DISCLAIMER: The disclaimer for this chapter can be found in the beginning of Chapter 9 as the author doesn't feel like writing one today.

Moonlight's Shadow Chapter 10:

Oh Koja- how I irritate you!

"That thing… No wait. That was actually an exaggeration- a huge exaggeration. The proper term for 'that thing' would be 'that monster'! Yes. It couldn't even be considered to be a Pokemon it was so… infuriating… so annoying!"

"Can you play with me Koja? Can you play with me Koja?"

The tenth time… the Absol had kept a count. An hour ago he had known peace very well. Now, peace was a feeling that had disappeared when the monster popped up suddenly and annoyingly.

"Please? Pretty please?" the speaker of the words ran backwards grinning at Koja.

"For the last time! No! No way! Never!" Koja growled and swatted angrily at the monster. He was never going to have children…

Shadow sighed, "Koja… She's just a little baby! How can you be so mean? You were her age once you know!"

"I was a refined little creature. What we have here Shadow is a completely mutant of a Pokemon. Besides, little Pokemon should be seen and not heard." retorted Koja.

The subject of Shadow's and Koja's conversation cocked her head, "Aw gee… What does that mean?"

"It means shut up!" Koja replied bluntly and irritably.

He hadn't fully recovered from his injuries and his patience was really beginning to wear out.

"I think she meant in nicer terms…" Shadow muttered.

"The little thing asked for it…"

"It's a Poochyeena Puppy, not a thing. Besides how would you feel if you got separated from your parents?" Shadow asked.

"Happy."

That was definitely not the answer she wanted… Shadow sighed.

"Yeah, see Koja's right Shadow. I am feeling happy and excited and- and hy-hy"

"Hyperactive."

"Yeah!" she said, "That's right! You know…are we lost? Cos' this place don't look familiar!"

"Well… It's your home territory right Pep?" asked Shadow addressing the younger Pokemon, "Why don't you go call someone for help or something?"

Pep nodded and grinned.

Koja choked on some spit he was swallowing, "Shadow… Obviously, this thing that we are with is lost. If she wasn't lost she would've called for help long before now and we wouldn't be with her. So we are wasting more time and we are going to get even more lost!"

"Have faith?" tried Shadow weakly, "Pep's got quite a good brain I suppose…"

"The Pipsqueaks doesn't have anything in her brain except to annoy me!"

"No, no Koja! I never thought of annoying you!" said Pep shaking her head as she sniffed the ground, "I just wanted to play and have fun and I have lots of stuff that I think about in my brain like-like Oran Berries! And Pecha Berries! And Mother and Father, and my brother and-and lots and lots of stuff! In fact I'm amazed my head doesn't explode!"

The Poochyeena put her paws on her head then lifted them away quickly to mime her head exploding.

"The world would be a much better place if it did explode…" Koja sighed and wondered when he would gain his oh so precious peace back.

Pep gave another sniff on the ground before walking off to trot and sniff. It wasn't long before the Poochyeena stopped completely and howled. It wasn't really a sad or scary howl- well it may have been if Pep was older but being so young the howl could only be described as well… a very cute howl. Shadow smiled, Koja scowled.

After about a minute or so of waiting and watching Pep stare up in the air grinning happily, Koja's scowl turned into a smirk and Shadow's smile turned into a sigh.

"I told you this wasn't a good idea. That furball's not only infuriating but a complete lunatic."

"Have faith…?"

"That won't work again…"

Suddenly, Shadow felt relieved as she heard a rustle of wings from overhead. In less then as few seconds a Skarmory swooped down and landed beside Pep. The Poochyeena immediately nearly hugged the Bird Pokemon's leg to death (the puppy couldn't reach anywhere else to hug) and called for Koja and Shadow to come over.

The Skarmory was huge and yet somehow he seemed familiar. The Umbreon knocked the feeling off. She had seen quite a few Skarmories in her life before. She probably just mistook this one for another. Pep eagerly and enthusiastically did the introductions:

"Sky this is Koja, Shadow who are helping me, Koja Shadow this is the Skye the huge big super super cool, too cool to actually be true but is true, Skarmory!"

Skye nodded amiably at them while Shadow and Koja made their brief hi or hello. Shadow waited for Skye to further introduce himself as to how he knew Pep. But the Skarmory just grinned and smiled at her and Koja. Shadow shook her head, a little skeptical of the Skarmory. Pep had introduced Sky as the huge big super super cool, too cool to actually be true but is true, Skarmory! Well, from just looking at Skye, The Umbreon could see that the 'huge big' part of Pep's description of Skye was definitely true- just by using your own two eyes you knew that Skye was going to be big for a little Pokemon like Pep.

But the 'super super cool, too cool to actually be true but is true, Skarmory!' part? She had doubts about that. Yeah she really did. You only had to be around Pep for a minute to see she had a million billion friends and totally zero enemies. Pep thought Koja was 'really coooool! Grumpy but cooool!' The Umbreon had a feeling that Pep had such optimistic and high feelings about the Pokemon –not to be racist or anything against Skarmories- was because of the sleek, steel, shining plumage that Skye had.

Shadow shrugged. She and Koja could take this 'Skye' on. Well, Shadow glanced at Koja with his various cuts and injuries. The Umbreon knew though Koja acted he was fine, that he was incredibly weak from the gym battle. He was still in intensive care. Shadow snapped out of her thoughts as she continued to listen to Pep's babble at how 'super cool' Skye was with the Skarmory blushing every few moments.

Koja was half heartedly listening to Pep's babble and he finally got tired of it. Telling himself that Skye and Shadow wouldn't mind and that probably no one could understand what the little furball was saying anyway since she was speaking so fast… The Absol with one paw clamped it over the Poochyeena's mouth. Unfortunately, this didn't stop Pep from talking and the young Pokemon accidentally bit Koja's paw.

Poochyeena's are also known as the 'Bite Pokemon'- the reason why Koja's face was contorted in pain as he tried to shake the sharp teeth of Pep off. The Poochyeena amiably did so and was about to inquire how Koja was when. - a squawk came from a nearby bush. All attention to Koja was dropped as the group stared at the source of the noise. Sure enough, a few moments later came two Spearows, both who seemed to be in quite the temper. Squabbling and pecking each other the pair flew off.

Koja by now was on his feet and walking a little unsteadily to the small group.

"Yo. Can an Absol get some A-TEN-TION here?" he said huffily.

"Is this dude talk now, let the hu-humens do?" Pep struggled over the foreign word, "Like yo man! Wazz up? Like you're totally cool man! Dude that's awesome!"

The Poochyeena's head bobbed up at each 'dude talk' phrase while Skye and Shadow smiled, amused at Pep. Koja gave the puppy a '-.- face. Koja turned to Skye.

"So…what's your name?" he said, ignoring Pep who was still spouting her "dude talk".

"Oh! He's, he's the super super cool, too cool to actually be true but-" Pep stopped her display of 'dude talk' to tell Koja Skye's 'name'.

"Yes, we know you think he's cool and yadda-yadda-yadda, but what is your name?" asked Koja interrupting and directing his question to the Skarmory.

"Skye! The supersupercool,toocooltobeactuallybetruebutistrueSkarymoryyyyy!" cried Pep quickly. Skye nodded quickly.

Shadow and Koja blinked.

"Right…"

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Somewhere Else…

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"What did you find out?"

"Nothing- of course. Entei is becoming more paranoid about all this then you two put together… He somehow shut himself in this volcano to investigate…."

"I found out little. Suicuine busy at the moment attending this annual ceremony. She told me she'd tried to look out for anything but she doubted any of this would come to anything."

"And I… Well, Celebi gave be a vague location of where the Pokemon who made the prophecy lived. Mountain area."

"Then let's make this our last search for any clue… So far it's been a wild goose chase. Agreed?"

"Agreed brother. But I doubt this part of our search will be fruitless."

"We'll see about that… Are you agreeing Articuno?"

"Yes. Agreed."

"Then let's go. We'll split up and search the known mountainous areas in the world. I'll search Hoenn."

"I'll go to Johto and that leaves Articuno with…"

"Kanto. Right let's go."

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And Back To…

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The forest near Saffron City was beautiful. It was so thick with threes and bushes that the humans had not destroyed the forest for themselves yet. The atmosphere was peaceful quiet, but it of course did not last for long.

"Where's Pep?"

Shadow scanned the area desperately for the younger Pokemon but it was in vain. The Poochyeena was nowhere in sight. Koja and Skye glanced at Shadow.

"What do you mean? The little furball was right-"

The Absol spun around to find nothing.

"Pep?" Shadow called out worriedly. There was no answer. Koja scanned the area, trying to find some trace of the Poochyeena. But the Absol found nothing. There were numerous trails of paw prints, hoof prints, and Pokemon prints all over the place that it was near impossible to find which one was Pep's. At the moment, Koja felt uncomfortable. Now that his ears had gotten used to the high amount of noise that Pep made, the sudden peace and quiet he now had was very unusual…

Shadow turned to Skye who seemed to be deep in thought, "Do you know where Pep is?"

Skye nodded vigorously.

"Where?"

Skye nodded even more vigorously.

"Yes… I know you know where she is… But where is she?" asked the Umbreon.

Skye nodded his head again and again.

"Shadow…"

"Koja… " Shadow shushed, "Skye. Please? Where is Pep?"

"Shadow! Haven't you figured it out yet? Skye can't…"

Realization snapped into the Umbreon as she worked out Koja was saying or rather, almost saying… Skye was mute- he couldn't speak.

Yippee!

I only have two silly chapters to revise and rewrite till I can finish my 'revision' process!

YAY! YAY! YAY!

Now back to work…