yellow areas were orange patches of feathers and below them were red patches. Below the red patches were yellow patches and the process started all over. At the tip of the wings were white longs feathers that seemed to give off a holy essence. The tail feather was extremely long, it was like a bird of paradise; all birds of paradise have long tail feathers. The tail had actually tails not unlike a peacock's just not as many. The tips of the long feathers were actually on fire, except the fire was white. The head also had a long feather coming down; it was similar to the crest of a pidgeot, not as long though. Depending on where you look at the crest it changes color; from one point part of it is yellow while at another point part of it was scarlet but there could be more than one color on one point as well. The bird was pretty slim and it flew really fast too.

Now for Séraphin's description. He was a blondy and he was wearing some casual clothing. He had neat and long-ish hair for a boy; he was a typical pretty boy, I hate those kinds of people… He had a calm expression on his face and he seemed to smile in any situation. Or at least, that's what he'd look like he'd do. When he spoke he seemed to have a foreign accent; French maybe… That would explain his crazy name.

"Fenash, finish off this venomoth with holy flare!" Séraphin exclaimed; I never heard of that attack either. Fenash – the bird thing began glowing with a radiant white light and the fire on its tail began to burn ferociously. Then the bird absorbed the light and then it exhaled a breath of white-hot fire. The white hot fire made it hurt to even just look at it so I turned away. When the fire ceded I looked; the venomoth was charred and knocked out; Sabrina had lost.

Venomoth was basically a large purple moth. Enough said. Sabrina was someone who had sharp violet piercing eyes and didn't seem like the person who had patience with you if you messed around. She had long sleek black hair that went past her waist, yeah that long. She wore blue pants and a red shirt with a yellow stripe down the middle. After I finished observing the battle I heard an extremely loud cheer from somewhere in the stadium… Fangirls. How lame; he even get followed around by a bunch of noisy girls. I'd hate to be him. I walked down to the stadium and while Séraphin was walking out the door we met, eye to eye; face to face.

"What's your name…?" The guy asked, he was probably around the same age I was around.

"Leon, yours?" I said curtly.

"Séraphin Régis, at your service, my friend," But then he did something completely out of the ordinary. "Now before I bid you adieu my friend, I'll tell you something." Then he struck a pose. "Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." Then he got back into a normal pose. "Be prepared to save it if you truly value it…" Then he left.

"That was… weird…" But the fangirls still followed Séraphin out the door.

"That trainer claims he can see the future," The gym leader said spitefully. "He's talented though and I can see potential in him, he may just enter the pokemon league."

"Well, I'm here for a challenge too!" I said. Sabrina closed her eyes. "Leon is it? Welcome to the Saffron city gym…" She said going back to her side of the field. "You seem similar to him somehow…"

"Huh?" I grabbed marowak's pokeball. "Marowak don't forget, don't go overboard but do your best!" And I sent out marowak.

"I'll go with Mr. Mime!" And Sabrina sent out her pokemon. It was a Mime pokemon; and of course it looked like a mime, well more of a clown… Enough said.

///Challenger Leon///

/////////////Vs.////////////

///Leader Sabrina///

"Marowak start this match off with icy wind!" Marowak inhaled a breath of air a sent out an icy breath.

"Use light screen!" Mr. Mime began pantomiming and creating a wall in front of it, blocking the attack.

"Send a bonemerang over!" Marowak tossed his club in a boomerang fashion.

"Create a reflecting wall!" Mr. Mime did the same thing as last time and built up another wall.

"Go in for a bone rush!"

"Rah!" Marowak charged in, wildly swinging his club.

"Use barrier!" Mr. Mime set up another wall, giving it a powerful defense.

"Brick break!" Marowak took a step back and then swung his club in a powerful fashion; breaking every single wall while at the same time hitting Mr. Mime.

"Use toxic on it!" Before Mr. Mime was hit away it spat out a toxic substance onto marowak, badly poisoning it.

"Fling that thick club!" Marowak flung his club at Mr. Mime, which was still dabbed with toxic poison. The attack hit Mr. Mime in mid air, also poisoning it.

"You're quite a relentless battler!" Sabrina complemented.

"Well that's just me and my marowak so far!" I responded. "Go get your thick club back; if it tries to attack you, dodge it!"

"We'll see if you can dodge this; magical leaf!" Mr. Mime generated leaves from out of nowhere and they began to chase Marowak.

"Blast them away with flamethrower!" Marowak inhaled a breath of air but instead of an icy breath he breathed out flames, stopping the leaves in their tracks. Then marowak picked up his thick club.

"Mr. Mime use double team and set up those barriers!" Mr. Mime spit into several copies and then walls of light began to form around them.

"Just hit them all with earthquake!" Then marowak stabbed the earth with his club and the ground shook violently; just as violent as marowak's rage. The attack eliminated all the doubles yet it didn't shatter the walls. Then I realised marowak's health was nearly depleted due to all the stalling Mr. Mime had done. "Finish this off with rock tomb!" Marowak summoned rocks that trapped Mr. Mime in its tracks.

"That won't take my pokemon out…" Sabrina said.

"But it's enough to stall and take us both out."

"Mr. Mime use healing wish!" Mr. Mime had begun to glow and then it fainted just as marowak had collapsed.

"What's the point of doing that, you don't have a hurt pokemon!"

"Oh, but I have one from the last battle and it turned out that I had used one of my strongest pokemon in that battle!"

"And what pokemon will that be?" I asked, I was hoping not her Alakazam that I've heard about, if so I may have to use Ken and I want my other pokemon to have a chance to battle, no I'll stick with Dusk and Vivia, I can trust them.

"Let's go Alakazam!" And Sabrina sent out a human shaped pokemon, it wielded two spoons. One in each hand. It had a long mustache and I'm guessing it's a psychic type. It had tan fur with some tufts of brown.

"I guess Dusk can do the trick!" And Dusk had emerged from his pokeball.

"Hey boss, is this our enemy!" Dusk asked getting ready to pounce.

"Not exactly, just a friendly battle but please, do your best!"

"Got it!"

"I was expecting a dark type when you sent out pokemon with a name like that..." Then without warning Alakazam blasted an attack at us.

"Whoa, Dusk watch out, she's a psychic, she can communicate without talking!"

"What?" Then another attack was blasted this time Dusk barely dodged the attack.

"Let's start this off with shadow ball!" Dusk hurled a dark lump at the enemy, only to watch it get deflected and get attacked with their own attack. "That was a psybeam…" I said recalling the rainbow colored beam. Then the Alakazam closed its eyes and a purple aura began to come from it. "I think that's what calm mind looks like…"

"You're very observant Leon, by the way, how is your mission going?" She asked; she must have had contact with the other gym leaders as well.

"So far I've protected my clients from one attack; attack with bite!" Dusk lunged forward and sunk his fangs into Alakazam, disrupting its calm mind.

Then Alakazam blasted Dusk away with a green colored ball.

"That's energy ball… Dusk use double team and then toxic!" Dusk split into many different clones and then each spat out a vile looking poison.

"Your eevee seems to have a strategy similar to an umbreon's…" She said as she calmly watched Alakazam get poisoned. Then Alakazam made a third eye appear on its forehead and then that eye looked directly at Dusk, he was in trouble…

"That's miracle eye, Dusk hurry up and get out of there!" I said panicked. Then Alakazam charged up a powerful beam of red energy and then blasted it at Dusk before he had a chance to escape; causing a major explosion. "Damn… hyper beam." Then I recalled Dusk. "It's alright; all we have to do now is stall…" I said as I sent out Vivia without a second thought.

"A vibrava? Don't you have a stronger pokemon; I'm only down to my Alakazam you know?" She said tauntingly.

"All I have to do is stall!" I said. "Vivia fly!" And she ascended into the air with a major flapping of her wings. Alakazam shot out a blue beam, that must be been ice beam… "Don't let it hit you!" I yelled.

"Yikes, that was a little too close!" Vivia exclaimed as she watched the ice beam collide into the wall; partly freezing the wall.

"Go dig underground!" And then Vivia went in for a nosedive, and collided with the floor and burrowed into the field.

"You are a skilled tactician when it comes to guerilla tactics…" Sabrina commented.

"Huh?"

"You like to hit and then run until you have an opportunity." She said. Then most of the scratches on Alakazam began to fade away.

"Darn, recover… Vivia attack!" Then Vivia surfaced from the ground and then struck Alakazam. Or at least that's what I expected to happen. Vivia was stopped in her tracks just as she was about to make contact and then she was blown away by a psychic force. "Go in for a quick attack!" Vivia instantly regained balance and then vigorously charged towards Alakazam. But then something happened; it was as if Vivia was slowed down by something.

"Do you like the effect of trick room, Leon?" Sabrina said while smiling. This was checkmate… I had lost. "Use hyper beam!" Alakazam crossed his spoons and then blasted out the same blast that had knocked Dusk out. The attack collided with Vivia and sent her flying across the arena. Then all of a sudden the doors to the arena opened and in came Mikey and Molly. Perfect, they come the moment I lose… Vivia was charred where she was.

"Leon, we came to see you battle…" Mikey said as he saw Vivia lie where she was.

"I'm sorry, I just lost…"

"Oh," That was all Molly had to say. But then like a flicker of hope Vivia began to shine with a radiant light. "Leon, your Vivia is evolving!" Vivia's wings merged into one, she grew larger and instead of two pairs of legs there were two arms and two legs. She had turned into a more dragon-like pokemon. In a matter of fact, she was a dragon now.

"Congratulations, your Vivia evolved into a flygon!"

Then on the other side of the field Alakazam had just collapsed due to toxic.

"It's not over yet!" Yelled Vivia. "I'm not giving up; I have to set a good example on these kids!"

"I didn't expect to see this coming; it hurts me to admit this but, it seems I underestimated you; that was my downfall…" As she said that she sent out another psychic type. It had a white furry collar and the rest was all yellow fur. It had pointed ears and a nose. In one hand it wielded a pendulum. "Say hello to hypno!"

"Vivia you ready?" I asked.

"I'm still getting used to this body but yeah!"

"Go Leon!" Molly yelled.

"I'm guessing these are the Silph kids?" Sabrina asked.

"You can beat her!" Mikey said supporting me.

"Yeah…" Then I got ready to give commands. "Vivia take flight and use dragon breath!" Vivia gave a few massive flaps of her wings and flew into the air and began exhaling paralyzing breaths.

"Use safeguard!" Hypno put up a protective barrier around itself negating the paralyzing effect yet still got hit. Then hypno followed up with another attack, this time a grassy rope extended from nowhere and then latched onto Vivia, pulling her down and slamming her onto the ground.

"Must either be grass knot or vine whip…" Then I realised something, Hypno specialized in hypnosis and Vivia was in close range. "Vivia hurry up and space yourself from hypno!" But it was too late; Hypno had already begun to hypnotize Vivia. "No…" Vivia had fallen asleep and was tossing and turning in her sleep. That was the effect of nightmare… "Vivia come on, wake up!" But it was no use; Vivia was in a deep nightmare. Then I noticed hypno extending a free hand over Vivia's head and draining energy from her. That must be dream eater… Then all together Vivia stopped moving, like a fragile creature ensnared in a trap, unable to get free.

Vivia fainted.

////end///

"I can't believe I lost!" I said returning Vivia, and she evolved too…

"Don't be mad; you did fine, you might've won too…" Sabrina said while walking to her office.

"That was fast…" Mikey said awestruck.

"I seriously thought Vivia was going to win after she evolved…" Molly said, she too was awestruck.

"Ah, maybe I should go train Ken at the Dojo…" I said forcing a smile. "You guys coming?"

"Sure!" And we left that gym, I was feeling slightly disappointed but we came close, that was good enough. Now to train Ken.

Saffron Dojo

"WHAT!" I said as I looked at the door with a note on it. "They're moving!"

"Well to be exact they're relocating…" Molly corrected.

"To Johto." Mikey added.

"But I could've sworn they were open a few weeks ago!" I said grabbing the note, unable to read some of the words. "Why are they moving?" Molly took the note.

"It says they're moving due to the fact that they are being suppressed by the Saffron gym and wish to join a gym over at Johto." Molly said reading the note.

"If I ever go to Johto… That adds to my list of people to hunt down…" I said even more disappointed that I can't fully battle. Oh well. "So where do you guys want to go now? I'll take you guys once I heal my pokemon!" I said going to the nearest pokemon center.

Saffron Mall

After I healed my pokemon, which took a while; Mikey and Molly decided to go to the mall and do some Christmas shopping. I had no money so I couldn't do any shopping but I followed them anyway just to make sure they were safe. They went to the trainer's section first just to check out what they had today. Then something caught my eye. It was a really shiny and nice looking vehicle. To be exact it was a hoverboard. It came with a pair of shoes that had magnetic soles to keep you on the board if you were speeding or doing tricks. It was in a large case and it was new. It was black in color and had the picture of the moon in the center of it.

"Hey Leon, what are you looking at?" Molly asked as she walked up to where I was.

"That…" I said pointing at the hoverboard, I wasn't exactly sure why I wanted one but I did.

"Oh, it's just a hoverboard," Molly said as she quickly turned away and walked to Mikey. I had always wondered how it felt to fly alongside flying pokemon…

"Hey Leon, we're going to the pet shop now!" Mikey said as he ran off.

"Hey, wait up; I don't know my way around the mall!" I said running after them. We got to the pet shop. The place was for people who wanted pokemon yet didn't want them for battling and couldn't get their own. It was also for beginning trainers or people who wanted to become acquainted with their pokemon before they became trainers.

Once we got to the adoption center Mikey started looking around. "I wonder if they have a chimchar today…"

"A chimchar?" I asked.

"They're really rare, but I've seen one right outside of Saffron once and since then I've always wanted one!"

"I think he just saw an aipom or a mankey, not chimchar…" Molly said.

"Well what does it look like?" I asked, maybe I can catch one for his Christmas present.

"Uh, just think a fiery monkey!" He said.

"Maybe my pokedex can give a better description." And I whipped out a pokedex. "How do you spell it?"

"C-h-i…" Molly started.

"Uh huh…"

"M-c-h-a-r."

"Ok." And a picture came up. Chimchar was a fire type monkey and was diurnal (opposite of nocturnal). It was quite small and had red fur with yellow colored skin. It had a burning tail and a small tuft of fur sticking out on its head. "So that's a chimchar…" I said. Then I began looking around to make sure Mikey hadn't overlooked anything but there wasn't even a monkey pokemon in the place.

"Well, anywhere else you want to go?" I asked; I couldn't get anything for Molly though, I didn't have enough money to get her anything fancy unless… Wait no; I've given that up a while ago… Then Molly and Mikey went shopping for gifts for their parents in various shops. Molly got her mom jewelry and her dad a figurine.

"For an old man he's really childish…" She said getting out a figure of a Charizard. Mikey got his dad a figurine too but got his mom a camera.

"She loves cameras; she has a collection of them!" Mikey said. Boy, rich people are weird…

Then Molly went to shop for clothes while Mikey went to hang out at the arcade. "Call me if anything comes up, ok?!" And I went to look around the mall. While I was looking around another poster had caught my eye. It was similar to the one that had started my whole journey. A poster of a coming tourney. To be held a two weeks before Christmas. That was tomorrow. Only trainers with 3-6 badges were allowed to enter. That's good because I had three badges with me. I could've qualified for a fourth one but I had lost… It allowed up to four pokemon to be entered but you are allowed to use less. The first battle was a one-on-one and so was the second. But the third round or final round was tricky; it was a co-op double battle; four on four that tested the trainers' cooperation skills. To sign up we had to go to the entrance to the mall.

I got to the entrance and there was a pretty short line only six people. Then I bumped into someone. "Oh, my bad…"

"Oh, no need to fret my companion!" Where have I heard that accent? That accent was unforgettable. "Well if it isn't the Frenchie, Séraphin."

"Ah, so you've remembered my name, I'm flattered Leon…"

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I've just finished registering for a tournament, if you plan to do so you should go now, there's probably only one entry left by the time those people finish signing up." Upon hearing that I dashed to get into line, someone else was heading to the line but I managed to get there first. Once it was my turn to sign I really was the last person to enter. And Séraphin was the Ninth entrant. It seems that I wouldn't be battling him at all. And I wanted to see if that pretty boy was as good as Sabrina says. "I'll be looking forward to seeing you in the tournament," Then he waved. "Au revoir, peoples!" And he was again followed by a crowd of screaming girls.

"I don't know what those girls see in him, he looks like a friggin' chick with that long hair for cryin' out loud!" I said while plugging my ears. Then I noticed Molly and Mikey waiting near the exit, both carrying a couple of bags.

"Why do you look so angry?" Molly asked, noticing the scowl on my face.

"It's nothing."

"What were you doing over there?" Mikey asked.

"Oh, I just signed up for a tournament tomorrow night!" I said proudly.

"Really?" Mikey said. "Well this time we're going to be there for you!"

"Thanks, well it's getting late and I need to study a bit!" I said walking out the door. "And you guys have to come home!"

The next day at route 8

I woke up extremely early today. I snuck Mikey and Molly a whole bunch of candy yesterday so that they'd sleep longer too. I'm currently looking around for that chimchar that Mikey wanted yet so far I found nothing. It's 6:30 and I woke up at 5 to search for it. I decided to let Vivia, Dusk and Ken to help me out; I should probably buy them gifts too if we win the tourney today. Ken was looking around for a small flickering aura that represented fire types. Vivia was searching from the skies while Dusk was just sniffing around. I was just walking around looking for that monkey. After an hour I found one just waking up near a tree.

"Yawn, what should I eat today?" Said the chimchar to himself.

"Hey, chimchar, get ready for a battle, I woke up really early just to battle you!" I yelled at him.

"This early in the morning?" asked the chimchar.

"Yeah, boss here is kind of busy during the noon and night time…" Dusk said.

"Well he's really trying to catch you; you don't mind humans do you?" Asked Ken.

"Just out of curiosity, is this how we're supposed to be catching wild pokemon?" Asked Vivia.

"You know, we are being kind of nice…" Then I looked at the chimchar who was silently escaping. "Hey, wait!"

"Why should I?"

"If you do and let me battle you and see if I can catch you I'll give you some cookies!" I said as I picked one out of my pocket. "I can go buy some more later, if I catch you…"

"Really?" The chimchar said licking his lips. "How's it taste?" He said as I handed him one. He took a bite, and swallowed the whole thing. "Blah, it tastes horrible," The chimchar said as he turned away. "I think it tastes horrible, maybe if I try some more…"

"Nope!"

"Aw, come on!" I knew the monkey was trying to trick me into giving him some free cookies without getting caught, but I was a thief once, I would know.

"Not until you're caught!" I said reaching for an empty pokeball.

"Fine, take me!" Chimchar said as he held out his hands as if he was going to be arrested.

"Don't worry, you'll have plenty of food where your going, and plenty more!" I said as I effortlessly capture the monkey.

"I thought you were supposed to battle them before they were caught…" Said Vivia with an exasperated face.

"Yeah, I remember when I was first caught." Said Dusk.

"I was always with a trainer so I wouldn't know…" Ken said.

"Spoiled!" Vivia said to Ken.

"No I'm not, I'm just lucky…"

"Boss, how did you do that?"

"It was just a test of wits, he tried to trick me but it didn't work. But I promised him all truths." I said as I walked back to the Silph mansion.

Silph mansion

When I got back in everyone was still asleep so I took the chance to rest before the tourney starts. But my rest was short lived. Somehow magically everyone woke up in an instant. I decided to give Chimchar to Mikey early just in case I'll be leaving before Christmas; besides, the monkey needs or wants some food. I was currently in the living room. It had a large high definition TV and a nice cushiony sofa. I turned the TV on and flipped to the news channel. Once everyone got ready for the day Mikey and Molly came into the room as well. "Good morning!"

"You're up early today." Molly said as she sat on the sofa too.

"Usually we have to wake you up first!" Mikey said as he plopped onto the spot in front of the TV.

"Well Mikey, that's because I have a surprise for you!" I said as I pulled out the pokeball that contained the fire monkey.

"Really, what is it?!" He asked immediately turning away from the TV. Then I released the pokemon.

"The chimchar you've been wanting!"

"Wow, this is one big house, I didn't know humans had territory this big…" the chimchar said. However only I heard him talk.

"Oh, and Molly, don't worry, I'm going to get you something before I leave too!" I said making sure she didn't feel left out.

"Ok, Mikey say thank you!" she said sternly towards her brother.

"Yeah, thanks a lot!" He said delighted.

"First I think you should feed him, he's been trying to trick me into giving him some cookies…" I said remembering the event,

"Ok, chimchar come this way!" Mikey said running off to the kitchen. The chimchar however was more interested in the room rather than what Mikey had in mind. Chimchar was climbing around the house, picking up and turning over anything he could. "Heh, he seems curious!"

"Uh, Mikey don't you think you should take him down…" I suggested.

"Ah, he's not going to break anything!" Mikey said carelessly.

"I'm not so sure…" Molly doubted. And right when she said that the flame on Chimchar's tail began to get more vehement.

"I think he's getting ready for an ember attack!" I said as I dove for the monkey pokemon and yanked him from where he was. And once I grabbed him he nearly burnt something, luckily all he hit was the window and nearly charred my face. "That was close…"

"Maybe I should take him outside…" Mikey said.

After Mikey had grabbed some cookies he took chimchar outside and went to play with him, Molly decided to follow him to make sure they staid out of trouble. I however was intent on watching the news to see if there was anything about team cipher. It took a while but something finally caught my eye, a reporter at the Cerulean prison.

She said, "I am here at the Cerulean prison and we have discovered a mysterious case of murders." She said as she walked into the prison. "We have found many cipher peons killed, yet we have no idea who the suspect is." She said as the cameraman directed the camera to many covered dead bodies. "These suspects were only recently caught and were also interrogated as well, I find it intriguing as to how so many peons were killed without any of the guards noticing, they say they saw; heard; found nothing relating to our assassin. Maybe they just might be behind it, maybe not; but I know that there are people who do believe that these criminals were better off dead. I also can't believe how someone other than the police force would know exactly who to kill and no one else!" She said as she walked over to a prisoner unrelated to team cipher. "You there, have you witnessed anything?" She asked.

"No mam." Said the bulky criminal.

"Even these criminals who were right at the scene know nothing as to who this person was. This is reporter Melina Adams signing out!" The woman said as she walked away and the TV instantly turned to a commercial. I flipped through the channels wondering who would do an act such as that, and still know who to kill rather than killing everyone.

I thought hard. I doubt it would've been a cipher member, they wouldn't let a team-mate die would they; on second thought, if they had such a dark heart to close the heart of a pokemon then surely they wouldn't hesitate to kill their own allies. But the question was why; it would be a total waste of time to just do that, wouldn't it? Maybe it was an ex-member of team cipher like Ammy… No, Ammy wouldn't kill them, would she? But then again I just met her, or maybe Xarid's telling her to do these things. She did say she had stuff to do when I left to Saffron… Or is it the police department, maybe not all of them but maybe they're working against Fred's dad and acting on their own accord, unless Fred's dad is leading this then they wouldn't hesitate to obey. That reporter did say that some people thought they were better off dead and she did imply what she thought. Or was it one of the people who I'm working for; would they hesitate to kill? Then my head began to hurt. Maybe I should forget about all of this before I start jumping to conclusions as to who killed who, besides it didn't involve me so it shouldn't matter, should it?

I walked outside to check on Mikey and see how he's getting along with Chimchar. "Hey Mikey, how are you and Chimchar getting along?" I asked as I saw the two playing together.

"We're doing great, I nicknamed him Chimmy!" He said proudly. I personally thought that that name was quite un-original but I didn't feel like being mean.

"That's great!" I lied. "Well, Chimmy how do you feel?" I said turning towards the monkey.

"Great, you were telling the truth, I really am going to get fed well!" Said the chimchar. "And not only that but this kid's fun!"

"Glad you like him!" I said patting him on the head. "I going to go to the tourney at four, they have a little festival before the tourney starts and I get to see the people who I'm going up against. You guys want to come?" And they nodded their heads.

Hours later at Saffron Public Stadium

It's five o' clock and the tourney starts at six. All the trainers seem to be tough but one battle lost in one of the first two turns meant instant disqualification. I don't want to lose. Fourteen of the trainers were new to me. I of course knew myself, and Séraphin was here, flirting with a couple of girls. There were actually three girls flirting with Séraphin (and fighting over him) and then there was a nerdy looking, guy standing in a corner. Then there was a Chinese guy with glasses talking to another guy (he looked white) with pretty long hair; for a guy. Then there were two of girls who actually weren't flirting with Séraphin; they looked pretty tough and looked like tomboys. Then there were three people from the Saffron gym and two ex-members from the Saffron dojo. Mikey and Molly were at the stands waiting for the tournament to begin. And after some idle chitchat the match begun.

"Here we are!" Said the Mc as we watched a TV screen to see what was happening outside. "Today is the annual winter Tournament to keep us all warm inside, we have sixteen trainers up in line and you'll be watching them all making heated battles in this cold battle field!" She said spinning on the snow and ice. "Ice types will have an advantage here but grass types will do poorly; Fire types won't be dazed by the ice but if it melts they'll be in trouble!" She said. "And now to look at the tourney tree!" She said pointing at a chart. I was going last since I had signed up last and so was the person in front of me; his name was Ryan. A portrait of everyone appeared on the tourney chart and I noticed who was who, Ryan was the nerdy looking guy.

After a while it was finally the fifth battle which was Séraphin's turn, he was going against one of the girls that were flirting with him and she basically surrendered. I couldn't bear to watch. When he came back in he actually looked disappointed. "Hey, you won, why so glum?" I asked.

"I quite dislike such meaningless battles," He said with a wave of his hair. "I hope that I at least get two challenging battles in this tournament," He said.

"For a pretty boy you talk as if you have good talent, I wish I could battle you…" I said staring strait into his face.

"Ah, but it wouldn't be in this tournament, we have no chance, we can only hope to battle greatly right along the other, mon ami!" He said as he walked off. "I hope mon dieu is watching over you!"

"Huh?"

"Simply means good luck!" He said.

"Oh, thanks." I said as I waited for my battle to come.

It took a while but my battle finally came. I stepped into the field and got ready for battle. I looked towards the crowd, Molly and Mikey were cheering me on. I'm not going to let them down.

"Ok you two, each of you choose one pokemon to use in this battle and call it out, no items or anything, all skill!" Said the MC. I reached into my pocket, who to use, probably Marowak, he wouldn't be that reliable in the last battle or the second so now would be a good time. I sent him out.

"Is it my turn to battle?" He asked clenching his club.

"Yeah, but try not to hurt anyone out of my orders ok?" I asked.

"Understood… As long as I may battle…" Said the marowak as he was getting ready to fight his opponent.

My opponent sent out a poison type pokemon; I guess I got lucky here, but at least I can enjoy a battle unlike Séraphin. I checked my pokedex; it said that the pokemon was a nidoking and was also partly a ground type. It had large spikes all over its body and its color was purple yet had a grey underbelly. The pokedex also gave some extra info. Nidoking uses its heavy tail to attack its opponents and its rough and thick hide provides a great defense along with one of its abilities poison point which poisons the foe upon contact. Its other ability was rivalry which boosts the user's attack when it's fighting a foe of the same gender. That's not good, and I thought this kid was nerdy; just goes to show looks can be deceiving…

"Get ready for a tough battle marowak!" I warned.

/////Trainer Leon/////

/////////////Vs.///////////

////Trainer Ryan////

"Marowak start this match off with icy wind!" I ordered without giving our foe time to catch on. Marowak inhaled a breath of air and blew out an icy cold breath; which was even colder due to the environment. The icy particles slowed Nidoking's movements and made it sluggish.

"Beat that marowak up!" And all of a sudden the boy's whole team popped out and got ready to attack marowak; they all ganged up on marowak and started kicking up smoke and snow.

"Marowak hurry up and get out of there!" I said. I got anxious, if this kept up marowak may go into reverse mode and disobey commands.

"Nidoking taunt it!" And nidoking began to infuriate marowak by picking it up by the arm and restricting its movements.

"They asked for it marowak, use double edge!" And marowak; still being held on to, broke free from the poison point pokemon's clutches and made a ferocious tackle and knocked the nidoking back.

"Now use bonemerang!" Marowak tossed his club and it smacked Nidoking right in the chest and then it came back to marowak. The nidoking however looked pretty confident.

"Why don't you take a look at that marowak of yours?" Asked the boy.

I realized that marowak was poisoned, must've been through that double edge… "Marowak use belly drum!" I checked my pokedex before I gave that command and it still had around 70% of his health left and now it was down to 20%, hopefully I can take it before the poison takes marowak out.

"Nidoking, finish it off with an iron tail!" And Nidoking charged forward and got ready to attack.

"Use swagger!" It was marowak's turn to infuriate Nidoking and this time it ended up confusing nidoking. The nidoking was still charging forward and still got ready to use its iron tail attack, it reared up and its tail began glowing silver, then it swung the tail at marowak but all of a sudden it just tripped and fell because of its tail and ended up hurting itself.

"Nidoking!"

"Let's end this, use bone rush and beat it down!" Marowak raised its club and began to violently bash its larger opponent with its club. And it eventually knocked it down.

//////end/////

"Whew, that was suspenseful!" Yelled the MC. I heard the crowd cheer for me and I began to relax, my arm was killing me during that battle, I should probably take it easy. I recalled Marowak.

"So, was that battle good enough for you?" I asked.

"I'm satisfied, for now…" He replied within the pokeball.

I went back to the waiting room and Séraphin was the first person the greet me. "That was a fantastic show you put on for us!" He said. "You are truly a fantastic battler,"

"Thanks."

"And just out of curiosity, how did your battle with Sabrina go?" He asked.

"I… lost." I replied tiredly.

"You did?" He began. "Ah, it doesn't matter, if you try a few more times I'm sure you'll surpass her after this tournament."

"Whatever, just get ready for your next battle, if my math is correct I think it's just two battles away!" I said eager to watch him battle; hopefully it wasn't one of his fangirls.

"Yes it--"

"Séraphin your battle is up, it appears that these trainers Derrick and Sam have obliterated their opponents swiftly and will be teaming up together to battle whoever the other duo will be." Said the referee.

"Already?" I exclaimed. The blood in my veins warmed up and I felt as if something inside me was ready to fight.

"These two trainers sound as if they're quite skilled," Séraphin said, with the same look I think I had on my face. "I'll look forward to battling them along with whoever my partner will be." Then he went to the exit. "I'll make sure I'll make quick work of my opponent so I won't disappoint the crowd, and Leon I hope you do the same!"

I watched the TV screen and saw that Séraphin was up against another girl, except this time it was one of those tomboys who weren't flirting with him. This should be interesting.

///Trainer Séraphin///

/////////////Vs./////////////

//////Trainer Rei//////

"Let's go Eevee!" and with that an eevee came out of the pokeball. I didn't know he had one too.

"Show that puny eevee who's boss weezing!" Commanded the girl. Out of the pokeball came a purple pokemon with two heads, one larger then the other, all it really looked like was a smoke ball.

"Puny?" Said Séraphin. "Don't let looks deceive you!" He yelled.

"Use sludge bomb!" And the weezing's two heads shot out a ball of sludge hurdling towards Séraphin's eevee.

"Use double team!" And eevee split into several copies and evaded the attack.

"So you're just going to hide like a coward now?" Asked the girl.

"I think coward is the wrong word, use light arrow!" Light arrow? I asked myself. I never heard of that attack before. I intently watched what the attack was to see Séraphin's fighting style. The many multiples of eevee began glowing in a bright light and then shot out a beam in the shape of an arrow. It seemed to have the same effect as flash because once it hit Weezing the weezing couldn't open its eyes and began to go crazy.

"What did you just do to my weezing?" Asked the girl in a panicked tone.

"Your weezing is temporarily blinded, and now let's force its eyes open, keep biting it!" And eevee jumped onto the floating gas ball and began to sink its fangs into the pokemon.

"Use smoke screen!" The girl's orders however were in vain, the eevee was still latched on. "Try to shake it off!" And Weezing began to float all around and eventually succeeded in tossing eevee off and regained its eyesight. "Great now use--"

"Holy dash attack!" The eevee belonging to Séraphin began glowing in the same radiant light as before and flashed a strong flash of light that caused the TV to show only white.

"Hey what happened?!" I yelled. I couldn't see a thing. And everyone in the room watching the battle began to yell as well. But the TV was working fine, or at least the audio part to it, Séraphin was still giving various orders such as take down and return. Eventually though the orders stopped and the light faded and the scene zoomed in on Séraphin. He had won.

///end///

I was astounded, Séraphin was skilled enough to temporarily cause the camera to dis-function and win effortlessly. Well, I'm going to do just as great with an eevee of my own. "Nice battle, it just bothers me that you used an eevee right before I was going to use mine…" I said as he walked into the room.

"Ah, you have one as well?" He asked interested. "Then we shall acquaint our eevees with each other later, after you are victorious in your match." He said. The referee just barged into the room to come and get me but there was no need, I was already walking out the door.

"I'll put on a performance of my own!" I said clenching Dusk's pokeball in the palm of my hand.

Once I got outside I took a look to see who my opponent was, it was another one of those tomboys. This should be interesting. I sent out Dusk.

"Are you ready to give it all you got?" I asked Dusk while at the same time looking at the dark and clear sky, there weren't any stars due to all the light pollution but the moon was shining brightly; as if to wish me luck.

"After watching that match in my pokeball, why wouldn't I boss?" Asked the eevee while getting into a fighting stance.

"You have an eevee too?" asked the girl. "Well I won't lose to one like my friend did!" She said as she sent out her pokemon. It was a snail pokemon that seemed to be made of magma. I checked the pokedex, it said that it was a magcargo and was not only of the fire type but also of the rock type which explained its rock shell. And wherever that snail was the snow melted.

"Oh, we'll see about that!" I yelled.

///Trainer Leon///

//////////Vs.///////////

////Trainer Lea///

"Start this match off with double team!" I yelled, and not unlike Séraphin's eevee Dusk had split into many copies.

"So you're just going to copy off of that pretty boy's technique?" She asked. "Pathetic!" She yelled. "Use flame thrower!" She said as the magcargo reared its head back and spat out a stream of fire to a fake Dusk and only to melt some snow.

"You know what, you're pathetic, Dusk use toxic!" I ordered and Dusk spat out a toxic acid and poisoned magcargo; badly.

"Use lava plume!" And magcargo spat out some magma which also missed and once it hit the snow it cooled and became rock. That's it!

"Use sand attack snow style!" I ordered.

"Oh, this move again boss?" Dusk said as all of the copies kicked up snow towards Magcargo and most of it melted yet at the same time magcargo's movements became more and more sluggish or should I say snail-ish.

"What are you doing?" Asked the girl. "I think your wasting your time, magcargo use flame thrower!" And a stream of fire was shot and this time made contact with Dusk and knocked out all the clones. "Hah, I hit you this time!"

"So?" I asked. "Dusk , make another set of double teams!" and Dusk split into more clones.

"This again?" She asked.

"Now bombard it with shadow ball!" And Dusk gathered a dark lump of energy and shot the magcargo with the attack, and since it couldn't really move then the attack was perfectly accurate.

"Try to get out of the way!" But the snail couldn't move, the magma near its bottom had hardened and prevented it from moving.

"Now use dig!" Then the many clones of eevee burrowed underground and left many holes for the magcargo to check. Since the poison was nearly in full effect all I had to do was launch one attack. The girl didn't know what to do. "This is checkmate!" And with that Dusk burst out of the ground and sent snow flying everywhere and he tackled magcargo, knocking it out.

///end///

I went back to the waiting room; the referee told us that the finalists had an hour to come up with a battle plan and on how to battle their opponents. We were also allowed to look on the computers they had for us to look up information on the opponent. That would be really helpful since the only info that they had on me was my recent battle style and the pokemon I used. I and Séraphin did research one of each trainer. Séraphin looked Sam up and I obtained info on Derrick.

"Well," I began after we had finished the short research. "It says here that Derrick is a brutal powerhouse who specializes in offensive strategies and abilities."

"Sam here is also offensive but he seems to depend on the weather in his battles, I got a good plan to disrupt that!" Séraphin said.

"Derrick specializes in electric and steel type pokemon…"

"Sam seems to love water and ice types but he'll use elegant pokemon too but he won't use any type similar to fire. He deems fire types weak…"

"Derrick is also really smart and could be strategic if pressured…"

"Sam is also a coordinator and tends to show off…"

"Derrick seems to use special electric attacks and defensive steel tactics."

"Sam goes with all out special attacks."

"Well, now we should decide what pokemon to use and why…" I said.

"I'll go with my charizard and Fenash, it seems to be a bad choice but it'll at least disrupt Sam's strategy, I'll keep the weather sunny and blast flamethrowers and solarbeams, it'll also fend off Derrick's steel types!"

"I think Vivia; my flygon would be a good choice despite Sam's ice types. You'll have to help protect her while she'll support you, Vivia will put a major dent in Derrick's team and her flamethrowers might fend off Sam's ice types. Ken would also be good against those steel and ice types and he'll be able to land special and physical hits well."

"Unfortunately, we have no defense against water…" sighed Séraphin.

"Well hopefully it'll be good enough…" Then me and Séraphin went into the battle field and got ready for battle.

"Dudes, are you HYPE?" Sam yelled out, overly enthusiastic.

Derrick plugged his ears. "Man, just because they're on the other side of the field doesn't mean you have to yell!"

"I agree. Can you calm down a bit…?" I said.

"We'll be ready for whatever you throw at us!" Séraphin was also energetic.

"Have each of you decided upon which pokemon to use?" asked the referee and we all nodded. "Then begin!"

Trainers Leon and Séraphin

Vs.

Trainers Derrick and Sam

"Let's go Vivia!" and I tossed out Vivia's pokeball and she emerged from it, this time full of energy.

"So it's finally my turn to battle?" she asked. "Then I'll win this for Mikey and Molly." she said as she waved towards them.

"Walrein let's go!" Sam said as he called forth his pokemon. Walrein was a fat walrus-type pokemon. It was blue with some pale blue stripes and it had a grey beard with long tusks. This pokemon was big and bulky and seemed as if it could block many attacks.

"Jolteon!" Derrick said as he called out his pokemon. I checked my pokedex and found out that it was the electric evolution of eevee. It had yellow, spiky fur and had a white spiky mane as well. Its body was slim and lithe and seemed as if it would be really fast and could cause heavy damage.

"Show them the will of fire charizard!" Séraphin yelled out. And his pokemon was not unlike mines, it was a big dragon. Yet unlike mines it appeared to be the fire type and had large wings; with the inner part being blue. Its whole body however was a scarlet shade. It had a cream underbelly. The tip of its tail was on fire and it had horns going backwards on its head.

"I'll start this off!" Derrick said. "Use thunderbolt!" and jolteon gathered up electricity around its body and blasted it to charizard.

"Block it!" I yelled, Vivia was immune to electricity. So Vivia absorbed the attack quite well even though it hit her.

"Thanks, charizard use flamethrower!" And charizard inhaled a deep breathe and exhaled a hot breath of fire, melting anything in its path. The attack hit walrein directly but it seemed unfazed, almost as if it was immune to it. "What happened?" Séraphin began. "It's part ice, so it should've done better damage than that!"

"That's because of my walrein's ability, thick fat, it protects itself from fire and ice type attacks!" Sam taunted. "Now it's my turn to show you guys what I've got, use rain dance!" And walrein shot a ball of water into the air and the sky turned dark. Then after a few seconds drops of water started pouring on us and wetting the field.

"Get ready to disrupt that," I said to Séraphin. "Use dragon claw!" And Vivia flew into the air and took a swipe at jolteon but missed. "Keep trying!"

"Use ice beam on that flygon!" Sam called out. Walrein charged up a ball of ice blue energy and then shot that energy when it couldn't get any bigger to Vivia while she was still swiping at jolteon.

"Block that attack!" And this time charizard got in the way of the attack, saving Vivia.

"Thanks, you know, you're pretty strong!" Said Vivia to charizard.

"Uh, you're welcome…" The charizard said hesitantly. "Just try to hit that jolteon!" And upon him saying that Vivia landed her target.

"Use flare blitz on Walrein!" And charizard's body began to get lit completely by fire and then it charged towards Walrein.

"Block that attack with brine!" And with that the large walrus pokemon blasted a jet of water at the burning dragon causing the water to evaporate and the fire to get doused which caused steam to rise and the surrounding snow to melt.

"Jolteon use thunder!" And jolteon began to generate an explosive amount of electricity and blasted it towards the sky in a flash.

"Vivia use earthquake!" I yelled in a panic, if that attack hit charizard while it's burning or wet it's going to cause some devastating damage. Vivia flew into the air and crashed landed on the ground, causing the ground to tremor and caused all pokemon land based to lose balance. The attack launched jolteon into the air and nearly caused it to faint and also made walrein to lose its balance allowing charizard to bash into walrein despite the fire being put out. However I couldn't save charizard, he still got zapped. The attack charred the dragon and it couldn't seem to pull its wings up to fly. The effects of paralyzation.

"Charizard my friend, if you can make one last move, let it be sunny day!" And charizard mustered up enough strength to shoot a ball of fire into the air and caused all the clouds to decapitate and also created an artificial sun. It became hot and cold in this battle field now and that isn't supposed to be good for you. The reason why was because if you go through something really hot when you're really cold you feel hotter than you should be.

"Let's take that charizard down, use surf!" yelled Sam. And with that his walrein manipulated melted ice (now water in case you skipped out on science class) and sent it as a tidal wave to everyone on my side of the field.

"Vivia fly!"

"Charizard try to fly!" But charizard was unlucky; he was paralyzed so he couldn't avoid the wave. He got drenched with water and his tail of fire was nearly out; if it did go out, he'd die. "Charizard, return!" He recalled his pokemon and put it in his pocket, which was drenched due to the fact that we were hit by water as well, just not as hard. "Go fenash!" and his phoenix pokemon from before emerged in an elegant blazing trail of light. "Meet my starter…"

"Wow, normally I don't like fire types but that one is hot!" Sam said.

"Oh, thank you, and I'd say the same for your pokemon too if they were hot…" Séraphin said a little arrogantly.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" Sam yelled.

"Can we finish this battle or what?" asked Derrick.

"Yeah, shouldn't we?" I asked. "Well since no one's going to start I guess Vivia should, let's use flamethrower!" Vivia copied off of charizard and burnt jolteon, knocking it out.

"I guess I'll use steelix now!" and after Derrick recalled his pokemon, he sent out a large serpentine pokemon. But that wasn't the only amazing feature about it, it was a metallic grey color and had spikes protruding from its body, it was made of many steel chunks that connected together and from head to tail it got smaller and smaller, but it was still big. "Let's see how you deal with this wall!"

"Walrein use blizzard!" Walrein inhaled air and blasted out an icy cold blast that hit both Fenash and Vivia. Vivia however was knocked out due to the previous attack

"Show them who's boss Ken!" And my starter popped out of his pokeball.

"I see you've saved me for last, and I'll give them my best!" Ken said as he got into a fighting stance.

"Use aura sphere!" And ken shot his blue energy ball at walrein and knocked it out once it exploded.

"I guess I'll use slowking!" and with that a pink pokemon standing on two legs appeared. It had a crown on its head and the crown even had a face and a gem on it. Slowking also had a mane-like fur on its neck that was white and red. It had a yellow underbelly as well. I checked the pokedex and the pokemon was a water and a psychic type. Its abilities were oblivious and own tempo.

"Ken fire that slowking with a shadow ball!"

"Got it!" And Ken gathered dark energy in his palm and fired it at slowking.

"Steelix block the attack!" And the giant snake got in the way of the attack and basically it bounced off the large pokemon and evaporated.

"That attack barely did anything…" I said to myself.

"Séraphin, can you try to distract the steelix?" I asked.

"Sure thing!" And he thought of what to do. "Fenash use fire spin to trap Steelix!" And Fenash's tail fire began blazing brighter and then he shot out a column of fire and restricted steelix's movements and constantly chipped away at its energy due to the heat of the fire and sunlight. "Leon take it away!"

"Ken now try again!"

"Slowking use calm mind!" Slowking closed its eyes from the oncoming attack and it seemed to look as if it were at peace just from it. Once the attack collided, barely anything happened.

"What?" Yelled Séraphin.

"That was calm mind in case you didn't hear me; it raises my slowking's special stats." Sam informed us.

"Well then I'll just try to chip away at steelix, use holy flare!" Séraphin yelled. Fenash's tails began blazing and a white light emanated from Fenash, then the bird pokemon shot out a white flame towards Steelix.

"Use rock polish and dig!" Steelix's body began twisting around and raised its speed then right before the attack hit, steelix dug underground.

"Slowking use flamethrower!" yelled Sam.

"What? You gotta be kidding me!" I said in disbelief, I didn't know water types can use fire attacks. But once I saw it was true it was too late for Ken to avoid the stream of fire and he got hit hard. "Ken, are you ok?" I asked.

"I'm fine!"

"Then get revenge with payback!" And Ken ran up to slowking and due to the attack from before he hit twice as hard as he would've by punching him with a fist of dark energy. But it was a trap, they wanted me to get close and steelix emerged from the ground and tossed Ken into the air, leaving him vulnerable.

"Fenash use flash dash to save Ken!" Fenash flashed a blinding ray of light that hit everyone on the field except for those who closed their eyes, which was me and Séraphin. I didn't see what happened but Ken and Fenash landed safely onto the ground after the light faded.

"Thanks…" Ken said.

"No problem mon ami, we are friends after all, no?!" said the bird pokemon.

"Slowking blast them with fire blast!" This time slowking's chest grew larger and once it exhaled the attack a figure in a five pointed star shape came out and seared anything in its path. By now, due to all the heat and combustion on the field all of the snow was melted and most of the water was evaporated, leaving dirt and sand all over the field.

But this time I was ready. "Use quick attack to get out of the way!" And Ken sped out of the way in blinding speed.

"Use psychic to control that fire!"

"What?!" This guy was full of surprises, no wonder he was a coordinator.

"Steelix block its path!" And steelix got in the way of Ken and surrounded it with its body.

"Fenash disrupt that Slowking with thunderbolt!" And Fenash's body crackled with electricity and he blasted the charged energy at Slowking, zapping it, but it didn't do much due to the calm mind. "Darn…" The fire was closing in and Ken was in more danger of being burnt.

"Ken get into some close combat with Steelix!" And Ken began furiously bashing steelix with barrages of kicks and punches.

"Steelix use iron defense!" And steelix's body began to get tougher and more metallic.

"Fenash use U-Turn to disrupt Slowking!" Fenash flew strait towards Slowking and did a flip, clawing at the slow pokemon and then flew backwards and away from it. That did the trick but it hit both Ken and Steelix due to their current brawl. Steelix gave off a roar and Ken gave off a small moan. He was in danger of fainting due to his poor defenses and his weakness to fire.

{Ken close your eyes now…} I thought towards him, I almost forgot about this strategy. {And use your foresight ability to see!}

{Understood.}

"Fenash use flash!" and with that the whole stage was illuminated with a bright light and could've caused someone to have an epileptic seizure if they were sensitive to this many light.

{Get away from steelix and use focus blast!} Ken hopped out of the way and he charged up a dangerous amount of red energy. Then he blasted the attack and there was a loud explosion and roar coming from the steelix.

"Ah, I can't see!" Said Derrick. "What's happening?!" Fenash was still giving off light and still blinded everyone, somehow though, I could just faintly see Ken's aura just from closing my eyes. It was a fiery gold-ish color that emanated from a human-like figure.

"I can't tell what they're doing either, they're not saying anything but I hear attacks being fired!" Yelled Sam.

{Ken use shadow claw and finish off that slowking!} The aura around Ken's paw began to get darker and then his aura zoomed in on another human-like figure, it was slowking's, the darker aura swiped at slowking's aura and the aura began to fade into no more than a flicker of energy. I think it fainted. Then the light faded and I saw that slowking was down but Steelix was not.

"How'd you do that?" Sam asked as he recalled his pokemon.

"Fenash use Overheat!" Fenash charged up fire all around its body and the flames grew to be a ferocious blaze then it shot the ferociously strong flames at steelix who was still dazed from the attack.

"Steelix try to get out of the way!" But steelix didn't know where to go, and it was too late, the attack met its mark and KO'd the giant and once it collapsed it made the earth shake.

End

{That was a tough match Ken…} I said to my partner.

{Sure was…} Ken replied.

"Congratulations mon ami, we are victorious!" Séraphin said as he recalled his phoenix pokemon.

"Thanks, you really are a great battler!" I said sticking out my hand.

"You are too." And we shook.

"The winner of the winter tournament is Leon and Séraphin!" Cried out the MC.

Silph Mansion

After that long and exhausting battle, everyone on my team needed a big break. You all did fine… I thought in my head. I received my prize money and took it to the mansion.

"So, Leon, what are you going to do with that money?" Asked Molly.

"I'm going to buy you a gift." I said strait out, I didn't believe in surprises that much.

"Oh really?" she asked.

"What are you going to get her?" Mikey asked.

"Whatever she wants." I said.

"Oh, really, well all I want is one thing!" she said. "We'll go get it tomorrow!" That night Molly didn't tutor me today, I needed to rest after all. While I was just about to go to sleep, my P*DA rang. [Hello?]

[Leon, this is Miguel.]

[Oh, hey, how's your mission going?]

[I'm done, if cipher doesn't attack you by tomorrow your mission should be over and if they don't you'll be leaving tomorrow morning and by that I mean around 12 o'clock in the morning.]

[What?] I didn't believe it, I was leaving already?

[In simple terms continue with you mission and report to Celadon then Fuchsia, your mission is over tomorrow!] Miguel said curtly.

[Fine, I may need to heal my arm though if I'm to make it there in good condition.]

[Did you get injured?] He asked.

[Broke my right arm.]

[The Celadon gym has a very strong aroma therapy treatment for injuries; I think you should go there.] He advised.

[K' thanks.] And I closed my P*DA. I looked at the door and there was Mikey standing right there wide eyed. "Mikey…" He couldn't have heard all of that, could he?

"So you're leaving already…" He said getting teary eyed. "I thought you'd be like a big brother to me!" He said and he ran out the door.

"This shouldn't matter…" I said trying to hide my feelings. "He's just someone who I'm going to protect and nothing more…" I said restating my mission terms. Then I got onto my bed and began to sleep. However I couldn't, I don't know why.

The next day at the mall

"Gee I wonder why Mikey isn't coming with us today…" Molly wondered while walking around the mall.

"I don't know either…" I said remembering last night, I was mindlessly following Molly, she could've walked into a really gay or childish store and I wouldn't have noticed.

"Oh, here it is!" She said walking up to a toy store.

"A toy store?" I asked.

"I collect pokedolls!" Molly said.

"Ok then…" I said as I walked in.

"You know, I have around two hundred of these and I only get new ones on special occasions so they're more important than they really are!" she said. "Oh, which of your pokemon was your first?" Molly asked.

"Uh, Ken was, but I got him as a Riolu." I said staring off into the distance.

"Okay then, I'll get a riolu pokedoll then!" and she picked up a small plush doll that was made after a riolu, it had all the same features to due to the fact that it was already cute. I purchased it for her and walked out the store.

"Molly, hey I've got something to tell you."

"What is it?" she asked. Her face quickly turned serious.

"I'm going to be leaving tomorrow morning, I won't even have time to eat breakfast with your family so yea, my missions done."

"Really?" she asked. "Well, I guess I can't stop you," she said looking into my eyes. "You know, you really remind me of my brother, he had the same quiet personality as you and he was just as… well." She seemed at a loss of words. "You seem like you're destined to do great things, he died trying to free us from team rocket you know…"

"But, I'm not your brother…"

"I know you're not, that's why we can't force you into doing what we want, you have other people to save you know!" she said. "Oh, well since you're leaving tomorrow, I may as well give you our gift to you!"

Silph mansion

"Ta-da!" she said as she pulled out a big box.

"Wow, I wonder what it is…" I said as I began to un-rap the package. Once I uncovered it I couldn't believe my eyes. "A hoverboard!" I yelled out as I took it out of the package. I immediately put on the shoes that came with it, it had an on/off magnetic part to it to keep you on the board and I turned it on.

"Why don't you try it out outside?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, thanks a lot!" I said. "My gift seems like nothing compared to what you just gave me!" I said as I hopped onto the hoverboard, it instantly turned on once it senses the shoes on it, regardless of the magnetic part being on. The hoverboard began to rise off the ground; it also seemed to respond to your thoughts as well. I wanted it to go forward it went forward. Left, left. And so on. I could even do flips on this thing, I felt the nice cool breeze blowing against me and I felt as free as a bird! "This is awesome!" I said as I did so many more flips and stuck my arms out. I felt the wind messing with my hair and I even did spirals towards the ground. And once I got close to the ground the hoverboard jerked itself strait to keep itself from crashing. "Molly, thank you so much!" It even came with a case that you can carry on your back and the case works as a back pack too.

"Hey Leon!" Molly screamed out.

"Yeah!" I was still exhilarated from the moment.

"Mikey's missing!" My happiness disappeared as quickly as an abra teleports.

I flew strait down to where Molly was. "What?" I couldn't believe it; he was in the house right? So security should've protected him unless… "Did he leave a note or something?!"

"Yes…" Molly seemed teary eyed.

I read the note, it said that he's tired of not having a big brother and he'll force Leon to stay by running away and looking for him. Unless I promise to stay he's not going to come back. Or so he says. "Damn it, we gotta look for him!" And I sent out Vivia, Ken and Dusk. "Everyone, help me look for Mikey, Ken you go with Molly and look at the North part of this city and Dusk you check at the South part of town, Vivia, you check with a birds eye view, and around the East to central part of town and I'll check with a bird's eye view at the West point!" I said. "Now go!" And everyone went in their own separate directions.

"I can't believe it!" I said as I flew on my hoverboard. "I hate responsibility!" I yelled out at the world. Why did that kid have to run away, cipher might still be out there! I looked around, and then I looked towards the sky. One of the clouds seemed to be oddly shaped, it seemed more… regular… Then I looked away and began searching again. After a few hours we found nothing and I headed back to Silph tower.

"We couldn't find him…" Molly said.

"We messed up big time…" Ken said.

"Sorry boss…" Dusk apologized.

"I didn't see anything from up there…" Vivia reported.

"It's all my fault… I should've hid the fact that I was going to be leaving!" I yelled. I looked at my watch it was already Two o'clock. Then I looked at one of those giant screens they have in TVs for ads and stuff.

"Attention Leon, the snagger of Kanto!" said a voice as the screen went blank.

"Huh…" I thought I was going crazy.

"We have taken hostage of one of your clients!"

"WHAT!"

"And we will be willing to make a trade for supplies from Silph co., if you do not comply, we, team cipher shall willingly execute this young lad right here!" He said as he displayed Mikey currently tied up.

"Mikey!" Molly yelled out.

"I think the president of Silph co. knows exactly what to give us so go ask him for the supplies!" said the malicious voice. "We shall give you ten minutes to decide, but to see if you have heard our message please shoot a pokemon attack towards the sky!"

I wasn't sure of what to do but I guess I should first make sure they don't kill Mikey. "Vivia, shoot a flame thrower into the air."

"Ok." And she inhaled and exhaled a stream of fire that shone brightly in the sky.

"Thank you Leon," said the screen. "We now know where you are!"

"Damn, they're watching me…" I said as I walked into the building.

"Leon, please tell me you're going to save Mikey!"

"I will, and I'll make sure they don't get to use what your father gives them!" I said getting angry. "And taking hostages is a coward's fight, I'll win guaranteed!" I said as I took the elevator inside of the tower towards the top floor. "But first I need a plan…" Once the elevator doors opened I stepped outside and saw Mr. Silph's face. And there he was, furious and angry, his face distorted with a mix of fear and sadness.

"You promised…" He began.

"Look, Mr. Silph -" I began.

"You promised to keep Mikey safe!" He hollered.

"I did and I will keep to that promise, he may be in danger of not being safe but he still is safe, as long as we keep a cool mind we can rescue him…" I said.

"No, I'm calling the authorities!" He picked up his cell phone and dialed 911. The operator picked up. "Hey I want to talk to the elite four!" He said. "What, what do you mean busy?" he asked. "My son is in danger, this is the president of Silph speaking!" but the operator seemed to be ignoring him. "He hung up on me!" Then he turned towards me. "It's all your fault you idiot, I shouldn't have asked the gym leaders to get a kid to do this!"

"Daddy…" Molly said a little intimidated.

"Look Mr. Silph I'm sorry but -"

"But nothing, you better do something about this now or you're screwed!" he ordered.

"Goddammit that's what I've been trying to say!" I yelled. "Just because you're so goddamn rich doesn't give you the right to boss me around like some dumbass peon!" I began. "Rather than yelling at me we should be coming up with a plan to save you son, if not, you're going to let me let him die!" I yelled. "And that's the exact opposite of what you want!" I calmed down a bit after seeing him pause. "Now… If you want your son back we better come up with a damn plan!"

"Fine, but if you don't get this right, then…" He said thinking of what to say.

"I won't back down on this promise," then I remembered what Séraphin said. Friendship… it's unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. Be prepared to save it if you truly value it… "If I don't save any of my friends, or someone who's as close to family as one can get, then I'm prepared to save him… with my life!" I stated out loud. "Mikey not just someone who I'm protecting for the money, not even just for orders and missions, but because well, if this is how one would feel for their brother, than that's exactly how I'm feeling!"

"Fine…" The president said. "If you're willing to go that far to save him let's see if you'll prove it by doing it…" and I earned the president's trust.

"So what do we do first?" I asked. I hadn't noticed it but I saw Molly had left the room a while ago, must've gotten fed up with the fighting…

"Ok, we may have to just give them the parts if it comes down to that, but you can come in with the materials and my scientists have come up with a small, tiny bomb, nearly undetectable if you try to scan it." He said. "Maybe you can plant it into one of the devices and well blow it up after you save Mikey!"

"That can work…" Then I got up. "Ok, Mr. Silph do you have the materials?" I asked.

"Yeah." He called someone up and the guy had a sack of materials. "You'll take this to wherever they're holding Mikey and then after you save him, you'll blow them up." I got up and got ready to leave. I went to the first floor and then got ready to walk out the door.

"LEON, WAIT UP!" cried out a voice. It was Molly, and she was holding up a pokeball.

"Huh, what is it?" I asked carrying the sack of materials with me. I wondered, what would they be using this for…?

"I talked to Nessy a bit and she says she wants to help out, she's family too you know!" She said holding out the pokeball. I looked through the transparent part of it and saw Nessy looking back at me with a determined look.

"Alright, she'll come with me, but you're staying with your dad!" I said sternly.

"But I want to help too!"

"No, it's too dangerous, and if they're willing to kill Mikey all you'll be is a hindrance, you're a sitting duck!" I said.

"Fine, just promise me you'll bring Mikey back and that you'll come back alive…" She said.

"I promise Mikey will come back safe…" I trailed off.

"And you?"

"Promise…" I said.

"Leon, we see that you've found the materials, and now we shall show you how to get up here, look up!" And the voice on the screen said that the screen conjured up an image of an airship. It was majestic in size and it must have had many compartments with in and many shooting points for pokemon and human soldiers. But then I noticed something in the sky, one of the clouds had become distorted and shaped into an airship as well. It must have been a cloaking device. I guess I had to fly up to that black airship. "To get up here you must fly up to this point, via whatever you have on you and I see that you have a hoverboard, that should work perfectly fine, just fly into one of the docking points for flying pokemon and we shall open the door for you…"

I got out the hoverboard and turned the magnetic feature on. I flew up towards the sky, this time though it was for business, the sack didn't even weigh me down though, and I guess this was one awesome hoverboard…

Cipher's airship

Once I landed on the airship I looked around, the place was really empty and deserted but once I took another step one of the doors opened. And out came Knox and Largo. "You're in a big jam now, you wanna-be-hero!" said Largo.

"Shut-up, just show me where Mikey is and let's get this over with!" I yelled.

"Fine, kid, just follow us!" Knox said quietly. And he walked inside the ship, and I followed carrying the sack with me. Once we got inside of the fancy airship, I looked around. Never been in one before. Everything was metallic and dimly lit.

"Hey, we have to see if what you got there is legitimate!" said Largo.

"I bet you feel proud to use such a big word…" I taunted the dumb peon.

"What was that?" He said picking me up by the collar. I made sure the detonator was in my pocket, I had nothing to fear…

"I called you dumb, is there a problem? I bet you don't even know the meaning of the word dumb!" I wanted to further take my anger out on him. Then he raised his fist and got ready to punch me but then Knox stopped him. "So you'd beat up a cripple huh?"

"All of these items are legitimate we can proceed…" Knox said and he briskly walked off. Largo and I gave a glare to one another and followed. I went through a maze of corridors, I couldn't believe how they got around in this place and finally they opened a door leading to Mikey.

"MIKEY!" I said running up to him. His face however was expressionless and once I got close his aura seemed purplish.

"…" Mikey didn't respond.

"What did you do to him?" I asked.

"Oh, we did nothing to Mikey, but as for him, I suggest you take another look!" and the door slammed shut on me, trapping me in the room.

"Dammit, let me out!" I yelled as I kicked the door, no use it was bolted shut, they had too many security gadgets in here. Then I looked back, what did they mean by him…? Then I realized what they meant as I saw the wanna-be-Mikey melt, literally melt out of shape. His skin turned pink and his whole body became smaller, into a more gelatin like body. The face became more simple, just two dots for eyes and a slit for a mouth. I've heard of these pokemon, it was a ditto and not a normal one, a shadow ditto!

"Shoot, I've got no choice left but to battle!" I said as I drew out a pokeball, it didn't matter which one but I figured I may as well let marowak finally get to go crazy! "Marowak, time to go all out!" and with that the shadow pokemon emerged from his pokeball.

"So I finally get to kill?" he asked.

"Not kill but this is the enemy, just don't kill it!" I said.

Snagger Leon

Vs.

Shadow Ditto

"Marowak, watch out for this pokemon, it can transform into almost anything in its memory banks!" I said. Marowak gave a nod as if it understood. "Now attack with focus punch!" Marowak charged up energy in his empty hand and then ran over to the ditto to attack it. But right when marowak was about to punch it the pokemon morphed into a more transparent pokemon, a haunter, I've fought one before. The focus punch failed however.

The ditto (now a haunter) took the chance to swipe the marowak away and blasted marowak with a transparent blast after its eyes glowed blue. "That was psychic… Marowak fling that thick club!" And marowak threw the thick club only to hit it while it was morphing into another pokemon, a machoke, didn't Largo have one of these? The object that was flung was caught by machoke and got flung back at Marowak, causing a great amount of damage.

"This is no use, marowak, you've got to return, this pokemon can just switch into whatever it hears, ok?" I asked.

"No, I can beat this pokemon!" Yelled the marowak while picking up his club and running over to the machoke only to get tossed back to our side.

"Fine, if you're that willing to win, but we need a plan…" Then I got an idea. "Every time I give you an order, I want you to disobey me and use something of a completely different type that would be good against what it might change into!"

"Understood!"

"Then hit it with an aerial ace!" Marowak ran up to the ditto getting ready to swipe at it but the pokemon was changing. It seemed to be changing into a Kabutops, but that wouldn't help, because marowak disobeyed orders and instead hit the floor of the airship, causing the whole airship to go through major turbulence, as if it were an earthquake. The ditto was caught off guard and fell backwards.

"Nice going, but try not to use field attacks, you're going to get us all killed!" I yelled.

"Whatever…"

"Now let's go with a bone rush!" and marowak ran up to the Kabutops shaped pokemon and attempted to fake an attack. It however changed into a large pterodactyl pokemon and evaded the attack.

"I've seen all of these pokemon somewhere before…" I said trying to remember where. Marowak's arm became covered in rocks and the rocks were sent chasing the large pokemon. The transformed ditto attacked by using a powerful tackle and swept through the attack.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked.

"Just give an order already!"

"Whatever, jump up and hit it with an iron head!" And Marowak jumped up with his head shining like silver and "attempted" to head butt it, the ditto however transformed into a Fenash… "I guess Séraphin must have encountered this ditto before…" I said wondering what Séraphin might have done. Marowak knew what to do though, he used a rock tomb attack instead by drawing forth piles of rocks to bombard the phoenix pokemon.

"Great going!" But then the Fenash began shining brightly and attacked with a blazing light. "Dammit, this is holy flare! Cover your eyes!" I yelled towards marowak. Marowak obeyed and shielded his eyes from the holy light, but instead of hitting him though the attack seemed to get canceled. "Huh…?"

"How come nothing happened?" marowak was just as confused.

"Oh, I get it, holy pokemon are to pure to be tainted by shadow effects so if a shadow ditto transforms into one, it doesn't matter how strong it is, it can't use any holy traits!" I said while realizing the logic. "Let's take advantage of the situation, use rock tomb again!" and this time the ditto didn't have time to transform, the effects of rock tomb slowed it down and now it's going to get slower, from the second barrage of rocks. The Fenash ditto transformed into something else though, a Dragonite!

"No fair!" Then I realized something. So far I've seen all of these pokemon, maybe it has something to do with my memories, rather than that ditto's. I closed my eyes and began to close off my memories temporarily. "Marowak, try to defeat this pokemon on your own, if I take part I'll only interfere!"

"Great!" I got my snag ball ready just in case though. I closed my eyes and tried to sense marowak's aura and the ditto's, marowak's was closer to being a normal color rather than the ditto was which was a violent red. Marowak sent barrages of rock attacks at the Dragonite ditto. The Dragonite fired beams and blasts at marowak but marowak was fighting with all his might. He withstood the attacks and in doing so, the attacks seemed to make the malicious aura surrounding marowak go away.

Then I noticed ditto's aura begin to flicker and I opened my eyes, I grasped the snag ball in my left arm and tossed it to the Dragonite, I noticed it was morphing into something big and black though yet for some reason it couldn't pull it off, I wonder what it was going to morph into.

The snag ball shook once, than twice, and then it became inactive. I had caught the shadow ditto.

End

"Yo, marowak, did you like that battle?" I asked.

"I'll be willing to battle alongside you from times to come, but no we must get going!" Said the marowak.

"You know, you have a hardy nature coming from you," I said to my marowak.

"Whatever."

"We need a way to get out of here, let me try getting everyone to help!" And I sent out all five of my pokemon. "Ok, everyone use your strongest attack you can think of!" I said while running to the back of the room. "Physical attackers first!" I said as Marowak, Ken and Dusk got ready to attack. Ken sent barrages of punches and kicks, marowak kept thrashing at the door while Dusk used a last resort attack with all of the stars. Then they jumped back after they finished then Nessy blasted the door with and ice beam while Vivia blasted the door with a flamethrower. The attacks collided and caused a big explosion, the door was sent flying open. However upon doing that an alarm rang out through the whole airship.

"SHIT!" I yelled out. "They know I've escaped, and I can't leave without Mikey!" I recalled all of my larger and slower pokemon. "Ok, Ken you lead the way and use your foresight to help find Mikey, marowak you stay in the rear and attack whoever gets to close. Dusk use your double team ability to lead any trackers away but keep your real self near me!" And I hopped onto the hoverboard, it was enough to carry all four of us, Dusk was pretty small, Ken got steered the way while marowak got ready to use his bonemerang. We went through twisting halls and turns and checked many rooms. Ken could find Mikey's aura, he just couldn't get to it.

"Dusk use one of your double teams to help locate Mikey!" And Dusk created a clone of himself and sent it in many directions. Then I had just realised a peon to our right, but marowak took care of him by throwing a bonemerang.

"Heh, we're doing pretty good!" then all of a sudden we got hit pretty hard by an attack, and nearly lost balance. "Ok, that's it, Vivia, fly with us and help marowak fend off the attackers!" I said and Vivia's draconic body emerged from her pokeball. We quickly got surrounded but Vivia and marowak's combined forces of bonemerang and dragon pulses took care of them. Then finally we nearly passed a large door. We had to step on the breaks because of how fast we were going. We charged through the door and there were a whole bunch of guards in there, just waiting for us.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the boy who has been thwarting our plans!" Said a man from behind the crowd of guards who was also standing near Mikey who was unconscious, this time his aura was correct. The whole room was pretty large, almost like an arena and it even had a little control switch in this room. I looked up, the windows were pretty clear, it was already getting dark.

"It doesn't matter who I am, I'm gonna kick your ass just for taking a little kid hostage!" I yelled.

"Where with you Leon!" Said Ken while hopping off the hoverboard.

"As long as I'm with boss here, I'm not going to lose!" Said Dusk.

"Personally I think fighting is wrong, but some people don't seem to under stand words!" Vivia said bravely.

"I'm ready to fight!" Yelled the marowak. And then Nessy emerged from her Pokeball.

"Mikey, I'm here to help too!" She said.

"I see you have a team of five…" Said the admin, he was dressed differently then the peons. I guess admins get to dress however they wanted. He was wearing all black, a black overcoat with black jeans, he even had black hair and he had shades on as well. "Largo, Knox, bring me your shadow pokemon…" and Knox and Largo obediently gave him their remaining shadow pokemon which was one each. "I'd like to have a little battle with the boy playing hero, I'll even go easy on you, I'll use only three of my pokemon and two of my peons…" He said coolly.

"I don't want to battle any of you, I just want to get Mikey out of here, I'll battle you thugs later!" I said hovering above the peons and attempting to get at Mikey.

"Cacturne…" and before I knew it I got sent flying backwards and into the crowd of peons and fell on my back.

"What happened…"

"I'll let this runt go if you manage to defeat at least three of my pokemon, I've already gotten what I wanted." He paused. "I'm a generous guy you know, all I want are the supplies, is that too much to ask for?" he asked rhetorically. "By the way, if you want my name it's Rangi

"Whatever, if all it takes is to wipe out three of your pokemon than I accept!" I said. "You guys ready?!" And my whole team replied yes.

Snagger Leon

Vs.

Admin Rangi

"I'll go first!" Marowak said while getting his club ready.

"Alright then, you're up first!" I said.

"Let's go sandslash!" and out came the pokemon that once belonged to Knox. The hedgehog like pokemon got ready to battle.

"Everyone stand down even if I lose, understand?" ordered the admin.

"Marowak use bone rush!" and marowak swung his thick club back and forth and ran after its target.

"Try to dodge it!" sandslash, which was still shadow jumped out of the way and got ready for an attack. "Now slash at it!"

"Block it!" Marowak blocked the attack with its club and prepared to lash at the sandslash. "Now use iron head!" marowak's head shone brightly and it collided his head with sandslash, causing it to fall back. "Hit it with bone club!" and marowak drew his club back and got ready to attack.

"Shadow end!" and sandslash's already vicious aura became more atrocious and then the small spiky pokemon lashed out at marowak and knocked him away.

"Marowak, don't give up, use stone edge!" and marowak summoned a large amount of sharp edged stones and sent it towards sandslash, causing it to get cut. "Now follow it up with double edge!" and marowak leapt towards sandslash and slammed into it.

"Use gyro ball!" and sandslash curled up and began shining silver and then rolled towards marowak and attempted to tackle it.

"Stand your ground and once it gets close use body slam!" Once it did get close enough both pokemon got hit and marowak fainted while sandslash only got paralyzed, that was good enough. "Return!" and in my left hand I got out a snag ball and tossed it towards the sandslash. The pokeball shook, and it rocked back and forth, then it finally gave a PING signifying that it was snagged. "One down and two more to go!" I got my next pokemon ready, I decided to call out Ken so that I can end this quickly.

"Machoke go!" and both pokemon emerged at the same time, his buff pokemon (once Largo's) and Ken.

"Go in for some close combat!" and Ken gave some punches to the chest and then gave machoke and upper cut and then jump kicked him and then low kicked him and finally punched him away.

"Revenge!" and machoke got pumped up from that last attack and gave a single yet powerful blow to Ken and sent him flying.

{Ken fire an aura sphere at him!}

{Got it!} Ken took aim at the machoke and fired a blue sphere at the machoke while still in mid-air. He seemed to be getting quicker at this stuff.

{Now attack with a high jump blaze kick!} and Ken jumped towards the machoke and right before he was about to make contact his foot caught fire.

"Catch it!" and machoke obeyed and succeeded. "Now use seismic toss!" and machoke began spinning around and around along with Ken and then eventually tossed him into the wall causing some major damage.

{Use focus blast!} and Ken fired a crackling ball of energy towards machoke and it exploded. I ran up, hoping to end this quickly with the snag ball in my hand and I tagged the machoke with the ball and snagged it successfully. "There, you only have one more pokemon to use before I wipe the floor with you!" I yelled triumphantly. But he laughed.

"I greatly doubt you will defeat this pokemon!" And he drew out his third pokemon. "bronzong!" and with that a blue metallic pokemon came out of his pokeball. It had large red eyes and was shaped like a giant bell, it seemed to be ancient as well. I used the pokedex, it said its abilities were heatproof and levitate; the second part was obvious but I guess moves like blaze kick would be sort of useless.

{Ken use Dark pulse!} Ken fired that dark blast of energy at bronzong but the attack merely bounced off of it.

{It's no use…} Ken said astounded. I guess this was going to be one tough battle after all.

"Bronzong use shadow ball!" and bronzong hurled a black blob at Ken and made a small explosion.

{Go in for a blaze Kick!} Ken dashed to Bronzong and attempted to kick it with a blazing foot but Ken still just bounced off of it. "Damn…"

"Bronzong use psychic!" and an invisible force blasted Ken even further away.

{Keep bombarding it with aura sphere!} Ken shot barrages of blue spheres at Bronzong which only managed to tick it off.

"End this with hyper beam!" and bronzong blasted a powerful orange beam at Ken and knocked him out.

"Return…" I was about to send out Vivia but what if I needed her to help get Mikey back to safety while I distract them through other means. So I decided to send out Dusk.

"Ok, Boss I'll show them who's boss!" said the small who was always eevee ready to battle.

"Ok, let's go in for a shadow ball!" and Dusk fired the black orb, yet it just bounced off Bronzong.

"Bronzong use psychic!" and bronzong's eyes began to glow blue and then it fired a blast at Dusk and sent him flying back. "Now keep hitting it with charge beam!" and bronzong gathered electricity in front of its face and fired a small beam at Dusk and electrocuted him.

"Hang in there Dusk!" But it seemed like all hope was going to be lost, Dusk was no match for a steel type and especially one at this high of a level.

"I'm definitely not going to give up!" yelled Dusk and he began to glow with a radiant light. He began to become engulfed in it and his body began to reshape. His ears grew longer, his legs more agile and muscled, and his tail a little bushy. Once the light faded Dusk had finished evolving, he had glowing yellow rings on his ears and tails and his legs had a circle glowing yellow on it. There was one glowing yellow circle on his forehead too, the rings and circles glowed just as greatly as the moon did in this night. Dusk's eyes opened and they weren't black anymore, they were red.

"Whoa, Dusk you evolved!" I exclaimed, I knew Dusk was ready but it was still surprising.

"Now I'm gonna win!" yelled the newly formed umbreon. In a way it reminded me of Xarid's umbreon, just that Dusk was of the correct color.

"Alright let's show them what you've got, use shadow ball!" and this time Dusk's shadow ball was bigger and stronger, it wasn't enough to faze it though.

"Use toxic!" Darn, that wasn't going to be good, synchronize would work if Bronzong wasn't a steel type… The acid spewed all over Dusk and badly poisoned him.

"Hang in there Dusk!"

"Got it boss!"

"Hit them with confuse ray!" and Dusk's rings began glowing brightly and then Dusk sent rays flying towards Bronzong and it hypnotized it into losing track of where it was.

"Typical umbreon tactic, I should've seen that coming but I'm really not all that into this battle at the moment, bronzong try to use shadow ball…" Bronzong gathered up energy in front of it but every time it got ready to fire the shadow ball just popped right in front of its face.

"Let's use our last resort!" and umbreon's body began to get surrounded by millions of tiny sharp pointed stars and the stars began rapidly spinning. "Now let's go!" Dusk sped off and the stars pierced through Bronzong's thick armor and caused the airship to rattle once bronzong hit the floor.

"It seems you've come back to your senses, now use shadow ball…" Bronzong fired the ball of darkness yet when it hit Dusk barely anything happened.

"Dusk use moonlight!" The rings on Dusk's body began to react towards the moon and the moon shone brightly on Dusk.

"Heal block!" Right when Dusk was going to regain health Bronzong cast a jamming attack that negated the effects of any healing move. "Now imprison!" Orbs began to fly around bronzong and then those orbs went into Dusk and negated any move that Bronzong also knew.

"Shit, yawn!"

"Yawn?" Rangi was caught off guard from this attack. Dusk yawned and also made Bronzong yawn and made bronzong get drowsy.

"Use wish!" The stars in the sky shone brightly and one of them was a shooting star.

"You do know that's not going to replenish your health right?" asked while smiling.

"Yeah, but its at least a good effort, now go in with fake tears!" Dusk began feigning its sadness by crying and (I don't know how) actually managed to trick Bronzong into lowering its defense.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked in a panicked tone.

"Confuse ray!" and bronzong got confused once more by the attack. But in doing so Dusk fainted from the effects of toxic, quite ironic how he faints from his most used attack. Then one of my pokeballs began rumbling, it was Nessy, she wanted to take part in this battle too. "Why not…" I grabbed her pokeball and sent out Nessy.

"Thank you, I promise I won't fail you, besides we need Vivia to get Mikey down to earth don't we?" she asked.

"Right, let's go in with- huh?" All of a sudden my cascade badge began to glow. "What's happening?" Didn't this happen before though, twice actually? Then Nessy became engulfed in the light. "Lets try a hydro pump!"

"Counter it with psychic!" Rangi was also baffled at what was happening but he seemed to be taking it calmly. The two attacks collided, hydro pump however blasted strait through the attack and made its mark. "Use shadow ball!" and bronzong hurled a black blob over at Nessy and hit her hard. Then the ceiling began to let light come in through the windows, it was the effect of wish, Nessy's health was re-restored.

"Poison that lapras thing with toxic!" Bronzong spewed out poison that made contact with Nessy yet nothing seemed to have happened. "So, this is the full power of the gym badges…" Then he seemed calmer. "Confuse ray, charge beam, do whatever!" and Bronzong went berserk and fired random blasts of energy and Nessy yet it was too no avail, nothing fazed her.

"Nessy let's finish this with another hydro pump!" And Nessy blasted a strong jet of water at Bronzong and bronzong crashed into the wall.

"That's it, use explosion!"

"Are you crazy?!"

"I'm serious!" and bronzong floated over to Nessy and blew up, and made a large hole where it exploded. When the dust cleared Nessy was unscathed while Bronzong was charred and out cold.

End

"Go ahead, take the runt, this was actually an interesting battle…" Rangi said. "But let's make this a little more fun, let's make this a game of aerial tag, if you don't make it to base you and Mikey here are dead!"

"You…" I recalled Nessy, and sent Vivia out. "Vivia carry Mikey back to Silph mansion or tower, I'll meet you there!" I said as I hoisted Mikey onto Vivia's back.

"Ok."

"Ten seconds to run…" He said as he called out his own flying pokemon. I hopped on my hoverboard and got ready to fly

"Vivia, charge through that window up there!" and me and Vivia crashed through and got outside. The wind was chilly and the night clouded our vision, but Silph tower was easy to find. However Rangi wasn't going to make this easy for us. He hurled attacks out at us, such as vile looking sludge bombs and fearsome hyper beams. "Vivia let's split up!" I turned my hoverboard left while Vivia went right. Too dodge the oncoming attacks I did flips and twirls, feints and dive bombs just to see if he'd miss us. But he was persistent.

"There's no point in hiding, Leon, you'll just die!" And out of no where a ferocious flying scorpion popped out right in front of me and attempted to slash at me. I did a back flip and zoomed off. "Get back here!"

This couldn't end out good, I knew where to go, I knew all the twists and turns but the thing is, he couldn't seem to lose me. "Darn it…" Then I reached a dead end.

"I have you cornered now!" He said as the scorpion got ready to shoot out a hyper beam attack. But the instant it shot a hyper beam I flew strait up and out of the way. "That's it I'm calling for reinforcements!" And then out of nowhere a horde of small bee like pokemon came at me, the pokedex said they were combee. They flapped their wings and attempted to knock me off balance, that wouldn't work since I was stuck on this thing. Than they tried tackling me, I just zoomed out of the way, they couldn't touch me.

"You can't catch me!" but then that blasted scorpion that Rangi was riding on finally caught me and swiped at me with a poisoned arm, that was cross poison. And then the horde of combee tackled me and pummeled me, I couldn't break free. My vision was getting foggier and my motions were getting sluggish. The buildings were all a blur to me now, I could barely keep my balance on the hoverboard.

Everything seemed to freeze. I looked around, there was someone flying a large crow pokemon. His clothes were ragged and dark, he even had a billowing scarf, but he was intent on keeping his identity covered. "Leon, don't give up!" and he pulled me up right and upon doing that I blinked and everything seemed to go back into motion. I clenched my chest and broke free of the combee, they were still on my tail and I was clenching my chest. The pain burnt my skin, I could barely take it. Then a gush of water from the earth blasted all of the combees away. I looked down, it was a girl sitting on a big and tough looking turtle pokemon. It had jet cannons on its back (which was where it shot the water out) and it had a large orange brown shell. Its skin was blue and the edges of its shell were grey. It stood upright on two feet and kept aiming at the remaining combee. The combees just fell one by one due to the strong blast of water that interfered with their flight. I flew strait down and landed, the girl seemed to be safe enough.

"You look like you could use some help!" said the girl, she was probably around 17 or 18. She had a white hat on and she had long brown hair, she wore a light blue shirt and a Dark blue jeans.

"Thank you…" I said through struggled breathing.

"Hey, take it easy, me and Turtley can handle the rest," she said proudly with her clear blue eyes twinkling. "Watch this, use ice beam!" She said as she directed it to Rangi who had only just noticed the attack being targeted at him. And once Turtley finished charging the beam of ice scared the flying scorpion away. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Blue." She said happily. "I think I should take you to the Silph tower now…" She said as I collapsed on her giant turtle pokemon.

Silph tower

Ok, how many times have I woken up in this darn mission only to see a bunch of faces peering down on me. A lot. My head really hurt and my chest was bear except for the bandages hiding the gashes that I received from that final mission. "So, kid, how're you feeling?" asked Blue, wait a second.

"Aren't you one of the Kanto pokedex holders?" I asked.

"That's correct!" She said. "Now answer my question, people are worried sick about you!" I looked around. Mikey was still unconscious but Molly, the president, Blue herself, and Sabrina were looking at me with worried faces.

"I'm fine…" I said as I tried to get up but my chest just began to sear with pain once I moved.

"Take it easy!" Sabrina barked. "I'll get one of my pokemon to teleport you to Celadon gym so you'll heal faster ok…"

"Right now?" I asked.

"Yes right now, you're already behind schedule!" she said. She was quite intimidating.

"Hey, take it easy on the little guy, he did manage to save Mikey right?" she said.

"Oh, Leon did you remember to bomb the supplies like I told you to?" asked the president.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" I said as I reached into my pocket, but it was empty.

"What do you mean you forgot!" He yelled.

"It must've fell out of my pocket while I was flying around and battling, I messed up big time…" I said a little depressed.

"Well, I don't care, as long as you and Mikey are safe I'm happy…" Said Molly.

"Well here's Nessy," I said handing her back the pokeball. "She really came in handy when I used her to battle the admin there…" She took the pokeball and looked at her pokemon strait in the face.

"No…"

"Huh?"

"Keep Nessy, she'll be better off with you, she saw what team cipher is like and I can just see it in her face, she wants to stay and fight with you!" Molly said as she handed to pokeball back to me.

"Fine, I promise I'll take good care of her…" I said. "Say goodbye to Mikey for me…" I said getting up and putting on my black collared shirt.

"Are you ready?" asked Sabrina. "Before you go, take this," and she handed me a small yellow coin-shaped badge. "That's the marsh badge." I got all my stuff prepared as well.

"Yeah." She sent out her Alakazam and then I teleported out of that room in an instant.

END

Chapter 12 – A fateful encounter

Leon's view

Celadon Gym

"You must be tired from all that fighting you just did." Said a calm voice. I opened my eyes. The person who had just said that was wearing an extravagant kimono and had neck-length hair.

"You're Erika the gym leader?" I asked,

"Yes I am, now, you may need to take off that shirt if you want the pain to stop…" She said as she noticed me clenching me chest out of pain.

"Fine…" I took off my shirt and I unwrapped the bandages. She got some herbal medicines and dabbed them on the cuts, the pain instantly vanished and was replaced with a tingling feeling. "What did you just put on me?"

"Oh, just some herbs from some grass type pokemon, nothing special." She said as she put the stuff away. "Now go to sleep, you need rest if you wish to recover, you'll start your aroma therapy tomorrow." She showed me to a room in the gym; it was a really calming environment. Plants all around, dimly lit if you want to sleep, curtains, bed, etc… I seemed to have fallen asleep right away…

3rd person view

When Leon woke up he took a look around. He was still half asleep but he remembered where he was and what he was supposed to do. He got up, and got ready for the day. He found a note on his desk telling him where to go. Leon followed the instructions and got to a room filled with incenses. Leon took a whiff of what it was and it smelled great, he wasn't sure exactly what it was but he didn't care, it put him in a good mood despite his aching arm or the X-shaped cut on his chest. He saw that there was only one person in the room and that was Erika.

"I see that you've awoken…" She said as she finished arranging a few flowers. "There may be challengers coming some time today so it would be best if we start your therapy as soon as possible…"

"Uh… what do I do?" Leon asked with a puzzled expression.

"Just sit down, relax and close your eyes, I'll get some pokemon to give you a back massage."

"Whatever…" Leon said as he nearly fell asleep, Erika was calm; so calm that she made anyone near her sleepy. "Can I send some of my pokemon out to?" he asked.

"You're more than welcome to…" Leon reached into his pocket and he only found six pokemon with him.

"Hey…" He said without much tone. "Where'd my other pokemon go…?" The only pokemon that he had with him that he had only just recently caught was the shape-shifting ditto. "I only have six…"

"You can't have more than six pokemon with you, they're probably transported to someone who you trust, and that would be the daycare man Mr. Reeve correct?" Erika asked.

"Uh, yeah…"

"He's probably on his way to inform you this very moment…" He released the pokemon that he had with him.

"This place smells so good…" Ken said the moment he was released.

"I wish boss would stay here forever…" Dusk said with his rings glowing calmly.

"It's nice to take a break from fighting…" Vivia yawned.

"Yay!" Nessy said as she came out and splashed into a nearby pond. "A Japanese garden…"

"This sucks!" Marowak said as he ruined the moment. The ditto just shape-shifted into a plant for some apparent reason.

"Hey, your aura is gone; maybe it's time to purify you…" Leon said as he recalled marowak. Leon walked over to where the purification chamber was, it was in the room so he didn't have to walk too far, and he put marowak's pokeball into the chamber, Leon watched the fancy light show and marowak's dark aura vanished. "Great, you're a good marowak now…" Leon said as he released marowak.

"I'm still bored, I need to battle…" Marowak said but he seemed somewhat calmer.

"You need to relax…" Leon said as he plopped onto the grass.

"Dammit, you guys are freaking me out!" marowak seemed to be trying his best to go against the calming atmosphere.

Then Erika returned with some grass type pokemon. "These pokemon here will give you a massage, enjoy it for now…" The grass pokemon – six in total got their vines ready while Leon and his three normal purified pokemon lay down on their chest. Marowak was resilient but ditto seemed to be giving itself as massage by transforming into a grass pokemon itself.

"This is awesome…" Leon said with a blank look on his face. And his pokemon agreed, all but marowak who was running away from the grass type that was trying to give him a massage.

"Get back!" marowak yelled. "I don't need your filthy vines on my back, I'm a lone warrior!" he said as he got his club ready. "I was born with stress…" But the grass pokemon had other ideas and put him to sleep with sleep powder.

"Oh shut up already, you're disturbing your allies…" said the grass types.

One hour later the grass type went away because a challenger had come in. Leon was slightly disappointed but he decided to go walk around Celadon city with his pokemon. But before he had the chance to do so someone came in.

"Oh, hello there Leon, I see you've finally captured over six pokemon!" It was Reeve.

"Oh, hey Reeve, how's it going?" He asked with a pleasant look on his face.

"I see you're taking aroma therapy, and I heard what happened to you in your last mission," Reeve said as he examined Leon's broken arm. "You got hit pretty hard…" he said.

"Ah, it's nothing; this should be quick due to this super awesome aroma therapy thingy!" Leon sounded quite high.

Reeve got out something from his bag along with Leon's two shadow pokemon. "As a reward for catching over six pokemon I'm here to give you a pokemon egg, the trainer responsible for the egg didn't want it so he let me keep it, I thought I'd give it to you!" He said.

"Thanks, I think I'll cook it for breakfast, I am kind of hungry…" Leon said in a dazed state.

"Wait, this isn't any ordinary egg, it's been fertilized, and it has a pokemon inside of it!"

"Must be a tasty one, fertilized eggs taste good right?" Leon said reaching for the egg. The egg was red in color and had black stripes going around the egg.

"No, no, no, fertilized eggs hatch into pokemon, and you might want to keep it alive so that it can join your team, you do want another pokemon on your team right?"

Upon hearing this it seemed like Leon just snapped out of a trance. "Another pokemon?" Yet he wasn't completely back into gear yet.

"Yes, I'm not quite sure what it will be but if you hatch it, and then you can see." He said as he handed over the egg.

"Thanks."

"But wait, pokemon eggs count as carrying a pokemon so you'll have to leave one of your pokemon with me," Reeve said. "Along with the other two."

"Well, can you stay here until I'm finished my therapy, I want all my pokemon to experience this stuff…" Leon said as he fell onto the ground again.

"I guess so, but I have some weaker version of aroma therapy back at my daycare center and I also have a purification chamber too," Reeve informed Leon. "So, they'll experience something similar." Reeve seemed to be thinking that too much of this might rot the brain.

"O-kay!" Leon said as he handed over the pokeball of ditto and took the egg. "Hey there my little, eggy weggy…" Leon said as he rocked the egg back and forth in his arms with half opened eyes.

Reeve walked away and out the door and left, mumbling stuff about telling Erika to go easy on the aroma therapy. Leon, who had the effects of the aroma wearing off on him had come to his senses and decided to go watch Erika's gym battle. When Leon got into the stadium he found a seat in the stands and examined the battle field. It was really grassy and had many trees around it as well, it also had flowers too. A really calming environment. Leon took a look at what pokemon the trainers were using; it was a large horse pokemon with a fiery mane and a long horn against a large flower pokemon with large red petals. Due to the fire horse pokemon, most of the arena was pretty much charred and Erika seemed to be at a bad disadvantage. Leon looked up at the board and it said how many pokemon each trainer had left. Each trainer was on their last pokemon. But then Leon realised who the challenger was.

"Ammy?" Leon said looking at the challenger, it was Ammy.

"Oh, hey Leon!" She said waving at him. "Come to see me battle, huh?" She said happily.

"Sure whatever!" Leon said shrugging, but the battle was already pretty much over, as the fire horse which was originally a ponyta shot out a stream of fire and knocked the grass type out.

"I guess you're too late!" Ammy said. Leon climbed down from the stands to talk to Ammy face-to-face.

"Ah, whatever, so," Leon began as he watched Ammy receive her gym badge. "What are you doing in Celadon?" Leon asked.

"Well, I'm just taking gym challenges, that's all…" She said as she pocketed her badge. "I already have four!"

"Really?" Leon said somewhat impressed. "That's great."

"Leon, you will continue your aroma therapy tomorrow," Erika said waking off to her office.

"Right!"

"What happened to your arm?" Ammy said noticing Leon's injured condition.

"Oh, well I sort of got injured during a mission but it's nothing big!" Then she hit his arm and Leon winced.

"Nothing big huh?"

"Ok, maybe a little!" Leon said grabbing his arm.

"What did you do?" Ammy asked. "Jump off a cliff?"

"No, I got attacked…" Leon really wanted to change the subject at the moment. "But enough of that, I'm getting hungry, why don't we go somewhere!" He said walking out the door.

Celadon City

"So where do you want to go?" I asked as I hopped onto my hoverboard and sat down.

"How the hell did you get that?" Ammy asked with a look of envy on her face.

"Oh, this?" Leon asked in a mocking tone. "I got this from completing my mission!" Leon said proudly. "You wanna hop on?" Leon asked scooting over to make room. "It can hold both of us,"

"Are you calling me fat?"

Leon laughed. "Maybe I am, you wanna prove me wrong?" he asked, and so Ammy hopped on. "I'll ask again, where do you feel like going?"

"Well, how about the mall?" And Leon's hoverboard got ready to speed up. "Hold on tight!" and Ammy grabbed on to Leon's back to keep from falling off. After only a few seconds they were already there, and they went inside. Once inside the mall there was already a pretty big commotion.

"What's going on?" Ammy asked a random bystander.

"Someone just robbed the jewelry store!" Yelled the man.

Then Leon and Ammy gave each other a knowing look. Then Leon saw a man holding a sack running off to the exit of the mall with jewels spilling out. "You there!" Leon said as he called out Dusk. "Dusk try to see if you can stop that man!"

"Got it!" and Dusk got ready to pounce but then a radiant light blasted everyone's vision. "AHHHHHHHH, the light burns!"

"You know, you have to be on despicable thief to pull a crime like that!" Yelled an accented voice. "I don't forgive those who are similar to you!" Said the voice. "For I am the embodiment of justice!" When the light faded it showed a long, blond haired boy carrying a sack and his foot on the thief's back.

"Séraphin?" Leon didn't think that he'd be seeing this guy anytime soon.

"I believe this is yours," Séraphin said as he handed the stolen goods along with the thief to the cops. And nearby was a loud ear torturing screech.

"Séraphin!" Séraphin was followed by his fan club as always. "We knew you'd be catching the thief."

"Wow, he's pretty tough to beat that thief like that." Ammy said.

"Just don't go joining his fan club or anything like that…" Leon sounded peeved. He was going to catch that thief but his pokemon just had to end it in a flash.

"Why hello there Leon, I see you've brought a friend with you to the mall…" Séraphin said as he walked over to Ammy.

"What brings you here?" Leon asked.

"You two know each other?" Ammy asked.

"Yes I've only recently met Leon here but now we're like best friends, are we not?" Stated Séraphin.

Leon mumbled something under his breath but went along. "I think rival is the better term…"

"Ah, it doesn't matter, but to answer your question, I'm here to do some… traveling," Séraphin said who had a small dog-like pokemon standing beside him. "I see your eevee has evolved…" Séraphin's voice had for some reason changed. "So has mine…"

"Oh, Dusk did evolve, well my eevee evolved too!" And upon saying that Dawn had popped out of her pokeball, this time as an espeon. The three evolutions of eevees were standing right beside their trainers.

"So and espeon, an umbreon and a holareon." Said Séraphin. Espeon was the pink cat-like evolution that had a gem on its forehead and a forked tail. Holareon. Had cream-white colored fur which was really stream-like and its paws were a bright yellow color. It had crystal blue eyes and also had bright yellow ears. The most amazing physical trait though was that its fur gave off a warm soothing light.

"Hey, Sér, I can call you Sér right, cuz' Séraphin is kinda long…" Said Ammy.

"Oh, sure that would be fine,"

"How do you get a holareon anyway?" asked Ammy.

"Oh, well all you have to do is use a shiny stone on an eevee," Séraphin said.

"I heard that you can use a Dusk stone on an eevee and get a ghost eevee too, but I'm not sure what happens with a Dawn stone…"

"I heard it depends on the gender of the eevee, if it's a male it turns into a fighting type, female a normal type." Leon said while jumping into the conversation. The three walked to a nearby fountain with a rainbow shining over it despite the cold atmosphere.

"Yay, fountains!" exclaimed Dawn, she really had a bright and cheery nature. "I love fountains, don't you, Dusk and holareon?" she said as she began swimming in the fountain.

"I prefer to stay dry and vigilant by my boss' side…" Dusk said as he sat down right beside Leon.

"You really need to relax," The shining evolution of eevee said. "Look," He said as he hesitantly edged near the ledge of the fountain. "I'm not afraid of water…"

"Who's afraid of water?" Dusk said menacingly.

"If you're not scared," asked Dawn. "Why don't you hop in?" she said as she doggy-paddled around the fountain.

"I will!" The holareon said but he didn't move, but Dusk, who was angry at the insult that the holy pokemon threw at him decided to get back at him. While the holareon's back was turned Dusk decided to shove Holareon into the fountain and he just walked away as if he was always beside Leon's side. The trainers didn't notice; they were all talking of subtle things.

"Ah, help, help!" Yelled holareon who was struggling to swim.

"Just stand up…" Said Dusk.

"Yeah, it's not tha-at deep!" Dawn said while swimming over to holareon.

"Eh…" The holareon said as he got up. "Oh, I was just kidding!"

"Hmph, whatever!" Dusk said as he shrugged away.

"So, Sér, where are you from?" Ammy asked out of curiosity.

"From France I bet…" Leon mumbled under his breath.

"Oh, I come from France but I really don't know much about the country," Séraphin said. "I was adopted at quite a young age!"

"Oh really, so you never got to see your real parents?" asked Ammy. This question interested Leon a bit.

"No…" Séraphin said quite sadly. "In fact that is the true reason why I'm traveling, to strengthen myself and earn enough money to find my parents…" Séraphin looked as if he would've said more but then he trailed off.

"Well," Leon said looking directly at Séraphin. "You're not alone Séraphin, we're orphans too."

"That's right!" Ammy said as she put her arm around Leon's and Séraphin's shoulders. "We're planning on searching for our parents too someday; we're three of a kind I guess!"

"Yeah, I guess so," Séraphin said as he began staring off into the distance. "I guess this was a fateful encounter…"

"Yeah, let's all go look for our parents together someday, after we strike down cipher!" Leon said clenching his fists.

"Ah," Séraphin said as an odd look on his face appeared. "I have yet another prediction for you Leon," He said.

"What is it?"

"When you hear bells ringing in your head out on the road, take a sniff, a look, a pause, you may never know, what special something or even someone you may find out there…" He said staring fiercely at Leon.

"Uh right…"

"Hey, you have one for me?" Asked Ammy.

"Uh, well, these just pop up randomly so I can't really come up with any good ones that would really come true so not right now, no, uh, I uh have to go!" Séraphin said as he ran off.

Leon watched as the blond haired boy ran off and he began thinking, maybe there's more to him then it looks…

Then Leon and Ammy heard an unsettling sound. It was the sound of a stomach growling. "Oh, Ammy I forgot you were hungry!"

"I'm hungry?" Ammy asked in disbelief. "That was your stomach growling!"

"No it wasn't…" Leon said as he got out his hoverboard. "Well," Leon said as he grabbed his stomach. "Maybe I am a little hungry," then he held out his hand. "You coming or not?"

"Sure whatever…" and she took Leon's hand and hopped onto the hoverboard and they sped off to a nearby restaurant. When they got off, it appeared Leon wanted to go to TGI Fridays.

"Wait, I thought you were an orphan!" Ammy said. "Don't tell me you got adopted by rich people once…"

Leon laughed. "Actually, I just won a whole bunch of cash from a Saffron tournament, and I figured I may as well use it!" Leon said as he drew out a wad of cash.

"Maybe I should start participating in tournaments…" Ammy said in envy.

"Don't worry; I may as well treat you!" Leon said as he walked in and Ammy followed.

The person at the desk asked for how many there will be and Leon answered two. They were seated and Leon had some kind of soup while Ammy asked for a salad. After the lady left Leon brought up a question. "Hey,"

"Yeah?" Ammy said as she drank her glass of water.

"Are you sure your just in Celadon just because you're allowed to travel, I mean, does Xarid have anything to do with this?" Leon asked with piqued interest.

"Oh, well really Xarid wants me to train before I go out and search for my parents," Ammy said as she began waiting patiently for her food. "Xarid's not that bad actually; he seems to be letting me do whatever I want now, as long as I don't say anything important…" Ammy said as she trailed off.

"I understand," Leon said as he took a sip of tea. "Oh, I just remembered something!" Leon exclaimed as he reached into his bag.

"What is it?" Ammy asked out of curiosity. She watched with amusement as Leon began flailing around in his bag.

"Here it is!" and he pulled out the egg that Reeve had given him earlier. Leon beamed with a smile. "It's a pokemon egg!"

"Oh, that's nice; do you know what it's going to hatch into?" Ammy asked.

"Uh, not yet but once it hatches I'll tell you!" he said as he began polishing the egg with a nearby napkin.

"I think it'll hatch into a fire type if you ask me," Ammy said as she took the egg and began inspecting it. "Or at least a red pokemon."

"Boy, that's useful," Leon teased.

"Hey, I'm trying to help!" She said as she slapped Leon on the arm.

"Ow… that hurt…" Leon said in a mocking voice.

"Do you really want me to hit you?" she said cracking her knuckles.

"I'm kidding!" Leon laughed. "Besides, I don't want to risk the egg getting cracked!"

Then as if nothing happened the waiter came over and served them their food. "Thanks!" Leon said as he grabbed his spoon and immediately began devouring his soup. Ammy on the other hand, took her time while eating her salad. "Hot!" Leon said as he took the first sip and began looking around for a glass of cold water.

"Did you just scald your tongue?" asked Ammy smiling.

"What do you think?!" Leon said with a lisp. "All I have is hot tea!"

"Here, take my water…" Ammy said as she handed over her glass and Leon gulped the glass in just one go.

"Ok, now for another!" he said as if he was never scalded by heat, and yet this time nothing happened. "This tastes great," and Leon instantly emptied the bowl.

"How…" Ammy said with an astonished face. "Do you finish so fast?"

"Well, I guess I'm just used to eating as fast as I can so I can get on the move again!" Leon said with a grin.

"I've barely even taken the first bite of my salad…" Ammy said with her fork half raised to her mouth.

"Don't worry, I'll wait." Leon said as he kicked back to relax a little. It took a while but Ammy actually finished and then Leon paid the bill and they left and said good bye for now.

"Hey, Ammy, I might take the gym challenge tomorrow, you wanna watch?" Leon asked.

"Sure, what time?"

"Well I guess whenever, just tell me when you're going to get there!" Leon yelled out as he returned to the Celadon gym.

The next day Leon woke up ready for some more therapy, it was all of the usual stuff but this time something new was up.

"Leon," Erika said as she inspected his arm.

"Yeah?" Leon was beginning to get used to the treatment of the aromas.

"I think it's time you get your cast off…"

"Really?" Leon asked. "That quickly?"

"Yes, you see," Erika began, "Our treatment is extremely effective and well, you do have to bring team cipher down, don't you?"

"Uh, yeah. More than anything!" Leon answered. "So I can get this off right now?"

"If the X-rays show that your bones have healed then yes," Erika said as she began to lead me to some sort of pokemon, it was a blue lion-like pokemon with some black fur as well. Its eyes were a piercing yellow. "Say hello to luxray, it has X-ray vision, and Luxray will tell me if your bones haven't healed yet,"

"That's nice, I want a luxray now…" Leon said enthusiastically. "Luxray, you're awesome!"

"Sure, thanks," and the Luxray began inspecting Leon's arm while his eyes grew fierce. "Hmmm, I see nothing wrong…"

"Awesome!" Leon said as he understood what Luxray meant.

"Leon, I'm sorry, but can you truly understand what this luxray here is saying?" Erika asked.

"Yeah, he said 'I see nothing wrong…'" Leon mimicked.

"You can seriously understand me?" The luxray sounded baffled.

"Yes…" Leon said getting annoyed. "I can understand all pokemon, but can we please get my cast off?" Leon begged.

"Oh, certainly!" Then she raised her hand and brought it down quickly and sharply, and the impact she had on the cast caused it to break.

Leon was stunned at how easily she could break the cast. "How'd you do that?" He asked in disbelief as he tested if his arm was ok.

"I've been taking lessons since a very young age, that was a simple thing for me," She said as she walked away.

"Oh, hey, I have a challenge for you Erika!" And she stopped.

"If that is so then meet me in the stadium." She said as she continued on her way. Leon called Ammy up and told her that his battle was going to be up in a few minutes.

"Ok, this is going to be a four on four battle between you and me, however you may choose what type of battle you want after you complete this maze!"

"WHAT!" I yelled out. "What do you mean maze?"

"So you haven't heard yet?" Erika asked rhetorically. "It's apart of this gym's standards, if you wish to participate in a formal gym battle you must complete the preliminaries, in this case a maze, some gyms however don't require anything, in our case it would be Saffron being that it is our capital of our region and so it has the largest population while Celadon has the second largest."

"Man... Why didn't Ammy tell me about this?" Leon complained.

"There's no time limit so relax," And she left the room and snapped her fingers and almost suddenly large, thick, thorned bushes barred my way. "Oh, and you may use your pokemon," She said at a distance.

So that's how Ammy finished so quickly, she probably burned her way through… Leon thought to himself. "There's no use in flying though, these bushes go all the way to the ceiling…" Leon said as he observed his choices. "Well, let me try blasting my way through!" And with that he sent out Vivia.

"What is it Leon?" Vivia asked as she observed her surroundings.

"I want you to burn all these ledges with flamethrower, so we can finish this maze!" Leon said. And Vivia inhaled a deep breath and blasted out a jet of fire, the fire was quite hot and Leon thought that the whole maze was going to be easy. Boy was he wrong. When Vivia finished her attack, the bush was barely charred. Leon tested to see if the bush was alright to just barge strait through but when he punched it, he got pricked with a few thorns on his right hand.

"Leon!" Vivia cried out as she saw that her trainer was hurt.

"I'll be fine…" Leon said as he picked out the needles. "Ahh, what are these, hybrid cactus bushes or something?"

"I don't know," Vivia responded rhetorically.

"Ah, whatever, we're wasting time, return!" Leon said once he finished recalling his pokemon. "Well, let's try sensing our way through…" And then Leon sent out Ken. "Hey Ken; can find Erika in this maze?" Leon asked.

"Sure," And Ken's eyes turned blue and he looked around, he saw one distinct aura that belonged to Erika. "Found her,"

"Ok, well where is she?" Leon asked.

"Right…" And Ken raised his hand and pointed, "There!" He said as he pointed to a bush wall.

"That's helpful…" Leon said a little sadly.

"Sorry,"

"It's ok…" Leon said as he recalled Ken. Leon thought to himself, what great was to have a pokemon in this challenge when they wouldn't exactly be helpful in this situation. Leon began walking around just to see what he could do; to him it just seemed like a plain old maze just with an abundance of dead ends; however that was not the case.

In one of the passage ways there were a large amount of flowers that seemed to give off a strong aroma. "Aren't these the same kind that Erika used on me?" Leon said as he was about to sniff some. But he caught himself. "Wait; if these are used for therapy wouldn't these knock me out…" And with that he instantly tossed the flower aside. Leon continued on and he turned a corner, however, that was a big mistake, not only was it a dead end but there was a large vine-like pokemon just waiting for him to step to close.

"Get back!" Yelled the vine pokemon.

"Gah, what is that?" Leon said as he dodged an attack and took out his pokedex. The pokedex recognized it as a tangrowth and realized that this pokemon can severely injure someone if not taken seriously.

"What, are you scared?" taunted the tangrowth.

"If I fight this thing with one of my pokemon they're going to get worn out before the actual match even begins, but if I don't I might just have to stay in this gym even longer…" Then the grass type pokemon had extended one of its giant arms and attempted to crush Leon, Leon dodged rolled out of the way by an inch.

"That was too close…" Leon said as he began to run away from the vine pokemon. Leon looked back, the vine pokemon was too slow to even make Leon run for his life so he let down his guard and began to run at a much pleasurable pace. Yet to Leon's dismay there was a throng of blue wavy vines ahead of him and the vines began to close in on him.

"What the hell?" Leon said and when he looked closely he saw that the blue vines were actually a miniature version of the pokemon he had previously encountered and was still closing in on him. "Ah well, this is no problem for me!" Leon said as he got out his hoverboard and simply flew over the vine pokemon. Leon turned sharp corners and zoomed through many corridors but this time he came across leaf pokemon, the pokedex identified them as bellsprout and Leon grew weary of the many grass type pokemon and wondered what they held in store for him, but wasn't in the mood to find out. The leaf pokemon had a bell shaped head and a thin-vine shaped body along with arms and feet. Leon cautiously flew over the grass types yet these pokemon simply shot razor sharp leaves at him causing him to nearly lose balance as he tried to dodge all of them so that he or his hoverboard wouldn't get hit.

Finally though, he reached a dead end as he was being closed in by the many grass type pokemon. He couldn't escape the swarm; if he tried to fly over them he'd just get hit off of the board and if he tried to bash through the bushes, well… that wouldn't work. Leon looked around, he searched for just something that would help him escape this predicament, he searched for anything out of the ordinary, and something caught his eye. It was a tall-thin tree, probably one that would be easy to cut or at least break down.

"Dusk come on out, you to Vivia!" And Leon's fox-like pokemon along with his dragon pokemon emerged from their pokeballs in a flash of light.

"Okay, boss, why are we being chased?" Asked the umbreon upon seeing the large crowd closing in on them.

"Leon, did you do anything bad?" asked Vivia.

"No, and this is a gym challenge, like a tournament, Vivia buy Dusk some time by trapping them in a sand tomb, and Dusk I want you to try to cut down that tree so we don't get attacked!"

"Got it!" and Dusk began hacking at the tree.

"I'm on my way!" And Vivia gave off a roar and the floor in between the grass pokemon and Leon began to turn into sand. The grass pokemon however realized this too late and were already being sucked into the pit of sand and once all of them were trapped Leon and company gave off a cheer.

"Great job Vivia!" however Leon's victory was short lived, the grass pokemon who actually did catch on to the trap began shooting leaves at Leon and also extended vines at Leon attempting to drag him into the pit along with them.

"Dusk, is that tree almost cut down yet?" Vivia cried out.

"Hey, boss I'm done!" Yelled the umbreon as he went ahead.

"Great, now return!" Leon said as he recalled his pokemon and zoomed off on his hoverboard. When Leon crossed the little path he had realized he had just completed the maze.

"Looks like you completed the maze with barely a scratch, but, I see you've made a small error in that maze though, punching the hedges as if they were docile…" Erika said on her side of the field, the field was full of grass, and it seemed as if Ammy never touched it, speaking of Ammy she was in the stands watching the conversation.

"Hey Leon!" Ammy called out.

"Hey," he waved to Ammy. "What do you mean by mistake?" Leon asked. But then Leon's question was answered, his head began to throb. He clutched his head in pain and inside he began to feel slightly dizzy. "Those were poisoned weren't they…?" Leon said as he fought back the pain.

"Yes, they're only strong enough to make you collapse and lose control over your pokemon," Erika said as she pulled out a pokeball. "But let's not waste any time shall we?" And she sent out her pokemon, it was the same pokemon that she had used on Ammy yesterday- and the pokedex classified it as a vileplume.

"I better make this quick, go Maro!" And with that marowak, now dubbed Maro had been released into battle with his signature death-gaze.

Leon vs. Erika

"A ground type?" said Erika, surprised. "That's how you're going to start this off?" she asked.

"Yeah, well, my lapras would be pretty much immobile here, so I may as well start this match off with bonemerang!" And without warning Maro tossed his club at vileplume and caught it off guard.

"What an underhanded technique, vileplume, use energy ball!" And vileplume shot out a green orb towards marowak from the center of its petals.

"Maro just charge through and block the attack with your club!" Maro, as commanded ran directly into the attack and swatted the ball away and some of it popped on Maro and did cause minor damage. "Use bone club!"

"Block it with hyper beam!" And right before Maro could make contact vileplume fired off a red beam that sent Maro flying, yet upon doing that it had used up a lot of energy.

"Maro!"

"I'm fine…" Maro said shrugging off the pain, yet despite the way he was acting, the attack did cause severe damage.

"Well, let's prove it by showing off our endeavors!" And Maro effortlessly whacked vileplume since it was still tired from hyper beam and caused both of their health points to become equal.

"Well let's finish this with giga drain!" Yelled Erika. And upon that order Vileplume had perked up and both pokemon had began to glow green, then all of a sudden the aura around marowak faded and was transferred to vileplume, causing it to regain some health while at the same time fainting Maro.

"Don't worry Maro, you did well," Leon who was still feeling tired picked out Vivia's pokeball and barely even tossed it.

"Leon, maybe you should take a break…" Suggested Vivia.

"And let Maro's efforts go to waste?" Asked Leon, and he looked towards the stands and there was Ammy with a concerned look. "I'll win this awake!" Leon said.

"Fine…"

"Vileplume use sunny day!"

"Knock it out with Flamethrower!" And right after vileplume had shot an orb of light into the ceiling and brightening up the place it was charred from Vivia's fire attack.

"Not bad, but let's see how you deal with roserade!" and her next pokemon had emerged. It was a humanoid pokemon with white-hair like petals and on each arm was a rose, one blue and one red. The rest of its body was green and it looked as if it had a cape and a mask on, as if it were some kind of superhero.

"Let's finish this quickly with-" However Leon was interrupted as Roserade had begun to spray water around the field and soaked the whole arena. "Okay, that was odd, well let's use flamethrower!"

"Rain dance!" And while Vivia had exhaled a scorching hot breath the enemy pokemon had shot and orb of water into the sky and had caused it to rain and for the field to become even wetter. Once the breath of fire had reached Roserade it was barely less than an ember attack and Roserade managed to shrug it off.

"Darn, that was probably what she must have been doing, with that water…" Leon said as he analyzed his situation. Yet without warning the ground had shook and out from right in front of Vivia came a thick-thorned poison coated vine that had lashed out at Vivia, luckily she dodged it.

"That was too close…" Sighed Vivia.

"You have to be prepared for what's to come if you want to become a good trainer!" Erika said.

"Vivia fly!" Vivia flapped her wings and flew high into the air so that the vines wouldn't reach her. "Now, use dragon pulse!" Vivia shot a blue aura at Roserade yet the roserade nimbly dodged the attack and instead shot out rainbow colored leaves at Vivia. "Hurry up and dive!" Vivia descended and landed safely on the ground where she thought she had dodged to vines yet to her surprise the attacks hit her from the back.

"In case you didn't know, that was magical leaf!"

Then Leon had an idea, if they couldn't see him they can't attack, right? "Vivia use sandstorm!" Vivia kicked up a whole bunch of sand and gave off a roar, causing the rain to disappear and instead sand blew in its place.

"Brace yourself and use ingrain!"

"Doesn't that heal the user by planting its roots?" Leon said to himself. "Well let's use aerial ace, we can't miss!" Vivia flew in for the game and got ready to slash at Roserade and actually succeeded and caused heavy damage.

"Now blow it away with leaf storm!"

"Return!" Leon recalled Vivia before it actually got hit, and ended up causing Roserade to waste its attack which had blown away the sandstorm with a throng of leaves.

"You're quite the tricky trainer Leon." Erika said out loud.

"Oh, well, I'm going with Ken!" And with that the Jackal-like pokemon had got ready for battle.

"So we got through the maze?" Asked Ken.

"Yeah, I want you to blast that roserade with an aura sphere!"

"No problem." Ken said as he blasted the orb of blue concentrated energy at the bouquet pokemon.

"Ah, I see why you used the sandstorm now, it wasn't only to evade, but to attack without being seen," Erika said as she complemented me on my tactics.

"Thank you but can we please get a move on?" Leon said as he began to lose sight of the scenery.

"My apologies, let's win this bellosom and use sunny day!" And the sand blew away and was replaced by once again strong sunlight once the flower pokemon came out. It was smaller than the previous pokemon and had to beret-like petals on its head and a dress of leaves, that went in a yellow-green pattern. Once it came out and rustled its leaves Leon had heard a bell ringing sound, it was quite soothing, as if it were a small break from the battle.

"Ken fire it with focus blast!"

"Solar beam!" The two attacks collided but the solarbeam prevailed due to the fact that there was strong sunlight.

"Ken, hang in there and follow this up with quick attack!" Ken vanished and appeared in front of bellosom and got ready for an attack.

"Use leaf storm!"

"Blaze kick!" The leaf storm sent a flurry of leaves everywhere yet Ken still met his mark and upon doing so burnt bellosom.

"Right on target Leon!"

"Bellosom use stun spore!"

"Ken hurry up and get out of there!" But it was too late, Ken was already inhaling the harmful spores that caused him to collapse onto the floor and restricted his movements.

"Take this time to heal and use synthesis!" Due to the great sunlight that shone upon bellosom most of the scratches began to fade away at an alarming rate.

"Ken come on and use an attack, anything!"

"Sorry Leon, I guess I'm too worn out for this…" Ken said as he attempted to get up.

"Bellosom use a super solar beam!" Bellosom took a minute to charge up and Ken still didn't get away. "Now." And bellosom fired a beam of sunlight directly at Ken and caused Leon to look away.

"No…" But when he looked up Ken was still standing and was holding bellosom up to prevent it from attacking. "Use force palm!" And Ken palmed bellosom's spine and in doing so paralyzed it.

"Interesting, now where one for one…" Erika said as she was helpless to do anything. "Try to break free!" But it was no use, bellosom was paralyzed.

"Now use blaze kick!" and with that last fiery kick, bellosom was knocked out.

"It seems that I'm down to my last team member, now I should go into full force, let's win this, jumpluff!" Upon seeing the small cotton pokemon, Leon nearly fainted, it was just a round blue pokemon who had a piece of cotton protruding from its head and two smaller pieces which appeared to be its pom-poms.

"Ken let's KO this one with a blaze kick!" but Ken was in no condition to move and was effortlessly fainted by a confusion attack from jumpluff. "Return, you did great!" Leon said as he nearly fainted himself. "Let's go with Dusk."

Dusk emerged from his pokeball and got ready for battle, yet before he did anything the first thing he said was, "why is it so bright?" he asked.

"Well, it should fade away soon, but if you want it gone quicker I say we beat this flower pokemon quicker."

"Ok, what you say goes, boss!"

"Start this off with double team!" And with that Dusk split into many different copies of itself.

"Use silver wind!" However the attack just missed and attacked a clone.

"That's not going to help, well, use toxic!"

"Solar beam!" Yet unluckily the strong sunlight had faded and the solar beam attack had required charging while Dusk had already poisoned jumpluff. "Fire it early!" And Jumpluff fired a beam at an already far away umbreon.

"Dig!" Leon ordered in a barely audible voice. And Dusk burrowed out of the way, regardless of it being fake or real.

"Use aromatherapy before it comes up!" And that same scent that had healed Leon of his injury had breezed in and caused Leon to go into a state of peace for a moment. Once the scent disappeared jumpluff seemed to be completely healed of poisons and at the same time Leon had felt much better and seemed to have recovered from the poison.

"Dusk use wish and then pass the baton!" Dusk had leapt out from his burrow (well his many clones) and a shooting star appeared, then Dusk was automatically recalled into his pokeball and Vivia was automatically sent out.

"What an interesting strategy, let's use status spore!"

"What?" But Leon didn't exactly have time to react as he saw a hazardous cloud of spores closing in on Vivia. "Just blow it away!" And Vivia flapped her wings and sent all the spores towards jumpluff yet had no effect on it. "Now let's go with aerial ace!" Vivia flew up high and slashed at jumpluff, knocking it out cold.

Battle- end

"Yay, we won!" Vivia cried out in joy.

"You did great Vivia!" Leon said as he dropped onto the sandy-sporry-charred grass.

"Congratulations on your victory, it seems you have a load of talent within you, and as proof of your victory, here is your rainbow badge!" Erika said as she handed Leon his token of victory.

"Yay, Leon, you did it!" Ammy said as she ran up to Leon and gave him a hug.

"Gah, let go, me no likie huggies!" Leon said as he was struggling to get out of the hug.

"Oh sorry, didn't know you were like that," Ammy said as she laughed.

"Great job mon ami," Said a familiar voice. "You put on quite a show!" It was Séraphin, who was also watching the battle.

"You were watching?" Leon asked.

"Yes," Séraphin said. "Why don't we go somewhere to celebrate this, for I too have recently conquered this gym?"

"Really?"

"Yes, this young man had defeated me quite effortlessly," Erika said as she began to walk away.

The three orphans walked out of the gym together, all three triumphant, in a blaze of glory. Erika smiled to herself. She wondered, whether the three were destined to meet in this city of rainbows- this city of hope…

End

Chapter 13 – Training From the Skilled Kunoichi Janine

3rd person view

Cycling Road

xml="true" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" prefix="st1" namespace=""Leon was hovering across cycling road in a fine beautiful day. He felt quite cheerful; he wondered how well everyone else did on their mission. But he was still a little baffled at what Séraphin's prophecy meant.

"When you hear bells ringing in your head out on the road, take a sniff, a look, a pause, you may never know, what special something or even someone you may find out there…"

What was that supposed to mean anyway? "What in the world did he mean by sniff…" Leon pondered as he began to cross the bridge that allowed riders to cross the large body of water that lead out into the ocean. Then all of a sudden a strong breeze nearly blew Leon off balance, he would've fallen if it weren't for the magnetic shoes. "Argh!" Leon yelled as he struggled against the wind. Yet unbeknownst to him, there was a soft chiming noise coming from a nearby bush however Leon was too preoccupied to notice.

Leon got agitated by the rough wind so he decided to zoom all the way to Fuchsia city so that he would not have to stay any longer in the bothersome weather.

Fuchsia City

"All right, I'm finally here!" Leon said as he got out his P*DA and dialed in Eve's number to find out where everyone is. Leon waited a while on his board yet no one picked up. "Ok, I guess she's busy or something, let me try Miguel."

[Hello?]

"Oh, yo Miguel, where's everyone at?" Leon asked through the phone.

[Oh, we're all at the gym office discussing our plans, oh and um, well,] Miguel made a long pause. [If you see Eve, try not to get her angry…]

"What, why what happened?" Leon asked

[See ya!] Miguel hung up before Leon could even finish.

"Idiot…" Leon said in an annoyed tone. But he continued on and eventually found the gym in the city. He went in and found his way to the office. When he got in he found five people in there. Three of them he recognized and the other was most likely the gym leader. The gym leader was a young woman who had her hair tied up in a bun and she wore ninja gear, yet for some odd reason it was a dark shade of pink.

"Hello, you must be Leon," Said the gym leader as she walked up to me and shook my hand. "I'm Janine, I'm the gym leader hear."

"Uh, hey, where's Eve?" asked Leon as he looked around the room, everyone seemed a little depressed.

"She's a little tired…" Fred said.

"She didn't exactly finish her mission with a 100% completion rate," Bill added.

"Yeah, what they said." Miguel finished.

"Well that doesn't exactly answer my question but I'll ask again after we get our mission briefing." Leon said a little annoyed, yet he sat down nonetheless.

"Well, first though, Leon please file a report on what you have done on your mission ok." Janine said. Leon got out a piece of paper and pencil and begins writing all the major events. "Ok, while he's writing I shall tell you what we're going to be doing, we've gotten reports that team cipher may be heading this way and that they will plan on attacking us," Janine said.

"That's it?" asked Miguel.

"Not exactly, we also have suspicion that they intend to use our safari pokemon for their own purposes and somehow turn them against us, so we'll have to protect the safari!" She said.

"And that is all?" Leon asked.

"Yes,"

"Then why are Billy and Freddy and the professor here for?" Miguel said as he pointed to the two.

"They're here to find Eve's missing Gloom," Janine said.

"What do you mean by missing?" Leon said as he instantly broke the point of his pencil.

"Eve had failed part of her mission and failed to keep away from casualties, she has lost her gloom out at sea, and however, there is still a chance that she can reclaim her gloom, even though it may be a lost cause…"

"How'd she lose gloom?"

"Hear, read this…" Janine said as she handed Leon a file, it was a detailed report on Eve's mission.

"Oh," It was all Leon had to say. "Well, do you guys have any leads yet?" He asked them.

"Well, I've come up with something that will upgrade your pokedex to a more upgraded tracker." Professor Oak said as he took out a chip. "It uses the exact DNA of a certain pokemon to find its location; in fact, it works on humans as well." Oak said.

"However," Fred said ruining the moment of hope. "We have no DNA samples of Eve's gloom…"

After a long moment no one had anything to say. Meanwhile Eve was standing at the beach staring blankly at the waves, as if to see if gloom would just magically drift along the waves and drift ashore. But it was wishful thinking.

"Oh, Eve, there you are!" Said a familiar voice. Eve looked towards the voice. It was Leon running up to her; she quickly turned her back to him.

"Go away…" Eve said miserably.

"I heard about what happened," Leon said. Eve remained silent. "I heard that you lost gloom but this is no time to just loaf around and act all," Leon paused, he was about to say gloomy but, well this wasn't the time. "All depressed, besides, everyone else is trying hard to find gloom for you," Leon said trying to convince Eve to talk. "You aren't just going to let them down when others are depending on you, are you?" He asked.

"What's the point," Eve replied, well he at least got her to talk. "I'll just get in the way and mess up again!" But that wasn't exactly what Leon had planned for her to say.

"Hey, quit talking like that!" Leon said. "Why in the world do you think your grandfather picked you for this mission, to be a pokedex holder?"

"…"

"It's because he knew you wouldn't give up, he thought that you'd be passionate enough to strike down cipher, and it's not because you're the best battler, but it's because your presence seems to…" Leon paused again for the right word. "Your presence seems to calm others when they're angry, but just seeing you angry like this distress me, I think the professor picked you because you're the best candidate to quickly purify all of these pokemon, your ability to befriend pokemon quickly!"

"…" She seemed to be listening.

"Look, before this mission officially starts, I'll dedicate my team to finding your gloom!"

"Why?" She asked, "It's a lost cause."

"No it isn't, all we need to find gloom is a piece of gloom's DNA, a piece of gloom is all we have to find in order to find all of gloom…" Then Leon just had an idea. "My cologne case!" And instantly Leon got out the cologne case from his bag and jumped onto his board and sped off to the gym. Nearby someone was watching, it was professor Oak.

"I had a good feeling about that kid…" Oak said as he watched him zoom off.

Once Leon got to the gym he immediately began searching for professor Oak. "Yo, Fred, where's the Professor?"

"He went out for some fresh air, why?"

But Leon didn't wait to around to tell him why but rather he yelled it out. "I have an idea!" Once Leon yanked the door to the gym opened he ran out without looking yet ran into something in doing so.

"Leon, please take it easy, you may never know when you're going to hurt an old man…" Oak said as he got up and examined his back.

"Oh, so sorry sir, but I've got an idea!" Leon said as he whipped out the cologne case. "You have the upgrade to the pokedex right?"

"Yes I do,"

"Please, upgrade my pokedex then!"

"Ok," The professor took Leon's pokedex and inserted a chip into it and took it out. "There, I take it that you have a plan?" he asked.

"Yes I do!" and immediately he brought out the cologne case and took a leaf from it, well a withered one and he let the rays of the pokedex analyze the leaf. When the pokedex finished he examined the pokedex and used the search engine. Sure enough there was a little marker indicating where the pokemon may be.

"Alright, see ya professor!" and Leon quickly ran off. When he looked at the pokedex, it indicated that the pokemon was at cycling road, how could Leon have missed gloom…

Cycling road

Leon searched around the bodies of water near cycling road, even though it tracked down where gloom was; it was still hard to find. After a few minutes Leon plopped down on his board, gloom was alive at least. But why not keep it a surprise? Leon began to look through his bag for anything that may help him search for the pokemon, but then he remembered Séraphin's prophecy. "Maybe it would be better to sniff out gloom's scent…" Leon said as he moved his egg aside to find something useful, but that was when the egg began to squirm. "Wah…" The egg cracked and the light began to shine, and after the light faded there was a small puppy pokemon lying where the broken shells of the egg were.

"Papa?"

"Huh?"

"Papa!" The small red puppy pokemon yelled as it pounced on Leon and began licking him.

The puppy pokemon had red fur yet had a yellow creamy colored underbelly and a tuft of fur on its head of the same color and its tail had the same color as well. And it was really small but of course since it was a puppy.

"Hey there little buddy!" Leon said as he picked up the little dog, it was wagging its tail like a lovable little mutt.

"Play!" The puppy said as it began running around Leon and getting in a pouncing stance and sidestepped a load of times.

"Oh, not right now, we have to go find a friend!" I explained to my new team member.

"Friend?" The puppy said as he tilted his head to the side.

"Yes our friend, a playmate!"

"Play?" then upon saying the word the puppy became instantly playful once again.

Leon sighed; baby pokemon seemed really… playful. "Ok, I'll play with you when we fine our friend ok?"

"Friend!"

"Ok," Then something sparked within Leon's mind. "Hear sniff this!" Leon said as he brought out the cologne case and allowed the puppy to sniff it. While the puppy sniffed the leaves Leon examined what pokemon it was, the pokedex classified it as a growlithe, a very playful and loyal species.

"Sniff!"

"Ok, now I want you to find the same sniff, ok?"

"Sniff!" and growlithe ran off excitedly with his tongue hanging out and whenever he got too far ahead he would wait for Leon to catch up, a brisk breeze blew and Leon heard the sound of a bell and growlithe dashed against the wind.

The playful puppy dove into the bushes and Leon examined what he had found, to his disappointment, it wasn't gloom as he had anticipated but rather, it was a bellosom. "Hey, why do you look so beat up?" Leon said as he picked up the flower pokemon.

"Help me…"

"Don't worry; I'll get you to the pokemon center ASAP!" Leon said as he snatched growlithe up and secured him onto the hoverboard and zoomed into the Fuchsia pokemon center.

Fuchsia city

Leon gave the bellosom to the nurse and waited patiently for the nurse to come back with some sort of news. He wondered why was the bellosom so beat up, was it because of team cipher? After a while Fred came into the pokemon center. "You found anything?"

"No,"

"The professor said you had an idea…"

"All I found was this bellosom…"

"A bellosom?" Fred asked.

"Yeah,"

"The cycling road isn't their natural habitat!"

"So?"

"That bellosom just might be Eve's gloom!"

"What?"

"Gloom must've evolved!"

"You mean I found gloom?!"

"YES!" And upon seeing the nurse we quickly ran over and asked her how the bellosom was.

"The bellosom was in such a poor condition," and she faced Leon. "You say you found it near cycling road?"

"Yes!"

"Why was it there?"

"Because we have reason to believe that team cipher was behind it and yeah well, you get the idea!" Leon said immediately. "And we also believe it may belong to our friend!"

"Can we see it?" Fred asked.

"Certainly." And the nurse brought out the flower pokemon. "It's still sleeping though, so please try not to wake it up…"

"Goddammit!" Leon yelled out loud. "We're so close, but we don't have any means of confirmation!" Leon yelled while he was pulling his hair out.

Just then Eve had walked in the center.

"EVE!" Leon said as he instantly ran up to her and grabbed her shoulders. "I think we found gloom, well bellosom, well your gloom that's now a bellosom!"

"Wait, really?"

"YES!" Leon said shaking her roughly. "All we have to do is wait until she wakes up and well, gloom er, bellosom is back!"

Eve was speechless; she couldn't believe what was happening. "I'm not sure what to say,"

"Don't say anything!" Leon said clenching his fists. "Just be happy, after all, we're friends, right?"

"Thank you…" Eve said.

"No problem, all we have to do is wait!" Leon said, while giving her a thumbs up.

After a few minutes the nurse had returned with the bellosom and Eve had checked to see if the bellosom was truly hers.

Eve? asked the bellosom.

"Bellosom!" Eve said while she picked up her pokemon in delight. "Oh, Leon, thank you so much!" And to show her gratitude she began to hug Leon. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Ok, get off!" Leon said getting annoyed, he didn't seem to like being too close to anybody.

"Sorry!" She said as she instantly let go and began to hug bellosom. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys!"

"Well, at least we can rest for today, right?" Fred said.

"Of course, but first," Leon said as he grabbed a pokeball. "I think my team needs to become acquainted with a new member of the team." He said as he began to walk outside, and everyone left to spend the rest of the day in leisure.

Route 15

"Okay everyone, come on out!" Leon said as he threw out all his pokeballs. Everyone came out and took a look around. Nessy landed in a nearby river. "Ok, everyone, we have a new member in this family and he's just a pup!"

"Daddy!" The puppy pokemon said as it bounced around excitedly. "Friends!" And it pounced on Ken and wagged its tail. "PLAY!"

"A playful puppy too." Ken pointed out.

"Whatever," Maro said as he turned away.

"He's so cute!" Vivia said as she began to good-naturedly nudge growlithe.

"Does he like water?" Asked Nessy.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think so, he's a fire type…"

"Oh…" Nessy sulked a little. "That means I can't spray him with water.

"I'm guessing boss wants us to train or protect him?" Dusk said diligently.

"Exactly, I want all of you to at least somewhat show some concern for him," And Leon turned towards Maro. "And that includes you!"

"Fine, as long as I don't have to play with him…" He said still with his back away.

"So, what should we name him?" Leon asked out of curiosity.

"Fiery?" Proposed Nessy.

"Too simple…" Ken said.

"Well, your name's simple!"

"That's mean…"

"How about, Seyha?" Leon said. He turned to the new member of the team. "How do like that, Seyha?"

Seyha barked back as if to say yes.

"Seyha it is!" Leon relaxed a bit, knowing that the mission shouldn't be starting anytime soon, that's enough time to get Seyha ready for battles…

The next day

Safari Zone

Leon along with everyone else had (reluctantly) got up early due to Janine's constant nagging. "All of you are so lazy, you three will never become great trainers without dedication to one's goal, you must sweat, work, bleed to strive towards what you want, and if you cannot muster up the effort than I suggest you give up life all together!"

"You sound like my grandma…" Miguel said, he sounded really annoyed.

"As long as you're going to stop nagging, whatever…" Leon yawned; he was still half-asleep.

"Can't you wait until everyone's actually ready?" asked Eve.

"No!" Janine barked. "Now get ready!" And she suddenly threw a set of ninja stars at the three snaggers. Leon jumped out of the way and Eve had ducked, however Miguel wasn't exactly paying attention and got hit by one of the stars right on his forearm.

"Gah, what the hell was that for!" Miguel yelled in outrage.

"This is to test your instincts in battle, if you cannot see anything like this coming, even when you are tired then I doubt team cipher will let you go!" And she threw another set of stars and then vanished into thin air.

"Where'd she go?" Leon asked in a confused state.

"Whatever, I'm leaving; she's not the boss of me!" Miguel said as he began to walk back to the gym.

"Oh, no you don't!" Janine yelled as she reappeared and kicked Miguel into a tree.

"That's it; you're getting on my nerves!" Miguel said as he drew out a pokeball. "Let's go Ace!" And the starling pokemon flew out of his pokeball and perched on a nearby tree. "Let's get rid of this damn gym leader!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" Janine said with a glint in her eyes.

"Use aerial ace!" And Ace had dove strait towards Janine, yet it wasn't meant to cause her to faint of course.

"How can she be so calm…?" Eve said in awe.

"She was something planned," Leon observed with a serious look on his face. "This is exactly the type of training we need…" Eve nodded as she understood and continued to watch. Just as Ace was about to hit Janine an intricate web net had been launched towards Ace with extreme accuracy and had negated its attack.

"What the?" Miguel had looked towards what had launched the web and in the thicket of the trees was a large Ariados, a spider pokemon. It was orange in color with black markings, and on its abdomen was a face like pattern. But that was Miguel's mistake; the spider pokemon had shot a small web at Miguel's face and had covered his mouth.

"Hmph, that new look suits you, keeps your mouth shut," Janine had said as she relaxed a little. Miguel could only show threatening gestures to show his discontent. "Now all you can do is listen as I give a little exercise instruction…" And she had, without warning dashed into the three of the trainers and knocked each of them back.

Leon looked at his belt and noticed that four of his pokeballs were missing while one of his was broken. He looked at Eve and then at Miguel and they each had the same worried look on their faces. "Darn, didn't see that coming…"

"Now if you want to repair your pokeballs and retrieve them, all three of you are going to have to chase after me!" And Janine did a vanishing act and disappeared.

"Did she just steal from us?" Eve had asked in an astonished tone.

"This is some interesting training…" And Leon looked at which one of his team members was available for usage, and it turned out it was Seyha, and that Ken had resided in the broken one.

Miguel had only Ace with him to use and Eve had her ninetales, now named Nina. Miguel had recalled Ace and re-released him and succeeded in ripping off the web from his mouth. "I'm not going to just sit around and wait till you guys get my pokemon back!" Miguel had said and began running off aimlessly. "Let's go Ace!"

"Wait, Miguel!" Eve had called out to him. "If we don't stick together we might not…"

"It's no use, having him around is probably just going to be a hindrance anyway…" Leon said in a more serious town than usual. "If he isn't going to take this seriously then I don't know how he's going to get better…" And Leon had released Seyha and began he ordered the puppy pokemon to use odor sleuth to find out where Janine had gone.

"Oh, that's so smart, getting out growlithe to find out where Janine went!" Eve said in a delighted town.

Leon sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"Seyha can't pick up her scent…" Eve's head drooped upon hearing that.

"Oh, well we're not giving up; I'm not going to let that idiot get ahead of us!"

"You have any plans?" Leon asked.

"No…"

"Then I suggest we keep our pokemon out and just keep walking," And before he even finished he began to walk with his growlithe, loyally tagging along.

"Ah, hey wait up!" Eve said as she called out her now purified fox pokemon.

"Eve, why exactly are we out here, in the middle of the safari?" asked the ninetales while still following her trainer.

"We have to go search for everyone else, were you sleeping in your pokeball to not notice all this?"

"I guess so…" yawned the fox pokemon. "It is early after all."

"Oh well…" Sighed Eve as she tagged along.

"I guess we just keep on walking until we find a lead…" Leon said as he kept on walking. Eventually they came to a clearing inhabited by a herd of Miltank and Tauros. The Tauros however seemed agitated.

"We'll kill that guy once we find him!" Said one.

"I don't care who it is, I'll kill anyone!" said another.

"There's something wrong with the tauros…" Leon observed.

"Aren't the tauros always an angry species?" Eve said.

"And you're supposed to be the granddaughter of a famous professor…" Leon said bluntly. "Let me see what's wrong, you stay here…" Leon went ahead and Seyha got ready in case of an attack.

"Hey, wha-how are you going to do that?"

"Watch." Eve got ticked off yet staid back anyway.

"Excuse me," Leon said to a Miltank.

"Yes?"

"Do you know why these tauros are so angry?" Leon asked.

"Oh, well, this boy had the ignorance to just walk up to a tauros and snatch something from him, I think it was one of those devices that your people to use to capture some of us pokemon…" The Miltank said with a glare.

"Damn it, what did that idiot do…" Leon said with a sigh.

"There are two others around here and the main bull around here is in charge of it, but I doubt your going to get it for free or easily for that matter."

"I don't care, where is he?" Then Seyha began to bark and Leon turned around. When he did, he realized one of the tauros, a big one at that, had begun to charge at him and Seyha. Leon and Seyha had luckily got out of the way though.

"I thought you had everything under control, was I wrong?"

"No, I still do, this is just how I like it, let's try seeing what this tauros has to say!" Leon yelled as he jumped away from the charging bull. "Seyha roar once the tauros gets close enough!" The bull pokemon was right about to trample all over Seyha but the little puppy roared as loud as a tyranitar and stopped the bull in its tracks. "Now… I hear that you may have something that belongs to us…" Leon said as the bull calmed down a bit.

"Is this why your kind attacks us?"

"Calm down, we've just came for something that was… taken from us, I would like to have it back," Leon said.

"Not unless we get our revenge on that trainer who attacked us, he could've just asked!"

"So this is why you're angry, huh," Leon thought of something. "How about this, I'll get that trainer back and get him to apologize to you and your family, but of course we're going to need our pokeballs back."

"Fine, but you better bring that boy over here."

"Fine,"

"Or else!" The chief said with a little steam coming out of its nose.

"Yessir," The bull pokemon trotted to where it kept the pokeballs. Leon picked the two up, Janine probably planned something like this, she probably wanted to see if we'd be good enough to be able to communicate well with the pokemon, Leon thought. "Catch!" Leon said as he tossed the ball over to Eve. It was her Dewgong. The pokemon that was in the pokeball I was holding was Nessy.

"Thanks…"

"I told you I had this under control." Eve however was feeling slightly confused as to how Leon communicated so well with the pokemon.

"Where to now…" Eve asked.

"I have a feeling we should probably go somewhere near the river's edge, Janine wouldn't just give us most water pokemon randomly would she?"

"Yeah, but shouldn't we find Miguel first?"

"Yeah, we probably should but there's no way to track him down unless we had Ken." Leon said as he began to walk again. "But we will have to find him eventually…" Leon said with a smirk. "Seyha,"

"Yea?" asked the innocent pokemon.

"Do you hear any water nearby?" I asked him.

"Water…" Then Seyha immediately began to run off to where the water was supposed to be.

"Alright, we're on a roll!" Leon said as he began to chase after Seyha. However after a few minutes, Seyha stopped. "Uh, Seyha, we're nowhere near water…"

"No water!"

"Wait you mean you led us away from the water?" Leon asked.

Seyha growled. "Water bad"

"Oh, you mean we went the opposite way?" Eve asked. "This isn't good… But whatever, your still a cute and adorable little puppy Seyha!" Eve said as she began to pet him.

"Eve, you're spoiling him…" Leon said a little annoyed.

"Lighten up; I can't get angry at his adorable wittle face!" She said as she picked him up and began cuddling him. "Oh, he's so warm too!"

"Oh, hey well what do you know!" Cried out a voice from up high. Leon and Eve looked up to find the source of the voice.

"Miguel?" Leon said a little surprised.

"Ah, well, this is sorta embarrassing but, Ace lost to a bug type…" Miguel said, he was tied up in a cocoon, and so was Ace.

"I did not lose!" Ace yelled. "I got ambushed…"

"Well, we were just flying by and then well, why don't you get us down first?!" Miguel yelled.

"Uh, well all we have are Seyha, Nina, Dewy and Nessy; Seyha and Nina are probably going to start a forest fire if we use them in here and Dewy and Nessy aren't suited in this kind of terrain!" Eve yelled towards Miguel.

"What, ah well I managed to get one of my pokemon back, it happens to be my aipom-striker, he's lying around in a silk-covered pokeball, he's not up here though that's for sure!"

"Seyha, see if you can sniff out a silk ball somewhere here!" Leon ordered. Seyha began sniffing around and eventually trotted back to Leon and Eve, it was a silk ball, Leon ripped it apart. "Striker come on out and help your trainer."

"Ah, thank you, you know how annoying it is to be stuck in TWO balls?" The aipom said as it began stretching its limbs. "You try to break free but your stuck, no way out, it's like prison, I hate prison, I can't stay in my pokeball too long and being in a pokeball and a silk ball ruins everything you know?"

"Striker!" Miguel yelled. "The blood is beginning to rush to my head!" The monkey stopped talking and nimbly climbed up and cut Ace and Miguel free, to make sure Miguel didn't get hurt, Ace caught him. "You two are really slow, what in the world are you two doing?"

"We're making sure none of the pokemon gets hurt…" Eve said while glaring at Miguel.

"You're going to have to meet the dominant tauros after we're done with this." Leon said as he once again asked Seyha to find the nearest river.

"What?" Miguel said. "I don't have to listen to you, you're not my superior!"

Leon wasn't exactly listening though; he was busy trying to convince Seyha to find the river. "I'll give you a little treat when we're done our training!"

"Treat?"

"It's tasty food!" Leon said enthusiastically.

"Tasty?"

"Ok, how about I play with you all day after we're done!"

"PLAY!" And with that Seyha got reared up instantly and sped off towards the river.

"Well see you guys there!" Miguel said as he hopped on Ace and began following Seyha.

"Hey!" Leon yelled as he began to chase after Seyha. "We gotta stick together to make sure you don't do anything stupid!"

Eve sighed, she didn't exactly seem to like being around people who have short tempers. Eventually the trio made it to the river together and of course there wasn't a bridge nearby, or at least one that was actually in tact. "Either Janine and the city are too cheap to fix this bridge up or Janine destroyed it on purpose to wear us out…" Eve said with an exasperated voice.

"Ahh, I've had too many experiences with water…" Leon said with a sad tone.

"Well, I don't even have to touch the water!" Miguel said. Leon and Eve each sent out their water pokemon and recalled their other pokemon. Leon hopped onto Lapras and Eve clung onto her dewgong.

"Ok, Dewy, try not to get me too wet, ok…" Eve said as she got onto Dewy's back.

"What, you're afraid of water?" Dewy said with a sly tone.

"No, I just don't want to get wet!" Eve said defensively. Leon watched from a distance, curious as to what Dewy was going to do.

"You mean like this?" Dewy said as he nearly flipped Eve off.

"Stop!"

"Or like this?" He said as he tipped the other way.

"Hey quit it!" Eventually though she managed to get across without getting wet above the waist. "Leon, next time, you are using Dewy and I'm taking your lapras, oh I'm so jealous…"

"You, take Nessy?" Leon asked rhetorically. "Hell no," Leon said as he began to think of another lead.

"So what now?" Miguel asked. "We're missing two of my pokemon, three of Eve's and four of yours." Just then Leon heard something.

"You guys hear that?" He asked.

"Well, other than the usual chirpings and flapping and explosions…" Miguel's ears began to perk up too.

"Yea what is that…?" Eve said but Leon instantly ran off.

"Dusk!"

"BOSS!" Dusk yelled out when he heard his trainer yell out his name, but he let down his guard, Dusk got attacked by a powerful blow and got sent flying back and hit a tree, alongside him was Spooky who was also pretty beat up, Seraphina however was in pretty good condition and was busy setting up barriers to protect Dusk and Spooky.

"What happened to you three?" And all of a sudden a shooting ray of light appeared out of nowhere and healed the three pokemon.

"Thanks Dusk!" Spooky said enthusiastically getting back onto his feet.

Leon looked at who the three were battling, and it turned out that the pokemon was a large Rhydon. "Rhydon are also an aggressive species…" Eve observed.

"I think you three deserve a break…" Eve said as she recalled her Kirlia. "I think you two should do the same…" Leon and Miguel nodded and recalled their respective pokemon. "Nina, let's drag this Rhydon down!"

"Seyha…" Leon was feeling quite hesitant, Seyha was just a puppy, and Leon didn't want to endanger him…

"Let's go Striker!"

"Yo, I think I might have to sit this one out…" Leon said indecisively.

"What, why?" Miguel fired out.

"It's ok, I understand," Eve said as she nodded towards Leon. "It's because he doesn't want to put too much strain on his pokemon!"

"Oh…" Yet without realizing it their pokemon were about to get attacked, Rhydon was rearing its head back and beginning to charge at us.

"Nina use confuse ray!" Nina sent out dark rays from each of her nine tails and ended up causing Rhydon to forget what it was doing and began attacking the environment.

"We have to put a stop to this before it gets hurt, we're not even supposed to have pokemon in the zone…" Eve said quickly.

"Well if that's the case, then how about this, Striker use taunt!" Striker instantly began doing inappropriate and infuriating body language towards Rhydon. Rhydon got the message and began chasing after Striker. Right before Rhydon attacked Miguel commanded Striker to use protect.

"Great, now I've got an idea;" Leon said. "Eve, do you think Nina knows how to use spite?"

"Uh, yeah!"

"Great, then tell Nina to use it, and Miguel just keep that tactic up," Leon said getting into the battle. "This way we can defeat the Rhydon without hurting it, and once it sees that attacking us is too much trouble it'll just go away!"

"Nina use spite!" and every time Rhydon attacked Striker, Nina's tails glowed and caused Rhydon to get more and more exhausted. After a while the battle ended and Rhydon lost the will to battle and just began to walk away.

"*Yawn* that was long…" Nina said as she curled up into a ball.

"I guess you deserve a break…" Eve said as she recalled Nina.

"Wooh, we make a great team…" Leon said as he called Dusk out.

"Yeah, but of course I was the best one!" Miguel said, but Leon completely ignored him.

"Dusk, was there any reason why that Rhydon was attacking you three?" Leon asked.

"Well boss, I was just trying to protect these three here, the Rhydon was in the middle of a rampage, actually it just had a fight with another Rhydon and I guess it was in the middle of using thrash and so it ended up attacking everyone." Dusk said.

"So you guys were just defending yourselves?" Leon asked.

"Sort of, we were also helping some of the nearby pokemon, some of them got hurt and some were in danger of getting hurt…" Dusk said.

"Wait, so there are pokemon nearby who are hurt?" Leon translated.

"Then we have to go help!" Eve said as she walked to where there was most damage. Leon walked up to where Eve was standing and looked around… The place was a mess. There was blood everywhere and Leon could have sworn he saw a flicker of purple somewhere. But when he blinked there was nothing.

"This really isn't good." Miguel said.

"Seraphina use wish…" Eve said as she closed her eyes and began to pray.

"Wait, Kirlia can use wish?" Leon said puzzled. But then suddenly Kirlia began to glow white and soon the whole forest was surrounded by a blinding light. When the light faded, the forest seemed as if nothing was touched and Kirlia was replaced with a different pokemon. "Oh, wow…"

"Seraphina just evolved into a Gardevoir…" Miguel stated.

"I get it…" Leon said as he smiled. Then suddenly a butterfly pokemon quickly flew up to Eve and began dancing around her, as if to thank her for restoring the forest.

"Thank you so much, you seem like a wonderful person," the butterfly pokemon said. "May I travel with you!"

"Eve, the pokemon wants to repay you," Leon said, knowing that Eve wouldn't be able to instantly understand.

"Oh, well of course, join the team!" Eve said as she tossed a pokeball into the air and caught the pokemon. "Let's see, this pokemon is a Butterfree…" Eve thought for a moment. "I think I'll name you Hope…"

"That's a really nice name," Leon said. "I think that you two will bond pretty fast…" Leon said while wondering where to go next.

"Leon, just a question," Miguel began. "How is it that you seem to know exactly what a pokemon is saying?"

Leon snickered. "Well, it has nothing to do with my relationships with the pokemon, I think, I'm just gifted…"

"Well then, if you're gifted with a special talent, I'll make sure I won't lose to you in anything else!" Miguel said getting pumped up.

"Oh, Leon, I have an idea!" Eve called Hope over. "Maybe Hope can tell us if she's seen any of our pokemon nearby!"

"Yea…" Leon turned towards the Butterfree. "Hope, have you seen any pokemon that are out of the ordinary around here?"

"Uh, yes, other than your pokemon that saved us right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, around the more rocky areas, I've seen a fairy pokemon, a dragon pokemon, and a ghost pokemon, uh… is that good?"

"Yes, thank you," Leon said. "I think we've found Vivia, Jet and NéNé!" Leon said.

"Butterfree, can you show us where you've seen our pokemon?" Eve asked. The Butterfree nodded and flew off. The three trainers followed and eventually came to a craggy area. Nearby there were the three pokemon that Hope had described, Vivia, Jet and NéNé.

"Yo, Vivia!" Leon called out to his loyal dragon pokemon.

"LEON!" Vivia yelled as she flew directly over to her trainer, the three pokemon seemed to be getting along.

"Eve, look, I made some new friends today!" Jet said while flying around.

"NéNé!" Miguel yelled as he ran up to his ghost pokemon. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with their pokemon so they moved along across the craggy area.

"I say we should try our best to find our last three pokemon, Ken would be of a lot of help if we want to find Janine." Leon said while on his hoverboard.

"Well, searching for our pokemon shouldn't be so hard since we have a Birdseye view now." Miguel said while clinging onto Ace."

"Leon, even though you didn't let me borrow Nessy, I think Vivia is good enough, she's so sweet, I've already bonded with her, I can understand her clearly now!" Eve said.

"Yeah, Leon, Eve's a really nice person, I like her!" Vivia said while flying through the skies.

"Wait, I think Seyha may still have Bell's scent in his system, maybe it'd be easier to find them that way…" Leon said as he began to descend.

"Oh wow, I can't believe we didn't think of that sooner…" Eve said sounding a little annoyed.

"Whatever, I've got all my pokemon back…"

"Just shut up and help us look," Leon said, and then he called out Seyha. "Seyha, can you help us look for flower friend again?" Leon said as he opened up the cologne case and reminded Seyha of what to look for.

"Friend!" Seyha said as he bounded off towards where he thought Bell was.

Eventually they came to a meadow, and in the center of it were the three remaining pokemon. Ken, Maro and Bell. Yet all three seem to be tired.

"Hey, what happened to you three?" Leon asked.

"We got attacked by a group of Victreebel." Ken said with a little exasperation.

"I think they might still be after us…" Bell said.

"They were hungry." Maro said bluntly.

"You mean they tried to eat you?" Leon asked. All three nodded. "So where are they right now?" Leon asked.

"They don't seem to like being away from forests, they're over in that are right now." Ken said. "I sensed that you guys were coming our way and this spot seemed to be safe so, well we decided to wait here."

"That's good." Leon said. "But we still have to find Janine."

"I guess you're right."

"Bell, you must've been so scared of those mean people…" Eve said as she picked her pokemon up.

"Ken, can you pick up Janine's aura around here?" Leon asked.

Ken closed his eyes for a moment. "She seems to be protected by the Victreebel…"

"So she's protected by the Victreebel," Leon translated for his team mates. "Well, I guess we just fly through…" Leon said. "And Ken, just use your ability to focus on Janine so that we don't lose her!" The three flew off and soared through the air. Ken had picked up Janine's aura and the three confronted her.

"So you three managed to retrieve all your pokemon and find me without causing too much damage to the environment?" Janine asked cheerily.

"Well our Hispanic friend here seemed to have acted ignorantly towards a certain herd of tauros…" Leon said with a menacing tone in his voice.

"Well, I'm going to make sure you meet that group when you're done your training!"

"Wait, what?"

"You're not allowed to harm any of the safari pokemon, it's the gym challenge I present to the challengers or future gym trainers, if you fail to defeat me or to apologize to the herd, then no badge for you!" Miguel drew back a little.

"Fine, I'll beat you," Miguel said. "And well, it's about time I start living up to my grandma's expectations, prepare to lose!"

"Ok, let me explain the rules first!" Miguel slumped upon hearing that. "Oh, calm down, it's just a few things!" Then she faced everyone. "Each of you will be working as a team to defeat me, each of you shall be using one pokemon each, understand?" Janine asked. Everyone nodded. "Now each of you discuss who you're going to use and then get ready for battle."

Leon thought for a moment, who should he use? Leon wanted to use Seyha but Seyha was still too young for a gym battle… "Hey Leon, I think it'd be best if you use Ken because it's going to be easy for him to find the pokemon if they try to use and hiding tactics on us." Miguel said towards him.

"And what about you?" Leon asked.

"I think Striker would be a good choice, I mean, this is his field advantage, if they hide, I'll just have Striker hide too."

"Hey, Eve, who are you going to use?" Leon asked.

"I think Hope will be a good choice because, can't Butterfree use psychic?" Eve asked.

"Well that's good, but that's not the only reason, Hope has a home advantage in here, so she knows the place well," Leon said analyzing the situation. "Hey, Janine, we're ready!" Leon said.

"Ok then, go Toxicroak!" Janine sent out a pokemon that was shaped like a large humanoid frog. It had a dominantly blue color for its skin and a red throat and claws. The pokemon also had black linings across its body, giving it a ninja-like appearance.

Leon, Miguel and Eve vs. Janine

"I'll go first!" Miguel said. "Besides, I think this is a pretty much equal match if I use Striker!"

"Let's start this off with sludge bomb!" Toxicroak spat out a sludge ball that was heading for Striker.

"Striker use swift to make it explode away from you!" Striker shot out a set of stars that made the bomb explode out of range. "Now bounce up and attack from the trees!"

"Toxicroak use sucker-punch!" Toxicroak intercepted the mid-air monkey and punched it, disrupting the attack.

"Ahh, that hurt…" Striker said as he landed back on his butt.

"Now Toxicroak use poison jab!" Toxicroak's arm began to seep with poison and the frog pokemon approached Striker while he was still recovering from the attack and got hit hard.

"Striker hang in there!"

"Use Poison jab again!" Toxicroak was getting ready for another attack and got ready to hit Striker.

"Use protect!" And a barrier appeared in front of Striker to protect him from the attack. "Now use slam!" Striker gave a smirk. He knew that the Toxicroak couldn't escape. He slammed the frog pokemon into the air and then leapt up and slammed him towards a tree. Then all of a sudden Striker began to shudder. "Striker?"

"Ah, this isn't good, well in a way it is…" Janine calmly observed. "Your pokemon is evolving because you've just taught Striker how to use double attack."

"Striker's evolving?!" Miguel exclaimed as he watched his pokemon grow larger and gain an extra tail.

"Oh wow, now I've got two tails," Yelled the monkey pokemon. "I'm awesome now, I can hit you four times with two tails!"

"That comment was sorta stupid…" Leon observed.

"Quick, before it gets adjusted to its new body, use brick break!" Toxicroak reared up a little and ran towards Striker.

"Dodge it!" Striker was a little too quick for Toxicroak. "Now use bounce and while in the air charge up for a double focus punch!" Striker was already high in the air and his two tails began to glow.

"Toxicroak stand your ground!"

"ATTACK!" Miguel commanded. And both attacks were about to make contact but Janine gave a command.

"Use endure!" and Toxicroak had sustained both attacks. "Now reversal before it can escape!" Toxicroak grabbed Striker and flipped it over and jabbed it in the stomach. Now both pokemon were in bad condition. "Now use pursuit!"

"U-turn!" Both pokemon collided with each other and caused one another to faint.

"Ok Miguel, you weakened her enough for us, I think we can take it from here." Eve said praising her comrade.

"I think I'll use Ariados now!" And Janine sent out the pokemon that had just recently trapped Miguel and his bird pokemon.

"Leon, I think I can have Hope take Ariados on…" Eve said.

"Ok, I believe you can do it, besides, you're the trainer who seems to bond with pokemon quicker than all of us do…" Leon said.

"Thanks, let's go Hope!" Eve sent out her blue butterfly pokemon. I had white wings with black markings on it and the eyes were red and the antennae long.

"Ariados use double team!" And Ariados quickly split up into multiple clones.

"Let's get on par and use psyche up!" and Hope also split up into the exact amount of clones that Ariados had.

"This is interesting…" Leon said as he watched the battle.

"Now, Hope use aerial ace!"

"Dig!" Right before Hope can slash at Ariados, the spider pokemon had burrowed underground.

"That's only going to stall and do nothing else!" Eve cried out.

"Well if that's what you want that Ariados use poison jab!" Hope however couldn't tell which hole Ariados will come out of and got attacked without warning.

"Use sleep powder!" Hope sprayed out a fine set of green particles that had caused Ariados to become sleepy.

"No, Ariados!"

"Now attack with psychic!" Hope blasted a powerful telekinetic force of energy that had caused Ariados to go flying. The bug pokemon still didn't wake up. "Again!" And Hope kept blasting Ariados until it fainted.

"Ariados return." Janine sent out her final pokemon. "Let's go Forretress!" Forretress was a bug and steel type pokemon, it was a bagworm actually and its shell was made of steel.

"Use energy ball!" Hope shot out a green ball yet had barely scratched the surface of the pokemon's hard shell.

"Use zap cannon!" Eve froze upon hearing that attack. The attack was like a scar that hit her directly at the heart.

"Eve, do something!" Leon yelled to support her; he knew what she was going through.

"Return!" Eve had recalled her pokemon just before Forretress had finished charging.

"What the hell?" Miguel yelled in outrage. "Why'd you just forfeit like that?!" Miguel called out.

"Miguel, recalling a pokemon is in the rules, she's allowed to do that." Leon said while sending Ken out. "Forretress is too tough in defense for Hope to pierce through, so it would be wise to let me handle this, you understand?"

"Fine…" Miguel said. He didn't seem to fully understand when and when not to retreat.

"Ok, Ken, you ready for this?" Leon called out.

"This time we're going to win for sure!" Ken said getting into a different stance, this time it was a calmer stance than the last hyped up one. Ken had his arms extended like a zombie and his right like forward with one leg back.

"Say hello to the praying mantis stance!" Leon said in a serious tone.

"Hmm, well whatever, forretress use gyro ball!" And forretress balled up and charged at Ken.

{Detect!} Ken had effortlessly dodged out of the way of the enemy's attack. {Now let's focus your energy and calm your mind…} Leon commanded Ken.

Ken just stood there with his eyes closed, but you can tell that he was building up a lot of energy within him, the energy became so strong that an intense blue aura began to surround him.

"Use zap cannon again!" Janine yelled out, forretress charged up like she had done last time and once forretress finished charging the pokemon fired the attack.

{Great, now use psychic to block the attack.} Ken extended his palms to stop the attack and the electric ball was held in place.

"How is Leon doing this without communicating with Ken?" Miguel asked.

"I think these two have a pretty good bond to be able to do this…" Eve observed Then without warning Ken sent the ball of energy strait back at forretress and exploded on contact.

{Now let's finish this off with hyperbeam!} Leon thought to Ken.

{Already?} Ken asked a little hesitantly. {We haven't even mastered it yet.}

{Then now would be a good time to at least practice it!} Ken drew his hands back and began charging up a ball of energy in the palm in his hands.

"Forretress try to get out of there!"

"Sorry, I guess I'm paralyzed…" said the forretress helplessly. And then Ken fired the hyperbeam yet it didn't seem to do much. The beam was a little small in size and was also lacking in explosive power, it was a dud, even with all the power ups.

{Darn, it wasn't enough,} Ken said.

{Ah, darn, well rest a little and then finish it off with blaze kick!} Ken eventually regained his energy and ran up to forretress to knock it out with a fiery kick.

Battle-end

Fuchsia Gym

"That was so much work…" Eve said after she slumped onto a couch nearby.

"Yeah it was, but I can't just sit around and do nothing until the day's over," Leon said with a little yawn in his voice. "Besides, I've got to train Seyha and play with him too, he needs to be in top-shape if I want to have him fight cipher eventually…" Leon said as he walked out the door without taking a break.

"Janine says I have to go meet the tauros and apologize to them," Miguel said. "Just because we all have our gym badges, doesn't mean nothing if I've basically broke the rules," Miguel said as he went to take care of his responsibility.

"Well, I'm done with everything I need to do so I'm going to bed…" Eve said as she walked off to her room.

Route 15

Leon's view

"Ok, Seyha let's try using ember!" Seyha inhaled a breath of air and shot out a good amount of fire for a baby pokemon.

"Ember!" My pokemon said while wagging his tail.

Then I just remembered that I was going to call Ammy to tell her that the egg had hatched. [Yo Ammy!]

[Hmm, Leon?] Ammy said while picking up the call.

[The egg just hatched, it turned out to be a growlithe!]

[Oh, really?] Ammy asked. [What'd you name it?]

[His name is Seyha!] Leon then put his P*DA to Seyha and said, [Come on Seyha say hi, I'll give you a treat!] Leon said as he held up a doggy treat.

[HI!] Barked Seyha.

[Oh, he's so cute, where are you guys at right now?] Ammy asked.

[We're near Fuchsia, in route 15 right now, but I'm probably going to go back to town after me and Seyha finish training.]

[Oh, you're at route 15 right now, wait there, I'm going to catch up soon, I'm really close by!] Ammy said and then quickly hung up.

"Well, Seyha, I guess we're staying here a little longer…" I said while falling onto the grass.

"No stay, we play!" Seyha said while bouncing up and down.

"*Sigh* Ken," Leon said while he called everyone else out. "Can you keep Seyha occupied while I take a nap…?"

"Papa!" Seyha said as he pounced on my chest without letting me rest, I got up. "No sleep, play!"

"Oh, fine…" Then I glanced at my other pokemon, Vivia and Nessy seemed to be the most playful of my pokemon, I guess I should let them play around. "Nessy, use your blizzard attack so that you can land on the shore line." I said.

"Yay, I get to play with Seyha!" Nessy said as she blew a breath of freezing air onto the ground and made some of it ice and a lot of it snow.

"Dusk, I want you to have some sparring matches with Seyha once he feels like training again; you can play something like tag or something…" I said towards Dusk.

"Got it boss, I may as well just start playing with him now…" Dusk said as he bounded off. The four pokemon were all playing with each other. Vivia swooped from the skies and tagged Seyha while the two beast shaped pokemon ran and pounced on each other. Nessy watched and lightly played with Seyha by blowing a few blizzards. Then all of a sudden Seyha stopped playing and stared strait at me.

"Seyha come on, I'm so tired…" But Seyha didn't exactly care, he bit onto my jeans and started pulling me over.

"Play…grr…" Seyha threatened while still being playful.

"Fine…"

"Oh… he's so cuuuuuuuuuuuute!" Yelled someone with a recognizable and cheery voice.

"Heh, not even a hello?" I said while looking at who it was.

"Oh, sorry Leon, just got so distracted by your little puppy's cuteness." Ammy said as she hugged the puppy pokemon. Seyha seemed to be enjoying the attention. When he got down Seyha seemed to be talking a little with Ammy.

"So how are you?"

"Happy!"

"You're happy, well how do you like Leon?"

"Leon?"

"Your daddy?"

"Daddy is awesome!"

"He's still a puppy…" I said slightly embarrassed.

"Then that's a good thing, just make sure he doesn't become lazy, ok!" Ammy said as she began to observe my other pokemon.

I walked over to a nearby bench; we were still close to the gates of Fuchsia. "So what brings you to Fuchsia City?"

"Oh, well, I'm here to inform you and your team of something…" Ammy said.

Safari Zone

Miguel's view

"Gah," I said as he dodged the blow from the angry tauros. "Hey, when can I leave?" I asked Janine.

"You know what the tauros' message is yet?"

"No cheating right?"

"Wrong!" And the tauros charged at me again. "Well, let's try something a bit more powerful, use Giga Impact!" Janine yelled, but the tauros seemed to be going wild and crazy this time, and it seemed to be heading towards a small helpless happiny.

"Ah, what the hell are you doing?!" I yelled as he instantly dove for the baby pokemon to keep it from harm. I closed my eyes, my heart was beating, and everything seemed to have slowed down. I anticipated the worst but I hoped for the best. But nothing happened. I opened my eyes and I saw that there was nothing in front of me.

"You finally seemed to have learned your lesson," Janine said clutching a pokeball with a tauros in it.

"What?" I was really confused. "So, I'm off the hook?"

"Yup," Janine said as she walked up to me. "You may not know it, and you may not pay much attention at times, but you do know that pokemon should have our respect and that it's only fair to battle those that truly wish to battle." Janine said as she handed me the gym badge that Leon and Eve had already obtained.

"So, this is why I had to meet the chief tauros, I had harmed his herd…" I realized what I did wrong and began to head back. "Thankyou," I said. "I guess I'm learning something everyday…" I said to myself. Then I looked towards the gate, Leon was with someone waiting for me, it was Ammy.

Fuchsia Gym

Eve's view

Today was a good day. It really wore me out… I was just about to doze off to bed but then someone knocked on my door. "Who is it…?" I yelled, too lazy to get up.

"It's Leon," I sighed, what was so important that he has to wake me up at night?

I got up and I opened the door to my room. When I opened it, Leon wasn't the only person standing there, everyone else was here too, and there was also Ammy… "What are you here for…?"

"I asked her the same thing," Miguel said. "She says she wants everyone to here this."

3rd person view

"Okay, everyone here?" Ammy asked. "Well, I guess I'll begin!" Ammy said as she sat down on a nearby couch and now putting on a more serious face. "Professor Oak, you and Professor Krane have been discussing information relating to shadow pokemon, correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, I have been spying on Cipher and I've also found information relating as to why they've been targeting the places they've attacked." Ammy said.

"You mean they're not just trying to rack up some dough?" Miguel asked.

"No, it's a lot more serious then that I think." Fred said intently. "Cipher already seems to be run by someone rich, there's no big need for extra cash," He said. "I think they're trying to invent a lethal weapon…"

"That's right!" Ammy said. "But that's not all, they're planning to mass-produce special tools relating to shadow pokemon, but I'm sure you all know that."

"Well, what is it that they're trying to create?" Bill asked.

"Well, they're trying to create something that can easily convert pure pokemon into shadow pokemon, if at least temporarily for battle."

"What?" Leon said in outrage. "They're that much bent on world domination that they'd cause pokemon to suffer?" He said getting ticked off.

"That isn't right!" Miguel said, also in outrage.

"Why don't you to calm down for a minute and see if Ammy has anything extra to say!" Fred said getting annoyed.

"Thank you, I've been told that they've completed the proto-type and that they wish to test it out tomorrow and I think that they also would like to abduct a lot of the safari zone pokemon for their experiments.

"Then I guess everyone will be needed for this mission." Janine said.

"We do need some people though to protect the actual city," Leon stated. "Janine, I think you should help evacuate the citizens in case of an attack, Fred we're going to need you to help around in the city as well, Bill you too. Ammy I think you should try to obtain more information, leave the actual guarding of the safari zone to this generation of pokedex holders!"

Chapter End

Chapter 14

"Okay. Here's the plan. I'm taking Miguel. Everybody else stay back in the city to make sure Cipher doesn't attack." Leon said confidently.

Everybody else nodded and ran off to their positions, and only Miguel was left standing.

"Let's go." Leon said as he turned around and ran towards the safari zone.

Miguel looked over to his right shoulder where NéNé stood.

"I guess we should follow him." She said quietly.

Miguel then took off running, and quickly