Chapter 4

Erebus

The real reason I slept was to see what my dreams had to say. You never really know what will pop out at you in that plane of existence. It's weird but some dreams can be prophetic. No, I'm not Percy freaking Jackson, but I sometimes get dream like that. Good thing too because I was right. When I slept I felt the presence of five people surrounding us. In my dream, five tall shadows were bearing down on me, suffocating me. I woke up with a start, knowing what the dreams meant.

"This is going to be fun," I said outloud. Irene looked at me. "You know what I mean. Just get ready." I sent a text to Morty and Lilith in the other car telling them this might lead to a fight. The scene outside turned into thick Santa Cruz hills. Aaron pulled down a dark, dirt path with Lilith following closely behind. After a while, I suddenly said, "Stop!"

Aaron quickly hit the brakes and waited.

"Come on," I said. "Not you two," I said to Giovanni and Tien. "These are our people, they don't like outsiders." Aaron put the car in park but left the engine running. As I got out, I saw Lilith had done the same and made sure that our five were the only ones who got out. The five of us walked forward, side by side. We all stopped suddenly and waited all for two seconds.

Tien

The five of them stood in a loose formation ahead of our car. Erebus in the middle. He put on his button down sweatshirt. Morty said something and Erebus shot back a response. They bickered back and forth for a moment and then their group burst into laughter.

Aaron's head snapped up and he said something. Erebus turned to the car we were sitting in Aaron reached into his pocket and the car doors locked. Erebus locked eyes with me and mouth 'Don't get out'. He turned to his right (our left) and waited. About two seconds later a figure had appeared out of nowhere.

Around them, four other figures had appeared, surrounding them. Erebus just glanced around and started talking. To the tall and burly man standing in front of him. The man looked like buff Larry the Cableguy. Erebus was interrupted by the guy. He looked angry. The man gestured to his car and Erebus nodded his head and started talking again.

But the man wasn't having it. He kept yelling and he must've said something that set Erebus off. Erebus' eyes narrowed to dangerous slits and he spoke through clenched teeth. he gestured to our car and kept talking. When he was done, Erebus and the man just stood there glaring. And that's when all hell broke loose.

The tall man brought his hand up and backhanded Erebus hard across the face, sending him flying onto the hood of the car I was in. The man shifted and revealed a long horn coming out from his nose and a shorter one. A club like tail was swinging around behind him and his arms had rock like protrusions coming from the elbows. This man was a rhyperion! Big brutish ground and rock type hybrid.

Around Erebus' group, two women and two men shifted into rhydon forms which was simply long grey tails and horned snouts. Rhydons were the pre evolved form of rhyperion and the evolved form of rhyhorn. One tried to grab for Lilith, but she just flipped him over on his ass. When one tried to hit Irene with a hammer arm from behind but she just gracefully ducked and fired an ice beam right back. I didn't see when Morty and Aaron had started their combat but they were already locked in a fierce hand to hand battle.

Erebus was still on the hood with the Rhyperion closing in. The rhyperion quickly wrapped one of his hands around Erebus' throat. One of Erebus' hands were pinned down while the other was trying to pull the hand around his throat away. Meanwhile I was trying the door. Aaron must have locked us in because they were really stuck.

I looked up just in time to see Erebus pry his arm free and slam the rhyperion in the face with a dark pulse. The rhyperion stumbled back and Erebus shifted, springing into action. He went hand to hand like everyone else, no using his powers. He had a style of fighting that reminded me of Prince Zuko. The rhyperion stayed low and used his weight to his advantage. Erebus would jump and land a kick to the rhyperion would just stumbled back and swing at Erebus. Erebus tried going around the side but the rhyperion just sidestepped out of the way. Erebus moved back and slowly got pushed backward towards his friends.

Irene, now had also shifted was doing her best to push a rhydon back. Her arms looked kind of like kimono sleeves, her skin had gone pale, she looked slightly skinnier, her hair looked like it had ice shards in it. I began to wonder what Pokémon she was when I noticed her feet weren't touching the ground. Kimono... skinny... feet not touching the ground... she was a froslass! Froslass where an odd combination of ice and ghost. Many japanese myths depict froslass' as beings who wandered through snow storms to lure people to their doom. It's stuff like that that I find ridiculous. I was sure Irene was a nice girl who didn't lure anyone to their deaths.

And by the looks of it, she wouldn't even win this fight, she wasn't doing so well.

In fact, none of them were. They had all gotten pushed back into a tight circle, back to back. Erebus looked pissed. "Enough!" he yelled loudly. His voice boomed out and everyone paused. He reached into the inside of his button down sweater for his practice styler. He held it out and several dark rings sprang from the ground and send the rhydons and rhyperion sailing a few feet and landed on their ass. "Irene, Morty, now!" Erebus said. He closed his eyes and Irene and Morty stepped towards him... No not towards him... INTO HIM!

Erebus

With Irene and Morty inside of me, I could easily deal with Hank the Tank and his cronies. Hank was the guard for the Blackthorn Gym. He was pissed that we have guest, especially since one of them was a Ranger in training (He has a problem with Rangers). Basically he was being a bully and threatened to beat up my friends. I knew through my dreams that his dumbass would try to pull something like this so I had the others locked in the car.

When Irene stepped inside of me, I felt a cold chill run me and I felt myself lose a little weight. When Morty went inside, I felt almost nothing, I was so used to him. I knew my hair was purple and had icicles.

"Lilith!" I barked. "Pokéassist! Have Aaron charge your assist, trap these guys with your plants." She nodded and pulled out her styler. Aaron did as well and both started to glow. I turned and was ready to let loose. I glared and Hank as he got up. In a sudden flash I was floating in front of him. I kicked him in the chin as hard as I could. Everything moved slower. He barely had moved back when I shot an oral shadow ball at him. I hit him hard enough to where he made a crater in the ground. Still floating, I turned around. One of the male rhydons was trying to rush Aaron while he charged Lilith's assist move.

Let me back up for a second. Pokéassist are abilities that, when used, give the stylers extra power from a fellow Pokémon. They may cause things like an increase in power or a special effect to happen. Technically our practice stylers weren't supposed to have this feature, but Martin pulled some strings. Aaron was busy charging up Lilith's styler. This would make his styler unusable until it naturally recharged but it's a good thing we did it that way. If Lilith had done her Pokéassist without Aaron, her natural powers would be extremely limited until her styler recharged.

The main point of the stylers was to use as a weapon to channel power through and used to attack easier. Most attacks we used were generic orbs of power and forceful attacks. I could only use my styler to create ripples of darkness that could be used offensively or defensively.

Anyway, protecting Lilith. Her features were quite stunning while in her roselia form. He hands were blue and red respectively and looked like rose petals. Her skin took on a slight greenish color but not too noticeable. The rhydon charged at her but I slammed my knee into his side before he had the chance.

"Ready!" Lilith hollered. When the rhydon hit the ground, he was suddenly covered in overgrow. I stood there and waited. Lilith, in a matter of seconds had the rhydons completely covered in overgrow. Her assist only worked for about a minute and thirty seconds. I stood with my arms crossed as I watch Lilith work which was a bad idea.

*Watch out* Morty's voice filled my head. He took brief control of my body and levitated me upward. Below me, Hank the tank barreled through, missing me by miles.

*Thanks* I thought as I floated down. I lifted my styler and pointed. "Irene," i had to say out loud. "Gimme some ice?" My styler suddenly exploded with ice and I aimed it at Hank's back at the same time Lilith hit him in the front with her assist move. hH looked like a beautiful man-cicle to be honest. I floated down and Irene and Morty stepped out of me. I looked Hank in the eyes.

"Going to let us pass now?"

We got back in the cars and began riding the rest of the way to Blackthorn gym.

"What was that all about?" Tien asked.

I opened one of my eyes to look at him. I told him all about Hank's hate for Rangers and to a lesser extend any guest of mine.

"Why?"

"He's an asshole with a very tiny penis," was all I said. I was tired. I exerted a lot of dark power back there when I pushed Hank's gang back and then again when I was utilizing Irene and Morty's ghost powers. I could feel the darkness inside of me growing and I could hear *his* voice even more as we approached Blackthorn Gym. Tonight was going to be a heavy drinking night if I had to exert more darkness like this. I almost wanted to turn back and not deal with this tonight but I decided against it.

We found good parking at the hidden complex. It had a bunch of psychic wards that stopped curious humans from wandering through. All they saw were a thicket of bushes and trees that they can't get close to. What it really was would astound them.

"Is that all?" GIovanni said as he got an eyesight of my gym. "It's nothing but a one story building! It looks like a small walmart!"

"Time Lord technology," I said. All Doctor Who fans refer to the TARDIS and you'll know what I mean.

"What?" Giovanni obviously didn't watch the good Doctor.

"You'll see," I said Getting out of the car. Walking up to the gym door, Irene and Lilith flanked me while Morty and Aaron stood behind us tight together. The others sort of scrambled to keep up with the fast walking pace we had set. When we got to the door, I tapped my styler to it and the doors swung open. We all stepped in and Giovanni's crew gasped. "Time lord technology means 'bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside!' Of course this isn't really a TARDIS but still, our leader, Claire, got our best people to make our gym HUGE on the inside."

We walked as they gaped. I walked to the front desk and completed our registration as well as get guest pass for our, well, guest. I filled out a little paperwork and gave Tien, the twins, Giovanni, and Abby their passes.

"I'll take them to the spectator area," Lilit volunteered. "I'll meet you in the prep room later." I shrugged and walked towards the prep room.

The prep room was a medium sized dojo looking area. We all sat around each other just waiting. That's when Clair walked in. Clair was a dragonite, one of the more powerful ones and the gym leader for Blackthorn. She had a thing but muscular frame. I loved her blue wavy hair that seemed to stick out. She had thin lips that always housed a smile but eyes of an alpha wolf. Not someone you want to fuck with.

"You all ready to go?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," I said, getting up along with the others. We took our sweatshirts off and put them on the ground.

"Good, follow me." She turned on her six inch heeled boots and lead out of the waiting room. We walked down a long, dark hall that had a light at the end. I was nervous, excited, and worried all at the same time.

Clair lead us into the light and the crowd erupted into cheers. I glanced around and saw that many people had come to watch this. I recognized a few people but not many. The area around us looked like the theater in the Tech Museum except full circle around our battle ground. Our battle ground was about four times bigger than a basketball court which was plenty of room. Clair stopped in the middle of the stage and pulled a microphone out from behind her.

"Ladies and gentleman," her voice echoed. "today we test our best and brightest for their chance to earn their stylers. A great honor, especially at a young age. No doubt they would have already had them if they only remembered their test day." She turned to us, a smile on her lips as always and winked. "Please show your support for the young Aaron Cobble." Aaron stepped forward and beautifully shifted into his riolu form. My heart swelled with pride as he held his normally shy head up high and smiled for our supporters.

"Lilith Duplica!" She stepped up and did a curtsied (shifted in the process) as she smiled. She looked to her right and waved even bigger. I followed her gaze as saw the twins and Tien cheering loudly. Next to them was sat Giovanni who just glared and sulked next to his bimbo girlfriend.

"Erebus Knight!" I smiled slightly as I stepped forward. I hefted myself and did a back flip. When I landed I was all umbreoned up and feeling excited.

"Morty Eusine!" Morty bowed and disappeared. He reappeared standing on my shoulders. The crowd got a huge kick off of that. I'm guessing he was full haunter, hair spiked out and purple, skin slightly darker, mouth jagged, and weird floating hands near his normal ones. I leaned my shoulders to the right and he side flipped off of me.

"Irene Emic!" Irene waved and smiled. She jumped up and twirled midair, shifting into her froslass form and causing little sparkles of ice to form around her.

"These five will be taking their test at the same time. They will fight five other warriors who have earned their styler. All they have to do is either knock them out or knock them out of the ring, but there's a twist." Well, fuck me hard! "The twist is, these for taking the test can only use their hand to hand skills and the powers granted to them by the styler, nothing else. No special moves, powers, or abilities. Their opponents, however, can do whatever they want." Well fuck. That limited me and Irene like hell. I could only create little dark rings with my styler and Irene could protect herself with blue orbing thingies as a defense but as for attacking, she was limited to makes icicles appear out of the ground.

Morty could still disappear and reappear but now, as far as attacking, he was limited to making dark apparitions appear and that took a lot of concentration and didn't do much damage. Aaron was extremely limited, his styler only gave him pretty strong physical attacks, but it would do. Lilith could create... pollen and leaves... don't underestimate the power of plants, people. That shit hurts!

Even though we were limited by our abilities, I felt confident. I mean, really how bad can these warriors be? I thought. I could've kicked myself for thinking that. After announcing our challenge, Clair had flown to a huge chair in the middle of the spectator seats. From above, five figures fell from the sky and surrounded us. They were all in shifted form and wielding fine stylers. These things were like regular stylers only with a lot more features and worn on the wrist for easier use.

These challengers were a wild mix. One pidgeot, man, tall with bird like features. He had the rainbow hair and winglike arms of a pidgeot. He looked about eighteen years old. This one didn't worry me. Other than being a hybrid bird and normal type, they weren't anything special.

Another of our challengers was a female drapion. Every inch of her visible skin was covered with alternating dark and light purple stripes. Her hands ended with a two fingered claw, as did her tail. She worried me, because if she was fast, we could all be poisoned and be sitting ducks. We wouldn't die of it, the poison would only make us faint, but it'd be an instant fail of the test. If one of us went down, we all went down.

The next one was crawdaunt. Her skin was red, she had two lobster like claws and a giant yellow star on her forehead. Crawdaunt were combination crab-like water and dark types. Another dark type, this'll make things fun.

Next one was a sceptile. he was tall, about my height and age. He skin was a slight green color, and his hair was wild and a slightly darker shade of green. He chewed a long piece of wood and looked at me with eyes that told me he knew something. Along his arms were two blade like appendages (yes green) and his tail was bushy and needle-like. I guessed that along his back were six yellow (yellow? yes yellow) pods that were used to absorb sunlight for this grass types attack. This guy worried me because sceptile were known for their ninja like moves. He would be fun later on.

I looked at the last guy. It was Hank. Of course it was Hank. He grinned at me and cracked his hammer like fist. This was going to be hell. My group, officially known as Torchwood, drew our practice stylers and squared off.

"Ready...?" Clair announced. "Begin!"