Watcher of Arceus

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Only the idea and OC's.

Author Notes:

-X-This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.

~xXx~ This will identify where each paragraph breaks.

"Human Speech" 'Character Thought' {Pokémon Speech}

Co-author: Catsithx

The following is a total and complete Reboot of the story "Watcher of Arceus".

~xXx~

Chapter 38 : A Champion's Aid

"Get the boy first!" Mars yelled out as she rushed forward, her bronzor at her side while her purugly charged forward to lead the attack. Hearing the words though, Raikou jumped down onto the street between Thomas and Mar's and gave a defiant roar.

Radara dashed forward into the pack first, quickly followed by Thomas who pulled out two of the batons. Radara jumped up onto the ruined box truck and with a strong psychic jolt, moved the whole thing in a show of power. The truck was toppled onto its side and tossed in the general of the incoming other group who scattered a bit while Thomas rushed some of the other grunts already there.

A hard strike to the chest, and a strong electrical jolt along the baton to follow up, Thomas dropped the grunt and already turned to take on another pair of golbats while Raikou charged himself. Tackling Mar's purugly with a volt tackle that sent it flying back, Mars pulled out her own batons and went straight for Thomas.

"Raikou, get out of here!" Thomas yelled out while quickly parrying a blow from the next closest grunt who was at a complete loss, not even sure what to do when he was attacked directly.

[If they want any of us, then they'll fight all of us!] Raikou countered, giving another thunder attack right into the group of grunts, aiming for the largest pokemon besides himself, a charizard was just released. Hearing the sounds of more pokemon being released though, Radara quickly returned her attention to the first group and tried to grab as many pokeballs as she could, even taking a few out of the hands of some of the grunts. This time tossed all of the pokeballs into the over turned box truck now to keep them from getting to them again.

Mars directly tried to strike Thomas now, who just barely held a block against her two handed over head blow. "So... the last group I asked this question kinda ignored me. Any chance you're willing to just talk?" Thomas asked trying to find someway to turn the tables as he let Mar's blow come down, but twisting to the side to just deflect it instead of keep blocking, while also trying to knock her off her feet with a psychic push on her knees.

It worked, but not as well as he had hoped as Mars quickly recovered and spun around herself, caught by her bronzor at her side which dashed to where she would have fallen, and made a small seat of itself to catch her before bouncing her back into battle.

"You will help serve our goals, willingly or not." Mars countered. "Cyrus will remake the world, and you will not stop him." Mars snapped, quickly coming back around for another attack. Thomas took a chance to strike first though, the third baton that he had flying out of his pocket straight for her head and while that was blocked, his follow up wasn't.

Thomas jabbed one baton into her left thigh and tried to give it a heavy shock to take her balance by disabling one of her legs, while also going to a wide strike with the intent of just taking her off her feet entirely. The shock didn't get through her leggings however, leaving Thomas to just guess what they were made of while she not only blocked his attack, but countered. Thomas took a hard blow to his open and exposed right side with her baton, jumping back with a grunt.

Raikou didn't like this though, tackling her in the back and throwing her several feet into the air with a loud roar. Mars gave a yell of pain herself now, and a second as she landed hard, but things only got more complicated when her purugly took the chance to get a hit on Raikou himself with a shadow ball.

They were quickly getting surrounded though, a dozen grunts still around them and even more pokemon. "I don't suppose you could teleport us o-" Thomas started, only to give a hard sudden shiver and dropping one of the batons. The galactic grunts seeing a chance to charge quickly took it though, but something else interrupted them.

A pair of aura spheres collided with a their largest pokemon, a nidoking that was knocked forward and onto its face before a bright blue glowing figure dove into the group of grunts knocking most of them off their feet and tackling three of the smaller pokemon.

"This hardly looks like a fair fight. Perhaps you could use some assistance." A female voice called out loudly, someone else walking up to the large group. The woman was dressed in a large black raincoat and hat with a few yellow bands, almost like an umbreon. Walking beside her was a lucario, and quickly landing at her side was a garchomp.

"I don't mean to be rude... but as the Sinnoh Grand Champion, I can't exactly just let you go around and pick a fight with Raikou. That's a mess in and of itself." Cynthia stated loudly, looking over the group.

"And to top it off, it seems Sinnoh has quite the celebrity visitor right now." She added looking on.

A few of the grunts quickly backed up, but Supervisor Annie didn't back down at all.

"So... what is the Sinnoh Grand Champion doing here? You'd best leave if you want to keep pretending to be a hero." Annie called only, only to get an answer when Cynthia's lucario held out his paws and then summoned another pair of aura spheres.

"On the contrary. I think its a little too late for you to run. But if you surrender now, I may be willing to go easy on you." Cynthia replied, her lucario rushing forward as she took a step forward herself.

Behind Annie however, Mars was already charging in, Thomas just barely able to block a blow, Raikou lashing out and trying to go after the bronzor that was aiding Mars. The bronzor quickly dodged around Raikou, only to dash over and use itself as a step for Mars to jump off of it trying to get on top of the over turned box truck.

Thomas dashed himself though and with a psychic empowered jump easily jumped up onto the side of the nose of the truck, then jumped on up further planting both hands onto the metal siding and giving it a heavy shock. While Mar's boots protected her, the collection of pokeballs on the top conducted part of the shock themselves making them too risky to picky up. The simple shock wouldn't hurt or even effect the pokemon inside and would lock them in place like an electromagnet, but it did make Mars almost fall over trying to keep herself from touching them all of a sudden and gave Thomas a chance to use psychic to collect every one last while she was occupied and let up to change to tactics.

They all rolled towards him and into a bag. "I knew you it, you are just a cheating freak. You can't stand the thought of anyone else being stronger." Mars snapped, only for Thomas to just ignore her and jumped off the truck again, the bag of his shoulder.

Radara was dealing with a pair of golbats herself now, dodging a wing attack from one, and then capturing it in a psychic attack to slam them both into each other, but with so many pokemon, it wasn't easy. Even before she had a chance to release the two golbats another houndoom was upon her, tackling her side her. It would have tried to strike her with a flamethrower attack as well, but Thomas landed hard on it, and gave it a high powered thunder attack himself to knock it out.

Raikou had to switch targets himself, the bronzor never really attacking directly just trying to cover and aid Mars. Mar's purugly had come in for an iron tail, trying to strike it and missing, shredding part of the box truck instead as Raikou jumped back and then hit it with another full strength thunder attack.

The attack only partially caught the purugly though, more attracted the truck and cage within being so close. The entire truck's lights started to glow and a few blew out from the attack, along with the engine a loud explosion from the attack, which did knock Thomas off his feet.

Seeing another opening, an abomasnow and a rampardos tried to charge him, only for the rampardos to slammed hard into the underbelly of the truck, a garchomp having countered it for Thomas, the last bits of blue showing its dragon rush attack which also moved the truck several feet and caught the attention of everyone.

A lucario quickly rushed up and joined it, a large aura bone in its hands like a giant club that was to strike the abomasnow. The attack initially missed though, the abomasnow stopping just short of getting hit and backing up, but Radara aided the lucario now, just barely lifting the abomasnow off its feet so it couldn't go further making it an easy target for a follow up attack that sent it flying though the nearby fence that Thomas and Radara had formerly been hiding behind.

"So, you're the mystery boy who supposedly keeps anyone from capturing the legendary pokemon?" Cynthia asked as she rushed up herself, now back to back with Thomas as Mars tried to jump him, only to seen at the last second. Thomas used his batons to counter and then parry her attack throwing her back as Raikou finally got a good hit on the purugly with a sudden tackle from extreme speed.

"The world k-kinda goes..." Thomas started, Mars yelling out as her bronzor again bounced her back in the right direction, only for Radara hold Mars in place for a second while Thomas let go of his batons to grab her arm this time and pull her into a grab, intent to just rip part of her costume off that seemed to be protecting her from all of his electrical attacks.

It partially worked and he managed to tear off part of her gloves before the bronzor flipped up over Mars and came down hard on his head making him let go and Mars retreated back. While not the strongest attack, it still shook up Thomas a bit.

"Lucario, extreme speed, give us some room here. Garchomp, stone edge." Cynthia called out and both quickly went to work. Lucario was a blur as it moved and struck another houndoom that was getting close, tossing it back while her garchomp jumped up onto smoking truck and crouched down. Two large glowing rings formed around, before they shattered and rained jagged stones towards the largest group of pokemon and grunts, forcing them to scatter and trying to give them some breathing room, trying to keep them disorganized.

"You were saying?" Cynthia continued as Radara now had a chance to try slowing the battle down to something more manageable, putting up a few barriers to protect them from other incoming attacks.

"If the legendary pokemon get captured, the world gets bad. Each one has a role in the world to keep the natural order okay." Thomas countered, still heavily confused but not denying the help, this was clearly a mess and they were already easily outnumbered by a large margin.

"So... all of the legendary pokemon have a worldly role do they?" Cynthia asked, just readily side stepping a stray ember shot, then using her umbrella to take another two shots. While it did ruin the umbrella, it did stop Radara from getting hit though who shored up her defenses and doubled down on trying to slow and control the fight to give them a much needed edge.

"Yeah, pretty much." Thomas stated, still unsure of everything as he turned and tackled Annie now who was running up and screaming, not that Thomas was paying much attention to her. Unlike Mars however, Annie was a pushover, nothing protecting her from Thomas's electrical tackle and she spasmed hard before passing out.

"Look out." Cynthia called out, and used the umbrella to point out Mar's coming back again, this time with a metal broom handle, and a fresh new glove. She charged Thomas, but when Thomas blocked, the handle was already bending and Thomas knew it was just a cheap hollow handle. Slamming the side of it, he forced wrapped part of it around the baton that had been used to block with and then jerked upwards ripping it from Mar's hands and pulling her closer.

With her jerked forward and knowing that he had to get a bit more direct then usual, he followed up with a heavy handed open palm strike grabbing her face, even with his own psychic but more to protect her, and toppled her entirely. She hit the pavement hard, her head cushioned enough to prevent real injury, giving a loud yell before she was gagged.

'Bind her with this!' Radara cried out seeing Thomas take down Mars, and knowing that she was one of the their leaders, hoped that her defeat would disorganize and demoralize the others giving them such much needed breathing room. The cable from the winch used to help load large things into the box truck was jerked out by Radara and Thomas held Mars down while Cynthia gave him some breathing room.

Thomas still had to duck under another flamethrower attack, but her lucario jumped down and halted the nidoking from charging at him, holding it in place while Raikou turned on Mar's purugly again, trying to strike it with another thunderbolt.

As Thomas pulled up Mars to start tying her up though, her bronzor had still gotten through and tried pound him on the head again, only striking hard against the weak barrier that Thomas could muster on his own, easily cracking it though. He barely had enough time to wrap the cable around Mar's twice before the bonzor broke through and when it to hit him again, only for Thomas to twist around and pull up Mars to try and stop him. The bronzor did stop itself from hitting Mars though who was a bit out of it, but it just changed course and spun around bashing into Thomas's side making him grunt out in pain.

Before it could hit Thomas again though, Cynthia was already on it. "Garchomp, stomp!" Cynthia yelled out, and before the bronzor could move, it was already under foot of the dragon and flat against the cracked pavement. "Watch yourself." Cynthia stated, ducking down under an aura sphere that her lucario had fired, hitting the abamosnow hard again as soon as it got back up.

With the bronzor almost knocked out though and heavily dazed, Thomas just pulled it towards him and then laid it against Mar's back, and wrapped them both up fully, and tightly, before tossing them both into the still open cage in the back. Knowing that just wrapping them up wouldn't be enough though, he found a pair of hand cuffs and cuffed one of Mar's hands, before wrapping the chain around the cable as best he could, then cuffing her other hand.

Hoping that it would hold long enough, he tried closing the cage as he rushed back out of the truck. He just barely had time to help block a blow from the nidoking, his barrier smashed hard and barely holding, even with Radara's help. Raikou seeing that they needed help dove in and jumped over it giving it a full powered thunder attack himself, and sirens could now be heard in the distance, a quick glance showed flashing lights in the distance even as the storm started to get worse.

"Get him already!" Mars shouted, having spit out her gag now, trying to get free but unable to do it quickly even with her recovering bronzor's help.

The sirens, Mars's "capture" and supervisor Annie being knocked out were all adding up and a few grunts just called back their pokemon and ran not wanting to fight Cynthia, Thomas, their pokemon, and Raikou all at once.

The others though seemed even more determined though. "No more games... We're team galactic and we won't lose to you, our goals will be completed!" One of the men yelled out trying to rally those that remained.

Thomas quickly drew his batons, but his barrier fell apart entirely now and he knew Radara was having issues as he turned to face her. He could tell that something had distracted her heavily as she was shaking her head, their senses only getting worse. He charged into the nidoking and gave it all he could as well, following up Raikou's attack with his own attack.

He threw both batons hard into its head knocking it off balance and then rushing its legs. He dashed to its left side, pulling his batons back to him and then throwing them into the back of its knee to try and topple it, Radara recovering and taking the chance to make it lunge forward and smash his head into the side of the truck.

While she was doing that though, Thomas was tackled by the purugly, knocked down himself and his arm was caught in her mouth making him yell out since Raikou had given it a chance to attack. Cynthia moved to assist, her lucario rushing with her and as it darted forward with an aura bone in hand, it jumped to safety even as the lucario chased it.

Cynthia helped up Thomas and checked his arm, only to once more spark up a converstation. "So... how's the life with your lucario? That was quite a bold move, arranging a wedding for you and your pokemon in the middle of a festival like that."

One of the remaining houndooms tried to rush her and Thomas both, only for Radara to jump in, landing on top of it and bouncing it into the ground, before Cynthia's garchomp flew by and grabbed it, flying up and then tossing it into the nidoking pushing both into the box truck.

"That was not my idea." Thomas quickly snapped, not even caring that Cynthia was the one making that comment right now as distracted as he was. "Mew is a child and while I have to thank him for the distraction to save my sister Dahlia, that whole thing was a mistake!"

"Oh... are you not happy to be your with your lucario?" Cynthia asked, helping Thomas stand up fully now, Thomas throwing his bad arm out, the baton catching a grunt that was coming right at them. It was a bad throw and the grunt blocked, but did give Cynthia an opening who took the chance to just flip the man over her shoulder and onto the pavement.

"W-what? Yes, yes I'm happy with Rebecca and she's happy with me! Just because Mew made a major disaster of things doesn't mean we're not trying to have a life together as lovers." Thomas just blurted out, grabbing the grunts belt with his good arm and ripping it out, before tying the grunt's arms with it.

"Lovers huh... so it was a wedding. I do so hope you enjoyed the honey moon. Mew, the child that you called him, didn't spoil that for you did he?" Cynthia teased, her curiosity about Thomas and his live, and his connection to the legendary pokemon all of great interest to Cynthia.

'Now is not the time to be asking about my brother's sex life!' Radara snapped now, the voice heard by all in Radara's discontent with the situation. Grabbing the abomasnow that was still a problem, she made it a perfect target now for Cynthia's lucario when it suddenly couldn't move and was hit dead by her lucario's attack knocking it out cleanly now as it just slumped down in Radara's grasp still before collasping as Radara let it go.

"Now that's a powerful espeon, its very rare to hear such a clear telepathic voice." Cynthia stated as she snapped her fingers and pointed towards the last of the large pokemon they were still fighting against, a swampert that had been in the back mostly until now. Her garchomp quickly targeted it now though as Cynthia spared a glance at Radara. "Are you a legendary pokemon as well?"

"Now's really not the time. We need to get out of here before we cause any real damage." Thomas stated realizing just who was in the conversation, giving another small shudder and then threw his baton at the last of the close grunts, also knocking him down and disabling him.

"It seems limited to their equipment to me, and its not like they are properly a challenge anymore. Very good work with their commanding figures." Cynthia noted, her lucario dropping another galactic pokemon and finally the rest tried to run. With the lot of them running on the one side though, and several police vehicles rushing up from the other, Raikou quickly jumped down to Thomas's side.

[Hardly a challenge indeed. We should go, quickly though. Darkrai explained the human situation well, we shouldn't be here any longer then I need to be.] Raikou noted and leaned over. Radara already jumped up on his back and Thomas followed, covering her a bit before they both held on tightly.

"Oh no y-" Cynthia started, only just barely noticing that Thomas was trying to take off. She had turned quickly and went out to grab him, but it was too late and Raikou jumped away and left her standing among the group of disabled grunts and knocked out galactic pokemon.

"Well, that certainly proved interesting. I guess I should count myself lucky today. And here I thought that being stuck down here for a week might be a little boring." Cynthia smirked, calling back her lucario as the police rushed up, her garchomp landing beside her.

"Hey, was that that kid from the news? The... the... Toby? Thombas?" The leading officer yelled as he ran up.

"Thomas, Thomas Falston. And yes, that was him." Cynthia noted, watching Raikou run off into the fields besides the warehouse, easily jumping fences, walls, and even some trees.

"Why didn't you stop him!?" The officer yelled.

"First off, my duties as a regional grand champion don't technically give me the right to make arrests. Secondly, while Thomas may no longer be an official trainer, he's not a wanted terrorist and the only actually listed offenses he has on his record right now are merely being a key witness in one major event, of which he has already be fully cleared by Queen Ilene of criminal charges inside the Kingdom of Rota, as well as defending a small bakery on the Orange Islands from an armed thief. Unwelcome publicity paint him as something wrong, but there's no real crimes that's we know he's committed yet." Cynthia noted.

"What my responsibilities as a regional grand champion do require of me however is the handling of pokemon in extreme circumstances, as well as the legendary pokemon. He was helping to protect Raikou, he helped limit damages to the immediate area, and he helped capture at least one, maybe more high ranking Team Galactic members. And any attempt to stop him from leaving may have been a complication and perhaps even contradiction to my duties, since it was Raikou who picked him up on his own, without verbal commands." Cynthia noted.

~xXx~

Xent, Sarah, and Dahlia were listening in to his pokedex and the police scanner app he had on it. A pair of binoculars, the sighting of a lucario that the woman called back, and the garchomp at her side and they all knew exactly who it was as the woman started to walk away from the police.

"You see. You SEE!" Xent yelled, a bit of a snarl, aggravated and clearly unhappy. "You never utter that question. Never tempt fate, never ask the cursed question, never push your luck like that." Xent snapped.

"Fate... is not a legendary aspect. It does not go out of its non-existent way to screw with people. This is purely coincidence." Dahlia countered, watching the last traces of Raikou running off in the distance.

"You don't get it do you? This is bad. This is very far from anything good. Cynthia is not a person to get on the bad side of. If at any point she chooses to apprehend us, we cannot stop her. If there are people who can easily capture the legendary pokemon, Cynthia, possibly the best pokemon trainer in the world by a large margin, is at the top of that list." Xent added aggressively.

"I don't think Cynthia was trying to hurt or capture Thomas." Sarah said now.

"You saw her try to grab him at the last second before he jumped away and the police blocked our view." Xent countered, only for Dahlia just to open the door and get up and look around some while standing on the seat to try and get some extra height.

"And I've lost them..." Dahlia noted, before sitting back down and closing the door again.

"I thought your special eyes could follow him. He's not subtle right?" Sarah asked.

"Only when he travels by storm clouds and lightning bolts." Dahlia noted. "We should head north and see if we can find them though, before anything else happens."

Xent just grumbled loudly, before turning the truck back on and starting down the road again. He made a small turn to get some distance away from the police and then started to go north again. "So... should be go back to that old ruined shrine again? You seem to think that there might be a sanctuary there."

"It seems like as good a place as any to start." Dahlia noted as she pulled up the map on Xent's pokedex again. "Its the only place that I could think that would draw him here."

"Blasted thunder mutt couldn't even be bothered to leave a note about where he was going, making us chase him down everywhere..." Xent grumbled.

Dahlia just muttered something under her breathe though. "Just take us back to the old burned shrine. There were some signs of people there anyway, and I swear even at a distance I could feel a sanctuary under it."

-x-

A quick drive back to the burned shrine that Sarah had pointed out on they way down to the Old Shinzo district in the first place and they were looking over the shrine a bit closer up. Dahlia quickly explained that she would try to find the entrance to the sanctuary if there was one, but Xent and Sarah could at least look around inside if they could, try to see if there was any trace of Raikou who was known to sometimes mingle around such places looking for interesting offerings at times.

Xent and Sarah walked up into the partially burned shrine where the lights were on, hoping to get a clue about Thomas. Dahlia had thought that the building looked a little odd, and its courtyard had a strange out of place look to it, like it had been redecorated over time. She thought that maybe it might hold the entrance to the sanctuary she felt, but in her current condition, it would take a moment to try and open it and it would be best if she wasn't disturbed.

This left Xent and Sarah to look around a bit and see if they find any clues about Thomas, Radara, or Raikou. At the very least, even if they couldn't find any clues, they could distract whoever was inside and let Dahlia try to find the entrance to the sanctuary.

Before they could get far though, a priest had walked out from a door and quickly noticed them. "Excuse me, can I help you?" He asked, practically already on top of them. He gave them both a thorough look, studying them for a second and Xent quickly got worried slowly reaching for Verna's pokeball just in case, but Sarah stopped him, not eager to attack a priest.

The priest suddenly gave a very large and happy smile, and even clapped a bit though. "Oh my, Juniper? Juniper Moon, oh I haven't seen you since you were but wee little girl just starting her journey. I'm so sorry, you just missed your mother."

"I'm not Juniper..." Sarah said slowly, the priest looking at her again.

"Oh, m-my mistake. You look just like the daughter of Sister Jane. But if your not Juniper, what could you possibly be doing here. Shouldn't you be seeking cover the from the storm? I hear there's a chance that it could turn inland, and this rain is already bad enough with it so far off the coast." The priest asked seeming to be very worried now as he looked them over.

"We're looking for a lost friend that were supposed to meet up with. He was out on his journey before the storm showed up. He told us to meet him around here, but he never showed up." Xent quickly lied. "We were hoping that maybe he just got a little lost, not really lost."

The priest nodded quickly, only for another bright flash of lightning to strike one of the lightning rods on the tower, followed by a loud crack of thunder to sound. "Come, let's get out of the rain." He stated, and quickly moved them towards one of the side buildings.

As they stepped into the side building and looked over the room quickly, the priest lead them inside to a small table. "You'll have to excuse the mess my children." He stated as he walked over a small refreshment table and started to get them all some hot water, cocoa mix, and a few wafers.

"We're busy cleaning up the remainder of the buildings. Its been slow going with everything going on, but we hope to reopen the proper shrine one day." He added as he walked back up.

"Now... what was it that you were looking for? Something about a friend missing in the rain while hiking on her? His journey? Such a nasty time to get lost with this large storm rolling in."

"Yeah, a bad time alright. We were supposed to pick him up at the pokemon center down the road, but he wasn't there. We know he has a major thing for the legendary pokemon though, its sorta his hobby, and was hoping that he might be here." Xent explained, with just a shrug looking to Sarah who seemed to have a slightly odd look on her face.

"He's into the legendary pokemon is he? I certainly hope he doesn't mean to catch them, that would be a lot of trouble to get into." The priest noted, stated setting the tray down and offering them both a cup, and two packets of cocoa mix.

"Oh no, its the history of them that get off to-... sorry sorry, didn't mean to word it like that. He's a real history buff, pokemon Professor Oak is his idol, he wants to be the first person to try and fully record the proper legends of all of the legendary pokemon. We were kind of hoping that he had come here for a look." Xent quickly replied, taking the cup and mixing up a packet of cocoa.

Sarah took hers as well, but didn't seem too interested in the offered drink, or even the wafer cookies. "Well, I can assure you that I haven't seen him. As far as I know, its just me, Brother Jeeves, and Sister Stacy here right now. Its usually just been the three of us here at nights for the past few months and I don't think I've seen anyone else today at all for that matter." The priest explained.

Xent seemed to notice this though as he looked at her. "Something wrong there?" Xent asked, a bit confused.

"Are you sure your fine? You do look out of it. I'm sure you'll find your friend soon enough, have hope dear child." The priest asked.

"I... We should keep looking." Sarah finally stated after a moment, just looking at the priest the whole time, Xent giving a sigh.

"Good luck, apologies for wasting some good cocoa. Have a nice day and may your clean up go smoothly." Xent stated as he got back up and walked with Sarah out of the building back towards the rental truck.

"My sincerest apologies. I do hope that you can find your friend. I'm sure you'll all be reunited soon enough. Please, be safe, find your friend, and take cover from this storm. Don't take chances, make sure you stay safe. I've seen too many trainers think too highly of themselves, but weather like this can hurt people." The priest gave a gentle smile and a nod, taking their cups and moving them back to the refreshment table.

Once they got back in, they looked around a bit for Dahlia, who came back around the building, and then teleported back into the truck with them. "Raikou was here, I found a few paw prints that were definitely his, as well as some boot prints of someone getting off of him, that had to be Thomas."

"They were here." Sarah quickly stated.

"Yes, I image they were here. I can feel a sanctuary under our feet. I don't know how to access it though, its been too long without my proper senses, I can't feel the entrance correctly. The courtyard wasn't it though." Dahlia noted.

"I think that priest might know." Sarah added, Xent and Dahlia giving her a strange look.

"And... how do you know that?" Xent asked.

"I can't explain it, but. B-but its like there's this... feeling, this thing in my head. He was lying to us. Half the things he said were lies." Sarah said softly, even biting her lip a bit, something wrong with her, or at least different.

"I don't think he was lying. I mean sure he recognized us, but he quickly called you the daughter of one of the sisters. I also saw the name on one of the rooms we passed." Xent stated.

"But... don't priests like them vow not to get married?" Sarah asked.

"More then you think do have families. Sometimes, they come to find their calling at a church because of family, their spouses abusing them or something like that. But... seriously though, I don't think he was lying, and if he did recognize us, he wasn't going to call the cops on us, so I think we got lucky."

"I... Look, I can't shake this feeling okay. I think he knows who we are, and that he was lying about not seeing anyone else there tonight. I have nasty feeling about him, it-its... no, its more then feeling. I know we can't trust that man. There's this tingling and I swear I saw something bad about that man, like there was a bad color about him... maybe it was illusion, like Zai's." Sarah noted.

"That was no illusion. I've spent enough time helping Zai perfect hers, I know how to spot them." Xent replied, but still just as confused.

Another strike of lightning on top of the shrine's lightning rod drew Dahlia's attention though. "One thing is for certain, Raikou is here. That's the second bolt of lightning drawn to this place, and not because of the lightning rod."

"Well... what else could it be. It looked weird, like he it was coming off of him and I swear I know he's lying. If it wasn't an illusion, what else could it be?" Sarah asked, or rather partially demanded.

"You said a nasty feeling, more like a tingling in your head, your head and not your spine?" Dahlia asked now.

"Yeah, and there was something weird about the man, and how he looked off, like just something was coming off of him, but it so light and small I can't be sure, but I just can't be losing it now." Sarah replied quickly.

"Xent... find a place to park the truck that's out of the way. In a place that its hidden, but we'll be able to get back to quickly if we need to." Dahlia stated, Xent shaking his head.

"Okay, what's going on here." Xent asked.

"I don't know yet. Just call it a hunch, but I don't want to push it without a reason." Dahlia replied and Xent found a quite place to park just down the road, but still in easy view of the shrine.

"Call out Verna, I'm going to need her help." Dahlia explained as she got out and took cover under a large tree beside them.

Xent just went with it as he called out Verna while following Dahlia and Sarah.

"Sarah, we need some things from the boat, so I'm going to teleport myself and Xent there to get them. Verna, I'm going to need your help to teleport back here though." Dahlia explained, taking a chance to take a picture of Verna and the tree on Xent's pokedex, then walking up to Verna.

"Deep breathes, concentrate on me, help me find my way back." Dahlia stated, taking Verna's hands and just leaning her head into Verna's, who readily leaned back knowing that something was up. "Feel me, focus on my mind, on me, on helping me back. We are a pair, we can find each other, we belong with each other." Dahlia stated.

'We... we are a pair. We will find each other. I'll guide your way back.' Verna stated, a bit of blush on her face, but eager to help, sharing thoughts and more with Dahlia, trying to sync their bond with each other, and eager to do it.

"I have so dearly missed these feelings." Dahlia smiled some, before slowly letting Verna go, and then taking a few steps back, before taking Xent's hand and pulling him close.

"We'll be back as fast as we can." Dahlia stated, and then the two of them were gone.

"And... just what am I supposed to do right now?" Sarah whined, just confused and looking back towards the shrine again.

-x-

Dahlia and Xent both teleported right into helm of the boat, Zai giving a loud scream and falling off her chair from the sudden appearance of the two of them. Her chair knocked over, she had no hope of hiding what she was looking at on the desk beside the controls as Xent stumbled a bit, catching himself on the same desk, head down catching his breath.

"Never going to g-get..." He started, only to see what exactly what Zai had been looking at. His face quickly turned red, the nude male model magazine of men in pokemon outfits, as well as the plastic cover and receipt showing that it had just been bought that night all mounting up in Xent's head.

Zai jumped up, grabbed it and tried to hide it in the bookshelf behind her, a very poor and obviously fake smile on her smile on her face, leaving Xent only looking at a small personal photo of himself where the magazine had been a second ago.

"Z-zai..." Xent stated, slowly holding up the receipt, that Zai just snatched out of his hands. "Where did you get that... w-what else do you have under my be-bed... NO! Nope, no, forget it, I do not need to know the answer to that question." Xent stated, shaking his head, arms, and even just looking entirely away.

"Xent, hurry up. We've got move now. You can talk to her about her porn later." Dahlia stated, just tossing a duffle bag into his hands. "Start collecting things." Dahlia stated as Juno finally walked up.

[Did something happen?] Juno asked.

"Raikou is in the city, its not looking good." Dahlia noted, before rushing downstairs.

Dahlia quickly rushed down to Sarah's room and began slowly looking through the various things. "Come on, where are they. I know Thomas mentioned them, where are they?" Dahlia asked, quickly checking over everything, and then slowly looking through her shelves.

[What exactly are you looking for?] Juno asked as she followed Dahlia slowly.

"Gloves. You mentioned that Mew gave Sarah some gloves, aura knight training gloves." Dahlia stated, only for Juno to move a few tails over and pointed to the bottom drawer of Sarah's dresser.

[You think she has potential worth using them? She didn't exactly favor them last time.] Juno asked.

"Call it a hunch, but she just called a priest a liar, and said that it was more of a feeling, like a tingling almost, but not in her spine." Dahlia noted quickly opening the drawer and looking into the back to find them, pulling them out.

"These are the real deal alright. Leave to Mew to collect things from all eras and never tell us about them." Dahlia grinned, inspecting them thoroughly.

[He is still and will always be a child.] Juno smirked.

"Who may have just saved us a second time despite all the trouble he causes." Dahlia stated, rushing back upstairs, but also grabbing Cedo's tonfa out of Thomas's room before rushing back upstairs.

"I have what I need, do you have everything you think you need?" Dahlia quickly asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. I grabbed what all I though could be use." Xent stated, holding up a large duffle bag.

"Put these in it... and let's grab some food, water, and medical while we're at it." Dahlia stated, handing him the tonfas and gloves. "And keep those gloves in easy reach, we'll need them right away." Dahlia noted, moving to the kitchen, getting canteens, a few snack bars, and a first aid kit.

"You really think we'll need all that." Xent asked.

"Better to be prepared for a long night then not have enough." Dahlia replied handing him the med kit and snack bars. "We missed dinner, and its not like we can just order a pizza, we'll need something at some point."

Xent just nodded in agreement still a bit red, Zai now slowly slinking downstairs. "Oh no you don't. You still watch the boat... no one can know who owns it. And we're not done here." Xent stated firmly, before Dahlia grabbed him and concentrated.

[What's going on?] Suicune asked now, coming up the stairs, having been woken up at last.

[Something about Riakou in the city.] Juno stated.

[Riakou is here? Whatever for?] Suicune asked.

"I don't know, only that Team Galactic is involved and he might be visiting a shrine around the original city that this one grew up around." Dahlia stated, letting go of Xent.

"Look, just be ready for anything... and if you need, take the boat and get out of it. Zai already knows how to pilot it, we'll catch up somehow." Dahlia noted, then grabbed Xent again, and flash, they were gone.

-x-

"What do you want?" Sarah quickly asked, a hand going for her pokeballs as the other figure walked up slowly. Finally walking into the light, it was easy to see who it as just as Dahlia and Xent teleported back.

"Sarah, there's so-." Dahlia started, only to see Cynthia standing there beside them, Verna standing between Sarah and Cynthia.

"A vocal gardevoir capable of common speech, now this is turning into quite the interesting day." Cynthia stated just looking on.

"Sarah Sigil... and Xent... Haste or Crostavia? You've got quite a lot of alias, but I'm more interested in the real you, so let's just stick with Xent." Cynthia stated looking them both over now.

"What do you want..." Xent stated, now extremely worried, quickly calling out Akra to his side, Dahlia ripping one of the tonfa free from the bag and taking a stance.

"Turn around and walk away. Now is not the time to be messing with us. I know you try to help a lot of people, but getting involved with us will only turn your life upside down." Dahlia stated firmly, her eyes flashing, but Cynthia didn't seem to care.

"I'm afraid that I can't do that. And having my life... turned upside down seems like quite a way to pass the time honestly. If your trying to hypnotize me, please don't bother. I'm well skilled in my own mental facilities." Cynthia stated, moving up slowly, but did raise her hands.

"I can't leave though, not until I'm sure Raikou is out of the city for certain. I'm pretty sure that Team Galactic won't be so quick to give him up, or your friend Thomas. I'm sure that's why you're here after all." Cynthia stated.

"I'll ask again... what do you want?" Xent stated, still backing up a bit, and entirely worried now.

"You look very red there Xent, are you okay? Should we get out of the cold before you get sick?" Cynthia asked.

"Don't change the subject. Answer his question." Dahlia demanded now, now with Verna between them.

"I'm here to help ensure the safety of Coral Coast City... and if I get the chance, study a legendary pokemon. Thomas made mention that all the legendary pokemon have a place in the natural order of the world. I know that supposedly, a number of them are very clearly responsible for many things, like the weather trio from the elemental islands... who were supposed seen flying north, and up to Mount Coronet recently." Cynthia explained.

"The whole world is kind of talking about it, and then there's that whole supposedly big reveal about Thomas and his connection to the legendary pokemon. If something big is going on, I can't just ignore it. Team Galactic certainly is not. And to be rather bluntly honest, both you and Thomas look like you need some help and I'm willing to offer mine." Cynthia continued.

"Xent..." Dahlia stated firmly, turning the sharp end of the tonfa towards Cynthia right now to show she meant business, that she was ready for a real fight.

"Time to run?" Xent asked slowly.

"Hand Sarah those gloves, quickly." Dahlia replied.

"G-gloves?" Sarah asked, very confused, only for Xent to pull them out and hand them to her, Sarah gasping out and dropping them. "No... No, please no. I don't want those."

"I know that your first time feeling the emotions might have been rough, but you need them. That tingling back in the shrine, that feeling that was more then a feeling. It could have been aura. You already tried them one, they already started to realign your aura for use." Dahlia stated.

"But... but I don't want to feel that terror, that regret and despair again." Sarah quickly stated as Xent picked them back up and handed them to Sarah again.

"I'm worried and angry right now, maybe a little confused. Verna is worried for us all, but ready to help us, no matter what happens, and Xent's just heavily embarressed about catching Zai red handed in the middle of looking through some porn, possibly imaging about him." Dahlia stated rather calmly.

"Put them on, you'll know real quick if Cynthia is really here to help us. Even if I'm not strong enough to look through her mind, she can't hide her aura from a real aura user." Dahlia continued.

Now Xent and Sarah were both red while Verna had a small smile on her face. "D-dahlia... that did not need to be common knowledge." Xent blurted out, even Cynthia having something of a small grin now.

"Sarah needs to know what to expect or she'll never put those gloves on, and we need her to have them on." Dahlia countered.

"F-fine." Sarah stated as the stand off only got more tense, even with the unusual added information. She slowly put them on and even with just one on, she could start to feel things. Xent was indeed heavily embarrassed, and shy about it. There were a few other feelings from him too with him being right there, feelings that she knew from personal experience. There were feelings of love there, a crush on someone, Zai, and a need to do better, to be better himself, to not give up. She had only felt it for a second though, just as Xent was helping her put them on and touching the gloves with her, those feelings fading when Xent let her go entirely.

The next feelings around her were Dahlia's, a powerful need of family, to help and protect, a resolve and determination that just awed Sarah, and Sarah could feel a connection to Verna there. There was a soft gentle light over Dahlia as if that determination was given form, and then Sarah just slowly looked towards Cynthia.

"Do you really mean to help us?" Dahlia repeated, Sarah looking right at Cynthia.

"I don't know what you expect me to say, but I guess that depends on the type of help you're looking for. I'm here to protect the city, to maybe protect Raikou." Cynthia stated rather quickly now.

"My goals, if that is what you're really asking me about, are to come to the aid of the city. Riakou isn't part of the known natural habitat of the Sinnoh Region, the people aren't use to him, the local pokemon aren't use to him, and it seems like this storm got specifically a bit more worse anywhere he might be. If he wants to move here into Sinnoh, by all means, that may be his choice, but he can't just move into the city, that would cause a lot of problems." Cynthia explained.

"I'm here first to keep the peace, to find a peaceful means to resolve this issue, with as few people and pokemon getting hurt as possible. And if by chance, I get the chance to study a legendary pokemon I'm not horribly familiar with along the way, then it sounds like a delightful way to pass the time. Team Galactic clearly knows that Raikou is here in the city though, and while I did just manage to help capture a dozen of their number, including one of their commanders, it didn't last long. I already got a message that after I left, their commander escaped with four others when they were ambushed. Perhaps I should have stayed with them longer, but the fact remains that as long as Raikou is in the city, people and pokemon may get hurt." Cynthia finished.

Dahlia just spared a glance to Sarah though, who gave a slow nod. "I... I don't think she's lying." Sarah said slowly. With that, Cynthia put her hands down, only for Dahlia to raise her tonfa again.

"What? You're aura user believes me, I've got nothing to hide here. If you're really here to help Thomas and Raikou, then let me help. I mean I won't help you if you want to cause harm to people, but I'm pretty sure that your connected to Thomas, after what happened in Cameran Castle. Queen Ilene certainly thinks highly of you three after all, she cleared you all completely of any criminal charges in the Kingdom of Rota." Cynthia stated, hands now on her hips.

Dahlia just still held her pose for a moment, before slowly relaxing. "We are here to get Raikou out of the city... after we hear why he's even in the city in the first place." Dahlia stated.

"Then I'm willing to offer my assistance." Cynthia replied, offering her hand.

"Okay, so she's here now. Don't piss her off I guess..." Xent grumbled under his breathe and mostly just to himself.