Xylon's hoenn adventure

Hey guys, I'm Ryan from the marriland forums. Over there I write a fan-fiction, which is pretty popular, so I decided to give it to you guys aswell, also a note I came up with the whole fanfiction forum idea. so without further ado, I give you, Xylon's hoenn adventure!

Warning: contains violence, blood, mild language. rated pg-13

Prologue

"My Lord," came a sinister voice from a man in dark and imposing cloak, "I have it, I have the Mewtwo."
"Very good," replied a man, who sat upon his throne in a hall of shadows, "You have served me well for, how long was it?"
"6 years," the man in cloaks replied coldly.
"Ah yes, 6 years. And soon you will be one with the shadows, however there is one more task you must perform for me...capture Rayquaza!"
The cloaked man rose, his dark Murkrow perched on his shoulder, "But my Lord," he said cowardly, "Rayquaza is a myth, a legend... does it even exist?"
"It looks like I've done your research for you then doesn't it, my servant? Rayquaza lives at the top of Sky Pillar, a tower in the Hoenn region. There, it is resting, and you shall change that. Find it, capture it and return to me with it and then you will truly become one with the shadows. Destroy anyone or anything in your way with your dark pokémon. Go, and do what must be done." the master said.
"I will not fail you," the sinister figure replied as a smile crept onto his face. The figure drifted out of the hall, ready for his next quest.


Chapter 1: The stage where all journeys begin

It was a fine morning in Littleroot Town. Well, not for Xylon, who was currently rushing and getting dressed so that he could go to a meeting with Professor Birch about his new pokémon. The time the meeting was supposed to begin was 10:00. It was 11:30, and Xylon had overslept, badly. Xylon barged his way out of his house and ran to Professor Birch's lab, with half of his shoe on his foot and the other half dangling off of him. 'Curse you Mom, putting my alarm to 11:00 when I clearly said put it to 10:00...plus having to unwrap all those presents I'm not going to need for a while...' Xylon mumbled to himself as he sprinted to the lab. Oh yes, did I mention it was Xylon's 13th birthday? He was to receive his first pokémon, like every other trainer had before him on their 13th birthdays. When finally at the lab, Xylon was about to enter when the door flung open and smacked into his face. "What the heck!?" Xylon roared.
"My, My, you have got a temper," spoke a boy with dusty black hair. He was clad in red and gripped a Pokéball in his hand. "I expect you're the boy who never turned up for his Pokémon... pathetic." He grinned nastily.
"Who are you?" Xylon asked with a look of disgust in his eye.
"Oh sorry, how rude of me not to introduce myself, but I guess it wouldn't really be that rude if it was to a underling like you. I am Derek Courtas, future pokémon master, and I don't even want to know your name, however I am unfortunate enough to know it already, Xylon. What about when you've choose your pokémon, you come out here we have a battle?"
"Deal, but prepare to lose." replied Xylon confidently.

In the lab on the table was 2 pokéballs. By the table was Professor Birch and a girl called Rune. Xylon walked over to the professor, "I'm sorry I'm late professor. Rune, what are you doing here?" Xylon asked curiously.
"I'm here to get a new pokémon and set off on an adventure with it, we're going to be best friends!" she said excitedly. Rune had 2 blue, giant orb like eyes and wore a black and white skirt with really long black hair. Her shirt was bright pink with a Shroomish on it. "I heard you're off on an adventure with your pokémon too, wouldn't it be fun if we went together?" she cried out. At that moment Xylon was dying to say no. Not that he had anything against Rune it's just that she was plain weird, he wouldn't be able to handle a girl like her around him at all times. "Oh, go on Xylon," encouraged Professor Birch, "Do it as a favor for me. After all, you were late by an hour and a half this morning." At that point Xylon had to say yes. "Go on then, you can tag along if you want I guess, just don't get in the way," Xylon said hopelessly.
"Good, now we've got that sorted out, we can pick your pokémon. Since Derek came earliest, he got first pick and chose Mudkip, the water pokémon, so that leaves us with Treecko, the leaf pokémon and Torchic the fire. Rune step forward and choose," said Professor Birch with a smile on his face.
"Whatever pokéball I choose, I'll take that pokémon inside it," Rune said confidently. She walked up to the table and picked up a pokéball. "Go, pokémon!"
She commanded. Out of the pokéball came a little orange chick looking pokémon, "Torchic!" it said. "It's so cute," burst out Rune. Xylon knew having Rune with him on the adventure was going to be a real pain. "That leaves Treecko for you, Xylon," said Professor Birch, passing Xylon the last pokéball on the table. "Go Treecko!" Said Xylon. Treecko leaped out of the pokéball. It was a small green creature. "Tree-ko," Treecko said proudly.

Xylon and Rune exited the lab with their new pokémon on their shoulders to find Derek waiting outside, "Now, about that battle," Derek said in a nasty tone.
"Yeah, it's time to prove you wrong, that I'm better than you and I can beat you," Xylon said.
"We'll use that field over there as a battle field," Derek pointed to a field about 30 meters away, "It'll be a 1v1 battle, 1 pokémon only. Any questions?" Derek finished.
"No" Xylon replied.
"Really? I thought a noob like you would have a question." Xylon gritted his teeth hard. When on the field, Derek unleashed Mudkip.
"Prepared to lose?" Derek toyed with Xylon. He ignored the the comment.
"OK, Mudkip, start with tackle attack, go." Mudkip ran at a high speed at Treecko. "Treecko, dodge and use tackle as a counter attack." Treecko leaped into the air just as Mudkip narrowly missed him and he kicked off Mudkip. Everything was going well so far, but could Xylon keep it up? "Mudkip, use water gun quickly." Mudkip recovered quickly from the tackle, spun around and spat a burst of water into Treecko's back. Treecko fell to the ground. "Now Mudkip, finish it with a tackle from above!" Derek ordered. Mudkip jumped furiously onto Treecko. The battle was over. Derek had won...

Chapter 2: Danger at Slateport

Xylon couldn't believe it. His first battle and he'd lost. "Looks like I won, just as I said I would. I guess you are pathetic after all, to think I had a thought for one second that you might just win!" teased Derek. Xylon heated up with rage, he moved forward, but Rune put an arm out to stop him. "Cool it," she said with a smile, "Hey scrub, why don't you beat it before I unleash Torchic to burn you to bits." Derek smiled. "I guess you want a battle too little Missy, well I'm sorry to say I don't have time, I'm heading for Rustboro city for my first gym badge, It's a 2 week walk and I don't have time to be held up any longer, so if you excuse me, I'll be off." And with that Derek walked away.

The boat set into the docks of Slateport. It was a misty day and the only person who set foot off the boat was a man, hooded and cloaked. He was the only one left alive from the boat, his pokémon had spared no-one. So where did he start? Where was this Sky Pillar? Where was Rayquaza? So this was Hoenn then, it sure wasn't impressive, Sinnoh had been so much more interesting. Why couldn't Rayquaza be there so he could return to Sinnoh? Where was everybody? There wasn't a single soul in sight. Slateport was deserted. A shape of a human formed in the mist suddenly. Ezio, The hooded and cloaked man put his hand on a pokéball on his belt with a flash. "Who are you?" said a voice from the mist.
"Your worst nightmare," Ezio replied, "Go Lucario, show him the meaning of pain."

Xylon had healed up at the professor's lab and him and Rune had hit the road. Route 101 was calm, quiet and grassy with patches of trees here and there. "Earlier, you stuck up for me, why?" Xylon asked Rune.
"Because, we're going to be travelling together a lot and we need to be friends or else it wouldn't work out,"Rune replied, "anyway the voice in my head predicted that we must be friends or else I would have to leave you and wouldn't that be a shame?" said Rune. Xylon was dying to say yes. He could've taken Derek on, he may be better at pokémon battles but in a real fight he didn't stand a chance against Xylon. He suddenly had a thought of life without Rune. Heaven. Suddenly the bush rustled and a small bird flew out. "Aww, it's a Talliow," said Rune in a baby like voice, "I guess I could capture it!"
"How can you capture it? You have no pokéballs?" asked Xylon desperately.
"Not true, Professor Birch gave me 10 back at the lab. I'll give you 5 of them later," Xylon felt a warm feeling in his heart, Then it went away. Why was it she was being so nice? Did she like him? As in like, like him? Love? "OK, Torchic, get out here," Torchic leaped out of it's pokéball looking quite happy and ready.
to battle. "OK, start off with scratch!" Rune commanded. Torchic went in for the kill, charging at the wild Talliow. He raised his foot and scratched Taillow only just hitting it's wing. "Now ember!" A blast of fire shot out of Torchic's mouth and hit Talliow as it was recovering from the scratch. "OK, now time for a pokéball," Rune said as she threw a pokéball and captured the Talliow. "And that's how it's done!" Rune exclaimed, "Come on, let's head to Oldale, there we can rest and check out how good Talliow really is." They continued onto Oldale to find that when they got there everyone was crowded round a TV store. "What's going on?" asked Xylon.
"Look at the news report," answered an old man. "I'm here on the spot for a very special report," said the news reporter on the TV, "Here at Slateport earlier today a man was murdered, how is not known. It was too misty to tell anything at the time so there were no real witnesses. Also, a boat full of dead people was docked today. We believe that the murderer of this man came off of the boat. But nothing has been confirmed yet. This is Stacy, live at Slateport."
"Oh My God," Rune said in a shocked voice. Xylon completely agreed with her.

of course thats only a snippet of XHA, if you want mor, you'll get it, I bring out 2 chapters a day, well intil I get the full thing I've done so far up here. So far I've done 12 chapters.

Hey guys, here are the next 2 chapters of Xylon's Heonn adventure!

Chapter 3: Who gets Ralts!

Everyone stared at the TV shocked. "Slateport's near here, there's only a small area of water blocking us off from Slateport," said somebody in the crowd.
"Well I'm leaving," said another, "He could come here, and then we would be in trouble."
"I'm off to go live with my relatives in Mossdeep, I'll be safe there."
"I agree, can I come with you?"
"Come on, lets leave, we're not getting anywhere staying in here," Rune said to Xylon.
"What will we do now? We have to go through Slateport eventually to get to Mauville," Xylon explained putting away his map.
"Well, he'll most likely be gone by the time we get there, now stop being a scaredy-cat and lets go to the Pokémon Center, sheesh, I thought you were a boy!" Rune said grabbing Xylon by the ear and dragging him to the Pokémon Center.

The next day Xylon awoke in the Pokémon Center, Treecko lying next to him. He remembered the whole of the day before, being forced to travel with Rune, Rune catching her first pokémon - Rune! Where was she!? She wasn't in her bed, or in the shower! "Rune!" Xylon called out. Was it real or was it a dream, Rune was gone! He would never have to put up with her again! Her stuff was gone too! This was too good to be a dream, Xylon pinched himself to check he wasn't dreaming. He didn't wake up so he mustn't be dreaming. "Yes!" He cried out. After packing his rucksack, he and Treecko headed outside, only to find Rune training! "There you are! I've been wondering when you would wake up. Do you know what time it is! I've been out here 2 hours..." God shut up thought Xylon, he checked his watch wishing this was a dream, "Holy Moly, It's 11:00, Why didn't you wake me!"
"I did, but then you went back to bed, so I came out here and started training, why waste time, eh?" Rune explained with a smile on her face. "Now come on, we can't waste any more time, let's get going," she said. Only one word could describe what Xylon was going through: heck.

Once Xylon and Rune were back on the road, they started to plan the adventure ahead of them. 'I might as well accept the fact that Rune is coming with me' Xylon thought. This route seemed like the one before, just a little more open. They stopped for lunch at midday. "According to this map, if we continue on like the way we're going, we should reach Petalburg City tomorrow night or the morning after tomorrow," Rune explained, “There, we can practice for the Petalburg contest!"
"Woah woah woah, who said anything about entering a Petalburg contest, and what Petalburg contest!?" Xylon over-exaggeratedly said.
"Didn't I mention it? This morning whilst you were sleeping I saw a poster on the Pokémon Center poster board explaining about a contest in Petalburg in 3 days. We should reach there in 3 days, and when we do, we can train for it and enter and win!" Rune said excitedly.
"But that'll just hold us up even longer! We need to get to Rustboro for our Gym battles," Xylon said.
"Well tough, if you want to rush ahead you can, but you'll miss the grand appearance of the pokémon master, Wallace. He's a dream come true," Rune said wide-eyed. Xylon could swear he saw some drool coming from her mouth. 'Well if you can't win 'em, join 'em,' Xylon thought. Suddenly, Xylon noticed something small was running off with his apple. It was a small pokémon with a white body. It had a green looking bowl on its head with something red sticking out of the bowl. "Rune, this pokémon's nicking our food, stop drooling and help me catch it," Xylon said.
"That's Ralts, a psychic type pokémon," Rune explained, "We'd better catch it before it teleports off with that apple, every piece of food counts! Go Torchic, Scratch but be careful about the apple. Torchic jumped up into the air and used its claws on its feet to scratch Ralts. "OK, now it's my turn, Treecko, absorb, then pound," Xylon ordered. Treecko used the end of it's arm and punched Ralts, absorbing it's energy then went at it with it's other arm pounding it to death. "OK, get out of there Treecko, go pokéball," Xylon said as he threw the pokéball. Ralts flew into the pokéball leaving the apple on the ground. After wobbling a couple of times, it stopped. Xylon had did it, he had caught his first pokémon! "Nice combo," complimented Rune as Xylon went and picked up the pokéball.
"Thanks," Xylon replied.
"Though are you sure you can take care of two pokémon at once?" Asked Rune, "because I'd rather not take the chance of you taking care of that Ralts."
"Really? Well it sounds like someone's jealous that I'm a better trainer then them. Lets have a battle shall we. If you win, you get to keep Ralts, if I win, I keep Ralts," Xylon said wanting a challenge.
"I accept, but ask yourself Xylon, can you live with yourself, can you live with losing the battle and giving Ralts to me?" Rune provoked.
"I won't lose, not this time," Xylon said with a smile on his face.

The battlefield was set. It was a field, just a plain field like any other. Xylon smiled, he had the advantage of having grass to power up Treecko's attacks. "I'll chose my pokémon first, to prove I'm the better trainer," Xylon said cockily, "Go Treecko!"
"As I expected," Rune murmured to herself quietly, "Go Taillow, show Xylon what the practice we did this morning really worked out to be!" Taillow popped out of it's pokéball. "OK, start off with a peck attack on the enemy," Rune ordered.
"Treecko, blend with the grass and run!" Taillow dove down looking for Treecko. Something moved in the corner of it's eye, it was Treecko! Taillow followed Treecko through the grass. He lost sight of Treecko. "OK, Treecko, leap out and use pound!" Xylon ordered. Treecko leaped out of the grass nearby Talliow ready to attack. Taillow used it's speed and dodged the pound attack, only narrowly, then used peck to counter Treecko. Taillow pecked at Treecko viscously. Treecko recovered fast and went for another pound. Taillow pulled out quick enough and retreated into the sky. 'I thought I had the advantage,' thought Xylon, whose Treecko was wounded in the grass. "You see Xylon, I have the type advantage here as I would have if I sent out Torchic. Treecko was a bad choice to send out, you never considered me having the type advantage and only considered the environment, that's what makes you weaker then me! Now Taillow, swoop down for another peck attack!"
"Treecko, leap up and meet Taillow in the air and use absorb, you need some energy back!" Xylon commanded. Treecko leaped up into the air, arm out to meet it's opponent whom was diving down for and attack. 'This is going to be a one shot thing' thought Xylon, 'I'm gonna either lose or have the power to win in this next move...'
Treecko and Taillow met in mid-air. There was a huge bang and Treecko fell onto the grass heavily wounded, Taillow remained in the air, only just though, keeping it's strength up to keep itself airborne. "Treecko!" Roared Xylon. He ran towards where Treecko lay. Rune followed him. "What have you done!?" Xylon roared at Rune. "Don't worry, I have a potion here, this'll cure his wounds if you return him to his pokéball," Rune explained as she sprayed the potion all over Treecko. "Treecko, return," Xylon said once Rune had finished healing Treecko. Now I will be taking my prize," Rune said. Hate burned up inside Xylon. "Here," He said, hatefully handing Rune Ralts' pokéball and he strode off, Rune once again followed. The rest of the day was spent in silence.

Chapter 4: Battling Strategies

Xylon awoke the next morning, he checked his watch, it was only 8:00AM. Good, at least I'm not late up today, he thought. He rolled over to see Rune was fast asleep. An idea struck him suddenly, he would run away from Rune whilst she was still asleep. He quietly got out of his sleeping bag, got dressed in silence and was almost ready to leave when Rune's watch started making a beeping noise. Her alarm! "Were do you think your sneaking off too?" Rune asked.
"I was going to leave a note saying to meet me in Petalburg, I need some alone time," Xylon lied.
"I understand, but we're in the wild now, being alone would be to dangerous, especially now that theirs that guy going around killing everyone. The voice in my head advises me against it," Rune said as if she knew that he was going to run away.
"Well get up then, We need to catch up with how much time we lost from our battle yesterday," Xylon said, "I'll go ahead and come back when your ready so I don't need to watch you get dressed."
"How do I know you'll return?" asked Rune curiously.
"It's like you said, I'm not safe alone, also if I do, you'll need to do is send Taillow into the air to search for me or use Ralts to sense for me," Xylon explained.
"OK," Rune replied as she got out of her sleeping bag. Xylon set off across the field they had slept on and back onto the path which leads you through route
102. What to do next? I told Rune how to find me thought Xylon. He sat by the road and sent Treecko out of his Pokéball. "You know Treecko, this adventure has not turned out to be what I thought it would be so far," Xylon said to Treecko. "Tree-ko," replied Treecko, Xylon knew he would understand him.
"I have to battle Rune again for Ralts back, only thing is I need a strategy and how is Rune so good at battling?" Xylon murmured to himself.
"Hey you," Xylon looked up in surprise. "Yeah you, the boy in red, I challenge you to a battle!" the voice was coming from a young boy, about the age of eight.
Xylon leaped up, "I accept," Xylon said, "What are the rules?" He suddenly thought of Rune and how he was supposed to return to her about now, well she knows how to find me. "One pokémon, no returning that pokémon and sending out another," the kid answered.
"Fine then, but I promise you, I will win!" Xylon confidently said.

The two of them had moved off of the path and into a forest area. Xylon looked up and saw a Taillow circling above him. Looks like Rune was coming for him, 'I must show her I'm better at battling than she thinks,' Xylon thought. 'I can use the linked move combo tactic what Treecko seems to be good at and I can also use the scenery as an advantage too.' Xylon had a perfect idea of what he had too do to win. "OK, I'll send out my pokémon first," said the little kid, "You're up, Zigzagoon," Zigzagoon shot out of it's pokéball and growled. "OK, get out there Treecko and prepare to win!" Xylon commanded. Treecko leaped from Xylon's side onto a tree. "OK, Treecko start off the battle by hiding in a tree, blend in with the green on it and wait for the right moment. Treecko nodded and shot up to the top of the tree it was in. It leaped across the tops of trees be careful not to fall. Treecko spotted Zigzagoon moving around below him on the ground. Xylon himself, spotted Treecko up the tree looking down on his opponent. "OK, you've waited long enough, swoop down and use pound on that Zigzagoon!" Xylon shouted at Treecko. Treecko swept down the tree swiftly before Zigzagoon could even notice what was going on and pounded his opponent in the side. Zigzagoon screamed with pain and countered the move by biting the arm what Treecko pounded with. "Treecko get back into the tree and blend in the tops again," said Xylon just as Rune arrived.
"There you are, I've been looking all over for you!" Rune said angrily.
"Wait for after the battle Rune, I'm going to prove to you I'm not weak," said Xylon confidently. Rune nodded. After Treecko stopped moving around in the trees above, and Zigzagoon had lost site of him once again, Xylon shouted up, "OK, Treecko come down and use your combo move on Zigzagoon!" Treecko leaped down arm first. His arm was glowing a green colour. "Tree-ko!!!" He screamed as he hit the Zigzagoon with the green coloured arm, thus draining Zigzagoon's energy. Treecko then took his other arm and started pounding Zigzagoon with his new strength which he had just drained. Zigzagoon swiped back with his claws, scratching Treecko across the stomach. Treecko pounded Zigzagoon once more and as Zigzagoon was knocked back into a tree, Treecko brought his tail and smashed Zigzagoon into the air. Zigzagoon flew up so high he hit the top of a tree. When Zigzagoon had landed on the floor, he rose slightly using the rest of his strength however his legs couldn't take the weight of is body, he had been drained of all his strength, and he collapsed. Treecko had won. "Yes!" Screamed Xylon as the kid sprinted to his Zigzagoon. "You did well today Zigzagoon, I'm very proud of you," The kid praised, "So, I guess you won, here's your prize money." The kid handed over some pokénotes to Xylon. Pokénotes were a greenish colour with the face of a Ludicolo on it and Pokénotes in big, bold letters running across the bottom. Xylon counted it quickly, 100 pokénotes. "Why thank you," said Xylon happily. After saying their goodbyes to the kid, they set off to Petalburg.

On the journey to Petalburg Rune decided to talk about Xylon's tactics and how he could improve in battling. "It was a good finish to the battle, I must admit, but you rely on combos too much, if it's screwed up in the beginning then your pokémon's screwed and it could cause the end of the battle for you. Your combos are effective, don't get me wrong, you just need to use them less often. You must learn to use the counter skill, it is especially useful when your opponent's using a combo on you," Rune explained to him.
"You used countering once didn't you? When we had a battle," Xylon asked.
"Nope, I have used it before when I practiced with my brother's pokémon though," Rune said.
"That's how you're so good then, you've practiced so much whilst I've barely battled before," Xylon said in awe.
"Not necessarily, and it's not practice makes perfect either, it's about your first move and how you consider the environment and type advantage, how you use the time that is given to you and how you react when a pokémon attacks yours. Some people have the skills, some people just don't, like you. Well, I guess your learning," teased Rune.
"Ha ha, very funny," Xylon replied sarcastically. The warm feeling came back to Xylon that instant, the one what he had on the day he set out on his adventure. 'Am I starting to like Rune?' Xylon thought to himself. Xylon figured out that he maybe did like Rune as a friend, now that he knew she was brilliant at pokémon battling. Thoughts crowded Xylon's head, one feeling lead to another. 'Do I love her?' Xylon looked at Rune, after all she was quite pretty, 'No I can't Love her, I only like her as a friend-if that.'
"What's wrong? You've just gone all quiet all of a sudden?" Asked Rune.
"Nothing. Nothing at all," Xylon replied with a smile on his face.
"Well by tomorrow we should be in Petalburg ready for the contest," Rune said. 'Good,' Xylon thought to himself, 'Because I'm gonna win.' This time he wasn't going to lose.

I read the last chapter, and I have to say it's pretty good!

I've read it, and it is pretty good. I haven't the time right bow to trawl through it, but one if the first paragraphs needs editing.

"My, My, you have got a temper little boy," spoke a boy with dusty black hair. He was coated in red and held a pokéball in his hand, "I expect you're the boy who never turned up for his pokémon...pathetic." He smiled nastily.

He is 'coated' in red. Does it mean he has red skin? You wouldn't usually use it that way. Capital M on the second My. Maybe you could add some commas too. The boy also regards Xylon as a little boy, and yet he is still a boy. And capitalise Pokémon. Space in between the full stops and pathetic.

Reworked Version:

"My, My, you have got a temper," spoke a boy with dusty black hair. He was clad in red and gripped a Pokéball in his hand. "I expect you're the boy who never turned up for his Pokémon... pathetic." He grinned nastily.

I've also edited some language, as it's a little simple. And you should never use smiled for a bad thing. Smiles it meant to be good, regardless of the adverb.

A good story. 7.6/10.

Thanks for the advice, and thanks for reading, I wrote all of this part a while back so it won't be as good as the future chapters I've applied your advice, and here's more of it for all you who want more:

Chapter 5: Practicing for Petalburg Contest!

The day continued normally without much going on though Route 102, which seemed to get more urban as they got closer to Petalburg. There were buildings scattered here and there as the two friends read more and more sign posts pointing to Petalburg city. At dawn, the two of them emerged near a sign saying, “Petalburg City, 10 miles away,” pointing down the road they were heading on. “Let’s rest here for the night, we can reach Petalburg in the morning and start practising for the contest. Also, we could buy some proper cooking equipment and food for us and our Pokémon. I don’t think we can last much longer out here on junk food,” suggested Rune.
“I agree,” replied Xylon, “I think I’m actually feeling sick of crisps and biscuits.”
“Well tough, because that’s what we’re having tonight for tea,” Rune said. A look of disgust crept onto Xylon’s face.

After eating a packet of crisps and a couple of biscuits, Xylon quickly fell into a deep sleep. The next morning, Xylon woke up nice and early once again. He looked at his watch to find it was only 7:00 Am. Xylon crawled out of his sleeping bag silently, got dressed, and grabbed Treecko's pokéball as he walked off. It was time for some contest practise. But first he would need to learn Treecko a new move; the others didn’t seem very contest like. “Treecko, attack that Tree with all the power you’ve got, show me something new,” Xylon ordered whilst pointing at a nearby tree. Treecko shot into a fast run, faster than Xylon had ever seen him run, and pounded the tree with all his power. “Treecko, show me that again,” Xylon ordered. Treecko stood back to where he was previously and shot into the fast run again, pounding the tree as hard as he could when he reached it. “Hmm, a fast attack, really fast attack, if I combined this with absorb I could make something colourful, beautiful.” A smile leaped onto Xylon’s face. “OK, Treecko try it again…”

When Xylon returned to Rune, she was fully dressed and ready to go. “Good to see you're ready,” Xylon commented.
“Good to see you finally got up on time,” Rune commented back.
It was a beautiful day, Taillow were whistling in the wind, Zigzagoons were playing around with each other and Rune and Xylon were ready to go. They set off on their 10 mile walk to Petalburg City. They reached the outskirts of Petalburg city around noon to find the streets packed with teenage girls screaming their heads off. “Oh my god, it’s like a giant Robert Pattison fest,” commented Xylon.
“Oh my God!” Screamed Rune, “it’s Wallace!”
“Oh no, not you too,” Xylon said. Rune burst into a sprint over to where Wallace was. “Girls.” Xylon muttered. Xylon left the crowd and headed to the town centre. The more he reached the town centre, the less girls he saw running in the opposite direction. Shops were in all directions, supermarkets, pokémarts, camping shops, bookshops and many more. The first place Xylon went to was the Pokécenter to heal up Treecko “You must be exhausted, eh?” Xylon said to Treecko, who was walking by his side. “Tree-ko,” Treecko replied in delight. When in the Pokécenter, Xylon walked over to the desk and asked Nurse Joy, “May you please give Treecko a quick rest?”
“Sure, honey,” Nurse Joy replied. She took the pokéball, which contained Treecko, off of Xylon and put it onto a bed type machine. It made a sound, like music a bit, and Nurse Joy removed the pokéball from the machine. “There you go, your Treecko is all healed up and fully rested. I wish you a safe journey,” said Nurse Joy.
“Thank you,” Xylon replied.

After exiting the Pokécenter, Xylon headed over to the newly built contest hall. Xylon entered the hall and walked over to the main desk. “Hello, how may I help you?” asked the women behind the desk.
“Oh, nothing, I was just looking around to see what I was battling in.”
“Are you a beginner co-ordinator by any chance?” asked the woman.
“Yes, I am,” Replied Xylon.
“Well then you’re going to need a ribbon case and an ID card.”
“Really? I thought I could just enter,” said Xylon in surprise.
“No, you need the equipment and the accessories as well.”
“Accessories!?” Xylon replied in shock.
“Yes, you need an accessory case to store your accessories in,” replied the woman, “A key part of the contest is the look of your Pokémon, it expresses their feelings.”
“I’ve got to buy the accessories as well!?” Xylon screamed.
“Yes I’m afraid, but the accessory case comes free,” The woman replied as she pulled A Accessory kit from under the desk. It was a pink, love hearted shape case with patterns on it. She handed it over to Xylon. “Now, I need to register you to an ID card, please. Just fill out this form and hand it back to me.” The woman handed Xylon a form and a pen. It was a simple, straightforward form. It had questions such as: 'What’s your name?', 'What’s your age?', 'Where do you live?', and other questions like that. “Here you go.” said Xylon as he handed the form over to the woman.
“And last of all, here’s your ribbon case,” the women replied. She handed Xylon a small rectangular case. Xylon opened it to find 5 small holes in it.

After an hour, when Xylon had left the Contest Hall, he found Rune on a field practicing for the contest with her Ralts. “Ralts, teleport and confusion at the same time!” ordered Rune. Ralts, who was wearing a ribbon on her head, teleported and reappeared the next second, covered in purple energy. “Hey Rune, nice moves,” complimented Xylon.
“Thanks,” she replied, “Why don’t you show me some of yours?”
“OK, but they're not the best,” Xylon said, “OK Treecko, you're up!” Treecko leapt from Xylon's side, forward. “Now, use the move that we practiced earlier!” Treecko lit up green with power then charged forward like a lightning bolt, a green trail following behind him. “OK, do a zigzag.” Treecko followed out the command, leaving a green zigzag made out of energy behind him, “OK, now make a T for Treecko!” Xylon ordered. Treecko once again followed out the command and left a beautiful green T hovering above the ground. “That’s a good tactic, to say that a Treecko is not the best choice in Pokémon for a contest,” came a voice from behind Xylon. Treecko leaped up and behind his master ready to defend him. Xylon turned around in shock to find a tall man with blue hair standing about 5 meters away from him. He was dressed in some sort of blue costume. “Who are you?” asked Xylon curiously.
“Wallace!” Rune cried out as soon as Xylon had asked the question, “Oh my god!”
“Not so loud dear, I don’t want to attract anyone,” Wallace replied, “and nice moves, I’ve been observing you for about 5 minutes now, please don’t think of me as some sort of pervert, I’m not, I just like to see how other people practice. I find it interesting.”
“Thank you, this is awesome coming from Wallace!” Rune said excitedly.
“Rune, please shut up,” Xylon said in reply, “Thanks Wallace, I’m Xylon, I’ll be entering the contest tomorrow and needed to know what someone thought of the move.”
“It was pretty good, just one improvement, you could add a growl at the end, to make your Treecko look tough, It would add effect,” Suggested Wallace, “also, dress him up to make him look the part.” A scream of about 5 girls came from close by. “Well I better go, my fans are after me again, good luck tomorrow.” and with that Wallace broke into a run.
Xylon looked at Rune, “Are you drooling again?”

The rest of that day was spent shopping. Xylon bought a tuxedo for both himself and Treecko, whilst Rune bought a pink dress for both herself and Ralts. Other items they bought were stuff like human and Pokémon food, and stuff to start a fire. At the hotel, they settled down to bed at 9:00 PM. “Rune, do you think I can win this contest?” Asked Xylon.
“If you put your mind to it, then yes. The voice in my head predicts you will do well, I know you have a chance.”
“Thanks,” replied Xylon, “I just don’t think I’m ready to win, I don’t have the skills to win.”
“We better get some sleep, the contest is tomorrow and I’m looking to win!” Rune replied, “Good night.” She turned off the lamp and went to sleep with Torchic by her side. Xylon closed his eyes, he could win. He would win. Would he? Either way, the contest was tomorrow and he needed rest…


Chapter 6: Contest Time!

Xylon awoke the next morning. The sun seeped through the window onto his head. Treecko was curled up in a ball at the end of his bed and Rune was still fast asleep. 'Today's the day,' thought Xylon, 'Today's the day when I prove myself to be the trainer I really am!' He lied there for another half an hour or so thinking about the day ahead. What would it bring? Would it be good or bad? Was he and Treecko alone in this challenge? If so, then they were in trouble, Xylon had never been alone in a challenge before. But if he stuck to what Wallace said, then he should do fine, well, for the first round anyway. The contests went like this: there are four rounds. The first is showing off your moves and accessories, etc. Out of that, 16 trainers make it through, then, there's the dancing part where the pokémon must dance and show off their skills. Only four made it through there. The semi final was where you are pit up against another contender and must have a contest battle. The final two make it through and have the final contest battle and the winner wins a ribbon.

After laying there for a whole hour, Rune finally awoke. "It's contest time!" she exclaimed, "Xylon, you awake? Because we have only got an hour before the contest starts."
"An hour!" said Xylon in shock. He looked at his watch. 9:00 AM. He'd slept for 11 hours! "We better hurry then."

9:45 came around and Xylon and Rune were just entering the contest hall, to see a familiar face. "Ahh, if it isn't the weakest trainer alive, Xylon and his fellow companion, the boyish looking Rune, it is Rune isn't it?" said a voice from behind the two of them. They both turned around at the same time to see Derek. "Derek!" They said together.
"Thinking of entering the contest are we?" Teased Derek.
"Yeah, we're gonna win and kick anyone's arse who gets in our way, even you," said Rune with a tone of hate in her voice.
"That would make sense, as you are both weaklings and contests are for wimps such as yourselves! I was going to leave Petalburg for Rustboro, but since your going to enter and put up an attempt to win, I'm going to stay and watch your pathetic attempts, whilst laughing at you. Have a good time losing!" And with that Derek walked off laughing. "What a nasty piece of scrub! I hope he gets hit by a plane or something!" Rune said hatefully. Xylon however, stayed quiet, he had a sinking feeling in his gut, Derek had just put him off entering the contest. Outside the changing rooms, Rune and Xylon said good luck to each other and then left to enter their appropriate changing room.

"And that was Dawn's performance, her and her Vulpix made an excellent fire whirlwind type thing and it blew us away," complimented one of the judges.
"Fantastic, she's definitely got my vote," said another, this time though it was a female.
"Brilliant, I can assure you that she has a place in the next round, it's hard to beat a performance like that," said a voice that sounded like Wallace's.
"And now it's time for the rookie trainer, Xylon Reget," Said the first voice.
The lights were bright, the noise was spectacular. Xylon walked along the path to the entrance of the arena. He passed a girl wearing a Sombrero and a yellowish dress. A Vulpix walking by her side. She whispered, "Good luck," to him as he passed, though it was hard to hear over all the noise coming from the arena. Xylon just smiled in silence as he trembled past, Treecko also trembling in his walk. They both wore their tuxedos, making them look like partners in business. Xylon and Treecko finally reached the arena. 'This was it, this is where me and Treecko stand alone against the worst thing in the world, thousands of people all together, looking down at you expecting a good show from you,' Xylon thought.
"This young, strapping man is Xylon Reget," said a man at the judge panel wearing the exact tuxedo as Xylon, "Nice tux, I must say Xylon." Xylon felt at that very minute like an idiot, he also remembered he was on T.V. "You may begin when ready."
Xylon trembled. "Treecko, are you ready to do the routine we practiced, no matter the consequence?" Xylon said quietly to his partner. Treecko looked up and replied, "Tree-ko."
"Then lets do it!" Xylon roared. Treecko started glowing green, then set off into a fast sprint. He started off with a zigzag with the green line of energy following him. The audience clapped in pleasure, they had loved it. "OK Treecko, show them what you can really do." Treecko shot off as fast as the wind, the fastest Xylon had ever seen before. Within 2 seconds he had spelt Treecko out of green energy. After finishing off the O, Treecko preformed a front flip and made a weak growl. Xylon trembled, that weak growl could ruin everything. The first judge started off with a rough comment, "That was quite a performance, only that growl at the end kind of did put me off, you can tell your a newbie by the way you tremble all the time. Overall, it was good, but I've seen better," finished off the judge harshly.
"Well I thought it was a beautiful performance, the lights were dazzling, but here's a tip, don't be afraid, with skill like yours and Treecko's, your bound to get somewhere in contesting," this view came from the women judge, who happened to be Nurse Joy from the pokécenter.
The final comment came from Wallace himself, "I talked to you yesterday Xylon, and I was hoping you wouldn't let me down, luckily, you haven't. It could have been better, but it was impressive to say it was your first time in a contest. Though you might want to develop Treecko's growl." That was a relief, he didn't mention Xylon's trembling. Xylon headed the exit of the arena.
"Up next is Rune of Littleroot town!" Xylon heard the first judge say as he left the arena.

After walking through the tunnel back to the co-ordinators room and wishing Rune good luck, Xylon sat down on a chair. The room itself was an impressive size, filled with armchairs and a plasma screen TV against the wall. It was showing Rune's performance. She wasn't trembling like Xylon, she had a confident look on her face. She had only just walked out of the tunnel and was on the arena. What had taken her so long to get onto the arena? Xylon stared into the screen with interest as Rune pulled out the pokéball what held Ralts in it. Someone sat in the armchair next him. He noticed it to be Dawn, the girl whose performance had been before his. He'd only seen a glimpse of her in the tunnel, he didn't watch her performance because he had worried about his own. She was beautiful. "I was talking to your friend Rune when you were performing, she was nice. Also may I mention that your performance was excellent for a first timer, you even pulled it off with a Treecko!" she remarked.
"Thank you. Dawn, is it? Didn't you think I trembled a bit to much?" Xylon said as he gazed into her beautiful, Blue eyes.
"Yes, it is Dawn and no you didn't tremble that much. Anyway I find it sexy when boys tremble like that," she said in a sexual manner.
"Are you coming onto me?" Xylon asked with a scared tone.
"No, not at all, I just do that sometimes," she said and winked at him, "Now look, Rune's performance is about to begin."
Rune had a smile on her face, "OK, go Ralts!" she commanded as she threw Ralts' pokéball onto stage. It exploded into loads of pink sensational flowers. "Wow," people said in the audience. "Now Ralts, use the routine we've practised," shouted Rune. Ralts nodded. The Green ribbon on Ralts' head started glowing purple. She disappeared and reappeared a second later through a purple portal. Ralts' then turned her attention to Rune. The ribbon on Ralts' head which was now back to green started to glow purple again and Rune suddenly disappeared. Xylon and Dawn both stood up in shock at the same time as most of the audience. 5 seconds of silence past and Rune had not yet reappeared. Where was she? Suddenly Ralts turned her head in another direction and a portal opened up their. Rune clambered out of it. The audience roared with applause as Rune bowed.
"That was spectacular! We'd thought we'd lost you there Rune. Totally unexpected. Well done," said the first judge.
Nurse Joy commented, "Well done, your performance was unexpected and surprising, we were all worried about you there, your Ralts really must have some concentration."
Wallace finished off by commenting, "Remarkable, I'm impressed that you made it out alive, well done."
Rune replied with a "thank you," and skipped off stage followed by Ralts.
"What was that explosion of flowers at the beginning from Ralts' pokéball?" Xylon asked Dawn curiously.
"It is known as a seal, when releasing a pokémon, the pokéball will explode into whatever seal you put on. It makes your performance look better," Dawn replied. 'When did Rune get seals for her pokéball?' Xylon thought.
"I'm gonna have to buy some for my next contest then," Xylon said back to Dawn.

15 minutes later, the judges made an announcement. "We've decided the co-ordinators who will go through to the next round, they will be shown on the screen above. Sorry to all the coordinators who didn't make it through. Better luck next time though," The male judge said. The screen above the arena showed 16 contestants. Xylon scanned the screen for his face. He found Dawn and Rune on the screen but not himself. He quickly rescanned the screen for his face. He was relieved to find a picture of his face in the last photo. He had made it, but only just.

The fact that Xylon had made it to the second round was too much for him to handle. He just stood their staring, mouth open, in shock at the screen. Treecko was also staring at the screen in the same manner. "Xylon, you alright?" asked Rune.
"Fantastic," Xylon replied, a smile forming on his face.
"Tree-ko," Treecko also said. This was it, this was where he would have to prove himself, the first round wasn't too much pressure, but the second round, that was pressure. Only 4 of the 16 contestants make it through to the next round, he had to be among them. He could not fail...

The second round would be in an hour. Giving Xylon and Treecko a little bit of time to practice dancing. The 16 remaining coordinators sat in the room nervously, waiting for the next round. Well, all of them were nervous except Dawn who was totally prepared and confident. "OK Treecko, do a moonwalk," ordered Xylon. Treecko followed at the command, moonwalking across the room, however falling over half way across the room. "OK, try it again!" Treecko once again tried again and once again fell over. They tried it 5 times over but made no succession "It's hopeless," said Xylon as he slouched into a arm chair. Treecko gave him a funny look. "You've got to face it, your not going to beat me," said Rune with a smile on her face.
"Oh, go drool over Wallace." Xylon said in disgust, He was now starting to hate her again.

An hour later Xylon found himself and Treecko marching onto stage with all the other coordinators "Here come all the 16 coordinators who got through the last round," announced the male judge. Once all the coordinators were lined up in 2 lines, spaced out from each other, their pokémon leaped forward "OK, here's the rules," Wallace said through the microphone on his table, "One coordinator will step forward at a time. Their pokémon will dance in front of the other coordinators and then the other pokémon will follow the dance routine that the pokémon showed them. Is that clear?"
All the coordinators shouted out at the same time, "Yes sir!" As if they were shoulders ready for battle.
"OK, first up is, Dawn, as she came first place in the last round," announced Wallace. 'Good, that means we're last so Treecko can think of a routine' Xylon thought. Dawn stepped forward a took a deep breath. "OK Vulpix, your up!" The little red, fire fox leaped forward "Now show them what we have practiced!" Vulpix Started side stepping keep it nice a steady for the others to keep up. Even Treecko wasn't having much problems. Then however Vulpix started doing a set of complex moves. Many pokémon fell over in failure with grim looks on their faces. Eventually only six pokémon were left dancing: Treecko, Torchic (Rune had chosen Torchic to compete in the dancing), Vulpix, A Squirtle, a Kirlia and a Kadabra. All except Vulpix were struggling. Vulpix finished off with a spin that Treecko could barely manage. "That was excellent! It definitely impressed me and it even knocked most of the pokémon over," Said the male judge.
"Remarkable, The moves were dazzling," said Nurse Joy.
"How much did you practice? Because you perfected that! Well done," congratulated Wallace.
"Up next is Darko, from Saffron city in the Kanto region..."

After 8 coordinators had been up front with their pokémon Wallace called out, "Up next is Rune. OK Rune, show us what you've got." Torchic stepped forward and thrusted his head back and forth. Torchic continued this for a couple of seconds then suddenly it like Vulpix had, set off into a complicated set of moves. Treecko had problems keeping up with these moves and eventually fell over with a look of failure on his face. Many pokémon had by now fallen over, in fact the only ones left standing were: Vulpix, Squirtle, the Kadabra and Torchic himself. Torchic finished by doing a spin on the floor.
"That was amazing! It lacked style in the beginning, however, in the end it all came through," complimented the male judge.
"I loved it, a cute pokémon and a cute, but complex dance that fitted together well. Well done," remarked Nurse Joy.
"It was brilliant," said Wallace, however that's all he said. Rune felt her stomach churn. This might be the stopping point for the contest for her...

Finally, after a hour of dancing it was Xylon's turn to show off Treecko's dance. Only if he'd come up with a dance. This meant only one thing, he had to improvise. "OK Treecko, start off with that move what we practiced!" Xylon was stumped, he didn't know what to say, he didn't know any dance moves. He was hoping Treecko would do something useful. Treecko suddenly started break dancing. It was fast, confusing and complex. A smile leaped onto Xylon's face, all the other pokémon had trouble keeping up with the dance. It was working, actually it worked so well that only Kadabra was left after a minute. "OK, tie it up with the moonwalk!" said Xylon suddenly, forgetting that Treecko had problems with the moonwalk. Treecko leaped into a moonwalk with no trouble at all, his face just concentrating. 'Yes! Perfection!' thought Xylon. Kadabra fell down after 5 seconds from tiredness. The crowd roared with applause. "We did it! And best off all, we didn't tremble at all!" exclaimed Xylon to Treecko
"Tree-ko!" Treecko replied.
"Fantastic! Could not have been done better, well done," said the first judge.
Nurse Joy was speechless. "Well done Xylon, good to see you've stopped trembling," Wallace said with a smile on his face,
"Now, just give us 5 minutes to decide who goes through to the next round!"

Those 5 minutes were filled with muttering from the crowd and coordinators alike. Xylon felt pretty confident that this was a win for him, he knew in his gut, he would go through. He headed over to Rune who was sat on a bench with Torchic on her lap. "Are you OK Rune?" Xylon asked as he sat next to her. She looked into his eyes as a tear entered hers. "Fine," she wiped the tear away.
"Well, we better get ready to cheer as the judges are about to say our names," Xylon encouraged on Rune.
"Maybe they'll say your name, but will they say mine?" She looked at Xylon in despair
"Of course they will, you did brilliant out there. If you don't make it then I'll drop out with you, that way we can stick together," Xylon said. A smile crept onto his face.
"Don't give up your chances of winning for me, I'll be fine, honestly," Rune said as another tear formed in her eyes.
Suddenly, Wallace made an announcement through his microphone, "OK, listen up spectators and coordinators alike. We've decided who will make it through to the next round and who will be leaving. However, if you are to leave, then don't think badly of yourself, have confidence, try again in another contest. Because out of the 54 coordinators who signed up for this contest, you were the 16 best. Now onto the results. Here are the names of the coordinators who will go through to the next round."

Rune's blood started pumping, she had to make it! "The first we decided to send through was Xylon of Littleroot Town." The crowd roared with applause Treecko started once again to break dance. "The second was Dawn, her dance was truly dazzling." Dawn stood up and gave a bow to the crowd. She looked at Xylon and winked. "The third was Kadabra as it stayed up the longest through Xylon's Treecko's break dance." Another applause from the crowd. Rune was starting to get nervous, she was starting to sweat, there's no way she would make it through. "And fourth place was difficult to choose. We spent a fair few minutes arguing over who got it, however in the end we chose Rune!" Rune stood up in happiness. She'd made it. Xylon came over to hug her, as he did a look of disgust came onto Dawn's face. "OK, we've ran out of time today, so we'll see you tomorrow, same time, same place for the semi finals. Thank you," announced Wallace.

Chapter 7: A Disastrous Ending

Xylon was leaving the contest hall as Derek came up to him with a evil smile on his face. "Nice going out there, I must admit I was expecting you to be out of the contest by now, but my predictions are wrong," Derek said in nasty tone. "You must learn that my skills are going to win this contest, especially with Treecko's dancing skills," Xylon said smiling at Derek.
"Really because as far as I know there is no more dancing involved in this contest and only contest battling," Derek said smiling back at Xylon, "and I know your not to good at battling, are you Xylon Also Dawn will win this contest, she is by far the most beautiful and skilled in the whole contest, you stand no chance!"
"Oh yeah, prove it!" Xylon replied forcefully.
"OK, but you must do that yourself. Wallace himself has told me who will battle who in the contest semi's and it just so happens that you are up against your pathetic friend Rune. Only one will go through to the next round and battle Dawn. I'm certain of it. But knowing you, you will hold back against Rune due to her being your friend. If you are to stand a chance against her you must not hold back, show her how strong you really are, finish the weakling off! Only then you will have proved yourself a worthy opponent for Dawn." After saying that Derek walked off laughing to himself. 'If Derek is right, then I must face Rune. I must beat her and ruin her dreams of winning the contest just for my selfish needs. All just to prove myself to Derek. Is it worth it?' Xylon had never thought of this before the contest, he knew he wasn't brave enough to beat Rune yet. If he beat Rune, it would destroy her.

Back at the apartment, Xylon, Rune and Treecko were all sat on a bed together. "Nice moves out there Treecko. Where did you learn to dance like that?" Rune asked curiously.
"Yeah, where did you learn to dance like that Treecko, I never taught you and I don't think Rune did? Did you Rune?" Xylon also asked. Treecko stared blankly at them and Replied, "Tree-ko" whilst shaking his head.
"What do you know, he must be a born natural. Looks like Birch gave me a Treecko who knows Michael Jackson moves," Xylon laughed. Rune laughed along as well, "Do you think there will be a dance contest somewhere where we can enter Treecko?" Rune suggested.
"Probably, out of all of Hoenn there's bound to be a dance contest," said Xylon.
"Well, maybe its time for some sleep, it's 10:00 o'clock and I want to practise tomorrow before the contest, today was a close call but tomorrow there will be no close calls," Rune said as she switched ff the lamp beside the two beds. She climbed over to hers and curled up in a ball, "good night."
"Good night to you as well" Xylon replied. Treecko got to the end of Xylon's bed and curled up in a ball, before Xylon knew it Treecko was asleep. 'Good, he needs his rest' Thought Xylon 'But now what? Will Rune actually let me win tomorrow. Of course not. Looks like what Derek said is true, I can't hold anything back, I have to win by holding back my feelings, but it is Rune who wants to win the contest, to me it's not that big of a deal.' Xylon's head was piled with thoughts and for 2 hours he lie there, thinking and waiting. Eventually he came to a conclusion, and that was that Treecko would decide the battle...

Xylon awoke at once when his alarm clock went off at 7:00 AM. He groaned and waited a second as Rune got up, she took off her top as Xylon watched, trying not to look. "Please Rune stop! I'm in agony, I'm still here," Xylon said in disgrace. Rune turned around in shocked. "Xylon what are you still doing in the room!" Rune shouted angrily.
"Remember that I sleep in here too," Xylon snapped back, "not my fault your not watching out for me being here when your getting changed."
"Get out! Now!" Rune screamed.
"But I'm not dressed yet," Xylon moaned. Rune put her top back on, grabbed Xylon by the ear and dragged him to the door way. Treecko leaped under the bed, not daring to see what would happen next.
"You see this," Rune said looking at the door, "it's called a door Xylon. Now use it!"
"But I'm not dressed yet," Xylon moaned; once again. This was true as he was still in his shirt and boxers.
"I don't care now get out!" commanded Rune.
"No!" Snapped back Xylon.
"Well if you won't get out, I'll make you!" Rune used her other hand to open the door. Then she threw Xylon out by his ear and slammed the door. "Rune let me back in!" Xylon shouted at the door as he banged on it with his fists. After 5 minutes of banging and shouting, Rune open the door. "Oh, and here's your stuff." Rune threw Xylon's fully packed bag into his face. Rune just walked past as if nothing had happened. Treecko crawled onto Xylon's lifeless body. "You were lucky I was still in my bra or else you would be dead by now!" She snapped and walked off.
"We're in serious trouble," gasped Xylon.

Xylon didn't make any contact with Rune at all until 10:00AM when he was sat in the co-ordinator's room waiting for his name to be called out so he would battle Rune. Xylon thought it would be a good idea to try to make a brave attempt of talking to Rune. Like always, he was wrong. "Rune-" He was suddenly cut off by her slapping him in the face and walking off to another chair. Treecko chuckled. Xylon looked at him angrily, this intimidating action made Treecko stop chuckling- Immediately
"Attention everybody, our first battle is about to begin, so will Rune and Xylon make it up to the stage please?" Wallace said through a microphone. This was it, this was going to be the biggest event in Xylon's life so far. He remembered the very words Derek had said to him. 'you will hold back against Rune due to her being your friend. If you are to stand a chance against her you must not hold back' The flashback was clear in Xylon's head. 'I won't hold back, I can't hold back. She will not hold back against me so I have no reason to hold back against her. She's so angry with me that she will show no mercy, I cannot show no mercy either. I must win.' Xylon's thoughts were clear, only focused on one thing. Victory.

Xylon was on stage, the crowds roaring down at him, Rune facing him from the opposite side of the stage. Man did she look angry! He stared blankly back at her as if nothing was happening. "OK! settle down for a second," Wallace shouted through the microphone. The crowds fell silent instantly. "This is the battle of the semi-finals, whoever wins this will head to the final. However the loser will head home empty handed. There is a 3 minute time limit and by the end of that time limit if the battle has not finished, the co-ordinator with the lowest score will win. So without further ado, let the match begin!"
"Go Torchic!" Rune screamed, throwing Torchic's pokéball onto stage. It burst into pink flowers and out shot Torchic. 'darn! I forgot to get Treecko a seal for his pokéball!' Xylon regretted in his head. "Go Treecko!" Xylon threw his pokéball into the air and out burst Treecko with a confident look on his face. "Treecko start off with our combined move with a quick attack thrown in!" Xylon commanded. Treecko nodded at him and lit up with green energy. Rushing forwards as fast as he could with a green trail following him, Treecko readied to pound Torchic. However just as Treecko was about to pound Torchic, Torchic spewed flames out of it's mouth directly at Treecko, hitting him and sending him back. Xylon's points dropped to 80. Rune smiled evilly at him. She knew he would lose. He couldn't lose; not now...

"OK Treecko time to try something new, use absorb combined with quick attack and run around Torchic in circles, then you know what to do." 'I hope' Xylon thought to himself, if he could pull this off then he could have a chance of wining, however, time was ticking. Treecko obeyed, he started to circled Torchic using high speeds, leaving a green trail behind him whilst Torchic spun around in circles trying to hit Treecko with his Ember attack. After 30 seconds of running around in circles, Treecko took a glimpse at Torchic, Torchic was starting to look dizzy. This was Treecko's time to strike! Treecko rushed forward ready to pound, the luminous green trail behind him. Once he made impact with Torchic, he pounded the little chick so hard that it flew across the stage. Treecko growled furiously to finish off the move. 'A combination of all of Treecko's moves! And it worked perfectly' Xylon smiled as Rune's points dropped to 75. 'If Treecko can stand his ground as Torchic just had, we
could win!' "OK Torchic, time for plan B," Xylon heard Rune call out.
"Treecko, get ready to charge forward when the time is right, you will know when!" Treecko nodded back at Xylon. Torchic started to charge at Treecko with full might, fire balls of ember at Treecko. Treecko's fists grew bright green as he punched away the balls of ember. Torchic emerged closer and Treecko was growing weaker by each ball of ember he punched. He couldn't keep this up for much longer. Rune's points dropped another 10 throwing her down to 65 points however, due to the Treecko's final stand. Torchic was close now, not far from hitting Treecko, and the bad news was that Treecko was to weak to dodge. Torchic's beak lit up Red as he combined a peck and a ember attack together. 30 seconds to go. And Treecko was hit by Torchic's peck-ember attack. There was a small red explosion and Treecko flew back out of it. Xylon's points dropped to 63. 20 seconds to go. Treecko steadily rose looking angry, he trembled. He took a step forward, attempting to walk, however he fell down. Defeated. "No!" Xylon screamed, falling onto his knees. Rune leaped up in joy as Torchic sprinted towards her. "Treecko return and get some well earned rest." Treecko returned to his pokéball and walked, head hung in shame, off of the stage and back to the co-ordinators room. Rune looked up at him and sprinted after him.

Torchic was having trouble keeping up with Rune. She was running to fast for the little chicks tired legs to keep up with. However in the end Rune stopped, she had caught up with Xylon, who had the most disappointed look on his face. "Hey, Xylon, why are you so disappointed? You did so well and I've got to say that you and Treecko surprised me with how strong you were. I expected to lose towards the end on the contest and I was so close too, there was actually only 2 points in it, so you can't walk away saying that your weak, because to say that was your first contest and you did so well and got so far. Your Mum will be so proud of you, I'm proud of you. You should be proud of yourself," Rune finished. Xylon slowly rotated his head to look at Rune.
"I'm sorry," he said in sorrow.
"For what? I should be sorry, I got wound up over you accidentally seeing me topless, when in the end it was my fault."
"Your right in saying that!" Xylon said. A smile grew on his face. "After the finals, do you want to leave Petalburg and head straight to Rustboro, I know we can both beat the gym leader there, and after we've done that we'll head straight for Dewford and-"
"Looks like you've got this all planned out then," Rune said smiling. "Yes let's leave after the contest."
"Torchic!" Torchic said in response to the conversation

Dawn's battle didn't last very long. In fact she destroyed the Kadabra and still had 100 points remaining. "This ain't going to be good," Rune said nervously as she and Xylon watched Dawn's battle from the Co-ordinators room. "Before you know it, I'll be destroyed by her and Vulpix."
"Don't worry, you won't be beat that badly," Xylon replied to her comment.
"Wow, that was encouraging Xylon. You know you could at least try to be encouraging. Or even Pretend!" Rune said furiously.
"What? I was. You said you were going to be destroyed by her and Vulpix and I encouraged you by saying that you wouldn't be beaten so badly. Thus I made the situation a little better and comforting for you," Xylon replied comfortably
"Oh my god Xylon. I've never met someone as stupid as you."
"What are you trying to say?" Xylon said back, sounding a bit confused.
"May Rune please step up onto the stage for the final battle?" asked Wallace through the microphone.
"Good luck," Xylon wished her as she walked slowly out of the co-ordinator's room, dreading everything that was about to happen in the next 15 minutes.

Rune reached the stage to find Dawn already on one side waiting. This was it. This was the biggest battle of her life so far. Rune trembled onto the stage and looked Dawn keenly in the eye. She had to have confidence, to show ones fear is to show there weakness, her master had always told her. She could show no fear, she could show no weakness. "OK ladies, you know the rules, except we've extended the time to 5 minutes since it is the finals. Good luck," Wallace explained through his microphone. A loud horn went off to signal the match to begin. "OK, I'll start with Torchic, go!" Rune screamed as Torchic's pokéball burst into pink flowers and sparkled.
"So your going to go with Torchic then, a good choice," Dawn said, with that evil grin on her face, "Guess I'll have to go with Vulpix then!"
"Looks like the two contesters are fighting fire with fire; this should be interesting," Wallace said.
"Torchic start of ember and scratch!" commanded Rune. Vulpix stood still as if nothing was happening showing no fear, even with Torchic charging at her. Torchic was close now, he was about to strike, however Vulpix leaped out of the at the last second, shooting a blast of fire at Torchic's back, knocking him down. Rune points were also knocked down. '85 points left. 'Bring it' Rune thought. Torchic leaped back up as if he had taken no damage and struck Vulpix with his glowing red wing. Dawn's points shot down to 83. 'An ember and scratch attack combined, impressive. But if were playing with combinations, then she's not going to know what hit her' dawn smiled.

"OK, now Torchic, before Vulpix can recover, repeat the same move!"
"Torchic!" screamed Torchic in reply. Torchic charged forward to Vulpix, as she was recovering from the last attack. Torchic was close now, it only would be a matter of seconds- Vulpix suddenly leapt up and before Torchic could stop, Vulpix smashed her tail against Torchic, sending him flying. However, Vulpix wasn't done yet, the little red fox fired a blast of fire at Torchic whilst he was still in the air. Torchic fell to the ground. Rune's points dropped to 68. 'This can't be happening, I can't lose, I've come to far to lose, come on Torchic, get up!' Rune trembled as did Torchic who was struggling to get up and recover from the last attack laid on him. Vulpix
started to charge to Torchic, if Vulpix reached Torchic this would be over! Torchic staggered onto his feat and faced Vulpix angrily "Torchic!" He screamed as a huge blast of fire spewed out of his mouth, hitting Vulpix whilst she was charging. The fire get coming and now Torchic started to charge. Vulpix held her ground, trying not to budge one single bit. Bad choice. Torchic eventually got close to Vulpix, the fire now intense, and dropped kick Vulpix, sending her through the air. "Is that it? Is it over already, have I won?' Rune wondered. The crowd silent in awe, staring at Vulpix. "Someone cried from the crowd, "Is that it, is it over?" Unfortunately for Rune, Vulpix was able to rise again. 'What takes down this thing!' Rune screamed in her head. "OK Torchic, finish it off!" However Torchic was to weak to charge again, he'd unleashed all his energy expecting Vulpix to go down on that hit. Vulpix and Torchic made there way over to each other, weakly. Dawn's points were now at 65, this was going to depend on who was going to fall first. Once Vulpix and Torchic were only and foot away from each other, Torchic blew a wisp of fire into Vulpix's face. Vulpix did the same in return, only a bit stronger and was enough to send down Torchic. Torchic didn't rise again. "Torchic is unable to battle! Dawn wins!" shouted Wallace through the microphone
"An outstanding battle, you both put up a good fight and showed no mercy. Well done!" said the male judge.
"I agree, that was outstanding," remarked Nurse Joy.
"Well, what can I say? I came here today to see if there was any great co-ordinator in Hoenn, and I've found some excellent ones including you too. Well done!" That came from Wallace. "OK, Dawn, could you make your way to the front please? I need to present you your ribbon," Wallace also announced. Xylon suddenly sprinted onto stage to see Rune stood there frozen.
"Rune. Rune. You OK?" Xylon asked, thinking he would already know the answer.
"I'm fine!" She replied happily, "I enjoyed the battle and now make a vow. I will beat Dawn one day, no matter what, even if it's not at a contest battle, I will beat her... someday."

Outside the contest hall, Rune and Xylon started to walk towards the exit of Petalburg, however a voice emerged behind them. "Hey Guys, wait up." They both looked around to see Dawn running after them. "I want to know if I can come with you, you know like on your adventure." Xylon and Rune looked at each other. Both thinking the same thing, they faced her and said, "No," both at the same time. "Why? It would be great fun, you and me just camping in a forest, lighting fires, eating marshmallows You know, fun stuff! Or are you still having a grudge at me for winning you? Hey, because if you are then you must know it was just business, nothing personal," Dawn burst out.
"Because we like it as just the two of us and our pokémon, and no, I have no grudge against you, I have a vow against you. Someday I will beat you, and I can't do that if I grow too attached to you," Rune replied, answering her many questions.
"OK, I understand, I take it you'll be going to the Dewford contest in a couple of weeks?" Dawn suggested.
"We'll be there, see you there."
Dawn turned around and made her separate ways with Xylon and Rune gritting her teeth. 'I must have Xylon as my own! Looks like it's time to take Rune out of the picture'...

chapter 8: complications

The night air was calm. The sea was also calm. Everything was calm. Which was good of course for Exio, who had set sail from Slateport this morning and had had problems avoiding the locals. However now that everything was dark, quiet and calm, Exio was quite enjoying himself-something of which he hadn't done in a while. Sometimes he missed his old life, sure he was a trouble maker and his grades weren't so good but still he enjoyed himself and nothing could disrupt him from his paradise. Now however it was different. He had signed up to become a shadow warrior so he could be the best. So he could take over the world. Which of course he was still doing, but only he had to upper himself in ranks. That was the worst part of being a servant in darkness until he fully became one with the shadows.

It was 3:00 AM in the morning now, Exio grew tired of surfing along the sea to Sky pillar. His Darkly coloured Lapras was starting to grow tired too. 'Where is it? Where is the sky pillar!' the thought raged on in Exio's head. Suddenly the ocean didn't seem so calm any more It was picking up pace in the opposite direction he was going. "Continue Lapras, it's only a small current," he commanded. Lapras pressed forward harder, using up it's remaining strength. 5 minutes later Lapras could push no harder and Exio noticed that these currents were a lot stronger then the ones towards Slateport. He could go no further. "God darn Currents!" he cursed loudly. He would have to turn back and find another way; he would have to venture through Slateport once again! 'I can't go back. If I'm seen I will attract far to much attention for myself and may even be shot. But there's no other way...'

In the end Exio had no other choice but to turn back. He noticed that he may after stay in Hoenn a lot longer then he wanted to if this keeps up. The sun was steadily making it's appearance to Hoenn now. Getting through Slateport without being seen would be a lot more difficult then it would be if it was night. Though he had his orders to destroy anyone who got in his way, and he intended on carrying them out. An hour past before the Wingulls came out and started squawking This noise just made things worse for Exio, it was irritating and stuck in your head for hours. Another hour past without anything eventful happening. Exio grew extremely tired and was officially glad to see the outline of Slateport growing larger and larger as he emerged towards it.

Exio had spent the day in an alleyway in Slateport, sleeping behind some bins. It was peaceful and no-one even expected someone to be there, so he was left undisturbed. Dusk approached quickly and Exio awoke. It was time to roll. He climbed up the wall of the building what he had slept by to the very top giving him a fine view of Slateport. Most people were heading home right now and shadows were creeping into the alleyways and corners of Slateport. To be one with the Shadows, he must use them. The exit northwards from Slateport was about 1 mile from Exio's location; that was his destination. Exio climbed back down the building wall and step out into the street. This street, Wall street, seemed to be deserted, or in other words dead. Just how Exio liked it. He broke into a sprint down the street to the nearest alleyway. Much to his surprise, this alleyway was not deserted. It had 2 people battling by a wanted poster of him! "Go Pelipper! Wing attack!" One of the trainers ordered against his opponent Pelipper obeyed, spread out his wings and struck forward against his opponent The wings smacked against Toxicroak, knocking him flying towards Exio and thus knocking him out. "No!" Shouted the second trainer. He turned around to retrieve his Toxicroak to find a dark hooded man stood by it, that was a surprise to him. "Oh my god! Watch out, it's that mass murder!" The first trainer returned Pelipper and broke into a sprint down the alley shouting, "Help! Help! It's the mass murderer!" The second trainer knew he had to delay Exio so the authorities could arrive to collect him. "Go Venasaur!" He shouted throwing his pokéball forward. A Giant green dinosaur like pokémon with a giant plant on it's back formed out of the pokéball "Go forth Gallade, show no Mercy!" Exio held out a dark pokéball and out came Gallade.
"Gallade, Psycho Cut!" The red eyes of Gallade glinted. Gallade charged forward towards Venasaur with it's blades ready.
"Venasaur hold your ground and get ready to absorb!" the trainer commanded, little did he know it was the biggest mistake he had ever made. The Blades on Gallade's hands grew a dark purple colour as he lashed forward against Venasaur, chopping off plant on his back in one stroke. He then went in for the kill and stabbed Venasaur through the back where the plant once was. Blood gushed out of Venasaur as he let out a yelp and fell to the floor dead. Gallade made a strike against the trainer before he could even morn for his Venasaur. Like his Venasaur, he was struck down dead by Gallade's blades. Exio smiled. Suddenly, at the other side of the alley, about ten officer Jenny's unleashed their Arcanine's on Exio and Gallade. "Return Gallade!" Exio commanded loudly. He turned his back on the Arcanine's and did the only thing he could do at the moment. Run.

It wasn't just officer Jenny's who opposed Exio now, it was trainer's too, and some strong one's at that. Lucario and Gallade now ran at their master's side, cutting anyone down who got in their way, as they went along. Exio had to get out of this mess, he knew he had too, there was nothing to it. He was now losing everyone by sprinting through a maze of alleyways and streets. Eventually when very few people were still chasing him, he sprinted into the shadows, returned Lucario and Gallade to their pokéballs and waited in the shadows not moving a muscle. His dark cloaks gave him an advantage and made him invisible in the dark. He wasn't safe, not until he made it out of Slateport. Not yet...

Chapter 9: Battle on the beach

Xylon awoke the morning after the contest. Him and Rune had slept under some huge trees due to the heavy rain yestaday. He checked his watch. 8:00 AM. Guess it was time to get up and train for the gym. Xylon quietly lifted himself up, got dressed and snuck off to the local beach. At least it was a sunny day today, with nice enougth weather conditions to train peacefully.

Rune awoke the morning after the contest. Herself and Xylon had slept under some giant trees for the night due to heavy rain. She checked her watch. 9:30 AM. Wow! She'd slpet in- again! "Xylon! Xylon! Get up, we've got to go, we have to reach Petalburg forest by the end of the day. Come on get up!" She shouted as she looked around for where he'd placed his Sleeping bag. "Xylon?" He'd seemed to had left already. 'I think I know where he might be'. She packed up the stuff, pulled out a chocolate bar and started to walk towards the beach whilst eating the chocolate bar. Once on the beach she started to call, "Xylon! Xylon Where are you?" No answer, Only a cry from about 200m away calling, "Treecko, practise that absorb one more time go!" Rune sprinted over to the noise to find Treecko finishing off a boy's Geodude. "No!!!" The boy cried, "How could you!"
"How could I? well it's called no mercy and the will to dominate," Xylon smiled at the boy.
"You'll pay for this!" The boy screamed just as he set off into a sprint.
"That's what they all say!" Xylon laugthed. "Oh hey Rune. Guess what, that's my forth battle I've won without losing so far!"
"Brilliant. But you may want to keep the attitude to a minimum. He seemed a bit upset," replied Rune.
"He shouldn't have challenged me then. I did warn him!"
"Yeah well take it easy will ya, hothead."
"Are you saying that I'm hot?" Xylon asked.
"No it means that your abit to over confident. Be more careful. Save that cool for the gym leader, thats what will beat him or her. Although we've got a long way to go yet before we get to Rustbro. Another 3 days by my reckoning, so don't tire yourself or Treecko out or else we will need to worry. Ok?" Warned Rune.
"Ok then. Let's get going before something totally random happens and slows us down." The two of them set off, walking along the beach, talking about stratigies how they will beat the gym leader in Rustbro city. The two of them stopped at 1 o'clock for a quick lunch. Petalburg woods was in sight. "See, now that we hurried along the beach, it'll only take about 2 or 3 hours to reach the woods. We can then camp outside them and head through them tomorrow. On the other side should be our destanation, Rustbro City," Explained Rune.
"I guess you were right. Well as a reward for hurrying, can we have a nice hour rest here?" Begged Xylon.
"Of corse, just as longs as-"
"Just as longs as you what?" Came a voice from behind them. It sounded awefully famililar. They both noticed their worst nightmare had come true- again. They had met up with Derek. "Hey Rune, nice lose at the contest. I actually thought you may win, though I guess I was wrong. You two are the most pafetic couple I've ever seen," insulted Derek. "Hey Xylon, have you kissed her yet?" Xylon lept to his feet and threw a punch at Derek's face, however, Rune was quick enougth to grab his arm before his fist hit Derek's face. "He's not worth it Xylon, stop. Hey asshole, if your so good and better then us, why not battle me? Or are you to afraid your more pathetic then the two us that you will lose?" Rune offered.
"Really? A battle, against you?" Derek broke into laugthter. Eventually he stopped. "You serious?"
"Well that's why I said it, idiot!" Replied Rune.
"Ok then, what will it be. 3 on 3?" Derek asked in his serious tone.
"Alright then. 3 on 3. First to wipe out those 3 pokemon of the opponant's wins. Got it?"
"Ok then let's begin," Derek replied to Rune's question.

"Ok then! I'll send out the first pokemon! Go Ralts!" Exclaimed Rune. She threw Ralt's pokeball into the air and out burst Ralts.
"Ralts!" Ralts growled.
"Is that it. Is that all you can throw at me. Well your in for a shock! I'll start with Mudkip! Go!" Derek screamed. Mudkip leaped out of his pokeball and growled at Ralts. "Ok then. Ralts confusion attack, go!" Ralts glowed purple and Mudkip started lifting up into the air, also glowing purple. "What the hell!" Screamed Derek. Mudkip suddenly darted to the ground as quick as possible from about 20 meters in the air. Mudkip stumbled up. "Come on Mudkip. Keep at it! Water gun, go!" A blast of water squirted out of Mudkip's mouth, heading directly for Ralts. "Ralts, teleport then confusion again!" Ordered Rune. Ralts obeyed, disappearing into thin air and reappearing behind Mudkip. A repeat of what happened before happened again. Once again, Mudkip weakily stumbled to his feet. Mudkip new what he had to do. Without his master's orders, he shot another water gun at Ralts and once again Ralts teleported, though this time before Ralts could reappear Mudkip spun around and shot a water gun into thin air. Though as Mudkip calculated, Ralts appeared in front of the water gun, taking a heavy hit. "Ok, now attack Ralts with tackle attack before it can recover!" Derek ordered Mudkip. Mudkip charged full on with all it's power at Ralts, who was trying to recover from he last attack. Before Ralts could get up, Mudkip had already reached her, knocking her full on with his head, sending the poor Ralts flying through the air. Ralts landed in the sand. A tear weeped from Ralt's face as she struggled to lift herself up before Mudkip could tackle her again. "Go on Mudkip! Make this one for the win! Finish this weakling off!" Ralts heard Derek roar. 'I'm not a weakling! I just have to prove it!' Ralts knew it inside, and she was going to prove it. Mudkip was close now and there was only one thing left to do. Rune was stuck, she didn't know what to do, and with a fast approaching Mudkip, she knew that if Ralts didn't do anything this battle was going to be over- fast. Mudkip was extremely close now. 'This is going to be close' thought Ralts. At the very last second Ralts disappeared into thin air, vanishing. Mudkip stopped, confused. Trying to look around to find Ralts, he started to steadily lift Mudkip into the air. Everyone started to look around for Ralts, wondering where she had gone. "Up there!" Xylon shouted, pointing into the sky at a flying Ralts, well sort of flying. She was more like hovering where she had reappeared. "Hehehehe, I can see up Ralt's skirt," Xylon inmaturely pointed out.
"Is that even possible?" asked Rune. Xylon just shrugged his shoulders in return. Mudkip was still slowly raising into the air intil he was about 100 meters up. Then instantely Ralts used her power to throw him down. Mudkip sped through the air and hit the ground hard, knocking him out. "Nooo! Mudkip return. Ok, go Slakoth!"

Derek threw a pokeball through the air and out formed a small, light brown bear like creature. Sharp claws hung of the end of it's hands. Slakoth yawned. "Ok Ralts return. Have some rest, you may be needed later," Rune said as she returned Ralts to her pokeball. "Ok, out you come Torchic!" Shouted Rune, unleasing Torchic from it's pokeball. Torchic let out a little growl to try imidtate Slakoth. "Right then Torchic let's start off with a our attack peckber!" Xylon became confused all of a sudden. What was peckber? Torchic's beak lit up with fire as he charged foward to attack.
"Ok Slackoth, you know how to defend off against this attack, now put foward your training!" Derek commanded. Slackoth yawned and started to use mud slap. He started to dig up the ground with all his power, throwing mud at Torchic's face, putting out he fire on Torchic's beak. Slackoth then rose to it's feet and when Torchic reached Slackoth, Slackoth grabbed Torchic by the beak stopping the peck attack. He then scratched Torchic in the face. "Nice counter!" Derek complimented Slakoth, as Torchic retreated back to Rune.
"Nevermind Torchic, we can try again! Now scratchber!" Rune ordered. 'Scratchber? What?' Xylon puzzled in his head.
Torchic charged at Slakoth with his feet glowing Red. "Slakoth, you now what to do," Derek smiled. Slakoth once again yawned and as soon as Torchic reached Slakoth, Torchic tried scratching Slakoth with his glowing red feet. Slakoth however was able to dodge by rolling out of the way just in time. He then grabbed Torchic and pushed him hard into the sand, putting out the embars on Torchic's feet. Torchic struggled to get himself free from the sand whilst Slackoth continuessly scratched him. Torchic finally broke free and once again retreated back to Rune, Slackoth however stood his ground. 'It looks like he knows all of my combined attacks from the contest. Dirty pervert! We'll have to try something else.'
"Ok Torchic embar, but keep your distance from Slakoth!" Rune commanded. Torchic shot a blast of fire at Slakoth. Slakoth took the hit pretty well though. "Torchic, repeat!" Torchic once again used embar however this time Slakoth used Mud slap to put out the fire heading towards him. Rune swore to herself, 'there's got to be a way to get past or to that Slakoth, but how?' Rune puzzled. "Ok, now Slakoth use mud slap on Torchic!" Derek called out. Slakoth moved abit towards Torchic, who noticed Slakoth as soon as he started to move. Torchic set off into a charge at Slakoth, not noticing Rune trying to call at him, "Don't do it!
Wait!" However Torchic was moving at Slakoth with fustration. He was so fustrated that he could not hit Slakoth, he made an all out charge at it, hopeing he would hit it. When Torchic was close enougth, Slakoth used mud slap. He started digging up sand and throwing it at Torchic, hitting him in the eyes. Torchic couldn't even get near enougth to Slakoth to land a hit. "Ok then, since your near enougth, use embar!" Rune ordered Torchic. Torchic started to randomly spit flames into the air, missing Slakoth everytime. "Oh no, the Mud slap must have hit Torchic so much in the eyes, his accuracy is at an all time low!" Rune worried.
"Ok Slackoth, use one final, strong scratch attack on Torchic. Go!" Derek called out. Slakoth rose to it's feet and moved slowly towards Torchic. He lifted up his claw high and swiped down vicously at Torchic's face, knocking him to the ground and out. "No!!!! Torchic return!" Rune said in sorrow. "You did well my friend."
"Pathetic! The pair of you! Nice work Slakoth," derek chuckled.
"Ok, you'll pay for that! Get out here Ralts and kick some arse!" Rune screamed.

Ralts popped put of it's pokeball and used Confusion imediately on Slakoth, causeing it pain in Slakoth's head. Slakoth screamed in terror although Ralts gave no mercy. Eventually Ralts stopped, then lifted up Slakoth slowely into the air. After lifting Slakoth 20 meters into the air, Ralts slammed him down, going for the kill. Slakoth was instantly knocked out upon impact on the ground. "Now that's how you do it!" Shouted Rune, "Now return Ralts, you've done well this battle. Looks like it's time to send out our final pokemon, ok here goes! Go Taillow!" Taillow flew out of it's pokeball happily, happy to be used in battle for once. However Derek silently released a Taillow upon the battle field. "This is Taillow's first battle, so prepare to see what he's got!"
"I'm sure I will," replied Derek, "Now go Taillow, start of with a wing attck!" Derek's Taillow swooped at Rune's Taillow in a flash, smashing it with it's wing. Rune's Taillow took the hit hard, causing it to fall to the ground. "Ok Taillow, wipe up the mess, finish this with wing attack!" Derek ordered. Derek's Taillow flung down in a dove bomb position at Rune's Taillow who was still on the sand recovering from the last attack. 'This is it, it maybe over for Taillow so soon' "Come on Taillow get up, please," Said Rune. Derek's Taillow was close now. Suddenly Rune's Taillow moved lightning fast out of the way of Derek's Taillow's dive bomb, sending Derek's Taillow striaght into the hard ground. "Yes! Now Taillow, wing attack before Taillow can recover!" Rune ordered. Rune's Taillow swooped down to the ground and smashed it's wing against Derek's Taillow, then retreated into the sky. Derek's Taillow recovered from the hit quickly and followed Rune's Taillow through the air. Dogfighting, the two combantants hit each other hard and swiftly, until Rune's Taillow started to fall through the air. "Come on Taillow, recover from the hit!" Rune said.
"Ok, Taillow finish off Rune's Taillow with quick attack!" Derek screamed. Derek's Taillow darted down at Rune's Taillow, eye's wide open, going in for the kill. At the last instant though, Runes Taillow barrell rolled out of the way and countered Taillow's attack. 'Of corse, Taillow was faking dead,' Noticed Rune in awe. Rune's Taillow smacked Derek's Taillow to the ground with it's wing, knocking it out. Rune had won! "How? How could I lose to you of all people!" Derek exclaimed.
"Because I'm better then you, and you know it," Rune mocked. Derek returned Taillow and spun around on his heel, starting off in a march back to Petalburg without a word. "Now come on Xylon, we've got a wood to reach."

Night was falling fast along the beach, the tide swaying in and the woods only 200 meters away. "I guess we did it, we made it to Petalburg woods in 1 day, now we've got to get through it," laugthed Rune.
"I agree, for once we did something right," laugthed back Xylon. "Come on, we best set up camp and get a fire started before it's totally dark."
"Agreed," Rune simply replied. It took 15 minutes to set up camp, at which time the sun was close to gone.
"Whilst there's still a little light, I'm going for a stroll along the beach. I'll be back soon," Xylon declared.
"You better be, or else!" Warned Rune jokefully. Xylon set off on his stroll, thinking of things in his head, when he suddenly stumbled on a hard rock. "Oww! Stupid rock! You'll pay for that!" Xylon picked up the rock forcefully and was about to throw it when he noticed it was an oval shape. He felt a heart beat in it. "Wierd," he said to himself. He decided to lick the rock for some odd reason. "Funny, this dosen't taste like rock," he spoke out loud. 'what is it?' Xylon suddenly notced it was a pokemon egg. Which pokemon it was he didn't know, but that it was an egg was deffenant. Xylon sprinted all the way back to camp to show Rune what he had found.

"My master," said Nelav as he bowed before a man in white rodes.
"Rise my servant, What is it? What tidings do you bring?" asked the master.
"These are bad tidings my lord. The universe is cracking, I sense it. The world will soon crack too! What do we do?" pleaded Nelav.
"We let Destiny take place, like we always do Nelav. I forsee the future, it will resolve around the destiny of a young boy, and the god pokemon. The young boy known as Xylon Reget. He will decide the future of the universe with his actions. Weather it lives or dies. Do not fear, destiny is the only thing left now, the destiny of Xylon Reget is unclear. Though it's unfolding fast and will decide the fate of all living things. I can tell you it will be an eventful destiny," Smiled the Destiny King.

Chapter 10: Lost in Petalburg woods.
Petalburg woods loomed over the two companions that morning as they awoke, ready to travel through the woods. Xylon crawled out of his tent, still half asleep and looked into the woods. They looked so dense that it was going to be troubleing to get through. Xylon got out his stove and cooked some breakfast for the upcoming day, he knew he was going to need it. Once it was ready he called out Treecko and told him to go into Rune's tent to wake her up. The reason he wouldn't do it, was because of his fear that he would get a repeat of morining of the final in the contest. Soon after Treecko had ventured into the tent, he crawled out again looking quite satisfied and happy. Rune followed in about 5 mins. "I made breakfast this morning, were gonna need it for today," said Xylon.
"Thanks Xylon but this better be nice," warned Rune. Xylon waited a moment, as Rune put a spoon full of beans in her mouth. A look of degust leaped onto her face. Xylon cringed. "Xylon!" She screamed.

After 2 hours of argueing and packing up in scilence, the two made of them made their way towards the only known entrance to the woods on this side of it. Xylon and Rune passed a sign, it said "Welcome to Petalburg wood, the only offical wood in Hoenn! Travellers beware, travel into this wood at your own risk. Some travellers have never come out of these woods and disappeared. Another warning, some travellers have claimed that the trees move places to confuse people and trap them. If you see any of the missing these missing people, dead or alive, please contact the Rustbro police" Below the writing was about 20 pictures of people. Xylon continued reading, "Other then them warnings, have a nice trip" at the the end of it was a smile face. "Well that was very cheerful and encouraging," Xylon sighed.
"Too right, well we better get moving," said Rune as she took one step foward however Xylon tugged her back imediately.
"Are you crazy! We can't go in there, we'll be eaten alive by wild wurmple or something like that! We should go around," Xylon said.
"There's no other way around, come on, we'll be in there for about 2 days maximum, if lucky we can make it through in 1 day, but thats if we hurry. Now come on," she said tugging on Xylon, however he stood his ground. She then attempted to lift him up, though it was rather she wasn't strong enougth or Xylon was just extremely fat. "Come you fat bastard!" She said, attempting to pick him up.
"It's not fat, it's muscle!" Xylon said angerly.
"Xylon, I'm gonna say this polietly, move!" She began to scream. "Look, do you want to challenge the gym or not! If we get through here, we can get to the gym and win, this is the final challenge," Rune explained.
Xylon began to relise she was right, the gym lay on the other side, and he was going to challenge it and win, dead Rune or no dead Rune. "Ok, I'll do it, but don't expect me to watch your back in there," Xylon said.
"I think your the one who needs your back watching to be fair," Rune replied. And with that, the duo walked into certain death... I mean Petalburg woods.

The woods itself was a dark and dank place, with not much light and a whole lot of trees. In fact it was that dark, within the first 20 minutes, Xylon must have walked into at least five trees. Luckily there was a path running through the woods, however if the two travellers step off the path, they would certainly be walking to there doom. All that the two of them had between themselves was a torch what was on low battery, well that was their only light recourse, they had tons of food. There seemed to be no breeze in the woods, just air to breath, and foul air at that. After 1 hour of walking, something flickered out of the corner of Xylon's eye. Something had just moved. "Rune, stop," Xylon called her to a halt. "What now?" She asked irrattidely.
"Something just moved over there," he said pointing behind them. He was right aswell, the path running behind them came to a stop at a tree, a tree what wasn't there before or was not ment to be there. Rune noticed it after about 30 seconds of looking. "Oh my god! The trees are moving in around us," she shreiked.
"Down the path! Run!" shouted Xylon. The two of them ran along the path, being careful enougth to avoid trailling off of it. Xylon sprinted down the path and eventually tripped up over a root of a tree on the path. "Xylon! Are you ok?" Rune said coming over to help him up.
"Yeah I'm fine," he said, accepting the help up from Rune. "That root shouldn't be here, the trees must be trying to kill us."
"I agree, may sound like nonsense but I guess it's true, I wish we never came in here," Rune regretted. However without Rune or Xylon paying attention to the ground, they didn't notice the root creeping up on Rune's ankle and grabbing it. Rune fell down to the ground in a flash and started being dragged towards the nearest tree. Xylon picked up the torch and followed Rune, who was screaming and panicking about the tree. "Xylon, help me!" She screamed at him. Xylon lept across the air and into the prone position, able to grab Rune's hands just in time before she was dragged under the tree. "Don't let go please, don't let go!" Rune weeped. Xylon kept hold of her with one hand whilst he quickly pulled out Treecko's pokeball. "Go Treecko!" he screamed. Treecko popped out of his pokball and tuned his senses into the current events. Xylon grabbed Rune with his spare hand, using all his strength to pull her to safety. "Treecko, use quick attack on the root, go!" Xylon screamed. Treecko nodded at him and flashed towards the root what was tugging on Rune. Treecko attacked the root whilst Xylon pulled on Rune. However, the tree fought back at them using it's vines and spare roots. It used a vine to wip Xylon's face, leaving a bloody cut, however he didn't give in. The tree continued doing this to him whilst it constantely hit Treecko with it's roots. Treecko didn't give up either and eventually he was able to break Rune free.
"Pull! Treecko, come help me pull!" Xylon ordered. Xylon pulled furiously on Rune, tugging her back to safety, with the help of Treecko. Xylon then heaved Rune onto his back and Treecko onto his shoulder and ran for 10 minutes in a random direction. He stopped and panted. One thing was for sure, they were safe from that tree, however another thing was for sure, they had trailed off of the path. Now they were completely lost...

The 2 of them sat there for a while trying to get what just happpened, though it seemed too unrealistic to get over. "Since when did trees attack us! It's not possible and ow we're off track and lost! not trying to blame you for anything there Xylon, you did the right thing, were safe for now," Rune said.
"I agree, only thing is, which ways the road, because the trees have probebely been moving around again to trick us," Xylon sighed.
"Well we should screw the road, we should just out of the woods, Runstbro side or no Rustbro side." Rune had recieved to bloody ankles from the attack and on top of that she couldn't walk well. Also her clothes were all ripped and torn, the bottom half of her trousers were practically gone, along with half of her top. All Xylon had received was about 5 bloody sctraches on his face from the tree wipping him. "Treecko'll climb up a tree and look to a way out," Xylon said.
"Are you sure thats such a good idea? After all the trees are alive," Said Rune with great concern.
"It's the only way," said Xylon, if anything bad happened here, he knew he'd regret it. "Treecko, climb up that tree and see where the nearest exit is," ordered Xylon. Treecko, who'd been stood by Xylon's side all this time, climbed up the nearest tree. Treecko clambered down the tree as soon as he'd seen an exit, he pointed northwards indicating that that was the nearest exit."Ok Treecko, you've worked hard, take a long rest," Xylon said as he returned Treecko to his pokeball. Noises rustled around the two.
"Is it just me, or do you here growling?" Rune said, who'd been listening for 2 minutes. Xylon flicked the torch on and rotated around to find a wild pack of Pocheana lead by a great Mighteana growling at them, an angry look in their eyes. "Oh crap."

With the Pocheana's closing in fast, the 2 heroes knew they'd have to make a run for it, but with Rune's ankles in the state they were, that was going to be a problem. "Maybe we can fight them off?" Xylon quickely suggested.
"No, there to many, and my pokemon are to weak to fight after their ast battle with Derek," Rune replied in a worried tone, "But there maybe a pokemon whose in fit shape, go Ralts!" she sent out Ralts in a hurry. "Now Ralts, create a sheild wall around us and hold it for as long as you can," ordered Rune. Ralts nodded in reply. I agiant pink sheild appeared around the companions.
"Ok, Now what?" asked Xylon cockily.
"Were safe for about 5 minutes, so we better make use of those 5 minutes. Do you think Treecko could create a diversion?" Rune suggested.
"Too be fair, he wouldn't make it out alive, not to mention then we'd have to go find him later, I think it's best if we stay together. But I might have an idea. Get on my shoulders, were gonna make a break for the exit, we know where it is, and it's best if we just run there," Xylon suggested.
"It's our best shot! Though a dumb one. Get ready to run as soon as I return Ralts." Rune started to clamber onto Xylon's back whilst the Pocheana and the Mighteana started to attak the sheild wall. They were angerily biteing and swipeing at it. What had made them so angry? "Ok, three, two, one, Go!" Rune shouted whilst she returned Ralts.

"Something is desturbing you master, isn't it?" Nelav asked his master.
"Nothing much," replied the Destiny King as he stared into his glass orb, "Though today were going to come into someone's destiny, or change it."
"How? Are we even aloud to do that?" Nelav asked in surprise.
"Of course we are, if it contributes towards the fate of the world."
"My lord, what do you see in the orb today?" Nelav asked.
"A young boy, and a young girl on his back, being chased by wild pokemon in a forest, it's time for you to go save them," The Destiny King ordered his servant. He held out his hand transportted Nelav before he could say anything. "Go Nelav, save the boy who decides destiny..."

They were catching up, fast. Inside Xylon knew the two of them weren't going to make it, but he kept running to give Rune hope. A tear wept from his eye, he wasn't ready to die. Suddenely the two of them came to a bunch of trees what were to dense to travel through, they were trapped, and surrounded. "Quickely Rune, up the trees, now!" Xylon ordered, giving Rune the boost she needed to get into the trees and high enougth to stay safe. Xylon quickely climbed up a high tree, opposite to Rune's tree, with the Mighteana leaping up at him. "Help!" he screamed. He wished he was home, safe in his bed, away from all the horrors of the forest. 'Becareful what you wish for, it may one day come true' came a voice from his head, however it wasn't his voice, it was anothers, one he'd never heard before. Suddenely there was a flash of white light from 10 meters away. A man in shining white armour had appeared out of nowhere. "Go, Noctowl! Yeah, come and get me wolfy boys!" he screamed. He hot onto his Noctowl and rode low to the ground, along with the pack of Pocheana lead Mighteana following him closely. Xylon and Rune climbed down from the trees.
"Well that was bloody close!" Said Xylon in relief.
"We better get moving before they come back. I think I will be able to walk from here," informed Rune.
"ok." The two of them continued northwards whilst using a compass to guide them. After four hours of walking it was starting to get quite dark so the two of them decided to set up camp, though without fire so they were not giving off their location. They also slept away from the trees to avoid a repeat of last times incident with the trees. They also decided to take shifts watching for wild pokemon once one of them had gone to sleep.

That night, the two of them cuddled up to each other for warmth, when Xylon had the strngest convosation with Rune. "You know Xylon, I never really thanked you today for what you've done, by protecting me and all," Rune complamented.
"Well to be fair, there wasn't much time to say thank you today, we were either been eaten by trees, staying in scilence and undective or being chased by rabid pokemon. Which leads me onto a question, who was that man who saved us?" Xylon asked on wonder.
"I don't know, but I do know that today you've acted like the man you really are," said Rune as she propped her head onto Xylon's shoulder. Xylon suddenly felt a warm feeling in his heart, one he'd felt before, the feeling what he loved. He guessed it to be friendship, it was impossible that he was in love with Rune. Or was it? Each day Xylon knew his feelings deepend for Rune, but how deep they were right now, he did not know. The two of them stared into the heart of the fire in scilence for ten minutes, before Xylon said, "well, I'm off to bed, wake me in about 2 hours so I can take watch. Night." And with saying that, Xylon crawled into his tent and fell fast asleep.

It was a restless night for Rune, she found it hard to stay awake whilst outside on guard, however when it was he turn to go to bed she could barely sleep due to her having the fought of Xylon messing up in her mind. Knowing Xylon he'd mess up and do something stupid, which would kill us in the middle of the night, Rune kept thinking. All this resulted in making her all cranky in the morning and in a very bad mood. After all, people need their sleep. After an hour in scilence of packing up the camp and eating a small amount of food, the duo set off on what maybe, their final adventure. Xylon's scratches seemed like they were healing extremely quickly however, 1 or 2 of them were bound to leave scars and Rune seemed to be able to walk properely again, though she wasn't able to run without making them worse then what they were. The wood seemed to have that same dank smell as ever, especially in the morning, the air wreacked of it. Leaves were scattered all over the floor showing that Autumn was on it's way- fast. Eventually after 2 hours of plodding through the leaves, the 2 of them reached the path again. "How lucky are we!?" Xylon remarked.
"I know what you mean, I never thought we'd see the road again," Rune replied. Suddenely a low growling noise came from behind them.
The two of them spun around to find the group of Pocheanas glaring into their eyes. What had happened to Mighteana? Well it didn't really matter because the Pocheana had found them, and they were more angry then ever. "Treecko get out here!" Xylon said, knowing his only hope was to fight. Rune agreed with him and unleased her pokemon. "So, how do we fight off 11 pocheana with 4 pokemon then?" Rune asked sarcastically.
"You've been keeping count of how much they are!" Xylon answered back.
"Yeah, I had to do something. Now, do you have a plan?" Rune asked hopelessly, already knowing the answer.
"Sorry but no. The only thing I've got on my mind is dieing with honour." And with that, the first Pocheana lashed out at Treecko. Ralts quickly created a barrier between Treecko and the Pocheana whilst Treecko stood his ground. Suddenely every single Pocheana moved foward in a giant attack. And so the battle begun. Treecko took on 3 Pocheana at once, although he had trouble with the amount. A very weak Torchic took on 1 Pocheana due to it being so weak from the battle with Derek. Ralts created a barrier around herself and Taillow to protect themselves from 4 approaching Pocheana whilst the final 3 advanced towards Xylon and Rune. Xylon and Rune picked up sticks from the cold ground to defend themselves, though even they knew they wouldn't do much against the angry Pocheana.
"Rune, before we die, I want you to know that if you survive somehow, think of me as the brave Xylon, not the pathetic one you see me
as," Said Xylon.
"Same backat you Xylon," Rune replied. Suddenely out of nowhere came a roar. Rune reconised it as a Tropius cry as her father owned one.
"Xylon, it's a Tropius! It might of come to help us!" Rune cried. However no Tropius came, only it's roars. The Pocheana began to worry and cower before the noise. The pack of Pocheana retreated off back down the road in fright whilst Xylon, Rune and their pokemon made a stand. A crunching sound what sounded like someone standing on leaves came from behind the bushes at the side of the road. The crunching eventually stopped. Xylon shivered in fear. The tension rose, it rose like the liquid in a thermomiter when the thermomiter's stuck in someone's mouth. And after 30 seconds of scilence and shvering, a boy step out of the bushes. The boy looked exatually like Xylon, only he had sliver hair and it was covered it leaves. The boy looked a mess, he looked like he hadn't slept in days, which in truth he hadn't. He had sctraches all over his face, just like Xylon, in fact, he was in a worse state then Xylon.
"There you are!" He burst out, "I've been looking for you 2 for a day now."
"What?" Xylon asked cluelessly.
"I said I've been looking for you for a day now," the boy repeated.
"Why have you been looking for us then? I've never seen you before in my life," answered Xylon.
"Yestaday I heard screams as I was walking through the woods, so I figured there were people in danger. I set out on a search for you and followed your screams and the traces you left behind, such as footprints and small items you may have dropped. I even searched all night however it was difficult as there were no noises to follow and it was to dark to see anything, especially in this woods. About an hour ago I found the remains f your camp such as the holes from your tent poles and were you'd set the fire, the ashes were still fresh, this gave me hope. I decided to run after your tracks hoping I'd catch up to you, and then I found you in trouble here," finished the boy.
"What's your name?" asked Xylon.
"The names Callum, and I'm here to get you out of here."
"Well Callum, you do pay attention to detail don't you. Also, we'll happily let you lead the way out of this hell hole," Xylon
announced. Rune agreed with him on that, no matter who it was who lead them out.
"Of coarse I pay attention to detail, I'm a hunter. I don't kill pokemon, but I accompany people like researchers and pokemon watchers. I have to pay attention to detail to find the pokemon were looking for. Now let's get out of here." Callum lead on through the path of the dank woods, which was getting gradutally lighter as the trio travelled down the path. After an hour of walking, Callum announced he was leaving Rune and Xylon and told them to follow the path for 5 minutes and they would be out of the woods for good. When Callum had left, the two companions headed on down the path to find the glorious exit to the woods. "I've never been so happy to see light!" Declared Xylon, "Treecko, come out and see this glorious sight." Treecko popped out of it's pokeball and had trouble opening it's eyes, it was so bright compared to the woods. "Look Xylon, over the horizen, it's Rustbro city!" Rune pointed out.
"And so it is. Rune, it's time for our first gym badge," Xylon smiled.

Chapter 11: Xylon meets an old friend

"Don't you think it seems so big?" Xylon asked his companion, Rune.
"Of course it's big Xylon, it's a city! God, your an idiot," Rune replied.
"Didn't your Mum ever teach you, 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all'?" Xylon answered back.
"Your the only exception!" Xylon and Rune had made it out of Petalburg woods 2 hours ago and were now touring Rustbro, in search for
the pokecenter, though the two of them were having no luck in finding it. Rustbro city was made up of skyscrapers and other important
buildings, such as Devan corp, but I'll get into more detail about that later. Pokemon and trainers raced through the city, playing games and messing about. The city itself had a feel free feeling to it, like the do what you want feeling. The two of them came across the gym on their journey to the pokécenter, which they decided to visit later, like the next day.

After spending hours of searching, they finally found the pokecenter, home to one of the, what seemed like, million nurse Joy's in the world. The duo entered the pokecenter and collasped onto the floor from tiredness. "Am I dead?" Xylon groaned.
"No, not yet," came a reply. Xylon felt himself being dragged along the floor by someone who was dragging him by the arms. Xylon's vision blurred out for a minute, he could only see dark blur's of other people and large objects. Surrounding him were 3 blurs shaped like humans. "Do you think they'll be ok?" asked one of the blurred people. Xylon could tell it was a girl due to the voice, it was pretty high pitched.
"I don't know, they look pretty injurged to me," replyed another voice, this time it was male, "I'm sure they'll come out fine. I mean, Xylon always comes out fine after something stupid happens, it's in his nature." The voice sounded familiar to Xylon, like a piece of his past, though he didn't quite reconise who it belonged too.
"I think we should take them to a doctor, they don't look that well and I don't want them to die on us," the final voice said. Once again, this voice was female, though different from the first.
"Their not gonna die, stop over reacting!" came the male voice again. Xylon's eyes started to open wider now, the blurs were becoming more detailed. "See, he's coming around now," the male voice said. Xylon slowly lifted his head and looked carefully around the room. He reconised it as a pokecenter trainer's room. He was sat in the corner with 3 other people and Rune layed beside him, still unconsious. "What happened?" Xylon grumbled.
"You and your friend blacked out when you entered the pokecenter and fainted. The cause of it is still unknown to me, though it looks like you may of passed out from tiredness and injury. You gave us quite a fright to be honest." Xylon turned his head around to see a boy about the same age as him sat there, talking to him. His hair was a mousey blond colour, which was long enougth to run down to the red hoodie, with a picture of a pokeball on it, what he was wearing. He wore skinny jeans and had a belt tightly strapped around his waist containing 3 pokeballs. Over all, he looked awefully familiar to Xylon. The boy's two companions were both females. Both of them had long brown hair which flowed freely down their necks, passing their sea blue eyes (both of them had sea blue eyes), and onto their torsos. The two of them weren't identical though, they each had differently shaped eyes, one was taller then the other and they both wore a different style of clothes. The smaller one of the two wore a tracksuit (although she didn't look like a chav) and the other wore a hoodie featuring two bug pokemon looking like they were in love.
"Who are you?" Xylon grumbled to the unknown figure.
"I'm a friend to you Xylon. I'm surprised you don't reconise me, after all, it's only been a year." Suddenely a memory flashed into Xylon's mind: him and a friend, a younger version of this person, pretending they were on a pokemon adventure of their own. Little did Xylon know at the time that he would become one. "Ryan?" Xylon asked.
"Finally, you remember me, I wonder if Rune'll remember me," Ryan said.
"I hope not, remember when we were graduating last year and she had that huge crush on you. She was crying like mad saying she'd never
see you again. Then she forcefully kissed you and-"
"Ok, no need to go into to much detail," Ryan cut off Xylon.
"Oh yeah, forgot your two girlfriends were here," winked Xylon.
"Their not my girlfriends. Their just friends of mine who help me out with my work," explained Ryan.
"What work?" asked Xylon.
"I'll explain in a... more quieter envoirment lets just say," grinned Ryan.

It was an hour before Rune woke up to the sight of the four of them looking down at her. In that hour, the two girls (the tall one named
Lucie and the shorter one named Hattie) had gone and brought them basic supplies for the next step of Xylon and Rune's adventure whilst
Ryan and Xylon had caught up on life. At the first sight of Ryan, Rune rushed straight into a tight hug around Ryan. "Where did you disappear too?" she screamed.
"I'll explain later," Ryan said.
"Hey guys, it's getting dark outside. Do you think we should get Xylon and Rune a room in a hotel, or should they crash with us for the night?" Hattie asked.
"What do you want to do you two?" Ryan asked, "You'll be welcome to stay in my room for the night Xylon whilst you can stay with Lucie and Hattie if you want Rune."
"I'd love to stay with you for the night! Then you can explain to me what this job is of yours," Xylon grinned.
"Ok then. And you three can come into my room for a while aswell, I'll explain everything..."

The five of them stayed at Rustbro hotel (What an orginal name!) for the night. All five of them were sat around Ryan's bed with their
pokemon out when he started the story. Hattie owned a small yellow pokemon with blue minus signs on it's cheeks known as Minun. She also owned one of the two bugs on Lucie shirt known as Volbeat. Lucie owned the complete opposite too Hattie. Insted she owned a yellow pokemon with red pluse signs on it's cheeks known as Plusle and the other bug from the shirt known as Islume. Ryan owned: a small orange chimp called Chimchar, the fire starter of Sinnoh. A bird which was nearly the size of him, known as Pigdiotto, and last of all a small pokemon what Xylon noticed to be a spoink. Ryan finally started his story, "It all started off after graduation from 'The grand pokemon acadamy'. I was the acadamy's best student if you remember, however, their was a price to pay for that. I reached home to fined two men, in black suits, sat in my living room. They offered me a job as one of their agents. Of coarse they wanted me for my expertise in pokemon, and I thought being a agent would be cool... so I acccepted. I signed a contract to become a agent, without knowing I'd have to leave my family and friends behind.
And as you know, I went missing for a year. My parents made up a story that I'd disappeared out of thin air. In that year I was away,
doing secret agent stuff. Of coarse I missed you Xylon, we were best friends, and darn I even missed Rune a bit." Rune smiled at that
comment. "But I had to keep going. At first I was signed onto searching for a pokemon poacher, a bloody sneaky one at that, but in the
end I caught him. Then I went onto investagating the disappearence of the plans to the SS Aqua, that's when I met Lucie and Hattie.
Ever since I met them they've helped me with my job and my life, coping with the sorrow I was in for leaving everything behind. Lately
I've been signed onto tracking down a team of villians named Team Aqua. Apparantely they've been sighted around here, so it's my job
to find out what their up to and put a stop to it. And that's my story," Ryan finished.
"I've got a question about you two," declared Lucie, "How did you end up in the state your in?"
"Petalburg woods, love," replied Xylon smiling. A look of deguist leapped onto Rune's face. 'How could he like her over me?' she thought
angerly. "In fact, maybe agent boy over here should go and investagate it, see what's happening," Xylon mocked.
"Look Xylon, I understand that your angry with me-"
"Of course I'm angry with you!" Xylon shouted, "you left me behind without even a goodbye, whilst you went off and became a secret agent!"
"I'm sorry Xylon, I really am, but's the way it had to be. I wasn't aloud to tell anyone anything except my parents, and that was only so they could make up a cover story," Ryan explained.
"It's still not enougth to say sorry. Do you know how much pain and sorrow you caused me! I thought you were dead! I cried for a week
before I realised crying wouldn't get you back!" Xylon snapped. Rune looked at the two of them, Xylon was nearly crying and Ryan
had a troubled look on his face.
"Look, I'll do anything to make it up to you," pleaded Ryan, "I notice you only have one pokemon. What about we go out tomorrow and
get you a second pokemon. I think you need two pokemon to challenge the gym anyway. What do you say?" Ryan managed to pull a smile.
"Erm..." Xylon didn't know what to say, he did need a second pokémon, but technecally, Ralts was his second pokemon. "I don't know...
I'm not sure if that would make up for what you've done..."
"Well, you have a think about it and tell me tomorrow morning. But for now we should all get some rest," Ryan said. Xylon didn't believe
it, Ryan had just ended the arguement.
"But-" Xylon began before he was cut off by Ryan.
"No buts. Bed."

The next morning was bright. The sun beamed down on Xylon and his friends as they travelled through route 106, looking for pokemon.
Xylon had seen many new pokemon on his travels through route 106, but none that he wanted. Although those pokemon had made greated
practice for Treecko's battleing skills. After an hour of looking, Ryan finally siad, "look Xylon, were getting nowhere with this. These are all the pokemon on the route. Unless if your willing to head back into Petalburg woods to look for one."
"No thanks man. Me and Rune have had enough expierance with dealing with the forest. After nearly been eaten by a tree and a pack
of Poocheanas, I think I'll give it a miss. Anyway, catching pokemon is about patiance," Xylon said, making up every single word he'd
just said in that last sentence.
"Well you need something what will combat rock types-" Ryan was cut off by a noise from Xylon sounding like, "awwwwww."
Xylon was looking at a small cat called skitty when he said, "awwwww."
"Man your such a softy Xylon. Seriously, your never gonna win the gym with that thing," Ryan said.
"I don't need him to win the gym, I've got Treecko," Xylon replied, "anyway, I need someone for contest."
"Whatever you say, go on and catch it then," Ryan sighed.
Xylon smiled at him as a reply. "Go Treecko, get out here prepare to help me catch this pokemon!"
"Xylon, do you even know it's name?" Ryan asked him.
"No," Xylon said in shame.
"It's a Skitty, evolves in Delcatty via moon stone," Hattie explained.
"Thanks Hattie," Xylon said, "Now Treecko, get going and use absorb on the Skitty." Treecko ran towards his opponent, with his palm glowing green. Treecko lept into the air and lashed towards the Skitty, palm first. Skitty coward in fear as Treecko sped down to her, though Treecko showed no mercy. After the attack, Treecko lept back, "hahaha, Treecko, repeat the what you just did!" Treecko repeated the attack, and the same happened. Skitty coward in fear to Treecko's attack. "Ok, go pokéball!" Xylon shoted as he lobbed a pokéball at Skitty. The pokéball shook 3 times and Skitty was captured.
"wierd, the Skitty seemed to be abit of a coward Xylon, are you sure you want it on your team?" Ryan asked.
"I've explained to you already ryan, I don't want to battle with her, I wanted to compete in contest with her."
"Ok, whatever you say Xylon," Ryan replied.

The day passed on quite quickly. The group separated into three. The girls went shopping around Rustbro, Xylon went to train with Skitty and Treecko and Ryan disappeared off somewhere, all agreeing to meet up with each other at 4 o'clock to watch Rune's first gym battle. Rune had insisted on going first out of her and Xylon for the gym battle because she was more experianced. Xylon had agreed to this only so when it was his turn to battle the gym leader, he'd know their strategy. The time was 3:50 and Xylon was on his way back to the hotel after his training. Him and his pokémon were tired and needed a good nights rest before they battled the gym leader.
'Skitty dosen't seem to be very strong and she has a type disadvantage against rock, looks like this battle with heavily depend on Treecko' Ryan thought to himself as he was thinking out his strategy in his head. The hotel appeared in view, with three figures in front of it, all female. "Hey, where's Ryan?" asked Xylon asked curiously.
"Dunno, but were gonna have to get off soon, the gym will be be closing in 35 minutes," Rune said. Xylon could tell she was excited
for the gym battle.
"Don't worry about it Rune. It's best to get going now, you never know, he may show up in the middle of the battle. He's probabely hot
on the tail of team Aqua," Lucie said.
"Your right, let's get going," Rune said sadly.


Chapter 12- Roxanne

The four of them strode proudly through the gates of the gym. The Gym looked like a large boulder with doors. That was it. "They do make it obvious that it's a rock gym don't they?" Xylon commented. The group walked through the door's of the gym to find that it was a giant rock stadium. There were boulders everywhere on the battlefield. Around the battlefield a ring on chairs made out of stone. "So where's the gym leader?" Rune asked.
"Right here," came a female voice from behind the group. The four of them spun around to see a female wearing a blue dress and tights.
"I'm Roxanne, who are you?" She asked.
"Wow, you’re Hot!" exclaimed Xylon. The three girls with Xylon looked at him.
"Yeah, ok Xylon. I'm Rune, and these are my friends. Hattie, Lucie, and that accident there," Rune looked at Xylon as she said, 'that accident there'.
"What is your business here?" Roxanne smiled and giggled at Xylon.
"I'm here for a gym battle with you Roxanne, and I won't take no for an answer!" Rune exclaimed.
"So determined," Roxanne smiled, "Well I guess there's time for one last victory today."
"Oh, they'll be victory, but it will be mine!" Rune said.

Lucie decided to referee this match whilst Xylon and Hattie sat up in the stands, where Xylon could keep out of trouble. "Watch carefully Xylon, you may learn something here for your battle tomorrow," Hattie said.
"Oh, I'll be watching carefully," Xylon said immaturely.
Hattie knew what he meant straight away and replied, "Oh cut it out Xylon, she's way too good for you." This clearly offended Xylon as he shut up.
Meanwhile down on the battlefield Rune was preparing for battle. She knew what to do, though two of her pokémon were at a type disadvantage, and the other was weak in defence.
"You ready?" shouted Roxanne across the battlefield.
"Whenever you are!" Rune replied, though truefully, she wasn't ready. She knew what pokémon to use, just not her strategy. 'I guess I'll have to improvise' Rune thought.
"Ok, the two opponents will each use two pokémon each! Only the challenger may which in and out pokémon! Let the battle begin!" Lucie shouted.
"Ok, you’re up Torchic!" Said Rune as she summoned Torchic.
"A poor choice against rock pokémon! Now get out here Geodude!" shouted Roxanne. Geodude was, like the gym, a boulder. Only this boulder had arms, a face, and the ability to levitate. "Say hello to Geodude," smirked Roxanne.
"Torchic, try using ember against Geodude!" ordered Rune, already knowing the outcome. Torchic spat out a burst of flames towards the levitating Rock. Geodude stood his ground and used his arms to cover his face as the flames just embraced him. After the flames disappeared, Geodude just floated there, showing no damage taken.
"You done yet? Because if that's it, then I'm a little disappointed," smiled Roxanne, "now, Geodude, rock tomb!" Geodude nodded in reply to Roxanne's command and started lifted giant rocks out of the ground.
Rune already knew what Geodude was about to do and shouted, "Torchic Run! And don't stop!" Torchic obeyed without question though he did wonder too himself why. Geodude threw the rock straight at Torchic, though missed due to Torchic's speed. Geodude repeated doing so as Torchic repeated dodging, though he was getting tired whilst Geodude was not. Torchic started to slow down eventually which gave Geodude the perfect opportunity to strike freely and easily. Geodude calculated where Torchic would next run too at what time he would get there. Geodude then lifted a rock out of the ground and threw at the exact spot where he calculated Torchic would be when the rock hit the ground. Torchic was too tired to run anymore and stopped, not noticing that there was a giant boulder flying through the air at him, well he did realise eventually, just it was too late when he did realise. Of course when Torchic noticed there was boulder flying through the air about to hit him, he was too late to move out of the air, so the boulder hit him on the head.
"Smart," Hattie commented.
"Wait, how did Torchic get hit? He avoided every other boulder with ease," Xylon replied to Hattie's comment.
"And that was Torchic's downfall. Geodude knew his limits, Torchic did not. Geodude knew when enough was enough was his strength, that's why he stopped and waited for Torchic to run out of energy. In that time Geodude recharged his own energy whilst Torchic just got more tired. Then it took just abit of simple math to target Torchic and hit him. Very smart if you ask me," Hattie explained.
"But can Torchic recover from the hit?" worried Xylon.
"Your about to find out, now watch."
Geodude started throwing rocks around Torchic's body, creating some sort of tomb of rocks around Torchic.
"Torchic, wake up!" Shouted Rune. Torchic did not wake up however, he laid there unconscious whilst Geodude piled rocks around him.
'Think of something quickly Rune or else this is over' Rune thought to herself. The pile of rocks was getting bigger and bigger each second that passed. "Torchic, return!" She shouted as she held up Torchic's pokéball into the air. A red beam of light shot out from the pokéball towards the pile of rocks, however stopped when it hit the pile of rocks. Rune huffed as Roxanne smiled. Rune really didn't know what to do, Torchic couldn't escape the rocks and if he took this hit, it would be possible he would faint due to the hit being too hard and super effective on him. There was only one thing too do. Wait. Eventually when the pile of rocks was pretty big, the collapsed in on Torchic. It was like a rock tomb. "Torchic!" Rune screamed, "Please get up, I need you right now more then ever!" after a minute of waiting in silence, Lucie was about to call that Torchic was out of the battle, when an orange wing emerged from the top of the crumbled pile. Progressively, Torchic's whole body appeared out of the top of the pile. Rune smiled, 'I knew he wouldn't give in that easy.' A look of disappointment appeared on Roxanne's face.
"Geodude! Rock tomb again!" Roxanne called out. Geodude nodded at her and picked up a rock out of the ground, and threw it at Torchic.
"Torchic move!" Rune shouted. However, Torchic did not move, he stood his ground and waited for the boulder to fall on him. Though just at the last minute, Torchic leapt up and kicked the rock back at Geodude, hitting him directly in the face. Upon the hit, Geodude flew back a little bit. “Ok Geodude, time for a new strategy. Use mega punch with all the energy you have!” ordered Roxanne. Geodude charged forward with his fist high.
“Torchic, prepare to move when needed,” Rune said. Geodude approached Torchic with enough power to KO Torchic. Geodude swept his fist towards Torchic, whom was able to avoid it, however, when Geodude brung his fist around the side, going for a side jab, Torchic was too slow to avoid it. The impact what the hit had on Torchic sent him rolling across the floor, whilst Geodude followed. Once Geodude was above Torchic, who was withering and attempting to get up, Geodude thrusted his fist downwards at Torchic with full power, knocking him out. Rune held out Torchic’s Rune held out Torchic’s pokéball and returned Torchic, whispering into the pokéball, “You did well Torchic, take a rest whilst I sort this bitch out.”
“Is that all you can throw at me? I thought you were supposed to be worthy! I suppose not, why don’t you give up now so we can both go home early instead of wasting time? We both now the out come of this match,” Roxanne teased.
“You have now seriously pissed me off! I’m gonna give you hell! Go Ralts!” Shouted Rune. Ralts came out of its pokéball ready to fight shouting, “Ralts!”
“Ok Ralts start with a confusion attack!” ordered Rune.
Ralts focused on its target before Geodude could strike. With enough concentration, Ralts lifted Geodude into the air and smashed him down onto the floor, knocking him out immediately. “And that’s how you play rough, bitch,” Rune said whilst looking at Roxanne.
“You’ll pay for that!” Roxanne exclaimed with an angry look on her face, “Go Nosepass!” She threw a pokéball out onto the battlefield which a weird looking pokémon sprung out of. This pokémon was a small blue stone man, with a red nose, which quite frankly stuck out quite a lot.
“Why’s the nose so big?” Xylon asked.
“It’s a magnet, and a big one. It can sense pokémon with its compass like nose, that’s why its eyes are always shut,” Hattie replied.
“So if Ralts ran around it in circles, it would spin around in circles at the same speed?”
“You got that right, this one’s gonna require all of Rune’s skill to beat,” Hattie said.
“You ready for this Rune?” Roxanne smiled evilly.
“I was born ready!” Rune replied.
“Nosepass use take down on Ralts! Crush it!” Roxanne ordered immediately. Nosepass dived for Ralts, and was in the air within a second, ready to crush Ralts with its weight. “Ralts teleport behind Nosepass!” Ralts obeyed Rune and teleported behind her foe. Nosepass fully planted itself into the ground, narrowly missing Ralts. Ralts then turned purple, concentrating on her foe. As soon as Nosepass lifted itself off of the ground, it started spinning around in circles at a high speed. Once Nosepass stopped, it started attempting to walk towards Ralts; however it walked not in a straight line, but in zigzag. Nosepass was Dizzy! Ralts took this to her advantage and used yet another confusion attack, but this time images of Ralts appeared around Nosepass. Nosepass tackled one of the Ralts, however nothing happened, the copy of Ralts just stood there, taking the hit. Nosepass tried tackling another copy of Ralts but failing once again. Eventually, after attacking 3 more copies of Ralts, Nosepass fell to the ground grabbing its head and screaming. “What have you done?” Shouted Roxanne in rage.
“I have done nothing; it’s your weak minded Nosepass who seems to have been dumb enough to actually not be able to figure out that all of the Ralts were clones. All this stuff going through its mind, such as the clones, its dizziness and the pressure on it is hurting its head. As well as that he’s confused, he doesn’t know what to do next,” Rune smiled, “just withdraw him and save yourself the embarrassment and your pokémon the pain.”
Roxanne thought hard and long, however the longer she thought, the more her Nosepass was in pain. “Ok,” she said eventually, holding out a pokéball, “Nosepass return,” she said in despite. Rune had done it, she had won! Rune leapt up into the air, cheering happily, Lucie running across the arena to congratulate her.
“Hmm… that seemed very unlikely,” Xylon smiled.
“I think someone’s jealous. Don’t worry Xylon, you will have your chance tomorrow, a chance to win,” Hattie said.
“Yeah, and Roxanne’s a lot weaker then I thought she would be,” Xylon laughed.
“Maybe,” Hattie said.

“And without further ado, I reward you, Rune, the stone badge, for showing brilliant battle skills, even against all odds,” Roxanne smiled, handing Rune the badge. Everyone had gathered around Rune, celebrating her victory, cheering for her and patting her on the back. “Thank you Roxanne, Hopefully one day we can have a rematch?” Rune asked.
“Of course,” Roxanne smiled most likely thinking about how much she hated Rune and wanted to beat her.
“Great, see ya!” Rune said as she spun around on her heels and started walking out of the gym, followed by Lucie and Hattie. Xylon looked up at Roxanne, “Oh, prepare for tomorrow with what you can Roxanne, because I’ll be coming at you hard… with no mercy.” And with that, Xylon strode out of the gym, Roxanne smiling back at him.
‘Oh I will, and you and your friends will regret stepping into my gym!’

Nice one Ryan, all updated I see!