Chapter 3: Mysterious Intruders

"So there I was, in the middle of my Johto League challenge. Scizor had been taken out, as had my four other Pokémon. It was just me and Aipom. Well, at that moment, as Aipom went up against my opponent's final Pokémon, a fierce looking Houndoom, he finally did it. Aipom mastered the move Double Hit. After he used it successfully against that Houndoom, he evolved right then and there, into the much more powerful and much faster Ambipom."

As Marcus and I walked through the field of the castle after our battle on top of the wall, we began to tell each other stories about our journeys. He had just finished telling me about how he got his Aipom to evolve into an Ambipom during his Johto League championship match, causing him to win the whole tournament and become a certified Johto Champion. It was very late at night now, almost midnight, in fact. We were trying to make our way to the castle in hopes that there would be rooms for us to sleep in. I really didn't want to sleep in the courtyard when there was a perfectly good castle to find a room in.

"That is really cool! I actually think I might have seen that match on TV. Have I told you about what happened while I was in Kanto?"

"No, you didn't, what happened?"

"Well, I had obtained all my gym badges and gone to the Pokémon League. I had been waiting in line after traveling through Victory Road. Not going to lie, Kanto's Victory Road was so much more difficult than the ones in Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, but was a cakewalk compared to the one in Unova. Anyways, I was waiting in line to register, but then, I guy wearing all black with a huge red R on his shirt came and took my three of my Pokémon. Well, I was NOT about to let that slide, so I chased him. He fled back into Victory Road, much to my dismay. I followed him, and eventually found him on the bottom level of Kanto's Victory Road. As I confronted he said 'I am from Team Rocket! Our goal is to rule the world, and reach that goal, we will steal every Pokémon so that no trainer can challenge us!' He was basically talking nonsense. I know the legend of Red, who single-handedly broke up Team Rocket by defeating their leader. And I also know the story of Gold, who single-handedly disbanded the revived Team Rocket for good. I figured he was just a delusional grunt who believed he was making a difference. I proceeded to beat the crap out of him and get my Pokémon back. I made my way back through the levels of Victory Road once again. When I got back, I had missed the deadline for the League Registration. And, you know, those damn gate managers never seem to understand. "

"Ouch, that really sucks man."

"Whatever. I ended up watching the matches though, and once that ended, I wound up getting a head start on my journey in Johto."

"Yeah, at least that's a plus."

Marcus and I just shared stories with each other as we walked the large courtyard. I ended up learning that he was the middle child of five. His older brother became a gym leader somewhere and his sister ended up becoming an aide to Professor Elm. He had a younger brother who was enrolled at that new Pokémon Academy on an island that is equidistant from all five regions. His younger sister was still a baby. I also learned that he comes from Goldenrod City and grew up going to the Bug Catching Contest on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He never won one until he caught a Scyther.

As Marcus and I were chatting away, we eventually reached the entrance. There, we saw two figures there. There was one male and one female. They were around our age. The weird thing about them was that they were dressed exactly the same. They both had on a black zip up hoodie, black fingerless gloves, black tennis shoes, and black denim jeans. Underneath the hoodies, they wore a plain white t-shirt. They both had their hoods up which were white, in contrast to the rest of the hoodie. On the back of their hoodies, there was a white hourglass symbol turned upside down, so that there was more sand on the top and that it what represented sand was falling. They seemed busy with something that they were taking it very seriously. Had it not been around midnight, I might have just passed them by, but given the time, I couldn't help but be suspicious of what these two were doing so late at night.

"Excuse me, what are you two doing out here so late at night?" I asked the two strangers.

They turned around and looked at us. When they saw the two of us, they instantly had a look of sheer horror upon their faces. They instantly stood up and pulled out a poké ball from their belts.

"The boss said we weren't gonna have any interruptions. Dammit, go Muk!" Said the male one

"Yeah, this could be a problem. We need to dispose of them, go Liepard!" Said the female one

"Uhh, Marucs looks like we have a problem"

"Yeah, we really do. C'mon, let's send out our Pokémon. Go, Slowking!"

"Right, go Blaziken!"

Where the strangers were, there was a purple blob of sludge with eyes and a large hand with three fingers and a purple, skinny cat with yellow spots all over it with a purple center, yellow legs and paws, a yellow underbelly that reached up to its chin, and pink fur around its green eyes. On our side, we had a pink Pokémon that stood on two legs, had a tan colored underbelly, a long tail with a tan colored tip, a red and white stripped ruff around its neck, and a white shell on its head that had a single red jewel in the center and a large chicken-like creature, with elongated, furry red and yellow legs, a beak, a red torso with slight yellow patch and x shaped beige feathers, red arms with gray claws, a red face with a beige feathers extending down his back to make an upside-down v shape. Both teams were readying themselves for battle.

"Muk use Sludge Bomb!"

"Liepard use Night Slash!"

The Muk hurled a giant ball of purple sludge. It approached Blaziken. Blaziken jumped to avoid it, but ended up getting its feet damaged by the sludge. The Liepard's claws began to glow purple as it lunged at Slowking. Slowking attempted dodge the dark infused attack, but it ended up raking his arm, injuring him.

"Slowking use Water Pulse!"
Blaziken, counter with Blaze Kick!

Slowking let loose a pulse of water from its mouth. The pulse went on to hit the Liepard. When it recovered, from the attack, Liepard appeared to be slightly disoriented. Blaziken's leg soon became engulfed in flames as he leaped up into the air and lunged at Muk. Blaziken hit Muk head on, but didn't appear to do much damage.

"Ugh, our attacks aren't really doing much" said Marcus

"Yeah, I know…" I said

"What should we do?" Marcus asked

"What if we switch attack targets? Have Slowking attack Muk and I'll get Blaziken to attack Liepard. It should work, we'll have the type advantage against them then.

"All right, let's try. Slowking, use Psychic!"

Blaziken, use Sky Uppercut!"

"Not so fast" said the man. "Muk, use Venoshock!"
"Yes, you're in for it now" said the woman "Liepard, use Assurance!"

A purple venom aura shot out of Muk at Blaziken as Liepard began to charge at Slowking with a dark aura around it. Blaziken intercepted the attack of the Liepard and sent it up into the air with a powerful uppercut. Liepard was landed with a powerful thud and didn't get back up. Slowking took the attack that Muk sent out against Blaziken, cloaked it in the blue-purple aura of psychic energy, and sent it back at Muk. It hit Muk with full psychic force. The Muk was now defeated as well.

"D-Dammit!" The man said. "The boss is gonna kill us!"
"What should we do?" asked the woman.

"I think you two should wait patiently as I take care of these brats and the punish you for your failure" said a third figure. He had come from the shadows of the doorway. He was dressed in a black suit with black dress pants, a fancy white shirt, a pale blue tie, pale blue gloves, pale blue boots, and a flowing pale blue cape. He wore a mask that was half black and half pale blue with that same hourglass symbol in the middle of the mask.

"L-lord Diamond!" said the woman

"Pl-please forgive us!" said the man

"Silence!" The one called Lord Diamond commanded. The other two instantly became quietly as he began to speak once more. "You two were given a very important mission, and you let a pair of kids beat you so easily. You're punishment will be very severe for your failure. As for you two, why do you meddle with us so?"

"We weren't meddling" said Marcus. "We were on our way to the castle and these two attacked us!"

"Yeah" I said "they said were interrupting some sort of plan. They were setting something up at the doorway."
"I see" said Lord Diamond calmly. "These two should know our rules of do not attack unless attacked or ordered to do so. Since I gave no such order, you can expect there punishment to be more severe now then what I had originally intended. However, please do forgive for what I'm about to do. Because you have seen what we were doing, I must dispose of you, which is quite sad considering you two have such talent as trainers and that we were not to have any casualties this early in our grand plan. Toxicroak, take care of them."

"Wha-" I began until I heard a loud "Croak" as I felt a blow to the back of my neck as I fell to the ground, Marcus soon after me. My vision began to blur. As I began to lose consciousness, I could make out a purple frog with a red bulge standing on two legs fighting a blue dog-like Pokémon with a beige chest and spike protruding from the chest and then, a blurry face, the only feature I could make out was black hair in a poofy ponytail. I then passed out.

A/N: Well, here we are, the next chapter. I finally introduced members of the main antagonistic force in the story. The name of this group will be revealed in the next chapter. Also, a very special thank you to Ravinae for giving me an awesome character, who was slightly introduced at the end of this chapter, and who will be fully introduced in the next chapter! I am still accepting OCs if anyone is willing. Hope you guys are enjoying my story.