Hey, everyone! I've been taking a break because school started and it's been VERY hectic for the past three or four weeks, so I haven't been able to update. If you're reading this, it means that you're still following the story and actually want to continue reading, so thank you for that. Even if I don't have a lot of reviewers, favorites or follows, I still feel happy knowing that people READ this. Because, honestly, when I read stories, even if I like them a lot, I don't review, favorite or follow. So you don't have to anymore, I don't mind. Seriously. I can count the number of times I've reviewed a story on one hand.

Enough chit chat. I got a review disapproving of my making Karen a psychic. I'm going to clear that up right now.

Karen is NOT a psychic. I specifically emphasized that she was a user of DARK-TYPE magic during her cameo. Only Sabrina and Leaf are psychics; Karen's a hex maniac – I'll just call her that for now, albeit a very strong one. And if you guys thought that she was psychic, then I'm very sorry, because I didn't realize that was happening.

Leaf: Can we start already?

Again, I'm sorry. I just love Leaf so much. She's my favorite player character.

Leaf: Yay! Anyway, let's get on with it. I want to pummel the creep who sent his Pokemon to capture me and take me away from Gary!

LOL. You'll get your revenge, Leaf. Oh, and I don't own Pokemon or the characters, except Darcy. Remember him?

Without further ado, on with the story!

…

Leaf

The Crobat crashed through the window of the tall building I'd seen earlier, and the glass cut my skin… ouch. Thankfully, there was no blood, just a bit of redness.

The Pokemon dumped me on a tiled floor. What was going on?

I'm so confused right now…

I looked around, and I saw that I was in what looked like a cell. Unlike the last cell I'd been in, this one had good lighting, air conditioning, surprisingly, and it was clean. No smells or anything like that, and that only appalled me more.

"Hey, kid." A rough voice said. I looked up to see a person in the Team Rocket costume.

So it was them that took me? Man, I was angry already! I curled my hands into fists.

"Nuh-uh." The man switched on the screen behind him, and I saw… Ash, on one side, tied up and gagged, struggling to get free, and on another side, Misty running through a city that resembled Saffron.

"Ash!" she screamed. "ASH! Where are you?" She seemed to be on the verge of tears.

I could have easily just shielded them from where I was and then finished off this guy, but I might as well just shield them and then find out what they wanted from me. So I did that, so that no missile or anything would touch them, and sent a message to them saying I had put the barrier.

No POV

After that, the grunt opened the cell, grabbed Leaf, and began talking.

"You know, rascal, you're pretty popular in Team Rocket. First, two years ago, your brother reportedly shut us down," Leaf had heard about that, "then we dug up some info on him and then found out he had a younger sister, which turned out to be you. Before we started back up again, we decided that we could easily use you as bait if we could capture you, and Ash would be like putty in our hands. After that, well, we discovered you were a psychic, way before you did, and we could use you to control Trinome. And… well, here we are." He pushed her into a room, no, an office. Behind the desk sat a young man in a Team Rocket uniform, just that his belt and his collar were silver, and his boots and gloves were white. He had a big blue P on his sweater, and bright blue hair.

But when Leaf looked into his eyes…

She saw nothing. Just a cold, emotionless green… Empty. And she shivered. In fear.

What had this man gone through to be like that? One look at his face and Leaf knew he would kill her on the spot if he could. And when he smiled at her, a sick, twisted grin, she felt her blood turn to ice, and involuntarily shuddered.

"Leaf." Even his voice sent rattles down her spine. "Leaf Ketchum." He laughed, a warped, perverse, distorted sound. "You've gained quite some notoriety among Team Rocket. I've been requested to capture you as soon as possible. I have to say, your brother and your friend aren't very bright. Leaving a young traveling trainer on her own?"

"I wasn't alone," Leaf spat out. She had to be brave. She couldn't let him see her fear.

"Oh, yes." The man pursed his lips. "Your little boyfriend. He would've been a problem, but thankfully, we managed to create a diversion to give us just enough time to abduct you."

Leaf froze. What? "You mean…"

The man waved off the grunt at the door. "You may go."

The grunt nodded and shut the door behind him.

"There wasn't really any Team Rocket crisis in Johto. Not at all. It was quite easy to forge a letter from the Johtonese government, requesting the aid of League members and half Cantonese Gym Leaders to come over and help. And they blindly went!" he cackled loudly, slapping his knee. "That just meant less opposition on the Kanto side. Right as they arrived, they were taken prisoner by some grunts over there, and Ariana got a drone to mimic Ash's voice so that a distraction could be made to get Gary away from you. That was the drone talking to you on the phone. So that means less strong people to fight us here, impossibly easy manipulation of the Cantonese government, and finally," he whispered, leaning over until he was an inch away from her face. He tapped her nose with a gloved finger. "…no one to protect you, little Leafy."

Leaf flinched. Gary… she thought wistfully, then suddenly, rage built up within her.

She bent her head down, trying to calm herself down. If they hurt him…

She looked up, her green eyes brightly illuminated.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" she screamed.

The man pretended to have forgotten. "I apologize. I have forgotten to give you an introduction." He stood up from his chair and walked around the table, stopping in front of Leaf, who was trembling with fury now. "I go by Rocket Executive Proton. However," he cracked his knuckles. "I am also regarded as the cruelest, most merciless member of Team Rocket. And judging by what grunts alone have done, I am someone you do not want to mess with."

The girl in front of him felt another tremendous wave vibrate through her, but not of fear this time.

Of rage.

"What do you want from me?" Leaf yelled.

"Why, your abilities."

Leaf burned holes through him with her eyes. "What?"

Proton looked surprised. "Did the grunt not inform you? Naughty little girl, you weren't listening. Well, I shall have to tell you again." He took a deep breath as Leaf listened. "Well, by your abilities, I mean your sorcery. We need it to—"

"—control Trinome. And it's psi, not sorcery."

"Whatever. Well, I suppose we had better get on with it, then."

Leaf was about to ask him what he meant, until she felt a sharp prick at her neck. Then, for the third time that day, she closed her eyes.

…

Sabrina was quietly reclining on a sofa in her Gym and reading a book accompanied with a chocolate milkshake, when she suddenly received a wracking headache.

Is something happening in Saffron? In the Silph Building? Why am I getting signals of Leaf in danger?

And is that an orange Mewtwo I'm seeing?

Karen, who was sitting on another couch, looked at her in concern.

"Sabrina? What's wrong?"

She had to take a few deep breaths before answering.

"Karen, I can sense great discord coming from the Silph Corporation building. Something about… Trinome?"

Karen looked at Sabrina like she was crazy. "Excuse me?"

Sabrina held her head once more, then turned to Karen. "We need to see what's going on."

Out in the city, everything seemed to be fine, but the signal waves were coming on to Sabrina even more strongly.

Karen looked at her friend, and sighed. "Sabrina, I'm going to try and see if I can find something that will help." She closed her eyes and concentrated, then opened them, glowing purple. She grabbed Sabrina's hand.

"This way!"

They turned into an alley, and emerged back onto another main street, where they saw someone familiar yelling frantically into a Poke Gear to what seemed to be Ash.

Sabrina looked at Karen in confusion. "What's going on here?"

"Maybe he knows what happened to Leaf. She's not with him."

The two women ran after him, until they heard part of his rant into the phone.

"… been kidnapped!"

Sabrina's eyes went wide, and her senses intensified. She stopped running and exclaimed in horror.

"WHAT?!"

He turned around, looking very frustrated. His eyes widened when he saw them.

"Sabrina? Karen?"

…

Gary tore through Saffron City at top speed, pushing past pedestrians in his way. He pressed the Poke Gear to his ear (A/N: LOL, that rhymed) to see if Ash was still on the line.

"Ash?" He called. "Buddy, you there?"

"Gary? What's going o… bzzzz…" the line went dead. The spiky haired boy didn't notice.

"Ash, Leaf's been kidnapped!" Gary yelled to Ash as he sprinted toward the building.

"WHAT?!"

Gary turned around to be met with two women. The one, possessing flowing dark blue hair and sharp cerise eyes, and the other having long wavy silver hair and matching eyes.

"Sabrina? Karen?" He ran a hand through his hair. If they were looking for Leaf to lecture her about her lessons, now was not the time. He felt ready to crush something.

"Gary, I just heard you say that someone's been kidnapped. Who?" Sabrina asked.

He groaned. "Guys, I don't really have time for…"

"WHO?"

Gary sighed in defeat. "Leaf. Leaf's been taken away, and I'd bet my limbs it was Team Rocket." He grew more irritated by the second, and kicked over a trash can. "Team Rocket! God knows what they're doing to her… I don't even know how it happened. One moment she's chatting happily with Ash, the other, she's gone! It's my fault… I shouldn't have even stepped away from her. I shouldn't have brought her here. Heck, I shouldn't have…"

Karen had grown tired of this nonsense. She walked over to Gary and slapped him. "Snap out of it, idiot!" she scolded, glaring up at him. "Now is not the time for excuses. It is not the time to blame yourself. And it is sure as hell not the time to be telling stories. What happened has happened. Our problem now is to fix it and bring Leaf back. So the three of us are going to march up to that building, thump everyone, rescue Leaf, and destroy the creep who kidnapped her." She marched off towards the building, calling over her shoulder. "Are we in this together or not?"

Gary answered without a moment's hesitation. "Definitely in," and ran to catch up to her. Sabrina followed closely behind.

What a day.

…

Leaf

The next time Leaf opened her eyes, she was strapped onto a… hard table?

"Why would they lay me on a table?" She wondered aloud.

"Oh, we didn't."

Leaf glanced around frantically. Who was that?

"In case you're wondering, it's me. Proton. I've received orders from Giovanni to carry on with the experiment."

"What experiment?" Leaf was tired of this. "Let me go!"

"After we're done with you, yes."

She was confused. "What the…"

That was when she noticed the other side of the room.

Strapped tightly to the other side of the room, was what looked like an orange Mewtwo with yellow eyes and red armor. And it seemed to stare through her.

"In case you're wondering, I'm not in the room. That would be too hazardous. What you're beholding is about ten times stronger than Mewtwo and is called…"

She didn't have to guess. "Trinome?"

"Exactly. If you would call it that."

Trinome's bonds broke free, and an orange mist surrounded it, until it morphed, and morphed, and morphed…

Into Leaf. Who was horrified, by the way.

"Wh… what is that?" she managed to choke out.

"That is you. Well, the thing that is going to fool your friends."

Leaf would've protested, or said more, but there was one thing nagging on her mind. "How are you controlling it? Even Mewtwo couldn't be. Controlled, I mean. Surely something that powerful can't be controlled?"

"Oh. That. Well, Leaf. I shot a bullet containing a substance that lets me have control over it with this remote in my hand." She heard a flipping sound, probably the remote. After that, a glass screen obscured her from the rest of the room, and her bonds broke free. She banged on the screen, but no sound was heard, and she rested against the wall.

A few minutes later, she saw Sabrina, Karen, and Gary rush into the room.

Leaf wanted to fall over in relief when she saw that Gary was unhurt.

"GARY!" she screamed, resuming her banging on the glass window. "Sabrina! Karen! Gary!"

She could only watch in horror as they saw the fake Leaf fool them, and Gary smiled so hard. Leaf couldn't take it. How couldn't they see her?! She guessed that on her side, the glass was transparent, but on the other side, it was a mirror.

She had to warn them, or that thing would destroy them all. She launched a psi energy blast at the screen, but not a scratch was made.

"Tsk, Leaf." Proton's voice came in her ear. "This wall is immune to psychic energy. Your attacks won't do a thing. Oh, and the reason I brought your friends here… is because of that."

Leaf looked up, only to see… MEWTWO connecting its purple aura with Karen's own, and… entering her. Karen's eyes had a dangerous purple glow now.

And… oh God… both Karen and the fake Leaf started attacking Gary and Sabrina!

"Sabrina! GARY!" Leaf thrashed around. Surely there had to be some way…

But there wasn't. She could only watch helplessly as Gary's Pokemon fell, one by one, until he was down to Charizard, and Sabrina was about to faint.

She contemplated what Proton said.

This wall is immune to psychic energy.

Leaf suddenly smirked. What had Sabrina taught her? How could she forget?

She encased her hand in rock, coated in fire and electricity…

And smashed through the glass to a very surprised Gary, and an emotionless Sabrina.

"Leaf, I have to say, I'm disappointed. How could you forget your training so easily?"

Leaf was very sheepish. "I'm sorry, Sabrina."

Sabrina rolled her eyes. "We'll discuss this later. Now, we have to take out this fake and save Karen."

Gary was staring at Sabrina in horror. "You KNEW?!"

Sabrina eyed him. "Of course I knew. And I knew what would happen, so I didn't feel like we needed to do anything. Back to work!"

"Right." Leaf deadpanned. "How are we going to do that? Because I'm pretty sure we're going up against two legendries over here. Combined with a witch whose power has just been multiplied by, like, ten. Who is hella powerful, by the way."

"We have no choice," Sabrina insisted. "We can't just run and leave Karen here."

"Then how will we free her?"

Gary spoke up. "Mewtwo simply needs a medium to fight in, and he can't fight with a dead body."

Leaf's eyes widened in horror. "You mean…?"

"No, no, Leaf. We have to knock her unconscious."

Or, Sabrina said to me telepathically, we can just find where Proton is.

I raised an eyebrow. That is actually a good idea. Hey, don't roll your eyes at me! Okay, I'll get going on that while you and Gary can try to knock this thing out. Though it's going to take a lot…

I nodded at Sabrina, who went back to fighting with Gary. As I ran out the door which had suspiciously been left open, I heard Gary calling out to me, and Sabrina convincing him to stay put. He looked back, sent an encouraging smile to me, and continued fighting before the door shut.

Right. I was all on my own now. Thankfully, all my PokéBalls were on my belt, and they hadn't been damaged at all. Which meant my Pokemon were ready for battle.

I couldn't imagine how surprised I was when I was out of nowhere launched into a wall, my sensitive skin tingling with an indescribable amount of pain. Where had that come from?

I darted my eyes around frantically, only for them to land on a grim, foreboding Houndoom, accompanied closely by a mighty Arcanine. Was it the scary Houndoom that had hit me so painfully against the wall?

I didn't even have time to comprehend that before I was suddenly attacked viciously from behind, doubling the pain on my already bruised body. Obviously, I was a fool for thinking, so naively, that I could escape unhindered.

Turning to face my attacker, I widened my eyes in horror at the discovery.

In front of me was frighteningly situated a gleaming, magnificent Skarmory, its wings gleaming of polished steel and its piercing silver eyes trained maliciously on me. And atop this being sat none other than Proton, his shiny cerulean hair matching his cold, cruel, emotionless eyes, which unfortunately happened to be focused on little old me.

"Well, Leaf." Proton chuckled darkly. "Interesting that you managed to figure out how to escape from that dungeon." He tossed a remote in his hands idly, and my gears began to turn.

"Is that Trinome's remote?"

He idly glanced at the remote, flipping it. "Oh, this little thing? No. The remote's not with me… it's with someone else. This remote here, is used to control these three wild Pokemon… and Mewtwo."

"Mewtwo?" I was puzzled. "But Mewtwo's in…"

"That's right." Proton smirked dastardly. "Karen, why don't we show them what we can do?"

And to my absolute horror, Karen strolled out from behind the Skarmory, looking more lifeless than a rock. My anger slowly built, blocking out all the pain.

"What did you do to her? And to Sabrina? GARY?" I furiously screamed at him. "You monster!"

"Eh, I've been called worse. Well, in case you're wondering, or as you already saw, Mewtwo is temporarily dwelling in your mentor for the time being. Isn't that just neat?"

I warily gave Karen an once-over. She'd ditched her lilac cami and three quarters for an ankle length indigo jumpsuit, riddled with various lavender stripes. She donned a pair of gloves of the same indigo, and wore heeled sandals colored aubergine. The main difference, however, was her aura. It, and her eyes, didn't radiate their usual dark purple. Instead, they glowed a sickly lilac color.

That was Mewtwo's obvious trademark color.

"Let me just tell you that Gary and Sabrina were knocked out by Karen, so no one's gonna save you. And there's basically no way to escape. If the Pokemon don't win you, then my Pokemon will, and if they don't, it's going to be Karen. And I should warn you…" he cupped his hand over his mouth. "Karen alone is very strong, but pair her with a crazily powerful legendary and you have almost fifteen times the damage."

I raised both eyebrows at that. This would be tough.

"Or, of course, you could just surrender, the easy way. Or face the risk of getting yourself absolutely crushed."

There was no way I was going down without a fight. And if that meant getting seriously injured for Gary, then so be it.

Tossing my ring into the air, I watched it spin, shine and transform into my scepter, which landed securely in my hand.

"Oh, well," I sighed mock-sadly, storing away my hat and flipping my hair. "Guess I'm perhaps getting absolutely crushed."

Time to bring out the big guns.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

AAAAND there's your twelfth chapter for you, darlings! I was so excited to put this up; I personally believe it's one of the best chapters so far. Tell me what you think, please!

And The PokéWorld Trials is officially off hiatus. No flames; constructive criticism and positive feedback only.

I won't make any promises about the next update, though I have planned a magnificent showdown between Leaf and Karen! I'm so looking forward to it!

PM, review, follow and favorite. Bye!