Welcome to Gaia! ::

The large figure moved slowly toward the cave that he and his companions had been most recently using as a place to stay. Although it wasn’t much of a cave, more like three rocks together forming a slight overhang in the forest. He chuckled to himself; it was nothing like the cave where he’d met two of his current companions. He moved almost reluctantly; having gathered some disturbing news, and unsure how to break it to his companions.

His name was Zane. At almost 6 foot 11, he was very tall, and very large and muscular. He looked like he could easily smash anything that had the misfortune to anger him, and in fact he was even good deal stronger than he looked. He moved pretty well for his size, with a solid but unremarkable grace. He had blond hair that he kept cut short and light blue eyes. He wore dark clothes; brown boots, black pants, a brown long sleeved shirt, and a dark black cloak falling to his ankles. The cloak also had a hood but at this moment it was pulled back as the troubled figure walked to the cave. The cloak seemed to have a small bulge in the small of Zane’s back where he kept his weapon of choice, a large two handed broad sword. The tip fell below the small of his back with the handle up by his shoulders. Because of Zane’s size it was hard to see that there might be something there but there was enough to be noticeable if one was really looking. For the most part the cloak managed to keep the presence of the sword concealed.

A few years ago, carrying a weapon such as a broad sword would have been pointless. Why carry something heavy and awkward when you could use a gun which was just a dangerous yet much lighter. But then everything changed. Some type of energy wave had swept across the land. Instantly, almost every single bit of technology stopped working, cars, phones, computers, everything. No one could explain it. Nothing was wrong with any of the machines, they were all in perfect condition, they just stopped working. The only technology that didn’t seem to be affected were poke balls. Even guns no longer worked. No one could explain what had happened but the results were obvious. Zane sighed sadly to himself, if only that was all that had changed. Pokeballs still worked, although now there was no transportation and storing system so most people had to carry all their pokeballs with them. He was always aware that it was a major convenience that he and his companion had other options for carrying pokeballs available to them.

As he strode into view of the cave he paused and looked up, and sure enough there they were. Both of them were there, eyes closed, perched upon a tree branch. Neither of them seemed to even breathe. They were both as still as statues.

In the case of the larger of his two companions, he was supporting himself on one hand, his body completely vertical, in a 90 degree angle with the tree branch. He had no shirt or shoes on, all he had on was a pair of dark grey pants that were loose, yet had elastic at the ankle cuffs to prevent them from getting caught on something, and in this case, to keep the pant legs up and a belt with a silver buckle shaped like a lightning bolt. His slightly less muscular looking but infinitely more agile frame (in comparison to Zane’s) held him in position without the slightest hint of strain, and glistened with a light sheen of sweat. The most noticeable thing about the larger of the two was his face. His face had 2 rather noticeable and distinguishing marks; a black patch over his right eye and a long scar running down his left cheek. His shirtless body was criss-crossed with faded scars, on his chest, stomach and back, his tanned skin causing them to be shown in stark comparison..

In the case of the smaller companion he had no clothes on; which isn’t to say he needed clothes, and he would in fact look rather silly in them. The smaller companion who was indeed much smaller than either of the two men, was standing on his tail. Neither of the two looked like they moved an inch, even to breath. But the most amazing part of this was that Zane knew they were in the exact same positions that they were in when he had left.... a few days ago.

Zane looked around for the third of his three companions, not immediately seeing him. Then he noticed the third companion sitting inside of their cave playing some kind of card game with an old deck of cards. The figure was older than either of the other companions, his face looked to be 60, although Zane knew he could be much older. The man had a hooded black cloak with the hood down, and was wearing a mismatched outfit, grey pants, a dark green shirt, a brown vest and mismatched boots. The old man looked like a bum. But Zane knew he wore those clothes because they were comfortable, the same with the boots. The left boot from one pair of boots fit perfectly, while its partner gave him blisters on his heel. And the right boot from another pair fit, while its partner pinched his feet. So the old man simply mismatched them. Instead of a belt for his pants, the old man had a length of thick rope tied through the loops in his pants. Zane knew the old man’s fragile look was deceiving, he didn’t have the physique of an older man, and in fact was rather wiry and athletic and Zane knew he was very talented with many things. Zane also was certain that the old man was crazy as a loon.

He moved closer, and the pair up in the tree seemed to become aware of his presence at once, although Zane was positive they’d been aware of his approach for much longer. Their eyes snapped open in unison. “Welcome back” the human said.

Zane looked up uncertainly at the two companions still unsure of how to tell them the information he’d found out. The human, sensing that something was wrong, flipped easily off the tree branch landing on his feet, with his companion landing shortly after on his shoulder. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

Zane looked his companion in the eye. He knew his friend could see out of both sides despite the fact that he wore a patch on his right eye. The patch was a one-way see through material, his companion could see out with perfect clarity, but no one could see in. That way it kept people from noticing the fact that his right eye tended to glow.

Zane paused for a second before replying. “It’s...I’m sorry...... Ashan, they’ve destroyed Pallet Town.”

Ash’s eye widened in shock. “What?!” he gasped out, accompanied by a shocked (no pun intended ^_^) “PIKA?!” from the Pikachu sitting on his shoulder. Ash was so surprised by this news that he forgot to chide Zane for his use of his formal name.

Zane paused a moment to allow Ash to collect himself. It was rare for him to be surprised by anything. At any other time, for any other reason, Zane would have enjoyed his companions reaction, but the situation was much too serious this time.

”The league decided to take decisive action against the rebellion. Apparently they discovered that Oak was leading them and that Pallet was the location of their main base. So the league launched a major offensive to get rid of the rebellion. A large number of Rockets were ordered into the attack as well.” Zane continued.

Starting a few years ago, Team Rocket had started a serious grab for power. They began growing faster than anyone knew about or could believe. Today, it was common knowledge that whoever is in charge of the Pokemon League, or just The League as it was referred to now, was also in charge of Team Rocket. However, no one knew who was in charge, although he was rumored to be a master who had a great number of pokemon with unbelievable power.

”Did any members of the rebellion survive?” Ash inquired, putting aside what little he still felt for his former hometown; and switching into thoughtful mode. He had traveled too far and experienced too much to consider Pallet his hometown anymore. He hadn't been there in several years, not since the accident that killed his mother, and even then he went back under the cover of night to pick up a few personal possessions from his house. He didn't even go to the funeral.

”Not counting the ones that survived, but were captured, surprisingly about half of them got away. More than a hundred are dead though.” Zane replied.

”Where did they flee to?” Ash said wincing painfully at the thought of so many dying.

”Most of them fled as a group to the area around Meteor Falls, north of Rustboro City. They’re holed up in that area around there hiding in the rough terrain. A few other small groups managed to escape and most are in the area around Pallet, mostly lost and disoriented and trying to recover from the attack. The League has search parties out looking for the scattered groups, but if the League takes out the group at Meteor Falls; they know all they’ll have to do is a bit of mopping up action for a few weeks and it will all be over.” Zane replied.

”The rebellion is made up of fools! They tried to make a strong stand against the league who has far more in the way of skilled trainers, and pokemon to throw against them. Not to mention the fact that the sheer numbers of the League’s trainers would eradicate them. Not only that but they quite likely picked the least defensible position they could find. Pallet Town could be over-run with a bunch of Caterpies if you had enough of them! They decided to stand up to League too late. They should have tried to stop it when it became apparent that the League was getting control of the cities. � Ash said with a mixture of exasperation and disgust.

He let out a sigh and then continued. “This is very bad timing, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re launching an offensive now.... when the stones are beginning to appear.” he paused a moment considering his options. ”I know you’d like to help them, and you know I would too, but we both know that we cannot abandon the reason that we have been through so much work and training for. We can’t abandon our search for the stones.” saying that, Ash turned to pick up his things from inside the cave, still not sure of exactly what they were going to do, Pikachu still riding on his shoulders.

”Wait, there’s more.” Zane said, reaching out and laying a restraining hand on his friend’s shoulder. Ash turned and tilted his head curiously waiting for an explanation.

”I’ve caught wind of a rumor that whom ever is in charge of the League is going to use some of his Elemental Masters to destroy those who managed to escape at Meteor Falls.” Zane said.

A few years ago there was a large number of people who were close to the point where they were the equal of the gym leaders in skill and pokemon power.... so the mysterious leader of the league had changed the designation from “gym leader” to “Elemental Masters.” “I couldn’t gather a clear idea of which Masters, but apparently they’re all rather powerful. Easily powerful enough to overwhelm those at Meteor Falls.”

Hearing this news, Ash got a far-away look in his eyes appearing to consider his options. Before he could say anything about not being able to do anything about it, Zane again interrupted his thoughts. “Wait there’s more.”

”You’re just full of good news today aren’t you?” Ash said sarcastically, looking at his friend in exasperation, wondering how much more news there could be.

”I assume you saw the red moon three nights ago.” Zane said, and Ash just nodded. “You also know what that means, right?” Zane asked, again Ash just nodded. Neither of them were totally sure of its full meaning, but both knew of some of the implications. “Well apparently whoever has taken command of the League and the Rockets knows too.” Zane went on.

”WHAT?” Ash asked completely shocked.

Zane nodded solemnly. “What’s more is that they’ve already gotten one of the stones.”

Ash’s mouth fell open in shock. “How?!”

”Not one of THE stones, but something almost as precious..... a seeking stone.” Zane paused a moment to let Ash assimilate this before continuing.

"Apparently Professor Oak stumbled across one of the seeking stones years ago. He knew it was special he just couldn’t figure out how. He spent over a decade using his free time to try to research and figure out the significance of the stone. For years he had no clue what he had, so he didn’t bother to tell anyone. But he finally found the legend of the Destiny Stones and put two and two together. The League has taken him, but I don’t know where they’re keeping him, although some of the refugees might have an idea. But either way the League has him and are probably grilling him for information about where he found it and they probably think he knows where to find the others. When I found this out, I rushed back here to tell you,” Zane said

After a minute’s pause, Zane asked “What’s the plan?”

Even though Ash was several years younger than Zane, and Zane had years more experience; Zane almost automatically deferred to Ash now. Not only because Ash was more powerful, but also because as they got to know each other Ash picked up lessons quickly. He still occasionally made rash decisions but usually his choices were what was for the best. They had been together long enough that they’d developed a level of complete trust with each other.

Ash remained quiet for a few minutes with a faraway look in his eye, considering his options. Things changed now that the League also had a seeking stone.... Ash had one and kept it with him, because it was supposed to help find the Destiny Stones. While he was thinking he absent-mindedly reached up and scratched under Pikachu’s chin. After almost a full minute of contemplation he said; “Okay here’s the plan. I’ll go to Meteo...” He paused as he was interrupted by a loud shriek

”CHEATERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

Both Zane and Ash turned and looked at their older companion who was screaming in fury. Instinctively Zane looked at the old man and asked “Who’s a cheater?” with a expression of complete puzzlement on his face.

The older man came stomping over to the two young men furiously, coming to a stop in front of them. “Who cheated me!?” he yelled in a fury. “I’ll tell you who cheated me! It was the b*****d who dealt me those cards! He never lets me win!”

There was a pause before Zane said with a hesitant voice....

”Calen....what were you playing?...”

The old man looked at Zane still furious. “I was playing solitaire, but the blasted dealer never deals me the cards to win.... I ALWAYS lose that game! The dealer is an evil stupid b*****d who...”

Zane interrupted Calen’s tirade with the restrained voice of someone who is holding himself very firmly in check. “Calen.....if you were playing solitaire..... you’re the one that dealt...”

This brought the old man up short. “I dealt the cards?” he asked looking puzzled.

”Yes Calen, you dealt the cards,” an overly-patient Zane replied.

The old man’s tone and demeanor changed immediately. “Damn right I dealt! I’m a good dealer too! See! No one else wins when I do, I’m the best dealer you’ll ever see...” he paused and looked at Zane. ”So while I was off practicing my masterful dealing skills, where have you been? Any interesting news?”

Zane repeated “The League destroyed Pallet town.” Bracing himself for the effect his words would have on the old man.

”That’s great.... what’s for dinner? I’m starving.... a master dealer can’t be expected to play on an empty stomach.” the old man replied looking not the least bit disturbed about the news.

Zane gritted his teeth at the old man’s reaction, reminding himself over and over that Calen must be totally insane. Ash on the other hand stifled a small smile, not shocked much at all by Calen’s lack of response and knowing how Calen could easily infuriate Zane, it was amusing to watch sometimes.

Ash paused and got a faraway look in his eye, considering his options; “Okay here’s the plan. You say the League has a seeking stone... that changes everything. I need to know where Oak is. If he had a seeking stone he almost certainly researched all he could about it. I'm not sure what, if anything, he may have found out, but I do know that we do not want that information falling into the League's hands. I’ll go to Meteor Falls and see what I can do to find out where they might be keeping him.”

Before Zane could complain Ash continued “You’ll go and see if you can round up the groups that are scattered around Pallet. You know the League will be hunting them, see if you can lead them to the water caverns. I’ll send whoever I can manage to save, to meet you there.”

”Bullshit... Ashan you’re not going to Meteor Falls just to see if you can find where they”re keeping him. You and I both know that you are going there for more than information. There is no way that you’ll stand aside and let people die. And.... Wait! What do you mean you’ll send whoever you can save to meet me? Where the hell will you be?” Zane protested, looking very confused.

”I may decide to go after Oak, rescue him from their clutches, especially if there is a chance he could know where some of the stones are. If Oak knows anything that could be of use, I want to hear it, or at the very least keep it out of the hands of the League” Ash said side-stepping the first part of his question..

”Like hell you will,” Zane said furiously. “You know damn well that it will be a trap Ashan. It will be a trap to snare anyone from the rebellion STUPID enough to go after him.” Zane paused a moment and seeing his friend prepare to protest he continued “You’re right though... we definitely don’t want any information about the stones falling into The League’s hands. So we’ll have to get Oak out. But If you’re going to go after him, we’re going to do it together.” He said this in a tone that invited no argument.

Ash had opened his mouth to protest but then hesitated. He let what Zane had said run through his head. After thinking it over for a minute, and seeing his friend’s points Ash just nodded his agreement. “You win. ....I’ll see you at the water caverns.” Ash paused a moment then a sly smile spread over his face. “Oh, and Calen goes with you.” he said grinning.

Zane’s mouth dropped open in shock, but before he could say anything Calen interrupted. “Where are we going?!” interjected Calen who had been standing right there but hadn’t been paying attention, and instead was looking at the deck of cards in his hand with suspicion. “Hey! When did we get cards?!”

Both Ash and Zane ignored his comments, knowing it was pointless to tell them that he’d had them for years, and that he had been playing cards no more than a few minutes ago.

”Why does he have to come with me?!” Zane protested.

Ash looked at Zane firmly. “Out of the two of us, which one of us is likely to get into more trouble?”

"You!” Zane said bluntly.

Ash paused for a second before nodding agreeing that he conceded that point. “True... but who is more likely to need help? We both know that Calen’s pokemon are strong. Besides you’re picking up groups that will be scattered over an area, and when you’re looking for them, two heads is better than one.”

Zane sighed. Despite his reluctance he had to concede that Ash had a point. He knew there was no possible way he could argue with that. “Oh all right, He comes with me.” Zane said as he turned to Calen, “We’re flying to the outskirts of Pallet to help save some of the groups that got lost in the evacuation and are in the surrounding area.” Calen nodded slightly although muttered “Stupid people getting lost like that.... probably have no idea where they are.... no sense of direction amid the confusion..... probably lead by a woman.... that would explain why they were lost.” He snorted as he picked up his things. He picked up a small duffel laying the strap on his shoulder, and a medium sized sword inside a scabbard that he looped through his makeshift belt.

As Ash turned away and moved toward the cave Pikachu hopped off his shoulder, they heard Zane say “Fearow; GO!” Followed by the typical energy discharge, and a loud squawk, followed.

Then they heard Calen say “Go” followed by another discharge. A few moments later Ash heard Zane yell at Calen. “No! We’re going to FLY, you can’t use a Parasect to fly!” A few moments later there was another energy discharge of a pokemon being sucked back into a ball. Then another discharge and another loud sigh from Zane “No your Growlithe can’t fly either!” Ash then heard Calen’s voice say “Fly!? Why didn’t you say so?” He heard the Growlithe get sucked back into a ball, followed by another discharge, this time there was a loud hoot when the ball opened and Ash knew that Calen must have released his Noctowl. A few moments and a relieved sigh from Zane later, Ash heard the flap of the wings as they took off.

Pulling on his dark grey shirt, socks and black boots and fastening on his grey cloak, he reached down and slid into their scabbards, two matching scimitars with intricate silver designs up and down the handles, while matching metallic black designs went up and down the blades themselves. He paused for a minute remembering how he had gotten the scimitars. While he was lost in thought he absentmindedly ran a finger down the long scar on his left cheek. Starting from his reverie, he put on fingerless black padded gloves, and slung a beat up but durable duffel bag over his shoulder and under the cloak. Lastly he picked up a necklace and placed it around his neck, tucking it under his shirt. The necklace was a thick metal chain that was tough to break, and at the end of the necklace was a pendent with a small gem imbedded in it.

He moved back out of the cave to find his other two companions already out of sight in the sky. He looked down at Pikachu and saw his somewhat curious expression.

Well buddy, we’ve been working for a long time And it looks like its time to put it to the test. I know we’ve been through A LOT of hard times, but the worse is yet to come. We have to find these stones. Otherwise...” he said leaving it hanging, not wanting to consider that option.
"Piiiikaaaaa” Pikachu moaned.

At this moan from his companion he smiled. “Yes, I know we’ve basically struggled through the past few years just so we could struggle through what’s coming, and chances are we won’t survive it either, no matter how well prepared we are.”

”PIKA! Pika pika chu chu!!” Pikachu responded a little angrily.

He smiled down at his best friend, the one who had been his friend for longest. “I am not being fatalistic!” he replied slightly indignantly “I’m being reasonable...” he was interrupted by a slight teasing “pika!” from his friend indicating that Ash being reasonable was a first.


Ash continued on seemingly ignoring Pikachu’s comment. “The chances are that we won’t survive this” Actually to be honest, we really have two missions. To gather all the Destiny Stones, and to stop the other chosen, whomever is the chosen of the dark destiny, from succeeding. If he succeeds, the world will pretty much go to hell... The odds are so stacked against us. But then again, that has never really bothered us before has it?”

”pika pika chu pika CHU!” Pikachu said grinning ending his statement in a slight teasing tone....

Ash paused for a moment listening to a comment from his companion then he laughed loudly. “You’re right the world’s gone to hell as it is, its not like we can do much to make it worse” We might as well get started... and no you can’t have a vacation!”

Ash paused a moment before asking a hesitant question that had been on his mind of late. “Do you regret coming with me now?” He asked his best friend seriously.

”Pika pika chu chu pika chu pika chuuuu” Pikachu replied. (TRANSLATION BAR : “No Ash, I don’t regret it, and neither do the rest of them. As long as you don’t do any cooking that is. ”)

”PIKA! Chu chu Pikachu chu pika!!” (“Not a single one of them, you’ve worked us all hard. You’ve trained us harder than we ever imagined.... made us stronger than we ever imagined.... We won’t fail you.”)

Ash smiled and rubbed Pikachu’s head. “Thank you.” Saying this Ash reached into his duffel and pulled out a pair of metal sunglasses. The sunglasses were sleek with sapphire reflective lenses. (You know the kind that the person wearing can see out but people only see a reflection or distorted reflection when they look at them). Calen had given them to him awhile back. Ash had no idea where he had gotten them, but he could wear them and it would hide anytime his eyes both began to glow. With it on he also didn’t have to wear the patch, but for the most part left the patch on anyway. Ash slid the glasses on now for another purpose. They helped keep his eyes from watering when he flew.

Ash concentrated slightly and a pokeball appeared in his hand from thin air “Pidgeot, I choose you!” he said releasing the flying pokemon. The Pidgeot was large, abnormally so, even for a Pidgeot. Its’ body was thick and tough and its’ razor sharp beak and equally sharp claws gleamed lightly.

Ash and Pikachu hopped on to Pidgeot as Ash said “We have to get to Meteor Falls!” Hearing this, Pidgeot’s strong wings propelled them in the air, they took flight and shot towards the intended destination moving quickly with a loud caw “PIDGEOOOOT!” A caw that was a caw of excitement since Pidgeot loved to fly.

Shortly after soaring into the air he cawed “pidge ..pidgeot...pidgeoooot?” (“Why are we headed there?”)

Good guy music!~~~~

"OOOOFFF!!!" Grunted the boy as he tripped on the root of a tree in a small clearing in the forest, and fell to the ground. He had been rushing to keep up with the leader of the group, but in the darkness he could not see the protruding root and his foot caught on it, causing him to fall. The person leading the small group immediately turned around and called a halt. The group gratefully stopped for a breather. Most of the group, which consisted of 16 people, was out of breath, with the exception of four people. Two of the members who happened to be in rather good shape, the unconscious person who was being carried, and to most members’ envy, the person carrying him didn’t seem to be badly off. Despite his extra load he seemed not to be too much out of breath. The person carrying the unconscious guy was the biggest and strongest member of the group, so he carried the unconscious load without complaint as he lead them away from the destruction of Pallet Town.

The big guy lightly set down his unconscious load as he turned to the young man who had tripped and offered him a hand to help him up. With a deep voice he asked "Are you ok Joe?"

The young man took the larger man's hand and pulled himself to his feet, testing his weight gingerly on the foot that got caught up in the root. After a few seconds hesitation while he made sure that his foot could support his weight, and was not twisted or worse, Joe replied "Yeah its fine Brock. I just didn't see the root...it was covered by loose leaves."

Brock nodded, then reached into his battered back pack and pulled out an old canteen. He passed it to a person close to him, gesturing for him to take a small sip and pass it on, and then he looked around at the rest of the group, taking note of their fatigue. He wished that he could let them take a long rest, but he knew that they couldn't afford to stop for long. The League's trainers were searching for stragglers and they couldn't be far behind. The League had almost certainly let the trainers with pokemon that could follow a trail or a scent, the opportunity to hunt down the stragglers. Brock knew that if they were caught by a trainer with a pokemon of any decent skill level that they'd be in deep trouble. None of the stragglers had any pokemon that were conscious or in any shape to fight. Brock didn't have to say it; every person in the group was thinking the same thing. They had no real destination; they were just trying to get away. They stood almost no chance of making it out of here. He wondered to himself how many people survived the attack and he began to wonder which of his friends survived... He quickly pushed those thoughts away and began to focus on the task at hand.

Taking back his flask he took a small sip of the small amount of water left in the flask before screwing the cap back on and placing it back in his backpack. He looked around and decided that they couldn't wait any longer. "Ok people its time to...." His statement was cut off by a loud growl from his left. Every member of the group turned to look at the source of the growl.

There at the edge of the clearing was a large Arcanine. "GRRRRRRRRRR!" It growled at them again as a figure came into view beside it. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A cold voice said from beside the powerful fire pokemon. "Seems like I caught myself a bunch of fugitives." the young man said smiling evilly as his pokemon blew a small burst of threatening fire into the air, momentarily ruining the night vision of every person there.

Brock shifted to the front of the group slowly so as not to make any sudden moves, but still to place himself between the fire pokemon and the rest of the group, despite the fact that he knew it would do absolutely no good. Brock knew that even a poorly trained Arcanine could easily incinerate every person in the clearing without much effort. The young man seeing Brock move in front slightly, knew that there was nothing Brock could do to really hurt him so he didn't try to stop him. "Well seeing as I caught you all, I should get a rather big reward for stopping over a dozen fugitives."

Brock narrowed his eyes at the man, "We’re not going to go back willingly. There is no way you can keep track of all of us all the way back to your base." he replied.

The young man laughed loudly at that. "Oh, I don't have to. We have plenty of prisoners. We're to bring back fugitives dead or alive, and your skulls will do just fine as proof....." The young man glanced at his Arcanine and then back at the group. "Arcanine.... kill them.... flamethrower!" he said ordering the powerful fire attack. The fire pokemon breathed in preparing to kill all 16 members.

Brock tensed his muscles knowing there wasn't anything he could do, he began to protest but he was interrupted by a loud yell.

"STUUUPPPPPIIIDDDDD BIIIIRRRRRRRRD!" followed by a loud "THUMP!" as a shape barreled from the sky, appearing from nowhere, to smash into the Arcanine and then into a tree. The form crumpled to the ground leaving a large unconscious bird, lying on top of the unconscious Arcanine.

It took everyone a couple seconds to notice that not only did the bird knock out the Arcanine, but its trainer was lying in a crumpled heap off to the side as well. Judging by the way the young man's body lay, and the way the neck was angled, Brock was sure he would never be getting up again.

The rest of the group heard a soft flapping noise and looked up in time to see a large fearow ridden by what looked to be a giant, set down on the ground softly. The man slid off the fearow and moved toward the crumpled heap of the two unconscious pokemon; looking slightly annoyed with something. Brock suppressed a gasp. He was HUGE. Brock was no midget at 6 foot 5, but this man towered over him. He had to be almost 7 feet tall.

The man moved over the unconscious bird pokemon, which Brock managed to identify as a Noctowl, and began to lift it up. It was then that he saw an old man squirm his way out from between the two pokemon. As soon as the old man got clear of the two pokemon he began speaking loudly.

"Its about bloody time you showed up! Did you manage to get lost?! Or did you just plan on leaving me under there forever to get smothered" The old man demanded of the bigger man angrily.

The bigger man seemed to breathe an annoyed sigh before he replied, "If you would teach that flying sack of feathers how to land properly you wouldn't be in that mess would you?!"

"Land properly?! What are you talking about?! That was a fantastic landing! He landed on something soft rather than that cold hard ground!" the old man gestured to the Arcanine indicating it was the soft landing.

Brock finally managed to speak even though he was wondering if that constituted a good landing, what exactly a bad one entailed. "Ummm... hello?" he said gesturing his hands to get their attention, "Ummm I hate to be rude but who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked once he'd gotten their attention. Both of the arguing men turned to look at Brock as if seeing him for the first time. The big guy looked like he was about to answer but the older man spoke first.

"Oh! A luggage boy! How nice of you too get here so soon after our flight lande...." he was cut off as Zane stepped in front of him and said in a brusque manner. "I'm Zane, the old man is Calen, we're here to get you as far away from here as we can. We're leading you to the water caverns."

Brock looked at the large guy suspiciously. Despite the fact that the old man had saved them, and Brock wasn't even sure that was intentional, he was still suspicious of people who seemed to be offering help with no gain for them selves. "Why should we follow you? How do we know you're not members of the league trying to capture or kill us?"

Because if I wanted you dead I'd kill you.... or I'd have let the arcanine take care of it." Zane replied bluntly. "I've got over 150 refugees less than 2 miles away and moving toward the water caverns. So follow us or stay here. I don't really care either way."

Brock looked around at the other members of his group, but they all were looking at him for a decision. Looking at the large man quickly weighing his options, Brock tried to decide what was best, knowing his decision would affect the whole group, whether it was a good or bad one was up to him. After a few seconds of worried thought he made his decision. Knowing that if Zane was lying they were screwed whether they followed him or not. "All right we'll come with you." He said. A few of his group members looked a little bit worried, but kept their objections to themselves. Brock wondered if he should be flattered that they trusted his decision that much or they knew that they could be screwed either way.

Zane nodded and bent down to take a look at the unconscious person. After a close but quick evaluation, he stood up and said "It looks like he's fractured his skull. He's breathing, but he'll be lucky to last the night, and even if he does, chances are he's a vegetable"

Brock nodded his head slightly, keeping his face stoic, he had guessed as much. Zane was just agreeing with the assessment that he himself had made,

Zane nodded and allowed Brock to move over and pick the unconscious person up. After Brock had him securely in his arms, Zane turned and checked to make sure everyone else was ready to go. He turned and held up a pokeball and said "Fearow, return." The large bird pokemon turned into crimson energy and was sucked into the ball.

Then, to the amazement of Brock the pokeball seemed to just disappear out of his hand. Brock didn't see him move the ball anywhere; it just seemed to fade away. He turned to see Calen returning his bird pokemon as well. He watched the ball closely in Calen's hand and sure enough it seemed to just disappear into the air. He turned back to Zane to ask him about this, but Zane was already walking heading away and Brock, as well as the rest of his group hurried to catch up to his long strides. Calen waited seeming to want to bring up the rear but Brock didn't really notice.

He caught up to Zane, and after a few moments hesitation he mustered up the courage to ask, "Who are you?"

Zane glanced at him and in a slightly annoyed voice replied. "I already told you, I"m Zane."

Brock shook his head slightly embarrassed. "No that's not what I meant. I mean I know your name.... but I mean why did you save us? You're not a member of the rebellion.... There are a lot of people in it, but I know I'd remember someone as big as you."

Zane turned and offered Brock a hint of a wry smile at the comment about his size. "No, you're right I'm not a rebellion member. But I had to help the survivors, and once I get you to the water caverns, and the other member of my group gets back with the other half of the rebellion, the ones holed up in Meteor Falls, we're going to go after Professor Oak. He's the one we need; he may have information that can help us."

"Information that can help you what?" asked Brock puzzled Zane glanced down at Brock momentarily, debating how much to tell him. "We're searching for something and Professor Oak may be able to help us."

Brock thought about that, but before he could find a response all thoughts were driven out of his mind by shock. They had walked into a large clearing where there were a large number of battered looking people waiting, looking like they were ready to move. His jaw dropped like a rock. "Where.... where did all of them come from... they were supposed to scatter and go into hiding."

Zane looked at Brock and said "We rounded them up and guided them together so that random League trainers couldn't just pick them off a little at a time. Your group is the last group we found. Now we're going to get you to the water caverns, where you can regroup as best you can. "The way he said it made it sound like it was no big deal, but Zane and Calen had been rounding them up for almost two days straight, gathering them and not to mention picking off League trainers here and there.

The rest of Brock's group quickly dispersed into the large group looking for family, friends and loved ones, while Brock immediately began taking stock of the faces that he recognized so he had some idea about the make up of the group. He took his unconscious load over to what had appeared to be an infirmary and medical section. He got the same somber look from the doctor that was moving in between over a dozen severely injured patients. They both knew that the man wouldn't survive. Brock gently set the man down before leaving to look around for people that he recognized.

He looked around until he spotted a group of the ones he was hoping to find, and he immediately made his way over to them. "Erika, Sabrina, Morty, Falkner! You guys managed to make it too!" He said with a small smile on his face, in his mind giving his thanks for small favors. The group turned to him and smiles lit up most of their faces.

"Brock! I'm glad you made it... I mean we thought that you might not have made it out of there, the League managed to get so many people" The black haired ex-gym leader said happily, blushing slightly. Sabrina moved over and gave him a firm hug, then released reluctantly but kept her arm around his back and leaned into his side as he rested his arm over her shoulders.

Brock looked at the four ex gym leaders closely. All of them looked terribly strained. Sabrina's face had a few cuts and scrapes on it, and the psychic trainer also looked like she was hovering on the verge of exhaustion. Her leaning against him was more than just relief that he was ok, he could feel her trembling slightly from her apparent exhaustion, and knew she was leaning on him for physical support, but was trying not to show it to those around them.

The other female of the group looked no better. Erika, the ex gym leader of a grass gym, who normally looked impeccably groomed, had her emerald hair tangled and messy and her clothes were ripped and torn in places. The two men in the group actually looked worse. Morty, the ghost pokemon trainer, had a gash on his cheek along with several other cuts and scratches on his face and seemed to be favoring his left leg slightly, as if he didn't want to put too much weight on the leg. The other guy looked as if he had taken a rather serious beating. Falkner, the leader who specialized in flying pokemon, had his arm in a make-shift sling, his hands and one side of his face was scratched rather badly and the eye on that side had swelled shut.

"Who all made it out of there?" Brock asked the group, concerned that so few had seemed to have survived.

"Several of us made it to this group, Bruno is around here somewhere, Pryce is helping tend to a few of the wounded, so is Flannery, but everyone else is either with the group that managed to break through and hole up in Meteor Falls, or they're MIA." replied Erika gravely.

"How did you guys all manage to meet up here?" a confused Brock asked, knowing that they hadn't really planned any meeting place, there wasn't really time as they were fleeing for their lives.

"What do you think?" the slightly nasal voice of Falkner replied. "We got here the same way you did. The big guy ... Zane brought us here. He and his friend have been bringing people here for almost two days. I think your group is probably the last group we're waiting for. He told me that we're headed for the water caverns. I asked him who put him in charge, and he told me no one and if I didn't want to follow his lead then that was fine, no one had to follow him, but he wasn't going to be responsible for those who didn't."

Brock paused a few moments to reflect on that before asking, "So what do you guys think? Should we follow him or what?" as he said this he afforded Zane a glance to see what he was doing. Zane and Calen seemed to be having a rather animated discussion.

Falkner spoke first "I don't think so. It could be a trap, he could have rounded all of us simply to capture or kill us."

For the first time Morty spoke in his hollow dull sounding voice. "If he wanted to kill us he could have done it already. He stopped several league trainers and I'm pretty sure he's got his pokemon running around making sure that no other trainers get to us, at least not without a decent warning first. I don't know what his motive is but I believe he is here to help us."

Erika spoke up, "Morty is right. Besides, what are we going to do? Strike out on our own path? Does anyone here even have a pokemon that is in fighting condition?" she paused looking for any nods, but getting none she continued, "That's what I thought. All of my pokemon need a few days rest in their pokeballs before they're ready for any action again. They took quite a beating. So as far as I'm concerned we really don't have a choice."

Brock nodded his assent and said "Yeah, my pokemon all took quite a beating. I could use my Onix in a pinch, but he wouldn't be good for very long, and the rest would be useless in their condition. They all need rest."

"And so do you." Zane's voice came from behind Brock startling all of them, even Sabrina who was usually hard to sneak up on, but in her current tired state, even she didn't sense his approach. "I suggest some sleep for you, Its almost midnight and we're going to leave at dawn tomorrow to get moving, and I don't plan on stopping until you're safely in the water caverns. It might take us almost 2 days to get there. So you need your rest." He turned and walked away, his boots not making a sound as he walked on the soft ground.

Brock looked around at his fellow Leaders. With Oak captured they were pretty much in charge, so the trainers would follow their lead. The question was what their next move would be. Brock looked around for anyone to speak up, and it was finally Sabrina who said "Well, unless anyone has any better ideas, I think we might as well take his suggestion and get some sleep." Brock and the other three nodded in agreement.

The five leaders split up and headed toward different tents Sabrina turned, and gently leading Brock, began walking towards one group of tents as she continued to lean against him. He let her direct him toward her tent but kept her standing with his support. "You definitely need some sleep Sabrina, you can barely walk."

Sabrina laughed weakly and replied "Its been a long few days. You know I'm connected to my pokemon so when they're hurting so much it drains me. That hurt since all of my pokemon are unconscious. And I've been trying to verify the condition of the other half of us that made it to Meteor Falls with my psychic powers, although it didn't do much good." she smiled ruefully as they came to stop in front of a tent. "Thanks for helping me here Brock," she said. Then she stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. Before he could say anything she turned blushing red and crawled into her tent.

Brock stood outside her tents for a minute before turning and making his way to an empty space of land, a ways away, he rolled out his sleeping bag, without bothering to pitch a tent, and he crawled in and was asleep almost immediately.
END PART 1

Zane kept watch by one of the entrances to the water caverns. It was early morning, the sun hadn’t even risen, and the mist and fog hung thick and heavy. It was near impossible to see anything more than 20 yards or so away, but Zane kept watch for any sign of his friend. It had been nearly three days. He’d managed to get his group there about noon the day before, and they set up camp in the water cavern while he’d left them to their business. For the most part the mood was somber those days, as several people, including the one that Brock had carried, had succumbed to their injuries. They had to be buried, which was near impossible to do in the rocky terrain. They'd ended up using a trainer's Dugtrio, to dig the holes and buried the people in the holes, without even a marker to show their presence.

Zane's mind was on other things. He’d gotten the information that he needed, now he was just waiting for Ashan to return. Suddenly he began to see vague movement in the fog which momentarily resolved itself into the familiar figure of his friend with Pikachu on his shoulder, walking toward him. Moments later other figures began to resolve themselves in the fog. It took a few moments for Ashan to reach him, but when he did and Zane began to speak, Ashan held up his hand to cut him off and gestured that he should wait a few moments. The group; lead by a rather pretty redhead and another rather pretty girl with long blue hair, made its way into the cavern. Many of the trainers shot some rather amazed looks at Zane because of his enormous size. Almost immediately after the group began entering the water caverns, there were numerous cheers and shouts of excitement and happiness as people began to meet up with friends, and loved ones.

As the shouts began Ash turned to Zane and moved a bit away from the entrance to a small patch of flat dirt ground. “How did it go?” Zane asked his friend curiously.

Ash gave a snort in response. “I stopped them from getting massacred, but none of them knew where Oak was being held. They busted through the ranks of the League and fled as far as possible. None of them were even there when Oak had been captured. None of them, as far as I could tell, knew anything about him even being captured much less where they might have taken him.”

He leaned back against a rock tiredly. He hadn’t slept in several days, it wouldn’t hurt him, but if it went on too long then it would become a problem. Even Pikachu seemed a little tired. That was to be expected though, they were training before they left, and then to run off on a search for another 3 or 4 days took a lot out of them. Zane privately admitted that he was just as tired as Ash seemed to be, but he’d managed to get a little sleep the night before.

Zane shook his head in response. “I actually had some luck on that front. Some of the refugees in my group actually had an idea of where he was taken.” Seeing Ash’s mouth twist up in anticipation, Zane quickly continued, “and we’ll go free him after we’ve gotten a good restful sleep. Neither of us, or Calen for that matter, is in our top shape... or as tip top shape as Calen ever gets. So we need sleep first.” Zane watched Ash react to that statement seeing his mouth muscles tense in protest, then relax as he thought it through and realized that Zane’s idea was the best. He couldn’t see his eyes though because Ash had his sunglasses on.

“Fine. Lets get some shut-eye now, and decide what to do at dusk.” Ash said, accompanied by an agreeing “Pika!” from the pokemon sitting on his shoulder. Seeing Zane’s agreeing nod, Ash turned and proceeded to walk into the cavern’s entrance. “Good night.” he said impishly to Zane as Zane followed him into the cavern. Zane couldn’t help but laugh since the sun was just beginning to rise.

Zane and Ash went to a corner of the cavern a bit off from where the members of the rebellion had gathered. They unrolled their thin sleeping bags, and immediately lay down and seemed to drift off. Pikachu seemed to follow suit and unrolled his own miniature sleeping bag and lay down right next to his trainer. Ignored by the trainers were the many eyes that were watching them from several of the members of the rebellion. There were no malice in the stares, just open curiosity and confusion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Brock!” an excited Misty called out as she engulfed the person who had been like a big brother for over a decade in a hug.

“Misty, you made it!” Brock said happily as he engulfed her in a firm returning hug. He had been so worried about whether or not the girl he thought of as his surrogate younger sister had survived the difficult journey to Meteor Falls. He could tell by the haggard look on her face that she was tired so he gently moved her over to his sleeping bag and laid her down. She protested a few times about not being a baby and not needing help but didn’t protest too strongly. She lay down and sighed contentedly as she squirmed slightly to get comfortable, but wasn’t ready to fall asleep.

Misty got comfortable and then asked curiously, “Brock, how did you and so many others manage to escape the League and make it all the way here without being captured?”

Brock sighed, knowing Misty wouldn’t stay awake long enough for the whole story he just looked at her and said. “The big guy, Zane saved us.”

“Zane?” A puzzled Misty asked. “You mean the big guy I saw at the entrance when we got here? That’s Zane?” seeing a confirming nod from Brock she exclaimed “He’s HUGE.”

Brock nodded in response, then it was his turn to ask, “So how did you make it here?” Misty began to describe the rapid journey from Pallet to Meteor Falls, then started to describe the cornering in the canyon but slowly drifted off before she could get past her Staryu fainting.

Seeing her drift off, he stood up, then went to check on Sabrina. She was still asleep, but resting comfortably. Making sure both were ok, Brock put his back pack under his head as a makeshift pillow and drifted off to sleep rather quickly, the last days events having taken more out of him than he thought, and one 8 hour sleep pattern didn’t refresh him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the sun was a few hours from setting, Ash suddenly started awake. His body was in a cold sweat, and he was breathing a bit heavily, although he didn’t know why. His Pikachu started awake at the exact same time both sitting up in what seemed to be a single motion. Seeing Pikachu, Ash could tell he was in the same feeling he was. Ash concentrated for a minute trying to remember what he had been dreaming about but unable to come up with anything.

He carefully took stock of his situation. Making sure all the kinks and muscle soreness of going so long without sleep were gone. He stood up and stretched, a move that was mimicked, albeit in different ways, by Pikachu. Although they both stretched quietly, noticing that Zane was still sleeping quietly nearby. Ash judged to himself that he’d been asleep no more than 9 or 10 hours. He moved to the opening of the cavern and looked out on the still bright day, with the sun shimmering over the water. He was pleased that he was pretty accurate with his guess on sleep. It was probably about 4 or so, he didn’t know exactly. However, since no one had possessed a working clock or watch since technology had stopped working, everyone pretty much estimated the time anyway.

He looked around taking note of where the majority of the rebellions' trainers were. Most of them were up and about tending to assorted injuries, whether they be human injuries or pokemon injuries. He also noticed that a great many of the trainers seemed to be doing a remarkably bad job of pretending not to be taking any notice of him, while still watching every move he made, mostly from surreptitious glances, or from the corner’s of their eyes. He chuckled slightly to himself as he noticed a few trainers not making any pretense of not looking at him, instead they seemed to be staring at him.

Ash turned his back on he rebellion’s trainers to look outside again. No one was out there. Zane had probably warned them to stay in the cavern lest they be caught by a random group of League trainers. The warning was probably needless. There was very little chance that they would be stumbled upon. Most people thought the water caverns had collapsed a couple of years ago, and they had mostly forgotten about them.

Ash sighed to himself. Zane probably wouldn’t be up for several more hours. Probably right at sunset he would wake up. He wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of just hanging around here, because he knew sooner or later someone would work up the courage to come talk to him, and Ash wasn’t really in the mood to answer the questions that would likely be asked. He let himself mull over a few options before slowly smiling. He looked down at Pikachu who had followed him to the entrance. “What do you think about a bit of exercise this afternoon Pikachu?” Ash asked.

Pikachu, seeing Ash’s smile eagerly agreed with a firm “Pika Pika!!” Pikachu didn’t like being cooped up any more than Ash did. Besides Ash had been a bit quieter than normal since they’d gotten back, and Pikachu was pretty sure he knew why. He hopped up onto Ash’s shoulder as he went outside.

Ash walked outside and turned left away from the entrance. He walked about for about 50 yards to a rough patch of ground that had several rocks and boulders all around. The rocks ranged from stones as big as a fist, to three or four boulders that were easily twice as tall as he was, and weighed at least a ton. “This will work perfectly.” he told Pikachu. Saying this he began to reach up to tighten his loose cloak when he stiffened. Pikachu reacted the same way at the same moment. Someone was around.

Ash began to wonder who it was but then he relaxed. He knew who it was. He could sense them. “Hey Ashan” Calen’s familiar voice said. Ash looked around trying to pinpoint exactly where he was when he looked up a bit and noticed him standing, in his ragged clothing, on top of one of the boulders “Out for a morning stroll?” Calen asked despite the fact that it was late afternoon. ”Well you know what my dad used to say about the early bird getting the worm and all that. Although it always seemed to me that it wasn’t the best idea to be up earliest if you were the worm."

“What are you doing out here Calen?” Ash asked, knowing he would likely not get a straight answer to his question.

"Well, I picked up a friend who happened to be wandering around nearby. I didn't figure that you’d want to go on this fun little trip you're planning with out him."

Ash gave Calen a puzzled look. “Who did you ‘pick up’ and what ‘fun little trip’ are you talking about?”

"I know you too well. You’ve gotten it into your head that you’re gonna be goin after the old guy... Oak, and I was just thinking that we’d be needing his unmatched abilities and talents for that whole mess" Calen replied smiling then stood aside to reveal a small man.

Ash took a second to recognize the small man standing there in front of him. “Larcen?” he said, surprise evident in his voice, taking a second to look him up and down. The small man was dressed in a nondescript tan tunic, with a matching hood. The clothing seemed to be a little worn but otherwise unremarkable.

"Both by name and by profession my friend." replied the small man with an impish voice. He bowed floridly. He hopped down off the rock, and shook Ash’s hand firmly. “I was heading this way thinking I’d have to scour the land for you. I saw the red moon and remembered what you said about it meaning trouble and figured I couldn’t let you get into trouble without me! When I saw Calen here I was relieved because I knew I wouldn’t have to search very far for you. He was just wandering around, muttering something about hide and seek. So I snuck up on him and surprised him.... gave him a pretty bad fright too!”

"You didn't startle me!" protested Calen. “I was just warming up the voice. I've got a wonderful singing voice and a good scream gets the blood flowing!"

Larcen shrugged, well aware of Calen’s odd behavior patterns, he choose simply to ignore them. “Then after convincing him I wasn’t going to mug him, I asked him what he was doing here. He gave me a rather interesting story. He made it sound like you were going to do something that might be able to use my rather unique talents. Care to tell me about it?"

Ash hesitated for a second, then sighed, knowing Larcen, he’d eventually get the truth anyway so it was easier to just tell him. If he wasn’t told, not only would he find out, but he would probably try to help in some way and end up causing some unintentional trouble for them. So Ash began to sketch out as simply and as straightforwardly as he could, the situation and what he planned to do about it.
"Well then, it looks like Calen was right, and you will be needing my services.” Larcen waved his hand at Ash, waving off the argument Ash was about to make. “Besides... it’ll be fun!” Larcen finished as he grinned.

Ash sighed, knowing that it was pointless to argue with his friend. “You have a disturbed sense of fun. You know that ... right?” Larcen’s only response was an even wider grin.

Larcen looked at Ash for a second before tilting his head slightly and asking curiously “What’s with the glasses? Its not all that light out here.”

It took a second for Ash to figure out what he was talking about. He’d forgotten all about the fact that he still had his sunglasses on. He turned and pointed at the cave entrance and gave a depreciating smile. “I’ve got enough of them freaked out as it is. Having everyone seeing me with a patch on my eye, or with my eye glowing isn’t in my best interest. Besides, despite the fact that it’s highly unlikely, there are some people in there who might recognize me and I just don’t feel like dealing with that right now.” Ash hesitated a minute. “Which reminds me, while we’re around these people call me Ace ok?

Larcen looked at Ash speculatively wondering who exactly was he trying to hide his identity from, deciding it really didn’t matter he nodded in agreement. “That’s fine by me. You want me to call you ‘Ace’? Ace it is. You want me to address you as Bob? I’ll call you Bob. You want me to address you as “Your Imperial Majesty?’ I can do that too, though it might give you a mighty big ego and I don’t think you need that.” He grinned at Ash, seeing a smile spread over his friend’s face, while Pikachu was laughing loudly on Ash’s shoulder, he continued. “I’ll call you whatever you bloody want. Now, I know you certainly didn’t just happen to choose this spot by chance. Why did you come here and how many of the rebellion members did you drag along for the ride?” he asked gesturing to the cave entrance.

Ash smiled a grim smile, “We decided to come here because the Caverns collapsed years ago, and the weather is generally miserable here anyway so no one ever ventures out to look at collapsed caves.” Emphasizing the bad weather part of his statement by pointing to the horizon where dark storm clouds were gathering naturally and slowly making there way toward the cave. “Over 200 refugees from the attack on Pallet are in there right now, I didn’t stop for an exact count on how many people did or didn’t die, and asking them seemed kinda pointless.” He took a moment to appreciate the stunned look on Larcen’s face.

“You saved over 200 people?... with the League chasing after you the whole way?” Larcen asked in a stunned voice.

Ash managed a laugh at the expression on Larcen’s face. “You make it sound all heroic, we really didn’t have a choice. We needed information on where the League may have taken Oak. Besides.... it’s not like we could just stand aside and let the League massacre the rebellion either.”

Larcen nodded his agreement. “Ash... I mean Ace... This is just getting worse. The League has managed to get a stranglehold EVERYWHERE. Sure, there a groups of people rebelling against it here and there, although this one is by far the largest organized rebellion in any of the lands. Look how easily they were beaten back. Things are starting to look grim. I don’t bother to steal from anyone but the League anymore because most people are barely getting by. Something needs to be done, before it’s too late, although it may already be far too late. Everywhere you look you see League trainers who would kill you just the same as look at you. Rockets, who have become the Elite arm of the League, run rampant with impunity. Doing what they want when they want.”

Ash returned Larcen’s grim look. “I know something needs to be done. But right now we have other things we need to do. You’re right. The League has grown too powerful. Right now we need to stop them from becoming even more powerful. I know you want to try and strike back at them and we would like nothing better than to help you, but you know we have other priorities that are just as important.”

“Exactly!” Zane’s deep voice asserted. “Nice to see you again Larcen. Though, I hardly believe you being here is merely a coincidence.“ Zane paused a moment enjoy the fact that he had managed to startle both of his friends.

Both Larcen and Ash had turned with a start, both of them amazed that he had managed to get so close to them without them realizing it. Ash wiped away his expression of surprise and smiled as he asked “Did you get enough sleep? You looked pretty tired earlier.”

Zane grimaced slightly, “I got plenty of sleep, although you looked just as tired as I was when you got here.” he shot back at Ash. “I got plenty of rest, now it’s down to business.”

Both Ash and Larcen nodded in response, a moment later Calen nodded too but none of them were sure whether he was agreeing or whether he was just bobbing his head because he saw that Larcen and Ash were doing it.

"Ok, here’s what I’ve managed to gather. The League didn’t move Oak very far from Pallet, they didn’t have to. One of the survivors think they heard one of the attackers mention something about ‘not pressing the attack past a point until they got the old guy moved to the caves.’” Zane said firmly.

Ash spoke up, realization dawning in his voice. “So they’re holding him at their base in Mt. Moon. I guess that’s not much of a surprise. Hmmm, well it looks like that’s where we’re going to have to go then.”

"Now hold on a minute there!” Larcen interjected loudly. “You’re trying to make a molehill out of a mountain here! You can’t just bloody walk up to the guard and tell them “oh I’m hear to break out a prisoner, would you mind getting out of the way mister guard?” And it’s not like you can just waltz up to their base at Mt. Moon, in disguise and ask to be given a tour of the place or some foolishness like that. It won’t work like that. It’s one of their more heavily defended bases. I’ve never scouted it though so I couldn’t tell you where anything is either. Now I know you want to get to Oak and get him out of there but it’s not...”

Larcen cut off as abruptly watching in shock as Ash seemingly without warning suddenly whirled around quicker than most eyes could follow, and even Larcen, who had quicker eyes than most barely saw Ash’s body as anything more than a blur. There was a thud then a loud shriek of fright and shock from behind the four men.

The other three turned around to see another group of people had moved surprisingly close to them, though not a single one of the newcomers were moving so much as an inch now. The reason became quickly obvious. One of the people, a pretty redhead was pinned to the tree by a knife that had hit just a hair above the shoulder and had gone through her cloak and looked like it was lodged quite firmly in the tree. At least it seemed to be. The girl was yanking and tugging on it with fury but it wasn’t moving so much as an inch. .

"What the HELL is your problem?!” the woman pinned to the tree demanded angrily, although most of the intimidation was taken out of her by the fact that she couldn’t move or seem to dislodge the knife imbedded in the tree.

Zane looked at Ash as he just crouched there his expression blank, his eyes still hidden behind the glasses. Larcen watched as Zane let out a sigh and moved over to the girl purposefully. Zane reached out as the girl continued to struggle, he moved her hands out of the way impatiently and grabbed the dagger, giving it a strong tug, freeing her, and then tossing the dagger over his shoulder back to Ash lightly. Ash moved smoothly catching the knife and secreting it away inside his cloak, still without saying a word. Larcen looked over the newcomers cautiously evaluating them to see if they might possibly present a danger.

There was the redheaded girl looking furious. She was garbed in almost all blue except for her boots which were black. Next to her stood a pretty blue haired woman she was dressed all in black leather though the inside of her cloak was a light blue. There was a dark skinned fellow with spiky hair that was wearing a dark brown cloak to match his brown tunic and pants. Next to him stood a raven haired girl who was clutching the dark skinned man’s hand. She was dressed in dark maroon, just pants and a tunic with black boots, no cloak. She seemed to be leaning into him almost out of instinct for a sense of protection. A petite delicate looking woman with emerald hair stood behind them. She was also clad in brown, but much lighter than what the dark skinned one was wearing, and she seemed to have a very calm expression on her face despite the situation. Behind her stood a large well muscled man with a very angry expression on his face. Larcen was a relatively small man, but he realized he was dwarfed next to this guy too. This guy might have surrendered 3 inches to Zane, but not much more. Larcen almost missed the person standing just to the left and behind of the big guy. There was another man, this one much smaller. He had white hair and a mark on his cheek that looked like a cut that was well on its way to healing..

Finally Ash spoke to break the uncomfortable silence, but his words didn’t exactly ease the tension . If anything it made things worse in Larcen’s opinion. “Don’t try to sneak up on us and it wouldn’t have happened.” He said coldly.

Larcen was a bit surprised at his tone. He’d never heard Ash speak in that tone of voice. Not harsh, or with anger, but with an attempt at absolutely no emotion at all. It was a rare thing to hear Ash sound so uncaring. Larcen noticed Zane glance at Ash too, knowing that Zane’s thoughts paralleled his own. Normally, Ash would have apologized for over-reacting. But his tone of voice let them know he wasn’t in the mood to be questioned about it.

“We weren’t trying to sneak up on you Ace!” the redhead declared angrily. “We were coming out here to talk to you and didn’t want to interrupt, and then you go and start chucking daggers at us like a maniac!”

“What do you want?” Ash demanded once again in that same cold emotionless voice, as Pikachu bounded onto his shoulder. Larcen noticed that even Pikachu seemed to dislike this group, or maybe it was just the redhead, he wasn’t sure.

The redhead looked about to retort but the dark skinned one stepped forward before she could start her tirade and possibly make things worse. He said “We know you plan to go after Professor Oak and we want to help!” he said firmly.

Larcen looked at the one who’d spoken suspiciously but it was Zane who voiced his the question, “How did you know we were going to go after Professor Oak?” he asked in an deep irritated voice.

Before he had a chance to answer, Calen started whistling and twiddling his fingers trying to look as innocent as possible. Zane turned and looked at Calen and sighed. “Great, the senile old goat is blabbing our mission around to everyone. This is just bloody great! Let’s just take out an ad in the League’s newsletter so they know what we’re going to do too!”

“Well you never said it was a secret! I only told them because I think they can help! Besides, you can’t really say no to a pretty face when one asks you what’s going on can you? Especially when that pretty face can also show you a couple card tricks!” Calen said defensively.

Zane rolled his eyes heavenward in a “why me?” gesture as he just looked at Calen helplessly. Then he turned to Ash to see what he would do. Larcen also turned his head to get Ash’s decision on what to do. He wasn’t really surprised at the response.

“We don’t need your help.” he stated simply.

“Don’t be a fool Ace!” snapped the red-head. “Despite the fact that I think you might just be insane. You’re either going to let us help you or we’re going to do it ourselves. And in the process we might just mess up your precious plans. Besides, we have an advantage. We’ve actually got someone who’s been there.”

Larcen started at this knowing it would be a nice advantage to actually have information of what the inside of their base looks like. Zane tilted his head thinking the same thing.

They both looked at Ash who’s shoulders seemed to slump ever so slightly in acquiescence, then he straightened again. “Fine. We’ll let you help. But here’s the deal, you follow our lead.” He said gesturing to Larcen, Zane, and after a moments hesitation, Calen.

“This isn’t your precious rebellion anymore. You’re no longer in charge. We’ve got more important things to deal with now. Our first objective is information that Oak may have. Everything else is secondary. If you have a problem with that then you can leave now, and fumble away any chance at a rescue. I frankly don’t care.” He said firmly his voice never losing that cold harsh quality.

The seven newcomers looked at each other and the dark skinned one stepped forward and nodded firmly. “I can accept that. I owe these two my life.” he gestured at Calen and Zane. “I have no problem working under them, considering I’d probably be a pile of ashes with out their interference a few days ago."

Larcen watched the others slowly nodded their assent one by one. The last one to nod, however reluctantly, was the red-head.

Zane smiled. “Very well, now to business, first thing is first. What are your names?” he asked curiously. (Yes the author is getting tired of referring to people just by things like “the dark skinned one”, “the red headed one”, blah blah blah lol)

“I’m Brock, I specialize in rock pokemon.” the dark skinned one answered first indicating that the others should follow suit..

“Misty.” Answered the redhead still sounding quite a bit angry. After a pause she continued “I train water pokemon.”

“I’m Claire, I’m a dragon trainer.” the pretty blue haired girl said glaring at Zane and Larcen when they raised their eyebrows in surprise as if daring them to say anything sexist.

"I’m Sabrina, I train with psychic pokemon.” the dark haired girl, who stayed close to Brock, replied with a formal tone of voice.

“Erika, and I mostly specialize in grass types.” said the smaller delicate looking emerald haired girl.

“I’m Bruno. I train with fighting pokemon.” the other large man said gruffly, emphasizing the with in the sentence by his tone of voice and a subtle flexing of his muscles.

“I’m Morty. I train ghost pokemon.” the hollow dull sounding voice said confidently from just behind Bruno..

Zane nodded after each introduction . “I’m Zane,” he said gesturing to himself.

“Larcen” the small man said with an extravagant bow.

Ash seemed to hesitate and then said “Ace,”’ ignoring Zane’s raised eyebrow at the continued masking of his name.

Once Ash introduced himself everyone in the group looked at Calen almost in unison. Calen looked at them all puzzled and then turned around trying to figure out what they were looking at.

Zane sighed “And this is Calen.”

At that Calen spun around and began looking around furiously. “Where? That b*****d owes me money!”

Larcen grinned. “You’ll get accustomed to his ... eccentric ways.”

The seven new people were looking at Calen with a mixture of barely masked horror and morbid curiosity as he continued to look around.

“Now that we’re all introduced, which one of you have been in the base? We need to start sketching out a rough plan.” Ash said firmly.

Morty stepped forward. “None of us have been there, but my pokemon has been through their base.” Saying that he tossed a pokeball and a cloud of dark gas and vapor seemed to come out.

“GAAASTLLYYY!” the ghost pokemon cried as it was released. Misty, Brock, and Larcen all stepped back instinctively as it looked around.

Zane looked at the group his voice angry now. “I thought you said you had someone who’d been there, you didn’t tell us it was a pokemon.”

“It makes no difference, he was still there and can still tell us what he saw.” argued Brock.

“But-“ Zane started.

“No Zane, they’re right, Gastly can tell us just as much as any human could, probably more even considering he can turn invisible and walls don’t stop him.” Ash spoke up.

Zane turned to Ash and shrugged deferentially.

Ash looked at the Gastly. “Gastly we need you to describe everything you can remember from the compound, start with any possible approaches to their base, as well as any patrols you noticed, guards, and things like that. Then give me what you remember of the layout of the compound.” Ash said reeling off a list of necessary bits of information that they would need. Larcen wracked his brain for any detail that Ash didn’t ask about that he might need to ask, but didn’t come up with anything.

“Gassstly Gastly Ga Ga Gastly” the Gastly started talking.

“He says that there is—“ Morty began translating.

Ash interrupted him saying firmly. “I know what he’s saying. Shush.”

Larcen worked hard to keep the broad grin from splashing across his face as Ash shushed the ghost trainer. He failed abysmally. He did manage to restrain a chuckle though at the reactions of everyone from the new group who seemed amazed that Ash seemed to understand Gastly with no problem at all, when usually it would take years of exposure to become familiar enough with a single pokemon to understand it’s language.

As Gastly continued talking Ash began to sketch out a map on the ground matching the Gastly’s description. Everyone watched as Ash would stop and point at certain parts that he’d drawn and then erase them or change them at the urging of Gastly. After about 20 minutes there was a sizeable map of the routes through the caves, and then a very rough map of the overall set up of the base. Though there were some blank parts. Zane listened intently too not saying a word, but looking as if he understood every word. Larcen knew that Zane did, and he himself understood perfectly, but he kept that fact to himself. The only other person who seemed to understand what was being said was Morty.

Finally Ash smiled and nodded at Gastly. “Thank you for your help,” he said. Gastly nodded in response and then floated over to Morty calmly allowing himself to be sucked back into the pokeball.

Ash looked around at everyone. “Zane could you sketch this onto paper for us while I explain what we’re going to do. Zane nodded and began digging through his bag and upon finding the required materials he began sketching the map as well as he could.

“Ok, I assume since you all stepped forward, you all intend on coming with us. If you don’t wish to come, fine. Now is the time to speak up.” Looking around and hearing no one speak up he continued.

“Ok then. We’re going to make this really simple. We’re going to split up into three groups and try to infiltrate through three separate routes.” He paused a moment to indicate the three different paths. The object is to get in and get Oak and get out. Period. Don’t jeopardize the mission to go set someone else you may know free if it is going to draw attention. And you damn well better not screw up the mission because you happen to want to take revenge on someone. Oak is held in this compound here, probably in the interrogation room or close by. That’s where you need to make it to.”

“What if he’s not there?” Brock asked curiously.

Ash’s head came up but no one could really get his opinion of the question since the glasses hid his eyes. “Then we’ll need to look in other places, maybe the prisons, but chances are, he’s going to be there.”

“Once we get him, we leave through the same routes, and we meet back here.” He gestured pointing to a place on the map outside of the caves. “Now we’re splitting up into three groups. We just need to figure out who goes where.”

Larcen stepped forward. “I think that you, Calen, and I should be in separate groups As..Ace.” hesitating a moment almost calling him Ash.

Ash looked up at him waiting for him to continue for a possible explanation.

“Let’s say we get him, well it’s not going to take them very long to figure out that he’s gone so we just might need a distraction to cover our retreat. I know you and I can cause a distraction, and Calen’s a walking distraction. I’d say Zane but he’s rather noticeable so they may focus on him rather than whatever distraction he may cause” Larcen knew that Ash didn’t know enough about these new comers to trust them should an emergency arise, but he left that unspoken.

Ash thought about this a moment mulling it over, before nodding in agreement. He had caught the unspoken part of what Calen was trying to say. “Agreed.” Taking a look around at the others standing around he continued by asking. “Ok anyone else have any preferences on traveling companions?”

Ash looked around at the others none of them seemed to have their heart set on any other member. He turned and pointed at Bruno, “You go with Larce...” Larcen watched as he stopped talking. He trailed off abruptly, his entire body tensing as he began looking around.

His hands which had begun to move into his cloak stilled and his whole body relaxed again. Larcen began looking around to trying to figure out what Ash was looking for. Then abruptly Ash smiled for possibly the first time since the new group had joined

“Well, do you plan to join us, or would you just like to hang around in that tree all night?”

Everyone looked up confused as a brief bit of laughter from a baritone voice floated down moments later there was a sound of cloth flapping in the breeze as a blur of dark brown separated itself from the tree and jumped to the ground and then stood up straight. The man came to about even with Brock’s height at 6'3. He had dark hair with dark green tips. He smiled widely looking around. “Hiya Zane!, Hiya Calen! Hiya Larcen! Hiya As-"

“Yes, yes we get the point AJ” Ash said loudly cutting him off, before he could say his name.. “The question is what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean what am I doing here?” A.J. asked confused. “You sent that pidgey to come get me didn’t you?”

“No I didn’t send fo-“ Ash stopped as once again Calen tried to make himself look innocent by smiling benevolently and whistling tunelessly “Never mind, I have a pretty good idea who sent for you.” Ash said shooting a glare at Calen. Larcen stifled a grin at the annoyance evident in Ash’s voice.

“Not that it really matters, I saw the red moon and was headed in search of you anyway.” The pidgey just told me where to find you.

Several of the others looked at AJ before Brock’s eyes widened. “You seem familiar.... AJ? ....... Wait... not AJ...not THE AJ? The former pokemon Master?”

A.J. just shrugged in response.

Brock voiced the thoughts on his mind. “But... he disappeared. years ago!"
oticing the blank looks on the faces of Morty, and Erika he continued by explaining, “AJ was a trainer who was very skilled and very driven, and he demanded his pokemon all have the same drive to succeed ... to win...or he didn’t bother to catch them at all. He won the title of Pokemon Master and held the title for a few months, and fended off a few challengers with relative ease. Then on the eve of facing another challenger, he just disappeared. No one knows what happened to him. It was widely assumed he was killed. Not long afterward, the League started its descent to the ruthless empire that we all know and love today.” Brock said, ending the last part with his voice just dripping in sarcasm.

“You’re not claiming to be that A.J. are you? That’s kinda difficult to believe.” Claire asserted firmly.

A.J. just shrugged. “Then don’t believe it.” he said.

Claire smiled triumphantly “Then you’re not him?” she replied.

“No, I AM him, but if it makes your life hard to believe that I am who I say, then don’t. It doesn’t bother me one way or the other. I couldn’t really care less whether or not you believed me.” said AJ

“No... it’s him I remember his face. I remember the face of everyone who beat me while I was a member of the Elite Four.” Bruno said heavily.

“But why did you leave?” Misty spoke up.

“Because a friend came and showed me something that was far more important than being Pokemon League Champion.” AJ replied.

“A friend?” A puzzled Bruno asked.

A.J. turned and pointed at Ash and said “Yes a friend.”

“It’s funny.” Bruno said abruptly in a soft and almost musing tone of voice, but underneath Larcen could hear a hard edge. Larcen turned to look at him curiously along with everyone one else in the group. Bruno was just had a stare fixed on Ash.

“What’s funny?” Misty spoke up sounding puzzled.

“Well, the day after he disappeared, he was scheduled to face a challenger.” Bruno said speculatively.

“So? What the big deal about that?” Misty asked voicing the thoughts on several people’s minds. Larcen had an idea of where this was going but kept his mouth shut and was watched Bruno closely noticing that Zane was doing the same, while Ash stood there impassively.

“Well... that challenger was good. He actually had a chance to beat A.J. He used two pokemon to beat my 5. And I know that the others didn’t fair much better. He only used a Blastoise and a Pidgeot to beat my team. And neither of them took much damage from my team.’ He continued not taking his eyes off of “Ace” for a second. “I’m not sure how badly he beat the others, because we were hardly speaking to each other at all at this point, but I got the impression that they didn’t fare much better than I did.”

“Oh!... so you’re saying that AJ disappeared because he was afraid of losing his title and being humiliated?” Misty asked an expression of pity and disappointment directed at AJ on her face.

But before anyone had a chance to say anything Bruno spoke again. “Hardly. AJ would never run away from anyone. He just vanished that night. The funny part is, the challenger disappeared too. And no one ever knew his name. We never even saw his face. He was shrouded in a grey cloak, that he kept pulled up.... The interesting thing is he had a pikachu on his shoulder during his battle with me.” Bruno said

It took a minute for the words to sink in. Larcen, who already knew all this stifled a grin as he watched realization dawn slowly on each person’s face one by one. They each turned and began looking at Ash with eyes wide.

For Ash’s part, he just stood there impassively as if Bruno were talking about the weather. He didn’t flinch a bit as one by one every person had turn to stare at him unabashedly.

“You mean he’s the reason you left?” Misty asked staring with wide eyes back and forth between Ash and AJ. “How could you do it? How could you work so hard to become the champion and then just abandon it? What could possibly have convinced you to do something like that?” She demanded without comprehension.

AJ looked at her with hard eyes.. “Friendship. When a friend tells you he needs you. You’ll do anything you can in your power to help them. However to be honest, that wasn’t really enough to sway me at first.” He admitted with a somewhat abashed expression. “He had to tell me how serious and dire the situation really was. Once he did that I had no choice but to accompany him. I needed to prepare.” He said with a dead serious expression.

“Prepare for what?” several voices joined together to ask aloud.

Before the discussion could continue Ash asked AJ, “Enough we don’t have time to talk forever here. I assume you’re going to come along on our little rescue mission?”

A.J. just nodded in response as both Larcen and Zane knew he would. They listened as Ash, in broad brief strokes, outlined their plan. “Sounds like as good a plan as any. We can’t afford any knowledge about the Destiny Stones to fall in the hands of the League. That could be disastrous!”

There were open expressions of confusion on the faces of many of the trainers there. “Destiny stones?” Misty spoke up. “What are those?”

Ash growled in response. “Ask whoever ends up leading your group, on the way to Mt. Moon. You’ll be walking quite a ways so I’m sure you’ll have time to discuss that. We need to split into groups and get moving. We’re just wasting time.”

Before Ash could continue AJ, who had been looking at some of the trainers curiously, turned to Ash and said “We need to talk.” Not waiting for a response, he grabbed Ash’s arm and dragged him off a small distance where they had a whispered but animated conversation. Everyone in the group, including Larcen and Zane watched the exchange puzzled. AJ was pointing over at the group and Ash was making placating gestures but they were talking far too softly for any of them to hear anything, other than an occasional “Pika” of emphasis from Pikachu, on one point or another. Larcen wondered what could be so urgent that AJ would drag him off in the middle of such an important discussion. A few minutes later they returned

“What was that about?” Zane asked as they came back over.

“Nothing.” the two men replied in unison.

Ash looked around the group ”Ok, here are the groups.---

“As...Ace wait!" AJ interrupted. “Think about this for a second. You want to sneak in there and get to Oak right? Well, he’s gonna be heavily guarded, therefore doing so is going to be difficult in the extreme anyway. Now do you really think some of us,” he paused giving Zane and Bruno obvious looks “could sneak into any base unnoticed?”

Ash nodded in agreement scratching his chin thoughtfully. “So what are you suggesting?” He inquired curiously.

“Well, Zane and Mini-Zane over there,” AJ said with a grin indicating Bruno, who responded with a glare, “they ought to be in a group together, and ought to worry about eliminating patrols in the caves themselves. That way a quick escape could be made. At the very least guards will be worried about being attacked, not about someone sneaking past. Because the last time I checked sneaking is never done well by someone who would just as conveniently walk through the wall as sneak around it.” He grinned at his exaggeration but his point was made. Larcen stifled another grin as he watched Bruno grit his teeth and apparently bite ‘his tongue to keep quiet at AJ’s teasing remarks.

Ash nodded in agreement. “You’re right. That automatically puts Zane and Bruno in the same group.” He paused looking around. “AJ, you and Larcen work well together so I want you to in the second group.” Ash stopped again deep in thought while he turned his head left and right, looking at the others speculatively. “I think you should take Brock, and Erika...” He paused noticing that Sabrina flashed a reluctant glance at Brock and their eyes met but neither said anything. “No strike that, I want you to take Sabrina instead of Erika. Sabrina’s psychic pokemon and her own natural abilities should be an asset.”

Larcen looked at AJ and they both shrugged simultaneously. Sabrina’s face flashed an expression of relief that she managed to mask quickly. Brock’s expression was a mirror image of hers.

Ash stopped a moment his mind racing coming up with different combinations and discarding them one after another. After about thirty seconds of thought he continued “Zane, you’re with Bruno, and I think you should take Calen along with you.” Seeing Zane’s stricken and questioning look Ash cut him off before he could say anything “You and I both know that Calen’s attention span registers somewhere below that of your average 4 year old. Trying to sneak in with him in a group would be foolhardy.”

Zane just sighed and rolled his eyes skyward in resignation.

“I think that Claire, Morty and Erika should come with me. Which puts Misty in your group Zane. That should take care of the groups.”

“Now hold on a second!” Misty protested loudly. “How come I’m stuck eliminating patrols? I want to be one of the people that try and help the professor”

Ash turned his head toward her with an angle that made it obvious he was glaring at her. “Maybe it has something to do with your big mouth.”

“You can take your groups and shove them up your-“ started Misty winding up in anger at this insult.

“Excuse me,” said Erika softly “I wouldn’t be much good in your group Ace. I don’t have much experience sneaking around. I would do much better in eliminating patrols. My plant pokemon and their vines would do a good job grabbing people on patrol without attracting much attention.” She finished logically, hoping to diffuse the situation.”

“She makes a good point .... Ace. Erika would definitely be an asset in getting rid of patrols.” Zane said speaking up.

Larcen watched as his friend listened to their arguments and wondered why Ash displayed such reluctance to accept them. It wasn’t overly obvious but Larcen could see it in the slight tightening of the jaw and minute thinning of his lips.

With a barely perceptible sigh Ash nodded. “You’re right she would help you. She and Misty can switch places.” His voice tinged with resignation, hardened as he continued. “Anyone else have any problems wit the groups?” he asked firmly looking around.

Seeing no other issues, he continued. “Ok fine. Get ready to go, we leave in about ....6 hours. Around midnight, make sure you’ve said your goodbyes and have all of your stuff ready to go” Saying that he turned around and headed back for the cave.

“How DARE he?!” Misty fumed to herself as she packed her stuff into her bag. How could he treat her like that? The other ex-leaders and she had just been going to offer their help and suddenly he’s chucking knives at people? No! Strike that suddenly he’s chucking knives at me! It was only luck that I wasn’t skewered... well luck or bad aim on his part...” she tried to tell herself to comfort her ego.

What irked most of all was that he’d ruined the tunic, and put the hole in her cloak! She’d have to get Claire to sew it since it was one of her best tunics and she couldn’t really afford to have one of the few bits of clothing she owned with holes in it. She thought as she reached up and put her finger through the hole that he had made with his knife. Her finger went through the hole in her tunic on the top of her shoulder, and through her cloak and out the other side.

“Are you ok?” A voice came from right behind her. She instinctively tensed up before relaxing a moment later, it only taking that one moment to get past her annoyance at being snuck up on as she turned around and smiled.

“I’m fine, why do you ask?” She looked at him with a puzzled expression on her face wondering why he would ask something like that.

“Well, you’re stomping around like an enraged tauros, and muttering to yourself. Generally those are signs that you’re angry.” Brock said doing his best to put it diplomatically.

Misty fixed him with a glare not really wanting levity at this moment, but after a few moments she relented with a sigh. “I’m sorry, I’m not angry with you. It’s this whole mess we’re in. First, we are betrayed by Lorelei, then before we could move the League hit us hard. About 50 of us manage to use one of the new secret exits we had made, to flee and make our run through the mountains, stopping not once until we got to the canyons near Meteor Falls, pursued by League trainers hot on our heels the whole way. We backed ourselves into a corner and gave it our all, against 5 of their ‘Elemental Masters’ and at least 50 other trainers. All of whom weren’t exhausted, but more importantly their pokemon were fresh and ripped through ours.”

She looked at Brock, anger evident in her eyes and the set of every muscle in her face in her face and body, as she tried to stop talking but the frustration just bubbled up and refused to stop until she’d vented at least some of it. “They offered us a chance to surrender, and when we refused, they laughed! They were just going to exterminate us on the spot! Their de facto leader was in the process of ordering our death, without a single twinge of conscience, when this pikachu seems to appear from nowhere! It interposed itself between us and the League pokemon without hesitation or even the slightest show of fear. There must have been at least 2 dozen pokemon out that it was staring down. Then of course his trainer dropped down too.”

She took a second to calm her vehemence when she practically spat out the “his trainer” part, and she continued a bit calmer. “Brock... the League pokemon were ordered to attack. All of them. At the same time Ace ordered his Pikachu to use a thunderbolt. I couldn’t even see anything through all of the attacks. But after a few moments, the dust cleared, and Pikachu was standing there, looking like he hadn’t been touched. You couldn’t say the same for the League pokemon. Every single one of them were either unconscious, and I know for a fact that some of them were dead.”

Brock looked at her, his face unable to mask his surprise. “You mean just one Pikachu did that to a whole group of League pokemon?... But that’s not possible. There aren’t a lot of pokemon that powerful. Certainly not a Pikachu! I mean hell.... I’d be hard-pressed to believe that a fully evolved and extensively trained pokemon could take all of those hits and still manage to be standing much less, manage an attack!”

“I know!” Misty’s frustration started to boil over a bit. “It’s totally preposterous! There is no way a Pikachu of any sort should have been able to do that. The trainers of the League were freaked. They sent out every pokemon they could muster. Including 5 from masters. Do you know what Ace did? He called his Pikachu back! But not because it was tired or he thought it couldn’t handle itself, oh no, he just ‘wanted to give one of his other pokemon some exercise!’ He sent out a Blastoise and told it to use surf. And instead of columns of water a whole tidal wave came up and swept every single one of the pokemon and trainers down the canyon, crushing them all against the walls and each other!” Misty paused a moment shivering slightly remembering the lump of the Walrein that they had seen as they had exited the falls.

Brock just stood there listening, trying to make sense of what she was telling him. “You mean he just rid himself of them like they were nothing? That’s.... unbelievable. I mean how powerful are his pokemon? And for that matter how many does he have? It seemed to me that Zane was the same way... his fearow looked pretty impressive. I mean it carried Zane and didn’t look like it was all that much of a burden..... " Brock paused a moment before continuing. ‘There’s something weird about them though.”

Misty looked at him an expression of agreement on her face. “Yes, I know. It’s hard to put a finger on what though isn’t it?”

Brock nodded. “It’s weird! Ace seems to understand a pokemon he’s never met before perfectly. That is rare, although I suppose he could have a Gastly and just be able to understand it. But what about what Bruno said?” Seeing Misty’s momentarily blank look he explained. “You know, about it really being AJ and about Ace having beaten the Elite 4?”

Misty bit her lip a moment before thinking aloud. “I don’t know... I would have said no. But I’ve seen what his pokemon can do. Maybe it’s true. Who knows? All I know is I’m stuck in a group with that knife chucking maniac and he’s in charge. I can already tell I’m going to love this.” she said her voice just dripping with sarcasm.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad? Maybe you just got off on the wrong foot.” Brock said, realizing even before Misty shot her glare at him, that she didn’t want to hear platitudes like that. “ Er....I’m just gonna go check and make sure I packed all of my stuff”

Misty nodded. “Good idea.”

Brock turned and left walking over to his own tent, vaguely amused at Misty’s anger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ash stood at the edge of the lake looking out at it as the sun set. He was throwing stones out over the lake at different angles, so that Pikachu could practice a bit of target practice. Ash would throw the stone and Pikachu would zap it in mid-flight with a bolt of electricity. Pikachu didn’t really need the practice and it knew that. After hitting the 23rd stone in a row without missing once, Pikachu stopped and looked up at his trainer. His eyes were still covered with the glasses, but Pikachu really didn’t need to see his eyes to tell what his trainer was thinking. They were bonded much to closely for that. The scrape of boot on gravel came into earshot from behind them both, but Ash didn’t stiffen or even move. They both knew who it was.

“Hey Ash,” AJ’s voice said quietly so it didn’t carry.

Pikachu hopped up onto his trainer’s shoulder as his trainer leaned back against a large boulder. “Hey AJ.” Ash said in a weary sort of voice.

“Are you ok?” AJ asked curiously, seating himself on a lower boulder and looking out at the sunset on the lake.

Ash hesitated a moment before answering. “Yeah. It’s just the calm before the storm, you know? I hope we’re ready.” He paused a moment to look at AJ, the crimson light of the sunset reflecting off of his sunglasses. Using a moment to compose his thoughts he reached down inside of his pack and began searching around for something. “I’m glad you came. We’re going to need all the help we can to do this. And by this I don’t just mean getting to Oak. I mean retrieving the Destiny Stones as well. We barely know what to expect, but we don’t have any more time to prepare. We have to be ready. I’m just not sure we have enough. I don’t think there are enough of us.” Ash said finally voicing his fears. “I mean there’s Zane, Calen, you, and I. I just don’t think that’s enough.” He pulled his hand out of the bag and handed Pikachu an apple from the bag, which Pikachu took with an excited “pika!”

“What about May?” AJ asked gravely.

“Still no sign of her or Max, I know they went off togethor to train, and no word of Duplica or the other two. When we all went our separate ways to work by ourselves, we scattered. Zane and Calen went their own way for a while. Visited their families, did whatever they needed to. We only met up again a few months ago. I’ve sensed your presence from time to time in the past 2 years mostly when we happened to wander close to each other’s path. I didn’t approach you, of course, because we each needed alone time to make sure we knew what we were doing, and time to train on our own.”

AJ nodded. “I sensed you a few times as well, but as you didn’t seem to be intent on meeting up with me, I let you go your way. I’ve been training almost non-stop since we split. Although I did stop by and let my parents know that I was still alive and well. They don’t know what I’m doing but they know I’m alive. So they’re ok. Same thing with the others. I know for a fact that Zane visited his family twice, and May and Max got in touch with their parents. She didn’t tell them what she was doing but made it clear that her parents were to pretend they hadn't come back and keep up the general belief that she and her brother had disappeared. Larcen visited his brother, and his close friends letting them know he was still around. All of us let our friends and family know that at least we were ok. Except for you. You’re the only one who didn't go home, or didn’t go see your friends.” he finished his statement in a questioning tone.

“I had nothing left for me to go back to. They think I’m dead. Better not to let them think otherwise. They made their feelings clear, so I refused to impose upon them anymore, and let them live their own lives.” Ash said simply

“Better for whom? Them or you?” AJ shot back.

Ash just shrugged in response. They both knew how the argument would end. The same way it did every time AJ tried to convince him to go back.

AJ sighed knowing it was pointless so he changed topics back. “Well what are you going to do if there isn’t enough of us? Are you going to offer the change to some of these new people? You’re considering it, aren’t you?” AJ asked answering his own question.

“Possibly.” Ash admitted honestly. “I wanted to see how they handled themselves on this mission we’ve got going, before I decide. If I decide we need more, then who better than those that we already know are close to their pokemon?”

“It’s going to be quite a shock to their systems, you’re going to have to explain everything if you do. Just like you did before you changed me.” AJ said. “You definitely opened my eyes when you showed me just how foolish I was thinking I’d reached the pinnacle of my skills when I became the Pokemon League Champion. There was so much I didn’t understand then. So much that I still don’t understand now. But I’m learning more everyday. That’s the whole point isn’t it? Learning to control the powers that come with the change?”

“The thing I’m worried about, though, is whether or not I would be giving them enough time to adapt to the change before tossing them in dangerous situations.” Ash admitted. “ I mean I’ve had almost 7 years to adapt to the change. Mine was even harder to deal with because it happened spontaneously, I didn’t agree to have someone consciously trigger it.” he paused a moment allowing himself a small chuckle, “well... that’s part of the reason it was harder for me.” he amended gesturing to his sunglasses.

AJ chuckled lightly along with his friend. “Yes, the constantly glowing eye really freaked me out the first time remember? I mean all of us who’ve been changed, our eyes glow sometimes, especially when we’re battling or using our own powers. But your one eye never stops. It’s a good thing May came up with that patch for your eye. It took me and my pokemon, the ones I was linked to anyway, a while to get adjusted to it. I mean the instant I was changed the link we had became so much more, and they changed with me. That link and the changes it causes takes as much getting used to as anything.”

“I know, the funny thing is that the pokemon seem to accept the change in a lot easier than we do.” Ash said

“Pika!” Pikachu paused a moment from munching on an apple to agree vigorously with his trainer’s statement.

“So let me ask you something, where exactly did you go during your time alone?” AJ asked curiously.

Ash turned his head to regard AJ before shrugging lightly “Nowhere specific. I took my pokemon to the places where I thought their power could be strengthened and honed the most. Usually it was in areas where their power's would be weakest, making them work hard at it. I trained for awhile then moved on.” Pikachu was on his shoulder nodding in agreement.

AJ grinned, a challenging note crept into his voice. “How strong are they now? Have they improved as much as my pokemon?”

Ash regarded AJ a moment as a grin fought its way onto his face. “Stronger than ever; and yes they’re still stronger than your pokemon.” a teasing note in his voice.

AJ grin matched Ash’s grin. “I doubt it...Care to prove that? We have a few hours before we have to leave, and beating you will be the perfect start to the trip...”

Ash laughed amused “Oh definitely, although correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been a long time since you beat me.”

“It’s been almost 2 years since we last battled. I’m better than I was then.... much better, good enough to give you a run for your money anyway.” AJ shot back.

Ash stood up straight, “What are the terms?” he said realizing that aside from a few rocks close to the water that the beach would be perfectly flat and ideal for a battle.

AJ paused a moment. “Lets say 4 pokemon each. Release the first one at the same time. And try not to do any serious damage to the pokemon.”

Ash nodded “Don’t worry I’ll try to keep from hurting you too badly.” the teasing quality in his voice making it obvious the statement was a joke not arrogance on his part. He turned around and backed up a few dozen yards and hopped up onto a boulder

“Pika pi!” Pikachu laughed at his statement

AJ laughed in response. “Don’t worry, I won’t rub it in too badly when I beat you.” he said as he also found a boulder to stand on.


As they climbed up onto their respective boulders, Zane and Larcen choose that moment to exit the cave, getting annoyed by the stares of people, most of which were directed at Zane. One look at the two trainers, standing so far apart, facing each other, told them all they needed to about the situation. Both men just shrugged, then moved a bit closer and climbed up on some large rocks right outside the cave to get a good view.

“This ought to be good.” Larcen said as he and Zane took a seat on the rocks. “Try not to destroy this whole place would you?!” Larcen called out teasingly to the two combatants.


AJ turned and waved at the two people sitting on the rocks. He also noticed that more heads were beginning to poke their heads out of the cave to see the action. “Don’t worry I’ll try to leave this place... and his pokemon in one piece.” He called jokingly to his friends.
Ash turned slightly and held his hand up, parting his index and middle fingers, while leaving the rest folded down, forming a V, his sign for victory. Turning his attention back to the task at hand he turned back to regard AJ, trying to decide on the best pokemon to use as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Try not to destroy this whole place would you” Larcen’s voice stated as it carried into the cave. Intrigued, several of the leaders headed toward the entrance, the more cautious of their group, mindful of Zane’s warning to stay in the cave hung back but were inching toward the entrance.

Misty, who’d just finished packing her things, met up with Brock, Sabrina, and Claire at the entrance, taking in the situation as quickly as Zane and Larcen had, but taking a bit longer to fully believe that they were going to battle at a time like this.

“Don’t worry I’ll try to leave this place... and his pokemon in one piece.” AJ called out as he waved.

Misty looked at Ace and saw him ... her mind reeled for a second, taking a moment to grasp what she saw, as Ace flashed his fingers up in a V sign for victory. She shook her head slightly realizing she was being foolish and out of the corner of her eye she saw Brock do a double take and then shake his head in the same way.

“This ought to be interesting.” Brock commented.

Misty looked at him “Ace will win it.” she stated firmly.

Brock looked at her uncertainly, “I don’t know... AJ was a former pokemon master. That’s gotta count for something.” He said looking at her.

Misty just shook her head. “I’ve seen what his pokemon can do. Ace should win this hands down.” Claire nodded her agreement.

Brock just shrugged, “I don’t know, but it will be a good match I think.”

“That much I don’t doubt.” Bruno’s gravelly voice rumbled from directly behind them causing them to jump a bit. “Any bets on who wins?” he asked.

Every person in the group immediately placed his or her bets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ash had chosen his pokemon. He held the pokeball in his hand in front of him patiently waiting for AJ to choose his pokemon. A few moments later AJ had his ball in his hand. Both men nodded to each other and then tossed their respective pokeballs out. AJ threw his pokeball out with a flick of a wrist. In the most flamboyant gesture many of those watching had seen Ace make to this point he whirled and called out “I choose you.” throwing his pokeball out with a passion.

The two pokemon formed themselves out of the energy from the thrown balls. On AJ's side the bug/poison pokemon Beedrill formed, buzzing in midair. The beedrill looked normal with the exception of its size, which was about twice the size of a normal beedrill, looking like it was taller than six feet. On Ace's side, the energy formed an extremely large Sceptile.. The plant pokemon stood well over 7 feet tall. The observers who had seen a Sceptile before, noted some major differences between this Sceptile and normal Sceptiles. This one looked far more muscular, instead of thin stick-like arms, this one had thicker arms that looked like corded muscle. Instead of a natural paunch around the stomach it was firm and flat. The long spiky tail was raised behind the Sceptile as it crouched slightly, ready for battle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Over on the side lines the spectators began to comment to one another. “Ouch, bad luck for Ace, choosing a grass pokemon.” Brock muttered to the trainers close to him.

Brock nodded his agreement. “Beedrill is a bug and poison type, both of those are strong against grass. Not only that but it also flies, which is another advantage for AJ. Both pokemon look really well trained, but I think AJ definitely has the edge in this battle.”

“Shhh,” said Erika in an uncharacteristic abrupt manner. “I want to see this.” Indeed those around her could tell that her focus was riveted on Sceptile. She herself specialized in raising grass-types and she wanted no interruption while she watched Sceptile. Those around her quieted down almost as intent on watching the battle, as she was in watching Sceptile’s every move.

Larcen and Zane both watched the battle begin, keeping quiet until Calen hopped up between them. “Hey, out here getting a tan? You know it works better with less clothes right?” Larcen just ignored him but Zane reached out and covered Calen’s mouth with his hands, beckoning him to be quiet. Intent on the battle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sorry As...Ace. Bad luck for you I guess. I’ll try not to go to hard.” His thoughts mirroring Brock’s, he smiled, certain he had a major type advantage and that it would help carry him through the first part of the match. “Beedrill, Pin Missile!”

Beedrill raised its two cone-like arms, at his trainer’s command, and fired hundreds of little needle like pins toward Sceptile.

The instant AJ called out his attack, Ash responded saying calmly to his Sceptile. “Sceptile, Leaf Shield.” The response was instantaneous, hundreds of leaves burst from Sceptile’s body and began whirling around in the air in front of him. The cloud of leaves was very dense and everyone could see the impact of the pins when they connected with the leaves.

The leaves settled down and Sceptile stood there, a few pins having managed to slip through and connect were sticking out of him here and there, not enough to do any significant damage other than to anger the large grass pokemon.

“Sceptile, Razor Leaf!” Ash called out, at the same time that AJ called out. “Beedrill, Twin Needle!”

The large grass pokemon jumped up in the air instinctively this time, knowing that a moving target is harder to hit and while in mid leap, he threw his right arm across his body from left to right in a tossing motion, sending dozens of large rounded leaves, with razor sharp edges, flying towards Beedrill. Beedrill used his two cone like arms and shot the outer shell of the cones toward Sceptile.

Sceptile managed to avoid one of the cones, but the other one connected a glancing but a heavy blow to it’s side, causing the large grass pokemon to land heavily, looking a bit worn but still not too bad off. The same could not be said for the beedrill. Sceptile’s razor leaf attack had connected full on a large number of the razors connecting with Beedrill’s body and wings. The wings were severely shredded causing Beedrill to crash to the ground with resounding thuds as it skidded across the ground for a short distance.

The beedrill began to use it’s two cone like arms to push itself up, but was suddenly transformed into red energy as it zapped back into the pokeball in AJ’s hand.

“Beedrill. Return.” AJ called as his pokemon was sucked back into the ball. He knew beedrill was damaged but he also knew that Beedrill’s wings would be regrown in about a day so he was not all that concerned with the damage that Beedril had accrued. What did annoy him was the fact that Ash’s Sceptile had taken his beedrill out of action with one attack. It wasn’t that the attack overly hurt beedrill. Beedrill was still more than ready and willing to fight, but without it’s wings in working order, the beedrill could not do much of anything. Sceptile’s attack had hit the perfect spot, and had been powerful enough to do enough damage to render Beedrill useless in the battle.

AJ shot a disappointed look toward Ash as he let the breeze blow his cloak forward a bit. He pondered what pokemon to use next. Finally coming to a decision, he held out his hand and another ball appeared from thin air to rest lightly in his hand.

Ash stood there impassively waiting for AJ’s choice, taking a moment to ask “Sceptile, are you good to go?’ Getting a firm nod as acknowledgment from Sceptile, he nodded in return and then resumed his silence, watching AJ patiently.

“I choose you, Thyphlosion.” AJ said clearly, as he tossed the ball which opened immediately letting out the pokemon it contained. The fire pokemon stood there upright. It stood every bit as tall as Sceptile, if not a bit taller. The back of its neck pulsated a streak of fire, almost like a mane that encircled only the top half of the neck. It’s body type vaguely resembled Sceptile’s too. But where Sceptile seemed to have a slightly reptilian look about him, Thyphlosion was more mammalian. AJ always thought privately that it had resembled an overgrown weasel on steroids.

Thyphlosion stood there glaring menacingly at Sceptile, who returned the glare not showing a hint of fear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wow, Sceptile did a good job with that attack.” commented Brock as he watched beedrill tumble to the ground.

Misty shot Brock a glare that Brock had learned to interpret from women as “I told you so, and if you don’t admit I told you so I’m going to brain you.”

He gave Misty a weak smile and gestured placatingly with his hands, “All right, all right!. You were right, I was wrong.” he said as AJ returned Beedrill to his pokeball.

Misty gave him the female smile recognized world over as “Yes, I’m right, and it’s about damn time you admitted it. In fact your life would be a lot easier if you just agreed that I was right all the time.” After a moment though she let her smile fade. “You see what I’m saying? Ace’s pokemon are like freaks of nature.” she said as she watched AJ release his Thyphlosion.

Bruno spoke in his rumbling bass voice. “Oh, that’s going to be tough for Sceptile. Grass is super-weak to fire types. I don’t think Sceptile will manage to beat this one.” he spoke ignoring Misty’s question.

"Shut-up!” the normally reserved Erika, said in the most irritable voice any of them had ever heard her use. She was annoyed for three reasons. First, the others seemed to be insulting grass pokemon, which she took quite personally. Secondly, she really wanted to see what Sceptile would do and whether or not his trainer would just return it. And third, she didn’t want to admit it but she wandered if Sceptile would even stand a chance against a fire pokemon, much less a strong one which this one so obviously seemed to be.

A former Gym leader from Lavaridge, named Flannery was paying equally close attention to the Thyplosion. She was barely 18, but she had experience, since she became a gym leader young. She had the record for second youngest gym leader, at age 14. Misty had managed to beat her by a year. This fiery red-head trained fire pokemon as well and was interested in seeing Thyplosion perform. She was immediately impressed by his large physical size. She hadn’t volunteered to go with the rest of the gym leaders when they decided to help rescue Oak, because she had twisted her ankle fleeing, and it still needed a few days to heal. Therefore, it was decided she’d be one of the leaders to stay home with the survivors.


“Sceptile, Leech seed!” Ash called out, knowing he was at a disadvantage, he decided to make the first move.

“Thyphlosion, Flamethrower!” AJ called out in response.

Both pokemon reacted instantly to their trainer’s orders. Sceptile shot out a group of seeds from its mouth, while Thyplosion shot a line of fire from the flames on his neck toward Sceptile, though his aim was a bit low. Both attacks connected. The seeds landed in Thyplosions fur, stuck there, and began slowly siphoning power from him and giving a bit of it to Sceptile. Thyplosion barely noted the slight draining of energy. Sceptile however had not fared as well, it had attempted to leap out of the way of the fire attack and had not succeeded, it still connected, sending the Sceptile rolling back a few feet, onto its side.

Immediately, Sceptile sprang back up onto its feet looking worse for the wear and panting heavily. It’s body had collected numerous scrapes and cuts and its lower body was charred in places from the fire attack. However it didn’t seem to be done yet. It was crouched, supporting itself slightly with it’s fore arms on the ground. “SCEPTILE!” the grass pokemon growled angrily.

“Sceptile, mega-punch” Ash called out.

Sceptile immediately responded by sprinting towards the Thyplosion determined to get within reach of it. It thundered across the ground, running on all fours.

“Thyplosion Fire Blast!” AJ called out.

Thyphlosion took a moment to inhaled and then from the flames on its neck and from its outstretched paws it shot fire out to form 5 connecting lines (imagine lines that leading inward from all the points on a pentagon and connecting them to a point near the center of the pentagon) that shot toward the oncoming Sceptile. The very powerful fire attack headed right for Sceptile, but Sceptile was stretched out running on all fours so it naturally presented a smaller and moving target. The fire blast sailed close to Sceptile, however, it flew over him, missing him by a scant few inches.

The Thyplosion barely had a chance to react to his attack missing before Sceptile ran into him full tilt. The instant before Sceptile ran into Thyplosion, Sceptile pulled his fist back and let it fly with as much muscle as it could muster, plus all the built up velocity behind his sprint, and connected solidly with the side of Thyplosion’s jaw, which sent him reeling. Sceptile had no chance to stop his momentum so he collided with Thyplosion and they went down in a tangle of claws, teeth, fur and scales. What had started out as a battle had become a brawl. Both pokemon were wrestling, slashing and punching, neither was giving the other room to use any elemental attacks. Neither trainer bothered to call out instructions to their pokemon knowing they wouldn’t be heard. After almost a minute, both pokemon rolled away and tried to stand upright, neither made it. Both pokemon’s head lolled back and they collapsed in unison with a large crash.

Both Ash and AJ held out their pokeballs in unison, knowing both pokemon were unconscious. “Thyplosion, return.” AJ’s voice said a bit disappointed.

“Sceptile, return.” Ash said calmly.

The two trainers regarded each other for a few moments, and nodded in silent agreement. Their pokemon fainted at the same time so they should toss the next balls out at the same time.


The audience had watched the whole battle between Sceptile and Thyplosion in silence. Most of them had been utterly shocked when not one but both of the pokemon had fainted simultaneously. There wasn’t any claps when it happened, just stunned and impressed silence.

“Wow, Sceptile managed to take it down.” An amazed Brock said. Everyone was equally amazed at what had happened, no one even thought to brain Brock for making such an obvious statement. They all focused their attention on the pokemon being released.


Both trainers tossed their pokeballs out at the same time. From the energy beams emerged two pokemon. On Ash’s side the bird pokemon Pidgeot emerged, and from AJ’s side, Swellow, another bird pokemon emerged. Both bird pokemon were huge, so close in size, that it was hard to tell which was bigger. Ash’s pokemon was a light brown, with long feathers flowing from his head, which alternated a dark brown and a light orange. In contrast, AJ’s Swellow had dark blue feathers, almost to the point of being black, with bright red tail feathers and matching red feathers on the head.

AJ grinned, happy that neither pokemon had the advantage, but then he saw the look on Ash’s face, a grin matching his.

“Pidgeot, take to the air, you know what to do!” Ash commanded. In response, Pidgeot used his wings to push with enormous force and shot off up toward the sky.

“Swellow, don’t let him get away!” AJ commanded. A few seconds later his pokemon shot upward to trailing Ash’s pokemon up into the sky. For a moment AJ nodded, satisfied that he hadn’t let Pidgeot get in the air, and then drop down and hit his Swellow with no warning. That would have been disastrous. He looked at Ash and saw that his friend’s grin hadn’t changed. With a sinking sensation in his stomach, AJ realized he’d played right into Ash’s hands. “Swellow, NO! Come back!” AJ called realizing too late it was a trap, but by this time his Swellow was out of ear shot.


Everyone was squinting trying in vain to make out anything up in the sky, but it was no use both bird pokemon were lost in the clouds. Everyone had their eyes glued to the sky, waiting to see some sign of something. Almost a full minute later, silence still reigned until Larcen spoke in a clear voice, “Here they come.”

A few moments later, a speck began to become visible as it plummeted toward the ground, after several moments, as it continued to fall it became definable as AJ’s Swellow. But a few moments later people realized that it wasn’t a dive, the falling bird was quite clearly just that, falling. It looked to be unconscious. Right behind him came Pidgeot, only his fall was equally obvious not to be a fall, but a controlled dive.


AJ saw his Swellow falling and pulled out his pokeball knowing that should his Swellow hit the ground at that velocity, chances are it would kill it. However as it got closer to the ground it became obvious that he wouldn’t need to aim the pokeball and hope the energy beam sucked Swellow back in. Pidgeot had dived below the falling Swellow and had started to beat it’s wings heavily. It was using it’s gust attack, usually it would create a miniature tornado-like vortex to hit an opponent, only this time it was using that same attack to slow Swellow’s rate of decent to something much safer. As it neared the ground AJ returned his Swellow to it’s pokeball. Ash’s Pidgeot settled lightly on the ground, ready to take off at a moment’s notice.

It gave a loud caw of triumph as it settled down. “PIDGEOTTT!!!!”

AJ shot a half irritated, half amused glare at Ash. “Neat trick. You’ll have to show me what he did sometime, and how he attacked so efficiently without any commands.”

Ash laughed, his voice amused as he responded. “Not all the training I gave my pokemon is physical. All of them have learned how to fight without any command from me if necessary.”

AJ looked at Ash, his expression puzzled. “What do you mean if necessary? When would they fight without you?”

Ash shrugged in response. “It never hurts to be prepared for any situation.” he said quietly.


Everyone watching the battle was murmuring at the apparent battle between Pidgeot and Swellow. It was obvious that Pidgeot dominated but none of them saw how it happened, so they were all speculating. The general consensus was that Pidgeot had hidden among the clouds and then just blind-sided Swellow.

Everyone there was appreciative of how the battle was going, except for Falkner. He had hoped to see the flying types duke it out. He was curious about what type of skills each had. Although he had been impressed with how Pidgeot had used it’s powerful gust attack to keep Swellow from possibly dying in the fall. He had hoped to see more. He sighed to himself. “Oh well.” he thought. “Maybe I’ll get to see something when it fights the next pokemon.”


He waited patiently for AJ to release his last pokemon. Both trainers realized that the battle was all but over, but both knew that AJ wouldn’t just forfeit if there was even a chance of success.

AJ thought a moment and then tossed out his last pokeball. Out of the pokeball sprung a large pokemon that seemed to be made of large spikes coming off of a shell that opened vertically. Inside the shell was a dark face. It was the water and ice pokemon Cloyster and it stood there ready for battle.

Before AJ could attack, however, Ash raised his hand and returned Pidgeot to his pokeball. “Pidgeot, Return.” He called as Pidgeot was enveloped in a red beam and sucked back into its’ pokeball.

AJ looked at Ash puzzled. “What did you do that for?”

Ash smiled. “He did his job, and I’m not really in the mood to pit him against an ice pokemon with a shell. That means that he can’t hurt it very much, but he’s weak to ice so he can be hurt. Don’t worry though, I’m not looking to make this that easy of a win.” he smirked at that. He held up another pokeball as his hand re-emerged from his cloak.

“Gengar, I choose you.” Out of the pokeball popped a large Gengar. The pokemon was completely black, with the exception of its eyes and mouth. It was a bit larger than average Gengar, but otherwise seemed unremarkable, except for one thing. The moment it resolved itself from the pokeball, it laughed for a few seconds. “GENGAR GENGAR GENGAR.” it said in a deep robust chuckle before focusing on it’s opponent.


The people watching all looked at the Gengar and wondered curiously why Ace hadn’t used his Pikachu. It was an electrical type. It would have solidly beaten Cloyster without much of a problem. Instead he used a Gengar. That meant that neither pokemon had a type advantage one way or the other.

However, 3 people weren’t thinking along those lines. Their reactions were completely different.

Falkner let out a sigh when Pidgeot was returned, disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to see their flying pokemon in use.

Morty’s intake of breath was gigantic and pronounced. He stared at the Gengar admiringly. He trained ghost pokemon so he was ecstatic to see someone else use one and couldn’t wait to see how it battled.

However, the most peculiar reaction came from Sabrina. She was staring at the Gengar, her eyes wide. No one else noticed her wide eyed stare because they were all focused on the battle. But she continued to stare trying to figure out if her psychic senses were playing tricks on her. That couldn’t possibly be the pokemon she thought it was. It just couldn’t be!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Cloyster Ice Beam!” commanded AJ.

“Gengar, Shadow Toss!” countered Ash.

Cloyster powered up, a dim light shined in front of him and all those present could hear the distinct crackling of ice, however, the crackling stopped rather quickly when Gengar just faded away. Cloyster looked around in puzzlement, ready to fire the ice beam, but unable to see a target.

“Cloyster?” It asked inquiringly. A second later it gave a startled screech. “CLOYSTER!!?!?” The whole pokemon seemed to have just risen from the ground for no reason, but a few seconds later, the Gengar flickered into sight, holding the Cloyster aloft.

“Gengar!” called the ghost pokemon as it then heaved the cloyster with all it’s might The cloyster screamed in shock as it was chucked up in the air. It instinctively closed it’s shell as it came back down and hit the ground with a resounding thud. A few seconds later the cloyster opened it’s shell up cautiously, a little rattled but otherwise unhurt. The gengar was no where to be seen for a few seconds before it materialized a few meters away from Cloyster.

“Gengar, Sleep Ray.” Ash called out completely calm.

“Cloyster, Withdraw into your shell!” AJ called out hoping it would stop the sleep ray from connecting.

Gengar held up his hand and a little blip of gray energy shot toward Cloyster. But it just ricocheted harmlessly off of Cloyster’s shell. Gengar glared angrily at Cloyster and it marched forward and grabbed a hold of the shell. Without hesitating, it shoved it’s head through the shell, phasing through it as if it weren’t even there. Everyone saw Cloyster’s shell shiver in shock and then fall still as Gengar pulled his head back out and looked around for a moment, then it began to laugh again “Gengar, Gengar, Gengar.” it chuckled as if it seemed to find everything funny.

“Cloyster?” AJ called out hoping to get a response from his pokemon.

“He won’t respond for probably ten to twelve hours AJ.” Ash called out. “And even if you had an awakening strong enough to wake him up, you wouldn’t be able to open it’s shell.”

AJ visibly sighed and nodded. “I concede the match. You win.”

Ash smiled and flashed his victory sign briefly before hopping down off of his rock, a slightly annoyed looking Pikachu on his shoulders. He headed toward AJ, who returned Cloyster to his pokeball to sleep off the effects of the sleep ray.

“Nice job, Gengar.” Ash said congratulation his pokemon.

“Gengar!” the ghost pokemon said proudly, then it laughed again, finding it amusing for some reason..

“Good match.” said Ash, offering his hand, as Gengar floated up by his head, content to stay out of the pokeball for awhile.

“Yeah, good match.” AJ said, slightly dejectedly as he took Ash’s hand. “I’ve gotten so much better in the past few years of solo training.” Ignoring Ash’s nod of agreement, he continued, “But you’ve obviously improved your pokemon just as much.”

Ash shrugged in response to that. “Come on, let’s get ready to go we’re gonna leave in about an hour. It looks like we impressed our little audience.” he said sarcastically.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impressed wasn’t exactly the word floating through the minds of the observers.

“Wow.” said Brock unabashedly.

"I told you so." Misty said in a slightly annoying sing song voice, emphasizing her point with a flip of her hair.

“Yeah, yeah, all right, I was wrong and you were right. There. Are you happy now?” Brock asked irritated.

“Yup!” Misty said clearly happy that she was so outspoken about her certainty that Ace was going to win.

Brock however had stopped paying attention to Misty when he saw the look on Sabrina’s face.
“Sabrina, are you ok?” He asked concern filling his voice as he looked at her.

She still staring at the gengar, trying to convince herself that what her senses told her wasn’t really true. Brock’s words seemed to snap her out of her little trance as she shifted her focus from the Gengar to Brock.

“Y..yeah.” She said shakily then repeated it, her voice losing its shakiness. “Yeah, everything’s fine, I was just kinda in my own little world.” She said with a slightly distracted edge to her voice. She gave Brock a smile to reassure him, while her mind was racing a million miles a minute.

As soon as the two combatants had began making their way toward the cave, Zane and Larcen hopped down off of their rock and made their way to meet the other two halfway.

“Impressive battle.” Zane said simply.

Larcen was a bit less reticent. “It doesn’t look like either of them have let their skills slip any. Although it was a bit foolish to send your Swellow up after his Pidgeot.” he said, shooting a wry grin at AJ, who managed a weak smile in return before Larcen continued. “Sceptile did well against both pokemon it faced, though I think part of that is just pure stubbornness on his part. I wonder if he gets it from his trainer?” he joked poking fun at Ash, who’s lips tightened into a small smile of amusement at Larcen’s teasing.

“We need to pack our stuff up.” Ash said loudly enough for all those close to him to hear, “We’re leaving in less than an hour.” He concluded as he walked through the crowd of people who had gathered to watch him. They all instinctively stepped aside to let Ace through, eyes trailing after him as he made his way toward his small amount of possessions. A few meters away from the group Pikachu began talking to him in what was obviously scolding tone of voice as they made their way out of earshot.

Larcen looked at AJ and smiled trying to cheer him up a bit. “Look at it this way, at least you didn’t use your best pokemon AJ, I mean come on.... your pokemon did put up a good fight.”

“I know... and that would be comforting... but we both know that he didn’t use his most powerful either.” AJ replied with a sigh.

Larcen couldn’t find a decent reply to that as he shrugged, so he decided to try and change topics because those who had watched the battled were still discussing it between themselves. “I think we should go and get our things, that way we’re ready to go.” Zane nodded in silent agreement.

“Would you get out of my way? You’re ruining my tan!” Complained Calen. No one even bothered to respond to that as they moved to go get their stuff. Sabrina moved to get her stuff with a slightly distracted face; looking at the Gengar bouncing around and jabbering at Ace.

I've gotten one or two reviews about this... (one was really bad crying ) But one was pretty heartening, so I think I may continue to write it. We'll see... I'm still waiting for two people (who's opinions I value rather highly) to see what they have to say before deciding to continue or not.