"Oh no! They're headed for the mayor's house!" Rui cried. "We have to find out if he's ok!"

Wes stared at her, and said, "No."

Rui looked back at Wes. "What!?" Rui said in a confused way.

"I will go, but not you," Wes said. "I'm done escorting you, all I had to do was take you the mayor's house."

"S-so!?" She said. "I need to go, I want to make sure-

"I said NO!" Wes shot an angry look at her. Rui immediately looked scared. "But why not?" She asked softly.

Wes looked at her. She looked like she was about to cry. "Look, if you go near those two guys
again, you could get in trouble again," he said. "You've already been kidnapped once, so they might still be looking
for you.

"I don't care about that!" Rui replied. "How will they kidnap me if you're here?"

Wes shook his head. "Either way, you'll be put in danger again. If you had your own Pokemon, this would have been
different, but you don't. I can't always protect you. Rui, from here on out I'm done with you."

There was an awkward silence, and then Rui started to cry. Wes, feeling guilty, tried to put his hand on her shoulder
and apologise, but Rui turned away.

"You jerk!" Rui yelled. "How could you say something like that?!"

"Rui, I"m sorry," Wes said. "I thought you would understand."

Rui, with a tear streaked face, replied, "How could you do this? Friends don't try to hurt each other!"

"But Rui I-" Wes started to say.

Rui ran away crying.

"Friends?" Wes weakly said. Wes sighed and closed his eyes. "What have I done?" He thought. "I was only trying to protect her.."

Wes opened up Umbreon and Espeon's poke ball. They both looked worried.

"I know guys, but this is for the best," Wes said. "I.. I think I may have made a big mistake.."

Espeon only nodded. She looked a little mad at Wes too, and Umbreon kept looking in the direction of where Rui ran off.

Wes then walked to a fountain and sat at a bench. "I really made a mistake, didn't I?" Wes thought. "Well, I guess now I can
go on my adventure, with no more interruptions."

Umbreon purred in the direction of the mayor's house.

"Before we take care of that, there's something I need to do."

Wes opened up the snag machine from his arm.

"I'm seriously considering destroying this junk," Wes said. "It has no use to me, and I have no use for it."

There was a brief silence.

"But, is that the right thing to do?" Wes asked. "I feel like all the Pokemon we've snagged have been... messed up with. I still remember
that day when I snagged Machoke. But, I also remember that when Gonzap took it, the next day it was much stronger. It had new moves, some of
which I've never seen before. However, it's behaviour did change. Sometimes, it would attack me, or even Gonzap, for no reason. It's eyes had
a strange emptiness to them, almost as if they were controlled. When Rui mentioned a Pokemon that attacked people back at the mayor's house,
I couldn't help but stop and think about that Machoke... Maybe if she was still here, I could ask her more about this violent Pokemon.."

Both Umbreon and Espeon looked sad. Wes placed the snag machine back in his arm, and eventually got out of his seat and was going to leave, when something touched Wes.

A masked man in black and red clothing stood behind Wes, and kept touching his snag machine. The man kept giggling uncontrollably.

"Can I... help you?" Wes cautiously asked. Suddenly, Wes angrily flashed at the man and said, "Oh, and stop touching me like a lunatic. What's wrong with you?"

Umbreon and Espeon immediately got into battle positions. The masked man finally stopped giggling.

The man had a weirdly shaped mask on. It had a zig zag pattern across the sides, and had two eye holes that were black.

"Oh, me?" He responded. "I just LOVE that snag machine you've got on your arm."

"His voice sounds like he came out of a cartoon show," Wes thought. "What a stupid idiot..."

"Wait, you know what this is?!" Wes immediately replied.

The masked man laughed again. "Of course I know what it is. I know EVERYTHING!"

Wes started to walk towards his Umbreon. "So, what's going to stop me from making my Umbreon bite that mask off your head?" He asked.

The masked man started to laugh even harder. "Well, I just came to say hello. I can tell, you're going to try and do amazing things
with that device," he said.

Wes silently stared at the man, and said, "Oh, really?" Wes asked. "What 'amazing things' can I do with this?"

The man suddenly stared back at Wes. His eye revealed itself, showing 2 dark brown eyes brimming with strength. Wes stepped back, as if
his eyes pierced directly inside Wes's bright orange eyes.

The man's voice deepened, and had a very dark and scary tone. "You could not imagine the possibilities that machine could bring to
the world," he said. "It's sad it had to end up with you."

Wes, still surprised by the man's voice change, immediately replied, "What's that supposed to mean?"

The man chuckled, and then switched back to his cartoony voice. "Ah, well I'll be seeing ya then! Oh, I think I saw a really
pretty girl walk inside the mayor's house not too long ago!"

The masked man then happily skipped away into the desert, and left Wes very confused.

"What... I..." Wes said in confusion. Both Espeon and Umbreon were even more puzzled, as they got into their battle positions
for no reason.

"Wait, he said pretty girl... oh no!" Wes said. "Rui went in all by herself, didn't she!?"

Wes, with no hesitation, called out Espeon and Umbreon.

"Guys, we gotta go now!" Wes said.

Umbreon and Espeon nodded in agreement, and they both followed Wes into the mayor's house.

Phew! This took forever to make, hope you guys enjoyed it! Also, this chapter starts to branch off the main Pokemon Colosseum storyline, so expect more of this kind of thing later on in the series!