The city was almost completely destroyed. Luckily, the only death, no, injury at all, was the building collapsing on Magma Boss Maxie. Everyone was escorted across the cycling road to Mauville City. Dad, Mum, Aki. Sakura. I still had to go finish up some stuff back in Slateport. When the citizens were entering the cycling road building, I slipped away and hid in the trees. I stayed until the attack had ended. When the noise died down, I ran north and rested in the house at the top of Route 110.

The house was empty. There was a scroll on the back wall and a small shining object under the table that was placed in the centre of the room. Although I was… sure… that I was alone, I still felt like I was being watched. I sat down at the table and rested. I felt something brushing against my leg and I jumped out of my seat. There was a man… under the table.

When the man stood, I knew immediately who he was; and where I was. This was the trickhouse, and this was the trick master.

"So what brings you to my home?" He asked with a laugh. I looked at him with a confused look on my face.

"You seriously don't know about the attack? On Slateport?" He adopted the emotion I was feeling and stroked his thin goatee.

"Attack?"

"Magma and Aqua… Attacking the City… IT'S COMPLETELY DESTROYED!"

"I'm afraid I have no idea about these attacks, or these Magma or Aqua individuals are"

"Magma and Aqua are Teams… You know, you're not as tricky as you're advertised to be."

"Well maybe if you try one of my puzzles, you'll think otherwise!"

"And what do I have to do to begin one of these?"

"Well I hid an object in the destroyed city. Bring it to me and—"

"Excuse me?"

"Hm?"

"Five minutes ago you didn't know the city was destroyed"

"I have friends in high places" He smirked.

I stepped back into the destroyed city once again. I was looking for some sort of strange object apparently. I began my search in the Marketplace. I dug myself a small hole in the rubble and began rummaging. I heard the sound of a bird swooping, and I poked my head up. At the shorehouse was a boy of about 17, dismounting a Latios. I ducked so he couldn't see me, and he walked through the city. I turned when I heard the sound of stomping, and Groudon was standing there. The boy twisted and threw a Pokeball to his side. The Legendary Pokemon from the Unova region emerged from the light. Terrakion.

"Take Down!" The boys voice was deep, and was that of a leader. The brown beast darted to the side, and then shot itself towards the Groudon's torso. It was a direct hit, and the dinosaur toppled over onto the Contest Hall. The boy took a quick ball from his pack and threw it at the Groudon. He was trying to catch it. I tried to prop myself up to the surface, but I had dug myself in too deep. The ball shook twice and Groudon released itself from it's trap. The boy got frustrated and released two more legendary Pokemon.

"Terrakion, Latios, distract it! Dialga, Draco Meteor!" He ordered his Pokemon and darted to the left. The giant blue beast charged it's attack as Latios and Terrakion circled Groudon. A beam of light shot from Dialga's mouth and Groudon was shot back past the Route 110 gate. The boy lopped an Ultra Ball at the beast and I tried my hardest to get myself out of the hole I had dug myself. I managed to pull myself up and tried to run as fast as I could to the scene. I had a limp however and I was very slow. The Groudon burst from the ball and the boy ordered the Terrakion to commence one more attack. As soon as the Ultra Ball left the boy's hand, I screamed,"What the hell are you doing?!"

The boy turned and stared. "None of your business, kid." I saw the ball tighten, and it made a clicking sound. He had captured the Groudon.

"You can't handle a Pokemon with that kind of power!" I screamed at him. He smirked and stepped over to his newly caught Groudon. He picked it up and released the dinosaur. At the same time, Celebi began to fly around my head. He put on an interested face.

"How'd you manage to get that thing on your team?"

"Shut up! Who the hell are you anyway?!"

"The name's Ikusaba. I'm a Pokemon Hunter." I grabbed a Pokeball from my bag and released Kabutops.

"Kabutops, Slash!" He turned to Groudon and made a hand gesture towards Kabutops. Groudon stomped hard and a fissure began to trace the ground. The brown beast was thrown to the right and into the sea. I jumped the crack in the ground and jumped in after him.

The water was cold, but I could barely feel it. The salty water was clouding my vision and making my eyes sting. I found Kabutops and grabbed onto him. I tried to pull him to the shore but the current was too strong. I continued to try to pull towards the shore, but I was swept backwards. Just then, we were hit by a hard object, and lifted into the air. Ikusaba's Latios. We were flown to the shore, but before we had even landed, both Kabutops and I had fallen unconscious.

I woke up in a room which nearly blinded me as soon as I opened my eyes. I was on a hospital bed. When my eyes opened, I could hear a girl's voice. "Taka's awake!" She squealed running out of the room. Sakura returned with My Mother, Father and Aki.

"Wh-where am I?" I moaned, my eyes still stinging from the light.

"Rustboro Hospital." Sakura had tears in her eyes. "Taka, do you know what happened to you?" My mind raced back to before I fell unconscious.

"Slateport… Groudon… Ikusaba…" I fell back to sleep.

I awoke once again with the lights dimmed. My eyes didn't have to adjust to the light so I sat up. "Taka's awake again!" Sakura called out to the hallway.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"The first time? About a month… Just then? Maybe…. An hour or two." Aki came in and ran up to the bed I was sleeping.

"Big Brother!" At that moment, I for some reason remembered about Kabutops. He had become unconscious at the same time as me.

"Where's Kabutops?!" I stood up and rushed out the door, ripping out the cords and pipes that were attached to me.

The rest of the hospital was as bright as it was when I woke up the first time. Sakura ran out after me and put her hand on my shoulder. "Taka! Stop!" I spun around and looked at her. "Kabutops is alright. He's at the Pokemon Centre; they're looking after him." I let my muscles relax.

"Oh thank god." I began to become tired again. I nearly dozed off while standing, but managed to keep myself awake.

I stayed in the hospital for a few days, and Sakura stayed the whole time. Mum and Aki went back to Mauville where the Slateport evacuees were refuged. Dad was staying in a hotel. When Sakura stepped out to use the bathroom, I was visited by the last person I wanted to see. The boy named Ikusaba stepped in and stood over me. He scowled. "I heard you were awake."

"What the hell do you want?"

"I want you to thank me"

"Thank you for what?! For trying to kill me?!"

"For saving your life!"

"I'm not thanking you for that. Why would you try to kill me then save my damn life?!"

"I wasn't trying to kill you!"

"What?"

"I was trying to kill your Pokemon. That Celebi and that Kabutops."

"Why the hell-?!"

"You'd be surprised. Rare Pokemon corpses – depending on the species – can actually be a lot more expensive than the live ones. Celebi and Kabutops are included."

"You were going to sell my Pokemon after you killed them?!" I sat up and swung at him. My fist connected with the side of his face and he toppled over. When he stood, there was blood running from his nose. He chuckled and stepped out of the room.

When Sakura came back, I was still sitting up, with my fists clenched, panting in anger. "Taka, what's wrong?" She noticed the blood on the floor,"Oh my god, Taka what happened?!"

"The guy who put me in the coma… Ikusaba… came in here…"

"What did he do?!"

"He wanted me to thank him! For trying to kill me!" Sakura ran out of the room and ran down the hallway. I didn't know what she was doing until I heard an announcement over the loudspeakers. Can an Ikusaba please come to the front desk. I internally face-palmed. Why the hell would he go to the front desk just to be confronted? Soon after, Sakura walked in with a confused look on her face.

"Why didn't he come? How rude is he?" The anger seemed to just faded away and I began to laugh. "What?"

"Of course he's rude!" I laughed,"He came in and confronted me about him attacking me." She started to giggle.

A nurse walked in while we were laughing and we stopped. "Uh… Takashi, you are free to leave whenever you are ready."

I slipped on my clothes and put my bag over my shoulder. Sakura stepped up next to me and we stepped out of the Hospital and into the Rustboro City streets. Almost as soon as we stepped onto the street, we saw two thugs dressed in crimson attacking a woman. I went to grab a Pokeball, but there were none in my bag. "Sakura, you got any with you?"

"Yep!" She smiled and released her Pokemon. A humanoid creature taller than me appeared. "Machoke! Low Kick!" She called,"Taka, I'll deal with these guys, you go get Kabutops!"

I ran into the Pokemon centre and the nurse at the counter knew who I was immediately. "Takashi, you're awake. I'll go get your Pokemon." She stepped into the back room and returned with three Pokeballs. The three contained the three Pokemon I owned. Kabutops, Celebi and Dusclops.

"Thank you" I said with a smile, grabbing the Pokemon and running out.

"Come back any time!" The nurse called so I could hear.

When I got back to Sakura, the thugs were on the ground, with Machoke standing over them. "They're with Team Magma!"

"Did Magma not get disbanded after Maxie's death?!"

"Oh yeah, you were asleep… They promoted an Admin to Boss! And he's made Magma even weirder than before!" One of the Magma member's kicked Machoke and stood up. He released a Pokemon from a ball and started his introduction.

"I'm Magma Admin Suzuki – next in line for Boss." he said with a mean smirk. The Pokemon that stood next to him was a Donphan.

I grabbed a Pokeball that I had recovered from the Pokemon Centre and threw it down. Kabutops emerged and began his attack pre-emptively. He swung his scythe arm over the Donphan's head and into it's back, lodging in. The elephant lifted Kabutops up with it's horns, with the scythe still lodged in the Donphan's back. Donphan threw Kabutops backwards, and into the Devon building. I ran through the doorway of the skyscraper and raced for the stairs. When I reached the second floor, I found Kabutops jump back through the hole he was thrown through.

I stepped up to the hole and watched the battle below. First Kabutops had the advantage, then Donphan. The fight continued for about ten minutes. The two lunged at each other with raised scythes and horns. When they connected, a streak of lightning came from the sky and hit them both. They were thrown back further than the eyes could see. Far past Route 104. Smoke erected from where the lightning had hit, and a dark figure could be seen through it. People had already gathered around the fight, but now, what must have been every citizen of Rustboro City was crowded around the smoke.

The mist faded and the figure became clear. It wasn't a human. It's skin was white, but a purple tint extended over it. The purple became much brighter when it reached the tail. The head had stiff ears extending upwards on either side and it's fingers were large and rounded. It stood up straight and grunted with a deep voice. It seemed as if it was going to attack, but shot into the air and flew towards Route 104, where Kabutops and Donphan had landed. I ran after it, realising that Kabutops could be in a great deal of danger.

After I had left the city, I reached the bridge, which had been completely obliterated. It was as if it had never been there. Above Petalburg Forest, the creature that had landed in Rustboro could be seen flying towards Littleroot town, with Kabutops and Donphan – enveloped in purple light – flying behind it.

I ran back to Rustboro and found Sakura and Dad. "What was that thing?" Sakura asked me.

"I have no idea; but it stole Kabutops"

"What?" Dad frowned.

"I made it to the lake… The bridge had collapsed… But I saw that thing with Kabutops and Donphan heading towards Littleroot town." Magma Admin Suzuki overheard what I had just said and ran towards the lake like I had. "We need to get to Littleroot. We need something to fly."

"I might have something," The voice was familiar. A voice that I hadn't heard in a long time. I turned to see Genya Ito.

"Oh my god, Genya!" Sakura looked at me confused.

"Who?" She whispered.

"You know, we met him last year on Route 127…"

"Hm?"

"You caught your Machop, then he came down the mountain…"

"Oh… Oh! Genya! Oh my god!" I got back to what was happening.

"So what were you saying about maybe having something?"

Genya took out a Great Ball from his bag and released the Pokemon inside. What emerged was a Pokemon I had never seen before. "This is Archeops! Got 'im in the Unova region!"

"Will he get us across to Littleroot?"

"I can get you as far as Petalburg forest… Sorry, I've got stuff to do"

"It's ok, we can get to Littleroot from there"

We couldn't all fit on the bird, so Sakura stayed behind, and Dad, Genya and I went. We landed at the entrance to the forest and Genya flew towards Mt Pyre. Dad and I took one step into the forest and knew that the creature had done something terrible in here. Multiple bug catchers were unconscious on the ground and various Pokemon had evidently been killed.

"What did that thing do in here?" My voice seemed loud in the quiet forest.

"Oh my god"

"What?"

"That thing… I remember it…"

"The thing that took Kabutops?"

"It's from the Kanto region. Created unnaturally."

"What do you mean unnaturally?"

"It was created on Cinnabar Island in the Pokemon Mansion. That's why it's destroyed. They were trying to clone a Pokemon they found in a jungle… And they made that." He took a long pause,"Mewtwo."

To Be Continued