-Chapter XIV: A New Arrival on the Scene-

-Manaphy-

Honestly, travelling with this team was really cool. They didn't hunt outlaws every day like Vulcan and Connor did. They were just... explorers. It was a refreshing change, not having to fight all the time. Granted, he enjoyed beating bad guys, but this was enjoyable in a different kind of way. Manaphy thought he knew every ocean mystery dungeon, including where they were, but this team found new dungeons right and left that he had never heard of or seen.

Plus, since time didn't speed up in ocean dungeons, they could explore multiple in one day. Their first full day consisted of finding two new dungeons just south of Tirtouga Isles. He was sad that first day when he saw Lapras glide away with his friends, and didn't want anything to do with this team. He wanted to stay with Vulcan. But Vulcan said no. He tried to run away that first night, but this team knew their way around better than he did, which was saying a lot. Growing up with walrein, he knew just about every twist and turn in every reef around Immanis. But still, they caught up to him in a matter of minutes.

At first he didn't like Narobi, the Slowking. He had that look about him like he was superior to everyone else, which Manaphy found irritating. Hydro was pretty cool, but he was kind of impatient. He could shoot hydro pumps out of his hands to propel himself through the water faster than most other water-types could swim. He also helped train him on off days by teaching him the basics of hand-to-hand combat. Today they were training in the battle arena, a stadium-sized room with a roof that was open to the surface of the water.

"Now, due to your small size, and the fact that you don't really have any arms for punching," the Poliwrath said, "You'll have to use special moves as your primary way to combat opponents. Narobi's more skilled in that department, but I can help you out well enough for right now." He tossed a small pink disc to him. "Psychic. Tap it to your forehead to learn the move."

Manaphy did as he was told, and he felt his mind become more honed and insanely powerful. He was suddenly more aware of everything around him. He was able to sense the currents better than ever before. "Wow… This is incredible!"

Hydro crossed his arms. "But before we can do anything, you've gotta show me what you've got."

"Huh?"

"Attack me with all your strength. We'll go from there."

Manaphy tilted his head slightly. "Um… Are you sure I can-"

"If I can't take you, then you'll be able to beat almost every pokemon in the ocean. Now come on!"

Manaphy shrugged and swam forward, readying whirlpool. The water in the battle arena began swirling around, and Hydro crossed his arms, practically unaffected. "That the best you got?"

"Not even close!" Manaphy smirked as he used shadow ball. The Poliwrath deflected it with a swing of his fist, and he gained a red aura around him. Manaphy recognized swords dance and activated psych up. He felt a massive energy boost and used substitute. He set the decoy aside and moved with blinding speed behind the poliwrath while it was distracted. He went to use giga impact, but the Poliwrath shot straight upwards in a flurry of bubbles.

Manaphy's jaw dropped at the sheer speed, then he realized that he was completely unprotected. He closed his eyes and used heart swap, a move that Walrein had explained to him while growing up. Basically it swapped his consciousness with another pokémon of his choice.

He opened his eyes and saw himself through Hydro's eyes. Hydro was in Manaphy's body, which obviously disoriented him. Manaphy found the fingers on his hands weird. He hit himself with dynamic punch while Hydro was trying to swim in the new body, feebly trying to attack with his little arms. Manaphy used dynamic punch again, and his consciousness began fading. He activated heart swap again and returned to his own body, full of energy again. Hydro stared at him, wide-eyed. "How did you…?"

"It's one of my special moves!" Manaphy declared. "Heart swap!"

He grimaced and grabbed his stomach. "Not bad, kid… Not bad."

Then Manaphy was gripped with a strong psychic force, then immediately released. Narobi appeared on the sidelines and used heal pulse on Hydro. His wounds healed and his eyes sparked with energy again. He turned to Manaphy and narrowed his eyes. "But what happens if you can't use your special move? What will you fall back on? Narobi just disabled your heart swap. Try and beat me without it."

He charged forward again, and Manaphy met the dynamic punch with a dive attack, sinking rapidly, then firing upwards into the Poliwrath's stomach.
He took the attack and countered with a kick, sending Manaphy tumbling backwards through the water. He rushed forward again, but Manaphy was ready. He darted straight up, over Hydro's outstretched arms, and used energy ball. The condensed orb of green energy shot forward at blinding speed, creating a cloud of bubbles when it hit Hydro's back.

He waited for a moment, but was hit from behind with a water pulse. It shot him through the water, and Hydro floated in front of him, perfectly fine. He nodded in approval. "That was a good shot. Now, again!"

-Roy-

When they phased into the shadow realm, Roy smirked. "I heard you, Dawn."

"What was that?" Dusknoir glanced back at him, and he shrugged. "Nothing. How fast can we get there?"

Dusknoir's stomach-mouth smiled. "We're already here."

"Oh." He floated into reality, and a massive forest spanned out for miles in each direction. Roy whistled. "This is Treeshroud Forest? Isn't this where Grovyle-"

"Where he obtained the first Time Gear, yes. It is located in the heart of the forest. No one besides he and I would ever think to touch it, even if someone was to find it."

Jade looked around wordlessly, and Roy decided not to say anything to her. She's been through so much… yet she stays so strong. Incredible. You're really a lot tougher than I thought. And… You've got my respect.

He laughed out loud at himself. Did I really just think that?

Jade stared at him with her usual unamused look, but other than that, she didn't say anything.

Then flashes of light appeared in the forest, followed by three massive energy signatures. Amber, Connor and Dawn… He smirked. "We got here first."

Dusknoir nodded and sounded a bit surprised. "Of course. Shadow-travelling doesn't require travelling through space or time, as it's an entirely different reality. We can be anywhere that there are shadows instantaneously."

One by one, the rest of the group emerged. Grovyle and Celebi came out first, followed by Basileus and Briar, then Connor and Vulcan, then the rest of them, one after another.

When Dawn emerged from the treeline, Roy floated over to her. "That's one hundred poké you owe me."

She jokingly punched him. "Shut it, Roy-boy. I don't owe you anything."

"We got here first!"

"So?"

"You said that you guys would get here first. But we did!"

She rubbed her head and tilted her head up at him. "You try teleporting nineteen pokémon at once! It's hard!"

"I would gladly-"

"Quiet!" Basileus' voice rolled over them, hushing the conversations immediately.

Galvantula quickly formed a thick ball of webbing between his tendrils and threw it into the air. Basileus grabbed it with four vines grown from the ground and began spreading it across the trees. "Get to the forest! Stay together!"

Everyone complied, including Roy. That Sceptile scared him. Which was weird. Normally he was the one doing the scaring. Anywho, once they reached the treeline, Basileus drew the webbing in front of the group with the vines. Nothing seemed to change, but they watched as a Noivern and Crobat flew overhead in the distance.

"...Koumori?" Connor speculated.

"Or the punk from team Skull," Atlas muttered.

"But he wouldn't leave Koff- I mean, Weezing, and Skuntank without a good reason," Connor argued. "It's got to be Koumori."

"How in Arceus' name do they find us so fast?" Roy wondered aloud. "It's literally been a minute since we travelled halfway across Immanis!"

"Relax. It's more than likely not them," Briar said. "There are other Crobats in the world, after all."

Suddenly Alice perked up. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Atlas asked.

"...It sounds like… I don't know. Not forest pokémon..."

"The Mafia, maybe?" Connor rolled his eyes and groaned. "They've probably got pokémon scouring every mystery dungeon for us by now. And Treeshroud Forest is one of the most obvious places to hide. I bet Mordred sent a bunch of pokemon here."

"Then let's send Grovyle to go check it out! He can handle himself if anything were to come up!" Caroline said.

"Just him?" Galvantula exclaimed. "Send Connor with him, at least! Goodness, you pokémon don't know the first thing about sending scouting parties! Always send at least two, and never split up for any longer than necessary!"

"Also, if this Mafia group is smart, they would send pokémon native to the habitat that they were searching to avoid detection. It is quite possible that it is a trap meant to lure us in." Basileus added.

Connor shrugged. "Well, we'll see if it's a trap when we get there. Let's go, Grovyle."

"I want to go too!" Dawn raised her hand. Connor tilted his head slightly and forced a smile. "Oh… Heh. Dawn… Listen, I think that this is more of a two-man kind of thing, y'know? And you're not really experienced like Grovyle and I… No offense or anything, but I think you should sit this one out."

"But what if one of you gets in trouble? I can teleport back and send help!"

Grovyle shook his head and stood up. "We'll be fine. Don't worry about us."

"But-" before she could argue, they ran off into the forest.

-Shiftry-

"Arceus, can you be any louder?!" He turned back to the Scolipede that scuttled through the foliage, making a huge ruckus that would draw the attention of every pokémon in the forest.

"Sorry. I just evolved, remember?"

The Shiftry rolled his eyes and turned to the Scrafty on his right. "Remind me why we brought him along…"

"Just in case that Ralts is with them," the Scrafty said. "His Poison Tail will take her down in a jiffy."

The Scolipede sighed and moved faster to keep up with them, and the Scrafty clenched his fists. "Should've brought Nagini, or heck, even Drapion from AWD would've been better," he mumbled.

Shiftry grunted and looked around at the forest. "So why did Mordred send us here, anyways? They were just seen near Mount Horn yesterday. No way a group that big can travel that fast."

Scrafty groaned and replied, "Mordred said that Treeshroud Forest is the most likely place. The Grovyle seen with them is supposed to be the one that stole the time gears. That Grovyle probably knows this place like the back of his hand."

"Very good."

The Shiftry did a 180 and came face to face with a Grovyle two feet from him. "Your partners are really loud. Honestly, I'm surprised you guys made it past the native pokémon."

Shiftry unleashed the whirlwind, but the Grovyle didn't budge. When he looked down, he realized his feet were rooted to the ground.

Then the wood gecko closed his fist, and a forest of vines shot up from the ground. Shiftry stumbled backwards and began running, but the foliage around his feet wrapped around his legs and he ate the dirt. He rolled onto his back and used whirlwind again, but the Grovyle vanished and reappeared right next to him. "Wha-?!"

He reached into his bag and pulled out an escape orb, "Scrafty! Scolipede!"

The Grovyle moved forward with unreal speed and swatted the orb out of his hand. "You're not going anywhere."

Scolipede snuck up behind the Grovyle silently, and the Shiftry forced down a smile. Now use Venoshock… Or Poison Tail... Anything!

Then a single leaf cracked underneath the giant bug's many legs, and the Grovyle whirled around in the blink of an eye, the three leaves on his arms morphing together into one long leaf blade. He sliced off the arthropod's horns and knocked him aside with a handful of seed bombs.

Shiftry took that opportunity to run away, but he was stopped by a wall of stone. He took a step back as the Swampert floated through the wall of stone on another boulder, the rocks separating to allow passage through for only a moment. "Where you goin', mate?"

The Shiftry smiled cruelly and used mega drain, a thin vine of energy shooting from his hand into the Swampert's skin. "You're at a serious type disadvantage."

But the Swampert's bracelet glowed green and the attack seemed to restore his energy instead of draining it. Connor looked down at the bracelet, then back at him. "Oh, yeah… Swamp Bangle… Forgot about that." His fist glowed white and a smile formed across his face. "Restores my energy when I get hit with grass-type moves. Pretty handy, since it's my only weakness."

He used brick break, but Shiftry flew backwards with a quick flap of his leaf fans, just out of reach of the Swampert's arms. He began running, but was cut off by another barrier made of vines. He narrowed his eyes and used razor wind, charging up razor-sharp blades of air. Before he could use the attack, seed bombs detonated at his feet, sending clouds of green powder into the air. He fought as drowsiness overtook him, but he soon collapsed, losing consciousness from the spores invading his lungs.

-Connor-

He laughed as he held the shiftry aloft with ancient power. "Wow, Grovyle! You've gotten better since you went back to the future!"

The grass-type crossed his arms from the branches twenty feet above. "I've had a lot of time to learn. Now-" He was suddenly hit with a thunderbolt, the blue arc of electricity frying the branch he was previously standing on. "Aaaagh!" And he fell out of the tree, hitting the ground with a loud thud. Connor looked around for the usual yellow coloration of an electric-type, but saw nothing. He looked around wildly, then was hit from behind with an iron tail. His head hit the ground, and he saw the Scrafty book it. He growled and began running after him, but saw a blur of electricity tackle the Scrafty from the side, followed by multiple electric jolts.

He ventured closer, and saw that a dark grey pokémon was beating the Scrafty senseless, kneeling on top of him. "Where are they?!"

The Scrafty squealed, "I don't know nothin'!"

The pokémon hit him with a thunder punch, his small fist crackling with electricity, and the Scrafty seizured out for a moment. "That's a lie! You're working with Victor!"

Connor stopped in his tracks. Victor? Who's that? Wait, didn't the Krookodile say...?

"Who's Vict-gak!"

The grey pokémon used some fighting-type move, and the Scrafty gasped for breath. "You know who it is! Now answer me, or I'm gonna keep hitting you until you stop squirming!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold on," Connor decided to intervene. He couldn't see the pokémon clearly due to its coloration and the shadows from the trees, but its cheeks sparked when it looked at him. "And who are you? Are you with this sorry excuse for a-"

"No! No, no, no… We're actually… They're hunting us down. We're here for... I think the same reason as you."

The pokémon hit the Scrafty with another brick break and said, "Stay down, if you know what's good for you," then walked closer. When Connor saw it, he was kind of caught off guard. "You're a pikachu?"

He nodded with a scowl. "Yeah."

"But… Your fur-"

"What about it?" His tone was dangerous, but Connor chuckled at the ash-grey coloration of his pelt. None of the moves this pokémon could learn really did a lot of damage to him, and all of his electric-type attacks were useless. "Nothing. Nothing... I'm just wondering what you want with these guys."

"What's it to you?" The Pikachu crossed his arms. He was moderately tall for a Pikachu, about two feet, including his ears.

Connor went to answer, but the Pikachu charged an electro ball in the blink of an eye and shot it over his head. He turned around to see the Scolipede get knocked back by the blast. The Pikachu leapt forward, but Connor grabbed him by his tail, "Hold on! Goodness, you're trigger-happy."

"I want answers!" The electric-type used thunderbolt, but Connor absorbed the attack without even flinching.

"Answers to what?"

"Where Victor is!"

"What's your name, anyways?"

"Doesn't matter!"

"A-Answers?" The Scolipede managed. "I can give you answers."

The mouse pokemon narrowed his eyes and used thunder wave, paralyzing the arthropod with a blue wave of electricity from his eyes after Connor let go of his tail. "Talk. Before I lose my patience."

The Scolipede strained against the paralysis, but the electric mouse walked up to it. Connor started to say something, but the grey Pikachu's cheeks sparked. "Do not interrupt me. I don't know who you are, but you'd better stay back."

Connor shrugged and stood still. The Scolipede went to talk, but was cut off by three leaf blades protruding from the back of its head. It roared and sprayed poison everywhere, forcing the Pikachu to retreat. "Damn it! Come on!"

Grovyle, slightly singed and a few burning holes in his leaf hair, leapt down and swept the Pikachu off of his feet in the blink of an eye. Before the Pikachu could even charge up enough energy for a thunder jolt, Grovyle snared his neck in a vine whip. "Explain yourself. Now."

The Pikachu swallowed nervously. "Alright, I'll talk… My name… Is Aaron. But before I tell you anything else, I need to ask the Scolipede some questions."

Grovyle humphed and raised his hand without preamble, and vines erupted from the ground to their right. The Scrafty was held aloft in the air. "Oi! Let me down!"

"I don't think so," Grovyle replied. "You're a part of the Mafia."

"Am not!" The Scrafty fought the entangling mass of vines, only getting more and more stuck in them.

"You were talking about Mordred, then our group, specifically. Care to explain that?"

The Scrafty's eyes widened slightly, but he remained silent. Grovyle opened his hand and the vines stopped moving. The Scrafty was hopelessly tangled in a cocoon of vines, so he wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Grovyle clenched his fist, and the vines squeezed the Scrafty until it passed out. He diverted his attention back to the grey Pikachu, which still had Connor curious as to how he got that coloration. Even the shinies were only a little bit darker yellow. Even if his fur were really dirty, it wouldn't be solid grey.

"I'll ask again. You'd better explain why you shot me with a thunderbolt, before I kill you right here."

Connor tilted his head, "Grovyle, what about your "Restric-""

"They don't apply in this scenario." Grovyle glared at him, and somehow Connor got his meaning. Don't blow this.

Connor nodded and stared at Aaron. He decided to levitate a boulder directly above his head to help out. "Listen, Aaron. I don't know what your deal is with them, but you'd better start explaining yourself."

Aaron shot a thunderbolt at the boulder, shattering it after no more than a second. The shards caused Grovyle to cover his eyes. Aaron hit Grovyle's shins with an iron tail, causing him to stumble backwards and drop the noose. Grovyle retaliated with vine whips, but Aaron glowed with a golden aura and vanished into the forest with unreal agility.

Grovyle slammed his fist into the nearest tree. "Why did you do that?! I had him!"

Connor's jaw was still hanging open, awestruck by the Pikachu's resourcefulness. "Sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Sorry?! You of all people should know that sorry doesn't mean anything!" Grovyle took a deep breath and turned back to the Scolipede. "You. Tell me where Victor is."

"I don't know who that is! Honest!"

"Then why was that Pikachu so convinced that the Scrafty knew something?"

"Because Scrafty's higher up in the operatives that are led by Team Virus!"

Grovyle's eyes narrowed. "A team led by a Seviper?"

"With a Haxorus, Banette and Klinklang, yeah! They do all the dirty work, recruiting new members, scouting potential hideouts, all under the disguise of an exploration team!"

Grovyle pinned the Scolipede down with vines and moved closer. "Who gives them orders?"

"Mordred! I swear!"

Grovyle nodded slightly, and Connor just sat back and couldn't help but almost laugh. This Scolipede was giving up information way too easily. But by all means, he wasn't complaining.

Grovyle pressed his leaf blades closer to the Scolipede's unprotected underside, a piercing scowl unnerving Connor even from ten feet away. "Tell me where Mordred is."

"I-I-in a base just southeast of Mt. Travail! That's where headquarters are! If he's not there, then he'll be back there some time in the next two days! He got promoted after a bunch of exploration teams started rebelling and trying to take them down! I-I-I heard some names going around, and I heard that Victor, who was apparently the leader at the time, went into hiding till Mordred takes care of the rebels!"

Grovyle's leaf blades began glowing as his scowl deepened. "What species is Victor?"

"I don't know! Nobody except for super high-rank pokémon like Rogue, Mordred, Koumori and Team Virus have even seen him!"

Connor recalled what had happened at one point during the battle. Vincent had transformed into a Honchkrow, and the Krookodile seemed to recognize him as Victor. "Is he a Honchkrow?"

"I said I don't know! I swear!"

Grovyle held up a small, green, spherical seed in front of the giant bug. "You know what this is?"

When the arthropod shook its head, Grovyle replied, "This is the seed bomb I will ram down your throat if you don't tell me what I need to know. And for all that armor you guys have on the outside, I know bug types aren't that tough on the inside."

The Scolipede shook its head and looked like it was about to cry out of fear. "I swear I don't know! I was only enlisted a week ago, tops! Please don't kill me!"

Grovyle rolled his eyes and held up the seed bomb. "Suit yourself-"

"No, no, no! Wait-!"

"He's telling the truth." Grovyle whirled around towards the source of the noise, and Dawn floated from behind a tree. "He doesn't know what species Victor is. In fact, he doubts that Victor is even real."

Connor nearly shouted with surprise. "Dawn! I told you this was a two-man-"

"I wanted to help! I just interrogated him without having to hurt him! I think you guys should be thanking me!"

Connor sighed and did a face-palm. "Dawn, that's not the point." He turned back to the Scolipede, then shifted his pupils towards Dawn. "Since you're here, what does he know?"

"Nothing he didn't tell you."

Connor smirked. "Excellent." He grabbed his badge and clicked one of the wings down one notch. It blinked with a golden light from the center, and he turned to Grovyle. "I'll turn these guys in to Magnezone. When I tap them with it, they'll be warped straight into the containment facility."

The Scolipede tried to back away, but Grovyle closed his fist and about a hundred vines dragged it to the ground. Connor sighed as it begged for him to let him go. "Sorry. You should've thought about it before you joined these guys." He tapped the Scolipede with the badge, and it was transported away in a ball of golden light.

He turned around to the still-passed-out Shiftry and repeated the process. Grovyle took the badge and leapt up to the Scrafty, and he was whisked away in another orb of golden light.

Grovyle looked into the forest, then at Dawn. He rubbed his leaf hair, poking his claws through the burn holes in the giant leaf. "...I'll be right back." and he vanished in a blur of green and red, zooming through the forest faster than the eye could follow.

-Aaron-

He dashed through Treeshroud forest as fast as lightning, making sure to put some distance between those two pokémon and himself. They were strong, but the Swampert wasn't very good at interrogating. It was almost like he wanted him to escape. The Grovyle made him nervous, though. That's why he ambushed them beforehand. If they ended up being hostiles, then that would have been problematic. Even if they were the enemies of his enemies, that didn't make them his friends. He had to be cautious.

He leapt through the trees, making sure to keep to the shadows. A trick that he picked up after a couple years of staying on the run. His grey fur helped keep him hidden in darkness and not be so easy to spot. The forest was ideal, since the numerous shadows cast at all times during the day by the trees helped with his natural camouflage.

After his agility wore off, he climbed the nearest tree. It was probably in the late afternoon. Maybe two hours until sunset. He climbed up to a branch that was just sturdy enough to support his body weight, which wasn't that difficult. Even though he was nearly twice as big as most other Pikachus, he still only weighed about twenty pounds, as far as he knew. He leaned back against the trunk of the towering pine tree and closed his eyes for a moment. That encounter was a little too close for his taste.

Those two ruined it… He gritted his teeth and opened his eyes. I was so close, too… But sooner or later… I will find Victor. And I will kill him.

Well, it's nice to see that Manaphy is doing alright! And since Team Firestorm made it to Treeshroud Forest, that's a plus! But oh my... Who was that Pikachu? And how did Grovyle get hit by it's thunderbolt? And what's with his grey fur? And how does he know about Victor?! So many new questions that have been created! Oh my goodness! (Aaron is an OC submitted by Grey917. Go ahead and give his profile a visit if you want!)

So what did you guys think of that chapter? I hope you guys enjoyed! As always, feel free to leave your questions, comments, concerns and theories in the form of a Review or PM!

And I sincerely apologize for not being able to post the latest Firestorm Battle Royale. I have been absolutely slammed with work and school, I barely have time to post chapters. It will be uploaded next monday for sure! Look forward to it! Much Love!

-PL