Story Notes:
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon
Neptune Vs. Stratos
"So you must be Damian. My name is..." Damian looks darkly at Neptune,
"I don't care who you are but I have no problem taking you down if you get in my way. I came here for Styx and I'm not leaving without him." In an instant Damian releases Thanatos and the black Typhlosion glares darkly at the two. Mars hides slightly gripping Neptune's arm but Neptune nods slightly,
"We have not come to take Styx from you. We have simply come for a portion of his DNA. We actually need DNA from Thanatos as well so if it wouldn't be too much trouble this could be resolved without unnecessary fighting." Damian eyes him suspiciously,
"Why do you need their DNA? Are you cloning them?!" Neptune shakes his head,
"Frankly I do not know myself. You see, we are both part of a criminal organization known as Team Galactic stationed in the Sinnoh region. Our Boss has requested a DNA sample from all four of these 'legendary four' for a reason not known even to us admins." Damian is silent and he and Thanatos exchange looks,
"What do you think? Should we just give them a hair and a shard of Styx's armor or do we just take them out here?" Thanatos speaks but telepathically and soon Damian nods, "That's true..." He then turns to Neptune, "What do we get out of this?" Neptune and Mars look at each other,
"What do you want?" Damian scratches his head,
"I can tell you're strong. In return for both Thanatos' and Styx's DNA I want you to help me capture Yakira. The Sinnoh Legend has evaded my clutches for many years but she will be mine, although I do not want you to do anything unless both Styx and Thanatos are defeated. You will act as a second wave. Do we have a deal?" Neptune is silent for a minute, "Come on! Yes or no?!" Neptune nods,
"It's a deal." Damian reaches up and plucks a hair from the black Typhlosion making him flinch slightly and Damian hands it forward,
"This is all you need from him?" Neptune nods and takes the hair storing it in a small vial. Mars and Neptune move out of the way as Damian walks over to the sealed wall, "Well that's just fantastic... a riddle lock." Damian clears his throat, "What was born at the same time as the earth and ages along with all living beings but is never older then five weeks old?" Damian is silent for a moment and before long turns around, "Can you two think of anything?" Neptune slides his hood down and nods,
"*** ****." Suddenly the seal glows brightly and fades away and within a few seconds the entire wall slides down into an opening revealing another path into a large room. Damian walks forwards followed by Neptune and Mars into the dark room,
"Thanatos, there are torches on the wall." Thanatos nods and blasts fire in a circle along the wall illuminating the entire room. The walls and floor are flat and the room is in a dome shape. In the center of the room is a large, raised, rectangular slab of ground and Damian walks over to it smiling darkly. After standing next to the stone slab for a moment Damian reads the text engraved on it, "Here sleeps the mighty demon Styx. If you seek to wield this power you are a fool and will be struck down where you stand. However, if you command the brother of legend you will harness this gift of evil or good." Damian takes a step back and Thanatos steps forward slamming his fist into the slab making it crack slightly then crack more before it finally explodes out in every direction leaving a thick cloud of dust in the room. The cloud slowly begins to fade revealing the silhouette of a Kobutops standing where the slab used to be. The Kobutops is a dark crimson color, the color of blood and his gaze is fully locked on Thanatos. Damian takes a step towards the demonic looking Pokemon and stands fearlessly in front of him, "Styx, the legend of Kanto. I have harnessed the power of your brother legend." Styx is silent as he looks over to Thanatos and then back to Damian. Styx then drops to a knee in a sort of knight's bow and Damian reaches out and snaps off a very small piece of Styx's armored body before Styx disappears into a black pokeball. Neptune walks forward and holds out his hand,
"Thank you Damian." Damian turns and hands Neptune the piece,
"I didn't do it for you... anyway, you had better hold up on your end of our deal or else I will be coming after you." Neptune nods,
"I never go back on a promise or a deal. Consider Yakira yours." Damian nods and walks past them followed by the black Typhlosion and soon even the neck flame of Thanatos is unseeable in the darkness. Mars lets out a big breathe as she looks at Neptune,
"That guy scared the hell out of me! Thought he was going to order an attack at any second." Neptune nods,
"Yes and by the story we overheard told by... I forget if it was Vecransyh or not but apparently it took all of the Pokemon of all of the ones in that group to take down Thanatos. Even I don't think I could have won. I'm glad we don't have to find out though." Mars gives him a questioning look,
"How are you going to go about getting Yakira?" Neptune looks down,
"I'm not sure... one thing I hate more then not fulfilling a promise is betraying someone's trust in me." Mars sighs,
"Thank you for being so strong back there... all I could do was cower when I'm usually really brave." Neptune shakes his head and looks at Mars with a smile,
"Fear is a natural thing. It's those who are always brave that end up letting what they believe to be strength go to their heads. " Mars smiles,
"Well look at you being all philosophical." Neptune lets out a chuckle,
"I get that a lot." Mars is silent for a moment and Neptune looks at her curiously, "Mars...?"
"There's someone else. Isn't there?" Neptune is silent for a moment,
"I don't want to talk about my past Mars." Mars lets out a soft sigh as she looks down sadly,
"I knew it..." Neptune raises his hand under her chin bringing her head up and he joins together with her into a kiss. The kiss lasts for a few seconds before the two come apart slowly. Mars has a dreamy look on her face as she sways slightly, "Wow..." Neptune smiles,
"Don't go thinking that I have absolutely no feelings for you. I just still need time okay?" Mars nods with the same look and a deep blush on her face.
Meanwhile back in Snowpoint the seven days have passed uneventfully and the ship to Sunnyshore finally arrives in the port south of the city. The group sits around in their circle of couches along with Gallade, Gardevoir, Bane, Ren, Roze, Azura, Tara and her Umbreon, who is in his normal form on his back stretched across her lap as she rubs his belly,
"So what time are we getting on the boat?" Stratos looks over to his left and watches Ren playing with Azura as Roze sits against the side of the couch watching them,
"I think we're getting on when they finish restocking supplies and stuff." Tara nods,
"That'll take a few hours at least." Tara then directs her attention over to Bane, "What a cute baby Ralts!" Gardevoir smiles as she holds Bane up under his arms,
"And what do we say when people compliment us?" Bane simply babbles baby talk while giggling with a happy smile on his face, "That's right we say thank you!" Tara gives Gardevoir an odd look,
"So does it hurt to lay an egg?" Gardevoir nods,
"Eggs are small but large so yeah it hurts... a lot."
"Seems like Gardevoirs and Gallades would be mammals by what you look like." Gallade smiles,
"Actually, Gardevoirs and Gallades have recently begun turning into mammals by evolution. It's random though. Anyway, I've already got a dawn stone so Bane can be a Gallade once he evolves." Kazamaru tilts his head,
"Why so soon?" Gardevoir smiles,
"Because of the incredibly feminine appearance of Kirlia. Ralts isn't bad, it's more like a robe then a dress but Kirlia is a full on skirt and back when I was growing up the entirety of the male Kirlias got teased by every Pokemon that realized they weren't a girl... and don't even get me started on the male Gardevoirs... the poor guys..." Gallade chuckles,
"Took Scarlet forever to find a dawn stone for me and I almost became a Gardevoir myself but fortunately Scarlet had an Everstone that I got to hold on to." Gardevoir kisses him on the cheek with a smile,
"Aww, come on. I'm sure you'd have made a very handsome Gardevoir." Gallade raises an eyebrow,
"Two words that should never be right next to each other, 'Handsome' and 'Gardevoir'. It just doesn't work." Everyone laughs as the doors to the Pokemon center slide open slowly and Neptune and Mars walk in and up to the counter where they each hand the nurse their Pokemon. Everyone's gaze turns directly to the Team Galactic admins and Vecransyh narrows his eyes in confusion and anger from the sight of one of the admins that captured Xylina,
"Hey you!" Neptune and Mars look towards the voice, "You're that guy who kicked me in the stomach!" Neptune is silent and he glances at Mars before speaking,
"Yeah, sorry about that but you interfered." Vecransyh stands up looking angrily at them,
"And I still haven't forgotten about how you took Xylina, Mars." Mars smiles darkly,
"It was a direct order and I don't deny those. You should keep a closer eye on your Pokemon." Latias stands,
"What are you doing here?" Neptune is silent and after a moment Mars once again speaks,
"Just taking care of a little bit of unfinished business before heading back to HQ, nothing involving any of you though so just be good and stay out of it." Ren holds out a paw as Azura walks over to the two Admins,
"Azura come back!" Neptune bends down and hoists up the baby Buizel who giggles playfully and paws at his hood,
"Don't worry. We have no orders to do anything to any of you so you don't have to consider us enemies right now." Neptune sets down Azura and the tiny Pokemon runs back over to Ren and Roze still giggling. Ren looks suspiciously at Neptune,
"Who are you?" Neptune bows slightly,
"My name is Neptune, admin of team Galactic. You are Ren if I am not mistaken. Easy to tell by how you two look at each other that you are indeed that legendary pair. Anyway, I'm actually glad you're all here because I've been meaning to tell you that I'm joining the Pokemon league tourney in a year and I was hoping that I could battle at least one of you there." Kazamaru blinks,
"Aren't you like... evil?" Neptune shakes his head,
"I'm off duty technically so I'm pretty much just a regular trainer." Neptune then directs his attention to Stratos, "Hey, kid." Stratos blinks and tilts his head at the admin,
"Umm, yes?"
"How about a battle?" Mars tugs on his sleeve and talks quietly into his ear,
"We don't have time for that we need to head back to headquarters!" Neptune chuckles,
"Aww come on, just a quick one?" Mars sighs,
"Fine... but make it quick." Stratos hops off of the couch and walks over to Neptune staring up into his hood,
"You look like Mr. Neo with that hood!" Neptune smiles under his hood,
"I've met him a few times. Has a few Lucario that follow him around right?" Stratos nods,
"Yup, that's the one. Hey! If I win you've gotta show us your face!" Neptune pats him on the head,
"You beat me I'll show YOU my face." Stratos nods,
"Okay Mr. Neptune!" Yakira turns her head to look at Vecransyh, who has sat down as Neptune and Mars get their Pokemon back from the nurse,
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Vecransyh looks at her,
"You beat him right? He can't be too tough, I mean, Stratos has himself and Drake's entire team." Yakira looks down,
"Right..." Xylina smiles,
"Don't worry Yakira. Galactic admins are weak compared to any of us." Yakira flashes back to when Neptune's Blaziken wiped out the strongest member of her clan with a single attack then proceeded to knock her unconscious. She looks down with a sigh as everyone stands up to follow Stratos and the two admins out of the Pokemon center,
"Right..."
A moment later Stratos is standing across a large patch of snowless land from Neptune, who looks around curiously,
"What happened here? The ground is completely cleared!" Latias raises her hand and Tara looks down embarrassed,
"That would be my doing!" Neptune looks over at her with a smile under his hood,
"Must have been Draco Meteor and by the look of it the attack was on her Pokemon." Neptune motions slightly to Tara as he says this and then he looks back to Stratos, "Ready?" Stratos nods with his usual smile,
"Are you?!" Neptune chuckles,
"I'm not going easy on you Stratos!" Neptune brings a pokeball out from his cloak and Stratos does the same with one from his belt,
"I never want anyone to!" Swampert rises from her ball with a flash of light and smirks,
"This guy'll be a pushover!"
"Don't be fooled by appearances. Look at your trainer." Swampert stops and looks back at Stratos,
"Well, you've got me there." In a flash of light a large, green, female dragonfly appears and sets down in front of Swampert. The Flygon charges a pulse of purple energy and fires it but Swampert dashes out of the way and leaps upwards above Flygon before taking a large breathe and releasing a powerful waterfall that pins Flygon to the ground and Swampert comes down and slams her arm into her before jumping backwards and taking in another huge breathe. Flygon smirks and flies into the air avoiding the powerful blast of water and flies back down slamming into the ground creating a powerful earthquake that pulses into Swampert making her fall forward onto her hands all the while not taking her eyes off of Flygon who releases an onslaught of powerful Dragon Pulses at Swampert who barely is able to avoid a good number of them before she is hit by one making her slam into the ground and then be pinned to it by a multiple number of them. After the attacks stop Flygon lands on the ground waiting for any signs of movement from Swampert and before five seconds pass Swampert weakly gets up and begins charging a glowing orb in her mouth. Flygon's eyes go wide and she leaps into the air in an attempt to avoid the attack but Swampert redirects at the last second blasting Flygon with the Hydro Cannon attack. Swampert then falls forward defeated as Flygon sets down looking fairly winded from the high amount of damage she's taken. Stratos growls as Swampert disappears into her ball and he swaps out for his second and Neptune returns Flygon to her ball causing Stratos to blink,
"You're switching out?" Neptune nods,
"Wouldn't be fair if I beat you with only one Pokemon would it?" Stratos narrows his eyes,
"I'll make you eat those words!!" Neptune calls out a black Hyena that howls towards the sky. The Mightyena then growls as it glares at Stratos. Arcanine rises from his pokeball and howls loudly before growling fiercely at the Mightyena coating his teeth in flames. Arcanine begins releasing powerful blasts of fire but the Mightyena easily dodges then all releasing pulses of dark energy that both counters and redirects all of Arcanine's attacks simply because of it's incredibly higher amount of concentrated power. Arcanine and Mightyena look at each other breathing heavily at both having to expel most of their own power to counter one another so many times. Neptune grins under his hood and holds out his thumb before turning it downwards,
"Finish him." Mightyena lunges forward and fires a shadow ball as Arcanine unleashes a flamethrower. The Ball of shadow energy cuts through the stream of flames exploding on contact with Arcanine making him fall forward. Arcanine weakly opens an eye and looks towards Neptune as he recalls Mightyena,
(Such... power...) Arcanine then turns into a red silhouette and disappears into his pokeball,
"Stratos is this really the extend of your abilities? You're disappointing me." Stratos nods,
"The let's up the ante and go doubles!" Ren and Roze appear from the couple's ball and Latias takes Azura into her arms. Neptune smiles,
(This should be interesting.) Blaziken appears from his pokeball followed by a large blue dog-like Pokemon with a large purple mane that flows behind her. On the sidelines everyone is in shock at the appearance of Suicune the legendary water Pokemon. Yakira flinches at the sight of Blaziken,
(Let's see if Ren and Roze can put up a better fight then I could.) Ren and Roze exchange nods and Roze creates black clouds in the sky and a soft rainfall follows. Without any warning Roze is blasted by a combination of a Hydro pump and Fire blast both of which are at a type disadvantage but still cause a high amount of damage from the sheer power of the attacks. Ren wastes no time raining a series of thunders directing them all on Suicune effectively causing an immensely high amount of damage to the water legendary and she looks weakly at Blaziken before shaking her head and falling forward. Before either Ren or Roze can react Blaziken dashes up to Roze upper-cutting her into the air but when he jumps up to perform a combo he's struck by a thunder attack and drops back down smoking slightly from the intense attack and Roze falls with a thud to the ground. Blaziken looks down at her before slowly his head to Ren with rage filled eyes and shakes his head slowly before releasing a flurry of punches on the Luxray taking him down in under a second. Stratos looks down as he recalls Ren and then Roze after waking her up and healing her with a few healing items and her and Azura both disappear into the ball, "Come on Stratos you can't be done yet." Stratos looks up and nods and looks back at Latias,
"Wish me luck mommy!" Latias smiles slightly and nods,
"Good luck." Neptune gives him a questioning look,
"No Latias? Then I suppose we're back to singles. That's fine with me." Stratos takes off his belt and hat as he walks onto the field putting up his guard,
"Hope you've got something good enough for me!" Neptune returns Suicune to her ball and leaves Blaziken on the field,
"I do. Let's see you beat him." Stratos runs forward and Blaziken folds his arms with a smirk,
"Oh, please." Blaziken slams his foot into Stratos' stomach but on contact move his foot upwards sending Stratos into the air. He leaps into the air with a fire punch ready but goes wide-eyed when Stratos catches himself in mid-air and forms a Mist ball in his hands before throwing it down impacting with Blaziken's fire punch. The bird slams hard into the ground and Stratos lands on top of him slamming a force-palm into Blaziken's chest. The fighting-type cringes in pain before punching Stratos off of him and stands up. Stratos smirks and Blaziken runs towards him. Stratos ducks out of the way of a mach-punch and throws his paw against Blaziken's chest before releasing a psycho boost that pulses through his body making him cough up blood and fall forward unconscious. Neptune claps his hands as Blaziken returns to his ball,
"Very impressive Stratos but you forget that none of my Pokemon we're defeated besides Suicune. Four left. Can you do it?" Stratos nods with a determined look,
"I believe I can." Neptune releases Mightyena from his ball and the wolf growls menacingly at Stratos before the two dash to the side as Stratos throws and Aura sphere and Mightyena unleashes a dark pulse. Mightyena leaps at Stratos with teeth enshrouded in flames and Stratos stops and looks up at the descending wolf before he raises his paw casually and blasts Mightyena with an Aura sphere before jumping at him and slamming his stomach with his palm. Stratos does a double back-flip and lands facing Neptune in his fighting stance, "I know I can." Neptune lets out a breath,
(If this keeps up I might actually lose this. No! I can't lose. All of my Pokemon are weakened from fighting the others but I still have Xatu and Pichu... but should I really put him in harms way just to win?) Neptune returns Mightyena and switches out the pokeball for another before Flygon returns to the field in the usual flash of light. Stratos look up into the sky as dark clouds begin forming and he knows what is about to happen; Draco meteor. Flygon unleashes the onslaught of meteors upon Stratos and the little Lucario dodges and jumps over the oncoming space rocks before one collides with his entire body leaving him on his back, "You done?" Stratos stands up and brushes himself off with a smile,
"You haven't lost yet." Stratos throws out his arm and Flygon becomes encased in a ball of darkness that soon fades away leaving the dragon sleeping on the ground. Stratos then throws out his other arm causing a giant hand made from silver energy to wrap around the sleeping dragon and squeeze powerfully before letting the defeated Pokemon fall to the ground. Neptune returns Flygon and growls,
"You won't win Stratos." Stratos smirks,
"Two left." Xatu rises from his pokeball and stands with his wings folded over his entire body besides his head. Stratos stands with his guard up but lowers it after a moment of simply looking at the bird. He then shrugs and runs forward before being blasted by a wall of psychic energy when Xatu throws his wings out. Xatu then folds his wings back in and stands once again. Stratos shakes off the attack and grabs the Pokemon in a crushing grip before the hand explodes and another wave of psychic energy envelopes Stratos. Stratos stays down for a moment before weakly standing up only to be blasted by another pulse of energy. Stratos stays down and the field becomes quiet as Neptune returns Xatu to his ball,
"You put up a good fight but you're still not ready to beat me." Neptune looks over to Mars and she walks over to him before the two disappear in a flash of psychic energy.
After Stratos and the rest of his Pokemon are healed at the Pokemon center the group heads onto the boat docked at Snowpoint pier and the ship sets sail just as the sun sets. Stratos sits on the bed next to Latias looking at the ground,
"I lost..." Latias puts her arms around her son from the back,
"Come on, I'm sure you'll get another chance in the Pokemon league. Just another reason to get there right?" Stratos turns and looks at his mother with a smile,
"You're right. I have to train harder so we're all the best we can be!"
Meanwhile back at Team Galactic HQ Neptune and Mars are standing in front of Cyrus as he turns the small chip of armor in his fingers,
"So then the mission was a complete success?" Neptune nods,
"It was indeed Master Cyrus." Cyrus turns his head to look at the admin,
"And the final DNA sample?"
"We have units in every city searching for the fourth legend but I managed to get the DNA you requested specially." Cyrus looks intrigued as Neptune holds up a pitch-black hair,
"Really? Well, you are much more capable then I could have imagined Neptune." Neptune shakes his head as he slips the hair into a vial and places it on the desk,
"Please sir. Split the credit for this mission between both Mars and I because we both did an equal share of the work." Cyrus nods,
"Very well; you have both succeeded in the mission of collecting DNA from Styx, Thanatos, The guardian of the Snowpoint Lake and of course, the best one of all, Stratos. With this acquisition experiment 494 is almost complete!" Mars gives him a questioning look,
"Sir, what is experiment 494? We've been kept in the dark with nothing but a name for this entire time."
"But my dear, experiment 494 is exactly as its name implies: A new Pokemon. Now then, no more questions you are both excused." Neptune and Mars both bow and speak in unison,
"Sir!"
"I don't care who you are but I have no problem taking you down if you get in my way. I came here for Styx and I'm not leaving without him." In an instant Damian releases Thanatos and the black Typhlosion glares darkly at the two. Mars hides slightly gripping Neptune's arm but Neptune nods slightly,
"We have not come to take Styx from you. We have simply come for a portion of his DNA. We actually need DNA from Thanatos as well so if it wouldn't be too much trouble this could be resolved without unnecessary fighting." Damian eyes him suspiciously,
"Why do you need their DNA? Are you cloning them?!" Neptune shakes his head,
"Frankly I do not know myself. You see, we are both part of a criminal organization known as Team Galactic stationed in the Sinnoh region. Our Boss has requested a DNA sample from all four of these 'legendary four' for a reason not known even to us admins." Damian is silent and he and Thanatos exchange looks,
"What do you think? Should we just give them a hair and a shard of Styx's armor or do we just take them out here?" Thanatos speaks but telepathically and soon Damian nods, "That's true..." He then turns to Neptune, "What do we get out of this?" Neptune and Mars look at each other,
"What do you want?" Damian scratches his head,
"I can tell you're strong. In return for both Thanatos' and Styx's DNA I want you to help me capture Yakira. The Sinnoh Legend has evaded my clutches for many years but she will be mine, although I do not want you to do anything unless both Styx and Thanatos are defeated. You will act as a second wave. Do we have a deal?" Neptune is silent for a minute, "Come on! Yes or no?!" Neptune nods,
"It's a deal." Damian reaches up and plucks a hair from the black Typhlosion making him flinch slightly and Damian hands it forward,
"This is all you need from him?" Neptune nods and takes the hair storing it in a small vial. Mars and Neptune move out of the way as Damian walks over to the sealed wall, "Well that's just fantastic... a riddle lock." Damian clears his throat, "What was born at the same time as the earth and ages along with all living beings but is never older then five weeks old?" Damian is silent for a moment and before long turns around, "Can you two think of anything?" Neptune slides his hood down and nods,
"*** ****." Suddenly the seal glows brightly and fades away and within a few seconds the entire wall slides down into an opening revealing another path into a large room. Damian walks forwards followed by Neptune and Mars into the dark room,
"Thanatos, there are torches on the wall." Thanatos nods and blasts fire in a circle along the wall illuminating the entire room. The walls and floor are flat and the room is in a dome shape. In the center of the room is a large, raised, rectangular slab of ground and Damian walks over to it smiling darkly. After standing next to the stone slab for a moment Damian reads the text engraved on it, "Here sleeps the mighty demon Styx. If you seek to wield this power you are a fool and will be struck down where you stand. However, if you command the brother of legend you will harness this gift of evil or good." Damian takes a step back and Thanatos steps forward slamming his fist into the slab making it crack slightly then crack more before it finally explodes out in every direction leaving a thick cloud of dust in the room. The cloud slowly begins to fade revealing the silhouette of a Kobutops standing where the slab used to be. The Kobutops is a dark crimson color, the color of blood and his gaze is fully locked on Thanatos. Damian takes a step towards the demonic looking Pokemon and stands fearlessly in front of him, "Styx, the legend of Kanto. I have harnessed the power of your brother legend." Styx is silent as he looks over to Thanatos and then back to Damian. Styx then drops to a knee in a sort of knight's bow and Damian reaches out and snaps off a very small piece of Styx's armored body before Styx disappears into a black pokeball. Neptune walks forward and holds out his hand,
"Thank you Damian." Damian turns and hands Neptune the piece,
"I didn't do it for you... anyway, you had better hold up on your end of our deal or else I will be coming after you." Neptune nods,
"I never go back on a promise or a deal. Consider Yakira yours." Damian nods and walks past them followed by the black Typhlosion and soon even the neck flame of Thanatos is unseeable in the darkness. Mars lets out a big breathe as she looks at Neptune,
"That guy scared the hell out of me! Thought he was going to order an attack at any second." Neptune nods,
"Yes and by the story we overheard told by... I forget if it was Vecransyh or not but apparently it took all of the Pokemon of all of the ones in that group to take down Thanatos. Even I don't think I could have won. I'm glad we don't have to find out though." Mars gives him a questioning look,
"How are you going to go about getting Yakira?" Neptune looks down,
"I'm not sure... one thing I hate more then not fulfilling a promise is betraying someone's trust in me." Mars sighs,
"Thank you for being so strong back there... all I could do was cower when I'm usually really brave." Neptune shakes his head and looks at Mars with a smile,
"Fear is a natural thing. It's those who are always brave that end up letting what they believe to be strength go to their heads. " Mars smiles,
"Well look at you being all philosophical." Neptune lets out a chuckle,
"I get that a lot." Mars is silent for a moment and Neptune looks at her curiously, "Mars...?"
"There's someone else. Isn't there?" Neptune is silent for a moment,
"I don't want to talk about my past Mars." Mars lets out a soft sigh as she looks down sadly,
"I knew it..." Neptune raises his hand under her chin bringing her head up and he joins together with her into a kiss. The kiss lasts for a few seconds before the two come apart slowly. Mars has a dreamy look on her face as she sways slightly, "Wow..." Neptune smiles,
"Don't go thinking that I have absolutely no feelings for you. I just still need time okay?" Mars nods with the same look and a deep blush on her face.
Meanwhile back in Snowpoint the seven days have passed uneventfully and the ship to Sunnyshore finally arrives in the port south of the city. The group sits around in their circle of couches along with Gallade, Gardevoir, Bane, Ren, Roze, Azura, Tara and her Umbreon, who is in his normal form on his back stretched across her lap as she rubs his belly,
"So what time are we getting on the boat?" Stratos looks over to his left and watches Ren playing with Azura as Roze sits against the side of the couch watching them,
"I think we're getting on when they finish restocking supplies and stuff." Tara nods,
"That'll take a few hours at least." Tara then directs her attention over to Bane, "What a cute baby Ralts!" Gardevoir smiles as she holds Bane up under his arms,
"And what do we say when people compliment us?" Bane simply babbles baby talk while giggling with a happy smile on his face, "That's right we say thank you!" Tara gives Gardevoir an odd look,
"So does it hurt to lay an egg?" Gardevoir nods,
"Eggs are small but large so yeah it hurts... a lot."
"Seems like Gardevoirs and Gallades would be mammals by what you look like." Gallade smiles,
"Actually, Gardevoirs and Gallades have recently begun turning into mammals by evolution. It's random though. Anyway, I've already got a dawn stone so Bane can be a Gallade once he evolves." Kazamaru tilts his head,
"Why so soon?" Gardevoir smiles,
"Because of the incredibly feminine appearance of Kirlia. Ralts isn't bad, it's more like a robe then a dress but Kirlia is a full on skirt and back when I was growing up the entirety of the male Kirlias got teased by every Pokemon that realized they weren't a girl... and don't even get me started on the male Gardevoirs... the poor guys..." Gallade chuckles,
"Took Scarlet forever to find a dawn stone for me and I almost became a Gardevoir myself but fortunately Scarlet had an Everstone that I got to hold on to." Gardevoir kisses him on the cheek with a smile,
"Aww, come on. I'm sure you'd have made a very handsome Gardevoir." Gallade raises an eyebrow,
"Two words that should never be right next to each other, 'Handsome' and 'Gardevoir'. It just doesn't work." Everyone laughs as the doors to the Pokemon center slide open slowly and Neptune and Mars walk in and up to the counter where they each hand the nurse their Pokemon. Everyone's gaze turns directly to the Team Galactic admins and Vecransyh narrows his eyes in confusion and anger from the sight of one of the admins that captured Xylina,
"Hey you!" Neptune and Mars look towards the voice, "You're that guy who kicked me in the stomach!" Neptune is silent and he glances at Mars before speaking,
"Yeah, sorry about that but you interfered." Vecransyh stands up looking angrily at them,
"And I still haven't forgotten about how you took Xylina, Mars." Mars smiles darkly,
"It was a direct order and I don't deny those. You should keep a closer eye on your Pokemon." Latias stands,
"What are you doing here?" Neptune is silent and after a moment Mars once again speaks,
"Just taking care of a little bit of unfinished business before heading back to HQ, nothing involving any of you though so just be good and stay out of it." Ren holds out a paw as Azura walks over to the two Admins,
"Azura come back!" Neptune bends down and hoists up the baby Buizel who giggles playfully and paws at his hood,
"Don't worry. We have no orders to do anything to any of you so you don't have to consider us enemies right now." Neptune sets down Azura and the tiny Pokemon runs back over to Ren and Roze still giggling. Ren looks suspiciously at Neptune,
"Who are you?" Neptune bows slightly,
"My name is Neptune, admin of team Galactic. You are Ren if I am not mistaken. Easy to tell by how you two look at each other that you are indeed that legendary pair. Anyway, I'm actually glad you're all here because I've been meaning to tell you that I'm joining the Pokemon league tourney in a year and I was hoping that I could battle at least one of you there." Kazamaru blinks,
"Aren't you like... evil?" Neptune shakes his head,
"I'm off duty technically so I'm pretty much just a regular trainer." Neptune then directs his attention to Stratos, "Hey, kid." Stratos blinks and tilts his head at the admin,
"Umm, yes?"
"How about a battle?" Mars tugs on his sleeve and talks quietly into his ear,
"We don't have time for that we need to head back to headquarters!" Neptune chuckles,
"Aww come on, just a quick one?" Mars sighs,
"Fine... but make it quick." Stratos hops off of the couch and walks over to Neptune staring up into his hood,
"You look like Mr. Neo with that hood!" Neptune smiles under his hood,
"I've met him a few times. Has a few Lucario that follow him around right?" Stratos nods,
"Yup, that's the one. Hey! If I win you've gotta show us your face!" Neptune pats him on the head,
"You beat me I'll show YOU my face." Stratos nods,
"Okay Mr. Neptune!" Yakira turns her head to look at Vecransyh, who has sat down as Neptune and Mars get their Pokemon back from the nurse,
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Vecransyh looks at her,
"You beat him right? He can't be too tough, I mean, Stratos has himself and Drake's entire team." Yakira looks down,
"Right..." Xylina smiles,
"Don't worry Yakira. Galactic admins are weak compared to any of us." Yakira flashes back to when Neptune's Blaziken wiped out the strongest member of her clan with a single attack then proceeded to knock her unconscious. She looks down with a sigh as everyone stands up to follow Stratos and the two admins out of the Pokemon center,
"Right..."
A moment later Stratos is standing across a large patch of snowless land from Neptune, who looks around curiously,
"What happened here? The ground is completely cleared!" Latias raises her hand and Tara looks down embarrassed,
"That would be my doing!" Neptune looks over at her with a smile under his hood,
"Must have been Draco Meteor and by the look of it the attack was on her Pokemon." Neptune motions slightly to Tara as he says this and then he looks back to Stratos, "Ready?" Stratos nods with his usual smile,
"Are you?!" Neptune chuckles,
"I'm not going easy on you Stratos!" Neptune brings a pokeball out from his cloak and Stratos does the same with one from his belt,
"I never want anyone to!" Swampert rises from her ball with a flash of light and smirks,
"This guy'll be a pushover!"
"Don't be fooled by appearances. Look at your trainer." Swampert stops and looks back at Stratos,
"Well, you've got me there." In a flash of light a large, green, female dragonfly appears and sets down in front of Swampert. The Flygon charges a pulse of purple energy and fires it but Swampert dashes out of the way and leaps upwards above Flygon before taking a large breathe and releasing a powerful waterfall that pins Flygon to the ground and Swampert comes down and slams her arm into her before jumping backwards and taking in another huge breathe. Flygon smirks and flies into the air avoiding the powerful blast of water and flies back down slamming into the ground creating a powerful earthquake that pulses into Swampert making her fall forward onto her hands all the while not taking her eyes off of Flygon who releases an onslaught of powerful Dragon Pulses at Swampert who barely is able to avoid a good number of them before she is hit by one making her slam into the ground and then be pinned to it by a multiple number of them. After the attacks stop Flygon lands on the ground waiting for any signs of movement from Swampert and before five seconds pass Swampert weakly gets up and begins charging a glowing orb in her mouth. Flygon's eyes go wide and she leaps into the air in an attempt to avoid the attack but Swampert redirects at the last second blasting Flygon with the Hydro Cannon attack. Swampert then falls forward defeated as Flygon sets down looking fairly winded from the high amount of damage she's taken. Stratos growls as Swampert disappears into her ball and he swaps out for his second and Neptune returns Flygon to her ball causing Stratos to blink,
"You're switching out?" Neptune nods,
"Wouldn't be fair if I beat you with only one Pokemon would it?" Stratos narrows his eyes,
"I'll make you eat those words!!" Neptune calls out a black Hyena that howls towards the sky. The Mightyena then growls as it glares at Stratos. Arcanine rises from his pokeball and howls loudly before growling fiercely at the Mightyena coating his teeth in flames. Arcanine begins releasing powerful blasts of fire but the Mightyena easily dodges then all releasing pulses of dark energy that both counters and redirects all of Arcanine's attacks simply because of it's incredibly higher amount of concentrated power. Arcanine and Mightyena look at each other breathing heavily at both having to expel most of their own power to counter one another so many times. Neptune grins under his hood and holds out his thumb before turning it downwards,
"Finish him." Mightyena lunges forward and fires a shadow ball as Arcanine unleashes a flamethrower. The Ball of shadow energy cuts through the stream of flames exploding on contact with Arcanine making him fall forward. Arcanine weakly opens an eye and looks towards Neptune as he recalls Mightyena,
(Such... power...) Arcanine then turns into a red silhouette and disappears into his pokeball,
"Stratos is this really the extend of your abilities? You're disappointing me." Stratos nods,
"The let's up the ante and go doubles!" Ren and Roze appear from the couple's ball and Latias takes Azura into her arms. Neptune smiles,
(This should be interesting.) Blaziken appears from his pokeball followed by a large blue dog-like Pokemon with a large purple mane that flows behind her. On the sidelines everyone is in shock at the appearance of Suicune the legendary water Pokemon. Yakira flinches at the sight of Blaziken,
(Let's see if Ren and Roze can put up a better fight then I could.) Ren and Roze exchange nods and Roze creates black clouds in the sky and a soft rainfall follows. Without any warning Roze is blasted by a combination of a Hydro pump and Fire blast both of which are at a type disadvantage but still cause a high amount of damage from the sheer power of the attacks. Ren wastes no time raining a series of thunders directing them all on Suicune effectively causing an immensely high amount of damage to the water legendary and she looks weakly at Blaziken before shaking her head and falling forward. Before either Ren or Roze can react Blaziken dashes up to Roze upper-cutting her into the air but when he jumps up to perform a combo he's struck by a thunder attack and drops back down smoking slightly from the intense attack and Roze falls with a thud to the ground. Blaziken looks down at her before slowly his head to Ren with rage filled eyes and shakes his head slowly before releasing a flurry of punches on the Luxray taking him down in under a second. Stratos looks down as he recalls Ren and then Roze after waking her up and healing her with a few healing items and her and Azura both disappear into the ball, "Come on Stratos you can't be done yet." Stratos looks up and nods and looks back at Latias,
"Wish me luck mommy!" Latias smiles slightly and nods,
"Good luck." Neptune gives him a questioning look,
"No Latias? Then I suppose we're back to singles. That's fine with me." Stratos takes off his belt and hat as he walks onto the field putting up his guard,
"Hope you've got something good enough for me!" Neptune returns Suicune to her ball and leaves Blaziken on the field,
"I do. Let's see you beat him." Stratos runs forward and Blaziken folds his arms with a smirk,
"Oh, please." Blaziken slams his foot into Stratos' stomach but on contact move his foot upwards sending Stratos into the air. He leaps into the air with a fire punch ready but goes wide-eyed when Stratos catches himself in mid-air and forms a Mist ball in his hands before throwing it down impacting with Blaziken's fire punch. The bird slams hard into the ground and Stratos lands on top of him slamming a force-palm into Blaziken's chest. The fighting-type cringes in pain before punching Stratos off of him and stands up. Stratos smirks and Blaziken runs towards him. Stratos ducks out of the way of a mach-punch and throws his paw against Blaziken's chest before releasing a psycho boost that pulses through his body making him cough up blood and fall forward unconscious. Neptune claps his hands as Blaziken returns to his ball,
"Very impressive Stratos but you forget that none of my Pokemon we're defeated besides Suicune. Four left. Can you do it?" Stratos nods with a determined look,
"I believe I can." Neptune releases Mightyena from his ball and the wolf growls menacingly at Stratos before the two dash to the side as Stratos throws and Aura sphere and Mightyena unleashes a dark pulse. Mightyena leaps at Stratos with teeth enshrouded in flames and Stratos stops and looks up at the descending wolf before he raises his paw casually and blasts Mightyena with an Aura sphere before jumping at him and slamming his stomach with his palm. Stratos does a double back-flip and lands facing Neptune in his fighting stance, "I know I can." Neptune lets out a breath,
(If this keeps up I might actually lose this. No! I can't lose. All of my Pokemon are weakened from fighting the others but I still have Xatu and Pichu... but should I really put him in harms way just to win?) Neptune returns Mightyena and switches out the pokeball for another before Flygon returns to the field in the usual flash of light. Stratos look up into the sky as dark clouds begin forming and he knows what is about to happen; Draco meteor. Flygon unleashes the onslaught of meteors upon Stratos and the little Lucario dodges and jumps over the oncoming space rocks before one collides with his entire body leaving him on his back, "You done?" Stratos stands up and brushes himself off with a smile,
"You haven't lost yet." Stratos throws out his arm and Flygon becomes encased in a ball of darkness that soon fades away leaving the dragon sleeping on the ground. Stratos then throws out his other arm causing a giant hand made from silver energy to wrap around the sleeping dragon and squeeze powerfully before letting the defeated Pokemon fall to the ground. Neptune returns Flygon and growls,
"You won't win Stratos." Stratos smirks,
"Two left." Xatu rises from his pokeball and stands with his wings folded over his entire body besides his head. Stratos stands with his guard up but lowers it after a moment of simply looking at the bird. He then shrugs and runs forward before being blasted by a wall of psychic energy when Xatu throws his wings out. Xatu then folds his wings back in and stands once again. Stratos shakes off the attack and grabs the Pokemon in a crushing grip before the hand explodes and another wave of psychic energy envelopes Stratos. Stratos stays down for a moment before weakly standing up only to be blasted by another pulse of energy. Stratos stays down and the field becomes quiet as Neptune returns Xatu to his ball,
"You put up a good fight but you're still not ready to beat me." Neptune looks over to Mars and she walks over to him before the two disappear in a flash of psychic energy.
After Stratos and the rest of his Pokemon are healed at the Pokemon center the group heads onto the boat docked at Snowpoint pier and the ship sets sail just as the sun sets. Stratos sits on the bed next to Latias looking at the ground,
"I lost..." Latias puts her arms around her son from the back,
"Come on, I'm sure you'll get another chance in the Pokemon league. Just another reason to get there right?" Stratos turns and looks at his mother with a smile,
"You're right. I have to train harder so we're all the best we can be!"
Meanwhile back at Team Galactic HQ Neptune and Mars are standing in front of Cyrus as he turns the small chip of armor in his fingers,
"So then the mission was a complete success?" Neptune nods,
"It was indeed Master Cyrus." Cyrus turns his head to look at the admin,
"And the final DNA sample?"
"We have units in every city searching for the fourth legend but I managed to get the DNA you requested specially." Cyrus looks intrigued as Neptune holds up a pitch-black hair,
"Really? Well, you are much more capable then I could have imagined Neptune." Neptune shakes his head as he slips the hair into a vial and places it on the desk,
"Please sir. Split the credit for this mission between both Mars and I because we both did an equal share of the work." Cyrus nods,
"Very well; you have both succeeded in the mission of collecting DNA from Styx, Thanatos, The guardian of the Snowpoint Lake and of course, the best one of all, Stratos. With this acquisition experiment 494 is almost complete!" Mars gives him a questioning look,
"Sir, what is experiment 494? We've been kept in the dark with nothing but a name for this entire time."
"But my dear, experiment 494 is exactly as its name implies: A new Pokemon. Now then, no more questions you are both excused." Neptune and Mars both bow and speak in unison,
"Sir!"