Shades of Eevee
Part One
The rain was never ceasing. It pelted down on us like a waterfall. I drew my thin coat tightly about my shoulders and Kameron hid inside his trenchcoat like some type of Sheldur. He'd offered me the coat twice, but both times I'd declined, it was his coat and I had my own. Maki and Kiki had already abandoned me for Kameron's trenchcoat pockets.
"We have to find shelter soon," I muttered, feeling the cold chill of early pneumonia (ok, it wasn't that bad, but it could have been.
"MAkimakimakiMURR!" Kiki, who had sharper eyesight than Maki, suddenly shrieked, pointing at something through the trees.
It was a house. A very old house which looked like it had been abandoned for years.
Beggars, however, could not be choosers.
"Kameron," I said, peering through the torrential rain. "It's a house, maybe someone lives there who can help us!"
Kameron nodded in agreement and we picked our way across the mud that had once been a path and onto the front porch.
Up close, the house was more dilapedated than it had appeared from the distance. The porch sagged under our weight, but at least the verandah kept out the rain. We huddled on the porch and Kameron knocked on the door.
We did not expect and answer, and were not surprised when we received none.
Kameron shrugged, "it's empty," he said (a fairly obvious fact really, all the windows were broken and the door hung off its frame like an injured beast). "I think we should go in."
"Makiki!" ("Yes, please!").
"But, it could be haunted," I muttered.
This earned a crooked grin from Kameron. "Oh Kat," he said, "we've fought the world's nastiest Alakazam, are you really frightened of a little ghost?"
I shrugged. "Well… I guess not."
So in we went.
The inside was almost worse than the outside. It had a classic "haunted house" look, mouldering furniture, broken floorboards, strange noises… But the roof did not appear to leak and we were cold and wet. I removed my backpack and sorted through it to find a towel and a change of clothes.
"Wait here, Kameron," I said, "I have to go change."
Kameron grinned wryly and I could see he was preparing a sly answer. I snarled at him and he looked abashed.
Leaving Maki and Kiki shaking themselves (and spraying water everywhere), I made my way into the first room, changing into my night attire. It was dry, thick and warm and it was not as if Kameron hadn't seen me in my pyjamas before. I thought I heard some sort of noise upstairs, but I quickly realised it must have been the wind. What else would there be in an ancient rambling house in the middle of nowhere? I dreaded to think!
I found Kameron playing with the Makimurs, trying to teach them how to play poker. This was something of an awkward trick. They were too small to hold all their cards, and Maki had spread his out in front of him, face up, whilst Kiki was nibbling on one out of anxiety at not doing it right. I sighed.
"We should get something to eat, if we're going to play cards, let's try something simple like snap."
So, whilst I made us some rather dry sandwiches with the cheese (which was overly sharp) and spam (the meat that *never* goes off!), Kameron tried to teach them how to play Snap.
This also didn't work. Maki decided to "snap" on everything and Kiki thought it was boring and wandered off to explore the house. We had a rather desultory meal and then turned in for the night.
Outside the rain pelted down, a cacophonous roar.
Something awoke me after darktime. Some kind of noise. It sounded like someone was walking around upstairs. I froze, as anyone would in similar situations.
"Kameron," I whispered hoarsely, grabbing his arm.
"Mmbfff," he mumbled, rolling over and pinning my arm to the floor.
"Wake up," I hissed a little more enthusiastically. Finally he stirred.
"Wha?" Muttered my beautifully cohesive boyfriend.
"I heard a noise!" I whispered.
It did not have the desired effect. "So, it's probably the wind."
And then we heard it again.
Footsteps, bang, bang, bang, SLAM! Somebody had slammed a door…
Kameron jumped against me.
"Now do you believe me?" I queried.
"Umm, I guess, yes," he muttered. "Want to go and investigate?"
I pondered briefly for a moment about staying here, listening to whoever it was padding around upstairs. Something about that idea did not quite appeal to me. I would rather find out who it was then risk something coming down on us during the night… "Yes, lets," I finally concluded.
The four of us advanced up the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. Suddenly I felt a cold chill. Maki and Kiki whimpered and crawled into Kameron's pockets (yes, he'd put on the trench coat to go exploring – you don't think he sleeps in the thing, do you?). It was very dark and very, very cold.
"I don't like this," I whispered. Kameron squeezed my hand. We'd been holding hands from the moment we started up the stairs. He was as nervous as I.
Turn back, a spectral voice seemed to whisper, forming itself from the air around. I then realised that we were surrounded by dark shadow. Not natural shadow, something much more frightening. Leave, the voice hissed.
I'd just like to note, Kameron was, in fact, the first to make a break for it, dragging me with him. We huddled on the front porch for the rest of the night, clutching to each other like frightened babes. Although, I must confess, I rather enjoyed the closeness.
Dawn brought with it no retreat from the rain. It seemed we were caught in a rainstorm. Or perhaps a vertical river.
"I don't think we can venture out in that," Kameron muttered. "But I don't want to stay here either."
I nodded. "It looks like we're stranded though."
Somehow things didn't seem so bad now the sun was out, no matter how diluted her rays. "Let's explore the house properly," Kameron ventured, "maybe we can find a clue as to what the ghost is!"
"Do you think it might be a Pokemon?" I asked.
He shrugged, "could be, possibly a Haunter or a Gengar."
"But it talked," I insisted.
"If it's a talking Gengar, I want to catch it," Kameron said haughtily.
I rolled my eyes. "Trust you!"
The upper storeys of the house were little or nothing. There was some furniture – a mattress so mouldy that it was almost alive, a couch that we dared not sit on. A television with a shattered screen. The latter surprised us – we didn't expect to see a television here!
Upstairs, were several bedrooms, all of them almost empty. In one room I managed to find what might have once been a diary.
"Look at this!" I picked it up and gesticulated at Kameron. There was an Eevee drawn on the cover, pretty crudely, beneath it were the words "th d ar o oct r Rob r Kra en t in." The other letters were worn off. We stared at is blankly.
"Oh come on," Kameron coaxed after a long few seconds, "open it!"
I carefully opened the mildewed book. It smelt of damp and the writing had largely smeared into oblivion. From what I could see, however, it appeared to be a diary of events.
"25 September – today I managed to something indecipherable an eevee with a /Iindecipherable passage making what I shall call Frosteon. It was very powerful at…" The rest was more-or-less blurred.
"An Eevee Breeder," I said. "The person who lived here was an Eevee breeder."
"What, you mean he bred Flareons, Jolteons and Vaporeons?" Kameron asked.
I shook my head. "No, he bred mutant Eeveelutions, such as one he called "Frosteon"."
"Frosteon, what kind of boring name is that?"
I shrugged. "I wonder how he did it. Maybe he used different combinations of stones?"
I flipped through the pages, further into the diary.
"13 December – I fear I have made a horrible discovery, today I created a new stone, composed from the very night itself. I call it the Shadow Stone. When I tested it upon my Eevee, she promptly dropped dead and something black and mist-like came from her body." I read the passage out to Kameron. He shuddered.
"That's creepy," he whispered, "and wrong, very wrong…"
"I know," I replied, feeling a cold chill down my spine. I turned the page almost against my will.
"14 December – I am fearful that the Eevee did not die, that she lives in here still, in the darkness, in the walls. I hear her often at night, whispering to me."
"I don't think I can read any more," I said, handing the diary to Kameron. It was terrible, too terrible to comprehend, but we just felt we could not put it down.
Oh, if you're wondering at this moment where Maki and Kiki are, they were outside. The house frightened them now.
Kameron went visibly pale. "She calls to me every night," he read, "she wants me to come with her to the other side, the spectral plane. I feel the desire to use the Shadow Stone upon myself, to free my soul from this shell it rests in. She whispers to me, I hear the words in my head. I must destroy her, but there is only one way.
"I must use the Shadow Stone again."
Suddenly the room seemed much darker and more oppressive then it really was. Kameron flicked over the page. He was as frightened as I, but compelled to read, just as one is compelled to look at a car accident, even aware they might see something terrible.
"I have done it, I have created another Shadow Eevee, but this one is not the same. It did not die when the stone touched it. Even now it hunts my room, searching for the spectral Eevee, the beast that I created. It looks like the Shadow Eevee, but it has a solid form."
"This is really creepy," I whispered, "can we go outside? We can take it with us."
"Good idea," Kameron agreed without hesitation.
We turned to leave and suddenly we saw it. There it was.
It was twice the size of a Flareon, with an almost intangible, mistlike quality to its black fur. Its eyes were like fires, burning in rage.
"Shaaaa," it hissed.
Kameron screamed. The wimp. The Shadow Eevee was blocking the doorway. There was only one escape. We both ran for the window, which was broken (of course) and Kameron clambered through it first, jumping into a nearby tree. I followed his example and clambered out the window. It was a long drop down and I could feel the Shadow Eevee behind me, not physically, but as a cold chill that made spiders of frost dance up my spine. I dropped into the branches of the tree, and into the deluge. Within seconds my clothing was soaked through.
Crouching in the tree, we looked back into the house, into the bottomless red eyes of the Shadow Eevee, and we were very afraid.
As suddenly as it had appeared, the Shadow Eevee dispersed into darkness and was gone.
Kameron immediately perked up. "I think we should catch it!" He said excitedly.
I gave him a sidelong glance. "Are you mad?" I queried.
He threw his arms around me and kissed me on the nose. "You know I am!"
I chuckled. "Yeah, too right."
We slogged back to the relative shelter of the verandah, hoping the frightening shadow Pokemon would not come out that far, into the sunlight. And then Kameron pulled out the diary again (you didn't think he left it behind, did you?).
"The two Eevee fought a fearsome battle and it was defeated. It dispersed into shadow. It is gone now. But I can still feel it. I can still feel it. I can still…" Kameron flicked through the pages. "It goes on like that for the next two pages," he whispered. A look of horror crossed his face. "I can not take it anymore," he read, "I must end it now, the voices, the voices won't go away. They won't leave me. Make them go away." He looked at me, his face ashen. "He killed himself," he whispered, "he threw himself out the window."
"Oh come on," I pointed out, "jumping out a window on a two-storey house won't kill you."
Kameron looked horrified. "It does if you tie a rope about your neck," he whispered and threw the book to the ground.
"That's it!" I said. "We're leaving!"
"Shaaaa!" Maki and Kiki, who had been playing on the porch, suddenly dived under Kameron's coat. We turned as one. The Shadow Eevee stood in the porch doorway.
"RUNNNN!" I yelled and made to move. But I could not. I could feel tendrils of shadow holding me back, a great darkness filled the area and we were frozen.
The darkness fell back and we were in a strange place, a room, the basement? I felt as though this were a dream, as though it were not real, for I seemed lighter than a feather.
At a desk, covered in paper, sat a man of middle ages. He was greying about his temples and wearing a lab coat. On his lap, an Eevee slept, curled up in a ball. Sitting before him was what appeared to be an egg-shaped object seemingly composed of shadow. He picked it up and gazed at it.
"Oh, my beauty," he said, "at last I have perfected you, the only Shadow Stone in existence! Now, let them see how powerful my Eeveelutions become!" He held it up. It seemed to suck in the light. The Eevee on his lap squealed and jumped away. He grabbed it, holding it down. Touched the Shadow stone to it.
It flickered with light, squealed, and dropped dead!
Kameron held me close as I shuddered in horror.
Then something dark rose from the prone form. Another Eevee, but not quite an Eevee, for it looked somewhat more like a Flareon, but pure black, so black the light disappeared. Except for its eyes, which glowed like hot coals.
Then the scene cut and we saw him create another Shadow Eevee, the two fought and one was defeated. It coalesced into shadow. And was sucked into the form of the survivor.
"The two became one," Kameron whispered.
I nodded, my voice stolen by the scene.
Then it cut again, to a latter day scene. How could we tell? Because it showed two people breaking into the basement – a silver haired man and a woman with multi-hued braids.
"Loki and Freyja," I hissed at Kameron, as if he didn't recognise them!
The Shadow Eevee appeared and tried to scare them away, but Loki summoned an Arcanine, and the light of the fire banished the shadow. It dispersed into the walls.
And they opened a box that sat on the table, Freyja using her Kadabra to psychically open the lock. They took out the Shadow Stone. Climbed through the window, the Arcanine still blazing fire at the walls to keep the Shadow Pokemon at bay.
"They stole it!" Kameron shouted. "I get it! You want out help!" The boy used way too many exclaimation marks sometimes.
We returned to the porch, the dark mist cleared and the Shadow Eevee sat before us.
"Shaaaadeon," it hissed in a spectral voice.
"You were not evil at all, you merely sought revenge on the Doctor for stealing your body, is that right?" I asked the creature, no longer afraid of it.
"Shaaaa," it nodded.
"And you were left here, guarding the Shadow Stone, but now it has fallen into enemy hands?" Kameron queried.
Again, the Shadeon nodded and hissed in agreement.
"I'm guessing you can't leave the house," I interjected.
The Shadow Eeveelution nodded then shook its head furiously.
Kameron pondered for a moment. "You can leave, but can't leave?"
It stepped forward and nudged the diary with its nose. Its fur actually touched me. It felt cold, and very, very delicate, like cloud. "Unless we take something from the house? You can come with us?"
Kameron rolled his eyes and stared at me. "Once again it seems our paths have crossed with Team Rocket, and once again we have been drawn into an adventure that could cost us our lives." He sighed, "don't you sometimes wonder if someone is controlling our existence?"
"Sometimes," I replied, smiling knowingly.
Part Two
The first problem quickly become evident – Maki and Kiki were scared of the Shadeon. No, not scared, terrified. They crouched close to each other and whimpered every time the great black Eeveelution came near.
I glanced at Kameron, "what are we supposed to do about it?" I asked him.
The Shadeon loped along behind us, a beautiful but frightening sight, with her dark mane and glowing red eyes. She had led us into the basement before we had left and directed us to a strange Pokeball. It was a ghostly silver-white colour. She had, however, resisted being put in it. Kameron had also managed to find another notebook, one that if anything, was more terrifying than the diary.
On the first pages it had a list of Eevees, numbered from 1 to 37 and these had all been evolved using various methods. A fire stone at full moon, a fire stone followed by a thunder stone. Many of the evolutions had resulted in the death of the poor little eevees, others had resulted in strange mutants that had been put down out of mercy. One of the surviving ones indicated a Celesteon, an Eevee evolved with a Moonstone under the gaze of the full moon. The Late Doctor appeared to belief that this Eeveelution was found in the wild, only in lost places, miles from human habitation. Yes, there was a Florion in here, but it had not the look of my Florion, the horn on its head was more like a flower bud and its tail was flatter, not barbed. It was the Shadow Pokemon that scared us the most though. There was but one picture in there – a picture of Shadeon, more-or-less and a brief caption, "if the Dark Eevee, Barakki were evolved with this stone, it would make the most powerful Pokemon in existence."
Frightening, isn't it? Especially now the stone has been stolen.
Suddenly a kid appeared in front of us. "Hey, you guys have Pokemon!" he exclaimed, "wanna fight?"
"Them's fighting words," Kameron replied, trying to sound menacing (and sounding kind of cute instead, ok, me biast!). "What do you say, Kat?"
I shrugged. I had too much to worry about what with my frightened Makimurs. But my Pokemon had been living the lazy life for too long and would probably welcome the chance to playfight – they'd been doing it amongst themselves, much to my annoyance.
"Yeah, why not, if my Pokemon agree to it, they could do with the exercise." I could always pull them out if it got too rough.
"Cool!" The kid replied. "What's that dark thing behind you?"
Shadeon had been leaping through the trees like a shadow. She stopped. "Shaddd," she hissed.
"A Shadeon," I replied.
The kid pulled out his Pokedex. "Shadeon," it said, "the Shadow Pokemon. Further information unknown."
"Is that a new species?" He asked. "Cos, I bet I could beat it!"
"Let's see how you go against my others first, right?" I suggested. I drew out Ozmos, she was easy enough. "Go Ozmos."
"Go Magnemite!" He countered. Smart kid, he knew electric was good against water. "Boy, is your vaporeon fat or what?"
"Vap vap," Ozmos snarled. She plainly wanted to fight now!
"Okay," I instructed, "bubble attack!" A watergun would provide too easy a ladder for the electricity.
"Magnemite, thunder shock!" He countered.
"Mag NE MITE!" The little magnetic Pokemon started to crackle.
Ozmos spat a bubble at it, engulfing it in water at the same point that it attempted the thundershock. It ended up electrocuting itself. The bubble popped and it dropped to the ground, unconscious.
The Vaporeon made a few smaller, proud bubbles.
"Oh, shucks," the kid muttered, "well, it'll never bet my Bulbasaur!"
"Bulba!"
"Ozmos, quick attack!"
"Bulbasaur, use your vine whips."
Alas for poor Ozmos, too many pizza dinners had an adverse effect on her quick attack. Bulbasaur's vine whips caught her and sent her sprawling. I was about to recall her when she crawled to her feet.
"Vaaaap," she snarled.
The blast of water caught the Bulbasaur unawares, but after the initial blast it lowered its head and batted the water away.
"Ice blast!" I yelled. (Yes, I had taught her this attack, finally).
The water hardened, and as Bulbasaur broke it up, it shattered, pelting it with broken ice.
"Leech Seed!" The kid instructed.
"Bulba saur!" The seed flew through the air, bouncing into Ozmos and starting to leech her energy. I hastily recalled her.
"Go Florion!"
"Flori!"
Florion had heard the fight, and knew Ozmos had been beaten. Therefore, he was fighting mad.
"Pin Needle attack!"
Florion lowered his head, lashing his tail upwards and sending the needles straight at the Bulbasaur. It managed to knock away the first few, but they stuck in its vine whips and the boy had to recall it before it got poisoned.
He cursed. "Flareon, do your stuff!"
"Flare!"
"Ok Florion, razor leaf."
However, Florion was suddenly interrupted.
"Shaaa," Shadeon flew over him, landing before the fire Eeveelution. I think she was just impatient and wanted to get going.
The kid looked a little nervous, but he wasn't about to quit now. "Flareon, flame strike!"
"Flare!"
I looked at Kameron and shrugged. "Get out of the way Florion!" I shouted. This was up to Shadeon and I knew we couldn't control it. I just hoped it didn't do too much damage.
As the flame hit it, Shadeon dispersed, becoming a thick black mist, shadow if you like. The boy took a step back. Flareon looked disturbed. It took a deep breath to send more flame at the Shadow Eevee.
But the shadow reached out and consumed it. There was a sort of explosion of fire, and when it cleared, there was nothing to see but Shadeon, perfectly formed again, and… an eevee?
"What did you do to my Flareon!" The kid shouted. He ran forward and picked up the Eevee. "You turned it back into a stupid Eevee. It took me days to find that Fire Stone and ages to train it properly and now its just a stupid Eevee again."
I felt terrible. "Shadeon, come here." I scolded it. Amazingly, the large Shadow Eevee came over, looking at me forlornly. "What did you do that for?"
"Shaaaa deooon," she replied. ("I thought you wanted to beat him, so I did. Why are you mad?")
I crouched down so that I was facing her. "I'm sorry," I said, "I just didn't think you would devolve it. Can you turn it back?"
"Shaaa," it shook its head.
"Will it wear off?" Kameron asked.
"Shaaa," Shadeon shrugged, looking forlorn. I realised she had just wanted to please us, since she knew our Pokemon (and us!) were scared of her. It wasn't as if she had actually hurt the Pokemon, she'd just made it an Eevee again.
"It's okay," Kameron said, kneeling down beside me and hugging the only slightly solid Eeveelution. "You thought you were doing the right thing."
"Hey," the kid shouted, "what are you going to do about my Pokemon?"
It was too much for me, with my stubborn and volatile nature. "There's nothing wrong with an Eevee," I replied, "sometimes they can be quite good fighters, if their Trainers are any good. Besides, why do you have to fight all the time? There are other purposes to Pokemon."
"Yeah," he replied, obviously annoyed. "Like what?"
"Like companions, guardians, friends," I replied, "they protect you from danger and reward you with love."
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's easy for you to say. You didn't have your strongest Pokemon turned into a stupid Eevee."
He was really starting to irk me. "What's wrong with an Eevee?" I asked, as patiently as I could.
Suddenly there was a loud whirring sound, and a black helicopter landed beside us. The doors opened and two figures jumped out.
"Hey, guys, prepare for chaos!" Loki shouted.
"Yeah," Freyja added, "you know, it never fails!"
"To protect the world from temptation."
"To unite all people in humiliation!"
"To denounce the evils of mischief and love." Loki winked, giving a sly smile.
"To extend our reach to the worlds above!"
"Loki."
"Freyja"
"Team Rocket are back and we're worse then ever!"
"We're also somewhat pissed off!" Freyja added.
The kid gaped. "Who are you guys?"
"Team Rocket," Kameron replied tiredly, "I wondered what happened to you guys after the Lake Eerie incident."
"Well," Loki explained, "we're after something a little more powerful than a measly Makimur today."
"Yeah," Freyja added, "we don't need a stupid Makimur anymore."
"Go Maximur!"
"Go Jynx!"
Unfortunately, after the fight, my Pokemon were tired. I looked at Shadeon. "Go get them?" I suggested.
"Shaaaa," Shadeon leapt at them.
But they were prepared. "Go Arcanine!" Loki shouted. The fire dog leapt out and growled, low, deep and disturbing.
"Arcanine, keep them out of the way whilst we steal that Eevee."
"You want my Eevee? Why didn't you say so? What'll you give me for it?"
Loki looked confused. "You want to sell me your Eevee?"
"Why not, it's no bloody good to me!"
Loki shook his head. "If that's what you want. Arcanine, keep those meddling kids out of the way." He jumped off the rope and stood before the kid. "Here, have some money." She waved a $100 bill in front of his face.
"You'll give me that much for a stupid Eevee?" The kid asked.
"Yeah, why not, it's not my money." Loki snatched the Eevee from his arms.
"Hey!"
"Maximur, paralyze him!"
Suddenly the child was unable to move.
Kameron and I were facing similar difficulties, for the Arcanine stood before us, Jynx beside it. Shadeon had disipiated again. Also, I wasn't sure why we should intervene, although it was obvious they were up to something… Stealing Eevees, well, it wasn't as if Eevees were common, but to steal an Eevee over the rest of our Pokemon… that just reeked of something.
"Go Ozmos!"
"Go Marrill!"
The water Pokemon forced the Arcanine back, but it didn't matter, because suddenly it was recalled and the two Rockets jumped back into their helicopter and it whirred away.
"Dragosi!" I cried, clambering onto its back, "follow that helicopter!"
But a Dragosi with a person on its back, even at full speed, was no match for a helicopter. The black whirly bird quickly banished.
I returned to the ground. "Did they have the stone with them?" I asked Shadeon.
She shook her head. "Shaaaa shaaadeooon." ("I would have sensed it").
I sighed. "Well, where can it be then?"
Kameron suddenly looked up (a lightbulb would have appeared over his head if this were the cartoon). "I know where the local headquaters are, if you like, I'll lead you there!"
"We like!" I said.
"Hey," the kid whined, "they stole my Eevee."
"So," I replied, "you didn't want it anyway."
"He was going to give me money for it, then he took that too."
"Oh, for goodness sake." Kameron pulled out an empty Pokeball. "Here's a ball, go and catch something, we've got better things to do."
He took the ball, then poked his tongue out at us and ran off.
"It wasn't like he wanted to keep it anyway," Kameron muttered. "Trainers, I'll never understand them."
"Shaa shaaa," Shadeon reminded us.
"Yeah, right now we have a helicopter to catch. Dragosi, do you mind if we ride you?"
"Si," the dragonfly Pokemon did not seem to mind too badly.
Kameron and I clambered on. Kameron pointed. "Come on, follow that 'copter!"
"Shade onnn," Shadeon shook her head glumly. ("Bleeding amateurs").
The buzz of the dragon-fly's wings droning was the only sound. Kameron clung to my waist as we sat across the broad and somewhat spiky back of Dragosi. Shadeon sat between us, occasionally dancing around the flying Dragonfly as though gravity were a joke. Eventually we sighted a town below, which was good, because Dragosi was starting to tire.
"Ok, touchdown, boy," I said, and Draogsi sunk wearily to the ground.
"Gosiii," he said tiredly.
"Take a break, Dragosi," I recalled him. "So, Kameron, Shadeon, where's these headquaters?"
Shadeon was sniffing around the town. You have to remember she had spent her entire life trapped in a house. Everything was new to her.
"Shaaaa shaaaa!" She hissed.
"We need to find a Pokemon Centre," I stated, "Ozmos and Florion are worn out, as is Dragosi and we're about to fight those dangerous people again."
"It's always the way, isn't it?" Kameron queried.
"Makiki!"
After healing our Pokemon (and scaring small children with the Shadow Eevee) we sat on the curb, staring at the sky. "So now what?"
"We find the local headquaters, charge on in there and steal back the stone." Kameron muttered. "We've done worse."
"Yeah, and nearly died." I squeezed Kameron. "I don't want anything to happen to you again," I said sadly.
"And I don't want anything to happen to you," he replied. "But I think there's someone watching over us. Look!" Suddenly he pointed, "a shooting star!"
We watched the glowing red shape, it seemed almost on top of us. "Make a wish," I said, with a smile. "That's what you're supposed to do."
Kameron whispered something, I could see his lips moving but couldn't hear it. I made a wish myself, basically for happiness and success.
Shadeon seemed to be staring at the star. "SHAAA!" She hissed urgently.
"What?"
She rolled her eyes, and once again enveloped us in shadow. The images formed again, showing us, walking across the field, picking up a glowing rock.
"You want us to find the fallen star?" I asked.
"Sha sha!" She nodded, her black mane flapping.
"Let's go then," Kameron jumped to his feet, helping me up. "Can you find it?"
The Shadow Pokemon shrugged. "Shaaa." ("I can try")
An hour later, and we had not yet seen the glowing stone.
"I'm sure it fell down here," Kameron muttered. "I could have sworn I saw it land just inside the forest." He drew out a Pokeball. "Come on Flareon, Marrill, let's see if we can find this thing."
"Florion, Ozmos, give them a hand."
The Pokemon spread out, sniffing around, but it was I who finally found it. "Look!"
A scorched patch of grass, in the midst of which lay a silver rock, still glowing with the heat of reentry.
"What is it? A moonstone?" Kameron asked.
"Sha," Shadeon shook her head. She stared at the stone as though she were afraid of it.
Flareon, however was a little bolder. He marched over and entered the scorched area. "Flare!" He said happily, picking the rock up in his mouth. For a moment there, his jaws glowed with an unnatural silver light. Then suddenly it flickered and went out. Flareon spat and a small blackened lump of charcoal hit the ground.
"You destroyed it!" Kameron yelled. "You destroyed the fallen star!"
"Flare, flare!" Flareon seemed annoyed.
"I guess it wasn't a moonstone then, or it would've done something to him." I replied. Had we of looked up then, we would have noticed that although the sky was clear, the stars twinkling, there was nothing to be seen of the moon, not even a faint sliver.
Part Three
Morning came around again, shadows leaving the night, except of course for Shadeon. She had slept on the foot of Kameron's bed, causing him to complain about his feet feeling slightly chilled. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was kind of getting to like us. Who knows? We had introduced her to pizza the night before, although this had led to a squabble between her and Ozmos over the last piece. Although the Makimurs were terrified of the Shadow Eevee, it appeared the other Eeveelutions were not. Maki and Kiki had slept on my pillow, of course. I'd stopped worrying about crushing them in my sleep, they seemed to sense that I was moving and keep out of my way.
"Well, let's go and give Loki and Freyja an early morning wake up call!" I said stretching.
Kameron yawned from the other bed. "Oh, just a little longer," he muttered.
I grinned slyly. "Shadeon," I called.
"Shaaa?"
"Do you know what a cold nose attack is?"
She quirked her head on one side and grinned. She could guess and noone had a colder nose than the Shadow Eeveelution! She crawled up the bed, pressing her superbly freezing nose against Kameron's throat.
He leapt awake and Shadeon almost fell off the bed, her claws tangling in the blankets. She tumbled to the floor in a pile of blankets, therefore revealing the rest of Kameron to the cold outside world.
"Sha sha!" She diffused herself through the fabric and shook herself. I'd swear she was laughing.
"You female Arcanine!" Kameron laughed, throwing his pillow at me.
I caught it, and jumped out of bed, hitting him with it.
"Ooff, quit that!" He tried to grab me, almost pushing me onto the floor. "You're asking for it girl!"
"Sha sha?" Shadeon was intensely confused – she'd never seen two young humans of opposite gender before, especially not having a pillow-and-tickle fight early in the morning. She wasn't sure if we were actually fighting or playing.
I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. "Ok, quit it, let's go get some breakfast!"
"Shadeon?" She asked. ("More pizza?")
"Oh, not you now too!"
Post-breakfast found us wandering across an old school field to an ancient school building.
"This is really Team Rocket Headquaters?" I asked, it seemed strange.
"Yes, really," Kameron explained again. "They have different headquaters in every town, so that it's hard to find them. However, in this building, they're only occupying the old gymnasium and neighbouring classrooms."
"What do they use the gym for?"
"Training Pokemon," Kameron explained, "this is the place all the stolen Pokemon of the area go to so as to be trained up properly for Team Rocket's purposes. I'd imagine they're hideously disorganised at the moment, since Alakazam killed off some of the Rockets and scared a great deal of the others away. I doubt they've even got a proper boss yet."
I grinned at him, "you could get the job."
He almost coughed at that. "Me, work as boss of Team Rocket! You know I've never actually stolen a Pokemon in my life!"
I shrugged, "neither have Jessie and James."
"Yeah, but they're hardly bosses in waiting."
Shadeon nudged me urgently in the leg. "Shaa shaaa deooon." ("Get on with it.")
"Okay, what's the best way in?"
Kameron grinned at me, "the back way, of course!"
We walked around the gymnasium until Kameron indicated a narrow door labelled "Suppliers Entrance." He drew out his all-purpose Team Rocket id card (funny how he still had that really) and swiped it through the card reader.
It beeped, then bleeped, then bleered.
"Oh Hades!" He cursed. "They've damned well sabotaged my card."
"Run?!" I suggested. We scarpered. So much for that plan!
"Are you sure this will work?" I asked as Dragosi landed us on the roof.
"But of course," Kameron explained, "my brillant schemes oh so really fail. Besides, all gymnasiums must have a sky light." (These are school gymnasiums, not Pokemon fighting gyms, lets keep this a little real!)
"Ok, let's find this thing."
"Makimurr murr!" ("Over there!")
"Well, that was easy. A little too easy." Kameron seemed to be a strange mood. I think he'd watched too much tv last night. We wandered over to the skylight and peered through it.
Far below, through the grime encrusted over years of lack of maintenance (on the glass), we could see the floor was painted like a basketball court, and at the moment, a Jynx and an Arcanine were going up against one another.
The Arcanine blew flame at the Jynx, which seemed to force it away with some kind of hand movements. She then leapt forward and hit the Arcanine, once, twice, on each side of its muzzle. It lunged forward, taking her down and knicking her out.
"Ok," I hissed to Kameron, "one's out, the others injured, let's do this thing before they heal them!"
Kameron nodded.
"Dragosi, crack open the glass."
"Dra dra," the dragonfly Pokemon's antennae glowed and a ball of energy sent the glass spiralling inwards with an awesome "crack". We all ducked involuntarily.
"Quickly, Dragosi, support us whilst we drop down!"
"Si."
I jumped first, feeling the almost weightlessness as Dragosi controlled my freefall. Kameron landed beside me. We felt some sort of introduction was necessary.
"Prepare for trouble," I said, with a wry grin.
"And make it double," Kameron picked up.
"To protect the world from infestation."
"To unite our people against humiliation."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love."
"To kick your butts, you Rocket scum!"
"Kataryna!"
"Kameron!"
"Team Rocket shall blast off at the speed of light."
"You better watch out, cos we'll win the fight."
"Dragosi!"
"Shaaaa!"
Kameron and I grinned at each other. That was pretty good for an improvisation.
"Oh very nice, very nice indeed," Loki was clapping sarcastically, "I have a feeling we're going to have to see out lawyers though, about your use of our motto. But, that's for later. You see, we have an extra special treat for you today!"
Freyja grinned. "Yeah, we do, tell them Loki."
Loki brought out the stone, it looked for all the world like nothing more than a shadow, but seemed solid. "This," he said, "is the Shadow Stone, the most powerful and dangerous Evolution stone in existence. Any Pokemon can be evolved with it – or killed. But the most powerful of these Evolutions happens when you cross this," Freyja pulled out another black stone, this one seemed to glow black, and did not resemble shadow in the slightest.
"The darkness stone," she said, "one of but a few in existence."
"With this," Loki smiled slyly once more, "and use it to evolve one of these!" He pulled an Eevee out of a Pokeball.
"Eeveee," it sounded scared.
"No, I will not let you!" I shouted. "Go get him Shadeon!"
Shadeon leapt forward with a hiss. The eevee squealed and ran away.
"Oh, you kids are too late, as always." Loki drew another ball from his belt. This one seemed somewhat more ominous then the others. "Here's one I prepared earlier!"
"Diaaabooooleeeeoooonnn." The thing hissed. It appeared to be nought but shadow, a great black beast composed of rolling shadows but for its glowing red eyes and white symbols upon its incorporal body. Black tentacles rippled around its throat.
"What the Hades!" Kameron reached for the Pokedex.
"Pokemon unknown," the tinny voice intoned. He slammed it away.
"Come on Shadeon, you can beat this thing!" I coaxed. Shadeon looked at the black creature. She was twice the size of a normal Eeveelution and this thing was half again her size.
"Diaboleon, shadow whip!" Loki yelled.
The Shadow Pokemon sprang forward, seeming to hang in the air. Its tentacles rippled out from its body, stretching an amazing length and entangling themselves around Shadeon.
"Shaaaaa!" Shadeon screamed, trying to diffuse, but you could not diffuse if you were held by something with no physical body. She fell to the ground, a twisted, shape.
"Shadeon!" I yelled. The Diaboleon was coming for me now. It lowered its head, its red eyes filling with a fiery light.
"Makiki!" Maki and Kiki both leapt from my shoulders. Their forehead stars glowed in unison and the creature fell back.
"Fire and light!" I yelled, "its weak against fire and light!"
Suddenly the shadow spread out, emcompassing us. It felt like the weight of centuries was resting on out shoulders.
"Go, all of you!" I shrieked.
"All you lot too!" Kameron added.
"Draaaa!" Dragosi sent a beam of psychic energy straight at the Shadow Eeveelution. The force sent it bowling backwards. It clambered to its feet and seemed to grow. Now it was four times bigger than an Eevee, standing about five feet tall at the shoulder.
"Diaaaaboooo," a blast of dark shadow energy struck Dragosi, sending the dragon head over tail into a pile. He didn't get up.
"Makiki!" The Makimurs circled it, trying to force it back, but it was so powerful now that the lights had little effect. Its tentacles rippled out, grabbing them.
"Kimur!" Maki shrieked, it was truly terrible to hear.
I leapt forward, trying to leap at the Shadow Beast and make it release my Pokemon, but I fell through it. I had forgotten it had no substance.
One of the tentacles grabbed me. The cold tendrils wrapped around me, feeling insubstantial but still impossible to break free of, impossibly cold.
Suddenly, one Pokemon jumped out before it. His golden mane flaming and his dark eyes blazing, Flareon stared at the Diaboleon.
"Flarrrreee!"
Darkness was beginning to claim me now, my head was filling with smoke and I was starting to feel weak. The Shadow Beast was draining my life.
Suddenly we were flung aside. I hit the wall with a crunch that made Kameron, who was still standing, wince. Through my blurred vision I could see that he was trying to get closer to Loki and Freyja, both of whom had wisely taken cover at the farthest end of the gymnasium.
"You can't bet the Diaboleon," Loki said with a grin. "Noone can, its going to make us the head of Team Rocket."
The huge Shadow Barakki (Dark Eeveelution form silver and gold, ok?) suddenly reared on its hindlegs and the shadow whips reached out for the Flareon.
Flareon spat fire in its face, causing it to draw back a little, although the tentacles still advanced. It seized the Fire Eeveelution, its eyes glowing as it attempted to drain the fire Pokemon's energy.
The rest is somewhat as a blur, but Kameron updated me later.
Flareon suddenly began to glow with the silver light from the star he had bitten. The tentacles whipped away and Diaboleon stepped back, forced away by the sheer brightness of light.
"Solllaaaarrrr!" The once-Flareon snarled. He had grown to over twice his initial size, although he was still smaller that the Diaboleon. His mane had grown and now sparkled silver and white, looking not unlike a mohawk. Silver fur adorned his legs and his tail was brushier. His eyes began to glow yellow. Diaboleon's eyes glowed red, like rubies.
The two lowered their heads and lunged at the same moment, meeting in mid-air. And this was when the strangest thing happened, for suddenly the two merged, into a white and black mixture, a mixture of light and dark. The merged light shot out through the skylight, blowing the roof of the gymnasium apart and split back into two once outside. Not that we were watching at that point, we were too busy protecting ourselves from falling debris.
When the dust finally cleared, we were lying in the wreckage of the gymnasium. Loki and Freyja were standing upon the fallen slabs of rock and grinning at us. Freyja was holding on to a struggling Florion and Loki was holding the Shadow Stone.
"We're not beat yet!" He said with a sly smile. "When we evolve this green Eevee-thing, you'll be sorry!"
"No!" I tried to shout, but my throat was filled with dust and my back throbbed with pain. It may have even been broken, I didn't want to think about it.
"Oh, she's telling us not too!" Loki said with a sly smile, "perhaps we should stop doing it then? Or perhaps, we should?"
"Oh we should," Freyja grinned. "We definitely should." She brought the struggling Grass Eeveelution towards the Shadow Stone.
I struggled to stand up and stop them, but I could not, I could not even feel my legs.
Kameron suddenly sprang out from behind the fallen debris, sending Loki forward and into the dust with a choking scream. He then shoved Freyja so that she fell backwards, releasing Florion in the process.
"FloriON!" Florion seemed really annoyed (wouldn't you be?). He sneezed suddenly, showering out a cloud of white pollen that drifted down onto the faces of Freyja and Loki.
"I feel, suddenly *yawn*," Loki said.
"Me too!" Freyja collapsed to her knees and started to snore in a most ladylike fashion.
"Sleeping powder?" I asked him, "that's a new one!"
"Flori!" He stood on his hindlegs. "Flori flori florion!"
Out of the rubble crawled some of the Pokemon, Ozmos, Marrill, Shrubslash. I began to get worried. Kameron had rushed to my side. "Kat, are you okay?"
"I don't know," I replied, "find a phone and call for help. You guys, try and find my Pokemon and bring them here!"
Kameron kissed me on the forehead. "I won't be long," he said, sounding almost sad. He ran off.
"Go si!" Something large and purple crawled out from beneath the rubble and dragged himself towards me. "Dragosi."
"I'm so glad you're ok!" I told him, and drew out his Pokeball, "return!" He returned happily.
The Pokemon that were still physically able scrabbled about in the rubble, bringing my Pokemon to me. Maki and Kiki were alive, but battered and bruised, Razor was fine, just trapped, and Dancer seemed fine, although her wings had been mildly damaged. A moment later I heard sirens and Kameron came running back in.
"You've found them?" He asked, recalling his Pokemon.
"All but one," I replied, before the waves of black pain overwhelmed me and I faded into delirium.
The ambulance officers came running in shortly after and I was put on a stretcher and taken into the ambulance. On his way out after them, Kameron found a smallish, dark shape lying on the floor. It was Shadeon. He drew out her Pokeball and recalled her. It was the first time she had been shut up in it since we left the house and he was not even sure if she were still alive.
I, on the other hand, awoke in hospital a few hours later to find Kameron sitting beside my bed, holding my hand.
"Is my back broken?" I asked, that being my first concern.
He shook his head. "No, but you slipped a disc, it's going to take a while before you will walk comfortably again."
"We have to get to the Lapras!" I said somewhat urgently.
"Calm down," Kameron explained, "I've booked us tickets to the town, we're nearly there already."
"How are my Pokemon?"
"They're fine, I dropped them by a Pokemon Centre as soon as they said you were going to be alright. There's just one I'm worried about." He drew out the odd Pokeball and summoned Shadeon onto the bed.
She lay curled up, looking so tiny now she had been drained of most of her shadow energy. I touched her and she felt almost insubstantial.
"I was hoping you might be able to do something," Kameron said sadly. "If it doesn't strain you too much."
I nodded. I would damn well give it a go! I placed one hand on Shadeon, and Kameron grasped my other. I closed my eyes, remembering Shadeon as I knew her in the short time since we had met. She must be still alive, or she would have dispersed entirely as shadow, so I would most likely have more success with her than I had with Cubone. I felt the familiar electricity crackling down my arm.
The strain was too much, I passed back into blackness.
When realisation dawned again, it was of someone licking my face, and no, it wasn't Kameron. It was Shadeon.
I hugged her, she felt corporal again, almost, but not quite, warm.
"Look what else I picked up!" Kameron exclaimed, he brought out a Pokeball. "You're not supposed to have Pokemon in a hospital, but I snuck it in," he whispered conspiratively. He opened the ball and out popped at Eevee. "It's the one they were going to evolve. I thought I might use the darkness stone and shadow stone to evolve one of those Diaboleon things myself.
We narrowed our eyes at him and Shadeon spat.
"Relax, I'm kidding! Nah, I think I'll leave this wee fellow an Eevee for a while, I'm getting a little sick of Eeveelutions."
"Shaaa!"
"Oh, not you of course," Kameron stroked the Shadeon.
"I have a couple of questions. What happened to the Shadow Stone?"
Kameron drew out an item ball, Shadeon and Eevee reflexively drew back from it. "In here," he said, "I thought this was the safest place to keep it."
"What are we going to do with it?"
"Shaaa!"
"Destroy it," Kameron said, not quite translating for the Shadeon but probably close. "Something like this is way too dangerous."
"And the Dark Stone?"
"I thought Doctor Warwick might like that for his studies," Kameron replied, "unless you want to try and evolve Eevee with it."
"Eeeee!"
"Shaaa?"
Kameron reassured his new Eevee. "Don't worry, I won't evolve you unless you want to be evolved."
"The other thing I want to know is, what happened to Flareon?"
Kameron smiled. "The oddest thing – he grew much bigger and his flaming mane became a mane of light. Then he leapt at the Diaboleon and they merged, turning into a ball of light and dark, and disappeared through the roof. Then everything kind of fell apart."
"What?!!" Ok, I was confused.
"Shaaaa shaa shadeonn!" The black shadow settled around us and we once again were transported to a new place. Kameron and I stood on a grassy meadow, which looked almost like it was new and fresh. Eevee was curled up in his arms. Suddenly we saw two Eevees, one black, the other white. They were playing together. The two were happy in each other's company, the first two Eevees ever created. But the Elemental Powers became jealous of their love for one another, and banished them – sending the pale Eevee into the stars, becoming light, whilst the black Eevee was banished forever into the night.
For many centuries, the two were apart, able to see each other only at the junction between night and day. During their long separation, the black Eevee became cold, vicious, angry at the world, and the white Eevee became lonely, and arrogant.
Time passed, and suddenly a man discovered the Shadow Stone, the essence of the Black Eevee. But he misused it, and instead of bringing the black Eevee back from its isolation, he created a new Shadow Eevee. And then the Stone was stolen and used for its correct purpose, restoring the black Eevee to life once more. But she was alone and she was angry, for she sought revenge.
And once the Dark Eevee was restored to earth, so could be the Light Eevee. The star that held the Eevee's essence tumbled to the earth and was found by a Flareon, the epitome of fire and arrogance (sorry to all you Flareon fanatics!). Where there was one, there must be the other.
When the two had seen each other, they had at first been enraged, for they felt the other had abandoned them. But when the dark eyes of the Solareon had met the red eyes of the Diaboleon, they had realised.
And now they were together once more.
The shadow cleared and we all shook our heads as we came back to reality. Two Eevees, banished for an eternity because of love. It was a solemn, heart-rending story. For whilst you could not have shadow without light, nor could you have day without night. We had both learnt something today.