"Alright everyone!" Samantha called from a hot air balloon way above the city. The judges, even though they weren't judging, also had balloons. She had a microphone which hooked up to the contest hall and to the speakers around the city (I never knew why they were there. I think it had once been an alarm system.), and was announcing the start of capture the flag. "It's about time for us to get started!" The cheers could be heard from the contest hall.

"Now, let's go over the rules!" Akiah said. "It is almost midnight, which will be when the games will start. The games will go on till seven in the morning, so I hope you all are rested up! At the end of the games, whichever three have the least amount of flags will be eliminated. Should there be a tie, then there will be a battle to determine the winner. Are we ready?" There was a collective noise of agreement from the gangs. "Then let the game begin!"

"Let's go!" Lilly, said. We all took off down the street, away from our base. Lilly's group went right, Auroc's group went left, and I headed straight. Kedo had disappeared rather quickly. I looked back, wondering how KY and them would do back at the base. I hadn't actually gone inside, but the place was huge, having two stories. We didn't know what kind of emporium it was yet, but we didn't care too much.

I spoke into the headset I had on. "Aright KY, what do you have for me?"

"Nothing yet, but there is a group of enemies heading your way. Take a right into the alleyway." I did so, appearing on the street on the other end. I looked at the skyscraper behind me, and could just make out the shape of Kykis on the top of it.

"Watch your step," KY said. "You're getting dangerously close to the Normatic's territory." I nodded, and headed down a different street. The Normatics where a small gang made mostly of normal type pokemon. They weren't too much of a threat, but I didn't want to run into them.

"Your on the right track," KY said. "Kykis said he saw a group of Shadow Eaters coming from the direction you're heading. Do you see any interesting buildings?"

I looked at the buildings and groaned inwardly. "Yep. The security center." This wasn't good. The building was probably the most secure in stability and security in the entire city. It was definitely not going to be easy to infiltrate.

"Kykis can sense a lot of pokemon in there. But don't worry, they won't be in there for much longer." I was about to ask him what he meant when there was a huge geyser of ice and stone that erupted not far from the building. Then the thing cracked as a web of dark purple energy ran up it, swamping the area in shards of ice and stone.

Instigators. Well, they were definitely doing their jobs.

I ran in the direction of the security center, when there was a spark of electricity that hit me. I went flying, and turned to see a pikachu staring me down, sparks flying from my cheeks. I narrowed my eyes, about to attack, but then something odd happened. There was sound like a muffled gunshot, and the pokemon fell to the ground, unconscious. I looked around, then moved in to check on him. On his back was a small wet circle. I looked at a tall building near us to see something move into the shadows of the building. It must have been Kedo. I wasn't quite sure what he did, but I wasn't going to complain.

I continued on my way to the security center. My headset had been fried by the pikachu's thunderbolt, so I no longer got information from KY. I would have to do this all myself. It was up to me and Kedo alone to get the flag.

I hid in an alley not far from the security building. There was only one way in: the front door. It was currently being guarded by a cacturne. The building was at least ten stories high. I had no clue where they had hid the flag.

Kedo jumped down next to me. "What's the plan?"

"First we have to get past that guard. Do you have any idea where they would hide the flag?"

"The camera room," he said. "It would be an optimal place to hide it, since if they see anyone coming, they can move it quickly. Our best bet would be to momentarily take out the electricity and take out all the camera's."

"How do we do that?" I asked.

Then, to my amazement, there was a huge lightning strike that hit the top of the building. It was so intense that it shook the ground. A large group of electric type pokemon swarmed the guard and took him out easily. They went inside. These must have been the Polar Magnets, an electric and steel type gang. They probably left their steel members to guard their base.

"Great," I said. "We get in, but have more people to deal with." We quickly ran past the unconscious guard, entering the building. There wasn't anyone in the lobby.

Kedo quickly ran to the front desk, and tried to turn on the computer. "The power is down. It looks like they had the same idea as us."

I nodded, then saw someone coming towards the front door. "Kedo, get down!"

We both dove underneath the desk, making ourselves as small as possible. I heard soft footsteps, and was sounded a bit like something dragging across the floor. I knew those footsteps, and that other sound. I had heard it when we were hurrying to save Auroc.

It was Kan and Karu.

"This isn't good," I whispered. "how can we get upstairs now?"

He peeked out from our hiding spot, and got up. "Over here." He led me to a small square hole in the wall. "It's a service elevator. I can send you up in it, and it should take you all the way to the top. I'll meet you up there."

"How will you get past them all?"

"I'll be fine." He picked me up and put me in the elevator. "Good luck." He shut the door, and I started moving upward.

I breathed deeply. I was not cut out for this kind of pressure. I waited patiently for the door to open. When it did, my heart nearly stopped.

There was a tyranitar right in front of me.

I didn't dare move. It was lying on the ground, it's eyes closed. It was asleep. I got out of the elevator dead silent, and took off down the hall. That was way too close. I really wasn't cut out for this kind of pressure.

I looked at all the doors, and found one that was cracked open. Blue light was coming from it. I peeked inside to see a bunch of computer screens, along with a very bored looking sneasel, since all he saw now was blue static. It was quite obvious the Shadow Eaters had very little regard for their defense. Though it slightly bothered me that I didn't notice the power come back on.

I took a deep breath, then let loose my toxic. I then quickly hid inside a nearby trashcan. Luckily it was empty. The pokemon came flying out, looked around, and went quickly down the hallway, staggering slightly.

I ran back inside the room. The flag was under the leg of the chair he had been sitting on. I tied two of the corners together and put it around my neck.

"A bold fashion statement."

I froze, and turned to face the doorway. Kan was there, smiling at me. "I must admit, I'm impressed. I figured you would come here, but I had no idea that you had gotten here yet. You all work very fast."

I stood in stunned silence. He chuckled. "What, cat got your tongue?" He sighed. "I really am impressed. Unfortunately, I can't let you leave with that flag. You could always try to escape, but we have the stairway guarded, along with that little elevator of yours." A blue orb of energy formed in his hand. Focus blast. It molded itself into the shape of a knife. "Sorry about this."

He threw his attack at me, but something flew by it. A mat sprang up from the ground, and the blade of energy got stuck in it. Kedo was there in front of me. "Let's go!" He swiped his hand in front of him, and a puff of white smoke filled the room. Smokescreen. We ran out the door, running over Kan as we left.

We ran down the hallway. "How are we going to escape? They have the stairway blocked!"

We turned hallways to see three fire pokemon. Kedo nodded. "Follow my lead!" He threw a bunch of water shurikens, and the pokemon dove out of the way. The attack broke through the window that was there.

Oh boy.

We ran forward at full speed and leapt out the window. We were nearing the ground fast. "What now?"

A water object appeared in his hand, and he grabbed me. "Hang on!" The item, which turned out to be a grapping hook, was fired into a nearby window. We were redirected to the building, and we broke through a window a few floors below, rolling around in a very ungraceful manor.

I quickly got up. "Hurry. Let's get back to base!" We quickly made our way to the ground and took off back in the direction of the emporium. When we got there, we slowed to a stop, staring in awe at what we saw.

There was a force field around the entire store. It was a protect, but the largest one I had ever seen. Fort was said to really like security. Was this all his doing?

I thought about Kykis. We have a flag. We need into the base.

In two flashes of light, we were in a dark room with the four defenders. "Did you get the flag?" Hana asked.

I nodded, taking it off my neck. "Yep. It was close though. Kan showed up and we barely made it out without a serious fight."

"Well that's good," Kykis said. I turned to him, and was slightly startled. He was much taller, no longer girly looking at all. He had evolved into Gallade.

"When did you evolve?" I asked.

"When we checked the place out," he said. "As it turns out, this used to be a stone emporium. I bet Kannin knew I wanted to evolve, so he recommended this place, giving me access to the dawn stone. I bet he also intended Mark to find a fire stone as well."

"You know you could evolve too," Kykis said, not taking his eyes off of his immense control panel. "Do you know what you want to evolve into?"

Honestly, I had never really thought about it. "I don't think I want to evolve just yet. I'll hold off on it."

"Suit yourself." He pressed a few buttons. "Hey, Lilly, Hydra and Kedo just got back. We have a flag."

"Good," Lilly's voice said from the control panel. "We are still watching the Geoaxes. They have a pretty good set up. There defense is nice and solid. Has anyone tried to get into our base yet? We aren't exactly conspicuous about it."

"Not yet," KY said. "Kykis, could you make another sweep of the city?" Kykis nodded, and was gone in a flash. Only moments passed before he reappeared, staggering. He fell to the ground, out cold.

"Kykis!" I ran over. "What happened?"

KY was going crazy at the control panel. "Not good! Not good! The Skyscrapes are circling the building, and the Kimono's are right outside as well!"

I swallowed in fear. We had two major gangs right outside our door. "But won't the protect hold?"

"Not for much longer," Fort said. "It lasts for only fifteen minutes, and I won't be able to put up another one for the same amount of time. Get ready, cause this is going to get ugly."