The blast of fire almost singed Greg's hair with the sheerheat of it, and an unearthly cry echoed throughout the newly-burning burnt tower, a reverberating, deep sound, that made wood chips rattle on the ground, vibrating slightly. Another gout of fire splashed down the hallway, and Greg took a few tentative steps backwards, wincing slightly as the air he was inhaling started to burn.

"We need to get outside..." Cindyr murmured, quickly bounding over to a hallway adjacent to them and peering up and down it's length curiously, suspiciously. "I think this way is safe..." She murmured back at him, taking a few steps down it, ears perked, swivelling back and forth, listening, careful.

Greg followed after her, holding his shirt over his mouth, breathing through it with difficulty, coughing a little, squinting. The blast of fire had disturbed long-stilled ash pockets, and the fine little tendrils were still hovering in the air, catching in his throat and reddening his eyes, making it hard to see.

He settled for reaching out and clasping onto one of Cindyr's tails, letting her guide him with gentle tugs of the fluffy appendage. With his shirt up over his eyes, he couldn't see, but his eyes were protected for the most part from the ash and whatnot, and as soon as he felt the gust of cooler air from outside, he gave a pleased sigh and dropped his shirt.

Immediately, he was overcome by a coughing fit, inhaling a more potent amount of the thick, billowing black smoke that was now spilling from the burnt tower.

Already, a team of firemen, Blastoises at their sides, were endeavoring to put out the flame, long spouts of water spilling from their mouths to hiss and sizzle against the heated wood of the tower.

Nevyda was right there with them, a wooper helping to splash water across the flames with surprisingly large amounts of liquid for such a small pokemon.

Greg came stumbling out of the tower, led by Cindyr, who blinked around and shied away a little from the water pokemon. "We're fine!" She said quickly, before anyone could turn water on them to 'help' them.

Doubling over, Greg gave a few hacking coughs, and then straightened, panting, hands on his kees, eyes red and sore, peering about. "What the hell happened?" He asked, wiping his mouth, wrinkling his nose a little at the streaks of soot that now decorated it.

"I think that did..." Cindyr murmured, her eyes wide. Everything around them seemed to slow down, time seeming to pause as a large bird Pokemon came bursting from the clouds of smoke, raining down fiery violence on the fire brigade.

* * *

It was an unearthly sight, seeing Ho-oh come bursting out of the black smoke and loose a blast of fire directly onto the fire brigade and the surrounding area, scorching the grass black instantly, sending embers swirling through the air in fountains of colour.

Ben watched this display, and watched as the two tiny figures of Greg and Cindyr dissapeared from view amid the smoke and heat-haze, and he smiled. Blayze would be pleased.

* * *

Wood cracked in the heat, and spot-fired blazed across the grass as several of the fire brigade members rolled back and forth across the grass, trying to put out the flames that had set upon their clothing, while the Blastoise' helped as best they could, trickling water over red-raw flesh.

Greg had covered his face with his hands, and Cindyr had formed a protective 'fan' of sorts in front of him with her tails before the blast had hit, redirecting most of the heat. Her own fur was lightly singed, the stench unbeleivable, but he still pulled her into a hug and kissed her muzzle in thanks, peering upwards in concern. "We have to stop it..." He murmured, shaking his head, his gaze drawn towards the injured members of the fire brigade, and to Nevyda, who was frantically batting at a flare of fire on her skirt, which was quickly put out by her Wooper.

"I'm a fire type, Greg." Cindyr pointed out blankly. "And that thing is stronger than me!" She whined softly, his tailtips swishing anxiously.

"Maybe if we got them all working together..." He murmured, and then frowned deeply, his eyes widening a little. "It's going for the rest of the town!" He called, pointing, unable to do anything but watch as Ho-oh descending on the pokemart and breathed a stream of fire into its doorway, the door cracking and warping with the heat, before the bolts holding the hinged in place expanded and cracked the wood, allowing the door to fall inwards, and the flame to illuminate the building from the inside out.

A figure, wreathed in flames, burst through one of the windows and made a desperate dash for the stream nearby, Greg wince in sympathy.

He reached down and drew a pokeball from his belt, the Dragonair he had 'caught'. He clicked the ball open, and then peered at the water pokemon. "Dragoniar, I need you to help these people." He said with a firm nod, and then released his Charizard from its confined, frowning to himself. "I really need more water pokemon..." he murmured.

The charizard peered down at him, head tilting slowly, quizzically, his eyes drawn to the circling Ho-oh for a moment, before fixing back on Greg. "I need to distract the Ho-oh!" He told the Charizard, pointing up towards the bird of fire. "Stop it from hurting anyone else until I can organise a defense, okay?" he asked, staring into the dragon-pokemons eyes. "You understand?"

The Charizard gave a slow nod, and then shifted backwards, springing his wings out to their fullest extent and then launching himself into the air after the bird of fire.

Greg quickly made his way towards the Blastoise, Cindyr at his heels, watching the circling pokemon with a calculating expression, looking worried.

"I need everyones attention!" Greg said firmly, loudly, standing in the middle of the group of the group of the decimated fire brigade. "Here's what we're gonna do!"

* * *

Charizard flapped his wings hard, wheeling around on his wing-tips, using the thermals created from the newly-made fires below to help him gain altitude, one eye fixed on the Ho-oh, his target. His tail swished as he moved gracefully through the air, wing outspread, eyes narrowing as he set himself up on an intercept-course.

He slipped forwards in the air, and then upwards, before he wheeled over and dropped into a steep dive, his trajectory curving upwards slightly towards the end, to carry him onto his target neatly.

The Ho-oh spotted him early though, and loosed a blast of fire. Normally, a flying pokemon would have diverted, but the Charizard gritted his teeth and turned his head, pushing through the amazingly hot blast of fire, smoke trailing from the tips of his wing slightly as he ploughed headlong into the bird of fire.

There was a loud squawk at impact, and Charizard tried to regain his balance, get his flight-path into a more steady pattern, less chaotic, before the Ho-oh could recover enough to fight back.

But the Ho-oh was faster, flipping backwards once in the air and then flaring its magnificient wings to their full extent, flapping them at just the right angle to get its altitude and movement back unter total control.

Charizard was still floundering a little in the air when Ho-oh returned his attack, diving at him and slashing at his wings with a cruel talon, leaving a long rent in one, making the dragon pokemon roar in pain and drop several hundred feet before he could recover enough to keep flying.

But now he was under the flying pokemon, a tactical disadvantage, so far as flying pokemon were concerned.

He swooped as best he could, trying to dodge as he sensed the Ho-oh streaking down towards him, but he just wasn't fast enough. He heard the unearthly shreik, loud in his head, before the talons hooked onto, and into his body, dragging him downwards with impossible force, and then slamming him against the ground, sending his world dark.

* * *

Greg, Cindyr, Nevyda, Nevyda's newly-revealed Dewgong, Monty, and 6 Blastoise were waiting for the Ho-oh on it's next pass, Greg standing at the back with Neyda and Cynder, the six Blastoise in front, in a protective line.

He could feel his heart starting to beat faster as the fire pokemon rose in a spiral, and then levelled off, and dropped into a dive, straight at them, breathing a long line of fire onto the ground as it went, a line that would go right through their group.

"Hold!" Greg called to the Blastoise, and then peered at Nevyda worriedly. "You sure that your Dewgong is strong enough?..." he asked uncertainly.

She nodded grimly. "Well, if she's not strong enough, we are royally screwed." She said bluntly, and then turned back to the Ho-oh speeding towards them

"Okay, Hydro Pump!" Greg called, pointing a finger needlessly.

Six Blastoise moved to obey his commands, and six thick, powerful streams of water were directed towards the fire pokemon.

Unable to arrest its forwards movement, the Ho-oh splashed right through the water, a spectacular spray of it splashing all over the fire pokemon, but not hurting it overly much.

"Ready!" Greg called, as the Ho-oh wheeled about again, to finish the fiery job it had been momentarily distracted from.

"Fire!" Came the command, and the six streams of water were fired once more. But this time, the command was joined by another.

"Blizzard!" Called Nevyda, and the Dewgong focused as hard as she could.

Ho-oh gave a loud squawk of worry, and lost a little altitude, flapping its wings frantically, a gout of flame escaping its mouth as it gave a weak cry of dismay, the water that had been sliding through its feathers now turning to ice, locking up the smooth feathers into a shapeless mass of frozen, cold pinions.

There was a thud and a crash as the large pokemon barelled into the side of a building, bursting out the other side in a shower of broken furniture and shattering glass, spraying wood chips everywhere.

The Blastoise were quick to move up, keeping their hydro-pumps focussed on the floundering pokemon, who squawked at them in anger, a vicious, evil sound, but was unable to bring flames to bear on them due to the amount of water gushing over it.

"Blizzard!" Nevyda called again, and the Dewgong redoubled her efforts, Cindyr watching in horrified facination as she watched the pokemon start to freeze.

"Stop!" Greg called, moving in front of the Blastoise, who paused in their pounding of the pokemon, staring at him. "Can't you see it's defeated?!" He asked, pointing with a finger, and then shaking his head slowly. "If we just kill it, we're no better than it is! That is not the way to handle the problem!"

The Blastoise peered back and forth between themselves and Greg, and came to the general consensus of a shrug, lumbering off to help their partners with their burns, and Greg turned back to the legendary, frowning.

It stared at him forlornly out of one large, avian eye, giving a pathetic squawk and then sprawling, trying to lift itself, but failing, the ice on it's wing immobilising it, weakening it.

"Cindyr...melt the ice." Greg murmured, and she nodded once, opening her mouth and breathing waves of heat over the birds wings.

"Why did you attack us?" he asked of it, as water started to trickle off the edge of its wings.

It stared at him coldly, and then its gaze seemed to soften, and it looked slightly confused,working its beak open and closed and staring at him, looking around at the destruction it had rought with wide eyes.

He asked it again, and then forcibly turned its head towards him. "Answer me now, or I'll put you in a pokeball." He threatened.

It stared at him blankly for a few moments, and ten muttered something in its peculiar way of speaking.

"It says...that it didn't want to attack you...and was forced to..." Cindyr translated, with a quizzical headtilt up at him. "I think it's lying, personally."

Greg shook his head a little. "Not good enough." He said, holding up the pokeball. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't put you in this?"

The Ho-oh stared at him a long moment, and then swiped it from his hand with a backhanded-blow from its cold, wet wing, sending the pokeball flying. Both Greg and Cindyr watched the ball hit a building and bounce off, and by the time they looked back to the Ho-oh, it was already halfway to the end of town, flapping hard, gaining height.

Sighing, Greg shook his head. "let it go." he murmured, stroking at Cindyr's neck gently. "I get the feeling we'll be seeing it again before too long..."

* * *

Nevyda wiped the sweat off her brow, her face slightly soot-stained from the smoke, her Wooper forging a path ahead, spraying water on the coals.

She was looking for anyone else that might have been trapped in the burnt tower after it had been set alight (again). They didn't think there was anyone else, but it was always better safe than sorry.

The water from her pokemons mouth mixed with the ash and formed a soft grey slurry that she walked through as daintily as she could. She was no shrinking violet, but this ash/water stuff was dirty!

She gave a little sigh and brushed some of the wet mess off her skirt, giving an irritated sound as she did. The stain would take ages to get out! "C'mon Wooper, I think we've found all we're going to find in here." she said, shaking her head a little.

They were in one of the ruined hallways, which had been reduced to blackened walls and rubble. A large portion of the structure still stood, but it was in ruins also.

She was turning to start heading back when she spotted it, frowning slightly and hiking up a small mound of fallen wall, peering into a gap between two heat-warped beams of wood, where vivid red paint stood out against the bleak blackness of the soot-stained wall.

Frowning thoughtfully, she scrambled back down the rubble, getting her skirt dirty in the process, and then drawing a pokeball from her belt.

It snapped open, and Monty appeared, peering up at her expectantly. "Monty, tackle that wall!" She ordered.

The ninetales gave a sharp nod, and then turned about, squaring his stance and then bounding forwards up the little mound of rubble, taking a leaping jump near the top and slamming into the wall, causing one of the beams to crack and split, splinters flying everywhere as the pokemon shook his head a few times, blinking, and then sauntered back towards her, ears perked.

"Good boy!" She said with a smile, petting him on the head and then snapping him back into his pokeball, scrambling up the fallen wall once more, looking around furtively to make sure no one was watching, and then finishing the job Monty had started by kicking repeatedly at the cracked beam.

With a few solid kicks, it crackled and snapped off, spinning down into the darkness beyond, thudding against a wooden floor. She stuck her head into the hole she had made, peering about, trying to ascertain how far it was to the floor.

Throwing a handful of rubble over the edge, she nodded once, satisfied.

"If I'm not back in twenty minutes, go get help." she said sternly to her Wooper, before slithering feet-first through the gap she had made, and then down onto the floor below, rolling on impact so she didn't sprain her ankle.

She paused then, in the darkness, with only her breathing for company, and let her eyes slowly adjust to the gloom.

Not wanting to go just getting Monty to light a fire for her, in case they had been storing flammable materials in the tower, she waited for her eyes to adjust fully first. It would be rather ironic to be incinerated in a fire in the burnt tower after it had already burned. Twice.

Once she was sure that there were no crates or barrels nearby, she called Monty out again, telling him to light a little fire to guide their way.

The ninetales nodded once, and then looked back over his shoulder, breathing a gentle stream of fire over his tails, so that the tips caught alight, holding them aloft like a peacocks feathers as he strode forwards a few steps, lighting up the place adequately.

She peered upwards, and frowned a little, picking up the beam of wood she had kicked in, and tearing off a long, thick sliver of wood from it, lighting it with the flame from Monty's tails, and then holding it aloft, as high as she could, staring at the ceiling, following the contours of the painting.

It was...an ocean. But no ocean like she had ever seen. It was an ocean of lava. It had waves, pokemon, even a canoe, but it was undoubtedly an ocean of lava. Towards the centre of the ceiling was an island, complete with spindly black trees, burnt to cinders by what seemed to be a volcanic eruption. The eruption in question obviously came from the volcano in the centre of the island, still belching smoke, and her eyes narrowed, her brow furrowing.

In the middle of the smoke was a pokemon, a pokemon of the likes she had never seen. If she was an accurate judge of size, then the pokemon was massive, or the artist had drawn it wrong. It was a red colour, and seemed to hover over the volcano like a malevolent deity, holding a kind of presence, even through the painting.

She was reaching into her skirt pocket to withdraw her pokedex when one of the tiles beneath her feet shifted under her weight, and she stumbled sideways, dropping her makeshift torch, brushing dust off her clothes as she stood and peered down at the shifted tile.

It was bent at an angle, like a see-saw with someone sitting on it, and a quick tip of it over with her foot revealed that it was nothing too ominious.

Under the tile was a small crawlspace, with a bar as a divider, to hold the tile up, but allow the lifting of the tile if you stood in the right spot.

Frowning, she took the makeshift torch and lit it again, worming her head and shoulders into the crawlspace and holding up shifting the torch back and forth. The one to her left just stopped at a blank wall, and there wasn't enough room for her to turn around if she went that way. Instead, to her right, the darkness just gathered at the edge of the globe of lights reaches, the tunnel continuing on for an indeterminate amount of distance.

She pulled back long enough to sigh and pet Monty gently. "Think you can slip down through that after me, boy?" She asked.

Monty peered downwards, and then nodded vigorously, his tails swishing, sending shadows dancing crazily along the walls.

With a soft sigh, she brushed off her shirt, wrinkling her nose at just how dirty this was going to be, before slithering head-first into the little crawlspace, belly-crawling towards the end, holding the torch in her mouth so she could crawl faster, nose wrinkled at the taste of old wood on her tongue.

She wasn't entirely sure why she was following this little tunnel. It was probably curiousity, or even the foolish, vain hope that maybe there was treasure at the end. And it wasn't like she had anything better to do...

A soft gasp escaped her, and she stopped crawling, holding out the flaming torch in front of her, brow furrowed. Up ahead, the tunnel just ended. But not at a dead-end, no, it seemed to just open into space. But that wasn't the weird thing, it seemed to open into natural space, blue sky and grass!

Crawling forwards cautiously, she approached the 'end' of the tunnel, blinking a few times and narrowing her eyes. Upon closer inspection, the tunel didn't end. No, it had been painted. Painted walls, ceiling and floor. The thing film of dust was the only thing that gave it away. Were it all clean, chances were she would have gone back, unwilling to move further and fall into open space.

She kept moving forwards, hesitantly reaching out and laying a palm against the vivid, ultra-realistic painting, just for reasurrance, and then kept crawling, laughing a little as she heard a yelp behind her.

Rolling over onto her back, she lifted her head a litte, peering over her chest at the wide, scared eyes of Monty, who, to his simpler mind, saw her floating above space, a few inches out from the edge of the tunnel. "It's a painting, Monty, look." she said, slapping her hand against the wall and the ceiling.

Monty whimpered softly, and inched forwards. To him, it looked like she was trying to put on a mime show, touching things that he couldn't see, but his paws found solid rock where he thought they should find air, and so he followed after her. With his eyes closed.

Nevyda rolled back onto her stomach, and kept crawling ahead, sneezing once as the dust invaded her nostrils. The painting ahead seemed even more vibrant, and she stared in wonder, fixated, her palm finding open air.

She squealed in surprise, and tried to arrest her fall, but there was just nothing around her. She slid out over theer edge and into a green, grassy paddock of openness, slamming down onto her side with an 'oof!' and laying there, stunned.

There was a soft gown from her as she stirred, rolling onto her side, the one that wasn't numb and felt like it was in twelve pieces, gathering her knees about her, and staring around, confused, holding her shoulder with her unhurt hand.

A soft whine echoed down from above her, and she peered upwards, frowning deeply. There, above her, seeming suspended in midair, was Monty, shivering, scrabbling backwards a little from the edge, seeming to be just cut off from his hindquarters. It was a bizarre sight, and took her a few moments to figure out. "Monty!" She called, using her most commanding tone, "Settle down! Be calm!"

She worked her shoulder slowly and stared upwards, climbing to her feet and walking over towards where her Ninetales was, high above, an arm outstretched, squinting out of one eye like someone who was feeling their way through the dark. Her fingers found cool stone, and she stopped, peering upwards. "It's okay Monty!" She called, and then pulled out her pokeball, returning him to it, and then frowning even deeper. Where he was dissapeared. No more ninetales, no more tunnel. It had just dissapeared into the stone.

Turning on the spot, she peered around. For all intents and purposes, she was on a green, grasy feild, but if she took a step this way, she hit a wall!

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself as much as she could, walking in a slow circle, arm outstretched, always touching the wall. She did an entire circuit of the room, she thought, and didn't find any side tunnels, and what was more worrying, was she had lost track of where she had fallen in from!

She bit her lip, thinking, brushing her hair out of her face and straightening her skirt, sitting down and crossing her legs, closing her eyes, wondering just what she was in. It was a painted room, that was for sure, but like none she had ever seen. The paintings were so realistic, so vivid, that she couldn't even see the tunnel she had come in through! The painted surfaces just seemed to meld together.

Frowning a little more, she opened her eyes and peered down at her pokeballs, sliding one out, and clicking it open, so that a Zubat appeared in a flash of light.

"Zubat....you can see in here, can't you?" She asked hopefully, and the blue bat pokemon did a little flip in the air, twittering an acknowledgment.

There was a soft, breathy sigh of relief from her, and she slid to her feet again, peering about. "Are there any opens that you can see?" She asked, raising a brow at the Zubat.

With another back-flip twirl, the Zubat shot off low to the ground, disappearing from sight. Nevyda followed after, taking a confident step towards where the Zubat had disappeared.

Smack.

She groaned softly and lifted a hand to her face, noting the blood that slicked her fingertips as she hit the ground in fury. The ground had just seemed to rush up to meet her, but in reality, she had fallen down a slight dip in the ground, like a step, and stumbled forwards, faceplanting.

Rolling to her knees, and then her feet, she pinched her nose, to try and stem the flow of blood, noting that it wasn't broken, just bloody. A relief.

More careful this time, she slid forwards, inching her feet along the ground slowly, almost stumbling again as it rose, and a few moments later she was glad she was going slowly as her nose bumped into the wall, the painting at extreme close range discernible as paint, but from anything except point-blank range, it was impossible to tell what was wall, and what was air.

Sliding down onto her knees, hands on the wall, she leaned down blinked once as she felt a current of air caressing her face, and immediately got down on her stomach, crawling into this new tunnel.

There was only a minute of crawling and she was out, blinking slowly. The wall opposite her was painted, but this new room she was in was bare of paint anywhere else. It was as if the previous room had been a test...

The Zubat was circling around the ceiling, chittering happily, and she returned him to his ball, looking upwards at the same painting she had seen on the roof of the other room she had found.

In the corner was a shaft, a beam of sunlight falling down it, onto a mirror, diffused by the three more and aimed at the entrance of the tunnel she had just come out of, and she stared in wonder. Moonlight, sunlight, both would be reflected down to those mirrors and into the tunnel, and the vividness of the paint was enough that it reflected the light itself too, and gave the perfect illusion of seamlessness that so confounded her in the room and tunnel previously.

And in the centre of this little room was a raised pedestal, with a red orb atop it.

Her head tilted curiously, and she made her way over to the orb, frowning a little, and then reaching out, touching it tentatively.

There was a click, and the orbs holder, three prong-like stakes sticking out of the pedestal, withdrew, sending the orb rolling, and then crashing to the hard stone below.

A soft crackling sound was heard, and what seemed like thick paintchips fell from the perfect orb, and she stared in wonder...

The orb was a pokeball!

She swiped it, putting it in her pocket and then looking for a way out of the room, noticing that the shaft where the sunlight was coming from seemed to have rungs inset into it.

Striding over to these, she started climbing, pausing a second and looking down, blinking in shock. The rungs below her had dissapeared!

But then she looked closer, and noticed that they were still there, there was just some kind of illusion that they werent, an odd sensation, especially considering that she could properly see the rung she was standing on.

She dragged herself out of the shaft, and flopped on the grass outside, picking up a stone from near the well, and then tossing it as far as she could. It dropped down and skittered across the path, bouncing against a building. She gave a sigh of releif. She was back outside!

Nevyda sprawled then, on the grass, just relaxing, letting the air wash against her face. She hadn't noticed it previously, but it had been unnaturally calm in the tunnels, the air a little too still.

But then she climbed to her feet and headed for the pokecentre, fingering the ball in her pocket, wonderingly. What was a pokeball doing in a place like that? Was it unnaturally powerful? Perhaps it had a pokemon in it?...

This thought made her smile slowly. If it was a pokemon, it would have to be powerful indeed!

Her steeped picked up a little bounce as she headed for the pokecentre.

* * *

Nevyda tilted her head quizzically, wondering why everyone was staring at her, and then caught sight of her reflection in a steel plate on the counter of the pokecentre, and her eyes widened. She was covered in dust. Head to foot! It was in her hair, her eyebrows, clothes, elbows, knees, all over her face...she looked like she had been frolicking with a Piloswine!

She mumbled an apology to Nurse Joy, and imediately headed for her room, grabbing a skirt and a shirt on the way past, and then making a beeline for the baths, locking herself in one and flinging off her clothes, sliding into the water.

A good ten minutes later, she slid out, wringing out her long black hair, combing it with her fingers, toweling herself off quickly and then climbing into her clothes.

She paused as she went to pick up her skirt, feeling the weight of the pokeball in it, and then drew it out slowly.

It was a deep, lustrous red, the button in the centre slightly milky, barely discernable against the rest of the ball. She touched the button gently with a finger, and let out a little gasp of surprise as a pokemon appeared in a blaze of light.

She had never seen anything like it. It stood at about her chest height, blue and black all over, and appeared to wearing clothes! And gloves! The gloves were wicked-looking, with a spike protruding from them, and there was another on it's chest. It was obviously canid in appearance...but walked on two legs, something most pokemon did not do.

"Er...hello..." She said, her voice squeaking a little, unconsciously straightening her skirt and hair.

Where am I? Asked a soft, masculine voice, and she gasped a little, looking behind her, and then at the pokemon, with wide eyes. It had sounded so close, like there was a voice speaking right behind her.

"Um...you're in Ecruteak, at the pokemon centre." She said quickly, looking about furtively a moment, as though someone else might have asked the question.

Bright, perceptive red eyes turned on her, locking on her own, and she, curiously, felt her knees going a little weak. Azalea? how did you come to be in possession of me? asked that soft voice, and she answered immediately.

"I found your pokeball! It was in the well. Well, that's not how I found it! I crawled. Got all dusty." She babbled, flushing slightly.

In a well? he asked, head tilted quizzically to one side, his ears perking.

"In a well!" she responded instantly. "...What are you?"

I am a Lucario. The pokemon replied, as if affronted, looking her up and down slowly, seeming to look through her.

"A...Lucario?" She asked, head tilting to one side just slightly. "I've...never heard of those before."

My kind are quite common...or we used to be. The blue pokemon replied with a slight frown, stretching slowly, peering sideways at the bath, and then back at her. May I use the water, mistress? he asked obediently.

"Ohsure!" She said with a vigorous nod, taking a step away from the water and sitting down. "Don't let me stop you!"

She watched, insanely curious, and more than a little awed as the pokemon began to strip in front of her.

First came off the gloves, and then the pants, and then he was naked, and leapt into the water, coming up and shaking his head furiously, shuddring all over.

It was odd, seeing a pokemon wear clothes. But they seemed to suit him, like they were made for him.

"What's your name?" She asked, sidling over closer to the edge of the water to peer at him, her head resting on her elbows, which, in turn, rested on the edge of the bath.

My name is Lucario. What is yours? He asked calmly, splashing water up over his shoulders.

"I'm Nevyda." She said breathlessly, smiling at him nervously.

The Lucario's head tilted to one side, and one of his ears perked curiously, What are you so curious about? he asked suddenly.

She flushed, like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "How did you know I was curious?" she asked. She was sure she had been hiding it so well...

I can see aura's. The Lucario stated, matter-of-factly. Curiosity is a sort of greenish colour... he added.

She frowned, tilting her head slightly, and then blinked once. "Well...I'm curious about you! You're a pokemon I've never seen before! And what were you doing in this ball?! And what was that room?! What type of pokemon are you?! Who was your previous master?!"

The lucario blinked at her slowly. Many questions... he murmured softly, and then gave a long sigh.

As I said, I am a Lucario, we used to be common, but seeing as you know nothing of me, I guess we are no longer as such. I am in the ball because my master bid me hide in it until he came back. As to the room, that was my masters finest work. The room of closed openness took his entire lifetime to build and paint, and once, as a test, I was put in that room, for just an hour. I found no way out. he said with a slight frown, and then sighed once more, taking a breath before continuing, I am a fighting type pokemon, as well as iron, or steel, I believe was the term someone called me once. And as to my previous master, he was the master artist Shan'bet'su, a monk, who lived in the bellsprout tower and painted many of the frescoes there.

Nevyda peered at the pokemon as he explained, her head slowly tilting, and she nodded as he finished. "One last question...what are these aura's?" She asked curiously.

Auras's are...kind of like an orb of glowing light. Depending on the persons emotion, it is different colours. The orb is always there, but it is hard to see, even we, who have the ability at birth, sometimes have trouble discerning a persons aura. Certain emotions colour a persons aura so vividly that we can see it from great distance, but an accurate interpretation of a persons aura comes not from experience with aura's, but experience with the person whose aura you are examining.

She nodded a few times, and tilted her head back the other way, brushing a strand of hair out of her face, putting it behind her ear. "What is my aura?" She asked curiously, almost breathlessly.

I see...weariness. he said immediately, his head canting to one side, sauntering closer to her in the water, closer to the edge, red eyes narrowed on her. Weariness is strong, but it's not the strongest...no, there are other emotions, a curious swirl of them... he continued, his voice lower, softer, quieter, his paws resting on the edge of the bath, near to her hands, his nose almost touching hers, eyes locked on her own.

Nevyda found herself frozen, her heart thudding in her chest despite itself, unable to look away.

His muzzle slid past her nose, towards her ear, and a gentle whisper of his words were murmured gently to her. I see weariness, it colours everything that goes before or after it...but I also see other things, just as strong, just as colourful...Desire... the word was purred in her ear, and she shivered despite herself, goosebumps breaking out over her flesh, Arousal... came the next word, like a soft, cajoling accusation, ...Need... A soft touch touched the side of her neck, and she gasped, the pokemons spell broken for the moment, and she jerked back with surprise.

The Lucario peered at her calmly. Sometime during the little speech, his paws had moved over her hands, taking them into his own, holding them gently, his eyes finding hers once more, narrowing slowly, his ears laying back as his soft voice laughing in the back of her mind. Do you deny anything that I have said? came the whisper.

She peered at him, dreadfully aware of just how strong her heart was beating in her chest, and she had to try three times before she could gather enough of her voice to squeak out a embarrassed, ashamed, "...No..." the heat rising on her cheeks.

Purring softly in her mind, the Lucario leaned forwards, his eyes slowly closing, and her own eyes widened, realising what he was going to do, her body tensing up just slightly as that muzzle came to rest against her lips in a gentle kiss, her eyes widening even further as a delightful shiver passed over her form.

That first kiss was like heaven, and she let herself sink into slowly, melting into the gentle touch of his muzzle against hers, and then the soft, almost timid press of his tongue, slipping out to seek hers tentatively.

Nevyda's mouth opened eagerly, and she tilted her head slightly, seeking to capture his tongue with her mouth needily, shifting closer, turning her hands over to grasp his paws, pulling him closer, and his soft voice laughed in her mind.

Now, now, Nevyda, don't go giving it away... it murmured, and she shook her head, releasing his paw and pulling him closer.

"I want to give it away!" she protested as she surfaced to take a breath of air, her cheeks flushed, a decidedly damp patch between her legs. "Don't you dare try to tell me that you don't want to either!" she almost snarled, pulling him in closer and pressing her mouth to his again, her short human tongue demanding access to his muzzle, which he almost submissively gave to her.

Her hand slid down his chest, pausing at the spike a moment, hesitant, and then plunged deeper into the water, groping around for a moment, before finding what she knew would be there. The hot, pulsing, needy length of pokemon cock.

A gentle squeeze was applied by her hand, and she smiled into the kiss as she felt him gasp, her thumb finding the tip and sliding around it slowly, in a gentle circle, caressing the crown, while her brow furrowed at the alien shape of it.

Without even a thought to what she was doing, she shifted her grip, and began to stroke up and down slowly, her movements impeded by the gentle weight of the water all around.

She broke the kiss once more, coming up for air, her other hand already sliding down her body to slip under her skirt, toying with herself gently, feeling the Lucario's hot breath washing over her.

...I want you... came the soft, needy confession, and she grinned, flushing even deeper and quickly tugging her panties down, giggling nervously like a schoolgirl as she kicked the panties off and then kissed him once more, more eagerly than ever, capturing his tongue and suckling at it lustfully.

Her grip tightened on the needy, canid length, and as she heard him gasp and felt a gentle spurt of warm liquid against her wrist, she grinned, still flushing, starting to shift nervously.

As if reading her mind, the Lucario gave a little growl of need, clasping her around the chest with both paws and dragging her into the water with him. She came up spluttering, and was about to protest this treatment when she felt the Lucario's arms grasp her around the hips, surprisingly strong, lifting her into position and pressing her back against the edge of the bath, her lower half in the water, his tongue descending on her neck and chest, lapping and tonguing at it heatedly.

At that point, it was all she could do to moan and arch her back slightly, her eyes widening fully as she felt the hot rod of heated flesh press all along her exposed, needy sex, the tip pressed against her clit, the mid-point buried in her sex, spreading her slightly already, making her eyes roll back as she felt the hot length caressing her needy centre.

One of Nevyda's hands slid down to guide him within her, but the powerful paw came up and pinned her wrist to the edge of the bath, those deep, soulful red eyes peering into her own, disarming her completely, making her whimper and melt against him, eagerly accepting the hot kiss that was pressed upon her as the lucario started to shift his hips, sliding that hot, needy length back and forth over her entrance, making her moan almost desperately around the kiss.

Her hips began to shift almost of their own accord, bouncing slowly along the hard red rod of pokemon cock pressed up against her entrance, gasping softly, feeling her body shudder and convulse without him even being within her!

She almost lost it right there and then as she felt the pokemon shift slowly, his hips sliding down and outwards slightly, his muzzle tilted up to keep the kiss in contact as his thick tip slid so perfectly along her sex to rest at the base, making her entrance spasm and clench in need.

Nevyda gave a loud, convulsive gasp, her head flinging back and eyes snapping wide open, a scream dying in her throat as the Lucario shifted and drove the entirety of his long, thick, eager length into her body, her body eagerly, needily, desperately accepting it, her sex clasping onto it and drawing it deeper with milking, clasping motions, her back arching as far as it would, the Lucario's muzzle buried in her exposed throat.

Her head came back down to stare at him with a smoldering, lustful glare, her hands sliding around his slightly smaller body, holding him to her, her erect nipples easily visible through her wet shirt, her skirt floating in the water as the Lucario gave her a moment to rest, to get used to the feeling of his hot length buried in her sex.

Nevyda leaned closer, and kissed him lustfully, meshing her tongue with his, feeling her heart beat fast and hard against her chest, her depths clenching and convulsing around his thick member even though it wasn't moving inside her in the slightest. "Take me..." She murmured gently in one of his ears, pulling him close.

As Mistress commands... he murmured subserviently, smiling up at her faintly, his red eyes gleaming, before he turned back to the task at hand.

A long hiss of exhaled air escaped Nevyda, and she bit her lip, her eyes drifting closer of their own accord as she felt the thick length sliding slowly out of her body, her depths closing up behind it, clenching at it, demanding that it remain within her, trying desperately to draw it back within her.

And she gasped aloud, unable to make a louder sound, her back arching fully once more, sodden hair whipping about as the pokemon thrust into her body once more, sinking that herd cock into her willing depths, spreading her around his thick tip once more, her eyes snapping open and another scream dying in her throat as she mouthed soundlessly at the ceiling. Her stomach muscles convulsed, in time with the deep spasms within her body, clenching, tightening about the cock, a vice-grip of strong, rapid muscular contraction, her breathing pausing in the complete rapture of release, every muscle in her body tense, the ones gripping around his long, delightful cock even more so, her hips shifting a few times convulsively as she orgasmed.

Her body dropped back down, relaxing enough to release him, her eyes wide and her breathing resuming, hard and fast, almost hyperventilating, the muscles within her sex still clenching at him, holding him deep within her body, the human peering down at the pokemon with a dazed expression.

A smile greeted her almost surprised expression, and her head was thrown back once more, her hip thudding against his as he thrust suddenly, her fingers digging into his shoulder as she hung on for dear life, trying desperately to hold back the next blessed release that threatened to crash over her with the second thrust, feeling as if she was going into shock, her entire being focused on the slippery feel of that long, rigid length of Lucario meat plunged into her depths.

"F-fuck me!" she begged breathlessly against his cheek, her cheeks flushing deeply at her own wantonness, her hand shaking slightly as her entire body trembled with the force of the sensations crashing through her body, her other hand sliding down his back, pulling him tighter against her, her eyes widening once more as she felt more of that thick length slide into her body, just that little bit deeper, just that little bit further.

There was no acknowledgment from the Lucario, but her pressed his muzzle in against her neck, lapping at it lustfully, letting his hot breath wash over her flesh as he shifted backwards slowly, so that his length slid almost teasingly slowly out of her sex, before he drove it back in to the hilt with a single, needy motion.

"Fuck!" Nevyda swore, heedless of how loud she was being, gripping him even tighter to her body as she struggled to get her hips tighter to his own, hot little trickles of her immense wetness seeping from her body as the Lucario gave her his third thrust. Already, it felt like it had been hours to her, hours of crashing intensity that still coursed through her body.

She forcefully grasped his muzzle, and kissed him fiercely, her eyes narrowed to slit, her tongue seeking his like a little dart of flame, shifting her hips eagerly against his rigid length, sliding it up and down just a little within her, her sex clenching around it eagerly, needily, lubricating it with her hot liquids as her inner muscles clenching around him snugly, muscular contractions working from the base of her sex, right to the depths of it, milking his cock, drawing it deeper within her, loathe to let it escape.

Hands continuing to hold the Lucario's muzzle against her mouth, she humped her hips, encouraging him to hump into her, which he did, sliding that rigid red length out of her, and then burying it back in her needy, convulsing cunt, spreading her eager flesh around him, making her moan into his mouth as their hot breath mingled intimately.

Another thrust quickly followed the first, and Nevyda arched her back, spasming slightly, unwilling to break the kiss. But her body was demanding that she scream her passion to the sky, to proclaim the ultimate completion taking place within her right that very instant, and like a person finding their fetish for the first time, she came easy. Nay, she didn't just come easy, she came repeatedly, one long spasm of delicious intensity that had stars exploding in her mind and pleasure exploding through her body, her breathing seeming to stop completely as the Lucario started to thrust properly into her body.

Her hips continued to hump down against the canid pokemon, and somewhere in the back of her pleasure-riddled mind, she noted that she could feel that thick knot against her sex, thudding against her with every motion, and somehow, she was aware of its purpose, it's meaning, her body eagerly gripping onto him, kneading and working the thick cock within her, spasming around it, drawing it as deep as it would go, hungrily consuming it, demanding the knot.

Nevyda became away of soft groans and gasps of pleasure in the air around them, but she was so far gone that she didn't know which of them was making the sound, her hips slamming down onto him as hard as she could, feeling that rigid rod of flesh stabbing into her depths again and again,her hands grapsing around his back and shoulders as she lost all control of her body, falling over him and just shuddering through the long, impossibly intense orgasm wracking her body.

The Lucario began to thrust harder and deeper, his knot starting to sink into her, and a sudden change overcame the humans body. She shifted back a little, her breathing hard and shallow, like a running horses braying after a race, her body constantly convulsing and squeezing around his cock, even as she began to jab her hips down onto his, breathlessly panting into his ear, over and over, "give-it-to-me! Oh-god-fucking-give-it-to-me!"

With a quick shift of his hips, the Lucario did as ordered, drawing back and lustfully snarling at her, his eyes clenched closed and face screwed up, teeth bared as he slammed his hips hard against her, the thrust so hard, so viciously lustful that he popped up onto his toe-tips on the follow-through, his knot slamming past her resistance, driving into her.

Nevyda's breathing stopped completely, and her heart seemed to stutter as she felt her sex stretching around that deliciously thick knot, shifting her hips rapidly against him, as hard and as viciously as she could, her cry of pleasure stifled into his shoulder as her fingertips dug into his flesh, her body squeezing impossibly tight around the welcome, desperately hungered cock. This was as good as it got, that thick tip buried so deep inside her, his hips still moving against hers, her entire body tensed hard and rigid around him.

But then the first burst of hot Lucario cream exploded into her, and she snapped, throwing her head back and screaming to the roof, her entire body spasming around him in lustful convulsions, her fingertips dragging lines through the fuzz of his back as she arched violently against him, overcome by complete and utter rapture, her scream stuttering into a kind of squeak with every thick burst of canid cum that splashed against her inner walls. She could feel every last droplet, every spurt, every gush of that delightfully thick, sticky cream as it coated and filled her depths, and she was lost to it, her own hot liquids mingling with it, her depths convulsing repeatedly around the cock, milking it, desperately trying to siphon off the last little trickles into her body as she slumped, complete.

It was a good few minutes before she could clearly think again, and it was only then that she felt the slight sting of teeth marks in her shoulder, accumulated sometime during her explosive, mind-numbing orgasm. Her hand shook so much when she went to put a strand of hair behind her ear that she gave up, stroking her hand jerkily across the Lucario's back, feeling his hot breath wash over her neck as he rested, and she became aware of how sore she was. How deliciously sore her depths were.

Red eyes lifted to meet hers, and she smiled nervously, giggling like a schoolgirl as the lucario lifted her and drew her out of the water, rolling them onto her discarded towel. Her cheeks flushed bright red as she felt hot liquids seeping out of her used body, dribbling down the insides of her thighs, and she straightened her wet clothes subconsciously, trying to get her breathing back down to something approaching normal.

The world swum pleasantly around her, and she stroked at the Lucario's back once, before her hand fell to her side, her eyes closing, letting herself drift off.

* * *

A pair of wide, vulpine eyes watched through a crack in the curtains covering the window, and then Ninetales tilted her head, amazed. This was certainly news!