Chapter 9 – Latios

"Eevee, use Bite!" James called to his newest Pokemon. Eevee walked slowly toward the paper bag James told it to attack, lay down next to it, and started to lick it. "No, Eevee, Bite it." James told it. Eevee looked around at him, then picked up the paper bag and brought it back to James in its mouth. James couldn't help but laugh at the sight of it. He crouched down and took the bag from Eevee, dangling it above the Pokemons head. Eevee looked up at it, and then stood up on two legs, reaching for it. It was very cute. James supposed that Eevee was just too young to learn to battle, and he would have to save that for when it was older. James continued to play with his newest Pokemon for a few minutes, after which Eevee got too tired for playing, after which time it seemed to decide that it had had enough. James picked it up, cradling it in his arms, and walked back to the Feaffle Town Pokemon Centre, stroking it. Eevee purred. James didn't drop Eevee off with the nurse when he reached her desk, instead he took the Pokemon straight to his, Wally and Joel's room. Eevee was still young, and it had seemed to have taken James in as a surrogate mother. Now, on the few occasions where James left the room Eevee was in, it would start crying. Also, there was the issue about its Premier Ball. It wasn't as though Eevee didn't like to go in, it was more the fact that James preferred to have Eevee out of its ball, either being carried by James, in his backpack, or walking beside him. James didn't know why he had become attached to Eevee in this way, he hadn't to Grovyle when it had been a Treecko. It was probably because Eevee was covered in beautiful fur, and was just so much more cuddly then treecko, with hooks on its feet and leathery skin covering its body. James was brought back to reality when something large and blue slammed into the ground outside his window.

"What the heck?" James muttered aloud, and ran to the window to look out. It was some sort of Pokemon. It was writhing in pain or confusion, trying to get up, into the air once again. James scooped up Eevee and ran out the door. He ran all the way past the astonished nurse and out the front door, then turned and ran around the outside of the building. When he arrived at the crash site, he found the Pokemon shaking its head, trying to clear it.

"What happened to you?" James asked, and at the sound of his voice the Pokemon reared, and jumped into the air. It flew a meter, then collapsed again.

"What's happening? WHAT IS THAT?" The nurse cried, who had followed James outside.

"It's hurt; you know what's wrong with it?" James asked, watching the Pokemon writhe.

"It might have been poisoned, but from what Pokemon I don't know." The nurse said.

"What about a Crobat?" James asked.

"How do you…" The nurse started to ask, but before she could finish James dived on top of her, pushing her out of the way of an Air Cutter attack, launched from up high by a Crobat.

"Get some antivenin," James said, pulling out his Dusk Ball "I'll take care of the Crobat." James threw the Dusk Ball into the air, and Duskull appeared in a flash of dark light. "Shadow Ball" James told it. Duskull shot the ball of darkness at Crobat, but the bat Pokemon dodged the attack with ease, and dive bombed Duskull. Crobat bit down hard with a Crunch attack, swung Duskull in a wide arch, then threw the Pokemon to the ground. "Duskull return!" James said, and withdrew his Pokemon to its ball. "Go Kirlia, go Grovyle!" James threw two of his leftover balls into the air, and his Pokemon appeared in flashes of light. "Confusion and Leaf Blade!" James's Pokemon performed the attack they had been practicing with him since their victory in the tournament. Kirlia used Confusion, and picked up Grovyle, shooting him at Crobat. The result was a direct hit with Leaf Blade, and then Grovyle topped it off with a Slam attack, knocking the Crobat to the ground. "Don't let it go!" James said, and Kirlia caught the Crobat in a Confusion attack. James ran forward and gripped onto the base of the Crobats wings, preventing it from flying. The Pokemon struggled, but it couldn't move.

The nurse had administered the antivenin, and the Pokemon, which James now knew was a Latios, was sleeping in the cricket nets. James, the nurse, Wally and Joel were now standing around the magnificent Pokemon, admiring it, while the Crobat screeched noisily from a cage nearby.

"Why was Crobat after it?" James asked.

"Cause its trainer was after it." Joel said.

"Why was its trainer after it?" Wally asked.

"It's a Latios, who wouldn't pass up an opportunity to capture it?" the nurse asked, "Even if the only way to capture it was to do something as terrible as this."

"Lyra would." Joel said. The rest of the group looked at him. Joel sighed. "That's what Lyra went looking for. She thought she had found out where it was resting, so she rushed off to capture it."

"So Lyra did this?" James asked. He didn't believe it. The Lyra he knew was extreme, hard, but she would never hurt a Pokemon to this extent, just to capture it.

"No," Joel said, forcibly, "Lyra would never... And besides, she doesn't have a Crobat."

"Then she must have lost Latios somewhere, and someone must have found it, and done this." James said.

"No," Joel said again, "She wouldn't have given up; she would still be following it. Something's happened to her." Suddenly the Latios let out a cry, and the world around them suddenly went dark.

"What the hell?" Wally asked. James was thinking the same thing. They could see each other, as well as themselves, but everything else was pure darkness. Then the darkness faded, and they were surrounded by blue. The nurse screamed. James, looking down, saw what looked like the tree tops miles below them, and in the distance, was a city. They were suddenly falling, faster and faster, and the trees were hurtling up toward them. Then they stopped, and James's stomach lurched as he expected himself to keep falling. They were in the canopy, and looking down, they could see the forest floor. Three figures were tramping through the undergrowth. One was clearly a man, the other two women, one with lots of red hair, the other with brown.

"LYRA!" Joel said, recognizing his girlfriend. The three figures stopped, talked for a moment, then the woman threw out a pokeball, and the Crobat flew into the air. The world suddenly became immersed in darkness once again, before the cricket nets came back into view.

"What was that?" Wally asked.

"Latios can project its memories into our minds." Joel said, "Those two were the ones who were trying to capture Latios…they had Lyra." Joel said. Nobody said anything for a moment, and then James spoke.

"We need to help Lyra, and Latios," He said, "If we knew what city that was…"

"Mauville City." Wally said, instantly. The other three looked at him. "What?" he asked, "Sometimes I can surprise you."

"Yea, that's a good way of putting it." James said, "Listen, let's get going. Joel, Wally, we'll Teleport over to Mauville, try to find them."

"What about me?" The nurse asked.

"You stay here, help Latios." James told her, and she nodded. "Lets go."

The three trainers reappeared in the shade of some trees. They were close to Mauville City, and the rainforest that started at Fortree was starting to thin. All around them were the sounds of Pokemon scampering away, startled by their sudden appearance, and of birdsong from the trees. James put the cage holding Crobat on the ground, and enlarged his Kirlias pokeball.

"Good job buddy." James told it, as he returned it to its ball. Wally did the same with his own Kirlia, while Joel took out one of his own balls and threw it into the air. A Pelipper appeared in a flash of light.

"Hey Pelipper," Joel said, "Go and find Lyra." Pelipper let out a cry, then flew up, through the tree tops and out of sight. "May as well make ourselves comfortable," Joel said, sitting down against a tree, "He might be a while." James looked at Eevee in his arms, and Eevee stared back with huge brown eyes.

"Sorry buddy," James said, returning his evolution Pokemon to its ball, "But this is too dangerous for you."

However, it wasn't long before Pelipper was back.

"You found her?" Joel asked, and his Pokemon nodded. "Good, take us to her." Joel ordered, and Pelipper once again flew up, through the canopy and into the open sky. This time though, it stayed in sight, and the three humans followed it through the forest. They walked for quite a while. It would have taken no time at all if they were flying, but on the ground there were trees in the way, and the ground bore no kind of trail. After a while, they met up with a stream, working its way downhill, and they jumped into the shallow water, grateful for the easy path they had been given. As they walked, they began to notice the stream growing, until it became a river, and eventually the river split, one end heading toward the ocean, the other into some sort of lagoon, with a large island cave in the middle. They walked down the path to the lagoon, but before they had cleared the trees Joel grabbed them and pulled them back.

"Get down!" He whispered, pulling them into the cover of the trees.

"What?" Wally asked.

"Look." Joel told him. James crawled toward the cover of the conveniently placed bolder, and peered over. On the beach of the island, near the mouth of the cave, were three people. One was Lyra. She looked battered, but ultimately in good condition. She was sitting in the cave, looking very much like a prisoner. The other two were adults: the man and the woman they had seen in Latios's vision. They appeared to be taking a break. Around them were their Pokemon: a Seviper, a Mightyena, a Sneasel, two Sharpedo in the water, a Crawdaunt and a Huntail.

"Dam," James whispered.

"What is it?" Joel asked.

"They've got all their Pokemon out, there's loads of them."

"How many? What are they?" Joel asked. James listed the names of the Pokemon. "Dam." Joel said, "This is probably going to be a big battle."

"They look pretty high level." Wally said, stealing a peek too."

"We've got to use all our Pokemon if we want to win," Joel told them, "Don't send them al out at once, lets send out three each at least though, and then we…" Joel never finished telling them the plan, as at that moment, Shelly's Crobat, still in the cage, let out a screech, and the Mightyena on the beach looked up and snarled. James and Wally jumped, then ducked to try and avoid being seen by the figures on the beach, but it was that very movement that gave them away. The Sneasel jumped off the sand, jumping off the heads of the Sharpedo and landing on the teenager's side of the bank, and darted to them with amazing speed.

"POLIWRATH GO!" Joel roared, and his tadpole Pokemon erupted from its ball and caught the surprised Sneasel in a Vital Throw.

"Sharpedo use Ice Beam!" Matt ordered, and his Sharpedo froze a bridge onto the surface of the lagoon with an icy blast. All of the Aqua Pokemon either swam or ran across the lagoon, straight at the three teenagers, who came out of hiding, Pokeballs in hand.

"Magneton!" Wally called out.

"Grovyle!" James shouted.

"Pelipper, Poliwrath, Hydro Pump!" Joel ordered, and his two Pokemon, one in the sky, the other on the ground, both shot a great torrent of water at the ice bridge. Lyra, from inside the cave, looked up, saw who had appeared, and jumped to her feet.

"Grovyle, Leaf Blade!" James instructed his Pokemon, who ran to answer the challenge of the Seviper. The poison Pokemon jumped forward, its fangs bared, and Grovyle held it its Leaf Blades to defend itself, catching the Pokemons jaws. James ran forward:

"Slam!" Grovyle fell backward, and used its feet to kick Seviper into the air, then jumped up to join it and whacked the Pokemon with its tail. "Yes!" James said, punching the air.

"Magneton use Thunder Wave!" Wally said, and his Pokemon let out a blue surge of electricity into the water, which paralyzed all of the water bound Pokemon. The down side to Thunder Wave however, was that the effects stopped when the attack died, so Magneton was temporarily vulnerable from attack from other Pokemon. The Mightyena ran forward to exploit this fact, but met only the Poison Jab attack by Wally's Roselia. Mightyena jumped backward, whimpering in pain. James didn't blame it for not seeing the Roselia, which must have been no more the thirty centimeters tall. Joel left his two Pokemon, which were in the process of beating up the Crawdaunt, and ran across the ice bridge, toward the opposite bank.

"Lyra, are you ok?" He asked when he reached the cave.

"I'm fine," She told him, "But they have my Pokemon.

"Slowking!" Joel yelled, and without throwing a pokeball, his Pokemon appeared. Its crown started to glow, and Shelly and Matt were thrown backward; six pokeballs flying out of Shelly's bag and back to Lyra. "Thanks Slowking." Joel said.

"It was my pleasure." Slowking said, walking toward the waters edge and using Psychic again, capturing every Pokemon which wasn't a dark type, as they were resistant to psychic attacks. Magneton let go of its hold of the water Pokemon, as Slowking had taken over, and used Thunder Wave on the dark types instead.

"Well," James said, realizing that the battle was over, "That was easy." Grovyle shouted at him, and James looked up just in time for Grovyle to jump at him and slap him hard in the hand.

"ARGH!" James yelled, holding his stinging hand while Wally and Grovyle laughed. Across the water, Joel and Lyra were sharing a kiss. They broke apart, and Lyra walked over to Shelly.

"You know," Lyra said, "I'm going to enjoy taking you to the police." Shelly couldn't answer, as Slowking had frozen her, but her eyes glared. Then something happened that no one was expecting. From high up, something cried out, and what looked like blue lightning burst across the sky.

"Not good." James said, as Latios flew down to land on the island beach. The legendary Pokemon walked toward the frozen form of Shelly, looking into her bag.

"Oh no!" Lyra yelled, "It wants the soul dew!" No one else knew what she was talking about for a moment, then it became clear as Latios gave out a cry, and Slowking shot backward in a burst of psychic energy, releasing its hold on the group. Latios ripped the bag away from Shelly and stuck its head inside, looking for the soul dew, giving Shelly's Seviper, who had now unfrozen too, an opportunity too good to waste. The snake Pokemon surged across the ice bridge, tail coming up to deliver a poison filled slash to Latios.

"NO!" James yelled, running forward, he just managed to grab hold of the Pokemon. The Seviper hissed and lashed out, and Latios took to the air in fright, and then blasted the Pokemon with a Psychic attack which sent it flying. James smiled, then felt his legs give way. He collapsed on the ice bridge, hitting his head. His vision fading, he looked at his right arm, and saw a long cut, seeping blood, infected with purple venom.