A/N: Hey guys. Sorry this chapter has taken so long. I promise the wait is worth it though for this one. Enjoy.
The crisp early morning air felt good as Ren, Misaki, and Clair walked out of the hotel they had stayed at for the night. It had been a long few days since they left Lumiose City and a lot had happened during that time. They had found out the identity of two other champions, Akio and Kirito. The only ones they hadn't discovered yet were the Johto champion and the Kanto champion.
The three players had taken shelter in a hotel right near the mountain range they had to cross to get to Ambrette Town. Kirito and his friends were going to Cyalge City so they would be going through the same mountain range but through a different path. The only thing standing between them and the mountains now was a small forest.
It wasn't long before Kirito, Asuna, and the rest of their friends came out too. The two groups figured it would be fun to travel together, at least until they had to split paths at the mountains.
"Hey guys. Hope we didn't keep you waiting too long" Asuna greeted.
"No, we just got here ourselves" Misaki told them. "Shall we get going?"
The large group of players walked through the forest together. It felt a little odd for Ren's group to be in such a big party since they were more used to traveling with just the three of them, but they had to admit it was fun to talk with others along the way.
As they walked, Asuna began retelling one of the adventures she and Kirito had together in Unova. "So we were traveling through the dessert and had been battling wild pokemon along the way."
"Asuna please don't tell them about this one" Kirito begged.
He was soundly ignored as Asuna continued. "We saw a small rock in the distance and Kirito thought it was a Dweble. He sent out his Dewott to attack it"
"And? What happened next?" Clair asked, intrigued by the story.
"Well it was a pokemon, but it wasn't a Dweble. It was a massive looking Steelix"
Misaki laughed as she heard this. "I bet that was a big shock"
"No kidding" Liz said. "And of course Mr. Adventurous here decided to take it on. He got his butt handed to him before we all ran away"
Kirito grumbled as he heard the girls laugh at him. "I almost had it"
"If by almost you mean not even close, then yes you did" Sinon said.
Yui giggled as she rode on top of Kirito's shoulders. "Papa could beat it now I bet"
Kirito smiled at the praise of the young girl. "Thanks Yui. At least you have faith in me"
Misaki leaned in close to Asuna and whispered into her ear. "So how did the whole Mama and Papa thing start?"
"Well when we first found Yui she had amnesia" Asuna explained. "We couldn't just leave her on her own and she started calling me and Kirito Mama and Papa. The two of us just decided to go along with it."
"So, are you and Kirito a couple?"
Asuna nodded her head. "Yeah. It happened one day when we were attack out of nowhere. Kirito saved my life, almost getting killed in the process. I just… started feeling differently about him."
"I see"
"How about you?" Asuna asked. "How did you and Ren become a thing?"
Misaki blushed as she explained. "We first partied together back when PWO first started. In the Sinnoh region, there was this PKer group called Team Reaper. Long story short, they nearly took over the entire region so a bunch of us decided to put a stop to their plans. After the battle… I told Ren how I felt about him. I don't think I was ever more nervous in my entire life"
"Aww, that's so sweet" Asuna grinned.
The group continued walking through the forest. Yui decided to stop riding on Kirito and instead walked alongside Clair. The two girls chatted together about various things, mostly about what type of pokemon they thought was the cutest.
"Eevee without a doubt" Clair said.
"No way. Lillipup is the cutest"
"Emo!" Emolga cried out as it rode on Silica's shoulder.
"Aw, don't worry Emolga" Silica told her pokemon. "You'll always be the cutest in my book"
Emolga smiled happily at its trainer's compliment. Suddenly its ears twitched and it began turning its head as it looked around.
"Emolga? Is something wrong?" Silica asked.
After a few seconds, Emolga turned around and cried out. "Emo!"
Ren and the others turned around just in time to see a wave of shadow balls get fired towards them. Everyone quickly jumped away to avoid them.
"What's going on?!" Liz exclaimed.
"PKers" Ren realized. "Everyone run!"
Suddenly a wave of smoke covered the area. Ren brought his hand to his mouth to avoid breathing it in. 'This is bad! I can't see anyone!'
"Everyone, this way!"
"Which way are you talking about?! I can't see anything!"
"Mama! Papa! Where are you?!"
"Yui! Follow my voice!"
"Ren are you ok?!"
"Split up for now!" Ren finally decided. "We'll meet up at the mountain range!"
Nobody was happy about the plan, but they didn't have much choice. Visibility was almost zero and if they waited for the smoke to clear, they'd be surrounded.
Re ran through the smoke, hoping he would run into Misaki or Clair. No such luck existed though. Instead he escaped the smoke and ran into one of the PKers. Before the player could attack Ren while he was caught off guard, a dragonbreath attack knocked him into a tree. Ren looked as Kirito emerged from the smoke with Hydreigon at his side.
"Is Asuna or Yui here?!" Kirito asked.
"No" Ren replied. "We'll just have to pray everyone will get away."
Reluctantly, the two champions took off through the trees. All they could do was pray.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Misaki and Asuna ran as fast as their legs would carry them. They had run into each other while trying to escape the PKers and were now being tailed by someone in the distance.
"Did we lose him yet?" Misaki asked.
"I don't think so." Asuna said. "We need to run faster"
"I'm already running as fast as I can!"
As the two girls ran through the woods, a sudden stream of fire ran past them and encircled the area. Misaki and Asuna were now trapped as they turned to face their attacker.
It was a male player wearing a hooded jacket with a blue flame pattern stitched along the edge of the hood. The flames illuminated his face enough to show his brown eyes that gleamed with excitement and bloodlust. Judging by his height, he seemed to be in his late teens. Floating next to him was a Chandalure, most likely the pokemon that was responsible for the flames just now.
"So you two are my opponents?" he rhetorically asked. "Let's hope you can make this interesting"
Misaki and Asuna each grabbed a pokeball from their belts and threw them up in the air. They son opened up and revealed the duo of Dusknoir and Swanna.
The male trainer made no attempt to throw out a second pokemon, deciding to stick solely with Chandalure. "Burn this name into your brains ladies. The name of the player that's going to kill you. Ju of Laughing Coffin!"
"Laughing Coffin?!" Asuna exclaimed. "I thought we took care of you before!"
"What, you mean that small group of nobodies that attacked you at the Battle Chateau? Please. Those guys don't even come close to me in terms of skill" Ju confidently smirked. "I make it a hobby of mine to watch my opponents cry out in agony as they're devoured by my flames. Allow me to demonstrate! Chandalure, use fire blast!"
The ghost type pokemon unleashed the powerful move. Instead of aiming for Dusknoir or Swanna though, it aimed straight at Misaki.
"Look out!" Asuna exclaimed as she tackled Misaki to the ground. The fire blast attack zoomed over them. "Be careful. These guys aren't afraid to attack trainers as well as their pokemon."
Misaki got to her feet as she and Asuna prepared to face Ju. 'These guys are even more dangerous than Team Reaper. If I lose my focus for even a second, I'm as good as dead.'
"Dusknoir, use shadow punch!" Misaki commanded. Dusknoir did as its trainer commanded and charged at Chandalure.
"Fire spin!" Ju commanded. Chandalure began to spin around rapidly as a vortex of flames surrounded it. Dusknoir stopped in its tracks, unable to find an opening to hit its opponent.
Misaki smirked at Ju. "You realize you're only hurting yourself with that fire spin, right?"
"Spoken like a true amateur" Ju smirked back. "My Chandalure's ability is Flash Fire. Fire-type moves have no effect on it, plus they increase the power of my own fire moves."
"This is bad" Asuna said. "If we don't do something, that Chandalure will be able to take us out with one hit."
"I see you're not as slow on the uptake as your friend over there. But sadly there's nothing you can do. I've already called checkmate on this battle"
Before Misaki or Asuna could ask what he meant, they saw the fiery vortex around Chandalure grow both in size and intensity. The power of Chandalure's fire spin was increasing every second it stayed trapped in its own flames.
Saying the situation they were in was bad would be an understatement. They had a wall of flames to their backs and a gradually expanding death trap in front of them.
"What do we do?" Misaki wondered.
Asuna quickly looked for a way out of their desperate situation. Finally she found an answer. "I've got an idea. Listen closely"
"I'm all ears" Misaki said. Asuna leaned in and whispered in her ear. After mulling over the plan in her head for a moment, Misaki nodded in agreement. It was risky and their timing would have to be perfect, but there wasn't any other option she could think of. "Let's do it"
Asuna nodded her head. "Swanna, take to the skies! Go for the center of that fire spin and use bubble beam!"
Swanna obeyed its trainer and flew up high. It hovered over the eye of the storm that was Chandalure's fire spin and dived straight down as it unleashed a bubble beam attack.
"It's useless!" Ju grinned. "Chandalure, take out that Swanna with fire blast!"
Chandalure stopped its fire spin attack and prepared to fire its attack. As the fire spin vanished, Ju widened his eyes to see Dusknoir mere feet away from Chandalure.
"Go Dusknoir!" Misaki shouted. "Shadow punch!"
Dusknoir reeled back its fist and took a swing at Chandalure. The attack connected before Chandalure could use its fire blast attack and the fire type was sent flying back.
"Impossible!" Ju exclaimed.
"Oh it's very possible" Asuna smirked. "Swanna, water pulse!"
Ju watched as Swanna readied its move to take out Chandalure. He quickly reached for his pokeball and returned Chandalure to it. "We'll settle this another time"
"Hold it!" Misaki yelled as she prepared to give chase, until Asuna put an arm on her shoulder.
"Misaki we shouldn't chase after him right now. He could lead us into an ambush" Asuna explained. "Right now, we should focus on getting to the mountain range and meeting up with everyone"
Reluctantly, Misaki nodded her head. What was important right now was that they had won their battle. Actually battle wasn't the right word for that. That was a real fight to the death, not some regular pokemon battle.
Asuna's Swanna doused the flames around them with some help from Misaki's Empoleon. After returning their pokemon to their pokeballs, the two girls took off running.
XXXXXXXXXXX
"Hurry Yui! This way!" Clair yelled as they continued to run from their pursuers. The two young girls felt like they had been running forever, even though it had only been a few minutes.
"I can't keep running" Yui complained, clearly exhausted from being chased.
Clair was just as tired as Yui. The adrenaline running through them was the only thing keeping their bodies from collapsing right now.
'I wish you were here right now big brother' Clair thought to herself. 'You'd know what to do right now'
Suddenly the two girls found a thick mist covering the forest. Clair sighed in relief. If visibility was reduced, maybe they could evade their pursuers.
"Quick Yui! If we keep moving the mist might help us lose them!"
"Oh how wrong you are, little girl" a sudden malicious voice said. Clair and Yui stopped in their tracks as they saw a female player standing in front of them. She had long violet hair and bright blue eyes. A long grey coat covered her body as she showed a devilish smirk. "Once you're trapped in my mist, you're as good as dead"
Suddenly Clair saw two figures rush at her through the mist. It was a pair of Cryogonal and both of them were spinning their bodies at incredibly high speeds. The slightest touch would be enough to rip her or Yui in half.
Clair and Yui both jumped out of the way of the incoming Cryogonal, but that didn't stop the two ice types from coming at them again. It quickly turned into a life or death game of tag and the Cryogonal were it.
"Allow me to introduce myself" the female trainer said as she watch the two girls struggle to stay alive. "My name is Izumi, Laughing Coffin's ice-type specialist."
'Laughing Coffin?! Weren't they the ones that attacked Asuna before?' Clair thought to herself. She quickly dodged another slash from Cryogonal's body. She had to fight back or she and Yui were finished. She reached for Lucario's pokeball, but failed to notice the Beartic creeping up behind her. Clair turned around and gasped as the ice type swung its arm and knocked her into the distance.
"That was almost too easy" Izumi smirked. She looked around her and noticed that Yui was nowhere to be seen. "I guess she ran off. Oh well, I can find and kill her later." She walked towards the direction her Beartic had hit Clair. She soon found the figure of the girl lying on the ground, struggling to get up. "How cute. You don't even have the strength to stand. Don't worry, I'll put you out of your misery soon. Beartic, if you would"
Beartic slowly walked forward to finish Clair off. It stood over the young girl and swung its fist down at her.
"Game over" Izumi grinned. Suddenly her eyes saw that Clair didn't shatter. Instead, her body became distorted and vanished into thin air, as if it was an illusion. "What?! Where'd she go?!"
Not too far away, Clair and Yui were catching their breath behind a tree. Clair was trying to endure the pain from Beartic's first attack. If she had actually taken the second one, she would have been dead for sure. Soon, a small pokemon with black and red fur ran up next to them and into Yui's lap.
"Thanks Zoroa. You were really brave" Yui said as she petted her pokemon.
"That was quick thinking on your part Yui" Clair said. "If you didn't swap me and Zoroa there, I would have been a goner"
"Zoroa's always been good at playing dead" Yui said. "Her illusions are top notch"
Clair smiled as she got to her feet. "Alright. I think I can walk now. We should get moving before that girl comes back"
Suddenly a powerful shockwave came from behind the tree Clair and Yui were resting at, knocking them both back. They turned to see Izumi walking over towards them.
"So this is where you were hiding?" Izumi smirked. "Not bad girls. You almost got away from me. Almost"
Clair glared at the woman as she tossed out Lucario. The fighting type emerged from the pokeball and let out a battle cry. Zoroa also ran up and stood next to Lucario, ready to fight alongside it.
"So that's how it's going to be? Fine then" Izumi grinned. Her Beartic and Cryogonal stepped forward. "In recognition of your foolish courage, I'll fight you fair and square. We'll do this two on two."
"Bring it. Lucario, use aura sphere!"
"Beartic, use focus punch"
Lucario charged up an aura sphere and fired it towards Beartic, who simply knocked the attack away with its focus punch. It let out a ferocious roar as it charged forward. Lucario ran in to intercept it, but Beartic overpowered it easily as it grabbed Lucario and smashed it into the ground.
"Lucario!" Clair cried out.
Zoroa ran forward to help its teammate, but an ice beam from Cryogonal sent it flying back. Zoroa's HP fell into the red as it laid weakly on the ground. Yui called out to her pokemon. "Zoroa!"
"Beartic, use blizzard" Izumi commanded. The powerful ice-type let loose a ferocious cold wind that assaulted Clair and Yui.
Izumi showed a devilish smirk as she watched the two girls stand weakly. "Well I think it's about time I put you two girls to bed."
"We're not… done yet" Clair managed to choke out as she tried to endure the freezing cold blizzard. Her feet were frozen to the ground and Yui wasn't faring much better.
Yui shivered from the cold as she fell to her knees. "Mama… Papa… I'm scared."
Izumi directed her gaze towards Clair. "How about we start with you? Beartic, increase the power of your blizzard"
Clair slowly felt her consciousness begin to fade. The harsh wind from Beartic was sapping away her HP, along with her strength. She wouldn't last another minute at this rate.
"And now for the finisher. Cryogonal, use slash!"
"No… Please stop…" Yui begged.
Clair watched as Cryogonal spun its body like a saw once again and charge at her. Lucario didn't have the strength to move and protect its trainer.
Yui couldn't bear to watch the sight. Tears rolled down her eyes as she felt utterly helpless. "No… no…"
'Is this how it ends?' Clair asked herself. 'Am I really going to die here?'
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Yui screamed loudly. A powerful force erupted from her body, blasting Cryogonal back. The mist was blown away from the power escaping from the little girl. A pitch black aura began to surround her.
"Wh-What the hell?!" Izumi exclaimed as she tried to stand her ground against the powerful force threatening to blow her away.
The black aura from Yui flowed into Zoroa. The small pokemon suddenly got a burst of energy as it stood back up and let out a powerful roar. The dark aura cloaked itself around Zoroa and its shape began to change. When the transformation ended, the darkness dispersed around Zoroa, revealing what was now a Zoroark.
Yui seemed to get a similar energy boost as her pokemon as she stood back on her feet. Her eyes were tinted with a bloody red color. "Go Zoroark. Kill her. Tear her limb from limb"
Clair shivered at the demonic echo Yui's voice seemed to have. What was even more shocking was how fast Zoroark was as it charged towards Izumi. Cryogonal and Beartic moved in to help their trainer.
"Take her out!" Izumi yelled, finally getting serious. "Double blizzard attack! Kill that Zoroark!"
Even though the attack wasn't aimed at her, Clair could feel the enormous power from the double blizzard. Frost began to form on her clothes. Zoroark didn't seemed fazed in the slightest though.
"Night slash" Yui commanded.
Zoroark's claws became veiled in a black aura as it slashed the two ice types. Their HP instantly shot down into the red.
Izumi's eyes widened at the complete turn around the battle had taken. She grabbed another pokeball and tossed it into the air. "Vanilluxe, use mist!"
Vanilluxe emerged from the pokeball and spit out a thick mist, just like when Izumi had first appeared. Beartic and Cryogonal became enshrouded in the mist as Izumi returned them to their pokeballs. When the mist vanished, Izumi and her pokemon were nowhere to be found. Yui returned Zoroark to its pokeball now that the battle was over.
Clair shivered from the murderous feel Yui had just given off. "Yui, what was-"
Before Clair could finish, the dark aura around Yui dispersed and the young girl collapsed onto the ground.
A/N: Many questions. No answers. Anyway, what did you guys think of Ju and Izumi? How was the chapter altogether? Please review and tell me.