Mission Pokemon

This fic starts off with a Mystery Dungeon aspect but as it progresses, it strays away from the MD storyline.

Prolouge: A Blessing in Disguise
Chapter One: Mission Impossible
Chapter Two: Tragedy at Mt. Steel
Chapter Three: The Sacred Forest
Chapter Four: The Legendary Rescue
Chapter Five: The Secret of the Stones
Chapter Six: The Legendary Strike - Kyogre's Rage
Chapter Seven: The Tournament
Chapter Eight: And so it Begins...
Chapter Nine: Royal Flush - Seth and Neos' POV
Chapter Ten: The Gloves Are Off!
Chapter Eleven: Beginner's Luck
Chapter Twelve: Fight Among Friends
Chapter Thirteen: Secret of The Second Stone
Chapter Fourteen: The Legendary Strike - Groudon's Rage
Chapter Fifteen: Return to Grace Town
Chapter Sixteen: The Aftermath
Chapter Seventeen: Friend or Foe
Chapter Eighteen: Sapphire's Revelation
Chapter Nineteen: The Beggining of the End
Chapter Twenty: Journey to Pillar Lake
Chapter Twenty-One: The Beast Within



Prologue: A Blessing in Disguise






"A great danger has once again threatened our world... And like before, your kind will save us... I sense it... They are coming... The meteor was but a test... Their true objective will soon be clear... They came so many years ago... And now they are back to finish what they started...

The signs will soon show. First, the beast of the sea will awaken, and send waves crashing down on all coasts. Then, the beast of the lands will awaken, and create quakes that shall shake the entire cosmos. And finally, the beast of the sky will awaken, its emerald coated scales glinting in the sunlight, blinding any creature foolish enough to glance its way. And he shall set the world ablaze with beams of energy, as if the sky itself were falling...

These three events happening chronologically will signify the beginning... of the end. All the legends will soon become involved, fighting over who shall rule and who shall fall. And then they will make themselves known... The False Legends!

That is all the knowledge I may share with you. I will clear your memories of your former life... your former self. All you shall remember is your name and your species... your soon to be, former species anyway. Until your quest is complete, you shall be known under a new species. You shall be known as... a Pokemon."

*************

I felt an irritating nudge at my side that just wouldn't stop. I opened my eyes slowly only to see that I was surrounded by a crowd of mysterious creatures. I turned slightly to my left to see to find out what was irritating me so. I saw what seemed to be a four-legged, mouse shaped creature with a cream colored belly, and blue backside. As I looked a little higher, I saw small holes on its back that were giving off a strange heat. That was when I began to think about the situation.

"What the- What the heck are you... things?!?" I shouted as I jumped to my feet.

"Now, is that any way to treat your rescuers?" said a thunderous voice from behind me, which would strike fear in the hearts of adults. It was obviously male.

I turned to see a creature very similar to the first, but at the same time, very different. It also had that cream colored belly and blue backside. However, it stood nearly 5 feet tall and where I expected to see similar holes to be, I saw a blazing inferno giving off that same heat as before.

"I'll ignore that due to the crisis you just went through." he said.

"Crisis? What are you talking about?" I replied, a little bit calmer.

"Man, you must have been in shock or somethin'. You were drowning in the river!" said the first creature, whom I could tell was a young male.

The reply left me utterly confused and I immediately looked down to see if I was wet. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see...

My skin was an unusual green and my arms where EXTREMELY short. I don't even know if you could call them arms anymore. I touched a bright red, diamond shaped area on my belly and noticed that I was as hard as a rock. I pushed the smaller creature aside in search for the nearest source of water, and heard I slight growl from the larger creature. I ran to the river I was "supposedly" rescued from and looked at my reflection in even more amazement. My eyes where the same red as the diamond shaped portion of my belly, and I noticed a small tail in the shape of an opened fan. I looked down at my small green feet and noticed I was only about two feet tall.

"What have I become!" I shouted with all my might before finally collapsing...





I woke after what seemed to be hours. I observed my surroundings and noticed I was in a small hut. I stood up only to remember that I was only two feet tall.

"It's about time you woke up. You've been out for like... ever." said a voice from behind me. It was that small creature again.

"What's with you creatures and sneaking up on people?" I said, a little irritated that a boy, creature or not, was watching me this whole time.

"Who you callin' creature? I'm a Pokemon and so are you! I'm a Cyndaquil to be more exact!" he ranted. The only part that caught my attention was when he said we were Pokemon. That word... It sounded so familiar but I was certain I had never heard it before.

"Can you... tell me more about these 'Pokemon'?" I said, eager to learn about what I've become.

"Man, you must've fallen pretty hard before, but ok. But first, tell me your name. Through your voice I can tell you're a female, but it's pretty hard to tell with Larvitars. I'm Zeke, by the way."

Larvitar... That must be my species of Pokemon.

"My name... my name is Sapphire" I said, surprised that I even remembered it due to the fact that my mind was a total blank.

"Hmm... Figures a half rock, half ground type Pokemon would be named after a gemstone. Well, lets get to explaining Pokemon!" he said with a jolt of energy. I could tell he anticipated the moment where he could share his knowledge with someone else.

He spent the last few hours explaining every aspect of Pokemon. I learned of all types and their weaknesses. I kept all this in the back of my mind, knowing it would come in handy somehow. He told me about all the Pokemon species he knew and finally, about legendary Pokemon. That bit of information left me stunned because I felt as if I already knew it. I then explained that I don't remember ever being a Pokemon, and that I once was a human. However, that's where my tale ended as that was all I could remember.

"Hey, do you mind not telling anyone about me being... human. I don't want anyone thinking I'm weird or anything." I couldn't believe I was saying this. I was actually trying to fit in with this region of Pokemon. Although, it was probably because I had no memories of family or friends to go back to, which saved me from the pain of knowing I was away from loved ones.

"Your secret is safe with me, 'cause friends keep secrets!" he said with a grin.

Friend... My first memory of a friend and I felt strangely overjoyed. Maybe this new life wouldn't be so bad...




My other chapters will most likely be longer, but I want to know what people think so far. I'm pretty sure this thing has mistakes, as I have problems telling the past and present tense apart when writing.

No comments yet? Ok. Well time for my first official chapter. Don't worry readers (if I have any) the action will be coming soon.

Chapter 1: Mission Impossible


"Why are you staring at me like that?" Zeke asked with a confused look.

"Oh, sorry about that." I replied, gaining back my sense or reality.

Suddenly, the large pokemon from before, who I now know is a Typhlosion thanks to Zeke's explanation, rushed into the hut. He was holding a blue badge with a golden star in the middle that immediately caught Zeke's attention.

"Holy Miltank! Is that what I think it is!?" Zeke shouted with excitement.

"You got it, son! It's your rescue badge!" replied the Typhlosion, equally excited.

Son? Well, I guess it made sense...

Zeke jumped forward, using his hind legs, and grabbed the badge from his father.

"Now I can start my own rescue team, just like you dad! But where am I going to find anyone in the village at my low level, willing to go on rescue missions?"

"You've already found one." He said looking my way, as if the statement was directed at me.

I stared back at him until I finally understood what he was talking about. "Whoa, whoa – hold up a sec. Are you saying you want me to partner up with Zeke?"

Zeke had told me about rescue missions and teams, and that the team must have at least two rescuers. He also said that almost all missions required Pokemon battling, due to the recent disasters causing Pokemon to become outraged. To use an attack, all you had to do was know its name and wrap your mind around it. I could probably use the most common attack, tackle, but that was about it.

And then, with a sudden change in tone, the Typhlosion said, "There's been a lot mission popping up and the current amount of rescue teams can't handle it. My team will be gone soon on an S-rank mission and the village needs all the help it can get until we return." I could tell he was serious about this.

With some deep though, I replied, "Oh... okay. But don't expect me to do much battling."

Now that I was a Pokemon, I don't think I could simply attack another Pokemon with the intention of seriously hurting it.

"That's okay with me; you'll be the rescuer while I cover you with my attacks." Zeke said with a smile. He was probably just happy that he could even start a rescue team.

Then, with a slight grown, the Typhlosion said, "No Zeke, that's not okay. You have yet to raise the flame on your back, which means you can't use fire type attacks."

The smile on Zeke's face disappeared just as fast as it came as he darted out of the hut. I ran after him only to stop at the entrance and look back at the now frowning Typhlosion.

'No father should have to shoot down his son's dreams' I thought to myself as I left the hut.



I found Zeke on the eastern edge of the town, looking at a bulletin board.

"What 'cha doin'?" I said softly as I approached him.

"I'm looking for a mission for us to go on." He replied, simply

"What are you talking about? We're not ready to go on a mission!" I shouted

"Of course we are. Why would dad get me so exciting, and then tell me I'm still not ready?"

I thought about it for a second and said, "Maybe it's because he thought I knew how to battle."

"I talked to you about battling and I know you can do it" he said, still fixated on the bulletin.

"Rescue missions aren't games! Both the rescuer's and the victim's lives are at-."

"Okay! Found one!" He said, cutting me off and disregarding my comment. He then read the mission brief out load:

Client: Raichu
Mission location: Mt. Steel
Mission objective: My Pikachu friend went on a traveling journey a few days ago and told me she would contact me through Pidgey Mail once she got through the mountain. However she has yet to contact me. Please, someone save her.
Mission Rank: C"

"Are you out of you mind!" I shouted. "There's no way we can do this. Your father doesn't even think we're ready for a D-rank mission!"

"So let's prove him wrong!" he shouted back, finally looking at me.

"Follow me!" he ordered as he ran to an empty lot. I follow him until he stopped.

"It's getting late, maybe we-." I was cut off again as Zeke charged at me and hit me right on the diamond-shaped area on belly. I staggered back a few feet before regaining my balance.

"Hey! What was that for!?" I yelled with a growl.

"We're having a battle idiot. I'm going to show you that we both can fight" he said before charging at me again, this time even faster.

I narrowly dodged the attack and scratched him on the nose as he passed by.

'Maybe I am ready for battles' I thought to myself getting ready to use a tackle of my own.

I rushed toward him when he opened his mouth wide and released a smoke so thick you'd think the sun's energy had just burned out. I discontinued my attack and coughed violently while searching for my opponent. Then, out of the thickness of the smoke, Zeke appeared and hit me square on the belly, sending me flying straight in to a rock. I struggled to stand up only to discover that my heel was now bleeding.

"Okay, okay! I surrender!" I shouted to the thick, black fog.

Within seconds the fog disappeared and Zeke was sitting on top of a rock with a huge grin.

"How do you like my smokescreen attack?" he teased before noticing the cut on my heel. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you bleed."

"It wasn't you, it was this damn rock!" I replied with a smile on my face. I knew this meant we couldn't go on the mission tonight.

"Well, see you tomorrow night for the mission!" he said before darting off to the hut. He suddenly stopped, turned my way, and shouted, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My dad checked out a room for you at the hotel on the north side of town. Just tell the Noctowl that Jack sent you and he'll show you to your room!"

I just stood there, more stunned that he still wanted to go on the mission than the fact that his dad spent money on me.

After a few seconds of silence, I regained my sense of reality and ran to the northern part of town. After following Zeke's instructions, I was led to my room where I laid on my small bed.

'That battle wasn't so bad. I felt a sudden rush while battling like it was my destiny or something. Maybe Zeke was right. Maybe we could make this rescue team thing work out.' I thought to myself before drifting off into a much needed sleep...

A few typos and little mistakes here and there, but that's not a very big deal. So far, I think it's a pretty good story. But the only thing I don't understand is how Pokemon themselves would know about which types have advantages and disadvantages against other types. But I've never played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, so I could be wrong about that. And you could've also described their location a little bit more. But other than those things, it's great. Keep it up!

Well for the whole disadvantage of types and stuff, if you're going to run a civilized village, you should know water douses fire. There'll be the obvious disadvantages like water conducting electricity and fire melting steel. But I probably won't add dragon's being weak to ice or that other unexplainable stuff.

P.S.- I'm currently writing chapter 2 and I'm getting into showing the personality's of characters. And thanks for pointing out that the village was left unexplained, I'll be sure to describe it in the next chapter.

Chapter 2: Tragedy at Mt. Steel

I woke up the next morning filled with energy. I dashed out of the hotel and saw Zeke talking a fox-like Pokemon with brown and cream-colored fur.

"Good morning, Zeke!" I shouted as I approached them.

"Hey Sapphire! I'd like you to meet my long time friend, Seth." he replied, pointing at the Eevee next to him.

"Nice to meet you, Sapphire." he said with a cool, calm voice as if we knew each other all our lives.

"Likewise," I then turn to Zeke and whispered, "So, you ready for tonight?"

"Ah yes, you two are going on a rescue mission tonight." Seth said, just as cool and calm as before. I was a little surprised until I saw his fox-like ears shaking rapidly. Those big, pointed ears probably couldn't miss anything.

"Wait... how do you know we're going on a rescue mission?"

"Well, because I'm coming with you." he replied with that cool and calm tone once again.

"Zeke! We're supposed to be a team. You can't make decisions like adding a new member without consulting me first!" I shouted, glaring at Zeke who seemed to flinch from my stare.

"Zeke made the right choice. Pokemon as weak as you two wouldn't last five minutes in Mt. Steel." His tone was starting to annoy me.

I charged at Seth, in hopes of showing him that I was ready for any battle. I was only about a foot away from him when he dodged to the left and hit me with a tackle of his own. His attack was much stronger than Zeke's from the previous night, but my rock-hard skin seemed to absorb most of the impact and damaged him a little at the same time.

"I'm sorry my friend, but your physical attacks will hurt you more than they hurt me!" I shouted, charging at him with another tackle.

Then suddenly, with his fox-like tail, he swept up some dust from the ground and shot it at my eyes. I immediately stopped my charge and violently rubbed my eyes to get the dust out. Seth, who seized the moment, came running at me with blinding speed and hit me square on the bright red, diamond-shaped patch on my stomach. As the attack sent me flying, I noticed that he didn't flinch from attacking me this time.

"It seems someone has a weak spot." he said, walking slowly towards me.

"Okay guys, that's enough. I need both of you for the mission tonight." Zeke finally said, interrupting the battle.

"Whatever, I believe I've proved my point about you guys being weak."

Seth walked over to me and helped me up but I simply pushed him aside and shouted, "I'm going for a walk!"

"Meet us in the center of town at sunset!" Zeke shouted as I darted off to the west.

This was the first time I had actually taken a look around the village. All of the houses were made of logs from oak and elm trees. The houses were held together with a sticky, transparent slime. I turned to my left to see a house being built across the road. I saw a pink Pokemon, who stood about four feet tall, with a cream-colored belly with pink stripes. It opened its mouth and released a tongue that stretched out about three fourths of its height. With its super long tongue, it licked the log violently and stuck on another log. Amazingly, the saliva held tight and kept the logs attached.

'That's disgusting' I thought, noticing that the very foundation of this village was a Pokemon's saliva.

I continued my walk and noticed a huge sign near, what seemed to be, the entrance to the village. In big letters, the sign said: Welcome to Grace Town, where adventures begin!

I glanced at the sun and saw that it was slowly setting. I dashed toward the center of the town, eager to get this mission over with.



I saw Zeke and Seth sitting near a huge, obsidian rock. It must have been sacred to the village as it was the only of its kind, and it had strange writing on it. I noticed a small bag tied around Seth's tail which probably was filled with food for our travels.

"It's about time." Seth said, nodding at me.

The time was finally here! We were finally going on a rescue mission! We were exiting Grace Town when I decided to take one last look.

"See ya tomorrow morning" I said softly before catching up with Zeke and Seth.



It took about 2 and a half hours, but we finally arrived at Mt. Steel. The mountain sides were comprised of both many different rocks and many different metals. It stood so high that the top of the mountain couldn't be seen with the naked eye. I looked to my right and saw a cave opening that probably led deep into the mountain, and maybe even through the other side. I ran towards it as the others followed. That was when I noticed the horrible truth.

"Uh guys... What part of the mountain is Pikachu in?" I asked frantically.

"Are you serious? Why do you think this was ranked as C and not D? The client expects the rescuers to search the entire mountain." Seth said with his cool and calm tone.

"The entire mountain? That'll take days!" Zeke shouted.

"That's exactly why we're going to split up. I'll search the cave on my own while you two search the ledges for another entrance."

"Who died and made you leader?" I muttered under my breath.

"I heard that." he shouted while running into the cave.

"Well, it's just us two now." I said, turning in Zeke's direction.

"Then lets get started." he simply said before running along the side of the mountain, looking for a way to get to a higher elevation.

We must've ran at least 50 feet around the mountain before finding a huge tree very close to a mountain ledge. We climbed the tree and from the top, hopped on the ledge. Soon enough, we found an opening just big enough for the both of us to fit through.

The interior of the mountain was just as incredible as the outside. The walls were lined with multi-colored, glinting gems that illuminated the entire area. There were many ledges and ridges that could easily be used to get to a higher or lower elevation.

"Maybe this mission won't be so hard." I said with a smile on my face.

"Oh yeah, well think again." said a voice behind us. It was an eerie, robotic voice that pronounced every syllable perfectly.

Both I and Zeke turned around to see Pokemon... or at least we thought it was one. It was a small, silvery gray sphere with an eye in the middle. It had two magnets attached to it and was floating off the ground.

It swooped in low to tackle us at an amazingly slow speed. I seized the opportunity and jumped up in the air and stomped his little metal body into the ground. He levitated back up for a retreat only to be hit by a pretty powerful tackle from Zeke. He lied unconscious on the floor as me and Zeke ran past him remembering the mission objective.

"And Seth says we're weak" I said as we picked up the pace a bit.

We figured Seth would be checking the underground areas so we kept going up. We were about 75 feet above the ground when we came to a huge boulder blocking a ledge that we needed to jump on to if we hoped to get any higher.

"Hey, come over here." Zeke whispered.

I turned towards him and saw that he was pointing at an opening in the wall. We both squeezed through the opening and continued our trek up the mountain side until we found another opening to the interior.

We were now at nearly 100 feet when we saw it. A small, yellow mouse-like Pokemon with bright red cheeks, pointed ears and a lightning shaped tail lying unconscious on the ground. It was surrounded by three of those weird Pokemon from before.

"Aww man, Pikachu's a really in a bind." I whispered, trying to figure out how we could handle this. Sure we could take out one of those guys but for these guys to be placed as guards, they must've been pretty strong. Let alone the fact that there were three of them.

"Hey Zeke, maybe we-." was all I was able to say before noticing that he wasn't even there. I scoped the room and saw that he was standing right in front of the weird Pokemon. He looked at me and jerked at the Pikachu, as if he was signaling something. I immediately caught on and nodded. He then ran in the opposite of the direction of the Pikachu, with all of the weird Pokemon following him.

'I guess he was right about him doing the battling while I rescue' I thought as I ran as fast as I could to the Pikachu.

I poked it a few times before it finally opened its eyes and stared at me as if I were an angel.

"Please tell me you're here to help me." said the Pikachu with a faint, female voice.

"Don't worry; we'll get you out of here." I said, helping her to her feet.

"Thank you so very much. My name is Silk, by the way. Will you honor me by telling me the names of my rescuers?" she whispered. I could tell she was very weak and exhausted.

"Oh, I'm Sapphire. That Cyndaquil over there is-." I immediately stopped as I saw Zeke's motionless body only a few feet away. The Pokemon surrounding him were lighting up with electricity, preparing for the final blow.

"Zeke!" I shouted as I ran to his side and glared at the three magnet Pokemon.

"What a waste of talent. A fire pokemon that can not even use fire-type attacks. We will be sure to make this as quick and painless as possible." said one of the Pokemon before the entire group discharged their electricity, aiming for Zeke.

Then, without thinking, I leaped in front of Zeke and took the attack head on. To my surprise the electric attack didn't hurt much at all. I then remembered that Zeke told me skin of rock and ground type Pokemon conducts electricity worse than rubber. However, the triple shock made me wince a little.

"You... you saved me." Zeke whispered.

"Hey, I bet you'd do the same for me." I turned to Zeke to see a big smile with a hint of anger towards the magnet Pokemon.

Zeke, with a confident look on his face, stood up and got in an attacking position.

"I hate rock and ground type Pokemon. We might not be able to hurt you, but we'll kill that Pikachu and Cyndaquil." said the magnet Pokemon from before, glaring at me.

Suddenly, the magnets on the three Pokemon started glowing with a white light that drew the three Pokemon together. Then, when the three Pokemon were joined, their entire body's lit up with a white light that illuminated every corner of the room. When the light faded, I could see the three Pokemon were tightly stuck together, and electricity jumping around the newly formed Pokemon's body. Zeke had also told me about Pokemon evolution, but I never thought I'd see one up close.

I turned to Zeke expecting him to have the same surprised look as me but what I saw in fact got me more surprised. On Zeke's back was a red and orange blazing inferno. He opened his mouth slowly and released a small flame.

'Show off...' I thought as I became concentrated on the battle again.

"Let me handle this, Sapphire. Go protect the Pikachu." ordered Zeke.

"Okay, but don't go dying on me." I shouted as I ran back to Silk.

A red, blue and yellow orb appeared in front of the magnet Pokemon that fired a tri-colored beam at Zeke. Zeke darted to the left, narrowly dodging the attack, and charged at the Pokemon with blinding fast speed, even leaving afterimages behind him. He impacted the Pokemon with full force, sending it flying a few feet. When the Pokemon regained its balance, it coated itself in electricity and charged at Zeke. However, Zeke kept his ground and waited for the Pokemon to get closer. When the Pokemon was only about two feet away, Zeke let out a barrage of flames, severely burning his opponent. The smell of burning metal immediately filled the room. Amazingly, after a few seconds of silence, the Pokemon levitated once again.

"I have to give it to you, little mouse. You put up a good fight, but you just can't beat me." said the Pokemon with an overconfident tone.

Then it happened... A white flash shot across the room, smacked off of the magnet Pokemon, sending it over the cliff, and landed on a nearby rock.

"What did I say about you two being too weak to battle?" I could recognize that cocky voice from anywhere.

"Stealing my win just like old times, Seth." Zeke said, with a huge grin on his face.

"I'm sorry, it was so tempting." said the Eevee, jumping off of the rock.

"It's not over yet..." said a robotic voice from over the cliff. The magnet Pokemon levitated slowly, still over the edge of the cliff.

"Why won't you die!" shouted Silk, very unexpectedly.

With a jolt of energy, she jumped off the rock and sent a jolt of electricity at the magnet Pokemon. It was a fairly weak attack, but I immediately saw its purpose. The shock disrupted the Pokemon's magnet field, which was the thing keeping him up in the air, and sent him plummeting nearly 100 feet to his doom. However, his final words left me shuddering in fear.

"Steelix! It's up to you now! Make sure these children never see the light of day again. Make sure they don't even live to see the Legendary strike!" shouted the magnet Pokemon before finally falling so hard onto a huge, pointed rock, that it actually was separated back into three parts.

"What's the heck is a 'Steelix'? And what does he mean Legen-." Zeke stopped there as he saw a large, gray Pokemon in the stance of a cobra at the base of the mountain.

Its tail shined a bright white before repeatedly slamming it into the mountain. We weren't worried at first until the mountain started shaking violently. We frantically searched for another exit, as walking along the edge of a shaking mountain 100 feet in the air was out of the question. Then suddenly, the floor below us gave way, and we were falling...

Four young Pokemon, hopelessly falling...

Falling to our death...

I turned to Seth and saw him bounce of a rock and grab Zeke, then bounce off another rock. He was doing this to make sure they didn't end up on the bottom of the pileup. He a torn look at me, and I immediately knew he could only do it to one Pokemon at a time. Then, with another unexpected act, Silk copied Seth's idea by grabbing me and bouncing off rock to rock, keeping us above the rockslide. We were bouncing all over the place and I knew there was a very small chance we'd find our way back to town.

Then, as fast as it begun, it had ended. Our battered bodies stood on top of a pileup that stood at least 20 feet tall. We hopped our way down and looked back to see Mt. Steel completely obliterated.

"Aww man... My dad's so gonna kill me!" Zeke shouted as he stared at the remains. I couldn't help but snicker a little at the comment.

After resting for a while, and everyone getting acquainted with Silk, we walked off into the sunrise, hoping we were going in the correct direction...

***********

Well, that was a long one. That chapter was pretty fun to write too. I'd like to ask you guys something.

Would you like my battles like this: I attacked him with bite.
OR like this: I dug my sharp fangs into his skin.

Chapter 3: The Sacred Forest

"Well it's obvious we're going the wrong way..." Seth said, frowning. That was the first time I saw him worried.

"I'm sure we'll get back to Grace!" Zeke said, hoping that would cheer him up.

"Don't fill your heads up with false hope. Truth is we could be miles away from this 'Grace'. Our best bet is to keep going down this road and find the nearest village." Silk said with a very serious tone.

No one talked for about an hour as we continued our search for civilization. The road led us to a dark forest that gave us all the creeps, even Seth, who had seemed to regain himself. All of the trees stood at least 20 feet high there were so many. It was probable that little to no sunlight reached some parts of the forest.

Finally, breaking the silence, I said, "This forest seems to be the only way to the other side. You guys sure about this?"

"Do we have a choice?" Seth said before walking into the forest. Unsure of what to do, the rest of us followed him.

The forest was just as creepy from the inside than the outside. The trees were all bunched up together, giving us very little room to walk. After what felt like hours, we found a big clearing that was perfect for resting. We knew were walking for a long time when we saw that the moon had come out. However, it made no difference as the moonlight probably wasn't seen from other parts of the forest.

"Okay, we're officially lost!" Zeke shouted, lying on a patch of grass.

"Keep your voice down, Zeke." Silk whispered, glaring at him.

"WHY SHOULD I!?" Zeke shouted at the top of his lungs on purpose.

"Because we're not alone." Seth replied before slapping Zeke with his tail.

"Well it seems we've been found out..." said a mysterious voice from the shadows.

"Show yourself!" I shouted to the shadows, not sure if I was even facing in their direction.

Then suddenly, two Pokemon jumped out from the shadows. The first Pokemon had crimson red skin that shined in the moonlight and looked somewhat bug-like. It had white wings and two large, pincer-like claws.

The second Pokemon was a dog-like creature with black fur and two horns on its head bending backwards. It had had a long, pointed tail that swung violently as it growled at us.

After a few second of silence, the Houndoom spoke, "What are you kids doing so far out into the woods?" He had a strong masculine voice. I can tell it was him who was talking to us from the shadows.

"We- we were lo- lost." Zeke stuttered.

"Oh man up, Zeke. We're looking for the nearest village. You got a problem with that?" Seth said, walking towards the two Pokemon.

"Watch yourself kid! You're lucky we don't kill right now!" shouted the Scizor with a strong, feminine voice.

"Like you can..." Seth said with a smirk. I was beginning to think he was trying to start a fight.

That's when a small badge on the Scizor's claw. It was red with a Platinum star in the middle. They were a rescue team, which meant they couldn't harm other Pokemon unless they stopped them from completing their mission.

"Look, you guys don't want to be in the Sacred Forest at this time." said the Houndoom with a serious tone.

"Why does it matter? Morning and night mean nothing to us since almost no light hits this place. We just rely on Zeke's flame." Silk said, now confident that the Pokemon weren't going to attack.

"That's not the problem. Lately, we've been getting 15 missions a day reporting Pokemon disappearing in these woods. Sadly, we complete less than 5 of those missions a day." said the Scizor, just as serious as the Houndoom.

"Are you saying there's something here... killing the Pokemon?" I asked worriedly.

"Well, I don't know about killing, but they aren't seen or heard again." replied the Houndoom.

"Just because we're kids doesn't mean anything will scare us. We're a rescue team too." Seth said, pulling out the rescue badge from the bag he tied around his tail.

"Hmm... Okay, continue your business here. But don't complain if you don't make it out of here alive." said the Scizor, nodding at his partner. And with that, they were off, running back into the shadows.

"Ok guys, let's sleep here tonight. Tomorrow we're getting out of this place!" Seth shouted before jumping onto a soft patch of grass.

I found my own patch of grass and leaves and laid down it, slowly drifting into a much needed sleep...


*** Middle of the night ***


CRASH!!! A tree on the opposite side of the clearing had just fallen over. The loud crash woke us all up from our rest. From the fallen tree rose a swarm of Pokemon. They were yellow with big red eyes and greatly resembled bees. They all had huge needled on the end of two of their insect limbs. Their stingers and needles dripped with a purple liquid.

'Poison...' I thought to myself as I backed up a little.

"Why did you knock down our home? We Beedrill have lived in that tree for years!" said a huge, female voice. We had just angered the Queen...

"Do you really think we small Pokemon could have taken down a tree that big?" Seth said, trying to keep his cool.

"That could!" she shouted, pointing one of her needles at the flame burning brightly on Zeke's back.

"What?! It wasn't me, I swear!" Zeke shouted.

"That's not possible! Zeke was sleeping opposite the tree this whole time. Plus there's no smoke!" Silk said, backing up her friend.

The Queen then pointed at two of her soldier Beedrill, then at us. Without hesitation, the two Beedrill charged at us, needles and all. Seth bent low before shooting himself at them with his super fast tackle from previous fights. He bounced off the first Beedrill, sending it flying back toward the swarm, and managed to scratch the other Beedrill's wing before landing.

"Zeke, come over here and help me. You two stand back! This is a man's job." Seth said with a grin. Zeke ran over to him while I and Silk stuck our tongues out at him.

The Queen then ordered for the rest of the Beedrill to attack. There must have been 20 of them, including the Queen, as they charged at Zeke and Seth, who for some reason had smiles on there faces. Suddenly, Zeke jumped on Seth's back then up in the air. He was only a few feet away from the Beedrill before releasing the same flames he released on the magnet Pokemon. I saw seven Beedrill drop, their skin burned as black as coal.

13 left.

Seth shot dust in the eyes of 3 Beedrill before hitting them with a normal tackle and running to Zeke.

10 left.

Then things turned for the worse. One of the Beedrill snuck behind Seth and stabbed his side with a poisoned up needle. The Beedrill flew back to the swarm, leaving Seth both bleeding and possibly poisoned. I watched in horror as his fur turned from brown to a crimson red, glinting in the moonlight. I thought he had met his end until Seth's body starting to glow like the magnet Pokemon from the Mt. Steel. The moonlight surrounded his body, making him shine even brighter. When the light faded, I was left speechless. The spot where Seth's helpless body had once laid was now occupied by a black Pokemon with yellow rings on his legs, tail, pointed ears, and forehead.

'Oh great... Another reason for him to act stuck up.' I thought to myself

He opened his crimson red eyes and said with his cool and calm voice, "I always wanted to be a Jolteon, but this will do."

The four closest Beedrill tried to retreat to the back like but then Seth's body became surrounded in a black aura. He dashed at the four Beedrill with blinding speed, taking all four out in one tackle.

6 Left.

Zeke then opened his mouth and released a think, blanket of darkness. He got a little carried away and the smoke soon covered the entire clearing. I held Silk tight as we were vulnerable to any attack. I then remembered a little trick I learned at Mt. Steel, but forgot to tell Zeke. I concentrated hard and soon enough, dust from the ground rose up with a gust of wind. The sandstorm blew away the smoke in seconds. I look back at the battle just in time to see 5 Beedrill falling to the ground and Seth up in a tree. I noticed the rings on him were glowing, which probably allowed him to see in the blanket of darkness.

Only one left.

The Queen Beedrill was paralyzed with fear as she looked at all of her fallen warriors.

"Time to let us in on the action!" I shouted as I ran toward the Beedrill with Silk trailing close behind.

I stopped directly under the Beedrill before jumping in the air, smashing my rock hard head into her. Silk then jumped in the air, electricity practically jumping off of her red cheeks. She landed on the Beedrill, who was now shooting upward from my attack. Holding tight to the now falling Beedrill, she discharged a fairly large amount of electricity, severely damaging her opponent and lighting up the entire area around us.

Silk jumped off the now burned Pokemon and watched it fall slowly.

"We're finally in the clear!" Zeke shouted, letting his flame go down.

"Not so fast. The light from my evolution and Silk's electric attack most likely alerted some Pokemon. Namely, whatever knocked down that tree." Seth said, jumping off the branch.

As usual, he was right. From behind the tree, a majestic Pokemon appeared. It was cerulean blue and had a dog-like figure. Its head was topped with a crystal-shaped horn that glinted in the moonlight. Behind the horn were long locks of hair colored with different shades of purple.

"What business do you have in the Sacred Forest of the Legends?" said the Pokemon with a thunderous, yet obviously feminine, voice.

"Suicune! I thought it was only a legend but now I see you here with my own two eyes! You're as beautiful as you're described in the legends" Seth shouted. That was the most excited I had ever heard him.

"I'll ask you once again; why are you in this forest?" Suicune said, unfazed by Seth's comment.

"Ah yes," Seth said with his normal tone, "we seem to have gotten lost, but we'll be out by tomorrow. Now may I ask you something?"

"No, you may not..." Suicune said simply, before running deeper in the forest. We heard a load roar in the distance that made the ground shake a little.

"Suicune, Pokemon of the north wind. She truly is as incredible the legends describe." Silk said smiling.

Suddenly, we saw smoke rise high from the west.

"Civilization, here we come!" I shouted with a grin that quickly spanned across my face.

"I'm sorry, but the village will have to wait. I want to see what Suicune's up to." Seth said, turning toward the direction in which Suicune ran.

"Are you out of your mind? I've just about had it with this forest!" Zeke shouted.

"Fine, I'll go by myself." Seth said, walking slowly away from the clearing.

"Well I and Zeke are going to the village. We'll wait for you there. You coming, Silk?" I said, turning in the direction of the smoke.

"Actually, I'm quite curious to learn more about Suicune and her intentions. Plus, Seth can't wander these forests alone." Silk replied before running to Seth.

"Don't worry; we'll catch up with you guys when we're satisfied with our thirst for knowledge." Seth said with a smirk before running into the shadows, Silk following closely behind.

"Come on Zeke; let's get out of here before another Pokemon shows up." I said before grabbing his hand and running in the direction of the smoke.

We stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked back at the direction Seth and Silk had run to.

"Be careful..." I whispered before running back in the trees with Zeke at my side.

Come on! Someone post...

Chapter 4: The Legandary Rescue


Zeke and I emerged from the Sacred Forest just in time to see the sunrise. We blocked our eyes with our short hands as the constant darkness from the forest made them sensitive to light. I opened my eyes slowly to see the red-orange sphere rise slowly, illuminating the entire landscape.

I grabbed Zeke's hand again and shouted, "Come on!" before running towards the, still rising, smoke. We were running as fast as we could since, from our point of view, the land look pretty flat. Then suddenly, Zeke pulled my hand, causing both of us to stumble and roll a few feet.

"What the hell was that for?" I asked, standing up and brushing myself off.

"Watch out where you're going!" He shouted, pointing only a few feet away from us.

I walked over to where he was pointing, and to my amazement, I was looking down at the jagged rocks far below us.

"What the heck? How did we end up on a cliff?" I asked, still a little shaken from nearly falling to my death.

"I have no idea. More importantly, how the hell did that happen?" he said, pointing once again.

I looked at the intensity in his eyes before turning in the direction he was pointing. I was horrified at the eye-wrenching, stomach-churning, head-bobbling sight. The smoke that led us to the cliff wasn't from the burning of wood from a village, but from the burning of the village itself. The wooden houses, the crops, the villagers... all being incinerated by an inescapable, blazing inferno.

"How... how did this happen?" I managed to mutter after a long silence.

"Help me! Somebody please help me!" cried a childish voice below us.

Zeke and I peeked over the cliff and saw a Pokemon running along a ledge that looked like the cross between a pig and a monkey. It had tan fur with brown hands and feet. Only a few feet behind the Mankey were two other Pokemon who seemed to be chancing it.

The first Pokemon was a gray and black dog-like Pokemon, but different from the Houndoom we saw the other night. It had large, sharp teeth lining its mouth that went perfectly with its blood red eyes.

The second Pokemon was blue and had the figure of a two-legged lizard. On its head was a stony, white material that looked as hard as diamond.

I and Zeke searched frantically for a way to assist the Mankey, but couldn't find one. The pursuers were directly under us when I stomped my foot hard on the ground, angry that we couldn't help. Suddenly, the rocks above the Mightyena became loose and a rockslide was soon created. The Mightyena was paralyzed with fear as boulders came hurtling down at him and knocked him off of the cliff. The Bagon narrowly escaped the boulders with only a few small rocks hitting the hard material on its head.

'Did I do that?' I thought to myself before realizing the chase wasn't over.

The Mankey was literally running for its dear life when it tripped over a branch and landed flat on its face. The Bagon slowed down a bit, happy that its hunt was coming to an end. Then, from a ledge below the Mankey, appeared a Pokemon just as incredible as Suicune. From what I could tell, it was a wolf-like Pokemon that stood on its hind legs. It had a blue and black fur with a yellow chest and the top of its wrists and middle of its chest were pointed with a white spike that could probably pierce any Pokemon's skin, even mine. The Lucario rapidly jumped from rock to rock at speeds I didn't even know could be achieved. Within seconds, Lucario was the only thing standing between Bagon and its prey. After a few seconds of no movement, the Bagon charged at Lucario with it head bowed down, hoping to damage it with the material surrounding its head. Lucario simply raises a leg before slamming it into the side of Bagon's skull. I could have sworn I heard a crack from the impact before watching Bagon fall off the cliff, meeting the same fate as its partner in crime.

"Whoa... cool!" Zeke shouted, breaking the silence.

The Lucario looked up at us with its piercing red eyes before grabbing the Mankey and jumping his way up the cliff. With one final jump, they landed only a few feet behind us.

The Lucario placed the Mankey on the floor, who seemed to be in shock from his near death experience. He then turned to us and with a strong, masculine voice said, "How is it possible you two got out of the Sacred Forest?"

"We saw the smoke and came running... By the way, what happened to that village?" I asked eager to find out what happened to our last hope.

"What happened...? Entei, that's what." he replied.

"What the heck is an 'Entei'?" Zeke asked.

Lucario then lowered his head and started, "Entei is the legendary fire beast of the volcano. He is the brother of Raikou, beast of thunder, and Suicune, beast of the north wind. He came running from his home at the foot of the volcano to east in what seemed to be a rush. He blazed through our village, setting anything that touched his fiery mane ablaze before running off into the forest. I caught sight of an ominous thunder cloud while helping the citizens out of the village, which means it's likely that Raikou is there too."

I contemplated on his story for a while before finally saying, "While exploring the forest, me and my friends spotted Suicune who also seemed to be in a hurry. My two other friends are pursuing her as we speak, eager to find out her intentions. Why are all these legendary Pokemon meeting anyway?"

"I don't know but your friends made a big mistake following her. If they are seen, the legends won't hesitate to kill them. If only I had the rest of my team, I could have gone on a search for them."

"Well we're both in luck, because me and Sapphire are part of a rescue team and are determined to find our friends." Zeke said with a serious tone.

"As a rescuer myself, I cannot dismiss your courage to go on such a dangerous mission. Are you sure you want to come? Keep in mind that I'm nowhere near as powerful as the legendaries."

"I'm not leaving my friends behind knowing their death is inevitable. It's my duty as a rescuer to find them and bring them to safety!" I shouted with a serious tone. I was quite surprised at my new found courage.

"Okay, then it will be my honor to assist you. My name is Neos, by the way. I know the Larvitar's name is Sapphire, but what is yours, young Cyndaquil?"

'Whoa... cool moves and a cool name. Only if he could be a permanent member.' I thought to myself.

"My name is Zeke." Zeke replied.

"Okay Zeke and Sapphire, I have a preposition for you two. How about I carry to the legendary location? I have a feeling I know where they're meeting."

"Sure, okay!" Zeke and I shouted at the same time before jumping into Neos' arms. With a smile, he held us tightly and sped into the forest.



We stopped and Neos put us down a few feet away from a clearing we hadn't noticed before. We walked slowly towards the clearing and hid behind some bushes. In the middle of the clearing we saw Suicune, and two other Pokemon that greatly resembled her.

The first was a brown, dog-like Pokemon standing to the left of Suicune. Its face was masked with a red, white and yellow material that only showed its red eyes. Behind its head was a long lock of white hair that greatly resembled the white plumes released from an erupting volcano. That must have been Entei.

The second was yellow Pokemon standing to the right of Suicune that greatly resembled a tiger. Its mouth was open wide, exposing two sharp fangs that could probably pierce any material. It fashioned a mask similar to Entei's but it was black and light blue. Behind its head were locks of curled up purple hair that ran down its back. It also had a pointed tail that zigzagged in different directions. That must have been Raikou.

The three legendary Pokemon were all facing an obsidian rock with the same weird writing as the one placed in the center of Grace town. I looked across the clearing and amazingly, I saw Silk sitting atop Seth's back, hiding behind some bushes. I was suddenly filled with joy and jumped up and down while waving at Silk. I could tell she had noticed me. I wish she hadn't...

Silk jumped up and down while waving as well; completely forgetting she was on Seth's back. Finally, Seth tripped over and sent him and Silk falling through the bushes. They were completely exposed to the legendary Pokemon.

"Hmm... so it seems you've followed me." Suicune said, glaring at Seth and Silk.

"What is the meaning of this, sister?" Raikou asked with an overwhelming, male voice.

"Nothing of importance," Suicune said, "brother Entei, if you will?"

"Gladly." Entei replied simply.

He then opened his mouth, shooting an immense fireball at Silk and Seth. I thought it was over when the Fireball suddenly stopped in midair, surrounded in a purple aura. I looked at Neos whose hand was now surrounded with the same purple aura.

"My psychic power won't last long, hurry and save your friends." Neos whispered.

"What is this trickery!?" Entei shouted.

With that, we ran across the opening toward our friends as fast as we could. It was obvious that we were spotted when Raikou charged an electric ball in front of his mouth and shot it at us. Like the fireball, it froze in the air, surrounded by the purple aura. We looked behind us and saw Neos running closely behind, now with his other hand surrounded with the purple aura. That was when Seth and Silk noticed us and started running toward us. We met in the middle of the clearing with a flurry of hugs.

"I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but your little reunion ends here. It's a shame you won't live to see the Legendary Strike." Suicune said, walking slowly toward us.

Neos released the two attacks and surrounded us in a purple orb when Suicune began to open her mouth. The two attacks scraped the side of the orb as we began to levitate. Then the three legendary pokemon opened their mouths wide, releasing powerful beams at us; Suicune releasing a beam of multi-colored bubbles, Entei releasing a red-orange beam of fire, and Raikou releasing a yellow beam of lightning with small jolts jumping around it. The beams hit our protective orb all at the same time, dissipating it and sending us flying through the air. Incredibly, Neos surrounded us in another orb, but was unable to slow down the speed at which we were bursting through the air. The Sacred Forest looked like a green spec from the altitude we were now at.

'Oh great, we're going to end up even farther away from Grace.' I thought to myself as we came plunging back down.

Finally, Neos managed to slow down the drop as we landed on an unknown beach. Even though the sand softened the fall, we all simply laid there as if we were paralyzed from the neck down. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if we weren't from the ordeal we just experienced. I saw Neos grasp his heart tightly, suffering from immense physical and mental pain. It was then that I thought about Suicune's words.

'Legendary strike? What is that and why is it so important that normal Pokemon like us have to witness it?.' I thought to myself before finally blacking out...

***********

Yeah, I know Lucario only learns Psychic through TM but I was rushing...

Come on People! REVIEW!!!

Chapter 5: The Secret of the Stones

I opened my eyes slowly, forgetting for a moment where I was. My body ached as I struggled to stand up, before finally giving up and lying down in the sand. I managed to look over my shoulder and saw Zeke, struggling to stand up as well.

"Hey Zeke I can't turn my head the other way. Mind telling me who else is conscious?" I whispered.

He paused for a few seconds, scanning the beach, and finally whispered back, "It seems it's just us too. Not even Neos is awake."

"I didn't expect him to be up. He used up all his energy just so we could be safe. Now, let's not put all his hard work to waste." I said, trying to stand up again. I managed to get on my knees before gasping for air.

I looked at the beach in hopes of seeing any signs of civilization, but was instead shown a desolate wasteland, untouched by Pokemon kind for what seemed to be decades. The current seemed to be pulling away from the shoreline, as if it were collecting somewhere. The white sand below me gave me a weird feeling, as if we weren't meant to be here.

"Where are we?" Zeke asked, crawling towards me.

I slowly turned to Zeke and said, "It doesn't matter where we are, since it is obvious we're not getting back home."

"Of course we're gonna get home! Look how much we've been through and we're still alive. Now that the team's back together and with Neos by our side, we'll get through this too." Zeke said, forcing a smile.

I smiled back at him- forcibly of course- and said, "You were my first friend when I came to this world. I still don't completely understand Pokemon, and you don't completely understand humans, but that hasn't even put the slightest dent in our friendship. Whether we're trying to get home or not, I'd travel to the ends of the world with you, Zeke."

"Oh stop it, Sapphire. You're gonna make me sad..."

'We're hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles away from home and you're not even sad yet? I'd expect someone to be crying a river by now.' I thought to myself. That's when I noticed the huge, white mountain behind Zeke. At the base of it, I believe I saw what looked liked to be a cave. Zeke noticed I was fixated on something behind him, and turned around to see what it was.

"Oh no... No way! No more mountains, caves, creepy forest, or legendary beast for me!" Zeke shouted, obviously gaining his energy back.

I stood on my feet and said, "You know you don't want me to go in alone. Plus, you owe me from saving your life at Mt. Steel."

"Grrr... Okay, fine. But any signs of weirdness and we're outta there." he growled.

We started walking toward the mountain at an amazingly slow pace; saving whatever energy we had for any possible battles. As we neared the mountain, my vision became clearer and I could tell that there was, in fact, a cave at the base of the mountain. However, it took us almost an hour to get to the cave at our speed. I looked up at the beautiful moon and stars before turning to Zeke.

"It'll be pretty dark in there so light up your back and let's get going."

And with that, Zeke's back blazed with a controlled inferno, giving us both heat and light. We slowly stepped into the cave, almost expecting something weird and unnatural to happen. Surprisingly, nothing of the sort occurred. We continued down the cave, which seemed to be one big straight line. We then reached a small circular room with a lighten torch hanging off the wall. Someone else was here...

"Stand your guard, Zeke. We're in no condition to fight, but we can't let whoever's in here out. Who knows what they might do to the others' motionless bodies." I whispered.

"Who says you weaklings can even beat me?" said a robotic voice from the shadows that sounded oddly familiar. Out of the shadows appeared a fairly large, grey Pokemon with two black magnets attached to two spheres that acted as its shoulders. It had three eyes, with it's middle one being the only one that was red. My heart skipped a beat when I realized how much he bore a resemblance to the magnet Pokemon, who I now know as a Magneton, from Mt. Steel.

"What business do you have on the island of the sea beast? And more importantly, how did you get to this desolate place?" the Jibacoil asked in it's weird, robotic tone.

"We don't know anything about a 'sea god' but we were blasted all the way from Sacred Forest by Suicune, Entei and Raikou." I replied.

"What!? They've already started re-grouping? That means the first sign is not far away! Hurry, we must leave!" shouted the Jibacoil, levitating past us.

"Oh no you don't!" Zeke shouted before releasing small flames upon the back of the Jibacoil.

The Jibacoil continued on through the cave, not even phased by the attack.

"Leave him. I don't think he'll hurt the others" I said before could Zeke let out more flames.

"What was he babbling about when he said 'first sign'?"

"I don't know, but let's continue down the cave. If this is the island of some sea god, maybe we can get some clues." I suggested before walking across the small room, followed by Zeke walking close behind.

We walked for about 15 minutes before reaching another small room, but this one didn't have another opening at the end. Instead, there was an obsidian rock like the one in Grace and the Sacred Forest; it even had the same weird writing. I and Zeke ran up to the rock, examining it for any pictures to describe the text.

"This is pointless! There's no way we'll ever understand this thing. Not even the elders at Grace could decipher it!" Zeke yelled, walking away from the rock.

I closely examined the text and I started to feel an immense headache. However, this was no normal migraine. It felt like my subconscious was digging through my memories, searching for something. It seemed to have found out, as the ache suddenly stopped and one word was stuck in my head.

"English..." I whispered, looking at the stone.

"Did you say something?" Zeke asked, glancing my way.

"It's... It's in English!" I shouted.

"Really!... What's English?" Zeke asked, looking completely lost.

"Uh... I'm not entirely sure. But I know it's in English, and I can read it!" I replied, staring even harder at the jet black stone.

"Oh yeah! Then what does it say?" Zeke asked, probably thinking I had gone crazy. I looked at the first word and began to translate:

I am the beast of the sea. I dwell deep underwater, dormant until my time comes. My destiny has already been foretold, and I have decided that my own island will be my first victim. The sea will draw back, exposing more land, making the land dwellers proud. Then suddenly, the water shall form an impenetrable wall and set course for my island. The land will be swallowed by the sea, destroying any thing with the will to live. I am the beast of the sea. I am Kyogre.

"What the- How did you do that?" Zeke asked worriedly.

"I have no idea, but now it all makes sense. The water drawing back, exposing more land. This must be Kyogre's island!" I shouted running back towards the beach.

"Whoa, hold up. You've got some explaining to do!" Zeke screamed before leaping in front of the room's only exit.

"No time! If I'm right, all of us, and eventually the entire island, could be under water within the hour!" I roared pushing Zeke, aside. He stood there, stunned, before finally following after me.

It took us about 30 minutes to escape the cave and run back to the beach. There we saw Seth, Silk and Neos, now fully awake, staring out at sea.

"Hey guys! You'll never guess-." I stopped when I noticed what they were so fascinated by out at sea. Coming at the island at an amazing speed was a wall of water, capable of annihilating us all...

"What is that monstrosity?" Silk shrieked.

I walked up beside her and simply said, "The Legendary Strike..."

Yay! You've finally gotten another reply!...and it's from the same person. Anyway, so far the story is pretty good. It's interesting, but it has its mistakes. There are still some grammatical errors in your story, and in Chapter four, Lucario said 'preposition' when it should have said 'proposition'. And (as I have learned from the C+C for my fanfic), you're rushing through these chapters too fast. Take some time to write them, and you'll see how good they can turn out. Also, it's only been five chapters, and you've already started the Legendary Strike. Unless that's just the first part of a series of disasters, that's not good. Well, that's all I have to say.

Thanks for posting again! Yeah, I've decided to post a chapter once a week so I can read over it and see if there are any mistakes. Also, that is only the first of many, many disaters. I've got the entire story played in my head =)

This is brilliant. I am loving every minute of this. I can't wait for the next chapter!

Chapter 6: The Legendary Strike - Kyogre's Rage


We all just stared at the wave, both stunned and amazed. Riding the monstrous wave was an enormous, blue Pokemon with red symbols on it. Because of its fish-like body, its yellow eyes were far apart but still glaring at us.

"Ah yes, now I remember," Neos said suddenly, "that is the legendary Kyogre. Years ago, it had a battle with-."

"I'm sure this is an interesting story, but we have more important matters to attend to." Seth interrupted, turning his head back toward the wave.

"Seth is right! I saw we have less than 30 minutes before that thing makes land!" Silk shouted, obviously frightened about the current situation.

"Well I can tell you one thing; I'm not making another protective orb. My psychic energy is drained."

"Aw man, we're gonna drown! I can't swim!" Zeke shouted after an awkward silence.

"Be quiet Zeke! I'm trying to think!" Seth barked.

That's when I looked back at the cave we just came from. I remembered that it was just the base of a medium sized mountain, easily climbable by fast Pokemon.

"I've got it!" I shouted, "We need to get to the top of the mountain."

"And that will help how? That wave will swallow the entire island!" Silk screamed, convinced that we were as good as dead.

"No, I see what she's getting at. By the time the water reaches the top of the mountain, its force will be severely weakened. If we time it right, we can ride the current made by the wave. After that, we'll need immense luck." Neos stated.

I hadn't thought that far but the plan seemed to catch onto the others. And with that, I and Zeke ran toward Neos, hoping he'd carry us like he did at the Sacred Forest. Without hesitation he grabbed us and, with Silk and Seth, ran toward the cave almost three times faster than I and Zeke had. In about ten minutes, we reached the base of the mountain and began our trek to safety. I had forgotten about our time limit but when we reached top and looked back at the wave, we knew we had only a little more than five minutes.

"We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna drown to a horrible death, we're gonna die!" Zeke began chanting.

I walked over to him and raised my hand. SLAP!!! That was all that was heard as Zeke's head made a 90 degree turn.

"Calm down Zeke! Neos, can you carry Zeke while we're at sea. I'm afraid he'll do something stupid and drown."

"While I'm at it, I'll carry you too. Pokemon of your attribute tend to sink in deep waters." Neos suggested. Without thinking twice, Zeke and I hopped right back into his arms.

Four minutes... Silk struggled to keep her electricity under lock, knowing that letting it out at sea would probably mean doom for everyone else.

Three minutes... Seth was lying down on the rocky mountain, lost in his own world.

Two minutes... Neos stood tall, ready to protect his new friends no matter what.

One minute... Me and Zeke held tightly to Neos and braced for impact.

SPLASH!!!

The entire island shook viciously when the colossal wave folded over and hit. I blinked only three times before seeing that the water was already above the cave. I managed to catch a glimpse of the Jibacoil from before, only to watch it sink below the unforgiving sea. Glaring straight at use, Kyogre opened his mouth and shot out a swirling beam of water at us. The attack barely missed us as we ducked out of the way.

"The strike has begun and you shall be the first witnesses!" yelled the water beast in a deafening voice as it rose rapidly with the water. It was impossible to tell its gender with a voice so thunderous.

Before we knew it, the water was less than 20 feet under us, but obviously slowed down. I peeked over the ledge, only to see that Kyogre was no longer there. I looked around anxiously, but I discovered that it was swimming away from the mountain at blinding speed, as if it was late for a meeting. Before it went completely out of view, it splashed its large tail fin onto the water, creating a huge wave traveling faster than the former tsunami.

CRASH!!!

The wave literally broke off the peak of the mountain. We held tightly to the large piece of rock as we drifted away from the island. Neos threw me over his shoulder and held me there as he pressed Zeke hard against his chest with his free arm. I took this opportunity to look back at the island... or more literally, where the island used to be. By now the entire island had been swallowed by the sea.

"I've proved some others wrong today by witnessing the Legendary Strike... now I wish I hadn't." I muttered before resting in Neos' hold, trusting him with my life...

**********

I felt an irritating nudge at my side that just wouldn't stop.

'Wait, this seems WAY too familiar.' I thought to myself before opening my eyes. Looking down at me was Zeke, Seth, Silk, Neos, and two other Pokemon.

The first Pokemon was blue and stood about 5"7 on its hind legs. It had webbed feet and hands and a long blue tail. Above a bright yellow duck-like beak was a ruby that matched its eye color.

The second Pokemon had a dog-like figure with white fur and black paws. It had a curved, black tail and protruding from its head was a sharp, black, blade-like material that curved backwards.

"May I ask why everyone is staring at me?" I asked with a smirk.

"Now, is that any way to treat your rescuers?" Zeke said smiling, looking very much like his father. We both chuckled a little.

"Most Pokemon are frightened by near-death experiences. But at the same time, most Pokemon don't survive a tsunami." said the Absol in a feminine, smiling along with me and Zeke before helping me up.

"Hello Sapphire, good to see you're awake. Your friends here told us your name, but allow me to introduce myself. My name Abigail, but you can call me Abby."

"And I'm Daren." said the Golduck in a masculine voice.

I smiled at the two of them before observing our surroundings. A few feet to my left was a sign stating: EVOLUTION KINGDOM – One mile away!

"Are you guys from this 'Evolution Kingdom'?" Neos asked, after noticing I was fixed on the sign. It was obvious that the other had been up and about only a few minutes before me.

"Got that right! There ain't no kingdom out there like Evolution Kingdom. By the way, is there a chance you guys might be part of a rescue team?" Daren said.

"As a matter of fact, we are. However, Neos is part of a different team." Silk stated.

"Perfect! We have to report to Crystal and Root that we've found them!" shouted Daren.

"Excuse me? Who are Crystal and Root?" Zeke asked.

"Oh, sorry for the lack of explanation." Abby started, "Princess Crystal, the majestic Glacia and Prince Root, the incredible Leafia. They are the rulers of our beloved kingdom."

"Okay, and what have you 'found'?" asked Seth.

"We've found the last two teams to compete in the Rescue Team Tournament. Teams must consist of three or four members, but you guys have five. Seeing as Neos isn't even part of your team, he could join us bringing your total to four, and ours to three!" Abby said with sparkling eyes.

"Wait a minute! Since when did we agree to a competition?" I asked, still a little confused.

"First prize is a precious metal! Let me show you a Smeargle's drawing." Abby said with a jolt of energy, unraveling a white bag tied around her ankle. From it, she pulled out a picture of the black, obsidian rock we had seen so many times before. I started hard at the picture but the Smeargle failed to draw the text on the rock.

"Okay, we're in!" I shouted without hesitation.

"Are you serious? What are you thinking Sapphire?" Seth shouted, losing his cool.

"Uh... nothing. I just think that its time we had one of those rocks for ourselves. You know, after seeing one at Grace, the forest, and Kyog-." I immediately stopped. Everyone stared at me except Zeke, who just shook his head in disapproval.

"Ok Sapphire, you've got some explaining to do!" Neos yelled, also losing patience with me.

"Um... well... I'll start from the beginning..." And so I started, dragging them away from Daren and Abby. I told them everything, including the little fact that I wasn't an original Pokemon. After the discussion, it took them a while to take everything in.

"So you knew the wave was coming..." Seth said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah... I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys earlier. I didn't think it mattered."

"Well, we are friends. That won't change whether you're a Pokemon or not." Silk said, smiling. Neos and Seth joined in with grins of their own.

"Well, if what you're saying is true, we have to get that rock in order to know about the disaster that will strike this land." Neos said.

"Then it's settled! Off to Evolution Kingdom!" I yelled, loud enough so Abby and Daren would hear.

*****************

Cool, new fan.

Chapter 7: The Tournament

We walked for only about 45 minutes before reaching a nearby village.

"This is your 'Evolution Kingdom'?" Zeke asked, unimpressed. From what we could tell, the village was just a bunch of beat up, wooden lodges. The wooden huts made an eerie creaking sound as we walked pass them and the soil was so damp; it could be mistaken for quick sand if you stood still too long.

"Of course not," Abby started, "the actual kingdom is a little farther from here. However, only invited Pokemon are allowed past the concrete gates."

"So why have you led us here?" I asked confused.

"We've come here to send a messenger." Daren stated. "Not even we are allowed into the glorious gates of the castle. Heck, I even doubt they'll let the messenger through. He or she will probably just relay the message onto the gatekeeper, and it will soon reach the prince and princess."

At the end of the explanation, we continued our trek through the run-down village. Crimson eyes stared at us through cracked doors as we approached the center of town. At the center of town was a small hut made of wood and bamboo. It seemed like a simple nudge could bring the place down.

"Wait here." Daren and Abby said simultaneously before walking through the hut's door, which wasn't even much taller than Neos. After a few minutes, a winged Pokemon burst through an opening in the ceiling and flew off, too fast to catch a good glimpse.

"Well, the letter has been sent. Now we must wait." Abby said, walking out of the hut with Daren following close behind.

"What exactly is written in this letter?" Seth asked.

"It explains that we've found the last two teams for the tournament. Soon the other teams will be arriving at the Battle Terrain so maybe we should be on our way there too." Abby replied.

"What is the 'Battle Terrain'? And what exactly are the rules of this tournament?" Neos asked in a quite demanding voice.

"Okay, let me explain;" Daren started, "the Battle Terrain is the part of the island where the tournament will take place. It houses almost all terrains known to Pokemon kind; the forests are thick, the lakes are deep, the caves are dark, the mountains are rocky, the peaks are tipped with snow, there's even a dormant volcano around there. Basically, all Pokemon have their advantages if they know where to go. 16 teams will start from different parts of the Battle Terrain, each holding a star. To proceed in the tournament you must get two stars or in other words, get one from another team through battle. When you do have two, go to the Elemental Tower in the middle of the Battle Terrain and climb to the top. Keep in mind that you're not in the clear until you reach the very top of the tower, as other teams may go straight to the tower with one star and ambush others to get the second. The 8 teams that reach the top will advance to the next round."

The team thought hard on the explanation and contemplated on how they could possibly win and get the stone.

"Don't mind me asking, but do you guys have a team name?" Abby said, interrupting the deep thought.

Only more deep thought followed that question. After all we had been through, we had never thought of a team name. I, Seth and Silk looked at Zeke, seeing as the rescue badge, which was now lost at sea, was his.

Zeke finally got the hint when he shouted, "We're Team Blaze!" It was custom for teams to be named after their leader, or an attribute of their leader. However, I thought it was silly since we had only one fire Pokemon on the team.

"I think we should take on the name of Neos' team. So what is it, new leader?" Daren said, staring at Neos as if he were royalty.

Neos chuckled a little before answering, "Welcome to Team Creation. And before you ask, I know it has nothing to do with me. There was a former leader who left me in charge before disappearing to places unknown."

I restrained myself from asking to tell us about his former leader as I heard a hint of sadness in his words.

"The Battle Terrain is pretty far from here so I think we should be on our way now." Daren stated.

Without any argue, Team Blaze and Team Creation set off toward the outskirts of the town...

***********

We had been walking for hours before finally reaching a forest that was just as thick as the Sacred Forest.

"The Battle Terrain is on the other side of the forest." Abby said before walking into the cluster of trees. We all followed closely behind.

The tightly packed trees of the forest stood so high that you had to squint to see the top. It was as if we were walking through a green metropolis. The soil of the forest was much sturdier than that of the town so we were able to pick up the pace. The ground was filled with many multicolored flowers that stood tall as when we passed by, as if they were recognizing our presence. Suddenly, a rustle came from the bushes that got all of us on the defensive.

"Who's out there?" Silk shouted.

Out of the bushes came a gray Pokemon that looked like a mix of a T-rex and an insect plated in what seemed like, rock-hard skin. From its neck to lower torso was a silver, hard plate. Its pointed ears were separated by a black patch of skin and two bright, red eyes. The Armaldo walked slowly towards the large group.

"So it is that time of year again, huh? Sorry guys, but I won't allow this contest of yours to disrupt my forest again." he said in a masculine voice. Everyone quickly got in a fighting position.

"Let me and Daren handle this," Abby began, "we have to show Neos we're worthy of his team."

"You don't have to prove anything!" Neos shouted quickly.

Completely disregarding Neos' comment, the two Pokemon charged at the five foot tall monstrosity. Abby leaped in the air with her paw up and slashed the Armaldo across his chest. The meeting of sharp claws and an iron plated chest filled the air with a bone-chilling screech. The Armaldo quickly raised one of its arms and let it glow an eerie silver. With a swoop of its arm, it smacked Abby into the closest tree, creating a large dent in the bark. The Armaldo only had a few seconds to gloat before being encased in a purple aura. I noticed that Daren had his webbed hands raised and the jewel on his forehead was glowing intensely. The Armaldo was slowly levitated to a high elevation before being released and sent plummeting to the ground. It got smacked around by a few branches before crashing on the hard soil. Abby regained her stability and spun her head in many loops, causing the sharp material on her side to send piercing winds at the foe. The Armaldo didn't even have time to get to his feet as Abby's attack knocked him out. There was a long silence before a single clap echoed throughout the forest, coming from Neos' direction.

"Good job guys! I'm proud to have you on my team. Now let's get out of here before back up comes."

We walked in the moonlight before reaching a clearing with what seemed to be a red bag in the middle. All of Team Blaze ran to the bag but Abby and Daren stayed back, signaling Neos not to go any further either. Amazingly, I and my short legs reached the bag first and I quickly grabbed it. With a nod and a smile from Abby across the clearing, I opened the bag. Inside was simply a golden, star shaped tag that sparkled in the moonlight.

"Welcome to the Battle Terrain and your starting point." Daren shouted across the clearing, smiling.

"This is the edge of the forest so we'll search the rest of the Battle Terrain for one of the other 15 starting points. Get a good rest guys, because by the time you wake up, all the other teams will have found a starting point. You could think of this as a head start. Oh, and the tournament officially begins at Fearow's signal." Abby shouted.

With that said, Team Creation disappeared into the darkness.

"Well, you heard the lady. Time to get some rest!" Seth instructed.

"Yeah, he's right. We've got a big day ahead of us." I added, walking over to a soft patch of grass. Everyone found a good spot to rest and I began thinking about what tomorrow held.

'Either us or Neos' team has to win if we ever want to look at that stone. But who knows how strong the teams here are? I wonder if we'll get to meet the prince and princess.' I contemplated these things before slowly drifting into a deep sleep...

Great chapter. Can't wait for the next one!

Chapter 8: And so it Begins...

An orange and yellow orb slowly rose to the center of the sky and its light stretched over the landscape. With it came a fast rising bird with brown feathers. It let out a screech that traveled all over the area, waking up all nearby Pokemon.

"This is not the Fearow signal! I repeat this is not the Fearow signal! It seems we have a problem. A team has dropped out of the tournament and we can not start with 15 teams. However, two "special" guests have agreed to take the spot of the team but they need one more member. All teams consisting of four members MUST make a signal showing their location. Our guests will take on one of your members onto their team, increasing your chances of getting the prize!" the Fearow shouted so all could hear. I was interested in the fact that this could raise our chances of winning with three teams on our side.

"Let's get that signal up guys! I'll gladly join their team!" Silk shouted, obviously noticing my deep thought.

We all got out of our resting spots and walked toward the center of the clearing.

"Silk, you're a valuable member to this team. You sure you wanna go?" Zeke asked, worried about his friend.

"Sure! Neither you nor Sapphy should leave since you guys are the original members. And Seth is our strongest member with Neos gone."

'Sapphy? Where did that come from?' I thought to myself.

"Silk does have a point. We have to do whatever it takes to get that stone." Seth said, also seeming slightly worried about Silk.

We all ran around the clearing searching for any branches or dry grass. When the required materials where obtained, Zeke set the pile ablaze with small embers, causing thick smoke to rise high above the trees. Our signal was raised...

We sat around the big fire, waiting for Silk's temporary teammates to arrive. Then suddenly, a white and beam sparked from the sky and struck the burning materials. The branches and grass froze on impact and the fire was immediately distinguished. We all looked up in amazement and saw a Fearow carrying two very special Pokemon indeed.

The first Pokemon had a fox-like figure and brown fur. Both its ears and tail were tipped with a leafy material and a small green vine protruded from its forehead.

The second Pokemon had the same fox-like but had blue fur. Its crystal-like ears pointed high in the air just like its pointed tail. From this Pokemon's forehead was another patch of hair in a different shade of blue. From the patch, two long locks of blue hair reached down to its paws. An icy mist was flowing out its mouth and I immediately knew that it was the one who shot the beam.

The Leafeon and Glaceon hopped off of the Fearow as it swooped in low. We all stared in amazement at the majestic creatures.

"It seems you're the only team with four members." the Glaceon said with a feminine, high-class tone.

"Are you guys the 'special guest'? This is so awesome! I get to fight alongside Prince Root and Princess Crystal!" Silk shouted with glee.

"Excuse me?" Root started, "I don't remember the Fearow saying you could chose who joins us. I and my sister here made a decision while we were on Fearow." This guy sounded even more conceited than Seth.

Crystal walked slowly in my directed and I immediately went stiff. I didn't want to leave the team; these guys were the closest thing I had to a family. Then, it happened... Crystal walked right past me. That was when I noticed Seth was standing directly behind me. At the same time, I couldn't help but notice how much they resembled each other.

"Only a well-bred Umbreon as yourself should join us in this tournament." Crystal said in a flirty tone.

"You guys can't take Seth! We need him!" Zeke interrupted. Crystal and Root instantly shot him a glare.

"It's okay Zeke," Seth said softly, "I'll gladly join up with you guys."

"Are you sure about this Seth? Zeke is right about us needing you on the team." I asked worriedly.

"Think about it guys. We're probably the farthest team from the Tower, yet they came here first. That must mean we're the only team with four members. If I stay with you guys, the tournament won't even start. Good luck..." Seth replied, walking toward Root. Crystal followed close behind with a huge grin stamped across her face. They were taking our best member...

"The Fearow signal will sound off as soon as we reach the remaining starting point." Root said, smiling. Our drop in confidence seemed to amuse him.

Seth turned toward us and shot us a sympathetic stare. I could've sworn I saw a tear run down from his crimson red eyes.

"You've all come a long way since Mt. Steel. Show me what you're really made of." he muttered before turning his back to us once again. The Fearow from before swooped in low again and the three fox-like Pokemon jumped on its back and were flown to their starting point. We all stared at the shrinking bird until it finally disappeared in the distance.

"We can't let Seth down. We're gonna get that second star, and we're gonna do it using our own skill." I said, interrupting the silence.

"Cut the act," Zeke said coldly, "we have no idea how strong the other teams are. We should just lose on purpose and let Neos and Seth handle this one." his comment left me utterly speechless. I ran at him and jabbed him on the forehead with my small horn.

"What the hell was that for!?" he shouted while rubbing his forehead.

"It was for being an idiot." Silk said softly, helping Zeke up. "We should spend this time trying to figure out how we're going to win this tournament."

Everything went quiet after that. We all thought hard on a strategy that would work. We pondered for a while, but we found a solution. However, only seconds after that a large bird flew high in the sky.

"LET THE TOURNAMENT COMMENCE!!!" it screamed with all its might. The time for us to shine had finally started...

***** 15 Minutes Later *****

"I thought Abby said this was the EDGE of the forest?" Zeke shouted, annoyed. The tournament had already started and we were still in the forest.

"Shut up Zeke! There might be teams nearby." Silk said. We had decided that we would try to ambush the team we were going to fight.

"Oh, sorry guys. I had forgotten about the plan..."

We continued walking through the thick bushes and tightly packed trees until we saw a small opening. With hope coursing through our body, we ran for it and emerged outside the forest.

The Battle Terrain was a magnificent place indeed. The forest we just came from stood atop a hill and we had a perfect view of the landscape. The plains stretched wide across the land and stopped at a fast moving river. I traced the river back to a waterfall that flowed continuously. The entire area was surrounded by mountains with jagged rocks, just as Daren had said. Most of the mountains were actually tipped with snow, while one had smoke rising from various ledges. In the middle of it all stood a multi-colored tower that seemed to touch the clouds.

"Well, let's get down there and kick some butt!" Silk shouted, dashing down the hill. Me and Zeke smiled at each other and followed Silk down the hill. The grass at the bottom of the hill stood tall and was as thick as the forest.

"Stay close guys! We have to work as a team if we wish to win any battles" Silk shouted from some direction.

After a few minutes of searching we managed to find each other and continued walking. That was when we heard a rustle in the grass ahead of us. We ran in the direction of the movement and found three Pokemon, most likely a rescue team, in a small, circular clearing. We hid in the thickness and observed them closely.

The first Pokemon looked like a small turtle and was about stood 1"08 tall. Most of its sky blue skin was hidden in a brown shell. All that showed was its feet, hands and circular head. Its tail curled out of an opening in its shell.

The second Pokemon had the figure of a snake but looked somewhat dragon-like. It was blue except for its underside, nose, and feather-like ears. Although it had no wings, it levitated slowly above the ground, making it look even more dragon-like.

The third Pokemon was fox-like with brown fur. Between its pointed ears were locks of curled up red hair. Its tail looked like five locks of perfectly curled up hair.

******

"I hate this grass!" the Squirtle said in childish male voice, "We'll never find a team here."

"Calm down Squirt! I'm sure we'll find our way out of this overgrowth soon." the Drantini said. He was also male.

"Oh please Drake! Are you always so optimistic?" Squirt argued.

"If you two don't shut up in the next five second, I'll slap you silly or my name isn't Vulpy!" the Vulpix shouted. This one was female. What really caught my eye was the golden star tagged onto her middle tail.

******

"These guys don't look too strong. This might be easy than I thought" Zeke whispered.

"Don't ever underestimate your opponent. Zeke, go around the back of the clearing and set off a smokescreen when you get there. That should distract the team long enough for me and Sapphy to conduct a sneak attack." Silk instructed. A plan like that coming from her surprised me a lot.

On Silk's word, Zeke ran around the clearing and we waited for the signal. I felt a little pity for the unsuspecting Pokemon, but I immediately dismissed it so it wouldn't interfere with my battling. Within seconds, a thick, black smoke rose from the opposite side of the clearing.

"What's that!?" the three Pokemon shouted simultaneously.

'This is just too easy' I thought to myself as Silk and I emerged from the tall grass and charged at the team of Pokemon. That was when everything turned for the worse.

Drake quickly spun around and with a grin spread across his face, muttered "Gotcha..."

Suddenly, he wrapped his long body around me and Silk and tightened his grip.

What the!?... How did you know?" I managed to mutter with his snake-like body strangling me.

"You beginners are so predictable..." Vulpy said slyly. That was when I knew that it was we whom were being observed.

"Now, hand over your star!" Squirt ordered.

"You'll have to find it first..." Silk muttered. Back at the clearing, we tied the star around Silk's tail so it would camouflage with her fur.

"Smart remarks will not be tolerated!" Vulpy shouted before opening her mouth and exposing a growing flame.

However, a vortex of flames coming from Zeke's direction struck Vulpy on the back, sending her flying to the other side of the clearing and interrupting her attack. This attack resembled a wheel rather than the small embers like Zeke used to release. He came running from the thick, burnt grass with the flame on his back burning brighter than ever.

"Unhand my teammates!" Zeke shouted. He sounded more like a wanna-be hero than a rescuer.

"And if we don't?" Vulpy shouted from the other side of the clearing.

At blinding fast speed, she charged at Zeke and hit square on the belly. Her attack managed to knock him up in the air, leaving him vulnerable to a follow up attack. Squirt took this brief advantage to leap in front of Zeke and launch an array of bubbles, sending him back down to the ground. With me and Silk still in his grip, Drake opened his mouth wide and shot shockwaves at Zeke. The impact caused his motionless body to soar back into the thick grass.

"Zeke... you idiot. Why did you try to fight on your own?" I mumbled, seriously thinking he had met his end.

Then out of the thick grass, a bright light glowed intensely. The blinding light only shone for a few seconds before quickly fading away. I had an idea of what happened but didn't want to get my hopes up until I saw it... and my wish was granted.

From the tall, thick grass emerged a ferret-like Pokemon with a blue back and cream-colored underside. Running down the middle of his head and across his lower back was a blazing inferno. He crept towards us slowly, his bright red eyes filled with hate.

"I'll tell you one more time, let my friends go!" Zeke growled, ready for a battle.

"Just because you evolved doesn't mean you can beat the three of us." Drake replied. My vision began to blur as he tightened his grip.

As if he expected that answer, Zeke darted past Vulpy and Squirt and impacted Drake right on the head. The force of the attack caused Drake to release us and fly back a few feet. Silk and I took deep breathes and regained our stability. With us back in the fight, we were determined to take these guys out.

When she regained all her strength, Silk scurried behind us and tackled Squirt down to the ground. He struggled to get her off but she concentrated hard and released small jolt of energy. However, with the water coursing through his body like blood, the electricity shocked him many times over. Vulpy noticed the disadvantage and shot a burst of flames at Silk. However, Silk jumped in the air and the blast hit Squirt dead on. I wanted to help her out but I wanted revenge on the bastard who tried to strangle me.

"You'll pay for that!" I shouted at Drake while charging at him.

Drake opened his mouth and launched the shockwaves he used on Zeke from before at me. I quickly darted to the left and grabbed his tail firmly. I opened wide and stuck my fangs deep into his smooth skin. He screamed in pain as I sunk my fangs in even deeper. He suddenly stopped his screaming, and concentrated hard. Within seconds, I felt weak jolts of electricity surround my body, but I was left unharmed. He obviously never had a battle with a Pokemon of my type. After figuring out his was having no affect, he took a new approach. With me and my fangs still attacked to his tail, he spun in a circle at an incredible speed until a small twister formed around us. The wind from the twister felt like blades as it collided with both of us. When the pain was too much, I released my grip and was thrown from the twister.

"Drake! Are you okay?" Vulpy shouted, worried about her teammate.

Zeke took advantage of her distraction and tackled her to the ground. Unlike Squirt, Vulpy didn't struggle at all and just opened her mouth wide. Zeke realized her intentions a little too late went she let released a burst of flames on Zeke, sending him high up in the air. Vulpy got on her feet and leaped in the air, eager to land a final blow. However, Silk leaped over Zeke's soaring body, surprising Vulpy to the point where she didn't know what to do. When she was close enough, Silk slammed her tail hard on Vulpy's head, sending her plunging hard on the soil.

"Hey Larvitar! I'm not finished with you!" Drake shouted, glaring at me. I struggled to stand up, focusing on the battle at hand.

Drake rounded up all his strength and charged at me. I managed to obtain the strength to barely dodge the attack, and Drake stumbled to the floor. I glared at him with a hate I never felt before. My hate seemed to turn into power as a blue aura began surrounding my body. I felt a jolt of energy fill me and let the power flow. Before I knew, it I went on a rampage as I continuously smashed my fist into Drake's motionless body. I don't know why, but I couldn't stop myself. I just kept on thrashing Drake, not even thinking about the value of his life.

"Sapphire, stop it! You beat him!" Zeke shouted, pushing me off of Drake.

"Huh?... What happened?" I felt an enormous headache coming on.

"You went totally ballistic and beat the guy to a pulp!" Silk shouted, rather surprised I could be so heartless.

"I... I'm sorry. I couldn't stop myself." I muttered. The scary thing was, I was telling the truth. My hate and anger seemed to be controlling me.

"Let's just drop the subject and get out of here." Zeke suggested.

"Are you sure?" I asked while rubbing my head viciously, trying to get rid of the headache.

"Oh yeah, we're sure." Silk said, smiling. In her hand, I noticed she was holding two golden stars that glinted in the sunlight. I managed to smile back even though the headache was killer.

After letting the ache die down, we walked back into the tall grass and began our march for Elemental Tower...

Chapter 9: Royal Flush - Seth and Neos' POV

***** SETH'S POV *****

I watched my fellow teammates shrink into small dots as the Fearow flew us away.

"Cheer up; you should be happy you were chosen by royalty." Root said annoyingly. He may have been royalty but I could tell he wasn't much older than me.

"Please, excuse my brother;" Crystal said softly, "he's just excited about the tournament. I don't believe we caught your name, mind telling it to us?"

"My name is Seth." I said blankly. I had no intention of getting close to these guys. Even though my team wasn't the strongest, they were my friends.

The rest of the trip was pretty quiet. Within minutes, we arrived at the starting point and quickly dismounted the Fearow. Our starting point was placed at the base of a very rocky mountain. On a small tree stump was our golden star tag hidden in a red bag.

"The tournament will start soon!" Root shouted excitingly as I went to grab the star.

"Don't get carried away brother. It's been a while since our last battle." Crystal said, glaring at her brother.

It went quiet again as we waited for the signal. Minutes later, an enormous bird spread its wings wide and flew high in the sky.

"LET THE TOURNAMENT COMMENCE!!!" it shouted to the heavens. The time for these spoiled brats to prove themselves had finally come...

**********

"We've been walking alongside this mountain for SO long. Let's go find an opponent in the wild!" Root whined.

"You've got to be kidding me? We can get easily ambushed in that tall grass." I replied.

"Suit yourself!" Root shouted before running into the thick grass.

"Wait up brother!" Crystal said, following him. I had no choice but to follow.

We all caught up with each other and decided to continue the search in the tall grass. After about an hour of searching in some unknown direction, we heard loud crashes in a clearing up ahead.

"There must be a team up ahead. We'll sneak up-." I immediately stopped when I noticed neither Root nor Crystal were beside me. I searched frantically when I heard even more crashes from the clearing. I walked over to find Root and Crystal on one side of the clearing with a Rescue Team on the other side. However, the enemy looked pretty weird...

The first Pokemon was merely a purple orb with big eyes and small fangs. A purple aura trailed behind it as it floated in mid-air.

The second Pokemon was as simple as the first. It was a half red, half white sphere with two big eyes.

I was very familiar with the last Pokemon. It was one of those weird, levitating magnet Pokemon from Mt. Steel. At least they didn't chose opponents that were extremely strong.

"Just because you're royalty doesn't mean we're afraid to give you a good beat down." the Ghastly whispered in an eerie tone.

"We didn't expect you to." Root replied smiling.

Root kicked back with his hind legs and leapt up in the air. He stretched his front two legs forward preparing to scratch the Ghastly when he landed. However, something bizarre happened. Instead of impacting Ghastly, he fazed right through it.

"What the hell is going on-." Root was interrupted by an electrified tackle from the Voltorb.

"Root!" Crystal shouted before getting into an attacking position. "Get away from my brother!"

A blue aura surrounded Crystal as she closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Then out of the blue, a chilling wind swept by and caused the opposing Pokemon to shiver intensely. While the enemy was immobile, Crystal ran over and dragged her paralyzed brother over.

"Wait a minute," I said to myself softly, "I'm part of this team too."

From the thick grass I entered the battle field and growled at the enemy. The Magnemite seemed to regain itself as it let electricity spark all over its body. It pointed one of its magnets at me and released a slow moving ball of electricity. I easily dodged the attack and charged at my opponent with immense speed. I was only feet away when the Magnetite began to light up. From his body, he launched shock waves that forced me back to Crystal and Root.

"I don't understand! These guys don't even look strong!" Crystal shouted.


I was about to respond to her when I noticed the Voltorb was rolling towards us rapidly. I jumped out of the way but Crystal didn't seem to notice the attacking Pokemon. She and Root took the attack head on as the Voltorb crashed into them. The attack knocked them to the edge of the clearing but the impact seemed to knock Root out of his paralysis.

"This team is pathetic," the Ghastly said, "Let's finish this up!"

However, Root unexpectedly responded to being called pathetic. He turned around and swung his tail rapidly in circles. Within second, leaves began appearing and were shot at the enemies. The razor sharp leaves seemed to cut them as they flinched and screamed in pain as it hit them. I noticed that the Ghastly was affected by the attack as well. While the Magnemite was occupied with the leaves, Crystal charged up a white beam of energy and shot it at the magnet Pokemon. The white beam reflecting off of the metal body of the Magnemite caused the entire area to shine intensely and I instinctively shielded my eyes. When the light faded, I glanced at the Magnemite and saw that it was frozen solid.

"Nice job Crys-." I discontinued my sentence when I saw Crystal lying on the ground, breathing heavily. That last attack obviously left her very fatigued.

"You'll pay for that!" the Ghastly shouted.

It closed its eyes and a black orb appeared above its body. The orb grew in size until the Ghastly finally opened its eyes. Then suddenly, the orb went flying towards Crystal. I was too far away to intercept it and I thought she was a goner. Nevertheless, what took place next left me shocked and amazed...

Root jumped in front of his sister and the orb smashed into his side. I could've sworn I saw his eyes go completely white from shock before being thrown into the thick grass.

"One down and another too tired to get up. Let's hurry this up!" the Voltorb shouted with glee.

That was when I began to assess the situation. None of my physical attacks would hurt the Ghastly and my two teammates were out for the count. That was when anger began to fill my body and my muscles tightened. Then a strange power overtook me. I had no idea what was going on but I concentrated on the power. After a few seconds of silence, my eyes shone with a sinister purple and I shot a purple ray at the Voltorb. The ray hit him head on but at first glance, it seemed to do no damage. Then with a purple glint in his eyes, the Voltorb charged up some electricity and released it at his comrade.

"What the hell are you doing!?" the Ghastly asked, unsure of what was happening.

Without responding to his comrade, the Voltorb shined brightly and the Ghastly's face expression turned grim.

BOOM!!!!! Voltorb suddenly self-destructed, taking Ghastly with him. A thick, gray smoke filled the portion of the clearing the two Pokemon were in. A golden star shot out from the top of the smoke and I managed to catch it with my mouth.

"Only if the others could see how much I rock..." I mumbled with the star still in my mouth.

It took quite a while for Crystal and Root to recover but when everything was good, we set off to the Elemental Tower. I told them about how the battle ended as the trip was expected to take a while.


It turns out the Tower wasn't even that far since we arrived there in under an hour. We were still hidden in the thickness of the grass when we saw two teams battling at the base of the tower. The first team looked very familiar as I saw them only a few hours ago. The second team looked a lot tougher than the one we just faced.

The first Pokemon had grayish purple skin and it flexed its muscles with every movement. Around its waist was what looked like the belt of a professional wrestler.

The second Pokemon had brown skin and what looked like a purple rag. I stretched its arms wide and I could see that its hands were encased in a boxing glove-like material.

I didn't bother observe the third Pokemon. All I did take note of was that it was laid out on the grass, most likely knocked out by the other team. I could tell the other two Pokemon were male from their figures.

"So it seems Neos chose to ambush a team near the tower. Let's see how his battle turns out, although things already look in his favor." I whispered to Root and Crystal.


***** NEOS' POV *****


"Give if up guys! We've already got this won!" I shouted. I was quite proud of being on Abby and Daren's team, as they battle gracefully.

"You wish Lucario! It's not over 'til we're all down" the Machoke shouted.

"Suit yourself..." Daren whispered with a smirk.

The Machoke and Hitmonchan charged at Team Creation from different sides. When he was close enough, the Machoke threw a punch at me. However, I simply raised my hand and caught his fist. While holding him in place with sent him back a few feet but he quickly regained his balanced.

Meanwhile, the Hitmonchan readied his fists as he approached Abby. Abby stood her ground and raised the blade-like material on her head, ready to counter the Hitmonchan. However, the Hitmonchan swerved around Abby, and hit Daren square in the stomach with an electrified punch. Daren immediately dropped to the floor as electric jolts jumped around his moist skin.

"Daren! Are you Oka-." I was interrupted when two muscular arms swung around my torso and held tight. I had completely forgotten about the Machoke while worrying for my friend. He jumped high in the air while I was still in his arms, and threw me down to the ground. My head smashed hard onto the ground and my vision blurred for a few seconds. Before I could even get up, the Machoke grabbed one of my legs and threw me into the side of the Tower. I don't know what the building was made out of but it sure did hurt when I slammed into it.

"I got your back Neos!" Abby shouted, running to my aid.

Our opponents walked slowly towards us, as if they trying to build up suspense.

"Bad move..." I whispered as I had regained most of my stability when they reached us.

I opened my hand wide and a dark aura surrounded it. My hand sent dark pulses at the enemy, blasting them back and knocking them to their feet. The instability of the enemy gave Abby time to build up power. By the time they got back on their feet, Abby unleashed an array of razor winds on them. The Hitmonchan dodged most of the attack but the Machoke was obliterated by it.

"I'm gonna grind your faces into the dirt!" Hitmonchan shouted with one hand surrounded by a flame and the other surrounded by a chilling wind.

Both Hitmonchan and Abby charged at each other at full speed. When they we just inches away from each other, the Hitmonchan swung his burning fist while Abby swung the blade-like material on her head. After running a few more feet of running, both Pokemon stopped their charge and stood still. I saw a hint of crimson red blood shining on Abby's blade and that was when I noticed the deep gash across Hitmonchan's side. The Hitmonchan fell on his stomach, revealing the golden star tagged d on his back. I quickly ran over and snatched the star, holding it up in the air along with the one we already owned.

"Daren's really hurt..." Abby said softly, interrupting my happy moment.

"Don't worry, the paralysis will wear off in time." said a familiar voice from behind. I looked back, only to see Seth and two other Pokemon walking up to me.

"Seth? Where are the others?" I asked, both confused and worried.

"It's a long story..." Seth replied, smiling.

"Then allow me to explain!" shouted a feminine voice from behind Seth. I looked over and saw Team Blaze walking towards us, Sapphire holding two stars that shone brightly in the sunlight.

"What's the occasion?" I joked, surprised that we all would meet up like this.

After an explanation of why Seth traveling with the two other Pokemon, getting introduced to Root and Crystal, and waiting for Daren to recover, we lined up in front of the door to the Elemental Tower.

"You guys ready?" Sapphire asked. Everyone nodded except me.

"I just have one question... Since when did you evolve, Zeke!?" I asked seriously. However, everyone took it as a joke and we proceeded to enter the tower...

*Raises Eyebrow*

I don't have much to say. I'm a simple man, with simple pleasures. One of those is Mystery Dungeon. And despite the loose canonical violations to the original storyline, this fanfic makes me want to leap into the air and high-five you. Maybe it's how the battle descriptions make me feel like I'm in the middle of the fight, maybe it's how the characters just seem real to me, maybe it's just that I'm a closet Lucario fan but I've got to say that this fic is great. In fact, if you did a quick glance over for some grammatical errors in the text, I'm fairly sure this fic would be perfect. Now, normally I would point the errors out, but right now I can't, as I still have to read the first few chapters. (I've only read the last two. Heh, silly me!) So until then, give yourself a pat on the back and just go over it. I gurantee, it'll be worth your while.

Thinks for posting Art_Critic__Cubone, you've boosted my confidence quite a bit =)

******

Chapter 10: The Gloves Are Off

Elemental Tower was a true work of art. From the outside, it looked like an everyday lighthouse, except with many different colors. However, the interior of the tower looked like it was made by a whole army of Smeargles. The large, circular room we entered was painted in many vibrant colors and contained spiraling stairs that seemed to lead to the heavens.

"That sure is a long climb..." I said gently.

"It will take a while for all nine of us to reach the top." Neos said, examining the stairs.

"Well, the sooner we start, the sooner we get to the top!" Silk suggested before running toward the stairs.

She stopped when she reached the middle of the room and began examining the floor closely. We all hurried over to see what caught her interest. Below our feet was simply a large assortment of colors and shapes.

"What are you staring at?" Zeke asked.

"I don't really know," she began to explain, "something about this painting seems weird.

"Can you even call this weird collage a painting?" Seth asked, turning his head to the side in search of a deeper meaning in the painting.

"This is a waste of time. Let's just continue up the stairs!" Crystal shouted before running across the other half of the room. We reluctantly followed after her, as everyone wanted to examine the painting more closely

Those stairs were certainly no joke. After a long walk, it appeared as if we were getting no closer to the top.

"There's gotta be a faster way up these stairs!"

"Maybe there is..." Neos said calmly, scratching his chin and smiling.

Everything went silent until Daren shouted, "That's a great idea Neos!"

We all looked at the two Pokemon smiling at each other. I don't know about the others, but I was completely lost.

"Hey, I don't like being left in the blue!" Root shouted, "Now explain yourself!"

"Whoa, hold your Ponytas little guy. I have discovered a way to get to the top faster." suddenly, Neos and Daren began to glow a deep purple and I immediately understood his point.

"Both me and Neos can use our psychic abilities to lift everyone at least half way to the top." Daren explained, still smiling. Grins quickly ran across everyone else's face.

"Awesome! No one can mess with Team Creation!" Abby exclaimed, obviously proud of her teammates.

We all circled around Daren and Neos and waited for them to build up power. After only seconds of waiting, we were all surrounded by a purple orb and Neos and Daren's body's shined intensely. Slowly, they lifted us out of the spiraling stairs and levitated us upward.

"Man, this is so cool!" I shouted. My statement echoed many times over as it bounced off the walls of the orb.

"Keep it down Sapphire." Seth whispered, "Neos and Daren need concentration.

While we slowly soared through the air, painful memories of the Sacred Forest and the power of the three legendary beasts began to fill me head. After what seemed like hours of levitation, the orb darted back into the spiraling stairs. We all were quickly released and fell hard on the steps. I glanced at the two Pokemon who had saved us so much time and noticed that they were pushed to their limits.

"Let's rest here and walked the rest of the way. We must be at least three-fourths of the way there." Silk recommended before laying down on a fairly large step.

Everyone decided to relax but I walked over to the edge of the stairs to see how much higher we had to go. However, I was more interested in what was below that what was above. It turns out the array of colors we saw wasn't just any old paintball fight gone awry. From this elevation, I could tell it was a well thought out picture – one that left me both stunned and amazed.

The image of an arrangement of magnificent Pokemon filled my eyes as I stared at the floor. Some legendary Pokemon that Zeke told me about were in the image, but so were some I've never heard of before. What really caught my attention was three Pokemon in the corner of the image while the rest centered on the middle. One of the Pokemon reminded of a certain creature, but the thought escaped my mind as fast as it came.

"I didn't know the portrait of False Legends was here." said a voice from my side.

I looked over and saw Neos also observing the painting. I could tell he was still exhausted though.

"What are 'False Legends'?" I asked eager to find out.

"They're exactly what their name implies – False Legends." Neos began to explain, "When this world was first created, all that existed were the legends. Each legend was given a certain area of expertise to govern over. They thrived while one specific one initiated her plan to create lesser beings. From her came the normal Pokemon that inhabit-."

"I already know this! Zeke told me when we first met. Can you just get to the False Legends?" I interrupted.

"Okay, okay... False Legends are Pokemon who resemble the legends in power, but are the farthest thing from original. There are currently three known False Legends whom the rest of the world find dangerous. Because of the way they were created and treated, they all have sworn revenge on the world."

"Interesting..." I replied, thinking about Neos' words very carefully. Then a thought came to me.

"Hey, what if they are behind this whole 'Legendary Strike' business?"

"I doubt they are behind it mainly because the Legendary Strike is set in stone. Literally, since the way you learned about Kyogre's strike was by reading a stone. However, they could use the disruption of power among the legendaries to their advantage. It is the job of all high ranked teams to search for the False Legends while also taking on the hardest of missions." Neos said coldly.

"Well your team is pretty high ranked. Have you even seen a False Legend in person?" I asked intriguingly.

"Well actually, I've talked to one. And his name is-."

"Hey, everyone is ready to walk the rest of the tower!" Silk shouted, interrupting us.

"Silk! We're having a conversation here!" I screamed, scowling at her.

"Oh no, it's okay. We'll leave this story for another time." Neos said smiling and beginning to walk up the stairs.

"Thanks a lot, Silk" I muttered before pushing her to the side.

"Humph! Someone has an attitude problem!" she shouted at me before also continuing up the stairs.

**********

After hours of walking and a few more breaks, we reached the top of the tower. Unfortunately, Neos was too occupied the rest of the way up to finish his tale. At the top, we all stared at a huge, multi-colored door.

"We hike all the way up here to stare at some fruity door?" Zeke asked, irritated. He was probably expecting something more incredible.

"All that matters is that we made it." Seth said, walking up to the door.

We all followed closely behind him like he was our leader, and probably adding to his cocky nature as I heard him chuckle a little. Using his head, he pushed the door open and we all entered. The door lead to the longest hallway I heard ever seen. Its white walls made the tower look very plain and caused me to lose some respect for the incredible structure. Down the hallway were sixteen doors, each with two, star shaped slots on them. To our surprise, all but three doors still had empty slots.

"What the heck? We're the last teams!" I shouted.

"I can't wait to see what strong battles await us." Neos replied with a smirk. Him and his team walked toward an unoccupied door and placed their stars into the slots. The door slowly slid open

"See you on the other side." Daren whispered before walking into the room of which the door led to. As soon they entered the room, the door automatically shut itself.

"That must be what prevents a team from using a door that's already taken." Seth said while walking to a door with his teammates. After completing the same actions as Neos, his team entered the room and the door shut behind them.

"Well this is it guys! The gloves are off! We're in the big leagues now!" I shouted with a grin spread across my face.

"Is that supposed to make us feel better?" Zeke retorted, walking to the last door.

"Must you always be so negative?" I murmured, rolling my eyes and walking up to his side. Silk simply chuckled before joining us in front of the door.

Silk handed our star over to Zeke and I gave him the one we won in battle. He quickly placed the stars in their slots and backed up. With a creak that echoed throughout the empty hallway, the door slowly opened. We entered the room and the door slammed hard behind us.

"Grrr! Another disappointment!" Zeke snarled.

The room was just an ordinary square with white walls. Beneath us was white carpet with red stripes.

"Hey, what's that!?" Silk asked, pointing at the wall ahead of us.

On the wall was a black screen showing white lines in a bracket pattern.

"That must be the tournament bracket." I said, walking closer for a better look. The bracket stopped with eight lines leading into eight boxes.

Then without warning, words appeared in the boxes. A closer look revealed it was the names of teams. What really caught my attention was in box three, four and what was between them.


Team Jagged VS Team Blaze


"Team Jagged... Even their name sounds tough!" Zeke cried.

"Suck it up you low self-esteemed loser!" Silk shouted. She was beginning to lose her patience with Zeke.

"A good leader encourages his teammates, not put their hopes down before anything has even started!" she added. Zeke lowered his head.

"Well, Silk took care of the screaming so I'll just talk." I began, "Zeke, have you forgotten what's on the line here?" Zeke's expression quickly changed.

"You guys are right! Losing is NOT an option. We're gonna win this thing, no matter what." he shouted with a smile. However, it was obvious he was faking it...

Chapter 11: Beginner's Luck

I paced around the room, anticipating the moment when we were supposed to battle.

"Calm down Sapphy. It's not we're the last team, we're going next." Silk said lazily while lying on her back.

"Those two teams have been in there for like, 30 minutes! Doesn't that tell you something?" I screamed, losing my cool.

"Not really..." Zeke said in mid-yawn.

I gave him a good smack on the back of his head and said, "It means that we're gonna have an intense battle too!"

"We're going against a team name 'Jagged' and you're now figuring that out?" Silk replied sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up!" I yelled, wanting to hit her two.

Suddenly, the screen on the wall began to light up. A large, red 'X' covered a team name while the other moved up in the bracket. Then, the words 'Team Jagged' and 'Team Blaze' began to light up.

"Time to show them what we're made of!" I shouted eager to get the battle over with.

"Okay, one problem..." Zeke said. He was beginning to annoy me.

"Oh yeah, what!?" I retorted.

"How the heck do we get out of this room?" Silk answered for him, getting to her feet.

I fell silent as I knew what they said made sense. As we anxiously searched for an exit, the entire room began shaking. I felt a sudden change in motion and gravity which led me to believe that we were descending. Seconds later, the room stopped shaking. The screen on the wall lit up and a new message appeared on it: GOOD LUCK!!!

The wall with the screen on it shook violently and slowly began to rise. Soon enough, we were staring at the battlefield. We stepped out of our small room and onto the field. To my surprise, the floor was extremely rocky and there were rocks protruding from the walls and ceiling. One the other side of the room was our opponents...

The first Pokemon's body looked a lot like a bunch of rocks glued together to form a large boulder. His brown head, feet and hands stuck out from the boulder. Attached to his uppermost rock was a Rescue badge and I immediately knew he was the leader.

The second Pokemon looked like a brown clay doll and it stared at us with blank eyes. Instead of feet, it kept its balance using a pointed limb from under his stomach.

The third Pokemon was very odd looking. It was simply a purple blob with dotted eyes.

"The Golem and Baltoy look tough, but what's up with the Ditto?" Silk whispered to us.

The hidden ears of the blob seemed to catch the comment as it suddenly began staring at Silk. His body rapidly reformed itself in the shape of a Pikachu. Finally, his skin turned yellow and his eyes copied that of Silk's.

"Oh my gosh!" Silk shouted.

"What? It isn't that interesting. Everyone knows Dittos can transform." Zeke said.

"It's not that..." Silk started with a said tone, "I didn't know I was so fat."

I couldn't help but fall to my knees and laugh uncontrollably. I managed to catch a glance of our opponents and saw that they were laughing too. At least we weren't fighting some emotionless drones. After gathering myself, I stood beside my team and waited for any signs of the battle starting.

"YOU MAY NOW BEGIN!!!" screeched a voice that sounded Fearow-like.

With Silk's copied legs and hands, the Ditto ran to one edge of the battlefield and began to jump onto the rocks on the walls while the Baltoy spun rapidly on its pointed limb. We all stood our ground, hoping that we could take on any attack as a group. The Baltoy appeared to notice this at it shot its spinning body at us. Zeke ran in the direction of the Ditto and me and Silk ran the opposite way.

"Bad move Quilava." the Ditto commented in Silk's voice.

He... She... It jumped high in the air and landed a few feet from Zeke. With its red cheeks sparking like crazy, it discharged a large amount on Zeke. His body lit up as the jolt hit him and he was shot into a rocky wall. He bumped into a few sharp rocks as his body slid down the wall.

"I know that hurts..." Silk said wincing at Zeke's battered body.

She lowered her guard when she made the comment and Baltoy saw its chance to strike. I ran away as its still spinning body came at us but Silk was still concentrated on Zeke. At the last minute, she saw the charging Baltoy, only to be struck by the face moving Pokemon and getting smacked into a rocky wall.

"You guys have to pay attention to what you're doing!" I shouted, expecting either Baltoy or Ditto to attack me next.

"You shouldn't be talking." said a deep voice from behind me. I quickly turned around to see a grinning Golem with his arms spread wide.

With his hands, he pushed me back a few feet. As I struggled to regain my balance, the Golem picked up some small rocks and started to hurl them at me. I was pushed even more feet back when a few of them hit me directly in the face. I felt Baltoy's spinning body impact with my back as I was shot up in the air. I landed face-first on a fairly large rock in the middle of the battlefield.

"Maybe they are emotionless drones..." I muttered while sliding a hand across my face, searching for any remnants of blood.

"Pathetic..." the Baltoy said in a squeaky voice as it stopped spinning.

It raised its arm-like limbs and concentrated on me hard. Out of nowhere, a rainbow-colored ball appeared before him. He readied his strike when Zeke came charging from the side, smashing his head into the Baltoy's side. Incredibly, Baltoy lost control of its ball and ended firing a rainbow-colored beam at Golem. The spectrum of colors hit Golem head on and caused him to collide with the wall.

"You should have just stayed down!" Ditto yelled from the other side of the field.

It swiftly ran toward the now staggering Zeke. Hitting a ground-type Pokemon with your head was a very bad idea, mainly because they have the tendency to have very rough skin. Another unexpected event took place when Silk got to her feet and ran unbelievably fast in the direction of Ditto. She impacted her clone at an amazing speed, causing both of them to stumble and roll across the rocky floor. I slowly got to my feet and smiled, noticed I was the only person able to stand.

"No more mister nice guy..." the Golem whispered, struggling to stand up.

With an immense boost of energy, he dug his claws deep into the rocky ground, only to force out a moderately sized boulder. With a flick of his wrist, he beamed the boulder at me.

'You gotta be kidding me!' I thought to myself while bending low.

At the last second, I dodged the boulder by leaping out of the way. However, he wasn't finished with me yet. With the same actions as before, he grabbed another boulder and readied to throw it at me. Then, out of the blue, came a swirling vortex of fire that hit Golem right on the head, burning him severely. The enormous pain of having his face burned caused him to accidentally drop the boulder on himself. I traced the ray of fire back to Zeke's smoking mouth

"Take that you big, rock... thingy!" he managed to shout with a huge smirk on his face.

I noticed the Baltoy behind Zeke slowly stand up and create another rainbow orb. I was too out of breath to warn Zeke so I tried a different method. I opened my mouth wide and focused all my energy there. A black orb materialized in my mouth and concentrated even harder. Finally, large, black rings started shooting out of my mouth and hit the Baltoy. The rainbow orb immediately disappeared as black rings pulsed all around the Baltoy's body. Within seconds, it fell to the floor, knocked out.

"My teammates!" the Ditto screamed from behind a motionless Silk, "Your friend here will pay for what you two just did!"

I simply just smiled at Zeke and faced the copy Pokemon. With the flame on his head and lower back burning brightly, Zeke released a beam of fire upon the Ditto. It was pushed into a wall and its yellow coat was now burnt coal black.

"Now it's my turn." I somehow managed to utter.

I jumped high in the air and slammed my feet hard onto the ground. The rocks above Ditto immediately became loose and a mini rockslide was released upon the pummeled Pokemon. Its body quickly disappeared under the rocks.

"It seems we have our winner!" said a Fearow's voice from a small vent in the corner of the ceiling, "Congratulations Team Blaze! You have made it to the semi-finals. Please return to your respected room and await further instruction."

With that, me and Zeke grabbed Silk's still motionless body and dragged her into the small room. As we entered, the wall slid down again, revealing the screen once more.

"Huh? What happened?" Silk asked as the wall slammed down.

"Nothing much... except the fact that we won!" I yelled, hugging her tightly. She gladly returned my hug.

"Hey guys come check this out!" Zeke shouted, his eyes glued to the screen.

We walked over and observed the tournament bracket. The two other teams that advanced were Team Creation and Team Royalty.

"Something tells me Team Royalty is Seth's team." I said with a smile.

Then, the screen suddenly went black. We all gave it a confused look and waited for something big to happen... and it did. The screen turned back on with a few words written across it.

Team Blaze VS Team Royalty – 15 minutes...

"We have to fight... Seth?" Silk said worriedly.

"Oh yeah! Time to kick some butt!" Zeke shouted very unexpectedly. He was scared to fight a team we never heard of but he's eager to fight someone we already know is strong?

"Zeke, can I tell you something?" I asked softly.

"Yeah Sapphire? What is it?" he replied in a serious tone.

"You're one twisted dude!" I said, laughing uncontrollably. Silk joined in as Zeke simply sighed...

LIVE MISSION POKEMON! LIVE!!!

Chapter 12: Fight Among Friends

This time, all three of us silently paced around the room. We were actually more anxious to show Seth how much we had improved rather than the fact that we were about to fight out long time friend.

"Seth has good leadership skills. I bet by now, he has Root and Crystal fighting like professionals." Zeke said, interrupting the silence. This was more of a sign of logic than low self-esteem.

"We work like a team too! We know how strong Seth is, but Root and Crystal can be plain, old weaklings for all we know!" Silk retorted.

"I find that highly unlikely since they got through the Battle Terrain. Also, spending that much time with Seth sort of has an affect on people." I said, patting her on the back.

I quickly glanced at the screen, only to see we had less than two minutes until the fight.

"Okay guys, this match isn't any different from the last, seeing as we still don't know what our opponent is capable of. Stay on your toes and even though Seth is our friend, he wouldn't want us to hold back!"


***** Meanwhile – Seth' POV *****


We all resided to our own corners of the room and awaited our next battle.

"You have some strong friends, Seth. You sure we can beat them?" Root asked, breaking the silence.

"Truth be told... I think we'll obliterate them. I've spent enough time with them to know that they rely too much on luck." I replied coldly.

"Really? This will be a cinch then! Those beginners won't know what hit them!" Crystal shouted with glee.

I didn't know lying to them would be so effective. The real truth was that Team Blaze has come a long way since Mt. Steel. Maybe even far enough to surpass me...


***** Back to Sapphire's POV *****


Our pacing stopped as the screened wall lifted again, revealing a different battlefield. The field was pretty plain with its gray walls, floor and ceiling. I guess this match was too important to be interrupted by terrain. Across the battlefield were our opponents... and our friends.

"Congratulations Zeke," Seth began to shout from the other side of the field, "when we first started this team, you were a pitiful excuse for a rescuer. And that goes double for you, Sapphire. But now look at you guys, you make me proud!"

"Thanks Seth... I think" I yelled back, smiling.

I turned to the rest of the team while Seth turned to his team.

"Okay guys, you ready?" Silk asked.

"Nope, but do we have a choice?" Zeke replied coldly.

"I guess not, but we have to win this match. Not because we need that stone, but because we have to prove ourselves to Seth!" I added.

We all stayed on our side of the field and glared at our opponents.

*****

"YOU MAY NOW BEGIN!!!" shouted that familiar Fearow voice. We stared at our foes and they stared right back.

"Good luck..." Root whispered with a smirk.

Suddenly, he turned around and stuck out his leafy tail. It began to spin in rapid circles and shot razor sharp leaves at us.

"Look out!" I shouted, dodging to the left. Zeke followed me to the left while Silk went to the right. This was beginning to look like our last battle.

"She's alone, now Crystal!" Seth shouted.

On Seth's word, she rushed toward Silk and tackled her down to the floor. I wanted to help her out but the ongoing burst of leaves separated us. It was clear to me that they planned this.

"Crystal, finish her off. I thought you guys would be more prepared for a battle this important." Seth instructed.

I simply smiled and nodded at Zeke in approval. With a return nod, he turned toward Root and opened wide. A wheel of red-orange fire was shot at Root at an amazing speed. At the last minute, Root discontinued his attack and dodged Zeke's blast.

"Hurry up with her Crystal!" Seth yelled.

"No hard feelings, 'kay Silk?" Crystal asked before opening her mouth. A small, white orb began to form between her and Silk's face.

"Yeah, no hard feelings." Silk whispered with a leer. With her red cheeks sparkling with electricity, she discharged an enormous amount of energy. This wasn't one of her regular, weak jolts, as this one sent Crystal flying to the other side of the field. However, she just stood up and shook it off.

"Okay, now we fight for real." Seth said, running towards us with his teammates following close behind.

Zeke released another wheel of fire upon them, but they all dodged it perfectly. Seth smashed his head into Zeke and continued running. Zeke held on tight until he was slammed hard on a wall. Meanwhile, Root and Crystal stopped their charge and began to stare me down. I backed up a little, only to bump into Seth's advancing body.

"It's over Sapphire." he whispered before slamming his head onto my soft, diamond-shape patch of skin. I had completely forgotten about my weak spot. The attack sent me up in the air where I soared helplessly. Root leapt in the air and prepared to finish me off. However, he was interrupted by a yellow beam of electricity that hit him square on, blasting him into a nearby wall.

"Thanks Silk..." I muttered when I landed near her.

Angry that his plan wasn't working, Seth charged at us at full speed. I and Silk readied for impact was surprised when Seth jumped in the air and landed directly behind us. His body, and eventually the entire battlefield, was engulfed in a zero visibility, black fog.

"What's going o-." I was cut off by a fairly large object hitting my body. It hit again a few seconds later, and again, and again...

By the time the fog faded, my bruised body laid powerlessly on the floor. I turned my head and saw Silk's badly bruised body struggling to her feet.

"Seth... what the heck was that?" she hissed.

"A little trick I learned in my last battle." he replied, walking back towards Crystal.

Crystal opened her mouth and revealed that white orb again. After a few seconds of concentration, she released a white beam from the orb and it zigzagged in our direction. I thought the battle was over until a burst of flames collided with the progressing beam, stopping it in its tracks. The combination of fire and ice caused a melting and a small puddle began to form. I turned again and saw Zeke breathing hard and small flames slipping out of his mouth. Then out of nowhere, Root slammed his entire body into Zeke's, causing both of them to smash into the wall. The attack hurt Root as much as it hurt Zeke, and I knew they both were out for the count.

"Root, you idiot! You should have let us handle it!" she shouted, obviously worried about her brother.

I noticed she had stepped onto the small puddle and I had an idea. I struggled to my feet and jerked toward Crystal while looking at Silk. She must've caught onto the idea when he cheeks started to spark with electricity again. Using whatever energy she had left, she shot a small beam of electricity at the patch of water. Crystal's expression instantly went grim as she knew what was to come next. The jolt hopped around the liquid surface until it found Crystal's legs, where it traveled around her entire body. She shrieked in pain as the water increased the power of the electricity. When it was all over, she collapsed on the floor along with Silk, who was extremely fatigued.

"Well Sapphire, it seems it's just us two now." Seth said.

He kicked his legs back and recklessly charged at me at an amazing speed. I was paralyzed with fear as my friend rushed towards me. I felt all our hard work coming to an end as Seth got closer. Then it happened...

My body began to light up like never before. I felt my body change on both the inside and out. My figure grew and my skin transformed into a rugged, sturdy material. When the light faded, I noticed that my skin was a grayish-blue color and my body greatly resembled that of a cocoon. As soon, as the transformation finished, Seth smashed into me, but I felt unfazed. Seth, on the other hand, bounced off of my rock hard skin and landed on his back with a large, red spot on his head.

"Impossible... you choose now to evolve?" he managed to grumble.

A grin quickly ran across my face, although no one would notice as my mouth was hidden under my hard armor. I looked down and noticed that I had no limbs and contemplated how I could finish up the battle. Suddenly, I began to levitate and sustain my balance.

'Now this is awesome...' I thought to myself, focusing on Seth.

I concentrated on the anger that I felt while fighting Drake. I converted all the anger into power and shot one last look at Seth.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered.

I unleashed the power that was building inside me on Seth's motionless body. I repeatedly slammed my rock-hard body into Seth, bringing him way past the point of defeat. I struggled to draw back my onslaught, as I didn't want to permanently damage Seth. After seconds of thrashing, I regained control and the immense migraine from before returned.

"AND OUR WINNER IS TEAM BLAZE!!!" I heard a voice yell before blacking out...

***** End of Chapter 12 *****

Attacks used in this match: Icebeam (Crystal), Thunderbolt (Silk), Flame Wheel (Zeke), Faint Attack (Seth), Razor Leaf (Root), Thrash (Saphire)

I actually have up to chapter 15, I just forgot to update on the site.