Strength of Spirit Chapter 8 Part 2

    Zane awoke to darkness. After a second, his eyes adjusted. He saw that he was inside something; he wasn’t sure if it was a burrow, hut, or something of the like. He looked around to find that Dallas, May, and Ta’Lon were sleeping close to him; May closest of all. There were also some other pokemon with bandages on them scattered around the place. He tried to move and winced. He was very sore. He looked found multiple bandages on his own body. He took another look around and found the doorway. The moon was out tonight. With difficulty, he got up. He started walking to the opening, stumbling many times. He struggled greatly to get out, but he was not going to give up; he needed to get outside and in the moonlight. A pokemon entered carrying a lantern in their mouth and a bag hanging on one side from around their neck. It was the leafeon, Allen.
    “Excuse me?”
    “Oh my goodness!” Allen jumped and almost broke the lantern from dropping it, but he caught it with his paws before it could hit the ground. “Who…who’s there?”
    “Please, I need some help getting outside.”
    Allen walked closer to the voice to find it was the shiny umbreon he had helped earlier. “Hey! You shouldn’t be up and moving around. You need to rest. Your body needs time to heal.”
    “I can help it along, but I need to get outside to do that.”
    “Huh?”
    “I’m an umbreon. I can use moonlight to heal myself.”
    “Oh, right! I forgot you umbreons have that ability.” Allen walked over next to Zane and let the umbreon put one of his front legs over his shoulder for support. “My name’s Allen, by the way.”
    “Zane.”

    Allen helped Zane get outside. They stopped a few feet outside the entrance of the hut, as Zane now found it to be. The moment the moon’s light hit his rings they began glowing. Zane could feel his soreness diminishing and what wounds he still had healing.
    Allen marveled at Zane’s appearance at night. “Wow, I’ve never seen an umbreon at night before. Your rings are…mesmerizing, for the lack of a better word.”
    Zane looked to the leafeon, curious. “You’ve seen other umbreon before?”
    Allen forgot to bring his lantern with them when he helped Zane outside. The only light he had was what little light the moon was giving off that night and the light Zane’s rings were producing which, though it was easily noticeable in the dark, it was not bright. So when Zane looked at him, he was freaked out a little at seeing the yellow eyes. “Y-yes, and now that I think about it, you would not be nearly as scary at night as they would.”
    Zane tilted his head in confusion.
    “Your eyes are very striking in the current lighting and I cannot see your body. My eyes are not built for darkness like yours.”
    “Ooohhh.”
    “I am aware you are a shiny pokemon and as such have different colors. Normal umbreons have red eyes instead of your yellow.”
    “Ah, I see how that would be scarier. Do you know where Zeus the jolteon is?”
    “I don’t know where he is right now, but you shouldn’t have any trouble finding him in the morning. Just ask around.”
    “Thanks, I will.”
    The two eeveelutions sat in silence for a few more minutes, and then Zane said he was finished. They went back inside and Allen said he would look him over in the morning. Zane went to bed while Allen checked on some of the other injured pokemon before going to bed himself.

    Zane awoke the next morning to find his sister and friends were gone, as was Allen. He got up and went outside. There he discovered that the sun had risen to the point where the sky was turning blue from the early morning orange. The shiny moonlight pokemon enjoyed the sun’s rays hitting his body, warming him.
    “Zane!” came a cheerful female voice.
    Zane turned to find his sister, friends, and Allen coming toward him and the hut. The voice had been May’s. Each of them were carrying a basket filled with berries of varying kinds, however most were sitrus berries. “Hey, guys. What’s with all the berries?”
    “They’re breakfast for the injured pokemon, which includes you,” Allen answered. “Here, eat these.” The leafeon placed a few sitrus berries in front of the blue ringed umbreon. Allen turned to the others. “Please give the rest to the other pokemon while I examine Zane’s wounds.”
    May and the others nodded and went inside.
    Zane ate the sitrus berries quietly as Allen began taking off Zane’s bandages to check his injuries. It didn’t take long for Allen finish. “Well, it would appear that your moonlight helped a lot. Your wounds are very minor now.”
    “Thanks again for your help.”
    “It was my pleasure. If you feel you are ready, I deem you well enough to leave my care.”
    “I feel I am…Oh, Wait! What about my friends and sister? How bad were they?”
    “Huh? What do you mean?”
    “I know for sure my sister took a serious hit before I passed out, and Ta’Lon took some damage as well.”
    “Well, I don’t know how, but they were perfectly fine when they arrived here. You were the only one injured.”
    Zane was shocked by this news. “Well then I’ll be sure to ask my friends what happened.”
    “By the way, I know you are going to be looking for Zeus anyway, but you do need to inform him of you and your friends joining the resistance. He likes to keep up with who and what pokemon we have.”
    “I will. Thank you.”
    Allen smiled, nodded, and then went inside the hut.

    Zane finished the last of his breakfast as Dallas, May, and Ta’Lon were exiting the medic hut.
    “Hey, Zane. You look a lot better,” Ta’Lon commented.
    “Yeah, Allen says I’m well enough to leave.”
    “Great! Now we can go look for Uncle Zeus!”
    “Yeah! But before we do, I need to ask you guys something. How are all of you not hurt too? I remember seeing Ta’Lon and May take some hits. What happened?”
    The three pokemon looked at one another and then back to Zane. “You…don’t remember?” May asked him.
    Zane shook his head.
    “You healed us. Before that, you defeated the other pokemon. Your rings were silver and your eyes glowed white…I believe it was your power.”
    Zane looked at the ground shocked. I really did that? He paused for a moment before looking to his friends and sister again. “Well, then I was not conscious when that happened. I’m glad you guys are okay.”
    “I’m glad you are too big brother.” May gave him a hug. “Now let’s go find our uncle.”
Zane nodded in agreement.

    The resistance was, to the group’s surprise, busy this early. It was not like a busy town sort of “busy”; there was no rush to what everyone was doing, but everyone awake at this time was doing something. Zane and the others asked around if anyone knew where Zeus was. This did not take long at all. An ampharos, told them where to go and even welcomed them when they found out they were newcomers. As they walked to the location, they found out that the resistance stayed in huts like the medic hut they slept in last night or burrows mostly. Other pokemon, such as bird and bug type pokemon, slept in the trees.
    After a minute or two walking, they saw a couple pokemon, a blaziken and infernape, talking to a jolteon. Zane and May recognized the jolteon immediately. The two siblings turned to one another, each with a partly open smile on their faces. They took off after their uncle.
    “Uncle Zeus!” May shouted as she got ahead of Zane.
    A happy smile crossed Dallas’ face. I’ve never seen them so happy. After what those two have been through, I don’t blame them.
    Upon hearing his name called, Zeus turned just in time to see a young espeon jump at and tackle him. “Wha…what the! Who are you?”
    May got off the jolteon. “Uncle Zeus, it’s me…May.”
    Zeus flinched and looked at her with shock when he heard that name. His head was full of doubt. However, that doubt faded when he saw the pendant around her neck, a golden sun hanging from it that shone in the sunlight. “M-may! It’s you!!!” He hugged her tightly. He shed a few tears. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was beginning to think you were gone forever…my little niece.” He broke the hug and smiled. “Where is your brother?”
    “I’m right here uncle,” Zane said as he stepped next to May.
    Zeus looked at the shiny umbreon even more shocked than before. He closed his eyes and began crying. He pulled the two into another hug. “I’m so glad you two are okay. It’s been so long; you two have even evolved.”

    The infernape got his attention. “Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt but we can handle things for today so you can spend the day with your family. If you’d like?”
    “Yes, thank you.”
    The two fire/fighting pokemon nodded and raised a hand each as a gesture of farewell as they walked away.
    “Who were those two, uncle?” May asked.
    “Those were two of the other leaders. We were discussing things that needed to be done today. By the way, where are Jerik and Elana? And who are these two pokemon?” Zeus gestured to Dallas and Ta’Lon, who had just caught up to the eeveelutions.
    “The floatzel is Dallas and the golett is Ta’Lon.”
    Dallas gave the jolteon a casual two fingered salute. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
    Ta’Lon bowed with one arm across his chest. “Hello.”
    Zeus bowed his head slightly in response. He then turned to his niece and nephew, awaiting their answer to his other question.

    The two eeveelutions fell silent. Zane was the one to build enough courage to tell him. “I’m sorry, but…mom and dad…didn’t make it.”
    Zeus’ ears dropped. “Oh…I guess we’ll have to rescue them then.”
    “Uncle…they weren’t captured. They’re…” Zane struggled to get the next word out his mouth. “They’re…dead.”
    Zeus froze in place staring at Zane with his eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar. When he moved again, he fell to the ground crying. His tears flowed from his eyes as though they had been held by a dam, and it just broke. “Jerik…sis…I’m so sorry…I should have been there…to protect you.” His tears were flowing out so quickly and at such a volume that a small puddle was beginning to forming on the ground beneath his face. His cheeks were a darker yellow than the rest of his fur, soaked from the tears. He just lay there, crying his heart out.
    May had seen her uncle cry before but never knew why as he would never talk about it, but she had never seen him like this. To her, it seemed her uncle had been completely destroyed inside. She put her forehead against her uncle’s and then drew back causing him to look up at her. Her eyes were watery, filled with her own tears. Then…she released them. She laid down in front of Zeus and put her head into his mane. “I m-miss them t-too.” She cried.
    Zeus put his head over her neck, like a hug. He continued to cry but not as greatly as before. Zane looked at them. He had already shed his tears for his parents letting go of his sadness along with them, but he cried now from seeing his uncle in such pain. He remembered how much it hurt him to lose his mom and dad. He joined them on the ground; placing his head on the back of Zeus’ neck and a paw on his sister’s back. “It hurt me too. But I was reminded of something by May, of all pokemon…I still have her…we still have you…YOU still have US.”

    A weak smile came across the jolteon’s face at those words. For a while, they just stayed like that. Many pokemon who passed by wondered what was going on. A few actually heard everything and shed a few tears themselves. Some of those that heard even came over and placed their paws or hands on the eeveelutions’ backs to comfort them, Dallas and Ta’Lon included. The other pokemon left as they had things to take care of, but Dallas and Ta’Lon did not leave their side. They remained there for several minutes. The tears of each eeveelution had stopped some time ago. They were basking in the love they had for one another, slowly but assuredly easing the pain in their hearts. Eventually, they got up with the fur under their eyes soaked from their crying.
    Zeus was the first to speak. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”
    “Don’t be. I understand how painful this news must be,” Zane responded.
    “Thank you for helping me.”
    “Hey, that’s what family does, help each other.”
    “Don’t forget friends,” Dallas chimed in.
    Zeus addressed them next. “Thank you as well.” The jolteon turned back to his niece and nephew looking on them with a tender, loving smile. “I know there is nothing I could have done to save them…but what I will do FOR them…is look after you two as though you were my own children.”
    “Thank you, uncle. But were grown now,” May said innocently.
    “Ah, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to learn from me. Like battling…speaking of which, have you two been training while you’ve been gone?”
    “Indeed we have, very hard,” said Zane.
    “Then come with me. I am going to need to see how much you have learned. Tell me of your training.”
    Zane told his uncle of the trainers they were with and what they learned from each one. To the umbroen’s surprise, Zeus knew the names of each trainer. He himself had trained with Zanith and Aurora. Zeus was especially impressed upon hearing they trained with the lucario brothers David and Daniel.
    “Well now! It sounds like I’m going to have to pit you against our best students to test you. All of you.”
    “Wait. You mean like a competition?” Zane asked.
    “Mmm, sort of. We’re heading to the battle grounds now to set it up.”
    “Battle grounds?” May was curious.
    “The battle grounds are primarily for teaching the younger pokemon to battle or for training. But we do use it, from time to time, to hold competitions. It is one of few forms of entertainment we have and is a great escape from what we are dealing with. Not to mention, it allows those who partake in the competitions to keep their battle skills sharp.”

    As they walked, they passed a small group of pokemon behind some trees a few yards away; a leafeon with a good number of very small pokemon, obviously children. The leafeon had their tail against their mouth. There was a sweet tune coming from their direction.
    “Uncle? Who is that?” May asked
    Zeus looked in the direction that his niece pointed. “Ah~ Haha. You’ll find out later, but I will tell you that he likes to watch the children who are not yet old enough to begin training. They love his music.”
    May listened to the music for a moment. “Mmm, I like it too.”
    “Yes he is quite the musician. Ah! We’re here!”
    They were now at a large clearing where many pokemon were training in various ways; some sparring with one another, others practicing their moves. “Now, stay here while I get everything ready. I already know which pokemon I want you to battle, but I will not tell anyone your names as some pokemon may know you.”
    “Will our friends Sapphire, Alex, and Eve be here?” May asked.
    “Quite likely. That’s why I’m not going to give away your names. I don’t want you getting distracted by them. Don’t hold back against your opponents either; I want to see your very best out there. Okay?”
    “Okay!” the four pokemon responded.

    It did not take long for Zeus to get every pokemon off the field as they were eager to see some battles. Once word got out the four best students would be facing off against newcomers, many pokemon swarmed to the field to watch. It had been some time since they last had any kind of competition. Zane, May, Dallas, and Ta’Lon stood on one side of the battle field. On the other, stood who they believed would be their opponents; a leafeon, vaporeon, haunter, and glaceon. Zeus sat on the sidelines acting as the referee. By the time the battles were getting underway, there was a great crowd surrounding the area. Zane and the others were surprised to see so many.
    “There will be four one-on-one battles between two teams!” Zeus began. “The team to my left is made up of four of our best students!”
    The crowd cheered.
    “And their opponents, four new recruits!” Zeus shouted gesturing to his right.
    There was no cheering as Zane’s group had expected. Instead, there was murmuring. Most of it could not be heard by them, but Zane did make out one of the comments.
    “Four new recruits against four of our best students? They must be pretty good if Zeus chose our four best.”
    We shall see. Zane thought.
    “The first battle shall be the golett!”
    Ta’Lon stepped onto the battle field. His opponent was the haunter.
    “Fighters! Are you ready?!”
    “Ready.” Both ghost pokemon sounded in unison.
    “Begin!”
    The crowd roared with excitement.

    The haunter made the first move. They threw a shadow ball at Ta’Lon. Ta’Lon countered it with his own shadow ball, the resulting explosion creating a small smokescreen. A dark pulse flew through the smoke at Ta’Lon. He could not move in time so he crossed his arms summoning his protect. The protect blocked the incoming dark pulse just in time. However, the moment it was began dropping, the haunter was rushing towards Ta’Lon with their hands glowing purple, shadow claw. Ta’Lon fired a shadow ball at the other ghost pokemon, which was cut by one their shadow claws. The haunter reached Ta’Lon and slashed with the other shadow claw. Ta’Lon dodged it by stepping back with his right side. With his left arm he used a mega punch, which passed right through the haunter doing no harm.
    “Ha! What did you think that would accom-,” the haunter spoke with a masculine voice but his statement was cut off by Ta’Lon.
    Ta’Lon, after the mega punch passed through the haunter, maintained his momentum by spinning backhanding the male haunter with a right arm shadow punch. The male ghost fell back a few feet and on the ground.
    “Heh, nice trick. I admit you got me there.”
    Ta’Lon did not waste time with words. He hurled a shadow ball at the downed haunter. The ghost pokemon remained calm and countered with a dark pulse. The two attacks collided. The shadow ball exploded but the dark pulse kept going nailing Ta’Lon in the chest. Ta’Lon slid back a couple feet but kept his balance. The haunter then hurled a purple ball of what appeared to be liquid, sludge bomb. Ta’Lon knocked it aside with a fire punch. Ta’Lon followed up with a shadow punch, which came right out of the haunter’s own shadow. Ta’Lon then hurled multiple shadow balls on the ground to provide him with cover as he rushed the ghost pokemon. Just as he thought he was right on top of the haunter, the other ghost struck him with duel shadow claws from Ta’Lon’s left. This knocked Ta’Lon to the ground. With difficulty, Ta’Lon got back up.
    “You’re not bad golett!” the male ghost complemented, breathing hard.

    The haunter fired another dark pulse. Ta’Lon, anticipating the move before his opponent launched it, crossed his arms with his fists close together. As the attack came towards him, he summoned a fire punch on one fist and a thunder punch on the other. When the attack made contact with his arms, Ta’Lon uncrossed them swinging them out to the side. This action split the dark pulse in two and diverted it to the side dealing little to no damage to Ta’Lon. The haunter was stunned by this move, which is what Ta’Lon was counting on. As soon as his fists had diverted the last attack, he summoned a shadow ball in each hand and threw both at the haunter. The haunter, waking up from his surprise, threw two shadow balls as well. The attacks missed each other, but hit their intended target. Both ghosts fell back. They each looked up their eyes meeting. The haunter smiled before collapsing. Zeus was about to call the winner, but Ta’Lon fell to his hands and knees and then fell flat on the ground.
    “That’s it! The battle is a draw!”
    After Zeus declared the outcome, medical pokemon rushed out to check the two ghosts. They did not have any serious wounds and managed to get up. The two ghosts shook hands and congratulated one another. The crowd cheered once more for them as they made their way to the sideline opposite Zeus and sat down.

    “Next shall be the espeon!” Zeus announced.
    May walked onto the field. She was shaking a little from nervousness. A few pokemon in the crowd whistled at her, the kind that guys do when they think a girl is pretty. May heard these whistles but didn’t know what the pokemon meant by them. Zeus, however, did and gave an intimidating glare in the direction of a few of the whistles. May’s opponent was the leafeon. Judging by the leafeon’s build, May believed the leafeon was male.
    The leafeon stood silently looking May over. Wow! She’s beautiful. Wait! I shouldn’t be thinking about that! She’s my opponent. The grass eeveelution shook his head to get his focus back.
    May saw him shake his head. She wondered why he did that, but let the thought pass as the battle was about to begin.
    “Are the battlers ready?!”
    “Ready!” each shouted.
    “Begin!”

    The male leafeon fired off an energy ball. May countered with a shadow ball. A smokescreen was made just like the beginning of Ta’Lon’s battle. The crowd found this to be uninspired after the first battle. However, neither they nor the leafeon predicted what came next. May, using her psychic powers, made the smoke part revealing that the grass pokemon was charging her. He stopped in shock of having his cover blown away. May smiled and used psychic to pick up the leafeon and slammed him on the ground a few times and released him. She was about to follow up with a swift attack, but before she could the leafeon dug underground.
    He used dig! May immediately began searching for him with her psychic abilities. Unfortunately, by the time she found him he was already beneath her and she had no time to react. The earth exploded sending May into the air. As the leafeon came out, the leaf on his forehead began glowing a green color, straightened, and grew longer. He jumped above May and smacked her back to the earth with his leaf blade. A small, green ball of light flew from the male verdant pokemon. It hit May covering her in a green aura for a moment, and then vanished as the orb left her and returned to the sender covering him in the same green aura, giga drain.  She felt herself considerably weakened from both the giga drain and the beating the leafeon gave her.
    I’m not going down that easily! She declared telepathically to her opponent.
    Hearing her voice in his head surprised the leafeon.
    A white aura covered her and she felt a large portion of her strength return, morning sun. “Ah! That’s better!”
    The grass pokemon charged May with a quick attack. May hit him with a psychic attack knocking him back a few feet. Before he could get up, a light green beam shot from May’s gem, signal beam. It landed. This hurt the leafeon considerably. He gritted his teeth from the pain, but then he smiled. He closed his eyes and a yellow aura surrounded him, synthesis. When it finished, he stood up appearing to be fully restored.
    Great. May got ready for his next attack.

    The leafeon let off a razor leaf attack and multiple energy balls. May put up a wall of pink light blocking all the attacks. While she did so, the leafeon began playing a sweet melody with his tail.
    May heard the music as the attacks ceased. She remembered the leafeon from earlier that day. Is he the leafeon we saw earlier? She found herself getting lost in the music and started getting sleepy. Even in her partial sleep state, May realized what was going on. No! I can’t let myself go to sleep! She focused as best she could to grip the leafeon with psychic. She found him and squeezed him causing him to stop playing and scream from pain. May was now completely awake. With the leafeon at her mercy, she used her psychic to quickly pull him to her. When he was close, she fired a shadow ball right into his abdomen. She ended her psychic and hit him with another signal beam and swung her tail releasing many stars.
    The grass eeveelution was struck by the signal beam, but managed to get up and use quick attack to out run the swift attack. Man she’s tough! He ran around trying to figure out what to do. Then he remembered a combination move he had come up with recently. I hate to use this on her, but I’m not going to go down easy either!...I’m sorry espeon. He began running straight at May, maintaining his quick attack. May smiled ready to use psychic to stop him again. She was caught off guard, however, when he suddenly jumped up in the air. He curled up into a ball. Then his leaf on his forehead glowed and extended, leaf blade, and his tail turned silver like metal, iron tail. He started spinning which with his quick attack his speed picked up very quickly. When the stars from May’s swift reached him, his speed was great enough that they bounced right off the leafeon and hit the ground. Everyone present, even Zeus, was impressed by this combo move. May, however, was frozen stiff finding the move to be frightening; even more so since, judging by his current trajectory, he was going to hit her head on when he lands.
    May move! Zane shouted in her mind. But she didn’t. She could only watch in fear as the swirl of green and silver headed right for her. It hit her head on, slamming her into the ground with a great many hits from high speed leaf blade and iron tail attacks. The leafeon stopped and backed off panting. When the dust that was kicked up from his attack settled, May was on the ground looking pretty bad.
    The verdant pokemon’s eyes widened in horror. Oh no! Did I go too far?! Without hesitating, he rushed over to her. “Hey! Are you alright, espeon?! Medic!! Come on! Say something!”

    May coughed and her eyes opened slightly and looked at him. A small smile crossed her face and with a weak voice said, “Nice move.”
    “Just hang in there. The medics are coming.”
    “I think…I’ll be okay. Could you…help me up?”
    He wanted to object but instead decided to comply. As carefully as possible, he placed her on his back and headed to the sidelines where Ta’Lon and the haunter sat. As he walked, May used morning sun to heal. When they reached the sideline, she had most of her strength back and was able to get off herself. She lay down and let the medics examine her. After a moment of silence, they declared her to be fine, to which the crowd, especially her friends, brother and uncle, were relieved. She was also given a sitrus berry.
    “Are you sure you’re okay?” the leafeon asked with genuine concern as he lay next to her.
    “Yes, I’m fine. But thank you for your concern.”
    The leafeon smiled and nodded. “I’m Alex, by the way.”
    “Alex?! Wait, are you the one I met at Crystal Lake with my brother?”
    “I’m sure I would remember meeting a beautiful espeon like you, but I do not.”
    May blushed. He…he thinks I’m beautiful?
    It wasn’t ‘til a second after Alex spoke did he realize what he said and he noticed her blush. “Oh my gosh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable! I-I-I’ll just leave you be.”
    “No…it’s okay. Thank you for the complement.”
    “Y-you’re welcome.” Alex breathed a sigh of relief. I’m glad she took that well.
    “If you are the Alex I know, then we met when we were both eevees; you along with Eve and Sapphire. We all had fun together; even played tag, which my brother Zane won.” She laughed at the last part of her statement.
    “Zane?!” Alex spoke with surprise, recognizing the name. It was then that he noticed the pendant hanging around her neck, which he wondered how he didn’t see it before. He looked her in the eyes and said, “May?!”
    She smiled. “Hi, Alex.”
    A realization came to his mind which caused his face to turn cherry red. OH MY GOSH! I’m attracted to May?! And I said she was beautiful to her face! If I had known it was her I wouldn’t have said anything! Oh gosh, I’m in trouble!
    May noticed that Alex appeared to be in some sort of distress and his face was red. “Hey, are you okay, Alex? Do I need to call the medics?”
    “N-n-no, no. I’m f-f-fine.”
    “You don’t look or sound fine. Is something wrong? If so, you can tell me.”
    He thought about it a moment and decided to tell her. “I…I was embarrassed because I called you ‘beautiful’. When I realized it was you, I just…panicked.”
    May giggled. “Did you mean it?”
    “Y-yes.”
    “Then don’t be embarrassed. If it makes you feel better, I think you’re quite a rugged and handsome leafeon.” May giggled again.
    Alex calmed down but the blush remained on his cheeks due to her comment about him being “rugged and handsome.”
    “Hey, I’m really sorry for hurting you so bad.”
    “It’s okay. I’m fine.”
    “But what if you hadn’t?”
    May was touched by his continuing concern for her wellbeing. “Don’t beat yourself up over that, and don’t think about the ‘what ifs’. You may have hurt me but everything turned out fine. You even came to my aid when I was hurt.”
    “That was mostly out of guilt.”
    “But it shows that you care. Thank you,” she spoke tenderly.
    She’s right. Alex faced her, smiled, and nodded.

    While they were talking, Zeus had declared the match a victory for the resistance team, and then called for an intermission as it was now lunch time for the camp. After lunch, everyone gathered again for the next battle with many new pokemon joining the crowd. Alex, May, Ta’Lon, and the haunter all sat on the opposite sideline from Zeus once again. Once Zeus believed enough pokemon had arrived, he began the next round.
    “Next up is the floatzel!”
    Dallas stepped forward, a confident smile on his face. Across from him was the vaporeon. The water eeveelution was very slender, obviously female.
    “Are you ready?!”
    Each of them simply nodded.
    “Begin!”

    Neither Dallas nor the vaporeon hesitated to get started, but they didn’t attack right off the bat. Dallas used his agility while the female bubble jet pokemon summoned a ring of water around her body, aqua ring. Dallas used his aqua jet to close the gap between them. The vaporeon strafed to the right just as Dallas reached her. However, he had anticipated this and canceled his aqua jet swinging an aqua tail at his opponent. She narrowly dodged it by backing up, but Dllas wasn’t done yet. Maintaining his rotating motion and continuing to move toward her, he brought down an ice punch. The vaporeon jumped up avoiding the ice move and then hammered the floatzel with her aqua tail on his head. She jumped back. Dallas got up off the ground and wiped some dirt off his face.
    “Heh, nice one.” he complimented.
    The vaporeon reacted by firing a shadow ball at him. Staying perfectly calm, Dallas stood up but didn’t try to avoid the move; he did, however, put up one of his arms set horizontally across his chest. When the shadow ball reached him, his arm swung to the side swatting the attack away, something he had gotten rather good at with the lucario brothers and their aura spheres. This shocked the vaporeon. Dallas gave her a sly grin. Getting a little angry, the female eeveelution summoned a wave of water, surf. The wave was big and would be hard to dodge at such a close range, but Dallas didn’t panic. He used his ice beam to freeze the wave making a wall of ice. The vaporeon, who could not see Dallas behind the wave and was once again surprised when her surf became ice. Dallas then used a focus blast to shatter the ice wall the ice shards raining on his opponent. After using another agility, he followed the shards with an aqua jet slamming into her a little after the shards.
    Before she was knocked back too far, Dallas did a small back flip hitting his opponent under the chin with an aqua tail, which sent her into the air a couple feet. She quickly got back up after landing and was furious. She fired a stream of scalding hot water at the weasel, scald. Dallas countered it with ice beam. The collision of the two moves created a great deal of steam. The two kept this up for a few seconds causing the steam to become a rather dense cloud. When he was sure his opponent had stopped, he stopped his ice beam and used multiple razor winds to try and clear up the area. The moment he cleared out one spot, he was hit by a rainbow colored beam that made him think about an aurora. The beam hit him in the chest causing some of his fur iced up but it didn’t freeze completely.

    The vaporeon jumped high in the air and fired three spheres of water, water pulse. Dallas managed to counter two of them with duel ice punches turning them into ice balls, but he was not quick enough to stop the third. After the water pulse hit, things got a little dizzy for Dallas. He closed his eyes to keep his balance and let the dizziness pass. He crossed his arms as a guard against attacks. He did receive multiple hits from the vaporeon; he was taking a beating. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes to find the world was no longer spinning.
    I can’t take much more. I’ve got to do something. NOW! Dallas rolled to the side to get out of the line of fire. It suddenly popped in his head to try shooting water at her, like when he had water gun. But I don’t have that move anymore. Was his thought, but he listened to his instinct. It paid off. He reared his head back like he would do with water gun. He felt something happening. It felt the same as water gun but more powerful, way more powerful. He released this new energy in the form of a hydro pump. The vaporeon had just fired another aurora beam when Dallas released his new move. The aurora beam collided with the hydro pump, but was quickly over powered the other and slammed into the vaporeon.
    Dallas was shocked at what he just did but it gave him an opportunity he was not going to pass up. He rushed the female eeveelution firing an ice beam as he closed in. The attack froze her solid thanks to her being soaked. He jumped into the air and threw two razor winds at the immobilized water pokemon. The first shattered the ice and the second hit her. As he came down, which he was headed right for her, he summoned a focus blast between his paws. He shot it at her just as he reached point blank range. The blast knocked him back and into the air. He hit the ground hard. He got up on one knee with one paw supporting him; he was panting heavily. When the smoke and dust cleared, the vaporeon was down but began getting up only to collapse.
    “The winner is the floatzel! That makes one for the resistance and one for the newcomers!” Zeus announced.
    The crowd cheered once more.

    Dallas tried to walk over and help the vaporeon but he had taken so much damage he could barely stand at this point. Medics rushed out to help; addressing the two pokemons’ injuries and giving them berries to regain strength. In couple minutes, they were able to walk off the field on their own.
    “Congratulations,” the vaporeon said disappointed.
    “Thanks! You were REALLY tough.” Dallas gave a chuckle.
    This cheered her up a little. “Thanks.”
    They split up. Dallas sat between May and Ta’Lon. The vaporeon was heading to sit next to Alex.
    “Great job, Eve!” Alex congratulated her.
    Eve smiled. “Thanks, Alex.”
    “Eve?!” May stood up. “Is it really you?”
    Eve looked at the espeon puzzled.
    Alex got up to explain. “Eve, allow me to reintroduce you to…May.”
    Eve had a look of disbelief for a moment, but then became one of happiness. “May!” She exclaimed as she gave her old friend a hug. May returned the hug. They broke the embrace and Eve looked May over. “Wow, you’ve really grown. Clearly you have become a strong battler too. And might I say you are quite a lovely espeon.”
    May blushed. “Eve, you’re embarrassing me.”
    Eve gave a little laugh. “What you mean Alex? He can handle it. Can’t you Alex?” she faced the leafeon. He was looking at the ground away from them in an attempt to hide his blush, but Eve could still see it. She was puzzled by her friend’s behavior at first. But then she smiled. Oh, I think I know what’s going on here. If you pursue this Alex, you better be good to her. Otherwise, you’re going to deal with me.

    “Despite my embarrassment, I thank you for the complement, Eve.”
    Eve’s attention snapped back to the young espeon. “Oh, you’re welcome. By the way, where’s Zane and your parents?”
    May’s expression became gloomy. “When your home was attacked, it turned out ours was as well.”
    “Yeah, I heard. I’m glad you’re okay though.”
    “Yeah, but mom and dad…didn’t make it. They were…killed.”
    “Oh my! I’m so sorry, May. Are you okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m fine. Zane and I came to terms with our parents’ loss some time ago.”
    Eve smiled weakly. “That’s good to hear. And where is Zane?”
    May gave a big smile. “He’s about to battle.”
    Eve face palmed. “The umbreon. He’s shiny. How did I not realize that when Alex told me you were May?”
    May laughed. “I guess it’s because you were so excited to hear that I was back.”
    Eve also laughed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyway, we should pay attention. I don’t want to miss a battle between Zane and Sapphire.” She sat down, now between Dallas and May.
    “Sapphire?!”
    “Yeah! She’s the glaceon who’s about to battle. She’s the best student here.”
    “Heh! Then this should be a great battle to watch,” Dallas commented.
    “Why do you say that?” Eve asked the floatzel.
    “Because Zane and I are the two best fighters of our group.”
    “Oh.”

    They all turned their attention to the field. Zeus did not call the next contestants. Being the last ones, they simply walked up when Dallas and Eve went to the sidelines. While the others had been talking, Zane and the glaceon were sizing up one another. The only glaceon Zane had ever seen was his father. This glaceon was different. They were more slender than his father, which he guessed meant they were female. Other than this observation, Zane just stared at the glaceon, which they returned; both waiting for the final match to begin.
    “Both teams now have a win! This match will determine the winner! Battlers! Are you ready?!”
    Both eeveelutions just nodded with serious, focused expressions.
    “Alright!...Begin!”
    The crowd cheered but quickly died down. Everything was now silent; the reason being that neither Zane nor Sapphire made a move. They were in battle stances but they didn’t attack. They just stared back at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. For a whole minute, they stayed like this. Needless to say, many of the spectators became restless.
    Dallas gained a big grin.
    “What are you smiling about?” Eve asked.
    “This is going to be a great fight. I can tell.”
    “How so?” Eve was not convinced.
    “Both have not moved. They stare at each other. This is obvious but what isn’t so obvious is that they’re seeing who will crack first; who will be the first to strike, to make a mistake. This tells me that they are both greatly focused on this battle.”
    Eve turned back to the two eeveelutions, now curious as to who would make the first move.
    Someone in the crowd got tired of waiting and began antagonizing the combatants. “Come on already! Do something!”

    At first, neither of the eeveelutions reacted to the pokemon shouting, but after few seconds of their shouts Sapphire finally snapped.
    “Shut up!”
    The second Zane saw her head turn, he prepped a shadow and fired it at her. Many pokemon tried to warn her by pointing in Zane’s direction. Sapphire saw them but when she turned the shadow ball was only a few short feet away from her. At the last possible second, her body turned completely silver looking like she was a living mirror. The shadow ball hit her right in the face, but didn’t explode. Sapphire grit her teeth from the hit. The shadow ball grew in size then flew right back at Zane. Not expecting this, Zane failed to dodge the returned attack. When the dust from the explosion cleared, Zane was still standing looking a little annoyed. Sapphire dug into the ground, dig. Zane closed his eyes using psychic to search for the glaceon. Just as he found her the ground beneath his feet began to rumble. He jumped to the side ready to strike her the moment she came out. The earth exploded. As she emerged, she jumped and twirled using frost breath at the same time. Zane was forced to jump back to avoid the ice cold air.
    Nice follow up, but you’re still not safe from me. Zane thought.
    While she was still in the air, Zane used psychic to grab her and slam her back to the ground. He jumped and his tail became silver, iron tail. He spun a couple times before his tail struck the ground. Sapphire had seen the attack coming and got out of the way. Zane landed on his feet ready for her next attack. He saw her lunge at him with teeth glowing a light blue, ice fang. He used a quick attack to move out of striking range and then changed direction running straight into her side. He then fired a dark pulse as she rolled. Sapphire managed to stop herself in time to see the dark type attack. She used mirror coat once more. The attack struck, again grew in size and power, and flew back at Zane. The shiny umbreon was ready for it this time. He did not try to dodge it; instead put up his protect blocking the powerful dark pulse.
    Grrr! That’s useless now. I need to land some hits on this umbreon!

    Water surrounded sapphires tail as she charged her opponent. She let off a few shadow balls; some at him, some at the ground in front of him. When she could no longer see him, she used quick attack to pick up speed. Zane didn’t move knowing she was charging him. He readied an iron tail, but Sapphire came flying through the smoke just as he did so. She slapped her aqua tail against his side. Still having his iron tail, he swung it at the ice eeveelution only to see a puff of smoke where she was with a dummy appearing when it cleared. Zane hit the substitute then was hit from above with a frost breath. He felt the cold air sting his entire body as it enveloped him and making him cringe. He was then hit by multiple shadow balls. The shadow balls made a wall of smoke, which Sapphire landed outside of. She waited for Zane to burst through somehow, but he didn’t. She waited patiently but still nothing. She was about to fire a shadow ball to clear the smoke when she was blindsided by a dark pulse. After she recovered her footing, she looked up to see that the blue ringed umbreon had gone around the smoke wall and was now charging her with a quick attack.
    She didn’t move but waited. Zane readied another iron tail and fired a shadow ball, which she countered with her own. He burst through the smoke to be struck by Sapphire’s ice beam, which froze him solid.
    Sapphire gave a cocky smile. This fight is mine now.
    “Well, this fight’s over!” Alex exclaimed. “Sapphire wins again.”
    “I don’t think so,” Dallas disagreed.
    “Huh?”
    The floatzel smirked. “Keep watching. I think Zane is going to surprise us.”

    Sapphire approached the frozen Zane to finish him. Zane was still able to see her through the ice though greatly distorted. Just as she was going to use her next attack, Zane’s eyes glowed and Sapphire was lifted off the ground and sent flying away from him.
    Psychic won’t be enough to stop her. I need to force my way out of this ice somehow! Wait! That gives me an idea. Zane began focusing psychic energy around his body, on the edges of the ice touching him; with it, he began pushing out. At first, nothing happened. Then he heard a crack. Yes! It’s working! He kept pushing harder and the ice began cracking even more. Outside his ice prison, Sapphire got up really annoyed at the umbreon.
    So, still got some fight in ya’ though you’re trapped, huh? That’s fine cause it won’t make… Her thought was cut short by a loud crack. Her eyes widened. No way! He’s breaking out?! But how?!
    Zane was grunting from the strain the constant mental pushing was causing him, but he didn’t stop; he wouldn’t stop until he was free. He felt his jaw was now able to move more freely. He began to yell, starting out low and growing as though he where building energy. As his cry grew louder, so did how hard he was pushing on the ice. This caused a storm of cracks to form. Then…it shattered into a thousand pieces sent in all directions. No one could not hear his cry while covered ice but they heard it now. “YAAAAAGGGHHH!!!” The majority of crowd gasped at what the newcomer just did.
    “Yeah! That’s my rival!!” Dallas cheered.
    Before the shards hit the ground, Zane grabbed several with psychic and hurled them at Sapphire. She failed to dodge them or even use substitute as she was shocked stiff. He then charged her with quick attack firing off a dark pulse and prepping an iron tail. The dark attack landed. Zane jumped and slammed Sapphire into the ground with his iron tail. Zane jumped back breathing hard. He took long deep breaths and let them out slowly to slow his heart rate, but he never lost focus. When the dust settled, Sapphire was down and didn’t get up for several seconds.
    “That’s it! The winner is the umbreon, making the newcomers the victors!”

    Medics rushed over to Sapphire as did Zane. He tried to help her up but she rejected it.
    “Hey, I’m just trying to help.”
    “I don’t need your help.”
    “Come on, I’ll just help you to the sideline and…”
    “I don’t want your help!!” she shouted and used ice fang on Zane’s leg, freezing it solid all the way to his shoulder. Sapphire ran away leaving Zane shocked and hurt, emotionally.
    Why did she do that? I only wanted to help her.
    Zane’s friends, new and old, rushed over to him.
    “Are you okay brother?!”
    “Why…why did she do that to me? What did I do?” Zane’s voice was one of slight distress. His heart was in pain and he didn’t know why.
    “I’ll go talk to her,” Alex said as he took off after Sapphire.
    “We’ll catch up with you when we’re sure Zane will be alright,” May said.
    A charmeleon came over and used a weak flamethrower to melt the ice off Zane’s leg while a couple medics examined him.

    Alex was having no luck at finding his icy friend. Man! I lost her! He was just about to give up when he heard crying. It did not take him long to find the source. It was Sapphire. She was lying on the ground with her back to the leafeon.
    “Sapphire,” he spoke gently, “What’s wrong?”
    “Go away!”
    “Please, Sapphire. I’m your friend. I only want to help,” he spoke with concern.
    “I…I just want to be alone right now.”
    Alex didn’t leave. Instead, he placed his tail up to his lips and began to play a sweet song; one with a lovely melody, that could uplift any spirit. After playing it awhile, Sapphire’s tears subsided. He stopped playing. “Better?”
    She turned her head partway and nodded. She sat up as Alex walked over to her.
    “May I sit next to you?”
    Looking at the ground in front of her, she nodded again.
    Alex sat next to her, placed a paw on her back, and gently stroked her to help comfort his friend. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
    “I…I failed him,” she cried.
    “Him? Him who?”
    “My dad.”
    “Your dad? How did you fail him?”
    “I…I lost. I’m not the best anymore.”
    “Is that what’s bothering you? Sapphire, I may not have known your father as well as you. But one thing I do know is that he would be proud of what you have become, a strong battler just like him.” Alex gave a warm smile. “Losing this battle doesn’t mean you failed him. Even he lost some battles, some of which he lost to Zeus. And you fought hard and there is no shame in that.”
    “Yeah...You’re right.”
    Alex heard a noise behind them. He looked over to see Eve, May, and her two new friends heading their way. “I hope you’re feeling better because there are some pokemon you need to meet.”

    The two turned around to greet the Eve and the rest.
    “Hey guys! This is Sapphire. Sapphire, meet Dallas the floatzel and Ta’Lon the golett.”
    Both pokemon said “hi” to the glaceon, which she returned.
    “What about the espeon?”
    “Well, you already know her…WE already know her.”
    Sapphire gave him a puzzled look.
    Alex smiled and gestured with his head. “Look around her neck.”
    Sapphire looked around the espeon’s neck. An pendant? A golden sun pendant! Wait! She looked the espeon in the eyes. “May?”
    May smiled. “Hi Sapphire.”
    “May!” She hugged her long lost friend. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” She backed away and looked May over. “And look at you; you’ve grown so much since I last saw you. Hey, if you have any trouble with boys just let me know. I’ll take care of them for you.”
    May laughed. “Thanks.”
    “So where are your…” Alex placed his paw on Sapphire’s to stop her. She gave him a questioning look.
    “If you’re wondering about her parents, they were killed the day our home was first attacked.”
    Sapphire gasped. She turned back to her pink friend. “Oh, May! I’m so sorry.”
    “It’s alright. I’m fine now. Zane and I came to terms with it long ago.”
    “That’s wonderful to hear. Speaking of Zane, where is your bro…” Sapphire stopped midsentence. Something came to her attention. Their group…only has four members. Dallas, May, Ta’Lon, and…an umbreon. She looked down at the ground as a realization hit her. Umbreons normally have yellow rings and red eyes. The one I fought has blue rings and yellow eyes. He’s shiny…Zane is shiny. Tears began to well up. She looked up at May and asked, “May?...the umbreon I fought earlier…it was Zane…wasn’t it?”
    May gained a sad expression and as Sapphire feared, she nodded.

    Sapphire began crying again. “No! No, how could I do that to him?! I…I need to go apologize to him right now.”
    “There’s no need,” came a voice from behind a bush. The pokemon emerged from their hiding place; it was Zane. “I’m right here.” Zane had a hurt expression.
    Sapphire froze. She wanted to apologize to him badly but actually being in front of him, knowing it’s him, she was too scared to speak. It took her a moment, but she managed to work up the courage to speak. “Zane…I’m sorry…I’m so sorry. If I had known it was you, I wouldn’t have done that. I was just mad and not thinking straight. I’m…I’m really sorry. Please…please forgive me.” She started crying again.
    Zane walked over to her, placed a paw on her back, and started stroking it to calm her down. “It’s alright. I forgive you.” Sapphire placed the side of her head on his chest. This contact felt strange to Zane. Part of him felt…uncomfortable, but another…enjoyed the contact. For the sake of Sapphire, he allowed her to continue. After a while, she pulled her head back and Zane looked at her. “Do you feel better?”
    “Yes. Thank you. Oh! And Zane?”
    “Yes.”
    Sapphire kissed Zane on his cheek. Zane’s eyes widened. Everyone else present was surprised as well, except for Eve and Alex who smiled. Zane was thankful his fur was black otherwise he would be as red as a cherry right now. “Thank you for saving my mother. I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost her too.”
    “Y-you’re w-welcome.”
    Sapphire smiled warmly at Zane.
    “Hey! He didn’t do it alone you know!” Dallas interrupted speaking in a joking manner.
    “I’m sorry. Thank you all for saving my mother.”
    “You’re welcome, Sapphire,” May replied.
    Dallas and Ta’Lon bowed their heads slightly in response.
    “So, are you guys settled in yet with the resistance?” Sapphire asked.
    “Not really. We spent the night last night in a medic hut,” Dallas replied.
    “Well then, let’s remedy that,” Eve chimed in.
    With old friends reunited along with new friends, the group walked back to the heart of camp to get the new arrivals settled in.