Pokémon HQ Lab, Orre Region

Erika got off her Altaria after the long flight. Unknown to her, Gary had followed Erika on his Fearow. His Fearow was rather strong but since most of the flying wild Pokémon were acting strangely, the flight was rather long and tiring. Erika's Altaria felt the same way, panting. Erika recalled the Humming Pokémon. Gary did the same with the Beak Pokémon and that's when he saw that Erika had seen him. And she looked pissed.

She asked, placing her hands on her hips, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Gary answered, retorting back, "Well, excuse me, I thought we were supposed to stay with the team. Not go off and do what miss bossy pants wants to do!"

Erika yelled, "What did you just say?!"

Gary and Erika both stared at each other with that same fire in their eyes. Erika was about to ask Gary for a Pokémon battle but instead, she got a surprise. Gary was holding a poke ball in his hand. He showed it to Erika and while the oldest Jones child thought that he was going to ask for a battle, he smirked instead.

He questioned, "What is this?"

Erika looked at Gary and answered, with a question of her own, "You are asking a seasoned veteran trainer what a poke ball is? And your supposed to be a researcher?"

Gary pointed out, "I know what a poke ball is, damn it. It is used to capture a Pokémon. But what else can it do besides that?"

Erika replied, "It can send Pokémon out to battle, duh."

Gary responded, "Right and it can also send Pokémon out to help their trainers like you just did. A poke ball, like Pokémon, are the trainers responsibility. They have to be held accountable for what happens to their Pokémon at all times."

Erika started to say, "Now hold on a minute..."

Gary interrupted, "But no where does it say to hide secrets from people you've known for years! Pokémon don't lie, Erika. But apparently people do."

Erika looked over at Gary, seeing the hurt in his eyes. Apparently, Gary had overheard her conversation with Jovi and connected the dots. Erika sighed sadly, knowing that she had been caught.

She stated simply, "You overheard us."

He commented, "I shouldn't even have to eavesdrop, I should know everything about you, Erika. Apparently, I was wrong."

The brown hair girl couldn't argue him but the time she tried to come up with something, Jovi came running over. Professor Krane was with her. Erika looked and forced a smile, even though she knew that once she went back to Kanto, there was no way of facing Ash...or even Gary ever again. Jovi hugged Erika's waist and giggled.

Jovi said, "It's so good to see you, big sis!"

Krane greeted, "Welcome back to Orre. And I see you brought your boyfriend."

Erika was too sad to argue with Professor Krane and simply nodded. Gary was also too mad with Erika to point out her and Professor Krane's mistake. Instead, the Pokémon researcher looked at the senior Pokémon researcher.

Gary questioned, "So what's this all about Professor?"

Krane explained, "Well, it started when Michael was 10 years old and had only an Eevee on his team..."


A few years ago, Orre Region

Within the hold of a giant rock hand, crowds cheered as two large Pokémon faced off against each other: a Salamence and a Metagross. The Salamence hovered in the air, circling the Metagross menacingly, while the steel-type watched its opponent warily from the ground. Neither made a move to attack the other. One of their Trainers was Michael Jones while the other was a man clad in blue.

Michael decided to break the stalemate and yelled, "Salamence! Use Earthquake!"

The dragon-type Pokémon instantly responded, slamming itself to the ground to create tremors that shook the stadium and sent shards of rock flying upward.

The man commanded, "Levitate, Metagross!" The Metagross pulled its legs up and hovered above the ground with its magnetic abilities, which allowed it to avoid the worst of the quake, though some of the displaced rock still hit and damaged its metallic skin. Michael gritted his teeth in frustration; had the attack truly connected, it would have dealt major damage to the opposing Pokémon. The man then commanded, "Follow up with Sludge Bomb, Metagross!"

Michael yelled, "Dodge it; fly!"

The Salamence took to the air again to increase its chance of evasion, circling high above the Metagross's head in dizzying, confusing patterns. The Metagross followed it into the sky with its powerful magnetic abilities, trying, but failing, to keep up with the agile Dragon Pokémon. Purplish sludge built up in its mouth, and when it calculated the chances were best to hit its opponent, it fired. The Salamence instantly rose in altitude, but it wasn't fast enough.

The Sludge Bomb exploded in the center of its chest, painting a good portion of its azure and crimson scales a dark purple and causing it to roar in pain at the force of the impact. Michael winced; his opponent had gained the upper hand, and it wouldn't be easy to turn the battle around. At least the Salamence hadn't been poisoned.

Michael decided to salvage the battle and called, "Metagross may be powerful, but it's not too agile! Outmaneuver it; frustrate it!"

The Salamence shook off the remaining effects of the bulls-eye Sludge Bomb it endured and wheeled away from the floating Metagross, circling it in erratic patterns.

The man responded, "Follow it and keep using Sludge Bomb!"

The Metagross pursued the Salamence and shot more batches of sludge at it, but the speed its magnetism provided was no match for the speed of the Dragon Pokémon. Michael grinned as the Salamence dodged the attacks and goaded the Metagross into following its movements aggressively. After Michael told it to dive, the Salamence shot toward the ground, the Metagross following it in a plummet. At the last possible second, the Salamence pulled out of the dive, its wings straining to keep it from plowing headfirst into the ground. The Salamence barely got out of the way in time before the heavy Metagross slammed into the ground.

Metagross was unable to generate a magnetic field strong enough to negate the massive amount of g-forces its accelerated fall had generated.

Michael quickly commanded, "Use Earthquake again while it's in the ground!"

He was taking advantage of the opening during the time it would take for the Metagross to recover from the impact and work itself free from the ground, as it had buried itself a few feet deep. The Metagross trainer knew it would be disastrous if the super-effective Ground-type move impacted, especially after the Metagross had already sustained damage from its collision with the ground and the debris from the first Earthquake.

The man yelled, "Get out of there, now!"

The Metagross was fast, but the Salamence was faster. In the few seconds while orders had been issued, it had retreated to a great enough altitude that it was able to instantly slam into the ground hard enough to create an Earthquake. The Metagross, unable to propel itself from the crater in time, took the full force of the super-effective attack. The ground caved beneath its enormous weight, and it sunk further into the ground. Debris pelted its metallic hide from above, partially obscuring its form in rubble.

The Metagross struggled for a few seconds afterwards, but its energy had been drained by the Salamence's attacks, and it was unable to create a magnetic field of enough force to extract itself from the crater. It collapsed, unconscious. Its Trainer wordlessly called back the Pokémon, and he fell to his knees in defeat.

A voice stated, "All right, Michael. This will do for today!"

Michael felt like he was falling – a familiar side-effect of returning to reality from a simulation – and the stadium and the opposing Trainer faded away to be replaced by a lab room filled with computers and wires. He stood in a Sim machine, and wires were connected to his body.

The technician chattered, "Yes, sir! That was a well-played battle! Michael, your battle skills have improved by an amazing amount. I mean, it was impressive the way you handled that big Pokémon with aplomb. You took command of it as if it were the same as your Eevee. Don't you think it's time that you consider raising other Pokémon besides your Eevee?"

The technician as he chattered, removed the wires. Michael winced as they were detached, as the adhesive used to keep the wires attached to him made their removal painful. It was kind of having several small band-aids ripped off.

Michael grinned and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he replied, "Thanks for the ego boost, but I'd really rather just stick with Eevee for now."

"Whatever floats your boat," the technician shrugged while annotating a recording of the battle.

It was a typical day for Michael but it was about to get very untypical.


AK1028: I apologize you guys for not updating in forever but I am back to college and I'm doing an internship. My schedule for my classes and internship is posted on my profile if you need to chat with me off hours. Other than that, please read and review! And always think outside of the box!