Chapter 8

Alliances

With the two weeks of training over, today was the start of the tournament. The only one who wasn't excited was Zen. He paced in front of his brother and students, confused and unsure. King Breo sighed at his brother and made him sit down. However, the dark type claws scratched at the stone floor.

Normally, the Crysti acted like a map. The four other Crysti were bright and alive when he found them, and blinked whenever he was heading in the right direction. They found the Gemini for him, and all he had to do was train them. But, the Wild One Crysti had no trace of life in it when he got it. It wouldn't respond or react to the other Crysti, and he was beginning to worry it might not even be real.

"Why are you so worried?" the Jolteon asked. "You've had two weeks to be worried and to let it go. All those pokemon you've trained have grown strong."

Zen growled to himself. "I know you worked hard to put on this tournament, and I am very grateful that you did, but we don't know if the winner will be the Wild One. We don't know if the Wild One even entered this tournament, and…"

Suddenly, the doors opened, and Kila ran into the room. Her eyes were glowing with a pink aura. She ran in, and following her was the Future Orb she was holding with her Psychic. Her brain moved it to the the ground in front of the two brother. Once she let go of it, the bright flashing started up. It was fast and strong, like the heartbeat of someone who was nervous.

"Zen, when I went in to check on the Wild One Crysti I saw the Future Orb flashing." Kila knelt by it as Zen ran over. "I don't know how long it's been doing that."

Hopeful that it would give him some clue as to who the Wild One was, Zen focused his Psychic on the orb. It continued to flash at a rapid pace, making it hard for the Umbreon to focus. But, once he was able to lock on, the vision transferred to his mind and played itself, like it was supposed to do in the first place.

The vision was blurry, but Zen could see himself in a grass clearing in the middle of a forest. The wind blew sharply against his fur, and near the end of the clearing he could see a glowing red flag on top of a large pole.

Two figures emerged from the thicket of trees and spotted each other. Without a second thought, they both took off. One of the figures was faster than the other, but it looked as if it was having trouble running. The other figured noticed the struggled the first one had running. Within seconds a fragment of energy formed into Shadow Ball. The second shadow launched it at the first while continuing to run.

It stopped in its tracks, letting the Shadow Ball hit the ground in front of it, and continued running. The second figure was now slightly ahead of the other, but the first ran straight toward it and swung its tail, hitting the second into the trunk of a tree. It landed on its paws, and a tree was uprooted and thrown toward the first. It got hit, but got back up and continued running. Both figures jumped for the flag, but one missed.

When Zen returned from the vision, he was paralyzed by what he saw, but smiling nonetheless..

"Zen?" Breo called softly, bending down and looking his brother in the eyes. "What did you see?"

The Umbreon smiled and looked back into Breo's blue eyes. "The Wild One."

Abbie was the last one left that needed a band. The competition was ten minutes away from starting and everyone was nervous. In ten minutes, they would be fighting for the position of the fifth Gemini. Nearing seventy miles long and fifty miles wide, the pokemon would be racing each other over the span of several days. It was simple: be the first one to grab the red flag and the spot was yours. If the band was taken off, you lost. The band could be taken of manually, if someone quit the tournament, or by another pokemon. Every pokemon started inside a confined area and were released at the end of the countdown.

Abbie could feel her own heart racing, fast and strong.

A tight band was sealed onto her black furred neck, containing a tracker so she could be found if she got out of the competition. She was led toward the last cage and forced to wait the remaining five minutes. Even the confident, young Umbreon was nervous to start. She didn't want to end up hurting her friends like Cece or Arron or Cyle. She was sure they wouldn't hurt her, but the Umbreon couldn't be sure if she could trust them in case she ran into them during the competition.

Quickly, a Sableye brought two items with him. "Would you like the weapon or the bag?"

Abbie glanced down at the small knife and unopened traveling bag. "What's in the bag?

"Few survival items." He responded. "Might even be a rope."

Abbie put the bag around her shoulder and tightened it so it would stay on her back. She looked through the bars and saw a grassy plain, and suddenly there was a loud clanking of the unison opening of metal doors.

Thus, the tournament began.

Abbie stayed hidden in the shadows of her cage, watching everyone with her red eyes and waiting for the right time. Pokemon were using their moves wherever and whenever they could, desperately attacking each other to get the collars off. Everyone went completely insane, desperate to become the fifth Gemini.

A Liepard quickly fended off another pokemon and looked straight at her, not knowing she was there. The bands on the Umbreon lit up and Abbie darted from the shadows. She ran through the fighting pokemon, being hit by several moves. No matter what she was attacked with, her instincts told her to to run from the fight. A forceful pump of water hit her side which knocked her down. She rolled back to her paws and continued running.

The Liepard caught up with her, biting her neck and twisting her to the ground. Abbie's instincts told her a move was coming. The pokemon pulled her claw back and let a ghostly aura surround it. The claw came down and caused a small explosion. Several others were blown back and even more started running toward the safety of the forest. Abbie emerged from the smoke and ran into the thicket of trees.

Once at a safe distance, her legs buckled and she collapsed on the soft grass, desperately trying to catch her breath. Abbie kept her ears erect in case anyone came after her, but other than that she was trying to relax. All her muscles twitched and shook at what had just happened. The Liepard's Shadow Claw almost hit her, but she formed her Shadow Ball just in time. She didn't even realize that her body was tired, probably from letting all those moves hit her.

As the dark type shakily got to her feet, she realized that the only way to win was to have allies. She didn't have very many of them; maybe only Cece, Cyle, and Arron. Abbie didn't even remember seeing them get away, or if she saw them at all. She didn't know if they were still in the tournament. The Umbreon had to make more allies just in case her friends were out, but with the tournament already underway, she probably couldn't make any more.

A clap of thunder sent a jolt through Abbie's body, causing her to jump back a couple feet and shoot a random Shadow Ball. After seeing no one, she looked up at the clear blue sky and perked her ears up. A bolt of lightning flashed, a familiar bolt of lightning. The female smiled, relieved at the sight of Arron's Thundershock, and went to find her friend.

Abbie was wrestled into the ground and kicked at a tree. Using her tail, the Umbreon avoided the impact and sent another random Shadow Ball. The ghost type move hit something and she bolted on her instincts command, her bag full of supplies clenched in her teeth. While running, she looked back and saw the pokemon that attacked her unconscious, which made her feel safe. The stinging in her shoulder was hurting a little, but she kept running.

After almost an hour of running, she was beginning to get tired. Her black paw caught on a rock and she flipped over. Her bag flew off and the Umbreon fell into a two foot deep river. Her fur was soaked and she grunted, but then drank the water. She had become thirsty. Abbie drank the water until her stomach was full. She had to get used to drinking this much water because with little food to eat, her body would need something to get energy from. She was very used to it though, after living in a forest alone. Food was always a limited resource. However, in her bag she found three Oran berries, a rope, and some bandages, which would help her last.

Abbie followed the river for the remainder of the day, occasionally stopping to drink the water or just soak inside of it. The coolness of it made the heat disappear. It felt nice, but the Umbreon couldn't stay for long. She had to keep moving. She planned to move for an entire two days and sleep only for a couple hours at night. The moon would give her all the energy she needed for that amount of time, and she was only going to eat half of the three Oran berries for the two day trek. Hopefully, more food was on her path.

Abbie had the course committed to memory. She saw a map on the wall next to where she was banded and took the time to look at it. The river she was by would take her halfway to the flag which happened to be up a mountain, but the only problem with her path was the cliff. The flowing water turned into waterfall exactly at the halfway point and dropped tremendously. She would have trouble getting down it, but Abbie wasn't going to give up that easily.

Cecilia smiled when she saw that her friend couldn't see her, but then again, she was blending in with the water. All the molecules in her body were similar to the molecules in water which let the Vaporeon basically turn into the liquid. It was one of the perks of being a water type. Cece flipped her tail up and down to propel herself in the water, creating a small current trailing behind her.

The water type stopped abruptly, a tiny wave shaking the water around her. Abbie had stopped walking, bending down to take a drink. The dark type's mouth didn't reach the water's surface, and instead she stared straight into it. The Umbreon was sure that she had seen something move. Slowly, she pulled her paw back and swung it down. With one quick splash, Abbie knew she wasn't alone.

Cecilia tackled Abbie before getting smacked herself. The dark type clawed and scratched randomly out of surprise. The Vaporeon pinned her friend down and forced the pokemon to calm down. Abbie finally opened her eyes to see what she was hitting at and found her water type friend standing over her. The Umbreon calmed down and Cece let her out of the pin, smiling.

"You got pretty scared." She laughed.

"I wasn't scared!" Abbie snarled, brushing grass and dust of her legs. "You just surprised me. I've already had a pokemon try to kill me."

"I did too. Look." Cece pulled her blue tail in front of her paws, letting Abbie see it. A deep, bloody gash marked the left fin. "I got it from a Raichu. He cut me pretty bad."

"Does it hurt?" Abbie asked, touching it slightly. Cece winced and pulled her tail closer to her body. "Sorry. Are you going to be okay?"

"I should be, but I think I need to keep it out of the water. While I was following you, it kept throbbing."

"You're a water type. You belong in the water. Do you have anything for it in your bag?"

The Vaporeon shook her head slowly. "No. I only have a few items."

"I think I might have some bandages."

Abbie threw her bag off her bag and began searching. She pawed her way through Oran berries and a pile of rope until she found the small amount of wound care she was given. The Umbreon brought her friend over to the water and washed off the cut, wrapping it carefully in bandages. Cece looked at her tail and gratefully smiled at her friend.

"Thanks," the water type said.

Abbie put the bag back on and started walking further into the forest, following the river's path. "Now c'mon. We have to keep moving if we want to get to the flag first. I've memorized the map so we should be getting close to a mountain in a few days."

Cecilia laughed. "It's a good thing you know about this stuff."

"Yeah. For these next few miles we'll be in Persian territory. They don't tend to welcome visitors so we'll need to be very careful."

After the competition started, Cyle ran to the protection of the forest with Arron tailing behind him. The Jolteon didn't want to be on his own and Cyle certainly didn't either. He let the electric type come with him and they both ran for a long time, trying to get away from the danger. After a certain time, they slowed to a walk, almost positive that no one else was around.

"So," Arron panted to break the silence between them. "What's in the bag?"

Cyle readjusted the brown traveler's bag on his shoulder. "Some Cheri and Pecha berries, so that tells me that we're going to be finding either plants or pokemon that can cause poison or paralysis. Or they might not be useful at all."

"An Arcanine hit me with a Flamethrower and lit my bag on fire," The electric type admitted. "I had to ditch it."

"Doesn't matter now, so we should keep moving."

The Umbreon stepped into a run. Cyle told himself that he wouldn't trust anyone, not even his sister. Well, she wasn't really his sister but to him she felt like his sibling. He wouldn't be able to trust anyone, though, because if he did, his chance at being the fifth Gemini would lower.

The electric type caught up with the dark type. "So what do you think we should do?"

"Keep walking. We're going to be walking for a couple days so we should get as far as we can."

"I mean should we build camps at night and travel in the day? Or the other way around?"

"We should keep walking."

"Look Mr. Glow-in-the-Dark, you may be able to walk for a while but the little orb inside your chest won't let you keep walking non-stop. You do need to sleep at some point. It's better to separate it and not sleep for a long period of time. So what do you want to do?"

"Fine. We sleep by night and travel by day."

Arron's ears shot up. ""Really? I thought you would want to travel at night."

"It's probably easier for you to see when the sun is up and I can hide easier if someone comes."

"Do you think we should try to meet up with the girls?"

Cyle's ears perked up. "Shut up."

"Hey, it's better to have allies that…"

"No, seriously. I think I heard something."

Both pokemon stopped running and immediately stood back to back, watching the surroundings for someone trying to attack. Their ears were open to sounds that may come, and their moves were already charged. Arron jumped as the light over him disappeared for a second. He shot an aimless Thundershock into the sky, watching it disappear as he looked up. Cyle growled disapprovingly, but kept his eyes on the sky, trying to find the shadow that passed over him.

The bird charged again, nailing Arron's side with a sudden thrust of his beak. Cyle landed a direct hit with his shadow ball, but the Pigeotto circled around again, completely unaffected. It pinned the dark type with its large claws and smack him with Steel Wing, trying to finish it with one blow to the head. The Umbreon growled for help as the pokemon on top of him raised a glowing wing. The Jolteon bolted and swung his body around, keeping his front paws on the ground. Both of his back paws kicked the Pidgeotto back into the air.

Cyle stood up and nodded to Arron, letting his body glow slightly. He danced through the trees with Quick Attack. The Jolteon used his Agility to confuse the flying type even more. They both ended it the same way: jumping on the Pidgeotto's wings to make it fall. The Eevee evolutions pulled off at the last second, hoping it would hit the ground, but the flying type scrambled up at the last second and flew away.

"Nice fighting." Arron praised. "You could work on defense, though."

"Thanks." Cyle panted back. "Next time, don't be so jumpy."

Arron looked ahead, seeing distinctive scratches on the trees. He recognized them from one of the books he read in the castle. "We've gotta be careful on this upcoming area. It's Persian territory."