Fighting the Shadows(PG-13)

[hailflameblast]

Hey everyone, it's me with the rewritten, changed, Redemption of the Holders. In case you didn't figure it out, there are a lot of changes to the plot, which is the reason the name has changed. Hope you all enjoy it.

For those who haven't read the original one, this is set in the Pokemon Special manga, and is a crossover with the TV series Ben 10.

Spoiler: PM List

Eon Master
Calm Pokemaster
GalladeRocks
TheBlueRabbit

Chapter List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Spoiler: Aliens Guide(for those of you who have watched Ben 10)

Necrofriggian - Big Chill
Methanosian - Swampfire
Lepidopterran - Stinkfly
Vulpimancer - Wildmutt
Loboan - Benwolf
Transylian - Benvicktor
Petrosapien - Diamondhead
Tetramand - Fourarms
Kineceleran - XLR8
Galvanic Mechomorph - Upgrade
Gourmand - Upchuck
Crystalsapien - Chromastone
Cerebrocrustacean - Brainstorm

Basically, I'll list the alien species followed by an alien of that species from the TV show. The list will be updated with every chapter.

Anyway, here is the chapter.


Chapter 1
The Discovery

A large volcano simmered in the blazing afternoon. The bubbles of lava could be seen at the top, rising eerily from below and popping. A young lad stood on the rim of the volcano, his black hair prominent against the midday searing sun. His smile was one of mischief, and his thoughts centered themselves on a young woman he knew rather well.

He pulled a rope out of his bag and tied it carefully round his waist. He took out a mallet and a peg and hammered it into the thick rim of the volcano. He couldn’t really resist this, and the rope was very strong. Bungee jumping right into a boiling volcano was a thrill he wanted to experience. Even if the rope broke, he had an ace card. He could just imagine that scene with everyone howling while he calmly landed back where he was now standing.

He paused to admire himself, staring at his medium-sized torso covered by a golden yellow shirt. Below that was a purple pair of shorts that covered his legs up to his knees. His leg was then bare until his foot, which was covered by a pair of bright red shoes.

He ran one of his hands through his hair, and adjusted his goggles. He checked his billiard cue, and found it was in perfect working condition. Looking into one of his Pokeballs, he exchanged a sly grin with a small monkey in it. The monkey had a yellow face and chest, with two purple long stubs for arms. His feet and the rest of the front of his body were the light brown of his face, but the rest of his body was a pleasant shade of purple.

Except for the tail, that is. The tail was light brown and ended in a weird hand of the same color. Right now, the tail was twitching with anticipation.

Gold tied the other end of his rope firmly to the peg and turned and looked down. The rest of his friends were chatting animatedly. They wouldn’t see him.

Gold crouched a little, and then leaped forward with his thoughts centered on the rope and his backup plan in case the rope broke. They soon wandered to taking a photograph of himself hanging upside down with his camera and making his daredevilry public.

His momentum soon disappeared, and he began to go down, speeding up with the help of gravity. He could feel the adrenaline rush in his body, and the blood flowing to his head. As he approached the bubbling lava, he pulled his bag off his shoulders.

Gripping it very firmly, he searched in it for his camera. When he pulled it out, he struggled and finally, managed to tuck it upside down into the front of his shirt so that it faced upwards as he was hanging upside down.

He managed to snap the photograph of himself over the lava and then tucked it into his bag after pulling it out very carefully. He zipped it closed and then struggled once again, to get it on to his firm shoulders once again.

When he succeeded, he then looked down and gazed at the boiling lava. He was about five meters above it. He let his eyes wander and they chanced upon something black at the far end of the volcano from where he was hanging. He gazed closely at it, but it wasn’t very clear and seemed shaky due to the heat starting to take a toll on him. He shifted his body weight towards his back in order to try swinging back and forth until he was right side up in order to climb up the rope.

Swinging back and forth, he gained a little height each time until he managed to grab the rope with one hand. Hauling himself upwards, he grabbed the rope with his other hand too, and began the long, arduous climb back upward.

Halfway through the climb, he saw something which he had a mortal fear of. He was in too inconvenient a position to pull out the cotton from his bag.

A blue-haired girl standing on the rim of the volcano, dressed in a white lab coat and bike shorts. In a very bad mood.

A very angry Crystal. Oh no, he thought, I am so busted.

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

A black-haired boy stood outside his house, admiring his garden with a small smile. While he was not someone who was completely unlike his father, he believed that a balance had to be struck between emotion and cold calculating science. He was already doubting himself about it, and he gazed at the petunias and the magnolias all spread out over the beautiful garden.

He frowned, however, on seeing the patch he and his mother had left empty while setting up the garden. It was filled completely with weeds practically every different color and shape.

This isn’t good, he thought, glancing for a second at his black jeans that went all the way down to his bright red sneakers. Mom is going to have a lot of work with that lot when I’m gone.

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

“May I know the meaning of this obviously dangerous, life-threatening, daredevil, idiotic, tension-increasing activity, Gold?” said the girl named Crystal, looking as though anger was the only emotion she knew.

“All right, Chairlady of Club Serious, I’m sorr-“

This was enough. Crystal began yelling her throat out. “I DON”T WANT YOUR DUMB SORRY!”

“Bu-“

“NO BUTS!”

“Look-“

“I WANT TO KNOW THE MEANING OF THIS!”

“I found a ca-“

“I DON’T CARE!”

“Really? Then I think I’ll drop Professor Oak a line about how you are too much of a chicken to explore a new cave.” said Gold in a short burst to avoid interruptions.

That had the desired effect. Crystal stopped her next admonishment in her throat and calmed down enough to stop the author from spamming a Caps Lock.

“Now where is that cave of yours? Or is it a figment of your imagination?” she said in a controlled voice, but it was easy to see that the teenager was just about managing to control her temper. She was breathing heavily and the frown had not slid off her face.

“Down by the lava, opposite where you saw me.” said Gold, casually pointing a thumb towards the lava.

“How will we go down?” said Crystal with what looked like an expression of half worry and half a sneer.

“Bungee jumping again of course” smirked Gold in a self-confident way, thinking he was now one up on her.

“I am not going to allow that non-“ she began in tones of rage, but was cut off by the yelling of a midget dressed in green.

The little kid was a blonde and wore some kind of thread around his head, and there was a green stone in front of his forehead. His clothes seemed to be oversized for him, as his sleeves extended far beyond his hands. His pants hung loosely over his legs, and at the bottom were platform shoes. They didn’t look like normal ones, and if someone looked carefully at it, they would have realized that there were rows of Pokeballs.

Right now, the midget was yelling, looking up at his seniors, his friend Gold, and his mentor, Crystal, who preferred to be called Crys.

“I like the idea! I have very strong ropes we could use to bungee jump. It’ll be fun!” squealed Emerald, his green eyes brimming with excitement.

Crystal was about to admonish him, but Emerald quickly showed her his puppy-dog face that always won her over.

“All right, stop it Rald, you know I always can’t refuse you anything when you give me that look” she said half exasperatedly, half smilingly.

Emerald’s mouth changed itself into a broad grin and his eyes twinkled with wild glee. He’d just earned himself ten bucks from Gold, who had paid him to do so whenever Crys disagreed with him.

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

A red-eyed boy was busy looking at something very interesting in a vast place, the Underground. He was examining a large white bone in his hands. He checked it against a large green book from his brown bag that matched with the walls of the area he was in. There was a picture of it on a page titled “Treasures from below the Ground”.

Beside the picture was a note which said “Rare Bones are worth a lot of money. Sell them in Poke Marts. They have no other use.”

The boy grinned, looking at his green shirt which had a large picture which was mainly red and black. The red portions were quite dark and formed a sort of outline of a Pokemon. This Pokemon was said to be a myth, and inscriptions with its pictures had been found in a far off place known as the Dimensional Tower.

The tower formed a triangle with two other towers, which were known as the Temporal Tower, and the Spatial Tower.

But they were not on the boy’s mind as he looked back at the bone. He put it into his bag, which resembled a standard Trainer’s bag.

His thoughts were straying to an orb which had been found at the centre of the triangle formed by the towers. By it, had been an inscription that people deciphered to mean that the orb was called the Time-Space-Dimension Orb.

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

There was a large explosion in an unknown area, where hailstones were pelting the windows. Out in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere, several cloaked figures watched as a shadowy figure showed everyone the cracked test tube, held up delicately by his pincers.

“This, everyone who has assembled here, is the remains of the reaction of pentasynthium alloy, whose secret only I know, on corrodium, the substance used to power Crayak’s projectors. If we can sabotage his projectors using this substance, which I have a large quantity of at the moment, before they reach the Earth, his next target, we shall be able to stall for enough time for Azmuth’s men to finish developing their secret weapon and send it to our agent on Earth.” said the large “crab”, who had green eyes and an oversized head. His six legs twitched as he waited for the approval of the people watching.

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then there was deafening applause and yelling. Shouts of “Brainstorm has done it!” and “Now we’ll get back our fair share at Crayak!” filled the air.

However, a small cloaked figure did not join the rejoicing. He was a spy, and this information had to reach His Overlordship, Crayak. He was so small, nobody even noticed he wasn’t applauding. Unfortunately, even Brainstorm was cloaked, so he could not describe him to Crayak.

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

Gold hung down from the rope, calculating every risk, every bit of hot air, and how it would affect his slow descent down, hanging from the rope. Crystal had annoyingly refused to let him bungee jump down. Something about not allowing anything do anything so reckless as practically jumping into lava. Man, she is SUCH a spoilsport thought Gold furiously.

Watching him go down was Crystal. She was watching to ensure that Gold wouldn’t do stupid.

Ah, that’s because you like him, isn’t it Crys? said her subconsciousness.

“Shut up.” She growled, but no one could hear her. Which was good, otherwise her sanity would have been in question.

Gold, on going down quite a long way, called up “The cave is here. I’m going in.”

The others were about to reach for the rope, but Crystal halted them. “Let him go and come back. There might not be enough space for all of us. Besides, if we all went, how would we come back up?”

The rest of the crowd bought the argument.

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

Gold was quite athletic. In any case, creeping around was something he loved doing.

Which was a good thing, as the longer he went in, the smaller the cave got. Soon, he had to crawl, and later, he had lie flat and push himself forward with his hands.

The cave was surprisingly smooth. His knees were scratched a fair bit, but blood had not been drawn from them. At the end of the tunnel, he saw light. By then, although he had gone far away from sunlight, the cave had eerily glowed by itself in a midday orange hue.

He squeezed himself through the opening and looked into the large new room he had entered. It seemed to form a perfect sphere. Weirdly, it glowed with the same orange as that of the cave, though there seemed to be no source of light inside. Gold pulled out a walkie-talkie from his bag. Emerald had lent him this one. He held down the “Send” button and began to speak.

Emerald at the other end heard him perfectly. He had turned the volume on his walkie-talkie to maximum so that everyone could hear Gold. Also, he had placed a stone he had found on the “Receive” button to hold it down continuously.

A crisp voice rang out in the stuffy silence.

“I got through the cave alright. I’m in this large spherical room here. Everything seems to glow orange, though there seems to be no source of light. I must say, this place is large enough for Supah-Serious Gal and the rest of us to play football.” said Gold briskly. “Although with legs like hers, she’d obviously win.” he added as a mischievous afterthought.

Crystal’s anger flared up, leading to the author once again spamming a Caps Lock.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SA-” she began yelling, but was cut off by a tall boy dressed in green. He wore a yellow pendant, and had light brown hair. He was somewhat thin, but was not what you could call skinny. Right now, his face was contorted into a look of curiosity.

“Gold? I have a question.”

“Ask away, senior Green.” came a voice from the walkie-talkie.

“No, me first!” exclaimed a young boy who wore a red hat. He was dressed in a dark shade of blue, and his scarf was still. He was fairly short, but being only around twelve years of age, it was natural. He was not well-built, but wasn’t completely puny either. His blue eyes twinkled with some strange light.

“Alright, finish it first” said the older boy dressed in green.

“How can we play football in a sphere?”

There was a moment of stunned silence, and a blonde’s open hand made contact with Diamond’s right cheek.

Pearl hollered “Dia, this isn’t the time for stupid questions like that!”.

As he yelled, everyone turned to him, and he, dressed in a striped orange shirt and brown jeans with an orange scarf, seemed to be the centre of attention.

Which didn’t make him go red or anything. He proceeded to just stare at the lava, and his expressions showed he was cooling himself down. Or at least, he was trying to.

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

The boy walked back into his house.

“I’m back, Mom. What’s for lunch?” he called out as he closed the door.”

“Toasted bread” came a voice from the kitchen, and the smell of cheese was detectable even from the dining room.

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

Garnet climbed out of the Underground, and pulled out a red-and-white Pokeball. He tossed it into the air, and out came a black Pokemon. It had yellow ring-like patterns on various parts of its body, and its red eyes gleamed. At the centre were two black pupils. Its coat was sleek and shiny. The Umbreon proceeded to look at its surroundings.

It sensed something in the bushes, and crouched backward. It sprung, and went straight into the bushes. Noises of a scuffle could be heard, and Garnet sat on a nearby log and sighed.

He pulled out a book titled A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Universe and flipped the pages, and began reading from where he had placed a bookmark. Page sixty-three.

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

Gold looked up, and noticed a small hole at the top of the room. The others had said that they were coming, so he had to wait for them. In the meanwhile, he had walked around, feeling quite bored.

The hole. Its dark blue interior was very visible against the orange wall, and Gold couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it before.

Within a few minutes, with a pang of horror, he realized that he was not alone in the room…

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

Topaz was packing up. He had finished his bread, and now his thoughts were centered on Sandgem Town. He was going there for a “social gathering”. Atleast that’s what Platinum had said it was. He supposed it would end up being a party, like the last three had.

He did not know, however, that, in twenty-four hour’s time, he would be engrossed in a conversation with his cousin and her fellow Pokedex holders, about resisting an alien force.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Hope you enjoy the new version. Do stay tuned!

 

[Calm PokeMaster]

I would stay this is a GOOD improvement.


Only thing is,next time,don't divide the chapter into so many parts like you did here.It distracts the reader from focussing on the main plot,and you also have to keep the readers involved in the main plot.

 

[Eon Master]

Nicely done Hail.

You broke the fourth wall in the first chapter? That was perfect.

I'm going to have to agree with Calm on the fact that you kept switching scenes too much. I couldn't tell who was where at some points.

Gold looked up, and noticed a small hole at the top of the room. The others had said that they were coming, so he had to wait for them. In the meanwhile, he had walked around, feeling quite bored.

The hole. Its dark blue interior was very visible against the orange wall, and Gold couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it before.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT start a paragraph with The anything and then just add a period. That's possibly the most common and annoying grammar error in the english language next to comma misuse.

I liked the beginning of this one much better than the last. It held my attention much better, I could hardly look away from the screen.

My rating for the new version:

;133; ;133; ;133; ;133; ;133;

You've offically hit 5 Eevee status with the first chapter. I have no doubt you'll hit Umbreon status by the time it's over. Well done.

-Eon Out.

 

[GalladeRocks]

Wow, this is really good! A huge improvement on the other one, definetly. Nothing quite makes a good fic like bungee jumping, lava, toasted bread, and a Caps Lock spamming, fourth-wall breaking author. Great work, dude!

 

[hailflameblast]

Well, I wrote up Chapter 2. I've also added something to the first post(not to the chapter). I figured those of you who have watched Ben 10 might find it useful in understanding the story.

Anyway, I bring to you, Chapter 2!

Chapter 2
The Revelation

Topaz sat on the couch, tired. He had spent an hour packing up. Uncle Berlitz had called up an hour ago to say that the social gathering had been changed into a sleepover party.

That is SO Platinum he had thought when he had been speaking to his uncle. She had this habit of turning family-and-friend gatherings into sleepover parties.

He turned to the television and reached for the remote. He switched on the television and switched to the news channel. He stifled a yawn as a commercial about a new brand of clothes played. However, the breaking news removed all the drowsiness he had, and he sat up alert, his mind pacing.

“Famed Pokedex Holders found unconscious” he announced loudly, and his mother came out of the kitchen to see what the news channel had to say.

“We at These Messages take you to the spot of all the action, the Fight Area!” announced the newsreader.

The news channel had a very weird name, These Messages, and nobody for the life of them, could guess the reasoning behind the name.

It showed a picture of thirteen bodies that looked almost as though they were sleeping.

The first was a tall teenage boy in red, his black undershirt visible. His cap had a sign on it. The second was still taller, and was a thin boy in green. The next was a girl with brown hair, dressed in blue. She wore a white hat.

The next was a young boy with an expression that seemed to look like a grin. Dressed in yellow, he had a billiard cue in his right hand. The fifth was a redheaded boy in black, with a seemingly dark expression on his face. The sixth was a somewhat short girl dressed in yellow, who was blonde and had a straw hat hanging loosely over her head. A vivid ponytail could be seen coming out of it, and her outfit resembled that of a cowboy’s.

The seventh was a girl in a lab outfit, with an expression of pure horror on her face. Her blue hair looked like a porcupine, giving the impression that she had had an electric shock. Star-shaped earrings hung from her still ears.

The eighth was a boy in red, his young years visible from his short frame. He wore a shirt with words written in blood-red on it saying “Groudon”. Lava seemed to be flowing all around the word. Next to him was a girl with two teeth sticking out of her mouth like fangs of a cartoon character that Topaz had heard of known as Dracula. Her clothes was a bright blue. She had an expression of gritty confidence on her face, unlike most of the others, who merely had a puzzled look on their faces.

The tenth person was a midget in green, a kind of stone tied on a string around his forehead. His sleeves and pants hung loosely over him, and his yellow hair was in the shape of a croissant.

Next to him were three young people, who had the look of people who are around twelve or thirteen years of age. One was a boy in blue, with a black T-shirt, a beret on his head. His face seemed to be a bit playful, but it masked an underlying seriousness, felt Topaz.

The next was a blonde in an orange-and-white striped T-shirt and brown pants. His orange scarf fluttered a little in the bare wind in the area.

Topaz and his mother looked at the last person with nameless horror.

She seemed the youngest of the group. She wore a black dress with a red scarf and a white skirt. Her expression was well-known to the two shell-shocked viewers; it was that smug look she had when she won an argument. She wore what both of them had always felt was a ridiculous hat, and had high-heeled shoes.

Though Topaz and Katherine, his mother, had known that Platinum was a Pokedex Holder, this seriously shocked them. It hit him that Uncle Berlitz had asked him to come for a cryptic reason which he would soon find out.

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

Laughing, Garnet went into the bushes. He saw Umbreon looking angry. In the distance he saw a small giraffe-like Pokemon trotting away. He bent down and scratched Umbreon behind its droopy ears, and the moonlight Pokemon straightened up at once.

“Its all right, Girafirig can trot away pretty quickly.” he said, and some of Umbreon’s gloom was gone. It jumped right back into its open Pokeball, where turning into a flash of red light, it went in and the ball shut itself.

Garnet murmured quietly, shaking his red hair, “Some of these Pokemon just don’t know where to hunt.”

He pulled out another red-and-white Pokeball and pressed the button at the front. A mass of red energy emerged from the ball, and a green dragon floated in front ofGarnet.

It gazed at its trainer through its red eye covers, flapping its wings vigorously. Its tail twitched. The tuft of horn-like hair on its head moved about, probing its surroundings.

<Where to now?> communicated Flygon to Garnet in a tone of curiosity.

The redheaded boy had a small smile on his face. “Snowpoint City” he said cheerfully.

Leaping onto Flygon’s back, he took hold of its back firmly, and the desert dragon flapped its wing much more vigorously, and they shot off, first over land, and then across a vast expanse of sea.

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

Platinum woke up, panting and breathing heavily. She looked around and saw that she was in her own bedroom.

“Water” she called out loud. “Water!”

Her tone was not her usual one of pride and command, but of panic and fright. She felt that some cool water would help her calm down.

An elderly butler in a smart black suit ran in, holding a bottle of boiled water. Platinum took the bottle hastily, and opened it with fumbling hands. She raised it and drank a quarter of the bottle in one go. She then set it slowly on the nearby cabinet and breathed deeply.

By then, the butler had run off. Platinum guessed that her father had called Sebastian, as she could hear his voice calling out to him.

After she calmed herself down, she got out of her bed, dressed herself in her normal attire, and walked down to the living room, where she saw her anxious father waiting and drinking some tea. Sebastian was panting, which the girl thought was because of having to run across the house to fetch things.

She sank into a puffy chair opposite her father, and he started the conversation.

“Are you alright?”

“Well, I think I am.”

“Not having any kind of pain?”

“Most certainly not.”

“Feeling fine for today’s social gathering?”

“Yes. Most of them are your friends from Professor Rowan’s lab, correct?”

“Well, it seems as though you haven’t hurt yourself at Stark Mountain. Well, I ought to go and get the place spiffed up.”

She sat there for ten minutes, after which a new thought entered her head. Where are the others?

She got up and walked down the staircase, slowly getting her thought process right and resuming her proud manner.

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

Topaz slung his bag onto his shoulders and walked out of the house, wearing what he thought was a dignified, but nevertheless in his opinion, a ridiculous suit. Katherine followed in her standard dress for social gatherings, checking her bag to ensure that her keys were safe.

He looked around as his mother locked the house, admiring the natural beauty in Twinleaf Town, remembering how his father had insisted that they stay here as he could visit his family whenever he wanted to over here; how he could pass through this place unnoticed as there were very few people living here.

Topaz sighed as he looked down at a Pokeball on his belt. Inside, he knew, was a black crow Pokemon, which wore a hat and had a dull yellow beak. Its eyes were a shiny white, except for its black pupil. Honchkrow had been his first Pokemon back when it was a Murkrow, back in the days when his father was an honest man.

The fact that Cyrus, the former head of Team Galactic was Topaz’s father was a fact that nobody other than Katherine, Topaz and Cyrus himself knew.

Outside, the story was that Topaz’s dad had left a long time ago on a journey of personal training when Topaz had been born. Nobody had even seen him near Twinleaf since his marriage to Katherine, so the story held.

Topaz shook himself out of past memories, knowing that if he didn’t., he wouldn’t be able to snap out of it for ages.

Briskly, he strode forward with his mother. Soon, he went faster and told Katherine that he would go and wait by the signpost outside Sandgem town. He broke into a run, and reached Sandgem in ten minutes flat. He leaned on the signpost to catch his breath and looked at the grass which he had run through. This was when the Starly and the Bidoof would be busy getting ready for the coming cold winter.

After another ten minutes of doing nothing in particular, he saw his mother reaching him. Together, they walked into Sandgem Town and steadily headed for the mansion of Platinum Berlitz.

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

At frosty Snowpoint, Garnet got off Flygon and headed towards the harbour. It had been a while since he had seen Captain Jake, so he wanted to go and say hello.

He did precisely that, and then went into the Gym to have a peek at any ongoing battles. He saw a challenger losing to the Gym Leader, Candice, who was dressed in a white top and skirt, and walking off in a huff after giving her some money.

He chuckled to himself as he saw the boy walk past him, grumbling.

Cousin Candice had really had a walkover of a battle, he thought on seeing her expression.

He walked in, and rode Flygon to her pedestal, where they exchanged pleasantries. Then, Garnet bade her leave, and went out of the Gym, and set off for home, in Jubilife City.

Riding on Flygon, of course.

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

Platinum walked into the guest rooms and saw that nobody was there. Worry began to gnaw at her, and she made a sharp one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn and ran to her father’s room, where he knew he would be, giving the last minute instructions to the butlers.

She ran through the East Wing Corridor, flew up the staircase, and turned right into the family corridor.

She met her father outside his room, instructing the butlers. He turned away after finishing instructing them and looked at his daughter.

“Where are the others?” asked Platinum hurriedly.

His father took a few moments to answer. However, in the meanwhile, his mental machinery was in overdrive.

Platinum has learned to respect other people. A marvelous feat indeed! Diamond and Pearl, the two boys who accompanied her across Sinnoh have clearly changed her, he thought, and happiness along with a tinge of laughter at what Sebastian would say flowed through him.

“They are in the Pokemon Centre, in the special hospital section.” he replied calmly, to make it seem as though there was nothing on his mind.

“Oh, ok” said Platinum and she went to her room to get herself ready for the social function.

Meanwhile, Topaz and his mother had got to the mansion. Topaz glanced at his watch and saw that they were ten minutes early.

Both of them sat down on the bench outside the Berlitz family property, and marveled at the acres of land the building and the garden covered. While they had been here many a time, they still enjoyed the sight of the building and its surrounding areas.

While outside the mansion was an area of perfect calm, inside was a reasonable amount of chaos as butlers rushed around to take up their places, to move the food and to arrange the chairs around the tables. People ran across banquet hall, crashed into each other, walked a few steps backward, dazed, and then would run harder to catch up with the seconds lost in the collision.

Platinum stepped out, dressed in an elegant black dress with three minutes to go to five o’ clock, the time of the starting of the “social function”.

The butlers took up their stations with a minute left.

Topaz and his mother set off across the garden with thirty seconds left.

When they reached the door, there were ten seconds left.

When the boy reached for the doorbell, there were two seconds left.

And the door opened, at exactly five o’ clock.

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

Garnet was zipping across Celestic Town, when Flygon faltered, and slowly came to a halt. Garnet got off, this being Flygon’s first stop on the journey home.

Flygon landed on the ground and relaxed itself. It stopped flapping its wings and stopped moving its tail, as it used the move Roost to rejuvenate itself.

Meanwhile, Garnet headed off to the Celestic Shrine, a small shrine at the centre of the town. He looked a carving on the doors of the shrine that puzzled him. It was a blue vertical hole, and by it was a white egg.

He had tried and tried, but had never managed to puzzle out the answer. He looked around at the small town, admiring the simple houses that had red roofs and a brown exterior. It seemed quite a change from the skyscrapers in Jubilife City

He sighed, turned back, and got on to Flygon, and they headed off, towards the next stop, Floarama Town.

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

The social function was in full swing. Mr.Berlitz and his colleagues at Professor Rowan’s lab sat together, toasting each other, joking around and discussing something related to the labss.

Platinum and the children of her father’s colleagues sat together at another place, talking about random things that Topaz couldn’t hear clearly. He heard a bit about something at the lab called Project X. He frankly had no idea what that was, and had no intention of going over there and finding out.

He was sitting with a third group of people, who wer relatives of the Berlitz family. He wasn’t paying attention to what they were speaking, but was instead looking for an opening to head out into the garden.

He wasn’t a fan of all this chatter and noise. He preferred a nice, focused conversation with a few people than a long distracted one with a lot of people.

He saw his chance when the topic changed to family matters. He pretended to drop something, went down, and slowly sneaked away by bending nearly double behind chairs. He quickly reached the exit of the hall, and found his way through the house, and walked out into the garden.

Generally, he would escape outside using this trick and would take a nice long walk around the estate. He enjoyed this, and the pure, fresh air outside filled his lungs and made him feel energetic.

He took the familiar path around the house and walked, his thoughts straying to Team Galactic, an organization which headed by his father, had been defeated by the Pokedex Holders. He felt no anger at them, as he knew they had done the right thing. He looked at his palm, and it twitched for a second, glowing violet.

It then returned to normal. Topaz shook his head gravely and went to the area behind the mansion.

He thought that he would be alone here in the garden, free to stay in his thoughts. He was wrong. For, right in front of him was a girl.

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

Pearl sat up in his head and shook his yellow hair. He looked around and saw the rest of the Pokedex holders except for Platinum, lying and seemingly asleep. He supposed she must be back at her home. He felt an itching sensation in his right hand, and he pulled it out from underneath the bedcovers, and scratched it with his left hand.

Suddenly, he received a shock in the form of his hand glowing bright green, and he did all he could to stifle the shout itching to come out of his mouth.

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

Topaz’s sharp eyes evaluated the situation. The girl had brown hair, wore a purple dress, and wore high heels and white gloves. She had been staring into the pond, and thus, would not have seen him, as his reflection would definitely not have been seen in the pond.

He slowly inched backward until he was sure he was out of her line of sight, and then he focused hard on an alien whose DNA flowed in his blood.

He crouched down as his spine elongated, and his body grew larger. His clothes slowly sank into his skin, which rapidly was turning blue. His hair inched back into his skull, and his eyes disappeared for a split moment, when he was practically blind. Then, two large green eyes popped out where his eyes had been. Two large wings, similar in shape to that of a butterfly, sprouted out of his back.

They folded up quickly, and covered his head, which made him look like a phantom. His teeth stuck together.

His feet were the last to change. They slowly became larger, and melted into talons. He had two claws facing forward, and one facing backward.

Topaz now focused on being invisible and intangible, and in a few seconds became just that. He bent slightly and then jumped. His wings began to flap, and unseen he soared upwards, gaining height.

When he was satisfied with his altitude, he slowly rotated on the spot, wings beating a bit faster, as he was now hovering.

When he managed to locate the Pokemon Centre with his decent eyesight, he leaned forward and began a long slow glide towards it. He did not want to waste energy flapping all the way there, for he knew he would need it for the work ahead.

He could have gotten there in half the time if he had flapped, but Topaz was not in a hurry. He had a lot of time to get to the Pokedex Holders, and check up on them. The ability of the Necrofriggians to make themselves invisible and intangible was so useful on infiltrations like this.

He began to make his plans. He would have to figure out which room the Pokedex Holders were in, and then sneak in there. And then, would come step two. Figuring out who had first had the symptom of having new DNA added to his body, ready to be summoned up and used at their wish…

 

[GalladeRocks]

Wow, things are getting interesting. First of all, you stole Garnet from me! That's the name of one of my fake games! But still, it's a good name, and I'm impressed by your creativity in coming up with it. Second, I've got the strangest feeling that Darkrai may be involved in this. And, lastly, I love the Ben 10 reference!

 

[Ysavvryl]

Took me a bit to get around to this again. Well I’m not familiar with either Ben 10 or your manga resources, which makes this difficult to follow. So I’m not sure I’d want to keep with this. But as to what’s there…

The writing is better. There’s a few minor typo problems, but not enough to be really distracting. Descriptions could use some more spicing up. Like this: The girl had brown hair, wore a purple dress, and wore high heels and white gloves.

Very plain description there. What kind of brown hair? It could be as simple a change as light/dark, straight/curly, long/short. A purple dress isn’t very evocative either. The high heels and the white gloves give the impression of a higher class girl, but you could really give a hint as to her personality with the dress (like prim and proper, or sly, or plain).

The rope jumping scene had dozens of things wrong with it from a scientific view, but it’s enough for the cool crazy-adventure feel that it gets a pass from criticism (at least from me)..

A larger problem is that you’ve got way too much going on at once. Things happen and there’s barely any reflection on it. Like the news report where the Pokedex Holders are found unconscious. It just pops up, there’s a description of all of them, but then there’s no real reaction. Sure, there’s a ‘look with nameless horror’ and a ‘shocked’, but that doesn’t give the emotions of the situation the proper gravity. Why didn’t Topaz and his mother talk about it like normal people would? The lack of reaction makes them seem inhuman, as does their lack of showing concern for Platinum when they arrive at the party. You’d also think that something that big would cause a buzz at the party, with lots of people talking about it and hoping the kids are all right.

And with too many things going on, some of the things appear to happen for no reason at all. I know that can be a technique for have stealth foreshadowing, but then stuff like Garnet’s traveling around on Flygon seems boring. He stops by Snowpoint to talk to two people, but the conversations are not written down (even just a fragment would make it seem more significant). The Celestic stop is more reasonable. Another scene that happens for no reason at all is that little bit in Chapter one about the toasted bread with cheese. I can’t even tell who that’s supposed to be.

As I mentioned, I don’t know enough about the source materials and what’s here confuses me greatly. So I probably won’t keep reading. But I can see that you’re working on your writing skills, so good going.

 

[Eon Master]

Well Hail, it looks like somebody beat me to the punch on your discriptions. Much improved from the first fic as they are, they still need some more work.

The scene changing and Garnet flying around from place to place is extremely annoying and distracting. I'm rarely annoyed at fics, but I have to make an exception this time. Enough with the scene changes. They make this very hard to follow and enjoy properly.

Another pet peeve I had with this chapter is the lack of conversation. It's almost exclusively characters thoughts, actions, memories, and personalities. Sometimes that's needed, but it seemed like you could have done more elaboration on the implied conversations.

Hopefully you find this information helpful in writing the next chapter.

-Eon Out ;197;

 

[hailflameblast]

Hello folks. I got another chapter finished, so here you all go! This begins the main plot, which you might have noticed has been completely rehashed.

Chapter 3
The Training Begins

Topaz glided to the window, and looked into it. He blessed his luck on seeing that it was the right room. He flew in through the glass window and landed in the centre of the room, still invisible.

He looked around and saw that the blonde boy, who was called Pearl gaze at his hand in shock. Topaz surmised that he had had his hand glowing and made himself visible and tangible.

However, Pearl was too occupied with looking at his hand from different angles to check if it would glow again to see an alien appear out of thin air in the room.

Topaz’s frame shrunk and his talons slowly transformed into feet. His wings went back into his back and his skin changed from a dark blue to a light skin color. Hair erupted from his skull, and his teeth slowly came apart. However, there was no pain in the whole process.

Topaz walked casually to Pearl’s bedside just as Pearl looked up at him. There was a loud shriek of surprise.

“WHO ARE YOU?”

“Calm down Pearl, you’ll bring everyone down on us.” said Topaz, a bit forcefully.

Pearl took a few deep breaths, trying his best to calm himself down. The hyperactive blonde struggled, but eventually succeeded.

Topaz said seriously, “Pearl, just listen to me and don’t interrupt. I have to tell you a few things. First of all, don’t ask me how I know, I just do, your hand was glowing. It’s a symptom of a very complicated thing I’ll explain to you if I have the time. Just do me a favor. When the others wake up, rally together. We need to have a long talk.”

Pearl’s curiosity overrode his fear. “What do you mean?”

Topaz said, “There isn’t enough time for me to explain. I have to get moving now. Meet me tonight at eight here at the Pokemon Center. By the way, my name is Topaz.”

Before Pearl could say a word, Topaz began transforming back into a Necrofriggian. He took off, invisible and intangible, back through the window and flew off to Platinum’s house, hoping nobody had noticed his absence.

Luckily for him, they were still chatting when he got back, and he managed to quickly transform back to normal in the garden, and rush back in and take his seat. His job was over, and he could finally enjoy the evening.

He looked at Platinum’s group, who were still talking about Project X. This time, he clearly made out two more words, “Zorua” and Zoroark”. He had no idea what those names meant.

Just then, the call for dinner came, and everyone rose from their seats, and headed slowly to the dinner hall, still talking with each other.

Topaz reached the tables and seated himself at the extreme end of a row. He began to drink the soup quickly, his mental machinery on overdrive, analyzing the information he had and drawing conclusions.

Pearl had had the symptom first. That had to mean that he would be the person to develop the new DNA the fastest.

But another thought seized him. Uncle Berlitz called up and asked me to stay over for the night. So that meant that Platinum had either already had the symptom, or she had been talking in her sleep about something related to the incident in Stark Mountain.

He shook his head, and decided to focus on the dinner in front of him. He finished the soup, and got onto the main course, tomato pizza with an assortment of toppings on it.

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

Topaz walked into the Pokemon Center, looking at the clock opposite the entrance. The time displayed was 7:55 p.m.

He noticed a group of figures at the stairs that lead to the first floor. He recognized them to be the Pokedex Holders, and he heaved a sigh of a relief. Pearl had listened to him, and had convinced the others.

Pearl saw him and called to the others. They walked behind him, talking among themselves.

They all sat on the couches, and Topaz joined Pearl on the last one. He clearly saw skepticism in every face, but he wasn’t perturbed. He launched right off into an explanation of what had happened to them at Stark Mountain.

“Now, all of you. What I’m telling you sounds unbelievable, but its true. Look, let me start with a question. I think you saw a flash of green light just before you passed out?”

Pearl nodded, but Green interrupted.

“Pearl told us who you are, but how did you get to know all this?”

“Well, I have my sources. But that isn’t the point. The point is, you got hit by a blast of a Pluton beam. Now, it should have been deadly, but I can clearly see that all of you are normal and living, so the Pluton beam had not been used properly.”

“What is a Pluton beam?” asked Red mildly.

“It is a device that has two modes. Ordinarily, it is handled in the D mode, where it kills very easily, or else it cripples.”

“Well, we are proper and whole here, so it wasn’t whatever this D mode is. So what does the other mode do?” said Silver, tonelessly.

“Its called the R mode. It adds DNA to you.”

Gold then stupidly said, “What is this DNA?”

He then got a smack on his head from Crystal, who told him to shut up and pay attention.

“Just to clarify, Gold, in simple terms, DNA is what decides who you are. For example, the color of your hair is decided by DNA.” Topaz said.

“I get it.” he said quietly, rubbing his head with his right hand.

“Anyway, moving on, the R mode is actually beneficial, so I suppose whoever was using that Pluton beam must have had an assistant who sabotaged it. So basically, you have the DNA of other sentient life-forms from other planets, floating in your blood.” Topaz continued.

“So, what’s the big deal?” said Blue, cockily shaking her brown hair. “It only proves there is life in outer space.”

“Well, you can harness the DNA effectively. It can help you.” said Topaz seriously. “If, and only if, you use it properly.” he added.

“So what is its use?” said Sapphire, speaking for the first time in the whole conversation.

“You can transform into the being whose DNA is in your blood, and you can use their powers. Unfortunately, to know what DNA you have, I’ll need a blood sample, which is a delicate matter. Now I am not asking you for it, I only came to tell you this, and to warn you. Whoever shot you with the Pluton beam must have realized by now that it had been sabotaged. So take care of yourselves, and have a good night.”

Topaz finished and walked out of the Pokemon Center, satisfied that his mission had been finished completely.

However, inside, there was a lot of heated conversation.

“Look, what evidence to we have that this guy isn’t a psycho?” demanded Sapphire angrily.

Pearl however, had been convinced by Topaz and defended him. “The evidence being that I had seen my own hand glowing green, senior Sapphire.”

Sapphire then began to look for new arguments to support her case, and fell silent.

Suddenly, all their hands glowed in different colors, and the bright light dazzled all of them.

“Well Sapphire, I think I now believe him. Explain this.” said Ruby forcefully, gazing at his right hand, which now looked perfectly normal.

“Alright, alright, ya win this argument Ruby” she said hotly.

“So what do we do now?” asked Yellow. “That boy Topaz warned us against whoever shot us with what he called a Pluton beam.”

Blue replied angrily, “You want to let him gain access to our blood samples? I don’t think so.”

Emerald joined the conversation, his childlike face unusually serious. “If I can make a point here everyone. First of all, he never asked us for blood samples. He only came to explain to us what happened to us, and its effects. Secondly, he added in a warning at the end of it. What do we gain by agreeing to join him? We gain knowledge of our current situation. What do we lose? Nothing really. I don’t know about my seniors, Ruby, Sapphire or my juniors, but I’m convinced by his argument. I think I’ll go have a word with him.

With that, Emerald rose from his seat, and went out of the Pokemon Center, looking for Topaz. He saw him bending over, and ran towards him, and for once, his platform shoes didn’t trip him.

The next to go out was Crystal, who said that she had to watch Emerald and ensure he didn’t play pranks, but the others knew that she too had been convinced. Within five seconds, Gold rushed out of the door, running after Crystal.

Silver walked out, excusing himself by saying that he had to keep an eye on Gold. Blue followed him unwillingly, not wanting to be separated from him in his endeavor.

Just as she went out, she looked over her shoulder for a second, and smiled at Red, who ran after her, confused, but still wanting to stay in what the others were doing. Yellow went out panting after him.

Now, Green, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl were still left in the room.

Pearl got up, and Diamond, being his best friend strode out of the Pokemon Center with him. Ruby went after them, trying to avoid Sapphire.

Unfortunately, he failed at that as Sapphire came right after him.

Green smiled and said, “We might as well just stay together in this.” And then he walked out too.

Soon, the twelve of them had joined each other, and were walking as a big group. They saw Topaz walking towards a large mansion that Diamond and Pearl recognized to be the home of Platinum.

Suddenly, Topaz stopped, and the twelve Pokedex Holders ran and caught up with him.

“Right, so what is with the whole thing?” said Emerald. “I don’t mind giving a blood sample-“

He was interrupted by Topaz who waved away his words and said, “I didn’t need a blood test. I just needed you to let me have a look at the Pokemon Center records.”

This struck them dumb for an instant. Then Red slowly nodded, and the others gave him a meaningful look.

Topaz walked on to the mansion, and the rest of them heard his voice, “You’ll know the results by tomorrow night.”

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

The next day, at about midday, the Pokedex Holders, who had decided to stay on for one more day to get the results, saw Topaz walking down the street.

They waited with bated breath as he passed by the Center. Suddenly, he turned and walked in, and their curiosity swelled as each one wondered what their result was.

Topaz sat on a couch again, and the others, who had been the ground floor started questioning him rapidly, giving him no time to reply.

“Come on. Ya hafta tell me now what DNA stuff is inside me!”. Sapphire, of course, with her rough language.

“Is my alien good-looking?” Obviously, it was Blue.

“Is my alien tall?” Obviously, it was Emerald.

The questions went on until Topaz shook his head in disbelief. He had thought he was dealing with the famed Pokedex Holders, not a bunch of hyperactive kids.

“Pathetic” he muttered under his breath.

The questions went on, until Green, who felt the same as Topaz, stood up and signaled to the others to hold on and wait for a few minutes.

Topaz said “Thanks.”

“Anyway, I’ll read out what species each one has access to. Red got Methanosian DNA, Green got Lepidopterran DNA, Blue got Necrofriggian DNA, Yellow got Vulpimancer DNA, Gold got Loboan DNA, Silver got Transylian DNA, Crystal got Petrosapien DNA, Ruby got Tetramand DNA, Sapphire got Kineceleran DNA, Emerald got Galvanic Mechomorph DNA, Diamond got Gourmand DNA, Pearl got Crystalsapien DNA, and Platinum, who isn’t here, got Cerebrocrustacean DNA.” he added before they interrupted him.

When he finished he put the paper back into his pocket and said, “Well, that wraps it up. Any questions?”

“Well, any chance you can show us that stuff you were talking about?” said Gold.

“I expected that.” said Topaz. “By the way, would there be any saving-the-world missions you have right now? If so, forget about it.”

‘No, we don’t” said Red immediately. “I want to see what that Mecha-Asian looks like.”

Topaz sighed and said, “Look, it’s Methanosian, not Mecha-Asian.”

“Whatever. I want to see them, and so do the rest. Let’s do this!” he exclaimed, and Topaz laughed at his childishness.

“I suggest we get rolling!” he said, and everyone else consented with their own shouts in the affirmative.

This resulted in Nurse Joy opening the door and saying “Is there a problem?” in her own special way.

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


Katherine strode into the living room, and heard the telephone ring. She picked it up, and heard Topaz say that he probably would be away for a while. She sighed, recognizing the mannerism, the cover-up, the basic manner to be that of her husband, Cyrus. Apparently, Topaz had inherited that skill from his father, something she knew she couldn’t resist.

She said yes and walked back to the kitchen.

She was going to be lonely for quite some time.

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

The Pokedex Holders trooped to Professor Rowan’s lab, Platinum included, who had seen them the previous night and found out what had happened.

Topaz had stayed away, as he said that he had some work to take care of.

Thirteen figures stood outside the door, and Platinum bucked up the courage to go and knock on the door.

An old man in a lab coat and white pants opened the door, a small smile on his face. His white hair was prominent on his head and in his small beard.

“Well, I’ve heard. Your cousin told me about the situation at hand, and mentioned that you would have to head to a place young Ruby and Sapphire know: Mirage Island.”

The two of them were startled and each remembered the training they had undergone under Juan there. They nodded in agreement.

Platinum said that she would make the travel arrangements, and all of them walked slowly together back to the Berlitz mansion, where they had been asked to stay for the time being by the professors from their home regions.

The conversation between them soon turned to what Topaz had told them the previous day.

Somewhere else in Sandgem Town, Amethyst walked casually, and when she looked into the darkening sky, and saw a flash of white light, she stopped.

The Pokedex Holders too had seen it, and they gazed at the part of the sky where they had seen it, wondering what it was.

Amethyst shook her head and walked back home.

When the twelve-year old girl entered her house, all thoughts of the flash of light disappeared, and her mind moved on to nothing but sheer blankness. It surprised her, but nevertheless, she went to the dining room, dark brown hair, purple dress, small nose and all.

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

A few days later

Several figures got off a boat, and looked around at Mirage Island. Except for Ruby and Sapphire, none of the Pokedex Holders or Topaz had ever been here before.

They walked about for half an hour, admiring the greenery untouched by civilization.

After that, Topaz sat down on a rock, and the others sat with him. He began to show Red how to transform into a Methanosian.

The first change was that green vines erupted all over his body and bound themselves around his skin. The vines that came from his neck wrapped themselves around his head the ones at the edges turned orange. Some of the ones closer to his eyes turned yellow, and the rest on his face turned black. His eyes glowed a deep, dark green, and small spines grew out of various parts of his body. His feet resembled that of an animal, and suddenly, an odor could be smelt by everyone, who promptly began to gag over it. There seemed to be a grin on Topaz’s face as he reversed his transformation.

When he was fully human, Topaz started, “Senior Red, I hope you remember what the Methanosian looked like? That’s because you need to visualize him in your head to transform into him. I hope you got it?”

Red nodded seriously and asked, “I’m interested, but how will this help us?”

Topaz cocked his head back and said, “You heard Professor Rowan. He said I told him everything. I did. I told him one thing I haven’t told you all yet. I guess it’s time I did.” He ended with a deep sigh.

“And what is that?” demanded Silver, trying to feign being calm, but his eyes gave away his anger.

“The fact that Earth is about to face two invasions, and that we are the only people who are there to fight it.” he said simply.

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


So how was it? Please review everybody, after all, closet reading has been known to KILL!

Anyway, please remember to refer to the aliens list in the first post for some reference if you need to!

 

[GalladeRocks]

Wow. The Dex holders...with Ben 10 alien powers? And Zorua and Zoroark, too? This is freaky...I like freaky!

 

[Ampy]

Weird crossover

I'm not a big fan of Ben 10, but since it has Pokemon in it, it was worth the read (the story is pretty good too). There's a bit of thrill which made it exciting. Like I said in my VM, I'm not too good at reviewing. The freakyness value is pretty good, and gives the story a bit of an edge. The freakyness is fine, just as long as it doesn't destract people from the main plot.

That's all I have to give xD

 

[chosen_one386]

Whew, I agree this is much better than the original.

Two minor things I liked:

1. Garnet having an Umbreon. Anything with an Umbreon in it is awesomenest.

2. Topaz's father being Cyrus. Wow. That wasn't a major plot twist, but I liked it.

I'm interested in seeing how this one progresses. Good work.

 

[Eon Master]

Definitely improved on the original, Hail. Finally revealing the powers is awesome. I don't like the use of Zorua and Zoroark, maybe it's just that I find getting worked up over Gen 5 a bit silly right now.
My one concern with the advent of the Ben 10-esque powers is that it could overshadow those of the trainer's Pokemon. This is a fine balance, like you've seen in chosen_one's Shadow and Light and my own Opal's Shadow. I have no doubt you can pull it off, I just think I should give you a heads-up.

Eon Out~ ;197;

 

[hailflameblast]

@Eon: The Pokemon won't be plying a major role until later in the story. At this point in the story, the focus is on the Pokedex Holders and their alien powers.


Chapter 4
Preliminary Preparations

The key slid into the lock, turned, and the door swung open. A red-haired boy stepped, closing the door behind him. Weariness visible all over his eyes, he sank into a bright red sofa, and gazed across the room at a green disc on the table, willing that it would keep quiet for an hour.

He shut his eyes and drifted off to what would have been a long nap, but what was unfortunately cut short to a ten-minute affair due to the green disc generating a hologram above it, accompanied by incessant shrieking, which woke him up with a start.

Garnet rolled his red eyes, and walked across the room, looking at the shoes he had absentmindedly kicked off when he entered the house. He reached for the green disc, muttering under his breath that getting a call at this time was annoying, after about five hours of travel at a stretch.

However, all sleepiness disappeared from him, when he saw the hologram of Topaz, a grim look on his face.

“Sorry to bother you about this, but my messaging system is malfunctioning here on Mirage Island-“

“Mirage Island? You mean the Mirage Island?” he interrupted, envying Topaz’s luck in finding the fabled island.


“Yeah yeah, the Mirage Island, in your terms. Anyway, I suppose you heard of the Pokedex Holders incident in Stark Mountain?” replied Topaz nonchalantly.

Garnet’s face became serious. “Yeah, and trust me, I wouldn’t call whatever happened to them a fun event, considering that it happens to be scout base for the Highbreed.”

“Precisely. I need you to rustle up the old lot, those who fought with us during the wars they had with the Galvans.” said Topaz, dead serious.

“You mean Ben and the rest?”

“Yes. It was lucky for us that there was a traitor among the Highbreed, because he ensured the Pokedex Holders survived, allowing us to recruit more people for the Second Battle. They may have drawn the first with us, but we must win this one.”

“Consider it done.” replied Garnet, with grim determination.

Suddenly, a grin broke out on his best friend’s face. “Then where are all of them? You asked me to assume it was done.”

“All right, all right” was all Garnet could say before he broke into chuckles.

“You know what, this lot fainted when I told them about the invasions.”

“That’s natural, but I still find it a bit funny.”

“One more thing. You and the rest need to do me a favor. Thirty days from now, Mirage Island will once again be accessible. I’ll need eight ships to assist you guys.”

“Alright, so that means that we’ll need…” he paused, and after a few seconds, said, “Eleven ships in all. Got it”

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

Topaz pressed a dull red button below the green disc, and the hologram of Garnet in a red jacket and black jeans faded away. He looked up, and saw the Pokedex Holders stirring. He looked up to the skies and thought to himself,Boy, if anyone ever decides to write down this story, they sure are lucky to have all these plot devices, and unexplained battles.

The first audible sound that came was from Blue. “What in Arceus’ na-“

She was interrupted by Topaz, who was sitting, leaning against a tree who said very quickly, “This is war. I’m serious. And before you ask, Professor Oak, Professor Birch and Professor Rowan recommended me to teach you to control your powers, seeing as they felt that you too had a part to play in the fight, so you can blame them for everything. Is that clear?”

This stopped everyone dead in their tracks.

“Anyway, moving on, Red, that was your alien, As for Green, let me warn you, yours stinks too.”

He got up, and a pair of extra appendages began to sprout out of his torso. His head lost its distinctive features, and became a plain black structure. Where his mouth was, the black thing bent a bit, and a mouth came out of it, which prompted Yellow to mutter one word under her breath. “Gross.”

His shirt slowly sunk into him and became white. The back glowed blue, and two pairs of translucent green dragonfly-like wings emerged from them. His body became more and more like that of an insect, and his arms and the appendages turned into green sharp claws. His legs underwent the same transformation, and he had six sharp claws. His body bent and black lines dividing it into three segments appeared. The frontmost sharp claws developed tiny black hands, and his eyes sunk back into his black face. Suddenly, four small green tubes, each about an inch long emerged out of his head, and their interior was orange in color.

Green imitated him, and soon, there was a rather pungent odor on Mirage Island, with everyone running around. Topaz took off into the skies, and everyone, through all the chaos could hear a distinctive buzzing sound of his wings in the air. When they landed and finally became normal, Topaz said, only half in jest, “Alright, I guess I should give you individual lessons. Otherwise, we are looking at disaster. Involving different varieties of causes, leading to Mirage Island having some, er, ‘signs’ of our stay..”

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

A long flamethrower like attack erupted from Red’s alien form’s palms. Red glanced down and noticed that the recoil of the attack had been pushing him back.

“That’s correct. You have to be cautious, to avoid ending up being pushed into something which you don’t want to be in.” said Topaz on seeing him look at the footprints on the ground.

Red shrugged his shoulders, nodded, and then asked, “How come you didn’t find the smell revolting?”

“Well, this is one alien I love using, so I’ve gotten used to it.” Replied Topaz.

“Also,” said the elder boy, “how do you have so many alien forms?”

The other replied, “Well, similar accident to yours, but I got hit by an experimental shot with the DNA of practically ALL aliens in the galaxy.”

Red nodded. He didn’t question Topaz teaching them, as for some reason, in the back of his head, he just felt they would benefit. He couldn’t explain it, but the sensation was just there.

Red decided to experiment, and made his hands face the ground and began to shoot fire from them when Topaz was looking the other way at what the rest of them were doing.

As he expected, he shot into the air, but due to his lack of experience, he couldn’t control his ascent, and went up in shaky bursts. When Topaz turned back, there was an enormous spout of fire in front of him, and about to lick his pants. He jumped backward, until he was far enough from the fire to think straight.

He once again focused on a mental picture of a Necrofriggian, and when his head had become bald, his teeth joined together, his back finished erupting two pairs of wings, his feet turned to large black claws, he took to the skies, and called out to Blue, who was sitting on a nearby tree.

“Blue, this is your alien!” he said loudly.

Blue was shocked, nearly falling out of the tree, before looking for the source of the sound, and locating Topaz.

She climbed to the topmost branch to watch how Topaz maneuvered and used the alien. Her skepticism at Topaz’s claim of two alien invasions slowly faded away, and she watched intently as Topaz soared into the sky, watched as he hovered before Red, watched as he froze Red on the spot with his icy breath, and watched as he slowly held the ice block and brought him to the ground.

Red thawed out nearly instantly after reaching the ground, and topaz, still a Necrofriggian said wearily, “Never ever try flying, unless you have at least some knowledge of the technique of mid-air balance.”

Red nodded, and used his hands to check if he had been completely defrosted. Soon, a grim, angry expression came on his face as he looked at Topaz.

“Why did you freeze me? That too mid-air? You could have done some serious inju-“ he was cut off by Topaz, who looked even sterner.

“You would have done yourself a lot of injury there with a fall that great. Besides, you cannot truly be frozen for long periods of time, as you control fire, which thaws you out pretty quickly. Anyway, I apologize for giving you a minor scare to prevent a major injury.” he ended sarcastically.

He looked up, and saw Blue, now a Necrofriggian, soaring through the air, heading for them.

Topaz sprung into the skies, and met her mid-air.

As he expected, she looked as though she was about to shriek, but with a Necrofriggian’s misty voice, all she had in the end was a hacking cough.

“Red cannot be frozen for long periods of time. No Methanosian can. They will melt out in a few minutes. There has been no injury done to him.” He said, in the misty voice all Necrofriggians had.”

Blue did not look convinced, and went down to check on Red. Topaz did not follow, and decided to relax with a nice glide over the island. His vision was neither better nor worse than that of a normal human, and as he went to the edge of the island, he felt a repelling force, which prevented him from leaving it. This was the Wall Of Time, that disappeared only when the speed of time on Mirage Island synchronized itself with the outside world.

He turned slowly, taking advantage of the rising warm air. When he broke out of the ‘column’ of air, he glided down to where Green and Yellow were sitting. Transforming back to normal behind a tree, he came around it, and when the pair saw him, the first thing they said was, “Is it my turn?”.

Topaz quietly nodded, but before he showed Yellow the Vulpimancer, he muttered under his breath, “At least there won’t be inexperience leading to flying troubles with these two.”

The first sign of Topaz’s transformation to Vulpimancer was that he fell down on all fours, and his skin turned a bright orange. Hair began to grow all over him as his clothes slowly sunk into him. His eyes sunk into him, but unlike his earlier transformation to a Lepidopterran, no new ones appeared. Gill-like structures opened on the sides of his neck, and he grew a fair bit in size. His face became beastlike, with no eyes. Small quills formed a ring around his neck, and he stood still for a few moments, letting Yellow take in all the details of what was obviously a rather wild appearance.

He reversed the transformation quickly, and as soon as he was once again Topaz in his yellow shirt and black jeans, he started his explanation to Yellow, who looked half-revolted at seeing the grisly beast whose DNA she had in her blood.

“Well there you go. These guys have a lot of strength, but unfortunately, as you saw, have no eyes, so they can’t see. They- “

He was interrupted by Yellow’s low, shocked whisper. “They can’t SEE!”

“Yeah, I know, sounds like a big drawback, but they have something called thermal sensors, which are those gills at the side. These let you see stuff in terms of heat, so it’s not that bad. Also, they have a brilliant sense of smell and hearing, you wouldn’t probably need proper vision. You’ll know when you try it out.” he said gently.

“Green, what your alien has is pretty simple. You can fly, like you did a while ago, you can fire practically any kind of liquid from your four tube which are your eyes, you have three-hundred and sixty degrees vision, you have to keep your wings dry to fly. Then, you can tear stuff with that tail that ends with a black thing that looks like the top of an anvil. Also, you have quite a bit of strength.” he said, turning to Green.

Both of them nodded, Yellow starting to look normal, and Green, with his own brand of quiet confidence.

“And, I think I’m going to take a nap” Topaz commented before walking off to one of the shady trees to do what he said. “Should give me a break from all the chaos here. I think I really need it.”

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

Topaz got up, and out of sheer habit, he looked at his watch on his wrist. He felt a bit disorientated as he saw that its display said that there were errors making it incapable of displaying the time, before he remembered that he was on Mirage Island, training the Pokedex Holders, and was out of reach of the radio signals necessary for his watch to display the time, as along with a battery, it regularly corrected itself to the atomic clock which broadcasted the time via radio signals.

He shook his head vigorously to clear the grogginess in his head, and when he got himself feeling fine, he walked out of the shady area, and the sight that met him really cracked him up.

Red was running as though for his life, and right behind him was a bright orange female Vulpimancer, bounding after him. She was growling, and while Topaz knew that Yellow wasn’t being aggressive, as growls and roars were her only means of communication as a Vulpimancer. Obviously, and rather unfortunately in his opinion, Red didn’t know this, and apparently thinking that some rabid monster was after his blood, he was running very hard, trying to avoid Yellow, who was right behind him.

Nearly everyone were laughing their heads off, as they had seen Yellow transform, unlike poor Red, who had been trying to fly.

Right now, Red was normal, probably due to terror. Topaz walked over to the others, tears brimming in his eyes from laughing.

Red decided to climb a tree, getting the brilliant idea that rabid monsters that chased him couldn’t climb trees. He was partially right, as Yellow, being Yellow, did not really know how to climb a tree.

Just then, Topaz decided enough was enough, and ran towards Yellow, all the time transforming. He grew taller, and his skin went grey. A hairy snout grew from his mouth, and grey hair grew out of his body. He seemed to be becoming a werewolf. Suddenly, his snout split into four flexible parts, and he let out a howl, and waves of ultrasonic sound hit Yellow, and she was stunned momentarily. This gave enough time for Topaz’s body to bulk up to its full brawny power, and several rippling muscles were visible all over his body. A bushy tail grew out of his back, and he crouched, and then made a long jump, literally. He covered the fifty feet between him and Yellow in a matter of seconds, and grabbed Yellow by one of her hind legs, and he whispered, “Look, I’m sorry if it hurts, but you have to realize you can’t communicate as a Vulpimancer.”.

He then shouted across back to the others. “Gold, this is your guy.”

Topaz then released the hind leg of the Vulpimancer, muttering an apology.

Gold, who was very enthusiastic, joined him just as he turned around. He whispered to Topaz, “What is with the fact that I’m seeing stuff in black ad white?”

“You are color-blind” whispered Topaz, in the same werewolf accent that Gold had spoken in.

Topaz leaned over, and facing the ground, split his snout again. He released ultrasonic howls at the same time as he jumped, making him practically shoot across the entire island in a single leap. Gold imitated him, but overshot Topaz’s controlled leap and crashed into the invisible Wall Of Time, and staggered away, very dizzy.

Topaz caught him, and held him by his shoulders until he was ready to stand on his feet properly. The first thing Gold said after that was “Let’s see if I can finally net Supah-Serious Gal with this!”

He made another leap, but he seemed to have learnt from the crash, this time, he actually controlled his jump to land right next to Crystal, and tried to grab her, but she skillfully avoided his grab, and leapt onto a low-hanging branch, and climbed up it before shrieking, “GOLD YOU IDIOT!”

However, now that he was an alien, he just shrugged of the comment and made another controlled leap, landing beyond the trees. This amazed Topaz, as he hadn’t even taught Gold anything, yet the boy had figured out everything himself.

Gold went hyperactive, and went bounding all across the island, and gave a howl or two now and then. This prompted Silver’s sarcastic remark, “Yeah, right Gold, that is awfully mature of you in front of your juniors.”

Topaz transformed back to normal, and thought of a good surprise for Silver.

He became taller again, and his face stiffened, and became rather cuboidal, and soon, it looked like one of a Frankenstein. In the meanwhile, his torso became a light green, and his lower body, a darker shade of it. His hands grew larger, and so did the rest of his body. Once he was done becoming a Transylian, he reconfigured his hands to become green box-like things with multiple holes in them, making them resemble some kind of a gun.

He closed his left eye, and took careful aim with his right hand. He fired off a powerful blast of electricity, that whizzed by Silver without touching him, giving him a big scare and yells of, “YAAH! WHAT WAS THAT!” and “KEEP YOUR ELECTRICITY TO YOURSELF!”.

He just stepped out of the trees, laughing at his harmless, yet hair-raising practical joke.

Topaz shouted across, “Take a break everyone!”

He walked off, grinning to the trees, where he had left his bag. Still a Transylian, he pulled out a small blue thing that looked like a phone, and fired small amounts of electricity into it to charge it.

He then switched it on, and punched in a security code. He then said quietly to himself the numbers as he pressed them in before pressing the ‘Contact’ button, “Nine-Four-Six-Seven-Eight-Five”

A message appeared on the screen which said, ‘Contacting Azmuth…’

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

 

[GalladeRocks]

Okay, this just keeps getting cooler. The fact that Yellow can turn into a Vulpimancer is a little strange. And sweet, I've been waiting for Azmuth to appear. Now all we need is Grandpa Max, Kevin, and Professor Paradox, and we'll really be cooking!

 

[chosen_one386]

This ride is going pretty smoothly. I'm not a fan of training parts, so I'll just hold on until the action kicks up again.