Delta Adventures/Part 2

Delta Adventures (Part one) It is highly reccomended you read this first. Since the story was become too much to keep on one page, I made another.

Delta is one heck of a crazy place. That, cannot be denied. It also is a common stereotype that Delta is full of crazy people. In some cases, this IS true, but not all. However, there is one case that is the very focus of this Story. His name is Reece Falconer.

But, if you read part one, you'd know this by now.

The Mirage Badge Arc
Reece slid down the slope. There was barely any volcanic ash here compared to some of the other locations he was just at, but there was still enough to mess up his hair.

The boy had made it to the bottom. As soon as he hit level ground, he was about to startrunning, but someone stopped him. "Hello."

The boy turned his head. He saw a boy about his age with blood red hair, a blue colored blazer and longcoat, and a black colored pants. He looked at Reece. "Greetings. My name is Hanzo." he said. Reece noticed he had a book in his hand, but more importantly that he had six Pokeballs around his belt.

Reece reached for his Pokeballs. The myserious boy saw this, and stopped him. "I'd rather not battle you." he said. "I came here for a bit of peace after my Gym Battle."

"Gym Battle?" Reece asked. "Like the Basalt City Gym?" he asked excitedly. Hanzo nodded. "Yeah. I one just a few hours ago. Then I come here around Dusk only to find that a volcano right next to me is erupting." he said rather bluntly. "Only to realize someone stopped it."

"What gave you those impressions?" Reece asked a bit nervously.

"For one, there was a rather strong Earthquake." Hanzo explained. "Most likely Pokemon made. Then, there was a sudden stop and a cold air current." he added.

Reece blinked. "How did you get all that from just standing there?" he asked.

"Training my senses to be very acute." Hanzo answered. "Also, I'm guessing that Mount Inferno will be under the influence of the Pokemon League soon, considering the almost disaster."

"Not just that." Reece thought.

"Well, good luck at the Gym Reece." Hanzo said. He brought his book to his face, and quietly flipped a page. Reece saw the title "Wastelands" and the auther, and immediately recognized it as one of his favorite books. "Hey." he said cheerfully. "I love that book!"

Hanzo looked up. "I've been glued to it." he said. "Please don't spoil it for me."

"I won't." Reece replied. He then ran to the gym, running shoe's ablaze. Hanzo watched. "What a guy..." he thought, then returned to his book.

Chapter 51: Sand. So...much...SAND!
Reece...just can't get away from desserts, and deserts. And yet somehow, he manages to stay thin. Maybe it's those shoes...but anyway, Reece arrived in the town square of Basalt City.

"This place is nice." Reece said to himself. He had developed that habit. He needed to find the local Pokemon Center, and then a hotel. Tomorrow the Gym.

Even Reece thought he'd had too much excitement. He saw the building his mind instantly recognized as a Pokemon Center. He ran over to it, went inside, and saw the nurse. She wore a blue outfit like the others, but she had brown hair and wore rather strange sunglasses. "Good evening." she spoke. "And welcome to our Pokemon Center." she said on a cheery voice.

Reece silently handed her his Pokeballs. The woman took them, and put them in the machine. They started to glow, and then Reece got them back. "Have a wonderlicious day!"

Reece left quietly. He found a hotel. Paid the fee, and went to freaking sleep. It was the best sleep he'd gotten in a long time. He pretty much slept soundly, which was something he rarely did. The boy got up and left the hotel. He went back to the Pokemon Center, not bothering to run for some reason.

The recent events on the mountain had shaken the boy. He simply wanted to forget what he could. However, he knew that would never happen. The amount of death that had been adverted along with the amount of questions that sprouted up like mushrooms was a lot to bear.

He walked into the Pokemon Center, and went over to the PC. He realized he didn't know what type the gym was, and looked over to a man reading a newspaper. "Excuse me." Reece asked. "Can you tell me what type the Gym specializes in?"

The man looked over. "Yes." he said. "The Basalt City Gym uses Rock Types as a specialty, but also has a few other Pokemon to balance out their weaknesses." he explained. "But those battles also take place in the middle of a sandstorm, so you'd best be careful." he then muttered something among the lines of "Frankly, I don't see why that roughhousing is legal..."

"Thank you!" Reece said, and went over to the PC again. He put Octillery, Houndoom, and Beedrill in the Box. He then pulled out Gloom, Mankey, and Sandslash. He looked into the Pokeballs, and the happy faces of them all gt him excited.

"Let's go!" He said to his team, and ran out the door. In the corner, Hanzo watched, unnoticed by the boy. He smiled just a bit, then turned to his book.

Reece hurried inside the gym. Once again, a blast of hot air hit him, but the ari was...dry. He looked infront, and saw that everything infront of him was desert. "More deserts!" he asked himself. "Why?" he got on his knees and shouted to the ceiling. "WHY?!"

"Sir, if you're done being overdramatic, I'd love to welcome you to the Basalt City Gym." the receptionist said sweatdropping. "Can you..."

Reece got up, and went to sign the "We're not responsible for your Death." waver. The 12 year old looked over to the Artificial Desert. "Shouldn't there be be a Sandstorm?" he asked.

"The Gym is set up in an odd manner." The receptionist said. "There are four rooms, and no Trainers. Only wild Pokemon. Each room has diffent conditions. The first, it's day in the desert, as seen here." she said, pointing to the room in front of Reece. "The second Room is a Sandstorm. The conditions in that room are meant to represent an actual Sandstorm, so be very careful."

"I hate Sandstorms." Reece thought.

"The third is the most...well there are many words to describe the next room. It's the Desert at Night. We advise you are above all more carefl in this room than all others, as most injuries an...most injuries happen in that room."

Reece knew what she didn't say.

"The final room is the Oasis." the recpetionist said. "That is were you'll find the Gym Leader. Good Luck."

Reece grabed his head and bent his neck till it cracked, causing the receptionist to shiver. "Thanks." he said. He then walked into the room. The heat was coming down on him like a load of molten bricks, so Reece naturally wanted to get this the hell over with.

He then felt it.

Out of the sand next to him, a Krokorok rose out, and damn did it look angry. Reece insticntively jumped back, and threw a Pokeball. "Go, Gloom!" he yelled. "Giga Drain!"

Gloom jumped up, spun around, then orbs of green energy ripped out of Krookodile, and went into Gloom. The Wild pokemon then fainted from the energy drain. Reece smirked. "Gloom, let's go." he said. The Grass/Poison Type followed him, watching out for any Pokemon. Reece had high hopes, and quite a bit of sweat dripping off him.

"POOMF!"

Reece turned as a Graveler jumped out of the ground. "Gloom, Giga Drain!" he commanded swiftly. Gloom drained the HP right out the Rock Pokemon, and it appeared to be cracked as it fainted. Reece held up a Pokemon. "Gloom, retreat!" he declared.

The red Laser shot out of the Pokeball and drew Gloom into it. Reece then selected another Pokemon. "Go, Mankey!" he yelled. He then threw the Pokeball. Mankey had a nice, destructive, selection of moves, and that's why the boy chose it.

Reece trekked on for a bit. After some few minutes, he saw the end of the Room he was in. Mankey was getting restless, but Reece assured it. "We'll fight someone. Don't worry." he said. The Pokemon calmed down somewhat, and kept going.

Then, the ground started to rumble. Trainer and Pokemon turned around to see a large Onix rip through the dessert sands. "Mankey, Karate Chop!" Reece yelled. Mankey ran up the length of Onix, and smashed it on the side with its fist. The Rock Snake thrashed around, forcing Reece to jump to the side. "They really went with this idea here!" Reece shouted. "Brick Break!" he then ordered from his Pokemon.

Mankey smashed Onix in the side, and the Rock Snake Pokemon screamed out in pain, thrashing more and more and trying to shake the Pig Monkey off him. It then stopped, and hit the ground with a thud. Reece looked to Mankey, who hopped off the Rock Snake Pokemon and over to Reece. The Trainer bent down, and pet his Pokemon on the head.

Mankey started to glow, and Reece took a step back. Mankey glowed pure white, and grew. When the Evolution sequence was over with, Mankey had grown larger, furrier, and much more mucular. Reece pulled out his Pokedex, and opened up the new file.

Primeape

Pig Monkey Pokemon

Height: 3'03 / 1.00 M

Weight: 70.5 LB / 32.0 KG

''Primeape is hot headed and highly agressive. They will chase a target for  as long as humanly possible, or until they catch it. They are very strong.''

Reece retrieved the Pokemon, and ran off. He entered the second room, making sure to put on his Go-Goggles. He was then struck with a rather gentle sandstorm. But it still hurt. Reece sent out the Pokemon who knew would go best for this area. "Go, Sandslash!" Reece yelled.

The Pokemon came out of it's Pokeball, and Reece looked into it's eyes. Reece bent down. "Yo." he said. Sandslash held out her paw, and Reece High Fived her. "Let's do this!" he said.

Reece and Sandslash darted across the artificial desert. Sandslash had Reece's speed match by the pace, and that was impressive in itself. The ground however started to shake, and two Hippowdon erupted out of the ground. Reece looked at them. "Let's do this!" Reece yelled. He had made sure to teach Sandslash some new moves.

"Crush Claw!" Reece yelled. Sandslash charged forward and sliced the Hippowdon with her claw. The Pokemon roared in pain, and then tried to chomp Sandslash, but the Pokemon dodged gracefully. The second Hippowdon opened her mouth and fired a Hyper Beam at Sandslash, hitting her in the torso and launching her back.

"Focus Blast!" Reece yelled. Sandslash smiled and her eyes glowed, and the she thrust her hands forward and genrated massive amounts of martial energy into her hands. She then launched it at the Hippowdon that struck her.

The blast travelled in a straight line at great speeds, and exploded in the face of said Hippowdon, KOing it. Reece smiled. The second Hippowdon angrily looked to Sandslash as it's fang was covered in Icy energy. It charged toward Sandslash, but the Pangolin like Pokemon easily Dodged due to Sand Veil.

"Magnitude!" Reece yelled. Sandslash aimed her claw down and slammed into the ground, smashing the ground quickly and causing a large tremor.

Magnitude 8!

The tremor shook the ground violently, and the Hippowdon had a rather hilarious look on its face as the Opponent only a fraction of his size creating a massive tremor, and slowly shaking it unconscious.

Reece himself was usprised only slightly by the Pokemon's powerful Magnitude. The young Trainer then called to his Pokemon. "Yo Sandslash!" he yelled, and the Pokemon looked over. "Great job!"

Sandslash smiled, and Reece then ran forward with the Mouse Pokemon in tandem. Reece knew that despite he could barely see far infront of his face, he thought it was safe to assume that he could just go in a straight line and mae it to the end. The scary part: He was right.

Reece could see the end. "Yes!" he thought in his head, smiling largely. But before he made it to the end, he felt the ground shake again. Reece prepared for anything that could be thrown at him. As he watched, a figure Reece recgonized as a drill sprouted up. Reece looked at it. "Doesn't Matt have a similar Pokemon?" he asked himself.

Reece and Sandslash prepared themselves for the battle. "Get ready!" he yelled to his Pokemon. The Drill Pokemon went out of drill form looked at Sandslash, who looked back with a cold stare.

"Focus Blast!" Reece commanded. Sandslash fired a blast of brick Red energy at Excadrill, which caused the Pokemon to fall backin pain. However, it got up, and went into drill form, and charged at Sandslash, hitting her and knocking her back. Reece stepped to the side. "Magnitude!" he ordered.

Sandslash slammed her body into the ground, and created a strong tremor, shaking Excadrill out of drill form.

Magnitude 7!

Excadrill angrily looked at Sandslash, and quickly went into drill form and sarted spinning in a fashion that slowly moved it, but it still spun extremely fast. "Dodge it!" Reece yelled, realizing that if it hit, Sandslash would be KO'd. Luckily, Sandslash managed toeasily dodge the attack due to the move's low accuracy.

"Brick Break!" he ordered one more time. Sandslash ran forward, and jabbed her claw into Excadrill, causing it to fall back and faint.

Reece retrieved his Pokemon. "Sandslash! Retreat!" he yelled. The Pokemon was drawn back into the Pokeball, and Reece forged on.

The next room...oh god the next room...

All of you familiar with creepy Pokedex entries can expect what is to come next. Reece, out of all rooms, liek the next one the best. When he first enetered it, of course. The desert night was cold (a relief for Reece) and the night sky was simply stunning.

And of course, there where cactus's. Everything is better with cacti. Right? Oh hell no. Never, ever, use that logic. Ever. Especially in the World of Pokemon, at Night, in a Desert.

The protagonist of said out story darted along the desert, with practically Riolu level speeds. However, as he did, multiple Pokemon then had their attentions caught by him. Reece is definitely no idiot: If he decided to just stop and notice several of the strange cacti' like any normal person would, he'd have likely averted this problem.

An odd cactus opened its eyes. And odd cacti started to follow Reece with a bit of speed. More odd cacti follow. Reece keeps move. Lead odd cactus fires a Pin Missile at his back as soon as he realizes he won't catch Reece otherwise.

"Pin Missile to the back!" Reece shouted out as he fell, not even realizing his Skyrim reference. The boy grabbed a Pokeball as he fell, and threw it before going limp on one side.

"Grogrogro!" Grovyle cried out as he appeared in a flash of light that temporarily blinded the Caturne. The wood gecko saw its trainer on the ground, and he also saw the Cacturne. The Pokemon simply cracked his knuckles. "Lets do this s***!" He said in Pokespeak.

Reece looked over. "Must get up..." he thought. He searched his muscles for the strength needed to get up. He pressed down on the ground, struggling to rise as the Cacturne got closer.

"Brick Break!" Reece ordered as the Pokemon got ever closer. Grovyle charged forward with the speed of a racecar and punched a Cacturne in the sternum, making it fall over.

Reece had managed to stand up just a bit. He looked to the horde of Cacturne, and they looked to him. "Grovyle, use Dragonbreath!"

The Wood Gecko opened his mouth, and fired a large cloud at the Cacturne. The swarm was gathered in a large volcanic ash cloud. As the smoke cleared, several of the Cacturne were fully Paralyzed, but the ones who weren't raised their arms and fired Pin Missiles at Grovyle. Grovyle was more than fast enough to dodge a standard four Pin missiles, but the actual 36 was far too much. The Pokemon was hit 24 times by the Bug Type attack. Needless to say, it looked like a wreck.

"Brick Break!" Reece yelled again. Grovyle lunged forward, and punched a Cacturne in the face, knocking it back painfully. The Pokemon fell into the one behind it, knocking them both out. Some of the other Cacturne launched several Grass and Dark Type attacks, beating Grovyle around multiple times.

The Wood Gecko was thrown back to Reece's feet. "GROVYLE!" he yelled in fear and shock. He picked the rather heavy Pokemon up. "Come on!" he cried frantically, the despair buried in his voice. Grovyle himself tried frantically to regain himself.

The Cacturne that were still standing came closer and closer. They were giving off eerie moans, and Reece and his loyal Pokemon were unable to act. Reece looked over. Ten meters. Reece had to do something. He rummaged frantically through his bag, and threw out a few pieces of random junk before getting out a hyper potion.

Reece took the hyper potion, and sprayed it on Grovyle. The Pokemon got up, panting, and looked at the Cacturne. "Brick Break!" Reece called. Grovyle charged forward, and punched a Cacturne back. It responded with five quick volleys of Pin Missile. The other Cacturne hit him with an assortment of attack, but the Pokemon kept fighting.

"Dragon Breath!" Reece yelled. Grovyle unleashed a blast of volcanic ash like breath, hitting down several Cacturne. Reece and Grovyle had 5 more left to deal with. The boy knew he had five other Pokemon, but he was, for some reason, bent on winning this with Grovyle.

The Cacturne fired a volley of Pin Missiles at Reece and Grovyle. The two managed to dodge mostof them, but both were hit. "Brick Break!" Reece yelled.

Grovyle charged forward again, ready to punch a Cacturne. Reece and Grovyle could hear their hearts beating, as seconds turned to minutes...

Terra, the Gymleader, walked out of the Oasis in the middle of the beautiful, glimmering desert she was in. It was nigh impossible to tell the difference between it and an actual desert at first glance. And even then, the build was highly impressive. The girl was about 18 in age, making her the third youngest Gym Leader in the region. She had a tanned brown skin, and long, flowing, yellow hair. She was wearing a yellow Bikini, which complimented her slim and well toned figure along with her well sized bust.

Around her belt, there were 5 Pokeballs. Each had served her in battle after battle, and as such, she trusted them. She wrung the water out of her hair, and went over to a few warm rocks, and was about to lay down on her stomach when she heard a very loud explosive noise.

"Why is it always when I'm deciding to sunbathe?" Terra asked aloud. She got up, and waited a few seconds, still dripping wet from the Oasis she was swimming in. She waited a minute before going to investigate. But before she did, a boy with Silver hair lined with gold streaks at the bangs, trenchcoat like jacket lined with green, blue, and red parts, and rather baggy pants walked in. He had several bleeding cuts, sand in his hair, and a huge grin.

"Hey." he said, walking over to Terra. The girl look at him. Sure, this guy looked like a weirdo, but hey, at least he wasn't just staring at her like all the other guys his age. "Hello." she said. "Cacturne problems?" she asked half joking.

"Hell yes." Reece said bluntly. "I just want that badge and a nice long rest..." he said.

"Straight to the point aye?"

Reece pulled out a Pokeball. "Of course." he said. "It's what I do."

Terra grabbed a Pokeball. "Let's do it kid."

Reeece threw his Pokeball. "Let's." he said, before it hit the ground. In what seemed to be time slowing down for the event that this ball lands, Terra watched with awe. The ball bounced on the ground, and it opened up in a flash of light.

Out of it appeared a large, green reptilian creature, large as a young man. It's skin was all green, except for the under of it's face and the stripe on it's stomach. The head terminated in blade-like curves, and leafy growths stuck out from it's arms. It had a large, leafy, tail that looked like it could easily smash a car. It breathed out, and the air looked pure and moist, contrasting sharply to the air in the room.

"Okay Sceptile, let's do this!"

Chapter 52: Sand, Sun, Violence and maybe some Fun


Reece watched as the older girl threw out her first Pokemon. "Go, Golem!" she yelled. As the Pokemon erupted from it's Pokeball, a Sandstorm brewed.

Reece took note. After trekking throught a desert and the dozens of Sandstorms Pupitar created, he wasn't to concerned. He just flipped on his Go-Goggles, and continued. "Leaf Blade!" he yelled.

Sceptile leapt forward, and the leafg s on it's arm formed two glowing blades of Grass Type power. Sceptile moved with incredible speed, nearly dissappearing. It then re-appeared, and slash Grovyle, creating a Vaccuum the stirred up the sandstorm. Only the artificial generators kept it going after Golem hit the ground uncoscious. The electric board was absent this time since noone would be able to even see it.

"One hit KO." Reece commented. Terra retrieved her Pokemon. "Impressive." she said. "And I mean it. That was awesome, even if you did have an advantage." she added. "However..." she threw the Pokeball. "Go, Scizor!" she yelled. She sent out the Bug/Steel Type Pokemon, and Reece knew he would be unabble to beat it with Sceptile. "Sceptile, retreat!" he yelled, drawing the Forest Pokemon into the capsule.

"Go, Houndoom!" Reece yelled. Terra looked a bit annoyed. "Great..." she thought. "Scizor, Brick Break!" she commanded. Scizor lunged forward, and smacked Houndoom in the jaw, knocking him down painfully. "Flamethrower!" Reece ordered.

Houndoom looked up, and fired a large blast of flames at Scizor. However, the Scissors Pokemon dodged gracefully. "Damn..." Reece thought in his head.

Terra smirked and placed one hand on her hip. "Scizor, use Bug Bite!" she yelled. Scizor lashed out and clawed at Houndoom's leg. Reece pulled out his Scanner, and saw that Houndoom was losing HP very fast. "Overheat!" the boy ordered in panic.

Houndoom got up, and it's eyes flashed red. It fired a collosal blast of flame straight at Scizor, seemingly enggulfing it in the flames. All the sand in that direction, including that which was in the air, turned to glass. However, Reece then realized.

There was more than one Scizor, all staring at Houndoom. Terra looked over. "Oh, how a bit of Evasion can help so much." she said in a taunting voice. Reece grit his teeth. "Overheat!" Houndoom once again fired an Overheat at the swarm of Scizor. The flames from the Pokemon were massive, and eclipsed the heat of the desert.

Terra watched, tapping her bare foot on the sand. Scizor had only divided again. Reece was shocked. "Oh crap." he said, too stunned to yell it. Terra smiled. "Use Acrobatics!"

Reece grit his teeth and steeled his mind. "Houndoom!" Reece called. Houndoom heard, and his Accuracy was Boosted, allowing Reece to keenly pull off his next attack. "Overheat!" Reece yelled, blasting at Scizor at the Scizor's just before he was hit.

All the illusory copies disappeared, and Reece smiled as the real Scizor hit the ground, charred like a lobster. Terra angrily retrieved her Pokemon. "Go, Empoleon!" she yelled. "Use Brine!" the Gym Leader shouted. Empoleon had a deluge of glowing green water on Houndoom, knocking it out.

Reece's eye twitched, and he retrieved his Pokemon. "Damn it..." he said. "Hmm." Reece though over who to use. The Sandstorm seemed to fail miserably at breaking his concentration. "Go, Primeape!" Reece yelled. The Pig Monkey Pokemon came out of it's Pokeball, and stood it's ground.

"Overheat!" Reece ordered. Primeape hopped around furiously, and then shot a massive beam of fire at Empoleon, hitting it in the face. The Pokemon angrily clawed back at it's Trainer's orders. "Metal Claw!" Terra almost sung. Empoleon slashed at Primeape, causing a bit of it's fur to go bloodstained.

As Primeape was slightly injured by the Sandstorm, Reece decided to order the next attack. "Go, Brick Break!" Reece yelled. Primeape lunged forward, and smashed Empoleon's chest, knocking it back a bit. It skid across the the ground, then managed to get back up.

"Blizzard!" Terra commanded. Empoleon shot out a powerful blast of ice and snow, hitting down Primeape. The Pokemon stood on it's arms, struggling to stay up. "Screech!" Reece yelled.

Primeape started to screech loudly like an angry howler monkey, and Empoleon covered it's ears. Terra looked to her foe, and to her Pokemon. "Quick, use Flash Cannon!" she yelled. Empoleon put it's hands forward and fired a huge blast of steel colored light energy at Primeape.

The Pig Monkey Pokemon was hit, and gave a rather humourous face before being knocked unconscious. Reece retrieved the Pokemon. "Go, Gloom!" Reece yelled. He sent out the Grass/Poison Type. "Gloom, Giga Drain!" Reece ordered. Gloom spun around, and the energy of Empoleon was drained into the Pokemon. Reece celebrated the small victory.

Empoleon could barely keep itself up. "Gloom, Energy Ball!" Reece yelled out. Terra quickly ordered an attack, but the Pokemon was quickly silenced by the energy ball.

Terra looked at Reece. "Well, you've beaten three. Can you beat my other two?" She asked. Reece looked over. "Of course I can!" he yelled.

Terra responded by throwing out another Pokeball. "Go, Probopass!" the gym leader yelled. The Pokeball bounced on the soft sand and opened up, revealing the large Nose Pokemon. Reece looked at it and grit his teeth. "Gloom, Giga Drain!" he yelled.

Gloom put its hands forward, and started to drain the life force out of Probopass, making it 'scream' in pain. "Zap Cannon!" Terra retaliated. Probopass created a point of massive gravity in front of it, and charged it full of electricty. Reece braced himself.

"Fire!"

Probopass fired the electrical blast, and of course, it bliddy hit Gloom. The Pokemon crackled with Electricty, and couldn't move.

"Fire Punch!" Terra commanded. Nosepass sent on of it's mini noses forward, covered in flame. It struck Gloom like a Meteor, and caused a rather painful burn. The Sandstorm's extra damage did away with Gloom quickly. Reece retrieved the Pokemon. "Time to finish this." Reece commented.

"Go, Sceptile!" Reece yelled, sending out his team's newly evolved heavy hitter. "Brick Break!" Reece yelled. Before Terra and Probopass could react, Sceptile raced forward and punched out the Rock/Steel type. Terra retrieved it. "What speed..." she commented. "However."

She threw her last Pokeball, and out came an Aerodactyl. Reece looked at the Prehistoric Dragon with awe. "Whoa." he commented. "That's an Aerodactyl."

"Yep." Terra replied, Grinning. "Got her revived from some old amber I found once." she smiled. "Prepare yourself Reece, time to fall!"

"Leaf Blade!" Reece yelled. Sceptile disappeared and reappeared in the blink of an eye, and sliced Aerodactyl in the proccess. "Fire Blast!" she screamed. Aerodactyl opened it's serrated jaws and fired a blast of flames straight at Reece's Sceptile. The Forest Pokemon was caught in the blast, a hiss of pain audible.

"Giga Drain!" Reece yelled. At his command, the figure of the fireball that was Sceptile shifted around, and green globes of energy were ripped out of Aerodactyl and into the fireball, which was subsequently put out. "stone Edge!" Terra yelled.

Aerodactyl let out a sharp roar and fired a volley of sharp rocks oout of it's wings, each hitting and slicing Sceptile, and each leaving a bleeding wound. Reece's eye twitched through his go goggles.

"Dragonbreath!" Reece commanded.

"Dragon Pulse!" Terra screamed.

The two Pokemon shot beams of energy out of their mouths. One was like a cloud of volcanic gas, the other was a misty shockwave.

The two attacked hit, and created an explosion that shook apart the sandstorm, much to Terra's distress. "****" she thought. "This ain't good!"

"Leaf Blade!" Reece yelled. Sceptile's arm leaves extended into blades, and the Pokemon lunged forward at neasr untrackable speeds, slashing Aerodactyl.

Critical Hit!

"Dragon Claw!" Terra commanded. Aerosdactyl slashed over and over at Sceptile, with blinding speeds. The Forest Pokemon could barely keep up with the rending claws.

"Giga Drain!" Reece ordered. Sceptile flipped, hit Aerodactyl with it's tail, and drained it of its energy quickly in green bursts of light. The Prehistoric Pokemon flew away, and then started to circle around Sceptile like a hawk around a dying creature.

"Bullet Seed at the wings!"

The Grass type Pokemon fired a bullet like volley of seeds at his flying foe's wings, imbalancing it and knocking it out of the sky. "Fire Blast!" Terra yelled. Aerodactyl fired a huge blast of flame at Sceptile as it fell. "Dodge and Leaf Blade!" Reece yelled.

Sceptile jumped into the air, and then quick as he could dived down with a Leaf Blade. He sliced right through the flesh on the Pterodactyl, and knocked it out. Terra retrieved the Pokemon.

"Welp." the blond hair girl said. "Ya beat me." she went over to afew buches, bent down, and came over to Reece.

"Here." she said, handing Reece a yellow-gold peice of Metal that looked like a sun. "The Mirage Badge. You earned it."

Reece took it, smiled, and held up his arm. "I GOT THE MIRAGE BADGE!"

"Loud!" Terra said covering her ears. Reece scratched the back of his head. "Sorry." he said with a smile. "Eh, can I ask a question?" Reece asked.

"Sure."

"Is there anyway I can get back to the entrance without having to go back through the rooms?" Reece asked. Terra nodded. "On the transition room from the Desert Night, there a Teleport Panel." she said. Reece ran off. "Thank you!"

Some time later.

Reece sat down on a pench outside the Gym, and pulled out his Pokedex. He looked up the file on his newly evolved Pokemon. Since he was in a rush at the gym, he never got the chance.

Sceptile

Forest Pokemon

Height: 5'07 / 1.7 M

Weight: 115.1 LB / 52.2 KG

''This Ectothermic Pokemon is practically unmatched at strategy and tactics in the jungle. It is fast and dangerous, and has a hint of draconian ability.''

Reece smiled at the description. Having his starter get to it's final evolution was like an important milestone. As such, the boy was estatic, and the enourmous smile did nothing to hide it.

"Happy about something?"

Reece looked up. "Hanzo!" Reece exclaimed. The Red haired boy looked down. "Hey." he said. His thumb was still in his book, and he sat down next to the trainer. "Did you get the badge?" he asked.

"Yup!" Reece beamed.

"Good." Hanzo replied. "I was going to leave town today, so I'm glad you got it before I left."

Reece got up. "Well, I'll likely leave too." he said. He then go an idea that he couldn't help stating. "Maybe we should travel together?"

"Why not?" Hanzo said shrugging. "You seem like a tolerable person."

Reece smiled. "Shall we go tonight?"

"I'm best at night."

The two got up, and started walking to the west end of the city. "So Hanzo, what Pokemon do you have?" Reece asked. It was a natural question, and naturally they first thing that would come up. Hanzo looked up from his book. "I have six Pokemon." he said. "Gallade, Skarmory, Houndoom, Breloom, Staryu and my first Pokemon, Sneasel."

Reece looked at the boy with awe. "Whoa." he managed to say. "I'd love to battle sometime."

Hanzo looked at his book. "I would, but something just came to mind." he said. Reece did the most natural thing. "What?" he asked.

"For the past few weeks, there have been rumors of a Trainer going around raising hell wherever he went, whether it be Surf Shacks, shady Roadside Eateries, or even Pokemon Gyms."

"Sounds horrible." Reece said.

"Rumor has it that this trainer has Silver hair with Gold stripes and wears a jacket with Red, Blue, and green highlights." Hanzo pointed out. "Sound familiar?"

"Oh...yeah..." Reece said. "That guy at the Cookie Cabin was drunk and attacking me! I had too!"

"I'm just going to keep reading." The redhead said, trying to cope wth the fact he had just agreed to travel with someone wo was pretty much the single most destructive force he ever met.

The two made it to the edge of town, only to see it had been blocked off. The guard, who looked thoroughly annoyed, shouted to them. "Sorry, but no one is allowed through." he said.

"Why?" Reece asked.

"After a recent Earthquake and multiple reports of terrorist activity, the roads in and out of Basalt City have been blocked by order of the Pokemon League." he explained. "They are expected to open up again in two weeks."

"Two weeks!" Reece said.

"That gives us some time to kill." Hanzo stated, flipping a page in his book.

Reece looked like he was going to cry. "Doing what?" he asked sorrowfully. The reading trainer looked over. "Well first, there's a place called Battle Avenue." he tld his partner. "That place has some intense Pokemon battles."

"WHat are we waiting for?!" Reece asked, his face lighting up instantly. "Let's go!"

And so, the two Trainers went to seek out trainers. They had two weeks to kill, at least. If Reece doesn't succumb to boredom, then we'll be fine. Besides, he'll need all that excess experience for what's coming next...

Six Way Chaos Arc
"Typhlosion! Use Focus Blast!" Reece called out. The Volcano Pokemon in front of him fired a golden blast of energy straight at an opposing Clefable, knocking it out. "Sneasel, Blizzard!" Hanzo commanded. The Dark/Ice Type put her hands forward and fired out a large cone of cold energy that engulfed the enemies Swellow, freezing it solid.

"Overheat!" Reece called out. Typhlosion fired a compressed ball of flames at Swellow, which terminated in a mushroom cloud explosion, knocking out the Bird Pokemon.

The Two Trainers wordlessly retrieved their own Pokemon, and looked to the trainers across the square from them. Those trainers dropped a bit of money at the ground, and ran.

Hanzo went over. "10,326 Pokedollars." he declared, then went to work splitting it in half.

Reece sat down on a nearby bench as Hanzo counted the winnings. Over the past week and a half, the two ha quickly climbed the pecking order and became the best trainer team in town. Reece also got a ton of training done.

Quilava was now a Typhlosion, Monferno an Infernape, Trapinch a Virbrava, Pignite an Emboar, Magnemite Magneton, Bagon to Shelgon and Tranquil now an Unfezent.

Reece reflected on all the Pokemon he had recorded. Nearly Seventy, and likely to grow still. The boy flipped through his Pokedex, unaware of a girl sitting down next to him.

This girl looked rather odd. She definitely stood out. She looked a bit like Kara, but only in attire. She had peach-white skin, large red hair ending black tipped spikes and in a black bulb connected by a blue bead at the end. She wore a tube top midriff exposed, and beige shorts. Her eyes were two colors: Blue on the right, red on the left. She looked rather attractive.

"Hello." she said. She definitely didn't sound like someone her age. Reece glanced over. "Hi." he said. "I'm Reece." he said.

Hanzo looked over to the girl. Something was not right about her. She kept talking. "I saw your last battle." she said. "You and that other guy did a great job."

"Thanks." Reece said. "But I can't take full credit. Hanzo is the one who told me this place was crawling with people looking for fights."

"Mhmm." she said. "You still looked good." she leaned in a bit closer to Reece. Hanzo then saw what looked to be a black, fluffy and furry tail. Hanzo picked up a rock.

"Thanks." Reece said.

"You're welcome." the girl replied. Hanzo got ready in case what he thought was going on was going on. However, at that moment, a rather angry sounding voice rang out. "MACHINA!"

Kara came running forward, stopping in front of Reece and the girl. "Machina! How many times have I told you to STOP doing that!"

The girl got a rather annoyed look on her face. "C'mon Kara..."

Hanzo came over. "Knew it." he said, throwing the rock up and catching it repeatedly. The three looked at him, then went back to looking at Machina. The disguised Zoroark transformed back into Pokemon form. "Sorry Reece..." Kara said. "She's been doing this for a while."

"What?" Machina asked. "It's funny!"

Kara gave the Pokemon her Death Stare.

"Well, since the two of us are here," Reece started. "Matt should be..."

"Right here." Matt said. He walked over from the side of the Street, over to Kara, Reece, and Hanzo. The latter looked at the two others. "So Reece, these two are Matt and Kara?"

"Yep." The Twelve year old said. "Matt, Kara, this is Hanzo, a friend of mine."

"Pleased to meet ya!" Kara said.

Matt started at him. "Hi."

Kara whispered to him. "Don't worry. Matt's grumpy with everyone nowadays."

"Noted."

Reece watched the three converse for a bit. For a while, everything seemed nice. No explosions, no ****ed up psycho fanatical terrorists. Reece only had to wait for a roadblock to close before he and Hanzo could go get another badge. The two agreed they'd at least travel together till the next gym. After that, they'd part.

Reece layed back. For a second, there seemd to be little/no problems with his life. Then, he realized.

"MATT! KARA! HANZO!" Reece shouted, flailing his arms around. "This is bad!"

Hanzo looked over. "What?" he asked in an annoyed tone. Reece looked at him. "Whenever me, Matt, and Kara meet up in the same place, something really bad always happens!" he said.

Matt started to speak "That's not..."

"River Caves, Obsidian Mountains, Meteor Cave, Mt Inferno." Reece listed. Matt slumped down. Reece continued. "And then it usually involves Team Luminious or Team Abyss!"

"Those Terrorist organizations that have been all over the news for the past week?" Hanzo asked. "Say what?" Reece asked. "Finally?"

Hanzo nodded. "Yeah." he told the boy.

Reece got up. "Well, maybe I might be wrong." Reece said. "Should we get something to eat and wait for it to happen?" Reece asked.

"Seems like a plausible solution." Hanzo said. "That battle made me hungry."

Kara and Matt agreed. The four headed for the nearest Diner. As they made it in, Reece looked to one of the TV's on the wall. Hanzo stared over, and started watching. Kara did after, and Matt soon followed.

The reporter was no one Reece would ever go an look up, or as to say, no one important to the plot. However, what was behind her, was.

"I am here live as the Waterfall Path Forest Fire continues to rage out of control." she said in her thick accent. "Only two hours ago did these fires start breaking out, and since then, Firefighter have worked tirelessly to put out the flames."

The woman then held her earpiece. "I have just recieved confirmation that the fire was caused by a Pokemon." she said. "The Pokemon was confirmed to be..." she then showed a holograph image of a large black lizard like Pokemon with white wings and a blazing tail.

"A Shiny Charizard." Hanzo stated. "Oh...my gosh." he said.

"That thing looks awesome!" Kara stated in awe.

"It must be extremely powerful to cause so much destruction."

"I feel really sorry for any idiot foolish enough to go after it." Hanzo said. "I can already see news reports on people dying because they were incinerated." he added with a bit of a chuckle.

Matt and Kara both got a horrifed look on there face. All three then noticed that it seemed Reece was no longer present, a cloud of air in his place.

Kara turned to Hanzo. "How long have you known him?"

"Not long enough apparently." the boy replied. "But I do know he'll find a way past the roadblock." he added, shaking his head. "Are we gonna stop him from getting killed?"

"I guess." Matt said. "As much as instinct is saying not too..."

The three ran off after Reece.

Chapter 53: Rematch your met Match
Twas sunset.

Getting past the blockade was just a short bout in logic for Reece. Reece called out Kadabra, and teleported past the blockade. As soon as he was on the other side and out of site, the boy ran as fast as he could. Kadabra used his Psychic abilites to keep.

"Reece!" he called out telepathically. "You can't possibly think this is a good idea!"

"I do." Reece said.

"As your Pokemon, and your friend, and more importantly, entrusted to you by your own father, I need to point out that I cannot allow to carry out this asinine plan!" he yelled.

Reece stopped dead in his tracks. The mention of his father dettered him from going any further. "Kadabra." he said. "I have to do this." he said. "If I can catch a Pokemon like that, I'll be much stronger as a trainer."

"You're already strong Reece!" the psi Pokemon yelled. "You've lost only once in your career, and it wasn't even a loss! You've taken out terrorists, saved lives, and raised hell all over the region!" he continued, despeartely trying to point out that he didn't need to to do this. However, the boy's attention was elsewhere. Kadabra looked over, and saw in the shadows a Pokemon.

"Absol." Reece muttered. The Disaster Pokemon looked back at him with red eyes glowing, then disappeared. Reece turned around. "Kadabra, retreat!" Reece called out. He then drew the Pokemon back into its Pokeball, and retrieved it.

''Nearby... ''

"Feraligatr, Rain Dance!" a man called. The Gator Pokemon raised it's hands into the sky, and a torrent of rain fell down upon an expanse of fire. The man had been working tirelessly to quench these flames. Moreso, he needed to get to the Charizard causing this.

"Wes!" a woman's voice called out. "Blake managed to stop the fire from spreading west!" she yelled. Wes looked over from his Feralgatr. "That's good news Rui." he said. "Any news from Michael?" he asked.

A boy wearing a yellow shirt, baggy blue pants, donning dark-red spiky hair, and wearing a strange device on his left arm came up. "Managed to stop the fire spreading from the east." He said panting.

Wes smiled. "The team can managed from here." he said. "We need to find that Pokemon! Do you two see anything?"

A green glass object slid in front of Michael's head from his headpiece. He and Rui then scanned the area frantically. "Nothing." they both said at roughly the same time. At that moment, a Charizard (non-shiny, and more importantly, being ridden by someone) landed. The boy on top was about 18 years of age. He head serious look on his face, and wore a black jacket with a rather dull cap and matching pants. He looked at Wes. "Found it." he said.

"Good job Blake." Wes said. "Where?"

"Other side of the fire." he said. "And it's not pretty." he told the powerful trainer infront of him. "And I know what I'm talking about when I say that."

Wes grit his teeth. "How bad?"

"What do you think?"

Wes was silent for a moment. All death and destruction was on his head, being assigned this mission to lead the three others in catching this Charizard. At this point, the flames were doused and spread thin enough that the small team could pass through.

It was going to be a long night.

At the moment the four got ready to head through the charred section of the forest, Reece was 150 meters away and closing, running shoes ablaze. The trainer made a leap over a fallen branch. This Pokemon was not going to stop him, nor was any obstacle.

As for the three people he left in the dust...

"How do you suppose we get past unnoticed?" Hanzo asked.

"I have the perfect solution." Matt said, opening up a Pokeball. His Haunter came out, and Matt smiled. "Haunter, phase us pass the blockade."

His Haunter grabbed Matt, Kara, and Hanzo, and turned them see through. The ghost typed then dragged the three blelow the ground, and then through the ground uner the roadblock that was doing a pretty poor job at being a roadblock.

As they appeared through on the other side and became tangible, Matt took off as fast as he could. "Reece!" he yelled to the sky. "I'm not being upstaged by you again!" he roared.

"Oh great." Kara said facepalming. "Now he's after that Pokemon, probably so he can just beat Reece."

Hanzo crossed his arms. The boy had an amused look on his face. "I assume you are the only sane person among the three." he said. Kara looked over. "Like hell I am."

Reece had already made it to the former sight of the flames and passed the work crew, moving almost too fast for them to notice. The boy quickly ran into the chared forest, stil with the agility and reflexes needed to stay off the ground.

However, then, it happened.

Reece saw someone in the distance. He then skid tto a halt, passing right by them, and seeing who it was. "Wes!" he yelped in surprise.

"Reece?" Wes asked in suprised.

"Who the hell is he?" Blake asked.

Wes looked at the boy. "Reece, why are you here?" he asked. Then, the older trainer's face drooped. "You're not here for that Charizard, are you?"

"Of course I am." he said.

"****." Wes cursed. "I need you to go, now!"

Reece stood his ground. "Why?" he asked, reaching for a Pokeball. The blue clad trainer looked at him. "Simple." he said. "I'm 100% sure you know that this area was closed off."

"Not stopping me."

Wes sighed. "Reece, you need to leave." he said.

Reece shook his head. "I refuse." he declared vehemently. A vein seemed to pop out of Wes's head. "Listen, and listen good." he said in a ticked off tone. "Me, Rui, Michael, and Blake were sent here to capture this Pokemno so it wouldn't kill anyone." he said. "We've already failed, and we need to stop the destruction."

"And I want this Pokemonfor my own reasons!" Reece said. Wes punched the tree next to him, and ripped a Pokeball of his belt. "Last Warning!"

Reece pulled out a Pokeball. "I'm stronger now Wes."

Wes turned to Rui, Michael, and Blake. "You three go ahead." he ordered. "I'll catch up, Blake is in charge." he said. The three nodded, and hurried ahead.

"Okay Reece." he said. "I'll make a deal. If you win, you can help us here." he said.

"If I lose?"

"Nothing but the fact you'll have to go back to the Pokemon Center." he said. "Which is what I'm shooting for."

The two Trainers started at eachother, and then threw out their Pokemon. "Go, Scyther!" Reece yelled as he threw his Pokeball. "Go, Umbreon!" Wes yelled.

Reece looked at the ultra powerful Pokemon in front of him. "This is it..." he thought. "I'm staring at the face of the most nightmarish Pokemon I ever thought against, and have so much to lose." he took a deep breath. "Let's do this!" he yelled.

"Umbreon, use Psychic!" Wes yelled. Umbreon fired two blasts of Psychic Energy out of it's eyes at Reece. The trainer took a step to the side. "Scyther, Swords Dance!" he commanded. The Pokemon dodged the Psychic attttack with a swift few movements. "Now, Bug Bite!"

Scyther charged forward and slashed right at Umbreon, doing a large amount of dmage and knocking it back with a visible amount of blood and bruises. Wes didn't waver. "Use Curse!" he said. Umbreon was covered in a few wisps of dark energy as it lowered its speed and powered up its abilities.

"Swords Dance!" Reece yelled. Scyther was surrounded by realistic looking swords, each slashing eachother multiple times. "Now, use Bug Bite again!" he yelled.

The Mantis ninja charged forward and rammed it's blade into Umbreon. This time, the Pokemon fell back, unconscious. Wes wordlessly retrieved it.

"Okay Reece..." he said. "You've proved your point, but I'm done ****ing around." He then threw out another Pokemon. "Go, Tyranitar!" he said.

Reece's eyes widened as he saw the supposed final form of his first Pokemon appear in a flash of light. It was nearly seven feet tall. It's body was a light green, and looked like shiny steel plates. The Pokemon stomped the ground, and roared.

"Vaccuum Wave!" Reece yelled. He knew this Pokemon was Rock/Dark type, and thought that this attack would help. Scyther sliced the air with the attack, and created a blade that sliced at Tyranitar. However, the Pokemon took practically no damage.

"Rock Slide!" Wes commanded. Tyranitar punched forward, and multiple rocks formed in the sky and pummeled Scyther, One-Hit KOing it.

Reece retrieved his Pokemon. He needed to think his next move through. "Go, Sceptile!" he yelled. He threw out the Forest Pokemon. "Leaf Blade at the legs!" he yelled. Sceptile ran forward and sliced at the Armor Pokemon's legs. Howeve,r to the trainer's dismay, the Pokemon was not deterred the slightest.

"Blizzard." Wes ordered coldly (no pun intended).

Tyranitar fired a blast of snow and cold energy at Sceptile, so fast and so wide that the Pokemon couldn't dodge. The Grass Type Pokemon screamed out in pain before fainting. Reece shakingly retrieved the Pokemon. "Oh crap..." Reece commented.

Wes looked at him. "You're not going to win." he said.

Reece sent out another Pokemon. "Go, Typhlosion!" he yelled. Reece was pulling out all the stops, and wasted no time trying to cook up a potential win. The Volcano Pokemon popped out of the Pokeball, and it's neck flamed up. "Focus Blast!" Reece ordered.

Typhlosion put his hands forward, and charged a blast of energy between them. The blast arced towards Tyranitar, and hit it square in the chest, knocking it back. This forced Wes to jump to the side before ordering his next attack. "Rock Slide!" he ordered. Tyranitar repeated the actions, and a bunch of rocks buried Typhlosion. The Pokemon was then retrieved by Reece.

"Do it Shelgon!" Reece yelled. He threw another Pokeball, and out came the Endurance Pokemon. Wes blinked. "Tyranitar, Blizzard!" he yelled.

Tyranitar shot another Blizzard, but luckily, this one missed. "Hydro Pump!" Reece retaliated. Shelgon shot a blast of high pressured water out of its face, and hit Tyranitar square chested. The Pokemon fell over backwards, but Wes didn't give up. "Thunder!"

A peal of lightning shot down from the sky and blasted Shelgon, creating an explosion. Reece braced himself from it, and looked into the slowly clearing smoke to see that his Pokemon was paralyzed. "Now, Crunch!" Wes commanded.

Tyranitar charged forward and picked up Shelgon in it's jaws, and then threw it into the air. "Now Thunder again!"

A wicked thunderbolt rained down and blasted the Poor Endurance Pokemon midair. It hit the ground electrically fried and unconscious. Reece's eye twitched. Wes saw this. He took note of that.

Reece retrieved Shelgon. "Wes..." he said. The enemy trainer looked over. "Yes Reece?" he asked. Reece looked at him with a seriousness he had yet to show before in his life. He stared into Wes's eyes. "I may not win." he said. "But I'm not losing without a fight." he said. "Even if I do, then I'll make sure to patch back up and keep going!"

Wes smiled. "That's the spirit." he said, but his face darkenend again. "But you're not going to win."

"We'll see about that"! Reece yelled. He threw another Pokeball. "Go, Kadabra!" he yelled. "Drain Punch!" Reece yelled. Kadabra teleported behind Tyranitar, and hit it. The Pokemon angrily swiped its tail at Kadabra. "Use Crunch!" Wes screamed.

The tyrant Pokemon lashed forward and grabbed Kadabra in its jaws, then started to crush down. "Energy Ball!" Reece shouted. Kadabra fired a blast of green energy out of it's spoon at Tyranitar, hitting it in the eyes.

Critical Hit!

Tyranitar yelled out in pain, then fell over. Reece wasted no time. "Drain Punch!"

Kadabra punched the Pokemon, and managed to knock it out while recovering some of his own HP. Reece smiled. "We did it." he thought happily, before he rmembered that Wes had four more Pokemon in his arsenal. Wes retrieved Tyranitar. "Go...Espeon!" he yelled.

Wes threw the Pokeball, revealing the Psychic Type. Reece blinked. He needed to be careful, or he'd lose. "Energy Ball!" he ordered. "Counter with Psyshock!" Wes commanded.

Espeon blasted a beam of energy at Kadabra's attack, destorying it. However, Kadabra had teleported behind Espeon to Reece's orders. "Shock Wave!" the boy yelled. Kadabra responded by loosing a blast of massive electrical energy at Espeon, hitting it.

"Shadow Ball!" Wes ordered. Espeon fired a blast of shadowy energy at Kadabra, knocking it back. "Now, use Psyshock and finish this!" Wes ordered. Espeon's head gem glowed, and the Pokemon fired a blast of energy straight at Kadabra, knocking it out.

Reece retrieved the Pokemon. He pulled out his last Pokemon. "Let's do this..." he said. "Old friend." he threw the Pokeball. "Go, Pupitar!" he yelled.

The Pokeball hit the ground, and the Pupae Pokemon popped out. "Sandstorm!" Reece yelled. Pupitar spun around, and a snadstorm brewed. Wes was unconcerned. "Use Psyshock." he ordered. Espeon fired a blast of Psychic energy at Pupitar, but the attack barely did damage.

"Dark Pulse!" Reece commanded. Pupitar shot a powerful dark aura at Espeon, managing to wound it. "Rock Slide!" Reece then ordered.

Pupitar made several rocks fall down onto Espeon, causing visible bruises. Espeon charged back behind Pupitar "Use Psyshock!" Wes yelled. Espeon fire more blasts of energy at Pupitar, causing it to yelp in pain. "Dark Pulse!" Reece retaliated.

Pupitar spun around, firing a blast of dark power at Espeon. The blustering sandy winds added more damage to the Pokemon. Reece grit his teeth. He hadn't much time left. "Use Hyper Beam!" Reece shouted. Pupitar fired an enourmous blast of energy at Espeon, knocking it back.

"Psyshock!" Wes yelled. Espeon fired another beam of Psychic Power to Pupitar, knocking it into the sky. It then uses its pressure abilities to stop itself and hover in midair. "Rock Slide!" Reece commanded. The Hard Shell Pokemon slammed down on Espeon with great crushing force, knocking it out.

Wes retrieved the Pokemon. Reece had improved a ton in the past few weeks. However, that was not of his concern. He plucked another Pokeball of his belt, and was about to throw it, but then, something happened.

"Yo! Reece!"

Reece looked over. He saw a familiar blond haired male run towards him. He looked at Wes. "Who's he?" he asked.

Wes looked Primeape-gets-ricecake-stolen annoyed. "God Damn it!" he yelled. "Are those people at the roadblock even doing there job?!"

"Pretty much no." Reece and Matt said simultaneously.

Wes sighed. "Are there any others?" he asked.

"My sister and Reece's friend Hanzo." Matt replied. "They should be here in a bit." he said. He looked to Reece. "Shouldn't you be chasing a Charizard?"

"Long story." Reece said.

At that moment, Hanzo and Kara ran up, with Kara panting. She fell on her knees, and Hanzo helped her up. "God god you two!" she shouted to Reece and Matt. "How do you two have so much energy."

Wes facepalmed,  "Screw this." he said, and looked to Reece. "Change of plans Reece." he said. "You and your friends are coming with us."

Matt immediately defied this. "Why should we?"

"I'll tell you." Wes said. "But we need to start running."

Hanzo had no problem. Kara stood up. "More running?" she said. "This Charizard better be worth it."

"Heal up Reece." Wes told the boy.

Chapter 54: DTRDF
"It's quite simple." Wes said. He, Reece, Matt, Kara, and Hanzo were now running full speed through the still charred forest. "Me, my girlfriend Rui, our friend Michael, and a mercenary named Blake make up a small makeshift force called the DTRDF."

"DTRDF?" Reece asked.

"Delta Threat Response Defense Force." Wes explained. "A bunch of powerful, resourceful trainers hired by the government to hunt down, capture, and occaisonally destroy certain Pokemon and other threats." he continued. "We have all been hired to capture this Charizard by the Delta national Government."

"Why?" Kara asked. "Why send a bunch of trainers to hunt down a Pokemon? Sure, it set the forest on fire, but that happens all the time!"

"Because." Wes said. "This Charizard isn't a normal Pokemon." he stated.

"I can guess you're not talking about how it's Shiny and such." Hanzo added. The boy was currently questioning why the hell he was doing this, other than to 'save' Reece.

"It's called a Shadow Pokemon." Wes said, his voice trailing off when he got to the end. "They are Pokemon who's heart and soul have been closed and twisted to turn them into mindless killing machines."

"That's horrible!" Matt exclaimed in disgust. "Who would such a thing?"

"Cipher." Wes said in a dark tone. "They were a criminal organization who terrorized the Orre Region five years ago until their head was hunted down. They made 51 Shadow Pokemon the first time. At that time, I had to resort to snagging them all from Cipher."

"Snagging?" Matt asked.

"The proccess of stealing another Person's Pokemon using a device called the Snag Machine." he asked. "And before you yelled at me that's unethical, it was better than what Cipher was doing."

"I can see that." Reece told the older trainer. "Pokemon need to be treated with love, no matter what."

Wes continued with his story. "There were three Snag Machine Models made." he explained. "Large bulky ones that converted Pokeballs into Snag Balls internally. These were too inneficient, so a second, smaller one that was capable of being worn on someone's arm, and finally, five years later, Professor Krane and another researcher made one."

"The one made five years later was used to capture the addional 83 mass produced by Cipher. After that we thought it was all over, but..." he trailed off.

"But what?" Hanzo asked bluntly.

"We kept getting small reports of Shadow Pokemon around Orre and other Regions." he said. "Even Rui claimed ot see one once. Then, we found an abandonded Cipher Lab." he said, shuddering. "The building was almost completey destroyed, but we managed to find a few things, including records for several Shadow Pokemon. Some found were a Lucario, a Lopunny, a Flygon and..."

Reece cut him off. "An Aggron?!" he asked. "Wasn't Team Abyss using a weird Aggron?"

Wes's eyes grew wide. "WHAT?" he asked. "Why didn't you tell anyone that the local terrorist group was using Shadow Pokemon?"

"Likely cause we didn't know." Kara retorted. "How far till we reach the others?" she then asked. "My feet are freaking killing me!"

Wes sweatdropped. "Not too far now." he explained. "I'm sure we're moving faster than them." he said.

"Wes." Reece asked. "That Shadow Aggron, it used an attack called 'Shadow Rush', that seemed to be Super Effective against all my Pokemon." Reece explained. "What was that?"

"Shadow Rush." Wes said. "Is one of the three sure signs that a Pokemon is a Shadow Pokemon. Shadow Moves are Super Effective against all other types of Pokemon but Shadow itself."

"Whoa..." Reece thought. If he could catch this Charizard, nothing would stand in his way! The thought only fueled his desire to catch it.

"There they are!" Wes yelled.

Up ahead were Rui, Blake, and Michael. As they heard Wes's voice, they stopped and turned around. Blake crossed his arms. "You took your sweet @$$ time getting here." he huffed.

"Well, long story, and change of plans." Wes explained. "We're taking these kids with us."

"What?" Blake asked angrily.

"These kids have a lot of skill." Wes responded. "And I mean a lot."

"I turst your judgement Wes." Rui agreed. "This time at least..."

"Excuse me, but where is that Charizard?" Reece asked. "I want to catch it!"

"Did you tell him yet Wes?" Michael asked.

"Tell me what?" Reece responded.

Wes sighed, and turned around. "Reece..." he said. "As much as you want to catch this Pokemon, I don't even know if you can." he said. Reece's eyes grew wide with shock. "Why?" he asked.

"It hasn't been tested whether a wild Shadow Pokemon can be caught in a regular Pokeball." Michael answered. "Me and Wes have our Snag Machine's here."

"You have the Snag Machines?" Matt asked angrily. "And you didn't tell us?"

"I don't think you ever asked." Hanzo interrupted.

Wes smiled. "Hanzo has it."

"Aren't we forgetting about our mission by wasting all this time talking?" Blake asked cynically. "I'm getting paid ya know, and It's not to stand around talking, it's to subdue a raging wild Charizard." he said, tossing a Pokeball up in down in his hand.

Kara's hair started to tingle. This time, she felt a specific pain in her roots that made it feel as if her hair was on fire. "Guys!" she yelled. "There's something nearby!"

"Raaaaa-gggggh!"

The entire team of eight looked to the side, and then they saw it: It was large, black as night, and sparking. The body was like a dragon's with visible wings giving it flight, and a long, flame tipped tail.

Then, there was the eyes. The eyes were as red as fire, and stared at the team with a primal, bloodthirsty desire and murderous intent.

Only visible to Kara, Rui, and Michael was a Shadowy Aura around it. The Pokemon roared again, and then diven down, landing like an Earthquake.

Hanzo and Blake wasted no time throwing a Pokeball.

"Go, Sneasel!"

"Go, Charizard!"

The two Powerful Pokemon emerged from their Pokeballs. Like a Charizard would, it went for the strongest foe first. The black dragon rushed forward with extreme force, smashing into Blake's Charizard, and knocking it back.

"Charizard, use Thunderpunch!" Blake ordered. Blake's normal Charizard electrified it's fist, and struck Charizard in the side with it. However, the Shiny Shadow Pokemon then repsonded by clawing and smashing at it's foe, paining it even more.

"Sneasel, Reflect!" Hanzo ordered. Sneasel put her arms forward, and a purple barrier appeared over her and Blake's Charizard.

Reece then joined the fight. "Go, Shelgon!" he yelled. Reece threw the Great Ball, and the Endurance Pokemon popped out. "Hydro Pump!" Reece ordered.

Shelgon fired a hyper pressurized blast of water at the wild Charizard, and it looked like it would. However, the pokemon looked over, and fired an enourmous blast of white hot flames straight at the water, turning it ot superheated steam. The intense blast of flames then nearly scorched both Blake's Charizard and Sneasel, along with the entrie group of people fighting this Shadow Pokemon.

Wes and Michael used that moment ot send in their Pokemon.

"Go, Feraligatr!" Wes shouted. He threw his Pokeball, and out came the Gator Pokemon. It roared, and stood to face Charizard.

"Go, Salamence!" Michael shouted. The Dragon/Flying type emerged from it's Pokeball, and roared into the sky.

"Rain Dance!" Wes shouted. Feraligatr roared, and a deluge of rain started to pour down. Wes smirked at this. Michael then took initiative. "Use Dragon Claw Salamance!"

The Dragon Pokemon roared and charged forward covered in blue flames, slicing and dicing at Charizard with it's claws. Reece followed this up. "Dragon Dance Shelgon!" he yelled. The Endurance Pokemon had seven orbs of royal blue energy surround it, then disperse.

"Sneasel, Ice Punch!" Hanzo yelled. The Weasel Pokemon charged forward and smashed the back of the Shadow Charizard's head.

The wild Charizard howled in pain, then fired a pulse of energy straight at Shelgon, which caused and explosion of energy that also hit Salamence and Feraligatr. The Pokemon then roared, and formed a ball as bright as the sun in it's mouth. "It's using Sunny Day!" Matt shouted, before throwing a Pokeball. "Go, Fraxure!" he yelled.

Kara threw a Pokeball too. "Get 'em Machina!"

The two powerful Pokemon landed on the ground, and roared, just as the sky lit up like it was day. The Charizard then fired a beam of light energy out of it's mouth at Feraligatr, knocking it out instantly. The Pokemon then formed a blast of flames in it's mouth.

"Quick, Stop it!" Wes shouted to the others. The sound of the flames was audible, and the air around the wild Charizard seemed to boil at its intense heat. "Use Dragonbreath!" Reece ordered.

"Use Flamethrower!" Blake yelled.

"Use Draco Meteor!" Matt yelled.

"Use Dark Pulse Machina!" Kara screamed.

"Use Stone Edge Salamence!" Michael ordered.

"Blast it with Blizzard!" Hanzo commanded.

The team of Pokemon's attacks all headed to the Shiny Shadow Charizard. However, the Pokemon retaliated with the attack. A collosal blast of flames burst forth from it's mouth, and tore threw all the other attacks like a plasma cutter threw butter. The result as the burst of flame hit the ground was a mushroom cloud explosion that's resulting shocwaves could be felt all the way across the Lake Path.

"Gah!" Reece screamed in pain as he hit the deck, just saving him from some of the intense flames. Even the combined force of seven powerful trainers couldn't stop this beast! Naturally, Reece was more inclined than ever to catch it. He pulled out an empty Ultraball. Slowly, the Pokemon above him descended down, sprouting flames at the nearby forests.

Reece threw the ball. It hit the Charizard, but instead of sucking it in, it bounced off. Wes was right! He couldn't catch this Pokemon with a regular Pokeball!

Michael himself had a similar idea. The Pokeball in his glowed in the snag machine on his left arm. He threw the Ultraball, and it flew towards the Charizard. However, the rampaging Lizard Pokemon destroyed it with a swipe of his claws.

"Damn it!" Wes shouted. "It's resisting capture!" he yelled. At that moment, the Pokmon charged forward, covered in a Shadowy Aura and attacked Wes, launching him against a tree, where he promptly fell over. "Wes!" Rui called out in horror.

The wild Charizard then spouted more flames everywhere, causing blasts of fire to fall everywhere. Blake and his Charizard took cover. Seeing this, the enemy one slammed itself into Blake's, nearly crushing the trainer and knocking out the Pokemon.

Blake decided that playing dead would be the safest option, and did so. The Shadow Charizard then started to rip and tear at Blake's. In Anger, the boy hit a Pokeball on the ground, and out came a Gyarados.

"Gyara-d-dos!" the Atrocious Pokemon bellowed.

Blake did both in quick succession. "Gyarados, use Surf!" he yelled as he retrieved his Charizard and leapt to the side.

The giant Water flying Pokemon created a massive wave of water which blew away most of the flaming trees, but to no avail: Charizard dodged by taking to the sky, and then fired a Solarbeam at Gyarados, knocking it out. "DAMN IT!" Blake screamed.

Reece was about throw another Pokeball before a blast of dark energy hit Charizard. He looked around, then saw it. As the artificial sun created by the Charizard dissapeared, Reece saw shadowy figures. Leading them was a dark clad man, petting a Houndoom.

"Team Abyss!"

"Greetings Reece." Shuraudo said. "Team Abyss! Attack!" he then commanded. The army of grunts behind him then sent out a wide array of Dark, Poison, and Ghost Type Pokemon. At that moment, total chaos broke out as the only audible thing was the sounds of attacks being commanded, attacks being launched, and screams of pain and destruction. The Black Dragon which had just become the center of a massive conflict fired an explosive blast of flame at Team Abyss, knocking out multiple of their Pokemon.

Reece watched as his Shelgon came over to him. He knew what was to come next. And god, he was really p***ed he was right. He went over to Matt, woh happened to be closest to him. "Matt!" he yelled. "We can't let Team Abyss get their hands on that Charizard!"

The blonde looked to him. "What's with you and being right lately?" he asked. He then turned to the battlefield. "Fraxure!" he called. "Get the hell over here!"

Out of the mass of flaming trees, something ripped through the rubble and jumped up, landing in front of Matt. "Yeesh." Reece said. "That was impressive."

"And yet still I can't beat you." Matt muttered. "****ing ridiculous." he then turned to Reece. "What's your plan?" he asked impatiently. Reece smirked. "We need to strike a balance between taking on Team Abyss, and fighting that Charizard." he said. "I have no doubt the two of us can kick the admins @$$es."

"And what about Shuraudo?" Matt asked. "And more importantly, what about Kara nad the others?" he asked, an unnerved look sapnning his face.

"They can take care of themselves..." Reece said, looking down. "We can't worry about the others..." his fist clenched. "As much as we both want to..."

Matt looked to Team Abyss. "Found the admins." he said, pointing to three people in front of Shuraudo. "That's them." Reece said. "Attack Raigen's Pokemon first." he said, pointing to the Shadow Flygon.

Matt cracked his knuckles. "Peice of Cake." he said. "Fraxure, use Dragon Claw!" matt shouted. Fraxure surrounded itself in black anf blue flame swirls, and then charged towards Raigen's Flygon. The pokemon slashed it's foe across the stomach, and brought it down. Raigen looked over.

"Are you s***ting me?" he asked.

Nightla looked over. "Great." she spat. "Those brats."

"Call us what you want, but I'm not letting you ****ed up psycho terrorist beat me!" Reece declared. "I've never lost to you idiots or team Luminious, nd I'm not letting you get that Charizard! Do you understand that!" he firmly planted his feet, and looked directly into the eyes of the two admins.

"Aggron! Attack!" Nightla yelled. "Shadow Rush!"

The Aggron charged for Reece, and the boy repsonded. "Shelgon, Brick Break!" Reece commanded. The Pokemon jumped up and slammed it's legs down on Aggron. The Pokemno was knocked to the side. Matt turned his attention to his Pokemon.

"Fraxure, use Shadow Claw!" Matt ordered. Fraxure covered it's hands in ghostly energy, and sliced right at Flygon. "Shadow Rush!" Raigen ordered. Flygon slammed right into Fraxure, but the Pokemon seemed undeterred.

"Hydro Pump!" Reece commanded. Shelgon fired a blast of pressurized water at Aggron. The Shadow Pokemon was blasted back, and fell over. Reece then kept attacking. "Brick Break!" the boy ordered.

With Matt, things were going just as well. "Fraxure, strike with X-Scissor!" Matt screamed. Axew slashed at his opponent twice in a way that looked like a bunch of X's. Raigen grit his teeth. "Use Fissure!" he yelled.

"Counter with Dragon Claw!"

Fraxure charged forward and sliced right through Flygon's flesh like butter, knocking it a good distance away. Reece himself had similar luck. "Zen Headbutt!"

Shelgon charged forward and crashed into Aggron, knocking it over, causing flinching. Matt looked to Reece. "This is good." he said quickly.

"Yeah." Reece replied. But it ain't over yet..." The two boys were back to back, by a cliff at this point to avoid the attacks. It was also at this moment that it also happened...

A flash of light rang out. It was a very bright flash. So bright, it outshone what the sun dreamt to achieve. It seemd as of that moment all the chaos in the are was put down by order generated fear. Even Charizard stopped it's rampage, simply flapping in the night sky.

Reece looked over. Standing a top the cliff, acting as if a symbol of hope and light (More like Despair and Light, but you already knowe that) was Solaris. Behind him, were Arabella, who had visble blood coming out of her ears, and Sparks. The old man kept his deadly glare, and only looked to Reece for half a second.

"We the Holy Team Luminious have arrived to destroy this hellspawn." Solaris declared. "A Pokemon darkened by the sins of man and twisted and torn can only see repentance by death!"

"I won't let you do that!" Reece yelled from under the cliff. Solaris kept his eyes on the Charizard. "Sparks, martyr them." he ordered.

The old man threw a Pokeball, and out came his Arcanine. Reece's Shelgon and Matt's Fraxure both rushed to their Trainer's sides.

"Arcanine, Destroy this part of the cliff!" Sparks yelled. Before Reece and Matt could react, the Legendary Pokemon slammed it's legs down, and the cliff collapsed under it's mighty force. What exactly happened after that is unknown to Reece and Matt, as the rubble then smothered them.

Darker...Darker...Darker...

Chapter 55: Sorta Deus Ex Machina
Meh. Not at all really.

Both Reece and Matt cried out on horror as a torrent of rocks rained down on them. The boys were then encapsulated in a dusty darkness. Everything seemed to blank out. Out of the corner of his eye, Reece saw something. Everything around him was burning.

"The second vision...."

Darkness then swallowed him. He felt many scrapes, bruises, and pains. He felt everything slipping. There was a painful pressure on his left foot. That was the only thing reminding him he was still alive.

"Reece?" Reece heard a quiet voice whisper. "Please tell me you're not dead."

"I'm not sure..." he said.

"Works for me."

Reece reached for his pocket, and pulled out his Battle Scanner. He turned it on, and for the first few seconds, wish he hadn't. His hands and face were covered in blood. He looked around, to see that Matt wasn't much better. He had blood staining his blond hair, and his shirt was torn in many places where blood was starting to pool.

"I know it looks bad." Matt said. "But I'll be okay."

Reece looked around frantically. He then saw Shelgon buried under a crap ton of rubble. The Pokemon looke like it was in tremendous pain. Reece got a Pokeball from his side. "Shelgon...Retreat!" Reece exclaimed, albeit weakly. The Endurance Pokemon was drawn inside the Great Ball.

Reece gulped. "How the hell are we gonna get out of here?"

Matt spat a bit of blood to the side. "Normally, I'd have Haunter phaze us both out in this situation." he said. "But I'm not going out there just to get torn apart."

"Then what do we do?" Reece asked.

"Reece, what Pokemon do you have with you right now?" Matt asked.

"Pupitar, Grovyle, Kadabra, Scyther, Typhlosion, and Shelgon." he said. Matt grinned, then stopped. "God, it hurts to smile..." he said. He then cracked his neck. "Much better."

"Please tell me you have an idea."

"Ya." Matt replied. "We need some excess firepower, and I know how to get it."

Reece's eyes widened. "How?"

Matt, visibly struggling, pulled a metallic looking jar out of his backpack. "Give this to your Scyther." he said. "Trust me."

Reece looked at the container. "What is this?" he asked.

"It's a Metal Coat." he said. "It allows Scyther to evolve into Scizor."

Reece plucked Sycther's Pokeball off his belt. "Remember Reece." Matt squeaked, pain cutting his off at the end. "You just need to..." he coughed more blood. "Give it to your Pokemon." he said. Reece put the Metal Coat inside the Pokeball.

"Now what?"

"Trade my your Scyther and Kadabra." Matt explained.

"What?!" Reece exclaimed loudly, then coughed.

Matt looked at him nervously. "Listen, it's not ideal..." he said. "But I need to trade my Pokemon with you for a minute or so." the blond explained. "So we can evolve them."

Reece impulsively wiped some of the blood from his hair. "Well, if I do evolve Kadabra, I bet It'll help the mistranslations we get from telepathy."

"You two?" he asked. "Me and Haunter have those all the time."

The two trainers would have laughed if it wasn't so painful to do so.

Reece pulled Kadabra's Pokeball from his belt. "Let's do this quickly." he said. "I REALLY want that Charizard."

"So do I." Matt said, clutching his chest.

Reece and Matt set up the trade function on their Battle Scanner. They both registered the Pokemon the wanted to trade, connected with the other scanner. Weakly, the both tapped the "Trade" button on their screens.

A brillaint flash of light rang out, as the two Pokeballs glowed. The two then repeated the steps, and then did so again with Matt's Excadrill and Reece's Kadabra. The traded back once again.

Reece opened up his Pokedex. He had 5 new entries: Haunter, Gengar, Excadrill, Scizor, and Alakazam.

Scizor

Scissors Pokemon

Height: 5'11 / 1'8 M

Weight: 260.1 LB / 118.0 KG

''Scizor is a powerful Pokemon with steel like defenses and a immense physical strength. It's wings have slight flight capacity, but are mostly used to help regulate body tempature. ''

Haunter

Gas Pokemon

Height: 5'03 / 1.6 M

Weight: 0.2 LB / 0.1 KG

''May people think Haunter is from another dimension due to it's ability to move through walls and it's terrorfying ability to lick someone and cause them to shake until their death. It is one of the lightest Pokemon in existence. ''

Gengar

Shadow Pokemon

Height: 4'11 / 1.5 M

Weight: 89.3 LB / 40.5 KG

''Gengar move through Shadows at extreme speeds. They are playful, and enjoy scaring prey. They chill the air around them by 10 F. ''

Excadrill

Subterrene Pokemon

Height: 2'05 / 0.7 M

Weight: 89.1 LB / 40.4

''These Pokemon live around 300 feet below the surface. They can bore through thick steel plates with great ease. They build mazelike nests that mess up Subway tunnel construction.''

Alakazam

Psi Pokemon

Height: 4'11 / 1.5 M

Weight: 105.8 LB / 48.0 KG

''Due to their brain cells dividing nonstop, Alakazam have an ultra powerful Eidetic Memory. They literally remember every single detail they experience from birth. Their brains surpass a supercomputer by far. However, they rely on Psychic Power to even move. ''

"Done reading that?" Matt asked. "We have places to be, @$$es to kick." the blond started tapping his foot.

"Yeah." Reece said. "Have Gengar get us out of here." he said.

"Are you at least gonna improve your Pokemon's techniques first?" he asked. "They did just evolve."

Reece looked at his two new Pokemon. "Give me a minute."

"A minute."

Reece looked over his Pokemon and the list of TM's he had. He then smiled, and took the next minute to improve Alakazam and Scizor's movesets. "Okay." he said at the end. "Matt, get us out of here."

"With pleasure." he replied. "Go, Gengar!" he yelled, dropping a Pokeball on the ground that opened up and out came the Ghost/Poison type.

"Gengar, get us out of here and to a safe location." he said.

Gengar nodded, and then dissolved into the shadow's of the two trainers. Matt and Reece then became intangible, and were dragged through at least twenty feet of rubble.

Outside was not so much better...

Reece and Matt were immediately met with fire. LOTS of Fire. "Jeeze." Reece said. "Is that REALLY Necessary."

"Gengar says this is the safest spot." Matt said. "Well, at least turning intangible nulled most of the pain." he looked over to Reece. "Want to use Alakazam to get us the hell out of here and to the action?"

Reece threw the Pokeball. "Go! Alakazam!" Reece yelled. The Pokeball bounced on the ground and opened up, revealing the Psi Pokemon.

"Greetings Reece." it said telepathically.

"Yo." Reece replied. "Quick, can you teleport us to around were Charizard is?" he asked, getting straight to the point. "I'll try..." Alakazam replied. He then closed his eyes, and the Pokemon used its psychic powers to find a suitable location.

"Reece, Matt..." it said telepathically.

The two boys looked to the Psychic Type.

"Kara and the others are still alive." he said. "However, they are rather scattered. Michael is the closest, and is in the safest spot. I can telport you there, but you'll have to fight off Team Luminious's Admins as soon as you do. I suggest you make your descion post h--"

"Do it." Reece said.

Alakazam teleported them to said location. With the power he now had, he could teleport his trainer without the use of the move.

Michael stood toe to toe with the three very poweful trainers in front of him. The red head had always been in single or double battles. Never a triple battle. Ever. Now, he had quite a bit at stake. They wanted to outright destroy a Pokemon he was trying to save, and he wasn't sure this time if he could win.

At that very moment, two bright flashes of light appeared at his sides. The boy looked around to see Reece and Matt at his sides. The two boys did quick looks around to see a flaming shape flying away, lots of fire, and three Luminious Admins.

"Glad to see you two!" He said.

"Glad you're happy to see us." Reece replied. He then looked to the three admins in front of him. "Let's see, Sparks, Arabella, and..."

The third admin, a young man with brown hair, spoke up. "My name is Matheaus, infidel." he told Reece and Matt. Reece just gave him an unamused look. "Okay, and Matheaus."

"Disrespectful Infedel."

Reece pulled two Pokeballs of his belt. So did Matt and Michael. "Can we skip the 'Unfezentries' and get to kicking your @$$es?" Matt asked, smiling at his own abomination of a pun.

"Matt, that pun was terrible." Reece said.

"I know." he said, looking down.

"Stop with this foolishness infidels!" Arabella shouted. She then held her ear in pain. It still seemed to be injured from Grovyle's Leaf Blade. Reece took note of that. He smirked. "If you so wish." he said. He looked to his two teamates. He and Sparks were on the left side, Matt and Mattheaus were on the right, and Michael and Arabella claimed the center. Probably best though.

"Yup." Matt replied.

"I'd love to get on with this." Michael said, cracking his knuckles.

All three trainers threw a Pokeball. Reece sent out Alakazam (who had taken the liberty to go inside his Pokeball mid teleport), Matt sent out Gengar, and Michael sent out Electivire (Remember Zaprong? I sure do!).

The three admins sent out equally terrifying Pokemon. Sparks sent out Poliwrath, Arabella sent out Medicham, and Mattheaus sent out Marowak.

"Alakazam!" Reece ordered. "Strike Poliwrath with Psychic!" The Psi Pokemon blasted twin beams of energy straight at Poliwrath from it's spoons. The Fighting Type was thrown back in pain.

"Gengar, use Energy Ball on Marowak!" Matt commanded. Gengar formed a blast of life energy in his hands and directed it right towards Marowak. "Marowak, bat it away with Bonemerang!" he screeched. Marowak threw the Thick Club in his hand at the energy ball, which caused it to rebound at Gengar. The Pokemon dodged with a swift jump.

Marowak caught the Bone and threw it again, and Gengar dodged in the same fashion. However, this time, it moved right to Marowak's shadow and blasted it with energy ball.

"Zaprong, use Thunderbolt on Poliwrath!" Michael ordered. Zaprong fired three bolts of electrical power at Poliwrath; Two from it's tails, and one from it's hands. The Water/Fighting Type did not take the blast well, and fell victim to paralysis.

"Medicham, use Psyshock on Gengar!" Arabella shouted. Medicham created a ball of energy and fired it at Genger. The Pokemon split itself in half, the refused, allowing the attack to just pass through it. Reece attracked next. "Alakazam, Psychic again!" he yelled. Alakazam fired another blast of psychic power at Poliwrath, knokcing it out. Sparks retrieved the Pokemon, and threw another pokeball, contianing Arcanine.

"Attack Marowak with Ice Punch Zaprong!" Michael yelled. The Electivire shot forward, and smashed Marowak with a cold energy covered fist. The Pokemon then was thrown out of the battlefield and into the surrounding on fire forest.

"Gengar, take care of Medicham! Use Shadow Ball!" Matt commaned. Gengar put his hands forward and gather a bunch of shadows into a spherical shape. He then launched it at Medicham, and the Fighting/Psychic type fell over like a dead tree.

Arabella retrieved the Pokemon, and sent out another. "Smite thy foe! Zebstrika!" she screamed, before bending and vomiting up blood.

Reece was now actually concerned. "Arabella!" he shouted. "You're hurt! You can't continue!" he pleaded. The woman looked at him. "Zebstrika! Flame Charge!" she screamed. Zebstrika charged towards Alakazam covered in fire, and collided at top speed.

Critical Hit!

Alakazam fell back, unconscious, and Reece retrieved it. "Hmph." he grabbed the other Pokemon he'd brought into this battle. "Go, Scizor!" he yelled. The Scissors Pokemon appeared in a flash of light, and started to quickly move around. "Scizor, use Swords Dance!" Reece called out. The crimson skinned Pokemon was then surrounded by illusory swords.

"Arcanine! Use Fire Blast!" Sparks ordered. Reece kept on his toes. "Scizor, dodge!" he yelled. His Pokemon quickly jumped into the air, and dived down straight at Acanine. "Wing Attack!" Reece yelled. Scizor's wings were covered in twisters, and the Pokemon collided with the Fire Dog, knocking it on its side.

"Gengar, use Focus Blast on Marowak!" Matt yelled. Gengar popped up from a shadow and blasted the forest area Marowak disappeared into with a ki explosion. There was a huge burst of light, followed by a crater with a Marowak in the middle.

Mattheaus retrieved Marowak, and then pulled another Pokeball. "I call on thee, creature of righteousness! Gallade!" he declared, and threw out his second Pokemon. The Gallade came to battle, and its two arm blades extended.

"Zaprong!" Michael shouted. "Use Cross Chop on Zebstrika!"

The Electivire looked to the Lightning Zebra. He ran forward, and sliced at the Pokemon with his two fists, knocking it back. "Flame Charge!" Arabella screamed. Zebstrika reared it's hooves, and Michael took that second to finish it. "Ice Punch!"

Electivire smashed Zebstrika with an icy fist, knocking it on it's back and unconscious. Michael smiled. As for the others...

"Arcanine, Overheat!" Sparks yelled. The old man knew fully he was going to lose this battle, and decided the best thing to do would be to bide some time. His Arcanine charged a blast of flames in his mouth, ready to strike Scizor and turn it into a crisp.

"Scizor, move to the right!" Reece yelled. He had a crazy idea that may just work. Overheat was the perfect attack to pull it off with too.

"Gengar, use Shadow Ball!" Matt yelled. Gengar formed a ball of Shadows in it's hands, and laugnched it straight for its Psychic/Fighting foe. The attack hit, doing moderate damage.

"Electivire, use Fire Punch!" Michael yelled. Electivire lunged forward and smashed the Pokemon with a flaming fist. The Gallade managed to parry with a Psycho Cut however, and blast Electivire back. At that moment, Reece put his plan into action.

"Overheat!" Sparks commanded. Arcanine fired a blast of fire at Scizor, which threatened to burn it alive unless the Pokemon dodged. And Reece ordered just that. "Dodge to the side!"

Scizor jumped to the side, and the Overheat blast kept going, and going until it hit another target.

"Gallade!" Mattheaus shouted as his Pokemon was blasted by Overheat. The Pokemon fell down, fainted. Reece then finshed it all up. "Scizor, finish it with Wing Attack!" the boy yelled. Scizor charged to Arcanine at high speeds, leaving a painful gash on it's side. The Fire Type fell over, and Sparks retrieved it.

"Arabella, now would be a good time for a strategic retreat." the old man said.

Arabella dropped a Pokeball, and out popped and Abra. "Teleport!" she shouted. Before Reece's Scizor could destroy Abra with Bug Bite, they were already gone.

At another location, separated from Reece, Matt and Michael by a sea of flaming trees, was Blake, Wes, and Hanzo. Also, notably, was the Shiny Charizard that the three were trying to catch.

"Starmie, use Thunderbolt!" Hanzo ordered. The Star Shape Pokemon spun it's back section around, and fired multiple blasts of lightning at a swift moving Charizard. The Pokemon dodged every beam, and then fired a blast of light energy straight at Starmie, knocking it out.

"Obsidian, use Rock Wrecker!" Blake yelled. A Rhyperior covered it's fist in bladed stones, and charged forward with great force, making the ground shake. However, the Charizard roared back, and rushed at it with equal ferocity levels. The two Pokemon clashed, and the Shadow Charizard knocked Obsidian away.

At that moment however, a glowing Pokeball flew through the air, and hit almost hit Charizard, but the Pokemon turned flew to side just in time.

"Damn it!" Wes yelled. "It's too fast."

"I'll fix that." Blake said, then threw another Pokeball. "Go, Jolteon!" he yelled. The ball landed on the ground, and out came Jolteon. "Thunder Wave!"

The Electric Pokemon loosed a blast of electricity that flew into the sky, and turned into many showers of sparks. However, somehow, Charizard was more than able to dodge each and every one of these hits, much to Blake's dismay.

The Pokemon then blasted baleful bursts of burning flames all over the area. Wes, Hanzo, and Blake just barely managed to avoid being torched alive.

Hanzo whistled, and out of the sky came a Skarmory. "Hop on!" he yelled to his two comrades. As the bird swooped down, the three trainers latched on to it, as it went high above the flames.

"We won't catch Charizard this way..." Hanzo said with a bit of unnerve. "But we will be able to get out of danger."

As Skarmory went over (currently and most likely to be destroyed later) untouched forest. At this point, catching up to Charizard might be impossible without difficulty. The three got moving, with Skarmory waiting overhead. As the three powerful trainers moved across the dark forest, they all felt an uncharacteristic sense of unnerve. This sense kept growing, until Hanzo responded. "Wes! Look out!"

Wes ducked to the ground just in time to avoid a Dark Pulse attack. The three trainers looked to the side of them, and saw the three Abyss Admins.

Raiden stepped out of the shadows at high speed, and blocked their paths. "Don't bother trying to pass." he said. "We've made sure you won't."

Blake used the second long distraction to use a revival item he had gotten from a young redhead earlier on his Charizard.

"Is that a challenge?" Hanzo asked. "I'm in the mood for a challenge." he said smiling.

Nightla and Sajiko jumped from the Shadows to reinforce Raigen. The three pulled two Pokeballs from their belt, but wes stopped them.

"One Pokemon each." he said. "We're all in a hurry."

"I think we can agree." Raigen said. With the power of their Shadow Pokemon, the chances they'd win would be greatly increased. Each Trainer drew a Pokeball.

Deeper in the forest, nearly by the end of the Lake Path, Kara and Rui were by a large pond. Both females have suffered minor burns, which was painful enough added to the exertion needed to get that far. Rui looked to Kara. "Kara, I need you to answer something for me..." she said.

The girl looked over. "Yeah?" she asked.

"Can you really see the aura of that Charizard?" she asked. Kara nodded. "I'm guessing it's not a natural ability." she added.

"Not at all." Rui replied. "You might have some psychic power."

Kara's eyes widened. "That would be awesome!" she exclaimed. However, her very short lived joy was destroyed by the fact that many snapping a tree and flames could be heard.

"That Charizard's coming!" Kara yelled. Rui looked around. "No where to hide."

Kara grabbed the woman's arms and dove straight into the pond. With Kara's luck, they'd hide no problem (albeit, it was all but pleasent). Kara looked through the water's surface, now illuminated with orange lights. She could feel a very faint noise: Her own heartbeat. If it was possible, she'd be sweating right now.

Seconds ticked to minutes. Minutes seemed to become hours. Then, as quick as it seemed to slow down, time sped up and sharper-than-a-katana set of claws nearly ripped Kara's head off, but a last minute jerk down by Rui stoped this. Both girls went to the surface and gasped.

Kara saw the Shadow Pokemon returning for a second wind. Kara pulled a Pokeball off her belt. She had to do this.

She threw the Pokeball up into the air, and it opened.

Chapter 56: Fire, Extremist Lunatics, and Dark Cults of Darkness
Blake, Wes, and Hanzo stood right to left against Sajiko, Raigen and Nightla respectively. Each of the six trainers threw a Pokeball.

Blake's Charizard, Wes's Meganium, and Hanzo's Sneasel all took to the battlefield. Standing against them were Sajiko's Magmortar, Raigen's Flygon, and finally Nightla's Aggron.

"Sneasel! Reflect!" Hanzo ordered. Sneasel put her hands forward, all three Pokemon on his side got a royal blue aura covering over them. Wes followed this up. "Light Screen!" A gold aura covered the entire team. Raigen grit his teeth. "Shadow Storm!" he yelled. Flygon smashed it's tail on the ground, and a shadowy whirlwind arced out and blasted the three opposing Pokemon.

"Shadow Pokemon!" Wes thought.

"Charizard! Use Acrobatics on Magmortar!" Blake commanded. The Fire/Flying Type jumped into the air, and smashed Magmortar with a swift soumersalt.

"Aggron! Use Dragon Claw on that little rodent!" Nightla ordered. Aggron charged for Sneasel and tried to swipe the little Pokemon with it's claws, but the Dark/Ice type dodged with ease. "Metal Claw!" Hanzo ordered. Sneasel responded with two quick slashes to Aggron's hide.

"Meganium, Ancientpower on Magmortar!" Wes yelled. The grass type raised the rocks around it, each glowing with prehistoric energy, and launched them at Magmortar.

"Charizard, use Thunderpunch on Magmortar!" Blake yelled. The not Shadow Pokemon spread it's wingeds and dashed forward, fist crackling with electrical power. The Flame Lizard collided, knocking the blast pokemon over. Magmortar then crackled with electricty, signifying it was paralyzed. Wes then took that moment. He took an Ultraball out of his pocket, and held it in the mini Snag Machine on his arm.

The ball glowed with light, and Wes threw it at Magmortar. To the shock of Raigen, Nightla, and Sajiko, the Pokemon was engulfed in the Pokeball.

One Shake

Two Shakes

Three Shakes

CLICK!

Wes smiled as the Pokeball flew back to him. "One down, two to go."

The three admins were about to run, but Blake had planned for that. "Don't try running!" he said. He threw two Pokeballs, and out came his Jolteon and a Marowak. "Don't." he then smirked.

"Sneasel, Blizzard!" Hanzo shouted. Sneasel fired off a blast of icy wind straight at both Aggron and Flygon, dmaging them both. Wes grabbed another Ultraball. It glowed in the Snag Machine, and threw it at Flygon.

One Shake

Two Shakes

Three Shakes

CLICK!

Nighlta now was against three foes. Her Pokemon centered, and he ordered on last attack. "Aggron, Fire Blast!"

Aggron formed a blast of flames in it's mouth, but then something hit the Pokemon and froze it in a massive chink of ice. It fell over, revealing Hanzo's Sneasel. The small Dark/Ice type then moved out of the way as Wes threw a Heavy Ball.

One Shake

Two Shakes

Three Shakes

CLICK!

The three admins watched in horror. "NO!" Raigen shouted. He nearly fell back in shocked and looked like he'd choke on his rage. However, at that moment, a dark vortex opened up beneath them and dragged then through.

"Damn it." Wes cursed. "They got away."

Sneasle jumped onto Hanzo's shoulder. "I don't know about you two, but shouldn't we find the others?" he asked.

Reece, Matt, and Michael ran through the blazing forest. It was rather easy to find a foe that left a trail of pure and undeniable death and destruction in it's path.

"Michael." Matt asked while running. "What happened while we were buried? Is Kara alright?"

Michael's face wrinkled a bit. "Kara and Rui retreated deeper into the path to escape after they both suffered soem burns." Michael said. Matt's face twisted.

"They got it easy." Michael added. "A lot of the Grunts from both sides...they..."

Reece spoke up, hoping to change the subject. "Michael." he said. "If someone from the DTRDF catches Charizard, what's going to happen to it?"

Michael looked over with a smile. "It will be brought back to Orre where it will be studied then purified." he said. "That way, we can prevent that from happening to more Pokemon."

"Good." Reece replied.

At the exact moment he said that word, a bright flash of light appeared right in front of them. All three trainers shielded their eyes. As they managed to peak through, they saw Solaris and his Volcarona in the light. Reece scowled. "You!" he yelled.

"Quiet infidel." he spat. "You have no place talknig to a holy man of the light!"

"You tried to kill tens of thousands of innocent people!" Matt yelled. "And yet you call yourself HOLY? What kind of demented logic is that?!"

Solaris sighed. "Your attempts to poison my mind are tiring." he said. He then looked into the sky. "Holy Warriors of the light, I call on thee!"

Three duller lights appeared behind Solaris. Reece instantly recognized them as the Three Luminious Admins. "Damn it!" Reece though. "We can't beat all four of them!"

"Solaris, you never learn, don't you..."

Reece looked behind him into the now unnaturally murky darkness. Behind him, was Shuraudo and the Three Abyss Admins.

"We've lost a whole legion of Grunts, and three Shadow Pokemon." he said. "I'm not letting you destroy the one you're after."

"You haqve no say in the matter infidel!" Solaris shouted back. "You are merely a pawn of the darkness, who's only repentence is death!"

"We used to be friends..." Shuraudo said, walking forward with his admins. Michael, Matt, and Reece turned to the side. Raigen looked over to them. "You may want to move." he said. "This fight is not going to be pretty."

Reece looked at the others. They both nodded, and the three ran.

Meanwhile, two redheads weren't doing so well...

"Gardevoir!" Kara shouted as her Psychic Type Pokemon was smashed by the Charizard's rampaging claws and hurtled across the lake, only it's powerful psychic abilities keeping it in place.

"Gardevoir, use Thunderbolt!" Kara yelled. Gardevoir generated the bolt in between her hands, and fired it. The Shiny Shadow Charizard responded by firing a massive flame blast straight at the bolt, destroying it.

"F***!" Kara though. "How can I beat this thing if it destroys every attack I throw at it?" she screamed. Rui looked over. "Relax. The others have to be close by." she assured. "We just need to hold it off long enough to have Wes and Michael get here."

"Gardevoir, Psychic!" Kara ordered. The Psychic tpye responded by throwing a ball of Psychic energy at the Fire/Flying Pokemon. The Shiny Pokemon simply responded with a roundhouse kick to the ball, redirecting it at Kara and Rui. The older girl pulled Kara out of the way just in time.

Kara had already lost half her team to this Pokemon's brutal attacks. However, she still had three left. The girl shuddered at the thought of what would happen if she lost. "Gardevoir, fire another Psychic!"

Charizard was making a turn above the water when she said that. Gardevoir fired Psychic in the form of a beam, but to no avail. The Pokemon covered itself in a dark aura, and slammed into Gardevoir, knocking it out. Kara retrieved it before it fell below the water.

"Go, Swampert!" Kara yelled. She sent out the Water/Ground Pokemon, and he took a stand on the water. The Pokemon bellowed its cry. "Surf!" Kara yelled. Swampert raised up the lake's water in an enourmous wave. The wave headed straight for Charizard, but the Pokemon flew up and started to charge a Solar Beam.

"Ice Beam it down here!" Kara screamed. Swampert formed a beam of Cold in his mouth, and shot it right at Charizard. However, the Pokemon immediately countered with Solar Beam and tore through the ice beam like a plasma cutter would. The blast struck Swampert, creatin and explosion of light.

The pokemon then dived down covered in a Shadowy Aura and smashed the Pokemon in the face with Shadow Rush, smashing it back.

Critical Hit!

Swampert fell over. This was it. Kara had Machina left, and that was it. If she didn't succeed here, shew was screwed! She gripped her last Pokeball shakily. "No..." she thought. Her breath became rigid, as her first few days on her journey flshed in her eyes. "It can't end like this! It won't end like this!"

She threw the Pokeball. "Go, Machina!" she yelled. The Illusion Fox Pokemon emerged from her Pokeball, her fur glowing a leery glint in the sun. She landed on the water, floating on it gently. "Machina, use Shadow Claw!" Kara yelled.

Machina charged around in a complex pattern, then sliced at Charizard's wings. The Pokemon fell back, but refused to lose more altitude than necessary. The Pokemon shot a pulse of energy straight at Machina, but the Illusion Pokemon phased out of the way, letting the attack harmlessly pass through her.

THe Shiny Shadow Pokemon did a nose dive down at Machina, covered in a Shadowy aura. Machina braced herself for the deadly attack. "Focus Blast, PBR!" Kara ordered. Machina braced herself as the Charizard charged for her, and slammed into her. But at the same second it did, Machina scorched the Pokemon with a deadly Ki blast at point blank range.

"Machina, use Dark Pulse!" Kara followed. Machina fired a blast of dark energy rings out of it's mouth, and hit Charizard in the face. This enraged the Flame Pokemon, and it proceeded to knock Machina over the side and right next to Kara. As it hit the gorund, Kara felt her Pokemon's pain. Machina pushed herself up, snarling on all fours. "I can still do this!" she yelled.

"Be careful!" Kara yelled back. THe fox Pokemon nodded watching the Pokemon charging at her. "Use Dark Pulse!" Kara yelled. The Illusion Fox Pokemon fired many rings of darkness at the Charizard. The Pokemon glid to the side, and fired a Flamethrower in response.

"Look out!" Rui yelled, before dragging Kara out of the way of the flames. "Thanks..." the trainer managed to speak before ordering her next attack. "Machina, U-Turn!"

Machina lunged foroward and retracted back at high speeds. The Fire/Flying type didn't seemed to be phazed, and Kara ordered another attack. "Dark Pulse!" she yelled.

Machina charged up a pulse of dark energy in it's hand, and the energy started to build up more and more as the Pokemon got closer. "Hold on Machina..." the redhead said through her teeth. As the Pokemon was only half a second away from collsion, Kara made her move as everything slowed down.

"Fire!"

Machina fired her dark pulse in a massive cone shaped blast that enveloped Charizard and knocked it back at least 100 yards. It was blasted through the trees, and every single tree was knocked down by the very force of the Pokemon smashing through it.

Machina fell to her knees. Rui looked over. "Do you think we won?" she asked.

"We didn't..." Kara replied. She then ran in that direction, with Machina and Rui hurrying after. The damage done to the trees was quite impressive: Every tree that wasn't destroyed/set on fire by Charizard being smashed through by Machina's Dark Pulse was nearly impaled to the point of swiss by splinters.

Kara looekd into the zone of destruction she made, and looked straight to Charizard. To her horror, the Pokemon had already recovered.

It then looked straight at Kara and Rui, eyes ablaze. It sparked in an inky black aura. It started his charge of destruction at the trainers and Pokemon.

At that moment, a four brilliant white sparkling spheres collided with Charizard, each exploding in a great, bright similar colored explosion. Charizard and the two girls it was about to scorch looked over. On the other side of the large pond were Matt, his Fraxure, Reece, his Sceptile, and Michael and his Salamence.

"Get away from my sister!" Matt yelled.

Reece smirked. "Let's kick some @$$!" he said.

"Good idea." Michael added.

The Charizard roared loudly. All three trainers got ready as the Shiny Shadow Pokemon flew towards them at high speeds.

Chapter 57: Death, Capture, or Destruction?
Charizard charged covered in a flaming shadow aura, staring straight at the throats of three powerful Pokemon. "Sceptile, use Dragon Pulse!" Reece yelled.

"Salamence! Stone Edge!" Michael yelled.

"Fraxure, Draco Meteor!" Matt yelled.

The three attacks headed straight for the maddened Pokemon. It countered with a blast of flames, creating a large explosion which hurled dangerous amounts of smoke into the air. "Damn it!" Reece thought, cautious of any sneak attacks. He felt his heart beating, a tingling in his spine.

"Reece!"

The Silver haired boy looked around to see Kara standing, hair levitating. "Take this." she said, and handed Reece a pale yellow crystal. A Max Revive. Reece took it. "Stay safe Kara..." he said.

"Behind you!"

Reece  ducked down to avoid a claw swipe. An explosion was heard, the smoke instantly cleared, and Reece covered his ears. He looked over to see that Sceptile was now grappling with the Black Charizard. Reece ordered an attack. "Dragon Pulse!" Reece yelled.

Scpetile quickly fired the Dragon Pulse, and Charizard fired the Flamethrower. The two attacks hit eachother at maxiumum power and created and explosion, knocking the two Pokemon (plus Reece and Kara) back.

Reece looked around. He was surrounded by burning smoke. He quickly used the Max Revive on Alakazam, and dropped the Pokeball, opening it. "Teleport!"

Reece, Alakazam, and Sceptile disappeared and re-appeared a safe distance of about fifty feet from the smoke cloud. That wasn't that much though, and the Charizard came charging after, taking wing.

"Alakazam, Shock Wave!" Reece yelled. The Psi Pokemon shot a swift blast of Electricty straight at Charizard. The Pokemno was hit, and knocked back. It was then sliced down the center by a quick movement, followed by another. These revealed themselves to be Sceptile's Leaf Blade and Fraxure's Dragon Claw. The Pokemon roared, and breathed out a Dragon Pulse at both Pokemon, but they were swift enough to dodge.

The Pokemon then charged at Sceptile full speed, shadowy aura surrounding it. But, something then stopped it. Behind it was Matt's Blaziken, holding the Lizard Pokemon by the tail. "Thunderpunch!" Matt ordered.

blakin dragged the Pokemon towards it and smashed it with an electrified fist. The Pokemno roared in immense pain as this happen, and then shot a ball of energy into the sky. It lit up, and became like a second sun. The Pokemon then clawed ferally at Blaziken.

Out of the corner of it's eye, the Pokemon saw something. It jumped up and circled around in the air, narrowly missing a Pokeball before firing a blast of light in the direction of Michael, Reece, and Matt. However, at that time, Sceptile moved in fornt and pucnhed the energy beam, deflecting it back at the Pokemon.

Michael got another Snag Ball ready. "Keep it busy you two!"

"Alakazam, use Psybeam!" Reece ordered. The psi Pokemon shot a prismatic blast straight at the flaming Pokemon. It was hit in the side. Reece pulled out his battle Scanner. They had reduced the Pokemon's HP to one third it's full total.

"Keep it up Blaziken! Blaze Kick!"

Blaziken ran forward with speeds that made Sceptile jealous, and smashed the black dragon in the side of the face with the attack. The Pokemon roared, and fired a Dragon Pulse at Blaziken, knocking it back. The Pokemon then charged straight at Blaziken with a Shadow Rush.

The pokemon started to ferociously tear at the Fire/Fighting type's flesh. Blood and feathers started o go everywhere. However, a quick Leaf Blade from Sceptile knocked the Pokemno over, and the resulting vaccuum nearly blew out the tail flame.

If a Charizard's tail goes out, it dies...

The Pokemon sense this immediatly, and started to rampage evem more, firing more and more flamethrowers everywhere. Without warning it fired several at the three trainers trying to catch it.

It was only seconds from hitting them, but this time, Alakazam got in the way. He tapped his spoons together, and all the energy pulses that Charizard was producing were stopped. Charizard roared, before clawing ruthlessly at Sceptile, knocking it back.

The Pokemon then fired a Flamethrower at a Pokeball behind it, scorching it. "Damn!" Michael cursed. The Charizard started roaring, as in some rage.

"Alakazam, what's it's saying?" Reece asked as his Pokemon held all the energy pulses in places. This only made it harder for it's swift moving combatants to fight.

"Gibberish." The Psi Pokemon respond. It then seperated it's spoons, and all the energy blasts turned into brillaint spheres of energy. "Reece, get everyone out of there." he then yelled.

Reece pulld out a Pokeball "Sceptile, Retreat!" he yelled, before retrieving Sceptile from the battle. "Fraxure, Blaziken, to the sidelines!" Matt yelled.

The Blond's starter and trusted first Pokemon leapt to the side. The Charizard looked around, and then bolted in horror. Alakazam fired each and every one of the brilliant energy spheres straight at Charizard. Each accumulated, creating a dome of energy. This dome of energy grew and grew and grew with every single blast, and the three trainers, along with Kara and Rui, braced themselves for dear life.

Alakazam was sweating bullets. He clench his hands around his spoons. "DIE!" he yelled.

The energy dome shrunk back in and then ruptured, creating a shockwave that seemingly blew apart the surrounding forest and nearby lake. Reece could barely feel anything, anything at all. It felt like his senses and ability to think and perceive reality was stripped from him for a moment.

As his five senses returned, he could still feel the shockwaves from the blast. Reece saw the massive smoking crater in front of him, and his Alakazam panting at his feet. "Had...to Teleport us...away..." he said. Reece saw Kara and Rui out of the corner of his eye.

"Where's the Charizard?" Reece asked instinctively. Alakazam looked over. "Not sure if it's even still alive..." Alakazam replied. "Perhaps...it's for the best."

"WHAT?" Reece yelled back.

"Reece..." Alakazam said in a calm voice telepathically. "That Pokemon...was beyond saving..." he said. "I felt it. That Pokemon could only destroy..." Michael looked over. Reece looked to him. The boy bit his lip. "He might be right..." he said...

Reece looked over, face split in disgust and in shock. "Cipher might have discovered a way to make Pokemon immune to purification..." he said. "We...just don't know..."

Reece looked like he was about to cry. He couldn't bare it...to think, less than two months ago, he was so innocent. The boy got up, and dusted himself off. The smoke behind him started to clear. He then saw Hanzo, Wes, and Blake running in that direction. "What the hell was that?" Blake cursed.

"About 2 tons worth of TNT in force." Matt said.

Wes sighed. "Who did that?" he asked.

"That, would be me..." Alakazam said. "I felt it...He..." Rui ran over to Wes and crushed him in a hug. Wes sweatdropped. "Nice to see you two..."

Alakazam collapsed, and Reece retrieved it. He looked to Sceptile. Today had been a change for the worse, to him. Hehad witnessed the destruction of a Pokemon, and that crushed him on the inside. "Well..." he said, and was about to retrieve the Pokemon before...

"Raa-aaa--aaaagghhh!!"

Reece, Matt, Kara, Wes, Michael, Rui, Blake and Hanzo all looked over. As the smoke cleared, a creature in a visibly sparkling shadowy aura appeared. "No way!" Michael yelled.

Kara, Rui, and Michael then noticed. The Aura was changing color. It was becoming brighter. And Brighter...it was turning...

Red.

"It's going into Hyper Mode!" Rui shouted.

"That can't be good..." Matt said.

"Watch out!" Wes yelled.

"Sneasel, Blizzard!" Hanzo yelled. The clawed weasel fired a blast of ice and snow straight at Charizard, but the Pokemon charged through it. Instinctively, Blake and Wes threw out another Pokemon, while all jumping to the side. Blake's Charizard, along with his Jolteon, and Wes's Tyranitar and Espeon, all fired an attack at the opposing Charizard.

THe Rampaging Shiny Shadow Pokemon smashed through the wave of Blast Burn, two Thunders, and a Psyshock, and smashed into the four Pokemon with it's flaming red aura.

''CRITICAL HIT! ''

All five Pokemon were knocked senseless by the attack. Charizard then start to roar out angrily. "Scatter!" Hanzo yelled. All eight of them went to the side, just to avoid Charizard slashing through. "Now's my chance!" Michael thought. He already had a pokeball charged up, he just needed to...

Everything for him went dark at that second.

"Michael!" Wes shouted, as he watched Michael get hurled through the air a tail swipe from Charizard. The sound of bones cracking could be heard at the point of collision and as the red-head hit the ground over and overm skidding to a stop after several gruesome flops.

"Sceptile! Leaf Blade!"

Sceptile charged forward at high speeds, creating a vaccuum as it slashed Charizard across the chest. However, the Charizard only roared in more rage. Matt took his Pokemon to battle, and so did Kara.

"Blaziken, use Stone Edge! Fraxure, strike with Dragon Claw!"

"Dark Pulse Machina!"

As the Pokemon behind him fought, Reece and Sceptile dashed over to Michael. He immediately put his hand on his chest. To his relief, he felt a heartbeat. He looked over.

"Oh ****."

All three of the Pokemon facing Charizard where already on the ground. All the other trainers were throwing all they had left at the Pokemon, and that wasn't much. Reece hit himself in the head. "C'mon! Think of something!"

Reece sent out Pupitar. He looked at the Pokemon, straight in its mask covered eyes. "Listen buddy..." he said. THe Pokemon looekd at him, it blue shell glinting in the moonlight.

"I need your help." the silver haired boy said. "Can you do it?"

"Ppar! (Translation: Yes.)"

"Good buddy."

Reece turned to the battlefield. "Hyper Beam!"

Pupitar fired a blast of golden energy straight at Charizard from afar. THe Pokemon had just finished ripping one of Blake's Skarmory's wings out when the attack hit him The Pokemon charged over ferally, and picked Pupitar up. The Pokemon roared with a great intensity.

Ferciously and nightmarishly, the Pokemon started to hack and slash and bite at the Pokemon's bedrock shell. Within seconds, the shell started tearing off, and blood and the beggining of some guts started to show. However, something was behind Charizard.

Out of the corner of his eye, the black dragon saw it. Sceptile was heading towards it, and no time to react to a punch. However, to his horror, the Pokemon had a Pokeball in his hand. He roared out in anger and shock as the Pokeball touched his flesh, and swallowed him inside.

One Shake

Two Shakes

Three Shakes

Click!

CHARIZARD WAS CAUGHT!

Reece picked up the Pokeball. Everything was silent. Magic Tree House Silent. Reece pulled out his Pokedex.

Charizard

Height: 5'07 / 1.7

Weight: 199.5 / 90.5

''Charizard is renowned for it's arrogance and power. It can fly over a mountain with ease, and its powerful flames can burn straight through glaciers ''

Wes walked up. "Did you..?"

"Yes." Reece said. He then smiled wildly. "I CAUGHT IT! I FREAKING CAUGHT IT!" he yelled. "YES!" as the boy danced around.

THe others came over. "I can't believe it..." Hanzo muttered. Matt, who was right next to him, looked over. "I had no doubt."

Wes turned over. "But, how?"

Reece stopped jumping around. "Simple." he said. "Michael had a Snag Ball charged up when he was knocked unconscious. So I had Pupitar act as a distraction while Sceptile hit it up close with the Pokeball!" he said in an almost singing tone. In the horizon, the flames left by the battle dimmed and snuffed out. The sun started to rise, casting it's morning light on our heroes.

Reece smiled. "I have a level 59 Shiny Charizard!" Reece said with an massive smile.

Blake went over to Michael, and picked the boy up. "Still out cold."

Wes put a hand on Reece's shoulder. "Reece." he said in a calm, almost sad tone. "I have some unfortunate news."

Reece stopped. He knew what it was. "No way! It's my Pokemon!" he yelled, backing away from the man. "Never!"

Wes sighed. "Reece, it's for the best." he said. "It needs to be taken back to Orre and studied."

Reece looked down. He handed the Pokeball to the light haired man. "Just..." he said. "Just make sure he's not hurt."

Wes looked at him. "Reece, you're a good kid, and an excellent trainer. Never change that." he said, and he put the Pokeball away. He turned to the others. "As for you Kara, Matt and Hanzo, you all did terrific."

Kara smiled, Matt wiped a bit of sweat off his brow, and Hanzo cracked a bit of a smile. He turned to Rui, and puleld her into a hug. "You feeling okay?"

"Y-y-yeah." she said, blushing a bit.

Reece looekd at the rising sun. "Heh." he said. "I can see Basalt City from here." he said.

Hanzo walked over. "Well Reece, after this pretty much insane adventure, are we going to continue to the next city?" the blue coated boy asked, his longcoat flowing in the breeze.

Reece turned to Matt and Kara. "Mind if they come along?" he asked.

"Not at all."

Matt looked at Reece. "Ya know, it may be the sheer number of times I just nearly died and got no sleep, but that sounds like a great idea." he said, smiling a bit.

Kara smiled. "Anytime Reece!"

Reece looekd back at the DTRDF. Michael was still out cold, and Blake was carrying him away, making preparations to leave. Wes looked at him. "Good luck at the Mistral City Gym." he said. "Same goes to all you."

Reece turned around, and along with his Rival, Friend, and new partner, walked to the end of the Lake Path.

As the sun rose however, a new evil did with it. In the middle of a scar of burnt trees, stood Solaris. He, very carefully, picked up a Pokeball left on the ground, untampered by the battle by sheer luck. He placed it in a special bag.

"Soon..." he said. "The Light shall purge the Darkness from this world!" he declared. He started to laugh. This laugh, slowly and surely, became more and more maniacal as he went on.

Mistral City Arc
Reece, Hanzo, Matt, and Kara slowly trekked through the picturesque Waterfall Cave. Kara looked around. It was mostly and overhang, so the outside was somewhat visible from where they were. The team had travelled quite a distance in the past day. Now, they decided to finally get some sleep.

Hanzo and his Sneasel looked around for a place to rest. "Here." he said, pointing to a rather cozy looking alcove. Matt looked over. "You and that Sneasel are really skilled." he said. "But coming from someone who can't beat a total nutcase like Reece, not sure if that means something." he then muttered under his breath.

"Thanks." Hanzo said, longcoat flowing in the breeze. "Want me to build a fire?"

"Machina should be back with that wood any moment." Kara said. At that second, the Dark Type teleported in front of  the Redhead girl. "Yo!" she said. "Someone call my name?"

Kara broke out in laughter. "Speak of the Devil."

Reece cracked his neck. "Ya know, why not just send out our entire teams?" he asked. "I bet some of our Pokemon are dying to get some exercise after last night.

"Yeah." Hanzo said. "There was so much fire last night, even my Houndoom didn't like it." the boy sighed, and threw the other five Pokeballs off his belt. Matt, Reece, and Kara did the same.

Matt's team had changed little since their last battle. With the exception of Gengar, only his Dratini had evolved into Dragonair. Kara's team consisted of what was now Machina, Swampert, Zero (now a Serperior) Gardevoir, Lairon and Linoone Naturally, Sceptile and Blaziken shot eachother angry looks.

"You." Blaziken said in Pokespeak. "Get out of my face Blaziken. Your breath is ruining the air."

"Don't fight you two." Swampert warned.

Blaziken walked away, and Zero slithered over. "Hello." she said in Pokespeak.

Sceptile looked over. "Hai." he replied. "Long time no see."

Zero looked around Sceptile. "You've changed quite a bit." she commented. Sceptile rolled his eyes. "So have you."

The Pokemon continued this conversation. Matt's Fraxure went over to Reece's Pupitar. "Sup?" he asked. The Hard Shell Pokemon looked over. "Well, other than what happened last night, not much." he said.

Machina created the illusion of her human form. She went over to Kara. The Redhead trainer looked over. "Well you three, I'm gonig to bed early." she said. She then walked over, and looked at a wall. She put her hands on her hips as she examined it.

"What is she..." Reece was about to ask, but Matt cut him off. "It's best you don't ask."

"Kara, at least stay up a bit!" Reece managed to stay.

The girl walked back with Machina. "Fine." she said in a flat tone. Hanzo and his Houndoom had already started a fire. He directed his Houndoom to go play with his other Pokemon. Sneasel stay by his side, cuddled up on his lap. Hanzo pet the Pokemon gently.

"So." the boy asked. "Kara, Matt? How have you been doing on your journies?" he asked.

"Well." Matt said. "Training my brain into liquid."

"I've eaten the Hyper Rank Contests." Kara whistled. "And gotten 5 badges."

Reece was shaking. "The six one is next!" he said. Matt looked over and sweatdropped. "Some thing NEVER change, don't they?"

Reece shook his head. Kara looked to Hanzo. "What about you Hanzo? You never even told us where you're from." she said cheerily.

"Surge City." he said.

"That far?" Kara asked.

"Yeah." Hanzo said, stroking Sneasel. "This is quite the elevation change." he added. He then pulled out his book. "I've been reading this book for a while now."

Kara's face lit up. "I love that book!" She commented.

Hanzo read aquick sentence. "So do I. Can't wait for the ending."

Matt leaned back. "If there's anything I can't wait for, it's when I get to fight Reece again." he said. He then looked over. "Not now. We'll likely tear this mountain apart."

Hanzo looked at them. "I've heard of battles tat seem to destroy the landscape around them." he said. "And yeesh, both of you still have a massive amount of room for improvement."

"Scary thought." Machina said. "Considering you boys have a penchent for being ultra destructive." she scoffed, looking to the darkening sky.

"I'm not gonna argue." Both Reece and Matt said.

Hanzo looked at them. "Ya know, I realized the only thing we all have in common is that we love Pokemon." the others looekd at them. "Who doesn't?" Kara asked. She then pulled the human Machina into a hug, drawing an annoyed face from her.

"Team Luminious..." Reece muttered. He was thinking back. The extreme actions that these people had taken. It made Reece uncomfortable, almost as much as mentioning his...

"Reece, you okay?" Hanzo asked.

The boy turned over. "Yeah..."

"Relax dude. We have a long day tomorrow."

Reece took a deep breath. "Night."

The boy tried to fall asleep, but had no success. Bad for him, he'd need it. As the sun set, only things moving were a few Pokemon. Sceptile walked over to the edge of the passage, and looked at the moon. Only at this time did he realize there was a waterfall nearby.

Zero slithered over. "You seem troubled."

"Long story, lot of things."

Zero slithered around the Forest Pokemon. "What's wrong?" she asked with a hint of worry.

"I'm worried..." he started. He then started to choke on his next words. "About all the things Reece is." he finished. "Charizard, the next gym, food, and...oh god I'm turning into him..."

Zero laughed. "Hey, we all turn into our trainers over time!" she comforted. She stopped slithering around him. "You should have seen what it was like with Aron." she said.

Sceptile sat down. "Well..." he said. "I best get to sleep."

"Mind if I sleep right here?" the Serperior asked, coiling herself.

"Not at all."

With others, similar things were happening.

"I can't believe I'm doing this..." Fraxure said.

Pupitar looked over. "What?" he asked. "Anything to do woth the fact you're getting chummy with the only person who could kick your @$$ whenever he wanted?"

"You know me so well." Fraxure muttered sarcastically.

"Fraxure, listen." the Hard Shell Pokemon said in a calm, serious tone. "We've known eachother for over 6 years. So I'm sure you can trust me when I say, when the day comes where it really matters, the better of us will come out on top."

"May the better man win when that day comes." Fraxure replied.

And...

Blaziken sat next to Swampert. For once, the Fire Chicken wasn't angry with something. The Water/Ground Type looked over. "You okay Blaziken?" he asked.

"I want to beat Sceptile..."

"We know." Swampert retorted. "We ALL know."

As night grew, the Pokemon soon fell asleep, along with their trainers. Except Reece that was. Slowly and quietly, he got up, and walked over to the water nearby. He sighed. Too much was flowing through the boys head. He looked at the water.

In the liquid, he saw it. The brillaint of the moon. Reece looked up. As he did, he saw a sight, that in a way, he though he was meant to see.

Absol and it's red eyes were staring down as him. As soon as the boy looked up, the Pokemon moved away with great speed.

Chapter 58: Up the lift, and maybe a Gift
The travel to Mistral City was rather uneventful. The city however, made up for it. See, the city is not a normal city. No, it's more of a city built to be suspended in the sky. A technological wonder it was. The city was built on a massive artificial rock floating around the nearby cliffaces that barely scratched the base of the city. Under it were multiple "towers" that gave off anti-gravity waves, similar to abilities of Pokemon like Beldum or Magnezone, and were in fact, based of the same concept.

There was also a multitude of fans helping support it. Jutting from the sides were large, chain like structures meant to keep from flying off, or in an emergency, keep it from descending too low. The city was magnificent in every sense of the word from underneath. Almost barely noticeable was the monorail lift on the side.

Visible from the sides were the large fences and claw like walls keeping anyone from jumping off (It's not like it stopped people though. Especially when Flying Pokemon were readily available).

And finall, there were Pokemon around the city. Many, many, Pokemon. There were either Pokemon that could fly naturally like Skarmory, or electrical Pokemon like Magnemite.

"Sheesh." Reece said. "And I thought this place sounded impressive."

"Same." Hanzo said.

"What are we waiting for?" Kara asked excitedly. "I can't wait to see the city!"

"Yeah, with a Pokemon Gym, a Research Lab, a Battle Tower, and several famous eateries, I'm suprised reece hasn't ditched us ye..." Matt stopped and sighed. "He's at the lift ditching us, isn't he?"

Do I even need to say it?

Reece had alreay ditched his friends and was getting on a lift to go the city. The boy excitedly got to the top and stepped off.

"Hell yeah!" Reece said, cracking his neck, the high winds in his hair. "What a day!" he said smiling. He dashed off, leaving only the though of what rain was like in this city.

The buildings were large, black windowed skyscrapers, and Reece couldn't help but look at them. He, infact, went slower to look at the city. As he went on, he lost track of time, and in the process, failed to realized he had gone towards the city slums.

In the corner, a man about the age of 30 huddled up with his ragged clothes looked at him. "You, strange haired kid that likely blows stuff up!" he said, pointing a thin, malnourished hand at him.

Reece looked over. "Me?"

"Yes."

"You!" he said ."You has fossil! Fossils! Fossils!"

Reece's ears perked up (but should he be worried that this man didn't creep him out the slightest?) and he looked at the man. "Pokemon Fossils?"

"Yes yes yes!" The man told him excitedly. "Pokemon Fossils. Old Amber. Found it in ye desert!"

Reeece knew what the man was talking about. He opened up his backpack, and pulled out the strange stone his Kadabra found. "This?"

The man got up and looked at the fossil. "Take it! Take it I say!" he sputtered. "Take it to the Pokemon lab! Get it restored! It must fly again!"

"Which way?"

Later

Reece walked up to the greyscale building, still holding the Old Amber. He eyed it up and down. "Well..." he said. "This is the place." he said, walking in. He looked at the lady at the front desk as he came in. She wore a blue uniform and had long, brown hair.

"Welcome to our Lab." she said. "Can I help you today?"

"Er yeah." Reece said. "I was told this stone could be turned into a Pokemon."

The receptionist clenched the skin on her forehead. "Down the hall, take a left, third room, we're not responsible for any explosion based injuries to your body." she said. "And please; When the old man there says don't touch the bottled swamp gasses, DO NOT touch the bottled swamp gasses."

Reece was already running down the hall full speed. The receptionist's eyes twitched. "I hate this job so much!"

The silver haired boy who god forbid can't go two chapters without blowing anything up ran down the hall, took a left, and went to the third door he saw. He walked right in (It's Pokemon people. Who the hell ever cares when you barge into their house without permission?) and saw exactly what he expected to see: A grey haired scientist at a big, fancy, complex looking machine, and ooh, bottled swamp gas!

The old scientist looked at him. "DO NOT TOUCH THE BOTTLED SWAMP GAS!" he said. Reece pulled his hand away just in time. "Sorry."

The man walked over to him. "Let me guess, you want me to turn this into a Pokemon?" he said. Reece nodded. "Please."

The man took the fossil. "Come back in a week or so!" he said.

"A week?" Reece squeaked in disappointment. The man looked over. "A lot of things make this really difficult sonny!" he said. "Now, I need your ID Number!"

Reece gave the trainer his ID Number. The grey haired man then snapped. "Out, and no touchy the swamp gasses!" he yelled.

Reece ran out of that crazy place. As he left the building, something on his belt shook. He pulled off a Pokeball, and opened it. Alakazam came out. "Huh..." he said Telepathically. He started floating using his extreme psychic powers. "So, that stone I found actually had significance."

"I know." Reece said. "I thought it was just a stone too."

"Even more ironic considering I'm a bloody super-computer brianed creature." the Psi Pokemon replied, then immediately decided to change the subject. "So Reece, knowing you, you're going to run to the gym, battle the gym leader, raise hell, go pig out, get grilled by your friends for ditching them, and then wake up early the next morning and make a cruel pitfall trap for Matt." the Pokemon said from memory.

"That sounds in character." Reece said. "Can't you just Teleport me to the gym?"

"Yes." Alakazam said. "But, shouldn't you go for the Pokemon Center first?" Alakazam asked. "You do not have the ideal team for Flying type Gyms." he added.

"Fine." Reece said. "To the Pokemon Center!" he cheered.

Alakazam teleported them both to the Pokemon Center in a flash of blue light. Reece ran in, retrieving his Psychic Pokemon. Reece ran to the desk. The girl girl at the counter had aqua, windblown hair. She looked at Reece. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Reece handed her his six Pokeballs. He then quickly waited while she healed them. He took the Pokeballs fterwards, and went over to the PC.

He threw in Shelgon and Typhlosion, and pulled out Magneton and Crobat. He then was about to run to the Gym, but the receptionist called out to him. "Wait!" she yelled. "You're not going to the gym, are you?"

"You bet I am!" Reece replied.

"Im sorry, but the Gym is closed for repairs currently." the receptionist said. "Sorry."

Reece walkd out silently. "What a crappy day." he thought. He sat down on a bench, making sure it was clear before he did.

"Yo Reece!" Alakazam said from it's Pokeball. "Aren't we going to find something to do?" he asked.

Reece opened up the Pokeball, and set the Pokemon on the side. "Like what?" he asked.

Alakazam sighed. He pulled a few Pokeballs off Reece's belt. "Want to hear the suggestions?" he asked. "With my Telepathy, you can finally understand all the things we've been trying to say for some time now."

Reece perked up. "Tell me!" he said cheerfully.

"Sceptile's exact words." the psi pokemon started. "Reece, in all my time with you, you've remained a crazy @$$ b****** who's constantly put his own life in danger for asinine reasons, but I wouldn't have traded the time I spent with you for anything."

"Sceptile really said that?" the boy asked.

"Trust me Reece, we have a lot to talk about when you're not forcing us to beat the crap out of other Pokemon." the Psychic type said jokingly.

"Hmm..." Reece though for a moment. "How about Magneton?"

"Easy. He thanks you for saving him and being a fun, energetic trainer."

Reece beamed. "Good to know my Pokemon like me."

Alakazam got up. "Yes." he said. "Even when you are using us to blow up cameras." he said. Then he and his trainer laughed rather painfully hard.

Alakazam then closed his eyes. "Hold on, I'm sensing something." he said. He started sensing the world through a psychic field. To him, everything would appear the be blue as if he was seeing aura. He quickly went beneat the surface of the city, and to what appeared to be an abandonded power plant.

"Yo Reece, there's something below us." he said.

"What?" Reece asked with an intriguied tone.

"Apparently, an abandoned section of the city." he said. "It's a power plant, and I think it will be ideal to our purposes."

"Sweet." he said. "Know a way we can get down there?" he asked.

"Already found it."

Chapter 59:Power Plant Secrets


Reece had spent four days going in and out of the small power plant running below the city. He had learned to place still did operate, but it was mostly self run.

Regardless, there were a ton of Pokemon down there like Magnemite, Voltorb, Elecatbuzz, and even some Jolteon.

"Magneton, Hyper Beam!" he yelled.

Reece was presented by a Trio of Pokemon. A Galvantula, an Electrode, and a Muk. Magneton hit the Muk with a spiralling energy blast that caused the Pokemon to faint.

The Galvantula shot a sticky Electroweb straight at Magneton and Reece, but they both flipped to the side. "Counter with a Signal Beam at Electrode!"

Magneton shot three blasts of energy straight at Electrode, who then proceeded to heat up and explode in response, melting parts of the floor together as the Pokemon fell over burnt and fainted.

"That works." Reece said. He and Magneton then turned to Galvantula. "Well?" he said. The Spider Pokemon gave a scream like sound, and ran like hell.

Reece smiled. However, he quickly recoiled. something in the air smelled like pool chlorine and bleach, and made the boy want to vomit. Out of the corner of his eye, Reece saw something. It was a pale blue gas, and Reece knew that it was likely toxic.

The boy ran out as fast as he could, Magnemite following. He could feel a burning in his lungs and in his airways. He kept running, but the gas, whatever it was, slowly sapped his strength. The boy fell over, and everything went dark.

Magneton hissed in alarm. It quickly sent two of its units to pick up Reece, and quickly pulled the boy off. It was not sure where to go, or what to do. However, its top unit saw something. It was a man in a gas mask and a suit that was covered in tools.

"Quick!" he yelled. "Bring the boy this way!" he started to run, and the Magnetic Pokemon followed, carrying Reece. The man looked at the boy as he ran. "Oh no..." he said. "Is he your trainer?" he asked Magneton. The Electric/Steel Pokemon nodded.

"Don't worry." the man said. "This happens a lot, so don't worry."

After a good few minutes, the two brought Reece to a room filled with men and women wearing white labcoats the seemed to be stained by rainbows.. One of the men looked to them man who brought Reece in. "Bair! What's that boy doing here?" he asked rather harshly.

"Ozone poisoning. He needs medical attention! Quick!" Bair screamed. A few of them men rushed Reece into a side room, where Magneton watched as they put him on a bed. The switched on a few machines.

CTCHK! WHERRRR!

Reece instantly regained awareness as air filled his lungs, and the horrible smelled slowly faded. He looked around. "Mpmh phumph mmm!" he asked muffled.

Bair came over to him. "Relax. You just passed out from minor Ozone poisoning." he said. "It'll be a few minutes before you can stand though."

Reece closed his eyes. "Makes sense." he thought. He was a bit groggy, and didn't bother arguing. After a few minutes, Bair switched off the machine, and unhooked Reece. The boy sat up, and cracked his knuckles and neck. "Okay, so where am I?" he asked.

"Mistral City Underlabs." he said. "Care explaining how you got to the power plant?"

"Found an entrance via the sewers." Reece answered truthfully. "With some help from a Pokemon."

Bair facepalmed. "Well..." he said. "May as well show you around..." he said. "No point in saying "Stay here, don't touch or look at anything" or crap like that."

Reece laughed. "I like your sense of humor."

"Thanks. By the way, I didn;t catch your name. I'm Bair."

"Reece." Reece answered. "Please to meet you."

The boy got up. "So, what's this place about?" Reece asked. Bair looked at him. "We research gasses and Pokemon here in an attmept to find a better renewable energy." he said. "That ozone that leaked was actually something we've been expirementing with."

"Isn't Ozone just air with extra molecules?" Reece asked. Magneton huddled flaoted next to him, its units looking around.

"Yes, normally." he said. "But we've recently come across a discovery." he said. Reece looked at him excitedly. "What is it?" he asked.

A scientist looked at Bair. "Why the hell are you telling the kid this?" he asked. Bair turned his head. "Because." he said. "This concerns the public, and we technically will have to tell them anyway."

The scientist shot him a dirty look. "Rassa frassa blassa...." he mumbled as he turned back to what he was working on.

"We recently discovered that Ozone can be used as fuel if given a sufficient infusion of certain energy." he continued. "As it turned out, our old energy grid, which ran off wind power and drawing energy released from Pokemon battles, gave less than a third of the energy that this new system gave off."

"Wait." Reece said. "You use Pokemon Battles to power this city?"

"Hell yes we do!" another Scientist shouted.

Bair looked back to Reece. "Well, yes." he said. "The clashing of Pokemon in battle generates a small amount of pure energy." he said. "About three weeks ago, Prof Fir discovered that Pokemon generate small amounts of pure energy when they battle, and most of this energy is released when it evolves."

"Prof Fir?" Reece asked. "You know him?"

"Of course." he said. "He's a popular guy. What about you? Do you know him?" the man asked, straightening his gas mask.

Reece pulled out his Pokedex. "He gave me this!" he exclaimed. "I even live in Topsoil Town."

Bair smiled under his mask. "Come this way." he said, motioning with his hands. The two walked through a few rooms, and lo and behold, a familiar face was sitting at a desk.

"Prof Fir!" Reece cried out on joy.

The man stopped, looked around, turning his chair. As Reece registered in his complex mind, a look of pure horror broke out on hiss face.

"Reece!" he squeaked. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Found my way here."

"Please don't touch anything." the man said. "Doctor says I seriously need to cut back on the stress."

Reece beamed. "Understood." he told the man. "So, what are you researching here?"

"Well, it's a pretty raw discovery, but it holds the potential for fruit." he said. He turned his chair, and pointed over to a small object that looked like a minature telsa coil. "See that?" he asked. "When I say so, I need you to have Magneton use a move like Flash Cannon or Thunder Shock on it." he told the boy,

Reece looked at the Tesla coil. Prof Fir got up, and grabbed a cane by his side. He slwoly walked over to a large glod on the corner. He pressed a button on the wall, and the globe filled with the blue Ozone gas.

"Now."

Reece smirked. "Magneton, use Flash Cannon!"

Magneton created a sphere of light energy in front of itself and launched it as a beam at the tesla coil. "Keep it up for as long as you can!" the Proffesor yelled.

As the blast hit the coil, the energy travelled through the wall via several wires, and over to the globe. The ozone gas inside it lit up a brilliant silver, and then cooled down to a pale blue. However, it then formed into a shperical shape, glowing a silvery blue.

"Whoa." Reece said. "What is that?"

"A high energy Ozone forcefield." the Prof explained. "The Ozone samples in the lab are not normal ozone; A Pokemon makes it, and because of that it has traces of Pokemon energy in it."

"Whoa..." Reece said. "What Pokemon...makes ozone?" he asked quizzically.

"It's a Legendary Pokemon." Prof Fire explained. "A Super-Ancient Pokemon, to be precise. It's called, Rayquaza." the man explained.

"Wait." Reece asked. "You have a powerful legendary Pokemon in this lab?" he asked, shock crossing his face. Prof Fir shook his head. "Oh hell no." he said. "There would be an Outrage on the public if we did. A few friends of mine managed to get some of the Pokemon's cells, and we're currently using the mitochondria to produce Ozone."

Reece looked to Bair. "That's pretty much it." he said. "Apparently, Rayquaza loves Ozone, and produces large amounts all the time." Prof Fir explained. "The Ozone seems to be charged with the Pokemon's energy, making it an ideal power source."

Reece's face had wonder painted all over it. "Wow." he said. "That sounds awesome."

"It is." Bair said. "Considering that if we perfect the proccess of harnessing it's energy, it could revolutionize a lot of things."

"I fear we are still years from that goal..." Prof Fir said in a sad tone. "Even though Rayquaza's immortal cells will continue to produce Ozone, there is still many things we don't understand."

Reece walked over to the globe, and looked at the silvery barrier inside. "How hard is this thing?" he asked. Prof Fir looked over. "We're not sure." he said. "But in a recent test, the Ozone Forcefield was able to withstand attacks from three different electric Pokemon no sweat. All we know is that it's very durable."

"Hmm."

Bair looked over at Reece. "Well." he said. "Prof Fir told you'd be here for the Gym." he said. Reece looked over. "Yeah, but the gym's closed." he said. Bair smiled. "It just so happens I'm the Gym Leader."

"Really?" Reece asked. "When's the gym going to open again?" he asked.

"Four days from now." he said. "Come with me." he then said, and walked out of the room. "Goodbye Proffessor." Reece said on the way out.

Bair walked over to a set of stairs. "Use these stairs to leave." he said. "However, when we finish cleaning up the Ozone leak, also feel free to use this area to train." he said.

Reece decided to wait. He sat down on a nearby chair, and waited. And waited. And waited. By the time he had nearly fallen asleep, Bair can up. "Reece, the Ozone's been cleaned. Feel free to go back to the Power Plant." he said. Reece quickly and wordlessly ran back into the Power plant area.

Some time Later

Reece and Magneton were once again, training. "Magneton, Flash Cannon on Muk!" Reece ordered. Magneton created a shpere of light, and shot it directly at the Poison Type Pokemon, knocking it out.

"We did it!" Reece cheered. He then heard a noise, and looked over to Magneton. The Pokemon was glowing. It's form glowed, and started to expand until it stopped glowing. Magneton had evolved into Magnezone!

Reece whipped out his Pokedex.

Magnezone

Magnet Area Pokemon

Height: 3'11 / 1.2 M

Weight: 396.8 / 180.0 KG

''The power of this Pokemon's magnetic field is so immense, that they can cause more damage to electrical grids rthan Electabuzz. This Pokemon will only evolve when exposed to special magnetic fields. ''

Reece put his Pokedex away. "I think..." he said to his Pokemon. "We just got our edge for the Gym."

Chapter 60: In the Skies
Reece stopped by the Pokemon Center. Apparently, someone there was waiting for him.

Reece stopped by the Gym. He had a nice, strong, party with him. As he entered the building, he looked around. To put it simply, the gym was a bunch of catwalks above a long drop with a storng updraft. Reece saw that the path was split in half. On the left was straightforward, but had a few Trainers. The other looked like an obstacle course that had a sign with quite a few instructions on it.

Trainers.

Reece walked down the catwalk. Not so much as walked at sprinted, only stopping to send out a Pokemon as he ran by a traienr. "Go, Magnezone!" Reece yelled, throwing out the Pokeball. The Magnet Area Pokemon appeared in front of the first trainer he met.

The trianer threw her Pokeball. "Go, Dodrio!" she shouted. The female trainer sent out the three headed flying type. Reece smirked. "Use Thunderbolt!"

Magnezone's magnetic units spun around, and discharged a bolt of electricity. The bolt hit Dodrio and knocked the Pokemon out instantly. The opposing Trainer's jaw dropped, and Reece raced to the next, retrieving Magnezone. The next Traienr was not much different. He was a stocky male in work clothes.

"Go, Pupitar!" Reece yelled. The boy threw the Pokeball, and it fell on the catwalk, opening in a flash of light. The Hard Shell Pokemon fixed it's gaze on the opposing Trainer, floating above the ground softly. The man grunted, and pulled out a Pokeball. "Go, Golbat!" he yelled.

He threw the Pokeball, and out came the Poison/Flying Type Pokemon. Reece smirked. "Rock Slide!" he yelled. Pupitar spun around, and a bunch of rocks came falling onto Golbat. The Pokemon yelled out in pain, trying to use Super Sonic in Pupitar. However, Reece would not let that happen. "Dark Pulse!"

Pupitar shot a blast of dark energy at the gold rings from Supersonic, and destroyed them. "Now, Hyper Beam!" Reece yelled. Pupitar shot a blast of golden energy at the Bat Pokemon, and hit it directly, causing it to fall out of the sky and onto the catwalk.

The man retrieved his Pokemon. "Golbat, return!" he yelled. He then pulled out another Pokeball. "Get em Gyarados!" He yelled. The Pokeball bounced, and out came the Atrocious Pokemon. Reece grit his teeth. "Pupitar, Return!" he yelled.

Reece got another Pokeball. "Get em Sceptile!" the boy yelled, thorwing another Pokemon. The Forest Pokemon appeared, and looked directly at the hulking serpent in front of him. "Use Thunder Punch!" Reece called out. Sceptile charged forward, and got on the back of Gyarados before nimbly striking at the head with a fist covered in electrical energy.

The Atrocious Pokemon fell over with a thud, nearly falling off the catwalk. His trainer retrieved it, and Reece walked on, retrieving. Reece didn't mind missing the prize money; He was loaded.

Reece came to one last trainer. He had spiky hair, and was wearing a red jacket, holding a birdcage next to him. He looked at Reece. "Hmm." he said. "A worthy challenge, I hope?"

Reece dropped a Pokeball. "You bet." he said as his Alakazam emerged. "Let's do this!" he yelled. The Bird Tamer sent out his first Pokemon: A Pidgeot.

"Alakazam, Calm Mind!" Reece yelled. A green and blue energy field appeared around the head of Alakazam. The enemy trainer was quick with his actions. "Use Acrobatics!" he yelled. Pidgeot, at great speeds, did a complex aerial action and smashed into Alakazam.

"Shock Wave!" Reece yelled in response. Alakazam clicked its two spoons together, and caused an explosion of electrical energy to strike the Bird Pokemon. Reece kept on his onslaught. "Use Psybeam!" Reece yelled. Alakazam shot two prismatic force beams at Pidgeot, hitting it in the chest and knocking it back.

"Heat Wave!" the Bird Tamer ordered. Pidgeot hot a volley of flaming feathers at Alakazam, hitting it over and over, but Reece ordered an attack through it. "Focus Blast!"

The Psi Pokemon created a deadly bomb of it's mental energies and launched it at Pidgeot, creating a dome explosion on impact. The Normal/Flying Type fell and Reece retrieved his Pokemon. He slowly continued to the end of the Gym, where his gaze met that of the Gym Leader's.

"Hello Reece." Bair said through his hollow mask. "Are you read to fight my formidible friend?"

Reece looked down. "Ya know..." he said. "Usually, I walk into all my battles with total confidence. However, today..." he clutched a Pokeball on his belt. "I come here with no doubt in my mind that I will win." he said. He smirked, and his hand shaked. It was as if whatever was in that ball was dying to get out.

"Let's battle then!" Bair replied back. He grabbed a Pokeball, and threw it. "Go, Skarmory!" he yelled. Them man threw the Pokeball, and it landed on the ground. The electric board on the far wall lit up with a Skarmory Icon.

Reece threw his Pokeball. "Crush them Charizard!" Reece yelled.

Well...this cannot be good in the end...

The Pokeball hit the ground, and the deadly Shiny Shadow Pokemon emerged. As it did, it shot sparkling flames all over the hanging stadium they were on.

"Whoa." Reece said in a state of blank awe. "Flamethrower!" Reece yelled.

Now, obviously, you are wondering what happened. Well, let's take a flashback moment to find out, shall we?

About 45 Minutes Ago

Reece ran into the Pokemon Center at his normally high speeds. He was about the run over to the counter, but someone stopped him.

"Reece!"

Reece looked around to see Wes in his normal clothing. The boy's face lit up. "Wes?"

The man nodded. "Have something for ya." he said. He handed Reece a Pokeball.

Reece's eyes grew as wide as saucers. He looked at the ball, and at Wes. "Charizard?" he asked. Wes nodded. "Yes. " he said. "But listen closely." he said, going over the the center's tables. Reece sat down, clutching the Pokeball in his hands excitedly.

"We took the Pokemon to the Pokemon HQ in Orre." Wes said. "Our initial panic was when it didn't show any progress in being purified after several hours." he continued. "However, after amping up the purification chamber to it's higher levels, we were scared that Cipher, or whoever made it, had found a way to make it immune to purification."

Reece looked at the man worridly. "So...that means..."

Wes continued. "We tried to test if it could be purified via battle, but..."

"But what?"

Wes put his head down. "It became incredibly violent and moreso disobediant in battle." Wes said. "When it did listen, it was still horrendously beating around other Pokemon." he said. Reece shivered a bit. "Then...why are you giving him back to me?" Reece asked.

"Simple." Wes answered. "We think it may listen to its trainer." he said. "However, there's a few things you need to know about Shadow Pokemon."

"Like how they have super powerful attacks and are incredibly violent?" Reece asked.

"That's only the tip of the iceberg." Wes said. "First, I need your Battle Scanner." he said. Reece dug it out of his pocket, and Wes took out a screwdriver. He took the small device, and opened up the back. He then pulled out a small case, and flicked it open.

"Okay." he said. "I'm going to add an upgrade card to your Scanner." he said. He placed the content of the scanner, a computer chip, inside, then closed it. He went to the scanner's menu, and tapped "Upgrade". The machine showed a loading screen that filled in a few seconds, and gave a confirmation chime.

Reece picked up the Scanner. "What did you add?"

"I added a few things on Shadow Pokemon." Wes said. "Scan Charizard's Pokeball."

Reece put the Ultra Ball on the Table, and scanned it. The screen showed multiple things it normally wouldn't. First off, was a set of 5 purple bars. Then, there was a box that was labled "Hyper Mode". Finally, the picture of Charizard was covered in a shadowy aura with a few yellow orbs and sparkles.

"That gauge is the purification proccess." he said. "And the Hyper Mode box will tell whether your Pokemno has gone into Hyper Mode or not."

"Hyper Mode?" Reece asked.

Wes nodded. "There's a certain instability of a Shadow Pokemon state." Wes explained. "Sometimes, a Pokemon's emotions will rage out of control and cause Hyper Mode. It's a very dangerous state were a Pokemon will become much more agressive, and unless ordered to use Shadow Rush will likely be disobediant. However, Shadow Rush's Critical Hit Ratio is boosted to 50%."

Reece blinked. "Whoa."

"You need to call it to awaken it from Hyper Mode." he said. "Items won't work."

"Understood." Reece said, playing around with the Pokeball.

"And finally..." Wes started. "Shadow Pokemon can't be given nicknames, have their moves changed, or level up." he said. "Purification will take a long time, and we're not sure how long." the man told the boy.

Reece got up. "I'll remember all that." Reece said.

Needless to say, Reece is here now, ignoring about 80% of what was discussed. Now, he had a legit excuse to plow right through this gym with ease. Charizard's Flamethrower was a massive cone shaped jet of flames that struck Skarmory, scorching it and knocking it to the ground, downing it in one shot.

Bair whistled. "Mighty fine Charizard." he said, retrieving his Pokemon. "But can it beat mine?" he asked. Bair through another Pokeball, and out came a normal Charizard. The enemy Fire/Flying Pokemon roared, growled, and thrashed around at the site of a potential worthy foe.

Reece smirked. "Dragon Pulse!" he commanded. His Charizard shot a typhoon of energy straight at his opponent;s knocking it into the air. However, the enemy Charizard dispersed it with his wings and took flight. Reece smirked. "Shadow Rush!"

His draconian Pokemon took flight, covered in a shadowy aura. The Pokemon charged forward at great speeds, colliding with the opponent Charizard.

"Thunder Punch!" Bair commanded. His Charizard then smashed Reece's with an electrified fist, causing it to roar in pain.

"Knock it away and use Dragon Pulse!" Reece commanded. The shiny Pokemon smashed away Bair Charizard with it's tail, causing it the fly into and crater the wall. The Shadow Pokemon then arched his head back, and fired a collosal typhoon of energy at Charizard, destroying a good bunch of the wall and causing the opposing Charizard to faint.

Bair grit his teeth as he retrieved his Pokemon. "Impressive." he spoke. "But I still posses more Pokemon. Go, Gyarados!"

Reece looked at the imposing Water/Flying type. He blinked once. "Sunny Day!" he then ordered. Charizard roared, and shot a ball of light into the air. "Sunshine Lollipops, and rainbows, everywhere." Reece sung quietly for the hell of it.

"Gyarados, Surf!" Bair yelled. Reece kept his smirk up. "Use Flamethrower." he yelled as Gyarados created the deadly tidal wave. "Use Solar Beam!"

Charizard whipped his head forward and fired a dark purple ray of energy that tore straight through the tidal wave and hit Gyarados, visibly burning the Pokemon's scales. Charizard then took flight to avoid the water. "Flamethrower!"

Charizard shot out a cone of superheated flames striaght at Gyarados, burning it's powerful scales. "Now Shadow Rush!" Reece commanded. Charizard glid down and clawed and swiped at the Atrocious Pokemon, before slapping it to the ground with a tail swipe.

Reece blew a bit of his hair off his eye. Charizard attempt to claw at Gyarados, but Bair retrieved it much to the chargrin of the Fire/Flying type. Instead, it breathed it's intesified flames into the air. Reece laughed. "Anything else?" he asked, eying the electric bulletein board's changes.

Bair pulled out another Pokeball. "Not yet Reece." he said. "That Charizard can't keep fighting forever." the man then through the Pokeball, and out came Tropius. "Outrage!"

The Grass/Flying type took flight, and charged right at Charizard surrounded by flames. "Shadow Rush!" Reece ordered in retaliation. Charizard surrounded himself in similar black flames, and smashed right into Tropius, overpowering it and knocking it down.

"Now Flamethrower!"

Charizard blasted a wheel of flames at Tropius, knocking it out. The sun also disappeared at that attack, but Reece knew he didn't need it. Bair retrieved Tropius. "Alright Reece." he said, as the Electric Board changed to accomadate to the changes.

"Fight Well Gliscor!" Bair yelled. He threw the last Pokeball, and out came the Fang Scorp Pokemon. "Flamethrower!" Reece ordered. "Protect!" Bair yelled, and the Pokemon responded by creating a green shield around itself.

As the flames bounced off, Reece noticed that Gliscor was poisoned. "Wait, what?" he said. "Flamthrower again!"

This time, Charizard shot the flames as a meteor like ball, and blew it at Gliscor, doing about one third of the Pokemon's total damage. However, it seemed that Gliscor then recovered 25% of that. Reece grit his teeth. He'd heard of Poison Heal before.

"Strike em with Stone Edge Gliscor!" Bair commanded. Volleys of rocks shot out of Gliscor's wings at high speeds, and struck Charizard, doing massive damage.

"Sunny Day!" he yelled. Charizard fired a ball of light into the air. "Now use Flamethrower!" Reece yelled. Charizard shot a blast of flames at Gliscor, hitting it and doing around 1/2 of it's max HP in damage. However, it then recovered 1/4 of it's HP.

"Stone Edge!"

Gliscor fired more stones at Charizard, but the Pokemon took flight, and then did a sky dive straight to the Pokemon. "Shadow Rush!" Reece yelled. Charizard covered itself in a shadowy aura, and scored a straight critical hit.

Gliscor fell to the ground, and Charizard decided to finish it. It's tail flame roared, and the air around it started to boil as the Fire/Flying type shot the deadly cone of flame at Gliscor, destroying the wall behind them by melting it to slag.

Bair retrieved his burnt Pokemon. "Such power..." he said. "You won Reece."

Reece retireved Charizard. "I got the Altitude Badge!" he cheered. "Indeed." Bair said. He fished something out of his pocket, and threw it to Reece. "Enjoy." he said, as he threw the badge.

The badge looked like a bunch of pressure symbols and, and Reece held it in his hand. "Time to go." he said, slowly walking out. Bair heard a ringing noise as Reece was getting out. He pulled out his Battle Scanner.

"WHAT?" Reece heard Bair yell angrily. The Boy turned around. "Reece!" he yelled. "I need your help! The Pokemon Lab is being attacked!"

Chapter 61:Sky High Chaos: Reece Style
Simply reading this title will say a lot about this chapter. And I mean a lot...

Reece and Bair ran outside. As soon as they did, they were hit by a huge blast of cold air. There was a group of civilians by. Reece looked up. "Oh freaking god."

Up in the sky, a glowing, icy silhouette was circling around in the sky, firing blast of ice at other flying Pokemon. On top was a shining object. Bair also looked up. "What the hell?" he yelled. "That's the Legendary Pokemon Articuno!"

"Team Luminious..." Reece said in a shocked voice. Bair looked over. "The terrorist organization?" he asked. "They are behind this?"

The two then darted to the side as a blast of fire came there way, nearly scorching them both. Reece turned his head and saw that the attack had come from a Typhlosion. Reece grit his teeth. "Go, Pupitar!" he yelled. The Hard Shell Pokemon emerged from it's Pokeball, facing thr grunt.

"Oh no..." the armor clad grunt squeaked. "It's Reece the Light Destroyer!"

Reece got a confused look on his face. "Reece the Light Destroyer?" he asked. "Whatever happened to Infidel?" he asked, turning to the grunt. Bair looked to them. "Our files say you have a long history with these guys."

Reece smirked. "Well..." he said. "I think I'm going to live up to my namesake. Pupitar, Bulldoze!" he yelled. The Rock/Ground type smashed into the ground, and a tremor of energy shook the streets. The Typhlosion was knocked out instantly.

Reece and Bair ran forward. "Damn!" Bair said. "I just got a call! The entire city is crawling with Team Luminious Agents!" he yelled. "Reece! They're attacking the underground Lab and the above ground lab!" he yelled. Reece got running. "I'll go fro the above ground one!" he yelled.

The boy rounded a corner. However, as he did, he was met with an army of flying type Pokemon. Pupitar followed behind him. As they did, each of the Pokemon attacked with a combinded Air Cutter attack. "Crap!" Reece yelled. As he braced himself, a huge blast of ice tore through the combined attacks and knocked each of the Pokemon to the ground.

Reece loked behind him to see Hanzo, his coat flowing in the breeze. He looked at Reece, his Sneasel hopping to the ground next to him.

"That was sick." Reece complimented. Hanzo shot him a look. "I'll grill you for ditching me later." he said. "Right now, we have a bunch of idiots to take care of."

Reece nodded. "The lab they are attacking isn't far from here." the silver hair boy told him. "And it seems whoever is on the Articuno has yet to notice us."

"I'm dead sure that's Mattheaus." Hanzo told Reece. "But we need to hurry and not go wild mass guessing."

"Agreed. Let's get moving!" Reece retrieved Pupitar, and the two trainers got moving. They rounded a few corners, and saw a few team Luminious Grunts crowding around the exact building they were trying to enter. Reece and Hanzo hid behind a building. "You have a Houndoom, right Hanzo?"

Hanzo plucked a Pokeball off his belt and rolled it over to the grunts. Without them noticing, the ball opened up and revealed Hanzo's Houndoom. As soon as the grunts noticed, they all screamed "EVIL POKEMON!" more or less at the same time. This also gave Hanzo's Gallade the distraction it needed.

"Gallade! Psychic!"

The Psychic/Fighting Type's eyes flashed, and each of the grunt were immediately pinned to the ground by a psychic pressure. Reece hi fived Hanzo. "Good job." the red haired boy said to Reece. "That was a marvelous plan."

"Now, ready to go inside an kick some @$$?" he asked.

Hanzo nodded. "Lets."

The two boys quickly ran inside. Reece made sure to stomp on a few of the grunts of the way in. "Take that!" he yelled. One of the grunts spat at him. "INFINDEL!"

"Oh shut up ya drama queen." Hanzo yelled, before kicking him in the head.

Reece and Hanzo ran inside the building. The be clear of the damage done, it looked like someone ransacked the place like that unffortunate house back in Cerulean City, then set a bomb off.

The receptionist was at the side, clutching her arm. "H-help..." she said... Reece went over. "What happened? What the Hell does Team Luminious want?" he asked.

The receptionist caughed up blood. "The...the...cloning machine..." she said weakly. Reece them moved his eyes to a rather unnerving amount of blood coming out of her arm. The receptionist noticed. "I'll be fine..." she said, clearly lying. "GO!"

"There's not much we can do Reece." Hanzo said. "We need to stop Team Luminious!"

Reece nodded. "If we're lucky, we still have time. We need to move quickly!" Hanzo and Reece then started to run down the hall on the left side. Two Team Luminious Grunts were running towards them. "Halt Infidels!" they shouted. Sneasel hopped off Hanzo's shoulder, and got ready to fight. Reece sent out Sceptile.

The two grunts sent out a Glalie, and a Gardevoir. Reece smirked. "Sceptile, Leaf Blade on Glalie!" he yelled. Sceptile charged forward, and created a vaccuum as it hit the Ice Type in the face, knocking it back with shards of ice flying all over.

"Sneasel, Beat Up on Gardevoir!" Hanzo yelled. Sneasel charged forward, and just before she sliced Gardevoir, an illusory copy of Reece's Sceptile, Charizard, and Crobat all appeared, along with copies of Hanzo's Gallade and Breloom. In a quick instant, everything turned dark as each of the Pokemon hit three times in quick succession, and then Sneasel hit the sixteenth time, with a symbol of dark energy appearing and a notable gash across the Pokemon's side.

"Glalie! Use Ice Beam on Sceptile!" the grunt yelled. Glalie fired a thin blast of cold at Sceptile. "Block it!" Hanzo yelled. Sneasel leaped in front of the attack, and took the attack, showing not much pain. "Now Brick Break!" both Reece and Hanzo yelled. Both Pokemon charged forward and smashed into the Ice Pokemon, knocking it out. The grunts then ran.

"We got to get going before the send an army!" Hanzo yelled. Reece knew it was likely to late, considering they made around 85 Decibels of noise, the same as a Smoke Alarm.

The two boys ran down the hall, only to encounter about six grunts running their way. Reece looked over. "Take the right?" he asked. Hanzo smiled. "Hell yes." he said. "Just don't lose."

"Halt infidels!" one of the grunts yelled (again). Reece looked over. "Make me."

The grutns divided into two groups. One of the left, one on the right. "Knew it." Reece said, smiling. He plucked three Pokeballs off his belt. Sceptile, Charizard, and Pupitar.

"Time to die, Reece the Light Destroyer!" the middle grunt facing him said. Reece smirked. "Yeah, not happening ya bunch of psychos." he said, throwing his three Pokeball, ordering left to right respectively. As soon as Charizard was sent out, Hanzo's attention turned for a second of horror, then turned back again, sending out his Pokemon.

From left to right (Reece's POV) the grunts sent out Gallade, Metagross, and Infernape. "Let's do this!" Reece shouted. "Charizard, use Flamethrower on Metagross, Pupitar, use Bulldoze! Sceptile, slice Gallade with Leaf Blade!"

Charizard arced his head back and blasted dark tinted flames at Metagross, and it attemped to block the attack with it's forlegs.

"Gallade, use Leaf Blade!" one grunt yelled. Gallade and Sceptile clashed at high speeds, creating a vaccuum blast. "Infernape, Rock Slide!" another yelled. Infernape created a bunch of rocks that fell on Pupitar and Charizard, only enraging the latter.

Pupitar slammed itself into the ground, heavily damaging both Metagross and Infernape. However, it was not over yet.

"Shadow Rush on Infernape!" Reece yelled. Charizard went forward on the wing, and slammed into Infernape, digging his claws into the Monkey, then threw it at Metagross, knocking the Steel/Psychic Type down.

"Sceptile, Giga Drain!"

Sceptile started to glow gree as it started to draw out Gallade's life energy, healing itself. "X-Scissor!" Gallade's trainer yelled. The Psychic/Fighting type slashed Sceptile twice, knocking it back and giving it an X-like gash on it's chest. "Now Psycho Cut!"

"Counter with Leaf Blade!" Reece yelled. Gallade and Sceptile made their arm blades glow with their respective elemental energies, and clashed, creating a backwave of kinetic energy the angered Charizard further. The Pokemon roared, and fired a blast of flame at Metagross and Infernape without Reece's command. However, it scorched Metagross and made it faint. It's trainer retrieved it.

"Pupitar, use Hyper Beam on Infernape!" Reece commanded, trying to shrug off his worry. Pupitar fired a blast of Golden Energy straight at Infernape, knocking it unconscious with little effort.

Its Trainer retrieved it, and sent out another Pokemon along with Metagross. "Go, Druddigon!" Infernape's Traienr yelled.

"Go, Flygon!" Metagross's trainer yelled. Reece smirked. "No Challenge." he yelled. "Charizard, show this nuts the light!" he yelled. The Pokemon roared, and a very bright light appeared above their Battlefield. "Now, Dragon Pulse on Flygon!"

Charizard shot a Solar Power boosted Dragon Pulse at Flygon, doing a massive amount of damage. "Sceptile, use Leaf Blade on Gallade!"

Sceptile struck Gallade at high speeds, knocking it back and knocking it out, after it happened to be comically knocked into its Trainer. It's trainer retrieved it, and then sent out his last Pokemon. "Go, Xatu!" he shouted. Reece smirked. "Heh." he said. "Pupitar, use Hyper Beam on Druddigon!" he yelled.

Pupitar shot a golden blast of raw energy straight at Druddigon, knocking it back but not out, much to Reece's chagrin. "Damn." he yelled. "Charizard, Sceptile! Double Dragon Pulse on Flygon!"

Both the Grass Pokemon and the Fire/Flying Pokemon shot a Typhoon of energy at the Mystic Pokemon, knocking it out. However, Charizard was now visibly hurt from the overuse of it's Solar Power ability.

"Druddigon, Rock Slide!" the grunt on the right yelled. Druddigon made many rocks fall on top of both Charizard and Pupitar. The Flame Pokemon then became enraged, and started to glow with a Shadowy Aura. The Pokemon rushed towards Druddigon, and grabbed it, ripping off a hunk of flesh before driving it through the wall.

The grunts watched in horror as Reece's Charizard then took Druddigon, and used it like a giant warhammer to brutally beat Xatu and the poor Pokemon it was using as a weapon into unconsciousness. By the time it did, blood, scales, and feathers were scattered all over the floor, along with the blood on the Fire/Flying claws. The Pokemon then roared in its triumph, stomping on Druddigon till it's trainer retrieved it, along with Xatu's traienr retrieving his Pokemon. The grunts then ran like hell.

Reece retrieved his Pokemon just in time to spot Hanzo's Sneasel knocking out all three of her opponent's Pokemon at once with her Blizzard attack.

Reece smiled. "Looks like we won." he said. "No doubt we would though." Hanzo retrieved his Pokemon, and looked over to Reece, recoiling in fear when he saw what his Charizard had done. His coat stopped flowing in the breeze.

"Reece..." he said. "Aren't you...ya know..." he asked. Reece looked at the Trainer. "What?"

"Worried about what you just saw your Pokemon do?" he asked. Reece shrugged. "Not really."

Hanzo had no time to argue morals. "Let's get to the lab." he said. "It's up ahead." Reece said, quickly running ahead with Reece following.

The two entered a room on the side. In there, several team Luminious Grunts were holding the old Scientist Reece met last week. He looked over to Reece, revealing a bleeding forehead and a black eye. "QUICK BOY! THE TABLE!"

Reece looked over to the Table, and saw a Pokeball. Reece ran over and grabbed it, before the Luminious Grunts could stop him. He opened up the ball. "Go!" he yelled. Out of the ball came a dragon-like Pokemon. A pterodactyl like shape then came.

"Aerororor!" The Pokemon shouted. It then showed many rows of razor sharp teeth. They tried run out, but Hanzo made sure the wouldn't. "Breloom!" he yelled, throwing a Pokeball. "Use Sky Uppercut!"

Faster than what Reece could track, the Pokemon then sliced down the three grunts, knocking them out and shredding their armor. Reece looked to the Scientist. "Are you okay?" he asked, retrieving his Pokemon.

The man spat blood to the side. "Bah, do I look okay you little whippersnappers?" he asked. Reece sweatdropped. "Can you tell us what they wanted?"

"The cloning machine you dolt!" he yelled. "They already sent the blueprints! The Articuno attacking the city and the attack on the lab underground are just distractions!" he yelled.

"So, there's nothing we can do now, is there?" Hanzo said. The Scientist looked at them. "Get to the roof, and stop the Admin from getting the data chip!" he yelled. "BEFORE IT HAPPENS AND THEY GET AWAY!" Reece then ran over to the healing machine in the room, and put his Pokemon in.

Reece turned to Hanzo. "Let's go." he said. The scientist got up. "There's a secret door a few paces from the door to this room leading to the roof." he said. "You'll need it to get there in time, but only a strong Psychic Type can open it." he said.

Reece smirked and ran outside. "Covered!" he said. Hanzo ran outside, and dropped a Pokeball. "Reece, let me handle this." he said, as he sent out Starmie. "Open the door with Psychic." the red head ordered. The door glowed, and a bunch of flames blasted out. "Surf."

Starmie shot a blast of Water at the flames, extinguishing it, and swamping out several fire types and grunts. "Knew it." Hanzo said, walking through the door. "Coming Reece?"

Reece walked through. "Well." he thought. "At least I get an Aerodactyl and a chance to use it soon." he said. They two then started to run up the stairs. "We should be at the top soon." Hanzo said. And the boy was right; They saw a door, and Hanzo's Starmie opened it.

Snow. Lots of snow poured out. "!!!"

"What the hell?!?" Reece exclaimed, before he walked out. He looked around. At the side was a glowing bird Pokemon. "Articuno..." Reece said silently. At his feet, he and Hanzo noticed someone. Mattheaus was standing, getting something from a grunt.

Reece spent no time. "Go, Charizard!" he yelled. He sent the flaming Pokemon out. "REECE YOU IDIOT!" Hanzo yelled as his partner sacrificed their element of suprise. Mattheaus turned over. "Reece the Light Destroyer." the admin said. "We knew you were going to show up." he said. "But you're too late. The sins of this city have been frozen under the ices of hell."

Reece clenched his fist. "Charizard! Use Sunny Day!" he yelled. "Show them the sun!" Charizard roared, and a blast of light was launched into the air. The sun started to shine, and the powdery snow that was raining down in torrents disappeared.

"Articuno, smite the infidel with Signal Beam!" Mattheaus yelled. Articuno shot a red and green beam that wrapped aroudn eachother and headed to Reece. However Charizard swiped the beam, deflecting it at Articuno, notably wounding it. Reece got on Charizard's back. The Pokemon was large, more than enough to support him, and definitely more than the average.

Mattheaus made a powerful jump onto the back of Articuno. The two trainers looked at eachother fiercely. "Flamethrower!" Reece yelled. Charizard shot ultra intense flames at Articuno, causing it to recoil in pain. "Shadow Rush!" Reece then yelled.

Reece felt a chilling dark aura surround him, as he Pokemon rushed straight at Articuno. "Reflect!" Mattheaus yelled. A pink barrier appeared over the Pokemon, and Charizard went through it, only doing normal damage to the Pokemon.

At this point, the tow trainers were flying over the city, a battle in the skies that raged above the frozen wasteland below them.

"Ancient Power!" Mattheaus ordered. A bunch of rocks glowing with purple energy were raised up and launched at Charizard, making it roar in pain. "Flamethrower!" Reece yelled. The Pokemon disobieded, using Shadow Rush and tearing at the Pokemon's flesh, knocking it back by tail.

Mattheaus watched his Pokemon bleed. "Horrid Infidel!" he yelled. "Articuno! Blizzard!" he yelled. Articuno shot a huge blat of ice at Charizard, but the draconian Pokemon flew to the side, and fired a cone of flames at Articuno, once again without it's trainer's command.

"Fire a Solarbeam!" Reece yelled. "Damn it!" he thought. "Why won't he listen to me? Any Pokemon up to Level 70 should listen to me!"

Charizard fired a Solarbeam at Articuno. The Pokemon dodged to the side, and Charizard fired more in quick succession. The artificial sun then disappeared, and Mattheus grinned. "Hail!" he yelled. "Cover the city with your holy blizzards once more!"

Articuno gave one powerful flap of it's wings, and once again, a torrent of snow started to come from above. Only the instense heat from Charizard kept Reece from freezing to death. "FLAMETHROWER!" Reece commanded. Charizard responded by shooting a meteor like blast of flame at Articuno, scorching it again.

"Blizzard!" Mattheaus yelled. Articuno fired a huge blast of powerful cold energy at Charizard, engulfing it in ice. Reece feared that it would Freeze Charizard, dooming them both. The Pokemon kept flying, and flew to the side, shooting a Dragon Pulse, disobeying Reece again. The typhoon was dodged by Articuno however as it flew to the side. Instead, the blast hit a building, pretty much demolishing it.

"Blizzard!" Mattheaus screamed. Articuno fired another Blizzard, engulfing both Charizard and Reece in ice. Reece held on to the Shiny Shadow Pokemon for dear life. "Nggh!" he grunted. "Shadow Rush!"

Charizard roared like a dragon, and then collided into Articuno at great speeds. There was a horrible bone cracking noise, and Articuno started to spiral out of the sky. "NO!" Matthaeus yelled, as he started to fall. "Get back up Articuno! NO!"

Charizard roared as it's foe fell like a fallen angel into the nearby lands. The roar went thoughout the city, seemingly as a sign to all who dare oppose the Pokemon. Reece and his Shiny Shadow Pokemon landed, right at the building where their battle started.

"Reece." the boy said as the trainer retrieved his Pokemon. "I think he's still out there." he said. "I would hope so." Reece replied. "I don't want to kill anyone..."

Hanzo blinked. "We better get going."

Just then, a Skarmory came up behind the two, with Bair riding on top. The bird Pokemon landed. "Reece!" he yelled. "They stole it!" he screamed in panic. He was breathing rapidly through the oxygen mask. "Stole what?" Hanzo asked.

"The Rayquaza cells!" Bair screamed. "They stole the Rayquaza cells!"

Hanzo's eyes widened. "With that cloning machine...they could."

Reece looked in the direction Articuno had fallen to see a blue blur fly into a nearby forest. This forest seemed to stretch up high, and be surrounded by a dense mist.

"We need to catch them."

Pursuit Arc
Reece threw a Pokeball into the icy maelstrom. Out came the Aerodactyl he recieved earlier. "Let's go!" he yelled, jumping on the pterodactyl's back. The Pokemon roared, and soared like a rocket through the snow and above the jungle.

Hanzo watched. "The Aerial Jungle?" he asked Bair. "He won't last five minutes, won't he?" Bair looked over, and shook his head. Hanzo threw a Pokeball. "Let's go Skarmory!" he yelled, throwing the Pokeball. The Armor Bird came out of the Pokeball, and Hanzo jumped on it.

"Find Matt and Kara!" he yelled to Bair, hoping he knew them.

Reece and his Aerodactyl were overtaken with mist and the sheer exotic value of the jungle they were in. The trees had to reach up at least 2-300 feet, and the ground was not visible under the layers of mist. There were many platforms and bridges supporting the area, allowing travel through the area.

Reece smirked. he was on a prehistoric Pokemon. "Forward Aerodactyl!" Reece yelled. "Aeaero!" The Pokemon raored, and moved forward with a great speed. Reece kept his calm, trying to spot Articuno or Mattheaus through the mist as his Pokemon charged forward, avoiding trees and other obstacles.

Hanzo showed up at Reece's side. His Skarmory was dodging trees the same way Reece's Aerodactyl was, with much more efficiency however. Reece looked at the blue coated boy. "Sweet. You showed up." he said happily and a bit snarkily. Hanzo looked back. "I'll keep watch from below." he said. "Stay up here and make sure they don't escape!"

"Didn't count on it."

Chapter 62: Movement and Agility
Reece watched as Hanzo and his Skarmory dipped below the mist. Reece kept on. However, he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had developed a sort of sixth sense for Pokemon battles. "Something's up ahead." he thought. "It ain't Articuno though."

As he thought this, a swarm of four Tropius popped up in front of him. Reece took initiative. "Aerodactly! Stone Edge on the one on the far right!"

The Prehistoric Pokemon roared, and fired a bunch of stones out of its wings at said Tropius, knocking it down. The others reponded by making a tighter formation in the trees.

Reece motioned to his Pokemon. "Charge the blockade with Steel Wing!" Reece yelled, before jumping off the Pokemon.As he fell, Reece watched Aerodactyl take down another Tropius with Steel Wing. He then felt a psychic power stop his fall, and turn him upright on a platform.

"Hyper Beam the last two!" Reece commanded. Aerodactyl then dodged a dual balst of Solarbeams, then shot a golden ray of energy at the last two Tropius, knocking them out.

"Brillaint plan Alakazam." Reece then said. "Thanks." Alakazam replied telepathically. "I do my best."

Reece then did a parkour jump through the platforms, his Aerodactyl following at his side. "May I suggest something?" Alakazam asked. "Sceptile is ridicolously fast in a jungle, and I think that we could use that."

Reece plucked the Pokeball off his belt. "Go, Sceptile!" he yelled, opening up the Pokeball. The Forest Pokemon flew out, and on to a tree. Like a ninja, it moved straight threw the jungle terrain. Reece formed a plan. "Aerodactyl, fly ahead, and keep just close enough to see you." he said, before jumping to another platform and breaking into another run.

Aerodactyl flapped his wongs and went forward, just enough for Reece and Sceptile to hsee it through the mist. As the duo continued forward, watching Aerodactyl, Reece once again felt something.

It was cold air.

It was the same chillnig cold from Articuno, meaning the Pokemon was nearby. And he knew cold air dropped, meaning...

Sceptile grabbed Reece and dragged him to the side just as a blast of cold death nearly hit him. Reece looked over as Articuno landed with a massive thud. The boy looked at Mattheaus and scowled. "Sceptile! Leaf Blade!"

Sceptile blinked out of sight, and hit Articuno across the chest with a glowing slash to fast to see. It then bounced off a tree, and repeated the attack, then landed by Reece. The Legendary Pokemon bellowed in pain as Sceptile hit it.

"You won't win in trhe jungle!" Reece yelled as Aerodactyl returned to his side. "Sceptile is unstoppable here!" Mattheaus scowled, and Articuno turned to them. "Blizzard!" the Team Luminious Admin yelled. Articuno shot a blastof cold air at Reece, Sceptile, and Aerodactyl, knocking down the former, and freezing the latter solid, causing the Fossil Pokemon and it's traienr to fall down into the misty abyss below.

Sceptile managed to dodge, and electrified his fist, then smashed Articuno with the attack. However, it noticed Reece falling, and went to save its trainer.

"Follow!" Mattheaus commanded the Articuno he was riding. The Pokemon dived down, a blue flame in it's eyes. Reece was falling, and clutching his arm. Alakazam then used it's psychic powers to slow the fall as they hit the ground, sparing Reece getting every bone he had broken.

Sceptile landed next to Reece and the ice block that Aerodactyl was in. The two then heard a noise. "Gyaaoooh!"

They looked up, and saw that Articuno had been slashed by a Steel Wing attack. "Skarmory, use Air Cutter!" Hanzo then ordered from a top his armor bird Pokemon. Skarmory created several blades of wind inside it's sword like feathers, and launched them at Articuno.

"Ancient Power!" Mattheaus ordered. The legendary Pokemon angrily raised some rocks from the ground, and launched them at Skarmory's wind blades, causing the blades to fall apart, and the rocks to smash Skarmory. Hanzo then smirked. "Sneasel, Beat Up!"

Sneasel came down from a tree, and moved like a blade of darkness over to around Articuno, hitting it 15 times before slashing it one final time. Mattheaus's grip didn't waver. "Signal Beam on Sneasel!" he ordered. Articuno fired a blast of energy at Sneasel, but the Pokemon dodged. At the same time, Reece's Sceptile charged at the Articuno with a Thunderpunch.

"STAY AWAY INFIDELS!" Mattheaus cried, and Articuno responded by unleashing an explosion of cold energy at all the fores surrounded it. Sceptile and Skarmory were knocked out. Hanzo jumped off his Pokemon before it hit the ground. Articuno then took flight again, attempting to escape.

Reece retrieved his Pokemon, and looked to Hanzo. "We need to keep moving." he yelled. Hanzo nodded, and his Sneasel jumped on his shoulder. "Let's move it!" he yelled. Both trainers started running through the dark, damp forest floor.

Mattheaus made little effort to hide the fact he was desperate. "Blizzard!" he yelled from above. Articuno shot a blast of cold air at the two heroes below him. Hanzo threw up a Pokeball. "Fire Blast!" he yelled, at the Pokeball opened, and a blast of flames arced out and struck the Blizzzard, stopping it. Hanzo caught the ball, and kept running.

"Reflect!" Mattheaus commanded. Articuno created a layer of Psychic energy that stretched in front of the sight of Reece and Hanzo.

"Brick Break!" Hanzo yelled wouthout stopping. Sneasel jumped off his shoulder, and smashed the wall.

"Hog all the glory why don't ya?" Reece asked jokingly.

"Joke in a totally serious situation why don't ya?" Hanzo shot back with a smile.

Articuno was making twist and turns to escape at it's master's command. Then, Mattheaus had a revelation. "Ascend!" he yelled. Articuno drafted upwards, disappearing from sight. Reece cursed. "Great, we lost him." Reece gimaced.

"Have Alakazam do it." Hanzo replied. Reece smiled. Alakazam did so within it's Pokeball, teleporting the two higher up. "I feel like one of those cars you people use." the psi Pokemon replied. Reece and Hanzo started their parkour-esque running through the forest canopy again.

"Quiet." Reece said with a smile. "And I may just give you a cookie."

As one would think, the two trainers were starting to lose the legenedary Pokemon, and that was not a good thing. The Pokemon's speed, even hampered by the weight of it's trainer, was now starting to overtake the visibly tired trainers.

"Damn it!" Hanzo yelled. "We're losing them!"

"Now would be a good moment for a miracle of at least good porportions."

"Wait five minutes. Something will happen."

As Hanzo said that, Articuno fired a bunch of glowing rocks at the two trainers. Both Reece and Hanzo dodged to the side.

"ARTICUNO! USE HAIL!" They then heard Mattheaus shout. "Gyaaaaaooo!" Articuno bellowed. At that moment, the moisture in the air froze, and started coming the way of the trainer's as snow. "Crap!" Reece yelled.

Hanzo charged forward, but Reece was forced to leap to the side. The boy was not resilient enough to bare the deathly winds. But he could pull a Pokeball. "Go! Pupitar!" he yelled. The Ball opened up, and out came the Hard Shell Pokemon.

"Rock Slide!" Reece yelled. Pupitar raised several rocks into the air, and the launched them at Articuno. The Pokemon started to fall, towards the forest floor, and Reece watched as it descened. "Alakazam, get us down there!" he yelled.

Reece and Pupitar disappeared in a flash of light, and ended up on the forest floor. Above them, Articuno was falling like a rock. "Rock Slide!" Reece yelled.

Pupitar raised a bunch of rocks off the ground and fired them like missles at the Ice/Flying Type. The Pokemon's wings werte hit, and it fell once more. However, Mattheaus then decided on a gambit. "Return, Articuno!" he yelled, before retrieving his Pokemon. The admin then grabbed a branch and flipped back up into the top section.

"Not this time!" Hanzo yelled, before throwing a Pokeball.

Out came his Starmie, and the Pokemon raced towards the admin at ultra high speeds. The man looked at the Pokemon. "Go, Gallade!" he yelled, throwing a Pokemon. "Thunder Bolt!"

A peal of lightning shot out and hit Starmie, as the Gallade landed on the platform. Mattheaus kept running. He pretty much had no choice. Hanzo sent out his Gallade "Use Leaf Blade!" he screamed. "Pupitar, use Hyper Beam!" Reece yelled.

The two pokemon camoe out of their Pokeball, and launched their respective attacks, hitting the respective Pokemon...or so they thought. The Pokemon had opted to use Protect, which was a damper on them.

"Gallade, strike again with Leaf Blade!" Hanzo shouted to his Pokemon. "Use Dark Pulse!" Reece commanded Pupitar. The Pokemon then shot their attacks, knocking back the enemy Gallade. However, the Pokemon rushed forward, and struck Pupitar with a Brick Break.

"Psycho Cut!" Hanzo ordered.

His Gallade focused its mental energies, then shot a blade of energy at the enemy Gallade, knokcking it back. "Hyper Beam!" Reece yelled. Pupitar shot a golden ray of energy straight at the Psychic/Fighting foe, knocking it back futher.

Hanzo then smirked. "Beat Up!"

From behind Gallade, Sneasel jumped at the Pokemon's back, and everything went dark as visages of all of Hanzo's conscious Pokemon appeared. This was followed by many strikes to the body, followed by the powerful strike from Hanzo's Sneasel.

The Blade Pokemon fell over, and Reece and Hanzo looked to the distance. "This is bad." Hanzo said. "Crazy Plan of his gave him the window needed to escape."

"We better get going." Reece said. "We need to get to the end." the boy explained. "Or things for us are gonna suck."

The two ran forward again. However, it was clear at a very pessimistic point that they were not gonig to catch the trainer. And with a few of Reece's Pokemon already down, along with Hanzo's Skarmory, the team had only one method of flight still active.

And Hanzo had no faith in it...

The team of two kept moving, and to great success. The mist was starting to clear just slightly, and Reece smirked. "Soon, he's not gonna have anywhere to hide!" the boy commented.

"Ideally, we'll stop him before he exits, and before our legs give out." Hanzo commented. "So far, I don't see the that happening."

They kept moving, until they saw a figure in the distance. Mattheaus. The two immediately realized something was wrong, and stopped. The trainer looked at them with a smirk. "So nice of you two infidels to drop in." he said. "Gallade, Psycho Cut!"

The two barely had the time to realize that they'd been played. The blade Pokemon dropped down onto the platform, and destroyed it with a powerful Psycho Cut. "No!" Hanzo yelled. "I shouldof known that battle was too easy!" he yelled in anger as he, his Sneasel, Reece, and his Pupitar fell to the forest floor.

As one would naturally think, Alakazam moved them to the side and out of harm's way with its psychic powers. "Let's..." Reece started.

"Do this." Hanzo finished. Reece's Alakazam (who was being a tad bit overworked as of recently) flung them back up to the canopy telekinetically.

The mist was thinning. Reece made sure he knew what his plan was as he escaped the forest: Raise hell on Mattheaus.

Hanzo had hisown plan: Obviously, the Team Luminious Admin had a plan, but was running out of ideas. If they could brave more of his plans, they'd survive. If not... he tried not to think of it.

Reece jumped to another platform. "Heh..." he thought. "This must be great for your bod." he then did another quick jump to another platform, using a burst of air from his running shoes to propel himself farther. Reece then had a notable epiphany.

"Hanzo!" Reece yelled. "I have an idea." he said. "I'll go around, and you strike from this path!" he yelled. Hanzo looked over, jumping to another platform. "What will that accomplish?" he rushed the boy, before they both jumped to another platform.

Reece looked back to him. "Just trust me!" he yelled. "And make sure of tow things! He's at the canopy, and on Articuno when he escapes the forest!"

Hanzo seriously hoped Reece knew what he was doing. "Okay." he said against his better judgement. "I'll do it!" he yelled.

Reece then took a turn. He started jumping to platforms on the side, and out of Hanzo's line of sight. The red head boy's coat flowed in the wind, and he hurried on. His movement speed was no faster with Reece off his feet, but the inverse was certainly not true.

Hanzo jumped several more platforms before making it to another platform where he saw Mattheaus waiting. "Mattheaus!" he yelled. "No more tricks! This is a straight up battle!" he yelled.

Mattheaus smirked. "That sounds acceptable, Infidel." he said. "A one on one battle?" he said, his Gallade stepping forth. "Sounds right." Hanzo replied, his Sneasel stepping forward. "Sneasel, use Blizzard!"

Hanzo's Pokemon shot a blast of Ice and snow forward from her hands, which caused Gallade to flinch in pain. "Brick Break!" Mattheaus yelled.

Gallade hit Sneasel with the Fighting Type punch, and did quadruple damage sufficent enough to knock the Pokemon back, but she used her claws to slow herself.

"Dark Pulse!" Hanzo commanded. Sneasel then put her hands forward, and fired many rings of Dark Energy at Gallade, causing the Pokemon to yell in pain. "Now, Shadow Ball!" Hanzo continued. A shpere of shadowy energy struck the Blade Pokemon from the side, and caused even more howls of pain.

"Such evil Power!" Mattheaus yelled. "It shall not go unchecked! Strike with Leaf Blade!" the admin ordered. Gallade charged forward with great speeds, but before the Pokemon collided, Hanzo ordered his trump card. "Beat Up!"

Illusory copies of all but Hanzo's Skarmory appeared, and then it all went dark for Gallade. The combined damage knocked the Pokemon back and highly damaged the area. Hanzo needed to time this just right. Gallade fell over, and it's Trainer retrieved it.

Mattheaus spent no time throwing out a Pokeball. "I summon Articuno!" he yelled, and made sure to quickly jump on the area were Articuno appeared. The Pokemon quickly made its escape at it's Trainer's command, and Hanzo ran as fast as humanly possible.

Hanzo and his Sneasel made a few sharp movements, and managed to see the end of the Aerial Jungle, with Articuno flying though it. He made it to one of the platforms on the end, and then saw Articuno flying high into the air.

"Flamethrower!"

A quick, missile like shot of flame arced out at Articuno, travelling at massive speeds and creating a large explosion when it hit the Pokemon.

"Direct hit!" Reece said from ground level.

Chapter 63: The Cave of Nightmares
Hanzo jumped down, and watched as the high flying Articuno fell from the sky, starting to dip. Reece was waiting at the bottom with his Charizard when Hanzo slowed his fall via his Gallade's psychic abilities.

"Brilliant." the boy said, his coat flowing in the wind. The two saw Articuno make a turn to the west. It was descending towards a bunch of rocky hills.

"Oh crap." Reece and Hanzo said. As if the Jungle and the fact that they were tired, hungry, and in a lot of pain from all that they just went through, the person they were hunting down was heading to likely the most dangerous place that the two would ever go.

"The Aerial Hills." Hanzo said, scowiling. "We may as well get moving." he then said to Reece. The Silver haired boy turned his head. "Yeah. And besides; I've done so much dangerous crap in the last 2 months I see no good reason to be terrified by just a bunch of highly dangerous terrain and death obsessed Ghost Pokemon."

Hanzo ignored that.

The two ran towards the few hills where Articuno crash landed. These areas, known as the Aerial Hills, where a bunch of windswept hills with a gorgeous scenery, and a breeze was always going. There was also a few Pokemon there, but predominantly, Ghost Pokemon.

Now, here's the creepy part: An old legend says that the reason there are so many ghost Pokemno was because people and Pokemon would go there and die at the horrific rock falls, or by the savage wild Pokemon in the area. Now, with the many overly vicious Pokemon in the area, this can easily be said to be more than a myth. Considering that this is Pokemon, it probably is.

The two ran forward, into the scenic foothills entering the route. The wind was already blowing through Reece's thick hair when they entered. The boy looked around, moving his gold striped hair parts out of the way of his eyes. The scenery would be something to enjoy if Reece didn't have a mission right now.

Hanzo looked ahead, his Sneasel on his shoulder still. "Reece, I just realized a major fact." he said, stopping. Reece skid to a halt himself. "What?" he asked.

"If for some reason, we end up finding a crap ton of hyper dangerous Pokemon with the current state of out teams, we're screwed."

Reece gulped. "Where's Kara when you need her?" he asked. "She always has like...a dozen revives on her." he said...

"I may be able to help." someone said. Reece and Hanzo looked over to see a familiar boy, about 17 years of age. "Daron!" Reece cheered. "What are you doing here?"

Daron sighed. "Well, I visit here often." he answer. Hanzo looked at him. "You lost someone here, didn't you?" he asked.

Daron shot him a look. "I guess it's pretty obvious." he replied. "But yes. Yes I did." he then looked to Reece. "Any reason you tow are here?"

"Simple." Reece said. "We're chasing someone from Team Luminious and his Pokemon." he said. "Then you came."

Daron pulled out a few items from his backpack. "I can't let you two go unhealed or alone." he said. "I don't want the same thing that happened to Meinine to happen to you."

He then eyed Hanzo. "Excuse me, but I never got your name." he said.

The redhead's coat flowed in the breeze. "Hanzo." he said. "You?"

"Daron."

"Daron--"

"Yes that Daron."

The three looked to the foothills. "We need to be careful." Daron said. "One false move, and it will spell death." he said.

Reece remembered something. "Oh, yeah, Daron." he said. The older boy looked over. "I forgot to mention this, but the Luminious Admin we're looking for was riding Articuno." he said. Daron gave him a half disgusted, half shocked look. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he said.

The three healed up and rushed to the foothills.

As they got over the first hill, Daron stopped them. "Watch out." he said. "This is the first real obstacle." he said, motioning to the rocks. "These rocks aren't just loose, they're Poke-sensitive."

"Meaning?" Reece asked.

"We try anything Pokemon related, or touch one ourselves, half those rocks will turn out to be Pokemon like Geodude. Anger one, and we risk it all collapsing." Daron warned.

"How the hell do we get past then?" Reece asked. "I'm not even sure I can make that jump." the boy said. The jump was not nearly as large as the cliff the boy jumped off a few weeks back, but it was still too much for him. Hanzo took a few steps back.

"Dude, you're not gonna make that jump." Daron said.

Hanzo cracked his fingers separetly. "Don't doubt my abilites." he said, before running forward, and making a leap of faith. He seemed to move slow mo a certain distance, then as his Sneasel jumped off, Hanzo landed, in a tumble, on the rocks, and tumbled down, landing on the end and crashing on the cliff wall.

"Hanzo!" Reece yelled.

"Oh crap..." Daron muttered, as he saw at least 20 Geodude get up, and started to shake and roar. Hanzo, still on the ground and starting to visibly bleed, shouted something. "Sneasel, now!"

Up in the air, Sneasel shot a Blizzard out towards the hill, not only knocking out all the Geodude, but creating a thick blanket of snow the Sharp Claw Pokemon gracefully landed on.

Faron watched. "Whoa..." he said, in a tone of great shock. "That was quite impressive." he complimented. He and Reece descended (Daron slow and carefully, Reece fast and recklessly).

"Hanzo, are you alright?!" Reece asked as he came to the bottom. The boy looked over. "Yeah." he said. "Just give me a minute." wiping a bit of blood off his face. "But we need to keep moving." he then added, his hair flowing in the breeze. "More likely than not, Mattheaus has managed to leave the crash."

"Yeah." Reece said. "We seriosuly better hurry."

Daron had already started running through the valley they were in. "Great idea, considering what could happen if you don't." he yelled. Reece and Hanzo heard a rumbling. The looked in the opposite direction. Rolling towards them was a bunch rocks. Graveler to be exact.

"No point fighting that." Hanzo said, before dashing away. Reece didn't hesitate to follow. The two did a dodge roll around a corner, and watched as the Graveler tumbled by.

"Jeeze." Reece said. "Four minutes, and all this has tried to kill me so far."

Daron happened to be on the other side of the alcove. "Watch out, some are coming into the corner!" he yelled, as a few Graveler rolled inside the alcove. All three trainers jumped as high as they could, using the rocks on the cliffside to dodge as three Graveler rolled in.

The herd of Pokemon finished their roll by, and then the ones that rolled in came out of ball form, and looked at the three trainers.

Reece smirked, and threw a Pokeball in front of the middle Graveler. "Go, Sceptile!" he yelled, and watched as the Pokemon emerged from the ball. Hanzo and Daron followed suit, sending out Breloom and Flygon respectively.

Reece was only concerned with his fight, however.

"Sceptile, use Leaf Blade!" he yelled. Sceptile charged forward, and very nearly slashed Graveler, but the Pokemon dodged to the side, and struck with a Rollout.

Sceptile was hitm and the Pokemon angrily lunged at Graveler. "Brick Break!" Reece yelled! Sceptile smashed Graveler with his fist, and then did a rolling dodge to the side.

The Graveler then moved to the side, and struck directly as the Forest Pokemon landed. "Use Dragon Pulse!" Reece yelled. Sceptile shot out a typhoon of energy straight at the Graveler, hitting it and knocking back its continued roll, but the Pokemon kept rolling faster and faster, and the energy pulse from Sceptile's mouth was broken through, and Graveler crashed into Sceptile like a cannon ball.

"Giga Drain!" Reece commanded. Sceptile did a swift, circular movement that allowed it to dodge the deadly attack of Graveler's fourth Rollout (from the sky no less) and threw his arms forward. The Pokemon then drained dry the Pokemon of it's energy, giving Reece the win.

Reece retireved Sceptile. As he did, the others retrieved their Pokemon. Reece poked his head out of the Alcove. "Hmm." he said. "Seems safe enough." he commented, hoping a gigantic ramaging Pokemon wouldn't come and attempt to elvel the area. To his relief, he was spared.

The boy walked out of the Alcove, with Hanzo and Daron following. Daron looked around. "It's safe...for no--" the others looked over.

The sun was setting in a rather beautiful sunset. However, things were olny made eerier by the presence of the now sinister sounding wind.

Reece shivered. "That..." he started, trying to describe the wind. "It sounded like a moan of pain and the sounds of many people crying mixed into one. It freaked Reece out. He wanted to scream, but something made it so he couldn't. He felt something crwawling up his leg, but the feeling then shifted several times to other parts of his body.

Daron grit his teeth. "It's the ghost Pokemon." he said. "The later at night, the more vicious they get." he said. Hanzo's cape flew with less life. "Then we better retrieve the chip, and leave." he said.

Daron ran forward, and the others followed at high speeds. They did NOT want to end of on the wrong end of a Ghost Pokemon's fork. And Ghost Pokemon don't just eat food, mind you. A good many of them will eat your soul. Who ever said Pokemon was a kids game?

But that's a whole other thing.

The three kept running. There was no point in stopping for anything, and they were lucky enough to avoid another rock fall. Hanzo and his Sneasel kep on guard. An eerie cold was now surrounding them as it all got darker. Daron stopped.

"Does anyone else hear that?" he asked. "I sure do." Reece replied. "And I'll tell you: I do NOT like it."

Hanzo's eyes widened. "Guys, watch out!" he yelled. Reece felt a cold breathing on his neck before jumping to the side. It was a Dusclops, and it quickly covered its fist in ice before punching Reece. The boy felt something punch him in the stomach, and then pain. Icy knives of pain.

Reece looked down. His breathing was rigid. The Pokemon had stuck it's hand through the trainer's stomach, and Reece could feel it pulling out his lifeforce. However, Hanzo's Sneasel then blasted the Ghost Pokemon with a Dark Pulse, knocking it out and causing it to turn into gasses.

Reece fell to the ground. "The cold...so cold..." Reece said, falling down. It felt like he had carved a bunch of knives out of Ice, and proceeded to stab himself over and over. It has a horrible cold.

"Reece!" Daron shouted. "It's an Illusion! It's not real!"

Reece was highly shocked at that. He got up, and turned around. "An illusion?" he asked, before realizing he was no longer painfully cold. "Oh..."

"See?"

"If that was an illusion, then I'd hate to see the real thing..." he said.

"They'll tear out your internal organs before ripping you in half Mortal Combat style." Hanzo said bluntly as he walked past, his Sneasel following. "Come on, we need to find the cave." he said.

The trainers continued, but now Reece started to become seriously paranoid about another Ghost Pokemon attack. Daron noticed this. "Reece, you can't feel any fear." he said.

Reece looked at him. "They're attracted to it, aren't they?" he asked. The older boy nodded. "Smart boy."

Reece took a deep breath, then breathed something in. "Snow..." he said. Indeed, there were snowflakes surrounding the area. "We're close." Hanzo said.

The three walked over another foothill. The ice and snow was getting worse. Reece then heard an noise. The air suddently grew much colder around the boy. Pokeball in hand, turned around and threw the ball. "Psybeam!" he yelled.

A blast of energy emerged from the Pokeball and hit the shadow behind him. It was a Gengar, and it evaportaed into vapor. Reece then saw, just before it the Pokemon dispersed, that it was about to burn him with the fire in its hand.

"I...hate...this...place..."

"We all do."

"I really didn't want to visit Reece." Daron added. "But I did, and I see it was a good move."

The three were forging to the top of the hill. Alakazam had opted to stay out of its Pokeball, just in case. "How terrorfying." Alakazam said sarcastically. "And yet such a picteresque landscape."

"Tell me about it." Reece said. "It's awful..."

Hanzo stop, and turned around. The breeze now sounded like someone gargling with blood. And if that was not enough, there was also the screaming. The screaming all around that was too real to be the wind. The three tried to ignore it...

But, over the hill, was Articuno. The Pokemon was resting in the fields. Mattheaus and his shining armor were standing around. Daron looked at it. "This guy is so bright." he said. "He should be being swarmed with ghost types."

"Maybe all that crap about their holy armor is true." Hanzo said.

"Or maybe, these psychos are so evil that the Ghost Pokemon don't dare go near them." Reece suggested. Hanzo looked over. "I can go with that."

"So, how are we going to go through with this?" Daron asked. Hanzo smirked. "If anything has proven overly useful, its the abilty for Reece and his Alakazam to teleport."

Reece looked over to Alakazam. "Normallly." the Pokemon said telepathically to the group. "I'd form a far better strategy that you'd be unable to follow anyway. Then I'd form a perfectly effective one, and you'd still say this is better due to your inferior human brains, so I'm not even going to waste my infinitely multiplying brain cells arguing."

The three disappeared, and reappeared right behind Mattheaus. The man turned around. "INFIDELS!" he shouted. "And Reece the Light Destroyer, no less!"

Reece smirked. "Yeah." he said. "Here to beat you and your entire team of psycho terrorists."

"You few us as simple terrorists." he said. "But you fail to understand the depth of our goals, and how well they will benef--"

"Listen." Reece said in a light, annyoed, and highly sarcastic and sassy tone. "I've had to listen to this speech so many times, I know it by heart. Now, can we save all of us some time and cut the pleasantries?" he asked, doing air quotes for the word "pleasentries".

Mattheaus look at him. "Filthy Infidel." he muttered. He then looked at Articuno, and retrieved it. "Now, this will be a formal 3 on 1 battle I presume?"

"Like always." Reece said.

The three trainers were about the throws their Pokeballs. However, all four of them found themselves paralyzed. "What is this evil force?" Mattheaus asked.

"Not us." Daron said...

"I can't fight it!" Hanzo and Alakazam yelled.

Then, as they said that, faces, horrible, awful faces, covered the vally they were in like grass. The screamed, they hissed, they moaned, and they started to pull the five under.

Reece struggled, but every single mircosecond of struggle was met with more and more force and claws. It felt as if thousands of vermonous insects were dismantling him for food. The pain was horrible, and Reece felt a moment of unimaginable horror as he was dragged into the murky abyss below...

Chapter 64: Cave of Nightmares Part 2
Reeece and Alakazam found themselves being dragged into a dark void. The boy could feel it. Burning, Acidic, Darkness racing down his throat, trying to drown him. The boy breathed in, and no air, but just more darkness was breathed in.

The boy felt somthing. Rock. Sweet, happy, rock! He felt the ground. It was as cold as a night in the desert, but that didn't matter! He realized he could see again! He looked around. No Hanzo, no Daron. However, Alakazam was still next to him.

The Psi Pokemon was shivering. "Cold..." he said, before levitating himself up. "Reece?" he asked. "Reece, where are you?"

"Right in front of you." he said. However, he couldn't hear himself. The boy realized with horror that he was deaf. "F***! Alakazam, I'm deaf!"

"I know." The psi Pokemon replied telepathically. "I'm blind now..."

Reece breathed in. "Did...did the ghost Pokemon do this?" he asked.

Alakazam gave a nod. "For you, its a serious dehabilitation." he said. "For me, it doesn't matter. My psychic powers will just be at maximum at all times."

Reece scowled. "So, great, we're effectively in the bowels of hell, seperated from our friends who we're not even sure are alive, and most likely, Mattheaus has escaped!"

"No." Alakazam said bluntly. "I'm sure Mattheaus is down here too. Remember, Team Luminious hates Ghost Pokemon. Plus, there was what I heard from the ghost's thoughts..."

"What?" Reece asked.

Alakazam gave a telepathic sigh. "Something about how humans are polluting the earth, and how they are going to rid the world of them."

Reece went over to a wall, and banged his head against it. "Great." he said. "Can you teleport us out of here?"

"I tried already. You were unconscious for a few minutes." the Psi Pokemon explained. "These ghost are disrupting my Psychportation."

"Great." Reece said. "Just. Freaking. Fantastic."

Reece took a few steps around. "Can you at least tell me which way we should go to escape?" he asked.

"No..." he said. "There's only one entrance to this cave, to my knowledge, and I'm not sure if it's any use." he said. "Considering it would take several hours to reach it, and that would mean hordes of Pokemon."

Reece looked like he was legitimately going to cry. "So, yeah, what's the chances we're gonna die?"

"I'm not telling you the odds." Alakazam said. "Mostly cause the inherent chaos factor in your crazy @$$ plans will most likely blow any estimate my 10 supercomputer brain makes out of proportion."

"So wait..." Reece asked, still highly flustered he couldn't hear himself. "You're saying, the worlds smartest Pokemon, can't even accurately calculate what effects my plans have?"

"Yeah." Alakazam answered. "Pretty much."

"On last thing." Reece said, taking a deep breath. The air was cold like winter air, and tasted a bit like a damp cave. "When we escape...if, we escape..." he started.

"Our senses should return to us."

Reece placed a hand on his chest. The experience of being dragged into this hellhole had sapped the boy's ability to feel blissfully unaware of what was around him.

Maybe, that was for the best.

The boy started walking to the right. "C'mon Alakazam. Crippled or not, I need to know if the others are still alive." he said. Deep down, the boy was panicing. "What if they are dead?" he thought. Alakazam sensed his concern. "Don't cloud your mind." he said. "We need to find them first. And don't forget: They are both very Powerful trainers..."

Reece took a step forward. "Listen, Alakazam. Since I'm currently deaf, I need you to be my ears." he said. "Can do." the Psi Pokemon replied. "Here...I have an idea..."

Reece instantly heard all the sound return to his ears, along with a faint humming sound. "Whoa!" Reece squeaked, shocked. He could hear the moaning winds in the cave, and the noise actually felt far more calming. "Wait, what's that humming noise?"

"Oh that?" Alakazam said. "That's my Alpha Radiation. I learned to ignore it though."

Reece turned his head. "Wait...am I hearing what you're hearing?" He asked. "Mhmm." he said. "It's the only way I could restore your hearing at the moment."

"Good to know..." Reece said. "Say, this Alpha radiation of yours..."

"No it will not fry your brain."

"Stop reading my mind!"

Alakazam just smiled, and Reece continued on. The howling wind carried a voice.

"Reece."

Reece turned around. "Did you hear that?" he asked Alakazam.

"That...that was Shuraudo's voice."

Reece's eyes widened. "Him?" he asked. "What's he doing here?"

"We don't know if it's him or not." he asked. "It could be a ghost Pokemon trying to lead us to our doom." he said. "Worst case scenario, it's a Gengar."

Reece walked a bit slower. Alakazam levitated over to him. Reece blinked. In the distance, he saw something. A flame. A petite, purple flame. Reece looked to Alakazam. The Pokemon sighed. "Do NOT go near that." he said. "Seriously, DO NOT." it said telepathically.

"Let me guess, it's a ghost Pokemon that will kill us if we go near."

"Precisely." the psi Pokemon replied. "And rather horribly too."

"Should I use Pupitar for this?" he asked.

"I would recommend it." he said.

Reece clutched the Pokeball in his hand. "Go, Pupitar!"

The Hard Shell Pokemon emerged from it's Pokeball, and breathed in. It looked around, and saw the wisp of flame. It then turned to its trainer. "Dark Pulse." Reece ordered.

Pupitar fired a blast of dark Power at the Pokemon. It split into tow seperate flames, dodging the blast as it caused an explosion deeper within the cave.

"Er..." Reece said. Then he noticed. "They split into two!" he yelled, then looked to Alakazam. "Shadow Ball on the right one! Pupitar, Dark Pulse again on the left one!"

Both Pokemon fired their respective attacks, and both of the flames dispersed. Reece exhaled. The pain on his chest went away. Still, he was visibly sweating.

"Reece..."

"Ingnore the voice you're hearing through your Pokemon's ears via a psychically linked mind." he said. "Just...ignore it."

Reece and his two Pokemon carefully went forward. Very, very, carefully. The boy looked at the cave walls. What was that? A shadow? Red eyes? "Need to get it together." he said. "This cave...it's ****ing around with my mind." he grit his teeth.

"Guhungha..."

Reece turned around. "Alakazam! Use Psybeam!" he ordered. The Psychic type shot a blast of prismatic psychic energy at a shadow on the wall. The shadow moved over, and revealed itself to be a Gengar.

"OH CRAP!" Alakazam yelled. "I can't beat that!" he yelled.

The Gengar then moved to Reece's shadow. With a swift motion, the Pokemon slashed at the trainers back, causing it to collide with a wall. "GAH!" Reece grunted as he was hit. As he collided with wall, his back started to bleed from the impact. The boy was incredibly lucky he did not break his spine or neck.

The Gengar moved over to Pupitar next. With a quick motion, it fired a shadow ball causing a quick explosion, then moved to Alakazam's shadow. The Pokemon shot a Psybeam at the Ghost Pokemon, managing to hit it. The Pokemon grunted with pain, but sliced at Alakazam with a claw, forcing it back.

Reece grunted with pain. He plucked a Pokeball off his belt. "Go, Aerodact--" he was cut off by Gengar slashing him in the chest. Whenver it's opponent made a sound, this Pokemon would move to another shadow. However, Reece dropped Aerodactyl's Pokeball, and the Pokemon emerged.

"Aero!" The Pokemon screeched. Gengar then moved to its Shadow. However, Alakazam made a move this time, and fired a Shadow Ball at Gengar, causing the Pokemon to howl in pain. Aerodactyl and Pupitar then made their moved while the Pokemon was stunned. Aerodactly covered itself with flames and sliced straight at Gengar. Pupitar fired a Dark Pulse straight at the Shadow Pokemon, causing the Ghost/Poison type to desintegrate.

Reece coughed up some blood. "D-damn..." he said, struggling to breathe. "That...that Gengar...I can't stop shaking..."

"The Pokemon hear." he said. "They're angry at humans. They won't stop at anything to kill them."

"But why?" he asked.

Aerodactyl landed next to Reece, and worridely licked him. "Thanks..." the boy said. "Good boy." Pupitar ame over, and gave out a saddened version of its cry. Reece kept shaking. He stood up, but was shaking so hard he looked like he'd fall apart.

At that moment, an inky darkness appeared behind the three Pokemon and their trainer. Out came an eye, and along with it, two ghostly hands. Soon, the mouth out the creature, on its stomach, appeared. Alakazam noticed. "NO!" he said. "A Dusknoir!"

Reece looked at it. "No!" he said. "We can't beat that." he pulled out his battle Scanner. The Pokemon was Level 60. Only his Charizard could beat it. However, before he made a move, the Pokemon put his hands forward, and the black void it emerged from instantly expanded and drew Reece and his Pokemon into it.

Reece could feel the darkness consume him. But this darkness was different. It was...comforting. It felt like he was under a bunch of soft, thick, and warm blankets. The boy, without much struggling, fell alseep.

"Reece..."

"Reece, wake up..."

"Wake up..."

"Wake up..."

"Wake up..."

"I have Pancakes."

Reece instaneously woke up. He looked around. "Pancakes?!" he asked excitedly. "Where?" he looked around frantically. The boy was so focused on finding the supposed pancakes that it took him 20 full seconds to realize that there wasn't any.

Reece saw he was still in the cave. He looked in front of him. Standing there, was none other than Shuraudo. The man's long black hair and black as night outfit swayed in the wind. Reece frantically shuffled back.

"Be still Reece." he said. "I mean you no harm. You're safe here."

Reece the noticed that the entire floor has a pattern carved into the stone. Reece looked at it. The carvings covered the entire chamber, which had only a few exits.

"This is a sealed chamber Reece." Shuraudo explained. "Wild Pokemon cannot enter it, but humans and captive ones can."

"Why did you bring me here?" Reece asked. "And where are my Pokemon?!" The man directed to a corner. All three of Reece's Pokemon that were out of their Pokeballs were in the corner, sleeping.

"The trip through the void didn't fare to well for them." he said. "Just retrieved them, and they'll be alright." Reece gulped, and did so. The three were back in their Pokeball, and Reece sighed. "Do you know anything about the others that came here with me?"

"I'm afraid not." The man said in a remorseful tone. "I was focused on bring you here."

"Why?" Reece asked "What reason do you have for bringing me here?"

Shuraudo turned around. "You need to know...why Team Luminious do what they do."

Reece kept silent.

"I will not lie." Shuraudo said. It seemed if everything else went silent for the important words the man was about to say. "Team Luminious's insane goals have some justification. They believe if rid the world of all Dark, Ghost, and Poison types, they will rid the world of all evil."

"However." Shuraudo added. "They fail to realize that ridding the world of darkness will shift the balance of power and permenantly damage the planet." Shuraudo said. "Doing so will cause a backslide of evolution and society, if life even manages to survive after that."

"But Darkness isn't Evil!" Reece said. "Why can't they understand?"

Shuraudo sighed. "It's a long story." he said. "And a good part is my fault."

Reece's eyes widened. Shuraudo looked over. "This room, is known as the Chamber of Memories." he said. "This chamber took the memories of all their to witness the event you're about to see."

A tear dripped down the Team Abyss Admin's face. "Over 25 years ago, me and Solaris...were best friends." he explained. "We were inseperable, and we both loved Pokemon."

A brilliant image then engulfed the room. It was almost real. The air, the tempature, the ground, the entire universe asround the two trainers changed simply to emulate this memory.

Reece looked to see two young boys. One had short, black hair, and wore a small brown coat. The other had blond hair, and wore a small, blue jacket.

"Me and Solaris as kids." Shuraudo explained.

Both Shuraudo and Solaris took out a Pokeball. They threw them, and out came a Duskull and a Shiny Houndour on Shuraudo's side. On Solaris's side, a Togepi and a Larvesta emerged.

"We were also immensely skilled trainers." he said. "You know that law that states you need to be older than twelve to be a trainer."

"Hell yes." Reece replied.

"We were the ones to make people think that it was complete idiocy first." he said. "We were that skilled." another tear dripped down his face. "My parents died shortly after I was born, so Solaris's parents took me in." he said. "The two of us were closer than brothers."

Reece then watched the battle between the two children in awe. They looked no older than 7 each, and yet the skill and grace that commanded their Pokemon with matched that of Gym Leaders Reece had fought. They both felt his heart race. In the ned, the battle came to a draw, but neither boy was disappointed. They both laughed it off.

Reece smiled. "Wow..." he said. "You two are very skilled."

"Yes..." Shuraudo said with a sigh. "But...not enough."

The scenes immediately skipped to a time. "Two years later." Shuraudo explained. "We only grew in power. But with great power, comes great recklessness."

The two boys were talking about something. "What about the law that--" Solaris started.

"Who cares?" Shuraudo said. "We're strong enough, and we can't lose to a bunch of wild Pokemon!"

"I hae two regrets." Shuraudo said to Reece from the viewpoint of the memory. "One of them, is this."

Solaris sighed. "Okay." he said. "Lets go."

"That was it." The present Shuraudo said. "We came to the Aerial Hills, and soon the Aerial Caves." he said. "It took a long time, but we curbstomped most of the Pokemon in the area." he said. "However, when we entered the cave, we set in motion the events that shaped the rest of our lives."

Reece saw the two boys slowly enter the cave. "Needless to say." Shuraudo said. "We got lost."

The image then twisted to a way similar to how it was before. Cold, moaning winds, and an eternal sense of dread. Reece shivered. However, it all got worse. Soon, one Pokemon, a flame like the one Reece saw earlier, popped up. It made a cute sounding noise, and motioned the two boys to follow it.

"A Litwick." the present  Shuraudo said. "It leads travelers that are lost with its life, slowly sucking their life force away. Now, sinsce there were two of us, the process was slow enough for a disaster."

Reece then heard a voice. It sounded female, kinda like his own mother. "Solar! Shuraudo!" the voice yelled. "Where are you?" Another masculine voice shouted.

"Our parents." Shuraudo explained, shaking as he said it.

The two boys looked the other way, towards the call. Litwick got an annoyed look on its face. The two boys ran towards the voices. Two adults, a man and a woman, came into view. "Mom!" Solaris cheered.

"What were you thinking?!" The father shouted. "You two could have been killed!"

Reece knew what was coming next. Something...something moving very fast moved into view. It went into the shadow of Solaris's father, and knocked him against the wall.

"Kids! Run!" the mother shouted.

Both Shuraudo and Solaris ran as gfast as they could. A few bursts of light were seen. Solaris looekd back for one moment. One single, horrifying moment.

That moment was enough to see borth his parents getting themselves ripped in half, painfully, screaming bloody murder as they did. Still alive, the Gengar then drained them of their life force, and turned them both into withered husks.

"We..." the present Shuraudo said. "Were lucky to get out of that hell alive."

"However...in a way." he continued. "We died in the Aerial Cave all those years ago."

The scen then skipped to some time later. It was a somewhat run down building. "We were moved to the Copper City orphanage." he said. "We spent the next few years of out lives there."

The scene the showed Solaris. He was in a bed, crying with his Pokemon. "Solaris was broken." the Team Abyss Leader continued. "He became asocial, he slowly seemed to fade away."

The scene skipped even further ahead. Both the boys looked around Reece's current age. Solaris looked happy, but still held a seriosu face. "Then one day, something changed. He kept saying "The Light has saved me! The Light has saved me!"" over and over.

"I was happy. I finally thought he had gotten better. Me and my Pokemon came to his room to celebrate, but, as soon as we entered."

"Larvesta! Use Psychic!" Solaris yelled. Reece watched as the Bug/Fire type shot a blast of Psychic energy at the child Shuraudo, knocking him back.

"What the hell?!" the child Shuraudo shouted. "Solaris! That could have killed me!"

"That was the point, you demon." the child replied. "I saw the light. It give me its wisdom and power."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Solaris's face clenched in anger. "Darkness, the Ghosts...Poison." he said. "All are evil, enemies to the light." he explained. "THEY ALL MUST DIE!"

Larvesta fired another Psychic, but this time, Shuraudo dodged. "Duskull!" he yelled. "Shadow Ball!" The small ghost Pokemon fired a blast of darkness at Larvesta, and the Pokemon responded with a blast of ember like scales.

"Our battle destroyed the orphanage." present Shuraudo explained. "And killed everyone inside but us." he explained. The scene then switched to the orphanage being destroyed, Firefighters and there Pokemon working hopelessly to kill the flames.

"That night, in the chaos, I escaped." Shuraudo explained. "I robbed a local store, stole some supplies, and headed on my way to start a journey." he toldd Reece. "I didn't know if Solaris had survived at first, but I did know this: The old Solaris was dead, his soul rotting under the angst and madness of this new concept."

"Time passed, and I grew." Shuraudo said. Reece watched a slow motion image of the boy that was his own enemy grow, and grow. New Pokemon joined him, and old ones evolved.

Reece watched as Shuraudo battled against Gym Leader after Gym Leader. He saw each of them he could remember.

The Osmosis Badge, the Monochrome Badge, the Cherry Blossom Badge, the Hearth Badge, the Mirage Badge, the Altitude Badge.

He then saw the man fell tow more Gym Leaders, and earn their badges. The Gym Leaders Reece had yet to challenge.

"After six long years of running and challenging Gyms, training, improving, and exploring, I had gathered all 8 badges." The present Shuraudo said. "And gathered a loving team of Pokemon."

Reece saw a Shuraudo, now eighteen, was surrounded by six Pokemon overlooking a cliff at the setting sun. Dusknoir, Houndoom, Hydreigon, Metagross, Lucario, and Nidoking. All of them looked especially tough. Shuraudo's now long hair flowed in the breeze, and he slowly overlooked a city.

"My last look at Copper City for quite some time." Shuraudo said. "Before I heard the rumors."

"There was news circulating about a regionwide phenomena where thousands of Pokemon were found dead. all of them had the Dark, Ghost, or Poison Type, or knew moves of those types. Their bodies and their trainers would have charred, sometimes still burning corpses."

Reece shivered at that. He looked to the image again, and saw a cave. The cave looked nothing like the one he was in. But everything, down to the very molicules of air, was seemingly saturated with tension.

Shuraudo was facing a now grown up Solaris. "Solaris!" Shuraudo said. "I can't let you do this!"

"Our past friendship meant nothing." Solaris replied. "Now, the only way to free you from your sins is death."

"Are you listening to yourself?" Shuraudo asked. "Seeing what you're doing?!" the man shouted. "You're killing people, just because one 'solitary Pokemon killed your parents! These People are innocent!"

"No one whho uses the Evils of Darkness is innocent!" Solaris yelled back. "INCLUDING YOU!"

Both trainers threw two Pokeballs. Reece watched as the old friends fought again, but thus time, it was different. Such anger, such malice, such pain. The Pokemon fought tooth and claw, fire and electricty.

Reece could feel every hit every Pokemon took. Every fiery blast, every psychic ray, every dark explosion, every slash, cut, and claw.

Then, it seemed if fate hat single handedly scripted the battle. Shuraudo was left with Dusknoir and his Shiny Houndoom. Solaris with his Togekiss and his Volcorona.

"This is it, Infidel." Solaris snarked. "You will die here, and I shall be one step closer to ridding this world of evil." he declared.

"You're insane." Shuraudo said. "And I mean that with every fiber of my being. You're insane!" he shouted. "You can't go around, wasting innocent people, just because their ideals are different!" he yelled. "And I'm not letting you harm another living soul!"

"Houndoom! Overheat!" Shuraudo ordered. Houndoom shot forth a blast of bluish-white flames at Togekiss, but the Pokemon dodged to the side. Reece then fell back in pure horror as he realized what the blast of flame was going to hit.

Everything seemed to slow down, as the flames moved. The speed of the blast slowed to a crawl, just before it reached its ultimate target: Solaris himself.

The man was instantly engulfed in the blast of flames. "NO!" Shuraudo yelled out in pure horror. Houndoom snapped its mouth shut when it realized what it had done.

The burning man screamed in horrific, unforgettable, pain as his body was engulfed by the flames. "IT BURNS!" he screamed. "THE FLAMES OF HELL!"

Reece's heart nearly stopped at the sight.

Shuraudp was now crying fully. "That...was my second regret." he said. "Solaris suffered severe burns all over his body, and barely any skin was left in the end." he explaned. "If by some miracle, I managed to get him to a hospital in time."

The next image was of a figure fully covered in bandages, and Shuraudo walking out. "I couldn't do it." Shuraudo said. "I couldn't face him again. The doctors said he had a near perfect chance of recovering, but."

"The pain of a Houdoom's flames stay forever." Reece said, in a rather quiet voice.

"I couldn't even begin to imagine the pain he must have been in, and still is in." Shuraudo said, voice hoarse from the tears. "The pain must have only furthered his insanity." he said. He then looked up. "I created Team Abyss to make sure the insane plans of Team Luminious never come to fruitation. Our ultimate goal, is to ultimately end the conflict of light and dark by perserving the balance by ruling this Earth."

"That's no better than Team Luminious!" Reece yelled. "Sure, what they're doing isn't right, but you can't force peopel to stop fighting!"

All of a sudden, three glowing lights appeared infront of the the two trainers. One a sparkling yellow, one a great cherry red, and one a deep, flowing blue.

"What the hell is this?" Reece asked.

"I don't know!" Shuraudo yelled. "This isn't my memory!"

The enviroment formed around him. It was a hill of sorts, and there was a strange stone that the three lights were surrounded. The three lights then ascended into the sky, and fused into a golden light. Then there was fire. Lots, and of fire. It scorhed the land around them. Reece could see. Towns, Cities. Lives. Destroyed.

Behind them, they heard a cackling. A horrible cackling. "DIE INFIDELS! DIE!" Reece turned his head, and saw Solaris, his armor glowing in the fires raining down. "PURGE THIS WORLD WITH LIGHT!"

The horrific image disappeared. "Beautiful, isn't it." a voice asked. Reece and Shuraudo looked over, to see Mattheaus and Articuno. "You!" Reece shouted.

"Beautiful image, is it not?" Mattheaus asked. "The image of revelation given to our master by the light."

"That was horrible!" Shuraudo yelled. "Doesn't it bother you at all how many people you're killing?"

"They all need to die."

Reece turned to Shuraudo. "Listen..." he said. "I think a truce is in order." the boy said. He extended his hand, his face wholly serious.

Shuraudo smiled, and shook Reece's hand. "Until we win." he said.

Chapter 65: Cave of Nightmares, Part 3
Reece and Shuraudo plucked three Pokeballs off their belts. "Get em Aerodactyl!" Reece shouted, throwing his Pokeball. "Do it, Houndoom!" Shuraudo yelled. Both Pokeballs landed on the ground, and opened up in a flash of light.

"Go, Gallade thy Holy Knight!" Mattheaus shouted, throwing a Pokeball. It landed, and Gallade came out of it's Pokeball. "Go, Great Warrior Blaziken!"

The two Fighting Type Pokemon emerged from their Pokeballs, ready to fight the Pokemon belong to the enemy "Infidels".

"Use Dragon Claw on Blaziken!" Reece yelled. Aerodactyl shot forward like a rcoket and sliced the foe across its chest, then turned around, awaiting Reece's next command, which it knew would come any second.

"Houndoom, Nasty Plot!" Shuraudo yelled. Shuraudo's Houndoom got a field of dark energy around its head, which it promptly drew inside, boosting its special attack.

"Gallade, Leaf Blade on Aerodactyl!" Mattheaus ordered. Gallade shot forward and slashed right into Aerodactyl's wing, causing a severe amount of pain. "Blaziken, Superpower on Houndoom!"

Blaziken made a powerful jump with its well strengthened legs, and smashed right into the snout of Shuraudo's Houndoom, causing a audible cracking noise. "Counter with Overheat!" Shuraudo retaliated. Houndoom fired a massive bluish white beam from its mouth at Blaziken at Point Blank Range. "Now Shadow Ball!" the Team Luminious Leader yelled while Blaziken was flying back.

Houndoom shot the attack, firing a ball of inky darkness right at the head of Blaziken, knocking it against the wall.

"Aredoactyl! Use Fire Blast on Gallade!" Reece commanded. Aerodactyl fired a blast of flame at the Blade Pokemon as it landed, creating an explosive blast that seemed to swallow the Pokemon. "Charge in and use Dragon Claw!" Reece then ordered.

Using its highly developed predator senses, Aerodactyl dived in, and a horrible slashing noise was heard. However, Aerodactyl was thrown out of the smoky cloud, a visible tear in its wing. Reece shuddered at that. The Pokemon barely managed to stand up as Gallade came charging.

"Dark Pulse at the ceiling above Blaziken." Shuraudo ordered. Houndoom fired a beam of darkness into the above abyss, and a multiple of rather heavy looking stalagtites fell down and pummeled Blaziken. "Brick Break!" Mattheaus ordered.

Blaziken delived a massive amount of punches and kicks in a single second that turned each of the stalagmites into deadly sharpened stones, each heading for Houndoom. The Pokemon was immediately hit by a painful barrage of the sharp stones, bloodying it. The Pokemon fell back, severely injured.

"Another Overheat at Gallade." Shuraudo commanded, not losing any of his cool. Houndoom opened its mouth, and fired a blast of flame that tore through the floor and managed to jsut barely blast the Blade Pokemon in the smoke cloud, knocking it out.

"Aerodactyl, use Hyper Beam on Blaziken!" Reece screeched. Aerodactyl let out a screech, and fired a golden ray of energy at the Fire/Fighting Type, knocking it out.

Mattheaus angrily retrieved both his Pokemon. "You infidels shall regret stagnating the holiness that is my Pokemon." he declared. "Go, Articuno!" he yelled, throwing out the legendary bird Pokemon. The air became much colder, and everything seemed to freeze. "Blizzard!" Mattheaus ordered.

Articuno shot forward a blast that quickly picked off both Aerodactyl and Houndoom, and forced their trainers to brace themselves. "GAH!" Reece yelled. "Hold on Reece!" Shuraudo yelled. The stinging winds were like knives of eternal icy pain. After what seemed like a year, they stopped.

The entire chamber was desolated with snow. Massive amounts of snow. Reece and Shuraudo retrieved their respective Pokemon, and each got another off their belts. "Go! Charizard!" Reece yelled. "Go, Dusknoir!" Shuraudo yelled.

The two Pokemon came out of their Pokeballs. Charizard let out a burst of sparkling flames as it did. The Shiny Shadow Pokemon gave the air a rend of its claws, showing it was ready for battle. Mattheaus scowled. "You call yourself a hero, yet you resort to such a tortured soul as your tool."

"My tool?" Reece asked back, disgusted. "I treat all my Pokemon with love and respect!" he screamed. Mattheaus shook his head. "Such a poor existence."

"Dusknoir, Will-o-wisp!" Shuraudo yelled. The Reaper Pokemon shot a ring of flames at Articuno,  giving it a rather excruciating looking burn on its chest. "Charizard, use Shadow Rush!" Reece ordered. Charizard made a shadow covered charged into Articuno, causing an audible cracking of bones.

"Ancient Power!" Mattheaus yelled.

Rocks were torn off the walls and ceiling and flung at Charizard and Dusknoir like missiles, each rock causing visible wounds and bruises. However, as that happened, Dusknoir darted over to Articuno's shadow. "Thunderpunch!" Shuraudo ordered.

Dusknoir charged forward and smashed right into Articuno, a blast of lightning hitting the bird. "Sunny Day!" Reece ordered. Charizard shot a ball of flaming gasses into the air, creating an artificial sun. "Now use Flamethrower!" Reece called.

Charizard arced his head forward and back, and fired a cone shaped explosion of flames that hit Articuno with near lethal force. "Blizzard!" Mattheaus ordered. Articuno flashed freezed the moisture in the air, and blasted it at Charizard and pretty muh the entire room. Both of its foes were hit, and knocked back.

"Dragon Pulse!" Reece ordered.

"Blizzard." Shuraudo ordered.

Both Pokemon fired their respective elemental blasts at Articuno, but the Pokemon took flight and dodged. The resulting blasts then hit the wall, and practically incinerated it. Charizard took flight against Reece's command, and charged straight into Articuno by Shadow Rush, knocking it against the ceiling. The Pokemon then let out an inferno of flames the strike its icy foe.

Reece, Shuraudo, and Dusknoir were all powerles to do anything. Matthaeus kept trying. "Use Ancientpower!"

Multipe rocks growed with a green prehistoric power and started to clomp up like mud on the top. Then, to the horror of everyone at ground level, the rocks started to drip as they became molten. Reece thought fast. "Shadow Rush!"

Shuraudo's Dusknoir came over and turned them both intangible as the mass of rocks at the top exploded, with both Charizard and Articuno, covered in cauterized cuts, fell down. The formor was ripping and tearing at his foe as they fell, tearing out a large hunk of meat from the side.

As both Pokemon hit the ground, Reece and Shuraudo turned tangible again. The room was ravaged by the short few minutes of the battle, and still looked like it had raged for hours. Reece ordered a final attack. "Flamethrower!"

Charizard shot an intense jet of flames straight at Articuno. "Articuno! Blizzard!" Mattheaus yelled. The two attacks hit eachother, and cancelled eachother out in a massive, pressured, explosion. Reece was knocked back as a large quantity of rocks fell dividing the room.

Reece looked around. One exit. He had to take it, find Hanzo and Daron and GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS CAVE! Reece took a deep breath, and as he walked outside the room, he realized once again he couldn't hear.

He sent Alakazam out of his Pokeball. "Got it..." the Pokemon said telepathically upon exiting.

Reece could feel his hearing return. He cracked his knuckles, and ran forward. Nothing was gonig to stop his mission to get the hell out of this cave.

Reece came to another cluster like section of the cave. The boy looked around. "Alakazam, is your psy power still being blocked?"

"Barely." he replied. The Psi Pokemon looked around. "I can sense a life force down that hall."

Reece started a running shoes powered sprint down that hall. "Damn it Reece! No!" Alakazam yelled telepathically. "It's a trap!" Alakazam then reached for Reece as he yelled, then put his arm down. He simply followed his trainer. As he got further down the path, what exactly the life force that the supercomputer brained Pokemon sensed was became more and more clear.

It was either Hanzo, or a painstakingly dangerous illusion...

Reece made it to the end of trhe hall. He stopped just before entering. Alakazam heard Reece scream. "HOLY!" he started. The Psi Pokemon then saw the horror that stopped its trainer.

A shambling, walking, rotting human corpse. The fact that it had likely been in thr ground for quite some time was highly apparent. Its eyes had rotted away, along with most of its right arm. Alakazam quickly shot a Shadow Ball at it, causing it to explode.

"What the hell was that?" Reece asked, horrified.

"A zombie." Alakazam answered. "Some ghost Pokemon have the ability to possess the bodies of the dead and use them as conduits for their power."

"Great." Reece muttered. "Just what we needed: A zombie army."

Alakazam sighed. "You're the one who wants to save the others Reece." the psi Pokemon said. "And keep in mind, you're risking no one surviving."

Reece sighed. "Yeah. I got that already." he said. "The problem is that I frankly don't give a damn."

Alakazam looked at his trainer. "Well, if that's your decision, I support it." he said. "And I think the others do to."

Reece checked each of the Pokeballs on his belt. Each Pokemon (barring Charizard, who never did anything while in his Pokeball), through the transparent, material looked at their and nodded. Reece beamed, and then ran into the next room.

"Sneasel, use Brick Break!" a voice identical to Hanzo's ordered. The sound of something getting smashed was heard, and Reece ran over. Sure enough, Hanzo and his Sneasel were in the room. Surrounded by corpses. Lots. Lots of corpses. And not many were moving as opposed to the ones on the ground.

"Let the bodies hit the floor Alakazam!" Reece ordered as he charged in. "Psybeam!"

Alakazam shot two prismatic rays of energy from its spoons, each blasting a zombie and destroying it. However, one of the horrific undead corpse charged at Hanzo from behind. The boy noticed, and delivered a swift punch to its chest, knocking ot down.

He then looked over to Reece. "You took your sweet time getting here."

"Like you needed my help."

"It's not as easy as it looks."

Alakazam spoke up. "Hanzo, what sense did you lose?" he asked. Hanzo got some of the rotting flesh of his hands. "My sense of touch." he said. "Craptastic."

"Hey, I lost my hearing, and the only reason I can hear anything is because Alakazam linked out minds, and the buzzing noise of his Alpha radiation is raking my mind like a thousand monkeys using Garage Band and putting it all together to see how many people will kill themselves in the first minute of listening to it, combined with a side of Vogon Poetry." Reece complained. "Get over it."

Hanzo looked to the next room. "Well, can you two hear what I hear?"

Alakazam took a deep breath, and Reece then heard something. It was a twisted moaning noise, an clacking of flesh and bone being carried on the wind. Reece knew what was next: An entire horde of undead. Reece could only imagine what could be next.

"Yeah." The silver haired boy said. "We should get moving then..."

Alakazam would have clenched a hand if it wasn't wasting psychic power and he found a good reason too. "Actually..." he said. "I think Daron might be in that direction." the psi Pokemon explained. "But, like I said, it may be a trap."

Reece turned to Hanzo. "I'm not going to drag you into this." he said. "It would be selfish of me to risk your life for nothing..."

"I was going to go anyway." the crimson haired trainer said, his coat flowing. "I'm not leaving him behind."

Reece breathed in. "Let's move!" he yelled. Hanzo, Sneasel, Reece, and Alakazam all moved in various methods towards the next room, sure enough, an entire sea of zombies were in the place of what should have been air.

"Sneasel, tear then down! Blizzard!" Hanzo yelled.

Sneasel ran forward with high speeds, and put hr hands forward, creating a large Blizzard of destructive cold energy that quickly caused each of the zombies to freeze. Hanzo went over to a good few clustered together, and gave them a tap.

The entire wall shattered.

Behind them was Daron and his Flygon. "Fire works just as well." he said.

Reece ran in, and managed to jump over the icy remains that used to be remains of re-animated corpses. "Damn." Reece said. "Just how many do they have in this cave?"

"Thousands." Alakazam, Hanzo, and Daron all answered simultaneously.

Reece sweatdropped. "Crap." he said. "This can't get any better."

Daron looked around. "This was the exact room I lost her in..." he said, crying a bit. "These Pokemon..." his voice was tearful and filled with sorrow. "What has driven them to such genocidal feelings towards humans?"

Reece clenched his fist. "I'm...not sure..."

"Guys..." Hanzo said, pointing to all the rotting corpses. "That's not a good thing..."

Something...something dark and horrific was coming out of the corpses. It swirled around, and started to form something. First, was the gaseous cloud with red eyes. Reece, Daron, Hanzo, and their respective active Pokemon took a defensive stance.

"Humans..." he said. "Thou haf defiled thy Earth for many a moon." said a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at the same time. "Why doth thou insist on malice?"

"Malice?" Reece said. "You're the ones who pulled us under the ground and tried to kill us!"

The cloud started to form a body. Reece recognized the shape almost instantly. It was a Gengar. The Gengar looked at Reece. "We cannot have such foul creatures on Sacred Ground."

"Sacred Ground?" Daron asked.

The Gengar was now fully formed. Unlike a normal one, it was 3 times its average size, being nearly 15 feet tall. Reece cringed. It was letting out some sort of psychic fear aura.

"From this cave, thy Elder Ghosts hath watched...watched for centuries...watched for millenia... watched...watched..." he said, multiple voices fading from the background. "Humans, Pokemon..." he said. "Some friends at time and time, others time saw conflict and war..."

A sort of glow came out of Gengar, followed by the revelation that the Pokemon was a different color than normal. The creature spoke softer. "Thy brothers, slaughtered." he said. "The Aerial Cave...the Cave of the Sky..." he continued "Was once the end. Where life ended..."

"A burial site for Pokemon." Daron said. "That would explain why so many ghosts are here..."

"Regardless..." Gengar continued. "Even the sacredest of ground was consumed by the Delta Wars millenia ago..." The Pokemon moved to the side, the ground shaking under its weight. "We watched as thy destroyed it all, and we fought back..."

"Yet, war raged on thy world..." the ghost said. "Even at its end, we could still feel it going on. Raging...raging like a caged Houndoom whipped and beaten to the point of madness."

"We are not like that!" Reece yelled vehemently. The Pokemon glared at him. "You, Reece Falconer, are a puny significant insect..." the Gengar shot back. Reece glared at him. "H-how did you know my name?" he aske,d a slightly panicked voice.

Gengar pointed to the wall. It was covered in Sapphire like Unown. Next to it, a fugure made of clay, and precious metals carved into the wall. There was a well detailed boy, with gold and silver plates for hair, and a jacket with rubies, sapphire's and emeralds on it.

It matched Reece perfectly.

Reece read the inscription aloud. "The Balance of Power has shifted. The boy of Light and Darkness shall end the conflict upon the sacred hill."

"Boy of...Light and Darkness?" Reece asked himself, his voice mystified. Hanzo looked over. "If I remember correctly, Gold and Silver are symbolic for Light and Darkness."

"QUIET INSECT!" The Gengar yelled. Hanzo's Sneasel growled. "Sne! Snesesesesesesesazel!"

"You defend this human?" he asked. "Your, trainer..." the creature sighed. "I shall respect your wishes, young one." he said.

"So, Reece..." Daron started. "Reece is meant to be some savior of the world meant to defeat Team Luminious and stop them from their genocide?" the older boy asked.

"Reece Falconer is meant to end the conflict." the Gengar boomed. "The prophecy never states how."

Reece's face fell. "So, I could end up ending the conflict by means such as completely eradicating all life on the planet?" he asked.

Gengar gave him a rather indescribable look.

Reece gulped, then looked up at Gengar. "Listen..." he said, getting on one knee. "I ask that you let the three of us leave." he pleaded. "All three of us care greatly for our Pokemon, and all Pokemon. I beg of you!" Reece started to cry, and his voice started to strain. "Let us go so we can stop Team Luminious."

"Hah..." Gengar snarked. "Hahahahahaha!" it bellowed, breaking into laughter. "Prophecy or not, I shall not let a human defile the Aerial Cave and go unpunished!" Hanzo and Daron's Pokemon got ready to attack, but Reece retireved Alakazam. "No..." he said. "I-I....I will not fight!"

Gengar looked at Reece once again. "You shall not fight thou say?" It turned around. "Very well..." he said. Reece looked up, a glimmer of hope on his face. "I guess, if there is any hope of you preventing a Genocide, I can spare your miserable lives."

The creature then turned around. "BUT KNOW THIS HUMANS!" he then thundered very loudly. "NEXT TIME I SEE YOU HERE, I SHALL NOT BE SO KIND!"

Reece smiled, and got up. "Thank you!" he said. "I promise, I shall not let you down!"

"Leave this ground mortals." he said. "Your senses will return when you leave..."

Reece felt a Pokeball shake. He tapped it, and he, Hanzo, Daron and their Pokemon disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Reece, Hanzo, and Daron re-appeared outside the Aerial Hills. Just in time to catch the first glimpse of the sun too. Reece smiled. "Heh...sun is up." he said. Daron looked at it, and smiled. However, Hanzo scowled. "The sun may be up, but Team Luminious got away."

Reece looked over. "True..." he said. "But lets not let that stop us now."

Hanzo exhaled. "Well then, we can only wait for them to make a move." he said. He then started walking back to the Aerial Forest. Reece smiled and frowned in such quick succession it hurt. Reece breathed out. "Hanzo, where are you going?"

"Back to Mistral City. Gonna see if I can help clean up. and get a Gym Badge." he said.

Daron got on his Flygon. "I'm gonna leave too Reece." he said. "Need to get back home."

Reece smiled. "Nice to see ya again Daron." he said. He watched as the boy flew off on his Pokemon. Then the boy remembered something. He ran over to Hanzo.

"We...gotta talk..."

To Copper City Arc
Reece had done about three things since sunrise. First, he had managed to explain what happened to him while they got separated. Second, he sat down to have lunch. Third, he'd yet to get his cookie stolen. He made sure to eat it quickly, and got up.

"Yo."

Reece turned over. Standing on the rugged terrain was none other than Matt. He had grown in some time, but so had Reece.

"You've been gone for over a week. I thought you'd be in Copper City." he said.

Reece opened it mouth, then he stopped and his eyes grew wide. "A week?" He yelled. "A WEEK?!" Obviously being in that cave, somehow a week managed to slip from him. He breathed out. "Long story." he said.

"Di-"

"I failed." Reece answered, cutting him off. "Failed so bad..."

"Are you meaning to tell me the only person to ever beat me in a straight up battle failed to retrieved a potato chip sized computer chip that held data that could turn the also stolen Rayquaza cells into a clone capable of razing the region? Wow Reece, I didn't think you were so pathetic." Matt then spat on the ground.

Reece clenched his fist. "What the hell do you want Matt?" he asked.

Matt pulled out a Pokeball. "A battle, of course."

"Did Kara give you any healing items?"

Matt fished a few things out of his pocket. "Gah." he said. He then handed them to Reece, and the trainerused the healing itmes given to heal up his Pokemon. Now, Reece was rather ticked off at Matt, and he intended to show it. He plucked off Charizard's Pokeball.

"Bair told me you got the Altitude badge before I did." Matt snarked. "Let's see if you really earned it."

Reece spat on the ground next to him. "Sorry, a bit of bile from how much crap I'm hearing." he explained. "What's with your sudden ego boost?"

"You'll see..." he said. He then threw the Pokeball in his hand. "Go, Haxorus!"

The Pokeball bounced once off the ground, and opened up, revealing the beastly Pokemon that resided within. The Pokemon was seven feet tall, and on the end of its tail was a large axe blade. The spiny plates on its back looked sharper, as did its tusks. The Pokemon's claws looked like spears, and blade like growths were comin out of its arms.

Reece nearly dropped the Pokeball in fright. He then felt something. Something at his waste. One of his Pokeballs was shaking violently. Reece picked it up, and threw it. "Go, Pupitar!" he yelled. The Hard Shell Pokemon flew out of the Pokeball and landed in front of Haxorus.

"How does it feel?!" Haxorus asked angrily in Pokespeak. "How does it feel to taste fear?" He yelled. He leaned down to Pupitar, and showed a mouth filled with many, small triangular teeth. Pupitar looked back up. "Heh..." the Hard Shell Pokemon said. "You've gotten cockier then ever."

"Smack it away!" Matt ordered angrily. With speeds that would make Sceptile want to cry like a little girl, the massive Dragon Pokemon swung its tail around and slammed into Pupitar, knocking it back like a fly at the mercy of a flaming flyswatter.

As Pupitar was flying through the air, Matt ordered his next. "Draco Meteor!"

Haxorus put his hands forward and blasts a sparkling meteor that flew past Reece and hit Pupitar, exploding and creating a shockwave. Reece braced himself as the ground quaked at the blast. Reece then saw...

Pupitar was unconcsious. Holy F***. Matt actually got strong enough to pose a ''serious threat. ''

"Okay Matt..." Reece said. "You have your Nuke, I have mine." he declared. He pulled out Charizard's Pokeball again. "Go, Charizard!" Reece screamed, throwing out the Pokeball. It bounced on the ground, opened up, and revealed the massive Black Dragon.

"Shadow Rush." Reece ordered, smirking. Charizard smashed into Haxorus at such speeds it seemed invisible. The Pokemon was knocked back, and try to swing at Charizard with a swing of its face blade. The Dragon Pokemon hit the Fire/Flying type across the neck.

There was no blood; Charizard's intense body heat cauterized the wound instantly. Instead, Charizard angrily picked Haxorus up and rocketed into the sky, choking the Pokemon whilst doing so. "Flamethrower!" Reece yelled. In the back of the young trainers head, he was starting to fear that he couldn't control Charizard.

Charizard continued to choke Haxorus. The Pokemon couldn't breathe at all. As soon as it tried to hit Charizard with his tail though, the Flame Pokemon simply dropped him, watching him plummet to the ground like a bird with a wing ripped right off.

"Dragon Pulse!" Reece called to his Pokemon. Charizard fired a typhoon-like blast of energy straight at the fall Axe Jaw Pokemon, creating an explosion midair. Haxorus fell to the ground barely conscious. Reece smirked. "And there goes the cutie."

"I ****ing hate you." Matt replied. "Go, Fearow!" he yelled. Reece sighed. "Shadow Rush." he ordered, hardly waiting for the Pokemon to leave its Pokeball. Charizard slammed Fearow right into the ground. Charizard raored primally at his victory.

Matt was visibly nervous. "N-no..." He sputtered. "I-I Won't lose again!"

Charizard landed. Reece rolled his eyes. "Then win." he said. "See if you can try." he yelled. Matt threw another Pokeball. "Go, Dragonair!" he yelled. "Okay." Reece said. "You're not faring so well it seems."

Matt clenched his fist. "Sunny Day." Reece ordered. Charizard fired a ball of gasses into the air, and caused a bright light to envelop the battlefield. "Aqua Tail!" Matt ordered angrily.

Dragonair quickly moved forward, but Charizard was faster. "Dragon Pulse!"

Needless to say, Dragonair was instantly knocked out by the resulting typhoon. Matt retrieved the Pokemon. He simply grit his teeth. "G-go...Gengar!" Matt yelled.

Gengar was sent out of his Pokeball. Reece did a sarcastic yawn. "Shadow Rush." He ordered. Charizard spread his wings, covered himself in a compressed shadow aura, and sliced at Gengar with both his claws, then did a powerful tail rend, taking down the Ghost/Poison type.

"What's left?" Reece asked. "Excadrill and Blaziken, right?" he asked. "Want to give up now?" he asked snarkily. "Oh shut up!" Matt yelled ragily. "Go, Excadrill!"

Reece yolled his eyes. "And...Flamethrower."

Charizard breathed out a massive cloud of flame, knocking out the Ground/Steel Drill Mole with one hit. Matt started to hperventilate. Unless he did something fast, he'd lose! "Go, Blaziken!" he yelled, retrieving Excadrill. The Fire/Fighting type came out of the Pokeball, and looked straight at Charizard.

"Dragon Pulse!" Reece yelled.

"Protect!" Matt countered. Blaziken created a green shield that simply absorbed the typhoon of Dragon Pulse. Reece scowled as Blaziken got a speed boost in, its speed increasing. The sun then disappeared. "Charizard! Shadow Rush!"

Charizard took wing, and charged straight at Blaziken. However the Pokemon jumped up, dodging the attack. "Keep trying!" Reece ordered. Charizard obeyed.

"Blaziken! High Jump Kick!" Matt ordered. Blaziken's fists blazed, he jumped up, and he was about to kick Charizard in the head, but the Pokemon moved to the side. Blaziken crashed into the ground, and then smashed into Blaziken with Shadow Rush, knocking it out.

Reece retrieved his Charizard. "Well Matt." He said turning away. "Next time, keep it interesting." he said, walking the last stretch of the path to Copper City. He wore a smile on his face. The next gym would be a snap.

Chapter 66: The Police Are Useless
This is a commonplace in Pokemon. No denying it. Even since RBY have the police just been background characters while a nobody 11-year old does all the work.

Here's a good example: In RBY, they let you sprint into a crime scene, a house ransacked by Team Rocket. Inside, there's a gaping hole in the wall that leads outside, where the TR Grunt is still there. Just...How?

Then, there's a crap ton of other things. Maybe the reason there's so much crime in the Orre Region is because there's only two Police Officers. Yeah. 2. The whole number after 1 and before 3. 2. Just. 2.

And, Reece is about to realize this the hard way. Let's read, shall we?

Reece ran over the foothills. He could feel the wind whipping through his now long again hair. Mostly, this was a coping mechanism to attempt to forget the possibililty that he could be destined to destroy the world.

It worked.

The boy skid to a halt as he approached the last stretch before Copper City. The reason the city was called that was for its many copper mines back in the day.

Reece looked upon the brilliant city in front of him. There were large buildings stetching as far as the eye could see (and being a Pokemon Trainer gives you good eyes). Reece skid down the hill, and into the city limits. As soon as he did, his Batttle Scanner started ringing.

Reece barely used the phone function, and only a select few people had his phone number. That was His mom, Matt, Kara, and Prof Fir.

Reece picked up the phone. "Hi Son!"

The boy's face lit up immediately. "Hello Mom!" he said back. "How's it going?"

"Great!" his mother replied. "It's been awfully quiet and far less destructive since you three left..." she said, her voice trailing off. "But I also heard that just four weeks ago you had three badges!"

"I have six now." he said. His mother gasped into the phone. "Whoa!" she said. "Six badges in eight weeks?!" she screamed. "That's incredible! It's just like your father!"

Reece shivered. It was just uncomfortabelfor him to mention his dad. "Have you seen him lately?" Reece asked. "I haven't seen him in like a year...I just got a package from him."

"He called recently, actually. He said he'd have a gift waiting for you when you got to the Pokemon Center in Copper City...how he knew you'd make it this far this fast is beyond me."

Reece perked up. "Really?!" he asked excitedly. His mother started talking in a worried tone. "Reece, for the love of creation, don't go running willy nilly to the Pokemon Center with utter disregard for anyone! Please!"

"Fine..." the hyperactive trainer replied. "Just this once..."

"Oh yeah, guess what!" she said. "What?" Reece asked. "I happen to be visiting Dr. Shima and Lavender in Copper City!"

Reece's eyes lit up. Dr. Shima was an old friend of his mother. He also knew his daughter, Lavender. The girl was an old friend of his. "Where are you?!" he asked, practically yelling into the phone. "I'm next to the Pokemon Center. I'll be waiting for you!" she said. Reece then heard a scream. "Er...Mom? I got to go..."

"Kay." she said, before shutting off the phone.

Reece then saw something out of the corner of his eye. There was then the sound of a gunshot and some screaming. Reece saw it. "Yeesh..." he said. "Go, Alakazam!" Reece yelled. He dropped the Pokeball, and the Pokemon appeared in a flash of light. The psi Pokemon looked over. "Gah..." he said telepathically. "Can't we let the police handle this?"

"Delta has police?" Reece asked. "I never knew that."

Alakazam looked over, and managed to catch a glimpse of two Police officers running in. "This should be promising..." Reece said. "Besides, I've always been on the frontlines, this can't be that bad."

As he said that, both police officer were punched brutally, and thrown outside. A Machamp came out, cracking its lower left knuckles. The Police officers tried shooting at it, but the Pokemon simply created a gren barrier, then blasted both of them with fire.

"Oh crap!" Reece yelled. Alakazam fired a blast of psychic energy at the flaming officers, and doused there flames. The Psi Pokemon the teleported him and his trainer over. "Alakazam, Psybeam!"

Alakazam shot a prismatic blast of psychic energy at the Machamp, and the Pokemon fell over like a dead tree. Two men in black outfits came out. "What?!" they both shouted. "It's just some kid! Get him!" they yelled, and both shot at Alakazam several times.

Now, with Alakazam terriblely weak defenses, the Pokemon had the bullets go through him. "Recover!" Reece shouted frantically. Alakazam glowed, and forced his cells to regenerate fast enough to close up the injuries instantly.

The two robbers panicked. "Bail!" one shouted, before running away. Reece was about to order his Alakazam to save them, but they both glowed with blue light and were lifted into the air. Reece then saw it.

There was a girl, about 15 years of age, who had pure red hair with black endings, along with a rather pale skin color. She was wearing what seemed to be a mechanical chest piece, and only exposed her midriff. She was wearing a very dark blue set of yoga pants. She had a good amount of eye shadow on.

She looked right at the robbers, and telekinetically smashed their heads into the ground, knocking them out.

She then teleported over to Reece. "Reece?" she asked. "Lavender?" Reece responded.

Alakazam floated over. "Wait, this is Lavender?" Alakazam asked. "Yep." Reece replied. "I guess I never told you she was a psychic."

"Indeed." the girl replied.

Just then, the police officers got up and pointed their guns at Reece. "Freeze! You're under arrest!"

"Say what?" Reece asked. "Why?"

"For acting as a Vigilante." One of the officers said.

"You were on the ground!" Reece yelled. "You were on fire!"

"Still." the officer said. "We must uphold the law. No exceptions."

"What."

Reece's face froze. Alakazam and Lavender looked at him. "Excuse me officers, I think the utter stupidity of your statement stripped my trainer of his ability to think rationally."

Lavender sighed. "Listen you two, I'm going to give you a good reason why you should not arrest this trainer."

The officer glared at the Psychic Girl. "And that would be?" he asked.

"I can imagine the chief will be very p***ed that a child outperformed two police officers with years of expierience."

The two officers lowered their guns, and walked away. Lavender looked at Reece. "Does this happen often?" she asked Alakazam. Alakazam shook his head. "Reece has seen a lot of crap, but I've never seen this happen before."

Lavender sighed, then slapped Reece. The boy came to to prevent himself from falling. "How'd you know that would work?" Alakazam asked.

"Because it just does." Lavender replied.

Reece sat up. "Well, that was eventful." Reece commented. At that very second, Maddy and ClicK were behind Reece. "Excuse me sir! But we just witnessed the act of bravery between you and the Gym Leader. This reporter wants to know: What do you have to say?"

Lavender and Alakazam instantly used their psychic powers in unison to cause the camera to explode. Maddy's eye twitched, and she wordlessly stormed away, grabbing ClicK by the collar as she did.

"That was close..." Reece sighed. "You two okay?"

"Yes." they both said. "And you're welcome for blowing up the camera."

"Oh...that was both of you?"

They both nodded simultaneously. Alakazam then sighed. "Before this gets more awkward, shall we visit your mother at the Pokemon Center Reece?"

"Lets." Reece replied. Lavender smiled. "I'll teleport us there." She replied, and the three disappeared in a flash of blue light.

They re-appeared by the Pokemon Center, right next to a 30 something woman. She turned over. "Reece?" she asked excitedly. She then ran over and hugged the boy, starting to crush his bones. "Oof! Nice to see you too..." he said. "Mom, you're crushing me..."

His mother let go. "Sorry." she said. She then turned to Alakazam. "Is that your Pokemon Reece?" she asked. "Yes I am." Alakazam replied.

"Oh, it can talk?" his mother asked. Alakazam gave her a look. "Of course I can talk, I'm a psychic Pokemon."

"Don't be snippy Alakazam." Reece said a bit angrily. "Seriously, don't..."

Reece's mother gave a smile. "Listen to your trainer honey."

Lavender found this all rather amusing. "Well, today's been a fine day." she commented, then turned to Reece. "By the way, did your mom tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Reece asked excitedly, also retrieving Alakazam.

"Lavender's the new Gym Leader." Reece mom answered. The boy's eyes lit up. "Whoa! Really?" he asked. Lavender nodded. "Just a few months ago too."

"Sweet! When can we battle?!" Reece asked, almost jumping up and down hyperly.

Lavender used her psychic powers to hold Reece in place. "Soon. Now calm down." she said. She then let Reece down. "Personally, I'd like to get something to eat and then rest. This is my day off."

Reece sighed. "Fine. Let me heal up my Pokemon first." he said, before walking into the Pokemon Center. When he stepped in, he went to the nurse. Her hair was green, and she was wearing a red outfit. Other than that, she looked pretty identical to the one Reece saw in Riverstone City.

"Excuse me." Reece asked, putting his Pokeballs on the counter. "Is there a package for Reece Falconer?" he asked, flashing his trainer card. "Oh, yes." the nurse answered, before pulling a box out from under a desk. Reece took it and opened it. There was a Pokeball inside.

Reece opened it. Out came a small, ball like Pokemon that floated around. "Ca-a-a-a-a." Reece pulled out his Pokedex.

Castform

Weather Pokemon

Height: 1'00 / 0.3 M

Weight: 1.8 LB / 0.8 KG

''This Pokemon has a molecular structure similar to water. It's form and type changes with the weather, allowing it to adapt to any time of the year. ''

Reece looked at the Pokemon. "Aww!" he said. "You're so cute!" he said, hugging the Pokemon. The Pokemon smiled. "Ca-a-a-a-a." he said. Reece then retrieved it, and went over to the PC. He placed in Crobat, but then a voice rang in his head. "Reece."

"Yeah Alakazam?" he replied.

"Don't use Charizard...Please"

"Why?" he asked. He heard Alakazam sigh. "Lavender has powerful psychic Pokemon." the Pokemon explained. "And I want a crack at them."

Reece sighed. "Sure, I guess..." he said, putting Charizard and Aerodactyl in the box, then pulling out Scizor and Houndoom. The boy stepped away from the PC, and walked outside.

He looked at Lavender. "Know any good places to get food?" he asked.

"I know of one..." she replied.

Reece, his mother, and Lavender sat down at the Wire cafe. The Wire Cafe was named that because of the simple reason: The entire building was powered by electrical Pokemon, and what did the electricity travel through? Copper Wire.

Brilliant. I guess.

The three sat down at a table. Reece ordered something for his Team of Pupitar, Sceptile, Alakazam, Houndoom, Scizor, and his new Castform.

Reece watched as a Spinda came by and gave them their meal. Naturally, Reece got the largest portions. Lavender picked up the Spot Panda Pokemon, and gave it a hug before putting it down. "Thanks Spinda." she said.

"I've always liked how Spinda have all these different patterns." Reece's mother commented. "Prof. Fir said there was over 4,000,000,000 combinations."

"I can memorize all the ones here." Lavender replied. "Being Psychic gives you a great memory."

Reece's mother turned to her son. "So Reece, what's happened on your adventures?" she asked the boy, who was stuffing his face with a cheeseburger with bacon.

Reece swallowed his bite. "Well, follwing today, I've started thinking..."

"Thinking?"

"The police are useless." Reece commented. "And today's example was just one thing. Whenever there's been an obvious disaster, or something the police should handle, someone like me's, a child with Pokemon, has been around to stop it."

"Ya know, being a Gym Leader and thus responsible for keeping the public safe, I agree." she said. "The police bother me, but then again, it's not their fault, it's the Government's..." she said.

"Those nutjobs." Reece's mother added.

"Ya see Reece, the reason the police are useless is because the Government doesn't have a Champion, and that leaves us with the Chairman having all the Champion's Political power added to his own. In the end, he can effect the outcome of something with just his vote..."

"Sounds highly flawed."

"It is." Both women replied. "Seriously, it's a bloodbath those monthly council meetings are. Did you know that the only reason the 12 and under law still exists is because the chairman keeps voting against it?" she asked. "All the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members think it's nonsense!"

"Really?" Reece asked, his eyes growing wide. Lavender nodded. "Yeah..." she said. She gave a light chuckle. "Ya know, me, Sakura, and Terra all had a laugh about how Delta screwed themselves over with having Elite Four so strong no one could ever take a position so Ddraig could ascend to the Champion."

Reece smiled. "I don't know what will stop me from becoming champion." Reece commented. "So far, I'm sure nothing will."

"Watch the confidence Reece." Lavender warned.

Reece finished his food, and the three got up. "Well..." Reece's mother said. "Do you still have any money Reece?"

"Crap tons." Reece replied. "I think I've reached the 300,000 Pokedollars mark..." he said. Reece's mom sweatdropped. "Wow..." she said. "Well, I'm going to find Dr. Shima. What about you two?"

"Find a place to sleep." Reece answered.

"Get back to the gym and meditate." Lavender answered.

Reece retrieved his Pokemon. "Well." he said. "Time to get going." he smiled.

The three payed the bill (It was not much) and left. Reece went to a hotel, got a room, and flopped down on a bed. Tomorrow, his gym battle with Lavender...

Chapter 67: Reece versus the Psychic
Reece woke up rather early. He looked over at the bedside clock. The numbers glowed 4:23, and this tempted the boy to just get up. He looked out the window. The city was glittering in the few remaining bits of moonlight in the distance.

"You're up early."

Reece looked over to see Alakazam simply floating there. "Why are you up?" Reece asked the Pokemon. Alakazam gave a psychic sigh. "Resting my mind for the gym battle." he said. "I want to use my full power for the battle, and nothing less."

Reece gave a smile. "That's the spirit!" he applauded. Alakazam gave a smile. "Thanks Reece."

The boy pulled his head over the covers, and closed his eyes. "Well, I'm going back to sleep. Don't strain yourself." he told the psi pokemon wearily before drifting off the sleep.

Reece got up the next day. Alakazam was nice enough to olace itself in its Pokeball. The silver haired boy cracked his neck, and his knuckles, before quickly checking out of the hotel.

Reece let the morning breeze flow in his hair. "Time to kick some @$$." he said, and stretched his arms. He looked around, and saw a sign. He ran over to it.

The sign in question was a directory. Reece traced his hand to what he wanted to find. "There it is..." he said as he found the gym, and ran off.

Lavender herself was preparing for the battle. She put on her clothes, then her chestpiece. She needed to keep it on at all times. It was meant to prevent her psychic powers from running rampant. She got ready. Knowing Reece, he should already be rushing into the gym.

Reece was not too far off. At that moment, taking his speed and distance from the gym into account, he should be there...wait for it.

Reece nearly crashed into the doors of the large copper building. Luckily, Lavender sensed Reece coming, and stopped him from doing so. She teleported down to him, her hair still a mess. "Damn it Reece..." she said, a bit of snippiness in her voice. "Can you at least let me comb my hair and eat?"

Reece scowled. "I never got what took people so long to get simply tasks done."

"Reece, it's 6:30. The gym opens at 7:30."

Reece thought for a second. "Oh..." he said. "That explains why there was no one to battle."

The psychic gym leader facepalmed. "Gah!" she screamed. "Reece, can you at least wait an hour that I need to get ready?" she asked with an awfully Kara-like smile. Reece nodded in pure fear.

"Good." she said, before teleporting away.

Reece sat down in the lobby chair. It was a full 42 minutes and 17 seconds before his mother arrived. Reece counted. "Hey mom!" he said. The older woman rubbed her eyes and yawned. "This battle better be worth me getting up early." she said.

"Obviously, you've forgotten my battle with Matt."

His mother looked at him blankly.

"What?" he asked back.

His mother pinched the skin above her nose. "Please just don't blow everything skyhigh." she pleaded. Reece sighed. "Fine." he said. "I'll try."

Reece waited a bit more. As he did, something felt different. It seemed as if the air became heavier, and breathing became a chore. The boy tapped his fingers impatiently, waiting for something to happen. Then, it happened. A man walked through the door.

He had flourescent blue hair, which mostly hid his face. He looked around 30-35 years of age. He was wearing a white labcoat and holding a clipboard and pen. Lavender happened to be right next to Reece (and considering the fact he hadn't noticed till now slightly creeped him out).

"Hello, father." Lavender said. Her somewhat cheery tone was now replaced by an emotionless, and slightly foreboding one.

Reece's mother looked over. "Oh, Erik..." she said. "Reece, this is Dr. Shima."

Reece stood up. "Nice to meet you!" he said cheerfully. The man looked at him. "Same." he said, before looking back at Lavender.

"Hello, Father..." she said, crossing her arms.

Reece's mother pulled him aside. "Er, I forgot to mention..." she started. "Lavender and her father have been having relationship trouble for a bit now..." she explained.

"Noted." Reece replied. He looked to Lavender, and the girl looekd back at him. "Shall we get to that battle?" he asked. The girl gave him a look. "Let's just get this over with."

"Reece..." Alakazam told him telepathically. "Watch out...she's stronger than normal somehow..." Alakazam warned. "You need to watch out, and fight with all your might."

"Noted." Reece thought.

He and Lavender walked into the next room, Dr. Shima and Reece's mother following. The two adults sat down on the bench a good distance away from the battle (just enough to optimize viewing and not dying). On the other side, was an electric scoreboard that lit up with the names of both combatents and the six Pokeballs they had.

Dr. Shima pulled out a laptop. "Is it really necessary to do research during a battle between our kids?" she asked. The man looked over. "Yes. Yes it is."

"You haven't changed."

Reece smiled. "Alright Lavender, let's do this!" he yelled, plucking a Pokeball of his belt. Lavender psychically selected one of her Pokemon. "We shall."

"Go, Houndoom!" Reece yelled, throwing his first Pokemon.

"Take him down Espeon!" Lavender yelled, psychically opening the Pokeball. The Psychic Pokemon and the Dark Pokemon both stepped onto the battlefield. Lavender's hair started to flow like some updraft was beneath it. Reece saw this. "Doesn't Kara's hair do that?"

Reece's mother watched. A normal parent with basic understanding of Pokemon would think Reece had the advantage, but his mother was careful, and had a wide knowledge of the little critters. She could only guess what Lavender had planned.

"Houndoom, Nasty Plot!"

Houndoom created a field of dark energy around his head, and drew it in. "Espeon, use Signal Beam." Lavender said emotionless in tone. Espeon shot a colorful ray of death at Houndoom, knocking the Pokemon back.

"Dark Pulse!" Reece retaliated. Houndoom shot a destructive blast of negative energy at Espeon. "Light Screen." Lavender ordered coldly.

Reece's mother bit her lip as the blast hit the screen of golden energy and deflected off. "Erik?" she said. Dr. Shima didn't even look over. "Yes Marideth?"

"Something's up. Lavender just seems..."

"Emotionless? When people battle Marideth, they become whole new people." the doctor exclaimed. "Even moreso with psychics. Especially ones like Lavender, who draw power from their subconscious mind, and can't be distracted by emotions."

The woman bit her lip. "I guess that works..." Marideth said. She looked back to her son. "Houndoom! Overheat!" the silver haired boy shouted. The Dark Pokemon reared his head, and shot a scorching blast of destruction straight at Espeon, who took the hit with a screech of pain.

"Morning Sun."

Espeon's eyes glowed blue, and a bright light appeared above the battlefield in the cold, artificial walls of the gym. The dirt floor glimmered with many rocks and minerals as Espeon restored a good quarter of her health. Reece grit his teeth. "Houndoom!" he called.

Houndoom responded, and increased his accuracy in response. "Huh..." the trainers mother said from the sidelines. "Wonder where he picked that up..."

"Espeon, Signal Beam." Lavender ordered. Her eyes flashed a bit as she did. The electric scoreboard flash a bit, and Espeon fired another Signal Beam at Houndoom. The Pokemon took the direct hit, and burned with a flash of pain, yelping and yapping.

"Dark Pulse again!" Reece yelled. Houndoom fired a pulsing blast of destructive dark energy at Espeon, knocking it back. "Stop yourself with Reflect." Lavender yelled in response to her Pokemon's sudden fallback. The Eeveelution fell back against a pane of invisble psychic energy.

Dr. Shima smiled.

"Houndoom, use Faint Attack and finish this!"

Houndoom phased away, and then appeared right in front of Espeon, snatching it into its jaws then throwing it to the ground, taking a good chunk of its flesh with it.

Marideth shivered. "Geeze..." she commented..."How horrible..."

Dr. Shima sighed. "What, did you expect Pokemon battle to change?" he asked sarcastically. "It's different watching your own kid do it though..." Marideth responded.

The silver haired boy watched. Lavender wordlessly retrieved her Pokemon, then opened another Pokeball. Before Reece could even react, something came out and smashed Houndoom with great speeds, making it land a bloody pulp at Reece's feet. The reaction was so fast it took the Electric Scoreboard a good few seconds to realize what had happened.

The trainer looked up in disbelief. There, standing in front of Lavender was a Gallade, standing tall. Reece knew he pretty much only had one Pokemon capable of matching such insane speeds: His own Pokemon with arm blades that moved at insane speeds.

"Go, Sceptile!" the trainer yelled, throwing out the next of his Pokemon. Reece smirked. "Let's do this!" He cheered. "Leaf Blade!"

"Psycho Cut." Lavender ordered, a small hint of emotion in her voice. Both Pokemon charged at eachother at speeds exceeding 200 MPH, and then stopped, locking blades. Sceptile's eyes turned a bright red, and the two Pokemon kept pushing, the other trying to beat the other.

"Yo! Sceptile! Giga Drain!" Reece yelled. Sceptile started to siphon off his foe's vital energies at a rapid rate. "Gallade! Psyshock!" Lavender commanded. Gallade's eyes glowed, then sparked. The Pokemon then fired a beam of psychic force in the form of two waves of force at Sceptile, knocking it out of grapple and against the wall. Reece took a quick glance at the scoreboard, and saw Sceptile was already down a third of its HP.

"Sceptile! Thunderpunch!" Reece yelled.

The Grass dragon ran foward, fist crackling with pale blue lightning, straight at Gallade. "Retaliate with Ice Punch!" Lavender yelled. A small smirk crossed her lips for about a second, then ceased.

Gallade covered his fist in potent cold energy. As Sceptile charged foward, Gallade punched back, and the fists collided. The release of energy created an explosion the knocked both Pokemon back and created a crater in the ground.

Reece held up Sceptile's Pokeball. "Sceptile! Retreat!" he yelled. The turn of events surprised not only Lavender, but Sceptile too. Reece rarely retrieved his Pokemon mid battle.

"Go, Scizor!" Reece yelled. He threw the next Pokeball, and out came the Bug/Steel Type. "Wing Attack!"

Scizor's wings glowed. "Use Fire Punch!" Lavender ordered. Gallade charged forward, but Scizor was faster. The Scissors Pokemon moved with ninja speeds behind Gallade, and then moved again, slicing the Pokemon twice, knocking it down.

As the electric scoreboard changed and Lavender subconsciously retrieved Gallade aith psychic abilites, the girl cursed the crimson bug. It was far too fast for a;l but one of her Pokemon. However, she did have one Pokemon that would be able to at least slow it down.

"Slay him Metagross." she said coldy, as the Pokeball floated up and then landed on the ground, revealing the psuedo-legendary Pokemon. Reece smirked.

"Yeesh, been a long time since I've seen a Metagross..." Reece's mother commented.

"Lavender raised it herself." Dr. Shima explained. "She possesses a strong psychic link with all her Pokemon, which I'm trying to study."

"She's nearly 16 and you haven't found out what makes her power work?"

"I'm not perfect..."

"Metagross, Meteor Mash." Lavender ordered.

The supercomputer brained steel type threw his clawed arm forward, smashing into Scizor. However, the Pokemon was then covered in a bright orange aura. "Swords Dance!" Reece called. Several illusory blades slashed all around the scissors Pokemon, raising its attack.

"Superpower!" Reece yelled.

Scizor created a crimson aura around itself, then creating suffient force to knock Metagross, a 1200+ LB Pokemon, against the far wall. The Pokemon fell back, but Lavender was prepared.

"Icy Wind!"