-Chapter VII: Power in Firestorm's Corner-

-Roy-

Geez, you'd think she'd be tired by now… He followed the energy surges throughout the forest, taking turns whenever she tried to lose him. Sometimes she'd use substitute to throw him off, but show no signs of weakening or tiring out. Normally using two of those would make any pokémon too exhausted to move, yet alone continue teleporting. But nevertheless, he forged on. He desperately wanted to know why she was so powerful when she wasn't even evolved yet. He used psychic to send another scanning pulse, but froze when he felt it. Something was wrong.

He turned intangible as the Ralts teleported right above him and tried to use magical leaf. He charred the leaves with mystical fire as they passed through him and looked around for her. She had vanished again.

She appeared right in front of him and used psychic to throw him to the ground. She landed on the ground gently and levitated forward. "Why do you keep following me?"

"Because you're more powerful than any other pokémon I've met. I want to know why."

She laughed lightly. Not a cruel laugh, but a gentle one. One that made him… happy? He shook his head in confusion. How is she…?

I'm not doing anything. He gasped and looked up at her, but she smiled and sat down in front of him as if nothing had happened. "What's up?"

"Uh… Nothing much?... Stop changing the subject. Why are you so strong?"

"I dunno."

"Okay…" Her sudden attitude change was enough to catch even him by surprise. "Well, you can open your eyes. I'm not that bad-looking." He let out a nervous laugh.

Underneath her green hairdo/helmet, her eyes were shut like Uxie's.

She shook her head. "Nuh-uh. I can see you easier like this."

He tilted his head quizzically. "Most pokémon can see me perfectly fine. Am I still invisible, or…?"

"Psychics can't see ghost-types with their eyes, so I prefer tracking by psychic signature. Kinda like how you were following me."

"Oh. That's… unusual."

"So where did you come from?"

"I could ask you the same thing, young lady!"

"Young lady?" Her tone lost any signs of friendliness. He smiled nervously. "Um…"

She smiled again. "I'm kidding! It's a joke! Relax!"

He let out a nervous laugh again. "Right. Heh. Well, I felt a powerful energy surge when you were fighting those two pokémon earlier… Speaking of which, why did they have any business attacking you?"

"They were trying to capture me. Some guy's orders." She clenched her fists and smiled defiantly. "I wouldn't let 'em, though! I'm way too tough!"

Roy nodded and smiled. "Of course. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Moonblast is only able to be learnt by your final evolved form, and cannot be passed down via egg moves or Electivire's shop. How in the world do you know it?"

She shrugged. "I'm a special case. Kind of like how your Cacturne friend knew mean look. We shouldn't know certain moves, yet we do."

Roy felt all the color drain out of his face. "Nocturne… How did you-"

"I can read minds. And memories." She blushed slightly. "It's... a bad habit. I'm working on it." Her smile faded. "And… I'm sorry about your friend."

Under normal circumstances, any apology like that from a stranger would make him more upset than grateful. But she seemed truly sorrowful, as if she shared his mind for that moment, which she probably had. "It's alright. On another note, I never got your name, miss…?"

"Dawn."

"Dawn! Lovely name. Like the stone that your species would use to evolve into a Gallade!"

She tilted her head slightly, but nodded quickly. "Oh! A Gallade! Right!" She paused, then took a deep breath. "Only boys can evolve into a Gallade, though."

"Of course! But a female such as yourself can evolve into the elegant Gardevoir! Now that I think about it, male Gardevoirs have it way tougher than me when it comes to being mistaken for a girl. Hee-hee!"

She didn't seem to get his joke, but he gave it a second to sink in. Her head continued to face straight forward. "You don't… look like a girl."

"...I don't?"

"Nope! You look like a boy to me!"

"...Huh! Thanks!" He leaned against the nearest tree and used psychic to form two seats out of wood in the shade. "A seat for the girl that doesn't think I look like a girl!"

She levitated forward and stumbled over it, but she sat down and leaned back. "Roy… Thanks."

"For what?"

"Being so nice to me. Most pokémon aren't this nice."

"I don't see why. You seem approachable enough, with the jokes and all. And on top of that, look at yourself! You're a Ralts that can level a forest! I wouldn't want to be on your bad side!"

A new voice echoed throughout the forest. It was just loud enough to catch his attention. "Roy…!"

He perked up and gasped. "Oh… Wow, how did I forget-?!"

"Forget what?" She asked.

"My group! I didn't tell them I left!" He started to fly forward, then turned back around. "You know… You should come with us!"

She shook her head slowly while backing away. "I… I can't."

"Well, if somebody's sending pokémon out to capture you, you might as well travel with us! We're kind of the most powerful team on Immanis! Even if we're low on numbers at the moment."

He felt a tingling sensation in the back of his head, and the Ralts nodded slowly. "...If you insist. But I do not promise to stay."

"Of course! If you don't like your experience, it's on the house! And I promise, no shady business deals that involve selling your soul to me!"

She laughed and reached forward. "You're funny." He extended the ghostly robes around his body and formed a smoky, translucent hand. "Thank you. Many don't seem to get my sense of humor." He grabbed hold of her small arm with a smile and melted into shadows. That honestly went much better than he expected. She would make a powerful ally.

-Connor-

"Roy!..." He clenched his fists and turned around. "Where did he go?! He just vanished?!"

Amber ran her hand along the ground and ran a small scoop of dirt through her hands. "I don't know…" She tensed up and let the dirt fall to the ground all at once. "But I feel a massive energy signature closing in fast." She got into a fighting position. "Brace yourselves!"

Everybody got back to back, forming a circle with each member facing outwards. Connor narrowed his eyes, peering into the dimming light of the forest. He saw shadows begin moving and swirling, and he relaxed. "It's just Roy."

Amber shook her head. "The aura generated by that shadow is much too strong to be his."

Connor readied ancient power, waiting for the shadow to materialize. The shadow slowed down as it approached them, and Roy popped out of the ground. "Pop goes the Mismagius! Hee-hee!"

"Where did you go?!" Connor dropped the boulders and surged forward. Roy stopped his movement with a psychic barrier. The force field surrounded him like a net and slammed him to the ground several times. Roy's eyes widened. "Oh… Um… Heh. Sorry."

He stood up and rubbed his head. It didn't actually hurt him too badly, but it did stun him how hard he was thrown to the ground. "Geez, you get a power boost or something? How'd you do that?"

"Actually… There's something I have to tell you." Connor arched an eyebrow, and a Ralts floated out from behind him. It waved. "Hi."

He glanced back and forth between them. "Roy… Where did you-"

"I'm Dawn." She said.

He waved slightly. "Um… Okay… Hi. I'm Connor." He directed his attention back to Roy. "Where did you find a Ralts? And why did you think it was a good idea to bring her to us?"

Roy smirked. "Oh, just wait until you see what she can do! I saw her in action! She practically leveled the section of the forest I found her in!"

He blinked heavily and stepped backwards slightly. "What? That's… are you sure you-"

"I know what I saw, Connor." Roy confirmed. "Now, she offered to come with us, but also said that she makes no promise to stay."

Connor nodded. "Alright. Dawn, I have to warn you about what you're getting into by joining us."

"You're going up against a legion of dark-types, led by some Bisharp named Mordred." She said. "That's why you're getting help from all these other pokémon."

Connor narrowed his eyes, and Jade spoke up for the first time since the ocean. "Roy, I don't think it's wise to bring her here. How does she know who these pokémon are, and that we are fighting the Mafia? Even the most honed psychics can't read minds that quickly."

"Jade, she's not like most psychics. She is so strong… Much more powerful than any other pokémon I've met."

"Even so, we don't know for sure if she is on our side. What would happen if she were to wipe us out while we sleep?"

"Then we make her prove it to us! Alice can sense emotions, right? She can tell if a pokémon's sincere!"

Alice nodded slowly. "Jade… I think she's telling the truth. She doesn't intend to hurt us."

"My point's proven," Roy said. "We can teach her how to control her power while she journeys with us."

Jade rolled her eyes with a massive sigh. "We don't have time for-"

"Time? Time has never been on our side, sunshine! It's always a race! There's not enough time to stop Temporal Tower from collapsing! Not enough time to-"

"What is your problem?" Dawn growled at Jade, cutting Roy off. "I show up for two minutes and you already think you know me?"

"On the contrary. I don't know you. That's what worries me." Jade glared at her.

"You don't have to be worried! I can take care of myself!" Dawn piped up.

"I know." Jade narrowed her eyes. "I can feel the raw power radiating off of you like a furnace. That tells me more than words ever could."

Dawn's eyes shut even tighter and she started mumbling to herself. Roy floated forward slightly. "Hey… Are you alright-"

"I'm fine!" The entire forest around them creaked and groaned as a slight pink hue formed around the century-old trunks.

Roy sighed and leveled an unamused look at Jade, but gently said, "Hey… It's alright. She's always like that. Don't take it personally."

Dawn nodded slowly and rose from the ground, the forest coming to a standstill once again. "...Connor. I want to be a part of your team. Give me a chance to prove that she's wrong about me."

He sighed and turned to Vulcan. Apparently neither of them had noticed the forest being shaken. He seemed lost in thought, his eyes watering uncontrollably, but shrugged. "Why not?"

He nodded and turned back to her. "Alright. Welcome to the team, I guess. Normally it's a bigger deal, but… Y'know..."

She smiled as a small black badge with golden wings and a grey gem in the middle shimmered into existence, sticking to her skin like velcro. She ran her hand over it and gasped. "A real badge…" She grinned and turned to Connor. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I won't let you down!"

She flew forward and gave him a hug. She was so small that she couldn't even wrap her arms around his forearm, but she clung on like an Aipom. He smiled. "It's no big deal… really. We're glad to have you!"

She let go and floated back to Roy, mere inches off of the ground. His eyes followed her until she stopped, but other than that, he looked as disinterested as he always did.

Everybody else had stopped for them, but now that the introductions were out of the way, Amber said, "Before we begin introducing everybody, we have to make a little more progress. I don't want to be stuck without shelter as long as I can help it."

Dawn floated forward. "Where you guys going?"

Amber narrowed her eyes warily. "The great mountain range…"

Dawn nodded. "I can teleport us there!"

Amber's eyes widened. "All of us? Even a dark type like Tyranitar?"

Dawn tilted her head. "Who's... Oh, that's easy! It's not even twenty miles!"

Her eyelids glowed, and before he could stop her, Connor felt like he was being compressed and launched from a slingshot. Everything around him became warm and glowed white and gold, zooming by in a bright blur. It was basically the opposite of shadow travelling. Not even a moment later, reality snapped back to normal, and they were standing in front of a towering mountain. Everybody stumbled and fell over, minus Celebi and Dawn. She rubbed her head and scrunched her eyebrows. "Ugh… Not as easy as I thought… But we're there..."

Roy and Dusknoir were both lying on the ground, smoking. Connor ran over to them, falling on his face at least twice in the process due to the disorientation. Dusknoir grunted as the shadow cast by the mountain condensed around him, seeping into his skin. The smoking stopped and he floated upright. He placed his hand on Roy, and he was healed as well, the shadows becoming part of his skin until he looked perfectly normal.

"Arceus-forsaken psychic types… She should know that ghost-types can't teleport like that. She's lucky we weren't weaker spirits, otherwise we would have been blasted apart."

Connor stumbled over to Dawn, who turned to face him with a smile. "What'd I say? I told you I could do it!"

"And you almost killed two of our own in the process. Dawn, you really have to pay more attention to others. Ghost-types can't teleport the same way other pokémon can. That's why they shadow-travel."

Her smile faded instantly. "Are they alright?"

"He's fine now. But you really have to..." He gasped as he realized something else. "Jade..."

"What?"

"Where's Jade?"

He looked around for her, and sure enough, Dusknoir was leaning over her, drawing in shadows to heal her. Her eyes flew open and she immediately glared at Dawn. "You… Are you trying to get us killed?!"

Dawn backed away as a snowstorm began swirling. "I-I didn't know about that whole ghost-type thing! Honest!"

"You didn't know?! Every psychic-type should know that ghost-types can't teleport by psychic warping!" Dawn's eyelids glowed green, and Jade froze mid-sentence, as if time stopped for her. (AN: Imprison in Mystery Dungeon is OP) "Please stop… I didn't know. Honest! I just wanted to help!"

Jade's breath returned and she stared at the Ralts in disbelief. "How did you…?"

Amber stepped between the two and smiled in an attempt to ease the conflict. "Dawn, you saved us a great deal of time and energy by transporting us here. Even if you were not aware of ghost-types limitations… no one was fatally harmed, so I see no need to be upset."

Jade glared at her and sunk into the shadow realm. Amber clasped her hands together and looked around. "Tyranitar! Would you do the honors?"

He smirked and rubbed a strange marking on his forearm. "Of course." He was enveloped in a purple sphere that grew several feet larger in diameter, and when it shattered, he was easily eleven feet tall. He was twice as tall as Basileus, who was the next tallest one there. Tyranitar's horns became more prominent, his chest spikes expanding into crooked stalagmites. He radiated so much power that Connor's skin tingled. Roy and Dusknoir both shied away, and even Atlas looked nervous. Well, that's understandable. Tyranitar was probably triple his height and four times as big, mass-wise. He turned and faced the mountain. "I'm always looking for a reason to cut loose."

They all backed away as he was surrounded by a dark red aura. Dawn looked about ready to faint from the energy wave that hit them as he charged forward, straight into the mountain.

Alright, I'm back! Most of you probably didn't know I was gone, but whatever.

Well... They got a new teammate! That's the first of the third Gen Recruits! (The ones recruited after the great battle)

So I thought about that whole psychic warping thing being harmful to ghosts, and sometimes fatal, and I decided to go with it. So let me know what you think about it! Also, more questions! Why is Dawn so powerful? Why is Jade so against her already? So many things about her yet to be answered! Let me know your theories, as well as any questions, comments and concerns about the chapter, or the story in general, in the reviews section!

Also, Atlas Vs. Lucerna is up in Firestorm Battle Royale! It's a good one, you don't want to miss it! Much Love!

-PL