Author's note : Thanks to my best friends, Natsuki (Naomi Summer) and Hikakenai (Edward Kreuger) for their OCs, based on their true personalities as I had said before.


Shadow Inferno

Chapter 4 – Devil Creeds and Twilight Angels

Tia and her team struggle to get out of the deep quicksand.

"Come out here, you coward! Show me your face! You planned this all along, didn't you?" she suddenly yelled; as hard as she could.

A Dragon Tamer in his usual purple and yellow outfit glides down from the mountain using his large bat-like wings on his back. Though, there are a couple of differences about his outfit; instead of a red cape, his is black in colour and there seems to be a black serpent dragon coiled up into an 'S' on his right chest. And he smells like rotten flesh.

"So you had sensed my energy and came here..." he said with no tone of surprise at all, as if he had expected her.

"I've heard of you Devil Creeds… The angel you're trying to take revenge on is no longer here. He died, giving your human his wings!" Tia said to him, still trying to escape the quicksand.

"I'm not after the angel…" he answered, "I'm after my human body! I'm sick of this! I was forced to fend for myself when I was physically ripped out of his body! I had to make my own body using dead matters!

"And sure enough, those were all that Twilight Angel's fault! But he deserved what he received! And now, it should be the human's turn to die!"

"Hello, what about me? I don't get it. I play no part in this. I don't even know your original host."

"All of you Twilight Angels are just the same! One day you'll give your wings to a human, too! And causes the newborn Devil Creed to suffer, just like I did! I can't let that happen."

He knees down to cup her face with his hand and brings his face near hers, "Now, you will die too, my angel…" he said as he snickered.

The smell of rotting flesh that came from him nearly made her gag. Her body is completely buried inside the sand, leaving only her head. So are her Pokemon. Tia shakes her head from side to side.

"Get your filthy hand off me!" she snarled.

He lets go of her and stands up again. He brings out an arm, indicating something to Flygon. Tia and her team suddenly feel being tugged under. A few seconds later, they are brought back up again; all gasping for air and spluttering sand.

"Now you see how utterly powerful I can be!"

"Only with your badly-trained Pokemon! You won't be able to do this to me without them!"

"That is why I stole them. I need someone to accompany me on my mission, don't I?"

"You STOLE them? Oh, you… you…" Tia is speechless. What else is he capable of doing?

"Yes, I did. And they will soon turn to Shadow Pokemon and stay under my commands forever!"

Flygon's Sand Tomb has ended. The quicksand has stopped. Tia tried to pull herself up, kicking her legs hard. She managed to get out of the sand but in pain; her wings are still hurting her. The fire that burned them had spread a bit onto her back, tearing off her skin. All of her Pokemon had managed to free themselves out of the sand before her. They surrounded her, trying to comfort their Trainer.

"Revenge… is not the best way…" Tia panted.

The devil being swishes his cape and balled his fists tightly.

"Then what else is? There will be only one Benen Lakemine Vangurle! And that's me!" he growled angrily. "You don't know how painful it is to be forced out of a body I had lived with for 11 years!"

Tia keeps quiet. The Devil Creed holds out his arm again.

"Salamence, Flygon… Hyper Beam," he said firmly.

Tia shuts her eyes tight and prayed for a miracle under her breath. Pyro, Fireworks, Cinder, Bones and Little Fang closed in to Tia, preparing for the powerful attack.

"Aurora Beam!" a voice calls out and a whitish-blue, almost rainbow-coloured beam shot out from the desert's entrance route.

"That voice! Kei! Good job, Vagrant!" Tia shouted happily in her mind.

She then realizes something. Quickly, but with much difficulty, she retreats what was left of her wings back into her body. She can still feel the burning heat on her back, even inside her.

Soon after her wings are put out of sight, Kei appears on his flying Dragonite. His Dewgong comes sliding on the icy path that had been caused by Vagrant's Hail. Behind him come Vagrant and a teenage girl and guy, running towards her.

The girl has short, brown hair. Her outfit consists of a tucked in plain white T-shirt underneath a purple and blue vest and a pair of black baggy three-quarter pants. On her right wrist are 5 black ringed bracelets. Her sport shoes are black and white in colour. On her white pockets are some sort of symbol; an eye with a tear hanging from it. A Squirtle, Totodile and Mudkip are tagging along behind her.

The guy is a skinny and tall person, with spiky black hair and rimless spectacles. He wears a brown buttoned T-shirt with white short sleeves and collar over a bright green long-sleeved shirt. His pants are black and white in halves; a red and white PokeBall each on the black halves. His shoes are plain dark brown. A leaf shaped badge with a fist on it is pinned onto his shirt's front pocket. A Bulbasaur, Chikorita and Treecko run along beside him.

She had seen them earlier while she was on the way to the desert. The two teenagers reached Tia as Kei battles the Salamence and Flygon.

"Ah, Benen…!" Tia rolled over to see him but found out that he isn't there anymore.

"What are you talking about? No one's there! She's in a critical condition, Edward," the girl said.

"No, I'm not! I just got burned on my back, that's all! Nothing affected my brain!" Tia protested.

"Oh, look, she's not crazy, Naomi," the guy called Edward said to his friend.

Salamence and Flygon only evaded Dragonite and Dewgong's attacks. Finally, they fly away, acting like nothing ever happened; despite the darkened scales of Flygon's body due to extreme heat and glass shards sticking out from Salamence's under body. Kei jumps down from Dragonite and runs over to check on Tia.

"How is she? What about her Pokemon? Are you okay, Tia? What happened? Who's behind all this?" he asked all in one breath.

Clearly he is worried about his best friend. Tia's back is raw red, the flesh underneath is revealed.

"Kei, check on Shadow Inferno for me. As for me, just give me some ointment and some bandages to cover these and I'll be alright. Trust me."

"You heard the doctor -and patient-, come on, let's get moving!" Edward said.

Kei instructs his Dragonite to carry her, without touching her burnt back, to Naomi's home, which is the nearest place they could go to for now. Kei got onto Dragonite's back, with Edward behind him and Naomi behind Edward.

Once they reach Naomi's house in Lavaridge Town, Tia is brought to a room which seems to be Naomi's for there are a few of the same symbol on her pockets in the room. The young brunette hands the injured angel a roll of bandages and a bottle of healing ointment.

"Thanks, err, Naomi."

She smiles and gave her a thumbs up. Tia closes the door behind her and locks it. She goes over to the full-body mirror to check on the damage done to her body.

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Kei gives each Shadow Inferno member a quick check-up and gave them rests. Naomi and Edward only watch him.

"I'm sorry I ran just when you two came at the Day Care… but Tia's safety is important to me. She's my best friend," Kei explains to them.

"It's understandable. Don't worry about it, Keiichi. I would've done the same thing if Naomi here gets in danger," Edward said as he pointed to Naomi next to him with a thumb.

"Hmph, will you stop all this, Edward? You always say this stuff like you love me! Blegh!" she stuck out her tongue.

Edward only rubbed the back of his head, cocking. Inside his mind, though, his inner self cried and sobbed, "But I DO love you, Naomi!"

"Does… that mean I'm saying it like I love Tia…?" Kei asked slowly, his face turning a bit pale.

Naomi's eyes turned round and white, hearing what he just said and drops her jaws.

"No! No! I didn't mean it that way!" she said quickly. But then she added with a sly grin, "I say… do you?"

"What-the? Of course not!" he replied immediately, his face turned from pale to flushed red.

Naomi laughs with Edward hard.

"I do believe you are!"

"I do not!"

The door to Naomi's room slowly opens and Tia comes out. A drop of sweat formed on her forehead, seeing Naomi and Edward laughing like kookaburras, clutching their stomachs as they did so and Kei's reddened face.

"Wh-what's so funny…? What'd I miss…?" she asked in confusion.

Kei answered a bit too quickly, "Nothing! Just… nothing, heh!"

"Ehh, right… Whatever…"

"So, you feel alright now?" Kei asks with concern. He couldn't help it, even when Naomi is giving him a sly look.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. You have no idea."

"By the way, we haven't got proper introductions yet. I'm Naomi Summer and this is my best friend, Edward Kreuger."

"I'm Tia Rina. Thanks for helping me out there."

"It didn't trouble us."

Pyro, Fireworks, Cinder, Bones, Little Fang and Vagrant all appeared at the front door and hugged Tia tightly, nearly knocking her down.

"Whoa, hey guys. I wasn't dying, okay? I'm still okay here," she said as she kneed down to them, giving Bones and Little Fang a chance to lick her face.

"Oh, by the way, meet my Bulbasaur, Chikorita and Treecko. Wayne, Cleft and Ken," Edward introduced.

"And my Squirtle, Totodile and Mudkip too. Tough Shell, Jaws and Kip," Naomi joined.

"Well, these are Pyro, Vagrant, Little Fang, Bones, Cinder and Fireworks," Tia pointed to each according to their names.

"Tia… Would you like to stay here at my house, for a few days? You know, while waiting for your back to heal a bit?" Naomi offered.

"Sure! We could even become best friends! Don't worry; Liner will guard our home while I'm here."

"Great! This is so exciting!"

"And I'll come by sometimes too!" Edward said.

"You ALWAYS come here!" Naomi exclaimed.

"Oh, err, right, heh…"

"We are going to be one big circle of best friends!" Tia says happily as she swings an arm each around Kei's and Naomi's shoulders and Kei's arm around Edward's shoulder.

"We've got more friends and we'd be glad to introduce them to you, Tia!"

"The more the merrier!"


Author's note : Gah! Why is it so short? Sorry, but I didn't expect this, either... R & R!