E/N: I cannot believe that nobody guessed what pokemon this was! I thought it was too obvious. Well, just me then. And LS... I'm confused... but that's just me. Maybe. I like the name! But- so far- Bark is still my favourite though... thank you DC!

The water practically blinded Mirus for a instant, before the droplets splashed away and he could see the silhouette. He couldn't make out what the pokemon was, but he could tell it was a snake, by its long body and Heron's impressed whistle.

"All right Vineslice, use Stun Spore again!"

Mirus, confused, reached for his pokedex. It hadn't shown any interest in this pokemon, it not being a dog, but he was curious to know what it was. A picture of what he supposed was a dragon flashed up.

"Milotic, number 154, water. The tender pokemon. Snake/ Dragon type- not acceptable.

"Milotic lives at the bottom of lakes, outputting a constant positive force that heals and refreshes all that feel it. They are considered the most beautiful of all pokemon- they can only evolve from feebas if their beauty is outstanding. Because of this, they are rare in the wild."

Only evolves by beauty? Mirus had never known that. He had vaguely admired the pokemon for its appearance and dragonlike power, but had never known much about it, nor had he really cared. He wondered how this one had evolved, and how it had come here in the first place.

Meanwhile, Vineslice's Stun Spore seemed to have stopped the milotic in its tracks briefly. However, it soon shook the effect off, its horns glowed blue, and a light wind started to blow. Mirus could feel it whirling around the small cave, and wondered how a water type could use an attack like that.

"Vineslice, use Whiplash!"

She recoiled at the wind, which was forming itself into a sort-of Gust, and leapt at her opponent. The pokemon did not bother to move, so the attack was full on, and it winced. However, the now-complete Twister slammed into Vineslice, throwing her at Heron's feet.

"Come on, Vineslice!" Heron half-pleaded, half-ordered. Her pokemon responded by picking herself up immediately. "Great! Now, use Razor Leaf!"

Vineslice leapt up high, and Jazz leant forward, illuminating the battle scene further. As Vineslice made to fall back down from her jump, her tail held above her head, leaves giving an odd glow in the twilight. She spun it in those few moments in the air, and several razor-sharp leaves struck out and quickly hit the milotic full on. It recoiled, but did not go beneath the surface.

"Right; finish it with Sleep Powder!" Heron commanded, pleased. Vineslice, appearing equally excited, sprayed the white-blue powder over the milotic, where it immediately began to fall asleep. Heron wasted no time; she already had an empty pokeball in her hand and shouted; "Great ball, go!" before throwing it at the milotic, which was starting to sink beneath the water's surface.

Mirus saw a flash of red light, he half-closed his eyes- the light was almost blinding in this darkness- and when he opened them, Heron was reaching desperatly into the water for a slowly-sinking pokeball.

"You caught it," he said- for something to say. She had recalled Vineslice, and apart from the crackle of Jazz's fur, the waterfall and light breathing, the cave seemed dramatically silent after the battle.

She grinned; "Another snake for my collection." Heron minimized the pokeball and proudly clipped it onto her belt. "You'd better catch up."

Mirus shook his head. "No dogs here." He knew she was only half-joking, so let her bask in the minute glory of having one more pokemon than him. "Where'd you get a great ball anyway?"

"I got it from the shop," she said casually. "I thought the pokemon around here would get stronger, maybe, so I went up a step."

Mirus hadn't had enough money to afford a great ball after the other items he'd brought, but Heron had won more battles than him. He left the subject and started walking, carefully in the half-dark, to the circle of light where the waterfall came from.

Jazz's tail was wagging happily after all the excitement. Heron smiled at him. "OK, we can go. That all right, Mirus?" She looked up, and saw a figure standing as close to the waterfall as possible. "What're you doing?"

He turned back and saw her in the electric light, before turning back to the hole. He could see it clearly enough- it was a little longer than his forearm in diameter, and the waterfall was not really that big. So something was definatly wrong.

Heron called out to him, "What is it? Don't you want to get to Ancrock? I think it's afternoon."

He replied without turning around. "Heron, this waterfall is really small. How could a milotic fit through there? And a feebas couldn't have evolved."

She walked over, obviously thinking quickly. "Well, the water here isn't flooding, so it has to go out somewhere, right? Maybe it got in through there."

He nodded, but was thinking about the water running down the walls in the tunnel. "Right. Never mind- it's not important."

"And a trainer could have released it, or it might have eaten something while it was in here. Someone dropped pokeblocks, perhaps."

"I know, I said it didn't matter. I just thought it was odd." He left the hole, sighing, and saw Jazz at his feet, wagging his tail again and looking up. "You want to lead the way?"

A strange, livewire bark from the pokemon and he started walking off quickly, stopping every now and then to check that the trainers were following him. Heron was fingering her new pokemon's ball, blue against the usual red, and Mirus was still thinking about the hole in the wall.

The Nurse Joy handed back their pokeballs, smiling her usual familiar smile as she did so, before moving on to the next customer. Mirus picked up his three and walked after Heron, who was already walking outside.

Ancrock City was actually quite a beautiful place, surrounded by mountain on three sides but with a stunning view to the south over the beach and ocean, where the sun was reflected in the waves. It was early afternoon, but Mirus guessed that it would start to get dark around eight, or maybe later.

"I think we should challenge the gym tomorrow," he said as she stopped walking. "I need to train."

She shrugged. "OK, but I reckon I could win anyway."

"You've got an evolved pokemon," he pointed out, but had a feeling that Heron would still have been able to beat the gym leader. He could not remember ever seeing her lose.

Another shrug. "I was lucky. Usually feebas are a nightmare to train."

"You got that right," said a voice behind her. Mirus had seen the boy come up, but had ignored them until this point.

"Yeah?" Heron asked him. "Who asked you?"

She wanted a battle, Mirus could tell. Apparently this newcomer could tell as well, since his eyes flicked to her pokeball belt, before scanning both of them over.

"Nobody. But I catch feebas in the ocean and evolve them; I'd like to see you beat my dragon team. My name's Liam, by the way."

Mirus looked at Heron who, surprisingly, looked interested. "How many have you got? Five pokeballs... are they all milotics then?"

"One other dragons, three milotics, and one feebas that I'm evolving. I usually have more than one, but you've got to be careful. Only a certain amount of pokeblocks can affect a feebas's evolution, right? After that it's just a treat, nothing more. Get it wrong and you've wasted your time." Liam unfolded his arms. "And some just might not evolve. It's a matter of experience."

Heron was looking bored again. "Just have a battle, OK?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. I'll battle you first," he pointed at Mirus. "Then you." A point at Heron.

"OK," Mirus said, stepping forward and unclipping a pokeball before he knew what he was doing.

"You battled dragons before?" asked Liam, unclipping a pokeball of his own.

He nodded. "Once. I beat her."

Liam snorted. "Well, she was probably just a rookie. I've been training for the last month, going through the towns real slow. I've already been to Flourish Town. Anyway," he maximized and threw a pokeball. "Let's start."

The energy hardened into- unsurprisingly- a milotic. Mirus nodded at the snake- it looked more powerful than Heron's, but that could be the light- and threw the pokeball he'd been holding. Out came Grim, shaking his fur happily and cowering at the opponent.

Mirus bit his tongue. He'd sent out the wrong pokemon- why had he been holding Grim's, anyway? He should have gone for Jazz- at least then he had a type advantage. He sighed. Only an inexperienced trainer would have done that.

Grim seemed to redeem himself a bit and growled at the milotic, which moved its head further back in surprise. Mirus relaxed. "Think you can do this?" he asked his pokemon, trying to hide the hopefulness in his voice.

"Chee-ena!" said the poochyena enthusiastically, though his tail didn't wag.

Mirus knew he wanted to act bravely, so he said; "Right, let's go. Use Tackle!"

"Milotic, go for a Twister," Liam ordered his pokemon.

"Lotic," the snake said, its horns turning a blue colour. Mirus recognised the start of the attack, so just urged Grim on with his mind.

He leapt up and struck the snake, and the glow faded, if only for a moment. However, it seemed unfazed and a familiar breeze began to blow.

"Again! Jump up and Bite!" The dog leapt back up from where he had landed before, and fastened his sharp teeth over the pokemon's crest. The dragon started writhing around, trying to shake Grim off, and suddenly the Twister started, surrounding the two battlers.

Milotic was too heavy to be fazed by its own attack, but Grim was caught on an air current and sent veering off to the side sharply, letting go of his catch. He was thrown roughly to the ground before the breeze faded, and sat up, whining.

"Grim, are you hurt?"

Another whine, and the dog stood up, tail attempting a wag as he crouched low.

The milotic had a visible scratch on its crest, and Liam called, "Water Gun!"

"Grim, Howl and Tackle combination, hurry!" Mirus said as firmly as he could. Grim moved fast, Howling as he charged, but the beam of water caught him full on and he was pushed backwards, slamming into the ground again.

"Whiplash, milotic," Liam said, a smile edging onto his face.

"Grim, can you get up?" Mirus asked, fingers flicking over to his pokeball. A whimper. "That's OK, you did your best." Then to Liam, "Call off your pokemon."

The milotic stopped mid-attack, though Liam hadn't said a word. Then Mirus realised why; white particles seemed to be collecting towards Grim as he lay there.

Grim's silhouette grew larger and his fur seemed to thicken, hanging off his body in a greater length, and his tail grew longer, all in the space of a few seconds. Then the light faded slowly away, and Mirus was left staring, stunned, at an enormous black and grey wolf lying where Grim had been.

E/N: Yup, he evolved. I thought it was about time. And there're some things to tell you about this chapter, just in case you were going to ask, which you probably were. And I don't blame you. So: I don't use levels; a trainer can't get out their pokedex and say "Oh, he's level nineteen," or something. I don't like that. A pokemon can evolve in the midst of a battle as you've seen, like in the anime, and they can use more than four moves. Just so you know.

Anyway, for the levels, milotics CAN be low-leveled, since they evolve with the beauty thing. Which doesn't nessercarily mean that Heron's is super-powerful. The "mystery" will be revealed in the next chapter, though I think it's a bit obvious as to what happened.

And I know mightyenas aren't enormous, but compared to a poochyena... and as for the milotic size issue... I reckon their size is a bit short of ridiculous. Ah hem. I had to give Heron one anyway, right...?

Well, feel free to correct me. By reviewing. Mwaha.