Colosseum chap. 2

I thought this was longer until I typed it on the computer.

This one might be a bit more than I usually write.

Wes sat on the edge of the stone fountain, letting the running water drown out all other noises. At least the jogger with the Castform that had an obsessive need to run around the fountain constantly had left to go home at dusk. Wes watched Lux and Shade play with a small blue ball Rui had gotten for them; it was rubber with a bell inside and lit up every time it bounced.

A cool night wind blew into the city from the cooling desert. There were two choices: Either leave right now and go to another region where it was safe and let Rui find her own way home, or wait until the next morning, take Rui to where she lived, and then leave. Snagem knew what he was going now and it was likely they'd come after him. It'd be safer to go to one of the nearby regions like Kanto or even the more distant region made of islands like Oblivia where the closest thing to Trainers was the Pokemon Rangers. They wouldn't be able to find him there.

Lux it the small ball with its tail and the ball smacked against one of the stone walls surrounding the city and it bounced back, hitting Shade in the head. The Umbreon fell over and unsteadily got back up, unable to walk without falling over again. Croconaw and Makuhita were watching from a distance, trying to make sense of the other Pokemons' behavior.

There were more Pokemon like them…. There had to be. Why stop at just two? Especially when Snagem had, for years, stolen many Pokemon for Cipher in turn for money, stronger Pokemon, and Trainers from other regions that wanted to join. Whatever Pokemon Cipher didn't want they sold to Trainers in regions where that particular Pokemon has hard to find.

It wouldn't be long before they began having their Trainers to go other regions and begin to make Shadow Pokemon popular in the tournaments, would it? That way, Cipher would slowly begin to take over those regions and force even those who were against them to turn their Pokemon.

And all because he ran away….

Wes sighed, turned, and let the cold water run over his head. After a few moments he sat back up. He heard someone approaching but didn't look to see who it was.

"Wes?" Rui walked up to him. "It will be dark before we can get to Agate Village, so we should stay another night." After no response she said the first thing that came to mind. "With how Shadow Pokemon are being use now, maybe we could talk to Justy? He's the PreGym Leader and I heard he's the current Champion of the Colosseum here and even achieved fourth place in the Orre tournament."

Even just being considered by the Pokemon League to compete in Orre's tournament was hard to achieve. It was also true that Justy had been PreGym Leader for a little over two years now. From what Wes knew, the former PreGym Leader had also been working for Cipher; letting Trainers learn in the Trainer School while recruiting anyone that showed potential. He had also heard that Justy was the only one that didn't take the offer, but that still didn't mean there was a reason behind it and Justy didn't accept a Shadow Pokemon as a "gift" for becoming the next PreGym Leader….

Wes stood up, recalling Makuhita and Croconaw before walking up the steps that lead to the next level of the city. Shade walked next to him, completely relaxed. Lux constantly walked around Rui, unable to decide distance or which side to walk near her. It calmed at reading Wes's thoughts, him telling it to stop and copy Shade. Another smaller flight of steps lead to a building set in the middle of that part of the city; mimicking the fountain.

Inside the building was a battle arena in the center of the room. To the left was a platform like the second floor, meeting half-way up the wall. There, a few Trainers were taking notes based on what a young woman was saying. To the right, similar to the left, was a computer and other machines that Wes vaguely recognized. Mumbling came from that direction.

A young woman walked over to Wes and Rui. "Are you here to train or battle? You'll have to wait a while. The school has a long waiting list and Justy is busy fixing the computer system."

"We just want to talk to him." Rui said, smiling cheerfully. "We can wait."

The young woman nodded and looked at Wes for a moment and jumped a little. She noticed Lux and Shade and frowned a little before smiling lightly and shaking her head, walking away whispering to herself, finding it silly she got scared of nothing.

The lights flickered and some electricity crackled, followed by a thump and a held-back "ow".

Shade walked over to the right side of the room, trotting up the stairs that led to the sectioned-off open elevated room. A few seconds later it jumped back, growling, its rings lit up. Wes sighed and walked over to it. "Shade!"

"Aron!" A young man quickly stood up, holding onto an object that couldn't be seen unless one was closer, as he needed it for balance. He seemed to be around one to two years older than Wes. He was wearing a loose, light over-sized shirt covered in dark stains, ones that matched the dark splotches on his face from working on machinery. "Aron, back!"

The only sign of the Pokemon listening was by Shade's behavior. The Umbreon narrowed its eyes and relaxed, its rings fading to their regular yellow color. Shade walked back to Wes, sulking. A small Pokemon with a metal body and head hopped into view, striking a "threatening" pose, its attempt at growling saying otherwise.

Its Trainer sighed. "Aron, stop. Sorry, it does that. It was helping me fix the system when it attacked your Umbreon." The lights flickered again and went out completely and he sighed. "That's been happening all week."

"Let me look at it. A few wires might have to be replaced or switched around." Wes took a few steps forward.

"Are you sure? I already tried that and it only made it worse."

Wes stared into the open space in the machine, quickly studying the wires and cables. "It doesn't look like anything is wrong. It could be more of an external or a virus problem."

"I checked that first. Everything is fine."

Wes replaced the panel that covered the space and looked around. "Is it plugged in?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Wes followed the cable that lead to a nearby outlet and back again. "Don't Aron like to eat Metal?"

"It knows better than that."

Aron nodded once, saluting with one leg. It walked behind the computer and zapping followed along with flashes. The power started to come back on.

"Did you check for inactive viruses that could be floating around?"

"Yes."

"Did you check for useless programs that could be deleted?"

"Yes."

"Did you check recent user activity?"

"No…" He walked over to the computer, turning it on, and began to type various keys and selected various programs. A long list of step-by-step sentences came up, slowly scrolling down.

Wes pointed to one. "There."

A sentence had a few random upper and lower case letters and numbers in front of "logged in" and a short list of what the person did scrolled up the screen. Eventually it said "logged out".

"What does that mean?" Rui asked.

"An outside job." Wes said. What did didn't want to bring up was that he recognized the strange username as one of Cipher's. He knew because the username was a password itself that let (don't need to be unintentionally teaching people how to hack without knowing what I'm talking about!) and thus being able to check in and do whatever they wanted. "I can block them out if you want."

"I recently set up a lot of security programs, firewalls, and even a program that alerts the authority to hackers and sends a virus back."

Rui stared at him with wide eyes. "Whoa… You did all of that yourself?"

"No I had a few friends from Pyrite Town help." That didn't explain why the power kept going out…. "I can work on this later. There should be enough power for a while , thanks to Aron." Aron walked back, covered in dark stains that matched its Trainer's shirt and face. "Anyway…." He stood up and held out a hand. "I'm Justy, the PreGym Leader."

Rui accepted the handshake, introducing herself and Wes.

"We were wondering if you knew about any strange Pokemon. They look normal, but they're a lot more aggressive and attack people. This morning Wes battled two Trainers with one each and got the Pokemon back."

"I did see a few strange people around. Two of them were blocking the west and east entrances of the city until they saw me. They challenged me to a two-on-one battle. They didn't last very long and they did have an over-aggressive Bayleef and a Quilava that wasn't as relaxed as they usually are. The battle was over in time for you to see you capture a Croconaw."

Wes froze. It was bad enough Team Snagem knew about the Snag Machine, and a few lower-ranked members, but this guy, too? What if he really was with Cipher?

Justy continued. "From what those Trainers said before I'm worried about what Cipher is doing. After a battle I found a metal band that was around one of Bayleef's legs. It had a code on it."

"What did it say?"

"Well…" Justly glanced at Aron. "Aron kind of… ate it."

"It what?"

Shade and Lux became for alert, growling softly. Aron jumped in front of them, taking on its "threatening" pose again.

Two men were approaching each wearing a uniform that Wes recognized as Cipher's. "The PreGym Leader comes with us."

By then Rui was hiding behind Wes.

"Why? I though Cipher usually recruited a Trainer after giving them a Shadow Pokemon." Wes said.

"The boss wants him." Along with the other member he sent out a green praying mantis-like Pokemon with blade-like hands, a Scyther. One of the Bug-Flying-types flew over to the other side of the room, scaring the Trainers and teachers there, preventing them from getting past it.

"Scyther move faster than the average human's reaction speed. Before any of you could react they'll be dead."

"If you leave them alone I'll come with you." Justy said.

Wes shook his head. "They'll have to defeat me first."

Rui stared up at him with wide eyes. "But Scyther are bugs! They'll defeat Espeon and Umbreon!"

"Lux and Shade will be fine." He walked towards the battle field.

Justy went on ahead and stood in front of a dome near the back of the slightly raised platform that was designed to look like a Pokeball, where Aron stood.

Rui clung to Wes's arm as the Scyther took their places on the other side of the battle field. Both Cipther members stood behind their Pokemon, their expressions and body language suggesting they were sure they would have an easy victory. They called out the first commands. "Slash!" "Double Team!"

"Lux, Reflect! Shade, Faint Attack!"

Lux created a shield that defended against the attack as Shade ran in a wide arc around the Scyther and attacked one of the other Scyther's copies, going through it. The attacking Scyther turned around, going after Shade now. Shade turned in a circle, glaring the Scyther copies, growling.

"Toxic!"

Shade leaped up just as the other Scyther swung its blade, the praying mantis both missing and getting hit by the Toxic. It swung its blade back, cutting along Shade's side.

"Shade!" Wes recalled the Umbreon before sending it back out next to Rui. "Take care of it. I can't treat it right now."

Shade's ears drooped sideways, showing its annoyance at the "big deal" over a "little scratch that was hardly bleed-" it looked at its injury, its eyes widening. Multiple Scyther copies flew at Lux. Lux defended against the attack with Reflect again. The real Scyther, once again, used Toxic.

"Don't defend."

Rui stared up at him in surprise. "It's going to get poisoned!"

"That's the idea."

The Scyther cringed back, glowing a faint purple. Wes smirked. "Lux, Quick Attack and Façade."

Lux darted forward, slapping both Scyther with its tail. One of the Scyther slashed, managing to scratch Lux's tail. "Keep going."

Rui stared up at him again, midway through bandaging Shade's leg that it had somehow managed to injure. He didn't act like this before….

Lux continued to slap the Scyther, leaving marks on its blood on them.

"Wes, make it stop!"

"Not yet."

Both Scyther spread out and came and Lux from both sides.

"Sit."

Lux calmly looked at the approaching Pokemon and sat down contentedly. The Scyther ignored it and began to madly attack each other, screeching out war cries.

Justy nodded a little. "Right, Scyther hate the color red." (Noted in one of the Pokemon episodes in the first season.)

The Scyther were recalled and replaced with new ones. Wes narrowed his eyes and recalled Lux and got out Croconaw and Makuhita's Pokeballs. One of the Scyther turned and flew at Justy before crashing into a blue-green barrier. Aron growled and leaped at the Scyther, taking it down to the ground before hopping away. Justy took a step back, stepping on a hidden switch that made the Pokeball-colored dome rise, revealing an elevator. "Let's continue down stairs."

The two Cipher members nodded and followed after him, recalling their Scyther.

Wes recalled Shade and went on ahead, not at all waiting for Rui to decide if she wanted to come before he hesitated in front of the elevator and let Rui enter first.

The PreGym's basement had been filled with different terrains of sand, dirt, a pond, and even a small forested area. The entire area was lit with lights that recreated sunlight. Justy was standing where there was a mix of sand, dirt and rocks. The Scyther darted between the trees, making their last position impossible to pinpoint. Their Trainers stood to the side and gave a single command to attack.

Both Scyther darted forward, beginning to position their blades. They barely made it over to change of terrain before rocks rained down on them and came up from the ground. The Scyther frantically flew out of the way. One of them got hit by a floating electrical sphere and the other got attacked by what looked like a golden bowling ball with a tile pattern. A Nosepass floated to Justy's side. An overweight Sandshrew ran up to him.

"I suggest you give up." Justy said, remaining calm.

"And why would we do that?" The Scyther were recalled.

"Well…"

The elevator came back down, this time several police officers coming out, each with a black and silver Mightyena at their side.

Wes immediately knelt down, examining a rock, pushing his goggles down and listened to what was going on. The Cipher members laughed. "You really think those dogs scare us?" They sent out a Combusken and a Breloom, ordering the Pokemon to use Sky Uppercut at the Mightyena and Giga Drain at Justy's Pokemon.

Wes sent out Croconaw and Makuhita, quickly ordering an attack from each. Croconaw bit down on Combusken's outstretched arm and Makuhita grabbed Breloom's tail and swung it around, throwing it into the pond. Croconaw and Combusken were fiercely trying to claw or slap each other, letting out frustrated cries. Breloom climbed out of the pond and ran at Croconaw from behind, its hand starting to glow. Combusken opened its beak and used Flamethrower. Croconaw slapped its tail on the ground, launching itself into the air to avoid the flames and let Breloom take the attack. Breloom collapsed and was recalled.

Croconaw came back down and landed on Combusken, knocking it out. It glared at the Cipher members and began running at them. The members backed away and ran over to the police officers, begging to be taken away. Croconaw stopped and nodded, watching them leave. Wes recalled his Pokemon before following Rui and Justy back to the second floor.

Justy spoke with the police officers briefly before they left. He turned and walked up to Wes. "You told your Pokemon to attack and they knew what to do. That was great!" He smacked Wes on the back.

Wes jumped, turned and punched him. Justy stumbled back and fell down. Several of the Trainers standing around glared at Wes and started walking towards him, getting some Pokeballs out.

"I'm okay." Justy stood up, pressing again against his shoulder. "Ow. For a scrawny dude you're pretty strong. I asked for that, didn't I?"

Wes nodded. "It was a reflex."

Justy nodded in understanding. "Come back tomorrow. By then I'll find out where the most recent Shadow Pokemon activity has been."

Wes nodded and started to leave. Rui followed him after saying a quick good-bye to Justy.

They got the same room in the hotel as the night before. Wes watched out the window, hardly listening to the television until Rui called him over. A commercial was on advertizing the Pyrite Town Colosseum tournament; showing battles of recent winners and the Pokemon they won.

"Thos are Shadow Pokemon."

That didn't surprise him.

The one giving away the Pokemon appeared on the screen, the Pokeball-styled afro all too familiar; Mirror B.

Now that did.

"Only a few lucky Trainers will receive these Pokemon, along with a once-in-a-life time offer. So-"

Wes used the remote to turn it off. "We're leaving in the morning."

"But what about-"

"He can wait." Out of the corner of his eye he saw something in the shadows outside move. When he looked it was gone. Something about it was uncomfortably familiar.