Midnight's Sky Chapter 3 Update

Chapter 3

"So what exactly is the plan here Angi? I'm not as well equipped for the job as you are…" Jenny said while adjusting her new cloak. It was a brand new cloak specifically designed for her. It was a very royal-like dark purple that blended with her calm and cool eyes. The outline of the cloak was pitch black like the night sky. On her arm was a band that showed the guild symbol of an Arcanine and a Zoroark. Jenny felt very uncomfortable in these clothes, but felt that she could get used to it. Angi pulled a map out of her russack and put it on the floor. She pointed at the village location, and showed the path they would be taking.

"So while you were getting fitted I talked to Cinnamon. She arranged a ride for us. At about 3PM today there is going to be a pickup truck that will be stopping at Fuschia city in Viridian. We take the truck there and wait for them to make a pit-stop in Saffron city and get off here. then head to Celadon city. Since Spirit and the group will be taking the Saffron route we could meet them there to warn them about the problem..." she then rolled the map up and slipped it back into the russack

"Of course we still don't know what the potential problem is. All we know is a third party is chasing after who the rest of the group is chasing." This was a massive issue for the duo as they didn't even know who to look for. What if they ended up attacking them instead?

"C'mon Angi," Jenny started to exit the room, leaving the door open for the electric canine. "Let's start heading out. I'm going to stop by my place and grab a few things before though. Do you want me to just meet you in Viridian City?"

"Yeah I'll just meet you near the Viridian Poke-Mart." Angi followed the cobblestone path that led out into the forest. It didn't take long for Jenny to reach her house. She opened the door and had layers upon layers of dust dropping from the door. "Guess it's been awhile since I've been home. It's only been 3 months…" her home brought back some sad memories of her, David, and Soul. She grabbed her russack that was on her rack by the door.

"Since I'll be gone for a week or two it might be a good idea to pack some food that'll last me a few days in case we deviate from the plan.'' The pantry doors flew open, but with little to no food. Instead of food, there were long cobwebs in the corners filled with spiders. It was due to her long shifts at the clinic, she never really got the chance to resupply for when she got home. However there was still food in the pantry, but it was canned.

"I know I keep a can-opener in here somewhere…" she scoured her apartment for the can opener. When opening the drawer containing it, one of her nine tails had knocked over something, shattering whatever the object was. Jenny was careful when turning around as she didn't want to step on any glass. She looked down to see a picture outside of it's frame. A picture of Soul, David, Luke, and herself at the first festival that happened after Souls arrival. It was a time where everyone just hung out and had fun. Souls first year in the village, but he warmed up to her after a while. David was always there looking out for everyone. He was the guardian before the guild even existed. Luke...he wasn't the same after the battle with Soul.

"Man...I miss you goofballs. I miss the way things used to be..." her voice filled with sorrow. Several knocks at the door could be heard, and the door made a loud creek as it slowly opened.

"Hey Jen I saw the door slightly open. I was wondering if you were…" Luke paused, she was dressed up in guild gear and sobbing over a picture "Alright." He walked over slowly to the sullen Ninetales. "Oh. Hey Luke." she said in a not so excited voice. Luke looked down at the shattered glass on the floor, and then saw the picture in the center of all of it.

"That's a picture of the four of us after Soul first arrived at the village." he looked the other way, not wanting to remember the battle.

"Yeah...the good old days..." she sighed "You caught me just as I was about to head out. Cinnamon sent me and Angi on a mission in Celadon city. Just came back here to grab some supplies." Jenny slipped the picture and can-opener into her bag as they spoke. After she adjusted a few things in her russack, she zipped it up and slung it over her shoulder.

"You know if you need anyone to talk to I'm here for you right?" Luke put his hand on her shoulder blade and gave her some reassuring rubs. He was shocked when she just shook him off. "Thanks for the offer...but I'm fine. I don't want to talk about it." Jenny said as she walked out the door. Luke put his paw up to stop her, but stopped himself from doing it. "Jenny...you have to start talking to someone about it you know. Even if it isn't me." Luke had a saddened look on his face and watched as she kept walking out the door. She paused as she left, and without turning around said in a cold, unforgiving voice "The last person I would want to talk to about this is you Luke. No offense." his eyes shrunk having heard that, knowing he had absolutely no chance with her ever again. "Now if you excuse me, I have to meet Angi at the train station within the hour. I'll see you when I get back." she walked without looking back. No time for she had other problems to deal with.

Cerulean City

1PM

The city of Cerulean was bustling with loads of traffic today. One could look over to the gym and see miles of trainers waiting for their chance of entry. Vendors off to the side selling snacks for those that had to wait in the long line.

"Pretty busy today." Tori said while looking at all the foot trafic going on in the square. It was going to be hard to find anything of use to the group if it was this active.

"It may make things a bit harder, but we have to keep looking." Spirit pointed towards an alley over by the Pokemart. "Over there. We can go over there and plan our next move." Everyone walked over to the dark and gritty alley. Spirit stopped everyone near the garbage cans.

"Lance, do you have a map of Cerulean? I know the general layout but it might be a wise idea to figure out the whole area." Spirit looked to the Vaporeon for the answers. He usually was prepared for everything. He pulled a small map out of his cloak and set it on the ground.

"Here's the layout of the city. The nugget bridge is near the lavender city exit. If we continue through this alleyway we will be near the Pokemon Center." He pointed to the giant red building on his map. "Then the next street over is

"Alright so we're going to go in two separate groups. Aaron you're with me. I feel I can trust you enough that you won't do anything" Aaron couldn't help but smile a bit.

"Thanks for trusting me with enough Spirit. I figured you would eventually." Spirit ignored him, and continued to explain the plain. "Scarlett, Lance, Tori, you guys go over to the east side of town and see if you can find anything. Remember to meet up here within an hour."

"What do we do if we find anything that could be particularly useful? Do we just radio in?" Lance had looked down at his cloak.

"If you find anything particularly useful, feel free to contact us. Just remain within the area otherwise it will be harder to get us due to radio static." Spirit said. She looked at everyone with a determined look in her eyes. "Does everyone understand the plan? Did I leave any crucial information out?" Everyone looked at eachother, and no questions were asked. With everyone in agreement with the plan, they headed out to search the perimeter. Aaron and Spirit headed towards the west side while the others went to go check out the east.

Group A: Spirit and Aaron

"So where did you guys first separate from each other?" Spirit had asked.

"We should probably check by nugget bridge first. I remember talking with the Umbreon there before we split up on route 4." Aaron tried to remember any location where the two spoke before they split up. "You never told me why you two split up. Aaron." Spirit had been wondering why they had split up this whole time. "Well. We had escaped Rocket about a month ago. The guy you're looking for had broken out and I followed him. I didn't know him too well, but I heard rumors that it was his second time being captured by Rocket. So the logical conclusion was that he would be able to get me out."

"That is true. See, Soul and I got captured by Rocket because of me….for a while we were trapped with no way out in sight. Our friends got suspicious of our whereabouts and created a search party." She recalled of the events that had gotten not only her friends in trouble, but of the one that took Soul from her. "They figured out where we were and came to save us but they got captured as well. When we finally did escape, Soul stayed behind to fend off the rest of Rocket." Spirit sighed, she felt guilty that she didn't stay with him that day. "We lost some good people that day. David...and a Zoroark named Crimson..." Spirit looked ahead and saw the bridge full of trainers fighting. One with a red cap and another with a yellow. A Pikachu and an Ivysaur in an intense battle on the bridge that one could hear for miles. The trainer looked pretty confident in his abilities, as he never said a single word in battle. He just stood there as if he were frozen in time.

"Man….we have to go through that bridge just to get to Route 4." Spirit sighed, thinking they would have to fight all of these trainers, as they would definitely use this opportunity to catch high leveled pokemon. That kid in the red cap already had an evolved pokemon, so no doubt if they went that way it would be difficult to get past him. "No we don't. Let's just go under the bridge to avoid their attention. It's what me and that Umbreon did to avoid anything." there was a little pathway under the bridge that only Pokemon used, due to it being hidden by shrubs by it. Water was a bit shallow and muddy, but they didn't really have a choice if they wanted to look around this area without fighting their way through a horse of trainers. "Ugh I hate getting my fur muddy…" Spirit whined. She took the first step into the cold and muddy water. Chills ran down her spine, her fur stuck up, and her teeth chattered. She hated water in the first place, but muddy water was her absolute most hated thing. She hoped there was a spring up ahead where she could rinse her paws off. Ever since being drowned in that ice cold water, she had grown to arbor it, as she couldn't get rid of the fear. Aarons however didn't give any thought to it. He stepped in nonchalauntly, as his fur would keep the area around it warm. "Oh get over it. It's a bit of mud. You'll live." She knew it was just mud, but didn't like how it made her fur look. "Easy for you to say...you aren't of cat descent and are a fire type negating the cold….." Aaron just rolled his eyes and continued trudging up the water, hoping she would stop whining. "Anyways, this is close to where we broke up. We left each other at the famous PC system makers lab "Bill". We probably won't find much up there, but it's worth a shot it's really all we've got." Aaron had told her.

After a few more minutes of trudging through the thick layer of mud, they came up at the green hedge maze just before Bills lab. "Man lots of trainers out here today. I didn't think there would be this many out here." Lush and green bushes hid them from the hungry eyed trainers. There was one trainer clad in red that was making quick work of them with his Pikachu. "Yeah...maybe we should take another way to get there. With this many trainers out in the wild area we would get spotted." Aarons turned around and started to head the other way, accidentally letting his tail poke out of the bush.

"Aaron! Get your tail inside the bush! You're going to get us caught!" He had realized once Spirit started to quietly whisper scream at him. The trainer with red eyes and the Pikachu had barely noticed the silver tail, but paid no mind to it, as he was focused on the battle at hand. They both breathed a sigh of relief.

"If he would have battled us, everyone would have come out of the wood works for the battle. Including unwanted attention…..be more careful next time." Spirit was so relieved he had decided not to make a big commotion out of it and just focus on his battle. "Come on and let's get to this peak and see if we can't find more information." They proceeded once the coast was clear and headed further up the trail, hoping to find some answers.

Cerulean City

1:18PM

Group B: Tori, Lance, and Scarlett

"I asked some of the locals, they don't know anything about an Umbreon that came through" Scarlett sighed, her head hanging down, "I don't think we're gonna find anything about him around here. Maybe we could ask around the gym? I feel some Pokemon might have battled him on the way from traveling, or at the very least had seen an Umbreon since he isn't common in nature."

"Probably the only place we're gonna find something if there is anything in this area." Lance said in a low and angry tone. "Man. There's a few supply trucks blocking the way to the gym. Probably shipments for the pokemart. We'll need to find another way around." Tori looked around to see if anyone could help them out. A Tododile and her trainer were walking on the side-walk, so she pulled her over to ask for some directions.

"Excuse me," Tori asked the Tododile walking beside them. "I hope I'm not bothering you, but do you happen to know another way to get to the gym? The main path is blocked right now and we're looking for someone and they might have been near the gym recently."

"If you want to head to the gym, you can instead of taking the main street, you can follow the path with the Pokemon Center. Once you see it, the gym should be right beside it. It's also really close to a cafe that sells really good food if you guys are hungry after." she said while rubbing her stomach, thinking of all the tantalizing food they had.

"Thank you. We appreciate your help." Lance thanked the Totodile before following the path they were told. To avoid all the foot traffic of the people, they stayed off of the road and just walked in the grass by the sidewalk. They didn't care about wild Pokemon much since there was a wild area nearby anyways, so it was bound to happen.

"Come on let's go to the cafe real quick. I'm still starved after that whole zubat situation. I'm surprised we didn't take a day's rest for it." Tori wondered how Spirit had so much determination in her to keep moving.

"Alright. Let's go get something. It couldn't hurt to have something in our stomach anyways." Once they all had settled in at the table, they had put in all of their orders. Lance got his signature black coffee, Tori got a Caramel Frappe, and Scarlett got ice-cream since neither of them thought it would be a wise decision to give her caffeine. Lance looked over to Tori, debating on whether he should ask her the question he'd been harboring.

"So Tori, do you trust Aaron?" Tori just gave Lance a questioning look. Not sure she understood what he was implying about the silver Ninetales. She thinks that about it as she had taken a giant slurp from her drink.

"I mean, he hasn't really given us a reason not to trust him. He's been leading us to where they last were, and he could've run off after Spirit passed out, but he decided to stay." Tori explained her thoughts.

"No. That's actually not what I mean." He said. "Do you remember when we went after him? Well when me and Spirit were chasing after him, he was faster than any Ninetales I had ever seen. Way faster than one should be."

"Wait why would that make him untrustworthy?" Tori is still confused on how this would make him suspicious. She looked at Lance, who was trying to figure out how to word it.

"So...he and Soul decide to split up around this exact location right?" he looked to Tori, and her expression changed. She was starting to realize what he was saying.

"I find it hard to believe that he not only knows Spirit, but has been captured by Rocket and decided to stick with us willingly. There was also the case of last night Spirit thinking someone was watching her in the woods." He took a sip of his black coffee before more thoroughly explaining his side. "Then there lies the fact he's way too fast for any Ninetales in his class. It isn't normal."

"While this is all convenient, I don't think that's the case. He seems to really know Spirit beyond a possible in-base rocket encounter. He also knew about how she ended up in the village." Tori reasoned with Lance. It would have been obvious by now if he was disloyal to them. He was able to tell them how the night went down and it matched up perfectly with what she remembered.

"While that is true, and even if all of this was the truth, there is still the feeling that he is hiding something from us. I've been a tactician for a while, and I can tell when someone is holding back. If he really wanted to escape, why didn't he knock us all unconscious? He's hiding power that no normal Ninetales has, and he hasn't made any mention of it." While that was suspicious, he had no other proof that he was guilty of something besides his own intuition. "And not to mention you're telling me that he joined us out of the goodness of his heart? I highly doubt that. Yeah ok Spirit is an "old friend" of his….but even if that was the case, if he knew we were searching for someone that might be with Rocket right now I'd continue on my way." Lance still couldn't wrap his head around that fact. No matter how he looked at it he couldn't find a logical reason for him to stay with them.

"Yeah…..he never stated his reason for wanting to tag along with us….I mean, we did capture him but that doesn't mean he couldn't have run at any point in Mt. Moon or last night. I'll give you that." Tori couldn't think of a reason either. However she didn't think this was enough of a reason to distrust him either, as he hasn't done anything to harm him and he hasn't attempted running away either. Perhaps he was just traveling with a long lost friend he felt guilty of abandoning? Or was there something more to the story.

"I think you're looking too much into it personally. Instead of focusing on someone that hasn't shown any malicious intent towards us, we focus on how we can find the Umbreon so we can get home?" Scarlett told him. Lance was quite surprised to hear this from the very young Vulpix. Sounding so mature, when normally she was very childish even for her own age. "I get that we have reasons to distrust him, but we also have a more important task to worry about than figuring out whether this guy is loyal or not. Even if he isn't we can just continue on without him."

"You might be right there. I might be looking into it too much. Let's go check around the gym for some information. Hopefully we can get a lead there." Lance cleared his head of any suspicion on Aaron for the moment, and started focusing more on who, what, where, and when the suspect was supposedly here. He beckoned Tori and Scarlett to follow him, Scarlett more focused on her ice-cream that was slowly melting than the mission itself.

"Y'know Scarlett, that was a pretty mature way to look at this by the gym was a Houndoom and a Mightyena perched up on the gym welcome sign.

"Hmmmmmm maybe those people know something." Scarlett said as she ate her last bite of ice-cream. It wasn't common for those types of pokemon to be around this area. They were from Johto and Hoenn.

"I don't know. I have a bad feeling about those guys Scarlett. I don't see their trainers around anywhere, and they would be around because it's a gym." Lance thought it was weird that two non common region Pokemon would be next to a gym with no trainers in sight. The duo must have noticed them looking at them, because they started headed towards them.

"Can we help you folks? We noticed you were looking at us over there as if you were going to come over and ask us a question." The Houndoom had a very low and grainy voice. His red eyes locked on to the symbols on their cloaks, noticing immediately they were guild members.

"No. We were just looking….uhhhhh…." Tori had no idea what to say. They seemed very invasive of personal information, and kept looking at them funny.

"We're here looking for an informant. There was a case we were taking, but it appears our informant isn't here. We don't know if he already came by, so we were going to consider asking you guys if you had seen him." Lance tried to slither his group out of the conversation. The Mightyena picked up on this and asked him to make things more clear.

"Oh surely it's no problem. Perhaps we could help you," he said. "Do you know what type your informant is? I know guilds usually make information like that public to whoever they send out."

"Nope. He wanted to remain anonymous. He just said he was going to meet us by the gym around this time. But the only pokemon we saw were you two." Lance had lied to them. Both of them looked at eachother, before asking Lance one more question.

"Would this informant happen to be a Ninetales? We've been looking for a Ninetales for a bit." The Mightyena looked over to the Flareon, and saw her eyes light up. She corrected herself, but he had already taken note of it.

"I don't think it's a Ninetales. But why are you guys looking for him…." Lance was immediately cut off by the Houndoom.

"How do you know it's a guy?" He demanded an answer, his face scrunched up and he started to bare his teeth. He obviously knew that they had something to say. Nobody felt safe around these two. They obviously weren't looking to help them, instead they were trying to get information about them.

"Lucky guess I'm assuming. We'll let you know if we ever find anything on that Ninetales. What does he look like?"

"He has ruby red eyes, and has long silver fur. Very dangerous individual I'd say." Mightyena put an emphasis on "very dangerous", hoping that they would give up Aaron.

"Can't say any of us have seen anything of a silver Ninetales. We'll be on our way now." Tori backed up as far as she could from the Houndoom looming over her.

"Well be safe then. Good luck finding that informant of your's….."

He smiled at everyone in the group, and started walking away. Tori, happy that they finally got away from them, let out a huge sigh of relief. It was nerve wracking being around them.

"So they're looking for Aaron? Does this mean they are with team rocket?" Scarlett asked Lance.

"It's very likely, but we can't confirm it 100%. Let's just wait until the others come back and go from there."

Route 25

1:35PM

Group A: Aaron and Spirit

It had been a long walk to avoid all the trainers, but it was better than having to battle their way through everyone because they wanted to capture some rare wild Pokemon. Spirit was breathing heavy due to the steep climb they had to do just to get there.

"Phew...I never thought we would get here. I thought we were gonna battle all of them when you let your tail show. Let's take a break for a second." Nearly collapsing by the lake, she started taking large mouthfuls of water, trying to regain some of the energy lost from the cave. Aaron sat down by the lake, happy to take a few minutes to just enjoy the view instead of being in a dark cave or in a forest.

"You might want to slow down a bit" Aaron chuckled, one of his nine silver tails trying to pull her back a bit from the water, "you're gonna get sick if you continue to drink that fast." she picked her drenched muzzle out of the water, satisfied and her energy had returned somewhat. She sat back collecting herself, starting to feel a bit queasy as well. Her stomach rumbled loudly, like a lion roaring at his opponent.

"I told you to slow down. You would get sick if you drink that water too fast." her face becoming a nasty and putrid shade of green. Before she could even comment about how awful she felt, she had spit up some of the water she had just drank from the lake.

"Ugh….I'm gonna go get some berries from the bush over here." While she walked over to the bush, she felt as if someone was watching her from afar. As if she was being stocked by someone. Her cloak fell as the wind stopped blowing. She looked down to see a brown shred of clothing like the one she found last night in the woods.

"Hey Aaron...come look at this. It's part of a cloak." Spirit pointed the brown mystery item to Aaron. He rushed over from the lake and looked at the brown shred closer.

"That's weird...what would this be doing up here? It's a cloak belonging to a Pokemon, but I can't identify what species. The smell is gone." Aaron pondered what such a thing would be doing up here in the first place.

"This is around where me and that Umbreon parted ways….but I don't remember him wearing a cloak that night." Aaron pondered and tried to recall what exactly had happened that night.

"Aaron...I also think someone is watching us. It's been quiet ever since we got here, and it feels like someone has their eyes on us." She looked around, trying to find some abnormality to justify her claims. The trees looked fine, if there was something in the water they would've seen it, and nothing was in the air. Green leaves fell from the berry bush as a huge gust of wind blew through. Spirit happened to notice the blur go into the bush. Berries dropping to the ground from the shaking.

"Did you not see that Aaron? Over there the bush was shaking." Spirit asked Aaron, who shook his head. She walked over to the bush. Small, faded footprints could be seen leading to the bush. Someone was following them…and they were close. "Whoever is out there, I know you're there." nobody spoke up or made a sound. Aaron looked around but saw no one make an attempt to reveal themselves. Whoever was out there had no place to hide, so there was nothing they could hide behind.

"Spirit I don't think anyone is there." Spirit was dead set on figuring out who was watching them. "No you don't understand" Spirit said, "the other night I saw someone in the woods watching over us. He sat there and then when Lance started speaking to me the follower left. After he went back to bed I saw footprints and snapped twigs." Her voice was loud and serious. Her pupils seemed to be shrinking, to the point of them being non existent. "Ok, just calm down Spirit. We'll find the person eventually. It's not like they could have gotten far if they did escape." Leaves fell to the ground as the bush started to violently shake as if someone was in it. Spirit's eyes glowed a bright cyan, and was focused on the bush. Large beams of purple, pink, and blue shot out of her gem at the bush, blowing the bush up. When all the smoke dissipated, a little black circle in the middle of the ground, it was revealed it was just Parachisu just getting berries from the bush. Terrified for it's life, she let the little Pokemon go. It dropped all it's berries on the way, frightened to go back and retrieve them because of Spirit. "I don't think that's the person you were looking for. Something tells me that's just a normal Parachisu." Spirit just shook her head.

"No. Whatever was watching us wore a cloak, and has been following us for awhile. Ever since Pewter city."Alright...they well whatever the case, we didn't find anything new up here besides part of a cloak. Let's start heading back to the city. There's a short path down there ending with a small cliff jump." They started taking the short path back to the city. It would be easier this time since they didn't have to scale a mini clif. Her fur seems to have a shine over it from sweat. "I'm not crazy. Someone is following us. I heard someone last night, and then this." she started speaking to herself, trying to keep it quiet so Aaron didn't hear it. Her pupils are still shrinking due to the lack of energy and stress. Aaron nervously looked at her, thinking she might go insane from all the stress, feeling like whoever she thought was out there might attack at any moment.

"Spirit...you have got to calm down. Freaking out doesn't do anything. You need to clear your mind." Aaron's voice sounded soft and calming. Assuring her seemed to have worked a bit. "Come on let's get back to the others. We didn't find anything that could really help us aside from the cloak piece." After a 20 minute trip back to the city, the two were starting to look for Lance and the others.

"Hey guys, we found something up by the lake and came back to the city. Where are you guys?" Spirit adjusted her cloak so she could easily speak into her mic.

"We didn't find anything noteworthy. We asked some of the locals about an Umbreon but nothing came up." Lance's voice came up over the staticy channel. "We're over by the Pokemart right...Actually I think we see you right now." She turned over to see Lance calling them over. The Pokemart had a giant blue sign over the store flashing blue lights, enough to blind a person as if they were staring at the sun.

"So what did you find guys?" Tori asked. Spirit pulled the brown piece out of her cloak.

"Well we don't have much to go on. There's no scent on this…" she looked back to Aaron, and then looked back to the group. "I think someone is tracking us. Last night I thought I saw someone in the woods, and at the lake it felt like someone was watching us."

"Spirit, we already went over this. You passed out due to a stress overload yesterday. It's just your imagination." Lance tried to reason with her, but Spirit gave a disgusted look in return. She knew what she was seeing. "I know what I saw. Stop insinuating that I don't know what I saw!" she let out all her anger on the Vaporeon. Scarlett looked over to the group to see what all the commotion was about. In the distance she saw two tall and black Pokemon approaching them.

"Anyways, we have something noteworthy. While we were at the gym looking for some information, we were encountered by a not very nice Houndoom and Mightyena duo. They said they were looking for you Aaron. Care to explain?" Frustration was written all over Lance's face. He knew he had reason to not be trusting of the Ninetales.

"Those guys have been tracking me and the Umbreon. They want to take us back to their base." Aaron explained it to the less than happy Lance.

"There has to be more…."

"Hey guys, those two guys are coming over to us." Scarlett said in a low and powerless voice. No one seemed to have heard her except for Aaron, as Lance kept demanding more information from him. Slowly he turned his back to see the two Pokemon that had been hunting him.

"Guys," he interrupted everyone. "we need to go. Now." The Houndoom and Mightyena saw the whole group together with him, and now they were targets as well as he was.

Viridian City

2:30PM

Jenny's P.O.V

It has been awhile since I've been in Viridian City. Last time I could recall that I was here was when I came to pick up supplies before Souls disappearance. The town was very colorful and filled with the aroma of pastries and coffee. Since it was Holiday weekend not many people were out, rather they were spending it with family. Although there were still people out on the streets, not many paid attention to me, even though I stick out like a sore thumb due to all my gear. "Where exactly am I supposed to go? I don't know where the Pokemart is." I looked for signs all around but couldn't find any signs that directed me towards the Pokemart.

"Are you looking for something in particular?" When I turned around I saw a Lilup beside me. "Strange" I thought to myself, "These Pokemon usually reside in Unova". "Yeah I'm looking for the Viridian Pokemart. Any chance you could direct me towards it?" the little guy nodded and he showed me the way.

"So you go up this way by the Cafe, and then you'll see the Pokemon Center. If you continue going down this path the Pokemart will be on your left." he smiled at me and started to walk off. "Thank you for helping me." I told him. Now that I was here, I just needed to look for Angi. She said she was going to be here. Since she obviously wasn't here, I looked through my russack to find the picture of everyone. "I shouldn't have left like that…" Luke was not the one to blame for David's death. I can't help but think though that this could have all been avoided if he just didn't fight Soul. He was always nice and cooked for me even if I didn't want it. Why can't we just go back to that?

"Oh there you are Jenny"' a voice spoke to me. I put my picture back in my bag, as I didn't really want to talk about it. "What took you so long? We were supposed to meet here earlier." Angi wanted an answer from me, but I didn't exactly know what lie I should or could tell her.

"I was packing up stuff and Luke walked in and wanted to talk for a bit." It wasn't exactly a lie, but not the truth either. Hopefully Angi wouldn't dig any further into it.

"Oh that's alright. Anyways the pickup truck is in the back. I already talked to Poochyena. He would distract his owner long enough for us to slip into the luggage trailer." Angi and I jumped up onto the trailer. "It looks like something's bothering. What's up with you?" I sat down beside her, and laid my head on the wood.

"I'm just worried about Spirit that's all."

"Well I wouldn't let the worry eat you alive. Spirit and the others are probably doing just fine. She's one of the most stubborn people I've met. She wouldn't go down without a fight, not to mention she'd probably win that fight as well." Angi tried to cheer up the tired Ninetales, and it worked to some degree.

"Yeah I guess, but haven't you noticed how she is lately? She blames everything on herself that happened that night. The deaths…...Souls disappearance…..she thinks it's all her fault. I'm worried that she's just going to crumble at the wrong time."

"That's not the Spirit I know. She wouldn't just cave in like that if she hadn't found Soul yet." Angi laid her head down next to Jenny's, and started to close her eyes. "You might want to get some rest, as when we get to Saffron, we might need to move out sooner than expected."

Cerulean City

2:32PM

"Aaron who the hell are these guys chasing us?!" Tori's face is a brighter shade of red than a flareons normal fur color. She demanded an answer from him.

"These are some of the guys that have been trailing me, I don't know how they found me!"

"BUT WHO ARE THEY?!" Spirit demanded an answer from Aaron. Her cloak blowing in the wind because of how fast the group was traveling. Dozens of citizens saw the group rushing down the streets of Cerulean with a bunch of Pokemon giving chase. Most didn't really pay mind to the situation as wild Pokemon were common to see there. "I don't know! I believe those guys are a part of Team Rocket though. I've had a few people trailing me ever since I escaped." Aaron stated. Spirits heart sunk. She was hoping she heard Aaron wrong, but knew exactly what he said. The same team that kidnapped everyone was chasing after them all over again. Ice baths, metal bars, A.K.O.S, all the memories flooded back to her. She picked up the pace and went further in the front, her fear possessing her.

"Spirit where are you going?! They might be up ahead as well! Slow down!" Lance screamed. "Well we can't exactly slow down either! Only way to go is ahead." She jumped down from the small cliff, and miraculously landed on all fours. The jagged rocks dug into her feet as a result, but no time for stopping. Feathers started descending upon the group. Wondering where the source was coming from, Aaron decided to look up. Looking above in the skies, Aaron saw a Pidgeot diving from above coming for them. Diving straight towards Spirit was the giant Pidgeot, however she was too busy to pay attention to it.

"Spirit lookout!" he shot out an ember directed towards the threat. It barely missed, but you could see the black on the feathers from where it almost hit. Pidgeot slowed down and flew up a bit higher to avoid any more threats from Aaron.

"We can't outrun them. We're gonna have to hold our ground. Get ready." Lance positioned himself, prepared to assault the pursuers. "Aaron you and Scarlett should go and try to find Spirit. Me and Tori will hold these guys off for a bit." Lance shot out a scalding beam of water towards the Houndoom. He ducked under, moving towards Lance with murderous intent. His teeth snatched his cloak and tossed him to the side. Jagged rocks pierced Lance's back, and bits of blood started to seep from his wounds. "So that's how you want to play?" The Houndoom came at Lance as he was picking himself up. Lance smiled at the impudence of his opponent. You never charge at something blindly, you assess the situation first. Thinking about what he knew about the dark and fire type. He was weak to water and fighting type moves, which he happened to know quite a few of both. Before they had the chance, Lance sidestepped the tackle and used muddy water.

"Lance watch out!" Tori screamed. The Mightyena had blue static lights emitting from his mouth, and took a bite out of Lance. Grabbing him by the scruff, he was again tossed to the side as if he were a piece of trash by the Mightyena. The intensity of the lightning was near enough to bring Lance to his knees. It took him a few seconds to even recover from such an impact.

"Damn….I didn't think guys knew electric type moves…." Lance gritted. For a moment, Lance took a moment to consider the most dangerous moves his opponent might have. Luckily both of them only knew one electric move, but Houndoom knew destiny bond and sludge bomb, both of which would stop him from attacking and impair his movement. Mightyena's only really threatening move to him was counter, but if he stayed away from him it wouldn't be an issue. He had to get away from the Mightyena but was in no condition to do so quickly. His prayer was answered when bright beams of fire covered the battle ground, preventing anyone from seeing what was going on. Tori used this as an opportunity to jump out of the flames and kick the Mightyena off of Lance. As the lights started to dissipate, he looked into her burning orange eyes.

"You ok?" she asked as he picked himself up.

"Yeah...thanks for the save." Lance shook himself off, then looked at Tori. "These guys are really strong, and reinforcements will be coming soon no doubt. We need to figure out a way to escape." Both enemies stood up and looked at the duo.

"Be careful Lance. I can't fight them on my own. I don't need to worry about carrying you out of here." Lance looked at Tori with a smirk.

"Don't worry I got a plan, just follow my lead." The sky's above opened up like a faucet, water dropping down and covering the ground with puddles. This would weaken fire type moves for both Tori and the Houndoom, but fire type moves would be of little use anyways as no one was weak to them. This would also in turn make electric type moves stronger and have better accuracy, making it even more important that he didn't get hit, but he would easily be able to outspeed everyone with swift swim, and he needed to heal anyways. Within one second Lance was behind the Houndoom, almost as if he teleported. Trying to turn around and attack the Vaporeon, he melted into the water before he could get the chance. Like reverse rain, Lance popped out of the water behind him and took him down with a headbutt. He was sent across the battlefield, managing to catch himself before he tumbled. The Houndoom knew that there was no point in trying to outspeed a water type in rain, so he needed a move that covers a lot of area and can last a bit. Little dark pulses started forming, covering the area around him. If anyone touched them it would set off a chain reaction, making at all of them explode. He then let out a poison smog to make him harder to approach. Lance knew that it was a horrible plan to even consider approaching the Houndoom, and that he was buying himself some time. Dark purple sludges started raining down on Lance, but he managed to side step it in time. Since he couldn't melt into the water if he was in the air, Mightyena decided it was a perfect time to try and attack the distracted tactician. Charging up lightning in his mouth, he was about to bite Lance and double the effectiveness due to rain. Tori defended him, and took him head on with a tackle. "Tori! Go ahead and take on the Mightyena while I do this guy!" Tori nodded, and rushed on to sweep the legs out from underneath the Mightyena. Before she was able to, Mightyena grabbed her by the mane and slammed her down into the ground. Earth shattered around her, the sound of the impact could be heard for miles, and little pieces of rock rained down. Then he used his full body force to bury her even deeper into the ground. Lance was still trying to think of a strategy to take out the Houndoom, as he couldn't really approach him without putting himself at risk of being poisoned. Then he finally came up with a plan. Most of Houndoom's moves that he could use without leaving his area are fire type, which are weakened by the fact it's raining, and he's a water type. So Lance started fighting with long range water type attacks instead of trying to confront him carelessly. The Mightyena was towering over Tori, about to go after her ear, but she quickly got up and dodged the attack, and retaliated by digging her teeth into his hind leg. He had a hard time shaking her off due to how deep she had her teeth in, but was rather helpless considering he couldn't run or charge her. Finally he had managed to shake her off and reset the playing field. Both of them had a stare down. Examining each other to see the best plan of attack available. There wasn't much opening since any fire type moves would be out in an instant, so she took a different approach. She started to charge up an ember and spewed a few at the Mightyena. Dodging all of them nimbly, he ducked under the last one and charged at her. She knew he would do something. She detected the spot she had bitten him earlier, and proceeded to double kick the spot, taking his back hind leg out of commission for the time being. Meanwhile Lance had nearly taken Houndoom out with a few well placed scalds. With the Houndoom being the only opposing pokemon still standing, and he was handicapped as well, it was the perfect opportunity to escape. "Tori! Quick get over here!" Lance shouted. For good measure, Lance created a tidal wave to take the fire type out.

"Thanks for the heads up. The Mightyena won't be able to chase after us..." She looked at the Houndoom and Mightyena struggling not to get swept away by the water. "That should hold them and any reinforcements off for a while. Hopefully Scarlett and Aaron have found Spirit by now."

Route 9

Aaron and Scarlett

"Aaron isn't this a dead end? The only thing that's back here is the cave that leads to Lavender town." Scarlett could barely keep up with everyone. His limbs burning from all the running they've done today alone. Even though Tori and Lance stayed behind to hold them off, they could catch up with them at any moment. "Scarlett watch out!" Just mere inches away from falling to her death, Aaron managed to snag her just before she could plummet. "You're gonna be no use to Spirit if you end up a pancake first. Be more careful next time." he said in an annoyed tone. There was no time for easily preventable mistakes.

"Why are we going this way? Didn't Spirit take the other trail?" Scarlett asked him, thinking they were going to be leaving her behind. "Don't worry. We're going to end up in the same place, we're just taking a different route." Aaron assured her. He scanned the area before he saw the pink blur up ahead.

"Ok nobody is up here. No Rocket is in sight." Spirit figured that they would have to fight their way out of this one. Looking around for stuff they could use to their advantage on the battlefield. She had not realized that the others stayed behind to delay their approach. "Where the hell are they?" she whispered to herself, anticipating their arrival. "Any moment no-'' her feet left the ground in an instant, being carried high into the sky by a Pidgeot. Spirit did not like heights at all. She looked down and saw the ground she was standing on get smaller and smaller. "Woah! Put me down!" if they didn't stop soon she would be separated from the group. Spirit struggled to get out of the grasps of the Pidgeot, but there wasn't much she could do because she was being held by her tail. The talons had an iron grasp on her tail, so sharp she could feel it lightly cutting her tail. She couldn't go back to their base, she wouldn't go back. She would do anything not to be there again. "Think...think Spirit...how am I going to get down?" The ground still got smaller, and the river was as well. Then it hit her, she could use dazzling gleam to impair the pidgeot's eyesight that way she could land in the river. It was risky, but that was the only idea she had. Bright pink lights flashed brilliantly, like a sun exploding in his eyes. A loud screech was heard as he loosened the grip on her tail, dropping her. She plummeted down below, gravity pulling her towards the river below. Aaron and Scarlett saw her drop from the sky as they arrived at the river.

"Spirit!" they collectively screamed, but it was too late as she already plunged into the water below. Their cries muffled by the water in her ears. Spirit tried paddling up to the surface, but the current was too strong. She was carried down the stream like a pebble. The water was so cold and with no energy from the fight and run, she passed out being carried away by the river. No one was going to be able to help her.

Authors Note

I realized I had made some errors in this chapter (not everything made sense plot wise) so I came back up and did some tidying up. This is just an update with some added dialogue and plot fixes.