Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon. So there.

Chapter Four;
Shadow Battles

'Where...

... Shade?

... why ... so cold.

I ...

I can't see ...

.. no light ...

... shadows .. only shadows ...

... Shade ...

.. where are you?'

There was a time, before this 'hellish eternity' that Shade would later call this search for Amy, that Shade cared for nothing. No one. At eight he was the perfect little stoic little soldier for Snaggem. Simon, at the age then of eighteen, took Shade under his wing and acted like an older brother.

If you call beating the hell out of Shade when he messed up being an older brother...

Shade couldn't remember a thing before he was eight, nor did he really care for anything after he was eight. That is, untill he was around fifteen. And he and some others had raided one of the few pokemon breeders of the place. He knew by 'raiding' they killed the human owner and stole the pokemon.

But something that could be called a mishap happened, and Shade stumbled onto a female Vaporeon, valiantly trying to protect two small cubs from one of the theifs pokemon, if he remembered correctly it was a Seviper. Visious one too, as when the mother leapt towards the fiend with intent on using a Take Down, the pokemon spat acid at the Vaporeon, blinding her and sealing her fate by eating the female whole.

Shade really didn't care about the death, just the loss. Female Eevee's and their evolutions were rare and very, very hard to come by. But he really didn't care. He had been brought their for one purpos. And as he turned to leave, about to let the Seviper ingest the two kits, a soft mewling caught his attention .. and Shade doesn't remember what happened next.

He had been told though, that time had seemed to freeze, or he had sped up, and in the span between one moment and the next, he was over and infront of the two cubs, his foot swung up and still held in the air. And the death rattle of a Seviper with half it's skull broken brokle the silence that had fallen over the room. Wordlessly he had scooped up the kits, snarled out 'Mine' at anyone that came near and stormed off.

Shade did remember when he 'came too' that the kits were asleep on his bed, already forgetting the danger they had been in, or that their mother was dead.

And barely a day ago, Shade had been overcome with that same feeling to help the girl. Damn everything else human, but that girl was his now. His to protect and watch over. His to keep safe.

And it was all confusing to the young man, Shade just didn't understand what was happening. But he knew one thing was for certian, he had to get her back. If Snaggem was after her, or atleast the disbanded members of it anyways, then she was in extreme danger.

"Well, well, well." A voice of honey and sugar cooed out as a trainer around Shade's age appeared, she looked him up and down and grinned, "Well aren't you a fine piece of eye candy?" She breathed out, shifting her stance slightly to try and flaunt herself at Shade.

It took all of the young man's will power to not roll his eyes at the "Out of my way." Shade demanded, glaring at the young woman. She pouted, pretending to be hurt by his callous attitude. "I'm sorry baby, but this is Duel Square. Any trainer you meet here, you have to fight. Unless you have another idea..." She trailed off suggestively.

Shade snorted in contempt. "Don't make me hurt you."

Scowling angrily, she grabbed a pokeball. "I'll make you regret turning me down!" She declared, throwing the pokeball forward and unleashing a large brown/grey pokemon. For a moment Shade mistook it for a floating rock, and then blood red eyes slowly opened.

A chill swept through Shade and something inside him said that this pokemon was not normal or average. Snatching up Hikage's pokeball, he maximized it, then threw it out. Summoning his companion to the battle scene.

"Breeon, um umbreon!" Hikage threw out as he formed, ears pricked forward, even though he had been badly burned, he was completely restored, and ready to fight for Shade once more. But the Umbreon paused, his nose twitching and he turned his head slightly. Shade stared at his partner silently before turning his focus back to the woman and her Lunatone. "Hikage, finish this quickly!"

"BRE!" Hikage almost roared out as he seemed to fade and then re-appeare infront of the Lunatone. It tried a psywave attack like it's trainer commanded, but the attack didn't even strike the dark type. It just seemed to roll off the pokemon's fur and strike the ground directly behind the Umbreon, and caused stone and sand to fly, so the attack had worked .. just not on Hikage.

The Umbreon took the startled shock of both the human and pokemon to his advantage and struck. Biting down harshly on the Lunatone, a dark aura surrounding him and especially his mouth as fangs caused rock like skin to crack and they drew a vile looking ichor from the floating rock pokemon.

It screamed, or atleast attempted too it seemed, as it thrashed, managing to dislodge Hikage from the 'nose' like growth. But the damage was already done, blood like liquid flowed freely from the wounds and the woman gave a cry of 'No!' as she recalled the Psychic/Rock type, threw out a snarled curse at Shade and ran off.

"Good job, boy." Shade commented as he recalled Hikage, the dark kitsune giving a yipping cry of his name as he was withdrawn. He started forward again, taking slow and deliberate steps, his breathing was slightly shallow, but otherwise he was fine.

For now.

Miror B was not having a good day. Though that was the understatement of the year as he placed one hand to the half red, half white poof ball of an afro he sported. "What," he began, "do you mean to say that most of the shadow pokemon have been given out?"

The underling of Miror B shook with fear as he held the list in his hand, "W-w-w-while you and mist-mis-mister Na-na-na-nasc-co-cor t-talked f-f-four p-people w-won t-the co-co-colosseum," he stuttered out from his fear.

Miror B twitched.

He was in so much trouble right now.

"What were they," Miror B muttered as he rubbed at his face with his hands, wishing he was dead. Because he was going to get worse treatment if Nascour found out. The underling didn't even try speaking, handing the report to Miror B and then ran as if his life depended on it. And it most likely did as the Ciper Admin started to scan through the list to the last four.

'Please not them, please not those four. Please I want to live.' Miror B thought to himself as his eyes settled onto the last four pokemon on the list.

'Pokemon S. Experiment 0019: Nidoking. Male. Level; 44. Main Attacks: Shadow Rush, Brick Break, Thunder. Less used Attacks: Roar, Iron Tail, Megahorn. Status: Un-obtained.

'Pokemon S. Experiment 0304: Bagon. Male. Level; 49. Main Attacks: Shadow Rush, Scary Face, Bite, Frustration. Less used Attacks: Flamethrower, Headbutt, Rest. Status: Un-obtained.'

So far Miror B was relieved, so far two of those four pokemon weren't given out yet. As these were some of the higher level shadow pokemon, and he didn't think Nascour would be pleased if those were given out to trainers. When he checked the third pokemon he was pleased. It was still there.

But that pleased feeling drained to utter dread as he looked at the fourth and final pokemon on his Shadow list.

'Pokemon S. Experiment 1024: Gyarados. Female. Level 65. Main Attacks: Shadow Rush, Hyper Beam, Hydro Pump, Body Slam. Less used Attacks: Ice Beam, Frustration, Roar, Bite. Status: Obtained by trainer Nichole Sherman.'

"... I'm dead." Miror B moaned as he dropped the list, clutching at his head as he went over what he could do now that one of the strongest shadow experiments was in the hands of a girl.

Shade looked around, he'd been walking for an hour now and he was hot, tired. Hurt, and he had started leaking through the bandages. Which wasn't a good sign, but he wasn't about to call it a day just yet. There was still an hour of light left atleast.

"Hey, what's a guy like you doing in a place like this?" A voice called out. Shade turned his head slightly, glancing over his shoulder and saw the owner of the voice leaning against a wall and in some shadows. Evidently the person was smarter then Shade was about staying out of the sun. Eventhough Shade wasn't really hot for that reason.

"I lost something." He answered, and turned slightly. "Why are you here?"

The person pushed away from the wall and cleared the shadows, revealing a young woman about his age or so, a scowl marred her face as grey eyes glinted like steel as the light struck them while pale blue hair adorned her head in a long braid that reached the middle of her back. "Hiding from some jerks," she replied. "By the way, I'm Nichole."

"Shade." The former snagger responded with as he turned around to face the now named young woman. Nichole acted like she was about to speak before a screaming war cry erupted into the air, sounding like something had been grabbed and was being murdered. Shade tensed, his head snapping about as he ignored the pain cutting into his body.

Nichole's eyes grew wide as she swore softly, "They couldn't have found me so soon.."

Shade's gaze snapped back to the blue haired woman, "Who?" He demanded, and Nichole turned somewhat frightened eyes onto Shade's form, "These goons, I won this colosseum battle, and they appeared and dragged me off to some factory, and was given a pokemon ... a wierd pokemon, but it was free. I didn't complain. And now they want it back but when I offered to give it willingly... they attacked..." Nichole trailed off, her steel eyes paling slightly to further show off her distress at the situation. Shade was about to say something when it seemed fate decided to step in without knocking, and say hello.

Shade opened his mouth as if to speak. But what he was going to say was lost in the wind that gusted up and the shrieking form of a Fearow swooped over head, sending grit flying which forced the two humans to cover their faces ot had sand and other such small items get into their noses, eyes or mouths.

"Well well, look at what Qura found." Said a snide voice as the dust started to clear from the air, and just enough for Shade to lower his arm a tad and see two figures emerging from the dust the way the Fearow had come as said bird pokemon screamed from up above somewhere in the sky once more.

"Seems you finally found a use for that shadow pokemon," retorted the other dryly as he crossed his arms infront of himself, frowning as he caught sight of Shade along side Nichole, who it seemed had darted over to the only person that could be remotely better then the duo before them.

"Didn't the boss say there was only one?" The taller one said, looking down at the one that had first spoken, and all he recived was a shrug from his male companion. "We might just get a few more pokemon to make more ultimate ones..." The first suggested, trailing off in his suggestion to show it wouldn't have been such a bad thing to run into a trainer without a shadow pokemon.

"I have a bad feeling..." Nichole whispered to Shade as she brushed against him, showing she wanted to draw some form of comfort but dared not touch him for real, Shade felt a part of himself growling at that, but reason won over instincts of personal space, as the girl was most likely absolutely terrified and it wouldn't help matters if he snapped at her. So instead he directed his attention outward and to speaking.

"We have a chance, no matter how strong these idiots are. You take on the smaller ones pokemon, I shall take the other opponent."

Shade heard something which sounded like a snorted 'men' but she didn't complain outside of that as now wasn't the time to be wasting energies on such a fruitless effort. Grabbing a wierd looking pokeball from her waist, Nichole maximized it as Shade hesitated somewhat in choosing a pokemon. Mentally he was calculating what he should use.

Typhoon would be at a dis-advantage here, having been used for travel, chasing after Amy, and another flight session without having had a chance for a proper rest. Violet would most likely still be asleep as he hadn't had her out that much while here, so that left him with Hikage. Grabbing the dark type's poke ball, he maximized it and clutched it in his right hand, waiting for the chance to summon his pokemon from the orb.

Which came sooner then expected as all a sudden Nichole released her chosen pokemon. That turned out to be a very large, red Gyarados. It screamed out it's name in a strangled roar, head crest glistening like a blood red ruby on it's head while it's fins flattened against it's body, showing that the Gyarados did not like the desert like quality of her new home. But when Nichole snapped out her orders, the now identified female Gyarados charged forward with a snarling bellow of challenge at the goons.

Yelping in fear, the smaller one chucked forward a pokeball and released something that Shade saw for barely a flash of a second, a Kingdra, and then all he could see was walls of red scales that belonged to the abnormal colored Gyarados.

From the remaining goon, came forth a Machamp, blue skin, black eyes and fin like crests adorned it's head and it glared at Shade a moment before grinning evilly and cracked it's knuckles. "Machamp," the trainer drolled out as if this was the most boring show on earth, "pound the little wimp and take his monsters, Mmkay?"

"Champ Macha!" The fighting type bellowed out, closing two hands into a fist and charged, Shade was taken aback momentairly, not having expected a goon to be smart, or dumb, enough to out right attack a trainer. And for a moment a flash of thought ran through his mind, what if this is what those two idiots had done to Amy..?

It was enough to snap Shade into action as he threw the pokeball forward with such force it struck the Machamp on the head, earning a pained cry from the blue moutain of muscle and the fighting type flinched back a moment, allowing the red and white sphere to tumble backwards and crack open, letting a beam of red energy stream forth and bounce onto the ground before quickly forming the shape of Shade's faithfull Hikage.

The Umbreon sneered out his name as golden ringed ears flattened against his skull, crimson and navy blue eyes narrowed as the ebony kitsune like pokemon crouched and let out a small growl at the enemy. Sensing something was off in the much larger pokemon before him.

"So the wimp fights back? No matter, nothing is a match for my Machamp! Attack!"

The fighting type let out a noise that could be something akin to a bellow and lunged forwards, fists blurring as he attempted to pummel the Umbreon to pulp. Yelping in startlement more than fear, Hikage leapt backwards with greater agility and grace then one would think for the darker evolution of Eevee. Snarling as he landed only a few feet infront of Shade, Hikage charged forwards, barely waiting for his trainer's snapped command of 'Take Down!'

Evolving into a black blur, the Umbreon seemed to just appear infront of the Machamp and struck the fighter with the harsh attack, sending the four armed fighting type flailing backwards as Hikage himself was sent realing back a bit, forced to shake himself to clear the slight dizzy spell that had taken over his mind.

"Gah, Machamp you pathetic shadow monster, use Karate Chop!"

Shade was given no time to yell out at Hikage to duck or run or do anything as the fighter bore down on the still dazed dark type. Two hands struck the pokemon mercilessly on the back and Hikage's side, sending the dark type flying backwards and to a halt at the feet of Shade's stunned form.

"Hikage!" Shade finally managed to get out, ignoring the battle around him as he stooped quickly to scoop the knocked out pokemon into his arms. With narrowed eyes he glared daggers at the human, and the pokemon... and everything for Shade turned dark as he lost conciousness.

Or so he thought.

Nichole had been behind her Gyarados, or mostly behind the creature when the mighty water serpent seemed to still for some reason, not even acknowledging the attempts to penitrate her armored hide as the red beast turned her head slightly, and let out a roar, shifting her massive bulk around Nichole and imprisoning the human in a cavern of dimmed red and cream scales. Five seconds passed, just enough time for her to wonder what was going on when a sort of whumph sound came, and several screams filled the air, first due to immense terror. Then pain. And finally it was all still. Gyarados didn't move for several minutes, untill Nichole started pounding on the giant snake's scales, and slowly the wierdly colored pokemon backed off from protecting her master, and both human and pokemon were a bit taken aback at the scene that met their eyes.

Small fires littered the area, while two groaning forms covered in ash, that could have once been clothing lay half passed out on the ground. A Machamp and Kingdra were completely K.Oed... and as for the final person Nichole looked around for, she didn't see him.

But there was a knocked out Umbreon and pokebelt. Along with some sort of contraption...

"... you know Gyarados," Nichole started as she cautiously, but quickly went over to where the items and pokemon lay, "I never thought spontainous combustion was possible..."

A low rumble from the red pokemon alerted Nichole she most likely had guessed wrong, but still she grumbled at having to baby sit the guy's stuff. Though it was more out of worry, confusion and some fear over what had just happened, and where that guy was.

To Be Continued In;
Chapter Five: Into the Fury