Chapter 35

Kasmir knew what he was doing. He lie crouched down on the Pidgeot's neck, staring down a pistol barrel. Atri, the traitor, was obviously not holding back and would kill him without a second thought. It was perfect.

Kasmir waited until the last possible second to dodge the shot. He threw himself to the side and slipped off the brown bird's thick neck. Kasmir was falling toward the Indigo plateau with a bleeding arm and leg, but his fighting spirit wasn't subdued.

Atri fired the gun a millisecond off, but instead of hitting the Mewtwo; he hit his own Pidgeot in the neck! The great bird Pokémon cried out and began to fall to the ground as well. The shot in the neck killed it instantly. Atri began to fall from the absence of his flying Pokémon. He tried to return his Pokémon to its Pokéball, but Pokéballs can't return dead Pokémon. He cursed loudly.

Kasmir hovered along with Atri and smiled. "So, wither you come with me and receive judgment, or you fall to your death…"

"You haven't won yet!" Atri yelled. He held out another Pokéball and called out another flying Pokémon. This Pokémon was of Sinnoh origin, and was black and grey with white and red markings. The Staraptor trilled and scooped Atri up from his fall.

"Why do your Pokémon help you when you hate trainers? How can you be a trainer while killing them?" Kasmir thrashed his tail in anger and floated to meet Atri's eyes on his new bird Pokémon.

"A Pokémon like you can never understand human motivation." Atri sneered back. He held up his pistol again (he kept holding onto it while he was falling?) and aimed it at Kasmir.

The Mewtwo wondered how many shots a pistol had. So far Atri had shot around five times, if it only had six shots, then this would be Atri's last shot. But then again, Kasmir hadn't predicted this to turn into a gun fight or get wounded, so Atri might even have another gun hidden on him.

Kasmir glanced down at the ground and saw the broken body of the Pidgeot. Atri didn't care for Pokémon life –that much was true. Kasmir didn't like how this was turning out. Now he might be lucky to get out alive. "I can understand humans relatively well. I'm not going to stop fighting until you are brought to justice!"

"So old fashioned…" the scrawny man scoffed back and fired.

Kasmir gasped. He looked down at himself and saw a bullet wound in his middle. He instinctively curled around the wound and felt his psychic powers failing him. No, this can't be the end… he thought and fought to stay afloat in the air. The Staraptor flew in closer and pecked his head. This final jolt of pain sent Kasmir falling to the ground once more.

The Mewtwo didn't have enough power left to even teleport back. He had made a stupid mistake… his hearing was dimming. He heard something muffled from far away. He didn't know if it was good or bad. His body was growing limp and he was turning head over feet in the air.

A strange thing suddenly appeared underneath him and stopped his fall. The thing that saved him said something, but Kasmir couldn't make it out. He was hardly awake, the bleeding and shock were working against him. He closed his eyes and thought bitterly, why didn't I learn the move 'recover'?

…

"Good catch, Darcen!" Kaito praised his Honchkrow. Kaito himself was riding on 'Flygon's Flygon and did not like what was happening on their way back to Mt. Silver. A showdown between a Pokémon and a gun firing human was a first, and its wasn't a really good first at that. The captain glared at Atri and shouted, "What the heck was that for? Sure he's annoying sometimes, but shooting Kasmir?"

"Kasmir?" Latios, Latias, and Flygon asked and looked closer at the Mewtwo.

Kaito was the only one of the good captains that really knew that. But it was too much effort to try to tell everyone while facing off with Atri. What was his deal? Darcen the Honchkrow glided closer to the group of four captains with the injured Mewtwo lying on his feathery back.

Atri Tems, sitting astride his Staraptor, glared at the four other captains.

Uchiha, who was riding DJ's Staraptor, gasped and buried her face into DJ's back. "It's him…" she whimpered.

"We've been hearing bad things about you from our long-lost captain 'Latias'. Are you a traitor?" Kaito asked with a glare. It was suspicious enough to see him fire on Kasmir, but he hadn't seen enough to convict the scrawny man.

Atri glared and didn't say anything in reply.

"Attacking a friend of Raquaza is enough to make me doubt your loyalty." Kaito growled and called out his Female Pikachu. "Anobe, use 'Thunder'!".

Atri's Staraptor climbed quickly into the air to avoid the attack and use the sun as a blinding effect. Kaito squinted through the intense sunlight to watch Atri and see what he'd do. He couldn't see anything and nothing came swooping in for an attack. A minute passed by and Kaito swore. "He got away!" his female Pikachu seemed to swear along with him, sending out sparks from her red cheecks.

Flygon/Nicole crossed her arms. "So what the heck was that about?"

"You mean why they were fighting in the first place?" 'Salamence' shrugged. "Kasmir doesn't fight very much, so I can only assume that something bad has happened."

DJ and Uchiha stared at the purple cat-like humanoid figure on the Honchkrow's back. "Is that really Kasmir?" DJ asked.

"Yeah, he's a Pokémon and alive for now. Now we got to get back and see what's going on!" Kaito commanded.

…

Hiku and the rest of the rookies were waiting at the entrance of the base. The strange blonde woman who was called Corinne Martin also was waiting with them, not to mention a few trainers and many of the gym leaders. They were all waiting for Kasmir and the rescue party to come back.

Hiku was confused on a few things. First off, somehow Raquaza was killed, and yet Corinne Martin kept on saying that she had to lead this organization herself… what made this woman think she could be Raquaza? Secondly, who had wanted to kill Raquaza? Who in their right minds would do that? Why did Kasmir take off so suddenly after getting a hint of an idea of who might have done it? What Pokémon did he use to fly on? But most importantly, why weren't they back yet?

Vekra and Jaylon looked as confused as her. The only captain left at the base was Dragonite, and he was trying to do something to keep the peace and yet had no idea what to do.

"Do you think something bad has happened?" Hiku gulped. She instantly wished she hadn't said anything. Of course something bad had happened: Raquaza was dead!

"To Kasmir and the rescue party?" Jaylon asked. "I hope not, but the longer it takes for them to come back the more I worry…" he stopped talking and patted her shoulder. "It'll be ok, Hiku. It always turns out good in the end."

Vekra snorted quietly at his last statement. "Really, sometimes you can be as naïve as Kasmir."

"Irreverent person…" Jaylon huffed back. "He hasn't come back yet and I'm scared for him. He's friendly, and good luck."

"Good luck? How in the world can Kasmir be good luck?" Vekra snapped back.

"After I met him, I found my parents. Legendary Pokémon are good luck!" Jaylon retaliated in the argument.

"Um, what?" Hiku was more confused.

"Oh…" Jaylon shrugged. "I mean… nothing. If you don't know, then I'll let Kas-"

"He's a Pokémon." Vekra cut into Jaylon's stammering. "It's about time you knew that that friendly guy who helped your Pokémon evolve and saved your life is a Legendary Pokémon called Mewtwo." She couldn't stand ignorance and Hiku should know by now.

Hiku opened and closed her mouth several times, but no words came out. She was too confused to even try to understand this. Jaylon didn't say anything back, only shooting mental daggers at the snooty blonde.

Vekra continued staring at the sky, waiting for the arrival of the other captains. Caprico was watching more intently to see if his sister was alright. Rin seemed interested in the idea that Kasmir was a rare Pokémon.

A little cheer went up from the crowd, which was joined a second later by another voice. Soon the crowd was cheering as a speck of black on the horizon grew large and larger. Someone was coming back! There was a total of three flying Pokémon returning, each with a rider or two.

Jaylon smiled and began to join in with the cheering. The rescue party was coming back. They must have got out safely. Hopefully they got Uchiha as well. Caprico seemed the happiest he had ever been. Rin smiled and clapped.

The first Pokémon swooped close and hovered while the others kept their distance. The two riders on this Flygon, one wearing trainer attire and the other a man in a black suit, looked very confused. The man (Kaito) called out over the flapping of the Flygon's wings, "I need to talk to Raquaza."

Corinne Martin stepped forward and held back her blonde hair with one hand from the whipping wind. "I am Raquaza." She yelled back.

Kaito looked amused. "Right…"

"What happened?" Corinne asked.

"I want to know why all these people know about our rescue mission and about Kasmir." Kaito said in a still disbelieving voice.

"I'm afraid that I had to tell the trainers here about the mission. I must tell them more before this day is out…" she paused and asked with a slightly pained voice, "What happened to Kasmir?"

"He's a little wounded. He needs some medical help and he doesn't look 'himself' if you get my meaning. My Honchkrow can take him to the back entrance if you want his current 'form' to be unseen." The man replied.

Corinne understood the meaning. Kasmir was looking like a Mewtwo right now and he might not want the whole group of trainers to see him as his true Pokémon self. She gulped as she realized that Kasmir got hurt enough to not be able to hold up his human disguise. "Take him to the back. Thanks…"

"I tried to help as best I could… turns out that our traitor is packing heat." Kaito frowned, still slightly disbelieving that his leader who had kept her face secret for so long was now showing herself.

"I can always depend on you, Kaito…" Corinne said with a sad smile.

A/N: I'm sorry for mind wanderings (PMD story and Pokémon Lecture)… I'm going to college very soon (Eeep!) and my updates will much less frequent. But I want to finish Fallen Trainers, I really do… and I'm so close… Must… Focus…

Anyways, thanks once more for reading, commenting, and favoring. And something I haven't done for a while…

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. If I did own Pokémon, then the creatures wouldn't be as creatively designed and the main characters of the anime would be changed with every new season.