[Pokémon] Untitled FanFic

[fire_and_ice]

Okay so this is my first fanfic, I really hope someone likes it! So I'll start with listing the characters and all that fun stuff.


Book One: Ghosts from the Past

Characters: Storm Ripley- 17 years old, female, Sunyshore City native.
Brandon Ripley- Storm's father, retired Kanto Frontier Brain.
Natalia Ripley- Storm's mother, Contest master from Johto, lives in Ecruteak.

Volkner- Sunyshore Gym leader, Storm's best friend, 17 years old.

Palmer- Volkner's father, Brandon's best friend, Sinnoh Frontier Brain.

Karla- Native of Jubilife City, teams up with Storm in Sandgem Town.
Max- Petalburg City native, teams up with Storm and Karla in Sandgem Town.

Professor Rowan- Sinnoh's top Pokémon researcher.
Shaymin- the Rare Pokémon Rowan was studying.

Kendrick- An old friend of Storm's who disappeared several years ago without a trace.



Bad Dudes: Neo Team Galactic
- Leader: Saturn
- Commanders: Charon, Jupiter, Mars, Pluto
- Evil goal- to be revealed….





Chapter 1: Pushed Out the Door


Sunyshore City was a beacon to the entire Sinnoh region. Literally and figuratively. Sunyshore was known for its energy efficiency around the entire region. The city had solar panels for roads, wind turbines on the high cliffs that overlooked the cerulean blue seas, and strict laws that would minimize pollution. Motorized vehicles were non-existent and all the citizens recycled their trash. Then there was the lighthouse. It sat on a small island off the coast of Sunyshore. It was the beacon to those who were out at sea, and this is where Storm Ripley and her best friend, the city's gym leader, Volkner are at.

Storm is 17 years old, but is very different from most people her age. She never left and started a journey, she had her first Pokémon, but she felt satisfied with her life as it was. Her dad was Brandon, the famous Frontier Brain from the Kanto region, who had retired four years prior, just so he could continue to study ancient ruins and civilizations. Her mother was Natalia Ripley, a famous Contest Master from Johto. Though her parents had divorced when she was little, Storm respected her parents greatly as family and as trainers. Secretly though, every time she thought about how accomplished her family was, she would have a sick stomach knowing the reputations she would have to live up to if she ever started a journey.

"Storm?" the confused but friendly voice of her best friend asked.

Storm had been deep in thought as she gazed out at the ocean, knowing that across that water was where the Sinnoh Pokémon League competition was held every year. Upon hearing her friend's voice, she snapped out of her trance.

"Storm, I know that look. Tell me what's up?"

Storm shook her head and looked at him, "Its nothing…" her voice was sad.

Volkner did not look satisfied with the answer she had given him, but decided to drop it. He knew that Storm hated when he pried at something. He gazed out at the water, watching the waves roll in toward the beach.

Out of nowhere, the panicked and tone deaf beeping of a Pokégear startled the two friends. Storm whipped out the cell phone like item and flipped it open.

She let out an annoyed groan. Volkner knew that her dad was calling her to most likely tell her to go home. Storm's dad was unbelievably strict, and both Storm and Volkner wished that he would ease up a little.

"Okay. I will be there in a few minutes." Storm answered to the person that had called her.

When she hung up, Volkner could tell something was really wrong.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"My dad, of course. He told me that I needed to head home. Whatever is bothering him is really important…" Storm replied in her quiet but serious tone, averting her eyes from her friend.
"You better get going then…" Volkner said after a few moments, he was always disappointed when Storm had to leave.

"Yeah…" Storm responded as she headed over to the elevator of the lighthouse.

She took one last look at her friend, while in her mind all she could think about was getting rid of being 'just friends'. She had liked Volkner for a long time, since they were both kids, but she never had the guts to tell him how she really felt.

Little did she know Volkner was on the same thought pattern…

As the elevator doors closed, they both waved to each other with half smiles on their faces.

Storm departed the lighthouse a few minutes later, stopping briefly to release her Pokémon from its Pokéball. (The lighthouse would not allow Pokémon to be outside of their Pokéballs). Pressing the compressor on the front, the sphere popped open and a ball of white light emerged, settling on the ground in front of her. The light quickly disappeared and revealed a small Eevee. Storm put the Pokéball back on her belt and bent down to pet her Eevee.

"We had better get home before dad flips his lid…" Storm told Eevee in a low voice.

Eevee looked up at her, little brown eyes shining, and said its name to agree with Storm.

Storm picked Eevee up off the ground to carry her, and began walking toward the north end of town.



….


When Storm arrived at her house, Eevee jumped out of her arms and darted toward the double front doors.

The Ripley house was a large house on the beaches of Sunyshore, and it most certainly looked like a beach house, but with a large swimming pool, and a fenced in area where Brandon's Pokémon were most likely relaxing and enjoying the nice summer day. The house was flanked by steep cliffs that had various odd trees growing on the more solid looking ledges. In the front yard, there was a garden with flowers and just about any berry plant imaginable.

The house itself was white like the sands of the beach, with a gray roof that was designed to withstand hurricanes. A porch ran around the house, extending out in the back to make the deck and pool areas.

Storm caught up to her Pokémon at the front doors of the house.

"I really wish you wouldn't jump out of my arms like that Eevee." Storm said to the little fox like creature.

Eevee made the expression to signal that she was hungry and began lightly scratching the door.

Storm opened the door and Eevee darted inside, headed toward the kitchen for her lunch. After she closed the door, she took her boots off and followed her Pokémon's example, going to the kitchen.

"Storm is that you?" a deep male voice called from the direction that Storm was headed in. The voice was that of Storm's father, retired Kanto Battle Frontier Brain, Brandon. A very intimidating man in his early 50s, the exact opposite of Storm's mother.

"Yeah, Dad." Storm answered as she walked into the kitchen where she found her dad feeding his Ninjask Pokémon food. "So what's up?"

Brandon scrunched up his eyebrows as if trying to figure how to explain what needed to be said, then looked back at his daughter. "I received a phone call from Professor Rowan this morning. He told me some very disturbing news…"

Storm had been giving Eevee a lunch of Pokémon food and Poffins, but the last sentence her father had spoken had made her stop and listen.

"Disturbing news?" she asked, looking at her father.

Brandon nodded, "It appears that someone is trying to steal a very important Pokémon from his lab. This is no ordinary Pokémon, its something like no one has ever seen before."

"An extremely rare Pokémon? I understand that that is a big deal, but why did he call you?" Storm asked.

"Because he needs help with returning that Pokemon to its home. The Professor is very old and cannot do it himself, so he asked me if I knew of anyone who could accomplish this task…"

"So you are going to help the Professor?" Storm asked, interrupting her father.

"No, not me. You are going." Brandon answered.

Storm stared wide-eyed at her father, not able to find the words she needed.

"M-me?" the girl stammered.

"Yes you. I know you can handle it." Brandon walked over to a cabinet to put his Ninjask's food away. "Besides, it's about time you left on your own journey with your own Pokémon. Trust me, you need to get out on your own for a while."

"B-but… I'm not ready to leave. I have no experience or- "

"I know it seems like I am pushing you out the door, but believe me, a journey will make you stronger. All you have to do is take that rare Pokémon back to its home; perfectly simple. Then you can come back here and everything will be back to the way it was."

Storm was silent, staring at the floor with wide-eyes, terrified that she had to come face to face with her fear: being compared to her parents. She knew if she ever left on a journey, she would have to live up to two extraordinary reputations, now she was facing it and she could not think straight.

Maybe I should go, after all I'm not going to compete in Gym battles or Contests. As soon as I am done taking that Pokémon back home, I'll be back here in Sunyshore, hanging out with Volkner just like old times. It seems like he is giving me a choice, but I know that he isn't really. I'll have to go no matter what I say…

After a while, Storm looked up at her father and nodded.

"So you made up your mind?" Brandon asked, crossing his arms.

"I'll go." Storm finalized.

"Good. Because you have to leave tonight. There is a ship that will take you to Sandgem Town tonight, so when you wake up in the morning you'll be at Sandgem." Brandon explained.

"T-tonight?" Storm was panicking again.

"Yeah. This is an emergency after all." Brandon said as he walked around the kitchen, gathering various supplies his daughter would need on her journey. "You better go upstairs and get your things together. And pack lightly, only necessities."

Storm nodded, depressed by her current predicament, and left the kitchen, Eevee close on her heels.

Brandon, still gathering supplies began talking to Ninjask, "I know she is scared, I can see it on her face. She must think that she has to be like her mother and me- world class trainers- but this is not a journey for her to become the best, it's to help Rowan and that rare Pokémon. Maybe she'll have a revelation while she is on her journey and pursue becoming a great trainer."

Ninjask said its name to agree with him.



…


Storm was absent-mindedly looking through her closet, trying to find a comfortable outfit for her to wear, while Eevee was playing with a portable Pokéblock maker.

Storm's Pokégear began ringing from her bed, where she had dropped it.

Who could that be?

Storm crossed the room and answered the gadget.

Volkner appeared on the screen, "Hey Storm!"

"Hey.." Storm replied, still bothered.

"What happened? You have to tell me everything."

"My dad volunteered me to do a favor for his buddy Professor Rowan. So I have to go all the way to Sandgem Town."

"He's making you go on a journey? I knew that call he gave you earlier was bad news."

Storm was a little shocked that he would call it bad news.

"What makes you say that it was bad news?" Storm asked.

" I overheard our dads talking a few days ago about their childhoods and all of their adventures and such. But when my dad mentioned me never leaving, he explained that it was because I couldn't leave the gym. Your dad said that you were scared of living up to the reputations of your family. So when he called you away today he didn't give a set reason for it, so I knew it was going to be something not great for you."

"You're right." Storm said glumly.

"I hope your dad knows what he is doing by making you do this…" Volkner said a low voice, his dark eyes looking away.

"So do I…"

"When are you leaving?"

"Tonight. I'm taking a ship over to Sandgem, so I'll be there by tomorrow morning."

Volkner looked like he jumped up from sitting through the Pokégear's screen.

"Tonight?! That's it! I'm coming right now!" he said in a rushed tone as he began running.

"Well then you should hang up so you don't run into something." Storm mocked.

"Good idea. See you in a few minutes." He replied, hanging up.

Storm hung up and went back to the closet to find a good outfit. Her bad mood seemed to be lifting knowing Volkner was coming to say good bye.




…..




A door bell rang loudly throughout the house.

Storm could hear Brandon greeting Volkner at the door, saying that she would be down in a few minutes.

Okay, one final check on my outfit.

Storm walked over to a mirror that was taller than she was, to make sure she looked ready for her journey.

She was about five feet tall, with long black hair and fair skin. Her eyes were an unusual mix of pink, blue and yellow. She wore a turtle-necked, navy blue sleeveless tank top with a hood attached and a light grey, sleeveless vest that had two pockets in the front and various black buckles and straps. There was also a shoulder pad on her right shoulder that was fastened tightly on to her top The shoulder accessory could hold her light jacket, that was currently tucked inside of her backpack., in such a fashion that it looked like a cape. For bottoms, she had on a pair of shorts that matched her vest in color. She had on knee high grey boots with flat soles, which also had buckles on it and knee high black socks underneath. Around her neck was a necklace that her mother gave to her when she was little that had a beautiful stone on it. The stone was about the size of a small coin, but it was extremely rare.

Good enough.

Storm walked over to her bed, where she picked up her black backpack, which only contained hygiene items so far, and left the room. Eevee had already gone downstairs to greet Volkner and to have a quick snack.

Hardly stepping outside of her room, the doorbell rang again. Storm heard her father heading over to answer it.

"Palmer!" Brandon said in a loud and happy voice.

"Brandon!" the voice of Volkner's father replied with the same excitement.

The two men talked loudly as they went over to the kitchen area.

"What brings you here dad?" Volkner asked, confused.

"Came here to say good bye to Storm." Palmer's voice echoed throughout the house.

Storm had just walked into the kitchen and set her bag down on the counter, gaining everyone's attention.

"There's the little lady of the hour!" Palmer said excitedly, holding up a glass of tea as if attempting to give a toast.

"Hey Palmer." Storm greeted him politely.

Brandon started reading off a mental list of everything she would need, while Storm would say if she had the items or not.

About ten minutes later, everything was prepared for Storm's departure. Palmer was giving her some last minute advice, particularly about avoiding Stunky since he had to learn the hard way back in his youth, Brandon was stocking her bag with her favorite herbal teas, while Volkner was wrapped up in his thoughts and silently monitoring everyone else.

Brandon looked over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly 4:00 in the afternoon.

"Sorry guys, but we got to get Storm over to the port. Her ship leaves in a half hour." Brandon announced.

Storm's fear was building up the entire afternoon and she was not feeling ready to leave. Not ready to leave her home, her city, her family, or her friend. Eevee was nudging her right leg with its head, sensing her fear.

Brandon handed Storm her bag, which she took and put on. Then she picked up Eevee off the floor, while everyone else headed over to the front door.

Eevee licked Storm's hand, trying to calm her down.

"Well, Eevee. We've already passed the point of no return." Storm said quietly to her Pokémon.







Okay that's it for Chapter 1! Please tell me your opinions and such. I'll be posting Chapter 2 later today.

 

[fire_and_ice]

Chapter 2: The Boy with the Ralts



The sound of the ship's nasally horn echoed into Storm's exhausted mind, waking her up from a practically sleepless night.

Groaning, she sat up and stretched in the uncomfortable bed that reminded her of lying on a bed of rocks. She looked around for Eevee and found her sound asleep, lying on a spare pillow.

Storm got out of bed and started straightening herself up for the day ahead. She had a schedule of what needed to be done memorized and on the top of that list was going to Professor Rowan's lab.

After a few minutes, Eevee woke up to the noise of Storm putting her boots on and went over to ask for breakfast.

"Good morning, Eevee. I know you are hungry, but we have to get to the Professor's lab right away. I can give you a few Poffins to hold you for awhile, but that is about it." Storm said a quiet tone.

Eevee looked pleased because Poffins were mentioned.

Storm pulled out her Poffin case from her bag and took out a few, then put the case away. She handed Eevee the treats, who delightfully began eating them. After that, she finished getting all of her things back into her bag and waited for Eevee to finish her snack.

Eevee lifted her head up and licked the corners of her mouth, happily ready to start the day.

"We better go outside and wait to dock." Storm said, picking Eevee up.

She opened the door and the duo walked out into the bright morning sunshine. There was a cool ocean breeze wafting around them, the smell of salty water in the air. The ocean water was almost as blue as the waters around Sunyshore. There were no sky high cliffs here like there were at her home and the roads were dirt, not solar paneled.

A horn signaling the arrival of another ship came echoed from quite a distance away.

"ATTENTION PASSENGERS OF THE S.S. BEACON: AT THIS TIME PLEASE DISEMBARK THE SHIP. DO NOT FORGET ANYTHING IN YOUR ROOMS. THANK YOU FOR SAILING WITH US." A voice on the ship's intercom said in a bored tone.

"Well, Eevee, time to go." Storm said as she started walking, with Eevee in her arms, toward the ramp for the dock.

When she got back onto dry land, another ship was pulling into the harbor. She watched it pull in and heard from a person nearby that the new ship was from the Hoenn region.

The Hoenn region. I wonder if any of them are trainers here to start their own journey…

Storm remembered that she had to get to the Professor's lab right away. She turned and headed on a path that bore a sign saying "Sandgem Town- One Mile Ahead".

Eevee jumped out of Storm's arms and began walking beside her, clearly too excited to sit still.

"Eevee, better stay right by my side." Storm told her thrilled Pokémon.

Eevee said its name loudly to agree.

Suddenly, Storm heard running coming from behind her. The footsteps were drawing closer by the second. The person who was running flew past them, stopped and turned to face Storm and Eevee.

The running person was a boy probably about ten years old. He had navy blue hair and glasses. He wore a green shirt that had a white hood and dark green sleeves, red pants and green, red and white running shoes. He had dark green and red gloves on his hands and a green backpack which had a Ralts riding on it.

"Stop right there!" said the boy.

Storm stopped in her tracks and Eevee jumped into her arms.

"I challenge you to a battle! Right here and right now!" shouted the boy, who now wore a huge smirk on his face.

"A b-battle?" Storm asked, confused.

"Yeah! You got a Pokémon, so come on let's battle!" the boy responded. His Ralts jumped down from his backpack and locked eyes with Eevee.

Storm was nervous, she had never battle any other than Volkner, Palmer and Brandon, but those were for practice and she always lost too. Swallowing hard, she decided to battle this kid and find out just how good she really is.

"Alright then kid, let's battle." Storm said as Eevee jumped down from her arms.

The boy's glasses reflected the morning light as he smirked, clearly confident in his abilities as a trainer. "My name is Max. And you better prepare to lose!" the boy said.

"I'm Storm. And I won't make this easy for you."

"Go Ralts!"

"Get in there Eevee!"

The two Pokémon stared each other down, ready to fight with all the strength they had.

"Ralts use Psychic!" the boy called Max instructed.

The Ralts' eyes began to glow a bright red color as it built up its psychic powers, then it released them in a blast headed right for Eevee.

"Eevee Dig!" Storm called out to her Pokémon.

Eevee quickly dug a hole into the ground, dodging the Psychic attack.

"Ralts, try and sense where that Eevee is at! Then use Hypnosis when it surfaces!" Max ordered.

Ralts began focusing its energy into finding Eevee.

This kid is pretty good. But let's see if he can handle a Shadow Ball attack.

"Eevee use Shadow Ball!" Storm yelled.

Eevee's head popped up from the ground behind Ralts and sent out a Shadow Ball attack.

"Ralts dodge it! Quick!" Max yelled, but it was too late. The attack landed a direct hit and because Ghost-Type attacks are super effective against Psychic-Types, Ralts fainted on the spot.

"Oh no! Ralts!" Max cried as he went over to help his Pokémon. He picked up the exhausted creature and apologized for pushing it too hard.

Eevee was celebrating her victory by jumping up and down excitedly, while Storm went over to Max and knelt down next to him.

"Is your Ralts alright?" she asked.

Ralts said its name in a weak voice.

"I sure hope so…" Max said sadly.

Storm grabbed her backpack and went looking inside of it to find a Super Potion. When she found one, she pulled it out. "Here, let me use this Super Potion on your Ralts. It should make it feel better until you can get it to a Pokémon Center."

Max looked at her and nodded, then held his Ralts so she could spray the Super Potion on its wounds. Soon, Ralts looked like it was back in tip top shape.

"You should probably carry your Ralts for awhile, just to make sure its fine." Storm said.

Max smiled, "Thanks a lot Storm."

"No problem." She replied as she stood up, looking down the road. "I had better get going. I'm running a tight schedule."

"Oh…" Max said, sounding disappointed, "Well can you help me get to Sandgem Town? I need to find Professor Rowan's lab and give him something."

Storm looked at Max and nodded. "Sure. I'm headed to the Professor's lab too."

Max beamed, "That makes us a team!"

"Well then, shall we get going?" Storm asked her new friend.

"You bet!" Max replied, completely giddy with excitement.

So, Storm, Max, Eevee and Ralts all set off for Sandgem Town as a team, not knowing the task that was ahead for them, or how dangerous it was going to be.








Chapter 3 is coming soon! Probably later today once I finish editing. until then!

 

[fire_and_ice]

Chapter 3 is freakishly long but it gets into the plot a bit, as well as shows off the bad guys for the first time! And I kinda forgot that this chapter gets into Storm's relationship with her best friend a bit more, a side that didn't show up earlier.So enjoy!






Chapter 3: The Professor, the Assistant and The Rare Pokémon



Storm and Max had spent the morning getting to know each other, likes and dislikes, family, friends and other things. Storm realized that he also had family reputations to compete with; his father was gym leader in the Hoenn region's Petalburg City, and his sister was a Top Coordinator.

Max also told her about how he and Ralts met and the promise he kept for them to always be a team. This made Storm smile, friends keeping promises with friends. Then she remembered the promise she had made to Volkner before she left Sunyshore.

"So, do you have any promises you want to keep for someone?" Max asked.

Storm smiled, "Yeah. I have a promise to my best friend back home."


The sun was setting behind Sunyshore's high cliffs as Storm waited to board the ship bound for Sandgem Town. The cool, late afternoon breeze was almost chilling, though the air itself was hot.

Volkner was staring at Storm trying to find the words he wanted to say.

Feeling the burning stare, Storm looked at him, "What's wrong?"

He blinked for a second and shook his head, "Its nothing."

They were silent for a long time while both of their dads talked about battles they had had recently. Then, the ship's horn signaled that it was time for passengers to board. Storm became even more nervous, not only because she was leaving, but because Volkner was not telling her what was bothering him.

Storm called Eevee back to her Pokéball, deciding that it would be better until she was in her cabin. Then she gave her dad a tight hug, followed by a handshake with Palmer, leaving Volkner for last.

Storm and Volkner gave each other a tight hug, which made Storm feel like there were Butterfree in her stomach.

Then, Volkner whispered in her ear, "Promise me that you'll come back in one piece."


Their embrace ended and they stared at each other for a few moments.

"Storm, you got to board now." Brandon said.

She nodded and gave one last look at Volkner and whispered to him, 'Promise', hoping he could hear her. She picked her bag up off the ground and headed on to the ship without looking back.


"I still don't get why you didn't leave on your journey sooner… I mean I'm ten years old and I just left home, and you're seventeen and just—"

"Max, I'm only out here to do a favor for Professor Rowan since he is a friend of my father. I don't want to compete in Gym battles or Contests." Storm stopped walking. "I just can't."

Max noticed she stopped and turned around to face her, "You don't have to, but if I know one thing from traveling before I became a trainer, you got to toughen up your Pokémon or bad guys will have an easy time taking you out. And since you're doing this big favor for the Professor, then bad guys will definitely be out to get you."

Storm stared at him, eyes wide, "You make a good point there." Then she smiled and kept walking, "Maybe I should give being a real trainer a shot, and who knows, maybe I'll be better than my dad one of these days!" She laughed, knowing that she was only saying that for his benefit.


Max laughed along with her, "That's the spirit!"



….


"So this is Rowan's lab?" Max asked, staring at the large building, "It's a lot different than Professor Birch's lab back in Hoenn… Before we go in, we should put our Pokémon in their Pokéballs so they don't get into trouble."

"Good idea" Storm answered as she called back Eevee and Max called back Ralts.

But Storm couldn't shake the feeling that someone or something was watching every move they made. She though about asking Max if he felt it too, then decided it was just her paranoia. So, she and Max went into the lab.

Rowan's lab was perfectly neat and clean. Bookshelves lined the walls and were filled with books on Pokémon. It had two levels, the second level was more of a walkway that circled the lower level with windows along it. On the first level, there were several lab tabs with various pieces of lab equipment laying on them in a neat fashion. There were also four doors, the two on the left had 'restricted' printed on them in big bold letters, while the two on the right were plain doors.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" Max called out to the seemingly empty lab.

Silence.

"Hello?" Storm called.

"Hello there children." a man's voice called from somewhere in the lab.

Then a tall elderly man came into view.

"I am Professor Rowan. What can I help you with?" the man said.

Rowan had white hair and a matching thick white beard. He wore a lab coat over a button down shirt and brown kaki pants, his shoes were shiny black leather. He looked angry, but Storm's father had warned her that Rowan always looked mad.

"Um. I'm Max from Petalburg City in the Hoenn region. Professor Birch asked me to bring you some of his research." Max explained as he pulled out a thick binder from his backpack and handed it to Rowan.

"So this is Birch's research? He wasn't kidding when he said his research 'got a little out of hand'." Rowan chuckled which to Storm and Max sounded like he was coughing.

Rowan took the binder from Max and set it on one of the lab tables. Storm and Max followed him over to the table.

"Max, thank you for bringing this here." Rowan said, looking down at the boy.

"It was no problem Professor." Max said, acting completely nonchalant.

Rowan turned to face Storm, "And what can I help you with?"

"I'm Storm Ripley, Brandon's daughter. He asked me to come here to help you with a Pokémon." Storm explained.

Rowan's eyes widened a bit, "My, my, I see now." He walked over toward the door furthest to the left, which was labeled as 'restricted', "Come with me you two."

Max shrugged and they followed Rowan over toward the door.

"Behind this door is the room where I have been keeping an extremely rare Pokémon that my assistant, Karla, and I found injured several weeks ago." Rowan opened the door, revealing a set of stairs and a strange green glow at the bottom. They all began descending the stairs. "It was so hurt that we brought it here and kept it secret from all my other assistants. But somehow a group of dangerous criminals found out that we were in procession of this creature and made several attempts to steal it. They never succeeded, thankfully, but now that the Pokémon is back to complete health, my assistant and I agreed to take it back to its home."

"So why am I here?" Storm asked.

"This Pokémon's home continually moves around and currently it is so far away, it is impossible for my assistant and I to take it there alone. And with these criminals out, it's also far too dangerous for an old man and a research assistant to take an extremely rare Pokémon to its home.

"With this rare Pokémon in your protection, I know it will be safe and as an extra precaution, my assistant will be going with you as well since she knows the location of its home."

"But—"

"I know what you were going to say, Storm, because your father already told me how you would be feeling about doing this. And we know you can handle it as long as you have friends by your side." By now they had reached the lowest level of the lab, an underground basement that was doused in a funny green glow.

"I still don't have a clue as to what you and my father see in me that makes you think that I can do this…" Storm said in a quiet voice.

"Maybe when you see the Pokémon, you will have a change of heart." Rowan suggested.

Rowan led Storm and Max to the far side of the room, where many plants were growing in planters on the floor, ceiling and walls. The shrubbery was thick, but they eventually reached a lab table that was tucked against the far wall from the stairs, where a girl about Storm's age was standing, looking over a clipboard.

"Storm, Max this is my assistant Karla" Rowan introduced the girl, who was now looking at them and smiling.

"Hello." Karla said, extremely chipper.

Storm smiled and Max waved at her.

"So how is our little friend?" Rowan asked Karla.

"Somewhere in these plants, stretching his legs. I don't blame him for needing the exercise." Karla replied with a laugh.

A rustling noise came from a nearby shrub.

Karla headed over to where the noise was coming from and knelt down, "Come on little buddy, time to come out and meet some nice people."

The rustling grew louder as the mysterious rare Pokémon made its way to Karla from deep within the shrubs. Then, a tiny creature appeared in front of Karla, which she picked up and brought over to the lab table.

It had the appearance of a baby hedgehog, except its back was green while the rest of it was a bright white. It had two tiny black eyes that stared at the group in such a way that to Storm, it felt like the little creature was looking into her very soul. There were also two pink flowers, each having two leaves tucked behind the petals, that made there home on the sides of the tiny Pokémon's green colored back.

"Is that… a Shaymin?" asked Storm, completely awe struck.

"I see you've heard of our little friend here." Rowan commented, petting the Shaymin on its back.

"My dad told me about them when I was little." Storm explained, still staring at the Pokemon in disbelief.

When Storm was a little girl, Brandon had told her about his journeys before he retired from competing in League competitions. One of her favorites was about when he stumbled upon a Shaymin flower garden while he was lost and witnessing the Shaymin Flower Bearing Ceremony. Though Storm couldn't remember the exact details of the story after all these years, she understood what Rowan may be asking her to do.

The room was silent. Max was stunned at the adorable creature sitting on the cold metal lab table. Storm was lost in translation and Rowan and Karla were waiting for her to snap out of it.

This continued on for a few moments.

"So," Storm began, finally out of her head, "you want me to take the Shaymin back to its Flower Garden?"

"Simply, yes." Rowan stated.

"This Shaymin is very young and probably doesn't remember where exactly its home is, which presents a very big problem." Karla chimed in, but ending on a heavy note.

"Problem?" Max questioned. Storm had nearly forgotten he was in the room.

"Yes." Rowan answered, handing over the duty of explaining to his assistant.

"You see, Shaymin migrate every year. They all head to their Flower Garden and move out as a group. They travel large distances and they usually stop their migration somewhere far out of human contact, somewhere secluded and safe for them to be. Its there that they create a new Flower Garden as the sort of a base until they migrate again."

"So what's the big issue?" Max asked, a little too curious for his own good.

"We have general idea of where the Garden is at, but not only is it far away it is also in an area that is difficult to reach, even on foot."

"A 'general idea'?" Storm questioned.

"Yes. We only managed to narrow down the location to a 50 mile area. A tiny garden of flowers would be difficult to find even in a space half that size."

"So why only 50 miles?" Max asked, finally taking his eyes off the Shaymin. Storm was wondering the same thing.

"The area that the Garden is in a small basin hidden in the mountains near the north part of Mount Coronet. The surrounding mountain area is covered in heavy snow year around, but the basin is the opposite; a warm temperate environment that never sees snow. It's the only place that we could find that had a similar environment to what Shaymin described to us from his minimal memory of the Flower Garden." Rowan clarified, gesturing to a map lying flat on the lab table.

Storm stepped closer in order to see and saw it to depict the area of northern Mt. Coronet all the way up to Snowpoint City. There was a small area circled in red marker along a western edge of the mountain.

I'm guessing that the red circle is where the basin is...

"WAIT JUST A SEC!" Max announced loudly, startling everyone, especially the timid Shaymin. "Shaymin 'described' the location?? Last time I checked, Pokémon couldn't talk…"

"Shaymin can use telepathy to communicate," Karla explained before Rowan had a chance to open his mouth. "He hasn't said anything since you two have been here because it's scared."

Storm looked at the Shaymin, who was staring at her with its little eyes, seemingly asking for her help.


----


Somewhere in another part of the Sinnoh region, a man sat glaring at a nervous looking old man in a lab coat, who was showing him pictures. The pictures showed Rowan's lab, Rowan himself, his assistant Karla and the green hedgehog looking Pokémon.

"Are you absolutely sure this information is accurate?" the man asked, eyeing the picture of the Pokémon suspiciously.

"Of course, master. After all, I designed the camera that took these as well as hand picked the best grunts to operate them." The old scientist explained, feeling a twinge of fear. His boss wasn't like his previous employer, this one could and would hold up a threat if he ever suspected someone of lying to him or getting in his way.

The boss was about to speak again when the scientist's Pokégear beeped nosily. Quickly, the old man whipped it out, nearly dropping it in the process, and answered it.

"This better be good." The scientist growled to the caller.

The boss sat and watched the old fool make strange expressions varying from humor to shock and several others he couldn't identify, until…

"WHAT?!" the old man shouted, completely forgetting he was in front of his boss.

The old scientist looked like his head was going to explode like a Voltorb, which amused the boss as he sat watching the man's amusing display.

After a few more minutes, the scientist hung up and cursed under his breath.

"Are you quite finished?" the boss asked, looking bored.

"Yes… And there's a problem…" the scientist said in a low voice.

The boss's attention was back on the old man, "A problem? What kind of a problem, Charon?"

Charon looked at his boss, afraid of his reaction at what he was going to have to explain, "A big problem we didn't see coming…"

"What is going on?"

"The grunts were listening to a phone conversation that had been recorded the yesterday…"

"Between who?"

"Rowan and a man by the name of Brandon Ripley. They sounded like old friends from what the grunts described to me…"

Charon's boss did not look pleased with the information at this point.

"Anyways, Rowan asked the Brandon fellow if his daughter could help him transporting the Pokémon back to its home, which he agreed and said she would be at Rowan's lab today."

"How is this a problem?" the boss questioned in a furious tone, "You are wasting my time again, Charon."

"I'm not finished!"

The boss took a deep breath and returned to his bored expression, "Continue."

"I asked the grunts to do some digging on that Brandon fellow and they were shocked at what they dug up on him, as was I." Charon continued as he pulled up a file on Brandon Ripley.

"A retired Kanto Frontier Brain?" the boss was confused with where this was headed.

"Yes! This got me to thinking, Rowan asked for Brandon's daughter, not for Brandon, to take the Pokémon back to where it came from."

"I really do hope there is a point behind this…" the boss commented while the old man was catching his breath.

"There is." Charon managed to gasp out as he flipped the screen to several shots taken off Storm and Max entering the lab.

The boss suddenly felt like he had been stabbed in the gut when he saw the girl in the pictures.

She was so familiar to him, like an old friend long forgotten. But still, he knew her and that troubled him.

"Did you look for files on the children?" the boss asked, trying not to let Charon see that he was in a bit of emotional stress.

"Yes. The boy is Max-" the boss zoned out of that part, he just wanted to hear if the girl was really who he thought she was.

"The girl has hardly anything in her file…" Charon said, the boss now paying close attention to him for the first time. Charon flipped over to her file with a tiny remote in his hand.

"Her name is Storm Ripley, age seventeen" the boss felt his heart skip several beats, "Her parents are divorced, she lives in Sunyshore City with her father, her mother lives in Johto. She was registered as a trainer, but she never challenged a gym or anything. She's a blank slate." The boss knew better, he knew she was most certainly a top of the line trainer.

"If these two kids are going to take the Pokémon back to its home, we must plan every step carefully." The boss said, standing up from his chair and exiting through a door that was behind him.

When his boss left the room and he heard the door lock with a faint click, Charon sighed in relief.

That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... But now I have even more work to do...

With that though stuck in his mind, Charon packed up his things and left the room.



----



Storm was sitting on a chair in Rowan's lab, Eevee quietly napping on her lap as she stroked her head. Her mind was going through everything she had learned only an hour ago like a tape recorder, playing the events over and over again.

Rowan seemed so confident that she and Max could handle taking the Shaymin back to the Flower Garden. But why? Max was a newbie trainer who was still giddy about starting his Pokémon journey in Sinnoh rather that in his home region of Kanto. And she was… well, a seventeen year old who was scared of being compared to her talented family. Sure if her family wasn't made up of extremely powerful trainers she most certainly would have left for a journey of her own without a second thought, but that was an if. The chances of her having some sort of talent as a trainer were slim to none. But still, she had to go take Shaymin back home no matter what, there was no way out of it.

She sighed, defeated even in her own thoughts. Eevee sensed her trainer's despair and awoke.

"Vee?" Eevee asked, looking at Storm with concern.

Storm shook her head, "It's nothing to worry about."

Rowan noticed Storm was still wary and walked over to her.

"I see you still haven't evolved your Eevee." Rowan began, surprising Storm.

"Yeah. There are a lot of different evolutions for her, but I want to be absolutely sure on which one I want her to evolve in to." Storm replied, picking a tiny flake of dust off of Eevee's fur.

Rowan pulled over another chair and sat next to Storm, "Which ones were you thinking about?"

Storm thought about it for a few moments, "All of them are great. I mean Umbreon and Espeon are so wonderful because of their special attacks and abilities. Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon are the classic evolutions, but my best friend has a Jolteon. Glaceon and Leafeon are quite excellent in their own rights. But I still can't decide…"

"Well, what types of Pokémon do you like the best?"

Storm thought some more, "Probably Ice-types and Fire-types. I also like Dragon-types."

"Well up near Snowpoint City there is a rock called Ice Rock. It helps Pokémon evolve, including Eevee. So, since you like Ice-types you should go there and evolve your Eevee into a Glaceon."

Storm looked at the Professor.

"Is it near the Flower Garden? We have to take Shaymin there." Storm asked.

"Its actually just a few miles away from the basin." Rowan answered, he had gotten her interested. He needed to make sure there was something in it for her and Brandon had told him that she wanted to evolve her Eevee. Once her Eevee evolved, she would be more confident in her abilities, according to Brandon and he was rarely wrong. Rarely wrong meaning only wrong about the weather or other petty things.

Storm's expression changed from curious to excited and then to neutral.

"So what attacks does your Eevee know?"

"Um. Quick Attack, Shadow Ball, Dig, and Trump Card." Storm replied, proud of her Pokémon's skill.

"Trump Card? A very powerful attack, but trainers usually evolve their Eevee before it learns that move." Rowan commented, looking at the sleepy Eevee.

"Yeah, my dad thought it would be a good move for her to learn."

"A very good move that most certainly will be useful on your journey."

Rowan and Storm heard Max and Karla coming upstairs from Shaymin's room. They stood up as they appeared, Karla carrying Shaymin while Max talked loudly about how he was going to win the entire Sinnoh League competition.

"So Max," Rowan began, immediately gaining the boy's attention, "You are going to compete in the Sinnoh League?"

"You bet!" the boy said proudly.

"Well there are a few Gyms on the way to the Basin, along with one just north of it. So you can collect some badges while you are on your mission. The Oreburgh Gym and the Eterna Gym are both on the way there and the Snowpoint Gym is north of the basin. Then there is the Canalave Gym just west of Jubilife City, the Hearthome Gym is east of Oreburgh. And just a little ways south of that is Pastoria and its gym. Veilstone is in the northwestern part of Mt Coronet. And lastly, the Sunyshore City gym in Sunyshore City, the eastern most city in Sinnoh. I'm sure you can find all about it from Storm since she is from Sunyshore." Rowan suddenly threw the floor to her.

"So what's Sunyshore's gym like?" Max eagerly asked.

"Um. It's the toughest gym in Sinnoh. That's all I can say really. You have to find out for yourself." Storm explained, leaving out the bit about her best friend being the gym leader.

"Sounds cool! I can't wait to have my first gym battle!" Max was exploding with enthusiasm.

"Well, Oreburgh is the closest gym and it's where trainers usually tend to start out at, so I suggest you go there, then up to Eterna City, and head north from there." Rowan recommended.

Then Karla piped in, "If we leave within the hour, we can be in Jubilife by tonight."

"Yeeaahhh!! Let's go, let's go!" Max seemed even more hyper then when he challenged Storm to a battle earlier that day.

"Well then I'll leave you all to finish preparing for your departure." Rowan said, leaving the room.


…


Not even thirty minutes later, Storm, Max and Karla were standing outside of Rowan's lab, backpacks on and ready to move out. Karla was carrying Shaymin in her arms, Max had Ralts hitching a ride on his backpack, and Eevee was sitting by Storm's feet.

Rowan had just finished giving them last minute words of inspiration, which only made Storm more nervous.

"So you two ready?" Karla asked, grinning. She was excited to get to Jubilife since it was her hometown.

"Yeah! Let's go already!" Max said excitedly.

"We should get moving." Storm agreed.

The trio turned away from the lab and headed north for Jubilife City.


-----


"Commander Charon!" a male grunt shouted from a computer across the room.

Charon looked at the grunt, bored with the same old nonsense. "What is it?"

"The two kids that you asked me to keep an eye out for on the cameras have left the lab and it appears that they are leaving for good, sir." The grunt quickly explained.

"Put it up on the screen." Charon commanded, thinking that this grunt was lying to his face again.

The large screen on the wall lit up brightly as the image from the remote camera positioned outside of Rowan's lab appeared. And as the grunt had said, Storm and Max were leaving the lab along with another teenage girl. The unknown girl was carrying a tiny green hedgehog like creature with flowers on the sides of its head.

"Pause the stream, now!' Charon shouted at the terrified grunt.

Charon grabbed his computer's mouse and clicked on the webcam button, connecting to his boss.

In a few seconds Charon's boss appeared on the computer's screen, though mostly covered in the shadows of his office, not looking pleased.

"What is it now?" the boss asked, anger in his voice.

"The children have left Rowan's lab with the prize. But there are three of them now." Charon quickly explained, fearing his boss's rage.

The boss's scowl changed into a tiny smirk, "Then follow them, find out where they are going and don't lose sight of them, even for a fraction of a second. After that we will begin the next phase of the plan."

The screen went blank, obviously signaling that the boss didn't want to talk anymore.

Charon understood his orders and went into action. "Send an undercover team to track them, we can't lose sight of them!"

The grunts scattered throughout the room went to work, preparing whatever needed to be prepared.

Charon settled back into his chair, for once he felt as if he didn't fail his boss.


----


The boss was sitting in his dimly lit office, quietly laughing to himself.

"And so it begins…"






Okay sorry about the long chapter!! You may annoy me with how long that was. The next chapter (number 4 to be exact) is going to be interesting (I hope)! :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

Chapter 4: Hunted



It had only been an hour since the trio left Rowan's lab and they were making good time on their trek to Jubilife City.

Karla had handed Shaymin over to Storm while she was examining the map on her Pokégear.

"If we keep this pace up, we should be in the city before nightfall. Then we can crash at the Pokemon Center for the night." Karla announced loudly.

"And tomorrow we can head east for Oreburgh, right?" Max asked, clearly still consumed with thoughts of his first gym battle ahead of him.

"Yep. But we'd arrive there fairly late, so you will have to wait until the next day to challenge the gym." Karla knew the game plan inside and out.

"And we have two and a half months until the Flower Bearing Ceremony is to take place, so after the Eterna Gym, we have to head north no matter what." Storm added, glancing at her teammates.

Storm swore to herself earlier that once the Shaymin was in its home, she would go back to Sunyshore no matter what. It didn't matter that Max was dragging her to compete in a few gym battles up until they got the Shaymin home, once the little green hedgehog was back where it came from Storm would be done with journeying.

I can't get anymore involved with being a real trainer than I already am. Its not worth being critized and rediculded by complete strangers for. I know my place, and its damn sure not in League Battles, Contests or anything else. Once I get home its going to be me and Eevee hanging with Volkner just like old times.

"Hey Storm; I can take Shaymin back now." Karla said, coming over to her.

Storm handed off Shaymin to Karla and went back to her silence. She still had that feeling of being watched.

"Hey guys," Karla and Max looked at her, "Is it me or does it feel like we're being watched. I felt it back at the lab and now too."

"I thought I was just being paranoid since you mentioned bad guys would be out looking for our little pal, but I guess I'm not." Max admitted.

"I have had that feeling of being watched since we were standing outside the lab, I wonder what it could be…" Karla said in a low voice. Her dark brown bangs covering her eyes.

Karla was definitely the adult of the group. She was working as Rowan's assistant for three years and had the privilege of helping out on the most well kept secrets of Pokémon research.

She was about the same height as Storm, but while Storm was pretty much skin and bone, Karla had a bit more muscle on her. She also had an islander look about her because of her thick dark brown hair and tan skin. Her big brown eyes seemed to always scream 'I am the nicest person in the world and I give free hugs!' and she had the personality to match.

"So I'm not the only one… I wonder if anyone is following us…" Storm whispered out loud. Karla and Max heard her, though the statement was just Storm talking to herself.


----


"Commander, we have visual of the targets." A grunt said, speaking into a microphone clipped to his uniform.

Closely following Storm, Max and Karla, were two grunts loitering in the trees.

"Good" Charon's voice replied from each of the grunt's ear pieces.

"We have confirmed that they are headed to Jubilife City and are planning for an extended stay in Oreburgh." The second grunt said, this one was a female.

"How very interesting… This fits in with the boss's plan perfectly." Charon replied, more or less thinking out loud to himself.

"Should we keep tracking them?" the first grunt asked.

"Of course, idiot. Someone will be in touch with you soon." Charon finalized.

The two grunts looked at each other and shrugged. They jumped down out of their tree and continued to stalk the mostly chipper trio.

Suddenly, the children stopped in their tracks and looked around. The grunts ducked down into the scratchy brush to avoid being spotted.

"I guess I was just hearing things!" the boy said loudly with a nervous laugh.

The children continued walking down the path.

The grunts stood and brushed themselves off, carefully watching the children from the corners of their eyes.

"That was way too close. The commanders would kill us if we blew this mission and the boss would kill them for putting us on this mission." The female grunt complained.

"You're right. But we still have a long ways to Jubilife, so there are plenty more opportunities for us to screw up." The male said.

The female nodded as the two began stalking the trainers again.


----



There was a loud cracking sound coming from the woods.

Crunch

Crack

Snap

"Okay. Seriously, did you two hear that?" Storm asked, slightly scared.

"Uh. Yeah. That was really close by too." Karla answered, clearly showing that she was scared.

"Let's hope it's not a Scyther and keep moving." Max suggested, pulling Karla and Storm along by their wrists.

BOOM

----


"You idiot! How could you fall out of a tree?! What are you, three years old?!" the female grunt hissed at her male counterpart who was lying dazed on the ground.

"My foot slipped! I couldn't help it!" he hissed back at the irritated female.

The female looked to check on their targets, but…

"They're gone!!"


----



"Just keep running!" Max exclaimed, out of breath from running for quite a ways.

"What do you think we're doing?" Storm answered back loudly.

The last loud noise from the woods had sent them running. For one thing, they didn't know what was causing it and they didn't want to stick around and find out. Second, they couldn't risk Shaymin getting hurt along with the rest of their Pokémon.

The trio had been running along a path that led straight to Jubilife City, which was slightly hilly and had trees on the left side. But after a few minutes, they stopped after noticing the tree line was receding and a meadow area emerged. A sign stood practically taunting anyone who saw it.

"I think… I think we should be safe now that the trees are further away…" Karla gasped, still holding Shaymin tightly.

"Yeah, let's hope whatever that was doesn't come out here." Max said, collapsing from exhaustion.

Storm was the first to notice the sign looming by the roadside, "Hey guys… I think we may have a problem."

"What's up?" Karla asked, checking on Shaymin.

"That's 'what's up'" Storm answered, jerking a thumb at the sign.

Max and Karla both walked over to the sign and were shocked at what it read.

"THE ROAD TO JUBILIFE CITY HAS BEEN CLOSED DOWN DUE TO A COLLAPSED BRIDGE. PLEASE TAKE THE DETOURS TO EITHER CANALAVE CITY OR OREBURGH CITY. BOTH DETOUR ROUTES BRANCH OFF THIS ROUTE IN ONE MILE. SORRY FOR ANY INCONVIENCES."

All three looked grimly at the words, their spirits dampened because they knew that they would not make it to Oreburgh in one afternoon.

"We will have to camp out tonight and make the rest of the trip tomorrow morning. We will actually be half a day ahead of schedule." Karla explained after checking her Pokégear's map.

"So I'll have my gym battle sooner? And Storm can have her gym battle too?" Max asked, his good mood back immediately.

"Exactly. And Storm," Karla said turning to her, "You are having a gym battle too?"

Storm shrugged, "Only to help make Eevee stronger, not to compete in the Sinnoh League."

"I see. But you both do know that you need another Pokémon to battle Oreburgh's Gym Leader, correct?"

Max's jaw dropped, looking defeated.

"You both still have time to catch another Pokémon each and train with them before we get there. After all, we are in no rush at this point." Karla added.

Storm had taken her old Pokédex out and was skimming through its information, studying it carefully.

"Uh Storm? What are you doing?" Max asked, trying to see what she was looking at.

"I'm using my Pokédex to find the route we are on and see what Pokémon can be found along it. My friend told me Oreburgh City's Gym used Rock-Types, so this can help both of us find Pokémon that can help us win there." She explained.

"That's actually pretty clever." Karla noted.

"So what Pokémon can be found here?" Max asked, eager to catch a Pokémon.

"Buneary, Bidoof, Kricketot, Shinx, Starly, Sentret, Growlithe, Riolu, Abra, Lotad, Seedot," Storm paused to take a breath, "Budew, Psyduck, Pachirisu, Buizel, and Shellos."

"Plenty of options!" Max exclaimed, practically bouncing from anxiety.

"Yes, but keep in mind the gym's type. So I suggest you go for a Lotad, Seedot, Buizel or a Shellos." Karla replied, trying to keep the boy calm for a few moments. "Those would be the best for a Rock-Type gym."

"Karla, maybe you should go with Max to help him catch his first Pokémon. I can handle myself." Storm suggested. She didn't want to have to rely on others too much and she wanted to see what she could do on her own.

"That's not a bad idea. Let's meet back here in an hour. Come on, Max!" Karla took Max toward the right where there was plenty of tall grass.

Storm stood at the sign contemplating her next move and came to the conclusion that she would go look for a Shinx, a Seedot or a Riolu. Then she walked off to the left side of the road, off to find herself another Pokémon.



----



"You let them get away?!" Charon yelled at the grunts through their headsets.

"It was an accident, sir! He fell out of a tree and it scared them off!" the female grunt attempted to explain.

"Shut it! The boss is tired of your failures, so he sent Commander Mars to deal with you two and take the Pokémon from those children since you two morons were too incompetent to do it yourselves!" Charon fired at them.

"C-commander Mars?" the male grunt stammered.

"Yes. She's going to set you two straight once and for all." Charon answered, fuming.

The two grunts swallowed hard, terrified of what Mars would do with them.

"You two bone heads are to stay where you are until the Commander arrives and deals with you." Charon instructed them.

"They won't have to wait long, Charon." A female voice said, her voice detected hints of anger and amusement.

"I'll leave these two for you Mars." Charon said, nearly laughing as he turned off the headset from wherever he was at.

"Stand." commanded Mars, who crossed her arms and glared at the two grunts.

They stood, obedient out of fear. They had heard the stories of grunts that had disobeyed her and vanished into thin air soon afterwards.

"Now you two better listen up. Since you two are stupid enough to screw up such a simple mission, which forced me to come out and punish you," she paused to take a Pokéball out and show it to them, "I am going to make you suffer for it."

The Pokéball burst open, sending out a ball of white light in between the grunts and Mars. When the light faded, it revealed Mars's most powerful Pokémon, her Purugly. It looked like a giant fat, ugly cat (simply) with white and purple fur and a permanent scowl.

"Purugly, Slash attack." Mars said in a chilling voice as her Pokémon raised its arm, extended its claws and prepared to do what its master commanded.

The grunts were too scared to utter a sound…




----



Max and Karla had found a nice patch of tall grass to begin their hunt for Max to catch a Pokémon. Shaymin was taking a nap inside of Karla's backpack since it was obviously exhausted from the scare earlier.

There was a rustling sound in the grass a few feet ahead of Max. He froze where he stood, Ralts stood by his side ready to protect his trainer.


----


Storm sat on a large boulder she had found, stroking her Eevee. The wind had picked up considerably, which was nice since it was a hot day. Storm was carefully eyeing a patch of tall grass near several small flowers in front of her. She had learned from her father that sometimes it was better to wait and watch rather than jumping right in to search for wild Pokémon, and that was what she was doing; waiting and watching.

Out of nowhere came a loud cry.

The sound startled Storm and Eevee, as they sat frozen on the rock.

The patch of grass in front of them began rustling, a gasping sound coming from within.

Whatever is in there is seriously hurt...

Storm set Eevee down beside her and watched the grass and waited.


----



"Damn that Pokémon for getting in my way. It suffered the consequences, but its going to draw the attention of any nearby trainer." Mars muttered, as she stomped her way through the tall grass, Purugly tailing her.

When her Purugly was about to use its Slash attack on the clumsy grunts, a Riolu had tried to protect them and was hit with the full force of Purugly's attack.

"Stupid wild Pokémon…"

The wild Riolu cried loudly from the pain it was enduring, Mars knew she was close.

"If any trainer sees that thing, the police will be out here trying to find out what happened to it and then they might find the bodies… Damn that stupid creature…"

The blood trail the wild Riolu had left behind was a dead giveaway to its location, the only matter was catching up to it.

There was a fairly loud thud further ahead of where Mars was followed by a near defeated cry of the Riolu, pleading for help.

"Eevee, did you here that? Something in there needs help!" a female voice cried in shock.

Footsteps came closer, Mars knew that the girl was going to find the injured Riolu and then her plan would fall apart, again. Mars froze where she stood and told Purugly to be quiet. She needed a new plan and quick.












I'm sorry about the long chapter again! It got a little out of hand. Chapter 5 is going to be the first real battle of the story: Storm vs. Mars! Should be interesting how it will play out... Anywho! Please, please tell me if you think this is crap and feel free to critique my writing! Chapter 5 is coming whenever its ready!

 

[fire_and_ice]

Here you go guys! Chapter 5 is here!





Chapter 5: Face-Off: Storm vs. Mars


Storm and Eevee were walking slowly toward the grass, watching the place where the thudding sound had come from earlier. The grass was unbelievably dense, making it hard to walk through but also to see in and it was also over six feet high, making it impossible to see over.

Storm stopped at the edge of the grass, pushing back a good amount of the blades with her arm. Eevee had stuck her head through the grass to see ahead, but cried in fear and stumbled back onto Storm's feet.

"Eevee, what is it?" she asked, worried about what her Pokémon had seen.

Eevee shook her head, clearly too frightened to answer.

Storm pushed forward into the grass, being cautious with her steps by looking down at the ground. And then she saw it. A red pool of liquid resting in the grass with its source not far behind, lying face down.

"Oh no!" Storm whispered as she carefully avoided the puddle of blood and hurried over to the creature.

She knelt down to the defenseless creature and turned it over on to its back.

The creature was small with black and blue fur, except for the large gash across its chest which was a deep red. Its eyes were closed, its breathing was weak. It had little ears on top of its head, black dreadlock looking things on the sides of its head and a blue tail. The creature tried to curl up into a ball for protection, but it was in too much pain.

"It's a Riolu. And a severely injured one too." Storm whispered, trying not to startle the Pokémon. "We should take it back to the rock so I can use some medicine on it."

Storm stroked the Riolu's head with the back of her hand, then positioned it to hold its head while she tucked her other arm underneath of its legs. She picked the injured Pokémon up and began her trek back to the boulder.


----


"How interesting…" Mars muttered to Purugly. "That is the girl the boss warned me to keep an eye out for…" she smirked, amused at the recent development, "I think we should pay her a visit."

Mars had been watching the Riolu carefully, wanting to see the face of her next target, when Storm appeared with her Eevee and took the Riolu away. She knew that she had an excellent opportunity in front of her; she could eliminate one part of the problem, then go find the child with the Shaymin, eliminate them and take the prize back to the boss.

"Come on, Purugly, we have work to do…" Mars said in a devious tone, quietly following Storm out of the tall grass.


----


Storm layed the Riolu down on top of the boulder, making sure it didn't struggle too much with being helped by a human.

"It's going to be alright. Just hold still and I'll fix you up." Storm whispered to the Riolu as she opened a Super Potion.

She aimed the nozzle at the wound on the Riolu chest and sprayed, making sure every spot of it was hit.

The Riolu winced and wailed in pain, protesting the medicine. Storm was quick to react and comforted the Pokémon.

The wound was sizzling from the medicine, thousands of white bubbles formed around the gash, but it was doing its job. The injury was become disinfected and healing.

Storm sprayed the remainder of the bottle's contents on the wound, and then put a large wrapping around the Riolu's torso. The Riolu fussed about being handled, but eventually gave up, realizing his struggling was useless.

"There! All better, just don't pick at those bandages." Storm announced, proud of her handiwork.

The Riolu looked at her with its big red eyes, then down at its patched up torso and back up at Storm. It blinked. Then it smiled a huge smile filled with gratitude.

"You sure recovered quickly." Storm commented, smiling at the adorable little Fighting-Type.

"Not quickly enough, I'm afraid." A female voice called out from behind them.

Riolu growled viciously at the voice.

Storm turned around and came face to face with a woman, who dressed sort of like an astronaut, flanked by a large Purugly.
"What do you want with this Riolu?" Storm asked, defending Riolu. She knew that this woman was obviously not friendly because of the Pokémon's reaction.

"That thing got in my way while I was doing my job and it isn't the only reason why I am here." The woman replied, sneering.

She was fairly tall, mostly because of her ridiculous hairstyle that had her bright red hair styled up into a point on the front of her head, with the leftover hair styled in a similar fashion in the back and sides. She wore a white jumpsuit like dress that had a perfectly circular skirt and a black jumpsuit underneath. She had white knee high, heeled boots. Her eyes were as red as her hair and were filled with menace.

Riolu growled more. Fearing that it would attack, Storm told it that she would handle it in a low voice. The angry Pokémon nodded to show its understanding.

"I won't let you hurt it." Storm shouted.

The woman glared at the injured Fighting-Type, then turned her attention back to the teenager. "Like it would matter. As I said before, there is another reason why I am here. My boss instructed me to eliminate anyone that knows about the Shaymin from Professor Rowan's lab." She smirked.

Oh no. We were being followed...What should I do? If I run, she can easily send that Purugly after me. If I fight, Eevee could get seriously hurt and so could I... Damn...

"How do you know about the Shaymin?" Storm asked, trying to buy some time to figure out a plan.

"We have been after it for quite sometime now. But you are just an ignorant child, you wouldn't understand our goals." The woman answered, seeming as if she was reciting a speech she had said multiple times before.

Why does she keep referring to more than one person? She is obviously working for someone... Maybe she's from that group of criminals Rowan and my dad warned us about!

The woman faked a gasp, "Oh how rude of me! I never introduced myself! It only seems fitting for you to know who is going to destroy you. My name is Mars, and I am a Commander in the group know as Neo Team Galactic." She sneered again, confident.

I knew it...

"So now that you know who is going to kill you, let's skip right ahead to the good part." She placed on hand on her hip and pointed at Storm with the other, "Purugly, Slash attack!" she ordered.

The fat Purugly went into action, running at Storm, raising it paw as its claws extended out to almost a foot in length.

Storm knew she couldn't do anything, Eevee didn't know any attacks that could protect them and Storm knew she couldn't out run Purugly while carrying both Pokémon. There was no way out.

Then, Riolu sprung into action. It created a shield of sorts around itself, Storm and Eevee. The Purugly swung its claws at the shield, but its attack bounced off and sent Purugly flying back to its master.

"Whoa… It can use Protect?" Storm admired in a quiet voice.

"Grr…" Mars growled, "Purugly destroy that pest!" She was fed up with the Riolu's consistent interference.

Purugly attacked again with its claws, this time aiming for Riolu.

Storm had to help it, Riolu was injured and had protected her.

"Eevee, Shadow Ball!" Storm yelled to her Pokémon.

Eevee launched the attack and hit the Purugly square on the face, stunning it briefly. When it recovered, it began its attack on Eevee.

"Eevee, Dig!" Storm ordered.

"Don't let it get away!" Mars shouted.

Eevee quickly dug a hole and disappeared from view, Purugly was too slow to catch it before it escaped.

Storm knew exactly where Eevee was. All the years they had been together had given them a six sense of sorts, allowing them to know where each other was no matter what.

"Fine. If it's too scared to play, then Purugly go after the girl!"

Purugly turned its attention back on Storm and prepared to attack.

Riolu attacked Purugly with a flaming kick to its side. The Blaze Kick left a nasty burn where it had made its direct hit.

Storm knew that this was an opportunity. "Eevee, Sand Attack!"

Eevee popped out of the ground and immediately began kicking dirt in Purugly's eyes, blinding it from attacking.

"Now finish it with Trump Card!" she shouted.

Eevee's tiny body began glowing in an unusual manner; the bright light was blinding to watch as it encased Eevee. Then, the light exploded in Purugly's direction, sending it flying back into the deep grass, crying as it went.

"Purugly!" Mars cried, watching her Pokémon disappear into the grass.

She turned to face Storm, who was now holding Eevee and had Riolu clinging to her leg.

"You got lucky this time, you brat. But it damn won't happen again!" she yelled, fuming.

Then, Mars retreated back into the grass to find her Pokémon, disappearing in an instant.

Storm sighed; thankful they had made it out relatively unharmed.



----



Mars had found her Purugly lying unconscious in the grass a great distance from where the girl's Eevee had sent it flying.

Damn that brat! She'll pay for humiliating me... The boss will be furious at me for blowing this mission. Me! He'll make me a grunt again for this. Losing to a child... How pathetic.

She returned her injured Pokémon back to its Pokéball and set off for the base.








Chapter 6 is going to lay off the plot a little. But a surprise is in store too!

 

[fire_and_ice]

Here's the next chapter! I seriously couldn't think of a better name for this chapter, but that's not too big of an issue.





Chapter 6: New Additions




"Okay... That did not go as I had expected..." Karla mumbled, surprised at what Max had just done.

"At least I caught it! Now I'm so ready for the Oreburgh Gym!" Max celebrated, happily tromping through the tall grass. Max had just caught his first Pokémon and now he and Karla were on their way to meet back up with Storm.

"I bet Storm will be surprised! And I do wonder if she had as much luck as we did…" Karla said, cutting Max off before he could speak again.

"I bet she caught tons of Pokémon!" Max answered as they climbed out of the grass and started walking on the dirt path.

They were now in view of the sign that they had separated at and they quickened their pace. Max tripped a little over a small rock, but regained his balance quickly.

Karla stopped in front of the sign, looking around for Storm but to no avail. "Guess she's not back yet." She glanced down at her Pokétch. "It's been almost an hour. She should be back soon."

Max nodded. He took a Pokéball off of his belt and enlarged it. Then, he pressed the compressor and the sphere opened, releasing a white ball of light that landed gently on the ground in front of him.

The white light faded and revealed an orange otter looking creature with a cream colored ring around its neck and blue fins on his arms. Its tail was orange and split at the tip. The creature looked around, confused, then looked at Max.

"Bui bui." It said.

Max grinned, proud of his new Pokémon, and said "Hey there, Buizel. I'm Max and I'm your trainer." He pointed toward Karla who was standing a few feet away, "And that's Karla, she's my friend."

The Buizel nodded, Max guessed that it understood a little of what he was saying.

Karla suddenly looked like she had an idea. "Hey Max," she said, gaining his attention. "Maybe you should get Buizel to battle, to test its strength."

Max looked over at her, "That's an awesome idea! But Ralts is too tired to battle right now. Buizel's Sonicboom really did some damage."

Karla pulled out a Pokéball from her pocket, "Buizel can battle my Pokémon," she replied while enlarging her Pokéball.

"I didn't know you had one." Max answered, eyeing the Pokéball suspiciously.

"I do, but this little guy can be a bit of a handful. He's always hyper." Karla explained, releasing her Pokémon.

Max watched as the Pokémon became visible. It was slightly taller than his Buizel, but looked like a monkey except purple and white with a hand on the end of its tail.

"Aipomm!" the new arrival said.

"Cool! An Aipom!" Max said, staring at Karla's Pokémon.

The Aipom noticed Buizel and walked over to it, grinning widely. It then hugged Buizel tightly, so tight in fact that Buizel looked like it couldn't breathe.

Karla ran over and pulled Aipom off of Buizel.

"Aipom, not every Pokémon likes hugs as much as you do so just chill." Karla scolded it.

Aipom seemed disappointed, but then latched itself around its trainer. Karla hugged the monkey-like Pokémon back.

"Sorry about that Buizel. Aipom is a hug fiend." Karla apologized to Max's Pokémon.

"Bui." Buizel replied with a nod.




----



Storm heard voices coming from the direction of the sign, knowing she was close to being safe.

She was exhausted from her battle with Mars and was sick of knowing that someone was after her and the Shaymin.

Do all trainers have to deal with things like this or am I just special?

She sighed, looking down at her hands, each held a Pokéball. One held her partner Eevee, who was so tired from fighting that Storm returned her. The other held her new Pokémon, the one she had rescued; Riolu.

Riolu's captured was completely accidental, but Storm couldn't blame it for wanting to join her. Riolu had been so scared after being attacked by that vicious Purugly that it must have felt safer with Storm. It trusted Storm enough for her to help it with its injuries, so it was only natural that it would want to stay with her.

I don't know how but Riolu managed to capture itself in one of my Pokéballs. Guess I'm doing something right...

"Aipom! No more hugs!" Karla's voice drifted over from the sign.

Storm looked in the direction of where the voice had come from and saw Karla struggling with a monkey-like Pokémon, who appeared to really want a hug. Storm laughed to herself and walked up to the scene.

"Hey guys!" Storm greeted her companions.

Max and Karla looked over at where her voice came from. Karla stopped fighting off the guy the monkey Pokémon was trying to give her.

"Hey Storm!" Max greeted her with a huge grin.

"Aipom, return!" Karla managed to say as she returned the hug loving Pokémon to its Pokéball. Exhausted, she collapsed to the ground and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"That's why he stays inside of his Pokéball unless he's battling or eating." Karla explained to Max who was about to burst with laughter.

"I can see where that can get out of hand." Storm said with a slight giggle.

"Yeah really," Max agreed, "So did you see the newest edition to my team yet?" he asked, gesturing to the orange otter that stood next to him.

"So you caught a Buizel, he will help with your gym battle for sure." Storm commented, examining the Buizel.

"You catch any new Pokémon?" Karla asked, standing up.

"Yes, but something happened that you two should probably know about." Storm replied, looking at Riolu's Pokéball that was still in her hand.

"We got time since we have some walking to do, so tell it!" Max said excitedly.

"Well let's get going then." Karla suggested.

The other two nodded and continued their trek to Oreburgh, Storm explaining everything that had happened to her while they were separated as they walked.



----


"Mars, you do know that failure is not an option." The boss said, staring her down with his piercing navy eyes.

Mars stood in front of her boss's desk looking dismal as she stared down at the floor.

"Being defeated by a child and a wild Pokémon, it's a disgrace to our organization." The boss continued, closing his eyes and resting his chin on his hands. "But-"

Mars looked up at him when he said that, not sure of what he meant.

"We now know much more about our opponents than we did before. I can see why Rowan picked these children to stand against us; it's almost like it was before…" the boss sighed, "Let's just hope the outcome isn't as disastrous as last time..."

"What should we do now, sir?" Mars asked, being cautious.

The boss looked at her, a sneer growing on his face, "Bring me Pluto. This next task requires her abilities..."

Mars smirked, "Pluto? She's just a child. What can she do that I couldn't?"

The boss glared, "She can be of more use than you can at this point. The girl saw you and she now knows your name, therefore the other two will know about you. A new face means a new game."

"I see. I will find her and tell her to come speak with you right away." Mars answered, in a flat tone. She was disappointed, but tried to hide it as best as she could.



-----


Mars stood in front of a heavy steel door that had "DO NOT ENTER" printed on it in big red letters. An intercom was set on the right side of the door.

This was Pluto's area. An area of the base that only select people could go in, and most didn't come out.

Mars had only met Pluto once; when the small teenage girl had become a Commander along side Mars and the two other Commanders. The girl was just... off. Nothing seemed natural or normal about her, which is why she was always locked away inside of her area, training grunts that most of the time, were never seen again.

Mars took a deep breath and pressed a button on the intercom.

"Pluto. The boss needs you to do something. Go to his office." Mars spoke clearly.

There was a bit of static while waiting for the answer.

Then there was breathing coming from the speaker and a quiet giggle followed by silence.

I'm guessing that was a "yes". Ugh. I don't want to be down here any longer than I have to.

Mars walked away from the door and headed back towards her office.




----




"So you're saying that that Mars lady was one of the bad guys?" Max asked, still trying to understand everything he had just heard.

"Yep. These Neo Team Galactic people are dangerous, she would have killed Eevee and I if it wasn't for our new friend." Storm said, looking at Riolu's Pokéball.

"Okay, now that that is all cleared up, show us your new Pokémon!" Karla said, slightly pushy.

Storm hadn't told them what kind of Pokémon she had caught and she wasn't too keen on sending it out since it was weak from exhaustion and its injury.

"Not right now. He's still really weak and I don't want him to over do it. I wish there was a Pokémon Center nearby, but since there isn't I can't do anything except change the dressing over its wound." Storm explained, putting Riolu's Pokéball on her belt next to Eevee's.

"Aw…" Max answered dismally.

Karla flipped open her Pokégear and checked the map again. "Now if we minimize our stops to only meals and sleeping, we should be in Oreburgh by tomorrow afternoon."

They had started on the detour route to Oreburgh about an hour earlier and were traveling at a fairly quick pace due to all the excitement and fear that someone was going to attack them.

"Then let's keep moving! I got a Gym Battle to win!" Max shouted, pumped up on adrenaline.

They had come to a new grove of trees now. The trio hoped that whatever waited for them after the crossed into the trees they could defeat, and into the dark cover of the trees they went.







Okay, hardly an eventful chapter. Chapter 7 will strictly focus on those pesky bad guys, so you won't be seeing the good guys again until Chapter 8. Thanks for sticking with my madness for this long! :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

I'm being nice today so here's Chapter 7!




Chapter 7: Plans



In a dimly lit conference room, three shady figures sat in their seats waiting. But what they were waiting on was not yet known.

Charon sat in a chair that was behind one side of the table, looking across it at his co-worker, Mars. She seemed partly angry and partly amused, which was confusing to Charon so he turned his attention to the other figure in the room; the ever bipolar Jupiter.

"What in the hell are we waiting on? I have better things to do than stand here all day!" the angry Jupiter suddenly shouted, startling Charon and Mars.

"Who knows…? The boss must have something important to tell us if he asked all of us to show." Charon answered, trying to regain control over his rapidly beating heart before he suffered a heart attack.

"Not all of us are here if you haven't noticed you old fool. Pluto isn't here and she's the fourth Commander." Jupiter snapped, glaring at the old man.

"She's on her way here. The boss told me to go fetch her earlier." Mars jumped in.

The door behind Jupiter suddenly beeped, signaling that a card key had just been used on it, and slid open. A new figure entered the room, a child like figure.

"Look who decided to show up." Jupiter sneered at the late arrival.

The girl glared Jupiter, and then went to sit next to Charon at the table.

Charon was slightly scared of this girl; she was as vicious as the boss except in a pint sized form and ten years younger than the boss. That was why she was promoted to Commander after only a few months of being a member of Neo Team Galactic.

The girl folded her hands in her lap and looked down, allowing her hair to shield her face.

The boss's door suddenly opened after several loud beeps coming from it. The boss emerged and took his seat at the far end of the table, waiting on everyone to listen.

Jupiter immediately sat in her seat, which was next to Mars, at the table and waited for the boss to speak.

The boss looked to each of his Commanders and began, "By now you all should of heard about what happened to Mars earlier today." He threw a glance in Mars's direction, who looked down in disappointment (the boss wasn't allowing her off that easily), and continued "so you know that the children who are in possession of the Shaymin cannot be taken lightly."

Charon and Jupiter were staring at Mars, she rarely failed a mission and today she had been beaten by a teenage girl with hardly any training experience. Pluto didn't seem to care.

"Anyways," the boss continued, gaining his audience back, "I've asked you all to come here to brief you on our next steps. You all then will be sent off to do your own separate tasks across the region. We must ensure that our plan will work, no matter what the risks are."

Charon and Mars nodded, Jupiter remained quiet, and Pluto swung her legs back and forth under her chair.

"Jupiter, you will run operations up on the northwest side of Mount Coronet. Mars, you have the run of the supply shipping operation in Eterna City. Charon, you will be staying here and working on Project SX-5039. Make sure it is operational by the end of the month. And Pluto," the boss directed his attention to the child like female sitting next to Charon, who looked up at him and grinned from behind her hair, "You must go and take care of those children in Oreburgh City. I want them out of the way for good."

The boss looked at each of his Commanders one last time, "Do you all understand your tasks?"

Each of the Commanders nodded, showing that they understood.

"Good. You are all dismissed. So get to work and don't fail me again." The boss said, standing from his chair and leaving the room the way he had come.

After his door had shut, Charon sighed in relief.

"I thought he was going to tear us a new one for two failures in a row." He chuckled.

Mars glared at him, "I wouldn't have failed if it wasn't for your incompetent grunts!"

"I do apologize for that, Mars. But seriously, you should train your Purugly better so you don't get beaten by a ten year old again."

Mars fumed at that statement, "The girl wasn't ten."

"She had as much trainer experience as a ten year old!" Charon laughed.

On that note, Mars snapped. She jumped on to the table and lunged at Charon, picking him up by the collar of his shirt. She cocked her arm back and swung directly at his face, landing a solid punch on his right eye.

Charon yelped in pain and broke free of her grasp before she could punch him again. He landed in his chair and cupped his hands around his injured eye.

Pluto was on her feet. She jumped on to the table and gave Mars a look that pretty much told her to calm down because beating up an old man was pointless.

"Damn Mars. Save your energy for eliminating that brat who humiliated you, not punching that old fool until he bleeds to death just for a little insult." Jupiter giggled, amused by the display.

Pluto grinned again and jumped off the table. She then practically danced out of the room like she was walking on clouds.

"Good grief that girl is strange…" Jupiter muttered after Pluto had left.

"That I can agree with." Mars said, climbing off the table.

"I agree as well." Charon added, being careful to avoid Mars.

"Let's just get to work before the boss has our heads on silver platters." Jupiter suggested as she left the room.

Charon and Mars followed her out.




This is the shortest chapter so far. Next up will be Chapter 8: Oreburgh City- Dilemma (Part 1). I already know its going to be long so I'm making it two parts.

 

[fire_and_ice]

Hope I didn't make you all wait to long, but here is Part 1.













Chapter 8: Oreburgh City- Dilemma (Part 1)



"UGH!!!" Max groaned, throwing himself on the Pokémon Center's bed.

"Sorry Max, but it was the Gym Leader's day off. We can't do anything about that." Karla patted his shoulder.

"Max, you of all people should have know that Gym Leaders take days off, your dad is a Gym Leader after all. The guy at the Gym said his boss would be back tomorrow, so we'll head over there first thing so you can have your battle." Storm added, leaning against the wall.

"In the mean time, you should train your Pokémon more. Buizel still needs some work before you can take him into a Gym battle." Karla said, walking over to an empty bed and sitting.

Max pulled his head up, "You guys are right." He sat up and stretched, then looked over at Storm, who was looking out the window. "Aren't you going to have a battle too?"

She nodded, "The Gym Leader can't take too many challengers in one day because his Pokémon will get tired, giving his opponent an unfair advantage. So I will battle the Gym Leader the day after you have yours."

Max was standing now and had begun putting his backpack on. "You do make a good point. But for now, let's go train."

"I agree." Karla said, getting up and grabbing her bag that had a sleeping Shaymin inside of it. "We all have a bit of training to do. So since the Gym Leader's Pokémon are Rock-types, I suggest we go train down in the Oreburgh Mines."

Shaymin had woken up and it poked its head out of Karla's bag, looking around at its new surroundings.

Storm glanced at her companions and nodded. "We have to be as ready as we can in case we get attacked again. We shouldn't split up either, that just makes it too easy to pick us off."

Storm hadn't been herself since confronting Mars. Realizing how great the lengths were that these criminals would go in order to succeed had thrown her off her usual mood and thought pattern. She was becoming paranoid, which was bothering almost as badly. Max and Karla both had realized that she wasn't feeling right, but never tried to get her to talk about it.

Karla had retrieved Shaymin from her bag and set him on the bed next to her. "That's a valid point. It's much too risky for us to split up, especially in the mines."

….


A half hour later, the trio had left the Pokémon Center and headed across the city to the mines.

Little did they know what was watching them from the mountain…


----



"Miss Pluto, those kids are headed toward the mines." A grunt said, watching the children through a pair of binoculars.

Pluto looked up from fixing a broken, forest green painted finger nail and giggled. "Then we should go meet them there." She finished her sentence with another child-like giggle.



----



Storm, Max and Karla stood outside of an entrance to a cave that was partially lit up. A sign was posted a few feet back that said this was the Oreburgh Mine.

Karla was fiddling around with her Pokégear and paused when she found what she was looking for. "The Oreburgh Mine is an old coal mine that is partially under the ocean," she read off the screen, "However, this end of the mine hasn't been used for mining in several years and is now open for trainers to use." She closed the gadget, "It also says to be careful and not get in the way of wild Onix, since it's their mating season."

"Oh fantastic-" Storm began before Max cut her off.

"Cool! I wonder if we'll get to see some baby Onix or Onix eggs!" Max shouted excitedly as he tried to run into the mine, but Karla was holding him by the collar of his shirt. The force of her tugging had made Max choke a little and stop running.

"You can't just run in like that! Mines are dangerous! People can go in and never come out!" Karla scolded him.

Max stared down at the ground, looking sad. "I'm sorry."

"We understand that you would love to see something cool like a baby wild Pokémon, but its too dangerous to just rush in."

Storm zoned out on Max's scolding and looked up to watch the sky.

It had been a warm cloudless day only an hour ago, but now there were thick dark clouds eating away at the blue. The Starly and Staravia had retreated to their nests. The Grass-types had taken shelter somewhere. The Pokémon could sense a bad storm was coming, even little Shaymin was hiding away in Karla's backpack because its sensed nature was about to light up the sky.

Maybe we shouldn't go down into the mine. It could flood if it rains hard. Or we could get trapped down there if part of the mine collapses...

"Hey guys…" Storm said weakly.

Karla stopped lecturing Max and both of them looked at her.

"Maybe we shouldn't go down there. There's a really bad storm coming; all the Pokémon have taken shelter. It could be dangerous going down there."

Karla looked at the now completely dark sky, then back at Storm. "You are right about the weather, but it could be just as dangerous trying to get down this mountain in the rain."

A loud crack of thunder echoed off the mountain.

"Maybe we should just hide out inside the mine until this mess blows over, or we could hope for the best and try and run down the mountain before it pours." Max added in.

A drop of water landed on Storm's cheek.

Little drops of water began soaking the dry dirt at an increasingly faster rate.

"No time to head down now." Karla said loudly over the rain. She grabbed Max by the arm and dragged him toward the mine entrance.

Storm hurried after them, wishing the weather hadn't betrayed her so quickly. Max and Karla were going to find out soon that she was scared of caves and mines and anything else that was underground.

Storm cursed under her breath as they sat underneath the lip of the mine shaft entrance, just out of reach of the rain.

Max and Karla seemed perfectly content with the shelter they had found, but Storm wasn't. Her mind kept flashing back to that horrible memory, but she pushed it away and tried to set her mind on another thought.


"Daddy?" a young girl asked, looking around the dark tunnel for her father.

"Over here, Storm," a rough male voice answered; the voice was the girl's father.

The small child ran over to the voice and found her father standing there, looking at her worried.

"You shouldn't run off like that Storm. It's dangerous down here." the man explained, losing his look of concern almost immediately.

"Sorry Daddy. I got scared..." the girl whispered, ashamed of leaving her father's side.

"I knew you would be, after all it's your first time going with me to investigate ruins. You'll get used to it soon, sweetheart." The father said, roughing up his daughter's hair.


"Storm?" Max's voice entered her mind and shook her out of her thoughts.

She looked at them with a confused stare, "What's up?"

"You've been kind of pale since we came into the mine. Is something bothering you?" Karla spoke in a sincere tone.

Storm sighed, "Yeah. But it's nothing."

"Sure didn't seem like nothing the way you were acting…" Max replied, suspicious.

Storm wrapped her arms around her knees and laid her forehead down. "You two really want to know?"

"Yeah. We are friends, you can trust us." Karla said in her sympathetic voice.

"To put it simply, I had a bad experience when I was a kid. I got trapped inside of a mine for two days by myself. My dad found me and took me home." Storm took a breath, "I've been scared of mines, tunnels, caves, anything like that ever since then. It's made me even too scared to go out on a journey of my own, under my own willpower. My dad gave me no choice in helping Professor Rowan; I suppose he thought it would help me…" Slowly, Storm felt a weight that had been pressing down on her lifting; the more she explained to her friends why she was scared, the better she felt.

Karla and Max stared at her, now understanding why she always seemed bothered by an inside force.

Silence.

"Um, guys, are you getting wet too?" Karla asked, breaking the silence.

She stood up and craned her neck to see her backside. She straightened up, pulling her shirt down so no one could see the wet spot on her pants.

"Yeah, the rain is making it flood by the opening. We can't sit anymore unless we want to get our rear ends more wet."

"So what-" Max started.

BOOM

A massive explosion blasted the trio onto their backs, sliding them on the floor, sending them further into the old mine.

Scattered screams were cut off as the opening of the mine collapsed, trapping its victims inside.



----



"Miss Pluto, the explosion worked to perfection. The targets are now trapped several levels above us with no escape." The grunt told his boss.

The grunt felt bad about trapping two teenagers and a ten year old in an old mine just to kill them, but he didn't dare question Pluto's ideas. He'd heard the stories about grunts that questioned her and turned up dead, missing or so severely psychologically scarred that they were institutionalized and never heard from them again.

Why a stupid mine? I mean seriously, couldn't we have just ambushed them and sent them off a cliff or something? Talk about a plot out of a cruddy horror film...

"On to the next phase: make sure each of those kiddies is separated from each other." Pluto ordered, repainting her broken nail with a thick, green lacquer.

"Yes Commander." The grunt answered obediently, pulling a laptop over to him that had several different video streams displayed.

He stared at the screen for a few moments, watching the live feed and waited for any signs of the children. Three of the feeds, the top right, the center, and the bottom left, had suddenly changed. There were thick dust clouds covering the visuals for several moments.

The grunt knew that the children had been separated into different tunnels because of the explosion that they had set off deep below the mine's entrance; not only had it sent the children tumbling into the mine shaft, but it also blocked the way out. He and Pluto had come in from a different entrance (one that they had made), so there was no way that the children would know about it.


As long as the two girls aren't trapped in the same tunnel, then we shouldn't have any problems. The boy is ignorant to every little thing around him; easy prey. The assistant knows more about Pokémon than the other two and probably has a stronger Pokémon along with the specimen that Pluto is after. The other girl is as clueless and scared as they come; she's probably so terrified about being in a mine that she will give in quickly.

The clouded video feeds were clearing up and dark shapes were lying on the ground in each.

The top right feed had a girl with long dark hair and tan skin wearing a long sleeved shirt, cargo pants and black running shoes, her backpack was held tightly in her arms. She was lying on her side, seeming stunned.

The center feed had the boy lying spread-eagle on his back, his glasses covered in the heavy dirt so it was impossible to see if he was conscious or not.

The bottom left feed had the other girl. Her dark hair was clotted with both wet and dry dirt. Her clothes were also covered in dirt and her backpack was still on her back. Then, the grunt spotted it. There was something else in the picture; a tiny hedgehog looking creature, completely black from the dirt. It crawled over to the girl and nudged it with its nose, though it did not receive a response.

"Miss Pluto, all of the children are separated from each other, but…"

Pluto stopped fixing her nail polish and looked at the grunt with hard eyes.

"The girl that defeated Commander Mars has the specimen, not the other one."

Pluto sneered, closing the bottle of nail polish and putting it in her bag. She stood and walked over to a tunnel, the sneer frozen on her face.

"This is going to be fun…" she giggled, her child-like voice echoing around the small room.




----




Max groaned. The fall he had taken did a nasty toll on him, it hurt him too much to try and sit up again.

"Storm, Karla, you guys okay?" he asked, not moving from his position.

No answer.

Aw man... What if they're unconscious or we got separated?! I need to get up and help them!

He tried lifting his head, but there was too much pain and he dropped his head to the dirt again. He tried lifting one of his arms; there was some pain but not as much. He wiped some of the dirt off of his glasses with the back of his hand. He was sort of able to see now, so he glanced around for his friends; he was alone.

Oh no...



----



Karla had managed to scoot herself over to the cavern wall. She already knew she was alone, that much was clear. Her arm throbbed from a forming bruise, other than that she was relatively unharmed.

I hope Storm and Max are okay... I better check on Shaymin, in case he got hurt in the fall.

She opened her bag that had been sitting in her lap and gasped; Shaymin wasn't in her bag.

"Oh gosh. Oh gosh. He must have been out when we all fell!!" She coughed because of all the dirt still floating around in the air. "He could be hurt, or trapped! I gotta find him!"

Karla was on her feet, though her balance was shaky. She pulled a cave marking pen out of her bag and drew a large "X" on the wall where she had been sitting. The pen ink glowed in the dark, which was handy so she wouldn't get lost quite so easily.

She then headed down deeper into the cave, drawing arrows pointing to the direction she was going as she went.




----




There was a cold wet spot pressing itself against her cheek.

Storm struggled to open her eyes, opening them she screamed.

A little black creature was nudging her with its tiny nose.

"Jeez. There's no reason to scream, I'm not that vicious looking." A voice that sounded like a small child said.

Storm was now sitting upright, trying to slide away from the little menace; her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"Oh would you quit looking at me like that!" the voice said again.

"Who's... talking to me…?" Storm choked out, beginning to realize that she was somewhere deep in the mine by herself.

"Down here. Don't you see my cute self?" the voice answered, sounding a bit smug.

Storm looked at the creature and studied it carefully in the dim light (the mine's old lighting system still worked even after the explosion).

"Shaymin?" Storm asked the creature, her voice shaky.

"Yeah! It's about time you figured it out! You were out for a while and I tried waking you, but you sleep like a rock." Shaymin answered, shaking its self like a dog drying its self off.

Storm remembered what Professor Rowan had said about Shaymin being able to use telepathy to communicate.

"You should be very grateful that I bothered trying to help. I could have gone looking for Karla while you were out." Shaymin continued, walking over to Storm and sitting infront of her.

Storm felt her heart racing; her hands were becoming clammy even through the thick layers of dirt. "I need to get out of here before I lose what's left of my sanity." She said, jumping onto her feet, ignoring the pain that shot through her body like a thousand bullets.

"Sounds like a plan to me, but you have to carry me since I can't fly." Shaymin nudged her foot, making her look down.

"If you could fly, you would be getting me out of here." Storm replied, her voice a few octaves higher than normal, as she picked Shaymin up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go!" Shaymin instructed her in a bossy tone.

Storm began walking towards her left (both directions were level, so it didn't matter which way they went), trying to get herself under control by focusing on finding Karla and Max.












Chapter 9 should be out soon. Thanks for reading everyone!

 

[Gardenia101]

Great job; this is very well done. You add details and follow the plot. I can't wait to see Chapter Nine.

 

[fire_and_ice]

Great job; this is very well done. You add details and follow the plot. I can't wait to see Chapter Nine.

Thanks Gardenia101 for reading! And also, thank you for the compliments as well! Chapter nine is going to be pretty excellent! :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!











Chapter 9: Oreburgh City- Dilemma (Part 2)







The repetitive scraping sound of the pen being run along the mine walls was beginning to give Karla a headache. Each time she started a new arrow to point in the direction she was walking in her head throbbed in protest of the continued use of the pen.

She had no idea how long she had been walking, but she didn't care. She was set on finding her friends and Shaymin. If she somehow came across an exit, she would run out to find help and come straight back to keep searching.

Karla knew that Storm also had a Pokégear and had tried to call her, but there was no signal; they were a long ways underground, so it would be impossible to use a phone, but trying made her feel like she had tried something to help while she was searching.

She knew that she was heading down, deeper into the cave. It was quite possibly the only safe way to go; the upper levels could collapse more if another explosion occurred.

"Max! Storm! Can you hear me?" she yelled for what she thought was the thousandth time.

No answer.

Karla groaned; not even her hug loving Aipom could make her feel less guilty. After all, it was her idea to come train down in the mine.

"This is all my fault… If I don't find them… I will keep looking until I die from exhaustion, hunger or inhaling too much dust…" Her words were becoming in coherent from the headache.

She rubbed the back of her head with her free hand, trying to make the pain stop. Her hand suddenly felt wet.

"Sweat…" her voice echoed around the tunnel.

Karla pulled her hand back and looked at it; there was blood, and a lot of it.

"Damn it to hell…" she swore loudly, her head was throbbing even worse now that she had touched the injury.

She leaned on the tunnel wall, raising the arm that held the pen, and began drawing on it.

Her mind refused to let her stay awake, her legs refused to carry her and her arms refused to be of any use. Her vision became spotty, she felt herself being lowered to the ground, lying on her side.


This... feels... comfy...

Karla didn't stir again.




----




"Ralts, can you sense anyone?" Max asked his Pokémon.

The Psychic-type shook its head, looking at the ground sadly.

Max picked Ralts up and gave it a tight hug, "We have to find them, and we will find them."

He set Ralts down and the two started walking again.

They turned a corner and headed down a steep slope, then they found themselves a problem to stack onto their growing pile of problems; the new tunnel split off in four different directions.

"Can this place get anymore annoying?!" Max shouted angrily.

Ralts held its arms out, its horns and eyes started glowing. It stopped after a few moments and the Pokémon walked over to the far right tunnel.

"Ral!" it cried out to its trainer, who was looking dismally at the ground.

Max looked up and saw his Ralts pointing eagerly at the tunnel.

"What's up, Ralts?" Max asked, walking over to it.

"Ral ral!" the Pokémon answered, grabbing Max's finger and pulling him down the tunnel.

"Okay, you lead the way then!"





-----




"I hate tunnels… This one never ends!" Shaymin whined, relaxing lazily in Storm's arms.

"At least you're not walking this whole way! You just get to sit and relax while I do all the work!" Storm retorted.

Shaymin had an attitude double his size and it was starting to annoy her.

"No need to be so angry! Just try and chill out!" Shaymin answered, glancing at Storm.

That was the last nerve; Storm stopped abruptly and turned Shaymin to look at her directly.

"Chill out? I can't 'chill out'. I hate places like this; I never wanted to come to the mine in the first place. I-" she stopped, mid way through her spiteful rant; there was the sound of footsteps far off. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.

"You yelling in my ear? Yes." Shaymin answered in his famous bored tone.

"Not that! It sounds like someone is walking nearby." Storm whispered, using one of her hands to get her two Pokéball out of her pocket.

The footsteps were becoming clearer, clear enough to hear that there was a heavier set and a lighter set; two people.

What if it is those Neo Galactic creeps again? I can't use my Pokémon as a shield! Not again! And this mine could-

Storm was shaking now. She dropped her Pokéballs back into her pocket and closed it, keeping Eevee and Riolu safe.

"I can protect us." Shaymin jumped out of her arms and stood guard, watching each direction carefully.

The footsteps were coming from the direction that they were headed in.

A voice was now joining the footsteps, a male voice.

Storm remembered something her father told her about Shaymin when he witnessed the Flower Bearing Ceremony; Shaymin could use an attack that was exclusive to its species. It was an extremely powerful attack that was used by absorbing polluted air around the Pokémon and releasing it in a powerful blast.

"Shaymin…?" Storm asked in a feeble voice.

"Yeah?" the Pokémon answered.

"Do you know the attack Seed Flare?"

Shaymin glanced back at her, "I don't know what that is, since you're talking about something Human named. You know how it works?"

"Uh…" Storm pulled her thoughts together, "You take in polluted air and release it in a big like… blast? Something like that."

The footsteps were not far away now.

"I know that! And because of all the dust in this place, I've been getting pumped up in case I got to use it." Shaymin said proudly, or smugly, it was difficult to tell the difference.

"Well, if the people coming are bad, can you use it?"

"Duh!" the king of smug answered, still high on his figurative pedestal.

Gratitude Pokémon my ass...

The footsteps were still coming, their pace had noticeably become much faster; running speed.

There was a corner in the tunnel about 20 yards away, Storm knew what was going to happen.

Two figures emerged from around the corner, one tall, the other was very short.




----



Max and Ralts half ran around the corner, hoping that it really was someone friendly waiting for them. They stopped as soon as they could see a figure standing in the other part of tunnel.

The boy and his Pokémon stared at the figure for a moment, waiting for them to move.




----



She stared at the boy, who held his Ralts's hand tightly.

His glasses were caked with dirt but she knew he could still see her.




----



Max stared, gripping his Pokémon's hand, the figure was definitely a female, but not Storm or Karla; this girl was about their height, but her clothing didn't look anything like what Storm and Karla had been wearing earlier.

The girl stepped out of the shadows enough for Max to get a good look at her.

She was pretty much pole; skinny and had no figure whatsoever. She had forest green hair that was split into two buns, one on each side of her head. Her eyes were that same shade of green and were filled with some unusual combination of emotions.

Max would have mistaken her for a lost girl, but she dressed like an astronaut and wore such an unpleasant looking sneer it would make a Slowpoke wince immediately.

She had a skintight, long-sleeved top on that had grey bands at her lower arms, and it was white the rest of her arms and black at her torso, with a grey belt at her waist. She also wore a short skirt with black, skintight knickers underneath and knee high, grey, flat-soled boots. Her nails were also painted in a forest green color.

Max could feel Ralts shaking and he knew full well why; this girl looked like she was a member of that criminal group that Storm had confronted only hardly two days before, but since this girl was not a redhead, Max knew it wasn't the same girl.

The girl pulled a Pokéball off her belt and enlarged it, still holding that creepy sneer.

Max swallowed hard; for the first time since he had left on his journey, he was scared. He had been scared before when he was traveling with his sister and two other friends of his, but this was different; he was really alone, no one was going to bail him out this time.

The girl tossed the Pokéball lightly, allowing it to bounce off the tunnel ceiling. It released the Pokémon inside between herself and Max.

This Pokémon was a little taller than Ralts, it had a massive plume of reddish-purple feathers on top of its head. It had a black body with a tail the color of its head feathers that split into two parts and a reddish-purple collar of feathers around its neck. Its eyes were consistently glaring, irises that same reddish-purple color, a yellow jewel was in the center of its forehead. The mouth appeared to be a straight line with fangs sticking out on one side. Then there were the claws on its hands and feet; they are extremely sharp looking and were bright white in color.

The girl giggled like a five-year old, reminding Max of a girl that had a crush on him back at school.

"Weavile, Night Slash!" the girl managed to call out through her giggling fit.

The Pokémon came running at Max and Ralts, its claw ready to strike.




-----




"Shaymin, Seed Flare!!"





----



"Hey are you alright?"












I think I'm being a little cruel with this ending... Oh well, gives you all something to look forward to!

 

[fire_and_ice]

So here is the next chapter! Enjoy! :)







Chapter 10: Oreburgh City- Dilemma (Part 3)


He shook the unconscious girl's shoulder again; she wouldn't wake.

She's hurt really badly... I need to get her out right away.

He stood, taking a Pokéball off his belt, enlarged it and released the Pokémon inside.

The white light faded and revealed a creature slightly taller than he was, with an appearance sort of like a tyrannosaurus rex. It had a large, blue, almost rock-like head piece that was visibly worn from being used to smash things, with many white spikes sticking out on the sides of various sizes and shapes. Most of its body was grey with stripes of blue around its neck, knees, along its back and near the end of its long, heavy looking tail. It had large claws on its toes, short arms, and white spikes sticking out of its knees.

"Rampardos, dig us a way out of here," he instructed his loyal Pokémon.

The Rampardos went into action, it searched along the walls to find a particular location that satisfied it, then began smashing its head into the wall with extreme force, though the Pokémon hardly seemed to notice any pain.

He watched his Pokémon work, remembering how it had evolved during a gym battle several years ago.

The girl made a slight groan.

He quickly went back to her side and shook her shoulder once more, "Wake up!"




----



She moaned from the intense pain coming from her arm.

"Are you in a lot of pain?" Shaymin asked, actually looking concerned.

Storm winced as she gently touched the center of her arm; a large bump was sticking out of her arm.

"Damn it… I think it's broken." Storm winced again as she touched it again.

"Well I didn't know that a big rock was going to fall and land on your arm after you tripped! I guess my attack was a little too strong…"

Storm shook her head, "I asked you to use that attack, that man was a Neo Team Galactic member; they want to hurt you, Shaymin. I don't care that he is dead now because he is a bad person."

Storm pulled her bag around front, opened it and pulled out a piece of cloth. She put one end in her mouth and held the other with her good hand, then pulled it. The cloth ripped in half in a fairly straight line.

After a few moments, she had used one half of the cloth into a wrap for her broken arm and the other half became a sling.

"I know that explosion was suspicious, and now we know who caused it," she continued, standing up and picking Shaymin up with her good arm. "Now let's get out of here before we run into more of those Neo Galactics..."

She started walking down the tunnel that they had ended up in after the other had caved in (from Shaymin's Seed Flare attack).

"Do you think that Karla and Max were caught by those creepy astro-dudes?" Shaymin asked, still showing his concern.

"Let's hope not…"



….



"Is that... a light?" Storm asked.

The dim tunnel light was being overpowered by a bright glow from another tunnel a few feet away.

"That is a light." Shaymin answered, gazing at the new tunnel. "I don't trust it."

"Neither do I, but it's our only option. The way we're walking is a dead end," Storm answered, carefully walking toward the new tunnel.




----




Pluto sat on her large boulder, gleefully watching the feed that pictured the last of the children carefully moving toward the tunnel with the light.

She giggled, "Such feeble willpower, no one can escape my traps…"

Her eyes landed on a figure lying on the floor, unconscious. It was the boy with glasses she had dealt with earlier, he was easy to eliminate from the game. There were three small, parallel cuts on his cheek that were covered in freshly clotted blood; Pluto's trademark that she left behind on all of her victims that would live.

Her expression changed from the ghastly overjoyed shape to a pained and sickened shape.

Why him? Why does he have to be involved with all of this?

She closed her eyes tightly, trying to force the thought away, and then opened them.

Her eyes went back to the feeds; three of feeds had lost signal because of the cave in the last player in her game had caused, two were on the same girl's path and one was down the hall from where the second girl had disappeared.

Pluto set the laptop down next to where she sat, and then jumped off the rock. "Let's add another twist to this game…" She gave one glance at the boy, and walked toward the exit.

The classroom was quiet as the teacher stepped in front of her desk and waited to speak.

"Class, we have a new student joining us today. Please welcome P-----, she has just moved here from the Johto region." The teacher spoke as a tiny girl with emerald green hair and eyes stepped in front of the class.

The class buzzed with discussion about the new girl.

"Quiet please!" the teacher spoke over the students, "Now, P-----, why don't you tell the class a little about yourself."

The girl fidgeted, biting her lip hard, "I… like Pokémon… a lot …" Her voice cracked with every word she spoke even though her whole sentence were hardly audible.

"That is very interesting! What Pokémon do you like best?" the teacher asked.

"My Sneasel…" the girl whispered.

"How cool! So why don't you go sit next to -----. ----- raise your hand please."

A boy in the middle of the class with glasses and dark hair raised his hand as the teacher had instructed, eager to have been chosen.

The girl walked to the empty seat next to the boy and sat down quickly, as if trying to hide from the students.

"Okay class, it's recess so go have fun!" the teacher dismissed the class.

"Hi, P-----! Want to play a game with me?" the boy with glasses asked, walking over to her.

She looked up at him with her big green eyes, "A game?"

The boy nodded.

The girl grinned, a wide and excited grin, her eyes burning with the same feeling, "I love games!"

....


"How did you...?" the boy asked, confounded.

The girl was grinning still as she checked her nails, "I'm good at games, and I'm even better at inventing them."

The boy was dumbstruck and walked away in a bit of a pout.

She sat at her desk with the same glee-filled grin for the rest of the school day…


Pluto shook her head violently, forcing the memory into the back of her mind and locking it away.

She always loved games, playing games and making games; it's what she was best at. When she was recruited to Neo Team Galactic, she trained grunts by setting up elaborate games where they were the pawns, she played games with her targets in order to amuse herself.

Pluto was her mask, her alias, her shield. Her real self was dead, killed long ago.

She kept walking, nearing her final pawn, closer to check-mate.




----



Storm froze mid-step.

Footsteps were coming closer to her.

"Here we go again…" she whispered to Shaymin, who silently nodded in reply.

"Why don't you climb inside of my backpack until its safe? It would be way too dangerous for you to use Seed Flare again." She continued, letting Shaymin crawl up her good arm and climb inside of her bag.

"Be safe Storm… If you need any help, just let me know." The creature answered in a low voice.

"No promises on the 'being safe' part…" Storm muttered to herself, listening to the footsteps that drew closer with every passing moment.

A few more moments passed with no sound other than the footsteps and Storm's mach speed heart rate. Then there was a child's giggle.

"I know you are there!" an unfamiliar voice giggled as it neared.

Storm swallowed hard.

Out of the darkness came a girl about her size, but with a stick-like body. Her astronaut uniform, odd colored hair and abnormal attitude were all obvious signs that she was a Neo Galactic Commander.

The girl sneered, venom practically dripped out of her mouth and forest green hair.

"I think I saved the most promising pawn for last, but its time this game ended." The girl spoke, using her fingers to play with an enlarged Pokéball.

She tossed it toward the ceiling, the ball burst open and released a Pokémon Stormed recognized to be a Weavile.

Storm knew what the Pokémon was because when she used to referee Gym battles for Volkner, one his opponents used a Weavile. These Pokémon were extremely dangerous because of their long, sharp claws and quick feet.

Storm used her good arm and pulled out Riolu's Pokéball, enlarged it and released the Pokémon inside.

"Okay Riolu, let's see how your training has paid off…" she muttered, watching the girl and the Weavile carefully.

Nothing moved for several minutes, no sounds were made except for a faint thudding sound that occurred every once in a while.

"Oh how I dislike stalemates!" the girl whined, showing a pouty face, but quickly switching back to the sneer, "Weavile, Metal Claw!"

Weavile bolted at Riolu who didn't seem phased by the sudden attack.

"Riolu, Protect!" Storm ordered.

Riolu launched the defensive move, blocking Weavile's attack completely and sending it ricocheting off the shield. The foe regained its ground almost immediately and prepared to attack again.

Thud.

"Weavile, Night Slash!" the child-like Commander ordered, practically dancing where she stood from excitement.

"Riolu, Force Palm!"

Weavile's attack missed as Riolu slid between its legs and ended up behind it. Riolu then retaliated with a Force Palm attack right on the back of Weavile's head.

Riolu quickly escaped Weavile's slashing range and watched its foe with serious eyes.

Weavile seemed slightly dazed from the direct hit because of its fatal weakness to Fighting-type attacks, but regained its focus after a moment.

Thud.

Both trainers and Pokémon briefly became distracted by the increasingly louder thudding, but promptly returned to the battle.

Several more attacks hit and missed, when the thudding sound became so loud, everything just stopped. Riolu had a deep set of gashes on its arms and chest, Weavile could hardly stand upright.


THUD.








I think I went a little bit off track with the whole Pluto thing, but she's a character I really wanted to develop for the story's purpose. I promise this will be the last "inside a mine" chapter! The Chapter 11 will finish up the events here and get back to other tasks (Gym battles??). Thanks for sticking with my madness! :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

Hello everyone! Hope you all are fantastic because here comes a new chapter!




Chapter 11: Oreburgh City- Closure


A giant cloud of dirt had consumed all of the air in the tunnel. Coughs came form four separate sources, each trying to find a fraction of clean air to inhale before they choked to death on the dirt.

"Shaymin, clean the air, please!" Storm said between hard coughs.

She felt the small Grass-type climb onto her shoulder, followed by a faint sucking sound and air whipping by her ear.

She quickly was able to breathe in clean air again, so she surveyed the tunnel to see what had happened after the last thud.

Riolu was standing a few feet in front of her with the Weavile laying unconscious under a boulder on its left. The girl was still coughing, attempting to return her Pokémon. There was a new gaping tunnel a little over ten feet high on the left wall with a giant dark shadow standing just inside of the new tunnel.

"What in the…?" she whispered as Riolu noticed the large creature lingering nearby and quickly came to her side.

"What is that thing?" Shaymin asked, shaking slightly.

Silence.

A few moments went by in agonizing tension and quiet. All eyes, including the strange girl's, were focused on the shadowy creature.

Suddenly, there was a red beam of light encasing the creature and it vanished, and then two sets of muffled footsteps drew closer.

"Oh darn. Time for me to go." The girl announced loudly in her child's voice, "I bid you adieu." She curtsied and skipped down the tunnel she came from.

Storm watched her leave and was tempted to follow her until…

"Storm!" a familiar female voiced cried, partly in excitement and partly from relief.

She looked over and saw Karla in the new tunnel with a man dressed in a miner's uniform.

Karla had a large white bandage wrapped around her head and was using the man to support her walking; her arm being draped around his shoulders and his arm holding her waist.

"Karla!" Storm answered, sighing with relief and walking over toward her friend.

Karla eyed Storm's injured arm. "Esh. How'd that happen?" Her speech was a little off from her normal speaking pattern because of her head wound.

"Long story…" Storm rubbed the back of her head.

"Who was that girl and where the heck is Max?" Karla asked seriously.

"I don't know who she was other than she was a Commander for that Neo Galactic group. Shaymin and I kinda squished her buddy earlier with a tunnel cave in." Storm explained, "I haven't seen Max since we got separated…"

Karla bit her lip, then said "He has to be down that tunnel," she pointed to where she was describing; it was the tunnel that the strange girl into.

"That makes sense…" the man spoke finally.

"What do you mean, Roark?" Karla asked, identifying the man in the process.

"Rampardos led us down here because there must be an open tunnel to get out of the mine. That's probably where that girl ran off to," the man called Roark explained.

"I'm guessing that was the big thing that broke the wall…" Shaymin whispered in Storm's ear.

"If we had known you were down here, we would have been more careful." Roark continued.

"Let's go find Max," Storm started down the tunnel.

"Right behind you," Karla answered.




-----




Her breathing was rough and uneven. Her body ached from the stress of running at breakneck speed to get out of the mine with everything she, and her recently deceased grunt, had brought.

She knew she was home free now that she sat in the pilot's chair of the chopper she had flown in on, but there was a thought prodding at her mind; how her boss would take her failure.

She grimaced; not a good thought.

Pluto sighed, "Those brats are more of a pain then I thought they would be. I underestimated them…" she closed her eyes and growled. Then her eyes snapped open, "but that will not happen again."

She flipped a few switches in front of her, starting the chopper up and after a few seconds, sent it into the sky.




-----



"Max!" a voice shouted.

He felt his shoulders being shaken violently; someone was trying to wake him, but he was too ashamed.

He had lost to the Neo Galactic Commander Pluto and her Weavile. His Pokémon were safe in their Pokéballs but were severely injured. He knew Pluto had cut his cheek with a knife sometime earlier and disappeared from his hearing range, but that didn't matter to him; he had lost. He told Storm and Karla that he would kick every Neo Galactic's rear end until there were no more, but instead he was the victim.

"Max!" he recognized the voice now; it was Storm, but she sounded worried.

Max finally opened his eyes to find Storm staring at him.

"Now can we get out of here?" Storm asked, standing up and offering her uninjured hand to him.

Max took her hand and pulled himself up.

"Yeah, I know you hate places like this." Karla answered, who Max just noticed standing a few feet away with a man.

Storm scowled, "And I was just starting to get past that problem. I wanted out because I had enough of mines for a lifetime."

Karla looked over at Max, who was still silent, "Max is something wrong? You never stop talking and right now you are very quiet."

He looked up at her and shrugged, "Just tired. I had a rough time before I blacked out."

Storm had walked over to a boulder in the center of the room. She knelt down, picked up something and stood up.

"I found something very interesting…" she said, holding a computer flash drive up for everyone to see.

"That was Pluto's! She had it plugged into her laptop earlier." Max spoke up.

"Who's Pluto?" Karla asked as she and the man came over.

"The girl with the Weavile, she's a Commander for Neo Team Galactic!" Max explained, touching the cuts on his cheek.

"Oh fantastic, now we know that lunatic's name." Storm pocketed the flash drive.

"You ran into her too?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up later, but for now let's get out of here." Karla answered as the man helped her move in the direction of the exit, while Storm pulled Max along with her.

"You three need to get to the hospital so you can get fixed up," said the man.

"You're right, Roark, but we have no idea where it is." Karla answered.

Roark grinned slightly, "I'll take you all over there."

All three of them thanked Roark for his help and continued on the journey out of the mine.





…..



"Ow! Bloody hell!" Storm cried, squeezing Eevee tightly.

The Emergency Room doctor was setting her broken arm and Storm was in a lot of pain. She was using Eevee to try and calm her down, which helped a little but didn't stop the barrage of sware words being shouted.

Karla was eyeing the x-ray of Storm's arm being displayed on the wall and knew why she was screaming sware words. Both of the bones in her arm were broken clean in half near her elbow and were broken again in the opposite direction down toward her wrist, but were broken much more jaggedly.

"Alright miss, I'm finished." The doctor finally said, seeming relieved that he wouldn't have to hear her foul language anymore.

Storm let Eevee jump onto the floor so she could stand up, "So how long do I have to wear this cast?" she raised her left arm that was now covered in thick white plaster.

"Eight to twelve weeks. I recommend you visit a hospital every time you enter city and have your arm examined." The doctor explained, seeming bored.

Storm groaned as the doctor walked away to see his next patient, allowing Karla to come over and talk to her.

"That wasn't too bad." Karla said, grinning.

"'Wasn't too bad'?" Storm asked, glaring.

"Yeah. I thought you were going to punch the doctor in the face or something." Karla laughed.

Storm smirked, "Sorry to disappoint."

The two girls and Eevee walked out of the room and met up with Max and Roark when Storm's Pokégear began beeping loudly.

Storm pulled the gadget out of her pocket and glanced at the others.

"I hope this isn't my dad or…" she swallowed.

There were three people who would flip their lids if she ever got hurt, her dad, Volkner or…

"Just answer it. None of us told anyone that we ended up in the hospital. So keep your plaster arm out of the video and no one will know." Karla pushed her.

Storm sighed, flipped the gadget open and answered the call.

"Hello?"

The video flipped on and showed a guy in his early twenties with a bright red afro and a yellow collared t-shirt. He had big brown eyes and a goofy grin that could make anyone's sour mood melt away.

"Stormie!" the guy greeted her with a hearty laugh.

Storm felt her face go red; she hated being called that.

She covered it up with a fake smile, "Hey Flint!"

Flint studied her through the video phone and frowned, "What happened? You looked like you fell in a hole!"

"You don't know the half of it…"

"So anyways, I was talking to our buddy Volkner earlier and he told me you and your buds were in Oreburgh…" Flint began, but stopped to purposely build up the suspense for whatever he was going to say next.

"So I thought I would come and visit ya! I was training just up the mountains from the city and I came down just so I could see you!" Flint was grinning to such an extreme it looked as if his face came out of some twisted children's cartoon.

Storm froze.

"That's great!" Storm lied, "Where are you at now?"

Oh no, oh no! Flint is going to be on my case for getting hurt... Why does he always have to act like the overprotective big brother? This is going to be rough...

"I'm over at the Pokémon Center. Get your pint sized self over here!"

"We will be over there in a few minutes, see you then."

The two friends said their good byes and hung up.

Storm walked over to a chair and dropped onto the seat.

Karla walked over, "What was that about?"

Storm explained the situation.

"Doesn't sound too bad…" Karla commented.

"It isn't yet. Flint is overly protective of me, always has been and always will be. He used to keep an eye on me while my dad was out of town and my mom was too busy with her work to watch me. When he finds out that I got hurt…" Storm began sulking and Eevee wasn't able to make her feel better.

"You can't run from this, so just face it. Maybe standing up to him will show that you are ready." Karla was brilliant with inspirational speeches. "Besides, the only reason why we got hurt was because of some insane person, not because of bad decisions."

Storm looked at her and nodded, "You're right."

The two stood up, Storm returned Eevee in the process, and walked over to Max who was now standing alone.

"Where's Roark?" Karla asked.

"He said he had to go check up on the mines and make sure there's nothing dangerous left down there." Max explained. "So where are we going?"

"Pokémon Center. We are meeting someone there." Storm answered, her voice was distant because her thoughts were filled with stress.

"Sweet! I'm starving too!" Max exclaimed, pulling Karla and Storm, by their arms, out of the hospital.

I hope Karla is right about standing up to Flint...





Highly uneventful ending to this chapter... Sorry about that! And by the way, Karla and Max don't know who Flint really is (they are dense), but they will find out very soon! Chapter 12 will be coming soon! XD

 

[fire_and_ice]

Sorry about the long wait everyone! school life got in the way... Anyways, here's Chapter 12! It's also very long..





Chapter 12: Oreburgh City- The Ultimatum



Karla was wary of Storm's morbid silence, an omen to her that something bad was going to happen. Each step that brought the trio closer to the Pokémon Center made the panicked aura radiating from Storm even more noticeable, so noticeable that Max had stopped complaining about hunger pains and fell silent.

They stopped in front of the red roofed building known as the Pokémon Center, giving Karla and Max a chance to throw one more worried glance in Storm's direction.

Her expression was neutral, but the way she hugged Eevee to her chest and the way her eye color had darkened to a deep navy blue, violet and faded grey/yellow mixture showed her inner feelings.

Eevee licked Storm's cheek, trying to get her to relax, but failed.

Max, taking the standstill into his own hands, stepped behind Storm and Karla and pushed the two of them into the building.

"So where are we meeting this Flint guy at?" Karla asked.

Storm didn't respond, her mind was lost in her memories..


"Eevee! Come on! We gotta hurry and meet Volkner at the docks!" an eight year old Storm ran along the beaches of Sunyshore.

"Vee!" was Eevee's response, following its master's heels.

They reached the dock where Volkner was waiting with a grin.

Storm skidded to a halt in front of him and panted, trying to catch her breath.

"So he's really... coming back? Or did you... make me run all the way here for... nothing?" Storm breathed heavily, regretting wearing the outfit her mother bought when she went to Johto to visit a few weeks before.

The outfit consisted of a long sleeve collared icy blue shirt, grey shorts and white suspenders that barely stayed on her shoulders. She also had on her favorite fuzzy grey boots that made her feel like her feet were inside of a sauna. Her dark hair was cut into a bob sort of style with white blond streaks in her curved bangs and scattered throughout the rest of her hair; another idea of her mother's.

"Why would I lie about something like this? His boat should be here anytime now!" Volkner answered, crossing his arms and throwing Storm a glare because she did not believe him.

"I still can't believe he won the Sinnoh League!" Storm added, picking Eevee up and holding her tightly.

"We saw the whole thing on TV, its as cool as your mom being on TV."

Storm sighed, "She's always on TV... It's one of the many things that she has to do since she's Contest Master and a celebrity... It does get boring after while."

"I still don't get why you don't live with her, I mean seriously, you're always living alone since your dad is away training and working all the time."

Storm punched Volkner in the shoulder, and turned to look out across the water, the direction of where the Pokémon League was held only a few days ago.

"What was that for?!" The boy shouted, angry at being punched.

"I could never leave... This place is so important to me that I can't leave it," Storm sighed heavily and looked at her friend, "Besides, if I left, then who would babysit you?" she smirked.

Volkner glared at her angrily, but relaxed almost immediately.

A ship horn echoed off the cliffs and the two children spotted the approaching vessel that most certainly carried their friend.



"Storm?" Karla shook her shoulder in another attempt to gain her attention.

She blinked and came out of her thoughts, looking at Karla with a confused stare.

"Are you feeling alright? Maybe you should have rested a bit more after your cuss fest at the hospital…"

"I'm fine. We are meeting him in the cafeteria." Storm answered briefly.

Max started walking in the direction of the cafeteria, but stopped when he realized Karla and Storm hadn't moved.

"You are coming, right?" Max asked, seeming impatient.

"Right behind you." Karla replied, dragging Storm by her vest.

"Can't you and Max go talk to him while I hide up in the room?" Storm asked weakly, knowing Karla wasn't going to let go.

They were now standing just outside the cafeteria door.

"Nope," Karla answered, smirked, and then pushed Storm through the doors.

Storm was slightly stunned from being thrown into a swinging door, but quickly regained her focus and scanned the room for her personal human pit bull.

She failed to locate him before he spotted her, "STORMIE!!" a big happy male voice shouted loudly.

Her eyes locked onto the source, a man who definitely didn't seem like the kind of guy to be a member of the Elite Four.

He was over six feet tall with a bright red afro and bug brown eyes that vaguely reminded her of a happy puppy. He wore a fitted, short sleeved, yellow collared shirt and baggy black cargo pants with red suspenders that hung lazily at his sides. His grin seemed almost creepy because of how far he could stretch his face.

The man Storm knew as Flint ran over to her and picked her up with the world's tightest bear hug, spinning around in a circle at an incredibly fast speed.

"Oh little Stormie, I missed you SO much!" he said, still spinning around with Storm being squished against his chest.

"Flint! You're breaking… my ribs!" Storm protested, trying to free herself.

He stopped and put her back on the safe tile floors of the cafeteria.

"Sorry about that Stormie, I just could help but hug you since I haven't seen you in person in over a year!" Flint grinned at his pint sized friend who was trying to regain her ability to breathe.

"Oh my gosh…" Karla's voice came from behind Storm.

Storm spun around and found Karla and Max staring with dinner plate wide eyes at Flint, in some sort of shock.

"Uh… Yeah I didn't tell you guys who we were meeting, did I?" Storm's attempt at an explanation had failed.

"No… A heads up would have been nice though. I would have washed my hair if I had known we were going to hang out with a member of the Elite Four! Heck! I probably would have showered!" Max laughed nervously.

Karla, Storm and Flint all stared at the ten year old and took a step away from him.

A brief silence followed, but was interrupted by a single question.

"Storm, why do you have a cast on your arm?" Flint asked, eyeing his friend with suspicion.

Storm flinched, not only because Flint was not calling her by her nickname (which he only did when she was in trouble) but because he had noticed her injury.

"Uh…" Storm couldn't think straight, holding up her plaster covered arm, "This? Well… there's a funny story behind that…" she gave up after seeing Flint's expression hit a dark zone.

"All of us got hurt!! It was an accident!" Max jumped in.

Flint stared at his friend for a long moment before speaking.

"Storm, you came this far and you already got hurt…" Flint closed his eyes shook his head, a sign Storm knew meant he was either mad or disappointed, she knew which one it was by his tone. "Go get your things together and meet me in the lobby. I'm taking you home. Like you said the last time I saw you, 'a journey is much too difficult'."

Karla gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth, and Max stared in wide-eyed silence. Storm had her head down, avoiding eye contact, but made a barely noticeable nod and left the cafeteria like a ghost.

Flint sighed and rubbed his head, then muttered to himself "I really hate doing this to her, but I guess she just isn't the trainer type…"

Karla heard what he had said perfectly (Max and Storm discovered that she hears like a hawk) and quickly came up with an idea.

She stepped up to Flint with a serious glare. Flint noticed her hazardous approach and looked down at her with a confused expression.

"Why are you making Storm leave?" Karla asked calmly, but with hidden venom.

Flint sighed and rubbed his head again, "It's kind of a long story…" he answered.

Karla grabbed Max by the arm, pulled him over to a table and sat. "We got time," emphasizing the "we".

Flint followed their example and sat down in a seat across from the two teenagers, putting his chin on his hands.

"Explain." Karla ordered, acting twice her age and size.

"Okay… You know Storm's parents are divorced and live in separate regions, right?"

Karla and Max nodded; Storm had told them on their first day traveling together.

"Well, Storm has almost always lived with her dad in Sunyshore, but he used to work in Kanto, so Storm was living pretty much on her own since she was seven. Her dad retired about three years ago, but that's beside the point.

"The first time I met her was when her dad introduced me to her, a few days after her mom went back to Johto. Her dad said that he had to go back to Kanto for a few weeks and wanted me to check up on her, just to make sure she was okay. So every day for the four weeks her dad was gone, I would go to her house and hang out with her since she seemed so alone.

"She was a shy kid and I would always try to get her to talk, which she did when she needed to say something, but never on her own free will. It took her a while for her to relax a little around me, but by that time her dad came home from Kanto. I still visited her everyday even after her dad came back, but he took off a few days after he had returned.

"That was basically how everything went for the first year after her parents' divorce, but I could tell that we were friends after only the first few days. I started inviting my other friend, the old gym leader's kid, to hang out with us and we all were best friends, but I knew that I had made a promise to her dad that I would make sure she was safe."

Flint took in a deep breath and sighed, looking at his audience with gloomy eyes, "One day, I was twelve at the time, my parents told me that I had to get out of Sunyshore and start my journey. I didn't really have a choice in the matter and I left without telling Storm.

"About a week after I left, I was actually here at the Oreburgh Pokémon Center, I got a call from Volkner, the gym leader's kid. He told me that Storm's mom came and took her to Johto that morning, but would bring her back the following spring. I couldn't go back because I was too late to be of any use, and my parents threatened me that if I came back without competing in the Sinnoh League, I would have to stay with my creepy grandparents over near Stark Mountain. So, I went all across the region and won my way into the Sinnoh League.

"Volkner called me the night before the tournament started and told me Storm came back, complete with her mother's make over. When I spoke to her over the phone, she called me her 'brother' and said that I should win for her and Volkner, which I did."

Flint looked up at the ceiling, then back at his listeners. "I've always been like her older brother and seeing her hurt because I wasn't there to help bothers me, a lot. I just want her to be safe."

Karla understood what Flint was talking about. She had two younger sisters back in Jubilife, and they needed her to be there for them when their parents weren't home.

Max understood what it was like to be protected by a sibling; his sister would always be there for him, even when he was sick of her being bossy and annoying.

The two looked at each other and reached a silent understanding, then focused their attention back on Flint.

"I think I have an idea to prove to you that Storm can handle being on her own." Karla said with a bit of cunning flashing in her eyes.




-----



Storm sat on the bed in the room she was sharing with Karla and Max, tears flowing quietly out of her eyes.

She had never been a crier, so usually this would have shocked her, but her mind was focused elsewhere.

Why would Flint do this? I know he only wants me to be safe, but isn't he going a little far this time?

Storm glanced sadly at the beds, where Karla and Max would be sleeping later tonight without her here.

I know I didn't want to do this at first, but I don't want to go home now that I'm out here. I've learned and experienced so much, probably more than most trainers do considering that they most likely haven't had to deal with criminals or legendary Pokémon, I want to see how far this can take me.

"I don't want to give up now!" Storm announced to the empty room. "I can't give up now… Karla and Max can't help Shaymin all on their own, we promised to do this as a team. The three of us!" Storm wiped her face dry with her hand and jumped onto her feet.

"I'm not going to give up now!" Storm grabbed her bag from where it was sitting on the bed and headed out to find Flint.



……



Storm was walking into the Center's lobby when she spotted Karla, Max and Flint standing off to the left side of the lobby.

Her self motivation was still pumping her adrenaline as she stopped about a foot in front of Flint, staring at him directly in the eyes.

She felt her rage boiling inside of her heart, ready to overflow at any moment. Her anger flared inside of her so much that her eyes reflected pure fire.

Flint gave her a weird look of surprise at her display, but laughed. "Stormie, chill please! I don't want you to burst a blood vessel in your forehead," he laughed again.

"You think this is funny?!" Storm scowled, her anger building up.

"Only because you're trying to be tough stuff. But I got something to tell you, and if you want to hear it you better simmer down."

"Storm just listen to what he has to say." Max said, while Karla nodded.

Storm backed down and crossed her arms, "What is it?"

"I'll make a deal with you. Go up against the Gym Leader; if you win, you stay, lose, I take you home." Flint stated watching Storm's expression.

She looked up at him with slight surprise, "You're serious?"

Flint nodded, smiling.

She looked at Karla and Max, "He's serious?"

"Yeah. I asked him to give you a chance, since you deserve one after today's incident, and he agreed." Karla answered, a small smile on her lips.

Storm smiled weakly and nodded, "I'll take on Roark.







Hope you all enjoyed! The next chapter will be posted whenever I get time to type it up. Comments are always appreciated! :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

Hey Everyone! Its been awhile hasn't it? I got caught up it that annoying place called the real world so I haven't had much time to write the next chapter, but as of right now the next new chapter is a short ways away! I got a little carried away with typing it so its turning out longer than I had planned, but it will be worth the wait!

Thank you all for reading and please leave comments so I know what I need to do better or what I doing good with! Thank you again! :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

Okay some side notes before I post Chapter 13:

1. The character list I posted with chapter one is no longer relevant. I'm having too much fun coming up with weirdos to put into the story! xD
2. This chapter is REALLY long.
3. There is a point to the beginning of this chapter, its not all nonsense. I'll add the reason in next chapter when I add some reoccurring characters in (spoiler!)
4. The plot will kick back in in chapter 15 (if my planning is proper).


Anyways, here's the extra long Chapter 13!!


Chapter 13- Oreburgh City- Gym Battle! ~Storm vs. Roark~




Storm and Karla both sat in leather chairs, each wearing large pieces of cloth around their shoulders. Both listened to a quiet snipping of scissors in their ears, watching small clumps of their hair falling to the floor.

After the incident in the mine and speaking to Flint, Karla recommended that they all go have some fun. Flint and Max had gone to train some more before the gym battles ahead. Karla had to drag Storm by her vest so they could go have some girly fun; haircuts, manicures and pedicures, shopping, and much more activities that made Storm displeased.

"Isn't this fun, Storm?" Karla asked with a grin, throwing a glance at her friend.

Storm looked at her from the corner of her eye and scowled. "Not exactly in my taste for fun."

Karla smirked, "You spent way too much time hanging out with guys! Time to act like your gender!"

Storm went back to staring at the floor, which was covered with a mix of hers and Karla's cut hair.

I am so going to get her back for this...




….




A half hour later Karla and Storm stood in front of a mirror, Karla beaming at her haircut and Storm staring in disbelief.

"Doesn't it look great?" Karla asked, pleased.

"Uhh… It's so… short!" Storm answered, using her good hand to run her fingers through her now shorter hair.

Karla turned and looked at her. She had cut her hair into a bob cut with a heavy curved bang line. It was shorter in the back and longer in the front.

"We look fantastic! We should get to the shopping center before dinner time when we meet back up with the guys." Karla said.

Storm blinked at her reflection several times, still not seeing how this girlie girl in the mirror was actually her. Her once long and wild hair was now barely touching her shoulders with straight bangs that covered her eyebrows. Nothing fancy like Karla's, but still a big change.

Storm felt Karla tugging on her arm and was pulled away from the mirror and out the door.

Walking down the street, the sun starting to set behind the mountains, Storm was feeling uneasy. She couldn't explain why though, other than it felt as if she was being watched. The feeling of a stare following her down the streets of Oreburgh was bothering her, but she didn't want to worry Karla; they both had enough on their minds and Karla's way of dealing with it was by talking and talking and talking, Storm preferred the deepest corners of her mind.

"What's wrong? Don't you like your haircut?" Karla asked, seeming worried.

Storm looked at her and shook her head, "I just felt like someone was watching us. I wouldn't be surprised after all the stuff that has happened to us in the span of a week."

Karla stopped at the words; Storm noticed this and stopped as well.

"I thought I was being paranoid, but now that you say you felt it too means that either we both are going crazy or someone is watching us." Karla spoke in a low voice.

"Then we shouldn't stand here and be easy to pick off. Let's go hide out in the shopping center for a while." Storm grabbed Karla's arm and pulled her toward the mega shopping center was.

From what they had heard about the shopping center, it was almost as big as the one in Jubilife. It had over 30 floors and 1500 stores, not to mention open 24/7; simply, the best possible place to hide in.



-----



"Those girls are down in the city... We should keep an eye out on them…" a man muttered softly to his Toxicroak, who stood glaring down at the city below.

"Mars failed and now Pluto failed… They are becoming a problem for us…" the man continued, standing up and pacing along the edge of the cliff.

"Crrooakkk..." the Toxicroak answered its master.

"Are you suggesting that we hide in plain sight, just as they are?" The man asked his Pokémon, glaring at it.

A small grin spread on his face. "That is actually a decent plan… Hiding in plain sight to deceive them, then pick those children off one by one and leave the best for last… Her."

His grin vanished as he walked over to where he had made his humble campsite, his mind set on his plan.

"I suppose the only way to get things done anymore is to do them yourself. It may not be efficient, but it makes it less of a hassle then to instruct the weak-hearted."

The man found his travel bag and opened it, pulling out a pair of sunglasses.



----




"Ta-da! What do you think?" Karla exclaimed, jumping out of the dressing room in the outfit she had just bought.

Karla had on a purple ¾ sleeve blouse with a black vest over it, a pair of black skinny jeans and purple running shoes. She had a purple and black checkerboard headband and a new purple and black bag to finish off her new look.

Storm grinned, "It looks fantastic! Now you won't have to walk around with ripped clothes!" Her enthusiasm was surprisingly legitimate.

"Your turn now!" Karla pushed her into the dressing room with the bag that held her new clothes in it and hastily shut the door.

"Make it fast so we can go eat! I want some Pokémon center food!" Karla giggled.

"Oh shut it! I'll be as quick as I can." Storm called from the other side of the door.

A few people stared over at the giggling Karla, muttering things about immature children and walking away.

A few minutes later, Storm came out of the dressing room in her new clothes.

Karla whistled like a construction worker does when he sees an attractive woman, "Lookin' good!"

Storm flashed red and walked over to the mirror to give herself a quick look over.

Her new outfit was a lot like Karla's except not so much purple and she didn't have a headband. A simple long sleeve black shirt with a grey tank top over it paired with grey skinny jeans and a pair of black running shoes.

"Okay. No more shopping or girlie stuff. Let's go to dinner." Storm said walking over to Karla.

"Yay! Food!" Karla squeeled. She loved anything dealing with food and eating.




…..



"So while we were out training, you two went shopping?" Max asked, his mouth full of fries and ketchup.

"Yes! It was so much fun!" Karla laughed, taking a bite of a fry she had dipped in her MooMoo milkshake.

"The haircut is surprise, Storm," Flint added jokingly.

"The haircut was Karla's idea" Storm pointed at her with a fry before she popped it into her mouth.

The rest of the night was peaceful and they all were excited and pumped for Storm's gym battle the next day.



…..



It was morning now and the group was standing outside of the Oreburgh Pokémon Gym.

The clock tower on the otherside of town echoed the new hour (10am to be exact), but for Storm, it was an omen of failure.

"Let's go!" Max pushed Storm in while Flint and Karla talked animatedly behind them.

The lobby of the gym was plain, as if it was trying to hide the Gym Leader's ferocity. It was nothing special, it looked like any other lobby in the world, except with pictures of past Leaders on the walls and trainers from Oreburgh who had competed in past Sinnoh League competitions.

"Hey Roark!" Flint called, announcing the Gym Leader's presence.

"Hey Flint! It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Roark came over and shook Flint's hand.

"It has! Like seven years!"

"Its really been that long? Wow time flies…" Roark laughed, "So which one of you two is here to challenge me today?" He looked at Storm and Max.

Max pushed Storm in front of him, "Storm's challenging you!"

Roark grinned, "Okay then let's get started! Follow me!" He started walking down the hall to where a set of double doors stood closed, obviously where the battle field was.

Storm took out her Pokéball and released Eevee.

"I'm really nervous Eevee, what if I screw up?" She mumbled, picking her Pokémon off the floor and holding her tightly.

"Vee!" Eevee answered, probably telling Storm to get her act together, when all of a sudden a bright white light encased Eevee.

"Eevee!" Storm cried watching the glowing ball that had once been her beloved Eevee.

She felt the weight of her Pokémon get heavier, almost too heavy for her to hold. Eevee's familiar soft fur transformed from under her fingertips into something resembling spikes of fur. Then the glowing ceased and Eevee was gone.

"What the hell happened?" Karla asked, running over to Storm.

"I… I don't know. But Eevee… somehow… evolved." Storm spoke, completely stunned by what had happened to her Pokémon.

Storm looked at the new shape that had replaced her Eevee; it had evolved into a-

"Eevee… you're a Jolteon now!" Storm said in a confused voice.

The Electric-type stared at her with its caramel eyes and gave what looked like a grin.

"This is… fantastic!" Storm exclaimed, hugging her newly evolved Jolteon tightly, then realizing the weight of her now larger Pokémon, set it down on the floor and stroked its fur.

"But how did it evolve? There are no Thunderstones around here." Karla asked, uncertain.

Storm looked around the room, when it hit her.

"I know how it happened."

Karla looked at her, surprised.

"Remember that necklace I wore with the strange stone on it?" Storm took the necklace off her neck and held it up.

The part where the stone had been was now empty except for the ring that had held it on.

"The stone must have been a Thunderstone and no one noticed it."

Storm nodded and hugged Jolteon, who purred from the attention. "I wouldn't have cared what you evolved into! As long as you and I are a team, it doesn't matter. Right, Jolteon?"

Jolteon licked her cheek and Storm felt a miniscule amount of static run through her body.

"Come on! You got a Gym battle to win!" Karla urged, bouncing from anticipation.

Storm stood up and walked with Karla towards the arena, Jolteon on their heels.

Walking into the arena was like stepping into a brightly lit cave. The space where the battle field was was wide open, with Roark standing patiently on the other side. There were bleachers in the middle of the right side wall, they could see Max and Flint sitting and talking amongst themselves.

"I'm going over to the bleachers, good luck you two!" Karla said in a low voice before skipping over to Flint and Max and sitting down gracefully between them.

"About time you showed up!" Max shouted, realizing Storm was now in the room.

She shrugged and stepped into the challenger's box, Jolteon sat near to her feet.

"A Jolteon?! Did your Eevee evolve?!" Flint shouted.

"Unexpectedly evolved, but I couldn't be more happy about it!" Storm grinned, feeling full of confidence and pride.

The silence that followed was a mixture of happiness and a bit of concern; even though Eevee was now Jolteon, it wouldn't help Storm at all in the battle because of type. Roark was a Rock-type trainer, and Electric-types wouldn't do very well especially if any of his Pokémon knew Ground-type attacks.

The referee cleared his throat loudly then said, "The battle between Gym Leader Roark and the challenger Storm from Sunyshore City is about to get underway. Each trainer will be using two Pokémon and the battle will be over when both of a trainer's Pokémon are unable to battle. Are you ready?"

"You bet!" Roark called, raising an enlarged Pokéball.

"Let's do this!" Storm shouted, pulling out Riolu's Pokéball.

"The challenger has the first attack! Battle begin!"

"Let's go Rampardos!" Roark shouted, throwing the Pokéball out to the middle of the arena.

"Riolu, I choose you!" Storm threw Riolu's Pokéball out.

Both Pokéballs burst open and revealed the designated Pokémon.

"Riolu use Metal Claw!"

Riolu darted toward the stone still Rampardos, its hands glowing silver for the Metal Claw attack.

"Rampardos use Headbutt!" Roark's voice echoed across the room.

The still giant dinosaur looking Pokémon suddenly came running at Riolu with great speed, its crown pointed at Riolu threatening the small Fighting-type. A collision was inevitable, knowing that small things get crushed by larger things, Storm knew what she had to do.

"Riolu use Quick Attack to dodge!"

Riolu understood the command and followed through. It picked up its speed tenfold and scooted out of Rampardos's striking range with blinding speed. Then, it somehow climbed up onto Rampardos's back and landed its original attack right on Rampardos's neck. Riolu jumped off Rampardos as it stumbled around from the blow.

"Rampardos, pull yourself together and use Head Smash!" Roark yelled.

Rampardos shook off the damage, located Riolu and charged again.

Storm felt that Riolu wouldn't be able to pull off the same stunt twice, so she came up with an alternative.

"Protect, Riolu!" Storm instructed.

Riolu conjured up a barrier to protect it from force of Rampardos's Head Smash, just as its foe was about to make contact. The barrier pushed the charging Head Butt Pokémon back a few feet, sending clouds of dirt and small rocks flying, but it continued its charge.

That barrier isn't going to hold forever... I gotta think of something! Maybe if...

"Riolu, use Quick Attack!" Storm called.

Riolu immediately dropped the barrier, allowing it to shatter and Rampardos to come charging, and flung its self into a speedy Quick Attack.

"Keep chasing it Rampardos! It can't run forever!"

"Now use Mach Punch!"

Riolu made a U-turn, building up power it its fists, and started slinging punches in Rampardos's face. The giant Pokémon smacked Riolu with its cranium and sent the Fighting-type flying across the room and into a wall, a loud thud echoed throughout the arena.

"Riolu!" Storm cried, staring helplessly at her injured Pokémon, after all she hadn't seen it this hurt since she met it.

Riolu opened its eyes and with a bit of a struggling, it was on its feet again more determined then ever. It hurried back into the arena and waited for commands.

Storm was surprised by how unwavering her Pokémon was, and then she realized a flaw in Roark's battle strategy; his Rampardos didn't have any other attacks other than ones that involved slamming the opponent with a head butt, but there were gaps between its attacks that made it susceptible to retaliation.

This would be an excellent time for Riolu's new attack...

"Rampardos, finish that pint sized opponent! Zen Head Butt!" Roark's voice echoed.

This is it Riolu. Time to see if working on that attack paid off!

"Riolu use Reversal!" Storm ordered.

Riolu understood its trainer and focused its energy for the attack, a bright light began forming in front of Riolu. Then the light went flying at Rampardos at breakneck speed and made a direct hit on its face.

Rampardos stumbled back and fell onto its side. It made a groaning sound before it closed its eyes.

"Rampardos is unable to battle! The winner is Riolu!" the referee announced.

Storm stood dumbstruck for a few moments; she had actually taken down Roark's seemingly unbeatable Rampardos with her Riolu and was one major step closer to winning her freedom.

"Alright Riolu!" Storm called over to her tired looking Pokémon.

Riolu won't be able to defeat whatever else Roark has in store... I'll have to use Jolteon and be creative with my attacks...

Roark called back his unconscious Rampardos and held up another Pokéball.

"I can't believe you managed to take down my Rampardos! Not a lot of people can do that! You should be proud Storm!" Roark called over to her, grinning even though he was already down his strongest Pokémon.

Roark tossed the new Pokéball out toward the middle of the arena, releasing a Geodude.

"I'll be using Geodude for this battle." Roark told the referee.

The referee nodded.

"Riolu come here!"

Riolu hurried over to Storm. She looked down at her injured Pokémon. "You are sitting this next one out. You are too injured to take on a Geodude, so stay here and relax while Jolteon fights this next round," she told her two Pokémon in a low voice.

Both nodded and Jolteon walked out into the arena while Riolu sat and leaned its head on Storm's calf.

"I will be using Jolteon." Storm told the referee, following Roark's example.

The referee nodded and cleared his throat again. "Battle begin!"

"Geodude use Rollout!"

The Geodude began rolling in place before shooting toward Jolteon.

"Jolteon use Shadow Ball!"

Jolteon charged up a ball of dark energy and sent it flying toward Geodude. The Rock-type dodged the attack and continued on its path.

"Use Dig to dodge it!"

Jolteon burrowed into the ground, barely escaping Geodude's attack. Geodude continued rolling around the arena, trying to track down its opponent.

S**t... Jolteon can't stay down there forever, I gotta think of something and fast... Geodude's Rollout will continue to get faster and more powerful as it spins, one hit and it's all over... Wait a sec... Maybe if Jolteon uses an electric type attack while underground it will make the floor weaker so Geodude can't use Rollout!

"Jolteon use Thundershock!" Storm called out to her buried Pokémon.

The room was still and silent except for Geodude rolling about, then, a faint cracking sound. The floor of the battle field was breaking open and caving in slightly all over. A few seconds later, a bright flash of yellow electricity burst out of the floor in the middle of the arena, landing several feet in front of Storm.

Storm was astounded by the power of Jolteon's Thundershock and the damage it had done to the field.

"I see what that was about now," Roark called over to Storm. "You were planning on destroying the field to keep Geodude from using Rollout. Very clever, but an effort that was in vain! Geodude use Earthquake!"

Geodude jumped up into the air and slammed hard onto the floor, sending a vicious blast of shockwaves throughout the room.

"Jolteon jump high!" Storm hollered over the loud rumbling of the Earthquake.

Jolteon sprang up, and almost seemed to hover there.

This is our chance. Jolteon just needs to land Iron Tail square on Geodude's head.

"Jolteon use Iron Tail!" Storm finished her command with her voice cracking.

Jolteon's tail began glowing silver, just as Riolu's claws had earlier, and the Electric-type began descending down on Geodude. Jolteon was curled up so as to build up force behind its next attack.

"Geodude move! Get out of the way!" Roark barked at his Pokémon.

The Rock/Ground-type tried moving, but it realized that it couldn't and there was no hope of escaping its opponent. The ground wasn't stable enough for it to move, not to mention it was stuck in a hole that had formed from its Earthquake attack.

Jolteon performed a midair summersault and whacked Geodude right between the eyes with the full force of the Iron Tail. The Eevee evolution then gracefully landed a few feet away, looking proud, though slightly banged up from the Earthquake.

The whole room was focused on Geodude; every eye was watching the dust cloud where the Pokémon had been before Jolteon's attack, every thought was about if Geodude was still able to fight.

Then, the dust cloud cleared up and Geodude's shape was made out.

"Geodude is unable to battle!" the referee shouted. "The winner is Jolteon! And the match goes to the challenger Storm from Sunyshore City!"

Storm couldn't comprehend what had just happened. None of it seemed real.

Roark seemed stunned as well, but he recovered and returned his unconscious Geodude, then proceeded to walk over to Storm.

"Yeah Storm!!" Karla and Max cheered as they came hurrying over with Flint on their heels.

Roark stopped in front of the still bewildered Storm.

"You look a little shocked!" Roark chuckled, patting Storm's shoulder.

Storm blinked a few times and looked up at the Gym Leader she had just defeated. "Just a little?"

Roark laughed, then Storm laughed a little uneasily.

"Well since you beat me, you get the Coal Badge." Roark said, smiling and handing Storm the shiny Gym badge.

She took the badge and thanked Roark.

"Storm, show us the badge!" Max was excited beyond description that she had won.

She held her hand out so her friends could see, still in disbelief.

"So Max, you're coming back to challenge me tomorrow?" Roark asked once Max had stopped ogling over the badge.

Max looked at the Gym Leader and said something that took everyone by surprise. "I think I don't want to be in the Sinnoh League… I want to be a…"

Everyone was waiting with bated breath.

"A Pokémon Researcher!" Max mumbled so quietly it was a surprise any had heard him.

Silence.

Flint was the first one to speak. "Max told me this yesterday while we were training. He said he once wanted to be a strong Gym Leader like his dad, but now he knows what he is good at; he is very talented when it comes to studying Pokémon and knowing details about every single one he sees. I think it would be great if he tried to pursue this new dream of his."

Karla nodded. "That sounds like something you'd be really good at Max! I can teach you all the basics about Pokémon research and everything."

"I agree as well, Max. You definitely seem like a researcher!" Storm added, smiling at the boy.

"Well you have to chase what you truly want, and I can tell this is what you really want. All I have to say is go for it with all your heart and with your Pokémon by your side!" Roark smiled.

Max beamed, "I'll do it!"




…..




The evening following the battle was one of joy and excitement for things to come.

Flint departed to head back to the Pokémon League since he had a battle coming up. He let Storm stay with Karla and Max because of his agreement with Karla. He knew she was capable now and he could let her travel without having him worry like the older brother figure he was.

Storm, Karla and Max all slept soundly that night, confident they had just hit a patch of good fortune.





Hope this didn't bore you all too much... Comments are welcomed!!

 

[deets456]

Hey, enjoying the story hope you put up some more chapters soon.
Good job :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

Hello everyone! Its been a few days since my last post so here comes a new chapter! Enjoy!!



Chapter 14- The Return of Mars




Four days had passed since Storm's victory at the Oreburgh Gym. It was a bright and sunny day with a pleasant temperature and a cooling breeze. In other words, a perfect day for traveling to Eterna City, except…

Near the entrance to Eterna Forest, stood three trainers, two girls and one boy, and they were fighting. One girl had a Teddiursa sitting on her backpack, the other had an Absol standing loyally at her side, the boy had a Pichu sitting on his shoulder and was trying to quell the fighting.

"Why are you always following me?! Get on your own agenda!!" the girl with the Absol shouted.

"Why are you always following me?!" the girl with the Teddiursa retorted.

"Can't you two stop fighting for five minutes?!" the boy yelled, trying to intervene.

The girl with the Absol crossed her arms. "Let's do this the simple way. Let's have a Pokémon battle, the winner goes to Eterna through the forest, the other has to turn around and go back the way they came. Deal?"

The girl with the Teddiursa smirked, "You're on!"

The two girls stepped back 15 feet each and pulled out their Pokéballs.

"Move your ass, Cain. You're in the way of me kicking this brat's ass all the way back to Hoenn." Teddiursa girl shouted at the boy.

"You two seriously need to grow up…" the boy called Cain muttered angrily as he walked out of the line of fire.

Teddiursa girl threw her Pokéball up in the air. The ball burst open and revealed a tiny green Pokémon.

"I see you're playing with Chikorita again today.," Absol girl scoffed and tossed her Pokéball out into the battle zone where it popped open and revealed a blue creature that looked like a large, red-eyed seahorse.

"You're still messing around with that Horsea? How lame!" Teddiursa girl taunted.

"Ugh! Horsea use Smokescreen!" Absol girl shouted, seemingly overcome by anger

The Horsea let loose a burst of smoke from its mouth, vanishing in the thick. The Chikorita bounced out of the smoke and landed several feet away, watching the smoke.

"Leila use Razor Leaf!" Teddiursa girl instructed her Chikorita.

The Chikorita launched a barrage of sharp-edged leaves at the Horsea. The Water-type dodged the attack with ease and prepared itself for its trainer's order.

"Horsea use Water Gun! Finish that pathetic excuse for a Pokémon!" Absol girl ordered.

The Horsea blasted a powerful Water Gun attack at the Chikorita…




----


Storm, Karla and Max had been happily enjoying their trek to Eterna City when they came across the sound of battling coming from the direction they were headed.

Then, a green blur came out of nowhere and slammed into Storm, knocking her off her feet.

"Storm!!" Karla and Max shouted, confused and worried.

"Ughh… That hurt like hell…" Storm moaned, lying on her back with her eyes closed.

Karla and Max leaned over Storm.

"Um. There's a Chikorita on your chest." Max said, dumbfounded.

Storm opened one eye and saw the unconscious Chikorita on her.

"For a tiny thing, it sure hurt like hell…" Storm groaned, closing her eye again and hoping it was a dream.

"Where did it come from?" Karla asked, looking around.

At that moment, the trio began hearing shouting and arguing coming from some distance away.

"This is all her fault! She can't control her stupid Pokémon so it blasted my poor Leila away!" a furious female voiced screamed.

"Well you should have walked away before you got into that pointless fight with her!" a boy's voice retorted loudly.

"Whose side are you on, Cain, because it doesn't seem like you're on mine! I'm your twin! You should be defending me, not that awful girl!" the female argued, the voice getting closer.

"I'm not on anyone's side. This whole rivalry between you two is getting annoying and it needs to stop. And you provoked her, therefore making you-"

"Shut it! Let's just find Leila and get through Eterna Forest before nightfall." The female had cut her brother off.

The trio heard footsteps right in front of them, so Karla and Max looked to find the source.

"Hey that's my Chikorita!" the female voice cried out with glee.

The girl Karla and Max saw was a little older looking than Karla. She was average in height and fairly built, as if she exercised a lot. She had shoulder length brown hair with a mixture of dark red and blonde highlights and sea green eyes that were covered by thin framed glasses. She wore a forest green turtle neck sweater with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and baggy, black cargo pants that barely covered her white sneakers. She had a bulky looking black bag on with a small bear like Pokémon sitting on it. There was also a pale green scarf tied around her waist, similar to the one the bear Pokémon wore around its neck.

The boy looked a lot like the girl. He was taller than she was but had similarly colored eyes and hair, though his hair was shorter and very messy looking. He had on a black T-shirt with a forest green hooded jacket over it that had the sleeves rolled up. He also had on a pair of baggy brown cargo pants, but he also had on a belt with an array of pouches on attached. He had steel toed boots and a bulky looking backpack on as well. The boy also had a tiny yellow mouse sitting on his shoulder.

"This is your Chikorita?" Max asked the girl.

"Yes! It got blasted during a battle a few minutes ago and we've been looking for it," the girl replied, acknowledging her twin.

Max picked the Grass-type off Storm and handed it to the girl, allowing Karla to help Storm up off the ground.

"Come on, it couldn't have hurt that bad!" Karla laughed at her dazed friend.

"You try having a Pokémon knock you off your feet…" Storm muttered angrily.

"Thank you so much for looking after my sister's Chikorita," the boy spoke up, "My name is Cain by the way. And this is my twin sister Jasmine".

"I prefer Jazz. And thank you." The girl called Jazz added in.

"I'm Max," Max introduced himself.

"I'm Karla and this lazy girl is Storm, she caught your Chikorita midflight." Karla laughed.

Storm elbowed Karla in the ribs, "Not funny."

"When I find that pain in my ass, she's dead." Jazz muttered spitefully before turning and running off. "I'm going to find her and teach her not to mess with me! Meet me at the entrance to the forest!" she called back to her brother before disappearing over the hill.

Cain groaned, "Not again…"

The trio looked at the boy with confused stares.

"What happened that made your sister's Chikorita tackle Storm?" Karla asked.

"My sister's rival. They hate each other and always end up fighting whenever they cross paths, today was just another example of their issues. I don't know why they keep fighting, it's so immature, but they just keep going and going.

"I don't even know why they even started fighting, it might've happened when we were all kids, but I'm not exactly sure."

Cain shook his head as if trying to disperse a bad thought and looked at his audience. "I had better go stop my sister before she gets herself into trouble".

"We'll help!" Max jumped in, taking Cain by surprise.

"You really want to help?" Cain asked.

Karla shrugged, "We were on our way to Eterna Forest, so it'll be convenient for all of us".

"Well, enough talking! Let's go!"




------



Lacie and her loyal Abosl walked through the dark shade of Eterna Forest, looking for answers the rumors they had heard in a nearby town.

"So, there's some illegal activity occurring here in Eterna Forest… Looks like we got our work cut out for us this time, right Absol?" Lacie asked, looking around a thick tree trunk.

The Absol nodded in agreement with its trainer, the sharp, black, curved horn on its head glinting in the faint light.

Absol was a fairly large Pokémon with ultra white fur and a tail shaped like a black spear head. It was almost a vicious dog with sharp objects attached to its head and rear. It paws were quite large with sharp claws hidden under its white fur. It also had a luxurious collar of white fur around its neck, slightly longer than the rest of its fur.

Lacie was girl of decent height, about 5'4", with a fair complexion and an attitude bigger than she was. She had white blonde hair, with black streaks though her eyebrows and eye lashes were black. She had big purple/pink eyes that, to anyone who didn't know her, screamed innocence, those who knew her knew better then to judge her on what her eyes said. She had a grey tank top on with a military style jacket over it, covering her slightly muscular arms and torso. Her pants were slightly loose, torn up jeans held up by a long belt that wrapped around her waist twice before resting loosely against her left thigh. She wore a pair of heavy leather combat boots that came up to her knees and a military style bag resting on one shoulder. In her left hand was an almost completely eaten red and yellow apple.

Lacie took a bite out of the apple and threw the core in between a pair of trees. She swallowed the apple that had been in her mouth and spoke to her Absol again, "I think we are getting close. They'll pay for harming that group of Dragon-types…"

Absol looked at its trainer and growled with enthusiasm.

The trainer and her Pokémon continued deeper into Eterna Forest, looking high and low for some clue to the rumors they had heard.




-----






Neo Galactic Commander Mars paced around a wooden crate, seemingly worried and angry at the same time.

A meek grunt approached her in an attempt to have her sign a document, but retreated out of fear.

"Pluto actually failed? What is the boss even planning? He hasn't been in his office for the past week! This is bad…" Mars muttered in a worried tone.

The headset on Mars's ear beeped, signaling a call, which Mars reluctantly answered.

"What is it?!" she answered, half yelling.

"I suggest you watch your tone, Mars." A man spoke in a sly tone on the headset.

Mars squeaked at hearing her boss on the other end of the line then replied hurriedly, "Oh! I'm so sorry about that Boss!! Forgive my rudeness!"

"All is well at your site I take it?" the boss continued, ignoring the apology.

"Uh… Yes sir!" Mars stammered.

The boss breathed heavily "I'll be there in a few minutes. I feel as if our plan may be in jeopardy".

"What do you mean?" Mars asked, her fear dulled by the development.

"That children that chased Pluto off in the Oreburgh Mine are coming forest. Be wary." The boss explained, refusing to go into detail.

The line went dead after those words, leaving Mars in a bigger state of panic; her boss was coming here and those brats were on their way too.

Mars ran her fingers through her red hair and dropped into a nearby chair. She propped her chin on her hand and closed her eyes, trying to think out a plan.





------





Jazz stomped angrily through Eterna Forest, looking for her rival that had just beaten her. Her glasses continually kept sliding down her nose, forcing her to violently push them back up, but they kept sliding down again.

Her foot suddenly got caught on a tree root, and she fell flat on her face.

"Ow!" she groaned, pulling herself out of the dirt.

After cleaning the thick layer of mud off her glasses and placing them back on her face she spotted an apple core lying a few feet in front of her.

She stood and walked over to the fruit carcass, examining it carefully with her eyes.

"A red and yellow apple… That must be from Lacie since all she eats are those apples. It's not that brown yet so she must have thrown this not long ago." Jazz whispered to herself.

Jazz dusted herself off and hurried through the trees, dodging low branches and the occasional Rattata. Stumbling through the woods was new to her; she never used to have problems with these sort of things since she was a retired Pokémon Ranger and all.

Jazz and Cain were the best Pokémon Rangers in the Johto region, but Jazz was tired of all the excitement and adventure, so she retired a year ago and became a Breeder. Jazz still traveled, but it was so the benefit of the Pokémon she was raising,

Then there was Lacie. Jazz hated her with every nerve in her being. Cain and Jazz had met Lacie when they were six years old, Lacie was nine. The three of them were on a cruise with their families. At the time Lacie had only one brother, Zane who was thirteen, but from what Cain had told Jazz, she now had two kid brothers, Archer and Jasper ages seven and nine. Lacie was about twenty one years according to Jazz's best estimate, though Cain was good friends with her, he sent her a letter on her birthday.

Jazz would never admit one thing about her history with Lacie, except in her thoughts; she couldn't remember why she hated Lacie so much. She just couldn't remember; it had been so long since their rivalry started she just forgot over the years.

Cain had told Jazz a few years before that Lacie was from the Hoenn region and was related to a powerful Pokémon Trainer, but that's all she really knew.

Maybe there is no reason for me to hate her. Whatever happened when we were kids is long gone. We are adults and we can act like adults.

Jazz stopped at the nearing sound of commotion, like there was a good amount of people moving stuff around.

She hid behind a thick tree trunk and tried to see what was ahead.

Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw a blur of white. Startled, she jerked her head to see what it was.

She recognized the proud Disaster Pokémon immediately, "Absol?"

The Absol looked at her with dark eyes and gave the signal for her to follow before dashing off into the trees.

Jazz, confused at why her rival's Pokémon came to find her, reluctantly followed the Dark-type through the trees.

After a few minutes of running, Jazz noticed Absol was stopped a few yards ahead of her, staring at her and waiting. Jazz approached it cautiously and stopped next to it, watching it in case it decided to attack.

Absol nodded, pointing to something in front of it, Jazz followed its gaze.

There was a decent sized clearing ahead, people dressed like astronauts were walking around and pushing wooden crates. There was a woman with red hair and dressed more elaborately than the others barking orders to the masses. Near the clearing was the familiar blonde and black haired Lacie, eyeing the activity with an angry flare in her gaze. She held a Pokéball in her grasp, ready to attack.

"What is she doing?" Jazz muttered to herself, watching her rival prepare her attack.

Lacie turned around and released the Pokémon inside of the Pokéball, which was a Swablu.

The tiny blue bird with its cotton ball wings fluttered around Lacie's head and rested calmly on her shoulder. It sat there for a few moments before taking flight again and glided gently into the clearing.

Jazz watched Lacie mouth out the words, "Use Sing", then turned toward the Swablu and watched it sing to the astronaut people. The ones closest to the Pokémon were the first to fall unconscious, while others wobbled around before collapsing into a deep slumber.

Swablu finished its song and flew back to Lacie, who quickly returned it and released another Pokémon, this time a violent and angry looking Garchomp.

"Use Dragon Pulse on all of those boxes." Jazz heard Lacie instruct her Dragon/Ground-type.

The Garchomp took flight and began obliterating the wooden crates.

Jazz then saw the red haired woman appear behind Lacie with one of the grunts.

Absol took off after launched a powerful Razor Wind attack at the two people who were threatening its trainer.

Lacie jumped out of the way of the attack, barely dodging the attack.

"This looks ugly…" Jazz mumbled, fiddling with the Pokéball on her waist. Without thinking, she released the Pokémon inside of the ball.

A tiny teddy bear like Pokémon appeared at Jazz's feet and looked up at her patiently.

"Just wait and see if she can handle this…"

The smell of smoke from the burning crates filled the once gooey warm air, giving the feeling of choking on the smoke.




------




"The explosions came from this direction!" Storm shouted, running deeper into Eterna Forest.

The group had seen a large plume of smoke and the sound of small explosions come from the trees. Concern for the people and Pokémon in the forest, they ran headlong into the woods.

Smoke was starting to cloud their vision and cause them to choke, burning in their throats and eyes.

"We can't keep going if the smoke stays like this!" Max or Cain seemed to shout; they sounded a lot alike.

"Hey Shaymin, think you can give us a hand?" Storm asked her backpack where Shaymin had been napping in since that morning.

Shaymin poked its head out and spoke, "Sure thing as along as this is the only thing I have to do. I'm too tired today to do much else."

"You can sleep once you clear this smoke out so we can find out what caused this." Storm replied, losing patience.

"Fine, whatever you say." Shaymin crawled out of the backpack and onto Storm's shoulder.

The Pokémon began using its Seed Flare ability, sucking smoke into its body to clean the air. Its tiny body glowed as it purified the air, making it cleaner to breathe. After a few moments it stopped.

"The rest of the smoke is small and shouldn't bother you humans that much. I can't get it all because whatever started the smoke is still producing it, just not as rapidly as before." Shaymin yawned as it curled up on Storm's shoulder.

"Thanks for helping Shaymin." Karla said to the sleepy Pokémon.

Max thanked Shaymin while Cain stared at the hedgehog like Pokémon.

"Cain, what's wrong?" Karla asked, eyeing the Pokémon Ranger suspiciously.

"I was asked to come here to Sinnoh to help out with transporting a rare Pokémon back to its home in a valley on the northwest side of Mount Coronet. A Shaymin to be exact. I just wasn't expecting you all to be the people looking after it." Cain explained.

"Garchomp use Hyper Beam!" a faint shout echoed through the trees.

"A Garchomp?" The trio asked, confused.

"Lacie has a Garchomp, well more like a Gabite unless it evolved from the last time I spoke to her." Cain answered the confusion, looking off to where the voice had come from.

"Purugly use Shadow Ball!" another voice echoed, a female voice.

"Teddiursa deflect it!" a voice that sounded like Jazz's jumped in.

"Absol use Dark Pulse!" the voice identified as Lacie's popped in again.

Another explosion, shaking the entire area with violent tremors.

"A Purugly? Only one person I know has one of those, and she is trouble…" Storm spoke in a low voice.

Everyone looked at her, waiting to hear what she had to say.

"Its that Neo Galactic Commander, Mars. The red haired woman I met back outside Jubilife when she murdered two of her grunts and almost killed my Riolu." Storm growled, a new force of anger stepped in.

Storm clutched Shaymin in her arms and hurried off in the direction of the battle with the others on her heels.



-----



"So, think it was a good idea to try and take these guys on your own?" Jazz asked Lacie in a snarky tone, smirking as she stared down a Toxicroak.

Lacie laughed, watching the Purugly with her big purple/pink eyes. "I sure as hell do!"

Garchomp stood in front of Lacie while she listened to the movements of her Absol, who was helping Jazz and her Teddiursa.

"Just because we are teaming up now doesn't make us friends. So when this is over, it's back to hating each other." Lacie told Jazz.

Jazz laughed to herself, "Sounds good to me."

"Better keep up!" Lacie laughed as she gave out a command to her Garchomp.

The red haired woman glared at her cocky opponent, quickly losing patience, while her cohort stood calmly with his Toxicroak.




-----



Mars studied the battle field carefully, analyzing every possible advantage.

Her eyes landed on the grunt, or what appeared to be a grunt. Her boss was in disguise, hiding his true appearance so he would not be caught as easily as the Commanders, after all, he was the boss.

He signaled her with a head gesture, and she nodded, understanding what she had to do.







Next chapter should be coming soon! Thank you for reading! :)

 

[fire_and_ice]

Hey everyone!

Just dropped by to let you know there won't be a new post for a while (real life got in the way). I'm trying to get two chapters done by the 8th and 9th of Nov. since it would be better for them to be back to back rather than spaced out.

And on a different note, there will be a sequel! Oh yes, happy day! xD I had a brilliant idea while spawning Lacie, Cain and Jazz's personalities and backgrounds and felt that they deserved a story of their own. I'm not going to spoil what will happen for the rest of book one, but you can look forward to a new adventure with new characters and conflicts in the sequel! And with any new idea, I'll give you a little hint of what book two will be about with the title. The sequel will be called "Untitled Fanfic: Book Two- Light Up The Sky".

That should give you all enough to ponder in my absence. Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say! :)

--fire_and_ice

 

[fire_and_ice]

Hello lovelies! Hope you're ready for not one, but TWO epic chapters! I'll post them separate to make your reading life a little easier! Enjoy!





Chapter 15- Eterna Forest Battle Royale!




"Purugly use Slash!" The red haired woman ordered.

The fat ugly cat darted toward the Teddiursa as fast as its stubby fat legs could carry it. Teddiursa watched its movements and dodged the attack at the last second, jumping high into the air.

Lacie smirked, amused with the battle and spoke to her Garchomp, "I think its time we step this battle up a few more notches".

Garchomp growled its approval, jumping up to catch the Teddiursa before it hit the ground.

"Hey Jazz, you should stick close to me for this one…" Lacie instructed her rival, grabbing Jazz's arm and pulling her to her side.

"What are you planning?" Jazz asked as she watched Lacie jump onto her Garchomp. She followed her example and landed smoothly onto Garchomp's scaly back, grabbing its shoulder for support.

Teddiursa squirmed in protest of being near the Dragon-type and fought to be put down on the ground.

"You'll see," Lacie answered, "Garchomp take off."

Garchomp burst into the air with blinding speed and ferocity, but managing to keep below the tree line.

"You realize your Absol is still down there, right?" Jazz asked, holding onto the Dragon for her life.

"He's already out of the way. He went looking for your brother." Lacie answered, gesturing toward a blind flash of white tearing away from the battle field. "Now Garchomp, Draco Meteor!"

Garchomp centered all of its Dragon-type characteristics into one place it its body, signaled by the raging red glow moving from the ends of its limbs to its head. Then, it pulled its head back and fired a ball of red/orange light high into the air, taking down tree branches as it broke into the sky.


----


"Check that out!" Max pointed up toward the ball of fire that had just shot up from the trees.

The group looked up just in time to see the fire ball shatter into a hundred smaller fire balls and heading back down to earth.

"That's a Draco Meteor. Lacie's Garchomp must have used it." Cain said, as the group heard the panicked shouts and screams coming from the area where the Meteor had done its damage.

"Sol!" a growl came from nearby.

The group located the source over to their left, between a pair of skinny trees. An Absol stood, staring at them with vivid red eyes, its white fur dusted with dirt and soot.

"Hey Absol." Cain said, walking over to the Pokémon.

The Absol nodded and turned its head to the direction from where the explosions where coming from.

"Your trainer is over there, right?" he asked.

"Sol." Absol answered.

"Can you show us the way?"

"Sol." Absol nodded and walked toward the sounds of chaos.

The group followed the Dark-type to a ledge about 20 feet above the battle field. They saw through the smoke, a white blonde haired girl on a large dark blue Pokémon's back ordering attacks. Jazz was ordering her Teddiursa to use powerful attacks on a ugly cat looking Pokémon. The bright red haired woman Storm had run into back outside Jubilife was standing with a single grunt by her side watching her Purugly do battle.

People scattered everywhere, attempting to flee from the destruction, but the blonde girl was not about to let them free. She ordered attacks to keep the people confined to the small clearing, packing them against the ledge and not letting a single person escape.

She landed on the ground next to Jazz with her Pokémon a few seconds later, ready to face off against the leader.

"Good job with the crowd control." They heard Jazz remarked sarcastically.

"Wasn't too much fun. They don't like trying to escape all that much." The blonde replied, staring down her opponent.

The blonde returned her Pokémon to its Pokéball, and then whistled with earsplitting loudness.

Absol's ears perked up, recognizing the sound, and jumped down the ledge to answer the call.

"Should we go down there and help?" Karla asked.

"Maybe. Its safer now that Lacie's Garchomp is away in its Pokéball. We need to keep those criminals from escaping." Cain answered, watching the sudden stillness of the battle field.

"Is that what the big blue thing was? And how do you know their criminals?" Storm asked.

"Yep, Garchomp are naturally violent and powerful so its kind of obvious that was what it was. And you can tell they're criminals because of that red haired lady." Cain answered.

All eyes fell on the red haired woman with the fat cat sitting quietly by her feet.

"Holy s**t! She is really here… This can't be good…" Storm started panicking inside.

"Lacie can handle those clowns all by herself. She almost beat the Champion from here home region a few years ago. Who knows how strong she is now…"

"I knew she looked familiar! She challenged Wallace, the Hoenn Champion three years ago. The final battle was between her Absol and his Milotic, they sent out their most powerful attacks and-"

"The winner was decided based on which one remained standing, which was the Milotic, though it took a few minutes to see which one would go down."

"Best Champion battle ever!" Max was lost in his fangirl memories.

"Pull yourself together! We have to keep those grunts from leaving," Cain looked around at the base of the cliff and came up with an idea, "Everyone spread out along the cliff. Get a Pokémon out that can do a distance attack like Water Gun or Ember, something to that effect, and if you see any trying to escape, tell your Pokémon to launch an attack at them."

They all followed Cain's idea, Karla and Storm stood on the ends of the ledge, Cain and Max stood near the center. Karla sent out her only Pokémon, her Aipom, and immediately told it that this wasn't the time to mess around because of the dangerous situation. Storm sent out her Jolteon and Max sent out his Buizel. Cain sent out his Quilava, surprising everyone because they didn't know he had one.

"Let's get to work then." Storm whispered, holding Shaymin in her arms, Jolteon standing loyally.


----


"You're the person behind the destruction of sacred Dragon grounds and poaching of the infant Gible." Lacie accosted her opponents.

The red haired woman looked at her with actual surprise. "How do you know about that? I led that mission five years ago."

"My Garchomp was a survivor of that catastrophe you caused. And its my sworn duty to protect the Dragons of the world along with my fellow clan members."

"A Dragon clan member? Interesting… That explains so much about you…" the woman smirked, staring down Lacie with her estranged eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lacie snapped, fighting the temptation to punch the woman in the face.

"All Dragon clansmen are taught under strict discipline and customs so they are all exactly alike in battle technique and temperament. They enjoy overpowering their opponents and have short tempers to back it up with, they stick together and don't marry outside the clan because they are all abnormal." The woman emphasized the last word.

Jazz looked over at Lacie, thinking that the criminal's words wouldn't do any harm to the Dragon Tamer's ego, but it had.

Lacie was angry, not the normal angry, but terrifyingly angry. Her ultra white teeth were clenched so hard, they seemed close to breaking under the pressure. Her fists were balled up so tightly that her knuckle bones seemed to pop out from under her thin pale skin. Her eyes had lost the joy, the seemingly all-knowing aura and smugness that once danced in her irises. Her anger was more terrifying than a hundred provoked Gyarados.

The red haired woman and her underling seemed taken aback, not sure of what happened.

"Never insult my people!" Lacie growled.

"If a few simple words can irritate you that much then you and your pathetic little clan should go back to the mountain where you all came from." The woman snickered.

Lacie had enough.

"Absol, Razor Wind!" Lacie shouted.

Absol whipped a whirlwind up and vanished before the woman had time to react.

Jazz took the cue that she had to fight now too.

"Teddiursa use Focus Punch on Toxicroak!" Jazz ordered.

The tiny bear sprung into action and launched a powerful Focus Punch at the poisonous frog.

The grunt finally spoke up, "Toxicroak use Poison Jab."

The Toxicroak's hand spike started glowing a violent purple and hit Teddiursa in the blink of an eye, sending the bear flying through the air and landing on the ledge that stood 20 feet away.

"Teddiursa!" Jazz cried, scanning the area where she saw it land on the ledge furiously.

"I got Teddiursa, sis! Don't worry about it!" Jazz recognized her brother's voice.

"Keep an eye on her Cain!" Jazz called to her twin as she whipped out a new Pokéball. "Electivire, get out here and show these freaks not to mess with us!"

She threw the Pokéball high in the air and watched it burst open. A large yellow and black Pokémon appeared where the ball had opened, landing a few feet in front of her.

"Electivire use Thunderpunch!" Jazz shouted.

Meanwhile, Lacie and Absol faced off against the woman and her Purugly. Absol's Razor Wind had woken the fat cat up from its heavy nap at its master's feet and the battle was just beginning to get ugly.

"Purugly use Shadow Ball!"

"Sucker Punch!"

The Shadow Ball missed its target, mostly because the target had just slashed Purugly's side with its Sucker Punch. Purugly went flying into a tree several feet away, but quickly got back up.

"Shadow Ball again Purugly!"

Purugly launched another ball of dark energy at Absol, but it dodged the attack several moments before the dodge was registered by Purugly.

"Let's finish this weak opponent Absol, Giga Impact!" Lacie ordered.

Absol's body began glowing a green color, showing the charge of energy. The whole battle field seemed to move in slow motion as Absol completed its charge and set a direct course for Purugly.

Absol's speed was too fast for the fat Purugly as it took the full force of the Giga Impact head on, failing to dodge even the slightest. The sound of the impact was indescribable. There was a loud thud of the two bodies colliding, the sound of the heavier body hitting the ground with immeasurable power and the cracking sound of bones shattering underneath fur and muscle.

Absol left the collision site relatively unharmed compared to Purugly. Absol only had a limp from the amount of energy it used in the attack, Purugly was unconscious and severely injured.

"Purugly?" the woman squeaked out, her voice in utter shock and disbelief.

Purugly did not answer.

The woman ran over to her Pokémon and checked to make sure it was still alive.

The grunt walked over to her and said in an almost inaudible voice, "Mars, it will be fine. Retreat for now."

The woman looked up at him and nodded, seeming slightly scared of him but still concerned over her obese Purugly. She returned the Pokémon to its Pokéball and turned to face her opponents.

"You," she pointed at Lacie, eyes filled with deep rooted hatred, "Next time we meet, you shall pay dearly for your actions today."

"You aren't leaving." Jazz shouted.

A faint sound of a helicopter echoed over the forest.

"How much would you like to bet on that?" the grunt asked smugly.

The helicopter sounds were becoming closer by the second.

"Absol don't let them escape!" Lacie ordered.

"You too, Electivire!" Jazz called.

The two Pokémon surrounded the woman and the grunt.

Suddenly, the helicopter was over the clearing and over one hundred Golbat swooped down onto the battle field.

"Electivire shoot these damn things with your Discharge!" Jazz instructed, swatting at a Golbat.

Electivire released the powerful Electric attack with all of its might, hitting most of the Golbat. The remaining bats flew off toward the sky, leaving the injured to fend for themselves.

"They escaped!" Max's voice echoed around the clearing.

"What?!" several voices chimed off, followed by rapid searching and scanning.

The grunts, and the woman and her cohort had all escaped during the chaos. The only trace that they had been there was the left over crates and a single unconscious grunt that was left behind at the base of the ledge.