Title: A True Master Author: G-Force Description: It's several years in the future, and things have taken a turn for the worst. Gary is pokemon Champion and Ash has disappeared. His friends have ended their journey and live their own lives. Now a strange figure known as the Phoenix has arisen. There have been many rumours of his deeds in the past, none of them good. Now with a new force to deal with, how will our heroes fight the threat? Type: General A T r u e M a s t e r Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters blah...blah..blah. Be cool, just read it cause you enjoy Pokemon. Prologue - Fires of the Past The dark night sky was cold and unfeeling, the stars were hidden by invisible clouds, making it seem endless. Smiling he remembered the last time he had seen a sky like this, that time he had cried, but now he was stronger, he used the pain, refocused it on more useful things. Cerulean City lit up the trail, he would be there soon, fitting, since that was where it all began. He walked down the path with determination, his movements so fluid you couldn't tell one from the other. A black jumpsuit surrounded him, the only thing visible was one eye, the other covered by a patch. It too was black, pokeballs, surround his belt, and four marbel sized ones were on each hand, shaped into brass knuckles. He looked by all appearances to be a ninjetti, but his pokeballs showed someone of a different background. He heard shouting ahead, it seemed so long since he had heard human voices, moving more quickly he went to see what all the racket was about. The path grew shorter, he thought to himself _______________________________ "Go Starmie!!" the girl yelled. She was 11, going on 12 and she was as tough as they came. Most boys were scared of her, but the challenger today seemed less than impressed. He was dressed in jeans and had biker gloves on, with a blue hat twisted backwards on his head, he looked about 10. "That's all you got?" he taunted, "Take this, Ratticate I choose you!!!" Both pokemon circled each other, waiting for the other to make a mistake. A man clad in black watched in amusement as the two children went at it. he wondered to himself. "Starmie watergun attack NOW!!!" the girl yelled. The boy's ratticate dodged the first two shots, then tackled Starmie, but without the guidance of it's master, it couldn't keep dodging the shots. "Tail whip!!" the boy shouted. But his reaction was too slow, collapsing under the hail of watershots, his pokemon weakly shouted out "Rati....cate" Reluctantly the boy recalled his pokemon. Still a little peeved that he couldn't win, he scowled at her grinning face. Interpreting this as a hostile gesture, she slapped him. "Hey what was that for??? You hurt my pokemon, but that wasn't enough??" he exclaimed. "You're just a sore loser," she replied. They were about to break into a full fledged argument, neither noticing that the night held more than just shadows, a black figure was steadily moving closer. Startling both of them what seemed to be an old man spoke from the night shadows, "You young'uns always think that you can beat anyone, well I bet I could take both of ya on, and still win." Gaping at the man's obvious ego they replied in unison "Let's battle!!" The man in black grinned, kids were kids, and they could never refuse a challenge. He hadn't intended to battle them, but it would still be interesting. "Very well. Kabutops, I choose you." Kabutops came out, it looked like a large praying mantis, except it was a golden brown colour and it's head was snake-like. Its blades were shining, and it was big and muscular. Not being able to decide on what to do, both kids threw out pokemon. Beedrill, and Cubone, both appeared. Jumping forward with it's bone, Cubone tried to hit Kabutops, who dodged, and sliced the bone neatly in half. Marowak stopped to look at it's broken bone, while Beedrill attacked. "Beedrill, Sword DANCE!!!" the boy shouts. Immediately, Kabutops and Beedrill begin blurred motions as their blades clash at super speeds. The man looked pleased, he hadn't expected the boy to have taught his beedrill such a complex move, but he wouldn't be upstaged, "Kabutops, Slash Harden!!" The pokemon's figure suddenly shimmered, as it gathered energy, then it powered forward, claws swinging, it scored multiple hits on Beedrill as it broke through the sword dance defence, the barrage of attacks, ended with a vicious double cross, making an 'X' in the air. The beedrill flew backwards with the impact into the recovering Cubone. Kabutop's momentum carried it several more feet before it was able to stop. The man smiled, he knew that the attack took a lot out of his pokemon, it wouldn't be as strong or quick, maybe the children would be able to defeat him now. "Hey no fair, you pulled out your strongest pokemon, we only used secondary ones" the girl yelled. He grinned, that WAS his weakest pokemon, but he wouldn't be able to convince them without making a scene, shrugging, he called out "Fine, send out your other pokemon, and I'll take those out too." Electabuzz and Doduo were called out. They started forward, but made the same mistake of attacking alone, Kabutops countered, sending them back. The man realized this and told them "You'll never defeat me like that, you've got two pokemon to my one, use that to your advantage." "Alright you asked for it, Electrabuzz, Doduo DOUBLE TEAM!!!!" The boy and girl yelled in unison. Charging the Kabutops the Doduo, distracted it while the Electrabuzz powered up and delivered a sonic boom. Doduo followed up with a show of strength, to finish off the already tired Kabutops. Calling it back the man commented "Very good, but you could not have defeated me if not for your teamwork. You two make a good pair, keep up the good work, and maybe you can face one of my strong pokemon next time!!" Without waiting for a response, he blended back into the darkness, disappearing as was expected of a ninja. However he was unaware of a set of eyes watching him. The assassin grinned to himself,