Pokemon: Rise of The Shield

I'LL EXPLAIN WHY I HAVEN'T UPDATED ANY OF MY STORIES FOR THE PAST 2+ YEARS AT THE END.

I don't own Pokemon or any of it's characters besides my own.

Chapter 10: More Questions Than Answers

The only thing Drew Hayden was feeling right now as his eyelids started to crack open was the world's biggest migraine. Where this migraine came from was certainly a good question, but here was another one: Why couldn't he reach up to his throbbing head and hold it? It was then that he started to realize his surroundings. He was in a small, dark room where the only light available to him was from a TV that was showing nothing but static. It was thanks to that he was able to figure out why he couldn't reach his head: His hands were bound by cuffs attached to the wall! He looked down to see his ankles were being given the same treatment.

"Well, it's about time you awoke from your little slumber." A voice called out. The lights to the room flickered on and Drew spotted the man who did this to him.

"Calem? What the fuck?! Get me out of these!" he demanded.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." he calmly said while slowly walking over to the captive Hoenn native.

"And why the hell not?!"

"You know why, Mr. Hayden. You were going to betray us."

"Excuse me?" Drew said, confused at what Calem was talking about. "Look, I don't know what the f-" he spoke before Calem grabbed his neck, tightening his grip on it.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" he yelled and soon after, he released his grip on Drew, allowing said person to get some oxygen back into his systems. "Your now ex-girlfriend called me and told me what you were planning to do. You were going to apologize to that Ketchum kid and I'm willing to bet that you were going to tell him everything about our plans."

Now having filled his lungs, Drew spoke once again. "Hey man, I wasn't going to tell him about y-" he stopped mid-sentence once again as Calem reapplied his grip on Drew's neck, this time making it even tighter.

"Lie to me again and I won't let go until your face turns blue!" he threatened.

"I'm...not...lying..." Drew somehow managed to get out. Calem released his grip once again, allowing Drew to breath again before he continued. "Yeah, I was going to apologize to Ash for what I did to him, but that was all, I swear on my life." he said. Calem just looked at him and chuckled darkly.

"It's not your life you should be swearing." he cryptically said, leaving the co-ordinator confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"When you and the rest of your friends agreed to my plans, you also made a unspoken agreement with me. Do what I say and you would receive power, but break it and..." Calem stopped speaking for a moment as a diabolical smile grew on his lips. "Well, I'll take the things that matter most to you." He said and then walked over to the television and after messing around with it for a minute, it started playing a news broadcast from the Hoenn region.

"Good evening everyone and thank you for tuning into LaRousse City News at the 11:00 hour. We begin with breaking news: District Attorney Johnathan Hayden and his wife, Melissa Hayden are in critical condition at this hour. The two were driving home when, as eyewitnesses describe: a grey van hit their car with the van going as fast as 90 MPH. The Hayden's car preceded to flip several times, which lead to the car taking out a stoplight before coming to a stop with the car upside down. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene and quickly took the Hayden's to LaRousse Medical Center where both are still in ICU and both still in critical condition. Police have no leads on a suspect and there is no word yet as to whether or not their son, top ranked Co-ordinator Drew Hayden has heard of this news as he is currently in the Kanto region competing in the Kanto Championship Open. More on this story as it develops."

Calem turned off the TV and looked at his prisoner. He could see that he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. Tears were threatening to spill, his lips trembling and he had the look on his face of a man who just had his heart ripped out of him.

And to Calem, that was exactly the reaction he was looking for.

"Y-You..." Drew tried to speak after a couple of minutes of silence as he let the news of his parents sink him. "You ki-killed my parents?" Drew managed to sob out. Calem just laughed.

"Now who said they were dead? I heard they were simply in critical condition... but then again, that news story hit the airwaves about..." he looked to his holo-caster and checked the time. "...roughly 6 hours ago, so they could be dead now." Calem said, growing a big old evil smile on his face, which caused rage to quickly bubble inside of Drew. "Besides..." he continued. "I wouldn't waste my time and getting my hands dirty killing those two pathetic wastes of life."

That was all it took for Drew to lose it as he tried to break free of his restraints and lunge at Calem.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER! I'LL KILL YOU; I SWEAR TO ARCEUS THAT I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Drew screamed, but all did was get Calem to laugh even more.

"Oh please; you couldn't sooner break free from those restraints than you could save you parents." Calem said, but that just riled the Hoenn native more and he continued to struggle out of the restraints. "Now do yourself a favor and save that energy. Even if you did get out, you would probably have broken wrists and broken ankles, so you wouldn't be able to put a finger on me." he pointed out, which lead Drew to stop struggling, but he growled at the Kalos native.

"You won't get away with keeping me here. People will start looking for me once they realize that I'm missing."

"Ooooh, is that how you think you'll escape your new home? By having someone find you?" Calem shook his head. "Wrong! I've already shut that door closed, so you'd better get used to being down here." he said as he started to leave, but turned to look at Drew one more time. "You'll be getting a visitor a little bit later and he will show you what happens when you double-cross us." and after saying that, Calem left the room with a silent Drew intensely glaring at him and wondering to himself what else was in store for him.

Calem locked the door shut and stepped outside; the ever huge Viridian City Pokemon Center not too far from him. His phone soon started ringing as he started to make his way back to Indigo Plateau.

"Hello, Master." Calem said after picking up.

"Is our problem solved?" Silver asked.

"It is. He's locked in there and has no way of escape."

"Good. I'll let him stew for a couple of days before I see the little prick. That should give him enough time to think about betraying us."

"But Master Silver, what about-"

"Relax Calem. I too realized that Drew's disappearance could possibly draw eyes on you and the others, so I've already worked up something to keep suspicions from getting raised."

Calem sighed in relief. "That's good to know, Master. But why are you waiting to-" Silver interrupted him once again.

"Because there's something very important I have to do today and it can't be ignored."

"More important than dealing with a traitor?" Calem asked in amazement.

"Yes." he simply said. "Oh and by the way, if any of those friends of yours try and screw up my plans again, then you can go right ahead and forget about freeing your father because you'll be too busy hiding from me! Understand?!" he yelled.

"Yes, Master." Calem managed to squeak out.

"Good! Now get back to Indigo and act like none of this ever happened." he ordered before hanging up. Afterwards, Silver picked up a nearby coffee mug and threw it at his apartment wall with such force, that it was destroyed into several tiny pieces. He hated the fact that there was now a loose end he had to deal with, but at the moment, it needed to wait. Looking out the window of his hidden apartment, he saw the sun starting to rise. He got up from his chair and left, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible.

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On top of the roof of the hotel were Ash and the others were staying at, Mike sat on the edge looking at the sunrise and Indigo down below. The red eyed trainer had a lot on his mind right now, not only with what Hilda had informed him about Calem, but also with Cynthia and Steven's engagement. Thoughts on the latter kept him tossing and turning last night, so he decided to go up to the roof and watch the sunrise in hopes of calming down, but it had little effect on his nerves.

'What if Cyn already told him? Oh Arceus, he already knows, doesn't he!' Mike took a deep breath to calm his nerves. 'Calm down, Mike. She wouldn't do that right after getting engaged; she'd wait for a bit... but what if she did? She told him and he's going to tell the others and...'

"So you're out here." A voice interrupted his thoughts. Mike didn't need to turn around to confirm who it was.

"Go away Dee." Mike ordered, but she didn't listen and instead walked over and sat next to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing." Mike answered, not looking at her.

"So why are you out here?"

"I like to watch the sunrise from time to time." he responded, hoping that would be enough to send Dee on her away. Instead, Mike saw out of the corner of his eye that she was shaking her head, which got Mike to turn around and look at her.

"For someone who can tell when a person is lying, you're not very good at lying yourself." she told him. Mike, flabbergasted, looked right into the purple eyes of the disguised alien Pokemon as his mind tried to come up with some kind of response. Dee giggled a bit that almost became full out laughter at Mike's reaction. "Have you forgotten that I'm a psychic type or did you really think that Cynthia, Carolina and Korrina were the only ones who knew about your secret?" she asked.

The revelation left Mike with his mouth dropped for a moment, until he managed to get his thoughts together. "I guess it was more hoped rather than thought." he said to her, not in a angry or even an annoyed voice, but more a disappointed one as he stood up and turned away from her.

Knowing that her trainer needed comfort as his fears continued to grow inside him, Dee walked up to Mike and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him from behind and placing her chin on his right shoulder.

"Look at me." she spoke softly to her trainer and he did so, turning his head to look right into her eyes. If Dee was honest with herself, a part of her wanted to give in to her feelings for Mike and kiss him right there like she had always dreamed about doing, but she pushed those thoughts aside. Right now, Mike needed a friend and if that's what she was meant to be to him, then so be it."If you think for one moment that the others will look at you differently, especially after everything you guys have been through, then you're wrong because they won't." she said sincerely. Mike continued to stare at her for a couple of moments before turning his head away from her.

"It's not them I'm worried about, Deoxys." he whispered to her. Dee was confused by what he meant by that, at last for a moment, until she realized what he was talking about as her eyes slightly widened. Now she could understand his fears. Mike gently released Dee's hands from his waist and turned to look at her. "Dee, I appreciate the comforting words; I really do, but sooner or later, I'm going to have to face this and right now, I just want to go do something so I can push these thoughts away for the time being, alright?" he told her.

"OK, but I really wish you would open up to me sometimes." she said to him. "Because even though we've known each other for 5 years, sometimes I feel like I don't even know you." she admitted.

"Deoxys, I promise that if I'm ever down and need someone to talk to, you'll be the first person I come to." he told her, which did make her smile.

"OK." she nodded her head and allowed Mike to return her to ball. As he shrunk the ball and clipped it to his belt, Mike had to admit that he was feeling a little better after their talk, but for right now, he had to go do something to clear his mind and he knew exactly to do.

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"May! May, please open the door!" Max yelled outside of his sister's and her boyfriend's hotel room as he and the rest of the traitors stood around the door to their room waiting for the couple to come out. However Max, along with a couple of the others, had tried for the past half hour to get either of them to come out and neither would even answer them with the only sounds they could hear were sobs, which sounded like they belonged to May... and annoyed guests to yelled at them to stop banging on the door and quit making all the noise, but of course, they didn't.

"Forget it, Max." Brock told Max, who stopped knocking on the door and turned to look at the brother figure of the group. "It's clear that she's not coming out."

"I wonder what could've possibly happened to May that would caused her to break down this badly." Cilan pondered.

"I'm wondering more as to where the hell Drew is." Misty said. "I mean, if something is going on in there, you'd think he would come to the door and let us know."

"It's possible that if whatever happened to May devastated her that badly that she would seek comfort and probably wouldn't let Drew get out of arms reach." Gary figured.

"Maybe, but wouldn't he at least shout to us that they weren't coming out if he was in there?" the redhead pointed out.

"You don't think May and Drew got into a fight last night, do you?" Tracey asked.

Misty shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, it's certainly possible. Those two haven't exactly had the most perfect relationship." The traitors knew Misty had a point, but before they could dwell further, a voice called out to them.

"There you all are!" The group all turned to see Calem, along with Hilbert and Hilda, walking towards them. "Why the hell are you all hanging out here?" he asked.

"It's May. She and Drew won't come out of their room." Kenny answered for the group.

Calem scoffed. "Well then, I guess you haven't heard, have you?" he cryptically said. This got the traitors attention; what did Calem know about May and Drew that they didn't? "...Don't you guys watch the news?" he asked. "Drew's parents were in a car accident last night. A pretty bad one too, so he probably heard about it and flew home."

"Well then, I guess we don't watch the news as often as we think." Brock spoke for the group. "At least now, everything makes sense."

"Not necessarily." Misty commented. "It still doesn't explain what May's crying about and why, if Drew left, she didn't go with him."

"I find it interesting that you say that after you had just said only moments ago that their relationship was not a perfect one." Cilan brought up.

"I still say it isn't, but when all the gears of their relationship are working well, those two are inseparable." Misty countered. "I'm sure there's another reason." she said, unintentionally making Calem sweat slightly. This group was smart and whilst he did promise them power, none of them had a clue as to the real plans of Master Silver and after what happened with Drew, he couldn't be sure if he could trust them.

"Oh please." Trip spoke up, entering the conversation. "I think we all know who's really responsible for what's happening with May; it's Ash!" Trip's words caused the traitors to look at each other and realize that he was right. It had to be Ash! Calem just rolled his eyes, not caring about what they were talking about now. He was however, secretly relieved that there weren't going to be any more problems for his Master's plans.

"Ya know, I'm starting to think that anytime something goes wrong with one of you guys, you automatically blame this Ash guy, regardless if he's really at fault or not." Hilda brought up.

"Ditto." Hilbert said, agreeing with the brunette.

"No, Trip's right." Tracey argued. "He embarrassed all of us at that press conference yesterday, but especially May. I mean, did you hear the things he said about her?"

"Yeah, all that shit he said about her was uncalled for and he needs to apologize to her." Gary added. "And the way I see it, we're going to have to take matters into our own hands."

"And how exactly do we do that?" Kenny asked.

"It's simple: We beat him in a Pokemon battle so badly that we force him to get down on his hands and knees and beg for forgiveness to her." Gary answered.

Most of the traitors thought this was a great idea as there was no way that Ash could beat all of them. However, there was one member of the group that was against this plan and that was Iris. Though she wouldn't admit it to the others, she was still reeling from the beating that he handed to her and her strongest Pokemon Haxorus, only a couple of days ago. What scared Iris even more was the thought of just how much stronger the rest of his Pokemon had become. After all, his Scrafty was one of his weaker Pokemon when she had trekked Unova with Ash when it was a Scraggy and look what happened. If Scrafty could take down Haxorus, she feared for how strong his Charizard could be. The thought alone sent goosebumps down her spine.

"So what is your plan exactly? Just walk up to him, demand he apologize and if he doesn't, you'll all battle him until he does?" Hilda asked, the sarcasm in her tone wasn't lost on Hilbert and Calem.

"YEAH!" the majority of them shouted.

"NO!" Calem yelled.

"KEEP IT DOWN OR I'M CALLING THE COPS!" A random voice screamed out to them, followed by the slamming of a door. The group didn't want that, so they obliged.

Calem took a quick breath before continuing, in a quieter voice. "Need I remind you all that many of you have your 1st round matches today? You need to be focusing on that and not this Ketchum kid. In fact, unless your facing him in the tournament, I don't want to hear another word about him. Are we clear?"

Though most of the traitors wouldn't admit it, Calem was right. In order for Calem to become Kanto champion, each of them would have to have a deep run in this tournament and splitting their focus on the tournament and Ash would cause a lot of problems for them. After all, if Calem didn't win, all that promised power would go down the drain.

"Hold on." Gary said. "I had my 1st round match yesterday and I know Tracey and Misty did too, so we're going to find him and get some payback for what he did to May and to us." He finished with Misty and Tracey nodding in agreement. Calem looked over to his right to see Hilda rolling her eyes at the plan and then turned to his left to see Hilbert with a dumbfound expression on his face.

"Alright fine. But don't do anything stupid." he said. The trio nodded their heads as they and the rest of the traitors walked away.

Calem turned towards the two Unova trainers. "I know you two had your matches yesterday as well, so do me a favor and keep an eye out on them. The last thing I need is for those guys to get into trouble." he ordered and immediately walked past them towards the elevators to prepare for his match.

"Um..." Hilbert said aloud, getting the attention of Hilda. "Did we just get put on babysitting duty for the biggest group of hypocrites on the planet?"

"Oh forget about those idiots." Hilda spoke. "Even if they did get into trouble, Calem will just find someone else to replace them with. I say, let them make their own beds cause I sure as hell am not bailing them out of whatever shit they get into." she finished as she started walking away.

"Where are you going?" Hilbert called out.

"To explore Indigo. It's my 1st time here; might as well check the place out." she answered. "You should too!" she called back.

When Hilda was out of earshot, Hilbert said to himself. "I've got something better to do."

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"Hello everyone and welcome to PBSN's live coverage of the second half of the 1st round of the Kanto Championship Open. I'm Jack Andrews and if you thought that yesterday's action was intense, then you haven't seen anything yet! Today, we'll be seeing Elite 4 members and Champions from across the regions battling it out to advanced to Round 2 and for the honor to call themselves Kanto Region Champion. Of course, they'll also be a number of familiar faces from the Indigo League's past and one of them is my guest at this time: The Astounding Mandi! Now Mandi, even though you are a proven trainer, how on earth do you and your partner plan on defeating the team of Kanto Elite 4 member Lorelei Prima and her partner, the Kanto & Johto Region Champion: Lance Wataru?"

"Why do you doubt my abilities to defeat them? What, do you think I'm a maniac? Or is it that you think I'm a little craziac? You know, you sound just like my doctor and I think he's a quack! But don't worry Jack because I have a plan of attack. So you just sit back and relax because I am not The Astonding Mandi any more. For my name is Mandi Stasiak and this is my world! Welcome to Planet Stasiak!"

Sitting in his favorite diner(and only one in the Plateau) was Ash, Pikachu and Meowth, along with his friends Leaf, Harrison and Sabrina watching the coverage on the TV; all of them dumbfounded at what they had just seen.

"What in this blue and green planet we call Earth is that fool doing?" Harrison asked, referring to Mandi.

"That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life!" Leaf proclaimed, who was struggling not to bust out laughing.

'Pika!' Pikachu nodded his head in agreement.

"OK, I'm gonna talk with Goodshow about screening trainers before big tournaments like this." Ash told his friends.

"In my professional opinion, this man is clearly disturbed and should not be battling, but instead be seeking the help of one or possibly multiple psychiatrists." Sabrina said, cold and without emotion like she normally does. It didn't stop the others from turning to look at her when she said that though. "Am I incorrect?" she asked them.

Amused, Ash just shook his head. "Definitely not, Sabrina. Definitely not."

As Ash said that, a waitress came out with his order: 4 cups of coffee to go for he and the others. Hearing the noise from the TV, she gave her own input. "You know, I had him in hear the other day and boy, you guys aren't wrong." She said as she put the coffee down on the counter. "The guy was speaking so much nonsense that after a while, I just threw up my hands and said 'Sure honey, whatever you say.' If you ask me, all those losses he's had here over the last several years have affected his mind."

After hearing that, both Leaf and Pikachu were laughing their asses off, Meowth was laughing too, but not nearly as hard. Harrison could feel his brain turning into mush, Ash facepalmed at how crazy Mandi had become since he last saw him and Sabrina was... well, neutral.

"And that's wasn't even the craziest guy I've had in here this week." The waitress continued.

"No shit?" Harrison asked.

"No shit. You guys want to hear about it?"

"Uh, no thanks." Ash answered for the group, grabbing the tray of coffee from the counter. "We really need to be going."

"Oh, but you have to hear this." The waitress insisted. "A few days ago, this guy with this really weird hairstyle came in; it was like brown hair that was all over the place with a blonde streak on the front right side of his hair. Anyway, he sat on the stool that was facing the door and everytime someone came in, he would shout 'Brother Nero! I knew you'd come!' or 'Sister Nero' if it was a girl and he always did it with his back turned away from the door, so I don't know how he knew who was coming in and when. And that's not even the craziest part; the craziest part was when he got his order, the kitchen staff got it wrong and he started shouting 'DELETE!' over and over. I mean, I really thought he was gonna jump the counter and head for the kitchen and beat the crap out of the staff, but instead he just stopped shouting and left. Isn't that weird?" she asked, but when she looked around, the four she had served were gone. She wondered if they even heard her story, so she just shrugged her shoulders and went back to work. Not a moment later did the door open.

"SISTER NERO!" That voice froze the waitress in place. "I KNEW I'D SEE YOU AGAIN!"

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"HAHAHA, Oh my Arceus!" Leaf couldn't stop laughing at what she had heard as the group started to walk around the Plateau. In fact, she was now red-faced. "I-I can't br-bre-eath." she got out between her laughs.

"I guess the big tournaments like this one bring out all the crazies, don't they?" Harrison asked, still baffled.

"Indeed. Though usually, these crazies don't typically last long in tournaments and with any luck, it will be the same here and they'll all go back to wherever they came from." Sabrina said.

"Well, I'll certainly sleep easier once they're gone." Ash admitted.

After a while, Leaf finally stopped laughing and started breathing normally, as her red face returned to normal. "So what's going on? Why did you call us here, Ash?" Leaf asked.

Ash opened his mouth to answer, but was quickly interrupted.

"President Goodshow wants Ash and anyone else available to handle security today and Ash has chosen us to assist him in this." All three turned to Sabrina, with Ash having an eyebrow raised and a suspicious look on his face.

"Did you-" he started, but once again Sabrina interrupted.

"You are an Aura user, which makes my mind-reading capabilities useless against you. However, you do not need to be a psychic to figure out what the President's moves will be, especially in the wake of this N.W.O hijacking all cable airwaves across the planet."

"Fair point." Ash nodded. "And yes, that is why I called you guys here." he answered, earning moans and eye rolls from Harrison and Leaf.

"Seriously? I was planning on doing some training today to prepare myself for round 2, not walk around and bore myself to death with some security job." Leaf said.

"And I'm beginning to wonder if that N.W.O thing is just some stupid prank or hoax." Harrison argued. "I mean, there hasn't been any kind of attack since that broadcast." he pointed out.

Ash couldn't argue with Harrison as he had a good point and being honest with himself, he also would rather train than do security, but he also had a responsibility, to protect people from any threats made, even if they ended being for nothing.

"I feel you guys, I do, but Goodshow is taking this threat very seriously and right now, he can't spare any more police officers from the others cities, so we have to step up and protect all the innocent people here." Ash said, very aware that he was sounding like a cop.

"KETCHUM!" A group of voices screamed.

"And those are not innocent voices." he said to himself as he and the others turned to see Gary, Misty and Tracey walking up to them with purpose.

"Ah, Gary Oak." Leaf said; a sinister grin playing on her lips. "Come to accept your ultimate destiny?" she asked, cracking her knuckles. Gary took a few steps back out of fear.

"Leaf... no." Ash said as he put his hands on her shoulders and moved her behind him before turning back to the traitors. "Now what do you guys want?"

With Gary momentarily frightened by Leaf, Tracey stepped forward and spoke. "We're here to get payback for what you did to May!" he said; a look a rage clear in his eyes.

Naturally, Ash instantly adopted this sarcastic confused look on his face. "May? I don't remember doing anything to her..." then a big grin broke out. "Other than calling her a bitch on live TV, which she is. Oh and showing her that a Pokemon that she held dear to her heart no longer loved her!" he shouted. "But I mean, that's not really too much, right?" he asked sarcastically.

Tracey didn't speak right away; his rage building as he started seeing red. Instead, it was Misty who spoke up.

"Not too much?!" she repeated. "You damn near broke her! Have you no guilt for the despicable things you've done?"

"I think the same thing could be asked for you three since, you know, you stabbed Ash in the back!" Leaf countered.

"Indeed. The three of you have no room to talk about feeling guilt for despicable things." Sabrina pointed out, though she also knew she had done despicable things in her past too, but at least she did all she could to make up for her mistakes.

"Exactly." Ash nodded his head. "Maybe now, that bimbo will learn her place in the world."

Finally having heard enough, Tracey did what Gary or even Misty didn't seem to have the guts to do in his mind; his tightened his fist and charged at Ash, ready to punch him into tomorrow and beat his ass into next year. However, his plan was put to a screeching halt, litterally, as Sabrina used her abilities to freeze Tracey in place and then proceeded to throw him several yards behind Gary and Misty. Ash nooded a quick thanks to the psychic whilst the other two traitors ran to Tracey.

"Tracey, you idiot!"

"Yeah, you shouldn't have tried that!" Tracey was confused as to why his friends were scolding him on trying to hit Ash. Thankfully, said trainer cleared the confusion.

"Hey, dumbass!" he called out. "Since those jackasses seem to be smarter than you, let me help you out. I work for Shield, ergo the PLA now, which makes me a federal agent. If Sabrina hadn't stopped you, you would've hit me yes, but you also would've been arrested and put behind bars before lunch!"

Tracey got back up and started marching towards Ash again, despite the protests he was hearing from Gary and Misty. "Well, if you think I'm just going to stand here and listen to you disrespect May, you have another thing coming!" he exclaimed, stopping right in front of Ash and the others.

Ash just laughed off Tracey's threat. "Oh please Tracey. Even on your best day, you can't hold a candle to me. Or do you need a reminder of what happened to Iris?" he said, smirking as a plan had already formed in his head.

"That was just dumb luck!" he argued.

"Then prove it." Ash taunted.

"FINE! I challenge you to a battle, Ash Ketchum. 3 on 3 and if I win, you will come with us and beg May for her forgiveness!" he screamed. Ash continued smirking as his plan had worked successfully.

"I accept." Ash answered.

Harrison tapped Ash on his shoulder. "Uh Ash, I thought we had to-"

"Oh, don't worry about that." Leaf quickly interrupted. "I'm sure we've got time for this, don't we Ash?" she asked, and Ash knew that to Leaf, watching a battle(even if was going to be a one-sided battle) would be 10x more interesting that security.

"Yeah, we've got time." he nodded, then turned back to the traitors. "Well, are you gonna lead us to a battlefield or do you not know what a battlefield is?" Ash taunted once again.

Tracey growled. "Follow me."

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"Thanks for the information, Bianca."

"Yeah no problem, but why do you need this exactly"

"Just hunting down a lead, that's all."

"OK, but Mike, shouldn't you be sharing this with the others?"

"It's not good enough to present to the others, at least not yet. Who knows, it may just be a dead end and I don't want to waste their time."

Mike could hear Bianca sigh over the phone"Alright, if you think so. And I'm gonna guess that you don't want me to tell anyone about this, right?"

"Please and thank you B. Talk to you later." he said as he hung up his phone.

Now Mike Shamrock was left with his thoughts as he looked over both Calem's physical file and an online file and reading both over and to his surprise(and annoyance), there really wasn't anything suspicious about Calem. The information Hilda had told him last night indicated to Mike that Calem was a shady character hiding lots of secrets, but both his files told the exact opposite story. No criminal history, well regarded by fellow trainers and gym leaders. Hell, there was even a section in his physical file about a few cases in which he offered assistance to a Officer Jenny to help a victim of crime.

'That makes no sense.' Mike thought aloud and he knew he was right. Why was Calem acting so differently now that how he was before. Was it because of the tournament? Hilda did tell him a while ago that he was conspiring with Ash's former friends, but that hardly leads to committing treason and acts of terrorism. Yeah, conspiracy was a crime, but in this instance, it was conspiracy to fix a match that may or may not ever happen? Any decent lawyer could get someone off of that.

Looking back towards his computer monitor, Mike looked at Calem online file and after a quick look-through, he noticed a section labeled 'Family' and clicked on there. There, he discovered Calem was a only child, which he already knew thanks to the physical file, and that Calem's mother was his emergency contact that each trainer is supposed to provide their regional professor when they get their 1st Pokemon, who in turn provide it to the PLA. But then, Mike noticed something odd; there was no listed as Calem's father. It just had a 'N/A' tag next to where the father's name is supposed to be.

That set off an alarm inside Mike's head. Why was there no listing for Calem's father? Was he dead? No, that couldn't be right. He knew the name would still be present under normal circumstances as a 'deceased' label would usually appear next to the name in the file.

"Under normal circumstances." he repeated to himself. That had to be it; it was special circumstances, otherwise why wouldn't the name be in the file. Looking back at the screen, he saw the mother's name was Susan Xavier with an home address provided.

"Maybe she knows why." he said to himself. He had to look into this, but couldn't just leave Indigo and go to Kalos for a single afternoon. No, he needed someone who could go and get answers. He took a quick glance at the time on the clock.

"8:30? She should be up by now." he said as he picked up the phone and started dialing numbers. After a few rings someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me. Did I wake you?"

"No...ugh, but I had a bit of a rough night."

"You recovering from a hangover?"

"...Perhaps."

"Well, get something to fix it cause I got a assignment for you, Domino."

"What?"

"I need you to go to Vanville City, Kalos and find Susan Xavier."

End of Chapter 10

OK, let's get to it.

There's a number of reasons I haven't released a new chapter to any of my stories in nearly 3 years. Some I don't wish to disclose, but among those reasons are time and lack of inspiration. Lately, there haven't been many new stories that inspire me to get back into writing, especially with regards to the 'Ash is betrayed' plot. It seriously feels like new writers think it's an easy way to get favorites and follows(which it kind of is) and don't put any effort into it. Come on, writers. Put some effort into it, do some world-building, create some story lore that will keep the reader coming back. Hell, I'm doing that last thing with this story(whether or not it's good lore I'll leave for the reader to decide). But at least do something that's not the same cookie-cutter plot that we readers/writers have come to know.

As for time, guys I have a real job. I don't have as much time to write as I'd like and I don't get paid to write fanfiction(although I think we all wish that was a thing.) I respect and admire the writers that can update their stories frequently and with quality, especially since I'm sure those people don't have as much time to write as they like too. It'd be nice if their were more hours in a day, then none of my stories were take this long to get a new chapter.

Anyway guys, hope you enjoyed the new chapter and before I see it all over the reviews, no, the next chapter won't be Ash vs Tracey

Instead, I've got something very special planned for next time. When will that be? I don't know, but hopefully not as long as this chapter took.

So until next time, this is the Man Known as nWore signing off.