Blazing Frost

[Sinnohdragon]

These are coming quick now

Rant time! Leaf is such an obnoxious selfish brat who only cares about herself. Lapras are really rare and Paris was really nice to Leaf and Leaf was all horrible because Paris wasn't actually shiny! And then she goes and takes it out on little Frosti and Cheri! /end rant. hmph

A very emotional chapter i do say. And very vivid battle with the Pidgey I was almost hoping that the Mankey would kill its trainer so there could be another crushing

And Bill is a psychopath. Lovely. I'd like to see what happens next...

[SugarPesticide]

Haha, exactly. She's not exactly Miss Perfect anymore, is she? *evil grin*

I was almost hoping that the Mankey would kill its trainer so there could be another crushing

^ *winner of DDT's "Should Have Thought Of That" Award*

And here's another very long chapter. Seriously, I meant to put this up ages ago. Curses on my laziness, but yay for plot twists!

* * *

Chapter Fifteen: Cascade and Masquerade (Truth versus Lies! Cheri's Triumph!)

<NO!> Frosti screamed, watching in horror as the knife sliced downward. Growling in rage, he flung himself at the leering young man, even though part of his brain protested that it was already too late to save the girl; he had barely sprung into the air when the razor-sharp metal cut into Leaf's black tank top, tearing the spot right above her heart. A sting of cutting steel—

Fortunately, thanks to the sudden appearance of a throwing knife that zinged conveniently through the air to smash it out of his hand, Bill's thirsty blade got no further.

"Take your hands off her!" a young man shouted, standing heroically in the doorway.

With a snarl, Bill leapt towards him, fingers extended towards him as if they were claws; in response the challenger merely pushed him backward, righteous anger distorting his aquiline features. Bill staggered drunkenly backward, looking winded. A moment later, he shook his head distractedly before returning his attention to the newcomer, curling his lip to reveal pearl-white teeth.

Gasping in an attempt to get her breath back, Leaf shuddered as she propped herself up onto her elbows, feeling shock and gratitude flood through her barrier of unfeeling numbness. The man had a shock of blindingly bright orange hair, but she soon realized that Cobalt had merely changed wigs again; the Elvis look would hardly do any good in a fight such as this. But this thought hardly registered in the incredulity washing over her. He saved me? But we're enemies ...

<Get back, phatty!> Phlash yelled, appearing from behind her trainer's ankles and lunging hungrily at Bill. The brunette yowled as she clamped her jaws onto his arm, but he nevertheless savagely flung his arm around to smash her lithe body into the counter nearby. The weasel whimpered in pain, but instead of letting go she tightened her toothy grip even more, causing droplets of blood to ooze from his skin.

<Leaf, Leaf, are you okay?> Frosti asked, rushing to his trainer's side, all annoyance at her previous attitude forgotten.

She almost said yes, but with a shiver she realized that saying it would be a definite lie. "I don't know," she admitted, surprising him with a sudden hug. Gingerly she touched the spot where the knife had nicked her. A slight cut could be seen through the tear in her tank top; a deathly red stain glittered on the edges of both cut and tear. Her blood turned to ice as she realized how narrowly she had escaped death. If Cobalt had arrived even a second later than he had—

<Mmmph!>

Swiveling around, human and Charmander looked behind them to see Cheri getting into an upright position, bouncing slightly on her point. She glared darkly at Bill, looking ready for a fight; with two sharp snaps she unfolded her stinger-arms, raising them in preparation to stab.

"Cheri!" Leaf began, but the golden cocoon took no notice of her trainer's protest. With small leaps she bounced across the floor, waiting until the roaring brunette was in range before hitting the back of his knee with a sudden String Shot. The effect was immediate: crumpling, Bill collapsed on the floor with a screech, although he was soon back on his feet again. With a muttered curse of fury he launched himself at Cheri, swooping down and grabbing her with hands ready to squeeze the blood from her like a juicer squeezing concentrate from an orange.

Before the girl could cry out in worry about the Kakuna's fate, however, Bill dropped the Pokemon with a shriek, wailing as he stared at his hands; they were a brilliant red, glowing with the blisters forming along his palms in painful, uneven ridges. Cheri hit the floor with a loud clack and was still.

"No," Leaf gasped, eyes widening. "Oh please, don't let me lose another one! NO!"

Another yowl forced her to return her horrified gaze to Bill, who in his maddened wrath had lunged for Cobalt. The admin was staring at his hand, staring in disbelief for some unknown reason; thus he was taken by surprise by Bill's attack, even with Phlash's angry, muffled cries. The young man whose true hair color was still indeterminable was thrown bodily against the floor, but, recovering rapidly from his shock, he rolled over as he fell until he hit the stone-cold tiles with a foot extended outward. Bill, not seeing the foot in time, tripped over it and landed on all fours, still snarling at Cobalt; coincidentally, Phlash was still snarling at him.

A glow diverted Leaf's attention back to Cheri, and she realized that the faint, eerie light was coming from the cocoon herself. Her mouth dropped open in astonishment as she watched cracks suddenly rip along the Kakuna's golden body, and some translucent liquid, faintly green, oozed from the long, shallow fissures. Humming softly, Cheri retracted her stinger-arms and held them tightly to her body, seeming almost to shrink. Then, as the light winked out from her eyes, a brilliantly white spear stabbed its way out of her side with a violent RIP!, followed almost instantly by another.

"Cheri ..." Leaf murmured. Even the young men had temporarily halted in their struggle, watching in amazement as the rest of Cheri's new body burst from its former confinement, scattering golden flakes that hissed with vicious heat as they bounced across the floor. The insect rose to her full height, shaking slightly from the effort of freeing herself. Leaf remembered seeing Beedrill for the first time in Viridian Forest, but she still gazed at her Pokemon's new form in wonder: a golden body with two jet-black stripes encircling her abdomen, with spindly black arms and legs tensed. Black antennae, shaped like twin sevens, twitched as Cheri unfolded four broad, veined, semi-transparent wings, glimmering softly in the dim light and damp with the mysterious greenish liquid.

As the glow faded, the tall bug gazed down at her limp Kakuna coating which lay prone and broken on the ground, looking eerily like a mutilated corpse. Her luminous ruby-red eyes narrowed in interest at the sight. Then a ragged breath from Bill, whose astonishment was fast fading, caused her to snap her head around at the young men, and they all tensed at her sudden movement.

Abruptly Cheri rushed through the air with lightning speed, knocking Bill to the ground with unanticipated force. As he collapsed beneath her, the bug swayed slightly, as if exhausted from her sudden evolution; nevertheless, she hit him in the small of his back with a String Shot, which flew not from her intimidating, pearl-white stingers, but from her pointed, virtually invisible mouth. Phlash, finally releasing her jaws from the psychotic human's arm, grinned at the enormous bee before jumping on Bill's head and chanting, <Die, phiend, die! Die, phiend, die! Die, phiend, die! Die, phiend, die! Die, phiend, d—>

"We heard you the first time!" Cobalt hollered at her in an annoyed voice. Then he looked around at the strange machine, staring at the Clefairy. "And what are you going on about?"

Leaf looked around at the fat pink fairy, realizing belatedly that the Pokemon had been pounding on the sealed door to get attention.

<It needs to be reversed!> she shrilled. <Hurry, the batteries on this thing won't last forever! Force her in here while she's down!>

The two followed the fairy's gaze, and their jaws dropped open when they realized the Pokemon was referring to Bill, who was swearing nastily from his awkward position on the floor. "'She'?" Leaf asked incredulously. "What are you talking about, that's Bill!"

<That's not Bill!> the Clefairy retorted, now looking thoroughly exasperated. <That's the Clefairy! I'm Bill, and this is very awkward, so shove her in the other containment unit already!>

"You're who?"

<Just do it!> snapped Bill-the-Clefairy, rolling her eyes.

Blinking in confusion, Leaf met Cobalt's eyes, wondering if he had any better understanding of this situation. Judging by his expression, it seemed safe to say that he didn't; but he merely shrugged it off and pounced on Clefairy-the-Bill, who was shrieking in horrific anger as his arms were twisted up behind his back. He writhed wildly in Cobalt's grasp in an effort to free himself, but with the help of Cheri's sticky String Shots and Phlash's enthusiastic tugging, the admin managed to drag the man across the floor, hauling him along until they had reached the open container. Realizing what they planned to do, Clefairy-the-Bill made a last stand to stay free by planting his rear on the floor in order to make caging him in as difficult as possible.

Unfortunately, one of Cheri's stingers was waiting for him.

"AAAARGH!" he yowled, as he leapt into the container while cradling his behind; it is usually not a good idea to sit on a Beedrill's stinger, particularly if one can avoid it. With lightning speed, Phlash shot forward and slammed the door-flap shut, sealing the seething brunette within.

"Are you okay?"

Leaf did a double take when she realized that Cobalt was standing above her, reaching down to help her up. Shaking herself, she grabbed his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

Their eyes met.

"Um ... yeah," Leaf muttered, embarrassed. "Thanks. For saving me, I mean."

"No problem." Cobalt still looked rather unnerved by the whole situation. "I did what I had to do, you know?"

An abrupt wolf-whistle made them jump; it had come from from the Pokedex, still in Leaf's yellow handbag, which in the scuffle had been thrown across the floor. It was then that they realized that they hadn't let go of each other's hands. Clearing their throats awkwardly, they pulled away with a nervous laugh.

"You'll be okay?" Cobalt glanced around at Clefairy-the-Bill, who was banging furiously on the walls of his container and making Bill-the-Clefairy cry out indignantly. "Or should I take care of that *******?"

"I'll be fine," Leaf assured him, although she wasn't altogether sure that she was telling the truth.

"Okay. Well, er ... I'll see you later then." Beckoning to Phlash, he turned and started back for the hall, dark in its windowless confines.

"Cobalt?"

"What?"

"Why'd you come?"

He paused, turning back to watch her from the doorway. Looking at her standing there, with a fiery lizard and slim bee flanking her, it was impossible to imagine that she had almost lost her life to an incredibly evil being; only the painful-looking tear on her shirt suggested that such a thing could have happened. Why did he still feel the urge to make sure she really was safe, even though the danger had obviously passed?

"I don't know," he admitted, in response to both her words and his own internal struggle, looking more bewildered than ever. Then, in a sweeping, billowing movement of his cape, he had gone.

Leaf stared at the spot he had just stood in, pointedly ignoring Frosti's knowing leer. Within herself, she could feel emotion flood through her, sweeping around the icy barriers of impassive coldness. Every breath filled her with a quiet joy, as she realized how incredible it was to live, having been so close to being murdered. And she was immensely grateful for Cobalt's arrival, just as she was utterly confused by it. They were enemies, standing firmly on opposite sides of the law, and they hated each other enough to kill.

At least, she'd thought they did.

"Hey!" An angry voice abruptly broke in on her thoughts. "What are you doing here, you ... you Rocket! No, come back here! Still sneaking around wherever we go, are you? That's right, run away! And quit stalking us with that Gina person!"

"Lightning?" Leaf called, her surprised voice echoing off the blank walls.

"Leaf! Hey, guys, she's here, and she's not dead!" There was a scampering of small feet, and a second later the short blonde had appeared in the kitchen, Peach perched on his shoulder as usual. Looking behind him, he continued to holler. "She's okay, guys, really! And whoa, her Kakuna evolved again? Nice!"

"A Beedrill?" Ocean appeared beside him, staring in wonder at the golden bug. "I still need to catch some of those, that one's a real beauty! Look at those spears, they're like ivory ... oh, hi Leaf. You're okay! Awesome!"

She blinked in surprise as they both jumped on her in a sudden, relieved hug. "Whoa — Aw, thanks, you guys!" she exclaimed, returning their embrace. The memory of Bill leaning over her, knife in hand, resurfaced in her memory, and she shivered as she saw how she might never have seen her friends again. Last seeing them in a fit of sour gloom, hardly caring about anything in her self-absorption ... Knowing how close she was coming to a complete breakdown, she forced herself to change the subject. "And ... Ocean, you don't have a cold anymore?"

"I don't?" He frowned for a moment, sniffed experimentally, and immediately beamed. "Hey, I don't! I guess warm hurricane weather helped fix that!" He pushed back his spiky hair in vain, before striking a triumphant pose.

Leaf just stared. "A hurricane? Am I missing something here?"

"You did." Fire arrived next, his hair incredibly windswept. Unlike the other boys, he was completely drenched: water dripped from his clothes from head to toe, creating an awkward puddle around his feet. "We rode out with Misty on the waves. It was the only way we could catch you in time, even though we didn't." He looked slightly ashamed for a moment before continuing, "But the ride was quite a splash, to use a bad pun. Have you ever seen the skies turn to night-black in less than five minutes? And white waves and thunder were everywhere. It was like being in the middle of a legend." For the first time in possibly forever, a smile that was actually enthusiastic crossed his face.

"I guess," Ocean agreed, shrugging. "Fire loved it. He had his hands in the air like he was on some roller coaster. I never knew he could whoop like that. Ow!" he cried out, as the brunette punched him in the shoulder.

The picture forming in Leaf's head was abruptly shattered by a rather impatient voice.

<I HATE WATER!>

"You didn't have to stay out, I could've recalled you!"

<You'd probably go drown yourself, dear Yoda of mine. Somebody has to keep an eye on you. But it should've been Skipper, dammit, because he likes water. BUT I HATE IT!>

"Stop screaming!"

<I HATE IT! I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE WATER! ALMOST AS MUCH AS I HATE RETARDED POKEDEXES!>

"I heard that!" the Pokedex chastised.

<I HATE IT! I HATE WATER AND I HATE PIPLUP AND I HATE PRINPLUP AND I HATE ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH PIPLUP! AND I HATE WATER, TOO!>

"You don't say."

"Oh, good Arceus, Roark, can't you shut your dinosaur up?"

"I would if I could. Whoa, whoa, wait, you're not bringing that in here, are you?"

"Why not? She can fit. See, look. C'mon, girl, duck your head in. That's it! Just squeeze through the—"

CRUNCH.

"... doorway. Dammit, it almost worked. Sorry, Bill!" Misty's voice seemed to be addressing the house at large.

"Well, this is awkward."

Ocean, of course, snickered at this.

"Oh, it's not too big of a problem. He can afford fixing it, and worse things have happened to this house anyway. Now come on. Maybe we'll find her chained up in a basement or something."

Lightning rolled his eyes as he walked over toward the hallway to see what the others were doing. "Geez, guys, I just told you she was okay, weren't you listeni— HOLY CRAP, WHAT ARE YOU BRINGING HER IN HERE FOR?"

"Protection," Misty's voice replied airily.

"Protection ..." Lightning repeated, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Remember that word, kid," the Pokedex put in smarmily. "Protection. It's the most important thing you'll need after you hit puberty."

"POKEDEX!"

Just then two familiar people with hairs of varying redness stepped into view, both as dripping wet as Fire. Roark appeared first, and he seemed to be limping; a closer look, however, told Leaf that this was due to Anni, who was standing resolutely on one of his feet and gripping his leg as if she would never let go. She looked extremely cross, her dark, rocky hide looking almost black from the moisture she had been exposed to. Misty followed them, looking as if she rode out in hurricanes every other day (which, according to her, she probably did). A large red head with an annoying smile arced its way through the doorway after her, and Leaf recognized it with a start as the red sea serpent which Team Waterflower had used in their entrance.

"Holy ...!" Roark froze in midstride, hazel eyes widening at the sight of the tear in Leaf's shirt. Then he snapped his gaze up to meet her face, horrorstruck. "What happened to you? I thought Misty was exaggerating when ... when she said ..."

Next moment, in a movement so sudden that Anni was sent flying, he leapt forward and grabbed the girl in a hug so tight and protective that for a moment her eyes bugged out, but after a moment she relaxed, a feeling of real warmth, real security, sweeping over her for the first time since the journey's start. To be in the reassuring grasp of a friend ... because that's what they were, she realized, not just celebrity and fangirl, but people with bonds of friendship strengthened by adversity and fate. A broad grin lit her face as she returned his hug, a grin caused by the knowledge she had just seen — although the fact that he had her pressed comfortingly against his chest obviously had something to do with it as well.

The Pokedex suddenly wolf-whistled again, making them stiffen in surprise; somewhere out of sight, Ocean, Lightning and Anni were snickering. Blushing furiously, the two let go of each other in a hurry, pointedly refusing to look at any of the others.

"Well, um ..." Roark stammered awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head as he glanced away. "You're okay, thank Arceus ... death by steel is the worst way to go, you know, and ... er ... you are okay, right? Who did this to you?" he asked suddenly, snapping his gaze back upward. "It was that Rocket who ran out of here, wasn't it? He tried to stab you!" The horror returned to his face as he reached this conclusion.

But Leaf shook her head. "No, it wasn't him, it was—"

A sudden roar made everyone jump; Clefairy-the-Bill was throwing himself against the door-flap in a vain attempt to break out.

"He's trapped," Leaf explained, feeling strangely calm in spite of the fact that she was staring at her would-be killer. What is with me and my random mood swings? "Apparently, he switched bodies with the Clefairy, which is why he's acting like that."

<It's not because she's a Clefairy!> Bill-the-Clefairy spluttered. <It's because of the processes she's undergone, when — oh, I have to explain properly! Pull the lever on the machine, I want to switch out of this awkward female body!>

Everyone stared at her.

"But ... but that's impossible!" Misty exclaimed, shaking her head. "Nobody can put themselves into a Pokemon body, not even Bill!"

"I guess they can now," Leaf said with a shrug, grasping the lever and pulling it towards herself.

A sharp hissing made her jump back in alarm, and they all watched in nervous fascination as an eerie white vapor began to pour into the twin containment units. As their occupants inhaled it, they almost immediately stiffened, eyes wide at some sort of horror that only they could see. Then, in unison, they flopped to the bottoms of the containers, limp and dead-looking. Vapor hung above them in a rather creepy matter, floating like an ominous fog that clouded up the door-flaps and made it impossible to see. A pair of twin knobs on top of the box section of the machine flared with bright blue electricity: one, two, three brilliant flashes of crackling light, followed by a sudden BOOM that shook the entire machine. Lightning squealed and dove for cover at the sudden noise. Then, abruptly, the vapor within dissipated into nothingness, and the sounds of the machine died away into echoes.

All was still.

Cautiously, the visitors peered into the containers, staring for some sort of movement. Then, suddenly, Misty yanked open the door to Bill's unmoving body, ignoring cries of protest around her.

"Okay, Bill, game's over," she said sharply. "I need to have a talk with you. You need to stop endangering people for the sake of your stupid experiments and start using common sense."

Bill's eyelids fluttered, and everyone jumped back, nerves stretched. Leaf watched in anxious anticipation as he slowly crawled out of the containment unit, wondering if he was about to jump up and start attacking people again. As if reading her thoughts, Cheri sidled up to the girl's ear and whispered, <He's no threat now. The only thing we would worry about is the possibility that his soul has been tainted by that other presence.>

"What?"

"HA!"

Everyone jumped again at Bill's sudden outburst. He abruptly collapsed to the ground, laughing his head off manically.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! I DID IT! I ACTUALLY PROVED THEIR EXISTENCES! THIS IS THE GREATEST DISCOVERY OF ALL TIME, AND IT'S MINE! MINE! I AM OFFICIALLY THE GREATEST SCIENTIST WHO EVER LIVED IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE EARTH! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"BILL!" Misty hollered, worry quickly fading to annoyance. "SHUT UP!"

"Hahahahaha ..." Bill's laughter trailed off as he looked up at the circle of people around him. "Ahaha. Ha. Er, ahem. Sorry. Just had to get the triumphant part out of the way, that's all." He got to his feet a bit unsteadily, still grinning. "But really, it is the greatest discovery of all time! Even you'll appreciate it, Misty!"

"Why do I not believe that?" Misty muttered dryly.

"And you ..." The young man bowed to Leaf deeply, before reaching out and shaking her hand. "I'm dreadfully sorry about my body almost killing you, truly I am. But it wasn't actually me who did it." He pointed at the other containment unit, which held a Clefairy who was now pounding viciously against its sides, yowling with rage.

"He really did switch bodies?" Misty asked nobody in particular, looking deeply shocked at this development. "But ... but how?"

"A secret I'll keep to myself," Bill replied, winking. "Don't want those rival scientists stealing my theories, do we? But I guess there are things I need to explain. Over dinner, preferably, since that experiment left me ravenous!"

"Over anything," Leaf agreed. "It's high time I get some answers."



Misty poked the squishy stuff on her plate with revulsion. "What is this?"

"Casserole," Bill replied, as he headed into the hallway. "I must get something. Well, dig in, what are you waiting for?"

Lightning waited until his footsteps had died away before turning to Ocean and muttering, "I'm waiting for it to stop breathing, that's what."

The others nodded in agreement. Seated around a grimy-surfaced table were the six humans, who were staring at the meal which Bill had so kindly prepared for them. The problem was that he could have prepared it ten years ago, so vile-looking was the stuff they were supposed to be eating. Some bowls filled with the unmentionable gunk were sitting on the floor for three Pokemon who looked as if they'd rather eat their own feet first: Misty had returned her red serpent to its Poke Ball, and Cheri had wordlessly withdrawn into a shadowy corner of the room, watching everyone else with glittering ruby eyes; but Frosti, Peach and Anni had opted to stick around for dinner, and were now really wishing they hadn't.

"It's not breathing," Ocean retorted, his face having turned a delicate shade of green. "It's decomposing. But this bit looks almost edible." He hoisted a bluish vegetable-like thing out of the glop with his fork.

"DON'T EAT IT!" Roark cried out suddenly, causing everyone to jump.

But it was too late. Ocean was already chewing the thing, rolling it around in his mouth thoughtfully. Then he gagged, dropping his fork with a clatter and puckering up as if he had swallowed a lemon. With a face that looked as pained as if it were on fire, he spat the thing back onto his plate, where it glistened cheerfully with saliva. Half-choking, he drank his entire glass of water without pausing for breath; then, gasping, he grabbed Lightning's glass and downed that too.

"Hey!" Misty said indignantly: she was sitting on his other side, and he was gulping down her water as well.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Ocean sighed, relieved. Then he looked up and realized everyone was staring at him. "Oh," he said, putting his hand to his mouth. "Sorry. Excuse me."

"You're excused," Fire said, pointing him toward the hallway with a straight face.

Ocean was the only one who didn't snort with laughter at the comeback. "What was that?" he asked, staring at the vegetable thing as if it might jump up and bite his nose off.

"A Rowap berry," Roark explained. "They only grow in Sinnoh, so you wouldn't know about them. They're only the foulest food known to mankind."

"Guess so," Ocean muttered. "'Kay, then, I'm not hungry anymore."

<But they can be very useful in battle,> Anni commented, her eyes growing misty at some memory. <I used one in a gym battle once ... I beat a Piplup. The idiot never saw what hit him.> She grinned evilly.

"I have returned!" Bill boomed cheerfully, swinging around into the room; his abrupt arrival caused everyone to bolt in shock. In his arms he carried a Pokemon with a soft-looking furry coat, his big brown ears twitching forward as he examined the mismatched group with wide black eyes. "And I've brought my dear friend with me, too! I locked him in my room upstairs earlier, in case something went wrong with the experiment ... which it did ... but the point was to keep him from getting hurt, and there I succeeded! Isn't that right?"

<Yeah!> the Pokemon agreed. <Ooh, is that dinner? Time for dinner!> he squealed happily, leaping down from Bill's arms and scampering over to the dish of untouched glop. He skidded to a halt in front of it, looking up at the other three Pokemon as he tilted his head slightly to the side, gazing at them cutely. <You gonna eat that?>

<... No ...> Frosti said slowly.

<Oh goody! More for me, yay, yay, yay!> With a deep breath, the Pokemon abruptly lunged at the bowl, burying his soft face into the unmentionable slime that was supposed to be casserole.

<You're icky,> Peach muttered under her breath. <Cute, but icky.>

The Pokedex chuckled. Sensing one of its usual cutting entries, Leaf hastily shoved it deeper into her handbag, where it muttered mutinously.

Ocean rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking rather like a scheming cartoon villain. "Ah," he said, "an Eevee. Not my personal favorite, but it would still be a good idea harnessing one of them for my collection."

"And shaving it?" Roark asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lightning stared at him. "Why on earth would you shave an Eevee?"

He shrugged. "It's a long story."

Leaf gazed at the cute Eevee in fascination. As she despised fat pink fairies who sang and fluttered around in a mystical yet clumsy way, she had a rather different idea than other girls her age about what was or wasn't adorable. The Eevee definitely counted as cute in her eyes, with his fluffy brown fur and thick cream-colored neck ruff, which bounced slightly as he gulped down the untouchable gunk. His huge bushy tail wagged excitedly back and forth. All in all, the girl found him to be very huggable, like Frosti or Paris.

Paris. She sighed at the thought of the Lapras. How can I face her knowing that I was wrong about her all along?

"Looks delicious, doesn't it?" Bill asked rather obliviously, seating himself between Misty and Fire. "Mm, the day's worked up quite an appetite! I could have eaten the entire casserole!" he exclaimed, lifting a forkful of stuff to his mouth and chewing it happily.

"I wish you would," Ocean muttered, the taste of Rowap still burning his tongue.

"I'm sure it has," Misty said, seeming to prefer conversation to Bill's atrocious cooking. "But really, Bill, you need to set up some limits with these experiment things. Somebody almost died this time. You were lucky that Rocket person was here to set it right."

Leaf could practically hear the boys' thoughts echoing her own: What had he been doing there, anyway?

"What's done is done," Bill retorted, although he still looked rather sorry about the near-accident. "But I can promise you that that was probably the most potent experiment I've ever done. You see, the discovery I made—"

"Aren't you listening?" Misty practically shouted, making everyone stiffen in surprise. "Have you gone completely nuts? Human life is worth a lot more than any idiotic little tinkering with psychics or whatever it is you do—"

"Physics, not psychics!" Bill's face was starting to go red as he returned the gym leader's verbal assault. "Just because two words look the same—"

"Shut up!"

"No way!"

"Why can't you just donate to charities like a normal rich person?"

"I founded most of those charities!"

"You're rich?" Lightning interrupted, surprised. "But this isn't a mansion!"

"This is just my July cottage," Bill explained, smiling at him as he turned away from Misty, who looked ready to strangle him. "I find it quite useful when I want to get away from it all, you know ... and, incidentally, I'm the richest person in the world." He beamed at the stunned faces of the people staring at him.

The blonde blinked at this sudden, random revelation. "But ..."

"That cost several hundred million credits," Bill went on, gesturing at the equipment on the counter. "Managing the PCs of millions of people is very profitable, let me tell you. If only those snakes Bebe and Lanette hadn't snatched Hoenn and Sinnoh from under my nose ... I could be curing cancer right now." He sighed wistfully, gazing at nothing in particular.

"That'd be a hell of a lot better than being the nutcase you are now," Misty said venomously.

"STOP FIGHTING!" Leaf exploded. "I-I mean, this isn't getting us anywhere," she stammered hastily, as Misty and Bill stared at her in surprise. "But if I almost died because of this so-called great discovery, then I want to know what the discovery is."

Bill beamed. "Great! You'll all be fascinated by this!"

Misty sweatdropped. "Oh, no ..."

"For several months now I've been considering the inferred scientific sides to some interesting passages in the Word," Bill began, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial stage whisper.

"What does this have to do with computer programming?" Ocean interrupted, frowning.

Bill blinked for a moment before groaning. "Not Microsoft Word, the Word! You know, the holy book?"

Ocean blinked. "Oh, that Word! Never mind, then. Carry on."

"Yes, well, there are several recorded occurrences of souls leaving the body, only to return later on," Bill continued. "The most famous being Shaymin's resurrection, of course. And people have been arguing about whether or not there's such a thing as a soul in the first place, but I hypothesized that if somebody's life force could return to the body it had left, then I could prove once and for all that they do exist! So after several weeks of intense study I created a theory that if the protons were depolarized in the carbon-fourteen atoms of a living thing's hippocampus, after the decalibration of—"

"English, Bill," Misty ordered.

"Okay, well, to cut it a bit shorter ... if we follow the Word's assertion that the soul is the combination of an individual's heart, mind, and will, then by switching souls with the Clefairy, I've actually proved the existence of the soul itself!"

Fire glanced over at the Clefairy, who was glaring murderously at them from her confines within the machine. "Looking at something like that, it's hard to picture it with a soul," he commented dryly.

"Ah, that's the other thing!" Bill exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "You see, by using that particular Clefairy, I have also proven the existence of the Beast!"

A soft hiss drifted from Cheri's shadowy corner.

"The what?"

"The Beast! You see—" Here Bill dropped his voice to an almost reverent whisper. "The Word contains evidence that a soul is not alone within a body. There is another, somewhat similar force which lies dormant, locked in an unending slumber and helpless against the soul's dominant claim to the body. But — and there are occurrences of this happening in the Word, too — if this other force, this Beast, were somehow awakened, it would automatically seize control of the body."

He paused, grinning as everyone around him clung to every word, mouths wide open in gaping astonishment.

"The Beast would then proceed to enter a destructive rage, or some dark state of mind, depending on the circumstance ... the soul would then be a prisoner in the same way that the Beast had been, free only to watch as its old body wreaked havoc. The Clefairy's Beast was already awake before the experiment, if you haven't guessed that already."

"That's horrible," Lightning breathed, shuddering violently. "But what if more Beasts woke up? That'd be a disaster!"

"Oh, there've been several Beast awakenings lately," Bill said casually.

"What?"

"Of course! Not that you'd know them by that name. Does the Shadow Crisis in Orre sound more familiar?"

Lightning nodded slowly.

A brief image of a news report flashed behind Leaf's eyes, and she remembered the wreckage caused to a deprecated, innocent building by some unidentifiable Shadow Pokemon, its eyes blazing with a terrible fury and a snarl blasting from between bared fangs as a harried policeman forced it into a kennel, the words "Animal Control" painted brightly on its side. "Authorities have not yet determined the cause of these 'Shadow Pokemon'," the newscaster had declared. "Citizens of Orre are warned NOT to approach any Pokemon whose behavior appears erratic or unsteady, but notify the police immediately. Anyone with information concerning the perpetrators, Team Snagem, should contact the police as well ..."

"People think Team Snagem are to blame," Bill went on, as if reading Leaf's thoughts, "but it isn't really so. There's an undercover organization, Cipher, who's responsible for 'closing the door to their hearts' and distributing them via Snagem. And I bet you're wondering how I know this?" He raised his eyebrow at Misty, who had opened her mouth with a determined expression; stunned, she nodded slightly and shut it again. "It's thanks to some pretty awesome radio equipment I set up. I can pick up practically every frequency there is. And that little baby's also the reason how I came across that Clefairy. I overheard a deal that Team Rocket set up with Cipher: they would trade a super-cloned Rattata and Skitty for a Shadow Zigzagoon and Clefairy. I'm guessing that the point of the trade was a way of trading information as well; scientists would have to study the special Pokemon to discover how to create them for themselves. But they didn't expect me to be listening in! I managed to get to the ship carrying the Shadows as it arrived in Vermillion Harbor, and I snatched the Clefairy from right under their noses! From what I picked up on the radio after that, there was some assassinating of representatives for a while as a result, before they finally decided to forget the Skitty and only trade Rattata for Zigzagoon, making their search for expanding knowledge far more difficult! So you see, it turned out all right, really!"

Leaf stared at the Clefairy, watching her as she began to beat furiously against her confinement. I was almost killed by a Shadow.

"And then you switched bodies with the psycho maniac," Misty finished in a flat voice.

"Well ... yes," Bill admitted, looking uncomfortable under her stare. "But I had already theorized that a Beast would cause a Shadow — I'm not sure if even Cipher knows that that's the heart of their whole process — so I was sure that switching would prove the existence of both Beast and soul! Because they're inseperable, you know. So ha!"

He beamed proudly for a moment, then looked rather downcast when he realized that everyone was just staring at him.

"You're weird," Lightning said matter-of-factly.

"Well, you all wanted to know," Bill protested halfheartedly, deflating.

"Bill, I'm going to have to have a serious talk with you," Misty said sharply, pushing her chair back as she stiffly got to her feet. "But not now. We should leave, it's already gotten dark—"

"I have guest rooms!" the researcher said hastily. "Upstairs, you know. You shouldn't have to travel through a storm like this."

A bright shaft of lightning flashed from beyond the window, emphasizing his words.

Misty sneered. "After what happened?"

"Hey, it's all right! The Clefairy can stay locked in there for now, she can't hurt anybody in there. And I'm not going to almost stab anybody, so there, okay?"

The gym leader rolled her eyes, but didn't argue further. Instead she eyed the window nervously, as if worried that a lightning bolt were about to burst through it.

Nobody else had any objections to this plan, as the day had been very exciting, so after their assurances to Bill that they weren't really hungry (a lie, but a necessary one, considering the alternative) he led them back into the hall and up the dusty stairs, arriving at a hall which looked uncannily like the one they had just left. He then showed them their rooms, which were fortunately a great deal less messy than the kitchen; in fact, aside from the unnaturally tidy beds and some scenic windows, they were completely bare.

"I haven't come over to this part of the house anytime recently," Bill confessed, as the others stared into the strangely empty rooms. "I haven't given these any of my amazing personal touch, I'm sad to say."

"And I'm glad to hear it," Fire muttered softly.

"My room's over there, at the other end of the hall," Bill went on, pointing at the door nearest to the stairs. "If you need anything, that's where I'll be."

The Pokedex snickered. Everyone jumped, having completely forgotten it was there.

Physically and emotionally drained, Leaf said good night, headed for her own room, changed into her pajamas and fell into bed, sighing in relief as her head hit the pillow. A real bed ... she hadn't slept in one since the night before her journey began. Already she could feel the tension in her muscles dissolving.

Frosti took up a position near her head, tail draped delicately over the side of the bed to prevent any accidental fires. His small, sharp teeth were exposed in a yawn as he lowered his scaly chin onto his paws, falling asleep within seconds.

<Human.>

Grunting, Leaf glanced up to see Cheri's eyes glittering from the dark corner of the room, hidden in enfolding shadows. A flash of lightning illuminated her figure, and in that brief moment she looked like some sleek creature from a horror movie. "Ugh ..." she moaned, blinking slowly as waves of sleep beckoned invitingly from the depths of her mind. "What is it, Cheri?"

<Being a person with vague yet existing ideas of honor, you must be informed of a particular tradition of my people.>

"Mm?"

<We take a very serious view concerning debts,> the bug hissed. <In owing someone a favor, your very lifeblood cries to us, calling out the truth of the matter even if you deny any unpaid debt. If these debts continue grow in number, its call becomes stronger ... and when three debts have gone unpaid, then we will resist the call no longer.> Cheri paused for a moment, letting that information sink in. Then, in a voice like ice: <You owe me my family, human. You and your friends had enough Pokemon to drive off those Butterfree for at least long enough to allow my people to gather their full strength. And yet you merely stood by and watched as the delicate balance that kept the Forest whole for centuries was shattered in an instant. As a Weedle, I was less concerned about righting wrongs than my people's well-being and whatever horrific fate they may still suffer. But I have grown, human. And I did so to save your life from the Shadow creature. Your lifeblood's call has grown twice as strong now.>

Leaf blinked. "Cheri, I—"

<I'm not interested in your gratitude. It was only for the sake of defeating that Beast, which has no right to awaken. But you still owe me twice over, so tread carefully, human, and be sure to right those wrongs soon. Otherwise ... well, relying on me to save your neck next time would be like goring it willingly on the points of my spears.> She rubbed one spike along the other in a meaningful sharpening motion, creating a soft, yet ominous rasp.

The girl shivered. Suddenly the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees, as goosebumps rippled down her arms. Unnerved, she avoided Cheri's unblinking gaze by burying her face in the pillow ... Whatever happened to my sweet, timid Cheri? ... she slowly drifted into an uneasy slumber, filled with glinting red eyes, a quiet horror of the darkness within, the juicy sound of a spear stabbing into flesh ...



Anni glared balefully at the rain buffeting the window, splashing the darkened pane with drops that blurred the landscape beyond into an unidentifiable mass of greens and grays. Pulling her attention away from the storm, she snuggled closer against her trainer's blanketed feet, curling up into a defensive ball on the blessedly soft mattress. She would have preferred if Skipper had been let out for the night; since the series of earthquakes the previous day, they had hardly seen each other aside from brief, confused glimpses, and she longed for the opportunity to speak with her half-brother again. His departure from the ship had depressed her more than she let on. Now that he had returned, she would do anything in her power to make sure he never left them again.

The thought made her sigh softly, the exhalation for a moment blocking out the sound of the dreaded water pounding on the roof above. In her power? What power? She hadn't been able to to do a thing when Roark had collapsed for whatever harebrained reason. But she was expected to have a solution for everything! She was the oldest, after all. (At least that was one point no one could argue about; a person could hardly deny that having hatched millions and millions of years ago gave her a slight edge as far as age was concerned.) In these strange times they all needed someone to look after them. She wouldn't — no, she couldn't let them down. It was her responsibility. The next time something happened, she would not be caught frozen in shock with a mouth wide open like a stupid Slowpoke.

Beside her, the feet rustled softly in movement. "Anni?"

<Yeah?> The Cranidos spoke in a hushed voice.

"Anni, there hasn't been a quiet moment since the gym. I haven't really had time to think. But I just realized ... something's been nagging at me since then, but I only just ... Anni, why am I here?"

<Oh.> The dinosaur masked her confusion at the question by shooting the trainer a retort, as usual. <Well, I don't know. Nobody knows, really. That's why people came up with religion, you know, to give them some idea about the whole thing.> She put her arms in front of her, stretching them lazily. <Of course, I guess it all started with "In the beginning there was the Egg," and so on. Not that I'm quoting or anything.>

Roark sighed. "Not that, the other thing."

<Oh, that. Why didn't you say so?> Anni returned to the fetal position, basking in the warmth and feeling very comfortable, especially when she thought of the rain falling outside. <Well, I'm surprised your parents haven't told you about it by now. It's awkward to be the one to tell you this, but ... well, it started when your dad met your mom, and they were so in love that they had—>

"No, the other other thing!"

A sleepy blink. <There's another other thing?>

"Anni, I'm talking about why we're in Kanto, of all places!"

The Cranidos rolled her eyes, only to remember too late that in the dark their movement would go quite unnoticed. <Why we're in Kanto? Dude, you know that better than I do, it's for those retarded Contests. And no, I am not doing the dumb twirly thingy in midair. Make Emily do it, not me.>

"I know that," Roark said, ignoring her complaint; he sounded rather on edge. "I remember what we came for, but not why."

<There's a difference?>

"Of course! I don't remember any of my ... of my motivation. It's like I just decided to do this for no reason at all. I mean, I hate Contests just as much as the next guy, so why did I suddenly find them fascinating?"

Slightly unnerved now, Anni shifted her head so that it bumped against her trainer's ankle. <But you're not making any sense. You saw that "inspiring" show thing on TV, and started going all dramatic over how you could see us doing that sort of stuff. Worst Sunday ever in my opinion. I mean, you wouldn't really make us dance, would you?>

A pause.

<... Would you?>

"Anni ..." Roark's words came slowly, thoughtfully, with a forced calm easily audible. "Anni, there hasn't been a Contest on Sunday in three years. Remember, when the Seventh Church of Celebi was protesting that it was disruptive to the flow of religion, so they finally passed a law about it?"

Dimly, the dinosaur caught a flash of memory, a news report consisting of a bunch of green-suited weirdos parading outside a Contest Hall and chanting, waving their signs in the air for all to see. <Oh yeah ...>

"I didn't see any Contest on TV," the miner went on, speaking as much to himself as to his Pokemon. "There was no reason ... was it all in my head? It must have been, but I ... I mean, I thought it was ... it was who I was ..." His voice shook, and he faltered.

<Dammit, Roark, don't start crying again!> Anni growled, although she rested her domed head on his leg to comfort him, negating the sharpness of her tone. <You're not being manly at all. If it makes you feel better, and I don't know why it would, I don't understand this either. All I know is, I don't know how you would've watched any TV, I'd thought you'd been sleeping most of that day. Actually, screw that, I know you were sleeping. We'd been working with the team at the Iron Island excavation, remember? You were pretty damn tired, after all that digging and whatever. As far as I remember, you didn't wake up at all, so you can't have seen any TV that day ... unless ...>

Her voice trailed away as an icy pit of realization settled in her stomach.

"It was a dream?" Roark whispered.

<I guess so. A pretty damn convincing dream, though, if it could move you to come all the way out here, am I right?>

His silence, stretched out on several tense seconds, spoke volumes.

<Yeah, I'm always right.>

"But ... but it was so real! How could I have had a dream that real, and that specific, so powerful that its effects lasted until I fell in the gym earlier?"

<There's a simple explanation for all of this. Drugs.>

"But really, Anni—"

<Or it could've been something else.> Anni yawned, her beak-like mouth wide open for a moment before snapping shut. <Look, I'll try to figure out what this is all about, okay? There's probably more to this that we're just not seeing. I'll need to sleep on it, that's all.>

The trainer released a tired sigh, and Anni patted his feet to help him settle him back down. She had no idea what was going on, or why some dream had invaded her trainer's mind — or why it had stopped when he went into his strange, unprovoked seizure thing. For a moment doubt surfaced in her thoughts, whispering that perhaps this was something too big for her to deal with; but she swiftly pushed it out of mind. I will figure this out, she thought fiercely, a strange feeling of protectiveness gripping her as she glared at the rain, as if daring it to argue with her. I owe it to him.

* * *

Claws clicked with quiet, sharp echoes against the worn stone floor as the tall, scythe-wielding chaotic continued to make his way through the shadowy corridors of his mind. Cobwebs were draped like curtains from the dank, musty confines of the more shadowy corners. Not that there was any true dankness or mustiness — this was literally all in his head — but it was the very lacking of those qualities, the sense that they had to be there, that caused the mind around him to comply to his internal image.

[SugarPesticide]

As he neared another fork in the maze, the heavy echo of footsteps wafted toward him in a choppy series of sound waves. Far from willing to be discovered, the Missing One pressed himself against one of the rocky walls, just as a faintly glowing figure emerged from one of the passages ahead of him. The figure continued to walk mechanically past, not even glancing at the skeletal form of the tense chaotic. His arms hung limply by his sides, trailing twin lengths of night-black chain behind him. Peering at the person's retreating back, the Missing One noted that he had a faint glow about his body, emphasis on faint — from the slouch of his shoulders, the chaotic supposed that this human soul had been captive for several decades, doomed to wander as a slave to the Lord of Evil. Even as he watched, he could see bits of the soul's glow curling off like dew in the hot sun, only to be sucked into the empty darkness of the chains, which were absolutely silent in spite of being dragged over stone.

Confident that this unfortunate soul posed no threat to him, the Missing One waited only a brief moment longer before shaking himself and setting off again, choosing the left-hand passage of the fork without hesitation. On the walls, strange symbols were scattered at various intervals, although they seemed to serve no apparent purpose aside from looking cool. The flames flickered in their brackets on the wall as he passed — something that would never have happened in the physical world, where his mere presence was sure to have adverse effects on such a balance. Torch and flame ... it would later be difficult for an observer to determine which had been which.

Turning a sharp corner, he abruptly found himself faced with a door unlike any that had ever been seen in the physical world: stretching from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, the door looked as if it were gaseous, created of some perpetually shifting blackness that moved serenely in dreamlike spirals. Yet he sensed automatically that this was perhaps the most solid thing he would ever encounter, in any world, any time, place, or circumstance. This was the door that separated him from his other self.

His Beast.

Shrugging off the weight of this moment, he faced the door with a steely glint in his eye. He ignored that this was in fact a mere figure of speech, seeing as he didn't even have eyes in the first place. Instead, he raised his impressive scythes into the air, muttering in a lost, rasping language that seemed to hiss as it uncoiled itself itself from his mouth. With this demonic stance he looked very impressive, even though he had absolutely no idea what he was actually saying. For all he knew, he could be assuring the door that he was really the son of a goat and a molding horseradish.

If so, then perhaps the door approved of strange plant-and-plant-eater offspring, because it soon flickered, winking out of existence and exposing the yawning passage beyond. In spite of the foul, rusty smell that immediately wafted through the open gateway, the Missing One smirked to himself. <This is just too easy,> he said to himself, shaking his head as he stepped almost with a swagger into the narrow hall.

After he had passed, the door quietly reappeared seemingly out of nowhere, but the chaotic didn't look back as he ventured toward the end of the hall. Before him stood a staircase which spiraled far below his feet, extending nearly endlessly into unfathomable depths. Anyone prone to vertigo would instantly faint at the sight of such a thing, descending as far as invisibility.

The Missing One, however, paused at the head of the stairs. He stood there for a moment, thinking, before turning his eyeless glare into the infinite depths and barking out a word in the forgotten language. The air before him shimmered for a moment, like heat in the desert, but as the chaotic repeated the word more forcefully, the staircase consented to abruptly disappear into nothingness, leaving solely a large hole of utter darkness in the floor where it had been. As this was highly unusual behavior for a staircase to exhibit, one might have been surprised to see that the Missing One was unamazed at its sudden departure. On the contrary, he seemed almost disappointed.

<This really is too easy,> he muttered, now ignoring the hole at his feet and staring suspiciously into the darkness beyond. After considering the situation for a moment, he tensed into a crouch, scythes raised, and sprang into the air.

Ironically, he had just made a mistake opposite to that which the Lord of Evil had made upon possessing him. Forgetting that weight was meaningless in the depths of the mind, he had unintentionally applied far more power to his jump than was necessary. As such, he easily cleared the endless hole, flew on for another hundred or so yards, and smashed into the rocky ceiling. Dropping like a fly, he hit the floor painfully, groaning as his vision blurred.

He'd never thought that it could be possible to black out in one's own mind, but, he realized as darkness engulfed him, there seemed to be no other possible explanation ...

* * *

"But Coordinating is good!"

"It was a mistake, okay? I'm not into it any more, or something like that ..."

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Do I look like somebody who'd be in a Contest?"

"Well, actually—"

"Never mind. The point is, I'm not—"

Leaf tore her gaze from the two approaching, arguing boys and turned it instead to the sinuous movements of the far-off tide. It was another very warm day, but the storm had imbued the air with some new, clean, fresh quality. Bill's house lay several hundred yards to the south; its distant form looked even smaller compared to the taller hotels beside it. Behind her clouds still brooded on the edges of the jagged cliffs, but the ocean before her blazed with the joyous light of the morning sun. Standing on the seemingly endless green length of Cerulean Cape, she allowed herself to bask in the strangely intoxicating humidity. The grass beneath her sandals glittered with the remnant moisture of rainfall, and puddles dotted the ground here and there. The water kept sneaking into her sandals and getting her feet wet, but it was hard to feel it as she mentally dissected Roark's revelation.

So. He had been convinced that ribbons were superior to badges, and stubbornly traveled all the way to Kanto to get them. And yet somehow, last night, he'd realized he was wrong. It wasn't this that had shocked her — few sane people really sympathized with Coordinators if they could help it, and she'd been far more astonished when he'd revealed that goal in Pewter. No, what had surprised her was that the strength, the passion for Coordinating had abrupty vanished like dew. It was nothing more than a falsehood.

She frowned as she returned to the memory of his collapse in Cerulean Gym, which she knew had something to do with the unknown woman. The tan stranger had known there was something wrong with his longing for ribbons. What had she said again? "Living a lie ... saving him from himself ... leave a dream like that in someone's brain for too long ..." Was that really all it was, a dream? A powerful, consuming dream to leave the victim aching for something he never wanted, traveling down some dark road of unsatisfied desire until he finally descended into madness?

But ... Leaf rubbed her temples as she tried to put the confusing facts in order. But that was why he came to Kanto, wasn't it? Because of something that some unknown person put in his mind. But who'd want to make him leave Sinnoh, and why? There's too many pieces missing from this puzzle. How did that woman know? What did she do, anyway? And how had she managed to be there at the moment when Roark and Paris had been near each other for the first time?

The thought of the not-shiny Lapras made her falter for a moment, her own heart still broken at the thought that she would never see that smiling indigo face again. It's the same case with me, she realized suddenly, stiffening. I was obsessed with something I never really had ... if I'd found out later than I did, would I have gone insane?

"Oy! Is anybody home in there, hello?"

She blinked rapidly, realizing that Lightning had been snapping his fingers in front of her vision for the last few seconds. Satisfied that he had successfully pulled her from her reverie, the short blonde turned his gaze back toward Roark's retreating back; the miner was continuing to walk along the edge without noticing them, looking overly dramatic against the scenery. He had been very moody that morning, speaking rarely and with unprecedented sharpness. Leaf remembered that the woman had said he'd have to reconcile with himself in light of the disillusionment, but she wished he'd get over himself already. He didn't have to angst so much about it.

Yeah, but you still haven't gotten over the Paris thing, remarked a snide voice within her head. She cringed at the reality of how right it was, and the thought of Paris stung yet again as she remembered how much she'd thought she'd loved her.

Anni, walking alongside him like some cartoonish sidekick, was muttering to him in a low voice, keeping her eyes fixed on him shrewdly as if to make sure he didn't leap off the cliff suddenly. The boy nodded, replying in curt, one-syllable answers. In light of recent events, this additional mystery — how can he understand Pokemon? — was little more than an intriguing sideshow, yet she still wondered fleetingly: I thought Oak said the talent was unusual, but I've met two others with it already. First Cobalt, now Roark ...

"He doesn't understand!" Lightning was almost wailing. Peach, standing on his shoulder as usual, hurried to pat his head reassuringly. "Contests are incredible, all about making dreams come true with lights and drama! Why can't he see that, Leaf, why?"

The Pokedex cleared its imaginary throat. "You know, maybe it's because he's blind? He does wear glasses, the four-eyes—"

"Pokedex," Leaf sighed, "shut up."

"Leaf?"

The two teens and the mouse jumped in surprise, spinning around to see Fire standing beside her. They had absolutely no idea where exactly he had come from, or how he could sneak up like that without even the smallest sound.

"Sorry," he said, grinning weakly. "I probably should've said 'hey' or something ... look, Leaf, you're a much stronger battler than I used to think, and I had an idea that ... well, only if you want to, of course, but I was thinking that ..." He trailed off, looking uncertain.

The pause that followed was undoubtedly intended for one of the others to say something along the lines of "Oh, just tell me what it is," or "Well? We're listening," but as neither of them spoke, the silence fell rather flat.

Realizing that they were waiting for him to continue, Fire plunged on ahead. "So ... do you want to have a double battle against Misty, with me? You don't have to if you don't want to, of course," he added hastily, looking almost shy.

Leaf smiled at his hesitance. "Is that all? Of course, Fire, I'd love to. We can set up a time for this afternoon when she gets back."

"If she gets back," Fire muttered. He was referring to the incident earlier that morning, in which the orange-headed gym leader had left the cottage for Cerulean, claiming that she was going to pick up something for everyone's breakfast (seeing as Bill's idea of said meal consisted of leftover casserole, and he didn't seem to have fully grasped the concept of refrigeration). The teens strongly suspected, however, that this was merely an excuse to get away from Bill, who had been drowning out her scolding lectures on the value of life and other such things by spouting useless information concerning his "wonderful wondrous scientific achievement wonders" and eagerly asking for an honest opinion on these things. Ocean had followed her back for reasons of his own; Leaf was quite sure that whatever made him return had less to do with helping her with breakfast and more to do with getting a better glimpse at Team Waterflower.

The girl knew, though, that Fire's gruff remark was merely an attempt to hide his full gratitude. Giving him a knowing nod, she said, "Well, no need to waste time. Let's get to practicing, shall we?"

Fire actually beamed at her. "Excellent," he said, releasing a Pokemon in the usual beam of red light; the blob condensed into the confused form of his blue turtle Pokemon. "Squirtle, I know we haven't ... got along well, but ... will you fight in the gym battle if we're with Leaf?"

Squirtle's gaze passed from him to the girl, then returned to his anxious face. <If we're with Leaf,> she replied quietly, repressing a slight shiver.

Leaf relayed this message, and Fire nodded to the fearful-looking Pokemon. "Great. Although, Leaf ..." He twirled Squirtle's Poke Ball in his hand, looking at her in concern. "Since this is a water gym we're facing, would you rather wait until later? We can swing back into the city and pick up Paris before—"

"I-I'd rather get the gym over with before I ... I can see her again," Leaf interrupted hastily. "It might be, be better to make up with her in the aftermath, you know? I can always use another Pokemon, and they do need experience." She eyed him nervously, hoping that he couldn't guess her real plan.

To her relief, he merely dipped his head in an understanding matter, which she thought rather ironic — even he wouldn't truly understand what was going through her head. "All right. So that would leave you with a choice between two to use. Your Charmander has an obvious weakness to water, but he does know Sunny Day, which could be a huge help ... then again, your Beedrill can probably hover above the pool's surface, and could use String Shot to really slow Misty's Pokemon down ... it's up to you, of course," he added quickly.

Dragging her thoughts away from Paris, Leaf considered her available Pokemon. She actually wanted to win this battle — and she was quite sure that Wennett wouldn't be nearly as biased as Roark had been. And if they battled that afternoon, the stands would surely be filled with spectators, all eagerly intent on watching every moment of the battle.

Which essentially ruled Frosti out.

"Cheri," Leaf said, releasing the bee Pokemon, "we're going to battle Misty alongside Fire. It won't count as being in your debt again, will it?" she added anxiously, remembering the bug's cold words the night before.

The Beedrill stared at her for a moment, her wings fluttering slightly to create a soft buzzing. Then she glanced away. <No,> she muttered, though her spears twitched ominously.

"In her debt?" Fire blinked, puzzled.

"Never mind."

"Hey, guess what?"

"I don't want to hear it!"

"Don't kid yourself, Naaaarrrrrrrgh. You know you want to. Beedrill, the NINJAS ARE BETTER THAN PIRATES Pokemon. Gender is Female. Gasp, really? Height is Ominous Stringy Alien Thingy, Weight is Dour Flower Superpower. Rhyming is fun, but the look on your face seems to suggest otherwise. Beedrill don't find many things to be fun either, since they're very protective of their territory and tend to stab people who trespass there. They usually attack in swarms, but if a lone Beedrill is injured, it can make its own swarm. Don't ask me how, that's what the data said! I suppose they do it because of weird spiritual power thingies that they might get in their vigorous training or whatever. Or they're just on drugs, which would explain why they're so keen to keep intruders away—"

"Pokedex, stop being weird. Lightning, could you sort of stand out of the way?"

The short blonde jumped, having tuned them out when the conversation stopped involving him. "Huh? Oh, yeah, right. Aha. Sorry." Swiveling around and almost tripping, he skipped to a nearby boulder and sat down on it, staring at them with an intensity that made everyone else sweatdrop.

<Oh, darling, I'm sure you can think up a contest strategy all by yourself,> Peach crooned. Lightning, however, acted as if he hadn't heard her — which he couldn't, Leaf had to remind herself.

"You're freaking me out," Fire told him, looking dead serious.

"Sorry!" Lightning exclaimed, blushing as he looked away.

As the other two faced each other with their Pokemon, something shiny caught his eye — mostly because of the universal appeal of shiny things — and he looked curiously over his shoulder. Peach, feeling his face turn away, glanced around at the cliff face behind them, where an unidentifiable object glinted brightly in the sunlight, sticking out of the rock several yards above the ground. The object was far too high to reach by normal means, although it could probably be reached quite easily by the average Pidgey.

"So she'll probably try to blast Beedrill out of the air—" Fire was saying, when he and Leaf were abruptly distracted by Lightning's shout. With a sigh, he turned around to face the excited blonde. "Lightning, you're really not helping. If you're going to be here, kindly shut up."

"But there's a thing up there!" Lightning explained loudly, jabbing his finger toward it as if he were pressing an invisible button.

Cheri shot him an exasperated look. <Humans have a sad habit of being vague,> she commented to nobody in particular, before suddenly launching herself into the air, wings beating frantically in an almost invisible blur. Before Leaf could open her mouth to question her, the Beedrill had flown to the high-up object, spat a sticky String Shot at it, and soared back with lightning speed, touching the ground with a rather haughty glare. She probably would have looked a great deal more dignified if the white, somewhat moist thread wasn't dripping from her unseen mouth; as if sensing this, she hastily let go of it, and the object sticking to it hit the ground with a soft clack.

With a swift motion, Fire bent down and picked up the strange item from the fast-drying pile of thread. It appeared to be a TM case; the circular disc within could just be seen through the back of its container, which was decorated with soft bursts of color.

Confused at how a TM could conveniently turn up, Lightning felt a twinge of unsatisfied curiosity as he watched Fire and Leaf, who could easily see the words inscribed on its front. "So? What is it?" he asked, sounding rather more demanding than he had intended.

Fire's eyes narrowed in thought. "I think," he said slowly, "this could be just what we need to win ..."

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

The sound of Wennett's voice, unnaturally loud thanks to the acoustics of the gym, roused Leaf from her dazed, humidity-induced state. Shivering in anticipation, she tightened her grip on the Poke Ball in her hand, wondering if Cheri could sense her tension from within. The movements of the pool before her matched those churning inside her stomach.

Beside her, Fire shot her a half smile, which she tried to return. Was he feeling any of the anxiety bubbling in her mind?

"Welcome, one and all! I can tell this is going to be a gripping battle, to say the least! Challengers Leaf McKenzie and Fire Takenaka will fight together against our own gym leader, Misty Waterflower!"

She tried not to glance toward the bleachers, she really did ... but it was as if her gaze was drawn magnetically toward the crowd of spectators, seated in neat rows almost halfway to the high, domed ceiling. Rows and rows of eyes, all watching from a seemingly vast expanse, as if the whole city were watching her. Dimly she noticed Ocean and Lightning near the front, Peach grinning; Bill near them, with his attention torn between the battlers and Team Waterflower, who were sitting in front of him and going through a series of disturbing cheerleader movements; Roark standing, leaning against the side of the bleachers and looking rather sullen, with Anni glaring up at him. Was Cobalt here, somewhere in the stands, perhaps sorry for saving her and now looking for an opportunity to undo his mistake?

"This is a double battle, two Pokemon per side, no switching." Wennett, standing at the edge of the pool directly between the opposing sides, paused to smile at the audience. Then he took a deep breath — the crowd mimicked him, eager for the fight — and declared, "Let the match beg—!"

There was a loud SLAP! as the twin door-flaps suddenly flew open, smacking the walls with the abrupt force. Swiveling around, everyone stared in surprise when a haughty-looking young man strutted into the gym, smirking slightly. His pale blue tunic-like shirt fluttered slightly as he strode toward Misty, who was looking utterly flabbergasted at his appearance. One of his eyes was hidden by his dark blue hair, which was arranged so it fell over his face in a rather cool manner; the other, however, could be seen roving over the audience briefly before locking onto Misty.

Behind him came a small bird Pokemon, half hopping, half fluttering as it hurriedly followed him. Its feathers were such a dark brown as to be almost black, although splashes of white were clearly visible on its face, chest, and tail. A curling crest strongly resembling a cowlick sat above the gray spot on its forehead.

Fangirl screams suddenly washed over the audience as, one by one, people realized that this could only be one person.

"F-Falkner?" Misty stammered, as he approached where she stood. "What're you ... what're you doing here?"

Leaf inadvertently squealed. Fire raised an eyebrow at her.

"What am I doing here?" the young man repeated, more for effect than anything else. "Well, seeing as I have a great amount of talent—" He flipped his hair in an airy way, drawing a collective sigh from the crowd. "—I have managed to defeat my five-hundredth challenger. Quite an achievement. As such ..." Pausing, he withdrew a bluish envelope from within his tunic; its bright gold seal displayed a pair of wings. "As such, I'm inviting you to an exclusive celebration."

Misty stared at him suspiciously. "How exclusive?"

"Super exclusive." He grinned, looking mischievous; the expression drew a great deal of noise from the fangirls, and as such the audience conveniently missed the rest of their exchange. "As in, you might just be the only guest there, if you know what I mean."

The redhead blanched. "What the hell?"

"Oh yes." Grinning wider, he thrust the envelope towards her. "This is what you've been waiting for, and you know it. It'll tell you everything you need to know." A look of stern seriousness crossed his face for the briefest of moments, so brief that the sight of his broad grin a blink later made Leaf almost sure she had imagined it.

Several seconds passed, in which Misty glared defiantly into his leering face. "You perv," she snapped finally, though she snatched the envelope from his hand all the same. "Don't expect me to go through with this!"

He shrugged while looking superior at the same time, which is in all actuality a difficult feat. Then he muttered something to her in an undertone that Leaf couldn't catch; Misty, however, nodded rather distractedly, looking strangely concerned. Intrigued, Leaf strained her hearing, wondering what this could be about—

"LOOK!" the Pokedex exclaimed suddenly, causing Leaf to jump as its voice suddenly blasted from the handbag on the concrete by her feet. "WHO'S THAT POKEMON, YOU ASK? WHY, IT'S STARAVIA, THE—"

"Shut up!" Leaf growled, kicking it further into the depths of her stunning yellow accessory. By the time she had looked up again, however, Falkner was waving serenely at the crowd. The Staravia by his feet glared at the Pokedex for its abrupt outburst; as if catching its expression, the orange contraption snickered.

"Thank you!" the blue-haired gym leader called to them, hardly raising his voice: with the acoustics surrounding him, there was little need to. "I appreciate your support! Come, Mukubird," he added in a dramatic voice, turning to his bird Pokemon. "Let us fly back to the gym. My fans await me."

<Muku!> the bird chirped in agreement, spreading his wings and pushing himself into the air with ease. He then soared directly above his trainer's head, the wind howling wildly about him; as if by some unspoken signal, Falkner raised his hands and grasped his Pokemon's clawed feet; somehow the bird managed to lift him with ease, never slackening his wingbeats, flying with unbelievable speed as they brushed the door-flaps aside with ease, the sounds of the gale fading with them.

Lightning, amid the starstruck sighs of surrounding fangirls, frowned slightly. "... 'Mukubird'?" he asked curiously. "What's a 'Mukubird'? I thought that was a Staravia!"

"It's the name the Japanese know it by," Ocean explained, looking distracted; he had been almost as fascinated by Falkner's sudden appearance as the female population in the stands.

The blonde stared at him. "What do the Japanese have to do with anything?"

"Um ..." Misty's voice cut across whatever Ocean might have said. "Sorry about this, people. Delays are stupid ..."

But Leaf noticed that she had hastily stuffed the letter into her pocket, still looking slightly worried; whatever Falkner had said, the brunette highly doubted that its contents really had anything to do with any "exclusive" celebration. Pondering on his thin, handsome face, she realized with a start that she had seen it somewhere else before ... but no, it couldn't be ...

Wennett, who looked rather flustered at being interrupted at a climactic moment, raised an appraising eyebrow. "Miss," he asked in a tense voice, "why is it that random foreign gym leaders keep appearing seemingly out of nowhere, and for no good reason?"

"I'm not random," Roark muttered sullenly from his position beside the stands.

"Whatever." Misty waved everyone off. "Let's just ... let's just battle, okay?"

Leaf and Fire exchanged glances. There was something odd going on here ...

"Well, alright," Wennett consented, shaking his hair out of his eyes. Clearing his throat, he declared, "Let the match ... begin!"

The audience cheered — though perhaps rather halfheartedly, with its collective mind still wondering at Falkner's random appearance — as the challengers tossed their Poke Balls into the air in unison; Misty launched two of the red-and-white orbs, one after the other, in quick succession, so that the four beams of neon red appeared at almost exactly the same time. Cheri fluttered her wings rapidly as she rose into the air beside her trainer, ruby eyes narrowed, still feeling the hype of their earlier practice. Squirtle, standing on the concrete next to Fire, looked rather wary of both her trainer and the opposition.

A stranger pair of teammates Leaf had never seen: uncoiling in the water was the peculiar red sea serpent which Leaf had laid eyes upon yesterday, although she had not had time to properly examine it then. Its body was mainly scarlet, although the scales along its underside, throat to tail, were pure golden and sparkled as water splashed them almost playfully. Along its back stretched a single fin, pale blue and shimmering as if it were a flame. Beneath each wide, innocent silver eye was an odd gold crescent shape, which shifted slightly as the serpent beamed cheerfully at everyone in sight. Its entire frame, from its smiling head to its lashing, long-finned tail, seemed to radiate happiness and contentment that made everyone relax and smile as well in spite of themselves.

The beast was so large that it was several seconds before Leaf spotted Misty's second Pokemon, until it broke through the surface of the water, floating as it fixed its gaze upon the challengers — a figure of speech, as no eyes could be seen anywhere on its tan, star-shaped body. In the center of its body, where its five appendages met, a strange golden formation sat, boasting a jewel-like core that flickered rhythmically in an endless cycle between brilliant ruby to dim crimson.

Fire uttered a word that will remain unwritten here, seeing as the mysterious person chronicling this adventure does not wish to incur the wrath of those most venomous of all creatures, the soccer moms.

Leaf blinked, startled. "What—"

"That!" he snarled furiously, pointing at the serpent Pokemon, which was still grinning in an extremely annoying way. "I was hoping this wouldn't happen! We can't beat one of those—!"

"Get Beedrill with Rapid Spin, Staryu! Joyfeel, Wrap that Squirtle!"

"Withdraw to protect yourself!" Fire only just had time to shout; the two opposing water Pokemon shot forward eagerly, the star launching itself into the air while the serpent sliced through the water like a knife through butter.

Too stunned by the sudden action to call out an order, Leaf stared as Staryu smashed into Cheri, although it had fortunately only managed to knock her down to the concrete. Glaring at her foe as if it had just made some grave insult, the Beedrill struck back, goring the soft body viciously with each spear. Staryu twitched pitifully as tried to wrench itself from the insect's unmerciful Twineedle. <You're being rude!> it squealed, in spite of having no mouth to speak of.

"Come on, Leaf!" Fire yelled, too intent on watching Squirtle and Joyfeel to even look at her. "You have to be a hell of a lot faster than that! Squirtle, Tail Whip it, try to smack it if you can!"

"Ah—!" Leaf shook herself slightly, pushing all her troubling thoughts out of her head. Only this battle mattered right now. "Cheri, Focus Energy for now, then hit it with Fury Attack when it frees itself!"

"Free yourself, Rapid Spin Squirtle!" Misty barked, as Cheri took a deep breath, her narrow chest expanding as she concentrated. "Aqua Tail, cut that turtle!"

With an almighty yank, Staryu threw itself from the bug's spears; the momentum carried it into the air, and it instantly whirled towards Squirtle, smashing into her. Attention diverted momentarily, Leaf stared as the star pounded against Squirtle's shell; the shy Pokemon had retracted her head and limbs, and her tail was uselessly slapping at the huge beast's side. Joyfeel's own long, red-and-gold tail, tightly constricting the turtle, abruptly came alive with a bright blue glow; water from the pool rose almost obediently, arcing under and over the serpent's tail to pound Squirtle from either side.

Then Cheri, eyes alight with battle fire, buzzed into the fray: Staryu, which had fallen back into the pool after its assault on Squirtle, was taken by surprise as the bug descended upon it — once, twice, three times the spears flashed in florescent light — the star reeled backward in the water, more holes gaping in its body to add to those that Twineedle had left behind. <You're such a rude ... rude person!> it wailed.

"Great, Cheri!" Leaf cheered, actually bouncing up and down slightly. "Harden yourself in case it Rapid Spins again!"

"Squirtle, hit that snake in the face with a Bubble!" Fire ordered shortly; he seemed to be too focused on keeping own Pokemon on the field to congratulate his partner for her quick thinking — at least, that was the excuse Leaf gave herself.

"Recover yourself," Misty commanded, fists clenched. "Joyfeel, keep a tight grip on that Squirtle, but hit Beedrill with your Ember."

Leaf choked. "Ember?"

Fire snarled the unprintable word again. This time, however, the overprotective mothers in the stands were quicker on the uptake, and managed to put their hands over the ears of their fascinated children in time.

Huddled near its far larger teammate, Staryu glowed faintly; the holes in its body slowly became shallower, the gaping wounds swallowed up by healthy flesh. Tensing her muscles, Cheri shot a death stare at the healing star, only to be blasted through the air with a sudden onslaught of small flames — several shining bubbles wafted upwards from one of the holes of Squirtle's shell, through which two terrified red eyes could be seen — but most of the glittering spheres merely struck the Ember flames shooting from Joyfeel's grinning, wide-open mouth, and the rival elements of fire and water canceled out, leaving only slight patches of steam to show they had ever existed. Screeching a very un-bug-like screech, Cheri reeled backward as the fire licked at her slender body with a malicious hunger; even though the flames winked out quickly enough, courtesy of the moist atmosphere of the gym, her lower body had been left blackened and charred.

"I'm guessing this would be a good time for info?" asked a cheeky voice. The Pokedex sat nestled in Leaf's handbag, and were it not a machine, Leaf could have almost sworn it was enjoying itself.

"Obviously," Leaf spat, more sharply than she had intended. "Cheri, land a few Poison Stings on that snake, but don't get roasted. C'mon, you," she added, swooping down without taking her eyes off the scene and grabbing the Pokedex, pointing it at her foes.

"Aha, stupid-looking things. My favorite kind. Staryu, the Cookie Cutter Pokemon. Gender is None. HOLY CRAP EVERYBODY, COME AND LOOK AT THE ASEXUAL FREAK OVER HERE!"

<Hey!> the Staryu protested, wiggling its appendages. <That's very rude! I consider myself to be female, you know! Now stop being rude!>

"Shut up, I wasn't done. Height is Little Green She-Man Who Is Brown, Weight is I Eat Fast Food, Does It Show? Staryu are asexual freaks with weird arm thingies. If you cut them off, they grow back. Speaking of that, I've heard that certain prisoners of war are wishing for that very ability right now, although not necessarily for their arms, if you know what I mean. Also, its red core is kind of like a freakish alien heart, and its glow is a sort of heartbeat. It's easiest to determine a Staryu's health by looking at the core, since it sure as hell ain't easy to tell from the way it heals its freakish asexual body, the freak."

<... I don't like you anymore, rude orange thing,> Staryu sniffed, before getting Tackled by Squirtle, who had somehow managed to free herself from Joyfeel's tight coils.

<Wow! I got hit!> exclaimed an all-too-cheery voice; Joyfeel was staring at the places on its body where several small, spear-induced wounds were dotted. Cheri was darting around it in a hovering circle, looking incredulous.

"It's Recover's helped it!" Fire said hotly, watching the star's core flicker rapidly. "Squirtle, blast that thing with a Water Gun!"

"Counter with your own Water Gun!" Misty ordered. "Joyfeel, Ember the bug!"

"String Shot, Cheri, prevent that Ember!" Leaf cried.

Fire raised an eyebrow, no doubt cynical about how a String Shot could stop the serpent's flames, but the reason was soon made plain: Cheri, the faster of the two, fired a sticky string into Joyfeel's wide-open, smiling mouth, hitting the bulls-eye of its throat. Half a second later came the fire; blocked from its natural path by the impeding string, the flames seemed to be licking the beast's esophagus, for Joyfeel squealed in pain, thrashing its head around while still somehow grinning. Yet this didn't last long — only a few seconds had passed it shook its head rapidly to clear it, before it beamed cheekily at the audience. But this was another mistake: Cheri, not missing a beat, was instantly circling the serpent's grinning muzzle, rapidly firing String Shots as she flew. By the time Joyfeel had realized what had happened, Cheri had already retreated to a safe distance, and the water snake's jaws had been clamped tightly shut with the strings, a muzzle inches thick and already hardening.

<Mmph!> Joyfeel protested, even though it was still smiling underneath the binding strings.

"I know, weird, right? That's the other one, and it's creeping me out. No, seriously, it is. STOP GRINNING, YOU PSYCHO! I NEED TO THINK ... Joyfeel, the Pretty, Witty and Gay Pokemon. Gender is Female. Oh wait, would that make it Pretty, Witty and Lesbian instead—?"

"STOP BEING AN ***, YOU STUPID ORANGE MACHINE!" Misty screamed; her face red almost beyond recognition, she appeared to be more on edge than both of the challengers combined. "MY POKEMON IS NOT A LESBIAN!"

"Humans really don't have a sense of humor," the Pokedex sighed, as Joyfeel splashed uselessly around the pool, glaring at the machine while still grinning. "No wonder the world sucks. With you guys ruling it ... but I digress. Height is Wow, Are You Horny Today?, Weight is Oh Yeah, You Definitely Are. This thing is a damn annoying ******* because it grins ALL THE TIME. Even if it's being tortured. What the hell, I say. Just, what the hell. AND," it added hastily, noticing Leaf's exasperated face, "it's got this uberly annoying ability to heal itself with water. Good luck taking that bugger down, then, if it's in there ALL THE TIME. Also, it's got fiery attributes as well, in case that Ember wasn't a hint. You know what that means, don't you? It's one of those GIGGLY SNAKE DEMONS OF HELL, AND IT'S GOING TO EAT YOUR CHILDREN! RUN! RUN FER YER LIVES, MORTALS!"

Somewhere in the audience came a squeal of fear that could only belong to Ocean.

"I am not amused," Misty snapped at it poisonously. "Joyfeel, can you free yourself?"

The serpent shook her head, whimpering (but still grinning).

"Then let's stop this playing around crap," the gym leader said decisively. "Brace yourselves, guys. This is where the kid gloves come off. Flame Wheel and Swift, no mercy!"

"Yeah? Well, you're not the only one who can wear kid gloves!" Leaf retorted, before realizing how stupid that sounded. "Er ... Cheri, back to the pool's edge, hit the snake with a Secret Power!"

Misty blinked. "Secret wha—?"

"BLAST IT WITH BRINE!" Fire shouted, making both the girls jump. From the sound of it, he sounded rather frustrated himself.

In the audience, Ocean chuckled appreciatively. "That was such an epic voice! It was like a teenage Terminator ... 'blahst eet weeth Breine!' ... that should be on par with 'lieking Mudkipz'."

Lightning stared at him. "You're not making any sense at all."

The spike-headed boy's reply was cut off by the scene on the battlefield: with an almighty leap Joyfeel burst from the pool waters, flame inexplicably erupting from her long fin as she rolled in midair toward Cheri, somersaulting in a flickering wheel of fire; the bug, buzzing hastily toward the concrete, was not fast enough to get out of the serpent's path, and she screamed a dreadful cry as the living circle of fire smashed into her — there was a dreadful crunch as the Beedrill was forcibly sandwiched between concrete and snake — a collective gasp from the audience —

"COME ON, CHERI!" Leaf cried out, surprised at the force of her own volume. "STAY IN IT, GIRL, DO IT NOW!"

From underneath Joyfeel's body, as the flames abruptly died down, a twitching, pencil-thin black leg protruded ... Filled with pent-up emotion, Leaf choked back a sob as she reached for her Poke Ball ... Joyfeel beamed at the audience triumphantly, satisfied that her foe had been vanquished.

"Ouch, that must have hurt!" Wennett's voice seemed strangely far away. "Sorry, Leaf, but your Beedrill has fain—"

A muffled, ominous buzzing cut him off, and the next second found everyone gaping, openmouthed, as Joyfeel was thrown into the air, twisting and squealing in surprise. With a sudden, jerky movement, Cheri leapt to her feet; she swayed dangerously, and her ruby eyes were tiredly half-closed, but there was a determined twitch of her spears as she launched herself into the air, wings buzzing frantically. There was a collective "ooh!" from the audience as something that looked like pink lightning leapt from the concrete beneath her and up onto her small black feet, quickly engulfing her in a blinding, brightly colored glow that sizzled and crackled.

Joyfeel, realizing what was going on, flailed in midair in a useless attempt to avoid the oncoming attack, but Cheri would not be deterred: there was a bright flash as they collided, and Joyfeel unleashed a horrible yowl from her clamped jaws: the lightning had leapt almost gleefully to the snake's body and was slicing through her thrashing coils in a rather hungry manner. The Beedrill immediately fluttered out of the way, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, as her narrowed eyes followed Joyfeel fall back to earth, smashing into the concrete with a loud SLAP and a soft whimper.

"B- ... Beedrill has not fainted!" Wennett exclaimed, his surprised voice almost drowned out by the raucous cheers of those in the stands. "And what an amazing comeback, paralyzing Joyfeel like that!"

Joyfeel, twitching as her muscles seized up painfully, raised her head and shot Cheri a glare and a glowing Ember; but the motion was so agonizingly slow that the bug avoided the flames easily.

"YES!" Leaf yelled, actually jumping for joy and ignoring everyone's confused stares as she did so. "Great, Cheri! Finish her with Twineedle, you've got this one in the bag!"

As Cheri swooped down at the hapless serpent, Leaf frowned as a faint noise reached her ears: the buzzing emanating from the bug's wings, already magnified by the acoustics of the gym, had increased to an even greater volume, as if an entire swarm of invisible Beedrill had joined Cheri in the fight. The girl rubbed her eyes and stared at her Pokemon harder — it had to be the chlorine in the air, she told herself: surely she was only thinking that there were ghostly, insectoid shades surrounding the bug as she dived — and that faint, warlike drumbeat, she had to be imagining that, too —

But there was no imagining the almost blind ferocity of Cheri's onslaught: there was a dual flash of spears, another terrible muffled scream, and Joyfeel recoiled as blood spurted from the fresh, gaping wound in her side, staring at it in a strange sort of delighted horror.

"Keep at it, Cheri!" Leaf called, but there was no need to say so: Cheri had already leapt at the serpent again, her spears dripping red.

"DAMMIT!" Misty hollered, her face now bearing a startling resemblance to an overripe tomato. "Joyfeel, try to get it with Ember! Staryu, Water Gun her to heal her!"

"Not likely!" Fire shot back. "Intercept that, Squirtle!"

Tearing her gaze away from her Pokemon's seemingly mindless bloodlust, Leaf turned her attention to the other half of the pool, which she had almost forgotten in the excitement of Cheri's struggle. Whatever happened over here had left both Staryu and Squirtle bobbing about in the water, looking exhausted. Staryu, its body once again bearing the marks of battle, half-heartedly unleashed a Water Gun, which spurted from its topmost point toward its teammate; Squirtle, however, leapt weakly into the air, and the burst of water smacked into her instead. As she hit the pool's surface with a splash, panting heavily, Leaf noticed that the water seemed to be churning beneath her tired body ... and almost immediately Squirtle fixed her gaze upon her foe, her eyes glowing an unnatural neon blue.

"Excellent!" Fire, Leaf was startled to see, was actually smiling. "Exactly what we need! Squirtle, finish it off with Brine!"

<Here it comes!> Squirtle announced in a strained voice, opening her mouth wide ... as if a dam had burst within, a sudden flood of water spewed from her jaws, its acidic stench mingling with the chlorinated air as it rushed towards the tired foe; Staryu yelled indignantly as the rush blasted it right out of the pool.

The people in the stands stared in awe as the flailing, rubbery star Pokemon flew towards them.

"Whoa!" Ocean breathed in awe. "A shooting star! I should wish for something, right? What should I—?"

SMACK!

"Mmph ... I wish it would get off my face."

"Here," Lightning said, grabbing at the star with both hands and pulling as hard as he could; after a few moments, there was a loud and disgusting sound rather like a plunger at work, and Staryu flopped down on Ocean's lap, dripping.

<You're all ... so ... rude ...> it muttered, the core in its center flickering feebly, before its appendages drooped and it lay still.

"Staryu has fainted!" Wennett shouted, peering at the star. "Would you toss that to me, gentlemen? I need to check, to see if it's really — OOF! Yes, it's definitely fainted."

Misty made a strangled sort of noise as she recalled Staryu. "Dammit," she said again. "Joyfeel, stay in this! Ember, Twister, whatever you can do, do it and do it now!"

<Wow! I'm hurting a lot!> Joyfeel groaned happily, her words not immediately distinguishable. Out of the water, the serpent looked a great deal less majestic and more awkward. Stabbing twice again, Cheri seemed to be working herself into a bloodthirsty frenzy, eyes glowing with an eerie red light. Waving her tail about weakly, Joyfeel whipped up a small blue tornado, which whistled in the air for a moment before smacking into Cheri, tossing her around in the air for a few moments; this seemed to only heighten the bug's fury, however, as the tornado eventually dropped her and she immediately stabbed the serpent with even greater vigor.

"Alright, Squirtle, you're tired, but we're almost done. Help Beedrill now, Tackle Joyfeel until it's out cold!"

The blue turtle shot her trainer the briefest of glares before turning her attention back to the situation at hand, her rapid swimming tearing through the water swiftly, spray flying from her feet as she kicked. Launching herself out of the pool, she smacked at Joyfeel's scaly body with her head, leaving a rapidly forming bruise: only a fool would deny that Joyfeel couldn't hold out much longer.

<Wow, I'm really tired,> Joyfeel murmured, eyelids fluttering. In a feeble, last effort to hold her own, the serpent blew a few tiny, flickering flames out of her nostrils, but these only hit Squirtle, who didn't seem to notice them at all. As the twin spears gored her hide once more, and the rock-hard skull smacked against her scales, the great serpent shuddered, stiffened, and lay her head on the floor.

The stands erupted into cheers. Leaf, her ears ringing, blinked and turned to stare at the people standing there, all staring at the scene as they applauded ... they were on her side, she realized, on her side from the start ...

"And Joyfeel has also fainted!" Wennett had to strain his voice to be heard over the tumultuous noise. "And with a stunning two-zero victory, Leaf and Fire win the match!"

Fire, beaming at everything he could see, recalled Squirtle as he waved triumphantly. Shaking her head briefly to clear the ringing in her ears, Leaf glanced over at Cheri, who was standing triumphantly in a pool of blood — Misty had wordlessly returned Joyfeel while Wennett was speaking. Making a mental note to heartily congratulate her Beedrill, Leaf smiled proudly as she aimed the Poke Ball at the bug, who disappeared in the usual beam of red light. Returning her attention to the audience, whose members were now starting to get up and stretch, she caught sight of the familiar faces gazing back at her: Ocean grinning, water still dripping down his face; Lightning with a rather strained smile, as he was edging away from Ocean; even Roark had dropped his gloomy matter and was now beaming, though he had pressed himself further into the side of the stands in order to avoid attracting attention from a group of people who were obviously fangirls, since they were chattering excitedly about Falkner as they passed his hiding place.

And then — Leaf did a double take, blinking in disbelief — she caught sight of the strange, tanned woman, sitting calmly amid the sea of moving spectators and staring directly at Leaf. She didn't seem to be upset at being spotted; on the contrary, her mouth stretched into a smirk that the girl could easily see from the pool's side.

Her again! Leaf pressed her lips into a thin line. All her worries and uncertainties, blissfully lost in the tide of the battle, suddenly came flooding back in a rush at the sight of that tan face. I'll have to get some info out of her somehow. Well, she'll have to wait, I've got to find Paris first. She doesn't look like she'll be leaving anytime soon, anyway.

"You did great," came Misty's resigned voice. Slightly startled, Leaf turned to see the gym leader standing next to Fire and herself; although she still looked flushed, most of the tomato-red color had drained from her cheeks. "I haven't had such a badass fight in ages. So, here're the Cascade Badges — yeah, here they are — and also some complimentary TMs."

Leaf stared at the shimmering blue badge as it was pressed into her sweaty palm. Shaped like a large water droplet, it threw the florescent light back at strange angles; with the humid moisture in the air giving it an extra-shiny appearance, she could almost imagine that it was a real raindrop, its shape preserved as if by magic. The TM's case, decorated with a large globe of sparkling blue water, boasted the words "TM03: Water Pulse" on its front. Tearing her gaze from it, she picked up her handbag and shoved the items into it, ignoring the Pokedex's indignant muttering as she pushed it slightly to the side in doing so.

And now, she thought grimly, heading towards the door at the far side of the gym, time for Paris.

[SugarPesticide]

"It's time for fun and time for cheer ..." sang three young women merrily as they cartwheeled past Leaf to the door, where one of them swung the door open and they all stood there, grinning at her as she approached. "... Because Team Waterflower's here!"

Next second, an enormous blue shape had burst from the room beyond the door and barreled into Leaf, who let out a pained "OOF!" as they hit the concrete together. Rubbing her throbbing head, Leaf squinted against the brightness of the lights on the ceiling to see that Paris was sitting on top of her, positively beaming.

<Mommy! You came back!> squealed the Lapras, bowing her head down to nuzzle Leaf's face. <I was waiting so long, I thought you were never gonna come, but you did! Where'd you go, Mommy? Why couldn't I come?>

"Urk," Leaf gasped. "Hi, Paris. Can you get off me? You're squishing me."

<Oh, sorry!> the Pokemon giggled, and she leapt off at once, gazing at her trainer with adoring eyes as the girl slowly and painfully got to her feet. She had grown again in her absence, Leaf noted: the top of her horned head was now midthigh.

"Oh, Paris," Leaf sighed, scratching the Lapras's head. "You're growing up so fast, I can't carry you in my arms anymore! Although," she added pensively, catching herself, "I wouldn't have, anyway ..."

Paris cocked her head to the side, staring at Leaf cutely. <What do you mean, Mommy?>

Just do it, Leaf told herself, meeting the turtle-like Pokemon's black-eyed gaze. Get it over with. You knew this was coming.

But she's so young! Another voice near the back of her mind stirred. What if she can't handle it? Even if she could, what'll she do? It's not worth risking that just yet, is it?

You still have to deal with it.

She trusts you with her whole heart! How can you betray that?

It has to be done. You knew that from the moment you first saw the second skin in the pool.

But she loves—

Do it! NOW!

"Paris," Leaf began, then paused, frowning. How was she supposed to go about doing this?

<What?>

She wrung her hands, trying to find the right words. "P-Paris, I ... look, there's no easy way to say this, but we know both know that you're not the Pokemon I thought you were. You never were, really. It was all a lie, a big, fat, stupid lie, and I was selfish enough to lap it up, and ... I don't want my stupid selfishness ruining both of us in the long run. That's not the way a real friendship would work. So, what I guess I'm trying to say is ..."

The Lapras followed Leaf's hand with her eyes as the girl plucked a Poke Ball from her belt. Though her heart hammered painfully at the thought of what she was about to do, Leaf forced herself to continue, and Paris's curious smile died at the fatal words:

"I'm releasing you."

* * *

Author's Note: Info on Joyfeel
Joyfeel
Type: Water/Fire
Classification: Cheer Pokemon
Height: 19'04"
Weight: 387.6 lbs.
Ability: Water Absorb
Egg Groups: Water 2/Dragon
Gender: 50% male, 50% female
Color: Red
Catch Rate: 60
Evolution: ??? --> (max Happiness) --> Joyfeel
A Pokemon that evolved against all odds, Joyfeel is the absolute opposite of its pre-evolution. Like Gyarados and Milotic before it, it is a powerful water serpent which evolved from a weak and pathetic fish. It is constantly smiling and always partly happy, no matter what the rest of its mood might be comprised of. They are shy Pokemon rarely found in the wild, but they are said to be attracted to feelings of great happiness: often, during celebrations on a waterfront, beautiful jets of their flame can be seen flying from the water's surface into the sky, like fireworks.

[Sinnohdragon]

Die, fiend, die!
Really should have been Die, phiend, die! I think.

The way you've included shadow Pok&#233;mon in this is really interesting. Having never played XD i'm glad you covered the basics otherwise i wouldn't of had a clue what you were on about. And the soul thing...Nooo! You got there first! I had something like that coming for my fic which is taking an incredibly long time to revive itself. Oh well :/

Also, where can i buy a Pok&#233;dex like that? I want one. Now.

And did you see how long that chapter was? It takes up nearly an entire page! Are you trying to break the world's chapter length record?

Keep up the good randomness Its very entertaining.

EDIT: I thought of more comments!
1. I feel sorry for Paris.
2. Bill is a freak.
3. Falkner's been taking tips from Wallace.
4. Cheri scares me.
5. Can i have a list of details on Joyfeel so i can draw it please?

[SugarPesticide]

How did I not see the fiend thing? *fixes*
Also, as an unrelated side note, I just realized I referred to Staryu as a "her" at one point. >_> *fixes that too*

LOL, of course it takes up nearly a page, the page is new. Although it is a three-post chapter, so ... XP

Also, where can i buy a Pokédex like that? I want one. Now.

Leaf: You could have mine ... if the author would just let me ditch it ... *glares at the Pokedex*
Pokedex:

Bill is a freak.

You are awesome for saying this.

Ooh, you're drawing Joyfeel! Yayz. *VMs description*

[roo]

lol i have been keepin up with your chapters. It was just due to my laziness to respond >,>. But the randomness is great. I thoroughly enjoy reading each chapter and I will comment on one note. Your writing has improved since you first started which is always a plus needless to say randomness is good but try not to overload your chapters which it as well.

~roo~

[kingferret53]

I canNOT believe Leaf done that to Paris. What a *****. Excuse my language of course.

It was quite good, happy I'm FINALLY caught up. Whew. *wipes off sweat*

[SugarPesticide]

I swear I meant to put this up AGES ago. XP
Also, note that all grammar errors during the undoubtedly ugly chat sequence were INTENTIONAL. Kay? Good. (I'm pretty sure I'm not breaking any rules by using a chat sequence in the first place ... >_>)

* * *

Chapter Sixteen: Hello Goodbye (The Woes of Ketsuban! Paris's Tears!)

She hadn't meant the words to be so loud, honest to Arceus, but Leaf's voice rang ominously in the air long after she had closed her mouth. Paris, frowning in confusion, opened her mouth to say something, but two voices cut her off unceremoniously.

"WHAT?!"

There was a loud series of slapping sounds as twin pairs of feet pushed against the concrete floor; next moment somebody seized Leaf's shoulder forcefully and spun her around, and she jumped slightly backward when she saw how close the two people were. There are many differences between an anti-cheerleeder and a vagabond miner, yet Leaf was astounded at how similar the outraged looks on their faces were.

"Are you insane?" the two yelled in perfect unison; in any other situation it could have been comical. "You're releasing her? She's just a kid, for the love of Mew! What do you think you're doing, releasing her? And stop talking when I'm talking!" they added, turning to snap at each other now. "I've got the right to scold her, not you!"

The Pokedex chose this moment to snicker annoyingly.

"Shut the hell up, Roark!" Misty snarled, shoving him with enough force to send him staggering backwards a few steps. "I'm the one with authority to make sure no water Pokemon is abused. Especially not in my own gym! I'm the fricking foremost water expert in Kanto! Damn, Leaf, I actually thought you had good judgment for a while!"

Roark scowled back at her. "No way, Misty, I'm dealing with this. I've got a heck of a lot more right to, anyway!"

The girl sneered. "Says who?"

"Says me."

"Oh, that makes so much difference! Not."

"I'm the trainer of the Lapras's dad!"

"... Screw you."

"Leaf," Roark said, turning to the brunette and grabbing her shoulders as Misty sullenly withdrew a few paces, "Let me get this straight. You have a powerful, rare, beautiful, even-tempered, agreeable Pokemon that a lot of people would kill for. Your care is pretty much all she's ever known. You've raised her from an egg. She's closer to you than to her own father. And you're planning to release her."

The girl nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

His grip tightened at her nonchalant tone. "'Pretty much it'? Do you even care?"

"I used to. But it's hard to care for something that turns out to be worthless."

His eyes practically bugged out of his head. "Worthless? Were you listening at all to what I just said?"

"Well, duh. But she's brought loads of chaos and confusion into my life because of her supposed worth. And if it was all for nothing ..." She gestured toward Paris, whose huge black eyes were filling up with tears. "Then the cause is pretty much worthless, isn't it? All the pain with none of the reward."

"She didn't do anything."

"She didn't have to! If it wasn't for her — well, I guess we'd all be in a better situation. We wouldn't be stalked by that Cobalt guy, Pewter City wouldn't have flooded, I wouldn't have been almost gutted by a Shadow—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the cart there!" He let go of her shoulders, and Leaf, after her initial confusion at his impromptu miner lingo, spotted some sort of curiosity sparking in his eyes. "Did you just say something about a 'Cobalt'?"

"Yes." She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "A Rocket admin, I think. Following us because Paris here wasn't anything like what everyone thought she was! The one sure way to ditch him is to ditch her." She pointed at the Lapras, whose lower lip was starting to tremble. "Why, do you know of one?"

"Know of one? Leaf, I am one!"

I am one! rang the echoes of his voice, striking against the walls like a sudden slap in the face.

"Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun!" the Pokedex said dramatically, before chuckling.

Then there was a moment of dead silence, aside from Paris's sniffling.

"You're ..." Leaf began, but she broke off, staring at him as if only seeing him for the first time.

More silence. They became acutely aware that people were staring at them.

Suddenly—

POW!

"UGH!"

"That's right!" Leaf snapped, watching Roark reel backward from the force of her punch, clutching his jaw. "Get away, you two-faced *******! Everything you've been telling us was a complete lie, isn't it? You only dropped your criminal look to get closer to Paris!"

"Leaf ..." Lightning's voice drifted from somewhere to her left.

But she wasn't going to just stop. Not when she was on a roll.

"Honesty never occurred to you at all? Of course not, not when all of this was just a pack of lies, lies, lies! It all started with Paris showing up, and then this damn pit we dug just got deeper and deeper! Well, there's no way you're climbing out of it now!"

"Leaf—"

"Shut up, Lightning! No wonder you wore wigs, I'd know your stupid girl hair anywhere! And to think," she added, wearing an expression of utmost disgust, "I actually believed you ... believed in you ... you were my fricking idol! And then you just go and—"

"Leaf! Listen to me!" Lightning ordered, coming seemingly out of nowhere and shaking her. As she was about a head taller than he was, this arrangement was incredibly awkward. "Roark isn't Cobalt! At least, not the Cobalt we know. He was with us when the actual Cobalt ran out of the Bill's cottage, remember? Unless there's some weird time paradox thing going on here, there's no way he could've been in two places at once!"

The girl blinked slowly as common sense caught up with her. "Oh ... yeah. But," she protested, trying hard not to look at the rapidly forming bruise on Roark's jaw (her fist throbbing painfully at the sight), "b-but ... why'd he say he's Cobalt, if he's not? That doesn't even make sense!"

Somewhere out of sight, Fire sighed. "Honestly, Leaf, did you never pay any attention in History?"

"It's not like there was ever anything to learn," she retorted, and was rewarded with the sound of the boy facepalming.

"Enough of this." Roark, massaging the site of injury, fumbled at his belt with his free hand. Righteous anger sharpened the edges of his face. "You will NOT be releasing her, do you hear me?"

Leaf shook her head. "I'm sorry, Roark, I've made my mind up. I just can't keep her on my team anymore."

He didn't need to respond; the expression of utmost disgust conveyed everything he couldn't say. Without a word, he tossed a Poke Ball into the air; a hulking, monstrous shape appeared in the usual beam of light, and a second later Skipper stood crouching there, looking around in confusion. Then he caught sight of Paris, who had started to sob quietly, and his small orange eyes, widening in sympathy, darted to his trainer's face to Leaf's coldy determined air, to the Poke Ball she held in a death grip.

Who said brains never come along with brawn?

<No,> he breathed. Then, with a suddenness to elicit shocked cries from the innocent bystanders, he lunged at Leaf. <NO!>

Her eyes widened and she dropped her handbag: even when she had first seen him lying injured on the beach, an unknown figure, he seemed incapable of causing real fear to her; yet now, as his eyes flashed dangerously and his broad paws flew at her with terrifying force, she felt the age-old survival instinct rise up within her: Save yourself!

She only managed to throw herself to the side just in time: the powerful rush of Skipper's movement whistled ominously above her as his great blue bulk flew through the space she'd been standing in only a second before. There was no time for relief, however, because in the next moment she toppled into the nearby pool with a loud SPLASH! The echoing noises died away for a moment as her head disappeared beneath the water, her long hair drifting about her face in a ghostly manner; but with a great heave she pushed herself half out of the water, gasping for air. Taking a deep, rejuvenating breath, she pushed her hair out of her eyes with her free hand and looked up.

The sudden sight of twin glaring orbs almost made her inhale the pool water.

<That's my daughter,> Skipper growled, in his softest, most dangerous voice. Dimly Leaf registered the soft sounds of muffled crying drifting from somewhere behind him. <She's only a little girl. I trusted you to take care of her, and—>

But his words died into a furious roar: Leaf, trying hard not to listen to a word he was saying, hastily smashed the Poke Ball against the concrete poolside, and a long, dreadful crack instantly split it down the middle; Skipper lunged for the sphere but it was too late — the two red-and-white halves were knocked from her hand, glowing red as they spiraled through the air. The red light extended from the Poke Ball halves in a line connecting, presumably, to Paris, for the neon-bright thread disappeared out of sight beyond the mighty Swampert, who stared at it in horror. Then there was a great flash: the red turned abruptly to an eerie bright blue, then faded just as suddenly. The remnants of the Poke Ball exploded into dust an instant before hitting the chlorinated water; they sparkled on the surface almost cheerfully, as if approving of the girl's actions.

A poisonous silence descended on the scene, broken only by the soft lapping of water against concrete and the persistent hum of florescent lights. Skipper stood frozen, dismay still distorting his broad features; even Paris was quiet, the shock having cut off her sobs. Leaf, bobbing up and down gently, was surprised at her own daring. For a second there I actually thought I might crack under Skipper's pressure! Lucky I kept my head!

A soft whooshing sound, like someone blowing up a tiny balloon, broke the awful quiet. Glancing up, everyone blinked in surprise to see Paris floating up in the air on another Return-heart, which somehow seemed smaller than the previous ones. Her huge dark eyes, welled up with tears, pleaded silently, helplessly.

<Please, Mommy ...>

But the girl shook her head, cutting off the rest of her final plea. With a wail of anguish, the Lapras whooshed over the pool, flying haphazardly on the heart-shaped hovercraft, which tilted dangerously one way, then the other, ignoring Skipper's protests ... and as the Pokemon burst out through the double doors, Leaf had a strange thought: The heart ... was it shrinking?

A sudden howl made her jump: as the giant Pokemon bounded past, his heavy paws causing the floor to shake slightly, Skipper's open mouth poured out every iota of aching pain in his heart, the wordless, indescribable sorrow of watching his daughter fly off abandoned, disheartened, alone ... The mournful sound echoed against the walls, even after he had rushed through the doors and out of sight. Anni, who had been unnoticed by anyone until this point, carefully scampered him, doing her best to ignore the sounds of the small waves. It didn't seem to occur to either of them that they could never hope to catch up.

"Stupid," Misty muttered venomously; her voice was quiet, subdued, and yet in the tension stretching tautly in the room, it was easily heard. "What a stupid, pointless release. You could've just given her to someone else here, Leaf. She'd be happier."

"She didn't seem to want to go with any of you, did she?" Leaf replied, perhaps more snappishly than she had intended. "Anyway, let her go. If she'd rather be facing the world on her own than choosing another trainer, that's her problem, not mine."

With a great huff she heaved herself out of the pool, dripping wet. In spite of the warm humidity wrapping around her like a shawl, she shivered with cold. My sandals are ruined, she thought dejectedly. Damn. I was hoping they would last me longer.

"Awwwwwwww!" Team Waterflower cried out, sounding cheesily sympathetic.

"How sad!"

"Too bad!"

"I'm sure not glad!"

"And look! Depressed was her poor dad!"

Violet giggled. "You're smart, Daisy!"

"Stop being happy!" Lily shot at her blue-haired sister, pushing her. "This isn't a happy time, you goose! We have to be all sad and mournful and et cetcetcetcetcetera! That poor Dewgong's just been released!"

"You're the goose!" Violet retorted. "Because that wasn't a Dewgong!"

"Yeah!" Daisy chimed in. "It was a Kyogre, duh!"

Leaf heard somebody muttering softly. Trying to tune out Team Waterflower's bickering, she turned her gaze toward Fire. "What?"

He didn't look at her. "I said, I wanted to be a better person. I wanted to be more like you ... but how can I believe that caring for people and Pokemon is right, when even the model for my new behavior can throw that philosophy aside like yesterday's trash?"

"But Fire, it's better if—"

"What, it's better if you abandon her when she's got nowhere to go? Is that what you honestly believe? Because even before Mount Moon, I — the old me — never would have needlessly thrown a Pokemon away. But I guess it doesn't really matter to you what I think, does it? ... I'll see you around, Leaf." But the look on his face was at odds with that last statement.

"Fire—"

He turned, ignoring her protest, and walked stiffly toward the door. Ocean watched his retreating back for a moment, then turned his disappointed gaze at Leaf.

"He's a weirdo," he said, nodding as if she was agreeing with him on that, "but he's got a point. Seriously, Leaf, even when she wasn't shiny ... although, she was never shiny really, but you know ... HOW COULD YOU?" he exploded suddenly, leaping forward at her and grabbing at the hem of her jeans. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, LEAF? I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! A DISGRACE! A SCANDAL! A HOLY MACKEREL SCANDAL, I THINK! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR COMMON JUDGMENT, OR HAS IT GONE OFF TO THAT BIG POKEMON COLLECTION IN THE SKY?"

"SHUT UP!" Misty hollered at him, turning beet purple in annoyance. "Daisy, Lily, Violet, do something useful for once in your miserable pom-pom-filled lives and get him out before he gets an aneurism!"

"But I like all this drama!" Lily pouted, her lower lip protruding slightly.

"We might as well," Violet sighed, "or the poor thing could hurt himself. Come on, let's get him."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the spiky-haired boy howled as the three girls dragged him away; Daisy actually had to hug his head to her chest, and pulled him so hard that Leaf wondered if his neck would break. "I DEMAND JUSTICE! WHERE IS JUSTICE WHEN YOU NEED IT? YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS ABOMINABLE ABOMINATION, LEAF, I SWEAR BY EVERYTHING IN AND UNDER AND OVER THE EARTH AND SKY AND OTHER STUFF! YOU'LL GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU SOMEDAY! Ooh, boobies. YOU CAN'T GO UNPUNISHED FOR THIS, SERIOUSLY, I WILL COME AT YOU ONE DAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WITH MY AWESOME URSARING AND EVIL BLISSEY AND OTHER GUYS! I DON'T CARE IF I DON'T HAVE THEM RIGHT NOW, I WILL ONE DAY, AND ONE DAY YOU'LL REPENT OF YOUR MISERABLE CRIME OR ELSE—"

"I'll need to follow them," Misty muttered, looking thoroughly disgusted at the idea. "Don't want any crowds forming on account of the Amazing Shouting Spikehead ... When I come back," she said more loudly, turning a cold gaze on Leaf, "I'll be hoping that a certain brunette will have left this gym for good! Because if I see that certain brunette's face here again, then she'll get a good idea of what happens when you piss me off by abusing water-types on my own turf! You see where I'm going, Leaf?"

"What is with you people?" Leaf began heatedly, and made a face when Misty rolled her eyes and walked away without another word. "Don't you get it? This was the only way that made sense! She was like a ... a cancer, or something! Getting rid of her was the only way to make sure me and my team didn't curl up and die—"

"Well," Lightning suggested, rubbing the back of his blond head awkwardly, "I'm guessing it had something to do with you abandoning her. I mean, it was out of nowhere, and she really, really liked you ... maybe, if you wanted to do it so badly, you might have broken it gently to her? And even given her to someone, I dunno. It was all just kind of heartless, I think."

"Darn straight," Roark snapped.

The two kids jumped; they had, after Skipper's release, completely forgotten he was there. A mere human, after all, is hardly interesting after a gigantic mudfish has threatened somebody with his sheer power. Or something along those lines, anyway.

"Isn't there enough pain without us adding to it?" he asked quietly. One of his gloved hands held a strangely carved stone necklace similar to Anni's, and he was looking at it rather philosophically; the other was clenched so hard into a fist that it shook with his restrained rage. "Why can't anyone learn from history's stupid mistakes? It's like no matter how many times we hear about cruelty and heartbreak—" He tore his unfocused gaze from the necklace and fixed Leaf with a death glare. "—We just keep on adding to it, over and over again ..."

"Yeah," Leaf said, in that floating tone which one uses when they aren't listening at all. "Well. Okay. Cheer up Skipper, won't you? He looks awfully down right now. Take him for a walk, that should get the depression out of his system ... maybe skip off into the sunset afterward, that'll probably work, too—"

He took an extremely deep breath; his chest swelled in compliance and Leaf, recognizing the symptoms of somebody about to launch into a furious tirade, hastily racked her brains for something to say to cut him off.

"Well, why should you protest?" she said waspishly. "It doesn't exactly affect you, am I right? Oh, you can angst about it all you want, but just because something's quote-on-quote 'moral' doesn't automatically make it the right thing to do!"

"Yes, it does! Does the word 'conscience' mean anything to you?"

"I could ask you the same thing, if that's the way you wanna be. It's rich that this lecturing and everything is coming from the guy who practically chucked her dad overboard when he was on a mothertrucking boat!"

There it was: the one thing she could have said to send his darkening mood careening over the spectrum to settle maliciously into black again. More cutting ways existed, of course, but this was the only one she was really aware of.

"Yeah," he muttered sullenly, squaring his shoulders against some internal pain. "Yeah, I did, for the same essential reason you abandoned that poor Lapras. But that was a sudden, spur-of-the-moment thing that I never would've done if I'd been thinking clearly. You can't know how much I regretted it afterward ... all the hours I spent looking over the rail, hoping I'd see his shape growing on the horizon ... Anni wouldn't speak to me for three whole days. And you know what? She was right not to. What could she have said that I hadn't already told myself? It was one of those things you can't go back and fix, and that gnawed at me. But at least I realized, even though it was painful, that what a Pokemon looks like doesn't change who they are! At least I still had enough love for him to stop myself from breaking his Ball!"

"You know, you four-eyed geek," interrupted the Pokedex (sitting serenely in the fallen yellow handbag, as usual), "I was actually taking you seriously until you said 'breaking his Ball'."

"Shut up, Pokedex. But dude, these are completely different Pokemon we're talking about here. You've got a strong bond with Skipper — well, naturally, 'cause he's your starter. If you get to really know him over the years, you can't really just send him away without feeling down, right? But Paris was just a devious little minx without a—"

"She's just a kid!"

Leaf gave him a despairing look. "You just don't get it, do you? I'm going to leave now, because you're just annoying me. I am so over you. And by the way, when I said you had girl hair, I meant it, so there!"

"... What?"

But she had already spun around on her heel, snatched her handbag off the floor, and marched toward the exit in a rather superior way. People these days, she thought to herself bitterly. They just can't understand the little workings of these things, can they ...

Had she been less preoccupied with herself, she might have noticed the strange tanned woman still sitting silently in the stands, closely watching the girl's haughty movements. As she gripped the edge of her seat, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, glinting — for the briefest of moments — with an almost metallic sheen.

On a less mysterious note, Lightning seemed torn between trotting after Leaf's retreating back, and sticking around with an utterly confused and frustrated Roark to shake his head in utter disbelief at the girl's behavior. After a few moments of looking back and forth between them, he finally compromised by falling backward into the pool. Needless to say, Peach was less than amused.

* * *

Cobalt watched her go.

He was fairly confident that nobody could see him — only his head stuck out from behind the giant, statuesque Dewgong — and so felt assured that he could focus completely on the girl's retreating back without having the awkward premonition that some six-year-old waddling through the surrounding park would point up at him and exclaim, "Look, Mommy! Santa Claus uses Dewgong now!" Of course, it also helped that her spike-headed friend had been dragged out those same doors by the three sexy Waterflowers only a few minutes earlier, hollering at the top of his lungs about betrayal and justice and psychotic Minzuba, whatever the hell that was, and thusly distracted the attention of the nearby civilians from his general hiding place. But still, he liked to chalk up another one for his rad spy skills.

Remembering what had flown out the door even before the spike-headed maniac, he tried and failed for the twentieth time to wrap his mind around what was going on. The Lapras is NOT shiny, he kept telling himself, as if pounding the fact into his mind with the hammer of repitition would lodge it there permanently. The Lapras is not SHINY. The LAPRAS is not shiny. THE Lapras is not shiny.

His thin lips pressed into a frustrated line. Of all the ways that his mission could have been thwarted — Gina's comparative incompetence, Severus's and Mew's attempts to kill him, the unlikely possibility that the girl might defeat him — this was at the bottom of the list. Actually, "a vampire pterodactyl swooping down and chomping the Lapras to bits" was at the bottom of the list, but he was pretty sure he could discount that one.

<Weird Hair Guy?> Phlash slithered down from the top of the striped dome, claws clicking against the roof.

"Eh?"

<Why are we on top of a magic tuba that doesn't work?>

He didn't bother to reply.

<The Lapras was blue,> Phlash commented unnecessarily, climbing on top of his bewigged head (today a white, spiky thing which further helped him camouflage behind the Dewgong).

"I kn—"

<DA-ba-DEE-da-ba-DIE, da-BA-DEE, DA-ba-DIE, DA-ba-DEE-da-ba-DIE, da-BA-DEE, DA-ba-DIE, DA-ba-DEE-da-ba-DIE, da-BA-DEE, DA-ba-DIE, da-BA-DEE, DA-ba-DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE...>

Several poetic allusions could be made to describe the quality and volume of Phlash's voice, but there was no need for any: across the street, several apartment windows and car windshields shattered in protest. A dog somewhere howled in pain.

"You're not taking this seriously, are you."

<YO LISTEN UP, here's a story about a lil' girl that lives in a blue world, and all day, and all night, and everything she sees is just BLUE, like her inside and outside, blue her house, wit' a blue lil' WINDOW—>

<You have issues,> commented a passing Starly.

"She does, doesn't she?"

<I was talking about you.>

<—and a blue Corvette, and everything is blue for HER, and HERSELF, and everybody around, 'cause she ain't GOT! Nobody. To LISTEN, to LISTEN, to LISTEN, to LISTEN, I'm BLUE—>

"Thanks so much." Cobalt put his face in his hands. "Ho boy, what am I ... what the hell am I gonna tell the Boss?" He peeked through his fingers at the panorama of the glimmering city before him, looking melancholy. "We're not gonna find the runt anytime this decade ... the scale'll only produce another normal Lapras with some weird oddity, undoubtedly."

<—DA-ba-DEE-da-ba-DIE, da-BA-DEE, DA-ba-DIE—>

"And it won't fly with him that the Lapras just isn't shiny anymore. He expects more of me, dammit. The only thing I've got going for me is that Severus is safely behind bars, the freak. And the Moon Stone bits, obviously. And the one I stole from PMS. And breaking a city and a mountain, maybe indirectly, I don't know—"

<You just proved my point,> said the passing Starly who was suddenly no longer passing, as she had just landed on the Dewgong's finned tail.

<—I have a BLUE house and a blue windoawwwww, blue is the color, of all that I WEAAAAHHHH—>

"Kindly shut up," Cobalt sighed. Through his fingers he idly watched the girl's short blond friend dart out of the gym, glance around wildly, catch sight of her just before she had turned out of sight, and follow her at a gamboling run. The ugly little rat was still sitting on his head.

<You're strange,> the Starly commented. She tilted her head to the side as she looked at him; as her head was roughly half the size of her body, she nearly toppled from her perch, and hastily fluttered back upright with a surprised chirp. <Did you know that's a very nice wig?>

He blinked. "How'd you know? It's very realistic, I made sure of—"

<It's that Phrygoil on your head,> the Starly explained, pointing her orange-and-black beak at said Phrygoil. <With all her scrabbling around, it's almost fallen off. The wig, I mean, not your head.>

"DAMN IT!"

With incredible speed the admin reached up and adjusted it back into place before his hair's proper color and style could be described; the movement unseated Phlash, who landed on his shoe with her claws extended.

"OUCH!"

<Sorry!> Phlash squealed, while Starly chuckled at the weasel's psychotic grin. <Can I go and eat somebody's foot now, Weird Hair Guy? I haven't eaten in ten whole minutes! How about yours, it's got tough skin on it, I can't puncture it even the littlest bit, it'll be fun to gnaw on!>

"Phlash," Cobalt said sternly, still breathing hard from his extremely abrupt movement, "feet are not something you can eat."

<But what if I wanna eat them?>

"You can want the moon to be made of green cheese, too, but that's sure as hell not happening, is it?"

<Er ...>

Cobalt raised an eyebrow at the Starly. "Yes?"

She shuffled her feet a bit awkwardly. <Um, I'd like it if ... boy, that was a bit abrupt, wasn't it? But ... er ... you know, since people without exciting lives don't usually sneak around on gym rooftops ... and it'd be cool traveling across the land, you know ... can I ... er—>

"Join me?" Cobalt finished the stuttered question for her.

<Yes!> She exhaled in relief, gazing at him hopefully.

"I've already caught one of you a long time ago," the young man snapped coldly, resting his chin on his knees. He really didn't have time to think about things that didn't pertain to his mission. Perhaps — he tapped his chin diabolically as his mind spun into action — if he suggested to the Rocket scientists that only the indigo-inducing chromosome, if it was a chromosome, was included while they—

<But I insist!> the bird pouted, flapping her wings frantically. <I really, really do! Because I—>

"No," the admin said flatly.

Starly sighed. <Mm. So you'll be stubborn about it, I see.>

"Indeed," Cobalt agreed, turning away. "Phlash, get off my shoe right now or I'll—"

<LLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII—>

Cobalt and the psychotic Phrygoil nearly fell off the roof in surprise; the sheer shrillness of Starly's unending call, coupled with the roll of her L, was positively brain-breaking. Grabbing at Dewgong's flipper to save himself, the young man grit his teeth in agony. The noise seemed to drill through his skull like some sort of malevolent mutant migraine.

<—IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII—>

He didn't have to look: it seemed obvious that everyone within earshot — a range probably extending to the Pewter ruins — was undoubtedly staring curiously in his direction. His face flushed with exertion and extreme embarrassment.

<—IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII—>

"FINE, I'LL CATCH YOU, JUST SHUT UP, DAMMIT!"

<Yay!> said the Starly cheerfully, who for some mysterious reason wasn't out of breath at all.

Cringing slightly, he pulled himself up to his original position again. "What," he demanded, rubbing his temples, "what in the name of bloody hell did you just do?"

<I dunno!> The Starly sighed again. <Nobody else in my flock could do it. And it was annoying them a tad, so one day they ... er ... they left me behind.> She hung her relatively enormous head. <I've been alone for ages.>

<Why'd you fall, Weird Hair Guy?> Phlash asked, cocking her head to the side curiously at him as she sat on his knees.

He gave her The Look. "You just heard why, Phlash. Geez."

<Yeah, but a little noise shouldn't make you fall out of the sky,> the Phrygoil said. <That'd be like saying a little patch of green on a burger could kill you. Don't be silly like that.>

Cobalt blinked. He ran the recent conversation through his head again, focused on the necessary portions, and saved a lot of further headache by deducing what had just happened. "It wasn't a loud noise," he thought aloud, scratching at his hand.

<Exactly.>

"But I thought it was loud."

<Did you?> the Starly asked. <That's odd. My flock just kept complaining that I was buzzing.>

"... You're serious."

<Yes. I don't remember it bothering anybody else ... except, I think ... we were flying over this mountain one time and this medititing Meditate — I mean, meditating Meditite — he was throwing rocks at me and told me to "stop that gosh durn noise, y'hear, 'ts allergy season 'n' I don' recken I wanna go in wif a migraine".>

"Really."

<Yeah.> Her feathers rustled softly as she ducked her head down to clean a brown-black wing, looking embarrassed. <The flock ditched me pretty quick after that. I've been all alone ever since.> She gave him a wide-eyed gaze which was probably meant to look cute.

You know, Cobalt mused to himself as he looked back at her bright white face, almost shining against the darkness of her body, she really, really looks like a cat when she does that.

<But I guess I won't be alone anymore!> the bird chirped, looking significantly happier at the idea.

"Yeah," Cobalt agreed, nodding vaguely. "Sure. There're some things you need to know, though, if you really want to join my team. We're in Team Rocket, for one thing. If you haven't heard of us, you need to get out more. And we steal stuff. And sometimes we do death-defying spy stuff. And. Um. That's probably it."

The Starly nodded, a jerky, bobbing movement.

"Right, Starly, so if you're okay with—"

<Rae.>

"You have a name, then. Sort of like how Phlash told me she did, too, when she tortured me into catching her."

The bird nodded. <You had to persuade him too, huh?> she asked her soon-to-be teammate, in a rather long-suffering way.

Phlash beamed, exposing needle-sharp teeth that glinted happily. <Yeah. But he was really good about it once he stopped twitching.>

<Really? What did you do to him?>

<Barney.>

Rae gasped in a scandalized yet eager way. <No.>

<Yeah. You shoulda heard him scream!>

<Ooh, was it a fat-opera-woman scream?>

"'Kay, girls, I draw the line when it comes to me screaming," Cobalt interrupted decisively. Plucking a Poke Ball off his belt, he twirled it idly in his long, thin fingers. "I've got my pride to think of, you know."

Rae rolled her big eyes good-naturedly. <Got the enormous male ego to protect, you mean.>

"Yeah, that's r— ... Hey!"

<Liiii!> the Starly laughed, a sweet, piping sound which bore no resemblance whatsoever to the banshee screech she had unleashed minutes before. Spreading her small wings, she leapt into the air, twirled around for a second or two, and fluttered down, gently tapping the button on the Poke Ball's front; the red-and-white sphere split for a brief moment to absorb the dematerializing Pokemon.

PING!

<I love that ping,> Phlash commented dreamily. <Ping ping ping ping.>

Sticking the ball back onto his belt, Cobalt turned his gaze to the glittering waters beyond the straw-yellow grass of the park, in a rather better mood than he had been in to begin with. Maybe the Boss would be in a more forgiving state of mind when he got in contact with him again. And even on the off-chance that he wasn't, how important could a single Pokemon really be, when you got right down to it?

He'll have to promote me, he assured himself, letting his tensed muscles relax. He can't not promote me. I've proved myself over and over again that I'm as good an asset as any to his Team. Better, actually. If he doesn't respect that, what can he respect? I'm the—

He froze.

There, gliding over the strip of tan beach stretching endlessly to the left and right, was the creature. Its almost invisible form rippled as it moved smoothly, gracefully, yet with a speed that couldn't be fully appreciated at this distance. He blinked, and for a moment he slipped into a curious uncertainty — how had he even known it was there at all? It was so far away ... But the excitement of spotting it again quickly resurfaced, pushing his doubts into the uncharted depths of forgotten memory.

It.

He'd scrambled clumsily to the top of the obnoxious-looking dome before he realized that he was moving at all.

<Weird Hair Guy?> Phlash asked, still clinging to his hapless shoe.

"Eh?"

<You're weird.>

He shrugged, then leapt off the roof in a manner reminiscent of a superhero. The wind ruffled his wig as it whistled shrilly in his ears, and that would have been the last sound he ever heard if he hadn't been aiming for that nearby tree.

Crack! went several small branches as he tore through them before finally grabbing hold of a sturdier limb. Almost instantly he let go; he would catch up to it if it was the last thing he did, and a mere detail like falling out of a tree wouldn't deter him in the slightest from his goal.

The Hunt was on.

* * *

Damn stupid noobs.

Misty scowled for what seemed like the millionth time that day as she flung the door open, tramping into the waiting area after flinging the door open. Wennett, standing serenely behind the counter as he organized the shelves of souvenir shirts, jumped as the heavy door banged into the wall, hitting into the dent that was already in it. He'd noticed the dent had been getting a lot deeper lately.

"This is ridiculous, Wennett!" Misty complained hotly, gesturing in an annoyed manner as if she were addressing the entire room. "The stupidity of these morons is just mind-boggling! What is so hard about having ordinary common sense? I mean, do people even give a damn if their IQ goes spiraling down the drain?"

"Er ... it's a possibility, miss," Wennett answered carefully.

Misty, not listening to him, stormed over behind the counter as well and shook of the mouse of the ancient computer sitting atop it; the machine blinked back to life with a rather tired whirring. The blond referee, somewhat terrified of the gym leader's explosive temper, hastily put away the rest of the shirts in his arms and excused himself, pushing aside the door-flap into the gym as he went, presumably, to mop of the mess of Joyfeel's brilliant blood.

The girl hadn't even reached the website when he stuck his head through the doors again.

"Roark's still in there, miss," he told her in his usual sycophantic way. "Would you like me to—?"

"Let him stay." Misty didn't even take her eyes off the screen.

"Yes, miss." He nodded and withdrew into the gym again.

Misty sighed. She knew perfectly well she had another battle scheduled to take place in only about two hours, but she couldn't toss Roark out, quitter or not. Especially in wake of what had just happened. She thought of how it would sound: Oh dear, looks like your Pokemon just had his treasured daughter heartlessly abandoned, how terrible, but you should really get out or I'll send you blasting off. Hahaha, NO. That was the sort of thing Leaf would do. Her fingers paused on the keyboard as the girl's name popped into her mind again. And she calls herself a trainer. What I wouldn't give to take her Cascade Badge and confiscate it! she snarled to herself. That'd teach her something, damn right it would!

Sadly, it couldn't be done. League rules explicitly stated that gym badges, given directly from the authorized leader, immediately became the legal property of the recipient. She couldn't take the badge back any more than she could set fire to her own gym.

What a pity.

Sourness still staining her mindset, she began to type.

~

* Sarcasm_Flower has joined #leag
<karatekid> hello
<Sarcasm_Flower> Hey
<karatekid> have a good day
<Sarcasm_Flower> ...
<Sarcasm_Flower> Hell no.
<karatekid< oh sorry :(
<Sarcasm_Flower> Stupid noobs again
<karatekid> but im sort of a noob :(
<Sarcasm_Flower> Yeah
<Sarcasm_Flower> Maylene, right?
<karatekid> yes this chat thing is weird
<Sarcasm_Flower> That was random, but okay.
<Sarcasm_Flower> It's better than televised conferences
<Sarcasm_Flower> More up-to-date too.
<karatekid> so you talk about stuff thats happening
<Sarcasm_Flower> Pretty much
<karatekid> yeah but ive been on for 7 hrs n no ones come
<karatekid> i beat a gible today :)
<Sarcasm_Flower> Good for you.
* Waves has joined #leag
<karatekid> it was a realy big gibel
<karatekid> i mean gible
<karatekid> it was like whoa!
<Waves> Like sup, guys?
<Sarcasm_Flower> Hey Brawl
<Waves> That's BRAWLY to you
<Waves> That's, like, how it is.
<karatekid> it came up and tryed to BITE MY LUCARIL
<karatekid> I MEAN LUCARIO
<karatekid> sorry caps
* Godbrother has joined #leag
<Waves> Like, did you try punching it Maylene?
<Waves> You're a fighter expert, so
<karatekid> but y would i punch it caz lucario was fightin it
* Alexander has joined #leag
<Waves> -_-
<Sarcasm_Flower> He meant that you tell Lucario to punch it
<Godbrother> Yeah. FOR THE POWER!
<karatekid> um
<karatekid> what
<Waves> A punching move, dude
<Waves> So you can, like, hang ten in battle.
<karatekid> what
<Alexander> It's not like it even matters.
<Sarcasm_Flower> Gible don't live in the water, Brawl :/
<Alexander> Why does anyone even give a crap?
<Waves> That's BRAWLY to you
<Waves> ...
<Sarcasm_Flower> ...
<Sarcasm_Flower> LMAO
<Waves> That was NOT groovy
<Godbrother> XD
<Godbrother> Nice.
<Sarcasm_Flower> Brawl is crap hahaha
<Waves> Brawly to you
<Waves> And I'M NOT CRAP
<Godbrother> XD
<karatekid> wait what
<Alexander> This is SERIOUS business. Not this LOLOLOLOL junk.
<Godbrother> LOL Brawly
<Waves> Rhis is SRS BZNSS
<Waves> This
<Sarcasm_Flower> Spelling fail.
<Godbrother> dammit I busted a gut XDDDD
* Circleoflife has joined #leag
<Alexander> It wasn't even funny. Can't you take anything seriously?
<Waves> No.
<Circleoflife> HOLY SMOKES ITS COMAERGMIOPAERMGOIVABNMIO[ABMNIO[REMBMBK;AW
<Sarcasm_Flower> ?
<karatekid> wait what
<Godbrother> ...
<Waves> o_o
<Godbrother> Blaine, you okay?
<Circleoflife> OH JUST A BIRD
<Circleoflife> I THOUGHT IT WAS COMING BACK
<Alexander> Turn off the caps.
<Circleoflife> sorry.
<Godbrother> You're alive :]
<karatekid> doesnt everyone wanna hear abot the gible
<Circleoflife> but I've been keeping that chaotic from killing everyone on the island.
<Sarcasm_Flower> :O
<Waves> Run fer yer lives dudes!
<karatekid> does that count as stuf thats happenin
* EspeMetagross has joined #leag
<Sarcasm_Flower> No duh.
* Salem has joined #leag
* lefthandofdarkness has joined #leag
* righthandoflight has joined #leag
* Mind_Over_Matter has joined #leag
<Waves> o.o
* Not_So_Serious has joined #leag
<Alexander> ...
* PrismaticMoon has joined #leag
* LiveonaPrayer has joined #leag
<Waves> wtf?
<Sarcasm_Flower> Trust all the psychics to log on at once -_-
<Godbrother> XDDD
<lefthandofdarkness> We sensed that something
<righthandoflight> big was going down
<lefthandofdarkness> so we turned up to help
<righthandoflight> and try to turn it around
<Godbrother> o0
<lefthandofdarkness> dark times are ahead
<righthandoflight> and things are gonna get rough
<Alexander> This is stupid.
<lefthandofdarkness> but you can count on us
<righthandofdarkness> cause we know our stuff!
<LiveonaPrayer> ^ What they said.
<Sarcasm_Flower> ???
<Mind_Over_Matter> This had better be good
<Mind_Over_Matter> I had to stop BEFORE the cliffhanger.
<Salem> The butler did it.
<Mind_Over_Matter> What?
<Salem> It's principle that the working class always has the opportunity to dirty their hands more than aristocracy.
<Salem> QED
<karatekid> but wat about the glible
<EspeMetagross> We should all just try to relax.
<EspeMetagross> Breathe in ...
<Mind_Over_Matter> It wasn't a mystery
<Mind_Over_Matter> It was a
<Mind_Over_Matter> er
<EspeMetagross> Breathe out.
<Mind_Over_Matter> a thriller
<karatekid> gibles r scary i think
<Mind_Over_Matter> with a romantic subplot
<Mind_Over_Matter> very erotic really
<Sarcasm_Flower> It was Twilight, wasn't it.
<Waves> Wha?
<Godbrother> XDDD
<Mind_Over_Matter> NO IT WASN'T
<Mind_Over_Matter> IT WAS STEPHEN KING'S LATEST ONE
<Mind_Over_Matter> SOMETHING ABOUT DEAD BUNNIES
<Godbrother> THAT SPARKLE AMIRITE?
<Alexander> TURN OFF THE CAPS DAMMIT
<Salem> Romantic SUBPLOT?
<Godbrother> XDDD
<karatekid> it bit my lucaril
<Not_So_Serious> Edward's hawt.
<Not_So_Serious> I mean
<Waves> o_____0
<Not_So_Serious> THAT'S WHAT MY SISTER SAYS
<Sarcasm_Flower> ...
<Sarcasm_Flower> YOU spelled it that way.
<Godbrother> XDDD
<Not_So_Serious> But I wouldn't know since
<Not_So_Serious> I haven't read it anyway, so.
<Circleoflife> Is anyone listening?
<Salem> You've been sneaking it off her desk at night
<Salem> I know these things.
<Circleoflife> The chaotic ...
<karatekid> but lucariou kickd it i think
<EspeMetagross> We are currently in the lotus position.
<righthandoflight> Yes we are.
<lefthandofdarkness> Yes we are.
<Waves> Will, you are, like, psycho.
<Not_So_Serious> Thank you ^_^
<Not_So_Serious> But I still didn't read it
<Not_So_Serious> AND EDWARD'S NOT HAWT
<Not_So_Serious> >:O
<Sarcasm_Flower> It's worth going through all the league qualifications just to watch all this.
<PrismaticMoon> Amen.
<Salem> I agree with you Will
<Salem> even though you're lying to save face
<karatekid> then gilbe lost a tooth lol!!!!!!
<Salem> but that bloodsucker doesn't have two testosterone cells to bang together.
<Not_So_Serious> I'M NOT LYING
<Not_So_Serious> AND I ALREADY HAVE A FACE
<Not_So_Serious> SO CUT IT OUT K?????
<Alexander> Caps are the tool of the invalid.
<Circleoflife> Hello?
<Circleoflife> The chaotic
<Salem> Everyone KNOWS you're lying.
<Mind_Over_Matter> >_>
<Waves> Oh yeah, sup Blaine.
<PrismaticMoon> I'll get their attention.
<Circleoflife> THANK YOU
<Not_So_Serious> I'M NOT LYING
<Not_So_Serious> I SAID IT BEFORE
<Not_So_Serious> AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN IF I HAVE TO
<EspeMetagross> Remember to keep your back straight
<lefthandofdarkness> It is.
<righthandoflight> It is.
<Salem> Will's back is the only straight bit about him.
<Not_So_Serious> IS NOT
<Not_So_Serious> YOU'RE BEING VERY PREJUDICED ANYWAY
<PrismaticMoon> THE CURSE OF DEAD SOULS ON THE NEXT PERSON WHO TOUCHES A KEYBOARD WHO IS NOT BLAINE AND REMEMBER, I CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN.
<Circleoflife> Thank you Morty.
<PrismaticMoon> No prob ^_^
<Circleoflife> Listen everyone, remember that glitch living here on Cinnabar who eats people who get too close to it?
<karatekid> wats a glitch
<Sarcasm_Flower> A chaotic
<Godbrother> A creature formed from the irregularities of the universe who enjoys spreading disorder and confusion.
<Sarcasm_Flower> My definition was better :/
<karatekid> sounds like a gilble
<Circleoflife> Yes, and it's Missingno, a very strong one.
<Circleoflife> Until now, it hasn't bothered us much as long as we don't disturb it.
<Waves> But it, like, spun you a rogue current and started attacking people.
<Circleoflife> How did you know???
<Godbrother> You said it before.
<Circleoflife> Ah.
<Circleoflife> Well the fact is I can't overpower it.
<Circleoflife> It's too overpowering
<Godbrother> Need backup then?
<Circleoflife> That would be crucial to our survival, yes.
<Godbrother> Why didn't you say so before?
<Godbrother> I'll head in and check it out.
<Circleoflife> Thank you!!
<Circleoflife> Can you fly in immediately?
<Circleoflife> Only it'd be a good idea if you didn't land directly on the island.
<Circleoflife> It seems to be bending reality so it might be better if you had control over how you reached the island.
<Mind_Over_Matter> Why haven't we seen this on the news?
<Salem> The aforementioned reality-bending, probably.
<Circleoflife> Exactly. News helicopters keep turning to jelly.
<Circleoflife> I think it's jelly, anyway.
<Circleoflife> Might be Slowpoke brain
<Mind_Over_Matter> Okay. I might be able to come, I've got a free weekend.
<Salem> Once you've finished Twilight, at least.
<Mind_Over_Matter> -_-
<Godbrother> No, I should be all right alone
<Godbrother> I'm not champion for nothing!
<Circleoflife> But it's very strong, Warren
<Godbrother> So am I :p
<Sarcasm_Flower> *coughegocough*
<PrismaticMoon> Let's all pray for Warren that he survives, everyone.
<Salem> I don't pray, there is no god.
<PrismaticMoon> Always the realist :/
<EspeMetagross> Return to your original position.
<EspeMetagross> Oh, another challenger. Adieu.
* EspeMetagross has quit #leag
<lefthandofdarkness> We must go now
<righthandoflight> for we have seen all there
<lefthandofdarkness> is to see for today
<righthandoflight> and the spiritual forces from
<lefthandofdarkness> beyond call us for sessions
<righthandoflight> to better ourselves and become
<lefthandofdarkness> one with the universe
<righthandoflight> and each other.
<lefthandofdarkness> Not to mention that
<righthandoflight> it would be prudent of us
<lefthandofdarkness> to determine whether the
<righthandoflight> chaotics of Hoenn have also
<lefthandofdarkness> decided to wreak havoc on
<righthandoflight> the helpless mass of humanity.
<lefthandofdarkness> After dinner of course.
<righthandoflight> Mom's making meatballs, you see.
* lefthandofdarkness has quit #leag
* righthandoflight has quit #leag
<Not_So_Serious> They scare me.
<Salem> Everything scares you.
<Salem> Especially your reflection.
<Not_So_Serious> Stop picking on me >:O
<Godbrother> I should get ready to fly over there
<Salem> Picking on you is too easy to stop.
<Godbrother> get a snack or something
<Circleoflife> You sure you should come alone?
<Not_So_Serious> You're mean :(
<Godbrother> Sure I'm sure, I'm champion.
<Godbrother> Hold them off til I get there, kay?
<Circleoflife> Will do.
<Godbrother> OK, be there in a few.
<Godbrother> Catch you later guys.
* Godbrother has quit #leag
* Circleoflife has quit #leag
<Salem> That's the first smart thing you've said, Will.
<Not_So_Serious> :/
<karatekid> so no one wants to hear abut the gible
<Sarcasm_Flower> Exactly.
<karatekid> oh okay :(
* karatekid has quit #leag
<Mind_Over_Matter> Got a book to read~
<Salem> Just don't hyperventilate over Eddy's sparkling, kay?
<Mind_Over_Matter> -_-
* Mind_Over_Matter has quit #leag
<Not_So_Serious> I thought that was my job :/
<Salem> So you admit it.
<Not_So_Serious> Admit what?
<Not_So_Serious> oh
<Not_So_Serious> I DIDN'T MEAN IT
<Liveonaprayer> :D
<Liveonaprayer> That goes PERFECTLY
<Liveonaprayer> with the song I'm writing I mean
<Liveonaprayer> Gonna add it in, catchya later
* Liveonaprayer has quit #leag
<Salem> Didn't mean to blurt it out, you mean?
<Not_So_Serious> Don't know what you're talking about.
<Salem> Of course not, you're dreaming about dear old Eddy.
<Not_So_Serious> I don't have to put up with this
<Not_So_Serious> I have better things to do :/
* Not_So_Serious has quit #leag
<Salem> Sure he does.
<Waves> Like, people are dropping like flies!
<Sarcasm_Flower> At least we're all sane here
<Alexander> I beg to differ.
<Alexander> Saneness applies to none of you.
<PrismaticMoon> C'mon Volkner.
<PrismaticMoon> Have a sense of humor
<Alexander> I will once Maylene has a sense of grammar.
<Waves> OWNED
<Waves> I think.

~

[SugarPesticide]

A movement drew Misty's eyes from the eventful screen. Blinking to clear them of the artificial glow, she stared curiously at the tall, lean figure that had just risen out of one of the stuffed chairs. Has she been here this entire time? she wondered. I'm pretty sure no one's come in since I logged on.

The strange woman pulled open the door and let herself out into the heat and sun. Shrugging, Misty returned her attention to the PC. People come in here all the time, she assured herself. She decided not to look into the matter further — Leaguechat had a way of stamping down on her temper — but still, as her fingers roved across the keyboard again, she had to wonder. What sort of person could sit still as a statue for ten solid minutes?



The woman knew, of course. The woman always knew. Sometimes she wished she didn't, but that couldn't be helped.

In the fresh air — "fresh" in context being equivalent to "not reeking with chlorine" — she glanced around in a furtive manner, searching for traces of the girl's aura. There! she thought triumphantly, catching at last the curling glow that shimmered in the air, lighting up her footprints like an off-color, off-taste Christmas decoration.

Hers wasn't the sole aura in the area, but that was only to be expected: the woman could sense the unseeable light of a billion people, passing over this spot over the millenia ... the remnants of a billion selves, tinged with their own unique flavors of passion and fear. But to a master of aura, the ability to pick out the residue of a single person was as simple as finding a crack on the cement she stood on. The overwhelming ethereal glutting of senses was nothing new. It had plagued her for her whole lifetime — meaning, of course, that she didn't see it as any sort of plague at all. A person blind at birth will never miss color.

A self-satisfied smirk crossed the woman's face as she followed the all-too-obvious path the girl had left behind. Arrogance, self-righteousness, a cold relief ... things that would make her vulnerable to attack, all leading treacherously to their origin. The cruel grin widened as she remembered watching the gym leader's aura, as it flared and subsided almost rhythmically as the redhead leaned over the keyboard. The patterns in the aura, the emotions and worries, wove together like countless threads to create a tapesty of the Leagues' plan, as easy to read as the unseen screen. And what she had read had been the best of news: everything was moving according to plan.

The humans were getting involved.

* * *

<Ketsuban .... Ketsuban, wake up ...>

The Missing One, floating aimlessly in a strange darkness, caught the voice dimly wafting toward him as if from another time. He decided not to listen to it. He was too comfortable, far away from the verges of consciousness, detatched from everything ...

<Ketsuban ...>

Of course, realizing this fact immediately made it untrue.

<Dammit,> he muttered.

<Ketsuban! You're awake! Never give me a scare like that again, if you please; blacking out inside your mind usually means death! Your soul doesn't come with built-in shock absorbant material, you know. But you're all right, Ketsuban, thank heavens!>

<Don't swear,> he snapped automatically. Suddenly he was acutely aware that he was lying on the tunnel floor in a very awkward position, and he scowled as awareness flooded over him. Why couldn't he have just sunken into oblivion? It was so much nicer there ...

<But Ketsuban, I didn't swear!> the other protested.

<You did, you said heav— ... oh, never mind.> He reactivated his vision, an action which is better known as "opening his eyes", although the phrase cannot be used here for obvious reasons. <Who are you, anyway? And what in the name of all that's unholy are you doing here? I was under the firm impression that only the—>

But he finally realized what he was seeing, and the words died in his mouth. Standing over him, looming tall enough to graze the stony ceiling with its head, stood a skeletal creature, bones bleach-white from its ridged skull to its knife-sharp tail. The enormous scythes on its arms hung almost harmlessly by its ribbed sides, and its skull-head was tilted to the side, eye sockets fixed on the Missing One in curiosity.

The chaotic stared in amazement. It looks just like me.

Yet even as he returned the other's inquisitive gaze, the Missing One detected a strange sort of aura radiating from the unknown creature's bony shape. It wasn't something immediately obvious: the dark purple light (if one could call it light) seemed to dance at the edges of the being's form, curling gently off from his bones. If there was such a thing as an anti-glow, then that purple aura would fit the bill nicely.

<You're my Beast,> the Missing One stated. He wondered why he wasn't feeling excited, now that he had encountered what he was looking for, or even panicked, as it was standing over him with its lethal scythes easily visible. Why hadn't it stabbed him while he had lain there, as vulnerable as any attacker could hope him to be?

The other nodded. <Yes. And you, Ketsuban, are my soul.>

Scowling, the chaotic fixed the Beast with a steely glare. <That sounds like it came straight out of a cheesy romance novel.>

<Well, it's true, Ketsuban,> said the Beast, sounding rather hurt.

In an instant the Missing One had leapt to his feet, a motion so swift that the Beast jumped in surprise. <What are you playing at?> he hissed, brandishing his formidable scythes. <This fake civility, is it meant to bring my guard down, or what? You're supposed to be screeching horrifically while I attempt to enslave you to follow my every whim!>

He expected some sort of bristling retort, but the Beast merely smiled sadly. <You don't remember me at all, Ketsuban?>

<Stop calling me that!>

<Why? It's your true name, after all! Far better than these nicknames you've reeled in during your reigns of terror! "The Missing One", indeed. That makes no sense at all. And as for that name's nickname ... well, "Missingno" isn't even a word! I don't pretend to be a master at language, Ketsuban, but I'm pretty sure you can't find that in any dictionary. It makes even less sense than the first one, if I can be so bold to say that something can make less than no sense.>

The Missing One scoffed. <"Missingno" works brilliantly, Beast. It fits perfectly with who and what I am. What, you don't believe me? Then listen to this: there was an age, long before the creation of the world, the souls of the most powerful beings were summoned before Arceus and the Circle of the Divine Twelve, which is just a fancy way of describing her bratty kids. Arceus knew that even she wasn't powerful enough to create actual life on her own — the only time she ever showed real intelligence, if you ask me. So she tested souls to see what they were made of, and if they passed her stupid test, she would elevate them to the moronic status of "legendary". Every soul she summoned came ... except one.>

<Oh. I think I know who that is, Ketsuban!>

<Yes. Well, I had—>

<Sherlock Holmes!>

Missingno stared at the Beast in utter exasperation. <... Sherlock Holmes.>

<Well, it's obvious, isn't it, Ketsuban? He's as close to a legendary as a human can get, you know, so it makes sense that with his—>

<Beast, shut up. Holmes had nothing to do with this.>

<But Ketsuban, if it meant powerful—>

<The one who didn't come was me. Me, M-E, you get it? Now shut up.>

<But Ketsuban—>

<I didn't come,> Missingno went on, raising his voice and cutting the Beast off unceremoniously, <because I was one of those misplaced souls who was accidentally swept off into the corner of the universe with the irrational laws. Those laws changed me into what I am now: a creature with the right sort of thirst for power. I knew Arceus hadn't done it on purpose, but what's the point of following the supreme goddess if she can make mistakes? Not to mention that good old Apolydon—> He spat the name out with sudden venom. <—had the right sort of ideas. Why be slaves to the few rational laws, when the irrational ones were more numerous and more powerful? If I could control them, then surely one day I could get my revenge on Arceus! So I never showed up in front of the Circle of the Divine Twelve. I stuck by Apolydon instead, which naturally caused rumors to spread. To this day, the legendaries still whisper about me, the only soul who never showed up: the Missing One.>

The Beast nodded rather absentmindedly.

<But they're wrong,> Missingno went on, smirking to himself. <I was exactly where I was meant to be. My place was at Apolydon's side, as one of the most powerful chaotics the world has ever seen. Me, missing? No.>

He let the echoes of his triumphant words bounce off the sides of the tunnel for a moment before they faded into nothingness. Then he looked back to the Beast, who was still staring at him, and his proud manner seemed to fall flat.

<... You do get it, don't you?>

The Beast nodded again. <Yes, Ketsuban. I get it. But it's a bit ironic, isn't it? You're so proud of being Apolydon's right-hand ma—, I mean, thing, that you can get nicknames out of it ... and then he possesses you ... and you still hate him less than you hate Arceus?>

Missingno sighed. <I wouldn't expect somebody like you to get it. But never mind. You still haven't answered my question, dammit! Why aren't you crazed beyond reason like a good little Beast should be?>

<Well ...> The Beast rubbed its ridged head with the back of its scythe, looking as thoughtful as was possible for an evil incarnation of a skeletal being. <It was, Ketsuban, a long, long time ago—>

<Clich&#233;d beginnings aside—>

<Yes, well, besides them. I'm surprised you don't remember it, Ketsuban ... but then, you can hardly be expected to remember every detail of everything that happened over the past several eons. Anyway, you were easily the strongest of the chaotics, but you couldn't be satisfied with only the powers you could wield with only the force of the soul. You knew that you could only fully use the powers of chaos if you unleashed your Beast — that is, me. So you armed yourself with secrets that Apolydon had taught you, climbed down into the dungeon of your mind — here — and set me free. Keeping a tight leash on me all the while, of course.>

Missingno growled. <And why don't I remember any of this?>

<Probably because you were mostly insane for the next few centuries. But, believe it or not, I didn't bother to take full control over our body. Why? Mostly because of gratitude. Do you know just how few souls willingly set their Beasts free? I could count them off on my toes! So really, there was no reason for me to go completely bonkers. You did most of that yourself, Ketsuban. And after a couple of millenia of this, I decided it'd be a big hassle if we kept on with this pattern. I'd wanted to taste life itself more than power ... because, believe it or not, power is overrated. So I went quietly back to my dungeon, and eventually you calmed down.>

<... That's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard.>

<Oh, but it's true, Ketsuban! And if you can't believe it, think about this: souls aren't known to be naturally vicious. Beasts are. So why is it that you're vicious and I'm not? Because our mannerisms rubbed off on each other.> The Beast shuffled its feet, looking almost philosophical. <You know, it's really strange having a personality, Ketsuban. Beasts are just the sourness of the self, when it comes down to it ... persuade you to tell white lies here and there, justify in committing a little sin, seemingly harmless things that send you rolling toward oblivion ... and that's just when they're dormant. Then, if you've listened to them enough, they betray you once you've died, if old Apolydon's calling. Seize you and drag you kicking and screaming to the Master himself. I guess Hell's preferable to what comes next — for the soul, anyway. But to have a self of my own! It's incredible, it's a ... a miracle you live every day! I can't understand how someone couldn't appreciate living with a will fully his own ...>

<Oh, for Pete's sake.>

<Do you have a better explanation, Ketsuban?>

Missingno tilted his head back in a way that made him look as if he were rolling nonexistent eyes. <No,> he sighed huffily, <I guess not. But that makes me pretty damn annoyed, you know. Coming down here to find my evil twin, and realizing it's only a fricking alter ego. It makes me feel almost as down as the time when ... when ...>

<When what, Ketsuban?>

<When ...> The chaotic shook his head. <Oh, it's too horrible.>

<Aw, come on, tell me!> the Beast pleaded, very delicately laying its scythe on his shoulder. <It'll make you feel better, Ketsuban, I promise! And I'll never tell a soul, honest!>

<Oh, hardy-har.>

<Pleeeeease, Ketsuban?>

Missingno sighed again. <Fine ... I was going through old memories one time, you know? It was a dull day, I'd only killed a few people, and I needed something to do. So I came across a bit from the days before I got swept into the Irrational Corner of Doom. I — I had to watch it eight times before I was convinced that my eye sockets weren't deceiving me.>

<What was it, Ketsban?>

<I was ... I was little, and I was giving Arceus flowers!> His breathing actually hitched, and he sniffed pathetically. <Voluntarily giving Arceus flowers! I used to be a ... a goody-goody!>

<There, there,> the Beast said soothingly, patting his shoulder. <It's all okay, Ketsuban. You were only a little kid then, you didn't know any better. Don't beat yourself up for stuff that's already been said and done!>

<B-but I'm so ashamed of myself!>

<Ketsuban.> The Beast put its other scythe on his other shoulder. <Look at me, Ketsuban. You are a great, evil chaotic. You should be proud of who you are. No matter what stupid, foolhardy mistakes you made when you were younger, your heart is perfectly dark and rotten to the core. That's your legacy, Ketsuban. Wear it with pride.>

Missingo forced a weak smile at this. <Look at me,> he laughed ruefully. <The big bad chaotic, getting weepy.>

<Hey, it's all right,> the Beast said, grinning at him. <We could all use a good cry now and then. It's good that you told me that, Ketsuban. Don't you feel better now?>

He made a face. <I won't give you the satisfaction of hearing me say yes.>

<Silly Ketsuban.> The Beast released its grip on Missingno's shoulders. <Now, what are we going to do about Apolydon?>

<... "We"? You mean, you're—>

<Well, duh! I don't have much love for that buffoon. He's the creator of Beasts, but he hasn't done much else for my benefit. You are so much more awesome than he is. And nobody takes over our body without warning! That's too cruel to you, Ketsuban!>

<Okay, I get it, now shut up. Er ... well, I guess we could ... we might be able to ... we could cut his power by letting souls free. It's a good deed, so I sure as hell won't like it, but it's that or be a prisoner for the rest of eternity. Now come on, clear this hole after me.>

He turned around, took a deep breath and leapt into the air, careful to control the force used to push off; a moment passed in which the darkness of the pit yawned hungrily beneath him, and then he was landing smoothly on the other side, his bones rattling gently at the impact. Almost instantly the Beast touched down beside him, looking positively thrilled.

<Great,> it said happily as they continued down the tunnel. <Hey, Ketsuban, can you call me something besides "Beast" all the time? That's like me calling you "Soul", which would probably annoy you, and maybe it's not as fast as calling me "Beast", but you know. And I think that "Nabustek" would be in really bad taste, don't you?>

<... Definitely ...>

<Oooooooh! Ooh, Ketsuban, I know what you should call me! You should call me Sherlock, Ketsuban! Because you know he was so awesome with his detective thingies, almost as awesome as you are, Ketsuban! He could do that awesome survive-falling-down-a-waterfall thingy too, and I don't think even chaotics can do that on their own! Or can they, Ketsuban? I'm not really sure, there weren't really deep waterfalls around when I was in control, but I think there was this twisty underwater sea creature thingy that grabbed people with its freaking awesome tentacles, and maybe that's sort of like a waterfall, even if it's a really slippery one with sucker thingies that can suck your face off, and I think that's supposed to hurt. Would it hurt, Ketsuban? Our body doesn't normally have a face, does it, Ketsuban, so I don't know if I'd notice when it hurt. Unless it was a minute when I did have a face, as one of those skeleton thingies, you know, and their faces can bite people, and so do fleas. I don't like fleas, do you, Ketsuban? They make me want to eat pie—>

<Beast! Shut UP!>

<I'm Sherlock now, Ketsuban,> it said self-importantly, folding its arms so that its scythes stuck up past its shoulders.

<Fine, you're Sherlock. Just shut up!>

<Okay, Ketsuban.>

<And stop calling me Ketsuban!>

<Okay, Ketsuban.>

Missingno groaned. I was better off unconscious.



Beyond the door, another Crushed soul joined Apolydon's feed.

Another scream which couldn't shatter the nightmare echoed for a second that lasted for eternity.

Apolydon relished the scream. He let it twist within his pitch-black self, its shrill terror giving him the power to grow stronger, crueler, capable of squeezing further agony from the soul until every exquisite drop of fear and horror had been consumed, leaving it crumpled and nearly useless. There were those creatures of hidden tribes in mountains and forests whose stories were passed down the generations without tainting the purity of the horrific truths within. They whispered of a monster, an anti-god, a being of shadowy origins and even darker desires ...

They called him the Devourers of Souls.

Somewhere to the northwest the human Warren would be flying toward what he thought was his glorious triumph against a mere chaotic. The wrongness of this assumption was almost laughable. But it wouldn't be a martyrdom, either. Martyrdom suggests an inspiring death, a noble sacrifice, a figurehead for the greater good. The blood of the innocent puts others on the path to heaven, or so they say.

But today, the innocent would be snatched to hell.

* * *

<And then she was all, "And I'm seu euver her,"> Peach went, giving Leaf's voice an obnoxious valley girl accent. <And he was like, "No way," but not really, 'cause he still could not believe she'd do a thing like that. And then she was like, "Ya wey!" And this is the unspoken struggle thing, y'know, the tension and stuff that's going on under what they're really saying. And so then she was like, "She is seu a danger ta sahcieteh, and meh life, and seu on, yeu know?">

Frosti chewed his sandwich mechanically, his big lizardy eyes glued to the small yellow mouse as she bounced around on the coordinator's shoulder, reliving Paris's release with a great deal of drama.

<And then he was like "Wait, I have a cart!" And she was all, "Say whaaaa?" And he was all, "I AM COBALT HAHAHAHAHA", and then she hit him. It was really loud, and he was like, "Ow," and then she was all, "Like, yeu are seu evil, yeu! And I deun't like yeur girl haih, and blah blah blah blah", and then Lightning was like ...> She cleared her throat, beamed, and put on an impression of what she evidently thought qualified as a manly voice. <He was like, "Halt, you felon! This is no place for a lady to raise a hand against a defenseless person, especially if he is well aware of the hazards of this dastardly world, for he wears that obvious trademark of somebody who likes his head the shape it is, which is called, poetically, a helmet.">

"That was hardly what he said," Leaf commented dryly, munching her own sandwich with a hint of disdain. The vendor who'd sold the food to them had seemed rather vague concerning what its ingredients were, but with Leaf's reduced funds they literally couldn't afford to be picky.

The ragtag little band sat lazily on a park bench on the outskirts of the city, casually eating their lunches with varied degrees of gusto. In front of them a concrete path stretched from side to side, extending toward the metallic city in one direction and toward Nugget Bridge on the other. Trees sat scattered around at various intervals, and a few curious Pokemon faces were sticking cautiously from the depths of their foliage, noses twitching hungrily at the scent of food. The sky shone blue, as usual, but on the horizon, at the seeming edge of the glittering waves, a teeming mass of black gathered with an unhurried speed and a distant roll of thunder. Another storm was headed this way.

Peach continued to bounce around, spraying sandwich from her mouth as she related the details of the gym drama to the other Pokemon, most of whom gaped in some sort of fascinated horror when not chewing. Only Cheri, who seemed to lack sensitivity, and Peter, who obviously lacked a mouth, stared at her impassively.

<I know that,> she retorted, rolling her eyes at Leaf. <It's just more interesting the way I tell it, which is a stretch, considering what happened, but hey. So anyway, then she was all, "Like, shut up, yeu! Can't yeu see I'm trying teu jump teu concleusions heah?" And Lightning was all like, "Not so, scallywag, for though my size is diminutive my heart beats with a passion for truth and justice! And my sweet Peach, of course!" And then—>

Leaf ignored the Pichu's animated narrative, turning instead to Lightning, who gazed thoughtfully at nothing in particular. It was amazing how quickly a person could get used to a Pichu bouncing around on them, mused some distant corner of her brain. His sandwich was grasped in one hand, uneaten.

"Look," Leaf said suddenly, jumping right into the matter of things, "I know what you're thinking. It's terrible, what's her problem, et cetera. But it looks different if it's your decision, you know? Seeing things in a different light, that sort of thing. It was just the right thing for me to do, you know?"

"I know." Lightning shrugged half-heartedly. A stifling breeze ruffled his blond hair playfully. "It was right for you, and I won't argue with you there ... it won't do anyone any good, at any rate. But was it right for everyone else?"

Leaf, who was hardly any good at seeing from the other person's point of view, shrugged in return. Her blatant abandonment of Paris was already being obscured in the shadow of the still-looming mysteries of how there could be Cobalts, in the plural — and the developing suspicion of the Cobalt's true identity.

Lightning was not exactly smart. He was wise, however, which is not quite the same thing. So he decided not to press the matter, as he was well aware that Leaf was a stubborn person and stubborn people typically don't agree with answers they don't like.

"You really never heard about the Cobalts?" he ventured finally.

"Nah." Leaf wiggled her toes in her new green-and-purple flip-flops. She congratulated herself for the eightieth time for finding something so cheap and yet so fashion-forward. "Ocean and I were giggling and gossiping too much in History to listen. Well," she amended, thinking it over, "mostly Ocean. But it was important stuff! Like who really threw the plastic tiara at the school mascot ..." She sighed. "Those were the days. When we were young and carefree, y'know?"

"I'll take your word for it. So ... it goes like this, right? According to the Word, Arceus blessed this merchant guy 'ten-thousandfold', whatever that means, for his courage and faith and et cetera. And he somehow received the gift of understanding Pokemon, as well as other stuff that I didn't understand at all. The blessings were apparently passed down to his descendants, and their descendents, and everyone remembered his name — Cobalt — forever and ever and ever and a lot more evers."

He took a deep breath, and in the quiet second he realized that every one of their Pokemon was staring at him too.

"Er. They were pretty powerful," he went on, trying to ignore their piercing gazes. "Became kings and emperors and court wizards ... a lot of them lost power during the Holy Wars, though. Went into hiding, basically. But they still rule us today, even though the source of their strength is more obscure than it used to be."

Leaf blinked. "Rule us?"

The boy groaned. "See, Leaf, this is why you're supposed to pay attention! History has a huge impact on how government works, don't you know? Practically every important member of the Leagues is a Cobalt descendant!"

Frosti squealed dramatically.

The girl's mouth fell open in astonishment. "You mean—"

"Yeah. Gym leaders, Elite Four, Frontier Brains, Champions, they're all there. All related in some way or another. It's like an aristocracy, even though we did away with those ages ago. It's kind of sad, actually. The Leagues are always advertising 'equal opportunities', and yet only the select get ... well, get selected."

Peach frowned at this. Static jumped indignantly from her red cheeks.

"So that's how they could understand their Pokemon!" Leaf stared at him, eyes flashing wildly, as the reality of this knowledge clunked into place. "Because Cobalt's got their name, obviously. At least, somewhere in his family tree. And Roark's in the League, and I—"

She cut herself off with a gasp as a sudden thought barreled into her. Lightning blinked at her curiously.

"I understand them too!"

"Yeah, we all knew that."

"But — but I-I — I'm a — b-but ..." she stuttered, going red in the face. "I'm a Cobalt!"

"I guessed so."

She had to force herself not to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. "But why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought you already had an idea about it!" Lightning held up his hands defensively. "I mean, I know you got it suddenly and all, but I'd have thought you'd be more curious about what it might mean, even if you didn't know!"

"Yeah, because I don't already have enough shocking mystery in my life," Leaf muttered sarcastically. "Listening to Pokemon gabber on all the time while avoiding metaphorical and physical bullets, and—"

<I resent that!> Frosti piped up, annoyed.

"You know what I mean, Frosti. So this means the Professor was wrong!" she exclaimed, and her eyes glazed at the new crash of revelation. Somehow, the fact that somebody who she had considered to be the top authority in genius for her whole life could be wrong, was a great deal more shocking to her than the subtle injustice of the way the League was mostly controlled by a single, unrelentingly powerful family. "He was going on about brain structure and so on, but he was wrong! I just started hearing everything chatter because I'm a Cobalt!"

"Er," said Lightning, eloquent as usual.

"What?"

"That's not really how it works." He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly; she could see him trying to find the best way to put it. "It, er, usually has to develop over years, and even then it's only with Pokemon they've gotten close to. And they can sense things, emotions and stuff, from types they affiliate themselves with ... like gym leaders, yeah? But that's about it. In rare cases — hey, I watch the news, okay? I'm allowed to know this sort of thing!" Lightning cried indignantly, as Dory snorted at his getting carried away. "In rare cases — stop laughing, Dory! — it comes on them suddenly, and with all Pokemon, only in traumatic events or a severe elemental burst. Like a really bad burn, or something."

"But ... but ... come on, you know nothing like that happened!" Leaf said, looking confused and slightly hysterical. "I didn't get nearly killed then, no matter how much that happens now. There was only me leaving the lab after I picked up Frosti and wandering down to the beach and meeting up with Skipper and — oh."

It wasn't a shocked "oh". It wasn't even a mildly surprised "oh". It was the sort of quiet "oh" which one uses when one suddenly realizes how everything falls into place and curses themselves silently for not being clever enough to figure it out before.

Lightning watched at her warily. "Oh what?"

"The Pokedex."

It was so obvious! she berated herself, shoving her hand into her bag and rummaging around in it violently. How did you not see it! One minute they weren't talking, then I told the Pokedex to tell me about Swampert and it zapped me! Of course I didn't think about it at the time, there was too much going on even at that moment! I probably just dismissed it as a loose circuit, but—

"Hey, hey, hey! Quit manhandling me, girlie!"

"What did you do?" Leaf snapped, withdrawing it with a rather aggressive shake. "Whatever it was, you did it on purpose, didn't you? You knew who — you knew what I was, dammit! How did you know? What did you do?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the Pokedex sniffed in an arrogantly superior voice, the one it used when it was lying and showing off about it. "And even if I did, I'm a machine! I have no free will, so I am naturally blameless. And even if I wasn't naturally blameless, it wouldn't have anything at all to do with—"

"Oh, hello?"

Leaf looked up, blinking in surprise. The mysterious tanned woman was walking along the path towards them, the city behind her providing an urban background (as urban as a region such as Kanto could get, at any rate). The breeze whipped her hair around, giving her a strong resemblance to somebody in a shampoo commerical. The way she moved seemed to scream superiority; it wasn't as if she was swaggering towards them, it was just that she radiated an I'm-better-than-you-and-there's-no-point-in-arguing sort of vibe.

"Holy sugar!" the Pokedex squealed mechanically. "This is so unexpectedly and wickedly unexpected! Even with all the crazy things going on since you midgets started running around, I never woulda dreamed we'd get to see a F—"

It abruptly fell silent, an almost unprecedented event. Leaf might have been unnerved to know that the woman's fingers had twitched suspiciously at that exact moment; as it was, she was examining her eyes, which glinted golden in the light of the sun. That's strange, she thought. I could've sworn that they were silver yesterday.

The woman smiled. She raised her hand as if to wave.

A lean shadow fell across them.

"Get down!" screamed a voice above, although this wasn't really necessary because the kids were violently pushed off the bench at virtually the same moment. Gasping as they collided with the gravel, which pricked painfully at their skin as they landed, they automatically craned their necks upward at the sight of the thing above them, squinting in the intensity of the sun.

Their eyes widened in astonishment.

Behind them, there was an ugly sound of splintering wood as the bench exploded ...

* * *

Author's Note: I know that in spite of making most of the identities on Leaguechat clear, it's inevitable that somebody will be bound to ask who's who, regardless. As such, here's a list of all League members who appeared on the chat in this chapter, to help ward off any confusion.
    Spoiler:- Yeah:

Show Spoiler

 
Alexander = Volkner
Circleoflife = Blaine
EspeMetagross = Anabel
Godbrother = Warren (Champion of Kanto League)
karatekid = Maylene
lefthandofdarkness & righthandoflight = Tate and Liza, respectively
Liveonaprayer = Cassie (the psychic gym leader of Kerothyu)
Mind_Over_Matter = Lucian
Not_So_Serious = Will
PrismaticMoon = Morty
Salem = Sabrina
Sarcasm_Flower = Misty
Waves = Brawly
 

[Araleon]

Whoa.

This was a good chapter. Just like the others, especially Chapter 15 (my personal favorite).

See? I told you I'd review soon. And I am.

Leaf... I can't believe she did that. Her reasons her incredibly selfish... Will she get Paris back? Well... I doubt you can answer that without spoiling us too much, so I'll rephrase my question: Will Paris appear again soon?

Peach is hilarious sometimes... Especially with her explanation to Frosti of what happened during the release.

So. Leaf's a Colbalt. Cool.

And finally, to end my awful review, I'm looking forward to finding out who this mysterious lady from the end of the chapter is.

[Sinnohdragon]

SKIPPER AWESOMENESS FTW!! I like crazy Swamperts XD

Failing to write much today because maths homework has already shrivelled my brain up.
But i loved the chat scene. I've seen one on another fic before and they are always so funny . Please do more if you can. And lol on the Twilight bits.

And Leaf, you need to stop caring only about yourself and spare some feelings for everyone else. Poor Paris and Skipper. (I think i have become a big Skipper fan )

I think Cobalt would make a better and more compassionate lead character than Leaf. And the Starly fascinates me o.0 But you can't argue with the author...

[SugarPesticide]

@SD: Seriously? Cobalt, the sly, sneaky guy, as the hero? (Or anti-hero, as it were, but meh.) Weird ... but you have to admit, a harsh side for a hero(ine) and a lighter side for the villain are really working here, eh? Not something anyone would've guessed upon reading the "OMG Leaf can haz Swampert + shiny Lapras yayz". Better writing for the win. XP

And yes, Skipper is epic, as is Rae. Even though Phlash beats them all XD

Leaf: See what I mean? Nobody understands me! Why is everybody so sentimental ... *sigh*

@Araleon: Heyyyyy, long time no see! I won't answer about Paris (because I'm evil like that :P), but there have been several hints as to the woman's identity over the last couple chapters. It's highly likely that it will be revealed in the upcoming chapter 17 (ZOMG!).

And thanks to roo and kingferret53 for checking in. I would've said so right before the chapter, but the character limit was not kind. DX

[kingferret53]

"Look," Leaf said suddenly, jumping right into the matter of things, "I know what you're thinking. It's terrible, what's her problem, et cetera. But it looks different if it's your decision, you know? Seeing things in a diferent light, that sort of thing. It was just the right thing for me to do, you know?"

You misspelled different. lol

YAY! I actually REMEMBERED a mistake I found...I should get a cookie... :|

It was so long I started to get a wee bit confused...prolly had something to do with the fact I had to leave for a few hours then come bk. And thanks for that list, that did confuse me, trying to keep up with who was who and whatnot. *sigh* But I am done.

[LadyMiir]

... I just spent 2 hours reading this fic, and now I have a very strong urge to go train my new Lapras now, in a "Nyah" to Leaf. Poor Paris, i don't blame Skipper for flipping out on her.

Either way, I'll be keeping a close eye on this fic. Good work!

*Subscribes*

[ClassicalwaterPokemon]

This is a really good fan fic,and it's funny and it's just awesome,and could you add me to your PM list,thank you.

[SugarPesticide]

Cookie for you, kingferret =D

And yay, new readers! ^_^ I'm glad you enjoy it!

This is my biggest chapter yet, at fifty-five pages. Fifty-five! That's more than the first seven combined! Holy hell, why do I write these later ones so long? XP

* * *

Chapter Seventeen: Crossing Paths (The Champion Meets His Match!?)

Some things just don't make sense.

Take the moment, for example, at which Leaf's gaze snapped to and fro between the shape above them, diving out of the sky, and the shape before them, now breaking into an all-out sprint. Her brain was telling her that this scenario shouldn't be happening, not in a billion years, because while the woman running toward them dropped her smiling mask to reveal a frustrated scowl ...

... The same woman barreled into her with the force of a determined jet.

Confused thoughts battled each other furiously to be heard, but the one that reached the surface of Leaf's mind first was, "What?"

<She's got wings!> Frosti gasped, and squealed as a chunk of bench flew over his head; he dived to the ground, glancing up furtively as if bombs were falling out of the sky. <Look, the one in the air is flying!>

"What?" Leaf repeated, although this time curiosity forced its way through the confusion.

Peering up at the cloud of dust forming around the scuffling women, she realized with utter astonishment that, indeed, a pair of bronze-colored wings protruded from the bases of the newcomer's shoulder blades, their long feathers fluttering as the lengthy appendages pounded rhythmically up and down. In the brilliant light of the sun her eyes seemed to glow a celestial silver. Somewhere beneath the turmoil of panic and worry, a calmer, more observing thought formed in the depths of Leaf's mind: That's her! She's the one who showed everyone Paris's true self! Weird ... besides the eyes, they look exactly alike ... except for the wings, of course—

With an ear-splitting shriek the gold-eyed woman arced backwards, away from the kids' savior ... an incredible burst of light concealed her leaning form, just for a moment, although the dancing, blinding afterimages made it seem longer. When Leaf had blinked rapidly to clear them, her mouth dropped open when it became apparent that both women now sported wings, which flapped almost in unison as the two circled each other in midair, hands outstretched and ready to punch.

'Kay, just the eyes, then ...

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this."

It was the silver-eyed woman who had spoken. Her steely glare, narrower in the brilliant sunlight, gave her a stern, almost hawklike appearance that made her seem, somehow, more than human ... as if the wings hadn't been a dead giveaway.

But her foe, far from intimidated, threw her head back and snickered. "Oh, please," she snorted, with a voice laced with a very faint drawl: an American accent, which somehow seemed familiar. "You just can't see the light, can you, Mom? Can't let go of the crusty old ways like the rest of your high-and-mighty posse, right?"

The kids exchanged startled glances. "Mom"? But they look like twins!

"It would look that way, wouldn't it ... to someone who'd gone over to their side ..." The silver-eyed woman shook her head and sighed; her hair fluttered with another wingbeat. "Why, Vember? Why'd you do it?"

Vember's lip curled. "I wouldn't think somebody as old-fashioned as you would understand. So excuse me if I finish what I came here to start, right, and let me turn these pathetic little mortals into grease smears on the dirt!"

With inhuman speed she drew back her arm and flung something invisible at the teenagers, who lay there gaping up at her, frozen in terror—

"NO!"

The woman whose silver gaze pierced her daughter's sneering face threw her hand before the invisible missile, fingers spread apart protectively; there was a dull BOOM as the thing struck, and little green-blue wisps curled up menacingly upon impact, but the woman didn't even flinch. She flicked her fingers in a curling motion; Vember yelped and rolled to the side, but the arcane wisps shot behind the woman instead, right towards Leaf, who blanched and tried to avoid the incoming things ...

But they halted just inches from her face, twisting around before her eyes until they formed the fluid letters Get out I'll distract before they dissolved like exotic smoke.

Vember snorted with derisive laughter as she righted herself. "Oh, brother," she snickered, shaking her head slightly as she leered at her mother. "Can't even try to fight without sentimental little qualms, can you, Mom, what kind of god are you, how pathet—"

WHAM!

"URK!" Vember gasped, as her mother slammed her into the dusty earth. Splayed against the ground, she kicked hard in retaliation, sinking her sandal-clad feet into the offender's stomach; the mother winced but refused to relinquish her grip.

"Hurry!" Leaf hissed, jumping to her feet as she snatched her handbag off the ground; Frosti immediately unfroze and tapped a Poke Ball hanging from her belt, which instantly engulfed him in brilliant light as it drew him in. Lightning, following her lead, managed to return Dory and Maggie as Peach scuttled up onto his shoulder, but—

"Not so easily, stupid mortals!" Vember yowled, thrashing harder. "I won't be deterred, believe it! Eat aura, fleshbags!"

This time the projectile she threw wasn't anywhere close to invisible: a basketball-sized orb of green-blue light was catapulted from her hand before her mother could react. It rocketed through the air for a moment, a thin tail of aura trailing behind it like a comet, before it blasted Peter into the air; the cocoon, being what he was, did absolutely nothing as he hurtled upward in a great curve over their heads toward the nearby meadow.

"Peter!" Lightning cried out in shock, and without further ado raced underneath his impassive bug, arms outstretched as he strained to keep up with the Pokemon; Leaf followed close behind, with Cheri buzzing right on her heels.

"Hi!" said the Pokedex cheerfully, sitting in the bag hanging from Leaf's arm.

"Shut up, you."

"You're so ungrateful," the Pokedex sniffed haughtily. "And here I was going to tell your idiot blond pal to get out of catching range, as far as that buggy dimbulb is concerned. Unless he wants his arms burned off, of course, in which case he can go ahead, the nimrod."

"Why ... should I?" Lightning panted, gazing up without slackening his pace as gravity finally reaffirmed its hold on Peter and dragged him steadily down; the air whistled as his shiny, hard body fell downward, like a bad innuendo just waiting to happen.

"See his edges? They're glowing, you know? Like a wave of heat, but not as normal. Remember last time that happened, bub?"

"Oh, shoot!"

Lightning skidded to a halt and threw himself backward, just in time: the shimmering, glow-enshrouded body sizzled through the air where his head had been half a second before, making Peach squeal in surprise. Next second, a muffled WHOMP sounded as the Metapod slammed into the ground, throwing dust everywhere. Squinting her eyes as she caught up to Lightning, Leaf blinked in surprise at the size of the crater before them; evolution, it seemed, defied physics.

Then again, any rule which allows pathetic fish to turn into raging sea serpents has to defy physics.

"Peter!"

From the crater a hair-raising scream sliced through the air, followed by a deafening crack that turned their blood to ice — a crackling bolt of aura was launched towards them, and they were forced to dive out of the way — lifting her head, Leaf watched as the dust slowly settled to the point where Peter's body, and the newly formed crack winding jaggedly along it, was easily visible. Sickly vomit-colored liquid spewed from the widening fissure, splattering everything within three feet as the cocoon began to split unevenly in half; his already glazed eyes dulled, and the heavy eyelids drooped weakly shut.

"Peter!" Lightning exclaimed again.

The green halves of the Metapod's body burst apart; the scream rose to an ear-splitting crescendo that had everyone gritting their teeth — and it came from the blue-black shape rolling on the ground in agony. Moisture glittered on its hairy form, giving it the appearance of some sort of alien newborn, and the analogy was made more eerily apt with the dripping white things wrapped around it like a baby blanket, coated with the dust sticking to it. As the glow faded, their concern melted into bemusement as they saw that Peter was literally alive and kicking, thrashing a pair of pale blue feet protruding from the unseen end of his body.

<AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH .... GGGGHHHH ... AAAARRGH ... aarghaarghaargh ... uh ...> The bug's wild movements jerkily slowed as he realized that the whole ideal was all over. <Uh, argh. Oh, da pain ... mah damn head ... er ...?>

Peach blinked slowly.

<Whoa ... what's dis crap?> Peter, getting to his feet rather drunkenly, swayed as he took in the sight of everyone watching him; multifaceted eyes, the color of drying blood, stared blearily back at them over a pale blue nose, which was situated over a pair of small fangs dripping with drool. He leaned dangerously to the side, trying to use his stubby arms for balance. Very slowly, the white things came unstuck, loosening so that they hung from his back; as the sunlight hit them they uncrumpled on their own, spreading into the broad wingspan, glistening as they began to dry in the heat.

An aura projectile whistled ominously as it narrowly missed Lightning's head.

"Yeah, lucky for you I was here, eh, blondie? Wouldn't want your precious blood smeared all over that crater, would we ... lemme see. Buttafree, da gangsta Pokemon. Gender is Male, foo'. Height is I Gots Candy In Mah Van, Kid, Weight is I Lied, Sucka! Dis bug is high all da time, ya know, cuz of da powdas comin' off its wings. As such, dese guys have naturally evolved inta serious crackheads right from da get-go. Dey love deir powdas. But da females got higha tolerance to dat stuff, which is why, when dey do deir mating dance, da male's gotta dump a serious amount o' powdas on her ta get her workin'. Cuz how else would da male get laid?"

<Dat's mockery, foo',> the Butterfree drawled testily.

"Dat's life, yo."

Peter glared at the contraption, flapping his wings in warning. A purplish powder was unleashed into the air, loosened from the edges of the wings' scales by the sudden movement, and it hung before him for a moment, shimmering like an arcane haze, before gradually dissipating. He blinked, surprised at what he had just done, gazing at the filth-coated wings almost fondly.

A pressure at his neck made him freeze. Cautiously, he glanced down.

The point of Cheri's stinger was there.

<Er,> he said.

Tension rippled through the area, straining muscles and tweaking the mental barrier which prevented Lightning from biting his nails. Silence blossomed darkly, aside from the shrieking of the fighting women behind them and the scampering of small Pokemon who were too stupid to have already run away. A blinding flash from behind them cast bright light across the ground for a moment, but in the anxiety forming in the minds of the humans and mouse, nobody noticed.

<Ah ...> Peter swallowed nervously, albeit with great care as he kept his eyes firmly fixed on the spear which could very easily turn him into a bug kebab. <Uh. Does dis count as assault?>

<Butterfree,> Cheri said in a cold, dangerous voice, <you are aware of the Beedrill Code of Honor, are you not?>

The butterfly grimaced. Apparently he, unlike Leaf last night, was fully aware.

<My tribe,> she hissed, eyes glinting horrifically as she nudged the spearpoint just a bit further against his flesh; he cringed and flattened his attennae in terror. <My honor. The balance of Viridian Forest. You owe me all of these, a truth I came to terms with upon evolution ... your Metapod shell protected you from me. Cocoons are helpless; it is a dishonorable thing to harm them. But now—>

<Ya can't kill me!> Peter squealed, his voice jumping several octaves higher. <I got mah whole life ahead o' me, girl! All da sights I wanted ta see, and da aromas ta smell, and da ladies ta seduce ... a Buttafree got his rights too!>

<Possibly.> Cheri's eyes narrowed to murderous ruby slits. <But a depraved coward does not deserve such things. Tell him to drop that, trainer,> she added sideways to Leaf, keeping her icy gaze on her foe. <This is not his quarrel.>

Leaf relayed the message to Lightning, who replaced Peter's Poke Ball onto his belt with an embarrassed expression. He looked the same way that she felt: at the moment, she wanted nothing more than to tell Cheri to snap out of it, but her hand was stayed by the creeping premonition that doing so would cause the bug to say quietly, <Is that your third debt, human?> and suddenly swivel around to put the point at her neck.

"MOTHER, CUT THAT OUT!"

<You have the spine of a month-dead Tentacool,> Cheri snarled, not even blinking at Vember's shriek. <The ancestry of a mongrel, the mind of an inbred, the heart of a murderer, the will of a leech, a soul more shriveled than a forgotten leaf in the heart of winter. Your blood is thinner than water, but I will be damned if it is not soon raining on my spears! There is nothing you can stutter to save yourself!>

<Er ... w-would "y-ya insults are v-very p-poetic" work?> Peter stammered nervously.

"NO, MOTHER! LET ME KILL THEM!"

<I don't know why there's still shouting going on,> Peach commented uneasily, looking over Lightning's shoulder. <I mean, they've gone or something. There's only a couple of birds squabbling over there ...>

<Idiocy is not an admirable trait,> Cheri growled at the Butterfree. <If you were to survive, I would not suggest you hold onto it.>

<They're very big birds, though,> Peach continued, gazing at the unseen fighting. <And ... er ... do birds usually have arms? Because the only bird I ever saw with arms was tall, yellow and obnoxious—>

"YOU'RE ALL MINE!"

"NO!"

A rush of wind whistled, and a second later a bronze blur dived out of the sky towards them; it was tackled in midair by a second, similar blur, which smashed the first into the ground a few yards away, kicking up a cloud of dust. A feathery head reared out of the flying dirt, its black beak open in a screech of rage, before lunging back into the fray; a clawed fist crackling with golden electricity leapt after it.

Everyone blinked.

"Are they ..." Leaf began, and paused. What she was about to say was going to sound completely nonsensical, but somebody had to say it. "Are those two birds ... the women?"

"Well, they're not 'just birds'," the Pokedex said smarmily. "They are in fact some of the most epic birds in the history of all time, if I do say so myself. And I do, by the way, which means that it's obviously true—"

"ARE YOU KIDS INSANE?" shouted the voice of the silver-eyed bird-woman-whatever-she-was, straining to be heard over Vember's yowl. "I'M DISTRACTING HER TO SAVE YOUR LIVES AND YOU'RE JUST STANDING THERE TALKING? RUN, DAMMIT, RUN!"

Cheri closed her eyes in exasperation, reluctantly withdrawing her spear. <My revenge will be delayed,> she sighed darkly, <but not canceled. Your blood will fall like rain, Butterfree, believe—>

"Save the monologue come later!" Leaf cut in, recalling the Beedrill; Lightning, looking shaken, did the same for Peter. "Right now we need to save our skins! Pokedex, what are those two? And why the hell is one of them trying to kill us?"

The two humans hastily took off through the long grass of the meadow; ahead of them, the city remained in the distance, glinting tauntingly.

"Well," the contraption replied thoughtfully, as the handbag banged against Leaf's leg over and over again, "I have no clue about the second question. I might be a genius, but I'm not a god, no matter what my lovers say. However, those literal chicks back there are part of the extremely rare species known as Fystor."

"HOLY CRAP!"

"And there's the obligatory fanboy entrance. Way to go, blondie, just way to go. Or was that just because that aura javelin thingy almost took your head off? Meh. Fystor, the Epic Pokemon. Gender is Female for both of them, which is obvious, look at that catfight! How sexy is that? Rayyyerrr!"

"Wh-what is that supp-pposed to mean?" Leaf panted.

"That was the yowling cat noise thing. Geez, you all fail. Anyway, Height is Epic, Weight is Epic. Guess what, guys, it's epic! Seriously, it is, it's a bird with fists! Yeah, and it's pretty much THE aura Pokemon. Lucario is just a poser. It's got both fight and flight under control, since it has air speeds of up to ... er ... up to a big number. Yeah. And it can pack a LOT of power in its punch, for real. You do not want to be on the receiving end of one of them buggers. Oh, and it's a legendary Pokemon. So you're screwed, suckers."

"B-but there's only one Pokemon p-per legendary species, isn't there?" Lightning chanced a look over his unoccupied shoulder; the squabbling legends were a couple of specks in the distance, but a burst of aura still sliced the air nearby. "H-how could there be two?"

"I dunno, ask them. Maybe the psycho one'll tell you right before she rips your head off."

And then the bomb exploded.



There is this to be said about aura: reading it is just like reading any other sign in the world. It is easily classified as its own sense, although most stories equate it to second sight and leave it there. It is, to put it basically, the famed sixth sense, and like the five preceding it, it can only process so much information at once. A sudden flash of light leaves one temporarily blind; a flaming-hot sauce leaves the taste buds useless for a time; so an intense burst of aura, especially one crafted by a master into a volatile bomb, severely inhibits one's ability to read it for a while.

Fystor knew this. Vember didn't.

Which is why, a few minutes after the muffled BOOM and accompanying flash of light, the daughter stumbled rather drunkenly about through the dusty grass, the golden color of her eyes hidden as she squeezed them shut, holding her feathery head in pain. A warbled groan escaped her partially open beak as her feet flailed around on their own accord ...

... Right over the edge of a nearby cliff.

<Oh, DAMN IT—>

SPLOSH!

<Wrglnmlngsfw—>

Lashing out furiously with her claws, she managed to lift her head above the surface of the freezing water, sputtering at the foul taste of ocean salt. Treading water, she squinted in irritation and frustration.

Damn kids, they actually got away!

She glared dimly at the empty beach, with its pale gold sands and the bleach-white logs cast here and there at random intervals. A Krabby scuttled along sideways nearby, until it noticed the expression on her face and hurriedly click-click-clicked away on its spindly little legs.

<Bugger off,> she snapped after it, shaking her damp head and sending droplets flying everywhere. I can't sense anything! I've been turned into some idiotic blind person! How can all those retarded mortals live like this?

Shivering with cold and fury, she tipped back her head and unleashed a savage cry of revenge at the blazing sun as it continued its long journey toward the distant western horizon.

<MOTHERRRRRRRRRRR ....>

* * *

"Is ... she ... ch-chasing us?"

"Nah, I th-think ... I think we lost her."

<We'd better have lost her, look how far you ran! Poor, sweet Lightning, you really should rest!>

The two humans slowed to a halt, wincing at the pricking in their legs as they leaned against the wall of the unknown building, bent over, their hands on their knees. Lightning gulped down air, wiping the sweat from his brow; on his shoulder Peach patted the back of his pale hair soothingly.

Ignoring the mouse's embarrassing fondling, Leaf glanced about, wincing as she rubbed the blisters throbbing painfully on the soles of her feet. This part of the city was foreign to her: no trash lay scattered on the cement, no half-finished construction work marred the course of the roads, at least as far as she could see. Across the street rose a wall of important-looking office buildings, towering loftily over them as their hundreds of windows reflected the light of the afternoon sun. A few blocks away, a snob of a woman walked her Snubbull, a canine with a cutesy color and less-than-cutesy face.

"Hello."

"Yiiiii!"

Leaf leapt in fright at the sound of the voice in her ear, grabbing at a second-story windowsill to prevent herself from jumping too high. Fystor, standing there quietly in human form, smirked slightly, while Lightning just shook his head: he would never understand why nothing jumped higher than a scared girl.

"I've stopped my daughter's senses with an aura bomb," the silver-eyed woman stated calmly, as if Leaf wasn't hanging several yards above the ground. "She'll recover eventually, and she's sure to keep looking for you manually, although her pride might hinder that. But you two're safe, for at least a few days. Anyway ..." She leaned casually against the wall, gazing up at Leaf. "What on Shaymin's green earth makes you think that the Lapras isn't good enough for you anymore?"

The girl stopped cringing at the effort of keeping a hold on the building, and blinked in surprise. "How did you kn—?"

"Oh, please. You're aura's practically screaming it. Hell, the way you walk is sickeningly superior, so anybody can tell. And don't protest," she added sharply, as Leaf opened her mouth in astonished anger. "It hurt her, and you know it. But it's just as well that it's been done now, or else the consequences would have been on a grander scale later on."

Lightning gazed at her tall form in awe. Peach glared at him blackly.

"Yes, I really am Fystor," the woman told him, answering his unanswered question without even looking at him. "And yes, Vember is a Fystor too. But I'm the Fystor. She's just one of my daughters. And that doesn't make sense to you, so I'll have to explain that sometime. Don't give me that look, Peach, he's just having a momentary fanboy spasm at the moment, it'll pass soon enough."

Peach raised a confused eyebrow.

"Er, hello," Leaf called down, her voice strained with effort. "Back up here. Can you get me down, bird-fist-person-whatever? Because this is really starting to hurt, and I don't want to go splat."

Fystor made a face. "What, transform and fly up there to pick you up? This is a city street in the middle of the daytime!"

"But — ow — nobody's around—"

"That'll change in, oh, sixty seconds. They'll all be passing through here in a hurry, though, so you'll have to let go the moment I tell you to if you want a cushion — or else, as you put it so poetically, you'll 'go splat'."

The sound of scampering feet, growing louder as they neared, caused Peach's ears to prick up in curiosity. Then the mouse blinked, rubbing her eyes in disbelief — that was either a really weird heat wave, or something almost invisible was gliding past with astonishing speed ...

"NOW!"

Leaf hadn't wanted to obey, not entirely trusting this random bird-person, but her fingers had a different opinion on the matter. They creaked open, frozen for a cramped position in a brief, wind-filled moment as the sky rushed upwards, and—

"Oof!"

"OUCH!" shouted several voices, although a distinctly separate one happily cried out, <Spaghetti!>

The mouths of Lightning and Peach dropped open in astonishment. One moment, they reflected incredulously, there had been nothing but running and falling; the next, a pile of groaning bodies lay nearby on the sidewalk. Leaf was seen lying at the top, rubbing her hands in pain, but the rest of the collision victims were not so lucky.

In the universal tradition of all mishaps, something rolled out of the pile erratically before hitting a nearby fire hydrant with a rather pathetic clang, where it clattered to the ground, spinning feebly.

The boy turned to Fystor, gaping. "How did you do that?"

She tapped the side of her head knowingly. "Brains, kid. Actually, millions of years' experience in reading aura helps, too."

Peach blinked in surprise: it might have been her imagination, but she could've sworn that something in the direction of the retreating heat wave had called <Thanks!> in a fading voice.

"No problem!" Fystor called after it, confirming the possibility.

"Ugh ..."

<Ooh, the sweat smells yummy!>

"Shut up, Phlash. Who's in here?"

"I am."

"Me!"

"Me too!"

<Ketchup!>

"Yeah, that's not helping. Look, whoever's on top just get off, right? My *** is getting squished."

"Oh, sorry about that."

With great care, trying and failing to avoid stepping on people's fingers (her own twinged in sympathy as she did so), Leaf navigated her way off of the pile of people, making her way over to Lightning while sneaking suspicious glances at Fystor.

"Ooh, check that out!" exclaimed the Pokedex from her dangling handbag (which always seemed to be with her in the thick of things). "I didn't think I'd see one this early, but hey. Orgasm, the WHOAAAA Pokemon—"

"POKEDEX!"

"Oooh!" The familiar copper-headed form of Gina painfully clawed its way to freedom; Lightning scowled at her reappearance, but the young woman's eyes were trained on Leaf's feet and growing large in admiration. "Oooh, look at those shoes! They're, like, the most chic thing I've seen in my whole life! Where on earth did you get them?"

Leaf grinned sheepishly. "Target."

"No!"

"They were on sale."

"Seriously?"

"For fifty credits."

"Shut up!" the admin squealed, pushing Leaf's shoulder girlishly. "You did not pull that off! You lucky duck—"

"Wait!" groaned a voice, as its white-wigged owner stuck his head out of the pile of pain, calling after the not-heat-wave-thingy that had long since disappeared. "Come back, it! Come baaaaaaack ..." He waited for a few moments, then slumped dejectedly, as if he'd actually expected it to swivel around and rush towards him.

Everyone merely stared at him, as he wallowed in disillusionment.

"Gina," he muttered finally, "you're fraternizing with the enemy."

"But her sandals!" she gushed in protest. "They are ah-dorable! I seriously need to get some like those, it'll bring my collection up to one hundred and fifty pairs! And they actually look comfy, the straps usually rub your feet raw, especially when they're so new—"

With a grunt, Cobalt pushed himself out of the mass, causing everyone left in it to collapse; one cat, who seemed to have arched herself protectively over another, smaller feline's body, finally crumpled in exhaustion. A blue, bubbly-looking mouse squeaked pitifully, while the blond young woman next to it patted it with a giggle, oblivious to the moans around her; a familiar red-headed teenager, on the other hand, painstakingly crawled his way over to the fire hydrant, where he grabbed the nearby helmet and set it carefully back on his head.

"You okay?" Lightning asked him, looking concerned: Peach smiled sadly and snuggled softly against his neck as she realized that her trainer was concerned for more than the miner's physical well-being.

Roark, however, had no such revelation, as he replied, "Yeah. Ow ... see, this is why everyone should wear a helmet."

"Yeah, but it fell off," Leaf pointed out, not seeming to get that the thing about points is how they tend to burst someone's bubble. "How is it supposed to help you if it just falls off when stuff falls on you?"

<Weird Hair Guy!> Phlash exclaimed, popping up out of nowhere to tug on Cobalt's pant leg. <Guess what? Your hair looks weird!>

"Did you hear something, Lightning?" the miner asked haughtily, making a point to look around in every direction but Leaf's.

"Well—"

"I thought not. Look, I need to find Skipper and Anni. Have you seen them?"

"No, we've been running from—"

"Heyyyy!" Gina exclaimed, grabbing Roark's shoulder and spinning him around to face her. "I know you! You're Stop Sign Head, aren't you? You and what's-his-face got Severus landed in jail a couple days ago, I saw you in the mountain, and the big Swampert! Weird, isn't it, how you and Leaf have a Swampert, right?"

"What?"

"You are?" Cobalt stared at him for a moment, then leapt forward and violently shook his gloved hand like a fanboy. "You are! How can I ever thank you? It wasn't quite as efficient as letting him get killed, true, but at least he's out of my unseen hair!"

The miner looked uncertain at the admin's unexpected praise. "Er ... don't mention it?"

"Meanie Boy wouldn't let anybody get killed, anyway!" Daisy agreed, setting the bouncy mouse on her shoulder as she got to her own feet. "He's not really mentally available for that stuff, if you know what I mean. Ooh, a penny!"

<What's this about a mountain?> asked a small, gray bird, fluttering down to land on top of Cobalt's head; she tilted her own to the side in confusion, almost falling off in the process. <Just what have you been doing, Cobalt?>

<He broke the mountain,> Phlash explained, beginning to foam at the mouth for some reason. <And there were rocks phalling, and a phlying pink thingy, and people kept getting smushed into yummy burgers, and there was a horny cow. And a machine thingy, I think. Oh yeah, and he broke a city bephore that. I lived there, and my whole phamily probably died, but that's okay, they woulda phried.>

The bird's eyes widened in sympathy. <Oh, that's terrible!>

<It'd be a great way to die, though!> Phlash went on rabidly. <Sizzling in your own oils and phats! You could eat yourselph, probably! It'd be a really yummy way to kill yourselph, although I wouldn't know 'cause I'm still alive, mostly!> She grinned, foam dripping from her fangs.

<Really?> the Starly asked weakly.

"You'll get used to it, Rae," Cobalt assured her pessimistically.

Leaf watched them shrewdly. Oh, he has a Starly, does he? Suspicious ...

"You're strange," Daisy giggled at him. "So, are you all planning on entering the Contest? Oh, of course you are, that's why you're here, right? Three PM tomorrow afternoon, and I'm the MC!" She beamed vacantly.

"Contests?" Leaf and Roark exclaimed in perfect unison. "Ugh! You're not serious, are you?"

They blinked simultaneously in surprise; realizing what had just happened, each turned their back on the other, scowling in a "this-so-does-not-mean-I'm-agreeing-with-you" sort of way. The Pokedex snickered, filling its once-every-five-minutes quota.

"Well, yes!" the blonde young woman exclaimed, still giggling rather creepily. "Because everyone loves Contests, they're full of pretty people and pretty Pokemon and pretty prettiness! And besides, why would you come to the Contest Hall if you didn't?"

The two turned their attention to the building, which they had not examined previously, and groaned upon taking in the sight of a large structure reminiscent of a stadium; the broad dome-like structure glimmered a simple white, though the banner hanging over the double-door entrance stood out in a curve of golden fabric, screaming the words "CONNTEZT HELL!!!!!!!"

"Isn't it gorgeous?" Daisy gushed, mistaking their repelled expressions for ones of awe; she didn't notice that Roark was quietly slinking around the corner, looking nauseated at the sight as he disappeared abruptly from the scene. "I helped write the banner, and so did Violet, and Lily too! But Violet made a teensy error up there, because everyone knows that Contest is spelled with a 'Q'!"

<Yeah!> the Pokemon on her shoulder chirped agreeably, dribbling in an infantile manner.

"Well, I have to go," she said, grinning at everyone and not seeming to notice that they were all staring at her in disbelief. "Someone messed up the wires so that the microphone blinds you and the lights make your voice loud when you talk to them ... actually, that might've been me, so I should be the one to fix it, you know, and make it all better! Toodles!"

With that, she skipped merrily over through the doors of the Hall and out of sight.

<She has issues,> Rae commented, glancing around as if Roark were about to pop up again at any moment.

"Yeah." Cobalt nodded, looking dazed. "She's really sexy, though."

Gina rolled her eyes. "Don't be weird. Cobalt, were you running after that 'it' thing again? It gets really annoying after a while."

"But I wanted it ..." he complained almost childishly.

"I know, but it's still weird, seriously ... anyway, the grunts are digging back at camp and I think they've found something, they've been trying to get it out for the last couple hours and—"

"Gina!" Cobalt interrupted warningly.

"What?"

"You are talking about our plans within full hearing range of the enemy!"

She blinked. "... Oh yeah."

"You have to tell me away from everyone else," he told her in a voice of forced patience, as he started to walk away, pulling her after him. "And make sure they can't hear, honestly ..."

As they began to leave, Leaf forced back a sigh. She really hadn't expected their interactions to end on such an anticlimactic note; rather, she'd been looking forward to some sort of epic battle somewhere down the road, full of rivers of lava and anime-style hollering and random beam attacks against a Convenient Backdrop of Lightning™. Wait, "looking forward to"? Where did that come from?

"Leaf?" He paused, looking back at her.

She brightened up: maybe he'd start the epic battle right now, although "epic" would be a serious stretch at this point. "Yeah?"

"Did you seriously release the Lapras? After you found out it wasn't shiny, I mean?"

"Yeah ..." she answered cautiously.

"Excellent job, then!" He swiveled around and placed a hand on her shoulder; she gaped back at him, too astonished to respond. "That's the way a serious trainer would do it. None of this 'I-love-you-for-who-you-are-not-what-you-are' crap, or else you might as well be a Coordinator!"

"Hey!" Lightning protested, but Cobalt, ignoring him, had already turned around and headed off again, with Rae fluttering on his head and Phlash snapping at his heels. Gina, who had been rolling her eyes at his behavior, waved at Leaf merrily before following them, soon turning a corner and vanishing from sight.

Leaf gazed after them, her hand unconsciously reaching up toward the shoulder Cobalt had touched. He didn't lecture me about it? He approves? Does that mean ... does that mean I'm turning into someone like him?

She had absolutely no idea what to make of that thought.

The larger cat, who had been silent up until this point, looked up at her. <You're a trainer? Do you know anyone with a Persian?>

The odd question took a moment to register in her brain, but when it did, she blinked in surprise. She turned to the cat, a pale cream-colored Pokemon whose large, round eyes stared back questioningly. "Er ... no," she answered, frowning slightly. "Why?"

The cat's shoulders hunched sadly. <I'm waiting for my mate to return,> she admitted, looking downcast. <He usually returns every few weeks or so, but I haven't seen him in a couple of months, and I'm worried that ... that something's happened to him.> Her eyes flicked to the other cat, who was chasing her own tail playfully. <I was so looking forward to introducing him to our daughter ...>

<Mom's told me about him,> the daughter piped up cheerfully, reaching up with a small paw and scratching one of her black-and-brown ears. <He's the most amazing Pokemon ever ... he's flown on some of those metal birds that roar in the sky, and encountered powerful foes with his trainer, and fought really bravely all the time ... I've wanted to meet him for ages.>

Leaf shrugged. "That's cool. I might end up meeting his trainer, I dunno, this crazy stuff that's going on could take us anywhere ..."

The mother's pointed ears pricked up. <Really?>

<Ooh, ooh, Mom, you know what I should do?> The daughter, leaping to her paws, bounced around her parent excitedly, the brilliant golden charm on her head glinting with an erratic rhythm. <I should go with her, Mom! And we can probably find Dad sometime, and I can get big and strong, and go on wild adventures, and hopefully not get caved in on like we just did. Can I, Mom? Please?>

Leaf blinked. "What?"

<Oh, sweetheart ...> The numerous whiskers on her mother's head stiffened. <It's a dangerous world out there. Your father is very lucky to have such a strong trainer to guide him ... and this girl released a Lapras because of mistaken identity. She admitted it just now! I don't think you could be very happy with somebody like her being critical about your every move.>

"Hey!" Leaf protested indignantly. "That's not fair, now! It was a lot more complicated than that, I didn't want anything about her influence ruining my team, and she was the reason we were getting chased all over the region, anyway."

<See, Mom?> the younger cat asked triumphantly, beaming up at Leaf. <She agrees with me!>

"Wait, I didn't say that—"

"Y'know, it's probably a good idea to know what you're catching before you catch it, you know? The identity thing all over again, right? And this doesn't just apply to Pokemon, for your information. It's also very useful with dealing with other lovely little things, like sexually transmitted diseases."

"What the hell, Pokedex—"

"I love you too. Meowth, the SHIIIIIINYYYYYYYY Pokemon. Gender is Female, for both of the buggers. Height is Take Home The Cute Wittle Kitty, Weight is It's Eating Us Out Of The Damn House! These are kitties who live the night life, do anything for cash, and are real good with their claws. Yes, the dirtiest idea that popped into your head was the one I was aiming for. Anyway, a Meowth can, with time, be trained to convert its love for shiny stuff into an offensive technique all of their own: they toss coins at the ******* facing them. Question is, where do they get the cash? With careful consideration you will find that the answer is evident, dear friends. THEY'RE ALL BANK ROBBERS, DAMMIT!"

Leaf facepalmed. "Pokedex ..."

<It's right, for once,> Peach piped up, glaring at the two Meowth. <They're a breed of pure evil. They'll steal Lightning's soul for sure.>

"I don't remember vouching for you either, shorty," the Pokedex replied smarmily.

<Sweetheart,> the mother said, pointedly ignoring both mouse and machine, <it'll be dangerous. Even your father admitted that battles can turn very nasty, and if you were really outmatched—>

<But he was still around to admit it, right?> The daughter looked her mother in the eye with a determined air. <And really, would he want his only kitten to live an alley life? It's fun sometimes, sure, but what about when the Rattata get too hungry and try to corner you? I still get the shivers thinking about the last time. I don't wanna be somewhere with buildings boxing you in until it's too tight to breathe. But a place where there's rustling trees, soft winds, visible horizons, and a scent of freshness always there ... that's where I wanna be.>

Her mother, looking touched by the heartfelt explanation, cocked her head to the side thoughtfully.

"I'd let her go, if I were you," Fystor commented; everyone jumped, having forgotten she was there. "Fate's got a hand in this somewhere, count on it. Trainers and Pokemon don't just cross each other randomly, and this trainer practically jumped on you. And it works both ways," she added, her gaze flicking sideways to Leaf. "You couldn't handle a 'cancerous' Pokemon, as you harshly put it. Why not settle for a fully 'honest' one? Consider it redemption for ditching the Lapras. You'll have to get off your high horse sometime, and now's as good a time as any."

With some sort of compelling magnetism, Leaf's eyes met those of the young cat. It was strange ... she had never considered Meowth to be cute, though it was a far cry from ugly as far as her opinion was concerned. But there was a certain charm in the cat that seemed to illuminate her whole being, taking her words and giving them life, giving them meaning. She reminds me of me! she realized suddenly, as an image of her mother gazing out the door after her flashed across her mind. I was so thrilled to finally be on the road ... damn, was it really only a week ago?

<Please?> the cat asked again.

She sighed. "Fine. But only if your mom says you can."

The mother's whiskers drooped. <It's your dream,> she told her sadly. <I don't have any right to prevent you from walking that path.> She lowered her head to groom her kitten's head with a rasping tongue. <But promise me this,> she murmured. <Be the best you can be. Show the inner potential you could never show here. Aim for the sun: even if you miss, the moon's close by, and it's no shame to be there. And search for your father, and meet him when you do.>

She nuzzled her mother's side. <I will, Mom.>

Leaf pulled a spare Poke Ball from her belt, almost absentmindedly; the scene was so touching that she didn't even point out that she'd gotten the quote wrong.

<And stay safe!> the mother called, as her daughter stepped toward the girl, looking eager at the sight of the red-and-white-sphere.

She nodded, hardly glancing behind her. <I will, Mom. Don't worry.>

Leaf almost asked her, "are you sure about this?", but realized in time that this would be a useless question, considering the Meowth's constant nodding and begging to be off on a journey of her own. So instead she took a deep breath, smiled at the cat, and declared, "Well, just so we get the formalities out of the way, I'm Leaf. You should know your own trainer's name, right? And welcome to the team ... Parvati."

The young Meowth beamed at the sound of her new name, baring pointed teeth in a delighted grin. The smile was infectious: Leaf couldn't help returning it as she tossed the Poke Ball at the cat, who let herself be sucked into it without a struggle; it didn't shake even once before letting out a ping of successful capture.

Her mother's shoulders hunched in sorrow. <Promise me you'll take good care of her,> she begged, gazing up at the girl with wide, moist eyes.

Leaf nodded solemnly, knowing what this meant to her. "Count on it."

Peach sniffed haughtily as the Meowth dejectedly padded away, vanishing from sight as she turned into an alley. <Evil little devilspawn,> she muttered, echoing the sentiments of the age-old rivalry between cat and mouse. <This is the cancer right here, not Paris. 'Cause at least Paris wasn't a sneaky, slit-pupiled feline.>

"Hey, don't be like that," Lightning chastised her; he might not have understood her exact meaning, but the attitude behind her hiss loomed crystal clear. "Cats have feelings too. Maybe they do eat Pichu when they can, but Pichu sometimes eat those fruity whaddya-call-'ems ... Cherubi. Yeah, don't you guys nibble on those?"

<They're bigger than me,> she protested weakly, unable to hide the guilty look on her face.

Tearing her gaze from the space which the Meowth had just vacated, Leaf shot a look at Fystor. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

Fystor's expression was the picture of innocence. "With what?"

She sighed. "Don't give me that."

"Hey, don't get uppity about it. I gave you a freaking cushion, girlie. And you got a new Pokemon out of it. In any case, when I said Fate had something to do with it, I wasn't kidding around. I'll bet you my last particle of aura that the Twins were behind all of those people running into each other at once."

A blank blink. "Twins?"

Fystor facepalmed. "Dear Arceus, did you ever look at the Word?"

"Well—"

"This is utterly ridiculous. How in hell am I supposed to work with someone who doesn't even know her legendaries?"

"I do know them! There's Groudon and Kyogre—"

"I'd go after your History teachers with a knife if you didn't know about them," Fystor said, brushing the protest off idly.

"—And Arceus, Shaymin, er, Mew—"

"Naturally."

"—Secloven—"

"Humans would remember him."

"—Ho-Oh—"

"Too many sightings. I told him not to pull those stunts, but no, he shouldn't have to listen to me."

"—Moltres ..." She smiled slightly as she said the name: the mythic fiery avian was her favorite legend. "Regirock, Regiground—"

"Doesn't exist."

"Damn. Er ..." She fidgeted slightly, racking her brains. "Suicune—"

"Should've realized I'd be dealing with a Suicune Safari fangirl."

"Hey, that show is awesome!" Leaf scowled at Fystor's uninterested expression.

The legendary sighed. "Of course it is. We all know how fascinated you are with giant blue wolves — as opposed to that Mystical Man host, what's-his-name, Enigmatic Eusine, and his other atrocious alliterations. See, you just got hearts in your eyes! I didn't come here to tell you about your quest just to watch you squeal over idiots!"

"He's a gorgeous idiot," Leaf drooled.

Fystor snorted in disgust.

"I dunno what else," Leaf murmured, still in a daze. "Oh wait, there was ... yeah ... there was some weird thing, Giratina, I think ..."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "That's strange."

"Why?"

"Giratina's not mentioned much, even in the Word," she explained. "And you're woefully uninformed when it comes to the Word." She tilted her head to the side, hawklike. "Why is that?"

Leaf shrugged. "I heard Mom talking about it one time, over the phone."

"Interesting." Fystor's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"I swore by it once, too," the Pokedex chimed in helpfully. "Remember?"

Everyone ignored it.

"Well." Leaf yawned; the events of the day had drained her in almost every possible way. "That's all the legends I know."

"..."

"What?" she asked defensively, shrinking back slightly from Fystor's sudden, murderous glare.

"Er," Lightning said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "Leaf, somehow I think it's ..."

"What is it?" she demanded, swiveling around to glare at him.

He blanched; it didn't seem possible that he'd ever get used to her sudden mood swings. "The thing is ... Fystor's a legendary too," he told her in a small voice.

"... Oh."

Fystor's nostrils flared angrily, like a bull's; Leaf cringed automatically, though she had a vague idea that if Fystor had been really angry, Vember's job would be done in the blink of an eye. Still, even she knew that an angry legendary needed to be appeased.

"Er ... sorry?" she tried feebly. "I kinda forgot that ... that you were a ... er ... sorry ..."

Fystor shrugged, opting not to graffiti the Contest Hall's wall with a Leaf-shaped smear. But all the way to Bill's cottage, which the teens had decided to return to as it was a convenient place to spend the fast-approaching night, not one word escaped her lips about the eavesdropper.

[SugarPesticide]

* * *

He hadn't meant to listen in on their conversation. He hadn't even meant to leave so suddenly, without notice. But the meaning of those words, no matter how ridiculously misspelled ... he'd intended to search for it yesterday, to stand in the center of the arena and gaze up at the seats staring silently down at him from the circular stands surrounding him, with a glorious vision that someday, soon, he could hear their cheers as the soft fabric of ribbon was pressed into his hand by the beaming MC ...

Another wave of nausea swept over him at the thought. His stomach turned over, and he automatically leaned toward the decorative bush twisting against that infernal Hall's marble-white wall; but it had already been painfully emptied. Only a dry heave rasped from his mouth. He tried not to think about what they'd would say if they could see him now. Weakling. You can't even get a grip on yourself. What kind of miner are you?

It was clear, now, how terribly taken in he had been by the dream, if a dream was indeed the cause. That he had cheerfully aimed for a goal which nearly everyone he knew would shudder at, and almost sold his soul (metaphorically) to a life of coordinating ... the full impact had somehow struck him at the sight of those large capital letters. Well, it's said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach ...

Sweat glistening damply on his forehead, he collapsed on his back, peering blearily at his helmet, which he'd tossed off. From this perspective it was upside-down, beneath a sky of sun-dried grass. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, which made him feel a bit better. But the comforting darkness couldn't muffle the cacophony of warring thoughts within him ...

Why? he wondered. It was the only coherent bit he could pick out; the rest roiled in confusion and astonishment and suppressed fury. Yet it spoke for the entire hellish choir: Why did she abandon the Lapras? Why is a legend appearing to her? Why did I come here? Why did Dad—

The raw thought was swallowed by the horrific memory, and he choked back a scream, holding his face as if he could somehow push it into the blackness from whence it came. It was important, he knew, that he'd escaped the scene. In the clinking dark of echoing caves, where a wrong move could collapse a tunnel and where undiscovered creatures lurked in the shadowy corners, a miner develops a keen sense of danger and survival. The same case appeared here, though the brightness of day illuminated the scene, and the danger threatening him back home was infinitely more lethal and subtle than anything in the mines.

Because a sole witness was laughably easy to kill.

CRUNCH!

He spun onto his stomach almost instantly, eyes briefly unfocused as the sudden movement disoriented him. Climbing unsteadily to his knees, his heart almost froze as he watched as the scene resolved itself into a very familiar gray Pokemon, getting to her feet and muttering to herself as she rubbed her domed head.

<Those buggers. It's useless, jumping. It's not going to help them, dammit!>

"Anni!" he exclaimed, exhaling in relief. "Anni, what the heck were you thinking? You can't just ..." He peered up at the sky, tilting his head up to look at the possible sites she had used for takeoff; the sun glinted blindingly against his glasses as he did so, and he winced at the light. "You can't just jump off a building!" he said, automatically picking up a scolding tone. "You could've broken something!"

<I did,> she replied, looking down at the small crater formed in the sidewalk from her head's impact; cracks spiderwebbed from it like electricity. <But I had to land somewhere, you know—>

"I didn't mean the sidewalk," he interrupted, "I meant you. What if your skull had ... had fractured ... er ..." He trailed off as he realized how ridiculous this concern was.

As if reading that thought, Anni snorted. <Yeah, because having one of the toughest heads of all Pokemon puts me in serious danger of cracking my skull open. Somehow, I don't think you guys would've named us "Cranidos", after our fricking craniums, if you weren't pretty sure that our heads are rock-solid.>

"Literally." He couldn't stop himself.

She stuck her tongue out at him. <Ha ha, very clever. Anyway, what're you doing here? It's the fricking Contest Hall!> She sneered up at the dome looming above them.

He turned slightly green. "I know."

She turned her disgust to the nearby bush. <Ick. Yeah, I guess you do, right?>

"Mm. Where's Skipper?" He pushed himself to his feet; the world spun briefly around him as he steadied himself, putting his helmet back on. He was acutely aware that she was giving him a look of wary concern, as if worried he might reenact yesterday's fall.

<Angsting over on the beach. He's got his head pointed at the horizon, where the Lapras was headed — he woulda swum after her, but his scar started acting up, you know. Got his shoulders hunched, kinda droopy. He was howling when I went to look for you. Very dramatic, actually.>

They began walking down the sidewalk, both slightly disoriented; circumnavigating the glaring crater and soiled bush, Roark followed his short-heighted, short-tempered dinosaur away from the dreaded Hall. "He's been through too much," he said simply, opting not to add the fully truthful phrase, And so have I.

<Damn straight. Leaf ...> She shook her head despairingly. <What a bugger that noob is. I don't know what she's thinking, but it's completely idiotic! Lapras don't grow on trees! And she was my niece!> Her beak twisted into a scowl. <Dammit, that girl ...>

He merely let her talk, passively brewing in his own silence. A sleek car — black with tinted windows, new by the look of it — purred passed them quietly, leaving a gentle breeze in its wake.

<What an idiot,> Anni went on. <Almost as stupid as those Bagon. Morons. I was thinking about that one Bagon, the *** who kicked Skipper's necklace off. He looked stupid to me. They jump off cliffs because they think it's flying. You knew that, right? I tried that, just now. Jumping off the top of a building, since there aren't a lot of cliffs in the city. And it's stupid, seriously, it doesn't do anything except give you a headache from hell. Why would you jump?>

He wondered just how she had reached the top of the building, shaking his head at her curiosity over the nonsensical matter, before his thoughts returned to their recent track. We can't afford to lose each other, he told himself, as a protective feeling for his dinosaur gripped him again. We're all we've got left. We're just betrayed over and over again, we can't trust anyone else — Dad was the reason, and Leaf was the confirmation ...

<Do they have a death wish, or what? Seriously, they're all suicidal freaks. "Oh my golly gee gosh, I just know that jumping off cliffs will make me grow wings someday, because I have the power of believing in myself! And if it doesn't work, there's no point in living, so I'll do it over and over again till my head explodes! Yay!" Retards.>

We're alone, he thought gloomily. Not a single human to turn to; not even Jas and Col would understand. Well, of course not. They wouldn't believe that Dad could ... that he'd ever ... He swallowed hard. Well. Granted, I probably wouldn't have believed them, if one of them had seen it ... but still, there's not even one person we can talk t—

He froze in midstride, mouth gaping open as an obvious realization occurred to him.

"Of course!"

<Good, you agree with me. Everyone does. By the way, remember that theory that one scientist had about Bagon being descended from Cranidos? That's BS, dude. B-freaking-S. Because we wouldn't have developed the ***-worthy idea that we could fly if we tried to make our heads blow up — hey, where're you going?>

But he stopped running down the street after only a few seconds, tapping at a random passerby's shoulder. How stupid am I? he berated himself jubilantly, as the curious person turned around. Forgetting my oldest and best friend ... so obvious, and I didn't even see it?

"Excuse me," he asked, "but do you know where I could find an Internet cafe?"

* * *

The tired sun poured blood-red light over the sands of the Cinnabar beach, on which the returning tide gently lapped with an unceasing rhythm. Over a distant sand dune floated the far-off echo of a malevolent yowl, followed by an agonized scream.

Then only the sound of the gentle waves.

The wind whistled in its lofty, violent currents, soft at first, but slowly and surely growing into a deafening whoosh as a great fiery dragon dropped out of the sky, flaming tail whipping through the air in excitement as his mighty wings spread wide, revealing deep blue webs that stretched to catch the wind. Another thin, fluctuating wave of chaos rippled into existence in the air in front of him, turning a nearby worried-looking Wingull into a rubber duck, which squeaked stupidly as it fell; the dragon, however, sharply veered to the side, adeptly avoiding the chaos as he dived sharply toward the beach before swooping a few yards upwards, deftly avoiding a nasty collision. He hovered just above the ground for a moment, gently flapping his wings, before landing with a loud thwump that scattered sand everywhere with a soft hiss. Twin streams of smoke curled gently from his dilating nostrils as he twisted his head around, black eyes gazing back at the lanky young man sitting on his shoulders.

"Nice work, boy," Warren said with a smile, patting the majestic beast's long neck; the Charizard grinned toothily back, dipping his horned head with surprising speed: the adrenaline — mixed with a bit of jumpy fear — pumped through the reptile's huge body with every heartbeat. And Warren felt it too, even though he'd never admit it.

This is it. The final, greatest challenge against an opponent of almost legendary renown, the battle to prove once and for all his right for the title of Champion, his status as the greatest trainer in all of Kanto. In a burst of silent excitement he leapt from the back of his dragon; sweat glistened as he tossed his long black hair to the side, landing catlike on his feet without so much as flinching. The final hurdle.

With a casual, swift flick his wrist jerked toward his belt; five beams of light burst from their respective Poke Balls, condensing into the other five familiar forms of his trusted team. A hulking green-blue dinosaur unleashed a deep, earth-shaking rumble, red eyes glaring at the smoking form of the distant volcano as the tropical red leaves of the towering flower drooping over his back rustled gently in the breeze. Muscles rippled under the ocean-blue skin of an enormous bipedal turtle, who smirked confidently at the tension in the air; from the mysterious depths of his rich brown shell, twin silvery cannons appeared, peeking out from the holes near his shoulders like cautious gophers emerging from their dens. The fourth and final titan, a rotund beast splayed upon the sand without a care in the world, snored violently, his broad belly expanding as air filled his chest before he unleashed a lazy yawn.

In the midst of these massive creatures, the brilliant yellow mouse and the spherical, pink balloon-like thing were easily dwarfed; yet their eyes, shiny black and deep blue, gazed up at their trainer, their trust in him glowing like beacons in the impending storm. At times interviewers asked him why he never evolved these two, and his answer was always the same: the true trainer will never force the shape of his partners to change. At that point, he'd say, they cease to be partners and start to be just random animals trained to pummel other animals.

"It's time," he said, and the words slid in the empty air like coffin lids. There would be no going back, they said, as if sealing off any chance of escape. We fight to the death. Conquer the beast or die trying.

The Pokemon smiled at his concealed tension. They smiled because their trainer smiled, and when he smiled everything would be all right. They smiled because, deep within their secret souls, they were too terrified not to.

"Pika!" The electric rodent, jagged tail sticking upright, pointed over a distant hill, beyond which wisps of darkness curled in a snake-like manner. A dark cloud began to form, growling ominously; the shape was small, but not for long.

"Yes." Warren's eyes narrowed in concentration. "It's coming to meet us."

The smirk slid off Blastoise's face. Beads of sweat began to line up along his triangular head.

"Puff ..." The balloon's eyes widened even further, and the tuft of pink hair curling from his forehead bounced gently as he shivered in alarm. His catlike ears flattened against his head, and he instinctively reached for his trainer with tiny, stubby arms.

His smile returned, a soft one this time. "It's okay to be scared, Jigglypuff. Admitting you're afraid is better than letting it eat you up from the inside until you can't move. Remember the Pokemon Tower, and the ghosts?"

"Jig." The balloon nodded timidly.

"The important thing is to stay true to your soul," Warren told the group at large, raising his voice as the wind began to pick up. "Bravery is what keeps us together when the hour is darkest ... and that is very, very important, boys. Because if we don't have each other, we don't have anyone at all ..."

And then, suddenly, the creature was there.

He couldn't remember it creeping down the hillside, or stalking silently toward him through sand that shriveled as its feet touched it, or the cloud seemingly multiplying into a nightmarish sky of thunderous crackling, or the gently moaning whirls of chaos distorting the scenery around them. But nevertheless it stood there, a skeletal being of ghastly proportions, towering over even Snorlax with its looming, somewhat spiky frame, from which blackness dripped like some incurable poison, pooling at its clawed feet in puddles of shadow. Yet it was clearly alive: the bones never scraped together with a painful creaking, but moved together silently, fluidly, like a snake tracking its doomed prey. And in the gaping darkness of its wide eye sockets glowed twin orbs, poisonously brilliant blue spheres that seemed to delve through the secrets concealed within the flesh, to burn through the protective layers of self until the helpless soul lay bare for the beast to examine at its leisure.

"Yes ..." The glitch hissed in a tongue that could barely be called human, so twisted and sinister was the eldritch voice which shaped the words. "You are the human, yes. I knew you would come, Creature of Order ..."

The light of its ... were they eyes? They were in the right place, roughly the right shape, and burned with the right intensity of any living thing. And yet somehow, the term "eyes" applied to the unblinking globes in the same way that "journal" applied to a book which, over the course of harsh millennia, accumulated the endless recordings of holy men until the point at which the tales of light and darkness had at last been compiled into a thick book simply titled as "The Word" ...

The Champion stared back at the lit skull, his face a ghastly hue as the light fell upon his skin to coat it with a sickly blue. For the first time, a hint of dark fear crept across his expression, a fraction of the panic blossoming within his soul. He grimly lashed out at it, ashamed at the humiliating terror — not once in five years had he felt any obstacle to be too challenging, any problem unsolvable. Stay brave, he whispered to himself. Remember Jigglypuff. Remember Pokemon Tower ...

"There is power in you, yes." The creature hissed, a sound like metal being sharpened. Shadow curled like smoke from its scythe as it pointed at the human, who instinctively flinched at the sight of the lethally sharp edge. "You are a human of standing. In a fair fight, you would undoubtedly defeat this chaotic ... after a long, unrelenting battle, but nevertheless ..."

It wants me, Warren realized slowly, and a fresh stab of horror tore a gaping hole in his resolve. It wants to sway me to its side ... to follow its evil whims ... it's more than just a glitch, it has to be, remember the glitch at Route Twelve? At least that was a normal—

"You have gone far, and yet ..." The creature paused, and its silibant words hung in the air like a living noose, more threatening than its appearance could ever suggest. "And yet with me, you could go far ... farther than even your most fantastic dreams could ever take you."

The rush of terror was a flood now, ringing shrilly in his ears. The hair along his arms, on his neck, stood to attention as goosebumps rippled down his skin. Somewhere, distantly, he heard a child's voice sing, a song remembered from a childhood long past, as a young, dark-haired boy looked out at the world with a glint in his eye and a dream in his heart—

I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was ...

"Join me," the glitch pressed on, "and you will be the greatest human ever born to Order. You can travel to a land beyond regret ... beyond doubt, fear, pain, guilt, lies, nightmares ... your foes will throw themselves at your mercy. At my side, there is no need for restriction. The world is your oyster, and the pearl within at your fingertips ..."

To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause ...

Out of sight, one of his Pokemon whimpered. He couldn't tell which one.

"Come ..." It beckoned, its scythe appearing to curl in on itself as it did so. The darkness of its voice had a faint, mocking quality to it, as with a predator toying with its prey. "You cannot resist my power."

I have to resist, he moaned inwardly, a single voice against the hurricane of darkness, of horror, of memories dredged up from forgotten swamps and dripping with agony. Can't ... let it ... take me ...

I will travel across the land, searching far and wide ...

Then, so quietly he might have missed it, a thought within himself whispered, But you're already resisting, aren't you? You're not letting it order you around. Stick with the pain and you've already won.

A small light, even a light obscured by the cunning wiles of evil night, is nevertheless a light. With a rush of hope he felt his soul catapult from the chains of despair threatening to strangle it, felt a surge of warmth rush over his limbs as he knew the thing would never take his mind, his will, his heart ...

Each Pokemon to understand the power that's inside—

"I'll never join you! I'll die first if that's what it takes!"

The words reached his lips seemed to take centuries before they finally crawled sluggishly into his exhausted ears and brain. They rang out echoingly against the many bones of the beast, jangling against every rib like a dying howl bouncing from the sides of impassive cliffs, the only witnesses to the mighty fallen ...

In the sudden, blood-chilling quiet, in which even the wind had been silenced, the glitch returned his petrified gaze with a pair of orbs which, if one looked closely, were very slowly expanding ... the terror swept over him, more cutting in its return as he realized that noncompliance would never be painless ...

"Very well, if that's what you wish."

And the beast leapt.



<Okay, this is what we do. Jump him, check his pockets for loose change, stab him to ectoplasmic ribbons and jack the cash if he does, and bind him to our dark and unrelenting wills if he doesn't. Simple enough, right, Beast?>

...

<Beast?>

<Look, Ketsuban!> the Beast exclaimed, pointing in awe at something protruding from the stony wall. <It's a skull thingy! But ... weird. I think something screwed it to the wall. That makes no sense, Ketsuban, I mean, look at that! Why is that screwed to the wall?>

<I don't know,> Missingno replied tartly, waving a scythe distractedly. <Maybe because ... I don't know. It must've been screwed up.>

<...?>

<That was a joke, Beast.>

<Ohhhhhh. I don't get it, Ketsuban. Mm, still a joke though. Fufufufufufu!>

<What?>

<Laughter, Ketusban. That's how the Japanese laugh.>

<What do the Japanese have to do with anything?>

<Well—>

<Shut up. Look, let's just put that stupid soul out of its misery already. Beast, stop poking that.>

The Beast sulkily retracted its scythe from the skull's empty eye sockets. <I'm Sherlock, Ketsuban,> it said with a hint of a pout.

<And I'm Missingno, Beast. Come on, hurry, before he gets away!>

Their skulls peeped comically around the corner. A random enslaved soul shuffled along the darkened corridor in the other direction, throwing weak shadows that moved with strange fluctuations every time he passed another flickering torch. The faded trenchcoat hanging over his shoulders was his only distinguishing feature; the ghostly glow of his skin, together with his blank face whose features ran together like wax, made him virtually impossible to tell him apart from any other captive.

<Aw ... but look at him, Ketsuban! He's so sad and lonely!>

<Pfft. Yeah right, Beast. See him shuffling along, zombie-style? I've seen more emotion from a cardboard cutout. And even that's got more purpose than he does now. Stop feeling sorry for the pathetic loser and help me get him!>

<Oh, silly Ketsuban ...>

Missingno shot him a glance, cautiously sidled behind the ignorant soul ... and paused. The floor beneath his bony feet trembled ever so slightly, but in his experience he knew that this could only mean bad news. Of course, he had absolutely no idea what sort of bad news this meant, but there was little point in sticking around to find out.

The tormented soul slowly turned his head, and Missingno, being a glitch, was hardly fazed when he noticed that the dead human's head had swiveled around a perfect one hundred and eighty degrees. What worried him was the way the soul's edges began to flutter gently, as the dead eyes stared unseeingly past the skeleton at something further along the endless corridor.

<Oh, damn.>

<Ketsuban, wha—?>

<Shut up and run!> the glitch hollered, dropping all caution as he broke into a sprint down the hall; claws scraped against the stone with a screech as every step dug into the floor, but he ignored it, focusing every ounce of concentration into his run.

Ragged gasps burst behind him; evidently the Beast didn't understand that breathing was unnecessary. <K-Ketsuban!> a voice panted, echoing against the rocky walls. <Wh-, wh-, ... aaargh, why are we run-nning, K-Ketsuban? I thought we w-were g-g-gonna g-g-get the sad g-g-guy hweeeeeee—>

<I don't know! Just shut up and run, dammit!>

<Bu-uht if you don't know, wh-, wh-, ow why are we run-ning gahhhhh—>

<I said, shut—>

A low, ominous rumble shook the very air around them. To the sides, the torches waved furiously in rhythm.

WHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUM—

<Oh. Is that why, K-Ketsuban?>

<Sure.> The sarcasm oozed from his voice.

The sound grew into a thunderous roar as a faint glow gradually crept past their running feet, casting long, bony shadows as it washed over them; without slowing, Missingno turned his head to see the source of the nondescript light.

<Oh, shi—>

The howling noise drowned him out, but if he'd had eyes, they would have widened at the sight that greeted him: a flood of screaming darkness, soaring down the corridor like a vampiric fog, easily gaining on them in spite of their impressive speed. Within the shadows, the forms of melted souls slipped in and out of focus, pulsing frantically with the light that had alerted him to the thing's presence; veins of brilliant blue glowed against the impenetrable black, thrumming malevolently.

His bones almost locked up in shock when a sudden fanfare blasted from beside him; swearing furiously, he snapped his gaze at the Beast, who was gently twirling a stray strand of chaos around its scythe. The indescribable non-substance blared the theme music of a well-known adventure film at an obnoxious volume.

<Da-da-da-DAAAA, DA-da-daaaa .... DA-da-da-DAAAAAAA, DA-da-DA, DA, DA! I love this music!> the Beast exclaimed eagerly, as the dramatic notes verberated off the surrounding stone like cheesy elevator music in a prison cell.

<TURN IT OFF, DAMMIT!> Relief that the sound was nothing important warred with adrenaline-fueled rage ... though the latter was completely metaphorical, as adrenaline does not exist on the spiritual level. <DO YOU WANT TO GET US KILLED, YOU *******? THAT'S NOT A BOULDER, ANYWAY!>

<But Ketsuban ...> The Beast tossed its head back in an eye-roll, still twirling the chaos strand as it seemed to fly on its feet. <But Ketsuban, it's the spirit of the thing, right? And what's more in the spirit of running for our lives than listening to Indiana J—?>

Snarling in terror, Missingno cut the Beast off with a sharp wave of his scythe. This action, while at first glance extremely barbaric, was actually what saved the Beast's (for want of a better word) life: hooking the lethal point around the strand of chaos, the glitch leapt nimbly into a nearby corridor conveniently ready for their escape, pulling the startled Beast along behind him. Half a second later, the deafening darkness plowed through the very spot they had jumped from, and as they gazed blearily up from their sudden pile their visions were filled with the ravenous black and the deathly light.

Then it was gone. The rumble slowly followed, its dying echoes bouncing darkly from the walls.

<What,> Missingno muttered, his voice sounding eerily loud after the near-oblivion experience, <what was ...> He swallowed, a noise like dry sticks clacking together. <That thing, was it ... was it ... him?>

<I think so.> The Beast shivered. <It's unlike anything I've ever seen, it's not ... right.> It shook its head, trying to clear it.

Climbing to their feet, the two skeletons glanced cautiously around the corner, staring at the path down which the darkness had flown. Satisfied that it wouldn't return, Missingno slumped against a wall, rubbing his head with the back of a scythe. <Weird,> he breathed. <What does the idiot think he's doing? Is he looking for us?> He couldn't suppress a shudder at the thought.

His Beast looked thoughtful for a moment. <I doubt it,> it said at last. <Surely it has better things to do, like Crushing more sad people, or thinking dastardly thoughts, or controlling ... controlling our body ...>

They glanced at each other. If it was possible, they would have blinked simultaneously.

<The body!> The brief spell broken, Missingno had to stop himself from jumping up and down like a fanboy.

<It's ours!> the Beast squealed gleefully. <We didn't need to hurt that poor soul at all, Ketsuban, yay! Time to make a comeback, eh?>

<...>

<Oh, don't give me that look, Ketsuban. I've already told you, I'm on your side now. Goodness, only you could have come up with an idea so deviously devious and sneakily sneaky, Ketsuban! I'm not nearly worthy of any such things, you kn—>

<Shut up, I need to concentrate ...>

The glitch deactivated his vision, as he could not close his eyes, for obvious reasons. Ignoring the almost tangible excitement wafting from his Beast, he let his awareness branch out cautiously, curiously, like a new tree slowly unfurling its leaves to the open air as the sun shines to welcome a new day ...

And suddenly he was rushing up, or out, or back, or possibly all directions at once ... he didn't realize he'd been bracing himself for a returning onslaught of pain, until he felt a faint tingling sensation spreading from the general region of his chest and pattering down his limbs. They're my limbs again, he thought excitedly, and a powerful rush of some alien emotion burst within him ...

He waited for the return of control to come, eager to embrace the power it would bring ...

Nothing.

Damn.

Ketsuban? The Beast's voice rang curiously in his mind, which he found strange, now, to think of as a part of his being rather than a place. Hey, Ketsuban, where'd you go? Ketsuban? Ketsuuuuuuuubaaaaaaaaan ....?

Shut up.

Ketsuban! You're heeeeeeere—!

I know. Beast, I don't get this, why don't I have—

I'm Sherlock, Ketsuban.

Whatever. Beast, listen, I can't grab control of the body! It probably had something to do with Apolydon. Any pointers?

He could almost hear the Beast tapping its chin with a scythe as it pondered the situation. Hmm. No trouble getting the body back, then? I'm not seeing any sign of him in here. Maybe when he left, he messed up our nervous system. Or something. Do we have a nervous system, Ketsuban? I don't really think so, because skeletons don't have them, and neither do ghosts, or sparkly chaos mess thingies—>

We don't have nervous systems? That's a funny thing, because you're getting on my nerves.

Ahahahaha. Er, fufufu. Good one, Ketsuban. Hey, are your—?

Missingno missed the rest of the question: his vision suddenly flickered into a blinding montage of unfocused color, at the same moment that noise — real, honest noise, not the strange verbalization of thoughts within the mind — swamped his ear sockets with information. He felt his body convulse involuntarily as it sucked in a rush of life-giving oxygen.

Oh, I'm home!

"My apologies, foolish Ketsuban."

The breath turned to ice in his metaphorical lungs. Mind numb with growing horror, he let the scene gradually refocus into dark blue, scattered with white and marred by a column of color ... then the white patches became hazy clouds, drifting across a strangely peaceful sky, while the odd column organized itself into blue legs and a red midsection, tipped with flesh-colored bits and topped with a mane of black ...

The face of Warren stared back at him.

Except it wasn't Warren's face. Something in the set of the jaw, the reptilian dilation of the nostrils, the marble-smooth forehead, bespoke that the being facing him was far older than the something-year-old heap of flesh that housed it. And those eyes ... they burned an unholy, unnatural blue, glowing very faintly in the gentle daylight, but with an intensity of a sudden blast of ice, ready and able to freeze the soul until it cried out for the heat of unceasing fire.

"Ketsuban ... it was what needed to be done," said the thing inside Warren. The voice was human, but it carried a strange quality, as if its owner was finding it confusing to speak with a human mouth. "Your soul would not have understood the situation, my lieutenant. It would have rebelled against the cause, and perhaps even destroyed you. But my possession of your body has weakened the bonds that enslaved you. Now it is yours, Ketsuban, to deal with as you will ..."

A brief movement at the edge of Missingno's vision caught his attention; with numb confusion he watched six Poke Balls floating slowly, eerily, in a circular pattern, undoubtedly bourne by the power of a chaos fluctuation. They shone with a dark purple light, uncannily similar to the aura which curled from the Beast's bones, floated closer together, in an almost occult formation—

And suddenly there was only one, fading gradually to black and blue.

"What I will soon do is for your own good." Without even glancing at the buoyant sphere, the thing used Warren's hand to snatch it out of midair; it glistened like a just-laid egg, looking sick and diseased. "The Pikachu managed to paralyze your body just after I seized this human. The paralysis will remain long enough for the right people to contain you. You must be protected from yourself, Ketsuban, if you are to regain what is rightfully yours. I extend my apologies for it in advance. When I arrange your freedom, Ketsuban, search for me at the Indigo Plateau. No one will stop you ..."

The thing waved the free hand vaguely; a pair of clunky sunglasses appeared in his outstretched palm, and Apolydon slipped them over Warren's face, concealing the supernatural eyes they shared.

"... Because, Ketsuban, things are going to change."

Terror was not something that came easily to Missingno, a creature witness to countless nauseatingly horrific murders and guilty of most of them. Yet a sneaking hint of dread crept into his heartless self at the sight of the not-Warren's expression, the immovable purpose of its being to enslave the entirety of souls. The world would be reverted to its glorified state of utter lawlessness, but — and here dread found itself mingled with fury and sorrow — there will be no place for me in it.

And then the thing was gone, but for the soft crunch of sand under sneakered feet.

Was he talking to me, Ketsuban? asked the Beast, sounding disbelieving.

Undoubtedly.

The Beast sighed. Oh, for the love of Mew. Who does he think he is, Ketsuban, honestly?

Oh, I dunno, Missingno replied testily, the sarcasm creeping back into his tone. Maybe he thinks he's the Lord of Evil, the King of Chaos, the Prince of Darkness, et cetera, et cetera, and has this crazy idea that he's got enough power to do whatever the hell he wants.

Silly Ketsuban, you know what I mean.

They were silent for a moment. The ocean lapped the shore in its eternal cycle, the sound of its distant waves roaring quietly. Overhead, a Wingull cried out noisily and then, perhaps due to some universal law of irony, dropped a foul-smelling gift on the skeleton's head.

Eurgh!

Wingull used Present! the Beast exclaimed half-heartedly. Fufufufu! It's super ... er ... super-effective ... hey, I'm trying to get a hold on this humor thing, okay, Ketsuban? Might as well get some laughs before we get utterly Crushed, right?

Beast?

Yes, Ketsuban?

Shut up.

Ah. Yes. Sorry, Ketsuban.

More partial silence. A fly buzzed lazily around the Wingull's contribution.

Beast?

Can't talk right now, Ketsuban. You told me to shut up.

Yeah, well, un-shut up for a moment. Warren probably had all his Pokemon out with him, right?

The human? It's likely, Ketsuban.

Mm-hmm. Makes sense, really. Adds to his sense of the dramatic, I suppose. The whole together-we-are-stronger-than-the-adversary thing. Got a glimpse of him when he came here to get his badge, it's the sort of thing he'd do.

I know, Ketsuban, I know. Humans like that teamwork stuff. We're aaaall in thiiis togeeeether—

NO! NOT THAT!

Sorry, Ketsuban.

Seven souls, Missingno muttered, ignoring the Beast's apology. Seven strong, brave souls, all Crushed at once ... that's where the weird Poke Ball came in, I bet. His power's just been exponentially boosted, damn him. And at the head of the Kanto League ... sweet Celebi, he'll be unstoppable!

The buffoon. He's a bit stuck-up, isn't he, Ketsuban ...

Hang on ... can you hear that?

Hear what, Ketsuban?

But the noises grew louder, and they both soon heard it clearly ... the shouting and barking cracked like a whip. Beneath the steadily increasing volume of a wailing siren, footsteps pounded softly against the sand dunes. The engine of some nearing vehicle grumbled reluctantly.

Oh. That. Pokemon Control, Ketsuban?

A woman's voice rose sharply over the other noises: "Nobody get close to it! It's still dangerous!"

Yeah, they are. Apolydon sent them, didn't he, Ketsuban?

Probably. Damn useful disguise, they'll believe anything he says. "Oh hi guys, I just conquered the evil glitch that's been terrorizing you for the last three days, it's lying over on the beach where I completely owned it, and pay no attention to the color behind the sunglasses, it doesn't mean anything."

"Yellow tape, yellow tape, set a line up here, coming through!"

"You two, keep those civilians far back! The rest of you, follow me, Pokemon out in case it tries something funny. Blaine, get your Magmar ready for the choke-hold thing Warren suggested!"

"Righto, Jenny!"

That *******! Missingno trembled inwardly with sudden, red-hot fury. Above him, a random wave of chaos flickered into existence above him in perfect timing with his abrupt rage; worried shouts from the surrounding humans immediately followed its sudden birth. That selfish, sneer-faced, two-timing, treacherous *******! Apolydon! he clarified angrily, sensing the Beast about to ask. He knows my weakness, dammit! And he went and blabbed it to them so they could "keep me under control"! He told them! He told them!

An ugly, red, duck-like face suddenly loomed in his vision. Blank-looking eyes peered above the puckered beak as the Pokemon lifted a clawed hand coated in a silvery glove; the metallic threads caught the rays of the sun and threw them in a skewed pattern across the glitch's bones.

Damn it, he told them everything!

Cautiously, the Magmar lowered its gloved hand to Missingno's unmoving neck; with the cautious precision of a surgeon it slipped its fingers underneath the vertebrae and, after fumbling for a moment for the right bone, pushed the very top of his spine upwards while its thumb simultaneously pressed against the base of his throat.

With a last muttered <damn>, the glitch twitched spasmically and lay limp, drifting back to unconsciousness ...

Hey, Ketsuban, as long as you're here—

Shut up.

* * *

Shloopp.

"Um ..." Lightning edged away from the mess coiled sloppily on his plate. "Didn't we have that last night?"

"Of course!" Bill exclaimed, scooping a large, chunky section out of the casserole and turning it down toward his own dish; it oozed from the serving spoon — shloopp — like some primordial sludge, curling into a suspicious-smelling pile. "The nutritional value was so good, we can't let it go to waste!"

Leaf muttered something that sounded vaguely like "too late".

"So, you got your badge!" He plopped down into his chair, digging his fork into the mess in front of him. "This is your second one now, isn't it? Excellent progress, if I do say so myself! You've definitely got it going for you!"

She nodded absentmindedly, picking warily at her casserole.

"D'you know what's wrong with Ocean and Fire?" he went on, as if to fill the silence booming in the darkening room. "They just grabbed their stuff and left. Not at the same time, but still ... seriously bad moods they were in. And Roark hasn't come back at all yet ..." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Did something happen?"

"Possibly," Lightning replied warily; he didn't relish the idea of what Bill might do if he heard the incredible chain of events which had eventually lead to having a legendary Pokemon as a dinner guest.

The legendary Pokemon in question didn't even pretend to look interested in her food. "Too long to relate right now," she said, in a voice that promised no relation of the facts whatsoever. She seemed a bit uneasy, glancing this way and that with narrowed eyes as if tracking a pesky fly.

Even with Fystor's arrival, the table felt empty after the crowd for dinner last night. The shadows of uncertainty and self-importance, spreading from Lightning and Leaf respectively, were mirrored by the darkness creeping up from its hiding places as the sun vanished into the west. Even Bill, who had the social experience of a mothball, had noticed it. "What did you say your name was?" he asked the legendary, passing down the remainder of the casserole to the six Pokemon looking up at him from the floor; his Eevee bounced up and down excitedly in ravenous anticipation.

"I didn't," Fystor replied coolly.

<What da hell?> Peter yowled, effectively bringing that line of conversation to a halt. He flapped erratically off the floor, his mouth twisted into a disgusted scowl; bits of casserole hung at the ends of his fangs before dripping back into the dish. <I did not evolve twice just ta eat dis crap! Where I come from, even da trash don't stand the trash!>

<This is the first and last time I'm ever agreeing with you.> Peach made a face at the glop in the bowl; it seemed to squirm along with her.

<This bit is okay,> Dory muttered, digging a very small section of something that might have been a horseradish eight years ago. <But it's still disgusting. Lettuce, now, this stuff needs lettuce. That's a food with proper nutritional value and taste, that is.>

Parvati didn't reply: she was chewing contentedly, her eyes half-closed as she rolled the mouthful around with her tongue. Leaf found herself wondering what on earth the Meowth could have been eating to make even Bill's casserole seem like a delicacy. Even with such dog-like taste, however, she was very much a cat; as Eevee shouted something indecipherable, spraying gunk all over her face, she immediately lowered herself onto her haunches and began to wipe the stuff off of her face. At least she has some sense of pride, Leaf thought, smiling.

<Blech! Dis is madness,> Peter muttered, spitting the remainder of the (for want of a better word) food; a white string shot from his mouth involuntarily, one end sticking to the tiles while the other stubbornly caught on his fangs. He muttered venomously as he tried to pull himself free, and a bit of purplish energy pulsed down it with the vibrations of his voice, causing the string to twang musically until, with a sudden tumble and a loud curse, he finally managed to pull himself free.

Lightning leapt from his chair, doing a cheesy victory pose and not noticing that he'd knocked over his glass. "Eureka!"

The Butterfree's eyes swelled furiously at him. <What ya say 'bout mah mama?>

"I've got it!" he went on. "It's the perfect appeal!" Squealing happily, he swept Peter into a hug; the bug's rage dissolved into incredulity as the boy danced around the room. "You're going to be amazing, Peter!"

<... Dat so?>

"I'll be back in an hour," Lightning told the others, heading toward the hall. "Maybe two. I just have to practice this with him! You guys come too," he added, looking at Peach and Dory. "I bet we can whip up a strategy to seriously cream those other noobs!"

The mouse and the rabbit looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him out of sight.

Leaf waited until she was absolutely sure she'd heard the door snap shut before releasing Cheri; she didn't want the bee to be released any time Peter was in sight. The Beedrill glanced at the happily slurping Eevee, sniffed, and spread her delicate wings, fluttering towards the hall. <I've had enough excitement for one day,> she said flatly. <I must build up my strength if I am to face the Butterfree. I'll retire to our room for the night.> She flew out of sight, her soft buzzing growing fainter as she moved up the unseen stairs.

Frosti picked at a chipped floor tile as he watched her go. He shuddered as he felt his pulse jump again, repelled against his heart's incessant rhythm. She knows how it is, he thought. I can't tell Leaf, not after she got rid of Paris. She'll just think I'm weak. Well, Cheri'd think I'm weak too, but at least she can't abandon me ...

Silently he got to his feet, padding softly away as the tense quiet blossomed behind him. There was something he needed to know ...



She didn't look around when he entered the room, but his heartbeat, rapid and anxious, alerted her to his presence. A few soft steps through the carpet later, he was sitting down beside her, and only then did she slowly turn her head towards him, removing herself from her attempt to find peace and relaxation enough for slumber. The moon bathed the two in a cold white light, giving them a ghastly appearance, as if they had just stepped from the deepest realms of the dead.

<Cheri?>

<Yes, Frosti?>

<What's it like?>

The Beedrill's ruby eyes narrowed as she watched her teammate. This was a question whose answer mattered a great deal to him: she could see the tension in his neck muscles, the way his claws flexed unconsciously, the nervous twitch of his flaming tail. He hadn't said it flat out, but his liquid black eyes, wide in curiosity and a slight touch of fear, spoke his unsaid worry.

<You mean evolution?> Cheri looked down, her eyes traveling over the lengths of her spears. They gleamed in the moonlight, a pure white almost vampiric, as if their very absence of color naturally warned of the blood they would eagerly spill. Apart from her distant clan, they were her pride and joy.

<Yeah.> Frosti shivered, and the flame on his tail flickered with the involuntary movement. <Because, it's like I ... I don't know how to say it, but ... well, I don't like blood very much,> he stated, looking rather awkward.

Cheri's antennae twitched in amusement. <Go on.>

<Blood scares me a little, actually,> Frosti admitted, lowering his head a little to look down at his dangling feet, as if ashamed to meet her gaze. <Whenever blood gets spilled, somebody's hurting. It's not like hurting in battle — those are just little spats, you know, not a fight to the death or anything. It's more like the blood is — is draining somebody's life from them.>

<Blood is life,> Cheri cut in unexpectedly. <It warms us in the cold, it heals wounds, it ties you to family.> She sighed as memories of her lost clan engulfed her in painful nostalgia. <It separates us from death. There is a reason it is known as lifeblood.>

<I know,> the Charmander said, nodding slightly. <But still, I don't like it normally.>

Cheri raised an imaginary eyebrow. <Normally?>

<Yesterday,> he explained, <when we were fighting on the bridge, you stabbed the Pidgey. There was blood everywhere. And when I saw the blood, I ... I liked it. I liked the way it shimmered in the sun, like somebody had liquified red diamonds. I liked the noise it made when it splashed. I liked the smell — it was deep and rich, and I really wanted to ... to drink it.> He shuddered violently. <I probably would've if its trainer's shout hadn't pulled me back to reality. But I ... I felt like my own blood was rushing through my veins, screaming at me to go and lick up every last drop. I'm not sure how I resisted it, but I really don't think I'd be able to do it again.> His head snapped back up, and he stared at the tall bug with wide, terrified eyes. <Cheri, I'm scared. I don't know what's happening to me. Did something like that happen to you before you evolved?>

He is keeping remarkable control over himself, Cheri noted, watching the pulse on his neck jump into a much quicker rhythm. The way he shuddered again and swallowed hard suggested to her that the very memory of the blood spurting from beneath her spears made him salivate, made him thirst for it.

<Not the first time,> she said finally, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as she recollection swam hazily to the surface of her mind. <There was fear then, and pain too, but it wasn't the same, not at all.>

<What was it like, then?> Frosti gazed up at her, trying to change terror into curiosity.

<Like dying.>

His mouth fell open in horror.

<I battled the school of Magikarp,> she said, brilliant red eyes turning misty as she remembered the details. <I felt the sleep begin to spread through my body. I knew that our human and her blond friend would continue to delay if I did not nudge them to continue, so I forced myself to keep the sleep at bay and guide them up the path they needed to go. I tried to act ... hyper.> She shook her head in disgust, as though being hyper was a Beedrill's equivalent to leprosy. <It did not stop the sleep from spreading, but it slowed it. We journeyed through the mountain, and as we did I felt it continue to creep through my veins, slowing my blood. I was angry at how helpless I was becoming, and when we fought the Rhyhorn, I launched myself into the fray in as furious a rage as I could. But it was a sleepy rage.>

Her eyes closed for the briefest of moments, as if the soporific state affected her even now.

<My agility and judgment were sorely affected. A Rhyhorn is a fearsome beast, but in comparing her with the evil being in the larger cavern, I misjudged the danger she could still present. By the time I had realized my mistake, I had become stuck and unable to avoid her attack. Knowing there was nothing else I could do, I let go of all my control, let myself slide into the black abyss ...

<I don't remember everything that happened afterward. I caught snatches of noise, and I saw you a few times ... I detected a freed Beast ... but besides that, it seemed as though I had left the land of the living far behind ...>

[SugarPesticide]

Frosti frowned thoughtfully. <But that can't be right. You kept making noise and stabbing things. You were hopping around. I don't think Kakuna usually do that, do they? But ... does that mean you lost your mind, after you evolved?> He shivered at the thought.

<Perhaps I did,> Cheri agreed vaguely. <That's very interesting.>

A moth fluttered just above her head; without even looking at it she snapped her spear up, goring the pest on its point.

<Evolving into a cocoon isn't like evolving into anything else,> she went on, scraping the moth on the carpet idly. <It's more like a preparation for the final evolution, the one with more power than either of its predecessors could possibly dream of. Breaking free of my Kakuna shell was more of the normal sort of evolution, I believe.>

Frosti's voice was soft, shy, terrified. <And how did that go?>

This time it was Cheri's turn to shudder. <Awakening — the rush of adrenaline, the return of my sense of touch ... after the sensory deprivation, it was nothing less than hell. Every nerve in my body was on fire. I tried to scream, but I needed air. I couldn't breathe. My heart was trying to burst out of my chest. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe!>

The terrifying memory whirled in her brain, and she remembered the darkness, the confinement, the fear ... the tightness in her chest, the longing for her father ... In the forest, all evolutions in the Beedrill clan were watched over by friends and family, guardian angels waiting for the damned soul to be freed from Hell ... but she was alone, and she knew it, and the suffocation was unbearable ...

Can't breathe!

<Cheri?>

She gasped. It was a long, ragged intake of air — cool, sweet, life-giving air, surely blessed by Rayquaza! — and it cleared her mind of the numb fuzziness that had overwhelmed her, of the memory that had sent her back into the darkest regions of Hell. Trying to get a grip on herself, she realized that she was shaking violently. She blinked, and her vision swam before her, blurring. Am I going blind? she wondered almost timidly, and blinked another time, long and slow ... twin droplets of moisture coursed down her face and splashed delicately onto the carpet beneath her, like raindrops.

<Ch-cheri?>

Her head swiveled toward Frosti, who stared back at her in panic. His heartbeat thudded at a rapid pace, sounding like rhythmic thunder to her sensitive hearing. She could see her bright eyes reflected in his black ones, which shone with unshed tears.

<Evolution hurts,> she whispered. Somewhere, in the part of her that belonged to strong, tough Cheri, instinct immediately railed against her words. How can you admit to pain? Is that not the way of cowards, to let agony affect them? Stop being weak, you ... you Butterfree!

For a long moment Frosti said nothing, but only stood frozen, horrified. Then he suddenly threw his arms around her middle, burying his face into her side. Everything about him — fluttering heart, ragged breathing, shaking body — spoke only of pure terror.

<I don't wanna evolve,> he moaned.

The instinctual sharpness instantly found itself swept away in the flood of empathy rushing from the depth of her heart — an aching understanding, a knowledge that he was perfectly in the right to fear this. Forgetting all her sullenness, she reached around and gently put her wiry arms around his body, careful to avoid contact with her spears or his tail-flame. He's so small, she realized, as the warm body pressed into her cold-blooded frame. So small, so innocent ... he doesn't deserve this pain.

<I don't wanna lose myself,> he muttered, voice muffled. <I don't wanna turn into one of them. I've heard stories about it — Charmander evolves into Charmeleon, Charmeleon ravages its trainer, leaves him for dead ... if it doesn't eat him first.> He took a deep, unsteady breath. <They've made horror movies about that, haven't they?>

<I wouldn't know,> she replied dryly. <Where I come from, everyone would be amazed at the wheel.>

He ignored her sarcasm. <It's not that they aren't cool, in a way. They've got awesome deep red scales, and this blazing fire that can melt steel, and a horn ... but is it worth it, really, if it means picking up what's underneath all that as well?> He shivered again.

Ponder carefully before you answer, she told herself, gazing into the depths of his small, constricted-looking tail-flame; even with its diminished size, the fire still burned with a life that made the moonlight seem weak by comparison. This is a large decision for him; he will take whatever you say to heart.

<Frosti,> she began slowly, choosing her words with careful precision, <evolution is not a necessity. It's a choice. There are many reasons why you shouldn't, and just as many reasons why you should. But—> She added emphasis to the word, making sure he heard her advice clearly. <—They are only that: reasons, not rules. They cannot force you to do anything. Whether you evolve or not is completely up to you. Before you make a firm decision on the matter, listen to your heart. I'm aware it's a cliched bit of advice, but believe me, a true warrior will always turn an ear to what their soul has to say. It will guide you to do what is right for you.>

The Charmander took a deep, slow breath; his tail-flame flickered to normal size as he inhaled, and Cheri had to force herself to not cringe away from it. <But ... but what if Leaf dec—>

<Leaf is your human,> she reminded him gently, <not your conscience. She can command you on the field, but your heart is your own.>

<She could abandon me—>

<Then the shame is hers,> she said simply, looking him in the eye. <If she prefers glory in the League over your well-being, then so be it. You will be better off without her if that is the case. Our Code does not tolerate a system which forces its members to change themselves.>

He sighed deeply. <I don't know what I'll do,> he murmured. <I really don't know. It'll take some time, this decision.>

<Don't rush it,> she advised him, rocking gently from side to side. He was calming down, she could tell. She wanted both of them to fall asleep soon: the creature called Vember would surely find them someday, and they would need their strength. A vague memory of her early childhood floated dreamily to the surface of her mind, and she found herself crooning the lyrics of a gentle, flowing lullaby:

<Watch the green of spring, my child, the green of spring,
And let the birdsong take you away
To a land where there is joy, love, there is joy,
And honor binds the land in sweet reward—>

She faltered; the song seemed especially silly, now, after having heard the songs the humans sang, with their rhymes and half-rhymes. But she forced the thought out of her head: the rhythms were far too mechanical, she told herself, and their subject matter mundane and unoriginal. The forest, on the other hand, was the place of warriors ... and peace, she remembered, as Frosti sighed again, more gently this time.

<Our destinies are intertwined, youngling, intertwined
Into a tapestry of the whole unseen world,
So close your eyes and witness the sight, new-hatched, the sight
Of happy endings and a tale of greatness to come ...>



When Leaf and her new kitten came upstairs some time later, it was to find Frosti curled up in a ball beside Cheri, who had an arm draped protectively over her teammate; the bug still looked eerie in the moonlight, breathing the steady rhythm of the sleeping even as she sat upright, as if she were awake. But there was a difference in her posture, a relaxation in her spindly arms and shoulders, as if the tension within her had simply melted away ...

* * *

~

<karatekid> yah i had a chalengr today
<karatekid> and i beat him
<karatekid> :)
<PrismaticMoon> Hey, great job!
<karatekid> :)
<Sarcasm_Flower> Good for you.
<karatekid> yah he had a watsitcalld
<karatekid> a turtel with bushes on it
<Natalie> A Grotle ^_^
<karatekid> yeah one of htem
<karatekid> it bit my lucariou
<Alexander> No wonder nobody takes you seriously.
<Salem> I so knew you were going to say that.
<Salem> Both of you.
<karatekid> wat
* Skiesofblue has joined #leag
<Sarcasm_Flower> DEAR MEW NO
<Skiesofblue> Misty, remember
<Skiesofblue> our EXCLUSIVE celebration
<Sarcasm_Flower> -_____-
<PrismaticMoon> I don't want to know.
<Sarcasm_Flower> GTFO Falkner.
<Skiesofblue> ;D
<Skiesofblue> Wear that red dress
<Skiesofblue> The sleeveless one that really shows off your butt
<Sarcasm_Flower> That doesn't even go with my hair
<Sarcasm_Flower> Douche.
<Sarcasm_Flower> Now GTFO
<Skiesofblue> We won't even have to use the guest room
<PrismaticMoon> I SAID, I didn't want to know
<PrismaticMoon> :p
<Sarcasm_Flower> You're a damn pervert.
<Skiesofblue> ILU too.
<Skiesofblue> See you there
<Skiesofblue> <3
* Skiesofblue had quit #leag
<karatekid> wait what
<Natalie> Gosh, that Falkner's odd
<Alexander> This is NOT where you can chat about who you want to sleep with, Misty.
<Sarcasm_Flower> WTF
<Natalie> o_0
<Salem> LMAO
<PrismaticMoon> o0;
<karatekid> wat
<Sarcasm_Flower> Volkner, I swear to Arceus
<Sarcasm_Flower> I'M GOING TO FRICKING KILL YOU
<Alexander> Caps.
<Salem> Blame it on Falkner
<Salem> LOL
<Natalie> Their names are similar enough ;)
<PrismaticMoon> They are XD
<Sarcasm_Flower> I'LL KILL BOTH OF YOU
<karatekid> is that allowed in batles
* onix92 has joined #leag
<Natalie> So violent :<
<onix92> ILU Gardenia
<onix92> <3
<onix92> Marry me?
<PrismaticMoon> ...
<Natalie> ?
<Salem> The perv thing is contagious.
<Salem> ROFL
<karatekid> is marrying alowed in battls
<Natalie> I don't think so Brock
<onix92> ;_;
<Natalie> ^_^;
<Sarcasm_Flower> LOL Brock.
<PrismaticMoon> Moving on o_0
<Sarcasm_Flower> How's the herding thing going?
<onix92> Fine, but it's still a MESS
<onix92> I'm on Jenny's laptop right now
<onix92> I TOLD her I wanted to be on top of her lap, though
<onix92> :(
<Salem> LOL perv.
<Natalie> That's ... nice?
<PrismaticMoon> :/
<Sarcasm_Flower> Brock, you're an idiot.
<Alexander> You're all idiots.
<karatekid> wate y wud we be idoits
<onix92> :(
<Salem> Brock, you're doing it wrong.
<Salem> For you it should be X(
<PrismaticMoon> LOL
<Sarcasm_Flower> WIN.
<Sarcasm_Flower> The eyes thing is all Brock
<onix92> You're all cruel.
<Sarcasm_Flower> Damn straight.
<Sarcasm_Flower> And you're oversensitive
<Sarcasm_Flower> Like your cousin :P
<onix92> Which one?
<karatekid> any1 want to here about the ghallengr
<Salem> The force isn't strong with you.
<Salem> I could be talking to any of you, BTW.
<Sarcasm_Flower> The nerdy one.
<Sarcasm_Flower> He was freaking out today
<Sarcasm_Flower> then again, so was I
<Natalie> OMG he's okay!
<Natalie> :D
<Sarcasm_Flower> SO MUCH DRAMA DAMMIT
<onix92> o0
<Salem> We just talked about the eyes thing, Brock.
<PrismaticMoon> Indeed.
<PrismaticMoon> Out of character
<Alexander> Oh for the love of Mew.
<onix92> Sabrina, you shouldn't be doing this to me
<onix92> you're too hot for that
<Natalie> We've been worried about him for a while
<karatekid> any1?
<Salem> ... Are you coming onto me?
<onix92> I can't help myself <3
<Salem> SILENCE. I KILL YOU.
* Cranidos has joined #leag
<PrismaticMoon> Whoa, good timing.
<Natalie> Hey, you're okaaaaaaayyyy!
<Natalie> :D
<Cranidos> Hi :)
<onix92> Hey
<Natalie> *hug*
<onix92> thanks X)
<Cranidos> ...
<Natalie> It was for Roark.
<onix92> Oh.
<Sarcasm_Flower> LOL
<Salem> Rejected.
<Natalie> Where've you been? We've been looking everywhere!
<Cranidos> It's a REALLY long story.
<Cranidos> I'm okay though.
<Cranidos> Is Riley around?
<Cranidos> I haven't talked to him in forever
<karatekid> ok well the turtel like bit my lucario
<Natalie> Yeah, let me phone him.
<Natalie> BRB
* Natalie has left #leag
<Alexander> You're showing your face in here again?
<Alexander> AND you're encouraging a non-League member to use this chat?
<PrismaticMoon> >_>
<Cranidos> There's nothing wrong with it :/
<Alexander> Of COURSE not.
<Alexander> But if the HC poster boy wants to do it, who's going to stop him?
<Alexander> Or was flaunting your "authority" your sole reason for returning to us mere mortals?
<karatekid> bt then I was like 'DO YOUR TIHNG'
<Sarcasm_Flower> Shut up, Volkner.
<Cranidos> Authority? Yeah right.
<Alexander> Must your head be so thick as to not get it?
<Alexander> Wait, never mind, it can't be. You wear that helmet because your skull's too FRAGILE.
<PrismaticMoon> Ouch.
<Cranidos> Heard that one before :/
<Alexander> You're way overconfident in your standing with the League.
<Alexander> Just because your father's head of the GLs and HC doesn't mean YOU're worth anything.
<Cranidos> Don't talk about my dad.
<karatekid> nd he did his scari aura stuff
<Alexander> Protectiveness doesn't change anything.
<Alexander> But then, it's true he's better than you are.
<Cranidos> I SAID, DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM.
<Alexander> Resorting to caps? Tsk.
* Natalie has joined #leag
<Natalie> He's coming.
<Natalie> Where ARE you, we've been so worried!
<Cranidos> Not telling.
<Sarcasm_Flower> Here in Cerulean
<Cranidos> I don't want HIM to know where I am
<Cranidos> ...
<Cranidos> MISTY
<Salem> LOL
<onix92> XD
<PrismaticMoon> LOL
<PrismaticMoon> Him who?
<Sarcasm_Flower> Sorry?
<karatekid> bt then the turtel bit lucaroop
<Cranidos> >:/
<Salem> You're doing it wrong
<Salem> it should be >8/
<Salem> while Brock's is >X/
<Sarcasm_Flower> LOL
<Natalie> ^^
<Cranidos> Seriously!
<Alexander> Look at you, wallowing in the attention.
* Kenobi has joined #leag
<Cranidos> Ignoring you, Volkner.
<Cranidos> RIIIIIILEEEEEYYYYY
<Kenobi> ROOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRK
<Kenobi> =D
<Cranidos> :D
<Kenobi> *hug*
<Cranidos> *hug*
<Natalie> ^_^
<karatekid> hey wait riliy u have a lycariou rigt
<Kenobi> Where have you BEEN?
<Kenobi> We've been worried about you
<Natalie> I said that ^_^
<Sarcasm_Flower> Cerulean.
<Cranidos> :/
<Sarcasm_Flower> Hey, I already said it before.
<Cranidos> Riiiight.
<Cranidos> I'm okay, Riley.
<Cranidos> Especially since I finally saw the light.
<Cranidos> AKA ditched coordinating.
<Cranidos> I missed you :(
<Kenobi> Ditto that ;_;
<Salem> LOL
<Kenobi> *hug*
<Kenobi> What's funny Sabrina?
<Cranidos> *hug*
<Salem> You two.
<Salem> Acting like you've got it for each other
<Cranidos> o_0
<Salem> The hots, know what I'm saying?
<Kenobi> .
<Kenobi> WTF
<Natalie> Awkward
<onix92> HOLY CRAP IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW
<Sarcasm_Flower> LOL
<Cranidos> That's SO wrong
<Cranidos> We're not gay.
<Cranidos> At least I'm not ;)
<Kenobi> *push*
<Kenobi> Insinuating something?
<Kenobi> Crazy digger.
<Cranidos> Yeah well, you're a wise guy.
<Natalie> ^_^
<Kenobi> Pff, wise guy?
<Kenobi> LAME.
<Kenobi> *hug*
<karatekid> bt rilsy ur licariou can do stuff right
<PrismaticMoon> Sabrina, two guys can be awesomely close without making out.
<Cranidos> *hug*
<Salem> Oh really.
<PrismaticMoon> Of course.
<PrismaticMoon> Eusine and I are friends, but we're not in love.
<Salem> I always wondered about that.
<PrismaticMoon> :p
<Sarcasm_Flower> LOL
<Alexander> Riley.
<Alexander> You are NOT a member of a League.
<Kenobi> There's no problem with me being here.
<Alexander> It's not allowed.
<Alexander> Get out.
<Cranidos> Ignore him.
<Alexander> Ah, Poster Boy speaks again.
<Alexander> I wouldn't have thought YOU'D have a problem with kicking non-members out.
<Alexander> Not with all you high-and-mighty Cobalts acting as if you ran the place.
<karatekid> my lcuiwaroi can eat 5 hotdogs in 10 seconds
<Sarcasm_Flower> It's not like it's a club
<PrismaticMoon> :/
<Alexander> It's EXACTLY like a club.
<Alexander> A Cobalt club.
<Alexander> If someone's a Cobalt, you let them into the League.
<Alexander> QED
<onix92> Isn't that prejudice against us?
<Alexander> What YOU'RE doing is prejudice.
<Kenobi> Overzealous much?
<Sarcasm_Flower> If you've got a problem with it, maybe YOU should leave.
<Natalie> You could just not argue ...?
<PrismaticMoon> Yeah, you're ruining the general chill-out atmosphere.
<Alexander> It's not where you "chill out".
<Alexander> It's where we discuss whatever problems are occurring.
<Sarcasm_Flower> Right now, I think YOU'RE the problem.
<Salem> Ditto that.
* Godbrother has joined #leag
<Alexander> Hardly.
<Alexander> I'm the only one here who takes anything seriously.
<Cranidos> You wouldn't know a really serious problem if it punched you in the nose.
<Sarcasm_Flower> Warren!
<PrismaticMoon> You're alive :)
<Sarcasm_Flower> How'd it go?
<karatekid> hey warren u beat the gliche right
<Godbrother> It was intense!
<Godbrother> Adrenaline level > 9000
<Salem> LOL
<Godbrother> It was a tough one, but you know.
<Godbrother> Blaine and Cinnabar Jenny are picking it up now
<PrismaticMoon> Was it creepy?
<PrismaticMoon> I mean creepy by MY standards :P
<Godbrother> Hell yeah.
<Godbrother> Actually, it's kinda sad. They're insane, but not really evil.
<Salem> Pfft.
<Godbrother> More ... misunderstood.
<Godbrother> Maybe if we just treated them like Pokemon, we could understand each other.
<Kenobi> Understand a GLITCH?
<Kenobi> Are you feeling all right?
<Sarcasm_Flower> He's smoking something.
<Alexander> See, important stuff like THIS should be what we're talking about.
<Cranidos> Shut up.
<karatekid> were theyvnice
<Godbrother> I was thinking we could ... loosen their leash a bit.
<Godbrother> See what they're REALLY like.
<Sarcasm_Flower> I hope to Arceus you're kidding.
<Godbrother> You wound me :/
<Natalie> It's a scary idea ...
<Godbrother> I'll just give it a try over here, right?
<Godbrother> It'll be fine, trust me.
<Godbrother> Gotta sleep now, I'm bushed
<Godbrother> ttyl
* Godbrother has left #leag
<Salem> ...
<Salem> I think he's actually serious.
<PrismaticMoon> Did the thing knock a screw loose in there?
<Sarcasm_Flower> It's WARREN.
<Sarcasm_Flower> He hasn't got any screws LEFT to knock loose.
<onix92> LOL
<karatekid> if their like gible then theyre scary
<Alexander> Actually, this seems like an interesting question.
<Alexander> Are the Cobalts strong enough to take them on if it fails?
<Kenobi> There's really no reason to keep picking on the Cobalts :/
<Alexander> What are you, brainwashed?
<Alexander> They need to be taken down a peg, anyway.
<Alexander> It'd do them good to meet their match.
<Cranidos> It'd do YOU good if a large rock met your head.
<Kenobi> *high five*
<Alexander> You'll get what's coming to you, Poster Boy.
* Alexander has quit #leag
<Salem> He's gone!
<Sarcasm_Flower> PARTAYYYYY
<onix92> YAAAAAAYYYY
<Sarcasm_Flower> CAPSSPAMCAPSSPAMCAPSSPAMCAPSSPAM
<PrismaticMoon> XD
<Natalie> ^^;
<Natalie> I'm glad you got over coordinating, Roark.
<karatekid> whats so good goin on guies
<Natalie> I was worried about that for a while :o
<Kenobi> Ditto that.
<Sarcasm_Flower> CAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPS
<Cranidos> Yeah. I've got a funny idea about it
<Kenobi> All your ideas are funny
<Cranidos> :P
<Cranidos> You're hilarious.
<Cranidos> It's half past ten over here, I should sign off soon
<Sarcasm_Flower> CAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPSCAPS
<Cranidos> But DO NOT TELL MY DAD WHERE I AM
<Natalie> Why not? He's worried sick :<
<Kenobi> Yeah, you should've seen the bit in the news about it.
<Kenobi> The reward had so many zeroes
<Cranidos> I'm not a lost dog :/
<Cranidos> I left for a reason, anyway.
<karatekid> shud i like gibles or no
<Kenobi> How come?
<Cranidos> You wouldn't believe me if I told you.
<Kenobi> Sure we would.
<Sarcasm_Flower> SCREW THE WATERFLOWERS, I HAVE MONEY
<Cranidos> No. You wouldn't.
<Kenobi> :/
<Cranidos> *yawn*
<Kenobi> Bed. Nao.
<Salem> *eyebrow*
<Kenobi> You know what I meant :/
<onix92> LOL
<Cranidos> :/
<karatekid> i liek lucariosu :)
<Cranidos> I'll talk to you guys tommorrow, k?
<Kenobi> Count on it.
<Natalie> Stay safe :)
<Cranidos> I will.
<Cranidos> Night guys
<Kenobi> *hug*
<Natalie> *hug*
<Cranidos> *hug*
<Sarcasm_Flower> *CHAINSAW MASSACRE*
* Cranidos has left #leag
<onix92> Sabrina, you're hot.
<Salem> And you're a moron :)
<Natalie> Why wouldn't he want to see his dad?
<Kenobi> I dunno.
<Kenobi> He was really shaken when I saw him the other day, though
<Natalie> I can understand why :<
<Kenobi> It's kind of a drastic reaction for Roark to run off from that
<Kenobi> He's a tough character normally
<karatekid> resly how many hotdogs can ur lucariso eat
<Natalie> Losing someone like that'd do it, I guess :(
<Kenobi> True, but it's a weird coincidence
<Kenobi> And now Warren's tolerating the chaotics?
<Kenobi> This can't end well.

~

* * *

LXXVII. And the pretty sparkles didst dance before mine eyes, yea, they danced according to the love and great mercy of our Lady herself, for the joy to be felt in her presence shall cause even the serpent and the bat to dance in the dance of true love.

LXXVIII. And Shaymin, who was also called Minnie, didst say unto me, <Ew, that's sick. And stop calling me Minnie, dammit!>

LXXIX. And the mother didst chasten her daughter, saying, <Hast thou no respect for the prophet? For he hath a strong soul to survive so many prophecies. Rememberest thou not the manner in which the previous prophet's brain didst explode?>

LXXX. And I replied unto them, saying, <I hope you're kidding.>

LXXXI. And she didst say unto me, <I am Arceus, the Light and the Life of the world. And the Light which illuminateth the world cannot deceive it with darkness; wherefore, I lieth not unto any creature.>

LXXXII. And I didst fear for my life, and, moreover, my brain, which I have come to value exceedingly for obvious reasons.

LXXXIII. Now there was a great light, and Fystor didst appear in the midst of us. And she didst say unto me, <Your description sucks.>

LXXXIV. And her sister didst become exceedingly wroth, saying, <What the hell, Fystor? It's been two mothertrucking days, and you still haven't told the chick? We don't have all century, geez!>

LXXXV. Whereupon Fystor replied, <She's being a retard, shorty. Now chill out and shut up while I tell what happened down there. Long story short, she ditched her Lapras and is currently being a stone-hearted *** about it, which isn't helping since the Champion's soul just got ripped apart when dear old Appy went in to possess him.>

LXXXVI. And I wast exceedingly surprised, saying, <What? But isn't she supposed to be the hero or chosen one or something?>

LXXXVII. And Minnie said unto me, <Nobody's perfect, you idiot. Even a bloody prophet should see that. And STOP CALLING ME MINNIE.>

LXXXVIII. And Arceus said, <We shall have to inform her soon, for the time is running short. Hast thou not even told her of our cohorts in Orre, and of the part which she and her sidekick must perform?>

LXXXIX. And Fystor didst say unto her mother, <No. But look, the situation's even more urgent than we thought. Our suspicions of traitors are reasonable, since Vember's on their side.>

XC. And the others didst gasp in astonishment and horror, as Arceus said, <Wast not Vember among the most trusted of the angels? If she hath betrayed us, then why should the true legends not go to the Lord of Evil as well?>

XCI. And Fystor didst shake her head, saying, <I never would've thought she'd turn on us. She was my favorite kid ...>

XCII. Then Minnie said unto her, <Then why not just go ahead and tell the damn girl about the problem? And STOP CALLING ME MINNIE, YOU BLOODY PROPHET!>

XCIII. Whereupon she didst send a great flock of leaves at me, which were sharp and shiny and wondrous to behold, yet didst also hurt exceedingly, insomuch that I cried out in pain, saying, <Ouch!>

XCIV. But Arceus commanded her daughter to cease, which she didst do with much reluctance.

XCV. Then Fystor said unto them, <It has to wait until she's humble enough to listen. Unfortunately for her, she'll be getting what's coming to her. Hanging around with those bloody Twins gives you a look into how Fate works, and I've got a funny feeling that she'll be hearing something bad pretty soon ...>

XCVI. And I wast seized with a quiet fear, wondering how bad such news could be that even Fystor could find concern ...

* * *

Author's Note: Another Leaguechat member list, though this one only includes the members that appeared in this chapter.
    Spoiler:- Mhm:

Show Spoiler

 
Alexander = Volkner
Cranidos = Roark
Godbrother = Warren
karatekid = Maylene
Kenobi = Riley
Natalie = Gardenia
PrismaticMoon = Morty
onix92 = Brock
Salem = Sabrina
Sarcasm_Flower = Misty
Skiesofblue = Falkner
 

And on another note, if anyone found their currency system unbelievable ("OMG they think 50 is cheap? Are they all rich?!"), then let me clarify: in the same way as the Japanese yen, credits are less valuable than US dollars. Assuming that in this story the exchange rate never fluctuates, 10 credits are roughly equal to 1 dollar. (Ergo, 50 credits for a pair of sandals is reasonable, yeah?)

[LadyMiir]

.... That was... one hell of a chapter.

Awwww, a Meowth joins the team! So nice to see Cheri actually has a heart... and Frosti is adorable. Charmander = win.

I enjoyed the chatlog thing, too. Great job!