Can it be? Oh my god, it IS! It's a new chapter of Singed's story! YES, the jerk who has way too much time on his hands finally got off of his lazy ass and did some WORK for once!

Alas, this story is nearing its end. But have no fret, the second draft of Singed's story shan't be too far behind the end of this one.


Jill grinned as she watched the trees passing by. Zebstrika had come through for her again, he certainly had his uses. After she was certain she had time, she looked closely at the ball in her hands. So this Mart Ball held Singed, huh? What a fortunate twist of fate, Singed was at her mercy. It was time to pay him back all the damage he caused to her and the rest of the Plasma Grunts.

Jill quickly put away the ball as Zebstrika neighed. She turned around, and flinched as a horse with a mane of fire appeared, ST on its back. "You're going to have to speed up Zebstrika, whatever this thing is it's gaining on us!" Zebstrika gave a 'Zeb' of what was clearly confirmation since Jill felt the increase in speed. Yet try as Zebstrika might, the horse of fire got closer and closer. Eventually, Jill realized they were going to have to speed up even more. "Faster!"

Zebstrika sped up more, and to Jill's relief it matched the fire-horse's speed. Ok, crisis over for now. It looked like the other Pokémon weren't fast enough to keep up, so it was mainly this fire-horse and it's trainer that she had to worry about. Let's see, she needed a way to slow them down. As she saw a tree with a large branch, she told Zebstrika to zap off the branch and get her close to it.

Zebstrika complied with a shockwave, and got close enough that Jill was able to grab the branch. Not missing a beat, she whipped it over at the fire-horse, getting a solid hit on its front right leg. The horse's leg gave way and as it and its rider slammed into the ground, soon going into a roll, both Jill and her Zebstrika snickered. Hopefully that would make the trainer think twice about meddling with Team Plasma.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, and Jill grinned as they reached the hide-out. As they screeched to a stop, Jill leapt off of Zebstrika and returned him to his pokéball. With a cruel snicker, Jill looked at the Mart Ball in her hands. After entering the base, she soon went to an interrogation room and labeled the room as 'occupied'. With a grin, she pointed the ball at the other side of the room and it opened up. The white light erupted from it, soon forming Singed's shape before Singed fully rematerialized.

Jill chuckled as Singed looked at her, until she realized . . . he really didn't look that surprised. No matter, he wasn't slipping away from this. As she commanded him to sit down in the chair on his side of the table, he surprised her by obliging. No, it still didn't matter. "I'm sure you are baffled at the moment, Singed." Singed gave a slight grin as he looked at her. "No, I'm honestly not. I can certainly say I know why and how I got here."

Jill frowned as Singed's grin turned cruel. "I'm here because during the 'explanation', a Liepard kidnapped the Mart Ball. After my friends tried and failed to get it, YOU ended up with it. When you saw Houndoom, you called out a Sawk that looked quite a bit like the one I fought. Because there was no point in faking that you didn't know it when it battled me, it makes sense that you went back and caught it after I left the area." Jill grinned, so Singed wasn't the moron she had labeled him as after all. "So why are we interested in the ball, can you tell me that?"

Singed chuckled before he nodded. "You personally hold a grudge against me. Houndoom and I have attacked countless numbers of Plasma Grunts, the reason I'm here is quite clearly because you have had enough of me and wish to be rid of me. In short, I'm going to be trapped in the ball. You are going to use me as leverage against Houndoom, and force her to work for you." Jill couldn't believe it. Singed did know what they were going to be doing, yet . . . yet he was still grinning.

"How can you say this with amusement?" Singed chuckled as he crossed his arms. "Oh, believe me. I understand that you could come to this conclusion, but what you don't understand is that it's not just Houndoom anymore. My life may be in their hands, but then again my life is rarely anywhere else. I know they'll come here and rescue me, because that's how they work."

Jill chuckled cruelly. "Pray tell me, why would they rescue you? You're nothing more than a menace to society, there are hundreds of people that want you either in jail or dead." Singed shrugged. "I don't pretend to understand it myself. I have no answer to why they care, and yet in my times of need they keep on appearing. Isn't that what a friend is, someone who's there for you when you need it?" Both of them looked up as the alarms went off, and Singed chuckled. "Now what did I tell you? Turns out they're already here."

Jill lost her patience with Singed. She held up the Mart Ball and fired the red beam of light at Singed, returning him to his prison. She then got up, fuming in anger. How the hell could people want someone so stupid back! Singed didn't care about anything, it was clear he likely didn't even care about his Houndoom. Now though, it was time to throw off his pursuers. As Jill slipped a thin metal ring onto the mart ball, sealing it shut, she then left the room. After a quick conversation about whether their 'surprise' was ready yet and getting a 'yes', Jill and a few other Plasma grunts ran to a specific room.

This room was practically empty, used as a storage room. And just as the earlier Plasma Grunt had promised, the surprise was ready. Jill grinned as she opened up the crate, grinning as she saw all of the painted pokéballs in it. Each one was painted to look like a Mart ball, the small band that would seal it included. This would keep the fools distracted long enough to get the ball put in a place they would never find it. As Jill turned around, she flinched as she felt a long furry tail bat Singed's Mart Ball out of her hand. She turned around just fast enough to see a Liepard leap into the box of fake Mart Balls, this stupid cat again!

When the Liepard resurfaced, clenching Singed's Mart Ball in its teeth, Jill introduced its face to her fist. As it dropped the ball in shock, Jill quickly swiped the ball. She grinned as the Liepard leapt out of the crate, dashing back into hiding just before slipping out of the room. Almost the instant she was gone, footsteps approached from the other direction. Jill grinned as she feigned digging through the crate, so as ST, his Pokémon, Houndoom, and surprisingly a Serperior and a Blitzle entered the room it appeared Jill had hidden the ball in the crate. As she grinned and dashed out of the room, Singed's 'friends' began the fruitless search for which ball was the right ball.

Jill chuckled as she and the other grunts got away. As they climbed a set of stairs, Jill was taken completely by surprise as a Mightyena suddenly leapt down from the upper floor, clamping down on Jill's wrist with its powerful jaws. As Jill dropped the Mart Ball, the Mightyena followed up by picking up the ball and, to Jill's shock, crushing the ball with its powerful teeth.

Jill was completely shocked. The Mightyena was . . . wait. Didn't every type of ball have that safety release feature, where if the ball was crushed the Pokémon-or person-inside of it would be released? Yet . . . Singed hadn't appeared. It was certainly possible the safety release feature had failed, or wasn't even implemented on a Mart Ball, but still . . . as Jill picked up a piece of the mart ball and looked it over, her heart froze when she saw a slight smear of paint on the ball. But . . . how? This wasn't Singed's Mart Ball! She couldn't believe it, how . . . when was the switch?


I know you're probably confused to what the hell happened, so I'll level with you. In the next chapter, I will tell you not only who the culprit is, but I shall also tell you how they did it. As for now, I shall leave you gnashing your teeth in frustration. Cause I'm cruel. Then again, you may already know where Singed's ball is. If you do, I pray you do not give spoilers to the other people who are reading the story.