The Blue Mountain League
Chapter 7
To prevent bloodshed
"Hope the two to you don't mind if I sleep in here tonight, Dustin's snoring could wake the dead." asked misty, sleeping bag in one hand her backpack in the other. "Nah go ahead and roll out your sleeping misty, plenty of room," replied Mary looking up from the book she was reading. "Thanks Mary, well then good night." A few minutes later the temperature in the tent raised and dropped as both Mary and Pat shifted to their pokemon forms. {So pat what are we going to do with Dustin?} {I don't know Mary, but I have a few ideas, although they will have to wait until after breakfast} {Oh and what did you have in mind?} {Well besides getting a start on all of Dustin's ids, his pokedex and medical records, I need to know whether or not she can still assume her dragonite form.} {Why?} {Well if she can't then it would be a simple matter of erasing her memories she has of being able to change into a dragonite and any of those she has of us changing forms. As well giving her some new ones, you just change the ones she has right now same people but with her as a female in those memories.} {And just how you plan on doing this psychic surgery, I now that the two of us have made great progress over the past years with our abilities but playing with Dustin head, as fun as it sounds is a bit out of our league even for the both us.} {True for us it would be, not for Cloaker.} {Aren't we going just a tad overboard using him like that?} {No not really, it's best if she doesn't remember anything that has happened.} {Well then we'll see what the morning brings won't we?} {Looks that way doesn't it?} {Sure seems like at times, good night pat} finished Mary as she nuzzled pat. {Night Mary} answered pat returning her nuzzle. Waiting for sleep to overtake him, pat stepped outside the tent and recalled the past week after wondering why no one had noticed the changes that Dustin was going through. {Hmm maybe when they stole the pokeball he was in they did something to him, guess we'll find out the real easy way tomorrow.} Taking one final look around the campsite and seeing nothing out of the ordinary went back inside the tent and curled up beside Mary and shortly there after fell asleep. Morning comes and with ii is the sound of pidgeys chirping, a fire burning and drowning out the other sounds, is the sound of a battle being fought. Stirring from her sleep Mary looked around the tent noting that she was by herself. Grumbling to herself about morning people she curled up tighter trying to muffle the sound of the battle outside. {Pat would you mind holding the down the noise its to early for battling anyway.} {Early? I think you might want to check your watch again Mary, seeing as it almost six-thirty} Shifting back into her human form, Mary glanced at her watch, to see that it was indeed six-thirty and well past the time they would have normally been on the trail. {Alright, I'll be out in a few moments} "Oh by the way pat what is for breakfast?" asked Mary, stepping out of the tent. "Well we're still waiting for Dustin to get out of her tent, but plan on pancakes." "Waterel Hydro pump on him." "Umm pat what are you, never mind, I should have known, you know there are better ways of waking other asking a gyarados to use hydro pump on you." "Like asking Blaze to wake you up or would eevee be the better one to do that?" asked pat, ducking under the torrent of water passing over his head. "Actually I prefer your methods of making sure I'm awake." "Waterel Rain Dance, and hydro pump him again." Called misty, "And how did he wake you up this misty?" "He didn't he was already up when I came out of the tent, playing with laptop. He then asked if he could battle my gyarados. After he used what looked a blue cube." Answered Misty, Turning her attention back towards the battle between pokemon and human. Dodging the boosted hydro pump, and landing in a crouching position, pat faced the gyarados, turning his hand palm up. "Time for your gyarados to take a nap misty," "Right pat, take your best shot your going to need all the luck you have to avoid this attack, Waterel Dragon Rage" "Winter's Edge" called pat, clenching his hand shut and swung as if he had a sword in his hand. Both of the girls watched as a blade of pure ice shimmered into being, connected with the gyarados and froze the water dragon solid. "Well I'll be damned it works, thanks misty I needed the morning wake-up" "Sure thing, now about my gyarados?" ducking into the tent Mary grabbed her backpack and pulled a full restore. "Here misty use this, we'll stop at the next town and let you restock your supplies, speaking of which there is a gym there as well. So if we want to get there today we should get Dustin up and get everything done that we need to so we can continue." Walking over to where pat was sitting {So I see that you finally got that attack to work, see I told you that would finish it soon enough.} {Finished and I have your version ready as well.} Finished pat handing Mary a small red cube. {And what is the name of this technique?} {How does Summer's Blade sound?} {Sounds good I guess, I'll use this later on tonight after everything as died down a little.} "So how do we want to go about waking up our fourth member? Personally I'm all for turning the heat up a little. Misty?" Mary commented her hand sliding down towards the pokeball that contained blaze. "A good jolt of plasma perhaps? What about you pat?" inquired misty. Tossing one of his pokeballs between his hands, he answered as he placed the ball back on his belt. "I was thinking perhaps a good dose of water, preferably boiling." "Aww no fair how come I can't wake her up? Please?" asked Mary as she turned towards pat with her best pout. "I never could turn down that look. Ok then turn up the heat." Smiling Mary drops the pokeball containing her Arcanine "Blaze wake her up with a shower of embers if you would." Instructed Mary. Taking careful aim at the tent opening, blaze spat out a small shower of embers into the tent where they settled over Dustin sleeping form. "Won't that set the tent on fire?" inquired misty as she took a seat next to her brother "Shouldn't seeing as it already as some burn marks on it." Answered Mary sitting down on the other side of pat. Keeping their eyes on the opening they started to decide what they would have for breakfast. Settling on pancakes which misty got up to start making, both pat and Mary turned back towards the tent opening just in time to Dustin roll on the embers. "Pass the popcorn please, this could be worth a few laughs." "Would the lady care for buttered or kettlecorn?" asked pat reaching into the black hole he called a backpack. "Hmm Kettlecorn sounds good right." Answered Mary, whistling for blaze to come over. "Just a small puff, please blaze." Called Mary. Breathing small puffs of flame near the bag of popcorn soon had the corn popping. "Thanks blaze" pat said giving the arcanine a rub behind his ears. "The lady's popcorn." Giggling as she took the bag from pat. "Thank you kind sir" sitting down the two of them had just started eating the popcorn, when Dustin woke with a start jumping up out of the sleeping bag, and out of the tent where she proceeded to run around like a crazed lunatic. "So how long are the two of you going to let her run around like that?" Called misty, fingering one of her pokeballs. "Which pokemon?" "Dratini, by the way do you have a kanto model of TM#13?" "Ice beam? Yeah I'll give it to you later" answered pat "K, Dratini go, thunder wave." {Mary} {I know this is why I don't like electric type pokemon or thunder-wave} "Safeguard" they called covering themselves with a very fine mist. Dratini curling its serpentine body around itself released a pulse of electrical current at Dustin stopping her crazed run long enough for misty to call for a second attack. "Dratini water gun" "You thought your dratini water gun?" asked pat, "Pain in the butt doing so but it comes in handy every now and then." Replied misty. "So it does." "Ok now was that really needed? I mean come on, you could have at least tried shaking me." Yelled a soaked Dustin. "We did try shaking you, all you did was roll over and kept sleeping. So I think that warranted the use of water, which didn't do anything, so we choice to use flames." Mary shouted back. "Now if your done with your inquisition we would like to get started on changing your identity, you do know that you can't keep your name so you had best come up with something that your going to want to be called for the rest of your life, the vitamins you took over the past two weeks are permanent. But before get started on changing all of your records, we would like you to change into your dragonite form." Pat said, pulling out his laptop once more that morning, {looks like hacker and the rest of them are going to be busy this morning, good thing they don't charge me for their services.} {Hmm yes, but then again you did give them a better home then their previous trainers did} "Well I do have a name but explain why I have to change into my dragonite form?" Dustin asked shifting from one foot to the other waiting for an answer that would explain the whole mess. "Just humor us Dustin, besides it won't take you that long to change into your pokemon form and back." Mary snapped sitting down next to pat. {So pat do you think she still retains the ability?} {To tell the truth Mary, most likely not} was the mental reply. Looking over the top of his laptop, pat watched as Dustin's body glowed for a few short seconds then stopped. {Well pat looks like this will be a quick fix, then so if you'll hand me Cloaker's pokeball I'll get started on altering Dustin's memories} {Sure here you go} handing Mary the black pokeball that contained the ghost. "Now Dustin you said had name you wanted to use?" "Didn't I just say that, could have sworn I did." "The name, other wise you can explain to officer jenny why you have someone else's pokedex." "Aya, Aya Kinto" "Good now just sit down and wait, it going to take a little bit of time to change all of your records." With that pat started typing commands into his laptop for the porygon team to follow, and at the same time he motioned for Mary to release Cloaker behind Aya. Which she did by dropping the ball behind the rock that both her and pat were currently sitting on, and gave the ghost his instructions. Warping behind Aya, Cloaker clapped his hands and released his hypnotic waves directly into Aya head. "Well now well you tell me why I had to.change.into." With that Aya slumped to the ground before she finish her question. "Good work Cloaker now we need to erase her memories, and replace them with ones that are similar, but with her as a female and that she never saw our transformations or remembers that she could." Instructed Mary. "Gengar" "Thanks Cloaker" Mary watched, as Cloaker put one of it's ethereal on to Aya's forehead and started the process of changing the teenage girls' memories. "Might as well get out a book Mary, this is going to take some time both changing her records and memories." Pat said looking up from his laptop where he was busy hacking his way into Dustin's medical records. "Hey misty how breakfast coming?" Mary asked getting up to grab her backpack. "Ready, how many pancakes do you want?" came the answer from across the campsite. "Pat?" "Five please" "five for your brother and I'll take three. And go easy on the syrup I would prefer my pancakes not to be drowning in syrup this time." Answered Mary. "Drown mine squeaks" called pat. Walking over with the plates of food, misty handed Mary her plate and placed pat's next to him, right where he would put his hand. Which he almost did, but stopped at the second and picked up the plate. "Very funny Melissa very funny." Once she was done eating, Mary placed the plate into fire, which quickly turned it into a fine ash and was blown away. "How much longer do you think pat?" for her records, I'll say about twenty minutes, as for Cloaker I'll give him about another forty before he's done." Hearing that Mary proceeded to pull out the book she was reading last night, "Haven't you read that one before?" asked pat looking over at Mary as she sat down beside him. "Hmm I've lost count of the times I've read this one, but it's my favorite." Answered Mary, looking up from her book and pointed towards the laptop, she watched as pat finished with Aya's records. As she watched she saw that Dustin's name was on the screen as well as Aya's name. "That's hacker way of showing his progress, when he done Aya's name will be where Dustin's is." As he explained hacker's little graph the names moved a little closer. Five minutes later hacker and the other porygon were done, and hacker's graph showed the name of one Dustin Vallencourt changing into Aya Kinto. "Well now we just wait for Cloaker to finish playing with Aya's head." (Hacker can you pull up the results from last night's tests) Scooting closer, Mary watched as the graphs and different figures popped up on the screen intrigued by all of the information. "What did you run last night?" "Just a blood test, unlike nurse joy who needs a whole 50cc's, hacker can get by with just a few drops. Save time and is less painful." "I'll take your word for it, Anyway it looks like Cloaker is almost done altering Aya's memory." "Well then I guess it's a good thing that all I have to do is her pokedex." Taking out Dustin's pokedex, pat changed the name it registered to from Dustin Vallencourt to Aya Kinto, placed a note into the trainer bio that she was a apprentice pokemon nurse. Disconnecting the pokedex from his computer pat closed the minicomputer and handed to Mary. "There you go one pokedex reprogrammed." "What's this about her being an apprentice pokemon nurse?" asked Mary. "Well she going to need a job so Cloaker has placed the necessary memories into her head for her to be a pokemon nurse." "Well that works for her but what about Nurse joy, they don't tend to take people outside of their clan as far as pokemon nurse go." "I know and I plan on taking care of that once we reach the town limits." Felling something tap her on the shoulder Mary turned to see that Cloaker was done. "Thanks Cloaker, Return" she said holding up the pokeball for the ghost. Once Cloaker had gotten back inside his pokeball Mary handed the ball back to pat. "Well let's see her medical records and her pokedex have been changed, so has all of her id's, so all that remains is to wake her up." "Hey squeaks your turn to wake her." "Go dratini, plasma bolt" shouted misty, throwing the pokeball next Aya. Releasing the dratini right on Aya's back. Charging up it's attack, the dratini jumped and released a bolt electrical energy, much to the surprise of Mary and pat, the bolt wasn't yellow or white, like one would expect from a electrical attack, but was a green bolt of energy. Once the bolt had struck Aya, she woke with a yelp of pain. "Nice to see you among the living again, you know you should be more careful when riding your rapidash through the woods like that." Misty said walking over and helping Aya to her feet. "Anyway why the heck were you in such a hurry?" "I'm in hurry to get to Briar city, I'm expected to be at the pokemon center there by sunset tonight. Nurse joy is waiting for me there, so she can continue my training. That and I would like to get home, before she starts my training. {Umm pat what happened?} {I think Cloaker forgot about the part of changing some of the current memories, but this does work out to our advantage} "We're heading towards briar city ourselves, and if you like you can travel with us." Commented pat. Handing Aya her pokedex. "I found this a few feet away from where you landed. {Mary get her badge out of her backpack, she won't need it anymore.} {What do you plan to do with it?} {Give it to misty, she going to need it so she can enter the league games once they start up here.} {Why do I even bother to ask? I should have guessed, but your right Aya won't need the badge.} Handing Aya her backpack, Mary walked back towards where she had been sitting holding the badge so only Pat could see it. "Well if we're going to make it to briar city by sundown we should get going right now. So you know what, this time you'll have to try and keep up with me." Stated misty grabbing pokeball on her belt and tossing it in front of herself. "Go ponyta," climbing on to her horse she turned and with a grin on her face told her companions in a mocking tone. "Catch me if you can" and gave the signal to her ponyta. "Go Blaze" called Mary releasing her Arcanine. Circling the campsite once she stopped blaze so pat could climb on. "Well Aya, you going to call out your rapidash? Or do you plan on walking the rest of the way?" asked Mary, as she kept an eye on how far ahead misty was. "Go Burner" she called tossing a pokeball out. Climbing onto the horse pokemon, she gave the rapidash a nudge with her hell and was able to grab the reins before taking off like a bat out of hell. {Well this is going to be a lot more interesting then I thought it would be Pat, so what does the gym leader of briar city use for pokemon?} {Dark types. From what the guidebook says, and from what I've been able to find on the web.} Hours go by as Mary and Pat, chase after Aya and Misty, when they finally catch up with Misty they stop for bit to give their pokemon a chance to rest. "Hey I can see the city from here. Can we go, we can rest the pokemon once we get to town, I'm sure Nurse Joy would be happy to rejuvenate them for you." Asked Aya astride her rapidash. "Well we might as well stop there and get our pokemon recharged before fighting the gym leader, Pat" "True we should, besides we can always go after the gym leader tomorrow anyway, it's not like he going anywhere. "Come on you three, I can see the outline for the center, lets go." Called Aya, {Seems to be in a big hurry there Pat, just what exactly did Cloaker put into her head?} was the silent inquiry. {Just that Nurse Joy is expecting her before curfew tonight. And judging from the way she is acting it might be a good idea to change mounts.} {Meaning?} {We use winter and freefall.} Answered Pat. {Might as well, we'll get a lot sooner if we fly, besides I think blaze could use a break from all of the running.} "Blaze return and take a nap, you deserve it" Mary said holding up the pokeball and activated the recall function, "Freefall time to come out and give your wings a stretch" she called throwing a light blue pokeball into the air. Reaching the peak of its flight the pokeball opened releasing the energy stored inside and a blast frost, which covered everything within a ten- foot radius. By this time both Misty and Aya gave up on trying to get the older trainers to get up and get moving again, and had circled back around to where they watched Mary release her bird pokemon. "What's going on Pat?" asked Misty, dismounting from her ponyta, and motioned for Aya to do the same. "Nothing much we just thought we would take a short cut, that's all." Answered Pat. "We're putting you and Aya onto freefall" said Mary running her hand through Freefall's shimmering feathers. "Ok so lets get going, I don't know about the two of but I'm getting hungry, and before you say anything Pat, I have eaten today. In fact I've already the snacks I made this morning." Stated Misty glaring at her brother, daring him to say anything. "First off squeaks, mouse size snacks don't count as a snack. But if it makes you feel better we'll get something to eat when we get to the center." Climbing onto freefall as she asked her next question, ignoring the last comment her brother had made. "So we're going to fly to briar, check into the center, get something to eat and depending on what time it is go fight the gym leader?" "Something to that effect yes." Was the answer she got back. "If that's the case why don't we get going, like Misty said she's not the only one hungry." Aya stated as she climbed aboard Freefall. {You sure Freefall is going to be to handle the both of them Mary? Remember he's not winter's level or age.} {Don't see why not, he might not be the same level as winter but he should be able to manage the both them.} Nodding as he heard Mary's reply, Pat tossed out a light blue pokeball. Once more the pokeball sailed through the air until it reached the apex of its flight. Splitting open on an unseen hinge, the energy poured out of the ball forming into the shape of a large bird, once the light had died down, Pat blinked and saw that once more everything within ten feet was covered in frost. "You know Pat there are days when that frost isn't the best thing, but on day like this, it definitely feels good.ahhh" commented Mary, shivering as some of the frost slid down the back of her shirt. Helping Mary up onto winter, Pat checked to make sure had their backpacks. Seeing that everyone had theirs' gave winter the ok. {Just follow the road, and set your pace.} {Don't worry, you just leave the flying to me, and Mary could you let freefall out more often would be nice to talk with him maybe even teach him a few things.} {K, Winter, just go easy on him} Answered Mary, settling into a more comfortable position. Once she was settled, she pulled out the map that nurse joy had first given her, Mary checked to see how much farther they had to go. Surprisingly they only had a little further to go. "I think we should be able to reach the town in a few Pat, so we'll be able to restock everything and get something to eat as well. I think a good bowl of noodles would be nice, maybe some curry as well." She said, leaning back so that she could be heard over the wind. "Well you best get comfortable, cause the weather doesn't look to promising right now." Pointing out in front of them. Following to where Pat was pointing, Mary could see the thunderheads that were building up. {Winter you wouldn't by any chance know agility would you?} {I do but I thought you would have noticed that there is only lightning and thunder from coming from those clouds, no rain, and that means only one thing. My sister is nearby and so is her trainer Pat* "Her sister? Zapdos? I thought Andrew was busy doing the southern leagues like the Orange and Centra leagues?" "He was last time I e-mailed him." Watching the clouds roll closer, Pat directed winter to circle around on the thermals. Minutes later a large yellow and black bird came out of the clouds just as the clouds open up with a downpour. {So you going to land or are we going to shout at each other?} {How about you follow us to the next center and we talk there. {And could you kill the rain please Andrew you might like but some of us don't} {Oh didn't see you there Mary, sure thing.} An hour later find the three birds landing just a short distance away from the center. "Thank you so much for bringing me here, I've best go and check in with nurse joy" said Aya giving the group a small bow with her hands clasped in front her. Coming up from her bow she dropped her rapidash's pokeball and headed for the center. {Pat, nurse joy remember? She not expecting her} "Return Cloaker" {Already took of that problem, you remember that flash of you saw in front of winter, that was Cloaker teleporting. I'm sorry I should have told you sooner. Tell you what I'll treat you to dinner after we get done with gym leader?} {Well ok I guess.} "So what are you doing here Andrew I thought you were do the Centra league?" inquired Pat. "Well I've got a few weeks before the league games start so I figured that I would stop by home and see what everyone is up to. By the way, Joe is keeping everyone D2 accounts active. Even yours Mary." "Anyway stopped by the house didn't see your stuff, and mom didn't know where the heck you were. So I figured you were either training somewhere with Mary or the two of you were doing a league for the fun of it." "Tracking?" "Well besides asking the joys, who by the way are excellent source of gossip. And they want Joe to stop bugging them, no I take that back all but the goldenrod joy want him stop bugging them, goldenrod joy, from what I've heard is dating him. That will do wonders for their family tree." Pausing for a few seconds to catch his breath. "Well that would explain why she was a bit out of it when stopped their for the night Pat, guess she was looking forward to her next date with Joe. But your wrong about the family tree part Joe does know what he talking about when comes to his pokemon. Especially his umbreon" Mary commented while Andrew was still gasping for air. "Anyway Andrew you still haven't answered the question." "Easy, pokedex. I mean come on Pat, you should it's not that hard to lock on a single pokemon, all you need is the trainer's ID number." "I know how do you think mom keeps tabs, on you and Joe, you two should really disable the beacon in your pokedex. That way the trainer can't be tracked. The pokemon on the other hand, well that's a little harder to do." "Dratini Water Gun Now" Turning to face the voice the behind him, Andrew took the brunt of the water gun to the face. "Hello you to Misty" "I told you I would get you back for shocking me like that, Dratini dragon breath attack." "You going to stop them Pat?" whispered Mary. "If it gets to much out of hand, besides Andrew got himself into this mess along with Joe so he can get himself out as well. Besides Misty should be able to take down at least two of his pokemon with dratini, that is along as he doesn't use Zeus." Pat whispered back. "Popcorn?" he asked, "No thanks, but do we have any Dr. pepper left?" Diving into his backpack, Pat pulled the two bottles of the requested drink. "Here you go" handing her one the bottles. "Diamond come out on defensive" Called Andrew dropping the pokeball in front of him. From the pokeball sprung a segmented body that coiled around Andrew, once the light had died down, both Mary and Pat were able to see that Andrew had chosen his steelix to battle against Misty's dratini. "Diamond Iron Defense" "Dratini Surf's up" Diamond following Andrew's command, focused on a long forgotten attack and harden it tempered body, even more. At the same time, dratini had summoned a large amount of water, and released it towards diamond. Roaring in defeasance as the water crashed down around it, diamond stood its ground with out flinching as the water receded. "Nice work diamond, now Iron tail." "That's enough, Really you should be ashamed of yourselves fighting like that in front of a pokemon center, return your pokemon at once or I'll be force to call Officer Jenny." The two combatants turned towards the voice only to see one of the few things trainers pray they never see. A pissed off nurse joy, and was this nurse joy pissed. "Dratini return" Misty called in meek voice. Once she had returned her dragon, she gave nurse joy a small bow in apology and took off running for the center. "Diamond return" and copied Misty. "Well I guess we should go get our room, and see what we need to restock shouldn't we Pat?" Mary asked standing up from the bench that they had been sitting on watching the small battle. "You coming, Pat?" she asked. "I'll be in as soon I talk to Andrew." He answered, giving her a small kiss on her forehead. Once Mary had gone inside the center he turned towards Andrew. "So what did you want to talk about Andrew?" "Well it's about a book I found, it went into great detail about a rare ice type pokemon. So I figured I would let you know about it. The only thing is I went back to the library where I had found the book, and it was gone, so I have no idea where you might find it." "I do have an idea about where I could find but that will have to wait until later. Anything else?" "Well as a matter of fact, here take these tm's" answered Andrew handing over a small bag. Looking inside Pat saw about twelve tm's "Fire and Ice moves I take it" Pat asked pulling out two of the cubes and pointing out the colors that were on the cubes. "Yeah I copied the ones I wanted. You can have these I don't need them, their good attacks. Don't get me wrong on that part, it's just not to many of my pokemon can learn these attacks. So you and Mary might be able to put to better use then I can." "Oh I almost forgot there is a healing move for each type. The nice part about them is that they also deal damage as well." Finished Andrew as he zipped his backpack closed. "Alright then good luck with the Centra league games. Next time we chat you had better be the champion other wise it's training time again, and she has gotten better Andrew." "I know she has Pat, I've watched the league games where you and Mary challenged and for the most part destroyed the indigo and johoto leagues." "Good then next time Andrew you and me can battle." Turning Andrew saw much to his dismay that Mary was sitting behind him calmly reading one of her books. Turning back towards Pat, "You could have told me she was there you know." "And ruin her fun, are you crazy? Anyways thanks for the tm's and good luck in the games, I've seen the way Centra league fights. Two words come to mind." "Dumb and stupid right?" interrupted Andrew. "Nope. Brutal and fun, maybe we'll do that league next." "You have a weapon right? You know that trainer fights as well the pokemon." "Yes I've been training Mary with the quarterstaff" "What about you Andrew, what's your weapon?" Mary asked looking up from her book. "These" he replied pulling out a pair of daggers from their sheaths. "I see. I didn't think the league allowed lethal weapons." "For the most part they don't but it depends on what level of the league you want to, the Centra league has two levels of difficulty. In the first one, trainers are allowed non-bladed weapons, staffs and clubs and the main part of that course. The second course trainers are allowed to use any weapon they want. Firearms are still prohibited for obvious reasons." "Sounds like fun, we'll have to make a trip down there Pat." "Well I'm going to head back towards goldenrod, so I'll talk with you two later." Standing up Andrew walked a few yards away from his friends and threw out an amber colored pokeball. "Time to go Zeus" {I hate to say this Pat but shouldn't his bird have a different name then Zeus?} {It should, but Andrew wasn't listening to anyone.} "So ready to go battle the gym leader?" "Well I am but you might want to heal your pokemon first Pat." "Not this time I have a few things I can use." Taking out a small jar of berries, which he then set on the ground along with some hyper potions. "Mystery berries and hyper potions, works like charm." Releasing his pokemon Pat proceeded to give them some of the berries and sprayed each one with a potion, after which he returned them to their pokeballs. "Now lets go find the gym leader." Pat said as he helped Mary up from where she had been sitting.
A large cloaked figured walked towards the pokemon that had been sitting in the depths of the cave. "Your time of service is over, as I had promised when I first brought you down here. Her soul has been reborn, and is out in the world. The only thing you'll have to is find her, she remember you when she see you, but things have changed." He said waving his hand towards the mouth of the cave "Yes I know I've sensed the changes as well, that and my siblings have kept up to date on the happenings of the world. But it's time for me to run the world once more. But be warned you pull anything like you did last time and you'll regret it." With that said the pokemon turned and bounded out of the cave and into the approaching twilight. "Now where am I going to get someone else to guard the gates? Hmm perhaps its time I brought one of the" still pondering the figure vanished into the cave.
After an hour of searching, Mary found a cave hidden behind some ivy vines. "Hey Pat, I think found the entrance." She called "Well have to give the leader props from hiding his gym. So lets go pay him a visit." Answered Pat once he had made his way over to where Mary was waiting. "Sounds good to me," She said pushing the vines to the side and walked into the cave. Walking to the cave, once the vines had fallen back into place plunged the cave into darkness causing their eyes to start glowing as they made their way down the tunnel. Coming upon a large door with engravings on it. They looked at for a few seconds trying to make since of the carvings on it. "I think this one is supposed to be Entei, but I don't know about this one here Pat." "Which one?" "This one" Mary said pointing at the carving. "Hmm looks like something I've seen. But I don't remember where." "Well let's worry about it after we have some fun playing with this gym leader. Besides I'm looking forward to dinner. So let's get this done and over with." Opening the doors to the gym, they covered their eyes expecting the lights to come on in their normal way. When they didn't they looked at each other and shrugged. {Must have brunt out I guess.} {One can only wish that was true Pat.} "We challenge the gym to a battle for their badge." Shouted Pat. "Very well, but this will be a double trainer battle." Came the answer, with that the lights came up to a twilight setting. It was just enough light to see by, but still left everything hidden by darkness. The platforms had a light green color surrounding them, guiding Mary and Pat to where they would be battling. "Well now, as I said earlier this is a double trainer battle, you two will send one pokemon each, and I'll send out two of mine. You two will be working, as team so if you win you'll both get the Midnight onyx badge. And finally no trainer items allowed berries however are permitted. But that is it. Now if you're ready let's battle. By the way my name mikel" {Ready Mary?} {Do you really need to ask Pat?} {Yes} {Well then you answered your question} answered Mary with a small giggle. "Go Sneasel, and Umbreon" "Go Blaze" "Terra time to play" "Good evening briar city, we have a gym match for you tonight. The Gym leader Mikel has accepted a challenge from two trainers. And is getting ready to battle them in a double trainer battle. The gym leader has chosen for his pokemon Sneasel and Umbreon. The challengers have chosen for their pokemon an Arcanine and a Ninetails. Looks like things could be heating for mikel very quickly tonight. Trainers ready your pokemon, and....begin" called the announcer. {He did the whole thing doing a lousy Dracula imitation. You know I really wonder about these people. Do they ever see daylight?} Asked Mary. {Most likely not, but we have other things to concentrate on for the moment.} Answered Pat. "Terra Safeguard" "Blaze brighten things up with a sunny day" "Sneasel faint attack on the ninetails, umbreon sand-attack" Terra covering herself and blaze with a very fine mist. The sneasel hearing it's command vanished from sight and streaked towards the fire fox, unsheathing its claws as it made it way to the ninetails. Blaze meanwhile started glowing, and with a howl that shook the roof caused daylight to appear in the gym. The sudden burst of light, was enough to startle the Sneasel causing it to reappear in front of Terra, blinking from the sudden brightness it didn't even finish it attack. The forgotten umbreon however was kicking a storm of sand, kicking some of it towards blaze, and the rest towards terra. {Close your eyes both you.} Mary told the pokemon mentally. "Blaze, Terra. Red dragon breath attack" called the two trainers. "A combo attack I see. Well then I'll show you my own. Umbreon, Sneasel. Midnight beat-up" The two-fire pokemon hearing the attack command, charged a large amount of power for their next attack. Once they were ready they cut lose with their attack, each breathing out a large cone of flame, since the pokemon were standing next to each other, there was safe spot on the arena floor, as it was blanketed in a sea of flame. When the flames finally died down mikel pokemon were on the arena floor, smoke rising off of them. "Extra crispy or original recipe?" asked Pat. "Pat!" "Sorry couldn't help it." "I don't believe it there is no way you could have pulled such a powerful attack for beginners." "Who said anything about being beginners? You should have checked the levels before sending out your pokemon." Snapped Mary, angry that once more her skill with her pokemon had been degraded and passed off as beginners luck. "Fine let's see you handle these pokemon then, Umbreon, Sneasel return. Go Houndoom, Mightynea" "Blaze, dig, and lets see what you find." Called Mary. "Terra will-o-wisp on the Mightynea." "Houndoom fire blast on the fox. Mightynea odor sleuth" {Odor sleuth Pat?} {It's a new attack from the Hoenn region. It's kind of like foresight. A lot of your hound pokemon learn it.} {I see. To bad it's not going to work.} Blaze digging through the floor of the gym, burrowed under the floor, without so much as even a ripple on the surface. {Blaze after you come up attack with Firestorm.} Mikel's houndoom managed to work it's way around to Terra's side and released a fire blast at the unsuspecting fox. {Pat!} {She'll be able to take, if she moves she'll lose her attack.} Terra breathing out a small purplish ball of flame that made it's way over to the Mightynea and connected with it. Burning the wolf like pokemon. At the same time the fire blast connected with Terra, much to everyone surprise it didn't even damage the ninetails. All that happened was terra glared at the hellhound, and shook the soot of her coat. "Blaze up" called Mary, looking for the faint sign of the arcanine moving. "Mightynea, howl, houndoom, crunch attack on the ninetails." Ordered mikel. The Mightynea throwing it's head back let out a blood- chilling howl, as it lowered its head back down, a very faint red aura could be seen around it. "Terra, time to pull the stops out. Hades' Gate" nodding as she heard her trainer instructions, terra started glowing an unholy shade of red, and making a quick circle around the arena, the aura floating in the air until she completed the circle at which point it sank into the and five other lines filled in the rest of circle. Once completed the circle filled with magma, bathing the gym with infernal heat. Rising out of the magma, a large body appeared and grabbed the houndoom and the Mightynea at the same time. Slamming its massive fist down onto the gym floor a few times it then coated the two pokemon in cooling magma. After petting Terra, it reached down into the magma and set Blaze next to the fox. After which it dived sank back into the magma. The pool of magma vanished and the arena floor could be seen once more. "Finish it terra." Called Pat "You too Blaze" Mary called. The two-fire pokemon turned towards the hounds and both of them released a fire blast at the statues. Releasing the imprisoned pokemon who promptly fainted. "All right I concede, I don't need to see anymore of my pokemon subjected to attacks like that." Mikel said recalling his two fainted pokemon and lowered his platform. Lowering their platform as well. They watched as mikel reached into his pocket and pulled out two badges. Handing them over to both Mary and Pat, he also handed Mary a leather pouch. "And here is the tm you win for defeating me." Handing Pat two tm's "They will teach your pokemon blackout. Which powers dark type moves. Now if you excuse me I need to heal my pokemon and get the gym ready for the next challenger." Escorting them to the gyms door, mikel left them and shut the door behind them. "Damn that last attack, what the hell was it. I've never anything like it, and I hope I never do." "So where do you feel like going for dinner?" Well I did see a place I wouldn't mind stopping at, but we'll have to go back to the center, I don't we fit the dress code." Glancing up at the sky, Pat grinned. "Race you back to the center." Shifting into her pokemon form {your on.} shifting into his pokemon form, the two set off towards the center running at a dead sprint. Seconds later, they walked into the center and headed towards their room that Mary had nurse joy hold for them earlier that day. Grabbing her backpack Mary ducked inside the restroom, the sound of water running could be heard soon after. Grabbing his backpack, Pat walked across the hall to where Misty had her own room. Wasn't much but it was the smallest one the center had. Knocking on the door. Which opened a few seconds later. "So how did the gym battle go?" "The leader surrendered after four of his pokemon got toasted, didn't help matters that his pokemon were going against Terra and Blaze. Anyway I'm going to be using your shower. Taking Mary out for dinner." "Ahhh have fun." Back in the other room, Mary had just finished getting dressed. {Hmm wonder what he'll say when he see this.} She thought to herself, tying her hair up into a bun and secured with the hair pens that came with the dress. Hearing the lock on the door slide back, she turned towards the door to see Pat enter the room, wearing some slacks and a sports coat. {How did he manage fit that into his backpack I'll never know?} "Simple my backpack is a black hole." He answered as he got his first look at what Mary was wearing. Mary was wearing a black Chinese style dress with red flames along the edges, cherry blooms and phoenixes were set in a pattern. The dress itself went just past knees with a small slit on both sides for freedom of movement. Matching slippers and her dragon necklace completed the outfit. "Very nice, so fair lady shall we?" Pat asked offering his arm. "Indeed good sir." Answered Mary hooking her arm around the offered arm.
Chapter 7
To prevent bloodshed
"Hope the two to you don't mind if I sleep in here tonight, Dustin's snoring could wake the dead." asked misty, sleeping bag in one hand her backpack in the other. "Nah go ahead and roll out your sleeping misty, plenty of room," replied Mary looking up from the book she was reading. "Thanks Mary, well then good night." A few minutes later the temperature in the tent raised and dropped as both Mary and Pat shifted to their pokemon forms. {So pat what are we going to do with Dustin?} {I don't know Mary, but I have a few ideas, although they will have to wait until after breakfast} {Oh and what did you have in mind?} {Well besides getting a start on all of Dustin's ids, his pokedex and medical records, I need to know whether or not she can still assume her dragonite form.} {Why?} {Well if she can't then it would be a simple matter of erasing her memories she has of being able to change into a dragonite and any of those she has of us changing forms. As well giving her some new ones, you just change the ones she has right now same people but with her as a female in those memories.} {And just how you plan on doing this psychic surgery, I now that the two of us have made great progress over the past years with our abilities but playing with Dustin head, as fun as it sounds is a bit out of our league even for the both us.} {True for us it would be, not for Cloaker.} {Aren't we going just a tad overboard using him like that?} {No not really, it's best if she doesn't remember anything that has happened.} {Well then we'll see what the morning brings won't we?} {Looks that way doesn't it?} {Sure seems like at times, good night pat} finished Mary as she nuzzled pat. {Night Mary} answered pat returning her nuzzle. Waiting for sleep to overtake him, pat stepped outside the tent and recalled the past week after wondering why no one had noticed the changes that Dustin was going through. {Hmm maybe when they stole the pokeball he was in they did something to him, guess we'll find out the real easy way tomorrow.} Taking one final look around the campsite and seeing nothing out of the ordinary went back inside the tent and curled up beside Mary and shortly there after fell asleep. Morning comes and with ii is the sound of pidgeys chirping, a fire burning and drowning out the other sounds, is the sound of a battle being fought. Stirring from her sleep Mary looked around the tent noting that she was by herself. Grumbling to herself about morning people she curled up tighter trying to muffle the sound of the battle outside. {Pat would you mind holding the down the noise its to early for battling anyway.} {Early? I think you might want to check your watch again Mary, seeing as it almost six-thirty} Shifting back into her human form, Mary glanced at her watch, to see that it was indeed six-thirty and well past the time they would have normally been on the trail. {Alright, I'll be out in a few moments} "Oh by the way pat what is for breakfast?" asked Mary, stepping out of the tent. "Well we're still waiting for Dustin to get out of her tent, but plan on pancakes." "Waterel Hydro pump on him." "Umm pat what are you, never mind, I should have known, you know there are better ways of waking other asking a gyarados to use hydro pump on you." "Like asking Blaze to wake you up or would eevee be the better one to do that?" asked pat, ducking under the torrent of water passing over his head. "Actually I prefer your methods of making sure I'm awake." "Waterel Rain Dance, and hydro pump him again." Called misty, "And how did he wake you up this misty?" "He didn't he was already up when I came out of the tent, playing with laptop. He then asked if he could battle my gyarados. After he used what looked a blue cube." Answered Misty, Turning her attention back towards the battle between pokemon and human. Dodging the boosted hydro pump, and landing in a crouching position, pat faced the gyarados, turning his hand palm up. "Time for your gyarados to take a nap misty," "Right pat, take your best shot your going to need all the luck you have to avoid this attack, Waterel Dragon Rage" "Winter's Edge" called pat, clenching his hand shut and swung as if he had a sword in his hand. Both of the girls watched as a blade of pure ice shimmered into being, connected with the gyarados and froze the water dragon solid. "Well I'll be damned it works, thanks misty I needed the morning wake-up" "Sure thing, now about my gyarados?" ducking into the tent Mary grabbed her backpack and pulled a full restore. "Here misty use this, we'll stop at the next town and let you restock your supplies, speaking of which there is a gym there as well. So if we want to get there today we should get Dustin up and get everything done that we need to so we can continue." Walking over to where pat was sitting {So I see that you finally got that attack to work, see I told you that would finish it soon enough.} {Finished and I have your version ready as well.} Finished pat handing Mary a small red cube. {And what is the name of this technique?} {How does Summer's Blade sound?} {Sounds good I guess, I'll use this later on tonight after everything as died down a little.} "So how do we want to go about waking up our fourth member? Personally I'm all for turning the heat up a little. Misty?" Mary commented her hand sliding down towards the pokeball that contained blaze. "A good jolt of plasma perhaps? What about you pat?" inquired misty. Tossing one of his pokeballs between his hands, he answered as he placed the ball back on his belt. "I was thinking perhaps a good dose of water, preferably boiling." "Aww no fair how come I can't wake her up? Please?" asked Mary as she turned towards pat with her best pout. "I never could turn down that look. Ok then turn up the heat." Smiling Mary drops the pokeball containing her Arcanine "Blaze wake her up with a shower of embers if you would." Instructed Mary. Taking careful aim at the tent opening, blaze spat out a small shower of embers into the tent where they settled over Dustin sleeping form. "Won't that set the tent on fire?" inquired misty as she took a seat next to her brother "Shouldn't seeing as it already as some burn marks on it." Answered Mary sitting down on the other side of pat. Keeping their eyes on the opening they started to decide what they would have for breakfast. Settling on pancakes which misty got up to start making, both pat and Mary turned back towards the tent opening just in time to Dustin roll on the embers. "Pass the popcorn please, this could be worth a few laughs." "Would the lady care for buttered or kettlecorn?" asked pat reaching into the black hole he called a backpack. "Hmm Kettlecorn sounds good right." Answered Mary, whistling for blaze to come over. "Just a small puff, please blaze." Called Mary. Breathing small puffs of flame near the bag of popcorn soon had the corn popping. "Thanks blaze" pat said giving the arcanine a rub behind his ears. "The lady's popcorn." Giggling as she took the bag from pat. "Thank you kind sir" sitting down the two of them had just started eating the popcorn, when Dustin woke with a start jumping up out of the sleeping bag, and out of the tent where she proceeded to run around like a crazed lunatic. "So how long are the two of you going to let her run around like that?" Called misty, fingering one of her pokeballs. "Which pokemon?" "Dratini, by the way do you have a kanto model of TM#13?" "Ice beam? Yeah I'll give it to you later" answered pat "K, Dratini go, thunder wave." {Mary} {I know this is why I don't like electric type pokemon or thunder-wave} "Safeguard" they called covering themselves with a very fine mist. Dratini curling its serpentine body around itself released a pulse of electrical current at Dustin stopping her crazed run long enough for misty to call for a second attack. "Dratini water gun" "You thought your dratini water gun?" asked pat, "Pain in the butt doing so but it comes in handy every now and then." Replied misty. "So it does." "Ok now was that really needed? I mean come on, you could have at least tried shaking me." Yelled a soaked Dustin. "We did try shaking you, all you did was roll over and kept sleeping. So I think that warranted the use of water, which didn't do anything, so we choice to use flames." Mary shouted back. "Now if your done with your inquisition we would like to get started on changing your identity, you do know that you can't keep your name so you had best come up with something that your going to want to be called for the rest of your life, the vitamins you took over the past two weeks are permanent. But before get started on changing all of your records, we would like you to change into your dragonite form." Pat said, pulling out his laptop once more that morning, {looks like hacker and the rest of them are going to be busy this morning, good thing they don't charge me for their services.} {Hmm yes, but then again you did give them a better home then their previous trainers did} "Well I do have a name but explain why I have to change into my dragonite form?" Dustin asked shifting from one foot to the other waiting for an answer that would explain the whole mess. "Just humor us Dustin, besides it won't take you that long to change into your pokemon form and back." Mary snapped sitting down next to pat. {So pat do you think she still retains the ability?} {To tell the truth Mary, most likely not} was the mental reply. Looking over the top of his laptop, pat watched as Dustin's body glowed for a few short seconds then stopped. {Well pat looks like this will be a quick fix, then so if you'll hand me Cloaker's pokeball I'll get started on altering Dustin's memories} {Sure here you go} handing Mary the black pokeball that contained the ghost. "Now Dustin you said had name you wanted to use?" "Didn't I just say that, could have sworn I did." "The name, other wise you can explain to officer jenny why you have someone else's pokedex." "Aya, Aya Kinto" "Good now just sit down and wait, it going to take a little bit of time to change all of your records." With that pat started typing commands into his laptop for the porygon team to follow, and at the same time he motioned for Mary to release Cloaker behind Aya. Which she did by dropping the ball behind the rock that both her and pat were currently sitting on, and gave the ghost his instructions. Warping behind Aya, Cloaker clapped his hands and released his hypnotic waves directly into Aya head. "Well now well you tell me why I had to.change.into." With that Aya slumped to the ground before she finish her question. "Good work Cloaker now we need to erase her memories, and replace them with ones that are similar, but with her as a female and that she never saw our transformations or remembers that she could." Instructed Mary. "Gengar" "Thanks Cloaker" Mary watched, as Cloaker put one of it's ethereal on to Aya's forehead and started the process of changing the teenage girls' memories. "Might as well get out a book Mary, this is going to take some time both changing her records and memories." Pat said looking up from his laptop where he was busy hacking his way into Dustin's medical records. "Hey misty how breakfast coming?" Mary asked getting up to grab her backpack. "Ready, how many pancakes do you want?" came the answer from across the campsite. "Pat?" "Five please" "five for your brother and I'll take three. And go easy on the syrup I would prefer my pancakes not to be drowning in syrup this time." Answered Mary. "Drown mine squeaks" called pat. Walking over with the plates of food, misty handed Mary her plate and placed pat's next to him, right where he would put his hand. Which he almost did, but stopped at the second and picked up the plate. "Very funny Melissa very funny." Once she was done eating, Mary placed the plate into fire, which quickly turned it into a fine ash and was blown away. "How much longer do you think pat?" for her records, I'll say about twenty minutes, as for Cloaker I'll give him about another forty before he's done." Hearing that Mary proceeded to pull out the book she was reading last night, "Haven't you read that one before?" asked pat looking over at Mary as she sat down beside him. "Hmm I've lost count of the times I've read this one, but it's my favorite." Answered Mary, looking up from her book and pointed towards the laptop, she watched as pat finished with Aya's records. As she watched she saw that Dustin's name was on the screen as well as Aya's name. "That's hacker way of showing his progress, when he done Aya's name will be where Dustin's is." As he explained hacker's little graph the names moved a little closer. Five minutes later hacker and the other porygon were done, and hacker's graph showed the name of one Dustin Vallencourt changing into Aya Kinto. "Well now we just wait for Cloaker to finish playing with Aya's head." (Hacker can you pull up the results from last night's tests) Scooting closer, Mary watched as the graphs and different figures popped up on the screen intrigued by all of the information. "What did you run last night?" "Just a blood test, unlike nurse joy who needs a whole 50cc's, hacker can get by with just a few drops. Save time and is less painful." "I'll take your word for it, Anyway it looks like Cloaker is almost done altering Aya's memory." "Well then I guess it's a good thing that all I have to do is her pokedex." Taking out Dustin's pokedex, pat changed the name it registered to from Dustin Vallencourt to Aya Kinto, placed a note into the trainer bio that she was a apprentice pokemon nurse. Disconnecting the pokedex from his computer pat closed the minicomputer and handed to Mary. "There you go one pokedex reprogrammed." "What's this about her being an apprentice pokemon nurse?" asked Mary. "Well she going to need a job so Cloaker has placed the necessary memories into her head for her to be a pokemon nurse." "Well that works for her but what about Nurse joy, they don't tend to take people outside of their clan as far as pokemon nurse go." "I know and I plan on taking care of that once we reach the town limits." Felling something tap her on the shoulder Mary turned to see that Cloaker was done. "Thanks Cloaker, Return" she said holding up the pokeball for the ghost. Once Cloaker had gotten back inside his pokeball Mary handed the ball back to pat. "Well let's see her medical records and her pokedex have been changed, so has all of her id's, so all that remains is to wake her up." "Hey squeaks your turn to wake her." "Go dratini, plasma bolt" shouted misty, throwing the pokeball next Aya. Releasing the dratini right on Aya's back. Charging up it's attack, the dratini jumped and released a bolt electrical energy, much to the surprise of Mary and pat, the bolt wasn't yellow or white, like one would expect from a electrical attack, but was a green bolt of energy. Once the bolt had struck Aya, she woke with a yelp of pain. "Nice to see you among the living again, you know you should be more careful when riding your rapidash through the woods like that." Misty said walking over and helping Aya to her feet. "Anyway why the heck were you in such a hurry?" "I'm in hurry to get to Briar city, I'm expected to be at the pokemon center there by sunset tonight. Nurse joy is waiting for me there, so she can continue my training. That and I would like to get home, before she starts my training. {Umm pat what happened?} {I think Cloaker forgot about the part of changing some of the current memories, but this does work out to our advantage} "We're heading towards briar city ourselves, and if you like you can travel with us." Commented pat. Handing Aya her pokedex. "I found this a few feet away from where you landed. {Mary get her badge out of her backpack, she won't need it anymore.} {What do you plan to do with it?} {Give it to misty, she going to need it so she can enter the league games once they start up here.} {Why do I even bother to ask? I should have guessed, but your right Aya won't need the badge.} Handing Aya her backpack, Mary walked back towards where she had been sitting holding the badge so only Pat could see it. "Well if we're going to make it to briar city by sundown we should get going right now. So you know what, this time you'll have to try and keep up with me." Stated misty grabbing pokeball on her belt and tossing it in front of herself. "Go ponyta," climbing on to her horse she turned and with a grin on her face told her companions in a mocking tone. "Catch me if you can" and gave the signal to her ponyta. "Go Blaze" called Mary releasing her Arcanine. Circling the campsite once she stopped blaze so pat could climb on. "Well Aya, you going to call out your rapidash? Or do you plan on walking the rest of the way?" asked Mary, as she kept an eye on how far ahead misty was. "Go Burner" she called tossing a pokeball out. Climbing onto the horse pokemon, she gave the rapidash a nudge with her hell and was able to grab the reins before taking off like a bat out of hell. {Well this is going to be a lot more interesting then I thought it would be Pat, so what does the gym leader of briar city use for pokemon?} {Dark types. From what the guidebook says, and from what I've been able to find on the web.} Hours go by as Mary and Pat, chase after Aya and Misty, when they finally catch up with Misty they stop for bit to give their pokemon a chance to rest. "Hey I can see the city from here. Can we go, we can rest the pokemon once we get to town, I'm sure Nurse Joy would be happy to rejuvenate them for you." Asked Aya astride her rapidash. "Well we might as well stop there and get our pokemon recharged before fighting the gym leader, Pat" "True we should, besides we can always go after the gym leader tomorrow anyway, it's not like he going anywhere. "Come on you three, I can see the outline for the center, lets go." Called Aya, {Seems to be in a big hurry there Pat, just what exactly did Cloaker put into her head?} was the silent inquiry. {Just that Nurse Joy is expecting her before curfew tonight. And judging from the way she is acting it might be a good idea to change mounts.} {Meaning?} {We use winter and freefall.} Answered Pat. {Might as well, we'll get a lot sooner if we fly, besides I think blaze could use a break from all of the running.} "Blaze return and take a nap, you deserve it" Mary said holding up the pokeball and activated the recall function, "Freefall time to come out and give your wings a stretch" she called throwing a light blue pokeball into the air. Reaching the peak of its flight the pokeball opened releasing the energy stored inside and a blast frost, which covered everything within a ten- foot radius. By this time both Misty and Aya gave up on trying to get the older trainers to get up and get moving again, and had circled back around to where they watched Mary release her bird pokemon. "What's going on Pat?" asked Misty, dismounting from her ponyta, and motioned for Aya to do the same. "Nothing much we just thought we would take a short cut, that's all." Answered Pat. "We're putting you and Aya onto freefall" said Mary running her hand through Freefall's shimmering feathers. "Ok so lets get going, I don't know about the two of but I'm getting hungry, and before you say anything Pat, I have eaten today. In fact I've already the snacks I made this morning." Stated Misty glaring at her brother, daring him to say anything. "First off squeaks, mouse size snacks don't count as a snack. But if it makes you feel better we'll get something to eat when we get to the center." Climbing onto freefall as she asked her next question, ignoring the last comment her brother had made. "So we're going to fly to briar, check into the center, get something to eat and depending on what time it is go fight the gym leader?" "Something to that effect yes." Was the answer she got back. "If that's the case why don't we get going, like Misty said she's not the only one hungry." Aya stated as she climbed aboard Freefall. {You sure Freefall is going to be to handle the both of them Mary? Remember he's not winter's level or age.} {Don't see why not, he might not be the same level as winter but he should be able to manage the both them.} Nodding as he heard Mary's reply, Pat tossed out a light blue pokeball. Once more the pokeball sailed through the air until it reached the apex of its flight. Splitting open on an unseen hinge, the energy poured out of the ball forming into the shape of a large bird, once the light had died down, Pat blinked and saw that once more everything within ten feet was covered in frost. "You know Pat there are days when that frost isn't the best thing, but on day like this, it definitely feels good.ahhh" commented Mary, shivering as some of the frost slid down the back of her shirt. Helping Mary up onto winter, Pat checked to make sure had their backpacks. Seeing that everyone had theirs' gave winter the ok. {Just follow the road, and set your pace.} {Don't worry, you just leave the flying to me, and Mary could you let freefall out more often would be nice to talk with him maybe even teach him a few things.} {K, Winter, just go easy on him} Answered Mary, settling into a more comfortable position. Once she was settled, she pulled out the map that nurse joy had first given her, Mary checked to see how much farther they had to go. Surprisingly they only had a little further to go. "I think we should be able to reach the town in a few Pat, so we'll be able to restock everything and get something to eat as well. I think a good bowl of noodles would be nice, maybe some curry as well." She said, leaning back so that she could be heard over the wind. "Well you best get comfortable, cause the weather doesn't look to promising right now." Pointing out in front of them. Following to where Pat was pointing, Mary could see the thunderheads that were building up. {Winter you wouldn't by any chance know agility would you?} {I do but I thought you would have noticed that there is only lightning and thunder from coming from those clouds, no rain, and that means only one thing. My sister is nearby and so is her trainer Pat* "Her sister? Zapdos? I thought Andrew was busy doing the southern leagues like the Orange and Centra leagues?" "He was last time I e-mailed him." Watching the clouds roll closer, Pat directed winter to circle around on the thermals. Minutes later a large yellow and black bird came out of the clouds just as the clouds open up with a downpour. {So you going to land or are we going to shout at each other?} {How about you follow us to the next center and we talk there. {And could you kill the rain please Andrew you might like but some of us don't} {Oh didn't see you there Mary, sure thing.} An hour later find the three birds landing just a short distance away from the center. "Thank you so much for bringing me here, I've best go and check in with nurse joy" said Aya giving the group a small bow with her hands clasped in front her. Coming up from her bow she dropped her rapidash's pokeball and headed for the center. {Pat, nurse joy remember? She not expecting her} "Return Cloaker" {Already took of that problem, you remember that flash of you saw in front of winter, that was Cloaker teleporting. I'm sorry I should have told you sooner. Tell you what I'll treat you to dinner after we get done with gym leader?} {Well ok I guess.} "So what are you doing here Andrew I thought you were do the Centra league?" inquired Pat. "Well I've got a few weeks before the league games start so I figured that I would stop by home and see what everyone is up to. By the way, Joe is keeping everyone D2 accounts active. Even yours Mary." "Anyway stopped by the house didn't see your stuff, and mom didn't know where the heck you were. So I figured you were either training somewhere with Mary or the two of you were doing a league for the fun of it." "Tracking?" "Well besides asking the joys, who by the way are excellent source of gossip. And they want Joe to stop bugging them, no I take that back all but the goldenrod joy want him stop bugging them, goldenrod joy, from what I've heard is dating him. That will do wonders for their family tree." Pausing for a few seconds to catch his breath. "Well that would explain why she was a bit out of it when stopped their for the night Pat, guess she was looking forward to her next date with Joe. But your wrong about the family tree part Joe does know what he talking about when comes to his pokemon. Especially his umbreon" Mary commented while Andrew was still gasping for air. "Anyway Andrew you still haven't answered the question." "Easy, pokedex. I mean come on Pat, you should it's not that hard to lock on a single pokemon, all you need is the trainer's ID number." "I know how do you think mom keeps tabs, on you and Joe, you two should really disable the beacon in your pokedex. That way the trainer can't be tracked. The pokemon on the other hand, well that's a little harder to do." "Dratini Water Gun Now" Turning to face the voice the behind him, Andrew took the brunt of the water gun to the face. "Hello you to Misty" "I told you I would get you back for shocking me like that, Dratini dragon breath attack." "You going to stop them Pat?" whispered Mary. "If it gets to much out of hand, besides Andrew got himself into this mess along with Joe so he can get himself out as well. Besides Misty should be able to take down at least two of his pokemon with dratini, that is along as he doesn't use Zeus." Pat whispered back. "Popcorn?" he asked, "No thanks, but do we have any Dr. pepper left?" Diving into his backpack, Pat pulled the two bottles of the requested drink. "Here you go" handing her one the bottles. "Diamond come out on defensive" Called Andrew dropping the pokeball in front of him. From the pokeball sprung a segmented body that coiled around Andrew, once the light had died down, both Mary and Pat were able to see that Andrew had chosen his steelix to battle against Misty's dratini. "Diamond Iron Defense" "Dratini Surf's up" Diamond following Andrew's command, focused on a long forgotten attack and harden it tempered body, even more. At the same time, dratini had summoned a large amount of water, and released it towards diamond. Roaring in defeasance as the water crashed down around it, diamond stood its ground with out flinching as the water receded. "Nice work diamond, now Iron tail." "That's enough, Really you should be ashamed of yourselves fighting like that in front of a pokemon center, return your pokemon at once or I'll be force to call Officer Jenny." The two combatants turned towards the voice only to see one of the few things trainers pray they never see. A pissed off nurse joy, and was this nurse joy pissed. "Dratini return" Misty called in meek voice. Once she had returned her dragon, she gave nurse joy a small bow in apology and took off running for the center. "Diamond return" and copied Misty. "Well I guess we should go get our room, and see what we need to restock shouldn't we Pat?" Mary asked standing up from the bench that they had been sitting on watching the small battle. "You coming, Pat?" she asked. "I'll be in as soon I talk to Andrew." He answered, giving her a small kiss on her forehead. Once Mary had gone inside the center he turned towards Andrew. "So what did you want to talk about Andrew?" "Well it's about a book I found, it went into great detail about a rare ice type pokemon. So I figured I would let you know about it. The only thing is I went back to the library where I had found the book, and it was gone, so I have no idea where you might find it." "I do have an idea about where I could find but that will have to wait until later. Anything else?" "Well as a matter of fact, here take these tm's" answered Andrew handing over a small bag. Looking inside Pat saw about twelve tm's "Fire and Ice moves I take it" Pat asked pulling out two of the cubes and pointing out the colors that were on the cubes. "Yeah I copied the ones I wanted. You can have these I don't need them, their good attacks. Don't get me wrong on that part, it's just not to many of my pokemon can learn these attacks. So you and Mary might be able to put to better use then I can." "Oh I almost forgot there is a healing move for each type. The nice part about them is that they also deal damage as well." Finished Andrew as he zipped his backpack closed. "Alright then good luck with the Centra league games. Next time we chat you had better be the champion other wise it's training time again, and she has gotten better Andrew." "I know she has Pat, I've watched the league games where you and Mary challenged and for the most part destroyed the indigo and johoto leagues." "Good then next time Andrew you and me can battle." Turning Andrew saw much to his dismay that Mary was sitting behind him calmly reading one of her books. Turning back towards Pat, "You could have told me she was there you know." "And ruin her fun, are you crazy? Anyways thanks for the tm's and good luck in the games, I've seen the way Centra league fights. Two words come to mind." "Dumb and stupid right?" interrupted Andrew. "Nope. Brutal and fun, maybe we'll do that league next." "You have a weapon right? You know that trainer fights as well the pokemon." "Yes I've been training Mary with the quarterstaff" "What about you Andrew, what's your weapon?" Mary asked looking up from her book. "These" he replied pulling out a pair of daggers from their sheaths. "I see. I didn't think the league allowed lethal weapons." "For the most part they don't but it depends on what level of the league you want to, the Centra league has two levels of difficulty. In the first one, trainers are allowed non-bladed weapons, staffs and clubs and the main part of that course. The second course trainers are allowed to use any weapon they want. Firearms are still prohibited for obvious reasons." "Sounds like fun, we'll have to make a trip down there Pat." "Well I'm going to head back towards goldenrod, so I'll talk with you two later." Standing up Andrew walked a few yards away from his friends and threw out an amber colored pokeball. "Time to go Zeus" {I hate to say this Pat but shouldn't his bird have a different name then Zeus?} {It should, but Andrew wasn't listening to anyone.} "So ready to go battle the gym leader?" "Well I am but you might want to heal your pokemon first Pat." "Not this time I have a few things I can use." Taking out a small jar of berries, which he then set on the ground along with some hyper potions. "Mystery berries and hyper potions, works like charm." Releasing his pokemon Pat proceeded to give them some of the berries and sprayed each one with a potion, after which he returned them to their pokeballs. "Now lets go find the gym leader." Pat said as he helped Mary up from where she had been sitting.
A large cloaked figured walked towards the pokemon that had been sitting in the depths of the cave. "Your time of service is over, as I had promised when I first brought you down here. Her soul has been reborn, and is out in the world. The only thing you'll have to is find her, she remember you when she see you, but things have changed." He said waving his hand towards the mouth of the cave "Yes I know I've sensed the changes as well, that and my siblings have kept up to date on the happenings of the world. But it's time for me to run the world once more. But be warned you pull anything like you did last time and you'll regret it." With that said the pokemon turned and bounded out of the cave and into the approaching twilight. "Now where am I going to get someone else to guard the gates? Hmm perhaps its time I brought one of the" still pondering the figure vanished into the cave.
After an hour of searching, Mary found a cave hidden behind some ivy vines. "Hey Pat, I think found the entrance." She called "Well have to give the leader props from hiding his gym. So lets go pay him a visit." Answered Pat once he had made his way over to where Mary was waiting. "Sounds good to me," She said pushing the vines to the side and walked into the cave. Walking to the cave, once the vines had fallen back into place plunged the cave into darkness causing their eyes to start glowing as they made their way down the tunnel. Coming upon a large door with engravings on it. They looked at for a few seconds trying to make since of the carvings on it. "I think this one is supposed to be Entei, but I don't know about this one here Pat." "Which one?" "This one" Mary said pointing at the carving. "Hmm looks like something I've seen. But I don't remember where." "Well let's worry about it after we have some fun playing with this gym leader. Besides I'm looking forward to dinner. So let's get this done and over with." Opening the doors to the gym, they covered their eyes expecting the lights to come on in their normal way. When they didn't they looked at each other and shrugged. {Must have brunt out I guess.} {One can only wish that was true Pat.} "We challenge the gym to a battle for their badge." Shouted Pat. "Very well, but this will be a double trainer battle." Came the answer, with that the lights came up to a twilight setting. It was just enough light to see by, but still left everything hidden by darkness. The platforms had a light green color surrounding them, guiding Mary and Pat to where they would be battling. "Well now, as I said earlier this is a double trainer battle, you two will send one pokemon each, and I'll send out two of mine. You two will be working, as team so if you win you'll both get the Midnight onyx badge. And finally no trainer items allowed berries however are permitted. But that is it. Now if you're ready let's battle. By the way my name mikel" {Ready Mary?} {Do you really need to ask Pat?} {Yes} {Well then you answered your question} answered Mary with a small giggle. "Go Sneasel, and Umbreon" "Go Blaze" "Terra time to play" "Good evening briar city, we have a gym match for you tonight. The Gym leader Mikel has accepted a challenge from two trainers. And is getting ready to battle them in a double trainer battle. The gym leader has chosen for his pokemon Sneasel and Umbreon. The challengers have chosen for their pokemon an Arcanine and a Ninetails. Looks like things could be heating for mikel very quickly tonight. Trainers ready your pokemon, and....begin" called the announcer. {He did the whole thing doing a lousy Dracula imitation. You know I really wonder about these people. Do they ever see daylight?} Asked Mary. {Most likely not, but we have other things to concentrate on for the moment.} Answered Pat. "Terra Safeguard" "Blaze brighten things up with a sunny day" "Sneasel faint attack on the ninetails, umbreon sand-attack" Terra covering herself and blaze with a very fine mist. The sneasel hearing it's command vanished from sight and streaked towards the fire fox, unsheathing its claws as it made it way to the ninetails. Blaze meanwhile started glowing, and with a howl that shook the roof caused daylight to appear in the gym. The sudden burst of light, was enough to startle the Sneasel causing it to reappear in front of Terra, blinking from the sudden brightness it didn't even finish it attack. The forgotten umbreon however was kicking a storm of sand, kicking some of it towards blaze, and the rest towards terra. {Close your eyes both you.} Mary told the pokemon mentally. "Blaze, Terra. Red dragon breath attack" called the two trainers. "A combo attack I see. Well then I'll show you my own. Umbreon, Sneasel. Midnight beat-up" The two-fire pokemon hearing the attack command, charged a large amount of power for their next attack. Once they were ready they cut lose with their attack, each breathing out a large cone of flame, since the pokemon were standing next to each other, there was safe spot on the arena floor, as it was blanketed in a sea of flame. When the flames finally died down mikel pokemon were on the arena floor, smoke rising off of them. "Extra crispy or original recipe?" asked Pat. "Pat!" "Sorry couldn't help it." "I don't believe it there is no way you could have pulled such a powerful attack for beginners." "Who said anything about being beginners? You should have checked the levels before sending out your pokemon." Snapped Mary, angry that once more her skill with her pokemon had been degraded and passed off as beginners luck. "Fine let's see you handle these pokemon then, Umbreon, Sneasel return. Go Houndoom, Mightynea" "Blaze, dig, and lets see what you find." Called Mary. "Terra will-o-wisp on the Mightynea." "Houndoom fire blast on the fox. Mightynea odor sleuth" {Odor sleuth Pat?} {It's a new attack from the Hoenn region. It's kind of like foresight. A lot of your hound pokemon learn it.} {I see. To bad it's not going to work.} Blaze digging through the floor of the gym, burrowed under the floor, without so much as even a ripple on the surface. {Blaze after you come up attack with Firestorm.} Mikel's houndoom managed to work it's way around to Terra's side and released a fire blast at the unsuspecting fox. {Pat!} {She'll be able to take, if she moves she'll lose her attack.} Terra breathing out a small purplish ball of flame that made it's way over to the Mightynea and connected with it. Burning the wolf like pokemon. At the same time the fire blast connected with Terra, much to everyone surprise it didn't even damage the ninetails. All that happened was terra glared at the hellhound, and shook the soot of her coat. "Blaze up" called Mary, looking for the faint sign of the arcanine moving. "Mightynea, howl, houndoom, crunch attack on the ninetails." Ordered mikel. The Mightynea throwing it's head back let out a blood- chilling howl, as it lowered its head back down, a very faint red aura could be seen around it. "Terra, time to pull the stops out. Hades' Gate" nodding as she heard her trainer instructions, terra started glowing an unholy shade of red, and making a quick circle around the arena, the aura floating in the air until she completed the circle at which point it sank into the and five other lines filled in the rest of circle. Once completed the circle filled with magma, bathing the gym with infernal heat. Rising out of the magma, a large body appeared and grabbed the houndoom and the Mightynea at the same time. Slamming its massive fist down onto the gym floor a few times it then coated the two pokemon in cooling magma. After petting Terra, it reached down into the magma and set Blaze next to the fox. After which it dived sank back into the magma. The pool of magma vanished and the arena floor could be seen once more. "Finish it terra." Called Pat "You too Blaze" Mary called. The two-fire pokemon turned towards the hounds and both of them released a fire blast at the statues. Releasing the imprisoned pokemon who promptly fainted. "All right I concede, I don't need to see anymore of my pokemon subjected to attacks like that." Mikel said recalling his two fainted pokemon and lowered his platform. Lowering their platform as well. They watched as mikel reached into his pocket and pulled out two badges. Handing them over to both Mary and Pat, he also handed Mary a leather pouch. "And here is the tm you win for defeating me." Handing Pat two tm's "They will teach your pokemon blackout. Which powers dark type moves. Now if you excuse me I need to heal my pokemon and get the gym ready for the next challenger." Escorting them to the gyms door, mikel left them and shut the door behind them. "Damn that last attack, what the hell was it. I've never anything like it, and I hope I never do." "So where do you feel like going for dinner?" Well I did see a place I wouldn't mind stopping at, but we'll have to go back to the center, I don't we fit the dress code." Glancing up at the sky, Pat grinned. "Race you back to the center." Shifting into her pokemon form {your on.} shifting into his pokemon form, the two set off towards the center running at a dead sprint. Seconds later, they walked into the center and headed towards their room that Mary had nurse joy hold for them earlier that day. Grabbing her backpack Mary ducked inside the restroom, the sound of water running could be heard soon after. Grabbing his backpack, Pat walked across the hall to where Misty had her own room. Wasn't much but it was the smallest one the center had. Knocking on the door. Which opened a few seconds later. "So how did the gym battle go?" "The leader surrendered after four of his pokemon got toasted, didn't help matters that his pokemon were going against Terra and Blaze. Anyway I'm going to be using your shower. Taking Mary out for dinner." "Ahhh have fun." Back in the other room, Mary had just finished getting dressed. {Hmm wonder what he'll say when he see this.} She thought to herself, tying her hair up into a bun and secured with the hair pens that came with the dress. Hearing the lock on the door slide back, she turned towards the door to see Pat enter the room, wearing some slacks and a sports coat. {How did he manage fit that into his backpack I'll never know?} "Simple my backpack is a black hole." He answered as he got his first look at what Mary was wearing. Mary was wearing a black Chinese style dress with red flames along the edges, cherry blooms and phoenixes were set in a pattern. The dress itself went just past knees with a small slit on both sides for freedom of movement. Matching slippers and her dragon necklace completed the outfit. "Very nice, so fair lady shall we?" Pat asked offering his arm. "Indeed good sir." Answered Mary hooking her arm around the offered arm.