I have two things to apologize for regarding this chapter. First is the length, which may be the longest chapter in my story so far, if not the most. I got carried away while writing it and didn't make a break partway through. Considering the size of my chapters normally it may be all the more difficult to read through this one.

Secondly I apologize profusely for listening to old school Pokémon music while writing the early scenes in this chapter. Really, it sounded better in my head with the music.

Chad woke up groggily and looked around to find himself in an unfamiliar setting. He tried to remember what happened the previous night and recalled getting a room with two more people he was now traveling with; both of them being very capable trainers. He got out of bed and got dressed, then left the room and found the other two waiting for him in the lobby. His teacher, Akuma, was retrieving two of his own Pokémon from the nurse at the counter and the girl, Kurishimi, was trading two of hers with someone else through a videophone trading system. Chad walked to the counter and asked the nurse for his own Pokémon that he'd left behind from the night before.

When the three of them left the southern city gate onto Route 5 Akuma spoke up. "Kid, do you have any Pokémon with you that can travel quickly and carry you either by running or flying?"

"I have one, why do you ask?"

"We're going to give our Pokémon a warm-up exercise while we head to Saffron. Release it and get ready to travel via Pokémon express."

"Do you two have your own Pokémon that you can ride?"

"I made an exchange for one this morning," Kurishimi said. "We would've ridden out of Cerulean, but mine isn't suited for city travel. Akuma was waiting until we got out of the city before we took off."

"So will you be flying with the dragon that carried me yesterday?" Chad asked his teacher.

"No, I exchanged it last night for a different Pokémon. I'll be riding instead of flying this time. Send out your picks and let's get going."

Kurishimi went first, releasing her Onix. Chad fell over backwards at the sight of the giant rock snake which caused both Onix and Kurishimi to laugh. Seeing Onix laugh with its trainer made Chad feel more relaxed and he stood up to reveal his own Pokémon. A small horse with a mane and tail of fire appeared from the pokéball and Chad climbed on with excitement.

"My older brother sent me this Pokémon from southern Kanto," he explained with a wide grin. "I don't get to ride Ponyta very much since I haven't really gone out of the city before now. I'm glad he can get some exercise today."

Kurishimi climbed on Onix in return and watched to see what Pokémon Akuma would use. Up until now the only Pokémon he'd used for transportation was Charizard and she had no idea what other Pokémon he possessed which he could suitably ride on. Akuma pulled a white pokéball from his strap that looked like it was hand crafted instead of produced in a factory. She hadn't seen any pokéballs crafted like this one before. He opened the pokéball in hand and a tall, wingless, two legged bird with three heads appeared. Each head had a different expression on its face and all were looking in different directions like a sentry.

Kurishimi extracted her pokédex and read that the Pokémon was called Dodrio and was best known for its incredible speed at running over any distances. She imagined what kind of battle capability it might have in addition to its speed. Chad watched Kurishimi while she read the information and kept staring until she put it away, but didn't say anything. Akuma mounted his Pokémon and Dodrio allowed him on without any visible change in posture with the added weight.

"It's a straight run from here to Saffron," Akuma explained to Kurishimi and Chad as he got more comfortable. "In terms of speed Dodrio would get there first and your speeds will vary based on how well your Pokémon's conditions are. This isn't a race, and I want us all to arrive at Saffron's gate within five to ten minutes of each other if possible. I'm going to take some side roads since Dodrio needs more exercise than yours do. You can either split up or travel together, but we will all be at Saffron's gate within three hours time from now. While this is normally not possible on foot, we can all make it there with time to spare on Pokémon. You can head straight there if you wish or distract yourself with whatever you can find. I'll see you there when you arrive." He kicked Dodrio's side and the three headed bird sprinted off faster than any other Pokémon the other two had seen.

"Hey," Kurishimi said to Chad, "I don't think Akuma's sure which one of us is faster. Want to have a race to find out?"

Chad gave a cocky grin at the challenge. "I don't plan to lose you know." Ponyta gave a toss of its head as if agreeing with its trainer, sparks from the fiery mane scattered into the air as it did so.

Onix gave a roar and crouched low preparing to charge forward. Ponyta lined up next to the giant and pawed the ground impatiently, awaiting a signal.

"Go!" Kurishimi yelled and the two Pokémon charged forward onto the grasslands earnestly.

Onix was tearing a trail into the ground as it ran and Ponyta was running right beside it with Chad spurring it on excitedly. People on the dirt roads yelled out for either when they saw the competition and the trainers waved back in response as they passed. Even wild Pokémon cried out in excitement when they saw the one on one competition. Both trainers and Pokémon were pushing as hard as they could to win, but eventually Ponyta pulled ahead of Onix slightly after ten minutes into the race. As the race dragged on Ponyta gained more and more distance until the Pokémon became tired and slowed to a crawl before stopping entirely. Their trainers were just as excited and partially tired from the rush.

After a moment of breathing Kurishimi asked, "How much training do you do with Ponyta?"

"Not as much as I'd like to," Chad replied as he petted his smiling Pokémon's neck. "I want to make Ponyta stand out from the others too by being one of, if not the fastest Ponyta around. I bet we could do it, but we need to train more often than we are right now. He's got the potential, and all we need to do is practice now that I'm not in the city anymore."

"Then I'm glad we had the race now while I still had a chance," Kurishimi said, impressed at the speed despite lack of proper training. "I might not have gotten a better time to race you in my favor. Do you know where the Saffron gate is?"

"Straight south that way like Akuma said," Chad said with a point of his finger. "I've been there a time or two before with my parents."

"In that case I'm going to have a look around the area for any Pokémon I want to catch," Kurishimi said. She hoisted herself back on top of Onix's head as it raised back up to begin moving again. "I'll be seeing you there, all right?"

"Yep, bye!" Chad tapped Ponyta's side with his shoe and the fire horse trotted off to the southeast. Kurishimi turned Onix around and headed back the way they'd come to start her search.

"How was that, Dodrio?" Akuma asked his mount as they watched the race finish from half a mile away; the two had circled around and run back to watch the inevitable race that the two trainers were sure to do. They had kept pace with them and even gotten closer, but the racers were too focused on the race to realize they were being followed. Dodrio's head with a face of joy made a positive birdcall. "It was fairly enjoyable. How well do you think Ponyta did?" Now the face with a sad expression made a low cooing sound. "I noticed that. I'm no one to guess, so I'll just ask you: how old do you think that Ponyta is?" The joyful face twittered again. "It does look like it was just released almost. May only be a young face on an older body too though." Now Dodrio's middle head, one with an angry expression turned around to peck at Akuma and give a sharp chirp. Akuma batted the peck away like he would shoo off a fly. "You're just jealous because you don't look as young as Ponyta does." Now all three heads turned to peck him at once, and once again Akuma knocked them all away. "Since they're finished we can leave now. Let's see if we can find something interesting to occupy our time while we wait." Dodrio turned its heads back around and started a slow trot across the area.

"Did he come this way?" Kyle asked his Team Rocket partners Chris and Niklos.

"I think so," Niklos said. "He was traveling with two others also I think."

"I wonder if they might be as strong as he is." Chris asked to no one in particular.

"One of them looked extremely young," Niklos remarked. "I doubt that he's been training long enough to put up any level of resistance against the likes of Team Rocket."

"What about the third?"

"We can't make any guesses about her," Kyle said as he scanned the area with a pair of binoculars. "Either way I don't see any of the three. We need to get those Pokémon back quickly. The police report that was submitted said all but four of Bill's Pokémon were returned to him, meaning the one who found us could have them on his person still. Bill's Pokémon are highly coveted by trainers, so even a lowly Raticate raised by Bill is worth the attention of Team Rocket."

"Hey, I like my Raticate, Kyle," Chris said with a glare at his senior who didn't catch it since he was still looking out over the grasslands.

"Your bond with your Pokémon will hinder your performance significantly," Niklos replied for Kyle. "When we reach our next base we're getting you switched out for a Golbat instead."

Chris was about to respond when Kyle cut him off. "I've found one of the two he was traveling with. Let's hurry; if we can catch up we might be able to cut a deal to get those Pokémon back later."

The Rocket trio ran down the hill toward the person they had spotted. Even if they weren't the person that stole from them they could still be followed back to Bill's Pokémon.

Kurishimi had ridden on her Onix for almost the entire stretch of Route 5 and hadn't seen any Pokémon she wanted to capture. Once she saw what looked like a Pidgeot, but it was actually another trainer's Fearow so she moved on. Finally she gave up and hopped to ground. She recalled her Onix into its pokéball and decided to walk the rest of the way on foot. Kurishimi enjoyed the quiet scenery while she traveled and stopped to watch the occasional wild Pokémon or a trainer engaged in battle. After some travel she heard rapidly approaching footsteps and turned to see three people running toward her each wearing black clothes and a red scarf. She stopped to wait for them to catch up, but when they drew closer she spotted a single red R on their shirts. Kurishimi recognized them as members of Team Rocket and pulled Vulpix's pokéball from her belt, making sure to hold it just out of sight from the other three.

When they caught up the lead member asked, "Are you a traveling companion of The Hunter? We have been tracking him since yesterday morning."

"You'll have to be more specific sir," Kurishimi said with fake respect. "I only know names, not titles."

"We don't his name either," the man hastily replied. "He wears a black vest and carries an Infernape with him. That's all we know."

Kurishimi tilted her head as if she was thinking to herself while she adjusted the pokéball in her hand to release Vulpix at a moment's notice. "I think I know him. I've been traveling with someone like that for a while now, but we aren't meeting up again until later. How soon do you need him?"

"Immediately, if possible," another of the men in black said. "He has something with him that we need to collect quickly before we can return to our supervisor."

"What is it?"

"Doesn't matter, we need it as soon as possible. Can you arrange a meeting with him?"

"Well he's not going to want to meet with you unless he knows what it is that you want."

"He has some Pokémon with him that belong to us," the third one explained.

"Pokémon huh?" Kurishimi said, now genuinely interested. "Why would he be carrying Pokémon around that belong to you? And why would you have to track him down for two days if he wouldn't be delivering them to you at a certain location? Also, how would you know what Pokémon he carries and not know his name? I think there's something you aren't telling me about this whole thing."

There was a brief pause as the three men considered Kurishimi's words carefully, before the lead man turned to the third. "Chris, this girl is too smart for her own good. We will continue the search along the side roads. Incapacitate her and bring her to the southern gate at the end of this route." The first two men ran past Kurishimi leaving the Rocket member named Chris to fight Kurishimi.

"You stole those Pokémon from someone didn't you?" Kurishimi asked while she sized up her opponent. "He took back those Pokémon and you three are supposed to recover them, is that right?"

"That is correct," Chris admitted. "Those Pokémon came from the genius Pokémon collector Bill's house and are very valuable."

"It doesn't matter who owns them if you steal anybody's Pokémon," Kurishimi stated even though she was aware of how valuable those Pokémon would be. "Theft is still theft."

"Not to Team Rocket," Chris shot back. "If the trainer is well known then his Pokémon should be powerful to match his status. Team Rocket wants powerful Pokémon to use for our own, and powerful trainers have those Pokémon."

"That still doesn't justify theft, nor does it guarantee that you will easily find the most powerful Pokémon or trainers based on popularity alone. There are some trainers in existence that you will never know about if they aren't made public."

"And you know of such trainers I presume?"

"That is correct; I know of three such trainers. One I met briefly less than a week ago, another is the trainer your companions are going after right now."

"And the third trainer is?"

"Me," Kurishimi opened the pokéball from behind her back and Vulpix popped out onto the battlefield.

"No you aren't," Chris said with confidence. "If you were, then you would know that Vulpix becomes more powerful by using a fire stone to evolve into Ninetales. If you had skill you would know that you can only win by having the most powerful Pokémon you can get your hands on!" So saying he opened his own pokéball and a gray humanoid Pokémon with three crests on its head appeared in front of its trainer.

Kurishimi recognized it as a Machop, a fighting Pokémon with surprising amounts of power. In the wild it trained everyday, pulling off superhuman feats of brute strength that were beyond most of the strongest humans in the world. Machop was a Pokémon that was all about the brawns. In this battle it would defeat Vulpix by scoring a single well placed hit on the body.

"Not a bad choice," Kurishimi commented. "But I think we can hold our own against it. Vulpix, use a confuse ray!"

Vulpix's eyes glowed sharply and Machop took a step backwards as the confusion took over. Under Kurishimi's command it then went on the offensive with an ember attack. The rapid short blasts of fire struck Machop repeatedly and left small burns on its body. Chris ordered Machop to strike back with a karate chop, but Machop's swing went wide and it ended up hurting itself due to the effects of confuse ray. Vulpix took the opportunity to close the distance with a quick attack which knocked Machop down to the ground. The fighting Pokémon wasn't out yet though, and after being hit it swung its arm around to graze Vulpix's side. The attack wasn't enough to end the fight, but it still did noticeable damage to Vulpix by causing her to lose balance and even out the playing field. Vulpix's speed had dropped from the strike and Machop was still feeling the effects of the first confuse ray which left both Pokémon at low battle capability.

"I will win this round," Chris said confidently. "My Machop will eventually lose the effects of your confuse ray attack and strike back without a chance to defend yourself. Your weak Vulpix on the other hand has battle damage that will not fade over time. All Machop needs to do is survive and the battle is won."

"You are an idiot trainer," Kurishimi spat. "You haven't thought about how capable your opponent might be. Vulpix, torch your opponent until it cannot fight back."

Vulpix took a deep breath and from its mouth erupted a concentrated stream of intense flames that crashed into Machop violently and bathed it in fire. Chris's jaw dropped as he watched the high powered attack wash over his Pokémon entirely. When the attack ceased Machop was seen lying down on the blackened ground clearly unable to fight any more. Chris recalled his boiled Pokémon and angrily threw another combatant into play.

This time the opponent was a floating purple ball with a warning mark under its face. The surface was spotted with pores that leaked noxious gas. Not recognizing this combatant, Kurishimi referred to her Pokédex and found its entry as a Pokémon called Koffing. It was a poison type fighter noted for a body filled with dangerous gases. Not wanting to risk Vulpix's flames coming in contact with any potentially explosive gases, she switched her active fighter to Ekans.

The young snake hissed threateningly as it caught sight of Koffing and coiled itself into a threatening pose. Koffing emitted what sounded like a laugh and charged straight for Ekans. The two connected and Ekans fought back with a poisonous bite attack; catching Koffing before it could get away.

"Ekans," Kurishimi yelled from the side, "you can't poison another poison type Pokémon!"

Ekans seemed embarrassed, but didn't release its grip and instead switched to a regular bite strike. This attack Koffing felt more painfully and released a smokescreen as Ekans chewed on it. With a sharp spin Koffing tossed Ekans away, leaving the snake blind in the smokescreen it had just created. Ekans could not see its opponent and was left to strike only at empty air where it thought Koffing might be hiding. Koffing would not leave its opponent alone in the dark though, and started another barrage of tackles. As Ekans was taking damage Kurishimi consulted her Pokédex to compare her Ekans' data to that of Koffing. So far Koffing had used only tackles and a smokescreen so she determined that it was at a relatively low combative level. While she had only captured Ekans recently herself, the battle experience it had learned from the gym battle the day before along with some other brief battles made it just slightly more combat experienced than its opponent. Kurishimi called for Ekans to use a screech attack which it fired after Koffing struck with another tackle. The attack had an effect on Koffing as everyone heard a comical groan from somewhere within the gas cloud. Ekans launched itself at the sound and connected with another bite attack. It followed up by wrapping itself tightly around the gas Pokémon and squeezed tighter and tighter as the gas smokescreen around them began to dissipate. When Koffing had been squeezed tightly enough it fell unconscious and Ekans released it for the trainer to recall his Pokémon.

"You're losing this battle," Kurishimi said with a half smile. "Leave now before your entire team is down. I'm beating you 2 – 0."

"I have to follow orders and do what Kyle orders me to." Chris threw out another pokéball and a fat rat Pokémon with yellow fur appeared standing on its hind legs. It was a Raticate, and while Machop had power but not speed, Raticate was fast and had lots of power in its bite. Kurishimi released Jigglypuff with the intention of using the same knockout move she had it use the other day against Misty's Omastar.

"Jigglypuff, keep your distance from Raticate and use a hyper voice to bring it down."

Jigglypuff's body inflated as it sucked in its breath to use its attack, but Raticate wasted no time in charging in for the first strike. Raticate hit Jigglypuff and knocked it backwards into the air due to its light body. Jigglypuff retaliated with hyper voice before it touched the ground and Raticate received the full force of the blow. Kurishimi expected it to at least cringe if not go down, but Raticate ignored the attack entirely and leapt at Jigglypuff with its mouth open intending to bite the balloon Pokémon with its sharp fangs. The smaller Pokémon was to slow to move out of the way and Raticate succeeded in a hyper fang attack. Jigglypuff tried to endure with a defense curl, but Raticate violently shook its head back and forth while clamping down and Kurishimi's Pokémon eventually fainted. When Jigglypuff was finally dropped onto the ground Kurishimi recalled it and started reconsidering her opponent's power.

His first two Pokémon were at a low level and easily taken out, but the Raticate was fighting on a whole other level. She started to reach for Vulpix's pokéball but saw lingering effects of Koffing's gases in the air. Ekans wouldn't last long against an opponent of this caliber and she wanted to save Vaporeon in case he had stronger backup in reserve so she released Onix to fight instead. When the rock Pokémon appeared it was anxious to fight since it had been left out of the gym battle the day before. What Onix didn't recognize though was how agile Raticate was. Still, Onix had the type advantage since rock type Pokémon typically had incredibly strong defenses. Both Pokémon were nearly even in advantage and disadvantage so the battle was anyone's to win.

Onix took the initiative with a slam attack. It swung its tail quickly across the ground which Raticate easily evaded. Raticate leapt up onto Onix's tail and tried gnawing on its rock body, but to no avail. Onix raised its tail up high and brought it crashing back down to the ground hard to shake off Raticate. Raticate jumped off before the impact and used a pursuit move to strike back. The dark based move did more damage to Onix than the gnawing before had done, but it was still hard to break through the rock hard defenses. The exchange of attacks continued for a time and neither Pokémon showed signs of losing, but both did start to slow down from exhaustion. Finally Kurishimi ordered a dig and Onix burrowed underground leaving Raticate to wait until Onix resurfaced before it could counter. Raticate spun around in nervous circles watching and waiting for any sign of its opponent to resurface. While it was looking around it didn't notice the ground it was standing on start to bulge as if something was pushing out from underneath. Chris called out when he noticed, but he was too late as Onix erupted from the ground with Raticate caught in its mouth. Onix soared straight up into the air by sheer momentum and when it was almost out of the ground completely it twisted so its head was facing downward and slammed headfirst into the ground with Raticate underneath. Onix released Raticate from its jaws and reared back to wait for its opponent to move. When the smoke cleared Raticate was revealed with bad cuts and bruises from being crushed between rock and dirt. It wasn't finished yet though because it went down on all fours and started charging toward Onix again. As it closed into striking distance Onix flipped the rest of its tail out from the ground and tossed large chunks of dirt and gravel at the attacking Raticate. Raticate was stopped by the sand attack and while it was immobile Onix finished it off with another head butt ensuring that Raticate wouldn't rise again.

Satisfied with the outcome Kurishimi recalled her Onix and waited for her opponent's next move. Chris recalled Raticate and hesitated before taking out what appeared to be his final pokéball.

"Better think twice about that," Kurishimi said coldly. "There isn't a Pokémon in the Kanto, Johto, or even Sinnoh regions that I haven't studied up on and know how to fight."

Chris smirked at her words. "You didn't mention Hoenn I noticed. Let's see if that was a mistake." Chris released his final pokéball and the Pokémon that appeared was indeed one which Kurishimi did not recognize.

It had a wide face similar to a horse's, but its legs were so short they could hardly be seen other than the feet. Its fur was red which covered most of the body except for the muzzle, hooves, and two humps on the back. Kurishimi couldn't figure out if the humps were made of stone or dirt, but they certainly seemed to be important. She pulled out her pokédex and held it out to get the information, but the return message stated that there was no information to be retrieved.

"Oh not again!" she yelled in frustration. It had happened twice before with two of Akuma's Pokémon that she had tried to pull information from. She had gotten the same message then as well.

"You obviously haven't been taught about Pokémon from the Hoenn region," Chris observed. "My Camerupt came from the foot of a mountain in the center of that region. I caught it when it was still a Numel and now it's my secret weapon in battles."

Kurishimi chewed her lip as she tried to come up with a plan to fight a Pokémon she didn't know about. To her disappointment she had no clue on what to do since her opponent hadn't given her any information.

"It's a dual type fire and ground Pokémon," said a voice behind her. Kurishimi turned and saw Akuma still mounted on top of Dodrio looking down at her. "Avoid using electric or grass type Pokémon; they'll go down shortly after entering battle." Chris recognized him and started to call out but Akuma stopped him short. "The battle will continue on from here. Consider me as just a bystander for the time being. I want to watch this fight."

"Now that you're here I'm changing plans," Chris yelled back. "I'll capture you and take to back to Kyle for interrogation. Camerupt, attack him with your hidden power!"

Camerupt raised itself up onto its hind legs and came back down to stomp the ground causing energy orbs to begin revolving around it. It roared and the orbs went flying towards Akuma to strike Dodrio's body in the center. Dodrio endured the hit without flinching and appeared to have suffered no damage.

"Dodrio, what was it?" The bird Pokémon squawked a couple times before Akuma sat up in his seat again. "Okay, avoid its attacks, but don't leave the immediate area." When the order was given Dodrio started evading attacks as Akuma gave Kurishimi instructions. "Here's your objective Akashi! Protect me and Dodrio while defeating the Camerupt. I'm not getting involved in this unless you lose."

"What? How am I supposed to protect you two and fight Camerupt at the same time? I don't know how to fight it at all."

"Then be glad we're drawing all of its attention for now because you'll have time to come up with something; now fight!"

He was right; Chris and Camerupt were trying to attack Akuma so much that Kurishimi was now ignored. She had a chance to hit with one strong attack and she had to make it count. Basing her battle strategy off of her opponent's types she released Vaporeon to attack. Kurishimi ordered Vaporeon to use bubblebeam which Vaporeon fired in a long stream of fast moving water bubbles toward the enemy Pokémon. The quick moving stream hit Camerupt dead on and the damage done was obvious. Both of Camerupt's base types were weakened against the water based attack and had taken severe damage.

Chris turned angrily on Kurishimi and ordered his Pokémon to attack with flamethrower. Kurishimi had planned ahead though and recalled Vaporeon before the order had finished. She ran backward quickly before Camerupt let loose a stream of fire after her and as the fumes left over from Koffing's gases were licked by the flames they exploded around the Rocket and his Pokémon. Kurishimi and Akuma were far enough back from the detonation that they and their Pokémon were unaffected fortunately. When the smoke eventually cleared both Rocket and Pokémon were seen lying face down on the ground unconscious.

Akuma rode over to the pair and dismounted Dodrio then fished out Camerupt's pokéball from among the Rocket's Pokémon and recalled it. Instead of putting back the pokéball though, he stared at the red and white sphere until he noticed Kurishimi staring at him. He replaced the pokéball to its holding strap and got back up on Dodrio. "Let's find the kid quickly; we need to get to Celadon earlier than we had originally planned."

"I'll have to ride with you," Kurishimi said. "My Onix completely exhausted his energy in that battle."

Akuma dug into one of his vest pockets and tossed a super potion to Kurishimi. "Use that to heal it then. Dodrio can't carry more than one at a time for very long. I'll meet you at the northern gate. If you spot the kid bring him with you or tell him to get to the meeting place as quickly as possible." Akuma kicked the sides of his bird Pokémon and sped off toward the southeast.

Kurishimi brought out her Onix and happily saw that it wasn't as beaten as she had originally thought. She sprayed the contents of the potion on Onix's wounds anyway and the large Pokémon quickly regained its strength. Kurishimi climbed on behind its head again and ordered it toward the gates of Saffron.