Rin

[Sem]

Second fic~


-Chapter 1-

Late afternoon sun warmed the backs of two trainers as they sloshed out of the water.

“Thanks, Starmie,” Sem said as he pulled out a dive ball and returned his beloved water-type.

“T-that was very fast,” she looked up at Sem, ignoring the cackling she heard coming from the Sableye. “You do that every time you need to get across water?”

Sem nodded. “Yes. It’s a very handy trick, combining Psychic and Surf.”

The whole trip had taken them a mere fifteen minutes, not including the other half hour it took to cross the island in the center of the lake that bore the entrance to Mt. Mortar.

Elvia was gliding around and scanning the immediate area for signs of anything hostile, which confused Fida a bit. Elvia had never done that sort of thing before.

The teenaged boy stood, his left arm held his right, staring at Fida. She returned his gaze with a quizzical look.

“You going to release that Vileplume? I'm curious to see what it does,” he responded.

“Oh, right!” Fida exclaimed as she pulled out the Pokéball. She had completely forgotten about the Vileplume, still excited from her trip across the water. She pressed the button on the ball, releasing the Grass-type onto the ground before her.

After shooting a quick glare at Fida, Vileplume began feeling the ground with its feet, roots going in and out as if sampling the soil. The roots sank in and it planted itself there, now taking the time to look around, ignoring the humans completely.

Elvia floated back to Fida’s side, as she still wasn’t entirely sure about the Vileplume, nor entirely sure of Sem for that matter.

“Well… here you are…” Fida said to the Vileplume.

The giant flower pokémon looked at Fida then for a moment then but soon turned away, giving a simple nod. Uprooting itself, it began walking away towards the cluster of trees not far from the road.

“Well there it goes…” Fida muttered as she watched the red petals vanish into the greenery.

“Maybe…” Sem narrowed his eyes before turning them away and towards the continuation of Route 42. He brought his hand to cover his eyes and looked at the sun. “Well, if I keep walking until night falls then I should be in Mahogany by tomorrow afternoon,” he turned to Fida and waved. “Nice to meet you.” With that he turned and began walking away - his Sableye gave an unsettling smile as a goodbye.

Fida bit her lip and looked at Elvia. “W-wait!” she shouted.

“Hm?” he turned his head and looked back at the young girl who was twirling a piece of her hair around her finger, looking at the ground in a sheepish manner.

“You’re going to Mahogany too?” she asked. He nodded to confirm what he had already stated. “M-mind if we go together?”

Sem's brow rose for a moment before he shrugged, the corners of his mouth turning up into a tiny smile. “Sure, why not?”

“Thank you!” Fida thanked him as she jobbed to catch up with Elvia gliding smoothly along the ground behind her.

“Why are you traveling alone anyway? You’re rather young,” he inquired as he continued on his way with Fida in tow.

"It's a long story," was the girl's only reply.

-------

The duo set up camp under a full moon by in an indent in a cliff-side. Sem went off to gather wood while Fida organized the campsite and set up her sleeping bag.

Sem returned and placed the wood in an orderly fashion in an already existing fire-circle, evidence that they weren’t the first people to use that particular spot as a campsite.

Sableye jumped down from his trainer’s shoulder and with a quick snap of his fingers a small blue fireball formed at the tips. He directed the Will-O-Wisp at the wood and soon the deepening darkness of the campsite was penetrated with a warm orange glow.

“Thank you, Sableye.” Sem said as the Ghost/Dark-type scampered off, probably in order to find some food.

Fida scanned the Sableye with her PokéDex, Tara’s PokéDex, as he went off, adding the creature’s data into its database. She closed the device with a sigh and put it away. “So, what are you making?” she asked as Sem put a tiny water-filled container over the fire.

“Instant noodles,” he smirked as he stirred in the noodles. "Not exactly five-star, but it works. It's a wonder I haven't gotten tired of the stuff yet."

“Oh…” was Fida’s almost silent reply as her eyes glazed over, giving her a distant look. Sem looked over at her and continued stirring.

“But…” he added. “I try to make things a little different each time I cook it. I found some berries today and picked them, I’ll probably have those on the side just for variety.” He sat silent for a moment. “I know you probably have your own food, but you’re welcome to join me,” he looked at her and nodded towards the steaming container and smaller container of berries at his side.

“Thank you,” Fida nodded trying to smile, though it looked more like a grimace. She looked over to see what Elvia was up to, but found that her guardian ghost hadn’t left her side. She pulled out Kieran’s Pokéball, Sem noticed that it was a Dusk ball, and she released the tiny black bird, allowing him the chance to walk around and scavenge for food; the hair-tie around his neck glinted in the firelight. Sem’s Sableye had returned by then and looked on in minor interest.

“All ready,” Sem declared as he poured the soup into two smaller bowl-like containers and passed the first to Fida, as well as a handful of purple berries.

“Thank you,” Fida repeated before taking a mouthful of noodles.

The only sound for the first few minutes of eating was the crackling of the fire. It was a peaceful night, barely anything could be heard from the trees around them. They were protected nicely against the wind because of their location. Fida wondered if Sem found the silence awkward as she did, but looking at him, he seemed perfectly content in the silence.

“So,” Sem stared after swallowing a berry. “I take it you’re not native to Johto?”

“Oh, yes I am," Fida corrected as she popped a berry into her mouth as well, chewing it thoroughly.

“Oh, sorry,” he apologized. “Johto’s pretty nice from what I’ve seen, and I've seen quite a bit."

“And where are you from?” Fida asked.

“Hoenn,” He replied before taking a drink of water. “Was born in a tiny town called Pacifidlog - a place that’s out in the middle of the ocean.”

“Really?” Fida asked with a surprised expression.

“Yep, it’s pretty neat, but I’ll go into further detail later,” he capped the bottle. “Though, I may have been born in Hoenn, I've spent about just as much time in Sinnoh. My parents have a second home up in Snowpoint.”

Fida pursed her lips for just moment. “Wow, that sounds nice. Your family must be rich,”

“Heh,” Sem smirked. “Not really. The house up in Snowpoint is much nicer than the one in Pacifidlog, nicer in that it's simply a better house. The Pacifidlog house is nice too though, I like both places.”

A loud crunching sound cut into the discussion.

Fida shifted her gaze and saw Sableye sitting by Sem with a chunk of rock in his mouth. He was chewing the thing like it was cookie or something, and made it look just as soft.

“Sableye eat rocks?” Fida asked, amazed.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much the only thing in their diet besides water, which he prefers with a bit of dirt in anyway,” Sem answered. "Saves me money on food too."

“How long have you known him?”

“Oh… thirteen years now; I was very young, four if I recall, so yeah, thirteen. Too long for my liking either way.” He flicked the Ghost-type’s ears. Sableye stopped chewing and turned his head at an unnatural angle his trainer, and gave him a look and a grin that effectively said, ‘Sleep with one eye open tonight.'

Fida giggled a bit, despite being a bit grossed out by the Sableye's head movement. She noticed that Kieran had also returned. “Did you find something, Kieran?” she asked.

The bird simply nodded as he trotted towards her, his gaze was fixed on Sableye and the light that glinted off all of the creature's gems.

“Here,” Fida said as she outstretched her hand towards the bird, offering him her remaining three berries. Kieran seemed annoyed to turn his gaze away from the dual Ghost/Dark-type, but quickly plucked the berries from Fida’s hand nonetheless.

“Which reminds me…” Sem said as he took the remaining berries in the container. He used his fork and poked holes through each in turn and refilled the container that had held the noodles and placed it over the fire again.

“Once this boils I’m going to throw these in, should get us some sort of tasty beverage in return,” he explained.

Once the water had boiled he put the berries in as he said and waited a few minutes, then he served the concoction to Fida and himself. It turned out to taste very good, Fida thought so at least.

They talked a bit more while they drank before putting the fire out and made off to their sleeping bags; Sem settled in across from Fida on the other side of the smoldering fire pit.

Before turning in for the night Fida and Elvia went off for a stroll not far from the campsite.

“He reminds me of Tara,” Fida sighed to Elvia who floated along side her. “He’s like her in some ways.” She hadn't even known the boy for a day, but she was picking up on things about him already that made her remember her friend.

Elvia nodded in agreement, but sent thoughts into Fida’s head, images of instances and ways where he was not like Tara.

“Yeah… he’s different too.” Fida said as she gazed up at the moon. “It’ll just take some getting used to, but I like him, don’t you?”

Elvia nodded once more, which meant yes, though it was the kind of yes where you could have easily stuck a ‘for now’ afterwards.

The duo returned a few minutes later and found the older boy already asleep, though his little purple friend was not; his gemstone eyes glinted at them in the darkness, and they could barely make out the wicked smile etched onto his face.

“Him I’m not so sure about,” Fida whispered before settling in her sleeping bag.

-------

Fida was awoken by the sounds of Sem packing the campsite. She yawned silently and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she rose to a sitting position, squinting her eyes so as to not be blinded by the morning sun that showered its rays upon them.

Elvia was moving about the area, helping out with whatever she could, and it seemed that Kieran had just returned from another food-venture.

Fida got herself onto her feet and stretched. She went into the woods to change her clothes and to wash her face in the stream that ran past. Once she returned she began packing her things and soon enough the place looked just as it did when they arrived yesterday, ready for the next weary traveler.

“Breakfast today will be fruit,” Sem stated as he handed Fida some apples. “Courtesy of a tree I found this morning.” He took a bite of a juicy-looking red apple and offered some to Sableye, who looked at his trainer like he was insane and continued nibbling on his rock.

“Ready, Kieran?” Fida asked her Murkrow who was perched on a low branch on the nearest tree, overlooking everything. He clicked his head towards Fida and nodded, allowing himself to be enveloped in the dark matter of the Dusk ball.

“We have some leftover berry-tea-stuff from last night,” Sem informed her as he handed Fida a canteen. “Though, now it’s more like juice, but still good.”

“Thank you,” Fida nodded as she accepted the bottle and took a drink.

The duo set off, continuing their trip towards Mahogany Town. Elvia drifted from side to side, always keeping watch.

“So, you have a Mismagius,” Sem noted after swallowing the bite of apple he had taken. “And a Murkrow as well. And while I can’t say anything about the Murkrow, Elvia looks particularly strong, yet you’re very young," he looked down at her. "so, what’s your secret?”

“Well…” Fida began, looking down and trying to keep her voice light. “Before I met you, I was traveling with another trainer; she helped me a lot.”

Sem waited to hear more, but after a few moments it became obvious to him that that was all the pig-tailed girl cared to say. “Well that was nice of her.”

The two decided to skip lunch and eat an early dinner once they arrived in Mahogany, if only to get there faster and to not have to stop. Fida didn't have much of an appetite lately anyway.

The rest of the trek went by rather quickly, though Fida lamented the fact that Sem did not appear as chatty as Tara was; much of the day passed in long silence, save for the scraping of feet on dirt and the sounds of nature around them. It wasn’t until late that afternoon that they saw signs of other people.

“You’re a monster!” came the bitter remark of a young trainer, he was cradling a Furret in his arms; its breathing was very erratic and inhaled with gasps, its eyes had rolled up into their sockets.

“Hmph,” was the reply of the ‘monster’; a purple-haired (obviously dyed), male who seemed to be in his late teens. He wore black jeans and a black t-shirt that bore a purple skull and crossbones. He wore a purple long-sleeved shirt under the black one and the shoe laces on his black shoes were also the same purple. He towered over the younger trainer.

“Don’t be mad because you lost,” the purple-teen shrugged, a smug expression on his face, recalling a glob-like creature that was also purple. The stench of it was strong enough to reach Fida and Sem.

“I never even agreed to battle with you!” the boy countered, very red faced with anger. “You forced me!”

“Take your pet to the Pokémon Center, and pray that it’s not full,” he smiled darkly and walked away, the boy cursed under his breathe in response and ran off as well.

“What was that about?” Sem murmured as he looked at each trainer in turn. Sem and Fida were close enough to hear every word that was said.

“I dunno,” Fida answered, looking concerned.

“Well, that kid with the Furret ran off in the direction we’re headed, I’d guess that behind that knoll of trees up ahead is Mahogany.” Without another word he began walking again, following the boy.

He turned out to be right; as soon as the trees cleared the town of Mahogany lay before them, brilliantly lit by late afternoon sun, a large lake shimmered in the distance to their left.

On the streets people walked about, doing errands or running home with groceries. The combined smell of countless dinners made the duo's stomachs growl. They strolled through the quaint gate of the town, tired and ready for some food and rest. Elvia made herself invisible at this point, covering Fida in her presence, but otherwise remaining unseen.

Everything seemed in order, though the pair did notice quite a few police officers as they walked down the streets, more than what was normal. Despite the air of normalcy about the town, there was a tension present as well. They both quickened their pace on their way to the clinic.

It was an older center, the doors were not automatic and the outside of the building looked worn. Before the duo even stepped inside they new there was something going on inside.

As soon as Sem pushed open the door a flood of voices and sounds rushed their ears. There were trainers everywhere, each with a face of concern and stress, and even anger that matched the face that boy from earlier had had. Pokémon lay out on mats on the floors, their trainers by their sides. Furniture had been pushed up against the walls and the white floors seemed completely covered by trainers and Pokémon. Odd scents hovered in the air.

“Miss Joy will my Elekid be ok?!”

“Nurse Joy please tell me that my Raticate will be fine!”

“Nurse Joy please do something about my Noctowl!”

“We’re doing everything we can!” a distraught nurse croaked in response, repeating the same answer to them all in turn. Her shoulders sagged and there were dark bags under her eyes, and her hair was not in the pristine condition Joy-hair usually was. “Sir, please, just sit down!”

There was a Blissey by the nurse’s side, instructing people to sit and telling a few Chansey where to place certain Pokémon. The Blissey and Chansey also looked very concerned and stressed, and when that happened, you knew something bad was happening.

“What on earth is going on…” Sem muttered, looking left and right as he walked through the maze of people and mats. Fida stuck close to him, observing the different Pokémon on the floor. Some had very awful burns, while others seemed unable to move at all. Few had parts of their bodies completely frozen, and others exhibited the same symptoms of the Furret from before.

“Sir, do you have any injured pokémon?” Sem found himself being asked by Joy.

“No, ma’am, and neither does she,” he nodded towards Fida.

“Oh, god,” the nurse replied simply. Perhaps it was out of thanks, or the stress of the situation, either way she was not happy. She held a hand to her forehead and sighed deeply.

There was ding from behind the counter.

The woman jolted to the computer that had dinged and began typing furiously. Sem and Fida walked over behind the counter and stood over her shoulder, seeing that a video link was open. Another Joy was on the screen, though she looked healthy and rested.

“I’m just not able to cope with all of these patients! The center’s just not big enough,” the Mahogany nurse blurted out. “These conditions are bad and it takes too long to cure each individual one. Simple medicines and the healing machine are useless!” she leaned forward, resting her elbow on the desk and held her head.

“We have some room here,” the other nurse replied, looking concerned.

“I can’t tell the trainers that their pokémon are being sent to Blackthorn! They’d throw a fit knowing they’d have to go through the Ice Path.”

“I’ve already contacted Claire and she’s willing to help. She can ferry trainers over the mountain, she can’t take very many at a time but it’ll be faster.”

“All right,” the Mahogany nurse agreed. “I’m going to start transporting them as soon as possible, whatever you can’t take will go to Ecruteak.”

The Blackthorn nurse nodded and the link was closed. Nurse Joy got up out of the seat and grabbed a sheet of stickers from within a drawer.

“Please move or take a seat,” she murmured to Sem and Fida irritably. “I have a lot of work to do.”

“Let me help you," Sem said. “I work in a lab and I know how these transport systems work.”

“Fine,” The woman nodded. “Good idea, other nurses won't arrive to help me until tomorrow.” She ran her hands over her uniform, straightening it out and erasing wrinkles in the fabric. She stood and faced the rest of the trainers from behind the counter. “All right everyone, I need your attention!” she said loudly.

The loud chatter continued for a few moments but eventually died down with the help of shushes and waving from the nurse.

“It is very important that you listen to me!” she shouted. The room quieted down and it was actually silent, save the labored gasps of some of the Pokémon. “All right! This center is not big enough to help all of you-” she was immediately met with a wall of yells and panicked cries. After a few moments of more shushing it was quiet again. “I’m going to need to transport your pokémon to the Blackthorn center- wait, wait!” she had to say after loud growls started to rise out of the crowd. “For those of you who don’t have transport or are unwilling to pass through the mountain, the Blackthorn gym as offered to help in taking you there.”

There were less murmurs and opposing words. The trainers were all listening. Most of them realized that no matter the cost they would do anything to help their companions.

“I will be passing out these sheets.” She said as she handed one to the nearest trainer. “Please write down your name, species name of your Pokémon, nickname if it has one, and gender. Return your pokémon to their Pokéballs and place the sticker on it. We will be coming around to collect them.”

The noise started up again as people scrambled around for stickers, pens, and their Pokémon.

While Sem fired up the transport machine Joy, Fida, and the Blissey and Chansey were gathering Pokéballs from the trainers. Sem placed the spheres on the conveyor belt as he received them; each of them disappeared in a brilliant flash of white light.

Within thirty minutes the Pokémon on the floor were taken care of, the last of which were sent to Ecruteak. The only trainers left were trainers who had Pokémon in actual rooms.

Nurse Joy collapsed into her chair and sighed so deeply it sounded like she was crying. “Thank you for your help,” she managed to say.

“I was happy to,” Sem nodded.

Fida sat with them. She had been rather busy gathering Pokémon from trainers and helping the nurse to tell them what to do. Trainers who had no transportation of their own waited outside for the arrival of their draconic transports.

“What’s going on here?” Fida asked.

“It started a few days ago.” The nurse half-said, half-moaned. “Cases of severe conditions; burns, paralysis, poison, even freeze and sleep.” She shook her head. “There isn't a trainer in town that hasn't been caught by it, or any person just traveling through, they got everyone.”

“Who?” Sem questioned.

The nurse shrugged and looked at him. “They just call themselves, The Ailments.”

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 2-

“The Ailments?” Sem repeated.

“Yes,” the nurse nodded. “A group of trainers who are skilled in inflicting status conditions, to use the technical term for them. Poison, paralysis, burns.”

“So… all the Pokémon in this center are either poisoned, paralyzed, or burned?"

“Frozen as well,” Joy added. “and I’ve even got one that won’t wake up.” She sighed. “They’re not just normal trainers; the way they act, like a bunch of sadists or something,” she said in disgust and rose up out of the chair she was in. “It’s not just a different way of battling for them; it pleasures them to see Pokémon like this. Makes them feel good to think, 'Yeah, I did that.'"

“We’ll help however we can, Nurse Joy,” Fida reassured her.

Joy smiled softly in response; her tiredness vanished for an instant. “Thank you very much.” Then she walked away from the main lobby of the center to the back where all the rooms were. “Have to get to work on the ones we still have in the center,” she called back to them, the Blissey and two Chansey skipped after her with Sem and Fida right behind.

The first room held a Flaaffy. The wool-Pokémon lay on its back and was asleep. Much of its wool was missing, shaven off. There was gel on the bare skin that glistened under the white light of the room, tender red flesh could be seen just about everywhere on the body. The orb at the end of its tail flickered weakly.

“Here’s one of our worst burn victims,” Nurse Joy sighed as she checked the equipment connected to the Electric-type - a steady rhythm of beeps were signs that the creature was stable. “Now that the center’s not overflowed with patients I can take more time with the ones left,” she said as she dipped a cloth into a bowl of cool water. “Prep the other patients please, Chansey,” she asked her assistants as she began rubbing away the gel from the Flaaffy’s skin and both Chansey left the room.

The Flaaffy’s face winced each time the cloth touched the skin, its eyes opening just barely into slits. After a few minutes all the burned areas were cleaned of all the ointment. As if on cue the Blissey stood by the Pokémon and placed her hands on the wounds and began to use Sing softly, lulling the Flaaffy back to sleep as a light began to surround the Blissey’s hands. The Sing turned into a different song and the light began to take hold of the sheep Pokémon, concentrating itself on the wounds and intensifying in brightness.

The chiming continued for another minute, the light flowing around the body of the patient, as if scouring the entire surface for the chance to purge any injury. The light faded away and the melody stopped, the Blissey took a step back, breathing heavily. The effect of the resonance was immediately noticeable - the burns were gone entirely and new skin was rapidly replacing that which had been damaged by the burns.

“Heal Bell,” Nurse Joy explained as she covered the flaaffy with a crisp white sheet and exited the room with Sem, Fida, and the Blissey following behind. “The only problem is that Blissey can only use it a few times before completely tiring out,” she continued, their footsteps echoing through the clean hallways as they reentered the lobby. "It takes too much energy."

“You may see your Flaaffy now,” Joy chimed to a female trainer in the room. Her gloominess was blown away from her face instantly as she rushed to see her Pokémon with tears of relief in her eyes.

“How many patients are there?” Fida asked as she leaned against a wall.

“We only have twelve rooms, so twelve patients.” She answered.

“Can’t the Chansey do the same thing as Blissey?” Sem questioned.

“No,” Nurse Joy shook her head, her hair-loops flopped around. “They aren’t trained to do many advanced moves, only the Blissey each center receives can do things like that. They’re specially bred to do so.”

Sem nodded and turned to face Sableye, who had stayed very silently on his right shoulder since they arrived. He was looking outside through the doors with his diamond-like eyes, his ears twitched. Sem turned to see what it was.

There was a commotion outside, the outside trainers waiting to be picked up were yelling angrily towards an individual making their way towards the center.

“No…” Nurse Joy objected silently.

The doors were pushed open and small figure walked in, the eleven trainers left in the center perked up to see what was going on. It looked to be a girl, only a bit older than Fida. She had striking icy blue hair and sharp blue eyes that peered out mercilessly from their sockets embedded in smooth, pale face. She wore a black top and a black tiered skirt that went down and hid her feet. She wore a long-sleeved top under the black one which was the same color blue as her hair. A blue snowflake was etched into the black shirt. All in all she looked like the purple-teen from before.

She walked into the lobby with confidence in her stride and stared at the three of them in turn with a sweet, yet terribly corrupt smile on her face.

“What are you doing here?” Nurse Joy demanded. Blissey stood near her and showed her own displeasure very clearly.

“What? I’m just seeing how the Pokémon are doing," she answered innocently. “It’s becoming very boring without anyone to battle,” she giggled softly, putting a hand to her mouth.

“You should leave,” the nurse responded, narrowing her eyes.

“And who’s going to make me?” she asked, looking around. “You?” she asked Fida, who was looking at the strange blue girl very sternly.

The air around Fida shifted and bent, Elvia appeared at Fida’s side instantly, looking at the girl with an intense glare.

“If she doesn’t, I will,” Sem interjected. Sableye cackled in a way that suggested he would giggle with glee at this girl’s destruction, of course, that’s what any of his cackles towards anyone sounded like.

“Oooh," she purred. "Finally some people who aren’t afraid,” the girl smiled. “That’s more like it,” she said as she pulled out a Pokéball and released what was inside into the center.

The white flash morphed into a strangely shaped creature that hovered above the ground. It was mostly white with purple markings on the head, which also had two horns of ice. There was a red band around its slender body that made it resemble a kimono, the bottom of the body flowed out into icy, ghost-like wisps. Long ghostly arms dangled at its sides as it stared coldly about the room with purple eyes.

Fida had no idea what the creature was but wasn’t about to take the time to pull out Tara’s PokéDex and check. She could feel the hostility in the room, the glares of the trainers towards the girl, and the girls own sadism smoldering in her eyes. Fida, like everyone else, wanted to the girl to leave.

As if reading Fida’s thoughts Elvia hovered out before the Pokémon, ready to defend.

“Stop!” The nurse shouted but was ignored.

"I'm not doing anything!" the girl grinned. "She's the one with a Pokémon facing me," she pointed at Fida. "I plead self-defense."

In the following second a shadow appeared behind the blue girl that slowly formed into Sableye. The Ghost/Dark type quickly climbed up the girl’s back and held a glowing claw to her neck, glowing with the ghostly power of Shadow Claw.

“She said stop,” Sem repeated Nurse Joy’s words. Fida and several others shot him a look of alarm as his Sableye's claws lingered only centimeters away from the young girl's neck.

“This is a hospital,” The irritated Joy said through gritted teeth.

“So leave now and take your Froslass with you,” Sem warned.

The girl gritted her teeth and held her head away from the claw of a giggling Sableye. “I'm not stupid enough to start anything here,” she hissed as Sem motioned for Sableye to relinquish his hold on her. "The police will be here any minute," she continued, rubbing her neck and fixing her hair. "I know you're just stalling me with a battle, knowing full well about that little red button the nurses have," she looked at Sem and sneered. "I have better things to do than be arrested." With that the Froslass rushed back to her trainer, taking her hand and running off to the side. They vanished through the wall in a puff of snowy powder just as few police officers rushed inside.

"She's outside beside the building!" Nurse Joy pointed in the direction the girl had fled.

Sableye returned to his trainer’s right shoulder with a content smile as Sem sighed. “Well that was close.”

“Yes,” Joy agreed with a tired nod, holding her head.

The doors of the center were pushed open again and everyone looked to see who it was that had entered. In came a woman with teal colored hair worn short, strands of it came out from under her cap. She was in a blue police uniform and a gun holster clung to her hip. Beside her was a large red and beige-furred canine, as big as a Rapidash, and went into a sitting position by the door.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked, scanning the room. She was answered by many nods, yes, ma'ams, and yes, Officer Jennys. With a curt nod she walked forward towards Nurse Joy, her heels clacked against the tile.

"Any luck?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Mm," the policewoman nodded. "Caught two of them today, I've brought them so that they can bring their victims back to normal." With that the woman swiped a walkie-talkie from her belt with a white-gloved hand and spoke into it. "Bring them in."

In a matter of seconds the doors opened again and two more officers stepped into the clinic along with two youth. The Arcanine did not move from where he sat, being vigilant, but kept his eyes on the two children. The kids were immediately recognizable as belonging to the group that was terrorizing the town. One was a boy, no older than fifteen with a short frame. His hair, long-sleeved undershirt, and shoe laces were the color orange, orange that matched the three question marks on his black over-shirt. The other was a girl of about the same age, long pink hair that matched her undershirt, and the heart on her chest. Both of them glowered at the police and Nurse Joy.

A mixture of both relief and bitterness crossed the nurse's face when she saw them. "Follow me," she instructed. The two officers and the two Ailments followed briskly after the nurse as she led them to the back in order to have them undo whatever had been done to a trainer's Pokémon. Officer Jenny followed as well, taking another Pokéball from her belt and instructed her Fire-type to stay put.

They were all back in a matter of minutes and the two criminals were led out of the center in cuffs. Officer Jenny saluted Nurse Joy before leaving herself, informing her that she would return if they caught anymore of the suspects.

“I should go onto the next patient,” Joy said to herself and Blissey after Jenny had left with her Arcanine. Sem and Fida followed her.

The next patient was Golbat completely incapable of moving a single muscle in its body - the sole thing holding it to the world was a breathing machine which hummed silently behind the metronomic beeps of the other equipment. The bat-Pokémon was the victim of an incredibly powerful Thunder Wave according to its trainer.

Blissey did the same as before, the chiming filled the room and light completely engulfed the Golbat.

When the light and song had faded away Nurse Joy waited until she saw the Poison-type breathing again, then she reached over and shut the breathing machine off. Within moments the Golbat twitched its eyes and opened them, flexing its wings as if using them for the first time.

Blissey sat down on a stool and breathed heavily. It was the same story for the next few more patients and then Blissey was unable to do anymore and went to rest, putting one of the Chansey in charge.

Sem and Fida had taken a seat out in front on a couch, listening to the seven remaining trainers. Nurse Joy was off doing whatever she could for the rest of the patients while Blissey rested.

“I wonder what they’ll do about those people.” Fida wondered.

"The police will take care of them," Sem answered.

"They're not doing a good job," one girl spoke up. "The Ailments manage to get away most of the time. Two are down finally after almost a week, but that leaves six still out there."

"They tell us that if the trainers manage to beat them then they'll leave," another added.

"Yeah, but then they'll just go to another place and to the same thing!" another retorted.

"Get's them out of our hair at least!" they shot back.

"How do they make you guys battle them anyway?" Fida wondered aloud. "It's not like they can make you."

"They do make you," the girl explained. "They'll attack you with their Pokémon if you don't."

“What about this town’s gym leader?” Fida questioned, knowing that a town's gym leader had certain rights and expectations to defend the area from hostiles, even trainers were allowed to do so, so long as they didn't get in the way of the police.

“Pryce?” asked a nearby trainer with disgust in his voice. “He won’t do anything about it - he thinks us trainers should figure it out for ourselves. He’s an old bastard if you ask me.”

“He doesn't have to help," Sem replied. "He's employed by the League, the only thing he's required to do is accepted challenges from trainers wanting his badge. Gym leaders are certainly expected to help out when it's needed, and most of them do, but, yeah."

“Whatever,” the trainer answered in annoyance and turned away to rejoin the other conversation.

“What about a strong trainer then?” Fida suggested. “These Ailments can’t be unbeatable, so someone strong could defeat them. These trainers could help,” she lowered her voice.

“I think they're too afraid to, after already been victims," Sem answered. "That was some bad stuff back there," he nodded towards the rear of the clinic.

Fida looked about the room until finally asking, “You think we could help? Elvia could take them!" she said with mostly confidence, though some part of her shuddered at the idea of something going wrong.

“I bet you could,” Sem smiled. “I used to sometimes fill in for the gym leader in Snowpoint when she was away; she and I are on good terms.”

“Well, she wouldn't let just anyone fill in for her, so you must be pretty good,” Fida commented with a shy grin.

“I’d like to think that I'm a decent trainer,” one side of his mouth curved upward wryly.

“So you’ll, we’ll, do it?” Fida asked.

“If we don’t, who will?” Sem answered non directly and stood up and began walking to the doors with Fida in tow, unnoticed by the other trainers.

As they left the center they felt a rush of cool mountain air and began to walk. "We have to make sure that we don't get in the way of the police though, we have to let them do their jobs," Sem told her.

"Yeah," Fida nodded.

The bushes off to the side of the lawn of the center rustled. Fida looked and saw large red petals appear from the clusters of leaves and twigs.

“Well look what we have here…” Sem smirked.

The Vileplume from earlier that day appeared from out of its cover, not noticing them at all, or pretending not to until Fida waved at it. It turned and faced the four beings not to far off and acted surprised for a moment until looking away in a shrug and seeming to go about other doing things.

"Isn't this a bit far north for a Grass-type like that anyway?" Sem wondered. “How’d you meet that thing anyway?” he asked.

“I ran into it,” Fida answered. “Accidentally caught it somehow. It didn’t like me at first but then she saw that Calhoun, my Magikarp, was hurt and healed him with Aromatherapy. It looked like it wanted to heal Calhoun more than wanting to ignore me. I wonder why it came all the way here…”

“Aromatherapy?” Sem’s mind-cogs were turning.

“Yeah. It smelled really nice,” Fida recalled as she closed her grey eyes, reminiscing about the odor.

“Wanted to heal…” Sem murmured.

“What?” Fida opened her eyes and looked up at him.

“I’m wondering if the Vileplume would like to help with the patients,” Sem stated. “Aromatherapy has the same effect on pokémon as Heal Bell and would be a big help to Nurse Joy if we could get it to agree.”

“Oh!” Fida exclaimed and began to think. After a few moments she simply began to walk towards the Grass-type. Sem could see a slight ripple in the air that marked Elvia’s presence closely behind Fida.

Fida walked slowly and bowed her head once she reached the Vileplume. The plant-Pokémon looked annoyed and stared at Fida with an icy look that basically asked, “What?”

“Nice to see you again,” Fida greeted. “I… sort of have a question for you…” she started, twiddling her thumbs behind her back. “I remember how you healed Calhoun… you remember that too, right?” she asked. After a moment the Vileplume nodded. “Well, we can tell that you like to heal things… and we were hoping you would help us.”

The Vileplume’s cold stare softened at once and looked at Fida again with a new gaze of concern. Almost reluctantly, it nodded.

Fida smiled and bowed her head again; her blonde pig-tails flopped about. “Thank you,” she said. “Follow me.” Fida walked back towards the center with the Grass-type following behind as fast as it could while Sem trailed behind them.

“Who’s this?” Nurse Joy asked as she saw the Vileplume.

“This is a Vileplume I met a couple of days ago,” Fida answered. “It knows the Aromatherapy move and wants to help.”

The Nurse’s eyes widened with excitement and realized at once what this fact meant.

“Follow me!” she instructed the Vileplume and it followed.

The four of them went into the next room in which there was an Octillery in a tank of water. The red creature looked incredibly weak, its eyes were half closed and its gills opened and closed irregularly. There was a wound visible on the right side of its head. There was an IV connected to the Water-type and a clear like fluid was being pumped into its body.

“Anti-toxin.” Joy explained. “Specifically for Qwilfish toxins, it took a while to identify what the venom belonged to,” she reached down and pressed a button on the console under the tank and the platform began to gently raise the Octillery to the surface until it was entirely out of the water.

The Vileplume didn’t need a cue and immediately stepped forward. Like before, the giant petals moved slowly, making a small noise as they rubbed against each other. Purple dust could be seen coming off of the petals and settling onto the Octillery, primarily on the head wound. Within seconds the swelling began to go down and the creature’s breathing returned to normal, its eyes were alert and darted around the room.

Nurse Joy pressed the button again and the Octillery was lowered back into the water. She carefully removed the IV and put the equipment.

“Thank you very much!” she thanked the Vileplume, who nodded its large head. (Which practically filled half the room.) The Grass-type seemed pleased.

They were able to help out a few more patients this way but then Vileplume could do no more, they had to wait for more spores to grow.

“This is wonderful.” The nurse expressed with a joyous tone. “We’ll get them out of here in no time,” she sighed and wiped her forehead.

It was dark now, and the buildings of the town had their lights on, setting the area aglow with yellow light.

Nurse Joy had gone off to take a much needed rest. She told Sem and Fida that they could help themselves to whatever was in the kitchen and they did just that.

The two trainers were eating some leftover stew that Sem had reheated along with some bread buns they found in a basket.

Elvia was perfectly still in the air beside Fida. Sableye looked disapprovingly at all the food and hissed at it.

“Oh, be quiet,” Sem muttered, his eye twitching in annoyance as he took another spoonful of the soup. “We’ll go out later and get you your rocks.”

Sableye sneered and focused his large shimmering eyes on other things about the small kitchen.

When the Ghost-type was a safe distance away Sem whispered. “The center probably has a supply of stones in case a lithovore like him is admitted, but I won’t tell him that,” he said with an amused grin. “Besides, I wanna go out for some fresh air before turning in.”

Fida laughed quietly and nodded; she too would like to walk around the town a bit.

After the two had finished eating and cleaned their plates they made sure the kitchen looked better than it did when they first came in. Pans were everywhere and there were some messes and scattered food on the counters and floors. When they left the place looked pristine. Fida noticed how neat and organized Sem liked to be, and how good at cleaning he was. She thought that quality odd in boys, especially older ones.

As they left the center they were followed out by the Vileplume, it wriggled its roots in the anticipation of being able to sink them into some soil.

“I think it’s hungry,” Sem deduced.

“Want to come?” Fida asked with her tiny smile. The Grass-type nodded and followed them out of the center.

Fida pulled out Tara’s PokéDex and pointed the device at the Vileplume as she did when it first used Aromatherapy on Calhoun, who was currently in the healing machine.

The black and blue device lit up and all the information was displayed. Fida scanned through all the information and concluded that the Vileplume was fairly powerful, though that was expected, it was in its final evolutionary stage after all. Fida also noticed that the device said that the Vileplume was a female. After a while more of looking at Gloom and Oddish she closed the PokéDex and put it away, returning her attention to the road they were on.

“That ‘dex almost looks like mine,” Sem stated when she had put it away. “Only the shade of blue on that one is darker than the one on mine, and the black is an icy blue instead.” He explained as he pulled out his own PokéDex from a side pocket on his messenger bag. The blue was more of an aqua blue instead of the almost sapphire blue on Tara’s.

They walked on for a bit more, slowly the houses turned into trees and grass. They saw only a few people walking about still, and they waved to any police officers they saw.

Once they reached a particular spot of grass they stopped. Sableye climbed down from Sem’s shoulder and scampered off into the darkness in search of food, the Vileplume began sinking her roots into the ground and stood very still. Her expression changed very quickly and she started looking more refreshed and energized.

“Pokémon are fascinating…” Sem commented as he watched. Fida agreed with a nod of her head. They did not notice Elvia facing a certain direction, looking intently into the darkness.

“Yes they certainly are,” said a familiar voice. Sem and Fida turned to see the black and blue-clad girl from before walking out towards them from shadows of a cluster of trees. “Surprise!” she giggled. “I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself before.” she growled angrily, her happiness turned sour. “The name’s Rin,” she chirped. “And I would like my battle now,” Rin glared.

“Bi-polar much?” Sem murmured. “Pleasure to meet your acquaintance,” he offered a smile that Fida knew was false: it was far too big compared to his regular sincere smiles.

Rin curtseyed and bowed her head. “So you can be polite as well as rude?”

“Well, depends what mood I’m in,” Sem shrugged.

“Would you be polite and accept a challenge from a little girl like me?” she asked innocently.

“I would love to,” Sem grinned wryly, drawing a white pokéball with a red middle from his jacket.

“Excellent!” Rin exclaimed, clapping her hands together. Fida cringed at the word, being one that Tara commonly used to express approval.

Rin drew a Pokéball as before and called out her Froslass; Fida took the time to document this one on the PokéDex. The Ice/Ghost-type glided before her trainer in eerily frozen silence, ready to be issued a command.

“I was hoping you would pick Froslass,” Sem said.

“And why is that?” Rin asked, cocking her head.

Sem simply tossed the ball into the air and released his Pokémon. It was not the Dive ball that contained his Starmie, so Fida was eager to see what else Sem had in his arsenal of creatures. The ball cracked open and white energy gushed out into the air and slowly formed into his pokémon.

“Oh, how interesting,” Rin practically licked her lips; her Froslass narrowed her eyes at Sem’s Pokémon.

“This is Jadis,” Sem introduced his Pokémon. “And I’d wager that she’s better than your Froslass.

“We’ll see…” Rin also narrowed her eyes.

Of all the pokémon Fida knew about and of all the species she knew she didn’t know about, she did not expect Sem to also send out a Froslass. Jadis looked at the other Froslass with a certain coolness, one arm held to her mouth. Her flowing body billowed out behind her, particles that could only be described as snowflakes glittered in the light of a nearby streetlamp. The 'bow' around Jadis’ body was more purple in color than the red of the one belonging to Rin.

“Well since I’m being polite I should offer you the first move,” Sem taunted; despite this girl’s age she was obviously very intelligent and knowledgeable, so he would treat her like the adult she pretended to be.

“I’m very tempted, Mr…”

“Aquais. Sem Aquais,” he introduced himself.

“Mr. Aquais, but, I will allow you the first move,” she told him politely, though there was no hiding the glint in her eye, a glint that expressed a hope in that allowing Sem to go first she would have some sort of advantage.

Sem shrugged. “As you wish,” he opened his eyes and surveyed the battlefield quickly. “Let’s start this off with a Hail, Jadis.”

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 3-

Fida gasped as she felt the temperature suddenly plummet to freezing. She watched her breathe fade away into the air as the first signs of Hail fell to the ground.

It was a variation of Hail that she hadn’t seen before. Instead of hailstones, simple snowflakes danced to the ground. The snowfall was very light at first but the attack kept progressing in intensity until the snow obscured almost all vision.

Sem kept still as he waited for Jadis to finish, the temperature drop did not seem to bother him, nor did it seem to affect Rin. To Fida's surprise it didn't seem to affect Vileplume much either, who stood, still rooted, behind the girl next to a tree.

Both Froslass were practically invisible in the snow, their bodies camouflaged perfectly into the icy weather.

“That’s perfect,” Sem stated, his voice slightly muddled by the amount of snow falling to the ground. “Let’s start with Icy Wind.”

Jadis did not nod or show at all that she acknowledged what Sem said. She simply held her arms out to either side and closed her eyes.

There was a chilling howl that filled the air as a powerful gust of wind ripped through the outer part of town towards the battle, making it feel even colder than it already was.

“Ominous Wind,” Rin countered. A more chilling sound came from the opposite direction as the supernatural wind met mid-field with the frozen air mass, sending snow flying out in either direction. The forces fought against each other until being pushing each other off course, away from the battlefield.

“Still think your Jadis is stronger?” Rin smirked as she pointed at the opposing Froslass and said, “Crunch!”

Rin’s Froslass rushed forward, gliding easily over the snow-covered ground and picking up speed as she went.

“Thunder,” Sem retaliated.

Jadis simply lifted her right arm up towards the sky and balled her hand into a fist. There was a flash of light as a large blue lightning bolt came down towards the other Froslass.

The other Froslass swerved right and came around as the bolt hit the ground with deadly force, shooting melted snow up into the air. She opened her mouth, ready to bite down on Jadis.

“Protect!” Sem said at the last moment.

Jadis silently turned to her left, raising her right arm up in a diagonal fashion as she did so. Snow from the air and ground followed the movement and condensed into a barrier of ice which the other Froslass crashed into.

“Confuse Ray,” Sem added.

Jadis held out her left hand before her, an orange-yellow ball formed in the palm of her hand. She swiped her right arm back down, allowing the ice to return to snow, and she turned to face forward again, bringing her left hand to the other Froslass’ head, the orange orb popped like a bubble as soon as it made contact.

Rin’s Froslass staggered back, dumbfounded.

“No!” Rin growled. “Snap out of it, now!”

“Step it up, Jadis!” Sem grinned.

Jadis disappeared entirely, or seemed to, as there was a rush of snow at that moment. Fida looked intensely into the battlefield to see if she could find her. Fida saw her on the other side, then again on the other side, then again at the center. Fida did not think Jadis could move that fast, but she realized she was seeing them at the same time.

“It’s Jadis’ Double Team, you like it?” Sem asked as he watched a confused froslass lash out at any illusionary copy she saw.

“Clever,” Rin answered through gritted teeth. “Get rid of the copies with Powder Snow!”

The Froslass shook her head and held it in her hands, closing her eyes in deep concentration. After a moment her eyes reopened and focused. She waved her arms in the directions of any Froslass she saw. Snow came up from the ground in hardened clumps, taking out whatever copies she directed the attack at. In seconds there were no more Froslass on the field other than her.

“Astonish,” Sem said in response to Rin’s obviously confused expression.

Jadis reappeared where she was originally and slapped Rin’s froslass across the face, forcing her back.

“Jadis never moved,” Sem explained to the girl.

“Well, she’ll move to this!” Rin glowered. “Ice Beam.”

The Froslass cupped her hands together; a sphere of blue energy came to life and started growing.

“Block the attack!” Sem said as the Ice Beam prepared to fire.

Jadis held out her hands with the palms up, blue lightning sparked to life in her hands and danced around her fingertips, her emotionless face was lit up by the sparkling light.

The Froslass thrust her arms out - three beams of icy energy shot from the ball and made their way towards Jadis. The attack was large and was so intense that spires of ice grew out from the ground beneath; clumps of snowflakes formed together into ice chunks and fell to the ground with thuds.

The other Ice/Ghost-type turned her palms so that they faced the incoming Ice-attack. The Thunderbolt shot from her finger-tips and raced to meet the Ice Beam head-on.

The attacks met, causing sparks and energy to fly in all directions; Elvia had to protect Fida against a stray power-strand from Ice-Beam.

It was obvious to both Sem and Fida that Ice Beam was one of the most powerful moves up Rin’s arsenal, her Froslass seemed well practiced in using it.

The opposing energies began to entwine around each other and form a sphere of hybrid power. The orb grew and pulsed brightly with light and power before exploding, rocking the area with a mighty rumble and sending melted snow everywhere. Both Froslass were knocked back from the shockwave that emanated from the explosion.

“You’re a good battler, I’ll give you that,” Sem commented as he lowered his arm, which he had used to block his eyes from the blast.

Rin didn’t respond, instead thinking of what to do next. “Froslass, use the melted water and use Water Pulse!”

Rin’s Pokémon used her arms and began pulling the water towards her, forming it into a large ball in the air. On her command it was sent through the air at Jadis.

“Jadis, stop it and counter with your strongest attack!” Sem ordered.

Jadis held out her right arm towards the Water Pulse and flexed her hand. In seconds the ball was stopped mid-air by an icy-blue aura which Fida recognized as Psychic.

With her left hand she moved it in a pulling motion of her own, as if she was gathering the air around her. The snow began to gather densely as the wind did indeed pick up. Jadis thrust her left hand towards Rin and her Froslass, unleashing her Blizzard.

The wind lashed at the ground, kicking up more snow into the current of air. The Blizzard hit full force, knocking the Froslass back several feet past Rin, who had to kneel on the ground against the attack herself, where she hit the ground and flipped over a few times before managing to grab hold of a stone in the ground.

The Blizzard froze the snow under and around it into a solid mass of ice that grew out away from the battle, as if the ice-floor was a living mass seeking to envelope the whole area.

The paused Water Pulse formed into a solid frozen sphere which Jadis sent rocketing towards her opponent. The countered attack hit her and knocked free her grip of the rock, sending her flying even farther back.

“No!” Rin yelled as she ran after the Froslass. She stared back at Sem with eyes that were glazed with hatred; they shifted briefly to Fida before turning away.

“And that’s done…” Sem sighed.

On her own accord Jadis lifted her arms palms-down and slowly lowered them, closing her eyes. The snow stopped falling immediately and everyone watched as the last of the snowflake twirled and spun to the unthawing ground as the wind died away.

Fida walked silently, her feet crunching the snow as she did, towards Sem with Elvia beside her.

Sem nodded to Jadis, his way of expressing a job well done to his Pokémon, and turned to face Fida, brushing snow from his clothes.

“I thought you were good, but you’re really good!” Fida exclaimed. “Jadis took hardly any damage at all!” Fida shifted her eyes to Jadis. “Nice to meet you, Jadis,” she bowed her head. “You’re trained very well.”

Jadis nodded silently in return, not noticing or pretending not notice the look of respect from Elvia.

“I’ve had her with me just about as long as I’ve had Starmie.” Sem explained. “I used her when I would sub for the Snowpoint gym leader rather than the gym’s own Ice-type Pokémon, which I rarely found myself using.”

“I’d like to see Starmie or Sableye in action then…” Fida muttered.

“If we meet anymore of these people you probably will…” Sem said. “I would like you see you in action.”

Fida smiled and noticed a small creature walking towards them. It was Sableye. Snow completely covered the top of his head and the tips of his ears. He held a half-eaten rock in his hand as he trudged through the snow, which for him was waist-high, and stopped directly in front of Sem. He looked up at Sem and Jadis in turn with his large eyes that somehow expressed, “What the heck were you doing?”

Fida giggled with a hand over her mouth at the silliness of the small Ghost-type and received an unsettling smile from Sableye in return as he climbed up to Sem’s right shoulder.

Flashlight beams shone on Sem and Fida's bodies as police rushed in. The sound of loud thumps could be heard from far off, getting closer and closer with each passing second. The source of the noise was soon identified as an Arcanine flew into everyone's view. Paws patted loudly against the ground as it walked towards them; Officer Jenny rode on its back.

"What happened here?" she asked Sem, looking down at him as Arcanine walked up to the teen.

"Battled one of the Ailments," Sem told her. "The blue haired girl."

"Is anyone hurt?" she asked.

"No, ma'am, we're fine," he answered.
"Where did she run off to?"

"That way," Sem pointed in the direction that Rin had fled.

"See to it that you get back to the center quickly," the policewoman told him and Fida before Arcanine shot off in the way Sem had directed them. The rest of the officers followed on foot.

"Think they'll catch her?" Fida wondered.

"I dunno…" Sem's voice trailed. "Tt’s time that we went back to the center though,” Sem said as he took out Jadis’ Pokéball. “Good work, Jadis,” he told her as she was pulled back into the sphere.

They began walking back and noticed Vileplume hobbling towards them, trying to shake snow off her large pedals without falling over.

“Sorry about that,” Sem apologized, scratching the back of his head.

The Vileplume looked away and started walking ahead of them towards the center.

Along the way a few people went out of their houses and congratulated Sem and patted him on the back. Either there were witnesses to the battle they didn’t notice or a single person happened to be watching and word traveled fast.

It was rather awkward for Sem and he seemed uncomfortable to Fida. They walked on until they were away from the chilly air and in the warmth of the center.

It was late and all but a few trainers had gone to the rooms to sleep. The duo noticed that both Nurse Joy and Blissey were up and behind the counter.

“Oh, you’re back,” she said cheerfully. She seemed completely transformed, the bags were not as noticeable and she looked well rested, her hair shimmered under the white lights of the building.

“Yeah…” Sem sighed as he pulled out Jadis’ Pokéball again and handed it to the nurse. “Got into a battle with that girl from before.”

“Oh?” Joy said concerned and raised eyebrows as she took the ball and put it in a tray. “You beat her I hope,” she muttered, which sounded odd, because you usually didn’t hear Nurse Joys make those types of comments.

“I did, but Jadis suffered a bit of damage.”

“Sem is very good, Nurse Joy. You should have seen it,” Fida added.

“I wish I could have…” she said as she turned the machine on. “Here’s your Magikarp back by the way, Fida,” she said as she handed Fida her Lure ball that held Calhoun. “He should be fine. He very well cared for, and he's rather large for a Magikarp,” Nurse Joy commented.

“Thank you,” Fida bowed her head as she put Calhoun’s ball away. Calhoun was fairly large when she had caught him, and he was even bigger now.

Fida yawned and stretched, rubbing her eyes, a sure sign that she was tired. Sem was tired as well.

“I think we’re going to turn in for the night,” Sem uttered as he stretched.

“Please do so,” the nurse urged them on. “You both have been a big help today, and I thank you,” she bowed her head and began to lead them towards the rooms in the back of the center.

The two of them had to share a room with two other trainers because the center was small and didn’t many rooms; the other two rooms were already full.

Sableye did an effective job at making the other two trainers feel very uneasy, and with two ghosts in the room they had to turn up the heat in attempt to stay warm.

Fida chose the top bunk and Sem took the lower one and fell asleep rather quickly; it had been an exhausting day.

-------

“So, I remember yesterday you said you used to work in a lab?” Fida asked after she had swallowed a spoonful of cereal.

Sem finished the bite of toast and brought a napkin to his mouth before explaining. “My parents,” he began. “they’re researchers.”

“Really?” Fida exclaimed with astonishment. “Are they famous?”

“They’re well known in the researcher world, but not to the rest of the world,” Sem explained. “Toby and Valencia Aquais.”

Fida thought for a moment and then shook her head, she had not heard of them.

“They work mainly in the fields of paleontology and archeology, meaning they work a lot with fossils and in old ruins.”

“Wow…”

“They also do a lot of studies with artificial pokémon, and they’re absolutely fascinated with Unown. The reason I'm even in Johto is because I was exploring the Ruins of Alph for them, taking pictures of the markings and doing some readings.”

“Oh…” Fida looked down sadly for a moment.

Sem looked on curiously but decided not to ask; if Fida wanted to tell him something then he supposed she would when she wanted to.

The two finished their breakfast and cleaned up before heading out into the lobby of the small clinic. They saw Nurse Joy at the desk looking very pleased.

“We helped the last of the patients this morning,” she said happily. “All with the help of Vileplume.”

“That’s great!” Fida exclaimed, looking around for any sign of the Grass-type.

“Yes,” Sem agreed with a nod of his head. “Now we just have to make sure that you don’t get more patients.”

“And how are we going to do that?” asked the nurse with a frown as she looked down at some papers spread out before her.

“They've said that if beaten they would leave," Sem explained. "They may move on to another town and do the same thing, but they can't run from the law forever, and it at least gets them out of Mahogany.

The woman tapped the counter with her fingernail. “And if you lose?” Joy asked and narrowed her eyes.

“Then I suppose you have to wait for a trainer stronger than me to come along, or for the police to catch them all,” Sem answered. “Though I'm pretty confident about it, I bet Fida could beat them too."

Fida blushed at the compliment and looked down before saying, “We have to try something anyway; we can’t just sit here.”

“You’re right,” Nurse Joy agreed with a sigh.

Sem nodded and turned towards the doors and exited the center with Fida. A cool mountain sun shone down upon the town and soft breezes snaked their way through streets and roads. It was a wonderful day, and families were out with their children.

“So what do we do?” Fida asked. “How do we find them?” she looked up at the older trainer with her storm-grey eyes while twirling a strand of her pale blonde hair around her finger.

“Chances are they’ll find us,” Sem answered as they turned onto a main road. “They may even be looking for us because of our victory over Rin last night. But they won't just come to use in the middle of town, way too risky. They'll want to battle away from the town, that way if the police come they can get away easier."

"That makes sense," Fida nodded. Thinking, she wondered what would be a good spot. "Ever been to the Lake of Rage?" she asked.

"Nope," the older boy shook his head, pushing some of the hair from his eyes.

"Would you like to?" she asked. Personally she had never been there herself.

"Why not?" Sem shrugged. Part of being a trainer was seeing new places, and they would certainly be challenged way up at the lake.

It took them a little less than an hour to arrive there with the leisurely stroll at which they were going. The lake was large, surface shimmering in the sunlight. The light also glinted off the metal hulls of small boats as people fished, sitting patiently with their lines in the water. The grass under their shoes was soft, but grew in firm ground.

Sableye scampered off, having spied a couple rocks nearby, and Elvia hovered around Fida in an invisible shroud, ever her silent vigil. When Sableye returned he chewed on the stones until they were gone and stayed on the ground, stabbing at the ground with a finger.

"This is a nice lake," Sem commented, having only seen the Sinnoh lakes.

"Yeah…" Fida nodded, walking towards the water and putting her hand in it. The water was rather cold this time of year, being late January. There were no swimmers, which wasn't surprising. It was chilly now, a cool breeze blew over the water towards them.

“So, here you are,” said a voice. Sem and Fida turned to see what the source was and saw two men standing no too far off. Sem and Fida recognized the one clad in purple as the trainer from the other day. The other was in similar uniform, only the purple was yellow and he had a lightning bolt on his shirt - it was he who had just spoken.

“We heard what you did to Rin last night,” he continued. “You sound pretty strong,” he cocked his head; his brown skin glowed in the cold sunlight. “Care to try yourself against me?”

“Maybe,” Sem replied. “Is it true that you'll leave if beaten?"

Lightning-man smiled, showing off a set of white teeth. "Yeah," he replied.

“I accept then," Sem nodded.

“Good. Sem was it?” he waited for Sem to nod in acknowledgement before continuing. “My name’s Torin,” he said as he pulled out a Pokéball and bounced it in his hand before throwing it on the grassy area that stretched between him and Sem. In a burst of light a yellow-furred, feline-like creature stood, lightning cackled across the tips of its wild fur. It growled aggressively and stood ready to pounce on anything Sem threw out.

Sem pulled out a Pokéball from his bag and tossed it in front of him. After the light from the ball faded away there was green Pokémon in its place. Its body resembled a large lump with four short legs that spread out along the ground that seemed to anchor the Pokémon. From its body sprouted a trunk-like neck at the end of which was a fierce looking head surrounded by eight purplish tentacles.

“Ready, Cradily?” Sem asked his Pokémon. The Cradily did not answer in any way but simply focused its attention on the Jolteon before it.

Fida scanned the Cradily with Tara’s PokéDex and briefly read the information, surprised to find out that Cradily were extinct until recently.

“Agility,” Torin ordered. The Jolteon sprung forward with such a speed that it seemed to almost vanish. It ran too and fro gaining speed while waiting for the next order.

“Ingrain,” Sem ordered. Cradily shook its head as its four limbs seemed to grow out like roots and dig deep into the ground, anchoring it further.

“Double Kick!” Torin said after he was satisfied with his Jolteon’s speed. It raced up to the ancient Pokémon and kicked back against the Cradily’s head twice before landing, sliding back against the ground as it do so.

Cradily trembled in irritation and shook off the attack, seeming to slowly gain back whatever energy it lost.

Sem grinned briefly before ordering a, “Grass Knot."

The earth beneath them rustled as the grass shot up, growing unnaturally fast. The blades of grass all raced towards the Jolteon, who yelped and dashed out of the way. The Electric-type was fast enough to out-speed and avoid the attack, for a while. The grass was above knee-height before it managed trap it. A few strands firmly grasped the Jolteon’s hind leg, stopping it in its tracks. As it fell, more grass came together, forming powerful bonds and grabbed hold of the feline.

“Constrict!” Sem added as a follow up.

The grass coiled around the Jolteon in an immediate response, threatening to suffocate the Pokémon.

“Thunderbolt!” Torin growled.

Electricity coursed through the Jolteon’s body and ran through the grass until being absorbed by the ground. Jolteon kept up the attack until the heat from the lightning became so intense that the grass burst into flames, allowing it to break free as the grass receded back to its natural length.

“Pin Missle!”

“Bullet Seed!” Sem countered.

The Jolteon shook its body, releasing a flurry of fine, sharp hairs towards the dual Rock/Grass type.

Cradily reared its head as its tentacles squirmed and began to shoot out a barrage of small seeds.

The attacks met mid-air and bounced off each other, though each Pokémon was still hit by remnants of the other’s attack.

It was at this time that Fida noticed a small crowd gathering around them, looking on silently to see what the outcome was.

“Ancientpower!” Sem shouted.

The earth moaned and began to quake as massive slabs of rock jutted out from the ground, racing towards the jolteon as they sent debris everywhere.

“Rock Smash!”

The Jolteon growled fiercely before unleashing thin bolts of lightning from its body. The bolts were strong, powerful enough to break the rocks into pieces as they came.

“Thunder Wave!" the Ailment commanded, "Then go around and get it with a Thunder Fang!”

The Jolteon obeyed the order as soon as the last stone was destroyed, releasing a wave of electrical energy that Cradily was unable to avoid. It flinched as the jolts constricted its muscles, though soon found that it could still move its head. The Jolteon raced around the path of ruin towards its enemy in order to attack it from the side. The rest of its body still paralyzed, Cradily took the Thunder Fang, going into violent spasms as more electricity flooded into its system.

"Again!" Torin yelled.

“Energy Ball!” Sem said.

The fossil Pokémon followed the Jolteon’s movements, silently turning its head as if it were some turret calculating a target, ready to fire a heat seeking missile. A green energy rose up out of the ground, drawn by the tentacles and concentrated into a ball that pulsed with the green power. As Jolteon leapt up into the air, maw ablaze with sparks, Cradily fired the Energy Ball, knocking the Jolteon back and sending it crashing to the ground.

“Follow it up with Earthquake!” Sem added.

With some effort Cradily pulled of the attack - in a matter of seconds the area was rocked and laid siege by powerful seismic waves that threatened to the split the surrounding area in two. Chunks of earth rose and fell, sliding against each other and causing loud grinding sounds. The Jolteon was hit by the full force of the attack, unable to get up and avoid the earth-shuddering attack in time.

“No!” Torin shouted and ordered the Jolteon to get up. Before the electric type could do anything of the sort it was assailed by a half-dozen plant roots.

“Reel it in,” Sem ordered calmly.

The roots began to pull at the struggling prey as it drew nearer and nearer to Cradily, purple tentacles writhing and squirming in anticipation, obviously knowing what was going to happen next.

“Giga Drain!”

As soon as Jolteon was within reach Cradily grabbed hold of the pokémon with the tentacles on its head and trapped the Jolteon. The tentacles flashed with a green energy for a moment before small orbs of yellow light could be seen being pulled into the tendrils from Electric-type’s body.

Before Torin could even utter a 'Thunder' the Jolteon was gently placed on the ground by Cradily: defeated and drained.

Torin attempted to conceal his anger as a quiet cheer rose up from the small crowd of people around them. He returned his fallen Pokémon and trudged off; the crowd shouted at him all the while.

Fida walked carefully through the ruined ground towards Sem and Cradily. Cradily had just removed his roots from the ground and waddled over to Sem.

“That was nice,” Fida nodded while looking at Cradily, who towered over her, the strange pokémon was taller than Sem as well. The large barnacle looked down at her for a moment before turning its gaze towards Sem.

“Very good, Cradily,” Sem nodded and returned it to its ball. “Yeah, I’ve worked hard with Cradily, ever since it was a Lileep brought to life by the fossil my parents found,” Sem explained. “It can’t move too fast on land and is barely faster in the water, so I’ve had to work to make sure it can defend itself from afar.”

“You did a good job,” Fida commented with a smile before turning to see the crowd. They were shouting at the Ailment who still remained; it was the purple one, and he was staring directly at Fida.

Fida turned to face him and Elvia appeared by her side. Furrowing her brow in confusion, she wondered why he seemed so interested in her.

“I remember you,” The purple Ailment said with a smile.

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 4-

“E-excuse me?” Fida asked, looking at the purple-teen with a confused look in her stormy gray eyes.

“You’re the girl with the Magikarp,” he responded coolly, running a hand through his dyed hair.

“How did you-” she stuttered.

The Ailment slowly closed his eyes and walked over to the water with a Pokéball in hand. He tossed the device into the water, releasing whatever was inside. Fida looked on until she found herself staring at a Qwilfish. She realized instantly what it meant.

“You!” she pointed at him. “You poisoned Calhoun!”

“Calhoun? Such a valiant name for such a worthless Pokémon,” he closed his eyes and shrugged.

Fida glared at him. “What?”

“They're only useful when they evolve into Gyarados,” he blinked apathetically at her. “Name’s Nat by the way. Full name’s Thanatos, but I really prefer Nat.”

Fida’s glare turned poisonous itself in response to this man's words; his mouth morphed into an amused grin.

Sem watched silently, feeling that another battle would be taking place.

“I’ll show you worthless,” she muttered as she pulled out Calhoun’s Lure ball and released the fish into the water with the Qwilfish.

“A battle?” he said with raised brows as if he were surprised.

“Yes, a battle.”

“Your funeral,” he shrugged again. “Or, Calhoun’s funeral, rather,” he corrected as he led the way to some wooden platforms not far away. The platforms were for trainers to stand on for battles, tethered to land by wooden bridges. Fida followed after him, taking her place on the opposite platform. “You can go first,” he smiled politely.

“C’mon, Calhoun,” Fida told her magikarp. “Tackle!”

The spectators murmured as Calhoun speed across the water. They could not deny that they had no confidence in this girl and her Magikarp, and were not sure whether to cheer her on or not.

“Heh, totally didn’t see that coming,” Nat said sarcastically. “Pin Missile.”

The Qwilfish puffed itself up, causing the hundreds of spines on its body to become erect. Suddenly dozens of the quills flew off of the fish’s body and stormed the water, torpedoing towards Calhoun.

“Dodge it!” Fida yelled.

Calhoun easily veered out of the way of the spines, going around them and resuming his course towards Qwilfish. All the speed training Fida had put him through was helping him immensely.

“Calhoun’s pretty fast," Nat pretended to comment. “Not fast enough though, Qwilfish, jump into the air and take him out with Shock Wave.”

“Shock Wave?” Fida widened her eyes as she watched the Poison-type leap into the air, sparks burst to life on the tips of its many spines. “Bounce!” she yelled in the last second.

Magikarp flew out of the water, sending spray of water everywhere. At the top of his arc he aimed himself towards Qwilfish and fell towards it in a way that allowed him to go along the fish’s spines instead of on or against them. The Qwilfish was forced to stop the attack and was sent plunging back into the water.

“Hmph. Pretty good,” Nat said, shrugging lightly. More murmurs rose up from the crowd as they whispered amongst themselves. “No more Mr. Nice Guy; Revenge!”

And in a quick motion the Water/Poison-type slammed against Calhoun as he landed back in the water himself, sending him flying back Fida’s way with a splash.

The blonde-haired girl wiped the specs of liquid from her face with her purple jacket sleeve and got right back on the ball with another “Tackle!” command.

Calhoun narrowed his eyes and again sped towards the waiting spine-fish, fins moving furiously to give him the speed he needed.

“Take Down!” Thanatos countered, watching as his own fish sped off towards his opponent with a stronger attack.

The sun was over the area now, with the time of day nearing noon. Morning light sparkled on the surface of the disturbed water, dancing and reflecting brightly, individual drops flashes like gems against the backdrop of green as the two Water-types battled.

“Out of the way!” Fida yelled.

The Magikarp barely had enough time to veer around the on-coming Poison-type, though he was still close enough to be hit by a surprise Poison Sting. Qwilfish puffed up, triggering an expulsion of dozens of quills at its enemy.

Calhoun sat in the water looking dazed, his swimming was off-balance, and the side of his body where he was hit oozed a small amount of blood.

“You see?” Nat sighed, placing his hands on his waist. “Too weak to battle properly.”

Fida gritted her teeth. “I have to win. To prove myself and to prove what Tara believed was true.”

“I’m not done yet,” She said with a lowered voice. “Tackle again!”

“You will be done soon: Minimize!” he replied.

In a swift motion Qwilfish deflated itself so that it was only a fraction of its original size, effectively causing Calhoun to miss.

“Again!” Fida repeated.

The magikarp slowed in order to turn around. Once he was facing his enemy he shot forward with a burst of speed. The Qwilfish was in the process of puffing itself up again and was unable to avoid the Tackle. It was pushed away into a dizzying spin, though Calhoun had managed to wound himself on the spines.

Calhoun’s gills were flapping furiously, filtering water and getting much needed oxygen into the fish’s body. Fida wasn’t sure how much longer Calhoun could last, but she had to hope that he could survive the next attack, else her plan would fail.

“Finish that thing with Poison Jab!” Nat yelled.

Qwilfish torpedoed forward, taking in water and expanding to its limit, tiny streams of venom flowed out behind it as the substance gushed from the tips of the spines.

“Hang in there, Calhoun!” Fida urged, her eyes full of worry.

Calhoun took the full force of the attack and was sent spiraling back towards his trainer.

“You can do it, don’t give up,” she pleaded.

“It’s over,” Nat said with a smile.

“No it isn’t,” Fida shot him a look. She returned her gaze to her fish, this time her eyes full of determination. “If you can take down a big Onix then you can take down this tiny Qwilfish,” she whispered.

Calhoun wobbled, forcing himself to an upright position. With a glint in his eyes he looked at Qwilfish.

“That’s it!” Fida grinned. “Flail!”

Nat was too surprised for a moment and issue a command too late. His Qwilfish was knocked back by a powerful headbutt, which was followed up with a smack from Calhoun’s fin. The dual Water/Poison-type collided into the side of the wooden platform and slowly began to sink.

“Now it’s over,” Fida said as she stood up straight, her chin up high.

It took a few moments for the people to register that Fida had, in fact, won, and the air was once again filled with thunderous applause.

Silent for a moment as he returned his Pokémon, he shrugged again. "They do tell me I'm too arrogant for my own good," he shrugged with a sly grin. "I must not be in the zone today, otherwise, there's no way I would've lost to a Magikarp," the teen sighed. "There's no way I'll ever live this down."

““It doesn’t matter what kind of Pokémon you have, if you have the skill, you can do it,” Fida answered. “That’s what a strong trainer told me once.”

“They don’t know what they’re talking about,” Nat replied with a jaded tone.

In that moment Elvia made herself visible; her body burned with a ghostly aura as she leered at Nat with a look that was more venomous than any attack he could possibly dish out. Anyone in the area felt a chill run down their spines and their stomachs churned as if able to feel that Elvia was radiating malicious intent.

“You should leave now,” Fida said with her hands clenched into fists at her side. "You lost, so you should leave," her gaze was pointed down so that no one could see the look of sheer sorrow in her eyes; tears fell to the ground unnoticed. It sounded more as if she were advising him to leave instead of suggesting.

“D-Don’t think we’re done with you yet,” the boy uttered before running off, though he didn't get far before being ambushed by Officer Jenny and her Arcanine.

“Phew…” Fida sighed heavily. She looked at the Pokémon in the water and smiled, making the gloom on her face disappear. She had done it. “You’re the greatest Magikarp ever, Calhoun,” Fida exclaimed as she patted her fish on the head before returning him for a well deserved rest.

“That was well done,” Sem commented as he helped her navigate through the crowd, a crowd that was larger now and ablaze with exonerations and thanks.

“Thank you,” Fida replied solemnly as they turned onto the road that would lead them back to the Mahogany. “I’m sorry, Elvia,” she whispered.

-------

“Two more down then?” Nurse Joy asked as she took Calhoun’s Pokéball and put it into one of the specialized trays and into the machine.

“Yep… that should leave three more,” Sem replied as he took a sip from a styrofoam cup that was full of warm tea that he stirred with a tiny red straw.

"Two, actually," the nurse corrected. "They caught another one today. He's being taken to Blackthorn to lift a bad Curse he placed on a Pokémon."

"That's good," Sem nodded.

“And is she doing all right?” she said as she leaned forward, the pink loops of her hair fell over her shoulders as she supported her chin with a hand. Her eyes glanced to the back rooms, where Fida had gone in minutes earlier.

Sem stopped stirring for a moment. “She’s just tired. Tough battle and all,” He took another drink. He in reality had no idea what was wrong with the girl. She was more secretive than he would like and he wasn’t able read her as easily as he could other people. He began to think that the only way he would know would be to perhaps go to Elvia, though he was certain that the spirit not only guarded the girl physically but also mentally.

“I’ll bet it was a tough, but she beat him!” she let her voice rise a bit. “And with a Magikarp!” She stood up and sighed as she smoothed the wrinkles from her uniform. “I really wish I was there to see that…” she commented before walking into the back of the center in order to tend to another Ailment victim that had recently come in.

Sem downed the rest of the tea and threw it into the nearby waste bin, causing the plastic bag that lined it to crinkle.

He put his hands into his pockets and walked to the back as well. Sableye was out looking for rocks to feast on and there was hardly anyone at all in the center. He made not a sound as he walked down the hall.

Vileplume was standing in the middle of the hall facing a door on the left. Sem stopped once she noticed him. She stared at him for a moment before turning and walking away. The boy waited for once she had rounded the corner and walked over to the door she had stopped at, closed it silently behind him.

Through the minimal light that streamed through the closed blinds he could see that Fida was still asleep, the light red sheets of the center covered her shoulders and most of her head. The chill air he felt meant that Elvia was in the room, ever vigilant, though he didn't expect Fida to be alone.

Sem sat on bunk opposite, letting his dark hair fall over his face as he pretended to be occupied with looking at the clock on the mahogany desk in-between the bunks.

“This is pretty awkward, this being the first time I’m addressing you, Elvia.” Sem paused, searching for words. The ever-present force that was Elvia seemed thick, as if Sem would suffocate if he got too close. “I would like to know about Fida… about what happened…” he stated. “You would know if she wanted me to know and I think you would be better at telling me than she would…”

He sat motionless as he felt the presence be completely still as it was when he first entered. It was like that for many moments until finally he felt some sort of force putting pressure on his head, reaching towards his mind. He flinched at first, not being used to such a feeling, since his only mental link was with Starmie, which was quite different.

Elvia’s touch was not rough, but it was cold, and it was hard, like a fortress. Sem inhaled deeply and exhaled in preparation for the encounter. He closed his eyes and opened his mind to Elvia, willingly allowing her to enter, though he knew very well she could have entered whether he wanted her to or not.

Sem did not expect a voice, and there was none. He was not sure what to expect from Elvia, though he soon found that her way of communication was different than of any he had experienced or heard of. It was a mix of emotions, sensations, pictures, and memories. Sem was not able to explain it, how properly how such a wide array of things worked in harmony in order for him to understand them.

He first understood that Fida had expected that he would ask, and that Elvia should tell him if he did. He received a wave of memories and emotions from the view points of both Fida and Elvia, though from Elvia’s perspective seemed different as if she were younger or not as mature. Sem got the picture that Fida was from Violet and that she was in an abusive household. Most of the memory-clips were Fida’s; soon after Elvia’s had come into play both of them had fled Violet. That’s when he saw her.

“Oh, you’re a young one aren’t you?” he heard in his mind as an image of a girl only a few years younger than him flashed into his mind. He heard a memory of the name Tara being said and connected the name with the girl. All of the events that transpired between that moment and the one where he met Fida were revealed to him, including the event of Tara’s apparent death. The whole process took about an hour to complete. Once he heard the words, “Well, that’s interesting,” and saw an image of himself, the ‘conversation’ ended and Elvia withdrew from his mind.

Sem sat for a few moments with his eyes closed still, processing all the information. Once he opened his eyes he saw that Fida was staring at him.

“She told you,” she stated, it was not a question.

“Yes… she did,” Sem rubbed his head.

“Well, now you know,” Fida said as she looked at her PokéGear laying on the desk before slipping it over her head and around her neck.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Why?” she asked in almost a whisper as she got up and undid her two pigtails in front of the small mirror on the wall. “Elvia already told you everything,” she said, slightly louder.

“I mean… talk about how you feel?” Sem cast a worried glance at her, though he didn't want to be more intrusive.

“I’m fine,” she responded as she took a brush to her brilliant blonde hair. “I’m not so little, I can handle it,” she tied her hair into a single ponytail as she looked at herself with a hardened look.

“You may be smarter than the average eight year old, but that doesn’t mean you have to hide feelings,” Sem commented. He got up as she slipped into her lavender hoodie and placed a hand on her shoulder. He felt Elvia’s presence thicken as Fida’s shoulder tensed. “I’m here if you want to talk about it.”

Fida’s look softened as she looked at herself; her tiny bangs fell across her forehead. She turned towards the door. “Let’s go eat something.”

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 5-

Fida looked away from the bright flash of light that erupted before her, shielding her eyes with her arm. She felt a warm radiance rain down upon her as she lowered her arm and gazed at where the light had been. Vileplume stood before her, looking a bit pleased with herself with not and as icy an expression in her eyes.

“So that’s a Solarbeam…” Fida commented and she watched the remnants of photon particles fade away. “Looked pretty good to me… But the PokéDex says that’s not your most powerful attack,” she looked at the screen again, wanting to know how Petal Dance could deal more than double the power Solarbeam could.

Fida was spending time with Vileplume that morning. Even though she did not consider the Vileplume hers, she wanted to test out a few attacks, and Vileplume agreed to her surprise.

“You’re not even my Pokémon and you listen better than Kieran,” Fida noted grimly. Though Kieran had been doing much better thanks to Morty’s help, there was still some rebelliousness in him.

Sem was off on an errand, leaving Fida alone at the center for most of the day. It was around noon, and it was rather warm compared to the past few days. The few clouds in the sky made Mahogany picture-perfect for a post-card.

“Let’s go for a walk, Elvia,” Fida suggested suddenly as she was putting Tara’s PokéDex away. “Want to come, Vileplume?” Fida asked as she stood.

The Grass-type’s expression hardened for a moment, as if going with Fida would cause her to have to move something in some schedule she had. Vileplume reluctantly nodded her head and walked towards the girl.

Fida smiled to herself once she turned around; she couldn’t quite figure out the big petal pokémon, but she found her behavior rather humorous either way.

The silvery-blonde haired girl did not have a particular destination, she simply walked, taking in the different sights that the small town did offer.

They were on an open road; businesses on either side of the street, people were about, going their daily business. Fida rubbed her arms as a sudden chill swept her body, a chill that wasn’t Elvia’s. Before she could suspect anything, it happened.

She saw a flash of red and a flurry of blonde-colored hair, a rush of cool air following close behind. Fida saw a Pokémon stop right in front of them, or so she thought it was a Pokémon, it could’ve easily been a person in a costume. It had a red body that resembled a dress of sorts; a mane of blonde hair covered all but the creature's purple face, which possessed extremely large, pink lips.

Before Fida could even identify what it was, the creature took a purple hand to her lips and blew a kiss in Fida’s direction. Then, with both arms raised, sent a wave of psychic energy at Fida, or, Elvia specifically.

Fida could feel Elvia’s presence revolting in response, trying very hard not to succumb, but the attack was too quick and random. The air around Fida seemed to boil as Elvia flashed in and out of view, before finally materializing and falling to the ground with a soft sound that resembled that of a cloth falling to the ground. Elvia did not move.

“Elvia!” Fida screamed and leaned in closer, relieved to find that she was merely sleeping.

“So, how strong are you without your ghost, hm?” she heard a girl say, a girl who sounded quite smug.

Fida stood and looked past the Pokémon that had attacked them to the girl behind it. “Rin…” she glowered at the blue-haired girl.

“Hi!” she waved and grinned all the more as she stood almost triumphantly.

“Sem beat you...” Fida told the girl, surprised the police hadn't caught her, more surprised that Rin would confront her in the middle of town. "You shouldn't be here."

Rin’s expression soured and she spat, as if disgusted. “Yes, and I became a laughing stock because of it!” she yelled suddenly, losing her composure with her hands curled to fists at her sides. She blinked and cracked her neck, seemingly causing her smile to return. “But, I get the chance at revenge, see?”

She walked forward and took a lock of the Pokémon’s blonde hair and twirled it around her finger while she ran her other hand through the strands. “This is Jynx,” she said lovingly as she let the hair fall from her hands. “Did you like her Lovely Kiss?” she bat her eye-lashes innocently.

“What do you want?” Fida asked, taking her turn to add a bit of chilliness to her voice.

Rin blinked again and her innocent smiled vanished, replaced with an indifferent frown that made her look far older than she was. “As I already told you; revenge,” she said as she turned away and walked behind Jynx once more. She hopped and spun on the spot, a new smile on her face. “See, if I get you, he’ll come along looking for you, and I get my chance!” Her smile turned venomous. “Ready, darling?” She cooed at Jynx.

Fida took a closer look at the Psychic-type, taking note of the large lips and her arms with large hands. Whether she had legs was unknown to Fida, her lower body was completely covered by the red “'dress'. She noticed that the Jynx’s hair was actually iced-over in some places, frozen.

Fida looked nervously at Elvia before reaching into her jacket for a pokéball. However, before she could pick out Kieran’s ball she felt herself being shoved aside by the massive bulk that was Vileplume. With her petals fully unfurled she took up half of the road.

“Vileplume?” Fida asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. Vileplume did not look back, but simply matched Rin’s at first icy stare with a glare as equally cold. Rin was about to hold her nose, in hopes to stop her nostrils inhaling whatever foul stench Vileplume had to offer, but there was none.

“You cannot be serious,” Rin exclaimed flatly as her blue eyes darted from Fida to Vileplume. “Jynx has the advantage over Vileplume in both respects. Ice beats Grass, Psychic beats Poison!”

Fida stood firm, accepting Vileplume's help. “I don’t care about your advantage.”

Rin shook her head in what seemed like pity. “Poor thing…” she sounded almost sorry, but then her face twisted into an expression of glee and a shrill laugh filled the air.

Vileplume did not wait for a command; she was already in action by the time the echoes of the laugh had faded away. All was silent, but Vileplume was obviously doing something by the way she stood.

Riiiiiiing

Swiiiiiish

Fida looked behind her and ducked as a leaf sliced through the air, filling the air with a piercing ring as it went; a likeness to the sound of thrown knives or shuriken in movies.

Another one came, and then more. Where they were coming from Fida couldn't tell. Small plants rapidly grew up from the ground, offering their leaves to the storm. Blades of grass joined in the flurry and flew towards the Jynx. This was a Razor Leaf if Fida was not mistaken, and a good one.

The Jynx held out her arm and all the razor-sharp leaves bounced off of an invisible barrier that flashed each time it was hit. Before long there was a small pile of foliage in front of the Ice-type.

“It’ll take much more than that,” Rin informed the two. “Let’s get things heated, or, ‘cooled’ up! Blizzard!”

Almost at once a revolting howl sounded as a gush of wind raced down the street. Invisible water droplets in the air formed together and froze, allowing themselves to be caught up in the wind. Fida zipped up her jacket and raised her hood as the temperature dropped.

A rush of snow and ice was soon in view, coming quickly towards them. The ground before Vileplume ripped open as roots shot upward, causing an earthy aroma to fill Fida’s nose. The roots writhed and ground against each other forming a large, thick wall which Vileplume huddled against, shielding her from the initial blast of the attack. Fida guessed that this was Vileplume's Protect.

Ice gathered on the roots but Vileplume stayed firm, planting her root-like feet in the ground, absorbing any nutrients available. People lined the road, eager to see this new battle and how the girl with the Magikarp fared, despite the fact that Vileplume was not even hers and she hadn’t issued on command yet.

The howling died away and the last snowflake twirled after the rest of its snowy comrades. The roots separated from one another and retreated back into the ground. Both pokémon seemed evenly matched despite Vileplume’s bad disadvantage.

The Grass-type began to move its large petals, grinding them against each other, and a purple pollen filled the air drifting, towards Jynx.

Rin at once covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve. “Get away from that cloud!” her voice was muffled by the material.

Jynx nodded her head and slid sideways, as if she was on ice. She twirled and slid under the pollen cloud, bending backwards as she did so, causing her icy hair to drag across the ground.

“Ice Punch!” Rin commanded as Jynx went under the cloud.

The psychic twirled once more once she righted herself, gliding around to Vileplume’s side with her fist covered in ice. The Jynx was simply too fast, and Vileplume had already implanted itself into the dirt of the road. The fist connected, sending ripples across Vileplume’s body and causing her petals to shake. Despite being in obvious pain, the Grass-type retried her pollen-tactic, loosing some of the toxic powder onto Jynx before she could get away.

Both pokémon winced at their respective injuries; Vileplume with a frozen injury on her side, Jynx with the pollen, which was causing painful rashes to spread across her body.

“Hmph, nice trick,” Rin spat. “Look what you did!” She pointed at her Jynx with glistening eyes. The Jynx herself had tears in her eyes from the pain the Poison Powder was causing. She looked terribly distressed and whenever she moved. In this moment Vileplume’s gaze softened to one of sympathy, but that was all that Rin needed.

“Ice beam!” she shouted triumphantly.

Jynx tears stopped instantly and were actually frozen as she powered up her attack. The three-tendril beam shot out of an icy blue orb of energy, lashing out towards the Grass-type.

Vileplume had no time to throw up another Protect and took the full force of the attack. The ground was torn open as she was forced back several feet.

“Hang in there!” Fida shouted, even as the ice started to entomb the vileplume.

In only moments, all put a single petal on Vileplume’s head was covering in ice, completely immobile.

“Ha!” Rin giggled. “You’re lucky I didn’t make the poor thing go mad with psychic attacks,” she said as she covered her mouth, though her hand was not large enough to conceal her sadistic smile.

Fida wanted to say something back, but she could not; she had nothing to say.

Shouts were heard from up the street and both girls turned to see what they were. Several officers were running towards the scene of the battle.

The Ailment's nostrils flared. "No you don't!" she hissed, throwing another Pokéball. The Froslass from before was released. "Don't let them disturb us!" Froslass nodded, immediately firing Ice Beams and Shadow Balls at the police, forcing them to take cover in alleys and inside buildings. Working quickly, Froslass then used Ice Beam to close off the area, creating tall walls of ice.

"There," she grinned. "No one to save you now-"

A loud, resounding crack cut her off. Quickly both girls looked towards Vileplume, who was covered in red pollen that was being produced by the single petal. The pollen reacted on contact with the ice; a chemical reaction of sorts, for the pollen seemed to be causing the ice the melt away. Another petal was free and it too started to produce the pollen. In only a few minutes Vileplume was out of her icy prison.

“Yes!” Fida grinned.

Vileplume ignored the girl’s exclamation and looked up to the sun; her body began glowing with a warm light that seemed to fill her energy.

“Aromatherapy and Synthesis,” Rin said through gritted teeth. “No matter, Jyn-“ but before she could issue another attack command, a vast cloud of yellow spores attacked the Jynx. They landed on her body and grew in size, as if they were some form of parasite; Jynx’s eyes began to close a few moments after, appearing to be weakened and tired. After more a few more seconds had passed the spores detached themselves and returned to Vileplume’s petals, flowing into the center of the flower.

“And Giga Drain, too,” growled Rin. “Enough of this; Psychic! Screw her up so bad she won’t know up from down!” spittle flew from the girl’s mouth. “Do the same to the girl once you’re done.”

Vileplume’s eyes opened widely and she looked over at Fida; the girl could see immense worry in them.

Jynx’s breathing was heavy, frozen strands of hair fell over her face. Slowly she raised her arms, palms outstretched towards Vileplume. Her hair flew back wildly as a blue light took over her eyes and engulfed her hands. The same energy began to envelope Vileplume, whose eyes were closed, desperately trying to fend off the mental attack. Vileplume would have been defeated then, had it not been for the rashes on Jynx’s skin.

The Ice-type clenched her teeth in pain, losing control of her attack. The Grass-type wasted no time in un-rooting herself and launched herself at Jynx, root-like arm balled so that it resembled a fist; the same spores from Giga Drain covered it. The Drain Punch connected with Jynx’s side and she let out a cry of pain, holding her side as she glared at the large-flower Pokémon.

After retreating Vileplume began to move in a strange way, sliding to and fro and twirling while waving her arms in flowing motions. Faster and faster she went, until it seemed as if she were doing a dance of sorts, the movement soon became rhythmic. dozens of seeds flew out of the center of her large flower and quickly implanted themselves wherever possible, sinking into the earth. In seconds the road was covered in a beautiful carpet of tiny red flowers. One by one each plant let go of its scarlet petals, releasing them into the air.

The petals seemed to be caught up in Vileplume’s movements, moving as she did. With a wave of her arm as she danced Vileplume sent the sweet-smelling swarm at Jynx, moving at a high velocity like a Razor Leaf attack, only they continued to hit, instead of just hitting their target and floating down to the ground. The swarm moved as if it truly were alive, groups of petals went in while others retreated, all while in sync with the hypnotic dance. Faster and faster Vileplume danced and faster and faster they came, it was soon to the point where it was impossible to see Jinx, and one would probably think she was not there had it not been for her anguished cries filling the air, easily heard since Petal Dance was a totally silent attack.

Vileplume’s expression was more apathetic than Fida had ever seen it, and she realized that while beautiful; Petal Dance was a relentless attack.

“Jynx, get out of there!” Rin shouted. “Move!” Rin actually looked distressed. “S-stop- STOP!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, hands clenched into fists at her sides.

Vileplume obeyed and stopped; the petals were caught motionless in the air, as if time itself ceased progressing. The petals soon turned white and fell away; they were being covered in ice and telekinetically pushed away. The sight of Jynx caused Fida to put a hand to her mouth.

“L-look what you did!” Rin yelled; Vileplume looked indifferently at her. Rin looked to Fida and snarled. “You!” she screeched, looking completely mad. She lunged at the younger girl, but was knocked aside by Vileplume’s bulk. She landed on the ground with a thud and looked up in disgust at the Grass-type.

Vileplume seemed for a moment as if she were about to walk away from the scene, but a sweet aroma filled the air. Vileplume’s petals were giving off another powder, lavender in color.

“What are you doing now?” Rin accused, glaring venomously.

The powder landed on Jynx’s body, causing the rashes to vanish almost instantly and lessened Jynx’s pain. Another grayish powder was released from the large petals; it made for the psychic’s lips and mouth, and soon enough her winces stopped and her eyes closed.

“Asleep…” Fida noted, looking down at Elvia who was stirring now.

“What are you doing?!” Rin stood and began pounding her fists on the grass-type’s body. “Leave her alone!” she backed away and yelled for her Froslass to come. She was once again shoved to the ground by Vileplume, who proceeding to look very intently into Rin’s eyes. They were transfixed in each other for many moments.

Finally Vileplume looked away and faced Jynx. She held out her arms and closed her eyes. Roots began to come forth from the soil again, large and small, big and thin. Her eyes suddenly began to glow an icy-blue color; ice began to encase the roots as they started wrapping the Jynx in a protective cocoon of sorts. Wrapping around and tightening so that the Ice-type could not be seen.

The roots broke away from the ground and Vileplume’s aura faded. She pointed at Rin, motioning to Jynx before walking away towards Fida.

The blue-haired girl was confused, but stood up and silently walked to her Jynx. She returned the Ice-type, cocoon and all, into her Pokéball.

Steam hissed from the other side of the wall and a bright orange glow could be seen, no doubt Officer Jenny and her Arcanine trying to get in.

With a last glance at Vileplume, Rin took her Froslass' hand and vanished through one of the ice walls and into a building, ignoring the scorn of the people around her.

Vileplume waited until Rin was out of sight before releasing more gray power, helping Elvia become more alert. The mismagius’ eyes flicked open quickly, and she immediately looked around, body ablaze with ghostly energy.

“It’s ok, Elvia,” Fida reassured her ghost. Elvia turned to her friend and looked intently at her, before suddenly turning to Vileplume and nodding graciously, a thank you in her eyes.

"Stand back!" came a shout. Fida ducked as a jet of intense flame broke through the wall.

"Where is she?" Jenny asked, peering through the hole.

"Escaped," Fida answered grimly, making her way to the hole in order to get out of the ice box.

“You did a good job,” Fida said once they had escaped the crowd of people. Vileplume made no sign that she even heard Fida aside from a bit of glistening in her eyes, but walked on in silence. Fida smiled to herself and looked down at her feet as she walked, though she wished to say more.

-------

“Wow,” Sem exclaimed. “That Vileplume is definitely more than she seems…” he said after hearing Fida explain what had happened earlier that day.

“She’s kinda soft on the inside I think, she just looks so cold on the outside. I think Rin is sorta like that too,” Fida commented.

“That coldness shows up in her Hidden Power too; interesting Hidden Power-type for a Grass pokémon.”

“Mmm…” Fida took a sip of hot cocoa as they sat in their room in the center. The light on the small center table was turned on, as it was now dark, filling the room with a soft glow.

Silence dominated the next few minutes as both of them sat thinking about the day’s events.

“How did running your errand go?” Fida asked as she placed the foam cup down on a napkin in the table.

“Meh, nothing special. Sableye got hungry on our way back, he’s out looking for rocks,” Sem took a sip of some warm tea he had. “Went snooping for more stuff on the Ailments.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Still got two to take down, no sign of the ones that got beat yesterday, I guess they were arrested.”

"You think they'll really leave if we beat them?" she asked.

“We can only hope.”

-------

“Wonder if they’ll show up,” Fida murmured as she leaned against a tree with both hands behind her back. She looked up, squinting at the morning sun as it streamed through the deep green of the leaves; shadows played across her face. They were in a field, far from town so as to not spook the trainers with the police.

“They have to; we can’t exactly go looking for them. They’re the ones always looking for a challenge: they’ll come to us.” Sem leaned against the same tree, hands in the pockets of his jacket with Sableye on his shoulder; gem-stone eyes looking brightly about, ears twitching at every sound.

Sure enough, after only a bit of waiting, two figures came into view. Their attire was entirely predictable; one had flaming red hair with orange streaks that was styled up so that it could perhaps be mistaken for flames. Red sleeves came out of the shorter black sleeves and covered his arms. Red shoelaces were barely visible from under the baggy black jeans; a red flame was emblazoned on his shirt. The expression on his well dark-skinned face was far too smug.

The other had medium-length white hair, though it didn’t look bleached. His skin was completely pale. White sleeves and white laces with three white Z’s on his shirt to complete the look. He didn’t look smug or over-confident, but rather calm.

“So you came,” Sem stated as he righted himself and stood away from the tree; Fida did the same.

“Sure did,” the red one said. “Couldn’t pass up the chance of fighting someone who’s taken quite a few of our team,” he smirked. “Don’t think you’ll win this one though. The name’s Arin.”

“Don’t get overconfident,” the white one said, his voice was cool and soothing. “Do that and I think you’ll make the same mistake of underestimating them like the others.”

“Pah, we’re the best ones in the group though,” he responded as he cupped his hands behind his neck.

The white one did not respond and instead introduced himself as “Z.” Z stuck out his hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Sem shook Z’s hand, remarking how the man was actually not much taller than himself and far too formal and polite to lead a team of hot-headed trainers.

“While formalities are nice, you came here for a reason,” Sem started. “And so did we for that matter. You need to leave this town alone. What you’re doing is wrong.”

“Perhaps to you,” Z answered calmly. “I see it as a way to battle and gain more experience as a trainer; you couldn’t understand.”

“Yes, but now who’s challenging you anymore? If we hadn’t come along you’d be sitting around bored.”

“Other trainers would come along.”

“Maybe,” Sem narrowed his eyes. A slight breeze licked at everyone’s hair and clothes. “In my opinion, a group like you is better off stationed in Goldenrod or Olivine.”

“I’ll make a deal with you, Sem,” he said, knowing Sem’s name from talking with his team members no doubt. “Beat us in a double battle, and we’ll go."

Sem raised his eyes brows at the leader's straightforwardness. "Deal," he said and shook Z's hand.

“Get ready to lose!” Arin said haughtily with a flashy-white grin.

Sem walked back towards Fida while Z and Arin put some distance between them, making a makeshift field.

“But Sem, I’ve only ever double-battled once!” Fida whispered harshly at Sem as he neared her. Painful memories crept back into her mind as a result of her recollection.

“You’ll do fine, trust me,” Sem assured her as he lead them to their end of the field.

“Two pokémon for each person, sound fine?” Z shouted across the expanse of grass and dirt.

“That’s fine!” Sem echoed back. He turned to Fida saying, “Don’t use Elvia just yet, wait for the second part.”

Fida nodded nervously in response and fumbled around for the Pokéball she was searching for; Sem already had his in hand.

“This is it…” Fida thought to herself as their opponents threw their Pokéballs onto the field.

 

[Sem]

-Chapter 6-

Both Pokéballs split open mid-air, allowing pure white energy to cascade down to the soft grass and form into shapes.

Sem and Fida threw out there own Pokéballs before their opponents could fully materialize. After only a moment there were four pokémon on the field. A massive Pokémon that resembled a bear with white and greenish-fur; it yawned extremely loudly; Fida noticed that a few leaves were shaken from their branches in nearby trees. It was the biggest pokémon she had ever seen aside from Amaro, Tara's Onix, though she was able to recognize this one as a Snorlax.

The other pokémon was something all too familiar to Fida and brought memories of a dark forest and intense flames, and a gunshot. The Houndoom howled and barked at Sem and Fida, expelling a puff of flame that licked at the grass beneath it.

“You gonna be ok?” Sem asked, knowing that fighting a Houndoom could be painful experience for the girl.

“I’ll be fine…” she answered. Kieran stood on the grass before her, eyeing both his opponents with his sharp glare. Starmie hovered before Sem, completely still and waiting for a command; its large gem shone a bright teal in the light.

“Flamethrower!” Arin started with a confident smile.

“Thunderpunch the Starmie,” Z ordered simply as he stood with his arms crossed.

The Fire-type reared back its head, flames already seeping out of its maw, and then thrust it forward, expelling a powerfully hot stream of red flame that shot across the field at Kieran. Snorlax charged forward, causing the ground the shake with each step, lighting danced across its left fist.

“Dodge, Kieran!” Fida bit her lip as she watched the flow of fire come their way, moving to the side herself for safety's sake. Kieran took flight and spun out of the way of the jet, narrowly avoiding the intense fire. “Mirror Move!”

Kieran narrowed his eyes at the canine as a bubble of dark energy surrounded him. He dove straight back into the fire, causing it to reflect off of the energy and back at the Houndoom.

“Water Gun!” Sem responded to the Thunderpunch. Starmie hovered higher and flipped, pointing a star point at the massive Normal-type and shot a jet of water at the Snorlax. The water thoroughly doused it and caused the electricity to spread painfully across its entire body.

“Take that flame and then counter with Faint Attack,” Arin ordered his Houndoom with a sly smile. Fida had forgotten about Flash Fire.

The Dark/Fire-type stood firm, taking the reflected flames with ease, despite their increase in intensity, almost seeming to absorb the fire. The stream of heat ended, leaving the canine perfectly unharmed. The air around it boiled, as if you were looking at the dog through a veil of smoke. The grass withered at its feet - Fida could almost feel the intensity of it.
Jumping to the side, it dived towards its partner's shadowing, vanishing inside of it as if it had jumped into a pool.

“Faint Attack too, Kieran!” Fida said quickly, mentally kicking herself for reflecting a Flamethrower at a Fire-type.

Kieran turned and spun around, changing his course, and dove straight into Starmie’s shadow.

“Shake it off, Snorlax,” Z said, knowing that the shock was only a nuisance for the large pokémon. “Shadow Ball.”

The Snorlax shook its head and shook off the annoyance of the electricity. It leaned back and inhaled; its own shadow came to life and flowed into its mouth. With a loud roar it clapped its hands together and spat the sphere of dark matter at Starmie.

“Get out of the way and use Hydro Pump!”

Starmie answered with a sighing sound and twirled out of the way, zooming across the field with its gem facing the sky, resembling some sort of alien ship that you would see in a movie. As Starmie spun, massive jets of water burst from five of its points, lashing out at the snorlax like enormous whips.

Fida looked desperately for Kieran to emerge from somewhere, they he had only just disappeared. Only a moment more she gasped as she saw both Kieran and Houndoom fly out of the shadows of two of Starmie’s Hydro Pumps, both seemed to be in pain as if they had both manage to hit each other while inside of whatever shadow dimension they had been in.

Arin growled. “Howl and get it with Fire Fang!”

Houndoom let loose a mighty howl from its throat as it stood, echoing across the trees and stones, focusing its attack power. It snapped its jaws shut and bared its teeth as fire enveloped each of its teeth and lengthening, causing its mouth to appear more like that of a Seviper or Granbull. Houndoom charged forward with a growl.

“Sucker Punch!” Fida countered, using a move that Kieran had recently gotten the hang of.

Kieran ran towards Houndoom as it came, flapping his wings as he ran and taking flight with a burst of speed. He arched around to the side in order to avoid the dog’s mouth and hit it hard in the side with his beak, causing a yelp to break from its mouth and the fire to dissipate.

“Ice Beam,” Z said, barely loud enough for Snorlax to hear.

Snorlax opened his mouth as the blue orb formed just inside it. He aimed it at the incoming Hydro Pump and fired. The columns of water froze in place as the ice took over, trapping Starmie in the center a beautiful spiral of frozen pillars that towered the field.

“Rapid Spin out of there!” Sem yelled.

Loud cracking filled the air as the ice began to break, webs of cracks spread across the formation until finally shattering into thousands of piece, Starmie spinning rapidly away.

“Psychic on the ice!” Sem pointed at the falling chunks of frozen water.

Starmie ceased rotating on a dime and held itself in place in the air. Its core shone with a blue aura, as did the ice. The shards were hoisted into the air and poised towards the Snorlax. With a slight moan Starmie sent the storm of ice shards at the large beast, the high-pitched ringing of their velocity rang in everyone’s ears.

“Hit the Murkrow back with Iron Tail!” Arin commanded.

Before Kieran could even fly away from the successful delivery of his attack he was smacked powerfully with Houndoom’s tail. Kieran was thrown back towards Fida with a caw.

“Out of the way!” Z urged.

Snorlax hopped out of the way of the ice and rolled, making the earth shudder. Fida swore it caused her to jump at least half a foot into the air. The ice shards jammed themselves into the ground where Snorlax was just a moment ago.

“Use Yawn,” Z said with the twinge of a smile on his lips.

Once Snorlax righted itself it took a position in the center of the field and yawned loudly. On cue about a dozen bubbles popped into existence. They were a light pink color that shrank and increased in size at random. In the next instant they were sent towards Starmie.

“Pop those things, Kieran!” Fida said confidently, knowing exactly what she was doing.

Kieran shot through the air, popping all the orbs of hypnotic energy and effectively clearing the area of them.

“Insomnia?” Sem asked as Starmie returned to ground level.

“Yep,” Fida smiled.

“Clever,” Z clapped a few times.

“Aerial Ace, Kieran!” Fida ordered, not acknowledging the comment.

Kieran swooped towards Snorlax with blazing speed, catching the large pokémon right between the eyes with his beak

“Use another Flamethrower, Houndoom!”

Houndoom fired another line of flame at the tiny bird, only this one was much more powerful than even Kieran's reflected blast, powered up by Flash Fire.

“Douse it with Hydro Pump!” Sem said quickly in order to protect Kieran.

Starmie shot a singly jet of water along the column, dousing the fire and filling the air with hissing steam.

“Follow it up with Power Gem!”

Starmie echoed a soft moan as its core shone brightly once more, firing the strange multi-faceted beam at the Fire-type. The Rock-type attack hit successfully, sending the dog flying with a whine.

“Kieran, get ready fo-,” Fida started to issue another command, but Kieran ignored her and swooped in on Houndoom with Assurance, seeing his opportunity in the dog’s momentary inability to protect itself.

“Kieran…” Fida looked away for a moment to hide her embarrassment; luckily for her the disobeying of her order was either ignored or unnoticed.

“Rock Slide,” Z ordered with a slight frown on his face.

Snorlax stomped hard on the ground, causing an intricate maze of cracks to spread across the ground. It stomped again, causing chunks of rock to stick up through the ground in an un-even fashion. Snorlax bent down and, using its massive strength, hurled a large rock at Kieran.

Kieran descended, avoiding the boulder, but soon had to contend with another that was launched at him. More and more were thrown and soon enough Fida had to order Kieran to break through the rocks with Steel Wing instead of avoiding them. The rocks crumbled to pieces when hit with Kieran’s hardened wings. One boulder, however, caught Kieran at an odd angle, disrupting the bird’s movement. As he struggled to correct himself a final one was hurled at him.

“Payback!” Fida countered.

A faint wall of smoke-colored energy appeared before Kieran just as the large rock was about to hit. It struggled against the wall but was launched back at double the speed in only moments. A massive roar that could’ve been heard for miles resounded from the field as the rock hit and broke upon Snorlax’s body.

“Crunch on Starmie!” Arin said, despite being at a slight disadvantage with the Water-type, though so was Sem. Houndoom struggled as it stood and let loose another howl at the sky before running straight for the purple star, mouth open.

“Thunderbolt!” Sem responded.

Starmie hovered a few inches off the ground, its second star rotated faster and faster until sparks began to fly between points. Starmie ceased rotating after only a few moments and unwound the ring of electricity into a single bolt at Houndoom. The attack hit but it didn’t stop the Fire-type - it jumped into the air and latched onto Starmie with what was now a combination between Crunch and Thunder Fang. Starmie moaned in pain as its own electricity coursed back into its body.

“Rapid Spin to throw it off!”

In spite of the excruciated pain Starmie was feeling, (that was apparent only to Sem) it began to rotate once more. Starmie hovered closer to the ground so that Houndoom would hit it because of the revolutions, and hit the ground it did, with a strong smack.

“Keep spinning into a Twister!”

Starmie started rotating even faster as its gem glowed with a mysterious new energy. The wind began to pick up and any loose debris was picked up and fell into an orbit around Starmie, who was a purple blur by now. Fida looked up and gasped as she saw a dark cloud above them reach down with a thin tendril towards the Water-type. In seconds it developed into a small-scale tornado and sent spiraling towards the canine. The Dragon-type attack picked up Houndoom and spun it around for a few moments before weakening in power and fading away.

“Houndoom’s down…” Sem said with a sigh.

Kieran was on the ground and breathing heavily, before Starmie could offer any help Snorlax fired a Hyper Beam that tore open the ground as it rocketed across the field at the small bird.

“Thunder Wave!” Fida said before she even knew it was over. She knew it would work, since Kieran had been working for a while now perfecting the maneuver, and it was one of few elemental attacks he was capable of learning.

Kieran, who even then sensed his defeat, executed the move in pure spite of the Snorlax. His feathers sparked as he worked to call upon the element. In only seconds a wave of electricity moved across the field under the Hyper Beam as it hit.

Kieran was out for the count, and Snorlax found himself unable to move, and thus was unable to continue in the battle, leaving Starmie the sole one still standing, though its core was faintly flashing.

Fida was relieved, the first round was over, and Sem left standing meant that they had won it. Rubbing her face with her hands she stretched and sig. Looking over, she noticed that Vileplume was not far off, watching the battle unfold.

“Good round,” Z acknowledged as he and Arin returned their Pokémon, the latter of whom looked less than thrilled. “Let’s start the second and final round.” He and the red-haired one pulled out their second Pokémon and threw them out onto the field.

“You won’t be so lucky with this one,” Arin said, confidence returned to his expression as his Pokémon materialized into a shape that was almost as large as Snorlax.

The light faded and the beast left behind roared and flexed the rippling muscle across its body, spreading its wings as a jet of fire even more intense than Houndoom’s shot into the sky.

“A Charizard…” Fida said with widened eyes as the orange dragon looked directly at her.

The other pokémon cast by Z was little more than half the Charizard’s height. It was a dark purple in color, darker than Sableye. It had spines that ran along its back and two larger ones on its head, whether they were horns or ears couldn’t really be determined. It had piercing red eyes and a wicked grin that could compete with Sableye's.

“And a Gengar,” Sem added.

Without any command, Sableye took the field, jumping off of Sem’s shoulder and onto the grass, cracking his fingers and joints as he smiled malevolently at his two opponents.

Elvia followed, her presence flowed onto the field and she materialized, hovering before the two and ready to battle.

Sableye attacked without need of a command, sinking into the ground with his white smile ever present and his gaze on Gengar never wavering. Gengar agilely jumped out of the way of the Shadow Sneak as Sableye tried to swipe at it from below. Gengar grinned all the bigger and swiftly launched a Shadow Ball down at the purple gremlin.

Sableye, who was still sticking half-way from the ground, cackled as it saw the attack coming and put up a Protect made up of a mixture of ghost and dark energy; a swirl of purple and black The Shadow Ball was unable to get through, try as it might. It erupted into an explosion of dark matter and clouded both Sableye and Gengar from view. It was only the first move from either two and already the battle was intense.

Charizard let loose another breath of red fire as it vigorously flapped its wings, hoisting it up into the air.

Elvia acted immediately; she rarely needed verbal commands now, since she and Fida were so close mentally. A shivering howl came from behind as once again the wind picked up strongly, traces of ghostly energy floated on the currents. The wind assaulted the airborne Charizard, hindering its ability to fly. Despite the powerful force, the Charizard was able to maintain flight and steadied itself, firing a powerfully hot line of flames.

The Mismagius’ eyes began to glow with a blue psychic aura, catching the fire and bending it into a ring around her. The fire spun around her quickly, expanding and retracting as the red hot collar converted to a cold blue. The Flamethrower-turned-Will-o-Wisp was fired back the Fire-type. (Author's note: I wrote this before seeing the Fantina episode :3 )

Sableye jumped up into the air, top of his head aglow with Psychic energy. Gengar dove downwards with a ghostly aura surrounding a clenched fist. The Gengar timed his attack wrongly and dodged off to the side too late, allowing Sableye’s Zen Headbutt to get the Poison-type in the side; however, Gengar was still at the perfect angle to land his Shadow Punch.

Sableye went plummeting to the ground as Gengar attempted to steady his floating. Sableye hit the grass face-down with a sickening crunch, his limbs twitched after a moment, and his smile never left his face. A pop was heard as he craned his neck entirely backwards in order to see Gengar. More snaps and cracks sounded in everyone’s ears as Sableye moved his limbs and stood, turning his body so that it faced forward like his head. He chuckled, his grin grew all the bigger as he held out his hand towards his enemy, launching a shock wave of dark energy up at the sky that set the immediate area rumbling.

Gengar’s own smile did not waver as it glared down at Sableye with its blood-red eyes, unleashing a Dark Pulse of his own. The resulting clash of the Dark-type attacks caused yet another, bigger explosion that forced Charizard, who narrowly dodged Will-O-Wisp, and Elvia to protect themselves as waves of dark energy blew past them.

Fida yelped and ducked down, covering her head as a stray tendril of power rushed by overhead. “This is getting intense,” she commented as she stood.

“His Gengar’s a lot better than Snorlax,” Sem noted as he watched it and Sableye reappear out of the cloud of dust and debris.

As soon as the attack had finished, Charizard rushed forward with another roar, ready to get Elvia with a Shadow Claw.

Elvia’s body crackled with blue electricity and fired a Thunderbolt to discourage the Charizard, who leaned away from the incoming bolt and flew around and twirled upward so that it was high above the field. It opened its jaws as wide as it could, exposing a set of sharp teeth. A large ball of flame shot out of his mouth and came falling back to earth like a meteor, more powerful than a Flamethrower, Fida guessed it was Fire Blast.

Elvia was engulfed in a dark aura as shadows flocked to her, forming into a sphere. The Shadow Ball was lobbed up towards the Fire Blast, both powers combined into an even larger orb and expanded and yet another deafening explosion rocked the valley, flocks of bird pokémon fled their trees and filled the sky.

As soon as the smoke cleared it was apparent that both attackers had taken damage, but Elvia was already ascending to the level at which Charizard flew and shot another Thunderbolt at the dragon, hitting it. The Fire-type hissed in pain and began falling to earth as its wings refused to function due to all the spasms. It landed with a loud crack as the ground split beneath it.

Gengar rocketed down at Sableye once more, eyes burning with the black aura of Night Shade.

Sableye gave a hoarse laugh of sorts and he fell backwards into his own shadow as soon as Gengar was near the ground. An instant later Sableye bounced out of Gengar’s shadow; claws outstretched and caught the Ghost-type on its underside. The Gengar's smile turned into a frown in its pain and hit the ground, but was up in not even moment’s time and rushed forward with Payback, sending Sableye flying several meters back towards Sem.

“You’re doing well, Sableye!” Sem shouted.

Sableye looked back; a painful sounding snap cracked the air, with a look that said, ‘of course I am.’ His smile was toxic as he flexed his fingers, causing the dark energy required for Payback to come to life in his own hand.

The purple imp rushed forward as Gengar had, but Gengar easily jumped aside once more; Sableye snuffed out the attack and growled, firing a Power Gem attack in agitation. The unexpected attack clipped the poison-type in the shoulder; its smile briefly turning to a frown once more as it flew back.

Gengar outstretched its hands towards Sableye and a slow, calming hum filled everyone’s ears. Sableye’s ears twitched as it used Detect and threw up another Protect to escape the sleep-effects of Hypnosis.

Charizard had just gotten up and, using its powerful hind-legs, launched himself at Elvia with jaws open, poised to snap down on the mage-Pokémon.

Blades of grass and the leaves of trees rustled as they were overtaken by ghostly energy and volleyed at the in-coming flame-pokémon in the form of a Magical Leaf. Charizard expelled the smaller flame of an Ember to reduce the attack to ashes and sank its teeth into Elvia’s body.

Fida’s Mismagius emitted a high pitched scream that she focused on turning into a Screech as the clouds immediately above her darkened. The white clouds gathered together and condensed, quickly turning black and ominous. When Elvia had ceased her cry of pain a flash was seen only for a moment as a massive bolt shot down from the sky, as if the heavens had cast down a javelin. The Thunder made contact with the biting Charizard, sending it soaring far across the field as it moaned in open revolt of the pain. Elvia didn’t dither and forced her way into the Charizard’s mind, attacking it with her thoughts.

After Sableye’s protect had gone down he cupped his hands together, a yellow-orange ball grew in between them. Sableye lobbed the Confuse Ray at the now grounded Gengar, who sunk into the ground, narrowly avoiding the confusion-inducing effects of the otherwise harmless sphere.

Gengar rose up out of the ground right in front of Sableye, grabbing the dual Ghost/Dark-type by the neck as he did so. Sableye did not struggle, instead stayed limp as a ragdoll in Gengar’s grasp as a green power began to take hold of him. Gengar used Giga Drain to steal Sableye’s power and restore his own health. Sableye still did not struggle as his stamina was eaten away, he simply stared straight into Gengar eyes with his own, large, unblinking gemstone-eyes with an un-wavering, spine-tingling smile that seemed to suggest that Sableye enjoyed the feeling of his strength leaving him.

Gengar’s own smiled seemed to get slowly turn into a frown as Sableye kept up the behavior, and was startled when the gremlin began to laugh. It was a choked laugh that sounded rather painful that in of itself, but it continued, turning into a maddening cackle.

“Come on…” Sem uttered impatiently, slightly worried.

“What is it?” Fida asked quickly, diverting her eyes only a moment from Elvia and Charizard.

“This is the longest he’s ever waited to use Astonish,” he whispered.

Finally Sableye threw back his head with a crunch and his laugh turned to a cross between coughing, wheezing, and an insane giggle. Gengar’s grip loosened as it stared uneasily at the complete and utter lunacy of Sableye.

That was all he needed.

Sableye kicked away the hand that held him and scratched at the Gengar’s face. Jumping up into the air while Gengar moaned in agony, Sableye aimed his head down at Gengar with yet another Zen Headbutt. The Gengar choked as Sableye dug into its gut and leapt away. Sableye was panting, but did not seem the least bit worried and in fact began to glow with a strange blue aura. In only seconds Sableye looked much better, as if he had healed himself.

“Good, he used Recover,” Sem sighed as his gaze shifted briefly over to Fida’s battle.

Charizard was up, lightning sparked across its body as it held its head, attempting to fend off Elvia’s mental assault.

“Fida, let’s switch.”

“What?” she looked at him with her gray eyes. “Why?”

“They won’t expect it, we could finish it now, both of them are weak, but so are we. We can’t risk losing.”

“Right,” Fida nodded her head and looked towards Elvia, conveying her thoughts.

At once the Mismagius ceased her Psychic attack just as Sableye rushed across the field towards the dragon that towered above him more than Gengar did, who was just rising from being hit in the stomach.

Elvia took control of the other ghost’s body using Psychic and repeated the process of laying siege to its mind. Just as Sableye jumped into the air toward Charizard’s head, hand cackling with electricity, Elvia lifted Gengar high into the air, and just as Sableye’s fist connected Elvia forced the gengar down onto the ground.

Silence emanated through the arena for a few long seconds.

A crash signaled that Charizard had fallen, emitting a mournful cry as it smacked against the ground.

“And that’s it…” Sem sighed.

“We did it,” Fida murmured as Charizard was reluctantly called back.

Clapping was heard, Z had just returned Gengar and was walking towards them.

Elvia made herself unseen once more and her presence enveloped Fida as Sableye appeared in Sem’s shadow and scampered up to his trainer’s right shoulder.

“That was well, done,” Z said smoothly.

“Does that mean you’re leaving?” Sem asked, mouth forming a hard line.

“I suppose it does,” Z admitted rather aloofly. “Perhaps we shall go down to Goldenrod, hopefully we’ll find good trainers such as yourselves,” he faced Sem still, but his eyes shifted down to Fida. Elvia’s presence thickened. “And you’re especially good for one so young.”

Fida nodded but remained silent, unsure whether to take the compliment.

“Come, Arin,” Z ordered as he turned around on his heel. Arin had stayed where he was and only moved when Z had reached him, and they walked away, disappearing into the trees.

-------

“Thank you so much for all your help,” Nurse Joy said with a smile as she handed Sem and Fida their Pokéballs.

They were in the lobby of the center as Joy faced them from behind her usual place behind the counter. It was early afternoon now, though Sem said that they could get a bit of a start on the next part of the journey instead of leaving the next day.

“Well, glad to help I suppose…” Sem’s sentence turned into a bit of a mutter at the end, as if he were unsure.

“Hm?” Joy inquired.

“Don’t agree with their methods, but they struck me as an odd bunch,” Sem explained as he zipped up his bag. “Maybe a bit misunderstood…” His voice trailed. “But at least they’re not causing trouble for you, Nurse Joy, that’s what’s important.”

“Agreed,” the nurse said rather relieved. “Well, you two have a good journey.”

“Thank you, Nurse Joy,” Fida said as she bowed her head, her single pony-tail split over her neck. As she straightened out her sweater she asked, “Have you seen Vileplume?”

“No…” Nurse Joy shook her head. “Last I saw her she was on her way to see you two battle.”

“She sort of disappeared after we were done…” Sem recalled.

“Oh well…” Fida frowned a bit.

They both waved one final time at the nurse and left the center, heading towards the eastern gate of Mahogany that would lead them to Blackthorn.

As they left the gate and started down the route they noticed a rustling in the nearby plants. They looked just as Vileplume stepped out, though she tried to act as if they had run into each other by chance, again.

“Hey!” Fida smiled. “Thought I wouldn’t get to say goodbye.”

Vileplume’s cold stare melted a bit, though it hardened once more and she nodded in a somewhat hesitant fashion.

“Guess I should actually release you, huh?” Fida said as he pulled out Vileplume’s Pokéball. “Guess this is goodbye,” she sighed, but before she could press the button Vileplume hobbled over as quickly as she could, shaking her head. “What?” Fida asked.

“Finally she admits she wants to join you,” Sem chuckled.

Vileplume stared at him with a murderous intent.

“Is that true?” Fida asked, somewhat amused.

Despite her death-glare, Vileplume looked at her and with certainty nodded yes in reply.

“Yay!” Fida’s smile grew bigger, exposing her white smile, but before she could return Vileplume to her Pokéball she was interrupted yet again.

“Hey! You!” she heard a familiar voice shout at them from behind.

Sem, Fida, and Vileplume turned, only half-surprised to see Rin behind them. She seemed a bit different, mostly due to the fact she wasn’t wearing her Ailment uniform, though her clothing was still dark. Her icy-blue hair fell neatly down her back and over her shoulders. She also didn’t seem totally intent on picking a fight.

“You better hurry if you wanna catch up with your group,” Sem informed her.

Rin’s composure hardened. “I know that, idiot,” she sneered. “If I wanted to follow them at all that is - I’m not affiliated with them anymore.” She walked a few steps forward and raised her nose, making her seem like a pompous royal talking about a group of peasants. She then lowered her nose after a moment, wearing an easy-going grin now. “Going to do some traveling on my own for a bit.”

“Oh, really?” Sem questioned with his casually indifferent expression.

“Yes, really,” Rin frowned.

“And why tell us?”

“I-I… w-well,” Rin’s expression turned to one of uncertainty as she bit her lip, looking away from the group. She turned cold as ice a second later and said coolly that, “I simply owe an apology; can’t I be decent enough to issue an apology?” she glared harshly. “A-and…” her frozen eyes softened once more. “I need to say thank you…”

“What?” Fida asked.

“I’m sorry for being such a pain and being, well, and being not very nice,” she blurted. “And I need to say thank you to Vileplume, for helping Jynx,” she whispered as she bowed her head to Vileplume. "We can't really go into the Pokémon Center, so I'm thanking her for taking care of Jynx for me…"

Silence.

Rin regained her composure, placing a hand on her hip she leaned to one side. “So, you can accept it or not,” she glowered with her piercing eyes.

Vileplume returned the stare and two of them stood facing each other as if they were bitter enemies; Fida was sure the temperature dropped. They seemed to similar at this moment in time, each trying so hard not to be kind to the other.

Finally Vileplume’s eyes looked on Rin with sympathy and she nodded.

Rin’s hard expression crumbled once more. “Thank you,” she repeated. She stepped back and waved. “Maybe I’ll see you guys again.” With that she walked off and walked away quickly, no doubt wanting to get away from the police.

“There is more to her…” Sem commented as they turned around and began walking.

“She’s nice deep down, you can tell,” Fida said with assurance. “I got a new Pokémon too.” She smiled at Vileplume as she recalled her to her Pokéball.

“Tara would be proud.”

Fida’s own eyes softened as she looked at the ball. “Yeah, she would,” Fida acknowledged as she put Vileplume’s ball away.

“Have a name for her?” Sem asked, looking at her as they continued walking east.

Fida furrowed her brow, thinking hard about it, and considering all the events that had happened in the past few days.

“Yep,” Fida said suddenly, finding a name that made perfect sense to her. “Rin.”
-------

Eeend~

 

[Stark]

I always loved this story of yours, Sem. The Ailments made for an interesting twist in your plot - and I absolutely adore that Vileplume! ^^

Thanks for reposting, it was just as good to read the second time around