Anyone who has lived in the Hoenn Region knows that their homeland has been the focal point of many a great occurrence in the history of the world.  One of the most well-known events to take place there was the ancient clash between the legendary pokemon, Groudon and Kyogre, which ceased due to Rayquaza’s intervention.  That was 10,000 years ago, at the dawn of civilization, but that was not the last time they had fought; there was another time in Hoenn’s history where Groudon and Kyogre fought each other, one that was far more recent.800 years ago, Hoenn, like the other regions, had been an independent nation of their own, and other than the occasional dispute, the region was usually at peace, due in part to the wise leadership of Hoenn’s ruler.  Unfortunately, by now their ruler was far past his prime, and died of old age; when his only heir died two weeks later, a power vacuum was created, and two of the ruler’s best generals, both seeking the throne, soon brought the world to the brink of ruin by using the powers of the Blue and Red Orb to reawaken Kyogre and Groudon.  However, a brave ronin (rogue samurai) and a Ninetails stood up to both of them and saved Hoenn, but at a terrible cost.  The war had cost the lives of thousands of people, the last one to die being the hero himself, who died in battle against the rogue generals after ordering his companion to flee.  Distraught from grief, the Ninetails disappeared, never to be seen again.  This tale has been told and retold countless times, but over time it was forgotten by all except a few who still hold on to the past. Now in the present, a conflict between two opposing groups will soon threaten to disrupt the balance of not only Hoenn, but the world as a whole.  However, whenever history repeats itself, it repeats entirely in most cases, and so a new hero would emerge to prevent our total destruction, just as the unknown warrior did centuries ago…

 ----

Midnight, Fallarbor Town…

    The night was completely silent, and the moon full as the inhabitants of Fallarbor Town slept soundly.  Only one person was awake, a scientist to be specific.  Professor Cosmo had been studying a meteorite from the nearby meteor falls for weeks by now, and was intrigued by the mysterious energy contained within it.  The energy seemed to have some effect on other nearby rocks, particularly volcanic ones, and although this was most likely just an electromagnetic field, the behavior of this energy was so strange that the Professor had forgone sleeping for three days now, much to his wife’s dismay.  Despite her concerns though, she had left him in peace for the time being, and now Professor Cosmo was certain he was on the verge of a breakthrough.

    Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.  Flustered at the interruption, Professor Cosmo set the meteorite down on the desk, stood up from his chair and went to answer the door.“Now who would be at the door this late at night?” Cosmo grumbled in annoyance as he opened the door.  Before he knew what was happening, Cosmo was knocked away from the door and on to the ground.  Dazed, the professor blacked out right then and there.

    “Alright old man, wake up!” a man shouted as the Professor came to.  As he opened his eyes, he was gripped by the arms and forced to his feet.  This brought him to full alert, allowing him to observe his surroundings; his home was completely ransacked, and there were others in the same room as him.  There were eight Mightyena and eight men that he assumed they belonged to, the trainers being dressed in strange gray and red clothing with a hooded shirt and an emblem resembling an “M” on their chests.

    “What the…who are you people, and what did you do to my house!?” Professor Cosmo shouted angrily.  A gloved fist struck the side of his head and sent him sprawling back to the ground, but he was pulled back up, this time restrained by two of the men.  The man that had punched him had a very similar uniform with a few differences from the ones worn by the others.  It became apparent to Cosmo that this was their leader.

    “Speak when spoken to” the leader sneered with an evil grin, “But to answer your question anyways, we are Team Magma, and we’re here for this.”  The leader then held up an object in his hand, the meteorite Cosmo had been studying.  The Professor’s eyes went wide in fear of what might happen when the criminals were done with him.

    “Don’t touch that!  You don’t know what kind of power lies within!” Cosmo shouted in panic.

    “If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here now would we?” the leader responded smugly.  The other men snickered slightly at this comment when two others, these ones being a pair of young women in the same uniform, appeared from the direction of Cosmo’s room.

    “Tabitha, somebody else had been here, but escaped before we began our search” one of them reported.  Professor Cosmo mentally let out a sigh of relief; at least his wife, as far as he knew, was safe.

    “Don’t worry about them Courtney” the leader, now revealed as Tabitha, replied, “Our work here is done.”

    “Sir, there’s something else we found” replied Courtney as she pulled a strange sphere from her pocket.  The Professor had found the item several months ago on accident, and based on its appearance, it seemed to be an ancient pokeball of some sort.  He had no idea what was in it, let alone how to open it, but he knew that if these miscreants were interested in it, then it must be valuable.  The woman tossed it to Tabitha, who looked it over for a short bit in his hand, a puzzled expression on his face when suddenly there was a click as his thumb pressed a tiny depression in the surface.  The sphere suddenly glowed and filled the room with a blinding white light as it exploded, blasting the Professor as well as the Team Magma operatives to the ground.  The light died down an instant later, revealing what the object had become as everyone came to; it was a Ninetails, and a very beautiful one at that.  The pokemon looked around at its surroundings, assessing the situation.

    “Huh?  What?” asked a feminine voice with a slight echo, "How did I arrive here, in such a bizzare place?"  Professor Cosmo heard this voice and looked around frantically.  The voice was unlike anything he had ever heard before, and it didn’t take long for him to discover the source; the Ninetails was speaking through telepathy, a power that Ninetails were not unknown to have in rare cases. 

    “A Ninetails, huh?” Tabitha sneered, “If that thing came out of that sphere, then it must be far more powerful than it appears to be.”  Before Tabitha even reached for his pokeball, Courtney had sent out her Mightyena to fight against the fire type.

    “Mightyena, use Crunch!” Courtney ordered.  The dark type lunged at Ninetails, its fangs bared to strike. 

    "A Challenger, I see..." Ninetails muttered,  The fire type suddenly vanished into several mirages as she used Double Team to move out of the line of fire, causing Mightyena to look around frantically as it searched for the target.  Ninetails reappeared an instant later, much to Mightyena’s shock.

    “Pitiful fool!  Fire Blast!” Ninetails roared as she launched a massive Fire Blast at Mightyena.  The overwhelming heat was far too great for Mightyena to endure, and so it went down in one hit. 

    "A wise man once said to choose your adversaries with caution" Ninetails said sternly, "Overconfidence is often a fatal error."  With her foe defeated, Ninetails turned and leapt out a window into the night, trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and the strange people.

    “Dammit!  Way to go Courtney!” Tabitha shouted furiously.

    “Relax hothead, we got what we came for” Courtney replied flatly.

    “Point taken…” Tabitha replied before turning to the Professor again.

    “Well…are you leaving?” Cosmo asked.

    “Yeah, we are” Tabitha answered with a sneer, “Let’s take a little walk down to Meteor Falls, shall we?”

----

Meanwhile, Route 114…

    Ninetails continued to run off into the night towards a mountain to the southwest; completely lost in the unfamiliarity of this strange new world.  Everything was different, from the appearance of dwellings to the clothing worn by humans; there was nothing to point her where to go, nothing to give her a sign as to where she was, but nevertheless she kept running, hoping to escape from those bad men.

    After five minutes, Ninetails decided to rest in a small cave in the side of the mountain, if only long enough to assess her situation, not that she could make any sense of anything.  All she knew was that there were people after her, and no matter what, she had to avoid them.  However, she also knew that if they knew what she was after, she would be endangering the one she held closer than any other.

    Her main concern was on her master, a young warrior named Zane Ryusen; her memories of him were all that she had left, and she cherished them deeply.  He had been about six feet tall, had an athletic build, emerald-green eyes and jet black hair worn at shoulder length.  He was a quiet, introverted person who had an unfaltering sense of honor and justice, which led to him and her betraying their General to end the Civil War that had engulfed their homeland.

    That Civil War was clearly over, based on the area’s relative tranquility, but this did nothing to ease her worrying.  She vividly remembered that moment; when Zane had told Ninetails to run, to save herself as he fought throw a hail of arrows to go after the two warring Generals.  Though hesitantly, Ninetails had obeyed her master’s wish, knowing full well that he would return to her later; he never did.  She was convinced in her own mind that he wasn’t dead, that he might still be out there somewhere, cold and alone, suffering for his own bravery when he should be hailed as a hero.  After that day, she had been searching across the land, far and wide, desperately hoping for a sign that he was alive.  Her searching had been fruitless, and she had worked herself near death; all she remembered was blacking out, then nothing, a whole lot of nothing.  That was the last memory she had until now, and now she would renew her quest.

    “Master, please be in good health, or at the very least still alive..." Ninetails whimpered as she stood back up and ran into the night once more.

--------

Early the next morning, Fallarbor Town…

    The sun had just begun to rise on Fallarbor Town, the light having a somewhat eerie effect when seen through the light rain of volcanic ash from Mount Chimney, the nearby volcano.  The shops had yet to open, and the streets were completely empty, a far cry from the bustling marketplace in Slateport City.  This was exactly why a particular trainer, a young man by the name of Zane Ryusen, had come here, walking into the town from the east, Route 113.

    Zane, an eighteen-year-old pokemon trainer was fairly tall, standing at six feet in height, and had an athletic but not overtly muscular build.  His emerald-green eyes seemed calm and controlled, but at the same time seemed to burn right through anything his gaze fell upon, and his hair, black as the night sky during the new moon, and slightly unkempt.  His clothing was simple enough, consisting of a pair of jeans, a gray tank top and a pair of hiking boots; even so, anyone who carried a katana at their side, himself included, was not to be trifled with.  As he entered the town, Zane made sure to check his surroundings, his mind on full alert after he had been ambushed by a few ninja trainees the previous night; they would think twice before attacking him again, but if they did, his pokemon, a Salamence, would do the talking.

    As he was about to pass by the Pokemon Center, he detected movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to face it.  It was a middle aged woman, and by the look on her face, she had been crying recently.  Zane knew it was best to stay out of other people’s affairs, but there was something that seemed to tell him to help her, a strange feeling that something might happen if he did.  His features devoid of emotion, Zane approached the woman slowly.

    “Is there a problem?” Zane asked calmly.

    “M-My husband…he was kidnapped!” she shouted suddenly as she burst into tears again.  Despite his normal discipline, Zane’s eyes widened drastically in shock of what he had just heard.  That was a good reason to be upset, he knew, and although he tended to isolate himself from people at every opportunity, he would never refuse to help one in need.

    “Who took him?” the trainer asked.

    “I-I don’t know” the woman whimpered, “I ran before I could even see them…”

    “Alright then…” Zane muttered in reply as he thought this over.  A man, the woman’s husband, had been kidnapped, the perpetrators unknown.  He couldn’t help her if he didn’t know what to look for; he would have to gather information.  “I would like to see where you live; perhaps I can gather some information.”  The other person looked up at him in surprise, her tears having stopped.

    “You’ll h-help me?” she asked in surprise.

    “As much as I can, but first I need to know what I’m up against” Zane replied, “If I can find something at your house, maybe I can identify the kidnapper.”

    “Thank you, Sir” the woman replied with a warm smile as she wiped her eyes, “Follow me…”

----

    Five minutes later, the two of them arrived at the woman’s house, on the way to which she had given Zane some important information.  The woman's name name was Celia Cosmo, the wife of an astrophysicist named Armand Cosmo, Ph.D, whose research specialized in meteorites and other such items.  Her husband had been kidnapped along with a meteorite he had been studying.  The inside of the house was a disaster zone, with broken furniture and decorum everywhere; there was also a large area of a wall that was blackened as if it had been set on fire.  Zane was astonished by the level of carnage, clearly the work of a trained professional, not a run-of-the-mill thief.

    “Mrs. Cosmo, I would recommend calling the Police for this one” Zane said after searching around for about twenty minutes, “I can’t find anything of use in this disaster zone, if you’ll pardon the expression.”

    “I just don’t understand it, who would do such a thing?” Mrs. Cosmo asked, “I mean there wasn’t anything worth taking that was here last night…”

    “How can you be so sure?” Zane inquired, “Value is all in the eyes of the beholder; whoever kidnapped your husband wanted something from him, most likely information on his field of expertise.”  Mrs. Cosmo gave a tired, worried sigh in response, seeming to be about ready to give up.  “I wouldn’t suggest remaining here; the kidnappers may come back” Zane said, “There’s nothing more I can do...I’m sorry.”

----

     As Zane exited the house, he sighed and shook his head in disappointment.  He wished he could help her, but he had no clue where to start, no leads to follow.  Besides, he was no detective, but that still didn’t do anything to ease the sense of guilt he had for simply leaving without doing much of anything.  He needed a sign, something to point in the right direction.  At that moment, the sign he had been searching for showed up, in the form of a pair of men clad in strange red uniforms, their heads concealed beneath hoods and an ‘M’ marking their shirts.  They were discussing something in a hushed whisper as they approached Zane, who leapt behind a rock as he watched them pass.

     “Okay, so that takes care of things over here” one of them whispered, “What do we do now?”

     “We regroup with Tabitha’s squad at Meteor Falls for phase II of the mission” the other one replied, “Let’s stop wasting time and get over there, now…”  As the men passed by, Zane stood up in a hunched-over position and looked on with a great sense of intrigue as well as foreboding.  These men were already suspicious enough, but with the way they were talking, there was no doubt they were up to no good.

    “Hmm…what are you up to at Meteor Falls?” Zane muttered as he began to trail them at a distance, intent on uncovering their true disposition.