Pokemon: Elemental Legacies

[Jirae]

Prologue: Tale of the Eight Elements

Many people believe Pokemon came to earth on a spaceship or a meteor.
I only wish that that was the truth.
Unfortunately, it is not. Pokemon did not come here from outer space.
Pokemon were not born. They were created.
By man.
My grandfather was a fool.
They thought they could create creatures of unimaginable power.
They would help us accomplish many tasks. They would make life easier.
Noone could have imagined that maybe, just maybe, these creatures would turn on us.
It only took eight of them.
Eight of them, and our entire way of life was nearly destroyed.
These eight Pokemon were the first Pokemon created.
They were created of pure elemental energy, and they were the greatest scientific achievement ever.
Soon after creating them, scientists began experimenting with more advanced and stable structures.
They created over 500 different creatures and let them out into the wild.
Naturally, they designed an item that could contain these beasts.
They were small red and white devices shaped like spheres. When used on a creature, it reverted to its elemental form and shrunk.
By doing this, the creatures could fit in your pocket. They were given the name Pocket Monsters.
These Pocket Monsters, Pokemon for short, became a part of everyday life for most people.
Meanwhile, scientists continued experiments on the first eight.
They realized that these Pokemon were unstable and could not be bound by the regular capture devices, the Pokeballs.
They designed a special type of Pokeball only to be used on these eight Pokemon. They called it the Master Ball.
Unfortunately, the Master Ball prototype got out. People began replicating it and using it on regular Pokemon.
This Master Ball could capture any Pokemon without fail. It was incredibly popular and was sold on the black market for thousands.
The government, working with the team of scientists, banned these Master Balls and ordered them all to be destroyed. War broke out.
The government managed to destroy most of the Master Balls, but a group of rebels broke out and fought the government for their Master Balls.
This rebel group called themselves Team Rocket.
The scientists decided to unleash the eight experimental Pokemon upon Team Rocket in order to destroy their Master Balls.
But they didn't just want to destroy the Master Balls. They wanted to destroy the people holding them.
The eight Pokemon had affected the scientists, my grandfather included.
They drove them mad. Controlled their minds. Commanded them to destroy all other humans and Pokemon in the world.
And with the power of these eight elemental Pokemon, they could do just that.
The scientists attacked Team Rocket headquarters, killing almost everyone.
Team Rocket's leader, Giovanni I, and several of his highest ranked Administrators, managed to escape.
He alerted the great shamans, those who still believed in spiritualism in this age of technology.
The shamans created eight staves, which they gave Giovanni I and his six administrators.
The red staff, given to Administrator Charles, could control the power of fire and seal away the fire element.
The blue staff, given to Administrator Jill, could control the power of water and seal away the water element.
The green staff, given to Administrator Ryan, could control the power of plants and seal away the grass element.
The purple staff, given to Administrator Lauren, could temporarily control minds and could seal away the psychic element.
The orange staff, given to Administrator Hank, bestowed its wielder with unbelievable fighting skills and could seal away the ground element.
The gray staff, given to Administrator Derek, could summon storms and could seal away the lightning element.
And Giovanni himself was given the black and white staffs that could destroy and create life respectively and could seal away the dark and light elements.
Giovanni I and his administrators managed to seal the eight elemental Pokemon in caverns deep within the mountains. But with these Pokemon gone, there was no balance.
You see, these eight Pokemon also had another power. Their power kept all the other Pokemon in control. But with the eight elementals gone, all the other Pokemon rampaged.
They became angry and hard to control. They turned on their former masters, killing anything and everything in their sight.
In time, the Pokemon calmed down and returned to the wild. They would still attack if provoked, but no longer fought to kill, and rather sought to knock their opponent unconscious.
Meanwhile, the government tried to cover up what happened, and denied all rumors of the past.
Soon, Giovanni I grew old and passed his position and his staves onto his son, Giovanni II.
We are at peace, for now. Team Rocket has returned, and still fights the government. But for the most part, people are at peace with their Pokemon.
I hope that it stays this way for a long, long time.
My grandfather and the other scientists died in their attempts, but it was for the best, I think.
If the elemental Pokemon were ever brought back...it would mean chaos for the world.
Though Team Rocket is called evil, at their core, they fight for us.
They keep those beasts at bay. The elemental staves are still within the posession of high ranking team rocket members, and hopefully will be forever.
Hopefully, if you are reading this, the time is long, long after the time in which I wrote it, and it is still very peaceful.
If you find this document, spread the word. The truth must be revealed. Though they do not believe me now, a mere two generations after the events, hopefully you will believe me in the future.
-Audrey Bernard, Team Rocket Historian-

---
The following section has been added 10/03/06 and updated 11/03/06 and 12/03/06 and 1/04/06. If you're not up to the most current chapter, it may spoil things for you:

Olemenun Regional Pokedex:

001-Mosseize-Grass
002-Mosstone-Grass/Rock
003-Mosstatue-Grass/Rock
004-Cubburn-Fire
005-Felispark-Fire/Lightning
006-Ignalion-Fire/Lightning
007-Calffin-Water
008-Dolphice-Water/Ice
009-Glorca-Water/Ice
010-Vuldusk-Dark
011-Nightture-Dark/Flying
012-Duskarrion-Dark/Flying
013-Hittao-Fighting
014-Spiritao-Fighting/Ghost
015-Lotushade-Fighting/Ghost
016-Dreamuse-Psychic
017-Clairvoicant-Psychic/Light
018-Psychoir-Psychic/Light
019-Magvae-Bug
020-Magoon-Bug
021-Flyrant-Bug/Flying
022-Funambite-Normal
023-Chompmunk-Normal
024-Eyequus-Psychic
025-Systripe-Psychic
026-Skeetle-Bug
027-Scabattle-Bug/Fire
028-Woodmite-Bug/Ground
029-Sawmite-Bug/Ground
030-Windock-Flying/Rock
031-Twistone-Flying/Rock
032-Tornoulder-Flying/Rock
033-Zaplet-Lightning
034-Shoink-Lightning
035-Electwine-Lightning
036-Chimpunch-Fighting
037-Monkick-Fighting
038-Gortial-Fighting
039-Obsidim-Dark/Rock
040-Obsidark-Dark/Rock
041-Poishare-Poison
042-Toxabbit-Poison
043-Hazoud-Poison
044-Hazough-Poison
045-Crudoileo-Poison
046-Dieselio-Fire/Poison
047-Gasolino-Fire/Poison
048-Smaunt-Ghost
049-Averoul-Ghost
050-Larghost-Ghost
051-Pyrit-Ghost/Fire
052-Sanone-Ghost/Ground
053-Mumrot-Poison
054-Psytage-Psychic/Lightning
055-Noot-Normal
056-Newater-Normal/Water
057-Gunewt-Normal/Water
058-Lesard-Ground
059-Spearow-Normal/Flying
060-Fearow-Normal/Flying
061-Aerorow-Normal/Flying
062-Horrow-Dark/Flying
063-Sandshrew-Ground
064-Sandslash-Ground
065-Sandspike-Ground/Steel
066-Vulpix-Fire
067-Ninetales-Fire
068-Infernox-Fire
069-Diglett-Ground
070-Dugtrio-Ground
071-Quaddug-Ground
072-Psyduck-Water
073-Golduck-Water
074-Minduck-Water/Psychic
075-???-Normal/Flying
076-Doduo-Normal/Flying
077-Dodrio-Normal/Flying
078-???-Ground/Rock
079-Onix-Ground/Rock
080-Steelix-Steel/Ground
081-Staryu-Water
082-Starmie-Water/Psychic
083-Starwii-Water/Psychic
084-Pinsir-Bug
085-Vystab-Bug/Dark
086-???-Normal
087-Ditto-Normal
088-Eevee-Normal
089-Vaporeon-Water
090-Jolteon-Lightning
091-Flareon-Fire
092-Espeon-Psychic
093-Umbreon-Dark
094-Shineon-Light
095-Vineon-Grass
096-Freezeon-Ice
097-???-Water
098-Qwilfish-Water/Poison
099-Delibird-Ice/Flying
100-Santaguin-Ice/Flying
101-Skarmory-Steel/Flying
102-Skarlord-Steel/Flying
103-Smeargle-Normal
104-Arcasso-Normal
105-Tyrogue-Fighting
106-Hitmonlee-Fighting
107-Hitmonchan-Fighting
108-Hitmontop-Fighting
109-Hitmonorris-Fighting
110-Plusle-Lightning
111-Multie-Lightning
112-Minun-Lightning
113-Diviso-Lightning
114-Cacnea-Grass
115-Cacturne-Grass/Dark
116-Pumctus-Grass/Poison
117-Lunatone-Psychic/Rock
118-Noctolith-Psychic/Rock
119-Solrock-Psychic/Rock
120-Bouldiurn-Psychic/Rock
121-Meteoclips-Psychic/Rock
122-???-Water/Rock
123-Relicanth-Water/Rock
124-Magikarp-Water
125-Gyarados-Water
126-Feebas-Water
127-Milotic-Water
128-Castform-Normal
129-Tideer-Water
130-Flamoose-Fire
131-Elketric-Lightning
132-Spargo-Lightning
133-Stegoshock-Lightning
134-Stegostorm-Lightning
135-Tricerower-Grass
136-Tricerub-Grass
137-Treecera-Grass
138-Carname-Fire
139-Scorchivor-Fire
140-Tyrnferno-Fire
141-Plesquirt-Water
142-Plesplash-Water
143-Plesiowave
144-Coparrot-Flying/Normal
145-Mimikeet-Flying/Normal
146-Gritty-Ground
147-Cruscat-Ground
148-Terrine-Ground
149-Mazica-Grass
150-Dewleaf-Grass
151-Snobush-Grass/Ice
152-Frostree-Grass/Ice
153-Togepi-Light
154-Togetic-Light/Flying
155-Togekiss-Light/Flying
156-Sneasel-Dark/Ice
157-Weaville-Dark/Ice
158-Schemustel-Dark/Ice
159-Pinpuku-Light
160-Chansey-Light
161-Blissey-Light
162-???-Dark
163-Absol-Dark
164-Disastruct-Dark
165-???-Light/Ice
166-???-Dark/Fire
167-Serafimask-Light/Ghost
168-Mimox-Dark/Steel
169-Magicorn-Light
170-Galicorn-Light
171-Widdowail-Dark/Bug
172-Taranture-Dark/Bug
173-???-Water
174-Equim-Water
175-Condrop-Water/Psychic
176-???-Water/Psychic
177-Surmast-Water/Psychic
178-???-Water
179-Tyzer-Ice
180-Articonda-Ice/Poison
181-???-Ice/Steel
182-Yetimpale-Ice/Fighting
183-Abomibash-Ice/Fighting
184-???-Bug
185-Blezuro-Fire/Flying
186-Peablez-Fire/Flying
187-???-Grass/Fighting
188-Triki-Grass/Fighting
189-???-Water/Grass
190-Flamant-Fire/Bug
191-???-Fire/Ice
192-???-Fire
193-Magmouse-Fire/Ground
194-Wolflame-Fire
195-???-Fire/Water
196-Leviathell-Fire/Water
197-???-Water/Poison
198-Spindril-Fighting/Steel
199-Kuadtana-Fighting/Electric
200-Tunnelurm-Bug/Ground
201-???-Normal
202-Rattele-Psychic
203-???-Psychic
204-Umbrellad-Normal
205-Umbrellord-Normal
206-???-Normal
207-Illuminox-Light
208-???-Light/Flying
209-Slimoo-Poison
210-Bouldoo-Rock/Poison
211-Freezoo-Ice/Poison
212-Grounoo-Ground/Poison
213-Porygon-Normal
214-Porygon2-Normal
215-PorygonZ-Normal
216-Webrowse-Lightning
217-Internele-Lightning
218-???-Dark/Ground
219-???-Light/Ground
220-Seleara-Water/Dragon
221-Komodora-Dragon/Ground
222-???-Water/Rock
223-???-Water/Rock
224-???-Bug/Rock
225-???-Bug/Rock
226-???-Ground/Rock
227-???-Ground/Rock
228-Lumammoth-Ground/Fire
229-Calcicrush-Fighting/Elemental
230-???-Rock/Elemental
231-Eschlorigo-Rock/Elemental
232-Gillead-Poison/Elemental
233-Iciclicon-Ice/Elemental
234-Dracarbon-Dragon/Elemental
235-???-Steel/Elemental
236-???-Steel/Elemental
237-Opold-Steel/Elemental
238-???-Fire/Dragon
239-???-Ice/Dragon
240-???-Lightning/Dragon
241-???-Dark/Dragon
242-???-Light/Dragon
243-Helitening-Elemental/Lightning
244-Neonatur-Elemental/Grass
245-Argorund-Elemental/Ground
246-Psykrypt-Elemental/Psychic
247-Sparxeno-Elemental/Fire
248-Radove-Elemental/Water
249-Hydreath-Elemental/Dark
250-Oxyglife-Elemental/Light
251-Nitroneutra-Elemental/Normal
252-???-Elemental

#251 and #252 are secret Pokemon, like Jirachi or Deoxys.
There are 58 Old Pokemon, and 194 new. This brings the national dex from 493(after D/P) to 687.

[Jirae]

Chapter 1: The Mission

"Now, Magmar! Fire Punch!" The young boy commanded, thrusting his arm outward, stretching a finger out and pointing to the Victrebell on the other side of the field. The magmar lunged out, fist ablaze, and struck the victrebell with incredible force, knocking it backward and leaving a burn mark where it had been singed.The grass Pokemon fell onto its back, no will to fight left in its eyes.
"Victrebell is knocked out!" The announcer exclaimed, lifting a red flag into the air. "Bobby Malec is the winner!"
"Alright!" Bobby exclaimed. "Magmar, return!" He said, holding out his Pokeball. The fire Pokemon first turned into a red energy form, and then returned to the Pokeball held out behind it.
"Dan Richard, you are eliminated!" The announcer added. "However, you are one of the final four competitors, so you will still receive a prize! Please go to the front desk."
"Eh, alright..." Bobby's opponent, another young boy, said quietly. "Victrebell, return." He held out his own Pokeball, recalling the unconscious victrebell.

Meanwhile, on the other field that had been lined up next to the first one, another young boy, slightly older than the others, issued a command of his own.
"Scyther, finish it off!" He shouted. "Wing Attack!" The Scyther that stood in front of him began to run forward, the sun reflecting off its blades. It approached the opposing Medicham at great speed, turning on a dime and thrusting its wing at the Medicham as if it were another blade. A large gust of wind generated by this motion hit Medicham, knocking it off its perfect balance and onto the pavement below.
"Medicham is knocked out!" An announcer proclaimed, lifting a red flag into the air similar to what the other announcer had done. "Michael Stephens is the winner!"
"Naturally." The older boy said, a ****y look on his face. "Scyther, return!" He shouted, tossing his Pokeball into the air. It opened slightly, and Scyther turned into its energy state and returned to the ball just as it fell back into Michael's hand.
"Matthew Kershner, you are eliminated!" The announcer said, almost exactly like the other announcer before him. "However, you are one of the final four competitors, so you will still receive a prize! Please go to the front desk."
"You'd think they have a script or something." Bobby said. He had wandered over to this field after his game was finished, hoping to get a look at the Pokemon he'd be fighting in the next round. "Bobby Malec." he said, extending his hand out to Michael.
"I'm not touching that." Michael said in response. "Some of your lousiness might rub off on me." He walked right past Bobby and over to the refreshment stand, where he began to pour himself a cup of water.
"Attention." A loudspeaker boomed. "Bobby Malec and Michael Stephens, you have a ten minute break. Please report back to the battle field in ten minutes."

"May I help you?" The woman behind the desk asked.
"Uh, yeah...I'm Dan Richard, I made the top four of the tournament..." Dan replied, not sure if he was in the right place to receive his prize.
"Oh, yes, of course." The woman said. "Please take a seat on that bench there." She pointed to a bench next to the desk. "The prizes for the top four competitors are all going to be handed out after the final round."
As she said this, the other boy that had lost, Matt Kershner, walked up to the desk. "Hi, I was told to come here to receive my prize for making the top four?"
"Please sit on the bench there." The woman repeated politely. "Your prize will be given to you after the final round."
"Can we go watch the match instead?" Matt asked.
"Sure, I don't see why not." The woman replied. "Just make sure you all come back here afterward."
"The match will be three vs. three." The announcer announced as Bobby and Michael entered the ring.
"Three vs. three?" Bobby questioned. "All the other matches have been six on six."
"Does it really matter?" Michael asked from across the field. "I'm going to beat you either way."
"You may begin." The announcer said dryly, lifting a green flag into the air.
"Go, Camerupt!" Bobby shouted, throwing a Pokeball into the air. The large camel Pokemon appeared out of it, first as energy, and then taking solid form as it hit the ground.
"Gengar." Michael said calmly, throwing a Pokeball out. The ball opened up and the ghost Pokemon appeared, tongue sticking out, mocking its opponent.
"Hah!" Bobby exclaimed. "Gengar is a Poison type Pokemon! It's weak to ground type attacks! Camerupt, Earthquake!" The fire Pokemon raised its front hooves and slammed them into the ground hard, creating a shockwave beneath them. The shockwave rippled out toward gengar, smashing up the concrete that the field was made of as it traveled. It quickly reached Gengar, exploding the ground beneath the ghost Pokemon.
"So much for your confidence, huh?" Bobby asked Michael mockingly.
"I have a reason to be confident." Michael replied. "I'm battling an idiot. Take another look." Gengar was still there, floating above the rubble, unaffected.
"How?!" Bobby stammered.
"Gengar's special ability." Michael said, a smirk on his face. "Levitate. Ground moves can't hurt him." A look of shock came onto Bobby's face. "Now, Gengar, Hypnosis!"
"Gengaaaah." Gengar said, looking Camerupt straight in the eyes and waving its hands around. Circles of Psychic energy shot forward from Gengar's eyes, hitting Camerupt head on. Camerupt's eyes began to flutter open and closed slowly, and then remained closed. It was Asleep.
"No! Camerupt! Wake up!" Bobby yelled.
"Gengar, Dream Eater!" Michael commanded. Gengar extended its hands, balls of lavender energy shooting forth from them. The energy struck Camerupt, knocking it back and leaving bruises all around it. The balls of psychic power then returned to Gengar, and the ghost Pokemon absorbed the energy.
"Camerupt, you've got to snap out of it!" Bobby shouted. "One more of those could kill--!"
"Too late." Michael interrupted. "Gengar, Dream Eater!" Gengar jumped into the air, one hand above its head, forming more balls of energy in its palm. As it fell back to the ground, it shot its hand forward, the energy launching out from it and once again hitting Camerupt. The psychic force robbed Camerupt of its last remaining energy, knocking it off its legs and onto the ground, unconscious.
"Camerupt is knocked out!" The announcer decided. "Please send out your next Pokemon!"
"Camerupt, return." Bobby said, a look of dismay on his face as the Pokemon returned to its Pokeball. "Go, Magcargo!"
"I too will make a switch, as the rules allow it." Michael said matter-of-factly, returning Gengar to its Pokeball. "Go, Lairon!"
"Hah! That Lairon won't stand a chance against my fire attacks!" Bobby exclaimed.
"It wouldn't." Michael agreed. "Lucky for me, it can knock you out before your Magcargo even has time to think about attacking.
"Tch...he's right..." Bobby said to himself. "Magcargo's way slower than Lairon...and he only needs one Earthquake attack to take me out!"
"Lairon, Earthquake!" Michael commanded. The steel Pokemon raised its front legs similar to how Camerupt had done, slamming them down and creating a massive shockwave, tearing up the field even further. Before Magcargo even had time to think, it was hit by a massive explosion of rock. When the smoke cleared, Magcargo lay there, completely knocked out.
"Magcargo is knocked out!" The announcer proclaimed. "Please send out your next Pokemon!"
"I'll leave Lairon out for now." Michael said. "I think you're primarily a fire type user, earthquake should be able to take out anything you send at me."
"You think wrong!" Bobby said, a smile on his face. "Gyarados, I choose you!" He hurled the Pokeball into the air, a long beam of red energy shooting out from it. When the energy materialized, it became clear that this was not an ordinary Gyarados.
"It's red!" Michael exclaimed. "There's only been one red Gyarados in the history of the Pokemon league...and it belonged to..."
"That's right." Bobby cut in. "This Gyarados was given to me by a very good friend of my father." A large smirk appeared on his face. "Lance, champion of the elite four!"
"This isn't good..." Michael thought. "Lairon, try hitting it with your electric type move! Shock Wave!"
"Who's too slow now?" Bobby mocked. "Gyarados, Hydro Pump!" Before Lairon had time to prepare its attack, it was already being bombarded by a massive blast of water from Gyarados. The rock type Pokemon stood no chance.
"Lairon is knocked out!" The announcer exclaimed. "Please send out your next Pokemon!"
"Crap..." Michael said. "Go, Gengar!" The ghost Pokemon reemerged from its Pokeball, still fully ready to fight. "Gengar, Hypnosis!" The purple Pokemon began waving its hands as it had before, shooting psychic energy from its eyes. Unfortunately, Gyarados knew better, and closed its eyes, avoiding the attack.
"Gyarados, Bite!" Bobby commanded. The large red Pokemon lunged forth, its massive fangs closing in on Gengar. The ghost Pokemon stood no chance against this dark type attack, and was knocked out in one shot.
"No, Gengar!" Michael exclaimed.
"Gengar is knocked out. Please send out your next Pokemon!" The announcer said for the sixth time.
"Go, Weezing!" Michael said, sending out his last Pokemon, the poison type Weezing. "Weezing, try to hit it with a Thunder attack!" The purple Pokemon blew smoke out of its body, concentrating. A blast of electric energy shot upward from it, and then shot back down from the sky, nearly hitting Gyarados.
"Close, but not close enough!" Bobby said thankfully, as the Thunder attack, though inaccurate, was extremely powerful and probably could have taken his Gyarados out. "Gyarados, let's finish this!" He exclaimed. "Hyper Beam!" The Gyarados opened its mouth, a huge beam of white energy shooting out from it. The beam hit Weezing, completely decimating it. The severely injured poison gas Pokemon fell to the ground, no question as to its unconsciousness.
"How...how could I lose?" Michael questioned rhetorically. "My Pokemon were so strong...how..."
"Bobby Malec is the winner!" The announcer shouted. "Congratulations! Now, both competitors that reached the final round, please go to the front desk to claim your prizes!"

"Alright, I'm here for my prize." Michael said in a frustrated tone, slamming his palm down on the front desk.
"No need to be so rude." The woman responded. "Are all four of you here?"
"Yeah." Dan said, looking around the room. Michael, Bobby, Dan, and Matt were all present.
"Alright then. Follow me." The woman said, pressing a button under her desk. Part of the wall next to the desk rolled up, revealing a secret door. The four boys followed the woman through the door into a dimly lit room.
"Is this some sort of trap?" Matt questioned, looking around.
"Professor Pine will be with you shortly." The woman said in a voice so quiet that noone could hear her, walking back out the door. It closed behind her, the room darkening further to the point where it was almost impossible to see.
"I'd say yes." Dan answered to Matt's question.
"Welcome." Came the voice of a middle aged man. The lights turned on to reveal a man in a lab coat standing on a small pedestal. "Congratulations on making the top four of the Triregional Championships."
"Who are you?" Bobby asked.
"I am Professor Pine, the leading research authority in the region of Olemenun." The man answered.
"Olemenun? I've never heard of that region." Dan said.
"Probably not." Professor Pine responded. "Olemenun is usually kept secret from the rest of the world."
"Why is that?" Matt questioned.
"Well, we prefer not to involve ourselves in the political affairs of the other regions, in order to avoid getting involved in wars." Professor Pine answered. "Also, we have Pokemon there that are not found in any other region, and do not wish for those Pokemon to be traded out to the other regions."
"So why are you telling us this?" Michael asked, finally joining the conversation from the corner of the room.
"Because," Professor Pine replied, "your prize is an all expenses paid trip to Olemenun to take part in the Pokemon league challenge there."
"Ah, Olemenun has a Pokemon league too?" Bobby asked.
"Correct." Professor Pine answered. "If possible, I would also like you to catch as many Pokemon as you can in the region. I'm trying to complete a Pokedex catalouging all of Olemenun's Pokemon."
"Sure." Bobby answered. "We can do that. I'd love to catch and train some new Pokemon, and I'm sure the others wouldn't mind either."
"Yeah, that's fine." Dan confirmed.
"No problem." Matt added.
"Whatever." Michael said, still resting against the wall in the corner of the room.
"Excellent." Professor Pine said. "I've already arranged for a private jet to take you there in the morning. You'll meet my daughter and her friend at the Evergrande City airport. The six of you will take the plane to Roccane town, where my lab is located. You can meet me at my lab at quarter past noon." He paced around the pedestal a few times and then began to speak again. "You can stay at the hotel connected to the stadium for tonight." He turned around and began to walk toward a door on the other side of the room. "Oh, and one more thing. Once you arrive in Olemenun, I'll have to take your current Pokemon. Olemenun's Pokemon have not been revealed to the rest of the world, and I don't want the rest of the world's Pokemon being revealed to Olemenun."
"That makes sense." Dan said.
"Good. See you in the morning." Professor Pine said, pressing a button on the wall. Doors opened on both sides of the room, and the boys walked out the door they had came from. Once they had left, Professor Pine left through the other door, and both doors closed.

[Jirae]

Chapter 2: Snakes on a Plane

It was about eight o' clock in the morning, and still somewhat dark outside. The woman from behind the desk at the stadium was also a maid at the adjacent hotel, and had been ordered by Professor Pine to wake the boys up in the morning.
"I advise you to wake up," She wispered into Bobby's ear, "or you may be late for your flight." Upon hearing something in his ear, Bobby woke up, blinking his eyes a few times and stretching out his arms and legs.
"What time is it?" Bobby asked with a yawn, sitting up in his bed.
"It's about ten past eight." The maid replied, "'Your flight leaves in one hour and twenty minutes."
"I should probably get up then." Bobby said, yawning again and stretching his arms up in the air. He removed the sheet from on top of him and got up, walking to the bathroom within the hotel room.
"Breakfast will be ready in five minutes." The maid stated, "The others are already in the lobby."

"Alright. I think everyone is done with breakfast." Dan said, looking around the table at stacked bowls of shallow milk and plates with the remains of food on them.
"Good. Shall we be off, then?" Asked the maid, "Professor Pine has also assigned me with the task of chauffeuring you to the airport."
"Yeah, let's go." Matt said, standing up from the table and pushing in his chair. The group grabbed their bags and headed out the door to a limousine parked in the driveway.

"We have arrived." The maid said from the drivers' seat, as the limousine parked in the airport parking lot.
"Where are we supposed to go?" Bobby inquired as the four of them opened their doors and began to exit the car.
"You'll meet Professor Pine's daughter and her friend at terminal B-14." The maid responded. "They will recognize you." When she was sure all four boys had exited the vehicle and were not behind it, she waved goodbye and pulled out, driving out toward the main road. The group had been dropped off right outside the entrance to the airport, and walked inside, not paying any attention to the unusual number of policemen standing outside the door.

"Here we are...terminal B-14." Bobby said, setting his bag down on a chair as the others did the same. "But where's...?" Before he could finish his sentence, he saw two girls running toward them carrying bags similar to their own. One girl had blonde hair and was more or less dragging the other girl, a brunette.
"Ohmigosh Hiiiii!" The blonde-haired girl exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air as she approached the group. She ran up to Bobby and hugged him for seemingly no reason.
"Uh...are you Professor Pine's daughter?" Bobby asked, looking at her with an odd expression on his face.
"Like, totally!" She replied, releasing Bobby and setting her bag down with the others. "I'm Tatianna, and this is my friend, Elissa." She said, pointing to the brunette.
"We're not late, are we?" Elissa asked.
"Nope, I don't think so..." Bobby answered, looking up at the marquee of departures and arrivals.
"Now boarding flight 121 at terminal B-14." The loudspeaker boomed.
"That's like, our flight!" Tatianna said. The group grabbed their bags and walked up to the connector that connected the airport to the airplane.
"Tickets please." The attendant said dryly.
"Tickets? He didn't give us tickets!" Dan exclaimed, a little worried.
"We have your tickets." Elissa said in response, handing the attendant all 6 tickets.
"Have a nice flight." The attendant said, letting the group pass.
"Hey, how come the marquee said that we were flying to orre?" Matt asked, "Aren't we going to o-"
"Shh!" Elissa said, covering matt's mouth. "People aren't supposed to know, remember?"
"Sorry." Matt said. The group boarded the airplane, not knowing that the flight attendant had heard elissa shushing Matt. She left her position and walked into the connector, closing the door behind her.

"Attention passengers, I'm Derek Farber and I'll be your pilot today." Came a voice over the loudspeaker. "We're going to be taking off shortly, heading to Roccane Airport in Olemenun. Approximate flight time is 2 hours and 28 minutes. Please fasten your seatbelts while the seatbelt light is on." A light came on above the seats showing that the passengers should buckle their seatbelts. Shortly after, the plane began to take off.
"Hey, we're the only ones on this flight..." Bobby noticed.
"Of course. It's a private flight." Elissa replied. "The only people that know the true destination of this flight are the pilot, Professor Pine, and us."
"If it's a private flight..." Michael commented, "why is the plane so big?" He was right. The plane was the size of a normal aircraft, looking like it could seat nearly one hundred passengers. Instead, only the first row of seats were filled, and the many rows behind them remained empty.
"I guess this was like, the only plane they could get." Tatianna answered to the best of her ability.
"Good morning, may I get you something to eat?" Came a familiar voice from behind. It was the attendant from when they were boarding the plane, pushing a food cart down the aisle.
"No thank you." Michael said as she passed him first.
"None for me either." Dan added.
"Nothing here." Matt said.
"I'm fine." Elissa stated, not wanting anything to eat either.
"I'll have a bagel with jam, if you've got it." Bobby said, being the first to order food.
"Here you are, sir." The attendant said, pulling out a plate, a bagel, and a container of jam from the cart.
"Can I have, like, cocoa puffs?" Tatianna asked.
"Here you are, m'am." The attendant said, handing her a bowl, a box of cocoa puffs, and a carton of milk. With that, the attendant walked to the end of the aisle where she had room to turn the cart around and wheeled it around, heading back down the aisle to the other end of the plane.

"I'll be right back, I'm going to the bathroom." Matt said shortly after the attendant left. He got up from his seat and walked down the aisle to where the bathrooms were at the end. No sooner had he reached the bathroom than he came running back.
"SNAKES!" He shouted, flailing his arms around madly.
"What are you babbling about?" Bobby asked, turning around. Sure enough, Matt was being followed by a large group of Ekans, Arbok, and Seviper. "Holy crap, he's right! There are snakes on this plane!" The rest of the group turned in their seats to see this phenomenon for themselves, and saw it was true. Matt arrived at their seats, turning around in the isle to see the army of snake Pokemon following him from a short distance.
"How very odd." Michael said, unbuckling his seat belt and walking into the aisle, facing the snakes. "I'll take care of this. Sneasel, I choose you!" He grabbed a Pokeball from his belt and threw it out toward the snakes, releasing the dark type Pokemon in front of them.
"Snee-selll.." The Pokemon snickered, unfolding its arms. The blades on its hands shone brilliantly, despite the lack of natural lighting. It ran forward, arms out behind its back, and jumped over some of the snakes, landing on a seat. The poison type Pokemon decided to start fighting, and began to leap up toward it. It jumped off the seat, slashing an Arbok in the air and landing on its feet, slashing an Ekans with its other hand. It began running down the aisle, slashing every Pokemon that lunged at it as it went. The apparently low level snakes were no match for Michael's expertly trained Sneasel. It slashed through them one after another, aiming not to knock the Pokemon unconscious, but rather to kill. The Sneasel's eyes shone with an evil light as it chopped up countless Pokemon into mincemeat. It was ruthless in its attacks, killing every Pokemon in a single shot. It danced down the aisleway, leaving unbelievable carnage in its path. Soon, all the Pokemon were dead except one. There, at the end of the aisleway, was an unusually large shiny Seviper.
"Seviiiper!" It hissed, its tail shaking in the air. As soon as it did this, a new wave of Ekans, Arbok, and Seviper appeared from the back of the plane.
"This isn't good." Michael said. Even though his Sneasel had been able to kill the previous Pokemon without getting hit a single time, doing so took incredible effort on Sneasel's part, and it was tired.
"We'll help you." Bobby said, still eating his bagel. "Go, Growlithe!"
"I choose you, Tyrogue!" Matt added.
"Tangela!" Dan shouted.
"Let's go, Shelgon!" Tatianna exclaimed.
"Help them out, Natu!" Elissa said. The five Pokemon joined Sneasel on one side of the plane, facing down the wave of snakes arriving on the other.
"Snea...sel!" Sneasel shouted, thrusting its hand out and pointing at the snakes. The six Pokemon charged forward and began to attack. Tyrogue and Sneasel fought back to back, punching and slashing at snakes flying at them from all directions. Tangela caught groups of Pokemon in its vines, lifting them up and squeezing them as Natu bombarded their minds with Psychic attacks in the air. Growlithe and Shelgon ran around headbutting everything in their path, occasionally letting loose an ember to barbeque a weakened Ekans or Arbok. In a matter of time, the shiny Seviper was once again the only Pokemon left to oppose them.
"Seviper." It hissed slowly and calmly, this time heading toward the six Pokemon instead of summoning more minions. Sneasel stepped forward at an equally calm pace, meeting the Seviper about halfway down the plane. The two Pokemon just stood there looking at eachother for a few seconds, but the silence was broken when Sneasel slashed Seviper across the face, sending it back a few feet, writhing in pain. It lunged forward, biting Sneasel on the arm, sinking its venom into the dark Pokemon.
"Sneaaaas!" The Sneasel screamed in pain.
"Sneasel, you've had enough, return!" Michael exclaimed, throwing Sneasel's Pokeball at it and turning the Pokemon back into its energy state. Seviper's fangs bit down on the nothingness that was once Sneasel's arm, and a look of anger grew on its face. It slithered forward at an amazingly fast speed, but the other five Pokemon were ready. Tyrogue jumped up in the air, coming down on Seviper's head with a powerful Hi Jump Kick. Natu let out a Psybeam, striking Seviper in the 'chest' area. Tangela sent out a Mega Drain, draining some of Seviper's energy and returning it to the grass Pokemon. Growlithe and Shelgon both let out Flamethrower attacks, severely burning the snake and nearly knocking it out or killing it.
"That's quite enough of this." Came the familiar voice of the flight attendant. She stepped out from her room across the hall from the bathroom, a Pokeball in her hand. "Seviper, return!" She held out the Pokeball, the shining Seviper turning into its energy form and returning to its owner.
"You mean that was you that sent those Pokemon?!" Bobby exclaimed, both angry and shocked.
"Correct." The attendant replied calmly. "And since they were not able to get the job done, I'll just have to do it myself. Zangoose!" She grabbed another Pokeball which opened up to reveal a shiny Zangoose. "Crush Claw!" She commanded. The Zangoose's claw came down hard on the side of the plane, opening up a huge hole and letting the air in.
"Agh! What are you trying to do?!" Bobby asked as the air pressure masks dropped down from the consoles above the seats.
"Oh, don't worry. I wouldn't risk not killing you by doing something silly like changing the plane's air pressure. The air around Olemenun is too stable for that anyways." The attendant replied. Her Zangoose turned around, letting loose another Crush Claw, but this time aiming for the floor of the plane. The Zangoose hopped out of the way as the floor exploded, revealing a turbine beneath the floor where it had struck.
"Zannnngoose!" It laughed as the attendant returned it to its Pokeball.
"Have fun fending off the Plesiowave." The attendant said as she released a Pidgeot and got on its back. "You'll find that, unlike Gyarados and other water Pokemon from the other regions, they are completely relentless in their attacks." The Pidgeot flew out the hole in the plane that Zangoose had created, delivering the attendant from the inevitable crash.
"We seem to be losing altitude, please stay in your seats." The loudspeaker boomed. Sure enough, the plane was rapidly heading toward the sea.
"We have to get out of here!" Bobby shouted. "Go, Aerodactyl!" Following his lead, Michael sent out a Crobat, Dan sent out a Tropius, and Elissa sent out a Claydol. Not having flying Pokemon of their own, Tatianna and Matt got on Dan's Tropius along with Dan, and the four Pokemon flew out the hole in the plane where the attendant's Pidgeot had exited. Crobat, Tropius, and Aerodactyl flapped their wings madly to overcome the gravity that had carried the plane down, and Claydol surrounded itself with a purple aura of psychic energy, stabilizing it and allowing it to levitate in midair. Unfortunately. The flying Pokemon could not overcome the oddly strong gravity in the air, and began plummeting toward the water, Claydol not far behind them.
"If we hit the water, we'll die!" Dan yelled over the sound of the wind.
"I'll just like send out my water Pokemon when we like, get close!" Tatianna responded. That didn't take long, as the group could soon see the water beneath them.
"Go, Gorebyss!" Elissa shouted, sending out her own water Pokemon.
"Milotic, Kingdra, Sealeo, let's go!" Tatianna exclaimed. The four Pokemon appeared in the water as the trainers recalled their flying Pokemon. Tatianna, Dan, and Matt landed on Milotic's long back, while Bobby and Michael each landed on Kingdra and Sealeo respectively. Elissa was still a ways behind, as her Claydol's aura had reduced her falling rate. The five that reached the water first caused the three Pokemon to be submerged a few feet in the water due to the impact at which they hit. The Pokemon had broken their fall, but had been injured by it. Shortly after the Pokemon resurfaced, Elissa released her Claydol, falling down the remaining few feet onto her Gorebyss' back.
"There's something wrong with the air around here." Michael stated. "The air pressure should have caused major damage in that plane, and the gravity shouldn't have been nearly that strong."
"Well, we're alive, and that's all that matters." Bobby said.
"We shouldn't be." Michael replied. "As I said, the gravity was much too strong. When we fell with that force, the Pokemon cushioning our fall shouldn't have been enough, we still should have died when we hit the water."
"Who cares? We are alive, and like Bobby said, that's all that matters." Dan said, agreeing with Bobby. Suddenly, the group heard a large growl, and a large shadow passed underwater beneath them.
"Yeah, but I don't know how long we'll be alive for..." Elissa said worriedly.

[Jirae]

Chapter 3: Beginning the Journey

"This doesn't look good..." Bobby said, looking around the water as the large shadow circled around the group.
"Grrr...." Growled the beast below the surface.
"What is this thing?" Tatianna asked.
"Looks like we're about to find out..." Dan replied as the water parted in front of them to reveal a large blue-green creature. The long neck of the plesiosaur-esque Pokemon rose above its giant body. Its eight flipperlike limbs splashed the water as it broke the surface. Its tail, roughly the same size as its neck, both being about ten feet in length, slapped the water, creating a large wave that rocked the water and caused the group's Pokemon to rise a few feet with the wave. The new Pokemon's face had a menacing look on it, baring its fangs at the smaller Pokemon.
"This must be the Pokemon that flight attendant was talking about!" Bobby shouted over the roar of the waves. "What did she call it? Plesio-something?"
"Plesiowave!" Tatianna answered. "My father like, told me about them...these things have been known to like, totally eat people!"
"Eat people? I don't wanna get eaten!" Elissa exclaimed.
"And you're not going to!" Came a familiar voice from above. A helicopter flew above the giant water Pokemon, the wind from its rotor blades causing the water to part beneath it.
"Professor Pine!" Bobby yelled. Professor Pine stood in the helicopter, one hand hanging on to the door, a Pokeball clutched in his other.
"Psytage, I choose you!" Professor Pine exclaimed, throwing the Pokeball to release yet another unfamiliar Pokemon. The Pokemon appeared to be a thin, floating, hollow circle made of some type of alloy. It had two rings of energy circling it and crossing paths in the center, much like artist representations of the atom. One energy was yellow and obviously electrical, while the other was purple and more resembling a psychic aura.
"Psytage, thunder attack!" Professor Pine commanded. The electrical ring of the Pokemon began to grow in size and presence, as a ball of similar energy appeared in the center of the alloy ring, where the two energies crossed paths. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot forth from the yellow ball, striking the Plesiowave directly in the center of where its neck met its chest.
"Pleeeeeeees!" The water type bellowed as it recoiled backwards, its massive neck hitting the water and causing another wave to pass by the group of young trainers. It was obvious that with only that one shot, the Plesiowave was done for.
"Alright daddy!" Tatianna exclaimed, smiling at Professor Pine.
"Get in the helicopter!" Professor Pine shouted as the helicopter lowered its ladder. One by one the trainers grabbed hold of the ladder and pulled themselves up, recalling their water Pokemon when they got on board.

"Here we are." Professor Pine said as the helicopter began to land at what the group assumed was Roccane airport. It was really only a small runway and a helicopter pad, and was obviously only used by Professor Pine and his assistants.
"This is the airport?" Michael asked, looking around. "Not much, is it?"
"It's like, a private airport." Tatianna said, defending her father.
"We mostly only use it for research trips." Professor Pine added. "It's connected to the lab, so it's rather convenient."
"Alright, we're here." Dan said. "Can you explain what we'll be doing now?"
"Certainly." Professor Pine replied. "Follow me, I'll get you your starter Pokemon."

"Now then." Professor Pine said as he walked around the desk. The laboratory was rather large, the walls lined with bookshelves and computer desks. Research assistants bustled around, going from table to table doing various experiments and research. In the center of the room was a large circular desk with six equally spaced holes in it, all surrounding a white dome in the center of the desk. Professor Pine pressed a button under the desk, and Pokeballs rose up on small colored stands from the six holes.
"I will be taking your other Pokemon now." A research assistant said, walking up behind the group. Each person turned around and reluctantly removed the six Pokeballs from their belt, dropping them in a large woven sack the the assistant held out.
"Very good." Professor Pine said as the group turned to face him again. "Now that that's done with, we'll start with you, Robert.
"Yes sir." Bobby said, stepping forward.
"Please take the Pokeball from the red stand." Professor Pine instructed. Bobby slowly took the Pokeball from its resting place and threw it into the air. The red energy flowed out of the ball, materializing in the form of a small lion. The lion cub had a lightly tanned peach colored fur, and big black eyes. It looked like a normal lion cub except for two small differences. Instead of a mane of hair, this lion's mane was made of fire, burning with the intensity of a fireplace. In addition, its tail also burned with a small flame at the tip, similar to a Charmander's.
"Cubb!" The small Pokemon growled, rubbing up against Bobby's leg.
"Woah! Careful!" Bobby exclaimed, jumping up at the sight of the fire.
"Don't worry." Professor Pine said. "Cubburn learn to control their manes at an extremely young age. Though the fire always burns, it will not harm people that touch it if the Cubburn does not want it to."
"Cubburn." Bobby echoed. "So that's your name, huh?" He reached his hand down, petting the lion cub on its forehead. The Pokemon purred, opening its mouth slightly and licking its face.
"You're next, Daniel." Professor Pine stated. "The green stand, if you please." Dan walked over to the Pokeball, grabbing it and hurling it into the air. The red energy materialized to reveal what appeared to be nothing but a small clump of moss.
"Uh...is this a joke?" Dan asked, looming his head in and inspecting the green clump closely. Without warning, it lunged forward, grabbing onto his face.
"Ahhh! Get it off of me!" Dan shouted, running around in circles madly, clutching his face and trying to remove the slimey creature.
"Mosseize. Down!" Professor Pine commanded, snapping his fingers. The green blob unlatched itself from Dan's face, landing on the ground in front of his feet. Dan looked down to see that the formerly ordinary pile of moss now had a mouth and two large eyes, as well as two small, armlike, handless appendages.
"Mosseize like to play tricks like that." Professor Pine explained. "They enjoy posing as regular moss and hiding in ordinary places such as rocks, then jumping out at the first living thing to walk by, grabbing onto it and hanging on as long as they can."
"Mosseize, moss!" The grass Pokemon cried, smiling as it looked up at its new owner.
"Matthew, it is your turn." Professor Pine said. "Please take the Pokemon from the orange stand." Matt walked forward, taking the Pokeball and releasing the Pokemon within it. The Pokemon appeared to be a small, purple, humanshape Pokemon. It had the stature and thin body of a trained martial artist, but the proportion and size of a five year old. The Pokemon's entire body was purple except for its head, hands, and feet. Its hands at feet were both white, and looked as though the Pokemon was wearing gloves and laceless shoes. Its head was also white, and was shaped like an oval, reaching from shoulder to shoulder on the Pokemon. It had no hair, but had normal human ears. No eye, nose, or mouth was visible, but rather, a peice of paper covered the center of the Pokemon's face. The paper was thin enough so that one would think eyes would be visible around it, but yet, none were. On the paper were several chinese characters, written in a thick, dark ink.
"This is Hittao, the spiritual fighter Pokemon." Professor Pine informed Matt. "Hittao is completely blind and cannot smell, taste, or say anything. Instead, it relies completely on its amazing sense of hearing, which is well over one hundred times that of a human being."
"Wow...uh, nice to meet you, Hittao." Matt said. In response, the fighting Pokemon bowed its head respectively.
"Tatianna, your turn." Professor Pine said. "The blue stand is yours." Tatianna stepped up to the blue podium, taking the Pokeball that rested there. She released the Pokemon within it to reveal a small blue Dolphin calf. The light blue dolphin stood up on its rear flipper as if it was a leg, clapping its two front flippers like hands.
"Dude, it's like, a dolphin!" Tatianna exclaimed. "Shouldn't it be in like, water?"
"Calffin is a very unique water Pokemon." Professor Pine responded. "It is able to survive on land just as well as in water, though its movement is rather slow, as it is not yet skilled at hopping on its rear flipper.
"Calff!" The water Pokemon squeeled, hopping up and down and clapping at Tatianna.
"Elissa, you're next." Professor Pine instructed. "Go get the Pokemon from the purple stand." Elissa reached out and took the Pokeball, releasing it into the air. As soon as the energy began to materialize, a beautiful ring filled the air and a nearly visible wave of pure sound energy emitted from the Pokeball.
"Dreeeeeamuuuuseee!" The noise rang slowly. The Pokemon's appearance was nothing but an orb of faint, light yellow energy with small stub 'limbs' of energy extending out from equally spaced 'corners' of the orb. A face was vaguely visible within the orb, with closed eyes and a smiling face.
"Dreamuse isn't much when it comes to appearance," Professor Pine explained, "but rather, its true beauty is within its melodic voice. Its songs are known to make people happy when they hear them, and its final evolution is even sometimes credited with stopping wars."
"Woah, cool!" Elissa responded.
"And finally, your Pokemon, Michael." Professor Pine concluded. "Naturally, the Pokeball on the grey stand is yours." A look of concern began to grow in Professor Pine's eyes as Michael reached for and grabbed the Pokeball.
"Let's see what Pokemon I get to start this ridiculous adventure with." Michael said, throwing the Pokeball into the air. The energy materialized to reveal a small bird Pokemon. The Pokemon's feathers were jet black and slicked back neatly. The crooked beak and malicious grin of the Pokemon showed that it was a vulture and a dark type. Atop its head was a single feather that, though the same color as the others, appeared to shine with a dark aura.
"Vulllld." The Pokemon said in a low chirp.
"Your Pokemon is Vuldusk." Professor Pine informed Michael. "It's a very rare Pokemon. There were once many of them in the mountainous region of the Safari Zone, but they began to act...strangely, and the Police ordered them to be exterminated. I managed to catch one of the last ones."
"Professor," Michael began, "with all due respect, do you think it's such a great idea to be giving a new trainer a Pokemon that is supposed to be extinct?"
"I have no choice." Professor Pine replied. "These six Pokemon and Psytage are the only ones I have, and your six Pokemon's types compliment eachother rather well."
"You're the expert." Michael responded, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Alright then." Professor Pine said, clearing his throat. "Now that you have your six Pokemon, there are a few other items I'd like you to have." He turned and walked over to a desk that was against the wall. He took 6 small devices from the desk and walked back over to where the group was standing.
"Pokedexes." He said, handing each of them one of the devices. "These Pokedexes have been specially configured to display data on Olemenun's Pokemon." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handfull of Pokeballs in their smallest state. "I'd also like you each to have five Pokeballs to start your journey."
"Thank you, sir." Bobby said on behalf of the entire group, accepting the Pokedex and Pokeballs.
"And last but not least, quite possibly the most important item you'll receive on your quest." Professor Pine said, pressing a button on the bottom of the desk again. This time the white dome in the center opened up to reveal six staves, seemingly suspended in midair.
"Please take the staff that matches the color of the podium you took your Pokeball from." Professor Pine instructed. One by one, the trainers took the staves from their resting place.
"What are these for?" Bobby asked.
"Instead of carrying your Pokeballs on your belt, you will attach them to the six magnetic spots on each of your staves." Professor Pine answered. "In addition, they can be used for self defense if your Pokemon are seperated from you."
"Handy." Matt remarked.
"Well, I think that's all I have for you." Professor Pine said with a sigh. "You can spend the night at the hotel next door, and in the morning you can be on your way."
"Alright, thanks." Bobby said, waving back as the group began to exit the laboratory.

[Jirae]

Chapter 4: The Road to Treemor Town

"Alright, is everyone ready to go?" Bobby asked, looking around him. The group all stood in a semicircle around him, backpacks on their backs and staves in their hands.
"I think we are." Matt answered.
"Alright, let's go." Bobby decided, turning from the group and leading them out towards the wilderness.
"Good luck!" Professor Pine shouted from the door to his laboratory, waving at the group as they began to walk away.
"Alright...looks like our first destination is Advachi Town, on the other side of Route A." Bobby said, looking at a map that Professor Pine had given him. The group passed by a sign marked 'Route A' as they exited Roccane Town. The tall grass brushed up against their feet, and they knew they were now vulnerable to wild Pokemon attacks.
The group hadn't been walking long when they spotted their first Pokemon.
"Look over there!" Dan said, pointing to a small, whitish thing crawling in the grass. It appeared to be some sort of oversized worm or catepillar, but it was just as fat as it was long. Dan pulled out his Pokedex and pointed it at the creature.
"Magvae. The Maggot Pokemon." The Pokedex said in a monotone voice. "Magvae spend their time looking for food and trying not to become it. They usually evolve or get eaten within 24 hours of being born."
"This one's mine!" Dan exclaimed, stepping up in front of the rest of the group and taking Mosseize's Pokeball from his staff. "Mosseize, I choose you!" The Pokeball hurled into the air and the grass Pokemon appeared on the ground, smiling and ready for battle.
"Mosseize, tackle!" Dan commanded. The green blob lunged forward, ramming into the bug. The faceless critter responded by launching a tackle of its own. Mosseize leaped forth with a second tackle attack, leaving the bug Pokemon panting and weakened.
"You've weakened it enough, Mosseize!" Dan yelled, grabbing an empty Pokeball from his bag pocket. "Pokeball, go!" The Pokeball flew through the air, hitting the Magvae and turning it into red energy. The ball shook a few times and finally clicked, showing that Dan had captured the Magvae.
"Good job, Dan!" Tatianna exclaimed, hugging Dan for no reason other than a congratulations. Almost instantly, the group heard a thud coming from where the Magvae had been captured. There, wrestling with the closed Pokeball, was a small, dark brown squirrel-like Pokemon. The Pokemon clawed at the Pokeball, trying to bite it open with no success.
"It must have been trying to eat that Magvae." Bobby noted.
"Ooh, it's so cute!" Tatianna squealed, pulling out her Pokedex.
"Funambite. The Squirrel Pokemon." The Pokedex informed. "Funambite enjoy biting whatever they can sink their teeth into. Being an omnivore, their diet can consist of anything from berries to Magvae."
"Ooh, I wanna like, catch it!" Tatianna exclaimed, grabbing the Pokeball from her staff. "Calffin, I choose you!" The dolphin Pokemon appeared from its Pokeball, staring down the Squirrel Pokemon.
"Calfcalfcalf!" It squealed, clapping its flippers and squirting a little water from its blowhole.
"Calffin, let's like, tackle it!" Tatianna ordered. Calffin leaped forward, its head striking the Funambite in the chest. The Funambite responded by scratching at Calffin with its small claws.
"Calffin, I think you can like, weaken it enough with another tackle!" Tatianna shouted, informing her Calffin on what to do. The dolphin Pokemon used its tail as a spring of sorts, jumping up and hitting the squirrel with its long nose.
"Alright!" Tatianna exclaimed, grabbing an empty Pokeball from her bag. "Funambite, you're mine!" She threw the Pokeball at the Pokemon, turning it into red energy. The Pokeball wriggled around considerably more fiercly than dan's had, but made the ding noise all the same, showing that Tatianna too had succeeded in capturing a Pokemon.
"Good job, Tatianna!" Dan said, giving her a thumbs up and smiling.
"I think I'll call you Munchy!" Tatianna decided, placing the Funambite's Pokeball under Calffin's on her staff.
"Alright, we should probably continue on." Bobby said. "If we want to get to the other side of Midowood forest before dark, we should only make a quick stop in Advachi town."
"Oh, let's just spend the night in Advachi town." Elissa suggested. "We're in no rush, and I'm sure there's plenty to do there."

"There really is nothing to do here." Elissa said with a depressed look. It was already late afternoon, and the group had just arrived in Advachi town and saw what little there was to see. There was a Pokemon Mart, a Pokemon Center, and two other buildings that were both locked and appeared to be residential.
"I told you so." Bobby gloated.
"Excuse me!" Came a voice of a man in about his thirties. The group turned to see a tall man in a coat that resembled that of Professor Pine's assistants. "Are you the six children that Professor Pine sent on the Gym Badge journey?"
"We are." Matt answered.
"My name is Matt Catalano." The man said as he approached the group. "I'm a good friend of Professor Pine, and when he told me he had sent some trainers on a quest, I knew that I'd have an oppurtunity to meet them here and give them some advice."
"Uh...okay..." Bobby said, looking at the man strangely.
"The PokeMart here is a ripoff." Mr. Catalano explained. "The items are severely overpriced. Also, a word of warning about Midowood forest...it's very easy to get lost. Just remember to go left whenever possible, and you should make it out fine."
"Alright, thank you." Bobby said, still thinking the man was a little odd.
"One more thing," Mr. Catalano added, "If you see any items on your journey that you think might be rare, bring them back to me, please. I'll be happy to offer a reward. My house is the one with the green roof."
"Alright. We will." Matt said, obviously more confident about the man than Bobby.
"Good luck." Mr. Catalano said, waving as he headed toward his house. "You should be able to make it through Midowood Forest before it gets totally dark."
"Bye!" Tatianna shouted, waving at the man as the group headed the other way, toward the route that went to the forest.

"Something tells me that that guy might not have known what he was talking about." Bobby said. Stars lined the night sky, and the group had just arrived at the edge of Midowood Forest.
"There's like no way we'll be able to see in there, we'll get like, totally lost!" Tatianna exclaimed.
"There must be some kind of source of light around here..." Matt suggested, looking around.
"What's that?" Elissa asked, pointing to a purple glow coming from the tall grass.
"It must be some kind of Pokemon!" Bobby guessed, pulling out his Pokedex and aiming it at the glow.
"Eyequus. The Zebra Pokemon." The Pokedex explained as the Pokemon walked out where it could be seen. It looked like a young zebra with glowing purple stripes and hooves. On its face, above its two normal eyes, was a much larger third eye, open wide and staring at the group. "In order to use its psychic powers, Eyequus opens its third eye. When its third eye is opened, Eyequus' stripes and hooves glow with a bright light that is useful in dark caves and forests."
"I'll catch it!" Elissa said, grabbing Dreamuse's Pokeball from her staff and releasing the Pokemon.
"Dreeeam!" The Pokemon chimed in a melodic voice.
"Dreamuse, tackle!" Elissa ordered. Despite its unsolid appearance, the Pokemon actually had physical form and was able to ram into the Eyequus.
"Quus!" The Zebra Pokemon said, its third eye flaring as a wave of Psychic energy repelled Dreamuse from it.
"Get back in there and tackle it again!" Elissa instructed. Dreamuse once again charged forward, weakening the wild Eyequus further. "I hope that was enough...Pokeball, go!" Elissa yelled, throwing an empty Pokeball at the Eyequus. The Pokeball wriggled around just as Dan and Tatianna's had, but eventually dinged, showing that Elissa had caught the Zebra Pokemon.
"Dream, dream!" Dreamuse chimed happily as Elissa returned it to its own Pokeball.
"Alright!" Dan exclaimed. "With that Eyequus' glow, we'll be able to see our way through Midowood Forest just fine!"
"Then let's get going." Michael said, leaning on his staff, using it sort of like a walking stick. "We'd be better off getting to the next town in the middle of the night than camping out here tonight."
"That's a good point..." Bobby agreed as he looked around for a sign. Sure enough, there was a wooden signpost right outside the edge of the forest.
"Midowood Forest. Advachi Town to Treemor Town." Elissa read, using her newly captured Eyequus for light.
"Okay! To Treemor Town!" Bobby exclaimed, leading the group into the dark forest.
"Something tells me that that guy definitely didn't know what he was talking about." Bobby said. The group had gone left just as Mr. Catalano had told them, and were now helplessly lost.
"I don't know how long we can keep fighting off the wild Pokemon." Matt commented. The group had been fighting Magvae after Magvae for hours, and although their Pokemon had gained levels and grown stronger, they had also taken a beating and were not in very good condition.
"You'd think that in this thick of a forest, there would be Pokemon that could cut down trees or something." Dan wondered. Following this comment, the group was silent for several minutes as they continued to walk through the dense forest.
"Vuldusk should have been back by now." Michael finally said, breaking the silence. "I sent him to get help an hour ago."
"He was pretty weak when you sent him off." Bobby said. "Maybe something bad happened to him."
"Vuld!" The group heard the cry of the bird Pokemon.
"It's coming from over there!" Elissa exclaimed, pointing to where the sound had come from. "Eyequus, lead the way!" Following Eyequus and Elissa, the group managed to arrive at a large clearing in the forest, where they saw Vuldusk being attacked by two Pokemon the group had never seen before. One resembled a large scarab beetle with a golden body, red legs, and a large red horn on its head. The other was a light brown in color, and appeared to have a wooden shell on its back.
"What are those?" Bobby questioned, pulling out his Pokedex and pointing it at the first of the two Pokemon.
"Skeetle. The Scarab Pokemon." The Pokedex said. "Skeetle are also fire type Pokemon, and their shells glow brightly when they use fire type attacks."
"What about the other one?" Matt asked, pointing his own Pokedex and the second.
"Woodmite. The Termite Pokemon." The Pokedex informed. "Woodmite have large, pincer-like teeth that can cut down even the strongest tree. Ironically, they are also covered by a hard, woodlike shell."
"Cubburn, let's catch that Skeetle!" Bobby exclaimed, sending out his fire Pokemon. Right out of the ball, the lion Pokemon began launching ember attacks at the scarab. Being part fire type, the attacks were not super effective against Skeetle, but they still seemed to be doing the trick.
"Hittao, let's get the Woodmite!" Matt exclaimed, sending out his Hittao. The fighting type ran up to the Woodmite, attacking it with fierce karate chops. While the two Pokemon that had been pestering Vuldusk fought their new threats, Michael snuck around them, rescuing his Pokemon from their grasp. Within a matter of time, the two bug Pokemon had been weakened, and were caught by Bobby and Matt.
"Alright! I caught a new Pokemon!" Bobby shouted, thrusting his arm into the air in excitement.
"No need to yell so loud." Came a child's voice with a slight british accent. There, standing behind Michael, was a young brown-haired boy, no more than ten years old. He wore a white t-shirt and shorts, a bug catching net in his hand.
"Hmm? How did you sneak up on me like that?" Michael asked, turning to face the boy.
"I didn't, really." The boy replied. "Your Vuldusk found me while I was taking a walk. Then we were attacked by those two bug Pokemon."
"Why didn't we notice you before?" Michael questioned.
"You have a very smart and courageous Pokemon." The boy answered. "It signalled with its wings that I should hide in the tall grass while it fought the bugs."
"Wow...nice job, Vuldusk!" Michael said, rubbing the bird Pokemon on the head. When it became obvious that Michael had no intention of introducing himself to the boy, Bobby took it upon himself to do so.
"My name is Bobby." He said, shaking the young boy's hand.
"Mine is Spencer." The boy replied. "I live in Treemor Town, at the edge of the forest."
"Treemor Town? That's great! We were just going there!" Bobby exclaimed. "Could you take us there?"
"Sure." Spencer replied. "Seeing as how its so late at night, you can all spend the night at my place."
"Thank you very much." Bobby said. The group followed Spencer out of the forest, toward Treemor Town, home of the first gym in the Olemenun league.

[Jirae]

Chapter 5: The First Badge

"This is your house?!" Bobby asked in amazement. The group stood in front of a large mansion with a size of at least a thousand square feet.
"My family is very rich." Spencer explained. "My brother works in the next town, and brings home a lot of money."
"Wow..." Dan said, still taking in the massive size of the house. The group walked into the foyer, and saw that they were standing on a floor of marble. Crystal chandeliers lined the ceiling, and a golden banaster lined the staircase.
"Follow me, and I will escort you to your rooms." Said a woman in a maid's uniform. The maid led each of them them to their own magnificent guest bedroom on the second floor.
"It's beautiful." Tatianna said.
"Thank you." Spencer said politely. "Now then. When you wake up in the morning, I suggest that you try the Pokemon Gym nextdoor. I work there, and I'm sure at least one of you is taking the league challenge."
"Alright!" Matt responded. "We'll be there." Each of the trainers walked to their own rooms, and Spencer walked down the long carpeted hallway to his.
"Oh, before I forget, Spencer," Bobby began, "What do you do, working at the Pokemon Gym?"
"You'll find out tomorrow." Spencer answered with a smile on his face.

"Welcome to the Treemor Town Gym!" Said the greeter as the group walked in. Though the Gym looked normal on the outside, on the inside the Gym walls looked like the inside of a giant termite nest, and Woodmites scurried around the building, going to and from various holes in the walls.
"Woah!" Matt exclaimed, looking around. "This place is crazy!"
"Which of you will be challenging our leader today?" The greeter asked.
"Hmm...this looks like a Bug type Gym, so that will be me." Bobby volunteered. "May I ask who your leader is?"
"Why, the esteemed Spencer, of course!" The greeter replied. "He was able to master Bug Pokemon at such a young age..."
"Wait, Spencer?!" Bobby asked in disbelief.
"Hi guys!" Spencer yelled from across the room, waving his hand at the group. "I guess I forgot to mention that I'm the Gym Leader here...well, in any case, good luck, Bobby!"
"You may proceed to the first Gym Trainer." The greeter said, allowing Bobby to pass by. "The rest of you must stay here and watch." He added, stopping the other five trainers from following Bobby.
"Good luck!" Tatianna said, waving as Bobby turned away and walked toward the first trainer.

"I'll cream you! You won't even make it to Spencer!" The trainer, a young bugcatcher boy, said confidently. "Go, Woodmite!"
"We'll see about that." Bobby responded, equally confident. "Go, Cubburn!" The two Pokemon stared eachother down for a while, Woodmite's teeth clicking together.
"If you won't make a move, I will!" Bobby shouted. "Cubburn, Ember!" The young lion Pokemon leaped forward, spewing a blast of fire from its mouth. The fire hit the Woodmite dead on, leaving rather severe burn marks.
"Woodmite, Mud Slap!" The Bugcatcher ordered. The ground type Pokemon kicked the ground fiercely with its short legs, causing an oddly large amount of Mud to come up and hit Cubburn, covering its face and reducing its accuracy.
"Don't worry, Cubburn!" Bobby encouraged. "You can win this! Ember!" Once again the fire Pokemon leaped out at the bug, barraging it with another Ember attack, knocking it out.
"No! My Woodmite!" The trainer exclaimed, returning the bug Pokemon to its Pokeball. "Well, you beat me, fair and square." He told Bobby as he handed him a washcloth. "Use this to wipe you Cubburn's eyes off, and go on to the second gym trainer."
"Thank you." Bobby said, wiping off his Pokemon's face.

"That last trainer was a pushover!" The second trainer, also a bugcatcher, exclaimed. "You won't beat me! I have the same Pokemon team as Spencer!"
"Yes, but are they trained as well?" Bobby asked somewhat sarcastically.
"Just you watch!" The trainer replied. "Go, Skeetle!"
"I think I'll use my own Skeetle here." Bobby said, sending out his second Pokemon. The two scarabs eyed eachother, ready to fight. "Skeetle, Ember!" Bobby ordered.
"Skeetle, use an Ember of your own!" The bugcatcher commanded. The two Skeetles both launched their ember attacks, hitting eachother. By the intensity of the burn marks left on each Pokemon, it was obvious that Bobby's was stronger. The two Pokemon continued to use Ember, weakening eachother further and further, until eventually the Gym Trainer's Skeetle had been defeated.
"No! Skeetle, return!" The young trainer shouted. "Go, Woodmite!"
"Another one?" Bobby questioned rhetorically. "Fine...let's use Ember!" The Skeetle used another Ember attack, hitting the Woodmite and weakening it noticeably.
"I won't use cheap tricks to win like that other trainer." The bugcatcher informed. "Woodmite, Cut!" The termite Pokemon ran up, slicing the beetle with its large, pincer-like teeth. Already weakened from the previous Pokemon, this left Bobby's Pokemon very close to being knocked out.
"Alright! Let's get one more Ember in before you're knocked out!" Bobby ordered. The Skeetle used one final Ember attack, and was then defeated by the opposing Woodmite's cut.
"Skeetle, return!" Bobby exclaimed. "Go, Cubburn!" As soon as Cubburn emerged from its Pokeball, it knew all it needed to do to finish the Woodmite off was to use another Ember. With Bobby's word it did so, knocking out the bug Pokemon.
"No! You beat me!" The bugcatcher exclaimed in dismay. "Very well, you can fight Spencer now."

"I'm impressed that you made it this far." Spencer said. "Good job. Now, before we fight, I insist that you heal your Pokemon." He extended his arm, pointing to a machine in the corner of the room that resembled those found at the Pokemon Center.
"Thank you." Bobby said, walking over to the machine and placing his Pokeballs on it. The machine made a few noises and blinked, showing it was finished healing his Pokemon. Bobby took the Pokeballs from the machine, reattaching them to his staff, and walked over to where Spencer stood.
"Alright. Shall we begin?" Spencer asked, throwing his first Pokeball into the air and releasing a Skeetle.
"Go, Skeetle!" Bobby shouted, releasing his own Skeetle.
"Skeetle, Cut!" Spencer commanded.
"Skeetle, Ember!" Bobby responded almost immediately. Spencer's Skeetle lunged forward, its horn positioned to slam down on Bobby's. Bobby's Skeetle looked up and used Ember attack, knocking the oncoming Skeetle back and interrupting its attack.
"Clever move." Spencer said. "But I won't fall for it twice! Let's go, Skeetle!" Spencer's Skeetle ran forward once again, but this time did not jump. Bobby's Skeetle tried to hit it with another Ember, but it went around the blast and hit Bobby's Skeetle with a Cut attack from the side, sending it flying backwards.
"Skeetle, retaliate with tackle!" Bobby shouted. His Skeetle got back on its feet and ran at Spencer's, ramming into its side.
"Come on, Skeetle, let's try an Ember!" Spencer exclaimed. Spencer's Skeetle regained its posture and blew a blast of fire at Bobby's.
"Counter with your own Ember!" Bobby commanded. Bobby's Skeetle jumped above the Ember attack from Spencer's and launched an Ember of its own which hit the other Skeetle.
"Skeetle, I know you're hurt, but you can finish him off now!" Spencer shouted. "Cut attack!" His Skeetle lunged forward, slicing Bobby's with its horn. Bobby's Skeetle, already quite wounded, could not take another attack and was knocked out.
"Skeetle, return!" Bobby exclaimed. "I choose you, Cubburn!" The lion cub emerged from its Pokeball, staring the enemy Skeetle down. "Cubburn, we can finish it off now! Ember!" Hearing the command, Cubburn spewed another Ember attack, hitting the enemy Skeetle and knocking it out as well.
"Good job." Spencer said, returning the defeated Skeetle to its Pokeball. "Let's avenge him, Woodmite!" Spencer threw his second Pokeball into the air, revealing yet another Woodmite.
"Cubburn, Ember!" Bobby commanded. Cubburn leaped into the air, bombarding the Woodmite with fire, just as it had done to the Skeetle.
"Woodmite, Cut!" Spencer exclaimed. The Woodmite ran out of the area where it had been hit, slashing at the Cubbun as it returned to the ground.
"Shake it off, Cubburn!" Bobby shouted. "Use another Ember attack!" The Cubburn turned to face Woodmite, launching an Ember at close range.
"We've gotta be more careful!" Spencer informed his Pokemon. "Let's use Mud Slap!" Just as the first trainer's Woodmite had, Spencer's Woodmite kicked the ground, spraying Cubburn's face with mud.
"Give it another Ember!" Bobby ordered. The fire Pokemon aimed at where it thought Woodmite was, spraying a blast of fire, but missed, as its vision had been blurred by the mud.
"It's working, Woodmite!" Spencer exclaimed. "Mud Slap again!" The Woodmite once again kicked the ground, covering Cubburn's face in even more mud.
"Don't worry, Cubburn!" Bobby encouraged. "You can still win this! Ember!" Once again the fire Pokemon leaped out at the bug, barraging it with another Ember attack, which, much to Spencer's dismay, hit, wounding the Woodmite again.
"One more of those could finish you off, so we just won't let him use another one! Mud Slap again!" Spencer commanded. The Woodmite once again sent mud flying towards Cubburn's face, blinding it even further.
"Let's end this!" Bobby shouted. "Ember!" Cubburn, now almost completely blinded, opened its mouth and let out an Ember attack, which went flying in completely the opposite direction.
"Good job, Woodmite!" Spencer exclaimed. "Now that he can't see you, let's start using Cut!" The Woodmite ran up to the blinded Cubburn, slashing at it again with its large pincer teeth.
"Come on, you can do it, Cubburn! Just concentrate!" Bobby yelled. "Be like Hittao and listen for him!" He paused for a few moments and continued, "Ember!" The lion Pokemon concentrated, listening for the sound of the Woodmite's feet on the Gym floor, and let loose another firey assault upon the bug Pokemon. The fire attack struck the Woodmite once again, knocking it out.
"Woodmite!" Spencer exclaimed in concern, returning the Pokemon to its Pokeball. "Very well. You have defeated me." He walked over to where Bobby stood, handing him a small peice of metal in the shape of a Woodmite's head. "Take this. It's the Termite Badge."
"Thank you." Bobby said, accepting the gift.
"I'd also like you to have these." Spencer added, reaching into his pocket and pulling out two disc-shaped objects. "This is the Hidden Machine Cut. It can be used to teach your Pokemon the Cut move, which can be used to Cut down trees or as a powerful move in battle." He handed the first disc over to Bobby. "And this is the Technical Machine, Fury Cutter. It is a powerful bug type move, but unlike the Cut Hidden Machine, this Technical Machine can only be used once."
"Thank you." Bobby said, accepting both discs from Spencer.
"Good luck on your journey." Spencer said as Bobby turned to join his group on the other side of the gym. "You will find your next badge in Hanaero Town, north of here, past Iwyark Cave."
"Thanks again!" Bobby shouted, waving as he exited the gym with the rest of the group.

"Alright!" Bobby exclaimed as the group walked toward the edge of town. "Let's go to Hanaero Town!"

[Jirae]

Chapter 6: Iwyark Cave

"Here we are." Bobby said as the group approached a large opening in the side of a mountain. "Iwyark Cave."
"I'm kinda surprised we didn't see any new Pokemon on our way here." Matt said. "It was mostly just Funambites..." Almost instantly after Matt said this, the group heard a whirring sound, as if a strong wind was blowing by.
"It's coming from like, behind that rock!" Tatianna exclaimed, pointing the a large rock.
"If it's some kind of Pokemon, I'll battle it!" Dan said in a rather protective tone, walking over to the rock. Sure enough, there, behind the rock, was a Pokemon unlike anything Dan had ever seen before. It appeared to be a small, swirling, yet controlled tornado, with rocks flying around within it. Hearing someone sneaking up on it, the Pokemon turned around, revealing three rocks in the center of the tornado, two with eyes, and one with a small mouth. Reflexively, the Pokemon hurled one of the spinning stones at Dan, missing by a few inches.
"Wiiiind!" The Pokemon shouted in a shrill voice.
"What is that thing?" Dan asked, pulling out his Pokedex.
"Windock. The Tornado Pokemon." The Pokedex recited. "Windock are able to group together to form large tornadoes, capable of destroying major cities. Luckily, Windock are very slow by themselves, and usually never get close enough to join with any other Windock in their lifetime."
"Alright! I'll catch it!" Dan exclaimed confidently, ready to battle.

"Uh...do you think maybe one of us should like, check on him, or something?" Elissa asked. Dan had been behind the rock for a while, but Pokemon cries could be heard, telling the group that the battle was still going on.
"Well, what if it's some really huge Pokemon that's going to kill us all?" Michael said, pretending to be scared, hoping to monger fear amongst the group.
"Michael, shut up." Bobby said, seeing through Michael's ruse. "I'm sure he's fine."
"Hey guys!" Dan said, walking out from behind the rock. He had a few scrapes on his shirt, but there were now three Pokeballs on his staff, signalling to the group that he had caught the wild Pokemon.
"Dan! What happened?!" Tatianna asked, a concerned look on her face as she ran over to Dan to inspect him for severe wounds.
"Well, that Pokemon was a Flying type...it whipped up some pretty strong winds, that even hit me a little bit!" Dan replied. "But I'm fine, don't worry."
"Is there any particular reason you held that battle behind a giant rock?" Michael asked. "Something you didn't want us to see, perhaps?"
"Haha, no, of course not!" Dan replied. "That's just where the Pokemon was, that's all." He rubbed the back of his head and laughed somewhat nervously. It was obvious that he was hiding something.
"Whatever. All that matters is that he's alright." Bobby interrupted before Michael could make any more comments. "Let's go, shall we?"
"Let's." Michael agreed, still giving Dan a suspicious look.

"This cave is really dark." Matt commented. "It's a good thing we've got Elissa's Eyequus!" The group had been walking in the cave for a while, battling an occasional wild Pokemon. Luckily, the cave appeared more or less straightforward, not a maze like the forest had been.
"Ooh-ooh-ooh-AAH-AAH-AAH!" Came a voice, echoing throughout the cave.
"Anyone want to bet that it's a monkey Pokemon? Anyone?" Michael asked rhetorically. The group walked forward to where the noise was coming from, and sure enough, there was a Pokemon there that resembled a chimpanzee. It had brown hair, and looked like an ordinary chimpanzee, except for its unusually long tail and its hands, which were each about the size of its head. It ran toward the group, knuckle-walking as most chimpanzees do.
"I've got this one." Matt claimed, sending out his Hittao. "It's obviously a fighting Pokemon, so it's mine." He pulled out his Pokedex, pointing it at the monkey Pokemon.
"Chimpunch. The Chimpanzee Pokemon." The Pokedex informed. "Chimpunch's large fists are capable of delivering punches with the force of a truck going thirty miles per hour."
"Alright, Hittao! Just stay clear of its fists and you'll be fine!" Matt passed the information onto his Pokemon. The fighting Pokemon nodded, showing that it had heard the information.
"Ooh-ooh-aah-aah!" The Chimpunch laughed, lunging forward at Hittao, fists ready. Hittao quickly dodged the blow, grabbing the monkey by its long tail. A look of despair grew on the Chimpunch's face as it landed, realizing it had been caught. Hittao began spinning around in circles, lifting the Chimpunch off the ground and swinging it around as it went. After it had built up plenty of momentum, it let go of the chimpanzee, sending it flying into the wall. Wasting no time, Hittao ran up, throwing a kick out at the weakened Pokemon, only to have its leg caught by the Chimpunch's tail.
"Could it be that...it was expecting that?!" Matt questioned in shock. The Chimpunch began to snicker as it lifted Hittao up with its tail, turning to face its prey. Hittao struggled to get free but could not, as the monkey launched a punch at its face.
"No! Hittao!" Matt exclaimed, knowing that one of Chimpunch's punches could cause irepairable damage to the Pokemon's fragile face. Suddenly, the strip of paper on Hittao's face began glowing, as did the Chimpunch's hand. The fist froze in place, as if controlled by some sort of psychic energy.
"Ooh?" The Chimpunch wondered, confused. It's tail became surrounded by the same Psychic energy, unwrapping to reveal that Hittao's body had changed. Where its legs had once been, there was now a ghostly aura, as large as his waist at the top but narrowing down to a small point at the bottom. Hittao's hands and the paper on his head now glowed with this same ghostly energy as well. The new Hittao drifted away from the Chimpunch, as the Chimpunch backed away from this new adversary.
"What's going on?" Matt asked, pulling out his Pokedex.
"Congratulations." The Pokedex said. "Your Hittao has trained well, and has ascended into its ghostly form early. Hittao has now evolved...into Spiritao."
"That's right!" Matt exclaimed. "I've been battling with Hittao way more than Woodmite! No wonder it got enough experience to evolve!" Spiritao nodded, and Matt though he heard it speak.
"Now that I have evolved," Spiritao explained in a wise tone, "I can communicate with you, my master, in your mind. We have formed a strong spritual link."
"Alright!" Matt shouted happily, pausing for a moment and then continuing. "Alright Spiritao, let's weaken this Pokemon just a little more so we can capture it!" Spiritao rushed forward, punching the Chimpunch in the face with its glowing hand. The Chimpunch fell onto the ground, defeated, and Matt threw a Pokeball at it. The Pokeball hardly moved at all, easily capturing the defeated Pokemon.
"Wow!" Elissa exclaimed, impressed. "I can't wait until my Pokemon evolves!"
"Too bad you won't be around to see it!" Came a human voice, echoing through the cave as the Chimpunch's had.
"Who's there?!" Dan questioned. "Show yourself!" Two men dropped down from above, into the reach of Eyequus' light. They wore black uniforms and hats bearing a red 'R' symbol.
"I recognize those uniforms!" Bobby exclaimed. "They're from Team Rocket!"
"Oh, but we're not just any members of Team Rocket!" One of the men shouted. "We are two of the highest administrators, the Team Rocket Elemental Six!"
"Never heard of you." Michael said bluntly, causing the two to fall back in surprise.
"Did you hear that, Aaron?!" The one who had spoke first asked in a shocked voice. "They've never heard of us!"
"I heard you, Omar!" The second replied, equally shocked. "We'll just have to fix that, won't we!"
"Look there, Aaron!" Omar, the first of the two, exclaimed, pointing to Bobby's staff. "Is that...?!"
"And that!" Aaron added, pointing to Dan's. "And that! And that! And that! And that!" He pointed to each of the group's staves, even more shocked than before.
"They are! They must be!" Omar concluded. "We have to tell the boss about this!"
"Why can't we just steal them now?" Aaron asked.
"Because!" Omar replied. "We're not capable of that! Only the Boss can steal those!"
"You're right!" Aaron agreed. "Very well!" He turned to the group. "Your Pokemon are safe from being stolen...for now! We shall return, and we shall take what is rightfully ours!" Without warning, Omar dropped a small ball on the ground, causing a wall of smoke to appear. When the smoke cleared and the group stopped coughing, the two Rocket members were gone.
"What the heck was that all about?!" Matt asked, rather confused.
"Yeah! What did he mean, rightfully theirs?" Elissa added. "These Pokemon are ours!"
"We can ask Professor Pine from the Pokemon Center computer in Hanaero town." Bobby said. "For now, let's just concentrate on getting out of this cave."

"There's the exit!" Bobby exclaimed, pointing to a light not that far away. "Let's go!" The group ran toward the exit, entering a grassy clearing that was obviously the route to Hanaero town. Dan looked around, making sure everyone was there.
"Hey, wait, where's Michael?" Dan asked, not seeing him among the group. The group turned back to face the cave, and saw Michael battling with a wild Pokemon that looked like a fairly normal black humanshape Pokemon.

"Vuldusk, keep attacking it!" Michael commanded. The Pokemon, up close, appeared to be made up of little, shiny black stones. Its headless body was on large stone, and its limbs appeared to be made of smaller stones. Its face, near the top of its body, was made of more of these small black stones.
"Obisidim!" The Pokemon cried, swiming its rocky arms at the bird. Vuldusk dodged the swing, coming in and hitting the Pokemon with its wing, over and over again. Eventually, the Pokemon fell to the ground, weakened.
"Pokeball, go!" Michael shouted, throwing the Pokeball at the weakened Obsidim. The Pokeball rolled around a few times and clicked, showing that the Pokemon had been caught. Michael picked up the Pokeball and walked out of the cave, meeting up with the group.
"Sorry." Michael apologized. "I got ambushed on my way out."
"It's fine." Bobby said. "Look, Hanaero town is right over that hill." The group began walking toward Hanaero town, ready for some rest. The group was almost there when yet another new Pokemon popped out of the tall grass, looking for a fight. The Pokemon looked like a small yellow piglett with a tail resembling a lightningbolt.
"What is it?" Bobby asked, pulling out his Pokedex.
"Zaplet. The Spark Pig Pokemon." The Pokedex stated. "Zaplet stores electrical energy within its body. In battle, it releases this energy in bolts from its tail."
"Alright! I'm gonna catch it!" Bobby decided, releasing Cubburn from its Pokeball.
"Cubburn, Cub!" The Pokemon exclaimed, swiping at the air playfully.
"Cubburn, ember!" Bobby commanded. Cubburn ran forward, launching a blast of fire from its mouth.
"Zapp!" The Zaplet yelled in pain, hurt by the strong Pokemon's fire attack. It shook off the pain and launched a bolt of electricity from its tail, hitting the Cubburn back.
"Burn!" Cubburn exclaimed, letting out another ember attack. The two Pokemon exchanged blows until Bobby finally ordered Cubburn to stop.
"Alright Cubburn, enough!" Bobby said. "Pokeball, go!" He threw an empty Pokeball at the weakened piglett Pokemon, which rolled around a bit and clicked, showing that the Pokemon had been caught. "Alright! I caught it!" Bobby exclaimed.
"Good job." Tatianna said. The group walked out of the last patch of tall grass in the route, showing that they had a free ride the very short rest of the way to Hanaero town. The group arrived at Hanaero town not long after.
"Alright!" Bobby exclaimed. "We're here! We made it to Hanaero town!"

[Jirae]

Chapter 7: The Second Badge

"Oh! So you're in Hanaero Town!" Professor Pine exclaimed, smiling. The group had called him on the videophone in the Pokemon Center. "I guess that means you defeated Spencer in Treemor Town?"
"Yeah, I did." Bobby answered.
"Good job!" Professor Pine commended him. "So, have you been catching any more Pokemon?"
"Yeah!" Tatianna replied. "Dan, Bobby, and Matt have each caught two, and me, Elissa, and Michael have each caught one."
"Excellent, excellent." Professor Pine said in response. "Have any of your Pokemon evolved?"
"Hittao did!" Matt replied. "It turned into a ghost type!"
"Ah yes, I see that here in the Pokedex data you sent me." He paused for a moment, looking at another computer screen in his office. "Oh, and I see Dan's Magvae evolved into a Magoon, as well!"
"It did?" Bobby asked. "When?"
"When I was capturing that Windock," Dan answered, "Behind the rock at the Iwyark Cave enterance."
"So that's what you were hiding." Michael commented. "Seems like a stupid thing to hide. What reason would you have to hide that?"
"Well, I wanted to reveal it in a battle," Dan admitted, "But Professor Pine brought it up before I had a chance."
"Hah, hah! Sorry!" Professor Pine apologized, chuckling slightly. "Here, you guys probably don't know what it looks like, so I'll send you a picture." The screen flashed, and the video feed from the office dissapeared, revealing a picture of a Pokemon on a blue background. The Pokemon appeared to be a white, slightly oval sphere with a small brownish tail sticking out its back. It appeared to be made of some sort of silky, woven substance. The Pokemon, like Magvae, had no face.
"What a weird looking Pokemon." Elissa said.
"Alright well, I must be going now." Professor Pine said as his face reappeared on the screen.
"Bye Dad!" Tatianna responded.
"Wait." Michael interrupted. "We have one more question we need to ask you."
"What's that?" Professor Pine inquired.
"We were ambushed by two Team Rocket members." Michael replied. "They reacted strangely when they saw that we were carrying our Pokeballs on these staves. Why?"
"Uh...I'm sorry, I have important matters that I have to tend to immediately. Sorry!" Professor Pine said, reaching out and pressing a button on his computer. The screen went black, showing that Professor Pine had cut the connection.
"He's hiding something." Michael said, despite the fact that it was obvious.
"Well, I think we should get some sleep now." Matt suggested. "It's pretty late."
"Yeah." Dan agreed. "I talked to one of the nurses, they said that there are beds upstairs here in the Pokemon Center that trainers can use for free."
"Alright." Bobby said. The group walked toward the escalator, when Elissa noticed that Michael wasn't with them.
"Are you coming?" Elissa asked.
"Nah, I have to do some research." Michael replied. "I'll be up later, or something."
"Goodnight then!" Tatianna shouted to him as the rest of the group went upstairs.

"Where's Michael?" Elissa asked. The group had congregated around the Pokemon Gym's entrance, and had been waiting for Michael, whom noone had seen since last night.
"Sorry I'm late!" Michael yelled, running toward the group. He paused to catch his breath, then continued. "Just doing a little research."
"Did you get any sleep at all?" Dan asked, seeing the look of exhaustion on Michael's face.
"Yeah, a few hours." Michael replied. "Anyways, this Gym is mine." He walked into the Gym, the group staying outdoors and talking.
"Aww...I wanted to show off Spiritao in this Gym." Matt said with a frown.
"What's gotten into him?" Bobby wondered aloud. "Volunteering for something doesn't seem like him."
"Maybe he like, just wants to train his Pokemon some more." Tatianna suggested.
"Whatever. I guess we should go watch." Bobby decided, and the group went inside.

By the time the group entered the aviary-esque Gym, Michael had already beaten the first Gym Trainer, and was starting his battle with the second.
"I hope you're more of a challenge than that last loser." Michael taunted.
"Just you watch!" The Gym Trainer, a birdkeeper, exclaimed. "Go, Coparrot!" The birdkeeper threw a Pokeball into the air, revealing a mostly green parrot with some teal and blue wings on its feathers. It's belly was a yellow green, and its white face hosted a rather large beak.
"Rawk! Go Coparrot! Go Coparrot!" The Pokemon squawked, mimicking what its owner had said.
"Please. Is that the best you can do?" Michael asked mockingly. "Go, Obsidim!" He released the rock type Pokemon from its Pokeball, ready to battle.
"Is it just me, or does that thing look stronger than when he caught it?" Bobby asked the rest of the group.
"Well, we were kinda far away when he caught it." Matt replied. "Maybe it always looked like that."
"Obsidim, Rock Throw!" Michael commanded. The small Pokemon spun around, flinging a pebble from its arm at the Coparrot. The pebble grew bigger in the air, hitting the flying type with incredible force, knocking it out in one shot.
"No! Coparrot!" The trainer exclaimed, returning the Pokemon to its Pokeball. "Fine...avenge him, my second Coparrot!" He released another Coparrot, which was almost instantly bombarded by another Rock Throw. It wasn't quite knocked out, but it was close.
"Rock might be Super Effective against Flying, but it shouldn't do that much damage!" Bobby exclaimed. "He has been training!"
"Coparrot, Mimic!" The Gym Trainer ordered. The parrot Pokemon flapped its wings, causing rocks to appear from nowhere, flying at the Obsidim and hitting it, barely doing any damage.
"No use." Michael said. "Obsidim, finish it off." The Obsidim threw another rock at the parrot, knocking it out.
"Hmph." The birdkeeper said, returning the Pokemon to its Pokeball. "Very well. You may proceed to the third Gym Trainer."

"I'd ask you to put up a fight, but if you're anything like the last two, that's impossible." Michael taunted, sending out his Obsidim.
"I'll shut you up." The trainer said, sending out a Coparrot.
"Rawk! Shut you up! Rawk!" The Coparrot mimicked.
"Obsidim, shut this bird up." Michael ordered. "Rock Throw!" Obsidim once again launched a giant rock at its opponent, hitting the Coparrot. The wounds on the bird were obvious, but it looked like it could still put up a good fight.
"Coparrot may be my only Pokemon, but it's super strong!" The bird keeper explained. "Coparrot, Mimic!" Just as the previous trainer's had done, the Coparrot flapped its wings, causing a rock to fly at Obsidim out of nowhere.
"Just keep using Rock Throw!" Michael ordered. Obsidim and the Coparrot continued exchanging blows, but eventually, the Coparrot was defeated.
"Very well." The trainer said, returning his bird Pokemon. "The Gym Leader is waiting for you."

"Congratulations on making it to me." The Gym Leader, an oddly familiar looking boy about Michael's age said, clapping his hands. "Please heal your Pokemon on the machine in the corner.
"Hey...I recognize you." Michael said as he placed his Pokeballs on the machine. "You were in a picture in Spencer's house in Treemor...you're his brother, aren't you?"
"Indeed I am." The Leader replied as Michael walked back over, Pokemon healed and ready to fight. "My name is Jefferson, leader of the Hanaero Town Gym."
"Let's start this." Michael said, not interested in chatting. "Go, Obsidim!"
"Let's go, Coparrot!" Jefferson responded.
"Darn, I was hoping you'd have something different for a change." Michael said in mock-dissapointment. "Oh well. Obsidim, Rock Throw!" The small black Pokemon threw a rock at the bird, damaging it less than it had the previous ones, but still quite a bit.
"Coparrot, follow his moves closely!" Jefferson ordered. The Coparrot responded to this command by using a mimic attack, hurling a rock at the Obsidim and apparently doing just as much damage as had been done to it.
"But my move was a super effective hit! Your mimic shouldn't have been that strong!" Michael said, a slightly dismayed look on his face. "It doesn't matter, my Obsidim's still stronger! Keep attacking!" Obsidim continued to throw rocks at the bird, and the Coparrot continued to throw rocks back. Soon, both Pokemon were very worn out, and neither looked like it could take much more.
"Coparrot, let's finish this! Quick Attack!" Jefferson exclaimed. Instead of waiting to mimic Obsidim's moves as it had before, this time the Coparrot swooped in first, hitting Obsidim with its wing.
"Nice try." Michael said, smirking. "But you forget that normal type moves like Quick Attack aren't very effective against Obsidim." Obsidim retaliated by slamming its rocky hand into the nearby Coparrot, knocking it to the ground and knocking it out.
"You fought well, Coparrot...return!" Jefferson exclaimed. "Let's see how you like this! Go, Windock!" The familiar tornado Pokemon appeared from its Pokeball, rocks swirling and ready to fight.
"Finally, something other than an annoying little bird. Well, if one of these was able to beat up Dan, I would hope that it puts up a good fight." Michael commented. "Then again, Dan is a bit of a weakling."
"Hey! I heard that!" Dan yelled from across the Gym.
"Don't care." Michal replied. "Obsidim, Rock Throw!" The Obsidim launched a rock at the Windock, but much to Michael's surprise, the rock just got sucked into the tornado and began swirling around with the others.
"Hah...how do you like that?" Jefferson asked. "That's Windock's special ability! It absorbs rock type attacks!"
"That's not good." Michael said as the Windock sent a blast of wind hurling towards the extremely weakened Obsidim, easily knocking it out.
"Hoho!" Jefferson laughed. "Looks like your Obsidim wasn't very strong after being thrashed by my 'annoying little bird'!"
"Yes, well..." Michael replied, "I've got a bird of my own, and I'm sure you'll find it quite annoying...when it knocks out your Windock." He grabbed the Pokeball from the top of his staff, throwing it out into the ring. "Go, Nightture!"
"Nightture?" Bobby asked. "What's a...?" He was interrupted by the crooked squawk of a vulture. There, standing in front of Michael, was a somewhat large vulture that resembled Vuldusk. The main difference was that it now had three glowing feathers on top of its head instead of one.
"What is that thing?!" Dan asked from the other side of the Gym.
"Looks like I'm better at keeping evolutions secret than you." Michael shouted back to Dan. He looked back to see the expression on Dan's face, and noticed that Dan and Tatianna were holding hands. Though this was a harmless act, a mixed look of surprise, annoyance, and anger grew on Michael's face, as if it brought back some bad memory long forgotten.
"Argh...Nightture, let's finish this quickly!" He exclaimed, directing his rage toward the battle. The vulture Pokemon swooped forward and flapped its wings, hitting the Windock with a blast of dark energy.
"Windock, Rock Throw!" Jefferson exclaimed. The Windock spun around, flinging a rock out and striking the bird.
"Nightture, Pursuit!" Michael ordered. Once again the Nightture swooped forward, attacking the Windock with darkness.
"Just keep using Rock Throw! It's super effective!" Jefferson commanded. The Windock threw another rock, once again hitting the bird.
"It doesn't matter if it's super effective." Michael said. "My Nightture's way stronger than your pathetic Windock." True to Michael's word, the Nightture was hardly injured at all. It once again flew forward and struck the Windock, and its attacks were beginning to take a toll on the tornado Pokemon.
"Fine, let's try something else!" Jefferson decided. "Windock, rollout!" The Windock spun forward at a speed much faster than it normally would, rolling over the Nightture.
"That attack will get stronger each time! Let's finish him off before then!" Michael exclaimed. Nightture once again attacked the Windock with darkness. The Windock responded by rolling over the Nightture again, but with more power this time. Nightture attacked the Windock again, and was greeted by another spinning attack.
"Now! Windock! You can finish it off!" Jefferson exclaimed. The Windock charged forward, but its accuracy had decreased from spinning so much. It ran in the wrong direction, missing Nightture completely, and allowing the dark Pokemon an attack from behind.
"Nightture, finish it!" Michael shouted. Nightture zoomed forward at an faster speed, spinning in the air and launching a blast of darkness at the weakened Windock, finishing it off with a critical hit.
"Very good." Jefferson said, returning Windock and applauding Michael. He walked over to Michael, handing him a peice of metal shaped like an airplane. "You've earned the Aero Badge." He said.
"Whatever." Michael replied.
"And here, two more things." Jefferson said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out two discs. "Here is the Hidden Machine, Flash. You may think an Eyequus' light can light up any cave, but you're wrong. Some caves' darkness can only be penetrated by the light of Flash. And here is the Technical Machine, Aerial Ace. It will always strike the opponent." He handed Michael the two discs, and Michael began to walk to the other side of the gym.
"Uh...bye!" Bobby yelled, as Michael left the Gym without a word and the group began to follow him.

"Well then." Bobby said as the group gathered outside. "Our next destination is Poisawa Town. To get there we have to go through Doshibog Swamp."
"Eww, a swamp." Tatianna said in disgust. "Swamps are all like, dirty and icky and stuff."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't get dirty." Dan told Tatianna.
"Gag me." Michael said in response to this, walking away from the group and towards the swamp.
"Hey, wait up!" Matt shouted as the group followed him and began the next leg of their journey.

[Jirae]

Chapter 8: Battle in Poisawa! Team Rocket Strikes Again!

"Ewww...this place is icky!" Tatianna complained as the group walked along the narrow path in the center of the Doshibog Swamp. The revolting waters of the swamp bubbled up around them, and the air quality was less than satisfactory.
"What did you expect?" Michael asked rhetorically. "It's a swamp, not a spa."
"Eww, and we're going to have to walk back this way after we visit Poisawa Town." Elissa complained.
"Why's that?" Bobby asked.
"Poisawa Town has no roads leading out of it to the North, East, or West." Dan replied, "Just Swamp."
"Well, I guess its not that bad." Bobby said, trying to see the bright side of things. "It could be worse." Almost on cue, it began to rain, drenching the group in water almost as dirty as the swamps around their feet.
"Had to bring up a cliche, didn't you." Michael said in a flat tone.
"Ooh, what's that thing there?" Tatianna asked, pointing to a small pink creature not too far down the road. She ran over to it, pulling out her Pokedex.
"Poishare. The Poison Rabbit Pokemon." The Pokedex informed. "Poishare appear to be covered in fluffy fur, but it is actually toxic spores. Most domesticated Poishares have this toxic coat removed, revealing their less fluffy white coat of hair."
"It's so cute!" Tatianna squealed. "I'm going to like, catch it! Go, Calffin!" The dolphin Pokemon appeared, hopping up and down on its flipper. Noticing the water of the swamp, Calffin hopped in, despite its murkiness.
"Poiss!" The fluffy pink rabbit hissed. It had a rather round pink body with a white cottonball tail, four small feet, and a little round head. Its white head appeared to be bald and not covered in spores like the rest of its body. Its beady red eyes glared at Tatianna, as it had lost track of the Pokemon the was supposedly attacking it.
"Calffin, go for like, its head!" Tatianna called out. "It's like, not poisonous!" Calffin leaped out of the swamp, ramming its own head into the Poishare's. It leaped back into the water, leaving the Poishare hardly harmed at all.
"It's head is like, too small...there's no way to get in a good hit without like, touching those spores." Tatianna thought aloud. "Unless...Calffin, Water Gun!" The dolphin Pokemon leaped out of the murky water again, this time spraying the rabbit with a blast of water. The rabbit's fur became soaked, and it shook around wildly, trying to shake off the water. As it did this, spores began scattering everywhere, until Poishare's white coat was revealed.
"It's like, not poisonous any more, Calffin!" Tatianna yelled. "Let's finish it off!" Calffin began hopping from one side of the swamp to the other, striking the Poishare every time as it went. The Poishare eventually fell to the ground, defeated. Tatianna threw a Pokeball at the weakened Pokemon, capturing it with ease.
"Calff!" Calffin cheered, clapping its flippers and hopping up and down on its fin. Suddenly, it began to glow and grow larger, its appearance changing.
"Calffin?" Tatianna wondered, looking at her Pokedex.
"Congratulations." The Pokedex recited. "Your Calffin has evolved into Dolphice." The glow died down, revealing a larger dolphinlike Pokemon. Its nose had become more bottle shaped and its fins had grown larger as well. Sharp designs of a brighter blue shade now adorned the Pokemon, and an even brighter blue scarlike shape adorned its right eye.
"Wow!" Tatianna exclaimed, running up and hugging her newly evolved Dolphice.
"Congratulations, Tati!" Dan shouted, walking over to her and hugging her.
"Oh, even got a nickname for her now, eh?" Michael asked under his breath so noone could hear him.
"Hey, look!" Elissa exclaimed, pointing out in the distance. "It looks like the town isn't very far away!"
"Let's go!" Bobby declared, running forward toward the town.

The group neared the town, the buildings in sight. Suddenly, Michael fell to the ground, choking.
"Michael? What's wrong?" Tatianna asked as the group turned and saw him. The air around him had become rather dense and lavender shaded, and even appeared to have taken form. Michael reached for the top Pokeball on his staff, releasing his Nightture.
"Nighttureeeee!" The Pokemon cawed. It bat its wings around Michael, blowing the dense air away.
"What I don't get is, wouldn't air that you could see be kinda heavy and fall to the ground?" Matt wondered.
"It's not air." Michael replied, pulling out his Pokedex. Sure enough, the Pokedex responded to the small cloud of poisonous air.
"Hazoud. The Smog Pokemon." The Pokedex explained. "Hazoud are known to choke victims to death by surrounding their head and making them breath in its poisonous gas." The light purple cloud turned around and revealed two glowing yellow evil eyes and a small snickering mouth.
"Hazzz..." The Pokemon snickered as it hovered in the air.
"Let's catch it, Nightture." Michael decided.
"Are you sure you're well enough?" Elissa asked.
"I'm fine." Michael replied, catching his breath. "Nightture, attack!" The vulture Pokemon flew toward the cloud of gas, preparing for attack. It stopped abruptly in front of the other Pokemon and flapped its wings furiously, hitting the Hazoud over and over with a whirlwind of air. The Hazoud retaliated by blowing poisonous smoke at the Nightture, but the flying type was too fast. It dodged the smoke, striking Hazoud once again with a blast of wind. Eventually, it was obvious that the fight was over. Michael threw a Pokeball at the defeated Pokemon, capturing it.
"Alright then." Michael said, returning Nightture to its Pokeball as well. "Shall we go?" He continued on to the town as if nothing had happened.

"Well, this place isn't much." Bobby said as the group entered Poisawa Town. There weren't many buildings, and the few that there were were rather poor quality. It definitely was not as flashy as Hanaero Town.
"There they are!" Came a familiar voice from somewhere off to the right. The group turned to see Omar and Aaron, along with two other men in Rocket uniforms, on the roof of one of the buildings.
"You guys again?" Bobby asked. "What, did the boss give you permission to steal our Pokemon now?"
"Huh? Permission? Pokemon?" Omar asked, turning to the others.
"I think they got the wrong impression from what we said last time." Aaron guessed. "We didn't need the boss' permission!" He yelled to the group. "We just needed his gloves!" Sure enough, all four members were wearing odd gloves of different colors. Omar wore purple, Aaron wore green, and the two others wore red and blue.
"Who are these guys, the ninja turtles?" Matt asked mockingly.
"No!" Omar replied. "We are the Team Rocket Elemental--"
"Yeah, yeah. We get it." Bobby interrupted.
"How dare you interrupt us!" Aaron exclaimed. "Kyle, this one is yours!"
"Got it." The rocket member in the red gloves responded. He jumped down from the roof, landing carefully and walking closer to the group.
"Well, unlike the two bozos from the cave, this one actually looks serious." Bobby said, judging by the angry expression on Kyle's face. "I'll take care of him. The rest of you, go get the police!"
"Right!" Elissa, Matt, Tatianna, and Dan said simultaneously. They all split up and ran in opposite directions.
"Cover them." The rocket in the blue gloves instructed. The three jumped from the building, Omar following Elissa, Aaron following Dan, and the blue gloved man following Tatianna.
"Now it's just one on one." Bobby said, cracking his knuckles and sending out Cubburn. "Let's do this."
"You'll be sorry." Kyle said, grabbing a Pokeball from his belt and throwing it towards Cubburn. The Pokeball opened to reveal a Pokemon actually familiar to Bobby; a Vulpix.
"Looks like Team Rocket doesn't pay attention to the rule about not showing other region's Pokemon to Olemenun..." Bobby thought aloud. "Then again, the people here probably don't even know that Vulpix is from another region."
"Why don't you stop talking to yourself and fight?" Kyle asked. "Vulpix, Quick Attack!" The Vulpix ran forward extremely fast, striking the Cubburn with an almost unseen tackle.
"Cubburn, fight back with a Quick Attack of your own!" Bobby ordered. The Cubburn responded by running forward just as fast, tackling the Vulpix back. The two Pokemon continued to exchange blows, neither one giving up. The Vulpix appeared to have more stamina, and although they were both on the brink of unconsciousness, the Vulpix seemed like it had the upper hand.
"Now let's finish it off!" Kyle exclaimed. "Quick Attack!" The Vulpix dashed forward, giving Bobby little time to think.
"Come on...there must be some way..." Bobby thought aloud.

"I can't believe that creep is like, still following me!" Tatianna exclaimed as she continued to run through the city. She came to a fork in the road and turned right, bumping into Elissa. The two fell to the ground, giving the blue-gloved man time to catch up to them.
"I've got you now." He said, chuckling slightly. Omar, who had been following Elissa, also walked up behind them. They were surrounded by buildings, their only two paths of excape blocked by Omar and the other man.
"I choose you, Espeon!" Omar shouted, releasing the Psychic Pokemon from its Pokeball on his belt.
"Let's go, Gyarados!" The blue-gloved man added, sending out his own Pokemon.
"Dolphice, go!" Tatianna exclaimed, sending out her water Pokemon.
"Dreamuse, I choose you!" Elissa shouted, sending out her own Psychic Pokemon. The Pokemon chimed in its melodic voice as it released from the Pokeball, as always.
"Agh! What a disgusting noise!" The man in blue gloves responded. "Omar, we've gotta shut that thing up! It's too cutesy and girly!"
"I agree, Twitchy!" Omar replied. "Espeon, Tackle!" He commanded. The purple Pokemon ran forward, striking Dreamuse with a full body tackle and causing the small Pokemon to recoil back.
"Gyarados, Dragon Rage!" Twitchy commanded. The large Pokemon opened its mouth, letting forth a blast of fire that struck both Dreamuse, causing it to be dangerously close to being knocked out.
"Dolphice, Water Gun!" Tatianna ordered. The Pokemon sent a blast of water shooting towards Espeon, damaging it slightly, but the Pokemon easily shook it off.
"Dreamuse, Confusion!" Elissa exclaimed. The Pokemon began glowing brighter than normal, sending a wave of Psychic energy out, striking Gyarados.
"Face it!" Omar shouted. "You're no match for us!"
"They're right..." Elissa realized.

Dan ran through the town, looking for a building he could escape into. Unfortunately, the Pokemon Center, Gym, and Mart were all on the other side of town, and the only buildings he was passing were residential ones.
"Gotcha." Aaron said, dropping down in front of Dan from a building above.
"Bring it on then!" Dan exclaimed, grabbing Mosseize's Pokeball from his staff and releasing the grass Pokemon.
"I choose you, Pinsir!" Aaron shouted, sending out his own Pokemon. The larger Pinsir shut clapped its pincers open and closed repetitively. "Vice Grip!" The brown Pokemon ran forward, continuing to open and close its pincers.
"Mosseize, jump out of the way and use Absorb!" The Pinsir continued charging forward until it was about to hit Mosseize. The smaller Pokemon jumped out of the way just in time, landing on Pinsir's back and sucking out some of its energy. In an attempt to get the Pokemon off its back, Pinsir jumped up and did a flip, crushing the Mosseize beneath it.
"Mosseize!" Dan exclaimed in concern. "Forget regulation...Windock, save him!" Dan released his flying Pokemon from its own Pokeball, ordering it to use Gust on the Pinsir. The Windock began spinning faster than normal, causing a blast of wind to shoot forward and blow the Pinsir back, allowing Mosseize to get out from under its mass.
"So you want to make it a two on two battle?" Aaron asked rhetorically. "Fine! I choose you, Skarmory!" He released his second Pokemon, which flew forward and struck Windock with a Steel Wing attack. The tornado Pokemon shot backwards, the attack being too strong.
"Mosseize, Stun Spore!" Dan commanded. The grass Pokemon jumped up, spitting out small spores. The spores surrounded Skarmory, attaching to its body. The Skarmory tried to move in to attack Windock again, but was shocked slightly by the spores and could not move. "This is your change, Windock! Rock Throw!" The rock type Pokemon sent a rock flying out at Skarmory, hitting the defenseless Pokemon upside the head.
"Forgetting about someone?" Aaron asked. Mosseize looked around to see Pinsir charging again. By the time it realized it was in harm's way, it had already been grabbed by the bug Pokemon's pincers. The Pinsir squeezed its horns tight together, the spikes driving into Mosseize's body and harming it significantly. It opened them back up, causing the grass type to drop to the ground, and walked back a few steps, ready for the next move.
"This isn't good..." Dan muttered, trying to plan his next move.

"None of them are following me." Matt thought. "I suppose there are less of them than us, but...how did they decide who to follow?"
"Weren't you paying attention to their attire?" Came Michael's voice from around a corner. He walked out, leaning against the building. "Their gloves each matched the color of their target's staff."
"Hey...you're right!" Matt realized. "So maybe their target wasn't our Pokemon..."
"But our staves." Michael finished. "There's something to them that we don't know. We'll have to ask Professor Pine about it."
"But in the mean time," Matt added, "Let's go help the others!"

[Jirae]

Chapter 9: Poisawa Crises

"That's it!" Dan exclaimed. "Mosseize, attach yourself to one of Windock's rocks!" Mosseize jumped up and grabbed on to one of the rocks in Windock's tornado, which Windock soon launched at Skarmory. Mosseize, propelled by the force of the rock throw, jumped over Skarmory's head. The rock struck Skarmoy, knocking it backward toward Pinsir. Pinsir, concentrating on Mosseize, was knocked backward by Skarmory. Mosseize came down on the two, grabbing on to Skarmory's face. Stacked on its previous damage, this attack Knocked out the Skarmory. The Pinsir struggled to get out from under the Skarmory, but its arms were trapped by the bird's wings. Windock zoomed forward with a rollout attack, Mosseize getting out of the way just in time. The attack struck the two Pokemon, knocking Skarmory's body away and knocking Pinsir's body along the ground. It bombarded the Pinsir with rocks as Mosseize leaped out once again, striking the final blow.
"No!" Aaron shouted as he looked at his two defeated Pokemon. "How could you have?"
"I'm just a better trainer than you." Dan answered overconfidently. Aaron threw a smoke bomb on the ground, and like the others, he dissapeared.
"Very nice." Came a voice from a nearby building. Dan turned to see a boy slightly older than himself, with rather long blond hair.
"Who are you?" Dan asked.
"The name's Nick." The boy said, walking over to Dan. "After seeing your skills in that battle, I'd like to make you an offer."
"What offer would that be?" Dan inquired.
"If you can defeat me in a two on two Pokemon battle, I'll give you a free Pokemon." Nick replied. "But if you lose, I get one of yours."
Dan pasued to think very briefly. "No problem." He said, still overconfident from his last battle. "I'll cream you."
"Very good." Nick said. "I'll be waiting in the house over there." He pointed to the house he had come from, walking back there. "You can come find me after your Pokemon evolve."
"Huh?" Dan asked, turning to see his Pokemon. Sure enough, they were both glowing with the light of evolution. Mosseize began changing, its form lifting off the ground. It became shaped like a big, uneven, and jagged rock. Two smaller peices split off from its sides, forming what appeared to be arms, while one peice split from the center of its bottom, forming something that looked like a top. The glow faded as the Pokemon turned around, revealing a rather elaborate rock Pokemon that resembled an old statue. It's main body had a stone face carved into the center, with its same organic eyes and mouth in the center of the stone ones. Moss covered the top of it and went down to the sides where the armlike limbs had formed. The limbs were actually clumps of moss extending off the side of the main rock, with smaller rocks like hands at the end of them. The bottom of the rock got narrow and formed a small toplike shape that it stood on, which was also covered in moss.
"Congratulations." Dan's pokedex, which he had already pulled out, congratulated. "Your Mosseize has evolved into Mosstone." He then pointed it at the glowing Windock. The Pokemon grew larger, and more rocks became visible circling around it. Two rocks split off from its body, but did not have anything connecting them. The Pokemon turned to face Dan, appearing not too different from Windock, but definitely bigger. The rocks that had seperated from those rotating around its body had grown larger and had carved out into handlike shapes, which were making fists.
"Congratulations." The pokedex said again. "Your Windock has evolved into Twistone."
"Awesome!" Dan exclaimed, looking at his two newly evolved Pokemon. "Now I'll beat that guy for sure!"

"Gyarados, finish off that weak little thing!" Twitchy ordered. Gyarados shot a blast of water out towards Dreamuse, when suddenly, just as it was about to strike, a large shard of ice came flying down in front of Dreamuse. The water hit the icy shield, sparing Dreamuse from being knocked out.
"Hey hey, didn't yo' mother ever tell you not to steal from beautiful women?" Came a voice from a rooftop. There, standing above the gym, was a boy about the same age as the girls, a Pokeball in his hand. In front of him was a small, icy blue Pokemon. It had a rounded square base with four small limbs on its corners, with a small ball floating above it. In the center of the ball was an eye, giving the Rocket Members an icy stare. Both parts of the Pokemon appeared to be made out of some slime or goo, but the floating eyeball appeared to be partially frozen, with small icicles hanging from the bottom.
"Hey...isn't that guy the Gym Leader?" Twitchy asked.
"Ah, crap. It is." Omar confirmed. "We might be able to take down him by himself, but if he's here, then no doubt that..." To finish his sentence, the gym leader snapped his fingers. The doors of the gym opened, and three gym trainers walked out.
"It's six againt two, punks." The leader stated. "Give it up."
"I don't like those odds." Omar decided, throwing a smoke bomb on the ground. When the smoke cleared, the two Rockets were once again gone.
"I'm Paris." The boy said, jumping off the roof. A beam of ice shot out from the Pokemon's eye, and he slid down the frozen trail it created to land safely on the ground. "And you are?" He asked, shaking hands with Tatianna.
"I'm Tatianna." Tatianna replied.
"Elissa." Elissa added, shaking Paris' hand when he was done shaking Tatianna's.
"A'ight, a'ight, nice to meet ya'." Paris said in a slang tone. "Frezoo, return!" He faced his Pokeball towards the Pokemon, recalling it from the rooftop. "Hey, yo, Elissa, check out yo' Pokemon." He pointed to the Dreamuse, which was now glowing more intensely than normal. Tatianna and Elissa both turned to see the Pokemon as it had now become completely engulfed in a white glow, and its form began changing. It's top limbs extended outward, growing handlike extremities, while the bottom of its body elongated, becoming a shape somewhere between an oval and that of the human body. The two lower stubs centered on the bottom of its body and extended a little bit, growing slightly like legs with feet. Two wings sprouted from its back until they became a decent size. The Pokemon stopped glowing, revealing that its body and limbs were still a glowing yellow, and its smiling face was still faint, though perhaps not quite as faint as before. Its wings appeared to be made of actual feathers, arching out behind it like those of the biblical angels.
"Congratulations." Elissa's Pokedex began to recite from her pocket. She pulled it out in time to hear, "Your Dreamuse has evolved into Clairvoicant!"
"Awesome!" Elissa exclaimed.
"A'ight, a'ight, that's coo'." Paris said, sounding more and more 'gangster' by the minute. "So, you ladies here to battle me?"
"Yeah." Elissa replied, somehow mesmerized by Paris.
"Yeah, like, one of us is going to." Tatianna answered. "But first we have to find our friends."

"No...there's no way out of this!" Bobby decided. The Vulpix approached Cubburn at an extremely fast speed, about to finish it off.
"Your Staff is mine!" Kyle shouted. Just as the Vulpix was about to strike, a large figure flew in and rammed the Vulpix from the side and throwing it against a wall.
"Not today." Michael said, walking in behind the object. The object was Nightture, and it flew away from the defeated Vulpix, landing by Michael's side.
"No!" Kyle exclaimed, returning his unconscious Vulpix to its Pokeball. "You may have defeated me today...but I will be back!" Just as the others had, he threw a smoke bomb at his feet and disappeared.
"Thanks." Bobby thanked Michael.
"I didn't save you." Michael replied. "I saved the staff."
"What? The staff?" Bobby asked. "Come to think of it...that guy mentioned wanting the staff! Why do they want it?"
"I'm not completely sure." Michael replied. "But it's none of your concern, anyways. For now, just focus on the present. Your Cubburn, for example."
"What about my Cubburn?" Bobby asked, turning around and facing the Pokemon. It too was now glowing with the light of evolution, its body growing larger. Its tail now grew even longer with its body and its legs. It grew into a more slender lion, and its mane grew, as well. When the light faded, it became apparent that Cubburn's evolution was no longer just a fire type. Sparks of electricity now joined flames on the tip of its tail and throughout its mane. Its expression had grown slightly fiercer, though the sense of loyalty was still there. It opened its mouth, showing its teeth as it clawed the ground with its front paw. Both its sharp toenails and its front fanglike teeth appeared to be charged with electricity now.
"Congratulations." Bobby's Pokedex recited. "Your Cubburn has evolved into Felispark."
"Woah!" Bobby exclaimed, amazed by his new Pokemon. "That's awesome!"
"Took you long enough." Michael mocked, actually directing his comment at the Pokemon rather than the trainer. "Everyone else's first Pokemon already evolved."
"Really?" Bobby asked.
"Yeah." Matt said as he walked up behind Michael. "I just checked up on the others. Dan's Mosseize and Elissa's Dreamuse both evolved in their fights against Team Rocket. They all won, of course."
"Some more independantly than others." Michael added, referring to Elissa and Tatianna being saved by Paris. "That Gym Leader appears to be quite the sleaseball, doesn't he?"
"What do you mean?" Bobby questioned.
"It seems as though he was making a move on our friend Tatianna." Michael replied.
"Uh-oh." Bobby responded. "Dan's not going to be happy about that."
"And just why isn't Dan going to be happy about that?" Michael inquired.
"Uh, duh, because the two of them are..." Bobby began, when he suddenly realized that Michael hadn't been informed of the relationship. "Oh. Crap."
"You're all idiots." Michael said, jumping on his Nightture's back and ordering it to Fly up over the buildings. "Tatianna and Elissa went into the Gym. I think one of them was planning on battling him. You might want to get Dan...I'm willing to bet that at least one of the sleaseball's Pokemon knows Sleep Powder." Not feeling a need to explain himself, Michael flew off on Nightture, leaving Bobby and Matt to find Dan themselves.
"Wait...wouldn't flying be faster?" Matt asked. "Couldn't he have gotten Dan himself?"
"And help someone other than himself?" Bobby asked. "Fat chance of that. Come on, I saw which direction the Rocket Member chased Dan in!" The two trainers and the Pokemon ran down a road, heading to where they thought Dan had gone.

"He's weakened, Magoon!" Dan exclaimed, grabbing the second Pokeball from his belt. "I'll let you finish him off!" He released the bug Pokemon from its Pokeball, ready to end the battle. Nick's Pokemon looked very similar to Paris', but was green, did not appear frozen, and its eyeball was connected to its body by a short neck. Magoon leaped forward, tackling the Pokemon. The Pokemon fell back, knocked out.
"Slimoo!" Nick exclaimed, returning the Pokemon to its Pokeball. "You may have defeated Slimoo...but I have one more Pokemon! And lucky for you, I saved the best for last! He reached for another Pokeball on his belt, throwing it into the air. "I choose you, Bouldoo!" The Pokeball opened to reveal a Pokemon very similar to the previous one. It's base was a yellowy brown, and its eyeball, which floated in the air like Paris' Pokemon's, appeared to be made out of rock.
"Pff." That doesn't scare me." Dan said. "Magoon, return!" He returned the Pokemon to its Pokeball, sending out his Mosstone. "Because lucky for you, I saved my best for last, too!"
"Oh wow." Nick said sarcastically. "What are you going to do, use Absorb? Please. I watched your battle, and I know that your Pokemon doesn't have a move that can take down my Bouldoo."
"Want a bet?" Dan asked. "Mosstone, Rock Throw!" The newly evolved Rock Pokemon swung its body around, flinging a rock out of nowhere at the goo Pokemon and damaging it significantly.
"What?!" Nick asked in disbelief. "But...Mosseize didn't know Rock Throw!"
"No." Dan replied. "Mosseize didn't. But Mosstone does!" He ordered his Pokemon to use Rock Throw again, once again striking the opposing Bouldoo. "Your Pokemon is mine!"
"Bouldoo, Rock Throw back!" Nick commanded. The Pokemon's eye floated around in a circle and a rock came out of the ground, flying at Mosstone. Mosstone put its arm in front of its face and blocked, causing the rock to shatter.
"No use." Dan said with a smirk. "Rock Type moves aren't super effective against grass Pokemon like they are against poison types." He paused, then flung his arm out to command Mosstone. "Finish it off! Rock Throw!" The mossy rock Pokemon swung around again, flinging a final rock out at the Bouldoo. The rock hit the poison type, knocking it out.
"Argh!" Nick exclaimed, returning the defeated Bouldoo to its Pokeball. "Very well." He walked to a table in the corner of the room and picked up a Pokeball. He then walked back over to Dan, handing him the Pokeball. "Here. It's a Slimoo." He paused. "Slimoo can evolve into three different Pokemon, depending on its stats when it comes time to evolve. If its Defense is higher, it evolves into Bouldoo. If its Attack is higher, it evolves into Freezoo. And if they're equal...well, honestly, I've never seen what its third evolution is. It's rumored that Paris, the Gym Leader, has one, but he's never needed to use it."
"Dan!" Bobby exclaimed as he slammed the door open. "Whew, you're in here." He breathed a sigh of both relief and exhaustion from running. "The last three houses threatened to call the police."
"What are you guys doing here?" Dan asked.
"No time to explain!" Bobby replied. "We've gotta get to the Gym!"

"What happened?" Dan asked as the three ran to the Gym. "Did Team Rocket beat one of the others?"
"No...it's not Team Rocket." Bobby replied. "The Gym Leader...Michael told us something that...well, you might not want to hear it."
"What?!" Dan stammered.
"He's got a bit of a reputation...he likes to fight against female trainers. And when he beats them, well...his Pokemon use Sleep Powder, and..."
"Oh my god...and you mean..." Dan responded, "Tatianna and Elissa are in there?"
"Yeah." Bobby replied. "We've got to hurry...I just hope we're not too late." The group approached the Gym, flinging the doors open as they charged in.
"Hey, woah, someone else is in there right now." The man standing at the door, who was unusually large, said.
"I don't care." Dan replied, trying to pass him. The man stepped in front of Dan, blocking him from entering, and cracked his knuckles together.
"Felispark, take him down." Bobby instructed. Felispark, still out of his Pokeball and with the group, jumped on top of the bouncer, knocking him to the ground. The three walked through the Gym, Gym Trainers stopping them in their paths.
"Paris doesn't want to be disturbed right now." One trainer said. Bobby sent out Skeetle and Matt sent out Woodmite, and the two bug Pokemon began attacking the trainer, who had presumably already been defeated by Tatianna and Elissa.
"Where do you think you're going?" Questioned the next. Dan sent out Slimoo and Bobby sent out Zaplet, ordering them to attack the trainer.
"Nice trick you pulled against those last trainers." The third and final Gym Trainer remarked. "But my Pokemon are fully healthy. One of you is going to have to battle me."
"I'll keep him busy!" Matt exclaimed, sending out Chimpunch and Spiritao. "Rescue Tatianna and Elissa!" Bobby and Dan walked to the back of the room, where a closed door led to the Paris' private battlefield. Dan sent out Mosstone to break the door down. After only a few good rock throws, the door collapsed, allowing the two trainers to walk in.

"Hey, woah there!" Paris said, walking up to the two. "This is my private battling chambers. I don't remember inviting you two."
"Can it, slease." Dan said, pushing Paris back a little. They pushed their way into the center of the room, where sure enough, Tatianna and Elissa lie sleeping on the floor, a defeated Clairvoicant and Dolphice lying next to them, and a Slimoo hovering over them, the remaints of a Sleep Powder lingering around it.
"I swear, if you did anything..." Dan began.
"Hey, that's none of your business!" Paris interrupted. "You got a problem? Fine. I don't just turn trainers in to the Pokemon Center when I beat their Pokemon. I'm a gangsta, and that ain't how we do things on the streets." He reached for a Pokeball on his belt, sending out the Pokemon within. It opened up to reveal a Pokemon similar to Frezoo and Bouldoo, but this Pokemon was a deep, soily brown in color. It's eyeball appeared to be made of earth, and some soil dropped down from it onto the base. Twigs and leave stuck out from the base, and a small, dead flower stuck out from the top of the eyeball.
"That must be..." Bobby began.
"That's right." Paris interjected. "The final evolution of Slimoo...Grounoo! Only a few trainers have been skillful enough to get Slimoo's stats just right...but the rewards are great! Grounoo is one of the most strong and versatile Pokemon out there!"
"I really don't care." Dan said. "That's not going to stop us...I'm going to rescue Tatianna!" He flung his fist forward in rage, and Mosstone zoomed past him, throwing rocks and absorb attacks at the Grounoo left and right. The Grounoo dodged almost every one of them, and those that did hit it barely glanced off of it.
"Grounoo, Earthquake!" Paris commanded. The Pokemon jumped up and slammed the ground, causing a seismic wave to ripple forward, knocking Dan and Bobby off their feet, and shaking Mosstone severely, knocking it out in one hit.
"Mosstone!" Dan yelled. "No...now all I've got left is..." He paused and thought. "Wait...maggots turn into flies...and flies...!" A look of realization came upon his face. "Magoon, I hope you evolved after that last battle!" He grabbed Magoon's Pokeball, throwing it into the air. "And I hope my theory is right!" The Pokeball opened up to reveal a two foot tall black fly, with black tinted wings. The Pokemon's eyes shone with an evil red light.
"Flyyyyyyrant!" The Pokemon buzzed as it flew above the field.
"Yes!" Dan exclaimed. "Your earthquake won't be able to hit a flying type!"
"You're right." Paris agreed. "Unfortunately for you, Earthquake isn't Grounoo's only move! Take Down!" The slimy Pokemon leaped up, striking Flyrant in midair and knocking it to the ground. It was obvious that only this one move was needed, the weaker Flyrant was knocked out.
"No!" Dan shouted. "That was my only hope...I was going to save Tatianna...I was going to be a hero..." Suddenly, Paris fell to the ground, as if something had struck him in the back. There, standing on top of Paris, was Nightture, its claws sinking in to Paris' back.
"Please. Did you honestly think that you could be a hero?" Michael asked, standing behind Nightture. "No way. You're too weak."
"Ah!" Dan exclaimed. "How did you...?" He looked behind Michael and saw a hole in the wall, Obsidim standing next to it.
"I got in the same way you did." Michael responded, noticing that the door had also been busted in. "But I was smart enough to figure this creep probably had a room in the very back of the Gym, so I decided to bypass all the guards."
"Why didn't you come sooner?!" Bobby asked.
"I told you before." Michael replied, "I'm not doing this to save you. It just took me a while to realize that a creep like this might have connections to Team Rocket. He could have given them the staves."
"Well, at any rate, thanks for saving us." Bobby said. Nightture, confident that it had finished off Paris, was now defeating Grounoo with a range of dark type attacks. Matt walked in from the Gym, having defeated the Gym Trainer.
"Did I miss anything?" Matt asked.
"Not really." Michael replied. "Just me saving your butts, nothing out of the ordinary."
"Hah, hah." Dan laughed sarcastically as he walked over to Tatianna and Elissa. He shook Tatianna on the shoulder, waking her up from her slumber. Matt walked over to Elissa, waking her up as well.
"Like, what happened?" Tatianna asked, dazed. "Did we win?"
"No." Dan answered. "But you're going to be okay." Bobby walked over to Paris' body, finding only a single badge, which he was wearing on a necklace. The badge looked like a small flask of poison.
"How appropriate." Bobby said, putting it with the other badges.
"Are we ready to go?" Michael asked. "I think it's probably a good idea to get out of here. Your Pokemon took down all the guards, but if some trainer wanders in here and sees the mess...well, it won't be pretty."
"Michael's right." Bobby agreed. "Let's go." Tatianna and Elissa stood up, brushing off their shirts, and Matt, Bobby, and Dan went back to recall their Pokemon. The group walked outside the hole Michael had made in the back of the Gym, and headed out of the town, ready to continue their journey.

[Jirae]

Chapter 10: The Ghost Plains

"Man, I hate having to backtrack." Matt said, holding his hands behind his head. There were no exits out of Poisawa Town to the East, West, or North, so the group was forced to go back through the Doshibog Swamp and through the other side of Hanaero Town if they wanted to continue on to the fourth gym.
"I know!" Elissa agreed. "This swamp is disgusting!"
"Well, we're almost through." Bobby informed. "I wonder what kind of Route we'll have to go through to get to the next town?" Deep in thought and not paying attention to where he was walking, Bobby walked of the path slightly, and his foot landed in what appeared to be some oily black mud on the side of the road.
"Eww!" Tatiana squealed, pointing at the sludge under his foot. "It's like, got eyes!" Sure enough, the muddy substance appeared to have eyes, and slithered out from under Bobby's foot, forming a slightly elevated puddle in front of him. The creature stood no more than a inch tall, its angry eyes looking up at Bobby.
"Cruuu!" The Pokemon stammered angrily.
"What is that thing?" Bobby asked, pulling out his Pokedex.
"Crudoileo." The Pokedex explained. "The Oil Pokemon. Crudoileo take advantage of their small size and flexible molecular structure, and are able to slither around the ground and fit into even the most tiny crevices."
"That thing is a Pokemon?" Matt asked. "Wow, looks kinda pathetic to me."
"Well, since it got on my shoe, I guess I'll catch it." Bobby decided. "I haven't used you in a while...Skeetle, I choose you!" He took the second Pokeball from his staff, throwing it into the air and letting the fire Pokemon out.
"Skeetle!" The Pokemon growled. It was obvious that it was rather frustrated, as the only battle it had been used in since Treemor Town was when it took down the guard in Paris' Gym. Seeing the Crudoileo as a target, it lunged forward, bombarding the Pokemon with an Ember attack.
"Doilee, Doileeo!" The Pokemon squealed as the fire hit it, inflicting severe damage. Though it was obviously a poison type, this Pokemon appeared to be especially vulnerable to fire attacks. It attacked back with a tackle, but the Skeetle easily withstood the attack and finished off with only one more Ember.
"Pokeball, go!" Bobby shouted, throwing a Pokeball and capturing the Pokemon with ease.
"What a wimpy Pokemon." Michael commented. "I wouldn't want a weakling like that on my team."
"Well I'm not you." Bobby replied as he placed the new Pokeball on his staff. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Skeetle was glowing. The Pokemon grew larger, its horn growing with it. Flylike wings began to sprout out of its back, but despite their size and shape, appeared to be feathery. The glow died down to reveal that these wings were red and orange, and that the Pokemon had gained another physical feature during its evolution. Orange and red jewels now alternated in a single circle around its body, shining in the sunlight.
"Congratulations." Bobby's Pokedex recited. "Your Skeetle has evolved into Scabattle."
"Awesome!" Bobby exclaimed, returning the newly evolved Pokemon to its Pokeball.

"Ooh, hey, look at that!" Tatiana shouted, pointing to a large building. The group was now going back through Hanaero Town, so they could continue on to the route to the east. A large banner flew from the building, reading 'Hanaero Museum of Aerodynamics Grand Opening'.
"We should check it out!" Dan suggested.
"We don't have time." Michael replied. "It's already midday. If we spend even an hour here, we won't make it to the next town by dusk."
"Oh, come on." Bobby said. "I think we can afford to at least check it out."
"I really don't care what the rest of you do, I'm going on ahead." Michael responded. "If you want to check out this ridiculous thing, fine, I'll meet you in Spirrei Town."
"Spirrei? Is that the next town?" Dan asked.
"Yes." Michael replied, pointing to a nearby sign that said 'Route E: Hanaero Town to Spirrei Town'.
"Hold up." Bobby told Michael. "The last time you wandered off from the group, you ended up leaving us to do all the work while you did who knows what. The time before that, you evolved your Pokemon in secret. I don't think we're letting you go on alone."
"Well then, looks like you're going to have to miss out on your precious Aerodynamics Museum." Michael responded. "Because I'm going."
"Anyone want to volunteer to go with him so the rest of us can stay back here?" Bobby asked.
"No way, I'm not going anywhere with him alone." Matt replied. "Do I need to remind you of what happened to that Gym Leader?"
"Agreed." Dan concurred.
"Alright then." Bobby decided, "No Aerodynamics Museum."
"Awww..." Tatiana said, hanging her head as the group followed Michael out of the town.

"This route is kinda boring, isn't it?" Dan asked rhetorically. The path cut through the center of a flat plain, with no landmarks, plants, or features.
"We haven't even seen like, a single Pokemon yet!" Tatiana added.
"I wouldn't be so sure." Michael responded. There, in front of them, a little ways down the path, was a small ghostly purple flame, floating in middair.
"Do you think that's a Pokemon?" Matt asked.
"No, I think it's a person." Michael answered sarcastically.
"Well if that's the case, I'm going to go catch it." Matt replied, running out ahead of the group. The group walked up behind him and saw that he was holding out his Pokedex to identify the Pokemon.
"Error." The Pokedex buzzed. "Pokemon could not be identified."
"What the heck?" Matt asked. "Is this thing broken?"
"Lemme check mine." Dan said, pulling out his Pokedex and pointing it at the flame.
"Error." The Pokedex buzzed exactly as Matt's had. "Pokemon could not be identified."
"Do you think...maybe it's a..." Elissa began.
"A real ghost?!" Tatiana finished in a scared tone.
"Please. There's no such thing." Michael said. The flame suddenly flew towards Michael, floating around him in a circle, and then headed away in the direction it came from.
"Let's follow it!" Bobby suggested. The group began to run after the flame, not noticing that the ground had become a dead gray, all signs of living grass gone.

"Uh...where are we?" Matt asked. The group was now far into the route, and the flame had dissapeared from their vision, as it had been moving forward much faster than they had.
"Woah...the ground is like, dead!" Tatiana exclaimed, finally noticing the lack of grass.
"I believe we've been lured into a trap." Michael commented. "They don't call Route E the Ghost Plains for nothing."
"Ghost Plains?" Bobby asked in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell us that?"
"You didn't ask." Michael answered.
"Smauuunt!" Came a ghostly howl.
"What was that?" Tatiana asked, now reasonably scared. Suddenly, the flame reappeared in front of the group, and began to take a different form. It now appeared to be a small, lavender colored, gaseous, almost spherical ghost. The back of the sphere appeared to fade away into a lighter gas. The Pokemon had two large, round, glowing yellow eyes, but no apparent mouth.
"That's gotta be a Pokemon!" Matt exclaimed, pulling out his Pokedex.
"Smaunt." The Pokedex identified. "The Haunting Pokemon. Smaunt inhabit the Ghost Plains, and are known to drive many advneturers that wander there mad."
"You're mine." Matt said confidently. "If Bobby got his bug Pokemon to evolve...so will I!" He grabbed Woodmite's Pokeball, sending out the termite Pokemon.
"Mite!" The Pokemon barked, eager to fight.
"Remember, normal type moves don't affect ghost types!" Matt informed Woodmite. "So use Mud-Slap!" The termite Pokemon kicked the ground, sending mud flying toward Smaunt's face. Unfortunately, the ghost type floated upward, and the mud missed.
"It must know the levitate ability!" Matt realized. "If that's the case, this is no match for Woodmite...return!" He recalled the Pokemon to its Pokeball and sent Spiritao out in its place. "Spiritao, Night Shade!" Spiritao held out its hands, waving them. They began to glow, and a wave of purple energy shot out from them, striking the Smaunt.
"Smauuunt..." The Pokemon howled. It responded by launching a Night Shade of its own. The Pokemon exchanged blows until finally the Smaunt fell to the ground, defeated.
"Pokeball, go!" Matt shouted, throwing an empty Pokeball at the weakened Smaunt and capturing it.
"Good job!" Elissa congratulated.
"Let's go see if there's any more new Pokemon here!" Matt exclaimed, excited by his new capture and ready for more. He ran off in front of the group, Elissa following him.
"Well, at least someone's enjoying this." Bobby commented.
"Not me." Tatiana responded. "I'm scared."
"Don't worry." Dan said, "I'll protect you." Tatiana walked over to Dan as he extended his arms, hugging her protectively.
"Hmph." Michael grunted, walking ahead of the group. "You're pathetic."
"Let's not start any fights." Bobby said rationally. "Come on, let's go find Matt and Elissa."

The group continued down the path to see Matt and Elissa surrounded by a large number of Smaunts and two new Pokemon. One of the Pokemon appeared to have a human torso and head, all made of a ghostly flame, and faded into a ghostly aura much like Spiritao where its legs would be. The other also appeared humanoid, but appeared to be made of sand. There were parts of the Pokemon where the sand had gone, and bones were visible. Its hands and feet were both like that of a human skeleton, and its angry and vengeful face was etched in the sand. Elissa had sent out Clairvoicant and Eyequus, and Matt had sent out Spiritao, Chimpunch, Smaunt, and what appeared to be an evolved Woodmite. This new Pokemon looked like a larger woodmite with a much thicker shell of wood. Most notably, though, was the fact that its pinchers had now grown to a size over three times that of its head.
"They look like they could use a little help." Bobby commented.
"Do you think so? Really?" Michael asked sarcastically.
"Help them out! Felispark, Scabattle, Zaplet, Crudoileo, I choose you!" Bobby exclaimed, sending out his Pokemon to help Matt and Elissa.
"Let's go, Mosstone, Flyrant, Twistone, Slimoo!" Dan followed, sending out his own Pokemon.
"Like, let's save them, guys!" Tatiana added. "Dolphice, Munchy, Poishare, I choose you!"
"Eh, whatever, you'll get some fighting experience." Michael said, finding a more selfish reason to help the others. "Nightture, Obsidim, Hazoud, go!" A smaunt who's back had been turned to the larger group turned around to see the fourteen Pokemon now lined up behind it.
"Smaunt!" It shouted in surprise and fear. The other Pokemon heard this and turned to see that they were outnumbered.
"Pyyr!" The firey Pokemon shouted in a commanding tone, lifting its arm up and pointing at the group, as if telling the other Pokemon to attack. The group of Smaunts rushed forward, and the group's Pokemon rushed out to meet them.
"Feliii!" Felispark roared, as if taking command over the group's other Pokemon. Almost as if that one roar had been a complex strategy, the Pokemon ran forward to attack. Dolphice shot out a water gun, covering several Smaunts in water. Zaplet followed up by shocking the drenched Pokemon, causing extra damage due to water's conductivity. Scabattle, Felispark, and Poishare ran forward, all launching attacks. Munchy jumped aboard Nightture as it, Hazoud, and Flyrant flew forward and bombarded the Smaunt from the sky. Crudoileo, Slimoo, and Obsidim snuck around the group of Smaunt, striking them from the back. Mosstone and Twistone stayed back and launched barrages of rocks at the Pokemon.
Meanwhile, the two new Pokemon continued to attack Matt and Elissa's Pokemon. Clairvoicant was shooting beams of light at the fire Pokemon while Eyequus shot beams of psychic energy. Spiritao and Smaunt were launching Night Shades at the sand Pokemon, and Chimpunch and the evolved Woodmite attempted to attack, but all Normal, Fighting, and Ground moves were useless against the ghosts. Eventually, the group's Pokemon managed to take down all of the Ghost Pokemon.
"Pokeball, go!" Matt shouted, throwing a Pokeball and capturing the sandy Pokemon.
"This one's mine!" Elissa claimed, throwing her own Pokeball and capturing the firey Pokemon.
"Hey guys!" Tatiana exclaimed, waving and running over to Matt and Elissa. Dan, Bobby, and Michael followed, stepping over the fallen ghosts on the ground.
"Hey!" Elissa replied, noticing something out of the corner of her eye. Eyequus had begun to glow, showing that it too was evolving. Meanwhile, Zaplet, Munchy, and Chimpunch were also evolving. Eyequus grew larger, and its mane grew longer and more full. When its white glow faded, It appeared that its third eye had grown larger, and its stripes were now glowing much brighter. It also now appeared much more elegant and powerful at the same time. Zaplet also grew larger, its tail growing proportionally longer as well. Its ears now became lightningbolt shapes as well. When its light faded, it had a lightningbolt design on its side as well. Munchy, a Funambite, grew a bit larger as well, and its tail became more poofy. When the light faded from it, it was a lighter shade, and looked a bit more like a chipmunk. Its teeth were now also quite a bit larger. Chimpunch grew larger, its hands staying the same size, but remaining about the same size as its head. Now, its feet grew, to match to disproportional largeness of its hands. Its tail now began to shrink, but was still a good size. In response to these evolutions, several Pokedexes began buzzing.
"Your Eyequus has evolved into Systripe." Elissa's informed.
"Your Zaplet has evolved into Shoink." Said Bobby's.
"Your Funambite has evolved into Chompmunk." Tatiana's Chimed.
"Your Chimpunch has evolved into Monkick." Matt's concluded.
"Wow." Michael said. "Four Pokemon evolved, and not a single one was mine. How lame is that?" Saying nothing else, he returned his Pokemon and walked away from the group, continuing on toward Spirrei town.
"Wow, that was crazy!" Tatiana exclaimed. The group took a moment to reflect on the situation, then recalled their Pokemon and followed Michael.
"By the way," Bobby began, "I saw that your Woodmite evolved."
"Yeah." Matt replied. "It's a Sawmite now."
"Well, that makes sense, considering its huge teeth." Dan commented.
"Here we are." Bobby announced as the group approached the town shrouded in fog. It was now evening, and the Pokemon Gym was probably already closed. They walked into the town, passing by some oddly shaped buildings with eerie lights coming from them. Though it was only evening, the cloud of fog above the town made it as dark as night.
"Excuse me!" Came a boy's voice. The group turned to see two men, who appeared to be in their late teens or early twenties, walking up to them. "Do you have any idea where the Pokemon Center is? Me and my friend just arrived in town, and I'm afraid we're completely lost."
"Sorry, we just arrived her ourselves." Bobby replied. "We were looking for it as well...you can join us if you want."
"That'd be great." The other boy replied. "My name's Alex."
"And I'm Ryan." The first boy added.
"I'm Bobby." Bobby introduced as the group began to walk. "And these are Matt, Dan, Tatiana, Elissa, and Michael." He pointed to each person as he said their name. The group walked through the town for a while, and after about twenty minutes of walking, they found the Pokemon Center.

"So, what brings you to Spirrei Town?" Ryan asked. The group had all healed their Pokemon and sat down at a table, eating some food they had purchased from the Pokemon Center's resturant.
"We're taking the Pokemon League Challenge." Bobby replied. "One of us is going to battle the Gym Leader tomorrow."
"I see." Ryan said.
"And you?" Michael asked, noticing Alex's hand tapping up and down on the table, as if waiting impatiently for something.
"Oh, we're looking for something." Ryan replied. He looked at Michael's face as he said this, and noticed where Michael's eyes were looking. He promptly kicked Alex under the table, causing him to retract his hand.
"May I ask what you're looking for?" Michael questioned as if he already knew the answer.
"Something that belongs to us." Ryan answered. "I don't suppose you'd know what it is, though..."
"I suppose I would." Michael responded sharply, jumping up from his seat and standing on the table, thrusting his staff out so that the tip was an inch from Alex's face. "Wouldn't happen to be this, would it?"
"Nice going, moron." Ryan said, jumping up from his own seat and reaching for a Pokeball on his belt.
"There will be no Pokemon Battles inside the Pokemon Center!" The Nurse behind the counter yelled.
"Don't worry, I was planning on taking this outside." Ryan replied. "Hitmonchan, I choose you!"
"I barely even got to eat anything..." Alex complained. "Absol, I choose you!" Since the group was on the second floor and there was no door, the two Pokemon ran over to the wall and attacked it, blowing open a hole and jumping out. Ryan and Alex followed them, landing perfectly on the ground below.
"Not that you shouldn't have been able to guess it by now, but the smarter one is after your staff, Matt." Michael informed. "Watch your back." Without saying any more he sent ou Nightture, getting on its back and riding it out of the hole the Rockets had created.
"We'll get this fixed up, I promise!" Matt yelled to the lady behind the counter as he ran out towards the window. "Sanone, I choose you!" He threw a Pokeball and released the sandy Pokemon he had caught in the Ghost Plains, hopped on its back, and rode on it as it levitated down to the ground. Bobby sighed.
"I guess we're going to have to help them." He said in a slightly exhausted tone. The rest of the group decided to take the safer way and ran downstairs, exiting out the front door to join the battle that was taking place.
"Nightture, Wing Attack!" Michael commanded. He jumped off the vulture Pokemon's back as it rushed forward, stopping abruptly in front of Hitmonchan and whipping up a whilwind with its wings, then firing it at the fighting Pokemon. "Recognize that?" Michael asked Matt, smirking. "That's the same attack that I beat you with."
"Of course." Matt responded, not really paying attention to or caring about Michael's comment. "Sanone, Magnitude!" The skeleton Pokemon jumped up, slamming into the ground with its bony feet. A shockwave rippled out from the ground, striking both of the opposing Pokemon with great force. The shockwave passed under Nightture, but being a flying Pokemon, the vulture was unaffected by this attack.
"Hitmonchan, Ice Punch!" Ryan commanded. The punching Pokemon ran forward, deliving a freezing blow to Nightture. Though Nightture was weak to this attack, it didn't seem to be too badly damaged by it.
"Absol, prepare a Razor Wind!" Alex instructed. Absol's horn began glowing as it concentrated, whipping up a strong wind around it.
"I'm surprised you're so calm!" Bobby exclaimed. "Knowing it's six against two!" The other four members of the group stood there, with Felispark, Dolphice, Mosstone, and Elissa's new Pokemon, Pyrit.
"Well, my mentally inferior friend," Ryan began.
"Is because it's not!" Came Kyle's voice from above. The group looked up to see Kyle, Aaron, Omar, and Twitchy standing on top of the Pokemon center, Pokeballs in their hands.

[Jirae]

Chapter 11: Battle of Spirrei

"It appears as though you have fallen for our trap!" Aaron shouted.
"Yes! It was quite ingenious! Hmhmhmhm!" Kyle agreed. Kyle, Aaron, Omar, and Twitchy jumped down from the building, landing next to Ryan and Alex. Each Rocket member lined up against the person holding the staff that matched their glove.
"I choose you, Pinsir!" Aaron shouted.
"Vulpix, go!" Kyle added.
"Gyarados!" Twitchy exclaimed, snapping his fingers as his head turned to the side quickly.
"Espeon, let's put these fools out of their misery!" Omar finished. Each side now had six Pokemon, facing eachother down.

"This won't be a repeat of last time." Dan told Aaron. "This time, you're not even going to get me in a tough spot."
"You're right, this won't be a repeat of last time." Aaron agreed. "This time, I'm going to win!" He thrust his arm outward and Pinsir lunged toward Mosstone.
"Not going to work." Dan said bluntly. "Mosstone, Rock Throw!" The rocky, handlike objects that orbited the Pokemon began spinning around, causing a large rock to appear out of nowhere and fly toward Pinsir. The rock slammed into the bug Pokemon, knocking it back. It spun forward toward the Pokemon, its toplike limb skidding across the ground. It continued to hurl rocks as it went, bombarding the bug endlessly.
"What was that about winning?" Dan asked.
"Crap..." Aaron thought aloud. "I didn't expect that little blob to evolve into a rock type..."

"I see your Pokemon evolved." Kyle commented as the lion and fox Pokemon stared eachother down.
"Can't say the same for yours." Bobby responded.
"Can't you?" Kyle asked with a smirk, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a glowing red stone. "I thought I'd wait until our rematch, just so I could surprise you. My Vulpix already learned Flamethrower, so I don't need it to stay in that wimpy stage any more!" He held the fire stone up, directing its light on the Vulpix. The fox Pokemon began to glow along with the stone, changing shape and turning into a Ninetales. The fire stone crumbled into little peices after giving off its energy, but it was worth it.
"Talessss!" The Ninetales roared.
"Vulpix doesn't learn Flamethrower until it's pretty well experienced." Bobby realized. "Which means...that Ninetales is probably stronger than my Felispark..." He bit his lip, but ordered his Felispark to attack anyways. "But it also probably doesn't have any strong, non-fire type attacks! Felispark, Spark attack!" The lion Pokemon ran forward, its mane crackling with electricity. It generated a large static charge and rammed into Ninetales, blasting it with the electrical energy.
"So what if your lion is resistant to fire?" Kyle questioned rhetorically. "Flamethrower's still a powerful attack! Ninetales, flamethrower!" The fox Pokemon opened its mouth, spewing out a blast of flame, hitting the nearby lion head on.
"He must be really strong...Felispark looks pretty badly burned." Bobby thought. "Still...I might be able to win this!"

"Gyarados, let's devour that little thing!" Twitchy exclaimed, once again snapping his fingers and turning his head. "Dragon Rage!" Gyarados lurched its head forward, sending out a blast of energy from its large mouth, striking the Dolphice.
"Hey, what's with that snappy thingy?" Tatiana wondered. "Are you like, okay?"
"What do you mean, snappy thingy?" Twitchy asked, doing it again.
"That!" Tatiana replied. "You know, where you turn your head and snap your fingers!"
"That's none of your business!" Twitchy quickly defended, snapping once again. "Now shut up and fight me!"
"I'm just saying, you might want to get that like, checked out or something..." Tatiana muttered under her breath. "Dolphice, Aurora Beam!" The dolphin Pokemon clapped its flippers, firing a rainbow colored beam of energy from its mouth, striking the water and flying type Gyarados.
"That hardly hurt my Gyarados!" Twitchy mocked, once again performing the apparently involuntary action. "You're no match for me!" Tatiana didn't appear to be paying attention to this comment. Instead, she was holding her chin up with her hand, her eyes wandering off into space.
"Oh, I get it!" She finally concluded. "That's why they call you Twitchy, isn't it! Because you twitch!"
"I said shut up!" Twitchy responded, twitching furiously. "If you're not going to fight, I will! Gyarados, Dragon Rage!" The large Pokemon once again blasted the dolphin with energy.

"Pyrit, Will o' Wisp!" Elissa commanded. The flame ghost flew forward, throwing a ghostly fireball at the Espeon. The attack hit Espeon, leaving some burns that would probably continue to hurt it throughout the battle.
"How dare you singe my Espeon's beautiful hair!" Omar exclaimed. "Something as pretty as the hairs upon Espeon and my heads should not be touched! You shall pay for this insolence! I shall win! Espeon, Quick Attack!" The catlike Pokemon jumped forward, attempting to strike Pyrit with a tackle. Unfortunately, it just went right through the ghost type Pokemon, inflicting no damage at all.
"That won't work! And you're not going to win!" Elissa replied. "But hey, at least you're right about one thing. Your hair is really pretty."
"Why thank you!" Omar responded, as the two trainers had become obviously distracted from the battle and were now discussing Omar's hair. "I'm using a new shampoo, I think it works very well!"
"Oh, most definately." Elissa agreed. "I can tell you're using it on your Espeon, too. Both of you have such shiny, pretty hair! I wish my hair was that pretty!"

"Just because you plan to attack me doesn't mean I'm going to attack you." Michael informed Alex. "Just letting you know."
"And why would I be attacking you?" Alex asked.
"Well, I was under the impression that you wanted my staff." Michael answered. "But whatever floats your boat. Nightture, the egotist with the shiny hair isn't paying attention! Attack Espeon!" Nightture flew away from Hitmonchan and Absol and towards Espeon, blasting it with a super effective dark type attack.
"Ah!" Omar gasped as he saw his Espeon skid across the ground. "You're messing up her hair! We shall not stand for this! Alex, avenge Espeon!"
"Right!" Alex confirmed. "Part of our strategy is the Omar's hair distracts his opponent! Absol, use Razor Wind on her Pokemon!" Absol leaped into the air, sending the strong wind it had generated flying toward Elissa's Pyrit. Unfortunately, Razor Wind was also a normal type attack, and blew right through the ghost type.
"What?! How can this be?!" Omar exclaimed in shock.
"Are you serious?" Michael asked, surprised at the stupidity of the move. "I knew you guys were stupid, but...are you really the best members Team Rocket has?"

"Your friends are kinda dumb, aren't they?" Matt asked Ryan.
"It's not Alex's fault." Ryan replied. "He's not stupid, he just can't remember anything."
"What's Omar's excuse?" Matt inquired, rather intrigued by this disfunctional band of Rocket members.
"He's got pretty hair." Ryan answered. "What do you expect?"
"Fair enough." Matt responded. "Sanone, use Magnitude again!" The sandy skeleton once again stomped the ground, causing a shockwave to ripple outward, hitting Hitmonchan, Absol, Ninetales, Felispark, Dolphice, Espeon, Mosstone, and Pinsir. The Pinsir, already severely weakened by Mosstone's attacks, fainted.
"No! That's the only Pokemon I brought with me!" Aaron shouted in dismay.
"You only brought one Pokemon with you?!" Kyle asked, shocked and slightly angry. "Why didn't you bring Skarmory?!"
"I left it in the training grounds!" Aaron answered. "The boss said it was going to evolve soon!"
"Evolve...?" Michael questioned under his breath. "Skarmory...evolves?"
"Well, fine, borrow one of my Pokemon!" Ryan shouted. "Sandslash, you're following Aaron's orders for this battle!"
"Slash!" The ground type confirmed as it popped out of its Pokeball, running over towards Aaron and Dan.
"Now then, where were we?" Ryan asked. "Hitmonchan, Ice Punch!" Hitmonchan once again charged its fist with icy coldness and ran forward. Sanone expected and prepared for the blow, but instead, the fighting type moved at the last second and struck Nightture instead.
"Night!" The Pokemon squawked.
"Hey! Keep your battle to yourself!" Michael yelled at Matt. "Don't let him pull that again!"
"Right!" Matt answered. "Sorry!"

"Alright! Sandslash'll be able to totally destroy that Mosstone!" Aaron exclaimed, confident about his new Pokemon's chances of victory. "I see that that ground attack was able to weaken you pretty well...let's see how you handle another! Earthquake!" The Sandslash leaped into the air, spun around, and came back down, slamming the ground and causing another large wave of energy to ripple across the ground, striking friend and foe alike. Hitmonchan and Absol had already been weakened from the combination of the battle before and the recent magnitude attack, and couldn't handle the earthquake. Apparently, Team Rocket's Pokemon were strong in terms of Attack Power, but were lacking in Defense and Health. Felispark, being extremely vulnerable to ground type attacks, also fell when struck by this mighty blow. Unfortunately, Mosstone, the one Pokemon Aaron had actually planned to knock out, was still surviving, if just barely.
"Agh...alright, Felispark, return!" Bobby exclaimed, returning the defeated lion to its Pokeball. "Let's go, Shoink!"
"Hey! We're supposed to be knocking out their Pokemon, not our own!" Ryan shouted. "Watch it with the Earthquakes! Thanks to you, I'm out of Pokemon now!"
"Well, I've still got one!" Alex commented. "Let's go, Minun!" He returned the defeated Absol to its Pokeball, replacing it on the field with the electric type Minun.
"Hah! A weak Pokemon like Minun?" Michael asked. "Either you're underestimating us, or you're just really stupid!"
"That's what you think!" Alex responded. "Twitchy, combo time!"
"Right!" Twitchy replied with a twitch. "Gyarados, Rain Dance!" The Gyarados faced the sky, roaring. Suddenly, rain began to fall from the already cloudy sky.
"Now, Minun!" Alex commanded. "Thunder attack!" The Minun spread its arms out, yelling its name as a bolt of electricity shot up from it to the sky.
"Good thing Thunder's an inaccurate attack." Michael said. "Or we'd be in trouble."
"That's what you think!" Alex responded. "Thanks to Rain Dance, Thunder can't miss!" The bolt of electricity descended from the sky, blasting Nightture with a super effective hit, knocking it out.
"This won't do..." Michael said, grinding his teeth in frustration as he returned the bird Pokemon to its Pokeball. "Go, Obsidim!" He threw the Pokeball into the air, releasing the dark and rock type. "Somehow, we need to stop the rain, or they can keep using Thunder like that!"
"Not a problem!" Elissa volunteered. "Pyrit, Sunny Day!" The fire Pokemon looked to the sky, waving its hands. The rain stopped, and the clouds parted, allowing a bright sun to shine on the battlefield.
"Argh!" Twitchy exclaimed. "Gyarados, let's stop that thing! Bite attack!" The Gyarados lunged forward, biting down on the ghost type, causing significant damage, but not quite knocking it out.
"Shoink, let's take out that Gyarados! Thunderbolt!" The electric pig aimed its tail at the Gyarados, shooting a bolt of electricity out from it. Gyarados, being double weak to lightning type attacks, couldn't stand this critical hit, and fell to the ground, knocked out.
"Gyarados!" Twitchy shouted, returning the defeated Pokemon with a twitch. "Go, Starmie!" The star Pokemon flew out of its Pokeball, spinning around in a circle before it landed on two of its points.

"Alright, Obsidim! Use Rock Throw on Minun!" Michael commanded. Obsidim swung its hand back and then forward again, causing a large rock to fly out and hit the Minun, knocking it back.
"Minun, try a Spark attack!" Alex ordered. The Minun's cheeks began glowing with electricity as it charged forward, releasing the electric shock on the Obsidim, not doing much damage to the rock Pokemon.
"Obsidim, let's take that Minun down! Keep using Rock Throw!" Obsidim continued to hurl rocks at the Pokemon, eventually knocking it out.
"Minun!" Alex exclaimed. "Now I'm out of Pokemon, too!"

"Ninetales, use Flamethrower!" Kyle commanded. The fire type fox let loose another blast of fire, burning the Shoink.
"Tatiana, I could use some help!" Bobby called over to Tatiana.
"Okay!" Tatiana replied. "Dolphice, Bubblebeam!" The dolphin Pokemon clapped its hands, spraying a forceful beam of bubbles from its mouth, knocking out the already weakened fire type.
"No!" Kyle exclaimed. "Ninetales, return! Go, Flareon!" The fox Pokemon returned to its Pokeball, and was replaced by yet another foxlike Pokemon.
"Well, I see you guys like using Eevee evolutions." Bobby commented, referring to Omar's Espeon and Kyle's Flareon. "Shoink, Thunderbolt!" The electric pig once again charged up a bolt of electricity in its tail, shooting it out at Flareon.
"Flareon, use Flamethrower on Mosstone!" Kyle ordered. The Flareon leaped up, blasting the weakened grass type with fire. Mosstone was unable to handle the attack, and fainted. Luckily for Dan, the Pokemon had pulled of a Stun Spore and paralyzed the Sandslash just before it was knocked out.
"Mosstone, return!" Dan exclaimed. "Go, Slimoo!" The green slime Pokemon appeared from its Pokeball, staring down the opposing Sandslash.
"Hah! What can a poison type going to do to my ground type Sandslash?" Aaron asked.
"Hmm, let's see." Dan replied, putting emphasis on the word 'see'. "Slimoo, Eye Laser!" The Pokemon's large eye began glowing, a beam of red energy shooting out from it.
"What the...?" Aaron wondered. "I've never seen that attack before!" The beam hit the Sandslash in the stomach, knocking it backward across the ground.
"As long as Slimoo is able to concentrate, your Sandslash is going to keep taking severe damage." Dan answered.
"Well then, Sandslash, let's stop it's concentration!" Aaron ordered. The Sandslash attempted to get up, but the paralyzing spores Mosstone had planted on it prevented it from moving.
"Espeon, attack Slimoo!" Omar commanded, seeing what was going on.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to let you do that." Elissa responded. The Espeon had begun to launch a confusion attack at the Slimoo, but Pyrit got in the way, taking the hit for its companion. Meanwhile, Obsidim snuck up behind Espeon, launching a dark attack and knocking out the weakened psychic type.
"Oh no!" Omar exclaimed. "My Espeon's pretty hair is ruined!" He returned the Pokemon to its Pokeball, grabbing another and releasing the Pokemon within it. "I choose you, Lunatone!"
"Starmie, stop it!" Twitchy ordered as he twitched. The Starmie attempted to launch a Bubblebeam at the Slimoo, but Dolphice got in the way, countering with its own Bubblebeam.
"Flareon!" Kyle ordered. The fire Pokemon lunged forward, also trying to attack the Slimoo.
"I don't think so." Bobby said. Shoink rammed into Flareon with a Spark attack, knocking the fox Pokemon off its course and away from the slime.
"Obsidim, Flareon's our target now!" Michael commanded. Obsidim joined Shoink in attacking the Flareon, eventually knocking it out.
"Sanone, attack Starmie now!" Sanone began flinging ground attacks at Starmie, while Dolphice began pummelling it with tackles.
"Hey! You're forgetting about someone!" Omar exclaimed. "Lunatone, Rock Throw!" The Lunatone chucked a rock at the already weakened Pyrit, finally knocking it out.
"Pyrit, return!" Elissa shouted. "Go, Clairvoicant!" The light Pokemon appeared from its Pokeball with a chime, ready to help finish off the remainder of the battle. Unfortunately for Omar, this wasn't very long, as Flareon and Starmie had been knocked out by the two on one tactics, and Slimoo had been able to complete its Eye Laser, knocking out the Sandslash. Lunatone was now the only Pokemon on Team Rocket's side of the battlefield.
"Oh, crap." Omar said, backing away. The six Pokemon all charged at the Lunatone, easily knocking it out.
"Good going, idiots!" Ryan exclaimed, frustrated. "We shall return!" The six Rocket members threw smoke bombs at their feet, dissapearing.
"Alright!" Bobby cheered. "Good job, guys!"
"Well what do you know, the thing is finally evolving." Michael said, pointing to Obsidim. It had begun glowing and growing larger. Its arms and legs now stretched longer, and its head was adorned with a crown of pebbles like those that its arms and legs were made of.
"Congratulations." Michael's Pokedex beeped. "Your Obsidim has evolved into Obsidark."
"Hey, Slimoo's evolving, too!" Dan pointed out. The Pokemon began to glow as its neck melted away, its eyeball now floating above its base. The glow faded to reveal a dark brown, soily Pokemon with twigs sticking out. "Yes! It evolved into Grounoo!" Dan exclaimed happily.
"Wow, you must have been training it well without knowing it." Bobby commented.
"Let's go inside, shall we?" Michael asked, turning back towards the Pokemon center.

"That was really weird, wasn't it?" Tatiana asked Dan. "Omar was obsessed with his hair, Alex made stupid moves, and Twitchy should like, see a doctor, or something."
"Yeah, it was weird." Dan replied. The two were holding hands as the group walked back into the Pokemon center, apologizing to the nurse about the window upstairs.
"It's no problem." The nurse replied. "That happens all the time, believe it or not. The window is probably fixed by now, we have Pokemon standing by to do that."
"Whew." Bobby said, relieved. "Hey, do you mind if we sleep here tonight? It's getting pretty late."
"Of course we don't mind." The nurse answered with a smile. "I'm sure you know where the beds are."
"Thanks." Dan thanked the nurse as the group went up the escalator to the bedrooms of the Pokemon Center. The group all got into their own beds, shutting off the lights.
"Goodnight, everyone." Bobby said. About twenty minutes after the lights had been turned off, snoring was heard, showing that people had begun to sleep.
"Hey Tati, are you awake?" Dan whispered from his bed to hers.
"Yeah." Tatiana replied.
"Is anyone else awake?" Dan asked, getting no answer. "Hey, Tati?"
"Yeah?" She wondered.
"Just wanted to say...I love you."
"I love you too, Dan." They could both tell that the other was smiling as they rolled over in their beds and fell asleep. Unfortunately, one person was not asleep. Michael lay there in his bed, eyes wide open, a look of morbid horror on his face. He got up from his bed, grabbing his staff and backpack, and walked down the escalator and out the door without a sound.

[Jirae]

Chapter 12: The Fourth Badge and Route F

"Excuse me, miss?" Bobby asked as the group approached the front desk of the Pokemon center. "Have you seen the other boy that was with us last night?"
"Hmm...no, I haven't." The nurse replied. "I was working here all night, and I didn't see him. Maybe he went out when I was in the restroom or something."
"Maybe he's at the gym?" Matt suggested.
"Good idea." Dan agreed.
"I'll send a search party for him." The nurse said. "We'll let you know if we find him."
"Thank you." Elissa thanked as the group exited the Pokemon Center and headed toward the gym.
"I'm going to take on this gym leader." Matt volunteered. "I'm guessing he uses ghost Pokemon, and I do too."
"Sure, that makes sense." Elissa agreed.

Matt's prediction had been right, the gym had definitely been ghost-themed. It appeared to be a crypt, with sarcophaguses lining the walls. He had easily defeated the four gym trainers and made his way to the leader, a boy slightly older than himself.
"I'm Brandon, the gym leader of Spirrei town." The boy introduced himself. "If you can defeat me, you'll get the Skull Badge." He motioned his hand to a familiar machine in the corner. "Please, heal your Pokemon before we battle."
"Don't mind if I do." Matt said, walking over to the machine and healing his Pokemon. "Alright, let's battle!" He walked back over to the battle field, grabbing a Pokeball from his staff.
"I choose you, Sanone!" Brandon exclaimed, sending out a Sanone.
"Alright then, I'll use my own Sanone!" Matt shouted, sending out his own Sanone. "Let's start this off with a Magnitude attack!" The skeleton Pokemon stomped the ground, causing a shockwave to ripple out and knock the enemy Sanone of its feet, causing some damage.
"Sanone, get back up and use Shadow Punch!" Brandon commanded. His Pokemon leaped back onto its feet, running at Matt's Pokemon, hand glowing with shadow energy. It ran up to its enemy, punching it with the glowing hand. Matt's Sanone flew backward, greatly damaged by the supereffective attack.
"Sanone won't last long at this rate..." Matt said to himself. "Sanone, try using a Shadow Punch of your own!" Matt's Sanone ran toward Brandon's, its hand glowing.
"Sanone, counter it!" Brandon ordered. His Sanone began charging a Shadow Punch, running toward the oncoming opponent. The two fists collided, knocking both Pokemon back and onto the ground. Matt's Sanone, slightly weaker, was knocked out, while Brandon's got back up, still standing, if just barely.
"Return!" Matt exclaimed, recalling his Pokemon. "Smaunt, I choose you!" The small ghost Pokemon appeared from its Pokeball. "It's weak! Use Astonish!" The Smaunt dissappeared, reappearing behind Sanone and blasting it with a ghostly energy, knocking it out.
"Sanone, return!" Brandon shouted, returning his defeated Pokemon. "I choose you, Mumrot!" The new Pokeball opened to reveal a pale green-skinned humanoid wrapped in stained bandages. Parts of its rotting skin were visible through holes in the wrapping, including its old, decrepid face.
"Rotttt..." The Pokemon moaned, holding out its arms in a zombielike fashion.
"I'll be making a switch of my own, then!" Matt said, returning Smaunt and sending out Sawmite. "Sawmite, Mud Shot!" The bug Pokemon kicked the ground, spraying a blast of mud at its opponent. The ground attack was super effective against the poison type, doing a considerable amount of damage as it covered the mummy's wrappings in mud.
"Mumrot, bind!" Brandon ordered. The Pokemon shot bandages out from its hands, binding the Sawmite within them so it could not move.
"Sawmite, take advantage of the situation and use Tackle attack!" Matt suggested. The Sawmite, tensely bound to the Mumrot by the bandages, sprung forward like a rubber band, knocking into its head. The bandages unwrapped as the mumrot fell to the ground, apparently defeated. "Alright! Good job, Sawmite!" Matt cheered.
"Do you really think it would go down that easily?" Brandon questioned. "Mummies are famous for coming back from the dead, after all." Sure enough, the Mumrot's eyes began glowing green as it stood back up, facing the Sawmite. "Mumrot, Sludge!" The mummy Pokemon opened its mouth, spewing out a hideous purple sludge that hit the Sawmite.
"Sawmite, keep using Mud Shot!" Matt commanded. The two Pokemon continued to fling attacks at eachother, each thinking it would win.
"Mumrot, finish it off with another Sludge!" Brandon ordered.
"Let's finish it, Sawmite!" Matt shouted. "Mud Shot!" The two projectiles passed eachother in midair, each hitting and knocking out its target.
"Alright, you did your best, Sawmite!" Matt encouraged, recalling the defeated Pokemon. "Let's go, Smaunt!"
"Good job, Mumrot!" Brandon exclaimed, returning the Pokemon to its Pokeball. "I choose you, Averoul!" The Pokeball opened to reveal a Pokemon that was obviously an evolved form of Smaunt. It was made of two spheres smoothly connected to eachother, the top one resembling Smaunt, having evil, glowing yellow eyes and fading out into a lavender gas. The bottom one appeared to be a slightly ovaled, torsolike shape, with two small round nubs on its sides. The two nubs each had a small hole in them. The holes appeared to be like jets, spewing out gas similar to what its head faded into. The gas took the rough form of arms and hands.
"Alright, Smaunt! Don't let it intimidate you! Use Night Shade!" The Smaunt's eyes began to glow, sending out a blast of ghostly energy that damaged the Averoul.
"Averoul, Hypnosis!" Brandon commanded. The evolved ghost Pokemon's eyes glowed as strongly as Smaunt's had, projecting circular waves of psychic force. The force hit the smaller Pokemon, causing its eyes to blink closed as it fell asleep, still floating in the air.
"No! Smaunt, you've got to snap out of it!" Matt exclaimed.
"Averoul, Dream Eater!" The Averoul extended its gaseous arms, grabbing onto Smaunt. Energy began to fly out of Smaunt and into Averoul's hands, being absorbed into the ghostly limbs. In a matter of time, the hands retracted back to normal size, satisfied with the energy they had absorbed. Shaken by this attack, the Smaunt's eyes jolted open as it suddenly woke up.
"Come on, Smaunt! Let's fight back!" Matt ordered. "Use a Hypnosis of your own!" The small Pokemon's eyes began glowing, projecting the same hypnotic waves that Averoul had.
"Averoul, dodge it!" Brandon commanded. The Averoul managed to get out of the way in time, retaliating with a Night Shade blast. The Smaunt was much weaker than its evolved form, and was defeated by this attack.
"Smaunt, return!" Matt exclaimed. "Let's do this, Spiritao!" The ghostly fighter Pokemon emerged from its Pokeball, hands ablaze with ghostly energy. "Let's start this off with a Confuse Ray!" The Pokemon's forehead tag began glowing intensely, shooting out a ray of energy that struck Averoul, dazing it.
"Averoul, shake it off and use Night Shade!" Brandon shouted. The confused Averoul began waving its hands, but instead of projecting the blast at Spiritao, it aimed at its own head, attacking itself in confusion.
"Alright! That was just what we needed!" Matt cheered. "Let's end this now! Night Shade!" Spiritao's hands began glowing, shooting forth the ghost energy. The energy slammed into Averoul, knocking it back onto the ground, unconscious.
"Averoul, return." Brandon said with dismay. "Looks like you've won." He walked across the field, handing Matt a skull-shaped badge and two disclike objects.
"Here. The Technical Machine Dream Eater and the Hidden Machine, Strength. I'm sure you know how they work by now, you've probably heard the speech three times already."
"Actually, only twice." Matt informed him. "We didn't really defeat Paris...it's a long story, but...we kinda...killed him."
"That doesn't surprise me." Brandon said, not shocked at all. "It was because of a girl, right? Third time this month..."
"Wait, what?!" Matt asked, surprised.
"Yeah. Paris doesn't have the greatest reputation...but, he is a Gym Leader." Brandon explained. "It's a shame that he doesn't learn from his mistakes, though...takes well over a hundred Mumrots to resurrect him. They're becoming an extinct species, thanks to that idiot...they should just find a new Gym leader." He scratched the back of his head, thinking. "Here, I've got copies of the machines he was going to give you..." He reached into his pocket, pulling out two more discs. "The Technical Machine teaches Toxic, and the Hidden Machine teaches Rock Smash. Good luck!" He began waving Matt off, obviously not going to explain what he meant about the Mumrots.
"Uh...yeah..." Matt said, weirded out, as he walked over to the group on the other side of the Gym.
"Nice job!" Elissa congratulated him.
"Did you guys find out anything about Michael?" Matt inquired.
"Nope." Bobby replied. "They haven't seen him."
"Looks like we'll just have to continue on..." Dan said. "He's obviously not around here. He probably went on toward the next town."
"Yeah, probably." Tatiana agreed as the group walked out of the Gym and toward the side of town they had not come from.

"This is a really long route." Elissa commented. The group had been walking for quite a while, and sunset had already descended upon them.
"Hey, look!" Tatiana exclaimed, pointing at some lights in the distance. "It looks like there's like, a building there!"
"You're right!" Dan agreed. "Let's go check it out!" The group began to run toward the light, confirming as they drew closer that it was in fact a building. The large building was at least fifteen stories high, taller than anything the group had encountered before. They approached a sign, reading 'Kaimone Shopping Centre'.
"Ooh, I've heard about this place!" Tatiana squeeled. "This is like, the biggest department store in the world!"
"We've gotta check it out!" Elissa chimed in.
"Well, they've gotta have a hotel we can stay at somewhere in there." Bobby decided. "We can probably stay there for the night."
"Alright." Matt agreed. "They've probably got some items for Pokemon Trainers in there, too."
"Psyyy..." Came a familiar noise from behind the group. Without noticing it, they had stepped into tall grass, and a wild Psytage had snuck up on them.
"I'm going to capture it!" Elissa stated. "I've wanted one of these ever since I saw Professor Pine's!" She took Clarivoicant's Pokeball from her staff, letting the psychic Pokemon out to battle. "Clairvoicant, Light Beam!" The Pokemon began glowing, shooting out a beam of light from its hands. The light struck Psytage, knocking it back a few feet. It responded by launching a Thunderbolt, hitting Clairvoicant directly. The two Pokemon continued to exchange blows until the Psytage was eventually defeated.
"Pokeball, go!" Elissa exclaimed, throwing an empty Pokeball at the weakened Psytage. The ball rolled around a few times and clicked, showing that the Pokemon had been captured. "Alright! Now we can go inside." Elissa said, a smile on her face as she returned Clairvoicant to its Pokeball.

"I'm very sorry, but the upper levels of the store are closed right now." The receptionist informed the group. "There's been a bit of an accident...the only floors safe for public use right now are the first three. You'll find a Pokemon Center on this level, a food court and limited lodging on the second level, and basic trainer items on the third. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience."
"Aww..." Tatiana sighed, depressed that they would not get to go shopping.
"You guys go heal your Pokemon, I'm going to see if I can find out about the accident." Bobby said. The group headed toward the Pokemon Center as Bobby walked back up to the reception desk.
"May I help you?" The lady asked.
"I was wondering if you knew what sort of accident caused the upper levels to be closed?" Bobby wondered.
"Well, I don't know the details," The lady answered, "But from what I heard, some trainer or group of trainers came in and attacked the place. They totally destroyed the uppermost levels, and we've hired a construction crew to make sure the building won't collapse...all they told us is that these three floors are safe, but they can't guarentee anything else."
"Is that all you know?" Bobby pressed her for information.
"Well...I heard rumors that one of them used a Ninetales..." She replied. "And I saw at least one person flying away on a big bird Pokemon...but I couldn't make out what it looked like."
"A Ninetales...Kyle!" Bobby thought to himself. "And the bird...maybe...Skarmory's evolution!"
"Thanks for your help." Bobby said aloud.
"Help? Don't go getting any ideas!" The receptionist fumed. "You'd better not be planning on going up there!"
"Don't worry, I'm not." Bobby chuckled as he walked over to join up with the group. "Later."

"Wow! So you think Team Rocket did it?" Elissa asked. The group was sitting down at a table, eating some junk food from one of the food court's resturants.
"Yeah. I think so." Bobby replied. "I don't think anyone else in this region would have a Ninetales. And remember during the battle, Aaron said his Skarmory was going to evolve? Maybe it was Skarmory's evolution that the lady saw flying away."
"That would make sense." Dan commented. "But I wonder, why would they attack this building?"
"Maybe they thought we were in here?" Matt guessed.
"But it's not like them to destroy an entire building looking for something." Dan responded.
"Oh well. No use like, worrying about it." Tatiana said. "We can look for them on our way to the next town tomorrow."
"Yeah, I guess." Bobby agreed.

"Let's get going, guys." Bobby said as the group finished breakfast at the food court's pancake resturant.
"Yeah, we've still got a long way to go to get to the next town." Matt agreed. "We checked a map, we've still got at least another hour on Route F, and then we have to catch a ferry to the outer ring."
"Outer ring?" Tatiana inquired.
"Yeah, Olemenun is shaped like two giant circles, one inside the other." Matt explained. "There's a ring of water seperating them...In fact, I'm pretty sure that when our plane crashed, we landed in that ring."
"Oh, okay." Tatiana said, understanding. "So then, the ferry takes us to the next town?"
"Unfortunately, no." Matt continued. "We have another route to walk from the Outer Ring Docks to Evolution City."
"Evolution City..." Dan said, eyes drifting off into space.
"Huh? Does that name like, mean anything to you?" Tatiana asked.
"It sounds really familiar, for some reason." Dan replied. "I can't remember why...something from before I became a trainer..."
"Well, we don't have time to figure it out." Matt interrupted. "We've gotta get going."
"Yeah, let's go." Dan agreed, getting up from his seat.

"Looks like the docks are just up ahead!" Elissa exclaimed, pointing to a small building on a shoreline in the distance.
"Yeah, but what's that over there?" Matt asked, pointing to a closer building. A small dirt path split off the main road and led up to the building. Fence surrounded a large area behind the building, and there appeared to be mountains and other diverse physical features in the fenced off area.
"That must be the Safari Zone." Bobby guessed. "One of the travel guides in the shopping center said that it's the biggest one in the world!"
"We should check it out! There's gotta be all kinds of cool Pokemon in there!" Elissa suggested.
"Sounds like a great idea, but..." Matt was examining a sign at the beginning of the dirt path. "Looks like it's closed for repairs."
"Aww man, we never get to do anything fun!" Tatiana complained.
"Maybe we can come back and check it out later." Dan reassured her.

"Here we are! And look, the ferry just arrived!" Dan exclaimed. The group had arrived at the docks, and could see the other side from where they stood. Normally they could just ride Pokemon to the other side, but they didn't have enough water Pokemon to take them. Instead, they had to take a short ferry trip across.
"Well, let's go!" Tatiana said. She began to walk forward, but felt something slimy on her leg. "Eww...what's that?" She wondered, looking down. There, crawling around her boot, was a small newtlike Pokemon. It was primarily gray, with blue stripes and big, beady black eyes. "Ahh! Get it off me!" She shook her leg around, flinging it off.
"Noot...nootnoot..." The Pokemon sighed, as if it was upset she had shaken it off.
"What is that thing?" She asked, pulling out her Pokedex.
"Noot. The Newt Pokemon." The Pokedex explained. "Noot are extremely affectionate, and once they find a trainer, there's no seperating them."
"Looks like I have to capture it then!" Tatiana decided, grabbing Munchy's Pokeball.
"Noot!" The Pokemon shook its head no, squirming back over to Tatiana and crawling back onto her leg.
"Oh? You're going to join me without a fight?" Tatiana wondered.
"Noot!" The Pokemon shook its head yes, smiling and crawling up onto her shoulder.
"Well alright then! Let's get going!" Tatiana smiled, walking into the building along with the group.

"We'd like six tickets for the ferry, please." Bobby requested.
"Here you are!" The lady behind the desk said, handing him six tickets. The group walked over to the boat and handed the tickets to the man that was collecting them. The boat soon departed, taking only about fifteen minutes to reach the outer ring.
"We have arrived." The loudspeaker boomed. The group unboarded the ship, walking onto the path of Route G.
"Excuse me." Came the voice of a boy who sounded to be a few years older than them, about Ryan and Alex's age. The group turned around to see a rather heavyset boy with short hair walking up to them. "By any chance are you going to Evolution City?" He asked.
"Yeah, we are. Why?" Bobby responded.
"My name's Ron...would you mind if I joined you? I have to deliver something to my friend there, and I would appreciate it if someone could help me out...you see, I only have one Pokemon of my own, and I don't think I'd be able to make it past all those wild Pokemon..."
"Sure, we could escort you...as long as you're not with Team Rocket." Bobby replied.
"Team Rocket? Haha, no, no, of course not. Me and my friends have battled them before, though. They're pretty weak."
"Hah, yeah, they are..." Matt agreed. "And ignorant, too. If you were one of them, you'd never be able to say that."
"Thanks again." Ron thanked the group. "By the way, I never got your names."
"I'm Bobby." Bobby introduced himself. "This is Matt, Dan, Tatiana, and Elissa."
"Nice to meet you." Dan said.
"Nice to meet you all, too!" Ron said in a jolly tone. "Let's get going then, shall we? We want to make it to Evolution City before dark!"

[Jirae]

Chapter 13

"Route G is home to several rare Pokemon." Ron informed the group as they walked down the path. "We should keep our eyes peeled!"
"Woah, what's that?" Matt asked, pointing forward. A mooselike Pokemon had wandered into the path, and was now staring them down. It was a deep red in color, and its two large antlers appeared to be on fire.
"Flamoose. The Moose Pokemon." Bobby's Pokedex, which he had already drawn out, recited. "Flamoose are extremely dim witted, and will often wander aimlessly for hours. However, if they spot what they believe to be an enemy, they are relentless in their attacks."
"Since it's a fire type, I'm going to catch it." Bobby said, releasing Crudoileo from its Pokeball. "Crudoileo! I want to get familiar with your typical battle strategy, so do whatever you think will take it down fastest!"
"Doilee!" The Pokemon agreed, sinking into the ground. It sped across the ground, stopping under the Flamoose, which had not yet noticed it.
"Moose?" The Pokemon said, chewing the air. The Crudoileo spread out, completely enveloping the Flamoose's shadow. It then sent spikes of oil upward under the fire Pokemon's feet, sending it flying into the air. It followed up by turning its entire body into a field of spikes. The Flamoose fell down, landing on the spikes and rolling off.
"Flamoooose!" The Flamoose exclaimed as it landed on its feet. Fireballs shot forward from its antlers, badly damaging the Crudoileo.
"Don't give up, Crudoileo! Let's finish it!" Bobby exclaimed. Crudoileo rushed forward, spraying the Flamoose in the eyes with oil. The moose Pokemon recoiled, unable to see. Crudoileo once again got under it, damaing it with spikes of oil. Confident that it had been weakened enough, Bobby threw his Pokeball at the fire Pokemon, capturing it after several seconds of struggle.
"Doil!" Crudoileo cheered, happy for its owner. It suddenly began glowing with the light of evolution, not growing much at all due to its ability to change size. It had now become a semitransparent greenish yellow in color, but that was more or less the only difference.
"Congratulations. Your Crudoileo has evolved into Dieselio." Bobby's Pokedex announced.
"Dies!" Dieselio exclaimed, flames spontaneously igniting all around its body. No sooner had the flames risen than they dissapeared again, as if the Pokemon had control over its own combustion.
"Awesome!" Bobby exclaimed, returning the newly evolved Pokemon to its Pokeball.
"I hope I catch a new Pokemon in this route!" Elissa exclaimed as the group continued to walk down the path.

"Hey...does that look familiar to you guys?" Dan asked, pointing to two floating Pokemon in a nearby patch of grass. The group turned to see a Lunatone and a Solrock looking right back at them.
"Lunatone and Solrock? What're they doing here?" Matt asked, surprised to see Pokemon from Hoenn in the region of Olemenun.
"Oh, Lunatone and Solrock are very rare Pokemon that can only be found here in Route G!" Ron explained. "We should take this oppurtunity and catch them!"
"I'll catch the Solrock!" Tatiana volunteered, running over toward the Pokemon.
"Well then, I'll catch the Lunatone." Dan added, following her.
"Let's see what you can do, Noot!" Tatiana exclaimed. Noot had not been in a Pokeball at all, and had instead been riding on her shoulder the entire time. It jumped off, facing down its larger opponent.
"I choose you, Mosstone!" Dan shouted, sending out his grass Pokemon. "Let's start this off with a Mega Drain!" Mosstone spun around, flinging spheres of green energy at the Lunatone. The spheres latched onto Lunatone, absorbing some of the rock Pokemon's health and carrying it back to Mosstone. The Lunatone retaliated with a Rock Throw, flinging a large rock at Noot, almost crushing it. Luckily, Noot dodged just in time, and launched a water gun at Solrock, spraying it in the face with a super effective attack.
"Rock!" Solrock cried, shaking off the water and launching a fire spin, trapping Mosstone in a vortex of flame.
"Noot, get Mosstone out of there!" Tatiana ordered. Noot quickly doused the flames with water gun, freeing Mosstone from the attack.
"Thanks, Tati!" Dan thanked her. "Mosstone, let's use another Mega Drain, but on Solrock this time!" Mosstone once again launched spheres of energy, getting its revenge on the Solrock by absorbing a good portion of its health. Lunatone made a second attempt at crushing Noot under a rock, but the newt Pokemon was too agile for it, and dodged. Solrock took its turn, sending a Psywave blast at Mosstone, knocking it back a few feet.
"Let's like, gang up on the Solrock!" Tatiana suggested. "Combo attack!" Noot jumped onto one of Mosstone's rocks as Mosstone used Rock Throw, chucking the rock at Solrock. Noot jumped off of the rock in midair, hitting Solrock with a water gun and landing nimbly on the ground. Solrock's eyes had been closed to avoid getting filled with water, so it did not see how fast the rock was coming at it. The large rock slammed into Solrock, knocking it onto the ground, unconscious.
"Pokeball, go!" Tatiana exclaimed, throwing an empty Pokeball at the weakened Solrock. Alarmed, Lunatone rushed over, trying to deflect the Pokeball before it could hit its partner.
"Oh no you don't!" Dan shouted, noticing what the Lunatone was doing. "Mosstone, Rock Throw!" Mosstone threw a rock at the Lunatone, knocking it off course, allowing Tatiana's Pokeball to hit and capture the Solrock.
"Alright!" Tatiana exclaimed, happy that she had caught the Solrock. "Now, Noot, let's finish off that Lunatone for Dan!" Noot ran up to the Lunatone, launching a Water Gun at point-blank range, sending it flying into the sky and back down, obviously knocked out.
"You're mine!" Dan shouted, throwing his own Pokeball at the defeated Lunatone. The Pokeball rolled around a few times, but caught the Lunatone successfully, just as planned.
"Good job, Dan!" Tatiana cheered, running over to Dan and hugging him.
"Good job to you, too!" Dan replied, accepting the hug.
"Congratulations to the both of you!" Ron shouted added, clapping. "Lunatone and Solrock are very rare Pokemon! You're very lucky to catch them!"
"They're rare, I get that..." Bobby said, "But what are they doing in Olemenun? Professor Pine said that Olemenun didn't have any Pokemon from the other regions..."
"It's possible that whenever Pokemon came to Earth, some of them appeared in both Hoenn and Olemenun." Elissa suggested.
"Yeah, that's definitely possible." Matt agreed. "I wouldn't worry about it too much."
"Yeah, I guess..." Bobby sighed. Dan and Tatiana had walked back over to the group, and the group once again continued its journey to Evolution City.

"We're almost there!" Tatiana exclaimed, as the city had become visible, and they did not have much more walking to do.
"There was one more rare Pokemon in this route that I was hoping we'd get to see..." Ron mentioned, looking around on the ground.
"We can probably find it, what's it look like?" Bobby asked.
"It's a small brown lizard...it's body is about eight inches long. It has very scaly skin, and has a tail longer than its body that appears to be a rounded cylinder shape.
"Like that right there?" Matt asked, pointing to the ground. Sure enough, there was the lizard Pokemon, darting its tongue out and hissing at the group.
"What's it called?" Elissa asked, pulling out her Pokedex.
"Lesard. The Lizard Pokemon." The Pokedex informed. "Lesard are only female, and have a rather unusual breeding style; they can only mate with other female Pokemon."
"That's weird..." Elissa thought aloud as she grabbed Clairvoicant's Pokeball. "I think I'll catch this one." Clairvoicant appeared with a chime, smiling as always. "Clairvoicant, Light Beam!" Clairvoicant put its hands together, firing a beam of light at the small lizard Pokemon.
"Sard!" The Lesard retaliated with a Mud Shot, but it didn't seem to phase the Clairvoicant.
"Keep it up, Clairvoicant!" Elissa commanded. Clairvoicant continued to emit beams of light, eventually damaging the Lesard enough to knock it out. "Go, Pokeball!" Elissa exclaimed, throwing an empty Pokeball at the Pokemon and capturing it.
"Good job, good job!" Ron cheered. "Together, you guys caught all of the rare Pokemon in this Route!"
"I'm glad we had you here to tell us about them." Bobby responded, "Or we may not have found all of them."
"Well now, we should probably go to the Pokemon Center." Ron suggested. "Your Pokemon could probably use a good rest."

"Thanks again for escorting me here." Ron thanked the group as they ate dinner in the Pokemon Center. "I never would have made it here with just one Pokemon."
"Speaking of which, what is your Pokemon?" Bobby inquired.
"It's a Freezeon." Ron answered. "He's a great partner."
"Freezeon?" Matt wondered.
"Yeah, you know, Eevee's Ice type evolution." Ron replied.
"Oh, so they have Eevees here, too?" Tatiana wondered. "Where could we get one?"
"Well, as a thank you for helping me, I'd like to give you each an Eevee." Ron answered. "One of my friends lives in Evolution City, and he's a master Pokemon breeder. I'm sure he'd be happy to give you each one."
"Awesome!" Bobby exclaimed. "Can we go see him tonight?"
"Sure thing!" Ron replied. The group finished dinner and got up from their seats, walking out the door to go see Ron's friend.

"Ah, Ron, good to see you!" Said the boy. He looked to be about twelve years old, and was shorter than anyone else there.
"Guys, I'd like you to meet my friend, Ricky." Ron introduced. "Despite his age, he's the best Pokemon breeder in Olemenun, and an expert on Eevees in particular. He's the guy that provided the town's Gym Leader with his Pokemon!"
"Nice to meet all of you!" Ricky exclaimed, shaking each of their hands. "So, Ron tells me you'd all like an Eevee, eh? No problem! Six of them just hatched the other day!" He walked into a back room, motioning for the group to follow him. They entered a dimly lit room with walls of incubators filled Pokemon eggs of all shapes an sizes sitting under heat lamps.
"Wow! There's like, hundreds of them!" Tatiana gasped, amazed.
"Why do all the eggs on that far wall look the same?" Elissa inquired. "Is there some Pokemon that you need a lot of?"
"Ah, yes...those are the Mumrot eggs." Ricky explained, a sad look on his face. "It's really a shame...almost all of the wild ones have supposedly been used for some kind of arcane ritual. I'm trying to repopulate them, but it seems as though they just keep dissapearing faster and faster..."
"Ah!" Bobby realized. "Brandon's revival ritual..."
"You know about it?" Ricky asked, still not thrilled about it at all.
"Yeah." Bobby replied. "I'm sorry...our friend is going to be costing you a few more...he killed Paris a few days ago."
"Doesn't that figure, that stupid Paris again..." Ricky sighed. "You'd think he'd learn to stop it. And Brandon, I know they're friends, but he needs to stop this madness...Oh, well. We're getting off track. You wanted to get Eevees, not to hear my story." They continued to walk, exiting a door on the other side of the room and entering another normally lit room. The walls of this room were lined with Pokeballs, most likely of the Pokemon that had already hatched.
"Here they are." Ricky said, walking over to a table in the middle of the room. "Funny...I swear I remember having bred six Eevees, but there's only five Pokeballs here..."
"Hey, uh, is this hole in the wall like, normal?" Tatiana asked. Ricky looked over to see a rather large hole in one of the walls, debris and Pokeballs scattered all over the floor.
"Gah! I've been robbed!" Ricky yelled frantically.
"But, it looks like that one Eevee is the only thing missing." Ron pointed out. "Who would break into this vault of Pokemon and only steal one?"
"That's a good question..." Dan said, scanning the room. "Hey, look! I think they left a note!" He walked over to the hole in the wall, picking up a small scrap of paper and reading it aloud. "Do you see? This is the true power of the staves! I don't need any Pokemon! But that won't stop me from taking them. You shall bow down to me soon enough...weaklings!"
"Wow, I wonder who wrote it?" Tatiana asked.
"You're kidding me, right?" Matt responded. "There's only one person that would write a letter that rude and arrogant."
"Michael." Dan said. "But...what does he mean, 'this is the true power of the staves'?"
"We need to talk to Professor Pine." Bobby suggested. "He might know something about this."
"Well, at any rate, take your Eevees." Ricky offered. "I'd explain their different evolutions, but you probably don't have time for that now."
"We already know about five of them." Matt said as the group began to walk out the hole in the wall. "Are there any besides Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Umbreon, and Espeon?"
"Yes, three." Ricky answered. "Freezeon, which evolves using Nevermeltice, Vineon, which evolves with a Leaf Stone, and Shineon, which evolves using a Light stone."
"Thanks!" Dan yelled over his shoulder, having overheard.
"I'm coming with you!" Ron shouted, following the group out of the building.
"Aww, man...how am I going to clean all this up?" Ricky asked, looking around at the wreckage.

"Professor Pine!" Bobby exclaimed as the video phone in the Pokemon Center connected.
"Why hello there!" Professor Pine replied. "How is everyone?"
"Not too good." Dan answered. "Michael left the group, and now he's broken into a building and stolen a Pokemon!"
"Oh my, that's not good." Professor Pine said.
"That's not the worst of it, though." Bobby added. "He left a note at the scene of the crime that we don't understand." He reached into his pocket, pulling out the note and showing it to Professor Pine.
"Oh, no...no, no, no, this is not good at all." Professor Pine responded.
"I take it you know what he's talking about." Matt guessed.
"Indeed." Professor Pine replied with a sigh. "If he truly discovered the true power of the staves...it could mean trouble for all of us. I need to hold a conference with the other professors. I'm sorry, but I won't be able to help you until I do."
"Alright. Call us when you figure out whatever you need to." Bobby replied.
"Bye dad!" Tatiana interjected as the machine turned off, cutting the connection.
"Well, we can't do anything about this until Professor Pine calls us back." Dan stated as the group huddled together to decide what to do next.
"We mineaswell see what there is to do in Evolution City, while we wait." Elissa suggested.
"Well, there's plenty of that." Ron responded. "There's the Gym, the Dojo, the Breeding Center..."
"And then, there's always us." Came a familiar voice. There, standing in the doorway, was Ryan, followed by the other five members of the Team Rocket Elemental Six.
"You!" Bobby exclaimed.
"Did you miss us?" Ryan asked with a smirk.
"Hardly." Matt replied.
"Team Rocket! Get out of this building!" The nurse exclaimed. "We heard what you did to the Spirrei Pokemon Center!"
"Well then, let's take this outside, shall we?" Kyle asked. Team Rocket walked back out the doors, and the group ran after them.

"Hey, one of them is missing!" Aaron observed. "Where's Michael?"
"We were hoping you would know!" Bobby replied.
"Why would we know?" Kyle asked. "He's a member of your group, not ours!"
"Hey, if the guy with the gray staff is gone, who am I supposed to fight?" Alex wondered.
"I suppose that would be me." Ron answered, Pokeball in hand.
"Hey! I've been meaning to ask you, why did you guys attack the Kaimone Shopping Centre?" Bobby questioned.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Kyle denied. "Why would we attack a shopping center?"
"Fine, if you want to do this the hard way, so be it!" Bobby challenged, grabbing a Pokeball from his staff. "When we beat you, we'll make you talk!" He threw the Pokeball into the air, releasing his Felispark.
"Alright! Let's beat these guys and then go find the gray staff!" Ryan ordered, grabbing a Pokeball of his own. "Let's go, Hitmonchan!"
---
Disclaimer: Vineon and Freezeon were named/thought up BEFORE D/P announced grass and ice eeveelutions. I *WILL* use the D/P ones descriptions, but as for the names, these are, of course, guesses, more or less.

[Jirae]

Chapter 14

"You may have beaten me last time, but this time, Ninetales is going to take you down!" Kyle threatened, releasing Ninetales from its Pokeball.
"We'll see about that!" Bobby responded.
"Alright, now that that fool Aaron has his Pokemon with him, I'll be able to use all of mine!" Ryan taunted.
"It won't matter!" Matt replied, sending out Sawmite.
"Ok! This time, you'll be the only one distracted by my hair!" Omar exclaimed. "I'm going to stay totally focused! Let's go, Espeon!"
"Let's go, Psytage!" Elissa shouted.
"Let's start this off with Pinsir!" Aaron decided, sending out his bug Pokemon.
"Twistone, I choose you!" Dan replied.
"Noot, I choose you!" Tatiana exclaimed, the small Pokemon once again crawling off her shoulder.
"Gyarados!" Twitchy ordered with a twitch.
"Well, you're not the guy with the staff, but you still have to go down!" Alex shouted, sending out Absol.
"I may only have one Pokemon, but it's enough to take down you crooks!" Ron responded. "Let's go, Freezeon!" The blue, foxlike Pokemon appeared from its Pokeball, icy blue tail and locks of hair waving in the air.

"Ninetales, let's start things off with an Iron Tail!" Kyle commanded. The fox Pokemon leaped into the air, its tails glowing.
"Felispark, counter with Metal Claw!" Bobby ordered. The lion also jumped up, swinging a glowing paw at its enemy. The two attacks collided, sending both Pokemon skidding back across the ground.
"Oh! You have improved!" Kyle noted.
"Somehow, I don't think you're in any position to be mocking me." Bobby replied. "Felispark, Spark attack!" Felispark ran forward, crackling with electricity. It rammed into Ninetales, knocking it back across the ground, wounded by the attack.
"I wonder," Kyle began, "If your Felispark was really that powerful, shouldn't it have evolved by now?" Ninetales got up as he said this, running back toward the Felispark. Concentrating on what Kyle was saying, Bobby didn't notice the speedy Quick Attack, and didn't order Felispark to dodge it in time.
"Felii!" The Pokemon cried, falling back a few feet as the attack hit it.
"I don't know, I guess you'll be the judge of that!" Bobby answered, thrusting out his arm to issue a command. "Felispark, let's take it down!" Felispark charged forward, mane crackling and paw glowing, as if it was using Spark and Metal Claw at the same time. It swung its claws at the Ninetales, transferring the static electricity through the temporarily metallic medium. This conductive attack badly wounded the Ninetales and sent it flying across the ground, panting for breath.
"Ninetales, don't give up! Hit it with a Flamethrower!" Kyle commanded.
"Felispark, use your own Flamethrower!" Bobby ordered. The two fire attacks met in midair, sending embers scattering everywhere.
"Hey, someone help me out!" Kyle shouted, as it was obvious his Ninetales was losing.
"Gyarados, you heard him!" Twitchy responded, twitching. "Use Water Gun on Felispark!"
"Oh no you don't!" Tatiana exclaimed. "Noot, stop it!" The small newt Pokemon leaped into the air, taking the blast of the attack. Instead of taking damage, thanks to its Water Absorb ability, it absorbed the energy of the attack, firing it back at the Gyarados as a Water Gun of its own.
"Gyarados, Bite!" Twitchy ordered, continuing to twitch with every command he made.
"Twistone, don't let it hurt Tati's Pokemon!" Dan shouted. The Twistone began spinning around, flinging a rock out at the Gyarados and hitting it in the face.
"Great Teamwork, guys!" Bobby exclaimed.
"We can do Teamwork, too!" Kyle responded. "Aaron, help us out!"
"Right!" Aaron replied. "Pinsir, jump onto Gyarados' back!" The bug Pokemon leaped onto the dragon's back as it lunged forward, crashing into the ground near Felispark, Twistone, and Noot. Noot and Felispark flew into the air, only to be met by Pinsir. The stagbeetle Pokemon used a Vicegrip on the small newt Pokemon, crushing it in its large pincers.
"Felispark, launch a flamethrower from the air!" Bobby commanded. The lion used its aerial status to its advantage, raining fire upon the Pinsir and causing it to lose its grip on Noot. The noot landed on one of Twistone's rocks, spinning around the vortex and preparing for a combo attack like it had used against the wild Lunatone and Solrock.
"Alright, Twistone! Launch Noot at Gyarados!" Dan shouted. The tornado Pokemon let its rock fly toward the Gyarados, aimed directly at its face. The noot jumped up just before the rock struck, and much to Kyle and Twitchy's surprise, shot a Water Gun at Ninetales rather than Gyarados. This water attack was enough to knock the weakened fire type out, causing Kyle to need to switch Pokemon. The rock meanwhile slammed into Gyarados' face, knocking it back and causing it to not realize the electrically charged Felispark charging toward it.
"Pinsir, don't let it hit Gyarados!" Aaron orderd. Pinsir jumped in the way of the charging lion, arms out and ready to grab it. Pinsir grabbed onto Felispark, but the attack had propelled the lion Pokemon too fast. Pinsir skidded across the ground and Felispark continued to run, eventually flying up and hitting Gyarados, sending the surprised water type down to the ground.
"Gyarados, get back up!" Twitchy commanded.
"Gyaraaa!" The Pokemon roared, getting back up and facing down the smaller Pokemon.
"Keep Noot busy so it can't interfere with the others!" Twitchy ordered. The Gyarados began launching a barrage of Dragon Rage attacks on the Noot, some hitting it, others not.

"Alright! Let's go, Flareon!" Kyle exclaimed, sending out his next Pokemon. "Felispark's already tired from its battle with Ninetales! Let's finish it off!"
"Spark!" Felispark roared, a slight tone of laughter in its voice, as if it knew something Kyle didn't. It began to glow, growing larger and evolving.
"Oh, crap. I shouldn't have said anything." Kyle commented. The Felispark's body developed into that of an adult lion, its mane growing full. The glow faded to reveal a much more proud looking lion, a mane of fire and electricity, matching the tip of its tail. It let out a mighty roar, one so powerful it seemed to shake the field.
"Congratulations. Your Felispark has evolved into Ignalion." Bobby's Pokedex beeped.
"Alright!" Bobby cheered. "You're going down now! Ignalaion, attack!" The newly evolved Pokemon ran forward with great speed, its body charged with more electricity than ever before. It rammed into the Flareon, knocking it back across the field, making it apparent that it was no match for this king of lions.

"Twistone, just keep bombarding it with Rock Throw! That's how we beat it last time!" Dan commanded. The Twistone began flinging rocks furiously, continuously hitting the bug Pokemon and knocking it out rather quickly.
"Very well, you may have beaten my Pinsir..." Aaron said, returning the defeated Pokemon to its Pokeball. "But you're no match for my next Pokemon! I choose you...Skarlord!" He threw the Pokeball into the air, revealing a large Pokemon that strongly resembled Skarmory. It now had two sets of wings, and its tail had grown much larger and sharper. Its legs were covered in a second layer of steel plating, and its head appeared to be guarded by a helmet, the spike sticking out through it. Its eyes were visible through the helmet, and its mouth was under it, opening up and letting out a screech.
"Skarrrr!" The Pokemon screeched, beating its heavily plated wings.
"This must be Skarmory's evolution...Twistone, just keep using Rock Throw! Don't let it scare you!" Dan commanded. Tornado continued to throw rocks, but the flying Skarlord was able to dodge them with ease.
"That won't work this time!" Aaron exclaimed. "Skarlord, Steel Wing!" The Pokemon descended from the sky, ramming a shining wing into the Twistone and knocking it back.
"Twistone, if you can't hit it with Rock Throw, try hitting it with Gust!" Dan suggested. The twistone faced the Skarlord flying above it, and began spinning around, sending a strong gust of wind upward. The wind struck the steel type, but didn't do much damage at all.
"Skarlord, let's take it out with another Steel Wing!" Aaron ordered. The flying type once again flew down from the sky, striking Twistone and knocking it out.
"Twistone, return!" Dan exclaimed. "I choose you, Lunatone!"
"Hey, that gives me like, an idea!" Tatiana exclaimed in response to Dan's switch. She looked back to her match to see Noot defeated, though not before doing severe damage to the Gyarados as well. "Noot, return! Let's go, Solrock!" The sun and moon Pokemon hovered near eachother, ready to fight.
"Good idea, Tati!" Dan shouted. "Lunatone, Solrock, attack!" The two Pokemon both charged forward, moving around in perfect sync. Solrock flew behind Lunatone, launching a Fire Spin around it. The attack did not hit Lunatone, but instead hit Skarlord, trapping it in the vortex. Lunatone shot out a Psywave in the middle of the Fire Spin, hitting the trapped Skarlord with a combination attack.
"Gyarados, get Skarlord out of there!" Twitchy ordered, twitching. Gyarados lunged out, dousing the flame vortex in water and slithering across the ground, ramming into the floating rock Pokemon.
"It won't be that easy!" Aaron taunted. "There's no way you'll be able to beat Skarlord!"

"Psytage, keep using Thunderbolt, it seems to be working!" Elissa informed. The Psytage and Espeon had been alternating psychic and electric attacks, and Espeon seemed to be losing.
"No! Come on Espeon, dazzle it with your pretty hair!" Omar shouted. Nothing happened. "No! Why is our hair having no effect!"
"While its true, your hair is really pretty," Elissa replied, "It won't stop us from beating you! Because I've learned not to be distracted by it!"
"Oh, no!" Omar exclaimed. "That's not good! Espeon, we'll just have to keep on attacking!"
"Esp!" The foxlike Pokemon cried, dashing forward to attack again.
"Psytage, counter with a tackle!" Elissa ordered. Psytage rammed into the Espeon, sending it flying backward and knocking it out. "Is it just me, or did you actually get weaker?"
"How dare you!" Omar gasped, looking down at his defeated Espeon. "I'll show you who's weak! Espeon, return!" He returned the Pokemon to his Pokeball, grabbing two more from his belt. "Now, let's go with two Pokemon at once! Bouldiurn, Noctolith, let's go!" One Pokeball opened up to reveal a Pokemon that appeared to be made of rock, and was obviously an evolution of Lunatone. The Pokemon had a round torso resembling a full moon, and had two crescent moon shapes sticking off of it on opposite sides. It's eyes and nose were like Lunatone's, on the center of its face. The crescent moon shapes also had peices resembling the nose sticking out of them, but had no eyes. It hovered above the ground, no leglike appendages of any sort. The other Pokeball released it's counterpart, an evolution of Solrock. From the front, it resembled Solrock, but appeared to have many more jagged yellow peices of rock sticking out from it in all directions. It's back was also covered in these sunbeam like rocks, and the small yellow peices forming a line between its eyes had become full sunbeam peices as well. Two small, red, round rocks resembling its main body rock circled around it, like planets orbiting the sun.
"Hey! No fair!" Elissa pouted.
"They evolve from Lunatone and Solrock, just leave them to us!" Dan shouted. "Gyarados and Skarlord are both weakened, you should be able to take them down!"
"You're quite confident!" Omar exclaimed. "Thinking your Pokemon can defeat their evolved forms...hah! I'll show you how very wrong you are!"

"Sawmite, Cut!" Matt ordered. Sawmite lunged forward, snapping its jaws.
"Hitmonchan, Ice Punch!" Ryan commanded. Hitmonchan sent its fist flying right at the oncoming Sawmite, intercepting its attack and sending it spiraling back into the air. The two had been battling for a while, and this blow was enough to knock the Sawmite out.
"Sawmite, return!" Matt shouted. "Let's go, Smaunt! Use Night Shade!"
"Hitmonchan, Sky Uppercut!" Ryan ordered. Hitmonchan charged forward, throwing a punch upward at Smaunt. The punch went right through the ghost type, subjecting Hitmonchan to a close range Night Shade. Hitmonchan had also been weakened by the fight with Sawmite, and was knocked unconscious by this attack.
"Hitmonchan, return!" Ryan shouted. "I choose you, Dugtrio!" Dugtrio emerged from its Pokeball and dove into the ground, popping up in front of Smaunt, only to see that it was no longer a Smaunt. While Ryan had been switching Pokemon, Smaunt had evolved into Averoul.
"Alright!" Matt exclaimed. "Let's go, Averoul! Shadow Punch!" No sooner had Dugtrio appeared than Averoul sent a ghostly punch flying toward it, knocking it back into the ground.
"Dugtrio, use Dig!" Ryan commanded. Dugtrio submerged itself into the ground, tunneling over below Averoul and popping up. To Ryan's surprise, however, Dugtrio did not hit Averoul, as it was floating above the ground.
"Did you forget? Averoul has the levitate ability!" Matt exclaimed. "Dugtrio was a bad choice for this fight! Averoul, use Shadow Punch!" Averoul slammed its ghostly fist into the already nearby Dugtrio, smashing it into the Ground. Dugtrio retreated a few feet underground in response to this, popping up when there was some distance between the two Pokemon.
"Was it now?" Ryan asked. "Or did you forget, Team Rocket has posession of almost every Technical Machine there is! Dugtrio, use Thief!"
"Trio!" Dugtrio confirmed, diving into the ground and popping up in front of Averoul. It generated dark energy out of almost nowhere, slashing at the ghost type with it.
"Yeah, I still have a chance!" Ryan shouted confidently.

Meanwhile, Absol and Freezeon had been exchanging attacks for quite some time now, and were both tired out.
"Alright, Freezeon, finish it! Ice Beam!" Ron ordered. Freezeon leaped into the air, firing a icy cold blast of blue energy from its mouth. The attack hit Absol head on, knocking it out.
"Absol, return!" Alex shouted. "I choose you, Fearow! Knock it out with Aerial Ace!" Fearow emerged from its Pokeball, flying over to the weakened Freezeon and slashing at it with its wing. Freezeon fell back onto the ground, defeated.
"Return, Freezeon!" Ron exclaimed. "Nice Fearow...I have one, myself."
"I thought you said you only had one Pokemon?" Alex stammered.
"Yes...I apologize, but, I lied." He grabbed his Pokeball belt, whipping it off to reveal a second, which had a dozen Pokeballs on it. "Helping out at a breeding center does have its advantages. Fearow, I choose you!" He took one of the many Pokeballs on his belt off, releasing it to reveal a Fearow of his own. "This is where the real battle begins."

"Ignaaaaal!" Ignalion roared, slamming into Flareon. Ever since it had evolved, Flareon had been no match for Ignalion, and finally collapsed, defeated. It had gotten several hits in, but Ignalion was still standing strong.
"This isn't good at all." Kyle commented, returning Flareon to its Pokeball. "Now I'm down to my last Pokemon...let's go, Jolteon!" Jolteon began with a Quick Attack, leaving Ignalion extremely low on health, as it had already been weakened from the previous two Pokemon.
"Alright Ignalion, let's go out with a bang! Flamethrower!" Bobby commanded. Ignalion roared, letting out a blast of fire from its mouth. The fire singed Jolteon, but it continued to run forward anyways, using a second Quick Attack and knocking the tired Pokemon out.
"You did a good job, Ignalion! Return!" Bobby reassured his unconscious Pokemon, replacing it on the field with his newly captured Flamoose. "Now, Flamoose, let's see if you can do just as good a job!"

"Well, since I have two opponents now, I think I'll use two Pokemon!" Elissa exclaimed, releasing Clairvoicant from its Pokeball. The light Pokemon joined Psytage on the battlefield, unleashing a Light Beam on Skarlord. Meanwhile, Psytage attacked Gyarados with a Thunderbolt, finally knocking the titanous Pokemon out.
"Gyarados, return!" Twitchy shouted with a twitch, returning the defeated water type to its Pokeball. "I choose you, Golduck!"
"Skarlord, Steel Wing!" Aaron commanded. Skarlord descended upon Clairvoicant from the skies, its wings glowing.
"Clairvoicant, that heavy armor means it's probably pretty slow!" Elissa informed her Pokemon. "Try to dodge it and counter with a Light Beam!" Just as Elissa had instructed, the light Pokemon dodged the attack and blasted the Skarlord with a Light Beam from behind. Skarlord slammed into an unexpecting Golduck, just as Psytage struck them both with a Thunderbolt attack.
"Come on, Golduck! Stop messing around!" Twitchy shouted. In response, Golduck jumped out of the mess, unleashing a Confusion attack on Psytage. The attack didn't seem to hurt Psytage much, but Golduck didn't give up, continuing to use one of the only attack moves it knew.
"Skarlord, if we can't beat this light thing, let's gang up on that floating hunk of scrap metal!" Aaron decided.
"Lord!" Skarlord cawed in response. It flew over to Golduck and Psytage, slamming into Elissa's Pokemon with a Steel Wing. Already weakened a bit, Psytage fell to the ground, defeated.
"Psytage, return!" Elissa exclaimed. "Let's see what you've got, Lesard!" Her newest Pokemon emerged from its Pokeball, ready for battle. "Lesard, tackle!" The lizard Pokemon slammed into Golduck, knocking it out after all the electric attacks.
"Argh!" Twitchy twitched furiously. "Golduck, return! Let's see how you like this...I choose you, Starwii!" A red, star shaped Pokemon appeared from the Pokeball, waving its armlike points around. It looked like a red Starmie, but the eight points that it was not standing on each had a smaller five pointed star spinning on them like a razorblade. It's gemlike core shone with all colors of the rainbow as it's back star spun around, the smaller stars spinning perpindicularly.
"Skarlord, attack that lizard!" Aaron commanded. Skarlord flew down from the skies, aiming another Steel Wing at Lesard.
"Fine, if we're going to switch it up like that, so be it!" Elissa exclaimed. "Clairvoicant, use Light Beam on Starwii!"
"Starwii, counter with a Psybeam!" Twitchy ordered. The two beams collided in the air, causing backlash damage to both Pokemon. Meanwhile, Lesard narrowly dodged a Steel Wing, and responded by Doubleslapping Skarlord with its tail. Although this individual attack didn't do much, Skarlord had suffered many attacks since it had been sent out, and the damage finally got to it. It fell to the ground, returning to its Pokeball.
"Pesky little thing!" Aaron exclaimed. "Let's go, Cacnea!"

"Do you see what I mean? Your Pokemon can't beat their evolved forms!" Omar taunted. As much as Dan and Tatiana didn't want to agree with him, it appeared to be true. Bouldiurn and Noctolith knew stronger attacks than their unevolved counterparts, and Lunatone and Solrock were both severely weakened.
"Tati! We've only got one choice!" Dan exclaimed. "Let's use our combination attack!"
"Totally!" Tatiana agreed. "Solrock, Solar Eclipse!" Solrock floated behind Lunatone, and began to glow brightly with fire. It launched a Fire Spin, which went around Lunatone and struck the ground between Noctolith and Bouldiurn. Lunatone's eyes began to glow a light purple, as it let out a Psywave. Not only did the Psywave spread out forward and hit its two opponents, but it spread out to the sides, widening Solrock's Fire Spin along with it. The fire now widened around Bouldiurn and Noctolith, trapping them within a vortex of fire and psychic energy.
"Oh, no!" Omar yelled. Much to his surprise, the attack worked, and his Pokemon were defeated. "How could you beat my Pokemon?!"
"That's because me and Dan are like, totally awesome together!" Tatiana replied.
"Well, good job." Omar admitted. "I know the others probably don't want me to do this, but here." He grabbed something out of his pocket and tossed it over to Dan. Then, he took something from his other pocket and threw it to Tatiana. "A Moon Stone and a Sun Stone. Take them, they'll evolve your Lunatone and Solrock. But don't you worry, next time we battle, mine will be even stronger!"
"Uh...thanks, I guess!" Dan responded.
"Hey!" Ryan shouted. "Did you forget that I'm standing right here?!"
"Hey, you should be focusing on your own match!" Matt exclaimed. "Because you need to switch your Pokemon!" Ryan looked back over to see that Averoul had defeated Dugtrio. "Alright, Dugtrio, return! I choose you, Sandspike!" The Pokeball opened up to reveal another new evolution. This Sandslash evolution was obviously a metal type, as the key difference between it and its predecessor was that the claws on its hands and feet, the spikes on its back, and even its ears and the spike on the center of its forehead were now metallic. It's tail, arms, and legs all appeared to be partially covered in steel plating like Skarlord.
"Looks like Team Rocket was busy evolving its Pokemon." Matt observed. "Averoul, Shadow Punch!"
"Sandspike, Metal Claw!" Ryan ordered. The two Pokemon clashed on the ground, both taking the hit from the other's attack. Averoul had been weakened quite a bit from Dugtrio's Thief attack, and was unable to continue.
"Averoul, you did good! Return!" Matt exclaimed. "Your turn, Spiritao!"

"Looks like our Fearow are evenly matched." Ron observed.
"No way!" Alex replied. "Come on, Fearow, you can beat it!" Despite Alex's encouragement, Ron was right. The two Fearow were taking turns attacking eachother with the same attacks, and were dead even. Soon, both Pokemon tired out and fell to the ground, knocked unconscious at the same time.
"You did well, Fearow! Return!" Ron commended. "I choose you, Dodrio!"
"Hah! Another flying type, bad choice!" Alex commented. "Because my last Pokemon is...Diviso!" He threw his third and final Pokeball into the air, revealing that he too had evolved a Pokemon since the last time they had battled the group. Minun's evolution was only slightly larger, and didn't look much different. It's previously blue areas had now become a deep green, and the minus signs on its cheeks had become division signs. It's minus sign tail now had two green balls of electricity floating around it, making it appear more like a division sign.
"Oh, now, this should be a challenge!" Ron exclaimed. "Alright, Dodrio, let's use Tri Attack!" Dodrio's three heads came together, forming a triangle formation with their beaks. Balls of red, blue, and yellow energy formed at the heads, connecting by beams of white light. The triangle of energy shot forward, striking Diviso and knocking it back.
"Diviso, get back up and use Spark!" Alex commanded, but got no response. He looked down to see that his small electric Pokemon had been frozen by the Tri Attack, and was unable to move.
"Oh, you must have quite terrible luck!" Ron chuckled. "Dodrio, keep using Tri Attack until you knock it out!"

"Flamoose, it's weakened! You can finish it off with a Take Down!" Bobby shouted, as his battle was also drawing to a close. Flamoose charged forward, ramming into Jolteon with all its might. Both Pokemon were sent flying backwards from the extreme recoil, but only Jolteon was knocked out.
"No! Jolteon!" Kyle exclaimed, returning the defeated Pokemon to its Pokeball. "I lost!"

"Lesard, Clairvoicant, keep it up! You can still win this!" Elissa kept encouraging her Pokemon to fight on, but it did seem like they were losing, as they had already been weakened when Starwii and Cacnea were sent out.
"Cacnea, finish it off with another Absorb!" Aaron commanded.
"Starwii, another Psybeam will do it!" Twitchy informed, twitching as always. The star Pokemon began charging its attack, when suddenly, it was interrupted by a Psywave. Similarly, Cacnea's attack was intercepted by a Fire Spin.
"You look like you could use some help!" Tatiana exclaimed, giving a thumbs up. She and Dan had used the stones Omar gave them, and their Solrock and Lunatone had evolved to Bouldiurn and Noctolith.
"No! That means Omar was defeated!" Aaron gasped, looking down to see that his Pokemon, as well as Twitchy's, had been defeated.
"And that just about wraps it up." Ron said, returning Dodrio as Alex returned his defeated Diviso. Team Rocket had been defeated once again, and as they had every time before, each member threw a smoke bomb on the ground, disappearing.
"Hey, look! Clairvoicant is evolving!" Elissa pointed out. Clairvoicant began to glow and grow, its wings developing further. It grew about two feet, it's arms and legs growing as well. It's wings spread out taller than the Pokemon itself, nearly touching the ground as well. The light faded, revealing a glowing purple music note on its forehead.
"Congratulations, your Clairvoicant has evolved into Psychoir!" Elissa's Pokedex informed.
"Alright! Good job, everybody!" Bobby exclaimed. "Now, let's get some sleep, and in the morning, we'll see if Professor Pine's found anything out."
--
Notes: Freezeon can be seen on Serebii, Averoul was first seen in the fight against Brandon, and the Shineon Sun stone evolution method talked about in chapter 13 has been edited to the Light stone, which was recently revealed as a new stone on Serebii.