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Shadows of Fear: Traversing Darkness

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Morpher01

Bewear my power
Wow, been forever since I posted anything here...

For those who read "Pokemon XD^3: The Waves of Truth" by The Great Butler (link found here: http://www.serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=185032), you may have noticed that all the chapters from 11 onwards contain a certain rebellious Shadow Marowak.

Skull, as we all know him, has been the protagonist of his own series for some years now. Having lent Skull to Butler for his fic, a reader of his might have thought: "what happened to Skull before he made his appearance?" With Butler's permission, I will now answer that question.

EDIT: Ah, my tradition with my fanfictions continues...I once again forgot to put the rating. It's PG-13 for violence and swearing.

This is the bonus fourth story of the "Shadows of Fear" saga. Behold...


Shadows of Fear: Traversing Darkness


Prologue:



My name is Skull. If you can’t remember that, you’d better start sleeping with one eye open, because I HATE being called by my species name.

I’m a Marowak, a Shadow one. Yes, I’m a Shadow Pokemon. Not just a Pokemon you human idiots think you can just enslave out of the blue, I’m a SHADOW Pokemon. I’ve been that way for a little over ten years, now. And, contrary to human belief, I actually LIKE being a Shadow. Don’t like it? Too bad for you.

The whole thing started when I was eight years old. A human named Eldes managed to enslave me and my adopted sister, a Lapras named Plesiosaur, and after eight more years of being told what to do, Plesiosaur and I were subjected to an experiment in which the doors to our hearts were (forcefully) closed. From that day forward, we were Shadow Pokemon.

Pretty soon I realized how sick I was of Eldes and the rest of his species—particularly the rest of his organization, Cipher—thinking he was better than me, thinking that he could just tell me what to do when he wanted to. So I ran away. Gathering up other Shadow Pokemon that were also sick of their “masters”, I eventually knocked Eldes into the sea, freeing myself…

…for about five years. By that time, I had mated and had a kid, disproving all those meaningless little human theories about Shadow Pokemon being soulless. Even though normally I’d have run in and beat Cipher’s overgrown egos right out of their heads, I had a son I wanted to protect. So, I resorted to running. We ran to Johto, where I met a human named Zak Vangard.

Zak was…well…different. He didn’t treat his slaves badly, he just stuffed them into those stupid Pokeballs to fit in with the world. Apparently, he had a disobedient Scizor that was—at the time—in the clutches of Team Rocket. If a Pokemon didn’t obey their slave driver, they were at least partially fine in my book. I did help Zak save his Scizor, and then I realized that not ALL humans were total pains in the tail.

After that, I decided that I needed to stop running and start fighting back. So, I did. I went back to Orre, took down all of Cipher’s admins, and even fought their top bosses: a couple of grumpy old men named Greevil and Evice. Even though Evice had a Shadow Tyranitar, and Greevil somehow made a Shadow Pokemon out of Lugia, I took them both down and tricked Evice’s Slaking slave into using an Earthquake that hit Citadark Isle in a sensitive spot, causing it to break apart into little pieces. I’m not sure if Evice and Greevil survived, but I’ll be damn happy if they didn’t.

After the Cipher problems, I was briefly enslaved by a human who repeatedly claimed to be my “friend”…Michael. I beat him up, then, left to live in Hoenn for a while. There, I lived peacefully for about five years until a human whose name I can’t remember approached me and asked me to visit his Battle Frontier. I did, and met one of the few humans that ACTUALLY KNOWS my name…Anabel.

Anabel asked me to help her win a Pokemon League in the Sinnoh region. I agreed, but only because see the new Pokemon and take down any evil morons there. I got my wish for exterminating evil humans in the form of a bozo named Saturn. He thought he could use the power of Sinnoh’s two most powerful legendary Pokemon, Dialga and Palkia, to reshape the world as he saw fit. At the moment, however, all he had was the Dark-type legendary called Darkrai.

It took a lot of effort, but I managed to take down Darkrai. I don’t know what happened to Saturn, since I passed out from all the recoils from my Shadow End attacks during the fight. Eventually, I helped Anabel win the Sinnoh League, and took down the original champion. After fighting off Michael and two other slave drivers—named Ash and Paul—I left my son, Cubon, in Sinnoh (don’t start calling me an irresponsible parent, he WANTED to stay), and decided to travel the world to see more new Pokemon and new sights.

Fat lot of good that wish got me.

All that I’ve said up to this point is, for lack of a better term, a recap of all that I’ve faced previously over the decade. Now I’m bound to a region called Oceannia…and I’m currently sitting in the cargo hold of a ship called the S.S. Slowbro, since the egotistical humans up top don’t allow Pokemon aboard without their “trainers”.

Doesn’t matter. Either way, I’m going to explore this new region on my own…

…and there’s nothing you humans can do about it.

*****

That's how it starts. For distinction purposes, every post-chapter message I put will be underlined.

So, what do you think? Short, I know, but...it's a prologue. Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
I would have liked a little bit more action, but it provides a nice leadup, and I'm really happy to see this finally getting posted!
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
We now move on to the first chapter.



Chapter 1:



The S.S. Slowbro (which, by the way, I found to be a pretty fitting name for this ship) wasn’t exactly first-class travel. Well, at least, the way I was traveling wasn’t. I had to stow away in the cargo hold, sitting next to a ton of crates filled with those crappy little brown cubes the humans call “Pokemon Food”.

And why is that?

I’ve said it before: the reason I can’t get on the upper levels is because of the MASSIVE SIZE OF THE HUMAN EGO! Those morons won’t let a “wild” Pokemon on their “civilized” ship. Depends on what you define “civilized” as.

“We are now docking in Port Haban!” a voice cried over a loudspeaker. “We hope you enjoy your stay in Oceannia!”

“Yeah, I will as long as no humans start trying to tick me off,” I muttered. Recently, I learned how to speak human language. I started to learn it near the end of my Sinnoh journey with Anabel. Talking in human took a little while to really master, but I’ve gotten the hang of it now.

I stood up and leapt up the stairs, hopping on each step, until I reached the top. The stairs weren’t terribly tall, so it didn’t take all that long. As I neared the exit of the ship, I saw human males in white outfits guiding other humans off of the ship. I just filed in with the crowd, ignored by the humans…

…until one of those supposedly intelligent minds spotted me.

“Hey!” cried one of the white-garbed humans, pointing a finger at me. “Where’s your trainer?”

“Oh, so you’re trying to imply that I need some moron telling me what to do?” I snarled in response.

“It talks!” the human gasped, and I whacked him in the leg with my bone.

“How many times do I have to tell you moronic humans?!” I growled, losing my temper for probably the hundred-thousandth time. “I…am…a…MALE!”

I started charging energy into my shadowy aura, then, leapt up and bounced off of the human’s torso. This gave me momentum to slam into the other white-garbed human, who was holding one of those red-and-white spheres we all know as Pokeballs, and knock him into the railing. My Shadow End had hit him with enough force to slam into the railing, bending said railing a little.

I grunted in disgust at the humans I had just bashed. These people just can’t acknowledge the possibility that I might actually have a gender, can they? It’s not just me, though: they treat ALL Pokemon like that. It makes me sick, it really does.

As I leapt down the stairs in a single bound (where have I heard something like that before…?), I noticed a crowd of humans gathering around. Guess they saw me attack those two sailors. Oh, well. I wasn’t planning on making myself seem like some mindless slave, anyway.

“Imagine…attacking humans!” one human snorted. “What an atrocity!”

“Yeah, well,” I began, “you humans just so happen to commit atrocious acts whenever you enslave a Pokemon with those damn Pokeballs of yours. Why shouldn’t I return the favor?”

“A talking Marowak!” someone else cried.

“Do any of you idiots have even a slight IDEA of what I just said?!” I snapped.

“Uh…well…um,” various humans stuttered. Figures. They can’t focus on anything but their own personal gain. And humans wonder why I hate them…

I started walking into the center of the crowd. If I had time for these morons, I’d have stayed long enough to bang their heads together. I just want to explore this friggin’ region. Is that so much to ask for? IS IT?!

No.

At least, it shouldn’t be. But, due to human arrogance, it is.

“Marowak!” a voice that was unfortunately familiar to me cried. “Hey, wait up!”

Oh, brilliant.

I turned my head just enough to scowl at the human named Ash Ketchum, along with three other humans. As usual, his black hair spiked out at the sides, though most of the top was covered by that red cap of his. He wore a black shirt with two diagonal yellow stripes on the chest, and short white sleeves. Light blue pants and black shoes completed Ash’s attire. On his shoulder was a small yellow rodent with a lightning bolt-shaped tail, orange stripes on its back, and red circles on its cheeks. On the top of its head, the Pikachu also had pointed ears with black tips.

Next up was one of Ash’s constantly-seen pals: Brock. He was obviously older than Ash, as well as taller. Brock had darker skin, brown hair that spiked upwards, and eyes that for some reason kept squinting all the time. He still had his green shirt, orange-and-black vest, tan pants and blue shoes.

After Brock came the next of Ash’s annoying little friends: Dawn. She had long, dark blue hair with a white stocking cap on top. The cap had a pink (…I really hate that color. A lot) half-Pokeball symbol on it, which was the same color as her shoes. She mostly wore a black dress with some more pink lining the bottom (…no, really, I seriously hate that color).

The last human was one I didn’t recognize. The human was a female, with short orange hair tied into one little tail coming out of the side of her head. She was dressed in a yellow skirt with a buttoned vest…which was also yellow. She had some red clothing wrapped around her stomach area. I had no idea who this girl was, and frankly, I didn’t care.

Why?

I hate Ash, and his human friends. Simple as that. This was mostly because he captured me after sending a Corphish after me while I was rebelling against humankind.

“How you doing, Marowak?” Ash called.

“Oh, I’m FINE!” I snapped.

“That’s great!” Ash cried, clearly missing the sarcasm in my voice.

“Is this your Marowak?!” some human demanded of Ash.

“Uh, not really,” Ash replied.

“Ash did try to catch it—” Brock began, but I cut him off with a bellow of:

“I’M A MALE, DAMN IT!”

“Uh…he tried to catch Marowak a few times,” Brock finished, and I growled angrily at him. “It kept leaving, though, no matter how kind Ash was to it.”

Sigh…

I really don’t care how Ash treats his slaves. True, he does treat them better than most humans, but his failure to grasp the blindingly obvious is just a pain in my tail. He thinks I’ll just sit and let him push me around. Not happening.

“Please capture this Marowak!” a human pleaded of Ash. “It attacked two sailors unprovoked!”

“They called me an ‘it’,” I interrupted. “How exactly is that ‘unprovoked’?”

“Really?” Ash turned and saw the two sailors, unconscious and probably in need of being sent to a hospital room, but living.

“Is Marowak really that violent?” the new female asked.

“It’s a Shadow Pokemon, Misty,” Brock answered. “Marowak is usually violent.”

“A Shadow Pokemon?!” cried some more of those random humans with no needed name. “Please, for all that’s decent, capture it! We could be its next victims!”

I rolled my eyes. Well, maybe if they shrunk their egos a little bit, I wouldn’t have the need to SLAM THEIR HEADS INTO POLES!

“Okay!” Ash cried, taking his usual pointless battle stance. “I’m gonna catch you this time, Marowak!”

I glared at Ash, waiting for him to send out his first slave. This was standard practice for me: human sends out slave, I beat slave up, human returns slave to Pokeball, repeat five times. It happens every time I meet this bozo...or any other slave driver. And now he’s using the fact that I beat up a couple humans (wow, REALLY big deal) as an excuse to try and enslave me.

I will NEVER submit to ANY human, let alone Ash. I will NEVER be controlled, and that’s something our intellectually-challenged acquaintance here can’t understand.

“Floatzel, I choose you!” Ash cried, throwing a Pokeball into the air.

The Pokeball split open, as it usually did, and send out a burst of white light…as it usually did. The white materialized into a creature that was—simply put—a big orange weasel. It had yellow coloring on its stomach and the ends of its arms, where a blue fin sprouted from. There was a big yellow donut-looking thing around the Floatzel’s neck and going down its back, reaching down to its twin tails. Two yellow spots on its back identified the Floatzel as a male, and the pointed fangs didn’t look friendly.

But, then again, I wasn’t exactly winner of the “socialite-of-the-year” prize either.

“Floatzel, start off with Aqua Jet!” Ash cried, pointing at me.

Stupid as all slaves were, the Floatzel obeyed, surrounding itself with a veil of water. It suddenly shot towards me, the water around it trailing behind it, making it look like the Floatzel was moving a giant tentacle of water at me.

A quick jump to the side caused the Floatzel’s Aqua Jet to zip right by me. It turned around and tried to hit me again, but I charged some of my aura into my bone. By using my Shadow energy to power the bone, I managed to use it to block the Aqua Jet. Our attacks held together for a second or two, dark purple sparks flying from my bone, until I shoved my bone into side of the Floatzel’s face. This shoved the Floatzel to the side, and it skidded across the ground, Aqua Jet disabled.

“Quick, Floatzel, use Ice Fang!” Ash cried.

Oh, joy. Another of my dearly LOVED weaknesses: Ice-type attacks. Yay.

The Floatzel lunged at me, fangs glowing pale blue like the sky, preparing to chomp me on some random body part. Instead, however, the only thing it got was a taste of air, since I had dodged by leaping backwards. Lunging forward again, the Floatzel prepared to bite me again. But I had other plans.

I charged a Shadow End, my aura growing stronger and darker again. Just as the Floatzel opened its mouth to strike, I dived under it and slammed my side into the Floatzel’s stomach. Given that Shadow attacks were incredibly effective against non-Shadows, the Floatzel was sent tumbling into a pole. I leapt into the air, charging another Shadow End, and came down hard on the Floatzel’s back. That finished it off.

“Floatzel!” Ash cried. “Floatzel, return…you did great, Floatzel. Take a nice, long rest.”

A red beam came from the Pokeball and hit the Floatzel. The entire Pokemon turned into red energy and was absorbed into the Pokeball.

Now if only he’d channel some of that kindness into his HEAD, he’d actually FIGURE OUT that I WON’T BE HIS SLAVE.

Gah!

Uggh…

I doubled over in pain. Damn…the downside of Shadow End is that it causes recoil whenever it’s used. But, it’s always worth it.

“Okay, Torterra, go!” Ash cried, throwing another Pokeball

This Pokeball sent out a seven-foot-tall tortoise, to put it bluntly. It had a large green shell covered in grass, three grey mountains, and a little tree. Four sturdy brown legs ending in white toes held this Pokemon up, and a large green-and-black beak with two white spikes coming from the sides provided a means of chewing edible objects to pieces for the heck of it...or something.

“Wow, Ash is actually using his head,” the Misty girl said to herself.

“Excuse me for a moment,” I said, holding up a hand. I went over to Misty and, to the great surprise of the rest of Ash’s group, whacked her in the leg with my bone.

“What did you do that for?!” Dawn cried as Misty started hopping around, clutching her pained leg.

“She called Ash intelligent,” I replied, “and we all know he isn’t even close to that.”

This, of course, ticked off her stupid friend.

“Torterra, use Wood Hammer!” Ash ordered angrily.

The Torterra charged towards me, each heavy footstep cracking the concrete beneath it. Streaks of green energy began to trail off of its head as it prepared to slam me hard. I, of course, wouldn’t exactly let it have a chance.

As the Torterra continued its charge, I dashed forward…straight towards the tortoise. The final evolution of Turtwig was taken aback, and stopped, having figured I would go in some other direction. I stopped, however, right in front of the Torterra. I needed to conserve my strength, so Shadow End was out. Instead, I improvised…as usual.

I put my bone in front of my pointed face and focused. I channeled my Ground-type power into my bone, causing to glow with a light brown aura. I thrust my bone into the air, a portion of the ground underneath the Torterra going with it. Even though it was pretty big, I managed to lift the Torterra up by manipulating my Rock Slide attack.

With a mighty swing, my bone now pointed to my right. As the movements of the rock synchronized with those of my bone, the rock—and the Torterra on top of it—were both thrown into one of the many wooden houses that seem to populate Port Haban. Given that it’s a (very heavy) giant tortoise, the Torterra smashed through the wall, ripped through the foundations, and had the house collapse into a pile of splinters right on top of it. The Torterra poked its head through the rubble, still conscious, but that situation was going to be fixed. I charged Shadow energy into my bone, raised it into the air, and then slammed it down hard onto the Torterra’s head, finishing it off.

“Torterra!” Ash cried, running over to his slave.

“That was brutal!” Brock chided.

“How can you even see anything with those squinty eyes of yours?” I asked him, causing him to…what’s the word? Oh, yeah, it’s facepalm.

I know some of you stupid humans are thinking: “how did Torterra faint in just a few hits?” Simple. I’ve dealt with opponents MUCH tougher than that. I’ve battled and beaten a Shadow Lugia, two of Cipher’s highest-up officials—Greevil and Evice—simultaneously, and even a Darkrai under the control of Team Galactic’s leader. On my own. As in, WITHOUT needless help from a human. I can NOT emphasize this enough. Seriously.

After Ash said some words to the Torterra, he sent out another slave. This time, it was a Pokemon I had seen at the end of my Sinnoh journey with Anabel: a Gliscor.

The Gliscor was basically a hybrid between a purple-skinned scorpion and a bat. Like a scorpion, it had crab-like claws and a pair of stingers at the end of its tail, but like a bat, it had black leather wings between each arm and leg. It had a wide mouth filled with sharp fangs underneath yellow, cat-like eyes. It even had pointed ears to complete the “bat” look.

Wait…when did Ash enslave a Gliscor?

“Okay, Gliscor,” Ash began, his batty (ouch, bad pun) slave somehow standing on its tail, “let’s try out that new move…use Earth Power!”

The Gliscor’s tail began to glow with an aura colored like mud. It then hopped into the air and jabbed said tail into the ground, causing a trail of small volcanic eruptions to blast towards me. The attack wasn’t hard to avoid…all I had to do was just bound away and grab a nearby lamppost. I needed to be on the ground for the attack to hit, and since I was hanging onto the post, the eruption trail missed me completely.

“Quick, Gliscor,” Ash cried, “go in for X-Scissor!”

By flinging myself off of the pole, I got enough momentum to launch myself at the Gliscor, which was gliding towards me with claws drawn back. Ash chuckled loudly, thinking I was doing another suicide strike…but instead, I slammed into the Gliscor’s stomach, hitting it with my third Shadow End today. The Gliscor, with me still on its stomach, skidded across the ground and stopped at Ash’s feet. I leapt away before Ash could throw a Pokeball at me, leaving him to return his fainted Gliscor.

Gah! Ugh…recoil again. I am DEFINITELY gonna need some Sitrus Berries after this is over…

“Staraptor, go!” Ash cried, throwing a Pokeball up into the air.

Ash’s next choice of slave was a large grey bird. It had hardened, yellow legs ending in black talons, and above that was a grey-and-white batch of chest feathers. The Staraptor had powerful, grey wings, and a yellow beak with a black tip. Above said beak were two piercing eyes and a boomerang-shaped…thing…with a black spike that curved forward, covering the boomerang-shaped…thing.

“Quick, Staraptor, use—” Ash began, but I cut him off.

“Don’t bother,” I said, once again channeling rock energy into my bone to pull a rock from the ground, allowing it to hover in front of me. This time, I swung my bone in the Staraptor’s direction, and the rock shattered into smaller pieces, all of these smaller pieces blasting towards the Staraptor. Each piece pelted the Staraptor, and when the assault was finished, the bird was lying unconscious on the ground.

“Staraptor!” Ash gasped.

“Wow,” said Brock as Ash recalled his Staraptor slave, “Marowak’s gotten even stronger since we last saw it.”

“Gee, is it THAT OBVIOUS?!” I said, voice once again dripping with sarcasm.

“Infernape, I choose you!” Ash cried, throwing yet another Pokeball.

The fifth (and, thankfully, second-to-last) slave Ash sent out was basically a three-foot-tall monkey with a giant flame coming out of its head. It had skin of a dark orange color, with white fur on its chest, the top of its head, and above its blue hands and feet. It had large, red eyebrows, as well as some weird yellow circling noodle-things on its chest. Two yellow eyes glared at me hard, and an orange monkey-ish tail swayed in anticipation of a fight.

“Infernape, use Close Combat!” Ash ordered.

The Infernape began glowing red as it charged towards me, drawing its fist back in preparation for delivering a devastating punch…one that would have connected if I hadn’t jumped backwards, and thus out of its path. The punch struck the ground, and now that the Infernape’s defensive capabilities were lowered as a side-effect of using Close Combat, it was open for a counter-attack. I just ran up to it and slammed it with a Shadow End, blasting the monkey back into Ash and knocking it out.

Grah!

Yeah…ugh…definitely gonna need some Sitrus Berries.

Ash recalled his Infernape, and called his last slave—his Pikachu—from off his shoulder. Standing on all fours as usual, the Pikachu growled at me. I growled back. This stupid thing considered Ash its friend…and even if he does care about his slaves, the only thing he’s a friend to is himself.

“Pikachu,” Ash began, “use Quick Attack to knock out Marowak!”

Great. Ash noticed that I’ve been dealing with Shadow End’s recoil four times. Now he’s taking advantage of that by having his Pikachu slave attack me with a weak attack. Fortunately, I knew a way to counter Quick Attack.

As the Pikachu dashed towards me, white trail of white following it, I raised my bone into the air, charging it with Shadow energy. Just as the Pikachu neared me, I brought my bone down onto the Pikachu’s head in a thunderous (okay, that’s it, no more bad puns) blow, effectively knocking it out. And maybe giving it a concussion.

“Pikachu!” Ash cried, running over to his slave. “Pikachu, are you okay, buddy?”

“I’m tired of this freak fest,” I sighed. “I’m out of here.”

I walked off, managing to hide my fatigue caused by the recoil from four or five Shadow Ends. Where was I going to go next? Who knows? I’ve never been to this region before, so I’m not sure where I’ll end up. What I do know is, my journey’s going to involve many badly-beaten humans along the way.

“There’s no way that’s any ordinary Marowak,” I heard Misty say after I left.

Damn straight, redhead. Damn freakin’ straight.

****

Note that this chapter was written long before Ash's Gliscor left the cast.

So, what does everyone think?
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
I'll be honest - even though this chapter had more action than the first one, I think I liked the first one more. I've seen Skull own idiots like Ash plenty of times before, so it didn't feel all that exciting to me.

I will say this though, you really did write the chapter well. Everyone is in character and Skull's personality truly shines through. And even though I wasn't particularly thrilled with the battle, that was written quite well too, so overall, you get high marks for the chapter.

Looking forward to more being released.
 

Armored Zangoose

Well-Known Member
Small Introduction- Yeah, I read Shadows of Fear, Return of Shadow, and Journey with a Brain, but I was a closet reader back then. (I might've posted once or twice in Journey, but I don't think I even had an account during the first two.) Nonetheless, I read them while they were being writen, and that doesn't really matter.

Anywho, I'm glad there was more action, and Skulls descriptions of pokemon are as amusing as ever. However, I have to agree with the Great Butler on this one- it din't feel very new, what with Skull having owned idiots many times before.

Nonetheless, it was still written very well. I'l be looking forward to more.
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
The Great Butler and Armored Zangoose: Thanks for the reviews! Yes, I realize that Skull beating down people like Ash is just mundane business as usual, but there are original elements that will appear in later chapters...like this one. Well, I find it a little more original, anyway.

Hope all readers enjoy the second chapter!


Chapter 2:



Ugh!

I was wandering through a path just to the east of Port Haban, clutching my side. Even though I won my battle with Ash—heck, I annihilated him—the recoil from using all those Shadow Ends is really taking its toll.

Gah! Urgh…if I don’t find some Sitrus Berries soon I’m gonna faint…and who knows what’ll happen if I do? The most likely, and least favorable, scenario is that some human will come along and I’ll get captured. The only good thing about that is that I’ll probably be able to bash their brains in and leave after they heal me.

URGH!

Damn…getting…weaker...

Hold up. I see something…it’s a…I think it’s a human house. I can see a few Pokemon running around and…

GAH!

Ugh…if I can…just get to the house…and find berries…I’ll be all right…

…or…

…not…

Ugh…faint…ing…

…Ugh…

****

“Are you all right?” a voice…male… “You’re lucky I found you outside.”

Ugggh…

I opened my eyes and found myself on a bed, oddly enough. The next thing I saw was a human. Brilliant. Must be the house’s main occupant.

The human’s outfit made him look a lot like those old cowboys from those human western stories. He wore a huge brown hat on his head, the latter of which—though it was hard to tell—had kind of brown-ish hair. He had a tan coat with a red shirt, blue pants that looked like they’ve been dragged through mud about fifty times, and black boots with spiky circles (I think they’re called “spurs” or something) coming out of the heels.

“My name’s Joseph,” said the human, reaching out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

I ignored the hand and stared at him for a second, blinking once or twice.

“Care to explain why the heck you’ve been watching too many of your human westerns?” I asked.

“You…you talk?” Joseph gasped.

“Yes,” I sighed, “I can talk in human. My name’s Skull, and if you’re not gonna use it I’ll break your jaw.”

“Er…well then,” said Joseph, a little startled by my usual violence, “I guess I should explain a few things. I run a facility here called the Battle Hatchery, part of a circuit of facilities called the Go-Rock Frontier.”

“Go-Rock Frontier?” I asked, having never heard of such a stupid name.

“Yes,” Joseph nodded. “I run a breeding center here and—”

“So you just force your slaves to make eggs with each other for a living?” I interrupted, eyes narrowing a bit.

“It’s not like that,” Joseph said. “I treat my Pokemon with the utmost care.”

I rolled my eyes. Typical humans, swallowed up by their own lie-spilling egos.

“Anyway,” said Joseph, apparently trying to ignore my eye-roll, “how about being with me?”

He pulled a Pokeball from his pocket.

“Touch me with that thing and I’ll stuff that hat down your throat!” I snarled.

Joseph’s jaw dropped, as did the Pokeball in his hand.

“What?” he said, clearly surprised as a slave driver would be. “Most Pokemon would jump at the chance, especially after their lives were saved!”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Sheriff Stupid,” I growled, “I’m not like ‘most Pokemon’. Now if you’ll get out of my way, I have a region to explore.”

I hopped off the bed and was about to leave the room when Joseph started babbling again.

“Look, Skull,” he began, “I know you think you can take care of yourself without help from a trainer—”

“I KNOW I can, and I WILL, freak!” I snapped, spinning around to glare at the Hatchery guy.

“Then, perhaps you can prove it with a battle?” Joseph offered.

I almost smiled. ALMOST.

“I was wondering when you were going to ask,” I responded.

“Let’s do it outside,” said Joseph, “there’s too much cramped space in here for any Pokemon to really operate.”

****

A few minutes later, we were outside. The spacious area of the Battle Hatchery made a good battlefield, I have to say. Given the absence of humans, a ton of baby Pokemon were gathering around to watch the battle…all staring at Joseph with a sickening admiration in their eyes.

Oh, gag.

“It wouldn’t be fair to use six Pokemon against you,” said Joseph, “so I’ll use just one. Glaceon, let’s ride!”

An icy blue fox-like creature burst from Joseph’s Pokeball. It had dark blue feminine hair (on its head) that trailed down in two…uh…hair-things that hung from the sides of its head. The long pointy ears shared the same sky blue coloration as the rest of the body, aside from the tail which had a darker blue diamond pattern at the tip.

Oh, yeah. A Glaceon…I fought one of those in Sinnoh’s seventh Gym. Damn thing nearly took a bite out of my arm with Ice Fang…and froze me solid with a Blizzard. Looks like it’s time to pay back its species.

“Glaceon, start off with Ice Beam!” Joseph ordered.

The Glaceon opened its mouth, forming a ball of energy the same color as its skin. After charging for a second or two, the ball fired an erratic burst of lightning in my direction. A dash to the side was all I needed to get out of the way, but the Glaceon was preparing another Ice Beam. This time, I leapt into the air, going forward as the Ice Beam blasted under me. Charging energy into my bone, I hit the Glaceon in the head with the same attack I used to finish off Ash’s Torterra.

“What the?!” Joseph cried as his slave stumbled around, stunned. “What attack was that?”

“Mine,” I responded. “I use that when I don’t feel like using Shadow End.”

“Shadow End…wait,” Joseph paused, coming to an apparent realization, “does that mean…you’re a Shadow Pokemon?!”

“Oh, here we go,” I sighed. “Look, Deputy Dimwit, one word about purification and your head’s gonna need some new teeth.”

“This is bad…Glaceon!” Joseph cried, his slave for some reason snapping out of its stunned state. “We have to win this battle for Mar—Skull’s own sake. Use Aqua Tail!”

At least he didn’t call me by my species name. Still, I almost pity how stupid he is. ALMOST.

The Glaceon started running at me, tail glowing a shade of blue that would have calmed most people (but, for obvious reasons, I was the exception). It swung the tail around, trying to hit me with it, but I back-flipped and let the attack soak the air. The Glaceon then leapt into the air, somersaulting in an effort to hit me square-on with the Aqua Tail. I, of course, dodged again, leaping back a few feet.

“If you want to fly Air Skull,” I began, preparing a Rock Slide, “you might want to expect some nasty turbulence.”

With a swing of my bone, a grass-covered rock burst from the ground and rammed into the Glaceon, carrying the Fresh Snow Pokemon with it. Shooting past Joseph like a meteor, the Glaceon’s pleasant little flight came to an end when the rock slowed down just enough to allow the Glaceon to peel off the front and let the rock sail into a tree. The Glaceon did get up, but struggled to stand, legs quivering.

“You can faint now,” I told it, and it complied.

“Glaceon, return,” Joseph ordered, sucking the Glaceon back into its ball. He turned to stare at me, jaw agape.

“Yeah, I know, I’m a Shadow,” I said, rolling my blue eyes. “I noticed.”

“Please,” Joseph pleaded, “Skull, you have to let me purify you.”

WHACK!

One jump and one bone hit later, Joseph was on the ground in a heap. Loser.

“I keep telling you humans that I don’t want to be purified,” I said, shaking my head. “You morons just NEVER FREAKING LISTEN!”

“Whuh…why?” Joseph asked as he got up. “Why don’t you want to be purified?”

“Because I’m very happy being a Shadow Pokemon, thanks,” I answered.

“But why?!” Joseph asked again, and I was starting to get really annoyed. “How can you possibly be happy with the door to your heart being closed?”

“It keeps the Pokeballs from brainwashing me into a slave for humans,” I growled.

“Slave?” Joseph asked, acting as if the idea appalled him. “What are you talking about? Humans treat Pokemon like friends!”

“Somewhere in the world a lie detector goes off,” I snarled. “I’m out of here.”

I turned to walk away, but the cowboy wannabe still kept talking.

“Skull, wait!” Joseph called. “You’re not at full strength yet!”

“Tell that to your Glaceon slave,” I shot back. “Besides, I won, so I leave.”

“You’ll never make it out there!” Joseph warned, running to catch up. “Oceannia is full of strong trainers looking for strong Pokemon to train.”

“So?” I snorted. “If they try to enslave me, I’ll beat the crap out of them. I always have, and I always will.”

“Skull,” Joseph began, stepping in front of me. “Oceannia is different from any other region you’ve been to. A lot of the trainers here have beaten the leagues in Kanto, Johto and Hoenn as well as the one in Sinnoh. You really are a tough Pokemon, Skull, but those trainers are tougher.”

“Amazing how wasted long speeches are on me,” I said, shoving past him.

“Please!” Joseph cried, rushing in front of me again. “At least stay here and train a little while!”

This I actually thought about. By nature, Marowaks are warriors, born to fight. Whenever we see an opportunity to strengthen ourselves, we take it, just as long as how we train isn’t controlled by some lame human. Besides, I can probably use this opportunity to really kick the crap out of Joseph’s slaves and prove that Pokemon are better off without slave drivers.

“Fine,” I grunted. “I’ll stay, but only to train. If you touch me with one of those Pokeballs, it’s over, Cowboy Brain-Dead.”

“Got it,” Joseph nodded. “We can start tomorrow. For now, let’s both rest.”

Joseph went inside his house, but I stayed outside, mostly because I preferred to not sleep in the same area as a human. Call it pride, call it not wanting to see human sleeping habits (like drooling on certain areas…), I don’t really call it anything. I just do it.

“Hey!” called a Gliscor hanging by its tail from a tree branch.

“What?” I responded.

The Gliscor flipped off the tree and glided over to me.

“You’re pretty strong,” commented the Gliscor. “How did you beat Joseph without a trainer?”

I slapped myself in the head.

“Did…I say something wrong?” the Gliscor asked.

“Horribly,” I responded. “It’s bad enough the humans think I need a trainer, now some moronic scorpion-bat thing wants me to think like his precious master, Billy the Crappy.”

“Hey, don’t talk about Joseph like that!” the Gliscor snapped. “He’s my friend!”

“Sure he is,” I growled sarcastically, walking away to find somewhere quiet, leaving a snarling Gliscor behind.

Business as usual. There’s hardly any Pokemon I’ve met that see their “trainers” for what they really are…slave-driving monsters. They’re content with being slaves—Arceus alone knows why—and here I am, free.

Free, like I’ll always be.

****

Joseph and the Battle Hatchery belong to The Great Butler and are used with his permission.

So, is this chapter any better than the last one? Reviews are greatly appreciated.
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
We now move on...



Chapter 3:



One night passed. One night filled with chirping Hoothoots and cawing Murkrows. And yet I somehow managed to get some sleep, despite a swarm of infant Pokemon pestering me for a “good” opinion of Joseph. At least some of the older Pokemon told them to back off.

And now, the morning’s here. Finally, now I can kick tail and get a little training in.

I was in the middle of the same arena I fought Joseph’s Glaceon slave in. Joseph himself was already awake and standing with several other Pokemon. The same Gliscor that decided to give him needless praise was also there.

“Good morning, Skull!” Joseph called, the Gliscor waving one claw in greeting. “I figured that we could start our training with another battle.”

“Is there any other way to train?” I asked a rhetorical question.

“I believe you met Gliscor yesterday,” Joseph continued, gesturing to the overgrown hybrid. “I would like to see how well you fair against an airborne opponent.”

Before the battle could actually start, a swarm of airborne Pokemon (gee, now why did that seem repetitive?) swept into the Hatchery like a swarm of locusts. Each one had a blue-colored body compromised of mainly a large, fanged mouth. Two piercing eyes and pointed ears provided the other senses for these Pokemon, purple wings allowed flight, and two oval-shaped feet on spindly legs allowed them the ability to rest.

“Golbats!” Joseph cried, pointing out the obvious as he cringed in an effort to somehow keep the blood-sucking psychos from harming him. I swiped my bone at a few that were stupid enough to try and take a pot shot dive at me, fending them off easily.

“That’s right!” a voice called.

The sources of the voice came out of the trees. And, the mystery people are…

…you have GOT to be kidding.

Team Galactic.

Just as in Sinnoh, each grunt wore a black-and-white astronaut-looking suit. Each grunt had matching silver-blue hair cut into bowls, though the females had their hair slightly longer. The leader of this little group was a red-haired woman with a ring around her waist, but still wearing the standard black-and-white colors. Her eyes were as red as her hair, which had a spike coming out of the top.

“Team Galactic!” Joseph cried. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely,” said the Galactic Commander Mars, “we’ll just tell you. Since the Battle Hatchery has so many Pokemon, we’re going to take them!”

“Would that be before or after you get your heads beaten in?” I asked.

“You!” Mars screamed. “You’re that Marowak from Sinnoh!”

“Nice of you to remember the same Pokemon that creamed your boss,” I said.

“Team Galactic is under new leadership, Marowak!” Mars declared. “And this time, the universe WILL be ours!”

Sigh…do humans ever do anything OTHER than brag about their own achievements?

“These Pokemon are under my care!” Joseph cried. “I won’t let you take them! Gliscor, let’s ride!”

The Gliscor bounded forward, snapping its claws in anticipation of a fight.

“So, going to put up a fight, are you?” Mars sneered. “Bad idea, Hatchery Master! Bronzong, go!”

Mars’ choice of slave was, simply put, a big hovering bell that was colored a sort of faded blue. It had two red circles for eyes on both sides of its mouth, which consisted of nothing but a row of teeth. A pair of curving bars came from the top of the Bronzong, completing the “bell” look. From what I’ve heard, there’s a leaf pattern on a Bronzong’s back, too.

“Gliscor, quick, use Fire Fang!” Joseph ordered.

The Gliscor launched itself towards the Bronzong, fangs catching fire in the process (wonder if it can feel any pain from that). The scorpion-bat then clamped said burning fangs onto the Bronzong, allowing the flaming bite to cause more damage than a normal attack would due to the Bronzong being part Steel-type. Mars, however, smirked.

“Bronzong, use Gyro Ball!” she ordered.

With the Gliscor still on it, the Bronzong began spinning rapidly, the tips of its bar-things glowing a steely (…I thought I told myself NO MORE BAD PUNS!) grey. The Gliscor, unable to let go, got dragged along for the ride, screaming its pointy-eared head off as it spun faster and faster. After a few seconds of spinning, the Bronzong slammed itself—and thus the Gliscor—into a tree, knocking the scorpion-bat completely out.

“Gliscor!” Joseph called, running to his slave’s side.

“Now will you surrender all your Pokemon?” Mars asked confidently, indicating that she expected an affirmative from Joseph.

I did, too.

“He might,” I said, “but I’m not exactly going to just let you make more slaves.”

“Oh, really?” Mars sneered. “What can YOU do about it?”

“This,” I growled, charging towards her with a Shadow End charged.

“Bronzong, Zen Headbutt!” Mars cried.

The Bronzong quickly levitated back to Mars’ side, its bar-things glowing blue. It then lowered its top forward, pointing the bars at me, and charged. With a burst of Shadow and Psychic energy, our two attacks slammed into each other. Due to Shadow attacks being highly effective against non-Shadows, however, I quickly overpowered the Bronzong and slammed it into a tree. Said tree had a crack in it afterward, due to a Bronzong’s heavy metal body.

Gah! Urgh…note to self: rob Joseph of Sitrus Berries after battle.

“Grunts, prepare to attack!” Mars cried, prompting some grunts to prepare some Pokeballs. “Bronzong, use Flash Cannon!”

This time, the Bronzong pointed the big hole it had for a bottom at me, looking a lot like a cannon, which began charging with the same type of energy that was used in the Gyro Ball. Rather than just dodge this time, however, I had a different idea that would take care of the grunts. Instead of dodging, I charged a Shadow End, ran to the side, and tackled Bronzong’s side. Since it was close to the front of the cannon, it spun the Bronzong, causing the Flash Cannon to fire and hit the grunts instead of me. The Bronzong spun for a little bit, then fell to the ground, fainted.

“Think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Mars growled as she returned the Bronzong to its Pokeball. “We’ll see just HOW clever in a little bit. Purugly, go!”

Mars’ signature Pokemon was an aptly named blue cat. It was fat, had a coiled spring-like tail, and purple fur on the tips of its ears. It had a white face and a white pattern across its torso, which had fluffy crap from the tips of its tail gripping it tightly. Yellow eyes stared me down, but I wasn’t intimidated.

Why?

Because Shadow Pokemon have no fear, that’s why.

“Purugly, Water Pulse!” Mars ordered.

A ball of water formed at the Purugly’s mouth, just before firing at me. Charging my bone with Shadow energy, I swiped at the ball, cutting through it and canceling out the attack (aside from the minor discomfort of water splashing on me…I really hate water). Mars bared her teeth angrily, realizing that the supposedly super-effective attack was useless.

“Purugly, use Dig!” Mars ordered.

With a brief little hop into the air, the fat cat quickly burrowed through the ground. It was attempting to use an attack that caught nearly every Pokemon off-guard: the Ground-type Dig. I just snorted.

“You think a Ground-type wouldn’t know how to counter a Ground-type move?” I asked, placing a hand to the ground. Closing my eyes, I focused on the ground itself, and I could feel a large, cat-like shape moving through the ground…right underneath me.

“Sucker!” I cried, leaping straight up into the air. The Purugly came up soon after, swinging its claws at me, but only getting a Shadow End in the face as I came back down, slamming the cat into the ground. After that, Mars’ second slave went down.

“Next?” I asked, but Mars was…smirking?

“You think we didn’t expect resistance?” Mars asked as she recalled her Purugly slave. “It might not have been from you, Marowak, but we did expect resistance. That’s why we have a new secret weapon.”

She pulled a third Pokeball from her belt, smirk still spread across her face.

“Kangaskhan, go!” Mars cried, throwing the Pokeball into the air.

As usual, the flash of white light burst from the Pokeball. The brown-skinned Pokemon that formed was only partially humanoid. It had two legs, sure, but those legs were sturdy and muscular with spike-like toes. It also had a tan front and tan claws coming from its brown fingers. A black top with two brown ears was pretty much sitting above two red eyes and a wide mouth with two fangs. In addition to the big brown tail, it had…

…no…

...no…freaking…way…

It’s not possible…

A black aura…

A Shadow Pokemon. A Shadow Kangaskhan.

I only had six words in response to that…

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF ARCEUS?!” I cried. “How did you Galactic goons get a Shadow Kangaskhan?! I wiped out Cipher years ago!”

“You wish!” Mars laughed.

“I thought Michael was the one who defeated Cipher,” Joseph said, raising one eyebrow.

“The only reason that idiot got the credit is because he’s human,” I growled. “Humans are just too ignorant to believe that a ‘wild Pokemon’ saved the whole damn world.”

“Either way,” Mars said, “I’ve been given this Kangaskhan, and I’m going to use it to finally take you down, Marowak!”

“Yeah, right,” I said, rolling my eyes, “as if I haven’t fought a Shadow before.”

“Kangaskhan, Shadow Rush!” Mars ordered.

Eyes completely devoid of any emotion, the Kangaskhan barreled towards me, aura flaring slightly. I took a small leap back and swiped my bone through the air in front of me, hurling a Rock Slide at the Kangaskhan. The rocks stopped it, but the Kangaskhan didn’t even make an effort to protect the child in its pouch…an act considered taboo amongst Kangaskhans.

“What did they do to your head?” I muttered.

Knowing I had to take out the Kangaskhan before its child got hurt, I ran towards the Kangaskhan with the intent of beating its head in. Mars ordered another Shadow Rush, and so the Kangaskhan threw a few Shadow-charged punches at me. Knowing that Shadow attacks weren’t particularly effective against other Shadow Pokemon, I blocked each punch with my bone before leaping up and slamming my newly Shadow-charged bone right between the Kangaskhan’s eyes.

Given that the head tends to be the weak point of many Pokemon, my blow was enough to stun the Kangaskhan for a little bit. After shaking its head, however, it recovered enough to pull off a Shadow Break. Like the Kangaskhan’s Shadow Rush earlier, its Shadow Break involved charging energy into its black aura. This time, though, the aura grew bigger, having to house more power. I charged my own Shadow End, rushing towards the Kangaskhan. At the same time, the Kangaskhan charged towards me.

Okay, now it’s time for a little exercise of those capability-lacking human brains. What is the result of two powerful attacks, both charged with Shadow energy, slamming into each other?

A big explosion of darkness, that’s what.

I was panting, mostly from the recoil of two or three Shadow Ends. The Kangaskhan, however, was worse off. There were some scars on its body, and its breathing was even heavier than mine. We stared each other down, almost boring holes into our faces with the glares we were giving, until (drumroll, please)……………………………………..the Kangaskhan fell flat on its face.

I sighed, glad it was over and the child wasn’t terribly hurt.

“NO!” Mars shrieked. “It can’t be!”

“Believe it!” shouted some random Vulpix child.

“Okay, so that’s your Bronzong slave, your Purugly slave, and now that Shadow Kangaskhan you somehow got a hold of,” I said, counting them off on what few fingers I had. “Want to add yourself to that count?”

Mars bared her teeth in a growl, but she had no Pokemon left. She was completely beaten.

“Grunts, retreat!” Mars barked as she turned tail and ran. “You haven’t heard the last of Team Galactic, Marowak!”

“Whatever,” I said in response.

“Skull,” said Joseph, coming up to me. “That was just…incredible.”

“I don’t need your approval, human,” I snapped. “I’m done here.”

“What? Why?” Joseph asked.

“Because there’s clearly work for me to do elsewhere,” I pointed out. “Some time ago, I resolved to fight for harmony between Pokemon and humans, minus the stupid human need to make slaves. To do that, I need to take out any evil organizations that decide they want to bend over backwards to rule the world. First Cipher in Orre, then Team Galactic in Sinnoh, now Team Galactic again here.”

“Skull, there’s something you should know about Ciph—” Joseph began, but I cut him off.

“I was MADE by Cipher!” I roared. “I already know everything I need to know about them!”

That shut Joseph up.

“Besides,” I continued, “it’s not Cipher I’m dealing with at this point. It’s Team Galactic…and any other nitwits I find here.”

I started to walk past the Hatchery’s house, grabbing a Sitrus berry from a bush as I went. I munched on it, and felt some strength return. I snacked on the whole thing, and then turned back to Joseph.

“Tell your Gliscor slave I said it’s an idiot,” I said to him before turning away again and leaving the Battle Hatchery for good.

The best way to find Galactic was to go north and comb the region from there. So, that’s where I was going. Don’t know what I’ll find along the way, but one thing’s for sure…

…if it’s Galactic, it’ll be taken down.

*****

Joseph and the Battle Hatchery are owned by the Great Butler.

Anyway...any comments? Reviews?
 

Armored Zangoose

Well-Known Member
Personally, I liked this chapter more than the others. Don't get me wrong, the others were great, buit Chapter Three reminded me of the original Shadows of Fear, with Skull fighting shadow pokemon and over-confident organizations.

One night passed. One night filled with chirping Hoothoots and cawing Murkrows. And yet I somehow managed to get some sleep, despite a swarm of infant Pokemon pestering me for a “good” opinion of Joseph. At least some of the older Pokemon told them to back off

I can see Skull killing Joseph for brainwashing infants.

“Golbats!” Joseph cried, pointing out the obvious as he cringed in an effort to somehow keep the blood-sucking psychos from harming him. I swiped my bone at a few that were stupid enough to try and take a pot shot dive at me, fending them off easily.

“You!” Mars screamed. “You’re that Marowak from Sinnoh!”

Humans are experts at pointing out the obvious aren't they?

Because Shadow Pokemon have no fear, that’s why.

Reference to the title, I'm assuiming?

Mars’ signature Pokemon was an aptly named blue cat. It was fat, had a coiled spring-like tail, and purple fur on the tips of its ears. It had a white face and a white pattern across its torso, which had fluffy crap from the tips of its tail gripping it tightly. Yellow eyes stared me down, but I wasn’t intimidated.

I love Skull's descriptions of other pokemon.

Eyes completely devoid of any emotion, the Kangaskhan barreled towards me, aura flaring slightly. I took a small leap back and swiped my bone through the air in front of me, hurling a Rock Slide at the Kangaskhan. The rocks stopped it, but the Kangaskhan didn’t even make an effort to protect the child in its pouch…an act considered taboo amongst Kangaskhans.

Wow. Despite being a shadow pokemon, I can't picture any Kanghaskhan ignoring it's child.
 
Last edited:

Morpher01

Bewear my power
We now continue....




Chapter 4:



After I left the Battle Hatchery, I continued north for about an hour. There wasn’t a lot to see other than trees, but at least I was going it alone…without some dumb human saying “Oh, let’s stop here and reassert my supposed superiority!” or some other arrogant crap like that.

Eventually, the trees parted a little up ahead…but I think the clearing is occupied…

…damn it…

…why doesn’t he just DIE?!

Eldes, the first human to enslave me, was sitting in the clearing with five enslaved Pokemon around him (well, actually, four, since I knew one of them didn’t do much that he wanted).

Well, losers first. Eldes still had his short red hair, those rectangular sunglasses covering his eyes, and the same dark-gray-and-red robes that he always wore. The same oversized red sleeves and the same black boots.

The first of Eldes slaves was one I hadn’t seen before. It looked like a silver UFO-thing with a black pole sticking out of its butt, a yellow antennae with a yellow egg-shape on top, and two black magnets poking out of the front corners. It had three eyes: two white ones on the sides and one red one in the middle. When exactly did Eldes enslave this Magnezone?

The second one was one I’d seen a lot over my years as Eldes’ slave: his Flygon. That big light green dragon-looking thing with the red bug-eyes and those two dark green tubes coming off the top of its head sat closest to Eldes. It had the same dark green stripes along its muscular legs, the stubby arms, and the long striped tail with the red-lined fan-looking thing on the end.

The third was Eldes’ main Steel-type slave. It was a big, blue, four-legged metallic spider with giant, claw-tipped legs on a UFO-shaped body. It had a pair of red eyes between a giant white “X” splashed across its face. This Metagross was one of the strongest slaves Eldes had.

Speaking of strength, the fourth slave was a very large and very fat bear-like creature. It had fur of a really dark green shade, small white claws on its hands and feet, and tan coloring on its face, stomach, and feet. It also had two pointy ears on the top of its head, the latter of which played host to two squinty eyes and a fanged mouth. Geez, if I get into a fight here, the sheer blubber on this Snorlax could be a problem.

The last one was the only sentient one. He had black fur, red feathers lined in a headdress on his head, red eyes, and white hands with three claws on each. He also had three spikes serving as toes and two red feathers coming from his ears. In addition, there was a small orange oval in between his eyes. This Weavile’s name was Umbro, and he used to be owned by some human named Harley until (from what I heard) he was traded off for a stronger Weavile and then left in the woods. We battled a couple of times in Sinnoh, and he’s probably the only Pokemon that DOESN’T need some sense knocked into him.

Wait…that’s only five. Where’s number six…?

A light gust behind me caught my attention, and I spun around, bone at the ready, to find a Dusknoir floating there. What’s a Dusknoir? It’s a black ball-shaped thing with a small jagged tail coming from its butt, two giant black arms with zigzagging yellow stripes on them, a conical head that had an antennae like the Magnezone’s. The head also had a single red eye inside it, and the torso had two yellow egg-things and a zigzagging line running across its stomach, reminiscent of a face.

The second I started glaring at the Dusknoir, the final evolution of Duskull…recoiled? It then shot off over me and towards Eldes, hiding behind him like a scared human child.

O…kay. That was weird.

“What is it, Dusknoir?” Eldes asked, and then he saw me.

“Gee, now that didn’t have any irony in it,” I said with my ever-present sarcasm, knowing that Dusknoirs were usually the ones who scared people.

“Marowak!” Eldes called, and I whacked myself on the head with my bone. “I haven’t seen you since Sinnoh! How—”

“Okay, three things,” I interrupted. “One, stop acting like we’re friends. You and I have never been friends, and never will be. Two, my name is Skull, and if you don’t call me by it, you WILL be beaten hard. And three, I will NOT be your slave again…EVER!”

Umbro smirked while Eldes and the rest of his slaves stood appalled.

“Maro—Skull, was it?” Eldes said.

“It’s five friggin’ letters,” I growled, “is it that hard to remember?”

“Skull,” Eldes said. “I never treated you as a slave. I treated you as differently from the other Admins as possible…I truly treated you and all of my other Pokemon as my friends.”

“Amazing coincidence how you and most other humans say the EXACT SAME LIE,” I said.

“It’s not a lie!” Eldes insisted.

I just rolled my eyes. Eldes sighed, finally realizing that I wouldn’t buy the crap he was selling.

“I’m surprised I have the self-restraint to not beat you to death for all the time that I’ve been your slave,” I said, just before getting into a fighting stance. “Oh, wait…I DON’T!”

Roaring angrily, I charged at Eldes with a Shadow End powered. The Snorlax, however, got in my way, and I slammed into it only to bounce off and skid across the grass. Growling, I got up and made another run, but an aura of blue Psychic energy surrounded me. The Metagross’ eyes were the same color, as it was using Psychic to restrain me.

“Skull, calm down,” Eldes said with surprising calmness, considering I had just tried to take him out once and for all. “I’m not your enemy.”

“That’s what they ALL say,” I growled.

“I realize we may have had some…unpleasant…experiences,” Eldes continued, “but you and I must both put that behind us.”

“Like HELL I will!” I barked. “I am NO ONE’S slave, ESPECIALLY yours!”

Eldes sighed again.

“Metagross, release it,” ordered Eldes, and the minute it did so, I went up and slammed my bone into Eldes’ leg.

“When will you damn humans get it through your overgrown egos?!” I roared. “I’m a freaking MALE!”

Eldes let out a pained grown as he held onto his leg. I raised my bone in attempt to deliver another blow, this one to his head, but the Metagross trapped me with a Psychic…again.

“Skull,” Eldes said, “if you attempt to bring harm to me, my Pokemon will defend me.”

“Yeah, because they’re too STUPID to realize how badly you treat them,” I said.

“Hey, he feeds me!” countered the Snorlax.

“The point is,” Eldes said, “you have to calm down. If you’re so set against it, I will not attempt to capture you.”

I glared at him, growling, not trusting my first slave driver to keep his word. I walked off when the Metagross released me, going over to Umbro.

“Angry as ever, I see,” said the Weavile, smirking. “What brings you to Oceannia?”

“Exploring,” I answered. “After seeing the new Pokemon in Sinnoh, I decided to travel and see more of them. How are things with you?”

“Eldes decided that I’m more suited to Contests than his battles,” Umbro said bitterly. “He’s going to stick me in a PC box along with that bug of his.”

“…bug?” I asked, confused.

“Some kind of Ninjask with some balls of light floating around it,” Umbro answered.

“Sounds fake,” I snorted.

“I thought so, too,” Umbro smirked again.

“Skull?” Eldes began, “I need to ask you something.”

“Depends on what it is,” I replied, getting off the rock.

“Well, I need to train Magnezone and Dusknoir some,” Eldes explained, gesturing to his two Sinnoh slaves, “and I was hoping you could help me with it.”

“Why should I help you with ANYTHING?” I growled. “I wouldn’t even help you find your lost toothbrush.”

“Skull, it would be training for the both of us,” Eldes said. “Oceannia’s trainers are—”

“Yeah, yeah, stronger than the average bum,” I said, “I’ve heard it all before.”

“Then, please,” Eldes pleaded for some stupid reason, “train with Magnezone and Dusknoir, one by one.”

“Fine,” I snorted, only taking this opportunity to fight in order to prove that I was better off without a human looking over my shoulder.

I took my place at one side of the field, Eldes getting his Magnezone slave to the other. Aside from Umbro, all of Eldes’ other slaves started randomly cheering for Eldes. Idiots. Don’t they realize they’re being USED for Eldes’ personal gain? Oh, wait, yeah, they don’t. They think he treats them like friends. Gee, I’d really hate to pull them out of their little fantasy world…

…not.

“You may have the first move,” Eldes said.

Okay, now I KNOW he’s got something up that oversized sleeve of his. What else am I supposed to do, though? Give up? Hardly.

I ran at the Magnezone with a Shadow End charged, aura growing stronger with each step. As I expected, however, Eldes had something prepared.

“Magnezone, use Barrier!” Eldes ordered.

A translucent cube of energy expanded from the Magnezone’s center eye, growing and covering its entire body. I leapt up and slammed into the Barrier, which did succeed in blocking my attack for a little while. After a couple of seconds, however, I managed to push my way through, hitting the Magnezone’s center eye with my bone. The Magnezone reeled for a couple of seconds, shaking itself in attempt to recover from my attack.

“Quick, Magnezone, use Iron Head!” Eldes cried.

The Magnezone stopped shaking itself as an aura of gray energy surrounded it. It then charged at me, aura completely covering its metallic body, but I leapt to the side, allowing the Magnezone to miss. The UFO-looking thing came around again, however, attempting to ram me with a second Iron Head. This time, though, I had a different idea.

Instead of dodging, I ran towards the Magnezone and leapt up. With my free hand, I grabbed onto the antennae coming out of the Magnezone’s head. Even though the sudden pull on my arm wasn’t comfortable, I managed to get a nice hold on the Magnezone.

“And another slave bites the dust!” I cried, forcing the Magnezone face-first into the ground. Unable to stop its attack, the Magnezone dug a trench through the ground that eventually stopped when it plowed into a rock. I leapt off before this happened, leaving the Magnezone defeated.

“Magnezone, return!” Eldes cried, sucking the Magnezone slave back into its Pokeball. “You have definitely gotten stronger, Skull. Dusknoir, I’m afraid you’re next.”

“What?! Me?!” the Dusknoir screamed. “I can’t fight him! You saw what he can do!”

…weird Dusknoir.

“Please, Dusknoir, be brave,” Eldes said.

“Well…okay, but only for you,” the Dusknoir resigned, floating to its side of the field. “Uh, fear me! I will, uh…um…defeat you! In…uh…in a…blink of an eye!”

“…grr?” I said (yes, SAID), and the Dusknoir immediately cringed. “Eldes, out of all the Dusknoirs in the world, you enslave this guy?”

“Dusknoir, please!” Eldes cried. “Start with Confuse Ray!”

“Oh…okay!” the Dusknoir agreed, eye glowing a dark pink (argh). An equally dark pink beam of energy fired from the eye at me, which I blocked with a rock pulled up from a Rock Slide.

“If you want confusion,” I said, spinning my bone behind me as it became charged with Shadow energy, “try this!”

I swung my bone forward, detaching an orb of dark energy that hit the Dusknoir in its face…chest…thing. Shadow Panic, an attack I rarely used, was designed to induce a confused state on its target. That was what happened with the Dusknoir.

“Dusknoir, no!” Eldes called as his Dusknoir slave flailed about.

Deciding to put the surprisingly timid ghost out of its misery, I charged a Shadow End, ran up, and slammed into it. The Dusknoir tumbled a little through mid-air, but still didn’t faint. I pulled up a Rock Slide and threw the rocks into it, finishing it off.

“Dusknoir, return,” Eldes said, recalling his Dusknoir slave. “It seems I was right. You truly have gotten stronger since we last met in Sinnoh.”

“Kind of happens when I have to smack the snot out of humans who think I’ll just submit to being their slave,” I said.

Eldes sighed.

“Skull,” he began, “it’s that sort of attitude that kept us from being friends. Please, you must let me purify you.”

Remember what happened to Joseph when he said that? Eldes now suffers the same fate. He is now a semi-conscious heap on the ground, all of the Pokemon aside from Umbro staring at me as if I had just killed a baby Growlithe (which, obviously, I haven’t done).

“What…was that for?” Eldes groaned.

“I told you I’m not going to be your slave,” I growled. “If you think I’m going to just sit back and let you ‘purify’ me and turn me into your slave, I’ll do a lot more than just hit you in the head.”

I turned and walked away, leaving Eldes groaning on the ground.

Great, now Eldes is here. One more nuisance I have to put up with. Ah, well, I’ll live, I suppose…

…now where are those Galactic grunts?

****

Yes, I know this chapter was fairly short.

For anyone wondering, Umbro the Weavile was a character introduced in "Shadows of Fear: Journey with a Brain", which is currently available to read in the Completed Fics section. Ah, the power of shameless advertising...
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
Sorry I missed the last chapter. I'm only able to review quickly right now, so please forgive me.

These last two chapters have been quite entertaining; though I would have liked an appearance by Lynn and more with Dusknoir in the latter. I find myself really looking forward to Skull's next Team Galactic encounter.
 

Armored Zangoose

Well-Known Member
As usual, a very entertaining and well-written chapter. I'm quite glad to see Eldes again, and Umbro too was good. Dusknoir was an amusing new character too. I'm also anticipating the probably inevitable encounter between Skull and Paul. That, and Skull's reaction to Greevil being dead.

The first of Eldes slaves was one I hadn’t seen before. It looked like a silver UFO-thing with a black pole sticking out of its butt, a yellow antennae with a yellow egg-shape on top, and two black magnets poking out of the front corners. It had three eyes: two white ones on the sides and one red one in the middle. When exactly did Eldes enslave this Magnezone?

Speaking of strength, the fourth slave was a very large and very fat bear-like creature. It had fur of a really dark green shade, small white claws on its hands and feet, and tan coloring on its face, stomach, and feet. It also had two pointy ears on the top of its head, the latter of which played host to two squinty eyes and a fanged mouth. Geez, if I get into a fight here, the sheer blubber on this Snorlax could be a problem.

Skull's descriptions of Pokemon never cease to amaze me. And amuse me.

“Yeah, because they’re too STUPID to realize how badly you treat them,” I said.

“Hey, he feeds me!” countered the Snorlax.

*laughs*

“…bug?” I asked, confused.

“Some kind of Ninjask with some balls of light floating around it,” Umbro answered.

“Sounds fake,” I snorted.

I'd love to see Skull say that about Hikarijask to Eldes' face.

“…grr?” I said (yes, SAID), and the Dusknoir immediately cringed.

I can imagine a five min pause before the "grr??" and Dusknoir still cringing.
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
The Great Butler: More Dusknoir would have been fun, but alas, I couldn't work it in. Lynn's absence here will be explained in a later chapter.

Armored Zangoose: That encounter may be sooner than you think...heh heh heh.

Well, anyway, here's chapter 5. This isn't really my favorite chapter, but...eh.



Chapter 5:



Heading north, or east-ish, some more (or just away from Eldes), I eventually came upon another clearing. This one was a lot bigger, but the reason why was soon revealed.

There was a big city (or, at least, something that USED to be a city) occupying the space in the clearing. The city—more appropriately RUINS of a city—looked like some Fire-type Pokemon got a little flame-happy. Outside, there were two human females dressed in…

…are those…

…they are.

Metal swimsuits themed like Bronzongs.

I’d hate to know who thought of that idea.

The females each had a staff with a mini-statue of a Pokemon called Bronzor on top. Wondering what Bronzor looks like? Fine, it’s a flat blue circle with two yellow eyes on either side of a ball-like nose and ball-like things around its perimeter. Happy now?

“What’s this dump?” I asked the females.

“This is the great city of La Ciudad Dorada,” said one guard in a dull voice.

I titled my head to the side and looked past them, observing that the ground had cracks the size of Tropius wings and giant pillars falling over each other.

“Looks more like the great RUINS of La Ciudad Dorada,” I noted bluntly.

“Admittedly, we are suffering a drought at the moment,” the second guard said, “but our city did have great splendor.”

“So who’s in charge here?” I asked. “The same guy who makes you dress like that?”

“The honorable Count Fernando,” answered the first guard.

“Uh-huh,” I said, unconvinced of how good this guy was. I walked in, and the first thing I noticed was the giant palace up ahead.

Apparently, this “Fernando” lives in luxury while everything else suffers. Yep, that’s two points off of the “good person” rating…maybe three. Deciding to visit the palace and knock Fernando around a little, I approached the gates, but two more “guards” put their staffs in my way.

“Not just anyone gets in here, you know,” said the second guard.

“As I’m pretty sure you can tell,” I said, “I’m ‘not just anyone’. Are you gonna move, or do I have to move you?”

“You may only enter if your trainer has an invitation,” said the first guard.

“Oh, for CRYING OUT LOUD!” I bellowed. “Why do you stupid people think I need some stupid moron telling me what to do?!”

In a rage, I swiped my bone at the guards’ legs, knocking them down and then out with a bone blow to the head. With them no longer in my way, I approached the door. Since the morons were out of commission for the moment, I hit the door with my bone three times.

Yes, I’m actually KNOCKING ON THE DOOR. Which, after ten seconds, yields no result.

I sighed. Guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.

I backed up, prepared a Shadow End, and charged at the door. When I reached it, I broke straight through it, blowing the doors open as I skidded to a stop on the black-and-white tiles of the floor.

“I'm looking for a 'Count Fernando',” I called into the seemingly empty space, “which means it would be a really good idea for him to get out here before I have to break more things.”

After a few minutes, a guy came. It wasn’t a butler, like I expected, but apparently Fernando himself. He had hair of a blindingly bright yellow shade tied back into a ponytail, a dull green shirt, blue pants and loud red boots (no, seriously, every time those boots hit the floor it sounds more like a Tauros hoof than anything else). Fernando started glaring at me when he came into view, probably because he was mad that I smashed his door.

“I recommend you get a door-opening butler and smarter guards,” I suggested. “That way, something like this won’t happen again.”

I jabbed my thumb back at the door, which—although still attached to the wall—had a bit of a hole in it.

“What do you want?” Fernando sneered.

“To know why your city looks like some idiot gave Entei highly-caffeinated drinks,” I answered.

“And what would a wild Pokemon, even one that can talk, intend to do about that?” Fernando said snidely.

“Get it to stop, genius,” I snarled back.

At this, Fernando seemed to actually smile.

“Ah, very good!” he said. “It’s good to know someone actually cares about what happens around them!”

Yay.

“The cause of all the destruction you’ve seen is a Pokemon called Heatran,” Fernando explained.

“Heatran?” I asked. “Why would a Fire-type legendary from Sinnoh want to hold a city-size cookout?”

“How should I know?!” Fernando snapped. “I’m not the one who controls it!”

There are going to be heads beaten hard in the next hour, I just know it.

“Did someone say Heatran?” said a voice behind me.

Two people came in. The first seemed to drink too much berry juice and, as a result, had pink lips. She had her long yellow hair tied back into two tails and hung two ruby-colored triangles from her ears. The male had short green hair. Their outfits were mostly lab coats with black pants and white boots underneath.

“Who let you in here?!” Fernando demanded.

“Well, the guards were knocked out,” said the female, “so we had to let ourselves in. My associate and I have come upon hearing rumors of Heatran’s existence here in La Ciudad Dorada. We also intend to put a stop to its rampages.”

“Go right ahead, my adorable little—” Fernando began, but I cut him off.

“Keep the weird human hormones in check, will you?” I interjected.

“What?” Fernando said, apparently offended.

“Oh, sorry,” I said sarcastically. “What I meant was ‘quit messing around, you perverted freak’.”

“Perverted?!” Fernando spat. “I am NOT perverted!”

“So, then,” I began, “if I went into your bedroom right now, I wouldn’t find a few hundred copies of bachelor magazines under the bed? Besides, only a perverted boss would have the females of his staff dress in metal swimsuits.”

“Um, hate to interrupt,” said the female, “but may we go and study the garden for traces of Heatran?”

“Go ahead,” Fernando said, “the sooner Heatran leaves this city, the better.”

“Thank you, sir,” said the female, taking her partner and going. Fernando and I followed suit.

Out in the garden, there were a lot of Pokemon. Smaller versions of Floatzels, called Buizels, ran about with giant red-and-green dragonflies (Yanmas) and other Pokemon. This place would be a lot nicer if there wasn’t a crazy Heatran on the loose.

“So how do you plan on finding Heatran?” I asked.

“So you decided to tag along, did you?” said the male. “Fine, we could use a strong battler. As for what we’ll use, well, you’ll have to wait and see.”

…why don’t I like the sound of that?

The two scientists knelt down onto a crack in the ground and pulled out some high-tech scanner-thing. The male moved it back and forth over the crack, but as he did, I noticed something…

…hang on…

…there’s a pink “R” on the scanner!

“Wait a minute!” I cried, immediately snatching the scanner from the male. “Okay, so you Rockets had me fooled. It’s only because I haven’t seen you before.

“Rockets?” Fernando asked. “What is…?”

“So, you figured us out,” growled the female. “Doesn’t matter. We were planning on giving Heatran to the boss, but it looks like we’ll use YOU instead!”

Gee, what a surprise.

Wait…

…what’s that sound? Sounds like some kind of underground explosion.

Rocks suddenly flew everywhere as a giant machine burst from the ground. It looked like a giant, bright red turtle with a gray head, egg-shaped teeth, red legs with “X”-shaped feet, and a pair of orange eyes with a big pink “R” in between.

“A shrieking whine, a blast from the past!” cried the new Rocket female as she ran up to the mech, throwing the lab coat off in the process. This revealed a black shirt with a pink “R” and white gloves.

“Spinning like a Gyro Ball and moving fast!” added the new Rocket male’s voice as he followed his partner, throwing off his lab coat to reveal a similar outfit.

“To the moon…” said the new female.

“And beyond!” said the new male.

“Administering justice with lightning speed!” cried the new female.

“Bashing the bad guys, should we feel the need!” cried the new male.

Wait, isn’t that MY job?

“So here’s a newsflash from across the wire!”

“The REAL Team Rocket is now on fire!”

“Cassidy!” cried the female.

“And it’s Butch!” cried the male.

A new Pokemon burst from the new male’s Pokeball. Its body was essentially a red-ish rock with holes in it, with four yellow tentacles serving as the limbs. A fifth tentacle came out of a top hole, this one with a face.

“Shuckle, too!” cried the Shuckle.

“Teaching the losers a thing or two…” said the new female.

“The true Team Rocket…” added the new male.

“Us, not you!” cried both of them.

“Oh, happy day!” I said sarcastically. “A couple of goons named Cassidy and…who exactly names their child Blob?”

“IT’S BUTCH, YOU STUPID LIZARD!” cried Burp.

“Easy, Butch,” Cassidy cautioned as Green-hair (I’ll just call him that, can’t remember his name) recalled his Shuckle, “let’s just get the Marowak so we can give it to the boss.”

“What is that?” Fernando asked.

“This?” Green-hair smirked. “This is our Heat-Rocket!”

“You could call it a mechanized Heatran,” Cassidy explained. “Either way, it’s what we’re going to use to get our boss a nice, obedient Marowak.”

“Who are you calling ‘obedient’?!” I snarled.

“You!” Green-hair cried as he and Cassidy slipped through an opening in the top of the Heat-Rocket (which, of course, just HAD to close afterwards), allowing it to move. “Hold still and this won’t hurt!”

The fake Heatran raised one leg, revealing an opening in the bottom. Knowing that it might lead to a cage of some sort, I managed to leap out of the way before the leg hit me, allowing it to instead hit the ground.

“What are you doing to my kingdom?!” Fernando screamed.

“Shut up or I’ll choke you with your own ponytail!” I threatened as I continued to dodge Green-hair and Cassidy’s attempts to nab me. Knowing that I had to take out the machine to get out alive, I swung my bone to pull up a Rock Slide. This time, however, I leapt on the rock as it flew, essentially “rock-surfing” through air up to the Heat-Rocket’s face. Leaping off, I charged a Shadow End and slammed through one eye, slamming into Green-hair and knocking him out.

“So, want to play rough, do you?” Cassidy growled. “Bring it on! Granbull, go!”

Cassidy’s choice of slave was a light purple humanoid creature with a bulldog head. It had massive bottom fangs, two black studded bracelets around its wrists, and two piercing eyes. The feet were essentially just paws. Hey, it’s a dog, what do you expect?

“Granbull, use Bite!” Cassidy ordered.

The Granbull ran at me, mouth agape, ready to chew on some random body part.

“Bite your tongue!” I snapped, leaping up and slamming my bone on top of the Granbull’s head, canceling out its bite. I did a backflip, charged a Shadow End, and hit the Granbull with yet another full-body tackle, sending it sailing into Cassidy and knocking her into the wall. I had other problems, though, seeing as Green-hair got up.

“Shuckle, use Wrap!” Green-hair cried, calling out his turtle again. The Shuckle did wrap its tentacle-things around me, but…nothing happened. The Shuckle struggled, but…it has no attack power. At all.

“This…is really sad,” I noted, almost ignoring the fact that the Shuckle’s poor attempt at a bear-hug was even there. I pulled it off myself and threw it into Green-hair like a…what’s the human toy called? Oh, yeah, a Frisbee.

“We’ll take it together, Butch!” Cassidy called, running up with her Granbull slave. Green-hair stood up, along with his Shuckle slave. “Prepare to be owned by our boss, Marowak!”

“Tell me you didn’t just use that internet word,” I said, charging a Shadow End and running right at them. With one huge hit, Green-hair, Cassidy, and their slaves all went sailing out.

“WE’RE BLASTING OFF JUST LIKE JESSIE AND JAMES!” cried the Rockets as they sailed away.

I leapt out of the Heat-Rocket as it exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere. Fernando ran up, applauding.

“Bravo, wonderful!” said the perverted Count. “Although those two were false, it would seem that I may need to call upon scientists to solve the mystery of Heatran’s attacks.”

“Fine by me,” I said. “I wasn’t planning on staying near the perverted likes of you, anyway.”

“I am not perverted!” Fernando insisted.

“Tell that to your ‘guards’,” I responded.

With that, I left La Ciudad Dorada. This time, I decided to head south-east, past the city, and get to the eastern side of Oceannia. Once there, I’ll find Galactic…

…and take them down.

***

Count Fernando VIII is owned by the Great Butler and used with his permission.

For anyone who read Butler's other (now completed) fanfic, "Pokemon Ranger and the Gardener of Gratitude", then you'll see why it felt very good to write this chapter. I don't think it's particularly great, but...well, it was fun to write.
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
You shouldn't be disappointed with yourself, I think this chapter was quite good. The one change I would have made would be to have the real Heatran appear at some point. Other than that, you captured the setting I envisioned quite well.
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
The Great Butler: Wow, thanks! Actually, having the real Heatran show up, while it would have greatly humiliated Butch and Cassidy, might have actually been too much for even Skull to handle.

Anyway, here's the next chapter.




Chapter 6:



I spent about a day’s walk heading for the eastern side of Oceannia. From there, I’m going to comb the entire region for Galactic or any other morons that want a piece of me. At the moment, however, I was going through a dense forest. I had to shove one or two branches out of my face once or twice, but other than that, I was all right.

A loud screech cracked the air as flocks of small grey-and-black birds shot out of the wilderness, followed in short order by various other Pokemon, including scurrying purple-furred rats and large yellow mushroom-heads running as fast as their stubby green feet could take them. Judging by the panicked expressions of these Starlies, Rattatas and Shroomishes, I’d say there’s something bad happening.

“What’s going on?” I asked a Shroomish.

“There’s a human back there!” screamed the terrified mushroom. “He’s crazy!”

If that’s the case, it looks like I’ll have to knock some sense into that human’s thick head.

Rather than turn and run with the other Pokemon, I leapt through the trees towards whatever was going on. Bouncing off of branches (and accidentally disturbing the occasional bird Pokemon nest), I eventually came upon the scene of the panic…and when I did, I groaned.

I should have figured that guy had something to do with this widespread horror.

Paul, the abusive (even by normal slave-driving standards) human from Sinnoh, was standing in a small clearing with one of his slaves. He had the same medium-long dark purple hair, the bangs slightly covering his narrow eyes. He wore a black-and-blue coat with a turquoise sweater underneath (from what I could tell, at least) and matching blue shoes under grey pants.

Beside him was one of the few slaves he deemed “strong”. It was, put bluntly, a huge humanoid Electric-type with yellow fur and bulky arms covered in black stripes. This big creature had two yellow orbs-on-sticks (I’m kind of tired of the word “antennae”) coming out of its dome-shaped head. This same head had a pair of red eyes above a wide mouth filled with teeth as wide as its muscular black fingers. It even had spiky white toes and two long, black tails with red tips. This was an Electivire, Sinnoh’s evolution of Electabuzz.

Want to know the story? Fine. I had first “met” Paul back in Sinnoh, though I actually first saw him release a Quagsire that didn’t win at an Electric-type Gym. Normally I would consider that a good thing, but Paul just kicked the blue blob off of his slave team without even letting it go anywhere near where Quagsires normally live. In addition, he only enslaves Pokemon that fit his definition of “strong”, which put me on his list after I creamed four of his slaves in the Sinnoh League.

“Well, look what just showed up,” Paul sneered upon spotting me. “The Marowak I battled in Sinnoh.”

“Who happened to take out four of your slaves back then,” I reminded him.

Paul frowned a little.

“That was a fluke,” he insisted. “Besides, I’m training for the Go-Rock Frontier. Do you mind?”

“Actually, yes,” I growled. “You’re really freaking out the Pokemon living around here.”

“So?” Paul snorted.

I growled as my aura started to turn red, indicating that my Reverse Mode was activating. See, whenever a Shadow Pokemon gets really mad, they go into Reverse Mode, which is when their attacks get stronger and more likely to hit an opponent’s weak spot. I usually didn’t go for weak spots, though…I just beat the crap out of everything I get faced with.

“So,” I snarled, “either hit the road figuratively or I’ll make sure you hit it literally.”

“I don’t think so,” Paul scoffed. “Electivire, use Focus Punch!”

With speed defying its size, yet appropriate for an Electric-type, the Electivire rushed towards me with one fist drawn back. This same fist currently emanated a bright red glow that matched the Electivire’s eyes, though that glow soon covered the Thunderbolt Pokemon’s entire arm. I darted to the side to avoid the attack, and stayed unhurt despite the massive amount of moss and dirt that went flying due to the sheer force of the attack.

Since I was now behind the Electivire, I quickly slammed a Shadow End into its back, knocking the not-so-jolly yellow giant onto its face. Paul, uncaring as ever, barked out orders for his slave to use Iron Tail. As such, the Electivire’s two tails became charged with Steel-type energy, so much that the energy radiated from the tails. Due to their whip-like nature, the Electivire started lashing at me with its tails, attempting to whip me until I fainted. I managed to block each strike with my bone, spinning it every now and then to keep the momentum going.

“Turn around and use Ice Punch!” Paul snapped.

The Electivire did what I think was called an “about-face” and turned to me with its other fist surrounded by an aura of Ice-type energy. It tried to punch me again, but this time I threw a Rock Slide into its face, once again knocking the two-tailed behemoth off-balance. To finish it off, I hit it in the stomach with another Shadow End, taking it down for good.

Urgh! Ugh…I’ll be the one that’s finished off for good if I don’t think about how I want to do this.

“Hmph. Electivire, return,” Paul harrumphed as he sucked his slave back into its ball. “You could have finished that a lot sooner, you know.”

“I don’t have access to a Ground-type move,” I snarled, “so sue me.”

Paul exchanged his Electivire slave’s Pokeball for another.

“Don’t think I’m giving up just because you took down my Electivire,” Paul said. “With power like yours, I can easily beat the entire Go-Rock Frontier with no problems.”

“Sure of yourself, aren’t you?” I sneered.

Paul just ignored me as he tossed his Pokeball.

“Magmortar, stand by!” Paul cried.

Another humanoid Pokemon, as big as the Electivire before it, formed from Paul’s next Pokeball. Unlike the Electivire, however, this one’s mass was more comprised of fat than muscle. It had flame-like patterns on its body and fire-like growths coming out of its head and shoulders, as well as two small red legs. The main feature of this Pokemon was its cannon-like yellow arms, each of which had three spikes serving as hands. The eyes were hardly visible between its giant pink lips (gag) and the aforementioned flame-thing coming out of its head.

“Magmortar, Sunny Day!” Paul ordered.

The Magmortar retracted its claw-things into its arms just before white balls of energy formed inside its arms. It then pointed its arms straight up into the air, firing off streams of energy that disappeared over the sun. At first, this seemed to do nothing, but the effect became apparent as the sun’s heat and brightness suddenly intensified.

Uh-oh…I think I know what Paul’s doing. I’m pretty sure that Magmortar can learn…

“Solarbeam!”

Oh…crap…

The Magmortar aimed its cannon-arms at me as a pair of HUGE beams of energy shot from them. I leapt to the side quickly, somersaulting to avoid the resulting explosion. This, of course, didn’t please Paul.

“Solarbeam again!” he ordered, glaring at me.

Once again, the two beams of energy fired out of the Magmortar’s arms, and I again barely managed to dodge. Sheesh…if this keeps up, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll last.

“You can’t dodge forever, you know,” Paul pointed out.

“That’s not what I was planning on, anyway!” I roared, swinging my bone and launching a Rock Slide at the Magmortar. Paul, however, did absolutely nothing, letting his Magmortar slave get clobbered by the rocks. Grrr…

“Magmortar, use Smog!” Paul ordered.

Instead of energy beams, a thick black smoke came from the Magmortar’s arms. The Smog attack clouded the area around me, and now I couldn’t see a thing.

“Let’s see if you can dodge what you can’t see,” Paul taunted. “Magmortar, Fire Blast!”

Crap!

I pulled up a Rock Slide to shield me as the sounds of rushing flames came roaring at me. The rocks were only in front of me, so if Paul got smart and decided to attack from the side, I was in trouble. Luckily, my lack of faith in human intellect was proven yet again, as the flames struck the rocks in front of me instead of my skin. Now being able to pinpoint the Magmortar’s approximate location through the Smog, I flung the rocks forward, and though I couldn’t see it, I could tell from the grunting that they found their mark. Soon, the Smog cleared, revealing a fainted Magmortar lying flat on the ground.

“Magmortar, return,” Paul grunted. “Honchkrow, stand by!”

Paul’s next choice of slave was a fat black crow, put simply. It had a short but strong yellow beak along with two red eyes surrounded by white down that made the bird look like it hadn’t gotten sleep in days. In addition, it had wings as large as its body, a witch-hat thing coming out of its head, and red-tipped tail feathers arranged in a fashion similar to a witch’s broomstick.

“Honchkrow, Sky Attack!” Paul ordered.

The Honchkrow surrounded itself with a flowing white aura as it took to the sky, spreading out its black wings. After a couple of seconds, the evolution of Murkrow dove down at me with alarming speed. I crouched slightly, tensing my muscles as I waited for the right moment. Right before the fat crow could make contact, I leapt over it and let it crash into the ground. I immediately turned around and swung my bone once, summoning up a Rock Slide. The rocks swarmed the Honchkrow, pummeling it completely.

“That’s all for this fatso,” I said as I turned back to Paul, who recalled his fainted slave again.

Now that his slave supply was halfway exhausted, he was getting a bit ticked.

“Weavile, stand by for battle!” Paul cried, sending out a Weavile. “Swords Dance, now!”

Blades emerged from the Weavile’s claws, glowing a bright red. The Weavile then started doing some dance, but in reality was raising its attack power big time. The dance was stupid, but I decided to join the party anyway.

My bone began to glow the same sort of red, but instead of dancing, I just stuck my arm out to the side and spun my bone. For any dumb humans trying to frantically to rub a pair of brain cells together, a Marowak’s attack power is always doubled as long as the bone from that Marowak’s mother is still in said Marowak’s possession. The bone I was spinning now belonged to my own mother, and years of use had made the Thick Club the bone had become completely unbreakable.

Anyway, it was like this for a couple of seconds: Swords Dance versus Swords Dance. Afterwards, the Weavile ran at me with the amazing speed typical of its species. It drew its hand back, preparing an attack called Brick Break, but I blocked its chop with my bone before swiping it away. I then countered with a Shadow End, knocking the Weavile pretty much senseless as it skidded back to Paul.

Gah! Ugh…just two more to go.

“Weavile, return,” Paul snarled. “Hitmonchan, stand by!”

Paul’s next slave was one I hadn’t seen before back in Sinnoh, indicating that he had only recently enslaved it. Basically, it was a brown, humanoid creature wearing a blue outfit with matching shoes. It had a black belt, crimson boxing gloves, and two piercing eyes underneath a fan-like hairstyle.

“Hitmonchan, Ice Punch, now!” Paul ordered.

The Hitmonchan rushed at me with the same kind of ice-powered fist the Electivire had earlier. This time, however, the attack seemed to have more power behind it as it slammed into the soil.

“How did that Ice Punch have more power than the Electivire’s?” I asked.

“Weren’t in Sinnoh that long, were you?” Paul snidely asked.

“Actually, no,” I answered. “Are you gonna fill me in, or do I have to add it to the list of things I need to beat out of you?”

“Fine,” Paul said. “Hitmonchan can have an ability called Iron Fist. It boosts the power of any punch-based attacks. Hitmonchan, demonstrate your ability with Bullet Punch!”

The Hitmonchan’s gloves began to glow grey as the Punching Pokemon charged at me with great speed. Just as it swung one fist back, I hopped up, allowing the fist that the Hitmonchan threw forward to go underneath me and make another hole in the ground. I quickly bounced off of the glove, using it for momentum to hit the Hitmonchan in the face with another Shadow End. That turned out to be enough, as the Fighting-type finally fainted.

Ugh! …which is what I’ll be doing if I don’t find some Sitrus Berries soon.

“Hitmonchan, return,” Paul snarled, returning his fifth slave to its Pokeball. “Hmph. You’re not worth using my Torterra on.”

“Is that a fact?” I asked, once again being sarcastic.

Paul said nothing; he simply turned away. He took a Pokeball out and held it in his hand for a minute. Then, he opened the ball, and in a flash of blue light, the still-unconscious Hitmonchan appeared.

“You’re worthless,” Paul stated before leaving his Hitmonchan slave to die.

I growled angrily. That freak! How dare he leave a Pokemon to die in the wilderness! Even the people of Cipher weren’t as evil as Paul was.

I looked to the fallen Hitmonchan. It was struggling to get up, but despite its efforts, it lost its remaining strength, dropping to the ground and falling unconscious. I sighed. No way I was going to leave this Pokemon here.

I decided to bring it to the nearest Pokemon Center. I had no idea where it was, but I’m pretty sure that if I kept going east-ish, I should reach one.

“Come on,” I said gruffly to the Hitmonchan, unceremoniously grabbing its leg and dragging it along with me.

Well, what else did you expect? I’m less than four feet tall! I can’t exactly heft the thing over my shoulder!

Anyway, with the Hitmonchan in tow, I went for the nearest Pokemon Center. How far away it was, I had no idea…

…but that wasn’t going to stop me.

****

Yes, the inevitable encounter between Skull and Paul has finally occured.
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
I enjoyed this chapter. The battle was very good; it felt very much like a real anime battle, with both Paul and Skull using clever strategies.

Wonder if that Hitmonchan will turn up again. ;)
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
The Great Butler: We'll see won't we? Heh heh heh...well, actually, Hitmonchan will make an appearance in this chapter.

Here we go...chapter seven.


Chapter 7:



Okay, I’ve just dragged an unconscious and injured Hitmonchan through at least a few miles of forest. If I don’t see a Pokemon Center soon, I’m gonna….

…FINALLY!

I just came up on some fancy city. There are skyscrapers and other fancy buildings everywhere, but right now what’s important is that I find a Pokemon Center and get this Hitmonchan healed. Still dragging the Fighting-type behind me, I worked my way across town and into the Pokemon Center. I growled the second I was inside: Eldes was there, along with a girl I hadn’t seen before.

The girl seemed young, and had long green hair. The only clothing she wore was a white shirt and a pair of pants that matched her hair. Next to her was a Pokemon I had seen in Sinnoh. It was significantly shorter than her, had a green body with white hair shaped like a flower. Its two arms resembled bouquets of flowers, one red and one blue. Its eyes were covered by a green mask, and it seemed to have a green cape-looking thing going down its back. Since I knew Eldes didn’t have a Roserade like this one, I assumed it was the girl’s slave.

“Skull!” Eldes said, catching sight of me and the Hitmonchan. “What happ—”

“Shut up and help me get this Hitmonchan somewhere the nurse can see it,” I snapped as I hoisted the Hitmonchan up, Eldes giving some surprisingly quick help.

“That Marowak just talked!” the girl cried.

“Oh, yeah, this is REALLY the time to stand around gawking at a Pokemon that can speak human,” I snarled.

“Sorry,” the girl said. “Nurse Joy, come quick! This Hitmonchan’s hurt!”

At once, a woman with pink hair tied into two loop-things and a white-and-pink (grr) nurse’s outfit dashed in, barely keeping her plus-bearing hat from falling off.

“Oh, my, what happened?!” the Nurse Joy cried.

“Fought a guy who kicked this Hitmonchan off his team of slaves,” I explained bitterly. “Get it healed, will you?”

“Of course!” Nurse Joy nodded. “Chansey, come quick!”

A pink Pokemon shaped like an egg with a short tail came running the second Nurse Joy called. Like the nurse, it had a cap with a plus on it, but it had pink hairs sticking out to the sides. A feature that all Chanseys had was an egg in a pouch, and this one was no exception.

“Chansey, get this Hitmonchan medical attention immediately!” Nurse Joy ordered.

The Chansey carried the Hitmonchan down the hall, Nurse Joy in pursuit. I breathed a sigh, and turned to Eldes.

“So, what are you doing here?” I asked. “You do know I’ll live if I don’t see you ever again, right?”

“The Go-Rock Frontier has a facility here in Rindo City,” Eldes explained, “called the Battle Mountain. My goal is to challenge it.”

He then gestured to the green-haired girl.

“Skull, this is Lynn,” Eldes said. “She has also come to challenge the Go-Rock Frontier, and as such, we’ve been traveling together.”

“So, how come I didn’t see her when I ran into you at that clearing?” I asked.

“Some of her Pokemon had been injured by members of Team Galactic,” Eldes answered. “She had gone ahead to the Pokemon Center to heal her Pokemon, and I stayed in the area to make sure there was nothing left of Team Galactic.”

The female named Lynn leaned down to my level.

“Nice to meet you,” Lynn smiled. “Eldes told me about you.”

“Then obviously he told you HIS corrupted version that only has half the story involved,” I snarled.

This seemed to irritate Lynn a little, but she managed to keep her composure.

“He mentioned you have a bad attitude towards humans,” Lynn said. “Why?”

“I thought blonde females were the dumb ones, not green-haired ones,” I growled. “Humans enslave Pokemon so that they can beat each other up for the entertainment of their precious ‘masters’.”

“That’s not true!” the Roserade interjected.

“What would you know, pollen-breath?!” I snapped. “You’re just a brainwashed slave!”

“Don’t talk about Roserade like that!” Lynn snapped. “It’s my friend, not my slave!”

“This coming from the girl who doesn’t even know the name or gender of her so-called ‘friend’?” I snarled.

“Everyone calm down,” Eldes interrupted. “Skull, why don’t you watch my battle with the Mountain Master? You’ll see first-hand how I truly treat my Pokemon.”

“I thought I already did,” I snarled.

“Look, you want to see how Hitmonchan ends up, right?” Lynn asked.

“Yeah, so?” I asked.

“So,” Lynn continued, “instead of sitting here waiting to get the news, you could watch a battle while waiting. What do you say?”

I thought for a moment. Lynn, annoying as she was, had a point. I had a lot of better things to do than sit around and wait for news on a Hitmonchan. Besides, watching a battle probably IS better than counting the tiles on the floor.

“Okay, fine,” I sighed. “But I’m not gonna worship you, Eldes, and I’m DEFINITELY not gonna end up like your one-woman cheerleader squad here.”

I gestured to Lynn, which annoyed her a little.

“Fair enough,” Eldes said. “There’s a cable car that can take us to the top of Battle Mountain, where the Mountain Master awaits challengers.”

****

Aside from the fact that I was stuck in an enclosed space with a couple of humans—one I deeply hated and one with less intelligence than a pineapple—the cable car ride was all right. When we got on top of Battle Mountain, we soon found ourselves in a sandy arena. On the other side of the arena was a bulky man with long brown hair, blue pants and a dirty shirt.

“Welcome to the Battle Mountain,” greeted the man. “I am Lyesainer, the Mountain Master.”

“Nice to meet you,” Eldes nodded.

The referee began to speak as Eldes moved to his side of the arena. Lynn and I sat on a nearby bench, which was evidently made for spectators.

“Here are the rules of the Battle Mountain,” said the referee. “Each trainer may use four Pokemon with no substitutions. When one Pokemon on either side is unable to battle, both trainers’ Pokemon must be switched out. When three Pokemon on either side are unable to battle, the trainer with the most remaining Pokemon will be the victor.”

“Let us begin,” Lyesainer said. “Gliscor, go!”

A Gliscor appeared from Lyesainer’s first Pokeball, grinning as it took the field.

“Gliscor, is it?” Eldes said. “Very well, then. Go, Flygon!”

Eldes’ Flygon took the other side of the field, spreading its wings with a mighty roar. Lyesainer’s Gliscor stood on its tail, its eyes narrowing and grin widening. Looks like both Ground-types are ready to go.

“Who do you think has a better chance of winning?” Lynn asked me.

“I know the Flygon’s done for,” I replied, “assuming that the Gliscor knows how to use Ice Fang.”

Before Lynn could respond, the referee interrupted by yelling into the air.

“Eldes’ Flygon versus Lyesainer’s Gliscor!” the referee said. “Let the battle begin!”

“Flygon, use Dragon Claw!” Eldes ordered.

“Gliscor, Double Team, now!” Lyesainer cried.

The Flygon lunged towards the Gliscor, one claw glowing green and ready to strike. Unfortunately, the Gliscor seemed to suddenly multiply itself, though in reality it had just created a bunch of illusions. The Dragon Claw struck one of these illusions, rendering the attack useless.

“Now, follow up with Sandstorm!” Lyesainer yelled.

One of the Gliscors, evidently the real one, dug its tail into the ground and began to spin wildly. Eldes, sensing an opportunity, had his slave shoot a Fire Blast at the scorpion-bat thing. The Sandstorm was summoned, however, and though the Gliscor was hit, the strength of the Fire Blast was cut down significantly.

“Now, Gliscor, let’s finish this up!” Lyesainer cried. “Use Ice Fang!”

I couldn’t really see much through the Sandstorm, but I could make out Flygon’s outline. I just barely saw the Gliscor burst out of nowhere and snap its fangs onto the Flygon’s neck, and the Mystic Pokemon’s pained scream meant that it worked pretty well. It took a few seconds for the Sandstorm to dissipate, but when it did, the Flygon had already fainted.

“Flygon is unable to battle, Gliscor wins!” the referee declared.

“Flygon!” Eldes cried, actually running out to his slave. “Are you all right?”

Lynn smiled at Eldes’ display, but I still just scowled like I frequently did.

“You did well, Flygon,” Eldes said, “have a nice rest.”

“See?” Lynn said as Eldes sent his fainted slave back into its Pokeball. “Eldes isn’t as bad as you think he is.”

“What I ‘saw’ was Eldes sucking up to his Flygon so it’ll still battle for him,” I spat.

Lynn’s smile quickly turned into a frown.

“Why are you so stubborn?” she asked.

“Why are you so stupid?” I retorted. “Besides, there’s a difference between being stubborn and being smart. I’m the latter.”

“You’re of a good heart, challenger,” Lyesainer smiled as he recalled his slave. “I—”

“The hell he is!” I snapped. “Eldes’ heart will only be good when your Gliscor slave finds out that it’s actually a mutated Clefable!”

“Skull!” Lynn admonished.

“Lynn, it’s all right,” Eldes said. “Skull doesn’t know any better.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snarled.

Eldes didn’t answer, but instead turned back to Lyesainer, who recovered from the interruption.

“Let us continue,” Eldes said.

“Indeed,” Lyesainer nodded. “Metagross, let’s go!”

Metagross seemed to be pretty popular as a slave, seeing as Lyesainer, Eldes, and Anabel all had a Metagross. Eldes paused for a moment, then, sent out his Magnezone slave.

“Eldes’ Magnezone versus Lyesainer’s Metagross!” the referee announced. “Let the battle begin!”

“I’m afraid Magnezone may not have as much of an advantage as you think,” Lyesainer said. “Metagross, Earthquake!”

“Magnezone, use Magnet Rise!” Eldes ordered.

The Magnezone surrounded itself with a yellow aura and levitated into the air, allowing the shockwaves and debris created by the Metagross’ attack to harmlessly sail under it. The Metagross then folded its legs up onto itself, launching itself into the air and preparing to attack.

“Metagross, use Hammer Arm!” Lyesainer ordered.

“Magnezone, use Thunder!” Eldes cried.

One of the Metagross’ front legs began to glow a bright red, and if that attack hit, it would probably be over for the Magnezone. Since the latter managed to shoot a massive bolt of lightning at the iron spider, however, the Metagross’ attack failed and the spider fell to the floor. Given the strength of a Magnezone’s electric attacks, the Metagross was pretty close to fainting. Add in the fact that it was now paralyzed, and things looked pretty grim for Lyesainer’s slave.

“Finish this up, Magnezone!” Eldes said. “Thunderbolt!”

The Magnezone pointed its two magnets at the Metagross, connected two electric bolts together, and fired them at the Metagross. Since it had no time to react (mainly because it was paralyzed), the Metagross was finished off with that last Thunderbolt.

“Metagross is unable to battle, Magnezone wins!” the referee declared.

Thank you very much, Captain Obvious.

“Wow, great comeback!” Lynn said.

“You really are his cheerleader, aren’t you?” I asked, causing Lynn to glare at me.

“Well done, Eldes,” Lyesainer complimented, recalling his Metagross slave. “Now, then…if you can win the next two rounds, you will defeat me. I don’t intend to make it easy for you, however. Toxicroak, go!”

Lyesainer’s next choice was a large blue-skinned humanoid frog. Since it was a frog, it had a red swelling-looking thing under its flat-toothed mouth. At the ends of each of its two arms was a crimson sickle, mounted just above the middle finger. The Toxicroak crouched as it stared with its yellow eyes, waiting for Eldes to pick his slave.

“A Toxicroak, is it?” Eldes said. “Very well, then. Go, Dusknoir!”

“He’s kidding, right?” I asked Lynn. “If that thing’s scared of its own shadow, how does Eldes expect it to fight?”

Before Lynn could answer, I answered myself.

“Oh, wait, that’s right,” I snorted. “That Dusknoir’s fear problems aren’t Eldes’ concern. All he wants is a pet battler that obeys his every command.”

“That’s not true!” Lynn snapped. “Eldes has complete faith and trust in Dusknoir. They share a really close bond, you know.”

“Good,” I said, “then Dusknoir can send Eldes down below when he’s finally dead.”

Lynn was probably at her breaking point by now, but before she could express any further irritation at me, the battle began.

“Eldes’ Dusknoir versus Lyesainer’s Toxicroak!” the referee announced, despite the fact that the only two spectators (me and Lynn) were actually paying attention to what was happening on the field. “Let the battle begin!”

“Toxicroak, use Shadow Ball!” Lyesainer cried.

“Dusknoir, counter with your own Shadow Ball!” Eldes cried.

The Toxicroak cupped its hands together and formed a ball of crackling darkness between them. Eldes’ Dusknoir slave did the same, though I could see its eye constantly glancing back and forth between its Shadow Ball and its opponent’s. Both Pokemon threw their attacks at the same time, creating a collision that spawned a giant explosion. Smoke billowed out and spread everywhere, greatly impairing everyone’s sight.

“Dusknoir, let’s take advantage of this opportunity!” Eldes cried.

“I think not! Toxicroak, jump!” Lyesainer commanded, though he was sounding a bit desperate.

The Toxicroak immediately sprang out of the smoke and high into the air, but the Dusknoir was completely gone. The frog began looking around frantically, searching for its opponent. Finally, the Dusknoir phased through the ground in front of the Toxicroak, and though it was face-to-face with its opponent, the Ghost-type looked unusually fearless.

“Finish this up, Dusknoir!” Eldes cried. “Use Psychic!”

The Dusknoir’s pink eye began to glow blue, like Eldes’ Metagross had done to me, the Toxicroak was surrounded with a blue aura. The frog was then flung across the arena, landing in the dirt on the other side of the field. Given that both of a Toxicroak’s types—Poison and Fighting—were vulnerable to Psychic-type attacks, the Toxic Mouth Pokemon was fainted instantly.

“Toxicroak, return,” Lyesainer said after the referee did his thing (which I’m ignoring because he essentially states the blindingly obvious). “You did well, Toxicroak. Take a nice, long rest.”

“If Eldes wins this next battle, he’ll get the sticker,” Lynn said.

“Wait, back up,” I interjected. “You’re telling me that Eldes is beating the crap out of both his and Lyesainer’s slaves…for something you find in a book for infant humans?”

“Not that kind of sticker,” Lynn corrected. “Each of the Go-Rock Frontier facilities has its own sticker. If a trainer gets all seven stickers, he or she will be eligible to compete in the Frontier’s Grand Championship.”

“I still say it sounds like crap,” I spat.

“Skull, it’s a very prestigious event,” Lynn said.

“And that would matter to me because…?” I countered.

“Eldes’ Snorlax versus Lyesainer’s Starmie!” the referee cried, serving a purpose for once. “Begin the match!”

Eldes had gone with his Snorlax, while Lyesainer went with a Pokemon resembling a ten-legged purple star with a red gem in the center. The Snorlax was awake and stamping its feet, while the Starmie was just standing there.

“You’ve done well so far, Eldes,” Lyesainer said.

“What did HE do aside from bark orders?!” I snapped.

“Skull!” Lynn admonished.

“Er, anyway,” Lyesainer said, again recovering from my interruption. “You’ve done well up to this point. Starmie is my most loyal partner, however, so you may find yourself outmatched.”

“We will see,” Eldes said. “Snorlax, use Gunk Shot!”

The Snorlax opened its mouth and spat a massive wad of purple slime at the Starmie, which dodged by flying into the air like a helicopter.

“Starmie, use Rain Dance!” Lyesainer cried.

The Starmie’s gem began to glow blue before a similarly-colored ball of energy shot into the air. The energy transformed into a huge black thundercloud, which began to pour rain onto the battlefield. Seeing as Marowaks aren’t that resistant to water, I started scowling more than usual with every drop that hit my skull and skin.

“Now, follow up with Thunder!” Lyesainer cried.

“Fight back with your own Thunder!” Eldes ordered.

Just as the Starmie fired off a giant bolt of lightning in a similar fashion to that of Eldes’ Magnezone, the Snorlax fired two separate bolts from each of its clawed hands. All three bolts crashed into each other, creating another explosion. This time, however, Eldes had his slave take the offensive more quickly, the Snorlax charging headlong through the smoke.

“Snorlax, use Seed Bomb!” Eldes cried.

While running, the Snorlax opened its mouth and fired a storm of seeds from it. The seeds exploded on contact with the Starmie, though it quickly recovered and soared into the air again.

“Starmie, use Hydro Pump!” Lyesainer ordered.

“Snorlax, use Hyper Beam!” Eldes cried.

With the knowledge that Rain Dance was boosting its Water-type attacks, the Starmie fired a giant blast of water from its uppermost leg. The Snorlax, however, opened its mouth again and fired an even bigger beam of yellow energy. The two attacks slammed into each other, but instead of creating a THIRD explosion, they just slammed into each other and struggled to gain dominance. In the end, however, the Snorlax’s Hyper Beam won out, cutting through the Hydro Pump and knocking out the Starmie.

“Yes!” Lynn cried. I just grunted.

“Congratulations,” Lyesainer said. “Give me your pass.”

Eldes handed Lyesainer something Lynn identified as a “Battle Pass”, and the Mountain Master stuck a stamp on it. Yeah, WONDERFUL reward there, Lyesainer.

“I wish you luck on your next challenge, Eldes,” Lyesainer said. “Farewell.”

****

After we finally got down from the Battle Mountain, the three of us found ourselves back in Rindo City’s Pokemon Center. I immediately climbed up on the table (though it took a few seconds) and talked to the Nurse Joy.

“How’s the Hitmonchan?” I asked.

“Hitmonchan is much better now,” Nurse Joy said, “but it still feels upset about what happened with its trainer.”

“That freak isn’t its problem,” I snarled. “Now that I know what I came here to know, I’m leaving.”

I hopped down and made for the door.

“Skull, wait!” Lynn cried.

“What do you want?” I snapped.

“Skull,” Lynn said, her expression becoming deadly serious, “Eldes told me you were a Shadow Pokemon.”

I rolled my eyes. Here we go again.

“I am NOT going to be ‘purified’ by you or any other damn human,” I snarled. “Leave me alone for Arceus’ sake.”

“Skull, please listen,” Eldes said. “I will not deny that the door to your heart is not shut as tightly as it once was. It is still not fully open, though, and that’s what worries me. I’ve raised you ever since you were a Cubone, and whether you will admit it or not, we were once frien—”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” I roared, charging towards Eldes, only for him to send out his Flygon and have it pin me to the ground.

“Skull, this is exactly what I’m talking about,” Eldes continued. “We both know that you are a strong battler. But I’ve seen you battle many times, Skull. Your tactics consist of sheer violence and aggression, occasionally using the environment and the characteristics of your opponent to your advantage. A battle is not to be simply won or lost, but it is a means of—”

“Get to the friggin’ point, Eldes,” I spat, trying to wriggle my bone-wielding arm free, but to no avail.

“Very well,” Eldes said. “Skull, life is not only about violence and hatred. I know that you know that, and I also know that you view Pokemon training as a form of slavery. Please, let me prove that you’re wrong, and that Pokemon and human truly can be friends.”

“You already know my answer,” I spat.

Eldes paused for a moment.

“I do,” he said, “and it is your decision.”

He recalled his Flygon slave.

“I won’t force you, Skull,” Eldes said. “But I do wish that you think about what I said.”

I just glared at him, turned, and left.

No, I’m not gonna give Eldes’ crap any thought. What, you think I’m going to end up like Lynn? Think again.

I went out of town and, judging by the signs, was on a path heading to a place called Okka Town…

…where I have a feeling that Galactic goons are waiting.

****

Lynn is owned by the Great Butler and is used with his permission.
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
Interesting chapter. While I do like Lynn's appearance and the continuation of Hitmonchan's story, though, I can't help but feel that the battle was a bit still and some of the interactions felt stale.

There's certainly nothing in particular wrong about it; I guess it's just a case of So Good It's Average, by TVTropes' terms.
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
Holy mother of crap, it's been almost a year since I updated. Hope no one's completely forgotten this.



Chapter 8:


Okka Town was quite a bit smaller than Rindo City, and in fact, it looked virtually nothing like the home to the Battle Mountain. Okka Town was a lot more rural, with wooden homes and berry-filled trees everywhere. As I came in, I even saw a giant Pelipper-shaped building, with a member of the pelican-like species flying out the window.

I looked at the sign near the building, which (according to the writing on it) indicated that the building was a post office. Thus, humans used this building (and apparently the Pelippers it was modeled after) as a means of transporting items to one another.

The Pelipper that flew out appeared to have a cache of white paper in its mouth, apparently letters that humans were sending to one another. I growled. Humans think that they’re better than Pokemon, but what does it say when they have to use a Pokemon to do work that they don’t have to do themselves?

It says that humans are damn lazy, that’s what it says.

“Now, see here, sir,” a voice came from within the Pelipper building. “We ordered that package from Fiore long ago, so why don’t you just hand it over?”

“But…you’re Team Galactic!” a scared voice replied.

Oh, great. The Galactic goons are back. What do they want with a package from some other region, though?

“No! Stop!” the worker cried as a crowd of Galactic grunts (one of them with a dark blue frog sitting on its shoulder) came out of the building. “Bring that back!”

“Now, why would we do that?” asked the grunts’ apparent leader, a hunched man with graying hair and orange glasses. “This package belongs to Team Galactic, and soon, so will the entire universe.”

“Don’t forget a well-deserved beating,” I called.

The leader turned, along with the grunts.

“Ah, so this is the infamous Marowak that ruined our plans in Sinnoh,” the new Commander said. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Pluto.”

“I thought it was Charon?” some grunt muttered.

“Silence!” Pluto (apparently also known as Charon) snapped before turning back to me. “So, you think you can try and stop us again, do you? We’ll see about that!”

Pluto waved away the grunts, one of which was holding a small brown package.

“Now, then, come at me so I can crush you utterly!” Pluto cackled.

…I think this guy needs to be checked into the nearest loony bin.

“Armaldo, go!” Pluto cackled.

Pluto’s first Pokemon was basically a giant blue shrimp sporting curving claws, tough body armor, and a long, thick, spiky tail. It had wide eyes on either side of its head, and white feather-like things coming from the sides of its neck. The Armaldo stamped its giant feet a few times, ready to show off its strength.

“Armaldo, begin with X-Scissor!” Pluto laughed.

Like with Ash’s Gliscor back in Port Haban, the Armaldo’s claws began to glow as it prepared to swipe at me. I dodged by leaping straight up, charging a Shadow End as I fell in order to deliver a fierce blow to the top of the Armaldo’s head. I jumped off as the stunned Armaldo began to stumble around. Pluto snarled, clenching his fists in frustration at his slave’s current inability to attack.

“Armaldo, snap out of it immediately!” Pluto cried.

“Let me help with that,” I said, launching a Rock Slide that pummeled the Armaldo mercilessly. At this point, the Armaldo was weakened, trying its best to keep from falling over face-first. I just walked up and whacked it with my bone, fainting it.

“Grr…Armaldo, return,” Pluto growled. “I must admit, you’re more powerful than I thought.”

“Compliments won’t save your sorry hide, Galactic,” I snarled. “Now, how about I give you a REAL reason to wear those glasses?”

“Unfortunately, you’ll have no time,” Pluto smirked. “A helicopter is on its way to pick me up. I, unlike Mars, know that my Shadow Pokemon will be entirely ineffective against you. Therefore, I believe I should now take my leave.”

Pluto turned and started to walk away.

“Hold it, hunchback!” I yelled and charged after him, only for a couple of Galactic grunts to get in the way.

“You’re not getting through us!” one grunt declared. “Go, Glameow!”

“Go, Golbat!” the other grunt cried.

Alongside a Golbat, a smaller, relatively more attractive version of a Purugly appeared. It had pink eyelids, and its tail was coiled like a giant spring. I just snorted.

“Seriously?” I said. “I cream your boss’ Armaldo slave, and you send out these two?”

“Golbat, use Shadow Ball!” one grunt cried.

“Glameow, use Slash!” the other grunt yelled.

As the Golbat formed a ball of dark energy in its massive mouth, the Glameow leapt forward with claws drawn. I grabbed the Glameow’s outstretched arm and used the Normal-type’s body to block the Ghost-type Shadow Ball, rendering it useless. I then spun around and threw the Glameow into the Golbat, knocking them both out.

“Golbat, return!” the first grunt cried.

“Glameow, return!” the other grunt yelled. “We have to leave, now!”

The first grunt managed to get away, but the second one wasn’t so lucky. I tripped him up with my bone, causing him to fall flat on his face. I hopped up on his back and put my bone against the back of his neck.

“Where’s Pluto headed?” I growled, pressing my bone against his skin.

“I’ll never tell you!” the grunt cried.

“You sure about that?” I asked, whacking him in the head. “Now, talk!”

“Your violence, it is not working,” said the one other remaining grunt, the one with the blue frog on his shoulder.

“You want it instead, frog-boy?” I asked.

“No, I do not,” said the frog grunt. “I do, however, have an idea that is better than the beating of a head. For me to be communicating my idea to you, however, I will be needing your captive to be—how shall I say—unconscious.”

“Do as he says, man,” said the Croagunk on the grunt’s shoulder.

I glared at the Croagunk grunt for a moment, then, whacked the grunt under me hard enough to knock him out.

“Thank you I being,” the weird Croagunk grunt said. “Allow me to be formally introducing myself.”

The grunt gripped the front of his uniform while simultaneously grabbing his hair, before somehow managing to rip the both of them off. And then I understood.

The human wasn’t a grunt at all, but in fact a dark-haired male in a long brown trenchcoat. He wore an official-looking brown suit underneath his coat, with a black tie on the shirt. He had big, piercing eyes just underneath the messy front of his hair.

“I am being a member of the International Police,” the human said. “I am Looker. It is what they call me.”

…just when you think you’ve seen it all, a human with a speech impediment comes out of nowhere and starts running his mouth at you.

“You are being the Shadow Marowak, correct?” Looker asked. “Fighting the Team Galactic, it is what you have been doing?”

I paused for a moment.

“I’d be a lot more able to answer those questions if you would talk like a normal human instead of a Pachirisu with a missing tooth,” I told Looker.

“THANK YOU!” cried the Croagunk. “Dude, you have no idea what it’s like being stuck with this guy and hear everybody ignore the way he talks! Really, how can you not notice it?!”

Looker himself seemed a bit puzzled for a moment, then, he stuck his finger in the air, coming to an apparent conclusion.

“Ah, you are still learning the language of the humans, yes?” Looker said. “That is why it is being difficult for you to be understanding me?”

I just slapped myself on the head.

“No, it’s—” I began, but then cut myself off. “Forget it. I need to go take out that Pluto creep.”

“You seek Pluto, alias Charon?” Looker asked.

“Gee, now how did you come to that conclusion?” I groaned. “Maybe your evidence came in the form of my yelling it to the sky for the past five minutes?”

“My conclusion, it came from your aggressive behaviors towards the Team Galactic,” Looker said, completely ignoring the second half of my sarcasm. “It also had been coming from the fact that Pluto, he was once being here, seeking a package that is containing a unique piece of machinery.”

“Good for you,” I snarled, beginning to walk away. “Now stop wasting my time, I need to go and beat Pluto’s hunch right out of his back.”

“I can be helping you find Pluto, if you will be helping me,” Looker suggested. “By assisting me in the capture of the Team Galactic, opportunities to be committing acts of violence you will be receiving, also defeating Pluto. Therefore, the both of us, we would be benefiting from this arrangement.”

I stopped for a moment. By now, Pluto was probably miles away, farther than I could get to on my own. But, much as I hated to hear this guy talk, I had to ask him something…

“Can you get me to Pluto?” I asked.

“Sure, bro,” the Croagunk nodded.

“Yes, I can be transporting you to Pluto and others of the Team Galactic,” Looker also nodded.

If that was true, then this weirdo is my only chance of getting to Pluto before he permanently gets away.

“Fine,” I said. “I’m in.”

****

Apparently, I didn’t really need Looker’s help.

Why?

Because Team Galactic had a base in Okka Town, to which Pluto had fled after encountering me.

The base was on the far side of town, away from prying eyes. Unfortunately for them, their attempts at remaining incognito were cancelled out by the huge golden “G” on the front door.

“Here is the base of the Team Galactic,” Looker said. “Members, there are, who are operating in Okka Town. Here is being where they are located.”

And I listened to this guy murder the concept of language for at least a half-hour, all for something I could have easily found myself…

I feel like an idiot.

“Great,” I said. “Now I can do this without you filling the air with your babble.”

“Reckless is not advised!” Looker cried. “Stealth, it is what we must be doing!”

“I’m done taking advice from someone who really needs a refund on his language lessons,” I snapped.

Ignoring whatever Looker had to say next, I charged up a Shadow End and ran to the front door. I bashed it in, finding a small group of Galactic grunts on the other side. Holding up my bone, I spun around and flung a Rock Slide at them, knocking them all down before they could bring out their Pokemon. Catching a glimpse of a wide-eyed Looker as I spun, I stopped and charged straight into the base.

“Marowak! Be waiting for me!” Looker yelled, attempting to pursue me.

“The name’s Skull, moron!” I snapped back, not having time to stop and correct him with more 'aggressive' methods.

I barreled through the base, knocking down any and all grunts I came across, until I reached a sealed door marked “CONTROL ROOM”. I stepped back a little, charging a Shadow End, and then burst through the door. I expected to find Pluto there, like Looker said.

The Hunchback of Team Galactic wasn’t there.

The moment Looker caught up, I slammed him to the ground. I had my bone on his neck, ready to break through it.

“You told me Pluto was here!” I snapped.

“I was believing that he was!” Looker cried, a bit of arrogance in his voice. “The truth, it is!”

I growled, then, got up off of Looker. I started to walk away, ticked at having been manipulated by this nutjob in a trenchcoat.

“Going where are you?” Looker asked in his weird way. “The Team Galactic, we must defeat here!”

“Do it yourself,” I growled. “I’m not here to be used by you.”

And with that, I left a dumbfounded Looker in Team Galactic’s base.

Pluto probably got away while Looker was dragging me into a pointless chase. Looks like I’ll have to hunt for Team Galactic outside of Okka Town…

…regardless of whoever gets in my way.

****
 

The Great Butler

Hush, keep it down
Welcome back!

This chapter was probably the best one yet; I did go back and look over the old chapters before reading the new one.

Skull's interactions with Looker are very amusing to be sure. The way he goes at it with Pluto is good, too.

I think this was the most balanced chapter so far, also. There was a good mix of plot and action here. I liked it quite a bit.
 

Morpher01

Bewear my power
Chapter 9 is now at hand.




Chapter 9:



Next on the list of towns to be traveled in Oceannia was Floria Town. It had numerous flowers and such surrounding it, and once or twice I saw people trading little cubes (called “Pokeblocks”) for certain items. There was one area, however, where my disinterest peaked.

A base for Pokemon Rangers.

I stared at the base for a moment, remembering the time I encountered a Pokemon Ranger in Sinnoh. His name was Jack Walker, but he was typically called “Jackie”. Knowing I was a Shadow Pokemon, Anabel handed me over to Jackie early in our journey through Sinnoh, hoping I could be purified. I managed to escape, but Jackie is still on my hit list if I ever see him again.

Just as I was about to turn away, a figure with brown hair and a green cloak came out of the Ranger base. I didn’t pay too much attention, seeing as he wasn’t wearing the red jacket that identifies a Pokemon Ranger. With this in mind, I moved through Floria Town and onto Oceannia’s Eastern Beach.

****

The Eastern Beach didn’t look too shabby. The water gracefully tapped the shoreline, and the sand felt pretty good on my feet. The sunset against the water didn’t kill the scene, either.

I couldn’t stick around and admire the scenery forever, though. I had to keep moving.

I turned and walked south, treading along the beach. As I walked, I began thinking. What was Team Galactic doing in Oceannia? How did they get Shadow Pokemon? What were they planning to do with some machine parts imported from some other region? More importantly, when would I have the chance to bash their heads in again?

I would probably find out the answers to those questions eventually.

And I have the distinct feeling that I’ll regret asking.

I felt my foot tap something, pulling me from my thoughts. I looked down and saw a blue egg sitting on the beach, occasionally washed by the water. The egg had a ring of yellow dots inside it, surrounding a red orb in the center.

Oh, great. Some irresponsible parent Pokemon decided to abandon their child. Wonder-freaking-ful. Well, guess I’d better try and find someone that can take care of it. Shouldn’t be too hard. After all, when I was a little Cubone, I was adopted by a family of Lapras.

I picked up the egg and put it on my shoulder. It was about the size of my head, but I managed to hold it with one hand…provided I didn’t start jumping around.

“Hey!”

…which will probably have to happen in a few minutes.

I turned, still holding the egg, and I saw the green-cloaked human from the Ranger base. Due to the cloak, I couldn’t see if he had any Pokeballs. Didn’t matter, because he probably had some slaves hidden in there regardless.

“What do you want?” I asked.

The human looked surprised that I could speak his language, but he recovered quickly.

“Look, I can’t explain right now,” the human said, already ensuring my lack of compliance, “but I need you to give me that egg.”

“Yeah, I’m stupid enough to give an unborn Pokemon to some human whose only intent is to turn it into his most obedient slave,” I snarled.

“That’s not what I want!” the human cried.

“And THAT is Tauros crap,” I spat back. “Now leave before I make an omelet out of your head.”

“Please, you have to listen to me!” the human cried. “The fate of Oceannia, maybe even the entire world, depends on that egg!”

“So that’s one more reason that I won’t give it to you,” I said. “Not doing well for yourself, are you?”

“He isn’t,” said a new voice, one that I recognized. “So that’s why I’m going to take that egg by force.”

Behind the green-cloaked human appeared a squad of Galactic grunts, led by one of Team Galactic’s commanders. This time, however, it wasn’t Mars. Instead, it was a woman in a dominantly white jumpsuit with black arms and black stripes across the left leg. Her hair was a dark purple, and tied into a small balloon-like tail at the top. Her lips were an equally dark purple, and curved into a sinister smile beneath glaring eyes.

“Long time no see, Marowak,” said Jupiter, the second of Galactic’s commanders.

“Team Galactic!” the green-cloaked human cried, jumping between me and Jupiter in an attempt to ‘protect’ me and the egg from her. “What are you doing here?!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Jupiter smirked. “We’re here for the same reasons as you…”

“We’ve gone over this already, Jupiter,” I interrupted. “If I’m not giving this egg to some stranger with a persistence problem, I’m definitely not giving it to you.”

“That’s something along the lines of what I wanted to hear,” Jupiter smirked. “I owe you some payback after you beat us in Sinnoh, so let’s get started. Crobat, come on out!”

Jupiter’s first choice was the same one that she went with the last time I battled her: a vaguely egg-shaped bat the size of an adult human. Like the majority of its species (aside from those over-hyped “shiny” Pokemon), the Crobat had a purple hue to its skin and menacing yellow eyes. As the evolved form of Golbat, the Crobat was bound to have some improvements. These came in the form of two pairs of fittingly bat-like wings, each pair flapping alternately. The main trade-off was that a Crobat’s feet were now little more than tiny claws coming out of its butt, but nobody really paid attention to those.

“Stay back!” the green-cloaked human ordered, shoving his arms out to his sides. “I’ll protect you!”

“Great idea, because I need it SO much,” I said sarcastically. “Seriously, don’t you have anything better to do?”

“This is what you get for interfering, kid,” Jupiter said to Green-cloak. “Crobat, use Cross Poison!”

The Crobat lunged forward, its two upper-most wings glowing a bright purple. It was headed straight for the green-cloaked human, but he didn’t get out of the way. Naturally, he got hit straight in the chest and was knocked onto the sand. He was semi-conscious and struggling to get up, and with this in mind, Jupiter and her Crobat turned to me.

“Hand over the egg, Marowak,” Jupiter demanded, “or you’ll suffer a similar fate.”

“Do I honestly have to repeat myself EVERY FREAKING TIME I MEET A DAMN HUMAN?” I asked. “The answer is, surprise surprise, STILL NO!”

“Then, surprise surprise, I’ll take the egg by force,” Jupiter smirked. “Crobat, grab the egg!”

The Crobat lunged at me, but even with the egg in hand, I was still capable of fighting. With my bone in my other hand, I lifted it up and summoned a Rock Slide. With four fragile wings and no real defense against the attack, the Crobat was mercilessly pummeled by the rocks. In a few short moments, the Crobat was fainted.

“Crobat, return,” Jupiter said as she recalled her Crobat. “Seems you’ve gotten even stronger since Sinnoh. Looks like I’ll have to bring out my little secret weapon a bit early.”

She took out another Pokeball, summoning a new Pokemon. This one was a shaggy mass of blue vines with two stubby black, crimson-tipped feet. Two long vine-like arms emerged from the sides of the vine mass, ending in finger-like crimson tips. In the center of the mass was a black hole with two eyes peering out from inside. To top it all off, this Pokemon had a familiar black aura.

A Shadow Tangrowth. Somehow, I’m not surprised.

“Tangrowth, grab the egg!” Jupiter ordered.

The Tangrowth shot its arms outward, extending them quickly enough to latch onto the egg. Again moving too quickly for me to react, the Tangrowth yanked the egg out of my grasp and back towards it. In response, I charged forward and slammed a Shadow End into the Tangrowth’s gut, knocking the egg out of its grasp and knocking the Tangrowth itself into Jupiter. With the egg up in the air, I used the Tangrowth as a springboard and leapt up into the air, snatching the egg and running away the moment I landed.

I looked back long enough to see several grunts lifting the Tangrowth off of Jupiter. The green-cloaked human had somehow disappeared.

“Get the egg, you idiots!” Jupiter cried. “I don’t care what you do about the Marowak, just make sure it never gets in our way again!”

As I charged into the woods, I heard a stampede of Galactic grunts giving chase. I had my bone in my mouth and the egg in both hands, which was pretty helpful considering that I had to weave in and out of the trees. The Galactic grunts were having more trouble, given their larger size and greater numbers. I looked back long enough to see a grunt stuck between two trees and some others struggling to get through some bushes.

And then I was distracted by a small flash of light coming from the egg.

Aw, crap…this egg’s gonna hatch soon, and the parents are nowhere in sight. If it hatches while I’m holding it, I’ll end up being seen as the baby’s parent and the real ones will be seen as strangers…but what’s worse is if that happens while Jupiter or that cloaked human is holding it. It’ll be completely oblivious to the kind of suffering it’ll be put through by either of them…

I managed to get into a small clearing, and somehow the cloaked human appeared right in front of me. I hefted the egg onto one shoulder, took my bone out of my mouth, and growled. This guy is way too persistent for his own good.

“Thank goodness you’re all right,” the human said, thinking I’d buy that kind of act.

“Where’d you come from?” I asked, wondering how he went from a bruised body on a beach to a human Ninjask. At that moment, the egg flashed again, and the human put on his best ‘concerned’ face.

“We’re running out of time!” the human said. “You have to give me that egg, right away!”

“For the umpteenth time, that’s not happening!” I yelled. “I need to get this egg back to its parents!”

“But, that egg is different!” the human cried. “It doesn’t have any parents!”

It was at this point that the last drops of what little creativity this human had were completely depleted.

“How dumb do you think I am?” I asked him.

“Pretty dumb, I’d say,” said Jupiter as she entered the scene from behind me, her Shadow Tangrowth by her side. “You have to be if you’re going to oppose us.”

“That so?” I said snidely, the egg flashing once more.

“The egg’s going to hatch!” Jupiter said, eyes widening. “Tangrowth, grab it immediately!”

The Tangrowth extended its arms out again, aiming to snatch the egg out of my hand like it did last time. This time, however, I was ready. I jumped on top of the arms, pinning them to the ground, and then ran on them towards the Tangrowth. Instead of slamming it with a Shadow End, however, I sprang off of its face and knocked it onto the ground once again. I landed back on the ground, egg still in hand…

…just in time to watch it flash for a final time.

The latest flash was brighter than the rest, temporarily blinding everyone present. When it died down, I was left with a strange Pokemon in my hand. It was small, about the size of a human infant, and appeared to have a torso made from a blue cloth. The spherical head and the balloon-like arms were also blue, as were the two long antennae sticking from the top of the head. The only things on this Pokemon that weren’t blue were its yellow eyes that had two yellow dots above them, as well as a smaller yellow dot below a red gem on its chest.

Predictably, when the newborn first came into the world, it started crying. I was more concerned, however, with what it was. After all, I’d never seen this Pokemon before.

“So, the Manaphy hatched in that Marowak’s arms…” Jupter snarled.

“Manaphy, huh?” I said to the small blue Pokemon. “Is that what you’re called? How come I’ve never heard of you before?”

“Manaphy is a legendary Pokemon,” the cloaked human explained. “As such, it’s incredibly rare, and also has great power within it.”

No wonder Team Galactic wanted it, then.

“Well, it doesn’t matter who or what hatched it,” Jupiter said, “we’ll be taking Manaphy anyway. It’s crucial to our plans, after all.”

“It might not be an egg anymore,” I said over the Manaphy’s crying, “but you’re still not having it!”

“Please, give Manaphy to me!” the cloaked human said. “I can take it somewhere safe!”

“Like a Pokeball?” I snarled. “Fat chance.”

“A Pokeball?” the human said, looking confused. “What are you…oh, I see. You think I’m a trainer, right?”

“You and almost every other slave-driving moron on the planet,” I answered.

“Well, then, let me clarify,” the human said, pulling off his cloak to reveal…

…you’re kidding…

…the uniform of a Pokemon Ranger?

His outfit looked the same as Jackie’s: black shirt, red jacket, red-and-black shoes, and black shorts with a yellow ring at the end of each leg. He had a device on his arm that looked like a small spherical UFO, apparently his Capture Styler. The glove he had the Styler on was grey with the middle and ring finger areas yellow, while his other glove was black with a red stripe on the back.

“My name’s Kellyn,” said the human, “and I’m a Pokemon Ranger!”

“What?!” Jupiter cried. “A Pokemon Ranger?!”

…that’s what he said, Captain Repetitive.

“Now do you believe me?” Kellyn said, kneeling down to my level. “I can and will take Manaphy somewhere safe, where Team Galactic won’t get it. I promise.”

“Let me think about it for a second,” I said, waiting exactly one second to finish. “Okay, I thought about it, the answer’s still no.”

“Sounds good to me!” Jupiter said. “Tangrowth, grab that Manaphy!”

Once again, I was too fast to react. The Tangrowth snatched the wailing Manaphy out of my hand with its extendable arms and brought the small Pokemon back to Jupiter. Kellyn gasped, but Jupiter smirked.

“We have what we came for,” Jupiter said. “Let’s get going.”

“Hold it, freak!” I yelled, but the Tangrowth stepped in front of me, blocking my way and allowing its master time to escape (despite the fact that Jupiter was essentially abandoning it).

“I’ll handle this!” Kellyn declared. “Capture ON!”

The little UFO on Kellyn’s hand shot out towards the Tangrowth, a beam of light trailing in its wake. The Styler circled the stationary Grass-type a few times, creating a ring of light around it. As the Styler accelerated, the ring became smaller, and quickly phased into the Tangrowth’s body, apparently putting it under Kellyn’s control.

“Capture complete!” Kellyn cried. “Now we can—”

Kellyn didn’t get a chance to finish his suggestion, the Tangrowth having lashed out with one arm and struck him in the head. Huh. Guess those Capture Stylers only work on non-Shadows. Oh, well. I needed the exercise, anyway.

I glared at the Tangrowth, which stared back blankly in response. I made the first move, throwing a Rock Slide at it. Despite the Grass-type’s attempt to shield itself using its arms, it nonetheless got pummeled by a barrage of rocks. I followed up with a Shadow End to the gut, causing the Tangrowth to stumble somewhat, but this time, it managed to prop itself up using its arms.

The Tangrowth began to counter by charging its black aura, causing it to grow into the familiar size required for a Shadow Break. The Tangrowth lumbered towards me, but I leapt aside, grabbing one arm and yanking in an attempt to pull the Tangrowth off balance.

It didn’t happen. The arm was more elastic than I thought, and the Tangrowth just flung me into a tree.

Ow.

The Tangrowth prepared another Shadow Break, attempting to crush me against the tree. I just waited until the Tangrowth (slow as it was) got close before jumping aside, allowing the Tangrowth to crash into the tree. The Grass-type fell onto its back, barely conscious. I charged some Shadow energy into my bone and slammed it into what little was visible of the Tangrowth’s face, finishing it off.

Around this time, Kellyn started to come to, groaning all the way. He got up as he held his head.

“That was some hit,” Kellyn said as he rubbed the spot where the Tangrowth had hit him. He then saw me and the defeated Tangrowth. “You beat that Tangrowth all by yourself?”

“What do you think happened?” I snapped. “A meteor spontaneously came out of the sky and hit it between the eyes?”

“I guess I underestimated you,” Kellyn said, crossing his arms. “But, like it or not, you need to learn to start trusting humans.”

“Why would I trust the species that constantly enslaves Pokemon and forces them to beat the living tar out of one another?” I scoffed.

“If you had trusted me earlier, Manaphy wouldn’t have fallen into Team Galactic’s hands!” Kellyn cried.

WHAT?!

Roaring, I leapt at him and slammed him to the ground, pinning my bone against his neck.

“Are you trying to pin the blame on me?!” I roared. “You’re the one who kept getting in my way while I was trying to get the egg to safety!”

“I was acting on the orders of my superior, a woman named Judy! She wanted me to get the egg before Team Galactic did!” Kellyn claimed. “That reminds me, she’s not going to like this!”

I snorted and got off of him.

“What makes you think I care?” I said as I walked away, leaving Kellyn behind.

So…because Kellyn kept getting in my way, Team Galactic has a newborn legendary Pokemon in their possession. Plus, if what Jupiter said is true, then she and her cohorts just got a critical piece of their puzzle.

Damn…this isn’t going well. First Pluto runs off with machine parts, then, Jupiter runs off with a Manaphy. What in the world are they planning?

Guess I’ll have to move faster, now…

…because if I don’t, Team Galactic will win.

*****
 
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