AN: Hello everyone!
P: We're back!
T: We were gone a week or so, shut up.
SV: Stop being a spoilsport Trix. Anyway, is everything goes to plan, you know what day it is.
P: I don't! What's the secret?
T: Oh, I had actually forgotten about that. Hang on. *Bolts away, comes back with a stack of paper.* Let's see… Chapter 26… Ahah, here it is! *Carefully shows Pixie.*
P: Oh, now this will be good. I remember seeing this now.
SV: I'm going to cut you off there, and say that I don't own Pokemon, now go and read. Also, timeskip because I don't want to write that one week.
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Chapter 52.
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*Timeskip: 1 week.*
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'This has been a really long week.'
"Indeed it has, little one."
The past week had been really long. The most of it had been us spending all day in a forest, helping Mimik practise her transform. She'd wanted to get the speech down first, despite the fact that learning the quick transforms the Ditto hybrids could do would have been easier for her, so she would copy Diana's human form while they practised. It had taken forever just to get little bits of words out, but she could get some simple things now. Though, she tended to revert to Pokespeech when she couldn't say a word, which was fairly often. We had all been expecting that, so we were working through it slowly. Mimik liked to practise with Ash, as he would be able to tell her when she started talking Pokespeech, since sometimes she dropped back without noticing. I looked around our little clearing again. Spark and Pikachu were talking on the far side, and sometimes would exchange Thunderbolts. Ash and Mimik were talking on the side, with Grace there to translate when Mimik needed help figuring out how to say something in English. Which, from what I could overhear, was every few seconds. Crystal and Amy had literally flew off a half hour ago, heading out of the clearing and passing overhead a minute after. Leo was sitting with Rema and Joey, talking about the battles they'd had. And Bella was reading. As per usual. Ky was lying next to me, with her head on my lap.
'It's typical that Crystal and Amy are the two that broke first.'
'Yeah.' I chuckled telepathically. 'Out for a fly in broad daylight. At least they're pretty safe.'
'Crystal blends in pretty well, and Amy can go tiny.' Ky nodded. 'I was more surprised that you let them go.'
'Well, they didn't exactly say anything. They just slipped off.'
"Hey Alex!" Bella called. "Can you come here?" Ky sighed and moved off my lap, and I held out her arm to let her loop around before standing and walking over.
"Whatcha reading, Bel?"
"This." She marked her page and handed it over to me.
"'Shadow Pokemon Tales?'" I read, handing it back. "What's it all about?"
"I don't know if you remember it, since it was around three or four years ago, and I think you were all at home when it was on the news, but there was an incident in a region called Orre at that time." I frowned.
"I… actually think I remember that. You and Amy were the only ones at the house in Pallet, and you came back worried about it." We had subconsciously lowered our voices as we started talking about home, and I noticed it now. "Why bring it up?"
"'Cause this book has every single documented case of Shadow Pokemon being made." She replied, opening to the first page and flicking through carefully. "It's been rewritten a bunch of times, but some of these go back to even before the Great War of the Aura Guardians." She flipped to one of the pages near the front. The first, from what I can tell, is actually from around ten thousand years back!"
"Wait a minute." I scanned back through my memories of the hybrid history I had once learned. It was a little fuzzy, but... "You're telling me, that the first documented case of a Shadow Pokemon being made, was around the same time as the hybrids were first created?"
"Yep." Bella was grinning from ear to ear. "Looking through, it actually makes sense. Until about a hundred or two years ago, Shadow Pokemon had to be made carefully. It was really dangerous for them. They could be made naturally, but these were uncontrollable. It doesn't say how they were made, either natural or otherwise, and I suppose that's for the best, but if we look along here…" She opened the first page again. "We can see something else. It isn't part of the book, as the rest is in a computer print and it's the most recent copy, but something is scribbled here. Their handwriting is horrible though, or maybe they were in a rush, but I can sort of make out a bit."
'Really?' Now this had gotten Ky's interest. She wasn't much on the book end of things, though she'd sometimes read through things I bought back from the library, but this was definitely worth her interest. 'What's it say?'
"Like I said, it's almost illegible, but I can see 'Au- -ur-, -lo-ta so-', and what could be an 'n'."
'What do you think it could mean?'
"Not a clue. Maybe it's something to help make them? Maybe a cure?" She shrugged helplessly. "I can't see anything else in the book that might hint to it, so it's a dead end."
"One last thing. How on earth did you get this?"
"When we first saw the Lugia twins, I asked them to drop the books I had borrowed back into the library and pick up some new ones, so long as it wasn't a problem. At Rosa's, they passed along a set of books from one of the far ends of the shelves, where nothing was marked."
'Marked? What do you mean?'
"Oh, I forgot I hadn't shown this." She went to her bag and pulled out a huge piece of paper. "I drew out the shelf layout for the library, with marks to show what shelves I'd read." The whole thing was unfolded now, and she pointed. "I passed it to Lillian, and she just pulled a row off to give me." Grabbing a pencil from… somewhere, she carefully marked off the next row.
"Well, fair play." I shrugged, wary of Ky, now around my neck. "I can't really complain about that. Though, maybe we should be a bit more cautious. I think we've all kinda forgotten that Ash doesn't know." I shot a glance over to him. Seeing that he was still helping Mimik, I continued. "I guess we're getting too used to having the others around. Though, I wish we'd have told him."
"Yeah." Leo nodded, joining in the conversation. "There's only two obvious options here."
"Either we be more cautious about what we say, or we tell him." Bella nodded.
"I agree." Crystal said, appearing. "Personally, I vote to be more careful. Ash is a great friend, don't get me wrong, but the fewer people who know, the better."
"I'm not sure about that." I replied. "I think Ash should know. Have a nice flight, by the way?"
"Yeah, it was great. Amy just headed back to Celadon to pick some stuff up for us. She'll be back in a little while."
"Right. Just as long as she doesn't get into trouble, I'm fine with that." Bella shook her head. "I swear, sometimes she has to forget that she's the eldest."
"Moving Amy's immaturity aside, I have to agree with Alex on this one. It's Ash, and we've known him forever. I feel kind of bad for not saying anything before." Leo continued, bringing the topic back around.
"I'm not sure either." Bella admitted. "I'd like to tell him, like you said he's been our friend forever, but I also agree with what Crystal said." She shrugged and replaced her book in her bag. "I'll decide later. For now…" She sighed, and swapped to telepathy. 'We'll keep an eye out.'
'Sure thing.' Crystal nodded slightly. "What were you reading?"
"Oh, it's a documentation of Shadow Pokemon. You can take a look after I finish reading through it."
"What's a Shadow Pokemon?" Leo frowned. "It sounds familiar, but I can't think of where from."
"Remember a couple years back, when me and Amy were the only ones here, aside from Dad?" She asked, to two nods. "Well, it was on the tv back then about a region called Orre. They'd had a Shadow Pokemon outbreak, but it was stopped by a couple of teenagers. I can't remember their names at the moment, but oh well." She shrugged again. "That book has that in there, plus every single previous encounter ever written down since the first time hybrids came around!"
"What." Leo said blankly.
"Seriously." She took the book out again and pointed to the first entry. "This dates back around ten thousand years. There's something written here, but neither of us can make it out." She passed the book over, but neither of the others could make it out either.
"Yeah, I've got nothing." Crystal sighed, passing it back to Bella, who put it away again. "Maybe we could pass it to Amy when she gets back from her trip." Further conversation was halted when a duplicate of me came running over.
"Hi guys!" She waved. "What are you talking about?" Bella's eyes lit up.
"Oh! Well done Mimik! That was perfect!" The little Ditto grinned.
"Thanks! I have been pra… prac…"
"Practising." Ash told her, coming over.
"Practising." She repeated slowly.
"Good job." I smiled. "Give it a little while and you'll get it down fine!" My double flickered back to her normal shape.
'Thanks for the vote of confidence.' She yawned. 'But it's tiring. Can I have a rest now?'
"Of course." I took out her Pokeball. "Plan on continuing practise tomorrow?"
'Yup!' She smiled at us all and waved. 'Bye!' Then she tapped the ball and was sucked back in.
"How come it's so tiring for her?" Ash asked.
'I was translating.' Grace telepathed to me.
"It's because she's not used to it." I said. "It's hard to imagine for us, 'cause we speak it naturally, but remember that she's learning a pretty complicated language, and in a form that she only started to use last week. It's been hard enough getting her used to walking on two legs, so using an entirely different body structure to make almost alien sounds is going to be tiring."
"I guess that makes a lot of sense." He nodded. Once again, any more conversation was stopped when two shadows passed by us with a small, humming tune.
'Guys?' I asked. 'Did the Ditto twins come back for a second visit?' Bella closed her eyes.
'Nope. Different aura.' She told me.
'And why would the come back anyway?' Leo added. 'They left last week.'
'True.' I nodded, as two smoke bombs detonated around us.
"What the heck is going on?" Ash coughed.
"Grace!" Crystal asked. "Help us out?"
'Of course.' She replied, sending out a psychic pulse and removing the smoke.
"Awww, they're ruining our entrance!" A female voice complained.
"Well, we'll just have to get them back for it, won't we?" A boy replied.
"Who are you?!" Ash yelled.
"Oh, dear me. We never introduced ourselves, did we?" The girl drawled.
"Let's change that."
"Prepare for trouble!"
"And make it double!
"To infect this world with devastation!"
"To blight the people of every nation!"
"To denounce the goodness in truth and love!"
"To extend this wrath to the stars above!"
"With Heart!"
"And Soul too!"
"Team Rocket, taking over all at the speed of light!"
"You should surrender now, before you lose this fight!"
"Team Rocket AGAIN?!" Ash growled. "Why can't they leave us alone?"
"Oh?" The girl, who had referred to herself as Heart, said, floating down with a jetpack. "You have troubles with Team Rocket, you say?"
"Well that's no good." The other, Soul, continued, following her down. Both of them were wearing hoods, concealing their faces. "That either means they're trouble makers who keep messing with us…"
"Or maybe have Pokemon rare enough to merit being stolen." Heart finished.
Thank Arceus Ky had enough sense to hide when she heard the motto start. I thought. We already get annoyed by the trio, though that isn't all that often.
"Well, how about we ask a question." Soul smiled. "Would you like to heed the mottos warning and leave us alone?"
"Or maybe you'd like to join us?"
"You'd keep your teams, but you'd have to work your way up to admins first. Though," Soul gave us a calculating glance. "I get the feeling that some of you would have no problem making it up there."
"So what do you think about that offer, huh?" Heart grinned, as if the answer was written on our faces. Which, from the glance I gave to Bella and Crystal, who had moved over to stop Ash or Leo from charging, it probably was.
"There's no way we'd join Team Rocket!" Bella growled. "Esmeralda, guard duty, go!"
"Deku, let's fight!" I joined in, letting my little Bulbasaur join the Pokemon that was basically his older sister. Bella shot me a glance.
'Seriously? You're bringing out a shiny Bulbasaur against Team Rocket?'
'Hey, if I didn't, Ky would probably jump in on the action.' I argued.
'Yeah, but you can hear them plotting to steal him.'
"Well." Soul chuckled. "Would you look at that."
"I know right?" Heart was giggling too. "Looks like Oblivi was right after all. This'll be a nice reunion!" Both sent out Pokemon. Heart had an Eevee, and Soul had an Ivysaur.
"Awww, look at that." Crystal sneered. "Little baby Pokemon for their wimpy Team Rocket trainers." Deku winced.
"What's wrong bud?" I asked.
'That's Eve and Sis.' He shook his head. 'It has to be.' Both of the Rockets winced as well, but I hardly noticed.
"Do you want to swap? I can have Spark go instead-"
'No. I need to do this.' He set his stance. 'I don't know what they did, but they changed something. So I'm going to help you fix it.'
"Ok." I heard Leo move behind me.
'I'm taking Mimik. I hope neither of you mind.'
'Go ahead.' I replied, focusing.
"Like I said, little Bulbasaur, a nice reunion for the one that got away."
"Yeah. Lucia and Lucian didn't stop hearing about that one for weeks." Soul growled. "Now, Ivysaur, use Razor Leaf!"
'Sis, please, don't listen to him!' Deku pleaded.
"They can't hear you little one. The Shadows cut it off." Heart laughed. "Eevee, Swift!"
"Es, stop them both with Petal Blizzard!"
"Deku, retaliate with Grass Whistle!" A small tune later, and both enemy Pokemon were put to sleep.
"Dammit, wake up!" Heart commanded.
"Nope. Es, lift Deku and Earthquake!" Everyone started floating ever so slightly off the ground, thanks to Grace. None of us could use our powers, after all. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tiny blue flicker, leaving a red wing visible for a second.
'I showed her what a Latias looked like and taught her how to bend the light around herself.' Leo informed us telepathically. 'It isn't working great, but it should be good enough for her to steal the Pokeballs for those two and get away.'
'Good plan.' Crystal said approvingly. 'I think they put the balls on the back of their belt. Right in a place where a theft would be able to go unnoticed by normal people.'
'I just hope she can get back in time.' I responded. Just then, the Earthquake ended, and both Pokemon woke up as Es placed Deku back down.
"Good. Stupid Pokemon. The Arceus damned Shadows stop them thinking, I swear…" Soul trailed off, shaking his head. Deku growled lowly.
'Right. That's it. Your Arceus damned Team Rocket 'Elites' kidnapped me, my sister and my best friend, set fire to the section of the forest that we, and many others, had made our homes, took us to a base that I barely escaped, made some form of monsters out of the only Pokemon I had left from home, and then finally chose to insult them because of these 'Shadows' that you most likely created and forced onto them! Now you will PAY!' Deku stamped his foot, and around two dozen rocks rose up from the floor, glowing an ominous purple. From there, several things happened at once.
First, Mimik as a Latias lost her cloak as she took the Pokeballs from the belts of the Rockets. This caused Heart to turn around and spot her backing away slowly, losing her hood in the process. Soul then turned to see what had startled her, taking both of their attentions off the fight. The red streaked blond hair went everywhere, and caused Bella to gasp.
Second, the huge Ancient Power Deku had charged was thrown at the two Pokemon and knocked them out, and one smaller one hit Soul, causing him to flinch and a blue shield to appear before a second could hit.
Third, and the least noticeable, a small book fell to the floor, dislodged from its holding place by the Ancient Power.
And fourth, Deku was glowing bright white. His roar as an Ivysaur caused the Rocket Elites to turn back to the battle, and promptly realise they had lost. Mimik used the distraction to fly back to Leo's side and hand over the Pokeballs before transforming into me once again. 'Soul's jaw dropped, as did 'Heart's.
"A Latias?" She gasped.
"No, a Ditto." I responded, a slight growl rising.
"And besides," Crystal stepped forwards, not even bothering to try and hide it, or the slight white in her eyes that was getting brighter by the second, leaving almost invisible ice crystals in her blue hair. "You already know her form, you little traitors!'
"Well, I guess our cover's blown." Lucian flipped back his own hood and glared at us. "I can't say I'm surprised."
"And you clearly haven't changed, Bella." Lucia continued. "Two years ago, we were all upstarts in our own way. New trainers in you and Amy, and low ranking Elites for Team Rocket. Then we had a set of grunts come wandering in, tails between their legs, and complaining about a green haired upstart destroying them with a pink haired one." She shook her head. "How times have changed."
"Indeed." Bella spat. "And to think we were once friends."
"Well, we're in a bit of a predicament." Lucian said. "Not only did we fail to either recapture our escaped Bulbasaur or get you on our side, but also lost the battle and the Pokeballs for these two." He shot a look at the knocked out Pokemon.
"And now we have a lot of angry 'brids staring us down." Lucia noted. "Well, I think we only have one option here."
"Retreat." Lucian brushed off his hands and flew away, Lucia close behind. A piece of paper dropped onto the book, but again I barely noticed. I was too busy trying to defuse an angry Crystal and Bella, and make sure they didn't attempt murder. Mimik took the Pokeballs off Leo again and aimed them at the Pokemon the Rockets had left. She then patted both Es and Deku on the head, then took the other Pokeballs off Bella and myself to return them.
"Those Arceus damn traitors." Crystal growled.
"I know, but we can't do anything." I said. "Next time we see them, we'll give them hell to pay. For now, let's help the poor Pokemon they left behind." A pink blob descended on us all, which stilled for a little while to show a Mew, who squeaked sadly and turned into Amy.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner guys! I was coming back from the trip, I got everything we needed, and I saw that they were Team Rocket so I didn't come down in case they tried to capture me, thinking I was a Mew, and then I saw it was Lucia and Lucian and I got worried so I came as fast as I could and…" She started talking extremely fast, then trailed off.
"What?" I asked. She just motioned that we turn around.
Ash was standing there with his jaw practically on the floor.
"Ok. Those two Elites mentioned ''brids', whatever that means, Alex has a form of some kind, and Crystal has ice in her hair. And a Mew just appeared that turned into Amy." He took a breath. "Can someone please tell me what in the Distortion World is going on?" The five of us stood there silently, as did the Pokemon. Finally, I just said the first thing that came to mind.
"Damn it."
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AN: Uh oh.
P: The hybrids goofed up.
T: I think this is a case of 'be careful what you wish for.'
SV: I'm just going to leave this here, but before we go, here's a guessing game! In the chapter, there was the broken up bit of text scribbled in the book. I'd like to see what everyone thinks that might mean. It won't actually be touched on much more in this book, and the reveal isn't until the next one, so there's plenty of time for guessing. Good luck to you all, and I'll see you again!
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