The 18 Masters

by StZushi

Strange things have been happening across the regions. Rainstorms and hurricanes punished cities. But something is off: Those things are not natural. Gary, Dawn, Ash, Serena, May, Drew and their friends are the ones chosen to find people to help solve this problem. Little do they know this will prove to be much harder than they thought. Currently re-writing!

2. Chapter 2 - The Start of their Journey

A/N: Believe it or not... I AM NOT DEAD! *laughs evilly* How is everyone doing? After such a long, crazy, long again, and frustrating time, I, StZushi, the best writer in the world the crazy guy from Brasil who writes fanfiction on his very scarce free time, am back with "The 18 Masters" (sorry for taking so freaking long btw), and with a lot of new stuff to do in this story this time! Quick reminder: I am a bit rusty on my writing, so this chapter might not be as good as the first one, and sorry again for taking so long, I wanted to write again but man… ZA WARUDO the world (and also Skyrim and Dungeons & Dragons and pretty much anything, really) was not letting me hahaha! Anyways, please get yourselves a drink (or not, it doesn't matter lol), and enjoy this chapter!

---

Chapter 2

The Start of their Journey

Part 1: Retelling the Tale

Sinnoh, Celestic Town, Present time

As both Gary and Dawn both enter the house after Cynthia, they take their time to appreciate the way the house seemed a lot bigger inside than it already was from outside. From the front door, they could see three large beige and brown couches; one in front of a pair of windows, another couch in front of that one, a small table separating these, and hugging the wall was the other couch, to the right of the others. Still on the right side of the house, Cynthia headed to the kitchen, which seemed regular when compared to other places of the house. From there, Cynthia asked:

"Would you like something to drink before we begin?" Both of her visitors nodded "Is coffee okay for you guys?" Gary nodded.

"Just water is fine, Ms. Cynthia." Dawn said.

From the kitchen door, the Ex-Champion said "Good. Just a quick heads up: we have a lot to talk about." She then headed to the kitchen to get their drinks "And please take a seat anywhere you want."

While she was preparing the drinks, Gary looked to the other side of the house and saw many shelves with books on ancient history of many regions of the world, science and Pokémon biology (those probably belonged to her grandmother), and some championship awards. Many pictures were also placed here and there on the shelves. One of the pictures caught his interest: a picture of the champions from years ago. Cynthia and Steven in the middle with light smiles, directly behind them and towering over them was Alder, the ever enthusiastic Ex-Champion from Unova, smiling widely. To their right, Lance, who was the champion of the Indigo League by that time, contrasted from the other by simply keeping his serious and stoic manner.

I don't think I've ever seen Lance smile before, Gary thought. Finally, the super famous movie star Diantha, who used to be the Champion of the Kalos league, posed elegantly and smiled lightly for the picture. He also noticed there was no representative from Alola (meaning Champion Moon wasn't there with them), so the picture must have been taken quite a while before the Alolan League was founded. Time flies, it feels like they were the champions just yesterday, Gary thought while snorting quietly.

Dawn had decided to take a sit on the couch by the wall. She quickly took her phone and checked for texts. There was some from May that she was probably going read later, one single text from Ash that was probably just an image (high possibilities of it being a dumb meme, he was sending one to everyone everyday nowadays) and a text from Lucas, the Sinnoh Champion himself. But these were just a part of the texts, because the group chats were flooded with useless crap. I no longer have the patience to go through all of these, she thought. As she checked her phone, she heard Gary snort (apparently, he wasn't that silent), and she looked at him. He showed a light smirk, his eyes half closed as he looked at one of the pictures on the shelves. Unconsciously, she thought of how much he had changed, how he was now a very serious guy, but still showed his old side from time to time. She then looked at his eyes, the very deep green color they had was somewhat… calming and at the same time these very eyes could put her on edge.

He turned to her and she quickly stopped staring. He started going in her direction and took the seat on the couch in front of the windows.

Feeling a bit embarrassed by almost getting caught staring, Dawn simply avoided looking at him until Cynthia came back with their drinks.

As if on cue, Cynthia came back to the very large living room with a tray that held two coffee mugs and a glass of water. She set the tray on the table in the middle of the couches and took one of the mugs, then sitting down on the remaining couch. "Alright guys, please enjoy your drinks" she said "And another quick heads up: what you hear from me from this point on has never been said to anyone who has never held the title of Pokémon League Champion or that is a Historical Researcher, so in a way, since you probably found out about the existence of this legend from people like Rowan and Oak, who don't know the full background like me, you must be pretty lost. The people who know of the story I'm about to tell you have all vowed to stay silent about this, but given the circumstances, the vow must be broken. Among all the Legends of our world, this is one of the very few, along with the ones about Pokémon like Arceus, Dialga and Palkia, that is true." She paused, as if she was waiting for them to say something. Any sort of reaction from them was valid.

They simply looked at each other and nodded at Cynthia.

"We understand" Gary said "I just want to know more about what's going on."

Cynthia was precisely expecting something along the lines of what he said. "So something is actually happening." She crossed her arms as her expression darkened slightly "Tell me everything first then."

Gary and Dawn then began to explain everything they knew so far. They told her about the distortions, all the disasters that happened and how they found out about it. Gary had taken out his laptop to show Cynthia the areas of the world affected so far.

As he showed her Sinnoh, her eyes quickly caught sight of Celestic Town and Mt. Coronet. As Dawn had said, the distortion covered the entire mountain.

"But it's still really weird" Dawn said "I looked outside at the mountain and didn't notice anything different. And I've been there before sometimes."

Cynthia knew that something was weird since the beginning, and that was just making it worse.

"You didn't notice anything different outside because the problem is actually inside." Cynthia said. "The whole cave inside the mountain is completely changed. All the known paths are now different and many of the Pokémon that live inside the mountain and by its proximities have been acting more aggressive towards anyone. Others have simply migrated to other parts of Sinnoh. This behavior alone is already very suspicious, but when I decided to look inside the mountain caves… I knew something wasn't right."

She then seemed to get angry, gritting her teeth a bit and clenching her fists. "Whatever's happening to the world is messing with the very balance of space and time of it. If this keeps going, it might even break these two dimensions, throwing everything in chaos." She continued "It's just like me and Steven suspected months ago…"

Gary and Dawn looked at each other again, visibly concerned. He took a rather long sip of his coffee "Then there's gotta be something we can do." He said.

"Yeah, we have to find a way to stop this!" Dawn said confidently.

Cynthia gave them what could be considered a bittersweet smile, though a bit more on the bitter side. "Well… I like your enthusiasm, but you are incapable of solving this problem." She said, crushing their liveliness "But you can find those who are able to do it." She said, implying that she was talking about the legend.

As she said it, Gary thought to himself are those legendary trainers really that strong?

Dawn simply seemed skeptical but was still eager to hear what she had come here to. "Then, please, Ms. Cynthia, tell us everything that we need to know."

And so, she told them the story that her grandmother, who was resting upstairs in her room, told her when she was young. As she finished, she made sure to give them yet…

"Another quick heads up: what you just listened to is the version of the story my grandmother told me about when I was 8 years old. The real version wasn't so light-hearted." She said "To be fair, the real story is much more brutal. The kids, upon escaping the castle with the Tyranitar egg, were forced to fight wave after wave of soldiers of the Kingdom of Johto. After threatening the life of the King, albeit indirectly, his majesty himself ordered them to be killed at all costs, not even caring in the slightest that they were kids and teens."

Dawn gasped. She had thoroughly enjoyed the story before seeing as no one had died, but it seems this was not true anymore. "They were all killed?!"

"No, but most of them were, along with their Pokémon partners." Cynthia said, a very serious expression on her face "the only ones that managed to make it out alive were the boy who had a Typhlosion, the girl who had a Dragonite, but their pokémon unfortunately ended up dying, and finally the Umbreon, who was saved by the boy who took care of it and trained it, but the boy ended up dying as well. These are the ones that survived, but were seriously injured."

Gary gasped as something became a bit intriguing. "How much of the story your grandma told you is true?"

"Everything up until the moment they began to make their way out of the castle." She said "After finally making their way out of Goldenrod, they ran wildly towards Olivine, which was Isleport by the time, and crossed the sea to get to the Whirl Islands with the help of Celebi, who used Psychic to get them to the rock formations safely."

Dawn's expression saddened as she looked down at her lap. "Then what is it that actually happened inside the caves inside the islands?"

"They took the egg back to Tyranitar with Celebi's help, but right after that, they all collapsed in both exhaustion and pain from their wounds. They wouldn't last much longer." Cynthia said. "Since they would die soon, Celebi used its powers to take their spirits, and the ones of their friends who died during the escape, along with it to the mysterious place it goes each time it travels through time, a place that doesn't follow the laws of nature by any means, and somehow connects Celebi to any place in any point in time. And thus, at that moment when the two remaining kids and the Pokémon died, the legend of the 'Reborn Children of Celebi' was born. After every hundred years, Celebi would take the spirits of the kids and put them on newborn kids that it chose. So these kids would have their own spirits and the legendary ones within them. And with them, Celebi would give them knowledge of Pokémon and Battles that to this very day are still unrivaled."

Gary's interest popped up. "Define 'unrivaled'."

"I faced one of them." She said, catching both by surprise "And I must admit: I have never faced such a defeat in my life. The trainer I faced seemed to know exactly what to do and when to do so. And the Pokémon he used didn't even need commands sometimes, making his tactics even more unpredictable, not to mention the sheer power his Pokémon had."

"You lost that bad?! But you're a trainer on champion-level!" Dawn said.

Cynthia laughed nervously "That clearly didn't matter to him or his Pokémon" she said "That Ninetales was something else."

If it's a Ninetales then she probably faced the Fire Master, Gary thought. "Did you at least get his name?"

"I was just about to get there." Cynthia said, then she explained everything about their strengths and abilities that were known so far.

"So, as you might notice by now, I faced one of the three strongest trainers in existence and he kicked my ass effortlessly, and since I failed the challenge, I was not allowed to know his name." She smiled lightly, thinking of how ironic that situation was actually. "It's funny, really, that how many times before, people like me, Steven and the other champion-level trainers normally won battles just like that guy won against me."

Dawn gave her a nervous smile, not knowing if laughing was a good thing to do after that self-loathing humor. So, she simply recapped everything Cynthia said.

"So, let me see if I got everything right: Eighteen super-strong trainers, each of them being a master of a specific type of Pokémon. The three strongest trainers are masters of fire, dragon and dark types. The eldest is always the fighting master and the youngest is always the psychic master. They each have a Celebi tattoo somewhere on their bodies as a symbol of who they are, and they can only tell their names to people who know about the legend after they have passed on a challenge, no matter how difficult it is or what it is, as a way of testing these people." Dawn said, receiving a confirming nod from Cynthia.

"Precisely." She said simply "Now… do you accept this challenge, even knowing it might take a lot longer than you may think?"

Gary quickly checked the chances he would have in theory. He knew he was not on champion level like Cynthia or Lance, and Arceus knows he would never come close to the Battle Legend himself, Champion Red. He had some impressive battle experience and tactics, but would that matter when facing such opponents like the Reborn Children? Just how am I even supposed to beat their challenges?

Dawn, on the other hand, decided to focus on something else: Cynthia said they would challenge people, but the challenge could be anything… she broke her thoughts for a second remembering Cynthia's challenge: defeat two of the Fire Master's Pokémon. And thus, realization hit her. She didn't fail because she lost the battle, she failed because she couldn't meet the conditions he'd given her. Which means we don't necessarily need to beat them in case the challenge is a battle! This gave her a bit more hope of accomplishing all of that. The challenges that will be crucial to us will be those that are not battles.

"I'm in." the bluenette said, surprising Gary for being the first one to say yes. "I know of a way we can complete these challenges." She grinned confidently, then looked at her companion from Kanto, expecting a similar answer.

Gary looked at the two women that were with him. Something tells me this trip is gonna take a long freaking time. This same something also tells me I'm going to enjoy this.

"I accept. Just thinking of meeting whoever these people may be, and the possibility of taking them on in a Pokémon Battle… it really gets me pumped." He smirked, a good ol Gary Oak Trademark Smirk.

Cynthia stood up, closed her eyes and took a rather deep breath. As she exhaled, she slowly opened her eyes, now half-open. She rested her left hand on her waist, leaning slightly to the right. "I would like to go with you, but I can't." She said "Because of these suspicions of something bad happening to our world, I've been neglecting my position at the Pokémon League as one of the Admins. I'll be going to Kanto tomorrow, for a reunion with the other League members, and you can be sure that I'll be telling them everything you've told me."

Gary and Dawn followed suit and stood up as well.

"That's good." Gary said, "It's great to know the League will be working to help on this."

"Yes!" Dawn nodded. "By the way, is there something else we should know of, Ms. Cynthia?"

"In fact, there are two more things." She smiled "First, you can just call me Cynthia. And second, you should get the help of your friends from across the world to help you on this journey. Like Ash and May. As the saying goes, 'the more, the merrier'."

"Understood." Gary said.

They walked to the front door, Cynthia on front. She opened the door for them, giving them handshakes right after.

"I wish you luck on your journey." She said.

"Thank you!" they said as they left.

---

Part 2: Challengers

After some time walking back to the Pokémon Center (and being startled for having forgotten that the city was pretty much empty and silent), Dawn quoted herself from some time before, on that same day.

"I feel like we're not ready for this. This time… I feel like we're dealing with something we have no way of understanding."

"I know." Gary looked at his feet as they walked. "I mean… these guys can beat people like Cynthia with little to no effort. What chances do we even have?

"Yeah… but being down about this won't solve our problems. We should start by getting some clues of their whereabouts. Maybe there are some Reborn Children here in Sinnoh."

"That seems like a nice start. We should probably warn our friends about it too. I'm sure Ash wouldn't even hesitate after we tell him about how strong these trainers are."

Dawn laughed a bit, thinking of how true to Ash that was. "And then he would face a heart-crushing defeat, just like you will when you fight one of them."

"You seriously think I'm the only one of us two taking them on?" Gary said snorting "You gotta take turns battling them too, you know?"

"I would, but you're the only one of us with real chances of winning. My Pokémon are trained for contests, their battle experience is different."

He fell silent for a bit. Damn, she's right. I'm screwed. "Well then, I stand corrected."

"Yes, you do!" she giggled as she took the lead, walking up to the Pokémon Center's automatic doors.

They entered and took the same seats they had taken before going to Cynthia's house.

"I'm gonna talk to May and Iris, that is, if Iris actually answers this time. Hopefully they understand what's going on and agree to help us." Dawn said.

"Good. I'll talk to Ash, I'm sure he'll say yes, though."

They both took their phones, and Dawn started typing away, texting May after reading the texts she had sent her some time ago. Apparently there was a huge sale on the Lilycove Dept. Store in Hoenn and that she had gotten some awesome stuff there: everything 50% off.

Oh my Arceus, what a dream! She thought as she imagined the stuff she wouldn't get the chance to buy. She also decided to look at Ash's text. As expected, it was a meme (typical). But that one was surprisingly good though. It had the text 'when you're facing a trainer and you send your strongest possible pokémon but the trainer sends out a super smiling and tiny clefairy as a first pokémon' and then there was the image of a Clefairy saying 'does this look like the face of mercy?'. Judging by Ash's previous memes, this one was actually good. Finally she checked Lucas' text. 'Hey, sup? Do you know what's going in Sandgem? It's raining like the world's coming to an end'.

Oh, you have no idea, she thought.

She quickly texted May the full background, in detail. Hopefully she would read this and call her back maybe.

While that went on, Gary had been waiting for Ash to…

"Pick up the goddamned phone, for hell's sake!" He screamed.

"By Arceus, Gary. I swear you and Ash love each other." Dawn laughed.

He didn't even dare to say anything in response to that, he simply glared at her, and as if on cue, Ash picked up the call.

"Hey A- " Gary started, only to be interrupted.

"GARY MOTHERF #$ING OAK!" Ash shouted through the phone.

"I thought we weren't using that stupid name anymore." Gary said, a very visible popping vein on his forehead from sheer annoyance.

"Not in a hundred years." He laughed "Now, my dear bro, what's the matter? You normally send me messages but then you decide to call me? Is the world ending or some shit?

If only you knew, you stupid idiot. "Well, here's the thing." He proceeded to explain everything to Ash, word by word.

"Will you help us?"

Ash took some time not saying anything, as if he was thinking about what to say.

"Well then, I'm already one step ahead of you!"

Gary gripped his phone harder and gritted his teeth a bit.

"Come. The f #$. Again?!"

"Yesterday, me and Serena were at Coumarine city here in Kalos. While there, we saw two people that had Celebi tattoos, and they seemed to be trying to keep a low profile. A very tall and a bit overweight guy that wore glasses who also had a super awesome wave tattoo and a short girl with red hair that had some blond strands and she wore a shirt of some rock band. They were waiting in line to enter a ship that was headed to Canalave. If you go there as soon as possible, there's a chance you might find them!" Ash said. "And also, you can count me and Serena in! Seems like it's gonna be a fun experience, so I'll try and bring Clemont and Bonnie with us."

Gary couldn't believe it. Ash had already located not one, but TWO of them!

"Dude. DUDE. DUDE! Thank you so f #$ing much!" Gary said.

"You're welcome. Also, now you owe me one."

"What? Hell no."

"Hell yes."

"Hell no!"

"Hell yes!"

"This is gonna continue forever if we don't stop."

"Oh, you bet."

"Anyways, dude, that was all I had to say, and thanks again for the help."

"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome. See ya soon, man!"

Ash ended the call.

Dawn looked at Gary "I told you that you guys actually loved each other."

"Oh, shut up." He said, sighing hard, a bit irritated at her laughing. "So, will May do it?"

"Yes! She's with Drew actually, and said that they'll be happy to help." Dawn said.

"Nice! What about Iris?"

"She didn't even receive the texts. It's been like that for some time now. The others said she wasn't even calling back or anything. I wonder what's happened to her." That seemed to alarm Gary a bit.

"Yeah, that's a bit weird." He said. "But it's not a problem. At least not right now. At this moment, we need to head to Canalave as soon as possible!"

This surprised his blue-eyed companion. "What? Why is that?"

He quickly explained what Ash said as he took Alakazam's pokéball.

"Stop." Dawn said. "You have to be kidding me. Ash and Serena found not one, but two, and they're headed to Sinnoh at this moment?" Gary nodded. "Then there's no time! You said that they left yesterday, they must be arriving by now!"

Gary then released Alakazam and had him use teleport to take them to Canalave. As if in a flash after Alakazam concentrated, they disappeared.

Sinnoh, Canalave City Port

As the drawbridge on the center of the city was opening, a rather large ship approached, more precisely, a regular cruise ship, but visibly not as fancy as those enormous crafts such as the S. S. Anne. As the bridge was fully opened, the ship went through the gap made by the bridge, getting it closer to the port.

On the other side of the city (opposite to the port), Gary and Dawn had just arrived with Alakazam, who was promptly returned to his pokéball to rest.

Dawn quickly looked at the approaching ship. "I really hope Ash was right on this and that this is the right ship."

Her companion nodded, thinking the same. "Now we just have to wait for it to park by the port." He said. "Since they're trainers, they'll most likely head to the Pokémon Center first."

"Should we wait there?" she asked him.

"That's one option. We could also look for them by the port." He said as he looked at the drawbridge closing again. "Your call."

Dawn decided to play it safe. "Let's wait by the bridge for a while, just to see if we locate our targets. If we see them, we go to the Center and wait there. They'll probably head there, as you said."

He smiled. Nice plan, he thought. "Alright, then let's go."

They headed for the bridge and stood by the right corner on their side of town while they waited for the Reborn Children.

That is, if those were actually them.

As the ship parked, people started to come out of it and converging towards the bridge (a great majority of the people). Judging by the looks of the passengers, they were mostly simple people, some that looked more refined, others wore uniforms and stuff like that.

But then they saw them.

Just like Ash had said: one short girl with red hair wearing a rock-band t-shirt and a very tall kinda fat guy wearing glasses and that had short hair and a wave tattoo on his right arm. Both with Celebi tattoos on their left arms.

The redhead was wearing a black rock-band t-shirt, more precisely an Arceusmack t-shirt (A/N: Arceusmack = Godsmack but on the Pokémon World. Yeah, I really went there). She was wearing jeans and black all-stars. Her red hair with the blonde strands complimented her light brown eyes rather well. On her right hand were many rings: the little finger had a skull ring, her thumb had a ring with lightning sparks and her ring finger held…

"Gary, she has a Keystone for Mega Evolution." Dawn spoke quietly.

"I see it. The guy has one too." Gary said.

The guy's keystone was on the right foot of his pair of black and blue basketball shoes. He wore dark blue cargo long-shorts (reaching just below his knees) and was wearing a white button-up t-shirt. His glasses were simple and sometimes would shine very brightly from the light of the sun, making it hard for people to see his deep black eyes. His black hair was very short.

Out of seemingly nowhere, two pokémon appeared beside the trainers (they probably just came out of their pokéballs on their own). The first one was a Pichu, and it climbed up the girls body and sat on her shoulder. The other pokémon, a Buizel, did the same to the tall guy.

After looking at their 'targets', Gary and Dawn headed to the Pokémon Center.

The image of that redhead with the Pichu kept being shown in their heads.

"She reminds me of Ash." Dawn said.

"I know. If she ends up being annoying I'm gonna call on them being lost siblings or something." He joked.

"And that also clears up what their mastery in pokémon type is." She said.

"Yeah, the girl's is the electric master, and the guy is the water master." Gary concluded. "At least we're not going to face someone like the one Cynthia faced."

"You're right. If she couldn't do it, we probably wouldn't stand a chance."

They reached the Pokémon Center and got in. It was kinda full since many of the people who arrived on the ship probably headed there as well.

Luckily, two women were just leaving and two seats by the wall were now available, so the two friends headed there and sat down.

"Now we wait." Dawn said.

As the crowd gradually began to decrease, since most people were either going upstairs to their rented rooms or simply leaving after recovering their Pokémon's energy or getting something to drink or eat, they anxiously looked at the automatic doors, expecting the mysterious duo to come through them.

As if on cue, after Gary, Dawn and Nurse Joy were the only ones inside the Pokémon Center, the doors opened for the two trainers.

They simply walked up to the counter and asked Nurse Joy to heal their Pokémon.

Gary and Dawn looked at each other, as if waiting for the other to stand up and make a move to talk with the trainers.

At the counter, the two trainers talked quietly.

"So… what are we gonna do about these two by the wall?" the redhead asked, her voice rather high-pitched, almost to the point of being annoying.

"Well, we saw them on the bridge and I know they're here because of us" the tall guy said, his voice was kinda hoarse, but still sounded very gentle.

"…so?"

"We have to wait for them to make a move and reveal to us that they know about the legend."

"And what makes you think they've actually come here for us?"

"Easy. They are still here. If they had any other business in such a city like Canalave I'm sure they would already have left. Plus, they got here before we did, probably expecting us to come here since we're trainers, which was a very nice move, by the way. And finally, the most important thing that proves that they're after us..."

The redhead simply looked at him. "They are right behind us, aren't they?" She whispered.

"Yes, they are." He whispered back as they turned to Gary and Dawn after the girl greeted them.

"Hello!" She said. Now that she was close to them, she noticed just how funny the difference in size was: that guy was almost two meters tall and the girl was shorter than Dawn. "Are you perhaps new around here?"

Oh, she's going for the classic "I see you're new around here" the redhead thought I might as well roll with it.

"Oh, hi! Yes, we've just arrived in town and we're very excited to travel through Sinnoh!"

The tall boy chuckled a bit. It's ironic how she's trying to throw them off by telling them the truth. We're actually eager to travel around this region.

Gary decided to chime in at that moment. "Well then, you guys can start now! Canalave is a great city for sightseeing, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

The boy looked at both teens in front of him. Something about them is very familiar. I swear I've seen them before, especially that guy.

Meanwhile, the girl also looked at them thinking about something similar.

Well… kinda.

THAT GIRL IS DAWN BERLITZ, ONE THE BEST SINNOHIAN COODINATORS AND SHE'S TALKING TO ME! On the outside, she seemed calm as a lake on a summer day, but on the inside… She was freaking out big time.

The tall Reborn looked at the other boy, once again noticing something different.

The accent. Gary's accent differed a bit from Dawn's and most sinnohian people. He spoke faster and stressed some consonants. Just like the people from Kanto. He thought.

"You're not from here too, are you?" the boy asked Gary.

That guy is sharp. How did he notice that?

"No, I'm from Kanto and my name is Gary Oak, by the way it's nice to meet you! And this girl by my side is my friend Dawn Berlitz."

Just as I suspected. The boy thought. It was just a bit hard to connect their names to their faces.

I KNEW IT, IT'S DAWN! The girl thought.

She had priorities, obviously.

And then she hugged Dawn as if she was her bigger sister. "I'm a fan, girl! Holy shit, I can't even believe I'm talking to you right now and I can't believe I'm hugging you and you're so good at what you do and I watched all of your contests on TV and…"

Dawn laughed nervously "Thanks, I guess?" she was a bit taken back from that sudden reaction.

"So you're Gary Oak, huh?" the boy asked.

"Yeah."

"I've read some of your work regarding the very close similarities between different pokémon species. Very detailed work and very informative, I enjoyed it, especially the part where you talk about the supposed 'DNA Mixing' that may have happened between the Caterpie evolution line and the Venonat evolution line, focusing mostly on their final evolution stages."

Gary was stunned. He never expected to receive a compliment on his scientific work that he did with his grandfather.

"Thanks, that's good to hear. But yeah, that part was one of my favorites throughout my research and it opened new doors for me, new areas of study for the future."

"Also, we know you're after us because we're Reborn Children." He said, catching everyone by surprise, even the redhead.

That guy was way ahead of them.

"You jerk, I wanted to say that!" Apparently, the girl was too.

He just stared at her blankly, then turned to Gary and Dawn and continued talking. "Do you have any idea of what you just got yourselves into?"

Dawn and Gary looked at each other and she said. "Surprisingly, we do."

"Then you know what comes next, right?" the girl said.

"A challenge."

The Reborns nodded and motioned for Gary and Dawn to follow them.

As they followed the trainers towards the exit and outside the city, they whispered to themselves.

"Alright, we found them and we've been challenged. Now what?" Gary said.

"I don't know! I didn't think we would get this far so quickly."

"Then what do we do?"

"Well, we gotta hope for the best." Dawn said. "Hopefully it's not a battle and we actually stand a chance at this… this… this madness."

In front of them, the two trainers also whispered among themselves.

"Isa, who are you gonna take on?" the boy asked.

"I'll take Gary, thanks for asking! And don't you dare go easy on Dawn!" the girl, whose name was apparently Isa, answered smugly.

"Do you even remember of a moment when I went easy on someone?"

"Good point. Rule Number 2 of Battles by Heinz: going easy on your opponent is the same as asking to be defeated." she said.

"Precisely." said the boy. "I, Heinz, will not go easy on Dawn, even though I know she probably wouldn't stand a chance anyways. But I have an idea."

Isa looked at him smirking. "Your ideas are usually great. What do you have in mind?"

"Let's do the 'High Risk, High Reward' challenge."

"Are you kidding me?" she said "That's too easy for us! That's no fun!"

"But do you remember what happens if they win?"

She sighed, looked to the side in annoyance "Okay, okay… Let's do it, fatty."

"Call me that again in the middle of the challenge and I'll lose on purpose and everything would end up being done in vain."

She simply laughed at him as they kept on going.

As they finally reached the their destination, out of the cities limits by route 218, they found an open area surrounded by trees and wide enough so they could go all-out on the challenges.

As they made it to that area, Isa approached their soon-to-be opponents.

"Okay! Since you two were waiting for us by the bridge, I take it you know in what type we specialize in, right?"

"You saw us by the bridge?" Dawn asked.

"Of course, you two weren't being very stealthy, and me and my dear tall friend" she pointed to Heinz behind her "as well as the other Reborns are always on the watch for potential challengers such as you, and we know when someone is after us, because you're not the first to find us, so spotting you was easy!"

"Oh." the coordinator said. "That makes sense. But yes, we think you're skilled with electric types and he's skilled with water types."

"Because you saw Gauss, my Pichu, and Morgan, his Buizel, apparently. But yes, you're right." Isa said. "As the rules go, we'll tell you our names and all sorts of stuff if you beat the challenge. That's how it's gonna be: Gary will take on me, and Dawn will face Heinz. We call this the 'High Risk, High Reward'. The High Risk means you'll have to achieve whatever objective we give you while in the middle of a battle, but the High Reward means only one of you needs to achieve the objective for you both to win."

Gary looked at Dawn, then at the trainers in front of him, Isa , though he didn't know that was her name, who was smiling rather smugly at them, and Heinz, whose name he still didn't know as well, who was not facing them at the moment, standing several feet away from them with his back towards turned to them.

Heinz then walked in their direction. "Do you accept these terms?"

Gary seemed to be fighting with his own thoughts. He didn't know if he was good enough, and he knew Dawn was not exactly a battle master, it was actually the other way around.

But before he could even mutter a single word, she stepped up and looked at the Reborns confidently.

"I accept and I'm ready."

Gary was a bit taken back at the realization that Dawn was the first to accept the challenge.

Maybe she has plan... He thought if that's the case, I'll just have to do the same and give it everything I got.

"I'm ready too. What are our objectives?"

Isa and Heinz nodded and took positions at one of the edges of the clearing. They then threw a pokéball each.

From Isa's pokéball, a feline looking pokémon with dark grey and golden fur came out. Its head showed a vicious looking mane of dark grey fur, its tail was long and had a four-pointed star at its end, and its yellow eyes with the red sclera looked downright menacing.

"Faraday, get ready!" Isa said as her shiny Luxray positioned himself, as if he was ready to pounce on his prey. The pokémon roared, signaling he was ready.

From Heins' pokéball a bird looking pokémon came out. Its main colors were blue, navy blue and white. Its arms were actually fins that could easily serve as blades, the legs were short, and its beak was big enough that it resembled a crown.

"Napo, ready position." Heinz with a very serious voice as the Empoleon simply swung its fins around. "So here's the thing: Gary has to do all he can to not lose the battle completely within 10 minutes against Faraday while he goes all-out, and by 'all-out', I mean that she will treat you as if you're a Reborn and battle you as if you're one of us. Just so I'd let you know: when we battle other people in the same way we battle Reborns, their winning chances generally drop to almost zero, so I hope you have a plan for that" Gary nodded and tried to keep cool, even though he knew things had just gotten harder.

"And Dawn…" Isa said. "I'm so sorry."

Dawn felt legitimately scared at that moment.

"You have to make Napo activate his ability: Torrent. But that's pretty much the same as defeating him, so it's not as easy as it sounds. It doesn't matter how you do it, but that's what you have to do. I think you'll have a really hard time, but just so I let you know, there is one person who managed to pass Heinz challenge."

Dawn was scared to ask. "Who was it?"

"I can't tell you, but if you pass, then it's another story." Isa said, grinning smugly. "So are you ready?"

After some seconds to let everything sink in, they looked at each other and then nodded at the Reborns.

"Good." Heinz said. "Come on, Dawn. You're going first."

"What?!" She said.

---

Part 3: The Trial

"We would totally make it a double battle if we could, my dear!" Isa said "but this place is just not big enough for that, so please take your position. Gary, let's just wait by the side! Follow me!"

As Gary and Isa sat by the sides of their improvised battlefield, Dawn remembered how she thought the challenges that weren't battles were the most important ones.

That was so unlucky, she thought, how am I gonna work myself around this now?

Heinz and Dawn took their positions on each side of the battlefield.

"Dawn, you are allowed to use as many pokémon as you need in this battle as long as there is only one battling Napo, ok? Just focus on the objective."

The bluenette was calmed down by those words, seeing as they meant she actually had better chances than she thought she had.

But even like this she couldn't be more nervous.

"The battle will begin as soon as you give the first command." Heinz said.

Alright, Dawn, what can you do, and what do you have…

She checked the pokémon she had with her: Piplup, Mamoswine, Buneary, Quilava, Togekiss and Pachirisu.

So Quilava and Mamoswine are not good options, at least not now… Buneary and Piplup are not good at battling… that leaves only Pachirisu and Togekiss as good options for this. But he probably already expect me to use a pokémon with a type advantage against the Empoleon, Pachirisu would be predictable… Maybe if I do something bold from the beginning it will throw him off guard, or if I use contest moves to fight… Gosh dang it, this is so nerve-wrecking! How do Gary and Ash always manage to do it so naturally?!

From the sides, she heard Gary.

"Come on, Dawn! You're gonna rock this, I know it!"

Trying to control her nervousness and trying to fight back the rather faint blush on her cheeks was proving a bit exhausting so she just quit doing both.

Thanks, Gary, now I have a plan… sort of.

"Buneary! Let's go!"

Her dress-wearing Buneary came out of the pokéball doing a backflip and landing perfectly in front of her. "Jump Kick!"

Buneary leapt high in the air and came spiraling down on Napo, delivering a swift kick to his chest.

Or at least she would have if the Empoleon had not blocked with his arms.

"While he's holding you, use Dizzy Punch!"

Moving her small body back then forcefully moving forward in Napo's arms, she delivered a strong hit on his face using her big ears.

"Great! Direct hit!" Gary said, but his smile began to falter when he noticed Isa laughing softly. "What?"

"It would have been a great attack if not for the fact she is battling Napo."

Said Empoleon didn't even react to the punch, instead throwing Buneary across the field back to Dawn, where she landed safely.

"Napo, use Aqua Jet." Heinz said, with a scary serious face. Napo's body was then covered in water and he took off, lightning fast, in Buneary's direction, landing a powerful strike to the small pokémon.

What was that speed?!, she thought.

"That was one fast Aqua Jet…" said Gary, his mind blown.

As expected from that, Buneary was out, fainted, and thus was returned to her pokéball.

"To be honest, Dawn, you're doing a lot better than I expected, seeing as you managed to land a hit, even though it didn't matter" Heinz said. "I trained all of my pokémon to be the best defensive fighters among us Reborns, so I'm afraid you'll have to try harder than that."

Damn it! What else can I do? She thought for a moment, and thus, her inner trainer showed itself as a determined look showed on her face.

Even if I lose, I'm still gonna do one heck of a number on him! As she made up her mind, she noticed Gary was not there beside the girl and the Luxray anymore. Maybe he's just nervous too.

She threw another pokéball, this time, closer to Empoleon.

"Pachirisu use Discharge!" I really hope that works on the first try…

As the squirrel-like pokémon came out of the pokéball, it released a very large electric discharge, shocking Napo full force.

This time, the opponent actually showed a bit of a struggle: it grunted, albeit softly, but it signaled something was done right.

Heinz then gave his pokémon another command: "Shadow Claw." Napo's arms were then covered by dark energy and it lunged towards Pachirisu.

"Protect!" Dawn said desperately. I need this to work if I want a chance of winning!

Delivering a cross-slash at Pachirisu, who had formed the protective barrier just in time, Napo sent him spiraling towards Dawn. Pachirisu grunted as he fell to the ground. He may not have gotten damaged by the Shadow Claw, but the fall definitely dealt a bit of damage.

"Approach him with Quick Attack!" She said.

From the sides, Gary, who had returned from wherever he had gone, recognized that move.

"Oh, she's doing Ash's thing… Smart girl."

Pachirisu quickly moved and jumped up to Napo's face in seconds. "Use Super Fang!"

"Oh… Interesting…" Heinz said, with a smile on his face. "Let him hit you, Napo."

And thus Napo lowered his guards and let Pachirisu deliver a very painful bite to his neck, screaming his name as he felt the pain.

I should be happy that it worked, but I heard him telling Napo to take the hit… I got a bad feeling about this.

"Flash Cannon." Taking advantage of the proximity, Napo used his left arm to get Pachirisu out of his neck and threw him in the air, and as he flew up, Napo launched a beam of silver light at the rodent, delivering a clean and devastating strike, knocking him out.

Before he hit the ground, Dawn returned Pachirisu to his pokéball.

"It was a very bold move, Dawn. Normally I wouldn't let it happen, but I needed something to happen in this fight to make it more fun, so thank you for that. Super Fang heavily drains the opponent's energy, basically halving its fighting capability. Very smart move."

"Thanks, but it wasn't that good seeing as you just made it easy for me to strike."

"But it was a very brave decision making on your part, and I can respect that. Most Reborns wouldn't even dare to use this move, seeing as everyone of us knows how to counter it."

Alright, now who should I choose: Mamoswine or Togekiss? After all that, it's become clear that Piplup and Quilava will do no good in this battle…

"Togekiss, use Aura Sphere!" She threw the pokéball, allowing Togekiss to come out in all her glory, immediately releasing the blue energy sphere at Napo.

"Deflect it with Flash Cannon."

Napo released the silver beam once more, aimed at the incoming blue sphere. As they met in the middle, they canceled each other out and exploded in the middle.

"Aqua Jet to Drill Peck." Heinz said, and like a blur, Napo simply rocketed toward Togekiss, spinning with his beak glowing, striking Togekiss without resistance, taking her down.

As Dawn returned Togekiss, she accepted her imminent defeat.

I only have one more Pokémon that could actually stand a chance. I'd better make the best of it.

"Mamoswine, let's do this!"

The big mammal pokémon landed on the battlefield from its pokéball. "Earthquake!"

Heinz smirked: he expected just as much.

The ever predictable "Last Ditch Effort Earthquake"… Never gets old.

Mamoswine lifted his forelegs, then brought them down fiercely back to ground, but before that, the Empoleon was already following another of Heinz's commands:

"Torpedo!" Surprisingly, this time he shouted his command like Dawn usually did.

Covered in water, Napo advanced towards Mamoswine faster than he did before, his arms in front of his head, shining with a purple color, as he spun his body, his beak also shining brightly and visibly longer, appearing as long as his arms reached.

As Mamoswine struck the ground with his feet, he was struck by the spinning torment that was Napo, that sent him flying towards a tree beside Dawn, knocked out.

She was at a loss for words. She never even heard of such a move before, and he could see that Gary also had never seen something like that seeing as he had a very surprised look on his face.

"I know that maneuver all too well, Dawn. Many people use it as a last resort, but that won't work with us. And since this is known as a last resort, I take it that this was your last pokémon?" Heinz said.

"I… uh… I have two more. But they won't do any good against Napo. So…" She expected such an outcome, but she couldn't help but to feel disappointed in herself. "I give up. Victory is yours."

He smiled and and looked down at his feet.

"You did well, Dawn. I know you're not a battle trainer, and seeing as this was how far you managed to get even though you don't have enough experience in the area, I can say that you have a future, especially with that great decision making of yours. It was a pleasure to battle you, Fräulein"

She seemed confused, as if she didn't understand what he meant with that last word.

"It means 'Ms', as in Ms Dawn" Heinz explained.

"Oh, okay. I am also glad I got to battle you. It made me realize how much room I have for improvement as a trainer and coordinator." Smiling nervously, she made her way to where Isa and Gary were seated, with Heinz right behind her.

As they approached them, Isa got up.

"Come on, Gary! It's your turn!" She gleefully headed to where Heinz was previously standing, with her Luxray beside her. "Alright, Faraday, time to get crazy!" She said as she began to pet her Luxray, who purred in delight. But as she stopped petting him and motioned him to look at where Gary was now standing, he roared furiously, his body getting covered by blue sparks.

Understandably startled, Gary asked:

"What's up with him?"

"That means he is ready. But don't worry, he roars every time he prepares to fight. If you succeed you'll see it happen rather often, and will get used to the loudness. Just like me when he evolved all those years ago. As a Luxio, Faraday was extremely calm and collected, but as a Luxray… his behavior took a goddamned 180 and then there was that time when he got-"

From the sides, Heinz was having a headache.

"Hey, Hobbit! Shut the hell up and get on with it!" She talks too freaking much at times like this… she could have accidentally told her name like that one time with that Hilda girl…

"Oh, you're no fun!" She said, sticking her tongue out to him "So, Mr Gary… Show me what you got! Fat Giant, start the timer as soon as he gives the first command!"

Heinz nodded, taking a… Nintendo DS from his pocket?

Dawn found that a bit weird. "You know you can just use a chronometer of a cell phone, don't you?"

He laughed nervously. I should have expected that… "You see… Reborns can't have cell phones."

"WHAT?!" she gasped.

"Celebi's orders. To be honest, none of us ever understood why this is important, but we follow our master's orders without complaining."

"That's so weird!"

"We know. And after so long without a cell phone, we don't really care."

On the battlefield, Gary's mind was already going on overdrive.

Come on, Gary… this is gonna be a piece of cake… just ten minutes, you can do this… Wait, no 'you can do this', the right one is 'you will do this'... yeah, you'll do this. So, a Luxray, huh? Ok… So that means I should expect very strong physical attacks, a fairly good movement speed and a ferocious battle drive… F$%&... And I should also be wary of attacks such as Wild Charge, any of the elemental fangs and Superpower. Ok, I got a plan, or at least a part of it.

"Umbreon, go!" He threw the pokéball, allowing the dark four-legged fox-like pokémon to come out of it. His red eyes shining brightly, just like his golden markings along his body. "We're ready."

Isa grinned from ear to ear, eager for another challenge. "Then give the first command, and the timer starts!"

"Confuse Ray!" Gary said, giving the cue for Heinz to start the timer:

10:00

Umbreon's eyes shone brightly, then releasing a multicolored beam directed towards Faraday.

"Block it with Shock Wave!" As she commanded, her Luxray's body's sparks became wilder, as he growled and unleashed a single lightning bolt precisely aimed at the incoming beam of light, causing a small explosion when they met in the middle.

"Use Double Team, Umbreon!" With Gary's next command Umbreon's golden marks shone brightly, as he created multiple clones of himself around the arena.

I see what you're doing, Gary… You want to make me use Shock Wave to find the real Umbreon immediately, but you know that these kind of pokémon have a very high resistance to special moves such as this one, so you know he will withstand the first blow… Very well thought out, Mr Oak.

But it's useless. As Heinz said, in this fight you'll be considered a Reborn like us. Don't think you'll get out of this that easily.

"Roar!"

And so Faraday did roar.

And he did it so hard that Gary, Dawn and Heinz had to cover their ears. In fact, it was such a strong roar that Umbreon' copies disappeared and he returned to his pokéball from the sheer force of the sound.

"What?!" Gary sputtered in surprise.

"Roar is one of the best counters for Double Team. So keep that in mind before you use it again. Actually, Reborns only use Double Team if it's part of a combo move."

Dammit! She broke my plan too quickly… I was planning on taking as much hits of special attacks as possible with Umbreon to stall her, but now that's not even a good plan anymore… What the hell?

"Oh, and before I forget: since I'm considering you one of us for this battle, you can just forget all about the 'Four Moves Rule'. I mean, it's ridiculous and keeps any pokémon from using their full potential."

9:00

And suddenly, something clicked in Gary's mind: A person never knows how badly he or she wants something until they get it… F$%& the Four Moves Rule!

"Alakazam, Go!" As the psychic type came out of the pokeball, Gary was was already giving commands, as if he had formulated another plan out of nowhere. "Psybeam!"

The psi pokémon crossed his spoons in front of him, as a way of channeling his psychic powers into them, and from them a very bright pink and light blue beam was fired, directly at Faraday.

"Thunderbolt to Night Slash!" Isa said. And her Luxray delivered: roaring loudly, he zapped a Thunderbolt attack at the incoming Psybeam, causing an explosion in the middle. As the smoke was spreading, Faraday jumped in, his claws covered by a dark aura.

But Gary was ready.

"Teleport up then use Shadow Ball!" Alakazam quickly vanished from his previous spot, now hovering a top the smoke while Faraday was still concealed by it, then from his spoons, once again, fired a black energy sphere.

"Discharge!" Isa commanded.

But this time, Faraday's counterattack was a lot stronger than Alakazam's attack.

The Discharge easily overpowered the Shadow Ball and struck Alakazam full force, leaving him very weak.

"Come on, Alakazam, you're doing great! Now use-"

"Quick Attack to Night Slash!" Isa said, and her Luxray jumped from the ground with such force that he was almost instantly positioned just below Alakazam.

"What?!" Was all the kantonian could say, which mirrored his pokémon's expression at the moment.

And thus, Faraday delivered the slash, greasing Alakazam's face and bringing him down to the ground along the linx-like pokémon. And there Alakazam stood; unconscious.

8:00

From the sides, Dawn was surprised Gary even managed all of that in such a short time. "He wasn't that good before… I mean he was never bad, but now… he's showing skill none of our friends ever saw him do so before. It's like watching someone else's battle."

Heinz simply laughed at that, as that was very much expected. "He starting to understand a tiny bit of what being a Reborn like us is like: he is feeling the true joy of a pokémon battle, that is, the freedom. To be able to do what he normally can't do, to be able to feel the energy of a battle as if winning could save your life… That's what us Reborns try to bring out of our opponents when we battle... this feeling." As he pointed to Gary, who even after suffering the first knockout, still showed a very proud and vivid grin.

Gary threw another pokéball, and once again his Umbreon was out on the Battlefield.

"Use Foul Play!" Umbreon quickly approached Faraday, his eyes shining brightly.

"Fire Fang!" Her Luxray simply lunged at Umbreon with burning fangs, just managing to bite down on Umbreon first and flinging him back to Gary, and still he stood up, looking somewhat beaten, but still up to fight and determined.

But to his surprise, he felt his body burning still, growling in pain.

"Damn it, he was burned!" Gary said. But wait… Umbreon's ability is Synchronize… So that means… !

As Umbreon felt the burn, Faraday too felt the burn.

Both fighters were burned from that single exchange.

"Heh, I guess that backfired, right? He mocked Isa a bit, but his smirk fell as he saw her smug one.

"Actually, it worked a bit too well…" She said.

Faraday closed his eyes and roared, but this time it carried such an anger that it legitimately scared Umbreon a bit. His fur got all up, and he was salivating a lot. As he opened his eyes, the others noticed they were bloodshot, and his entire body was covered by sparks.

"What the hell?!" Gary said.

"Faraday's ability is Guts. If he gets burned or poisoned while in battle, his physical strength is greatly increased. I didn't know your Umbreon's ability was Synchronize, but I really hoped it was, I just didn't expect to get this right on the first try, it was a very lucky shot, but it worked. By the way, the anger that comes with the activation of Guts is simply a side effect that I just can't seem to solve…" She paused, looking at the sky as if she was thinking about something super serious. "But he looks so scary and serious and cute when he's like this that I decided to just let it be!" She laughed jovially.

Dawn laughed nervously. "That's one weird girl…"

"You have no idea." Heinz said.

"Alright, Faraday, take him down with Double Kick."

And once again, the shiny Luxray lunged at the dark type, spinning his body so he could deliver a quick kick with his right hind leg, then a rather strong one with his left foreleg, making Umbreon slide across the ground back to Gary, unconscious.

F#$%... Now her Luxray is even stronger and I'm down two pokémon… And I'm not sure how much time is left.

7:00

Well, I might as well work with what I have right… and I really should have brought one more pokémon with me, I only have Electivire, Blastoise and Arcanine left… Shit.

"Arcanine, go!" Arcanine came out of the pokéball, looking ready to fight. "Flamethrower!"

Gathering flames in his mouth, Arcanine growled and released a flurry of flames at Faraday.

"Thunderbolt!" Faraday immediately unleashed a lightning bolt at the incoming flames after Isa commanded him to.

But to the surprise of them all, Gary decided something risky.

"Keep pushing after it hits! More flames, Arcanine!" And Arcanine put more effort into the attack, making the flames more violent as he growled. Fire and lightning now on a stalemate in the middle of the battlefield as Arcanine valiantly pushed through his limits.

Very impressive, Gary. Few would do this, since it puts strain on the pokémon to do something like this. You're proving to be a very interesting challenger. The Reborn girl thought happily.

"Override the Flamethrower into a Heat Wave!"

"Use Discharge!"

Both pokémon stopped their actions as they prepared another round of attacks, Arcanine's fur getting covered by flames, and the sparks covering Luxray getting more and more wild.

At the same time, both pokémon released their attacks, a pure wave of extremely hot wind coming from Gary's side, and a wild surge of electricity coming from Isa's side.

As the attacks met in the middle, a rather large explosion occurred, a loud 'boom' sound resonating from it, making everyone's ears ring.

Smoke covered the battlefield completely, obscuring Arcanine's vision.

But not Luxray's.

Faraday slowly and silently moved, sticking close to the limits of the smoke, getting close enough to Arcanine to ensure a clean hit without getting detected, his x-ray vision aiding his positioning, just like he practiced on Isa's training routines.

And she expected him to do just that.

6:00

"Use Facade!" She commanded.

Faraday's body was then covered by an orange aura and he charged at Arcanine, hitting him full-force from the shadows and sending him skidding to a halt next to Gary, extremely hurt and on his last legs. He got up slowly, wincing in pain.

"Facade is a move that has extra effectiveness when the user is burned, paralyzed or poisoned… in other words, it's the perfect strategic move for Faraday."

That was a very good one… Gary thought. But I still gotta deliver at least one strike on Faraday. Maybe two if I'm lucky.

"Extreme Speed!" Arcanine's face lifted, and in a flash he tackled Faraday with a very fast attack.

Did he just… ?! Now I'm enjoying this! The Reborn giddily thought to herself. "Night Slash!"

Her Luxray quickly tried to slash Arcanine, but then he felt the burn and flinched, leaving an opening for Gary and Arcanine. "Double-Edge!" Arcanine's body gained a yellow glow, and he forcefully smashed his body on Luxray's, making him grunt in pain, but falling unconscious from the force of the attack.

Shit! The burn is taking its toll on Faraday now. If not for this he could have ended that with the Night Slash.

"Blastoise, let's do this!" Gary said as he threw the pokéball of his first pokémon, to everyone's surprise.

"Are you crazy?! Blastoise is at a tremendous disadvantage!" Dawn said, a bit desperate.

5:00

"You know Gary, I'm all for using water types, but choosing Blastoise against her is making it too easy for her." Heinz said. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Me too.

"Mega Evolve!"

A surprised gasp escaped Dawn's mouth. "When did he put that on Blastoise?!" And then she saw the Key Stone, shining brightly as if was a decoration on his phone. "And that too?!

During Dawn's Challenge, when Gary vanished

Gary releases Blastoise from his pokéball, for some reason, out of anyone's field of vision. He also took his time to get the Key Stone he got from Rowan and attach it to his phone. The pokémon said its name, greeting his trainer respectfully.

"Hey, big guy." He smiled slightly. "We'll soon face a very difficult battle, and it's gonna be one we can't win. But we'll do better if you hold onto this." He presented his pokémon the Mega Stone: Blastoisinite. "No matter what happens, I want you to fight like your life depends on the battle, got it?"

He received a nod and a pleased grunt from Blastoise, who smiled at his trainer. "I knew I could always count on you."

As Gary said those words, a bright light surrounded Blastoise, making everyone shift their gazes away from the light.

No holding back, Blastoise. Just like old times.

The light faded away, revealing Blastoise's new and powerful form. His face looked more angled than before, his eyes that were previously brown had taken a red color and his ears were slightly longer. His hard shell was now bigger and supported not two cannons on the sides, but a very large and longer cannon on the middle. His side cannons were now supported on his arms, which also had shells covering them.

"BLASTOISE!" said the tortoise pokémon as he completed the transformation.

I hope this works as it does in my mind. "Use Water, Dragon and Dark Pulse!"

"WHAT?!" Dawn was not believing that day was even happening in the first place.

And thus, from the right-arm cannon, blue and violet energy began to be gathered, as the left-arm cannon charged dark purple energy, and the large middle cannon shone bright blue.

"Fire!" Gary said, and Blastoise let loose hell: a triple attack consisting of Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse and Water Pulse, all aimed at Faraday.

"Full power Discharge!" Isa said. These are being boosted by Blastoise's Mega Launcher ability, a regular Discharge wouldn't be enough to stop these.

Luxray released an extremely violent burst of electricity, roaring loudly and angrily.

As all attacks hit, Faraday was, surprisingly, able to only get hit by a small portion of the Dragon Pulse attack, all the rest being mitigated by the Discharge.

4:00

"Wild Charge!" Isa said. Luxray's body was then completely engulfed in electricity as he rushed at Blastoise.

"Protect!"

As Faraday hit Blastoise, he had just managed to form the protective barrier around him, being just barely able to negate what could have been a 'one-hit-KO'.

"Hydro Pump!"

"Protect, quick!" Isa said, mirroring Gary's last move. I can tell Faraday is nearing the point of no return. If he gets hit again he might wanna do that thing…

Blastoise's cannons fired a vicious stream of water, seemingly endless, at Faraday, who was still very close to Blastoise, almost within point-blank range. But he still managed to form the protective barrier around him before Hydro Pump hit, leaving him unscathed.

"Shock Wave!" Luxray quickly released a pulse of electricity at Blastoise, who was hit immediately with no chance to follow any command from Gary, suffering great pain from the attack. "Get some distance between you, Faraday!" And he approached his master like a flash.

"All-out Water Pulse!"

"Use Thunderblast!"

What the heck is Thunderblast? Gary thought, already expecting something huge.

3:00

As the three cannons fired the Water Pulses, Luxray formed a sphere of electricity in front of him, and launched it where the Water Pulses would join to form one huge Water Pulse attack.

To Gary's surprise, the sphere, of about half the size of the big Water Pulse, managed to stop the attack in its tracks.

"Detonate!" Isa said, and Luxray released a Thunder at the sphere, detonating it, which caused the Water Pulse to evaporate from the strong electric current. And what's more: the Thunder attack managed to hit Blastoise, albeit only a small fraction of it, but it still hurt him a lot, leaving him on a pinch.

Damn it, Faraday is too strong, and they have these weird moves that no one's ever heard about.

"Hyper Beam!" Gary said.

From his main cannon, Blastoise began to gather purple and orange energy, preparing to fire.

When he was about to shoot, Faraday looked at his master behind him and nodded at her, as if he knew exactly what to do.

"If you think you can do it, then go. I trust you!" Isa said. And Luxray took off extremely quickly, probably using quick attack to boost his speed, his fangs surrounded by sparks.

"Blastoise, quick!" Gary said rather desperately.

2:00

But Blastoise was very wounded and tired, and it was also the first time he used Mega Evolution, so his body was not used to the rather heavy strain and the new form.

He would not be able to fire in time. Which led to a free strike from Faraday, who pressed his shocking fangs to Blastoise's neck with the Thunder Fang attack, finally managing to knock him out.

You did great, Blastoise! As Gary returned Blastoise to his pokéball, he thought to himself. I don't know how much time there is left for me to fight, but there's a reason I saved him for last!

"Electivire, go!"

The large pokémon positioned himself in front of Gary, raising up his tails and balling his hands into fists.

Completely immune to electric type moves because of Motor Drive, and also really fast, even for his size, and knowing a great quantity of useful moves. This is our last chance.

"Heh…" Isa snorted lightly "Who would have thought he'd have an Electivire…" She said as she looked at her pocket, where her pokéballs were. Let's see how Gary's Electivire compares to my dear Ampere!

"Use Light Screen, Electivire!" As commanded, the electric type formed a green cube around it, making it disappear shortly after.

"Ice Fang!" the Reborn commanded.

"Ice Punch!" the Kantonian commanded.

Electivire's right fist was coated in ice as he rushed at the Luxray, whose fangs seemed to have grown larger because of the ice coating, and he too was rushing at his opponent.

Before they met in the middle, Isa whistled, and as she did that Luxray accelerated.

Gary saw that, and decided to try and match the speed. "Go faster, Electivire!"

And thus they were all faster than before.

Just as Isa wanted.

Electivire prepared to take the swing so he could strike first, but as soon as his arm began coming down, Isa whistled again, but instead of accelerating, Faraday took a turn to the right just as Electivire punched, making him miss the attack and leaving him open for a strike.

"Now!" Isa said, and Faraday immediately bit down his left arm, making Electivire growl in pain. "Jump back quickly!" Faraday then released Electivire's arm, leaping back to position himself just in front of Isa.

Dammit! She made me think the whistle was supposed to make him go faster, but it was actually a strategy to make Electivire miss the attack. At least he's protected against special attacks for now, but I'll have to think of something fast.

"Flamethrower!" Gary said, surprising Dawn once again.

"Since when could Electivires learn Flamethrower?!"

Well, mine knows too. Isa thought. But that's still not impressive enough of your Electivire, Gary.

"Use Thunderbolt, on low power." She said, this time surprising everyone but Heinz.

1:00

Luxray simply released a quick surge of electricity towards the incoming flames from Electivire's mouth.

And it was enough to cancel out the flames.

"But how?!" Gary said. "A low-powered Thunderbolt is enough for this?"

She laughed at that. "Most pokémon have difficulty when trying to use moves of types that are not theirs, such as an electric type using a fire type move. The move will never be as strong as if it were one of the same type as the user. That's why a low-power Thunderbolt was more than enough to cancel the flamethrower."

I know that she just explained something basic, but she managed to use that to her advantage… just how strong are the Reborns?

Suddenly, Faraday's body began to tremble, as he roared loudly, but this time he simply walked forward towards Electivire.

0:30

"I guess we're nearing the end, Gary." Isa said, smiling lightly "Faraday, I leave all the rest to you. I know exactly what you wanna do, so I guess it's finally time to stop holding back."

Wait. Gary thought, a bit shocked. They were holding back all this time? Oh shit!

"Electivire, no matter what happens, do not get hit! Keep using Agility and Protect!"

Electivire's body shook for second, and he quickly moved to left very much away from Faraday who didn't stop walking slowly towards him, now completely covered by blue bolts of electricity.

As that happened, Heinz told Dawn something.

"Many of the Reborns never even had the chance of seeing this." he said.

"Seeing what?"

He snorted. "Faraday's strongest Combo move… that not even the abilities Motor Drive and Lightning Rod can stop…"

The sparks around Faraday became wilder and wilder as he approached Electivire.

0:10

"And the move's name is Thunderlord."

The electricity began to overflow, making Faraday seem to be made of lightning, with only his silhouette being visible, as if a shadow. The light he was shedding was so strong it made the others flinch for a second.

With a final roar, he took off towards Electivire at a blinding speed.

0:05

Electivire still managed to lift a Protect barrier before the hit.

But the energy was too strong for the barrier alone.

On an explosion of lightning and sparks, the woods on route 218 were lit up completely for one whole second, with a very loud thunder crashing right after the light.

The people in Canalave, unaware of what was happening, all looked at the sky, thinking that maybe it was going to rain, but confusing themselves upon realising the skies were clear as a glass of water.

Back in route 218, an entire area of the forest was covered by smoke.

0:00

Coughing could be heard from where Dawn and Heinz were sat on the ground, as well as where Gary was standing. But nothing aside from soft breathing could be heard from where Isa was standing.

Heinz checked the chronometer on his NDS, and upon noticing time was up he stood up.

"It's over." He said.

"Did Gary- cough- pass the- cough cough- challenge?!" asked Dawn in between coughs.

He threw one pokéball in the air. "Let's find out."

From the pokéball, an enormous snake-like marine creature came out.

"Havok, would you be so kind to use Twister to clear out the smoke, please?"

Havok, a Gyarados, moved to where he thought the center of the body of smoke was and rapidly spun his body, creating a small cyclone, slowly but surely dissipating the smoke.

As the smoke cleared, they saw what they could only describe as an aftermath.

The ground was scorched, steam rising from it as it gleamed a bright yellow from the heat on some small spots of charred grass.

On Isa's side, Faraday stood, no longer angry or covered by lightning, and seemingly fully healed. But that was easily explained by the empty Full Restore on Isa's left hand. She then took one and threw it to Gary.

On his side though, Electivire was still standing.

But not moving a muscle, only his breathing could be heard, and it was very weak.

He was about to fall, but held through the pain till the last moment.

Heinz thanked his Gyarados and returned him to his pokéball, as he began to laugh jovially and very happily. "Nice work, Gary! If it wasn't for the Motor Drive ability or her holding back you would never be able to do this though."

The Kantonian took the Full Restore tossed at him and immediately applied it o Electivire.

Needless to say, these things did wonders to pokémon, and Electivire felt much better after it, but still very tired, so Gary returned him to his pokéball.

And he was also very tired, and trying to keep a steady head, and trying to understand the situation.

He won?

"I… I did it?" he asked the Reborns, but rather hesitantly.

Upon returning her Luxray to his pokéball, she slowly approached her opponent.

"Yes, you did it!" She smiled brightly "And honestly, even though I was holding back, you almost lost." She motioned for the others to approach them as she talked to Gary.

"So what happens now?" he said. "Is there any kind of ceremony or like, a ritual for you to say your names?"

She just laughed at that as Heinz and Dawn walked towards them. "No, there's no stuff like that, but as per Lord Celebi's orders we must be formal when doing so."

Finally, Heinz and Dawn approached them, and the moment of truth could happen.

The electric master glanced at the water master, and then they nodded at each other, as if a mutual and unspoken agreement had been made between them. The girl turned to their challengers, who had risen successful from their challenges, and began her introduction.

"So, I guess this is it, right?" She smiled at them, as a flash of light, followed by a rather loud pop sound, came from one of her pockets, as a Pichu came out of it. "Gauss, what did I tell you about getting out of your pokéball without warning?" She scolded the tiny rat pokémon, but she was smiling. "But… I can't stay mad at you!" She laughed as the Pichu snuggled up to her cheeks while standing on her shoulders.

She then looked at her soon-to-be new friends again. "My name is Isabella Haart, or Isa for short and I am 15 years old. I am a Reborn Child of Celebi, Master of Electric Types. For such fact, the other Reborns call me by the title 'The Chosen of Thunder'." She bowed respectfully. "It is my pleasure to meet you!" She returned to a normal standing position as her Pichu cried his name. "And this is my friend Gauss!"

Before the Dawn and Gary could say anything, Heinz approached them.

"And I am Heinrich von Flüsse, but please call me Heinz." He bowed, as did Isa, as sign of respect to them. "I am 16 years old and, like her, a Reborn Child of Celebi and Master of Water Types. The title given to me is 'The Might of The Seas'." As he returned to standing, he turned his gaze toward the sinnohian bluenette. "I'm sorry I had to go easy on you Dawn. And to you Gary," He then looked at the man in question "You got lucky. Lucky because Isa was holding back throughout the entire battle and because of Blastoise's Mega Evolution. But luck is a part of battles, so… I guess that's ok."

Isabella "Isa" Haart and Heinrich "Heinz" von Flüsse.

So these are their names, Dawn thought. "It's no big deal, Heinz!" She said. "And it's also a pleasure to meet you guys.

"Likewise." Gary said, but then he looked suspiciously at Isa. "But wait a second… If you were holding back all that time, then what is it like when you're fighting seriously?"

The Reborns simply laughed lively. "Well, for starters, your chances of succeeding would be even closer to zero. Also, If I really wanted you to lose that badly, I could have made Faraday go berserk since the beginning, that way he would just pummel your entire team in 2 minutes."

He laughed nervously. "Oh, that's, uh- good to know!"

As they talked, Heinz snapped his fingers to catch everyone's attention.

"There's something bothering me a bit." he started. "You two were looking for us, am I correct?" To that, Dawn and Gary simply nodded. "Which means there's a reason why you did so." Once again, they nodded.

Isa looked at them, looking somewhat troubled, as if she knew their reason meant trouble. "Please tell us what was the reason."

They looked at each other, then Gary and Dawn nodded, and began to tell the full story.

After they finished, they waited for any kind of reaction from the Reborns.

But they didn't expected the worried and almost grave expressions they showed.

He was right… Isa thought to herself as she remembered what another Reborn had told her before. "Heinrich, the vision… He was right, his Gothitelle was right all this time!"

Heinrich knew what she was talking about. After all, they were both there when their friend gave them the news about their future and the future of all Reborns.

Though they never truly believed the vision was true, what Gary and Dawn told them seemed to clear all their doubts.

One year ago, Route 120, Hoenn

Isa and Heinz sat on the ground, close to the lake at Route 120 in Hoenn.

But they were not alone.

Beside them, five other people were also sat on the ground. Two boys and three girls.

The shortest, and perhaps the youngest of the group was one of the boys. He had very short light brown hair, deep green eyes and lots of freckles on his cheeks. He wore regular blue jeans, a plain white t-shirt beneath a very colorful hoodie and white and red all-stars. The other boy was lying on the ground, seemingly fast asleep. He wore cargo pants with camo patterns, black boots, a death metal band, Children of Dusknoir (Children of Bodom), sleeveless shirt (he probably cut the sleeves himself, seeing as the holes from where his arms came out from weren't exactly symmetrical) and he had piercings on his nose, lower lip and on both ears. Also, his body was covered by tattoos, some even on his head, where he grew a mohawk, colored red from the root of his hair, then purple at the middle of the mohawk and black at the end.

The girls were all sitting beside each other, Isa included. She was the one on the far left of the other three girls. To her right, a rather pale skinned blonde girl that had her hair tied in a ponytail, then a short-haired brunette to the right of the blonde, and finally, a tanned-skin girl with very long wavy silver colored hair (that was apparently natural, seeing as her eyebrows were also that same color, as opposed to Isa, seeing as her eyebrows had a dark brown coloration).

The blonde had aquamarine colored eyes that seemed to sparkle when she smiled. Even though the sun was out, she was wearing a sweater that had an Aurora Borealis as a design. She wore light blue jeans that went down to just below the middle of her shins. As a surprise, her feet were covered by medieval style sandals. The brunette had beautiful dark brown eyes, that complimented her short hair really well. She wore a simple lilac dress that reached just below her knees. She wore a bracelet on left wrist, and it was made of roots that had very tiny blue flowers around them, and on her feet, she had light brown simple sandals. And finally, the last girl, the silver-haired one, wore a sleeveless red shirt underneath a checkered black and white button-up shirt, along with black shorts. She also wore boots like the tattooed boy, but hers were brown and seemed much more worn-out than his. Her eyes were what caught most off-guard: they were very bright yellow eyes.

The tattooed boy slowly stirred awake after the girls began to laugh rather loudly, they were just talking when suddenly the blonde cracked a joke. As he slowly got up, he opened his eyes, revealing the very intriguing red irises he possessed.

"Guys, why don't you just let me sleep peacefully? It was a long freaking day…" He said, his voice was a bit intimidating, seeing as how deep it was.

"Oh, just quit it, Brokk!" The blonde said, and as contrast to Brokk's voice, hers was very soft and charming. "You shoudn't even be sleeping right now! Reno is about to tell us something very important!"

The other girls nodded as Reno, the other boy, just looked at them calmly. Then, the brunette spoke up. "I just hoped the others were here too. I'm sure they'd like to know of this first hand like us." Her voice was a bit low pitched for someone her age, and that would normally startle anyone that took her for just a cute girl upon a first glance.

"I know, Laura." Isa said. "But just getting the seven of us on the same place is difficult enough. I mean, I know Jane" She motioned to the blonde "always tries to join us for these meetings, but many others don't even try sometimes. Heck, we're lucky Mary is here, for Arceus sake!" She motioned at the silver-haired girl, who blushed in embarrassment. For someone as beautiful as she was, one could say she was as shy as she was pretty.

"Lo siento por no apare-" She paused for a second, her blush deepening as she realized she was speaking spanish again, even though she knew her friends didn't understand it. "I mean, uh- I'm sorry for not showing up often!"

Heinz simply laughed, and then he looked at Reno beside him. "I think that's a good moment to say what you need to. Everyone will listen, and you can be sure we'll all tell it to the others." He said.

Even him, If I, for some miracle, come across him again, He thought to himself, as he remembered someone important to the group.

Reno stood up after hearing that, which caught the attention of the others.

"All right guys, here's the thing." He started, as six pairs of eyes had their gazes locked into him. "Last week I did what I thought I wouldn't need to do for a long time: I asked Shade, my Gothitelle, to look into my future." He paused, sighing softly. "As you might know, a Gothitelle can see into the future of its trainer, up to the point of his or her death, so I simply asked her to see my future up to the point when our final stand would happen, and she… saw something."

The others gasped.

Brokk was the first to talk. "Wait a second, does that mean you know when The Gathering begins?"

Reno shook his head. "I don't, but I know that it's closer than we thought it was, because what she saw was us, and by that I mean all eighteen of us, along with many well known trainers in our world, fighting against an army, an army that had many mythical and legendary pokémon under their control. And I know it's close for many reasons: Isa's hair is still red, Natalie still has pink colored hair, and because the well know trainers I spoke about are none other than Gary Oak, Dawn Berlitz, Ash Ketchum, Serena Gabena, May Maple, Drew Shu, and believe it or not, the Battle Legend himself: Red, along others such as Heinz's good friend Champion Ethan Gold were also there, and the pokémon trainer called Moon, from Alola, who wore the Champion's Cape in the vision, but as some of you might know, this cape is a symbol of victory worn by the champion of the Pokémon League, and the next Alolan League will only happen next month, and I guess we all know who'll win that one now, right?." he snickered. For someone so young, he was very smart and extremely sharp.

The others simply listened, not daring to say a word after all that.

"And I know exactly who they are, though I've never met them personally. But after Shade's vision, I began to study these people. And through the analysis I made of them with the help of my psychic pokémon, I can confirm to you that the vision is true and The Gathering should start sometime around next year, but I don't know when exactly."

The others looked at each other, an almost tangible tension in the air around them.

After some time discussing, the group decided to call it a day and each one took their separate ways.

Reno left the group already thinking of a way to try to stop the army in the near future.

Heinz simply left, imagining how the others who were not present would react.

Jane was very worried, as she knew very well that the vision could have meant their deaths.

Mary didn't think their moment of truth was so close, but simply accepted her fate.

Brokk couldn't wait! He actually wanted to fight the army, and then he'd write a song after all of that, with a lot of insane guitar riffs and super brutal drums!

Laura spaced out when Reno was explaining everything (as usual) so Isa and the other girls had to fill her in on the details (again). She was surprised with the fact that everyone would finally be together for once and she loved it!

Isa didn't believe it entirely, especially because Reno said everyone of them would be there, including the one she wanted to meet the most:

The Master of Fire Types, The Knight of Flames, Bernard Haart. The Reborn who had orders from Celebi to only join the other Reborns after his training was complete. But to Isa, Bernard was even more important for another reason.

Like the others, minus the Dark Master and the Dragon Master, she never met Bernard in person. But what infuriated her was knowing the most disturbing fact of her life: they were siblings. And this information drove her wild for years, making her try to find him for an eternity. Because her parents never mentioned him, she never saw pictures or anything of the kind, she found out he existed and was a Reborn like her through Sonya, who was the Dragon Master, one of the only two people allowed to meet Bernard. After that day, she swore she would get to the bottom of this mystery in her life.

So our paths are finally starting to converge, huh? Just you wait for me. She thought to herself as she walked along route 120. We'll have quite the catching up to do once we meet.

---

A/N: Aaaaaaand that's a wrap for chapter 2! Possibly the most tiring (yet very enjoyable) thing I've ever wrote so far! Let me know what you think of it! Please leave a review, you would help me to improve my skills as a writer and improve this story (which is already better than my original version from years ago and only 2 chapters in). But well... I guess that's all! Also, here's a random question! Answer in a review if you want or don't answer at all (it doesn't matter, really):

If Cinderella's shoe fit perfectly why did it fall off?

Chapter 3 should be up by December of 2018, I'll try really hard to get it done by then!

I'll see you in the next chapter (hopefully), and keep being awesome!