Disclaimer: We do not own the characters, the areas, or the pokemon. We do own the original characters.

Chapter 8

_ Village

"Kita!" Minami was tired. Where was Kita? The little girl pouted. It was noon and she still couldn't find him! Her orange sun dress was wrinkled from kneeling on her knees all day. The pig tailed girl looked behind the Pokemart building. "Kita?"

A Starly cried above her.

"Where is he?" She asked to her Sentret. Sentret shook its head.

This morning, Kita rushed to her doorsteps as always. He asked her mother if it was okay for the two of them to go play hide and go seek. Her mother had no problem with the invitation, but she cautioned them not to go too far from the village. It was common for the village children to play in the woods, but it was also advised not to venture too far. The children may be familiar with the wood pokemon, but that didn't necessarily protect them from the bigger beasts, such as Tyranitars and Ursarings.

"He said he wouldn't go out too far," Minami whined. "I never have been out there before." She was referring to the deeper part of woods. Sentret whimpered.

"You looking for something, Minami?" the Pokemart store owner, Ushio asked. He was carrying a crate of potions into the store.

"Have you seen Kita?" She asked the store owner.

He shook his head. Sorry, haven't seen him. I think I saw him going into the southern part of village," Ushio told her. "He might be trying to catch a Caterpie again."

Minami nodded. Kita bragged to her for weeks about how he was going to catch a super strong Caterpie to show to Ms. Rieka.

"Thanks, Ushio!" Minami thanked the man.

"Don't go too far!" Ushio warned her.

"I won't!"

Southern Forest

Six year old Kita had a devilish look on his face. His face was smeared with clay. This was the perfect spot! Minami will never find him here! The child spent the whole morning looking for the perfect hiding spot: an old willow tree that was located at the southern forest, bordering at the village's boundaries. His Poochyena yapped.

"Quiet, Poochyena," Kita scolded at the dog lightly. The dog's ears drooped down. Poochyena was going to give them away! Kita had to carry the dog on his lap because the dog pokemon didn't know how to climb.

"There you are!"

"Aw, man," the boy mumbled. "She found us. Thanks a lot Poochyena." The dog barked in response.

"What are you doing out here?" Minami demanded to get an answer out of the village boy. "I thought you promised that you wouldn't come here!"

"But that's how you play hide and seek!" Kita pouted. "I hide and you seek."

"You broke your promise!" She reminded him.

"I forgot!"

"You always forget!"

"Aaf!" Poochyena barked again. It whimpered and pointed its nose towards further south.

"What is it, boy?" Kita asked the dog. "Did you find something?" Maybe it was that cool shiny Caterpie Azuma told him about last week!

"Eeeek!" Minami cried. "Those boys are hurt!" She pointed to the two figures a little further from where they were. The two figures were lying on the grass; white light was draining from their bodies. A cluster of ghost pokemon surrounded the strangers, eagerly wiping out their energy with Nightmare and Dream Eater.

"They have a Pikachu with them!" Kita grew excited. He never saw one before!

"What should we do?" Minami looked worried.

"Call Grandpa!" The little boy told her. "I'll distract the ghost pokemon."

"Won't you be all by yourself?" Minami looked unsure.

"I'll be fine!" Kita waved his hand at her, trying to sound cool.

Once she left, Kita ran over to the gang of ghost pokemon and cried. "Hey! Get away from them!" He tried to shoo them away. "Go pick on someone your own size!" Poochyena yapped and bore its fangs at the ghouls.

All the Gastlys, Shuppets, and other first evolution ghost pokemon floated away, spooked by the sudden movement of the young boy.

"Poochyena, use Howl!" Poochyena yodeled a high pitch cry at the spooky creatures. Several of the Haunters, Dusclops, Banettes, and several other second evolutionary ghost types flew off in fright from the dark dog's Howl.

All that was left in the scene were a couple of Gengars and a Dusknoir. Without warning, a few attacked the young trainer and pokemon.

"This will be tough," Kita said to his pokemon. "Use Bite!"

"Arf!" Poochyena charged at the giant ghosts with its small teeth. Gengar barely flinched.

"Uh oh," the boy realized he made a bad move as Gengar slowly turned away from its victims to face the child.

"Not so fast!" an old voice cried. An old man in his mid fifties suddenly appeared in front of the ghost. His grey eyes narrowed. "Infernape! Use Fire Punch!"

His prime ape companion beside him rushed to Kita's rescue. The fire ape hurled fire at the ghosts. The light emitted from the flames was enough to scare the ghost pokemon away.

"Grandpa!" the boy cried out once he saw that the Gengars were gone.

"Stay where you are!" the man warned him. "It's not over yet."

Kita looked confused. What was he talking about? They were all gone! Everything was ok!

"Show me your true form," the older man cried. He pointed his cane to the Dusknoir in front of him

Dusknoir glared at the man. "Zoro!" It cried. What? Dusknoir didn't make that kind of noise! Kita thought.

In a flash of light, Dusknoir's form rippled. Its shape blurred to rearrange itself into a big fox like pokemon. It was almost bigger than the average man. It was covered in black fur and stood on its hind legs. It had red hair topped on its head and bore bright blue eyes. It looked similar to a Zorua.

"Leave those two trainers alone, Zoroark," the man gave the pokemon a stern look. The two teenagers were lying at his feet. "Go play your tricks on someone else."

Zoroark glared back at the man.

"And leave my grandson alone," he added. "He has some chores to do."

"What?" Kita looked at his grandfather in disbelief.

The black fox briefly sniffed at the two trainers and gave out a huff at the old man. It looked at Kita curiously before turning away to leave them alone.

"Whew," Kita swept his bangs aside, pretending that he was wiping sweat off his forehead. "That was close!"

"Kitaru!" His grandfather bellowed. Uh oh, Kita thought, hearing his full name. "What were you thinking, boy?" The elderly man scolded at the youngster. "How many times did I tell you not to wander into this part of the forest?"

"But I didn't mean to!" Kita protested. "I was just playing hide and seek!"

The elderly man's eyes softened. "It's a good thing your friend told me where you were. Otherwise, you could have been in worse trouble."

"Were you serious when you said I had chores?" Kita asked.

"Yes. Yes I was."

Kita swore. The man smacked him on the head with his wooden cane. "What was that for?" Kita cried.

"No swearing!" He told his grandson firmly. "Now let's bring these trainers to the village. They need urgent attention." Kita was still crying over the bump that formed on his head. No fair. The old man got a cane to hit people with.

_ Village

"Ugh," Green groaned when he woke up.

He found himself looking up at the ceiling. He took a short glance beside him. Red was beside him. They appeared to be in someone's home. Someone had put him into a bed and washed the dirt and grime from his face.

"You two were foolish to try to find this village without a guide!" an old man croaked as he entered the room.

The old man looked like your average senior citizen: old, frail, had a nearly bald head, and had a white goatee. Except for his odd taste in clothes. The elderly man wore a light blue cotton polo shirt. He also wore striped pants with pictures of Luvdiscs ironed into a pattern. A red and white cap rested on the side of his head with a green letter "L" on the front. He carried a wooden cane in his right hand. This was their savior?

"There was a guide?" Green goggled at the man. No one told us that! He screamed in his head.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Red was already awake. He couldn't look away from the odd man's pants. Luvdiscs? Really?

The old man sighed. "My name is Ataru. I'm the village chief of Sacred Heart Village."

"Sacred Heart Village?" Green repeated. "It's not even in the maps... How did we get here?"

"This village lies in the heart of Johto, and within Mirage Forest," the old man explained. "There are pokemon that cast illusions, causing the people distress, making it easier for the Gengar to use Hypnosis on you. The people born here have a natural resistance to these illusions and psychic tricks, we are what you would call guides."

"That would make sense why people disappear," Green said mostly to himself. He came to a sudden realization. "So what happened in the fog, it was just a dream?!"

"Yes, why? Is there something bothering you?" Ataru asked with a curious tone.

The teens turned bright red. "Nothing!" Both of them said simultaneously.

"I don't want to know..." the old man said aloud. "Those Gengars love to bring out nightmares and embarrassing memories and doubts. There was a young girl several years back, that constantly played with them. Considering how cheerfully sadistic she was, they probably picked it up from her."

"Have you seen Ho-Oh fly over?" Green interrupted the old man's thoughts.

Ataru abruptly went out of his nostalgia moment and looked at the young man sharply. "You're not the first one to ask me that question." His eyes grew dark. "The last time someone asked about a legendary pokemon, one of the village children was kidnapped!"

"What happened?" Red asked. Pikachu was sitting on his lap again.

Ataru sighed. Wrinkles pressed against his forehead. He looked pained by the memory.

"... Five years ago," he began his tale, "there was a little girl named Satsuki. She was the same girl that often played with all of the pokemon in the forest, including the Gengar and Zoroark. Well, back then Zoroark was still a Zorua, but anyways. She had a unique gift, one that we didn't learn about till it was too late."

"A gift?" Green asked, turning to Red. "Like Yellow's ability to read pokemon minds and heal them?"

"Something of the sorts," the old man said. Green turned back to him.

"What was it?" Red asked cautiously.

"The ability to openly communicate with any pokemon, and the ability to attract legendary pokemon," he answered, alarming the two. "But, like I've said. We didn't learn about her second ability, until when she was kidnapped."

"What happened?" the Viridian gym leader questioned.

"One day, Satsuki and two of her friends went out to Inex Forest to meet other pokemon. That day, they met an Articuno. Mind you, none of them had told anyone from the village anything till after Satsuki's disappearance. I suppose that man found them while they were playing with Articuno. The next day, Satsuki wandered into Inex by herself, and stumbled upon a Mew. When she returned, that man came into the village shortly after.

"He asked around about a Ho-oh, and if one had appeared in the skies. None of us had seen one for many years, and we all told him that. Except for Satsuki. She told him that she saw Ho-oh a few weeks prior. We laughed it off, thinking that she was making it up. She was only ten at the time. We should have noticed though, the amount of attention he was giving her, asking her about Ho-oh and all. And how he entered the town, without any guide in sight. The few days later, Satsuki went out and found an Entei. I guess at that time, the man was fully convinced that she attracted legendaries. That very night, we heard a loud scream, and we saw the man fighting Satsuki and her pokemon. He had a Mr. Mime create walls, to stop any of the other villagers from helping her."

"She fought hard, but she and her pokemon were unable to fight him off," he continued. "But right before he knocked her out, Entei appeared and broke through the invisible walls. I guess it asked her to catch it, because she simply nodded and threw her pokeball at it. She fought again, with Entei at her side. But that man had his pokemon aim for only Satsuki. When she was finally caught, he forced Entei into submission. And then used Smokescreen to get away. It's been five years, and we still haven't found any trace of her nor that man..."

"Excuse me!" another old man ran into the room. "It's Satsuki's house. Her pokemon went missing!"

"What?" Ataru instantly stood up. They wouldn't leave without telling someone, he thought, so it must be a thief. "Did you catch the thief? Well?"

"Sorry, but he escaped!" he apologized to the chief.

"Reinforce the security!" Ataru commanded. "We need people to go on petrol. We must not let this thief get away with this!"

"Yes, sir!" the man replied before running out.

"Sorry for that," the chief apologized to Red and Green, clearly worried. "You two should get some rest. Tomorrow, I'll send you two on your way to Ecruteak City with a guide. I'm sorry for the trouble we caused."

"It's no problem," Green replied.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Red asked.

Before Ataru could answer his question, a small beeping noise came out of Green's bag.

"Sorry," he apologized. "It's my Pokegear." he took out the device and quickly answered. "Hello?"

"GREEN!" the caller growled from the other end.

He quickly pulled the Pokegear away from his ear. "Blue?"

"You have a line of trainers waiting to battle you!" Green winced at her voice.

"What do you want me to do? Come back to Viridian City?" Green was annoyed. He was in the middle of nowhere. Literally.

"Ask your damn challengers!" Blue swore at the gym leader. "You can't just leave your gym all the time and not expect anyone to come and challenge you!"

"Well, sorry," Green didn't sound sorry at all. "If they're so impatient, why don't they go challenge you?"

"M-me?" she wasn't expecting that response from her childhood friend.

"Yeah," Green continued. "From now on, you'll be running the gym until I come back. Just fight the trainers and give them badges if they win."

"Right," it sounded like she was giving him a tight smile on the other side of the phone.

"Oh, and by the way," the gym leader waved his hand carelessly. "Remember to fill all that paperwork."

"FUCK YOU GREEN!" she cursed at Green and hung up the phone.

An awkward silence filled the room before Red finally said, "I guess she accepted the position?"

"Yeah," Green replied.

"Um, before I was interrupted," Ataru coughed, "Don't let that bother you," he insisted. "Our security is one of the best. That thief better know this place as well as any other villager if he wants to get away. Besides, Zoroark won't let Satsuki's pokemon be taken away."

"If you say so," Green surrendered.

As the two walked out, they thought they felt someone's eyes following them.

Author's notes: We apologize for long wait! School started, and there were texts... And essays... And freaking giant packets of work... Yeah, its basically hell.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! Feedback lets us know what we should work on and what you guys like, so it's greatly appreciated!