Chapter Four

Team Rogue

It was nearly midnight when we began our overnight mission that required keeping watch on one of the stores in town. It was the Dojo run by fighting-type brothers, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan. They did more than help train pokémon, but they were the brothers that consistently helped with teaching new moves. If one wanted to learn something to help improve their defense, offense, or whatever, the Hitmon-Brothers Dojo was the place to go. The brothers had to leave town for a couple days and were asking different guild members to help keep an eye on it overnight because they're been getting reports of suspicious activities lately. The two of them didn't want anyone to break in and take their knowledge elsewhere, or even use it for their own deeds. Every pokémon learns differently, but they wanted to teach these pokémon correctly without having to fear they'd use it incorrectly and hurt themselves.

Vex, Zorro and I were rotating watching the story as a stake-out. We were told not to enter the dojo, which was understandable, but rather watch it from an older tree-house that was built many years ago by the Hitmon's family members when they were still Tyrogues. This way, at least the tree house was keeping us out from the snow that was falling gently.

I was awake with Zorro at this time, as Vex was just really tired from staying awake the night before worried about me. I thought it was still strange how he was worried over a pokémon that he had just met. He must just have a really large heart, and his presence just made me feel a bit better about everything. Zorro, on the other hand, was more quiet and a tad more aggressive than I figured he was. After spending the day with the two of them, I've already learned so much. It was intriguing how different they were but also how close they were.

"Aria," Zorro's whispering voice sounded. "Do… You really think you're not a pokémon?"

I turned my head to look at the ghost-type who was staring out the window, his chin resting on the windowsill. He looked tired, but also like he had no emotion or worry about anything. Rather bored, I could say. It was an odd question that he asked me and I figured I'd take this opportunity to learn about this pokémon that I just feel is something else. He seemed familiar, his gaze, his presence, it all seems so familiar. I've only just met this pokémon though.

"Honestly, Zorro," I replied, "I don't know what I was. I'm pretty sure I was," I stopped and took a deep breath. I didn't want to finish my sentence, but I needed to. I needed to hear it outloud. I wasn't a pokémon before, I just know I wasn't. When I woke up this morning and saw that I had paws and a muzzle, that was it. I knew for a fact that I wasn't meant to be a pokémon. "I'm pretty sure I was a human," I murmured softly, embarrassed that those words even came out of my mouth.

"A human?" Zorro repeated, now interested in the conversation. The white and red pokémon perked his head up from the windowsill and looked in my direction.

I could feel my cheeks a bit warm from the embarrassment and I nodded slowly. "When I woke up and saw my reflection back in Audino's room, things were instantly different," I explained to him very quietly.

Zorro didn't reply to my comment, he just sat there and stared at me. I could feel his gaze burning at the back of my head. I could hear a slight chuckle, "Human, huh?"

I whipped my head around and looked outside to the sky. The clouds were beginning to clear up some, allowing us to view the sky a bit more and the full moon that lit up the snow-covered forest from the treehouse we were hiding in.

"Don't you think that's a bit silly?" Zorro asked me.

I shook my head, staring at the bright moon above us. "No, I don't, Zorro. I truly believe I'm not from your world. Why else would I have no memory or be shocked that I was able to understand you?" I was confident in my words to Zorro.

"If I were you, I'd keep that on the downlow if that's why you think you are," He murmured to me. "I haven't heard of any pokémon or story that's been transformed from a human. We don't even have humans in this world."

Shrugging, I half-way dismissed his comment but the first part stuck to me and I asked, "Why keep it on the downlow?" Zorro and I finally were able to make eye contact with another and I was able to look into those ghostly-orange eyes again. There was that same feeling, that same weird presence that I've seen these eyes before. "If I am not from this world, I want to know why I'm here," I demanded from him.

"Aria, it's not that easy," He stared, "I just think it's best you keep it on the downlow. pokémon are already curious as to why your eyes are that orange-red color. And then your crest," He reached a paw up and put it on my chest, covering the patch with his own paw but that's just when things got weird.

I began to feel slightly dizzy, rather faint. Things immediately started swirling the second he placed that paw of his on the weird patch on my chest. I looked around the room as I saw flashes of light swirling around me. What was I feeling? I stammered backwards, throwing my body into the side of the tree house and causing a loud-bang.

"Huh, what?" I barely heard Vex's voice, "Aria? Zorro, what did you do?!"

"What? ME?! I didn't do anything!" He snapped back at Vex.

I laid against the wall as the sounds began to fade out from me and the lights got a bit brighter, as if I was getting ready to pass out. My head felt extremely heavy and that pain struck me hard. The same pain I was getting from trying to remember anything – it was there, killing my inside for a second. I suddenly heard voices that weren't of Vex or Zorro.

"Aria … Help … Cold … Articuno…" These were the only words I could make out, it all just turned to whispers afterward. Before the darkness returned, I saw a quick flash of what looked like a young outline of a kid, I could hear voices laughing together and before it all went away, I saw those orange eyes again. As soon as that image was gone, I was brought back to reality in the little treehouse, back in the darkened area. I was breathing heavily, and slightly sweating. My eyes were wide and I was panicking. I stared down at my little white paws, lifted one up and just kind of examined it again. "What?" I murmured. "Di-did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Zorro asked impatiently.

I looked around the treehouse again but saw no one else besides Vex, Zorro and I. A sigh escaped from me and I shook my head. "N-nothing," I murmured as I flattened my ears. I don't know what that voice was nor do I know what pair of eyes I saw. It was the weirdest thing. But those orange eyes that looked extremely similar to Zorro had me questioning things. They were almost identical but also different at the same time. Who was laughing anyway? What does Articuno have to do with anything? Is it just because it's cold outside?

"Zorro, what did you do?" Vex demanded anxiously from his friend.

"Nothing, Vex. I did literally nothing, tell him Aria!" Zorro pleaded from me.

I looked up at the two bickering and frowned, replying to Vex, "He didn't do anything." It was just a strange sensation that as soon as Vex touched the crest on my chest, that happened. "I just felt really light-headed for a second." I didn't want to worry Vex, nor did I want him to be upset with Zorro.

Vex looked me up and down, as if he were questioning me. He rubbed his temples and sighed in response, "Ok, sorry Zorro."

"Don't jump to conclusions so much, Vex. You know I wouldn't hurt someone without reasoning," Zorro advised him, patting his back with his paw. "I'm not that much of a monster."

Vex grinned proudly at Zorro and then turned his attention back to me, he fretted, "Did you hear something?"

"It was nothing, I was just dizzy and I guess it was just your voice that had faded out," I replied calmly with a flick of my tail. Everything was ok, I just got dizzy and that's it. Nothing to be concerned about, right? I peeked at Zorro who looked rather upset or sad. I wasn't sure. He seemed like he felt bad for whatever just happened, but perhaps there was more to what he was showing us. His shoulders were rather hunched over and his head was lowered. He seemed to be teetering his paws back and forth ever so slightly, one could hardly see it. Was he hiding something?

Vex instantly tensed up and his head lifted quickly. He stared at the wall and I could see his nose twitching a tad and his ears trying to focus on something. "Shh," He whispered quietly and tip-toed to the window. He crouched down a bit where only his eyes and ears were above the windowsill. "Look," He whispered softly to Zorro and I.

Zorro and I exchanged glances one more time before quickly, but quietly, tip-toeing to the window. I noticed three shadowy figures near the dojo. I could just barely make out some hush-hushed whispers. We watched them for a few seconds before noticing they were trying to open the door and windows on the side. These must be the crooks trying to break in and take whatever was on the inside of the dojo. The one figure I could almost fully make out was the white figure there, and I noticed this figure was also green. I gasped, it was the pokémon I met earlier who threatened me. "Is that Aalin?!" I questioned.

"Aalin? Oy, it must be Team Rogue then," Vex tartly spoke. "Why is it always them? How have they not been kicked out yet?!"

"Aalin, my darling?" Zorro questioned, his eyes sparkling with happiness. Without thinking, the ghost pokémon jumped from the window sill and landed with a soft thud on the snow down below. "Aalin, what are you doing here?!" He exclaimed, approaching them.

"Great Arceus, what is he doing?!" Vex's chilly voice asked. "How can we prove that these crooks did this with him rushing in like that?!"

Without thinking, I also jumped from the low tree to the snowy ground, coming up behind Zorro. I had a bone to pick with this steenee. To think she was a guild member and she was going to break into the Dojo? I felt a bit heated over this, how could she say she wanted to be a leader to anything and then pull this kind of stunt? A smirk of triumph appeared on my face, as I spoke with determination, "You know, it'd be a lot easier to be your leader with this kind of act."

"Who is this?" A new pokémon spoke.

I didn't even recognize the third pokémon that was with them. He looked kind of mean, with his tiny but evil looking red pupils. His body was divided by a zig-zag line almost, separating his magenta-red top and green legs. His nose, pointing upwards, kind of like that snob look. He had large pointy bat-like ears and just overall mean. This must be Yami, the Morgrem, that Aalin (Steenee) and Toxel had mentioned during my little spit with Aalin.

"Oh this is that newbie," Toxel said. "She's the one that Zorro and Vex saved up on the mountain."

Yami the morgrem took a step towards me, putting one of his little cold, pointy fingers on my chin and lifting it up so I was looking straight into his eyes only a few inches from his face. He stared down at me, and smirked wickedly, quietly muttering, "Weak. Couldn't even defend yourself or take care of yourself in the mountains. Pitiful little Vulpix. It's a shame you found us here, I've been itching for a battle."

I stared into those dark, vicious little beady eyes. I could snap his face off right now, but I was still stunned that he even had the brains to approach me – nevertheless get in my face! But I also remembered that I didn't know a single thing about fighting, nor did I know too many moves that would help – just because I had no idea how to be a pokémon yet. I bared my teeth at this Yami character and ripped my chin away from him, angry that he even thought it'd be okay to touch me.

I heard Vex's voice sound from above, "We're not here for a battle, Yami!" A soft thud landed next to me as Vex jumped down finally. "Now, if you could please tell us why you really are here? Because to me, it looks like you've been the crooks trying to break into the Dojo," He accused them.

Yami snorted, "What of it?"

"Ahh, Aalin, I didn't think you'd do something so devious?" Zorro asked her, sounding rather disappointed.

"You are literally blind, Zorro," She retorted. "We weren't here to 'break-in' anywhere," She snapped at Vex. "We're here on a mission."

I cautiously looked at the Steenee, and something was off. She wasn't making eye-contact with anyone when she said that, and her arms were crossed. "You're lying," I stated. This pokémon was not telling the truth, she was hiding something. She was holding her bag closely to her, as if she were actually hiding something. "Let's see the mission acceptance on your Atlas," I demanded from her.

She immediately turned and locked eyes with me, obviously upset, her tone of voice sounded as though she was shocked "How dare you accuse me, Aalin, of lying! I'm part of the guild, I would never lie about my missions!" Her voice was hiding a bit of concern behind it, it was rather wobbly.

"We don't need to show the likes of you anything," Yami snapped. "To think, you just got into the guild because we're apparently desperate for members and you think you run things already?!" His hand reached back and was surrounded by darkness before he flung it forward in my direction.

My eyes grew wide with fear, he was actually using a move on me! I knew they were lying, they had to be up to no good! I was so frozen with terror that I could not move. Everything in my body was telling me to move, but I couldn't. I closed my eyes, readying my body for the pain but it never came.

"Yami, we're not here to fight!" Vex scoffed.

I opened one of my eyes and noticed that Vex was standing in front of me, his arms up in the air in an x-shape. He was blocking Yami's battle move, and then as soon as he had a chance, he pushed his X'ed-arms into Yami, pushing him backwards into Aalin and causing them both to fall down. He had used a cross-chop to counter Yami's attack. I had not seen Yami's attack before, but it looked like he was lashing out at me, and somehow his anger contributed to the strength of the attack. I was surprised that Vex was fast enough to stop it.

Aalin yelped when Yami came crashing into her, causing her body to be thrown against the building behind them. She wasn't hurt, as far as I could tell, she just looked a bit spooked that Yami was thrown into her. She was fine when I heard her snap at her teammate, "Watch what you're doing and hit them, Yami!"

"Then do something about it," Yami muttered back to Aalin.

I watched as I noticed Vex breathing heavily slightly from that move. I didn't even know riolu pokémon could learn cross-chop. Perhaps it's an egg-move, or something taught by the Hitmons at their dojo. "Are you ok?" I asked Vex.

He didn't respond, just flashed me a smile and turned his attention back to the pokémon in front of him. "Why are you guys here?" He demanded from the three of them.

"Vex, why are you attacking them?" Zorro questioned his friend.

"Did you not just see Yami using Lash Out at Aria?!" He bewilderedly asked. He motioned a fake punch from behind him and into the air.

Zorro huffed and shook his head, ignoring his question. The red and white zorua returned his gaze to Aalin, offering a paw to help her up.

Aalin slapped his paw away, muttering, "Don't touch me!" She then proceeded to stand up and brush the snow off of her.

My gaze returned to the Morgrem, staring at us with such hatred in his eyes. "This will be a perfect opportunity to teach you two your places, and you," He paused, connecting his cold gaze with mine, "Don't mess with our team."

"But I haven't even done anything!" I retorted, "I hardly know you guys! I just woke up this morning!" I was so shocked that he was being so rude and hateful when I barely knew these pokémon! Like, why am I hated so harshly by these three?!

Yami's wicked looking smirk re-appeared back on his face, as he replied wickedly, "You threatened Aalin and that's all that matters."

Aalin gasped at Yami's remark and instantly grabbed his arm, hugging it. "Oh Yami, you're so kind!" She said lovingly.

This sent Zorro into a confused rage, and I could see his heart just being shattered right then and there. Or whatever it was that he felt for Aalin. "Aalin, what about us?!" He gasped, sounding extremely disappointed.

Aalin gave Zorro the most disgusted look she's ever given him, and abruptly said, "Zorro, stop. Gross. Ew."

Zorro's face was just so shocked when she said that.

Yami ripped his arm away from Aalin and turned his attention back to me. He then bowed his head and sighed softly, "Fine, we won't fight you." The pokémon surrendered.

"Good, I didn't want to fight you anyway," Vex muttered, crossing his arms.

Then the next thing I knew, he quickly sprinted forward and whipped his black hair into my direction, stabbing my side with it. A harsh burning sensation rippled through me, as I gasped for air as soon as I had the chance. My eyes went wide with pain and I froze in pain. I was stunned, I couldn't move or even fall down. That pain was so harsh when he landed that attack on me. I fell to the side a little, haunching over in pain. I coughed a little and noticed a little spot of blood now in the snow. Yami's presence was lingering over me, and I just knew he was looking down on me and grinning.

"Aria!" Vex and Zorro called out in sync.

"I…" I couldn't even catch my breath to speak. I had to regain my balance and focus on this fight. If I wanted to be of any use, I had to fight back. I could feel that anger arise in me, but I could also feel the pain rippling through my side. I'm sure any of the wounds that I may have had probably opened back up. But I wasn't going to let a little pain belittle me. This pokémon wanted a fight, we needed to pitch a fight.

"Weak!" Yami's voice rippled in my ear. I suddenly felt a tight grip around my neck area and I was picked up off the ground, and pinned against a rock behind me. Yami's other hand reached back up on my chin, and forced me to look at him. "You don't accuse Team Rogue for anything. You sure as Arceus do not threaten us," he whispered maniacally to me.

I glared at the pokémon, my fiery red eyes full of anger. I could feel my paws itching to just swipe him across the face. I needed to think of something fast. Right behind Yami's face, I could see Aalin and Toxel fighting with Vex and Zorro. This really didn't need to turn into a fight, but here goes nothing. I was an ice-type, so I had to think. What types of moves did Ice-types know? Perhaps Powder Snow or even Ice Shard? I had no idea. My body was then thrown against a tree a couple feet backwards. I gruffed as my back hit it and landed in the snow. I couldn't let him do this to me. This wasn't going to go down like this.

"Aria!" Vex shouted over to me. The small black and blue pokémon shoved the Toxel away from him and ran up behind the Morgrem, quickly. He was using a quick attack. He bounced back and forth, ready to slam into Yami. The riolu was quick and agile on his feet for a pokémon running in the snow. I couldn't even keep my eyes on him, before he jumped up into the air and was about to come crashing down on Yami. However, before his body tackled the morgrem, he was suddenly thrown off to the side by Aalin's Rapid Spin – which was rather quick for her.

"End it for her, make sure she doesn't wake up!" Aalin cheered Yami, after she had successfully knocked Vex away.

That's when Yami raised his fist, his eyes growing wide and that smirk returning to his face. His fist began to a bright blue color and he brought it back. "Just so you know," He stated, "This is one of the moves we took from the dojo, Mega Punch!" He laughed.

I shook my head, fear trembling through me. This was it – I had to do something. Something curled up inside my belly and I could feel it. I opened my mouth and I could tell my body was releasing the energy built up. My body was glowing a light blue, almost white, before a few ice shards had formed at the tip of my muzzle. I focused on Yami and flung them in his direction. I watched as he lost focus with his mega punch when he was directly hit with the Ice Shard attack.

Hit directly with the ice shard attack, Yami stumbled backwards. It was a direct hit and it stung him a bit. His teeth gritted in pain. He looked furious when he was able to open his eyes again and stare at me with such hatred.

"Way to go, Aria!" I heard Vex cheer me on.

I was so surprised that I was able to do that! Happiness just overtook me and I was ready to go. I was still in pain, yes, but I needed to get back up and fight. I climbed onto my paws and shook off the snow that was covering my pelt. I opened my mouth again, ice crystals forming at it again. It was beginning to glow blue, and I released whatever it was that had formed. But this time, it wasn't the same ice-shards I had just attacked Morgrem with. It was something else, it was almost like a blizzard. A freezing wind came with it, hitting both Yami and Aalin, as she was still standing there with him. This Icy-Wind would be super effective upon hitting Aalin, but would just do normal damage to Yami.

I suddenly saw Zorro coming up behind the two, with his claws outstretched a little and glowing faintly as it touched the snow while he bounded over. He reached up behind Yami and attacked him with his Fury Attacks. It hit him several times before Yami stumbled to the side, nearly onto Aalin.

Aalin helped steady the pokémon and she looked furious. The leaves on top of her head began to glow and she whipped her head around, flinging the leaves at Zorro who was hit with them.

Zorro yelped as Aalin's Razor Leaf hit him directly on the side and partial face. He muttered something under his breath before turning to her, "Aalin, I could be so much better to you if you let me." The pokémon narrowed his orange eyes.

"Nah, I'm going to pass. You are nothing to me or to us," She said maniacally.

"I could be your Yami, I'm so much better than him," He argued.

"No one is better than my Yami!" She cheered, sticking her tongue out at Zorro.

This sent Zorro into a further rage, and he shook his head. The pokémon's claws began to light up again as he readied another Fury Swipes. He charged at Aalin and was about to attack her when something shook the entire ground.

All of us lost our balance and fell into the snow. All six of us were confused with this sudden change of earth movement. I frantically looked upwards to see if I could see anything. While I was distracted though, Yami took this opportunity to attack me again. I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head again, something cold hit my head, biting down. I could barely see out of the corner of my eye, Yami was using a bite! I tried to roll out of it, but with the ground shaking still during this battle. But I could not stand up. I could not move, it's like someone was using an earthquake, but I couldn't imagine anyone here knew how to use that move.

I heard a yelp from the morgrem as I noticed that Vex had gotten back up and jumped at Yami, the small silver rounded bumps on top of his paws glowing white. They ended up turning to spikes, and he slashed at the dark type pokémon. It was a steel claw, super effective against Yami! This sent Yami into a raging pain and he just laid there on the ground, breathing heavily as he was trying to endure the pain. I smiled in triumphant as Vex stood over him, his eyes wide with anger.

The shaking had finally subsided and Vex came running over to me, panicking "Are you ok?"

I nodded at him, flashing him a faint smile. "Just a little beat up," I replied quickly. "What was that earthquake? Did someone use it?" I asked.

"No one here can use Earthquake," Zorro replied, limping over to us. He looked like he had been pretty banged up too. The zorua sat down in the snow next to Vex and I, taking a breather. "We oughta get out of here before some of the guild members find us."

Vex nodded and turned to Team Rogue. Aalin and Toxel were helping up Yami. He triumphantly declared, "I told you we didn't want a fight. We were just on a mission."

Yami grimaced in pain and looked at Vex. His voice was trembling with anger as he replied, "This isn't over. You're lucky that an earthquake happened or else you wouldn't be standing."

Zorro rolled his eyes and sighed, "Aalin, if you ever want–"

"Shut up, Zorro!" She screamed at him. "Do not talk to me!" She was so angry, it was actually kind of funny to watch her get so red with anger.

"Wait until Blaziken finds out about this!" Toxel peeped up. He hadn't said a word since way before the fight.

"Blaziken? You really want to tell him you were breaking into the Dojo and we were there to stop you?!" Vex argued with the little pokémon.

Toxel lowered his gaze and avoided a response.

"Tch, don't worry Vex. You and your little posses are rivals and always will be," Yami snarled. The dark/fairy type began to limp away, holding onto Aalin and Toxel's shoulder.

"You did great, we'll get them next time," Aalin whispered to Yami.

We watched them walk away before Vex slumped down next to Zorro and I. We were all pretty much beat up, a bit of blood here and there but nothing too bad. It had started snowing again during the fight, just a little bit. I was still excited that I had been able to use two moves – Ice Shard and Icy Wind. I was beyond proud of myself, and I knew if I hadn't used those, I'd be in a lot worse condition than I was in. A bit of blood and cuts means nothing.

"Congrats on those moves, Aria," I heard Vex chuckled on one side of me.

"Yeah, it definitely came in handy. Maybe you're not as weak as we thought you were," Zorro teased me, taking a deep breath.

"We?" Vex responded with a roll of his eyes. "Oh, hold on," He murmured as he heard a beeping noise come out of the bag that was tossed to the side. He reached into the bag and pulled out the Atlas Communication Map. It was beeping and blinking blue to white, blue to white. "Oof, looks like we missed an emergency notification," he stated and pressed the little blue orb in the middle, popping up a voice communication.

"ALL TEAMS REPORT TO THE GUILD NOW, EMERGENCY – EMERGENCY," It was Blaziken's voice that was speaking.

"Maybe it has something to do with that earthquake," Zorro acknowledged.

"Possibly, let's get a move on," Vex stated. "Here are some berries before we go back to the guild looking like we got into trouble." The pokémon reached into his bag and handed us each a couple of blue oran berries.

Once we ate the berries, we made our way back to the guild, wondering what this emergency meeting was about.