Pokemon Revolution: Advent Phoenix (Rated T)

**Mawile XD** · 10th April 2007, 9:58 PM

Hey, I'm here. First things first, I've been forgetting about the fakemon, but you didn't really get back to me on my fakemon. Is it accepted?

This chapter was hilarious, but I loved seeing Champ fight. Treecko are pretty cool, ya know... Anyway, Amber is a lot like Cannon. I can see how Crescent is annoyed.

Great chapter, I enjoyed it.

**Kazekage** · 10th April 2007, 11:01 PM

Damn I forgot to rate the chapter.

9.7/10, good chapter EM1. This was the best third chapter I've ever read

**Matt Silver** · 11th April 2007, 9:26 AM

Hey EM1. I thought I'd review your awesome new version of an old favourite.

So, at first glance, the story, description, spelling and grammer is great, bar a few mistakes that Air Dragon pointed out. I like how you managed to keep the Travis story going, but still making it interesting enough (For example, Travis' disability and washed up Pokémon skills).

The characters are great, I was happy to see my favourite character (Matt) back after a long wait, but I still can't wait for Madeliene and Shiro to appear, even though that isn't likely enough. The new Fakemon you created (Or, in this case, came to you by others' ideas) are great btw.

Anyway, can't wait for the next chapter, I'll be reading it most certainly (If I'm not writing my own fic at the same time). See ya!

**ultimate_pokemaster** · 12th April 2007, 8:29 AM

Amber's random personality made me laugh so hard that my mom thought I was insane.Chapter was good except Katrina should have hit Travis much much harder.Too bad champ lost, I like Treeckos.

And since Katrina did'nt hit Travis hard enough,I'll take care of that problem myself.*Hits Travis Repeatedly*

**KingT** · 15th April 2007, 1:11 PM

Loved everything about that chapter

I give it a 8/8

“<ARGH!>” Crescent jumped about five feet in to the air. “<Amber, what the hell?! I thought you were in your ball!>”

“<Balls...they’re overrated,>” Amber said. “<...That’s why I’m glad I’m a girl.>”

All three of the other Pokémon felt their jaws drop to the ground with no control over them.

“<What?!>” Crescent groaned, “<That is so...not what the hell I was talking about!>”

“<Throw a flag!>” Champ piped in. “<Personal foul – unnecessary insanity!>”

“<You think I’m insane?>” Amber said, stalking around Angel and Crescent toward the Treecko, who craned his head around to see her coming. “<You think I’m cuckoo?....Huh, little Treecko?...How about I burn your little green derriere to a crisp? Then you’ll see how ‘insane’ I am!!>”

“<What’s a ‘derriere’? That’s not in my playbook,>” Champ muttered. Seeing Amber inhale, he realized what was going on and shouted, “<Oh, sh–>”

Ah randomness, what would we do without you

Peace, KingT

P.S.(I added PRJ and PRAP links to my signiture)

**EonMaster One** · 15th April 2007, 7:41 PM

Hey, all. I'm still alive. A bit tired, but still alive.

So...I haven't had a lot of time to write much. I am writing. But...yeah, I've had a busy weekend - so, Chapter 4 won't be up for a few days. I'll do my best to get it up this week, though, because I want to get as many chapters up as possible before I go on hiatus starting May 17 or so. I'll still be writing, of course. I'm putting things in place so I can continue writing - and write very much - during the summer, where I have limited access to a computer. I might still be able to get a chapter or two up this summer, but it'd be a difficult thing, especially if I get the job that I have lined up. So...that's all I wanted to say for now.

(While I'm gone, you might want to occupy yourself with Air Dragon's The Corei Quest and Breezy's HLBMA. Those never get old, and they're still going. )

I should be back from hiatus in August, and I'll probably have about 8-10 new chapters ready at that point since I have practically infinite free time...good stuff.

So...don't stop reading. I'm still here.

- EM1, out.

**EonMaster One** · 19th April 2007, 9:25 PM

Hello. EM1 here.

So, you guys that read PRJ remember that it took over ten chapters to get to a gym battle last time, right? Well, smile – I did it a little faster this time.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon – at least not the 493 existing canon species, anyways. Again...I’ll cite the Fakemon at the end of the chapter. Oh, yeah – I don’t own the song lyrics, either. I wish I did, though, because that song (written by Phil Collins) is freakin’ sw33t. There’s been a couple of covers done by others, but the best by far IMHO is the version done by Nonpoint.

Chapter 4: Breakdown and Takedown

May 21, PA 2013 – Petalburg City, Hoenn

“Both the challenger and our gym leader, Stella, have only one Pokémon each! This one’s going down to the wire!” an announcer shouted loudly over a cheering crowd of several thousand at the Gym in Petalburg City. These fans looked on as the battlefield was empty of Pokémon and only held two teenage girls. One of them was familiar to the crowd, as they came every day to watch her battle. She was nearly sixteen and was quite tall for her age. Her fuchsia hair was contained in a yellow bandana, and otherwise tied in two braided loops that fell down near her neck. Her white tanktop was ordinary except for the fact that it did show a bit of her cleavage, flaunting to young males around the city that she was quite...well-endowed for her age. She also wore yellow pants that were extremely bright and made her easily visible from a distance. This was the Gym Leader of Petalburg City, Stella. This was her first year as Gym Leader, and she had already won over the city – starting with the demographic of males ages thirteen to twenty-five. It didn’t hurt, though, that she was also a good Trainer. So far this season (which started on the first of May), only two trainers had managed to beat her on the first try – a fact that made for some very interesting and heated rematches.

The other girl was slightly younger – with long, pink hair. She was the challenger, and no one in Petalburg City had ever seen her before. Unbeknownst to her, though, she had been fighting two battles since she had set foot inside the stadium. The first and more obvious was the contest she was having with Stella in order to win an Astralbadge, the first of eight badges required for admittance into Evergrande City at the Emerald League Tournament toward the end of this summer. The second, however, was the war that was being waged for the hearts of teenage boys in the crowd. Most of them had dubbed themselves as Stella’s most loyal fans, and were indeed there every day they could be to support her. With the appearance of this challenger, though, they found themselves questioning their loyalties...because the majority of teenage boys were just like that.

The crowd cheered as an Umbreon stepped into the battle area on the challenger’s side of the field.

“And the challenger’s final Pokémon will be an Umbreon!” the announcer shouted. There were many murmurs of interest in the large crowd – Eevee and its subsequent evolutions were even rarer in Hoenn than they were in the Albara region (which consists of Kanto and Johto), so it was not every day that one saw an Umbreon battle. “What Pokémon does Stella have to counter it?”

A bright flash of light produced a moderately-sized creature with mostly white fur, except for aggressive-looking red stripes in some cases. The claws on this Pokémon looked like a force to be reckoned with.

The challenger pointed her Pokédex at the creature and scanned it.

“Zangoose...” she muttered to herself. “Normal-type – huh? Is my Pokédex reading this thing’s Attack and Speed stats right? They’re off the charts!”

“Zangooze!” the young woman opposite her – the Petalburg Gym Leader – shouted. “Start things off with a Scratch attack!”

“Crescent!” the challenger shouted. “Watch those claws! Dodge that!”

Zangoose came after Crescent on all fours. Leaping in the air, she attempted to lower her claw onto the Umbreon’s head and end the match in one hit. The stalwart Dark-type, however, had other ideas. He rolled to the left just as Zangoose got there and rammed into her, sending her backward a few feet. The ever-dangerous Cat Rabbit Pokémon snarled in pain and fury and advanced upon Crescent again. This time, her aim was true and her claw connected, sending a snarling Crescent flying across the field. He landed at his trainer’s feet.

“<Ouch!>” Crescent snarled, rolling to his feet. “<Katrina, can’t we use...>”

“Not yet – Zangoose is too quick,” the pink-haired girl replied. “We don’t want to waste it.”

“<What about Shadow Ball?>” Crescent asked.

“Doesn’t work on Normal-types for some reason...at least, that’s what Travis told me,” Katrina sighed.

“<Damn it,>” Crescent spat angrily.

“You can only go toe-to-toe with me for so long,” Stella said loudly. “Zangoose, Fury Cutter!”

“Use Quick Attack, Crescent!” Katrina shouted. Crescent got there first, as a Quick Attack is designed to do – but the force was not quite enough to knock Zangoose off of her feet, or to interrupt her attack. A claw came whistling through the air and nearly cut some of the black off the Umbreon’s face. He groaned in pain as he staggered backward. Zangoose, however, wasn’t done. She advanced again, clawing Crescent’s face a second time – then a third.

“<No!>” Crescent groaned.

“Crescent, use Quick Attack again!” the Moonlight Pokémon responded quickly to his Trainer’s orders by rolling out of the way and ramming an unprepared Zangoose directly in her back. She went flying forward, and Katrina knew what to do next. “Now, use Pursuit!”

In a blur, Crescent ran around Zangoose’s flying body. He reappeared on the other side of her and lowered his head, vaulting her high into the air. She went into a dizzying spin as she ascended higher and higher. At the apex of her air time, she broke out of her spin and reassumed a ready position as she began to come back toward earth.

“Way to go, Zangoose!” Stella shouted enthusiastically.

“Use Shadow Ball!” Katrina shouted. Readying a ball of dark energy in his mouth, Crescent fired this sparking, black sphere at Zangoose’s descending body. Zangoose, however, saw it coming and crossed her claws across her body, diving right through the attack and breaking it apart. Zangoose broke through and saw a small but very bright point of light shining up at her from the ground.

“You should have known that wasn’t going to work,” Stella commented. “Finish him off! Use Slash, NOW!”

Katrina smirked as Zangoose continued to descend at her partner Pokémon, a claw raised to attack. Zangoose, however, was descending straight toward Crescent in a straight line...and that would be Zangoose’s downfall.

“Right where I want you,” she muttered. “Crescent, NOW! USE HYPER BEAM!”

Right as Zangoose was about to lay her claw into Crescent’s muzzle, the Umbreon released the full strength of the Megacite beam that he had been charging for the past seven or so seconds. It shot straight into the air, engulfing Zangoose in a bright flash of white as a shockwave thundered from the center of the stadium, where the attack had been launched. Under the bright, white light, Zangoose was invisible for several heart-stopping moments, until she came flying out of the beam looking bruised, burned, and otherwise broken. She landed in a heap on Stella’s side of the field, utterly knocked out.

The referee (clad in a similar outfit to the referees in Johto, except that their shirts were green as opposed to blue) ran over to stand parallel with the Zangoose and raised his hand. The crowd knew what was coming next and they chanted along with him.

“ONE.......TWO.......THREE.......FOUR......”

Katrina and Crescent both held their breath.

“FIVE!!” the crowd shouted before erupting into cheers that drowned out the referee’s announcement that stated Zangoose as being unable to continue and that Katrina was the winner of the match and an Astralbadge.

“<Whew...>” Crescent sighed, dropping his head. “<Couldn’t have taken much more of that.>”

“See? That’s why I said we couldn’t waste our shot,” Katrina sighed, smiling and reveling in her victory.

That had been nearly two hours ago. Now, at five minutes to twelve, Katrina and Travis were on their way to the Gym again, after waiting the two hours that the League allots for Gym Leaders between their matches. This time, it was the latter’s turn to try for his badge. However, he had suffered the express disadvantage of having time to reflect on his match. To make matters worse, he had been inside the stadium the first time and knew for sure how loud it could get. It had been years since he had been in front of a crowd this large. It didn’t help, either, that Travis did remember exactly how his first Gym match in Johto had gone. He had lost all confidence in his skills as a Trainer and thus lost by forfeit.

And he had been doing well up to that point. This time around, he hadn’t won a single battle since he set foot in Hoenn nearly a week ago.

Katrina was pulling his arm and trying to alert him to the sights of the city, but he didn’t really hear her. He wasn’t really all there. His mind was already at the stadium. He was there, losing...losing even before he’d chosen a Pokémon – losing before he’d even set foot inside the stadium. He already felt like he was losing.

“Hey, watch it, kid!” a man’s voice spoke gruffly in front of him right after he felt himself hit something. He looked up and saw a hassled-looking man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. He looked like he had somewhere to be – and actually looked like he should have been there several minutes ago.

“Sorry,” Travis muttered, continuing to walk. Katrina was at his shoulder, asking him a question – but he didn’t really hear much of what she was saying.

Below him, Angel stared at the ground while Crescent attempted to ask her the same question his Trainer was asking hers.

“<What’s wrong with you?>” the Umbreon asked.

“<He’s nervous,>” Angel whimpered. “<He doesn’t think he can win. I’ve never felt him this scared before.>”

“<Well, it won’t help for you to think like that,>” Crescent sighed. “<You might know what he’s thinking, but you can’t control it. That’s something he has to work out on his own...and he’d better do it quick before he chokes and gets you hurt like he did last time. But then again...>”

“<What?>” Angel asked. “<What’s wrong?>”

“<I’m saying this because I care about you,>” Crescent said. “<You need to be a little bit less stiff. If you can do some things on your own while he’s thinking up a strategy...>”

“<You mean...like, freelancing or something?>” Angel asked.

“<That’s exactly what I’m talking about,>” Crescent replied. “<Back when...well, back when I was with her...>”

“<That’s okay – you don’t have to talk about it,>” Angel said quickly, knowing exactly who Crescent was talking about.

“<No, I’m fine – you need to hear this,>” Crescent sighed heavily. “<Back then...I learned that if I could hold my own without her dictating my every single move, it took some of the pressure off of her if she had to change her strategy on the fly. Plus...it kept me from getting pummeled too badly. The enemy won’t wait for you, so at least keep moving around. Easy enough?>”

“<Yeah – I understand,>” Angel replied emphatically.

“” Crescent said wryly. Angel let out a slight laugh as her face went crimson. “<Just do your best. Nobody can ask any more of you than that.>”

“<I’ll be sure to,>” Angel nodded with a smile. Then, blushing harder, she muttered, “<You know...>”

“<Hm?>” Crescent uttered, turning toward her.

“” Angel said haltingly, not bothering to meet Crescent’s eyes. “<...for the rest of my life, you know?>”

“<Hm?>” Crescent uttered again, sounding confused – judging by the reddish tinge in his face, though, he got exactly what Angel meant.

“<What I mean is...>” Angel stammered, still looking away from him. “<It’s been two years since I met you...kind of ironic how things turned out. The first time we met, I won, and now I’m looking to you for tips. I guess the best way to explain it is...well...>”

“<What’s going on with you?>” Crescent asked. Normally, there wasn’t much Angel would ever try to say to Crescent that got her all embarrassed like this.

“<Well...I’ve grown up a lot since then...>” Angel sighed. “<And, one day – someday, if I ever...>”

Her face went a brilliant shade of crimson and she shook her head.

“<Never mind,>” she said. “<I’m not ready to say that now. Can you just accept a ‘thank you’?>”

“<Say what?>” the Umbreon asked curiously. Then, realizing that there was no point in pushing the conversation further, he sighed and said, “<You’re welcome.>”

The yelling of a crowd grew to a crescendo, aided by the yawning shape of the black tunnel in which he was standing. The effect of it all seemed to have unhinged him just a bit. He forgot what path he took to get here – he would need someone to guide him back outside when it was all done, one way or the other. For at least two hours, he had paid attention to nothing other than the match looming before him like an ominous thundercloud. Now that he was actually here, however, he seemed to be focused on everything except the match.

“Heh heh...” he laughed in a rather abnormal manner. “Look at this light at the end of the tunnel – people say this is what death looks like. I wonder if you hear loud cheering when you die, too?”

“<While we’re on the subject of death, you’re about as cheerful as a graveyard,>” the Espeon at his ankle piped in. “<Are you sure you’re okay? We don’t have to do this...>”

“No – I’m pretty sure we do, Angel,” Travis sighed. “...All right. I’m ready.”

“<Ready? You’re shaking like a leaf,>” Angel commented.

“I don’t care,” Travis said, his voice trembling along with the rest of him. “It’s all or nothing. It’s the only way I’ll know if this is meant to be or not. If it is, then laying it all on the table’s gonna have to count for something.”

“” Angel said firmly.

“I won’t let you down,” Travis responded, his gaze hardening. “Let’s go...no more questioning myself. I’ll find the answer here and now.”

Suddenly, everything was amplified: He could hear his heartbeat reverberating throughout the tunnel – feel it pulsating throughout his entire body, there in the darkness. He wondered for a moment if he was literally glowing in his determination. He could see everything a little more clearly. Everything was louder – brighter. He heard the announcer’s introduction and felt his heart burning within him. It was a difficult thing to explain. Just like, sometimes, at defining moments, we feel things break within us...it was just like that, but the other way. It felt like something within him that had been broken had, much more quickly than it had been shattered, been pieced together again. The fear was gone...the uncertainty was gone...and the pain of yesterday no longer mattered. He stepped out and felt the light and sound overtake him.

I can feel it coming in the air tonight...

From this spot, he saw it all. The lights that dotted the perimeter of the stadium, dimmed to conserve energy in the noonday sun...

...oh, Lord...

The crowd, around and above him, five thousand strong...

And I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life...

All eyes were on him. He was the news. They had never seen him before. A boy from a foreign land, taking a shot at the highest prize this nation had to offer. Within those five thousand people...were there some that had indeed heard his name before?

...oh, Lord...

He could just imagine some of the conversations – some of the monikers that could be used of him. Retired? Washed-up? Perhaps...mad? There was always the off chance that someone in the crowd could know his name, especially since he had been the grandson of a former Champion and, at one point, he had been the one to set the bar. He’d been the one to beat in his first journey – the early favorite to win the tournament. That was, of course, before his world came crashing down around him...before everything changed. After it was all done, they didn’t think he’d return. They didn’t think that he’d be able to come back. He had proven them all wrong once, and he was ready to do it again. Roadblocks? Those didn’t matter to him anymore. He had seen too much to allow himself to be stopped like this. Only one other had gone with him to fight in that godforsaken place. He could not...would not...

...oh, Lord...

...be stopped.

He planted himself in the box meant for him and gazed across the stadium at the young woman that was the Gym Leader and his opponent, who stared at him with an unimpressed expression on her face. He didn’t care if she was impressed or not. He was going to give her all she could handle.

As the referee stated the rules of the match (two-on-two, no time limit – the Gym Leader was not allowed to substitute Pokémon), Travis’ eyes scanned the crowd for the one person he was sure would be in his corner. Meanwhile, this same person had already found him, using a pair of binoculars she had gotten as a going-away present from her mother (along with, of course, about three outfits, one of which she was currently wearing). She withdrew her eyes from the binoculars, her lips curled up into a shocked smile.

“<What’s up?>” Crescent craned his neck over the railing and asked.

“You know, I never told him this...” Katrina sighed. “But, back when we were twelve and he was in the Gym Challenge for the Crystal Cup Championship...some people used to think that he was superhuman.”

“<Superhuman?>” Crescent repeated. “<What do you mean by that?>”

“...When he got into that box and started calling orders,” Katrina replied, “He was in a sort of ‘zone’...aware of just about everything – so aware, actually, that it looked almost like he could see some things coming before they happened. Like everything slowed down for him out there. And looking at him now, he’s got this look in his eyes. Something about being in the stadium again must have jolted him back. He looks like his old self – no...he looks better.”

“<You think being in front of a crowd with all this noise would make him nervous,>” Crescent said. “”

“People always said that his father, back when he was a Trainer about twenty-five years ago...that he used to cave under situations like this. Back then, you could only find crowds this big at the League – Gym Matches were private,” Katrina said. “Travis, though...he’s just the opposite of his father when it comes to that. He feeds off the noise and the lights like no one I’ve ever seen before.”

Travis’ eyes locked on to a girl in the front row with pink hair and binoculars. He raised his right hand in a wave and turned to look at the gym leaders.

Travis took a good long look at Stella, wondering if he should make the first call or if he should see what she’s got. He already had an idea, though, from seeing Katrina’s match two hours ago. Stella specialized in Normal-types, and had a Linoone (which he found out was the evolved form of Zigzagoon) and a Zangoose. Unless Stella had a ridiculously large plethora of Normal-types at her disposal, it was a pretty sure bet that he would see at least one of those two Pokémon in this battle. He hoped that, if that was the case, he would see Linoone, as he knew that Zangoose would be the tougher fight no matter which Pokémon he used. But he knew, in order to truly be worthy of the Astralbadge, his best would have to beat hers. He’d save the real thunder for later...but for right now...

“Champ, let’s go!” Travis shouted, throwing the Pokéball containing his Treecko. The Wood Gecko Pokémon enthusiastically burst out of his ball to begin battle.

“<Game time!>” he exclaimed. Looking at his surroundings with his huge, yellow eyes, he took everything in. “<Wow, man – look at the size of this crowd! This is gotta be the big leagues! I’m getting pumped just standing here! C’mon – bring ‘em out, bring ‘em out!>”

“Glad to see you’re excited, Champ,” Travis said. “Now, who’s Stella gonna use...Linoone or Zangoose...”

“Spinocle, let’s GO!” Stella shouted, throwing a Pokéball. In reaction, Travis cupped his ear in a ‘what-did-she-say?’ kind of pose. The ball burst open to reveal a larger, hedgehog-like creature. With his coffee-brown body and chocolate-colored spines, it looked rather like something that Travis had seen before.

“I wonder if that’s...” Travis pointed his Pokédex at the creature. “Yeah, I guessed right. Spinocle – Normal-type, the evolved form of Porcuspine. Slow, but exceptional defense. This might be a long one...”

“<At least the spines are obvious, now – I couldn’t sit down for two days after that last time...>” Champ sighed. “<But everybody knows that speed never goes into a slump. If I’m faster, I’ll own. Simple as that. Let’s rock, Coach!>”

“Rock, we will,” Travis replied. “Champ, open up with Pound attack!”

“<Alright – let’s roll!>” Champ shouted, running at Spinocle and leaping up into the air. Somersaulting in midair, he brought his tail down on the head of the hapless Hedgehog Pokémon. Then, before he could take a face-plant right into Spinocle’s dangerous, brown spines, Champ used his head as a springboard and jumped backward, away from the spiky, brown Normal-type.

“Hung there too long!” Stella shouted. “Spinocle, use Pin Missile!”

“Damn!” Travis swore. Spinocle’s spines all stood on end and seemed to fire themselves at the Treecko from Spinocle’s back. Champ groaned as he was hit by several of them, having been unable to change direction while in midair. He flipped backward in midair in order to minimize some of the damage, landing on one knee and skidding to a stop a few feet in front of Travis. “Champ, are you okay?”

“<No sweat, Coach!>” Champ grunted, yanking out a spine that was about six inches long and had been lodged in his shoulder. “<The toughest wins are always the ones to shout about!>”

“We’d better keep our distance,” Travis commented. “Use Absorb!”

“Watch out!” Stella warned. “Don’t let him lock eyes with you!”

But Spinocle wasn’t quick enough on the uptake. His small, red eyes found Champ’s enormous, yellow ones. Champ began emanating wispy, green streaks of energy. The same glow began to overtake Spinocle’s body, turning it a drab moss green for a moment. The streaks around Spinocle’s body began to waft straight toward the Treecko on the opposite side of the field as Spinocle trembled slightly, sweat running down his face from sudden and inexplicable fatigue. At last, Champ spread his arms wide and began to glow an extremely bright green – a color that took over his entire form and rendered his features invisible for a moment. Then, the light faded similar to how it would when he emerged from his ball, revealing him to be slightly less wounded and tired-looking than he had been seconds ago.

“That’s the way...” Travis muttered in approval. “Use Leer!”

“Don’t stare him down, Spinocle!” Stellla shouted. But Spinocle continued to eye Champ as the Treecko’s bulbous, yellow eyes began to glow a bluish-white color and narrow dangerously. Spinocle appeared to be frightened as he took a step back on his trembling, stubby legs.

“<Is it time to use our trump card?>” Champ asked.

“Trump card?” Travis repeated.

“<The new play you taught me – remember?>” Champ answered.

“Oh! That trump card,” Travis said, a lightbulb having gone off in his brain. He had actually obtained quite a few TM’s on his first journey, as they were offered as prizes along with the badges. He hardly used them, though, except for a few special situations. Therefore, when he started out on this journey, he still had a couple left, one of them being the last one that he had earned from a Gym in Johto.

“Pin Missile, Spinocle!” Stella ordered. Spinocle’s spines began to stand on end again, as if he’d just been supercharged with static electricity.

“Watch it! Dodge those!” Travis shouted. Champ began to strafe to the right to avoid the steady stream of spines that were coming in his direction at the speed of extremely large bullets. After about five seconds, Spinocle ceased to shoot spines and stood in his place, looking a bit winded. Travis saw his opportunity. “There’s your opening, Champ! Use Iron Tail!”

Champ skidded to a stop and broke into a run toward Spinocle, who didn’t seem to see him initially. After Champ had run about six steps, Spinocle turned around and eyed the Treecko. His eyes shifted upward as the small Wood Gecko Pokemon’s verdant-looking form took off into the air on a single bound, his normally-forest-green tail glowing a radiant white.

“Pin Missile!” Stella shouted. “Shoot him down!!”

Spinocle’s spines stood erect once again, prepared to fire directly at Champ, who was in no good position to block. This time, however, Travis was prepared.

“No chance!” he shouted. “Champ, go into a spin and knock those away!”

“<Spin move coming right up!>” Champ shouted, tucking his arms and sending himself into an extremely fast barrel roll. Trails of white energy swirled around him and deflected the many pins and needles away from his body as he continued to descend. Champ, even though he was spinning at about two rotations a second, still managed to see his target, which was Spinocle’s face – the only part of him not covered in those painful spines. He descended...

Ten feet...

Eight feet...

Six feet...

Four feet...

Two feet...

THUNK. With a nasty cracking sound, Champ’s glowing, super-hardened tail smashed directly into the top of Spinocle’s skull. A yell could be heard from the crowd as Spinocle lost consciousness while still on his feet.

“That’s how you drop the hammer! A devastating spinning Iron Tail attack has Spinocle seeing stars!” the announcer shouted over the roar of the crowd. “And there’s the umpire, over to do the five-count!”

Five seconds later, the umpire pointed the green flag at Travis and shouted, “Spinocle is unable to battle! Treecko wins!”

Mixed sounds of cheering and booing filled the stadium at this announcement. It was apparent that most that came here to watch the battle came here to support Stella.

“Good job, Champ!” Travis shouted, his confidence building now that he’d won his first battle on the continent – although not the match in his entirety.

“” Champ shouted, turning around and flashing a thumbs-up.

“That it does – now, who’s next...” Travis shouted. “It’s gotta be either Linoone or Zangoose. Linoone or Zangoose...”

“Now, I’m going to show you why Normal-types are more dangerous than you think!” Stella shouted, throwing a ball into the air. Out of this ball popped an extremely long creature that looked like a striped, brown missile on four feet.

“She used Linoone...” Travis sighed. “I thought Zangoose was her strongest. Does she know something I don’t?”

“Can your Treecko adjust to the new pace?” Stella asked. “Linoone, Headbutt!”

Linoone came headfirst at Champ so quickly that it looked like he’d been shot out of a cannon. Champ, in fear of his safety, rolled out of the way just as the Normal-type arrived at where Champ had been a second ago. While Champ jumped away and skidded to a stop, Linoone was changing direction – he turned almost on a dime and shot at Champ a second time while the latter was in midair. Just in time, Champ got a foot on the top of Linoone’s head and used it as a springboard to jump away from him. The air current created by Linoone’s pure speed sucked Champ in and caused him to flop around in midair involuntarily. He floated back to Travis’ side of the field, crashing spectacularly into the dirt floor.

“<Ouch...bad defense...>” Champ grunted, rolling to his feet and clutching his right shoulder.

“Good speed,” Travis echoed. “We’ll just have to match them. Champ, use Quick Attack!”

“<Let’s kick it up a notch!>” Champ exclaimed, taking off in a blur of green and smashing into Linoone head-on, rolling him over and damaging him substantially.

“Nice hit!” Travis shouted, pumping his fist.

Champ changed direction in midair, propelling himself back at Linoone and attempting to lash the Rushing Pokémon with his enormous tail. Linoone, however, rolled out of the way and began to charge Champ, who had to roll himself to avoid the charging Normal-type. Linoone ended up behind Champ, who noticed this and quickly looked over his shoulder. Showing some of his physical skills, Champ leapt extremely high to avoid a subsequent Headbutt.

“Looks like I’ll have to pull out all the stops and get serious,” Stella commented. “Linoone, use Shadow Ball!”

“Shadow Ball?!” Travis shouted, taken aback. All of a sudden, he had a flashback to another Normal-type Gym Leader he’d battled in Johto...he was the victim of a Lickitung’s Flamethrower that time...now he understood. “Iron Tail! Knock it back!”

Linoone squealed and opened his mouth wide, shooting forth a sphere of crackling black. Champ, however, threw his entire body into a spin and, with his glowing tail, knocked the ball of energy back from whence it came. Linoone’s eyes went humorously wide as he realized that his attack was now targeting him. He rolled out of the way just as the Shadow Ball exploded into the ground right next to him. Immediately, he took off toward the descending Treecko, who had a mind to (once again) use Linoone’s head as a springboard to put some distance between himself and the russet-colored Normal-type. Unfortunately for Champ, Linoone saw this maneuver coming this time, and purposely stopped short, pulling his head back so as to avoid getting stomped on the nose. Therefore, Champ kicked his foot out into nothing and hung in midair for a while.

“<Swing and a miss!>” Champ groaned.

“That’s too close!!” Travis shouted.

“Linoone! Show him your Ice Beam!” Stella shouted. Travis felt like his heart and stomach had somehow switched positions within him as Linoone, squealing loudly, unleashed a white, zigzagging beam at Champ – at point-blank range. Champ was sent flying, his body completely motionless and not even affected by the wind movements as he sailed over the arena back to Travis’ side of the field. There, he landed hard with a crunching sound as a translucent, blue encasement that had formed around him shattered into several pieces. The Treecko’s normally-green tail was white and pale with cold. He struggled to his feet, looking every bit like the competitor that he had been described to be. Shaking with cold, and with his very breath coming out in white wisps (although the actual air temperature was about seventy degrees or so), he sighed.

“<Tch...tie game,>” he grunted before falling face-first into the arena floor, unconscious. The referee ran over to count Champ out.

“That’s alright,” Travis sighed, returning Champ to his ball. “You did a hell of a job. Linoone’s gotta be kinda worn out at this point. Angel? It’s up to you.”

“<No pressure,>” Angel responded, giving a nervous smile and stepping out onto the battlefield. She and Linoone stared each other down.

“Keep your eyes open,” Travis sighed. “That Linoone’s stronger than I gave him credit for.”

“<Right,>” Angel sighed.

“Linoone, use your Headbutt!” Stella shouted. Linoone took one step....two steps...he was off. Before Angel could react, Linoone smashed into her, knocking her to the ground. She got to her feet, hardly able to even keep her balance for several seconds. By the time she did regain it, Linoone was ready to attack again.

“No!” Travis groaned. “What happened?”

“Some attacks can stun a Pokémon every once in a while,” Stella replied. “Headbutt’s one of them. Well – that worked once...let’s try it again! Linoone, Headbutt!”

“Angel, dodge and use Confusion!” Travis shouted. Angel rolled out of the way just as Linoone got there. Linoone skidded to a stop, did a complete 180, and shot at Angel in a straight line again. Angel, who wasn’t ready to unleash her psychic blast, rolled out of the way again....and again...trying to get far enough ahead of Linoone to use Confusion – but, to no avail.

“Damn!” Travis cursed. “He’s too fast!”

Linoone smashed into Angel again, knocking her backward. This time, however, she kept her feet, shook off the cobwebs, and was ready to go again in a second or two.

“Ice Beam, NOW!” Stella shouted. Linoone’s mouth began to glow – right before he unleashed a deathly cold beam of energy.

“Confusion, then roll out of there!” Travis shouted. Angel’s eyes glowed a bright white, and a shockwave emanated from her forehead that stopped the Ice Beam in its tracks for about a second and a half, allowing the Espeon enough time to dodge it. The beam landed right at Travis’ feet, creating a slick sheet of ice right next to him.

“Ice Beam again!” Stella shouted.

“Jump!” Travis shouted, determined to stay one step ahead of Stella so that Angel didn’t get frozen solid. Angel leapt backward into the air just as an Ice Beam struck near the far end of Travis’ half of the field. She landed...and slipped...and hit the ice, hard. Travis looked up and his heart sank – nearly half of his side of the field was covered in ice. She attempted to rise to her feet, wincing horribly. Apparently, her leg had been hurt in the fall. There was no way she could keep her balance on ice the way her leg was – let alone move anywhere.

“<No...>” she groaned loudly.

Travis’ eyes widened as Stella uttered the words that would seal his fate.

“Use Shadow Ball!”

**EonMaster One** · 19th April 2007, 11:18 PM

~~~ *** ~~~

Five minutes later, Travis could be found in the locker room, staring blankly at one of the lockers and bouncing an empty Pokéball against it repeatedly. A couple of Stella’s Junior Trainers were getting ready for one of the exhibition matches that normally took place in Gyms during the two-hour downtime that Gym Leaders were allotted between matches to ready and heal their own Pokémon. Both were boys, perhaps about Travis’ age, and wore white shirts with the symbol of the Astralbadge (essentially three stars arranged in a triangle) on their backs, along with jeans. One of them had short, brown hair with emo-style fringe, and his jeans were tight and rather ripped.

“Tough break, man,” this particular boy said as he walked behind Travis and out toward the tunnel. Behind him, the other boy, who was a bit shorter and had black hair that was a bit wild, followed without a word. “Maybe next time.”

Again, he was left alone in the locker room, with nothing to distract him from his thoughts.

Tough break...that was the story of his life, wasn’t it? What was he to do now? Even his best wasn’t enough, apparently. He just couldn’t catch a break.

He was in disbelief. He thought for sure that, if he gave his all out there, he would be rewarded somehow. If things were going to be like this, what was the use of going on?

This loss – where he’d left it all on the field – only meant one thing.

His career was over.

Matthew had been right about him. He was washed up – a has-been.

He began to reflect on how unfair it all was. If it hadn’t been for the war, he might have been Champion already. That war...it ruined so many things that he’d had before. He’d hardly slept properly in the last two years – not without nightmares of the hellish places he had been.

Travis...

Why did it have to be him? He was still breathing, yes – but he had sacrificed his life in that war...

Travis...

...all the same. He had sacrificed his life in the worst way. He had given his soul in that battle. And now...he had nothing left.

TRAVIS!!!

“WHAT?!” he shouted, standing up and looking to his left, where he kept hearing his name. “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT WITH ME?!”

Without thinking to look at who exactly had been speaking to him, he turned, roared loudly and hit a locker hard. The metal of the locker bent inward as his fist smashed into it. He finally looked to his left again to find Katrina, who was standing there silently and didn’t look the least bit afraid.

“Again, you’re being too hard on yourself,” she said simply. “One loss isn’t the end of the world.”

“Try four...five,” Travis growled savagely. “Try not having won a damn thing since you got here. How many times to I have to get up off the ground before you finally say that it’s over?”

“I see right through you...” Katrina said, turning around. “It’s one of your few character flaws.”

“What’s that?” Travis asked.

“...Back when you were just a rookie, you were really successful as a Trainer,” Katrina remarked. “Too successful for your own good, actually. So much so...you think that anything that’s meant to be comes without resistance. And if that’s what it is...then Matt – even though I’m not sure what’s up with him now – had a really valid reason for hating your guts back then.”

“What?” Travis gasped, not willing to even believe what he was hearing.

“Think about it,” Katrina said. “When you started out, you had a leg up on everybody. You had the best scores, the best battle instincts, one of the rarest Pokémon. You even had the right pedigree. Out of everybody we knew, who can say that they were at least the third generation in their family to be a Pokémon Trainer? Even me – Nate and I had money on our side. Shiro even had it in his blood – even though he didn’t know that until later. We went to one of the best Pokémon Academies in the country and got some of the rarest Pokémon for partners. And you had even more than that. Sure, you were pretty good in your own right, but it didn’t help that you were basically on everyone’s radar from the moment you started your journey. Come to think of it...I was probably on most people’s radar because of you...”

“Don’t say that,” Travis said.

“But that’s just my point,” Katrina said. “What about people like Matt and Madeline – broken family, no schooling, bought their first Pokémon using saved-up child support payments from their estranged father...they had to fight and claw their way, and they recognized that. They knew the road wouldn’t be easy.”

Travis’ mind settled on these words as he sat down on the bench again.

“Really – be honest,” Katrina said. “Right now, I can tell you’re being short with me because you’ve been having a hard time and everything seemed to be falling in place for me. How do you think they must have felt about you?”

“So you’re saying I’m not being hard enough on myself,” Travis said. “Sounds like a contradiction.”

“...Yes...and no,” Katrina replied, sitting down next to him. Gripping his shoulder with her hand, she said, “You keep beating yourself up because you know it takes more than what you’ve got to win. But beating yourself up isn’t the way to go about it. I understand you want everything to be a little bit easier – anybody would if they’d been in your shoes. But...Pokémon Training takes hard work of another kind – and I won’t lie to you and say that it takes any less energy than what you had to do.”

“Hmm...” Travis sighed. Katrina reacted by groaning.

“I’m talking in circles,” she said. “Let me put it to you this way. The bad news – you lost.”

Her face curled up into a smile.

“The good news – you gave Stella hell out there,” she added. “You probably only would have needed one more push, and you would have won it. So, now what do you do? ....what’d you do when you lost to Falkner that time?”

“I...went and trained some more,” Travis replied. “And came back stronger...and beat him.”

“Hoenn’s a different League,” Katrina said. “But the concept of using your defeats to get stronger doesn’t answer to time, place, or even the field itself. It’s not just a Pokémon Training thing. It’s a life thing – get it?”

“Yeah...” Travis replied, laughing a bit and turning away from Katrina.

“What’s so funny?” Katrina asked.

“<You’re blushing,>” Angel, who had stayed rather silent throughout the entire sequence, piped in.

“Nothing big, it’s just...” Travis began, turning around. “I remembered something my dad said to me back when I was ten.”

“That was a while ago, “ Katrina commented.

“It was one of those father-son things,” Travis said, still not meeting Katrina’s eyes fully. “It was pretty late that year. I got the ‘birds and the bees’ from my dad for my birthday that year. But that winter, he told me something just as important.”

“What?” Katrina asked.

Travis smiled and looked straight at her. “He told me, ‘Trav, you’re going to be a man someday, and there’s some things you need to know. It’s better if you learn as much as possible sooner rather than later...since I can guarantee you that you’ll still be learning at my age. But remember this – if she’s good, she’ll love you with all of her heart. She’ll stand behind you when you’re doing good in the world and she’ll let you know when you screw up. She’ll either hug you or hit you, but both can mean ‘I love you’ depending on the situation. And best of all...she’ll be able to lift you up out of the pit and knock you off your high horse if you need it.’ I asked him what he meant by that.”

He looked straight ahead toward the dented locker.

“Yeah?” Katrina uttered in confusion.

Travis finally responded, “He told me, ‘Son, if you grow up and meet a girl that can do all of that for you better than anyone else can...make sure you keep her...’cause she’ll probably be your wife.’”

“That’s good advice,” Katrina said simply.

“I know – I haven’t forgotten it, either,” Travis said, reaching up to his own shoulder and grabbing her hand. It was at this point that Katrina got a hint of the message. Her face began to match her hair color as the two sat there in silence for a while. Gradually, he moved his face closer to hers and kissed her on the lips. As soon as he let go, he stood to his feet and said, “And I won’t forget what you just told me.”

May 22, PA 2013 – Route 102

The following day, Travis and Katrina returned to Route 102, just outside the city. Travis recognized one of his main problems – he and Angel weren’t on the same page as much as they should have been. There was a time when he and Angel had been so synchronized that Angel knew what he wanted her to do almost before he called out the attack. Therefore, Angel and Travis had battled the Pokémon indigenous to the area, trying to refine their techniques. Not willing to return to the city just yet, Travis and Katrina took a break and ate their lunch in the same clearing where they had spent a night on the way a few days ago. Therefore, all four of Travis and Katrina’s total Pokémon were out of their balls and eating, as well as interacting with each other.

“<Geez – chill out, Amber,>” Champ commented, using his hands to thrust a pellet of Pokémon food into his mouth, as he watched the Pyrika mercilessly obliterating the food in her bowl.

“<‘Geez – chill out, Amber,’>” Amber mimed.

“<Urgh...can you stop mocking me?>” Champ groaned.

“<‘Urgh...can you stop mocking me?’>” Amber imitated again.

“<Man...how annoying...>” Champ sighed.

“<‘Man...how annoying...’>” Amber sighed as well.

“<Okay – I’m an idiot,>” Champ said flatly.

“<Okay – Champ’s an idiot,>” Amber responded.

Both Crescent and Angel sweatdropped at the same time as Champ, temporarily losing his temper, chucked a bit of food at the Pyrika, who swiftly opened her mouth and gulped it out of the air.

“<...Owned,>” Crescent said, blinking a bit stupidly.

“<No kidding,>” Angel said, returning to her food and eating the last of it out of her bowl. Crescent looked down at her.

“<Are you doing alright?>” he asked. “<You’re not pushing yourself too hard, are you?>”

“<Don’t be a worrywart, Crescent,>” Angel replied, smiling. “<I’m just fine.>”

Using his head, Crescent moved the bowl containing his own food between them. Angel looked sideways at him for a moment. Leaning her head sideways, she licked his cheek lightly and the two began to share what was left in Crescent’s bowl.

“<You need to keep eating,>” Crescent commented. “<You’ve got two more days of training and you need to keep your strength up.>”

“<Okay, Mom,>” Angel replied semi-sarcastically, burying her face in the bowl again.

“<Champ! Throw me another one!>” Amber squealed playfully.

“<Are you sure?>” Champ, now a bit annoyed by Angel, asked.

“<Abso-tively!>” Amber shouted, smiling. Champ’s jaw twitched at Amber’s word splicing.

“<Fine – here comes a fastball!>” Champ shouted, slinging a pellet directly at Amber’s head. To Champ’s great shock, Amber caught it in midair...while doing a back flip...and gulped it down, a joyful look upon her face.

“<That was super-cool!>” Amber yelled enthusiastically. “<Do it again!>”

“<Okay...>” Champ said, laying on his back and grabbing another pellet out of his bowl. Lobbing it in the air, he sighed, “<Change-up...>”

Amber caught that one, too, although it took a lot longer to get there.

“<Try again!>” Amber piped up. Champ responded with a malicious glint in one of his bulbous, yellow eyes.

“<Curveball,>” he said, throwing it with a flourish. The pellet came on straight and then started to sink down and to Amber’s left. Crouching down low to the ground, Amber caught that one as well. Surprised by Amber’s reaction time, he said, “<You’re not bad at this.>”

“<You really mean that?>” Amber asked, her brown face turning pink.

“<Yeah...I guess,>” Champ replied, sitting down to resume his own meal.

“<That’s...really nice,>” Amber said, looking away from the Treecko and blushing furiously. Looking straight at Crescent, she giggled, the pink tinge still on her cheeks, and ran away.

“<Oh, brother,>” Crescent muttered, emerging from his bowl.

“<What?>” Angel asked.

“<Oh...nothing,>” the Umbreon sighed, shaking his black head.

Meanwhile, Travis and Katrina had already finished up their lunch, and the latter happened to be napping, or at least resting with her eyes closed, which she considered (per an earlier conversation) to be something altogether different. He looked to his left and saw a royal-blue feather he immediately recognized to be the wing feather of a Taillow. He looked to his right and saw her, stretched out on the ground, her closed eyes covered by her sunshades and her bare belly obvious between the two halves of her outfit. He picked up the feather – the thought was very tempting. He smirked and figured that he might as well. With a mischievous grin still on his face, he took the feather and lightly touched his girlfriend’s bare stomach with it. She reacted with a gasp of sorts and tensed up, relaxing again when Travis ceased to tickle her. He waited for five seconds, the smirk still on his face. He then lowered the feather again...

As soon as he got there, she began to shake with laughter again. He stopped for a second and dropped the feather back onto the ground. In a swift movement, she caught his wrist and summarily flipped him onto his back.

“You weren’t enjoying that anymore?” she asked. “I thought it was kind of fun.”

“So you were awake,” Travis sighed simply, sounding winded.

“What’s wrong with you?” Katrina asked. “I’m not – heavy, am I?”

“What? No,” Travis said. “I’m not complaining at all.”

“Right answer,” Katrina said, moving some of her straight, pink hair behind her ear. She then put her finger to Travis’ nose. “ ‘cause if you ever say different...”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Travis remarked. Then, for good measure, he added, “You’re beautiful.”

“Now you’re trying to butter me up,” Katrina replied, pushing her knuckle into Travis’ nose harder. “What are you gonna tell me next? That I have the body of a supermodel?”

“Heck, no,” Travis laughed. “You actually eat something every once in a while. Your smile is real...oh, yeah – you’ve got it pretty good upstairs, too. So, I’d have to say...you’re better.”

“You...” Katrina moaned, nuzzling his cheek. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” Travis sighed. He paused for a second and turned Katrina over onto her back, then pulled her to her feet as he stood. She tripped on her own feet as she stood and fell into his arms. The two looked at each other for a second and then burst into laughter. It was little moments like that – just being able to be with each other, to touch and cuddle and laugh...that were missing from their relationship two years ago at this time –

Actually...two years ago, at this time, their relationship was nonexistent, as they were hardly speaking to each other in late May of 2011. They didn’t start going out until late June. Then, in July, the war started, which is a completely different story altogether. The point was...the eighteen months or so of forced vacation that were the interim between the two journeys did everyone some good. Granted, Travis’ battling skills were a bit rusty, but that was an obstacle that was quickly being overcome.

“So...you ready to pack up and start training again?” Katrina asked.

“Sounds like an idea,” Travis replied, smiling. Ever since he’d realized what was going so wrong with him, he’d been much less of...well, an emo prick. “Um...how about...we split up and meet here in about an hour or two so we’re not both doing the exact same thing?”

“I dunno...” Katrina, who obviously hated the idea of being away from Travis, replied.

“C’mon...I don’t want to get in your way,” Travis commented.

“Alright...” Katrina said, looking around Travis’ shoulder. “I guess you’ve got a point. Plus, Amber’s following Champ around...but I don’t think he’s too keen on her.”

Travis, alone with Angel at his ankles, looked around the forest for Pokémon to fight. He hadn’t seen any in a while, and it had to have been about half an hour since Travis’ last battle.

“<Nuts,>” Angel groaned. “<It’s like they’re all hiding.>”

At that moment, Travis heard a loud howling sound, as of a lone wolf. It sounded similar to a Growlithe (he’d know – he’d owned one at one point), but not exactly. Travis knew that there was also another canine-like Pokémon that was native to Hoenn – Poochyena...but Poochyena didn’t howl like that, if Travis remembered correctly.

“Wonder what that was?” Travis asked.

“<Probably something just trying to show off...wait a second...>” Angel’s long ears perked up and then fell again after a few seconds.

“What happened?” Travis asked.

“” Angel said.

“If they’re in trouble...” Travis said, half to himself. “...Katrina will probably have him start using Hyper Beam. We’ll just watch for any random explosions.”

“<They can take care of themselves, I’m pretty sure...>” Angel commented.

“Yeah, and on top of that, anybody that’s gonna attack is gonna come after me...” Travis muttered.

“<What?>” Angel uttered questioningly.

“Nothing...” Travis sighed. “Let’s keep going.”

They walked through a rather dense part of the forest for a while and then heard a combination of a squeal and bark that he didn’t recognize. He then heard a loud yell.

“OW! What the hell?! Keep your fangs to yourself, you stupid little fox cub!” it shouted in a gruff, foreboding voice.

“Fox cub...?” Travis muttered, his mind immediately going to one specific species of Pokémon. “Are there Vulpix here...?”

He walked past a fork in the forest path, where he heard the yelling again and stopped. Backing up and looking to his left, he saw that this particular path led into a bright light.

“C’mon – this is taking too long!” another voice chimed in. “His Imperial Majesty needs to get this present before we all get old!”

“You try to hold it, then!” the first voice shouted. “But don’t cry to me if it rips your arm off!”

Travis took off down the path, his heart pounding within him. There was a Pokémon somewhere ahead of him, from what he could gather, that was being dragged somewhere against its will. The two voices sounded unscrupulous. They could be poachers – but what kind of poachers would work for the king? At least...that’s who Travis thought ‘His Imperial Majesty’ was referring to.

Travis stepped into the light and found that he was in a clearing similar to the one in which he and Katrina had made camp. Sunlight filtered in through a loose canopy of trees to produce highlights and shadows on this bed of soft, wild grass. Some of the grass appeared to be wet, as if there were a pond or something nearby. Obvious in the middle of this setting were two men. They were wearing black chest plates and both had short swords at their sides. They appeared to be some sort of soldiers. Another obvious presence, made even more so against the black of their armor, was a small creature struggling to escape the clutches of one of the men, who appeared to have a bleeding cut on his right hand. It was a small creature that had an elongated muzzle much like a fox. Its entire body was an aquamarine color with the exception of the inside of its ears, feet, and nose, which were all a russet brown. Seeing the fangs protruding from its mouth in a way that made it look as if its face was locked in a toothy grin, Travis knew instantly where the bite mark on the man’s hand had come from. The creature noticed his presence and stared at him pleadingly with its brown eyes.

“Huh? What’s with this kid?” the other soldier grunted. “He keeps starin’ at us.”

“You’d better get outta here,” the soldier holding the Pokémon said sharply. “I think I hear your mother calling.”

“My mom’s overseas,” Travis responded curtly. “So you must have pretty good hearing – and, no wonder...look at the size of those things. Looks like you could take off and start flying any moment.”

“What’s your problem?” the other soldier grunted. “Your mother didn’t teach you to respect the King’s soldiers?”

These guys were starting to grate on him a bit. “Like I said before...I’m not from here.”

“I should have known,” the gruff soldier holding the fox-like Pokémon replied. “After all...not many kids walk around wearing swords. It’s not exactly the ideal fashion statement – not here, anyway.”

“Well, where I live, we normally don’t see upstanding soldiers kidnapping Pokémon against their will,” Travis replied. “So I guess you and I come from two different worlds.”

“That’s it!” the soldier holding the Pokémon shouted. “Teach this kid a lesson!”

“I’m on it!” the other soldier yelled, making a quick move toward Travis, who held his ground.

Using his thumb to partially unsheathe his sword from its scabbard, Travis muttered, “Bad idea.”

The soldier was left slashing at air as Travis moved quickly behind him. The footman’s eyes widened as he felt the hilt of a sword in his spine. He tried to turn around and retaliate, but found that he couldn’t move. Meanwhile, Travis turned around and looked at the soldier holding the Pokémon, who appeared to be shocked and a bit frightened.

“What are you?” the soldier stammered. “W-what the hell are you?”

He received no answer. Travis simply turned around and looked at him with dangerously narrow eyes.

“Angel, Confusion,” Travis said simply. The Espeon jumped forward and shot a wave of invisible Psychic energy that went barreling directly into the soldier, who fell backward, groaning, and dropped the Pokémon on the ground. The fox-like creature landed on the grass in a heap and quickly got to its feet, assuming a look that clearly said that it was surprised at its luck. The soldier growled and yanked out his sword. Roaring loudly, he rushed the cobalt-haired youth, who stared at his advancing, armored form and stood his ground. Just as the soldier would have cut him in two, Travis rolled out of the way and cut downward, slashing the man’s ankles. The soldier cried out in pain and fell to his knees, blood pooling around his legs.

“How?!” the man groaned. “You...monster...agh! GRAAAH!”

“Be thankful you’re still breathing,” Travis said harshly, sheathing his sword. His eyes changed again, and he smiled, turning around sympathetically at the vulpine creature, who was staring at him through coffee-brown eyes. “Are you okay?”

“<More humans...>” the foxlike creature groaned in a voice that Travis could understand, signaling that this creature...whatever its species was...was a female. “<This is so not my day...>”

“It’s fine, I won’t hurt you,” Travis said.

“<You hurt him,>” the Pokémon replied, pointing her chin at the soldier behind Travis, who had passed out from the pain.

“That’s because he was a jerk and he deserved it,” Travis explained. “Now...you can go if you want to...or better yet, you can come with us?”

“<Just give myself up to you?>” the young, foxlike Pokémon said incredulously. “<Sorry...not without a fight. You’ll have to get me the proper way. You look strong...>”

She was now addressing Angel, whose ears perked up to signal that this unknown Pokémon had grabbed her attention.

“” the small, aqua-colored creature boasted.

“<Really?>” Angel said with a bit of an edge in her voice. “”

Travis sighed. It looked like he was stuck.

“Angel, Confusion!” Travis shouted. Angel sent out a shockwave of invisible Psychic energy. This foxlike Pokémon rolled out of the way and looked straight at Angel, her eyes flashing. She opened her mouth and let loose a white jet of what appeared to be water. This came too fast for an unprepared Angel to react, so she was subsequently engulfed by the high-pressure water stream and blasted backward, missing a large tree by inches and she skidded to a stop. It was at that point that Travis realized that he’d just rushed in without an idea of what this Pokémon even was. He pointed his Pokédex at the foxlike creature. “Kitide...the Water Cub Pokémon. Known for its powerful Water Gun.”

“<Tell me something I don’t know,>” Angel groaned, struggling to her feet and emerging from behind the tree, her lavender fur soaking wet.

“Use your Swift attack!” Travis ordered. Angel lowered her head and, from the ruby-like circle on her forehead came a star-shaped beams of Megacite energy. They shot toward the small, aquamarine Kitide with the speed of bullets, making her unable to dodge in time. Small explosions riddled the Cub Pokemon’s body, blasting her backward and damaging her substantially.

“<Tch, lucky shot,>” the Kitide groaned. “<Eat this!!>”

She took off in a blur of aquamarine and smashed into Angel, knocking her down and then reappearing at her original position. Angel looked up, her eyes glowing widely. The gem on her forehead grew with all seven colors of the spectrum. Then, a beam with all of those seven colors...and then some...shot forth from the Espeon’s head, smashing into Kitide with monolithic force and lifting her off of the ground with its power.

“What was that?!” Travis shouted in surprise, consulting his Pokédex. “That was...a Psybeam? That’s insane! When’d you learn how to do that?!”

“” Angel replied. “<Gimme a second – my head’s spinning a little bit.>”

Her eyes indeed looked like they were a tiny bit out of focus. The good news – Kitide was on the ground and not getting up. Yanking a ball off his belt, his heart pounded with assignment. With hardly any delay, he threw it and watched it make contact with the aquamarine fox Pokémon, sucking her inside. It was just at that moment that he heard someone call his name behind him.

He turned around to see Katrina coming straight toward him, with Crescent at her ankles. Immediately, the presence of the men on the ground registered with Katrina. Meanwhile (Travis’ heart gave a leap), a loud ping sounded in the clearing, and Travis ceased to hear the rustling of the moving ball on the ground behind him.

“What the heck happened?” Katrina asked, looking around at the men on the ground.

“Long story short, I caught these two giving a Pokémon a hard time,” Travis said matter-of-factly. “They rushed me, so I taught them why that’s not a good idea.”

“Seems like everyone wants to pick a fight with you lately,” Katrina commented.

“ ‘Lately’?” Travis repeated incredulously.

“Okay, you got me,” Katrina sighed. “Actually, I came looking for you because I wanted to tell you something interesting. I caught a Pokémon!”

“Same here,” said Travis, glancing over his shoulder at the ball.

It was an hour later that Travis and Katrina found their original campsite, which they had absentmindedly failed to mark before leaving. They took another break, as it was now approaching mid-afternoon. The main purpose for this was for everyone to reintroduce themselves. A total of six Pokémon now sat awkwardly in a circle, with the two newest members exactly opposite each other.

“<I’m Meru,>” the Kitide said enthusiastically.

“<Hi, Meru!>” Amber chimed in. Champ responded with a cool salute, while Angel and Crescent both bowed simultaneously in greeting.

“<Arcus...>” the other Pokémon said in a low, laconic voice. The other five looked at him. ‘He’ was a wolf-like creature with brown fur streaked with snow white. The fringe on the edge of his legs was also white, as well as a streak of fur right down the middle of his muzzle. “<If you must call me anything...>”

“<Wait a sec...>” Meru chimed in. “<You’re an Arcidane. I thought you only lived in the mountains...>”

“<We do,>” Arcus said tersely.

“<What happened? Why are you so far from home?>” Meru asked. Arcus looked at her for a second.

“<...I don’t want to talk about it,>” he replied, shaking his head.

“<Fine...suit yourself,>” Meru said curtly. “<But don’t be a jerk about it.>”

“<...Whatever,>” Arcus sighed, walking away from the rest. “<Look – stay out of my way and we won’t have any problems.>”

“<Lone wolf-type...>” Meru sighed. “<Gotcha.>”

“<What’s happening?>” Amber piped in with her bubbly voice. “<What’s going on? Did I miss something?>”

“<Nothing more than usual...>” Champ muttered.

“<Arcus is being ridiculously emo right now,>” Meru replied. “<Wonder what the hell’s his problem...?>”

“<Well, obviously his home is a sore subject,>” Crescent sighed.

“” Amber said, gazing dreamily at the wolf Pokémon’s back.

“<You’re entitled to that opinion,>” Meru said smugly, closing her eyes in disdain. “”

“<You think he’s a prick,>” Amber finished quickly, earning raised eyebrows from Champ and Crescent.

“<You’re not as clueless as you look, Amber,>” Meru commented silkily. Amber’s tail flame glowed a bright golden color.

“<Wha...?!>” she exclaimed.

“<At least, sometimes,>” Meru added.

“” Amber said simply.

“<You don’t know the half of it,>” Meru said, rolling her eyes. “<But everyone’s got their own language. Someone just has to speak his to get his attention. So...Angel – that’s you, right?>”

She was looking at the Espeon. Next to Angel was Crescent, who sarcastically said, “<How can you say that? I’m obviously better-looking.>”

“” Meru said. “<So, exactly how does that work?>”

**EonMaster One** · 19th April 2007, 11:26 PM

~~~ *** ~~~

May 24, PA 2013 – Petalburg City

It was another two days of quality training before Travis found himself under the sounds of the roaring crowd at Petalburg Gym. It was packed out even more than before, this time, as the school year for the Academy students (who, like the children in Johto, participated in a six-year program in most cases) had ended, effectively doubling the daytime attendance. Moreover, the more passionate of the fifth-year and sixth-year students tended to frequent the Gym so as to pick up tips and strategies from watching real Pokémon battles with their own two eyes. A smart move, in Travis’ opinion – if he were ever to start a school, he’d probably suggest, if not require, that his students do that. In fact, it might have just been a tip that he’d want to pass on to Prof. Elm the next time he saw him.

In this afternoon’s case, the students were watching him. With the beginning of the battle having been a near carbon copy of the first one – Champ faced off against Spinocle and won, only to be knocked out of the match by Linoone later and replaced by Angel – the score was tied. Angel was now taking on Linoone. Better yet, Travis knew better about that Ice Beam and Champ had lasted a bit longer in this second battle, meaning that by the time Angel came out to fight, Linoone was showing signs of fatigue.

“Use Confusion, Angel!” Travis shouted. His Espeon let loose a powerful, invisible wave of Psychic energy. Linoone seemed unprepared and was therefore knocked for a loop. Landing on his long belly, Linoone staggered to his feet, growling loudly.

“Headbutt!” Linoone took off like a brown bullet and smashed into Angel full-force, rolling the Espeon into the arena floor. Angel retaliated by rolling to her feet and hitting Linoone with a Quick Attack directly into his flank, which caused him to roll over in the dirt faster than a guy with his clothes on fire.

“Good work, Angel! Now, use Swift!” Travis shouted with the intent of staying on the attack. Angel lowered her head and shot forth several Megacite stars. All of them impacted into Linoone’s body, causing an explosion and blowing him up into the air. He landed with a thump and his eyes narrowed.

“Ice Beam, Linoone!” the Petalburg Gym Leader, Stella, shouted. The Rushing Pokémon reared his head back and let loose a white beam of arctic-cold energy. Angel, this time, was too quick; she backed away. The only problem about her motion was the fact that she allowed Linoone to turn nearly the entire field to ice. Smirking, Stella said, “You’re trapped – again.”

“Who just trapped who?” Travis responded confidently. “Angel, use Confusion on the Ice!”

Angel pointed her head straight down and the air around her blurred. The ground began to shake slightly and, to everyone’s surprise, the once sleek and dormant ice began to spike up at points, forming deadly-looking icicles that shot straight up out of the ground. This line of icicles sharpened and came straight at Linoone.

“Linoone, jump! Get out of there!” Stella shouted. Linoone leapt high into the air in order to avoid being skewered. Unfortunately for him and Stella, however, Travis was ready:

“Show ‘em Psybeam!” Travis yelled. Angel, roaring loudly and her eyes a bright white, shot forth a rainbow-colored blast of energy from the gem on her forehead. It engulfed Linoone, who screeched in pain as the psychic energy continued to drain him. An explosion of cheers and boos was heard from the crowd...

Ten minutes later, Katrina and Travis were walking down the streets of Petalburg City. The latter was admiring his first Hoenn badge, which was fitted perfectly in the slot meant for it, at the top left corner of the velvet-lined case he had bought before he left Johto nearly a week and a half ago.

“You did great, Angel!” Travis said enthusiastically. “Is your head okay?”

“<Everything’s stopped spinning,>” the Espeon replied. A side effect of Psybeam, Travis came to quickly realize, was that it was a bit hard on Angel’s brain right now, causing things like mild headaches and dizziness. “<So, that’s an improvement.>”

“Y’know, maybe you shouldn’t use Psybeam,” Travis commented.

“<No, that’s not it,>” Angel replied. “<I’ll probably be able to deal with it better the more I use it. It’s just sort of new right now.>”

“<That’s the spirit,>” Crescent chimed in. “<But just don’t overdo it,>”

“<You worry too much,>” Angel remarked.

“<You’re always saying that,>” Crescent groaned. “”

“” Angel sighed. “<You should know that better than anybody.>”

Crescent’s eyes dropped and he began to look at the ground.

“<I’m sorry,>” Angel said quickly. “”

“<No – you’re right,>” the Umbreon cut her off.

“Hey, I just noticed something,” Katrina said to Travis, looking at his hip. “Your sword...”

“I left it at the room,” Travis said. “Don’t feel like dealing with so many people asking me questions...”

“What if somebody...” Katrina started.

“Nobody can get in – the door’s locked,” Travis replied.

“Maybe we should go back and check on it,” Katrina sighed. “I’ve heard rumors...that Petalburg’s kind of dangerous nowadays. There’s supposed to be this one guy called the Iceman – that’s why there’s soldiers all over the place in this city. He’s a merciless serial killer with a grudge against the king. That’s what I hear.”

“Wow, that’s pretty bad...” Travis commented. “A serial killer...”

“Actually, just a day or two before we got here, there were five more soldiers murdered,” Katrina said. “One of them was found in an alley with the word ‘TRAITOR’ spray-painted on his armor.”

“Really? So, this guy seems to like picking off the king’s soldiers...” Travis muttered.

“Well...that’s what I hear,” Katrina said. “Why would someone want to kill the men that help protect his own country?”

“Rebel? Anarchist? I couldn’t tell you,” Travis said, just as they arrived at the Pokémon Center and stood in front of it for a second. “All I know is that, ever since I got here, I’ve had this feeling...like nothing’s really what it seems.”

Katrina stopped and turned toward him as he looked up toward the top floors of the Center with a strange expression on his face. It was almost as if he was looking for something in particular.

“Maybe you’re just a little bit paranoid,” Katrina said with a hopeful tone in her voice.

“Is our window open...?” Travis muttered. “I didn’t leave our window open – did you?”

“No way,” Katrina said, shaking her head quickly. “I never open the windows. Maybe you’re looking at someone else’s room.”

“But ours faces out this way, though...” Travis said. “This is the odd side of the building. And that’s the third floor – we’re on the third floor. And we’re the third window from the left – 301...303...”

Without finishing, Travis took off at a run toward the doors. Katrina, having nearly been left behind, followed him – then Angel, then Crescent. Travis got to the doors, running in place for a couple of steps before they slid open. As soon as he saw daylight, he tore into the room, around a passing waitress in the restaurant area who looked at him disapprovingly, and up the stairs. Travis didn’t see the young man sitting in the fourth booth, who put down his mug and eyed Travis as he, along with the group he was with, ascended the stairs to the second floor. On that floor, Travis saw a lone maid of about twenty with a cart sitting directly in the middle of the hallway.

Groaning loudly, Travis took two enormous steps and leapt into the air with the hopes of clearing the cart. The young, redhead maid screamed and ducked as Travis attempted to jump over her. Unfortunately, his back foot failed to clear the four-foot cart. His heart sank as he felt his ankle catch. A second later, he face-planted into the carpet of the floor and rolled to a stop, facing sideways. Katrina ran around the cart very quickly, as Angel and Crescent both winced in tandem. The maid, meanwhile, was still cowering behind the cart and whimpering loudly.

Grabbing onto Travis’ arm, Katrina shouted, “Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine,” Travis said, quickly standing up. He took a breath, steeled himself, and broke into a run again. Katrina, who always used to beat him in races when they were only twelve, had a hard time keeping up now. Up the stairs they quickly ran...now, they were on the third floor, looking for the third-to-last door on the left.

“311...309...307...305!” Travis panted, yanking a card out of his pocket and swiping it along a slot just above the doorknob just as Katrina and the two Pokémon caught up. He quickly opened it and found...a young girl holding a katana with a white sheath. She stood and turned around. Her austerely straight, blood-red hair went halfway down her back, and her outfit –

No time. The form ran in a blur right past him. Katrina barely saw a knife coming in Travis’ direction. Conjuring her staff in half of a second, she jumped in front of Travis, knocked it down with her rod, and watched as the girl turned and escaped down the hall toward the fourth-floor stairs.

“That was –“ Katrina whispered, something having jarred her memory.

“LET’S GO!” Travis shouted. He was halfway down the hall already, shouting, “STOP THIEF!! GET BACK HERE!!”

Just then, the door to Room 301 swung open and a form came bursting out of it so quickly that Travis was knocked sideways into the wall with amazing force. His back slammed into the corner right next to the doorway and he slumped to the ground, holding his wrist and crying out in pain as Katrina, Angel and Crescent all approached him.

“No – I’m fine!” Travis groaned. “Get after whoever that was! She’s heading to the roof!”

Katrina nodded, tearing up the steps with Crescent in her wake. Angel, meanwhile, stayed and watched as Travis rose to his knees and raised his head. His eyes were wide and his pupils narrow and he staggered to his feet and looked toward the stairs...

Katrina traversed the fourth floor and then ran up the spiral stairs (which the girl that she had been pursuing accessed by somehow opening the locked door before she’d reached it). She was on the very roof of the building now. She looked over the edge out of the corner of her eye – a fifty-foot drop to the bottom. She heard footsteps coming from the stairs – what now? Emerging from the shadow of the doorway was a boy of fourteen with blue hair tied in a long braid, accompanied by an Espeon. She gave a sigh of relief.

“You caught up quick,” Katrina said. “Are you alright?”

“Where’d she go?” Travis asked. Katrina pointed in the general direction. Travis scrambled across the roof, followed by Katrina, Angel, and Crescent. From here, Travis could see many of the important buildings in Petalburg City – including the Gym where he’d won his Astralbadge less than an hour ago. Closer to home, however, were two figures standing opposite each other on the far corners of the roof. One was the red-haired girl that he’d seen with his sword – she still had the sword...the other had a black-and-red outfit and bronze hair...and looked familiar. He shouted out loud – “HEY!”

The girl and the young man both turned at the same time. At this point, Travis and Katrina had separated, creating a square of sorts.

From the roof and over the city reverberated four different but simultaneous cries of “YOU!!!”

Travis recognized the young man with the bronze hair and wearing the red-trimmed, black outfit. The weapon – a strange combination between a sword and a gun – was a dead giveaway.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Travis shouted.

“You’re the girl from earlier!” Katrina exclaimed. Travis looked at her.

“What?!” Travis shouted.

“She’s tried to take your sword before,” Katrina said. Travis sighed.

“Why am I not surprised?!”

“Give it up, rogue!” the young man was shouting. He seemed to be addressing the girl. “Drop that sword, or I’ll pry it from your hands after I kill you!”

“You’re not taking that sword!” Travis shouted. “I am! And once I get it, I’m using it – on you!”

Travis and the young man eyed each other suspiciously.

“You’re sure he’s not on our side?” Katrina asked.

“He’s the guy that tried to off me back in Oldale Town, remember?” Travis replied. “Of course he’s not on our side.”

“You three stay away from me!” the girl cried out loudly. “I plan to trade this sword for my freedom!”

“Well, you’ll have to get another one,” Katrina said, pointing her rod at the girl. Meanwhile, Travis’ hand was twitching and beginning to spark.

“I will do whatever it takes to get that sword, rogue,” the young man growled.

“Are you really brave enough to kill to get what you want?” the girl asked. “I doubt it.”

“Then, you don’t know me very well...” the young man said nonchalantly. “I do whatever it takes. They’ve even got a nickname around here for me nowadays – ‘Iceman’.”

“ ‘Iceman’?!” Katrina exclaimed – but Travis’ patience had run out.

“ENOUGH!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, a small fireball appearing in his hand. He reared back and hurled it at the girl. Just then, the young man on the far corner decided to load a bullet into his gun and shoot – out of the barrel of the gun came a fireball as well.

“Elbaflir!” Katrina yelled as a fireball shot forth from her staff. The young girl quickly did a backflip off of the building and out of sight.

“DAMN!” the young man shouted, running to the other corner of the building. The girl yanked out a kunai and drove it with all the force she could muster into the brick wall of the building, cutting into it. Sparks flew from the knife as she gradually slowed her fall. Then, once she had closed the jump to a manageable height, she yanked the knife out of the wall and leapt the rest of the way down to the ground. Sprinting around the corner, she took off down the street toward the west – on the ground, where Travis, Katrina, and the mysterious youth could not hope to reach her. Shaking his head and growling, he turned around and made to cross the roof the other way, but stopped once he realized that the pink-haired girl was pointing her rod at him. There was a lull of silence for about five seconds.

“ ‘Iceman’...” Katrina whispered. “You’re the serial killer.”

“ ‘Serial killer’?” the young man known as ‘Iceman’ seemed a little bit confused. “Where’d you get that from?”

“That’s what I’ve heard on the streets,” Katrina said in a low tone of voice. “You kill the king’s soldiers...for fun.”

“For fun? Listen...you can’t believe everything you hear, little girl –“ the young man said, but Katrina was having none of it.

“Don’t play stupid with me, murderer,” she said in a growl. “That’s why you want Travis’ sword, isn’t it? To have another weapon to use to kill people.”

“You’re the one that nearly blew me to bits last time,” the young man said, stepping away from the edge of the building and toward her. She held her ground, not giving an inch. “I can see you’re no innocent little girl.”

“Why do you want his sword?” Katrina asked. “Tell me!”

“I plan to trade that sword for my freedom,” the young man said. Katrina was about to open her mouth and respond, but the young man said quickly, “But not just for mine – no...my cause is a little bit more noble than hers. I plan to trade that sword for this country’s freedom.”

“Hate to disappoint you...” Travis’ voice joined in with the conversation as he approached the young man and Katrina. “...but that sword’s useless without...”

“...the Swordbearer,” the young man cut him off. “Unfortunately, not everyone knows that...so if the sword falls into the wrong hands, it can be used as an instrument for fear...to rule with an iron fist.”

“What would you do with it if you got it?” Travis asked him.

“Me? I’d bring justice down upon certain people...” the young man said. “...just what the sword’s designed to do. But I’m not fetching that sword for me.”

“Who are you getting for, then?” Travis asked.

“I’m trying to get it back to its owner,” the young man said. “You.”

Travis and Katrina both looked at each other in disbelief.

“That’s right – I’m on your side...and damn good thing, too,” the young man continued. “I know where that rogue’s going with that sword, and it just happens to be exactly where you want to go next.”

“What?” Travis said incredulously. “Where? Rustboro?”

“Unless she can walk on water...I’ve heard about it being done before, but I doubt she can...she has nowhere to go but Rustboro,” the young man said. “First things off, we’ve gotta get the hell out of here. She’s no snail when it comes to running, so the quicker we leave, the quicker we can catch up with her.”

“So...you’ll help us find her?” Travis asked.

“Yeah – on one condition,” the young man said. “When we get the sword back, I’ll let you have it – but there’s someone I want you to meet in Rustboro. Someone important.”

“Fine,” Travis said without much hesitation.

“Travis!” Katrina exclaimed concernedly. “How do you know...”

“I don’t, alright?” Travis sighed. “But he’s gotta know his way around Hoenn better than we do, and if we don’t have a guide...well, when we get to that forest, we’ll have a better shot at losing ourselves than we’ll have at finding her.”

Katrina fell silent, realizing that Travis had brought up a pretty good point.

“But...” Katrina muttered. “He’s a criminal...a serial killer.”

“Where’d you find that out from, anyway?” the young man groaned.

“I’ve heard soldiers talking,” Katrina said.

“Well, you can’t trust everything soldiers say,” the young man said. “Especially these soldiers.”

“He’s right, you know,” Travis piped in. “If the majority of those guys are anything like the guys I met on Route 102 a few days ago...I wouldn’t trust them at all.”

“Sounds like you’ve had a run-in with them,” the young man said. Travis nodded.

“So...one question. What’s your real name?” Travis asked.

The young man sighed, and the heavens sighed along with him, blowing a breeze across the roof that ruffled his bronze-colored hair. “I guess I might as well tell you since we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. My name...is Kenjiro. Kenjiro Kazaki.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kitide
Type: Water
Height/Length: 2'04"
Weight: 35 lbs. (although Meru will never tell you that)
The word on Kitide: Kitide makes use of biting attacks, along with Water Gun. The power of this Water Gun is amazing, but its accuracy (especially on inexperienced Kitide) sometimes leaves something to be desired.

Supplied by: EonMaster One

Arcidane
Type: Ice
Height/Length: 2'06"
Weight: 42 lbs.
The word on Arcidane: A rare pure Ice-type, its fangs are like knives, allowing it to use biting attacks to much effectiveness. Most Arcidane travel in packs and are therefore very social...most of them.

Holy crap, that was long...see, this is why chapters take me two weeks nowadays. I figure I have an adequate excuse, right?

Working on chapter 5, but for now, you can digest, read and review this monster.

-

EM1, out.

**Oathblivion** · 20th April 2007, 3:31 AM

Kinda late here so my sub par review will be even more sub... par. ^^ Anyway, another great chapter! No suprise there though; I think there's been like, 2 chapters that I didn't like of yours, if that. I'm eternally grateful for Travis losing his first battle, as doing it any other way would've been rushing. All the fakemon are pretty good considering most people rape them horribly, but I can't get the idea of a blue Vulpix out of my mind for Kitide (is it supposed to be an aquamarine Vulpix?)

Um, let's see. I didn't find any grammar errors, but then again I wasn't really looking. I can see that you waste no time with the shipping (however one-sided it may be) either. ...Champ and Amber. It'll be fun for sure!

*insert adjectivial (?sp) phrase here* -Oath

PS: Nice little plot twist at the end too. Somehow I didn't see that coming even after the last chapter... What if there's treachery afoot? o.o

**MerlockVonBaron** · 20th April 2007, 6:07 AM

Holy smoke. Not bad. I'm liking it so far.

**Air Dragon** · 20th April 2007, 8:46 AM

uh, heh, heh, heh... new chapterage! lemme at it, lemme at it!

*let at it*

Reading now... you know i'll be back...

L@er!

Right, Review time!

“<At least the spines are obvious, now – I couldn’t sit down for two days after that last time...>” Champ sighed. “<But everybody knows that speed never goes into a slump. If I’m faster, I’ll own. Simple as that. Let’s rock, Coach!>”

LMAO!

“<Geez – chill out, Amber,>” Champ commented, using his hands to thrust a pellet of Pokémon food into his mouth, as he watched the Pyrika mercilessly obliterating the food in her bowl.

“<‘Geez – chill out, Amber,’>” Amber mimed.

“<Urgh...can you stop mocking me?>” Champ groaned.

“<‘Urgh...can you stop mocking me?’>” Amber imitated again.

“<Man...how annoying...>” Champ sighed.

“<‘Man...how annoying...’>” Amber sighed as well.

“<Okay – I’m an idiot,>” Champ said flatly.

“<Okay – Champ’s an idiot,>” Amber responded.

Both Crescent and Angel sweatdropped at the same time as Champ, temporarily losing his temper, chucked a bit of food at the Pyrika, who swiftly opened her mouth and gulped it out of the air.

“<...Owned,>” Crescent said, blinking a bit stupidly.

“<No kidding,>” Angel said, returning to her food and eating the last of it out of her bowl. Crescent looked down at her.

Damn, Amber’s good…

“My mom’s overseas,” Travis responded curtly. “So you must have pretty good hearing – and, no wonder...look at the size of those things. Looks like you could take off and start flying any moment.”

So’s Travis…

No grammar errors this time, EM1! just one thing was off to me...

“<‘Geez – chill out, Amber,’>” Amber mimed.

Mimed is a word meaning to act like something without using words. Mimicked sounds like a better option to me.

OK, i'm outta heree! Catch ya on the flip side!

L@er!

**Araleon** · 20th April 2007, 11:16 PM

Hi EonMaster01(is it okay if I call you Eon?). I have been a closet reader ever since you were at, like, chapter 22 of Revolution Johto. I never had an account, but I got one today. I LOVE your stories! You are an awesome writer.
all right, Araleon out.

**Castform** · 21st April 2007, 1:08 AM

Not bad this time, I only spot a few mistakes! ^_^

Grammar aspect:

The Pokédex took a snapshot of the red, insect-like creature to save on her database and revealed it to be a Wurmple, the most common Bug-type native to Hoenn.

Wordiness, personally I'd rephrase the whole sentence, as that is kind of awkward.

This shockwave then proceeded to smash rather mercilessly into Pyrika, who appeared to not have seen it coming.

Remember, last chapter, yes this split infintive thing reared its ugly head again. You have to use not to have seen. Don't split up the infinitive.

Whenever he got upset with someone, it was hard to calm him down – especially if they said or did anything that reminded him of the war.

Pronoun use, sorry. Someone is singular, therefore, you do not use they, you use he or she.

Not even the hardiest of men could stay the same after witnessing what he had witnessed, fighting what he had fought...

...and he had been no man.

Another dumb rule, can't have the not even and together, its called negation use. To fix this all you need to do it "Even the hardiest of men could not stay the same..."

He had been a boy, barely thirteen. A boy with dreams and aspirations for the future.Aspirations that stood the chance of never being fulfilled with him in his present state.

Fragment, just use a comma before A and after thirteen and it should be fine and a comma between future and Aspirations. Granted that makes it a long sentence, but you can't leave them as fragments either.

“I’m not a d–“ Travis didn’t get to finish his statement, as Katrina laid a kiss on his lips.

your "" is facing the wrong way!

Below this shirt were a pair of khaki shorts that stopped right above knee level, exposing ashy, scabbed knees and extremely skinny shins.

Was a pair, not were a pair. There is only one pair. Also comma is needed after "Below the shirt..."

That’s a coincidence,” Travis said, taking a ball off of his belt and enlarging it.

Not this again... It had to rear its ugly head. Well, better than last chapter, this seems to be the only one, you know how to fix this by now. Off not off of.

Champ fell to one knee, in obvious pain and also appearing to be very tired.

personal opnion hear, and also is wordy, I would use "...and appeared to be tired"

Travis didn’t bother to say anything, or to even look at Brian as he returned his Pokémon and left.

Split the infinitive AGAIN. You have probably seen this mistake a lot last chapter this is only your second time this chapter.

When someone wants to throw in the towel, you should respect their wishes and not force them to stay in and keep getting pounded – that’s how he felt.

Technically, you should use the word being in that area. Getting may SOUND right, but being should be used there.

That was what he had become. A shadow...of his former self.

Fragment. A comma between become and A should fix it.

“Well, I’ve got something a little more important than you to deal with,” Katrina said, pulling a Pokéball off of her belt and enlarging it.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not saying anything...

“Wha–“ Jadyn looked taken aback at first, but tried her best to keep on a good game face.

quotation mark facing the wrong way.

Ziggy took off in a straight line toward the Pyrika, the top of his head glowing a slight bit.

Verb confusion, his could refer to Pyrika or Ziggy, you can get away with it THIS TIME because Pyrika is a girl, but in the future, be careful.

To Katrina’s great surprise, however, Ziggy was able to plant his feet on the tree and effectively ricochet off of it, coming back at an unguarded Amber at nearly double momentum.

What happened! You were doing so well. Please fix...

“<No idea...we’re looking for her and this guy....>” Crescent said.

Elipse is a period too long.

Royal reappeared going behind Amber and cawed loudly.

??? What the heck? Reappeared going behind... i don't think you need going.

He took a closer look at the wood pile.

Believe it or not, woodpile is one word.

He, Angel, and Champ all put some distance between themselves and what was now basically a pillar of combustion worthy of a bonfire.

Both words pretty much mean the same thing, sorta wordy or redundant if you ask me. Choose one or the other.

“”

“<I’m not sure she’s a ‘nutjob’, Angel,>” Crescent said.

Spelling, not grammar mistake so i can correct the dialogue! nut job is two words.

Then again – he had been trained for stealth at one point, so he was better at it than others.

Need were, or you are comparing his stealth to people and that doesn't make sense. Yes I know you meant stealth to other people's stealth, I'm not stupid, but I am correcting GRAMMAR.

It was just a good thing that...with his current occupation, he had put ‘them’ off of his trail.

I swear if I see this one more time... *pulls out hair*

Truth be told, the youth that was guarding the alleyway was a year younger than he.

Look at the quote above the quote above, this also applies to here.

So...I tried to take it off of him.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! *blows up causing a nuclear explosion*

When I realized that, I backed off and I had a better idea...getting it’s great, but getting that and the one using it...”

I don't understand that sentence but I think it's should be its.

He disappears when he attacks, which makes him a real ***** to try and fight off.

Idioms. I hate them, you would use to, not and.

The young man sprinted to where the two bodies lay and forcefully kicked the body of the soldier off of the other to find the body of the body of the boy who had greeted him a few minutes before.

... I can't blow up twice...

This left the young man alone in the alley with the two corpses, so he moved to an inside wall and pressed himself against it, so as to not make himself visible to anyone who happened to be walking down the main road.

Wordy, only need to. You also split the infinitive again

Parts I liked:

A red-hot ball of flame shot forth from her staff and bulleted toward the red-haired girl, who again countered with a variety of hand signals – producing a blue-colored fireball of her own.

Can you say Naruto? :P Very Narutoy *my own word* to me, I love it!!!!

“<Balls...they’re overrated,>” Amber said. “<...That’s why I’m glad I’m a girl.>”

All three of the other Pokémon felt their jaws drop to the ground with no control over them.

“<What?!>” Crescent groaned, “<That is so...not what the hell I was talking about!>”

“<Throw a flag!>” Champ piped in. “<Personal foul – unnecessary insanity!>”

Angel had a sweatdrop beside her head that was so large, the other two wouldn’t have been surprised if Magikarp were swimming in it.

“<You think I’m insane?>” Amber said, stalking around Angel and Crescent toward the Treecko, who craned his head around to see her coming. “<You think I’m cuckoo?....Huh, little Treecko?...How about I burn your little green derriere to a crisp? Then you’ll see how ‘insane’ I am!!>”

“<What’s a ‘derriere’? That’s not in my playbook,>” Champ muttered. Seeing Amber inhale, he realized what was going on and shouted, “<Oh, sh–>”

Yes!!!!! Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard after reading this!!!!

Sorry, I have been meaning to post this, these are the errors from Chapter 3 ALONE. Here it is. Grammar mistakes repetitive, especially a certain particular phrase that is annoying me to death since you have posted, ALL the time... its listed so many times, its not funny. Yes you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Yes, no grammar correct inside qutations.

I'm working on chapter 4 corrections...

No grammar errors this time, EM1! just one thing was off to me...

Quote:

“<‘Geez – chill out, Amber,’>” Amber mimed.

Mimed is a word meaning to act like something without using words. Mimicked sounds like a better option to me.

OK, i'm outta heree! Catch ya on the flip side!

L@er!

Really, I beg to differ... just give me two days. :P

~Castform

PS: Yes I know I am giving you a REALLY hard time with grammar and such. Sorry, but correcting grammar is one of my strong points (although I never write use perfect grammar when correcting.) and I feel its one of the ways I can help make your work better. Your writing and detail is fantastic and everyone knows that. You know it to! I just don't want to post a one liner saying, "Great Job, you're writing is great!" That really doesn't help you become a better writer. Of course this is my opnion.

~Castform Out, this time I mean it!!!!!

**ultimate_pokemaster** · 24th April 2007, 9:58 AM

Another wonderful chappie!
And Kitide always give me an impression of a blue Vulpix.Or aquamarine. Whatever.As usual, Amber is as random and insane as usual.

**Castform** · 24th April 2007, 12:21 PM

Alright, I'm done.

Her white tanktop was ordinary except for the fact that it did show a bit of her cleavage, flaunting to young males around the city that she was quite...well-endowed for her age.

tank top, two words, not one, surprised me too.

Her white tank top was ordinary except for the fact that it did show a bit of her cleavage, flaunting to young males around the city that she was quite...well-endowed for her age.

You don't need the hyphen for well endowed.

A bright flash of light produced a moderately-sized creature with mostly white fur, except for aggressive-looking red stripes in some cases.

Doesn't need to be a compound word. Moderately sized, will do just fine. (Yeah that ugly off of hasn't reared its head!!!)

Crescent got there first, as a Quick Attack is designed to do – but the force was not quite enough to knock Zangoose off of her feet, or to interrupt her attack.

I spoke too soon. You know the drill by now, it was listed enough in the third chapter.

At the apex of her air time, she broke out of her spin and reassumed a ready position as she began to come back toward earth.

According to my dictionary, this is a compound word. Airtime... although that may have a different meaning, I'm not sure...

“<That’s okay – you don’t have to talk about it,>” Angel said quickly, knowing exactly who Crescent was talking about.

Reasonable grammar mistake, Who vs. Whom. In this case it is Whom.

Within those five thousand people...were there some that had indeed heard his name before?

Instead of the ellipse, I would put a comma there, this is my personal opinion though.

That trump card,” Travis said, a lightbulb having gone off in his brain.

I mentioned this before, somwhere.... Light bulb is two words.

Immediately, he took off toward the descending Treecko, who had a mind to (once again) use Linoone’s head as a springboard to put some distance between himself and the russet-colored Normal-type.

You tend to split the infinitive a lot. Don't do it. do not split up to + verb, nothing should come between them.

Unfortunately for Champ, Linoone saw this maneuver coming this time, and purposely stopped short, pulling his head back so as to avoid getting stomped on the nose.

Since this is not in quotations I can finally correct this!!!! ^_^ Alright!!! You would use being, not getting, although we use getting instead of being all the time in normal English!

The Treecko’s normally-green tail was white and pale with cold.

You don't need a hyphen there.

She got to her feet, hardly able to even keep her balance for several seconds.

Don't split the infinitive!!!!

Travis shouted, determined to stay one step ahead of Stella so that Angel didn’t get frozen solid.

would not be. Would not be or Wouldn't be is what you would use here.

“Try four...five,” Travis growled savagely. “Try not having won a damn thing since you got here. How many times to I have to get up off the ground before you finally say that it’s over?”

Your first typo, ever. "How many times DO I have to get up..."

Travis gasped, not willing to even believe what he was hearing.

Jeez, first it is off of now splitting the infinitive with even! >_< Are you going to start interchanging these mistakes! Even would go before to believe.

Out of everybody we knew, who can say that they were at least the third generation in their family to be a Pokémon Trainer?

Who could say. Not who can say.

Out of everybody we knew, who could say that they were at least the third generation in their family to be a Pokémon Trainer?

No they or their. It would he or she and his or her, respectively. This means were needs to become was.

Using his thumb to partially unsheathe his sword from its scabbard, Travis muttered, “Bad idea.”

Again, don't split the infinitive. Put adverbs BEFORE the infinitive

<More humans...>” the foxlike creature groaned in a voice that Travis could understand, signaling that this creature...whatever its species was...was a female.

Fox like is two words not one.

Angel lowered her head and, from the ruby-like circle on her forehead came a star-shaped beams of Megacite energy.

You can't have a star-shaped beams. You either have a star-shaped beam OR star-shaped beams. Second option is best in this scenario

Then, a beam with all of those seven colors...and then some...shot forth from the Espeon’s head, smashing into Kitide with monolithic force and lifting her off of the ground with its power.

It is only your second one, so I won't kill you... yet...

There’s supposed to be this one guy called the Iceman – that’s why there’s soldiers all over the place in this city.

Subject-verb agreement. It should be there are.

Her austerely straight, blood-red hair went halfway down her back, and her outfit –

No time.

No hyphen needed.

The young girl quickly did a backflip off of the building and out of sight.

Back flip is two words not one.

The young girl quickly did a back flip off of the building and out of sight.

Third... Next time, I'm obliterating you...

Done with grammar, not as much as usual! This Chapter was great plot wise and also grammar wise! ^_^ Nice!

**EonMaster One** · 24th April 2007, 6:12 PM

Alright, chapter five. Don’t you just love how my chapters are like a weekly drama – you skip one, and you’re basically screwed when it comes to knowing what’s going down? The good news, though, is that you can go back and read them instead of having to wait nearly six months for them to show that episode again. I say that to say...well, don’t miss this one. If you skip over this one, your computer will suck out your soul and send it to the hottest, darkest level of Hell...

Nah, it won’t be that bad. You’ll just be completely lost as to what’s going on and who’s who. So, on with the chapter.

Chapter 5: Pursuit of the Scarlet Shadow

May 25, 2013 – Route 104

Fourteen feet – six belonging to three human beings and eight belonging to the two Pokémon that were with them – traversed the coastal Route 104, which led northwest from Petalburg City into the Petalburg Woods, which led (sooner or later) to Rustboro City. This coastal road was a very beautiful place with a rather scenic view of the sea – but there was no time to stand still and admire that. They were pursuing someone and had been for a full day with very little rest to speak of. Behind them were the cliffs that were right above the beach that was right next to the ocean. It was at that point when the oldest member of the group – a young man by the name of Kenjiro – directed them slightly away from a dock that was close to there. It was at that point that Travis had a horrible thought.

“I hope she hasn’t hopped a ship somewhere...” he muttered, speaking, of course, of the girl that he, his girlfriend, and this mysterious young man were pursuing. That girl had stolen his sword and taken off west with it, in hopes of reaching (at least this is what Kenjiro speculated) Rustboro City.

“Nobody with any sense would try hopping one of those ships,” Kenjiro replied. “Just trust me on that. I know a little bit more about this area than you do.”

“Well, yeah...” Travis panted. The fact that Kenjiro had just stated had been, of course, what Travis had been counting on when he enlisted Kenjiro’s help to find the thief who had stolen the Sacred Flame. The fact still stood, though, that as much as Kenjiro knew about the land, Travis and Katrina knew just that little about him. Here’s what they knew: his name (if, of course, he hadn’t told them a bold-faced lie) was Kenjiro Kazaki. Apparently, he was number six or so of the ‘ten most wanted’ people in Hoenn. For his age (which he had not revealed, but Travis figured that he was somewhere around his late teens or maybe twenty), he was very worldly as opposed to being naive, which might be expected of someone of his youth. He was far from innocent. Travis’ original thought, which he’d had at their first meeting, had been right – it was clear that this young man had seen things far beyond his years, which made him not so different from Travis himself. The question was, though – what were those things? It was a question to which Travis knew he would probably never get an answer.

“You’re not tired already, are you?” Kenjiro asked.

“Of course not,” Travis replied defiantly. The truth was, he felt like he’d just run a marathon – and, since he could see the edge of the forest from this hill...the forest that he knew from planning this leg of his trip with Katrina was two days off...and they had gotten here in less than one...he probably wasn’t that far off, either.

“Wait a second! Look down there!” Katrina shouted, pointing. Travis shielded his eyes against the sun and looked off into the distance. He saw a small dot moving very quickly into the forest.

“That’s her!” Travis shouted instantly, taking off at a run. This time, he was in the lead, followed by Kenjiro and Katrina, who both broke into sprints themselves to keep up. He tore down the hill, these long yards feeling like nothing because of his adrenaline and his desperation to get his sword back.

Two summers ago, he would have liked nothing better than to be rid of it – to have given the sword and the responsibility that came with it to another. Now, though – a bit older and a bit wiser – he realized that he and that sacred sword were one. Having that sword stolen was like having a small part of his soul stolen. So, he had to get it back, for his own sake. Not to mention the fact that...if that sword ever fell into the wrong hands, he might never get it back.

As they neared the forest, Travis saw two forms standing near the edge of the woods. Katrina gasped as she got a good look at the face of the girl, who was brunette and wearing a schoolgirl outfit.

“That’s Jadyn,” Katrina gasped. “How’d she get here already?”

“Who?” Travis asked.

“Jadyn – I’ve battled her before,” Katrina said. “Let’s just hope they don’t lock eyes with – damn it!”

Jadyn and the boy that she had been talking and giggling with – he had spiky hair the tawny peach color of sand, and was wearing a mustard-colored shirt and jeans – both locked eyes with Travis and Katrina simultaneously. Of course, in the Pokémon world, if Trainers lock eyes like this in any sort of wilderness, it was taken as a wordless challenge, and the only way out of it was usually if all parties involved refused to battle.

“Ngh...there’s no time for this...” Travis muttered.

“Try telling them that,” Katrina said as the tawny-haired boy and Jadyn approached their counterparts. Kenjiro frowned and groaned loudly.

“Well, you can keep going after her,” Travis said curtly, not bothering to look back at Kenjiro. “You don’t have to stand here.”

“Fine – I’ll do that,” Kenjiro replied with a hint of irritation in his voice, running off and smirking. Without their witness and potential interference, he could dispose of her anyway he wanted.

The tawny-haired boy extended his hand. “Cliff Arland – Littleroot Academy Alumni. Class of 2013,” he introduced himself.

“Travis DePaul – New Bark Academy,” Travis replied, taking Cliff’s hand and matching his formality.

“Johto?” Cliff asked. “That’s cool. I’ve never met anyone from Johto before. Oh – right. This is Jadyn –“

“We’ve met,” Katrina interrupted coldly. “She seems to have a knack for getting in our way when we have to be somewhere...”

“Now’s not a good time to argue,” Travis said seriously. “I’d rather not have to battle you two, but if you won’t let us go, then let’s make this quick.”

Both pairs of Trainers took ten long steps away from each other, creating a battlefield in the space between them. They all turned around and chose their Pokémon.

“Since you didn’t bother to speak up, I’ll assume you know that this is a double battle,” Cliff said. “You do know what a double battle is, right?”

“You’re not dealing with rookies, Cliff,” Katrina said coldly. “We’ve won double battle tournaments while you were still sucking your thumb in fourth year.”

Cliff, justifiably, was a bit put out by this statement. “I trust you’ll make this a challenge, then.”

Kenjiro squinted for a bit of extra clarity of vision as he moved as a shadow through the myriad trees in Petalburg Woods. The scenery around him consisted of earthy greens and browns, shaded by either sunlight or shadow. Small, white Cocoon Pokémon known as Silcoon, and lilac ones known as Cascoon hung from the trees. He walked slowly, listening for any noise and looking for any motion that might alert him to another presence there in the forest. She was around here somewhere.

“I know you’re here, rogue,” he said in a breathy growl. “Come out, come out, wherever you are...”

His words echoed into the eerie silence and seemed to travel for miles – yet they returned to him empty. He could find nothing or no one – let alone the person he was searching for. He walked a few more yards and then heard a rustling sound to his left. His golden-brown eyes narrowing, he pointed his gun to his left without looking. Then, turning his head in that direction, he fired a shot.

“GOT YOU!” he yelled as a lightning bolt shot forth from the barrels of his gun and burned the bush to a crisp. As the ashes that were formally the shrub started to fall apart, they parted to reveal a small, bright red worm-like creature that was curled up in a ball and shaking horribly. After taking a close look, he realized that he had frightened a Wurmple rather badly. Sighing, he muttered dispassionately, “Guess not.”

He then heard a buzzing sound of sorts and looked up with a rather confused expression on his face. His eyes widened as he had to jump out of the way of two rainbow-colored beams of energy. He saw buzzing toward him, two angry-looking giant insects with purple bodies and huge eyes. These were both Dustox, Bug/Poison-type hybrids which were one of the possible final evolutions of Wurmple.

“Shit,” Kenjiro cursed. “Those’ll be the parents...”

He saw the Pokemon’s eyes glowing and took off in the opposite direction. Rainbow-colored beams of energy exploded behind him and sailed dangerously close to his head, exploding on nearby trees and blowing large chunks of wood out of them. He gained some space and then dove sideways into a thicket. Unfortunately, this thicket was quite thorny, which caused Kenjiro a great deal of pain as he crouched there, his body now riddled with small puncture wounds and scratches. He heard the buzzing of the two Dustox as they flew past the bush. Sighing in relief, Kenjiro now worked to extricate himself from the thorny bushes. After about ten seconds, he rolled out onto the ground on the other side, landing on it with a clearly-audible THUMP. Grunting in slight pain, he worked to stand to his feet. He found that he was standing in a clearing now. This large patch of grass, accented in places by small, wild flowers, was colored in tones of yellowish sepia from the sun that was filtering through the topmost leaves of the trees above him. With a suspicious expression on his face, he worked his way around the clearing until he had his back to the nearest tree. He looked up.

On a high limb on the tree directly opposite him was a shadow of sorts...Kenjiro couldn’t make it out, but it looked like it shouldn’t have been there...

He then heard a yell reverberate throughout the clearing...

“Baishoraizan!”

He made the mistake of looking up in the opposite direction. He then looked up toward the tree where he’d seen the shadow before and saw a gleam of sorts coming toward him. It took a second and a half – almost a half-second too long – to realize that this gleam was a glowing blade. He leapt sideways out of its path, rolling to his feet as he watched it hit the tree behind him and explode in a flash of light and a puff of smoke. He looked back to where the knife had come from, and there, he saw the full body of the attacker. She was a beautiful girl with a youthful face that made her at least appear to be in her mid-teens. Her tight, scarlet outfit matched her hair, which appeared to be just past her shoulders. Her hands were covered by gloves that extended from her hands all the way up to just below her shoulders. One of those hands had just dropped a sword with a white sheath. The other was clenched into a fist around a kunai knife.

“I was right about you...” Kenjiro muttered.

“I have no business with you,” the girl said. “I thought I made that clear.”

“Circumstances change,” Kenjiro said, pointing his gun up into the tree. “People’s minds change. In other words...**** happens. Now that I know for sure...you’re under the judgment I vowed to bring down upon them...so you must die.”

“I can’t let you kill me,” the girl said. “I’m searching for something important, and I can’t die until I find it.”

“Sure, you can,” Kenjiro replied nonchalantly. “In fact...YOU CAN DIE NOW!”

He roared as he fired a thunderbolt into the tree. The girl jumped into the air, pulled out a solitary kunai, and shouted, “Shoraizan!”

Kenjiro leapt into the air just as the lightning-charge knife exploded where he’d just been standing. He turned his head and set his eyes on the girl’s airborne body. Roaring loudly, he swung at her with the sword that was between the twin barrels of his gun. She blocked with two kunai that she’d somehow come up with in mid-jump. Kenjiro yanked his sword away and then attempted to slash her again. The scarlet-clothed girl blocked a second time. Kenjiro snarled maliciously as he attempted to force through her guard. He then pulled the trigger on the gun portion of his weapon. The gun, as expected, let off a shot, and a small explosion occurred, blowing the girl backward and away from him. Performing a rather acrobatic move in midair as her body was trailed by smoke, the girl righted herself. She and Kenjiro landed on the ground simultaneously...

“C’mon, let’s go, Royal!” Jadyn shouted, throwing her Pokéball and revealing her Taillow.

“Arcus!” Katrina shouted. Out of her Pokéball came the Arcidane she had caught a few days earlier – this would be his first battle against another Trained Pokémon since he’d been under her command.

“Meru, let’s go!” Travis yelled. Out of this ball came the aquamarine-haired, brown-eyed, fox-like Kitide. She looked sideways and realized who her partner was going to be. Apparently, Arcus saw her, but didn’t acknowledge her by looking.

“<Stay out of my way,>” Arcus growled tersely.

“<That’s not how it works,>” Meru said just as sharply.

“” Arcus replied. “”

“<Well, you’ve got it, so you’ll have to deal,>” Meru answered, to which Arcus responded by growling loudly.

The fourth Pokémon – the one belonging to Cliff – had been revealed. He was a small, green, birdlike creature with a body that was a light green color, almost like the inside of a lime. His sky-blue eyes were so bright that Travis could pick them out even at this distance, and two dark-green leaves protruded from his body. One was short and stubby and served as the crest of his head. The other was long and flowing and served as his tail. He flapped his short wings and took to the sky with surprising skill, considering his small size. Scanning the creature, Travis saw that it was a Leafen – a Grass/Flying-type with decent speed.

“Vipiri, use Razor Leaf on the Kitide!” Cliff shouted. Vipiri swung his tail twice, revealing several spinning leaves that were designed to cut into their target.

“Meru, shoot down what you can with Water Gun, then get out of the way!” Travis shouted.

“Arcus – use Quick Attack on Royal!” Katrina yelled. Arcus, growling loudly, took off in a blur toward Royal, who attempted to fly higher. However, Arcus performed an amazingly athletic jump and managed to clip the bird Pokémon before he got too far. At the same time, Meru skillfully shot down several Razor Leaves with a rapid-fire Water Gun, rolling to her left to avoid the last two, which both arrived too quickly for her to shoot down. She looked up and saw Vipiri descending toward her, his beak posed to strike. Inhaling quickly, she shot a jet of water directly at the Leaf Chick Pokémon, not damaging him much due to his Grass-type affinity, but obscuring his vision and causing the Peck attack to miss her by a mile.

“Shoot!” Cliff groaned.

“Nice defense, Meru!” Travis shouted encouragingly.

“<You know it!>” Meru affirmed.

“<Tch...not impressed,>” Arcus muttered, getting the attention of Meru, who looked at him for a second before getting bowled over by a flying Taillow.

“<Crud! See what you did, Arcus?!>” Meru shouted, rolling to her feet.

“<Blame that on your – short attention span!>” Arcus grunted, jumping out of the way of Vipiri, who had been ordered to switch sides and use Wing Attack.

“Damn it...why did it have to be two Flying-types...” Travis swore.

Cliff and Jadyn looked at each other, and nodded.

“Vipiri!” Cliff shouted.

“Royal!” Jadyn yelled as well.

“WING ATTACK ARCUS!” they chorused. Both of the bird-like Pokémon turned around in midair and proceeded to dive-bomb the flightless wolf Pokémon. He looked up and growled loudly in an attempt to intimidate them. It didn’t work very well, though (which was saying something, as many bigger Pokémon have been known to run from an Arcidane’s growl), and Vipiri and Royal continued to descend upon Arcus’ position. Then, Vipiri banked all of a sudden. The Arcidane looked up and could only see one flyer or the other. They were about to catch him in a pincer. He bared his fangs. He’d take a shot, but he could at least get a chunk out of one of them before everything was said and done.

“Arcus!!” Katrina shouted in concern. All of a sudden, a fast-moving jet of water came from Arcus’ left, striking the Taillow dead-center and sending him into a tail-spin. Noticing this, Arcus focused his attention on Vipiri, who was still coming in to strike. Although not an expert at scratching, he managed to jump and lay a grazing claw into Vipiri’s back just as he passed by. He landed on the ground and saw Meru running over to him, continuing to fire Water Guns at Royal, who had weighed his options and thought it better to retreat.

“” Arcus exclaimed.

“<You’re welcome,>” Meru replied.

“<What are you, stupid?>” Arcus barked. “<What part of ‘stay out of my way’ don’t you understand?!>”

“<The part that involves you getting your *** kicked and leaving me to fight these two birdbrains by myself!>” Meru exclaimed pointedly. Arcus growled in frustration.

“<It’s time to end this,>” he growled. “”

“<Oh, widdle wee Archie wants to take his nappy-bye?>” Meru teased. “<What’s next? Does the cute widdle emo baby want his bottle and pacifier, too? Aw...too bad...>”

“<Meru...you’re starting to act like Amber,>” Arcus warned. “<Don’t push me.>”

“<What’s widdle Archie gonna do? Run and tell his mo–>” Meru started, but ended up squealing loudly in pain as she felt something sharp slash her across the face...

...he felt something slash him across the face and growled loudly. He looked up into the trees and only saw a moving shadow. He tried to take aim with his gun – no good. She was too fast, even for him. He only saw his shadow bouncing from tree to tree. With her smaller frame and quicker style of fighting – a style which he’d seen and knew firsthand – he was definitely at a speed disadvantage. He had to admit...picking of the King’s soldiers wherever and whenever he could was a lot easier than chasing prey like this girl or that kid. Because the King’s soldiers couldn’t move quicker than the naked eye – and ear – could follow.

He saw a thin, pale arm, grabbed it, and threw the mysterious girl to the ground. She slammed into the dirt and began to roll away from Kenjiro, who drew his gun and began shooting. Somehow, though, she was able to roll and evade Kenjiro’s shots (which consisted of small fireballs and lightning bolts), finally vaulting herself off the ground from that position and barrel-rolling to a standing one. Kenjiro was a bit taken aback. It’d been a while since he’d seen moves as good as these right here. He had no time to marvel on them, however, as he watched the girl leap into the air. She ended up on the same tree limb where he’d seen her last. Her voice began to echo throughout the forest.

“Shoryuu-ninjutsu! Kaen!” she cried, leaping into the air. Kenjiro recognized the chant and his eyes widened. She held her hands above her head and a fireball about the size of a beach ball formed. She hurled it at Kenjiro, who jumped to the right and avoided direct contact, but was still too close to the resulting explosion. He saw flames leap up around him and felt himself being uncontrollably knocked backward. He felt a sharp pain in his back as it smashed into one of the larger trees surrounding the clearing. He looked up and saw smoke. And then he saw something come flying out of that smoke.

“Guargh–“ he gurgled as he felt one of the girl’s kunai penetrate the flesh in his side. His eyes glossed over momentarily, and then regained focus as he grabbed hold of the girl’s wrist and looked into her eyes. They were silver and seemed, again, to be widened in an apparently-permanent expression of fear. Even now, when she was fighting...and beating him...she looked so incredibly afraid...

...and that would be her undoing.

He raised the gun to her belly and fired it. She screamed loudly as she was blasted backwards. Once there was some distance between him and her, Kenjiro yanked the knife out of his side and, for good measure, chucked it rather skillfully at the girl’s retreating form. To his great shock, the young kunoichi, while drifting backwards, caught the blade of the knife between her index and middle fingers as she landed.

“What in –“ Kenjiro muttered in frustration. Meanwhile, the scarlet-clad girl flipped the kunai and caught it by its handle. “Shit!”

Kenjiro rolled out of the way as the girl threw the kunai, which glowed an electric blue and hit a nearby tree and exploded. Seeing that the girl had (somehow) drawn two more knives – slightly longer, this time – and was rushing him, he defiantly brandished his blade and charged her.

The weapons clashed as the two wielders met over the soft grass. They traded blows for several seconds until finally, Kenjiro, his patience at an end, turned on his heel and aimed a swift kick at the girl’s face. He made contact, which resulted in her being sent into a fast and uncontrollable barrel roll as she flew backward. His eyes wide and glittering with malice, he roared, “SLAVE OF THE TEMPLE! DIE!!”

Stepping off his right foot, he charged and went in for the kill...

“Arcus, look what you did!” Katrina shouted – for, it seemed as if right when Vipiri had come in for an attack, Arcus had clawed Meru across the face while he was aiming for the bird Pokémon. “Watch where you swing next time!”

“<Ah...>” Meru rolled to her feet and seemed a bit unbalanced – probably understandable, as she’d just nearly gotten half of her face clawed off by her partner. But something settled in her heart, demoralizing her. Arcus was...

“Meru, watch out!” Travis shouted. “Dodge that attack!”

Meru looked up and saw Royal bearing down on her with a Wing Attack. She inhaled quickly and produced an extremely powerful Water Gun that smashed into Royal just as Royal hit her. She fell to the ground, her will to fight utterly lost – just as Royal crash-landed into the dirt, knocked out.

“Tch,” Katrina groaned. “Now, it’s one-on-one...”

“Let’s finish it, then!” Cliff shouted. “Hit him with Razor Leaf!”

“Dodge it, Arcus!” Katrina shouted. Fearlessly, the Arcidane stared down the sharp, spinning leaves and, at the last second, rolled out of their path. Just after that, he was hit hard by Vipiri, who had been ordered to follow up with a Wing Attack.

“<Damn!>” Arcus swore.

“Hey, Katrina!” Travis shouted. “Isn’t Arcidane an Ice-type?”

Katrina gasped – Travis was right. If Arcus had any Ice-type moves, it would be extremely advantageous for him and Katrina, as Leafen were part-Grass and part-Flying, both of which were weak against Ice-type attacks.

WHAM.

Arcus rolled to his feet again after getting nearly knocked silly by a second Wing Attack from Vipiri. Growling loudly, he looked up at the Spring Fowl Pokémon as Vipiri banked and came around one more time with the intention of finishing off Arcus.

“Arcus, wait for it!” Katrina yelled. Travis held his breath. The eyes of Meru, whom Travis had picked up, opened slightly and looked straight at the Puppy Pokémon, who crouched low and narrowed his eyes as he watched Vipiri go in for the kill. “NOW! Grab his wing with Bite attack!”

Arcus leapt high and sank his sharp, dagger-like teeth into the left wing of Vipiri, who screeched in pain as he was dragged downward and hit the ground hard. Arcus let Vipiri go, but with an injured wing, the small Flying-type was completely at the mercy of his opponent.

“Now, use Aurora Beam!” Katrina shouted. Arcus, growling loudly, reared back and shot a rainbow-colored ray of light into the ground. This light engulfed Vipiri and sapped what was left of his energy. After five seconds or so, Arcus leapt back toward Katrina, leaving the fallen Leafen in the middle of the field, knocked out with an injured left wing.

“Vipiri!” Cliff shouted. “No!”

“Maybe you’ll think twice before challenging us next time,” Katrina said. “Now, move. We’ve got somewhere to be.”

“Are you alright, Meru?” Travis asked. “Meru?”

“<Don’t talk to me,>” Meru whined, looking down morosely at Arcus, who caught her eye and then spat on the ground in disdain. “”

“But that was an accident...right?” Travis asked. “I mean, Vipiri was coming in, and Arcus just missed. That’s what I saw, anyway?”

“<Either way, you deserved it,>” Arcus said nonchalantly. “<Oh, yeah...and I don’t attack my friends. Because I don’t have any...because I don’t want or need them.>”

Meru attempted to keep a defiant, angry face while watching as Arcus was pulled back into his Pokéball. She closed her eyes then, and two fat tears spilled forth from them.

“We need to hurry,” Katrina said. “Who knows where Kenjiro or that girl went...”

Kenjiro let out a malicious chuckle as his sword finally pierced the heart of...

An afterimage.

“The hell?!” Kenjiro shouted, turning around and barely blocking a knife from the young kunoichi he was fighting. Dodging another slash, he bent over backwards in a way that would have made Neo proud. Sliding to his left, he slipped one of his legs behind hers, and swept her off her feet, causing her to land face-first in the ground. Standing, he gesticulated defiantly with his blade and raised it high, turning it downward with the intent of stabbing the girl through her back. She rolled over and looked straight at him just as he was about to bring the sword down. “You’re too late. DIE!”

He started and then heard her ragged, short breaths. He looked into her silver eyes as he had the sword to her throat now. He tried to push and end it, but it was as if there was some sort of barrier preventing him from advancing his blade those last few inches into her windpipe. What the hell was his problem?

He’d never had an issue with killing anyone before – personal grudge or not. Why was he hesitant to kill her, of all people? He hated her – he hated her kind. All of them. Rogues, not rogues – it didn’t matter. He hated her kind with every fiber in his being. Far from having a problem with killing someone of her kind when he had the chance, he found that he enjoyed it. He took a pleasure in hearing them beg for mercy in the last moments of their life. He found comfort in the chance to withhold that mercy – because they had withheld it from him.

And yet...this one...he couldn’t do it. She didn’t look like someone who actually believed it all. If you looked in her eyes, she looked like someone who didn’t want to fight, yet was being forced to fight. He couldn’t do it...he couldn’t kill her for some reason.

WHAM.

Before he knew what was going on, he was on his back with a debilitating pain coursing through his body, the epicenter being his nether regions. With her silver eyes suddenly aflame, she was on top and in control. He saw her eyes from point-blank range, although his own were out of focus because of an extremely painful injury coming from less than a foot below his navel. She could kill him right now if she wanted to...the funny thing was, though, that she didn’t look like she wanted to.

She stood up, allowing him to stand as well – or at least, try to. The pain still hurt too badly, and all he could manage was to roll over and get into a kneeling position. The roar of his agony and rage echoed in the clearing as he heard her quickly escape on foot, no doubt with the Sacred Flame in her possession.

By this time, Travis and Katrina were in the forest. They peered around vigilantly, looking for any sign of a human presence other than their own.

“Still no sign of Kenjiro,” Travis said.

“You don’t think he bailed out on us, do you?” Katrina asked.

Travis responded by shaking his head. “I made a deal with him, remember?”

“Yeah...about that...” Katrina muttered. “Why’d you do that, anyways?”

“Like I said,” Travis replied. “The fact that everyone on the face of the planet suddenly wants my sword for some reason or another just confirms what I thought earlier – something’s rotten in Hoenn.”

“What do you mean by that?” Katrina asked.

“See, that’s just it. I don’t know,” Travis responded honestly. “When I fought Kenjiro the first time...”

“One thing history has taught us...” the young man said. “When a sword crosses the borders of its home continent and enters another...something big is going to happen.”

“Something big?” Travis said.

“Do you know the political situation in this country currently?” the young man asked. Then, shaking his head, he said. “Never mind – a kid like you wouldn’t understand conflict.”

“You want to bet?” Travis replied harshly, the young man’s comment having set him off.

“In any case, I know one thing that the stories say – those swords are powerful,” the young man said. “If the sword you carry really is the one I think it is...it might be a risk for it to be in this country. There are some who seek power...and they will seek your sword.”

“ ‘Political situation’?” Katrina repeated.

“Yeah, those were the words he used,” Travis replied.

“What kind of ‘political situation’?” Katrina asked.

“No idea,” Travis replied simply. “But since Kenjiro knows something about it, I figure he might have something to do with it – and so would this ‘somebody important’ that he wants me to see in exchange for helping me get my sword back.”

He stopped walking and shook his head.

“Travis?” Katrina uttered, walking to his side.

“It’s maddening,” he sighed. “I keep trying to put two and two together, but I’m getting – three-and-a-half or something. So, that’s why, maybe if I see this person and find out what the hell’s going on, I’ll know what to do next. Of course, it’d be better if I could just have a normal Pokémon Journey without a whole bunch of extra garbage. This is so irritating...”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have brought the sword with you,” Katrina said.

“No, that’s not the answer – that would have been worse,” Travis answered. “Think about it – what if it turned out somebody in Johto still wanted that sword for something? I couldn’t put my family in danger like that. Especially Kylie. That’s why I wanted to bring it with me. Actually, seeing all that’d happened in the last few days, I was stupid to just leave it in the room like that...”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Katrina sighed. “All we have to do is find that girl, and...”

“...’All we have to do.’ Right,” Travis replied bitingly. “It doesn’t really help that she’s gotta be as fast as I am...”

“You really think that?!” Katrina exclaimed, knowing what the implications would be if Travis were right.

“She was a fighting machine,” Travis said emphatically. “You don’t just run into some random person on the street that has that kind of martial arts training.”

“You’re right...” Katrina muttered. “I hope she’s not giving Kenjiro a hard time...what if he’s...”

“No,” Travis cut her off, shaking his head. “I fought Kenjiro, too – he can definitely take care of himself.”

Just then, they heard a human voice yelling. The voice seemed to be coming from a male who sounded like he was in pain.

“You don’t think that was –“ Katrina started to ask quickly.

“I sure hope not!” Travis replied, taking off at a run with Katrina right on his heels.

Two infantrymen in light, black armor stood on the other side of the forest, flanking a figure with a royal-blue, sleeveless garment over an orange shirt and blue pants. He looked to be over five and a half feet tall – therefore a bit short compared to the two soldiers, both of whom were at least a head taller than him. This figure had his head bowed and covered with a hood as the two infantrymen addressed him.

“There are rumors that the known serial killer known as the ‘Iceman’ is around this area,” one of the soldiers said clearly. “Have you seen anything suspicious?”

“Actually, I have,” the figure spoke in a voice befitting of a young man.

“Really?” the soldier who had spoken first intoned. “You mind telling us what it is?”

“I’m not sure you would like it,” the young man replied.

“The only thing I’ve seen suspicious is you,” the other soldier said. “What kind of person that’s up to any sort of good walks around a forest in a disguise?”

“You ask me for your assistance and then you question my motives?” the young man said. “That’s not a good move, since I’m not obligated to tell you anything.”

“What was that?” one of the soldiers exclaimed. “You’d better retract that statement quickly if you want to live!”

“And you’d better retract that sword quickly if you want to live,” the young man said flatly, knowing that the soldier who had just yelled had pulled a weapon on him.

“How dare you disrespect the army of your king?!” the soldier shouted.

“He’s not my king,” the young man replied. “You see, I’m not from around here...”

“A foreigner? That’s even worse!” the soldier yelled. “I should have you dragged to Sootopolis and executed for sedition!”

“Try it,” the young man said. “I can’t die until my atonement is finished.”

“ ‘Atonement’? What are you, one of those freaks from that cult?” the other soldier asked.

“ ‘Cult’? No. This is a personal atonement,” the young man replied. His hood flapped around in a sudden breeze, revealing that his left cheek bore a long, cross-shaped scar. “But while we’re on the subject of a cult...”

“Come out with it!” the soldier shouted. “Tell us what you know!!”

“That’s just it – I don’t know, I’m only guessing,” the young man replied.

“That does it!” the young man didn’t even bother to look up and watch the soldier’s blade come toward him. He raised his hand and, in a flash of white, the soldier was blasted a nearly immeasurable distance. His cry echoed through the forest, grew faint, and then disappeared entirely.

“Wh...what are you?!” the other soldier asked, dropping his sword.

“A broken soul seeking redemption,” the young man replied, his eyes flashing.

“You’re a freak of nature...” the soldier stammered. “You’re too dangerous to be left alive. Die!”

BANG.

This soldier was blasted in the opposite direction. At this point, the two soldiers who had, a minute ago, been in the center of the forest, were each at opposite ends.

“You don’t understand,” the young man said to no one. “I’m already dead. I’m just waiting until the day I can stop breathing.”

He turned to his front. There, framed in the trees, was a girl with scarlet clothing and scarlet and silver hair. The young man’s eyes turned to the sword she was carrying –

She charged – whether she was coming straight at him or trying to run past him, he wasn’t completely sure. It didn’t matter, though. He went inside of his cloak and pulled out a straight longsword. Taking one quick step, he aimed the hilt right at the charging girl’s face.

WHAM.

He made contact, causing her to flip in odd angles and directions not known to man before she finally came to a stop, face-down, in the dirt and grass. Her body was tense against the ground for a moment – then she went limp. The sword she’d been holding, meanwhile, went flying and clattered several yards away from the girl. Quickly sheathing his sword and concealing it within his cloak, the young man turned around and began to walk off.

“Sorry...but I can’t let you have that sword. It’s no good in your hands,” he muttered, sounding suddenly very sympathetic for someone who had just knocked a girl out cold with the hilt of his sword. He leapt into the tangle of tree limbs above him as a breeze, caressing the hair and face of the girl that now lay unconscious on the ground, signaled his departure.

Forced into sleep on this bed of earth, this girl’s dreaming mind wandered, as it often did when she slept, back to her past...

A young girl of about ten with short, scarlet hair and clothed just within the limits of decency, destroyed targets with the two kunai that had been given to her as two figures with green hoods watched her through a glass screen. One of them was quite portly and short, and the other (as if to be the perfect answer) was tall and lanky.

“She is improving rapidly, this one,” the portly man commented. “She’s a natural fighter.”

“Yes, I’ve heard about her,” the lanky one replied in a calm, almost sleepy voice. “She’s good, all right. There’s just one issue with her – well, this is what I’ve heard...”

“Hm? What’s that?” the portly man asked.

“She won’t submit to one part of her training,” the lanky man replied. When this heavyset fellow looked at him with confusion obvious on the visible, lower part of his face, the lanky counterpart continued, “You know which training I speak of.”

“Oh – well...is that absolutely necessary?” the portly man asked.

“It shows them their place,” the tall man answered. “If they do not know that they are literally the property of this temple...they have a tendency to...rebel.”

“Well, then, we do what we do to all of the other ones who rebel, right?” the portly man said. “We kill them.”

“Kill her?” the lanky monk repeated. “You’d really kill someone this skilled? I’m not sure that’s the right answer.”

“It’s the only answer,” the fat monk said emphatically. “If they do not submit, they die. Surely you must know the repercussions if she lives...and manages to escape.”

“I know that!” the taller of the two shouted. “Maybe we don’t have to. Maybe we can break her...”

“We’ve been trying,” the portly man sighed. “She won’t let anyone even lay a finger on her.”

**EonMaster One** · 24th April 2007, 7:02 PM

She felt somebody moving her and immediately – almost unconsciously – reached her hand out and grabbed. She heard a gasp and opened her eyes very slowly. It turned out she was grabbing the wrist of a pink-haired girl – the same one that had fought her before...

Travis picked up his sword and strapped it back to his hip. As that was happening, the kunoichi had a merciless hold on Katrina’s wrist. The scarlet-haired girl stood up, slowly, still seemingly attempting to break Katrina’s wrist. After a few moments, Katrina wrenched herself free of the other girl’s grip. Favoring her right wrist, she looked up at the girl in front of her, who was clutching her face. The red-haired girl removed her hand from her face, revealing that her lip was dripping blood.

“What happened?” Katrina decided to ask. “Was it...Kenjiro?”

“Where the hell is he, anyway?!” Travis shouted, looking around.

“In any case, the jig’s up,” Katrina said, conjuring her rod and pointing it straight at the other girl’s throat.

“Katrina, let her go,” Travis said loudly. Katrina put her rod at ease and looked back at Travis questioningly.

“Let her go? Why?” Katrina asked. “She stole your sword.”

“Just look at her,” Travis said. “She looks so afraid.”

“I guess...huh?” Katrina turned around to see a tall figure walking in through the curtain of trees. After a few seconds, Travis was able to take a look into the eyes of the young man – the golden-brown eyes of Kenjiro Kazaki. The young girl let out a scream and turned to run. Travis continued to look at Kenjiro’s eyes as he heard the icy young man growl and snarl.

“Hey, no!” Travis shouted. “Let her go – we’ve got the sword! Kenjiro, what are you –“

“DIE!!” Kenjiro’s eyes went beyond reason as he raised his gun and fired. A bolt of lightning shot forth from the twin barrels of Kenjiro’s gun and struck the girl directly in the back. She fell limply against the ground, groaning loudly. Katrina and Travis both gasped as they watched Kenjiro walk between them, wearing something of a snarling, quivering smile. His teeth were bared like the fangs of a wolf that sees his prey. In an unnaturally low growl, Kenjiro said, “Did you honestly think you could escape from me, priestess?”

“Kenjiro!” Travis shouted hotly, shocked that anybody could be so violent of his own free will. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Exacting justice,” Kenjiro growled. Turning to the unconscious girl, he nudged her with his foot, turning her over onto her back. Kneeling down next to her, his free hand found his way around her slender neck, and he began to slowly choke the very life out of her.

“Kenjiro, stop!” Katrina shouted. “She’s defenseless!”

“Defenseless...” Kenjiro laughed. “Exactly. I’m going to enjoy this.”

“Kenjiro!” Travis roared. The aforementioned’s hand, meanwhile, was still over the girl’s throat as she choked and sobbed, her tears mingling with the blood on her face.

“Didn’t I tell you before?” Kenjiro’s voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. “I hate your kind, priestess. I hate you. And do you know what I do to the people I hate? Huh? Do you have a guess, priestess?”

“You’ll...k-kill...” the girl started to sob.

“No,” Kenjiro laughed, a hungry look in his eyes. “I don’t just kill them. That’s too easy. That’s not enough. I torment them. I make them suffer like they made me suffer!”

“That’s enough, Kenjiro!” Travis shouted. “I don’t care who she is, she doesn’t deserve that type of treatment!”

“Oh, trust me...she does,” Kenjiro growled over the sobs of the girl that he was gradually strangling. Kenjiro, growling, continued to pin her to the ground.

“But...I...” the girl choked.

“Cry and squirm all you want. That still won’t sa–hm?” Kenjiro looked up and to his right when he felt a sudden, intense heat next to his right ear.

“Enough!” he heard Travis exclaim. “Kenjiro, get off her. Right now.”

“She’s a priestess...” the young man growled. “They’re the scum of the earth, the members of that ‘Faith’.”

“Look at her,” Travis said. “That’s a human being! She’s afraid! She’s injured! If you have any morals at all, you’ll let her go.”

“Morals...?” Kenjiro said. “Monsters like her have no morals – despite their ‘Faith’ and religion.”

“Let her go...or you’re on your own,” Travis said. “I’ve got my sword back. So...we really don’t need you anymore. It’s only because I’m a man of my word that I agreed to your deal – but I could always change my mind...if ‘morals’ are that flexible.”

Kenjiro looked straight into the azure eyes of the teenager standing above him with the sword to his head.

Tilting his head, Travis said, “So...take your pick. I don’t know why...but you need me for something. I’m not the type to sit by and watch someone be mistreated.”

Kenjiro growled for a second and looked into the eyes of the crying girl. His hand loosed her grip on the girl’s neck, leaving red, finger-shaped marks on her pale skin. “You’ve been spared, priestess. Thank that damn dragon or whatever the hell you guys have that ‘Faith’ in nowadays...”

“What are you talking about, anyway?” Travis asked.

“You don’t know about the ‘Faith’ – no, you wouldn’t...you’re not from around here,” Kenjiro commented. “Nevermind...let’s get the hell outta here.”

“Travis! Kenjiro!” Katrina shouted. “We can’t leave her here. She can’t walk on her own.”

Travis turned around and then Kenjiro whirled around as well.

“Does it look like I care?” Kenjiro asked, scoffing. “It’d suit me just as well to leave the priestess here to die.”

“I have a name...” the girl groaned, soon screaming because of an injury to her knee.

“Save your strength,” Katrina advised.

“Well – you actually know your own name. That’s pretty rare among your kind,” Kenjiro said, smirking. “Tell us what it is, then. What are you called?”

“My name...” the girl said, sitting up with help from Katrina. “My name...is Reivyn.”

“Reivyn...” Katrina repeated. “It’s a beautiful name. I’m Katrina. Where are you from, Reivyn?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Reivyn said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to talk about that hellish place...”

“Sounds like you didn’t enjoy your little religion very much,” Kenjiro said, smirking. “Heh. My guess was right about you. You are a rogue.”

“Don’t talk to her, Kenjiro,” Travis said in a dangerously calm voice. “You don’t have the right after what you did.”

“Keep your mouth shut about **** you don’t understand!” Kenjiro shouted, bringing everything to utter and total silence.

“No – I don’t understand,” Travis admitted. “I don’t understand how you could treat someone so cruelly. You can see that she needs our help – what are you doing about it?”

“What the hell do you want me to do?!” Kenjiro yelled. “How shall I serve the priestess?!”

“My name is Reivyn!” Reivyn shouted vehemently, attempting to stand. However, her knee buckled and she fell to the ground, groaning in agony. Katrina looked at her knee, which was quickly turning a shade of blue. She shook her head.

“No way in hell she’s walking on that,” Katrina sighed sympathetically. “At least, not today. So...what are you going to do?”

Travis had already decided – he looked straight at Kenjiro. Looking at Travis’ eyes, Katrina gasped and her heart skipped a beat. She realized she was looking, presently, not at the face of the fourteen-year-old that had grown up from the boy she had fallen in love with years ago...but she was looking at the face of the war veteran. She was looking at the face of the young man that had, two summers ago, commanded hundreds of troops to victory in order to save his family, his country, and her.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Kenjiro asked. “If you’re trying to scare me, it’s not working.”

“If I was trying to scare you, you’d know it,” Travis said tersely. “Now, listen to me.”

“Wait a second – you can’t just start ordering...” Kenjiro began to shout, but Travis cut him off.

“Watch me,” he said defiantly. “You’re the one that needs me for something. I don’t know what it is, but something. Me, on the other hand – I don’t need you, and, frankly, my life would be a little less complicated if we were strangers. So, since you need my help, it follows that now the ball’s in my court.”

“You’re just a Pokémon Trainer,” Kenjiro scoffed. “Granted, the sword has fallen to you, but –“

“Tch, I wish,” Travis said bitingly. “That’s the attitude that nearly got you killed the first time you fought me.”

“Hey, wait a second –“ Katrina warned, hearing the tone of voice that indicated that the war-torn, emotionally and mentally-unbalanced, and potentially violent side of Travis’ personality was dominant at this point.

“I’ve gone through hell and back, Kenjiro. I’ve seen and heard things that would make your hair stand on end. I have stood at death’s door more times than I care to count,” Travis said, his eyes narrowing. Kenjiro felt his heart literally stop beating for a moment and fell to his knees, clutching his chest. Sweat began to run down his brow and face, dripping off his nose and splashing against the dirt below.

“Please calm down!” Katrina exclaimed, grabbing hold of Travis’ arm. Travis looked into her pleading eyes and the grip that was on his heart suddenly broke. His eyes softened as he looked at Kenjiro, who was looking up at him from his knees.

“What do you want from me?” he asked.

“I want to thank you...for helping me get this back,” Travis said, quickly sheathing his sword. Wondering what’d happened, Kenjiro stood up. “But, now that it’s my turn to do something for you...you’ll have to follow my terms.”

“What are those terms?” Kenjiro asked, his defiant nature starting to come to the surface again. “Nothing ridiculous, I hope. Let me guess...you want us to help the priestess?”

“You are going to carry Reivyn yourself until she can walk on her own,” Travis said firmly. “And if you hurt her...well, let’s just say that you haven’t seen me upset yet.”

“Tch...fine. Whatever...” Kenjiro turned around toward the scarlet-haired girl, who was in a supine position and trying to scoot away from him. “Well, it looks like today’s your lucky day, priestess.”

“My name –“ she began to shout, but Kenjiro cut her off rather smoothly in a lazy voice.

“Reivyn – I know. You don’t have to keep shouting...” Kenjiro groaned, extending his hand. “Now, I’m going to help you. Give me your hand.”

“Don’t touch me!” Reivyn suddenly shrieked, slapping Kenjiro’s hand away. Kenjiro reacted with a smirk. “...I don’t...like...”

“You’re a priestess,” Kenjiro cut her off, smirking. “I’m sure there’s been a lot more done to you.”

“No,” Reivyn said simply, shaking her head. “But they tried to...”

As if though she could not help herself, she dropped her head and burst into tears. Kenjiro sighed and closed his eyes.

“I understand...you were held there against your will. Speaking of which –” he said. Then, moving quickly so that Reivyn did not have time to react, Kenjiro grabbed Reivyn’s arm and hoisted her up onto him piggyback-style. Once Reivyn realized what was going on...she completely freaked.

“STOP! NO! GET OFF ME! LET ME GO! GET OFF! NOOOOOO!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs, scaring entire flocks of Taillow into sudden and frenzied flight. Travis and Katrina sighed and began to walk onward while Reivyn continued to scream bloody murder. After several steps, Kenjiro stopped and let go, causing Reivyn to land – BUMP, on her rump...with a resounding THUMP.

Author’s Note: Amber suggested that I use that phrase, so you can cruc–er, congratulate her.

“If your feet and arms are going to continue flailing around to the point where I have to worry about getting hit in the face...or somewhere else...” Kenjiro explained calmly. “I’m going to leave you here. You can’t move, and they’ll find you for sure.”

“But...” Reivyn whimpered. Kenjiro knelt down in front of her with a serious expression on his face.

“I’m helping you this time,” he said. Then, turning around and beginning to walk off, he added, “But, of course, if you want to die, I don’t have a right to...”

Kenjiro felt a tug on his pant leg and turned around. Falling forward, Reivyn had reached out for him and was holding on, seemingly for dear life.

“I see you changed your tune,” Kenjiro said with a smirk, taking her hand and draping it around his shoulder. Getting the message, Reivyn, much like a small child would do, grabbed onto his jacket with that hand, as well as the other arm. With a slight grunt of effort, Kenjiro lifted the girl up onto his back and began to walk. By this time, of course, Travis and Katrina were several yards ahead and hadn’t yet registered Kenjiro’s absence. The bronze-haired youth walked with a long stride to catch up with his younger counterparts. Travis chose the moment right after Kenjiro had settled in at the back of the pack to look over his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Kenjiro,” he said. “It’s getting late. We’re not getting out of this forest today. We’re just looking for a spot to camp at this point. So you won’t have to carry her for long.”

“That’s good,” Kenjiro muttered. He looked to his right and saw the teenage kunoichi peering intently over his shoulder, her bright, silver eyes taking in all they could at once. Kenjiro rolled his own eyes. “Okay, there’s no way you can tell me you’ve never seen a forest before. Isn’t the Tem–“

“Your name’s Kenjiro, right?” Reivyn asked. Not really feeling up to talking, Kenjiro nodded. “It’s too long, if you ask me. Why don’t you shorten it. Maybe...Ken?”

“Don’t call me that,” Kenjiro said quickly. “Only my family can call me that.”

“Where is your family?” Reivyn asked.

“Dead,” Kenjiro said. “They’re all gone. That’s why...”

“I don’t have a family, either,” Reivyn said. “I’m all alone. It’s not good...being alone.”

“Better to be alone than to have your family taken away from you,” Kenjiro said.

“ ‘Taken away’? By who?” Reivyn asked. Kenjiro’s eyes looked into hers and went as hard and as cold as ice. Reivyn gasped. “Is that why...why you hate me?”

“Yes – that’s why I hate you,” Kenjiro said with the air of someone trying to explain something to a four-year-old.

“But...” Reivyn whimpered. “I didn’t do it...”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kenjiro said. “All of you are the same to me. But I think I might keep you around a while.”

“Why?” Reivyn asked. “If you hate me, why don’t you kill me? He’s not looking.”

“If you don’t want to die, then you’d better not give me any ideas,” Kenjiro said. “No...I’ve got a bigger plan for you. They’re hunting you down, aren’t they?”

“I’ve been running for almost a year,” Reivyn replied. “It’s hard...”

“Don’t get me started,” Kenjiro muttered. “In any case...they’ll send hundreds and hundreds of theirs in order to find one escape.”

“How do you know?” Reivyn asked.

“Believe me...I know,” Kenjiro responded simply.

“So...what does that have to do with me?” Reivyn asked.

“Let me make this simple so you can understand it,” Kenjiro replied with a smirk. “I have you – they come looking for you. They come looking for you – they find me. They find me – I kill them. Every single one I can get my hands on. They’ll all die.”

“I’m...bait, then,” Reivyn sighed.

“Now, you’re catching on,” Kenjiro said. “And before you ask me if I care about whether or not the fish actually bites the bait off the hook, the answer is no.”

“You’re...brutal,” Reivyn whimpered.

“That’s the only way I know how to survive...kill or get killed,” Kenjiro said. “So, I guess, in that sense, we’re not all that different, are we?”

“Is there anything I could do...” Reivyn asked. “...to make you stop hating me?”

“Bring my parents and brother back,” Kenjiro said with an extremely vicious tone in his voice. As if she knew the impossibility of what Kenjiro was asking and knew the hopelessness of her own situation, Reivyn burst into tears again. Kenjiro groaned in frustration.

“What the hell are you doing to her?” Travis asked, turning around.

“She’s just being a crybaby – that’s all,” Kenjiro commented.

“That’d better be all,” Travis replied, staring a hole through Kenjiro before turning around.

“I didn’t do it,” Reivyn sobbed. “I didn’t...”

“You’re just another priestess, so you might as well have,” Kenjiro replied mercilessly.

“My name is –“

“Shut the hell up about it already, Reivyn,” Kenjiro groaned. “You’ve told us a thousand times.”

To Kenjiro’s great surprise, the tears stopped. To his great dismay, he felt a hard pressure on his torso area – almost as if Reivyn were suddenly trying to embrace him with all four of her limbs at once.

“No one called you ‘Reivyn’ when you were at the Temple, did they?” Kenjiro asked. Reivyn shook her head.

“I was a number,” Reivyn said simply. “Eight-zero-seven-zero-two. You’re the first people to call me by my real name.”

“Well, isn’t that an honor?” Kenjiro muttered sarcastically. “You really didn’t want to be a priestess, did you?”

Reivyn shook her head. Kenjiro stopped and closed his eyes.

“All this time, I thought you were working for them...” he muttered.

“I can’t...” Reivyn sighed. “Three days...I’m sorry...”

“What are you apologizing to me for? And what the hell do you mean by ‘three days’?” Kenjiro asked. He didn’t get a response...only ragged breathing. He looked to his right. The girl’s eyes were closed in peaceful slumber and her head had lolled harmlessly onto his neck. Her arms were still wrapped tightly around him, refusing to let go. Kenjiro figured out at that moment, looking at her serene and beautiful face in sleep, what she had meant by ‘three days’...it had been ‘three days’ since she had slept at all. She’d been on the move for that long, running from the Temple, afraid that if she ever closed her eyes, the next time she opened them would be in the beyond.

A strange lurch happened in the pit of Kenjiro’s stomach. For a moment, he felt like he could have projectile vomited. It felt familiar...like the first time he’d had to kill someone to save his own life...

He realized what it was. It was guilt. He had tormented her and treated her badly...and now, for the first time in years, he was feeling remorse.

At last, Travis picked out a nice spot for them to camp for the night. This small patch of land bore very few trees around it. The setting sun shone down onto a small, calm lake, flooding the water and the grass land around it with warm tones of yellow and orange. Upon Katrina’s order, Amber had lit a woodpile ablaze for heat in anticipation for the cool night that was predicted to come. A blanket was spread out for the sleeping Reivyn to rest peacefully. Katrina brought it to Kenjiro’s attention, and the latter, with the scarlet-haired girl still on his back, trudged over there and crouched low, laying her peacefully onto the blanket. As she came to a rest on this green piece of cloth, her eyes opened blearily and looked straight into Kenjiro’s. She still had her hands clasped around his neck, so he wasn’t going anywhere soon.

“Do you...still hate me?” Reivyn asked – again, sounding about ten years younger than she actually was.

“Are you a priestess?” Kenjiro replied with his own question.

“No,” Reivyn answered simply as her back finally hit the blanket. She let go of Kenjiro’s neck and allowed her arms to fall on either side of her.

“...I don’t have any reason to hate you, then,” Kenjiro said. Reivyn sighed and her eyes closed. Folding the blanket over her sleeping body, Kenjiro thought, You’re a little girl in a woman’s body. It’s not even your own fault. How much could you learn about the outside world, stuck in that Temple? That’s why you wanted out, wasn’t it? You’d heard about the outside world and you wanted to see it for yourself. You wanted...to be free.

“Kenjiro,” the bronze-haired young man heard Travis’ voice. He turned around and saw him, seated by the fire with his girlfriend (he figured this out on his own, as Travis forgot to tell him) at his side. Kenjiro stood, took one last look at the sleeping girl below him, and turned around to walk toward him. “I’ve got a couple of questions.”

“Shoot,” Kenjiro said simply. “I think I’m up to talking as long as it isn’t anything ridiculous.”

“I don’t think it is,” Travis replied. “It’s pretty obvious you’ve got a personal issue with Reivyn. Have you two met before?”

“Well...yes – and no,” Kenjiro replied, sitting down. “We ran into each other about a week ago and ended up fighting.”

“That seems to happen to you a lot, doesn’t it?” Katrina asked suspiciously.

“Well – yeah, it does,” Kenjiro responded in a tone that made it clear that Kenjiro thought that Katrina should have figured this out on her own. “Especially when everyone in Hoenn’s made to think you’re a serial killer and everybody and their brother’s got a bounty on your head.”

“You’ve got a bounty on your head?” Travis repeated. “Not to say that I’m surprised, but that might kind of complicate things. How much?”

“Seven...” Kenjiro said.

“Hundred? That’s no big deal,” Travis said. “You can hardly get three Pokéballs with –“

“Million,” Kenjiro cut him off. Travis’ eyes nearly popped out of his head momentarily before he regained his composure.

“Million,” he repeated blankly. “Okay...that’s a problem. How’d you manage to rack up a seven-million-Pokedollar bounty?”

“I came from – no, that’s another subject – but, when I got out in the world, I found I had to defend myself. When I was young and inexperienced, I had the tendency to forget to dispose of bodies properly,” Kenjiro said flatly.

Katrina gave him a horrified look.

“So, you are a serial killer,” she muttered.

“I’m not a serial killer, damn it,” Kenjiro groaned in frustration. “Here’s the fact – for nearly two years now, I’ve had someone or another after me. Before the bounty hunters, there was another group...the Shoryuu Temple.

“Temple? Is that the Temple that Reivyn –“ Katrina started to ask.

“Unless there’s another cult in Hoenn that we don’t know about yet,” Kenjiro replied.

“And I’m guessing ‘priestess’ refers to the girls in that Temple,” Travis said.

“Exactly. They get a pretty raw deal, too. Not only are they forced to learn to become fighting machines...but their innocence is stripped away from them, leaving nothing but a emotionless, heartless, and blind servant of the ‘Faith’,” Kenjiro explained.

“What do you mean, ‘their innocence is stripped away’?” Katrina said.

“They are basically slaves,” Kenjiro said, sighing. It was at this point that Katrina finally got the hint.

“No!” she gasped, leaning over Travis’ legs. “You don’t mean...”

“Reivyn was one of the lucky ones...she got out,” Kenjiro said, glancing over her shoulder at the sleeping girl. Then, his eyes darkened as he looked at Travis and Katrina and said, “Few ever do – and when they do, they usually don’t live long. The rest of the Temple usually makes sure of that.”

“Isn’t this supposed to be a secret cult?” Travis said. “How do you know so much about it?”

Kenjiro stood up quickly.

“I’ve been around the block a bit,” he said, beginning to walk off. He looked down at the girl wrapped in the green blanket. What are we going to do with you? he thought to himself, walking away from the group to be alone with his thoughts. This left Travis and Katrina by the crackling fire, as Angel had already gone to sleep and Crescent along with her.

“So...let me get this straight,” Travis said, counting off on his fingers. “If these two tag along, we’re going to have problems with bounty hunters, the Shoryuu Temple, the king’s soldiers, in addition who whoever it is out there that wants my sword so badly.”

Sighing, Katrina responded. “Yeah, I think that’s about it.”

“And I still want to get eight badges and get to Evergrande City – alive,” Travis stressed the last word.

“Mm-hmm,” Katrina replied. In reaction, Travis groaned loudly and leaned back onto the ground.

Smirking bitterly, he commented, “Damn it. Why is my life always so complicated?”

“I really couldn’t tell you,” Katrina sighed. “But I want you to promise me something.”

“Hm?” Travis uttered as Katrina laid right next to him.

“When we do have happy times,” she said, looking into his slightly-troubled azure eyes. “I want us to enjoy them. Smile once in a while. Laugh. Don’t be so serious all the time.”

“You sound like a broken record,” Travis said, smirking and looking straight up at the sky. “ ‘Smile – laugh – don’t be so serious...smile – laugh – don’t be so serious...smile –‘ “

He felt a slight weight on his chest just as Katrina leaned on it with her forearms and looked right into his eyes.

“That’s because...even though I’d love you anyway,” she said. “I like the new you a lot better. I’m not sure about that other side of you...I know you’d never hurt me either way, but still...he scares me.”

“Sorry,” Travis said reaching up and stroking her face. “It just feels like I’m under a lot of stress lately, and when that happens...”

“I know, I know,” Katrina repeated sympathetically. “Don’t let it get to you.”

She turned, laid her head back on Travis’ chest, and looked up into the sky.

“The sunsets are beautiful in Hoenn,” she sighed.

“You’re beautiful,” Travis said. Katrina turned toward him and reached her hand up toward her face. Travis grabbed it with his own hand and kissed it. “I’m lucky. Really lucky.”

Travis understood now – if he was ever to combat the huge, unpleasant memories from his past, he would have to counter them with many small, good memories. A victory here and there, the beautiful scenery of this new country that he had never seen before...

...and looking up at a fiery sunset with the one he loved – and the one he was sure loved him back.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, introducing one fakemon this time.

Leafen
Type: Grass/Flying
Height/Length: 2'00"
Weight: 20 lbs.
The word on Leafen: Due to its size and mid-air quickness, Leafen's pretty hard to hit. Its special attack stat is also rather devastating. Fire and Ice don't agree with it well, but it's grass-type properties negate its weakness to Rock and Electric-type attacks.

Supplied by: Air Dragon

**Lupin** · 24th April 2007, 7:46 PM

Sorry I haven't reveiw your chapters lately, no time.

But you have certainally outdone yourself, what with all the sword fights and the romance and the Pokemon battles. It is brilliant sir, truely brilliant. I am also loving how we learnt the history of the sword and how its power could affect all of Hoenn (sound familiar).

I'm going to make an obvious guess that boy near the end was Nate.

**Kazekage** · 25th April 2007, 3:20 AM

^^^^^^^^^

Perhaps its mister Raquaza boy?

Really amazing chapter EM1. One thing thats been kinda bugging me.

We have yet to meet a character that has surpassed Travis' strength. I love his character to pieces but it'd be nice to see him loose to someone once in a while?

Thread: Pokemon Revolution: Advent Phoenix (Rated T)

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