OK, since Khrista's all by her lonesome, did you guys think that I got rid of the characters she'd been hiding out with originally? Well, I didn't get rid of all of them, because one of them is really needed for this story!

And just to let you guys know, I may end up posting another chapter later on this Easter break. Keep your eyes open!

Chapter 10 - Cousin!

Khrista woke up to the sound of the door of her cell slamming open, and upon seeing that Cassidy was standing in the doorway, she retreated under the thin blanket in an attempt to get some last-minute sleep. She was still tired after the events of the day before, and didn't to end up going through the physical trials without proper rest.

The Rocket saw straight through this ruse, however, and promptly stomped over to the bunk that Khrista had claimed and tore the blanket off the upper bunk.

There was a loud rrrrip!, and the blanked tore in half, leaving Khrista and Cassidy each holding a piece of the flimsy fabric.

It was during that noise that it almost looked like Khrista's shirt had flickered orange for a second.

Khrista's head shot up from the pillow, surprise clear on her face as she sat up and inspected the jagged tear in the blanket. "Whoa. I figured this was thin, but -"

She was cut off when Cassidy threw her half in the brown-haired girl's face.

"Come on," Cassidy stated, irritated as she watched Khrista pull the blanket away from her face. "The Boss wants you for something."

Khrista blinked, thinking back to the day before for a moment. She looked down at the two blanket pieces in her hands for a moment, then clenched her fists more tightly.

"Knucklehead wants me?" Khrista demanded, putting on her false bravado once again. "Fine."

She tossed the blanket halves out of the bunk bed, allowing them to settle on the floor in two flattened out, jagged rectangles. Then she slipped out of the upper bunk and landed on the stone-cold floor with a thump.

Cassidy raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as to Khrista's movements. Instead, she took hold of the girl's arm and led her out of the cell and down the hall.

Khrista's gaze went over the hall again, scanning each of the doors for some sort of recognizable mark that might tell her who was inside. She didn't see anything before Cassidy led her over a warp panel and they warped into a room that was a dismal gray...

...and lined with cages containing Pokemon.

Charon, who was standing in the center of the room and was scribbling something on a clipboard, turned when Cassidy and Khrista entered. A rather sinister grin came over his face.

"Well! Glad to see you managed to arrive here on time," the scientist stated cheerily. "Unlike some people I know." He glared at a young man with teal hair standing nearby, and the receiver of the glare cringed.

Khrista frowned. "Is there time in this place?" She glanced over at the teal-haired man, and realized a moment later who it was. Butch? Rocket nostalgia much?

"Well, no, but we keep up pretenses all the same."

"Because you morons got rid of it!" shouted a Pokemon from one of the cages.

Khrista couldn't see who it was that had spoken, thanks to the large number of cages, but when she saw that Charon hadn't even batted an eye when the creature had cried out.

Maybe he didn't understand PokeSpeak?

"Cassidy, did you explain to M-9 why it is that you brought her here?" Charon asked, motioning to Khrista.

"M-9?" Khrista repeated, frowning.

"We need to call you something until we know your name," the scientist replied readily. He looked over at Cassidy more directly. "Well?"

"You didn't tell me to, so I didn't," Cassidy replied calmly.

Khrista looked up at the Rocket grunt in confusion, then around the room again before settling on a cageless corner of the room, where if looked like the shadows were darker than they were in other places. When she looked at that corner, however, something shifted.

Charon let out an annoyed sigh. "You are here to see which Pokemon would be compatible with you as a decent partner."

"Would be?" Khrista repeated, frowning. The real question that was going through her head, though, was "Why are they letting me pick a partner when I'm clearly not under their control?"

"We aren't going to give it to you now," Charon amended, "but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be prepared with your most compatible Type."

Khrista's frown deepened as she became concerned at the idea. However, she said nothing, instead looking around the room again and looking at each of the Pokemon. Most of them were "basic" Pokemon, small enough to fit in cages that were stacked on top of each other, but there were one or two that were being kept in larger cages at the bottom of a few of the stacks.

"Now, considering your test results, I'd say that we should go with a Pokemon you're unfamiliar with," Charon continued. He walked over to a bunch of cages that looked like they contained Pokemon from Kanto and Jhoto; an Eevee sitting in a cage at Charon's eye-level cowered when the scientist approached. "Something from The Boy's home, perhaps?"

Khrista blinked, frowning. It took her a moment to realize that Charon was actually referring to Ash.

"Considering the Pokemon native to the Sinnoh and Hoenn regions, it doesn't give us very much to work with, but I believe I may have found a solution." Charon started to reach for the latch on one of the cages - which contained a Pokemon Khrista couldn't see clearly, but she could hear it growling the closer Charon's hand got.

It was at this exact moment that the thing in the shadows decided to strike.

A dark purple blur burst out of the shadowy corner and grabbed Khrista's left arm. She only had time to let out a yell of alarm before her entire surroundings disappeared into darkness.

The next thing she knew, she was standing in the middle of a cell, the dark purple creature still clamped to her arm.

But that wasn't what Khrista was looking at in surprise and shock.

She was staring at the boy sitting on the lower bunk of the stacked beds in front of her.

Khrista's POV

No. Way.

I thought it was weird enough that I ended up shadow-traveling thanks to some Pokemon that's now on my arm, but now it's just getting even stranger.

Because I think that I'm looking at my fifteen-year-old cousin.

Brown hair - just like mine, no surprise, considering how popular the color is. He wore a cerulean-blue shirt, blue jeans, and dark-blue slip-on shoes - a little off, but nothing that nobody's ever tried before.

But those eyes. Hazel with green specs. As far as I know, no one else has those eyes.

It's got to be him.

"Hey," the boy greeted calmly. "You might want to let go of her now."

The creature on my arm shook its head. "No way. Shorty and Blondie were in the room when I nabbed her. I'm going to have to move her out before they try to hunt me down." Girly voice, sounded like the Pokemon knew what it was doing.

I looked over and, to my surprise, found that a Gengar had latched onto me. I'm surprised I didn't feel the temperature drop or something.

"Uh...what's going on?" I asked, looking between the two of them.

The hazel-eyed boy reached into a pocket of his jeans, then pulled out some sort of device and walked over to my left side. I tried to move away, but the Gengar kept me in place while the boy dropped something in my ear.

"A communicator," he explained, taking a step back while the device settled in my ear. "We'll be able to keep in touch." "What are you -"

"Six on Six, Hoenn teams, no Legendaries allowed," the boy interrupted.

Wait a sec. Those restrictions are familiar.

The boy must've seen my eyes widen, because he gave a nod. "Yeah. That's right."

Definitely my cousin. Guys, meet Joshua.

"I knew you'd moved in from out of town, but I didn't think you'd end up getting caught in this," I stated, frowning.

Joshua shrugged. "I play Pokemon. That's all that matters to them."

"We've got to move her out of here," the Gengar muttered. "I can tell. They're coming with a lot of other Pokemon that have been Turned."

"A few minutes longer," Joshua replied. He put a hand on my shoulder. "I figured something was going to happen as soon as I heard they were going to try one last time for get White."

"Whoever that is," I muttered.

Joshua frowned, his green speckled eyes flickering with an emotion I couldn't identify. "The point is that you could end up becoming whatever-it-is that White is, too. Trust me, Arceus chose to act as he did in this world because everything happens for a reason."

"Why not just call him God instead of that Legendary's name?"

"Because that is his name here. There just happens to be a Pseudo-god named after him." Joshua let out a sigh. "Look. I'm going to have my Gengar take you into hiding so that the others don't get a fix on you. If you can, try to come up with something that might end up being helpful in the long run against the head of this operation."

I knew he meant Cyrus there, but why he doesn't say it, either...

There was the sudden sound of pounding on the other end of the door. "Subject J-4! We know you're holding a fugitive Pokemon in there!"

Wait - was that Saturn's voice? The one from the anime? I never thought he'd sound so angry.

"Time to go," the Gengar muttered.

I felt my stomach drop, but nothing went dark this time.

Instead, the back wall of Joshua's cell got blasted open. The toilet and sink ended up falling down a long shaft of darkness filled with pipes, which weren't connected to them, surprisingly.

A second later, the Gengar was holding me up somewhat while I grasped one of the pipes in the shaft, high above where the break in the wall was.

How she managed to move me there so quickly is beyond me, but I'm glad for it.

Because as soon as I had wrapped my arms around the pipe and desperately prayed that they won't see me or the Gengar, the door slammed open.

"Where is the Pokemon?!" Saturn roared as he stomped in - I know because I could hear something that sounded a lot like stomping. "I know it's here!"

"Well, it's not now," Joshua replied. He clearly sounded annoyed.

"I can see that," Saturn's voice hissed. I tried to imagine him looking angry and failed miserably. "Where did it go?"

"Sheesh, what are you, blind? You can see the wall's gone, can't you?"

Wow. I knew he could be snarky before but...well.

"Of course I can see that, boy," Saturn growled in reply. "Where did they go? Down or up?"

"Didn't see." I could just imagine seeing Joshua shrug. "There was dust going everywhere."

"There would have been 'dust going everywhere' if it had been broken open from the other side!" Saturn roared.

I heard footsteps down below, and a moment later a beam of light shot out and started to work its way up the wall of pipes. A Pokemon poked its head out - it looked yellow, and had pointy ears and a long mustache. The light was coming off a spoon.

As soon as I realized that the Pokemon was using Flash or something, I noticed a moment later that it was looking right at me.

I gripped the pipe more tightly and desperately wished that I wasn't caught like a deer in the headlight's of a hunter's truck. A moment later, I felt like my stomach was doing some sort of twist, but it didn't make me nauseous.

The Pokemon pulled back, the Flash flickering out. A moment later, Saturn let out a growl of annoyance.

"Your friend won't get far," Saturn snarled. "Until this wall is repaired, you will be assigned to a different cell, and I know exactly where you're going to be staying."

A moment later, I heard Joshua snap, "I don't need to be dragged, thanks."

Not long after, I heard a door slam shut, and the light that had been on in the cell below switched off.

I'm alone. In the dark.

With a Gengar.

Oh, boy...

"You are really an odd one," the Gengar remarked suddenly. I turned my head so as to look her in the eye as she continued, "I've never seen a human capable of making themselves into a Dark-Type."

I frowned. "What?"

"Look at your shirt, kid. It's even darker than me."

I looked down, and my eyes widened when I saw the black fabric. "OK. That's weird. I swear I was wearing a red shirt a moment ago." I was starting to get a little freaked out.

"Calm down," the Gengar stated, raising a paw. "I know someone who might be able to help you."

She started to pull me away from the pipe by my waist, but it took a little doing on her part - I was not about to let go of the one thing that was actually solid.

Eventually, however, she did let get me to let go, and started to lift me up the shaft.

"Where is it that you're taking me?" I asked, a little fearful of the ghost Pokemon - especially considering that I could be easily dropped who knows how far down the shaft to some unforeseen death. I stiffened up my muscles so that I wasn't just hanging limp.

"You're going to like him, I think," Gengar replied. "He and I have been watching what's been going on as soon as Spiky tore down Lake Verity and our house."

"Your house?" I repeated, turning my head in order to try and look up at the ghost.

"Yeah. What - you didn't think that we have houses?"

"Um..." I wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Doesn't matter. Listen, kid, your cuz is our Trainer, and we've been keeping an eye on him." The wicked grin on the Gengar's face grew even wider. "We've been his top two for Double Battles, if you remember."

I blinked in confusion, trying to think back to whenever Joshua had asked me to a Pokemon match that was a Double Battle. The only time I could remember about that kind of thing was in Hoenn, after he had borrowed my Gameboy to send Pokemon from his FireRed game. Next thing I knew, my team had been floored by two of his Pokemon - and he hadn't even used the other two on his team.

Well, I exaggerate about the not using the rest of his team, but it could have ended up like that if I had been careless.

But which ones -

Wait. There were a couple names that popped into my head unbidden.

I looked up at the Gengar in surprise. "Wait - are you Gangrene?"

The Gengar's grin got wider. "The one and only!" She looked up at the darkness above us and seemed to tighten her grip. "Can you become intangible too, Dark girl?"

"I-I don't know."

"Well, shoot. Guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way."

Before I could ask Gangrene what she meant, I suddenly felt really cold as my stomach wrenched, and everything went black.

And there he was! Joshua, the only Trainer who's got a Gengar hiding out in the building!

See you guys later!