Okay, I'm new to this, but I'm starting with three completely new chars narrowly missing Ash & co/Team Rocket/manga chars as they go and putting up with the aftermath. Its pretty much rated PG
Tsukiea: the spoiled
Carter: the thief
Vincent: the traitor
CHAPTER 1
************
************
"You STOLE those badges!" shouted Tsukiea, "We can't just keep them!"
"I already told you," Carter replied calmly, "I can't go back to Rustboro, or anywhere near Verdanturf, either. So we COULDN'T have gotten Roxanne's badge anyway."
The two partners were in Dewford Town, at night, waiting till the next day to challenge Brawly.
"This is why I left home," said Tsukiea, "my 'friend' Vincent was stole four pokemon from the pokemon center. He's just as bad as Team Aqua or Team Magma."
Carter sighed. Now he just couldn't tell Tsukiea anything. About how he ran away from his home in Rustboro to compete in the battle tent in Verdanturf. About how he smuggled a rental Mudkip away when he was done. His mind slowly slipped away into dreams about before...
********
"Mudkip!" squealed the happy pokemon.
Mudkip... Mudkip... Mudkip...
The noise echoed within the Rusturf Tunnel. Carter quickly covered the water pokemon's mouth. He thought he heard someone walk into the cave. Someone tall. He wished Emerald were here, his younger cousin, the only one who cared about him.
"And who are you?" a voice from behind asked.
Acting quickly, Carter thought back to the battle tent. "Mudkip, use your Iron Tail!"
Without even blinking, this older man threw a pokeball. "Flygon, go!" The Flygon easily batted down the Mudkip as it reached the man's face. "Now Flygon, use your Dragonbreath!"
Carter leaped in front of his pokemon. "No!!" He yelled out in pain as the Dragonbreath struck his back. The older man swiftly withdrew his Flygon. He beckoned for Carter to come outside.
Carter could see this man clearly for the first time now. He appeared to be a sailor, though from his age, probably retired. Obviously a strong trainer.
"You stole that Mudkip, didn't you?" The older man asked.
"Whoa, there!" Carter shot back, "You're not about to learn everything about me, when I have no clue who you are!"
"Okay, since you asked, I'm Drake, of the Hoenn Elite Four. And you are?"
Carter gaped at the man. Here, right in front of him, was one of the strongest trainers in the world. And about to punish him for stealing a pokemon from the battle tent!
"I'm Carter. I..." Drake apparently wasn't listening anymore. He walked away slowly.
"Come with me, Carter." He put his hand up and pointed to the mart.
This was it. He would lose his Mudkip.
But Drake came out of the mart with three pokeballs and handed them to Carter.
"Next time," he said, "don't steal your pokemon."
And with that he sent out a Salamence, and flew away on it.
Well, the Mudkip wasn't REALLY his, yet.
It climbed right inside his first pokeball and a red light flashed. It was caught.
*********
Carter awoke to a shake from Tsukiea. It was still dark out. Tsukiea mentioned to him to be quiet. Out by the coast, a kid, about 13, like both Tsukiea and Carter, was standing by the shore, holding a map inscribed in Braille. He threw three pokeballs in the air, and a Crawdaunt, Whiscash, and Sealeo popped out. Carter glanced over at Tsukiea. His eyes were huge, he obviously knew the cooltrainer. Well, so was he. Carter pulled Tsukiea over to the coast. He grabbed his three pokeballs, his only three, and used the pokemon from two of them. A Marshtomp and a Lombre came out. Carter explained to Tsukiea that they were following him.
"But I don't have any water pokemon." he protested.
Carter continued, "You can get my Lombre to help you swim. I'll go with Marshtomp."
And so they followed this guy for a while, and Tsukiea told his story.
"This trainer's name is Vincent, and he's the reason I left my home in Slateport. There's a battle tent, you know, and he stole four of the rental pokemon, a Barboach, a Rhyhorn, a Spheal, and a Corphish..."
Carter stopped listening, and began to feel guilty. He was no better than this Vincent. Or was he? Zigzagoon and Lotad had been legit captures.
*********
Vincent was leading them to a powerful pokemon, Tsukiea was sure of that. Those stolen pokemon didn't deserve such a bad trainer. But it reminded him of how he'd been neglecting his newest capture, Zubat. It was hard, Ivysaur, Raticate, and Metapod were all strong and had been with him from the beginning. And after all, what use is a blind pokemon? He remembered how when his parents had given him a Bulbasaur, he released it, insisting he have to catch it first. His dad gave him three pokeballs in case the Bulbasaur was frustrating. He remembered going below the bike path, and throwing all three pokeballs at once, just to make sure it went in. Except the other two pokeballs had captured a Rattata and a Caterpie, both rare to the area. Tsukiea pushed this to the back of his mind as Vincent stopped by a large cave. He recognized it from when they went by before on Mr. Briney's boat, who Emerald had arranged for them a ride with. Boy, Emerald was young, but he sure was smart. Vincent walked into the cave, withdrawing his pokemon.
*********
Vincent read the Braille map once more. Yes, this was the resting place of one of the Regi pokemon. As he is about to begin to proceed to the inner room, he feels a hand clamp down on his shoulder. He glances back, and finds it is the floating hand of a Haunter. That same Haunter again! He calls out his Rhydon and orders a Megahorn from it. The Haunter dodges, and before Rhydon can pull off a horn drill, two other people run into the room. One of them, the trainer decked out in red, he knows as Tsukiea, and the other one looks like an older version of a coordinator he saw at the Slateport Contest Hall, searching for his Feebas that ran away. This mystery trainer introduced himself as Carter, and calls out his Linoone to protect the innocent Haunter.
Now what? Vincent felt lost. But then he remembered the information he had forced out of that green-haired guy from Orre...
*********
As Vincent pulled out an ancient flute and started playing it, a green light began to grow in the center of the cave's outer room. Tsukiea began to realize they had lost their advantage. Then, the flute shattered. A light exploded in the cave and the outline of an alien-like pokemon was visible. Then the pokemon, Celebi, absorbed Tsukiea, Carter, Vincent, the wild Haunter, and all their pokemon into a vortex with it.
*********
Thud! Carter landed on the floor. They still appeared to be in the cave, so what had happened? This cave would look pretty good if it had plants growing, he thought. This thought evaporated as he heard angry voices from the inner room. Carter glanced at Vincent, who nodded. They had a temporary alliance, he thought. The Haunter was nowhere to be found, so the three young trainers and their pokemon peered into the inner room. Some people, appearing as cavemen, had formed a circle around the three Regi pokemon. Their pokemon team, consisting each of a Relicanth, four Beldums, and a Wailord, were using various attacks on the pokemon. Carter knew the Regis were in trouble, so he ordered an Ice Beam at the ceiling from Linoone. All the attackers froze in place as they saw the newcomers. Tsukiea asked what they were doing, but the people just looked back at him with a confused look.
"They don't understand English," he concluded.
"But shouldn't they?" asked Carter, "After all, this is still Hoenn, right?"
"Wait!" said Tsukiea as Carter exclaimed, "Celebi!"
They both shared an unspoken thought, realizing they were in the past.
Vincent had gotten the one appearing to be in charge to write down their goal.
After a glance at the tablet, his eyes widened, and he removed three black pokeballs from his belt.
"He's going to capture them!" shouted Tsukiea, leaping in front of Regice as his pokemon followed, including Zubat, finally coming out of its ball.
Carter soon followed, protecting Registeel. Regirock, on its own, used the cave around it to form a shield from Vincent.
Swiftly, Vincent tossed a dark ball at Registeel.
This is really going to hurt, Carter thought, but suddenly a blur of green flew in front of him.
"Metapod, tackle the dark ball!" shouted Tsukiea.
The dark ball struck Metapod, and shocked him with dark energy until he turned black and fell to the floor. At that moment, something clicked in Carter's head. Tsukiea DID care about him, he would have to explain everything now. But first show him he wasn't a bad person.
Carter ran up to Metapod, and when he turned it over, the pokemon began to glow. It regained its original worm body, and wings sprouted out on either side.
"Butterfree!" it flew over to its overjoyed trainer.
Vincent was furious. He tossed another dark ball over Carter's head at the Registeel. Carter's pokemon, not wanting to get hurt, dodged out of the way. The dark pokeball snagged Registeel easily and it flew back to Vincent's hands. There was total silence for a moment, then the ancient tribe broke out cheering. Tsukiea shared a confused look with Carter, and then both rushed over to Regice. Carter's Marshtomp and Lombre used their Water Guns to shoot water in the air around it, and his Linoone and the Regice helped freeze, forming an ice barrier. Tsukiea had his Raticate use Quick Attack to grab the dark balls from the floor and his belt, while Ivysaur used Razor Leaf and Butterfree used its new Silver Wind attack to blind Vincent. Raticate came back with the two empty dark balls, not being able to grab the third from Vincent's hand.
"Now what?" Carter asked, "We can't see to grab the last one!"
Tsukiea's thoughts from earlier came flooding back.
After all, what use is a blind pokemon?
Duh! Zubat used sound waves, not light, to see.
"Zubat!" he cried, "I need you to grab the last dark ball!"
Reacting to this command, Vincent told his Sealeo to use Sheer Cold on Zubat.
Sealeo tried as hard as it could, but all it could perform was an Icy Wind, clearing the Silver Wind and Razor Leaf attacks away.
"What?!" screamed Vincent at Sealeo, "You're not strong enough?!!!!"
And with that, he raked Sealeo across its forehead with his fingernails, leaving behind two long, bleeding scars.
Sealeo's hurt and confused look immediately changed to anger.
Vincent felt guilty and horrified trying to apologize to the glowing Sealeo and the growing ball of ice in its mouth.
Sealeo launched the Sheer Cold attack, while at the same time evolving into Walrein, gaining long tusks and long matted fur behind its head, while keeping the forehead scars it would bear the rest of its life.
Vincent was instantly frozen in place.
Zubat flew over to the frozen Vincent and began Poison Stinging through the ice at Tsukiea's command. But the cavemen, using their own language, had all their Beldums use Take Down on Zubat at the same time, to keep the Registeel pokeball frozen. Zubat was easily fainted, and Vincent's Rhydon Horn Drilled his trainer out of the ice. Withdrawing Walrein, he searched frantically for Celebi to go back, seeing his battle was lost here. Carter and Tsukiea joined in the search, although separately.
"Bibi!" Celebi cried from the middle of the room.
Vincent and Tsukiea rushed to the Celebi, but Carter continued searching for something.
"The Haunter! We can't just leave it here!"
"We have to!" cried Tsukiea, "Hurry!!"
Carter reluctantly ran over to Celebi, with all his pokemon. Celebi flashed green, and the three trainers were vacuumed back into the present time.
***********
The trainers were back in Dewford Town the same night. Instantly Vincent got a look of horror and ran of to Granite Cave. Tsukiea felt a rumbling in his backpack, and opened it to find two purple hands reach out and grab his face. The Haunter lifted his backpack and dropped in the ocean.
As it flew away, Carter shouted, "That was all our stuff! I can't believe I wanted to save you!"
"Hey! What are you DOING out this late?"
Carter and Tsukiea both looked at each other. Neither of them had said a word.
A silhouette ran toward them from the Dewford Gym. You could see he had long hair pulled back by a headband, like Carter's, only more ruffled and uncontrollable. As the trainer approached them, Tsukiea thought he knew this person.
"Hey, you're Brawly, the Gym Leader!"
The trainer appeared confused for a moment, then grinned.
"Oh!" he said, "You mean my older bro! I'm Khrondai!"
Even in the dim light, Carter could begin to see the difference. He had seen pictures of Brawly, who was much taller and would never wear those purple clothes lined in red.
"Um," said Carter, "We came to challenge the gym, well, tomorrow."
"Well, do you have trainer cards?" Khrondai asked.
Tsukiea and Carter shared a look. No, it never even occurred to either of them.
"Uh, yeah. This Haunter took all our stuff other than pokeballs and dropped it into the ocean."
It was the truth, but Khrondai looked at Tsukiea skeptically.
"Never mind." Carter quickly replied, "Can you get us new ones?"
**********
Inside the Dewford pokemon center, the group had gotten on the phone with Professor Birch.
Oh no! thought Carter, Now I have to tell about the stolen Mudkip!
"Let me see all your pokemon." the Professor was talking over the video phone.
Tsukiea didn't seem bothered, so he sent out his Ivysaur, Raticate, Butterfree, and Zubat.
"They all look pretty badly hurt," Birch commented, "What exactly were you doing?"
"Um..." Tsukiea was lost for words.
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you." Carter suggested and grinned.
Now it was Carter's turn. He reluctantly showed his pokemon.
"Hmm..." Birch was lost in thought, "that Marshtomp..."
"Okay!" Carter gave up, "I stole it from the Verdanturf Battle Tent as a Mudkip! But it just didn't belong there, I know it came from somewhere else. But then I saw Drake, and he bought me a pokeball, and..."
The professor was collapsed on the floor, laughing out of control.
"That Mudkip was one of my starter pokemon," he said through his laughing fit, "I was GIVING them away anyway! It ran away and I didn't really have time to look for it!"
Carter felt like a moron.
"Okay," said Birch, "I have your trainer cards ready, I'll send them to Dewford with Khura, he's my nephew, he's going there anyway. So you'll know him, he's about all your height, maybe a little shorter, blonde haired with blue highlights on the tips, and probably wearing darker green."
**********
Vincent finally found a light in the darkness of the Granite Cave. The Iron-Masked Marauder was waiting for him.
"Did you get what you were after?" the Marauder asked.
"Uh, a third of it."
"Then you still owe me," he said darkly, "I want these two pokemon."
The Marauder held up a portrait of two legendary pokemon.
"They will be a perfect addition to my team," he said, "here are the dark balls to catch them in."
"No!" said Vincent, "I'm through with you!"
"What will you do about it, though?"
"I'll battle you!" shouted Vincent, "I win, I'm outta here for good, you win, well... that's not about to happen!"
"Sure," the Iron-Masked Marauder snickered, "I win, you get these pokemon for me, and I have another little plan, too..."
Vincent threw two pokeballs. His choices were Crawdaunt and Whiscash.
The Iron-Masked Marauder let out an evil laugh as he sent out his signiture pokemon, a Dragonbreath Flygon and a Salamence...
***************
***************
END CHAPTER 1
Tsukiea: the spoiled
Carter: the thief
Vincent: the traitor
CHAPTER 1
************
************
"You STOLE those badges!" shouted Tsukiea, "We can't just keep them!"
"I already told you," Carter replied calmly, "I can't go back to Rustboro, or anywhere near Verdanturf, either. So we COULDN'T have gotten Roxanne's badge anyway."
The two partners were in Dewford Town, at night, waiting till the next day to challenge Brawly.
"This is why I left home," said Tsukiea, "my 'friend' Vincent was stole four pokemon from the pokemon center. He's just as bad as Team Aqua or Team Magma."
Carter sighed. Now he just couldn't tell Tsukiea anything. About how he ran away from his home in Rustboro to compete in the battle tent in Verdanturf. About how he smuggled a rental Mudkip away when he was done. His mind slowly slipped away into dreams about before...
********
"Mudkip!" squealed the happy pokemon.
Mudkip... Mudkip... Mudkip...
The noise echoed within the Rusturf Tunnel. Carter quickly covered the water pokemon's mouth. He thought he heard someone walk into the cave. Someone tall. He wished Emerald were here, his younger cousin, the only one who cared about him.
"And who are you?" a voice from behind asked.
Acting quickly, Carter thought back to the battle tent. "Mudkip, use your Iron Tail!"
Without even blinking, this older man threw a pokeball. "Flygon, go!" The Flygon easily batted down the Mudkip as it reached the man's face. "Now Flygon, use your Dragonbreath!"
Carter leaped in front of his pokemon. "No!!" He yelled out in pain as the Dragonbreath struck his back. The older man swiftly withdrew his Flygon. He beckoned for Carter to come outside.
Carter could see this man clearly for the first time now. He appeared to be a sailor, though from his age, probably retired. Obviously a strong trainer.
"You stole that Mudkip, didn't you?" The older man asked.
"Whoa, there!" Carter shot back, "You're not about to learn everything about me, when I have no clue who you are!"
"Okay, since you asked, I'm Drake, of the Hoenn Elite Four. And you are?"
Carter gaped at the man. Here, right in front of him, was one of the strongest trainers in the world. And about to punish him for stealing a pokemon from the battle tent!
"I'm Carter. I..." Drake apparently wasn't listening anymore. He walked away slowly.
"Come with me, Carter." He put his hand up and pointed to the mart.
This was it. He would lose his Mudkip.
But Drake came out of the mart with three pokeballs and handed them to Carter.
"Next time," he said, "don't steal your pokemon."
And with that he sent out a Salamence, and flew away on it.
Well, the Mudkip wasn't REALLY his, yet.
It climbed right inside his first pokeball and a red light flashed. It was caught.
*********
Carter awoke to a shake from Tsukiea. It was still dark out. Tsukiea mentioned to him to be quiet. Out by the coast, a kid, about 13, like both Tsukiea and Carter, was standing by the shore, holding a map inscribed in Braille. He threw three pokeballs in the air, and a Crawdaunt, Whiscash, and Sealeo popped out. Carter glanced over at Tsukiea. His eyes were huge, he obviously knew the cooltrainer. Well, so was he. Carter pulled Tsukiea over to the coast. He grabbed his three pokeballs, his only three, and used the pokemon from two of them. A Marshtomp and a Lombre came out. Carter explained to Tsukiea that they were following him.
"But I don't have any water pokemon." he protested.
Carter continued, "You can get my Lombre to help you swim. I'll go with Marshtomp."
And so they followed this guy for a while, and Tsukiea told his story.
"This trainer's name is Vincent, and he's the reason I left my home in Slateport. There's a battle tent, you know, and he stole four of the rental pokemon, a Barboach, a Rhyhorn, a Spheal, and a Corphish..."
Carter stopped listening, and began to feel guilty. He was no better than this Vincent. Or was he? Zigzagoon and Lotad had been legit captures.
*********
Vincent was leading them to a powerful pokemon, Tsukiea was sure of that. Those stolen pokemon didn't deserve such a bad trainer. But it reminded him of how he'd been neglecting his newest capture, Zubat. It was hard, Ivysaur, Raticate, and Metapod were all strong and had been with him from the beginning. And after all, what use is a blind pokemon? He remembered how when his parents had given him a Bulbasaur, he released it, insisting he have to catch it first. His dad gave him three pokeballs in case the Bulbasaur was frustrating. He remembered going below the bike path, and throwing all three pokeballs at once, just to make sure it went in. Except the other two pokeballs had captured a Rattata and a Caterpie, both rare to the area. Tsukiea pushed this to the back of his mind as Vincent stopped by a large cave. He recognized it from when they went by before on Mr. Briney's boat, who Emerald had arranged for them a ride with. Boy, Emerald was young, but he sure was smart. Vincent walked into the cave, withdrawing his pokemon.
*********
Vincent read the Braille map once more. Yes, this was the resting place of one of the Regi pokemon. As he is about to begin to proceed to the inner room, he feels a hand clamp down on his shoulder. He glances back, and finds it is the floating hand of a Haunter. That same Haunter again! He calls out his Rhydon and orders a Megahorn from it. The Haunter dodges, and before Rhydon can pull off a horn drill, two other people run into the room. One of them, the trainer decked out in red, he knows as Tsukiea, and the other one looks like an older version of a coordinator he saw at the Slateport Contest Hall, searching for his Feebas that ran away. This mystery trainer introduced himself as Carter, and calls out his Linoone to protect the innocent Haunter.
Now what? Vincent felt lost. But then he remembered the information he had forced out of that green-haired guy from Orre...
*********
As Vincent pulled out an ancient flute and started playing it, a green light began to grow in the center of the cave's outer room. Tsukiea began to realize they had lost their advantage. Then, the flute shattered. A light exploded in the cave and the outline of an alien-like pokemon was visible. Then the pokemon, Celebi, absorbed Tsukiea, Carter, Vincent, the wild Haunter, and all their pokemon into a vortex with it.
*********
Thud! Carter landed on the floor. They still appeared to be in the cave, so what had happened? This cave would look pretty good if it had plants growing, he thought. This thought evaporated as he heard angry voices from the inner room. Carter glanced at Vincent, who nodded. They had a temporary alliance, he thought. The Haunter was nowhere to be found, so the three young trainers and their pokemon peered into the inner room. Some people, appearing as cavemen, had formed a circle around the three Regi pokemon. Their pokemon team, consisting each of a Relicanth, four Beldums, and a Wailord, were using various attacks on the pokemon. Carter knew the Regis were in trouble, so he ordered an Ice Beam at the ceiling from Linoone. All the attackers froze in place as they saw the newcomers. Tsukiea asked what they were doing, but the people just looked back at him with a confused look.
"They don't understand English," he concluded.
"But shouldn't they?" asked Carter, "After all, this is still Hoenn, right?"
"Wait!" said Tsukiea as Carter exclaimed, "Celebi!"
They both shared an unspoken thought, realizing they were in the past.
Vincent had gotten the one appearing to be in charge to write down their goal.
After a glance at the tablet, his eyes widened, and he removed three black pokeballs from his belt.
"He's going to capture them!" shouted Tsukiea, leaping in front of Regice as his pokemon followed, including Zubat, finally coming out of its ball.
Carter soon followed, protecting Registeel. Regirock, on its own, used the cave around it to form a shield from Vincent.
Swiftly, Vincent tossed a dark ball at Registeel.
This is really going to hurt, Carter thought, but suddenly a blur of green flew in front of him.
"Metapod, tackle the dark ball!" shouted Tsukiea.
The dark ball struck Metapod, and shocked him with dark energy until he turned black and fell to the floor. At that moment, something clicked in Carter's head. Tsukiea DID care about him, he would have to explain everything now. But first show him he wasn't a bad person.
Carter ran up to Metapod, and when he turned it over, the pokemon began to glow. It regained its original worm body, and wings sprouted out on either side.
"Butterfree!" it flew over to its overjoyed trainer.
Vincent was furious. He tossed another dark ball over Carter's head at the Registeel. Carter's pokemon, not wanting to get hurt, dodged out of the way. The dark pokeball snagged Registeel easily and it flew back to Vincent's hands. There was total silence for a moment, then the ancient tribe broke out cheering. Tsukiea shared a confused look with Carter, and then both rushed over to Regice. Carter's Marshtomp and Lombre used their Water Guns to shoot water in the air around it, and his Linoone and the Regice helped freeze, forming an ice barrier. Tsukiea had his Raticate use Quick Attack to grab the dark balls from the floor and his belt, while Ivysaur used Razor Leaf and Butterfree used its new Silver Wind attack to blind Vincent. Raticate came back with the two empty dark balls, not being able to grab the third from Vincent's hand.
"Now what?" Carter asked, "We can't see to grab the last one!"
Tsukiea's thoughts from earlier came flooding back.
After all, what use is a blind pokemon?
Duh! Zubat used sound waves, not light, to see.
"Zubat!" he cried, "I need you to grab the last dark ball!"
Reacting to this command, Vincent told his Sealeo to use Sheer Cold on Zubat.
Sealeo tried as hard as it could, but all it could perform was an Icy Wind, clearing the Silver Wind and Razor Leaf attacks away.
"What?!" screamed Vincent at Sealeo, "You're not strong enough?!!!!"
And with that, he raked Sealeo across its forehead with his fingernails, leaving behind two long, bleeding scars.
Sealeo's hurt and confused look immediately changed to anger.
Vincent felt guilty and horrified trying to apologize to the glowing Sealeo and the growing ball of ice in its mouth.
Sealeo launched the Sheer Cold attack, while at the same time evolving into Walrein, gaining long tusks and long matted fur behind its head, while keeping the forehead scars it would bear the rest of its life.
Vincent was instantly frozen in place.
Zubat flew over to the frozen Vincent and began Poison Stinging through the ice at Tsukiea's command. But the cavemen, using their own language, had all their Beldums use Take Down on Zubat at the same time, to keep the Registeel pokeball frozen. Zubat was easily fainted, and Vincent's Rhydon Horn Drilled his trainer out of the ice. Withdrawing Walrein, he searched frantically for Celebi to go back, seeing his battle was lost here. Carter and Tsukiea joined in the search, although separately.
"Bibi!" Celebi cried from the middle of the room.
Vincent and Tsukiea rushed to the Celebi, but Carter continued searching for something.
"The Haunter! We can't just leave it here!"
"We have to!" cried Tsukiea, "Hurry!!"
Carter reluctantly ran over to Celebi, with all his pokemon. Celebi flashed green, and the three trainers were vacuumed back into the present time.
***********
The trainers were back in Dewford Town the same night. Instantly Vincent got a look of horror and ran of to Granite Cave. Tsukiea felt a rumbling in his backpack, and opened it to find two purple hands reach out and grab his face. The Haunter lifted his backpack and dropped in the ocean.
As it flew away, Carter shouted, "That was all our stuff! I can't believe I wanted to save you!"
"Hey! What are you DOING out this late?"
Carter and Tsukiea both looked at each other. Neither of them had said a word.
A silhouette ran toward them from the Dewford Gym. You could see he had long hair pulled back by a headband, like Carter's, only more ruffled and uncontrollable. As the trainer approached them, Tsukiea thought he knew this person.
"Hey, you're Brawly, the Gym Leader!"
The trainer appeared confused for a moment, then grinned.
"Oh!" he said, "You mean my older bro! I'm Khrondai!"
Even in the dim light, Carter could begin to see the difference. He had seen pictures of Brawly, who was much taller and would never wear those purple clothes lined in red.
"Um," said Carter, "We came to challenge the gym, well, tomorrow."
"Well, do you have trainer cards?" Khrondai asked.
Tsukiea and Carter shared a look. No, it never even occurred to either of them.
"Uh, yeah. This Haunter took all our stuff other than pokeballs and dropped it into the ocean."
It was the truth, but Khrondai looked at Tsukiea skeptically.
"Never mind." Carter quickly replied, "Can you get us new ones?"
**********
Inside the Dewford pokemon center, the group had gotten on the phone with Professor Birch.
Oh no! thought Carter, Now I have to tell about the stolen Mudkip!
"Let me see all your pokemon." the Professor was talking over the video phone.
Tsukiea didn't seem bothered, so he sent out his Ivysaur, Raticate, Butterfree, and Zubat.
"They all look pretty badly hurt," Birch commented, "What exactly were you doing?"
"Um..." Tsukiea was lost for words.
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you." Carter suggested and grinned.
Now it was Carter's turn. He reluctantly showed his pokemon.
"Hmm..." Birch was lost in thought, "that Marshtomp..."
"Okay!" Carter gave up, "I stole it from the Verdanturf Battle Tent as a Mudkip! But it just didn't belong there, I know it came from somewhere else. But then I saw Drake, and he bought me a pokeball, and..."
The professor was collapsed on the floor, laughing out of control.
"That Mudkip was one of my starter pokemon," he said through his laughing fit, "I was GIVING them away anyway! It ran away and I didn't really have time to look for it!"
Carter felt like a moron.
"Okay," said Birch, "I have your trainer cards ready, I'll send them to Dewford with Khura, he's my nephew, he's going there anyway. So you'll know him, he's about all your height, maybe a little shorter, blonde haired with blue highlights on the tips, and probably wearing darker green."
**********
Vincent finally found a light in the darkness of the Granite Cave. The Iron-Masked Marauder was waiting for him.
"Did you get what you were after?" the Marauder asked.
"Uh, a third of it."
"Then you still owe me," he said darkly, "I want these two pokemon."
The Marauder held up a portrait of two legendary pokemon.
"They will be a perfect addition to my team," he said, "here are the dark balls to catch them in."
"No!" said Vincent, "I'm through with you!"
"What will you do about it, though?"
"I'll battle you!" shouted Vincent, "I win, I'm outta here for good, you win, well... that's not about to happen!"
"Sure," the Iron-Masked Marauder snickered, "I win, you get these pokemon for me, and I have another little plan, too..."
Vincent threw two pokeballs. His choices were Crawdaunt and Whiscash.
The Iron-Masked Marauder let out an evil laugh as he sent out his signiture pokemon, a Dragonbreath Flygon and a Salamence...
***************
***************
END CHAPTER 1
Last edited: