Blazing Dreams: Legends of Sinnoh

Hello and welcome to Legends of Sinnoh! Let me just get a few things out of the way and then the story will begin. Blazing Dreams is a fic that I have been working on for over two years now. This is the second installment of Blazing Dreams. I may post the first some time in the future, but it was written a long time ago and as such isn't up to the quality of this.

If you would like to read the first installment, PM me. I'll see what I can do. But don't worry. You can, without much worry, read this by itself.

Lastly, comments and reviews are greatly appreciated. I am pretty far ahead in this at the moment, so I will update once to twice a week until I have caught up.

This Fic is rated PG-13. It contains violence and language, so please be warned.



Chapter List
Chapter One: Revealing The Legend
Chapter Two: Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf
Chapter Three: A Battle of Valor
Chapter Four: A Personal Defeat
Chapter Five: The Choice: Duncan's Pain
Chapter Six: The Ultimate Test: A Destiny, Revealed
Chapter Seven: The Duel: A Fated Meeting
Chapter Eight: The Most Powerful Clone
Chapter Nine: The Ultimate Loss
Chapter Ten: A Fateful Meeting: The Legends of Time and Space
Chapter Eleven: The Devil in Disguise
Chapter Twelve: The End of The Line
Epilogue

I guess that just about covers everything. Enjoy!

Blazing Dreams: Legends Of Sinnoh
by Duncan McNeil

Chapter 1: Revealing The Legend​

"So many months have passed...And yet you have remain silent...What has it gotten you?"

"Th-they will look for me..." sobbed a voice. The sound echoed around the dark room.

"Such faith...But it is misplaced...Are you ready to talk yet?" came the soft voice again.

"No..."

The small room echoed with laughter. "As you wish..."

"No! No...Please," pleaded a voice.

Click. A dim light lit up the dark room. It was concrete from floor to ceiling. A man, beaten and bruised, sat alone. His head hung low and he was tied to a chair in the center of the room.

"I have given you every opportunity to divulge what you know... Yet you still refuse... Are you, perhaps asking for more?" asked another man. He was circling the small room, his face shrouded in shadow.

"NO! No, anything but that..."

"Then tell me. Tell me and it will all stop. I don't want to hurt you, but you are giving me no choice. I will give you one more opportunity, Oak. Tell me about the Legends," The circling man stepped into the faint light. He had a strong jaw that strongly contrasted with his tired, sunken eyes. He wore an all-black jumpsuit that melted into the surrounding darkness. Dusek stopped in front of the quivering man and stared him in the eye. The man flinched.

"I- I don't know everything..." muttered Oak, his head tilted toward the floor. "But the Legends, they are the powers of Time, Space and Dimension. D-dialga, Palkia and, Giratina,"

"I see. Anything else?" asked Dusek quietly.

"Y-yes. There, is a book. It tells of all the old legends. Please, that's all I know," said Oak, still looking at the floor and beginning to sob.

Dusek considered the tortured man for a moment. "That is all you know?"

"Y-yes," moaned Oak.

"Very well then," said Dusek, drawing himself up to his fullest height. "You have reached the end of your usefulness,"

"NO!" cried Oak, coming to life at once. "Please, have mercy!"

Dusek's face twisted into a sadistic smile. "Mercy? I've never heard of it. Goodbye, Professor Oak. I daresay you have been useful,"

Bang!

The dark-haired man walked out of the holding room, looking smug. So there was a book with all the answers. It would be easy enough to locate.

He exited the room to a dimly lit corridor, flanked by metal doors. He smiled slightly at the sight of the dungeon-like corridor and started walking down it until he stopped at one of the large, metal doors. He opened it and entered.

There was a large, unconscious, stone gray Pokemon that took up the majority of the small room. It's chest slowly rose and fell in time with it's nearly silent breathing.

Dusek smiled at the creature, looking over the metal plate it was affixed to by its wrists and ankled. There were various machines attached to it as well, and a dim computer monitor that registered vital signs.

"Mewtwo, you are nearing your time. The plan has been set in motion." said Dusek, walking over to the monitor and typing on the keyboard below it. The computer hummed and whirred, and Dusek nodded. He turned and left the small room.

The man started walking down the corridor when he heard a banging from behind another of the doors. Dusek paused and looked curiously at the door. He then smiled and continued.
-----
Eterna City, One Year Later

Duncan McNeil stirred fretfully in his sleep. His blanket rolled off as he muttered incomprehensibly, the scar on the side of his face shining pearly white as the light from the open window fell upon his face. His back came to rest on the rear of the couch he was sleeping on as he gave a grunting snore.

Knock! Knock!

Duncan awoke suddenly. He looked around the small, one-bedroom apartment. The small kitchen was directly to his right, with only a small refrigerator and a stove in it. Next there was two doors on the opposite side of the room that entered into the bathroom and bedroom.

Duncan picked up his jeans from the table that laid right in front of the couch and hurriedly put them on. He knelt down and pulled out his pistol from beneath the couch and stuffed it in the back pocket of his pants.

He then proceeded to crack open the door. "Hello?" asked Duncan.

"Long time no see." grinned the man who stood on the other side of the door.

"Tay? Come in, come in," said Duncan incredously, opening the door wider to let Tay in.

"Nice place." grinned Tay, walking into the small apartment. He too looked considerably older, with facial hair that suggested he had not shaven in the past few days. He was wearing a large black trenchcoat.

Duncan snorted and cleared his blanket off the sofa. "How the hell'd you find us?" asked Duncan, tossing the blanket on the floor.

"It wasn't easy." said Tay, sitting down on the couch. "You sure know how to cover your tracks. What's it been, two years?"

Duncan nodded and sat down on the table. "Two years sounds about right. You're the first person from Team Knight I've seen since we went dark. What's going on?"

"That's the thing." said Tay, taking off the trenchcoat and setting down on the arm of the sofa. "Everyone from Team Knight has gone underground since Dusek took down the base. I've been hiding out in the Viridian Forest."

Duncan nodded. "We were there when it happened. If it wasn't for Michelle, I probably wouldn't have made it."

Tay cringed. "Is it true? Is Allen, really?"

Duncan nodded. "Yeah. It wasn't pretty. We decided that Sinnoh would be the best place to go, so here we are."

Creak. "Tay?" came a sleepy voice.

"Michelle!" exclaimed Tay, turning to see Michelle's head poking out of the bedroom.

"Hang on, I'll be right out." said Michelle, closing the door.

Tay smiled and sat back down. "So how's Michelle doing?"

Duncan shrugged. "As well as could be expected, I suppose. We had her seventeenth birthday last week, it was pretty cool."

Tay nodded. "Wow, I forget you guys are so old now."

"Hi Tay!" came Michelle's voice. She had come out of the bedroom and was dressed in a tight pink t-shirt and yellow pajama bottoms. Her hair was no longer brown, though. It was now blonde, running down to her shoulders.

"Michelle!" said Tay, standing up and hugging Michelle. Duncan smiled.

"Tay!" exclaimed Michelle, releasing Tay and looking him over. "How did you find us?"

"A long story," said Tay. "And a boring one. So how are you doing?"

Michelle smiled. "Fine, fine," she said in a not altogether convincing tone. "Are you hungry? We've got some cereal..."

Tay smiled. "That would be great, I haven't eaten anything this morning." Michelle nodded and walked into the small kitchen.

"So how are you renting this place?" asked Tay conversationally, sitting back down on the couch.

"Well, say hello to Jacob and Delilia Burns," grinned Duncan. "We're twenty years old, and we got married two years ago. Wanna see our wedding pictures?"

Tay laughed. "You guys didn't really get married, did you?"

Duncan shook his head. "If we had, would I be sleeping on the couch?"

"Guess not." said Tay, chuckling. "Thank you Michelle." he added as Michelle walked in with a bowl of cereal.

"Don't mention it..." said Michelle. "So what brings you here?"

"Ah." said Tay, setting down the bowl. "Yes. That. Well, it's Dusek."

Duncan sighed. "What now?"

"It's a long story. I don't know all the details." said Tay. "But that's also part of the reason why I came to Eterna. To see the Statue of Legends."

Duncan frowned. "The Statue of Legends? I don't understand."

"Here, let me just show you. Do you know the way?" asked Tay.

Michelle nodded. "I walk by it all the time. It's just down the street."

Tay nodded. "Then let's go."
-----
Duncan, Michelle and Tay walked out the front door of the apartment building. Eterna City was toward the northern end of Sinnoh. It was a rapidly developing city, with large, new buildings going up every day.

Off to the distant East was a large mountain range, topped by the huge Mt. Coronet and the cloudless blue skies. Duncan and Michelle lived in the northeast part of town, and as such the Statue of Legends was only two blocks away.

"Nice place, Eterna." commented Tay as a car stopped to let them cross the street.

"Beats Viridian, I'm sure?" said Duncan, giving the driver a quick wave and starting along the sidewalk.

"Yeah." said Tay, smiling at Michelle. She was staring at the ground and appeared not to hear Tay or Duncan.

"So the Statue of Legends. What's so special about it?" asked Duncan, casting a quick look at Michelle.

"You see, it contains the three Legends of Time, Space and Dimension. That's what Dusek is after." said Tay.

"What? But, they're just myth! Aren't they?" asked Duncan.

"No, they aren't. Dialga has the power of Time. Palkia has the power of Space. And Giratina has the power of Dimension. Together they keep the threads of the world together. Without one, everything will be messed up, big time." said Tay.

"Surely Dusek knows that?" asked Duncan. Dusek was evil, yes. But he wasn't stupid.

"Yes he does." said Tay. "Which leads me to believe that he has a plan to counter it. But here we are,"

The Statue of Legends were up on a large platform on a small lot inbetween two large apartment buildings. Tay, Duncan and Michelle walked up the crumbling steps that led to the Statues.

"Wow..." said Tay, shaking his head at the statues. There were three twenty foot tall statues surrounding a pedestal with all sorts of ancient writing on it.

"This is Palkia," said Tay, gesturing toward the statue on the left. "Ruler of Time. And this," he gestured to the statue on the right. "Is Dialga, Ruler of Space. Finally, this is,"

"Giratina." said Michelle quietly. She walked up to the centermost statue. "Ruler of Dimension, and the Underworld..."

Duncan looked at Michelle incredously. "How'd you know that?" he demanded.

"My mother..." said Michelle quietly, running her hand across the bottom of the statue. "Used to tell me about it."

Tay blinked at Michelle, then nodded. "Yes." he said. "Giratina is the Ruler of Dimension. These are the prizes Dusek is after. And this is what we must stop him from getting."

Michelle took a step back from the statue.

Leave... Leave now...

Michelle looked around for the source of the voice, but it seemed to be coming from the Giratina statue itself. She faintly heard Tay and Duncan talking behind her, but she strained her ears to hear.

Leave now... Leave at once...

Michelle stepped back from the statue. "Guys," she said. "We need to leave."

Tay stopped talking and looked at Michelle curiously. "No, we just got here." he said. "There might be clues here."

"No." said Michelle loudly. "We need to leave, now!"

Duncan frowned at Michelle. "Okay, okay. What's going on?"

"I, I don't know." said Michelle, starting to walk away with Duncan and a reluctant Tay. Just as Tay's foot left the bottommost stair, however, there was a loud noise from the statues.

"What was that?" asked Duncan, stopping and turning around.

BOOM!

Tay, Duncan and Michelle were thrown backward at least ten feet. The entire platform disappeared behind a curtain of smoke, pieces of concrete and clay pelting the entire area.

Michelle moaned, lying in the middle of the street, flat on her back. She tried to breathe, but there was an intense pain in her lungs. She pushed herself up, looking at the remains of the statue. Then her eyes fell upon Duncan, lying against the base of a tree over to her right. Tay was groaning in front of her.

"Michelle!" yelled Duncan, standing up and running over to Michelle. "Are you okay?"

Michelle nodded, wiping a trickle of blood off her arm. "Tay-he's over there!"

Duncan rushed over to where Tay was at. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." coughed Tay, sitting up. "Michelle's good... There was a bomb behind one of the statues..."

Duncan nodded and helped Tay up. "I noticed. Come on, it's not safe anymore, we need to go... Dusek must know we're here..."

"You think?" asked Tay.
-----
Okay, so that's Chapter One. Tell me what you think, because comments and reviews really do help.

Yeah, I'm impatient. Here we go with chapter two:

Blazing Dreams: Legends Of Sinnoh
by Duncan McNeil

Chapter 2: Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf​

"Come on, we need to get to my car..." said Tay, shakily standing up. "Michelle, you really saved our necks there..."

Michelle nodded and limped over to help Duncan support Tay. "Come on, let's go." she said, grabbing Tay from under the shoulder.

"Yeah," said Duncan, one hand under Tay's other arm and the other cradling his injured rib. "Where's your car?"

"Over in front of your building. But where will we go?" asked Tay.

"There's no use running anymore. Dusek will know where we are, so we need to find answers. I know of an old town just East of here, Celestic Town." said Duncan as the three hurriedly walked along the sidewalk to the stares of people passing and driving by.

"Celestic Town? What's there?" asked Tay.

"Some stuff about old legends." said Duncan, stopping and releasing Tay. "Guys, what if Dusek got to your car? We should be on the safe side, go Pidgeot!" Duncan reached down and pulled a ball off of his belt. He tossed it in the air and a large bird with brilliant plumage appeared.

"Pidgeot!" cried the Pokemon.

"I'm sorry Pidgeot," said Duncan, stroking its feathers. "But we really need to go. Can you take us?"

"Hang on." said Tay. "Go Salamence!" Tay threw a red-and-white Pokeball in the air. It spun and erupted into a large Dragon Pokemon.

"Salamence!" it roared.

"I need some help, can you take me East? Just follow Duncan's Pidgeot." said Tay. Salamence nodded and landed in the middle of the street, causing cars to careen out of the way for fear of impact with the large Dragon Pokemon.

"Let's go." said Duncan, helping Michelle onto Pidgeot. He sat down in front of Michelle and stroked it's head.

"Ready?" asked Tay, climbing onto Salamence's back.

Duncan nodded. "Pidgeot, we need to head East, toward Mt. Coronet. There's a small town on the other side."

"Pidgeot!" exclaimed Pidgeot, extending it's formidable wings and taking off, leaving Eterna City behind quickly. Michelle grabbed Duncan's waist and held on tight. Duncan smiled and spread his arms wide. He had always loved flying, and he hadn't gotten the chance to since Pidgeot had evolved.

"This is awesome!" cried Michelle, grabbing Duncan's hand. "This is so AWESOME!"

Duncan smiled widely, the wind tearing at his face. All his aches and pains suddenly disappeared, to be replaced with the sheer exhilaration of flight. He looked back to see Tay grinning ear-to-ear.

They flew higher and faster, now the far off mountains didn't seem so far off, they were close enough to pick out the individual Snover and Meditite scurrying around. As they flew over, a large temple-like ruin was seen briefly, then it disappeared.

"Duncan!" cried Michelle. Duncan looked back. She kissed him, and the moment seemed perfect. All the months of grieving, living off of whatever Duncan could scrape up, and all the secrets, seemed to vanish. The only thing that mattered was Duncan, Michelle and the bright blue skies.

Then they broke apart, and they felt Pidgeot slowly descending. Duncan turned back toward the front and the grin slid off his face. There was business to attend to.
-----
"Thanks Pidgeot." said Duncan, returning the first Pokemon he ever caught. He looked up to see Tay and Salamence landing beside them.

"That was fun." said Tay, sliding off Salamence's back. "Thanks a bunch." he added, returning the Dragon Pokemon.

"You okay?" asked Michelle, walking over to Tay.

Tay nodded. "I'm fine. So what now?"

Duncan frowned and turned around. They had landed in a small field just West of Celestic. "Let's go take a look." said Duncan.

The trio slowly started across the field. "So what are we looking for?" asked Tay, wiping his forehead off. It was now noon and it was getting quite hot.

"Well, there's supposed to be a cave. I suppose it's a good place to start. And besides, I doubt Dusek will think to look in a sleepy little town, right?" asked Duncan.

Tay shook his head. "I don't even pretend to know what he's thinking any more... But I don't know... For all we know Dusek has already gotten the Legends..."

Duncan snorted. "I doubt it. If he already had, I'm pretty sure we'd all be dust by now."

Michelle gave a nervous giggle as they emerged from the field. Celestic Town was much smaller than Eterna. It was comprised of eight unremarkable brown buildings, all surrounding a lowered area with a cave in it.

"Charming." said Tay. "That looks like a good place to start." he added, pointing at the cave.

Michelle smiled, looking over her shoulder. "Yeah, the creepy cave is exactly where I want to go."

Duncan nodded. "It would nice to have some backup. Go Blaziken!" said Duncan, releasing his first Pokemon.

"Blaziken!" exclaimed Blaziken, looking around at Celestic Town. "Blaza Blaze." it commented.

"Yeah yeah," said Duncan as they walked into the center of the town and started down a well worn path leading down to the cave. "I'll explain later. Come on."

"Look at that." said Tay, shaking his head, looking at the cave. Now that they were closer, they realized that there was more than just a cave. There were huge pictures of Dialga and Palkia, etched deep in the stone beside the cave entrance.

"Wow... They really are everywhere." said Michelle quietly.

Duncan looked over at Michelle. "Michelle, are you okay?"

Michelle looked back at Duncan. "Yeah. Why?"

Duncan frowned. "You look terrible- come and sit down."

"Blaze." said Blaziken, nodding.

Michelle wiped the sweat off her forehead, suddenly she was feeling faint. "I... yeah." she said as Duncan and Blaziken helped her into the cool darkness of the cave.

"Here," said Duncan, gently steering Michelle to sit down. "It really is hot, are you sure you're okay?"

Michelle blinked. Something odd was happening. Somehow she could see Duncan in front of her while simultaneously seeing an odd, dark field. She staggered to the ground and left the cave all together.
-----
Michelle was now in a dark graveyard. Mist was swirling around as though driven by a strong wind, but there was none to be found. She frowned and looked around. Something about the place felt right, it was as if she had been looking for this place for all her life, and now she had finally found it.

All thoughts of the cave gone, Michelle proceeded to explore the graveyard. The headstones were all identical. They were about four feet high, and were made of a substance that looked like black marble. They were all unmarked.

Michelle smiled and continued walking down the never ending field, passing row after row of headstones. Occasionally she saw one that was marked, but it was written in a strange language that she didn't understand.

Time didn't seem to exist in the graveyard. Michelle might have been walking for a minute, and hour or a year. It just didn't matter.

Finally something caught her eye. It was a headstone, and she could barely make out what it said. She walked up to it and knelt down.

MICHELLE ABAGAIL McNEIL
JULY 5, 1990 - JULY 11, 2007​

She blinked, and vaguely realized that today's date was July 9th. But the only thing that bothered her was that she was two days off. She reached out to touch the headstone, but a loud voice called out to her.

"Don't touch it!"
-----
Michelle opened her eyes. She was lying in bed in a dark room. She pulled off the bed sheet to see she was still in her T-Shirt and pajama bottoms.

She looked up to see a pair of jeans and a large green shirt lying on the end of the bed. She took off her old clothes and put on the large pair of jeans and huge T-shirt. Both were much too big, but Michelle didn't mind and walked out of the room.

She entered the main room to see a small table with four chairs surrounding it. The windows were open, and sunlight flooded into the room.

"Michelle!" exclaimed Duncan, standing up and rushing over to Michelle. "Are you okay?"

Michelle looked at Duncan to see his skin was extremely pale, and he had dark circles under his eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine. But you don't look so good."

Duncan waved his hand. "Never mind me, are you okay? Do you remember? You fainted in the Cave of Legends."

She frowned, straining her memory. A flash of a graveyard appeared. "I, don't know."

Duncan nodded and helped her into the chair he had just vacated. Michelle nodded and looked up. Tay and Blaziken were on one side of the table, and an old woman was on the other.

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked the old woman.

Michelle nodded and cleared the hair out of her face. "Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry, who are you?"

The old women smiled. "My name's Helen, dear. You had us worried sick."

Michelle smiled. "I'm sorry for all the trouble, but don't we need to get going?" she asked with a pointed look at Duncan.

"No." said Duncan flatly. "I won't hear of it."

"I'm fine." insisted Michelle. "Come on, you know what all we have to do."

"You know Duncan, she's right. She looks just fine and we really do need to get going." said Tay.

Duncan sighed. "Are you sure? Seriously, I'm not going to let anything happen to you again."

"I'm fine. We need to look at the cave." insisted Michelle.

"The Cave of Legends? I can show you that." said Helen, standing up.

Duncan shook his head, then stood up. "Come on, let's go before I change my mind."

Helen led the way out the door, followed by Tay, Blaziken, Michelle and Duncan. "So what do you know about the Cave of Legends, Helen?" asked Tay.

"Well, not much." said Helen as they walked towards the cave. "All I know is that there is a cave painting with the Three Living Beings on it."

"The Three Living Beings?" asked Tay.

"Yes, from the old Legends. You're saying you haven't heard of them?" asked Helen.

"I have." said Michelle. "But tell them."

Helen nodded. "Long ago, there was nothing but chaos. In the middle of it all, an Egg appeared. It tumbled from the chaos to give rise to the Original One. From itself, it created two beings. Time began to spin. Space began to expand.

"From itself again, three living things the Original One did make. The two beings wished, and from them, matter came to be. The three living things wished, and from them, spirit came to be. The world created, the Original One took to unyielding sleep."

Tay smiled. "You sure know it well."

Helen nodded. "That story has been handed down through the generations. It tells the tale of the Beings of Time and Space, and of the Three Living Beings of Knowledge, Emotion and Willpower."

"Wow..." said Duncan as they stopped in front of the cave. "This has been right under our noses forever, and no one knows..."

Helen smiled as they entered the cave. It was not large. The ceilings went up about ten feet, and the walls were about twenty feet apart. The floor was wet from the ceilings' constant dripping.

There was a large etching on the back of the cave, similar to the one outside but smaller. There were three small Pokemon surrounding a pillar with a line connecting them.

"This is awesome..." said Tay. "This must be a thousand years old."

"At least." said Helen. "You see? The one on the left, that is Uxie, the Living Being of Knowledge. And the one in the middle, that is Mesprit, the Living Bring of Emotion. And here, on the right, is Azelf, the Living Being of Willpower."

"So this is it..." muttered Duncan. "It all makes sense."

"Wait. You don't think?" asked Michelle excitedly.

"Yeah." said Duncan. "Dusek is trying to get all of the Legendaries. Dialga, Palkia, Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf! He wants them all!"

Tay's mouth fell open. "You're right! But, this is getting huge! How are we supposed to stop this?"

Michelle suddenly flashed back. "Lake Valor! Azelf!"

"What?" asked Duncan.

"I-I don't know. But, I have a feeling that we need to go to Lake Valor." said Michelle.

Tay nodded. "You seem to be right about these things, Michelle."

"Yeah, I know. Let's get going!" said Duncan.
-----

There you go. Reviews and comments are very helpful. I'll post chapter three here in a few days.

Still really impatient. That's me. XD Anyway, here's Chapter 3. A small note: This isn't one of my favorite chapters. In fact, it's not my favorite chapter at all. Just hang in here with me, okay?

Blazing Dreams: Legends Of Sinnoh
by Duncan McNeil

Chapter 3: A Battle Of Valor​

"Pidgeot!" cried Duncan's Pidgeot as they flew through the air, Tay's Salamence directly behind. Just as they had done the previous day, Duncan, Michelle and Tay had called on their Flying Pokemon to speed them away. But now that they knew of Dusek's plan, everything seemed to be larger, and more daunting.

The mere fact that Dusek wanted to control the Legends was what was worrying Duncan. To disrupt something that had been at peace for thousands, if not millions of years, seemed to come with heavy consequences. But Lake Valor? Duncan started to doubt Michelle. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but what were the odds of something actually happening at the Lake?

Duncan thought hard about what to do after they looked at Lake Valor. He had no inkling about where Dusek might be, nor where a Legend could be. If they had successfully stayed hidden for millions of years, then how was he expected to find them in one day?

"Duncan?" whispered Michelle from behind Duncan.

"Yeah?" asked Duncan, the wind picking up. Pidgeot was speeding up, diving downward to avoid a large cloud.

"Something is wrong. I, can feel it. We need to hurry." she said.

Duncan felt a pang that had nothing to do with Dusek. "Okay." he said. "Pidgeot, let's hurry."

"Pidgeot!" exclaimed Pidgeot, spiraling downward in a dive. Duncan felt Michelle grasp him tightly as they hurtled toward the ground. He heard Tay yell something as he gritted his teeth, they were hurtling toward the ground, then Pidgeot started to pull up.

The G-forces pulled on Duncan hard, and it was with all his might he held on to Pidgeot. Then Pidgeot pulled level, and they were streaking through the sky, flying faster than Duncan thought he had ever gone before.

"Pidgeot!" cried Pidgeot as they began to slow. Duncan exhaled his held breath as Pidgeot began to spiral downward. It touched down behind a large group of trees.

Duncan helped Michelle off of Pidgeot as Tay and his Salamence set down beside them.

"Jeez!" exclaimed Tay, shakily getting off of Salamence. "That was not cool!"

Duncan smiled and returned Pidgeot. "Let's check out the Lake."

Tay nodded and looked at Salamence. "Go check it out!" Salamence nodded and with a roar, took off.

"Okay, we need to be ready." said Michelle. "Come out!" she exclaimed. Michelle flung two Pokeballs into the air. They erupted into a Venusaur and a Tangrowth.

"Okay guys, are you ready for a fight?" she asked.

Duncan smiled. "Go Blaziken and Umbreon!"

The Pokeballs erupted, releasing Duncan's Blaziken and Umbreon.

Tay shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Machamp and Sceptile, go!"

Machamp and Sceptile appeared, flexing their muscles.

"Okay," said Tay. "Let's go."
-----
It's eyes slowly opened. A steady drip drip sounded nearby, but that wasn't important. Something was nearby. No, someone was nearby. It felt wrong. Azelf slowly rose off of the pillar of rock that it had been lying on. It closed its eyes and began to glow blue. The cave that surrounded it began to shudder and shake, as if there was an earthquake.

The trembling grew worse and worse, until it seemed that the cave should collapse. Up and down did not seem to matter, everything was a jumble of deafening noise and blurred color. Then it happened.

Azelf sank back onto its pillar unharmed. It could feel two more beings were now awake. The dripping resumed and the cave became silent. Everything seemed to have been put into motion. In every corner of the earth, trembling would soon begin.

Azelf looked toward the ceiling. A small crack had appeared in it. After a moment, a small drop of water dropped directly onto Azelf. Then, with an almighty BOOM!, the entire cave collapsed. Millions of pounds of water slammed into Azelf, pressing it ten feet into the rock of the cave.
-----
"What's that?" asked Tay as the ground began to shake.

Duncan looked around, but was knocked off his feet as the trembling became much more severe. Everything around them seemed to be in giant shaker. Trees were thrown high into the air, then slammed back into the ground with such force that they were suddenly buried twenty feet.

Duncan was thrown into the air, then into the ground. Everything became much blurrier than before, and Duncan slammed into something as he was being thrown back into the air like some sort of pathetic rag doll. Then down he went once more, and all went black.
-----
"Wake up!"

"Does he need another shot?"

"No, he's coming around."

Duncan slowly opened his eyes. He was now in a small, dimly lit room. His vision was heavily blurred, he made out two large men were standing in front of him.

"About time," grunted one, and he sunk his fist into Duncan's chest.

Duncan collapsed onto the floor, his stomach writhing with pain.

"Get up!" said the second man, and he roughly grabbed Duncan by the shoulders and pressed him to the back of the wall.

Duncan coughed violently, and spat blood onto the floor.

"What do you know of the Legendary Beings?" asked the man pinning Duncan to the wall.

Duncan coughed again, then looked up at the man. "F*** off."

The man's eyes flashed with rage; he raised his fist, but Duncan caught it. They stayed there for a moment, then Duncan head butted the man, knocking him backward.

His companion raised his machine gun at Duncan, but Duncan rolled across the floor and he jabbed the man below the kneecap, his fingers breaking through his pant leg. He roared with pain and toppled over.

Duncan quickly got to his feet and subdued both men with jabs to the left elbow. He picked up a machine gun from one, then he wiped a dribble of blood from the corner of his mouth and shoved open the door.

He looked around to see that he was still at Lake Valor; he was in a truck parked a few hundred feet from where he, Michelle and Tay had been hiding. There were several more trucks parked around him, but they were all abandoned for the moment.

Duncan limped away from the clearing toward where they had been hiding. A few moments later, he was knocked from his feet from behind.

"Stand up!" exclaimed a voice.

Duncan pushed himself to his feet, then turned around. Tay was standing in front of him.

"Duncan!" he exclaimed. "What the hell happened to you?"

Duncan looked down. His jacket was gone, and his white T-shirt was ripped and covered in blood. The pair of jeans he was wearing were ripped as well, with several deep cuts along the sides. "They got me." he said unnecessarily. "What's going on?"

"It's complicated. Come with me." said Tay, turning and beginning to walk toward the Lake. Duncan hurried alongside him.

"After that earthquake, you and Michelle were unconscious. I got up and pulled her into some bushes, but two of them came and found you. We tried to follow them, then we saw the lake. Duncan, they captured Azelf."

"What!" exclaimed Duncan.

"They lowered some explosives into the Lake right after the earthquake, and then Azelf came out of the Lake, blew about thirty grunts up. But they got it with a laser beam thing, and it's still there." said Tay.

"What can we do?" asked Duncan. The pair were approaching the Lake, but then for the second time in the span of a minute he was faced with a pistol, sticking out from a large clump of bushes.

"Oh, Duncan." said Michelle, standing up. "Are you okay?"

Duncan nodded, and Michelle ran up to him and threw her arms around him. He saw, behind her blond hair, Blaziken sticking his head out of the bushes.

"Okay, we need to move. You see that trailer over there? The one that shooting that beam at Azelf? We need to destroy it." said Tay.

Duncan grinned, something he hadn't done in what seemed like a very long time. "We'll take care of that. Blaziken, are you ready?"

Blaziken leapt out of the bushes, and his wrists lit up. "Blaziken!"

Duncan nodded. "Then let's do it!"
-----
Dusek looked down onto the lake. A small, blue sphere was visible from above, and occasionally it glowed brighter, but it didn't worry him. He sat backward on his large, comfortable chair. It swiveled around, and he viewed several other screens, two of which were currently displaying views very similar to what Dusek was just looking at; small creatures in bubbles, struggling futily in their prisons. Then the door opened, and a grunt rushed in.

"Sir, he's here!"

Dusek smiled. "About time. Did he kill the other two?"

The grunt shook his head. "No, he just knocked them out."

Dusek sighed. "You haven't changed at all, Duncan. Very well, wait until he strikes. Then engage."

"Yes sir." said the grunt, and he turned and left the room.

Dusek turned and looked back out the window. "Duncan, I hope you enjoy the show." He smiled, then began to laugh. Duncan felt a chill, and looked up. A large helicopter was hovering directly above the Lake. He had a bad feeling about this.
-----

Yeah. Well, next chapter will be better. Hang in here with me. XD

Okay, caught up on that review that I promised you. This is just going to be a general review since you had three chapters.

For the first two chapters, grammar was all right, except for dialogue. You would have a full stop ending the dialogue, before the closing quotation marks, when you actually need a comma since you have a dialogue tag. But this problem is fixed by chapter three, so it's just a matter of editing.

The one thing that concerns me about this is the fact that it's the second "book" and the readers are slightly missing the back story that's needed to understand the characters. The plot of the previous installment isn't really needed to be known, but for the characters, it is. Like when Michelle suddenly kissed Duncan, it just came out of the blue for new readers to your writing, like me. It might make sense to readers that have read the first installment, but I didn't. ^^

So really, you just need to add in some back story so new readers can understand the characters.

There's also some missing emotions to this, like how the characters feel in the certain situations, but it's understandable if you don't want to spend a lot of time on that.

Other than that, I can't find any problems with this, so good job! Can't wait to see more!

Hanako Tabris said:

Okay, caught up on that review that I promised you. This is just going to be a general review since you had three chapters.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Yeah, reviews are always helpful to me, no matter how long.

Hanako Tabris said:

For the first two chapters, grammar was all right, except for dialogue. You would have a full stop ending the dialogue, before the closing quotation marks, when you actually need a comma since you have a dialogue tag. But this problem is fixed by chapter three, so it's just a matter of editing.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the first few chapters weren't very good. I'm planning a full rewrite of the first three or four chapters, so I'm needing all the help I can get in finding errors and stuff that just doesn't fit in right.

Hanako Tabris said:

The one thing that concerns me about this is the fact that it's the second "book" and the readers are slightly missing the back story that's needed to understand the characters. The plot of the previous installment isn't really needed to be known, but for the characters, it is. Like when Michelle suddenly kissed Duncan, it just came out of the blue for new readers to your writing, like me. It might make sense to readers that have read the first installment, but I didn't. ^^

Click to expand...

I know. I considered posting the first saga, but it was written over a year ago and is pretty bad. I'm working on a summary of what happened in the first bit, though. Hopefully that should help.

Hanako Tabris said:

There's also some missing emotions to this, like how the characters feel in the certain situations, but it's understandable if you don't want to spend a lot of time on that.

Other than that, I can't find any problems with this, so good job! Can't wait to see more!

Click to expand...

Yeah, this is a very action-oriented fic. I lost a lot of the emotions and Pokemon characterization transitioning to this, but once the action picks up it gets much better, believe me.

Anyway, thank you so much for the review. I hope you'll stick with me until I get this actually going.

Here we go with chapter four. A small note: I am currently revamping chapter one, with two and three after that. I'm not quite sure what I'll with this chapter, so all comments would be very helpful. Anyway, enjoy!

Blazing Dreams: Legends of Sinnoh
by Duncan McNeil

Chapter 4: A Personal Defeat​

"All systems are a go. When does he want us to engage?" asked a man. He was wearing a dark purple jumpsuit that seemed to blend into his surroundings; a small control room. Various lights were flashing on and off, but the man was paying them no mind. Instead, he was focusing on his comrade who had just walked through the door.

"He says we are to wait until he damn well tells us when." said the second man. Sighing, he walked up beside the first man and looked out through the thick glass, staring at the large blue sphere.

"Anthony, I don't like this." said the first man. "That thing just killed half our squad. What's Dusek playing at, waiting like this?"

Anthony shrugged. "To be honest, I don't give a rat's ass about any of them. But this Pokemon, that's a different matter. I'd sure like to have that kind of power to myself..."

The first man tensed up, then laughed. "Like that could ever happen? I can't even turn off the power generator!"

"I thought you'd say that..." said Anthony. He seemed to ponder something for a moment more, then shrugged and turned to leave. "Tell me when-"

"What the hell?" exclaimed the first man, jumping out of his seat. "What is that?"

Anthony rushed over to the window, staring at the massive fireball blasting toward the blue sphere. "I-I don't know."

The two men gazed at the fireball rushing toward the sphere, then as it drew close, the sphere disappeared into thin air.

"What!?" cried the first man, looking down at the controls. "I didn't touch anything!"

"Code 2!" blared a voice from overhead. "All units prepare to pull out: mission accomplished!"
-----
"Damn!" swore Duncan. He saw Blaziken spiral into the Lake, then launch out of it, somersaulting into the air and landing beside where Duncan concealed himself.

"Blaziken!" exclaimed Blaziken.

"Showoff..." muttered Duncan. "It was Dusek, he was waiting for me to try to save Azelf before he snatched it away. Where did it go?"

Blaziken shrugged, then pointed toward two guards that were rushing toward them. "Blaza?"

Duncan glared at Blaziken. "You just don't know when to quit, do you? Come on, let's get out of here."

Blaziken sighed. "Blaziken..." it said before kneeling down to allow Duncan onto its back. Duncan grabbed on tight and Blaziken, with its amazing jumping ability, launched the pair twenty feet into the air, only to come down on the ground five feet from where they had taken off.

"You are unbelievable, you are," said Duncan, getting off Blaziken as he heard guards closing in. "You wanted a fight, now you've gotten one."

"There they are!" cried a guard. His companion hefted his machine gun up and fired it at Duncan and Blaziken, but Blaziken fired a Flamethrower, melting the bullets in mid-air.

"What the?" exclaimed the guard.

Blaziken tore off at the two men. Before they could react, Blaziken had raised his fists and knocked them a good hundred feet backward, landing in the Lake.

"Blaze," it yawned.

Duncan laughed. "You couldn't do that before, could you? Come on, let's go before the rest of them find us here."
-----
"What's taking them so long?" asked Michelle. "Did something go wrong?"

"I don't know. Salamence still isn't back yet..." said Tay, then he looked around. They were standing in a small clearing, surrounded on all sides by thick trees; Umbreon, Sceptile, Machamp, Venusaur and Tangrowth had all been recalled.

"We missed it." came a voice from behind Tay. Michelle jumped and spun around. "Duncan!"

Duncan and Blaziken trudged through the thick brush and into the clearing where Michelle and Tay sat. "Dusek. He was, erm, messing with us..." said Duncan, hurriedly changing what he was about to say with a look from Michelle.

Tay groaned. "Where's Azelf?"

Duncan shrugged. "Gone. It just disappeared, like that." He snapped his fingers.

Tay slapped a hand to his forehead. "Okay, then there's nothing else we can do here. We need to go, but Salamence hasn't come back yet..."

"Here, you guys go on Pidgeot. Blaziken and I will wait until they're gone, then we'll get Salamence." said Duncan. "Michelle, do you have any granola bars?"

Michelle looked at Duncan incredulously. "Are you kidding? After all you just went through? You should be in a hospital right now!"

Duncan shrugged. "I'm fine." he lied. His stomach really did hurt a lot. "Just give me a granola bar, I'm starved."

Michelle shook her head. "Unbelievable," she said, reaching into her small purse and pulling out a granola bar.

"Thanks!" said Duncan brightly. He kissed Michelle and ripped open the granola bar. "Here's Pidgeot's Pokeball." he added, tossing Michelle the Pokeball.

"You two are just like a married couple." said Tay, shaking his head.

Duncan grinned and dug into his granola bar. "You know," he said thickly. "Technically we are."

Tay laughed as Michelle scowled at Duncan. "In more ways than one." he chuckled.

Michelle tossed Pidgeot's Pokeball into the air, releasing the Pokemon. "Okay, whatever. You know, after all this, the second we leave you're gonna choke on that granola bar or something. You know that, don't you?"

Duncan smiled widely and pulled off a chunk of the bar and handed it to Blaziken. "Yeah yeah. Where do you want to meet up?"

"Celestic Town?" suggested Tay. "We can stay there until we get a plan together."

Duncan shrugged and finished the granola bar. "Sure thing. You know what makes me feel bad right now?"

"What?" asked Michelle, a bemused look on her face.

"That we're sitting here, chatting and joking around, when Dusek just got Azelf." Duncan shook his head, and they quieted down for a moment.

"Yeah." said Tay. "Okay, you two be careful, alright?"

Duncan grinned, and poked Blaziken's chest with his thumb. "We'll be just fine, won't we?"

"Blaziken!" exclaimed Blaziken, poking Duncan in the chest with his thumb.

Michelle laughed and got on Pidgeot's back. "You two could be brothers."

"But I'm more handsome." pointed out Duncan.

Tay got on Pidgeot behind Michelle and laughed. "Not right now you aren't. See ya!"

Duncan waved as Pidgeot flapped it's wings and took off, flying away toward the setting sun. "Okay Blaziken." he said after they had disappeared behind a cloud. "It's just me and you."
-----
"Sir, we're all done." said a grunt standing in front of Dusek's desk. "Ready to move out."

Dusek frowned. "No one found Duncan after he made an attempt on Azelf?"

The grunt shook his head. "No sir. But we are missing two men."

Dusek smiled and sat up attentively. It was as if something entertaining had just come on the television. "Really? But no bodies?"

The grunt swallowed, he was visibly nervous at his bosses behavior. "No, no sir. Should we look?"

Dusek shrugged. "We have a tight schedule to keep. Tell all units to head back to base, but set the chopper down and let me out."

The grunt stepped forward. "No sir!" he exclaimed. "I can't let you do that!"

Dusek smiled dangerously. "And why not?"

"What if something happened? I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to do it." said the grunt.

Dusek's eyes flashed. "Are you the boss?"

The grunt flinched, suddenly aware that he had crossed the line. "No-no of course not sir."

"Then why are you telling me what to do?" asked Dusek.

"It's for your own, safety." said the grunt, his voice trailing away as Dusek stood up.

"You work for me. You do not give orders. I take orders from no one. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" said the grunt, visibly relieved.

Dusek smiled and raised his pistol. Without warning, he fired six shots into the unfortunate man. He slid to the floor with a dull thud.

The door slammed open, and two guards rushed in, their machine guns at the ready. "Is everything okay sir?" one asked, looking down at the dead grunt.

Dusek smiled. "Yes, everything is quite fine." he said, walking past the two guards and out of the room.
-----
Duncan watched as the last truck drove away from the small clearing beside the Lake. Once it had gotten out of sight, he stood up.

"Okay, let's get looking." he said.

"Blaziken!" exclaimed Blaziken.

"Where so you think Salamence could be? I know they didn't get it..." said Duncan thoughtfully. "Why don't you go North of the Lake and look there. I'll take the South."

"Blaza!" said Blaziken, and in one single, bounding leap, he was clear across the Lake.

Smiling at Blaziken's eagerness, Duncan began walking. But only a moment later, he heard a noise from behind.

"Hello Duncan." came a familiar voice.

Duncan's eyes widened. He spun around and pulled out his pistol, but before he could so much as raise it, it was shot out of his hand.

"Why the hostility?" asked Dusek, smiling.

Duncan clenched his fists so tight that they nearly bled. It was all he could do to prevent himself from rushing at Dusek.

"You don't look so good." said Dusek, sliding his pistol back into its holster. "But you look much better than most people after I get my hands on them." Dusek laughed and smiled at Duncan.

"What do you want?" growled Duncan. "If you want to kill me, do it now. I'm not going to spend my last moments talking to you."

Dusek's smile disappeared. "Very well, I shall get to the point. You see, after I killed your friend, Andrew was it?"

"Allen!" snarled Duncan.

Dusek smiled and nodded. "Allen, yes. After I killed him, and let you escape from the Power Plant,"

"You didn't." said Duncan. "Michelle got me out of there."

Dusek shrugged. "I let you live, didn't I? But anyway, after that I decided that I should some fun with you. You see, I knew that once you left the Power Plant you could disappear quite effectively. So I decided to root you out."

Duncan laughed, a cold, ruthless sort of laugh. "Root me out? Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because, Duncan. I wanted more. I wanted you, not dead, but in pain. In more pain than you can imagine." said Dusek.

"But not physical pain, right?" asked Duncan. "You know I can take that."

Dusek inclined his head. "Yes. Admirable you may be in that department, you are deficient in many others. But I must return to my story.

"As you so truthfully put, I couldn't hurt you with physical pain. So I went after everything else. Who killed your best friend? I did. Who killed the Professor who had given you your first Pokemon? I did. But what more could I do? You were hidden, so I could not touch your precious Michelle. But Tay was a different matter. I knew where he had been hiding, so it was easy enough to leak to him a few unimportant details about my plan.

"I knew he would want help, and who else did he have to turn to? You. So he began searching for you. With a little help from me, he succeeded and found you. Then the real fun could begin." Dusek smiled widely at this, as if he had just told a joke that was very funny.

"Now you want Michelle..." said Duncan, closing his eyes.

"Very good." said Dusek. "I knew that after Tay had found you, then she would be easy prey."

"Stop." said Duncan. He looked Dusek straight in the eyes. "Then why did you try to kill us?"

Dusek frowned. "Kill you? You mean the Statue of Legends? Ah, that was not meant for you. I merely wanted that destroyed. It was just a happy coincidence that you happened to be there at the same time."

"Lucky us..." said Duncan bitterly.

Dusek smiled. "Yes. But anyway, where was I in my charming little story? Ah yes, the part where you lose everything. Once Tay found you, your fate was sealed. I've already taken everything from you. Your best friend, the professor, your home. You've been on the run from me for the past two years. The second you were united with Tay, I had you. I already had this plan in the works, so why not lure you here?"

"Now what?" asked Duncan harshly. "You said it. I hardly have anything left. You've killed everyone and everything that I ever loved."

Dusek leered at Duncan. "Not quite. You see, I've had a guest for quite some time now. Two years, I believe."

Duncan's face drained of the little color it had left. "W-what?"

"Your mother. You thought I killed her, did you not? But why would I waste such a valuable piece for our little chess game? Now Duncan, you will have to choose. I have units closing in on Michelle as we speak. They have orders to kill her on the spot. If you hurry, you might be able to save her. But if you do that, then you will have no time to save your mother, who is locked up in Veilstone City. I will give you three hours to rescue her, or I will personally kill her." said Dusek.

Duncan's face was contorted with pain. What should he do? Save Michelle? Or his own mother. Suddenly he remembered something.

"Yeah mom."

"Duncan, I need to talk to you."

"I'm listening." said Duncan, kicking a soda can down the sidewalk.

"I'll get straight to it. You are getting too close to Michelle. You are losing sight of why you left on this journey."

Duncan paused. "What?"

"Duncan, you're just going to have to suck it up. Break it off with her and get back to your journey. She can come along, as long as she doesn't slow you down."

Duncan mouthed, aghast. "But, but,"

"No buts. Do it, tonight. Do your Gym Battle tomorrow, then leave Cerulean."

Duncan flipped his cellphone closed. He sat still for a solid minute before returning to the Hall. He walked into the decrepit old room to find Michelle.

"Duncan." she said. "They're finally playing a good song. Wanna dance?"

Duncan blinked, staring at Michelle. It suddenly occurred to him how beautiful she looked.

"Well?"

Duncan had chosen his mother that time, believing that she should come first before Michelle or anyone else. But now... He wasn't so sure.

"Well?" asked Dusek happily. "Who will live and who will die?"

Duncan trembled and fell to his knees. "Why?" he asked. "Why are you doing this?"

Dusek laughed. "You ruined everything for me, Duncan! Everything! I wish you were never born!"

Duncan looked up at Dusek. "I never did anything this horrible to you!" he cried. "Never!"

Dusek's smile vanished. "You ruined my life from the moment you were born. And I thought that I would be so happy..."

Duncan stared at Dusek. "What are you talking about?"

"I had a son... I thought it would solve everything. But it ruined everything. You ruined everything!" screamed Dusek, and suddenly he flew at Duncan, pinning him to a tree by the throat. "You ruined everything!"

Duncan's hands scrabbled at Dusek's, but he could not remove them. He felt the life slowly leaving his body, then Dusek released him. He fell, choking, to the ground.

Dusek stayed quiet for a moment. "My son... My only son. But that doesn't matter anymore. You now must choose. Michelle or Lily?"

Duncan gasped for air and looked at Dusek. "You're...my father?"

Dusek turned and began walking away. "Three hours." he said, and then he was gone, leaving Duncan to the most painful decision of his life.
-----

Heh, finally a decent cliffhanger! That's what Blazing Dreams is all about. Well, sort of...

Anyway, comments and reviews are appreciated!

*clears throat* Here we go with chapter five. This is the shortest chapter out of all LoS (Legends of Sinnoh. It's annoying to type it down everytime...), but it's needed in it's own right. A note: I've rewritten the first part of the first chapter. It's not much, but I figured something was better than nothing. I'm going to continue on and finish the first chapter as soon as I get the chance. As always, I love comments and reviews. So...comment and review, okay? XD

Blazing Dreams: Legends of Sinnoh
by Duncan McNeil

Chapter 5: The Choice: Duncan's Pain​

Duncan rolled onto his back, staring at the starry sky. He had to move. He had to do something. Just sitting here would get them both killed. But which way should he go? Dusek's plan was bulletproof. He could not save them both. But there were so many things that he might not know about.

How was he supposed to know that Dusek actually had his mother? But deep down, Duncan knew that it was the truth. How foolish he had been to believe Dusek had killed her when she was so much more valuable to him alive. It all seemed so clear in hindsight.

And Dusek... Duncan shuddered to think that he was his father. He racked his brains for some hope, some shred of proof that his father was someone, anyone else. He had only asked about his father once, many years ago. Duncan thought back on the moment.

"Mother?" asked a small boy. He set down a red toy car and looked up. A tall, greenish-brown haired woman sat at a desk in front of him, typing on a large, humming computer. She waved a hand at Duncan, and returned to typing.

Duncan frowned and looked around at the room. It was a one-room log cabin, with a crackling fire and his mother's desk the only things that drew his attention. The curtains were closed tightly over the windows, and Duncan wasn't sure if it was day or night. He sighed and started rolling his toy car back and forth again. He continued to do so for another ten minutes until his mother slid her chair backwards from the desk and sighed.

"It'll do..." she murmured. She yawned and looked down at her watch. "2:30? Duncan, we should probably get some rest. A car will be here to get us in a couple of hours."

"But I like it here..." said Duncan, still rolling the car back and forth.

Lily turned her chair around to face Duncan. "Duncan, don't argue. Just go over to the fireplace and go to sleep. I'll wake you when it's time to go."

Duncan nodded, and picked up his toy car and walked over to the fireplace. He lay down in front of it, clutching the car tightly.

"Mother?"

"One question, then go to sleep."

"Do... Do I have a Father?" asked Duncan tentatively.

Lily smiled bitterly. "Yes, you do. But he isn't here now, he's somewhere else."

"Where?" asked Duncan excitedly. "Can I meet him? Will he help me train?"

Lily's smile faded. "No. He doesn't care about either of us."

Duncan deflated like a balloon. Tears started to well up in his eyes. "H-he doesn't love me? But... why? Did I do something bad?"

"Stop it!" said Lily sharply. "Never, I say never, cry! Understand me?"

Duncan nodded and wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry..."

"You should be." said Lily, scrutinizing Duncan as though he was about to burst into tears. "Now go to sleep. And never ask me about your father again, understand?"

"Yes Mother..." said Duncan. He wiped his nose and rolled over, lying down on the ground in front of the flames. He grabbed the red car and tucked it against his chest.

Duncan took a deep breath. He doesn't care about either if us. That sounded like Dusek all right. And Dusek and Lily might have known each other before Duncan was born. Lily was very secretive, and Duncan never questioned that.

But Duncan couldn't accept that Dusek was his father, not until he had actual proof. He rubbed his throat, still staring at the starry sky. He was stronger than this, but he couldn't move. If he went one way, then a part of him would die. But if he didn't move at all... There would be nothing left.

Duncan closed his eyes. There was no fooling himself; Dusek had him in a corner. There was no easy way out, but lying in the soft grass staring at the stars felt so nice. If he got up... It would be back into the world, with a promise of a gut-wrenching loss.

No, he could stay here and let the world go on without him. Surely Duncan deserved a moment of peace? But no, nothing ever came easy for Duncan. He had struggled all his life, trying to meet the standard that had been placed upon him. Now the moment had arrived. The defining moment. His ultimate test.

Duncan stood up and stared out at the crystal clear lake as a warm breeze swept over him. All his aches and pains seemed to disappear as he felt the breeze blow over him, giving him new strength.

It hit him in a instant. He suddenly knew what to do. All the work, the pain, the loss. It all hit him in a split second. He would not accept any more. No more was he going to be a pawn, to be played by others and to be cast aside like he was worthless. He was going to save them both.

Duncan smiled, taking in a deep breath. A new feeling was burning in his chest, something different. He had taken a hold of his own destiny. He was finally in control. He had always done what he had to do, but now he was going to change it all.

"I WILL!" roared Duncan. His voice traveled around the Lake and seemed to empower the very earth. The trees began to blow violently though there was no wind. The water began to churn though there was no current. The clouds seemed to part, and the moon shown brightly down on Duncan, illuminating him and casting a long, dark shadow behind him.

Duncan panted, his chest heaving and his face smiling. "Blaziken!"

There was a distant call, and Duncan saw a red blur fly towards him. Blaziken landed with a thud beside Duncan.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Duncan. He turned to the moon, and then all was quiet. The trees stopped swaying, the water stopped churning and the clouds seemed to reappear. Duncan's shadow faded away into nothingness.

"Blaziken, we're going to save them. Come on!"
-----
Dusek stumbled, falling against a tree. Flashes of himself, face lit with happiness, appeared, followed by himself running along a dark alleyway. Why? He had been so foolish. But now things were different. They had to be.

He sat down against the tree. He was stronger now. All vestiges of his weakness were long gone. All except Duncan. He clenched his fists. Duncan.

The last link to his past. His one, great mistake. But, he knew that even his latest plan was unlikely to finish Duncan. He had dealt with loss, losing one more person wouldn't do it. Duncan had proved himself more resilient than Dusek could have imagined. For years, Dusek had done nothing but cause Duncan pain. All it had done, however, was strengthen him.

Dusek looked down at his hands. How was it possible that someone could be so strong? Was it just that he was not strong enough? Could it be possible?

Dusek closed his eyes. He would soon have the Legends, but even that wasn't enough. Duncan had enraged him, and even the Legends paled in the fury that Dusek held for Duncan.

There was no way to truly cause Duncan enough pain. Nothing close to what he himself had endured. There was no point in continuing to torture Duncan.

It was now clear. He had failed. But he would not allow Duncan to win. He would kill him first.

Dusek stood up, and stared up at the moon through the trees. No one could oppose him. No one would beat him. With those thoughts firmly in his mind, Dusek continued walking.

But still, Dusek thought. I still promised Duncan. He will lose Lily, no matter what. Dusek smiled at this and stopped. His helicopter was waiting in a large clearing. A grunt jumped at the sight of Dusek and rushed to him.

"Sir, are you ready to go?"

Dusek nodded. "Yes. Set a course for Veilstone. I have unfinished business there..."
-----

Yeah, like I said short chapter. But it contained important details for later in the fic, so hang in here with me.

Congratulations, you're the first winner of my 'Random Click-a-story and Review' policy. :P Okay, that was silly, but I'm horrible when it comes to reviewing stories and I wouldn't mind being a little more active. So here I am.

Unfortunately this is only a review of the first chapter, because I have an assignment I'm supposed to be doing. ^.^;; Plus, you already seem to have a few chapters and they're of decent length… but I will try to come back and review a few more later on.

So, to begin: I haven't read your previous story either, so it was a little confusing to come into what seemed to be the middle. Like Hanako said, it would be useful to add in some backstory for the sake of readers like us—and what's more, it's logical. You've implied that whatever happened in the previous story was something big and obviously traumatic, so it would have a great effect on the people who were there. Especially when meeting a friend who was involved in the situation and talking about the situation, the characters should be reflecting upon those events, even if it's just in their own minds. Depending on just how traumatic it was, it could trigger a flashback of some kind.

In addition, that would help your problem of the characters being too unemotional, which is, I think, definitely something which should be worked on, as it makes them seem kind of flat. Characters often carry the story, so we're going to need to know what's going on in their minds, what their motivations and feelings are; such things can't be carried through dialogue alone, although I have noticed that you've tried to use punctuation to that effect.

So, let's take an excerpt for an example:

Duncan nodded. "We were there when it happened. If it wasn't for Michelle, I probably wouldn't have made it."

Tay cringed. "Is it true? Is Allen, really?"

Duncan nodded. "Yeah. It wasn't pretty. We decided that Sinnoh would be the best place to go, so here we are."

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Here, Duncan is saying some things that happened, but he's showing absolutely no reaction; this kind of topic should be a prime opportunity for some character angst and development, especially since this is the first time he's seen Tay since before it happened and he probably hasn't talked about it much. If it really had been that close a thing, then he would be remembering it, maybe feeling the fear again, maybe finding it difficult to talk about.

Well, an example might show you better, so here (although keep in mind I know nothing about the characters or what actually took place, so I'm making it up as I go):

Duncan drew in a deep, slightly shaky breath and nodded shortly, aware of the twist in his stomach at the mention of that terrible night. "We were there when it happened," he said in a voice rougher than he would've liked, and Tay's eyes widened slightly in shock, subconsciously leaning forward slightly in concern. Duncan didn't really see; he was staring unseeingly down at his own hands, clenched in his lap.

It had been close… so, so very close. He remembered that night—staggering through the burning corridors, concrete and dirt flaking down on top of them, ash blackening their faces, sweaty from the heat, their clothes grimy and torn… He remembered the feel of Michelle's thin, trembling shoulder under his hand, leaning on the fifteen-year-old as though she was his lifeline, even though she shouldn't have been there, had no place being there… He remembered the pain, the pound of his heartbeat in his head, the feel of blood caking his face, obscuring his eye; the fire that tore up his side and stole his breath whenever he moved, stumbling over the dusty chunks of rubble, sending his vision searing white so that he could only clutch to Michelle and trust that she would lead him right…

"If it wasn't for Michelle, I probably wouldn't have made it," he finally said quietly. If it wasn't for Michelle, he probably would have stayed lying under a pile of rubble, choked by smoke, the halls tremouring around him, hardly coherent enough to recognise the girl even when she pulled him out.

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…okay, I know the sample I pulled from your chapter included more of the conversation, but I think that's probably long enough, lol. :P As you can see, backstory can provide a good way to give your characters emotion; because their pasts affect so much of their identity in the future, how they feel about what happened in the past can give good insight into their characters in the present.

You've described your characters as nodding, or cringing, giving us their reactions to some things, but you should also try describing how these things are affecting them; an adrenaline rush might make Duncan's hands shake, for example, if he's remembering some particularly traumatic scene. They aren't just going to react; there's going to be an effect too. Right now, all you've got are the most basic of actions.

Also, I've noticed that you have a tendency to use basic short sentences. Now, that's not necessarily bad, it's just that it can get really boring after a while, and makes the flow of the story seem really ragged and choppy, like it moves in stops and starts. Usually a story with good flow will have a mix of short and long sentences, and uses the contrast between them for emphasis or shock value.

Your pacing is a little quick and choppy, I think, but that's a combination of your basic sentences and the fact that you haven't filled in the characters' emotions. Right now it feels like you've got the bones, you just need to give us the meat as well; if you can fill in more about the characters, their emotions and reactions to things, then the pacing will even itself out.

That said, it is my personal opinion that you should have the scene with Oak in a prologue. We could easily read the first chapter without needing to have read that scene, since it doesn't really tell us anything we don't find out in the first chappie, so it's not exceptionally important; the other thing is that it happens a year before the events of the first chapter, so a big time jump like that deserves a chapter break.

Finally, your grammar… Hanako pretty much said it: it was okay except in dialogue, you have a habit of using commas or fullstops when it's not appropriate. Plus, I did want to say something about your use of ellipses… it can be an effective use of punctuation, but you do have it an awful lot and it begins to lose its effect. Also, I've noticed that you've switched from having no space after the ellipsis to putting one in; here, for comparison:

"So many months have passed...And yet you have remain silent...What has it gotten you?"

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Leave now... Leave at once...

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I'm not sure what the norm is, but you should pick one and stay consistent with it. Plus, I don't think the 'and' should be capitalised, because if you take out the ellipsis it works as a full sentence on its own, the ellipsis is just there for tone. I've noticed the same thing at other places too, so you might want to check that out.

…oh, an added note, I just realised myself: 'remain' should be 'remained' in that example. ;)

The other thing is your dashes… well, they're not dashes.

"Th-they will look for me..." sobbed a voice.

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That there, for instance, is a hyphen posing as a dash. :P A dash should either look like this: – and have spaces on either side of it, or look like this: — which usually doesn't have any spaces on either side of it but is accepted if it does. The first one can be made by writing a word, followed by a space, then a hyphen, the another space and another word, and when you press space after the second word MSW will automatically change it to a dash for you. To make the other one there are no spaces in-between the words and the hyphens, and you need two hyphens in a row. So this is what it would look like before you space after the second word: hello--goodbye

@.@ Bleh, gosh, it's hard to describe how to make dashes… and okay, it's a small nitpicky thing, but it's a pet peeve, so… ^.^;;;

Uhm… yaw. ^.^;; I think that's it. I'll try to come by again, but I hoped this helped you out anyway… actually, I just hope that some of it made sense, especially my bad explanation on dashes. XD

purple_drake said:

Congratulations, you're the first winner of my 'Random Click-a-story and Review' policy. :P Okay, that was silly, but I'm horrible when it comes to reviewing stories and I wouldn't mind being a little more active. So here I am.

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Heh, thanks for the review. ^^

purple_drake said:

Unfortunately this is only a review of the first chapter, because I have an assignment I'm supposed to be doing. ^.^;; Plus, you already seem to have a few chapters and they're of decent length… but I will try to come back and review a few more later on.

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No problem. I am trying to rewrite the first few chapter right now, so I'll take all the help I can get.

purple_drake said:

So, to begin: I haven't read your previous story either, so it was a little confusing to come into what seemed to be the middle. Like Hanako said, it would be useful to add in some backstory for the sake of readers like us—and what's more, it's logical. You've implied that whatever happened in the previous story was something big and obviously traumatic, so it would have a great effect on the people who were there. Especially when meeting a friend who was involved in the situation and talking about the situation, the characters should be reflecting upon those events, even if it's just in their own minds. Depending on just how traumatic it was, it could trigger a flashback of some kind.

Click to expand...

That's a very good idea. Originally I had planned for everyone to know what had happened by reading the sequel, but it's much worse than this and I'm not posting it anywhere else.

purple_drake said:

In addition, that would help your problem of the characters being too unemotional, which is, I think, definitely something which should be worked on, as it makes them seem kind of flat. Characters often carry the story, so we're going to need to know what's going on in their minds, what their motivations and feelings are; such things can't be carried through dialogue alone, although I have noticed that you've tried to use punctuation to that effect.

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Yes, the first few chapters were bad about that. The dialogue was pretty much all that was in the first chapter or two, so I've really got to work on that.

purple_drake said:

So, let's take an excerpt for an example:

Duncan nodded. "We were there when it happened. If it wasn't for Michelle, I probably wouldn't have made it."

Tay cringed. "Is it true? Is Allen, really?"

Duncan nodded. "Yeah. It wasn't pretty. We decided that Sinnoh would be the best place to go, so here we are."

Click to expand...

Here, Duncan is saying some things that happened, but he's showing absolutely no reaction; this kind of topic should be a prime opportunity for some character angst and development, especially since this is the first time he's seen Tay since before it happened and he probably hasn't talked about it much. If it really had been that close a thing, then he would be remembering it, maybe feeling the fear again, maybe finding it difficult to talk about.

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Yes, you have a good point. The reason I made him so blunt about it was that he basically shuts down when he thinks about it. The more I think about it, it really does seem rushed.

purple_drake said:

Well, an example might show you better, so here (although keep in mind I know nothing about the characters or what actually took place, so I'm making it up as I go):

Duncan drew in a deep, slightly shaky breath and nodded shortly, aware of the twist in his stomach at the mention of that terrible night. "We were there when it happened," he said in a voice rougher than he would've liked, and Tay's eyes widened slightly in shock, subconsciously leaning forward slightly in concern. Duncan didn't really see; he was staring unseeingly down at his own hands, clenched in his lap.

It had been close… so, so very close. He remembered that night—staggering through the burning corridors, concrete and dirt flaking down on top of them, ash blackening their faces, sweaty from the heat, their clothes grimy and torn… He remembered the feel of Michelle's thin, trembling shoulder under his hand, leaning on the fifteen-year-old as though she was his lifeline, even though she shouldn't have been there, had no place being there… He remembered the pain, the pound of his heartbeat in his head, the feel of blood caking his face, obscuring his eye; the fire that tore up his side and stole his breath whenever he moved, stumbling over the dusty chunks of rubble, sending his vision searing white so that he could only clutch to Michelle and trust that she would lead him right…

"If it wasn't for Michelle, I probably wouldn't have made it," he finally said quietly. If it wasn't for Michelle, he probably would have stayed lying under a pile of rubble, choked by smoke, the halls tremouring around him, hardly coherent enough to recognise the girl even when she pulled him out.

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Wow. That's ridiculously good, especially seeing as that's basically what happened. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and use that (not exactly what you wrote or anything, but I'm going to take your advice, I mean). Thanks!

purple_drake said:

…okay, I know the sample I pulled from your chapter included more of the conversation, but I think that's probably long enough, lol. :P As you can see, backstory can provide a good way to give your characters emotion; because their pasts affect so much of their identity in the future, how they feel about what happened in the past can give good insight into their characters in the present.

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I completely see your point. There a few flashbacks scattered through out the fic, but they're not the same way. They're just Duncan remembering the scenes. I'll try to add more backstory.

purple_drake said:

You've described your characters as nodding, or cringing, giving us their reactions to some things, but you should also try describing how these things are affecting them; an adrenaline rush might make Duncan's hands shake, for example, if he's remembering some particularly traumatic scene. They aren't just going to react; there's going to be an effect too. Right now, all you've got are the most basic of actions.

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Yeah, it was pretty bare for reactions. Things like that I've never really thought much about, which is pretty sad. I just fugured that putting a little would be enough. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll work on it!

purple_drake said:

Also, I've noticed that you have a tendency to use basic short sentences. Now, that's not necessarily bad, it's just that it can get really boring after a while, and makes the flow of the story seem really ragged and choppy, like it moves in stops and starts. Usually a story with good flow will have a mix of short and long sentences, and uses the contrast between them for emphasis or shock value.

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Hmm. Another something I really don't do. I'll try to do that in the next chapter (and in the rewrite).

purple_drake said:

Your pacing is a little quick and choppy, I think, but that's a combination of your basic sentences and the fact that you haven't filled in the characters' emotions. Right now it feels like you've got the bones, you just need to give us the meat as well; if you can fill in more about the characters, their emotions and reactions to things, then the pacing will even itself out.

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The first chapter was very choppy. It gets better, though.

purple_drake said:

That said, it is my personal opinion that you should have the scene with Oak in a prologue. We could easily read the first chapter without needing to have read that scene, since it doesn't really tell us anything we don't find out in the first chappie, so it's not exceptionally important; the other thing is that it happens a year before the events of the first chapter, so a big time jump like that deserves a chapter break.

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Yes, you have a point. The only reason I kept it in the chapter is that the first chapter was a little short. But not that I'm fixing that, I'll go ahead and do that.

purple_drake said:

Finally, your grammar… Hanako pretty much said it: it was okay except in dialogue, you have a habit of using commas or fullstops when it's not appropriate. Plus, I did want to say something about your use of ellipses… it can be an effective use of punctuation, but you do have it an awful lot and it begins to lose its effect. Also, I've noticed that you've switched from having no space after the ellipsis to putting one in; here, for comparison:

Click to expand...

Yeah, I way overused ellipses in the first chapter. And yeah, I'll go fix that.

purple_drake said:

That there, for instance, is a hyphen posing as a dash. :P A dash should either look like this: – and have spaces on either side of it, or look like this: — which usually doesn't have any spaces on either side of it but is accepted if it does. The first one can be made by writing a word, followed by a space, then a hyphen, the another space and another word, and when you press space after the second word MSW will automatically change it to a dash for you. To make the other one there are no spaces in-between the words and the hyphens, and you need two hyphens in a row. So this is what it would look like before you space after the second word: hello--goodbye

@.@ Bleh, gosh, it's hard to describe how to make dashes… and okay, it's a small nitpicky thing, but it's a pet peeve, so… ^.^;;;

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No no, that was very helpful! I never really payed much attention to dashes. Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to use it!

purple_drake said:

Uhm… yaw. ^.^;; I think that's it. I'll try to come by again, but I hoped this helped you out anyway… actually, I just hope that some of it made sense, especially my bad explanation on dashes. XD

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Believe me, that was one of the most helpful reviews I have ever recieved! ^^ I'll do my best to emplement your advice! Thanks again!

Hey, Duncan! Sorry for the late review! Been very, very busy. Yeah, the review won't be as long as purple_drake's review for Chapter One (which is a thousand times then mine, lol) because of Thanksgiving and want to get started focusing on my own fanfiction. ^^;;; Also, will focus more on Chapters Four and Five as those are freshest on my mind. XD

Also, lucky you are the first review of this new style I am trying out! ^^ Whenever I need to catch up, I will first say a few things about each chapter and then do a quick summary overall of what I like, don't like, advice, etc. Okay, let's get started!

Chapters One

On Chapter One, pretty much everything else what Hanako Tabris and purple_drake said. Yeah, you got the action there, but the emotions is a bit weak. Purple_drake gave great advice of how both actions and the affects of it would make the emotions stand out more. There is one other note I want to make, but it penetrates for the whole fic overall and will save that for later.

Chapter Two

"Yeah." said Duncan. "Dusek is trying to get all of the Legendaries. Dialga, Palkia, Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf! He wants them all!"

Tay's mouth fell open. "You're right! But, this is getting huge! How are we supposed to stop this?"

Michelle suddenly flashed back. "Lake Valor! Azelf!"

"What?" asked Duncan.

"I-I don't know. But, I have a feeling that we need to go to Lake Valor." said Michelle.

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You kinda rushed on this part, mostly on Michelle's emotions. I felt that you could have expand that, maybe first put how she suddenly visions the cave in trouble or something. Later, after Ducan asked "what?", maybe put a bit more emotion to it, like her scared or feared of her suddenly saying that. Also, somewhat indicators might do good too like her head feeling dizzy or herself feeling sweaty.

Also, on about Michelle's vision…at first she was worried about it, but then throughout the fic so far it wasn't mentioned again. I think this dream should have been very significant to her as it showed her the day when she will die. Throughout the progress of the story, that dream would have affect her mind for a long time. Also, this could have been an opportunity for us to know what her thoughts on death is, and maybe a bit of character development too. What does she really think about death? Is she scared of it or is determined to not let that happen? How about her friends? Is she afraid of what they will think when she tells them that or just doesn't want them to worry about her?

Chapter Three and Chapter Four:

Decide to both them both together as there is one transition I am confused about.

"I thought you'd say that..." said Anthony. He seemed to ponder something for a moment more, then shrugged and turned to leave. "Tell me when-"

"What the hell?" exclaimed the first man, jumping out of his seat. "What is that?"

Anthony rushed over to the window, staring at the massive fireball blasting toward the blue sphere. "I-I don't know."

The two men gazed at the fireball rushing toward the sphere, then as it drew close, the sphere disappeared into thin air.

"What!?" cried the first man, looking down at the controls. "I didn't touch anything!"

"Code 2!" blared a voice from overhead. "All units prepare to pull out: mission accomplished!"

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I am confused about that scene. Did the fireball made the sphere disappeared? If not and it is that the sphere suddenly disappeared by itself, what happened to the fireball? That suddenly disappeared too?

"Damn!" swore Duncan. He saw Blaziken spiral into the Lake, then launch out of it, somersaulting into the air and landing beside where Duncan concealed himself.

"Blaziken!" exclaimed Blaziken.

"Showoff..." muttered Duncan. "It was Dusek, he was waiting for me to try to save Azelf before he snatched it away. Where did it go?"

Blaziken shrugged, then pointed toward two guards that were rushing toward them. "Blaza?"

Duncan glared at Blaziken. "You just don't know when to quit, do you? Come on, let's get out of here."

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Looking at the ending of Chapter Three and the beginning of Chapter Four, I wanna asked a quick question: so the control room is actually inside the lake and the fireball is Blazkien? Sorry, just confused on those parts. ^^;;

I like how you slowed down Chapter Four a bit and have the three start a small conversation. That part gave their personalities a bit of a shine. On the other hand, they should have done something about getting that Azelf somehow! XD In seriousness though, I wished they are more ambitious about trying to get that little legendary instead of saying, "Oh they got that Pokemon. We give up."

The conversion between Duncan and Dusek I felt you rushed a bit. This is an opportunity for you to put in the thoughts between them (or Duncan's if you are more writing the story in his point of view). I broke it into parts so that I can go indepth with some of the parts:

"What do you want?" growled Duncan. "If you want to kill me, do it now. I'm not going to spend my last moments talking to you."

Dusek's smile disappeared. "Very well, I shall get to the point. You see, after I killed your friend, Andrew was it?"

"Allen!" snarled Duncan.

Dusek smiled and nodded. "Allen, yes. After I killed him, and let you escape from the Power Plant,"

"You didn't." said Duncan. "Michelle got me out of there."

Dusek shrugged. "I let you live, didn't I? But anyway, after that I decided that I should some fun with you. You see, I knew that once you left the Power Plant you could disappear quite effectively. So I decided to root you out."

Duncan laughed, a cold, ruthless sort of laugh. "Root me out? Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because, Duncan. I wanted more. I wanted you, not dead, but in pain. In more pain than you can imagine." said Dusek.

"But not physical pain, right?" asked Duncan. "You know I can take that."

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I feel that you could put more in Duncan's emotions in there. For instance, on Ducan's thoughts you could have put how cold Dusek is when he got the name and also of how quick and painful that memory came back to him. Also, after Dusek said "so I decided to root you out", you could have put how Ducan cannot believe Dusek's answer and that part of him wondered if Dusek telling him those things is such a good idea. Lastly, I felt those last two sentence in that quote is the most important as it will give the readers an insight of Duncan's character and that you should focus a lot of emotion on that. Maybe on Duncan's thoughts you can put how he can handle any kind of physical pain but that ever since Allen's death he is not doing well on the emotional department and how it is hard for him to cope it.

"As you so truthfully put, I couldn't hurt you with physical pain. So I went after everything else. Who killed your best friend? I did. Who killed the Professor who had given you your first Pokemon? I did. But what more could I do? You were hidden, so I could not touch your precious Michelle. But Tay was a different matter. I knew where he had been hiding, so it was easy enough to leak to him a few unimportant details about my plan.

"I knew he would want help, and who else did he have to turn to? You. So he began searching for you. With a little help from me, he succeeded and found you. Then the real fun could begin." Dusek smiled widely at this, as if he had just told a joke that was very funny.

"Now you want Michelle..." said Duncan, closing his eyes.

"Very good." said Dusek. "I knew that after Tay had found you, then she would be easy prey."

"Stop." said Duncan. He looked Dusek straight in the eyes. "Then why did you try to kill us?"

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This part you could have put more emotion on Duncan's part also. Maybe put how Ducan loved Michelle very much and didn't want anything happen to her. Also, put some physical indicators also. Maybe because of how Duncan can't take Dusek talking about his plans anymore, he felt tears on his eyes, his heart beating faster, his head dizzy, a combination of a couple or all of them, etc.

Duncan had chosen his mother that time, believing that she should come first before Michelle or anyone else. But now... He wasn't so sure.

"Well?" asked Dusek happily. "Who will live and who will die?"

Duncan trembled and fell to his knees. "Why?" he asked. "Why are you doing this?"

Dusek laughed. "You ruined everything for me, Duncan! Everything! I wish you were never born!"

Duncan looked up at Dusek. "I never did anything this horrible to you!" he cried. "Never!"

Dusek's smile vanished. "You ruined my life from the moment you were born. And I thought that I would be so happy..."

Duncan stared at Dusek. "What are you talking about?"

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I felt you could expand Ducan's thoughts about saving Michelle and his mother a bit more. Maybe talked about how there are some things he didn't like about his mother and also how he doesn't want anything happen to Michelle either and that she is important also. And on about Dusek's comment of Duncan ruining his life, maybe but how Duncan thought it was very silly of Dusek to comment that and then thought Dusek was becoming more sillier and weider when he said that.

Also, maybe you could have Dusek's thoughts before he revealed the news to Duncan, like how he was thinking that Duncan had no idea how all of this led to a very good reason. However, since it looks like you are going for Duncan's point of view in this scene, you can regard this advice. :P I thought the action of Dusek after he revealed he is Ducan's father is really good, though.

Chapter Five

So far this is my favorite chapter because you took the time to put the emotions in there. However, there are a couple of things I want to say. At first, you were putting the feelings of Ducan finding out that Dusek is his father and it was going good and realistic. Yeah, I would be denial if my father is actually a bad guy too. XD On the other hand, Duncan suddenly forgot about it. True, there is the thought of whether saving Michelle or Lily, which by the way you did well too. However, news like, say finding out Givoanni or Archie is your father would really affect someone. Probably later on that thought will come to haunt him and I assume he will question his mother about that later on too.

(Keep in mind though I hadn't read the other chapters yet. XD)

Lily smiled bitterly. "Yes, you do. But he isn't here now, he's somewhere else."

"Where?" asked Duncan excitedly. "Can I meet him? Will he help me train?"

Lily's smile faded. "No. He doesn't care about either of us."

Duncan deflated like a balloon. Tears started to well up in his eyes. "H-he doesn't love me? But... why? Did I do something bad?"

"Stop it!" said Lily sharply. "Never, I say never, cry! Understand me?"

Duncan nodded and wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry..."

"You should be." said Lily, scrutinizing Duncan as though he was about to burst into tears. "Now go to sleep. And never ask me about your father again, understand?"

"Yes Mother..." said Duncan. He wiped his nose and rolled over, lying down on the ground in front of the flames. He grabbed the red car and tucked it against his chest.

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This flashback I actually was like "Aw" when little Duncan cried of that news. That made me wanna hug him! ^^ I was then shocked when Lily said that.

Overall so far:

Pretty much the most help you need on is the emotions. And yeah, about what I said about explaining a bit more on emotions later on…true, sometimes when you want action, it should be fast paced. On the other hand, what makes some action films really bad is there is not much emotions on the characters. I would like to get deep into their thoughts of what they were thinking when they, for instance, trying to decide whether to snap the yellow or red wire.

So far the plot is getting very interesting. True, the main's character enemy is his/her relative of some sort has been done dozens of times, but also sometimes that can also add a punch to the main's character development. Cannot wait to see more of his feelings about Duncan finding out his worst enemy is his father.

Man, longest review I had written, evar! XD Well, cannot wait to read more of this fic! ^^

And yeah, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! ^^

Bay said:

Hey, Duncan! Sorry for the late review! Been very, very busy. Yeah, the review won't be as long as purple_drake's review for Chapter One (which is a thousand times then mine, lol) because of Thanksgiving and want to get started focusing on my own fanfiction. ^^;;; Also, will focus more on Chapters Four and Five as those are freshest on my mind. XD

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I understand. Thanks for the review!

Bay said:

Also, lucky you are the first review of this new style I am trying out! ^^ Whenever I need to catch up, I will first say a few things about each chapter and then do a quick summary overall of what I like, don't like, advice, etc. Okay, let's get started!

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Sounds good to me. ^^

Bay said:

Chapters One

On Chapter One, pretty much everything else what Hanako Tabris and purple_drake said. Yeah, you got the action there, but the emotions is a bit weak. Purple_drake gave great advice of how both actions and the affects of it would make the emotions stand out more. There is one other note I want to make, but it penetrates for the whole fic overall and will save that for later.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Emotions are really weak through out this, but thank you for pointing that out (and a big thanks to Hanako and purple_drake, as well ^^). I'm currently writing chapter 10, and I'm really concentrating on emotions, as well as description and general, um...goodness? Yeah, vocabulary is next. XD

Bay said:

Chapter Two



You kinda rushed on this part, mostly on Michelle's emotions. I felt that you could have expand that, maybe first put how she suddenly visions the cave in trouble or something. Later, after Ducan asked "what?", maybe put a bit more emotion to it, like her scared or feared of her suddenly saying that. Also, somewhat indicators might do good too like her head feeling dizzy or herself feeling sweaty.

Also, on about Michelle's vision…at first she was worried about it, but then throughout the fic so far it wasn't mentioned again. I think this dream should have been very significant to her as it showed her the day when she will die. Throughout the progress of the story, that dream would have affect her mind for a long time. Also, this could have been an opportunity for us to know what her thoughts on death is, and maybe a bit of character development too. What does she really think about death? Is she scared of it or is determined to not let that happen? How about her friends? Is she afraid of what they will think when she tells them that or just doesn't want them to worry about her?

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Very good point. The thing is, she doesn't remember the vision. All that she can remember is passing out and waking up, but it did happen. Thanks, I thought I had already explained that. Sorry.

Bay said:

Chapter Three and Chapter Four:

Decide to both them both together as there is one transition I am confused about.



I am confused about that scene. Did the fireball made the sphere disappeared? If not and it is that the sphere suddenly disappeared by itself, what happened to the fireball? That suddenly disappeared too?

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Meh. You're right. Okay, heres what happened (that I didn't explain). Azelf is in a sphere, laser sort of thing hovering over the middle of the lake. Blaziken rushed towards it using a Flare Blitz. Then Dusek hit a button and teleported the sphere away. Then Blaziken landed on the opposite bank. Yeah, sorry about that...

Bay said:

Looking at the ending of Chapter Three and the beginning of Chapter Four, I wanna asked a quick question: so the control room is actually inside the lake and the fireball is Blazkien? Sorry, just confused on those parts. ^^;;

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The control room is a helicopter hovering over the lake. And yeah, the fireball was Blaziken.

Bay said:

I like how you slowed down Chapter Four a bit and have the three start a small conversation. That part gave their personalities a bit of a shine. On the other hand, they should have done something about getting that Azelf somehow! XD In seriousness though, I wished they are more ambitious about trying to get that little legendary instead of saying, "Oh they got that Pokemon. We give up."

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Heh. Yeah, there's got to be a break in the action sometime, right? The thing about Azelf, well I was just trying to make them take a break. Yeah...

Bay said:

The conversion between Duncan and Dusek I felt you rushed a bit. This is an opportunity for you to put in the thoughts between them (or Duncan's if you are more writing the story in his point of view). I broke it into parts so that I can go indepth with some of the parts:

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Heh, is there a part that I didn't rush? XD Yeah, I do that more and more later on, but not so much earlier.

Bay said:

I feel that you could put more in Duncan's emotions in there. For instance, on Ducan's thoughts you could have put how cold Dusek is when he got the name and also of how quick and painful that memory came back to him. Also, after Dusek said "so I decided to root you out", you could have put how Ducan cannot believe Dusek's answer and that part of him wondered if Dusek telling him those things is such a good idea. Lastly, I felt those last two sentence in that quote is the most important as it will give the readers an insight of Duncan's character and that you should focus a lot of emotion on that. Maybe on Duncan's thoughts you can put how he can handle any kind of physical pain but that ever since Allen's death he is not doing well on the emotional department and how it is hard for him to cope it.

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Who is this "Ducan?" XD I didn't do a lot of thoughts for Duncan mostly because I was lazy, but a big reason is that Duncan is really tough. Not much of an excuse, though. Believe me, I'm quite a bit better now though. That's the problem with posting old chapters. Ah well, the reviews I've gotten from you guys are some of the best reviews I've ever gotten. Truly, they have helped a lot. Thanks a lot!

Bay said:

Chapter Five

So far this is my favorite chapter because you took the time to put the emotions in there. However, there are a couple of things I want to say. At first, you were putting the feelings of Ducan finding out that Dusek is his father and it was going good and realistic. Yeah, I would be denial if my father is actually a bad guy too. XD On the other hand, Duncan suddenly forgot about it. True, there is the thought of whether saving Michelle or Lily, which by the way you did well too. However, news like, say finding out Givoanni or Archie is your father would really affect someone. Probably later on that thought will come to haunt him and I assume he will question his mother about that later on too.

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It would, but there really isn't a whole lot of pause from here onward. I don't want to spoil anything, though. So I'll leave it here. ^^

Bay said:

This flashback I actually was like "Aw" when little Duncan cried of that news. That made me wanna hug him! ^^ I was then shocked when Lily said that.

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Heh, I really liked that part too. Yeah, Lily isn't exactly a great mother or anything. That will really be clear (though not in the way you might think) later on.

Bay said:

Overall so far:

Pretty much the most help you need on is the emotions. And yeah, about what I said about explaining a bit more on emotions later on…true, sometimes when you want action, it should be fast paced. On the other hand, what makes some action films really bad is there is not much emotions on the characters. I would like to get deep into their thoughts of what they were thinking when they, for instance, trying to decide whether to snap the yellow or red wire.

So far the plot is getting very interesting. True, the main's character enemy is his/her relative of some sort has been done dozens of times, but also sometimes that can also add a punch to the main's character development. Cannot wait to see more of his feelings about Duncan finding out his worst enemy is his father.

Man, longest review I had written, evar! XD Well, cannot wait to read more of this fic! ^^

And yeah, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! ^^

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Thank you so much for your review! Yeah, I've been working on emotions. Everytime I go back through here and read this (and I wrote this, what? Three months ago?) I cringe. About Dusek being Duncan's father, I actually had that in the last chapter of the first saga. I didn't think it was that difficult to figure out, but not one of my readers (on Serebii, I mean) picked up on it. Everyone was so suprised when they read that, and I was laughing because I basically said it outright. Seeing as I didn't post that here, though, it makes it a pretty good suprise (there again, my vocabulary fails me. XD). Anyway, thanks again for the review. I'll be sure to keep what you said in mind for future chapters. And hope you had a good Thanksgiving as well!

Okay, here's chapter 6. Sorry for the wait, but yeah. Sorry if it seems like I haven't taken everyones advice, but this was written before that and I'd rather work on new chapters than old. Yeah...you'll see here in a few chapters.

Blazing Dreams: Legends of Sinnoh
by Duncan McNeil

Chapter 6: The Ultimate Test: A Destiny, Revealed ​

Duncan held his breath as he flew into the air, clutching Blaziken tightly as they came back down to the ground. Then Blaziken blasted back into the air, its powerful leg muscles propelling them some twenty feet in the air.

The cold, night air whipping at Duncan's face seemed to heighten his alertness, and add to his sense of urgency. It had been nearly an hour since Dusek had give him his ultimatum; he should only have about two hours left. But he wasn't worried, he knew that he would save them both. First, he was going to catch up with Michelle.

Tay was with her, so he should realize what was about to happen quickly. Duncan held his breath again as Blaziken launched the pair back into the air. Two hours.

Duncan ran through his head, trying to remember what he had. The only weapon he had was an automatic rifle that he had picked up earlier, and it was dangerously low on ammo. Blaziken would be his ace in the hole. Though they had met only two years ago, Blaziken was a very formidable battler. He had proven that time and again.

Duncan's stomach lurched once again as the pair descended, and he had to struggle to keep his thoughts on his plan. Once he had caught up to Michelle and Tay, he would instruct them to hide out in Mt. Coronet. As soon as they were in the huge, maze-like mountain, they were unlikely to be found. Then he could concentrate on finding Lily.

Duncan knew that the odds were extremely slim that he could make it on time, but that newfound feeling burning in his chest was telling him that he would make it. If only he could believe it.

After that, well, he had no idea what to do after that. If he could get everyone to safety and free from Dusek's clutches, that would be enough for one day. And that was a big if.
-----
Tay looked up at the moon. "It sure is bright tonight, isn't it? It'll probably be full tomorrow night."

Michelle smiled, looking down at the fast-moving scenery below. "Yeah, I guess. Do you think Duncan will be alright?"

Tay chuckled. "Is he ever alright? Odds are he's had a duel with Dusek by now."

"Don't!" exclaimed Michelle. "Don't say that!"

Tay chuckled, stroking Pidgeot's neck. "Yeah, well you know it's true. I don't know what it is, but Duncan is a magnet for trouble. He attracted you, right?"

Michelle grinned at Tay. "Yeah right. You know what happened."

Tay nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, since then we've had it rough. I've changed, I know I have. I see everything... different." said Michelle.

Tay turned back toward Pidgeot's front, closing his eyes. "Things are different. Don't forget I've been in hiding too. It's not easy, being separated from the people you love."

Michelle nodded. "I know. I keep thinking to myself, if I didn't have Duncan I would've gone mad. Sitting in that apartment, day in and day out. But I had good company..."

Tay turned back around, a huge grin on his face. "'I had good company?' What's that supposed to mean?"

Michelle blushed. "None of your business, okay? You would just laugh."

Tay tilted his head to the side, nodding. "Yeah, okay. But come on, tell me. All alone in a one bedroom apartment for two years with Duncan. Something must have happened, tell me something happened."

Michelle laughed, shaking her head at Tay. "You are just like Duncan. Only one thing on your mind, all the time."

Tay shrugged. "What can I say? Anyway, we'll be there in a few minutes."

Michelle nodded. Tay was so nosy sometimes. But he was the only person besides Duncan that she trusted. And after she hadn't seen him in two years, did she really want to be embarrassed? No, she didn't.

"What about you? You're not telling me you've been all alone for two whole years?"

Tay laughed. "No, I guess not. But, you wouldn't be interested."

"You'd be surprised. I haven't heard any good gossip in a while." said Michelle, grinning.

"Yeah, well I won't let you get a good laugh in at my expense... What's the matter?" asked Tay, looking down at Pidgeot, for he had just began to speed up.

"Pidgeot!" it cried. Tay looked confusedly around, until he saw something flying toward them. It was a group of Charizard, with three riders on their backs.

"Holy s***! Michelle, they've found us!" yelled Tay.

Michelle swiveled around and gasped. "But, how?"

"It doesn't matter. Pidgeot, can you outrun them?" asked Tay urgently.

"Pidgeot..." cried Pidgeot, and Tay knew that it meant no. Already, he could feel Pidgeot rocking with exhaustion from the sudden burst of speed.

"Michelle, do you have any small Pokemon?" asked Tay, watching as the Charizard's started drawing closer.

"No, they're too big. But here- I have Duncan's Umbreon. Will that help?" asked Michelle, grasping in her purse for the Pokeball.

"No, it's too big. Pidgeot's tired already. We're just going to have to land, we can fight better there." said Tay, sliding his pistol out of its holster and attempting to aim at the approaching riders.

"Tay, you might hit the Pokemon!" exclaimed Michelle.

Tay shrugged and continued to try to get an aim, until he felt Michelle's hand on his shoulder.

"You might hit the Pokemon!"

Tay sighed and slid his pistol back in its holster. "Then what do we do?"

"Land, and fast." said Michelle.

Tay shook his head. "Great. Pidgeot's already descending. They'll catch up to us before we'll make it!"

"Then we'll just have to trust Pidgeot." said Michelle firmly, staring at the approaching Charizard.

Tay snorted. "Great. Instead of trouble following Duncan, it decided to chase us. Damn, some days are better spent in bed..."
-----
Cold. Wet. Miserable. The thoughts kept rolling through her mind, and there was no stopping them. Lily rolled over, shivering.

There's nothing... Nothing...

The once tall and proud woman was a shadow of her former self. She was thin, dangerously so. Her cheeks were sunken and her eyes were cold and unfocused. The rags she was wearing did little more than keep the chill in her bones.

She continued to stare at the wall, her eyes unseeing. Everything was cold. Everything was gone. She had nothing left. The thoughts pounded through her veins, and she shivered to think that she hadn't thought of anything else for over a year now.

The dark, dank room she was in was completely empty. There was just cold, wet concrete on all sides and a huge steel door. Her eyes were useless in the dark gloom. And the sounds... The sounds were enough to drive someone mad. Everything was silent, then she would hear a clank. Lily shuddered. When she heard the clank, screams always followed. The place was like a living hell, and she was in the middle of it.

Clank.

Lily gave a start. She looked all around, but the darkness was impenetrable. Then she heard a strangled yell. Lily laid back down. She was okay, for now.
-----
A tall man with black hair sat at a desk, staring avidly at a computer monitor. On it was Azelf, writhing and twisting in a small chamber. Huge blue bolts of electricity were passing through it's body.

"Amazing..." said the man, watching a large panel with flashing lights on a wall beside him. It was very confusing looking, with hundreds of lights flashing on and off in no apparent order, but the man was watching them intently, clearly understanding. The rest of the room was completely sterile-white, with nothing else in it besides another man sitting at another desk.

"John, this reading is off the chart! Even that Raichu didn't put out this much energy, and that was when we extracted all of its electricity at once! What about the other two?" asked the man.

"Nearly the same." grunted the other man, John. He typed a few things down on his keyboard then sat back.

"Come on, John!" cried the man. "You're not telling me that this isn't amazing?"

"Why the hell should I care? None of this matters to me, I don't care at... all..." said John, his face twitching.

The man watched in horror as John slid off his chair, twitching convulsively with a dart in his back. He looked up to see Dusek standing in the doorway, lowering a strange looking gun.

"Get him out of here." ordered Dusek. "Send him down to Experimentation."

The man's eyes got wide, but he hastily nodded and rushed up to John, who was barely stirring. He grabbed one of his arms and put it around his shoulder.

"Go!" said Dusek sharply.

The man opened his mouth to argue, but shut it and dragged the man out of the room.

Dusek smiled and walked over to the computer that had just been vacated by the man. He stared at Azelf being drained, then ran the screen through to see Uxie and Mesprit undergoing the same. Nodding, he stood up and left the room.

Outside the sterile white room was a dimly lit hall. Dusek took a left and passed a few doors before stopping outside one. He opened the door and entered. It was exactly the same as it had been a year ago; Mewtwo was still shackled against the wall and the computer was still humming.

But things were different now. Dusek knew that Duncan would not be easy to kill. He needed heavy firepower. Mewtwo fit the bill quite nicely.

Dusek reached into his pocket and pulled out a key card. He swiped it on the side of the steel plate holding Mewtwo up. A red light turned green and the shackles released Mewtwo, causing it to fall onto the floor.

Dusek turned and opened a panel beside the computer. He pulled a syringe out of it and walked over to Mewtwo, inserting the syringe in Mewtwo's arm.

Once it was empty, Dusek tossed the syringe in a corner and exited the room. Mewtwo would be ready to fight in about an hour. It would take Duncan at least that long to get here. In the meantime, however, he had something else to do...

Dusek continued down the hallway, until he stopped in front of yet another unmarked door. He opened it and entered.

"My my, isn't it dark in here?" asked Dusek.

Lily jumped, looking around. "W-what?" she asked hoarsely.

"Hello, Lily. I daresay it's been a while." said Dusek, a malicious smile on his face. This was going to be fun.
-----
"They're almost here!" screamed Michelle.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Tay, clapping his hands over his ears. "Do you have to scream?"

Michelle glared at Tay. "What are we going to do?" she demanded.

"Land." said Tay. "It's our only - GET DOWN!" Tay grabbed Michelle's head and shoved it down. The three Charizard and their riders had finally caught up, and a barrage of bullets were already flying.

Pidgeot, already slowly spiraling back down to earth, dodged right and picked up speed as they made a full out dive for solid ground. But the Charizard and their riders weren't to be denied. They aimed down and were flying right behind Pidgeot.

"STOP!" screamed Michelle. "WE'RE GOING TO CRASH!"

One of the Charizards were alongside them; it blasted a Flamethrower straight at them, striking Pidgeot's stomach and singeing both Tay and Michelle.

Now they were free falling, Pidgeot spiraling and Tay and Michelle clinging on. The ground was speeding toward them, the Charizards and their riders had already pulled up, then there was a huge BANG!
-----
Duncan let out a roar. He had been watching the aerial battle, and now he had seen Pidgeot disappear behind the trees and heard a huge impact.

"NO!" he roared. "Blaziken, hurry up!"

Blaziken nodded, and with another leap they were high enough to see the Charizards landing beside what must have been where they had crashed. Duncan was shaking with fury. All thought had been extinguished, all he wanted to do was have his revenge on the people who had done it, and who had told them to do it...

With one last, bounding leap, Blaziken landed beside where they had impacted with the ground. But it wasn't as bad as it looked. Instead of a field of carnage, Tay and Michelle were standing, with Tay's Sceptile and Machamp in front of them and an unconscious Pidgeot behind them.

"Blaziken, Flamethrower!" yelled Duncan. Blaziken opened his mouth and let out a jet of white-hot flames, hitting one of the Charizards and tossing it into the forest.

One of the men, wearing the same jumpsuit as the rest of Dusek's men, pointed at Duncan and yelled something, but Duncan didn't care. "Flare Blitz!" he screamed.

Blaziken tore off at the men, his body engulfed in huge flames. The second he collided with the three men and their Charizard, there was an explosion. Duncan watched as Blaziken somersaulted backward from the blast, landing away from the flames.

Duncan turned and rushed to Michelle and Tay. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Michelle nodded, then rushed over and hugged Duncan, sobbing. They held each other for a moment, until Michelle pushed away and pointed to Pidgeot. "It's hurt, Duncan. But it saved us!"

Duncan smiled widely and nodded. He ran over to his Pokemon and checked it. It was in bad shape.

"Let me see." said Tay, walking up and examining Pidgeot. Duncan nodded and walked back to Michelle. She looked much worse than she did a hour ago. Her clothes were burned, her skin was covered in dirt and blackened with ash.

"I'm fine..." she said. "What about them?" she asked, pointing over at where Blaziken's Flare Blitz had exploded.

Duncan shook his head. "That doesn't matter. I need to go, fast."

"Are you kidding!" exclaimed Michelle. "After what just happened? We need to disappear!"

"No, it's a long story. But I need to go, fast. Tay, is Pidgeot okay?" asked Duncan.

"It will be." said Tay, standing up. "But not anytime soon. It needs a Pokemon Center."

Duncan nodded. "Okay. You two take it to a Center, then get to Mt. Coronet and hide out. I've got to go, I'll explain later."

"No." said Michelle. "If you have to go, then we will. We're not getting separated again."

Duncan shook his head. "I have to go now! We all can't ride on Blaziken!"

Tay smiled. "We can ride Salamence." he said calmly, pointing into the air.

Duncan looked up to see the Dragon Pokemon flying toward them, roaring its happiness. "Fine!" he said angrily. "Let's go!"
-----

Not my favorite chapter either, seeing as it's severly lacking in description. But whatever. Reviews are welcome, as always. :)

Whew. I just finished Chapter 11, but I'm still back at Chapter 7 here. *sighs* Ah well, here is one of my personal favorite chapters. Enjoy!

The Legends of Time and Space​

The two attacks collided in mid-air, exploding. The strange, warped dimension buckled, sending heat shimmers all around the battlers. But no damage had been done; Dialga and Palkia continued to duel, as they had for the past eternity. Neither tired; neither weakened. That did not happen here.

Forever locked in battle​

There was no pain, no feeling left in the place but hate. The very borders of Time and Space shuddered, but the fighting did not cease.

The Elements hardened against each other​

Up and down were as trivial as how many drops of water existed. The only thing that mattered was the never ending battle.

The two Legends bound by two humans​

Once again, the Legends of Time and Space clashed. But the dimension would not hold out for much longer, and Dialga and Palkia sensed it. They turned to each other, knowing that this would be the last strike. They powered up their final attacks and struck each other. The dimension shifted, and all went black.


Dialga and Palkia descended, free from their prison at long last. They broke apart, Palkia falling one way and Dialga another.


The Earth began growing larger. Both Dialga and Palkia sensed this was their destination.


The second eternity was coming to a close. There would be no third.
-----
"You've got to be joking!" exclaimed Tay.

Duncan shook his head. "So, in all I think it's been a pretty interesting day, no?"

Michelle smiled weakly. "You met up with Dusek? And we thought we had it bad..."

"You did," said Duncan, lying back against the back of Salamence's neck, stretching his arms behind his head. "But I had it worse. Sorry."

Michelle chuckled. "Wow." she said sarcastically. "You win the bad day game. What did Dusek say?"

"A load of s***. But now I'm not so sure. Tay, how did you find us?" asked Duncan.

Tay frowned. "Why?"

"Just tell me," said Duncan. "It might clear a few things up."

"Okay," said Tay. "Well, it's like I said. After I had been hiding out for so long, I was getting anxious. So I started snooping around, looking for an excuse to do something. Then, right as I was about to give up, I found it. Dusek's plan." he finished dramatically.

"Cut the dramatic crap." said Duncan sternly. "This is important."

Tay shrugged. "Whatever. As I was saying, I found-"

"Stumbled might be the right word here." interjected Michelle.

Tay shook his head. "Quit giving me lip. I'm trying to tell a story here, dammit!"

"Shut up!" exclaimed Duncan. "Tay, this is important. How did you find us?"

"I found a piece of data on a website I traced to Dusek. It said something about a liquidation plan." said Tay.

"Liquidation plan?"

"Yeah," said Tay. "He was wanting to find the Legends. So I figured I needed help and went looking for you. Only thing is,"

"That you didn't have to look..." finished Duncan.

"Yeah," said Tay, clearly confused. "What are you getting at?"

"Dusek. He said that he set you up to flush us out." said Duncan, rubbing his forehead.

"But, no," said Tay, clearly stung. "There's no way! What I was looking at was genuine, I swear!"

"Obviously not." said Duncan coldly. "Or else how did Dusek know what he did?"

Tay mouthed for a moment, looking furious. "I- You know I would never betray you, Duncan!"

Duncan said nothing, but continued to sneer coldly at Tay. Before either one could speak, however, Michelle cut in.

"What happened with Dusek, Duncan?"

Duncan turned to Michelle, completely ignoring Tay. "He basically said that his plan all along was to torture me, cause me as much pain as he could. He said that was why he killed Allen... And Oak..."

"Duncan!" said Michelle. "He's just trying to corrupt you, mess with your mind! Don't let him do it!"

"But he's right." said Duncan quietly. "He's already taken everything from me. That's why he went after you earlier. He said that you were the last thing I had left, and he was right..."

Michelle opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. It was not that she didn't know what to say, it was the look on Duncan's face. Michelle had never seen such a look of hatred on his face. She actually moved backward, away from Duncan.

"Look Duncan." said Tay. "Dusek lies. He said himself, he wants to torture you!"

Duncan turned away from both Tay and Michelle. "You don't understand."

Tay's eyes flashed. He quickly moved forward and grabbed Duncan roughly by the shoulders. He pulled him around so they were eye to eye.

"You think you're the only one who's had to suffer?!" bellowed Tay.

"Get off!" yelled Duncan.

"Not until I've gotten some sense into you! I don't know what Dusek told you, but we're not the enemy! He is!" yelled Tay.

Duncan glared at Tay. "How do I know that? You're the one who led him to our door! We were doing just fine until you showed up!"

"Duncan!" exclaimed Michelle.

"No Michelle, he needs to here this! Dusek told me that you were the only reason he found us! Since then, everything has been a living HELL!"

Tay gave a roar of rage. "Listen to yourself! Do you see what he's done?"

Duncan shook his head. "You did it! Everything is your fault!" With a huge effort, Duncan heaved Tay off of him and pushed him over the edge of Salamence, dangling him in the air.

"Duncan! Stop it!" yelled Michelle.

"He deserves it!" roared Duncan, glaring at down at Tay dangling in the wind. "He betrayed us!"

"He didn't!" screamed Michelle. "Duncan, this is Dusek! Don't let him do this to you!"

Duncan stared down at Tay, struggling against Duncan's firm grip. Could it be true? He looked down at Tay's face, and realized that he would not have given them up. He closed his eyes and pulled Tay up back onto Salamence's back.

Michelle looked between Tay and Duncan, both panting. "Are, are you okay?"

Duncan nodded, looking over to Tay.

"Duncan," began Tay, but Duncan shook his head.

"I'm sorry." said Duncan gruffly. "It was Dusek, he told me things that I, just can't deal with right now. And I'm not ready to tell you, either."

Tay nodded. "Forget it. Remember, I used to work with Dusek. He knows his mind games."

"Yeah." said Michelle, relieved to see the two talking. "So, erm, let's hurry up. We need to be to wherever we're going, right?"

Duncan nodded and looked down at his bruised fist. Dusek had beaten him again, making his rage win out. But it wouldn't happen again. Duncan clenched his fist. Never again.
-----
"This looks good." said Tay, looking down at the ground. There was a small meadow in between a group of trees. "Land here, Salamence."

"Mence!" roared Salamence as it set down in the meadow.

"Okay," said Duncan, jumping off Salamence and looking up at Michelle. "Here's the deal. "You need to hang back."

"No!" exclaimed Michelle. "I told you, we're not getting separated again."

Duncan shook his head. "As much as I would like to tell you to go to safety, I can't. Tay and I are going in, and we need you and Salamence to cover us. As a matter of fact, here. Take Umbreon."

"No, I've got him, remember?" said Michelle quickly as Duncan began reaching in his pocket.

"Oh, yeah. Okay, well we need cover. The only building Dusek could be talking about is the Galactic building. It's on the northeast end of town. Tay and I are going to get in, but we need Salamence and Umbreon to cause as much chaos and confusion as possible. Tag a few grunts if you see them." said Duncan.

Michelle nodded. "Then what?"

"Then Tay and I get in, and get out. Once you see us get out, have Salamence land and pick us up. That'll be that." said Duncan.

Michelle bit her lip. "Duncan, I really don't want to get separated. What's so important in there?"

Duncan lowered his head. "He's got her, okay?"

Tay frowned. "Who's that?"

"My mother." said Duncan quietly. "He's got her."

"What?" exclaimed Tay. "But, I thought she was dead!"

Duncan shrugged. "I did too. But we thought wrong, didn't we?"

"Duncan..." said Michelle softly. She slid off of Salamence and lifted Duncan's chin, staring him straight in the eyes. He opened his mouth, but Michelle put her finger to his lips.

"Just be quiet." she said, and she kissed him.

Behind, Tay grinned widely. "Nothing happened my a**!"

Duncan and Michelle broke apart laughing. They stayed like that for a moment, then a cloud shifted and the meadow lit up with moonlight. Tay, Duncan and Michelle fell silent.

"Well, I guess we better get going." said Duncan.

Michelle nodded, her eyes glistening. "I, be careful, okay?"

"You know I always am." said Duncan, smiling.

"Don't worry Michelle." said Tay. "We'll be back before you know it."

Duncan nodded and turned away. Something about this goodbye felt different. Things were going to go wrong. He knew it.
-----
"There it is." whispered Duncan, staring at a large building through his binoculars. "He's spiffed it up, hasn't he?"

Tay grinned, shifting his camouflage ghillie suit. "Yeah, Dusek's all about home improvement. Here, put on this." said Tay, handing Duncan a tub of green paint.

"Thanks," said Duncan, setting down his binoculars and smearing it on his face. "I've got thirty minutes before times up. I need to get dressed. I can't believe you have two ghillie suits."

Tay chuckled, taking off his backpack and handing it to Duncan. "Never know when you'll need to do a commando raid. And besides," said Tay, ruffling his hair back. "The girls love camouflage, believe me. One time in Vermillion City,"

"Would you hurry up and stand guard?" interrupted Duncan. "Sorry, but now's not the time for your stories about scoring with girls."

"They're not stories..." muttered Tay, taking the binoculars from Duncan.

"Sure..." said Duncan, peeling off his torn and bloody T-shirt. "If all of your stories were true, then you would have a slow and painful death wished upon you by every female in Kanto."

Tay chuckled, still looking through the binoculars. "Come on, you're not telling me you haven't seen any action with Michelle?"

Duncan grinned, taking off his pants and tossing them aside. "Wouldn't you like to know..."

Tay set down the binoculars and looked back at Duncan. "Oh," he said, looking mildly surprised. "I guess you're not man enough to admit it."

Duncan glared at Tay, picking up a pair of camouflage pants. "You really know how to p*** me off, don't you?"

Tay shrugged, turning back to the building. "It's okay. Michelle already told me all about it. She said you were so-so."

Duncan laughed, sliding on a dark green jacket with leaves and grass on the back. "Do I look stupid? I think I know Michelle well enough to know that she wouldn't say that. She probably said that I'm the best-"

"So you admit it!" exclaimed Tay.

Duncan shook his head, putting on a thick helmet. "You know I'm better than that. I would never take advantage of Michelle."

Tay nodded. "I guess. If that's what you say... Are you ready?"

Duncan picked up the assault rifle and nodded. "Okay, here's what we'll do. As soon as Michelle sees us, they'll be raising hell. So we need to get across that front lawn as fast as we can. You should ride Sceptile, I'll ride Blaziken. As soon as we get to the entrance, jump off and we'll blow the door. It's been over three years since I've been in there, since Team Knight. I'm sure Dusek completely rebuilt it, so we'll just start looking. If we find something on the Legends, that's great. But every second we're in there, there's more of a chance we won't be getting out. Got it?"

Tay nodded, putting the binoculars in a pocket and standing up. "Sceptile, let's go!"

"Blaziken, let's do it!" exclaimed Duncan, releasing Blaziken.

"You guys need to get us to the front door." said Tay, pointing to the large building. "Once we get in, cover us. Got it?"

"Blaziken!" exclaimed Blaziken.

"Scept," said Sceptile.

"Okay, ready Duncan?" asked Tay, getting on Sceptile's back.

Duncan took a step toward Blaziken, then stopped. Something was wrong. He scanned the building and the grounds twice more, but all was quiet. It didn't help, however.

"Are you coming?"

Duncan shook his head. "Tay, something's wrong. I can feel it."

"Come on, Duncan. It'll be a piece of cake. But we need to hurry. There's only twenty-five minutes left." said Tay.

Duncan quickly nodded and got on Blaziken's back. "Let's go." he said.

Blaziken and Sceptile launched toward the building, but as the tall gates drew closer Duncan was struck again with a feeling that something was wrong. He felt his stomach drop as they hurdled over the gates, and a roar that meant Salamence was already starting. They had gone to more than a few steps, however, when Duncan realized what the problem was.

"TURN AROUND!" he screamed. "HE KNOWS WE'RE COMING!"

With a sickening feeling of dread, Duncan knew they were already sunk. The sound of machine gun fire and large explosions shook the air, then something knocked Duncan off of Blaziken, slamming him to the ground.

Everything went blurry for Duncan, but muffled screams and explosions forced him to raise his head. Michelle was sprawled out on the ground, unconscious with Salamence struggling in a net; Tay and Sceptile embedded into the three-feet thick wall; Blaziken caught in a spherical metal cage.

Duncan blinked, trying to clear his head, but before he could do so he felt himself being dragged to his feet. He tried to open his eyes, but everything was blurred and stretched. His head drooped down and he closed his eyes.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his arm, and slowly his vision cleared. He was still standing in the middle of the lawn, with two grunts holding him up by his arms and a chuckling Dusek in front of him.

"Welcome, Duncan." he said, still chuckling. "I'm glad you could make it."
-----

There we go. The first bit isn't all that great, but I like the cliffhanger at the end. From here on, there is a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter. :D Enjoy!

Heh, I'm determined to catch up. :D Anyway, here's Chapter 8:



"I must admit, I'm disappointed." said Dusek. "I expected you to find a better way to do this, instead of just walking in. Were you trying to get caught?"

Duncan glared at Dusek, feeling the throbbing in his head receding. He looked down to see the grunt on his right tossing down an empty syringe. He only hoped that was what had done it.

"Surveying the situation, I see." said Dusek, smiling. "I'll make it easier for you: I have fifty men surrounding you, with twice that many Pokemon. You're friends are either unconscious or dead. All of your Pokemon are also unconscious. My my... I'm quite looking forward to see how you are planning to escape."

Duncan pulled on his arms, but the grunts held him fast. But already his mind was filling with ideas. The sight of Dusek had sent his mind thinking of, not escape, but revenge. He had to do this fast, or else something more could happen to Tay and Michelle.

As he slid downward in the grip of the grunts, he saw Dusek open his mouth in the corner of his eye. But it was too late, for at that moment Duncan slammed his feet on the ground and twisted the grunts sideways, causing them to collide. He rushed at Dusek, and felt fifty machine guns aimed at his back.

In that moment, Duncan knew he wouldn't make it. He would be shot to ribbons before he could lay a finger on Dusek. But the bullets didn't come. He continued until he reached Dusek.

He raised his arm, having already lost his rifle, and thrust it down on Dusek. But to his surprise, Dusek knocked it away with incredible speed.

"Slow, slow." said Dusek quietly. "Clear out!"

The grunts immediately started walking away from Duncan and Dusek, but one paused and looked back at Dusek.

"What should we do with them, sir?"

"Take the girl away and kill her. Leave the man in a cell. Bring the Pokemon to Experimentation, but leave the Blaziken. After that make sure the premises are vacated." said Dusek, still smiling slightly at Duncan.

Duncan turned to rush at the grunts already moving toward Tay and Michelle, but was slammed by Dusek from behind to the ground.

"No running." said Dusek quietly as Duncan got to his feet. "Just you and me, the way it's meant to be."

"'The way it's meant to be'?" asked Duncan, turning back to Dusek. "What are you talking about?"

"It's been fated for a long time now. An eternity, I believe." said Dusek.

"An eternity? What the hell are you talking about?" asked Duncan.

"All in good time." said Dusek. "But look, we're finally alone. Shall we begin?"

Duncan looked sideways to see that they were indeed alone, with Blaziken lying on the ground about twenty yards behind. "I see. This was what you wanted all along."

Dusek inclined his head. "A hand-to-hand battle should suffice, I would say." He slid his pistol from its holster and tossed it away.

The pair began slowly circling each other, and Duncan's mind started racing. This fight needed to be over soon, because every second that passed meant Michelle was closer to... No. It wouldn't happen.

Duncan roared and charged at Dusek. He raised his arm once again, slamming it down at Dusek's skull. But Dusek swatted it away and thrust his fist into Duncan's chest, knocking him backward.

"Duncan." said Dusek. "What happened to you? You've fallen off. Don't tell me you're tired?"

Duncan rushed again, this time jumping into the air and attempting to kick Dusek. Once again, however, he was deflected and landed on the ground. But instead of getting up, Duncan swung his leg across the ground and tripped Dusek. He went toppling to the ground, only to flip backward and kick Duncan straight in the chest, knocking him backward.

"S***!" groaned Duncan, slowly getting to his feet.

Dusek laughed, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "Not bad. You've learned some tricks, I see."

"Want to see some more?" asked Duncan, rushing at Dusek again. He flipped his left elbow outward and slammed it toward Dusek, who caught it.

"Take this!" roared Duncan, swinging his fist into Dusek's hand and kicking straight up, hitting Dusek's jaw.

"Not yet!" yelled Duncan as Dusek fell backward. He flew forward and started pummeling every inch of Dusek he could see. All of the frustration and rage Duncan felt for Dusek was put into each punch. Duncan continued this for several more moments until it seemed that Dusek was unable to move.

"Now, to end this." said Duncan, a mad glint in his eye as he stared down at his greatest enemy. He lifted in his foot up and placed it on Dusek's chest.

"Do it." Dusek looked up at Duncan, eyes full of hatred. "You won. Go ahead. Kill me."

Duncan grinned, twisting his foot and causing Dusek to gasp for breath. "You underestimated me, Dusek. I won't hesitate to kill you."

"No." gasped Dusek as Duncan stomped on his chest. He shakily wiped a trickle of blood from his cheek. "But...You will..."

"What?" asked Duncan, stomping on Dusek's chest again. "Did you say something?"

"Lily..." said Dusek as his eyes started losing focus. "She's...There..."

"Yeah she is." said Duncan. "But don't think for a second that I'm going anywhere. I'm staying here until I see you dead!"

"No...You're the dead one..."

Duncan laughed bitterly. "I'm the dead one, huh? Even to the end, you're stupid."

"Mewtwo..." murmured Dusek, and Duncan froze.

"What did you say?" demanded Duncan, kneeling down and picking Dusek up by the neck.

"Mewtwo...You're dead. You really are." said Dusek, and suddenly Duncan leapt backward as if shocked. Dusek got to his feet and laughed.

"You're pathetic, you know that?" said Dusek, not showing the slightest sign of the beating he had just taken. "Like I would go down that easily. But now I know the limit of your strength. Now it's time for you to pay for your foolishness. Bring me Mewtwo."

Duncan stared, wide-eyed as a grunt dragged a stirring Mewtwo out into the yard, dropping him at Dusek's feet and hurriedly running back into the building.

"You have it..." said Duncan, staring at Mewtwo with a longing look on his face. "We created Mewtwo. It should only listen to me."

Dusek smiled, nodding. "The very thing I was wondering about. But you seem unusually fond of the Pokemon that killed your friend. Might you have some reservations?"

Duncan's face remained impassive, but his insides squirmed. All along, he had attributed Allen's death to Dusek. But, right in front of him, was the Pokemon that had actually struck the final blow.

"Are you ready yet?" asked Dusek harshly, kicking Mewtwo. It attempted to raise an arm, but it fell back.

"It's been under anesthesia for nearly two years now. It should be fully awake in a moment. In the mean time, shouldn't you rouse your Blaziken? Unless you'd like to take on Mewtwo yourself?"

"I helped create it, so I think I know where I've lost a battle." said Duncan, still staring at Mewtwo. "How do you know it will obey either of us? It might try to kill both of us."

"It might." said Dusek. "In my haste to finish the cloning process, I left out a good bit of data. It's a wild card."

"Great..." said Duncan. He walked backward toward Blaziken. He thought hard about his situation. Physically he was okay, though he would be much worse after his adrenaline wore off. The main thing in his mind was Dusek. He had given Dusek every bit of punishment he could muster, but it didn't have seemed to even phased him.

Duncan clenched his bloody fist. Then there was Mewtwo. The Pokemon occupied an interesting place in Duncan's mind. It past was Duncan's past. He thought back on all it had cost him.

His first major encounter with Dusek had because of it, or more precisely, the Old Amber that contained it's DNA. That had been the reason for Dusek's defection from Team Knight. It had also brought Duncan's journey to a grinding halt. Then things calmed down, and Duncan almost believed that it would be the end of it. But he was mistaken. Dusek resurfaced only weeks later and destroyed Team Knight with the backing of Team Rocket. That was when he gained control of the not-complete Mewtwo and put in on the fast track to completion. After it was deemed done, Dusek used it to kill Allen and severely wound Duncan.

Duncan looked down. All roads led back to Mewtwo, and yet he still wanted it's power. Was that wrong? Was he no better than Dusek? Of course he wasn't, but they still had the same thing in mind, the same goal. To master Mewtwo, the Pokemon of nearly unlimited power.

If it should come down to a battle between Blaziken and Mewtwo, which was looking increasingly likely now, Duncan doubted Blaziken's ability to win outright. And besides, though he was loathe to admit it, he desired Mewtwo.

"Blaziken." said Duncan, kneeling down and shaking his first Pokemon. "Wake up."

Blaziken slowly rolled over and looked up at Duncan. "Blaze?"

"You missed it. We're in it deep, buddy. This is going to be too close for comfort, but I have a plan."
-----
"Okay Dusek, we're ready." said Duncan a few minutes later. Duncan and Blaziken stood if front of Dusek and Mewtwo, who was beginning to regain consciousness.

"Very good." said Dusek. "And you are awakening as well, Mewtwo."

Mewtwo opened his eyes and rose up, floating on Psychic energy. "What is going on?" it asked in a loud voice without moving it's mouth.

"You are here, Mewtwo, to assist me. Kill those two." said Dusek, pointing at Duncan.

"You dare command me, human?" asked Mewtwo, turning on Dusek. "I should kill you both!"

"Please, Mewtwo," said Duncan. "Leave here. Do not listen to Dusek. Just go, far away from here."

"And you dare speak to me?" asked Mewtwo. "You collaborated to keep me captured!"

"No, no I didn't!" exclaimed Duncan. "He did!"

"Silence!" said Mewtwo. "If you can defeat me in battle, then I shall forgive you for what you have done to me."

Duncan stepped backward, biting his lip. This was bad. Fighting Mewtwo was the same as fighting a Mewtwo controlled by Dusek. "Okay Blaziken, make it fast! Flamethrower!"

Blaziken opened his mouth and released a huge jet of flames at Mewtwo, who raised a three-fingered hand and effortlessly deflected the attack.

"Give it everything you've got!" yelled Duncan, as Michelle flashed into his mind. Things were next to hopeless here. He needed to get out as fast as he could. "Blaze Wheel!"

Blaziken nodded and jumped backward, his right foot catching ablaze. He landed on his left and began to spin with incredible speed, causing the flames on his foot to spiral into a vortex of fire.

"YES!" cried Duncan. The vortex extended upward some twenty feet, and began spinning toward Mewtwo. It crashed straight into the Psychic Pokemon, and an explosion erupted, causing both Dusek and Duncan to stare straight into the inferno.

Then both Blaziken and Mewtwo flew out of it, apparently unscathed. Blaziken landed in front of Duncan, but Mewtwo turned back toward Dusek.

"This is wrong..." it said suddenly, clutching its head. "Not right..."

"What's wrong with it?" asked Duncan.

Dusek stared at Mewtwo's pain without remorse. "When I rushed its cloning, many things were left out. It is malfunctioning."

"Malfunctioning?" asked Duncan. "It's a living thing, not some robot, regardless of how it was created."

"Yes, but many parts of its DNA were left out. Whole stretches of structure are blank. It can't process pain. It is of no use anymore... Kill it!" said Dusek.

A Tyranitar leapt from the shadows, striking a flailing Mewtwo. It collapsed on the ground, still.

"A warning, Duncan." said Dusek quietly. "Never let an obsession take over. If it threatens to, kill it."

Duncan clenched his fist. "You just killed it, like that?"

Dusek nodded. "Exactly. The thing you don't understand is that things only get messier as time passes. Kill it sooner, and everything's solved. Lucky for you, I'm only just now understanding how important that really is."

Duncan remained silent, staring at Mewtwos' body. After everything it had cost him, it lay dead at his feet. It was wrong.

"I see you are still contemplating Mewtwos' quick death." said Dusek, smiling at his Tyranitar. "But you have, as they say, bigger fish to fry. Yet again, you have a choice. Yet again, it is between Michelle and Lily. I must say, this is getting quite repetitive."

"Endless misery for me... Yeah, I'd say it's becoming a trend." said Duncan.

Dusek nodded. "As I was saying, you have a choice. Most likely both Michelle and Lily are dead by now, but you never know. I nearly ended Lily's life a short time ago. My associates are probably about to kill Michelle. The choice is, once again, yours. But things are different now. Before, I was doing this to cause you pain. But now I am attempting to slow you down. I am heading, as you know, to Spear Pillar. The fated meeting shall take place there. Until then..." said Dusek, and in a flash he and his Tyranitar were gone.

Duncan froze. Not again. He shook his head and took off for the building in a full run, leaving Blaziken behind. The front doors opened with a slam, and Duncan rushed through hall after hall without actually knowing where he was going. He slammed open a door that led to a staircase. He rushed down it and into a dark hallway.

He opened the first door he saw, but it turned out to be a sterile white room that was now empty. He left and tried the next room. To his vague surprise, Duncan found Tay lying on the floor.

He hurriedly knelt down and shook Tay, who stirred. "Hmm?"

"Tay wake up!" exclaimed Duncan.

Tay sat up and looked around confusedly. "What's going on?"

"No time to explain, just help me look!" exclaimed Duncan and he bolted from the room and opened the next door he saw. The second he stepped foot in it, he stopped cold. Lily was lying, motionless, on the floor. Her arm was covered in blood, and she was lying in a pool of it.

Duncan walked up to her and raised her head off the ground. She stirred and looked up at Duncan.

"Mom, I'm here..." said Duncan quietly.

Lily squinted at Duncan, then shivered. "Cold..."

"I'm sorry Mom..." said Duncan, his voice breaking. "Here, let me get you out of here."

Duncan reached down to pick his mother up, but she weakly pushed his arm out of the way. "Leave me alone."

Duncan froze. "What?"

"I don't... Know... Who you are... Go... Away..." And with that, her eyes closed and she spoke no more.
-----
:D Nice cliffhanger, eh? Yeah, the next chapter will have a lot of emotion in it, so don't worry. Anyway, there you go.

Ok, I quite like this so far (actually, I've been reading it since the beginning, just haven't reviewed it).

The one thing that annoys me here is this:

"Silence!" said Mewtwo. "If you can defeat me in battle, then I shall forgive you for what you have done to me."

Click to expand...

What the Hell is that? Like, come on, surely everyone knows that out of all Pokemon, Mewtwo has no morals whatsoever. That just makes no sense, if it was any other Pokemon, it would. But not Mewtwo, sorry, but that's just the way life is.

No spelling errors or grammatical ones that I can find...

Ok, other than that it's a very good story and I know I probably shouldn't say it (just in case), but I will anyway. This totally deserves to be fan fiction of the month.

As for the cliffhanger, I think I've figured it out...

Right, later!

Lord94 said:

Ok, I quite like this so far (actually, I've been reading it since the beginning, just haven't reviewed it).

Click to expand...

Hey, thanks. I love reviews. :D

Lord94 said:

What the Hell is that? Like, come on, surely everyone knows that out of all Pokemon, Mewtwo has no morals whatsoever. That just makes no sense, if it was any other Pokemon, it would. But not Mewtwo, sorry, but that's just the way life is.

Click to expand...

Wow, I can't believe that...I never really thought about it. Heh, yeah that part doesn't make much (any) sense.

Lord94 said:

No spelling errors or grammatical ones that I can find...

Ok, other than that it's a very good story and I know I probably shouldn't say it (just in case), but I will anyway. This totally deserves to be fan fiction of the month.

As for the cliffhanger, I think I've figured it out...

Right, later!

Click to expand...

:D You don't know how happy you just made me. I don't know about it being FF of the month, but thanks for the mention. Heh, yeah you've probably figured out the cliffhanger. But it's more of what happens next chapter that matters. Anyway, thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked it!

Oops. I got really busy yesterday and forgot to post the new chap. Ehehe.

Well, to make up for it I've got some good news! I'm currently writing a Blazing Dreams One-Shot. It's like a movie, where you don't need to know anything about Blazing Dreams to read it. :D Cool, huh? I hope to have it up by Jan. 1st. Anyway, here's chapter 9:



Duncan was falling. The dark room disappeared, and he was surrounded with nothingness. He had failed...

His mother had died...It was his fault...If only he had come sooner...

Bitter tears forced their way down Duncan's face as he began to shake. Why? Why was Duncan cursed to live a life of pain and loss? Why?

Duncan looked down at Lily, who was already freezing cold. Tears gently splashed on her face.

"She didn't even remember me." said Duncan hollowly, staring into his mother's lifeless eyes. "Her own son..."

"Duncan..." said Tay. He walked over and gently directed Duncan away from Lily. Duncan sat down against the wet brick wall as Tay gently closed Lily's eyes.

Duncan vaguely looked around the small cell. "A horrible place to die..." murmured Duncan, still shaking.

Tay cringed, turning back to Duncan. "I'm sorry..." he said quietly. "But she's in a better place now, you have to believe that."

Duncan said nothing, looking back at Lily.

"Duncan." said Tay, walking up to Duncan and kneeling down in front of him. "You have to believe that she's in a better place."

Duncan shrugged. "She's dead, Tay. Gone."

Tay closed his eyes. "Gone from this world, Duncan. But she will never be truly gone."

"Look at her, Tay. She's dead. Nothing anyone can do will change that."

Tay sighed. "Duncan, I know this is horrible on you. It's not great for me, either. She was the one who first recruited me. But we need to leave. We have to find Michelle."

Duncan nodded slowly, stowing his emotions in the back of his mind to deal with later. "Okay. Can I have a minute?"

Tay nodded. "'Course you can. I'll be outside." With that, he left the dark cell.

Duncan stood up and looked down at his hands. They were soaked in blood and grease. He wiped them on his pants and knelt down in front of Lily. Her face was was half-smiling. I hope you're right Tay, thought Duncan.
-----
Duncan walked out of the cell with Lily over his shoulder. "Let's go..." said Duncan quietly.

Tay nodded, and the pair began walking down the dark corridor. "What's going on?" he asked.

Duncan thought back to their failed attempt at rescuing Lily. It seemed so long ago. "After they sprung their ambush, I got knocked out...They injected me with something and I came to. After that they...Dusek told the grunts to take the Pokemon to Experimentation, except Blaziken. He told them to take you and throw you in a cell and to go kill Michelle."

Tay cringed. "Okay then, we need to get moving. I'm guessing Experimentation is this way?"

Duncan shrugged. "I guess."

"Okay then, I'll go get them. You can tell me the rest of the story later. Go get Blaziken and wait for me at the entrance. Then we'll go find Michelle."

Duncan nodded, a knot in his stomach. "It's been a while since they took Michelle. Do you think..."

Tay shook his head and began running down the hall. "They would want to get to base! See you in a few minutes!"

Duncan nodded and continued walking toward the entrance. He turned his head to the left. He couldn't bare to see Lily's face again.
-----
Duncan walked out the front door of the building. Blaziken was standing over Mewtwo quietly.

Duncan opened his mouth, but closed it. His heart felt like it was about to burst from the loss, but he ignored it. There wasn't time to deal with it now. He walked over to Blaziken and gently laid Lily down beside Mewtwo.

"Blaze..." said Blaziken quietly, looking up at Duncan.

"I'm fine." said Duncan. "We've got to hurry, Michelle's in danger."

Blaziken nodded slowly, looking up at the clear sky. A single cloud drifted in front of the moon, plunging them into semi-darkness.

"We should bury them." said Duncan. Blaziken turned and looked at Duncan. "Blaze?"

Duncan nodded. "Yeah. We don't have time to go somewhere else. Let's...just do this, okay?"

"Blaze..." said Blaziken. He walked a couple of steps back and started digging into the earth. Duncan just watched, fighting to keep his emotions in check. He clenched his fists. He had already mourned for Lily, and for Allen. Then right as he found out that she was still alive, she was taken from him again.

"Duncan?"

Duncan looked back to see Tay walking out the front door, several Pokeballs in his hands. He walked over to see what Blaziken was doing, then stopped.

"Mewtwo?" he asked. "What the hell?"

Duncan shook his head. "Long story. Can you help?" He motioned toward Lily and Mewtwo. "Mewtwo deserves to be buried, I think."

Tay nodded gently and walked over to where Blaziken was digging. "That'll be good, Blaziken." he said.

Blaziken nodded and stepped away from the roughly hewn holes. Tay picked up Mewtwo and set it down in one. He stared at the Pokemon for a moment until he heard Duncan behind him.

Duncan picked up Lily silently and walked over to the hole. He gently set her down in it.

A warm glow lit up Duncan, and he looked up. The sun had barely over the horizon, spilling golden light over the area. The sound of birds chirping filled the early morning air. Duncan slowly looked back down.

"Goodbye, Mom." he said quietly. With that, he turned and walked away.
-----
"Are you okay?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?" asked Tay.

Duncan sighed, looking down at the fast moving scenery. The large forest was slowly giving way to houses and farms that were slowly waking up. "Yeah."

Tay nodded, turning back to Salamence. "How long?"

"Mence!" roared Salamence, flapping its huge red wings faster.

"Okay," said Tay, turning back to Duncan. "We'll be there soon. How do you know that Michelle will be there?"

Duncan remained silent for a moment, his sunken eyes looking out at the rising sun. "It's a spot where they do all of their hits."

Tay closed his eyes and nodded. Seeing Duncan like this was really getting to him. He knew that the only thing keeping him going was the thought of Michelle. If they were already too late... Tay knew it would throw Duncan over the edge. He wouldn't let that happen.

"Tell me what it's all about," asked Tay.

Duncan sighed and began to talk, still staring out at the sunrise. "It's just an old warehouse. The trees have grown up around it, and they throw the bodies into a pit in the middle, then cover them with concrete."

Tay froze. It wasn't what Duncan had said that had done it, but rather how he had said. Completely emotionless. As if he didn't care about what happened to Michelle, one way or the other.

"Duncan," began Tay softly. "I know you're taking the loss of Lily hard, but can you do this? Frankly, I'm not feeling that you're going to be any help until you get your head into the game."

Duncan remained silent, still staring resolutely at the sunrise. "She didn't even recognize me."

Tay paused. "Well, no." he said after a moment.

"Was she in there so long that she would forget me?" asked Duncan quietly.

"No..." said Tay. "Duncan, don't be stupid. You know the business we're in. There are memory drugs that can drive a person insane. I'm sure Dusek stocks his medicine cabinet with them."

Duncan remained silent. Tay frowned. He knew he should be more sensitive, but he needed to get Duncan's head in the game. Fast.

"Look." he said. "Lily loved you. You know that. The Lily you knew died two years ago. The person we saw die was just a hollow shell."

These words seemed to fill Duncan with energy. He turned to Tay with a blazing look in his eye. "Watch your mouth," Duncan spat. "Don't talk about my mother like that."

Tay nodded, turning away. Even though he felt guilty about what he had done to Duncan, it was much better than the alternative and getting his head blown off. He felt the familiar swooping in the pit of his stomach as Salamence began descending. He pulled his pistol from its holster and cocked it. This was going to be payback.
-----
Tay and Duncan sprinted from the cover of the trees to the side of the warehouse. It was at least fifty years old, with rusting iron walls and a crumbling foundation.

Tay motioned for Duncan to follow, walking around the side of the building. There was a single black SUV in front of the building, with a bored looking grunt smoking a cigarette beside the door.

Duncan nodded at Tay, then the guard. Tay nodded and walked slowly up to the back of the man. He picked up a discarded piece of wire from the ground and stalked up behind the man. Once Tay was close enough to smell the putrid stench of the mans' sweat, he wound the wire around his neck and pulled the man to the ground.

He then stood back up and nodded at Duncan. The pair walked toward the front door of the warehouse. It was closed, but quite thin. Odd sounds floated through the door. It sounded as though someone was chipping concrete.

Duncan's wide eyes told Tay all he needed to know. The pair knocked down the flimsy door and rushed into the warehouse.

Five people were inside the room. Two grunts were swinging picks in a small pit in the middle of the room, chipping out the concrete. Two more men were sitting at a small wooden table, playing cards. Lastly, Michelle was passed out on the ground, lying in a corner.

Duncan unloaded his pistol on the two grunts sitting at the table. They didn't even look up before they hit the floor. Tay fired off three rounds into the pit, killing one grunt. But the other caught on quickly and ducked against the side of the pit.

With a roar, Duncan charged at the pit. Tay reached for him, but missed. This was it. Duncan was going to run like an idiot into the pit and get blasted away. Tay ran at the pit, hoping that he could get off a few shots at the man before he realized what Duncan was doing.

Sure enough, the mans' head popped up to see what was going on, and Duncan was on him. He pulled the trigger on his pistol, but nothing happened. Tay took the opportunity to squeeze off a round into the unfortunate mans' head. He fell to the bottom of the pit with a dull thud.

Duncan swiveled around, panting. "Where is she?" he asked, his hands on his knees.

"Over here. You make sure these guys are dead, I'll take care if her." said Tay. He rushed over to Michelle, crumpled in the corner.

He was relieved to see a vein throbbing in her exposed neck. He gently rolled her over onto her back. "Michelle?"

She remained silent, the sides of her mouth twitching as though she was merely pretending to be asleep.

"Michelle," said Tay, shaking her gently. He had to make sure that she was okay.

Her eye twitched, then slowly opened. "Wow..." she muttered. "There are three of you..." She closed here eye again and giggled. "Funny..."

Tay smiled and nodded. There was a large purple bruise on her forehead. Hopefully she was just a little dizzy.

"Are you okay?" asked Tay.

Michelle sighed, the corners of her mouth twitching. "Of course I am, silly. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You got bumped on the head. Can you count backward from ten?"

Michelle giggled again, opening her eyes and staring up at Tay. "Of course I can. Like I've never been drunk before..."

Tay chuckled softly, helping Michelle to her feet. "You can tell me all about that later. I insist. But now, we need to get out of here and find a place to lie low."

Michelle nodded slowly. "You know," she said, her eyes still unfocused. "You kinda look like Duncan, 'cept your not so grumpy. I like that." She smiled vaguely and kissed Tay on the cheek.

Tay laughed. "That wasn't the bump on the head, was it?"

Michelle shrugged, rubbing her head. "What's going on?" she asked, peering around the warehouse.

"I'll tell you later. Can you wait outside for a minute?" asked Tay.

"Sure." said Michelle. She slowly stumbled out the door. Tay shook his head. He didn't know if she was faking or not. At least he hoped she wasn't faking.

He turned back around to see Duncan kneeling over one of the grunts. "Come on, Duncan." said Tay.

Duncan glared at Tay. "He has to pay."

Tay frowned. "Duncan, he's dead. What the hell are you talking about?"

Duncan released the man and fell backward. "I..."

Tay rushed forward to Duncan and helped him up. "Come on now." he said. "Michelle's safe. Let's get out of here."

Duncan pushed Tay away. "I can walk." he snapped. With that, he walked out the door.

Tay sighed. "D***. Both of them are completely crazy. I've got my work cut out for me."
-----
"Are you okay," asked Michelle.

Duncan grunted and rubbed his arm. "Fine."

Tay looked away from the pair and smiled at Salamence. "Sorry about all this flying." he said. "But we need to get safe, fast."

"Mence!" roared Salamence.

Tay nodded. "I'm glad you understand. These two are a little nuts."

"What did you just say?" demanded Michelle, rounding on Tay.

"You bumped your head, and Duncan, well he's being Duncan." said Tay.

Michelle rubbed her head. "I'm fine. What's going on?"

"I don't know all of the details, but Dusek and Duncan fought." said Tay with a nervous look at Duncan. He was still looking out at the now fully risen sun.

"What happened?" asked Michelle.

"I don't know, but one thing led to another and Dusek brought out Mewtwo. I guess something went wrong, because Dusek bugged out and Duncan found me." said Tay, closing his eyes.

"What about Lily?" asked Michelle quietly.

"She...Didn't make it. That's why Duncan is acting the way he is."

Michelle groaned. "He must be feeling terrible..."

"You think? Well, he needs someone right now. We're going to hide out in Mt. Coronet for a while."

Michelle nodded softly. "I can't believe this is happening..."

"It is. And it's about to get worse." said Duncan quietly.

"What?" asked Michelle.

"The Legends. He's getting the Legends tonight."

"How do you know that?" demanded Tay.

"He told me." said Duncan. "Think about it..."

"Duncan, you're making no sense." said Tay.

Duncan shook his head thoughtfully. "I have to do something. He killed my mother. But I figured it out. Look," he said, turning to Michelle and Tay and fixing them with a fierce look.

"He got Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf. But guess what? They're gone. He let them go before we left. Seems kind of stupid, huh?"

"How do you know that?" asked Michelle.

"When I was looking for you guys, one of the rooms had readouts of all three. They had all been let out. Why would he do that?"

Tay's eyes got larger as waves of comprehension washed over him. "Wait..."

"Yeah!" exclaimed Duncan, pounding his fist into his other hand. "He made the Red Chain!"

"What the hell are you two talking about?" asked Michelle, looking from Tay to Duncan. "What's a Red Chain?"

Tay rubbed his forehead. "The Red Chain...But I thought that it couldn't be made?"

Duncan laughed. "All it takes is power. That's all the Red Chain is. Pure power."

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Michelle. "What is a Red Chain?"

"Back in Team Knight, some of our scientists theorized that if you could harness enough power, that you could control the very threads of Time and Space. Hang on...Are you kidding me?" breathed Tay.

"No." said Duncan. "Michelle, we tried to create the Red Chain. But there wasn't enough power to create it in the entire world. We gave up on it. But if Dusek used Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf..."

"They might have had enough power to create the Red Chain." continued Tay. "But we didn't ever find out if it could work. If he already had the power of Time and Space, don't you think he would have, I dunno, vaporized us already?"

Duncan shook his head. "The Red Chain can't control the threads of Time and Space. It can control what does control Time and Space."

"Dialga and Palkia..." breathed Tay.

"Hang on..." said Michelle. "This is bad. If he is is trying to control all Time and Space..."

"Turn around." Duncan said. "We need to get to Spear Pillar."
-----
The sand blew in his face, but Dusek disregarded it. This was his moment, his time to win. Spear Pillar was very old, and at one point was a temple devoted to Arceus. Dusek sneered. Not anymore.

Large, sandstone pillars stuck out of the ground at odd angles. Many laid on the ground, having fallen many years previously. These did not matter to Dusek. He had his eyes firmly on a raised altar in the middle of the ruins.

A powerful gust of wind blew at Dusek. He smiled. A warning. That wouldn't do it.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a glowing red chain. The wind instantly stopped.

Dusek smiled widely and continued walking forward, the Red Chain extended in front of him. He reached the altar and paused.

Was this the right choice? Deep down, below the sheer hatred and loneliness that encrusted his heart, was a small voice. It screamed against what he was about to do.

Dusek hesitated. It was worth it, of course it was. There was no possible way for it to go wrong. Still, the small part of him screamed against it.

Dusek ground his teeth. This was best. By ending the world, he could create a new one. A world without prejudice. Without suffering. A better world. So what if he had to kill everyone else? People would just get in the way of his vision.

Dusek steeled himself, then slammed the Red Chain onto the altar.
-----
Suddenly the pull was too great to resist. Dialga and Palkia roared toward the Earth at an amazing rate of speed.

The attraction to the Red Chain was irresistible. With every second, the end of the second eternity drew closer.
-----

:D One of my favorite cliffhangers. Anyway, chapter ten will be up in a couple of days.

So far, I've read chapter one. It's very interesting and different. Parts of the first chapter were a bit dry in my opinion, but of course, I haven't read the rest of the fic. However, it looks very promising.

TurtleKing said:

So far, I've read chapter one. It's very interesting and different. Parts of the first chapter were a bit dry in my opinion, but of course, I haven't read the rest of the fic. However, it looks very promising.

Click to expand...

:) Thanks for the review! Yeah, the first few chapters weren't very good. Hang in to the end, though. :D It gets a lot better. Anyway, thanks for the review!

Okay guys, I've got some great news. I just finished the last chapter! Makes me feel a lot better. So, here's chapter 10.

Blazing Dreams: Legends of Sinnoh
by Duncan McNeil

Chapter 10: A Fateful Meeting: The Legends of Time and Space​

Dusek took a step back, staring in amazement. Two vivid portals had opened on either side of the altar. One was neon blue, swirling amazingly fast. Dusek felt his heart speed up, then slow down. Time was being pushed and pulled around the area.

He slowly pulled his head to the right. There was a bright pink portal, flashing amazingly bright flashes of light. Pebbles and dirt flew into the portal, sparking violently as they entered.

Dusek tried backing away, but then a heat haze rolled over him, freezing him in time. Then the pink portal started edging toward the blue. They touched, and Spear Pillar exploded with the force of a bomb, obliterating everything.
-----
Duncan seized up. His vision was obscured by a blue light, and everything froze. He was no longer riding Salamence, alongside Tay and Michelle. Instead, he was flying through time.

It was an amazing experience. He flew backward in time, watching the trees below him die and then grow back again. The sun spiraled around the Earth many thousands of times a second. Time was speeding forward, then flying backward again. This was repeated many thousands of times in the blink of an eye.

"What is going on?" asked Duncan, closing his eyes. Trying to comprehend the millions of changing images was impossible. The roar of all of the sound from thousands of years washed over Duncan, then it all stopped.

Duncan opened his eyes to see himself in a dark alley. Confusedly, he looked around. What was going on?

"I did it." said an excited voice.

Duncan jumped and spun around. Three figures were standing only a few feet from Duncan. "Who are you?" asked Duncan, reaching for his pistol. But it was gone.

"Very good." said an amused voice. Duncan froze. He knew that voice.

"So? Do you have it?" asked the excited voice.

Duncan's eyes widened. He knew that voice as well. He tried to get a better look, but all three figures were completely shrouded in darkness.

"Did you really expect us to give it to you?" asked a scratchy voice.

"What?" asked the first voice, looking from one of the other figures to the other.

"Fool!" chuckled the scratchy voice. "Why would we part with something so valuable?"

The first figure stepped backward. "You..."

The scratchy voice gave a shout of laughter. "What do you expect to do, Dusek? Kill us?"

Dusek turned to the third figure. "Please...Don't do this..."

Duncan couldn't believe what he was hearing. Dusek was pleading? But he couldn't make out the third figure.

"You were a pawn." said the third figure after a moment, and Duncan was surprised to hear the voice was female. "Nothing more."

"But..." said Dusek, and he took another step backward. A shimmer of light illuminated him for a moment, and yet again Duncan was surprised. The Dusek that stood before him was much younger than normal. He looked quite like Duncan, with black hair instead of brown and maybe an inch taller. But he couldn't have been more than eighteen.

The third figure reached pulled out a gun. "You are such a fool. I manipulated you simply. You are weak." Then she fired the gun, and the flash illuminated the dark alley. Duncan nearly screamed. The woman that had just shot Dusek was his own mother.

She was also much younger, but looked a few years older than Dusek. She fired mercilessly, shooting six bullets into Dusek. He gasped, falling backward against the wall.

"I thought..." he muttered, then his head slumped and he went silent.

Suddenly Duncan felt his head jerk backward, and the scene dissolved. His world was spinning. This was beyond belief. If what he had just seen was true then his entire world was wrong.

He felt himself beginning to shake, and he reappeared. He was in a hospital room, and Dusek was in the bed.

Duncan frowned. He had to know what was going on. "Hello?"

Dusek didn't move. He was nervously wringing his hands, looking around as though enemies would swoop in at any moment. He didn't look any different than he did a few moments ago, but he was bandaged up on his chest and head.

He bit his lip. Duncan was surprised to find himself doing the same thing. He shook his head and tried to leave, but his feet couldn't move.

A sound from behind Duncan made him jump. He swiveled his head around to see a doctor walk into the room.

"Mr. Dusek." said the doctor.

"Yeah! Um, yes doctor?" asked Dusek nervously.

"The police would like a word with you about your bullet wounds."

"No! I mean, can't they come later? I'm not feeling very good right now..." said Dusek.

The doctor shook his head. "No, they have to know now." He turned and walked back out the door.

Dusek jumped out of bed. He moaned loudly, cradling his chest. He opened his window and pulled himself out it. The scene dissolved.

Everything went dark and Duncan wondered how long this was going to last. His mind was conflicted on Dusek, but he felt that this was leading him somewhere.

A new scene reappeared. Duncan was surprised to see that he was back in the exact same room. He looked at the bed, expecting to see Dusek. Instead, he was surprised to see Lily. She was smiling, trying to shush a baby that was in her arms.

Duncan's jaw dropped. The baby she was holding was him.

"Ssh." said Lily, rocking Duncan back and forth gently. "Come on now."

Duncan couldn't believe his eyes. He was only a few hours old, but how could that be? He was right here, right now. His mind reeling, Duncan looked away from Lily and back to the door. It was cracked open and a pair of eyes was staring at the Lily and him.

Duncan thought he could be shocked no more, but he was wrong. The pair of eyes looked just like his own. His head felt like it was about to burst. There was three of him?

Then the eyes shifted and the rest of the face was revealed. Duncan was relieved to see that the eyes belonged, not to him, but to Dusek.

What was Dusek doing here? Duncan looked behind him and realized he was staring at Lily and him. Dusek backed away, and Duncan glimpsed his face.

He looked completely different. Not older, though. He looked maybe a year older. No, the difference was on his face. He was smiling.

The scene dissolved once more. Duncans' mind was reeling. This was insane. Could all of this actually be true?

The scene reappeared. But this was different. Instead of actually standing in the middle of a place, he was watching it through a portal. All around Duncan was darkness, so the portal was the only thing that he watched.

His point of view was quite high. He was looking at Spear Pillar, frozen in time. Dusek was standing at an altar, the Red Chain lying in the middle of the altar.

But this Dusek was different. He was the present-day Dusek, and Duncan felt a rush of hatred rush back. He was no different. But he was. The entire scene shifted, and time resumed.

Dusek stood backward, smiling. "Dialga!" he cried, looking up at Duncan. Everything suddenly made sense. He wasn't going mad, this was all Dialgas' doing. He was actually looking at real time through Dialgas' eyes.

"Palkia!" yelled Dusek, look to the left. "You shall obey me! Fight each other until one falls!" Dialgas' vision became colored red, and it slowly turned to Palkia. Duncan was surprised to see that it was just as large as Dialga. It stood in his feet and was pearl pink. Large pearls were in its legs and a long, thin white mane ran down its' back.

"Soon!" yelled Dusek. "Arceus will be mine!"
-----
"Duncan!"

"Come on, up you go..."

Duncan slowly stirred. The sky was glowing a blood red and the clouds were drifting along lazily above him. It all seemed so serene...

"Are you okay?"

Duncan frowned. "My head hurts..."

Tay's face swam in front of Duncans'. "What happened?"

Duncan closed his eyes. Something was tugging at the edges of his consciousness, but his tired brain shut it down. It was so much nicer to lie in the warm sunlight, thinking calm thoughts.

"You worried us to death...You kept screaming 'Dusek'!"

Duncan snapped upward. "What's going on?" he demanded.

Tay chuckled. "Now I know how to wake you up..."

Duncan glared at Tay. "I, what happened?"

"You collapsed on Salamence." said Tay. "You've been out for nearly three hours."

"No..." moaned Duncan. "He's already won..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Michelle, looking worried.

"I saw Dusek get Dialga and Palkia..." said Duncan, standing up. "Where are we?"

"At the base of Mt. Coronet. What do you mean?" asked Tay.

"Dialga showed me a, I dunno, vision. We need to get up there right now!" said Duncan. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a Pokeball. "Blaziken!"

"Blaziken!" exclaimed Blaziken, his wrists lighting up.

"Okay guys, we need to get up there right now." said Duncan.

"No, no we don't." said Michelle. "Duncan, what are you doing? Aren't you the one who told me to always survey the situation before running into it headlong?"

Duncan waved his hand. "Michelle, you don't understand."

"Then tell me." said Michelle.

Duncan sighed. This was taking up time they didn't have. "Dusek does have the Red Chain. His plan wasn't to just capture Dialga and Palkia, is was to pit them against each other. I don't know all the details, but I guess when one of them dies, Arceus will appear."

"What the f***?" exclaimed Tay. Michelles' eyes widened.

"Arceus?" she asked in a small voice.

Duncan nodded, turning to the mountain. "Yeah, Arceus. And all of that happened three hours ago. We need to go, now."

Tay nodded. "Yeah, you might have a point."
-----
"This is insane!"

"I love you too."

Michelle glared at Duncan. "Don't make fun," she said sternly. "This is serious."

Duncan rolled his eyes. "It's always serious. Can't I have some fun for once? You know, go to the beach and sip umbrella drinks in the sun. You can come, too."

Tay laughed and even Michelle cracked a smile. "Duncan, you do realize that you're only seventeen?"

Duncan grinned widely, something he hadn't done in a long time. "Please." he said. "I drove a van a hundred miles when I was fourteen. I started carrying a pistol on me at all times when I was twelve. I don't think I have to worry about drinking an umbrella drink."

"I have to disagree," said Michelle and Duncan groaned. "I seem to remember you puking a few months ago when I replaced your ginger ale with a beer."

Tay exploded into laughter. "You threw up?" he laughed.

Duncan glared at Michelle. "Excuse me, but don't we have to do that whole saving the world thing right now?"

Tay nodded, still chuckling. "Yeah, okay." He looked at Michelle. "Boy do we need to catch up. Later, okay?"

"If there is a later," pointed out Duncan. "Which is unlikely if you two won't stop picking on me."

Tay sighed. "O-kay. What's the plan, Mr. know-it-all?"

Duncan rolled his eyes and looked up. The sun was almost set, casting a huge shadow on them. He bit his lip, then remembered Dusek doing the exact same thing. He shook his head. That was a can of worms he did not want to open right now.

"We'll come at him out of the sun..." muttered Duncan. "We've got about five minutes until the sun goes totally down. Get Salamence. This is going to be close."
-----
"What are we going to do next?" roared Tay.

Duncan turned back to Tay and Michelle, keeping a firm grip on Salamence as it flew up the side of the mountain. "Wing it!"

Tay nearly fell off of Salamence right then and there. "You're kidding!"

The Kantoian teenager smiled. "Fortunately I am. We have to get our hands on the Red Chain!"

Tay shook his head. "I could have told you that..."

Michelle rolled her eyes. "You guys are pathetic."

Duncan shrugged and rubbed his temples. The closer he got to Spear Pillar, he realized, the more his head ached. As long as he didn't have another episode, he should be fine.

"Okay, we're almost there." said Duncan. "As soon as we are, make a run for the Red Chain. Smash it with a rock or whatever, but don't touch it."

"Yeah, kinda figured that." said Michelle.

"Dialga and Palkia might be there, so be careful, okay? Not to mention Dusek."

"Wouldn't want to forget about him, would we?" asked Michelle.

"No, we wouldn't," agreed Duncan. "Okay, we're almost there. Now, I..." He grasped his head, moaning softly.

"You okay?" asked Tay.

"Yeah," grunted Duncan. "I'm fine..."

Tay nodded. "Okay, we jump off in three,"

"WHAT?" cried Michelle.

"Two."

"But, but," said Michelle, panicking.

"One."

"JUMP!"
Thump!

Duncan landed on his feet. He quickly leapt to his feet and surveyed the situation. His jaw dropped. Dialga and Palkia stood, only twenty feet away. They were even larger than their statues, but were the same in every other aspect. Duncan almost thought that they were statues for a moment, as neither were moving. But they were much too realistic to be statues.

"Glad you could make it, Duncan,"

Duncan swiveled his head around. Dusek stood in front of an altar, smiling at Duncan.

"You..." said Duncan quietly. He clenched his fists.

Dusek smiled and opened his arms widely. "Me."

Duncan frowned, looking around. Tay and Michelle were nowhere to be found.

"Looking for your friends?" asked Dusek. "Haven't you realized? This is not a moment for them. It is a moment for you, and for me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Duncan. "You made the Red Chain to call Dialga and Palkia! You're trying to capture Arceus!"

Dusek shook his head softly. "How single-minded you are..."

Duncan turned around. "Where are they?"

"I already told you. This is a moment for only us. Time has stopped in Spear Pillar. Even Dialga and Palkia are frozen."

"What the hell are you talking about?" yelled Duncan.

Dusek smiled. "My my. I thought you knew already. Well now, I shall have to enlighten you, won't I?"

"Please do." growled Duncan.

"The first Eternity was when the Earth was created. Arceus created the Earth. Then he created a myriad of other Pokemon to govern over it. But three Pokemon were not created as equal as the rest. Dialga, Palkia and Giratina."

Duncan remained silent. His curiosity was winning out over his hatred.

"Dialga was the ruler of all Time, past, present and future. All things that have ever or will ever happen Dialga can see and influence.

"Palkia, on the other hand, was the ruler of all Space. Every single atom in the entire universe is controlled by it.

"Giratina is, however, completely different from the other two. It was created long after the others. At first there was no death, only prosperity. Then Dialga and Palkia began to fight. Their selfish reasons enraged Arceus. He vowed to destroy the Earth and end the Eternity that he had just created.

"But Dialga and Palkia were not able to die. They had already been granted immortality by Arceus. So he sealed the pair in the first Eternity and destroyed it.

"After that he created the second eternity. But Arceus knew that it would not last forever. Dialga and Palkia would one day be set free, and end the second eternity and Arceus himself. That day is today."

Duncan chuckled. "You expect me to believe that s***?"

Dusek shrugged. "I don't so much care, one way or the other. The reason I'm telling you this is because you believe I'm the bad guy. Evil, I believe is how you put it."

Duncan let out a roar of rage. "You are evil! I should kill you right now!"

Dusek dropped his smile. "You should. But you can't. You and I, we're alike."

"What?"

"I started out on the streets with nothing. I was exactly like you are. Dialga showed you my memories. You see how I was just like you. But I was changed. You see," Dusek smiled widely. "I am dead."
-----

:D Well, I have to say this is one of my favorite chapters. So much happened...Well, please comment, okay? Remember, there's only two chapters left!