A/N: Hey pokemon fans! Sorry this chapter has taken so long to get out. I had some writer's block at a few parts so it took some time to get everything straightened out. Anyway, I'll stop talking and let you guys get to what you came here for.

"Yo waitress! Another drink here!"

"Of course. Here you go sir."

The bar in Ambrette Town was filled with roughnecks and other such trainers. It had been that way since players had first arrived in town. The first ones to make it were a gang of players that terrorized Kanto before everyone was sent to the Kalos region. They had left Lumiose City almost immediately, deciding to find a nice place to set up their base of operations.

Ambrette Town was the perfect spot. Most players ignored it and went onto Cyallge City, meaning the town was theirs to do with as they pleased. Other players that walked into town ended up having their money, items, and sometimes even their pokemon taken from them.

At one of the tables, the head of the gang laughed as he guzzled down another drink. "Ah, this is the life boys! Doing whatever we want to whoever we want to!"

"You said it boss!" another player cheered in agreement.

"Yo boss! We got another fresh victim here!"

The leader turned his head toward the entrance to the bar as two of his henchmen walked in, dragging a girl in with them. They threw her up by him and he gave a malicious grin as he looked down at her.

"Well, well, look at what we have here."

"Wh-What do you want?!" she yelled. She tried to sound tough but she couldn't hide the hint of fear in her voice.

"The name's Barboza, girlie." he said. "You could say I'm the head honcho around here. I own this town, and if you walk in here you gotta pay up."

"I-I just came here because I heard the legend of the Desert Spirit." she said.

"The Desert Spirit?" Barboza questioned, before breaking out into laughter. "You're nuts if you think you could conquer that. Anyone that's tried that quest hasn't come back alive."

"So?! That doesn't mean I should just give up!"

Barboza rolled his eyes at her. "Whatever, we're getting off track. The point is you walked into my town so you gotta pay the fine."

"That's not fair! You can't do that!"

"Oh really?" Barboza asked. He tossed out a pokeball and a Rhyperior appeared. It grabbed her and pinned her against the wall, making it hard for her to breathe. "I may not be able to kill you in a town, but I can very easily put you through so much pain that you'll wish you were dead."

"Let *cough* me go!" she choked out.

"Just hand over one of your pokemon and you can be on your way."

"Never!"

"Suit yourself. Rhyperior, show her what we do to stubborn fools."

Rhyperior pressed the girl even harder against the wall. She cried out in pain until suddenly she felt the force against her go away all at once. A blast of energy burst through the door and slammed into Rhyperior, forcing it to let go of the girl and be sent flying to the other end of the bar. The heavy rock type slammed into several other gang members along the way.

"Who did that?!" Barboza yelled. His questioned was soon answered as a lone trainer walked into the bar. He wore a dark-green hooded jacket, and the hood was over his head, hiding his face in darkness. A Scizor walked in alongside him, most likely the pokemon that had fired the flash cannon attack seconds ago.

The new arrival silently walked up to the girl who was currently sitting on the floor. He kneeled down to get her at eye level, his face still hidden by the darkness under the hood. "You were just talking about the Dessert Spirit quest, correct? What can you tell me about it?"

She stared at him, not knowing what to make of this random stranger. As she was about to open her mouth to respond, Barboza talked first.

"Who the hell do you think you are punk! This is my town and you don't get off easy for crossing me!"

The trainer paid Barboza no mind, not even turning his head to face him. "I'm not interested in an idiot with no information. I just want to know about the rumored Desert Spirit."

Barboza's eyes became filled with rage. "You'll pay for that, you little punk! Get him boys!"

At Barboza's command, nearly every trainer in the bar stood up and faced the mystery trainer. He was certainly tough, but he was all alone. There was no way he could take on all of them at once.

They were wrong. Oh so very wrong.

He dealt with the first two that came his way by shoving his knee into the first one's gut and shoving him into the second. A third player lunged at him, but the mystery trainer grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder, making him crash painfully onto the floor. Scizor took care of the next wave that came their way with a bullet punch attack. After the painful display of watching the trainers get taken down by the mystery trainer, everyone stood still, hesitating to attack.

"What are you doing morons?!" Barboza yelled. Despite the loud tone of his voice, none of his men made a move. Barboza growled as he stood up from his seat. "Fine then. I'll just have to take care of this kid myself. Rhyperior, let's go!"

Rhyperior picked itself up off the ground and stomped over next to its trainer. The mystery trainer still seemed to have no interest in Barboza, seeing him as little more than a nuisance.

"Crush him Rhyperior!" Barboza commanded! "Pummel him into the ground!"

The players outside the bar could hear Barboza's loud shout. It was rare he lost his temper this badly, but whenever he did it usually meant some poor fool was in for a beating. That's why it shocked everyone when they saw Barboza and his Rhyperior come flying out of the bar, beaten to a pulp.

The mystery trainer walked out of the bar with his Scizor walking at his side. Barboza shivered in fear as he slowly approached him.

"Wh-Who are you?! What are you?!"

The mystery trainer looked down at Barboza. "Where is the mountain that the Desert Spirit quest is at?"

Barboza pointed over towards a mountain range to the east. "O-Over there."

"And what do you know about the quest?"

"I-I don't know much. Everyone that's tried the quest either never reached the end or died. It's a suicide mission."

"Is that all?"

"Yes!" Barboza said with several nods of his head. "That's all I know, I swear!"

"Good" he said. He returned Scizor to its pokeball and calmly walked towards the mountain range that Barboza pointed out. Not long after, the girl that Barboza's men had brought in ran out of the bar and went after him.

"Wait!" she called out to him. "Hold on!"

He paid no notice to the girl and kept walking. She ran after him, finally catching up as she ran up to him and faced him. "I said wait!"

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I just wanted to say thank you" she said. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't saved me back there."

"Your welcome. Now if that's all, I need to get going." He walked past her and continued moving towards the mountains.

"Wait!" she said. "You were talking about the Desert Spirit quest, right?"

The mention of the quest caused him to stop. He turned his head towards her. "Do you know anything about it?"

She nodded her head. "Yes. I came to this town in order to do the rumored quest. Trainers say there's a strong pokemon you can catch at the end."

"I already know that much."

"There's more!" she said. "From what I've heard, there's several mountains in the area. The mountain trainers are supposed to go up is that one." She pointed over towards the mountains in the distance. "See the one with a swirling vortex of sand at the summit? That's it."

"I see." he said. "Thanks for the info." Once again, he began walking away.

"H-Hold on! I want to go with you!"

"No."

"Please!" she begged, running after him. "I want to pay you back for your help. Let me help you with the quest."

"I thought you said you wanted the strong pokemon."

"I did." she nodded, looking at the ground. "But I realized that I'm not ready for it. I wouldn't have even been able to beat Barboza and his goons before. I… I was just fooling myself. I wanted to be strong by catching that pokemon, but I'm not strong. I'm weak."

The hooded stranger watched as a tear of self-pity fell from the girl's eye. He sighed to himself. "What's your name?"

"M-My name?" she asked. "It's Lyra."

"Alright then Lyra." he said. "If you're weak, then get stronger. Going on a suicide quest like this is just throwing your life away."

"But what about you?" Lyra asked. "I know you're strong, but why are you taking such a risk if you said yourself it's suicide."

"Because" he said. "I have to gain power. If I can't do that, then there's no point in me living."

Lyra could hear the pain in his voice. He obviously had something dark in his past that was pushing him to this. Whatever it was, it was far more powerful than her desire for strength.

"I'm off to the mountain. You take care of yourself Lyra."

Lyra watched as he began to walk away. She didn't know why, but something forced her to call out to him.

"What's your name?"

The hooded trainer paused a few moments before answering. "It's Ren."

She didn't know where but Lyra felt she had heard the name somewhere before. But that wasn't important right now so she decided to shrug it off. "Okay Ren. Then let's go catch the Dessert Spirit."

"Are you deaf?" Ren asked. "I already said you aren't going."

"Well I'm going anyway." Lyra told him. "I still need to pay you back for your help. Plus, this will still help me get stronger."

Ren looked at Lyra. He knew the stubborn type like her. There was no arguing with her. "Fine. Just be careful."

"You got it." Lyra grinned.

The mountains to the east of Ambrette Town were anything but safe. The only way to keep going at some parts of the mountain involved scaling the rocky walls. Most would use flying pokemon in this situation, but the harsh winds of sand made flying safely impossible.

Ren was able to see VERY clearly why this quest was considered suicide.

"Ren! Wait for me!"

Ren looked down from where he was on the rocky wall he was currently scaling. Lyra was several feet below him, struggling with the harsh winds that were threatening to blow her off the wall and send her plummeting to her death.

"You should head back Lyra!" Ren told her. "This is too dangerous for you!"

"Not happening!" Lyra said with determination in her voice. "If I give up now, then I'll never get stronger! I'll just keep running away from everything for the rest of my life!"

"But if you keep going, you could die."

"Like hell am I gonna die that easily." Lyra took a pokeball from her waist and tossed it up. The capsule device opened up and a pokemon appeared from it, hanging onto the rocky wall with ease that made Ren and Lyra seem like amateurs in comparison.

"Greninja, I need your help." Lyra said. "Use your tongue and warp it around my waist."

Ren watched as Greninja followed Lyra's instruction. With Graninja's support, Lyra leaped over to a nearby rock to grab. She hung onto it for dear life as she steadied herself, getting a good footing on the rocks below her. If she took the path that was laid out before her now, climbing the wall would be much simpler. Ren couldn't help but be a little impressed. Using one's pokemon for their unique characteristics instead of moves or abilities was something that the best trainers in PWO had.

'She doesn't realize it yet, but she already is quite strong.' Ren thought to himself.

After several more grueling minutes of climbing, Ren and Lyra finally finished scaling their latest wall. They took a brief rest to catch their breath and recover.

"Thanks for the help Greninja." Lyra told her pokemon as she scratched underneath its chin. "You were great."

Ren looked at the next path laid out before them. They were very close to the summit. Luckily there were no more walls they had to climb up, so that was a welcome relief. But the dense sandstorm at the summit told the two trainers that their troubles were far from over.

"Looks like we're dealing with a final boss in a sandstorm condition." Ren said aloud. "That means it's probably going to be a ground, rock, or steel type."

"So what's the plan?" Lyra asked.

Ren got to his feet, finally recovered enough to keep going. "I'll fight it on my own. You stay back and keep out of the way."

"What are you talking about?!" Lyra exclaimed, getting to her feet as well. "I've shown full well by now that I'm not some helpless victim! I can fight no problem!"

Ren shook his head at her. "I'm not saying you're too weak to fight it. I just need to fight it on my own. If I can't beat it with my own strength, then I don't deserve to catch it."

"But-"

"No buts. I'm fighting it solo and that's final."

Lyra pouted, but she had to admit Ren had a point. All trainers had that pride of wanting to catch pokemon on their own. Besides, Ren had proven more than once to her already that he could handle himself.

"Fine." Lyra finally said. "Just be careful."

Ren smirked as he gave her a thumbs up. "Don't worry about me. I won't die that easily."

Lyra nodded and the two of them walked towards the swirling sandstorm ahead. As they approached the outer wall of it, piercing red eyes shined through the sand and glared at them. A low growl was heard from inside.

'You'll have to do better than that to scare me.' Ren silently thought. He walked into the vicious sandstorm. Surprisingly, only the outer layer of the storm was thick. Once Ren walked inside, there wasn't much of a hindrance in his vision, but the winds had blown his hood back, revealing his face to Lyra.

'So that's Ren.' Lyra silently thought as she stared at his light brown hair and blue eyes. She didn't have much time to look as a roar caught her attention. Across from them was the pokemon that had been glaring at Ren, the Desert Spirit. Flygon.

"So you're the Desert Spirit everyone's been talking about." Ren said as he threw out his Scizor. The bug and steel type let out a cry as it got ready to fight. "Show me what you've got."

Flygon did just that as it fired a dragonbreath attack at them. Ren and Scizor leaped to the side to avoid it. Lyra did the same, but her reaction time was much slower. Flygon let out a roar and the sandstorm around the battle field became even more ferocious. Dealing with the unforgiving storm took a toll on Ren, though Scizor seemed alright due to it being a steel type.

"Scizor, use slash!" Ren commanded. Scizor sped at Flygon with both of its pincers ready. It slashed them at Flygon but the dragon type nimbly dodged it. It quickly turned into a battle between Scizor attacking with its pincers and Flygon dodging each strike. When Flygon finally got tired of simply evading Scizor's attacks, it swung its body vertically and attacked with dragon tail. The hit sent Scizor crashing into the ground painfully.

'This thing really is strong.' Ren thought to himself. 'I need to catch it off guard.'

Flygon dived down at Scizor. The dragon type let out a roar as it fired another dragonbreath attack.

"Scizor, use flash cannon!" Ren shouted. Scizor aimed one of its pincers at Flygon and fired a burst of silver colored energy. The two attacks collided and created a large explosion.

Lyra felt like she would be blown off the side of the mountain just from watching this battle. 'Incredible. Just how strong is he?'

When the smoke finally dispersed, Lyra was in shock once again. Flygon had dived down to attack Scizor during the confusion caused by the explosion, but Scizor had it caught in its left pincer.

"Now Scizor!" Ren yelled. "Flash cannon, one more time!"

Scizor used its free pincer and aimed it at Flygon from point blank range. Flygon tried to break free of its opponent's grip, but Scizor wasn't willing to let go. Scizor fired its attack and Flygon cried out in pain as it took the hit full force.

Now was the opportunity Ren had been waiting for. He grabbed an empty pokeball from his waist and threw it at Flygon. The capsule device bounced off Flygon's body and the dragon type went inside. The pokeball wobbled over and over again.

'Did… Did he do it?' Lyra wondered as she watched the pokeball continue to wobble.

The next few seconds felt like an eternity, but the pokeball finally clicked. Ren walked up and picked up the pokeball containing his knew pokemon off the ground. A 'Congratulations' sign appeared before Ren for completing the quest and the sandstorm around them began to subside.

Ren looked at the pokeball in his hand and smiled. "Welcome to the team, Flygon. Glad to have you on board."

Lyra ran up to Ren. "That was amazing Ren! You were awesome!"

Ren put his hood back on and looked turned to Lyra. He tossed Flygon's pokeball into the air and the dragon type emerged from it. With the sandstorm's harsh winds gone, flying was an option again as Ren climbed onto his new pokemon.

"Lyra." Ren began. "You said you wanted to pay me back, right?"

Lyra stopped her running and nodded her head. "Y-Yes. That's right."

"In that case, forget you ever saw me."

"What?!"

Ren's face was hidden from his hood, but Lyra could tell he seemed grim by the way he looked down. "I want you to forget all about me. You never met me and never saw me, understand?"

"No! I don't! Why should I forget the fun adventure we had together?!"

"Because of this." Ren said as he showed her his champion's bracelet. Lyra gasped as she saw the black accessory. "I want this world to think I'm dead. Until I obtain the power I need to protect the people I care about." He got ready to fly away on his newly obtained Flygon. "And Lyra?"

"Y-Yes?"

"You should know that you're already strong. Don't push yourself too hard and get stronger at your own pace."

Before Lyra could say anything else, Flygon flew off into the distance, back to Ambrette Town.

Meanwhile, back in Ambrette Town, three new trainers walked in. They all wore muddy brown cloaks. As they walked through the town, they could sense the stares trainers were giving them. It wasn't until they were already far in that they were suddenly surrounded.

"Well lookie here. Three newcomers." Barboza said as he walked up and cracked his knuckles. "You came at a bad time, my friends. I'm in a bad mood and really need to let off some steam."

The trainer at the right sighed as he looked at his friend in the center of the three of them. "Boss I know you said to not do anything that would attract attention, but can I kill him? I hate loudmouths like this."

"No. Allow me." he said as he walked up to Barboza. He opened his menu and sent a battle request to Barboza. The settings selected were an anything goes battle with the safety lock on trainer's HP turned off.

Barboza let out a laugh as he looked at the battle request. "You've got guts kid. I hope you know what you're getting into."

A circle was made by the crowd as Barboza and his opponent stood on opposite sides. When the timer finally hit zero, both trainers threw out their first pokemon.

"Get him, Rhyperior!" Barboza grinned. He watched as his pokemon charged at the trainer, but his eyes widened as the pokemon the other trainer sent out dashed past Rhyperior and came straight for him. Barboza didn't even have time to gasp as the Bisharp slashed his head clean off. Everyone gasped as Barboza shattered, with his Rhyperior soon following.

The battle had ended in a mere six seconds. The trainer that had just killed Barboza took his hood off and grinned madly as he saw the polygon fragments that used to be Barboza and Rhyperior shatter as they softly fell onto the ground.

"Consider that a preview of what I'm going to do to you, Ren." Kira grinned.

A/N: So what did you guys think? I don't know about you guys, but I am a major fan of Flygon and felt that I needed to have someone use one so I thought who better than Ren since two of his pokemon are... resting (I know. I'm a horrible person).

Anyway, while I am working on the next chapter, I am going to try going back and giving the chapters for this story names so it's easier to find them for all of you that liked certain parts of this story and want to go back and read them.

I can't make any promises on when the next chapter will be out but I will try to make it as soon as I can.