Chapter 5: Masked Secret

"Mars, you're gonna faint if you let him punch you like that! Try a Magnitude again!" Cody shouted as the little mole popped underground to avoid the Geodude's punch. He made a small tremor in the ground, knocking the legless stone off its balance. The Diglett's attack wasn't that strong, as he had just begun using the move, but it was getting more and more powerful each time.

The entire week had been rather repetitive. Though Cody could have made it to Lahonburg in a week by ground, he took a detour through the Leathron mountains as he searched for a rock-type pokémon. Most of the pokémon he did find were Geodude, though he had spotted a few Nosepass. Thinking of how badass Gordon's Graveler was, catching a Geodude really excited him, but most of the Geodude he encountered would roll off the cliffs to get away from him before he could make the catch.

Food was even more scarce in the mountains than it was in the forests. Trying not to cut into his emergency rations, Cody learned from the hikers how to cook pokémon for food. The idea was bewildering at first. Eating pokémon that could have been potential partners seemed grotesque. Though he had eaten pokémon frequently in the past, it was weird preparing them rather than getting the packaged meat in the store. He hadn't actually caught any for food yet (most of the edible ones would escape anyway) but the hikers he shared meals with showed him how to prepare them. He never stuck around too long with the hikers, though. He never felt like he was in any danger, but his mother would probably yell at him for hanging out with people who could possibly be pedophiles.

His Diglett had gotten a bit tougher and slightly easier to control in battle. Cody had decided to nickname him Mars after the Roman God of war, since his passion for fighting was never quenched. He was still searching for a good nickname for his Squirtle, who had also grown considerably over the week. He was also trying to get the tiny turtle to repeat the Iron Tail from their battle with Heather, but no such luck.

"Dig!" The mole popped out of the craggy cliff, hitting the Geodude with full force. But after the blow, the rock yelped and scrambled to the cliff's edge where it cannonballed to a lower cliff. Cody sighed.

"There goes another one," he said, feeling dejected. The whole week seemed like a waste. He had failed to catch a single pokémon, and he was starving.

Calling Mars back, he continued his way down the mountain. It took him about three hours to get back to ground level, and another hour or so after that to find fresh water. He let his pokémon out to drink while he drank the last few sips from his canteen. He'd have to build a fire later to purify more water, but that wouldn't be till later. While he drank, he noticed his Squirtle playfully splashing Mars, who squeaked angrily at his fellow pokémon. Cody chuckled at this. Despite them being pokémon, they acted like people sometimes, and that was usually pretty adorable.

But the play suddenly ended when both pokémon turned around with a jolt to identify the source of a new sound. Cody turned around to see what had caught their attention. A group of five older looking boys was approaching the water, talking loudly amongst themselves. They looked as if they hadn't been to a city in weeks since their clothes looked slightly dirty and ragged.

"Hey!" Cody called out to them. The one in front noticed him first, and a smirk crossed his face.

"Hey boys, look at what we got here!" The moment those words passed through the older teen's teeth, Cody felt a shiver rush through his skin. Something was wrong with what the guy just said and how he said it. The older boys were now spreading out some, in a semi-circle around him. His Squirtle and Mars stood by his side as if they were waiting for something to happen.

"What's your name, Junior?" the older boy asked.

Cody didn't answer. He could already see that these guys were trouble and he was looking for an escape option.

"Not much of a talker, huh?" The leader said, still smirking. "Why are you out here all alone, buddy?"

Cody reached down and picked up his pack, not breaking eye contact. He decided he'd try to talk his way out of the situation.

"I'm heading to Lahonburg. I gotta get going," but as he tried to walk away, one of the boys blocked his path. The teen who had spoken first grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around, his smirk looking much more devious now.

"Going so soon?" He replied teasingly. "How about a battle first? Then again, you'd probably lose anyway, so you might as well give me the money now." The other boys started chuckling at these words. Cody felt his face go pale at his words, but he wasn't about to hand his money over to the thugs.

"No," he answered firmly. Seconds after saying this, he was pushed to the ground. Both of his pokémon went to where his head had landed, acting in concern as they stood between him and the aggressors. Cody looked around to see that all five boys were standing in a much larger, loose circle around him, laughing even harder at him. The leader wasn't laughing, however.

"No? That wasn't the right answer kid. Now we can do this the easy way…" Ending mid-sentence he grabbed a pokeball from his belt and opened it, releasing a Houndoom. The pokémon looked extremely thin and mangy, but its eyes had a feral look in them as it growled. "Or we can do this the hard way."

At the releasing of his dog, Cody's Squirtle and Mars both started growling and squeaking at the bigger and much stronger pokémon. But that just made the leader laugh.

"Awww, isn't that cute? The babies want to fight me." Then his tone suddenly grew serious. "Even if they were to take out my Houndoom, I still have a Seviper, and my friends have pokémon too. So do what's good for you and toss me your wallet, and we'll go away like a bad dream. What do you say, kiddo?"

Cody felt rage growing inside of him. He knew the logical thing to do would be to hand his money over, but his emotions took over. "Tackle!"

His Squirtle leaped at the dog, and Mars did a burrow rush, but the Houndoom leaped over both of them at Cody, who braced himself for the attack. But it never came. Before the pokémon collided with him, it had bounced back in pain as if it had hit some sort of translucent wall: a Reflect. The boys looked around in confusion, but a voice answered their question.

"Hey now, five against one isn't that fair you know." Cody looked up to see another, much older boy standing on a mound with a Mr. Mime standing next to him. The boy looked about nineteen or so, and he was in pretty good shape. He had black hair in a short mohawk, but the funny thing was that his Mr. Mime's hair was in the same style. The gang of boys was now approaching the newcomer, giving Cody a chance to stand up. But when he tried, he hit his head against the force field that the mime had put up.

"Look punk, we're trying to work here. So get lost or you're next," the leader demanded, but the mohawk teen wouldn't back down.

"Let the kid go and leave. He probably doesn't have much on him anyway." At these words, all of the boys and the Houndoom were now very close to him. The leader was nearly inches away.

"You got a lot of nerve. Do you honestly think that ridiculous looking pokémon of yours can defeat us all?

[Ridiculous!] The voice came out of nowhere, causing everybody except for the mohawk teen to look around. But it suddenly occurred to Cody that it was the Mr. Mime talking through telepathy. His father's Hypno could do the same thing. [May I?]

The teen with the mohawk nodded, and in a second, all of the gang was thrown backward by a psychic force as if they had been tossed. Only the Houndoom wasn't thrown, but it was pushed back some, still growling at the mime.

"No, I don't think Isaac can defeat all of you," the newcomer admitted as the gang struggled to their feet. "But my Alakazam probably can. Now I suggest you all leave because if I choose to release him, all hell is gonna break loose."

There was a silence that lasted for half a minute or so before the leader motioned to his gang to leave. As he passed Cody, he mouthed the word "lucky," his face filled with anger. After they were gone, the force field above Cody dissipated.

"You okay, kid?" the older trainer asked as he helped Cody to his feet. As he did this, Cody noticed that his Squirtle and Mars were examining the Mr. Mime, who was paying more attention to his trainer than them.

"Yeah, I'm okay, but I thought that thing was gonna rip me to shreds. Thanks, man," he replied as he dusted himself off. His heart was still pounding and he felt nervous standing in the clearing.

"There have been a lot more thugs out here lately," the trainer said as he returned to where he was standing earlier pick up his massively oversized backpack. "You really shouldn't be traveling alone out here. It isn't as safe as it used to be."

"You should have let your Alakazam out on them. Maybe they would have learned their lesson if you did," Cody said jokingly, but the trainer shook his head.

"That was a bluff. The only other pokémon I have is a Masquerian, and I probably wouldn't have been able to defeat that Houndoom, due to the elemental coverage. We just got lucky they believed me."

"Well, you had me going too," Cody responded with a chuckle, but the older boy didn't laugh with him. He had a serious look on his face as he observed the area before he looked back to Cody.

"I got a bad feeling about this spot. Let's go back to my campsite. It's safe there and I have a lot of young trainers hanging out with me tonight." He began to head back onto a trail with his Mr. Mime following him. Cody felt a bit nervous about following a stranger back to camp after almost getting mugged, but staying out by himself all of a sudden seemed like a bad idea. He decided that he might as well follow the guy because it seemed like the smarter idea for the time being, even if it did make him anxious.

"So what's your name kid?" the mohawk trainer asked as the two of them walked down the path with their three pokémon following.

"Cody Storm. Yours?"

"Hm… That's an interesting name. Mine's Frank. Frank Berger."

Cody bit his tongue at this. The guy did not look like a Frank at all in his opinion, but he didn't say anything. The man did just save his skin, after all.

"So what are you doing out in the middle the forest like this?" Frank asked.

"Me? I'm heading to Lahonburg and then Tempest Valley. I'm probably going to be taking the gym challenge. You?"

"Well, short-term, me and Isaac were out berry picking, though we haven't had much luck. Long-term… I've been meeting up with younger trainers lately. I'm looking for recruits."

"Recruits? What for?" Cody questioned.

"Team Rocket. We're going to try to build up a Skitrex branch so we can dominate the planet," Frank answered so casually, he sounded believable. At these words Cody stopped and stared at Frank, not knowing what to make of what he had just heard. After a short silence, Frank started laughing. "That was another lie, kid." The two continued walking. "No, it's not that. My organization does a lot of charity work and stuff like that. It's an organization by trainers, for trainers. We've been setting up soup kitchens, raising money for community projects, helping young trainers get on their feet. Things like that."

"Oh, that sounds cool," Cody replied. "What do you mean by 'getting trainers on their feet'?" he asked. He remembered that ranger who registered his trainer's license talking about trainers who were struggling, so perhaps Frank would fill in the gaps.

"Well Cody, there have been a lot more problems lately," Frank answered in a more serious tone. "Crime rate has gone up in Skitrex, especially with your demographic of kids becoming trainers. I didn't actually start training pokémon until a few months ago, but back when I was a few years younger than you are now, kids who became trainers usually became trainers because they wanted too. A lot of people your age still do, but it's different now."

"What, you mean like the people who become trainers out of necessity?" Cody questioned, remembering what the ranger who set up his license told him.

"I wouldn't call it necessity, per say, because there are other options, but yes, you got the right idea," Frank answered, nodding. "You see, being a trainer has been really glamorized by the media in the past few years. You see relative nobodies winning the Diamond Beach Tournament or at least putting on a good show, and suddenly, everybody thinks it's easy to get there. It really isn't. The odds of anybody even making it that far are scary slim, but all of a sudden, you have a bunch of kids with low GPAs, or kids with little cash in their pockets, or kids who just get sucked into the craze running out and becoming trainers without the foggiest clue of what they're doing. Unfortunately, most of them end up crashing and burning. Some of them have homes and families to return to, but others don't. And then they get involved in crime."

"What kind of crime?" Cody asked though he could already get a few guesses.

"Mostly drugs, theft, prostitution, gang involvement. That sort of thing." He paused for a moment as he picked a few pecha berries off a bush, storing them in the berry bag he was carrying. "Those guys that attacked you… They were obviously poor. They were probably a bunch of dropouts who tried to make it big as trainers. And though that Houndoom that the one guy had looked tough, it probably was poorly trained. More like a rabid dog than a loyal hound."

"Wait, you're not sympathizing with those thugs, are you?" Cody asked. Frank shook his head.

"What they did was wrong, but I do pity them. They are the sort of example I hope we can put an end to. That's what I mean by getting trainers started. We get kids who don't have a clue about training and teach them the basics so that they can handle what's out there while providing them with a bit of stability. Get it?"

"Yeah, I hear you," Cody replied as he picked a pair of oran berries off a bush and tossed them back to his Squirtle and Mars.

"Another thing," Frank added softly. "It would have been smarter to give those guys the money they wanted. If I hadn't shown up, I doubt you would have left unscarred. Your pokémon don't look tough enough to fight in a life or death situation. Your life is far more important than a dollars."

"I know, I know," Cody answered. "I just lost control. I was getting too angry too fast." He felt foolish because the older trainer was right.

"Now I can tell by talking to you," Frank continued, "that you aren't poor, and you definitely seem smart enough to handle yourself. So you must have some idea of what you're going to do. But you should really consider working with our brotherhood. You could probably help a lot of younger trainers and still be on the path to collecting badges if you choose to do that. Think about it for me, eh?" By this point, the sound of other teens was growing. Cody could see a bunch of kids his age eating in a clearing with their pokémon while a fire was cooking a large pot of stew.

"Well," Cody said as he inhaled the aroma of the food. It smelled like boiled Starly. "I'll think about it. But you're going to have to tell me more about it."

"Obviously. Not right now, but soon," Frank agreed before wandering off into the group of trainers.

Cody looked around at the other trainers at FRank's campsite. There were about fifteen of them or so, all around his age, give or take a few years. About ten of them looked poor, which Cody made the assumption of by looking at their clothes, which looked pretty worn. A few of them didn't have that look. But as he gave them an overview, his vision halted at one girl. It was Heather. She hadn't noticed him yet, as she was talking with another girl while her Pidgey fluttered about her shoulder. He was about to walk up to her when her heard Frank calling him.

"Hey Cody! Before you mingle, you wanna battle real quick? None of these rookies can match me."

"Sure, man!" Cody called back, knowing that he probably couldn't match Frank either, but he'd give it a spin. The two walked over to an open patch of ground while the other trainers watched. As Frank was busy chatting with another boy, Cody opened his field guide and looked up Mr. Mime battle tactics.

Like many psychic-types, Mr. Mime have human-level intelligence, acting out of logic and reason rather than instinct. They prefer to battle in a defensive style by setting up multiple invisible walls and creating substitutes of themselves to absorb attacks, but their psychic attacks are strong as well. However, they typically have weak frames and can easily fall to a strong physical attack.

"Looks like we got a real test on our hands, boys," Cody told his pokémon, both of which were overly eager to battle. His Squirtle looked ready to launch himself into the frey, while Mars had that look of fury on his face.

"Cody, since they both look ready to roll, you want to have a double battle? Your two pokémon against Isaac and Wendy!" Frank suggested.

The challenge made him a bit antsy. His pokémon had yet to win a double battle, due to their inability to cooperate and his inability to split his mind. But he wasn't gonna turn it down.

"Sure, Frank! It's your funeral!" He said with cockiness. And then it began. Squirtle and Mars stepped up to the field to face the mohawk Mr. Mime and the fluttering Masquerian.

"Okay guys, listen up! Mars, use-" before he finished his sentence, Mars was already earth charging at Mr. Mime at high speed. But the mime wouldn't move.

"Isaac, barrier!" Before Mars could even hit the mime, it knocked against an invisible wall, causing him to squeak in pain. He was then knocked back by Isaac's psychic blast, but he regained his footing and started to charge again.

"Mars, you have to liste-" Cody stopped in mid-sentence and looked at his Squirtle, who hadn't moved yet. It was staring at the Masquerian with fear. The pokémon's wings were flapping at high speeds, creating the image of an eye in the air. The little turtle was intimidated. "You need to snap out of it Squirtle! Bubble!" The little pokémon regained his courage, dodging the Masquerian's Quick Attack just in time before shooting a blast of bubbles at the flying foe who easily flew out of the way before sending a gust of wind his way. It hit his Squirtle directly in the chest, but he landed on his feet and tried to tackle the bug, but to no avail.

"Isaac, reflect!"

The Mr. Mime erected a translucent field around the Masquerian and she used it to tackle Cody's Squirtle with a reinforced strike. The turtle tried to counter it with a Tackle of his own, but he bounced off the wall that the mime had created. Frank's plan was tightly knit thus far. Cody turned his attention back to Mars, who was dodging Isaac's blasts while trying to get around the barrier. That gave Cody an idea.

"Mars, you gotta dig under the field!"

The mole went underground and popped up on the other side of the forcefield almost instantly, knocking the mime off his feet by reemerging under his foot. Mars followed this strike up by headbutting the enemy in the chest. All of a sudden, Isaac's lack of focus caused the Masquerian's shield to fall. Before hearing a command, Cody's Squirtle took his chance and tackled the bug, causing her to crash to the earth.

At the sight of what had happened, the surrounding trainers began to cheer. Cody could here Heather chanting his name, but he wouldn't let that disturb his focus. He could potentially win the battle if his pokémon started to work in synch.

"Wendy, get back into the air! Isaac, protect her!" But as the bug pokémon rose off the ground, the Squirtle spayed her down with a blast of water before the forcefield went up again. Suddenly, a new idea was formed.

"Squirtle, tackle her again! Mars, Magnitude!" As his Squirtle hopped into the air to strike the Masquerian again, Mars created a violent tremor, causing everybody in the surrounding area to stumble. It wasn't a strong Magnitude, but it was enough for the Mr. Mime to lose his focus, allowing the turtle to tackle the Masquerian. But moments after, the Mime shot a Psybeam at Mars, who took the move directly in the face, knocking the little Diglett unconscious.

"Good job, Mars! Return!" Cody called back the fallen mole to his pokeball. He looked back at his Squirtle, who had barely taken any hits so far. He still had to face a weakened Masquerian and a crafty Mr. Mime. The odds were against him. "Squirtle, charge!"

The little pokémon charged the mime while dodging a Silver Wind that Wendy blew at him. Isaac immediately set up a force field, but Cody expected this.

"Squirtle, jump onto the barrier, then tackle the bug!" The little pokémon obeyed, bouncing of the shield like an acrobat and striking the Masquerian with Iron Tail, rather than Tackle. Cody was amazed at this occurrence happening again, but he beamed with pride as the bug smashed against the earth, before being called back by her trainer. It was now Squirtle versus Isaac. The mime looked on with an intimidating glare. The tiny turtle tried to return the look with his own, but it was too cute to be intimidating

"You're doing great Cody, but you can't handle Isaac in a one on one setting!" Frank called out. He was right of course. It would be very hard for Squirtle to hit the mime if he kept setting up force fields. Maybe it would be better to bring the fight to Squirtle.

"Tail Whip!"

His Squirtle flipped around and tried to taunt the Mr. Mime with his tail, but it didn't work. Cody suddenly remembered what the book said about Mr. Mime being logical. It probably knew better than to fall for a trick like that.

"Confusion!"

With a wave of his hands, the Mime set up psychic waves in the air before Squirtle. The little turtle grunted and ran straight through, though his motions grew slower as he ran. He managed to tackle the Mime, but he swayed from the after affects of the Confusion. Taking the opportunity, Mr. Mime suddenly split into two mimes at his trainer's command.

"Squitle, Water Gun!"

The turtle aimed a watery blast at the first mime he saw, but it vanished as the attack hit. He was then knocked off his feet by a cluster of colored leaves that Isaac shot from afar. The slicing of the leaves really injured Squirtle as he weakly looked on to his foe, who still had energy to burn. The places where the leaves had hit looked extremely bruised under the trickles of blood. The grass-type attack had really done its work on the Squirtle, but he was still standing.

"Water Gun again!"

"Psybeam, Isaac!"

Both moves collided in the center of the field. It looked like one of those scenes from an anime when two powerful beams collided before one gave out. It was Squirtle's Water Gun that was quickly overpowered, and he was hit straight on by the Psybeam, causing him to pass out.

"Good job, Squirtle," Cody said sadly as he returned the fallen turtle to his ball. Some of the trainers were now applauding the battle's end. Frank was patting his Mr. Mime's back before walking up to Cody to shake his hand.

"I knew you were something, Storm. That was an excellent battle for a beginner. Your Diglett needs to be a bit more disciplined, but your Squirtle is pretty damn clever," he stated as they shook hands. "If you get a training plan together, I'm sure you could easily take on the gyms."

"Thanks, Frank. That was fun," Cody replied, but his mind was suddenly elsewhere. Mostly focused on the stew that was still cooking.

"You got a lot better in just one week," Heather commented as she and Cody were slurping the stew that had been dished out. "Your Squirtle seems to be very into battling now."

The Squirtle was leaning against his trainer's leg, slurping bits of the mysterious soup from Cody's spoon when the trainer lowered it to his level. Mars, Feathers, and Nadine (a female Nidoran and Heather's newest pokémon) were a few feet away searching for fallen scraps of food while Somnos the Poliwag snored as he slept on Heather's lap. According to his trainer, her first pokémon was always sleeping.

"Yeah, we've been battling hikers nonstop all week, and he's grown a lot tougher. I guess absorbing all those hits has turned him into a little fortress of energy." Suddenly, Cody's eyes lit up. "You know… that sounds like a good nickname, eh?"

Heather shook her head. "Nah, it sounds too much like Forretress."

"Well, what are other words for fortress?" Cody asked.

"Am I your dictionary now?" She played along regardless. "There's castle, stronghold, bastion-"

"Stop!" Cody interrupted. "I kind of like the name Bastion. I mean, it sounds awesome and it's fitting for a Blastoise, don't you think?"

"I don't know Cody, it sounds too much like 'bastard'. Do you really want that sort of resemblance?" Heather asked, but she was answered with a nod.

"Considering how often he likes to spray me with water, I would say Bastard is a pretty good nickname too."

Heather just laughed at this.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that funny," he responded modestly, but then he began to laugh too. His Squirtle looked up at him as if he knew he was the subject of the conversation. After that, the two of them drank the stew in silence. In the midst of his slurps, he took quick glances at Heather. She looked very attractive, especially with the firelight dancing on her face. But after doing this a few times she caught him staring at her. Both suddenly turned their heads away in embarrassment. After a minute, Cody spoke again.

"So, how did you meet up with Frank?" he finally asked.

"Me? Well, we met when I was training Nadine today. He told me that it was unsafe for a girl to be alone out here. At first, I thought that he was just being chauvinistic, but maybe he's right," she said as she stared into the fire. It was still burning brightly under the stew pot.

"He's right. Nobody should be out here alone," Cody replied as Mars jumped out of the earth onto his lap. Cody began to run an old comb through his pokémon's knotted fur, cleaning him up a little bit.

Heather turned her face to him. "What happened?" she asked curiously.

"I almost got mugged by these older guys and their Houndoom. If it hadn't been for Fran-"

"What!" Heather exclaimed, half in shock, half in anger. A few trainers turned their heads, but turned back seconds later. "What the hell? You're okay, right?"

"Whoa chill, I'm fine," Cody answered her, half laughing. The way her facial expressions had suddenly changed was amusing.

"But what if you run into them again? Or other guys like them? Did you tell your parents?"

"Would you?" Cody asked in a flat tone. "It took me so long to convince my folks to let me get out here. You obviously just convinced yours. I mean, you wouldn't want to just go home after one incident, right?"

"Right…" Heather replied in a calmer tone. Her eyes were no longer in contact with his. "About that… I did what you told me to try. You know… talking with my parents again… they said no, so I… I kinda took off anyway." As she ended her confession, she looked up with a guilty smile. But Cody returned it with a look of shock.

"Wait… you left without their consent?" he asked. "Please don't tell me I convinced you to do this. I didn't want to-"

"No, I just felt like waiting any longer would suck," she answered, blushing a little. "Though you did give me that boost. But I left a note and everything. I just know that when I finally do get reception on my cell, my voicemail is going to be bursting with angry calls."

"And you seemed like such a sweet little girl," Cody teased. "But I don't know what to think of you anymore now that you're running away from home."

"Oh please, you don't know the half of it," she giggled. They both started laughing again before they continued chatting. He felt a weird warmth talking with her. She was friendly, pretty, and a little bit crazy, but not so much that he'd fear for his wellbeing. He liked that.

The fire soon fell to glowing coals, and people began to sleep while several trainers were taking the first watch. Frank had told the group that he would tell them more about the organization in the morning, and he too fell asleep. After setting up his sleeping bag and letting his pokémon crawl in with him, Cody drifted off to sleep as well.

He awoke again in a dark room with no light or sound, far away from the camp where he had slept. Where was he?

"Am I dreaming?" he asked out loud. No, it couldn't be. He could never tell that he was dreaming until he woke up. Was he having a lucid dream? He had never had one of those before.

If it was a lucid dream, he assumed that he'd have some modicum of control. But despite all his mental effort, nothing in that dark room changed and he felt stupid for trying. It was all too strange. Suddenly, he heard movement behind him. He jolted around, but saw nothing there. But then two hands tightly clutched his shoulders. Paralyzed with fear, all he heard was a deep whisper in his left ear.

"I finally found you!"

"NO!" Cody sat up in his sleeping bag with a sudden jolt, sweat dripping down his face. Breathing heavily, he tried to calm himself.

It was only a bad dream. Nothing more.

His pokémon had woken with his sudden jolt, but they drifted back to sleep when they saw that nothing was wrong. Cody looked around the campsite to see that nobody was awake. Apparently, whoever was supposed to be taking the watch at that time was slacking off.

I need to clear my head, he thought to himself as he stood up and walked around, careful not to step on anyone as he staggered around the site. But suddenly, he tripped over a large backpack. Sitting up, he realized it belonged to Frank, who was snoring like an Ursaring in hibernation. Fumbling in the darkness, he began to put the spilled contents of the pack back into their proper places. But as he was doing this, he felt something round in the pack. It didn't feel like it belonged there. Curiosity suddenly sprung up in his mind.

Do I really want to be snooping through his stuff? he asked himself, but without waiting for his conscious to answer, he pulled the object in question out of the bag. It was a helmet. Sort of like a motorcycle helmet, but not quite the same. It had odd ridges on it. And the visor looked an awful lot like the visors on…

Cody covered his mouth to silence his gasp. It couldn't be… Not in Skitrex…

I have to get out of here, he thought to himself, and he scrambled back to his place as quickly and silently as possible. Calling his pokémon back to their balls, he packed up all of his supplies and sleeping bag before pulling out his flashlight. He'd need it in the dark. But as he started to leave the camp, he looked back at the sleeping Heather. I can't leave her here.

He fell to his knees and lightly shook her awake. "Heather, wake up," he whispered urgently.

"Ugh… what is it, Cody? I was having a good dream." She sighed groggily.

"Yeah, lucky you. Look, I need to show you something but you can't make a sound. Okay?"

"Can it wait until morning?" she sighed.

"No. Come with me." He grabbed her wrist and almost dragged her over to Frank's pack since she wouldn't walk. "Look at that," he said, pointing to the helmet.

Heather blinked. "It looks like a Cipher helmet."

"It IS a Cipher helmet. We got to get out of here now! Pack your stuff and let's run." He told her with fear in his voice. Though she was waking up now, she still seemed too calm.

"Wait, Cody… There has to be a good reason for this. Frank seems like such a good guy. I mean, he saved your life and all. Maybe this is a mistake."

"Maybe your right…" Cody replied. His voice was less harsh. "But I'm not going to risk this. You saw all that stuff the Cipher did in Orre. They're fucking psychos. We need to leave before we find out what kind of organization he's getting us into."

"Okay," Heather said reluctantly. "But what about everybody else? Should we wake them too?"

Cody looked around at the other trainers. He wanted to help them, but he knew he couldn't. "Look, I'm afraid if we try to show them all, we'll make too much noise and wake up Frank. We need to hope that they figure things out on their own."

"Cody, if your right about this… we can't just leave them here."

Cody knew what to do. He placed the helmet on the ground. "Hopefully they'll see it in the morning. It's all we can safely do for now."

"But what if they don't? What if he wakes up first and knows that we did it if we're gone?" she whispered, flustered.

"I don't know… we'll be long gone. Now get your stuff packed. We have to leave before anybody else wakes up."

In a few minutes, the two of them were running through the forest with only the light of Cody's flashlight as a guide, holding hands so that they wouldn't get separated. They kept running for about an hour before they reached a highway overpass. It wasn't the safest place to hide, but it would be the smartest place, since they would be able to find out where they were in the morning via the map. In fear that danger could come at any moment, the two didn't set up their sleeping bags, but fell asleep on the ground, ready to run at any moment's notice. Neither of them had the energy to stand watch, so they let their pokémon out of their pokeballs, hoping that they'd be ready for whatever threats emerged.

This chapter was edited on 1/7/18. There may still be continuity or grammatical errors. If you notice any, please alert me in a review or a private message.