This chapter is darker than the previous ones. In my story, Zoey's Glameow is male, Dawn's Magikarp is male and her Oddish and Feebas are female.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters.


Chapter 9: The Second Encounter

„Glameow, shadow claw!" Zoey commanded.

„Counter with stun spore, Oddish!" Dawn ordered her pokémon.

Oddish surrounded herself with a brown cloud of spores. Glameow stopped the attack, not wanting to get paralyzed.

Dawn trained for the Lilycove contest. Even though Zoey decided not to enter it due to her recent loss, she agreed to train with her rival. Oddish made some major improvements after many training battles. Now it was time to finish this one.

"Energy ball!" Glameow dodged it easily though.

Soon the cloud dispersed, which allowed him to resume his attack.

"Use acid!" When Glameow hit her with shadow claw, Oddish sprayed acid, hurting her opponent.

"Now use …," Zoey started, but she got distracted by Oddish glowing in a white light. "Looks like she's evolving. Let's stop the battle."

Not only did she increase in size, but a flower started to bloom on her head and she got a pair of arms, while her leaves withered a bit.

"Gloom!" Dawn's pokémon greeted her when it was over.

"Let me check my pokédex," Dawn mumbled.

"Gloom, the weed pokémon. The honey it drools from its mouth smells so atrocious, it can curl noses more than a mile away."

"I don't smell anything. But you evolved so soon." She looked at all the changes.

"She was probably close to evolving when you caught her. And you trained really hard today, so that's not surprising," Zoey explained.

"You're probably right." Dawn agreed. "We also trained a lot on our way to Fortree City. Gloom, do you want to compete in our next contest?"

"Gloom!" She nodded.

"Alright! Then we have to create a new appeal. But let's take a break first. You must be tired after all that training," Dawn said.

She took the time to read about Gloom in her new book. It said that a gloom could emit a stench so horrible, that it could knock out other pokémon or humans. However, it wouldn't do that if it felt safe. It also mentioned that Gloom could evolve into a vileplum or bellossom, depending on the stone used. But since Gloom has just evolved, she decided to ask her later.

Kenny was training with Breloom all the time. He was probably going to use it in the next contest. Zoey on the other hand was taking a nap. Dawn decided to do that as well. But first she wanted to give her pokémon a bath in a nearby lake. Piplup, Buneary,Espeon, Gloom and Magikarp really enjoyed it. Dawn tested a cream she found in the coordinator pack she got from Zoey on Feebas. It made her scales shine in the sun.

"Wow, you are so cute. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you are ugly." Dawn was really impressed by the result. Feebas seemed to be a bit embarrassed. "It's true. You are beautiful. Sometimes it takes just a little to bring it out."

They were interrupted by the sound of explosions in the distance which even woke up Zoey. After recalling their pokémon they decided to find the cause. It didn't take long to find a blaziken and an absol fighting at the other side of the lake. The explosions were probably caused by Blaziken's blaze kick as the field was full of fiery craters. There was also a bulky man dressed in black standing nearby, surrounded by a machoke and an ariados. He seemed to be the trainer of the blaziken. Machoke was carrying two cages with another absol in one of them. They quickly hid in the bushes.

"A poacher," Zoey whispered with a gloomy look.

Dawn just nodded.

"I'll call the police," Kenny said as he took out his phone.

Absol took out Blaziken with a powerful psycho cut. Ariados was now battling it.

"They'll be here too late. We have to do something," Dawn told them after watching it for a while.

"Are you crazy? We nearly lost our pokémon last time," Kenny reminded her.

"No, she's right." Zoey agreed. "But we have to make a plan first. Just rushing in would be too dangerous."

"Okay, do you …." Dawn couldn't finish the sentence though.

They heard something behind them. When they looked, there were three ariados coming out of holes in the ground. They used string shot to tie up the coordinators along with Piplup and dragged them to the poacher. Only Glameow managed to hide in the bushes.

"Oh no, anything but ariados," Dawn whined.

Absol and Ariados were still fighting when the three coordinators were brought down on their knees in front of him, the ariados' fangs pointed right at their necks. Piplup was thrown into the cage with the absol.

"Well, well, well. Look what present my dear ariados brought me." He looked down at them. "Stupid kids shouldn't interfere with the affairs of grown-ups. Now you've only increased the number of pokémon I can sell."

"Leave them alone. They aren't yours!" Zoey yelled at him.

"Oh but they are. I'll just finish this battle. Use bug bite!" He shouted at Ariados, who had already gained the upper hand against an exhausted absol.

It hit the disaster pokémon hard, but it wasn't finished yet.

"Oh yes, that one is valuable. Use bug bite once more!" he commanded.

It overpowered Absol's psycho cut and knocked it out. After Ariados used string shot on Absol, Machoke threw it into the other cage.

"Now that that's out of the way, let's have a look at your pokémon, shall we?" he said to his prisoners with a smirk.

He took Dawn's pokéballs and sent out the first pokémon.

"A feebas? Wait! Aren't you the brats that got David arrested?" he asked.

"If you mean another poacher who was between Mauville City and Fortree City, you're right," Dawn told him.

"Haha, good job." Now that was a reaction they didn't expect. "We laughed so hard when we heard he got his ass kicked by some kids."

"We? Who do you mean?" Zoey asked.

"That's none of your business," he just retorted. "But I should be thankful. Less competition and that bastard got what he deserved."

"You would say something like that about a friend?" Dawn was confused.

"Young lady, we don't have friends, we have rivals. How naive can you be? We manipulate their work, we steal their pokémon, we destroy their equipment. Sometimes we even kill them. It's just business," he explained.

"Just business?" Dawn was mad now. "I thought Team Rocket was bad, but at least they stuck together and never actually attempted to kill anyone. You treat it like a game. You don't care for human or pokémon life. You are despicable."

"Yeah, she's right. You're scum," Zoey agreed.

"You know, you have a big mouth," the poacher pointed out. "I would probably do the world a favor by shutting it forever. But I have a better idea. After that I'll take you with me. And then we'll have some fun."

"What kind of fun could we possibly have with someone like you?" Dawn replied angrily.

"So innocent…. Maybe I will play with that nice ass of yours. Or maybe your boobs. Or maybe both of them." Dawn and Zoey immediately paled. "Who knows? Maybe I will force you to make out in front of me, wouldn't that be nice?"

"You wouldn't dare!" Zoey yelled at him, while Dawn was too shocked to say anything. Zoey hoped that Glameow would stay hidden. He wouldn't have a chance right now.

"Of course I would. You probably aren't good for anything else anyway," he said, licking his lips.

"Don't talk to them like that!" Everyone looked at Kenny, who seemed just as surprised about what he just said. "D-Don't talk to them like that. They don't deserve such a treatment."

"And who are you to order me around?" the poacher asked him. "I could just push you into the lake."

"No! There's no reason for you to hurt him too," Dawn cried.

"I thought, you would stay quiet now. Looks like I failed." He kneeled down next to her. Her eyes widened as his hand went beneath her shirt, touching her skin. As he trailed further up her body, ignoring the pleas of her friends, her consciousness started to slip away until he suddenly stopped. "Shall I go further?" he asked her with a dirty smile.

She just shook her head. Tears were already streaming down her eyes. She didn't want this to happen. She wished Ash was here to protect her.

"Then shut the hell up and let me do my work." His hand retreated and he slapped her. "Same goes for you! Business first, we can have fun later. Let's see the rest of your pokémon."

He sent out Buneary who was shocked to see her trainer and companions imprisoned.

"Don't get any funny ideas. One wrong move and those three are done for, get it?" the poacher told her. Buneary lowered her head in defeat. She knew that it was hopeless. Just like Feebas and Piplup she was put in one of the cages.

The next one was Magikarp.

"Magikarp? MAGIKARP? Are you fucking kidding me? Now I'll definitely take you with me for presenting such a useless pokémon." He kicked Magikarp with full force into the lake. "Never come back, you pathetic creature."

"Kaaarp," he cried in pain as he fell into the water.

The poacher didn't notice but there was a bright light coming out of it. When he heard a roar, he finally turned around again.

"Gyarados? What the hell?" His eyes widened. "I've kicked a lot of magikarp, but this is the first time that happened."

Gayarados shot a hyper beam at the ariados guarding the coordinators, knocking out all of them at once.

"Damn it, you useless creatures. Ariados, you take care of it!" he shouted desperately at his the fourth and strongest one.

But ariados, having just seen what happened to its three friends, was too afraid to get any closer to Gyarados.

"Attack it NOW! Poison jab!"It tried to attack Gyarados, but was taken out with one swing of its tail.

Before the poacher could grab his bag to get a weapon, he was knocked out by another swing. Machoke just ran away when it saw what happened to its master.

"Gyarados, you saved us!" Dawn cried, tears still running down her face.

"Ahem, Dawn, are you sure you have him under control?" Zoey asked.

"What do you mean, I …" She stopped when she saw the look on Gyarados's face. It was one of pure rage. "Oh no!"

They screamed as Gyarados attacked them but they were rescued by Glameow who hit him with thunderbolt.

"I'm so glad to see you!" Zoey cried. "Hit him once more."

Slowly Gyarados collapsed after two consecutive hits. While he was down, Piplup, Buneary and Glameow talked to him. Although the coordinators couldn't know what it was about, it sure had a soothing effect on Gyarados. They talked for a whole while until everyone went silent.

During their talk, no one noticed the voice coming out of the poacher's bag: "Police cars approaching your position. I repeat, police cars approaching your position. Get out of there! Over."

"Glameow, get Gallade out of his pokéball." Zoey commanded.

When he appeared, he could only look in confusion at the bizarre scene in front of him.

"Cut those bindings first." Gallade freed them all, including the pokémon in the cages by destroying the lock. Dawn's pokémon rushed to their trainer, the absol ran away. "Thank you, now please tell me what Gyarados says."

"What? He can talk?" Kenny asked.

"No, of course not! But he can use telepathy," she told them.

"Wow, you taught him that?" He was really surprised.

"Actually, he already knew it when I caught him. You see, some pokémon have it as a natural ability or they can learn it with minimal effort. Others can learn it like a normal move. Those are mostly psychic types or highly intelligent pokémon like lapras," Zoey explained.

"That's amazing." Both of her rivals exclaimed.

"Yes, I was also surprised when I found out," she agreed. "But now listen to what Gyarados has to say."

As Gyarados spoke, Gallade translated it to Zoey, who told the others about it.

"He says that he doesn't think that Dawn is strong enough to be his trainer. But since she took him in as a weak magikarp and her pokémon speak so highly of her, he's going to give her a chance. If she manages to defeat him in battle right now, he will obey her." Dawn nodded

"I accept. I'll show you that I'm not weak." She didn't really want to battle after everything happened. She just wanted to go to sleep. But she had to be strong now. For her pokémon. So she wiped away her tears. "But don't you want to recover first?"

"He says that he's not a weakling. He wants to battle now." Zoey told her his answer.

"Alright, Buneary, you take care of that," she said.

She heard a growl from Gyarados. He probably didn't take her seriously due to her size. He tried to use bite on her.

"Bounce and dodge it." Every time he tried to bite her, she would jump away. Dawn hoped that since he just evolved, he wouldn't be as fast as a normal gyarados and it seemed she was right.

After several tries he had enough and shot a hyper beam at her.

"Bounce and spin." Buneary jumped right at the beam, using the spin to avoid it. Gyarados watched as she landed on his head but couldn't do anything since he had to recharge.

"Dizzy punch!" The attack hit him right on the head.

"Now bounce!" She jumped up high. Gyarados faced her, preparing another hyper beam. "Thunderbolt into the mouth!"

The attack hit him hard and he fell into the water, too exhausted to fight. When he got up he spoke to Gallade again.

"He says that he wants to learn how to move like that and how to counter it." Zoey explained with a grin.

"So, does that mean you'll accept me as your trainer?" Dawn wanted to make sure she understood right.

After a brief pause he nodded, which made her put on a genuine smile.

"We'll be a great team," she promised.

"How touching." Everybody looked at the source of the voice. The poacher had regained consciousness and now he was pointing a gun at the coordinators. "One wrong move and I'll shoot you all. Now I get a gyarados instead of a magikarp. Such a pity for you. You were so arghh…."

A growlithe bit his arm, causing him to drop the gun. Only seconds later he was surrounded by several policemen who arrested him.

They thanked the coordinators for what they've done. Zoey told them everything about the encounter, which only confirmed, that the poachers are not working alone. After that, they continued their journey.

Soon they noticed that something was following them. It turned out to be one of the absol they rescued. Once again Zoey's gallade translated for them.

"It seems this absol wants to join us if we manage to defeat it in battle," she told the others. "You should go first, I already have a dark type."

"Two of my pokémon evolved today, so I think it's fair if Kenny gets to challenge it first." Dawn really wasn't in the mood for battling.

"Thank you, I'll catch it. Go, Breloom," he shouted.

Both of them prepared for battle.

Absol started by shooting a lightning into the sky.

"Future sight, huh? Put it to sleep with spore!" Breloom released a cloud of spores, flying slowly towards its opponent.

The blade on Absol's head started to glow and it shot several purple glowing rings at Breloom. They went right through the cloud and hit it. Before the cloud reached it, it jumped over it.

"Wow, it sure can jump. Now mach punch!" The attack hit Absol before it could react.

Breloom was about to follow up with another punch, when the future sight hit him in the back. Now Absol used the distraction for another psycho cut to knock out Breloom.

"No! Breloom!" Kenny cried. "Fine! You have won."

"Go Dawn. It's your turn now," Zoey told her.

"Really?" Dawn asked and her rival nodded. "Alright! Go, Piplup."

Absol once again started with future sight.

"Use bubble beam!" He shot a stream of bubbles at his opponent who managed to dodge it and countered with night slash.

Piplup dodged it several times until Absol just stood there, waiting for something. Dawn knew what it was and got an idea.

"Use whirlpool!" Her pokémon did as he was told.

When the future sight attack hit, it was just absorbed by the whirlpool. Absol was so surprised by that, it didn't notice that Piplup threw his attack towards it. It got sucked into the whirlpool and when it finally got out again, Piplup was already waiting and hit it with hydro pump. Absol was smashed against a rock, barely able to stand up.

It was Dawn's chance. She threw her pokéball to capture the dark type. After a short time the red light vanished.

"I'm glad to have you with me," she whispered as she took the ball.

Her friends weren't surprised by her lack of enthusiasm. It would take some time to get the old Dawn back.

Later that evening, she approached Zoey after Kenny went to sleep. It was a beautiful evening even though it was unusually cold. They just sat there in silence for a while.

"Can you tell me your secret?" Dawn suddenly spoke up.

"What do you mean? What secret?" Zoey asked.

"I mean, you act like nothing happened today. You're still your usual self. How do you do it? How can you be so strong?" Dawn wanted to know.

"Of course those events affect me. It was horrible to be that helpless, to imagine what could have happened. It's only natural. But there's something I know. It didn't happen. 'What if' scenarios don't count. But if you live in fear for the rest of your life, then he has won." Zoey looked her straight in the eyes. "Think of your friends, family and pokémon. They like you the way you are. And they will help you, no matter what happens. So don't change because of something that didn't even happen."

"You're absolutely right. It reminds me a bit of the things I told Eevee when he was afraid to battle." Dawn sighed and put on a real smile. "Thank you, Zoey. I'm lucky to have a friend like you."

"That's what friends are for. Everybody needs a bit help from time to time." Zoey waved it off. "But we should get some sleep now. It was a hard day for all of us and it's getting really cold."

"So true." Dawn shivered. "Good night!"

"Good night!" her rival replied.

While trying to sleep, Dawn remembered the time when she lost in the appeal round twice. Ash felt really bad for her. Everyone did. But they all helped her to get better again. Maybe you can't compare those two things but she was determined to stay strong nonetheless.