The four Pokemon eyed each other warily, on one side was Crash the Scraggy and Burn the Lampent, the dastardly bounty hunter duo, and on the other side was Leon the Kecleon and Neal the Sneasel, the pair of friends who decided to protect the strange Natu, whom they didn't know, but were willing to risk everything to protect anyway. The said Natu hung behind, hiding behind a boulder while watching the battle with interest.

Burn floated forward, attempting to intimidate the two children. "I will give you one last chance to hand over that Natu. No one has to get hurt here...at least, not much."

Leon stepped forward, his chin held high. "Keep dreaming. We won't let a couple of bandits like you touch one feather on her head. Right, Neal?"

"That's right." Neal said, though with less enthusiasm than his friend.

"Hey, we're not bandits," Crash argued, "We're bounty hunters. There's a difference, I think."

Burn turned angrily to his compatriot. "It doesn't matter what you think, Crash. All that matters is getting our score. Now, go get that Natu!"

Crash pressed his face against the Ghost type. "Hey, you're not the boss of me! I can do whatever I want! And right now, it just so happens to be getting that Natu."

The three other Pokemon sweatdropped. "Talk about redundant..." Neal muttered.

Crash turned to them. "I'll take you out with one hit!" He rushed forward, his skull cap glowing white. "Headbutt!" he cried.

Leon and Neal turned to each other. "You get the Lampent..." Leon began.

"...and youll get the Scraggy," Neal finished. The two Pokemon nodded and separated from each other, leaving Crash stumbling after having no target. Leon took advantage of his opponents misstep, and cried, "Slash!" while raking his claws, which had extended by about a foot, across Crashs back, causing him to recoil in pain.

Meanwhile, Neal rushed up to Burn. The lanturn Pokemon scoffed. "Seriously? Pitiful planning on your part. Fire beats Ice, moron. Flamethrower!" He blasted a large surge of flame right at Neal. After a few seconds, he stopped, expecting to find a charred corpse. However, he barely had time to register the fact that he wasnt there when he heard in his ear, "Faint Attack."

"W-What?" he cried out just he saw the Sneasel out of the corner of his eye whallopping him into the ground with his fist. The Sneasel landed a couple of feet away and sneered, "Pitiful planning on your part. Dark beats Ghost, moron," Neal taunted, the irony thick in his voice.

Trembling from the damage he took, he slowly righted himself, glaring at the Dark type. "You miserable little wretch. Now, youll-" Burn was quickly cut off as Crash, who was sent flying when Leon used his Shadow Punch, collided into him and sent the both of them sprawling almost off the edge of the bluff.

Neal chuckled as he walked over to his friend. "That was some punch. Youve definitely been training, dude!"

Leon rubbed the back of his head, his awkward smile showing his slight embarrassment at this compliment. "Thanks, Neal. I actually learned that from a friendly Haunter who stopped by the store a little while ago. By the way, nice comeback back there!"

Neal giggled, "Thanks, Leon. I thought it was a nice taste of his own medicine, you know?"

After a bit of tussling with each other, Burn and Crash finally separated and righted themselves, "Um, Burn?" Crash whispered to the Lampent, "I think theyre beating us."

Burn slowly nodded. "Indeed. They seem to think that theyre schooling us. So, how about we teach these brats a lesson or two of our own?"

Crash looked at him, worried. "But, I don't have any experience as a teacher."

Burn grunted in frustration, trying very hard to prevent himself from throwing the Scraggy off of Sharpedo's Bluff. "Instead of spending the one active brain cell you have trying to think, how about you just listen to my plan. I want you to lead the Sneasel away from me. I'll take care of the Kecleon, and then I'll come help you finish off the other one. Capishe?"

"Yeah, I could eat." Crash said, bluntly.

Burn threatened the Fighting type by shoving one of his fiery arms right into his face. "Just go do what I said, before I melt your face off!"

Crash jumped back in fright and squeaked, "Okay, sure. Whatever you say, man." He then rushed after the two Pokemon again, and shouted, "Headbutt!" once more. Leon and Neal smirked and scattered like they did before, but then Crash turned and started chasing Neal, leaving them both shocked at the sudden change in their strategy. Neal braced himself as Crash's Headbutt landed, sending him back a couple of feet.

Meanwhile, Burn's flames began to brighten, and he shouted, "Fire Spin!" as he launched a tornado of flames right at Leon. The Kecleon barely managed to dodge, and he righted himself just in time for Burn to smack him in the face with a Sucker Punch, sending him sprawling.

Heh, heh, The Lampent chuckled to himself, I did it. Now, thanks to his Color Change ability, he should be a Dark type now. Now all I have to do is land a Shadow Ball and he'll become a Ghost type, ripe for the pummling. It was a good battle, but playtime is over, kid!

The Lampent charged his Shadow Ball and shot it at Leon. Leon, who had seen the attack coming, ran and jumped at the Shadow Ball using his Slash to slice right through it. "Vain effort. Now, you're wide open!" Burn cried as he charged another Shadow Ball and launched it at Leon, which caused a huge mid-air explosion.

"Tch, what a waste of time. Well, I'd better help Crash deal with his runt." He began to float away when he heard a voice behind him saying, "Don't turn your back on your enemy, idiot!"

Burn turned around and couldn't help but gaze in shock as the Kecleon he thought he had just defeated was arcing down towards him, his hand covered in dark energy. "What!? How is this-"

"Shadow Punch!" Leon interrupted the Ghost type by launching his fist into his face, instantly causing him to get knocked out and spawl away in a crumpled pile.

Leon then thought to go help Neal deal with his opponent, but he smiled as he saw there was no need, as Neal just finished launching a barrage of Fury Swipes on the Scraggy, which caused the Fighting and Dark type to falter on the spot.

Neal looked up at Leon, a huge grin spread across his face, and they both cheered at the same time, "Yeah, we won!"

"Yeah, you guys did," A female voice said behind them. They turned around and saw it was the Natu they had saved before. "I-I thank you for fighting off those hooligans. I'm sorry I caused so much trouble for you. Please, forgive me." She bowed her head, which pretty much consisted of her whole body, in an apologetic manner.

The two friends looked at each other and chuckled lightly. "There's no need for you to be sorry," Leon said, assuringly, "The ones who should be sorry are these- Hey, where'd they go!?" Leon exclaimed in shock, noticing that the two bandits disappeared from right under their noses. "Grr, this isn't good. We have to go find them!"

But, before Leon could take one step in the direction that they could've gone, two Bronzong appeared from the road to Treasure Town, panting slightly. "Oh, thank goodness we found you, Mistress Anya. We figured those wretched bandits had swindled you away by now." Neither Neal nor Leon could discern which of the two had been speaking just now.

Suddenly, Neal's eyes went wide from realization. "Wait, 'Mistress?'" He turned to the Natu. "Just who are you, anyway?"

The Bronzongs gasped in shock, (Or, maybe it was just one of them. It was really confusing.) "My dear boy," said one of the Bronzongs, "Do you not know that the Pokemon standing before you is next to royalty in importance? You just saved the life of the Priestess of the Temple of Xerneas, Mistress Anya!"

Wow, royalty! (Well, almost royalty, anyway.) That's pretty big! Bet they never expected to be stuck in the middle of this! Well, they are. And, unbeknownst to them, this meeting will actually have a lot more significance in their lives than they figured. What do I mean by this? Well, just stay tuned to find out!

P.S.: I know I'm taking a while to do this, but trust me, these stories are some of the most important things to me, so while I might not be writing and publishing them every week, just know that these are always at the top of my mind, and I'm always trying to invent new ideas for, not only the stories I have published, but many more story ideas that I want to put into writing. (Yes, typing counts as a type of writing in my mind. Shut up, all ye non-believers!)

P.S.S. I'm writing this last note just as I'm publishing this, but I wanted to tell everyone sorry for taking so long on writing this story. It's because I was having a bit of a writer's block on Pursuit, which basically called on an entire rewrite of the story. (You can find more details on it in Pursuit of Fate.)