The Mysterious Figure's Story

Zane watched as Sparks and Simmer went around, admiring the city as Darr gave them the tour. As they did, Otto was just happy to not have to sleep in the forest again. He really didn't like it. Meanwhile, Zane took note of everything Darr said. Still, he had this unnerving feeling they were being watched, but it could just be the crowd of the cities themselves.

As they arrived at the Gym, Zane smiled. "Oh, I have a few ideas of who to use, but one does come to mind specifically".

He then looked at the other three. "Still, its getting late, and I don't think anyone is in mood to battle right now. Now, should we go to the PokeCenter, or should we go to the hotel?"

Simmer got all cheerful. "I never stayed in a hotel before!"

"Hotel it is" Zane mentioned, as the group of them arrived at the hotel. Zane got them checked in, for a price that seemed strangely discounted (Due to who his grandparents are), and they quickly made their way towards their room. As they entered, Zane thought they passed someone in the hall, but when he glanced back, no one was there...because to everyone else, no one had ever been there. Zane shrugged it off, and the group entered the room.

Meanwhile, from across the street on the rooftop of a tall building, two mysterious figures watched them.

"He is following her path. He will interfere".

"He is not our enemy, he understands Pokémon. But he will not agree with our actions. Continue to try and dissuade him from following. It would be a waste to have to remove him from the board....like other pieces of trash that get in our way..."

Darragh sighed. He supposed Zane was right. After all, since he'd met Zane and his company back on the route to Striaton City, they'd done nothing but travel. They did explore the museum a little bit in Nacrene City, but that was only because it was on the way. Castelia City had much more to it than the previous two cities combined. There was a lot to do here.

He led the way to the hotel, memorizing it's location despite not having stayed in it when he was down here with Liz. Money wasn't a thing either of them had truly cared about. It was more for necessities and less for luxuries. They made enough from the battles against the Gym Leaders to get by. Besides, there was more value in the journey. But still, it was nice to experience new things like a night in a hotel on a floor that overlooked the city. Especially given who his grandfather was. Must be nice to be the son of the Grand Champion...

But he didn't spite Zane for this. In fact, it seemed that Zane liked to dismiss that fact all together. He didn't ask for anything like a Legendary Pokemon or a perfectly set team straight from the get go. He had his own starting Pokemon who he grew up with. He relied on his own strategies in battle, given that no one was insane enough to come up with the stuff he came up with.

Friggin hiccups...

But that was the magic of seeing Zane traverse these gyms. He didn't apply standard strategies to the obstacles placed in front of him. He found his own way. He could probably destroy Burgh and his Gym with any Pokemon by his side...even Darragh if Zane knew his moves better.

For that alone, Zane was respectable.

Upon entering the hotel, Darragh had a creepy tingling feeling crawl through his spine. The feeling of being watched. It was something he was accustomed to as of recently. Almost immediately, he scanned his environment, his eyes shifting from person to person. No one seemed to be taking notice of him or the redhead he accompanied. And still...

He kept a lingering glance as he slowly followed Zane into the hotel.

---

Sitting on the soft blankets, Darragh couldn't tear his eyes away from the view. He'd never seen Castelia City from this perspective before. The people were like ants crawling from place to place beneath them. The skyscraper in front of them was hued by the rays of the setting sun behind it, like it was a shrine not to be touched rather than an office building. It was made even more grandeur from the elevation they were at than from when they were on the ground. Of course Zane picked one of the highest floors to check into and if the elevator ever went out, it would be one hell of a climb down. But for this view, it was worth it.

He made a passing glance to Zane before turning back to the city in front of him. "So, what did you have in mind?" he asked, a sense of pure anticipation in his voice for the first time in a long time, "Where did you want to start?"

Zane was running down the path, as he reached a temple. As he ran inside the temple, unknown flew all about, flying in an erratic fashion. They were screaming in pain, and their screaming, alongside their strange nature, caused Zane to scream in pain as well. As he walked past a mirror, he saw himself, only he heard another person yell out a different name, Zeke, from beyond the mirror.

As he stood up, his whole body felt like it was hurting, like something was trying to force him out of this place. But he continued onward, because he had something he needed to do. Someone he needed to face. And then, another mirror ahead shattered, and glass flew towards him.

Zane woke up in a panic in the middle of the night. Everyone else was asleep still, so he rubbed his eyes a little. "Whew. It was just a nightmare". It didn't feel like a nightmare though.


The next day, he woke up, and decided he needed to clear his head before going to that gym. That nightmare took a lot out of him, and he didn't like this strange feeling he was getting.

It was like more then one thing was hunting him. "I think....the park and some ice cream sounds like a good start. Besides, I hear that despite it being a city, the air here is kept really fresh". It was clear something was bothering him, and it was more then just the two people staying out of sight near them, keeping themselves beyond concealed.

Only due to that dream, Zane had a pretty good idea something was near.

As they enjoyed the icecream, and not getting lost, Zane had this strange feeling they were still being watched. Actually, he was sure of it, even if he was sure of it from a nightmare as insane as that was.

Meanwhile, in the crowd of people, there was someone following him. A pokemon, who seemed to be unseen by all, appeared next to this person. A dark mist radiated from it, preventing proper identification. "They are about to get into some trouble I think".

The woman held up two dark pearls. "Well, whether they do or not, I will make sure they stay out of our way".

She attempted to throw the pearls at them, but they seemed to be reflected. Energy was emited from the relic that hung around Zane's neck. "Fine then. I guess an indirect approach will have to do".

Then, all of a sudden, the Treeko called out a name. As it ran off, the others ran off after him. She then threw her dark pearls into a nearby Machop in an alley, which resulted in him evolving into a Machoke with a darker tint, and a Ratatat, which evolved into a Ratacate with a darker tint. "Go you two, hunt him down, beat him, break his spirit. Do everything you can...to avoid me from entering a conflict with him face to face. He will never understand why we do what we do".

Meanwhile, Zane and Otto followed Darr and the person he was chasing, when Zane got an idea. He loaded a Pokeball into the launcher. "Go go Sparks! Pokelaunch Activate!"

Suddenly, the Pokeball was fired at top speed, moving almost to fast to see with the naked eye past Darr and the one he was chasing, and Sparks showed up in front of the two. The Pokeball was then retracted back into the launcher via a super strong string, and emerged from the loading zone, popping out and into Zane's hand. "Perfect shot!"

"Liz!" Darragh kept running though the crowds, through the surge of people, trying to get to the trainer he'd known for so long, "LIZ!" All focus was on her, every step she made every direction she turned...

And then she was gone.

"Wha?" Darragh had paid so much attention to what he saw was Liz that he completely missed Zane's incredible PokeLaunch of Sparks and ended up running right into him.

"Oof!" came the sound as he slammed into the Emolga full force, toppling over and bringing Sparks with him. Darragh was quick to get up, his mind too alert to apologize. He kept looking around, trying to find Liz. But in the sea of faces, there wasn't a familiar one. She was nowhere to be seen. It was like she had disappeared from the face of Ruula.

Had he imagined her?

That was the first thought that ran through his head. Was he going crazy? Did he miss her so much that he was losing his sanity wishing for her return? That thought scared him. But what hurt more was that throbbing ache in his heart...the one who wanted his Trainer back more than ever. The weight of longing was heavy enough to bring the Treecko to his knees.

"Bu...I thought..." Darragh was trying to fight back all the emotions he was feeling and slowly failing. He could feel the presence of Zane coming behind him, Otto tagging along. But he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge them. Everything felt numb. He wasn't hearing what everyone was saying. He could see the lips move, but there was no sound with them. A silent tear dripped from his eye.

"I-I need a moment!" was all Darragh could muster in the land of coherent sentences. He took off running, running to one of the only places he knew was comfort. He would be gone from the group before Zane could do anything about it. It would just be Otto, Sparks, and Simmer taking on the next gym from the appearance of it.

As Zane and the others wondered about Darr and if he would be okay, it occurred to him that he probably needed some space...and that someone was messing with all their heads. But as he started to walk in a direction, he passed a dark alleyway...where two formerly peaceful Pokémon were now malicious and intended to harm the group. As the Pokémon attacked however, something stopped them. A psionic barrier of immense power was in their way.

As the two were pushed back, they seemed to walk off instantly as the shrouded Pokémon appeared before the psionic pokemon that had stopped the attack. The psionic pokemon appeared in front of them, revealing itself to be a Mew wearing a red bow tie. "Well well well, if it isn't the one who got away. Azu the Mew. Come for revenge?"

"I have come to stop you. I don't know what your business is with this trainer, but I will stop you AND get my revenge for what you have done" Azu told the shrouded Pokémon.

"Well then, I guess its time for the two of us to finally battle then..." he spoke, as the two pokemon clashed.

Meanwhile, Zane stood in front of the third gym. "Alright Simmer, Sparks, you two have advantage here, so I am counting on the two of you again. Lets do this!"

The normal Gym trainers didn't even stand a chance, but the Gym Leader? The Gym Leader knew what he was getting into.

Emiko Touko landed, wheezing from the rush. "All right, Unfezant, return. Now to give Burgh his marching orders. Knowing him, he'd likely favor Sticky Webs so our guys can safely unload on them from a distance."

Where else would Touko be? Still directing traffic and giving orders, this time barking into her Xtransceiver at an old friend.

"I don't care if you're having the shits right now, get your ass to Virbank and help Roxie, I am not having some of my best backup bottled up!" She was clearly channeling her inner boss bitch as she shouted at the troops to start moving up to gain ground and engage the NRE forces, who had brought knives to a gun fight...and the UPL had orders to shoot to kill, forcing the enemy Pokémon to choose between protecting their Trainers and being effective combat units.

"Burgh, get your big boy boots on, let's show them they picked the wrong side in this fight!" After giving everyone their marching orders, she moved to hold the Skyarrow Bridge, the gateway to the eastern part of Unova. The Striaton leaders were strong, but not as strong as the Shadow Triad...and she couldn't bear the thought of the enemy getting all the way to her home town.

Touko biked quickly across the Skyarrow Bridge, retreating to Pinwheel Forest to establish a command post deep in the woods. The stage was set, now everyone just had to play their part and hope she started her first war on the right foot.

Emiko Touko couldn't believe it. Her side was...winning? "I guess that's what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket! Melaine may be amazingly strong, but everyone else is a PUSH OVER! Fire teams, move up, they're just about to break!" Then something came on the monitor in one of the Nacrene warehouses where she had set up her command post, getting a good view of the action as well as directing logistical traffic and protecting the east end of the Skyarrow Bridge from a surprise attack. "Wait, no, not the fact that they're flying in using super strong birds, I can get Skyla to worry about that. I'm talking about the dude by the ice cream shop, he's way too calm about this. Get a team over there, assume hostile. I want him alive."

Stay calm, Touko. It's just like a normal battle. You've got this, she repeated to herself, one hand on her chest as she rode the edge between exhilaration and over-stimulation.

Emiko Touko was positively giddy, watching the glorious sight of victory unfold! "Burgh. They're retreating. Mop up any stragglers, take captives if you can. James, grab Allen, you two are with me. I'm going in after them. We have a chance to end this war right here before more people get killed."

Wren's ears perked up at the comment, causing him to turn around from the path he was walking. What was this war the stranger was talking about?

Ahem, excuse me. What did you just say?

he inquired, lifting his hand to his chin in puzzled repose.

Touko skidded to a stop on the bridge as some random citizen asked her about some sort of war going on.

"Wherever you've been, you'd better get back there. Some Diancie went all power trippy and established her own freaking Diamond Domain right over in the harbor there, and recently declared war on us. If you're a strong Trainer that can take out the Shadow Obelisks that have popped up and are juicing her up to where not even I'm a match for her, that's great, but for now I have holdouts to mop up and capture. I'm trying to rendezvous with a couple of my friends so we can strike at the enemy territory, so with all respect..."

And then she just gave Wren a hip check out of her way before continuing to the Castelia pier to meet up with James and Allen.

"Ah, James, it's been a while. Good to see you've been well. Who's your friend and why does he look like he wants to battle me? We do not have time for this, we can't just let the NRE retreat to lick their wounds and prepare for the next attack. I managed to catch them by surprise this time by having the troops use guns in addition to their Pokémon, but they won't fall for that again."

Wren Harrington stood in surprise, stunned by the sudden interposition. Not quite an experienced trainer just yet, he stepped back a bit as the commotion unfolded.

Yes! Well, thank you ma'am!

he stammered, unsure of which direction to go. Looking eastward, he turned on his heel and shouted over his shoulder,

Thanks for the tip! I'll be back soon!

came his echoing response before he disappeared off into the wilderness.