Steel woke up with something standing on his chest and he was frigid and it glared at him with small red eyes. It was round and blue but had tufts of leaves sprouting out of its head.

"Copper!" he whispered hurriedly and she groaned as she woke up slowly. Steel rolled his eyes, "Copper!" he hissed and she turned over. She noticed the Pokémon on his chest and shot up.

"Oddish!" it cried and the Pokémon's leaves waved, spreading golden powder. Steel clenched his eyes shut and held his breath. He felt the weight lift off his chest and squinted through one eye to see what was going on. He recoiled as pain stabbed his eye but he'd seen that the Pokémon had been kicked away by Copper.

He scrambled to his feet and pulled on his goggles and face mask but still kept his eye closed. "Brooke, use water gun!" he called as he threw the pokéball and Brooke burst out already firing. It hit the oddish and hurled it against a tree.

"Scratch!" he ordered and Brooke advanced quickly, flailing her claws rapidly. The oddish slumped and Steel chucked one of the empty pokéballs at the unconscious Pokémon.

"Steel," Copper moaned and he turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

"You'll have two up on me." Steel shrugged and looked back to the quivering pokéball.

"If it fails I won't try again." but the pokéball clicked with a satisfying beep. Steel picked it up and placed it inside his pocket. "Plus don't you have Conrad."

Copper's face darkened, "He doesn't count." she took a calming breath and smiled. "At least you won't be dependent on Lore for status moves anymore."

Steel looked around the forest, "Let's try get to a town to heal up Oddish."

"We can try but if there's someone like Bliss at the desk we're just leaving."

Steel rolled his eyes and started strolling across the grass. It was lighter than when they'd woken up so it must have been close to midday if light was breaking through even a little bit. They didn't encounter any more Pokémon but Lancer and Jolie travelled alongside them just in case. The grass was sodden with dew and mud now decorated their shoes but Steel kept looking as his feet. He often looked down while he walked to avoid stepping on a caterpie or weedle but as they continued down the overgrown path he saw tracks similar to a shoeprint.

Every so often Steel glanced around to check the trees but he stopped after Copper called him paranoid for the twelfth time. Copper was certain that Blair had already gone but Steel couldn't see how she could be. It had taken several hours of walking to reach the end of the tree labyrinth though it probably would have taken fewer if they hadn't taken a wrong turn or two.

The sudden sunlight blinded the two and they stumbled onto a dirt path shielding their eyes and squinting. Just as his eyes were beginning to adjust after the day in darkness they were confronted by two people.

They looked similar enough that they might have been brothers but not twins. They both had short dark hair and moss green eyes but one was taller and had glasses. The one with glasses was looking at a notebook and writing something down. They both had Pokémon behind them; there was one that was sort of like red and cream version of beedrill with blue eyes but was smaller and a lot less aggressive looking. The other was a red and black spider with striped legs and a horn. Copper recognised them as a ledian and ariados.

"Names?" the other brother asked while the one with the glasses wrote quickly but Steel and Copper were hesitant. The brother noticed and sighed exasperatedly.

"It's mandatory for all passer-byes to tell us who they are. We don't want Zephyrs rampaging through Azalea."

Copper internally gulped. If they connected her to her parents, looked through her bag or noticed Conrad it would be like Goldenrod again.

"I'm Steel." Steel looked to Copper and gestured for her to tell the man her name.

"Copper." she answered quietly hoping that if he heard it quietly he wouldn't connect the dots. The one with the glasses wrote their names down and looked up.

"Do you have any Pokémon with you?" he asked and Steel nodded while Copper fumed. Years of hiding in Mt. Mortar meant that he didn't know what the people were like so sometimes he was too honest. It made him a better person that Copper often envied but also someone who Copper wanted to smack.

He looked over his glasses to Copper with a raised eyebrow. "And you?"

The man's eyes were very analytical and Copper felt unnerved by them, he gave her an unspoken warning that it would be very dangerous to lie.

"Yes."

"What are they?" his voice was a bored monotone; he'd probably done this several times beforehand.

"Totodile,"

"Water type…" he mused as he wrote it down.

"Miltank and oddish,"

"Normal and grass/poison…" his voice was getting irritated like he was waiting for something that hadn't come yet.

"And Beedrill,"

"Poison/bug…" he said approvingly, "If you must use a Pokémon you may only use your beedrill." he pointed with his pen to behind him. "The Pokémon centre's there."

Copper caught the connection and tapped her thigh nervously, wondering about when they found she didn't have what they were looking for.

"What Pokémon do you have?" asked the other brother.

"Vulpix, chikorita and noctowl," she heard it being written down and then the second one stepped to the side unblocking the ledian and ariados' view of Copper.

"String shot and confuse ray," the brothers ordered and their Pokémon attacked. Webb shot at Copper and knocked her back, her arms were tied so she could do nothing as she fell to the ground with a thud.

Steel started to protest but then the ledian attacked. Its blue eyes glowed and it sent a glowing white orb at Copper. It hit the spot between her eyes and they unfocused. Steel was going forward when the brother with the glasses held out his arm and stopped him.

"It would be wise not to interfere unless you wish to go where she's going." his voice held so much threat that Steel was forced to remain still as the ariados and other brother dragged Copper away.

"Where are you taking her!?" Steel growled but the man was not intimidated. He pointed with his pen in a bored way to the north east of the town.

"The Slowpoke well. There they'll mine for the coal and try to earn their freedom."

"Their freedom!? You kidnapped them!"

"They broke the rules of our town and we had to right to reprimand them." he gestured to the edge of town and glared at Steel. "I suggest you leave before we have to apprehend you."

Steel glared back but stormed off, formulating plans in his head of how to get Copper back. He couldn't 'save' or 'rescue' her or she'd beat him up to prove she's no damsel in distress. He rolled Lancer's pokéball in his hand absent mindedly. It was the only Pokémon he could use openly but he suspected that everyone in Azalea had a bug type so there wasn't much opportunity for type advantages.

He walked over to the Pokémon centre and found that there wasn't a nurse behind the desk; at least she wasn't dressed like one. She was a stocky brunette and had her hair tied in a side ponytail secured with two yellow round clips. She was filing her nails in a bored fashion when she noticed Steel enter.

"Good day, welcome and all that." she monotoned and didn't even look up.

"Can you just heal my Pokémon?" Steel held out all his pokéballs. She finally looked up, grabbed the pokéballs and flung them onto the machine. Steel listened to the jingle and took his Pokémon back. He was walking away when she spoke.

"BTW, I'd be careful walking about with those non-bugs. Deborah's really fussy about that if you didn't know already."

He wheeled around, "Deborah?"

"Yup, she's the queen bee of Azalea, pun intended." she caught Steel's thoughtful look and smirked. "If you're thinking about challenging her I'd reconsider. She's very strong and wouldn't think twice about destroying a little boy."

"Sounds familiar," Steel muttered. This 'Deborah' was sounding a lot like Blair and with what he'd seen of Azalea so far he could guess what kind of person Deborah was. He walked out and strolled casually to where the well was, a plan formulating in his mind.

Next time on Pokemon Rust : Steel vs. Deborah

Sorry for the late update. I started to procrastinate, Sorry :(

As always please review on how to improve, I want this to be the best it can be for you! :D