Wow, I have eleven favorites for this story and 8 people put it on their alert lists. Sweet. Never thought that many people would like it what with this only having eighteen wonderful reviews. Now I have even more motivation to keep writing this story! Well, that, and the fact that I want to get up to the point in the story when Grey and James transition from novice trainers into semi-badass upper-midlevel trainers. I've got it all in the story outline and damn it all if I'm not proud of it. I think you guys'll like it, too.
P.S. Alteris, mah brothah, expect to see your OC come in some time around Almond Town. Ricki, the first of yours is making his first appearance in Springbloom and the again in Passing town, and Lolli-S, your girl will appear in Passing Town.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, Lolli-S, author of the Louhearst Expedition, allowed me to create an official Challenger Discussion Thread on her forums. If you need a little change of pace, put her name in the search engine, go to the thread on her forum and read a few of her stories. Thanks again, Lolli :D
Disclaimer: If I owned Pokémon, then I'd be a very rich Japanese man. I'm a sixteen-year-old kid in high school. You do the math, people.
KEY:
"normal speech"
"thought"
translated pokémon speech
"blah blah blah emphasis blah blah blah"
Pokédex Entries
Chapter 13: A Meeting to Remember: The Sadistic Mr. Kestrel?
"How in the hell did I get myself mixed into this?" Grey thought disbelievingly. He dove under Fearow's Drill Peck attack and found himself thankful that he was as fast as he was. Fearow busted through and out of a window while Kestrel stood by with his hands in his pockets, laughing his head off at the boy's peril. He didn't even break his stream of laugher for a second even when Soul pitched a fireball at his head.
"Soul, focus on the Fearow! Fire Fang!" Grey shouted. Fearow was not about to let that happen and shattered yet another window with Aerial Ace. His long, spear-like beak cut a path of blood across Soul's stomach before a wing strike sent the fire lizard to the floor. The air currents came next, slicing into Soul's body like a hundred knives. Blood droplets flew into the air.
"NO!" Grey roared. Without any further thoughts of his own safety, he rushed in and tackled Fearow away just as he was about to use Fury Attack on Soul's downed form. Next, Grey actually punched the bird in the chest before picking up his partner and examining his wound.
"Cha-aaar…." he groaned weakly. Soul defied his pain and got right back up, wincing as he did, while Grey fixed Kestrel with a debilitating, rage-filled glare. At the same time, he wondered again exactly how he got himself into this mess…
Mélange Town Pokémon Centre: Forty Minutes Ago
"Were you talkin' to me?" Grey asked Sonia, pointing at himself. Sonia gave him a disarming smile and said rather cheerfully,
"Of course I was, cutie! My name's Sonia. Your name is?" The blush line across Grey's face spread and deepened in its redness. "This is going to be way too easy," Sonia thought devilishly.
"Grey…" Grey said awkwardly. "Grey Thomas."
Dude, who's the chick? Lucy asked suspiciously. Something smells off about her.
Dunno, Soul answered with a shrug. But she don't seem too bad. Let's just roll with it; this is the first girl to ever take an interest in Grey.
I think by human standards, that is considered 'pathetic', yes? asked Strabi.
"Listen," Sonia began while making full use of her charm. "I'm new in town here and I was thinkin' about headed over to Museum Tower for a bit. But a girl like me could get lost in a town I know nothing about and I was wondering…"
Grey gulped nervously before asking, "Wondering what? If I'd help ya out a bit, you mean?" Sonia clapped her hands together and nodded at him.
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean! I'd love for you to escort me, a powerful trainer like you." Sonia winked suggestively at him and Grey melted like butter over Soul's flame.
"Well, if you say so," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with a grin. "Oh! Wait… I don't think I can. See, I've got a Gym Battle tomorrow and I really wanna to get some training in before I do anythin' else."
"Aww, really!" Sonia cried. "You'd rather get all sweaty and dirty training than take a pretty girl like me out on a date?"
I changed my mind. Grey, I know you can barely understand me, Soul said frantically, but listen to me when I say It's a TRAP!"
"Well…" Grey faced himself in a mental weighing of his options. On the one hand, he could get his priorities straight and train for his match tomorrow. He'd seen first hand Kory's strength and he knew he didn't stand much of a chance if Soul didn't learn Aerial Ace quickly. And on the other hand, the hormones came into play. There was no doubt that Sonia was attractive and, like Soul had said, she was just about the only girl who'd seemingly showed interest in Grey since before he could remember. In the end, there could really only be one winner.
"Why not? I can move my Gym Battle back a day," he replied, smiling. Soul slammed his tiny palm into his face in frustration. He knew he couldn't have picked who his trainer was and he loved him, but did Grey have to think with his hormones?
"That's perfect!" Sonia cried happily. "Just give me a few minutes to freshen up and take care of some things, 'kay? Twenty - thirty minutes max." Grey nodded and Sonia did a little hop where she stood. She winked at the trainer boy again and walked off towards her persian, putting a little swing in her hips as she did.
"….Damn," Grey muttered. He turned to and bent down level with Soul excitedly and said, "Did you see that, Soul? That girl actually wants to go on a date with me. And out of nowhere, too! Man, I must be better looking than I thought."
You idiot! Soul screamed in poké-speech. He smacked his trainer upside the head with his tail and snarled at him. We have a Gym Battle tomorrow and you go off with some random girl! How thick are you?
Doesn't that seem real suspicious to him? Like, at all? Lucy wondered aloud.
He is lucky he's got potential otherwise I'd be outta here, Strabi muttered sarcastically. Rock snake, what do you think about this?
He's an idiot; plain and simple, Maverick said flatly Doesn't matter anyway. I'll be stuck in my ball if we go indoors.
"Ow, Soul! What the hell!" Grey shouted. He rubbed the side of his head and gave Soul a confused and slightly ticked off look.
"Char! Charmander!" Soul huffed angrily. He crossed his arms and set his face in an annoyed glare at his trainer, knowing Grey understood the message.
"Okay, okay, I get it. We'll do some training with Aerial Ace while she's getting ready. Ya didn't have to smack me though…" Grey grumbled.
Oh, yes I did, Soul shot back.
Grey led his team past the other trainers in the clearing. Some of them would hold up poké balls at him but he ignored the universal sign of challenge with the only excuse one could use to get out of a battle,
"I gotta do some training. Sorry."
Grey looked up at the blue cloud-strewn sky and guessed that it was around mid to late afternoon. Plenty of time to get started on Soul's Aerial Ace training. He'd finish with Strabi's Iron Tail problems the next day and have Soul learn Will-O-Wisp when he was done with that. In his mind, that was the perfect way to go about things.
Grey found a that the entire second acre didn't have any other trainers around. When he wondered why, he saw a nearby sign that read: "Training Zone: To be used strictly as such."
"Wow. Either everyone in this town's stronger than I thought or they're all sleepin' something off," Grey theorized. He shrugged off the thought and took out his Pokédex once more to go over how a land-bound pokémon was supposed to execute an Aerial Ace in the first place.
Aerial Ace, Dexter chimed. A Flying-type damage dealing move that is always sure to hit. It is quite easy for a pokémon that is able to fly to grasp this move but it proves challenging for those on the ground. Aerial Ace is executed by putting on a powerful burst of speed that literally splits the wind and uses that as a weapon. The powerful cutting wind coupled with the generated speed augments the strength of the impact when Aerial Ace hits. Though difficult, all pokémon that are capable of learning this attack can put on the necessary speed to perform it.
Next, the Pokédex accessed the data it had already gathered from Soul and created a tiny doppelganger of him onscreen. The miniature Soul performed the Aerial Ace attack with ease, pushing off the ground to generate the speed and twisting around to strike a digital target. A bright "OK!" flashed after this.
Potential to execute the attack: AERIAL ACE - 72%
"Awesome! We stand a pretty good chance, Soul!" Grey grinned and clenched his fist in victory and Soul smirked and crossed his arms.
As if there were any doubt, he said confidently. Now let's get to trainin', Grey.
"Right," Grey grunted as Soul took his usual battle stance. "Everyone else, take a break 'n wish us luck. It says here that you need to concentrate your energy into your muscles and release it all at once through your legs to get up the speed. Your legs are already pretty strong, but let's try something else to help strengthen them…"
Maverick gave a low rumble and dropped his tail next to Grey, making the boy, his charmander and the two female pokémon hop into the air. He nodded at Soul and placed the tip of his tail against Soul's feet. Soul understood what his onix comrade was doing and lay down flat on his back with his feet touching Maverick's tail.
"Oh, I get it. We're gonna work out Soul's leg muscles," Grey realized. "Nice thinking, Maverick. Okay, twenty pushes, Soul!"
Darkness. That was the first thing that the young man's senses picked up as he woozily forced himself awake. The next to start was his sense of touch: The feeling of something oddly furry sitting on his head. He brought his hand up to it and discovered that it was slightly damp, whatever it was. The third sense to reactivate was his sense of smell. The powerful, obnoxious aroma of bleach assaulted his nose and nearly made him gag up his breakfast. Danny quickly figured out exactly where he was.
"The freakin' broom closet?" he whispered viperishly. "Seriously? What the hell, man; I think that bastard actually owes me sixteen bucks!" Danny pushed himself back up and knocked the mop off his head in annoyance.
"What kind of sadistic jerk knocks a dude out and stuffs him in a broom closet?" he asked the air. "Am I gonna have to get myself tested later on…? Dear Arceus, I hope not." Danny pushed the door of the broom closet open and his eyes quickly adjusted to the light.
Looking around, he saw that nothing was amiss. The people still enjoyed the various exhibits of the fourth floor, especially the rampardos skeleton that stood in the center. The elevator seemed to still be running fine judging by the soft ding that reached Danny's ears. Digging around in his pockets, he saw that all the money he'd made and the keys to his truck were still in there.
So why was he feeling as if there were something he was missing…? Something very important… Danny suddenly felt a rage brewing in his stomach that made him want to punch a small child. He rushed back into the broom closet, slammed the door shut to save the ears of the innocent and let loose.
"Son of a bitch!" he roared. "That pasty-faced bastard stole my honey basket!" Danny threw open the door again and started scouring the entire floor for him. When he found nothing, he went for the stairs to start searching the fifth floor.
And steal the basket he did. Kestrel was now up on Museum Tower's fifth out of sixteen floors having himself an enjoyable honey break in the mini-café. He savored the flavor and licked the goop off his pointed teeth greedily before placing the now empty jar into the basket. So far, he'd eaten three jars and deemed that as his limit. Any more honey and he might quite literally have sweet teeth.
"Just a little while longer, boss," Canard said through the boredom. "Twenty-five more minutes. God damn, I really hate deciphering so many lines of freakin' code. It can never be easy, can it?"
"Aye, but where'd the fun be in an easy job, Canard? Ya gotta be thankful for things like this," Finch chimed in with his musical voice.
"Thankful? Man, you're outta your gourd," Canard retorted. "Much rather wax my own eyebrows off."
"What eyebrows?" Sparrow condescended.
"Nice," Finch chuckled.
"Listen, bitch!" Canard began hotly.
"That's enough of that," Kestrel cut in, laughing. "As completely hilarious as this all is, you idiots have jobs to do so let's not go back to our middle school days. Finch, did you finish setting the knockout gas charges yet or were you having too much fun?"
"Yeah, yeah, I did it; have a li'l more faith in me, boss man. Got a bit distracted durin' the aerodactyl exhibit but I got it all done. Ready ta go any time."
"Good," Kestrel said before he tuned out his subordinates to take a look around. Every floor of Museum Tower had a main exhibit that matched the theme of the floor. The fifth was none other than the deep sea exhibit.
A real live huntail and relicanth actually resided in the massive aquarium that spanned the circumference of the room and a model of the famous submarine from Hoenn stood in the center of the room. The rest of the exhibit mainly consisted of soil samples and artifacts dug up from the seafloor. There was even a piece of wall believed to have come from the ancient city of Pokélantis.
Right now, Kestrel dined in the 'Deep Blue Café' off to the side of the main exhibit. The décor was rather tackily (in his opinion) modeled after an obvious sea theme. All the workers were required to wear funny little chinchou hats and the deep blue fluorescent lighting was supposed to make everything look more authentic. It just made it look as if everybody had had their skin dyed blue. Kestrel was the only person in the café at the moment; everybody else was either ogling the rare Water-types or actually paying attention to the exhibit.
"That's got to be a miracle," Sparrow commented dryly. "Finch actually got something done and did it right. Congrats, dumbass."
"'Ey, I do plenty of things right," Finch said, smirk evident in his voice.
"Really?" Kestrel asked interestedly, getting drawn right back into the conversation. "Like what?"
"Yeah, enlighten us," Sparrow urged.
"Well, singin', for one. And pokémon battlin' and cookin'. And I didn't hear ya complainin' in bed last night either, Sparrow."
"Wha… You…" There was a silence followed by hurried footsteps over Sparrow's end of the intercom before finally she screamed, "Finch, I'm going to wring your neck! You swore you'd never tell anybody!"
"As if we didn't already know Finch was nailin' you," Canard snorted. "It's so damn obvious."
"He's right," Kestrel said bluntly. "And, by the by, Sparrow: that coverup you used to hide last Thursday's hickey? Didn't work too well."
"I hate all of you," Sparrow growled through her mic.
"Well, either way, there's only a little bit of time left now. Everyone start getting ready. Finch, your group get up near the tablet and stay near it when the party starts. Your job is more or less done," Kestrel said.
"Oh, yeah, boss. Found out that tablet thingy's on the eleventh floor. I'm on the eighth now. Want me to crush it or what?" Finch asked.
"Depends on my mood," Kestrel said offhandedly.
At the same time back at the Centre's two-acre, Grey and Soul's training was coming along quite nicely. Although sore from pushing Maverick's mammoth tail over and over, Soul's already tough legs had strengthened a little bit more after the workout. Their only problem now was actually using the attack the right way. Grey's other pokémon now stood on the sidelines while their trainer and his charmander prepared for their tenth consecutive attempt.
"Now!" Grey grunted as he tossed the apple into the sky with all his might. Soul leaned forward and pushed off the ground as hard as his little legs would let him and rocketed forward with astounding speed. He didn't go as fast as needed, though, and only ended up a little past the apple.
But Soul was never one to give up. He followed the falling apple with the utmost concentration and pushed off again, this time splitting the air at his nose and slashing the apple with his claws as it came down. The apple was now split into fourths and Grey cheered loudly at their success.
"Yeah, baby! That's how you do it, Soul!"
"Char!" Soul grunted through his tired breathing. He approached the sliced apple and took a piece for himself as a reward. As he was munching on it, Sonia came over. She crept up behind the celebrating Grey and put her hands over his eyes playfully.
"Guess who…?" She whispered in his ear.
"Sonia!" Grey shouted in surprise. "Hey, you're back! Check it out; Soul just learned Aerial Ace!"
"I saw, but it looks like you still need some fine tuning on it. Now, let's go!" Sonia grabbed his hand and tore him away from the training zone. Flustered, Grey called all his pokémon but Soul back into their balls one by one while he was being led away.
"You really wanna see the tower, don't you?" Grey asked with a laugh.
"Of course I do. It's full of so many exhibits and so much information, it's hard for me not to be interested," Sonia replied. She added under her breath, "That and the item I'm after is worth quite the pretty penny."
Luckily for her, Grey was too busy staring at her face to hear what she was saying. Sonia led him back towards the Centre's back entrance, Soul hot on their heels. The transition from heat to air conditioning to heat again was slightly disorienting and surprising in its own way, but the way Soul began to faintly shine was even more so.
"Chaa…?" Soul wondered aloud.
"Huh?" Grey retrieved his hand from Sonia and turned around to see Soul's glow steadily and stably going. Soul himself was looking at his tiny hands in wonder and amazement while a peculiar power began to form and build inside his chest. The glow faded as soon as it'd come.
"Soul, were you just…?" Grey was forced to ask. Soul looked up at him unsurely at first but then nodded slowly at him. Normally, Grey would be jumping for joy at the fact that Soul was about to evolve but a more negative thought reached him first: When Soul evolved, would he still be the same pokémon? Or would he be someone completely different?
"Char?" Grey? Soul asked tentatively when he sensed Grey's conflict.
"It's nothing, boy," Grey reassured him.
"Listen, as cute as this trainer-pokémon moment is, do you think we can get to the tower before it closes?" Sonia asked. She giggled and took hold of Grey again, leading Grey through Mélange Town like a mother leads her child. Soul caught up and leapt onto Grey's head vaguely remembering Sonia saying she didn't know the layout of the town.
If that's true, then why's she leading? The charmander shrugged it off. The tower's the tallest thing in town. Guess she's just headin' towards it.
Sonia and Grey talked the entire way through the busy city. They blended in quite nicely with the river of people whose contents all seemed to flow to the same destination, so their conversation fell on completely deaf or indifferent ears.
"So is this your first time in town?" Sonia asked him.
"Yep. I'm here for my second badge. Might stick around a bit afterwards but then I gotta keep on moving," Grey answered cheerfully.
"How'd a cute guy like you end up in such a small town anyway? I'd think someone like you'd be more accustomed to the big city," Sonia said playfully. Grey blushed and said,
"I'm kinda not supposed to be here… See, my dad forbid me from coming but I just had to, y'know? I figure he's gonna kill me when I get back home but it's so worth it."
"Oooh," Sonia purred. "Aren't you bad?"
"I guess you could say that."
It went like that for the rest of the twenty minute walk through town. All the while, Soul tuned out Grey and Sonia's voices in favor of taking in the sights. Mélange Town was indeed small; most of the buildings they'd put behind them were all convenience stores and family-owned businesses with the occasional taller office building here and there. There was an abundant amount of greenery, too: an entire shopping plaza wasn't even paved over, it was all grass and a few trees! Not to mention the flowering shrubs that lined the sidewalks. Mélange Town obviously put a lot of stock towards nature. As they moved closer to the tower and by extension, further into town, the amount of greenery decreased but not by much.
"We're here!" Sonia said excitedly. Grey looked up towards the top of the tower in awe. Museum Tower's architect obviously didn't want anything too flashy because its design was fairly simple: A large, slightly curved rectangular tower with sixteen floors of history inside. The entire side facing them was window glass. Right in front was a sign with the name of the building as well as the year it was built and a luvdisc wishing fountain.
"Dude, it's huge! It'll take the whole day to go and see everything," Grey commented.
"Then we'll go up and start on the fourth floor with the rampardos; I hear it's one of the most interesting." The two of them plus Soul walked through the automatic doors and paid the receptionist for their tickets. After that, it was straight to the elevator and up to the fourth floor.
"Y'know, I wonder what kinds of legends the Silver Ring has," Grey said. "If anything, I'll bet they're a lot like Johto's."
"Wait," Sonia said, "you're not from the - ?" Her words were cut short by a loud explosion followed by a massive tremor that shook Museum Tower all the way through to its very core. The elevator rocked and rolled violently like a ship caught in a tropical storm, throwing its riders in every direction. Next, the screams of the museum patrons filled the air and even penetrated the confines of the metal box.
"What the hell?" Grey shouted as he rubbed the spot where his head hit the wall. Soul shakily got to his feet before tripping and falling into the elevator doors. "Please tell me this is just part of the museum."
"I don't think it is," Sonia said tensely. "We need to get out of this elevator now before the cable breaks or something. Quick, grab onto me!" Grey did as Sonia commanded and found that, despite the unbelievably tense situation he was in, he couldn't help but notice how nice Sonia smelled.
"Alakazam, get out here! Use Teleport!" Sonia commanded. Alakazam exploded out of his poké ball and teleported the four of them out of the elevator not a moment too soon. An instant later, the next sound to be heard was the empty elevator crashing thunderously to the bottom floor.
"Grey, you can let go of me now," Sonia deadpanned.
"Huh?" Grey looked down and realized he still had his arms wrapped around the girl. "Oh! Oops, sorry!"
"Don't look so flustered; you'll blend in with the crowd too much." The people were completely dumbfounded and made it very apparent though the looks on their faces and the nervous buzz of conversation. Mothers clung to their children while they cried and whimpered and nobody was at all interested in the rampardos anymore.
"What the hell's going on, Sonia?" Grey asked. He received no answer and Soul frantically pointed at the staircase leading up to the next floor. Sonia was rushing up it like her life depended on it, Alakazam hot on her heels.
"So I guess the date's over?" he said dumbly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention please!" the large olive-skinned man boomed. He and the uniformed men behind him captured the attention of all in the room in an instant. He wore a white sleeveless muscle shirt with the same bird insignia James had seen on the military man and torn blue jeans. The man also sported a full, rugged beard/moustache combo and had oddly thin eyebrows. A pair of glasses rested lazily on his round nose and his hair was styled in short dreadlocks.
"Now, listen," he began. "I've got no beef with any of y'all here; this is strictly business. I can't have anyone remembering what's about to happen, though, so if you'd kindly take a few deep breaths, this'll be over 'fore ya know it."
"Okay, that's my cue to get the hell outta here!" Grey muttered anxiously. He stealthily wove his way in and out of the exhibits and used the crowd for cover as the man and his subordinates outfitted themselves with gas masks and took out small canisters.
Immediately, pandemonium broke out on the fourth floor. It was as if everybody there bar Grey shared a brain and immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion: the canisters were full of poison gas. As one, the museum patrons charged forward in attempt to knock the olive-skinned man and his associates out of the way and get out with their lives. The man didn't back down.
He took two poké balls off his belt and lazily threw them at the stampeding crowd. A farfetch'd and yanma took the stage but their appearance did nothing to stop the chaos. What the man had in store next would, however.
"Yanma, Supersonic. Farfetch'd, use Feather Dance!" he barked. Yanma went in first, darting around in random directions while upping the speed at which his wings beat. The result was the air beginning to vibrate at a dangerous rate accompanied by an obnoxious high-frequency whistling. Grey's teeth literally started to shake in his skull and his ears felt like they were about to explode. Evidently the panicked crowd felt the same as they all were shielding their ears and gritting their teeth.
Next, Farfetch'd stepped up and started to twirl around while dislodging several of his feathers. Within a matter of seconds, feathers filled the air and obstructed everyone's vision, allowing the gas canisters to be tossed out. They started to release a pink cloud that filled up the airspace almost as quickly as Farfetch'd's Feather Dance. Those with weaker constitutions dropped unconscious in a second while the stronger ones took a bit longer to subdue.
Grey himself heard the hissing of the gas canisters and hurriedly stuffed Soul into his jacket while covering his own mouth and nose with his arm. He scrambled for the stairs and made it to them just as the cloud wafted its way over to him. A little drowsy from breathing in some of the knockout gas, Grey shook it off and pushed onwards and upwards, reaching the fifth floor in almost record time.
"Yo, Kestrel. Fourth floor's all subdued," the olive skinned man said into the mic clipped to his shirt. "But those gas charges were overkill. Seriously, I think every window on the tenth floor's been blown out. Plus, the elevator cable broke."
"Excellent job, Canard," Kestrel replied. "Your check's in the mail. On my way to the sixth floor as we speak and… Oh, hello, Daniel, I didn't know you were up…"
"Hey! Pasty face!" Danny shouted in rage. Kestrel raised an eyebrow and looked past the now-unconscious fifth floor patrons and workers to see none other than the honeymaker coming towards. To say Danny looked less than happy would be an understatement. The knockout canisters that Kestrel had thrown had pretty much exhausted themselves by now and the air was almost completely cleared of their effect. Grey sat in the corner near the staircase watching the event unfold.
"Is that… Is that Danny?" he whispered. Soul popped his head out through the front of his trainer's jacket and wondered the exact same thing.
"Oh, hello, Daniel, I didn't know you were up," Kestrel said as if he hadn't robbed the young man and shoved his unconscious body in a broom closet. Kestrel remembered the honey basket sitting on the table beside him and slid in front of it to block it from Danny's view. "What brings you here?"
"Don't act like you don't know, you son of a bitch! You robbed me and you owe me sixteen bucks for the honey!" Danny shouted, figuratively and literally pointing an accusatory finger at Kestrel. Kestrel shook his feathery, dirty blonde head and said,
"Actually, I emptied out three more jars so it's more like… Twenty-two, twenty-four… Around that general area. Now, if you'd please get outta my way, I've got something to do."
Kestrel started calmly strutting towards the stairs leading to the sixth floor on the other side of the floor, stepping over a few unconscious people as he did. Danny did not back down and went over to meet the man chest-to-chest.
"Listen to me, you pale faced jerk," he snarled. "Me and my pokémon worked our asses off to make that honey and I demand you pay me for it or else!"
"Or else what?" Kestrel smirked sadistically. Danny said nothing and instead opted to take a step back and throw an angry punch at Kestrel's face. Kestrel's hand flew up like a shot and caught Danny an inch away from his nose.
"How did you - ?" Was all Danny could say before he took Kestrel's knee to the stomach. The strike winded him and made his eyes go inhumanly wide with pain before they were forced to close a second later when Kestrel delivered a punch to his jaw. Danny actually staggered back and bumped into the wall before sliding down it, holding his jaw.
Danny looked up, his vision bleary from that last punch, and tried to bring everything into focus. He saw Kestrel standing above him, bathed in the blue light of the fifth floor with a sadistic grin stretched across his face that showcased his pointed teeth. The light reflected off those teeth and gave them an ethereal and dangerous sheen while Kestrel's ice blue eyes gleamed like evil jewels. His skin looked even paler than usual; almost parchment white. It was like staring into the face of a demon.
"You know something, Daniel?" Kestrel chuckled. He delivered a brutal kick to the boy's stomach and continued as Danny fell over. "I don't think you know who you're dealing with. Well allow me to fill you in." Two more kicks to Danny's side led to a sickening crack.
"Ouch, that looked like it hurt," Kestrel laughed over Danny's screaming. A moment later, Danny became violently sick all over a poor woman's back. "And you've got a lot of guts by the look of that."
"You bastard…" Danny gurgled through the bile. Kestrel took out his wallet and dropped a few bills onto Danny's downed form.
"Funny, that's what my dear departed grandmamma used to say about me, too. Here's your money, now stay out of my way, maggot," he said with a derisive series of laughs. "Oh, and you can have your honey back." Kestrel then shoved his hands into his pockets and strode off like nothing happened, whistling a tune and a jaunty spring in his step.
"Finch, you find that tablet yet?"
"Yah, what of it?" Finch asked.
"Turn it into dust. I'm in a good mood today," Kestrel said jauntily. He turned the corner up the stairs. Grey waited until he was sure Kestrel was on the upper floor before he sprinted to Danny's side, vaulting over the downed people like a pro.
"Danny!" He cried, careful of the pool of vomit. "Oh, ew, is that a bagel chunk…? Nevermind that; I saw what happened. Are you alright?" Soul hopped out of his jacket and placed a hand tenderly on Danny's forearm.
"Of course I'm not alright!" Danny roared. He immediately regretted doing so when the pain in his ribs flared up.
"Listen, I'll be back for you, dude. Just…hang tight or something. And don't move!"
"Char char!" Soul chirped before running after Grey. The two of them thumped up the stairs two at a time not even registering the fact that they were pursuing someone who had just made quick work of Danny and would most likely do the same to them.
At the same time, Sonia was already past Team Simurgh's target floor and making her way up to the eleventh floor: 'Mysteries of the Hoenn Region'. She didn't even bother to make herself seem scarce anymore since Kestrel had already put his plan into action. She didn't even have to; one girl running around within the mass panic present on every floor would go unnoticed anyway.
She pushed her way past the panicking throng and ended up getting thrown every which way like a rag doll before landing on her ass in front of a replica Kyogre. Just then, the heard the sound of the gas canisters hissing reached her ears and she dug a gas mask out of her bag as quickly as she could. She pulled her hair out of the way and hurriedly put it on just as the gas washed over the crowd and instantly did its job.
"That was anticlimactic," Sonia muttered. "Alakazam, I need you!" The Psi Pokémon appeared in a blue flash floating crosslegged in the air.
"Psychic this stuff outta here. I need a clear path." Alakazam nodded and started twirling his spoons around to build concentration. He summed softly under his breath and increased the volume steadily before he flung his arms out beside him. His Psychic attack swept all the gas in the room out to the sides, allowing Sonia to take her mask off and get a clear look at her opponent.
"Well now, who might you be, lass? Concerned citizen or somebody I should be wary of?" Finch asked in a friendly enough tone. He kept his scarlet hair swept and parted to the right and his fair skin had no marks on it bar a long thin scar on his left cheek. His brown eyes were soft and amiable and he dressed casually for a man of Team Simurgh. A black hooded jacket with a white t-shirt underneath and blue jeans. On his back was Team Simurgh's insignia and about ten grunts stood behind him awaiting orders.
"A little from here, a little from there," Sonia said flightily.
"Really now? The alakazam up there says otherwise. Oh, now where are me manners? Name's Finch." With a twirl of his hand, Finch bowed gallantly.
"My name is Sonia," the girl replied as she let out her Persian. "And I'm really sorry, but I'm gonna have to be taking something from here now. Hope you don't mind."
"Heheh… Well, now, Miss Sonia," Finch said with genuine regret, "I'm afraid I can't allow that. Have at it, boys."
"Alakazam, put the smoke back and make sure nobody gets hurt!" Sonia screamed as she put her gas mask back on.
"Kazam!" the psychic grunted. He brought his arms back together and the gas clouds followed suit, giving Sonia ample cover for a limited amount of time. Finch sighed and cursed under his breath before ordering his men to release their pokémon. Ten flashes of light produced ten different pokémon. Sonia pulled out yet another poké ball and released a flareon into the fray.
"Flareon, be a good boy and protect Alakazam with Persian while I go and get what we came for," Sonia instructed him. Flareon nodded dutifully and launched a Flamethrower into the face of an approaching ninjask. The cicada was torched and knocked out of the sky only for a machoke to take its place. Flareon growled and rammed into its gut with Headbutt while Sonia made a beeline for the east side of the exhibit.
The sounds of fighting fell on the unconscious ears of the few pedestrians. Persian yowled and roared as she went toe to toe with an opposing purugly and Alakazam had his hands full diverting a Hyper Beam attack from a kingler. With a loud grunt of mental effort, Alakazam directed the beam of condensed energy away from him and at an angle through the floor. Sonia ducked as a golbat sped by overhead and delivered a powerful kick to its trainers stomach. As that grunt staggered away, another and his toxicroak took their place. The man held a blade over his dead and toxicroak's forearm claws glowed a deadly purple in use of Poison Jab.
Sonia expertly grabbed the hand the man had the blade in and crushed it without mercy. The main howled in agony and clutched his broken hand which only exacerbated his pain. He grunted out for Toxicroak to finish its attack and the poison frog happily obliged. It leaped in the air over Sonia who only smirked confidently right before a psychic glow surrounded Toxicroak. The Poison Mouth Pokémon's mind was ruthlessly assaulted by Alakazam's five-thousand IQ before it was tossed aside like a limp noodle right into a Groudon replica.
"Nice, Alakazam!" she cheered. "Now Psychic them all outta my way!" Alakazam gave another nod and a grunt and easily spread his mental influence over the entire tenth floor. He kept everyone in place while Sonia finished her mad dash over to the Golems Exhibit. Ignoring all the other scenery, Sonia focused only on the massive stone tablet before her that was being illuminated by base-mounted spotlights and guarded by an obvious laser tripwire and a Plexiglas casing. All across the surface of the tablet were odd bumps that reminded Sonia of Braille. Although majestic in its own odd way, Sonia didn't have time to gawk at the rock slab and set to work.
"Flareon, Persian, back into battle positions! Alakazam, knock them down and redirect focus. Psychic these security measures out of existence," Sonia said dangerously.
Alakazam forced all of Sonia's enemies down to the ground with his formidable brain just long enough for him to redirect all of his focus on the security measures around the tablet. With not even so much as a thought, Alakazam shattered the Plexiglas casing and crushed the laser generators like they were dirt clods. Sonia then took out an empty item ball and tossed it at the tablet like she was catching a pokémon. The tablet was then engulfed in scarlet light and sucked into the ball which Sonia proceeded to pocket.
"Okay, okay, I admit you've got skill, lass," Finch growled in annoyance as he took off his gas mask. From out of the dispersing smoke, a dodrio with its three faces set into a murderous mask trotted up to him. "But, seriously now, I just realized who you're workin' for if yer after seein' ya take that thing."
"Really? How?" Sonia asked. A flash of fire from across the room followed by a pokémon's agonized scream signaled Flareon was hard at work. "And how're you going to do that?"
"Dodrio, Tri-Attack her," Finch commanded. Dodrio's three heads screeched and arranged themselves into a triangle and charged up an energy field between themselves. Just as the demon tri-bird was about to release its attack, Alakazam intervened and teleported in front of it, fist crackling with electricity. Alakazam ThunderPunched the middle head and ended up disorienting all three when the electricity spread.
"Crap! How did I forget abou' the goddamned Alakazam!" Finch berated himself.
"Because you're an idiot!" Sonia jeered. "Persian, Hyper Beam!"
"PaaaaaaaNYA!" Persian screeched as she charged and fired her doom blast at the wall. Finch cursed loudly and leapt backwards with Dodrio. Hyper Beam blasted a hole clear through the museum wall big enough for Sonia's entire party to jump through. Dust and debris flew everywhere after the explosion and Finch was ready to kick himself for not keeping his mask on. Flareon and Persian rushed right over to Sonia's side and she called them back after thanking them for a job well done. Alakazam was next to go back into his ball and was replaced by Staraptor. The predatory bird spread his wings as Sonia jumped onto his back and took off at once.
"Son of a bitch…" Finch muttered angrily. "Pidgeot, Whirlwind." The sound of a poké ball opening was heard and Finch's pidgeot blew away the dust with his powerful wings. In a few seconds, the air was clear.
"Well, that was embarrassin'… Everybody alright?" A chorus of groans, coughs and whining gave him his answer.
"Ouch," he chuckled. "Guess not."
"She broke my friggin' hand…"
"Oh, walk it off, John, ya pansy!" Finch laughed.
"That's it, out the fire escape," Kestrel said in boredom as he had his two birds marshal those who were still conscious out of the sixth floor. The people screamed and paid no attention to their fellow man as they quickly adopted the 'Every man for himself' rule. Within a minute, the room was empty of all those conscious with about five unconscious littering the ground like discarded pieces of paper.
"Hunh… So Finch wasn't lying. Groudon really is as old as the planet," Kestrel mused to his pokémon. He moved away from the second replica Groudon (this one depicted as just having woken up from the fiery, molten maw of Mt. Chimney) and moved onto the Legendary Bird area a little ways away. This part of the sixth floor had three replicas of each of the birds, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, with their own little information blurbs on the panels below.
"You know, it's peculiar, Honchkrow, - oops, sorry, ma'am," Kestrel said to his Big Boss Pokémon. He bowed respectfully to the sleeping woman for knocking her with his shoe and continued.
"The three birds exist in harmony and yet need a fourth bird to control them. They've only appeared sporadically throughout history and nobody has ever figured out exactly how to track them down. That is, until me, of course."
"Krrrrow…" the Dark-type trilled. Kestrel approached the center booth, the one with the Articuno statue above it. Contained in yet another Plexiglas box was a Mystic Water, a seemingly uninteresting item. Nevertheless, Kestrel gave a victorious smirk and nodded to Honchkrow.
"Be gentle, girl," he instructed. Honchkrow nodded and stuck her pristine and glossy wing out above the container.
"Steel Wing." Honchkrow's wing became harder than the alloy her move was named after and she chopped the box with just a little under all of her strength. The box sustained a hairline fracture that quickly spider-webbed its way across the entire front. Kestrel gave the cracked face a gentle prod with his finger and it completely crumbled. With a satisfied smile, Kestrel reached into the broken remains of the box and took out the Mystic Water, relishing in the feel of its cold surface against his palm.
That was much easier than expected, Fearow commented haughtily with a ruffle of his feathers.
"If you're talking about how easy this was, I can't say I disagree, Fearow. I almost kind of wish something were here to spice things up a bit," Kestrel commented.
"Hey, you!" Kestrel broke out in a grin. Grey ran up the stairs and past the hundred-foot-tall Rayquaza replica in the center of the massive room, nearly tripping over the figure of a downed man. Fearow and Honchkrow let their curiosity take control and turned around to see who'd come in. They almost didn't see Grey as their attention was immediately grabbed by the Lake Trio booth on the other side of him. As one, they damned their ability to see in and be distracted by such vibrant color.
"Ask and thy shall receive!" he laughed. He turned to face Grey, the boy's face set in a determined glare and his charmander doing the same. "And who're you exactly, kid?"
"Like you need to know," Grey spat. "Just who the hell do you think you are to be doing something crazy like this? D'you know how many innocent people got hurt?"
"Oh, here it is: the righteous hero-babble that is so clichéd on TV. Never thought I'd actually hear it in reality," Kestrel muttered to himself.
"Answer the question!" Grey demanded.
"Well, if you must know, then one innocent person got harmed here and that was Daniel. Though he was asking for it," Kestrel answered.
"Yeah, I saw that," Grey growled. "Put back whatever it is you stole 'n we can end this without anyone getting hurt." Kestrel wasted no time and immediately flew into a gale of mad laughter.
"That's rich, kid! Truly rich! You think you can take me on with just a friggin' charmander? You alright in the head?" Kestrel's laughter continued much to the anger and annoyance of Grey; even Fearow and Honchkrow were joining in on it. Kestrel finished his fit and deposited the Mystic Water inside his coat pocket before pointing one ghostly pale finger at the boy.
"Let me show you what a real trainer can do. Dark Pulse!" Kestrel barked. Honchkrow took to the skies and conjured a swirling orb of dark rings in front of her beak. The rings streaked towards Grey and Soul like a beam arrow but only met the empty ground when they dove out of the way. Soul tucked, rolled, and threw together a hasty Ember attack that was pitched at Honchkrow's bosom. Fearow slid in and batted the weak-by-comparison attack away with just one wing.
"Keep up Dark Pulse on the boy, Honchkrow, and Fearow, you use your Fury Attack on the lizard," Kestrel commanded. Fearow let out a proud and regal caw and was up close to Soul with one beat of his impressive wings. Using the sides of his beak, he repeatedly and adeptly slammed Soul's tiny body.
At the same time, Honchkrow was taking great pleasure in shooting off Dark Pulse after Dark Pulse at Grey's fleeing form. Grey would duck behind a wall and Honchkrow would bust a hole through it; he would try and run but Honchkrow only sped up her attacks and forced him to jump, duck, and lean away from the blasts of negative energy. One particularly nasty blast completely decimated the area Grey was about to stand on, added even more debris to the air, and threw Grey into the Lake Trio exhibit.
"This is getting us nowhere," Grey growled as he dug himself out of the wreckage. "Okay, then we'll get physical. Soul, Dragon Rage on Honchkrow then use Aerial Ace!"
Just as Honchkrow was about to loose another energy blast, Soul's rage-fuelled draconic attack impacted her right in the chest. Proud of his improved aim, Soul took the chance to use Aerial Ace; he pushed forward then up and reveled in the feeling of having split the wind. His attack hit home and struck Honchkrow's left wing hard, taking away her aerial balance.
"Nice, Soul!" Grey cried as he ducked under Fearow's incoming Drill Peck and watched as the spiraling attack totally splintered the ground he was once standing on. As Grey shielded his face from the spray of sheet rock and splintered floor boards, he counted himself and the downed pedestrians lucky. So far, nobody had been seriously hurt.
"How in the hell did I get myself mixed into this?" Grey thought disbelievingly. He dove under Fearow's Drill Peck attack once more and found himself immensely thankful that he was as fast as he was. Fearow busted through and out of a window while Kestrel stood by with his hands in his pockets, laughing his head off at the boy's peril. He didn't even break his stream of laugher for a second even when Soul pitched a fireball at his head. Kestrel sidestepped it and watched with glee as it caused one of the lightning fixtures overhead to explode in a shower of sparks and broken glass.
"I'll admit that was a nice hit you landed on Honchkrow," Kestrel said as he gingerly felt the bird's injured wing before recalling her, "but do you honestly call that an Aerial Ace? Let me give you a better demonstration!" Kestrel cried. He threw his arm out and bellowed, "Fearow, Aerial Ace attack!"
Fearow pushed himself higher into the air with just one pump of his wings and dove back down with another. Right away, his needle-like beak split the air and the currents became sharp as knives as he came down.
"Soul, focus on the Fearow! Fire Fang!" Grey shouted. Soul stood his ground and waited for Fearow get close enough for him to jump over him and fill his jaws with fire. Fearow was not about to let himself be bitten and shattered yet another window with yet another pump of his mighty wings. He veered back inside through another random window with another burst of remarkable speed and crashed into Soul. Fearow's long, spear-like beak cut a path of blood across Soul's stomach before a wing strike sent the fire lizard to the floor. The air currents came next, slicing into Soul's body like a hundred knives. Soul's mouth opened in a silent scream. Blood droplets flew into the air.
"NO!" Grey roared. Without any further thoughts of his own safety, he rushed in and tackled Fearow away just as he landed, about to use Fury Attack on Soul's downed form. Next, Grey actually punched the bird in the chest before picking up his partner and examining his wound.
"Cha-aaar…." the baby salamander groaned weakly. Soul defied his pain and got right back up, wincing as he did, while Grey fixed Kestrel with a debilitating, rage-filled glare. At the same time, he wondered again exactly how he got himself into this mess.
"Actually attacking Fearow to save the life of your pokémon? Now, that, my young friend is admirable; bravo," drawled Kestrel. He clapped slowly and deliberately just to watch the look of rage and helplessness grow on Grey's face. "For that, I think I'm going to spare you the beating I gave Daniel."
"You think Soul was my only pokémon?" Grey snarled, the rage completely clouding his judgment. He cradled the charmander in his arm and reached for yet another poké ball. "Maverick, let's -"
"Grey!" Sonia cried from outside the window. Both Kestrel and Grey turned towards her voice, Grey in surprise and Kestrel in confusion. Sonia was standing atop Staraptor's back just outside the window. "Grey, come on, let's get out of here!"
"What a magnificent Staraptor," Kestrel commented vaguely. He turned to Grey and said, "Look, as much as it's been fun to thoroughly thrash you, I really must be going now. Finch, Sparrow, Canard, we're leaving," he spoke into his lapel mic.
"Wait, you can't just leave!" Grey roared. "Get back here and finish this!"
"I can't just leave? Tell that to my ass as its flying away," Kestrel said rudely. He took a hold of Fearow's leg and told the bird to fly out of one of the holes it made. Fearow instead chose to just speed out through another window for no apparent reason.
"Grey, are you okay?" Sonia asked? She hopped through the window and approached him cautiously, aware of the tiny orange bundle in his arms. "What happ- oh, my gosh!"
"Soul…" Grey muttered. "I'm sorry, bud."
That's okay… You've done some stupid stuff before, right? the fire lizard said weakly.
"Come on, we need to get him to the Pokémon Centre," Sonia said. The sound of police and ambulance sirens followed her words. "Like, now! Come on. I'll take you back on Staraptor."
A few hours later and Grey was sitting in the Centre off to the side while waiting for his aunt to come back out with Soul's poké ball. The normally dark pink walls of the center adopted the colors of shadow and orange in the afternoon light and gave the place a strangely calm atmosphere. Grey other three pokémon were waiting outside in the afternoon sun and Rachel, June, and James had come back from the Gym about a ten minutes before he returned. He'd told them everything that happened to him that day: meeting Sonia, the trip to Museum Tower and the raid where, surprisingly enough, nobody was killed. Danny was seriously injured with two broken ribs but Grey could care less about that. Sonia had stuck around and was in the infirmary with Nurse Joy. Right now, June sat next to him, rubbing his back comfortingly while James leaned against the wall offering silent support. Rachel, however, was not as tender.
"You are the absolute biggest idiot I've ever met in my life! Didn't you think it was funny at all that a random girl came up to you and asked you to go somewhere with her? Did that not send up a giant red flag in your head?" she screeched at her little brother. Grey didn't respond.
"Rachel, lay off; you're causing a scene," James said quietly. As much as he respected Rachel, even James wasn't oblivious to her moments of irritancy.
"I'm not gonna lay off him! How stupid is he to go looking for a fight with someone who easily took care of Danny? And that's another point I want to bring up: Danny's in the hospital because of you!" Rachel shouted. The other trainers in the Pokémon Centre were doing their best to tune the pink-haired girl out but most were failing. Instead, they silently filed out the back door into the two-acre until the lobby was empty.
"How is it his fault?" June shouted back indignantly. "Danny went looking for confrontation with the man because he was not properly compensated and he was robbed! Grey did not tell him to go and fight him!"
"Rachel, just shut up," Grey said. Nurse Joy told him Soul would be just fine (he realized just how easily Kestrel had gone on him after that) so he wasn't worried about his partner. He was, however, ready to kick himself that he'd been made a fool of so easily and endangered Soul in the process. Grey would get over it and move on but Rachel was just needlessly exacerbating things.
"I don't need you preachin' to me about how stupid I was. I figured that out a when Soul got hurt and I'm gonna get stronger so shut up," Grey commanded.
"Now you listen to me, Grey Isaac Thomas," Rachel began furiously. But Grey had had enough by then.
"I said shut up!" he roared, leaping to his feet. "They were trying to steal something from the museum and I was trying to stop them! I may've bitten off more than I could chew but you're the one," he pointed a finger at her, "who's always telling me to help people when they need it!"
"Grey…" June whimpered. Jameson sighed.
"I'm sick and tired of you always telling me what to do! If you're gonna follow me, fine, but could you please just stop talking for now?" A potent silence hung in the air after that. Rachel, taken aback at her brother's outburst, took a seat on the opposite side of the room near the vid-phones. She didn't speak a word; she just glared at Grey with her arms crossed. June went back to comforting Grey and James stayed silent so as not to cause more conflict.
"Um… Excuse me," Sonia said. All attention was immediately focused on her as she and Nurse Joy entered the room from behind the front counter . "I hate to interrupt and I know this is really awkward, but…"
"But?" Grey grunted. Sonia held out a poké ball.
"Soul's all better now," Nurse Joy said. Grey leapt to his feet again and graciously accepted Soul's ball from Sonia. He immediately let his partner out and as soon as he was materialized, pulled him into a big hug.
"Soul! Oh, man, you're alright!" he cried happily, all former anger forgotten.
"Char char!" Soul responded and returned the hug. Grey released the charmander and he flexed his tiny muscles to show that he was completely recovered. There weren't even any scars left from Fearow's attack.
"Aunt Joy, thank you so much," Grey said sincerely.
"Amazing. Not a scratch on him," James noted.
"Of course," Nurse Joy said with a hint of pride. "Your charmander should be all better now but I think you should let him rest a bit before any more training. The wounds were superficial but they still did some damage."
"Char!" Soul shouted in protest. Everyone looked at him curiously and he shook his head at Nurse Joy. "Char char! Charmander!" He flexed again and brandished his claws proudly.
"I think Soul is saying that he is all set to go and train now," June translated.
"Are you sure you're up for it?" Sonia asked Soul. "It looked like you were pretty hurt back there." Soul shook his head again and surprised everyone by beginning to shine once more. Grey took a step back out of surprise and James and June leaned forward to get a better look. Only Rachel was uninterested in the event.
"Mander?" Again? Soul breathed. The glow stopped once again.
"Soul, you know what this means?" Grey asked excitedly. "It means you're gonna become a charmeleon! This is awesome! Come on; lets get training!" Soul nodded eagerly.
Grey took off towards the exit to the two-acre and made a beeline for the training zone, leaving the semi-awkward situation behind him. He decided that he wasn't going to think about what happened today anymore. His main concern now was going up against Kory and figuring out which pokémon he was going to use and he would need all the training he could get.
Back in the Centre, Sonia bid everybody goodbye and walked out the automatic doors. Rachel glowered at her back the whole time until she left before getting up and leaving herself.
"Where are you going?" June asked innocently.
"To see Danny in the hospital," Rachel answered curtly. June winced at Rachel's uncharacteristic waspishness and looked up at Nurse Joy.
"If you do not mind my asking, were Grey and Rachel always so different?" she asked. Nurse Joy shrugged.
"Honestly, I wouldn't know. Sara only told me about certain things; she never mentioned such intense sibling rivalry."
"Well, whatever their problems, they better hurry up and resolve them," James said. He cast a look at Rachel just as the Centre doors slid open. "Before one of them says something they'll regret."
Finally! It is done! And I'm really loving the review count, guys! This chapter's a bit shorter than the two or three preceding it but that's alright. Still at a decent length. Loving the review count so far! :D
Thanks to Ray El Rojo Amigo, Lolli-S and alteris for sending in their OCs and especially to Lolli for my Challenger thread. You guys rock!
And now, post chapter notes. Kestrel was looking for a Mystic Water? Dude, you can find those things anywhere; why steal one from a museum? Obviously its got some value, but still…
Grey is living proof on how powerful an influence hormones are on the adolescent human male. To completely forgo all suspicion just because of a pretty face that knows how to flirt? Grey, you disappoint me.
Anyone catch the Star Wars reference?
And Kestrel showcases both his sadism and considerable skill as a Pokémon Trainer. You can bet we're gonna see a lot more of him. And, by the way, that stone tablet that Otto had Sonia steal? Important plot point. I'm just sayin'.
And it looks like Grey grew up a bit here and our favorite fire breathing baby salamander is close to evolving! Oh, glorious day!
You guys know the drill: R&R and then head over to Lolli-S's forums for discussion! I love you all :D
CHAPTER PREVIEW
Grey: Okay, so now that I've put that behind me, it's time to do what I came her to do in the first place: Challenge Kory! It's gonna be one hell of a battle and we better give it my all if we wanna win!
Soul: Char char!
James: I'm expecting you to win, Grey. I can't call you my rival if you lose your first match to a Gym Leader twice in a row.
June: Stop trying to psyche him out; I am sure Grey will be fine and, um, kick some ass.
Grey: Whoa, June, never heard you say that before. Nice change of pace.
June: Just like how this chapter was. There was not much battling here but there was a lot of action and it focused more on what Team Simurgh was doing.
Grey: My Ranger skills and Sonia's strength came out in full, not to mention that Kestrel guy's. But enough about that, let's tell 'em what's happenin' next, everyone!
All: Next time on Challenger!: Soul's Soul on Fire: VS Leader Kory II!
Grey: We're winning for sure. Count on it!