Thread: Legend of the Thief - Ready for Grading -

Gone in Sixty Seconds


Chapter 1: How To Sweep A Vixen Off Her Feet


A few warnings: 1.) The paragraphs are short, I kept them this way for a reason. 2.) There are a few curse words so be forewarned; nothing major though.



“Ah, finally some fresh air!” Most probably wouldn’t have noticed nor cared about the change in air quality, undoubtedly due to the jet lag. But for someone like Reyes; the flowery scent of Celadon was a welcome change from the recycled air within an airliner.

If he’d come here for pleasure rather then business the whole seen would have been quite comfortable and suited to him, as it was he was about to here a business proposition that he’d rather not…

He quickly found his motel aptly named ‘The Flower’.
Minutes later he had checked himself in and found his way to the room he had rented.

The whole place was nothing fancy, despite Reyes’ rather comfortable lifestyle he had no problem doing what was necessary when it came to lying low.

Reyes quickly set about packing, though he wasn’t expecting to stay long he’d rather have everything out within easy reach then bundled up in a suitcase.

By the time Reyes had finished his two hundred dollar silver watch read 11:59 AM. According to his client he should be receiving a caller in 1… 2… 3… a shrill ring echoed throughout the small room. Wincing Reye answered.

“Half an hour in the restaurant downstairs, don’t be late.”

A short click later Reyes found himself holding a useless phone; he was use to his clients being jackasses but took an instant dislike to those that unnecessarily disparaged against others.

At precisely 12:29 Reyes was standing outside the door to the restaurant, he wasn’t entirely sure what to expect inside, in his line of business one met all kinds, some more pleasant then others and he expected this encounter would be filled with the latter.

Squashing his remaining thoughts he strolled in, a disadvantage about this whole thing was rarely knowing your clients beforehand, a result in which you could never seek them out on your own… mostly.

Reyes made his way to the bar upfront, behind him the exit sat while the left and right both lead to tables for seating. Taking a stool he patiently waited for the bartender who looked like a pimple faced surfer to take his order.

After a few minutes Reyes decided that the wait was over, leaning over he tapped the guy on the shoulder, “You plan on taking any orders or are you just here for looks?”

Instead of answering the blond haired guy just slipped Reyes a small piece of paper. Reyes glanced at giving it the once over.
Taking a small blue colored lighter from his pocket he burned the scrap. “Thanks, but as a side note ‘get some new shading for this place, and mahogany over bamboo.’”

Reyes left the bar and headed right towards a row of tables, more specifically table twenty. Two men were already seated there. Dark skinned, heavy beards and sideburns, they looked like a couple of professional boxers; a big contrast from Reyes clean-shaven face and lithe body.

Reyes took a seat, “lets make this quick gentlemen.” He motioned.

The boxer on the right was the first to speak, “We didn’t catch your name.”

“I didn’t give it; rule two ‘no names’.” Reyes replied evenly.

“Fair enough” the man answered back.

“Back to business, what’s the target?” Reyes asked.

“You mean targets,” the other corrected, speaking for the first time.

“No I mean target,” Reyes said.

“Well here is the list of everything we want you to acquire and this is the location,” the first said sliding over two scraps of paper.
“Don’t think about walking away from the job, once you have everything you can drop them off and get your money.” With that last declaration they left Reyes to ponder the wisdom of switching careers.

Reyes left for his small hotel to study this ‘job’ hoping that it would be something small that he could have done by tomorrow but judging from the length of the list it wasn’t ******* likely.

•

• Ekans
  •Sandshrew
  •Nidoran[F]
  •Nidoran[M]
  •Diglett
  •Mankey
  [Strike]•Seedot[/Strike]
  [strike]•Vulpix[/strike]
  •Vulpix
  •Growlithe
  •Slowpoke
  •Slowpoke
  •Magnemite
  •Cubone
  •Koffing
  •Houndour
  •Tyrogue
  •Natu
  •Gligar
  •Shroomish
  •Meditite
  •Ralts
  •Carvanha
  •Spoink
  •Electrike
  •Makuhita
  •Snorunt
  •Snorunt
  •Cacnea
  •Corphish
  •Baltoy
  •Clamperl
  •Clamperl
  •Mawile
  •Luvdisc
  •Ponyta
  •Gastly
  •Onix
  •Staryu
  •Horsea
  •Lickitung
  •Tangela
  •Girafarig
  •Smeargle
  •[Strike]Sneasel[/Strike]
  •Swablu
  •Wailmer
  •Tauros
  •Kelcleon
  •Feebas
  •Aerodactyl
  •Skarmory
  •Munchlax
  •Riolu
  •Snover
  •Rotom
  •Murkrow
  •Zangoose
  •Lunatone
  •Solrock

Reyes stared blankly ahead, were they out of their freaking minds? At least three of those he had never heard of and almost a fourth were so rare that they were hardly worth the effort need to acquire them.

This was his punishment for his career choice, Reyes was sure of it, after this job was complete he would have to serious consider another line of work. Unfortunately; that still left him with a rather large order to fulfill…


At any rate Reyes quickly decided that it was all in the past, there was work to do. Grabbing a lighter from one of his thousand pockets inside his khaki colored cargo pants, Reyes burned the list of Pokemon, no use in leaving around evidence, especially with the attention he would soon be grabbing.

Reyes made his down to the lobby where a pretty petite blond receptionist was currently managing the desk. Reyes slid up to her, “Hello my dear, I don’t suppose you have a phone book I could borrow for a quick minute?”

She flashed him a brief smile, “Yes of course,” she reached down under the desk and emerged back with a thick lime colored book, “This lists all businesses in Celadon, will that be okay?”

Reyes gave her one of his most charming smiles, “Yes it will indeed, I’ll bring it back in a few minutes; thanks.” Brushing a stray hair back behind her ear, Reyes gathered the book up and walked back towards his room, slightly dismayed with himself. Flirting was not a good idea at this time.

Reyes quickly checked the book out, it was nearly as wide as his palm, was colored an ugly lime, and overall probably held too much information entirely… perfect.
He knew exactly the place to start in his search, a place where millions of Pokemon wound up each year… the pound.

As luck would have it there was one not even three blocks away, with a bit of fortune they would have something on the list that he could obtain right away.


Dialing the number listed, Reyes prayed that they would have something he could pick up today, it would make everything so much easier but then again life wasn’t meant to be easy… Three rings later he was in a conversation about the type of Pokémon kept as well as their condition.

“Oh no, I can assure you that they are kept in great condition, good food, lots of exercise, we try our best to keep them happy until they are picked out buy a family.”

“Well maybe you can help me then, you see I’m trying to get a few particular Pokémon for some gifts and I’m having trouble locating them.”

“I’m sure we can help,” the female voice answered.

“It would be greatly appreciated,” Reyes assured her as he started to read her the list.

He got almost a third through it before he was interrupted by her voice.

“I can tell you know that we have a Vulpix in but it may be taken soon, a man was just in asking about it.”

“If that’s the case I’ll be right down, I can check for other Pokémon I might be interested why I’m there.”

“Okay I’ll see about holding on to the vixen to you get here but I can’t promise you anything.”

Reyes hung up feeling maybe lady lucky was with him for this, she alone knew he would be needing it…

Reyes made good time, walking into the pound a scant five minutes later; unfortunately it looked like it would be awhile before he got service… ahead him stood the clerk engaged with two customers, a mid age business man, and a young lady.

From the looks of things they were carrying a heated discussion.

“You can’t do this! I only went home to get some money; you can’t just turn around and sell it two minutes later!”

“She can and she did!” The lady bit back, her brunette hair swinging like angry whips. “That Vulpix is mine!”

“Vulpix” Reyes though dizzily, now knowing what was going on Reyes knew a stop would have to come soon if he was to get the fiery Pokémon.

“You both can stop arguing before a fist fight breaks out,” Reyes interrupted smoothly, “Besides,” he added, “The Fox is mine.”

The women hissed at Reyes the same time the older man snorted; producing one of the more interesting reactions Reyes had come across.

The older Gentleman laid down a pair of hundred dollar bills and a fifty.

“The Fox is mine,”

He claimed triumph spread across his face.

“Indeed,” the store clerk agreed, handing him some paper to fill out.
With another hiss of anger the women stormed out of the pound. Reyes wasn’t so quick to join her, he may not have got the Vixen but that just meant he wouldn’t have to pay for it…

Reyes lingered outside for about thirty minutes while the man finished up all the necessary paperwork. Finally the man came out, the Vulpix attached to a short leash, quickly and effectively the man lead the fox to a parked car; a small red colored SUV, getting the Vulpix in and seated the man climbed in and promptly took off.

Reyes hailed a taxi and quickly followed. The tailing ended quick as ten minutes later the man pulled into a suburb area, making Reyes want to puke, not that he had anything against the ‘suburb’ but every single house was a carbon copy, eve the lawns and ornaments were the exact same. This Suburb proved no different, with each and every house a two story with four bedrooms, five windows peeked out the front and two from the sides, unfortunately that would make breaking in a little harder unless of course the neighbors weren’t nosy but Reyes knew that was farfetched.

The SUV pulled into the driveway neatly lined with hedges and got out Vulpix in tow.

Hopefully they would be leaving again soon; Reyes wasn’t up to holding surveillance all night.

Luckily time proved he wouldn’t have too, a long humid two hours later the man came back out followed by two little kids and a middle aged woman, undoubtedly his wife and kids.

“I can’t believe we got a pet and get to go to a restaurant!” One of the kids shouted gleefully.

“No kidding,” the other added, excitedly.

“Well you can show your appreciation by being quiet and behaving,” their father told them, lifting them into the car. “Now get in your seats so we can go.”

Five minutes later the family was off. A very thankful Reyes quickly bolted for the back of the house, though they would probably be gone for awhile funny things tended to happen in a robbery…

The backyard was pretty big for a suburb community but Reyes wasn’t complaining the fact that the yard was fenced was all he cared about. He quickly scaled seven foot wood obstruction and climbed to the top. Careful to keep himself balanced Reyes stood up, unfortunately the thinness of the fence wasn’t to be counted out and Reyes quickly lost his balance and nearly toppled off.




Gathering his breath Reyes attempted his climb again, this time he didn’t try to balance, instead just reaching up and quickly grabbing the nearest roof shingle, thankfully it held. Reyes hoisted himself up and laid down hoping nobody had seen his ascent. After a few minutes passed with no yelling of thief Reyes crawled up towards the chimney protruding from the roof. Reyes gave it a brief once over, larger then average, flue open, red coals… how fun would this be? Not worried the least bit Reyes shimmied inside, he had dealt with coals before and had nearly perfected his methods, this would be no different.

Using his feet to brace himself Reyes was careful to touch the walls, painful memories reminded him of how hot they could get, slowly he loosened his strong calve muscles allowing him to skid down a few feet before locking them in place again, doing this Reye managed to get too the mouth of the fireplace, now came the tricky part. Reyes wetted his mouth trying to gain moisture, once he felt he had enough he spit into his hands careful not to lather the wetness in, in one quick movement he leaned back putting his hands on the back of the chimney with his weight and loosened his legs, as he slid down he pushed off sending him flying forward and out of the smoke stack in to the living room in a ball of flesh. Reyes immediately rose, brushing himself off and aware of any possible dangers, none was clearly evident, “Good,” he thought, now came the hard part…

Reyes prayed that the Vulpix was the only Pokémon the family currently owned, his own weren’t exactly fit for fighting inside a house though he supposed Rubix Cube might have been able to pull it off. Silently he crept through the living room? Seeing as how that’s where the fireplace was he was guessing that it was the main room in the house, there were hallways leading to both right and left of him; a quick survey of them showed that the right lead to a set of stairs going up and the left to the dining room/kitchen.

“Upstairs would undoubtedly prove to be the best place to check first,” he thought, quietly he made his way upstairs, the strong mahogany stairs not even giving a creak as to give him away. The upstairs proved to be no different then the downstairs, same spotless white walls, wood trim, and of course four different bedrooms... fortunately a slight scratching sound saved Reyes from having to search all of them, opening up the second door on the right he found himself in the master bedroom, a small door off to the left proved to be a bathroom, with the small fox inside.

“Come here girls,” Reyes coaxed the vixen, hoping that he wouldn’t have to knock it out to get it.

A small growl showed that it wasn’t going to be that easy…

A deep sigh escaped Reyes lips; grabbing a Pokéball from his waist he quietly opened it, releasing one of his strongest Pokémon, Rubix Cube the Porygon 2.

Vulpix’s growl quickly turned into a snarl as the female fox leapt forward fangs bared.

“Double Team Rubix,” Reyes ordered curtly.

Immediately Porygon 2’s body seemed to take on a new look as it slid across the room in a circle leaving carbon copies in its wake.

Vulpix unsheathed its claws; anger evident upon its face, with a small intake of air, it exhaled noisily shooting glowing embers from the mouth, three, four, seven copies were destroyed as Vulpix spewed forth its fury.

“Agility Rubix,” Reyes told his man made counterpart.

Porygon 2’s body began to glow as it raced around the room gaining speed with each revolution completed; slowly to it came to a stop, its body looking more sleek and tense then before.
“Good job my friend,” Reyes praised, “Now show it a Water Pulse!”

A small bubble of water appeared in front of Porygon 2; quickly it grew until it was the size of a small fish bowl, with a small shriek Rubix Cube sent it flying first towards the Fox, it exploded on contact drenching the Vixen and the room.

Unfortunately Vulpix didn’t seem all that affected by it, another snarl rose from its throat as it lunged forward latching its fangs into the lanky neck of Porygon 2.

“Rubix Cube seemed a bit taken aback and possibly a bit confused as it nearly tipped over in its haste to back away.

“Calm down, buddy,” Reyes soothed his Pokémon, “Use your Psychic attack.”

Porygon 2 stopped its brief struggle and focused in for a minute, Reyes could practically feel the energy crackle within the room. And then slowly Vulpix’s mouth opened releasing Porygon 2, with a quick snap Rubix Cube shut it again and psychically locked the Fox’s jaws together. Panic immediately overwhelmed the poor little thing sending it into a berserker fury.

Before Reyes knew the Vixen was tackle everything in sight, a light bulb shattered, and various pictures beginning to fall off the wall, a small dresser slowly tipped over falling down directly on Vulpix sending flying into Porygon 2; they both went down in a heap.

“Ah great,” Reyes muttered, quickly he took an empty pokéball from his coat and threw it at the downed fox while simultaneously recalling Rubix Cube back within his. A grim smile crept over Reyes face as he watched the ball vigorously roll across the floor; he needed to get out quick. A small sound drew Reyes attention from the Pokéball, confused he turned as he heard a window shatter and the lights came on as an alarm that could wake Lilycove sounded…

“Ah ****!”

Pokémon to catch: Vulpix
Length: Enough.

Staus: Caught:

Thank you Embreon, I'm glad you liked it.

Chapter # 2: Why Do Squirrels Like Acorns?


The lights continued to flash as the Pokéball went still, Reyes bent down picking up the red and white sphere and attaching it to his belt in one smooth motion. Now he just needed to escape unseen though by the looks of it, that wouldn't be easy. Firstly he needed to get back to the fireplace, at the very least he could hide within the chute until everything had died down, that was assuming there wasn't enough soot to suffocate him...

As Reyes turned to the door footsteps from the stairs reached his hearing.

"What next?" he thought, quietly closing the door and stepping behind it. Within twenty seconds the door was flung open and a petite body flew in, Reyes calmly stepped out and delivered a roundhouse to the back of the skull knocking the person out.

Too Reyes' shock the person was a female; in fact it was the female from the pound.
"I should have known," Reyes mused aloud, unfortunately he was stuck as to whether or not he should leave her here, finally he decided to let her be, she would make the perfect scapegoat making it more easy for him to escape and get on with the job. A small voice inside Reyes briefly bugged him about his decision but he quickly quashed it, this wasn't a job you could allow to get involved with morals...

Quickly he made his way back down stairs, a scarce two minutes had already passed and it would only be a minute or so more before the police showed up. Coming back into the living and the fireplace Reyes spotted the broken window overlooking the kitchen, some people had no subtly in them. Quickly he slipped on a pair of gloves from his wallet and proceeded to climb up into the chimney pass the flue. Once he reached the top he quickly out and bolted, hurtling off the roof onto the neighbor's, from his vantage point Reyes could see a small crowd warily making their way closer to the house as two police cruiser pulled up. Not wanting to waste time Reyes climbed down and threaded his way through various yards until he was several blocks away, finally feeling that he was far enough to avoid any unnecessary stops Reyes moved to the streets, if he was right the hotel was only a few blocks away, he could sneak in and get a good nights rest before tomorrow came and no doubt it would hold just as much excitement as the that had just ended.


***


As usual the day started early for Reyes, he was up and alert by 5:30AM according to the rather plain black colored digital clock on his night stand. Reyes climbed out from his twin bed and made his way to the bathroom, a shower would no doubt do him some good before he left out.

By 6:00AM Reyes was out and dressed in a comfortable white t-shirt and cream colored cargo pants. The first order of business was to pick his next target, his best bet would probably be to get as many of the Pokémon here in kanto before moving on to other regions, bring back a mental picture of the list giving to him Reyes decided that a Gastly would be his next stop. Lavender Town was known for it's memorial tower where ghost were know to visit often, if he was lucky he could also catch a Cubone which were know to show up from time to time as well. He could go by foot but that could take up to a day, his best bet would be a plane, despite the cost Reyes realized the wisdom of speed and ordered a a ticket for the next plane to Lavender Town.

As luck would have it he managed to catch a 12:30PM flight out, in the meantime he would map out his plan for catching the rest of the needed Pokémon. Unfortunately Reyes wasn't up to the thinking required for that type of activity and instead settled for a brief walk around; with any luck he could clear his head while out.

As he stepped out of the hotel Reyes was greeted with a refreshing breeze of fresh air, the smell of flowers lazily wafting by his nose as he breathed in the scent. Celadon truly was a beautiful city Reyes thought to himself. His self indulgence was short lived a small parade of grass Pokémon marched on through, ignoring him as they followed a person suited up as an overgrown Bulbasaur. Reyes gave a small laugh, the suit paid good attention to detail, outlining even the small blue patch that was signature of the grass Pokémon atop their forward but it was also some goofy looking on the person that it could hardly be taking seriously, fortunately enough the grass Pokémon seemed to like it well enough as they continued to follow the mascot.

As the parade ended Reyes caught sight of a small Seedot struggling to keep up, a small girl in a red and green uniform spotted it and quickly scooped it and followed along. Sensing an opportunity Reyes also followed, careful to keep sight of the acorn Pokémon, the parade ended twenty minutes later in front of the Celadon gym, run by an Erika...
Reyes watched as the Pokémon were rounded up and taking in. Not wanting to possibly lose this chance Reyes went inside where the Pokémon were being hustled into what looked like a greenhouse within the gym.

So intent was his attention on the herding of grass types Reyes didn't notice the burly male approach him from behind.

"A new challenger?" he grunted, more of a statement then a question. Not waiting for an answer he took hold of Reyes arm and began ushering him forward. caught off guard Reyes didn't put up a fight, the guy was built like an ox and trying to put him down would undoubtedly create a larger seen then desired, so quickly as to not be dragged along Reyes made his way down a corridor with the brute.

Soon they came to a small arena, a pretty brunette in a weird ritual dress stood on the far side talking with another burly male.

"Erika," Reyes escort spoke up, "You have a challenger."

The brunette Reyes guessed as Erika turned, "How delight she said warmly," she turned back to the guy and apparently dismissed him as he immediately left. She turned back to Reyes.

"Sorry, it's been awhile since of I've had anybody to battle against; it's gotten really quite boring."

Reyes gave a charming smile, "No problem, I can identify with boring well enough."

She returned the smile, "Well now that I actually have someone to battle, I think I'll let you go ahead and choose how we battle."

"Me?" Reyes mused loudly, "Hmm... how does a 2 on 2 match sound?"

"Better then none at all" Erika laughed.

Reyes watched his escort move to the referee box.

"The follow will be a match between Erika of Celadon and..." he shot Reyes a look.

"Reyes," he replied pointedly.

A small smile tugged at the referee's mouth but he managed to keep it concealed, "And... Reyes.... Challenger send your Pokémon forth!"

Reyes thought for a moment about his next move, he had come here with the intent of getting his hands on a Seedot, not a gym battle. At any rate he was confident he could make do.

"Rhino, Ironman, lets see what you can do!"

Two pokéball appeared out of seemingly nowhere and released their occupants. Moments later the Silhouettes of two hulking dinosaur shaped Pokémon appeared. The Silhouettes quickly disappeared leaving the forms of Rhyperion and Aggron, two of Reyes most powerful Pokémon in terms of raw strength and power.

Erika seemed impressed, "You must be quite the trainer to use rock types against a grass gym. You should provide quite the challenge all right."

She selected two Pokeballs of her own from her waist and released them. Come on out Fushigibana, you to Leafia!"

Within in seconds the forms of Leafia and Venasaur appeared in front of Reyes own Pokémon.

Reyes nodded as the Silhouettes disappeared, "Ironman Metal Claw that Venasaur, Rhino use you’re Rock Polish!"

Immediately Aggron lunged forward towards the rather large form of Venasaur, his claw glowing as he powered the steel attack. Likewise Rhyperion started to glow as his muscles and joints loosened and slightly shifted around giving him more freedom of movement.

"Fushigibana use your Vine Whip to stop Aggron, Leafia Razor Leaf that overgrown rock!"

Venasaur slightly shifted, the giant overwhelming flower atop its back swayed back and forth, as twin vines appeared from underneath and streaked out catching Aggron by the paws.

Meanwhile as Rhino finished its own attack Leafia pounced forward sharp blade like leaves pouring forth from its porous skin towards the rock Pokémon. Quickly it raised its arms in defense as the hard leaves bounced across his body.

"You'll need more then brute strength to beat me," Erika confided in Reyes.

"No I think maybe it's you that is at a disadvantage," Reyes winked back.

"Aggron Fire Punch!"

With a small nodded Ironman reeled back, within seconds the entrapped paw started to spout flames, with what sounded like a yelp of pain Venasaur's vines retracted, finally free Aggron again lunged forward slamming his burning fist onto the thick cranial skull of Venasaur. With a small moan the plant Pokémon slumped backwards on its belly.

“Don’t give up!” Erika shouted towards her grass Pokémon, “Use Razor Leaf now!”

From its downed position Venasaur fired dozens of sharp leaves towards Ironman.

“Iron Defense,” Reyes ordered quickly.

Aggron’s muscles begin flexing as he set himself up for the approaching attack. Confidently Reyes watched as leaf after leaf bounced off Aggron’s temporarily exoskeleton.

“Metal Sound now,” Reyes told his Pokémon.

Ironman nodded and started to what look liked ground his teeth together producing one of the highest pitched sounds Reyes had ever heard.

“Fushigibana take care of that sound!” Erika screamed across the court, causing Reyes to wince himself.

Stopping its struggle to get back on its feet Venasaur lashed out with two vines extending form under its petals neatly tripped Ironman down.

“Get up,” Reyes quietly commanded, his attention coming back to focus on Ryperior.

Reyes could see the look over worry in Erika's eye regarding her Venasaur as she spurred Leafia on.

"Good job, now use a Leaf Blade attack!"

As Rhino lowered his paws he caught sight of the Grass squirrel bound off a wall, a green blade emerging from the top of its head.

Reyes knew even with Rock Polish Rhyperior was to slow to do anything to stop the attack, Leafia slammed into Rhino slashing it across the stomach and bounding away, Rhyperior staggered backwards, pain etched on his face.

"Once more leafia, finish it off... Leaf Blade!"

"Not this time," Reyes said watching the Grass Pokémon get ready to bound off the wall again, "Hammer Arm, Rhino!"

Rhyperior lowered its claws and watched the Leafia close in, as the blade once again emerged Rhino struck out with a large paw, completely smashing Leafia from the air, with a whimper the Pokémon was sent flying into the opposite wall before slowly falling to the ground.

The anger on Erika's face was clear as she ordered: Leafia use quick attack into a Leaf Blade. Fushigibana use Leaf Storm now!"

"Ah damn it!" Reyes muttered, it wasn't looking good and he wasn't entirely sure he could get his Pokémon out unscathed; desperately he searched his brains for a viable option...

Time was quickly running out as Venasaur managed to get back on its feet and start to power up, likewise Leafia had already picked itself up and was preparing an attack.

Finding none obvious solution Ryes decided to try and end this quickly before Erika got a chance at backlash.

"Rhino Vital Throw, Ironman use Iron head!"

Aggron and Rhyperior nodded in understanding, the next few minutes passed in a flurry as the pouncing Leafia flew at Rhyperior. Fortunately Rhyperior was ready and managed to catch the flying grass Pokémon by the neck and right hind leg, with a grunt the rock Pokémon sent Leafia bowling towards Aggron and his glowing skull...
With a roar Ironman caught Leafia and smashed his head against Leafia. The grass Pokémon slumped and fell with little movement, with another roar this one of triumph Aggron turned and smashed his Tail onto the limp form.

As he finished a growl from Venasaur blocked out the other sounds as a tornado of leaves whipped up, turning the arena into a whirling green mass of razor sharp objects....

Reyes vision was completely blocked from the arena Venasuar launched one of the more impressive attacks Reyes had seen to date; he didn’t dare move less any of the sharp bladed leaves sliced him to pieces.
A bit angered at the futility of it all Reyes could only sit back and listen to the tornado rip everything to sheds within, the raspy voice of it grinding in his head and bringing visions of the pain his rock Pokémon must be feeling…

“Ironman, try and use your Metal Burst!” Reyes shouted suddenly, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought about it before, hopefully it wouldn’t be to late…

A loud roar filled the room followed by a large thud that shook the gym, the fact that the tornado was still in effect told Reyes that it hadn’t come from Venasaur.

Slowly a high pitched screeching sound became audible to the two humans, confused Erika covered her ears, “What is that horrible sound?” She yelled across the arena.

“Ironman,” Reyes replied grimly, “You’d better duck,” Reyes himself was already getting down to a kneeling position as he spoke. Erika soon followed soon, the pain on her face her obvious; Reyes could relate he could clearly hear the hundred thousand Banshees screaming in his own head. Just as he thought he might pass out the sound broke off abruptly.

Reyes cursed under his breath; there was only one outcome…

Silence reigned supreme for what seemed like hours though in reality had only been five seconds, suddenly a scream split the air and a small explosion rocked the arena, the green coloring of the tornado quickly turned to a purplish hue as flames could be seen licking out towards air. Seconds later the tornado was now a spinning fortress of flames that however didn’t last as it quickly died out, the littering of ashes on the floor the only trace that it had ever been there.

In the center the crumpled form of the four Pokémon laid lifeless.

Erika’s face betrayed her shock, “I think we had better go get them to Pokécenter quick…” she trailed off.

“Yours undoubtedly, mine will be fine with some rest, Rhino might need a small break though,” Reyes said returning his Pokémon to their respective spheres.

“Okay, if your sure,” Erika said gathering her on Pokémon up but I need to go now, so Kryle will have to close up for awhile,”

The referee nodded, “I’m calling the battle a draw anyway,” he responded.

Erika just nodded numbly, “Show our guest out before you finish.”

“Of course,” he replied.

Reyes watched Erika run off towards the exit, though he tried to feel sorry he remember her Pokémon weren’t the only ones to get hurt, such was the way of battling. He felt Kryle’s hands on his back and heard him order to follow.

At the moment Reyes wasn’t at all interested, the gym held four windows, two on the east and west about twelve feet high; “You must get a lot of break-ins don’t you?” Reyes questioned.

“Huh” Kryle turned to look at the windows, confusion at Reyes remark plastered all over his pale skinned face.

Reyes wasted no time, he shot out with an elbow catching Kryle in the lower back and causing him to stumble, not waiting to see the result he finished him with a haymaker to the back of the head.

Before Kryle had hit the floor Reyes was gone, heading back to the greenhouse, he only had a limited time before Erika came and his flight took off.

Within a full minute Reyes had found his way back to the greenhouse that stored the grass Pokémon, a small numbered keypad the only thing standing in his way. Unfortunately it probably had an alarm, something Reyes wished to skip this time around.

“Rubix Cube!” Reyes called forth his Porygon 2, I need you to open the door,” he gestured.

Rubix nodded and a small cable detached from his lanky neck, and attached itself to the keypad, numbers immediately started to appear and disappear as Porygon searched for the correct sequence…

Seconds ticked by and with each passing moment Reyes knew his chances of being caught were amplified. Finally the correct set of numbers blinked three times and the door opened. Carefully Reyes stepped inside of the greenhouse, he wasn’t entirely sure how the grass types would receive him and he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to rush in to find out. Luckily… or unluckily Reyes wasn’t sure, the place was small, closing the door behind him he advanced in. It’s probably the right thing to do, Reyes convinced himself, look how cramped this place is, no Pokémon in its right mind could enjoy this…I’m doing it a favor!

Only half agreeing to what he himself was spouting Reyes caught sight of the Seedot he had come for. Right in the middle of a Vileplume and Victreebel; “Just can’t be easy could it?” He muttered silently.

“Okay Cubix, looks like you’re up, stay fast, stay accurate and don’t show any mercy,” Reyes instructed. Mentally he prepared for that fast paced battle that was about to explode forth.

“Uh… **** this is a greenhouse, Flamethrower would torch the place… Ice Beam that Victreebel first.” Reyes ordered, recovering from the loss of Flamethrower in his arsenal.

Porygon 2 nosed its way out of the shrubbery carefully, even as Reyes himself was busy studying it, the place was as most would suspect full of shrubbery and plants though it seemed to be slightly enhanced, as if the mere presence of grass Pokémon had caused more plants and wildlife to grow.

Done admiring on the various plant life located throughout the place Reyes looked back to catch sight of Porygon 2 launching his attack.

A rainbow colored beam was forming at his mouth, experience had taught Reyes that bright colors and Pokemon usually didn’t mix for some unlucky individual.

Slowly the moisture from the air was sucked into the vortex of the spinning rainbow, crystallizing on touch. Moments later Porygon 2 fired, sending the icy attack towards Victreebel.

The Plant Pokemon which was often mistaken for an exotic plant took the brunt of the attack without realizing it and flew backwards. Vileplume turned, anger spread across its face. To late Rubix Cube had nicely developed its attacks and Ice Beam was no different, Vileplume didn’t see the shards of ice spreading from the impact point.

Three separate shards pierced Vileplume through the… thigh? Reyes wasn’t positive but Vileplume did sink to the ground, a small moan of pain escaping from its mouth. Unfortunately the man eating plant know as Vicreebel was back up and in the game, the flap covering the opening to its stomach flying open as it roared angrily.

Watch that Victreebel,” Reyes warned his man-made friend.

Porygon 2 carefully circled the stomach Pokémon, wary of any sudden movements from the angry grass monster.

Without out warning Victreebel took in a sharp intake of air and spit forth a stream of sticky purple sludge.

Porygon 2 hurriedly dove out of the way narrowly missing the gooey substance. unfazed Victreebel launched a bushel of leaves forth, cutting a path towards Rubix; caught grabbing a short rest after dodging the previous attack Porygon 2 took the brunt of the attack center mass.

Reyes watched the knife like leaves slash across the belly of Rubix, “Shrug it off buddy, try a Tri Attack now.”

Porygon 2 quickly shrugged off the fatigue that it was beginning to feel and begun powering up for its attack.

Vicreebel however was making the most of the small window and with a throaty roar, spewed forth more sludge, coating Rubix.

With a small groan Porygon 2 sank to the ground, the look of pain etched across it’s face clear to Reyes that it had given all it had. Reaching into his pocket Reyes came back up with a Pokéball and called back Rubix, Leaving Reyes alone with an apparent angry stomach of a Pokemon...

Unfortunately Ironman and Rhino were undoubtedly still not up for a fresh battle, leaving Reyes to look for another option, luckily he had no shortage of Pokemon to call on, having made many friends throughout his... career...

A quick rummage through the pokéball laid out among his waist, Reyes picked a a red and white sphere and tossed it forward.

A white flashed appeared only to disappear leaving the form of Batman the Crobat. (I really otta stop with all the names you think?)
The four wings were splayed out as Crobat hung suspended in the air, its small round face scrunched into a permanent evil grin; Crobat, the pinnacle of speed.

“Alright, Double Team up!” Reyes ordered, a slight bump on his knee distracting him from the battle. Looking down he found the very reason he was here, Seedot.

Carefully Reyes hoisted up the small acorn Pokemon, “Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused?” he asked wryly. Strangely the Seedot went rigid at the sound of his voice; confused Reyes blankly stared at it, “You came to me remember?” he said, shaking the grass Pokemon slightly.

Seedot squeaked in indignation and spat a star shaped attack at Reyes hitting him in the face, Reyes quickly dropped the small grass Pokemon, with a curse. Had it been any stronger it could have entirely sheared his face off.

Through his hands Reyes stole a glance towards Seedot. “****” he muttered recognizing the red hue covering the face of the acorn Pokemon. he dove to the ground as the explosion rocked the greenhouse.

Hours passed, or maybe minutes, possibly seconds; not that it mattered Reyes had not a damn clue as to how much time had passed, all he knew was that Crobat, Victreebel and the evil Seedot were all laid out fainted away and there was a really loud alarm buzzing through the gym and echoing in his ear.

From his down position Reyes slowly grabbed an empty Pokéball from his waist and tossed it at the Acorn Pokémon. Even as he watched it roll he knew that this job would be the death of him...

Pokemon to capture: Seedot
Length: A lot more than required

Status: Caught

Code:

@ Megumi, thank you very much for the grade, to be totally honest this wasn't my best work by far and I didn't really like it.

At any rate thank you very much for the grade I appreciate it greatly.

Chapter 3: Something Surely to Aghast You


Reyes watched the multicolored sphere slowly come to a stop, a sure sign the Pokémon had indeed been caught. Hurriedly Reyes climbed to his feet and grabbed the sphere. Footsteps were beginning to sound as he searched for likely escape routes.
Unfortunately none seemed present, unable to give up quite yet, Reyes retreated farther into the greenhouse, the various trees and shrubbery providing ample cover. From his position Reyes watched as three guards came bursting in, taking the scene in a glance they closed the door, insuring that no Pokémon would accidentally be let out.

As the two guards approached the downed Victreebel, Reyes searched for an opening to freedom. He slowly inched backwards as the guards started conversing over the fainted Grass Pokémon. Sure that he was well beyond seeing, thanks to his cover, Reyes sat down, his mind racing towards possible escapes and ideas. After a brief two minutes Reyes found himself still at a blank, Erika would undoubtedly soon be back and depending on how they decided to proceed with this, the cops. ‘Patients’ Reyes cautioned himself, rushing ahead would only lead to trouble. As he reflected on his own bit of ‘wisdom’ a piercing scream split his relative calm. Peeking out from the bushes Reyes watched the guards rush from the room. Perplexed Reyes quickly bolted for the door, careful to keep quiet enough that they would have no reason to look back.

Thankfully Reyes managed to follow the guards outside without being caught, once outside he immediately spotted the source of the screaming. A woman was leaning against the wall, the two guards surrounding her as they questioned her. Reyes only managed to catch a few bits of the conversation as he sailed past, most of the broken sentences revolving around the word ‘mugged’; not that he cared personally, in a half hour he would be well on his way to Lavender town with no one the wiser… if it all played out favorably. Though, Reyes had a sinking feeling Murphy and his law would do their best to disrupt it for him.

Surprisingly, up until the plane ride, everything went smoothly for Reyes; he had picked up his suitcase and arrived at the Poképort with ten minutes to spare.

As he settled down into his seat, he reflected on how relaxed he was, the smells of the freshly cleaned floor and chairs wafting up to him, the small window giving away a view to the rest of the airport and the tall control tower rising against the horizon. His mind wandered forward in time, soon he would have Gastly. Three caught Pokémon in less than two days, pretty good by his own count.

Enthralled within the near future Reyes was jolted back to reality by a tap on his shoulder. Looking up he found himself face to face with a… suitcase… behind it though stood what looked a human… petite for either gender. Fortunately a female voice answered any gender question Reyes had.

“Could you scoot over real quick please? I need to put my case in the overhead,” she asked him.

Reyes obliged, watching her lean over and stuff her suitcase in, before taking the seat next to him; only then did he glimpse her face.

“****” he muttered, his voice filled with resignation.

“Hello to you to,” she said smugly while offering her hand, a second ticked by before she tried prompting him, “Come on, it’s the least you can do after knocking me out.”

...


******


Reyes looked over at the women, he did his best to facially convey how much he thought she was insane. “I can assure that I have no idea what it is you are talking about.,” he told her calmly.

“Ha!’ she scoffed, “You can drop the act, you are the only other person that could have done it.”

Reyes shook his head pretending to be dumbfounded at her words, “Did what exactly?” He asked politely.

Her voice lowered to a whisper and leaned in closer, putting her in much closer proximity than Reyes would normally allow; “You broke into that house, you stole Vulpix and you hit me!”

Reyes pondered her words for a moment, taking the time to edge slightly away but, hopefully not enough that she thought he was uncomfortable. “So, you are saying that I broke into a house, stole a Pokemon than knocked out a another thief?”

She grimaced at his arrogant smirk, “I hadn’t realized I had been beaten to the scene,” she shook her head, “You did quite well in sneaking in, which by the way, how did you do?”

Reyes smiled, “I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t know.”

She stared at him, “Don’t think for a moment that I will go away with Vulpix, its mine by right and no one, not even a criminal will keep it from me.”

A look of outrage crossed Reyes’s features, furrowing his brow into a scowl, “Criminal?!” he voice came out a hoarse whisper. Then to her surprise he chuckled, the look of anger passing as quickly as it appeared; “Listen lady,” Reyes spoke a little louder, a little more confident and a lot more in control, “When this plane lands in Lavender, I’ll be getting off and when I look back... you’d better not be in sight, if you are... you’ll find yourself in jail or worse.”

Reyes sat back, letting his words sink into her.

Her only response was a was a slight hum; satisfied Reyes settled down, not quite ready to take a rest with her so close, who knew what she was capable of...

Instead he focused on memorizing the layout of the plane, most Pokeplanés he knew, carried the same layout and while he doubted ever escaping while airborne would be a viable option, he knew better than to be to be in unfamiliar quarters.

It was pretty straightforward, his position in coach seated in the back of the plane, while ahead, through a set of red curtains sat the nicer front end of a coach and above it, first class. Reyes hadn’t visited there personally but, from what he had heard it was for pompous old men in need of Viagra.

He settled back down, slowly sinking into the soft cushions, the overhead storage compartments looming overhead, just threatening to unleash their contents over everybody’s heads. As his wariness slowly abated he chanced a look at the pain in the ass sitting beside him; she had miraculously fallen asleep in the short times Reyes had stopped talking to her, she stood close to 5’ 10’ coming up to about his shoulders he remembered, while her hair reached below her shoulder blades, the color a sun burnt auburn, her skin was cream white, indicating to Reyes she didn’t get out much. As he watched her sleep he wondered what it was about this Vulpix that had her following him out of town…

As the time carried on he found himself also falling lure to the call of sleep, the soft lull of the turbine engines providing background noise as he effortlessly slipped away…


******

When he came to, he was feeling the slight bump as the back tires of the poképlane touched down, the gentle screech of brakes being applied soon followed after. Quickly shaking the drowsiness from his head he stretched out careful not to the woman still seated at his side.

She smirked, “You don’t have to worry, I think I’ve proven I can handle the best you have to offer.”

Reyes slowly shook his head, she certainly talked a lot of bull****; he carefully collected his thoughts, he doubted she would leave him be once they left the plane, that much was clear, meaning, he would have to shake her himself. He smiled grimly; jobs of this nature just couldn’t go smoothly, undoubtedly the price of being bad…

******

If Celadon was beautiful and smelled nice, Lavender was dank and gloomy. Reyes slowly compiled all his belongings from the overhead compartment as he waited for the massing people to exit the plane. Meanwhile his shadow showed no signs of being even remotely interested in him; she quickly assembled her effects and left, plunging into the crowd and melding away.
A faint smile played on the lips of Reyes’s face, under different circumstances this might have been a fun challenge, unfortunately he thought, he had a job to do.

When the lion’s share of the mass left Reyes rose, monotonously he made his way towards the door leading to the stairs that would put him on ground. As he walked down the blue coated metal stairs he scanned the pavement below, besides the usual engrossed workload proceeding around the airfield nothing seemed out of place and more importantly, he spotted nobody following or seeking him out. Momentarily satisfied he strolled off towards the terminals, if all went well he could get out of here by tonight and hopefully move on to a bigger catch.

Once in the terminals, Reyes again did a quick scan of his surrounding, unfortunately, this time, he did spot someone. More specifically her, again…

Careful not to betray himself to her position he took a moment to study his situation, he was standing in the middle of a terminal while the massing crowd jostled forwards to capture their various plane tickets, meanwhile the red haired fool sat watching him from the plush waiting chairs. While she was half concealed behind an older gentleman in a wheelchair, her hair gave her away.

Reyes smirked to himself as he tried to think of the quickest route to get rid of her although, without his own transportation, the chances seemed low. Instead he took the only viable path he could find and walked straight out of the airport and hailed a taxi to the nearest hotel, a plan already forming deep within his mind.

A scarce fifteen minutes later saw Reyes exited the taxi in front of an impressive hotel… well impressive or Lavender he supposed. Not that it mattered; luxury was something he would never get used to, besides he had a tail to lose. It was then that he realized he hadn’t been paying the slightest attention to his surrounding while in the car, regret immediately seeped in, not knowing the land was going to make getting rid of his shadow much harder than necessary.

Reyes walked up the few concrete steps to the hotel, making a point to turn and scan the surrounding street before walking into the lobby. For a three story hotel the lobby was actually pretty nice mused Reyes. With a hardwood desk and red carpet laid over the floor, the simple entrance was very presentable. Reyes made his way to the counter, operated by an older age gentleman.

“Can I help you?” He asked.

“I’m pretty sure you can,” Reyes said, managing a smile, “I’m going to need a room for the night, preferably on the top floor.”

With a few clicks the surprisingly agile gentleman was pulling up rooms. “Well, we have a room but, it connects with another one, we usually reserve it for families,” he finally answered.

“Do you have any families coming in you know about?” Reyes queried.

Another burst of furious clicks landed a ‘no’ from the older man.

“I’ll take one of those rooms then, if someone rents the other I won’t mind.” Reyes told him.

And with that, Reyes paid the horrendous $75 a night fee and took the keycard and his bags upstairs.

Once inside the simple room, Reyes dumped his bags on the bed and made his to the bathroom, careful to lock the large sliding door that lead to the joining room. A few moments later the sound of rushing water could be heard through the bathroom door.

******

She couldn’t believe it, not only had he managed to not spy her, but he had hailed a taxi straight to his Hotel, making no move to hide! A frown played on her lips, she had pegged him way smarter than that and she couldn’t help but suspect she was playing into his hands somehow...

Summoning the courage her training had instilled in her so completely, she crossed the street to the hotel he had entered. Slightly surprised at the simple but elegant design of the lobby she strolled up to the desk currently watched over by a older man she judged to be about 60.

“Can I help you?” He asked as she approached closer.

“I’m not sure,” she tried, “I need to know which room the man that just came in rented,” she gestured and explained.

The man shook his head, “I’m sorry but I can’t give information of that nature to you.”

“It is fine, I’m his wife,” she lied to him. Unfortunately the clerk didn’t seem to buy it at all.

“He signed under ‘Reyes’,” she supplied helpfully.

After a moments pause the clerk sighed, “Fine, but keep quite that I gave you the room, I could get fired for this. He rented an adjoining room on the top floor, if you want I can give you the key to the room next door and you can get in from there.”

“Okay!’ She chirped, pulling out a card, charge everything to this and I’ll be on my way.

Less than five minutes later she was exiting the elevator on the top floor and moving to her room, a quick swipe of the gold colored keycard and she was inside. Not taking the time to even check the room she moved to the nearest closet, a thin mahogany colored door located right next to the entrance and threw her belongings within its contours. Steeling herself for an unavoidable confrontation she took the key and unlocked the adjoining door and slipped inside...

******

The moisture quickly disappeared as Reyes finished wiping off the mirror, as the last few drops slid down the reflective surface and onto the granite counter, Reyes toweled off his hair, watching as it sprang up in every direction; ignoring it for the time being he finished drying off. Throwing the beige towel over the shower rod Reyes shrugged into a pair of scrubs, brushed his hair out and and snapped on his watch before retreating out of the bathroom.


As he left the doorway of the bathroom and the rest of the room came into view he saw her.... about .03 seconds thereafter Reyes went from everyday calm to surprised; another .03 seconds later Reyes was absolutely livid.

He didn’t pause, didn’t even think about as he reached onto his bed, grasping the first pokeball that he touched and yanking it back out. She was already fumbling for a pokeball of her own as Reyes threw his own towards the far window where she sat; a bright flash lighted up the room like an incandescent candle as the a little green lizard like creature emerged out of the red and white sphere.

“Geico! Use Shadow Claw now!” Reyes shouted, his anger oozing out with each and every word.

The small agile Kecleon leaped forward, his right paw gleaming black in anticipation.

Fortunately enough, the redhead managed to pull a multicolored sphere from her waistband and throw it forward, revealing the Silhouette of a sharp clawed, two legged Pokemon, a single feather reaching up from the top of its head.

“Sneasel!” it yelled excitedly, jumping forth into the path of kecleon; the two Pokemon collided together in a small mass of bodies whirling and clawing at each other, as they fought for the upper hand.

At a command from Reyes Gieco jumped back, unlocking from Sneasel; both Pokémon quickly recaptured their breath as they sized each up. Then a small broke out over the reptilian face of Kecleon and its body slowly changed colors until the green lizard was replaced by a black one.

“It changed its type,” the redhead commented, “Use a Slash to change it back!” She ordered.

“Sucker Punch,” Reyes countered.

Gieco didn’t flinch as the Sneasel suddenly took off, jumping so fast that it was but a flying black blur contrasting against the white room; it was a mere foot away from Kecleon when a huge gloved fist crashed into the ribs of Sneasel, sending it flying into the only the queen size bed in the room.

Unfortunately the little dark Pokémon managed to land upright on the bed and quickly shredded the white feather quilt laid upon it.

“You are paying for that,” Reyes managed to hiss before Sneasel was flying forward again, this time almost literally flying as it tackled Kecleon sending both through the window and down three stories.

Reyes and the redhead ran to the window in time to see Sneasel land a Slash across Kecleon’s face forcing it to let go as it changed its type,Then using Kecleon’s body Sneasel vaulted up, digging its claws into the wall as Gieco crashed into a rusty green garbage can below, the tons of garbage within absorbing the the fall and helping the lizard avoid any serious injuries.

Apparently alright, Kecleon jumped up and out of the canister, scanning the hotel wall for the vicious dark Pokémon. Sneasel however, had no intentions of hiding and after climbing up a few feet higher, let go, free falling down towards Kecleon.

Quick as a wink, Kecleon’s tongue shot out, lashing out and slamming against the abdomen of Sneasel. With a shrill cry Sneasel spiraled down, hitting the ground like a rock.

With a look that couldn’t be mistaken for anything but anger, the redhead turned to Reyes, “Tell that thing to be careful, that Sneasel isn’t use to people or other Pokémon!”

Reyes shrugged, you are obviously a trainer, you should have done better,”

She shook her head, “You don’t understand, I don’t own that Sneasel, I’m just holding on to it until I can figure out what to do with it,” she held out her hand revealing the multicolored pokéball she had released Sneasel from, “See this?” She waved at Reyes, “This is a special Pokéball, it only holds Pokémon for a short time without binding them to you,”

Reyes looked slightly amused as he pondered the information she had just given him, apparently deciding on his course of action he leaned out the window, “Gieco, Nasty Plot!” He turned, facing the outraged female next to him, “If it isn’t yours its fair game,”

******

With a small leap Sneasel jumped forward bridging the gap between itself and Gieco before the lizard had time to blink.

scarcely a moment later Reyes was watching Gieco get bombarded by furious barrages of slashing and clawing at the hands of the lightening fast Pokémon.

As he watched Reyes couldn’t help but become angered when he glimpsed the sly mocking smile of the female next to him. Reining in his temper he watched Sneasel let up just enough to allow Kecleon the time to look up and witness the Ice Punch that connected with his lower jaw and set him flying from his perch on the wall out onto the hard concrete below.

A small smile played over the face of Reyes, “That’s pretty cold,” he laughed aloud, “But that’s fine, we can take care of that right now... Gieco! Wrap into a Flamethrower now!”

Kecleon struggled to his knees, all the time staring at the dark figure standing on the ice column ahead. Leaning on his hands for support Gieco’s tongue shot out wrapping around Sneasel and binding the creature’s arms to its sides. With a sharp intake of air Kecleon’s body swelled and hot glowing embers billowed out its mouth, time seemed to slow as in pause... - then Gieco’s tongue caught fire racing its length all the way up to Sneasel causing it to shriek with pain as it was held in place by the fire whip like tongue.

“Ice Beam it!” The redhead suddenly screamed from the window to Sneasel.

The screeching from the ice Pokémon immediately stopped and with a visible effort Sneasel rotated it’s wrists until they were aligned with Kecleon and fired off two solid beams of ice towards Reyes’s friend.

At first it seemed that the Flamethrower would make sure that the two frozen attacks would fail in reaching their destinations... unfortunately it failed. As the ice attacks flew to their target the intense heat quickly melted and slowed the progression of the attacks... until enough steamed was produced and built up to cool and put out the searing heat of Kecleon’s tongue. with a gasp Gieco retracted his tongue away from Sneasel and back to his mouth. Meanwhile the two attacks finally reached him, hitting him center mass and freezing the lizard on contact...

There was a muffled thump as Sneasel fell from the now halfway melted ice column that had taken on the appearance of a leaky water slide. With a grunt of exertion Sneasel rose to its feet and using the length of it’s claws for makeshift canes, limped over to the frozen statute like figure of Kecleon.

When the dark Pokémon finally reached Gieco it dropped to one knee, exhaustion written not only on its face but in its very movements.

Reyes watched the wobbly Pokémon rear back and unleash a bullet like haymaker; a moment stretched out as Sneasel pulled back and the ice incasing Kecleon shattered, releasing Gieco onto his paws and knees. His coloring flickering from cyan to tan before it settled on the burnt cream color.

The redhead turned to Reyes, “Why do you let go on? Allowing him to get hurt like that? And for what? What possible reason could you or him have to continue fighting like that?”

Reyes shook his head, “I’m surprised you don’t know... the fact is that what drives him is very simple; it’s an ideal. A purpose for living and something to strive for; that’s why I allow him to continue fighting... that’s why we keep fighting.”


Reyes turned to face her, “Ideas don’t die. Idea can’t be harmed. They can’t waver. They don’t fear. They are in everyone and everything and yet not at all. They drive everything. Every act that has ever been carried out...” unexpectedly he paused, his thoughts and words washing over him, “It. All. Started. With. An. Idea.”

She stood staring at him, several moments spanned by before she finally answer; “So tell me then, what ideal do you fight for?”

Reyes temples throbbed as he brushed a hand over his chin and wetted his lips. The clock on the nightstand behind him ticked and tocked away as he turned back to the window, watching the two combatants below struggle not to keel over.

“Gieco my friend, Focus Blast.”

Kecleon slowly rose at the command until he sat on his knees, staring eye level with the Sneasel. Neither flinched when Kecleon clapped his paws together, forming a glowing orb. The orb itself continually growing until it spanned the width of Gieco; and with a forlorn look of resignation Kecleon hurled the glowing ball of energy into the small space separating the two Pokémon.

A blinding light filled the alleyway, spilling through cracked windows and onto the almost completely deserted road. Then came the sonic boom, its loud reverberating echoes rattling foundations and pounding through the the brains of those unlucky enough to hear it.

Two or three seconds passed by before the aftermath of the attack subsided, disappearing as quickly as it arrived and leaving nothing but the two knocked out forms of Kecleon and Sneasel. Reyes fingered two pokéballs, stretching one forth he captured Gieco in the powerful beam and sending it deep within the sphere. The other he aimed at Sneasl, he was just about to hit the switch to do the same when his arm was forcefully grabbed.

Her face was twisted with fury as she spoke, “”I’m ordering you not to do this.”

wrenching his arm free Reyes stared at her, he wasn’t sure who exactly she had transformed into, but he was sure that hell would freeze over before he paid any heed. With a flick of his index finger a beam was shot forward, incasing Sneasel and transporting into the pokéball’s confines. Without pausing he grabbed the enraged female next to him and curtly escorted her to her room before returning to his own locked space.

Reyes silently took a seat on the bed, the struggling Pokéball still tightly clutched in his hand.

Pokémon to catch: Sneasel
Length: Enough
Notes: Liked this better than chapter 2

Status: Caught

~Isaiah

Chapter 4: Oh, I hate Mummies


"A broken into home. A raided Gym. A Pokémon stolen directly from its trainer in the middle of a battle. All these things came as easily as breathing to Reyes, but as he is about to find out via a rude wake up call. Everything is not always as it seems, as what can one possibly do when kidnapped by the very people who hired you to pull of the robbery of the century?" *A better intro to come in next chapter, I has promised*

Reyes surveyed the scene as he left the hotel. Lavender was quite the peaceful town and there was almost nobody worth taking notice of on the streets. Reyes smiled as he thought about how easy it would be to take whatever he wanted from these people. That however was quickly quashed, he stole what was needed of him, nothing more and nothing less. To think differently left him deeply troubled as he left the hotel on his way to the tower. Thankfully it was only located a few blocks away and left him little time to ponder his misgivings.

Lavender could best be described as one large suburban area; homes dotted the landscape, each with its own perfectly groomed green lawn… the thought of such perfect estates spooked Reyes more so than a ghost town would have, at least in that case he would not have to worry if the inhabitants were robotic monstrosities. As it was, he couldn’t be sure about the people he was currently preparing to rob blind.

Finally Reyes arrived at the ghost tower, the parking lot before him stretching at least a hundred yards in length and width with overgrowth neatly covering the landscape beyond the tarmac. He couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose as the scent of the air changed from suburban roses to the air freshener the tower kept employed to keep the scent of the dead at bay. “Old people” he thought to himself, moving towards the entrance.

Reyes slipped in through the large golden glass revolving door and approached the teller, a brown haired young man, probably a college student Reyes judged.

“One all day ticket please,” Reyes requested; the teller quickly rang him with his ticket and Reyes was whisked inside, to the ground floor.

~*~*~*~

The place was huge, Reyes quickly realized, of course that was to be expected of a burial tower, but Reyes had failed to realize just how big the place was, a fact that would help him escape quickly, or get him caught before he made a move.

First thing was first though, he needed to be sure of where to strike and where trouble would be coming from. He knew from experience that regardless of whether he was identified or not the local law enforcement would come running. However he counting on the small level nature of the town to work to his advantage, hopefully this would be a rare occurrence and few would now the correct measures to be taken.

He would start at the top Reyes decided, from there he work could his way down and survey the defensive measures the tower had in place, if there were no pressing matter he would have to attend to; he could be done and gone before midday.

A quick look around and Reyes caught sight of the elevator placed on the north wall, completely opposite of where he currently was, careful to make sure he would remember that in his calculations Reyes squeezed past the few dozens of people milling around the lobby to the elevator, he dully noted that a majority of them were obliviously scanning information sheets…
Thankfully only three other people had decided to use the elevator so Reyes didn’t have to sit through the awkward stage of politely asking his “neighbor” to get off his foot. Just the same Reyes shot out of the doorway as soon as the chime sounded, although not fast enough to warrant a second look.

The top floor was very much like the bottom, unless you took into account the dozen rows of tombstones lining the walkway. Of course he couldn’t help noticing the throb of people examining the headstones, or worse, kneeling before them.

There was no doubt about it, this would be tricky, in such cramped quarters the chances of detection skyrocketed, but hell, he had an order to fill, a rather large order to fill; and according to his employers, sooner was most definitely better than later. Once again he felt an ounce of regret sneak in for taking on such a large job, not that he hadn’t had his share, it simply came with being the best and he was the best. It just wasn’t common for such a large order to come in and even rarer for it to have a timetable attached. In most cases he simply had a target already planned out where he could grab everything needed at once, never before had he encountered a job which required so much… fieldwork…

But again, he pushed these thoughts from his mind, he was more than capable of finishing this in the time allotted, but that wouldn’t happen if continually conversed with himself over every misgiving. Resolving that this would be the absolute last time it happened, he strolled through the aisles that were free of mourners or tourist.

Although he gave the appearance of examining headstones every so often, Reyes real intentions were finding the locations of any hidden cameras… of which turned out to be a joke, the cameras weren’t hidden but kept in plain view. Usually Reyes would have called this a bad move, but the spacing of the room meant that anybody trying to disable them would be clearly visible by another; with a camera in every corner and than one at every cross section the entire room was in clear sight. An extremely effective setup Reyes observed, but of course, there were ways around that.

His interest in the security of the tower piqued, Reyes decided to take the stairs down a level and see if the setup was the same throughout the building, plus, he would be able to see if the staircase was monitored.

It wasn’t, as he traveled down the white colored, narrow corridors that made up the stairs he guessed that whoever was in charge of security figured that there were too many levels for it to be an effective escape route. Reyes found himself in agreement for most, 50+ “available” floors would be a tough workout out.

When he reached the next floor he quietly entered, careful not to the heavy steel door behind him slam shut and attract unwanted attention. Ironically Reyes found this level to be almost identical to the last room, the only noticeable difference being the floor of above had been a polished hardwood, was now a marble tile which gave the room the characteristics of spinning lest you look too long, the intent being obvious, the tower wasn’t getting business out of Pokémon so they moved on to murder, obviously they planned for people to get dizzy and fall cracking their skulls in the process.

Reyes chuckled at the thought, and moved on, it was time to head back downstairs and plan his heist, he figured a little over half the people here were tourist which meant sorting through the ones most likely to carry Pokémon with them. Once again Reyes headed for the Elevator…

~*~*~*~

It was know closing in on 11:30, and Reyes knew if he was now pressed for time, if wanted to be out by noon, he’d have to move now and with a supernatural speed. He sighed as he rose, he could always take his chances and aim for an exit time of around 12:30, and despite his reluctance to second guess any initial decision of his own, 12:30 seemed to be the only reasonable goal.

He rose slowly from the three person bench, one of several green benches that had been placed around the walls of the ground floor in the tower. Moving from his position on the east wall to the north and location of the elevator, Reyes had almost made it when someone screamed and shouts of “freeze” and “don’t move” echoed throughout the lobby…

Despite the command Reyes turned towards the entrance, where two men where moving past the teller, a third stayed behind holding a sawed off shotgun to the tellers face, the threat as clear as the low pay lifestyle of a grade school teacher.

“Nobody moves a f***ing inch or else where you mother****ing head off!” one screamed at the patrons.

The sound of weapons cocking told Reyes that the smart remarks that seemed to naturally flow through him like fresh spring water were best bottled up for moment. Instead he settled for watching the scene, and slowly walked back to the bench and sat.

“What the **** did I just tell you?” One of the henchmen hollered towards the seating Reyes; standing at about five foot nine, white, with slicked back jet black hair and a slightly to big nose for his oval face the man came across as extremely oily.

“Would you rather I stand sir?” Reyes asked while silently promising to ask the next Buizel he came across if he shared his mother with a human by chance.

“Perhaps I would!” The man sneered, “come on, bring yourself up front so we can have a look at you.”

Reyes rose again and walked towards the center of the room where the snake oil salesman now stood, he mentally bit himself, a slip-up of any one of the many names he had created on the spot could turn fatal, he simply resolved to play it down and behave…

As Reyes neared, the man signaled his two men upstairs, with a nod they left wordlessly.

Now that’s surprising, Reyes pondered, either these three were a bit to careless in the way they conducted business or they still had a few cards to deal out.

“So…” the black haired male gestured towards Reyes, now standing not five feet away, “tell me, how is it such an overdressed man can’t take a ****ing order as simple as don’t bloody move?!?”

Reyes put up a hand, “I think sir, that the question is why are such upstanding citizens committing an act that will surely come back to haunt them?”

The man laughed, “Well, you see, we aren’t afraid of ghosts, which means there won’t be any haunting; understand?”

“Really?” Reyes asked… “you don’t believe in ghost? That’s unfortunate, it always seems worse for those not prepared,” Reyes shrugged, but don’t worry, I’m sure you have it under control.

He laughed… just burst into laughter; Reyes stared at the considerably smaller man in front of him doubled over with laughter, after about fifteen seconds of which Reyes was sure the would be robber would start convulsing and hit the floor any second, the gunman rose.

“Are you trying to scare me?” he waved his gun around, “that’s fine,” he shrugged, “it’s obvious you have no idea who we work for, or our goal here.”

Reyes shrugged, “Enlighten me.”

The gunman shook his head, “I don’t think so, but while were on this here subject, why don’t you tell me what you are doing here?”

Reyes leaned in, “I’m in the game as it were, like yourselves sort to speak, stealing.”

The man laughed again, Reyes was positive he was now faking it, “I don’t see your gun… brother,” he snickered.

“I only shoot those I intend to kill,” Reyes replied back evenly.

“Do you intend to stop us?” the man asked, quite serious now.

Reyes stared at him for effect, letting the silence fill the room. “Yes.”

“That‘s too bad,” the gunman said, turning, "you might have been a good recruit." He snapped his fingers as he made his way back to the teller, planting himself firmly in the entranceway.

Reyes shrugged, “A snap of the fingers and I’m dead? You can’t even call yourself a pirate with that type of cliché; you should be…”

Reyes’s commentary was momentarily thrown out the window as a force from beneath him up ended him and sent him flying across the floor.

“Oh yea that definitely hurt,” Reyes groaned rising from the floor, he turned back towards the man as a Gengar phased up out of the floor in front of him and two huge balloons with eyes drifted down from the ceiling.

“And what the hell are those?!?” Reyes wondered aloud… rather loudly.

“Drifblim’,” the robber supplied helpfully; “don’t wonder too close in, now boy,” he cautioned in amusement.

“Won’t be a problem,” Reyes muttered in anger as he plucked two pokéballs from inside his jacket and tossed them between himself and the approaching ghosts.

Blinding light diffused out across the already amply lit room and disappeared in a flash leaving behind the forms of Alakazam and Porygon 2.

“Now, now, don’t hurt the innocent,” the crazed gunman warned.

Reyes nodded, and gestured towards his two friends, “Jack, Barbossa, please.”

Without hesitation, Porygon 2 closed its eyes in concentration in synchronization with Alakazam.

For a brief moment time seemed to stop and than a shudder rippled through the floor sending the marble tiles of the lobby shooting up and down as if a lost Diglett was anxiously burrowing past. As the last of the rippled died off the parts of the floor began rising, a column of tiles right in front of an older couple shot up and began multiplying, in seconds a barrier of tiles separated the couple from the combating Pokémon. In quick succession everybody else soon followed suit until the room was filled with cubbyhole like niches.

“Well that’s a neat trick,” the man admitted, “but it won’t save you or your friends from death!”

“Good point,” Reyes conceded, “Jack, Barbossa, please, resolve this situation if you’d be so very kind.”

Again the pair shut their eyes, perfectly in tune with each other and in concentration; meanwhile Gengar and the two floating gas bags looked around in bewilderment, wondering where the floor would shift next, it never did…

With a rather bright flash, a beam of light traced a path horizontally across the walls from and they like the floor seemed to duplicate across the room into the lobby had become a giant maze.

“There you go!” Reyes smiled, “never underestimate a good barrier attack combined with Barbossa’s mental skills.”

An exasperated sigh arose from somewhere on the other side of the maze, “You idiot!” a shout soon followed, “you aren’t very bright are you?” the voice asked as the three figures of the ghost appeared through the nearest wall. “Ghost.” The voice taunted.

“Ha!” Reyes laughed as two walls suddenly shifted and came together effectively sandwiching the three ghost into less than edible pancakes… “Psychics!” Reyes taunted back.

Reyes’s joy didn’t last long however, the walls soon shifted back revealing that the ghost had seemingly taken little damage, however, if anything they did seem a bit more pissed off. Reyes watched the retreating walls once again leaving him in the middle of a large room with nothing but two of his friends between him and an angry mob of dark skinned ghost…

“Jack, tri attack! Barbossa, psychic, now!” he quickly shouted, despite any misgivings he had about these ghost he was now confronted with, nobody would get the best of him, regardless of whether or not there were “supernatural”.

Porygon 2 took hasty aim at Gengar and fired off a spinning triangle, each point representing either fire, electric or ice, but due to the high speed of movement it appeared as nothing but a blend of colors. Alakazam’s attack instantly incorporated itself into the triangle giving the spinning projectile a ghostly lighting; the attack hit Gengar center mass knocking the purple blob backwards onto its back.

The two Dritblim after witnessing the attack were clearly not pleased, one of them puffed itself out up and fired off a shadow ball towards Alakazam, the other meanwhile closed its eyes, a blast of cold wind that seemed to carry the feeling of panic upon its winds arrived from within the Drifblim’s very being and blasted towards Jack and Barbossa…

Reyes watched as the air between the combating Pokémon turned an eerie black, whistling as it whirled towards it target.

“Light Screen!” Reyes barked, the response naturally flowing through him as he started to warm up to the battle.

Alakazam reached his hands above his head, his spoons tightly held within his grasp as a thin barrier of kinetic energy began spilling from the spoons and surrounding him.

The vicious winds slammed against the barrier, and bounced off harmlessly, but it had weakened the shield, allowing the shadow ball attack to pass through it with ease; the dark matter flew through, hitting Barbossa center mass, the psychic master shuddered as the attack was absorbed throughout his body.

“Jack, thunderbolt one of those gas bags!” Reyes commanded, the thought of retribution fueling his excitement.

Porygon 2 turned its focus to the nearest of the floating balloon Pokémon, the static force of electricity clearly building around the room, until a virtual thunderstorm was angrily pacing above the lobby. Jack uttered a screech as the storm reached out, hurling a lighting strike at the Drifblim, causing it to lose altitude dizzily as it screamed its protest, nearly piercing Reyes eardrums in the process with its high pitch.

Gengar glared up and the shrieking Pokémon, disdain clearly etched upon the seamless lines of its face. With a low growl the dark Pokémon rose up into the air, its entire focus keenly locked onto Alakazam.

Without so much as a screech for a warning Gengar took flight, aim straight a Alakazam, who instinctively put his hands up in defense. But Gengar disappeared straight on through Alakazam, exiting through his back. Alakazam quickly whirled around, ready to confront the ghost Pokémon. Instead, he was spun back around when Gengar unleashed an absolutely savage hay maker to the left jaw line of Alakazam.

Barbossa stumbled forward, his psychic ability the only thing helping him keep his balance. In fact, Reyes had a suspicion that if it wasn’t for the psychic augmentation Alakazam used to help move around and protect its weak bone structure, the attack would have had severe implications too Barbossa’s health.

But any triumph Gengar might have had was quickly erased as Porygon 2 turned, its eyes colored a bright pinkish hue, and a thunderous smack followed as Gengar was heaved across the room as if hit with a sledgehammer.

Reyes watched with a faint smile as the ghost Pokémon disappeared through the lobby wall, completely phased through to the opposite side.

Meanwhile Alakazam had come under attack by the now fully recovered Drifblim and its partner in crime. Poor Barbossa had few options but to put all his strength into making a barrier in a desperate attempt to escape the endless assault.

“Ice beam, now!” Reyes shouted, knowing that Alakazam was in danger of being overwhelmed.

It only mere seconds for Jack to turn and analyze Barbossa’s situation; Porygon 2 quickly took aim at the nearest Drifblim and fired. Unfortunately in its haste, the man made Pokémon had miscalculated the angle, resulting in a grazing shot to the lower end of the flying ghost.

Surprised at the unexpected attack, Drifblim turned away from Alakazam and towards its artificial agitator. The two eyed each other, sizing one another up like only two caged opponents could. Then with a sharp inhalation that caused the balloon Pokémon to swell twice its size, before it spewed a thick purple substance from its mouth, completely encasing Jack within its sticky grasp.

Porygon 2 struggled to under the heavy attack while Drifblim prepared for another noxious attack, this time with Jack defenseless.

Inwardly, Reyes cursed himself, it was almost as if had forgotten how to battle and somehow let control of this battle slip away. It was only plain stubbornness that kept him from returning his non-human friends and starting anew, because despite the odds, Reyes refused to believe he could be beat... at least not by a common thug.

“No!” he muttered to no one in particular, his concentration coming back into focus, while every irrelevant thought not zeroed in on the battle disappeared, yes, he could still savage this battle. “Jack, magic coat!” He shouted.

~*~*~*~

Judging from his relaxed outward appearance, few would have given him enough notice to warrant a second look, he knew this. Saw it as a strength, and why not? It had helped him advance from peon work to carrying out orders as a pawn. Not that it was a huge leap forward he admitted to himself ruefully, but he was smart, he knew this too. And as dispensable as he was, he was also valuable... no, useful, that was a better term, everything had value, but one’s treasure was another garbage, He knew this. But everybody needed a handyman, someone... useful. So, yes, he didn’t warrant a second look, but then again, he didn’t need one.

The battle was going well, he soon realized. not that he expected anything different, his ghost had battle together numerous times and were perfectly in tune with both each other and he himself. Even to the point that he no longer needed to issue verbal commands, his very mood allowing the ghost to pick up on his intentions, as they were now. Yes, he would win, even if Reyes decided to try different Pokémon, which was clearly exactly what he was considering... not that it mattered, he had no intentions of winning the battle, when he had radioed ahead to warn about Reyes’ involvement he had received very specific orders: Weaken Reyes and allow him to pass. and rest assured that was what was going to happen, he smiled to himself. He was smart.

~*~*~*~

The Drifblim finally exhaled sending another conglomerate of the disgusting bilge when Porygon began glowing, a sign that magic coat was activated and protecting Porygon. The attack landed on Porygon and promptly fizzled away as if someone had somehow vaporized an omelet. But it was Drifblim to which all the attention was on, the ghost Pokémon had started screeching as steam started to rise off of its body, the ghastly scream echoed through the lobby, evidence to the pain the Pokémon was going through.

“Okay Jack,” Reyes said, “thunder wave it now,” there wasn’t a single ounce of remorse as the words left his mouth.

Porygon stopped struggling against the weight pressing down upon it and instead focused on creating a charge. Within a few seconds Porygon was sending a small electrical attack towards the shrieking balloon Pokémon. The attack broad sided Drifblim and it immediately stopped its screaming and started shaking as the electrical shock caused any muscles inside the Pokémon to violently spasm.

That one down for the moment Reyes was ready to finish the last of the ghost, “Jack, give that last Drifblim a cold hard blast of psychic!” He ordered.

Porygon 2 nodded in knowing agreement, and with out paused blew out a breath of cold frigid air, all the moisture in the air seemed to pause for a moment before whipping together like a dust devil of ice from jack frost himself, under Porygon 2’s guide the tornado fashioned itself into a makeshift spear and was sent flying into the midsection of Drifblim.

Although a scream seemed perched on the tip of its tongue, the Drifblim miraculously stayed silent as it painfully turned towards Jack. with its arms outstretched like angry gills, the sight was quite intimidating. The notion was furthered when the creature let loose with an absolute blood curdling scream and Porygon for its horrible transgression and out of the corner of his eyes Reyes saw a white began to grow throughout the room.

Reyes turned his head to shield his eyes while covering his ears from the angry screeching of the ghost Pokémon, when all of a sudden an explosion rocked the lobby, originating from Drifblim.

When Reyes turned back to survey the scene he wasn’t sure what to expect, but he suspected that the ghost Pokémon had exploded in on itself out of anger. Porygon 2 seemed relatively unharmed, the purple goo now gone from its body, blown away from the explosion, but the man made Pokémon seemed exhausted. But it was the glow of Barbossa’s spoons that attracted Reyes attention, comprehension dawning on him, after all hyper beam explained the glowing light he had seen. The thought left Reyes smiling, not many Pokémon could take the pounding Alakazam had and still be able to launch such a powerful attack. But Reyes was mistaken if he thought the psychic Pokémon was done, without so much as a exterior move, the gun the henchman was holding in the crook of his arm bent back on itself. With a small smile of grim satisfaction Barbossa fainted away...

~*~*~*~

Reyes quickly returned his Pokémon to their respective spheres for a rest and before a second thought could change his mind rushed the disarmed robber. Grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket, Reyes thrust him up against the teller box; he didn’t plan on administering any physical harm to the man, but Reyes wasn’t about to let him in on that.

“Why are you robbing a burial place?” Reyes demanded, “what could possibly be here that would be of interest to you?”

The crook merely shrugged indifferently at Reyes attitude, “Pokémon of course,” he shrugged again, “minus a few perks though.”

“And just what the hell does that mean?” Reyes asked, not willing to lose even the slightest amount of control in the interrogation.

“Well...” he started slowly, methodically, “I think you’ll be finding out for yourself very shortly.

Instead of replying to the cryptic remark, Reyes decked him, it obvious beyond puzzling remarks he wasn’t going to get anything and besides, Reyes had a feeling left on his own the guy could cause considerable trouble...

After propping the guy up against the wall in a sitting position, Reyes entered the elevator, it was time to find out what was going on, and apparently he was the only one capable person at that moment... - yea right, he thought as the doors closed, separating him from the safety and security of escape.

~*~*~*~

After searching the first five floors without yielding results Reyes decided to take a chance and ride straight to the highest floor available to spectators. When the doors opened after what seemed like the longest ascent and most somber time in his life, Reyes found himself staring across the room at not the two remaining criminals but three...

Under most circumstances, Reyes thought of himself as pretty cool headed and collected, but there was no disguising his shock at seeing the two men who had originally employed him with his current job. - In fact, Reyes almost allowed the automated doors to close... with him still inside the elevator. The usually loud ringing of the bell that accompanied the closing of the doors being the only that penetrated his stupor, and allowing him to squeeze through the doors.

The presence of his employers had completely thrown Reyes off, even to the point where he had absolutely no idea what to say nor do, for the first time in as long back as he could remember, Reyes was in a situation in which he had no answer for.

“Why so silent?” The third spoke up - the redhead from the night before taunted, “surely you have some ill conceived joke to unleash upon us.”

Fortunately, Reyes was able to refrain from any harsh resorts and instead settled for a simple shake of his head, using the simple gesture to survey the place. I was then that he realized there was a gaping hole directly in front of the three, along with various hammers and crowbars, their obvious tools of choice.

“Corpses? You hired me to steal 60 Pokémon for you and you start stealing corpses?” Reyes burst out, rather unexpectedly.

The two men looked at the female who dismissed the remarks with a wave of her hand, “You weren’t the only one hired for the job, people from all over the regions were hired for this job, including yours truly,’ she boasted, “but why wait months for them?” Reyes could practically feel the waves of contempt and disdain in her voice as she continued, “it’s taken over a year and still we’ve had to hire more people, but that ends today, now that I’ve unlocked the secrets of the dead, you or anybody else for that fact, are simply no longer needed.” At a nod from her, the two men advanced towards Reyes.

Not f***ing likely, Reyes thought to himself, fingering two very specific pokéballs, if they thought for a moment he was going quietly they had another thing coming. Shuffling his stance to a more defensive posture that had him putting most of his weight on his far reaching right foot, he stood up a bit straighter as he released his monsters.

“Please don’t,” the redhead almost pleaded, “this will go so much faster if you don’t resist, I promise, you’re demise will be quick and painless.”

If Reyes gave any serious thought to her words, he sure didn’t show it, “well red, if death is the alternative, I imagine it isn’t much of an incentive to keep me from fighting now is it?”

Red gave a visibly exasperated sigh, “suit yourself, it doesn’t hurt us,” and with those passing remarks she picked up a small, black drawstring bag from her feet Reyes hadn’t noticed. With a deft stroke she opened and dumped the contents out: a fairly large golden tablet.

It wasn’t until she flipped it open that Reyes realized it was more of a book than a real tablet. The two men joined her side as she busily flipped through the gold laden pages before settling on one in particular. Closing her eyes in concentration as she ran her fingers over the pages, and gently tossing her head from side to side in tune with her hands.

Just as Reyes was about to interrupt out of pure boredom, he was taken once again by surprise when the room exploded with light nearly blinding him. Fortunately it disappeared as fast as it came, allowing the white spots swimming before Reyes eyes time to slowly fade away. When he finally able to see again he glanced up to find Red staring at him... or at least that was his first impression, for her eyes were gone...

If her irises remained they were completely indistinguishable from her pupils which were now pitch black; thinking back Reyes had dealt with plenty of angry women in his life, but not a single one had ever given him a look like the one he was getting now. A feeling deep inside he knew he was f><><><ed beyond all repair.

Goodbye she mouthed to Reyes as a large sharp clawed paw extended out of the hole in the floor...

The paw was soon followed by the rest of the body until Reyes was looking at the entire exoskeleton of a long dead Arcanine...

~*~*~*~

The undead Pokémon glanced back and forth Red to Reyes, its lithe eyes, little more than empty, hollow, sunken sockets, while the triangular head and mouth seemed frozen in a permanent grimace, showcasing a row of wickedly razor sharp teeth; of course that couldn’t be the end of it either Reyes thought glancing at the monster’s bone crusted claws evilly protruding from the paws of the beast. Looking at the lithe limbs that extended up to meet the spinal cord of which was protected by a sturdy set of ribs. Reyes had little doubt that even in its less than alive state, Arcanine was capable of causing serious damage to anything in its path.

But even so, Arcanine paled in comparison to the next Pokémon that awoke from its supposed eternal slumber; climbing from the hole with the help of not two, but sinewy arms came Machamp. The skull was flat in front before rounding in the back, while minus the extra arms, the weight lifting Pokémon was almost virtually similar in all aspects to a normal human being... large bones joined at the limbs, with a thick set of ribs and heavy trunk... on a larger scale of course.

Unfortunately still another rose from the dead, this time a small reptilian Pokémon, its features sharp and clearly defined suggesting that the Kecleon had lived a vigorous life at one point. The undeniable reason it was able to stand up so straight, even in death. It had the face of a small lizard, its face jutting out in a triangle with ridges painting its face. Short arms and legs eqipped with sharp claws completed the conglomerate dead figure. Together the three turned towards Reyes, their empty sockets bearing down on him as Red issued the attack order.

The Arcanine reacted first, finding purchase on the hardwood floor with nothing but its claws, the fire Pokémon launched itself across the room, straight at Rhyperior, its claws outstretched.

“Jones!” Reyes command was sharp, and Rhyperior replied immediately, plucking the flying Arcanine out air with his right hand as if it were nothing but a fly ball in left field; with a growl of amusement he pulled the undead closer, prompting Reyes to respond.

“Remind him what its like to be alive,” Reyes ordered, not really knowing if the undead could feel pain or not.

At Reyes command Rhyperior hoisted up Arcanine a little higher to eye level and without warning to anyone else brought a heavy hand down on the skull of Arcanine that would have broke anything else in half, but against the undead it simply sent the fire type flying across the room in an uncontrolled heap.

Meanwhile Aggron wasn’t doing so well on his own, Machamp had come in hard and fast, using his arm advantage to pelt Aggron with near indefensible punches, until the steel Pokémon could only raise his hands and tail in a desperate defensive position. That’s when Kecleon butted in, its long tongue lashing out, the sight of its tongue muscles uncoiling in its mouth both miraculous and disgusting. Before Aggron could even take notice of what was happening his hands and tail were bound to head, held completely immobile by an undead tongue.

Fortunately try as he might, Machamp just couldn’t seem to break the defense of Aggron, his tail providing ample shielding against the assault. but even so, given enough time Aggron would eventually fall, and Reyes had no intention of letting that happen.

“Help him out Jones,” Reyes said, gesturing towards his distressed Pokémon.

With a nod Rhyperior turned and with a few paces was in striking distance of Machamp of whom continued to press the attack against Aggron. Reyes watched as sparks began growing and jumping from Rhyperior’s hands as he made ready to attack...

~*~*~*~

Another fist bounced off the tail of Aggron, causing a muffled anguished cry to rise up, despite the superior defense and protection his tail provided, the steel Pokémon was intensely aware of every hit his tail was taking and the pain was beginning to take its toll on him. Unfortunately, he could do little but watch through his hands as Machamp paused for a moment, preparing for another round.

The electricity conducting through Rhyperior’s body before channeling into his fist, grew in intensity as Aggron’s muffled scream reached his ears; blood was beginning to rush to his head, tinting his vision red, and giving everything around him a ghastly glow, a sign that rage was beginning to overwhelm him; a rage that started back in the early days of being a Rhyhorn...

It was a drive, a drive that all had... at least among the species that started their lives as Rhyhorn; it could only be triggered by rage, this... drive. Most experienced it early in life, while their temperament was still that of a newborn’s. It took only the slightest irritation to trigger it, most often the cause stemming from another Pokémon, the onset was quick, a smooth transition that had the Rhyhorn acting before it realized what was happening. It was a drive to destroy, most often directed towards one specific object. The rage that consumed whomever it took over could only provoke one response, hate. In most cases, little would result from the anger induced frenzy, most would soon forget the whole episode and quietly graze or search for their herd, never knowing that mere seconds ago they were involved in a mad chase that had seen them wrecking anything in their path. This pattern would continue well into their lives, even for those that lived to become Rhydons’, but for those that become the Pokémon Rhyperior, the onset rage would become something else entirely. First and foremost was knowledge, for some unknown reason, Rhyperiors’ had a unique sense of control over their rage, able at times to hold it back, making occurrences rare, but when they were unable to hold it at bay, not only was control lost, but often times their anger was generalized to any and everything around them, causing them to create massive problems wherever they went off at, This was the drive, and it was rearing its head again...

He had felt it when he first looked in the in the empty sockets of the Arcanine, he had no concept of the undead, but somehow, he these Pokémon shouldn’t be alive, shouldn’t be attacking, but they were and like a defense mechanism it had triggered, eating away at his resolve, slowly but surely.

Machamp crossed his four arms in the beginning of an attack, after everything Aggron had endured up to this point, there was little hope the steel type could survive a cross chop.

Fortunately Machamp didn’t get the chance to finish Aggron off, for Rhyperior finally launched an attack of his own: A vicious thunder punch to the back of the fighting type’s spinal cord, freezing the Pokémon to its spot on the floor. But it recovered quickly and when dealing with speed, rock types lost every time with few exceptions.

Machamp turned, swinging his two arms and smacking Rhyperior in the face; despite the force behind the attack Rhyperior barely budged an inch, his face turning slightly as hard, bare bone knuckles rapped across.

Recovering even faster than Machamp did, Rhyperior brought his own fist to bear, slamming against the left jawbone of Machamp’s skull; spinning the undead Pokémon in a 90 degree arc.

Before he had a chance to retaliate Rhyperior was turning, slamming his heavy club-like tail on the back on Machamp’s head. The fighting Pokémon plunged like a rock, head first. His head cleared the floor, entering through like a rocket, splinters of wood erupted from the floor, lodging themselves deep in the exoskeleton of Machamp.

But even so, Rhyperior was far from done, taking hold of the legs of Machamp, Rhyperior yanked Machamp free from the floor, using the momentum to throw the fighting type across the room and into the opposite wall. With a roar of triumph Rhyperior rushed forward, charging the fallen Pokémon.

Reyes took in a sharp inhalation as he watched Rhyperior barrel towards Machamp, because of was mere bones with no solid mass Machamp had been saved from going through the wall, Rhyperior however, was an entirely different story...

It would be the incredible amount of stamina the undead seemed to possess, that saved Reyes from his worry; with barely a pause Machamp got to his feet and charged Rhyperior. The two Pokémon collided together only feet away from the wall. But for all of Rhyperior's momentum, Machamp was arguably the strongest Pokémon in the world and it quickly gained the upper hand, pushing Jones backwards. This caused the rock Pokémon to dig in, pushing his clawed feet deep into the hardwood floor, using Machamp's strength as leverage, Rhyperior managed to halt his slide. Ironically that's exactly what caused the floor to cave, the strain on it too much; both Pokémon fell through, landing on the tombs located between floors.

Reyes was about to move in for a closer look, when a figure blazed by... literally, combining flame wheel with extremespeed Arcanine had launched itself back into the fray, zooming by Reyes to fly at Aggron.

Reyes glanced around helplessly, by all accounts the battle had gone completely awry, out of his control beyond all reasoning, and in doing so, was in all likely hood of losing the match itself.

With Aggron putting everything he into the battle coupled with the continued rising of the dead thanks to the dragon lady herself and the temporarily loss of Rhyperior's insanity; Reyes was beginning to consider surrendering, for it seemed to be the only viable option he had left.


He pondered this for a moment as Aggron's fist slammed into the jawbone of the pouncing Arcanine, but for every undead monster he drove back, another took its place, rising from their graves in service to the stone bearer.

Rhyperior on the other hand, was having little trouble dealing with anyone unlucky enough to be sent against him, and doing so in a remarkably destructive manner. Leveling his palms at what looked to be two frail looking Eevees' though, truth be told, it could have been anything along that evolution line thanks to their skeletal similarity... two beams of white light shot forth, engulfing the two Pokémon and blasting them across the room, leaving a ringing of the ears, as the beam disappeared.

Rhyperior turned, roaring loudly at the downed Arcanine, without pause he again leveled his palms at the dog and fired off a volley of boulders the size of a folded up human. The attack struck Arcanine dead center, throwing it across the floor and doing serious damage to the integrity of the level. But if Rhyperior notice, or cared he showed no sign, completely caught up in the midst of battle…

~*~*~*~

Reyes knew full the destructive capabilities of a Rhyperior, but nothing had ever been mentioned about the frenzy Jones had worked himself into. Rhyperior, contrary to belief were capable of moving at fast speeds when charging, or even in danger, but at this moment in time Rhyperior was hoisting his weight around as if were nothing, ducking incoming fist while smashing facial bones with his own. Non contact attacks were evading with the agility of a airborne fighter, while the boulders he launched crushed everything in their way. If Reyes knew anything, he knew this wasn't Rhyperior, despite his rough demeanor at times Reyes just knew his friend wasn't a Pokémon that could so easily toss others aside as he wreaked havoc; life threatening or not, Reyes had never witnessed such brutal force in his Pokémon.

Reyes train of thought was interrupted as the bleated body of a Staryu flew by, undoubtedly helped out along the way by Jones; completely lost, Reyes withdrew his pokéballs, returning the battling Aggron before recalling Rhyperior.

But it was to his surprise that he failed, he watched the beam arc towards Rhyperior, fazing him red, but that was as far as the ball made it, quick as a wink Rhyperior phased back and continued to hammer what looked to be a hapless feline of some sort. Confused Reyes tried again, but to what little extent the colored sphere had last time even failed. Apparently satisfied with beating he had given the skeletal creature before him, Rhyperior picked it up by the hind leg and tossed it through the nearest window.

By now the male thugs had stepped in; first a pink pale violet Arbok appeared, its boneless, elongated body slithering forward, bringings its nearly flat, intimidation based camouflage head ever closer. Next a sandy Sandslash was up, a small rodent like Pokémon with oversized scales gracing its small back, allwowing the creature to effective roll itself in almost inpenatreble armor. And finally, an overbearing Venasaur, Its vine already stretching out from its heavy dinosaur like body, nearly hidden by the huge, pretty but poisonous flower that rested on its back.. Before Rhyperior could even turn he found himself held in place by the outreaching vines of Venasaur, content to hold him there the plant creature allowed Arbok and Sandslash to start wailing away at him, it was long before Jones was covered in thick, purple wretch and long cuts in his rock like armor appeared.

But if anyone in that room thought Rhyperior was out, they were sadly mistaken, jerking the vines off his arms, which happened to slap Arbok and Sandslash as they retracted, Rhyperior brought his two fist together, creating the single loudest thunderclap the town had ever heard. So loud was the ringing that the building swayed slightly, before slowly rocking back to its resting place. When the humans picked themselves off the floor, Sandslash and Arbok were in the midst of being choked to death by the all enveloping hands of Rhyperior…

"Rhyperior!" Reyes voiced carried like a steamed knife towards his Pokémon, "put them down now!" Reyes ordered, with no small amount of venom. Rhyperior hesitated for a moment, but only for a moment before going back to its death grip. Again, Reyes shouted at his rock friend, his voice becoming more of a throaty roar than anything else. Still Rhyperior made little notice, it was only as he was about to yell some more that Reyes felt the presence behind him, by than it was too late, he had been knocked out cold.

~*~*~*~

It was dark out when Reyes came too, worse, he was bound and gagged on a floor, judging from the slight purr around him, he guessed on the floor of a car; of course for him, that meant he was being taken off somewhere that not only did he more than likely have no knowledge of, but it was being done by the people who by all accounts, had just tried to eliminate him. As Reyes settled himself in, getting more comfortable, he hoped to death he hadn't been out for multiple days, he doubted it, but he had been wrong before...

It wasn't long before his mind settled on matters of more pressing concern, what had happened to Rhyperior? Both after he had been so cruelly knocked out, and mentally to make him snap such as he did. After all, Reyes had seen Rhyperior upset on a number of occasions, but it had never ever developed into whatever it was he had experienced back in the tower. He prayed it wasn't something chronic that had been unlocked. Despite how much he cared for his friends, he wasn't sure whether he could handle a unstable Rhyperior, but to even get that far meant getting out of his current situation; ironically, it was Jones that had the best chance of making that happen.

Hours passed by, leaving Reyes to do nothing more than excessively dwell on the past, not something he was akin to do, but certainly not immune, and as time stretched on, Reyes found him himself in a worse and worse attitude. One thing was for sure, he was going to give them hell, both before and after he got away...

It was morning when the car finally began to slow, the arising sun casting pale orange shadows from the northern horizon. When the car stopped both front doors opened, and Reyes could hear the crunch of gravel beneath their boots. It wasn't long before his door was opened and he was roughly shoved out onto the hard ground, yes, they would most definitely pay, Reyes promised.

He was quickly ungagged and hoisted up, allowing him to see that they were in the middle of a forested area, not quite as thick as a Jungle, but with enough tree cover that only streaks of the northern sun could be seen, filtering through the dense conglomeration of leaves and branches that made up the roof of the forest.

The men leading Reyes tried to start off at a brisk pace, but seeing as how Reyes could find no advantage of cooperating he simply dragged along, making sure to get caught in as much overgrowth as possible. Their temper short, the men finally gave up and hoisted Reyes up by the elbows, and carried him along.

"Thanks old chaps," Reyes told them, "I really do appreciate the effort, and I must say, I'm so glad when can put what happened in the tower behind us, not too many people can take that sort of beat down at the hands on a single monster so gracefully... yes sir, the world would be a better place if we had losers like yo..."

Reyes voice was cut off as he felt his knees scrape and scratch against rocks, as he was set down and once again gagged. Quieting down he allowed his head to droop, no point in overworking himself before the real show got underway, he mused.

After what was undoubtedly one of the rougher hikes through the woods Reyes had experienced, the group found themselves in front of a brown colored logged cabin, and while the exterior was nicely painted and cared for, Reyes doubted he'd like the activities on the inside. Nonetheless, he didn't have much choice at this point, unless the two thugs carrying him where in a forgiving mood... a short discussion later he found out, they weren't.

Once they entered the cabin, Reyes was immediately dropped to the floor, rather harshly, while his gag was removed.

“Thanks ********,” he replied, irritation beginning to creep into his voice.

“Shut the **** up, before you get put in a hole,” one of them replied brusquely.

“**** you,” Reyes said, not batting an eyelash.

‘Now, now, you boys are going to be spending a lot of time together here, I suggest you learn to get along,” a familiar female said entering the room.

“**** you too,” Reyes growled back.

“You know that’s no way to talk to a lady,” she responded, patting his head, which was immediately paid for with a headbutt to the calf. Able to catch herself before completely falling over sprawled, she picked herself up, “it’s your choice if you don’t want to cooperate… lock him up.”

With that she left, rubbing her left calve much to Reyes delight, but his enjoyment was short lived as he was promptly led downstairs to the basement, still bound and once again gagged…

Time ticked by, leaving Reyes with little he could do, too tired to think, and not caring enough to try and escape he simply lay still, his consciousness floating somewhere between daydreaming and a trance. Even when he yawned he was barely aware of it, and it wasn’t long before Reyes realized this, and immediately took back control. Despite whether or not he cared about his current situation, he wasn’t about to lose control over himself, regardless of the circumstances.

It was sometime later that the big, bald headed white male entered the room. Muscularly built, Reyes has serious misgivings about the man’s intent, chances were, it wasn’t to talk. Reyes found himself carefully sat down and tied to a rather sturdy chair, fastened too tight to make any moves whatsoever, regardless of what was about to happen, Reyes didn’t have much choice participation wise.

“So, this is the part were you beat me?” Reyes questioned, eyebrows raised.

The burly thug nodded slowly.

“She give any reason?” Reyes asked.

This time the thug shook his head no.

“She’s a *****,” Reyes said, trying to settle back, mentally preparing for the onslaught.

Wryly the guy nodded, and then began.

~*~*~*~

It was sometime before the thug left, leaving Reyes alone to pick himself up off the floor he had been dumped on. Bruised, battered, and overall more than slightly pissed off, Reyes was back to his old self, amazing what a good beating could do to one’s determination. Despite the difficulty, Reyes managed to stand up, allowing his weight to settle on his feet after not using them for so long, it was a rather painful ordeal, after the initial pain and balancing problems, he stretched his legs, letting them get back to normal use; he briefly thought about thanking that conniving redhead, for giving him the motivation to best them, but quickly thought better of it, they wouldn’t see this coming…

He sat on his knees, perfectly still, perfectly calm, he knew what he needed to do, they were all going to pay dearly for messing around with him; it would be the first job he had failed to complete, but he figured he could live with it, especially if destroying these guys’ operation was going to be as satisfying as he thought it would be…

First he’d need to get loose, or at the very least get to his Pokémon, he was going on the assumption time was short, and therefore he’d have to move fast, whatever need they had for Pokémon was going to be fulfilled soon with the help of that tablet, of which Reyes made a mental note to check into when this was all said and done. But first, he needed to find out what they were trying to accomplish, he hoped to death it wasn’t some global domination plot, what a way to turn something fresh, stale. And it would be little more than a waste of his time if that turned out to be their goal.

He waited patiently, they would slip up soon, he didn't know how, or when, but everybody did, it was only natural, and soon, nature would take it's course and he'd be free. It was only a matter of time... of planning, the latter of which he didn't have, up to this point his only bright plan was to unleash as much destruction via Pokémon as possible, but that was shallow, and superficial, doomed to fail, if he wanted to really cause damage he'd have to infiltrate them, get on the inside and completely screw up each and every vital part of whatever they were doing, that would go a long ways towards proper revenge.

Time passed on, with meals and beatings delivered on a regular basis; by keep count of the meals, and assuming he was getting at least two a day, he figured it had been about a week since the tower incident, and between the poorly prepared food and the bruises that covered his midsection, Reyes knew his window of opportunity was quickly closing, it would have to be in the next couples of days that he made his escape...

Reyes head swayed back and forth as his listened to the imaginary clock ticking in his head, he hadn't bother sleeping, three meals had passed by so far, and if his estimates were right the next meal would be coming any minute, the sole reason he was sitting by the door, just waiting for the small slit to open and his dinner to pass through...

The scuffling of footsteps on the other side of the door snapped Reyes out of his apparent cruise control, patiently he sat silently as the small mail slit swung inwards, allowing him to catch the top corner, holding it up. The food was quickly passed through as the guard released the slit, but it failed to close; Reyes could just imagine the guard's puzzled look as he bent down to examine the problem. Reyes smiled as the guards face came into view, "Hi," he mouthed, picking up the plate and hurling it back through the slot.

There was an explosion of glass and the muffled shrieking of the guard as he stumbled away, grimly, Reyes picked up a long shard of the glass plate that had sheared off trying to make it through the slit, yes, this would do just fine he thought, twisting the cuff of his shirt to hide and holding the item...

It wasn’t long before the door opened, revealing a familiar bald headed face holding a chair. Reyes allowed himself to be bound tightly to the chair, with little struggle; as soon as it was finished he flexed his wrist, shoving the piece of glass outwards, rubbing against the thick rope that secured him.

He was busy cutting away when the first punched rocked against his chin… hard, “Ow!” Reyes spat, “Be careful, you know how much dry cleaners charge for bloo…” he never finished as the next blow to his midsection sent all the air out of his lungs in a gasp, nearly causing him to drop his makeshift shiv.

Reyes took a deep breath, trying to get his breathing under control, the cutting was going to be a relatively slow process, and he’d have to be able to hold onto his cutting tool or lose his chance of escape.

Despite all his resolve, Reyes knew his window of escape was fast closing, but even with this knowledge, his process slowed with every hit he sustained, worse more, the shiv was not nearly as effective as Reyes had hoped it would be, even so, he figured he’d need a few more minutes at the least to finish, and it looked as if his personal thug was getting ready to turn him finish up…

Frustration welled up inside the pit of Reyes stomach, one simple f***ing job, that was all it had been, steal a few Pokémon, deliver them, voilá, but no, sh*t just had to continue happening, nobody could just leave him the f*** alone to work in peace, well that was fine, cause he was about to become a big f***ing problem himself.

The thug turned, his arm swinging to reveal a fist, undoubtedly the finishing blow, but Reyes was straining against his bonds, the shiv wedged between his fist and the rope, cutting both.

Time seemed to slow down for both; by the time the fist had reached a third of its way to its destination Reyes was free, blood dripping down his wrist coating them red; at the half way mark the ropes had fallen and Reyes was moving, ? and Reyes throwing himself backwards allowing the fist to pass harmlessly above where his head had been.

Reyes brought his feet up, the chair still securely fastened there, the legs connected with the guard’s solar plexus causing him to fall to his knees gasping for air; again Reyes brought his feet up this time hitting the man square in the jaw, toppling him over unconscious.

Reyes quickly searched the immediate area for his shiv, finding it quickly he sat up, cutting away his feet, able to freely move his upper limbs the process went much faster and in time he was up; it was officially time for some pay back, and oh how it would be sweet…

Using the cut ropes Reyes fastened the thug to the chair, and left, wondering who the hell was dumb enough to carry keys into a cell…

The hallway was narrow, and long lasting, with the walls a dull gray, probably sheet metal Reyes mused, meaning they were probably underground; finally he came to a door, marked storage, opening it up Reyes found himself staring at a gigantic room filled with Pokémon… all held within cages.

Reyes hurried past them looking for his own, until he reached the end of the room where several dozens of pokéballs were held behind what looked to be bulletproof Plexiglas…

Reyes turned away from the barrier, his mind whirling at a thousand rpms, on his own he stood little chance of getting past to his friends if indeed they were back there; a smirk crossed over Reyes face as an idea began to from, true on his own he couldn't get past, but than again he wasn't exactly alone was he? He studied the cages before him, now, who would be most obliging?

Reyes wondered back and forth between the many cages, all holding Pokémon that looked none too happy, either from his presence or their habit situations. He stopped in front of a cage holding a pacing Houndoom, the dark type dog bared its teeth at human spectator, clearly agitated. Reyes stared into the creature's eyes, willing the canine to quiet down, precious seconds ticked by, but the Houndoom appeared if nothing more, a bit more calm. Slowly, Reyes removed the bolt locking the Pokémon in, his eyes never leaving the pacing animal, "You understand I need you to do me a favor?" Reyes asked softly, turning, he pointed at the Plexiglas.

The Houndoom eyed the barrier before shifting towards the exit; "No," Reyes warned, "first you have to help me," again he pointed at the plexiglas, this time releasing the door open and freeing the Pokémon.

Proceeding with caution the Houndoom exited the cage, wary of any traps that might be present; when it was completely free, it stood facing Reyes, its head swiveling back and forth between the exit and the Plexiglas. Sniffing slightly the fire breathing canine trotted towards the barrier and Reyes gave a silent sigh of relief.

Houndoom stopped a few feet short of its target and eyed it, as if sizing up an animate living object, Reyes watched from where he stood as the Dog inhaled sharply, its belly expanding rapidly as hot air filled its cavity; embers and smoke hissed from the canines mouth as he exhaled a blast of molten flame that hit the plexiglas turning it a deep shade of red and orange.

Slowly the plexiglas began warping and melting, the barrier becoming almost liquid like as it fell to the floor, a big heap of molten plastic material.

Reyes carefully stepped over the heap of molten heat and took possession of the colored spheres incasing his friends. Immediately feeling better about his situation. But is was short lived, someone was going to pay dearly for all of this, he was going to make sure of it.

Deep in thought he exited the storage room, hitting the master switch on his way out opening all of the cages. Let them stew over that for awhile, he thought grimly. he needed a distraction anyway, if he was to escape from this prison. Not that he had any idea where to go to get out...

First thing first, he decided, he was underground, or so he assumed, meaning he needed to get back up a floor before escape became viable. unfortunately, he been blindfolded when brought down, and he now realized he’d done nothing to memorize the route they had taken down here. Mentally he kicked himself, hard. Of all the boneheaded mistakes possible, he thought darkly. Numbly he tossed a pokéball up and down, trying to come to grips with the many problems facing him and a way around them. No doubt, soon his personal guard would be found and an alarm or alert of some kind would be sent out and he’d be trapped down here until he was found, and possibly executed.


Frustrated he threw the pokéball a little harder than he intended to, with a muffled thump it slammed against the ceiling and fell back into his
waiting grasp. but it wasn’t the sphere that held his attention, but the ceiling, an idea starting to form in his head. Yea, he knew how to get out.

Without so much as a second thought he released Aggron and Rhyperior from their virtual prisons. thankfully whatever had come Rhyperior earlier had subsided and the Rock and Ground type once again, seemed himself.

Reyes nodded first towards his non human friends then to the ceiling, “Brace yourselves, we’re taking the elevator.”

~*~*~*~*~

Upstairs, the guard stumbled to into the living room of the cabin. and dropped in to the nearest seat, his head bleeding from one of the blows he’d received via the prisoner. Even more worrisome, the guy had escaped and he didn’t even want to begin wondering what his own punishment would be. Undoubtedly something awful cooked up by that overbearing broad leading them. Doggedly he rubbed his aching head, his vision wavering out of focus. Got to stay awake he told himself as he tried to stand, finally, with more effort than he would have liked to exert, he managed to steady himself on his own two feet. Slowly he took a step forward and smiled, he could do this, no prob--

A gasp escaped his lips as he was picked up and thrown across the room as the floor exploded upwards. His last view before the world turned black was that of steel monster crashing back down through the floorboards...

~*~*~*~*~

"That's going to bring them running," Reyes grunted as he hoisted himself up and through the floor. Leaning back down he sucked Rhyperior and and Aggron back into their respective spheres, and dashed out the door to freedom. He found himself in quite literally nowhere, the place was a forest, with no indication of where to go to get out. "For chrissakes!" the battered thief muttered in anger. Without thinking too much, he dove into the thick bushes that marked the beginning to the forest and the end of captivity.

He was still running when nightfall landed, he ran until he could no longer do so any more, he ran until the beautiful patterns of light filtering from the canopy above became nothing more than blurs in his mind, until the sense of being followed became nothing more than a dull buzz in the back of his brain. He ran until he legs finally gave out and he found himself lying on the forest floor, too tired and unwilling to move another inch. And that is where he fell asleep, unmoving for the night.

When first light hit, Reyes found himself awake, alert and slightly annoyed. He was hungry, exhausted and without food or water. Scratches and cuts littered his arms like he had just had a bout with an angry swarm of Beedrill while his pants looked as if they had been on the losing side of a Houndour cock fight. Ignoring the aches, pains and groans of protest his body gave, Reyes stood up, stretching out for the first time since he'd been captured, and took stock of his situation. With no food or water he'd be forced to forage, at least until he found his way out. Fortunately the chances of being captured again out here were slim to none, especially considering the ground he'd covered, but he had been followed by someone or more probable something. Chances were it wasn't a predator since it hadn't attacked him while he slept, but he was much too wary to write whatever it was off as nothing.

With as much caution as possible, Reyes began picking his way forward once again, this time with the intention of getting his bearings. A task much easier said than done. Nearly all the trees were of the same variety with a smooth tan colored trunk and light green, multi-shaped leaves adorning them. The various shrubs littering the ground underfoot were of little use as well, as while they were made up of more than one species, some with dark green pine like needles, some with red and green leaves, and some with more thorns than green on them, there were far too many spread out randomly too use any sect as a landmark.

Actually progression of the forest was slow going, moss covered rocks lurked under every footstep, while the branches of trees and undergrowth constantly bit and tore at parts of his exposed arms and legs. Still, he pressed on, determined to get through this and make it out, careful to check his surroundings before moving, and keep an eye out for anybody following him; he hadn't spotted anybody so far, but he couldn't shake the sense his every move was being well watched, as if the very trees and boulders he was passing were hiding spots, known only to those intent on keep tabs on him. Pushing the thought out of his mind, he started the search for food...

Finding food in the wild, Reyes knew, was a matter of knowledge, where to look and what was edible, if came down to it, Reyes knew of several roots and shoots that he could eat should he not find anything more suitable. But of course, that wasn't exactly plan A. Instead he took to the trees, with such smooth trunks climbing straight up would have been a challenge for even the most experienced climber. So instead, Reyes searched until he found a boulder sitting next to a nearby tree, and using it as a boost, hoisted himself up high into the branches. Without room, it was hard to move with any considerable comfort, but Reyes, not trusting the various berries growing underfoot knew that any fruit whatsoever would be growing high in the trees, and if so, that's where he'd go.

If navigating the forest floor far below was tough going, then moving through the trees was a downright deathtrap. One had to move slowly, inching their way forward little by little, careful not to get caught in any overlapping branches or the like. It was especially hard on the upper arms as they were required to constantly provide balance, luckily enough, many trees were so close, they very nearly almost shared branches, making moving from one to another slightly less dangerous then getting trapped in a cave with a pack of Feral Feraligatrs'. But, if anything, Reyes had been doing stunts like this since he was old enough to walk, thanks to his parents, and as such, had been always been extremely athletic, something that had proved invaluable in his profession.

It took him the better half of the early day to find anything suitable to eat, but finally, after an exhausting search Reyes managed to get hold of a few precious berries. Content with his find, he descended back down to the jungle floor. Colored bright yellow, oblong shaped, and weighing heavily in his hand; Reyes didn’t recognize the fruit as as anything he’d ever had before, but neither did it look particularly dangerous, experimentally he bit into it. A scarce two seconds later he could barely keep from spitting the same bite out of his mouth and flinging the rest of the fruit after it, as the most sour, bitter tasting fruit rubbed against his taste buds. It was nearly impossible to keep from grimacing as in a the throes of a rather painful death, but nonetheless he swallowed and with as little chewing as possible did so with the rest of the fruit he’d taken.

A few hours later, as midday was passing over him Reyes sat in silence atop a small boulder, his mind for once settling on no thought it particular, a lot had happened in three days. He’d been hired for a job, a job that including the capture of sixty different Pokémon through the world. That was three days ago, and already he had broken into a house to steal a Vulpix, robbed a grass gym of a Seedot, and basically stole a Sneasel from another trainer, not that he felt sorry for her at all. But the icing on the cake, the truly puzzling aspect was the robbery of that museum he’d been in. Grave robbing was a common occurrence in most burial sites, but he’d never ever heard of breaking in to raise the dead, he hadn’t even realized such a thing was possible. How those responsible had managed to do that, or what they planned to do with their army of unsightly skinless beast was beyond his imaging. Not that it mattered one way or another to him. With a rather audible sigh he leaned back resting atop the rock, the world had gone to hell, and he was f*cked.

Rest didn’t come easy, as the berries he’d ate had come into sharp disagreement with his stomach and the two were currently waging a war against each other like a pack Shinx over a Magikarp. Grumbling sharply he rose to a sitting position, clearing the cobwebs from his sleep induced mind. His vision was just coming into focus when he heard a sharp report as a branch snapped and there was a blurring of movement off to his left. Turning he just caught a glimpse of a tan, sandpaper like rawhide disappearing back farther into the forest, followed by the gleam of something metal… something sharp…

Instantly alert he jumped down from his perch, on guard for anything out of place among the sea of greenery surrounding him. But all was still, leaving him to wonder if he’d seen anything at all. Not willing to take the risk, he went to work; first he needed a place to stay, somewhere relatively open, between trees or in a undergrowth patch would suit him best, he decided. With some much vegetation around him, Reyes had little trouble in securing a suitable place for his short stay. It was it was between a group of trees, that almost seemed to cut the area into that of a square; with plenty of low laying bushes and foliage on the floor it was ideal for camping, unless of course it rained, but Reyes wasn’t worried about that. What he was worried about was just outside his vision, probably still watching him, but that was about to get fixed.

The next step he took was in securing materials for rope making, to do this he took back to the trees, and with the utmost as to not lose his balance and end up brain-dead on the valley floor below, cut away as many elastic like branches as he could find. Briefly he toyed with the idea of using his Pokémon to help him but decided against it, they needed a rest and he was quite capable, besides he wanted the fresh in case his plan went to hell, which seemed to be the only viable outcome considering the last few days.

Steadily he made progress in his project first splitting as many of the branches as he could length wise, before methodically stripping them until he had several dozen yards of thin, yet strong strips of wood. Then he quickly tied as much together as possible, lopping them and and generally tying them in random knots until he had a fine mess in hands. Despite itself the rope he held was strong, or so he hoped. With no more expectations then to scare the living daylights out of what was stalking him he swept the rope around the perimeter of where he would sleep, and tied it off high up in a small cluster of trees nearby. Finally content with the work he had done, Reyes sank to the ground weakly, he was tired, he was annoyed, and truthfully, uncomfortable about his situation. Back in civilization he was known in certain circles for getting the job done fast, getting the job done right, and being more than a little bit of a smart ass in the process. But out here, out with no one around but the unknown, his wit had escaped him, who was there to be sarcastic of? What ideals were there to tear apart in a cynical way? Out here, everything he was, was of no use, and he hoped to the high heavens this wouldn’t prove to be a life altering experience for him.

They attacked the next morning, far later than he had expected. As a result, he was asleep when he heard the snapping of his homemade rope and the screaming of something caught in it. Bolting up form his makeshift bed he caught sight of something small, no bigger than that of a undersized child, barely two feet he would have guessed. It was struggling fiercely from its upside down position, tan colored, with black ears, feet and a black colored stripe running horizontally across its face as if to keep its eyes hidden from view, it looked nearly identical to Vulpix. Unfortunately, comparisons ended there as the little monster leaned backwards, a sharp lethal looking dagger in its hands and with a single swipe, severed the rope. Executing a back flip gracefully onto its feet it faced off against Reyes.

"Oh ****!" the thief exclaimed turning to dash in the other direction when another blade came flying by, missing him by inches and imbedding itself in a nearby tree. "Rhyperior!" Reyes commanded, the pokéball already flying from his hands.

The armor clad rock warrior appeared moments later and was promptly greeted with a flying dagger. The deadly weapon hit him near his left shoulder, embedding itself deep. With a roar Rhyperior grasped the metal shaft, breaking the exposed blade.

"Rock blast!" Reyes yelled darting ahead.

Immediately Rhyperior spotted the twin, tan hides moving through the thicket and opened fire, his palms opening to reveal large sized holes from boulders poured forth like gunfire, turning the once quiet surroundings into a warzone. One second there was only the sound of moving footsteps and creaking of branches, the next, every Pokémon in the forest for miles seemed alive and agitated. Rock met rock as boulders bounced harmlessly off like rock, while trees and brush splintered and shattered against Rhyperior's assault. Pokémon of all shapes and sizes were flying about, as their habitat and homes were tore down in the midst of the wreckage.

"Flash cannon!" Reyes ordered as he spotted the twin figures starting to split up in an attempt to divide Rhyperior's attention. Instantly the rocks ceased firing from Rhyperior's fist and a glowing white light began glowing from them instead. Reyes barely shut his eyes and braced his body before the attack was fired off, the backdraft slamming against Reyes. Looking up the thief could see the illuminating glow of the attack fade as the various plant and wildlife swayed back and forth from the concussion like flashbang attack.

Not wasting a second Reyes raised a fist, incasing a pokéball and recalled Rhyperior. Seconds later he was dashing through the forest, in an effort to lose his quarry. If anything the two figures proved persistent, as they followed Reyes deeper into the forest. The lush surroundings blurring into nothingness as he put all his energy into putting as much ground as possible between himself and his pursuers. Unfortunately he dash to safety was short lived. A branch seemingly sprang out thin air causing him to duck harrowingly, barely missing the branch by the barest of inches. Unfortunately, his attention on avoiding the branch, he failed to spot the lichen covered rock he was moments from tripping on...

He came down right on top of it, his weight transferring easily from his left leg too the right; ripping the lichen away from the rock and sending him down. Without so much as a cry he fell downwards, squishing the few bug Pokémon hidden under the moss as everything turned muted as he fell. The snapping of plants and bushes, the tearing of his clothes and the scraping of skin, until finally, he descent ended. Quickly he scrambled upright, nearly all his limbs and extremities experiencing pain as he did, giving him notice of the remarkable way in which he'd just succeeded in scraping and bruising his body up. Fortunately, that seemed vastly superior to the alternative....

He turned to continue running and promptly collided with another human being. Unstable legs gave out and Reyes crashed back down to the ground, where he could feel the hand of someone on his right shoulder. Instinct coupled with long forgotten training took over and Reyes lashed out with his feet backwards, catching the man off balance and delivering a blow to the chin. He let go and in a flash Reyes had propelled himself upwards, fist flying towards the the man he'd collided with. One, two the man blocked Reyes' blows; then with a quick feint to the left, Reyes smashed his fist into the man's solar plexus. With a gasp, the other man fell to his knees wheezing for air; but the other Reyes had kicked was back up and once again had Reyes by the shoulder.

"Stop struggling --" He urged quickly, but was cut off as Reyes elbowed him twice, jarring him away. He was turning to aim another blow when there was a flash of familiar steel and the soft thud of a blade imbedding itself in the trunk of a tree. He turned to see two foxes standing upright only yards away. Tan colored hides stretched over their bodies, but there was no fur, in fact, there hides were like nothing Reyes had ever seen before, like bare skin covered in a gritty substance. Black streaks crossed their eyes, almost like a mask to conceal their eyes.

In a dash Reyes had two pokéballs flying forward to reveal the forms of Kecleon and Sneasel.

"Alright, enough games!" Reyes snarled, "Sneasel ice shard! Kecleon grab one with your tongue!"

Sneasel barely nodded before dashing forward, moving so fast that it appeared he had very nearly teleported to the naked eye. With a cry the lithe little Pokémon lunged forward striking one of the foxes in the midsection with a lightening quick punch. The little thing punched so hard in fact Reyes was astonished to see the fist puncture and exit through the little fox. For a moment that seemed to stretch Reyes thought Sneasel had managed to kill the thing. Then an evil smile lit the lips of the creature and he struck out, rapping his head against Sneasel, scoring a nasty headbutt.

Meanwhile, Kecleon tongue was flying forward like a bolt of electricity towards the other, who merely sat patiently, a small dagger held idly between his fingers and he spun the weapon around, much like a pen. The plan had been to wrap the fox up in the strong tongue of Kecleon, but the fox easily batted the tongue away, and before Reyes knew it, kecleon's tongue was wrapped around the blade. A smile on its lips the fox grabbed the tongue with its other hand and jerked. It must have been extraordinarily strong for Kecleon was picked up and carried towards the creature like a rag doll. At the same time the fox leapt forward, greeting Kecleon with an elbow to the jaw. Holding the lizard like Pokémon by the tongue still, the fox creature smacked Kecleon across the face, hard. Then sent a kick to the lower limbs, knocking Kecleon off its feet. Jerking Kecleon back up like a jump rope, thanks to its hold on the lizard's tongue he smashed his fist one last time into the face of Reyes Pokémon, putting it down for the count.

Quickly Reyes returned his fallen friend back to safety, only to find that Sneasel was faring no better, taking advantage of the headbutt it had unleashed on Sneasel, the other fox was bombarding the ice type with kicks and punches, striking so fast Sneasel could do nothing more than block. Until finally, Sneasel jabbed back... but it was it was a costly mistake as the fox snagged Sneasel's wrist and tossed him away.

Again, Reyes returned his friend to the safe confines of a pokéball when one of the men he'd downed, looked up at Reyes.

"Careful," he warned, a white male with bleached blonde, spiked hair; "we have to take them together."

Reyes glanced over at him, he was dressed in a white monk's hood, which had fallen over revealing a dirty blonde kid with a nose that had been broken multiple times before and thin lips set in a grim line. His partner, by contrast, was olive skinned with jet black hair that was slicked back, but Reyes couldn't get a clear look at him to see anymore.

"No thanks," Reyes gritted out, a pokéball already ready in his hand, "I can deal with --" he was cut off as one of the foxes hurled another dagger from somewhere on its body, hitting the pokéball and causing it to fall from the thief's hands. He barely had time to block as the second one jumped at him, body swinging in a 360 as he brought his leg up in a spinning kick. Arms crossed in front of him Reyes blocked the attack, but the bugger was fast. Quick as a wink it had dropped to the ground, lashing out again with a short foot and connecting against Reyes right foot, with a grunt of pain he went down on one knee. Now on level with its opponent, the fox like creature smacked Reyes across the face hard with a spiked fist, drawing blood. Slightly dazed, Reyes could only glimpse the dagger as the creature placed in behind Reyes head, using it as a fulcrum to throw the larger human being head over heels forward. There was a glimpse of silver and the fox monster was stabbing down towards Reyes with its dagger. Another glimpse and the blonde haired human had managed to get to his feet and draw a sword of his own. With one deft stroke he separated the foxes' arm as it jumped forward in a vain attempt to dodge the blow.

Reyes rolled back towards the humans as the fox landed, minus on arm. Silently Reyes nodded his appreciation, first to the the blonde haired bloke, then the other, a olive skinned young man, with jet black hair and a remarkable famili--

"Rod?" Reyes asked bewildered.

The young man glanced back at Reyes for a scarce second before his eyes were once again brought back to bear on the two foxes. Stunned, Reyes followed suit, staring at the fox who had lost an arm. If it was painful the fox didn't show it, in fact, the thing seemed to be enjoying the attention. Then, with deliberate ease, he stretched what was left of his arm and the humans watched in growing shock as the limb began growing back.

"Oh... ****!" Reyes muttered, watching in grotesque fascination.

"I think we better get goi --" the blonde haired man spoke up as a incredibly loud roar rocked the forest, to its core, cutting off his speech and knocking the humans down. Then the forest erupted into hell as a sudden sandstorm kicked up and with seconds, visibility dropped to zero and small boulders and trees where whipped into the swirling vortex.

"What was that?!?" Reyes yelled above the loud din from inside the eye of the storm.

"We have to get out!" The blonde haired man spoke again, tossing Reyes a cloak. "Grab onto me and don't let go!"

Wordlessly Reyes accepted the clothing material and donned it, before latching on to the lapels of the other two and quickly the disappeared into the swirling waves of sand, boulders, and trees. All the while watched by the two foxes, and the two other oddly shaped creatures that had joined them from behind the sandy curtain, until the group had disappeared well out of sight. Only then did the terrible storm stop...

By the end of the day, Reyes and his small party where standing outside a what looked to be a cross between a small harmless village and a armed fortress. A ten foot wall went around the outer perimeter blocking entry to anyone unwelcome. Behind it, Reyes could make out several wooden structures, ardently decorated with red trimming. With a signal from the blonde a gate was opened outwards and the three stepped inside where Reyes caught sight of a small group of individuals, all dressed in the same white hooded monk outfits as the two he was with. Without delay he was directed inside one of the many buildings and put away in a small room with only a pile of blankets serving as a makeshift bed to accompany him.

A few restful hours later Reyes was sitting in the center of what looked to be a council like room. It was circular with polished, red pillars going around the center, and smoothly buffed, tan colored hardwood served as the floor. The ceiling was vaulted while the center rose upwards, creating a domed effect; made all the more prettier by the stained glasswork that adorned it, portraying several warriors in the familiar white hoods n various 'combat' poses.

In front of Reyes sat an older man, despite his pale white skin and shock white hair, he had an aura of vitality and sharp features that sported a strong narrow nose and full lips surrounded by facial hair that was trimmed to a goatee. Between them 'dirty' blonde Reyes had run across in the forest stood. The one Reyes had called 'Rod' was no longer with him. Finally, the older man looked to Reyes.

"This the one?" He asked, his voice soft yet, strong.

"Yes," the monk said quietly, "he was being chased when he ran into us."

"And what was it you were running from?" The elder asked.

Reyes crossed his arms over his chest, "I just got here, you tell me."

The blonde glanced to the elder, obviously taken aback by Reyes' statement and attitude. But he was only acknowledged with a shake of the head. "On the contrary," the elder responded back undeterred, "this is the first time we've encountered such creatures, we were hoping you could help shed some light on the matter."

The monk looked startled at his elder's words, but kept quiet.

"well, you are just **** out of luck then," Reyes, countered, "because I don't need to shed light on anything."

"What is your name?" The blonde finally spoke.

"Reyes."

"Just Reyes?" He asked suspiciously, causing Reyes to hesitate for a brief moment, he never gave out his willingly, in fact there were only two instances in which he'd ever given out his last name by choice. Nonetheless, he decided to take a chance and confide in the people before him.

"Reyes Mantalvo," he supplied.

"What is it you do Mr. Mantalvo?" The elder asked.

Reyes shrugged unconcerned, "I'm a thief."

Now both of the 'monks' looked up at him with surprise etched on their facial expressions. "A thief?" The elder said slowly, "why are you here then? The forest holds nothing of material value."

"I was kidnapped," Reyes snapped, "probably be the same people who hired me. When I finally escaped this is where I was."

The elder shook his head in disbelief, "Perhaps it is best you recount what exactly you've been through that has landed you here."


~*~*~*~*~


A little over a half hour later Reyes had managed to fill them in on everything that had transpired since he'd been hired.

"This is very troubling," the elder finally spoke, after Reyes had explained everything, "you'll understand when we tell you we need some privacy to go over what you've told us, you can go anywhere inside the walls," he informed Reyes, "but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask that you stay with us for the time being."

Reyes nodded as he headed for the massive oak door that was the entrance, "Don't worry, your forest is a little too tame for me anyway,"

He was nearly out the door when the blonde monk called out to him, "You called Miguel 'Rod'," he said, "do you know him?"

Reyes paused and slowly turned back, he words careful and measured. "Yes, I know him, I saved his life once.... we were partners once."

Once outside Reyes headed taco the building where was 'housed', too tired for any exploring. It had been a trying two months and he was finally going to get a solid number of hours under his belt before doing anything else.

Other the next few days Reyes didn't leave the small room in which he'd been put, he was given three meals a day, some smashed oats in the morning, bread at midday and rice or noodles for dinner. Meanwhile he took it easy, resting up. On the forth day Reyes decided to get out, no longer able to sleep anymore than he'd done so already. Deciding to explore, he left the small room for the outside, where for the first time he noticed, there were no paved roads, being in the forest, but the people here had done a fantastic job clearing out all signs of untamed vegetation until nothing but a well groomed, beaten dirt path remained.

From what he could immediately see, Reyes assumed that he was indeed housed in a building usually reserved for prisoners probably the main reason it was located in the back, away from the front entrance, a sure irony for monks, he didn't fail to notice. Of course, the front entrance was the exact place he decided to head towards first.

The setup was small and Reyes had memorized what he'd seen so far of it, but today he planned on getting a more thorough appreciation of his surroundings. He was met at the gate by two hooded guards and the elder he'd met previously. The elder looked in surprise at his arrival, "Trying to escape so soon?" He asked, "surely it isn't so bad?"

Reyes shook his head nonchalantly, "Hardly," he assured the older man, "just getting a feel for this place."

The elder nodded in understanding and excused himself from the company of the guardsmen, and motioned towards Reyes. "Walk with me."

Silently Reyes fell into step behind the man of whom now carried a cane from wood, but looked as he'd have no trouble keeping pace.

"My name is Morelli," he informed Reyes as pointed out a small shack off to their right. "And that's the gate guardians' quarters."

Reyes nodded an acknowledgment and continued on down the dirt path through the village. Next Morelli pointed out the building where they'd first met, "That's our Town Hall," he said, "so to speak."

Reyes gestured further ahead where a large building sat, two massive doors with crossbeams intersecting them served as the entrance, while the roof sloped downwards on both sides creating a look not unlike that of a triangle. The ground around the building was littered with fallen trees. "A workshop of some kind?" He asked.

Morelli shook his head no, "Lumber Mill, in fact," he replied, motioning towards yet another building across from the mill. Similar in design this one sported a glowing furnace on the outside and a thin smokestack that emerged from the roof belching out thick plumes of thick black smoke. Reyes slowed down as he noticed the building and took it all in. "What use do monks have with a blacksmith?" He asked suspiciously.

Ignoring Reyes, Morelli continued on towards a smaller building about the size of an undersized gym, behind it sat a fenced in area. "Our training grounds," he said proudly. Further back still stood two lone towers with domed tops, food granaries; Morelli informed Reyes. "Any other buildings you see would be used for housing, but by now you should be familiar with those," he finished, coming to a stop and signaling the end of Reyes' private tour.

Reyes shook his head angrily, "You lied to me! You knew damn well what those creatures were didn't you," he accused, "they've been here for some time, haven't they?"

The old man studied Reyes for a minute, "That's been your whole problem with your job, hasn't it?" He asked, "You seem so calm, cool-headed and collected, but when it comes to this job you've taken you seem to lose all composure." He was silent for a moment, lost in thought. "We'll work on it," he decided, "maybe meditation will help." And with those last words, he bid goodbye and left Reyes standing there.

He was still watching Morelli shuffle off when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning he came face to face with Rod...

"Reyes!" His old partner exclaimed loudly; well over six feet tall he almost dwarfed Reyes as he wrapped him in a bear hug of a greeting.

"Rod," Reyes greeted back after checking for structural damage.

"I nearly fell and broke my leg when we ran into you," Rod said, trying to emphasize the amount of pain involved.

Reyes nodded in agreement, "Didn't expect to find you all the way out here either."

"I meant in terms of you running from something," Rod laughed, "how'd you wind up out here in all of this anyhow?" He asked soberly.

Reyes quickly filled him in on everything and Rod gave a low whistle, "Is she pretty?"

Confused Reyes stared back at his friend,"The one who imprisoned me, you mean?"

Rod nodded and Reyes rubbed his eyes in annoyance, "Does it really matter how she looked?" He asked.

Again Rod nodded, "I think I may be in love!"

A light bulb clicked inside and Reyes laughed, unable to help himself, "I remember you saying that to only every girl we ever came across together."

Rod shrugged, hanging his head in disappointment, "Yea, and each and every one of them left me."

"They never got with you," Reyes pointed out, "besides can you blame any of them?" He joked. Glancing around he became more serious, "What are you doing here Rod?" He asked.

"I'm a G-Man," Rod told him, a hint of pride in his voice.

Reyes bit the inside of his lip in deep thought, "I'm in the middle of a training ground for G-men?" He asked slowly.

Rod nodded in sympathy, "I'm afraid so, welcome to the party."


~*~*~*~*~


By the time Rod had finished explaining everything as best he could manage, Reyes was beginning to feel a headache coming on. "So... let me get this straight," Reyes sighed, "Morelli is a G-Man?"

Rod nodded an affirmative, "One of the oldest living."

"And why is here again?" Reyes asked.

"Floaroma Town is his birthplace," Rod explained, "once he retired he came back and decided to open up his own community and training ground for G-men around the Sinnoh region. The forest he grew up in seemed like the logical choice to place it."

"Until now?" Reyes pressed Rod further.

His partner nodded in agreement, "Strange things have been happening in town, spooky cult sort of things. At first we thought it was just kids but then creatures like the ones you came across started to pop up, random sightings and such. We combed the woods and found the cabin, but we haven't seen much activity around it at all." Rod shrugged, "my guess is the people who hired you are responsible."

"You didn't find anything because it is all underground," Reyes told him pacing now. Rod watched his friend pace back and forth for nearly five minutes before he couldn't resist breaking in. "Trying to figure out why they kidnapped you?" He guessed.

If Reyes heard him, he gave no visible signs, lost deep in thought. Moments later he turned to Rod, "Experiments." He said decidedly.

"Come again?" Rod asked slightly confused.

"What if they were conducting experiments on Pokémon?" Reyes shouted excitedly, "That creature regrew an entire limb without experiencing any pain whatsoever. No Pokémon in the wild can do that, they were experimenting on them, that's why they needed me to steal so many." Reyes explained, "They were trying to discover how to make Pokémon more powerful, it explains why they needed me to steal so many, it explains why they were stealing corpses and it explains all the Pokémon I found underground, they were trying to raise an army." Reyes said pacing again, "And I'll bet that tablet is the key, they probably found some shortcut that allows them to raise the dead, that would account why they kidnapped me, they no longer needed me... no longer needed live experiments." Reyes finished.

Rod looked slightly less happy than when he'd first seen Reyes that morning. "Why would the girl follow you then?" He asked, "Why not kill you right out after the grave robbery?"

Reyes shrugged, "I'm not sure, my guess would be I wasn't the only one hired, judging by the number of Pokémon below ground, they were probably waiting for my usefulness to run out and eliminate me."

"Still doesn't explain why they left you alive though," Rod insisted.

"I stole a Sneasel from her personally," Reyes admitted, "maybe she was slightly upset with me."

Rod rose up, "I think I need to talk with Morelli about this."

Reyes nodded, "You do that, I'm going to go try this meditate thing and get some sleep...

Later that evening after failing to 'meditate' and deciding to just sleep the day away instead, Reyes found himself back in town hall before Morelli, this time, there were several G-Men in attendance, including Rod.

"You really believe this to be true?" Morelli asked Reyes, searching for any hint that he was maybe overstating any of what he'd already explained several times before everyone.

"Positive," Reyes replied confidently, "it's the only thing that makes sense right now. Nothing else explains their actions or the creatures I ran into."

Morelli reluctantly agreed, "You seem to have a working theory, " he grudgingly gave in, "but at this point it is still only a theory, we can only investigate until something concrete comes up."

Reyes shook his head, "You are G-Men, police sit around and wait for things to come up with before grabbing warrants, you all are you supposed to operate past all that."

"True," Morelli said, "under normal circumstances we'd try and infiltrate in, but nobody here has enough experience and I'm too old," he looked Reyes straight in the eye, "give it a few days, we'll come up with something." He motioned to the others and the meeting was adjourned, much to Reyes dissatisfaction. Rod came up close and pulled Reyes off to the side as they filed out, "Morelli was a real renegade in the G-Men ranks," he whispered, "he won't just sit around and do nothing." He assured him.

Unconvinced, Reyes stayed behind as everyone left and accessed the computer he'd noticed earlier in the day walking with Rod. Carefully he unclasped several pokéballs from his waist and slipped them into the transfer capsule that was attached to the computer. A split second later they were whisked away through the PC network to a phantom account where they'd sit till Reyes picked them up again. He then accessed one of the few legitimate accounts he owned and withdrew a single Pokémon, he had a feeling it would come in handy later down the road. Content with his choices he left the building and made his way towards his quarters, he'd get some sleep tonight and start on a course of action in the morning.

The next day he woke up bright and early and headed for the granaries where he settled down in the shade of the towers for some shade and quiet. The situation wasn't good he ultimately decided, he was a single thief in the middle of a training ground for a special law enforcement group and up against a group of insane cultist seemingly headed by a madwomen and an army of the undead. Morelli had told him he'd lost his composure over this job and he believed it. One only had to look back at his days in the forest to see that and his embarrassing behavior. No doubt about it, despite all his training he'd acted completely out of character and his instructors would probably die laughing had then seen him a mere few days ago. The thought actually caused him to smile, somehow, despite all that he was still alive, still a premier thief, and still had yet to play his last hand.

The more he thought about, the better he felt, things weren't going to be easy, but he was more than qualified to handle the job he thought with confidence. He was stilling going on about his virtual chances when he felt a shoe scuffing the top of his head. Annoyed, he opened his eyes and through the blurred light filtering through the canopy above into his eyes saw olive tanned skin, brown eyes and a thin nose.

"What are you thinking about?" Rod asked amused.

"Your sister," Reyes shot back.

Rod flopped to the ground opposite of Reyes, "Leave my sister out of this."

Reyes studied his friend and ex partner in crime, "You've changed," he finally let on, "You used be so much more carefree and yet you could switch from jokester to dead serious in an instant," he laughed, "no matter what was happening you were always in the wrong character at the wrong time."

Rod smiled as past memories floated back to him, "I grew up," he said soberly, "reformed... like my sister," he added.

That caught Reyes attention and he sat up, "Reformed?" he echoed, "reformed how?"

Rod glanced up quizzically, "What's got you so interested you?" He asked, then amended, "nothing really, I think she has just finally accepted that she was adopted into the family rather than born into it."

"Oh," Reyes said, lying back down. He could quite clearly remember Katy, Rod's sister and couldn't imagine the shy brunette reformed from her book and homely ways.

"Ever think about back when?" Reyes asked out of the blue.

Rod shook his head, knowing full well where Reyes was going with the conversation. "They tried to harvest me like a vineyard," he said with pity, "they failed and I'm still kicking, nothing much to think about it."

Reyes nodded as he thought about the slavers who had tried to forcefully turn Rod into an organ donor before he'd managed to step in and save the kid who wasn't much younger than he himself. But those days now seemed a lifetime away.

He glanced over to Rod who was staring up into the forest trees. "Can I count on you if I need you?" He asked, his voice portraying how dead serious he was at this moment.

"Rod sat up looking worried, "You saved my life," he said slowly, "I'll never be able to repay you for that," he hesitated for a moment before continuing, "I'll always have you back," he finally finished.

Reyes stood up and stretched his limbs, "I won't try to do anything to put your G-Men status in jeopardy" he told his friend; "at the same time, I may need your help on this one," he warned.

He walked away from the outstretched body of his friend on the ground without feeling any remorse, there was little chance of operating inside the laws and getting anything done. It was risky, and would probably jeopardize Rod's G-Men standing, but he saw little recourse than to do things his own way. He found his way to the gate entrance and followed it around the village inspecting it. He hardly expected them to just let him walk away, meaning over the wall would probably be the only option he and Rod would have. That wasn't the problem he decided, finding their way to the cabin would be, if it turned out Rod didn't know the direct way there. Reyes himself had stumbled around for some time, but for all he knew he could be an hours walking distance from the site, he dismissed this as likely but kept kept the point in mind.

At midday he retired to his makeshift bed for a couple of hours, he wasn't tired, but anymore pacing and the village would began to think him crazy. Reluctantly he settled in for a few hours, determined to rest up and once again tackle any remaining problems when he awoke.

Surprisingly he slept well, something he wasn't sure he'd be able to do again soon both because of the actions he planned to take against the cult and because of the amount of sleep he'd had over the past week. Nonetheless he rose up, and before nightfall he was going to be ready to make a move against his kidnappers.

Well past midday, Reyes knew most of the G-Men used the later evenings to practice in the training ground, leaving the village largely empty. Reyes took the opportunity to explore the insides of some of the buildings he hadn't had a chance to so far. First on the list was the blacksmiths. Using a small tree that had been cut parallel to its length Reyes boosted himself up and through a window into the metalwork shop. The shop was dark now, with the only light coming in through the windows, and the heavy amount of dust inside obscured most of it. Reyes could make out shelves and shelves of swords, axes and various tools for hammering out weapons. The port into the furnace was closed but Reyes could see through the slits into the burning interior. A lone desk and chair populated one corner of the shop and a quick survey of it turned up only hammers of various sizes. Bored with his lack of finds Reyes boosted himself back through the window and made his way across to the lumber mill.

This time the door was cracked and he simply slipped in. Inside were planks of wood laid about on several benches, large saws of all kinds littered the entire building. jigsaws on the benches, power saws on the wall. An earthquake in here would be pretty interesting Reyes thought sardonically. Again, outside the many saws located within the lumber mill harbored little Reyes could learn from.

Next he stopped again at the granaries, this time going in and making his way to the domed top. It wasn't nearly as high as the trees around it, but Reyes estimated the drop to be several stories at least. On the bright side Reyes could see beyond the gate and into the forest. Unfortunately, beyond looking pretty, the view offered nothing. Studying the ground below Reyes was lost in thought, he hadn't expected to find anything in his search muchless have anything in mind as to what he was aiming to find, in fact he realized, he was pretty much just snooping around. Chalking it up to boredom he was about to leave when he caught sight of flashing steel in the thicket beyond the gate, a moment later it was gone.

So they were indeed watching Reyes mused, back on firm footing on the ground below. That was interesting, he wondered briefly if they knew what the G-Men had found out to this point, but shook the thought from his head, unless there was a traitor in the midst it was unlikely, and Reyes had yet to see anybody leave the safety of the gates.

For the next few hours he sat. Idly watching the G-Men go at it with practice swords made of wood in their fenced in area, he'd taken some fencing classes back in school and was able to appreciate the fluidness in which many of the members moved. It would suck to fight any of them, he thought soberly; meaning he'd have to take extra precautions not to be caught. He wasn't really up to fighting an entire village of G-Men nor for putting Rod in such a difficult situation as to choosing sides.

It was evening when he finally headed back to his room, his mind full of things to do that night, he'd have to get provisions, memorize the patrol routes and find a way to map out a trail to the cabin. All these were tumbling deep in his head when he walked into his room and found Morelli.

"Planning on leaving tonight?" He asked bluntly.

Reyes nodded, figuring there was little point in lying. "Yes, I'll be leaving tonight."

"Going back to the cabin, are you?" Morelli pressed, "the PC records show you made a withdrawal."

"That's the plan," Reyes admitted, "withdrawal was for insurance."

"Have you given any thought to what I told you?" Morelli asked.

Reyes stepped past the elder man and laid down against his bedding, "About my composure?" He clarified, "yea, I thought about it, you were right, I was overthinking, and I..." He shrugged, unable to find the right words, "I don't know, something happened and I don't know how to explain my response to it."

Morelli nodded, "But now you think you can beat them?"

Reyes shook his head, "A friend once told me, 'if you can't join them, beat them, and if you can't beat them, steal from them.'" He looked over at Morelli, "The golden tablet is the key, if I can get that, I won't need to beat them."

"And if you are wrong?" Morelli asked, "what are you going to do if you get in there and am wrong?"

Reyes bit his lip as he judged how best to answer, "If they are responsible for all of this, I'm going to find out how and destroy or steal it," Reyes answered.

Morelli stood to leave, "The front gate will be open," he informed Reyes, "Rod has already been given everything you'll need, it'll take you a few hours to get there so I suggest you leave in the morning. And please," he begged, "don't let Rod get on tape, it would be might hard to explain how a G-Man member is involved in all this."

Reyes laughed aloud, "I'll make sure of it," he promised.


~*~*~*~*~


That morning sure enough the front gate was opened for Reyes and Rod, with enough food to last an entire day and the directions to the cabin tucked away in the rotten Recesses of Rod's mind, the two two shoved off. It was a clear morning and shaping up to be a hot one, so they started off at an easy pace, not hurrying or rushing. The going was tricky and they had to make sure there were no hidden rocks or tangled overgrowth to trip them up, risking a broken leg or ankle.

Two hours after setting off they shared a breakfast of bread and jam and set back off again, this time at a slightly faster pace. if everything went smoothly they'd soon be at the cabin, barring no delays and Reyes wanted the chance to look around and plan a course of action before charging ahead. It wasn't long before they reached a large clearing where Rod stopped Reyes, "According to Morelli we are close," Rod whispered.

"I know," Reyes replied back.

Rod glanced over, "How's that?" He asked.

Reyes motioned up ahead to the edge of the clearing, "We're being watched."

Rod scanned the general area Reyes had pointed out, "Are you sure?"

Reyes nodded, and set off keeping close to the treeline masking the clearing. He'd been followed enough by the undead creatures to know when they were near and there was no doubt in his mind that they were not only close to the cabin, but they'd have to get through the undead guards to get to it.

Carefully, with the utmost care the two picked their way around to the other side of the clearing where Reyes had claimed to see the undead stalkers. Slowly but surely they progressed through the dense forest layering, wary of anything that might betray their presence, albeit loose branches or even worse, wild Pokémon.


Finally, Reyes came to a halt and gestured towards a tree several yards in front of the duo, where two fox tails were clearly visible, hanging from the lowest branch in the tree, about a dozen feet in the air. Even so, it was Rod who leaned forward, straining to to get a look, and it was he who stepped forward, landing on a small Caterpie, not only smashing the poor innocent creature with a sickening squash, but slipping and falling in the process.

With a yell that no doubt awoke everything capable of hearing in with fifteen hundred yards of them, he pitched backwards, crashing to the ground hard on his backside.

With a sigh Reyes looked down at his partner now covered in Caterpie entrails, “That’s gross.”

Rod boosted himself and wiped his hands off as best he could, “This feels so disgusting, I’ll have you know,” he informed Reyes.

Reyes glanced up to the now vacant tree where only moments before their targets had been, “At least you let them know where we were,” Reyes muttered sarcastically, “that’s always helpful.”

With a quick shove he sent Rod sprawling towards the center of the clearing. “We’ve got to get out of these woods,” he warned, “get to open ground now.”

The two quickly sprinted away from the tree line, alert for any signs of flashing daggers or worse. No daggers were thrown, but it was only what seemed like a bare few seconds before the rattling of bushes announced the arrival of the fox duo. Stepping out from the cover of trees, they dashed towards Reyes and Rod.

Rod glanced at Reyes and backed off, “You can have them,” he told his friend as the two foxes came to a stop in front of the two humans, “violence makes me ill.”

Reyes shot a look back at him, “I got a special plan for you anyway,” poke balls in hand, he stepped up and tossed them forward, “this time you are mine,” he said as the two forms of Kecleon and Sneasel appeared.

The two fox like creatures exchanged a look between themselves and assumed a fighting stance, legs apart fist in the air, it was only then that Reyes realized they weren’t carrying and daggers, or at least any that he could see.

“Wrap attack,” Reyes ordered his lizard friend, watching Kecleon immediately jump into action, his tongue flying forward towards the first of the foxes. The evil little creature grinned as it caught Kecleon’s tongue in its tight grasp, no doubt prepared to do what it had done only days before.

Not this time, Reyes thought to himself, “thunderbolt!” He yelled to his Pokémon.

With a slight nod Kecleon began focusing the electromagnetic energy around himself until the air was crackling with electricity. Eyes locked solely on his target he sent a bolt of lightening dancing down his tongue, and striking the fox creature in the hand. There was a small puff of an explosion and the foxes hand burst into a million sand particles, releasing Kecleon.

It’s made of sand! Reyes realized in shock, the creature was able to regenerate because it wasn’t made of flesh! With this sudden realization, came a plan and Reyes instantly knew that his odds in the battle had just gone up.

“Pull its legs out from under it!” Reyes cried out to his lizard Pokémon.

Again Kecleon’s tongue shot out, this time wrapping the sand creature right below its thighs. With a strong tug, Kecleon not only toppled the little monster over, but completely separated the creature’s torso from its legs!

“Now stomp it,” Reyes called out, sensing a quick end to his undead problems. With a running start and gigantic leap Kecleon soared several feet into the air and came down hard, right knee bent down to hurl his hind leg right into the midsection of the sand monster. Sand flew everywhere and for a few precious seconds, the two Pokémon were obscured from view.

Meanwhile, Sneasel was moving on its own accord, immediately dashing towards it opponent and giving a nasty swipe of its claws, raking them across the abdomen of the opposing creature, too slow to dodge the attack in time. Two long gashes marked the spot the ice type had managed to score against. Now respectful of each other, the two squared off, looking for weaknesses. It was Sneasel who feinted first as if moving to the left and rolled right, bringing her claws up in a vertical swipe. With a quick backwards handstand the sand creature barely managed to duck the incoming attack and bring his own his own feet up in a scored hit against Sneasel’s jaw line.

The force of the blow spun her around nearly causing her to lose her footing, but instead she recovered fast and adding momentum to her spin turned and rocketed towards the creature in an ice shard attack.
With a cry of vengeance she plunged her clenched fist straight through the midsection of the sand monster, running it through. With a sly grin the fox immediately clenched up, holding Sneasel’s fist in place, not allowing her to move. But She merely grinned back as she raised her over other paw up and with an open palm, blasted the creature across the clearing with a dark pulse. The force of the attack sent creature smacking into a tree, its body shearing apart on impact and bouncing away.

Reyes glanced up at the sight and gave a wry smile, “Good job,” he complimented.

Unfortunately, the lightness of the moment was soon whisked away as the dust settled and it was clear that Kecleon, despite its best efforts, hadn’t been able to finish off its opponent. Instead, the two were rolling across the ground, and even without its legs, the fox was still able to land a uppercut that momentarily stunned its lizard counterpart and allowed the sand thing to roll away. Using a single hand to prop itself up, the fox creature unleashed a psychic attack that frozen Kecleon on the spot. Its opponent out of the way, began concentrating hard, and before Reyes’ very eyes he creature regenerated every part of its body.

The creature was making its way back towards Kecleon when it struck from behind by a frozen barrage of ice, instantly freezing its feet to the ground. Reyes watched as a small orb of water began forming in Sneasel’s hands until it had grown to the size of a large ball. Without a sound the dark type hurled it towards the immobile creature, detonating on contact and drenching the sand creature in water. Desperately it tried to free itself from the ice, but to its own surprise it was melting!

Reyes watched in mild amusement as thick rolls of wet sand dripped from the creature to the ground, as it flailed around in an attempt to gain some movement. Kecelon and Sneasel too, were enjoying the sight when the latter was hit from behind with the force of a battering ram, sending her sprawling to her knees. Behind her, stood the other sand creature, which had also been able to regenerate its body back to health. With a flick of its head it sent loose dust from its body, unsettled by the extreme speed attack.

Sneasel still down, it faced off against Kecleon, its pupil’s dilated large as it reared back, a spear of pure energy forming in its hand with a short bark of laughter it sent it flying towards the lizard. Faster than the naked eye could see Kecleon suddenly disappeared, its natural camouflage hiding him from his opponent. But to everyone’s surprise the spear still managed to find its target, slamming into Kecleon and knocking it off its feet.

With one purpose in mind the sand Pokémon stalked up to Kecleon, determined to end the little lizard. But Gecko wasn’t done and with the last of its strength its tongue suddenly shot out, wrapping itself around the neck of the fox. Its paws immediately came up in an attempt to dislodge the object choking it, but Kecleon already had a firm grip and in moments, the creature was on its knees.

With its strength quickly ebbing away, the creature lifted an open palm up to Kecleon and gave a quick blast of concussion energy. The dragon pulse finally succeeded in knocking Kecleon out and the fox was released from the lizard’s grasp. With a sharp intake of air it rose to its feet and joined its partner, helping the other creature stand as the latter tried to recoup the sand it had lost while wet. Dark, hard packed sand swirled around the creature in a mini sandstorm, as particle by particle it joined its owner.

Undaunted, Reyes took up and poke ball and recalled Kecleon before glancing up at Sneasel of whom was once again standing, but after a moments thought, he called her back as well. “Don’t worry, you did well,” he soothed, watching the two creatures before him, they looked like they’d regained their fighting spirit, but he could see the pants of short breath they were taking, they were getting tired.

“Let’s see if you can handle this,” he taunted towards them, unleashing another of his pocket monsters. A quick flash of bright light and a moment later the form of Porygon 2 appeared. The man made Pokémon slowly took shape, like some type of rubber gelatin. First its elongated head, then two tread like feet and finally, a small tail standing on end. “Double team!” He ordered, wasting little time.

Immediately Porygon 2 began churning ground as it raced around in a tight circle around its opponents, producing a carbon copy of itself with each passing moment until the two sand monsters were surrounded.

For a quick moment the two looked taken aback by the sheer number of monsters they suddenly faced, then with a smirk, the first lifted a palm and fired off a dragon pulse attack that obliterated a near half dozen. The other pivoted, turning to rush at his own pair of carbon copies, with a small jump he leaped into the air, spinning around to deliver a spinning head kick that destroy the two copies.

“[I]Shadow ball[I],” Reyes ordered, Jack. And without warning jack and the remaining copies began focusing all their energy into a dark ball of shadow ghostly energy. Taking aim at the nearest target, Porygon 2 unleashed its attack, sending the piercing attack straight through the fox creature, hitting right below the shoulder blades. The fox creature glanced down at its nonexistent abdomen that had suddenly disappeared.

“Finish it off with a water pulse!” Reyes shouted out, determined to end this match. With a nod, Jack and the copies immediately fired off a softball sized orb of water, drenching the damaged sand creature. With a cry of despair it toppled over, unable to control its sodden limbs. Before it could try and repair itself Reyes was ready with a pokéball, rocketing it towards the fallen sand creature. With a hiss the sphere opened and sucked the creature in with a flash off red light. For a brief few seconds the ball struggled, rolling around as the creature fought the imprisonment, but it was only a matter of time before the ball ceased moving.

For a moment time seemed to stop, Reyes was yelling for Jack to call out the sun with sunny day, Rod was busy picking up his jaw from the ground and asking himself whether a Pokémon made of sand could really be captured. And of course the other fox, now running towards its fallen mate, in a mad scramble.

Jack reacted instantly, raising his head to the sky and firing off a beam of light towards the heavens. A moment later the sunlight intensified fourfold what it had been and Reyes had to shield his eyes to keep from going blind.

Meanwhile the sand creature had almost reached the poke ball holding its counterpart and Reyes quickly issued the order to attack it, “stop it with tri attack!” he cried out. Hearing its orders Porygon 2 locked onto the running figure dashing across the clearing and fired three simultaneous beams. A blue from his left eye, a red one from his right, and lastly, a gold colored beam from his tail. The three beams raced towards their target, spinning with each until they became one intertwined attack. As one, they hit the fox, blowing out a need cap and spinning it to the ground, but with a lost limb it desperately climbed towards the poke ball, and Reyes had little choice but to deliver his last command.

“Finish it off with a flamethrower,” he said without remorse.

Porygon 2 took aim, and with a sharp intake of air, flames billowed out of its mouth, turning the air into superheated air capable of scorching all it came into contact with. A second later liquid fire burst forth, magnified by the power of the sun it surrounded the fox creature, until all that was left with a small figure encased in flames. When they finally died out, all that remained was a glass statute resembling that of a fox.

Without a second thought Reyes tossed a second red and white sphere forth, that too sucked up its quarry without fail. Without a word he recalled Jack and gathered the two pokéballs, “Let’s go,” he motioned to Rod, who was standing in shock at what had just transpired. “The cabin is only a minute away.


~*~*~*~*~


They approached from the back, soundless in their escapade of thievery.

“So what’s the plan now?” Rod asked as they approached the front door.

Reyes checked his waist for the Pokémon he’d transferred over earlier, “You go in first,” he whispered, “we’re looking for a gold tablet, you can’t possibly miss,” he told him, “I’ll be in right after you, don’t get caught.”

“You aren’t coming in now?” Rod asked confused.

Reyes shook his head, “I’ve got one last monster to take care of out here,” Reyes whispered back, “I’ll only be a minute.”

Rod as about to question his friend when a loud roar nearly knocked off his feet. Reyes turned to him, “I think it’s best you go ahead.”

With a quick jimmy Rod already had the door opened as he turned to make a face at Reyes, “oh you think?”

Silently the door closed behind him, seconds before the sandstorm hit.

Quickly, Reyes was forced to cover his eyes with his sleeve to keep from getting sand in them as the loose particles whipped around tearing a his clothing and hands. Moments later it passed over and he was in the eye of the storm, only then did the figure make itself now and seen. The humongous exoskeleton of a long dead Aerodactyl flew into view, its wings creating gusts of forceful air with each flap of its limbs. Atop it, sat a more grown up version of the two foxes Reyes had captured only minutes before. It’s head was triangular with high set eyes and long nose. Its limbs were longer, and the spikes emerging from its extremities longer. In its lap, away from the reins controlling its flying beast, sat a large javelin.

Without a word, it hefted its weapon and hurled down at Reyes, nearly hitting the thief and embedding itself in the door. Wordlessly Reyes studied the ordinate weapon, made of solid wood and sharpened steel. Slowly he shook his head, “I’m not going anywhere,” he smirked, “took you long enough, was beginning to think you were getting a little jet lagged there.”

The Aerodactyl roared back and the fox creature secured the reins a little more tightly in his grasp, unmoved by Reyes words. The thief took up a poke ball and nodded, “all right then, let’s get to it.” With about as much muscle as he could bring to bear, Reyes hurled his colored sphere towards the two sand monsters. Halfway up the ball split open, revealing a bulky, creamed colored body. Instantly, wings sprouted from its backside and two antennas emerged from its head.

“Alright Dragonite,” Reyes called up, “extreme speed right now!”

Trusting its master without doubt and not pausing for a second, Dragonite continued its climb towards its opponents and lowering a shoulder, battered right through them. Sand gave away and exploded outwards, polluted the clean air of the center of the swirling sandstorm vortex as Dragonite cleared the two creatures and spun around, confused spread across his face as to how he’d just completely busted through two different Pokémon at once.

Without hesitation the two creatures turned, showcasing a rather large hole in the body of Aerodactyl, the fox too was missing its left leg, and Dragonite went from confused to astonish. Its opponents however, gave it no such time and before Reyes could say anything the fox creature was hefting a spear of energy not unlike its smaller counterparts and hurling it at Dragonite with the speed of a mach truck.

Nonetheless, the bulky dragon managed to maneuver enough for the spear to pass harmlessly by. But to Reyes shock the spear executed a swift 360 degree turn and slammed into the backside of Dragonite, nearly disrupting the dragon’s flight. Quickly the dragon righted its balance, only to glance up and find the Aerodactyl bringing its wings together with enough force to create a mini tornado like gust attack.

Dragonite crossed his arms in front of his to protect himself as two such attacks slammed into him. When he finally lowered his arms back down Aerodactyl was only inches from him. The undead bird of prey delivered a nasty headbutt to the abdomen of Dragonite sending the flying type spinning into the vortex of flying glass and sand. With an upwards jerk, the fox sent its ride rearing back only to come back with hot flames spewing forth from the flyer’s mouth merging with the hurricane like sandstorm and turning up the heat.

Reyes watched as Dragonite tried to right its course and get out of the battering winds, but with the constant pelting of glass and heat of the flames now completely encasing the sandstorm it was a losing battle.

“Rain dance,” Reyes screamed into the hallowing winds, praying to be heard. Sure enough Dragonite pointed its head to the sky and gave a hitched battle cry. Seconds later, it began to drizzle, immediately decreasing the fury of the sandstorm and extinguishing the flames of Aerodactyl. Finally able to free itself Dragonite once again faced off against its opponents.

“Hit them with a gust attack!” Reyes commanded.

Dragonite quickly judged the distance away from Aerodactyl and its rider, and with a great flap of his wings, sent a powerful force of wind straight at them. Like a sharp blade, the sudden gust of wind raked past its targets, battering them back.

“Keep them on edge,” Reyes ordered, “thunderbolt!”

Dragonite nodded, and the two antennas atop its head began crackling with energy. Drawing on all the static electricity around them, Dragonite hurled a bolt of lightening at its foes. The attack arced towards it target, striking the fox like creature in the upper chest, nearly dislodging him from his mount.

With a quick jerk of the reins, the sand creature sent Aerodactyl racing towards the offending dragon. Releasing from his perch atop his undead steed, the fox creature leapt into the air, and before Reyes Pokémon could react, the fox had him gripped by the forearms as he brought his feet in for a massive kick to the chest. Executing a perfect back flip away from its opponent the creature used its grip on Dragonite to pull its back towards the flying giant, cocking its fist and smashing it against the Dragonite’s temple. Momentarily stunned Dragonite could do nothing as the sand monster brought its knee up smashing it in his solar plexus, before once again using Dragonite as a platform, the fox leapt back to its ride.

Seeing his chance to potentially separate the two Pokémon from each Reyes urged his dragon type to summon up anther gust attack. Sighting its foe somersaulting towards its mount, Dragonite took quick aim and flapped his wings in an attempt to generate enough velocity to knock the creature from its course.

Despite the haste with which it was aimed, the attack flew true, heading straight for its target, but the somersaulting fox spotted it and somehow managed to stop rotating long enough to hang suspended while raising its palms, firing off a powerful pulse of dragon energy.

Like two head on trains the kinetic attacks collided in midair, exploding against each other and Reyes could only watch as the fox was successful in making it back to its mount. But even so, Reyes could now see the toll the rain was taking on the two sand creatures, much like their smaller counterparts, he could see where sand was beginning to distort and mangle as it soaked up moisture, either contorting to weird shapes or falling to the ground altogether.

“Anytime you want to give up now,” he called, trying to goad the monster into anger.

It worked, and no sooner than he’d finished then was the fox sending his mount riding towards Dragonite in a bum rush.

“Hit him with a flamethrower!” Reyes ordered in response.

Almost instantly Reyes could feel the change in the air as Dragonite inhaled noisily, its abdomen increasing ever so slightly like a balloon about to burst, and smoke poured out of Dragonite’s mouth as it exhaled, barely making a sound as flames leapt out, billowing around the incoming figure.

Despite the intense heat generated from the attack, the flames were doused only seconds before hitting their target, turning to steam. Moments later, like an ominous figure from some nightmare, the sand monsters suddenly appeared, silhouetted against the steam, still on its present course towards Dragonite.

Not that it mattered, Reyes thought with elation, the attack had worked even better than he’d dared hoped for, and when the two figures finally were clearly visible, they were completely soaked through thanks to the incredibly damp moisture generated from the steam. Like tow horribly mutated monsters, the sand creatures hurled against Dragonite, slamming into him with enough force to send them both hurling towards the ground.

It was a terrifying sight, watching them fall like a weighted stone in water, twisting and struggling against each as the fell. What was left of the fox creature after impact was screaming against Dragonite’s face, attempting to claw the dragon’s face. But the bulky flying type calmly raised a glowing paw, and like a heavy gloved fist, cuffed the fox against the head, silencing its screams of protest.

Time to finish this battle off, Reyes thought decidedly, “Take him for a ride with seismic toss!”

Hearing his master’s call Dragonite slowed their descent. One minute they were hurling towards an extremely excruciating fall, the next hovering only feet from the ground, upside down. And then without warning Dragonite started spinning, his arms tightly clasped around the body of Aerodactyl holding on for dear life against the lower body of the fox creature. Like one massive centrifuge they spun together as one, picking up speed with each passing second until the sheer force threatened to split the sand creatures apart and Reyes could no longer tell where Dragonite started and the sand ended.

With a primal yell Dragonite released its prisoners, sending them smashing into a tree where splattered against. At this point the two creatures were nothing more than a jumbled mess of wet and dry sand, floundering against each like someone had fused the two together in a experiment gone horribly wrong.

Not quite satisfied with his results Dragonite shot past Reyes, and before his human could say anything had dislodged the javelin from its perch and sent it hurling towards its disabled foes. With a loud thud, it speared through the two targets, pinning them, if that was indeed possible, against the tree.

Reyes looked to his Pokémon and nodded, “Well done,” he assured the dragon. Pulling three spheres from his waist he recalled his own monster and slowly, with deliberate intention stalked up to the two downed sand monsters. He could just make out the top half of the fox creature, which despite all it had gone through, still roared in defiance at the incoming human.

Reyes stared at the two creatures for a long moment, “I don’t know if you can be captured,” he admitted bluntly, “but at the very least you won’t have to lead this tortured existence any longer,” he told them, dropping the two poke balls on them, allowing the spheres to suck up their quarries in a flash of red light.

Moments passed and the colored capsules ceased their struggling, and he picked them up and studied them carefully. Shaking his head he opened the door and entered the cabin, “the things people do,” he muttered as the door shut behind him.

Pokémon to catch: Aerodactyl, Lucario, Riolu, Riolu
Length: Nearly enough
Notes: Interesting how much my writing has changed in a year, got some edits to do, but for the most part ready for grading, good luck.

Status: All caught

~Isaiah

Chapter 5: New Beginnings, old friends, strange places
He covered his ears against the blaring alarm sounding above his head; trying desperately to ignore the pounding pressure in his ears. It was nearly loud enough to cause an earthquake, he mused silently to himself. Silently, he rose from his knees, the dust falling from his pants back down to the dirty steel floor from whence it came.

He couldn’t see far ahead, the pale red lights that had been triggered with the alarm flashed around the narrow corridor like a faint LED; but nonetheless, despite the lack of proper sight, with the alarm going at what he estimated to be about a million decibels, somewhere up ahead he could hear shouting.

He took off after the sound of voices, his shoes clacking against metal as he picked up speed, the wind rushing up to meet his face and resist his momentum and yet somehow he only gained speed.
He was at the peak of his stride when he saw the dead end ahead, the hallway splitting off to the right and left, but ahead, nothing but a wall. Still he COULD hear the voices, clearer now above the alarm and getting closer. Somewhere ahead he heard a door slam against a wall and ahead a figure came dashing into view from the right.

Making a split second decision, he lowered his shoulder and, not even thinking about slowing down, plowed right into the person. His shoulder made contact first, hitting the person straight in the chest as they turned towards him in shock. The force of shoulder hitting sternum forcing both off their feet, in a jumble of limbs and mass they went down hard.

Minutes passed by, or maybe seconds, he couldn’t tell. Unsteadily he got to his feet. He didn’t appear to be damaged in any way, bones were intact, probably a few bruises but that was nothing to be worried about. He looked to his victim, whoever it was hadn’t faired quite as well; the force of the tackle had smashed him against the wall, probably a concussion, perhaps even worse. He was dressed in slacks and a white lab coat with slicked back jet black hair. A cursory glance showed no nametag, it’d probably fallen to the floor somewhere, a quick ruffle through his pockets yielded some sort of clearance card.

The intruder looked to the left where the scientist had emerged from and saw a door, a door guarded by a scanner of some sort. Taking the card with him, he made his way to the scanner and swiped the card across it. With a green flash, the door opened. The thief smiled, that was easy, he thought to himself, crossing through the door.

It was circular room, a sunken command center of sorts; a short set of carpeted floor lead to the center while computers and servers of all kinds lined the center of the room.
It was in complete disarray, people in lab coats were rushing around everywhere, trashing folders and desperately downloading information to palm-sized drives. From somewhere amidst the rabble someone spotted the intruder.

“Hey, who are you?!” He shouted, “you aren’t supposed to be here; Freeze!”

He rushed him, his lab coat floating in the wind as he rushed the intruder. Cleanly shaven with short cropped hair, nicely dressed in slacks, and a long overcoat; the stranger didn’t budge as the scientist made a mad dash towards him.

He could see it play out perfectly before him - every single move that would be made, even before it happened. The lab geek was nearly upon him when he lashed out. Stepping forward into it, the thief smashed his right fist into the solar plexus of the scientist, stopping his entire momentum as air rushed from his compressed lungs. Drawing back his right hand, he cocked it and fired it towards the jaw of his assailant. Bone met bone in a jarring crack that sent the white coated man of science backwards on his heel.

Pressing his advantage, the intruder lashed out with his right leg in a kick, the balls of his feet connecting with the abdomen of the scientist and sending him tumbling head over a server.
By this time, two more men had made their way towards the stranger; circling him from the left and right, ready to catch him from behind and subdue him.

As if controlled by a sixth sense, the intruder whirled to the left, his fists flying. The first scientist quickly fell; two quick punches to the nose knocking him clean out. Whirling again, he ducked under the strike of the other and with a roundhouse kick, sent him airborne, only to harshly crash land on his back.
“That’s enough,” he whispered to nobody in particular. The cuffs of his sleeves slipped to reveal two miniature poké balls; with a click of a button, they enlarged to twice their size and with a heave he threw them forward.

With a blinding flash of light, two forms emerged forth; both were small, no taller than a human child. As the silhouettes took shape, floppy ears sprouted from the crowns of their heads. Their hands were like paws, a short spike sticking from each one. “Rio… Riolu!” They shouted in unison.

One of them was trying to escape, he observed, momentarily forgetting the Pokémon he’d just unleashed. Instead, he took off running, trying to intercept the scientist making a run for a side door. He made it easily, and with a leap, leg outstretched, crashed into him and sending him flying into a server; sparks flying everywhere in protest.

Landing nimbly besides the wreckage, he turned to the two fox Pokémon, “get ‘em,” he ordered.

Normally possessing blue tinged fur with black paws and a stripe going across their face; these were no ordinary aura Pokémon. Rather, they had no fur - instead a gritty, sand-colored hide covered them from head to toe, a mask of black surrounding their skull, almost as if designed to hide their faces.

They weren’t normal, hell they weren’t even “shiny,” as some people had taken to calling odd colored Pokémon. Rather, they were like nothing the thief had ever seen. Wielding small lance-like blades, they simultaneously displayed evil smiles.

Somersaulting over the other, one flipped forward, burying his lance into a server, not to be outdone, the other leapt atop a computer and began harassing the lab geek working it.

Ignoring the rising panic and the giant mess his Pokémon were about to make, the thief made his way down into the center of the room where a lone technician was messing with a computer. Tapping him the shoulder to get him to turn around, he knocked him out cold, a quick punch to the jaw - more than enough for the job.
Thankfully, the scientist had already logged himself into the system, which cut down on the intruder’s work considerably. Removing the technician’s thumb drive, he plugged in his own and hit the copy key.

Line after line of coding flashed across the screen as it found its way from the computer onto the thief’s drive.

It was almost complete when he felt, more than anything; the presence behind him. Turning, he saw yet another scientist, but this one, however, didn’t seem to want to fight. Rather, he had his own poke ball. Without a word, he tossed it between the two men and bright light filled the room.

When it dissipated, a small mole stood in the center of the room - at least it looked sort of like a mole… it’s nose did, at least. The intruder examined it closely, he’d never seen anything like it, and he’d seen A LOT. It was no bigger than his Riolu, It had a black coat, with lighter blue colors crisscrossing in seemingly random patterns around its body. It had a large snout protruding from its head which gave it the appearance of a mole. It had huge hands, considering how small of a Pokémon it was and instead of fingertips it had the biggest set of claws Reyes had ever seen on a Pokémon. There were three of them, one for each finger and they came together to form what a wicked looking spade for hands.

“Interesting,” the thief mused aloud, “Riolu..”

In seconds, the two fox Pokémon were between him and the weird mole, ready to defend their master from the small assailant. The intruder relaxed his stance and, grabbing the thumb drive from the computer, backed up, giving the Pokémon more room to engage. This, he thought, was going to be something to see.

“Ok Drilbur, let’s see if we can’t teach this guy a lesson!” The scientist crowed to his Pokemon, “hit one of the Riolu with a brick break attack!”

Using its claws as leverage the little mole like Pokémon launched itself at its nearest opponents, ready to smash it to bits.

The intruder watched, curiously as the “Drilbur” brought its giant claws to bear, swiping it against Riolu, ripping its midsection out where it stood. Like a wrecked sandcastle Riolu disintegrated to the floor, a small mass of sand. Confused, the mole Pokémon poked the mound with his claws, obviously unsure at what had just happened.

“Riolu, enough games, hit him with a force palm!” The thief ordered the twin of the downed Riolu.
The Drilbur, previously so worried about what had just transpired, suddenly whirled around, remembering that there was a second threat to deal with. But it was in vain; vaulting clear over and out of the mole Pokémon’s sight in a front flip, Riolu landed behind Drilbur and hit it square in the spine with the center of its palm.

Drilbur yelped in pain, its small body quivering in pain from the blow. With a smirk, Riolu flipped backwards, landing a few paces away from the injured mole. With determination on its face, the Drilbur stepped forward, ready to strike Riolu down. It paused, however, as did its owner as the mound of sand, began to slide around, first forming a clawed foot, then legs and an abdomen, arms, and finally the face of Riolu. Giving its body a flex it bounded next to its sibling, the two grinning from ear to ear at their opponent.

“Finish him,” the intruder instructed his duo. Without a seconds thought, one leapt on the shoulders of the other and launched itself at Drilbur. With a loud, piercing screech, Drilbur rushed forward in an effort to meet the charging sand Pokemon.

Changing tactics, Riolu flipped his body, flying over the mole and its lethal weapons, landing behind both. At the same time, its twin bounded forth, its lance pointing at the chest of Drilbur in a vicious jab.

But the mole Pokemon was quick and, with a swipe of its claws, deflected the blow away from its body. In fact, it was much quicker than anyone had anticipated and in one swift movement it turned, slapping its hand across one Riolu’s face, ripping half of it away with the blow. Continuing its moment, it turned and swiped its claws across the knees of the other, literally blowing them out from under the Pokémon.

Unfortunately, there was little rest for the weary. By the time it had recovered from its attack, Drilbur’s opponents had fully reformed, rebuilding themselves almost as fast as the mole was tearing them down.

Jumping up in the air, the Riolu behind Drilbur dropped kicked the poor mole, sending it straight into the other fox Pokémon. Dropping to the ground, the second Riolu rolled out of the way of the crashing Drilbur, a foot outstretched just far enough to trip the mole Pokemon, ensuring its downfall. Landing heavily, Drilbur fought to catch its breath.

Merciless, the first Riolu bounced into the air, coming down hard on the spine of Drilbur, smashing it into the hard floor; meanwhile, the second swiped its glowing paws down the back of the mole, leaving scorch marks with the deathly power of the shadow claw.

Convinced the battle was at its end, the thief was dumfounded when Drilbur managed to get itself to its feet, pure will keeping it from keeling over, exhausted. Without warning, it jumped forward, smashing one Riolu’s body between itself and a nearby computer, turning to face the second, it hurled itself forward, impaling the second of the fox Pokémon. Apparently satisfied for the moment with that, it again turned its attention back to the first and began beating it with its fist, all of its strength that remained going into each blow.

“Yes, Drilbur!” The scientist crowed, “that’s how you do it!”

Sighing, the intruder lifted two poké balls and recalled his fox Pokémon.

“You really messed up coming here pal,” The man of science sneered, “the things we’re going to do to you… Drilbur, take care of him.”

But the thief wasn’t about to go quietly, lifting another poke ball he threw it, but it wasn’t to release another Pokémon. Instead, it smacked into the mole Pokémon, sucking it up in a flash of infrared light.

“That won’t work, moron,” The scientist smirked, “it’s mine, your poké ball won’t work on a trainer’s Pokémon.”

“I know,” the thief said, suddenly rushing forward, taking the scientist by surprise. He hit him once, twice, and again a third time. The man was knocked out before he hit the ground. Rummaging through the downed guy’s pockets, the thief’s hands closed around the poke ball just as Drilbur broke free from its attempted imprisonment. With a yell, it charged in an attack, but it was quickly cut short as the thief recalled it to its proper poké ball.

“Thanks for loaning me yours,” The intruder told the unconscious scientist, as he stepped over his body and out of the room…

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“This place is like a damn maze,” Rod cursed to himself. He’d been running around the underground complex for what seemed like hours; all the while that blasted alarm sounding off above his head. “How did I let him talk me into this?” Rod asked himself, his feet carrying him down yet another empty hallway, devoid of any signs of life, but the flashing red lights provided by the alarm.

“That’s enough of this crap,” he muttered, coming to what he was sure was the fiftieth dead end he’d run into. Sliding his sun tanned hand into his pocket, he withdrew a poke ball, “come on out Rhyperior!”

There was a flash and a roar, and seconds later the giant form of a walking rock materialized. It was quite a sight, a tall, well-sunned man dressed all in black, a sharp contrast to his blond hair and green eyes; next to him, nearly twice his height, stood a figure of stone. Weighing in at close to that of a car, it had a thick club for a tail, more than capable of a lethal blow, sharp jagged edges for elbows, coupled with two horns sprouting from its head that completed the wicked weaponry of the Pokémon. Standing tall, the rock Pokémon was covered in thick, red scales draping down its shoulders and around its chest, giving it the appearance of being armor plated.

The rock Pokémon looked at Rod and snorted; “hey I don’t like it anymore than you do,” Rod exclaimed, “but the sooner we manage to find him in here, the sooner you can go back to him. Now, mind knocking down a wall so we can get out of here?”
Rhyperior nodded and, without a second thought, plunged a stone fist through the nearest wall. The underground facility shook with the blow, the strike going right through the wall to the other side. Grasping the wall in his fist, Rhyperior roared, his muscles bunching with tension as he pulled the wall right out from its foundation.

Covering his mouth with a sleeve to block out the unsettled dirt and dust, Rod stepped through the wreckage.

“Goddamn it!” Rod exclaimed, once he could see. They were standing in what appeared to be a command center at one time, but it was obvious something had happened recently. A sunken room that was once surrounded with computers and servers was completely trashed; light from the ceiling that had triggered with the alarm flicked red light around the room, revealing trashed technology showering with sparks.

“I’d say we just missed him,” Rod remarked, looking none too happy. “Think you can get us out of here Rhyperior?” He asked the rock giant.

Rhyperior glanced up at the ceiling, a mere few inches above his head and smiled. Craning his neck, Rod could just hear the clatter of footsteps above. They must not be too far from above ground, he thought. “Go for it,” he nodded.
Much like with the previous wall that had stood in his way, Rhyperior plunged a small human-sized fist into the ceiling once, twice, and then finally with both hands. Dirt and dust rained down from above as the ceiling creaked and groaned under the assault.

With a mighty heave, Rhyperior jumped and put all his weight into bringing the entire ceiling down; weakened already, it didn’t take long and with a rumble that shook the complex, the ceiling came tumbling down. With a yelp of surprise, Rod flung himself out of the way of the falling rubble. When the dust finally cleared, there was a hole in the ceiling big enough for several Rhyperior to fit through.

“Give me a boost up,” Rod ordered, and without so much as a grunt of exertion, Rhyperior lifted Rod up and through the ceiling. Looking back down, Rod recalled the stone Pokémon back to its confinement.

Surveying his surroundings, Rod noticed they were in a clearing; the cabin that had hid the entrance to the underground complex about fifty yards behind him, while a forest that he knew from experience to be huge laid in front of him.
“Well, get your ass out here Reyes,” Rod muttered, standing up.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

From somewhere deep in the complex he heard a bellow, and then slight vibrations as the facility shook; something big was angry. But he didn’t have time to investigate, it was time he took his cue and got the hell out of dodge.

Again, a roar shook the very foundations of the complex, this time followed by a rather large rumble and the undeniable sound of walls being demolished. Ah, he thought to himself, Rhyperior must be making his exit; better hurry and catch up.

He picked up the pace, setting off at a dead run; all things considered, the facility was probably much weaker than it had been before he and his colleague had made their entrance and he wanted to take no chances with his life down here. Being buried alive was not high on his list of things to accomplish.

Fortunately, he had a keen sense of direction and it wasn’t long before he was running down the hallway that would lead him to the trap door in the cabin. Seconds later, he was there and climbing out. Dashing out the door, he spotted a figure rising from a kneeling position, a giant hole in the ground next to him.
“Reyes!” The figured yelled, looking up, “about time you got here, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“You won’t hear any argument from me,” Reyes nodded, “let’s find us a way out of this god forsaken place.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

It was nice being clean again - a shower, brand new clothes, room service and comfy bed. God he thought. It was amazing what a couple luxuries could do for one’s psyche. A day’s comfort and a night’s rest and Reyes was once again feeling like his old, confident self. Now, flying several miles above earth in a private airplane provided by Rod, he was well on his way to relaxing… but not quite…

“Where are we headed exactly,” Reyes asked his partner, “I’ve got work to do.”

“I know an expert who can tell us a little bit about that mole you described. I’ve never heard of a Pokémon like that, but she would know what it is and where it’s from.”

“A she?” Reyes prodded, an eyebrow raised questioningly.

Rod shifted uncomfortably, “uhh, ya; she’s an… old acquaintance,” he explained. Still, Reyes could see something wasn’t quite right. Even in the gravest of circumstances, Rod had never been anything but a jokester, never the least bit worried about the worst case scenario. To see him nervous was something Reyes had never been witness to, and it left a pit of uneasiness in his stomach.

Hours later, the plane finally touched down; it was a small city, more of a town really. If every town was small, gloomy, and housed a ghost type gym, not because that was what the leader preferred, but because the town really was haunted.
“Hello, Ecruteak city,” Rod exclaimed when his feet finally landed on ground level.

“It’s a town,” Reyes corrected, stepping down behind him. “Now, where is this ‘expert’ of yours we’re supposed to see?”
“Just calm down,” Rod protested weakly, “we’ll be there soon enough; let’s go fetch a ride.”

Moments later, they were flagging down a bright green taxi, “Could we have gotten an ugly color?” Reyes murmured quietly as he slid in, eyeing the ‘puke green’ texture of the car. Fortunately, the inside was slightly better, with black leather seating. Rod gave the middle-aged, gray haired white male the address and they took off.

Not twenty minutes after exiting the airport, they were cruising through what Reyes estimated to be the ‘rich’ part of town. While not gigantic, the two story Victorians they were passing far outclassed anything else Reyes had ever seen on previous visits. Their expert was doing decidedly well, Reyes decided, as the taxi pulled into the driveway of a one story, blue painted building. It wasn’t the fanciest on the block, but it certainly must have cost a pretty penny. About twenty five hundred square feet from the outside, with a chimney and what Reyes estimated to be about four bedrooms; it was a beautiful home.

Rod walked up the door and knocked, turning to Reyes he gave a weak smile, “now Reyes,” he began, as a lock slid open, “please don’t be mad or do anything harsh,” he pleaded desperately. “I was going to tell you, I swear I was…”

Confused Reyes looked at Rod questioningly, as the door swung upon and a small brunette opened the door. In the millisecond it took for recognition to register in both her and his eyes, something in Reyes took a diving fall.

Without thought or warning he swung at Rod, his fist connecting with jaw and downing the taller man with ease. “Are you kidding me?!” He roared at his unconscious partner in crime.

It was sometime later that Reyes found himself pacing the living room of the house, his anger too great to allow him to just stay in one place. Did he know the entire time? He couldn’t help but ask himself again and again, he doubted it, but he wasn’t completely sure. He just couldn’t believe it; the door had opened and there she was, after all this time… And then he’d gone and lost his temper, knocking Rod clean out. - Not that he didn’t deserve it, he reminded himself, still…. She hadn’t been happy…

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Seconds ticked by as the woman stood staring at the sleeping Rod; recovering quickly, she glared up at Reyes angrily. “Still the same as always, Raist;” she snapped, “overreacting to every little thing to this very day!”

Reyes was too angry to respond, or to correct about his name, he no longer went by that name anymore; not in an exceedingly long time.

“Come on,” she barked at him, “help me at least get him in the house before people start wondering what happened.”

More than a bit numb, Reyes took hold of Rod’s feet and helped the tiny brunette lug him into the house. It was smaller than he had first thought, and sparsely decorated; a single couch in front of a medium-sized television set, an ugly love seat the only other piece of furniture to occupy the room. A few small dressers scattered around the living room as to give the illusion of not being quite so empty. A hallway ahead let to what Reyes guessed to be the bedrooms and bathroom, to his right, a small kitchenette. It was so plain on the inside that had he not been distracted, he would have been taken aback, aside from the odd color choice – all the walls were a maroon red, the place was undeniably oh-so-plain…. So boring.

Meanwhile, the brunette was caring for Rod who’d been propped unceremoniously on a seat/ She’d changed so much, he thought bitterly. She was thinner than he remembered; her brunette hair a little shinier, even if she hadn’t changed the length – still falling just below her elbow blades. Long gone was any pudginess she may have had as well. She had certainly never been fat, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he could never forget the softness she had once had. Now, it was nowhere to be seen, instead replaced with a hard edge, her facial features sharp and seemingly honed; those orange eyes burning a hole into whatever they found within their gaze.

Even her style of clothing had changed - gone were the easy going skirts and soft shirts she had worn so long ago. Now she was dressed in no nonsense jeans and a skin-forming sweater. She was even going by a different name now, Xyla. Without knowing nearly anything about her, he could plainly see she’d gone from the “loving life” girl he had once known, to a formal, by-the-book worker bee. The thought hit him like a bag of bricks.

It wasn’t long before Rod finally started to stir, Xyla moving to comfort him with a cold compress against his broad forehead.

“That hurt,” he complained loudly, rubbing his skull, slightly disoriented from the blow he’d suffered.

“You deserve much, much more than that,” Reyes snarled, walking up and rapping his knuckles across Rod’s head.

“Hey! Enough with the hitting already,” Rod yelped, “I don’t deserve this abuse!”

‘The hell you don’t!” Reyes roared back, “how long did you know exactly?”

Before Rod could answer, Xyla injected herself into the conversation, moving to shield Rod from Reyes’ wrath. “I made him promise not to tell you, Raist; if you want to blame someone it should be me. I left; Rod was just helping a friend.”

Reyes looked at her in disgust, “I don’t give a shit about you. I moved on, you mean no more than the next woman to cross me on the street.” He glared at Rod, ignoring the very obvious flinch Xyla gave at his words. “But you! My best friend of all these years, you just happen to avoid telling me you know where my missing fiancée ran off to.”

He shook his head, collapsing onto the couch, “You two are a real piece of work.”

For what seemed like hours, but was probably mere seconds, the three people just stared, looking, but not daring to breathe a word. Finally, Xyla broke the silence.

“Look, Raist, I’m sorry for the way things turned out, I really am, but it wasn’t going to work; you have to have realized that by now.”

“I told you,” Reyes said evenly, “I don’t care what you have to say. I just don’t care anymore, so save it.”

“Come on, Reyes,” Rod pleaded, “I realize how bad this is, but she’s the only one who can help.”

“Help with what exactly?” Xyla interjected, “You never told me what was going on, Rod, or who you’d be bringing with you.”

Skipping the latter part of the question, Rod chuckled nervously, “Uhh, see we came across a strange Pokémon, neither of us know what or where it is from; I thought maybe with your experience travelling you might know something about it.”

This seemed to pique Xyla’s interest, “A Pokémon, huh? Where’d you come across it?” She asked.

“Camping,” Reyes answered before Rod could open his mouth, “nowhere special.”

“Can I see it?” Xyla asked eagerly.

Without any acknowledgment, Reyes retrieved the poké ball from his coat pocket. “Be careful, I’m not sure exactly how it’s going to react,” he warned.

Before Xyla could ask what he meant, Reyes clicked a button and the poké ball opened, letting loose a bright flash of light. Within seconds, the outline of a small child-sized Pokémon appeared. Black in color with a dark mole-like nose, the Drilbur hefted its two hands in the air, showcasing claws like Freddy Krueger himself.

Surprised, it turned in a three sixty, taking in its surroundings, carefully eyeing the three humans. Reyes could see it wasn’t pleased to see him, nonetheless, he held the poké ball that Drilbur called home, and such could recall it at any time, should the mole decide to misbehave.

Slightly sullen, it glared at Reyes, a look that seemed to say give me the chance, and I’ll rip you to shreds. Reyes smiled - whatever it was, he could tell they were going to be good together, real good.

“Awww,” Xyla cooed, “it’s just a Drilbur,”

“A Drilbur?” Reyes asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Yes, it’s a fighting type from Unova.” Xyla explained, getting to her knees to study the Pokémon closer.

“Don’t get too close to it,” Rod said excitedly, “it doesn’t look too happy with us.”

Xyla gave him a pointed look, “Oh, hush already; he’s nothing but a cutie!” She exclaimed, tickling the mole Pokémon under its chin. Much to the mens’ surprise, Drilbur actually smiled, seemingly letting its guard down for a moment.

“Unova was, until recently, shut down to tourists; it was declared a scientific haven of some sort,” Xyla explained, “the locals weren’t forced to move, but nobody could fly in without government clearance. Nobody knows exactly what was going on, but a few months ago it was finally opened up again.”

Reyes nodded in understanding, “And this is native to that region?”

Xlya shrugged, “I’m not so sure native is the word you are looking for. Unova is an island, completely isolated. Rumors say some of the stuff that was being worked on was the manipulation and creation of new species.”

“And you think this is one of the results?” Reyes prodded curiously, his anger quickly disappearing as his mind whirled furiously.

Again, Xyla merely shrugged, “I don’t know, they were just rumors. I’ve been there…. And there is a host of new species that I haven’t found anywhere else, but whether they are natural or not… I don’t know.”

“Well, I know where I’m headed,” Reyes announced, recalling Drilbur in a flash of light in the process.

“Hey, we’re going with you!” Rod protested weakly, standing up.

“WE?” Xyla nearly shrieked at the same times that Reyes gave a blunt no.

“I have no need for either of you,” Reyes snorted, “I’ll be going alone, and that is that.”

Without waiting to be argued with, he stepped through the front door and promptly disappeared down the street; leaving Xyla and Rod staring.


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


It’d been a short drive back to the hotel. There wasn’t much to see in Ecruteak and he hadn’t wasted the time checking out the scenery. Instead he focused on what he would need to do. He’d never set foot on Unova before and, as such, wasn’t sure what to expect. Did the people there even speak basic? he wondered aloud, basic being the common language shared among the regions of the world.

Back at the hotel, he made a mental list of all that he would need: money, preferably a substantial sum, clothing, but, on second thought, he decided he could find that there. What else, he thought determinedly; not knowing the island the least bit, he was at a loss for what to prepare for. Instead of dwelling on the matter, he crossed his small bedroom.

Just a one bed room; it was plain, a single double bed with a small dresser next to it, a telephone its only decoration, and a small television sitting across the room so that one could watch it while laying down. However, it wasn’t the bed nor the television Reyes was interested in. Rather, he reached for the telephone and placed a call.

It took awhile, but eventually he had managed to get the bank to transfer several large deposits into his main account from various other banks and accounts. Money wise, he was set for the trip. Next, he had called the airport, purchasing a ticket for the first flight out to Unova. It’d been expensive, several thousand to place a private charter, but in the end, he had managed to score a one way, nonstop trip.

It would be leaving early in the morning, about three AM, to be exact, but he wasn’t worried; he was totally winging this one. He had no contacts in Unova, no knowledge of the island or the people; whether he left that night, or that week made little difference to him, as far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter.
The hours flew by; he’d managed to buy a suitcase, and about three days worth of clothing, before it was finally time to meet his pilot. It wasn’t much, but he wasn’t worried. Over the years he’d amassed a small fortune, finding a place to stay and making a temporary home for himself, if need be, wouldn’t be hard at all.

He met the pilot on the runway; dusk had all but been set and there were only a handful of planes active on the tarmac. It wasn’t the biggest airport in the world, but the long stretches of road lined with hundreds of lights still gave one the feeling of being somewhere surreal. The plane wasn’t much, just a plain, small, white jet. An engine bolted to the underside of each wing; it looked flimsy, but Reyes knew from experience they were more than capable of getting the job done.

The pilot was a sandy-haired kid, probably in his mid twenties, Reyes decided sizing him up. The young man came in for a handshake, “name’s Joe,” he smiled, “and this here is Anna, finest plane in the region.”

Reyes gave a faint smile, returning the handshake, “I’m sure she is.”

Dressed in jeans and a baggy brown coat, the young man had an air of confidence about him. Reyes had little doubt the kid had been flying for years and was more than capable of getting to Unova in one piece.

“I’ve just got to finish some prelim checks on the engine,” Joe explained, “just routine, I swear. Why don’t you go get buckled up and we’ll be off in a minute or two.”

Nodding in understanding, Reyes shouldered past him and climbed the small ladder that led to the door, up into the cabin of the place. What he found there shocked the hell out of him.

“Hey Reyes, I mean Raist!” Rod exclaimed enthusiastically from his seat. On the other side of the cabin Xyla nodded her greeting. “Glad to see you are using your real name again.”

He wasn’t sure what to say or do, was this some kind of joke? A hallucination of some sort? “You aren’t real,” Reyes said, still not moving to take a seat.

“I’m afraid we are very much real,” Xyla informed him, “how do you think you got this charter? Joe’s my personal pilot, I told him to take you… and us.”

Reyes stood unmoving for a moment, and then slowly took a seat,
“I want a refund then,” he announced calmly.


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


It was a long flight, well over a dozen hours between the time they lifted off and the time the time they landed on Unova. During of which, few words were spoken; the parties in an unspoken agreement that silence was better at this point than possibly igniting a fight several thousand feet in the sky in cramped quarters.

Instead, they’d simply absorbed themselves in whatever they were doing. Rod slept, Xyla read a magazine, and Reyes lost himself in planning. A year ago, he wouldn’t have even considered just up and going to some isolated island out in the middle of nowhere, much less with as much baggage as he was currently stuck with. How had so much changed in so little time… he wondered to himself. Nonetheless he eventually settled into his seat and paced himself the long journey.

All were relieved when they were finally able to put feet to
ground upon arrival. The place was Sanyou city, the region, Unova. Reyes could hardly believe it; he hadn’t bothered looking out the window as they arrived, but the island was beautiful. Where back home almost everything was urbanized, Unova had remained true its original form. Trees and forestry was everywhere, it was almost as if everything around them were built into the island, rather than atop it.

“Wow,” Rod breathed, “it’s like a giant tree house or something,” he gushed, pointing out the air control tower. Reyes looked over at the cone-shaped building; indeed, it was so well built into the foliage of trees that it looked almost like a part of them.

“The place is beautiful,” Reyes agreed, a tad bit regretful this was his first time visiting. But he quickly shook such thoughts from his head, “Come on,” he ordered gruffly, “let’s find a hotel to stay in.”

Rather than catch a taxi to a hotel, Reyes decided walking would be a better idea. He wanted to get a better lay of the land and since Xyla was the only one to have actually spent time in Unova, he allowed her to lead the way.

“It is quite the interesting town,” Reyes observed, eyeing the various building that were seemingly built to be camouflaged by the natural forest and vegetation that surrounded them. “Sort of reminds me of Fortree.”

“Except Fortree is a city located in the trees,” Xyla reminded him, “all their buildings are made from the very trees they sit in.”

“Kinda like the wookies on kayshyyyk!” Rod broke in grinning.

Reyes glared at the buffoon, “I can see the difference,” he stated, addressing Xyla, “unlike the people of Fortree, these people have built their city around and into the forest, managing to assimilate both nature and technology together.”

Xyla nodded in agreement, “Nature is very important to Unovians; rather than tear down their forest for industrialization, they merely built around and into it. They are actually pretty-high tech for being so isolated.” She said admiringly.

Reyes couldn’t help but silently agree as they walked. Wherever he looked it wasn’t fences that separated neighbors, it was trees; forget hedges in the front lawn, there weren’t even so much as driveways, just grass and vegetation. “Quite unique,” he muttered.

Soon they reached a structure several stories tall, painted a homely brown it looked sort of like a log cabin, on a much bigger scale. The advertising sign on the giant front oak door told the travelers they had reached the local inn.

The bottom floor was basically a bar; people of all ages and genders mingled about, downing food and drink as they pleased. The owner was a woman, somewhere in her forties, Reyes guessed. Her gray hair was beginning to show through her blond hair in streaks.

“We’ve got two rooms,” she informed Reyes kindly when he asked about a few nights,”they’re right next to each other, but not joined, I’m afraid,” she explained.

Reyes smiled, “Just name your price; we’ll take them,” he assured her. He paid for five nights and the trio trudged up the oak stairs to the rooms. Sure enough, on the right side of the narrow hallway were the two rooms he’d paid for.

“So, how’s this going….” Rod couldn’t even finish asking who was going where before Reyes opened the first door, walked in and shut it with a click. He looked at Xyla, “Well, that was rude,” he complained. Then his eyes lit up, “I call the TV!” He yelled dashing into the other room. With a sigh, she followed him in.

It wasn’t long after that Reyes heard a knock on his door, knowing full well who it was, he answered it; without waiting for an invitation, Rod trumped in, Xyla on his heels, “We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do,” Rod announced, flopping onto Reyes double bed back first. “I think we should start downstairs, ask anyone if they know about any poaching activities that have been going on lately.”

Xyla nodded, “It’s probably a good idea,” she explained, “people here care about Pokémon as much as any other part of the wild. They wouldn’t take too kindly to anyone disrupting that.”

Reyes mused over the suggestion for a half second, trying to decide his best move. Finally, he nodded, “you two go ahead and get started on that.” And before either could say a word, he was gone, the door slamming shut behind him.

Rod rolled his eyes and turned to Xyla, “he is the angriest man in the world…”


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


“This is soooooooo boring,” Rod complained for what seemed like the millionth time, slapping down a magazine on nature.

“You have something better to do?” Xyla asked wryly.

“Of course!” Rod exploded, jumping up excitedly, “we should be out there exploring, not sitting here waiting for Reyes to calm down and return,” he argued, “look we don’t even have to go far, that magazine said there was some caves less than a mile from here, usually guides take tourists up there, but we could walk.”

Dramatically he got to his knees, “puwease,” he begged.

Xyla shook her head, unable to hide her grin, “All right, we can go and check it out, but we aren’t staying out long; it’ll be dark within the hour.”

“Deal,” Rod agreed, jumping up and heading for the door, “we better hurry then.”


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


It was a fucking palace; even standing right outside the structure, staring at it; Reyes couldn’t believe his eyes. The local gym really was a fucking palace. There wasn’t a gym anywhere else in the world that compared to what stood in front of him, anywhere, and he would know. Early on in his life, Reyes had devoted some time to acquiring gym badges and, although by no stretch of the imagination was his collection complete, he’d at least made it his business to look into every gym.

But this, he thought to himself, this was something else, were all of the Unovian gyms as impressive as this one, he wondered. More importantly, did they compare to the battling back home? Couldn’t hurt to check it out, he decided; in fact, it might actually help take the edge off all the anger he’d been feeling towards his companions.

He went up and knocked the sound a hollow bang against the door that was easily three times Reyes’ size. Moments later, it swung open, a tuxedo-wearing, older gentlemen revealing himself to Reyes. With a gesture, he motioned for Reyes to come on in. The inside was as equally impressive, low lit with a number of chandeliers that glinted off a number of armored suits lining the walls. Straight ahead was an arch, a winding staircase that started on either side and met above it framing the doorway it held.

“May I help you sir?” The man asked, his voice low, calm, and very monotone. Reyes sized him up. He was old, but he stood up ramrod straight, his posture perfect. Dark skinned with graying hair so short it just barely covered his balding head; he looked like the poster child for butlers everywhere.

“I’m here to challenge the gym,” Reyes informed him dryly.

The butler bowed, “of course you are. If you could just follow me,” he instructed, moving towards the door under the staircase. Dutifully, Reyes followed him through the door into a vast, narrow corridor. It was low lit, dim candles lighting the way while the walls were completely covered with curtains of green, blue and red stripes. The hallway itself seemed to Reyes to go on forever, “this is, without a doubt, the biggest hallway I’ve ever seen,” he said in amazement.

The butler didn’t so much as bat an eyelash, “Yes, it is quite impressive; nearly a hundred yards long, in point of fact.”

“What’s with the curtains,” Reyes asked curiously, “decoration, or are you hiding bodies behind there or something?”

The butler looked aghast at the suggestion, “We surely aren’t hiding bodies,” he stammered out seemingly outraged, “the curtains represent the types mastered by this gym; fire, grass and water."

“I see,” Reyes answered back, slightly caught off guard, “so this gym doesn’t just use one type then?” He asked.

“No,” the butler curtly replied as they reached the end of the hallway. “Good luck, sir,” he answered, pulling open a door and motioning for Reyes to enter. He did so, the older man shutting the door back shut as he did. It was a coliseum, he’d been in enough gym battles to recognize his surroundings; a large square room, bare of any furniture, a makeshift outline marking the battling arena. On the other side of the room, across from him, were three figures, all boys who looked to be about in their teens. As they turned to face him, Reyes realized they must have been triplets. All three had the same baby face look to them, they even dressed the same, in black overall suits; the only difference between the three being the color of their hair, red, green, and blue.

At least I know who is the master of what Reyes thought to himself frowning. The separate parties approached one another, meeting in the middle of the arena.

“You must be a challenger,” the green one spoke first, offering his hand. “I’m Dento, and these two here are my brothers, Podda and Koon,” he motioned to the red and blue haired ones respectively.

Reyes nodded an affirmative, “I’m Reyes, and I am here to challenge the gym.”

Dento nodded and gestured for Reyes to take a spot on the arena, “I’m sure you are aware of this gym’s rules then?” He asked, he and his brothers heading back in the other direction.”

Reyes shook his head, “Not really, I only know this gym doesn’t specialize in one type like a normal gym does.”

Dento smiled, “No it does not; this gym actually takes place as a triple battle, all three of us against you.”


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


“This is kinda…disconcerting,” Rod complained aloud; picking his way through bushes and vegetation.

“What are you talking about?” Xyla moaned, “the area is fully
lighted.”

“Well,” Rod began, his feet sinking into the forest floor that, while on solid ground, had inches of moss and sticks covering the expanse of the forest. “That’s what I mean actually, I’ve been in more forests then I care to remember and they all get dark. But this,” he huffed, stopping near a thick tree, a small light embedded in the trunk, acting like a spot light. “All these lights in the trees, the forest looks so… Unnatural.”

“Unovians spend a lot of the time in the wild,” Xyla explained patiently, “even in the dark, rather than risk everything to a camp fire; they opted to install lights in well traveled areas. You said this is a tourist hotspot, that would explain the lights; midnight trips.”

“Well, I don’t like it,” Rod insisted sullenly, gives the whole place an unholy look to it.”

Rolling her eyes, Xyla ignored him and trudged on. Ignoring the voice in her head that kept telling her Rod was right. The sky was barely visible through the forest canopy above, the beams of light raining down to the ground, barely detectable to the human eye. The lights Rod had referred to looked like miniature, hollow rocks, light bulbs placed in the center and covered with a lens. Placed inside of specially cut out trunks of trees, they played out light towards the umbrella-like top of the forest, resulting in pale light showering down to the ground, in a very unnatural shade indeed.

Minutes later, fed up with trying to navigate the lush forest carpet without tripping, Rod was relieved to see a cliff face ahead in a clearing of trees. “I think we found it!” He exclaimed loudly in excitement.

“Well, we are looking for a cave,” Xyla said, arriving behind him and taking a look, “and that looks like a cave, so I would say yes, we’ve found it.”

“Well, what are we waiting for,” Rod said, rushing headlong towards the gaping darkness, leaving Xyla with little choice but to follow him.

It was lit, neither had realized it coming up, but now that Rod and Xyla close enough to peer into the dark cave, they could see faint light emanating from somewhere within the rocky cavern. The two gave each other a look, was it safe?

“I think we should go,” Rod whispered tensely, it’s probably nothing… a tour or something maybe.”

Xyla shook her head, “no, I don’t think so, I can’t hear anything,” she shrugged, “maybe they keep the cave lit, like the forest.”

Upon hearing this Rod relaxed somewhat, his face instantly becoming more jovial, “that makes sense,” he grinned sheepishly, I mean, if you are going to light up a forest, why not the cave next to it?” His confidence renewed, he strolled in, Xyla quick on heels.

It was lit, neither had realized it coming up, but now that Rod and Xyla were close enough to peer into the dark cave, they could see faint light emanating from somewhere within the rocky cavern. The two gave each other a look; was it safe?

“I think we should go,” Rod whispered tensely, “it’s probably nothing… a tour or something maybe.”
Xyla shook her head, “No, I don’t think so. I can’t hear anything,” she shrugged, “maybe they keep the cave lit, like the forest.”

Upon hearing this, Rod relaxed somewhat; his face instantly becoming more jovial, “That makes sense,” he grinned sheepishly, “I mean, if you are going to light up a forest, why not the cave next to it?”
His confidence renewed, he strolled in with Xyla quick on heels.

It was a sharp contrast, going from solid rock footing after trudging through soft sinking ground for so long. It came as a relief to both of them; it was so much easier to find and keep your traction. Still, they marched ahead slowly, it was darker than either had realized at first, so most of their progress was done by touch, cautiously inching ahead.

Rounding a slight bend in the cave, they came face to face with the light, “It’s just a torch,” Rod breathed, behind him Xyla shook her head, suppressing a grin. “Guess everything is safe after all.”
Curious, Rod inspected the torch, “maybe we could unhinge it and take it farther in,” he suggested.

“I’m sure the rest of the cave is lit up,” Xyla assured him, “we really shouldn’t need it.”

But Rod was ignoring her, something wasn’t quite right, the torch was hidden inside a wicker casing, weaved in a way that light could be seen coming from it, but one couldn’t really see into it. But now that he was up close to it, he realized it was much too small for a torch, yet there was a strange flicker to the light, he couldn’t quite place his finger on what it was.

“I don’t think this is a torch, Xyla,” he confided in her, “I’m not sure, but it looks kinda like…. A candle maybe? But there is way too much light for it to be a candle,” he said shaking his head, confused.

Meanwhile, Xyla had frozen behind him, “Aaa… a candle?” She stammered nervously, “Please tell me it doesn’t look like that.”

Rod looked at her sharply as she spoke, then whirled around, ready to face whatever she was talking about, but he saw nothing but pale light splashing around the cave, the cavern empty besides the two.
He looked back at her, “what are you talking about?” He demanded crossly, “this isn’t the time for jokes, Xyla.”

But Xyla wasn’t joking, nor was she answering him, her body frozen with paralysis, her eyes locked on something past Rod… or maybe not?

Tracing the path her eyes were taking, he peered down at his feet, there sitting right in from him was a little white candle. It was small, going no higher than his ankles, but it was wider than his entire foot.

“That’s a pretty weird candle,” he said, bending down to get a better look. But to his shock, the thing looked up, two yellow eyes imbedded in the wax staring at him. - Or at least he hoped it had two eyes, where the right one should have been was melted wax, covering up whatever eye there may have had. And to top it off, literally, there was a blue flame sprouting from the top of its head; Rod was staring at a living, breathing candle.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH” He screamed jumping back with the speed of light, “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” He yelled at the top of his lungs, horror written all over his face.

At his face and actions, the candle looked back down, two short stubby arms that Rod hadn’t noticed drooped down, every bit of its body language shouting out how hurt it was at Rod’s reaction.

“D’awww,” Rod said softening, his body relaxing as he approached it, “it’s sooo cute,” he crowed as he got closer, looking over it more carefully. He reached out and touched the side of it, causing the little candle to look up, a smile plastered across its tiny face. “You may be the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life,” Rod declared, “I’m going to take you home and love you forever and show you off, and we’re going to be best friends aren’t we?” He blabbered on and on excitedly.

The candle just smiled at him, its little body quivering as it lifted its arms, its small body rising and falling in a jumping motion.

Rod just melted, “it wants to be held,” he gushed, “how can I deny you, you little wax cutie,” he said, reaching to pick it up.

This snapped Xyla out of her temporarily paralysis, “don’t pick it up!” She warned, much to Rod’s dismay. “It’s a Pokémon,” she cried, “a Hitomoshi, they are spirits of ghosts who trap and steal the souls of other living beings.”

Suddenly very much terrified Rod looked from her, back to the baby- like candle, only to find its once cute smile somehow twisted into an evil grin. Slowly, he rose, not failing to notice that suddenly deeper in the cave was a lot of light, and it seemed to be getting closer.

“I think it’s time to run,” he whispered to Xyla.


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


“Raaaaghh,” the roar shook the building as a rock hard fist smashed into the floor where mere moments ago a dreadlock wearing, blue haired monkey had been standing. “Hiyakkie!” It screamed, using its broccoli head-shaped tail to catapult itself up into the air and out of harm’s way; its momentum carrying it several yards away where it landed between two other monkeys.

Although vastly similar, the three monkeys had varying characteristics. There was a green one, its entire body coated in green fur, except for its hands and feet, which were tan. Like its blue brethren, it had a broccoli head-shaped tail, but rather than dreadlocks for hair, it had an elongated bush sprouting from the top of its head. And where the blue’s monkey’s dreadlocks hid its ears for the most part, the green one’s stuck out inches from its head. The last of the trio was red furred, again with tanned fingers and toes, but unlike the other two, its tail was shaped like a flame, as was its head.

Together the trio stood as Reyes opponents, Hiyakkie, Baokkie, and Yanakkie.

“Jumpy things, aren’t they?” Reyes commented to his own Pokémon, Rhyperior. It had taken some persuading, but Reyes had finally managed to get the gym leaders to let him send his Pokémon one at a time against their three. At first, Dento had flat out disagreed, but it was Podda who had convinced his brother.

“We don’t have time for this,” he had urged Dento angrily, “what about that thief? The sooner we get rid of him, the sooner we can get back to what’s important.”

Before Reyes could ask what they were talking about, Dento had agreed, “Our duties to the gym are important,” he told his brother with emphasis, “but, you have a point; there is business we need to attend to.” Turning to Reyes, a Poké ball in hand, “We accept your conditions,” he told Reyes.

So far, up to this point, the battle hadn’t been going in Reyes favor. While powerful, Rhyperior wasn’t nearly fast enough to land a hit on any of his three targets, and the constant moving and chasing was beginning to wear the rock Pokémon down. Now, standing across from his opponents, his body panting short of breath as sweat rolled down its body and over its red armored plating that covered its neck and midsection, he swung his club like tail back and forth in agitation.

“Ok, Rhyperior,” Rod said, seeing that his Pokemon needed his help, “let’s try to even this playing field a little bit, rock polish!”

Immediately, Rhyperior’s body began quivering, his rock body shaking violently and the sharp jagged edges of his elbows flailing around dangerously, threatening to impale anything unlucky enough to be in their way. Muscles cracked and bones shifted back and forth ever so slightly and when all was said and done, Rhyperior’s skin had a gleam to it.

“Alright, let’s see you dodge your way out of this,” Reyes taunted his opponents, “Rhyperior, rock blast!”

Without hesitation the rhino lifted his right arm, his fist uncurling to reveal a rather large hole in the center of his palm. Mere seconds later a giant boulder was fired from his palm, aimed at the trio; The blue and green one dashed to the right and left respectively, in a hurry to dodge the barrage as a second and third boulder came flying towards them. Stuck in the center the red monkey went straight up, jumping up and over the ballistic rocks.

Reyes smiled, “that worked perfectly, Rhyperior, take that monkey for a ride, seismic toss.”
Its face set in determination, Rhyperior jumped with all his might, bounding in the air and intercepting Baokkie. Before the elemental monkey could react, it was trapped within the crushing grip of Rhyperior; with a heave, it drew the monkey in, bear hugging it tight. As soon as he felt the air rush out of the lungs of the monkey, Rhyperior hurled the monkey back down to the ground, the impact shaking the building and nearly putting the trainers on their backs.

Without effort, Rhyperior landed next to the wounded fire type; “Stomp it” Reyes ordered, “finish it off.”

“Yanakkie!” Dento yelled in response, “stop that behemoth in its tracks, vine whip attack!”

With Reyes and his Pokémon’s focus completely centered on Baokkie, Yanakkie had little trouble slipping behind Rhyperior. Now, with both arms raised up in a pushing motion, vines shot forth from its wrists, wrapping around the arms of Rhyperior pulling it back.

With a roar, the rock Pokémon flexed, trying to break the grass Pokemon’s hold on him, but it was to no avail, it only succeeded in putting itself more off balance, nearly falling backwards with the effort.
“All right,” Koon announced, speaking audibly for the first time since Reyes had arrived, “let’s finish this thing off! Hiyakkie, use Hydro Pump!”

Not needing to be told twice, the water Pokemon inhaled sharply and with a slight rumble, sent a blast of high powered water towards Rhyperior.

The attack hit the rock Pokemon’s center mass, and with a sound, he toppled over backwards, unable to stay upright. With a sigh of exhaustion, Rhyperior passed out cold.

“Get a rest big guy,” Reyes told his Pokémon comfortingly, recalling Rhyperior back into a poké ball. “Let’s try something a little different,” he murmured to himself. “Come on, Porygon 2!” He shouted, throwing another poke ball back into the fray.

Within seconds a new silhouette emerged, taking the shape of a small figure. It was round, with an elongated neck that ended in a ball shaped skull, a long beak taking shape as the mouth. It had a long tail, several inches of length and instead of feet; it had small casings on either side of its body which allowed it to hover ever so slightly off the ground.

Before Reyes could give directions to his Pokémon, Koon was already shouting out orders to his Hiyakkie,

“trap it with a whirlpool attack!”

“Then hit it with a brick break,” Dento ordered his own elemental monkey.

Raising its arms as if weaving a spell the blue monkey seemingly summoned water of nothing, one moment the coliseum was bare of anything, the next, moisture began swirling around like a vortex, slowly turning from oxygen to water, moving to surround Porygon 2 as if the little duck look alike was in the center of a tornado.

Confident that the normal type couldn’t escape its makeshift imprisonment, Yanakkie dashed forth, his fist raised and glowing with inner power.

“Barrier,” Reyes ordered quickly, as with a surge of strength, the grass monkey dived through the spinning water and collided with something behind it.

At a nod from its master, Hiyakkie lowered his arms, and the water tornado dissipated and crashed to the ground, leaving the floor soaked in a flood. In the center stood Yanakkie, his fist buried in the stomach of Porygon 2; the normal type’s eyes closed in a flinch. But seconds later an eye opened, surveying the damage and the disappearance of its trap. Without warning the eye took on a pinkish hue, and with a yelp the green monkey found itself flying backwards, the force of the psychic attack carrying it across the room in a spray of water.

“Excellent job,” Reyes complimented his Pokémon, “now, use a double team, let’s go!”
Concentrating hard, Porygon 2 focused its energy and starting spinning around the room, leaving trails of copies behind him. Around and around it went, circling the room three times and disappearing in the crowd of fake copies.

“Are you kidding me?!” Podda yelled angrily, “we don’t have time for this! Baokkie, get up and hit those things with a fire blast ”

Dento turned to his brother, “patience, you’re just playing into his hands, don’t be in a rush, we’ll handle him soon, then get back to our investigation.”

“No,” Podda shot back, “we’ve wasted enough time as it is, Baokkie, blow them away!”

Shakily the fire monkey had managed to get to its feet, but it was unsteady, Reyes doubted it had the energy to use such a powerful attack; but to his surprise, it inhaled sharply and breathed out, a blazing hot stream of fire shooting out, burning anything in its way.

Copy after copy melted under the blaze, but Porygon 2 was untouched, hidden safely in the mass. “Finish that one off,” Reyes ordered, “hit it with a water pulse and finish up with a thunderbolt.”

In the blink of an eye, the copies vanished, leaving Porygon 2 once again face to face with its opponents, but this time it was ready. For the second time in a matter of minutes the normal type began to glow, this time a bluish hue, as a small ball of pure energy began to form in front of it. Slowly it expanded, to about half the size of its manipulator, and Reyes could see that the ball of energy was filled with water. With a muffled explosion the ball imploded, sending a water-soaked concussion blast out.

It struck Baokki, knocking the fire type off its feet onto its back. With a cry it tried to get up, but couldn’t; mercilessly, Porygon 2 concentrated, electricity crackling and whipping through the air around it. With a flash, a beam of energy materialized, the blazing white energy striking Baokkie faster than the eye could track and without a sound the monkey stopped moving.

Podda cursed and recalled his Pokémon, “you deal with him then,” he shouted at Dento, “I’ll go myself, since neither of you seem to care about mom!”

In a rage he stomped across the arena, shouldering through the Pokémon and past Reyes, out the door.
“What the hell is his problem?” Reyes asked, feeling slightly angry at the treatment one of the gym leaders was giving him.

“It’s nothing,” Dento assured him, “we can continue in peace now.”

Reyes shook his head and recalled Porygon 2, “you’re doing great,” he reassured the poké ball, “but,” he said louder for everyone to hear, “something is going on here and I don’t like it.” He looked to Dento then Koon, “if it’s nothing then I guess it wouldn’t hurt to let me in on it.”

Dento sighed, recalling his own Pokémon, Koon doing the same beside him. “We’ve had a few break-ins,” he explained apologetically, “they’ve taken a few things that belonged to our mother. Podda has taken the thefts to heart,” he smiled, “a little hothead that one is, always has been.”

“Break-ins?” Reyes asked, now curious about the matter, “how many times have they gotten in?”
Dento shrugged as Koon spoke up, “twice so far,” he informed Reyes; “but it’s weird, they first time they took a few pieces of silverware and an old vase. The second time they raided our toilet papers and all our napkins.”

Reyes stifled a laugh, toilet paper? what kind of thief were they dealing with exactly. “Aside from the vase, how do you know everything else was stolen?” He asked, “are sure they haven’t been misplaced rather than stolen?”

Koon nodded, “they broke a window getting in, then they did it again a second time when we boarded it up,” he explained, “everything was definitely stolen.”

Reyes nodded in agreement, “mind if I take a look?” He asked to the brother’s astonishment, “I know a thing or two about break-ins.”

Koon looked excited, “are you like a police officer?!” He asked, “we tried to get them to come in before, but they only made a list of what was stolen and left.”

“Not really police, more like a freelance detective,” Reyes lied smoothly, “I can’t promise anything, but I’d be happy to take a look and see what I can find.”

“That’d be nice,” Dento said smiling, “it’s really been eating up Podda that someone else has mother’s vase. If we could get it back maybe he’ll finally settle down a bit.”

Together the two brothers lead Reyes out, back towards the entrance, “the window they used both times is in a common room, it’s right next to the door so I don’t know why they didn’t use that instead,” Koon told Reyes, filling him up with information.

They arrived at the front door and took a right, through an archway and into a wide open room; it was bare, except for a few bookcases filled with leather bound volumes and a few glass cabinets filled with odd assortments of trinkets.

To the left of the trio was a boarded up window, that overlooked the courtyard leading to the street outside.

“How long before this was discovered?” Reyes asked the brothers, curiously.

“Oh, immediately” Dento told him, “we live here,” he explained, “the alarm woke us up when the window was broken, and we came running.”

Reyes paused, “are you trying to tell me the thief broke in, managed to grab an armful of stuff and dash back out before any of you reached the bottom of the stairs?”

Koon and Dento blushed, “well when you put it that way,” Dento spoke thoughtfully, “that would be cutting it pretty close, especially for the bathroom stuff, it’s a few rooms down in a pantry.”

Reyes examined the window, “was there glass on the inside, or outside?” Reyes asked Dento.

“Both,” Dento replied without hesitation.

“Were there any big pieces on the outside?” Reyes inquired.

“Dento shrugged, I really don’t know. James, our butler cleaned up the mess, you’d have to ask him.

“Call him down,” Reyes told the green haired brother.

“Can’t,” Koon informed him dryly, “James already left; he doesn’t live on the property.”

“How does he get in, in the morning?” Reyes demanded.

“One of us let him in,” Dento said confused, “nobody but us knows the alarm codes, James can’t come in or leave without one of us letting him once the alarm is engaged.”

“Do you watch him leave,” Reyes asked with a sigh.

Koon looked shocked, “of course not, James basically helped raise us, why would you even th…”

“Then why don’t you give him the code to the alarm,” Reyes asked amused. He turned to Dento, “Are there any hidden walls or panels someone could hide in until nightfall?”

Dento nodded, “follow me,” he motioned, “I think you are wrong,” he clarified to Reyes, “but I suppose it can’t hurt to be sure.”

Dento lead Reyes through several rooms, to a dark hallway lit with a single torch. Without waiting to explain he rammed a fist into the wall, and with a thud it flew backwards and then slid off to the side, revealing a narrow tunnel.

Reyes moved to take the lead, but Koon held him back, “I used to play in these tunnels, I’ll go first.”
With a nod Reyes allowed the blue haired youth to take the lead, torch in hand. It was dark, smelled of mold and had barely enough room to allow Reyes to stand up; as it was, they had to tread single file through the place. They hadn’t been walking more than a few minutes when Reyes placed a hand on Koon shoulder, stopping the boy.

“Does anybody else hear that?” He whispered to the two brothers.

They strained their heads, trying to make out anything, but the tunnel muffled almost all sound except for their breathing. Dento shook his head, unwilling to speak under the circumstances.
Reyes shook his head, “it’s quiet, but it’s there, like a scratching noise, here,” he whispered, sliding past Koon and taking the torch, “lemme take the lead.”

Carefully, he marched forward, wary of any sounds; it wasn’t long before they reached a slight bend in the dirt encrusted passageway. Quickly Reyes bent down, smashing the torch into the ground and extinguishing it.

“Wha…?” Koon began, but was cut off as Reyes clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Shhhh” the thief whispered, “there’s a light around the corner,” he told him them as quietly as possible.

“We need to be quiet, before we scare them away.”

“I say we rush them,” Dento said, “there are three of us, all with Pokémon, we can handle it,” he said confidently.

Reyes paused, unsure of Dento’s words; he didn’t know what lay beyond the corner and he wasn’t keen on rushing around blind, with kids by his side nonetheless. Going against his better judgment he agreed, “I’ll go first,” he whispered, “give me a few seconds before you round the corner though, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

The boys nodded a promise and Reyes left them, he rounded the corner into a small room, it was dimly lit with rolls of toilet paper strewn about, a vase and several pieces of silverware sat in a corner and across from them, sat the butler, cross legged and rocking back and forth, his hands scratching the dirt of the floor over and over.

Noticing Reyes, he jumped to his feet, teeth bared, a glint in his eyes. At that same instant Koon and Dento dashed in, stopping at the entrance and staring.

“James!” Koon cried, “what’s the matter, what are you doing?”

“Hold him back!” Reyes ordered Dento, not taking his eyes off of James for a second.
The butler growled at the three intruders, the glint in his eye not leaving.

“Look James,” Reyes began, fingering a Poké ball carefully “We don’t want to hurt you,” he said soothingly,

“why don’t you come on out of here with us, we’ll talk for a bit.”

For a response James gave a roar and charged.

Having no choice, Reyes threw the poké ball, “come on out Kecleon!” He yelled, “wrap him up,” he ordered.

With a hiss a green lizard appeared, not even tall enough to reach Reyes knees, it was green from head to tail, with a red stripe of skin going across its abdomen. It shot out its tongue, at least three times the lizard’s size in length the tongue was massive, it snaked around the charging butler and pulled taunt, neatly tying him up in a bundle and tripping him to the floor.

Just as Reyes was about to praise his Pokémon, the butler rolled over on his back, staring at the trainers with glowing red eyes.

“Well that can’t be good,” Reyes remarked taken aback. Together, him and two brothers slightly backed up as some sort of energy began emanating from the butler. Seconds later he sent out a blast, knocking Kecleon against a wall and plunging the room in darkness.

“Stay back,” Reyes warned Dento and Koon, “Kecleon, light this place up with a Flamethrower!”

Moments later a stream Kecleon’s mouth opened, releasing a blaze of fire, lighting the room up. With a woosh, the room went up and flames, as the toilet paper lit up.

“What about your Pokémon?” Koon cried out, “it’s going to be set on fire with everything else!”

“Doubtful,” Reyes replied confidently, “watch and learn.”

To Koon’s astonishment, Kecleon was fine, in fact, it had somehow transformed, its green skin now a bright red as it stepped through the flames.

“Its ability allows it to change its type,” Reyes explained.

Carefully Kecleon approached its quarry, but there was something wrong, the butler was shaking violently, and as he got to feet, slightly swaying, Reyes could see he was in the middle of some sort of transformation, he is face was sagging as if melting off and his teeth had grown several inches in length into fangs. It roared definitely and with a shimmer the butler disappeared, in his place a black colored fox. It had a fluffy mane, blacker than any night Reyes had born witness to, but its paws, and the top of its head were a light blue color. Several markings adorned its forehead, also in the same light blue color, as were its eyebrows.

Standing on four short stubby legs it roared again, “zoruaaa”

“It’s a Zorua,” Koon breathed in amazement.

“What the hell is that thing,” Reyes demanded.

“It’s a mythical Pokémon,” Dento informed him, “a Pokémon that can take the shape and form of any living thing it sees.” He shook his head, “I didn’t know they really existed.”

Reyes smirked, “Transforming isn’t so special, haven’t you seen a Ditto or heard of Mew?”

Dento shrugged, “Still, Zorua isn’t supposed to exist, it’s just a bedtime story told to scare children.”

Reyes frowned, “What do you mean, scare children?”

“They take bad children away,” Koon explained, “some say they take their place, even.”

Reyes was in disbelief, a Pokémon that stole children and took their place? Unbelievable, he highly doubted there was any truth to that. Still… it had been masquerading as the teen’s butler. Either way, he decided it was going down.

“Kecleon, wrap that thing up and hit it with a thunderbolt!” He yelled.

The flames had died down considerably, quickly eating through all the paper that had been strewn about, leaving but a dim glow in the room; nonetheless, the two creatures stepped nimbly as they circled their confines, trying to gauge the best moment to strike.

Zorua moved first, the night fox bounced forwards, letting loose a knot of grass towards Kecleon so fast, Reyes didn’t even have time to register the attack. Thankfully, Kecleon was much faster - in the blink of an eye, it had climbed the wall and was hovering from the dirt ceiling, watching as the knot flew by harmlessly, lassoing nothing but air.

Out shot Kecleon’s tongue, wrapping around the midsection of Zorua, taking hold fast. The room crackled with static as the normal type’s body churned to produce static energy. Within seconds, lights that had been wired into the ceiling were busy, straining not to explode at the sudden increase of energy flooding the place. The next thing Reyes knew, bolts of lightning and electricity were traveling down Kecleon’s mouth, like speeding automobiles on a highway; down they raced until they reached Zorua, shocking the dark Pokémon
It roared in pain, barking out at Kecleon in defiance.

Unable to bear the harsh stinging noise, Kecleon put its hands to its head in an effort to keep out the noise.

Zorua, seeing an opening, began to glow an unearthly shade of blue, its eyes blazing in Kecleon’s direction. With a roar and a whip of its head it sent a blast of kinetic energy towards the lizard Pokémon.

“Jump, Kecleon,” Reyes ordered tersely, trying to maneuver his Pokémon out of harm’s way.

Blindly, Kecleon released its grip on the ceiling, tumbling to the ground in a series of flips and spins. Somehow the athletic little lizard managed to land upright as the blast hit right where it had been hanging moments before, dust and dirt now raining down on its head.

Its tongue still wrapped around Zorua, Kecleon flicked its head harshly; its strong tongue picking the little fox up and smashing it into the wall violently.

As Zorua struggled to get up, Kecleon withdrew its tongue, the long appendage slipping back into the lizard’s mouth in the blink of an eye. Cautiously, the lizard circled the injured fox, sensing that the end of the battle was near.

“Finish this off,” Reyes ordered, fingering two poké balls - one Kecleon’s, the other empty. “Use an ice beam and fast freeze him.”

Kecleon inhaled sharply, drawing moisture in from the air around him, as Zorua shakily managed to get to its feet. A moment later, a shrill blast of air was forced from Kecleon’s mouth, turning the very air in the room cold as it escaped out of the lizard and headed towards Zorua.

Zorua watched as the beam of cold and ice headed towards, barely more than a beam of barely visible particles to the naked eye. At the last second, something in Zorua came alive. It stared down the attack, almost as if seeing right through it to Kecleon, something in the room changed too, it was if the very atmosphere in the room got darker… more menacing.

Kecleon’s attack halted in midair, and for a second, just hung there like time itself had managed to stop itself, to Reyes amazement, the attack reversed direction, flying back towards Kecleon, but filtering out as it went, spreading around the room and freezing everything. The ice beam hit Kecleon and sent it skidding around the floor, now completely encased in ice, like the rest of the room.

“What the hell just happened?” Reyes demanded, turning to the brother’s.

“It’s foul play,” Dento told him, “it’s a move that uses the opponents attack against them. He turned ice beam against Kecleon.”

“Well, that’s just dastardly,” Reyes muttered under his breath, turning back to Kecleon, “hit that thing with a slam and finish it,” he ordered.

The lizard rose to his feet, his body now a pale blue to reflect to the ice type he’d become, his claws dug into the ice, trying to find purchase on the slippery slope, the dim light glinted off the surface, the room looking like a giant fish bowl, the Pokémon’s breath coming out short and shallow in the frigid temperature.
Kecleon lashed out, his tongue snaking out towards Zorua like a whip, but this time the fox Pokemon was ready and, sure footed, it pounced, bounding over the tongue and coming down hard on the soft appendage, slamming it into the ice. With a start, Kecleon realized its tongue was now stuck to the ice, and the lizard Pokemon felt a surge of panic as it tried to free itself.

But Zorua wasn’t done and seconds later, the room heated up drastically as the fox jumped in the air, almost gliding towards the ice type as it let loose a heated breath of air, igniting into a burst of flames around Kecleon. The lizard Pokémon gave a faint cry and keeled over, the shock too great for it to handle.
Fortunately, Zorua wasn’t much better off, landing awkwardly hard on a hind leg, it collapsed on impact, a muffled grunt escaping from its lungs. Desperately, it tried to scramble to its feet, but being unable to so much as lift its injured leg, just fell back on to the ice.

Realizing the fox Pokémon was no longer a threat, Reyes carefully stepped on to the ice and gingerly stepped towards Kecleon, poké ball in hand.

“You did well, get a good rest,” he whispered, clicking a button and sucking the lizard back in the confines of its poke ball.

Meanwhile, the two brothers had gathered around the downed Zorua, examining it cautiously. Shaking his head at the youth, Reyes grabbed another poke ball and lobbed it over their heads. With a sharp clank it ricocheted off the wall and hit the fox, sucking it up.

“You aren’t going to capture it,” Koon cried in surprise.

Reyes nodded, “It’s an interesting find, and pretty strong, I want to learn more about it.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Dento asked, a bit taken aback himself.

Reyes shrugged, “Whatever it is, it’s a Pokémon and it will behave like any other Pokémon, I’ll take care of it.”

Dento stood up, straightening his shoulders, “Of course you will, thank you for helping us out. Podda will be glad to hear it’s over…. You have our undying gratitude.”

Reyes shook off the praise, “No need to thank me, glad to help; now let’s get out here.” He said, turning to head back down the tunnel, the brothers on his heels.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


If the lights had been slightly eerie in the beginning of Xyla and Rod's trek, they were downright terrifying now; casting silhouettes against the trees and canopy of would-be pursuers close on their tail as they fled through the woods. They hardly spoke a word as wild undergrowth threatened to trip them with every step while branches slapped them across the chest and face every time they attempted to push through obstacles.

"We can't keep this up,” Xyla gasped, “eventually it’s going to catch up to us.”

Next to her Rod made a motion that may have been a nod, “fighting would probably be easier anyway,” he wheezed, slowing down to a stop.

He turned, ready to face their pursuers a poké ball in hand. It was dark out, the lights maintained in the forest casting shapes all around in the pale light as the trees shook with the wind.

But it wasn’t the shapes that drew his attention; it was the faint light making its way towards them, like a lost traveler finding his way by candle light. Moments later it came into sight, a floating little candle with eyes, the wick above its head burning brightly, as it held its arms outstretched like it was waiting for a hug.
Upon seeing Rod its ghostly face broke into a smile as it cooed happily, like it’d found its long lost owner.
Not buying the cute act, stepped forward to meet the Pokémon head on, but Xyla pushed ahead of him.

“I’ve got this,” she said confidently, a poké ball already flying from her hand.

There was a brief flash of light and then setting in the middle of the woods between the candle like ghost and Xyla was the tiniest little bird Rod had ever seen.

Barely even an inch tall its entire body was blue with tan legs and long blue talons. Its head was covered in white ruffled flowers like a giant mane. Atop its head was a single red feather contrasting sharply with its large bright blue eyes and yellow beak.

Shaking its feathers slightly the little bird looked glanced up to the two giants staring at it, “rufffflettt” it parroted, digging its beak into its breast to scratch an itch.

“That’s pretty cute,” Rod exclaimed, fascinated with the little bird Pokémon, “what is it exactly,” he questioned Xyla in puzzlement.

“It’s a Rufflet,” she explained, “I caught it last time I was up here; they’re native to these parts.”
Rod nodded solemnly, ‘it’s a battle to the death by cuteness then,” he said, staring at the approaching ghost Pokémon. Indeed, the two combatants were the cutest Pokémon he had ever seen, but he was sure those sentiments would change by the end of this battle.

Hitomoshi looked glad to have finally caught up with Rod and Xyla, but looked confused by Rufflet’s presence.

“Hitooooomo!” It squealed enthusiastically holding out its short stubby arms as if it wanted to be held. It rushed towards Rod but found its path blocked by Rufflet who’d moved to intercept the ghost Pokemon, its wing outstretched as it squawked menacingly.

Hitomoshi looked taken aback by the move, hurriedly it tried to go around the skinny little fledgling but with a little hop skip Rufflet again moved in front of Hitomoshi, blocking its path. Hitomoshi gave a little moan, looking past Rufflet to Rod as if it was pleading with him to help.

It took all of Rod’s strength to stay his ground, “Are you sure about this?” He asked Xyla, almost convinced that the little ghost Pokémon wanted nothing more than a little companionship.

But Xyla was unwavering, “People go missing around here all the time, and Hitomoshi is known for stealing the souls of creatures they come across.”

Rod shook his head unsure, on one hand, Xyla was good at what she did and rarely was misinformed, but something in his gut kept telling him something was off.

Xyla however seemed to be having no doubts as she pointed at Hitomoshi accusingly, “Rufflet hit it with an aerial ace!”

With a screech the little bird dug its talons into the ground and launched itself in the air in a little bound, Hitomoshi stumbled backwards in astonishment as the bird Pokémon stood suspended in flight for a brief moment and then disappeared in the blink of an eye. In the next briefest moment it reappeared behind the candle Pokémon slamming into

Hitomoshi and sending it rolling against the ground.
Without long enough arms the baby Pokémon had no way to stop its momentum as it rolled straight into the trunk of a tree, sending the surrounding brush alight in flames.

“Hit those flames with a gust of wind!” Xyla ordered quickly, not missing a beat.
As Hitomoshi managed to get itself upright, Rufflet flew in close, beating its wings frantically, kicking up strong breeze of wind that quickly extinguished the flames, knocking Hitomoshi back over in the process.

“Hitomooooooooo” it squealed in obvious anger as it once again got back up. The look on its face was pure fury as the wick on its head roared to about twice its original height, the flame a deep blue. Its face contorted in a way that gave it the appearance of a little child throwing a tantrum Hitomoshi put out its short stubby arms and with a something a scream unleashed a pillar of flames.

“Rufflet, climb, get out of the way!” Xyla screamed as from seemingly out of nowhere a giant column of flames started spewing from the baby candle Pokémon towards Rufflet like some sort of horizontal tornado.

Rod shielded his face as superheated air rushed by him, the bright orange nearly blinding him as sparks exploded like fireworks everywhere. Desperately Rufflet turned his body skywards and flapped his wings in an attempt to get out of the way; it was of little use however as with a flick of its tiny eyebrows Hitomoshi sent the flames right after Rufflet like some angry monster made of fire hell bent on the capture of the bird Pokémon.

With a screech Rufflet was overtaken and engulfed in flames. Xyla and Rod looked on horrified as it was damn near impossible to see Rufflet through the hellfire surrounding it; a faint shadow through the intense brightness of the flames the only clue that the fledgling was somehow enduring the blast.

And then as suddenly as it appeared the flames disappeared, the candle Pokémon worn out from such an intense attack that took such concentration to control. Released from its prison Rufflet dropped to the ground, more than thankful for the respite.

Xyla rushed to her downed Pokémon, “Are you ok?” She cooed soothingly to the baby bird, smoothing out its ruffled and charred feathers. For an answer Rufflet propped itself up on its wings and scrambled to its feet. Beak set in a grim line as it looked through its worried owner to the little candle monster staring defiantly back.
Xyla looked at Pokémon with part admiration, part worry, “You did good,” she reassured him, “but I think its better someone else finishes this up. It doesn’t have much left anyway.”

But Rufflet shook his head determined to settle this himself. Without waiting for Xyla’s ok it took the air its wings outstretched as it skimmed the bottom canopy of the trees, darting in and out of the shadows the lights provided.
Hitomoshi watched the aerial show sullenly, what the baby Pokémon had seen as an unprovoked attack had clearly upset it immensely.

“It looks so sad,” Rod said observantly, which seemed to put Xyla on edge.

“Did you even see what just happened?!” She fired back at Rod crossly, “it lit poor Rufflet up like a Christmas tree!”

“Well, we did attack it first,” Rod said thoughtfully, “you didn’t expect it to defend itself?”

Xyla shoot him a murderous look, “whose side are you on?” She demanded in anger.

Rod shrugged his shoulders in defeat, “I’m just saying, I don’t think it wants to hurt us.”

Obviously not happy with Rod’s view Xyla turned her back on him, focusing once again on Rufflet.
Hitomoshi had taken the opportunity of Xyla and Rod’s argument to try and inch closer to the pair, seemingly still eager to get in close with the humans. But its approach was cut short its tracks by Xyla’s angry glare.

“You aren’t getting one step closer,” she swore, “Rufflet, take him for a ride with sky drop!”
Alarmed Hitomoshi looked skywards just in time to see Rufflet swoop down, talons at the ready as it snatched the candle Pokémon from where it floated and like a roaring jet climbed high above the tree line and out of sight.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Rod advised, his usual easygoing manner gone, now replaced with something that was much harder and cold.

“Don’t use that tone with me,” Xyla grumped as the conversation was interrupted by a high pitched whining. Seconds later like a falling meteor Rufflet and Hitomoshi came crashing back down from the sky towards the ground at breakneck speed. With a screech Rufflet released its hold on the ghost Pokémon allowing it hurtle headfirst into the ground like a downed rocket. Hitomoshi gave a cry of pain and discomfort from where it lay on the ground, its nemesis, the little bird hovering contently above it, surveying its handiwork.

Even Xyla looked satisfied at the result… almost. “Finish it off, hit him with an aerial ace and shadow claw.”

Hitomoshi could barely lift its head in response; much less do anything to stop Rufflet who was rushing in like a bullet, talons cloaked in black ominously. Nearly faster than the eye could follow it dashed by the baby ghost, its talons ripping into the side of Hitomoshi. The candle Pokémon screeched in pain as Rufflet made a turn that twisted the insides of Rod and came swooping back in, again slashing at Hitomoshi with its razor sharp talons.

Desperately the ghost staggered forward, a number of dark gashes cut deep into its body. Convinced the battle was at its end Rufflet came in for a third and final strike. But with surprising strength Hitomoshi rose, floating slightly off the ground and ready to meet Rufflet head on.

As the bird Pokémon came in close Hitomoshi threw his arms out, eyes closed in concentration, and somehow, someway, as if it had hit an invisible window Rufflet gave a scream as it collided head on with some sort of kinetic barrier, the impact like hitting a tree with a speeding vehicle. Uncontrollably Rufflet bounced backwards in a tumble of feathers and squawking.

Meanwhile with its last bit of strength Hitomoshi flew up and over Xyla rushing straight into the arms of Rod with a cry.

Xyla screamed in terror, expecting to watch Rod evaporate into nothing. But to her shock, nothing of the sort happened, in fact, Hitomoshi just looked relieved to be in a place it perceived as safe. Happily it nuzzled into Rod’s arms, content.

“Be very careful,” Xyla warned Rod cautiously, “try and put it down slowly without sudden movements.”

Rod looked back at her in disgust, “Are you kidding me,” he all but yelled at her, taking her aback, she’d never seen Rod angry or upset before. “It’s not dangerous, it was never dangerous.” He shot the words at her, emphasizing every syllable. “I know you and Raist think I’m some sort of idiot. But you both seem to forget I’m just as good a thief as either of you, on my own.” He glared at her angrily. “I am, on occasion, able to figure things out and make decisions on my own.” He informed her, somewhat more calm.

Somewhat chagrined Xyla moved to comfort Rod, afraid she’d hurt his feelings; but before she could do so, she was interrupted.

“Are you kidding me?” A voice demanded from the jungle growth only moments before Reyes himself materialized.

His glance was directed at Xyla, “You left me and everything without a word… to become a thief?” He directed his gaze to Rod, “and you knew about this?”

“Knock it off,” Xyla snapped back, “I don’t have to answer to you. And yes, I’m a thief now, but so are you, guess it runs in the family.” She shot at him.

If looks could kill, Xyla would have dropped dead from the stare Reyes gave her; “Once this is over,” he told her calmly. You’d best forget you ever met me.”

The announcement seemed to take her by surprise and for a moment she seemed shocked and without an answer. Then regaining her composure she nodded and without a word turned, heading back to the hotel.

Reyes turned to Rod, “For the record,” he told him, “I’ve never thought of you as an idiot.”
Rod perked up, a slight smile playing on his face, “Really?” He asked, “I always got the impression you thought I was stupid.”

Reyes shook his head and turned to leave, “Nope, never thought of as stupid at all.” He paused glancing back at Rod, “But you are a total fucking retard.”

Watching Reyes retreat into the darkness Rod sighed, glancing down at Hitomoshi, “I can never win, can I?” He asked earnestly.

The little Pokémon giggled in excitement, it’s wick flaring up and nearly catching Rod in the face. With a startled yell he thrust the Pokémon away from his face, holding it at arm’s length.

Scared half to death by the sudden screaming and movement Hitomoshi burst into tears, sobbing violently.

There in the woods, in the middle of the night holding a crying Pokémon in his arms as his two friends disappeared from sight in anger, Rod gave a groan; “Why me?”

I'm going to do this grade in somewhat of a backward fashion - just for the sake of you not needing to scroll down the page in case you don't want to read the pile of crap that comes after the first section.

Outcome: Drilbur, Zorua, and Litwick captured! This was quite a well written story, I found few errors and though it was the sequel to previous chapters I didn't feel as though I was missing out on anything from before.

Now onto the boring stuff!

Introduction/Plot:
Though this was a continuation from another story, I didn't find myself lost much. You made it easily understandable that Reyes was not the nicest of guys and was some kind of a thief (the title helping as well, obviously). However, I would've liked the see slightly more description of Reyes, and the other characters as I had not read the other chapters and had no insight onto what any of them looked like, so I had to use my own imagination. Though knowing you, I was pretty close. :tongue:

Now, onto the actually story itself. For a guy who doesn't enjoy reading as much as the next guy, I enjoyed the story. It kept me entertained, if I didn't have such a childish attention span then I would probably have been able to finish it in one sitting. It gave enough to make me keep reading and left out enough for me to be savoring more and more. That's one key to a story of any length - to keep the reader wanting more. Kudos.

This is probably the best story in terms of plot I've read off of URPG, as well.

Grammar:
Not my keenest spot, but you had quite a few times where you forgot to add in a space or had a random slash mark somewhere. While it didn't distract from the story much, it's nice to keep those little sores out. IT MAKES THE STORY LOOK REALLY NICE.

There were some parts where the dialogue got a little confusing as well. I had to read through them a few times, however that may be my lack of understanding the english language, at times.

Other than those two things, I found this fine.

OH BUT YOU FORGOT TO CHANGE LITWICK'S NAME TO ENGLISH. MINUS 1000000 POINTS.

Length:
A little short, but the sheer quality of the story made up for any lack of length you have.

Description:
Oh, buddy. Did you do some work here. Other than I mentioned above about the characters, that not being a problem though, you did a terrific job at this.

You described just about everything anyone could ever ask for. If I were blind and were hearing this read I would have little trouble seeing what everything looked like, as long as I had the small amount of knowledge to simple things in nature; color, plants, etc. Even better, you didn't go overdose. Sometimes you'll just keep describing things and it'll get in the way of the plot of the story.

Now only did you say how they looked, I could get a sense of the feeling of everything - from the cities to the people. For example, Ecruteak was more of a dreary sounding city, there wasn't much to it, maybe it was a little bit of a slum. However, the city in the trees was majestic and great. This could all be assumed from just how things were worded, maybe not even how they were told to be - the attitude added in this feeling, maybe.

As you can tell, I have little to no problems with any of this shtuff.

Battle:
You impress here, as well. As many have said "pretend that us graders have no idea what the hell a Pokemon is, then use that to achieve your battle descriptions" - you did this and did it well. The Pokemon were easily identifiable, again with the comparisons. Drilbur being a mole and Litwick being a torch or candle of some sorts. Zorua's description might have been a little bit lack luster, but that's only a slightly hole here.

Attacks were finely described as well, I had no problem picturing the Pokemon charging at each other or flame coming out of them ... or whatever happened in the three battles. Kudos to you.

---

And that's that - it was hard to give any advice and I both know and can tell you're an experienced writer.

Have fun with your pogeymanz.