Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon and am in no way affiliated with Nintendo or Gamefreak, or other companies that write or produce pokemon. Now that that legal stuff is out of the way, on to the story!

Pokemon Legends: Kanto Saga

Chapter Forty Four

Melany's Gambit

Ashley held her camera carefully, focusing the lens on her target pokemon. Far ahead of her was a yellow, four-legged pokemon with a long neck. The pokemon looked relatively normal, aside from the strange black head it had for a tail. The pokemon was munching on some leaves from a tree branch, and the rear head could be seen making a chewing motion as well.

"What a weird pokemon..." Ashley mumbled to herself. "Makes a great photo op' though!" Ashley snapped a photo and then waited for it to print out so she could admire her handiwork. "So many interesting pokemon in this region, even has a Safari Zone." Ashley looked around, seeing many more unique pokemon in the surrounding wilderness, then let out a sigh.

"I'm glad I left that stupid ruby with Melany when I left this morning. If I didn't, Aisha would be hounding me about wasting time now..." Ashley lowered her camera and then scanned the surrounding area again. While there were many unique pokemon around, Ashley had already been in Hoenn's Safari Zone for a while and had gotten pictures of most of them.

"Guess I'm done here...hmm...where else can I look?" Ashley crossed her arms over her chest and thought for a moment, then recalled a sign she saw when she had entered the Safari Zone. "That's right! There's supposed to be a new section opening today! I'll go there!"

Ashley headed back toward the Safari Zone entrance to find out where the new extention was. She then continued on to the east, eventually reaching the new extention. It hardly looked any different from the rest of the Safari Zone, but Ashley could tell that the new zone had something that was different there. She didn't recognize any of the pokemon she could see.

"Wow! They added an entire new section with new pokemon to it! This Safari Zone is way larger than the one back in Kanto!" Ashley held up her camera, getting ready to snap a few photos. Looking around, she noticed a group of yellow grass pokemon with a propeller-like leaf on the top of their heads standing nearby. The group was watching her curiously.

"Doesn't look like the pokemon in this section are very well trained either." Ashley noted. She quickly took aim at the group with her camera. "Makes it easy to get a close-up photo then!" Ashley snapped a picture of the group of pokemon, sending them running as her camera startled them. The picture came out perfect, though, and Ashley quickly put it in an envelope with the other pictures.

"Or maybe those ones are just a little slow..." Ashley shrugged and continued on through the Safari Zone extention. She only had fifteen minutes left after the time she spent in the main zone, so she wanted to keep moving and get as many pictures as she could. She came across a monkey-like pokemon with a hand on its tail and snapped a picture before it scampered off through the trees. Climbing over a small hill, she then came across a group of black canine pokemon with horns on their heads.

"Those pokemon definitely don't look very nice, but I'll be safe taking a picture from up here." Ashley quietly said to herself, kneeling down at the top of the hill. She took aim at the three pokemon gathered below. She snapped a photo of the group and then waited for the picture to print off. Unknown to her, however, the picture alerted the three pokemon to her presence. The three looked up the hill at her with a menacing glare.

"-...we have been found...-"

"-...we cannot be caught...-"

"-...we must destroy the trainer...-"

The three pokemon began barking in a demonic sounding tone as they took off up the hill. Ashley shuddered when she first heard the barking and then spotted the three pokemon. "ACK! They spotted me!" Ashley quickly got up and took off running back the way she came, with the three evil looking pokemon chasing after her and quickly gaining.

"What gives?! I thought these pokemon were supposed to AVOID trainers!" Ashley cried out as she ran. The three pokemon drew closer and closer until they were almost nipping on Ashley's heels. Suddenly, a blur shot past Ashley and struck one of the pokemon in passing. The pokemon was knocked off its feet and the other two stopped as well.

Realizing she was no longer being chased, Ashley looked back to see what had happened and then came to a stop herself. The blur that had attacked the pokemon moved past them again, positioning itself between them and Ashley. Ashley could finally see what it was now. A purple pokemon looking like a scorpion with wings had been the one to save her.

"-Villainous cur! Thou shall go no further, for now you face the great Gligaro!-" The pokemon called out to the three, pointing a clawed hand at them. "-Attack at your own peril, for against the force of justice that is Gligaro you cannot win!-"

"What...what's going on here?!" Ashley said in disbelief. "Are these pokemon trained at all?"

"-...you fool...-"

"-...you cannot win...-"

"-...you are outnumbered...-"

"-HA! I scoff at the very notion! Observe the power that is Gligaro!-" The Gligar struck the ground with its claws, sending out a powerful shockwave toward the three canine pokemon. The ground shock and cracked, and the pokemon yelped in surprise as they were jostled about. They hit the ground hard when it finally stopped shaking and then quickly ran away.

"-Yes, flee! For no villain can surpass my might!-" Gligaro called out, shaking his claw at them.

"What just...happened?" Ashley wondered in disbelief. The wild Gligar then turned to her and bowed.

"-Allow me to introduce myself, fair maiden. I am the claw that stalks the night, striking down evil where it stands. Like a deadly assassin, I swoop in and deliver my wrath before they know what hit them!-"

"You know I have no idea what you're saying, right?" Ashley said to Gligaro.

"-Ah, but a minor setback!-" Gligaro replied, waving a claw at her.

"The pokemon here really can't be very well trained." Ashley thought. "Those grass pokemon didn't flee until I took a picture, the demonic dog things actually attacked me, and this one swooped in to save me from them and now its trying to talk to me..."

"Hey! Are you ok?" A boy called out to Ashley as he arrived on the scene. He stopped in his tracks when he got a good look at her, suddenly looking a bit nervous. The boy was dressed in a black and green outfit and wore a white hat on his head.

"I'm fine, thanks to this pokemon here..." Ashley replied. Looking back at the boy, she noticed he seemed nervous. "What's wrong with him?" She wondered.

"-HA! You give me too much credit, I was merely doing my job!-" Gligaro grinned widely and set his claws on his sides. "-Wherever there is a damsel in distress, you will find GLIGARO!-"

"Oh...well...uh...glad to hear that..." The boy reached back to rub the back of his neck. "I'm...err...that is...my name..." He cleared his throat and then moved closer to Ashley, holding out his hand in greeting. "I'm Brendan, a pokemon researcher working for Professor Birch, who happens to be my father by the way." Brendan grinned widely, as if expecting a reaction from his statement.

"Oh! Nice to meet you then." Ashley smiled and reached out to shake his hand. "My name's Ashley, I'm sort of helping Professor Oak in Kanto with his research."

"Professor Oak? You mean you work for THE Professor Oak?!" Brendan asked her in disbelief, releasing her hand in shock. "Then...you must be here to research Hoenn's pokemon?"

"Actually I came to Hoenn to try to find someone, but I decided to stop by the Safari Zone and get a few pictures anyway." Ashley replied. "I'm not technically his research assistant, I got my first pokemon from him in exchange for recording pokemon in a pokedex."

"So is that your...uh..." Brendan took out his pokedex and scanned Gligaro. "Gligar?"

"I think its one of the park's pokemon actually..." Ashley replied, glancing over at Gligaro. "It swooped in out of nowhere to fight off the pack of pokemon that were chasing me."

"-Those foul miscreants will think twice before attacking an innocent young lady again!-" Gligaro said, sounding quite pleased with himself.

"So thats why the ground shook just now, but I would have figured that pokemon was your's the way its hanging around you." Brendan shrugged. "Maybe it wants to go with you? Though that really doesn't look good for the extention's opening day if the new pokemon are behaving like this."

"The pokemon here aren't very well trained at all I don't think." Ashley replied, shaking her head. "Anyway, I'm just about out of time, so I should probably be going."

"That figures, I was going to ask her if she wanted to go through the park together too." Brendan thought in dismay.

Ashley took one of her Safari Balls, which she still had a full belt of six of, and then turned to Gligaro. "So, did you want to come with me then? Is that why you're still here?" Ashley asked him.

"-Ah, if the good lady is requesting my assistance, I would gladly accompany her.-" Gligaro replied, bowing toward her.

"I guess thats a yes?" Ashley shrugged and threw the Safari Ball at Gligaro. The ball bounced off him harmlessly and then opened up. A red beam fired out and struck Gligaro, pulling him inside. It then closed and locked shut without any struggle and was then teleported off to storage.

"Looks like that pokemon wanted to go with you afterall." Brendan noted. The brief distraction had also given him time to think about what to say to Ashley. "So...anyway...where are you staying?" He asked her. "Maybe we could get together and talk about the research we've been doing?"

"I bet thats exactly what you want to talk about, too." Ashley thought, rolling her eyes. She was starting to figure him out. Of course, with where she was staying, it made no difference anyway. After their first meeting, Melany offered to let Ashley use one of the guest rooms. Ashley wasn't one to turn down free accomodations and, after Melany's explanation of what had happened in Hoenn up until that point, she also felt she would need to stay connected with Melany.

"I'm staying at the Stone mansion, actually." Ashley eventually replied, looking somewhat smug about it.

"Figures..." Brendan muttered. "First May, now Ashley? Why is she always involved when I find a girl I'm interested in?! Its as if...wait a minute!" Brendan thought for a moment, recalling something he had heard about earlier.

"I thought the name of the girl staying with Melany was Rina, not Ashley?" Brendan asked, then crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "If you don't want to tell me where you're staying then you can just say so instead of lying to me."

"I'm not lying!" Ashley shot back, glaring. "Where did you even hear that from anyway? There's no way thats true!"

"Of course its true, it has to be. It was on the internet afterall." Brendan replied. "According to a leaked piece of news, that Rina girl that was attacked in Kanto is going to be staying at the Stone mansion for protection starting tonight."

"Wh-WHAT?!" Ashley yelled in disbelief. She didn't hear anything about Rina getting attacked, or even that Melany was having anyone else stay there. It did, however, make sense to her that Melany might do something like that. "I don't know if thats true or not, but I better go find out!" She thought.

"If you really were staying with Melany, you'd think you'd have at least heard of that..."

"Good point. Think I'll go ask her about that." Ashley replied, moving past Brendan and heading for the park entrance without another word.

"Did I make a bad first impression?" Brendan wondered to himself.

It was late in the afternoon when Ashley was leaving to see Melany. It would take her until the evening to reach her. The same time that Rina would supposedly be going there for protection...


That evening...

The psychic pokemon Mewtwo, still enslaved, sped through the air toward the Stone Mansion in Rustboro. Below, standing outside the mansion facing away from Mewtwo, was a young girl with long yellow hair tied back into a ponytail and a small, yellow electric pokemon standing next to her. Mewtwo immediately recognized its target and swooped in to attack.

As Mewtwo dove down through the air, a blue beam suddenly shot out from the direction of the mansion. Mewtwo quickly moved to avoid it and pulled out of its dive. It then scanned the building, searching out its attacker, but couldn't see anything. The attack, however, had alerted the girl and the pokemon below, who quickly turned to face Mewtwo.

"That's it? Funny, I was expecting Rayquaza." The girl commented, throwing off the wig. Mewtwo could see now that it wasn't Rina at all, but rather Melany. With her back to it, Mewtwo couldn't tell the difference. The pokemon next to her removed several roughly-molded pieces of yellow plastic that had been covering its ears, hands, and tail, aimed to disguise it as a Pikachu when it was really a Minun.

"Guess we'll just have to take this one out instead!" Melany called out, pointing toward Mewtwo. "Minun, attack with Thunderbolt! Porygon, use Ice Beam again!" Minun nodded and fired off a bolt of electricity. Mewtwo had moved out of the way by the time the attack had reached it, but it didn't even see the Ice Beam coming toward it. The beam struck Mewtwo in the chest, briefly forming into a sheet of ice that resembled a suit of armor before shattering and inflicting minor damage on Mewtwo.

Mewtwo scanned the mansion for any sign of its attacker again, but Melany's Porygon was nowhere to be seen. Realizing what pokemon it was dealing with, Mewtwo quickly caught on. It reached out its hand toward the house and focused its psychic power, causing a security camera on the corner of the building to suddenly shatter into pieces.

"Seems like it caught on, not that it makes any difference." Melany thought. "Porygon can attack from any piece of computerized equipment, and since all of the mansion's cameras are on the same network it can just move to another one to attack."

"Again! Thunderbolt and Ice Beam!" Melany called out, grabbing another pokeball from her belt as she did. She could tell she was dealing with an intelligent pokemon, and the slave collar didn't seem to hinder that intelligence any, so she wanted to be ready with another pokemon.

Minun gathered electricity in its cheeks and fired off another bolt at Mewtwo. Mewtwo moved to avoid the attack again, its distance from the ground giving it plenty of time to react, but this time was unable to avoid taking a glancing blow to the side. It was likewise unable to avoid the Ice Beam attack that followed, firing out from another security camera on the other side of the building. Ice formed around Mewtwo's body briefly.

Mewtwo's eyes flashed in a rage, shattering the ice and shaking off the attacks. Mewtwo then focused on Minun, stretching out one of its three-fingered hands toward it and gripping Minun's body with a telekinetic force. A blue aura surrounded Minun and he cried out in pain as he felt that power crushing his body.

"Metagross, go! Meteor Mash!" Melany released a massive steel pokemon into the air from the pokeball she grabbed. The pokemon, a four-legged, robotic creature with a mouth on the bottom of its body, began to hover almost immediately and then shot toward Mewtwo. Metagross left a blazing trail behind it as it streaked through the air.

Mewtwo was too late in releasing Minun, Metagross' fist struck true. One of its steel, claw-tipped limbs connected with Mewtwo's face, landing a crippling blow. Mewtwo was knocked out of the air and crashed into the ground hard. It wasn't even on the ground for a second, though, before it started to sit back up again.

"Shouldn't take much more..." Melany thought. "Minun, get in there with Quick Attack and then nail Mewtwo with Iron Tail!" Minun nodded and took off running toward Mewtwo, then shot toward it in a blur of movement. Minun struck Mewtwo in the face, landing a light hit, then bounced off and prepared to strike with Iron Tail. Minun's blue tail had already adopted a silvery glow.

Minin jumped toward Mewtwo again, aiming to finish it with an Iron Tail attack while it was still too weak to strike back. Suddenly, another pokemon appeared between them. An Alakazam teleported in and took Minun's Iron Tail to the chest in Mewtwo's place. The Alakazam fell back, letting go of an object that was in its hand as it fell on top of the enslaved Mewtwo.

"That...! When did it...?" Melany quickly checked the pocket of her shorts, where she usually kept the emerald. Instead, she found a piece of paper that read 'IOU 1 Emerald'. She grimaced as she looked back toward the object the Alakazam held, her emerald, which now laid on the ground.

"Should have realized it was too quiet! She thought. "Minun, grab the emerald!" Minun nodded and moved toward the emerald, passing the two psychic pokemon that lied in a tangled heap. Minun stopped in front of the emerald and reached down to pick it up, but suddenly a twister formed around Minun and tossed him into the air.

"-KYAAA!-" Minun cried out as he was flung straight up and came crashing down on top of the two psychics.

"What now?!" Melany cried out in frustration. Looking up, she saw the source of her trouble.

"What a wonderful little trap you have here." Vito Winstrate said smugly as he and Rayquaza descended toward the ground, near where the emerald laid. "Unfortunately for you, we're not quite so guilable."

"Vito! What are you doing here and why do you have Rayquaza?!" Melany yelled. Minun quickly got up and ran to Melany's side, realizing it wouldn't be able to get past Rayquaza to grab the emerald. Metagross likewise dropped down to the ground next to her.

"My new...employer...requested that I pick up a certain item for Rayquaza. Speaking of which, oh Rayquaza?" The massive, serpentine dragon nodded and gave a low growl. The emerald on the ground began to glow as Rayquaza drew power from it. Rayquaza growled and roared throughout the process, gaining the same power that Kyogre and Groudon had when they fought at Sootopolis. When Rayquaza was finished, the once vibrant green emerald was left dull and lifeless.

"NO!"

"Oh I'm afraid it only gets worse from here." Vito said to her, grinning widely. "You see, now there's nothing to..." Vito paused mid-sentence and tapped against a small earpiece he was wearing as part of a headset, then started talking into a mouthpiece on the collar of his shirt. Mewtwo, Rayquaza, and Alakazam all stood ready to attack.

"There's no way I can beat this guy now! What the heck just happened here?! Vito couldn't possibly have seen through my plan, he's not smart enough for that!" Melany thought to herself. "That doesn't matter now I guess." She looked at the ground under Rayquaza, where the de-powered emerald lay. "If I'm to have any chance at getting Rayquaza's power back in the emerald I'll need to get it somehow..."

"Ha...that fool..." Vito, the conversation seemingly over and now addressing Melany again, said as he snickered to himself. "He seems to honestly believe in some prophecy and claims fate will intervene on your behalf."

"Prophecy...?" Melany repeated the word to herself. Remembering the pictures on the wall in Sky Pillar, and her encounter with the mysterious trainer there, she quickly realized who she was dealing with. "So he's behind all of this, and he's the one who recruited Vito...I bet I can figure out the rest of the players in this 'prophecy' then. That just leaves one question then..."

"Just who is your 'employer' anyway?" Melany asked Vito.

Vito shrugged. "I'm afraid even I don't know much about him. He simply made me an offer I couldn't refuse..." Vito grinned. "Revenge!"

"Was hoping for a name..." Melany thought, then shrugged. "Guess he must have been the one that saw through my plan. I know it definitely wasn't you at any rate." She then said to him.

"Ha! Awfully smug for someone about to die!" Vito shot back.

Melany smirked. "Am I? You heard what your boss said, afterall. Fate will intervene on my behalf."

"Ha..." Vito reached back and ran his fingers through his hair. He then pointed that same hand toward Melany. "If you're so sure, then lets see how you deal with this! Mewtwo, Alakazam..."

Before Vito could finish calling out his attack, the three pokemon under his command were suddenly bombarded by blasts of fire, ice, and electricity. Mewtwo, having yet to use Recover due to Vito's oversight, collapsed almost immediately. The three Winged Mirages, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, then descended from the sky and landed in front of them. A Pidgeot carrying Ashley then landed next to Melany and she hopped off.

"Looks like I got here just in time!" Ashley announced with a wide grin, then turned to Melany. "You could have let me in on whatever it was you were planning, you know!"

"Neglecting to include anyone but myself in my plans is a fairly typical oversight of mine." Melany replied.

"I hope you don't think her arrival changes anything. You still have an invulnerably pokemon to deal with, afterall." Vito said to Melany while gesturing toward the serpentine pokemon floating next to him.

"It changes more than you think, Vito." Melany said to him with a smirk. "It just so happens that Groudon is in Ashley's possession, and the ruby as well. It would be a clash of two invulnerable pokemon, but with both of us still having a full team of pokemon in addition. Not only that, but I already know how to get rid of Rayquaza's power."

"Err...Melany...I don't have either of those with me right now..." Ashley whispered.

"Like he'll call the bluff..." Melany whispered back.

"D-damn..." Vito muttered, his fist shaking in rage. He then calmed down and brushed back his hair again, laughing quietly to himself. "Seems it won't end here afterall then...but I am still willing to chalk this one up to coincidence!" Vito reached into his pocket and clenched something tightly in his hand.

"I will be taking my leave now. If you're intent on pursuing us, then why not check out the battle frontier? If you can, that is!" Vito then threw the object he was holding toward the ground, releasing a cloud of smoke that surrounded him and his pokemon. The smoke dispersed quickly, but they were already gone by then. Melany then walked over and picked up the discarded emerald and mentally called out to Odari, but there was no response. Along with the emerald's power, Odari was gone too.

"That guy must be part of the same 'team' as Duke, given that he had Mewtwo." Ashley noted, then turned to Melany again. "What was this plan of your's anyway? I heard from some guy named Brendan that my friend Rina was supposed to be coming here?"

Melany turned back to face Ashley. "She's a friend of your's?" She asked, blinking in disbelief. "Wow, small world." Melany shrugged lightly. "Anyway, that was just a hoax in order to lure them here. I was hoping to catch them off guard and free Rayquaza by having my Porygon launch a surprise attack from the security cameras..."

Melany pointed to the mansion, and Ashley turned to look toward it as well. From the remaining camera, a sleek, blue and pink pokemon looking similar to a duck emerged. Though Melany never noticed any actual evolution in her pokemon, it had downloaded quite a bit of information and eventually changed forms into what they were seeing now.

"Porygon, I've heard of those. Isn't that one of Silph's pokemon, though?" Ashley asked, turning back to Melany.

"It is." Melany replied with a nod. "Anyway, my plan kinda backfired it seems. Whoever's calling the shots in their little group figured saw through the rumor I spread on the internet and used my own trap against me to get the emerald..."

"You don't seem too worried about that." Ashley said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"As long as I have the emerald I should be able to figure out some way of stealing back Rayquaza's power. So I'm not too worried about that." Melany replied.

"Well if you're not worried, I guess that means I can relax too." Ashley replied, rubbing the back of her head. "By the way, what was it that guy said about the Battle Frontier?"

"Ah...right...that..." Melany sighed. "Well...that seems to be where they are I guess. You can only get to the frontier if you're either invited or have all eight of a region's badges and the three Battle Tent badges..."

"No problem then! I can just get those tent badges and we'd be all set, right?" Ashley asked, grinning.

"I already have those badges actually, all eleven..." Melany replied quietly, turning her back to Ashley.

"Oh..." Ashley blinked. "What's the problem then?"

"They're not technically mine..."


Author's Notes: Technically, they belong to one "Alex". Anyway, definitely wasn't enough content to split into two chapters, obviously. Same seems to apply to the next chapter, which WAS originally going to be two chapters but I'll combine into one instead. Back to Rina and May in Johto for a chapter, and someone will make an interesting pokemon capture.

Funny how Ashley goes to Hoenn and catches a Johto pokemon. Might still have to squeeze an actual Hoenn capture in for her somewhere.