Arceus was staring off to the side of the wall, only to hastily turn around as Mew floated over and tapped his head, pointing to the machine. He cleared his throat awkwardly and recomposed himself.

"So, for the start of chapter eleven, we have the mandatory information about our newcomers, and then we transition into what I can only assume is a dream."

"Where am I?"

Jack couldn't tell, but it looked like he was underwater. He tried to move around, but he couldn't; it was like he wasn't in control of his body. His mind was cloudy, and he couldn't think straight enough to wonder why he wasn't drowning. Then, he felt something; a presence, touching his mind.

"HELP ME!"

Jack shot out of bed, and only missed the ceiling by inches. Landing on his feet, he looked around quickly before remembering where he was; the Pokémon Centre in Eterna City. He glanced at the clock; it read 2:19 AM. Everyone else was still asleep, except for Lucy; she was looking sadly out the window, but his abrupt awakening caught her undivided attention.

"What are you doing up?" she asked, with tears still in her eyes, "can't a girl get any peace and quiet around here?"

"Never mind your obvious distress and the fact that you just woke up like you were training for the Olympic High Jump and haven't said anything to me. Now let me mope in peace!" Mew just shook her head at Arceus' latest impersonation. The Alpha Pokémon's eyes trailed her for a moment, but he redirected his attention.

"Afterwards we delve into Lucy's thoughts for a bit, where she mulls over her cruel treatment and continual betrayal at the hands of her previous trainers, and how she sees some of that fear and vulnerability in Jack. She still doesn't trust him, but can you really blame her after being Paul's Pokémon, and Jack himself ponders his 'dream', and sings a hymn to comfort himself. Ultimately, this causes the Absol to break down into tears."

They sat there for a long time as Lucy told her story. She couldn't remember much of her childhood, except that she had a mother, father, and older brother who had always loved her. But one day, her mother went off to gather berries, but never returned. Not long after, a group of people, who she now knew were poachers, found her den and shot her father. They then caged the two of them and sold them to different trainers on the black market. She never saw her brother again.

For years and years she was passed from one trainer to another; each one abandoned her, each one pretended to be kind just to get her to come with them, and each one had proved to be worse than the last. Sometimes their other pokémon were sympathetic towards her, but more often they viewed her as little more than a nuisance, and sometimes they mistreated her worse than the trainer. Eventually, she wound up in a pokémon daycare after her last trainer had abandoned her for being weak.

Six months she stayed there, and she made plenty of friends. It was the best time she could remember, until the day she got 'adopted' by Paul. None of her 'friends' tried to help her, none of them cared that she was leaving. This last event, and the torture she endured at Paul's hands, firmly cemented in her mind that she couldn't trust anyone. No one cared about her.

By the end of the tragic tale, Jack was crying softly as well. He pulled Lucy into a warm hug.

"All of that is in the past," he assured her, "Nothing but a bad memory, it can't hurt you anymore. All that matters now is the future."

Lucy snuggled into his embrace, and cried on his shoulder, "Sometimes, I just don't see anything worth living for."

"You have me now."

"You'll hurt me eventually, everyone has."

Arceus just stared at the screen silently, while Mew looked on curiously.

"Aren't you going to say anything, Arcy?" the white and black Pokémon shook his head.

"It would be cruel of me to, Mew," he then cleared his throat. "The chapter ends soon after, Jack reassuring Lucy that he has no ill intents, and Jason later finding the two asleep. Afterwards, they head to the Eterna Gym."

"THREE ON THREE, AND ONLY THE CHALLANGER IS ALLOWED TO SUBSTITUTE POKKÉMON. THE BATTLE WILL BE OVER WHEN ALL POKÉMON ON ONE SIDE ARE UNABLE TO BATTLE. BEGIN!"

As before, the referee's voice rang out signifying the start of the battle. Jack's adrenalin surged, there was nothing like a battle to get him pumped (even when he wasn't the one fighting).

Gardenia smirked at him, "I heard you beat Roark's Rampardos with one pokémon."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration," he replied,

"I just used one of my Pokemon as live bait like the caring trainer I am and then beat Roark's signature Pokémon with only one of my own."

The gym leader laughed at this, "spoken like a true warrior, but you won't get past me so easily. Turtwig, go!"

"You think it was easy? Katana, you're up!"

Katana's ability is Technician. Her moves are Fury Cutter, Vacuum Wave, Agility, and Quick Attack.

Arceus sighed.

"Is there any reason you have to interrupt the flow of the story to tell us the Pokémon's moves? If it's important enough to include it in the story, you could have just placed it at the beginning of the chapter in that section you have set aside for information on newcomers, and if it's relevant enough to the battle, or the reader wants to know enough, they can always just scroll back up to the top."

The equine Pokémon shook his head. "Regardless, one trading of vaguely described attacks later, and... Katana is the one to get knocked out by a mere Turtwig?"

Arceus blinked in confusion, and he turned around and looked at Mew for confirmation. The Psychic Type only gave a non-committal shrug before preforming a back-flip midair. The pseudo-deity turned back to the computer slowly.

"I... I don't quite understand how that's possible. But, regardless, Jason steps up to the bat." Arceus snorted.

"Please. A basic, unevolved starter Pokémon just easily took down a Pokémon who has some of the strongest attack and speed stats, not to mention a double type advantage, while retaining most of it's health. What makes you think your outcome will be any bet-"

Turtwig, sensing exactly what Jason wanted him to sense, charged in with one more Tackle.

And ran right into Counter.

"Well... I suppose it's not entirely a Deus Ex Machina since it was Counter, but still..."

Gym leader's Turtwig fainted. Gym leader Gardenia is about to send in Cherrim; would you like to switch pokmon?

Arceus looked around the room, before blinking in realization and turning back to the computer with a sheepish, hollow laugh.

"Oh, I'm sorry, we're you talking to me? I thought I was reading a book that occasionally becomes a script for a minute, my bad." The Legendary's gaze hardened.

"Now, in all seriousness, I have to question the logic behind this. The author actually did a pretty good job of describing Jason and Turtwig's battle, and I found myself enjoying it. Unless if constantly interrupting the flow of the story is one of its themes, I don't understand why this was put here. The battle moves on regardless, and Jason engages Cherrim who also... seems to know more moves than is legally allowed."

The Normal Type sighed again. "Frankly, Ash Ketchum could fall out of the sky at this point and I wouldn't so much as blink."

Mew grinned, rubbing her paws together, but immediately adopted a more innocent, nervous smile when Arceus turned around pointedly.

"And, more onomatopoeia later, Jason is unconscious and Cherrim is dru- confused as a result of Petal Dance."

As Jack carried his brother back behind the field, the other pokémon stared at each other with shock and fear on their faces. First Katana, and now Jason? Who was this girl, that she could take out the strongest of them with only one pokémon knocked out?

"As out there as this might sound, it's possible that she just might be a Gym Leader with years worth of experience. Ah, but never mind that; just send out the newest and weakest member of your team!" The Alpha Pokémon let out a grunt.

"To the author's credit, Aura volunteered, and Jack didn't want to send her out, while the referee, dutifully fulfilling his job of being a patient, observant and fair judge, cut him off and made the decision for him. Maybe he just assumed that it was only a formality at this point, as this situation seems to be entirely unsalvageable for Jack and-"

Jack stared in horror at the sight of Aura on the battlefield, but once again he was too slow. Cherrim, who had recovered from its confusion, launched a Solarbeam at the young pokémon. However, Jack's horror quickly changed to one of pure amazement as Aura easily dodged the attack, and then shot in at incredible speed and tackled Cherrim right in the face.

Following up by pushing off of Cherrim, spinning through the air, and landing in the exact place where she started, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust and a knocked out Cherrim to show that she had ever moved at all.

Gardenia recalled her pokémon with a look of shock that mirrored Jack's, "what... just happened?"

Aura turned to Jack with a smirk, "I told you I could handle it, now are we going to do this or not?"

Jack's look of shock, slowly turned into a wide grin and a bellowing laugh. "Alright then, let's finish this!"

Arceus cleared his throat and began imitating Jack. "I finally got out my Deus Ex Machina for the chapter and I'm not blowing it! I have to keep up this improbable winning streak somehow!"

"And," the Legendary began, his voice reverting to normal. "In the most logical manner possible, Aura manages to best Gardenia's Roserade. Jack returns to the Pokémon Center, and naturally asks the question about the improbability of the outcome that is on the mind of every reader, but rather than get an answer, we're met with a cliffhanger."

Aura stared up at Jack from her perch in his arms. After the display at the Eterna gym, Jack wanted some answers.

"What was that back at the gym?" He asked.

Aura looked at him innocently, "I don't know what you are talking about."

(Michael Palin: Look, I can see you on the wire!)

Jack sighed, "Aura, why didn't you ever tell us? You never train with us, even when Wendy does her cute face at you; and now you just explode with power out of nowhere. What's going on?"

Aura stared at him for a while. It was hard for her to look dignified when Jack was carrying her in his arms like a baby, and after a while she gave up.

"Fine," she sighed, sounding much older suddenly, "I wanted to make sure that you wouldn't use me like Paul used Lucy. I didn't want to reveal my power to you because I thought you might... I don't know, treat me like a tool and not a friend. I know now that I was sorely mistaken; and you preparing to forfeit the battle rather than, 'put your friends in harm's way' as I believe you said it, put the final nail in my fear's coffin."

Arceus gave a nod in approval. "I could point out how Aura doesn't have much logical reason to suspect Jack of anything, but it's clear that she's still a child, and fear can still easily dictate her trust. So, while this isn't the most logical reason, it's still the best reason, as it not only builds her character, but provides realism for it. Aura falls asleep soon after, reaffirming that she is still very much a child, and Jack is left pondering such until;"

*Scream!*

The equine Pokémon rolled his eyes. "I'd rather not."

Wendy was in trouble.

(Newman: Oh, the humanity! Oh, the humanity!)

"And Jack, once again displaying his superhero side, quickly races to rescue the Kirlia from the insidious evils of a... trainer legitimately trying to catch a technically wild Pokémon." Arceus blinked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm suspecting this story is starting to turn into a parody of itself given that it seems the author is making fun of the flaws of his own premise and character. Regardless, Jack manages to convince the trainer who capture Lucy, Nicholas, to release her after a bit of testimony on Gardenia's part. And, seeing as how we're addressing the obvious issues with Jack's upbringing and methods, the fact that he's also flat broke comes up too, in which Gardenia offers him a job at the gym. Jack accepts, and Nicholas, who Jack deems is indeed a good trainer, departs."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, CAPTURED?!"

Lucy tried to calm down the irate lucario, "calm down Jason, no one got hurt, not even me."

"But you could have been; what if Jack had been slower? He would never have known what had happened to you, or Wendy."

At this, Aura piped up, "That's a good question, why wasn't Jack slower? He was running faster than me!"

Everyone, including Jason, stared at her, then at Jack. They had all seen how fast Aura could go.

She continued, "the only way he could have gone that fast, was by using Extremespeed just like I do. But to my knowledge, Jack couldn't use Extremespeed this morning."

Jack suddenly realized that she had diverted the conversation away from the other events of the day, and unfortunately so did Jason.

"We'll figure that out later," Jason ruthlessly pulled everyone away from the red herring, "for right now I want to know exactly what happened."

Arceus maintained his deadpan. "I'm guessing that two rare Pokémon were casually taking a stroll through a large city in the least inconspicuous manner possible, and, by some strange, improbable coincidence, a trainer happened to spot them. And that is confirmed two expositions later, one of which could give Zorua a run for his money, and Jason comes up with what any rational person would have."

Jason sifted through the relevant information, and came up with a conclusion, "none of this would have happened if you had given us pokéballs. If a pokémon is linked to a pokéball, then it can't be caught again. All of this could have been avoided."

His words hit Jack like a hammer blow; was all this his fault?

"And what's worse," Jason continued, "is that it could easily happen again at any time. From what I can figure, lucario, absol, kirlia, and especially dratini, are considered quite rare. Any trainer would give an arm and a leg to have us, and anybody with a pokéball could try."

"Of course, there's also the issue of letting your Pokémon run around town completely unsupervised, but that's still the most pressing at the moment. And after a bit of character-building debate, Jack is left with the dilemma of choosing what he knows beyond a shadow of doubt is right and that everyone is telling him is for the best, and what he feels might be wrong in some irrelevant way given that everyone is already willingly following him." Mew floated up, crossing her arms as she did her best to shot a glare at the Legendary. Arceus merely rolled his eyes.

"Still, it's good that this bothers Jack. It best displays his character that he has to think this over even as the evidence is insurmountable. Afterwards, Katana and Lucy get into an argument, and Lucy sulks away after a particularly stinging comment to go find Jack. The other Pokémon conclude, that with night falling and their trainer now missing, it would be the perfect time to go to bed."

Jason said one last thing before sleep overtook him,

"I hope that Jack and Lucy are alright..."

Arceus' red eyes narrowed. "But not enough to actually do anything else than just wonder aloud and fall asleep. It's not like your Jack's adoptive brother who has an unspoken obligation to stand by him and support him or at least show some concern or anything."

He just walked.

And as he walked, he thought about whether putting his friends in pokéballs was really wrong, or whether he was just being stubborn, narrow-minded, and selfish. Yes, selfish. His logic was, that if he didn't have legitimate reasons to hate the idea, then what reason did he have? Maybe he was maintaining his position on the matter out of completely selfish reasons; he didn't know. What he did know, was that he still didn't like the idea one bit.

Jack sighed; he knew it really wasn't life or death, but he realized now that he'd actually had a relatively sheltered life in some ways; he'd never had to make anything approximating a difficult decision before, so now that he was in the human world, everything seemed overly complicated.

He froze in his tracks though, when he heard someone call his name; in Pokéspeak.

"Jack? Jack, there you are! Wait for me!"

He turned around, and saw the familiar (and can I say, welcome) white form of Lucy bounding towards him. A small, almost nonexistent smile slowly crept onto his face, "Lucy? What are you doing here?"

"I... It was getting dark, I wanted to make sure you were okay," she said, coming to a halt next to him.

"And it's not like your brother cared enough to check up on you, and though I've been suspicious of you for almost the entire time we've been together, I suddenly have this compulsion to check on your wellbeing and to singlehandedly convince you of what you already know and that everyone is asking you to do." Arceus then cleared his throat.

"And they do just that before returning to the Pokémon Center, where everyone is supposedly asleep."

Jason closed the eyelid he had kept open, "from the look on his face, he's decided to do it; and isn't too troubled by the decision. Good, now I can get some rest."

With his conscience reassured, Jason also slipped into sleep.

Arceus just stared at the blankly at the screen, unable to think of anything to say, while Mew snuck up behind him, clutching a two by four. She then took a swing at his head, causing the equine Pokémon to cry out in shock, spinning around to face the smaller Pokémon.

"I'm not dead yet!"

The Legendary's now-irate eyes then flashed for a moment, and the block of wood was ripped out of the feline Pokémon's shaking paws and began to hit her over the head.

Jack launched himself from his bed, again. He landed on his feet, and looked around quickly; the same room, same bed, same body, and same friends woken up from his impromptu gymnastics act. His tense muscles slowly relaxed; he was still in the pokémon centre, and nothing was out of the ordinary.

"You'd think that I'd be used to it by now." He glanced at the bedside clock; 6:30, about time to get up anyway. He hopped down from his bed, and Lucy came over to him.

"Was it the same dream again," she asked.

Jack contemplated this for a second, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But it changed again this time; I could feel my body, but I still couldn't move. I was still underwater, but this time I could see something in the distance; I don't know what."

"It's just a dream," she assured him,

He sighed, "I don't believe that, It's too real to be a dream for one thing, but I don't know what it means. I just wish it would stop."

"Hey Jack," called Jason from the door, "come on, or you'll be late for work."

Jack's troubled look quickly disappeared; he loved his job.

Arceus, having turned back to the camera while Mew applied an icepack to her head, raised an eyebrow.

"So, now they're all living together in one room as a family? Is this story slowly transitioning into a drama?" Arceus' eyes gazed downwards. "The fact that apparently the Pokémon have also gotten jobs, which I'll give the author a free pass on because there are multiple instances of Pokémon helping out in the workplace, doesn't really assuage my fears."

Of course, Jason made sure that a decent chunk of everyone's free time was spent training, and Jack's entire team got progressively stronger as a result; after extensive training using the gym as an obstacle course, Katana's speed and attack went up (game terminology), and she learned the move Fly (in your face, Gamefreak) without forgetting one of her other moves; an oddity, but none of them were well-informed enough to notice anything out of the ordinary.

Arceus looked at the screen in absolute horror before slowly raising his head back and proceeding to slam his face into the desk, screaming out indistinguishable complaints all the while. After a few minutes of that, Arceus lifted up his head from the face-sized dent in his desk, eyes spinning around as he tried to regain his bearings. Mew hesitantly floated up and placed the bag of ice on his head before quickly floating out of the room like she had seen a ghost. The equine Pokémon closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and quickly recomposed himself.

"Moving on..." he began, trying to ignore what had just happened.

"Pretty much everything else in this section is just exposition, and the indication that a usually cold Snivy belonging to the gym; Ivy," Arceus snorted. "Has been warming up to Jack."

Jack, Jason, Lucy, and Wendy entered the gym at precisely 9:00;

(Kyurem: STOPWATCHES!)

"So, after Jack arrives and gets to work at his job of groundskeeper, Ivy approaches him and asks him if he is getting ready to leave, which he assures her he's not. However, fate seems to beg to differ, as Jack later senses something familiar in trying to locate the Grass Type."

He was right, the Aura signature was very similar, but it wasn't the freeze pokémon; a closer inspection revealed that, whereas Articuno was female, the approaching creature was undoubtedly male. Like it's ice-type predecessor, it had incredible mental defences. Jack could only get a few, vague impressions; such as the bird's gender. He could, however, tell that it was headed straight towards the city.

Arceus looked at the screen apprehensively.

"I don't want to know what type of impressions Jack got that helped him determine Moltres' gender. Regardless, apparently it will take the impending disaster a little while to arrive, because everyone knows that it's best to build up tension only to completely defuse it seconds later, Jack and Co. decide to prepare for the impending attack in the most logical, responsible and tactically-sound way possible: getting lunch." the Normal Type rolled his eyes.

"Because you can never fight crime and crazed Legendaries on an empty stomach. And, due to no fault of their own, by the time their lunch break is over Moltres has already razed half the city. You would think that our resident Grass Type Gym Leader would at least be able to contain a homicidal Fire/Flying Legendary Pokémon long enough for our heroes to arrive." The Legendary took a breath.

"Regardless, Jack and his friends engage it, and they manage to both blow their cover and chase away Moltres at the same time. Jack repeats his vanishing act once more and disappears from Eterna, ending the chapter on a rather bitter note as he sets out on the road again."

Today was not going to be a good day; that much Jack could tell. There was nothing to suggest that something bad would happen; the sun rose in a clear sky, the bird pokémon started singing right on time, and all was peaceful and serene. But there was something out of the ordinary, something that put him on edge;

He didn't have a single dream last night.

This could, and should, have been a sign that things were looking up; but Jack got the feeling that it was just the calm before the storm, so to speak.

(George Costanza: The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli!)

He had all but forgotten his earlier worries, when he suddenly got an almost irresistible urge to run, to get out of that place, to put as much distance between him and his current position as possible. He'd only just managed to fight down the instinct, when his ears picked up what his subconscious had tried to warn him about; danger, from behind them. He spun on his heel just in time to see two, no, four figures stumble out of the trees; on closer examination, they were a gallade, an alakazam, a kirlia, and an abra. They were all males, they all looked exhausted, and the feeling of danger wasn't coming from them.

"Please," said the alakazam, "please, help us; they're right behind us!"

"Who's right behind you," Jack asked more urgently than he had intended.

"No time," the gallade replied just as hurriedly, "we need to get out of here, now!"

With out any further questions, they ran; Lucy carried the alakazam, who was far too light to be healthy, Jack carried the abra, and Jason carried the kirlia. The gallade was strong enough to keep up. They ran as most of them had never run before; Jack's feeling of unease had evolved into an infectious panic, which had spread to the entire party.

"They're coming," the gallade repeated, "we need to go faster!"

Jack got one of those brilliant ideas that seem only to come at the last minute; he tossed the abra to Jason, and telepathed to Cap, "put the strongest Protect you can around all of you."

Cap knew better than to ask questions when Jack used that tone of... mind? He obeyed with a strength born of fear; all the pokémon were completely encased in a glowing sphere of energy. Jack's eyes shone gold as he grabbed hold of the entire thing with Psychic, then launched himself forward at incredible speeds using Extremespeed; towing all ten pokémon behind him.

Arceus lifted his pointed hooves up in the air in the best shrug he could muster before slamming them back into the floor. "If you have the strength to tow ten Pokémon, can use moves more powerfully than the Pokémon themselves, and have even somewhat managed to chase away two crazed Legendaries, then what's stopping you from just turning around, blinking in the unknown villain's direction, and then sitting back in a hammock and sipping juice out of a coconut as they spontaneously combust?"

Mew floated up next to Arceus, arms crossed, while he visibly tensed. "Hey! At least he passes out afterwards, Arcy. It's not like he can do it and not be exhausted!"

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Aside from a splitting headache," he replied, "I suppose so."

The bug-type looked relieved, "good, everyone is just talking about what's going on."

He walked out of the cave, ignoring the sharp pain between his eyes, and those same eyes soon saw the rest of his
company, as well as the four newcomers, sitting around a tiny fire. They were talking amongst themselves, but fell silent
when they saw Jack emerge from the cave.

"So," Jason called, "you're feeling better then?"

"Yeah," Jack replied once more, "but I have a splitting headache from the strain of carrying you all here. Speaking of which, why are we here? And who are you four?"

The alakazam spoke up, "Yes, let us introduce ourselves; my name is Simon. This," he gestured to the gallade, "is Matthew, and his son," pointing to the kirlia, "is Tobias; Toby, for short. And this," the abra, "is my son, Solomon. So, now you know our names, and your friends have told us much about you, Jack Storm."

"I'm fine with that, I don't keep secrets." "At least, not from pokémon," he thought.

"There's still a lot you haven't told us yet," Jason said to Simon, "such as, who was chasing you?"

The Psi pokémon suddenly looked quite nervous, "we, we don't know it's real name; the Predator."

(Kramer: Well, you know, the police have been having some internal dissention about the name.)

"So, after talking a bit more about the Predator, the Jack and his new friends come up with a plan to escape the whatever it is using himself as a distraction and Mt. Coronet's cave network as an escape tunnel, which I have to say is actually a pretty good idea." Arceus nodded in approval.

"And things still go completely haywire."

Once they had walked for a minute or so, however, Jack's sense of dread returned full force. The feeling was so strong, that Jack was certain that the plan had gone horribly wrong somehow. He flung a psychic probe towards the other group, fearful of what he might find. What he did find, made his stomach freeze over; acute, concentrated fear, surges of energy that signified combat, and a sickening hunger focused towards them.

"Oh Lord, no," he exclaimed, "Aura, this way!"

Once again, Jack easily outran Aura out of sheer terror for his friends safety; within a minute, he was at the scene. And what a terrible scene it was. Strewn across the rocky terrain were the entire group; frozen like statues. Even as he watched, Wendy, who had been hiding behind the frozen Lucy, was struck with a bolt of energy and frozen like the rest.

Jack's entire body was split into two distinct feelings; a cold more numbing than ice, and a heat that burned like a volcano. They weren't dead, he realized, but immobilized; he could still detect their Auras. He calmed down a little; there was still hope. Those feelings returned full force however, when a figure in a black cloak, and with some sort of gauntlet on it's hand, stepped out of the shadows. The Predator, as Jack correctly assumed it was, raised a devise to it's head and spoke into it.

"All targets acquired, save one; continue search."

Jack realized that it meant Aura, and he sent an urgent telepathic message to her; stay away. Once he was sure that she wasn't going to come anyway, he severed the connection; just in case they could track her through him. This done, he mimicked the Predator and stepped into the light in an unintentionally menacing manner. If it was startled to see him appear so suddenly, it didn't show it.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up," it said to him in a tone that clearly stated that it didn't consider him a threat, or worth it's time and effort.

"You will let my friends go, now," Jack said in a deceptively calm voice.

"And what makes you think you're in a position to be making requests?" it asked.

"It wasn't a request."

The Predator appeared amused at this, "oh, that was your idea of a threat then? Well in case you hadn't noticed, you don't have any pokémon to fulfill it."

Jack's mask of calm peeled away, to reveal the snarling beast within. He closed the distance between them in a heartbeat, and another heartbeat later the Predator had flown that distance backwards, courtesy of Jack's fist. It got back up with a startled look on it's face... Wait, face? The figure's hood had been knocked off by the impact, revealing a middle aged woman with steel-gray hair. She processed the information given to her a second sooner than Jack; that second was all she needed to pull out two pokéballs.

"Salamance, Drapion, get that boy!"

Arceus raised an eyebrow in interest, while Mew materialized a bucket of popcorn into her paws and dimmed the lights.

"Hunter J? Well... let's see where this goes, shall we?"

The two heavyweight pokémon struck Jack like a well oiled machine; Drapion flinging a Cross Poison at him, then Salamance following up with Dragon Claw. The shock of the attacks efficiently snuffed out the shock of the Predator
being a woman.

Before Jack could retaliate against Salamance, it's Dark/Poison type reinforcement launched a brutal Pin Missile attack. And before Jack could get a handle on that, Salamance finished up the combo with Hyper Beam; another direct hit.

When the smoke cleared, Jack was lying on the ground; unconscious.

Both Arceus and Mew stared at the screen in shock, the latter's mouth agape as the bucket slipped out of her grip.

The woman snorted in derision, "he really was pathetic. Drapion, finish him off."

The Ogre Scorpion closed in on Jack's inert form, and prepared a Poison Fang attack. It lunged in,

and ran head first into Jack's outstretched hand.

"Correction," he said, eyes glowing like molten gold, "he was a really good actor."

Arcues sighed dejectedly while Mew cheered, pumping a fist into the air.

"Well, things predictably take a turn for the worst with J, but she manages to retreat by fighting dirty after releasing Jack's Pokémon, because apparently she has the sense to know that no one, Pokémon, Human or otherwise, would never be capable of defeating Jack in a fair fight, and Jack retreats as well, escaping with his Pokémon through Mt. Coronet. Afterwards, J picks up the pursuit again, and Simon and Matthew decide to sacrifice themselves to buy the others time to truly escape." Arcues' gaze became somewhat contrite, eyes glancing to the side.

"And I'll admit that it's rather-" Mew clutched her chest and feel backwards, a shaky paw raised dramatically in the air.

"The feels!" Arceus shook his head.

"That. And so, they carry onto Veilstone. Later Jack reflects upon all the holes in his past during their training session, while Solomon and Toby each try to carry on their father's legacies." Mew looked up at Arceus quizzically.

"Really? You're not going to play any of that chapter?" the Legendary shook his head.

"No. There's nothing to joke about that would not cross into irreverence, and as a whole it's just a very good chapter when it comes to expounding character. If I were to try to show the highlights, I would end up cutting out the details, and that would only result in me skimming over the depth of it." Mew looked downwards.

"Oh..." Arceus returned his attention to the screen.

"Before entering Veilstone, Jack catches Solomon and Toby, presenting him with the dilemma of having to put Pokémon in the PC."

"So," Jack concluded, "We need to figure something out."

It didn't take long for Solomon to get an idea, "You could just release two of us from our Pokéballs, and we would simply have maintain a constant vigil to avoid the 'Eterna Incident' from happening again."

Jack thought for a minute or two before replying, "If we were to do that, then who would be released?"

Here, Katana interjected, "It seems to me, that Pokémon which average trainers think of as 'common' would have better chances of not being captured; right?"

"That's is correct," Solomon sighed.

"Well then," Katana continued, "there's only two logical choices; Cap and I. I mean, the rest of us are a lucario, an absol, an abra, two kirlia, and a dratini; all pretty high on the rarity scale. Cap and I are the only ones who won't be snagged at first sight."

The normally soft-spoken Cap startled almost everyone by agreeing completely, "After all, it's not like we haven't run the risk of being captured before, but that's a story for another time."

Jack weighed the options, and came up with no better plan, "Alright, but even though I'm not on the friendliest of terms with Pokéballs, they keep you safe from other trainers; this is only a temporary solution, and we'll have to think of something else soon enough.

"In the mean time, let me once again prove that I've found a way to maneuver around the most basic restrictions placed on trainers." Mew crossed her arms.

"C'mon, Arcy; it's not like he did it without any explanation." the Alpha Pokémon sighed.

"True, I suppose... Regardless, apparently news has gotten around about Jack, and Nurse Joy asks him if he was talking to his Pokémon, to which he blatantly lies to her face without a second thought. Jason criticizes him for doing so, pointing out the she probably was just curious and wanted to thank him for saving her sister in Eterna, and he concedes that he was probably being paranoid. After getting some regular clothes, because he finally realized he stuck out like a sore thumb walking around in a blue martial arts uniform, Jack decides to go challenge the local Gym Leader."

When he got there, a battle was just starting; Jack and co. decided to sit in the bleachers and watch. They weren't alone however, there were two other humans on the sidelines; a brown-haired man, and a blue-haired girl in a cheerleader's unoform. With them were a croagunk, a piplup, a buneary, a pachirisu, and an ambipom. Jack led his team to sit directly behind them. From there he could see the competitors clearly; a pink haired girl in gym clothes, and a black-haired boy with a pikachu by his side.

The announcer gave the customary preliminary speech, "THE BATTLE IS GYM LEADER MAYLENE VERSES CHALLENGER ASH KETCHUM OF PALATE TOWN. IT WILL BE THREE ON THREE, AND ONLY THE CHALLENGER IS ALLOWED TO SUBSTITUTE POKÉMON. THE BATTLE WILL BE OVER WHEN ALL POKÉMON ON ONE SIDE ARE UNABLE TO BATTLE. BEGIN!"

Arceus blinked blankly.

"I was joking earlier when I mentioned Ash. I suppose I should have seen it coming due to J, but still." the pseudo-deity cleared his throat.

"Yes, well; the following battle, and two chapters, is essentially a retelling of the anime's one, one that I must admit stays quite faithful to the source material while still making it entertaining, mixed in with Jack's analysis of Ash's unorthodox fighting style and a few conversations with Dawn. After Ash's victory, Ash and Co. decide to go sightseeing a bit, again, sticking to canon, and Jack decides to follow." Mew looked up from her position next to the white Pokémon.

"So... that's another ten chapters, Arcy. What's your Judgement on it now?" Arceus hummed in consideration.

"Well, it's gotten considerably better. While there are still multiple issues with consistency, and multiple issues that remain completely unexplained, such as the flexibility of move limits, not to mention Jack still comes off as being a Gary Stu, there's also been considerable development for character. Lucy in particular is already shaping up to be a very good inclusion, and Jack himself is beginning to show flaws, and some of the more outlandish issues have been resolved as well. The battles are beginning to slowly turn around as well; becoming better with each one, and I do enjoy how the author is going into depth with Jack's concerns and worries over himself, his place in the world, and his past. I can't come to a definite conclusion yet, seeing as we're only halfway through, but things are certainly looking up." Arceus let out a pent up breath and turned to look down on the small Pokémon.

"But, for now, I feel I could use a break."

Arceus the Critic

We'll be right back!