I am so sorry about the incredibly long wait. I'll try my hardest to update frequently from now on, and hopefully with all of this ideas for later in the story filling my head, I'll be able to force myself to write more. But for now, I believe I have a chapter right here waiting for you?


Chapter 3 ~ Preparation


"Target island is in sight."

"Good. How much longer?"

"A days trip. Should be arriving by tomorrow night."

A low, snickering laughter was heard as another being wandered almost silently over, a small creak of the ships cold, metal floorboards echoing out with each step they took. "Just as we planned. Those idiot rangers will never know."

"Couldn't be better."


"H-humans? But-but why are they coming here? Wh-what are they planning to do?" Aki shivered at the thought of humans coming. Bringing giant machines and tearing down everything in their path. It would be hopeless.

Tessie sighed. "I was worried this would happen. Ever since that day..."

The helioptile, Levinia, who sat wide-eyed staring out over the ocean from her perch on the lapras' back, silently recalled said day. She could barely remember it, but it had haunted every Pokémon's mind since.

"You-you don't think it'll be like that, do you?" Aki asked quietly, almost panic-stricken, showing in her near silent voice.

Tessie shook her head, her gaze not moving from it's spot, resting on the ship that could be seen way out. "I hope not."

That day. That day happened only a year ago, if not less. Many Pokémon still remembered it, all but the youngest ones inhabiting the island, who had yet to hatch. But they all knew of it. Some lived in worry that it would happen again, with the thought never to leave the backs of their minds. Others couldn't care less, believing no damage done because only physical is anything. But what happened then? It was the worst over in Almia, where all the damage leaked from. A giant, deadly tower. Even from Tetra island, the Pokémon could see it being built. Day by day, it got taller. Everyone thought it was nothing, just another of the human's crazy structures. But they where wrong. It was the cause of it all. That day, a strange power was emitted from the very top of the tower, covering all the land surrounding it. Pokémon where cast under it like a spell and unable to control themselves to the point of many disappearing. Like slaves, they where helpless. But then, it stopped. Not completely, as reported by bird Pokémon who at the time had settled around the area. At that time, many fled, not wanting to deal with it all. Others just couldn't leave their home, even when it started again. But worse.

Dark clouds where seen beginning to surround the tower in the distance. Passing over the island as fast as a bird, drifting on empty winds. Pokémon hid, tried to cover in caves and under trees. But it didn't work.

After the incident, no damage could be seen. Only to mind readers who could see the panic in their minds. Rumor had it it was caused by a dangerous group of humans who called themselves 'Team Dim Sun'. Nobody felt settled. Nobody felt safe after it all. But now, even after all those months the humans where coming. Coming, to their very own home.

"Should we warn the others?" Levinia asked, worried. She wished that the ship could just disappear, go away and leave them all alone. They weren't doing any harm to the humans by living here, so why? Why did they have to come? Although she could almost feel some sort of invisible threat being emitted from the structure, a tiny hope that it was only the rangers still remained. As unlikely as it was, she could hope.

"But that'll just scare everyone." Aki mewed, looking at her friend with worry they both shared.

"They'll just get even more scared if they don't find out until they arrive. If we warn everyone, then we can prepare." The helioptile reasoned, glancing back at the island behind them, as if looking for something.

Aki just gazed down at her paws. "Yeah... But what if it's only the rangers?"

"I don't know why, but I really doubt the rangers would come over in something like that." Levy shook her head. "I mean, apparently they use those loopy thingies to befriend us Pokémon, and ride on staraptor and doduo to get places. Or at least, that's what they say... But still."

"True... Okay. We'll tell them." Aki nodded, suddenly looking a lot more positive.

Levinia smiled. "And we could ask one of the staraptor over here to go fly over and spy on them! Or a peliper. They'd never know."

"We should be going back now, little ones. We don't want everyone wondering where we've gone." Tessie advised, turning her head to look at the two much smaller Pokémon.

They nodded, and silently the three of them headed back.

"You guys where away for a while. It's almost midday." Velvet mewed as Levinia and Aki clambered onto shore, shaking off the small lumps of snow that had gathered on themselves. "If you're looking for Elysia and Kitsune, they're over there." The espeon flicked her tail, pointing along the shore in the direction of the mountains. Said Pokémon could be seen playing around some ways along.

"We'll go over and play later. We just wanted to say something." Aki told the taller Pokémon. "It's important. Really important."

"Says the Eevee who wasn't even sure we should tell anyone." Levinia giggled quietly, earning a small hit by a certain very fluffy tail.

Yumi, who was standing next to Velvet, nodded, waiting for them to continue.

"It's the humans. They're on this gigantic scary-looking ship and they're coming this way." Aki explained, in a surprisingly serious-sounding voice. "Levy and I spotted them when we were out with Tessie. We went really far out, and-and yeah..."

The helioptile nodded, looking up at the Espeon and Umbreon, worried. "We're worried something really bad could happen. We've already figured out that it's defiantly not the rangers."

Velvet nodded. "Then we need to do something," she turned to Yumi before she continued; "Should we evacuate to Snowstorm Hills or just focus on keeping the younger ones safe? Some battle training will defiantly be necessary."

"Aki, Levinia, based off their distance away and approximate speed they appeared to be moving, how long do you think we'll have before they get here?" Yumi asked, glancing away towards the ocean just to check if he could see them from shore. With no luck, he looked down at the small Pokémon.

"I'm not sure, but they appeared to be moving slowly, and they looked to be like this," she used her front leg-feet things to show a small distance, about a centimeter or two, between them, "big on the horizon. Maybe a little closer..."

Aki flicked her long ears, looking at her friend. "So if we're unlucky, then we might only have until later tomorrow. I don't know how fast those big creepy-things can move, so..."

Despite the slight lack of useful information, the two eeveelutions nodded in understanding to the situation at hand. "Did they look to be heading towards the lake, closer to the north of the island, or could you not tell?" Yumi asked them.

"I think they were heading more towards the north. About as far as the hills, maybe a little less." Levinia explained.

"Alright. Let's go gather up the others and then we can head back. We can stay home, except I think you guys could do with a little training." Velvet told them, gaining nods in understanding from the smaller Pokémon, and the four of them began to make their way over to get Kitsune and Elysia.

After a little bit of convincing, they had told the Shinx and Vulpix about what was going on and their plan, and were soon walking away from the lake back to their home in the meadow. A little bit of playing around under the snow-coated trees easily got their minds off things, and by the time the sun was about three-quarters across the sky, they had arrived home, after being held up for quite a bit with a sudden snowball fight courtesy of a certain young vulpix.

"When are we going to start training? I'm going to be the best battler ever!" Kitsune exclaimed, bounding around, scattering snow everywhere (as if it wasn't already.)

"Yeah!" Elysia agreed, "I wanna learn how to use discharge! Or thunderbolt!"

By that time, the shinx's mother, Kefira, had come back over to them out of curiosity. "What's this training I'm hearing all about?" The luxray asked.

With not really any other choice, Velvet quickly filled her in on what Aki and Levinia had seen when they where down at the lake.

"Oh. That's not good." Kefira mewed, "I'll help with it. Are we going to go warn those up north? We don't want Flake, Carbon, or anyone like that to get hurt."

At the mention of two of her children, Velvet immediately nodded. Stopping to think for a short moment, she then decided, "We'll see if they decide to come down to get some berries, but if the humans arrive before them, we'll go up and warn them. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded, not really having any other choice.

"..can we start training now then?" Levinia asked quietly. "We could practice on those rocks over there." She glanced over at one corner of the small meadow, where a few large boulders lay around near the entrance to a cave, which was settled under a steep, moss-covered cliff. There was a thin pathway that snaked it's way up said cliff, which led of to the hills.

"Yeah! And we could practice leaping from the top of the cliff!" Elysia added enthusiastically, before she then realized how tall the cliff was, and quickly added; "...umm, I mean, from various heights along the pathway. Unless you can fly."

Yumi stepped forward. "Alright, we'll go with Levinia and Elysia's ideas." He nodded towards the rocks and cliff. "For now, just try practicing those moves you already know, alright? For those who don't want to have to use Tackle or other physical moves like that against the boulders, use the parts of the cliff with the thickest moss."

Everybody nodded in agreement, and went off to practice. The four friends were soon by the rocks trying the hardest, even if it looked a lot more like normal playing than training. Velvet, Yumi and Kefira where nearby, watching to make sure nobody got hurt.

From her perch about a quarter of the way up the path, Levinia scanned the area below her, choosing a boulder to attack. Meanwhile, Aki was practicing her Tackle attack against the cliff face about double her own height below. Elysia and Kitsune were practicing dodging against each other some distance away, with Elysia occasionally pausing to use some Charge and Tackle combo she'd made up in attempts to learn Spark. Levinia glanced back down at the eevee below her. "Why do you keep just using tackle? Didn't you just learn swift, so shouldn't you be practicing that?" Levinia asked curiously. Aki paused, and looked up.

"I wanna be a leafeon when I evolve, and Carbon says that leafeon are like flareon, in that they're really good at physical attacks like tackle and quick attack." Aki explained keenly, her tail wagging from side to side like a lillipup's. "Plus, I really want to learn quick attack like Kitsune can, so I'm trying to be super fast with it all."

"I see..." Levinia nodded slowly in understanding. "I know that there's a mossy rock in the forest somewhere, but what would you do if the humans destroyed it? You wouldn't be able to evolve..." The helioptile's eyes were filled with concern, not only for the eevee but for the forest as well. They had technically grown up playing in that forest together. If the forest was destroyed, then what would they do?

"Then I'll just need to make sure that doesn't happen." Aki said firmly. "But if worst comes to worst, then I'll just train to be the best eevee until I'm old enough and can go venture out to another region with one." She finished proudly, smiling with her tail held high.

Levinia nodded vigorously in understanding. "But for now, can we get back to training? I need to try and perfect mud slap, and then we can practice quick attack together!"

"But first," Aki interrupted, "can you show me your thundershock after it's been powered up with charge? I really want to see how strong it is!" She asked, looking up at the young electric-type on her perch some ways up the path. The eevee bounded over to the closest boulder, which was easily double her height tall. She poked it with her right-sided front paw, and continued. "You can use it on this boulder."

Listening to her friend's request, Levinia soon nodded in agreement. "Okay. You might wanna move away from the boulder first, though. I don't want to accidentally shock you."

Aki did as she was told, and bounded over to sit against the mossy cliff face she had previously been tackling. The force from earlier had made a decent sized area in which the moss was almost completely flattened against the cliff face, but in some places the tiny green leaves where beginning to spring back up into their original position. As she patiently waited, Aki was silent with her gaze focused on the large boulder ahead.

Above her, Levinia focused hard. Closing her eyes tight, the young Pokémon gathered up all her internal electrical energy, charging it up. "Heeliioooo..." She muttered quietly, and with a sudden spark of yellow electricity around her, she suddenly felt stronger. She was ready.

With the spark from above alerting Aki's attention, she looked up. "Go go go!" She encouraged, excited, even if it could be widely considered to be nothing in comparison to some much stronger Pokémon attacks.

Meanwhile, the commotion had attracted Elysia and Kitsune, who temporarily paused their training together to watch. Even if Levinia didn't really like being the center of attention, she continued.

Sparks continued to fly, and with Levinia focusing all her energy, she let loose a thundershock attack. The electricity sprouted in all directions, and like celebi's vines it was sent straight towards the boulder. Glowing yellow light surrounded it, crackling with electricity.

It stopped. Levinia fell to the ground (even if it was only a couple inches), half-emptied of energy. "Was that good enough for you guys?" She asked.

"It was great!" Elysia chimed, jumping over to her. "Should we stop training now? I want to go play in the forest a little before we have to go to sleep."

"Yeah. And I'm getting hungry." Kitsune nodded as she followed, in no rush. Aki nodded her agreement.

"Okay. Let's go then." Carefully making her way down the pathway, Levinia jumped down at a safe height and the four of them quietly went to get some food.


Okay, sorry if it kinda lacked intenseness. The first part was fun to write though. And all together, this chapter was exactly 2,500 words long :3 I hope it was alright. Please read and review~