IXEN (Starter/Partner Charmander): Eh, this chapter has been done for a while, but a pattern has been established. There are barely any views on Wednesdays. Hopefully this changes things.

DAISUKE (V-mon): But I get start things off, picking up where Gold left off. Here's the conclusion to our fight.

RUBY (Mudkip): I'll do the disclaimer, I guess. Denthasus doesn't own Digimon Adventures or Pokemon Special. Don't forget to vote for me in contests~!

~DAISUKE~

"Twin Spear!" a giant black Digimon stabbed a spear into a small hut used to house the baby Digimon. He looked around and laughed when he saw Elecmon running towards him. "Finally! The caretaker has come for his defeat. Even a Chosen Child is here to witness the fall of Primary Village to me, DarkKnightmon!"

I held up my D-3 and used the Analyzer to see what type of Digimon he was. It didn't tell me much, but just looking at him, I knew Chibimon and Elecmon wouldn't be enough to fight him off. We would just have to try though.

Elecmon knew this too and bared his teeth. "Leave Primary Village alone! Sparkling Thunder!" A powerful bolt of lightning came from Elecmon's back and struck the giant Digimon.

DarkKnightmon simply laughed and brushed it off. "This will be much easier than I had first thought."

"Chibimon, get in there!"

"Hop Attack!" My small partner leapt forward and managed to push the enemy back a few feet. Chibimon bounced backwards and allowed Elecmon to attack again.

"Thunder Knife!" Electric knives rained down over the Digimon, but he didn't seem too bothered by our efforts.

"A bit more of a challenge, but not enough to stop me." He stood back up and tossed up the black cape flowing behind him. "Come! I will show you how weak you are compared to me!"

Chibimon and Elecmon glared at him before running headfirst towards him. I clenched my fist. "Chibimon, take him down!" I heard someone moving behind me and noticed Gold had caught up. He looked at the large size of DarkKnightmon compared to how small Chibimon was. I glared at him before saying, "Don't even say anything about Chibimon. He'll be able to win. You don't need to get into this fight."

Gold shook his head. "Like you can win alone." He was about to send his skinny tree to fight when something caught his eye. "I knew they wouldn't listen…"

Beside us, a large mass of baby Digimon were rallying to support Elecmon and Chibimon. The group was headed by Gold's smallest two Pokémon, a spike-hall with an eggshell and a small yellow mouse with large ears.

"You brought the baby Digimon here!?" I yelled incredulously.

"I left those two in charge and they brought them!" Gold yelled back. "I figured this would happen, but I'm sure they'll be okay," he shrugged.

I shook my head at his irresponsibility. What could those puny creatures do against DarkKnightmon? Could they even fight? I turned my head towards Chibimon just in time to have my partner crash into me.

"Ow! Sorry, Daisuke," my tired partner said. "If only I could evolve…" he looked up sadly over towards the babies, "then we'd be able to protect the Digitama." Just seeing how badly he was hurt, paralyzed me with fear. I needed to evolve him, but I didn't know how.

In contrast, Gold became enraged and ran towards the fallen caretaker's side. "Elecmon!" His head turned towards the baby Digimon who were now crying. Shaking in anger, the explosive boy glared up at the large Digimon as he towered over us. The older teen had the nerve to yell at DarkKnightmon. "What do you think you're doing pushing around someone who's in charge of raising these kids!?"

DarkKnightmon looked at him amusingly. "Another human? You don't seem to be a Chosen Child."

"You'd better answer!" Gold stood up and took out his pool cue. He extended it threateningly.

The large Digimon laughed. "You're an interesting child. To humor you, I'll answer. You must understand that all Digimon are born and raised here." He picked up a nearby Digitama. "If I can get rid of the current caretaker, I can rule over the Primary Village and raise the Digimon myself. Eventually, all will be under my rule as any Digimon who dies will become a part of my army!" He came closer to Gold. "Now get out of my way, child! There's no way you could fight me off!"

Gold gripped his cue tightly. "I guess you're right…" He suddenly made a face at the Digimon. "Not!" He furiously stabbed his cue into the Digimon and caught the Digitama DarkKnightmon caught before grabbing Elecmon. "Explotaro, Politaro, attack!"

A small burning mouse and polliwog blasted DarkKnightmon with fire and water. Caught off guard, the Digimon fell backwards. "Brat! You will not be able to defeat me with such puny creatures!"

"No, I definitely will!" Gold stood tall with his back towards me but I could just imagine his burning expression. "After all, I'm the Hatcher of miracles, Gold! Let's go!" He seemed to glow in a pale yellow light as he dove towards DarkKnightmon with his Pokémon charging alongside him.

At that moment, my D-3 reacted and Chibimon glowed with a white light. "Chibimon evolve! V-mon!"

Realizing my partner was now in a state ready to armor evolve, I let out a determined shout. "Digimental Up!"

"V-mon armor evolve! Roaring Friendship, Lighdramon!" My partner ran after Gold before launching himself towards DarkKnightmon. "Lightning Bite!"

"Great job, Lighdramon!" I cried.

Gold smirked at me. "So we're working together, huh?" He looked over towards his Pokémon and my Digimon. "I've got an idea, so just follow my lead!" He ran off again while taunting the large Digimon. "Don't tell me you're done already? Just a few hits from my Pokémon and you're down? I thought you'd be more of a challenge, you medieval freak!"

"No human will insult me with such small attacks!" DarkKnightmon rose to his feet and chased after the boy. "Come here, worm!"

I watched Gold lure the Digimon away from the village. I didn't want to go after him, but Lighdramon looked towards me. "Daisuke," he said.

I couldn't bring myself to climb on and go after Gold. He didn't care about the Digital World, but he changed all of a sudden after those baby Digimon and Digitama were put into danger. Just who was this kid? I couldn't trust him.

I heard some groaning and realized I had forgotten about Elecmon. I looked at the poor caretaker and saw how hurt he was. He was in no shape to protect the Village right now. As a Chosen Child I had to do it in his place. It made me angry with myself that Gold was doing it for me. Despite our mutual dislike towards one another, he was still going to trust that I would follow him to protect something both knew was important to the Digital World. Even if he didn't believe in the Digimon as much as I did, he was still going to risk himself to lure DarkKnightmon away!

I placed a determined hand on Raidramon's shoulder and climbed on. "Let's go! We've got to help Gold!"

By the time I found Gold, things were even worse for his Pokémon as they've been taking a lot of hits. They kept going though and finally, Gold found an opening and thrust his cue forward like a javelin. The billiard cue stuck itself into DarkKnightmon's body and it was too risky for him to pull the cue out.

DarkKnightmon became annoyed by Gold's bold action and roared. "You will pay for your insolence!" He spun his spear in circles before turning on the small Pokémon. "Twin Spear!" He slammed his weapons against them and pinned them to the ground. Gold ran to try to help them but DarkKnightmon swung his weapon to knock the boy back towards me.

The blow paralyzed Gold but he looked up and saw me. "So you made it after all, Goggle Brat," he said with as much energy as he could.

"Are you an idiot?" I shouted. "Your Pokémon are too small! They could never beat something as big as—"

"Shut up!" he yelled back with determination burning in his gold eyes. "I don't care how big or strong my enemies are compared to my Pokémon. They're my partners and they never give up. That means there's no reason why I should!" He tried getting up but collapsed weakly.

I climbed off of Lighdramon. "Don't be such an idiot!" I cried as I helped him up.

He threw a weak punch that lightly hit my jaw. "You don't get it still?" He pushed down on me as he got back to his feet. "I told you, there's no reason for me to give up if my partners are still fighting!"

I stood back up and noticed what he was talking about. All of Gold's Pokémon were weak but they still stood up. Two of them still had enough energy to keep going with full force though. They were his smallest Pokémon. Seeing them try so hard made Gold smirk as he went to back them up.

"Togetaro! Pich! Take him down!"

Seeing the older boy display so much determination despite our situation pumped me up. I ran beside him and turned towards Lighdramon, "You too! Let's go, Lighdramon! Burn him to a crisp with your roaring thunder!" My partner nodded and rejoined the fight. With the extra support, Togetaro and Pich were able to annoy DarkKnightmon while Lighdramon layered on the attacks.

Gold smirked at me. "Let's finish this, Goggle Boy!"

I nodded, slightly surprised the change in nickname. "Lighdramon! Finish him!"

My partner charged up electricity on the spikes on his back for his signature Blue Thunder attack. Instead of sending to blast away DarkKnightmon, however, he sent it toward Pich who quickly became energized with the power. Togetaro continued to barrage DarkKnightmon with intense tackles that seemed to return damage to the small egg Pokémon, but Togetaro didn't let up until Pich was completely powered up.

Gold let out a roar and pointed towards the billiard cue still sticking out of DarkKnightmon's shoulder. My eyes widened when I realized it made a good lightning rod to attract our final attack. "Blue Miracle Thunder!" Pich let out all of the electricity he stored in his body and a thick bolt of blue lightning erupted from the critter's tiny body.

I held my breath until the dust cleared and was excited when we won. "That was amazing!"

Lighdramon reverted to V-mon and my partner smiled up at me. "Daisuke, we did it!"

"Yeah, we protected Primary Village!" I jumped when I remembered we had left Elecmon alone. "We've got to go back!"

Gold smirked as picked up his cue and used it as a walking stick. "We all did great. Let's go!" He waited for his Pokémon to get up and the two of us walked behind them on our way back.

Elecmon had recovered enough when we got back that he was reassuring the babies. When he saw Gold and I return, he jumped with a start. "Daisuke, Gold! A new egg just appeared so I guess it's DarkKnightmon. Don't worry about a thing. I'll raise him to be a good Digimon in the future." Elecmon smirked at me. "So I guess you are a Chosen Child since you managed to beat such a strong Digimon."

"Actually," I admitted, "it was Gold who saved Primary Village."

Gold laughed triumphantly. "See? I told you I would defeat DarkKnightmon!" He looked at the Digitama and babies with pride. "I had to for these little fellows' sakes." He paused as his smile became a slight frown. "Say, Elecmon, did you say all Digimon were born here?"

"Yeah, why?"

The red Digimon and I watched as Gold went down and filled a few baby bottles full with dirt. "I'm just making sure." He stared at the bottles of dirt and smiled again before turning to me. "So where should we head, Goggle Boy? After your friends or mine? There's a particular friend I'm looking for who would do well with these bottles, but you have any suggestions?"

I looked at him with surprise. Just earlier today we had been fighting, now it seemed as though he had grown up. He was more mature than I had given him credit for. He was actually a lot of fun too, I admit. There was going to be a lot I could learn from him.

I blinked at him oddly. "You're really going to work with me?"

"Why not? You might be annoying, but you've got guts if you think you'd be able to best me in a fight. Plus, with you around, we'd be able to pull off more Blue Miracle Thunders!" He smirked down at V-mon. "Just because this world is like a game, doesn't mean I'm going to risk losing. We'll be stronger if we work together, just like we did to protect this place."

Elecmon nodded approvingly at us. "See? This is what makes a Chosen Child, Daisuke. Gold has a compassion and kindness towards the Digitama that's extremely unique to himself. You two working together would create trouble, but the good kind that helps those in need."

I nodded. "Okay, then. We'll work together from now on."

Gold winked at me. "Just try to keep up, Goggle Boy." He frowned when he thought of something. "I can't help but shake the feeling I've seen those two evolutions before though. What were their names? Lighdramon and Fladramon? I know I've seen them somewhere before I met you."

"That's impossible though," I stated. Then I remembered the sense of déjà vu I had fighting Gold when his Pokémon were fully evolved. "But… I get that feeling too. Do you know something called the Digimental of Miracles?"

~RUBY~

I lined up my Pokémon and assessed them carefully. "All of you have de-evolved…" I stated seriously. "But you've all kept your beauty!" I happily began petting them and grooming them. "That's okay. No matter what form you are all in, you are all beautiful." I especially beamed at my Mimi.

Meanwhile, a girl wearing a pink t-shirt and white skirt stared at me with her small green Digimon. Both wore odd expressions as they watched me work. The Digimon was the first to say something. "Mimi… this boy is completely different from those other boys."

"That's because I have no interest in battles," I said haughtily. "Fighting is barbaric and it gets my clothes dirty."

The girl stood up and frowned at me. "So then what were you doing during Apocalymon's attack?"

"Hiding," I lied. "I might have attacked a few times, but it didn't do anything since I was quickly captured."

Mimi studied me carefully. "Really?"

I suddenly felt nervous. "Yes…"

"Are you really being truthful? I could have sworn your friend wearing blue called out your name for help."

"No, Sapphire was just coming to my aid," I said as convincingly as I could manage.

"You sound sad when you say that," Mimi noted. "Are you really being true to your heart?"

I didn't reply as I continued to brush Coco's fur. Despite this girl being the same age as Sapphire, she was a lot more mature and insightful than I gave her credit for.

We were silent for a long time. I was busy grooming my Pokémon while Mimi was watching and waiting for me to do something. Eventually, Mimi let out a sigh and stood back up.

"I'm going to look for everyone else. Nothing is going to happen if we just wait here." She looked down to her Digimon. "Come on, Tanemon."

"Wait!" I cried out in surprise. "Don't just leave me here in the wilderness alone! I could be attacked and end up as Digimon food!" I looked around the menacing forest and quickly packed up my grooming kit.

"You're very odd," Tanemon said as I finished.

"But I guess you can follow us," Mimi said. "I'm not sure if I can protect you or not though since I'm not particularly the best fighter."

"No, it's okay. I'll try to fight too! Just so long as it doesn't require my Pokémon getting dirty, I'll try." I would use my real strength whenever she wasn't looking. Hopefully she wouldn't suspect anything though otherwise, it would just be a repeat of what happened between Sapphire and me. I returned everyone to their balls but left Ruru out. "How about I take the lead since Ruru has psychic abilities? She can use her powers to sense the emotions around her and figure out where the others are."

Mimi let me get ahead and we followed Ruru carefully. Ruru made sure to avoid any strange encounter so that it would lessen the amount of fighting we would face through our travels. But we ended up getting even more lost when Mimi thought we were just going in circles.

"Haven't we passed this tree before?" she asked as I tried to study our surroundings.

"I don't know," I answered. "All of these look the same to me."

Tanemon frowned. "Mimi… I don't like it here. There are eyes watching us from the shadows."

"Don't scare me, Tanemon!" the girl cried as she looked around us.

Apparently the small Digimon was right though because Ruru couldn't find a way to get past. We were surrounded by Digimon and we might have to fight them. I huddled closer to my Pokémon as the four of us bunched together. I gulped when all of the Digimon around us jumped at us, resulting in Mimi and me screaming for our lives.

~HIKARI~

"Come back, our queen… Come back to us…" The shadowy figures from the Dark World reached out for me.

I squirmed backwards and shook my head. "No… Leave me alone!" I gripped my head and called out for help. "Taichi! Tailmon! Takeru!" I let out a scream as I felt a cold hand touch me.

"Hikari!" I jumped awake to Plotmon's voice and realized I wasn't in the Dark World. "It's okay, I'm here." I tightly hugged my partner and breathed heavily. I tried to calm myself down before staring down at my shadow sadly. I felt some sadness coming from it and reached down towards the silhouette.

"It's okay. I know you didn't mean to cause me nightmares. Can you come out and help us though?"

The silhouette nodded and came out from my shadow, revealing the dark figure I had encountered at home. He had told Plotmon he was Darkrai and he had the ability to cause nightmares to those sleeping around him. He didn't do it on purpose or with malice but still, his ability created many problems for him.

"Darkrai, do you—?"

"What are you doing with that Pokémon in your shadow?" someone cried nearby. I looked up in the trees and noticed the girl wearing a blue bandana and clothes staring down at me. She immediately leapt down without injuring herself and prepared to battle the Pokémon. "That Pokémon caused a great deal of trouble for my seniors!"

"Please don't fight Darkrai!" I got in between the girl's orange chick and the dark Pokémon. "I kept him in my shadow only because he came to me badly injured. Plus," I looked down meekly, "I own the Crest of Light so it is always attracting the darkness…"

Darkrai stared at the girl for a long time before sharply turning his head towards his left. He quickly darted into the forest, leaving me lost and confused.

"Darkrai?"

The girl's glare was redirected towards something else as her head sharply turned towards the direction the Pokémon disappeared to. "Something dark is there. So I guess you were right, kid. We've got to go now while Darkrai is distracting it!" She quickly grabbed my arm and started running in the opposite direction.

"We're leaving Darkrai behind?" I asked her.

Her free hand held the side of her head as if there was a loud noise bothering her. "We don't really have a choice. I heard a loud roar just now. Darkrai is a legendary Pokémon so will be okay. Compared to him, the two of us will have trouble. I only have Chaka, Ronono, Phadodo, and Tororo with me. Without a full team or fully evolved Pokémon, we'll be overpowered easily. Plus, I see that your Digimon isn't evolved either."

I looked down at Plotmon and noticed she was right. Without the ability to evolve, we'd be quickly defeated. I couldn't bring myself to fully abandon the dark figure though.

As if she knew what I was thinking, the girl frowned and looked at me. "We've got to be strong right now. Without Red or your bushy-haired leader, we've got to figure out what to do for ourselves."

"My brother?" I thought of Taichi and immediately nodded. "Right."

She smirked at me. "So that Taichi guy is your older brother, huh?" We began to slow down and she finally stopped when she could no longer hear whatever it was that caught Darkrai's attention. "What's your name?"

"Hikari Yagami," I answered, "owner of the Crest and Digimental of Light." I looked down at my partner and introduced her too. "This is Plotmon."

"Well I'm Sapphire Birch. My dad is the Professor of Hoenn region, where I'm from. As for my own achievements, I conquered all of the Hoenn League gyms in eighty days," she said proudly. "I even saved my homeland from a giant threat too, along with my best friend Ruby."

"The two of you must be powerful trainers," I noted. "Everything I've done, it has always been with my brother and Plotmon helping me."

Plotmon looked up towards me. "And if Taichi is unavailable, Takeru is always there to give us support too."

I nodded in agreement.

Sapphire frowned. "You're lucky to have so many people ready to go to your aid. I wish Ruby was like that." She stared off into the distance before blinking her eyes. "What?" She rubbed her eyes and looked again. "Is that a Digimon wearing clothes?"

I turned to see what she was pointing towards and noticed a Gekomon wearing a soldier's uniform. He seemed to be having trouble with keeping his shirt straight and he fixed his pants every few seconds as he patrolled the area.

Curious, Sapphire and I walked up to him. He jumped as Sapphire's small chick jumped in front of him. "A Pokémon, geko!" When he noticed us two girls, he calmed down. "Humans! That means you aren't going to attack the Grace!"

"Grace?" I asked. "Is there a ruler around here?"

Sapphire crossed her arms. "And what's with that costume? I thought Digimon don't wear clothes. That's almost as ridiculous as a Pokémon wearing accessories." She stuck her tongue out in distaste.

"The Grace made these clothes! He defended our castle from a siege, along with Mimi."

"Mimi is here!" I exclaimed with surprise.

My friend simply continued to frown. "I bet this Grace is Ruby. I don't know anyone else crazy enough to make clothes for Digimon."

Plotmon looked up at Gekomon. "Can you lead us to the castle to see this 'Grace'?"

"Of course! His Grace specifically mentioned to escort humans to the castle."

We arrived to the castle and the Gekomon sent an Otamamon upstairs to notify their Grace. It didn't take long before Mimi came down, wearing a beautiful pink dress with white satin ribbons. Her hair was in an updo that must have taken a while to design, but it was pretty nonetheless. She was happy to see us and quickly invited us upstairs. "It sure it great to see you safe. Ruby is busy right now but he expects to see you both."

"So Ruby is alright after all," Sapphire said while frowning at Mimi's dress. "Just how did you both get here? And why is Ruby 'his Grace'?"

"It's a long story and I'm not sure of what happened myself." Mimi thought it over carefully before she continued. "When we woke up this morning, we walked around for a while, but became surrounded by a bunch of shadowy creatures that didn't seem to be Pokémon or Digimon."

~MIMI~

I tried my best to recount the tale of what happened to Ruby and me earlier. I was unsure about the exact specifics because everything was confusing and it made no sense how we were safe.

We were stuck and I didn't know what to do. All of Ruby's Pokémon didn't seem as if they could fight, but they gave their best to defend us. Even Tanemon, who couldn't evolve, was fighting despite us knowing we couldn't do much.

"Mimi!" My partner became locked in one of the shadow's grip.

"Tanemon!" I glared at the shadows. "What do you think you're doing? Let Tanemon go!" I picked up a rock and tried to throw it.

It hit the creature and made it turn towards me. When it looked at me though, it suddenly froze up, dropped Tanemon and retreated. I turned around to see what could have spooked it because it couldn't have been me. All I saw was Ruby, looking worriedly at Ruru. Apparently, the small Pokémon was hit by an attack it couldn't really handle so Ruby had been busy looking through his bag for a potion.

When he looked around, he smiled at me. "Hey, you drove them off! That's good."

I looked at him oddly. "But I didn't really do much."

"Maybe it was surprised that you retaliated like that?"

I shrugged and we continued onward. Soon, we saw more of those shadows and did our best to evade them. They were surrounding something and it took me a while to recognize this area.

"Tonosama Gekomon's castle!" I pointed towards the large building towering the mass of shadows. "It must be caught in a siege right now."

"How do we get in?" Ruby asked as he carefully peered out behind a tree to check if the coast was clear.

"Maybe we can help, geko!" A small voice caught our attention and I smiled as I saw a small group of Digimon pop up from their hiding spots.

"Gekomon, Otamamon!" Tanemon quietly cried out.

Ruby looked at them carefully. "They're not enemies?"

I shook my head. "They're good friends of mine. What's going on in the castle?"

"Everybody is panicking, tama! We can't fight off the shadows, tama. We're trying to wait for them to give up, but they have our main entrances surrounded, tama. We have underground paths, but we're using them only to send groups out to search for help, tama. It's great to see that you're here, Mimi!" an Otamamon said.

"We'll definitely help," I reassured them. I looked over towards Ruby and he nodded in agreement.

"Can you lead us inside? We'll plan something from there," he suggested. He looked around carefully as the Gekomon and Otamamon began to lead us to one of the secret entrances to a tunnel.

As we walked, Ruby stumbled over a tree root, making a loud noise. A nearby group of shadows spotted us and Ruby panicked. "Ah! Don't hurt me!" He ran off while shouting, causing more and more shadows to notice and go after him.

I was about to call after him, but Ruru covered my mouth. Her horn began to glow and she pointed towards the steps leading down to the tunnel. I reluctantly climbed down with the others and we managed to make it into the tunnel safely. When she knew we were safe, Ruru lifted her arms and disappeared.

I blinked but a few seconds later, Ruru reappeared with Ruby and the rest of his Pokémon. "Don't hurt me, please!" When he realized he was safe, he looked around and smiled meekly at me. "Oh, so Ruru used Teleport. We're safe!"

I helped the boy and he dusted himself off. "Ruby, you could have gotten into trouble. You can't run off on your own like that."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry. I panicked," he said, straightening his hat.

We reached the main castle and everybody seemed worried. "Mimi!" the Digimon warmly greeted me once they realized I had arrived.

"Everyone! I missed you all so much, but it's too bad this isn't a good time. We need to do something about this invasion."

"How about we battle them from here?" Ruby said as he looked out the window. He studied his Pokémon and the Digimon carefully. "I might not like fighting or be great at it but I might know a few things my dad taught me as a Gym Leader that can help us."

The boy quickly put the Digimon into formations. The Gekomon were to line up by the entrances and lower windows. The Otamamon were placed on the high ground and Ruby placed a blue four-legged mudfish and a brown odd-looking fish with them. A small dark grey puppy and pink kitty ran around the entire castle, sniffing out intruders, and Ruby told me I should follow in case they would have to fight. A small cloud-like Pokémon positioned herself outside and the clear sky instantly became overcast. The clouds appeared ready to rain and the Pokémon turned into a blue miniature storm cloud. Ruru continued to follow her trainer as he went around, making sure everything was ready.

On Popo's signal, the rain began to fall and it boosted the water-based attacks the Otamamon on the terraces used. I followed Coco and Nana intently, but there didn't seem to be a need to. A few of the shadows broke our defenses, but the Gekomon were quick to defeat them on their own. In the midst of it all, I didn't see Ruby at all, only until the end when the Gekomon stated the shadows were retreating.

Ruby reappeared then, teleporting into the room with Ruru. Looking around, he let out a sigh of relief that the danger was gone. The Gekomon and Otamamon were very grateful for his plan and became in his debt. He didn't abuse it as much as I did, but he sure did make a lot of changes.

"I guess that's why the Digimon are wearing clothes," Sapphire said after I finished. "But there's something about the story that doesn't make any sense. The Gekomon and Otamamon don't look very strong so how did you all manage to beat an army of those shadow creatures?"

Her question made sense, but I didn't have an answer for her. Something in my gut made me feel that Ruby was keeping more from me than I had previously thought, but with such an odd behavior, I had to think otherwise. "I'm not really sure, Sapphire," I answered. "It bothers me too, but now that I try to think about it, there were a lot less shadows attacking the castle than I thought there would be."

Hikari became thoughtful. "That is odd." She shivered. "Those shadow creatures… What did they look like, Mimi?"

I described them to her as best as I could and the younger girl grew pale. Sapphire and I noticed this. "Is something the matter, Hikari?" I asked.

She didn't answer that question but just lowered her head. "We need to find the others soon."

"Yeah," Sapphire agreed as we stopped in front of the room Ruby was in. "Let's just get Ruby and go."

When we opened the door, Ruby was putting the finishing touches on a new set of clothes that was shorter and stockier than him. He turned to us and smiled. "What do you think of this light blue scheme for Dia? It goes well with these designs for Pearl and Platinum, right?" When he got a better look at us, his eyes widened with excitement. "Sapphire! This is perfect! I have a few dresses I want you to try on. Come on!"

The brunette stared at him with an annoyed expression before exploding with a wild rage. "We're in the middle of trouble and you're making useless clothes!?"

MIMI (Palmon): So is there a way to tell me apart from Ruby's Feebas?

IXEN (Charmander): ...Not really, but I guess Author will just say Ruby's Mimi? I just can't over the fact that Author is finally starting her novel. I'm glad but I hate the hero she's starting with.

HIKARI (Tailmon): Really? He seems nice, Ixen-kun.

IXEN (Charmander): ...Of course he does. Well, you readers know the drill. Review if you want Author to start on Chapter 7. Otherwise, it's back to White Version nuzlocke, Dragon Nest, or Chemistry homework.