A/N: Wee, in the double digits (discounting the prologue)! And going to have a quick cameo of another Nuzlocke character I made a while back (sometimes, I think I ought to open for cameos but I have a hard time asking for help so asking to submit characters is a whole different ball game; plus, I have a tricky time writing canon characters which is what keeps me from updating regularly often times).

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's nor Pokémon. Both go to their respective owners. I only claim my OCs. And prepare the soap for Ren's potty mouth

Chapter 10:

(Ren's POV)

"Grete, Will-O-Wisp!"

"Watch for where it flies to dodge, then use Assurance, Jason!"

The Chandelure on the other side of the field formed purple wisps and fired them at Jason who nimbly jumped out of the way of each. Then he went behind the opponent and smacked them with his paw that glowed with dark energy. The Chandelure hit the ground hard, finally passed out from too much damage. The Trainer recalled her Chandelure.

"Guess I should have seen that coming," she sighed, ruffling her violet hair. "Thanks for the battle."

"You too," I replied, shaking her hand when she held it out for me. She headed out to another part of the route with her Samurott trailing behind her.

It had been several days since catching up with Eric on what he had found on the marks. I had been spending much of the time focusing on Pokémon battles and getting the hang of what each of my team members could do. Sure, not all the battles ended in a victory, but it gave me ideas on what they could handle and slowly build up strategies for them. Each fight improved my confidence slowly but surely. I even started training up Toil with the rest of the team. Though, I was a bit slower with his training than the others. I had to really focus with him, given that the mark's 'blessing' reacted to my emotions whenever they spiked. Quite a bit of the down time was spent just having him be out of his ball and walking around with me. Maybe not much on being able to fully keep in check of the mark, but Toil enjoyed being out and about than locked up for so long each day.

I bent down and hugged Jason around the neck. "That was awesome, Jay!"

"Prrow," Jason purred. He winced as he held up his paw which had a red mark.

"Oh shit! I forgot about Flame Body is one of Chandelure's abilities. Hang on, I should have just the thing." I pulled my back around, rummaging through it to get a Full Heal. "Here we go." I took his paw and sprayed the medicine on it.

"Great job, Ren," I heard Yusei say as he walked up. Argen was also padding up beside him.

"Hehe, thanks." I grinned. "'Course I couldn't get this far without your help." I let go of Jason's paw and he sniffed it before trying to lick it. "Don't you dare."

"Well, keep it up at this rate, and you'll be facing this region's Champion before long."

"Yeeaah, not sure about that far just yet." I stood up once I was sure Jason wasn't about to lick off the medicine. "But speaking about the League...I think I feel ready to take on the next Gym now."

"Really? You going to use Toil?"

"Well...not sure. I mean, it seems like as long as I'm calm, his fire stays fairly normal strength, but...Ah, well, I've got another advantage with Fortune since he's part Flying-type and has his Air Cutter move, so that should do as well as Toil's attacks, yeah?"

"All right. Let's head back to Castelia and get the battle scheduled up. Burgh likes to get through them as soon as possible for any new inspirations for his art."

"Ohh, don't I know it. Didn't think we would have left his Gym after the first time around here." It was getting a little easier to talk about my last trip to Unova with my older brother Ellis, but not always. Sometimes I couldn't say his name still, though at least I could recall some of the better memories that came from this region. "Okay, I've stalled long enough. Time for the third Gym!"

(Castelia City)

"You...have got...to be f*ing kidding me," I mumbled as I read the sign on the Gym's doors. The Gym was closed for the entire days due to the Gym Leader heading out to find some inspiration.

"That's odd. This is usually one of the days he's not working on his artwork," Yusei mused next to me. "Maybe all the Trainers were more focused on the battles outside the city rather than the Gym, so he took an extra day off."

I took in a deep breath through my nose, brought the front of my shirt up to cover my face with my hands still behind it, and screamed into my shirt and hands. I let go of my grip just a bit after the scream ended. "Of course, the time I get confident, the universe still decides to kick me down. Did I f* up that bad in a past life or something?!" I felt a hand land on my shoulder.

"Let's ask the front desk when he'll be back, and then we can fit around to getting your battle set up for when he comes back. Things will still work out for us."

I sighed heavily. "Yeah, okay. Let's go see what the deal is." Luckily, it seemed like the door was unlocked which I guess meant they were able to take in Gym appointments.

The attendant at the desk looked up when he heard the door open. "Oh, sorry, the Gym Leader is out right now. Are you here to set up an appointment?" he asked.

"Well, that, and do you know when he's supposed to come back?" Yusei responded.

He gave a huge groan. "Unfortunately, no. He said he was 'seeking inspiration' by going to the hidden spot in Castelia City, but he never said when he'll be back, or if he'll even be back by the end of the day. I've been dealing with all sorts of impatient Trainers today."

"Where's this spot in Castelia he's in, then? We can try talking him to get back sooner."

"There's a passage way through the Castelia Sewers. That's the quickest way to there."

"Excuse me...what?!" I exclaimed. "The sewers?"

"I know it sounds bad, but it's not actually connected to any sewers. It's just what it's called due to being under the city. It's connected to a few places the Pokémon go in and out of, and any sort of contamination is handled by the Poison-type Pokémon living in that area. It's actually cleaner than most of the streets around here."

"We'll take a quick look around. Thanks for the info," Yusei interjected, lightly pushing me to the door.

"Arceus's golden gate, why call it the Castelia Sewers?! Why not like, the 'under city' or something cooler. Doesn't exactly give the best image when told," I muttered, crossing my arms.

"He did mention Poison-types down there, so it might be a good idea to help train up your Woobat for the Gym," Yusei responded.

"Yeah, Em's just going to be on the sidelines for this time." I opened Emerald's ball, letting the Servine curl around my shoulders.

"Ser?"

"Sorry, bud, you're just watching for the next few fights again."

"Vi Servine!"

"Hey, don't give me that tone. You want to try your hand against some Poison-types that can knock you three ways 'til Sunday?"

He had a thoughtful look for a second before grimacing. "Hissss."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." I sighed. "Well, let's get this over with."

Luckily for us, the Gym attendant was correct of it just being the name as it was nothing like actual sewers. Plus, there were a few different Pokémon running in and out, mainly Poison-types like Zubat and Grimer along with a few Rattatas. Still, it was a bit creepy and way too quiet for my liking.

"You know...considering Burgh is supposed to be a Bug-type expert, you'd think there'd at least be a few down here," I murmured.

"Pretty sure there's not a lot that like being underground in this region. Keep your eyes peeled for any other openings," Yusei replied. Argen was walking beside him, keeping a lot of the wild Pokémon from approaching us with one glance or a short show of his fangs sparking.

"It shouldn't be that far in, right? The spot is supposed to be a mini park, and how many really are in Castelia City that need a hidden route to reach?"

"In my experience, it's never an easy route."

"Lux," Argen added with a nod.

"Well, Cupid, how about you fly on ahead and check things out ahead for us?" I pulled out said Woobat's Poké Ball, letting him out.

"Wooo Woo!" Cupid shrieked as he was let out. He flapped his wings, flying ahead of us in the tunnels.

We kept pushing forward. A few times, there was a braver Pokémon that came up, but a quick roar from Argen or Emerald jumping off and smacking them in the face with his tail sent them scrambling away from us. Soon enough, Cupid came flying back to us, chirping and flapping about.

"Looks like he found the exit to the park," I said as I held up an arm to let Cupid perch.

"Luxxx," Argen started growling loudly, fur sparking up as he glared down at the other end of the tunnel.

"Hold on, Argen's sensing something," Yusei responded.

Carefully and quietly, we headed where Argen was glaring toward. Soon enough, voices started echoing down.

"...mission was a waste of bloody time! We can't climb up cliffs to get to Relic Castle. And all that sand had me coughing up a lung," one voice said.

"Lord Zinzolin said there was a Pokémon in there that could be almost equal to Reshiram's flames. He doesn't want anything like that ending up in certain hands," the other responded. I bristled a bit on the name. That was one of the Seven Sages of Team Plasma. Well, the old version of them, but if he's sent people to get a Pokémon from Relic Castle...

"Lot of good it can do us if can't reach the damned thing. It'd probably be easier just to catch that kid than it would be to catch it."

"You didn't hear what he did to that last group? His Magby lit up a fireball that might as well have been an explosion! I ain't looking to be on the other end of that."

The footsteps were getting a bit closer. Yusei nudged us to try and slide out of the way, including motioning to Argen not to make a sound. It was going well for a good few seconds, the Team Plasma grunts coming into view as we kept out of theirs. However, as if this day wasn't going bad enough, my foot happened to hit a stray piece of concrete that was loose and caused it to fall into the empty water ways next to us. Loudly.

The once leaving Plasma grunts then turned to where we were trying to slip by. I felt Yusei grab my still free wrist. "Get ready to run," he whispered.

"Wh-"

"Aregn, Flash!"

"Luuuuxxxxray!" Light built up under his fur before firing outward, causing the Plasma grunts to cry out in pain. I just had barely got my eyes closed before the attack hit, but I still was a bit blinded by the brightness.

Thankfully, it seemed like Yusei was fully prepared as he yanked my arm. "This way!"

"I'm going, I'm going!" I yelped. Cupid jumped off my arm and flew beside us as we hightailed it out of there. Argen was close behind once the Flash move ran its course, lasting long enough to flee before the grunts got their bearings.

The area was even bigger the deeper we went down, winding around corners and trying to avoid any clear ways that were dead ends. Unfortunately, with the water not going through, there was a lot more places that were harder to get through without leaps of faith. Whenever we reached a ledge, we went down a different direction. But there was only so much area to run to...and we also had the pursuers closing in on us.

The sound of a Poké ball opening up with a flash of light and a Scrafty cut off our route. "Shit!" Trying to turn back around wasn't going to cut it as a Krookodile stood on the other side, bearing a toothy grin. "Crap, the front and the back?!"

"We've got no choice but to fight our way out," Yusei responded. "Argen, get ready!"

"Lux!" Argen stepped forward, snarling as he glared down at the Scrafty.

"Think you can hold off the one behind us until Argen handles this one?"

"Uhh...yeah. Just lemme get—what the?!" One of the Poké balls on the other side of my belt opened up, releasing Ciel as he growled at the Krookodile. "Ciel?"

"Fur Furfrou!" Ciel barked.

"Looks like he wants to take the initiative this time. Just keep the Krookodile distracted long enough until we deal with the Scrafty." Yusei turned back to Argen. "Argen, Thunder Fang!"

"Ray!"

"Ciel, are you sure you want to do this? Em or Jason can do this." I tried reaching for his ball to recall him. He must have sensed what I was doing, turning slightly to glare.

"Grrr."

The Krookodile lunged at Ciel and he jumped back to dodge the jaws, slamming his front paws down hard on the other as they glowed from his Secret Power move. Small sparks came from the other Pokémon's body, indicating the paralysis effect. I had forgotten he even knew that move. Ellis always had him using Headbutt over some of his other moves.

"Hey, what the hell did you do to my Pokémon?!" the grunt that must be commanding the Krookodile yelled, seeing the Pokémon having some issues moving.

"Just focus on knocking that one-earred mutt to the side and grab him!" the other snapped. "Scrafty, shake off that move and go for a High Jump Kick!"

"Intercept with Superpower!" I heard Yusei command.

Ciel, meanwhile, didn't like the 'mutt' insult as his fur bristled further outward to make himself even bigger. Ah crap. Ciel took issue with anyone using that specific word, either toward him or even to Cross. And when he gets mad, it made even an Ursaring want to step away from his rampage. The Krookodile made an attempt to smack Ciel off the edge with his tail but was too slow to connect. Ciel made a leap and bashed his head hard into the Krookodile's, making it stumble back. For one last little display, his tail shone and lengthened in an Iron Tail move and smacked the Ground-and-Dark-type back to the Plasma grunts' feet, knocked out.

Not a moment later, the Scrafty was joining the Krookodile as Argen threw the other over our heads and making it land on the other, also fainted. The two Pokémon were recalled in a red light. "By all the...that's it, time for-"

"Ah ah ah, not so fast," a new voice said. "Leavanny, if you will."

Silk strands came from behind and wrapped the Plasma grunt's hand that held the new ball and pulled it in to the owner's body as more tied both of them up. They struggled but nothing seemed to be able to break the strands. From around the corner behind them came the Pokémon that had created the thread, Leavanny, along with its Trainer. With his brown hair and vibrant clothes, it was none other than Burgh.

"Dammit, let us go! Or you'll-!"

"Sorry, but after the debacle your group caused, I'm not about to let you try any of that again in my city," Burgh said darkly. He lightened up when he turned to us. "Sorry for the late arrival, I just had to deal with another group a bit further down in the Relic Passage before getting back in here."

"Wait a minute, but your attendant said..." I started.

"Ahh, right. I didn't want to alarm anyone with the idea of Team Plasma lurking around again. The last time they were here, they had the audacity to set up shop right in front of my Gym and steal peoples' beloved partners from under my nose. Plus, considering there's a nest of Volcarona that reside in Relic Castle, I didn't want to run the risk of them getting away so easily. Seems I missed a pair with these two, though, as I took their colleagues out. Well, thanks for the help, dear Trainers! I'll be open tomorrow if you want a challenge!" With that, he and his Leavanny got the Plasma grunts onto the feet (still wrapped up) and marched them out.

So looking for that freakin' park would have been a whole waste of time, I grumbled inwardly. Ciel sat down, bringing up his paw and using it to calm his fur back down. "Well, um, thanks Ciel. But a little warning next time would be handy...or at least let me issue a few commands before jumping in," I said to the Furfrou.

"Frou," he huffed. Clearly, he still wasn't too happy, but he seemed a bit calmer than a bit ago with the Krookodile. He let me recall him to his ball and put it back on my belt.

"We better head back to the Center for the time being. I think we've had enough excitement for the day," Yusei suggested.

"Yeah, no...uh, Cupid? You okay there?" The Woobat was shivering a bit next to me. Then before I knew it, instead of a Woobat floating next to me it was a Swoobat. "What the hell?! You evolved this soon?!"

"Huh, thought it was only friendship that let Woobat evolve."

"Geez, one up Auren, why don't ya..."

Retracing our steps led us back up to the surface. The sun was beginning to set in the sky, so we bee-lined for the Pokémon Center. Well, not like we had to, considering Castelia City had all the bright lights on at all hours, but after running around in the Castelia Sewers and having that panic with Team Plasma on our asses...we pretty much had little energy to be doing anything else.

I crashed headfirst into the pillow while Yusei was in the shower. Emerald climbed onto the bed and curled up next to the pillow. Damn, that had been way too close for comfort. I thought it was bad before I got back to Unova, but it seems like they're in just about every dark corner. I thought maybe I could alert the League about them so they can handle it...but it looks like this Team Plasma has learned from their mistakes. They're keeping it much more cloak and dagger this time around, not even doing their little speeches. Guess it makes sense, since the rug was pulled out and it was revealed to all be a ploy in the long run. At least I haven't been alone during all this. Not just with my new partners, or Cross and Ciel...

Being careful not to shove off Emerald, I rolled around so my back was on the bed and I faced the ceiling. Though...despite having traveled for a bit...I still don't know too much about him. Any of the times talking about the past had been mostly focused on me, hardly him. About the only things, outside his personality, is that he has two Pokémon on him with mainly using his Luxray. And he used to travel with Akiza...I think? Or they at least know each other from somewhere.

I sat upright on the bed as my thoughts wandered further. Wait a minute...what if he was intending to meet someone here in Unova? That had to be why he was in Castelia City, after all. What if he had plans to journey with someone else and I interrupted that? What if that person is still waiting for him to show up and hasn't heard a word from him in the weeks we've been together and thinks he's ignoring them?!

The door to the bathroom clicked open. "Whew, didn't mean to take that long in there. It's all you-"

"Did I keep you from meeting up with someone?!" I blurted out before I could stop myself and then slapped my hands over my mouth in embarrassment. The shout made Emerald jump and even Argen lifted his head to wonder what caused the noise. The silence felt a bit deafening for a few seconds before I broke it. "I-I'm sorry. I just...I got to thinking and my mind wandered a bit and started trying to come up why you were in Unova the same time I was so..."

"Ah, I see. I guess I should have expected keeping things quiet on my end probably didn't help that worry." He walked over to his bed and sat down on it. "Well, as I'm sure you're aware by now, I'm from the Orre region."

"Wait, what? You are?"

"Yeah, didn't you know that?" I gave him a really confused look. He tapped the marks under his left eye. "That's what these mean."

"Seriously? I didn't know that!"

"What did you think they were?"

"I dunno...thought you just had a face tattoo is all..." Shit, now I feel like an idiot. Neither AJ nor Ellis ever made a mention to them, so I thought it was just some weird fashion statement as to why I'd see some Trainers have them. Maybe I shouldn't have slept through the classes going over the regions. "So uh...why were you given that?"

"It's mainly just to pinpoint Trainers from the Orre region. We're...not well liked in a lot of other places, given the history of the region and all. So many that leave without getting proper paperwork tend to get marked to keep a close eye on them should anything come up."

"...the hell?! What, so some people screwed up in the past, so everyone's got to have those marks? How much sense does that make?!"

"Well...just the ones that happened to leave in quite a hurry and didn't get everything up and ready for the move. That's what happened with Argen and me in the past. We didn't have much choice in leaving. With the abrupt exit, we had to keep a low profile for a while which meant avoiding a lot of big cities when we got to the region the ship had docked in: Sinnoh. The reason we got caught was due to helping out Akiza when she was in danger. She talked with her father, and he offered to take me in as his ward until I got through Trainer's School. Of course, I still had to get marked once I got of age, so no getting out of that."

"So that's how you know Akiza? You guys went to school together?"

"Along with traveling a bit. That's also where I met most of my other friends, too. When we were sent out to explore, Akiza and I teamed up together along with one other."

"Who was the other?" He sighed a bit. "Yusei..?"

"I...do have to admit something. I wasn't entirely honest about things involving Legendary Marks. This other person with us, Aurora, also held a Mark that she had longer than you had yours. Hers only held the power of one Legendary, and several times she lost quite a bit of control. A lot of the damage was minimized thanks to her own Pokémon partner being a Dark-type and Akiza having had lessons with her psychic abilities. All three of us had to work on being able to control things to make sure nothing happened that hurt her or others."

"Oh..." I honestly wasn't expecting to hear him say that. But well...it somehow made some sense. He always seemed to have a sixth sense that I was getting a bit too heated with my emotions and knew when to calm me down to make sure the marks didn't act up. "So um...this other friend of yours that has a mark. Is she..?"

"She's okay, last I heard. It's been a bit over a year since we all went out own ways for our journeys, but we keep in touch the best we can. Argen, Stardust, and I have more or less been going with the wind since. At this point in time, I'm just focused on improving our strength before figuring things out." He suddenly gave me a smirk. "So no, I wasn't intending on meeting up with anyone here, to answer your first question."

My face became hot at that and I began stammering. "I didn't...that's not...oh, screw you!" Yusei chuckled at my outburst while I huffed. "You mentioned about improving your strength before figuring things out..."

"Yeah, it mainly has to deal with the whole reason of leaving Orre so suddenly in the first place. I intend to go back there sometime, but right now I'm not ready. And neither are my teammates. I want to be as prepared as possible before I even think of returning there."

"So you're just preparing yourself and your team for that?"

"More or less. I can't go into full details on it as I don't fully remember all that happened. I just recall something bad had happened, and Argen and I had to get out of there. Everything else was just a blur."

Sounds like he's got everything planned out...and me? What am I doing on this? I know I had wanted to get strong enough to face Team Plasma again, but after that...what then? Do I stop? Go back home and forget it all happened? And what about Emerald and all the others? Is that fair to them, stopping as soon as there's no more threats and all? Ellis always made journeys to be about finding yourself and what you want. So what is it that I'm going for?

"Well, it's getting late. Might want to hop into the shower before you pass out on your feet," Yusei spoke, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Oh, uh, yeah. I'll get on that." I got up from the bed, seeing Emerald give a small glare. "Sorry about that, pal. I'll be tucking in soon."

"Ser," the Servine huffed, climbing onto his spot again and curling up with his head buried into his tail.

I grabbed the change of clothes I had gotten out, going into the bathroom and closing the door behind me. What do I do when this Plasma mess is over?

A/N: And there's the tenth chapter! I'll admit, I added the last part as I didn't feel like the chapter was long enough after getting through the Plasma stuff in Castelia Sewers (which like, why Pokémon? I know that Grimer like that kind of place, but that's so gross!). The scene with a bit into Yusei's history for this AU was going to be next chapter stuff, but well, I guess the outline is just a suggestion at this point. Yeah, it's by chapter as I thought that would be easier. Uh, not fully, as I changed up that style with some others though I kept Elements with that format for a little easier guess work. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next time is the battle against Burgh and then on to Nimbasa City (if I can keep my thoughts focused XD)!

Also, had to look up the anime clips for Woobat and Furfrou sounds because...well, either I forgot what they sounded like (Woobat's case) or hadn't seen them in an episode as I haven't seen every single episode (Furfrou's). And added in a good case of anime logic as I feel like a level 20 something Liepard wouldn't be able to handle a 50 level Chandelure so easily. XD Or maybe the level got lowered somehow.

One last thing, the idea of having Yusei from the Orre region came from a playthrough that MunchingOrange did back in the day of Pokémon Colosseum and he made an off-handed comment of the play character being like Yusei and the partner girl being like Akiza.