Some more character interaction in hopes of personality development (still working on it...). Then some action, and a...cliffhanger? I'll be taking some creative licenses with the plot of Pokemon: Colosseum but it'll still fit in at the end.

Chapter Eleven: Crescent Moon in the Morning

It was night.

Lee laid stretched out on one of the twin-sized beds, his arms folded and his hands under his head. "Well, at least we managed to get Wes to let us accompany him. I'd say mission success!"

"You need to stop being such a wild card," was Joe's admonishing reply as he picked bits of dirt out of his otherwise golden hair. The Pyrite air was absolutely filthy. "Saying that you can see into the future and whatever other junk your mouth spews. Who knows when that'll get you in trouble?"

"But I can," Lee said earnestly.

Joe looked out the window at the crescent moon. "Prove it."

"I can't prove it now."

"You know way too much for where we're from as well," Joe continued. "How could you suddenly know all of Orre's history when it's pretty obvious that we, you know, randomly warped into this place because some Unown Legion thing told us to?"

"Ah, so you remember."

"I remember that much," Joe said fiercely.

"You were so much kinder a few hours ago."

"That isn't related to this in the slightest."

"Yes, it is."

"Then explain."

Lee rolled onto his side, facing away from Joe. "I thought you'd changed. I guess I was wrong."

"That's no sort of explanation." Joe gritted his teeth in frustration. "Stop telling me riddles and nonsense."

"It's only nonsense because you don't understand… Let me sleep."

"You're not going to sleep until you've answered my questions."

"You never asked one."

"Then let me ask."

"Fine."

"Why did you call me Joerfin? How do you know so much about Orre? Why can't I remember why I'm here? Why can't I remember anything? What makes you think you can see into the future? Why do you keep saying the most random things at the worst times?"

Lee's voice shook as he replied in his slow, soft manner of speaking. "Ruflorrin calls you the same thing, doesn't she? She and I…we exist on a similar basis. As for my knowledge…well, perhaps I researched, or perhaps I am native to this place and I have simply come home. You can never really know. Your memories are gone because the higher orders ordained it so, and neither you nor I can question them for obvious reasons. My slips of tongue are just that—slips of tongue. The nature of who I am conflicts with who I was, and my mistakes stem from such conflicts. But rest in peace, then, this was all predicted, and it is mere predestination, for now, that we are here, and that we have our first allies—or they have us. But later on, there will be paths for you to choose. Many paths, many raging wars for your sake. If you cannot choose wisely, you will only find your own demise. That…that is the worst freedom, and at the same time, it is a beautiful thing, to be able to choose your life regardless of what destiny commands. Will you adhere to the prophecies and the fate foretold, or will you trailblaze on your own? …I am tired. Let me sleep."

Joe couldn't have been more unsatisfied with the long ramble he had just heard, but he decided it'd be more productive to wring the answers out of him tomorrow and instead get some sleep as well. "Night," he said grudgingly.

"You are only angry because you have rejected what they put before you."

Joe was too frustrated to reply.

Given that the hotel offered complimentary breakfast, Joe found that it was hard for him to find something to complain about the next morning. The food, while barely adequate, had settled in his stomach and left him feeling comfortably full. Lee had only dabbled at his food, and he was already looking very pale, but Joe's rather erratic mood meant that he could have cared less—his last night's anger had yet to abate.

"Let's head to the Colosseum, shall we?" Lee said, his voice unsteady.

"Sure," Joe replied, annoyed. Lee didn't have to spell out every little thing.

They headed out the door, past the square, and across the bridge. It was about a twenty minute walk, but it took far slower. Every now and then, Lee would stop, his breaths heavy. He would mutter quietly about how he was a bit tired and how they'd have to turn in early tonight before continuing on—but just a few minutes later, he would do the same thing.

Joe looked at the watch on his wrist. It said 3 a.m. in the morning.

I guess time runs differently in Orre. Perhaps Lee has jet lag. Come to think of it, I'm not entirely awake either. But I did eat a full breakfast. He hardly ate anything. What's he thinking about?

Eventually, they made it to the Colosseum's looming entrance. Rui and Wes were already standing there, waiting.

"You're late," said Wes harshly.

"Ah, that's my fault," said Lee. "Didn't sleep well… I have insomnia."

Insomnia? Now that was a new one. Was he lying?

Wes's face immediately softened. "I have trouble sleeping sometimes too. It's all right. No problems. Sorry about my irritation. Shall we head in?"

"Beware the Kinjal," Joe muttered. Rui sighed.

"Kinjal?" Wes inquired.

"She's the half-naked slut who mans the desk while showing off her boobs at the same time to any sort of guy willing to look. If you don't feel like paying an entrance fee, just give her a fuck and she'll let you in," Joe explained, disgusted. "I sure hope they work in shifts, if I see her again trying to get herself laid, I'm going to punch her in the boob."

Wes curled his lip in derision. "What on earth has been done to Pyrite these days… A long time ago, this was a more honorable town. It's sad to see it go downhill."

They entered. Joe saw that they indeed were late—it was 11:03 AM. Could they still possibly enter?

Kinjal was not at the desk, thankfully, but instead, there was a young man. He, like Kinjal, was shirtless, showing a well-chiseled chest and abdomen, and toned, but not ripped, arms and shoulders. His face was soft, almost feminine, and his hair was tied up in a sleek ponytail.

Joe braced himself for what the man was about to say. Indeed, what he had braced himself for exactly what the man said.

"Welcome to Pyrite Colosseum, my lady." The young man's eyes narrowed. "You may call me Sir Glindal. This is my shift. Are you here to enter?"

"Yes, we are," Rui replied, not looking at him but staring with fascination at the Healing Machine.

"Bitches like you better look me in the face," was the annoyed reply.

And so Rui did, and her eyes struck home fierce and true.

The young man flinched slightly, but then pasted on a charming smile and said, "If you would like to enter, you will have to pay the admission fee plus the extra on top to allow little ladies like you to compete against self-made men like me." He stepped in front of the desk and flamboyantly lifted his arms. Then he checked the computer in front of him and said, "Alas, misfortunes upon misfortunes! You two are merely a smidgeon late! You can't enter, sorry. But the next tournament will be at 1 AM. Would you like to enter then? You'll just have to enter the door with me over there and give me half an hour of paradise, little lady, and you're in!"

"No, thank you. My Pokémon aren't with me, right now. My friends here are entering in my stead," Rui replied, her voice confident and perfectly even.

"What if I told you I don't take no for an answer?"

"Well, you'll have to." Glindal began to reach forcefully for Rui, but Joe, Wes, and Lee stepped in front at the same time and three pairs of arms shoved him backwards. Glindal collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud.

"Don't touch her," Joe hissed.

Glindal growled. "Keeping her to your bed, huh?"

"Don't touch her."

"I see. You want her pussy for yourself." Glindal smiled. "Keep it, then. My tally yesterday was high enough."

"You're a most shameful piece," said Lee. "To think that, when you leave for the abyss beyond which no life reaches, you will be judged based on the women you can woo. Perhaps that is how it is here—flawed, prejudiced, and cruel—to treat them as mere objects to control and as mere tally marks on a piece of paper, or perhaps a journal… But when you cross that border, you can't take that with you. You will be judged as how you were, based upon standards that society does not possess. How do you think the One will see you? As the divine essence of masculinity, master of the woman, or as nothing but a filthy whore who cannot see past physical flesh?"

It was to Joe's surprise, oddly enough, that Glindal burst out laughing. "Little mister philosopher, are you still a virgin?"

"When this world ends, your soul and the souls you conquered, will vanish." Lee said nothing more and instead walked up to the signup sheet tacked to the dilapidated bulletin board and scrawled Wes's name onto it. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few Poke bills and placed them on Glindal's desk. "Thank you for your service," he said mockingly. "When the tournament starts at 1 PM, we will enter."

Glindal had no reply, but it was easy to see his boiling rage.

The clock ticked the seconds by slowly. Finally, Wes got up. "Shall we go?" he asked. "It's useless sticking around here. I thought maybe by entering I'd figure out the whole Pokémon-as-a-prize. Since I can't enter until later, I'll go ask around."

"All right, then," said Rui.

"I'll be fine." Wes smiled. Then he turned to Lee and whispered, "Lee, what's in this Poke ball? Where'd it come from?"

Lee's only words in reply were: "You will know what is inside when your power becomes insufficient. Only use this Poke ball when you are in great need and victory seems farthest away."

Wes nodded resolutely. He walked up to the PC and checked out his account. He had the following Pokémon registered: Espeon, Umbreon, Makuhita, Quilava, Misdreavus, Quagsire, Slugma, Noctowl, Flaaffy, and Skiploom. Currently, his active team comprised of Espeon, Umbreon, Quilava, Noctowl, and Flaaffy, with Makuhita coming along because Rui enjoyed his company.

Once he was done managing his boxes, he turned to Rui, Lee, and Joe, and smiled. "Let's start asking, shall we?"

They exited the Colosseum and Rui approached a big bodybuilder standing outside. "Excuse me, sir, but have you heard of the Colosseum tournaments and the prizes they're giving away?"

The bodybuilder shrugged. Rui stepped back, her cheeks red.

For the next ten minutes or so, they busied themselves by inquiring other town citizens, but they were equally unresponsive. Finally, one of the street performers responded to their question: "I have no earthly idea what you're talking about, but Duking manages this city and the Colosseum. Perhaps he'll know. Go ask him. He's in the building that has his name on the sign."

"Oh, okay!" said Rui.

They headed past a boy on roller skates and entered the building. Rui ran up to the big, burly man at the desk and said, "Are you Mister Duking?"

"Yeah. I am." The man didn't even bother looking at her and merely stared into the distance. His eyes seemed sad, Joe thought.

"Do you run the Colosseum."

"Guess I do."

He guesses he does. That's…that seems legit, Joe thought contemptuously.
"Shh…don't poison the air with those thoughts of yours," Lee chided. Joe glared at him, feeling very much creeped out.

Wes narrowed his eyes suspiciously and joined Rui. "Mister Duking, do you know of the tournaments going on…and the prizes for the winners?"

"Prizes? Oh, yeah, prizes. Guess you could go talk to one of the winners. He likes to guard the city. Name's Cail."

"So you don't know about the prizes yourself?" Rui asked. "If you manage the Colosseum, why wouldn't you know?"

"Hell if I know," Duking grumbled. "Now scram. Don't feel like talking." Then he looked away in clear dismissal.

"Espiuu!"

Wes cussed under his breath. "Sunny, what are you doing?"

Espeon was pawing a shelf in the other room. Deciding it wouldn't hurt, the four followed them into the opposite hall. Duking didn't appear to care.

Joe noticed skid marks on the floor next to the bookshelf. "It's like the bookshelf was moved." He leaned against it and found that it did, indeed, budge. Wes helped him out and they moved the shelf entirely, revealing a small door and a dark passage.

"What's this?" Lee murmured as they walked down. Soon they saw a light, and inside they saw a few small children, maybe eleven or twelve years old, sitting on tables and typing on laptops. The girl looked up at them, disdain on her face.

"Hello," she said stiffly. "I'm Marcia. Could you please leave us be?"

"Sorry," Rui stammered. "We saw the bookshelf and saw that it moved. We'll be on our way now."

Marcia nodded. "Thank you. We're doing some important work right now. See you around, maybe."

"See you," Wes replied.

"The nerve of some people," Joe growled under his breath.

"I'll bet it must have been really important," said Lee wistfully. "They think that something's wrong in Pyrite Town…they're doing some really important research right now. Marcia wanted to talk to us, but she really wants to figure out what's wrong with Duking and what's wrong with Pyrite. Maybe once we've gotten to the bottom of this, we can speak with her again."

Wes looked suspiciously at Lee. "And you claim this because?"

"I…I can see things." Lee lowered his gaze timidly. "Just like Rui can see the impurities of shadow and fragments of emotion. I can see the twisted skeins of energy that all living things emit and I can see fragments of what is yet to come."

Wes nodded, but it was clear that he didn't fully believe Lee's words.

"Believe me or not," Lee added, and Wes's eyes widened. "But I can be trusted. And I will do everything I can to stop Cipher and Team Snagem."

"Cipher," Wes breathed. "Suddenly…it makes sense…"

"Cipher?" Rui queried.

But before anyone could answer Rui's question, a SLAM! caused them all to jump. They entered Duking's room to see an old, silver-haired man leaning over Duking's desk, a snarl on his face.

"I can't believe you'd let me down like this," he was yelling in Duking's face. "Why on earth are you letting Pyrite get on like this? Why are you letting that abomination run the place? I thought that was your job. Buck up and snap to it or you might as well as let the entire town go to the Snubbulls!"

"Leave, Silva," Duking grumbled.

Silva whirled around and stomped out of the building.

"Mister Duking, who was that?" Rui asked.

"No one of importance. One of my assistants," Duking replied. "What are you four still doing here? And your Pokémon? Just scram, why don't you? I told you, go ask the winners if you really want to know. One of 'em is named Cail. Told you this already. Leave."

And so they did.

Joe and Wes looked around for the person Duking had talked about—a man named "Cail".

"Is that him?" Rui asked, pointing at a green-haired man leaning against the gate that opened up to Pyrite Town.

"I think so," said Lee.

Wes walked up to the green-haired man and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Hey. What's your name?"

The man looked disdainfully at him. "Name's Cail. Wot are ye doin' here?"

"I'm Wes. I heard you were the winner of the Colosseum match."

"That I was. Hardly a hard win, if ye asked me. Ye ought to try it out yerself, ye might actually win somethin'."

"Well, I am planning on it. But I'd like to test out my battle skills first. See if I've been training properly. After all, if I can beat you—or at least come close—," and here Wes's face held the subtle hints of mockery as he purposefully spoke flattering words to Cail, "—then perhaps I will be able to breeze through the tournament, no problem, just like you did."

Cail drew himself up straighter and removed some Poke balls from his belt. "M'name's Rogue Cail, that's wot it is, and I accept yer challenge! Go! Ralts and Seedot!"

"I can't believe he won with those pitiful weaklings!" Wes whispered. "Go! Sunny and Stellaluna!" The two cats leapt gracefully up to meet the challenge.

Joe watched with fascination. So this was a Pokémon battle. An actual Pokémon battle, with two Pokémon on each side, fighting for victory!

"Let's see if you two can handle the battle on your own," said Wes. "Go on. You two know what to do, right?"

Umbreon immediately targeted the white-and-green Pokémon that was evidently Ralts, and Espeon began to gaze at the Seedot, the gem on her head glowing and her eyes glowing in sync.

Rui looked at Joe and tilted her head. "Don't know what's going on?"

"Nope," Joe replied, eager to hear an explanation.

"In Pokémon battles, trainers normally order their Pokémon to use certain attacks. Once the opponent Pokémon can't fight anymore, they're pronounced as 'fainted' and so they're put back in their Poke balls. Rarely will Pokémon battles fight to the death…those kinds of battles are far more serious and so they're called 'to-death' battles. Of course, this is just a regular trainer battle and so we withdraw Pokémon once they faint. Anyways." Rui looked at the two cats as they attacked Cail's Pokémon. "Stellaluna just used Bite on the Ralts. Stells is a Dark-type, you see, and so he's super effective—and resistant—to Psychic-types. Ralts is Psychic-type, so he definitely didn't stomach that Bite too well…look, he's already fainted."

"Types?"

"Each Pokémon embodies one of seventeen different elemental types. They're all super effective, neutral, not so effective, or resistant altogether to each other. Water's good against Fire, for an obvious one, and Bug is good against Dark, for a not-so-obvious one. See?"

"I guess. So is Sunny using a Psychic-type attack? Isn't Seedot some sort of planty type?"

"Sunny is using the Confusion attack, which is indeed Psychic-type. But Seedot is Grass-type, so it's a neutral hit. It's just really powerful," said Lee.

"Right," said Rui. "Looks like Cail is going to send out his next two Pokémon while Wes is keeping his two out. They're very powerful."

"Go! Machop and Furret!" Cail flung out two more Poke balls.

Immediately Rui stiffened, her eyes fixated on the ferret-like Pokémon that was probably Furret. Joe caught her as she fell and kneeled beside her. "What's wrong?" he asked urgently.

"The Furret…it's…" Rui's eyes rolled up into her head. "…Shadow…" Then she collapsed.

"Wes!" Joe cried. "The Furret!"

Wes looked at Rui and shock and terror appeared on his face. "No! Rui!" He rushed to her side. "It's never been this bad before," he hissed. "Joe, watch her for me. Keep her safe."

Joe nodded. "As you wish."

Wes returned to the battlefield and pointed at Machop. "Sunny, defeat him as quick as you can to protect Stellaluna. Stells, hit Furret, but not too hard, okay? Weaken him! That's it! Just like the rest of them."

"Umbri!" Umbreon cried, launching himself through the air like a black missile and landing on Furret. They began to screech and hiss at each other, a rolling ball of fighting fur.

Sunny, meanwhile, proceeded to immobilize the Machop with her Confusion attack, and then sauntered up to him mockingly and began to slash at him with her paws. Finally, she back flipped out of the way as Machop attempted a punch and her eyes flashed once, and Machop fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Wes took no time. Before Cail to wonder just what was on his arm, and just why the Great Ball was flying through the air, Furret was caught and Stellaluna was grooming himself free of Furret fur.

"Gotcha," Wes murmured.

Cail narrowed his eyes. "Wot did yet do that for? That was my prize, ye hear me? That was my prize, that Furret, and ye as good as stole it from me, and yeh'd better give it back before I call the authorities on ye!"

"That is a Shadow Pokémon, manufactured by Cipher and meant to aid them in a takeover of Orre," said Wes, and Joe knew that Cail wouldn't believe him. Nonetheless, Wes added, "They are incredibly dangerous. I can see the scratches on your face from the poor guy. He's suffering, and we're going to cure him and purify him. We'll come back later, and if he still wants to be with you, you'll get him back… I promise."

Cail could only nod in response. "I'll hold ye to that, mate. I s'pose ye only deserve it, beatin' me like that. Only a champ coulda done that, ye know. Ye'll win fer sure! Go get 'em! Oh, and, miss, will ye be okay?"

Rui looked up, bleary-eyed, at Cail, and nodded. "I will be…okay. Thank you for giving us your…Shadow Pokémon." With Joe's help, she got to her feet. "I can tell you that when Wes makes a promise, it's a promise."

"Good to know that ye'll be okay. Treat yoreself easy, okay?"

"I will, Cail, thank you."

"Let's head to the Colosseum. It's 12:30," said Wes. He looked back at Cail. "Thank you," he said very seriously.

"See ye around, eh?" Cail resumed staring outside the city gate and the group proceeded to the Colosseum.

"The air's quiet," Rui murmured. "That's sort of strange, don't you think? Normally I can hear the… HEY! The windmill! Look, it's not moving!"

They approached the windmill station and were about to enter when the door flew open and a scientist ran out, a nasty bump on the right side of his head. As he collapsed onto the ground, he cried out, "The windmill! Silva stole the most important gear! He stole the Windmill Gear! The…gear…"