Another chapter in the adventures of Rainbow! Please enjoy!

Rainbow woke with a start. Sweat was pouring through his fur and he was panting for breath, his lungs empty. His eyes darted every which way until he started to recognize his surroundings and calm himself down.

Another bad dream, he thought to himself. They've been coming more often recently. Rainbow had been reliving the same night in his dreams for the past few days now, always that same day every time.

Rainbow scowled. He hated having to witness his father's death. He hated having to see his mother turn away from him to save his life. He looked down to his chest as he sat up.

The plate was still there, its vortex still spiraling and sucking in the black smoke. If only he hadn't brought the Plate of Arceus back home that day, his parents would still be alive. He dismissed the thought as soon as it appeared.

He had long since accepted that what happened was not his fault. His parents' deaths were on the greedy pokemon who could not see past their own avarice. For that, it was he and his parents who paid the price.

Rainbow groaned as he stretched, taking the time to glance out of the window next to him. The sun was up, its lights filtering in through the glass. The heat from the light was warming his room in the small wooden cottage he currently resided in. He smiled now, drinking in the comforting heat.

The door behind him was suddenly torn open, making the Eevee nearly jump out of his skin. He barely had time to react before a small yellow blur smashed into his cream-colored body.

"Bow! Get up! Get up! Get up!" Rainbow recovered from the impact and smiled warmly down at the Pichu currently jumping up and down on his straw bed. This little ball of energy was Pena.

"I'm up, Pena, I'm up!" He assured the small pokemon. She flailed her arms happily as she ran back to the door.

"Breakfast! Breakfast!" She exclaimed before sprinting back out of the room, not even making sure if he followed or not. Rainbow chuckled with amusement before getting onto his four paws and making his way out as well.

He didn't need to walk very far before he had reached the living space of the cottage. In the center was a low table with three spaces set up. Each space held a selection of berries as well as a piece of roasted feral Magikarp., probably freshly caught that very morning. Rainbow saw Pena already plopping herself down next to one of the spaces. She eyed the food ravenously, but waited patiently for everyone else.

Rainbow took the liberty to sit next to her and waited for the last resident of the cottage to appear. Rainbow leaned towards Pena.

"Hey," he got her attention. "Where's your mom?" Pena diverted her attention towards who she recognized as her older brother.

"I don't know. She just wanted me to get you up and bring you to the table." She smiled back at him before turning back to the food.

"She's never been late to a meal before, especially since she's the one that makes them."

"Mom was acting all weird last night." Rainbow quirked an eyebrow at her response.

"How so?"

"Well, she kept glancing at your door after you went to bed. And she also kept pacing around. She looked pretty nervous, too. It was weird."

Glancing at his door? That was odd. She was pacing and nervous, too. Maybe there was something wrong. Maybe she needed to talk to him. Rainbow was just about to go look for her before the very pokemon opened the front door herself. The Raichu noticed the two at the table and smiled warmly.

"Well, good morning sweetheart." The older Raichu addressed him. Rainbow smiled back.

"Morning, Lela." He greeted. "Where have you been? The foods almost cold." Pena gasped in shock.

"No!" She wailed in despair. "Mom, please can we eat? I don't want cold Magikarp!"

Lela gave a fond look to her daughter before trotting over to take her spot across from them.

"Let us eat." She told the two before starting to dig in.

The meal passed by with relative peace, save for the Pichu practically inhaling her share. She wanted it while it was still warm, she adamantly explained. Rainbow couldn't blame her, the food was pretty good.

"So where were you?" Rainbow asked Lela once more after having finished his meal. The Raichu finished her plate and cleared her throat.

"Well, I was preparing a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" He stood, well, surprised. "What's the occasion?" She sighed at him with playful disappointment.

"I knew you wouldn't remember. You have too much going on in that head of yours." Rainbow scrunched his brow in thought. He had apparently forgotten about something. Something that warranted a surprise.

"Well, I got nothing." He shrugged in defeat. Lela was about to answer him before Pena interjected.

"It's our anniversary, Bow!"

"Oh. It's already been another year?" How had he forgotten about this? Lela shot her daughter a disciplinary look.

"It very much has been. Though I cannot believe that it has already been five years since that day." Lela confirmed.

Rainbow inwardly grimaced. That was why he was having those dreams of his past again. Yesterday would also have been the fifth anniversary of that day. The worst day of his life.

Lela had told him stories of what had happened that next morning. She was just finishing up her fishing trip for breakfast. As she was storing the freshly killed feral Magikarp into her basket, she spotted a small wicker basket floating down the river and drifting ashore. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she cautiously approached the basket. Much to her surprise and concern, she found a tiny, whimpering, and fast asleep Eevee contained within. She also noticed the Plate of Arceus around his neck, but that didn't matter right now. Something was clearly wrong with this pokemon and she had to help him. She hastily carried the smaller Eevee into her basket, but not before dumping the Magikarp first. She then took him to her cabin in the woods.

She kept him with her, deciding that he needed a place to stay. It took a few weeks to get a word out of him, and a few more months for him to really open up. The Eevee didn't say much about where he had come from, and grew distant whenever she asked about his family or his past. She only knew that his name was Rainbow, he had no parents, and that he had no home. After that, he grew only closer to the family in the cottage and before he knew it, he was part of the family. The family of the Pikachu line and their adopted Eevee.

"Even after Joltier left, you and Pena still keep this old cottage lively." Her smile carried a hint of sadness then.

Joltier was Lela's other daughter. She was a Pikachu with great ambitions and had been Rainbow's best friend. It had been her that boasted the accomplishment of opening Rainbow back up. The two of them became inseparable, where one wen the other would follow. She loved to fight and would often use Rainbow as her training partner. Well, until she left to become a royal guard in the Prism City, the capital of Arkant. He couldn't stop her if he tried, it was her dream, after all. She left two years ago, leaving just Lela, Pena, and Rainbow in the small cottage in the woods.

Rainbow stopped his brief reminisce to focus back on the present. Lela motioned for him to follow her.

"Follow me. I left your surprise outside." Rainbow followed her out the door into the small clearing of the forest their house resided in. The sky was clear, the grass swayed to a light breeze. It was a good day, he thought.

Lela reached down and undid a loose floorboard of the cottage porch, revealing a large and flat box wrapped tightly in twine inside. She seemed to struggle with its weight, sliding the package out of the crevice instead of lifting it. Rainbow had wondered how she had hidden this from him without him noticing in the first place.

Rainbow paid no mind to Pena as she bounced in anticipation. She may as well have been more excited than him for this. Lela finally stopped pulling the package, stopping it in front of Rainbow. She stepped to the side and smiled expectantly.

Rainbow stepped forwards and started to unwrap the twine around the box. He had to lift one end to fully unwrap it, and it was certainly heavy. He then laid the box flat before taking off the front.

"I hope you like it," Lela said to his left. "It was certainly a pain to get here, but I thought it matched yours perfectly." Rainbow was stunned, to say the least.

Staring back at Rainbow was a slab. The slab was relatively plain, having the color of faded silver. It gave a slight shine and seemed to have a glowing, white spark in the middle. It would have been a pretty normal slab, if not for one major detail.

The pull. The spark in the middle was pulling him in, tempting him to reach out and touch it. The same pull he felt when he stared at his plate's smokey vortex. This wasn't just an ordinary slab of rock that looked cool.

"This is… It's a..." Rainbow couldn't get the words out. He was flabbergasted.

"A Plate of Arceus," Lela responded, finishing his statement for him. Pena looked at the plate in amazement.

"Wow..." She breathed out in amazement. "Like the one Bow has on his necklace?" Lela hummed in confirmation.

"How did- Where did you-?" Rainbow stammered out to his adoptive mother.

"Well, you wouldn't believe it." The Raichu started. "I was strolling through the forest one day, searching for berries we would eat for dinner that night, and I just came across it." Rainbow looked at Lela in disbelief.

"A Plate of Arceus. One of the rarest artifacts in the world and you just came across it?"

"Yeah. It was just sitting there against a tree. I would have dismissed it if I hadn't felt the pull." She explained to him. "I couldn't get it down to that size, though." She motioned towards the plate on his band. "Though I don't know how you managed to do that, either."

Rainbow was still surprised, but he felt a hint of cautious confusion. The plate was just sitting out in the open? Sure, he had found his plate in a relatively hidden cavern, but just sitting out in the open? In the middle of the forest? That had suspicious written all over it.

"Why didn't you just sell it?" He asked her. "You could have made a fortune! Pokemon would kill for something like this!" Rainbow cringed at his own wording, bringing up terrible memories.

"Well, I thought it would look good next to your other one!" She happily showed her thought process. "Black and white go pretty well together, no? And it's not like we need money. I chose to forage for everything I own. That's why we live out here, away from any city."

Rainbow was touched, to say the least. She willingly chose to forsake a mass fortune, just so his band could 'look good'. He was suddenly reminded of his late parents, who decided to get rid of the plate for his safety, instead of just selling it. He choked up, feeling pressure in his throat. He gave her a shaky smile.

"Thank you, Lela." She smiled right back at him and Pena gave Rainbow a small hug.

"Happy anniversary, Rainbow."

Rainbow reached out and touched the spark on the plate. Like last time, the plate let out a brilliant glow that enveloped him. When he opened his eyes once more, the plate was gone. He looked down. The silver plate was now dangling next to the first, black and white now adorning the band.

"There, that should do it." Rainbow dropped the small log onto the pile. The sun was long past its peak in the sky, losing altitude to rest for the night. Rainbow had gone out to collect some firewood for the night. The nights were starting to lose their summer warmth as the land turned to autumn, so they needed to collect firewood to warm the house.

Rainbow spit, trying to get the taste of bark out of his mouth. The pile before him now stood as tall as him, so, deciding that was enough, he elected to lay down on the front porch. Pena had gone out to play, or 'exploring' as she called it, soon after Rainbow received his gift that morning. Lela was inside slicing berries with her claws to prepare for supper.

The sky was taking on an orange hue, hinting Rainbow that night was soon coming. He shut his eyes, feeling the breeze that rustled the leaves and swayed the grass. He was a bit tired, he realized, some of the logs had been a bit heavy. He breathed deeply, feeling his drowsiness increase and his body preparing for a quick rest…

"Rainbow?"

Rainbow flinched, slightly annoyed. He opened his eyes to look at the Raichu that prevented his nap.

"Yes, Lela?" He asked her.

"Have you seen Pena anywhere? She promised to come back around midday, but I haven't seen her. I'm starting to get worried..."

Rainbow glanced around the clearing. Sure, the Pichu loved to play and could get distracted easily, but she wasn't one to miss a meal. Rainbow felt a bit of anxiety creep into his system.

"I'll go look for her." He assured Lela, He stood to his feet and jogged off into the forest where he had seen Pena enter earlier. "I'll bring her back before supper!" He shouted back to the older pokemon.

"Please, be careful! I'm counting on you!" He heard her voice die off as he ran through the forest, starting his search.

The forest was quiet. It was an awkward time of day, when most pokemon were preparing to sleep and before the nocturnal pokemon awoke from theirs. He was a bit grateful for the timing, however. He didn't want to waste any time because he was too busy fighting off feral pokemon.

Pena had to be fine, he thought. She knew the dangers of the forest well and was good at avoiding any conflict with other pokemon. She may be young, but she was quite competent at dodging attacks and fleeing because of her small stature. She probably wasn't in any danger and had just gotten lost.

It was then that Rainbow came across something weird. He stopped in front of a tree with blackened bark, as if it was lit on fire and burnt. Rainbow was sure that no pokemon native to this forest had access to fire-type attacks. The most you would find were bug and grass usually. He looked around the area of the tree and started to notice smaller burn marks on the ground as well. Small portions of upturned dirt and grass littered the area as well. Rainbow frowned. A fight must have happened here.

Rainbow was not feeling too sure of his theory now.

He closed his eyes and took a long inhale through his nose. He immediately caught a whiff of burned fur and sweat that led back into the forest. He took off following the scent, hoping to Arceus nothing terrible had befallen the Pichu.

The further Rainbow followed the trail, the more damages to the forest he saw. Some burns here, a splintered tree there, and sometimes even a small crater. It was actually fairly easy to follow the trail, even without his nose.

It was soon he started to hear shouting in the distance, getting louder with every step forward he took. He then saw the causes of the noise.

There were two pokemon hunched down and shouting at something, a small form leaning against a tree. One of the pokemon was smaller than Rainbow. It was looked like a skull wearing a hood. This was a Duskull.

Next to the Duskull was a larger figure. It was rounded in figure and looked like it was wrapped in bandages. It was a Dusclops. Rainbow snuck a little closer to the two, ducking behind a nearby tree.

"-don't think this is working." The Duskull bobbed up and down, indicating it was the one that spoke. Its voice had a lower tone, telling Rainbow that it was a male.

"We've been doing this for a while, it has to break soon." The Dusclops then spoke, a lighter tone indicating a female. The Duskull shook his head, er, body.

"I don't know, Shaid. Are we sure she's not feral?" He said to the Dusclops, now identified as Shaid.

"Caid, she talked. If you know a feral pokemon who can talk then we could sell that instead." The Dusclops now identified the Duskull as Caid.

"But I don't think we're going to get any more out of here anytime soon." The Duskull poked at the figure against the tree. Rainbow leaned further out to try and get a look at the topic of their conversation. He silently chided himself. This wasn't his business, he needed to hurry up and find-

The Dusclops, Shaid, moved a bit to the side and he saw her. Laid against the thick trunk of a tree was Pena. Rainbow could immediately see that she was beaten. She was covered in bruises and cuts, some were still letting out blood. Her fur, especially in her chest area, was singed and black. Her head was down, chin resting on her chest. It looked like she didn't have the strength to lift it.

A small sound caught the attention of the three pokemon. A cough coming from the Pichu strewn against the tree.

"Please… I really don't know..." She measled out. Shaid growled.

"So you say," she started. "But I know feral pokemon don't steal anything other than food. And you have been the only intelligent pokemon we've seen around here, so I know you have it."

"Sister, please," Caid addressed the Dusclops. "If she knew she would have told us already. She is just a child, after all. Let's just dispose of her and keep searching. The plate can't have gotten too far."

Rainbow bristled as Shaid's made a fist. She walked towards Pena, setting her fist on fire. Before she could go in for the final blow, Rainbow pounced out from behind the tree and swung his tail. Stars came shooting out, sending the two Ghost types a Swift. The stars just harmlessly passed through the two, but they did the job. The two siblings turned towards the newcomer, taking their attention off of the Pichu.

"Was that supposed to hurt, Eevee?" Shaid mocked Rainbow. "Who even are you, anyway?"

Rainbow just growled, then charged at her with a Bite ready. He may only have two moves that can work against them, but he was lucky that he still remembered how to use Bite. The super-effectiveness would surely make up the slack.

"Not one for talkin', huh? You feral or something?" Shaid asked the charging pokemon, dropping to a fighting stance. Caid then spoke up.

"Shaid, look!" He got her attention, pointing towards Rainbow's neck. Shaid's eyes widened in surprise before giving a malicious grin.

"So you're our little thief, then. And you've got two of them, to boot! I don't know how you got those plates that small, but I'm gonna thank the heavens that they've blessed us with a wonderful bounty today!" Shaid pulled her fist back, this time it was sparking with electricity.

Rainbow finally made it up to the Dusclops. He slid down low, just narrowly avoiding the Thunder Punch above him.

"Get away from her!" He demanded, crashing his jaw together and catching part of her torso in a Bite. She let loose a howl of pain as the super-effective move took its grip. Rainbow felt a sudden chill grow to his side. He let the Bite go, dropping to the ground once more to see an Ice Beam soar past where he had just been. He spotted the Duskull charge another Ice Beam and fire. Rainbow jumped up to dodge.

"Bow..." Pena exclaimed weakly.

"That hurt, you squirt!" The Dusclops raged. Rainbow looked just in time to see the pokemon smash another Thunder Punch into his chest. He flew back, crashing into the ground. He ignored the stinging sensation and rose back up to his feet.

"You think you could just steal our plate, our fortune!?" Shaid screamed as she charged up a Fire Punch. Curiously, she wasn't moving as she did so. Did she expect him to rush? The Duskull suddenly came charging forward, making a beeline towards the Eevee.

"Stay safe, Pena!" Rainbow shouted towards the Pichu before focusing on Caid. "I'll handle this!"

"Don't underestimate us, kid!" Caid warned, almost upon Rainbow. He didn't seem to be charging up any attacks, so what was his plan? Rainbow charged up another Bite, getting ready to chomp down on the floating skull.

As soon as Caid was upon him, however, the Duskull disappeared. Then the huge form of the Dusclops suddenly took his place, a charged-up Fire Punch in her fist.

"Suprise, squirt!" The sudden switch threw Rainbow off. He staggered back and yelped in pain as he was bashed with the flaming fist. The Duskull used Ally Switch, Rainbow realized, and had switched places with the Dusclops. Rainbow soared back once more, feeling some of his fur was now singed. He spotted Caid charge another Ice Beam and quickly swung his tail and unleashed a Swift to counter. The two attacks collided with one another, igniting a small explosion.

Rainbow landed back on all fours and looked up only to see Shaid charge him, now with an Ice Punch in hand. Seriously, did she only use her fists? Rainbow was light on his feet, swiftly dodging her relentless attacks. Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch. They kept coming and Rainbow kept dodging the best he could. Every now and then he would acquire a light scrape from attacks where he just wasn't fast enough.

He noticed Caid sneak up quietly behind him and he turned around to use Bite, only to get a face full of another Fire Punch. They switched again. He flew back, slightly dizzy from the blow. He expected to hit the ground but winced again as the Duskull flew in his path and switched, revealing Shaid once again with a Thunder Punch. She shot her fist into Rainbow's back, ricocheting him away from her.

"Bow!" Pena screamed, her small voice laced with worry. Rainbow was curled up on the ground, the pain of the punches overcoming him. He had taken too many hits and only returned one. If that wasn't enough, the two seemed to have perfect teamwork. He had to take the Duskull down first. Without him, the Dusclops would lose most of her mobility.

Rainbow stood to his feet once more, ignoring the shooting pain in one of his hind legs. He charged towards Caid this time, albeit with a slight limp. The Duskull only waited patiently for the Eevee to get close. As soon as Rainbow was upon Caid, Caid prepared to make another switch. Rainbow saw it coming and threw out a Sand Attack as soon as the Duskull disappeared. It hit the newly appearing Dusclops straight in her big, red eye.

"Ah!" She yelped in annoyance, blinded. Rainbow took the opportunity and administered a Bite onto Shaid. She yelped again and tried to pry Rainbow off of her, forgetting her moves. Rainbow bit down harder, hoping to use her confusion as much as possible.

Rainbow had made a mistake. In his complete focus of the Dusclops, her forgot about her brother. Said brother was not just sitting idly by. Rainbow felt himself freezing before he saw it. He released his hold on Shaid and fell to the ground, weighed down by the ice that now froze his lower body. The Duskull got an Ice Beam off, and now Rainbow was stuck. Shaid finally swept the rest of the sand out of her eye, giving Caid a thumbs up.

"Thanks, bro." She thanked him, turning the appreciative gesture into a fist. She glared down at the Eevee, her fist being engulfed in flame once again. "I hope this one hurts, squirt."

She reared back her fist, then brought it down. The last thing Rainbow heard was Pena screaming, and a peal of sick laughter from his enemy.

Bam! Conflict! Cliff Hangers! In all seriousness, I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I tried to really flesh out the combat and try to make the fight as creative as I could. I really like the result of the fight, and I can't wait to do more. Until next time!

For any confusion:

Rainbow: Eevee

Lela: Raichu, the mother

Pena: Pichu

Caid: Duskull

Shaid: Dusclops