A sudden pounding of the ground awoke Inteleon from his peaceful sleep. Well, he considered it peaceful whenever this so-called group of his were arguing in the middle of the night, but this was a different set of circumstances. The Obstagoon and the Salazzle were fighting, sending flames and a Dark Pulse towards each other. "Damn it...

"Everyone calm down!"

The Salazzle didn't pay attention to Inteleon's direction and proceeded to charge at her other teammate, the Obstagoon. Inteleon grunted before tackling his teammate and holding her down. "Lilith, be still! Use words, not actions!"

Lilith could be seen squirming while being pinned, seething before the two other Pokémon there. "I have a right to be angry! That Dark-type we called boss literally abandoned us, with no resources in this grassland! I'm starving right now...!"

The Inteleon shook his head before letting her go. "Look, I get that Darkrai betrayed us. It sucks that the leader of your regime thinks you're not worthy for them." He crossed his arms before noticing a shadow in the distance. "But we're gonna have to live with it for now. Come on!"

The Obstagoon stood there confused for a few seconds before finally asking. "Why are you suddenly leaving? We just woke up, let us at least eat breakfast before—."

"No!" Inteleon retorted before cocking his head at the Obstagoon. "Don't you even realize that we're being hunted because of knowledge of the Darkness? And there's a Pokémon—."

Sudden booms could be heard in the distance as Lilith started slamming a Superior one hole to another, making it take damage quickly. The two of them just stood there, watching her drag the Grass type to a nearby tree. "What? I saw him sneaking up on us and decided to attack him."

Inteleon blinked before sighing. "Just... Place him in a nearby tree and we'll integrate him."

"Chris! We have a problem!"

I opened my eyes to notice Grookey looking down at a Pokémon. It was a yellow, female Riolu with her back against the bark of our tree. Two hooded figures slowly approached the creature before my eyes widened. "Man, I've never seen a shiny Riolu before," I mumbled while standing up. I was still in my Leafeon form, so I looked at Grookey before smirking. "Time for your first lesson in battling."

I jumped down the branch to land in front of the Riolu, startling everyone. "Hello there."

One of the hooded figures recognizes my dark leaves before grabbing a Pokéball. There already was another figure holding a Great Ball of his or her own. "Oh my, we have another shiny. The boss is certainly gonna love this."

"And that's when you're wrong." I let out a growl as glowing light green leaves flew itselves towards the figures, making them drop the Pokéballs. "Riolu run!" I didn't need to tell her twice, as she bolted down the open plain. "That's our exit Grookey!"

As he hopped off, he didn't even ask what move I did. He just stared at me before yelling loudly, "What type of lesson was that?!"

"The obvious one: running away is better than fighting. You took my notebook, right?"

He showed the paperback book, making me sigh of relief. We had to run about 20 minutes to catch up to the Riolu, and another half hour to find one bush that the three of us could hide in. "You didn't need to do that."

Grookey and I turned to the yellow Riolu, hiding in the corner of the bush. "Yes I did," I simply responded. "I'm pretty sure those... Hunters I guess they are called—they're not catching you for the heck of it, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah... And they're not hunters. I'm pretty sure they're, like, from a gang." The Riolu stood up to describe what was under the hoodies. They were apparently wearing skin-tight suits with an orange R in the middle of their chests. They also had weird hairstyles, but she couldn't describe them. "Worse of all, they took my parents..."

I was about to react when Grookey did it for me. "What?! That's terrible. Chris we gotta help her!" He could notice me looking my head down at the grass. "Chris?"

"I can't do it... That Magical Leaf was my strongest move, and I'm pretty sure that whoever those gangsters were, probably had stronger Pokémon than me and Grookey." I seriously felt bad for the Riolu, especially since she was considered an orphan...

Grookey placed a paw in his chin before looking back at me. "Do you at least think she can join our team?"

"Team?" The shiny Riolu tilted his head before adding the detail, "Teams are only for humans, Pokémon trainers." I agreed to that point before gripping the white orb hanging on my neck making me glow white. Both Pokémon cringed before opening their eyes to look at my human form.

"Ta da?"

The only female in the bush jumped out startled. "What the? H-How are you..." We had to explain everything to her. Each statement I said either confused, made her chuckle with a cold laugh, or just interested her even further. She thought to herself for a few moments before nodding. "Okay, so let me ask you a question. Are you going to worry about doing other stuff before finding my family?"

I had to put some thought into that question. "Well, consider it like this. Grookey and I need to grow stronger. If you join my team, I'll help you grow strong enough to defeat those gangsters. Maybe find out why they took your parents in the first place."

...I wanna just write about the present now. The Riolu said yes. She didn't want to be in the Pokéball for now, but she eventually agreed to be in it for tomorrow's opening ceremony in Monostoke. As for me, I need to ask someone about those "gangsters" with people wearing Rs in their chest. But that's for another day...

You know what, I'm gonna name the Riolu... Kate. She seems like a Kate to me.

CC out!