Author's Note: To the few of you who have been following this collection so far, I deeply apologize for not updating it in what seems like ages. In fact I'm sure a few of you have even forgotten that it even existed. I've certainly had that happen with some of the fanfics I've followed in the past. The main reason why there hasn't been an update to this thing in so long though is because I've had a bit of writer's block with this next story until recently. Plus I had a few other projects on this site that I needed to get done. For the past three months, I've been working on a Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V fanfic called City of Iliaster. I've recently come down with a little bit of writer's block regarding that story though, so I've decided to come back and work on this collection again for a bit until I can get over it. It's actually kind of interesting that I was able to get unblocked with our next episode after getting blocked on another story, but I guess it kind of proves that whole saying about another door opening when one door closes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.
Nightmare at the Resort
She ran as fast as her legs could carry her down a cracked and broken city street. All around her were the burning remains of the city's destroyed buildings, and thick red clouds covered the sky above her. She looked back for a moment to see if the ones who had destroyed the city were still chasing her, and to her horror they were. Flying after her through the air was a young woman with long wavy green hair wearing a tight-fitting white jumpsuit. With the woman was a humanoid feline with purplish-grey fur and a purple stomach and tail.
She turned a corner in the hopes of losing her two pursuers, but she had only gotten two steps when she found her path blocked by a massive wall of debris from one of the demolished buildings. Quickly she turned to find another path of escape, only to find that the flying woman and her feline companion had cornered her. The feline's body then gave off a brilliant flash of purple light in the shape of a Y, which soon faded to reveal the cat creature's body in a new form. It had become shorter, and its tail seemed as though it had moved to the back of its head. The creature's eyes glowed with a fiendish red light.
Fearing for her life, she reached for one of the pokeballs hanging from her belt, only to find nothing there. Meanwhile, the feline spread her arms out and a massive ball of purple light that was at least four times the size of its body. The creature moved her arms forward, launching the ball of light towards its victim. All she could do was scream in terror as the ball of death hurled down towards her and washed out everything with a blinding flash.
Dawn Berlitz shot up in bed screaming at the top of her lungs. She sat catching her breath as cold sweat dripped from her brow. It took a few moments for Dawn to realize that she was safe and back in her hotel room. Sleeping soundly across the foot of her bed was was a short penguin-like bird with a large blue head and a light-blue body. It had a short orange beak and large white circles around its eyes, along with two small white circles on the front of its chest. This creature was Dawn's first Pokemon, Piplup. Dawn was relived to find that Piplup was still with her and got out of bed as quietly as possible to avoid waking him.
After making it to the bathroom, Dawn turned on the faucet and splashed some cold water on her face. The blunette glanced at her reflection in the mirror and saw that she looked like hell. Of course considering what a wreck she was at the moment, it was quite understandable that she didn't look at her best. The twenty-two year old Pokemon coordinator was currently trying to recover from a nervous breakdown. The nightmares she had been having were a symptom of that condition.
The whole thing began over two months ago when Dawn was traveling on a plane to the Kalos Region. A massive storm had caused the plane she had been flying aboard to crash into the ocean, and later she washed up on a private island belonging to a scientist known as Dr. Ichiro Fuji. During her three-week stay on the island, Dawn learned of Dr. Fuji's horrid experiments in cloning, and even met two of his greatest creations. One of those creations was a young human woman with psychic powers called Amber. The other creation was a Mewtwo that became known by the nickname, Zwei.
Dr. Fuji had also been the creator of the original Mewtwo that Dawn had encountered once back in the Kanto Region during a visit to Lavender Town. The twisted scientist had been asked to recreate his work for another experiment involving Mega Evolution. Amber meanwhile was a clone that Dr. Fuji had created using the DNA of his deceased daughter, but spliced with genes from human psychics such as Sabrina of Kanto's Saffron City Gym in order to give her psychic abilities. Dawn then spent her time on the island watching as Dr. Fuji pushed his two creations to their limits in order to unlock their full potential. Unfortunately, the mad doctor's experiments worked all too well.
Amber and Zwei had indeed unlocked their full potential, but Dr. Fuji's experiments on them and his disregard for them as living beings caused the duo to become cold and ruthless. In the end, Dawn had been forced to battle Amber and Zwei, and she barely came out of it alive. Amber and Zwei had destroyed Dr. Fuji's island and vanished to parts unknown. Dawn meanwhile had made it to the Kalos Region, where she spent some time with her sister, Diane before returning to the contest scene. Her life had returned to normal, yet there was always the brooding fear that Amber and Zwei would return and bring ruin to the world.
That fear seemed to have been confirmed when a month and a half Dawn had learned about a mountain in Kalos that had suddenly blew up. Dawn thought that perhaps the mountain's destruction might've been the work of Amber and Zwei, though there had been nothing to confirm that decision. In the end, Dawn put the incident with the mountain out of her mind and went about her normal life. But then, two weeks later there came a confirmation to all of Dawn's fears regarding Dr. Fuji's creations.
One afternoon while innocently watching T.V. after a training session, Dawn heard a news story about a resort town in the Unova Region called Lake Perfection that had been completely obliterated and turned into a habitat for the garbage Pokemon, Trubbish and Garbodor. While the destruction of the town was being written off as a freak natural disaster, there was a rumor that the one responsible for the incident was a woman called Amber Drei. Upon hearing the name, Dawn knew that it could only belong to Dr. Fuji's human creation. Amber and Zwei had finally made a move.
After that, Dawn fears about a potential apocalypse at the hands of Dr. Fuji's creations began to consume her. There was after all practically no Pokemon out there that was strong enough to stand against Amber and Zwei. Even Dawn's strongest Pokemon, Palkia had been powerless to defeat them. It was shortly after hearing the news story about Lake Perfection that Dawn's nightmares about Amber and Zwei killing her in that ruined city began. Dawn's fear of a coming disaster became eventually so strong that last week she ended up having a nervous breakdown during a contest battle against another coordinator, a young woman with green hair who used Psychic-Type Pokemon.
The doctor who had examined Dawn after her collapse ordered her to take a long vacation to recover. To that end, Dawn was currently staying at a room at the Alola Region's Hano Grand Resort in Heahea City on Akala Island. Normally rooms at the Hano Resort needed to be booked a year in advance, but the girlfriend of Dawn's sister Diane, Cynthia, had pulled a few strings. Dawn had been staying at the resort for almost a week and she was still not at a hundred percent, but then she knew that her recovery was going to take some time. Of course Dawn darkly wondered how much time she truly had with Amber and Zwei still on the loose.
Eventually Dawn left the bathroom and headed for her bed. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand and saw that it was only 3:37 AM. Reluctantly, Dawn decided to try and get some more sleep, though she was certain that sleep would not come easily. And even if it did, odds are she would just end up having another nightmare. Dawn got back into bed and closed her eyes as she tried to relax, and eventually she finally drifted off into a light dreamless sleep.
Morning finally came, and Dawn decided to spend it out on the beach. The blunette went out wearing a power-blue one-piece swimsuit in case she decided to go for a swim later, but Dawn felt certain that she would spend her time reading. Piplup of course accompanied Dawn out to the beach, as did another one of her Pokemon; a tiny yellow-orange mouse with round black ears that were cream colored on the inside and a black tail with a spiked tuft of fur at the end. Its stomach was the same color as its ears, and it had two round orange circles covering its cheeks. Growing from these circles were two pairs of black whiskers that resembled T.V. antenna. The Pokemon in question was Dedenne, a Pokemon that she had captured while on Dr. Fuji's island. Piplup and Dedenne had quickly become very good friends.
Dawn sat down in the first available chair on the beach she could find while Piplup and Dedenne ran off to go play. She was about to pull her book out of her bag when she paused and thought about taking a nap instead. The beach was fairly deserted at the moment, and the sound of the waves hitting the shore was quite relaxing. Dawn thought that perhaps by sleeping on the beach she would be untroubled by nightmares. As the blunette closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she didn't notice that someone was coming towards her.
"Dawn? Is that you?" a voice suddenly asked.
Dawn sat up as she opened her eyes and lowered her sunglasses. Standing to her right was a young man with spiked blonde hair wearing sunglasses. He also had on a yellow vest with a black t-shirt, along with jean-shorts and a pair of tan sandals. Slung across his back was a red electric guitar.
"Bolt? Bolt Hanson?" a surprised Dawn identified. "What the heck are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask the same thing," Bolt replied. "I'd have thought you'd be in Sinnoh, what with the region's Grand Festival being just around the corner and all."
"Yeah, well… I kind of needed to take a little bit of a vacation," Dawn answered, reluctant to tell him about her recent breakdown. "I've been a little overworked."
"Well you picked a good place for it," Bolt told her. "Are you actually staying at the resort?"
"Yep. Diane's uh… the person Diane's seeing right now arranged it for me," Dawn revealed.
"Well there's something I never expected to hear," Bolt replied.
"I know. My sisters and I have always had a bit of trouble getting along in the past," Dawn admitted. "But things have changed between us recently."
"Actually, I was talking about Diane actually dating someone," Bolt told her. "I always thought she'd be terminally single. Of course I asked her out a couple of times in the past, but she always turned me down."
"Yes, well… you weren't exactly her type," Dawn told him. "So are you here in Alola on vacation as well?"
"Actually I live here now," Bolt revealed. "Me and the wife have a place on one of the other islands. Christine came here to the city to visit a friend, and I sort of tagged along so I could comb this beach."
"I was pretty surprised to hear you had actually gotten married," Dawn admitted. "Christine seems like a very nice woman though, and she has a great singing voice. I heard that song she did with your band not long ago."
"You know Christine and I are going to be spending the night here on the island at her friend's place," Bolt revealed. "Maybe you could join us for dinner. I know she'd like to meet you."
"I'd like that," Dawn replied.
Before the conversation could get any further, Piplup and Dedenne ran up to Dawn's chair. The blunette noticed that both Pokemon seemed to be afraid of something.
"Hey. What's up with your little friends?" Bolt asked.
"No idea," Dawn answered as she began to look for what might've frightened her two companions.
As Dawn surveyed the beach, she noticed a young woman in the distance walking along the edge of the shoreline. The woman had on a black two-piece swimsuit, and Dawn noticed what looked like a large bruise on her left shoulder. Only a few seconds after spotting her though, Dawn saw that the woman had long wavy green hair. And though the woman had on a pair of black visor-like sunglasses, Dawn recognized her face in an instant. It was Amber.
All the color instantly drained from Dawn's face upon seeing that horrid nightmare from Dr. Fuji's island. As Bolt tried to ask Dawn what was wrong, everything suddenly went dark.
Dawn awoke to find that she was back in her hotel room. Piplup and Dedenne were standing were standing on the foot of the bed, looking at her with worried expressions. The blunette assured her two Pokemon that she was okay, but then recalled with a shudder just what it was that had made her pass out. She had seen Amber, or at least thought she had seen her. The woman she had spotted on the beach had been a pretty good distance away, and the thick sunglasses she had on had been covering part of her face.
The fact was Dawn couldn't be certain of just whom it was she had seen on the beach. There were a lot of young woman in the world who had wavy green hair. Plus the chances of Amber turning up at the very resort where Dawn had been staying were very remote. Yet just what was it that had caused Piplup and Dedenne to run to her in fear? It could just have been that they had run into a very aggressive wild Pokemon. Hano Beach was a known spot for encountering a Ghost and Ground-Type Pokemon known as Sandygast, a Pokemon that was not known for being incredibly friendly.
Of course Piplup and Dedenne could've run to Dawn because they had indeed seen Amber. The duo had bore witness to what the human clone and her Mewtwo were capable of on Dr. Fuji's island, so they had every reason to be afraid of her. Dawn did not know at all what to think. Fear and her shattered nerves had totally distorted her perception of reality. At the moment there seemed to be only two possibilities; either her fears were real and she really had seen Amber Drei on that beach, or she was starting to lose her mind.
Bolt entered the room as Dawn began pondering whether or not she was going insane. "Oh good! You're up. You had me pretty worried for a bit."
"How long was I out?" Dawn asked.
"About an hour and a half, give or take," Bolt answered as he sat down in a wooden chair by her bed. "One of the bellhops helped me get you into your room. They also called in a doctor to look you over and said that you had another nervous collapse. What the hell's going on with you, Dawn?"
Dawn let out a heavy sigh. "I didn't exactly give you the whole story about why I'm really here on vacation. Recently I had a nervous breakdown, a big one. The doctors ordered me to take some time off from contests to try and get over it."
"What caused it?" Bolt asked. "Your breakdown, I mean?"
"A couple of months ago I met this woman," Dawn began. "Her name's Amber Drei. She's very dangerous."
"Is she like a stalker or something?" Bolt asked.
"No… worse than anything like that," Dawn answered. "You have no idea what she and her Pokemon are capable of. Just thinking about it totally paralyses me."
"It's okay," Bolt told her as he put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"The reason I passed out earlier is because I thought I saw Amber out there on the beach," Dawn explained. "But that's crazy, isn't it? I mean what would she be doing here?"
"Look, just try not to think about it," Bolt told her. "Here's what I'll do. I'm gonna go down and get in touch with Christine to let her know what's happening. Meanwhile you just stay up here and rest. If you're still up for it, we'd like to have you hang out with us for a while."
"Sounds like a good idea," Dawn agreed. "I probably shouldn't be alone right now anyway."
After getting to the lobby and making a call to his wife, Bolt went and asked the clerk at the front desk if there really was a woman named Amber Drei staying at the resort. He thought that finding out one way or another if Amber was really a guest would help Dawn's peace of mind. Unfortunately the clerk was very tight-lipped giving out the names of guests, saying that giving out such information to anyone other than law enforcement violated some kind of code of hotel ethics. As a result, Bolt could neither confirm nor deny if Dawn had really seen the woman that had inspired so much fear in her. The blonde rock star was at a total loss as to what to do next to find out if the infamous Amber Drei was at the resort.
As Bolt paced around the lobby in frustration, entering the hotel was a young woman with pale-blue eyes and short wavy dark-brown hair that was cut just above her shoulders and had a lock at the front that was dyed bright pink. She had on a dark-blue t-shirt with a denim vest and a short pink skirt, along with a pair of red sandals. This woman was Bolt's wife, Christine.
"Hi Bolt. I came as soon as I could," Christine spoke as she came up to him.
"Hey, you didn't have to drop everything and rush over here, you know," Bolt told her as he took her hands. "I mean there's not really much to be done."
"Well you seemed pretty worried when I talked to you," Christine pointed out.
"Yeah, well Dawn is an old friend," Bolt replied. "I've never seen her this freaked out before. I kinda wish she'd tell me why she's so scared of this Amber woman, but I don't wanna force the issue."
"Were you able to find out if this woman is staying here?" Christine asked.
"Nah. The guy at the front desk is a total jerk," Bolt answered. "Tight-assed snob. He kept saying he could only give out info on who's staying at this place to the cops."
"Then maybe we should call the police and get them involved," Christine suggested.
"And what the heck would we tell them? That my friend thinks she might've seen some dangerous anonymous woman from her past, but that she can't be sure?" Bolt asked. "They'd need way more to go on than that."
"Good point," Christine admitted. "Well… I guess all we can do is spend some time with Dawn and make sure she's okay."
"I guess," Bolt replied.
At that moment, Dawn exited a nearby elevator with Piplup and Dedenne and spotted the couple. "There you are, Bolt! I was wondering where you got off to."
"You okay to be around?" Bolt asked the blunette as she walked up.
"I'm doing a lot better now," Dawn assured him. "So, this must be your wife? I'm sorry we never got to meet properly before."
"Yes. Bolt's told me a lot about you and your sisters," Christine replied. "So, would you care to do a little sightseeing with me and Bolt?"
"Sounds good to me," Dawn answered as she glanced towards the front desk. "I haven't gotten a chance to see this whole island yet and…"
The rest of what Dawn was going to say ended up getting caught in her throat, as something she had seen made her go totally pale. Bolt and Christine turned their heads to see what Dawn was looking at, and heading for the front door was a young woman with long wavy green hair. She had on a pair of visor-like sunglasses and a sleeveless black dress that ended just above her knees. A large and very noticeable bruise was on her left shoulder. Bolt and Christine instantly deduced who Dawn thought the young woman was.
"Hey!" Bolt called as the green-haired woman reached the door.
The blonde rock star rushed after the woman right as she exited the resort and went out into the street. Bolt was out the door a few seconds later, but when he reached the outside the woman was nowhere to be seen. It was as though she had just vanished into thin air. With no way to tell where the mystery woman had gone, Bolt went back into the building. As he walked back up to Christine and Dawn, he noticed that Piplup and Dedenne were trembling in fear.
"Sorry. I totally lost her," Bolt reported as he rubbed the back of his head. "You okay Dawn?"
"Uh… yeah. I think so," Dawn answered. "I was probably just imagining things. Let's get going, shall we?"
With that, Bolt and the others headed out of the resort. As they left, Bolt could tell that Dawn was just trying to put on a brave face. He also noticed that Dawn's two Pokemon were still trembling, and thought that perhaps it was a sign that Dawn wasn't imagining things after all.
The night had grown a bit late as Dawn walked back to the resort alone with Piplup and Dedenne. Her time with Bolt and Christine had done much to take her mind off whom she thought she had seen at the resort. Now that she was once again alone though, Dawn once again started to wonder and fear that perhaps she really had seen Amber earlier. With her frayed nerves the way they were, it was impossible for her to tell if her mind was playing tricks on her. Of course there did seem to be signs that Dawn was indeed seeing what she thought she did, like the way Piplup and Dedenne were so terrified on the beach and how Bolt and Christine had also seen the same woman in the hotel lobby that she had. Yet while those things did appear to be signs that Dawn wasn't losing her mind, Dawn found that a part of her hoped that she was slowing going insane. Because if Dawn really was seeing who she thought she was, it meant that she might actually have to face Amber again, and the possibility of that seemed far worse than going mad.
As Dawn continued to walk, she suddenly thought she heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind her. She quickly stopped, and the footsteps instantly died away. Dawn thought that perhaps she might be imagining things again. If she really had been seeing things, it would make perfect sense that she might be starting to hear things as well, especially in her current mental state. Dawn continued walking, and as soon as she did the sound of the footsteps returned. She began to walk faster, forcing Piplup to waddle after her faster to keep up. The footsteps that were coming from behind her became faster to match her speed.
Dawn continued to pick up her pace, not once looking behind her to see who was after her, for she was afraid of looking back and seeing no one there. As Dawn and her two Pokemon reached an intersection, a person suddenly came out from around the corner to block her path. The individual in question was a young-looking man with blue hair, wearing a white cap on his head with two black circles on the front like the eye sockets of a skull, along with a black and white bandanna that covered the lower half of his face. He also had on a black tank top and a pair of baggy black shorts with white stripes on the sides. Hanging from his neck by a chain was a large white medallion resembling a white letter S.
At last Dawn came to a stop to look behind her, and saw that the footsteps she had been hearing had been coming from two other young men wearing the exact same outfit as the one who had blocked her path. One of them was fairly short and had dark-brown hair with tan skin. The other stood at over six feet tall, was quite overweight and seemed to have a shaved head. Dawn quickly realized that these three hooligans were members of Team Skull, a street gang that had been plaguing the Alola Region for quite some time. She had seen posters about them in the resort lobby as a warning to tourists.
"Hey there, pretty lady," spoke the blue-haired Team Skull member that had blocked Dawn's path. "It's pretty dangerous to be out here walking all alone at night."
"Get lost!" Dawn ordered.
"We might consider that," the blue-haired Skull hooligan responded as he and his two cohorts advanced on her. "If you do something for us, that is."
"You've got two options, lady," the short brown-haired Skull hooligan spoke. "You can either hand over all your money, or hand over those two Pokemon of yours. If ya do that, we'll let ya go on your way."
"Hey guys, I just thought of a third option," the large overweight Skull hooligan suggested. "Maybe we can let her go if she agrees to have a little 'fun' with us. She is pretty after all."
"I like the way you think, my man," the blue-haired Skull hooligan agreed as he and his two friends advanced on Dawn. "Well lady? What's it gonna be? We'll settle for options one or two, we'd really prefer the third option on colleague suggested too. I think you'd see that that option would be a fun one for all of us."
"Leave her alone," a familiar voice spoke.
Dawn looked, and standing on the street in the moonlight was an all-too-familiar young woman with long wavy green hair wearing visor-like sunglasses. She had on a long black coat with a black shirt, long black pants, and black fingerless gloves. Dawn could no longer doubt that anything she had seen before was a hallucination. That young woman in the street really was the woman she feared she had seen earlier, Amber Drei.
"Buzz off lady!" the blue-haired Skull hooligan ordered. "My friends and I are trying to conduct a little business transaction with this girl here. Of course if you wanna get in on this too, we wouldn't mind that at all. After all, you're just as hot as her."
"Hotter, in fact," the short brown-haired Skull hooligan remarked.
"I said to leave her alone," Amber told them as she pulled out a distinct-looking pokeball. "If you don't, I'll be forced to use violence."
"Ha! Are you seriously challenging us to a battle?" the blue-haired Skull hooligan as he suddenly produced his own pokeball. "Fine, but it's your funeral. Let's go, Ariados!"
Bursting out of the hooligan's thrown pokeball was a large red spider with black stripes decorating its body. It had four yellow and purple-striped legs with two similar leg-like spikes on its abdomen that pointed backward at an upward angle. Its head had a pair of large purple eyes and grey pincers, and adorning its forehead was a large white spike like a stinger.
"Go Zwei," Amber called as she tossed out the pokeball in her hand.
A humanoid feline with purple eyes burst out of the thrown ball. Dawn felt as though her legs had turned to rubber upon seeing Amber's faithful Mewtwo, and what terrified her even more was that she had left Palkia's pokeball back at her hotel room. It was as if the nightmare that had been plaguing her sleep ever since her breakdown was coming to life.
"What… what the hell kind of Pokemon is that?" the startled blue-haired Skull hooligan asked.
"Amber, why did you bring me out to deal with such weak opponent?" a female voice suddenly asked in everyone's minds.
"What the freakin' hell?" the short brown-haired Skull hooligan exclaimed upon hearing the voice.
"Did… did that Pokemon just talk?" the overweight Skull hooligan asked.
"I want to end this quickly," Amber told Zwei. "Use Psychic on that Ariados."
"Understood," Zwei responded as her lips curved into a smirk.
Zwei's eyes glowed with a blue light, and suddenly Ariados' body glowed with a blue aura as he was flung into the wall of the building behind Dawn and the hooligans. The spider Pokemon slid down the wall to the sidewalk and was out cold. The blue-haired Skull hooligan quickly called his fallen Pokemon back.
"Uh… what do we do now?" the overweight Skull hooligan asked.
"Run!" the blue-haired leader of the hooligans ordered.
With that, the three Team Skull grunts began to run off into the night. As they ran, Amber looked towards them, and with a wave of her left arm the trio was flung into the air by an invisible force. The three of them crashed into a nearby car and were knocked out cold. Amber meanwhile moved her left arm around as though it were stiff.
"Is your shoulder still bothering you?" Zwei asked.
"It's much better than it was," Amber answered before turning her attention to the blunette. "Hello Dawn. It's been a long time."
"So I really was seeing you at the resort?" Dawn realized. "What are you doing here?"
"Like many people who come to the Alola Region, Zwei and I are here on vacation," Amber revealed. "Don't worry, we have no intention of battling you right now."
"At the moment, Amber and I are still recovering from a fairly intense battle we had not long ago," Zwei revealed.
It was then that Dawn recalled the large bruise she thought she had seen on Amber's left shoulder when she thought she spotted her on the beach and in the resort lobby. She also recalled how Amber had just admitted that her shoulder was bothering her.
"Amber, how did you get hurt?" Dawn asked.
"As Zwei just mentioned, we were in a very intense battle not long ago, one where she had to Mega Evolve," Amber explained. "When that happens, our minds become linked and I feel everything that Zwei feels. Unfortunately Zwei and I were caught off guard, and she was hit by an attack so strong that my body reacted as though it had been damaged as well. My recovery has been swift, but Zwei insists that I take it easy for a while longer."
"This means we're not quite up to facing you and Palkia again at the moment," Zwei added.
"So… what sort of attack were you two hit with?" Dawn asked.
"Have you heard of a type of attack known as a Z-Move?" Amber asked.
"I'm a little familiar with them," Dawn answered. "Is that was you were hit with?"
Amber nodded. "Part of the reason why we chose Alola for our little vacation is so that I could hopefully learn more about this type of attack; perhaps even learn how to use it myself. The trainer Zwei and I faced, Bianca, said that she had learned the secret of these Z-Moves while visiting this region. It seemed like a good place to start my research."
"It was a rather interesting coincidence that we would run into you here, Dawn," Zwei remarked. "We're a bit disappointed though that you don't seem to be doing well."
"Indeed," Amber agreed. "You're one of the few people in this world we consider to be a rival worthy of us. We'll leave you alone for now, but we do very much hope you get better soon."
Suddenly Amber and Zwei vanished with a flash of blue light. Dawn was stunned that she had been able to get out of her latest encounter with the duo alive. Piplup and Dedenne meanwhile were trembling in fear behind the blunette's legs. Dawn was about to try heading back for the resort when everything suddenly went dark.
Dawn awoke to find that she was once again in her hotel room. She sat up slowly and found Dedenne and Piplup fast asleep across the foot of her bed. As Dawn tried to figure out how she had gotten back in her room, Bolt walked in from the kitchen carrying a glass of water.
"Hey there Dawn," Bolt spoke as he approached the bed. "We gotta stop meeting like this."
"How'd I get back here?" Dawn asked.
"Well, I started to get a little worried about you after you left. So I decided to go after you and make sure you got back to the resort safely," Bolt explained. "I was pretty stunned to find you on the ground. I was also surprised to see a bunch of those punks from Team Skull out cold too. Those three woke up about the time I got there, but of course I kicked their butts. They ended up getting away from me, but catching them wasn't really important."
"…So I guess none of that was a dream," Dawn realized.
"So what happened?" Bolt asked.
"Amber showed up," Dawn answered. "She was the one who knocked out those guys from Team Skull. After that, we had a short conversation and she left. I guess I must've passed out after that."
"So just who the heck is this Amber Drei woman anyway?" Bolt asked.
"I, uh… I need to make a quick call," Dawn suddenly decided. "Excuse me?"
Bolt was left rubbing the back of his head in confusion as Dawn quickly got out of bed and headed to the next room where the PC was. Dawn recalled everything about her conversation with Amber and Zwei, and how they both admitted that they had taken a bad hit during a recent battle. The fact that they had been injured so badly meant that the two of them weren't invincible. It seemed that the power of the Z-Moves that Dawn was somewhat familiar with seemed to be a potential weakness, but she wasn't entirely sure. She wanted to check her theory with one of the smartest people she knew before acting.
Dawn fired up the PC and used it to call her sister, Diane in the Sinnoh Region. After a few moments, the screen changed to show the image of a young woman who looked exactly like Dawn, but with glasses. Besides her glasses, the only thing Dawn's twin seemed to have on was a white bathrobe. It also appeared that she was half asleep.
"Dawn, do you have any idea what time it is over here?" Diane asked.
"Sorry sis, but I really needed to talk to you right away," Dawn told her. "I saw Amber again."
Upon hearing this, Diane was suddenly wide-awake. "Amber? As in the clone Dr. Fuji made of his dead daughter? She didn't hurt you, did she?"
"No. I'm fine," Dawn assured her. "But here's the thing. Amber let it slip that she and Zwei battled a trainer who used a Z-Move and were hurt pretty badly."
"Did she mention who this trainer was?" Diane asked.
"I think she said this trainer's name was Bianca," Dawn answered. "If I'm right, Amber probably battled her at that town in Unova that was destroyed, Lake Perfection."
"Hmm… according to some of the things I've heard, Professor Juniper was at Lake Perfection trying to help with the problem involving the town's population of Trubbish and Garbodor," Diane recalled. "The professor has an assistant who helps her sometimes named Bianca Edmonds. I met her once or twice while helping Cynthia with research in Unova. She's a bit… airheaded, but quite competent. I can try to get in touch with her if you really want."
"Thanks. That would be a big help," Dawn agreed. "But what I really want to know is if you think using a Z-Move might be a way to beat Amber and Zwei."
"It does seem like a strong possibility," Diane admitted. "Unlike Mega Evolution, practically every Pokemon out there is capable of using a Z-Move, including my Dialga and your Palkia. Of course there are a number of factors to consider, like the type of Z-Move and the power of the attack used as that move's base. We'd also need to account for Zwei's defensive power in her Mega Evolved state. Still, I think you might be onto something, sis. Cynthia and I can start looking into it more in the morning."
"I'd really appreciate it," Dawn replied. "In the meantime, I'm going to start looking more into these Z-Moves myself."
"I'll let you know the moment I find out anything useful," Diane told her.
"Thanks sis," Dawn replied. "And tell Cynthia I said hi."
With that, the line went dead and Dawn shut off the PC. She then reentered the bedroom to find Bolt still standing in the middle of the room.
"What the heck was that about?" Bolt asked.
"I just needed to ask my sister about something," Dawn answered. "Um, Bolt… thanks for everything you've done, but do you think we could continue this conversation in the morning? I've had a long night and would really like to get to bed."
"Uh… yeah, sure," Bolt agreed. "You're sure you're fine though?"
"Better than I was before," Dawn assured him.
"Well okay," Bolt replied. "Catch ya tomorrow then, I guess."
With that, Bolt disposed of his glass of water and left the hotel room. Dawn meanwhile removed most of her clothes and got back into bed. She was far too tired to change into any sort of sleep ware. Dawn slowly began to drift off to sleep without fear of having another nightmare. A nightmare seemed unlikely now that she had hope that Amber and Zwei could actually be defeated.
It was midmorning as Dawn prepared to check out of the resort and embark on her new journey. She had prepared a brand new outfit for her new quest; one that still included her yellow hair barrettes, her white snowcap with the pink pokeball symbol on the front, and the pink scarf she usually wore. The rest of Dawn's outfit though was a pink t-shirt with a black vest, and a pair of tight blue jeans with the cuffs rolled half way up her shins and a pair of red and white sneakers. Once she was satisfied with her new look, Dawn left her hotel room for the last time with Piplup and Dedenne. When Dawn arrived in the lobby, she found Bolt and Christine waiting for her by the front desk.
"So you're really heading out, huh?" Bolt asked.
"Yep," Dawn confirmed. "I've stayed here wallowing in fear long enough."
"What exactly are your plans?" Christine asked.
"First I'm heading off to talk to Professor Kukui," Dawn answered. "From what I've heard, he's supposed to be something of an expert on Z-Moves. After that though, I'm not really sure."
"You thinking of trying to hunt down this Amber woman you've been scared of?" Bolt asked.
"Probably," Dawn replied. "I don't know what she has planned for the world, but somebody needs to stop her before she does something terrible."
"Maybe we could help you with that," Bolt suggested.
Dawn smiled and shook her head. "Thanks, but you should stay out of this for your own good. Amber's very dangerous. I think even our mutual friend, Ash might have trouble beating her."
"Seriously?" Bolt exclaimed. "Well… okay. It's your life. But if ever need my help, just call."
"I will," Dawn assured him. "It was good seeing you again, Bolt."
With that, Dawn officially checked out of the resort and headed out with Piplup and Dedenne. Dawn didn't know if her new quest to master the art of Z-Moves was going to amount to anything, or if she was actually going to hunt down Amber like she said she might. Even so, Dawn was no longer being ruled by fear. Her encounter with Amber and Zwei the night before that no trainer was unbeatable, not even one gifted with immense psychic powers. Of course Amber and Zwei were still a powerful team, but Dawn was determined to do everything she could to be ready the next time she ever ran into them.
FIN
Author's Note: I had always sort of planned on doing an "episode" of this collection that followed up on how Dawn was doing after the events of Mewtwo Zwei. It's actually rather appropriate that I did this episode now, as it was a year ago this month when I first wrote that original story. I apologize if this latest story wasn't what some might consider exciting. I wanted to do something that took a little break from all the huge landscape destroying battles that we've seen in this collection so far. Anyway, I've already kind of figured out what the next installment of this collection is going to be about. Alain will be showing up again next time, so stay tuned.
Please review and let me know what you think.
