-Chapter IX: A Spectral Crisis-

-Roy-

"So, this Ralts…" Dusknoir began.

Roy looked up at him. "What about her?"

Dusknoir phased through a tree as the moonlight shone throughout the forest, bathing the foliage in a gentle white glow. "Something is strange about her."

Roy nodded. "I know. She won't open her eyes. Her psychic tracking is so honed that it puts mine to shame. And I'm the best tracker on this team. Then again, nobody else here can track to save their lives… I guess that makes me the best by default."

"Well, she is a psychic type." Dusknoir speculated. "And she truly might prefer seeing through psychic, similarly to a Lucario using aura. That would give her unprecedented night-vision and provide a way to predict opponents' attack patterns based on their emotions or mental state."

"But still, to never open her eyes… I don't know. Maybe she can just see better with psychic." Roy pondered the thought.

Dusknoir shrugged. "I am not sure, Roy. But for now, we should be wary of her potential. She is not an alpha, but she is easily as powerful as the alpha Gardevoir from team Charm."

"What's an alpha?" Roy asked. "Sorry, I'm new to all these fancy terms. Although I've heard it once or twice before."

"Simply put, an alpha pokémon is the most powerful of their evolutionary line, or the last one of their branch, if it splits, such as Beautifly and Dustox, and are usually much larger than any other. And on top of that, about forty-five species are capable of what humans call 'mega evolution', like what Tyranitar underwent to create our new base of operations."

Roy's eyes widened. "So he is an alpha… And Basileus too? He's a fairly tall Sceptile, and looks the part with the eyepatch and all."

"Yes. But what I wish to know more than is why she is staying with your team. Based on my deductions, she appears to be staying solely to prove Jade wrong."

"But why? Whose approval is she trying to gain in doing that?"

"...I believe it's yours."

"Mine?"

"Yes. You found her first, and you've been the nicest to her. Maybe she took a liking to that."

"That's weird."

"Not really. I believe it is normal for most pokémon to want to prove themselves to someone who they like. But this is all merely speculation. It is also a possibility that she wants to prove herself to Jade. Some pokémon also just want everyone to think highly of them, especially those that don't like them to begin with. None of us know what her past is like, so we can only assume."

"Yeah… Assuming that she wants to impress me or Jade is nonsense. But I trust your judgement, so let's just see where this goes." Roy sighed and continued floating forward.

Dusknoir nodded silently, then stopped moving. His eye dimmed and narrowed. He clenched his fists and got into a fighting stance. "Something is wrong."

Roy felt it, too. Something was closing in fast. Something powerful. Branches snapped to their right, and Roy rapidly turned to see a large dark shape dive through the trees. Dusknoir growled almost inaudibly, and Roy gasped as the shadows in front of him condensed in the blink of an eye. A large red shape smacked him in the chest and slung him to the ground with a grappling rope of some sort. Dusknoir was tackled by the large shape from a moment ago, and Roy used flash, his skin glowing as bright as day. Both of their attackers shielded their eyes, and Dusknoir used ice punch on the pokémon that had tackled him.

Roy used mystical fire on the now revealed Ariados, but it summoned a blue protect barrier that dissipated the flames. Roy cursed and used phantom force, coating himself in darkness and slamming into the Ariados from behind, phasing straight through its protect barrier. Dusknoir used shadow punch to pummel the now revealed Noivern and throw it into the Ariados. The Noivern righted itself and used dragon pulse, but Dusknoir's hands glowed with blue energy and he deflected the attack with a swing of his fist. Roy used mystical fire again, swirling the flames around the Ariados and Noivern.

The Ariados leapt into the trees, but its bright red coloring didn't exactly help its camouflage. Roy kept an eye on it the entire time, the flames trailing closely behind it. The Noivern began flying away, but Dusknoir's entire body glowed as he thrust his hands forward and used gravity, and both of their opponents crashed to the ground, the Ariados falling from the trees in an instant.

The Noivern tried to push itself up, but it was almost as if gravity had been amplified on it. The Ariados shot an electroweb at Dusknoir, but Roy flew in between them and braced himself for impact. The mesh wrapped around him multiple times and shocked him so intensely that his spirit form began smoking. Dusknoir continued concentrating, and the Ariados was forced to the ground, unable to move. Dusknoir's face was tight with strain, and soon Roy's vision became blurry from the shock. He growled internally and tried to phase through the webbing, but it held fast. Its electric charge was lessening. Roy gasped and croaked. "Come on, Roy… Just a little bit longer..."

The Ariados managed to fire a pin missile at Dusknoir, forcing him to dodge. His concentration broke, and the Ariados lunged at him. Roy shouted out, "Dusknoir, watch out!"

Dusknoir turned just in time to recieve a night slash across his stomach. He grabbed at the wound and the Ariados pinned him to the nearest tree with string shot. He phased through the tree, but was blasted with dragon pulse by the Noivern. He fell to the ground and Roy's anger swelled. They had been through too much to lose like this.

Dusknoir tried to swing at the Noivern with ice punch, but it used night slash, and Dusknoir's hand fell to the ground, dissolving into shadows. It chuckled and turned its head to the Ariados as the giant ghost groaned in pain and fell to the ground, clutching at his missing hand. "A Dusknoir? Victor never said-" The Ariados shot a small web that muzzled him. "Shut up!" She hissed. "We'll take them down now."

"Or…" Roy said. "Could you please let us go? After all, we did absolutely nothing to deserve this aggression. I don't even know who this Victor fellow is."

The Ariados glared at him and drew closer. The electricity in the web had dissipated, but it still had him trapped. The Ariados narrowed her eyes at him, her mandibles only inches from his face. "...What's your name, boy?"

He blurted out the first name that came to mind. "Castiel." When he said that, the Ariados raised an eyebrow. "Castiel?" She stared at him intently. "So you're not Roy?"

He shook his head urgently, his mind working overtime. "Who's-? Never mind. I think you've got the wrong Mismagius."

"I never said it was a Mismagius."

"Well, excuse me!" Roy sassed, his panic rising. "Since you asked me, a Mismagius, if I was this so-called Roy, I presumed that a Mismagius is what you're looking for! After all, none of the other species of ghosts look remotely like us!"

The Ariados narrowed her eyes. "...Change of plans. We'll bring them in."

The Noivern tore the webbing off of his snout. "Why?"

She waved her appendage in a dismissive gesture. "I'll explain later." She pulled out a quill the size of a dagger and pointed it at Roy. "No hard feelings, right?"

He glared at her. "Well, given the fact that you cut my friend's hand off… I don't necessarily like you."

She smirked. "Life's tough, isn't it?" She stuck the quill in his side, and he lost consciousness.

-Connor-

"NO!" Connor shot awake at the sudden shout. The crystal glowed dimly and Dawn was sitting straight up. She was breathing heavily and sounded like she was about to cry. She turned her head to him, and he looked around. Amber and Basileus were awake, and Roy and Dusknoir were nowhere to be found. Tears began falling from Dawn's face, and Connor drew closer. "Dawn, what's wrong? Bad dream?"

She shook her head. "They're in trouble! We have to go!"

"What…? Who?"

"Roy and Dusknoir!"

She began floating toward the exit, and Connor grabbed her arm. It was barely big enough for him to grip in two fingers, but she yanked away. "Let me go!"

Everyone began stirring, and Connor shushed her. "Shh… Hey, relax. Nobody's strong enough to take on Roy and Dusknoir together. They're fine."

"I have to find them. Please!"

Connor shook his head. "Dawn… I can't let you endanger yourself like that."

"But they're in trouble, I can feel it!" Then she furrowed her brows and closed her eyes even tighter. "Oh, no…"

He was starting to get nervous. "What?"

"Roy… I lost him."

"What do you mean, 'lost him'?"

"I was keeping an eye on him with psychic, and now he's gone! He just vanished!"

"Ghosts are known to go off the radar sometimes. And why were you-"

"Not important!" She blushed slightly, and Connor's eyes widened. "Um..."

"Shut it!" She ordered. "I know that they're in trouble, and that's all that matters! We have to find them!"

Connor was kind of shocked by her bossiness, but Amber limped over to them, distracting him for a moment. "Connor… She may be right. If Roy suddenly vanished…" She turned to Dawn. "Did you sense Dusknoir with him?"

Dawn nodded. "Mhm. Their energy signatures spiked at one point, then they died down. Almost like they were fighting something..."

"And they lost." Amber gritted her teeth as her eyes widened slightly. "Everyone! Get up!"

Tyranitar and Grovyle shot awake at Amber's command, followed closely by Briar. Atlas sat up with a groan and rubbed his head. "That was the fastest night I've ever… Oh." He pushed himself up with his two bottom hands and helped Alice up with his fourth hand. She stood up, and Mirage lifted her head groggily. "What's the big rush?"

Tyranitar nudged Galvantula, who woke up in a flash. He literally sparked with electricity and went flying across the room. His skin buzzed with a yellow aura when he landed on the opposite wall, and Jade sat up, eyeing the electric tarantula with confusion. "...What's going on?"

"Roy and Dusknoir are missing." Connor said. She rolled her eyes slightly and laid back down. "They're fine. They can just shadow-travel back to us if anything were to attack them."

Celebi walked towards her, her wing still healing. "Jade, there are certain moves and abilities that can negate shadow-travelling. They might actually be in trouble."

Connor walked up to her. "More than that, he's your teammate. If there's even the slightest possibility that he's in danger, you should be doing everything in your power to make sure he's safe, whether you think he's in trouble or not."

Jade nodded slowly. "...O-Of course. I apologize, Connor. I wasn't thinking... clearly."

Vulcan grunted and stood up, stretching his wings the best he could. "Let's go, guys. We're about to kick down their door. Firestorm Style."

Amber shook her head and stopped him by gently pushing against his chest. "I do appreciate all of you wanting to go, but…" She grimaced. "If there are more than a few, any rescue operation would draw too much attention from other pokémon, and possibly alert them to our presence before we drew close enough. We should send a maximum group of four to find them."

Vulcan began. "I'm going."

Grovyle raised his hand. "I'll go."

Connor raised his arm. "Me too. Roy's a part of my team."

Dawn's arm shot up. "I'll go too!"

Vulcan stepped forward a moment later. "Let's do this." Connor smiled and turned to her. "Alright. We'll be back, Amber."

She nodded and turned back to the rest of the group. "You can go back to sleep. It's still dark outside."

Everyone else groaned in protest of being woken up, minus Basileus and Briar, but laid back down. Amber dimmed the crystal again, and Connor turned to Grovyle. "Wow… This is cool."

A smile tugged at the edge of his mouth as he looked forward. "Just like old times."

"Except… Y'know, this time we're rescuing Dusknoir." Saying that left a bitter taste in his mouth. He still didn't trust the ghostly cyclops, but within the last day, Dusknoir hadn't done anything to arouse even the tiniest bit of suspicion. Then again, it was a couple weeks before he dragged them to the future. He had to keep his guard up.

Dawn floated forward. "Let's get a move on! I can sense where they are!"

Connor arched an eyebrow at Vulcan and Grovyle, but they just shrugged. He found himself smiling at Dawn's eagerness as she floated through the entrance to the cave at full speed.

Vulcan took off after her. "You heard her, guys. Let's go!"

Grovyle nodded and sprinted after them, and Connor followed closely behind.

Oh, no! Roy and Dusknoir have been captured by the Assassins! This isn't good! It seems as though the Assassins have accepted Victor's offer... Team Firestorm is in even more trouble now... But why did Widow not kill him right away? That's the real question!

So what did you guys think of the fight? Or about Dusknoir and Roy? Go ahead and let me know, and be sure to leave any questions, comments, concerns and theories about things in the form of a Review or PM! Much Love!

-PL