Poke Factor: The Legend of the Darkeon


Ash looked up at the bright blue sky overhead, taking a deep breath of the cool mountain air as he, Misty and Brock walked along the dirt path towards their next adventure. Bill had decided to send them to investigate some local legend in a backwater town none of them really knew, something to do with an Eevee.

"Think we're almost there?" Misty asked as she swiped a rag across her forehead to get the sweat of her brow.

"Getting tired already Misty?" Ash asked, smirking to himself out of the corner of his mouth. "And I thought you were the fit one in this group."

"For your information Ash I am the most fit! It's just been awhile since I've been on the road!"

"Been awhile for me too!" Ash retorted.

"Ah the good old days are back again." Brock said, smiling to himself and ignoring them as they argued with each other. They marched on with Ash and Misty teasing each other mercilessly, more so than Brock had ever seen. They'd obviously gotten closer than they had been the last time Brock had been with them, whether they knew it or not.

Ash finally stopped arguing and just walked on in silence until they reached the town of Cyan. It was a small town nestled against the side of a mountain with n real distinguishing characteristics. The buildings looked like they were made of mud and clay, which Ash could only guess they might just be.

"This is it huh?" Misty said, not looking very impressed by the small buildings that seemed to be made primarily out of mud.

"I guess so." Ash said, a bit put off himself.

"Ah it's better than some of the places we've stayed." Brock commented as he started down the trail to the town, Ash and Misty following behind him more slowly.

As they approached the buildings didn't look any nicer, but the inside of them that they could see though the windows at least looked better than the outside, a lot more cozy.

"Ash?" The three turned around startled, to see Officer Jenny staring at them in surprise, the Growlithe at her side staring at them watchfully.

"Uh yeah, I'm Ash." He said, walking up to her. "And these are Misty and Brock."

"Oh..." Officer Jenny seemed disoriented for a few minutes, before finally shaking her head clear and smiling a bit apologetically. "Sorry Ash, I must have gotten carried away with something."

"How did you recognize him?" Brock asked suspiciously, glaring at her like an eagle. A surprising change from his normal drooling grin whenever he saw an Officer Jenny.

Jenny seemed a bit surprised, but answered slowly. "My cousins step-sisters second-cousin described him to me." She said, smiling slightly in embarrassment. Brock still stared at her fiercely, not blinking at all.

"Stare any harder Brock and you're gonna burn a hole in her shirt." Misty warned him quietly, trying to avoid letting Jenny know what she was saying.

"Something's not right here." Brock said, looking around a bit, but his eyes invariably falling on Jenny again.

"Well anyway why were we called out here?" Ash asked, trying to change the subject. "Something about an Eevee?"

"Ah yeah, an old superstition around here. Come down to the station and I'll tell you about it when we get there." Jenny said, turning away from them and heading for the station, Growlithe walking along behind her.

Discreetly Ash looked down at Pikachu. "Do you notice anything funny?" Pikachu simply shrugged its tiny shoulders, looking back at Togepi protectively, who was trailing on Mistys heels as she followed Officer Jenny.

Ash finally shrugged to himself as well, following the other three before they left him behind.
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"It's an old legend, one nobody's ever been able to prove." Officer Jenny said, sitting back comfortably in the chair behind her desk, Brock, Misty and Ash each occupying chairs on the other side of the desk.

"What's it about?" Ash asked curiously.

"Well according to the legend, if someone used all of the evolution stones on Eevee at the same time it would evolve into one of the strongest pokemon alive, but nobody's ever wanted to risk hurting their Eevee over it." She said, sitting up a bit as she continued, as she'd been slowly sliding off the seat since she'd sat down. "Supposedly someone did try it, using all possible evolution stones on Eevee at the same time. It supposedly evolved the poor thing into what they call a Darkeon."

"A Darkeon?" Misty asked.

"Yeah, again, supposedly, it was driven insane by the power it gained from the evolution and turned on its master. Nobody ever saw him again. It's still out there to this day, prowling around, waiting to lash out again... Again though, it's only a legend." When she finished Ash and Misty were on the edge of their seats, staring at her intently, Brock still just staring at her with that strange look in his eye.

"Well... How are we supposed to prove something like this?" Ash asked, looking a bit worried.

"Well I assume we find this thing and bring it in." Misty said, smirking at him. "If you think you can beat it."

"Of course I can!" Ash snapped immediately, standing up from the chair. "I'm Ash Ketchum! Pokemon master!"

"Sure Ashy boy." Jenny said smiling, then noticed all three of the others staring at her strangely now. "Uh... Well... Maybe you'd like to get started in your search." She said, grinning and chuckling nervously.

"How do we search for something that we don't even have any clue where it is or what it looks like?" Misty asked.

"Beats me." Ash said thoughtfully. "We just had a long treck though, maybe we should rest and head out in the morning." He stretched his back a bit, his lower spine popping softly.

"Good idea." Misty said, smiling down at Togepi, who'd already fallen asleep on the floor at her feet.

"It's up to you from here on out then." Jenny said, standing up when she saw the others getting ready to leave.

"You coming Brock?" Ash asked when he saw Brock still glaring at Jenny like a deranged madman.

"Yeah I'm coming." Brock said, following them out the door of the station and walking with them towards the inn.

"Seriously Brock, what's wrong with you?" Misty demanded a bit angrily. "You looked about to tear her shirt off or something."

"It's not that, she reminds me of someone." Brock said thoughtfully.

"Gee I wonder who..." Misty said, rolling her eyes sarcastically. "She's just like every Officer Jenny we've met."

Brock simply shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe you're right." He said, refusing to comment further.

They reached the inn and went inside, looking around at it. The inside was a lot cozier than the outside had been, the fireplace lighting everything up as the last rays of the sun outside sparkled though the window, making it seem to glitter faintly.

Ash walked up to the counter. "Three rooms." He said as the clerk went through his little book. This was a lot more convenient than sleeping in the lobby of a pokecenter.

"So what do we do tomorrow? We have no idea where we should start looking." Misty said.

"Well maybe there's something on local legends in the library." Brock suggested.

"No library in this town." The inn clerk said as he searched through the keys to the rooms. "Way too small a town for something like that."

"Excuse me sir, but do you know anything about the legend of the Darkeon?" Ash asked. He was getting desperate for some lead to go on, as he wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of combing the forest randomly.

"Yep. Old Mrs. Jackal was right there when her husband did it too." He said, finally getting the keys sorted out and handing one to each of them.

"Wow thanks!" Ash exclaimed, turning to Misty. "See? Pays to just ask nicely. We can just ask her tomorrow and be done by lunch." Misty rolled her eyes at him and turned back to the clerk.

"Where can we find her?" She asked.

"Can't. She died five years ago." The clerk replied. Misty smirked at Ash as he sighed and lowered his head.

"Thanks anyway." Misty told the clerk as the three of them headed into the back, Togepi and Pikachu following behind them. "Nice lead Ash, maybe we can hold a séance and ask her if it's true."

"Can YOU come up with anything?" Ash retorted defensively.

"I'm working on it." Misty snapped as they reached their rooms, each right beside the others with Misty in the middle. Brock just went in his room without a word, shutting the door behind him.

"Geeze, what's wrong with him?" Ash asked, staring at Brocks door.

"I don't know." Misty said a bit worriedly. "Well we'll figure everything out tomorrow I guess. Goodnight Ash."

"Night Misty." Ash said as he went in his room, letting Pikachu scurry in before shutting the door. He could already tell this trip was going to be a nightmare if they had to search without anything to go by. Without any clues. There had to be something. A missing trainer, a dead wife, a pokemon nobody even knew whether it existed or not that could be absolutely anywhere or nowhere.

"This is gonna be a long trip Pikachu." He said as he plopped into the bed, kicking his shoes to the floor and shrugging his denim jacket off wearily. Pikachu leapt onto the bed, chattering comfortingly as Ash pulled off his cap, setting it on the nightstand by the bed. Finally he managed to make himself drift off to sleep.
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A figure crept up to the window of the inn, trying to keep as quiet as she could, the Growlithe right behind her being as silent as she was. She peeked up over the windowsill cautiously. She could see Ash asleep on the bed, his breathing regular. "Suspicious for him to show up now eh?" She asked of her pokemon, getting an affirmative whimper in return. "I wonder though why he would be involved... He didn't seem like a bad person the last time I met him at..." She stopped talking immediately and ducked behind a bush as a window two windows down opened up.

Brock stuck his head out, looking around cautiously. "Who's out there?" He asked softly of nothing in particular. After scanning the darkness for a few minutes, he finally pulled his head back inside, closing the window behind him.

She sighed with relief, leaning her head against the wall. "We'll just have to keep an eye on them, see if they're hiding anything." With that she crept away from the inn again, slipping silently back into the darkness.
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The next morning Ash rubbed his eyes and stretched out, yawning hugely. "Well at least I won't die of lack of sleep." He said as he sat up, looking down at Pikachu curled up on the foot of the bed asleep. Wearily he reached down and grabbed his shoes, pulling them on before grabbing his jacket and cap. Being all dressed, he got up and headed out the door, deciding to let Pikachu sleep a little longer.

He went into the lobby to see Misty already there, sitting on the couch with Togepi still asleep in her arms. It was still pretty early in the day, the sun still glowing a faintly orange color against the horizon, lighting up Mistys bright red hair like it was on fire.

"Morning." She said kindly as Ash sat down on the couch beside her.

"Morning..." He replied, putting a hand to his forehead. "Can you think of any place to start today?"

"No, we don't have any clues as to where this thing might be." She said, watching as Ash sighed hugely. "Aw cheer up, we'll find something."

"Maybe, we're gonna have to comb the whole forest to have a chance of finding anything at all." He said, sighing again and looking over at her. "Least we'll get plenty of exercise."

Misty giggled a bit, smiling back at him. "Yeah you could use it." He smiled back at her as they both just sat there companionably, staring out the glass window in the door as the sun slowly rose above the horizon, the light becoming more intense as it rose higher.

After about an hour of just sitting in friendly silence Brock walked into the lobby, Pikachu bounding along behind him before running up to join Ash on the couch.

"Ready to go?" Brock asked as he approached the couch.

"Go where?" Ash asked, looking up at him.

"The pokecenter. I figure if anyone has information on weird pokemon occurrences it's probably them."

"As good a place to start as any." Misty said, standing up as she cradled Togepi in her arms.

"Let's go then." Ash said a bit sheepishly as he stood up with them. Such an obviously place to go for information on pokemon and he hadn't thought of it. Some investigator he was turning out to be.

They all headed out of the inn and walked towards the pokecenter in the middle of town. The sun rising slowly overhead as they walked along the dirt sidewalks of the small town, an occasional kid running past or somebody running an errand, but otherwise it was really pretty calm.

They went inside the pokecenter and walked up to the front desk, where Nurse Joy was reading a fashion magazine. She looked up at them as they approached. "Can I help you?"

"Do you have any legend books or anything we can go through?" Ash asked.

"There are dozens of pokemon reference books in the back if you want to take a look." She said, setting a bookmark in the magazine before standing up.

"That'd be great." Misty replied as they all followed into the back of the pokecenter. The room the led them to was a good sized room, filled almost to the ceiling with magazines and books and pamphlets on pokemon habits and evolutions. Ash, Misty and Brock stared at the pile with dreading gazes.

"All this?" Ash asked, his spirits sinking lower than ever.

"Have fun." Nurse Joy said cheerily, leaving them to their reading.

"Right... Thanks..." Brock said, staring at a particularly high stack to his right.
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Hours later, Ash was about ready to fall asleep staring at the history book he'd fished out of the monumental pile of literature. He hadn't found one single reference to the legend in any of the books he'd gone through, Pikachu and Togepi were both fast asleep in the center of the room, snoring loudly.

"There's gotta be something..." Misty sighed out, stretching her back out after sitting too long.

Brock yawned deelpy, reaching his arms above his head to stretch as far as he can. "Look I think I found something..." He said a bit drolly, not really getting what he was saying. Ash and Misty both came to attention however.

"What!?" They said simultaneously before rushing over to his side to look in the book.

Ash takes the book from him, reading it. "The Darkeon was created by using all three evolutionary stones on an Eevee at the same time. The oversurge of power drove it insane, causing it to destroy its own master. It prowls at night around the area of Mr. Jackals house, where it was originally evolved."

"We have a starting point!" Misty exclaimed excitedly. "Now if only we knew where that place was we'd be all set." She commented, calming down.

"Let's go ask Nurse Joy." Ash said, grabbing the book and heading out to the main lobby of the pokecenter. "She has to know something at least." They approached the main desk again, Nurse Joy looking up at them.

"Find what you were looking for?"

"Yeah, do you know where a Mr. Jackals house is?" Ash asked.

"Old Mr. Jackson? Sure, it's by the edge of town on the east side, you can't miss it." Joy replied.

"Thank you ever so much." Brock said before Ash and Misty could say anything, grabbing her hand and kissing it like a gentleman.

"Come on loverboy." Misty said, grabbing his arm and dragging him with her as she followed Ash out the door. They turned and headed for the edge of town, searching for the right house.

After ten minutes Brock stopped suddenly. "I have to take care of something." He said, quickly walking off in another direction before the other two could say a word.

"He's been acting really weird lately." Ash commented, staring after him.

"Yeah well the sooner we get to this place the sooner we can get finished searching." Misty said as she picked up the pace again, eager to get back to Pallet Town.
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Brock rounded the corner, looking around him curiously. He could have sworn he'd seen Officer Jenny tailing them, but she didn't seem to be anywhere now. Something was very suspiciously familiar about her, and he didn't think it was because she was a Jenny.

He caught a glimpse of a green ponytail disappearing into the police station, so he quickly ran up to try to investigate, see what she was hiding. He ran inside the building after her, throwing caution to the wind in his curiosity. Then finally when he reached the main lobby of the police station his suspicions were all confirmed...
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Ash looked around the run down and very dangerous looking building with a growing sense of dismay. It would be impossible to find anything in this rubble. It would take them weeks just to dig it out enough to START looking.

"I say we go home and forget we ever accepted Bills offer." Misty said exasperated, holding Togepi to her. "Who knew investigating legends would be so much work and so boring?"

"We might as well start digging... Huh?" something caught in the corner of his eye, a glimmer of something he almost recognized. "What was..." He immediately gave chase, ignoring Mistys shouts behind him as he pursued the form through the foliage of the forest.

Finally he reached a small clearing in the forest, big enough for an Onix to spread from tail to nose in any given direction. There perched on a small boulder was a faintly glimmering pokemon, staring at him curiously rather than looking afraid.

"What is it?" Misty asked, running up beside him as Ash whipped out his pokedex, pointing it at the thing.

The familiar beep preceded the information Ash sought. "Espeon, the sunlight pokemon. This evolution of Eevee will prowl during the day, using the suns energy as a power source. It will shed away from darkness, as the absence of light can be deadly to it. Because of this, these pokemon are extremely rare in the wild and depend on trainers to keep their homes well lit."

"Another Eevee evolution? But I thought there were only three?" Misty mused, staring at the picture on the pokedex's small screen, then up at the pokemon.

"Huh..." Was all Ash could say, staring at the screen dumbfoundedly. "Four Eevee evolutions? Wonder how many others there are that we don't know about." He mused to himself quietly.

They both watched a bit surprise as the Espeon looked up at the sky, then took off running towards the town. They both looked to see the sun going down behind the horizon.

"We wasted too much time reading those books earlier." Misty commented, smirking. "We should get back before it gets dark."

"Right." Ash said, heading back towards the house. They were halfway there when they heard a faint rustling in the leaves, causing Pikachu to leap in front of Ash, small jolts of energy sparking from its cheeks.

Looking up, Ash noticed it was now almost completely dark, night was closing in fast. "Lets hurry up." He said, getting no argument from Misty or Pikachu.

They quickened their pace, not bothering to mask their footsteps as they jogged through the forest, reaching the cottage just as the darkness closed around them.

Pikachu gave a startled cry behind Ash, its discharge lighting up the field almost like daylight. Ash whirled to see a dark fox-like shape dodging the jolt, heading straight for Pikachu.

"Watch out Pikachu!" Ash yelled as Pikachu leapt out of the things way just in time to avoid its jaws, which closed around air. "Lets do it! Charizard, go!" He threw his pokeball, which opened in a beam of spectacular white light, Charizard materializing on the ground in front of him, its tail flame lighting up the surrounding darkness.

"Staryu! Help him out!" Misty shouted, throwing her own pokeball. Staryu materialized in front of her, the red ruby glowing on its chest in the darkness.

Charizard let out a mighty roar that echoed through the darkness before firing one stream of fire in the Darkeons direction. It dodged quickly to the side, its dark form seeming to pulsate and change in the little light given off by the moon and Charizards tail.

To Ash's surprise the thing let out a mighty howl, a blast of pressured water slamming into Charizards chest, sending it flying backwards to the ground, howling with pain and rage. "Charizard!" Ash yelled, running over to check on it.

"Okay Staryu, your turn! Use your psychic power!" Misty yelled at her pokemon as it lunged itself forward, the red ruby in its chest glittering brightly. Blue psychic energy emanated from its body, flying at the Darkeon.

Misty yelled in surprise at the thing shrugged off the attack and began to pulsate again, seeming to change its form, a mere shadow changing amid a sea of shadows. A streak of lightning accompanied its next howl, striking Staryu with enough force to send it flying against the wall of the cabin, sending it straight through the frail wall into the building itself.

"Staryu!" Misty yelled in concern, looking after it worriedly.

"What's going on here!?" Ash screamed, staring at the dark figure in the shadows. "Okay lightning and water." Ash said, standing up. "Bulbasaur, it's up to you!" He threw another pokeball, Bulbasaur appearing in another flash of brilliant white light, the twin whips protruding from its bulb almost immediately. "Okay Bulbasaur, strike from a distance! Don't give it a chance to attack!"

Bulbasaur let out a low growl as its whips began moving rhythmically, flinging stiff, bladed leaves at the Darkeon, which already appeared to be shifting again in the darkness. Just before the first leaf struck it the thing opened it mouth, letting out a huge blast of fire, disintegrating every leaf it came into contact with and striking Bulbasaur, sending him flying back against Ash, who was ready to catch it.

"Three types!? It's not possible!" Misty yelled, calling her Staryu back into its pokeball.

"I think we need to get out of here..." Ash said, calling back Charizard and Bulbasaur.

"I don't think it's gonna let us..." Misty said, her voice shaking a bit as the Darkeon approached them slowly, a growl coming from deep within its throat. They both started backing away, Pikachu leaping in front of Ash protectively.

"Get back Pikachu!" Ash yelled as the Darkeon lunged again.

"Transform!" A voice came out of the darkness as a shape bounding into view, slamming into the Darkeon and sending it away from Pikachu. The figure that had saved them looked almost exactly like the Darkeon.

"Two Darkeons?" Ash and Misty said confusedly, looking back to see Brock and Officer Jenny running up to join them.

"Not quite Ashy boy!" Jenny shouted, taking off the cap and blue contacts, revealing a much younger looking face.

"Duplica!" Ash cried, gaping at her.

"Let's get out of here while the things distracted! Ditto may have its attacks, but it's still outmatched by that thing a hundred to one!" Duplica yelled urgently, spurring Ash and Misty into following her and Brock back to the inn, Ditto running along behind them, keeping a sharp eye out for the Darkeon.

They managed to make it back to the inn without incident, all of them collapsing onto the couches and gasping for air almost immediately.

"Are you guys okay?" Brock asked, looking at Ash and Misty.

"We're fine, but we need to get to the pokecenter the next chance we get." Ash said.

"We should wait until morning, maybe it won't be out then. We don't want to run into it again." Duplica said, watching as Ditto transformed back into the purple gelatinous form that was its own.

Misty stared at her curiously, finally asking the question Ash himself had been thinking almost the whole time. "What are you doing here Duplica?"

"Huh? Oh, I was training to be a police officer, thought I could use my talents better as an undercover cop than a performer. Nobody ever knew it was me until Brock came into town."

Brock smiled a bit. "Can't fool my Jenny-sense."

"Great, so what do we do about this Darkeon thing out there?" Ash asked dryly. They all sat quietly for awhile pondering that question until Misty started smiling a bit dreamily to herself. "Something wrong Misty?"

"Huh? Oh no, sorry. Just thinking about that Espeon. Seems like a complete opposite of this thing that's hunting us." She replied.

"What do you mean?"

"It could have come in and gotten us by now if it REALLY wanted to, maybe it fears the light like the other one fears the darkness?" Brock perked up suddenly, exclaiming in astonishment.

"I think I figured it out! Recently they found two more Eevee evolutions. Well they said he conducted his experiments at night so nobody would know about them. That means he got four of the five evolutions, that must be why Eevee lost it!"

"So what do we do? Force it to evolve into the fifth form too?" Ash asked curiously.

"Do we REALLY want to make it even stronger?" Misty said a bit annoyed.

"Well I'd think if its evolution was finished it would become sane again." Brock said.

"But what if it doesn't? It could just continue rampaging with even more power than it already has." Misty commented.

"Can you think of any other way to get rid of it?" Brock asked, only to be greeted by silence.

"Okay so now the question is how." Duplica said.

"Well it evolves into Umbreon with darkness right?" Brock asked, receiving only blank stares from the rest of them. "Right?"

"We don't know, we've never heard of the thing." Ash said.

"Well it does!" Brock snapped, annoyed. "Point is, if we lure it into the light and keep it their long enough it might be enough to evolve its already excited body into the last form, whatever it may be."

"How do we force it to stay in the light when it can take out all of our pokemon?" Ash asked sensibly.

"We'll just have to go out there and wing it." Duplica said, standing up. "Well it's almost time for the sun to rise, we should get going and find it before it gets away."

"Alright." Ash said, standing up with her. "Ready Pikachu?" The mouse squeaked a little bit in affirmative response.

"Let's go get that thing." Brock said, standing up with them.

Misty sighed a bit, standing up more reluctantly than the others. "Alright let's go." She said, trudging herself along after the others, who were practically sprinting eagerly out the door.
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Ash walked along the dark street, Misty, Brock and Duplica behind him. They all scanned the darkness for the Darkeon they knew was watching them from somewhere. They'd worked for awhile coming up with a plan, but none of them was at all sure it would work. They hadn't had that much time to discuss it.

"There it is!" Misty yelled, pointing and backing away slowly. The rest looked to see a shape darker than the surrounding shadows detach itself from them and stalk towards them slowly, a low snarl could be heard coming from it.

"Ready Brock?" Ash asked, taking one step forward.

"Yes. Vulpix, go!" He threw a pokeball into the darkness, the light shining from inside momentarily lighting everything up before the Vulpix appeared in front of him. "Now Vulpix, Fire Spin!"

The tiny fox opened its mouth, the flames pouring out immediately. They surrounded the Darkeon in the random myriad of patters, burning wherever they touched. It let out a howl of rage as its form began to shift, its outline settling into the vague outline of a Vaporeon.

"Do it now Pikachu!" Ash yelled.

The energy began to build around the mouse, randomly lightning up the darkness around it. The energy discharged just as a watery blast from the Darkeon began to streak towards Vulpix. The lightning struck with full force, flowing through the dark pokemons body and throwing it back away from them all, sending it slamming into the ground hard where it lie still as the flames from Vulpix's attack died down

"We did it!" Ash exclaimed, sticking out his chest proudly.

"Great!" Misty shouted before looking over at the horizon curiously. "Huh?"

"The sun." Duplica said, looking as well as the dawn greeted them.

"Hey wait!" Brock yelled, calling the others attention back to the Darkeon, who was bolting away from them rapidly. "Someone stop it before it gets away!" They all began to give chase, Pikachu and Vulpix quickly outdistancing their masters, but they were still no match for the Darkeons speed.

"Now Ditto!" Duplica yelled ahead as the Darkeon neared a low bush by the street. The bush moved on its own, lunging to tackle the Darkeon as it reverted for back to its semi-liquid state, covering it. "That's it! You got it! Just hold onto it until the sun rises!"

Ditto howled in pain as the energy from its opponent tore through it, but still it hung on clinging to it, quite literally, like glue. The Darkeon howled in rage, all of its energy flowing through it in its desperation to get away as the sun slowly began to rise higher, the first rays showing in the sky.

"Oh, Ditto!" Duplica yelled in concern as her pokemons body began to lose its cohesion because of the Darkeons constant assault until finally it was flung off of the dark pokemon, landing in the street like a huddled mass of purple pudding. "Ditto!" Duplica ran over to it, kneeling down to try to pick it up, but it slipped through her fingers. "I'll get you help soon... You did good." She said softly as she called it back into its pokeball just as the first rays of the sun struck them all.

The Darkeon howled in hateful rage as the suns rays struck its body, flowing through it like blood vessels. Ash gaped in awe as its eyes seemed to glow with a brilliant white light, the rest of its body soon covered in a similar light.

"It's evolving..." Misty stated simply as the thing began to change shape, becoming a bit larger and infinitely more ornate. When the light died down it was about as big as Brock was tall, staring at Duplica calmly. Its body looked almost like a mirror, highly polished to a seemingly limitless shine.

With one shaky hand Ash reached for his pokedex, pointing it at the thing. "Pokemon, unknown."

"What do we do?" Misty asked, watching the thing with one weary eye. "Why's it staring at Duplica like that?"

"Huh?" Duplica stood up now, turning to face the thing as it slowly walked toward her, not looking particularly menacing anymore. She took a step back in surprise at it nuzzled her cheek with its head, crooning softly.

"Ah, it thinks she's its master." Brock said. "Because it was her pokemon that triggered its evolution. It's grateful to her."

Duplica finally forced herself to smile, reaching out one hand to pet its shiny head. "It's so smooth." She commented, reaching into her belt for an empty pokeball. The thing put up no fight as she opened the ball and it was drawn inside in a brilliant beam of light.

"Wow, wait until we tell Bill about this. You actually captured a... Uh... What are you going to call it?" Ash asked.

"Hey yeah, there isn't even a name for that species of pokemon." Misty added.

"Hmmm..." Duplica said, staring at the pokeball intently. "Silveon." She said finally, smiling to herself.

"Well will you bring it back to Pallet Town?" Ash asked her politely. "Bill would love to see it, there's a lot of research to be done on new pokemon."

"I think I will Ashy boy, in fact, I think I'll join you." She said, grinning at the surprised looks the others gave her. "After all, how many chances does a person get to capture a pokemon nobody knew existed? Not to mention I could do you some good, going undercover and stuff."

"Well we'll see about all that." Misty said, frowning to herself.

"Ah don't be such a worrier Misty." Ash said.

"I'm not worried, I'm just not sure it's smart to bring someone else into our little team here!"

"Ah you're jealous!"

"J... Jealous!?" Misty demanded, a bit more vehemently and fearfully than she'd planned. "Jealous of what!?"

"Jealous that Duplica captured Silveon and you didn't."

Misty couldn't help a small sigh of relief before retorting. "No way, I wouldn't want it anyway, it's not a water pokemon!"

Duplica turned to Brock a bit amusedly. "Did I join at a bad time?"

"It's always a bad time with those two." Brock commented, smirking as they watched Ash and Misty continue to battle it out among themselves.

THE END