Sacrifice and Subjugation

by MetalDargon

Not just anyone can be the Champion. But what determines whether or not someone has the potential? How does one truly prepare? In a world fraught with danger both near and far, a boy pursues the answers to those questions. But the Pokemon League is a brutal institution, pushing trainers to their mental and physical limits . Only the strongest succeed...

25. Chapter 25: The Follow Through

Chapter 25

This isn't necessary. I'm ready NOW! No other challenger gets this kind of introduction. Why am I any different? Well, of course I know why. My impatience and rush of adrenaline have rubbed off on my companion, whose heat is causing heat waves to appear in the room. Screw this! I mentally exclaim, and shove the door open to reveal a hallway in which small speakers are playing the Indigo Plateau anthem.

Determined, I pass through quickly to the door at the other end. A rumbling comes from the other side. The doorknob feels cold in my palm as I turn it and let in a blinding ray of light. The rumble transforms into a clashing roar. Is there any reason for this many people to be here? They won't see the battle. They'll only see the loser. This is unnecessary!

A quick scan of the crowd and I can pick out a couple friendly faces. A mix of sadness and anger wells up in my throat as I take note of who cannot be here. So many have fallen, and yet I am still here. Everything that has occurred up until now has led me to this point. The good and the horrible. I let the faintest traces of debate start up in my mind over which has had the most influence, and then shut it out. I am here now. That's all that matters. I cannot change what has happened.

But would I really want to? Yes. Yes I would. But it is pointless to contemplate. What I can think about is what lays immediately ahead, the motivation for my entire youth so imminent that it was almost painful to put off any longer. "Mr. MacAfee, they're not finished yet!" I heard to my side. I can hardly hear it, but I ignore it. I am too focused on that large, intricate stone doorway in the side of the mountain.

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

The weeks preceding Aoro's training camp flew by as a mix of training, traveling, and a few memorable events. Before I left Viridian, I attempted to make a little progress with the Blastoise I had caught before selling him. The Blastoise had a spider web of scars on its shell reminiscent of past injuries that spread to its face. Perhaps it pointed to a very tough life, which might explain why the Blastoise was resistant to my attempts to tame him. He simply would not listen to me. And every time anyone approached him, he would attack regardless of his own physical well-being. In the end, I gave up trying to tame him and sold him to the Pokemon Traders Guild.

Before I left, I stopped by BioTech for some TM's, I scheduled an appointment with Leader Kay in Saffron City, and I registered my first pokemon (the Charmeleon I had caught on Cinnabar) as "In Preparation.

I picked the Charmeleon for multiple reasons, but the main reason was that I needed a pokemon who could train on equal footing with Azrael on the ground and in the air. I originally released the Charmeleon inside the PokeWall to introduce myself, and a few people gathered at a distance to observe. Almost immediately, I needed to dodge a particularly hot ember which the fiery lizard projected at me.

"ENOUGH!" I ordered, with Azrael roaring to back up my words with effect. The Charmeleon settled down quickly after that, but it continued to glare at me defiantly. "That's better." I heard the sound of a few people, including my father, gasping in awe while Dante translated my words to the fire lizard. "My name is Zachariah and this is my team. On behalf of all of us, welcome." The Charmeleon did not change its demeanor.

"I'm giving you a unique opportunity," I explained. "I know that your species values battle prowess more than almost anything else, and that you will strive to make yourself better than anyone or anything you face. The opportunity I am giving you is to train with my team and become better." The Charmeleon snorted, blowing out a small puff of smoke from its reptilian nostrils.

"Don't believe me? Look at Azrael," I challenged. The Charmeleon looked up at the towering dragon with no less defiance than she had towards me. "He is three years old." I paused to let that sink in, and it definitely caught her attention. "That's right, and everyone else on this team has become an expert in the same amount of time or less. That may not mean anything to you, but know that we will be taking on the best teams in this country. What better opportunity could there be for you?"

The Charmeleon seemed to mull it over for a while before finally relaxing on its haunches with gruff resignation. "That's good. Now let me see," I said while I looked over its pokeball. "It says here that you are female, roughly seven years old, and level 22. Huh, you look a little small for a female," I observed, noting that she was about the size of an ordinary male of her species at four feet tall instead of five. She did not appreciate my candor and gave me a snarl in response, to which I replied, "I did not mean to offend. I was just making an observation." It did not seem to ease her temper, but I continued after a brief pause in thought, "How would you like to be called Saraph?"

The Charmeleon snorted, but her discontented demeanor did not worsen, so I interpreted it as acceptance. "Great! Now I think it's time to see what you can do. Rufus, you will be working a lot with Saraph, so you pay special attention." With everyone on the same page, I conducted a diagnostic training session in which I found that Saraph was very capable, but that she tended to unleash attacks with immense power and without much control. In short, she needed work, but then again, we all needed constant work on something.

In preparation for leaving, I registered for the Nugget Bridge, but the soonest I could find an event at my badge level was in three weeks at the end of the month. I also registered for my fourth Dojo challenge which would take place in a week. In the meantime, two days later, I paid for a teleport to Saffron City and visited Leader Kay at the gym.

In his large office, I shook his hand and sat down in a chair in front of his desk. "Hello, Mr. MacAfee. Congratulations on completing the circuit," he said first. I thanked him, and he continued, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"Back when I challenged you for the Marsh Badge, you told me to come back once I beat the circuit to talk about the 'shift' that you mentioned," I said, getting comfortable in my chair.

"Ah, so I did. I remember it more clearly now. Peculiar," he said, scrutinizing me intensely.

"What is peculiar?" I asked.

"First, let's start at the basics; the Shift," Leader Kay said, clasping his hands in front of him. "Having finished the circuit, you are now entitled to basic definitive knowledge of the Shift. The Shift is the process of a human's physical evolution. I'm sure you have heard stories of it and even seen examples of it yourself," Leader Kay explained.

"Like when you teleported in the arena when you were challenged a year or so back?" I asked.

"Actually, no," Leader Kay said with a laugh. "Although, if I could do that, then it would indeed be an example of the Shift. That was a Natu hidden in my breast pocket." He laughed again, and I could not help but smile. "But anyway, the Shift is a very gradual process most of the time. And the vast majority of people who experience it do so after at least five years of training with a formidable team. The Shift builds up to what we call the Reaction, which is a radical physical change relative to the gradual process. The most rare and potent phase of the Shift – which we refer to as the Peak – hardly ever occurs, and it only happens after at least 20 years of sustained training from what we've seen."

"So when you told me that you have never seen the Shift in someone as young as I, what did you mean?" I asked.

Leader Kay scrutinized me for a time. "I meant that I sensed something with you that I have never experienced with someone so young. As a psychic-type gym leader, I have devoted most of my life to the development of psychic pokemon. The Reaction occurred and I developed psychic abilities, such as telepathy. However, I could not read your thoughts, and I had trouble conveying my own thoughts to you."

"So I'm somehow able to block your telepathy?" I asked.

"Well, let me explain things a little more broadly," the gym leader said, standing up and pacing. "The Shift manifests in different ways, but in general it makes trainers stronger, faster, and smarter. It very much resembles the evolution of known types of pokemon, and may be particularly influenced by the types on your team. The vast majority of people, perhaps around 70%, manifest what we would call "normal" traits, which only consist of the aforementioned improvements. Fewer manifest traits consistent with other pokemon types. The most common non-normal Shifts I have personally seen are fighting and water, and I would say that those together make up about 20% of the total cases. Then rock and psychic make up about 6% or 7%. The remaining types are very rare to see manifested in trainers, at least in my own personal experience."

"Amazing…" I reflected. "So after a few years, I will grow faster and stronger?" I asked, leaning forward.

"Well, like I said, the Shift manifests in different ways. It has different effects on everyone. Not everyone increases their attributes by the same factor. And if you are some prodigy outlier, there is a chance that you could experience it sooner than expected. However, that is highly unlikely.

"The fact that my telepathy did not work on you could be due to a multitude of possibilities. The first, which we've covered, is that you are experiencing the Shift at an unprecedented age and manifesting traits that are resistant to psychic-types. Another possibility may be that you have the ability to reject the Shift and other people's traits; also unheard of. Yet another possibility is that you may have some sort of powerful entity preventing you from experiencing my telepathy; a bit more reasonable given that you came here looking for help to rid yourself of a malicious ghost stalker not too long ago."

"How come my Gallade can speak to me then?" I asked.

"Pokemon are different than humans. Psychic pokemon spend their entire lives honing their psychic abilities. It took me much longer to manifest psychic abilities, and therefore I have less of a grasp over it. But even so, I am able to use it effectively. I have yet to find a trainer that can block me out completely or even cause my telepathic qualities to become convoluted. Are you still the subject of a haunting?" he asked.

I nodded and he said, "I thought so. It is highly likely that the ghost is somehow latched onto you. Perhaps through its physical interactions it has embedded itself onto you and is preventing certain abilities from working on you, such as telepathy." His pacing slowed while he used his hands emphatically to explain.

"But that still doesn't explain how Dante is able to speak with me telepathically," I muttered, frustrated.

"Again, humans and pokemon are different. The ghost may be powerful enough to cancel me out, but not your Gallade. Ghosts are stranger than other pokemon given how little we can find out about them. There may be other reasons why it can cancel me out that we don't know about. You should focus on fixing that problem, and if my abilities are still being hampered, then we will consider other possibilities." said Leader Kay.

I sighed, leaned back in the chair, and said, "I hear that a lot…"

"It truly is a debacle," Leader Kay responded, and then sat back down.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"You continue your journey, wherever it may take you. Thank you for coming back to speak with me on this," he said, a note of finality in his tone.

"No problem," I said disappointed.

After I left, I angrily held a training session in the plains outside of Saffron City. I was angry because the Banette was causing so many problems for me and there seemed to be no way to stop it. I was so mad that I lashed out at a nearby tree once during a sprint. I punched a low-hanging branch, and it splintered sideways and fell to the ground. I kept running in my foul mood without paying attention to the fact that I had just shattered a tree branch six inches thick.

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

I prepared for the Dojo by sparring with Dante during practice. Sheila did not want to spar with me, so Dante was the logical choice. Of course, he went easy on me and refrained from using his blades. He always played fair, and to my gratitude, he never messed with me by teleporting or using multiple images. Much to Dante's pleasure, Sheila did not fail to comment on his nobility.

When I was not training, I was contemplating different possible ways to kill the Banette. It had recently assaulted me, which meant that it would most likely attack me again soon. I reviewed the different ways we had killed it before, or rather, the only way we had, which was by tearing it apart. I needed to find a new way of killing it. Dolls were made out of cloth, and one way to destroy cloth was to burn it.

So, my plan was simple; burn it to death. I instructed Gilles and Rufus to accompany me at all times. And when the Banette inevitably revealed itself, I instructed Gilles to subdue it while Rufus used his flamethrower until nothing remained. I also allowed Gilles to use Will-O-Wisp on it, but I did not encounter the ghost before my Dojo challenge.

When the day of my challenge finally arrived, Sheila and I were greeted by the doorman and told to wait. Eventually, three men wearing white dobaks and black belts approached me. The one in the middle bowed to me and said, "Welcome to the Fighting Dojo, Zachariah MacAfee. This is your fourth challenge here. Please come forward."

I did as they told and found myself in the ring. "You have completed the novice rounds. The fourth round is the first of the expert rounds. The competition is much more difficult. This round is about speed and accuracy. The first fighter to hit the other in the chest or the head ten times is the winner. For your pokemon, the rules are somewhat subjective. So, choose your companion."

After a brief moment of thought, I decided to go with my fastest pokemon, Lazarus. I released him as a Hitmonlee appeared in the center of the circle beside the one in which I was standing. One of the three martial artists then said, "For the pokemon fight, 15 hits to win!" The Hitmonlee stretched its lanky leg across its body in preparation.

Then, a man walked into the ring with a black belt wrapped around his waist that was emblazoned with two golden bars. When he entered the ring, two of the other three bowed and backed out. The remaining martial artists stood between me and my opponent. "Take your positions. Every time you land a legal hit, a gong will sound. Every time your opponent lands a legal hit, a horn will sound."

I raised my fists defensively and calmed my nerves while Lazarus took his place in the other arena. My opponent took a readied stance on the balls of his feet. There was a short pause before the refereeing martial artist yelled, "Fight!"

Without waiting, I rushed forward to try to land an early hit, but it was as if my opponent had predicted I would do so. He moved backward, spinning in the process, and brought his heel up to my chin. The kick connected and threw me off of my feet. A horn sounded as I impacted the ground hard on my back, and the wind was driven out of my lungs.

I was not allowed to rest, though. Shortly thereafter, I was lifted to my feet to continue fighting. After all, Lazarus was not taking a break while I was down. The ref shouted, "Fight!" once more. Dazed, I chose a more defensive tactic with the intent to counter. My opponent moved towards me and threw a round-house kick to my side. It was too quick for me to block, and while I reflexively moved my arm down to block his kick, he followed up with a punch to my newly exposed side and a punch to my cheek. Three more sounding of the horn reverberated through the Dojo.

I grew angry that he was already up by four, so I put pressure on him by rushing him, keeping my head protected with my forearms. He struck me twice more in the gut whilst backpedaling, but I managed to punch him in the face twice. Two horns sounded and two gongs rang out.

I continued to put pressure on my opponent, but he bobbed and weaved, dodging all of my strikes. During my reckless attack, which might have resembled a Close Combat fighting technique, the black belt exploited gaps in my offense to land hits. Twice more the horn sounded as I felt the impact of his kicks on my ribs.

After the second hit, I backed off, gripped by fear of losing. I chose then to take a purely defensive stance, and only lash out when I was sure it would not be countered. However, the black belt moved towards me and kicked me in the side of my thigh, causing me to falter to the side. It left me open for a kick to the side and a spinning hook kick to the face, which landed with a crunch. The last kick threw me to the ground once more, and when I hit the ground, I blacked out.

When I awoke, presumably moments later, the match was over. I lost. I sullenly pulled myself off of the ground and felt my nose, recoiling with a wince when it stung at my touch. I looked at my hand to see it marred with blood. "The Dojo is victorious," the ref called out. "With ten to two in the human match, and 12 to 11 in the pokemon match." Lazarus had been trailing behind his opponent, but it was I who had lost the match.

I bowed to my opponent who returned the gesture, and was then ushered out, but not before I was told to stop by a hospital to get my nose checked out. Sheila followed me out and put a hand on my shoulder. I was too dazed to reject her comfort. In fact, several hours passed before I recovered from my bludgeoned stupor. To make things worse, I almost forgot to return Lazarus to his pokeball before I left.

Sheila led me to the hospital, and at one point she said, "I may not be a nurse or a doctor, but I am pretty sure your nose is broken." I had been having trouble breathing through my nose and my hazy stupor allowed me to only grunt in acknowledgement. "I don't think a nose should be pointing to the side," she continued.

I reached up instinctively to investigate what she meant, but recoiled again when pain shot through my face. I groaned in pain and allowed Sheila to walk me the rest of the way to the hospital without focusing on anything, where my nose was realigned and a small bandage was applied to hold it in place. I left with bruises all over my upper body, but none hurt so much as my pride.

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

Two weeks passed, during which Sheila and I trained north of Cerulean for the Nugget Bridge. My loss at the Dojo had hung heavily on my mind for a while until training blocked it out. It had also hung heavily on Lazarus's mind, for he had also lost his battle at the Dojo. I explained to him that it was not his fault that we lost, but he was difficult to placate. After numerous promises of growing stronger so that we would not fail again, Lazarus gradually moved past the loss.

Sheila helped to prepare my team with mock-battles and general support. We continued to pass along the lessons from our gym leader mentors as well, so we were always busy. It was during that two-week period that the Banette struck.

I was out hunting. I had a shot lined up on a Stantler when the ghost appeared directly in front of me. My wrist was immediately wracked with pain, and coupled with the surprise of the ghost's appearance, I released the arrow. It sailed through the Banette's transparent body and missed its target, which bounded away in fright.

The ghost and I stared each other down for less than five seconds before Gilles slammed into it from the shadows. During that five-second period, I saw that there was torn "fabric" on its wrist and on its leg, mirroring my own injuries.

After Gilles slammed into the Banette, he sent a stream of dancing purple fire washing over its body and then grabbed onto it with his shadowy claws. However, the Banette fought back. It launched a ball of shadow at Gilles from its side, whose body trembled at the collision. It looked like it was about to continue, but I released Rufus and sent him in to help with orders to "burn that bastard."

Rufus's flamethrower added to Gilles' paranormal fire and caused the ghost to shriek. It then tried to escape, but Gilles used his shadow to appear in front of the fleeing ghost and latch onto it with his claws. Rufus continued to pour his fire onto the ghost, but hit Gilles in the process. Gilles could only hold on for about six seconds before disappearing with a painful shriek.

The Banette looked faded, but it still tried to run so I yelled, "Fire Blast!" The stream of fire from Rufus's toothy maw ceased, replaced by an intense light, and a second later he issued a ball of fire that crashed into the back of the fleeing ghost. The Fire Blast exploded and set a nearby tree ablaze, but the ghost was down as well.

The Banette collapsed in pool of ectoplasmic goo, much like when Gilles is rendered unconscious. Rufus was on top of the Banette's remains in an instant, pouring more flames onto them in an unending inferno. Seconds later, my wrist stopped burning and Rufus halted his stream of fire. I released Ceto at that point and had her extinguish the spreading fire.

The Banette's remains were no longer there. I paused to see if I felt any different, but I did not. The scars on my wrist and leg were unchanged, though I did not know if they would change at all, and I physically felt no different than before. If I had succeeded in killing it once and for all, then I had no way of knowing.

I was fairly certain that I did not kill it, for fire seemed to be an obvious method tried out before, but I was not going to pass up the possibility just because it seemed too simple to have been overlooked. The most I could do then was to prepare for the next time it showed itself, if it was still "alive". If it shows up again, I thought. Maybe death by dark energy could work…

Before the day of the Nugget Bridge, I had already decided on my team. I went with someone who had never battled there, and someone who had.

When I arrived at the Nugget Bridge, there were more than a few people. Apart from the fact that this was a higher-ranked pokemon competition than normal, which thrill-seekers loved to see, the names of the contestants were posted a few days in advance. I had more than a few fans waiting for me when I walked to the battle grounds.

I was a little more self-conscious than normal, given that my nose was still healing and looked like an ink-blot test. But the warm reception was more than enough to allay my nerves on that matter. Upon entering the stadium, I signed in and took my place among a bunch of other trainers. There were 16 participants in the tournament, which evened out the brackets, and we all clustered in a bleacher set aside for contestants and their guests.

In the stands, there was the normal pre-game trash talking occurring, which, to my chagrin, focused on my nose as soon as I arrived. Someone said, "Hey, look at that kid! I wonder what the other guy looks like!"

Someone else said, "Hey that's that prodigy, MacAfee. Looks like big shots like him are still only human!" Another said, "Look at his face. I bet he fights pokemon himself!"

I refrained from joining in with what I considered juvenile banter. I believed that my actions spoke louder than my words. Trash talking was normal, but then again, so were many of the trainers engaged with the practice. Normal.

The Nugget Bridge started promptly at noon with an introduction by a Nugget Bridge coordinator. The brackets were then randomized and I came out with the second battle against a boy named Jim. I was assigned to field B, and as I made my way there, much of the crowd seated on the bleachers beside field A moved over as well. Before my match started, our stats were listed across a set of screens.

Zachariah MacAfee: 8-0 Gym Record; 2073 Junior Indigo Champion; 2-0 Nugget Bridge.

Jim Palmer: 7-8 Gym Record; 0-3 Nugget Bridge.

Once I took my place in front of Jim, the ref wasted no time in starting the match. I released Dante and Jim released a hulking, brown-furred biped with a tan stomach on which was an empty pouch. Dante flashed his blades at the rare Kangaskhan and prepared to fight. The Kangaskhan, however, much to my surprise, the chagrin of his trainer, and the amusement of the crowd, crossed its arms and glared at its trainer.

Laughter rang out in the crowd and it took me a couple of seconds to realize what was happening. The Kangaskhan was refusing to fight. For whatever reason – it did not respect its trainer, was simply lazy, or some other reason – the Kangaskhan did not feel like obeying its trainer's commands. Dante remained standing at the ready, but I did not order him to attack. After a few minutes, the Kangaskhan was forfeited for refusing to fight.

Jim looked very embarrassed. The crowd was laughing at him but I could only look at him with disappointment. Kangaskhan were very formidable pokemon, but to send one out in a team of two without having a proper hold on it was not only irresponsible, it was also insulting. Jim followed up with a monstrous Arbok.

The purplish-blue scaled cobra coiled up in front of Dante, who looked up at his opponent with a readied glare. "Keep your distance!" I yelled. "Psycho-Cut, Psychic, Psycho-Cut."

Dante's first quartet of psychic blades cut into the Arbok's dense scales and left deep gouges. The Arbok hissed in pain but was abruptly returned to its pokeball. Dante was just as surprised as I was, but the look of defeat in Jim's eyes was enough to say that he knew he did not stand a chance. The crowd laughed once more at Jim's expense as he left the contest and I returned to the bleachers unsatisfied.

Dante was also unsatisfied, but I assured him that he would have the chance to defeat a worthy opponent soon. The rest of the first round progressed over the next hour, some fights much slower than others. Like me, a few other trainers only needed to use one pokemon to win, and in the second round, things started to get heated. There were only eight trainers in round two, for a total of four battles. My fight was with the trainer who had won the battle that had taken place in field A when I was battling.

The trainer's stats read, Caleb Goltree: 7-4 Gym Record; 2073 JIC Contestant; 1-2 Nugget Bridge.

We faced off, Dante in front of me and an Exeggutor in front of Caleb. To begin, the Exeggutor hypnotized Dante as he teleported in to deliver a Night Slash. The Exeggutor then lifted Dante up psychically and slammed him into the ground. He woke up from the impact and sliced the plant pokemon from hip to hip with a dark-infused blade.

I heard Caleb yell, "Wood Hammer," so I quickly responded. The Exeggutor immediately, recklessly slammed its body into Dante, but Dante used Protect at the last second to absorb the blow. He then followed up with another Night Slash, which cut one of the egg-like heads atop the Exeggutor's body in half. The pokemon collapsed thereafter and was returned.

"Great job, Dante!" I called out. He nodded towards me and readied himself for the follow-up competitor. A Raichu appeared next, and I immediately yelled, "Double-Team." Dante split into multiple images while the Raichu started making short, progressively quicker jumps in random directions. The Raichu's agility increased even more as it repeated the technique, but Dante had sprung into action.

Midway through the Raichu's Agility technique, Dante teleported his clones closer and slammed the Raichu with a strong psychic force. The Raichu was stunned momentarily, allowing Dante to teleport in close for a brick break. However, the Raichu's quickened senses allowed it to recover and avoid Dante's attack.

While Dante was in close, the Raichu struck him with a bolt of electricity. I ordered him to teleport away and heal himself, so he teleported his clones to multiple sides of the field, whereupon their bodies glowed while he healed.

Half of them disappeared as the Raichu struck them with lightning. Before it could take out another image or hit the real Dante, I said, "Teleport in, Close Combat."

Dante appeared on two opposite sides of the Raichu and unleashed an uncontrolled, yet relentless, barrage of powerful strikes. It quickly became obvious on which side Dante was attacking due to the fact that the Raichu was pushed in one direction. Within a couple seconds, the Raichu was thrown to the ground with cuts and bruises marring its body.

"Great job, Dante!" I yelled again before returning him. I was declared the victor and I returned to the bleachers amidst cheers from the spectators. A few minutes later, I watched the next battle on the field in front of me. One of the trainers – a girl a little older than me – wore a black band shirt, and during her battle, her Graveler was knocked out by her opponent's Swampert. She then released a pokemon which gave the audience a reason to gasp in fear. I even let out a gasp of surprise.

"That is… horrifying…" murmured Sheila with a look on her face that mirrored her sentiment.

The trainer's pokeball released into her shadow. A shadowy hand then reached out and grabbed her leg as if it was pulling itself out of her shadow. Deep red eyes appeared and a mouth full of needle-like teeth spread beneath them. It finally stepped out in front of her and a feeling of dread filled the area. She had a Gengar.

It let out a deep laugh, almost as deep as the Banette's, with what sounded like high-pitched screaming mixed in. The trainer's opponent balked in fear and hesitantly issued orders. What followed was a relatively quick battle in which the Gengar ripped its opponents apart from their shadows. There were a few cheers and clapping afterwards, but in general the crowd was shaken by the spectacle.

The girl simply returned her Gengar and strode over to the medical facility as if she was used to that kind of reception. At that point in the tournament, the trainer's section in the bleachers was relatively silent. The trash talking by the trainers had since ceased and was replaced by competitive focus on the matches.

My curiosity got the better of me and I left the bleachers. I made my way to the pokemon medical facility where Dante was currently healing, and found the girl in the black shirt waiting nearby. "Excuse me, do you have a moment?" I asked.

She looked at me with dark brown eyes and a few seconds later sarcastically replied, "Well, well. The great MacAfee wants to speak with me? What an honor."

"You know who I am?" I asked, ignoring the sarcasm.

"Obviously. Let me guess; you want to know about Gengar," she said.

"Yes… I've been to Lavender Town and Professor Sharpe with the Paranormal Research Center couldn't tell me anything on them," I replied.

"So what makes you think I would?" she asked.

"I don't know. I guess I was just hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction. If not, then I was curious of how your Gengar changed when it evolved. More than physically," I explained, annoyed at the girl's rude demeanor.

The girl rolled her eyes and said, "Curiosity killed the Delcatty. You think your Haunter is mean and sadistic? A Gengar is ten times that. If you actually thought about how Gastly are created, and if you know anything about evolution, then you would know that certain traits evolve, too. A Gengar is everyone's worst nightmare; the Boogeyman. Did you ever think there was a reason for that?"

I quelled the urge to call her out on her rudeness. I was afraid of the answer, and she confirmed those fears, albeit less than amiably. Not wanting to interact with such an abrasive person any longer, I said, "I think you've told me all I needed to know… Thanks for your… input."

The girl scoffed, rolled her eyes again, and turned away. Returning to the bleachers, thought, I hope evolving Gilles will not make me like her.

Sheila was waiting for me expectantly. "What did you find out?"

"In a nutshell? That that girl is rude and that Gengar are mean," I replied, my annoyance still lingering. Sheila only laughed.

The remainder of round two passed by with me contemplating possible methods to evolve Gilles, and possible ways to permanently kill that troublesome Banette. Round three was the semifinal round, and I was bracketed with a boy whose stats read, James Finney: 8-8 Gym Record; 1-0 Nugget Bridge.

Despite being the semifinal match, the fight was relatively quick. I led with Dante and James led with a Venusaur. Dante stayed at a distance and attacked with psychic blades while dodging vine whips and a solar beam. Then he faced a Typhlosion who traded blows with Dante in close quarters before succumbing to Dante's superior skills.

The other semifinals match was between the girl, whose name was Annie, and a boy by the name of Tyrone. Tyrone led with a Lucario and Annie led with her Graveler. The Lucario made short work of the Graveler but then her Gengar defeated the Lucario just as easily as it had defeated her Graveler. The final battle was between Annie's Gengar and Tyrone's Houndoom.

Tyrone had managed to avoid using his Houndoom up until this point, so I was pleasantly surprised. It was a good opportunity to see how someone else was using a Houndoom's abilities. The first thing the Houndoom did was let out a howl and a dark pulse. The Dark Pulse was different, though. It spread out in every direction and then lingered. It was as if the arena was cast in dim lighting.

The lingering darkness seemed to have an effect on the Gengar as well. Whereas it could once move like water within the shadows, it was now forced to move regularly within the large bubble. In other words, the Dark Pulse was preventing the Gengar from using the shadows to its advantage.

The Gengar may have been significantly hampered, but it was not helpless. It was still fast and it still hit hard. The Houndoom took a hit by the Gengar's claws during its dark-type assault on the ghost, which left a deep, poisoned gash. However, in the end, the Houndoom's relentless use of Dark Pulses caused the Gengar's body to collapse before the ghost could defeat the hell hound.

With Annie's loss, I readied myself for a battle against a Lucario and the Houndoom. I still had not used Azrael, my second pokemon, so I had the advantage. Both the Lucario and the Houndoom looked like well-raised fighters, but I secretly believed that Azrael could take both of them without a problem. I was similarly confident in Dante's abilities.

Normally I would lead with Azrael because he was the wild card. But I was intensely curious about the Houndoom's pulse technique. It worked very well against ghost types, but I had a theory that it was useful for more than ghosts. To test my theory, I started with Dante.

Tyrone's stats read, Tyrone Jenkins: 8-4 Gym Record; 2-1 Nugget Bridge; 2073 JIC Contestant.

My opponent looked like he was deep in thought as we squared up. His stats had read that he participated in the JIC, but he did not even reach the top eight. He knew I was the champion, but despite that fact, he looked hopeful. It was as if this was a chance for him to upset an impressive record and gain some fame.

He led with his Houndoom, which broke his trend, and was very surprised when I led with Dante. He was obviously expecting me to lead with my hidden team mate. But even though he was surprised, a smile crept over his lips. His reaction only reaffirmed my theory. And if his reaction was not enough, the first thing he ordered his Houndoom to do was to use that pulse, yelling, "Trap him!"

The Houndoom let out the pulse and it quickly engulfed the entire area. J'Kun! I cannot seem to teleport! I heard in my head.

"Paralyze him and get in close!" I yelled. Dante issued an electric pulse that hit the Houndoom as it fired a line of fire at him. The Houndoom's muscles seized, which gave Dante enough time to run up to the hell hound and deliver an uncontested punch to its ribs. A crack! was heard and the Houndoom yelped. It quickly took advantage of a lull in its paralysis to fire a point-blank fireball into Dante, who was not quick enough to bring up his protective barrier.

The fire blast knocked Dante back, but he quickly recovered as I ordered him to use another brick break. Dante slammed his palm into the same place as before, and another sickening crunch was heard. This time, though, the trainer recalled his pokemon before Dante could injure him further.

"Good job, Dante, but I think it's Azrael's turn. Dante bowed to me before I switched him out for Azrael. Azrael gave an entrance bellow as he is wont to do, and stared down his opponent. Tyrone had a nervous expression which was stricken with hints of hopelessness. But he did not back down.

The Lucario sped diagonally to the side, but Azrael sent a strong Bulldoze surging towards it. The Lucario managed to jump high into the air and actually clear the wave. As it fell, it launched a focused blast that smote Azrael in the chest. Azrael roared and I ordered him to repeat the move. Once again, the Lucario jumped over the wave of earth. This time, however, as soon as the metal fighter left the ground, I yelled, "Tomb-and-Whip!"

I saw Tyrone's face fall as an expression of satisfaction crossed mine. The Lucario fell right into the tomb of quicksand, becoming completely buried. Azrael waited by the side, poised to finish the combo. No doubt Tyrone remembered the combo at the JIC, but he thought that his Lucario could take the hit because he did not return it.

The Lucario's metal-clawed hand appeared at the edge of the sand tomb and pulled its body up. About half of its body was out of the sand when Azrael's tail slammed into its side. The Lucario was thrown across the field and almost smashed into the bleachers. Of course the fans loved it and cheered instead of being fearful that a several-hundred-pound steel pokemon almost collided with them.

To the Lucario's credit, it rose to its feet after a short pause. I ordered Azrael to hold so that the Lucario could put some distance between itself and the stands. When it rushed forward and issued another Focus Blast, I stomped and slid my foot forward.

Azrael dug into the earth and erupted underneath the Lucario seconds later, launching it into the air. As it sailed above Azrael, I told him to use Flamethrower, but the Tyrone recalled the Lucario before it could be massacred.

The crowd cheered as I was announced the winner for my third consecutive Nugget Bridge challenge. I could not help but think that it was unbearably easy. Never once did I feel strained, which almost took the thrill out of the tournament. It made me think that in order to find the kind of thrill that I was looking for, I would need to earn more badges and defeat the Elite 4.

The award for my third victory in a row at the 7-8 badge level was a gold nugget, 750PB, and the choice of any elemental stone. I chose to look at it economically. I knew that my current thunderstone was too small for Lazarus, and that the thunderstone I could choose here would be about the right size. However, I also knew that dusk stones were the most valuable of the elemental stones, and that I could sell one for enough money to buy an adequate thunderstone while also having a little left over.

I chose the most valuable and then purchased what I needed. True enough, I ended up with the thunderstone and 250PB. After that, I immediately left the city with Sheila to experiment with the stone.

We teleported a few miles north and I released my team. I hefted the stone and said to Lazarus, "Let's see what you can do. What do you say?" Lazarus excitedly listened while I told him to put as much electricity into an attack as possible and release it into the stone.

I backed up a fair distance before telling him to begin. He held the stone in his hand and he glowed before emptying a powerful thunderbolt into the stone. He lifted the stone in the air for me to see, and I saw it faintly glowing. "Oh well, I guess it was a little optimistic to think that you would get in on the first try. Don't worry, we'll get you there," I said, walking back to him.

As I reached out for the stone, Sheila yelled out, "STOP! Don't touch it!" I stopped short and looked at her confused. "Those stones hold the charge for a little while, you dope! Do you think you can take a full thunderbolt from Lazarus?"

I felt my cheeks heat up. "I guess it would be better not to be a lightning rod…"

"Ya think?" Sheila said sarcastically.

So I waited. I waited around half an hour, during which time the stone gradually stopped glowing. When I thought it was safe, I picked it up, only to get electrocuted by what remained in the stone, which was actually quite a lot. The shock caused me to fall over and my muscles to tense for several seconds. As I lay on the ground, my body wracked with spasms, Azrael descended on me with concern.

When I recovered, I coughed and sat up with Azrael's help. "So much for not being a lightning rod…"

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

A couple of days later, I once again met at Aoro's house in Pewter City early in the morning. Sheila did not accompany me, as I thought it would have been rude to invite her. Instead, she stayed with her sister for the time being. When I arrived, Aoro was midway through packing his supplies onto his Fearow.

"Morning, Zachariah!" he proclaimed with a wave.

"Good morning," I replied. "How are you?"

"Can't complain. Will be better when we get to the valley," he responded.

"Same place as last time, then?" I asked.

"Yeah, same place. Hurry up and get set up," he told me, tightening a strap around his duffle bag. "I would rather get there before sundown if you don't mind."

I wasted no time releasing Azrael and packing my things onto him. After I finished, we took to the sky heading north. Aoro had exaggerated about the flight time, for it only took us a couple of hours to arrive. When we touched down, we made camp and released our teams. Upon doing so, Aoro said, "Well look what we have here!" looking at Lazarus and Saraph. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting your Electabuzz or your Charmeleon."

Saraph stared at Aoro, trying to intimidate him, which caused Aoro to laugh. "True to the line of Charizard! You don't scare me!" Saraph bared her teeth defiantly and a tongue of fire licked through their gaps. "You think you're tough?" he asked. "I think it's time we established who should be afraid of who!"

With that, Aoro's team lined up beside him. "So, Lazarus and Saraph, this is my team. This is Crusher, Samus, Reaper, Brawler, Dice, and Coco," he introduced, pointing at his Aggron, Golem, Kabutops, Poliwrath, Scizor, and Exeggutor respectively. "And this is Fry and Marla," he finished, pointing at his Fearow and Blissey respectively.

"We are going to whip you all into shape for the next five weeks. I bet you all think you're hot shit right now, but you still have a lot to learn. You all have done well with what I've taught you so far, but it isn't good enough! EVERY attack must be blocked! Not just when it's convenient or easy. We strive for perfection!

"You want to compete with the best teams? You want to win against them? Then throw away your pride and submit to perfection! We will not go easy. You've had our sympathy before, but inexperience is no longer an excuse! You want to be the best? Then you train like the best. You will feel pain! You will be pushed past your limits! But you will succeed! You will feel victory in the end! Now get your asses to that cliff and back! Last one back starts the game of bludgeon tag!" he barked, pointing a cliff roughly three miles away.

As the pokemon sped off, Aoro yelled, "NO FLYING" and then stuck a hand out in front of Saraph. "You will watch for now. You do not have experience with this game, so it is unfair for you to participate."

Saraph was not happy, and she blew a small ember onto Aoro's outstretched hand. Quicker than she could react, Aoro jabbed towards her, grabbed her tongue while her mouth was open, and lifted his arm into the air. Saraph was put in an extremely uncomfortable position. I only stared dumbfounded at his aggressive show of dominance and listened as he said, "Let's get something straight! I will have obedience here! You may think that just because you are not participating right now that the rules on perfection do not apply to you. You are wrong!"

Saraph groaned and struggled. She reached up and tore at Aoro's arms with her razor-sharp claws, but she only left white pressure lines on his skin that faded shortly thereafter. I thought with a grimace that if she had done the same to my arm, I might not have one left.

"Now, since you are so eager to begin the lesson, get your ass to the cliff and back, too! For every minute I have to wait after the last of the others gets back, you start a day of Bludgeon Tag!" He let go of Saraph's tongue and she snarled at him before racing off on all-fours.

About twenty minutes later, I was not surprised to see Ceto arrive last. And so, without allowing her to rest, or any of the others for that matter, Aoro ordered the game to begin. My team was able to take a few more hits from Aoro's team this year compared to last year. In the year between our training camps, I had helped them to improve their abilities to deflect, dodge, and block.

Of course they were nowhere near perfect. And Lazarus and Saraph were unsurprisingly less attuned to Aoro's defensive training than the rest of their teammates - Saraph simply because of a lack of experience on my team, and Lazarus similarly so, though he at least had some experience with it.

Aoro did not let his team go easy on any of my pokemon apart from Saraph. He started easy on Lazarus, but was holding him to his team's standard by the end of the first week. Saraph never advanced far enough throughout the training camp to take normal hits from Aoro's elite pokemon without being knocked out instantly, though she did advance to a roughly similar point at which the rest of my team had been the previous year in regard to defense.

During the course of the training camp, I lost count of how many times a member of my team passed out or was knocked out. Every night my team relished the chance to rest in their pokeballs, except for Azrael, who chose to sleep with me instead. I could relate to their exhaustion, for Aoro worked me comparatively hard. Every morning started a three mile jog, which increased to five miles by the end of camp. Immediately afterwards, and with no rest, we began sparring practice in which Aoro relentlessly used me as a punching bag despite my desperate attempts to defend myself. And every other day we would climb that damned cliff face.

It only took me a week to reach the point where I did not fall at any point during my climb. But then Aoro started upping the ante. Two weeks in, Aoro started ordering his Fearow, Fry, to buffet us with gusts of wind to make the climb more difficult. A week after that, Aoro started setting a timed pace, and by the end of camp, he was timing every climb with the stipulation that we lower it each and every time. Luckily for me, in spite of my body's physical protests, I drove myself to beat my time every climb.

The rest of the camp was spent guiding our teams, learning with them about our capabilities, exercising, and conducting objectives operations. The objectives operations were introduced after a week and a few days, during which time Aoro would occasionally ask me about my travels and experiences as if he was searching for something. I suspected that he was not being forthcoming about what he really wanted to discuss, and the day that the operations were introduced, my suspicions were confirmed.

It began with a simple conversation. I had told Aoro that I was interested in joining Ace during one of our jogs, and he had replied, "You wanna try for ACE, do yeh? Why?"

"Because only the best trainers can. And like you told me last year, it is the duty of those of us capable of protecting the balance of power between pokemon and humans to preserve that balance so that humanity can continue to exist," I explained to him, cutting through the overgrown makeshift jogging path.

"A noble answer," Aoro replied, staying beside me. "But to say it is your duty does not imply that it is something you desire. Of course it doesn't imply the opposite, but the point is that it implies an obligation instead of desire."

"I want to be the best," I responded without hesitation. "Responsibility comes with the territory."

"So service is a secondary motivation?" Aoro asked. "And you want to join Ace primarily to prove that you are the best?"

I understood how simple it sounded by the way he asked. "I do want to be the best, but I would say that instead of being a secondary motive, it's actually a contingent motive. I can help people right now, but my impact would be much greater if I was capable of doing things that no one else could. The best way I can think of using my power as the best trainer is to help people who need it. To me, they both go hand-in-hand, but one is necessary for the other."

We ran along in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Aoro said, "That is acceptable to me. I can, in good conscience, foster the development of a leader with those motives. However, I still want to know to whom you are referring when you say that you want to help people."

We reached a small stream and splashed through. "Civilization in general, I suppose," I responded, taken off guard. "Why do you ask?"

"There are many different types of people with different goals. Right now, the government of Hoenn is sanctioning attacks on an entirely peaceful group of people – those of the Sevii Islands – because they believe that they are doing those people a favor. Are those the people you wish to help?" Aoro pressed.

"This is starting to sound like an interrogation," I proclaimed, slowing down a little.

Aoro slowed down as well and we came to a halt. "I just want to know who I am training. It takes great sacrifice and great resolve to be Ace, including the ability to set aside personal ambition for the sake of the mission."

Something about the way he talked to me spoke of an underlying wisdom. "You sound like you know a lot about Ace."

"I do. I was a Major in the Ace corps," Aoro replied.

"A-an officer?" I stammered.

"Yes, I even served as Captain over Leader Williamson's squad during the Sinnoh Incursion, and I was promoted to Major during the Johto Nationalist Uprising," he recounted, a sparkle in his eye showing an underlying flashback.

"But we did not get involved with the Johto uprising…" I said, fearing the answer which inevitably followed. The Uprising was quelled after almost five years of terroristic activity by people who wanted to establish Johto as an official "best nation in the world," much like Hoenn. They killed non-Johtans in the name of superiority. From what I remember about my history lessons, there never seemed to be a shortage of large groups being formed around killing innocent people.

"Of course we didn't," Aoro said with a wink. "Anyway, I have a career in Ace behind me, so sometimes it is difficult to escape. You can probably grasp that much. After all, I'm sure you remember I was there at Meteor Camp Delta 3A. And while we're on that topic, you looked like you had just crawled out of hell itself; welts all over your body; not to mention the blood. I want to know what happened."

Instantly, my blood ran cold. I could see the face of Lazarus's trainer flash in my memory, covered in blood, lifeless. "You can tell me, Zachariah," Aoro said.

"I-I told Elite McGall everything. Did you not hear from him?" I asked, my voice shaky.

"I want to hear it from you. I want to see it from your eyes. The League has its eye on you, and before we went off the grid, there was probably someone listening to everything you said. That PokeDex is more than just a tool for you, you know? It is also a tool for the League to keep tabs on its members."

I recoiled at the thought that my PokeDex was spying on me. I did not have to worry about it at the moment, seeing as how it was back at camp, but I was deeply unsettled. "I want to know what happened, Zachariah. I'm going to level with you. I hope you can see it logically and for what it is. I asked you out here for two reasons. The first, and far more important, is that I want to help you train for the next step. I've seen potential in you since you entered my gym. The second is that I need to know what happened at that Meteor base. As your mentor, I hope you can understand why I need to know. My work has gone into shaping you. I don't want to hear only what you are comfortable recounting. I want to hear the truth."

My sweat from the jog had turned cold. "I know it affects you, Zachariah. I can see it. Please."

Finally, I said, "…I went in to save a kid. But I also went in with the desire to kill. To kill monsters. The kid was a convenient excuse…" I could feel my eyes welling up. "But in the process, I found myself more concerned about saving that kid. Getting back at the Meteors was satisfying at first… But when I actually saw the kid being carried out by his Machoke… That became the priority. I almost felt like putting him at the forefront of my focus, over the din of murderous monsters… I wanted nothing more than to save him. And when they killed him…" Tears were running down my cheek as I choked up.

Aoro put a large hand on my shoulder and pressured me into a sitting position. He sat beside me and said, "Hate is a powerful force. It can drive people to extraordinary lengths. But hate is an emotion. A leader strives to move past emotion. Wanting to save someone who needed your help; that is principle. That is noble. Even if you went in with less than noble intentions, you say that the principle of saving the helpless was the dominant drive."

Aoro's explanation made me realize that I never actually had negative flashbacks to carnage that I wrought. My traumatic memories had more to do with Lazarus's trainer being killed in front of me. My traumatic memories had more to do with the truly monstrous quality of Prescott's and Nicole's mindsets, and the inhumanity of my own actions towards Prescott.

"You need say no more. Your mind is a volatile thing, Zachariah. You must strive to cultivate a healthy, balanced mindset and not to give in to emotion when lives are at stake," Aoro said, squeezing my shoulder. "That I cannot help you with. But I can help you prepare for the practical side.

"If you are truly serious about joining ACE, then I can help you prepare," Aoro continued. "ACE is the most difficult service to join for good reasons. The Rangers protect civilization with the help and comradery of pokemon. The military protects civilization with the help of weaponry. Ace must be better than both. They use both pokemon and weaponry, or are better than one with the other. They must succeed where the other two fail.

"Ace teams are comprised of both pokemon and humans with deadly effectiveness. If you want to join Ace, then you must be just as competent as your pokemon in a fight while also being able to work with other people and their pokemon. Conversely, your pokemon must be able to work with other people and their pokemon, and any other combination thereof. You and your team must be versatile, smart, and in turn, deadly, because Ace responsibilities include target neutralization, reconnaissance, infiltration, retrieval, and so on."

"We can learn," I said eagerly.

"Good," Aoro replied. "Because starting tomorrow, I am going to start training you in objective scenarios to develop strategy and team dynamic. Most Ace teams are made up of three to five people, and they each bring one to two pokemon on missions depending on the nature of the mission and the specializations required. That means that there will be a host of pokemon working with you that belong to other trainers and vice versa.

"To get your team comfortable working with other people and pokemon, we will be mixing it up. Luckily for you, my team is comfortable working with other people if they are shown respect and if I tell them to. In the future, the pokemon you team up with may not be comfortable working with you, so here are some basic guidelines to establish respect and build rapport…"

Aoro's lessons then evolved to lethal combat training instead of sparring for physical exercise, though we continued to do the latter on the side. We started holding the objectives scenarios every other day, alternating with our cliff scrambles.

The scenarios that Aoro conducted included Capture the Flag, retrieval or planting operations, and recon operations where we had to trail Aoro or his pokemon without them noticing and record what they did over a certain length of time.

To set the stage for the operations, certain ground and rock types from Aoro's and my team created underground tunnel arenas, and we all worked together to make above-ground scenario fields quickly. Sometimes we would even use the entire valley for day-long operations.

During the operations, Aoro would assign the teams. Sometimes he joined me and put some of his pokemon together with mine. Other times he mixed our teams up in other ways. It was all to develop a versatile mindset for me and my team, which was difficult at first. Working alone with my team was what I was exceptional at, but in the end, my ability to lead my team, regardless of its composition, flourished. Aoro took note of this after a few weeks and told me that it was a good sign.

By the end of the third week, there had been noticeable improvement with my team. Out of my entire team, Saraph improved the most. Her skill and her level rose quickly, but her body was not yet ready to evolve despite the rate at which she improved. When I mentioned that to Aoro, he explained that having an expert or elite team gives a trainer the ability to quickly develop new members of his or her team. Unfortunately, the process is a form of power-leveling.

"Pokemon still need to physically develop before they can evolve; some moreso than others," he explained. "Saraph will need at a least a couple months before she will evolve at her current physical state, even with the exceptional training she is receiving. Just pay attention to her needs while training her further. Make sure that she is receiving enough protein to support her changing body. If she hurts herself from straining too hard, make sure she rests."

I took what he said to heart and made a mental note to keep an eye on Saraph. She had warmed up to me since I started training when she realized that I offered a valuable opportunity for her to grow quickly. However, that was not the same as her viewing us as her family. She was still very independent and sometimes extremely stubborn when taking orders. It felt like a begrudging acceptance, rather than eagerness, whenever she agreed to follow through with my commands.

It was a matter of time. I had only been working with her for a month and a half, so of course she was not going to be as loyal as the rest of my team. More time needed to pass for me to build rapport with the small dragon and for her to accept the team as her family. Until then, I could only help her grow stronger.

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

I lay flat on the ground, my face brushing the soft grass. It was dark, but I could see a small light cutting through the darkness. I knew that Dante was being held in an area half of a square mile in size at the center of the valley, but I did not know where in that area. He was held captive specifically so that he could not translate for me.

This was our fifth scenario, and trying to communicate with a team of both Aoro's pokemon and mine without a translator was slowly becoming easier. Trainers can develop the ability to convey intentions nonverbally to their pokemon, and Dante's presence only stifled my need to develop that ability. Our goal was to find Dante, free him, and leave with as little commotion as possible.

We also needed to abide by certain rules. I could use my bow, but without tips, to hit any of my opponents. Depending on where they were hit dictated what they could do. If I hit them in the head, they were required to fall to the ground and lay there until they were found. If I hit them in the chest or back, they were allowed to cry out before falling. If I hit them anywhere else, then they were free to act normally.

For our pokemon, they were allowed to sneak up on each other in order to land a valid hit. If they succeeded, then their prey would need to fall to the ground and wait. Of course, if the defending pokemon saw the attack coming, it could cry out as well and defend itself. Once on the ground, the pokemon could be moved, if the mover was capable of doing so.

We had finally made a move towards the center of the valley and had encountered patrolling pokemon. I only traveled with Rufus outside of his pokeball, and I only had the pokeballs of him, Ceto, Lazarus, and Reaper in my possession. We had chosen to wait several hours until the sun dipped below the horizon and plunged us all into nocturnal darkness before advancing, and it seemed to be the right decision. We were able to sneak past Aoro's enormous starter, Crusher, but as we started closing in on the center of the valley, I grew more cautious.

So far, Aoro had won every scenario that we had enacted, but I felt confident this time. Rufus and I had been working on a new technique inspired by the Houndoom at the Nugget Bridge in order to combat a significant weakness that had been our undoing in past scenarios. The technique allowed us to hide in more ways than one.

At the moment, we were hiding in between two bushes where we could see the fire from Saraph's tail moving through the forest. I looked to Rufus and waved my palm across my face. He reacted by sending out a dark pulse that encapsulated an area of about ten feet in diameter around us. The sound of the pulse was muffled and the darkness provided by the pulse lingered. We were now within an area more devoid of light than anywhere else, which was an effective way to hide from Saraph.

I had my bow across my chest at the ready, but it was not for Saraph. Saraph held a constant natural light source about her, which made her unique. She was easy to spot, which would make her a prime target. I knew that Aoro was aware of that, so not taking her out was a wise choice. The bow was for her backup. Since Saraph stood out so easily, she was bound to have a partner in case I made the mistake of attacking her.

I waited for her to pass before I released Lazarus and Reaper. Aoro's Kabutops was beside me in the darkened bubble. The pulse hid the flashes of light from the pokeballs, but it did not dampen the noise that they made, which is why I had waited for Saraph to pass by. Then we waited inside the bubble.

A few minutes later, I noticed the silhouette of a large shrub moving through the area. I smiled. It was perfect. The second cover that the dark bubble offered us was the cover from psychic derivation. We were hidden from Coco's ability to find us psychically, which gave us the opportunity to mount an effective attack against it.

I took out an arrow and motioned to Reaper before moving that hand alongside the arrow through the air. It was the order for a simultaneous attack. Then I pointed at Reaper, pointed to the ground, and motioned to the far side of the moving plant. Reaper then dug down into the ground while I motioned Rufus to hold tight. He could maintain the cover, but moving around while doing so was still difficult for him. Then, I pointed at Lazarus and clenched a fist.

I carefully lined up a shot while Lazarus tensed beside me. I exhaled and released the arrow. It made a light whistling noise as it sailed through the air, but it stopped several feet away from one of the Exeggutor's four coconut-like heads in mid-air. It looked around, not being able to detect us in the dark cover, and I motioned for my team to act. The Exeggutor's body twisted around and deflected a scythe from Aoro's large arthropod with its knee.

Less than a second later, Lazarus's electrified fist slammed into Coco's back. Coco flew forward into Reaper from the impact and recovered. It paused and three of the four coconut heads twisted around to hide their faces, leaving one with a pouting expression. It sat down on the ground reluctantly afterward.

I smiled and motioned Rufus forward, his cover dissipating as he obeyed. When I reached them, I whispered, "Let's move him into brush," and we all pushed him into the nearest bush. I returned all of them except for Rufus after some brief praise.

Keeping most of my team in their pokeballs as opposed to outside had many benefits. Less pokemon out meant less chance to get caught; we left less evidence to track, we would cause our opponents to be wary of other locations when they did not see all of us together, and it lessened the burden on me to keep tabs on multiple pokemon.

So, with Rufus by my side, we continued on, keeping quiet. In the moonlight with no other sources of illumination, we were able to pass unseen, with the moon providing me with enough light to see where I was going. After about 20 minutes, we started hearing the gurgling of the stream that cut the valley in half. When we arrived at its banks, I stopped to think.

Within a couple of minutes, I had thought of a way to get across without drawing attention to us. I waved my hand over my face again, and Rufus let out his dark pulse-cover. Then I released Ceto and looked at Rufus. I pointed to the far side of the 25-foot-wide stream.

Rufus moved back, letting his cover dissipate, and then sprinted towards the water's edge. When he reached the water, he jumped. In the dark, his body turned pitch black and elongated like a solid shadow that warped through the air and over the river. He landed on the other side, his body materializing as his momentum carried him a few extra yards away from the river.

I then looked down to Ceto and angled my arm like a spear towards the stream. Grabbing ahold of Ceto's crest and standing on her tail, which she angled back for a foothold, I prepared myself for travel across the river. Ceto used a wave to get us across, displacing much of the water around her until we reached the other side where we emerged on the shore.

I patted Ceto on the head and returned her to her pokeball under Rufus's cover. We progressed further, entering the zone where Dante was kept. Eventually, after almost an hour of moving silently, we came to the edge of clearing in which Dante was tied to a dead tree. I looked around and saw no one guarding him.

Immediately, I grew wary. I looked up and around, but saw nothing. Then, with realization, I looked at the ground. I held very still and told Rufus to cover us once more while I released Ceto. I looked at her, pointed to the ground, made a levitation motion with my palm, pointed at Dante, and then climbed on her back once more.

We slowly levitated across the clearing to Dante, and when we arrived, I cut his bonds. I made sure to not throw them on the ground, for Azrael might be lurking below us and might detect their impact. To get us all back, I had Ceto return Dante first while I hung from the dead tree. Ceto then returned for me and transported us back to the tree line.

I held back a smile of triumph, for the mission was only halfway complete. I returned Ceto and allowed Dante to ride on the back of Rufus. Then I set a return course divergent from my original path. When I was halfway to the river, I noticed the light of Saraph's tail drawing nearer from up ahead and to the side.

I curved my course away from Saraph to avoid her, but during the next ten minutes, her tail seemed to still be moving towards us despite our attempts to elude her. I made the decision then to take her out of the game. I readied my bow and hid in a bush.

About five minutes later, Saraph moved through the area with her snout pointed upwards. I took that opportunity to release an arrow, which sailed through the air and hit her muzzle. She recoiled with a small jet of fire from her throat and looked at the direction from where it had come with a pissed off expression. Without hesitation, Saraph stomped on my arrow and broke it in half.

That pissed me off, but I did not make a scene that would alert anyone to our position. Instead, I begrudgingly allowed Saraph to get away with it. In turn, she seemed disappointed when she did not receive a reaction. With a mopey grumble, she sat down on the ground and started breaking the halves of my arrow into smaller pieces.

Soon after we started moving again, we heard a distant roar in the direction from which Saraph had come. I took that as a queue to pick up the pace. I moved towards the river at an angle away from the roar, but not long after, I heard another roar that sounded distinctly like Azrael's coming from the direction in which I was heading. I was then forced to run to the river straight on so that I was not heading closer to either of my opponents.

Less than ten minutes later we heard the gurgle of the river ahead. With some urgency, we started running towards it. While I ran, I took out Ceto's pokeball. I aimed it in front of me so that she would not need to go very far, but before I touched the button to release her, my foot caught something in the grass. I fell forward as my leg was yanked back and up, and my head hit the ground hard before I was pulled into the air. My vision was foggy for a few moments, and I had dropped Ceto's pokeball.

I looked down to see Rufus trying to defend himself from Dice, Aoro's Scizor. But before I could issue any commands, I heard a whistle from the tree branches directly beside me. I looked to see Aoro sitting on a branch and giving me a little wave. I pulled my fists up in front of me into a defensive position.

"Ha! You think you can fight your way outta this one, Zachariah?" Aoro asked with a laugh. "Look beside you."

I looked to my right to see nothing but trees, but then all of a sudden, a glaring ghostly visage appeared with a scream right in front of me, causing me to recoil with fright. The sound of Gilles laughing then filled the air as I hung helplessly. I sighed.

"That's right, Zachariah. Now where did you go wrong?" Aoro asked.

"I don't know… I attacked Coco?" I asked, feeling the blood running to my head.

"Good answer. But wrong," Aoro said, allowing his legs to swing from the branch. "It was before then. You crossed the river and affected the flow. The ripple traveled downstream which alerted Brawler that you had come from this general direction. Then, you took out Coco. You were almost fast enough to keep her from sending out a small distress call. What was your fatal mistake?"

I sighed again. "I don't know. Can you let me down from here!?" I asked, swinging back and forth upside-down.

"Nah, I think we can hang out here for a little while longer," he said with a shameless chuckle at his own pun. "Your fatal mistake was letting yourself get funneled into this trap. It was pretty obvious that you were being led."

I frowned, making sense of what he said. I had played into his hands once more in these scenarios. My frustration was temporarily abetted when I felt Gilles scratching at my raised calf, creating a tickling sensation. "Stop it, Gilles!" I yelled, but he only cackled in response and intensified his tickling.

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

The end of our training camp drew to a close much too early, it seemed. My pokemon had grown leaps and bounds in more ways than one. My team as a whole was tougher than ever, had faster reflexes with which to dodge, block, counter, or protect, and they all were measurably stronger. We also had a much closer dynamic as a result of working together as a team to accomplish Aoro's scenarios.

Apart from the overall improvement, each of my pokemon improved something else personal to themselves. Azrael's scales grew harder and thicker, and I had given him the TM for Stone Edge with which he was growing proficient.

Gilles was faster than ever, and his mass seemed darker than ever before. Instead of being able to easily see through him, his mass was almost tangible. Furthermore, his Nightmare technique was growing superb.

Rufus and I worked on and made progress with the dark covering technique. By the end of camp, Rufus was keeping his Dark Pulse stationary around him for long periods of time, but it would drop if he was strained too much and lost focus. He also improved further with his shadow melding ability.

Ceto improved with her rain dance ability, being able to call upon more quantities of water than ever. Her scales also hardened and thickened like Azrael's.

Dante was always improving his distance and stamina with teleportation, and his speed and power increased by a greater margin.

Lazarus improved in his speed and power, but more notably in the latter. It seemed that it was all he was allowed to do in his free time in order to raise the power behind his electricity. He even started learning how to use the most powerful electric technique known - Thunder. It was only rudimentary by the end of camp, and unfortunately, he was still not strong enough to create an electrilizer by the time we left.

Lastly, Saraph improved measurably in almost all aspects of combat. She had grown about a foot over the month, and her scales were darkening. Most notably to my relief, she had started to act more friendly towards my team, as if she was gradually coming to respect us. She still had much farther to go, but I picked up on the subtle signs that she gave, such as actually listening the first time I gave an order.

Overall, my team had never been in better shape, and I was very confident in our abilities. Aoro's training had even affected me personally.

On our last cliffside ascent, I actively tried to pass up Aoro, but of course that was impossible. He just always knew where to grab onto, and it seemed like he never tired. The wind that battered us from Fry's gusts hardly seemed to affect him at all, but they occasionally knocked me off balance and forced me to pause in order to catch and stabilize myself.

He reached the top of the cliff five minutes before me, and when I reached the top, we immediately started sparring. He jabbed the side of his palm towards my throat and I blocked it to the side. I then followed up with an elbow to his sternum but he countered that with his own elbow, smashing it against mine to inflict a little pain in the process.

We continued to counter each other for around ten minutes before Aoro changed the game. It transitioned into a light boxing match, though any hit from the gigantic man was not light by any stretch of the imagination. That lasted longer – around fifteen minutes – until we took a break.

"Your hits have gotten stronger," Aoro remarked, rubbing his forearms and sitting down on a large rock. "It's rather remarkable actually. It usually takes a lot to make me feel a punch. I must be getting old."

"You getting old? Ha!" I commented, sitting down beside him. "I can't imagine you being old."

Aoro let out a booming laugh and said, "I can't imagine it either!"

We sat in silence for a while until I asked, "How old were you when you beat the Elite 4?"

"Ahh. I was 30 years old. I can remember it all clearly.

"30?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. I spent three years in the Ranger Corps and another ten in Ace. Took me less than a year to beat all of 'em when I left. My team was hardened, fresh-out-of-service soldiers when we got out. And then I took the place of Leader Pile two years later after I beat his team and he retired."

"I suppose beating a gym leader's team is necessary to take his place?" I asked, unfamiliar with the particulars of gym leader appointment.

"Yes, it is necessary to beat a leader's team, unless they retire on their own. But even if you do beat their team, there is no guarantee that you will take their place. They have to be willing to step down, or sometimes they like to take the trainer in for a few years to learn the ropes first. That's why you see a bunch of gym trainers at the gyms. They are learning from their role models so that one day, if they manage to beat the gym leader, they can take on the role as quickly as possible, assuming the gym leader wants to step down."

"I see," I said, leaning back on my hands.

"But anyway, I've been the Pewter City gym leader for 22 years now, but I can still remember the feeling of taking on the Elites," Aoro said, a glimmer of nostalgia in his eyes. "Not much can top that. I get reminded of that feeling every once in a while when someone decides to challenge my team, but nothing has since come close. Maybe one day you'll know what I mean."

"Maybe?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Aoro laughed. "Yeah. Maybe." Aoro looked up at the sky and said, "I've trained you for over a month now. Have you given any thought to the Indigo Conference?" He had a serious look in his eye.

"Maybe after a few years," I replied.

"Well, it's good that you know you won't win if you enter the tournament now," he continued seriously. "But I think it would still be a good experience for you. You won't win, but you'll learn a lot about the kind of competition you will be facing. No Junior Indigo Champion has ever turned around and won the next Indigo Conference. With that in mind, I have an invitation for you." Aoro reached into one of his pockets, retrieved an embroidered letter, and handed it to me.

The golden winged pokeball was emblazoned at the top of the letter, which read,

The Indigo Pokemon League is pleased to extend this invitation to Zachariah MacAfee, trainer ID KA523VI979E, 2073 Junior Indigo Champion to the 2075 Indigo Conference. As is customary, you have been granted this privilege as a result of your exceptional performance at the previous Junior Indigo Conference.

Your response and registration are needed before December 11 at 11:59 P.M. to reserve your place at the most prestigious competition in Kanto. Should you accept, further instructions will be emailed to you. Congratulations on being chosen to compete in the Indigo Conference!

With the warmest felicitations,

Indigo League President James Dawley

I mulled it over for a while. Eventually, Aoro said, "Think about it. You have a long time to make a decision. Keep me posted either way."

I nodded and stowed the letter away. I would need to think about it more. After all, I had never entered a tournament that I thought I could not win. To enter into a tournament with the expectation of losing was not a palatable idea. Still, to participate in the Indigo Conference not even two years after completing the circuit was a great honor, regardless of whether or not my junior champion status was the reason I was invited. And to think of what I would see there; the caliber of competition I would experience!

It was a difficult decision, but it did not take long for me to make up my mind. By the time the bright rays of sunlight peeked over the mountains the next morning and woke me from my sleep, I was set on my decision. I let Aoro know during breakfast.

He was cooking the remainder of the Grumpig bacon, and the sound of sizzling meat crackled in the morning air. While I waited on a downed tree trunk, I declared, "I know it's only been a day, but I've actually already made up my mind about the tournament," taking in the smell of bacon.

"Care to elaborate?" he pushed.

I looked up at Azrael, whose head and neck rose above me despite him resting on the ground beside me. "I'm going to do it," I said with a smile.

Aoro smiled and said, "That's good. But, a word of advice since you're probably thinking that you can pull off a victory." I frowned, because in all honesty I did harbor thoughts of achieving a spectacular victory. "Don't you take any unnecessary risks in the ring. These fights are on a level you've never experienced before. So if you encounter a moment where your pokemon is about to take a hit, and you're unsure about whether they can or not, then err on the side of caution and return it. Your reflexes are great, so use them to protect your team. Do NOT underestimate your opponents. The price you'll pay for being wrong is not worth the gamble."

Aoro's words managed to make me think. I was deep in thought when a scalding hot piece of bacon landed in my lap. I jumped and burned my hand in an attempt to save it from falling to the ground. "Aaargh!" I shrieked, hearing Aoro laughing. "You really need to stop doing that! The first time was enough, let alone the next ten!"

Aoro only laughed louder, which I did not appreciate. I frowned, but my mood instantly brightened when the bacon cooled enough to eat. Leaning back against Azrael, I delighted in its taste until it was time to leave, at which point we packed up and flew back to Pewter.

When we arrived, I thanked Aoro enthusiastically and then allowed Dante to teleport me to Viridian City. It only took him two jumps to get us to my parents' house, and when we appeared, we found Sheila talking to my parents on the porch.

Our sudden arrival accompanied with a pop! caused my mother to drop her drink. Dante, in an amazing display of quick reflexes and good manners, teleported beside her and caught the glass cup before it hit the floor and shattered. He then presented it to her with a humble bow.

Sheila laughed and said, "Good save, Dante! Though you wouldn't have had to do it if you hadn't scared her in the first place." Dante only shrugged. Less than a second later, Shade appeared next to Sheila with her blue eyes glowing. When she saw that the disturbance was Dante and I, her eyes dimmed and she gave a disapproving frown.

"Thank you anyway, Dante," my mother said. "So how was training?" she asked. "Did he teach you anything useful?"

"Loads," I replied plainly.

"Anything exciting?" she continued.

"Well," I said, pulling out my gilded letter. "I'm going to the Indigo Conference!"

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

Current PokeDex Update

Expert Trainer: Zachariah MacAfee; KA523VI979E

Active Pokemon:

Azrael – Garchomp

Gilles – Haunter

Rufus – Houndoom

Ceto – Seadra

Dante – Gallade

Lazarus – Electabuzz

Pokemon in Preparation:

Saraph – Charmeleon

Expert Trainer: Sheila Farris; HOMA884457E

Active Pokemon:

Kara – Roserade

Larry – Ampharos

Shade – Gardevoir

Wilbur – Walrein

Thomas – Breloom

Geo – Torterra

Pokemon in Preparation:

Squall – Pidgeotto

- (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) - (-o-) –

Author's note:

Well another one down! I know that the dark aspect of the story has been lacking as of late, but don't worry; there is still plenty more that I want to write about. At this point, the first chapter of Zachariah's journey (i.e. the Indigo League) is over, but a new one is about to begin. It might start out a little slow, but I have plans… Oh such plans do I have… Great plans! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Zachariah was beaten at the Dojo and in the rescue activity, but he succeeded in other places. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think; I look forward to reading the reviews! Thanks, and Happy Holidays!