Final Pokémon Fantasy IX
Episode 2:
Dawn of the Heroes

"Ha!" the young dark-skinned youth crowed. "Not enough power to put out Fenrir, I see."

"You just wait! Scizor's best known for its comebacks!" a blondish-red-haired youth shot back. "Scizor! Make him eat Metalange!"

The Scizor hopped towards Fenrir twice before ripping loose with a powerful slash. Fenrir was blown back, but it still wasn't defeated. Fenrir launched a Shadow Ball attack, smacking Scizor and causing it to fall defeated. "Comeback? What comeback?" the dark-skin said, flaring himself up as if he were king of a basketball court.

"Stuff it, Rob!" The blonde-redhead snapped.

"Stop having a cow Taz, this is the FIRST time I've beaten Scizor! Therefore the FIRST time I've truly beaten you!" Rob shouted coolly.

"Whoopdy-friggin'-do! You disrupted my winning streak!" Shouted Taz.

"Lay off, you two!" Ash shouted, though laid back. Ash was wearing nothing but swim trunks, sunglasses, and his trademark hat. He was sipping lemonade and tanning with his loyal pet Pikachu. "I'd rather not you two disrupt my vacation!"

"Heh, so your Umbreon has grown a heck of a lot since we first met." Taz shook hands with his best friend and rival. "I'm proud. Ash and I taught you well."

"Thanks. I owe you guys one," Rob turned away. He looked to the sky. "Taz. You know what?"

"What?"

"Perhaps now, that I have enough experience... I want to search for my past. The chances of it coming to me are too d*** slim. And I want you and Ash to help me."

Taz thought for a moment. "No problem, dude. I'm with you, all the way."

"Hey! You want my all-too-powerful help again, loser?!" Ash joked, standing up.

"Pika!" Pikachu jumped up with him.

"Yeah, I want your help!" Rob snapped. "Seriously, I think I'm old enough now to take whatever blows the past has got for me."

"Count me in!" Ash rooted. "I too think you need some past. But one thing:"

"What?"

"Can we stay on vacation for just a week? PLEASE??"

"Make it two! Notice that I never said we had to go searching now..."
"Speaking of searching..." Taz looked to our heroes' right. "I just found us a babe to hit on!" The three heroes saw a blonde-white girl in a bikini, wearing front-side-only sunglasses, tanning and reading a book.

"I'm not a skirt-chaser," Rob said, trying to snuff the other two with an I'm-too-proper-for-you look. "And besides, if I'm not mistaken," Rob said, peering out to the girl closer, then as if his suspicions were right, pulled out his sword and got into a fighting stance, "I believe that's... Keeli."

"Keeli?!" Ash said. He too, began to go into a fighter's stance. Pikachu arched its back and started to pump itself up. Taz followed suit-albeit reluctantly. Keeli was the three boys' biggest rival, hosting psychic ability to control water and having insanely powerful water pokémon; even her Gyarados could hold its own versus Ash's Pikachu. Every time they so managed to beat her, she'd sent them running for their lives with a powerful tsunami attack. They weren't about to let her mess them up this time.

"Keeli!" Rob snapped.

She simply lowered her specs. "Why Rob, how nice of you to meet me here! And your friends are here too!"

"Hmph," Ash said. "Not a change over the summer..."

"I'd say the same thing about your cute and pathetic Pikachu."

"You take that back!" Ash shouted, becoming more aggressive.

"Unfortunately, I don't feel like proving it. I'll cut to the chase and summon a tsunami on you losers now." Keeli began waving her left hand as if she were conducting an orchestra. In a matter of seconds a HUGE tsunami appeared, overshadowing them all.

"Better start running now boys," Keeli laughed cruelly. "HahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"NOOO!!!" Rob ran as fast as his legs could carry him, Ash and Taz not far behind.

"Hmph, how pathetic. Can't even handle a little water," Keeli said to herself as the tsunami washed over her, seemingly doing nothing to her or even her book or shades.

"RUN LIKE S***!" Taz bellowed, ripping through the beach and eventually the forest. The wave was nipping their heels and was gaining speed on them.

"Pikachu, don't worry about us!" Ash said. "Use Agility and clear this thing!"

"Pika!" Pikachu refused to abandon his trainer. Instead, it uses Agility but back-flipped behind Ash and charged right through the three, carrying them to safety.

Just barely escaping the waves, our heroes crash down on the small hill that they escaped to. Pikachu pretty much passed out after the whole ordeal, but that didn't mean our heroes weren't grateful. "Pikachu... Once again, I owe you one..."

"Yeah, you were fantastic," muttered Taz.

"Hmph, Keeli has tortured us for THE LAST TIME. I'm going to end it all next time we meet..." Rob hissed, unsheathing his sword.

"Hey, we can't just go up to her and cut her throat. It's just plain wrong, no matter how bratty she is. And secondly, she's too d*** powerful. We wouldn't stand a chance."

"Ash is right. If anything, we need to figure out how to humiliate the brat, not kill her." Taz said, juggling an empty pokéball.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Rob said. "Quite a useless way to take out your anger. But she still has to lay off..."

"Huh? WHAT THE H*** IS THAT?!" Taz pointed to what looked like a black hole in the sky. Seemingly, as if it was giving out magic powers instead of sucking everything in sight, the clouds grew dark and a thunderstorm raged. "What?"

Then, several lightning bolts started to hit the land around them, and the black hole started to truly represent what they were named for. "AUGH!!" Rob screeched. "It's sucking up the land!"

"We're all gonna die!!!" Taz shouted.

"LAY OFF OF IT, TAZ!!" Ash shouted. The shouting and chaos awakened the sleeping Pikachu, who took one look at the swarming black hole and started his own shouting.

"Pika Pi! Pika!!" It yelled.

"Huh? You're saying you feel another world?" Ash asked his pet, understanding it as if it were English.

"No time for Q&A! We're being sucked up here!" Rob bellowed. A shock of thunder hit the hill and began to absorb it-and them. "AUGH, S***!!!"

All everyone saw was thunder, thunder everywhere as they were zapped and absorbed into the black hole. Then, of course, all went black...
****

What the h*** have I done? It looks like I chose the wrong place to warp to. Now this entire planet is being warped into it! Talk about a wild ride! This trick always screws up when the other side of the teleport absorbs too much power.

There's no known way to fix this. I'm screwed. Unless I get help from Atomos. That's the only way. I'll have to be fast; I can't afford to let this catastrophe touch my sister!

****

Ah, so that explains it. My power set off so weird chain reaction after some idiot had a bright idea to switch planets. Or someone had summoned Atomos. But who could? Atomos only comes to two people I know, and they're both dead right now, or should be.

I'll have to find out. That, as well as what is this new planet we have merged with. But first I must finish off Zidane and his canary...
****

"Wh-wh-where are we?" Taz asked, stumbling to get up.

"I have no idea..." Ash said, rubbing his head. "So much for vacation." Ash got his backpack, which he luckily kept by his side through the whole ordeal, and pulled out his usual attire. Hopping off to get dressed, Ash kept slightly away from the group.

Rob scoped the area. The thunder now seemed to be molding land onto the earth, and the clouds were still dark. With a sigh, Rob turned to the group. "Ain't no civilization or humans in sight."

"This sucks!" Taz whined, stomping the ground. Ash came back, but Taz continued. "What do we do now?"

"The only thing we can do now is head forth, dodge the thunder and keep moving."

"Heh, only choice, Taz!" Ash said, giving him a hearty pat on the back.

"Ah, well, can't win everything," Taz said, rolling his eyes.

So the three set out trekking the rough land. A couple of Rhydon attacked the group, but Taz' Scizor took care of them easily. "So, we're still on earth!" Taz whooped. "WHEE-HAW!!"

"That's good news to hear," Rob said.

"But it seems though as if we're on not just Earth, but a whole 'nother planet, merged as one," Ash said.

"Pika!" Pikachu piped in, agreeing with Ash.

"EEEEEIIIIIRRRAAAAAAGGHH!!!" Came the roar of a dragon.

"Huh?" Ash turned around to see a BIG friggin' green dragon with red cheeks, black wings and a reptile-like tongue. "Uh-oh..." a sweat drop appeared on Ash's head. "That's not a pokémon, is it?" The dragon seemed to laugh as it began to summon its magic.

"EEEEEIIIIIRRRAAAAAAGGHH!!!" The dragon ripped a Thunderbolt (Thundaga), in which Ash barely managed to get out of the way.

"WHOLLY S***!!" Rob said, utterly shocked at the dragon that stood before them. Suddenly, he remembered something.


"I now crown thee Grand Dragon G.D.!"


"Grand Dragon... it's like I've seen this guy before..." Rob said.

"ROB!!" Ash screamed. "Don't just stand there!!! RUN!!!!" Ash once again barely escaped the wrath of the Grand Dragon, "tears" flooding his eyes. Taz too, was running with all his might.

However, now only Rob stood in the way of the Grand Dragon. Just as the dragon was about to hit him with Thunderbolt (Thundaga), it suddenly stopped in mid-cast. It looked at Rob with the greatest curiosity he's ever seen in a monster. The two seemed to be in a staring contest, eyeing each other deeply, as if they could see the other's soul. Suddenly, the Grand Dragon's eyes glittered and in a surprise move, it hugged Rob, or at least tried to.

"OCK!! What kind of attack is THIS?" Rob said, gasping for breath. "G.D?"

The dragon nodded.

"HA! So you are my pet! Cool! I HAVE A NEW DRAGON POKÉMON!!!! LUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Rob danced a jig with his old pet. "Hey, I'd hate to be cruel, but I can't have you waltzing around and scaring people, alright? Can you fit in this pokéball?" Rob opened an empty ball, and the dragon disappeared in a great flash of red light. "Good, now I have to catch up to those losers."

"ROB!!!"

"On the other hand, they're braver or more dumb than I thought."

"ROB!!" Ash came dashing back with Pikachu and Taz. "Are you all right? Where'd the dragon go?"

Rob slapped the pokéball that contained his pet G.D. Ash and Taz's jaws filed divorce with them. "Long story. Let's skeedaddle."

Our heroes continued their journey. Weaving past Mareeps gone mad or even a baby Moltres seemed to be the life for them. Eventually they got to a cliff over a high hill. "Ah, I'm tired..." Ash moaned. Pikachu sagged to show his support for Ash, as usual.

"Yeah," Taz sat down, his legs dangling over the sheer hill. He lazed back, wondering if they would ever find humanity. Suddenly, he heard Rob intensify and unsheathe his sword. "Rob? What's wrong?"

"Take a good look down there," Rob pointed to a large clearing of grass below them. Taz peered down the hill; the view began to focus. What he saw made him draw back in revulsion.

"What the h***?" Beads of sweat and nervousness appeared on Taz's neck and face.

"Yeah, that's right. Some silver-haired fruitcake is torturing two innocent people. I won't stand for it. I'm going down there."

Ash stared down there quickly. Rob didn't list that the "silver-haired fruitcake" had some nightmarish electric powers! "You can't do that!" Ash snapped to Rob, grabbing his hand. "That's suicide!"

"It doesn't matter," Rob returned in a grim voice. As if he were quoting someone, he said, "I'd rather die trying than just watching to live." He shook off Ash and slid down the hill to the field.

"Do I have to save your a** AGAIN?!" Ash muttered to himself. He and Pikachu slid down the hill after him.

"Why me?" Taz whined. And he slid down the hill as well, pulling out his secret weapon, hoping it would stand a chance.