Amber frowned. "Man, those are some weird names…what the heck is a Frexis?"

Sam shrugged and took it back, pocketed it, and looked at them. He seemed like he was about to say something, but then he shut his mouth as he looked them up and down. He commented, "Nice dirt; it must be a fad I missed."

Amber frowned, but when she looked down at herself she realized what he meant; their clothes were absolutely filthy, probably from all of the adventures they've had. She laughed nervously, and Chris retorted, "Well, I guess it would be new to some slick-haired kid on a secluded island full of nutcases."

Sam glared at him, but he turned and smiled at Amber and Celia and said, "I'm pretty sure I still have some of my mom's old clothes somewhere in the house. Let me see…" He walked off, followed by the Welf behind him. Chris rolled his eyes, but the two girls walked over to the door and got a peek inside. It was really fancy, with a chandelier in the front hallway and a red carpet from the front door in. He quickly returned with a few dresses, and Celia immediately squealed and took a light green one from the pile. Amber, however, wrinkled her face and looked back inside the house. "I'd rather be dirty."

"But you can't run around in that!" He shook his head, but then an idea came to him. He told her, "Hold on one more moment." He quickly ran off, and Amber wondered what he was up to. She glanced down as she suddenly felt something wet touch her hand, and she realized it was the Ahrite nosing her arm. It looked up, (although it didn't have to really crane its neck since it's so big) tilted its head, and whined. She frowned and stared it, wondering what it was thinking. If only she could read its mind or talk Pokemon…

"Aha! Back!"

Amber jumped slightly to glance at him carrying something red. He held it out to her, and she grabbed it and took a good look at it. It was a black shirt and black pants with a red vest, but on the vest there was a black fire symbol and the pants a red one. It didn't look exactly like a Team Magma outfit, but it was eerily close. It was better than nothing, though…

"The bathroom's this way," He pointed at a door just down the hall, and she nodded and ran off. She could hear Chris complain about something, but she wasn't really listening to him.

She changed quickly and ran back out to see Celia twirling around in her new dress. She still kept her bow, and it seriously looked as if she had hardly changed. All that was missing was the lace and flower patterns. Chris was wearing a dark navy blue shirt with khaki pants, with a brown cap sitting on his head. Amber actually thought it looked good on him. She didn't say so, of course. She looked at Sam and said, "So, how do we get to Ashburst?"

Sam cleared his throat and explained, "Well, you'd have to get to the teleportation pad on the East side of the island to get to the next one, and then travel East to that island's pad, and so on and so forth until you get to the last island and use that one to travel back to the mainland."

"Why can't we use the one we came in on?" Chris asked with a frown. Amber and Celia nodded in agreement.

Sam chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, if that pad's the same one that was destroyed in a surprise attack by a mysterious Pokemon…"

Chris groaned, "Great…"

Amber patted him on the back and said, "Hey, come on, it can't be that bad! Besides, we get to see new Pokemon!"

"Ones that are exclusive to this island." Sam added.

Amber was about to say something else to try to cheer him up when suddenly she stopped. Celia looked at her friend worriedly and asked, "What is it, Amber?"

Amber put a finger to her lips and walked over to the forest. She listened, and she thought she heard something like an explosion. As if something was battling…

"Come on, guys!" Amber motioned to them to follow her. "There's someone else here!"

All four of them ran into the woods and came upon two people battling. There was a woman standing there, with long curly blonde hair and cold blue eyes calculating her opponent, a man in a red outfit, probably a Team Magma Grunt. She seemed to be in her twenties, and she wore a purple jacket over a white shirt and had on white pants and shoes. She seemed to be in the heat of battle.

"Pawdance, look out!"

The cat-like Pokemon mewed in response as it leapt over the Razor Wind. It looked kind of like a cuter version of Meowth, except it was pink as well as tan and way smaller. The opponent's Flareon growled and reacted as the Team Magma Grunt yelled, "Faint Attack, now!" It disappeared in a flash, and the cat looked around uneasily. She couldn't see her opponent, and it made her scared.

"Flare!" (Or whatever noise a Flareon makes, I forget…) Suddenly, it rammed into her, sending her flying in the air and crying. Quickly, the woman called out, "Use Assist!"

Pawdance mewed back, and suddenly its paws glowed as it was blasted towards the Fire-Type Pokemon. The Flareon was caught by surprise as she rammed into its chest and knocked it back. The woman grinned smugly, mumbling something about making a note to thank her Willblue after the battle.

It still stood on its feet, however, and it growled threateningly at her. It used Shadow Ball and shot it at the Kitten Pokemon. She meowed out in surprise and barely dodged it by ducking down, but the Flareon quickly ran up and rammed her. She skidded across the ground a couple of yards, and she stood up shakily, panting heavily. The Grunt laughed at its efforts, and suddenly decided to change the rules. He let loose his other Poke Balls, and out came a big black dog and a Golbat. They stood their ground, snarling ferociously and glaring at Pawdance as the woman yelled, "Hey! That's not fair!"

"Life ain't fair, lady," the Grunt smirked at her. "Pokemon, attack!" The three responded to their master's orders, charging towards the defenseless and hopelessly outnumbered Pawdance.

"Don't call me lady." The woman seemed to compromise that, if he wasn't going to go by the rules, she wouldn't either. She let go of all of her other Pokemon, yelling, "Go, help Pawdance!"

Five strange Pokemon hovered over the exhausted Pokemon, glaring at the foes. The first was a super tall green lizard with a tail made completely out of leaves and a red belly. The next was a smallish tan/orange Pokemon with a huge pair of black jaws on its head, like an extra head or something. Then there was a big blue bird the size of a Pidgeot, standing fiercely before them. Also, there was a white mongoose-like Pokemon with red scars all over its body and purple claws on its hand. Lastly, there was a strange bug Pokemon whose wings looked like angry eyes, making it look like a scary face floating in the air.

The three skidded to a stop, staring at the wall of Pokemon protecting Pawdance, and the Kitten Pokemon itself stood up carefully and hissed at them from behind the big menacing jaws of the Deceiver Pokemon. The Grunt growled, "This isn't over!" He quickly recalled his Pokemon and ran off, and the woman's Pokemon were about to go after him when the trainer called out, "Leave him be! We should stay together." They all nodded reluctantly and just glared at where the Grunt disappeared.

Then, Pawdance looked over towards the four kids standing and staring at them. It hissed at them, trying to be threatening, and the woman looked at them suspiciously. She narrowed her eyes and commanded, "Who are you?"

Amber cleared her throat and said, "I'm Amber, and this is Chris, Celia, Meowth, and Sam." She pointed to each one in turn. She made sure not to look too scared, although the woman looked really tough.

The woman straightened up, staring at them coldly, and her Pokemon came around her protectively. "You shouldn't be here!" She yelled at them. "Team Magma and Aqua are running these islands! It's no place for children."

Suddenly, the Ahrite appeared from the bushes and trotted in front of Amber. It stood before her, as if to shield her, with its fur shining a beautiful white in the sunlight. The woman blinked in surprise and mumbled, "Ahrite?" She seemed to be thinking incredibly hard, as if wondering what it was doing. She stood staring at the Wolf Pokemon in confusion for a while. Then, she shook her head and said, "Whatever. You'd better hurry, though." She turned away and held Poke Balls for each of her Pokemon except the big blue bird. "Team Magma has already started their experiments."

"Huh?" Amber frowned, confused. "What are you talking about?"

The woman, however, just jumped onto the bird and commanded, "Fly, Willblue! We're off to thwart Team Magma!" The bird cried in response as it opened up its huge wings and lifted off, flying into the sky faster than anything they've seen so far. One blink, and she was gone.

Amber looked down at the Wolf Pokemon before her. It stared at her as if expecting her to do something. It was as if it wanted her to follow her. What was it planning?

"Well, that was strange." Chris spoke up first, catching Amber's attention. She looked at him as he continued, "Was that a Team Magma member?"

"A grunt, to be exact," Sam informed them, "And it seems he's gone back to warn the rest at the base."

"Well, that's not good." Amber frowned, thinking how hard it could get if Team Magma was out to get them.

"Actually," Sam brought up quickly, "The grunt's attention was on the girl. He didn't see us, and the woman didn't even notice us; her Pokemon did." He smiled encouragingly. "I doubt that they could tell Maxie you guys are here."

"Who?" The three friends all tilted their head in unison, making Sam sigh in bother. He seemed to be getting tired of explaining things. He shook his head and said, "He's the leader of Team Magma; my dad's boss. Just…let's get to that teleportation pad, shall we?" He leaned down slightly to pat the Ahrite on its head before he walked off back towards his house. As he walked, he called back, "I have some equipment in my house that could help us."

As he walked into the trees, Chris muttered, "He seems kind of touchy, doesn't he?"

Amber watched him disappear into the woods and nodded slowly. "Especially on the subject of his father."

Celia frowned, feeling sorry for him. "It's so sad…"

They all ran back through the foliage to see him going through a huge backpack out front. It was so big he was halfway in it, looking for the so called 'equipment' of his.

Chris raised an eyebrow at this, but Sam just slipped out with an 'aha!' and held up some little cards. He walked over to them and asked, "Do either of you have a PokeGear or a PokeNav?"

The two girls' faces were blank, but Chris brightened up and said, "I do!" He dug his hands into his pockets and pulled out his little grey device. He carefully gave it to Sam, who then took it and inserted the cards into the device. He handed it back to Chris and explained, "Now you have your own Pokedex inserted into your PokeGear as well as a link to my PokeNav." He held up his own handheld device. "Now we can communicate via handhelds, and you can send me what you find about the Pokemon you see so I can do some research."

"Wait…" Celia frowned. "You're not coming with us?"

"Of course not!" Both him and Chris said simultaneously. The girls looked at both of them curiously, and Sam clarified, "I can't leave my house, or Dad might go ballistic! He may not be the harshest member of Team Magma, but he's still loyal to his boss, and he will get suspicious if I suddenly disappear. Besides," he laughed good-humoredly, "I was never one for adventure."

"Alright." Amber nodded and asked, "Which way is the teleportation pad to the next island?"

"To the east," he directed, pointing to their left. "Just keep going until you find the cliffs, and the pad with be somewhere around there. Be careful not to be seen, though."

"Thanks!" Amber smiled and waved at him as they began to walk off. He nodded at them and grinned as they walked off into the trees, with his Welf at his side. As they went out of sight, Chris mumbled something dark under his breath. The blue-eyed girl frowned at him and asked, "What are you grumbling about?" Celia added, "He seems awfully nice."

"Yeah…" Chris looked back suspiciously at where the house was behind the trees. "But how can we be sure he isn't leading us into a trap?"

"We can't," Amber said bluntly. "But, we have to try at the moment. Otherwise, we'll be lost on these islands forever."

As he kept grumbling angrily, Amber thought of something. "Hey…" She looked around. "Where'd that wolf Pokemon go?"

"Hm?" Chris snapped out of his angry thoughts as he glanced around as well. But Ahrite was nowhere to be found. "Weird…"

"Maybe it had something to do…?" Celia offered, looking up at the sky. "I mean, it is a Pokemon, after all. Maybe it had to go somewhere."

As they looked at her staring at the sky, they heard something howling in the distance. They couldn't figure out where it came from, but it sounded like it was calling for something. A moment later, another howl answered it.

"Yeah…" Amber mumbled to herself. "Maybe…"

I TOTALLY MESSED UP! It's supposed to be Prismeon on Frostmount, not Auroreon! I put its information when I updated that Pokedex chapter; I'll always tell you whenever I update it again!

Also, this is a bit shorter than the other ones, but I kind of got a bit…well, I prolonged it a bit, so I decided to stop here so I could get onto the next chapter. Otherwise, I would still be trying to find a way to end this chapter. Personally, I think it ended well, if maybe a bit too soon. Oh, well!

Also, that woman (won't tell her name YET!) had Pokemon that I didn't put the names of. Allow me to enlighten you! Her Pokemon (in the order of which they were explained) are: Pawdance (Skitty), Willblue (Swellow), Notalone (Sceptile), Chompjaw (Mawile), Bloodclaw (Zangoose), and Dewdrop (Masquerain).

WARNING: SPOILERS! If you don't like them, don't read!

The group continues on their journey back home, but what will they encounter? It seems that there is another Pokemon like Ahrite…but is it as friendly as its counterpart? And what will they do about Team Magma if they find out they're there? Can Sam avoid getting them caught? Will Team Aqua get into the way as well?

Will they ever find they're way home?