Yay Lugia joined the team, hopefully that's enough firepower to take down Team Rocket! Giovanni will not be pleased to hear that their mission to capture Lugia failed, let's see what happens next, if you are new to the story please leave a review!

Chapter 10

"There is no way someone as idiotic and stupid as you, could possibly befriend the guardian of the seas," Misty said. I rolled my eyes as I rubbed the premier ball Lugia was kept in.

"Why don't you go home Misty," I growled, "It's not like anyone wants you here."

Misty had a visible vein popping out of her forehead, I didn't care though. Misty was trouble enough, we didn't want her tagging along anymore, and all she did was spew insults and complain about everything.

"I CAN'T go home because SOMEONE destroyed my boat," Misty snapped. It wasn't our fault her boat got destroyed, we were just trying to save Lugia and get away from Team Rocket, but of course she would find something to complain about.

"Fine we will give you a ride back because we aren't savages, but then we never want to hear your voice again," Dawn said. Rayquaza seemed to protest at the idea, but he would do what I said no matter what it was.

"Good, but I don't want to ride on that green snake," Misty said. I tried to ignore that comment, but Rayquaza wasn't having any of it. The orange haired girl stuck her nose in the air, before a shadow covered her and snapped his jaws around her body. Dawn turned away, acting as though she didn't see Rayquaza's action, as screams of disgust came within his mouth.

"This is unacceptable, put me down right now it's so slimy in here!" Misty said. There was a deep rumbling coming from Rayquaza's throat as Dawn and Lupe climbed on Rayquaza. Dawn was protesting a bit, she didn't want to fly, but she knew it was the fastest way back.

Lupe had hidden Shadow in his illusion long ago, so Misty couldn't see who he truly was, but since she was in Rayquaza's mouth he could ride in his regular form. Shadow took a deep breath, and his body changed back into his normal self, his long tail swished behind him in a relaxed way.

"Let's get going, we need to get planning on our next move," Shadow said. Rayquaza roared as I hopped on his neck, giving Misty a little bit of a view of the outside world just for a second.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE," Misty screamed. Rayquaza ignored her before swishing his tail to the side, and blasting out of the cave. I screamed as we hit the water, everyone held their breath before Rayquaza broke through the surface.

Shadow let go of Rayquaza's tail before drifting in the air on his own, a bright light blasted from Shadow's tail as Rayquaza ripped through the sky. Dawn had tears streaming down her face as she clung onto Lupe and shouted all the cusswords in the world.

Shadow flew under Rayquaza and did a loop in the air, before leveling up beside the dragon. Shadow was easily keeping up, but the dragon started to get a little bored and decided that he wanted to race Shadow.

"Shriiii," Rayquaza said. Shadow's lip curled into a smile, as Rayquaza picked up speed, and Shadow put his arms to his sides as the light behind him got harsher. Dawn was sobbing as she held onto Lupe, I couldn't hear what she said because of the wild wind blasting in my ears.

"Come on Rayquaza let's beat Shadow," I said. The dragon underneath me roared as he charged through the clouds, ignoring Misty's screams from within his mouth. Shadow was gaining speed and soon he was just a gray and purple blur, but Rayquaza was catching up, he was the god of the skies after all.

It was almost no time at all before we reached Cerulean City, Rayquaza could move so fast he could reach the ozone layer in a matter of minutes, making him rival several legendaries.

Unfortunately Shadow beat us, he drifted in front of Rayquaza as the dragon panted. I laughed as I patted the dragon's side, Rayquaza purred towards me, before descending from the clouds. Shadow landed gracefully from the clouds, and softly touched the grass below him as a cloud of dust surrounded him.

"You lack the spirit of racing, without it you will never defeat me," Shadow said. I rolled my eyes, he took everything so seriously, and Rayquaza had riders so he wouldn't go as fast as he could.

I turned to look at Dawn and Lupe, Dawn's hair was everywhere and her mouth was frozen in fear. Lupe was being clutched hard by Dawn, as he tried to get out of her grip, but she refused to let go.

Rayquaza landed on the grass, he ran his tongue in the inside of his mouth before spitting out a slimy Misty. A pool of saliva formed around her as she wiped her eyes and face.

"You people are savages, I cannot believe I helped you," Misty screamed. I rolled me eyes before replying, "You drove us to where Lugia was resting, that was it, if you would have given us directions we could have done that ourselves."

Misty glared at us before standing up and crossing her arms, the girl was drenched from head to toe with dragon spit, it was hilarious!

"I hope I never see you all ever again_" Misty stopped when she saw Shadow's form. Her mouth dropped open Lupe's illusion was gone too, Shadow had forgotten to get Lupe to put his illusion up, and now he was caught.

"Crap," Lupe said. He slapped his forehead, I rubbed my temples as Shadow grabbed Misty's hoodie before she could run away. Misty choked as Shadow dragged her over to a tree and made branches bend around her waist to keep her there.

"I was a fool to race without thinking of the consequences of someone seeing me, I am afraid I will need to erase your memories," Shadow said. Misty struggled against the branches as we closed in.

"W-Wait I know you, we met a long time ago."

Shadow eyed Misty, as Rayquaza growled at her from afar. What did she mean by she met Shadow long ago? The first time Shadow had ever seen the outside world was when he busted me out of the base, there was no way he had met Misty without me knowing.

Shadow's eyes started glowing, and I recognized his action of reading through Misty's memories. Minutes passed as Shadow scanned her memories to see if her claims were false, I sat patiently as Dawn leaned over my shoulder.

"I am afraid the mewtwo you met was not Lupe or me, we had never met until this moment," Shadow said. Misty seemed confused as she squinted to get a better look at Shadow.

"W-Well if it was you or not, I kept his secret until now, just please let me keep my memories, I won't tell a soul."

Shadow made the branches curl away from Misty as she dropped to the grass. I was surprised that Shadow was deciding to let her keep her memories. Shadow flicked his tail before turning away from Misty.

"Cerulean City is about two miles from here you will get there in an hour, and if you tell anyone about what you saw today, we will find you," Shadow said. Lupe waved his hand, as Shadow's features started to melt away and he was back in his human form.

Dawn stuck her tongue out at Misty before Shadow hopped on Rayquaza and the dragon took off, leaving Misty to fend for herself in the woods. The sun was setting as Rayquaza decided to go to Viridian City, the city was big, and there were lots of hotels we could check into.

Rayquaza landed on the outskirts of Viridian City, we hopped off his back and returned him in his ball. Dawn was rambling about this spot in Viridian City that were perfect for having a victory celebration. My stomach rumbled, I was starving and haven't had a bite all day, and I really needed something to eat.

"Dawn's idea sounds pretty good," I said. Shadow nodded his head as his stomach rumbled as well, Lupe laughed at him as we approached the giant city with gleaming lights.

"Oh just watch out for drunks, they get a little wild this time of day," Dawn added. Trucks drove through the streets, as several people walked on the sidewalks, the city was pretty big, and I knew I could easily get lost in it.

"If any of you wander I swear to Arceus I will make everyone hold hands," Shadow barked. We didn't argue as we walked through the city, there were so many places to eat and I could smell all kinds of scents drifting in the air. Dawn hopped towards a restaurant that had several people lined up, I could smell barbeque cooking on the grill, as my mouth watered.

"I guess Leah wants to eat," Lupe said. I nodded my head hungrily as we approached the restaurant. Dawn got us a table, and we all sat at a booth awaiting our waiter.

Dawn picked up a menu and scanned through it, I picked one up as well as I smacked my lips hungrily. Ribs sounded good, but a big juicy steak sounded good too, ugh I couldn't decide everything looked good.

"Welcome my name is Angel, what can I get you tonight," Angel said. She was wearing a nice uniform with a white apron, and her hair was tied in a pony tail. She had green eyes and brown hair, and she looked pretty young.

"I'll have a full rack of ribs, with a t-bone steak medium well, I also want onion rings, and a burger with lots of onions on it," I said. Dawn's mouth fell open, but Shadow already knew how I was when I was hungry.

"I-I'll just take a salad, unlike my brutal friend here," Dawn said. I giggled at her, if she was going to be traveling with us, she needed to know my true hungry self.

"I'll take a pulled pork sandwich," Lupe said. He slid the menu over to the waitress, as Shadow pondered over what he should order.

"I guess I'll take the loaded potato soup with bacon, with a side salad."

The waitress took Shadow's menu after her ordered, and disappeared into the crowd as we waited for our food.

"Yikes Leah, order food like that on a date and your man will run for the hills," Dawn giggled. I snorted at her, I have never been on a date in my life and I didn't plan to start now.

"I absolutely forbid her to go on a date, for the sake of the poor man who asks her," Shadow teased. I rolled my eyes, if I were actually on a date I wouldn't order as much food, but I would still order a lot to show him I wasn't just some cheap chick.

"Well if you want to spend the whole date staring at everyone's food jealously be my guest, but I am not ordering a pathetic salad every time I go out," I said. Dawn giggled as someone gave us our drinks, I sipped on my ice cold water as Lupe tapped on the table hungrily.

Now that I thought about it I should have ordered some wings, dang it! I grumbled to myself angrily as Dawn sipped on her water. I felt Rayquaza nudge me gently from inside his ball, he needed something to eat as well.

"So what's our plan now, since Lugia is on our team," I asked Shadow. He pondered for a minute, as we all looked at him for answers.

"We will need to find Lugia's counterpart and his minions, with their power combined we will have enough power to find Kyogre and his enemy Groudon," Shadow said. I wondered why on earth he wanted to find all of these pokémon gods, perhaps Giovanni was more powerful than I thought.

"Why are we finding and locating all of these pokémon?" Dawn asked with a confused look on her face. Soon enough our food came and I rubbed my hands excitedly as pounds and pounds of food were presented in front of me.

I took a bit out of my juicy burger, it wasn't bad. I tore into my ribs and washed it down with water, as I bit into my onion rings, I was making a mess but I didn't care, I was hungry. I chomped down on my t-bone steak, the flavor was excellent, and it was fairly juicy as well.

"Giovanni is building an army, he is planning on releasing them to attack the entire world, millions of people will die if we don't stop him," Shadow explained. Dawn looked horrified, as I licked my lips and chomped down on my burger again.

"That sounds awful, when did you find out this information?" Dawn asked Shadow, he blew on his soup before swallowing it down.

"I found out when we broke Lupe out of one of the labs, I came across hundreds of files on legendary pokémon and several DNA samples, they are building clones, and creating more artificial life," Shadow said. I knew exactly what he was talking about, Shadow had trained me in hopes that I would be the hero in this disaster, but even after two years of training I still wasn't strong enough.

"Yeah, the artificial pokémon are named shadow pokémon, they are mindless drones that do whatever Giovanni tells them to do, Shadow was the first shadow pokémon to be created after their first experiment failed," I said. Dawn seemed to be fitting the puzzle pieces together, as a light bulb formed over her head.

"You must be talking about the mewtwo that Misty ran into, he must have been the first pokémon they created, and since he wasn't a drone, he could think and feel making him turn against Giovanni."

I nodded my head, Dawn was getting it, we knew that there was an original mewtwo but we never knew what happened to him, all we know is that he escaped, and they used the remaining data to create Shadow. Unfortunately for Team Rocket, Shadow was conscious the entire time they were creating him, and before they could control his mind he broke free.

"That's right Dawn, after his experiment failed, he decided to create shadow pokémon who do not have free will, but they are still alive, Lupe was created along with several other shadow pokémon, but we don't know where they are," Shadow said. I was getting shivers just thinking about mindless drones, they would kill without ever feeling remorse, and Giovanni would have them do his dirty work.

"I was the test subject for the experiment, they needed to harvest something in my blood that would complete their mind control project and give them the power to control their experiments, they have some of my blood but it's not enough the create an army," I said. Dawn squinted at me, I knew what she was thinking, what was in my blood that made me so important?

"They had enough blood to create a few shadow pokémon, and Giovanni has them somewhere, but we don't know where," Shadow said. I started to drift off, as Lupe explained more of the story, and my ears started to pick up other conversations.

"_I heard Giovanni was staying here in Viridian City, that's why there are so many police officers standing guard in the city."

I strained to listen harder, if Giovanni was in the city I needed to know. The two men sitting at a table beside us were whispering, I could tell they didn't want anyone to hear.

"_Team Rocket members are everywhere, the only reason they would be all over the city is if someone important were here."

I could feel my body tensing up, if I could just catch Giovanni off guard we would never have to go to war with him. I could end it all so quickly if I were to be at close range, I could easily snap his neck or stab him, and then it would be all over.

"Hey earth to Leah, you okay?"

I looked at Lupe who was looking at me with concern, I blinked twice before putting on a fake smile.

"Yeah I am okay," I lied. Lupe seemed to buy it though, as he finished up his sandwich. Time seemed to fly as we chatted and talked, but secretly I was planning to sneak out and confront Team Rocket, I would make sure I wasn't followed, after all this was the whole reason we got Lugia in the first place right? I might have been jumping the gun a little, but the sooner Giovanni was down, the sooner I would be able to get my information on Red and be at peace with my life.

I finished up my food, and we paid the bill before leaving. I was stuffed and happy, Dawn decided to check us into a hotel so we wouldn't have to sleep in the woods. I didn't mind sleeping in the woods, but apparently she had a big problem with it.

Our room was nice, it had a sofa and two beds and a TV just for us. There were fresh clothes for us to wear when we went to bed, and a kit for us to use to get ready for bed. Dawn went into the bathroom to take a shower, while Shadow and I flipped through the channels on the TV.

Soon enough everyone was tired, Dawn brushed her teeth and took forever to go to bed, but eventually we all crawled in the beds and started to fall asleep. I waited until I heard snores, it was extremely late at night now, Shadow was sitting up with his arms crossed and sleeping like that, while Lupe's arm was draped over his lap and he was snoring loudly.

Dawn was next to me, she was facing the other bed as I slid out from underneath the covers and went to the balcony. I slid the glass doors aside, before stepping foot into the nice cool air. I could hear sirens in the distance, and I could see lights shining from afar.

I took out a pokéball and threw it up into the air, the light formed into Lugia who was flapping his wings trying to keep himself in the air.

"Dear child, what is it you need of me," Lugia said. I put my finger to my lips, and Lugia seemed to get the message that we would talk about it later. He put his body close to the railing as I got ready to jump on his back, I stopped when I heard the doors open.

"Sneaking out already, well you aren't going without me," Dawn said. She closed the doors and eyed me, I bit my lip, it was too dangerous for her to go, but if I didn't let her go she might wake up Shadow.

"Dawn I am just taking a walk, I'll be back soon."

"Yeah like I believe you, you're taking Lugia."

"Keep your voice down, I don't want to wake the others."

"See you are up to something."

I growled as Lugia looked up at me curiously, Dawn crossed her arms before going back into the hotel. I blinked, perhaps she decided not to come along after all? I waited for a few minutes to make sure Shadow didn't wake up, before hopping on Lugia.

"I was getting dressed, don't you dare leave without me," Dawn hissed. Lugia stretched out his wing as Dawn climbed on his back and sat on his fluffy feathers. Lugia then started to ascend up into the clouds, the city was almost alive as lights blinked from under us.

"May I ask as to where we are heading?" Lugia said. I patted his side as he evaded the lights, we didn't want to be seen by anyone other than Team Rocket.

"We are busting in Team Rocket's base, I heard that there was an important person coming in Viridian City, and if its Giovanni we can take him out," I said. Suddenly another light appeared next to Lugia, and Rayquaza's body formed out of the light.

"Shriiii," Rayquaza said with a frequent tone. Lugia nodded his head as he looked towards us to translate.

"Rayquaza insists that we don't attack Team Rocket without Shadow, and I do have to agree with him," Lugia said. Dawn seemed a little on edge as she hugged me tightly trying not to fall off of Lugia's back.

"We are doing this, we don't have much time until there is a war all over the world, even though Shadow says I have enough time, I won't be strong enough, we have the element of surprise right now," I said. Lugia rolled his eyes, I could tell that he didn't agree with me, but he didn't argue.

"I will do as I am told, but I have a bad feeling about this," Lugia said as he hovered over a giant building that looked important.

"SHRIII," Rayquaza said out of alarm. Several Team Rocket grunts could be seen guarding the entrance, there was a Team Rocket helicopter on the roof, and dozens of floors in the skyscraper.

"Dawn if you want to you can back down now, it's going to be dangerous."

Dawn shook her head before replying, "I would be a bad teammate by letting you go alone."

Rayquaza knew my battle plan, we had done it many times before, Rayquaza drifted to the center of the skyscraper and destroyed the glass protecting the inside. Rayquaza flew into the skyscraper, along with Lugia tagging behind him.

I jumped off Lugia as my armor immediately surrounded me, Dawn was unprotected so I needed to stick close to her. We were in a large room as alarms blared, I didn't think they had alarms, but I didn't really care, the grunts couldn't stop me.

"Blast the metal door open," I commanded Rayquaza. The dragon obeyed me, soon enough flames burst from his mouth and enveloped the metal door. Computers were knocked on the floor as Lugia tried to move through the room without drawing any attention to himself.

Rayquaza slammed through the wall, breaking the wall to where he could enter the hallway, the alarms were annoying as the screams echoed through my skull.

I saw several Team Rocket grunts marching up the stairs as they dropped to their knee aiming a giant rocket launcher at me. They shot something at me, but Rayquaza swirled around my body as the device exploded and released tear gas.

Lugia easily blew air from his mouth and mighty lungs, and soon the tear gas was gone. Lugia poked his head out from Rayquaza and blasted water at them, it was so much force that it knocked the grunts out and soaked them to the bone.

I stepped over their bodies, as I picked up the rocket launcher and dusted it off. Dawn hid behind both Rayquaza and Lugia as we busted through another door and looked into another giant room.

Several containers filled with liquid were on this floor, giant machines were attached to the containers and weird creatures were inside them. I walked through the room, as wires sparked, Team Rocket must have heard the alarms and abandoned their post.

My mouth was open as Lugia walked through the room looking at each of the containers. One creature looked quite familiar as I picked up a notepad resting on the side of the container. I read the notepad and gasped when I saw the words "Shadow Mewtwo."

"Leah you might want to come over here," Dawn said. I turned around and saw a giant container with a beast that was black as night, it had large hand-like wings, and large plates on its back that were smoothed down. It had its arms wrapped around its body, as its giant head bowed down.

"This creature, it resembles me so perfectly," Lugia gasped. The water guardian stretched out his wing so he was touching the container, Lugia looked so sad watching this creature in its small container.

"They have already started creating shadow pokémon, we have less time than we originally thought, the only thing stopping them right now is the fact that they don't have my blood to control the creatures," I said. I picked up another notepad and saw the words "Shadow Lugia" on it.

"I am assuming they got my DNA when they captured me, allowing them to create this monstrosity," Lugia said. Suddenly lights were on, and I whipped around to see several Team Rocket grunts lined up in the room.

"We knew the rumor about Giovanni would get you to come, dear Leah."

I whipped around to see a Team Rocket officer dressed in a very expensive and flashy uniform. Her stomach was exposed as a big red R was stamped on her chest, she had large hooped earrings and seventy pounds of makeup on her face. She had a tattoo of a sword on her right thigh, and long black leggings going up until it stopped near her thigh, she then had heavy black boots on with a black skirt.

"My name is Viper, because of my poisoned swords and techniques, unfortunately for you I won't get to play with your body, since Giovanni wants you dead, but he wants as much blood as I can save for him," Viper said. I saw Rayquaza growl before lifting up his head and spewing out fierce fire from his jaws.

I took the rocket launcher and shot a device filled with tear gas at the grunts, Viper took out her swords as the device broke and exploded with tear gas. The grunts coughed as their eyes stung, giving me the chance to aim at Viper with the rocket launcher. I pulled the trigger but all that came out was a clicking noise, Viper lunged as me, as I hit her head with the rocket launcher.

Rayquaza snapped up the grunts in his jaws as he crushed them, Lugia kept the tear gas from affecting us by creating an air dome. Viper recovered quickly, but her swords broke against my armor, I elbowed her in the face before sweeping my foot under her legs making her fall.

Viper jumped up as we circled each other, Dawn screamed at me to be careful, as Lugia stood over her keeping the tear gas from reaching them. Viper wiped her nose as blood trickled from it, before the grunts fled from Rayquaza as she whipped out something with her thumb on a big red button.

"Take one more move, and the entire base will be flooded with poison, Giovanni had me fill the vents with toxic bombs that will go off if I take my thumb off this button," Viper said. I looked at her through the holes in my helmet, I wasn't afraid of her, she wouldn't sacrifice everyone in this building just to kill me.

I charged at her and knocked her flat on her back, I sat on top of her before punching her as hard as I could. Viper laughed as her thumb slid off the button, I heard an explosion as a thick blanket of gas started pouring out of the vents.

"We need to get out of here, this was all a trap!" I yelled. Lugia was having trouble keeping the gas away from him as his air dome slowly started to grow smaller and smaller. Rayquaza was starting to cough as the gas entered his lungs, Viper was knocked out, as I slowly looked around for an exit.

The gas was getting heavier as the room was swallowed in it, I jumped into Lugia's air dome, and got a good breath of fresh air. Lugia was trapped, if he stopped creating a fresh airflow, the gas would kill us, so we couldn't move until the gas eventually stopped. I felt bad for Viper as the gas swallowed her, but she was a Team Rocket member, and she was my enemy.

Giovanni had sacrificed everyone in this building just to lure me into a trap, I had to admit, spreading a rumor was pretty smart, and it led me right to him.

"I cannot keep this up much longer dear child, please think of a way out of here," Lugia said. When the grunts left, they had locked the doors trapping us in here. Suddenly the roof to the room was shattered, as the gas started lifting up towards the night sky trying to suck out as much air as it could.

It gave Lugia some breathing room, but he still kept up his air dome. I looked up and saw a gyarados, with his mouth still smoking from whatever attack her just did.

"Ugh, you guys are so lucky I came back," Misty said.