"Slam!"

"Flash."

Thunder dashed forward, ready to smack his tail against the Luxray's side, when Tesla's eyes suddenly widened and let loose a brilliant flash of light, blinding the electric mouse as he squeaked in protest and skidded to a stop, his eyes burning against the intense light. Once he had recovered, a monotone 'Crunch.' alerted him to the Luxray's rapidly nearing jaws filled with sharp fangs.

"Dodge it Thunder!" The Pikachu did as he was told, rolling to the side and just narrowly missing Tesla's teeth as the Luxray landed lithely on the ground, staring at Thunder, unimpressed. The electric mouse growled, sparks flying from his cheeks as he got into a battle stance and tensed his muscles, waiting for an order.

Neither trainer made a move, but when they did, they both said the same thing; "Thunderbolt."

While the Luxray held his ground, Thunder jumped up and focused every bit of his electrical powers and launching a zigzag bolt of lightning straight towards the unmoving lion Pokemon. Tesla simply closed his eyes and reopened them soon after, an even larger Thunderbolt zipping towards Thunder's attack and colliding against it, creating a rather unpleasant noise of electricity against electricity. Nearby, Mightyena winced.

At first, it seemed as if both Thunderbolts were equal in power. But little by little, Tesla's Thunderbolt slowly started to overpower Thunder's and came closer to engulfing the mouse in dangerous electricity, regardless of typing. But Chris had a little trick up his sleeve. "Electro Ball, Thunder! Show 'em what you've got!"

The Pikachu smirked, and Tesla visibly tensed, knowing he was going to try something. Jin, too, noticed this. "Stay on your guard, Tesla. Don't let the mouse make a fool out of you."

Tesla growled. Being outsmarted was not something the Luxray planned to do.

Thunder shut his eyes tightly, concentrating as much as possible as the tips of his ears suddenly started to glow white instead of the usual black. Thin waves of blue lightning emerged from his ears and formed an orb of pure bluish-whitish energy, and then suddenly disappearing from existence. Tesla blinked, but then narrowed his eyes and strengthened his Thunderbolt even more. Next to being outsmarted, he did not wish to lose against a mouse not even fully evolved yet.

The Luxray's Thunderbolt started to increase in its speed in forcing Thunder back in the air, and the Pikachu was visibly struggling to keep up with the energy starting to electrify him, and when Thunder's bolt of lightning was barely even intact, Tesla was suddenly slammed back with an invisible force. Chris pumped his fist in the air. "Aha! Fell for it!" he cheered.

"Hm-?" Jin narrowed his eyes, frowning when he saw the familiar orb of energy dissipating into the air as soon as it made contact with Tesla. "So you hid the Electro Ball in your Pikachu's Thunderbolt, huh… smart, but not smart enough, it seems. Tesla, intellect time."

Tesla smirked, even though his side was bruised and still sparking blue electricity from where he was hit. In the blink of an eye, the Luxray had seemingly disappeared into thin air, much like Thunder's Electro Ball. The Pikachu gaped in surprise, and looked around confusedly, followed quickly by Chris's warning. "Focus, Thunder! Don't let your guard down!"

lose lose lose you will lose you will lose

The low voice suddenly resounded in Thunder's head and the Pikachu cried out in surprise, holding his head tightly. A few meters away, Jin smirked as he watched Chris try to calm the electric mouse down. "T-Thunder! What's the matter with you?"

you will lose you are a failure you are weak weak weak

And then, quite suddenly, when Thunder closed his eyes and reopened them, he was in a completely different place. It was dim, but he could clearly his surroundings – or rather, lack thereof. There was a small pile of snow in front of him, and then that was it. He was standing on a small patch of land, but other than that and the snow, he was completely and utterly alone. The voice seemed to be getting louder, too, and he could vaguely hear someone calling for him in the distance, but he barely acknowledged it as Thunder stared at the scenery.

you don't deserve to live because you are weak and only the strong survive and you are weak and you will die

He shouted. It was the only thing he could really do by now. The voice seemed to almost gain a form and swallow him whole, leaving only his vocal chords intact as Thunder continued to shout, and with each breath that left his mouth, sparks started flying everywhere wildly as he struggled to break free from the imaginary bounds. Surprised sounds came from all directions as he continued to spark uncontrollably, letting out weak Thundershocks every now and then. A pair of glowing yellow eyes zoomed towards him in his vision and then, all of a sudden-

sorry

Thunder closed his eyes and let out an Electro Ball by instinct. Only then when he reopened his eyes did he see that his surroundings had returned to normal, and that the energy was flying straight at the panting Luxray. Tesla took it head on, not even bothering to dodge it as he was sent flying and crashing into a tree. He slumped down, still somewhat conscious and managing to stand up, but his eyes showed clear exhaustion.

Chris sighed in relief. "Thank Arceus you're alright, Thunder. Now, finish it o-"

"Enough."

Jin's monotone voice halted Chris's sentence as Thunder collapsed to the ground, tired. "Your Pikachu is mentally drained. It's still a wonder to me on how he managed to attack Tesla while he was using his 'fifth attack'. I commend you on that."

"'Fifth attack'?! Is this some kind of technique I haven't heard of yet?" Rein asked as Tesla was returned to his Pokeball.

"That depends on your point of view," Jin curtly responded. "In any case, since you 'won', here." The bishonen handed Chris the two necklaces while Thunder was returned to his Pokeball as well.

"Oh… uh, thanks, I guess," Chris replied, staring down at the items. He'd never seen that ruby before… wait, didn't it seem familiar?

Before he could speculate more, Shione snatched the ruby out of his palms and bowed down over and over to the brunette. "Thank you! Thank you for getting this back! I have a lifetime to owe you!"

Chris felt the strange feeling that Shione now had a new god.

"You're following me, aren't you?" his low voice rang out, stopping Riley in her tracks. The violinist's question had caught her off guard, though she knew she would have been found out sooner or later anyway.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she responded, putting her arms behind her head. "Sorry 'bout that."

The violinist turned around the slightest bit and nodded, before continuing to walk. Not two minutes went by when they emerged at the edge of the forest. Riley felt the overwhelming urge to kneel down and kiss the area where the sunlight was, or thank the violinist for leading her (somewhat) here, but she simply gave him a smile.

He backed away.

"Hey, you're kinda quiet, aren't you?" she asked. "If you'd tell me your name, I think I can remember you from somewhere…"

The violinist froze. He did not want to be remembered. Last year, he had been called the best violinist they had in the school band, and hopefully, they'd forget about him and get a new one. But apparently, this was not the case…

"Well, if you won't, then I guess I'll tell you mine. I'm Riley Crescent, it's nice to meet you!" she smiled once more, before bidding him goodbye and walking off to enter the school gates. He hesitated for a while, but followed eventually. Beside him, Handel the Liepard purred as if he was having the time of his life. Knowing him, he eventually would.

When he entered the school, he was not the least surprised to see it almost empty, even when the clock said it was one in the afternoon already. Probably, more than three fourths of the entire school was late, him barely being included. He had stayed in the forest to practice playing some of the sheet music his father had given him, and that had apparently taken a bit of time. He should have glanced at his watch more often.

"Aye, I heard he's back too."

"Are you kidding me? I thought he was long dead."

"It might be true. There's some girl who came by with his ruby still in one piece."

"What?! But then doesn't that mean…?"

"Maybe, maybe. She won't say a damn thang unless you punch the crap outta her."

Noir Arronax the master violinist perked his ears up. If they were talking about what he thought they were talking about, then maybe someone can fill in the role of the next master violinist for him after all. The attention would get tiring for them, but oh well.

"And then, quite suddenly, I have ten thousand people trying to pry info out of me," Shione flatly said as Jacob tried to calm her down to the point where she said things in a normal tone again. "I don't know why everyone seems so interested in this! What, am I the 'Chosen One' by Arceus or something? Am I gonna save the world or whatever? Si~gh…"

Anko chirped something in Torchic-speak, but the bluenette patted its head anyway. Anko simply groaned after that.

"Aha! I remember that place!" Rein exclaimed all of a sudden, pointing directly at the… storage room? "I used to hide in there all the time in my first year! Not a single teacher or bully could find me." She puffed out her chest proudly.

"As expected of Yukimura-sama!" Shione brightened up instantly. "And I bet, while you were hiding in there, the teacher was always just a few meters away from you… five yards… four, three, two, one, and then…! He shook his head and walked away to the completely opposite direction! Then you laughed while he was out of earshot and ate cake."

Rein froze. "… Ah. Ahaha… er…"

Carlos slapped Shione's back approvingly. "You got everything right! Except for maybe the 'ate cake' part, but she did usually steal some every now and then from the shops in The Town."

"The Town?" Chris repeated. "Why does it sound like it should have capital letters?"

"Oh, right, first years. Well, that shall be our next destination! To The Town!" Carlos pointed dramatically in the air.

Jacob tilted his head confusedly. "Is it where you'd buy all your things?" he asked.

"Mm… something like that. The food there was always good," Rein reminisced, smiling at the very thought of being able to eat the cakes there again.

"… Aren't we going to be late? Or, er, even later than we are if we go there?" Chris asked, trying to make some sense of the four who were already heading to another direction. "Oh for Arceus' sake… alright, alright, wait for me, I'm coming!"

This… felt a bit short. Oh well. How do I battle scene? *shot*

As stated before, Noir Arronax belongs to Ariesbird. Yay for this character erryone! *shot x2*

Reisu, 5/27/13