"Ah! It's almost leaving!" Emmy exclaimed while she and Scepter, with Evina, who slept along the way due to exhaustion, on his back, ran as fast as their Pokemon legs could carry them to the boat. Scepter jumped with all his power and Emmy flew once they got close to it.

Unfortunately, since Scepter was still getting used to his new body. He tripped and fell, causing him to let go of his sister, who rolled away from them and had her bump into a small Pokemon.

"Pardon me!" it was a Piplup, he looked as old as Evina was, and just as proud. He did not know she was still asleep and felt offended that he was being ignored, "Hey!" he kicked her a little with his small foot, "I'm talking to you!"

Evina opened her eyes and stared at him. She stretched, stood up, and looked around, "Where are we?" was her first question, completely ignoring the now infuriated Piplup, who spat a Bubble attack at her, not harming her, for her type was not damaged much by the attack, but it still irritated her.

"What was that for?" she said, glaring.

"You are ignoring me, a Pokemon as great as I should never be left unattended, for I am Pippy, the Piplup!"

Evina snickered, "Pippy?" she grinned, "What a strange nickname for someone as vain as you."

"Hey! I like my name!" he said, "I bet your name isn't as good. Probably something like 'Grassy' or 'Leafee' or…"

"Evina," she interrupted, "my name is Evina."

Pippy was a little stunned, but he would not let his ridiculous nickname damage his pride! He puffed up his chest and tried to look big, "You should know that I'm one of the most powerful of my kind! Any other Piplup that comes near me tremble in fear! Just watch as I pull off an epic HYDRO PUMP!" he raised his head and inhaled deeply, then, with all the force he could, pulled off an EXTREMELY POWERFUL…

…water squirt. It was like he was spewing water through a small water pistol. This made Evina laugh.

"You're too funny!" she said through giggles, "You really are!"

Pippy growled, "Well, if you think you're so great, show me your moves!" he said as he made a "come on" motion with his little flipper.

Evina smirked, "Alright, if you so want to," and with that, she waited for Pippy to charge at her. When he did, coming at her with a Bubble Attack, she pulled out one of her vines to smack him across the face in a small Vine Whip.

"That was expected," Emmy said dully, "He's 10 levels lower than she is, plus she has a huge advantage over him. How he didn't notice that is beyond me."

Pippy did not give up, though. He got up, brushed himself off, and lunged at her with a Peck attack, which did more damage than Evina thought. Pippy, realizing that Peck is a Flying-type move, used it again and again to weaken Evina. Moments later, Evina was on her belly, panting. She was tired, and this was not a good match right now, but she had to finish it or Pippy would never leave her alone.

"Hah! Look who's the weaker one, now!" the Piplup said as he readied his beak for another peck attack, but as soon as he got in range, Evina took her vines and, instead of whipping them, coiled them around Pippy and squeezed as hard as she could, causing him to struggle.

"Hey! Not fair!" he said angrily.

"It's Wrap. I'd say it's pretty fair to me," she said with a smirk on her face, wincing at the continuous pecks Pippy used to try to break free.

"How are you stronger than me?" the little Penguin Pokemon said, "No one is stronger than I, Piponimus Alexander II! Who-"

"You just said your name was Pippy," Evina interjected, "I agree with you, though, this is an unfair fight," she lowered Pippy down and put her vines away, "I'm ten levels higher than you."

Pippy, relieved to be back on the ground, calmed down a bit, "Hmph. Anyway, what are you three going on the boat to Isshu?"

"We're trying to find Evina's home," Emmy replied, "She was raised by a bunch of Treecko, and now she wants to go and find her real family!"

"Oh, really?" Pippy said, "Is she a Starter Pokemon?"

"A what now?" Scepter was confused, "What is a 'starter' Pokemon?"

"You don't know?" Pippy laughed, amused at their apparent stupidity, "A Starter Pokemon is the Pokemon most Trainers get before they go off into the wild, thinking that their little ball of fuzz will protect them from bugs bigger than they are, fire-spewing creatures, and the most deadly of all: us Piplups."

"So…are you a Starter Pokemon?" Evina asked, her first response was a scoff and then he said:

"I was, but I left for Isshu because none of those Trainers were any good for me some were so stupid that they had no idea what a Piplup was! Can you believe them? Anyway, I'm now happy because I'll be the first Sinnoh Pokemon to ever live on Isshu! Hah!"

This guy's getting on my nerves, Emmy, who always hated haughtiness, thought, but she kept a straight face, "Do you know how long it will be before we reach the place?"

"Not too long!" Pippy said confidently, though he was kind of unsure, so he waddled up to the top of the boat and looked ahead, "In fact, I can see Isshu right now!"

Evina, followed him up there and looked…but soon looked at him with disappointment,

"That's a Wailord."

Embarrassed, Pippy tried to cover himself, "Well, anyone could make that mistake! I mean, look how big they are!"

"You have no idea where we're going, do you?" she asked.

"How dare you! Of course I know! We just need to… Uhm… Keep going straight! That's it! I'm a Piplup of royalty; I should know how a boat works."

"Oh, OK," Evina said sarcastically.

"So, Pippy, do you have a Trainer?" Emmy asked, trying to lighten the mood. The Piplup proudly smiled and responded,

"Of course I do! He's an amazing Trainer who defeated all of the Elite Four with just me!"

Evina rolled her eyes, "At level 6? I've never seen the Elite Four, but I think they're a little tougher than that."

"Shut up! You don't know about them either!"

"Then tell me about them."

Pippy's face went a little pale, "Uh…well… there's… F-Falkner, and… Jonas… and…"

Emmy piped up, "Those aren't the Elite Four… in fact, one of the "Trainers" you mentioned was a gym leader in Johto.

"How do you know that, Ms. Flying Pachirisu?"

"…What did you call me?" sparks flew from Emmy's cheeks.

"Eek…" Pippy should not have done that, for it was then he realized that he was basically on the same boat with two of his type disadvantages: Grass and Electric, "S…sorry," he managed to squeak out.

"Calm down Emmy, he didn't mean it," Scepter said softly. The sparks from Emmy's cheeks faded.

"I'm sorry, I just don't like being called something I'm not, you know?" she said calmly. Evina nodded sadly, understanding what she meant completely.

Suddenly she saw a small, rigid line ahead of the horizon, she squinted her eyes and smiled, "Brother, Emmy, we're here!"

They all joined Evina to look, Emmy was the last to look, and a twinge of fear crept in her gut, the others, however, were happy, albeit a little nervous, especially the little Grass Snake.

However, their happiness was gone when they heard cackling behind them. Emmy was the first to notice, she turned around and was met by a pair of familiar claws which pinched the scruff of her neck yet again. Her little squeal made the others turn around to see the Crobat, Arbok, and Zangoose, the Cat Ferret Pokemon holding Emmy between his claws, and this time, her Spark attack did not work.

"You three again?" Evina said, "Put her down, what did she ever do to you? Why are you picking on her so much?"

"'Cause she's a little mousey…" the Zangoose said, smiling, "Cute little mousy and so small, she's such easy prey," she lifted her up above the Arbok's gaping mouth, "and easy prey…"

"You three better stop or I, Piponimus Alexander II, will destroy you!" Pippy declared. The three laughed,

"You, a little Piplup? What can someone so small like you even do?" the Crobat said through tears of laughter. The little penguin puffed out his chest,

"I didn't want to use this move 'cause of all the water, but you forced me to…" Pippy said quietly before lowering himself to the ground. Suddenly the oceans began to get rough, causing the boat to rock to and fro. The Zangoose, caught off-guard by the sways of the boat, accidentally released Emmy from his grip. As soon as she ran behind Pippy, a huge wave rose up behind Pippy and the group and violently crashed down onto the three antagonists. The Trainers inside the boat were a bit confused by these events, one managed to get seasick. When the waves calmed, the three target Pokemon were on the ground, only to get up soon after.

"As impressive that looked," the Arbok said, "it was the weakest Surf I have ever seen."

"No doubt," the Crobat added in.

Pippy looked sad, not only did he fail trying to help his new friends, but he seemed to make it worse. He turned around to see that the rest of the group were drenched and not very happy about it.

Emmy put a paw on his shoulder, "Don't feel bad; you tried. Besides…all of this water is giving me an idea."

Scepter, who knew what she was plotting just by the look on her face, took Evina and Pippy and led them to a small dry spot on the boat. Emmy's cheeks crackled and sparked as did the membranes on her body that helped her to fly. It looked like she was plotting a huge electric attack, when all she did was dip her tail in the water puddle nearest to her, and since water conducts electricity, it traveled all the way from the tail to every connecting water puddle, including the ones the three Pokemon were standing in. She held her tail in there for a good ten seconds before she lifted it up and waited for the electricity to die out from the water. Long before that, the Arbok and Zangoose were electrocuted, but the Crobat avoided it entirely.

Using his speed and flight to his advantage, the Crobat charged at Emmy at full speed. Evina, after testing if the water was safe enough to walk on, slithered up in front of her and used her Vine Whip to try and catch the purple bat, but it was in vain; he was too fast for her.

"Evina," Emmy said, "use one of your vines on pole over there…I have another idea."

"Well, aren't you full of ideas today, huh?" she said and whipped one of her vines around a metal pole, from there Emmy ran up her vine and waited; she needed to be perfect for this to work.

"You foolish Pokemon," the Crobat said, "thinking you can beat the epitome of speed!" he mustered up all of his speed and shot a well-aimed Air Slash at Evina, hitting her, and causing the vine wrapped around the pole to uncoil itself, leaving Emmy about to fall.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed as she was slipping down the pole, "this wasn't supposed to happen!"

Scared, she skittered up the pole as fast as she could and just jumped at the Crobat. She just barely made it; she had a paw gripped on one of his wings, making his flight unbalanced and shaky. As the bat tried to multitask by flinging Emmy off and keeping himself airborne, Emmy hopped on the small back of the Crobat and performed a Spark attack at him, then jumped off as he made a crash landing in between the two other Pokemon.

"And that," Emmy put an arm around Evina, "is how we do it in Isshu!"

Scepter smiled at Evina; she actually won a battle! With help, of course, but it was very impressive. Maybe he was wrong back in Hoenn…

…maybe she could do something right for once.

An injured Zangoose limped over to Emmy and kneeled in front of her, he got his face close to her and whispered,

"Don't think that, because you have allies, you're free…Next time I see you, I will show absolutely no mercy to whoever tries to aid you. I wiped away Alice from this world, I can do the same to you…" he smiled, "keep good care of those goggles; that's all of her that's left," his eyes flashed a bright red before he nodded the direction towards Isshu, "go…I'll be waiting…"

Emmy watched as he and his minions left. Scepter and Evina saw how broken-hearted she looked and walked up to her, but before they could say anything to her she said,

"A couple of days ago, Scepter…you asked if I've ever met a trainer before," her ears lowered as tears filled her eyes, "…I have…and she was the best friend I ever had…"

"What…happened to her?" Evina asked.

Emmy put herself together, and then told them:

"Her name was Alice. I never knew her last name, but I was the second Pokemon she caught, her first was a Mijumaru named Rocko, and she needed an Electric-type to balance Rocko's disadvantage against me. Anyway, we went everyplace in Isshu, we even managed to get seven out of the eight badges, and she quickly formed a team of formidable Pokemon, including myself…it was the eight Pokemon she caught that set it all off. …Well, she didn't actually capture him, he willingly followed her after she saw him injured; he had a nasty slash on his back, and if she came any later, we would have been much too late to help him."

"What was the Pokemon?" Pippy asked, interrupting the speech.

Emmy paused for a moment and then sighed,

"A Zorua."

"A Zorua? What are those?" Evina said, curious, "Why was he so bad?"

"Well, he wasn't actually bad to begin with, he was actually a sweet Pokemon, he worked hard for Alice, tried his best in every move he had and had learned…but a month later, he started to change. The once quiet and shy Zorua became even quieter that it was close to antisocial. He disobeyed Alice, and I mean completely refused to do what she said. He was taken to the Isshu professor and, after a good inspecting she said that there was nothing wrong with him. It was …weird. However…the horror comes when we went to Mt. Silver…It was then that he made the illusion that he was a Rhydon for the sole purpose of ramming Alice and the rest of her Pokemon, including me, down the mountain to her…her death. I survived because, well, I have wings. But I can't say the same for the rest of the Pokemon…But I swear, before he did all that, he had this odd, black aura around him. I know he's a Dark-type, but this wasn't normal, even for his type."

"So…he was controlled," Scepter assumed.

"He had to be! He never would have done that earlier, so why did he do it now…?" the tears in Emmy's eyes came back and they ran down her cheeks, creating a small wet line vertically across her yellow cheeks, "She didn't do anything wrong, she was a young trainer! She was a great partner, she…she was family…"

Scepter gave her a hug, "Well, at least you found us, right?" Emmy nodded and hugged him back.

"So, wait," Pippy chimed in, "so that means that the Zangoose we saw was…?"

"It was he," Emmy replied, "he has the power to take the form of any Pokemon, but if he's hurt enough, he'll change back. He's like a Ditto, but his transformations are instant, and he keeps his original type," Emmy shook her head as she wiped the tears away, then she realized that the boat was not moving. She stood on top of Scepter's head (much to his dismay), and smiled a little,

"I think we're here…"

"We are?" Evina said as she climbed on top of Scepter's head as well, "Yes!" she jumped off, "I'm coming Mama! I'm coming Papa!"

She slithered as fast as she could to the nearest forest, and there she saw Isshu in all its glory. They came a long way, but they were finally here. The thought of that made her even more excited. She flicked her tongue out to see if she could smell her parents, she could not wait to see them, but she worried a little if they might not recognize her. She brushed those worries aside and tried to sniff them out.

"Mama?"

She sniffed a little more,

"Papa?"

"Evina, wait!" Scepter said, trying to catch up with her, Emmy on his back, enjoying the ride, "Evina! Stop! We don't even know where we are in Isshu!"

Evina, too excited to hear them, took a sharp turn to the right. Scepter followed, but when they got to where Evina might have turned, but she was gone.

"Sweet Arceus, she could be anywhere!" Scepter said, frustrated. He suddenly saw, out the corner of his eye, a little blue blob following them.

"Huff…huff…Wa-wait for P…Piponimus!" Pippy said, out of breath.

"Oh? What made you decide to follow us?" Emmy asked.

"Well, I heard that if you have a grand Pokemon from royal blood, that you will get good luck, and since I am a VERY royal Pokemon, I shall accompany you throughout your journeys."

"Wonderful…" Scepter said, pretending to be excited.

Meanwhile, Evina was doing all she could to sniff out her family, but it was in vain. She sat on a log and sighed, what if they were not here? Isshu is a big place, maybe they were somewhere else? She suddenly smelled something straight ahead; it smelled like another Tsutarja! She slithered very fast towards the smell, and once she got as close as she could, she heard the sound of a metal door closing. She tried to run out of whatever was trying to trap her, but she could not see where she was going, and she bumped into a wall, knocking over anything on it, and apparently it was something very heavy; once it landed on her, she was knocked out instantly.

"Come on, can't you move a little faster?" Leena said angrily.

"I…I'm sorry, Leena, but look at this place! It's so beautiful!" Treaver said, "Besides, Vipera is the one slowing us down."

"Hey!" she hissed, "I can poison you right here, right now, buster!" she said, "You two are very lucky I even came with you, though you dragged me!"

"Well, you should thank us; Leena was the one who could speak Wailord."

"That was not Wailord," Vipera said, "That Wailord only took us because he thought she was in pain."

Suddenly, the Seviper perked up; she heard something familiar. She hissed violently as she turned to her right.

"Vipera, what's the matter?" Leena said concerned.

"Zangoose…" she hissed, enraged, "You two go on without me…I'm going to follow this scent…"

Leena and Treaver, knowing it was a horrible idea to interrupt a Seviper on the move for a Zangoose, let her go.

When Vipera found the Zangoose, he stood as if he was expecting her.

"Well…you don't look like Evina…"

"Evina?" she hissed so loud it could be mistaken for a roar, "What do you know about her?"

"Too much, petty snake…" he said.

"Where is she?" she growled, "If you're going to harm her, it'll be over my dead body; she's my prey!"

The Zangoose chuckled, "That…can be arranged."