Black ash, with patches of white, was all there was. It was flat—thank goodness, he thought—and in the distance, the former rain had mixed the burnt ground to a lifeless gray. Just barely visible on the horizon, what looked to be hills rose…

Josh squinted, brushing a long lock of dirty-blond hair out of his eyes. Isako had gotten them two-thirds of the way to the League Platform before she collapsed. Only after a half-hour—a lost half-hour—did she regain enough strength to take herself back to the Indigo Plateau.

Josh quelled a small spark of anger. She was weak already, and the shock of having her entire home islands totally wiped out was an enormous mental strain—just the thing a Psychic Master didn’t need. Besides, with her gone, she would be safe. It would be better this way.

He patted the inner pocket of his robe that held the Stone they had found. Isako had given it to him, for who knew why. The monotonous gray in the distance seemed to shift.

Yes, it would be better this way. Isako, Matt and Erik were gone—that left only Laury, Rachel, Will, and himself…

No, that movement was just the wind. He could feel it now, blowing powerfully, whipping his open robe behind him. The menacing black clouds closed all the shafts of light the left through, and began to move with the wind.

Probably, the rain was going to be kicking back up. He sighed, wishing he had brought more water, and continued on, once again losing himself to his thoughts.

<><><>

Will had grown up on the tough streets in a bad part of a city that was notorious for its bad parts. As a kid he had learned that only your closed friends were to be trusted—that trust went out as long as your leg did. But he also learned that, once you found someone you knew you could trust, someone who was loyal and dedicated, you could depend on them to watch your back. Sometimes, not even family was in that close circle.

He had known only two people who had been that close to him, the person who had taught him the martial arts he knew. And now, his master was dead. Killed by that repulsive crap that called itself Julius. His master would have killed anything that killed him, so Will would do the same for his master. And sometimes, they cut it awfully close.

He followed wordlessly behind Josh. The other person he had known for a short time, yet Erik was one that was naturally one that you could trust. It wasn’t in his nature to lie, or cheat, or betray; they simply didn’t occur to him as something to do—they were not something to act out, they were something to act about.

He paused as Josh did. The wind blew a small cloud of ash in the distance, and he followed as Josh stepped ahead again. Will’s dark brown eyes looked on Josh’s back without feeling.

Josh, however, he didn’t trust. The others, the girls, he felt he could trust slightly beyond the reach of his kick, but Josh was something different. That boy was plotting, he knew it, and that boy knew and thought too much. He couldn’t pin it down, but there was something about Josh…something wrong.

Will sighed. He shouldn’t place judgment on anything, let alone his personal feelings. Then again, his instincts had never steered him wrong…

<><><>

Rachel took Erik’s loss the easiest, she thought. She had grown up loosing people. Her mother died when she was five, her father at nine, her grandparents, both sets, by eleven. Her one uncle and two aunts dying in a car crash at a reunion when she was twelve, no cousins, although there was a baby on the way for her late aunt at the time of the crash.

She had met Matt the first month she had set out on her Pokémon journey, still stinging from her aunts and uncle’s deaths. He had been caring, sensitive, attentive, kind…everything she wanted and needed at the time. She had naturally felt more for him than for a mere friend, and was overjoyed when he felt the same way. They never did anything wrong, they both were conscious about how young they were, and he still did his best to read his bible on Sundays and such. He even brought her into it, after a time.

Then she had lost him, and thought that maybe it was her, maybe she was why everyone in her life died. She had gone into a depression, then into a kind of unfeeling trance, until she encountered him two years later, when he was traveling with two guys she would come to know as Erik and Josh.

So when they…lost…Erik, she was hurt, and saddened, but she did not go into nearly as deep a shell as Laury did. She had learned the first few times around that that did nothing.

So she concentrated on Laury, helping what was quickly becoming her best friend survive. Rachel had already decided that she wouldn’t give any false hopes, but she would help. And so she was Laury’s anchor, the firm ground she needed when her pedestal came crashing down. Rachel was also the helping hand to lift it back up.

She hated to say it, so she didn’t. But she still hated to think that, despite how Laury felt, there would be others.

She watched closely, a word here and a kind phrase there helping to ease Laury out of her shell.

<><><>

"I think we should send our Pokémon back to Professor Oak." Josh said.

Will narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "Why?"

"For one thing, they won’t stand a chance against Julius or Nactenris or those Pokémon, and if we go down, they shouldn’t have to live forever inside those Pokéballs…or live out a worse fate." Josh explained.

Will didn’t want to, but the boy, no matter how much he was distrusted, was right. "Fine." He said grudgingly.

Laury nodded her head gently, her dull eyes staring at the nothingness that could and couldn’t be looked at.

"Okay." Rachel said.

Josh smiled inwardly. He would lose his, but they would lose theirs. All another step for the best. Pulling out a Pokédex that looked a lot like Erik’s, save it was red, he said, "Okay. I can send them back…"

<><><>

The wind blew stronger, a cold, soul-chilling wind that blew a green-black robe back. The first rain drops splattered down, soon becoming rock-hard ice that furiously beat down on everything.

The owner of the dark forest robe pulled the hood over his face, his lean, muscular form visible as he pulled his robe around him, found it blown away again, and left it there. A dark green backpack lay on his back, laden with drink and food. He carried a complexly carved wooden staff, which he used as a walking stick, and the white hail clattered loudly on his black boots, in contrast to the soft thud it made in the black, gray, and white ash that was everywhere.

Erik’s emerald eyes burned a moment, and he turned North, towards a line of large mountain peaks that barred all entrance. It was the quickest was to…wherever he felt he had to go.

As he reached the base of the mountains, walking through the foothills, Erik did exactly opposite what his muscles told him to do; he walked faster.

After several hours, he found himself at the top of a valley pass, several thousand feet above the dead plains he had started out on. The air was thinner, and it was so cold he could feel his toes numbing, could barely hear the clattering of hail on rock through the chattering of his teeth. The wind chilled the air a further twenty degrees, which made it more below zero than he cared to count. His body wasn’t helped by the fact that the hail that had wedged itself between his boots and his legs had melted, soaking everything from his mid-calf down. The constant drum of hail and dull thud on his head was driving him crazy; only the thick, warm robe that he had wrapped tightly and securely around him with a inside tie kept the hard impact of the hail from hurting him, too.

In short, he could see why these mountains seemed avoided.

With only his skill of being a Master saving him, he started trekking back down the other side of the valley pass. He had died once; he wouldn’t risk a chance that whoever had brought him back would change their mind this time.

<><><>

Josh stopped at the top of the hills. This was different. As Will and the girls joined him, he looked in awe at the huge stadium that lay before them.

The building could have been any stadium, except that it was twenty times as tall, who-knew how many times as wide and long. The building must have been one of, if not the largest in the world.

Only Will, who had been there before, was not gaping. "The large arena is on the top. It’s impossible to scale the walls, so we’ll have to work our way up through the dozen floors of arenas."

"A dozen?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah." Will answered her. "You’re looking at the pride of a people long dead."

Laury sniffed.

"You survived." Rachel said softly and harshly. "Who says other couldn’t?"

Josh snorted before Will could answer and started making his way towards the stadium.

<><><>

A dark green, almost black circular pool shimmered with wavelets, surrounded five small slots. In four of the slots lay blood-red oval stones, perfect replicas of the one Josh carried. Ever so slightly shone the pool, which created more gentle waves from the center, exiting like shock waves, and on the surface, no, in the surface, a image of Josh, Will, Rachel, and a looking-in-herself Laury walked on past the hills, then the surface returned to the eerie black-green depths.

Watching, flickering torchlight failed to illuminate the depths of a midnight-black hood, the figure’s folded arms holding an open black robe closed.

"Yes…" a voice, rasping and terrifying, barely whispered with quiet, dangerous malevolence, said to no one. "Come, my friends, come…"

<><><>

Erik was tired, only trekking past the mountains through the hail by some trance. He felt that he understood the devil’s warped sense of humor—don’t burn ‘em in Hell, freeze ‘em someplace else.

He had just come upon a dead, burnt forest of black, charcoal trees. It was amazing; huge, ancient trees that had been turned to gigantic charcoal sticks in a mere instant. Erik had no idea how they were still standing. Erik stopped a good ways into the forest, looking in shock.

A flower.

A small, yellow flower. It was just pushing out of the over-fertile ash, straining to reach sun, even in the dead, black skies. It was not beaten down by the hail because of a overhanging, fallen tree of charcoal.

It was another reminder to Erik that even death could give life and protect it.

A small, wailing sound made him spin in alarm. To his left, a creature, a Pokémon he had not seen before, was struggling to climb out of the ash. Stepping over, he helped the small creature dig its way out. It looked up at him with fluttering red eyes, then fell on its side with a small sigh.

Erik’s heart leapt out to the creature, no matter how strange it was. It had a long, large leaf on it’s head, a head with large red eyes and a mouth. It’s neck was surrounded by small, round buds, that looked like green bulbs, only ever so much smaller. They formed a strange sort of necklace around the yellow neck, which led to an equally yellow body that had several burn marks on it, with what looked to be hooves or clawed feet, and a short, stubby tail.

Erik watched the small creature breath slowly, even where it had lain down to die. And he acted quickly.

He reached into his backpack, taking a bottle of Super Potion and spraying it over the small creature’s wounds, watching with relief as they healed and closed.

The creature was still burned, and he took one of the many burn heals he carried, satisfaction seeping in as the burns melted away to yellow skin.

The creature was still weak, so he pulled out an extra Pokéball, and gently tossed it onto the Pokémon. Once it was well, he would let it decide whether to go or stay with him, but for now it needed a Pokéball to heal.

Carefully placing the minimized ball on his belt with practiced ease, he stood and resumed his trek.

After another moment, he stopped.

What was he doing? The others would have already been wherever he was heading, and he would take too long to get there if he kept walking. What could he do to get there faster?

As if in response, the Pokéball on his belt began to shake, and he let the creature out.
"Hi." Erik said. "I’m Erik Masters. You can stay here with me if you want, or you can—" Erik was already surprised by how fast the creature was healed, but even more so when he found himself standing on a hill, looking on a gigantic stadium. "—leave… whoa…" He looked down at the creature. "You’re part Psychic?"

The creature shook its head.

"But that’s a Psychic move you just did, right?"

The creature nodded and shook its head.

"It is, but it isn’t?"

The creature nodded.

"What your name?"

"Chikolita!"

"Wow. That’s a mouthful."

"Chiko! Lita, chiko!"

Erik’s innate understanding began to translate. "Call you Chiko?"

"Chi!"

"But is that a Psychic move?"

Chiko shrugged. "Chi chiko."

Erik gave up. "Okay… are you going to stay with me or leave?" It was always fun to have a new Pokémon.

Chiko answered him by nuzzling his leg, not much unlike Bulby had when they first met.

Erik laughed, a sound he hadn’t heard in what seemed like a very long time. "Okay. Come ‘ere." He said, enlarging the Pokéball and recalling Chiko.

He sighed and started walking towards the stadium.

<><><>

Josh inwardly grinned. The stadium was awesome. They were rising almost unhindered through the floors, each arena amazing him even more. Fire pits, hanging platforms, waterfalls, pools, boulders, grass fields, almost every arena a trainer could want was in that stadium, and then some. And, if Will was right, these were nothing compared to the pride of the Stadium, the largest field ever known. Supposedly, the field was so big that the longest match lasted over a full week.

And soon, he would be able to use it as he wanted to.

<><><>

Will had to fight the urge to grab his daggers. That Josh boy was plotting, he knew it. That small smile, the gleam in his eyes, there was something not right about him, something that was different from when they had first met.

He was standing near to Josh, watching him carefully, ready to act the instant Josh made his move. But what could he do? What could Will do to stop Josh, short of killing him? He wasn’t even 100% sure Josh was plotting.

He needed time. And at the rate they were going, he wasn’t going to get it. He needed to slow them down.

"Which way?" Josh asked as they ended up at a crossroads.

Will thought. The quickest way would be to go to the right; that led straight to an elevator that would take them the rest of the way. The way straight ahead would end up circling around to reconnect with itself, sending them back to the crossroads they were at. And the way to the left…

"Straight." Will said.

Josh started walking straight. This was good. Now, when they circled around, Will could tell them to go to the left path, which would take them through a winding network of rooms that was so confusing that they would be lost for a good time, long enough for him to figure out what to do.

Will sighed softly, glanced at Rachel, who was worried about Laury, and then went back to carefully watching Josh. This was going to be tough.

<><><>

Erik kicked the dead-end wall in frustration, then sighed. It was the umpteenth dead-end he had come across, and there was no way he could do any of this. This place was so big, it would take him forever to get to the top. He didn’t even know why he had to get to the top. Just knew he did.

Erik rested, leaning heavily on Gassiter. The quickest way would be straight up, but there were no elevators here. No stairs either.

Something clicked in the back of his mind. An old saying he had heard, or even made up, he wasn’t sure, it had been so early in his life. Something about if you run out of crème, milk the cow, or something…

If you don’t have something you need, get it. Or make it…

Great. Here he was, in the middle of an amazing building that would be a Pokémon trainer’s paradise, looking for a way to the top when there were hardly any ways out of this room, and he was thinking about making an elevator. That was truly sick.

Erik rubbed a tired hand on blood-shot eyes. He sat down, laying Gassiter across his lap. What’s the harm in thinking about it? He figured. There wasn’t much else to do. How would he go about it?

Well, he would need materials, of course, but an elevator needed to be able to go up and down. To do that, something couldn’t be in its way, like a ceiling or a floor. That was why they had elevator shafts.

Shafts…

What was he going to do, he argued with himself, cut a way to the top?

Gassiter gleamed, suddenly a double blade.

Yep. That was exactly what he was going to do.