The two balls snapped open to reveal the mismatched forms of a Ponyta and a Tediursa. Pikachu immediately jumped infront of Ash in a protective stance, sparks rippling throught its body. Beside him, Gary rleleased Umbreon from its ball. The dark type joined pikachu, letting out a warning bark as it did.

Without command, Ponyta charged at Umbreon who dodged expertly. Too late, it realized its mistake as the horse ran straight through the spot Umbreon had occupied and straight at Gary. Pikachu had seen this, however, and launched a blistering jolt of electricity at Ponyta's legs, causing them to sieze up effetively paralyzing it. Gary jumped to the side as the Ponyta lost its footing at a dangerous speed and crashed headfirst into the ground. Through the haze of dust, Ash could see that one of its legs was clearly broken and it lay on its side, wailing.

Their attacker screamed in frustration. "Tediursa, take out that pikachu. Now. Ponyta. roast them!"

Before the Tediursa could get within ten feet of Pikachu, Umbreon had closed the distance launched into its side with a viscious headbutt, drawing a strangle cry from the little pokemon and knocking it into a pile of rocks.

Meanwhile, the Ponyta had regained a sense of compsure and was breathing as much fire as it could in Ash and Pikachu's direction. They dodged until a jet of fire missed Pikachu by an inch, Ash decided it was too risky to keep it up. He finally said, "Hit it with Thunderbolt." Pikachu launched itself in the air to avoid what would be the flailing horse's last attack, before lightning arced out from its body and crashed into the Ponyta.

The pokemon let out an ear splitting screech as electricity coursed through its weakened body, stopping its heart. After a few seconds the scream died off and the Ponyta lay still. Its mane of fire flickered out of existence, leaving only the gruesome corpse of a pokemon with large blackened blotches of fur.

The man took one look at his stricken pokemon and at the Umbreon stalking towards him before turning to run.

"Bring him down, Umbreon." Gary shouted.

The hiker had gotten only a few yards away when Umbreon hurtled into his back, sending him flying and pinning him to the ground. It then clamped its jaws around the back of his neck, making it quite clear that moving was a bad idea.

Gary turned to Ash, "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"What are we goi-" Gary was interupted by a piercing wail that echoed through the small canyon. The hiker's Tediursa had come around and was obviously in a lot of pain. Pikachu heard it and ran over, lancing out a small jolt of electricity as a warning.

The smaller pokemon seemed to take the hint as it contained its screeching to a low whimper. On the ground beside it, Ash could see a small pool of blood forming.

"As I was saying, what are we going to do with this guy? If we let him go chances are he'll run across rangers somwehere."

"You still have that rope we took from Elm's?" Ash asked.

Gary got the jist and rumaged through his backpack for the climbing rope. He knelt down beside the hiker and tied him in a series of intricate knots. "Probably wasn't going to be that useful to us anyway." he muttered.

"Take any money and pokeballs he has, we'll need them."

Gary nodded and searched the man's pockets, recovering a handful of cash and a small pokeball container with three balls in it.

"The rangers are going to catch you scumbags. Once they do, you'll rot in Olivine for years. Happy with that are you?" The hiker said it with the type of manic grin that made Ash uneasy.

"You're the one who attacked us for no reason. That wasn't a battle, that was an attempt at murder." He would have continued but at that point, a flash of light and a growl caught Ash's attention. He turned to see the Tediursa passed out again, he judged by the amount of blood pooled on the ground that it was serious.

"We're sorry about your Ponyta, but we need to fix up your Tediursa. What do you know about treating it?"

"Plenty. That damn pokemon's never come off anything but second best in a fight. You'd be doing it a favour to let it die." The Hiker grunted.

Ash sighed and turned towards the stricken bear. "You take care of that dick, I'll help the pokemon."

He ignored Gary's grunts as he dragged the cursing hiker around a bend and into the bushes. Taking a closer look at it, Ash saw what was wrong. The force of impacting the rock had clearly broken several of its ribs, as well as tearing off chunks of skin and fur. "Well shit," he muttered.

Throughout his years with professor Elm, he had learned to care for and treat many pokemon. Unfortunately, every species was different and he had no experience with Tediursa. He reached into his bag to retrieve a handful of bandages and other medical supplies. He held the limp pokemon in his lap and washed the open wounds with care, then he wrapped fresh bandages around the pokemon, trying to stem the flow of blood as much as possible. He worked for a good ten minutes before finally lifting a syringe filled with a thick looking amber liquid from his bag.

Technically, this particular brand of Pokemon Specific Steroids (PSS), was only supposed to be used for the Raichu line of pokemon. At a stretch, it could be applied to most other electric types but with varying degrees of effetiveness and random side effects. It was all he had though, and he feared that the tediursa was bleeding internally.

Gary appeared at his shoulder a moment later. "You know, we don't have too many of those, and giving it to a normal type could poison it."

"Better than letting it bleed to death on the side of a mountain." he replied.

"You killed the Ponyta."

"Because it was trying to kill us, this little thing isn't that much of a threat."

"I'm just saying that we don't really have the time for this. We're already a long way behind schedule. The guy attacked us, it's his problem."

Ash made up his mind and injected the small pokemon with the PSS. Almost immediately it started convulsing in his lap and flailing around wildly.

"Well that isn't supposed to happen." Gary said airily.

"Make yourself useful and find its pokeball, please?"

Gary sighed and left to scan the area. He returned a few moments later with two pokeballs and handed them to Ash.

"Thanks," he said as he dropped them on the ground and smashed them under his foot. Both balls let out a hiss accompanied with sparks as they shattered. He took a ball from his own belt and pressed the release button against the flailing pokemon's body. Tediursa dissapeared with a white light and was swallowed by the pokeball. Then, he checked the ball quickly to confirm the catch before attaching it to his belt and standing up. "We'll know if it survived or not in a few hours. In the meantime we should probably get as far away from here as possible." He took a look at the surrounding area, it would be clear to any ranger that something had happened there. Hopefully if they found the spot they would just think the Ponyta was attacked by another wild animal. At least until they found the gagged and bound hiker struggling in the wet ditch that Gary had thrown him in.

"Come on, we better get moving," Gary said, as he walked forward up the track, recalling Umbreon to its ball as he did. They were approaching the pass from an angle, over a series of smaller hills that were harder to navigate, but less obvious than walking straight up the narrow trail that led to the border.

The land was steep and mountainous but they found that as the hours went on they were making decent time.

"You know you effectively just stole that pokemon, don't you?" Gary said.

"I didn't steal it, I'm looking after it. its more than that guy would have done, you saw the way he was treating it."

"I'm just saying that if it had any loyalty at all to that guy then training its going to be hard."

"I'll figure out what to do when it lives," he said as they marched through thee prickly undergrowth. "Until then we need to focus on getting through the pass."

"That won't be a problem. We took that guy out in under a minute." Gary said with a grin.

"Because he probably wasn't expecting two 'kids' like us to put up any major fight. Rangers are professionals. They're a whole different story and we need to avoid fighting them if we can." A shiver went down his spine at the momory of the last ranger he he had met.

Two years ago, he and the Professor had been on the road to Cherrygrove when they heard screaming. Gary was in New Bark town helping Helen with cleaning the lab as punishment for some stunt that Ash could barely remember.

He knew that Elm had been torn at the time. Wanting to help the distressed voice in any way he could, but not wanting to place Ash in any danger. He made the descision for the Professor and ran in the direction of the cry, Pikachu hot at his heels. He ran for a few minutes through muddy fields and a small grove of trees before he crested a hill and saw what was happening. A small boy was stuck in a ditch at the bottom of the hill, trying to fend off a massive crimson Ariados with the remnants of a log.

Without command, Pikachu had jumped into action, sending bolts of lightning at the spider pokemon. It had evaded them easily and spat a gout of white gossamer thread at Pikachu who fell to the ground as the web solidified around his body. Ash had never been more terrified than when that Ariados had scuttled towards his immobile pokemon who was struggling for its life.

Out of nowhere a red and blue blur hurtled into the Ariados,spinning them both out of conntrol along the side of the damp hill.

Elm's Typhlosion pinned the spider underneath it and clamped down on its midsection with flame covered jaws. The crunch and hiss of flesh being ripped open washed over Ash, along with a terrible dying scream coming from the Ariados.

Typhlosion made short work of the corpse, ripping into it and eating what wasn't poisonous. Elm and Ash had gone to the foot of the hill to help the boy out of the ditch when they heard a second, newer scream. They looked back to where Typhlosion had been to see a mass of fur pinned underneath several Ariados and even more Spinarak. It emitted sickening roars of pain as the bug pokemon's stingers repeatedly pierced its flesh.

Pikachu shot lightning at the horde but it was of little use, having spent the majority of its power tying to attack the first Ariados.

Elm shouted commands but Typhlosion was either too injured to obey or it was in a state of complete panic. Just when it had seemed that all was lost, the earth beneath them began to shake, and the birds in nearby trees flocked to the air in panic. A huge from burst out of the treeline and barelled into the swarm of spiders covering Typhlosion. The pokemon halted itss run and set itss footing right, giving Ash an opportunity to see it for the first time. It was a large grey pokemon with thick black armour covering its back and prehensile nose. Two large, gleaming tusks jutted from the sides of its mouth.

Running behind him was a tall, athletic figure in faded green clothes. "Donphan, use roar!" he shouted. The huge, bulky pokemon complied, throwing its head in the air and letting out an earth shaking bellow that made Ash's instincts scream at him to run. Apparantly it had the same effect on the horde of Ariados, as they quickly scattered and ran into the trees.

Typhlosion had been badly poisoned that day. It had barely survived thanks to the Ranger's healing skills and his quick means of getting it to Cherrygrove pokemon center.

He had told Gary all about it of course, but he realized now that Gary wouldn't understand until he met one. The ranger he met had exuded a strong and quiet confidence that made Ash recognize him as a powerful trainer, without having to witness him in true battle.

"We've been training for years, Ashy-boy. I reckon we could surprise the rangers too."

I hope so, thought Ash.

*

Silver Pass was the only route through an otherwise solid wall of mountains that ran from the hills far north of Blackthorn city to the coast, east of New Bark town. In the ocean further south, the islands formed a deep sea ridge, the peaks of which formed the Sevii Islands. The pass took the form of a hanging valley, high up the cliff face. There was a fifty foot face of cliff that had to be climbed before one could even enter the pass Because of this, people had taken the time to carve out a path in the face of the cliff, wide enough for only one person at a time.

Eastern Johto had been prosperous because of its proximity with Kanto. Mahogony, Violet, Cherrygrove and Blackthorn were all large affluent areas at the time, but that had changed when Giovanni overthrew the Kanto council. The newly formed NRK had little time for foreign policy, prefering to stabalize it's postion among the public instead of working on relations and trade with it's closest neighbours.

Trade between the two countries trickled to a standstill. The Johto council prefering to trade with Hoenn and the NRK prefering to trade with the Sevii islands to the south and Sinnoh in the north. As a result of this, the narrow path up the mountain leading to the valley of the silver pass had fallen into a state of disrepair. Grass had grown into the tiny cracks in the path, forcing them wider and wider by the day. In places the stone had simply fallen away, showing the sharp craggy rocks below.

"Maybe Tohjo falls wasn't such a bad idea," Gary muttered as he pressed himself to the cliff face for the dozenth time. "At least then we wouldn't have to worry about falling to our deaths." The rocks that he had dislodged with his foot fell into the abyss below, taking a small age to reach the bottom with a resounding crack.

"It's too late to turn back now." Ash replied. Night was falling rapidly and with it came a brutal cold that left a thin layer of frost on the rocky path. "We need to get into the valley before nightfall or we're as good as dead."

They scaled the path as best they could in the decreasing light, boh of them slipping at one point or another, prompting Ash to wish they still had the rope Gary had used to tie up the guy who had attacked them. Eventually though, they reached the mouth of the valley, through which several small rivers flowed and formed one large waterfall.

The valley was an oasis in the heart of the barren moutain. The pass acted as a catch for the streams of water that ran from the other peaks; allowing fertile soil to build up and produce a forest, well above sea level.

The same people who had carved the entrance to the valley also carved a path through the forest, careful to disturb it as little as possible. Because of its remoteness, the valley was home to rare and powerful pokemon, most of which didn't like to be disturbed.

After having to climb the last section, where the path had fallen away comletely, they collapsed on the somewhat level ground and relished the feeling of steady earth beneath them. "We should make camp before it gets too dark." Gary said.

"Yeah," said Ash distractedly. He was too busy looking back over the ledge that he had just climbed. The view of Johto was spectacular. The sinking sun cast a crimson glow on the gittering towers of Violet city, far in the distance.

"No looking back, Ash, that was the deal. We can't afford to start getting homesick."

With great difficulty, Ash tore his eyes away from the view and turned his attention to the large, dark forest in front of him.

"This place is probably crawling with rangers. Is camping for the night really a good idea?" he asked.

Gary stretched and strode into the forest, "I'll fall asleep on my feet if we don't. And you have to check on Tediursa."

"Fine, but we should stick to the side of the canyon. They'll be focusing their search around the river banks." Ash said.

By the time they had penetrated the forest deeply enough and found a suitable location it was well after dark, prompting Ash to suggest that they begin to set up camp earlier in the future.

When they were as sure as they could that the area was safe, Ash took out Tediursa's pokeball and released it. The ball emitted a bright flash and Tediursa appeared on the ground beside him.

PSS worked in conjunction with the stasis capabilities of the pokeball, meaning that when a pokemon with PSS in it's system was returned to it's ball, the healing went became a lot more effective in a shorter period of time. He removed the bandages he had put it in place slowly and examined the damage. It's side was heavily scarred and pitted. In several places chunks of flesh were simply gone. The open wounds were closed, however, which Ash took as a good sign. Luckily, it seemed that Tediursa suffered no major adverse effects from the unsuitable PSS.

He cradled the pokemon in his arms and retrieved a small set of steel vials from his bag. He uncapped the small healing tonic and brought it to the bear's lips. It drank out down by reflex and Ash dropped the empty vial on the ground, hoping that it would wake. Pikachu sat at his feet looking on with curiosity. Probably half jealous, Ash thought to himself.

A flash of light appeared out of the corner of his eye and he registered Umbreon's stretching form. "You want beans or beans?" Gary asked him sarcastically. "Really ash, you didn't buy anything but beans... at all. We can't survive on this."

"They were the cheapest, most convienient things in the store so I bought in bulk. You'll get used to them." He said distractedly as he waited for Tediursa to show some sign of improvement.

"I'm not sure I want to get used to them," he muttered. "Umbreon, go see if there's anything edible out there. Don't make noise and keep a look out for any rangers."

Ash wasn't sure how much Umbreon understood, but it was a smart pokemon and as it ran into the darkness it's golden rings faded and lost their colour, shrouding it in shadow completely.

A small stirring in his arms brought Ash's attention back to his wounded pokemon. Tediursa's small black eyes fluttered open for a moment before opening in earnest. He felt it tense immediately and tried his best to soothe it. "Hey, it's ok. I'm not going to hurt you." He doubted the bear could understand his words but he hoped he was at least displaying some sense of serene grace. His hopes were dashed, however, when Tediursa froze rigid before uttering a sharp squeal and trying to scratch at Ash's eyes.

He flung his head back to avoid the deceptively sharp claws and their quest to blind him. Pikachu immediately spat a warning and displayed a small shower of static. Pikachu's display turned out to be superfluous as the small bear let out a hiss of pain and started scratching it's side. "Hey now, stop that." he said, catching hold of it's paws. "You'll reopen the wound and I doubt you'd survive more medicine."

This obviously went straight over its head, however, and it kept struggling in Ash's arms. Pikachu shot a spark at it along with a string of nonsensical squeaks that somehow seemed to calm Tediursa down. He would always be amazed at how pokemon seemed constantly able to glean at least some meaning from each other. The crescent moon on emblazened on its forhead was small, barely a quarter of the full circle. It couldn't be more than a year old.

After checking to see that Gary was busy making them food, Ash lowered his head to the bear and started talking in the hopes of getting it used to his voice. He talked for a long while, explaining what they were doing out there in the middle of nowhere, who they had leift behind to make it as far as they had and how they met its former master. He was certain Tediursa couldn't understand a word but he took the gradual relaxing of the pokemon as a sign that it was at least no longer terrified and angry. Eventually it fell asleep and Ash returned it back to its ball.

Umbreon bolted out of the shadows and landed in the light of the small fire they had risked building. It held the long sleek body of a furret in it's maw. The Furret had seen better days. It's midsection was crushed to a pulp and blood ran freely from Umbreon's jaws.

Gary could barely keep himself from crowing in delight. "There should be enough meat on that thing for the two of us. I'll add it in with the beans." Ash noticed he sounded significantly happier about the beans now that some actual meat accompanied it.

Umbreon padded over to Ash and dropped the corpse at his feet. Ash sighed and retrieved a long shar blade from his backpacks and began the oddly therapuetic work of skinning the pokemon. The thing about growing up in a laboratory with a scientist as enthusiastic about pokemon anatomy as professor Elm was that along the way, he had taught them both tricks in the ways of preparing a pokemon to be eaten.

Before long they were happily eating their food while Pikachu and Umbreon went foraging and hunting respectively. Eventually though, they all succumbed to exhaustion and retired for the night. With the exeption of Umbreon who bled into the shadows around them, keeping guard.

*

Faulkner, the Violet city gym leader soared over the mountainous region east of his city, looking for his target. He had joined the hunt for the two rogue trainers that morning, at the request of his friend Gordon, head of the ranger station in the area. A massive manhunt had begun for two young trainers who were attempting to illegally enter Kanto, shattering the fragile border agreements. To Faulkner, it seemed like madness on their part, but sane or ot, they had to be stopped.

He had been circling the northeast of Cherrygrove for sometime, reasoning that they would have to use that route if they were heading for silver pass. Two rookie trainers couldn't be expected to cover ground very fast.

As the hours went on, though, he grew frustrated. If they were in the area, Pidgeot should have been able to spot them easily. He tightened his grip on Pidgeot and it banked to the left instinctively, heading away from the main route and closer to the mountains themselves. They were flying above an area of barren, rocky foothills when Pidgeot shrieked, trying to communicate what it saw. He gripped his powerful binoculars against his face and scanned the ground below. A large group of Spearow had flocked to one area and were furiously pecking at each other. He realized why when Pidgeot landed gracefully. The smell of death was atrocious, prompting him to raise his scarf to his nose in an attempt to bloack out the smell.

Pidgeot shrieked at the flock of Spearow, making them scatter, but hang around the edges warily. The rotten, half consumed corpse of a Ponyta lay in the dirt, scorch marks on the ground around it like some twisted chalk outline. He supposed charcoal outline would be more appropriate.

He surveyed the area and in amidst a small pile of boulders lay two shattered pokeballs and an empty PPS syringe. It seemed that the area had been the scene of a small scale battle, nothing unusual in these parts, until you counted the fact that at least three trainers were involved, judging by the different bootprint marks left in the dirt.

He looked over the corpse once more, estimating that it had died the day before. He walked around the area for a bit longer before coming to a ditch someway into the bushes. Once more, the smell of rotting meat hit him full in the face.

Laying in the middle of the ditch was the form of what was once, a hiker. His body was covered in a writhing form of close to what he guessed were twenty Rattata, knawing the flesh from his bones. The hiker had been bound by a length of rope, and judging by the look of the ground beneath him, he had been alive when he was thrown into the ditch. The pokemon had begun eating him alive.

Faulkner had nearly vomited then and there. He left the gruesome scene behind him and retrieved the long range walkie-talkie that Gordon had given him.

He switched it on and tuned it to Gordon's signal, ending the crakling static that had eminated from it. "Gordon, you there?" he asked.

"Yeah, any news?" the older man asked. His rough voice transmitted clearly.

"I'm around ten miles south-west of the pass. Looks like there's been a small battle here. I've found the bodies of a Ponyta and a Hiker, with two sets of tracks leaving the area in your direction. I doubt it's a coincidence."

"How did they cover the ground that fast?" The ranger asked, bewildered.

"If I had to guess I'd say they cut through the woods north of New Bark Town. Either way, if I were you, I'd assume they've made it into the pass, just to be safe."

"So it looks like they've killed that guy then?" he asked, "Elm said they were only kids when he called it in."

"Looks like they killed the Ponyta and threw the guy in the ditch alive but restrained. Wild pokemon finished him off. They might just be kids but they were raised by Professor Elm. He's no fool." He heard the ranger sigh on the other side of the walkie-talkie.

"Fine. If they're already in the pass we'll most likely catch them. You head back to Violet and get ready just in case."

"Ready for what?" he asked, confused.

"If we let any more trainers accidently 'slip through' the border into NRK, they made it clear they wouldn't be happy. Just get ready."

The connection died and Faulker was left with a feeling of intense foreboding. With one last look around, he climbed on Pidgeot's back and said, "We'll head back to Violet soon. We should head to Ecruteak first."

The giant bird understood clearly and launched itself into the with blinding speed.

*

It was midday when Ash, Gary and Pikachu had began to enter the deep forest, where the canopy blocked all but the faintest rays of sunlight. The had estimated that they were nearing the halfway point of the valley, where the trees around the old river where oldest.

Whether through luck or divine intervention they hadn't come across any rangers at all. Although the occasionally they heard the roars of pokemon in the distance. Pikachu and Umbreon had to fight several small battles along the way, mostly getting rid of curious pests such as Spinarak and the occaisional Weepinbell. They managed it easily though and stopped for a rest and something to eat at the base of a huge, looming tree.

Ash had occasionaly let Tediursa out to check on it during the journey, trying to gain its trust as best he could. It no longer panicked every time it was let out but it wasn't acting friendy by any stretch of the imagination. The lack of outright hostility was a good sign though, indicating that it hadn't been in their attacker's care long enough to have grown attached to him.

As a bonus, it seemed to get on well with Pikachu, even actively seeking the electric pokemon out on one of their brief stops. Contrastingly, it avoided Umbreon as much as it coud, obviously remembering the bigger pokemon's attack on it.

"Ash, did you move my bag?" Gary called, walking towards him.

"No," Ash said, perplexed. "Haven't been near it."

"I left it just here." he insisted.

A loud whistle echoed from the branches above and Ash spotted two figures rummaging through what was obviously Gary's backpack. When he realized what the pokemon were, his heart nearly stopped. "Uh, Gary. How old do you reckon this forest is?" he asked.

"I'd say a few hundred years, at least." he replied.

"Brilliant. Those pokemon look very similar to Nuzleaf don't they?"

"I think they are Nuzleaf." he replied.

"And where there's Nuzleaf, there's probably going to be Shiftry." he mumbled.

"Balls."

That about sums it up, Ash thought. "Our supplies are in that bag. We need it."

"Maybe if we catch them before they signal the nest, we can get out unharmed." Gary suggested.

They couldn't afford to leave the bag behind, not as far into the wild as they were. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem. Pikachu, you're up." Ash replied.

The large mouse took position in front of them, ready for orders. Beside him, Gary released Umbreon from it's ball with a bright flash. "We need you to take those Nuzleaf out quietly, Umbreon." He said, pointing to the two humanoid figures in the trees.

Both pokemon exchanged a string of growls, communicating n some primal level before Pikachu ran to a nearby tree and scaled it almost silently. The Nuzleaf in the tree opposite didn't seem to notice, as enraptured with the bag as they were.

"Umbreon, use Hypnosis." Gary said quietly. Umbreon let out a sharp bark, to get the attention of the grass types. The Nuzleaf stopped what they were doing and whistled agressively at Umbreon.

The dark type responded by flaring the rings on it's body in a mesmerising fashion. The Nuzleaf immediately stopped whistling and stared, frozen at Umbreon. Ash took the opportunityto shout, "Pikachu, paralyze them." The electric rodent emitted a shocking blast at the the entranced Nuzleaf. The force of the wave caught the pokemon closest to Pikachu and paralyzed its muscles instantly, the other one, however, fell off the branch and hit the ground with a sharp thump.

Gary reacted first and hurled a pokeball at the paralyzed Nuzleaf. The orb snapped open in the air in front of it and converted the grass type into pure energy, which it swallowed up greedily. The ball fell to the ground and shook, battling to subdue and contain the wild energy. Eventually, the glowing red seal settled, indicating a successful capture.

Meanwhile, the Nuzleaf that had fallen out of the tree had snapped out of the hypnosis. Looking around, and realizing its friend was missing, it let out a horribly shrill whistle that shattered the silence of the forest. Bird pokemon fled from the canopy, having some sense of what was to follow.

"Shit," cursed Ash. "We need to get out of here, right now." He ran to retrieve the backpack that had fallen out of the tree, while Gary picked up the pokeball that contained his new pokemon. Pikachu returned to his side, just as a gale force wind blew through the trees, accompanied by an eery shriek.

"The Shiftry are coming." Gary said, as Ash hauled him away from the tree and through the forest. The sprinted through the trees, ignoring the pain as branches lashed their faces. Pikachu ran alongside them, nimbly dodging every branch as pure instinct drove its muscles.

Behind them they heard branches hig above crack with sudden strain, their pursuers following them swiftly in the canopy. Shiftry were said to be wicked pokemon, who found and tortured travelers for amsement before devouring the were one of the few meat eating grass types, a trait that was largely attributed to its dark side. Right now, they were looking for their next meal.

A cloud of razor sharp leaves flew past Ash, barey missing him and severing a branch from a tree, causing him to jump to avoid it. At one point one of the Shiftry passed them and fell from the trees, blocking their path. Pikachu saw this and with a shouted command from Ash, let loose a blistering torrent of lightning which the pokemon dived aside to avoid. In that split second they ran past it and continued sprinting through the forest.

They were still being pursued when they burst out of the treeline and ont a narrow dirt path beside the river, obviously used as a trading route. What they didn't expect was to see a large unshaven man draped in Ranger green astride a Tauros.

The man's eyes widened and he roared at them to stop as they flew past him. This is getting way out of hand, Ash thought as his muscles burned desperately. They had made it a few dozen yards before the Tauros caught up with them. "Kids, just stop," the ranger shouted as he rode beside them. "I've been authorized to use lethal force, just stop running." he pleaded.

"We're not running from you." Ash roared back.

The ranger's face was clouded with confusion before his eyes widened and he turned his head. Just in time to see the form of a massive Shiftry barrel into the side of his Tauros and send him flying through the air. Ash heard the sound of the ranger releasing several pokemon to fend off the his attackers but didn't turn to look.

Ash's lungs were burning intensely now and every breath felt like a weight in his lungs. Out of the forest ahead of them, two of the white maned, Shiftry appeared and blocked their path. With a feral roar they hurled a cloud of lethal leaves at them. Ash dove headfirst under the cloud but Gary wasn't so lucky. He fell backwards and shielded his face. His fall helped him avoid most of the leaves but two of them sliced his forearm to the bone and he cried out in pain.

Ash climbered to his feet and shouted, "Pikachu, Thunderbolt, now." The electric pokemon jumped in the air and lashed out at the Shiftry with two dazzling bolts of lightning. One of the bolts struck home and blew the Shiftry back several paces. The lightning had blackened and cracked the Shiftry's trunk-like body and burned its white hair in several places. It was disorientated and struggled to its feet shakily.

Gary released Umbreon from its ball and shouted, "Get close, Iron tail!" before climbing to his feet and cradling his arm, which was bleeding profusely.

Umbreon, evaded another volley of leaves and flipped in the air, generating enough force to slam the Shiftry in the head with viscious power. The grass type buckled under the pressure and slammed against the earth.

Umbreon then carried straight on and headbutted the victim of Pikachu's lightning attack, sending it sprawling back further. The next few minutes was chaos as the Shiftry bounced back from the attacks repeatedly.

Both Umbreon and Pikachu were beginning to tire, never having been in a drawn out battle for such a time before. They battled well though and when one of the forest guardians lost its footing, Umbreon tackled it, sending it flying into the river. Pikachu followed up with a Thunderbolt, thoroughly electrocuting the normaly resistant pokemon. Its corpse floated down the river, acting as any stricken log would.

That left the it two on one, Ash reluctant to try and make Tediursa battle and Gary sure he wouldn't be able to control his new Nuzleaf. Both pokemon circled the injured Shiftry, but it was obvious that they were both exhausted, having not yet built up the stamina that they would need in the coming months.

Ash chanced a glance downriver to where they had encounted the ranger and was surprised at what he saw. No less than five rangers, with a huge variety of pokemon were battling a small horde of Nuzleaf and Shiftry, and somehow, they were winning. The majority of the damage they were wielding looked to be coming from the crimson form of a Scizor flanked by two Scyther. Between them they were dancing through the hostile pokemon, hacking and severing branch-like limbs as they went.

If they didn't get away soon, Ash had a gut feeling that whoever commanded those pokemon would not be as lenient as the last ranger had tried to be. Gary also glanced back at the battle. "Ash, we need to finish this, now." he said anxiously.

Ash nodded. "Pikachu, we nee to step it up. Use Thunder."

"Umbreon, finish it with Double edge." Gary shouted above the noise of the battle far behind them.

Both pokemon understood their commands and Umbreon leapt to action straight away, throwing itself recklessly at the Shiftry while Pikachu charged as much power as it could muster. The Shiftry wasn't done, however. It summoned a huge storm of glowing leaves and directed them at its incoming assailant. The storm impacted Umbreon and sliced deeply into its tough hide, carving out huge tracks of flesh. Unfortunately for both pokemon, its momentum was too great to be stopped and it pushed through the cloud of leaves, impacting its target with incredible force. The Shiftry flew several feet through the air and landed harshly on the hard ground.

By this time, Pikachu was visibly glowing with electricity. It used it to charge its muscles and power a huge spring into the air where it released the pent up energy in a single massive bolt of lightning that impacted the already downed Shiftry.

The force of the attack left a smouldering ruin on the ground, the trunk of its body having cracked open and its leaves on fire.

The toll it took on their pokemon was disasterous. Pikachu fell from the sky, exhausted and lay still, while Umbreon lay on the ground, bleeding heavily and still shaking from the force of its impact with the Shiftry. Ash knew that aving to carry pikachu would slow him down in the long run, and the little pokemon needed the relative security of a pokeball, so he did what he hadn't done in years, he returned it to its ball.

Gary mimicked Ash and returned Umbreon, his worry evident of his face.

Behind them, the battle roared on, but it wouldn't for long. The ranger's pokemon had established the upper hand and were beating the horde of grass types back into the treeline.

"Come on, we need to leave." Ash said. With that they sprinted off once more, the steep winding exit of the pass in their sights, not more than a few hundred yards was another short climb but they needed to leave the pass and get into NKR territory as fast as the could. So they ran, despite their exhaustion, hunger and fear.

Eventually, they scaled the one of the many steep paths that led out of the valley to the ridge above, and into Kanto, where the view of the lands below met them. In the distance, green fields and roling hills sprawled out all the way to the ocean in the couth. Viridian city stood like a glittering jewel in the hills below.

"Come on," Ash said. "We can't stop now, and I'm sure the NRK will have patrols in the area."

Gary nodded and they set off down the other side of the mountain, trying to balance the hope that the view inspired in them and the terror at their beloved pokemon's conditions.