Chapter 49

"Isn't that Alex?!" Maple shook Mark when she recognized the other young man that had come out to meet PureBlueSky on the battlefield.

"Uh…" Mark had to squint to be sure, "yeah, I think it is."

"ALEX!" Maple shouted, "UP HERE!" But her calls were lost through the rumble of the crowd and she failed to get his attention.

The last time the two had seen him had been the morning of the second day of the tournament. After Maple had defeated Cascade and Coraline, Alex had melted back into the crowd of the island. Through their battle, they had become friends, but they hadn't seen him since that fight.

Mark suddenly felt the sinking sensation that he was about to watch another one of his friends lose. He suspected that Alex had more human Pokémon than just Cascade and Coraline, but he hadn't seen them. Still, Maple had defeated both of them with little more than a few slashes of her Leaf Blade boosted by her newly acquired Red State. If that was Alex's best, then the returning champion wasn't just going to defeat him; he was going to decimate him.

But something else was going on.

Alex would've had the chance to forfeit already, but he was going through with it, anyway. What was he thinking? What did he want?

Mark looked down at the field and considered it. In moments, he was going to find out what this was really about.

As PureBlueSky climbed the ladder up onto his platform, he pondered what Alex had said.

I'm sorry, what did he mean? There had been something very unsettling about it. It was as if Alex pitied him. Pity coming from someone that wasn't a member of the Four? That was new.

But he chose not to worry about it. Instead, he couldn't help but glance over at the crowd. It was hopeless to look through the sea of faces, but he still searched for a streak of blue down the center of that shining auburn hair. The sunset over his head was eerily close to the right color. Maybe if RiverofTears wasn't in the crowd, she was still with him in other ways…

Focus, PureBlueSky told himself, focus, you idiot. His opponent was waiting for him. Alex stood on the opposite platform. His head was lowered, as if he was ashamed to be there.

"Are you ready?" Sky asked him through the speaker by his side.

"No," his voice shook, "but let's get started."

"Look," Sky sighed, "if something's bothering you, I might be able to talk Silph into rearranging the fight. I mean, he's kind of an asshole, but-"

"No, no, it's okay," Alex cut him off, "sooner is better than later." Sky heard him take a deep breath and exhale, "okay, let's do this."

Sky raised an eyebrow at the speaker, but after a second he started counting down, "alright, then. Three…two…one…"

"GO!"

Ian was overjoyed to see that PureBlueSky's first human Pokémon was his beloved Flurry. The Glaceon-girl appeared in a bright flash of white with little sparkles floating off of her as she shook her ears and tail and prepared for battle. Ian had never seen her fight, but he knew that she was powerful. On their journey north to Snowpoint City, Ian had met every one of PureBlueSky's human Pokémon, but Flurry remained his snowy angel. And despite the eight year difference in their ages he swore he would marry her one day.

The small boy whooped and screamed from the fence at the very bottom of the stadium steps. He was only ten feet off of the ground and a measly twenty yards from his beloved Flurry. A few security guards had asked him to move, but Ian simply flashed the silver card that Sky had given him and they quickly apologized and left him alone. Whatever the card was, it gave him the right to do whatever he wanted.

Just be careful, Sky had told him, and don't do anything stupid. It had been the most Sky had said to him since they had arrived on the island. Sky was strange and quiet, but Ian could tell that he was a nice person underneath all of that.

Now he had a front-row seat to Flurry's first battle in months.

He cheered and screamed until his throat was dry and sore, and then kept right on doing it. But he never expected what was coming.

Alex's first Pokémon was a human Seaking. She smiled broadly at Flurry from across the field and waved excitedly.

Flurry nodded back before moving into a half-crouch fighting stance. She smiled to herself, partly because of Ian's enthusiastic screams, but mostly because of how good it felt to be back on the battlefield. Even if she wasn't fighting Edge or River or Aurum, any sort of battling would be wonderful. It had been too long…

"BEGIN!" The voice of the stadium announcer blasted. And with that, the two competitors were off.

"Simple enough," Sky said calmly, "Shadow Ball." A Seaking. It wasn't much of a challenge, but PureBlueSky didn't expect one. Flurry could handle that even if it was as strong as her. Seaking wasn't exactly an all-star Pokémon.

Flurry cupped her hands just a few inches apart from each other. Dark energy flowed down her arms and began to form into a rounded shadow in her hands. Her signature ice-type attacks wouldn't be effective against the water-type Seaking. That left her alternative as the ghost-type Shadow Ball.

Across the field, the human Seaking-girl seemed to fade as she dashed forward, across the field. Alex gave her no orders, but the girl moved like a blur. Long before Flurry was finished charging her attack, the Seaking was right in front of her.

The girl punched her, hard, in her right cheek. The attack had enough force to make Flurry's neck snap to the side and she winced against the pain, but she stayed on her feet.

"Wait," PureBlueSky didn't understand, "Suckerpunch? From a Seaking?" Too late, he realized what they were fighting.

At point-blank range, Flurry fired her Shadow Ball directly into the Seaking-girl's chest. Initially, she recoiled with pain, but it quickly changed to a devilish smile. The laughing from her lips was deep, menacing and masculine.

Flurry's eyes widened as she too realized what she was fighting. The image of the Seaking-girl seemed to slip out of focus, then blurred entirely. Through Flurry's eyes, it was as if she were looking at a poorly taken photograph. But then the image came back together and she was no longer looking at a human Seaking.

"Sorry to disappoint you," a sinister voice mocked her.

Sneering down at her was a tall man dressed in black. A shock of long, crimson hair reached down to the middle of his back. His clothes were solid black, including steel-tipped boots and a fur-lined jacket. The hungry look in his eyes haunted Flurry for years afterward.

"A Zoroark…" PureBlueSky identified Alex's Whisper like it was a curse. It was a shape-shifting Pokémon that could look like anything. Only when hurt would its true form appear. The Shadow Ball Flurry had used had done little damage against the pure dark-type Zoroark. It wasn't a complicated trick, but properly used, it could be devastating. But it didn't matter. This just required a change in tactics. He had surprised them once, but it wouldn't work a second time.

Whisper dropped back, putting a comfortable distance between himself and his new toy. Now that he was closer, he could get a good look at her. She was a lovely thing to look at. It would be even more fun when he heard her scream.

"Sky, did you see that?" Flurry asked her trainer, "In his eyes, did you see it?" All of a sudden, she was wildly afraid. Flurry herself had never been capable of using the Red State. She didn't know why. Perhaps she just didn't possess the killer instinct required for it. But she knew how to recognize it. And it terrified her.

"I saw," PureBlueSky assured her, "stay calm."

A Zoroark. An opponent that had discovered the Red State. In just a few moments, this battle had turned from a dull footnote into an actual challenge. PureBlueSky couldn't help but smile to himself. He was facing a real opponent, the very reason he had returned to Himitsu Island.

He forgot about RiverofTears.

"Blizzard," he commanded.

But Whisper was faster. Leaping into the air, he fired an arc of dark energy that was darker than any night. Flurry tried to duck underneath it, but the blow caught her directly in the middle of her forehead.

She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face as the attack seemed to vibrate through her very being. When she opened her eyes again, her vision was blurred and she could barely make out her opponent.

Pleased with the fact that his Night Daze had blurred her vision, Flurry's opponent bounced on his heels, ready for anything she might throw at him.

Concentrating as hard as she could, Flurry sent out a shock wave of ice and snow at Whisper. The Blizzard attack created a column of howling wind and hail that was thirty feet in diameter. It screamed through the air, threatening anything in its way.

But her attack was far off target. Whisper only needed to dip out of the way of half of the compacted snowstorm. It howled past him, harmlessly wide.

Whisper grinned at her. Alex hadn't lied to him, after all. He was fighting someone strong. That attack would have finished him had the girl been able to see straight. This guy had five more like her? At long last, Whisper was in the big leagues.

But it was time to end this. He had played with his opponent for long enough. She was good, dangerous even, but Whisper was better. In fact, he had a special surprise just for moments like this. He got to use it only rarely, but he always loved the effect it had on his enemies. It was time to make her scream.

Flurry stepped back, exhausted and clutching her throbbing head as Blizzard ended. The Zoroark's image was still blurry and she couldn't focus. Blizzard was useless if she couldn't see straight, she needed to get a hold of herself.

She blinked rapidly a few times, trying to clear her head, but the human Zoroark was already right in front of her. And there were flames coming out of the side of his mouth.

Whisper grinned maniacally at the Glaceon-girl's screams as he bathed her in his Flamethrower. The flames scorched her from head-to-toe, covering her in the devastating fire attack. Flurry closed her eyes and collapsed to the ground, struggling to shut out the pain. She couldn't stop herself from screaming.

When it was over, Flurry huddled on the ground in a fetal position, whimpering in agony. Most of her clothing had been reduced to ashes and her skin was burned across most of her body. She whimpered a few more times, and then mercifully passed out from the pain.

"Just one more, sweetheart," Whisper growled, stepping forward to stand directly over her. He drew in breath for another Flamethrower. This one would ensure that she never got back up.

"ENOUGH!" PureBlueSky screamed. Whisper paused to glare up at him. If Sky hadn't cried out when he did, Flurry would not have survived the match. With a slow-burning rage now growing within him, Sky recalled Flurry. Her unconscious, but still living, form faded from the field and returned to the safety of her Pokéball.

Ian stared at the spot where Flurry had fallen in complete horror.

His lovely Flurry; devastated and tortured right before his very eyes. There was nothing he could do but watch helplessly. What was that Zoroark? How could it be so cruel? Why did it have to be Flurry?!

He panted as he stared and didn't realize that he had been holding onto the fence too hard. Blood was running down his fingers, but he felt no pain.

"FLURRY! FLURRY!" the small boy screamed.

PureBlueSky stared at Flurry's Pokéball, in his hand. Flurry; whom he had raised from an Eevee with careful, thoughtful consideration for every aspect of battle that he would count on her for. She was one of his favorites and one of the last to remain loyal to him through his prolonged depression. She had joked that he wouldn't even be able to talk to River. So far, she had been right, but Sky knew her well enough to know that she wanted better for him. She didn't deserve what that thing did to her.

Ian's scream echoed Sky's anguish. He had chosen Flurry in expectance of an easy fight. He wanted to let Ian watch Flurry dominate the fight the way that Katana and Aurum had. Ian told him all about it and it was thus far his favorite moment of the tournament. But his plan had backfired and now Flurry was charred and suffering inside of her Pokéball.

Sky looked across the field at his opponent. Alex was still silent and hanging his head in shame.

"What the hell was that?" he snarled at the speaker through gritted teeth, "why didn't you stop him?! He could've killed her!"

Nothing but silence came through from the other end of the stadium.

"ANSWER ME!"

"That won't do any good," the human Zoroark on the field told Sky, "you're not fighting him, you're fighting me."

Sky ignored him and continued to glare across the field at Alex.

I'm sorry, he had said. This was what he meant. He hadn't issued a single command and the Zoroark had dominated Flurry and tortured her. It delighted in her pain and it had tried to kill her. This thing wasn't a human Pokémon, it was an outright monster.

This thing wielded the Red State. It was active and harnessed by something so consumed with bloodlust that it wanted to fight Flurry to the death. How many had fallen like that? How long had Alex been carting around something so dangerous?

"You," Sky ignored Alex and glared directly at the Zoroark, "what are you?"

"Name's Whisper," he grinned back at the champion, "so you have five more like her?"

"Stronger than her," Sky told him.

"Good," Whisper grinned, "I didn't come here to fight weaklings."

"Then you'll get no mercy from me, Whisper," Sky assured him.

Sky was so angry he was shaking. That hadn't happened to him in years. The last time it had he was fighting Edge, and not in a Pokémon battle. If this thing had the capacity to try to murder Flurry, then Sky could not hold back. He refused to show mercy to something so vicious.

Sky commanded monsters, but compared to Whisper, they were just plain humans.

He withdrew the black and yellow striped Ultra Ball that contained his strongest human Pokémon. She was the only one of his Pokémon that grew up in the wild. She had been with him a long time, but she still remembered the harsh world that had shaped her into what she was now.

There would be no forgiveness when her crimson wings were spread out over the battlefield.

"TEMPEST!"

AN: So, I finally revealed Whisper. It was not always easy keeping him hidden. Especially since I decided I wanted to have him be the first Pokémon from Black/White. Now that he's appeared, you can expect to see more of them. the main reason I haven't used one before now is because when I was first working on the concept for the story, Black/White were not out yet and it took me a bit to get used to the new generation.

Also, in case you weren't aware, Night Daze has a 40% chance to drop accuracy. So, that's what Flurry's blurred vision was all about.

Thanks for reading!