Chapter 30: Unrelenting pressure

Morning

Floccesy Town

Heart cave

Green stared at the mural and tried to ignore the babble of curious voices issuing behind him. His team mates were milling about in the little cave, their tones echoing against the ancient rock. He furrowed his eyes and traced the lines with a forefinger. N had a surprisingly contemplative look marring his otherwise vacant face. Strategy's leader mused that the incident on the train must have shocked him; the data on N showed that he had been brought up isolated from the rest of the world. The only things he knew were information and ideals passed down from his adoptive father. Due to this, the adolescent was naive to a fault. He hardly communicated with anyone besides Black and White, even now, he walked alone whilst cradling the black sphere like this life depended on it. The spiky haired brunette turned his attention back to the mural depicted on the wall. According to Blue, there was another very similar depiction situated in Celestic cave in Sinnoh. Both caves depicted three pokemon with a ball of light in the center. The cave art in Sinnoh ended there, here in heart cave the original art had an appendix, underneath the creation trio three other pokemon were illustrated and in the middle was a roughly hewn picture of what appeared to be a serpentine creature with frayed wings. No doubt this must be Giratina.

"Do you understand those weird scratches Green?" Emerald stood next to him and piped up, the commander merely grunted, the three pokemon surrounding Giratina were important. His instincts told him so. Unfortunately, the ancient people who created the cave art were lacking in details. No matter how much he scrutinized the images, they appeared all the same.

"They aren't weird scratches..." he finally added, "those three monsters surrounding Giratina...I think I saw them somewhere...But where?"

"Maybe if the oldies had better art sense, you wouldn't need to rack your brain so hard!" Rald chuckled and left. Green frowned at the quip, here he was trying his best to decipher some ancient image and his ungrateful team mates were treating it as a vacation. Crystal had gone off somewhere, trying to capture new pokemon no doubt. Yellow and White were scouring the caves, admiring the other rock paintings. Pearl on the other hand was trying to get N to talk to him. The King of team Plasma merely neglected the hyperactive blonde and stared at the boulders and rocks. Zorua was out and the fox pokemon sniffed every nook and cranny of the grotto. It gave a high pitched squeal and bounded into Green, when the Kanto native turned around, he saw himself.

"What the?!" With another scream Zorua reverted back to its animalistic form and went back to its trainer with mischievous smile decorating its face. The offended human growled a threat and was about to go back to studying the art when N spoke up.

"There was someone else here...An individual with a very strong pokemon. The trainer and his pokemon are at odds with each other but for some reason the monster won't leave its master. I can pick up strong signals, its littered all over the rocks. Something electromagnetic..." he paused in his soliloquy when the others stopped what they were doing in order to stare at him. The green haired youth felt sheepish. He directed his next words at White: "You believe me don't you? There was someone here not so long ago. I can feel his pokemon's presence on the rocks."

"So if I leave my mark on one of these boulders, the next person to visit will be able to feel my presence!" Emerald shouted, "great, let's get started!" At the same moment, Crystal walked in and whacked the teenager on his head, Rald had begun fumbling with his pants and at the sight of the morally upright woman, he stopped what he was doing. His leader too, was boring a hole in his skull. Maybe that's why Green's monsters listen to no one. Like their trainer, they think too highly of themselves.

At the same time:

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but why does your metagross get so excited when we enter a cave?" Cynthia blew a strand of hair and marched forward with her trusty land-shark by her side. Garchomp growled in agreement, that hunk of metal really needed a chomp to its face.

"I'm not sure," Steven tried to rein his normally docile companion, the steel and psychic type floundered about in an unsightly manner, the moment they entered the cave, metagross had acted up, throwing up its metallic arms, shooting psybeams randomly and whizzing around. Given its size, this was highly inconvenient, not to mention it was repeatedly bumping against the tunnels and shaving off rock. Heart cave had a narrow opening leading to a wider interior. He wished the pathway would end already, metagross was picking up odd signals again, if he explained this to his superior, he'd be hailed as a madman. If he recalled properly, the last time he tried to tell Cynthia why his pokemon was acting this way, he was met with skepticism and harsh words. Ploughing on, the conduit opened up and the two champions came face to face with another group of people who were standing about in the cave. Steel grey eyes picked up a black haired individual near the mural...Maybe this was the person his partner was warning him about? The others were a mixture of teenagers of various ages. His sight locked on to a youth with tea green hair and before he could reach a decision, Cynthia had already struck.

"Garchomp use dragon claw!" The landshark folded its scythe-esque wings and blitzed forward to N who had a horrified visage. Terrified, the youth clutched the black stone closer to his chest and Zorua intercepted the attack with a protect. The barrier shattered but it stopped the ground beast's momentum. Rearing back, garchomp prepared to slash the tricky fox into ribbons, a burst of light erupted from its left and the monster leapt backwards in order to avoid it. Cynthia and Steven entered the cavern and Green, the silent observer lingering at the back, lost strength in his limbs. Two champions, he didn't want to tangle with them, his subordinates made a loose semi-circle around the newcomers. A sigh escaped his lips, seems like they were running from one trouble and straight into another one. N, his confidence boosted because the others stood protectively in front of him, let loose his monsters, darmanitan and archen growled at the humans who dared to attack their master.

"N" Cynthia's stormy irises took in the people surrounding the runaway king. "I suppose these are your new underlings?" Deep in the shadows of the cave, Green's eye twitched, what was with these people mistaking them as part of team Plasma? They don't even wear the same uniforms! The thought was humiliating! If Red heard this...

He dismissed the line of thought. Thinking of his best friend made him depressed.

"We aren't his underlings" Pearl and Emerald shouted together. Steven blinked; metagross had not stopped flailing about. None of the pokemon present gave off strong electromagnetic signals, he pondered, perhaps the pokemon in question was a steel type as well. In that case it all made sense...So was there another party at work here? Slowly, his steel grey eyes drifted across the group and settled on N. Specifically the dark dragon stone the adolescent was clutching to his chest. A thought began unraveling in his mind and he tried to grasp it with both hands. The stone was stolen from him by the Dex-criminals, he was dead sure of that. Steven still kept the star sprinkled calling card as a reminder of his failure. Looker had mentioned that Ingo and Emmett had a run in with Team Plasma and the Dex-criminals. He stared at the bunch alighted before him. The possibility of them working together...Wasn't that low if he thought about it. N was well known for being able to communicate with Pokemon, dragons, famous for their cruelty were reported butting their heads affectionately against him, so why not? The reappearance of the dark stone created a whole mess of theories which Steven was trying to figure out in his head. Sinnoh's champion was more of an action lady.

Not that he minded.

"Dragon rush!" putting its head low to the ground, garchomp rammed into darmanitan, the fire type was lifted off its spot and it arced through the air, landing somewhere near Green's head. The leader clenched his teeth and took out a camera. He snapped several pictures of the cave's art and turned back to the fight that was escalating. Arceus help them all! Neither Cynthia, nor her beast knew the meaning of restraint.

"We aren't his lackeys!" Pearl shouted again and commanded his floatzel to use ice beam. The land shark dodged the freezing beam expertly. Next it was locked into combat with Emerald's sceptile. Leaf-blade cut into the monster's sandpaper skin and he bled. Earth colored blood dripping on to the cave's sandy floor. The forest pokemon swiped its bushy tail and smacked the dragon, shifting it few meters. Thick vines, courtesy of serperior held the ground type in place. Another point blank ice beam from Zelhiko reduced garchomp to a third of its health. The dragon was visibly strained, its wings drooped low and the moves missed. Without further ado it was recalled. Cynthia now focused on the battle and she dragged Steven with her. Green was still in turmoil, he saw Crystal look back at him once before facing forward. The air in the cave became tense. Anymore friction and sparks would fly.

"You people are mistaken" Crystal had enough; she strode forward and stood before the two fearlessly. "We are not part of team Plasma. And N over here ran away from his home."

N over here ran away from home.

The gears worked over time in Steven's head. N didn't run away...most likely he was kidnapped.

"I concur that you aren't part of team plasma, sorry for the misunderstanding, however" he pulled a faded card out, "I didn't think the members of the famed Dex-criminals would be children." His eyes locked on to the diminutive Rald and before the teenager could utter a few rude words in return, an audible mumble was heard form the back of the cave. In the next instant, the two parties had to step away when a column of fire erupted between them. A second after that, Zekrom flashed into being, the legendary announced its presence with a clamorous roar. Large wings beat against the roof of the grotto and White moaned, it was raining rocks in the cavern.

"Why does Zekrom keep doing that?" she voiced her complaint plaintively, at least Reshiram came when Black was really in a pinch. Its counterpart it seemed, made an appearance simply to intimidate...Or show off. The turbo on its tail whizzed to life and electric sparks cackled. Yellow shifted away from the deafening dragonoid. The heat from the fire, which was no doubt caused by her superior and electricity from Zekrom, was drying the cave out. Suddenly the row of flames froze and crumbled to dust, a shaft of ice was fired at the black dragon and it growled in response. Without waiting for instructions, the electric dragon descended on its foe with fury, a spiritomb. Claws flashing with lightning, the rest watched as the tiny keystone was grasped and promptly crushed. Cynthia watched the crumbling pieces fall with mute shock. Whilst she dealt with the blow of her deceased pokemon, Steven stepped up. Metagross was allowed to go all out, the iron leg pokemon assaulted everyone with a psychic, once Crystal recovered, she commanded her cubone to attack. Cubone clutched its weapon, leapt up in the air and threw the bone; it hit the psychic pokemon accurately on its face. Metagross gave out a metallic screech and the ground type quailed. Seizing cubone with its four arms, the beast fired a flash canon at close range and the lonely pokemon fainted. Thereafter it proceeded to smash the skull on its head open.

"Stop that!" Crys screamed but the pokemon took no notice of the orders Steven was giving it. Bonee was eventually flung away, after it was maimed horribly, the creature was missing a limb and the head was clean of any white skull fragments. When the indigo haired trainer tried to pick cubone up, she found no pulse.

It was dead.

She bit her lip to prevent herself from crying out. Earlier she witnessed the same pain on the Sinnoh Champion's face. The woman had encysted the ache and was now backing into the thick of battle. She could cry later, Crys decided, right now, the priority was getting out of here alive and making sure Green doesn't get dragged into the fray. He was still cautiously keeping in the shadows. This was the safest option for all. Getting Mega out, she positioned herself next to Yellow, the blonde adolescent's eyes were shining defiantly as her pikachu weaved in and out, dodging milotic's attacks. The tender pokemon didn't look so beautiful with a vicious expression. It coiled around hissing and striking out like a rocket. Milotic alone was responsible for putting several of the team's pokemon out of commission, Crys heard White utter another groan as her solosis fainted, the cell pokemon gushed out green fluid.

"I guess they aren't champions for nothing" Yellow panted next to her, the heat and battling in the cave was wearing them all out. The blonde's hair was plastered to her head, "I wish our leader could help us...Unfortunately he needs to keep out of the public eye...Blue disguised him for a reason!" Crys pointed out that his pokemon could be cross referenced, "I know! I'm just...Feeling helpless...Bonee...Is...Has passed away right?"

A fresh wave of pain welled up in Crystal's heart, she knew her senior meant well, however she didn't need a reminder, her eyes locked on to the metagross, the younger champion was having a hard time with his partner, not to mention that the pair was now tussling with Zekrom. N had become angry; no doubt the battle was affecting him the most. Two pokemon had died and several more were in semi-comatose states. The anguished wails and growls must be searing his nerves and Zekrom was acting according to its tamer's wishes. Wings spread wide, the black dragon let loose several blue bolts of thunder, all of them honed on the steel type, even after the death inducing pillars of lightning, metagross still remained intact. It was smoking and charred in several places, yet it still levitated. With an almighty crash, the two beasts bodily slammed into one another, this time the legendary gained the upper hand as the metal pokemon folded. It was recalled before permanent damage occurred.

The attention now turned to Cynthia and her milotic, several grass types, notably Rald's sceptile and meganium were glaring at the water type. Mega's side was encased in frost; the serpent's ability to fire ice was a hindrance. The two beasts circled milotic slowly, once the water creature's attention was diverted, they struck. Sceptile got up close and personal, the projections on the forest pokemon's arms gleamed, it stiffened and slashed across milotic, opening a wide gash on the pokemon side. Before the wound could be treated, mega fired several seeds; the kernels grew tendrils and ensnared the thrashing water type. Chuchu finished it off with thunder and with a melodic growl, milotic became still.

Zekrom roared. His lightning based attacks were not effective against aggron. The steel and rock beast's armor plates protected him from harsh attacks. Right now, it was lumbering about, swishing his tail against the boulders and sending shrapnel everywhere, the sharp rocks pelted both trainers and monsters. Infuriated, the dark dragon touched down and the two had an intense staring contest.

Both groups stilled.

Time ticked.

The air grew heavy, the members on both sides were afraid to take a deep breath. Cynthia remained frozen with a pokeball in her hand.

A growl ripped the space and the two gargantuan beasts collided. Several pokemon threw up protect on instinct as flashes of light, rocks and lightning flew. For the first time since he was born, N looked forward to the outcome of the battle. His Zekrom was thrashing aggron good; the plated monster was thrown to the side of the cave. Not done, the black dragon cloaked itself with electricity and bashed into it. Steel armor cracked and pieces of it shot outwards like bullets. One of them buried itself in White's leg and the teenager screamed in pain. Yellow rushed to her and started spraying the wounded area with an anti-septic. On the other hand, N was enraptured. Zekrom had forced aggron to the floor and was trying to gnaw through the rest of the pokemon's plates. Green who was watching the entire scene grew irritated. Again, the thought of working under a king who let his pokemon run rampant was not a pleasant one at all.

"Golduck, use hydro pump," he droned, "make sure the aggron faints." The duck pokemon went forth alone; it stood next to Pearl and pumped out a pressurized torrent of water. Aggron, weakened by Zekrom's hits, fainted on the spot. Cynthia twitched; she gripped her pokeball and sent out another pokemon. Out popped the fatigued garchomp. It was given a few berries and it regained a bit of energy. To those watching, it was agreed that the land shark would stand scant chance against them.

But the platinum blonde woman did not care. She had to use her ultimate move. It was do or die. She turned her attention to the Mach pokemon and worded out a command.

"Garchomp...Use Draco meteor."

For several moments, nothing happened. Then, a whistling noise rang in their ears.

The sound of boulders raining down from the heavens.

Steven's whole body shook, the cavern was trembling akin to an earthquake. Steaming rocks broke through the roof of the cave and pelted down. Pandemonium reigned as he grabbed his superior officer by the arm and began dragging her out. Her grey irises were smoldering with anger, she glared at N and Zekrom, the dragon had reverted back into an inert stone. More heated rocks came down and the two champions left. If casting her trump card was supposed to make her happy, it didn't, she knew for a fact that those crafty thieves would be able to fully survive this predicament. Cynthia simply went where Steven took her; she was too preoccupied with her thoughts to consider her derelict surroundings. Why had these people surfaced again? Who was the man standing in the shadows? And most importantly, teenagers and children...Of all the criminals she fought with, this group were the strangest. How could a bunch of children pull off such elaborate schemes? And the police, it was laughable to think they were unable to capture a few brats. Suddenly she pulled out of Steven's grasp and laughed. Her underling eyed her in concern.

"Cynthia ma'am...Are you okay?"

She stubbornly wiped away a few tears which spilled down her face.

"I find it funny to think we were chasing a bunch of teenagers all along. They have the legendary pokemon in their grasp; they swayed the lynchpin of another criminal organization to join them. These trainers command the likes of Zekrom and Reshiram to battle. When you put it that way, doesn't the work we do seem insignificant?" Cynthia sat down heavily on a projecting rock. "My spiritomb was an integral part of my team...It only took a mythical dragon's claw to make sure I will never see him again. I have acted rashly, but I wanted vengeance for what they did to my partner. Hmpf...Grandmother, will surely scold me again." She angled her head away from her subordinate and he too, out of courtesy looked away. They both pretended not to notice the tears cascading down the woman's pale cheeks.

The situation inside the cave was not any better. As soon as the two champions rushed out, Green commanded a retreat, the trainers rushed to the narrow part of the cave with the exception of Crystal. The indigo haired adolescent went back and was stopped by Pearl.

"What are you doing?" he voiced exasperatedly, "senior commanded a retreat order, the cave is done for." They moved to the side as another steaming rock embedded in the ground, "see? We have to get out of here and quickly!"

"My Bonee!" Crys cried, "I have to give him a proper burial or else he won't be able to rest on peace." Wrenching out of Pearl's grasp, the woman leapt over a rock and continued further inside.

"Oh my Arceus someone stop her!" the blonde shrieked, he was flailing his arms helplessly. Emerald, who viewed Crystal as an older sister pushed Pearl aside and went after her. Seeing two of his seniors outright ignore orders and rush headlong to their doom, the Sinnoh native stood rooted to his spot. When an individual grabbed him by the shoulder, he involuntarily spun around and smacked the person in the face. Said person turned out to be Green whose glare turned Pearl to stone. Amidst many stammerings and apologies, the teenager pointed to crevices where Crystal and Emerald went in. Another earthshaking tremor forced the cave to split. Sunlight filtered down on the duo and the two looked up in awe. The evening sky was decorated with flaming boulders that were crashing down to the earth. Each of the rocks left a white trail in their wake. Green briefly wondered if this is how the end of the world would look. The scene was so apocalyptic, it was almost beautiful.

Breathe taking.

"Get moving, get the rest and move to Floccesy Town's Pokemon center, I'll get those two out. Understand Pearl?" The petrified teenager gulped and nodded, "don't let your brain run ahead of itself and take a detour. Floccesy Town, Pokemon center, gather there." The young trainer shot off with Chimhiko by his side, the moment he left, a flaming rock buried the entrance. Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding, Green summoned his rhyperior and after pushing a few meteorites out of the way, the duo ventured further into the cave.

Crystal was frantically searching for all of Bonee's missing remains. The sight of the horribly mutilated pokemon made Emerald gag. Seriously, besides being bashed by Steven's metagross, the lifeless beast was crushed by Draco meteor. The Johto trainer was scouring through the dirt, getting down on her hands and knees and retrieving bloodied skull fragments and splintered bones. She outright ignored the precarious position they were currently in. Rald yelled as the cave shook again and burst apart. With tears and dirt smudging her pretty face, the girl crawled out of a corner and held up another piece of bone. It was evident to anyone who glimpsed at her that she was trying her best not to cry. Her lip was bleeding where she bit down to prevent herself from breaking down and wailing.

"If you are done, let's get outta here, I'm sure senior Green is having a heart attack somewhere. Please Crys, I understand Bonee was precious to you...but look at the state we're in...The entrance..." the underdeveloped teenager slowly rotated to see that they were barricaded in the space, the hole they came through, was now shut thanks to a mountain of rubble. "...We're TRAPPED!" he screamed, panic overtaking him. Emerald hated small spaces, he was claustrophobic.

The older trainer ignored him. She carefully placed her dead partner's severed limbs in a bag. Taking good note of them, she concluded that she had missed a piece. Her eyes roamed the tiny space and she began her search anew, opposite her, the sheer rock was drilled through and Green emerged. His forehead was bleeding and rhyperior looked exhausted. The two trainers stopped in their tracks like a deerling caught in headlights. Strategy's leader had death stamped on his face. He took note of Crystal's hurt and disbelieving expression and his own mien softened. He motioned them to go outside, Emerald took the opportunity and bolted, however Crystal stubbornly stood on her spot.

"If you stay here any longer, Gold and Silver will have to start mourning for you." He harshly declared, "Members who are part of my group are rational, we don't allow emotions to control us...You are doing that right now and putting the people close to you in danger. Your pokemon...I'm sorry that cubone couldn't be saved. You were a great trainer, I'm sure Cubone won't hold it against you if you are unable to give it a proper burial. Be responsible Crystal...What would your best friends say if they saw you doing this?"

"Gold...Would tear this place apart trying to find Bonee's skeleton...Silver...Will probably call me an idiot for acting this way." Her head drooped lower, "I...I'd listen to Silver. I'm sorry, let's leave, I'm being very unreasonable." Stiff faced, she marched past both her leader and Emerald.

A stifled sob escaped her lips.

Far away from the cave and levitating on a steel type, a blue eyed man watched the commotion. His shrunken irises took in the rocks pouring down from the sky. The man seemed to be enthralled by the scene of destruction, his cobalt pigmented irises taking in the wonderful carnage. Hands behind his back, he muttered a command to his pokemon and the two soared away.

Night

Hoenn

Littleroot Town, Ruby's house.

The fashionista stared at his reflection and grimaced, no matter how much he psyched himself, he couldn't stand that scar on his forehead. It was ugly, a mar to his perfection. Eyeing his bag, he sat down on his bed, the mattress creaked under his weight and he scowled. Everything around him irritated him for no particular reason. His father had imprisoned him and interrogated him daily and Ruby, being the stubborn, hard headed beast he was, absolutely refused to answer. For some inexplicable reason, his father hadn't told his mother about his misdeeds. He often wondered why and the pondering was driving him crazy. Sapphire and Emerald, even Blue had called him and he ignored them all. For both their safety. The ceaseless beeping of his PokeNav eventually got to him and he turned the device off. Right now he stared at a map of Hoenn that was pasted on his wall. Several routes were marked or highlighted; these would be the ideal pathways to use in case of a runaway. This time, Ruby planned his escape thoroughly. Tomorrow his dad would be saddled with meetings. His mother would be busy with domestic chores...And his presence would not be missed. Forcing himself off his gaudily decorated bed, he took a notepad and pen out and sat near his desk.

He was going to write a farewell letter, he always did and as usual, it will be addressed to his darling mother. Father could get lost in the distortion world for all he cared.

Dear Mom:

I'm sorry for doing this again, but you know very well I hate being cooped up in the same space as Dad. Anyway, I'm running away again, please don't miss me too much, I promise to call periodically. I'll win all the contests across all the regions and become someone both you and Dad can be proud of...Actually I'm not sure about Dad though.

Ruby stared at the too short letter and scratched his head...Should he tell her of his real doings? The image of his heartbroken mother surfaced his head and he shook his head. No, that is something he won't, can't tell his mother.

I'll be travelling throughout the different regions, don't worry, I can take good care of myself. I've survived alone before and my pokemon partners are there for me should anything go wrong. Don't worry about me mom, I'll periodically drop by after I make sure Dad is not home. Oh yeah, if I find Sapphire, I'll travel with her also, I have good friends whom I bump into from time to time and if I run into trouble, I'll go to them.

So please...Don't worry about me. I'm old enough to do the things I want to do.

He wanted to scrunch up the letter and throw it away. Lies, all of them...well not every word was a lie...technically. The fact remained true that having an overbearing father hovering over his shoulder makes life generally unpleasant. But still...A father is a father right? Huffing, he folded the note and placed it in between his bed sheets. Going to his overstuffed backpack, he did a last minute check and confirmed that he indeed have everything he needed. Opening the windows, he stared back once more at his room and jumped out. The PokeNav in his palm beeped to life and he pulled a map up of Hoenn. Peering into the tiny screen, he enlarged part of it and murmured to himself:

"Route one hundred and nineteen...I'll go there, if Dad does get wind of me running away from home, the place has plenty of jungle to hide into and escape. Not to mention it rains most of the time there and the visibility is low, there are rivers to surf across and trees to hide in...Kyogre, I sound like Saph!" Shaking his head, he continued down the path alone, sneakers thudding against the dry ground. His parents slept fitfully, it will still be some time before his disappearance will be accounted for. Ruby felt scant remorse; he was so used to doing this that no painful emotion emerged from his chest. To him, it was part of life, constantly trying to escape his father's authoritative clutches. In half an hour, he was already in Oldale Town. Puffing and huffing, he dragged himself to the nearest shuttle service and flopped tiredly on the platform. It was dark at this hour; he wondered when the next vehicle was going to come in. Sitting silently on the bench, he decided to give Saph and his superior a call. As he flipped the screen to dial their numbers, another person wilted down next to him. Shifting up, he took note of the woman; she was wearing a maroon hood with two horn like projections. Ruby simply stared, her fashion sense was appalling! Grunting, he resumed his original task but stopped cold when the woman spoke.

"Ruby~" her voice trilled, "we've been looking everywhere for you!"

And before he could process what was going on, a sharp needle pricked the back of his neck.

A/N: And Ruby got kidnapped. Anyone want to guess who was the mysterious figure outside Heart cave? The winner gets a virtual *drum roll* MANGO! Yay! In fact our trees don't have mangoes anymore...At Silver: Silver, the theorizing summarizer...is my naming sense great or what? As for the lake trio, they are already captured by the Dex criminals. Reading your summaries makes me laugh, you manage to make it as bland as possible and it's still funny. As for the Dark stone, it doesn't respond to White, therefore they had to kidnap N in order to have him wield it. At nightmareeater532: Why don't you join the guess club? Lol, thanks for reviewing by the way. I hope to see you again! At: Jack54311: I don't really know either, but the manga states that he was isolated from humans and Ghetsis reared him up with pokemon (who were often abused) so he sort of understands them like that? Like how I get what my pet cat is saying when she starts meowing in my face when I'm eating. At Sylveon: So you think you figured out Lack-2? Let me know if your predictions come true (that rhymed) I guess it is going a bit fast, but if the pacing is the same throughout the story, won't it get boring? Emo Blue huh? Keep your fingers crossed! I'm doing okay...except for the rain and constant blackouts. Well virtual Devil's food cake to everyone (thank Sylveon for the reminder). Hope the chocolatey goodness inspires readers to leave more reviews! And constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.