Sibling Rivalry

Summary: A special eevee is causing trouble and is holding up the gym leader.

Soul woke up to see Maka just staring at it. She looked sad. "Sol," it said, catching Maka's attention.

A huge smile sprang onto her face. "Soul!" Maka exclaimed, wrapping the atrocity pokemon in a hug. "I thought I lost you."

/~*~*~*~*~\

In the pokecenter's lobby, Kid and Black Star sat across from each other at a table. Kid was staring at his pokedex, lost in thought. It was stuck on Ragnoirok's entry. Before they left, Stein gave Kid some black blood from the other day's attack, which he used as DNA. He used their description to draw a rough picture of it too. According to the pokedex, it was a pure livid type, with a base stat total of 450. Apparently, that was only for its current form, but if it changes it'll be even more powerful, even as high as 700. He can't let that happen. And to think Soul may become something like that monster. Sure, he hasn't known Soul for long, but it didn't deserve to die, and he definitely didn't want to kill it when the time comes.

"Are you even listening to me?" Black Star asked harshly, snapping Kid out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"I was saying that your dad's a gym leader. Can't he just call whoever works here and tell him to hurry up? Or show up himself and be a substitute gym leader? I've been in this stupid town, not getting any new badges for ten damn days. I'm ready to battle!"

Kid shook his head. "The person who usually runs the gym here retired only recently, so neither Father nor I know the replacement very well. I only know that he's the grandson of the last gym leader, and is incredibly young. If I remember correctly, he's barely older than us and is pretty easy to beat. Also, you should know that my father can't leave Death City."

"Really? He has bird pokemon. Can't he just fly over here, have a two second battle, and fly back?" Kid shook his head, which made Black Star roll his eyes. "That's lame."

Kid glared at Black Star. He just called his father lame right in front of him. Who even does that?

Just then Maka came out with Soul and nurse Medusa walking beside her. "Guess who made a full recovery!" Medusa said.

"Congrats!" Blackstar said as Maka sat beside him. "Back and better than ever, right Soul?"

"Sol," it confirmed.

"Awesome! Better let Tsubaki know that too. She was super worried." From his hand, the pokeball opened and his eevee came out. It was ecstatic to see Soul up and running.

Kid lifted both his pokeballs and out came Liz and Patty to greet Soul too.

"Hey Soul, you down with trying to find the gym leader with me? According to Mr. Gym-Leader's-Son, he's just a kid and should be easy to find and defeat!" Black Star said

Soul nodded with a smile. "Sol!"

"No, you can't just go off on a crazy adventure with my pokemon Black Star," Maka protested

Medusa raised an eyebrow. "You're going to look for the gym leader? I wouldn't recommend that."

"Why wouldn't you?" asked Kid.

"Well, Ryoku is Expiry City's gym leader," Medusa explained. "He went to the cave not too far from here because of rumors about Masamune. Nobody has seen him since."

Tsubaki's eyes widened at the name. "E-eevee?"

"What's Masamune?" Maka asked.

"Well, there's an old tale about a man, and the first pokemon he caught was an Eevee. He named it Masamune. The man wanted an espeon or umbreon desperately, so he tried to raise its friendship as much as possible. Nothing worked. He gave up and tried on another eevee. Masamune got so angry at its trainer that it evolved not out of love, but hatred. Nobody knows what happened after that."

Tsubaki was freaking out, repeating 'eevee' over and over again. Soul, Liz, and Patty looked at it understandingly, and they also seemed disheartened. "Hey, Tsubaki, it's just a story," Black Star said, petting it.

"It is just a story, right?" Kid asked.

Medusa shrugged. "Apparently not, if it's come back. People say that the corrupted half dark, half physic energy the pokemon has made it able to seemingly control people. It leaves their victims in an eternal sleep-like-state."

"That's horrible," Maka mumbled.

"Didn't we just deal with an eternal sleep in Loss town? Does every city have something like this?"

"Where is this cave," Kid asked.

Medusa knew what Kid had planned. She started forming a plan of her own. "Just north of town. You aren't thinking of going there, are you? What if you get hurt?

"If the rumors are true and it's a dark psychic type I should be fine."

Maka nodded. "If Ryoku needs help, I want to be there."

"I want a new gym badge already," Black Star added. "Plus what they said."

Medusa looked across the three kids. "Okay, if you insist. Good luck."

The three young trainers all exchanged looks, then left to find the cave with the mysterious pokemon.

It didn't take long before they found what they were looking for. There were high walls of rock on either side of them which got even steeper the closer they got to the small mountain with a hole.

As they were about to enter, Kid froze suddenly, causing both his friends to look back at him. "What's wrong? Scared of a little cave? Oh no, is water going to drip on you? ThE HoRrOr~" Black Star teased.

"No, I still have an umbrella so that won't be an issue. I just thought I heard something. Maybe it would be best if one of us stayed out here and made sure nothing goes in after you. Besides, if you don't come out after a normal amount of time I can get extra help faster."

Black Star rolled his eyes and walked deeper into the cave. "Whatever, Chicken."

"If you think you should, I don't see why not. See you when we get back," Maka said, following Black Star into the cave.

Kid watched until they were far enough away to not hear or see anything outside the cave. Turning, he stared at the rocks surrounding. "I can hear you. Stop hiding."

"I think the reaper knows we're here."

"Yeah, probably. In that case, he should prepare for annihilation!"

"And double the assassination!"

"To exploit the evils of mischief and magic!"

"To spread destruction, no matter how tragic!"

The froggy member of Team Salem jumped out from behind a rock. "Eruka!"

The large, magic eyed man followed. "And Free!"

"Team Salem flies as fast as a broom!"

"Surrender now, or face your doom!"

Mizune came from that rock too. "Rattata!"

The uninterested expression of Kid's face didn't change, making Free's smile fall. "Awe, come on! We put on a whole show for you and that's all you do? Not even an 'oh no, Team Salem?'"

"Did you send your little friends away just to battle us alone?" Eruka grabbed her pokeball. "Cause you don't stand a chance against both of us." Following suit with his pokeball, Free made a noise of agreement.

"Hold off your pokemon, I don't want to fight you right now. I want information," Kid said.

Putting his pokeball back down, Free smiled. "No battle? Does this mean you surrender?"

"No, it means he wants to talk to us," Eruka said. "I'd rather just battle, I don't want to talk to a grim reaper brat. Besides, I'll never tell you anything, and he literally doesn't know anything!"

Free nodded. "It's true."

"Tell me about the livid type. And the black blooded child. I will do whatever necessary to get this information, so I would recommend that you just tell me without the use of force."

Eruka laughed, throwing up her pokeball. Out came her poliwag. "There's nothing you can do that is worse than what she does."

Infernolf was close to follow. "Yeah, and like I said, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I do know the boss would love a reaper head over the mantle," Free said.

Mizune bared its teeth, hissing.

"Fine," Kid said, releasing Liz, Patty, and Murkrow. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you get."

\~*~*~*~*~/

Maka and Black Star walked through the cave in silence. Other than their footsteps, the light howl of wind and dripping of water were the only things to hear.

"Hey, you have that level thingy, right? Can't you find the guy faster?" Black Star asked, breaking the silence.

"I think it's called meister vision, or some called it soul perception. Nobody calls it 'that level thingy'," Maka said.

Black Star rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You can still use it."

Although crudely put, Black Star was right: it probably would help if she used her meister vision. Maka closed her eyes in concentration, then opened them again. ASSASSIN Black Star Lv 19 was the first and biggest box she saw. Concentrating harder, in the distance, although it wasn't too far, were two boxes. GYM LEADER Ryoku Lv 21 and Masamune Lv 25 male. Not that bad of a level all things considered. Blaire was also level 25 and knew a fairy type move, so it shouldn't be that hard of a battle, especially with Black Star and his level 19 eevee. "I see them. This way," Maka said. She and Black Star both took off running toward the two boxes. They stooped in front of a hole with a ladder.

"Down there?" Black Star asked.

Maka nodded. She grabbed onto the ladder first, to Black Star's slight dismay at being second. She slid down and heard a masculin yet inhuman voice saying "Umspeon?"

Maka turned around to see what looked to be a pokemon fusion between an umbreon and espeon, but not a real pokemon fusion. Unlike what Scyther and Porygon 2 did, the fusion didn't take aspects of each pokemon and blend them together, this pokemon looked like the right half of an espeon was attached to the left of an umbreon, the line where the two halves connect was a solid, dark purple strip. The tips of its two differently styled ears seemed to have pitch black splotches just like Tsubaki. Maka immediately felt bad for the pokemon. It looked unnatural and was probably not comfortable being a mix-match of parts. Her second thought was how happy she was that Kid stayed outside. The pokemon before her didn't have the slightest hint of symmetry, so he definitely wouldn't have reacted the best.

Next to the pokemon was a kid, only a little bit older than her and Black Star if older at all. A purple bandana with the poison symbol on it covered his black hair for the most part. His eyes were pitch black and surrounded with black lines, the other the same but pink-ish purple. It looked horrifying.

Maka felt frozen at the base of the ladder. Her senses quickly came back to her when Black Star landed on her head and jumped off without a hint of hesitation. Her hands immediately went to where she was stepped on to try and ease the paint. "Ow! What the hell Black Star!"

The young assassin shrugged. "You shoulda moved." He turned to the strange pokemon and gym leader. "And you're Masamune, aren't you? After I'm done with you, Ryoku's badge is as good as mine! Go Tsubaki! Baton pass jolteon!"

Out of a pokeball came the fox-like pokemon. "Vee," It said. It was about to glow and transform, but became paralysed. "EEVEE!" it screamed. "Eev eevee ee!"

Masamune looked at the eevee as if it recognised it. "Umspee. Umspeon."

"Huh? What's wrong Tsubaki?"

"Black Star, I think they might be related."

The young assassin's jaw dropped. "What! Why would you think that!?"

"They're both from the eevee line, they both have black tipped ears, and just look at their reactions. Maybe brother and sister."

"Oh jeez… Tsubaki, are you…" The eevee nodded. "Man…"

Maka unclipped her second pokeball from her belt. "Don't worry Tsubaki, you won't have to battle. I can faint your brother and we'll safely take him to the pokemon center."

"Eevee," Tsubaki whined. Maka didn't really know what that meant. She threw the pokeball up and out came her skitty.

Blaire looked the pokemon all over. Unlike most other male pokemon, it didn't seem to be attracted to it. Blaire sighed. "No thanks," it said.

Maka and Black Star almost fell over in shock. "Did your hot cat just talk?!"

"You never told me you can talk! What do you mean 'no thanks'?!"

Blaire jumped up and grabbed her pokeball from its shook trainer. It threw it up and returned herself.

Maka scrambled and grabbed the pokeball. "You can't just do that!" She tried to release Blaire again but nothing happened. Maka's head fell. Apparently Blaire could just do that. She really needed to catch more pokemon, not just accidentally let the pokemon catch themselves.

The second pokeball on her belt was her only option at this point. Maka froze. As she touched Soul's ball, visions of him being sliced and laying in a pool of his own blood flashed across her now teary eyes. "I… I can't…" Black Star and Tsubaki looked to Maka in concern as she fell to her knees. "I can't see that again."

Masamune was silently watching the whole time. It took a step toward the distraught trainer. "Umspeon." With that, a shadowy energy emitted from the pokemon and went to Maka. She gasped as her eyes seemed to be filling up with the same purple and black that Ryoku had with similar face markings too.

"Maka!" "Eevee!" Black Star and Tsubaki called. They both had the same idea and simultaneously quick attacked the fusion pokemon. It made it's stance and focus shift, but the damage was done, Maka seemed to be frozen under the strange power.

"You've messed with the wrong trainers!" Black Star hissed. He was about to attack again, but Tsubaki interrupted his plans.

"Eevee. Eevee eev eevee."

"Do you wanna do this yourself?" Tsubaki nodded. "Okay. I'll back you up through this."

The Eevee walked over to the eeveelution fusion. 'Please,' it said, 'Masamune, you don't have to do this.'

'You don't know about what I do and don't want to do.'

Tsubaki let out a sad sigh. 'I know.' with a couple more steps, it was touching its head to the fusion's. Its eye turned the same black and purple as Maka's and the gym leaders, but this time it was a bit different. The eevee was still fully conscious.

Black Star stood beside his pokemon silently watching. There wasn't much he could do. "Tsubaki," he said quietly. "You're doing a psychic thing with him, aren't you?" He smiled. "Just make sure you come back, okay?"

He turned his head, hearing some noises. Maka was back on her feet, but she was obviously not in control. Neither was Ryoku. They both were approaching the young assassin.

Black Star guessed what was going to happen. He couldn't fight back, Maka and Ryoku were just innocent kids. All he could do was stand his ground, even as he had rocks thrown at him.

/~*~*~*~*~\

'Where am I?' thought Maka. The sound of jazz hummed in the background, but it kept skipping around. It sounded like the type of classical music that Lord Death would listen to, but she couldn't name the piece.

Maka looked down at herself. It looked like she was wearing a black and white suit. It looked kind of like what Kid wears but more comfortable. Her body looked and felt different though. A mirror glisted, catching her eye. Standing up from the red armchair she was in, she walked across the checkered floor to see not herself in the mirror. She didn't know who she saw. Now she had short, white, spiky hair, ungodly sharp teeth, and blood red eyes. She looked like a ten year old boy. "W-what is this?" Maka asked herself. Her voice sounded wrong, but familiar. She couldn't place where she heard it before. Something seemed familiar about her eyes too.

A thought dawned on her. Her hands went to her belt to find no pokeballs. "Blaire? Soul?!" She froze. "S-sol?" she said. That's what the voice was, and the eyes.

Maka looked back into the mirror. She realized that this is what Soul would look like if it was a human instead of an absol. Why?

"Swing swing swing~" A voice said, drawing Maka's attention that way. There was a red little humanoid thing with a black-mask like thing over its eyes along with black patterns across the face. It seemed like a mix of a badger, human, and demon of sorts. It's nose was large and black, its eyes tiny and golden, and its mouth long and sharp like its teeth. The hands on the thing was remarkably large, and its ears were small and badger shaped. It seemed to be wearing an ordinary suit, despite looking like it should be a pokemon. A thin red tail peaked out the back of the suit.

"What are you? A pokemon?" Maka asked.

"I'm a blagre. You're not the usual one here, now are you? You do look like him though."

Maka took a step toward the bipedal pokemon. "Is Soul supposed to be here? Where is he? What is this place?"

The blagre smiled a sharp toothed smile. "This place is in the mind. Your body still exists on Earth, all vulnerable. I know how to make you lose all your fear and insecurities. Come through the door and you can become stronger. Stronger than you can ever imagine. You want to be stronger, don't you Maka?"

Maka didn't know what to do. She saw the door and could feel that it was bad. It felt evil. But she wanted to be stronger. "No," she managed. "Lord Death always told me that fear is a super power. It helps us get stronger. I'm not giving up my fear."

The red, clawed, human-like hand came in front of her. "But don't you want to be stronger? For Black Star? For Kid?" Its smile grew. "For your dear, one almost dead Soul?"

Maka was tempted. She honestly was. But she had no idea what to do.

\~*~*~*~*~/

Tsubaki and Masamune stood in the pool of his mind. A blinding purple sun laughed above them next to a pitch black moon with blood dripping from its mouth. Inside, you could feel the hatred and rage oozing off the water-like substance they stood on top of. Tsubaki ran toward her brother with a quick attack, but he moved out of the way.

'I know you can do better than that Tsubaki,' the fusion said. Stars flew out of him, not a single one missing Tsubaki. She cried out in pain. 'Look at you. A normal type. At least your namesake would be a grass type too.' He vanished into a feint attack, then struck Tsubaki into the water. 'A camellia blossom. Even after being caught you still are named after the flower without a fragrance. It blooms in pathetic silence. How fitting. What a normal type of a flower.' He pushed he head down more, drowning her. 'You'd be fainted if this were the real world. Perhaps even dead by now.'

Tsubaki flailed in the water. She glowed into a vaporeon and disappeared into the liquid abyss only to re-emerge behind her brother and become an eevee again. 'I don't want to do this Masamune, but I will do whatever it takes to stop you. Even if I die.'

The fusion looked into the eyes of his sister, his own mis-matched eyes filling with rage. 'Don't look at me like that! Don't give me that pitiful look! It's all your fault that I'm like this! That I'm an unloved abomination!' Tsubaki readied an attacking stance again. 'Why didn't you stay a vaporeon? Or become a jolteon? Maybe even a flareon? You choose your eevee stage. Why?"' Tsubaki launched at him trying to use take down, but he used psychic to slam her into the water. 'Is it pity?!' He psychiced again. 'I should have gotten those evolution powers! I was the first to hatch! You have so many types and possibilities while I couldn't even evolve through friendship like an eevee should! You took everything from me, leaving me with this!' with his head, he gestured toward his mis-match of a body. 'This freak of nature body was the best I could do!'

He walked closer, teeth bared. 'In the wild, I was treated more delicately than the other pokemon. I was given everything I wanted without as much as a battle. It's because they all knew I was inferior. They knew that no trainer would ever want an unevolvable eevee, and that it would never survive long in a real battle. You were the one that truly taught me this.' Tsubaki looked back up at her brother. She felt guilty, and sorry for him. He could tell. 'Stop giving me that look of pity!' he yelled. 'You've always looked at me like that! Stop!' he bit down on her, making her cry in pain again. 'Sister, I will kill you. The experience your death will give me will make my levels sky rocket until I become unbeatable.'

Tsubaki was about to use secret power, but another psychic interrupted it, lifting her off her feet. 'This is the end, isn't it,' she thought. She couldn't help but let her mind wander to Black Star. How she and her trainer met was quite unorthodox…

She was wandering through the forest near Death City when she heard some weird noises. Following the sound, she found a young human. It wasn't the first human she'd ever met, but it was true that she hadn't ran into many. Being surrounded by pokemon for her whole life, she didn't exactly understand what he was saying, but he seemed so happy there, standing on a rock, screaming into the sea of trees. She was mesmerized. The human noticed her and jumped off of his rock. 'You liked my big performance huh?' he said. She didn't know what it meant at the time, but now she knew full well what the kid was saying. 'I'm Black Star. What are you?' 'Tsubaki' she said, but she knew the human would hear her saying the word eevee. 'Eevee? Well, eevee, you're mine now! You can watch my performances all the time!' he brought out a bright red and white ball and threw it at her. In a red glow of light, she felt herself go inside the device. It was strange inside. Escape would be beyond easy at this point, she just had to run out the circular-shaped hole like she'd done on other capture attempts, but she didn't want to. There was something about the boy that made her stay. She was now his. 'Alright!' his muffled voice was heard through the ball. She was released to be standing on the forest floor again. 'My first pokemon! I gotta name you! How about… Black Star Junior!' Something about the pokeball seemed to make Tsubaki understand english better, so she knew what he was saying more or less. 'My name is Tsubaki, but I will answer to whatever you call me,' she said meekly. Black Star smiled at her. 'No, wait,' he said. 'Tsubaki. That's a good name. There can only be one star after all.' Tsubaki smiled. Her trainer understood her in a way. It was amazing. She knew that this would be the start of a great partnership.

Levitating in mid air, Tsubaki could still somewhat feel her trainer beside her. He was in pain, but still determined. He wanted her to do what she had to do, no matter what. The boy that wanted her without even knowing about her special abilities. The same boy that refuses to catch more pokemon because he has so much faith in her. The young trainer that thinks she's amazing whether she wins a battle or not. She couldn't let him down.

'Any last words?' Masamune asked. Tsubaki stayed silent. 'Stay silent, like the fragrantless flower you are.' He made his psychic powers flow into her. It hurt.

She fell to the floor. 'You're wrong.'

'What?'

'You're wrong!' Tsubaki yelled. 'I don't know about your old trainer, but my trainer made me realise that a camellia flower does have fragrance!' she glowed into a vaporeon. 'I won't hold back anymore. I'll give you the fight you've always wanted.' From her mouth erupted a beam of pure color. It hit the fusion pokemon, sending him backwards.

'Fight back all you want, the EXP from your death will be mine!'

/~*~*~*~*~\

Black Star was standing there, blood all over his face. He had rocks from around the cave thrown at him mostly, but the one that looked like Maka also threw books, and the one that looked like Ryoku was ordering a quillfish to attack, which it hesitantly did. He knew that the people in front of him weren't the real Maka and Ryoku, they were just puppets. He would wait, shielding Tsubaki from their attacks until she was done.

Suddenly, the two stopped. Black Star turned around to see Tsubaki disappear in what looked like a show of psychic energy. "Tsubaki!" Black star called. He went over to the pokemon fusion as it stood there seemingly in a trance. The young assassin started poking its face. "Tsubaki, you in there? Come on out. Come on. Tsubaki. The winners of battles always go to the middle of the ring and put their arms in the air. You need to do that too. Tsubaki. Come on. Tsubaki?"

An explosion of smoke made Black Star take a step back. Maka and Ryoku both fell to the ground, but they seemed fine, Black Star had bigger things to worry about.

The smoke cleared and there stood an eevee with black-tipped ears and big eyes. It looked up to Black Star with a small smile. "Eevee."

"Tsubaki…" Black Star mumbled. Little did he know what just happened. Tsubaki had lost the pokebattle. It was supposed to die in real life, but then its brother felt inside of it. The true friendship between it and its pokemon trainer was unparalleled. Such raw emotions made the fusion stop. It evolved from hate, but now this was the exact opposite. It was too much. Finally feeling the love of a trainer that it'd longed for, second hand or not, it started to vanish. 'Thank you, Tsubaki… my sister…' was its last words before it left. The Umspeon was no more. "Are you okay?" the trainer asked.

His eevee nodded. "Eevee~"

It was quiet for a moment, everything still. Tsubaki's smile faded as it looked to the floor. In turn, Black Star gained a huge smile and spread out his arms. "Awesome! Come here!" The sudden cheerful command caught Tsubaki off guard. "Come here and let me give you a big hug, okay?"

The eevee stared, its big eyes filling with tears. "Eeeveeeee!" it called, jumping into its trainer's open arms. The two cuddled together, Black Star's clothing drying Tsubaki's tears, but also covering it in its trainer's blood. Black Star buried his face in the soft fur of Tsubaki's head.

"It's okay Tsubaki, I've got you. We've got each other, so everything'll be alright…"

He didn't pay much attention to the groan from beside him. Maka lifted herself off the floor, rubbing her head. "W-what happened…" she mumbled. The last thing she remembered was standing in front of the weird eeveelution hybrid and refusing to release Soul. She looked up to see Black Star drenched in bright red blood. That made her jump to her feet. "Black Star, are you okay?! How did this happen?! I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!"

Black Star looked up and smiled. "Hey, don't worry about it. It was that strange pokemon's fault but he's gone now. Right Tsubaki?"

"Eev."

"See. Don't beat yourself up over it. I'll be fine, I promise!" He laughed.

Maka looked over him. He had looked worse before and recovered. "Okay," she mumbled. She closed her eyes then opened them again. "Hey, you and Tsubaki grew to level 21. Good job! And… wait a second… Tsubaki…" Maka squinted. There seemed to be something new in its box, something fuzzy and hard to make out. "There's something different about her…"

Black Star looked down to his pokemon. Their eyes locked, and it seemed like he realized something. "Tsubaki, baton pass Umbreon."

"Eevee!" The normal type jumped out of its trainer's arms and glowed, turning into said dark type. "Umbre, umbreon."

Black Star and Maka were both amazed. "No way! That's impossible! It's daytime!" Maka exclaimed.

"Oh man, that's so awesomely cool! Baton pass Espeon!"

Tsubaki nodded and glowed into the psychic type. "Espe~" it cooed. Black Star laughed triumphantly while Maka stood speechless.

Their celebration was cut short by a moan. Ryoku was becoming conscious. It took longer since he was under the spell longer. His qwilfish started helping him to his feet. "How long was I out?" he asked groggily.

Black Star shrugged. "A long time," he answered unhelpfully.

"What happened to the thing? Where'd it go?"

"It's gone now. We, well, mostly Black Star, defeated it so now it can't hurt anybody else."

Black Star nodded. "Yeah! Now that we took care of it, all you have to do is get your badges out and get ready for the best battle of your life cause me and my umbreon-"

"Espeon's good against poison types," Maka interrupted.

"Me and my espeon will give you the best damn battle you've ever seen!"

Ryoku looked the two trainers over. "You guys defeated Masamune because you wanted to pokebatte me?" He smiled. "You guys are town heroes!" From inside his bandana he pulled out two dark purple metal pins that were shaped like needles. "You two earned these. And these." he pulled out ten trainer tokens and gave them five each.

Black Star and Tsubaki started jumping up and down in celebration, singing about only needing six more. Maka, on the other hand, was trying to give them back. "No way! Black Star legitimately did all the work, I just found where you were in the cave! I don't deserve this!"

Ryoku smiled at her. "You came in here to try and save me, didn't you? That's heroic enough to deserve a badge. It's the thought that counts, you know? Besides, don't tell anybody this, but I'm really bad at being a gym leader. You would have won anyway."

With a little more convincing, Maka agreed to accept the badge and the three trainers started on their way out of the cave.

\~*~*~*~*~/

With one final fly, Mizune fainted. Johnson fainted long ago, and Infernolf not long after that. Now, Liz and Patty were keeping Free from moving by zapping the floor around him. Kid, with his skateboard, pushed Eruka against one of the rock walls, and had been doing that for what felt like the longest time. "Now, I'll ask again, what do you know about the livid type and black blood? Especially about how to reverse its effects."

Eruka, despite her position, was smiling. She had such a cocky attitude, that was incredibly off-putting to Kid. "What are you going to do? Torture me? I told you, she does worse, and you can't kill me because then you'll really have no chances of getting me to talk."

"Murkrow, use peck." It did just that, but Eruka seemed hardly phased by the attacks.

"Told ya."

The darkness pokemon stopped attacking, since it seemed pretty useless, and it looked to its trainer. "Just tell me, or I can get worse done."

Eruka laughed. "Oh really? That was the worst torure I've ever had, and not worst how torture is supposed to be. My torture is guaranteed to be better."

"Your torture?"

"Of course. It's my turn, reaper boy. We have people who've been watching you without you ever seeing them. I know your nightmares, and no psychic immunity will protect you from these." Eruka looked quite confident as she continued. "We've seen you in pokemon centers, calling your daddy, and crying. You're so desperate to be a big strong reaper man like your daddy, but you're just a pathetic brat that can't do anything right. Some grim Reaper you are." Her smile became eviler as she continued. "I bet your daddy hates you and regrets having you. Especially since you're a freak that can be defeated by anything, no matter how small, if it happens to touch you asymmetrically. Like spit, for example." Eruka spit on Kid, aiming specifically away from the middle of the face.

Kid let out a small scream before trying to scrub it off. That used both his hands, so his skateboard fell, freeing the frog witch. Hearing their trainer in pain, Liz and Patty stopped electrocuting in front of Free and started heading to his aid, but the closer Team Salem member grabbed the two cheering pokemon by the ears before they could get far. They simultaneously shocked him, making him drop them, but they fell onto their faces, buying time.

From her hat, Eruka pulled a pair of scissors, and with them, while Kid was distracted, she cut some of his shirt, once again avoiding the middle. "Plus!" "Min!" Liz and Patty called as they were standing up. They both knew how badly its trainer would handle something like that. Like they expected, Kid froze looking at the hole, then started throwing up blood. It seemed like his nose was bleeding too.

"Jesus Christ… That's an intense reaction…" Free mumbled.

"Free, catch him!"

"Right!" Free stepped over Liz and Patty to catch Kid as he fell unconscious. Eruka grabbed the pokeballs off of his belt and slung them at the two electric types, returning them, then at the dark type that was just kinda flying there not being useful. The three pokeballs went into a sack, so even if they did open, it would be too small to fit the pokemon anyway. They returned their own pokemon.

"Should we wait and catch that absol the boss wanted too?" Free asked. He slung Kid over his shoulder.

"No, she just wants us to watch it. We should g-"

Eruka was cut off by three kid's exclamations of "Team Salem!" In the cave entrance, Maka, Black Star, and Ryoku were standing there, their Pokemon surrounding them.

"Ribbit, this isn't good!" Eruka exclaimed.

"Tsubaki, swift!" "Soul, scratch!" "Qwilfish, sludge bomb!" they called. The three pokemon did just that to the two trainers. The bombardment of moves blasted them and their rattata away (literally), making Free drop Kid and Eruka drop Kid's pokeballs in the process.

"Are you okay?" Ryoku asked Kid. He didn't respond. After getting a good look at him, he realized that he was thoroughly knocked out. There was blood around his incredibly pale face, so he didn't seem like he was in the best shape. "Wow, wait, that's Death's son isn't it?! Grandpa told me about him!"

"Yeah, it is," Maka said.

"I guess he really is useless without us, huh," Black Star said.

Maka looked to Black Star. "I wouldn't say that. Mizune was fainted when we got here, so he probably took care of all their pokemon. But look, his shirt has a hole in it. I'm guessing he got defeated here the same way he did when he battled you."

"He really would have sucked at fighting Masamune," Black Star mumbled.

The two were about to grab their friend and start carrying him to a pokemon center, which they'd had to do more often than they'd ever dreamed of, but Ryoku stopped them. "Guys, I've got this," he said. He returned the qwilfish and threw his second ball into the air. "Come out needle!" Out came this big green platypus with a beaver-like tail made of water. Purple spots liked its fur, especially around its heine legs. It used its lime-green bill to scoop up the fainted boy and drape him over its back.

"What is that?" Black Star asked.

"It's a pol-"

"Polipus," a robotic voice interrupted from Kid's pocket. "A water poison type. Stage 1 evolution of platypoi. Typically evolve into this stage at level 16. Evolves into billutipus at level 36. Polipus's hine legs can no longer handle the growing poison in them, so it becomes a quadrupedal pokemon. It still lives in polluted waters, and tends to prefer that over fresh water."

"Yeah… What it said."

Maka ignored the fact that the gym leader had two pokemon with identical secondary typings. Based on what Kid's pokedex said, which she had no reason to doubt since Kid always put a lot of effort into it, it seemed like the platypoi line was similar to typical starter lines, which have a reputation of being strong. She did need more pokemon after all, and a water poison type would be a good addition to the team.

They all started walking back to the Expiry City pokemon center to heal up. "Where can I get a platypoi?" Maka asked as walked.

Ryoku looked to her. "Oh, there's a bunch in Needle River. I grew up in Needle Village, so Needle here was my first pokemon." He laughed sheepishly. "As you can tell, I wasn't the best at naming. I can give you directions from the pokemon center if you'd like. Needle River is very polluted though, so watch out for that."

The three continued to talk as they walked. Black Star was a bit distracted by the idea of now having an umbreon and espeon, and Maka was distracted by her determination to catch a platypoi. She was going to be the great travelling partner Black Star and Kid deserved. And the great trainer that Soul deserved. She needed to get stronger.

A/N: I stopped calling pokemon 'it' inside Masamune's head because it sounded confusing with both of them being its. I don't know why I feel the need to glue four different episodes together by the way. Anyway, time for my narrator's voice. Now with two gym badges, Maka and Black Star are becoming quite the threats, but Kid still has a ways to go. Will his high levels and good strategies help him become the great trainer he wants to be, or will his liking of symmetry be the end of him? There's only one way to find out! Leave a comment/review (please) and stay tuned as the journey continues!