Chapter 10

Yellow's POV

Yellow was panting. She recognized this place. Viridian City. She'd was running through the streets to get to her forest. She felt dread, curdling at the base of her stomach. Her forest had to be unchanged. She sprinted the final few meters, turned... Nothing. Where what should have been trees was an empty space, stretching for miles and miles in front of her. She sank to her knees. Where were the Pokémon? Where was the life? Where was her home?

She looked again at the miserable scene. The ground shook beneath her in her despair.

She frowned, that was real! The ground split open and swallowed her up.

She fell into an endless abyss, before waking up in horror in her bed, screaming.

"Yellow? Are you okay?" A light flickered on, and Red's concerned face popped into her doorway. "You were yelling and screaming. Is everything all right?"

"Y-yeah. It's fine. I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. You can go."

"All right."

Yellow shifted under her blanket, and giggled a bit, thinking of what Red would think if she asked him to sleep with her. She smiled, but felt a little wistful that she hadn't tried.

She yawned and fell back asleep. She was tired. Her nightmare completely forgotten, she fell back asleep.

Later that morning

"Trainers? What do you mean? We're already trainers." Yellow was very curious. That man, who still refused to release his name, had told the entire group, including Gold and Crys who'd arrived for breakfast, that each group would be receiving a trainer.

"Not that kind. We mean an expert that can help you guys get even better. You're all pretty unaccustomed to our time, so they'll help you."

Crystal nodded. "Grimsley of the Unova Elite 4 will be helping us."

"That's right. After hearing about how he would, we thought it'd be great for all of you guys to get coaches. So, while Grimsley will be with Crystal's team, we've recruited three others. They're acquainted with our Elite Team B, and all accepted when they were told they'd be helping the organization that our second best trio attached themselves to. While they're not members of our team, they help us when they can, and this is one of those times."

"Who are they?" Yellow asked.

"We have a gym leader named Maylene, expert with the Fighting type, and leader of the Veilstone Gym in Sinnoh. She'll be working with Blue's team."

"We also have the Sinnoh champion herself, Cynthia. I'm sure she'd be able to adequately help Red's team."

Yellow was amazed. A Gym Leader, an Elite 4 member, and a Champion? She wondered what kind of person would train her. She visualized a man with countless unconscious bodies behind him, calmly kicking the ass of at least a hundred people.

"Whose our trainer?" she asked excitedly.

"A man named Riley," he responded.

"What position does he have?"

"Umm... I've been told he's just a trainer. Albeit a very capable one. One of the trio was actually trained by him for a period of time. He called Riley an expert, but I have no other information about him."

Yellow's spirits sank. The others got amazing people to help them out, all of high prestigious rank. She just had a normal trainer. Was that all their group was? The rejects? Red's team was clearly the battling team. Green's team were the researchers and base guys. Blue's team was stealth and recon. What was hers? Just for morale and support? Her emotions were at the bottom of her stomach, but she still managed to smile and choke out the words, "Sure. When do we meet him?"

"Each team will head to one of the VR rooms. There are four in total. Your trainers will be at the door." Yellow nodded and walked in the direction of VR room number 4. Once out of sight, she put her head down, quickly putting it back up when her teammates were turning, but every time she turned, her true feelings showed. Little did she know, Riley was probably the best mentor coming.

Black's POV

Black was staring in awe at the battling goddess before him. To quickly demonstrate what she was capable of, she had ordered a ring of training dummies to materialize. She had then proceeded to reduce all of them to piles of smoldering ash with a single Draco Meteor from her Garchomp.

"Whoa," Gold commented.

Black whole-heartedly agreed, but he wasn't sure whether his senior was talking about the impressive attack, or her, Black had to admit, more impressing figure. For some reason though, while Cynthia may have been the fantasy of many men throughout Sinnoh, and probably, throughout the world, she didn't appeal too much to Black. When he thought of the perfect girl, she was always had brown hair, not blonde. But for some reason, his image seemed very familiar, so familiar, that he mostly disregarded it.

"That's how you do it," Cynthia said with a wink. "Now let's see what you boys can do. You have one attack. Destroy as many targets as you can."

Black pulled out Musha's Pokéball doubtfully. Was it even possible to match that display of sheer power?

Red started off with his attack, and Black feared for his life. He knew that Red's Pikachu was supposed to be less powerful in his time, but with a single command that Red called Megavolt, there weren't even ashes left of the targets. Lightning bounced from target to target, and even after incinerating them, each individual bolt didn't seem to lose any bit of electricity. It was a stunning show. Black shrunk a bit once Red's gaze passed over him, carefully avoiding eye contact.

Gold was next, and with a, "Yeah! Let's do this Togetaro! Double Edge!", the Togekiss charged. It smashed into target after target, until there wasn't an inch of the floor that didn't have rubble on it. And even then, it kept going, not even flinching, as if it were determined to match Red's Pika. Cynthia nodded in approval, praising both boys. Black was shocked. Was that woman seriously praising two teenagers for attacks that could rip people apart? He looked at Musha doubtfully. Could he even come close? What he saw was his Munna getting pumped up, and it looked more excited than it ever had. Black felt the confidence fill him again.

"Three concentric circles," he commanded, and the room obliged, placing around thirty dummies encircling his Musha. It was barely more than a quarter of his senior's amounts, but Black felt that this was the maximum he could accomplish without making a fool of himself.

"Psychic!" he ordered, nervously. He knew what to expect. His Munna would release it's psychic energy in a circle, maybe blowing back two circles, and hopefully, they'd collide into the third. The results shocked him. His Musha's eyes glowed naturally pink, but Black felt an ounce of foreboding, something was different. His hunch was proven when, upon the release of the stored up energy, all three circles were ripped apart from the inside. His jaw fell open. Was this truly his Musha? He looked back over, and saw Musha smiling happily, impressed with its work. He held Musha up to his face. Previously, he'd thought of Musha mainly as his dream-eater. He could activate his logic upon using it. Musha was a strong Pokémon, but he never considered it to be as strong as his Buoh or Brav. Until now.

"That was impressive," Cynthia commented, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "I've only seen experts master power like that. Have you been practicing that?"

Black shook his head obediently, and Cynthia looked at him with a new gleam in her eyes that he hadn't seen before.

"Hmm... For a fourteen year old boy to do that on the first try..." Cynthia seemed deep in thought.

"Umm... Ms. Cynthia? How are you going to train us?" Black asked.

"Oh?" Black's question snapped her out of her thought process. "Oh yes. What's your mission?"

"We're trying to take a truck," Black responded.

"Just a truck?"

"A truck full of weapons," Gold chimed in.

"Okay. We'll start with a drill. I'll be on my Garchomp. The goal is to knock me off. Go." She jumped on her Garchomp, and it quickly glided away. "Oh, by the way, Gold! You can't use your Togekiss! You have to run on foot! Go!"

They quickly sprinted after her, and Black heard a few choice words from Gold regarding Cynthia's last decree.

"Musha!" Black called. "Use Psybeam!"

His Munna nodded, and sent a wave of psychic energy after the Garchomp. It evaded with ease, but allowed the team to catch up a bit. Encouraged, Black repeated the command.

"Togetaro! Use Sky Attack!"

Gold's Togekiss glowed, then raced quickly after the Garchomp. It evaded again.

Togetaro quickly turned around, and was immediately struck by Black's second Psybeam.

"Black! Watch your attacks!" Gold shouted.

"Watch your own Pokémon!" He shot back.

They kept chasing after it, never catching up, and it dodged every attack that came its way. They needed a plan, Black thought.

"Musha!"

The familiar blankness took him over.

"What the fuck? It's eating him!" Gold stopped from pure confusion.

Eventually, the white slowly settled into a recognizable shape. A lightning bolt.

"Senior Red! Have your Pika use Thunderbolt!" He shouted. Red looked back puzzled, but did as suggested.

A attack pierced the distance between them and hit the Garchomp. It easily shook off the noneffective attack.

"Senior Red! You can't attack a ground type with electric attacks!" Gold called.

"Just shut up and look!" Black responded.

Gold turned and saw what Black already figured would be there, a fried Cynthia on the ground. Apparently, though the electricity didn't affect the Garchomp, the area of impact was enough to graze the passenger, and the shock was enough to stun Cynthia and make her fall off.

"Heh," she laughed. "Looks like you got me..."

She stood back up, and stumbled a bit before shaking off the effects of the shock. "Whew. Not bad for your first time trying. How long has it been?"

"Umm... Thirty minutes?" Gold responded.

"Ahh!" Cynthia stretched out. "It feels like that. But no. It's been seventeen and thirty six seconds. A great time, considering some people can't get me off at all. But I noticed one key factor wrong that allowed me to keep myself from falling. What do you think that was?"

After hearing nothing but silence, Cynthia lectured, "Cooperation. You're all capable, but if you work like three one man teams, you'll get nowhere. Now, let's try to lower your time. Go." And with that, she jumped back on and raced off again.

After a single moment of surprise, the three boys looked at each other, nodded, and chased after her.

Yellow's POV

The man standing next to Yellow's designated door was dressed far different than what Yellow would expect from anybody. He had a blue jacket and black pants, but was wearing a blue fedora.

"Hey! Yellow, wait up!" Emerald called after her, turning the corner, quickly followed by Ruby. "Oh... Hi! Are you Riley?"

"Yes, I am," he answered. Yellow thought his eyes glowed blue a second after he made his statement, but they returned to their normal color, so she must've imagined it.

Riley gestured towards the door. "How about we go in?"

Yellow felt uncomfortable, the guy seemed to be staring at her. She shrunk under his gaze, and quickly ducked inside the door,

The training section was already chosen, but nothing was summoned for the time being.

"What are we doing?" Ruby asked.

Riley simply pulled out three blindfolds. They stared at each other.

"Do you really expect us to put that on?" Yellow asked.

He smiled in response and gave one each. Yellow sighed and put it on. She stood around waiting for instructions. Something rustled, and she turned to face the new noise. All of a sudden, there was a splitting pain right under her left shoulder. "Ah!" she squealed, clutching her injured spot. It wasn't bleeding, but it hurt like a bitch, and she was almost certain it was going to bruise. "What the heck was that?!" She ripped the blindfold off and saw the Lucario standing, preparing an Aura Sphere and Riley standing next to it.

"Put the blindfold back on."

"No!"

"Put it on."

"Why? Just so you can hit me again?"

Ruby and Emerald were confused, as they heard Yellow have an argument with their coach for apparently no reason.

"No, for this." He gestured towards his Lucario and it sent the sphere at Ruby.

She watched in shock, and was about to warn him, but suddenly Ruby dodged, and it slammed into the side of the room.

"What was that?" Ruby took his off too, and so did Emerald.

"Now, why didn't you do that?" he asked.

"How could you expect me to realize that was coming?"

"Didn't you hear my Lucario move? I instructed him to purposely shuffle his feet when launching, and if you didn't hear that, you should definitely have heard it whistling as it was sent through the air."

"Yeah, totally," she sneered. "Who could have heard that?"

"Everyone but you," he easily replied.

"Oh, so you're insulting me?"

"No. So, everyone but you heard it. Why is that?"

Yellow didn't say anything in response.

Riley answered his own question, "It's clearly because you weren't focusing on the task at hand. So, tell me this. What's the reason for the purple layer on your aura?"

Yellow rebounded in shock. What the heck was this man saying? Purple layer? On her aura? Something was decidedly off about this man. That's not even mentioning his obsession about not using sight.

Realizing he was still waiting for an answer, she snapped, "If you can see my aura then why don't you tell me?"

"Are you sure you want me to? Or would it be better if they," he gestured towards Ruby and Emerald, "heard it from you?"

She was caught in a pickle. If she didn't say anything, she'd lose credibility, but if she said it herself, then everything she said would be exaggerated, sinking morale. What would she do?

With both of her teammates looking at her, she felt overwhelmingly guilty, and sighed before telling the truth. "Well, sometimes, it seems like we're just backup to the other three teams. They're all organized into specific categories and we're just the rejects. Plus, I'm sure you two are with the worst leader out of the four. I'm really sorry guys."

She slumped down onto the floor. When she looked back up, Ruby and Emerald were both shaking their heads.

"That's really your reasoning? Well, let me tell you, there's a reason why you're a leader. And it's not seniority or your powers. It's because of the true bond you share with your Pokemon. We believe in your ability, so why can't you believe in the three of us as a team?" Ruby smiled.

"That's right!" Emerald piped up. "Everyone has their own merits, and nobody is the same. Do the best with what you have! And we're all sure that with you as our leader, we can do amazing stuff!"

Yellow was tearing up at this point, to think that both of her juniors really did think this way about her. It made her feel ashamed for ever doubting them. "You're right," she said with conviction, "you're both right. We can do anything if we believe in ourselves and strive for the best."

"Great!" Riley smiled sincerely. "Now, how about we get those blindfolds back on!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...What? This is the kind of skill you need to have! Knowing how to dodge random balls flying at you while unable to see is invaluable!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Oh come on. I'm kidding! Not about the exercise though. It'll improve reflex time, instinct, and you'll be able to pick up on things that most other people won't notice. It's kind of like aura, but since you guys can't read aura, we'll make do with the best we can. Now, blindfolds on. The goal is to dodge the spheres that are aimed at you, but not to move if they're directed at everyone else."

Once again, the blackness enveloped Yellow's sight, but this time, she could hear things that she didn't before. There! Something was being aimed to her right...

"Ow!" Emerald cried.

Yellow was astonished, she actually knew where the attack was going and when it came! Her resolve strengthened, and she was prepared to ace this drill.

Maybe her trainer wasn't so bad after all. When the session was through, Yellow had learned a new skill, and was filled with hope for things to come.

?'s POV

"Well? What're the results of following Grimsley?"

"You won't believe this. Grimsley's led us to the Resistance Johto HQ."

"What? You mean that pesky organization that's been needling our side for years?"

"The very same."

"And where is it? A nice missile strike will save us a lot of hassle in the future."

"I'll organize it. Once I get the crystal and return I'll give the coordinates to you."

"That''ll be something to look forward to."

"Great work. You have full permission to carry out your plan."

"Roger."