Pokѐmon Journey II: Gwyn's Passage

by Halloween Witch

It's been three years since the disbandment of Team Rocket and Gwyn Jalen is beginning her pokemon journey as well in the Johto region. Things seem normal until she encounters a red haired boy gazing into Professor Elm's laboratory and a young woman who seems like she could kick everyone's asses. And is it fight or flight when an old enemy of the young woman's come into play?

15. More Problems with the Rockets

Pokѐmon Journey II: Gwyn's Passage

Chapter 15: More Problems with the Rockets

Gwyn's Point of View:

It's been a couple weeks since I got my badge from Jasmine and since we left the coastal city of Olivine. You can imagine that the boys weren't too keen on what took place over at the gym with the burn marks that were everywhere on me to the point where to treat some of them, Nurse Joy had to lead me into another room where there weren't any boys, if you know what I'm saying. In the time frame that it took the boys to get their own gym badges, which really didn't last more then a day or two, we then headed back to Ecruteak to rest in Izzy and her brother's house and do some training in the area.

It's also been over a month since we last had contact with Violet, Vince or Alex since the Team Rocket incident that took place here with Ticky, me and the member. Violet hasn't contacted us and we haven't contacted her out of fear we may get in the way of her undercover work to find them while she may be in a base or something. So we've waited solely on her call, which never came in.

Over the time frame that we had been resting, we had some new cool pokemon that we'd gotten or that had evolved, and by us, I mean the boys. All of my pokemon had evolved recently, but I never got the chance to look at some of theirs. When they had their most recent battle I got to look at the new pokemon they had or what had evolved.

The first was Aaron's pidgeotto, which he claimed evolved over at the Cianwood gym, which was now called a pidgeot. It was a much larger bird, almost the size of Vince's legendary bird moltres. The string of pinkish red feathers on its head had grown to nearly the length of its own body and then had turned a vibrant yellow and red. He flew on his bird pokemon friend all the time, enjoying the feeling of being high up and in the air. Its wings though were still the soft and lighter tan-brown color or simply just tan in general.

Pidgeot, the bird pokemon and the evolved form of pidgeotto. Its well-developed chest muscles make it strong enough to whip up a gusty windstorm with just a few flaps. It spreads its beautiful wings wide to frighten its enemies. It can fly at mach two speed. There are no known pidgeot nests in the region.

The next was Aaron's bayleef that I'd made good friends with. It had evolved into this much taller version of itself with a long neck that itself was longer then the pokemon's own body. Its body had also turned a vibrant light green that was almost neon in dim lighting. Its leaves around its neck had turned into a beautiful maroon-ish pink flower with white edges and it still had a stubby tail, but the leaf on its head was gone now and tow light antennas that were smoothed backward on its head hung there.

Meganium, the herb pokemon and the evolved form of bayleef. The aroma that rises from its petals contain a substance that calms aggressive feelings. It's rumored that meganium's breath has the power to revive dead grass and plants. It can make them healthy again. There are no known meganium nests in the region.

The next was a pokemon that Aaron had actually caught recently, it was a strange pokemon to say the least, but it was cute with its jumpy personality. It was called a sudowoodo and while it looked a lot like a tree and tried to imitate being one, it hated water. Why? It turned out to be a rock type. It had a long dark brown body that was about the height of an average person with three green ball like rocks for hands that look a lot like balled up leaves, but smoother. It also had a stone antenna on its head that split and separated to either side of its head.

Sudowoodo, the imitation pokemon. Although it always pretends to be a tree, its composition appears more similar to a rock the vegetation. It disguises itself as a tree to avoid attack. It hates water, so it will disappear if it starts raining. Sudowoodo are extremely rare and on rare occasion be found on route thirty-six.

The last pokemon that Aaron had caught recently was actually on our way over to Mahogany Town. It was a cute little water mouse pokemon that had a large, smooth ball on the end of its thin black tail that kept it floating whenever it jumped into the water. It had a larger figure width wise, but it was still very agile and quick with a white underbelly and a blue rest of its body, small paws for its hands and feet and it stood on its hind legs. Black eyes finished this cute piece.

Marill, the aquamouse pokemon. The tip of its tail, which contains oil that is lighter then water, lets it swim without drowning, even in a vicious current. Marill are uncommon, but can be found in Mt. Mortar between Ecruteak City and Mahogany Town.

The last of the new pokemon we had added to our teams was Tristan's newest pokemon that got along well with his nervous and edgy sneasel. The pokemon was called a murkrow, it was a small bird pokemon that tended to be a mischievous pokemon that got most people lost or in danger while it would simply laugh at them in the dark. Its feathers were all onyx black and it had orangey yellow legs and talons. Its feathers also seemed to for what seemed to be a hat on its head, but it looked to be made of its own feathers. Its dark red eyes finished the ensemble for this evil pokemon, that wasn't all that evil to us (especially me I think because of my powerful pokemon that scared the crap out of it.)

Murkrow, the darkness pokemon. Feared and loathed by many, it is believed to bring misfortune to all those who see it at night. It is said that when chased, it lures its attack onto dark mountain trails where the foe will get lost. Murkrow are found mostly during the night, but can only be found on routes seven, sixteen and within the Safari Zone.

When a couple weeks of resting and training were up (and my burns and nose had healed to the point where I was much more fine then I was back then) we packed up and moved out of the house that belonged to the four siblings that allowed us to house with them for a short while.

Mahogany Town soon came into our sights and we gasped in amazement at the small town that sat just below the mountains and a single lake that never froze over. While we couldn't see the lake form here, a small river came down from it and we saw that on our way up through. The small town didn't seem to have much for facilities, but it seemed to make up for it with its cute character and the local hot spot for training and fishers, the Lake of Rage, just to the north of here.

We stopped for a quick lunch inside the pokemon center once we got there and I made sure to order a large hot coco for the road. Being this far to the north now and winter now quite settled in, it was freezing out there. I had to put a pair of thick rose red sweatpants and a long sleeved, v necked, neon dark blue shirt on to keep me warm. I traded in my sneakers for tan boots that came up to nearly my knees with fluffy warmth and mareep wool and I also traded in my jacket (which I still kept on me) for a winter one, it was still white, but it was much thicker then my old one, while dark yellow gloves were on my fingers and an identically colored scarf was around my neck.

Aaron had to change too, at least his pants and a new jacket to stay warm. He didn't get a scarf or gloves since he had pockets, but he did trade in his jacket for a thick red winter one and loose black jeans. He still had on his favorite hat, which he refused to give up and he traded in his sneakers for a pair of boots, brown in color. Tristan was the only one of all of us that didn't really have to change his clothes since he was already really wearing some winter clothes for the cold, though he did get himself a set of red gloves, a red scarf and black boots to keep his appendages warm.

Did I ever mention that other then Aaron, Tristan and I hated the cold?

Anyway, after our lunch we made our way over to where the path was to the north to check out the Lake of Rage. It apparently was an incredible place to train, not to mention fishermen would battle against you with their powerful water pokemon they got from this lake. It was practically like another town up there with all the vendors and the people. It was going to be a good day indeed.

Before we headed up the path, I looked over to my right and watched as a single shady character knocked on the locked door of the only market in town. We'd been by there along with the gym in the town earlier, only to discover both locations were locked. The door slightly opened and I watched as the person quickly slipped inside, not a soul noticed them enter, nor anything happened out of the ordinary other then that person.

"Gwyn! Hurry it up!" I whipped my head around to look at Aaron and Tristan further ahead then I was and I ran to catch up.

Heading up north along the path, covered in a thin layer of snow, was actually much harder then it looked. Since I lived in a more southern section of the region during this time of year, we just had a whole bunch of snow that also kept us insulated when it got colder. Here, up in the north, it was anything but that. Sure there was snow around, but hardly enough to shelter us from the harsh wind that was whipping around my hair and sending chills up and down my spine with ease. I also managed to slip a few times on the patches of ice I couldn't see on the road. The boys eventually became so fed up with stopping for me that they both took my hands in one of their own and used it to keep pulling me along, even if I slipped, they kept pulling me along and while walking would help straighten me out.

We got up to the check point in no time at all with the boys dragging me along. It was pretty nice to walk on a real floor that wasn't covered in snow or ice. Once we stepped inside however, that feeling was changed to confusion when we saw two men dressed in large trench coats that were waiting just outside the door. They grinned when they saw us and quickly walked up to the three of us. My hand quickly grabbed the pokeball of my fire type that was nestled inside to keep warm; I could feel the heat from her through the pokeball from how she growled as a warning.

"Good morning children," one of them said. "We'll have to ask you to pay the fine to pass through to the festival."

"What fine?" Aaron questioned harshly. "There's never been a fine to head up to the lake!"

"There has been since new management came in and changed things around. Now pay up!" One of them stuck out their hands for the money they expected of us.

Both of the boys stepped out before me. Tristan spoke to them, "and if we refuse?"

The two men shared a look to each other and Sunrise growled from on my back shoulders from behind my hair where she was keeping warm. Ticky stuck her head out from where she was inside my jacket and growled at the two of them if they dared come closer. Cynder and Shocker's pokeballs I could feel vibrating in my pockets from where they were and my hand placed around them to try and keep them calm.

"Then you face the wrath of Team Rocket!" Both of the trench coats were thrown to the side and two Rocket grunts appeared before us. Both were armed with many pokeballs which they threw out before us to form an army of raticate.

"You aren't getting anything out of us you fuckin' thugs!" Aaron roared and reached for his pokeballs but Tristan stepped before him with a blazing look of his own toward the men before him.

"Awe look! A boy's standing up for his best friend and girlfriend!" They laughed. "Isn't that cute?"

"Wait a minute dude, this kid looks familiar…" The second of the grunts quieted down and looked over Tristan's raging look careful before the man began to cower in fear and back away. "No way! Dude! Run!"

"What?" The first grunt whipped his head around to watch as his companion was trying to escape. "What's going on? It's just a group of kids!"

"That's not any group of kids!" The grunt was freaking out by this point while Tristan had already pulled out his pokeball and was prepared to let a pokemon loose in here. "That's Boss Lady Rose's kid! Tristan!" he was trying to jump out of the building as fast as he could, but kept fumbling with the door. "And with him are Aaron Verin and Gwyn Jalen! Those kids that fight just as hard as the enemies of the Boss Lady's! Violet Vilmos!" The other grunt now looked worried. "All of them have been dominating in gym battles and Gwyn's been even destroying the gyms! I don't want to stick around for them!"

"But we have an order still-"

"It doesn't matter what you two plan to do." Tristan's face was turned away from me but I could see the shaking in his arms and body. "You two won't be leaving out of here unscratched!" Out came Feraligatr from its pokeball and it screeched at the army of pokemon rodents before us. They all froze before they tucked their tails between their legs and fled. Running over the grunts in the building and smashing their way through the door and running out into the cold, wintery world.

My attention was drawn back to Tristan when he cracked his knuckles and approached the men. "Let's have a little chat."

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

Aaron had led me away from the building while Tristan had let out all his frustrations on the Rocket grunts that dared to try and attack us. Cynder kept us warm with her fire as we waited under a few trees right outside the building. We waited out there silently for Tristan; we could only imagine what was going through his head. Team Rocket has always been a sensitive subject for him and it was hard enough for him to tell me, heck, he never told Aaron, he found out through Vince! He must be so frustrated… I hope he doesn't hurt them too badly; I don't want him to regret it later on in life.

Tristan soon enough came out with his hands shoved into his pockets. He didn't look at us when he first came out the door, but when he did finally look up, looking around and his eyes fell on us and they widened in surprise. He slowly walked over to us and I ran from the warmth and protection of the tree, Aaron and Cynder to bring the older boy into my arms. I threw them around his waist and I slowly felt his wrap around my neck, his face slipping into the side of it and a few quite sobs could be heard before a few tears hit my neck.

"We're here for you Tristan." I didn't know if my voice reached him, but I felt him curl his body closer into mine after I'd spoken.

"Gwyn," I felt Aaron's lips by my other ear that Tristan didn't have his head next to. "I'm gonna call the police and Violet. They'll both want this lead."

"Okay." I felt the cold hit there next s he stepped away from me and pulled out his pokegear. I watched him dial and I turned my attention back to Tristan. He pulled himself away from me and almost nodded as if to say he was okay now.

"If you ever need another hug, my arms are always open Tristan." I watched him chuckle and nod before we head a gasp and turned to Aaron. He pulled back his phone from his head and kept looking at it before dialing again and apparently not reaching anyone.

"I can't reach anyone! The signal's there, but its not letting me through!" I blinked and pulled out my phone from my pocket and looked at my own screen before I tried to call Violet. The number rang a few times before the signal was cut off and I was left with an annoying ring.

"I can't reach Violet either…" I looked over at the boys worriedly. "What's going on?"

"Its must be Rose's work, she's up to something up at the lake and maybe even down in town too." Tristan hissed as he put his own pokegear away. "Violet did fly off in this direction, maybe if we're lucky, she's near by and we can tell her about this."

"But we don't have time for that if Team Rocket's going into action right now!" Aaron snapped at Tristan. "We have to do something!"

"Stop it! Both of you just stay quiet for a moment!" Both boys went silent at my order and both looked at me nervously. I sighed. "We don't have time to go fetch someone to help us out; right now we're on our own with whoever must be up at the lake. We'll work with what we can and do as much damage as possible to their operation." I sighed. "And I thought today was going to be a nice day to enjoy the festival…"

"Let's get going then, if we've decided to take them out." Aaron took my hand and led me down the path with a reluctant Tristan following behind us.

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

It was amazing to see the winter festival up here at Lake of Rage. Vendors of all kinds were placed around the lake. Colorful lights glowed in the afternoon setting sun and the smell of all kinds of food hit my nostrils faster then Aaron's elbow had in Olivine.

Okay, bad comparison I know, but in a way it was a good way to describe, right?

There were games set up in random spots all over the place for children to play at, or even older people and trainers who enjoyed them as well. I could see the large bonfire right before us that people were throwing more wood onto to get it to last longer as the night began to settle in at the early hour of four to five. The woods were thick around the lake, but before that, the lake was entirely clear other than the small boats that paddled though the water as to not disturb the water type pokemon that lived there or the fishermen that were fishing out on the lake for the newest, big catch. Trainers were all over the place battling each other and winning and loosing left and right, while the boys and I stood in the middle of it, the only ones knowing there was a threat of Team Rocket among them.

"Kinda ruins the moment knowing that they're hiding here somewhere, doesn't it?" The boys didn't glance at me, but I felt them both grip at one of my hands on either side of me.

"Yeah, it sucks." Aaron spat as he looked around the lake for anyone or anything shady.

"It would be just like Rose to do something like this in the middle of a public place, even after what's happened to her in the past and since she's gone mad." Tristan sighed as his eyes trailed about too, lingering on something before he turned to us for a moment. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Who?" I followed his gaze to a few figures that were sitting on the edge of the lake closest to us. Three men seemed to stand out from where Tristan was pointing off at. Two of the younger men seemed to be dressed in clothes I thought I'd seen before… but my eyes widened when I saw the short, dark brown hair under a red and white hat and spiky ginger bronze hair. "No way…"

"But who's that with them?" Aaron looked off at the third men with them that was wearing dark colors, mostly black with some hints of purple and red in it and spiky dark red hair. His face was long and pale, but he seemed powerful from the stance of himself. I didn't quite recognize him right off hand, but I'm sure if I have heard his name before I would instantly know who he was.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that's Johto Champion Lance," Tristan said as he watched the man talk with the two younger ones.

"But why are they here?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"Maybe for the other reason we're here for." Aaron hissed out.

"Don't be so grumpy, at least we have help that we can fall back on should we need it." I grabbed both their hands. "Let's go talk to them, fill them in on what we've seen."

Both boys sighed, but they nodded and allowed me to tug them at first, until I fell flat on my butt when I was only a few feet from the group of three males. They all turned to look at me and I felt the boys who I had a hold on pull me to my feet.

"Well if it isn't Gwyn! And you brought along Aaron too and…" Vince happily looked at each of us before his eyes landed on the third of our group. "…Tristan?"

"Hello Vincent, Alexander, Lance." Tristan bowed his head slightly to him while he allowed me to lean a bit against his body to make sure I wouldn't slip again. "It's been quite some time."

"Yeah… it has." Vince looked over at Alex and the latter shrugged at his friend. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again. We've been really worried about you, especially Violet."

"I know." Tristan looked away from him and back down to the hands of ours that were connected. "I've spoken with Violet already; we've amended for most things of the past."

"That's good to hear…" Vince rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Would you just say what you want to already to the kid?" Alex snapped at him. "Honestly, you've had three years to prepare for this!"

"Oh shut up! It took you thirteen to ask my sister out and it was her that asked you out first!" Alex growled at the other young man and the two of them started cracking their knuckles.

"Hey you two! Don't fight!" Lance hurried over to restrain Alex while I felt both Aaron and Tristan release my hands to go and get a hold on Vince. I felt something tap my shoulder while I watched them duke it all out and I was surprised to see those amazing brown orbs looking down at me from under a hood.

"Shh…" She gently grabbed my hand and led me away from the five of them and along the edge of the lake. When we got to the point where we could hardly make them out on nearly the other side of the lake and below what seemed to be a radio tower, she stopped and turned to face me, but she didn't lower her hood. "Hey Gwyn."

"Hi Violet." I hugged the older female trainer and I felt her arms curl around me as well giving me some of her warmth. "How have you been?"

"Busy and cold." She snipped and scowled. "It's freezing up here, but I can tolerate it to a certain extent."

"I know the feeling." I shivered and curled into her more. "Have you had any luck with Team Rocket?"

"No, but I've seen a lot of them in the area, so I know they're here." She lifted her head and pointed up at the radio tower above us. "Have you been able to reach anyone in the past few months or so with your pokegear?"

"I haven't really called anyone, not since today, but when I did, I couldn't reach anyone." I looked up at her. "But we did see Team Rocket on our way up, and that's why I was trying to reach you."

"What were they doing?"

"They were trying to get money out of people coming up here for the winter festival. Tristan beat them all and left them tied up until we could get someone up there to help us out."

"Good for Tristan, I can feel his power, it's getting stronger, all of you are getting stronger." She grinned down at me. "I'm proud, but we'll continue this later. Right now we need to keep an eye out, Team Rocket will come out and do damage at the festival, I can feel it."

"What do you want me to do?"

She pointed out on the lake. "Keep an eye out for anything that doesn't look normal to you, anything that may give us a sign that Team Rocket's coming, or something they may go for if it interests them enough."

"Okay." Following Violet's order, the two of us released each other and out popped Sunrise and Ticky who looked out of my clothing to help me out. I saw Chalcedony do the same on Violet's shoulders and I saw Amber come out of her pokeball to jump on Violet's shoulder to look as well.

The festival looked calm as I watched it from the other side of the lake, where fewer venders and machines were around and where most of the fishermen preferred to be where they could fish in peace. Everything seemed so tranquil here that there just couldn't be anything wrong at the time. I could see no one shady running around; I couldn't see anyone in dark clothing other than Lance and Tristan.

I looked back onto the lake, it was quiet, other than the few magikarp that came to the surface and splashed around a little bit before sinking back down into the lake. They were all red with a slight hit of blue from the night time coloring and water.

Then something caught my eye, as Violet had told me to tell her should I see something weird. It was a magikarp that was out in the middle of the lake, compared to the other magikarp, it was a golden color. I blinked a few times to make sure I was seeing it correctly.

"Violet," I looked over at the woman and she glanced back at me.

"Yes?"

"There's a shiny magikarp in the middle of the lake I think." Violet blinked and turned her head to look out there while I pointed while standing next to her. "It's in the middle of the lake, literally. No one's near it."

Violet's eyes trial to where I had described. Her eyes searched for the golden colored pokemon that I saw, but suddenly it went under, Violet's eyes had yet to see it.

"It went under." I sighed.

"Just give it a moment; they tend to come back up quickly." The woman changed her eyes to that of her fire type's to help her vision in the dark that wasn't as advanced as mine. "Look there now, I can see the bubbles from it coming up."

What she said had been true, bubbles were in the center of the lake and from that spot came up the golden magikarp that I'd seen before. Violet's eyes widened when she saw it and I saw the wings spring out of her back. She leapt up into the air and soared toward the center of the lake. She was only a few centimeters from grabbing it when I heard a rumbling going on behind me and the magikarp dived under.

I turned on my heels while Violet looked around for the magikarp and I suddenly saw a horde of Team Rocket grunts behind me. I gasped and turned back to look at Violet who was still in the middle of the lake. She was too distracted by looking for the shiny magikarp to look back at me. I turned back to the horde that had started to make their way toward me. The radio tower behind them was activated and sending off some sort of visible wave while hooked up to one of their computers. Cynder and Shocker quickly let themselves out of their pokeballs and Sunrise and Ticky came out from under my clothes or wherever they were on my body.

"Hand over your pokemon girly and no one gets hurt," one of them told me as he and his buddies laughed.

"How about no?" I turned to my pokemon. "Flamethrower, thunder, shadow ball and ancient power!" The four of them fired off their attacks and sent the group of Team Rocket members flying. I turned back to Violet then just as she seemed to find the pokemon she was looking for and dived in to get it. She came out of the water just as quick with the chilly ice lake water evaporating off her burning body from being a changing of her fire type with the prized magikarp in her arms.

"Way to go Violet!" She turned and looked my way as I gave her a thumbs up. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened wide.

"Gwyn! Behind you!" My eyes widened and I turned on my heels to be met with a Rocket grunt that I apparently had missed with a metal object of some kind in his hands, swinging it at me. None of my pokemon had a chance to respond, nor act in time. I was actually shocked when my fifth pokemon and my non-fighter, Shelly, popped out of his pokeball and fired a great beam of light from his mouth into the stomach of the thug. The man chocked and fell over, knocked out from the pain.

I quickly turned back to Violet. I saw her sigh as she saw I was safe and she continued to make her way over to me. The magikarp looked with its large eyes over at me and then at the tower behind me, one of those waves from it going over their heads before the pokemon slapped its way out of Violet's hold and fell back into the lake, just in time before it suddenly turned white as it hit the water.

"Oh crud!" It was evolving. I pulled out my pokedex to see exactly what we were going to be dealing with by the time that magikarp evolved. It was as I pointed it at the pokemon that we felt the ground shake. Screams could be heard from the festival and all around the lake as the tremors erupted under our feet. Violet was quick on her wings and flew over to me, having me return all my pokemon before she carried me and my smaller ones up into the air.

"What's going on Violet?" I tried to look up at the woman but the air currents that swept my hair or strong wind into my eyes wouldn't let me.

"All the magikarp are evolving into rampaging gyarados' all at once from these radio waves!" Violet hissed loudly over the wind. "Damn that Rose, she wanted to force that shiny magikarp to evolve into its more powerful form! She's going to try and capture it!"

"Then we need to protect it!" I shouted back over the loud howling. "What can we do to help them? And the shiny one that she's after? There's no way she's only going to take that one!"

"I don't know what we can do right now! Those pokemon are dangerous as it is! Not to mention we have all the people and pokemon over at the festival! We have to get them to safety too!" Violet looked down at the large tails swinging wildly in the water and hitting the edge of the lake. "Those gyarados are the most temperamental and aggressive pokemon known in these regions! I can handle them easily, but with Team Rocket after them and all these people that need our help, I can't do much!"

"Then let me handle the gyarados! They seem to be centered around the shiny one!" I pointed down to the shiny one that was directly below us in the lake before I saw a red tail fly out of the water and try to take us out. "You handle the people!" I shoved myself out of the woman's arms and returned my two smaller pokemon on me before I hit the surface.

"Gwyn!" I heard her shout before I hit the water.

The water was freezing when I hit it, it was nothing more then liquid ice when I dived in and I felt everything numb up. But the feeling was good to keep me going; it also didn't feel like the cold water was restricting my movement as warm water tends to do to a person. My speed wasn't affected; I would be able to reach the pokemon faster.

A few air bubbles released themselves from my mouth before I continued on my way to the center of the lake where I saw the red sea dragon swam about before surfacing. I quickly followed after it and managed to make my way up to the side of it before I hit the rough surface and waves crashed into my body as I gasped for air. I coughed a bit as I looked out and watched boats that seemed to be occupied by Team Rocket started to make their way out onto the water. I watched them with cannons of sorts that they used to fire pokeballs at the gyarados before us. The blue pokemon would attack back, most of the boats being blown up by hyper beams and the swinging of their tails.

I looked up into the sky at the shiny gyarados that was situated right next to me. It'd yet to move and was the leader of all these rogue pokemon that were attacking back against those that forced them to evolve. The scarlet gyarados above me, which would normally be colored a bright, almost darker shade of sky blue color. The pokemon's body was long, it had a large fin on the end of it that provided it's only mean of movement in the water, and most likely its body were it to go onto land. Its teeth were large and hung over its lips while its jaw was wide open and surely larger then even the steelix that I'd seen before, and that was almost as tall as a modern day home or more! Its body contrasted of red and tan while the swarm around it was blue and tan. All their eyes, despite the fact of their coloring, were red, a dark red, like Cynder's. A single whisker of the same color as its scales, red for the one I was focusing on, was on either side of its lower jaw. Some smaller sorts of fins were also on either side of its cheeks and three spikes originated from its forehead, almost like a triangular 'w'. A couple more spiked fins were on its back and that completed the ensemble of the beautifully hunted creature before me and its allies.

I turned away from the beautiful creature next to me and looked back at the boats that the Team Rocket members were on. They seemed to be increasing in numbers as the gyarados started to get rid of them. I shivered in the water as I watched some of the pokemon getting captured, some pokeballs that were fired making it past their defenses. It was then that I saw fire hit their area of the water. Violet was hovering over there with her arms crossed and her eyes deadly set on making them pay. All members were frozen in fear of her, but one managed to pull the trigger on his pokeball launcher and it was fired right at the red gyarados next to me.

"NO!" I shoulder and before I could think or stop, my arm thrust itself forward and took the beating of that pokeball that was fired. My hand cracked under the pain of that flying projectile and I cried out when the two of them met before thrusting my hand into the water to try and make it feel better.

I suddenly felt a pair of eyes lock themselves onto me. I looked up and there was the red gyarados, it was watching me with its angry eyes before it roared and reared back its head before opening its mouth wide open and heading right at me. I froze and gasped, feeling its body move away from me to get a better angle while it moved and time seemed to almost freeze.

"GWYN!" I heard Violet shout before I was snatched in the pokemon's mouth and sent inside while I felt it dive deep and close its jaws. I screamed as I flew in, but I let out a startled cry once I hit something soft and my fall stopped.

I turned my head and looked, but it was entirely dark in here due to being deep underwater and inside a pokemon's mouth. Wow, never thought I'd be inside a pokemon before, such a great thing to write home to Mom about…

I pulled out my pokedex and as soon as I opened it up, the screen flashed with some light as it showed me the image or a normally colored gyarados and showed me in the information on it.

Gyarados, the atrocious pokemon and the evolved form of magikarp. It is said that during past strife, gyarados would appear and leave blazing ruins in its wake. Once it appears, it goes on a rampage. It remains enraged until it demolishes everything around it. Gyarados can be found in a few places in the region, the Lake of Rage and Mt. Silver. Please wait… updating shiny information… please wait… updating shiny pre-evolution information…

"Even so…" I turned to look behind me, slowly standing up and pointing my only light source at the wall that protected me. I was shocked to see it was the creature's tongue. "Wait! You mean you weren't trying to eat me?"

I could feel the ground (or whatever you wanted to call what was beneath my feet) and the walls shaking under the small vibrations the gyarados was giving off. I could faintly hear it speaking to me over the water flow from outside. I listened carefully in hopes of trying to speak with it.

"You saved me…" I gasped when I finally figured out what it-she was saying. "You didn't let me freeze to death out there in that water!"

The walls rumbled again.

"Thank you, but we can't stay down here forever, they'll come down here soon enough too, we have to go back up there and stop them!"

Again the walls howled with movement, a little more violent this time, telling me the female shiny gyarados was getting a bit frustrated and all but knew the truth I'd just told her.

"Sorry, I'm not trying to get on your bad side here… but we need a way to fight back against them." I brought a hand to my chin and tapped it while I thought. "We need a way so that you can't be captured and can save your friends and get back at Team Rocket… but the only thing that I can think of with that is that you be placed in a pokeball by someone so you can't be captured by another…"

The walls shook, this time so did the floor, but I could feet that the pokemon had calmed down a bit. Her suggestion to me shocked me beyond believe.

"You want… me to capture you?"

I could feel the head nod with no words attached.

"But… are you sure?"

I could feel the female beast growling her answer; she was getting antsy as she explained that it was a way to repay me for saving her life from being captured by them in the first place. She said she'd offer to become a part of my team, as most people tried to get her and her friends to do, since I seemed like a strong person if I dived into cold waters on my own just to save her, when we'd never met before.

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter that we've never met before, I still would have saved you regardless if I'd known you or not, but lets put that off to the side for now, since I know your itching to fight, so are most of my other pokemon that are in their pokeballs right now." I pulled out one of the few pokeballs I had on hand, it was another one that Kurt had given me, I believe he called it a 'moon ball' due to the light blue pattern on one top half of the pokeball, black on the other with a bright yellow, crescent moon on the top and a white under half. "I'm going to tap the pokeball against your tooth that I'm next to okay? Once you're settled in your pokeball I'll let you back out and we'll head up to the surface and take them all out."

I could feel a low growling, it was her answer of a yes.

I took a long breath and once I captured all that I could, I tapped the pokeball against the tooth of the shiny pokemon and it instantly turned red all around me before the body disappeared into a red light and into the pokeball while I was left stranded out in the middle and near bottom of the Lake of Rage. I felt the water suddenly crushing down on my body and it forced all the air out of me almost at once. I cut it off with what little was left and I looked to the pokeball I was struggling to keep hold of in my hands. I saw the little center of it glowing red as it shook in the water. It felt like eternity was passing me by as I waited for it to finish capturing the red gyarados, when in all reality, it probably was only about a few seconds.

The ball finally settled and with a sigh of relief, letting out all the air I had left. I sent out the new pokemon of my team out and she instantly swirled under me before putting her head below me and allowing me to grab on before she raced up to the surface. When we broke water and hit air, my lungs screamed as I inhaled a large breath. The next second I was coughing out as my lungs adjusted to the fact that there was air again compared to where we were a few moments ago. The red gyarados who's head I was atop of cried out as she looked around, seeing that all her friends and family were trapped inside pokeballs that floated on the top of the water while the Team Rocket members were too busy dealing with Violet to be able to retrieve them.

"Oh no…" My hand instantly rushed before my mouth as I took in the sight. "We need to help them!" I patted her head. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna call you Scarlet okay? For your red scales and coloring, and the way you act, which is really cool. Now," I glared out onto the annoying people on the other side of the lake. "Take them out Scarlet! Use hyper beam!"

Scarlet's screeching caught the attention of those on the other side of the lake. Violet quickly dove up and out of the way just in time for the blast to go off and hit a large amount of those ships and sent them flying. Scarlet roared again once they hit the water and most of them were stuck from the cold water.

"Now Scarlet! Use ice beam on the water and freeze them in place!" The water pokemon complied and fired a large blast of ice from her mouth strait at the lake. Most of the members were stuck in feet of ice and Scarlet snorted as she watched that now they could do nothing.

"Okay girl, now that we've handled them, let's free your friends." I patted the top of her head and Scarlet seemed to calm a bit at my touch. "Now use twister to gather up the pokeballs and put them all in one spot so we can handle this all at once!" With another cry, she spun around her tail that'd come out of the water and it created a small twister of wind that seemed to pull certain things into it, well, more like anything about the same, shape and everything about the pieces heading in, which were the pokeballs that the bad guys used to destroy and steal these pokemon. They came into a small pile before me and Scarlet made a large hole behind her in the ice by using the power of her tail.

I jumped off the top of her head and I started to pick them up one by one and started releasing them. Once the blue gyarados' were free, they dived for the water and Scarlet caught their pokeballs in her mouth, crushing down on them with her massive teeth. While I was in the process of doing so, Violet swooped down next to me and took one look at the pile and then our operation before she sighed.

"This is going to take forever Gwyn!" She shook her head. "Although, I guess this is the best you can do since you don't have a pokemon that knows a psychic move. Here, let me help!" She changed her changeling form to that of Chalcedony and his glowing body and black coloring in her hair before her eyes glowed purple and she lifted all the pokeballs into the air. All the gyarados were released at once and all of them wormed toward the hole in the lake, diving in, heading for the blackened bottom. Scarlet roared out and she let loose another hyper beam, destroying the pokeballs in the area that Violet still held captive in her psychic hold.

"Violet!"

"Gwyn!"

Both of us turned our heads back toward the land on the edge of the lake where the five males were that we'd left behind and I looked over at Violet. She nodded to me and I climbed on the top of Scarlet's head and she carried me back to shore while Violet returned to normal and called our her fire type to fly on. When we made it back to land, Violet instantly had her fire type take me off the top of Scarlet's head and set me on the ground before surrounding me in her warm. Amethyst was just as warm as Cynder was, if not warmer, but it was hard to tell with how cold I was and this weather. All my pokemon then released themselves and crowded around me to try and help me keep warm, the two fire types were trying to dry me out so I wouldn't be so cold. I relaxed in their touch as a worried Aaron and Tristan hurried up to me.

"Gwyn! What the hell were you thinking?" Aaron pushed through the bodies of the pokemon to bring me into his own arms. "You had me scared to death! You could have died!"

"Aaron! Calm down! I'm fine!" I tried to shake him off from the hold he had on me.

"Fine? FINE? Not only did you just near drowned, but you also were, in the middle of winter, out in the middle of a spring fed lake in twenty degree weather!" I shoved him off me and he stumbled back. I pulled myself from the warm hold of my pokemon and Sunrise jumped onto my shoulder and growled at him when Aaron went to stand.

"I wasn't about to let those pokemon suffer, and who knows what could have happened to them if Rose caught them? Are you happy with letting them suffer or worse?" I felt the tears coming from my anger; my fists were shaking in pure rage as I pushed past my fears. "Are you happy with letting them die?"

Tristan and Aaron both gasped at me, they knew how much I feared words such as that one, that I couldn't really bring myself to speak like that. I was breathing heavily and I was seeing red. Aaron had just about pushed me past my limits one too many times and I was beginning to get fed up with it.

"Calm down Gwyn," I took a deep breath at the sounds of Violet's words in my ear. "Getting frustrated will not help you feel better." I turned to look at her; she was in the captive arms of her boyfriend with her brother right next to her, standing all strong together. "Standing together as a team will help you get through tough times like this, don't force blame or worry onto others, and that especially goes to you Aaron." She looked over directly at him and he quieted under her gaze and looked away at his hands. "Gwyn did good today, while I know what she did wasn't the smartest idea ever thought up, she did it to protect those that needed her help. Back when I first started my journey, hell, even now and probably for the rest of my life, I'll make decisions that are just as reckless and awful as the one that was planned today, but so long as they help others, that doesn't bother me all that much."

"I agree with you Violet." I walked up before her. "But what do we do now? Go after them?"

"Yes, we can assume that they have they're base in the area, if not then in Mahogany Town," she looked around the area with Alex loosening his grip a bit on her. "To launch a large scale attack as they did means they needed careful planning and quick and easy access to the lake to get in and out. But we'll need to find an entrance…"

I tapped my chin for a moment to think, we all did before I remembered a helpful fact. "What about the shop in town? The… um… the souvenir shop!" I suggested. Violet raised her eyebrow at me. "When the boys and I were walking in town and right as we were about to come up here, I saw a shady character going into the building when it was locked, something pulled them in."

"That's definitely something to look at." She nodded and pulled herself from the hold of her boyfriend before the three of them turned back to town. "Let's go then."

"Um… Violet…" She turned back to look at me. "Your not leaving without us, are you?" She looked over the three of us, Aaron had now gotten to his feet and the boys stood on both of my sides.

She sighed. "Its not like I can force you not to, and its probably going to happen in the future when Rose will attack you, so it'd be better if I was there with you rather then not." She waved her hand. "Come on. Oh and Lance? Take care of clean up for us and we'll meet you in town! You'll know if we found anything!"

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

Violet kicked in the door and the man at the counter jumped a foot in his skin as we strolled in. He nervously tried to offer her some of his wears, but she would have nothing of it. She grabbed the front of his shirt and lifted him up in the air; he was dangling off the ground and cried out in fear.

"I know the base is here, where's its entrance?" She shoved and shook him around in the air. "Lie to me and there will be consequences."

"The statue…" the guy fainted and Violet dropped him with no mercy. With me on her flank and the four other males behind us, Violet took a quick glimpse back before she swung her body in a cartwheel with one foot still on the ground; her foot nearly touched the ceiling before it came whipping from the side and practically threw the statue through the wall. Below it was a trap door that magically fell open for her, revealing a pair of stairs that led down into the basement of the building and the Team Rocket base.

"Let's go." We silently followed after her into the criminals' home base, finally found by a vengeful Violet Vilmos, who was sure to make a few souls hurt tonight.

Witch's Note:

Oh wow! We finally made it to the halfway point! Only fourteen more chapters left in the story! But I'm sure we'll get a whole lot done before then!

So who's ready to break into the Team Rocket base and do some damage? I know I am and apparently so is all the others who I just sent down there. I'm sure we'll be faced with some close to dead grunts soon that Violet takes out.

(The ground shakes from below and out pops the head of a Team Rocket grunt. He looks knocked out and thoroughly beaten. I walk over and poke his head.) Man Violet's out with a vengeance tonight! Better watch out folks, when Violet gets in one of those moods…

(Another body come flying out of the shaking ground and it tossed in the direction of my laptop, barely missing it by an in. I sighed and hurried over to the device.) I better get out of here before my laptop and I end up being next!

Love you all and see you next week! Please remember to send in Reviews, Questions and what not! I love to see what you guys have to say about my story!

Halloween Witch