Hello! We're back with Khrista's side of things...but she's not stuck in a room with a Gengar or an Alakazam for the whole chapter.

Chapter 14 - Training

"Remember, Khrista, the only reason we're allowing you to do this is because you need to copy more Types to expand your ability."

"I know, Alak," Khrista replied, turning to look back at the Psychic-Type. "I'll stay out of sight while I'm messing around out there." She placed her hand on the ventilation grate that sat in a corner of the blank room, then raised her hand up.

An energy field suddenly surrounded the grate, and it started to shake as the screws that held the grate in place were unscrewed one by one. The grate was pulled forward when the last screw came loose, and it was moved over and placed behind the pile of blankets.

"I'll probably end up moving to the ceiling and staying there as much as possible while I look for another Type to be," Khrista added. Her shirt shifted from gold to the shadowy-purple, and her entire form started to dissolve and slip into the ventilation pipe as nothing more than a low-lying fog.

As the brown-haired teenager left, she heard Gangrene sigh and say, "Now there goes an expert!"

Khrista soon found that traveling through the vents was vastly different than taking leisurely laps around the storage room that Alak and Gangrene had called home. Within seconds, she was being tugged in several different directions when as soon as she reached a crossroads of sorts with the pipes.

"The question is, though, which way?" Khrista's voice muttered from somewhere in the purplish cloud. "And I'm not going to go in all directions." The cloud bunched up in the center of the intersection point, occasional branches reaching out into different tunnels. However, these branches had flashes of gold appear in them almost as soon as they nearly separated from the main cloud.

"According to my calculations, the -"

Nope. No way I'm going that way. Sounds like a bunch of scientist Galactic nerds. Khrista turned her attention another direction, but heard a large amount of screaming from a female voice.

"Let me go, you overgrown -"

No way. Sounds like there's a dirty mouth in there. Next tunnel.

Khrista moved one ventilation pipe to the right and curiously prodded the minds on the other side.

Nothing except for a weird chant that sounded like it was in an entirely different language that Khrista didn't recognize.

Huh? Who's over there? Khrista bunched her cloudy self together and started down the ventilation pipe. Do they have different languages in this place? Or is this someone from my world?

Surprisingly, the pipe she had chosen was actually pretty short, and she didn't meet any air resistance as she moved towards the grate at the end. It wasn't long before she managed to slip out of the grate and float up to the ceiling.

And Khrista was glad to get up to the ceiling, because the entire floor was covered in the kids from her hometown, a collection of Pokemon, and Galactic grunts standing next to each and every kid.

Is this what they do every day? Khrista asked herself. If she had been solid, she would have frowned at what she was seeing. I'd better have a look around to find those other Types that I can copy without being seen.

The cloud coiled together a little tighter, then started to actually become a shape and solidify into Khrista's human form.

Stay a Ghost-Type, stay a Ghost-Type, Khrista thought to herself frantically, keeping her reforming eyes shut tightly. I don't care if it tickles, you have to concentrate or else you are going to fall. Alak covered this. We went over this a million times.

The purple-gray-colored human finally solidified as the proper color returned to the proper places. When Khrista finally opened her eyes again, she was floating close to the ceiling with a purple-gray shirt and purple wisps coming off the soles of her shoes.

"Okay," Khrista muttered under her breath. "Now, let's see what's going on down here."

Her gaze moved around the room, taking note of the ventilation pipes that ran across the ceiling and the lights that were embedded in the cold, gray material. That didn't give her that many places to hide if anyone decided to look up, but the pipes weren't glued to the ceiling directly, so hiding there wouldn't necessarily be a problem.

It was the activity on the floor that was troubling Khrista even more than finding a hiding problem.

Khrista started to circle the room, looking down at the Grunts, humans, and Pokemon that were doing...whatever it was on the floor below.

"I'd better find those Pokemon Types I wanted to copy," Khrista murmured. She continued to circle, watching for a Pokemon Type that she would think to be useful out of all the bunch that was out and about.

There's Matthew, Khrista noted, eyeing her neighbor. The tall boy was standing next to Charon, who was making notes on his clipboard while looking up occasionally at two Pokemon that were in the middle of a sparring match. The girl instantly identified them as a Torchic and a Riolu.

Fire and Fighting...do I? The brown-haired girl shook her head. No. I'd end up falling down there and who knows what would happen then. She flew over the group, purposefully flying around the air that was directly above Charon's and Matthew's heads.

Khrista had managed to make it halfway around the room before she caught sight of something - or someone - that made her stop short in shock.

S-silver? she mentally gasped.

Catching sight of a certain red-headed teen was more than enough to cause Khrista to lose her concentration and start to drop through the air.

"No, no, no," Khrista muttered, glaring back up at the ceiling. She clenched her fists and concentrated on staying in the air. Her falling slowed, and the blue-eyed teen was able to get back up to her previous altitude.

Khrista looked back down at the red-headed teen below, standing with his arms crossed while also being surrounded by Galactic grunts. If he had any PokeBalls on him, she couldn't tell, but she did see that he wasn't wearing a Galactic uniform like Ash had been - she took his black shirt and scowling face as a hopeful sign that he wasn't under Cyrus' control.

Then she caught sight of a red, black, and yellow Pokemon scuttling around on the ground nearby, and her eyes widened slightly.

Ariados - a Bug/Poison-Type. Bugs can crawl around on walls, can't they?

Khrista floated over to a section of wall near where the spider was wandering around. As soon as she had a hand on the cold wall, she turned her attention to the Jhoto Pokemon and glared at it.

As soon as she started to look intensely at the spider, the Ariados looked up and in her direction. Khrista started to feel something in her gut then, and the Bug/Poison-Type took a few steps forward.

Khrista suddenly felt herself starting to fall, and she quickly grabbed for the wall to see if there were any handholds to keep her from falling to the ground. As soon as her hands and toes had connected with the wall, though, she suddenly stopped short.

The brown-haired teen heard a chuckle rom somewhere below her, and she turned her head slowly to see who exactly it had been who had made the noise.

"You're quite odd for a Ditto," the Ariados stated from below, clicking his pincers together. "I haven't seen one take human form and still copy abilities like that."

Khrista looked down at her shirt and noticed that it was a really light shade of green. She looked back at the Ariados. "Don't tell anyone that I'm here, please."

The Jhoto spider moved his head to one side. "And why not? I can do as I please here."

Khrista swallowed, trying to gather her thoughts together so that she could tell the Ariados a proper answer.

Any Pokemon will do what you ask them if you speak to them in a polite and respectful manner, Gangrene's voice echoed in Khrista's head. Or, you can just make yourself look as formidable as possible and scare them into doing what you want.

A mad cackle trailed off in Khrista's mind as she managed to come up with what she wanted to say.

"I'm not supposed to be here, and I'd prefer it if no one knew it," Khrista spoke in as confident a tone as possible. "You're going to of be the only one in this room who knows."

The Ariados' head moved from its cocked position to a more inclined one as he looked up at the figure above him. "How will I know that you will keep your word?"

"I'll leave right now, and no one will know." Khrista hoped that was a sufficient answer.

The Pokemon below her cocked his head again, then gave a slight nod. "Go. I'll be watching you."

Khrista gave a nod, then turned her attention to the wall and started climbing, occasionally stopping to either make sure she wasn't switching to a different Type or to see if the Ariados was still watching her.

He still had his large, black eyes on her, even when she reached the ceiling and disappeared from sight behind a ventilation pipe.

As soon as Khrista managed to get directly above the pipe, she found a steel cable and grabbed it, sliding down to land on top of the pipe. The steel creaked a little, but didn't give under her weight.

Cautiously, the teen's blue eyes looked over both sides of the pipes, trying to see if there was anyone below her that she might recognize besides Matthew and Silver.

::What are you doing, cousin?::

The brown-haired girl nearly jumped out of her shoes when she heard the voice. She looked around quickly, then remembered the device that was hiding in her left ear. Placing her left hand to her ear, she asked, "Why do you want to know about what I'm doing?"

::I'm standing next to the wall you just climbed up. Why do you think I asked?::

Khrista turned slightly, doing her best to keep all of her limbs on top of the pipe. When she had fully turned around and looked down the way she had come up, her eyes widened slightly.

Leaning against the wall with chains around his wrists and ankles was the brown-haired, hazel-eyed teen who she had run into some time ago.

"What are you doing here?" Khrista asked in a low hiss, putting her hand back over her ear. The nose of Pokemon cries was starting to become unbearable; did all Bug-Types have this good of hearing?

::They've got me waiting here until my cell's repaired - or arrange for other accommodations. I saw your shirt change color. What is it that you can do?::

"Like I'm going to tell you," Khrista snapped back. "Who else is down there besides Silver and one of my neighbors?"

::Which neighbor?::

"The one who's standing next to the short doofus."

Below, Joshua cracked a smile, and Khrista was surprised to see that she could see it clearly, even from her position on the ventilation pipe. ::I see you don't have much of a love for scientists. Good. I'll tell you who else is here. The younger two of the 'one next to the doofus' family are here, but not the second-eldest. There's a couple girls from your school, too, probably, and there are a Torchic and a Riolu that have numbers for names, as well. I'm not sure about everybody else, but you'll probably have to come back before you can identify all of them::

Khrista blinked in confusion, trying to make sense of what it was that her cousin had just said. She settled for an annoyed frown.

"Can you speak even more sarcastically?" she growled.

::There are eyes and ears everywhere down here. You'd better get going before that Ariados goes back on his word::

Khrista blinked upon hearing the statement, then frowned again. "Yeah. Right." She settled a little closer to the pipe and concentrated on shifting her Type.

The bright green shimmered for a moment, then changed to the golden shade.

Khrista shut her eyes tightly. "Send me back to Alak's Haven."

There was a bright flash, and she felt a wrenching in her gut as the Teleport took action. A moment later, she felt herself land on something soft, and the teen opened her blue eyes.

"Well?" Gangrene asked, coming over. Alak wasn't far behind her.

"I found a new Type to work with, but I didn't have much of a choice," Khrista replied as she started to get to her feet. "The Bug-Type was the first one in the room that I actually managed to copy that wouldn't have ended up having me falling and showing myself."

Alak frowned. "Bug-Type? Surely there were Flying-Types in there, as well."

"I didn't see any." Khrista shook her head, then remembered what else she had seen. "But I did learn something about who it is that they pulled from my world and from outside this building."

Gangrene's eyes widened, as did her Cheshire Cat grin. "Oh? What did you find?"

"Silver's trapped in here, for one," Khrista started. Then she frowned. "Then I got this really cryptic sentence from your Trainer."

The Gengar and the Alakazam looked at each other in surprise, then back at Khrista.

"What did he say?" Alak inquired.

"Something about 'two of the younger siblings of the First One, but not the second eldest'. Then he mentioned that there were two girls that were probably from my school and a Torchic and a Riolu." Khrista shrugged helplessly. "I'm not exactly sure what he means."

Alak frowned slightly. "Who was the first one here?"

Khrista blinked. "The one next to the short doofus -"

Gangrene let out a howl of a laugh. "Short doofus! Oh, I'll have to use that!"

"-who would have to be a boy from across my street," Khrista finished, sending a look over at the Gengar.

"Does he have any siblings?"

Khrista frowned. "Uh...yeah, he does. He's been trying to get a band together with his sister maybe and a couple other kids from school. They've been trying to get Joshua and me in on it, but I haven't really been all that interested lately."

"How many siblings?" Alak pressed.

"Two girls and a boy, why?"

"Which one's the second eldest?" Gangrene asked.

"A girl. She's about my age and her name's -"

"Don't," Alak stated. "That is not information we need to know at this time."

"Then why were you asking me?" Khrista responded, starting to feel annoyed.

"To discover the first part of our Trainer's riddle. The first Trainer who was brought here had his brother and sister follow him. The other sister remains at home."

Khrista blinked, then her eyes widened as the Alakazam's words sunk in. "But...that doesn't make sense."

"It doesn't?" Gangrene asked. Her toothy grin suddenly turned upside down.

"No. All four of them play the games. In fact, it's...the second-eldest who kinda got them really tuned into it in the first place."

The two Pokemon looked at each other again, exchanging odd looks.

"Do you think -" Gangrene started.

"We don't know for sure," Alak interrupted. "Only time will be able to tell us, and even that is near-impossible now thanks to Cyrus' meddling." He turned to look at Khrista, who was frowning in confusion at the both of them. "There is something that is of vital importance that I believe you are now ready to hear."

Khrista blinked as a blank look came over her face. "What is it?"

"There is a place that the two of us know about that our Trainer, who has remained in these walls ever since he got here, hasn't heard about yet," Gangrene began, grinning again. "And it's hiding literally beneath our feet."

"What is it?" Khrista asked. She could feel excitement building up within her, but she wanted to make sure that it was actually going to be out to good use rather than suddenly drop her to rock bottom when it wasn't actually a good thing.

"It is..." Alak hesitated for a moment, looking down at his spoons. "It is a rebel underground."

Khrista's eyes widened, and a grin finally broke out across her face. "There's an actual resistance group? One that managed to stay under Cyrus' radar?"

Gangrene nodded. "There are safe havens hiding all over the planet in different regions, where people and Pokemon managed to escape Cyrus before he could find them. We used to live in one, but we snuck into the citadel because it was starting to get boring." She grinned. "And then we found our Trainer, and it's been one adventure after another!"

"And no one else knows you're here?" Khrista asked.

Alak shook his head. "No one but our Trainer and yourself."

"OK, then." Khrista took in a breath, trying to sort through her now-frantic thoughts and many questions. "So, where's this safe haven of yours located?"

Gangrene pointed down. "Directly below this skyscraper, and spread as far as the other side of the PokeBall Graveyard. To be literal, they're directly beneath our feet."

Khrista was surprised. "Whoa." She looked down at the cold metal beneath her feet. "And they don't dig up and attack Cyrus from below?"

"That's what some of the Pokemon and Trainers want to do, but it's almost impossible, considering the amount of security they have up all around the building." Gangrene stated with a wave of a paw. "Honestly, how Arctic managed to get in close and free the Lake Spirits, I have no clue."

"Arctic..." Khrista murmured. "You mean Articuno, right?" She frowned. "Where did you hear about that?"

"Well, we have to go down there once in a while to gather supplies and information." The Gengar gave what might have been a thoughtful smile, but it looked much more mischievous than thoughtful. "I think the last time I was down there, I heard a rumor from a couple Plasma kids about how the Elite Fours and Champions of every region were hiding out in Mt. Coronet..."

Khrista's eyes widened, and she grinned hugely. "Oh, boy. If we can figure out a way to have a three-way attack on this place, then Cyrus' forces are gonna be hammered!"

Heh heh heh...so Khrista has a riddle to tackle, and she knows that there's a large rebel underground volcano below...I'd better not say anything more, just in case.

See you guys next week!