Wow, this took a lot longer than I was expecting. In my defence I've been really busy, and I tried to edit this really well. I've made it a point to kind of explain some of the reviewer's questions in here (though they're probably not still reading cause it took so loooooooooooong ^^;) Oh well, better late than never!

Hope you enjoy!

Wilderness- Unknown Continent

Volkner was, once again, making his way through a bog/marsh/muddy hole of decaying filth. As his foot sunk deeper into the disgusting goop, Volkner was wishing he'd spent another night in the area by the first gym he had challenged. It had been a nice place, tucked away in the side of a large hill that bordered on being a small mountain.

The gym leader had been polite. Volkner guessed she was probably somewhere around 20, though she acted younger than that even. She had worn a blue dress that came down about mid thigh that would have been consider slightly skimpy if it wasn't for the long, white, sleeveless coat she chose to wear over it. Her earrings bobbed and her blond hair had bounced up and down happily as she answered the door (for some reason there wasn't a place here that had an automatic door). The girl introduced herself as Molly. When asked if she was the gym leader she had given a little laugh and blushed. 'Of course!' she had said. From the conversation that ensued, Volkner was able to gather that the person that judged the pokemon matches was out and would be returning promptly, though it was hard to tell through the stuttering and blushing. Though he must have heard the word 'promptly' wrong, or else she had a different definition of the word, because it took somewhere around five hours for him to show up.

The man who did show up gave a twirl of his white cloak, announcing himself as the famous Eusine, hunter of the legendary dog Suicune. Volkner immediately determined him a fruitcake from his frilly purple outfit, enormous ego, and his ridiculously dramatic persona.

The rules were explained clearly. It would be a standard three on three battle, but there was an extra rule tossed in about a one hour time limit. If Volkner hadn't defeated at least one pokemon he automatically lost and if he wasn't ahead when the time stopped he would also lose.

When the battle commenced Molly sent out a Teddiursa and he sent out his ever faithful Luxray. The pokemon had squared off. Luxray had been the first one to land a hit with a swipe of her paw that caught the small bear off guard after the electric pokemon had used crunch. That was when Eusine started up. It started off as a comment about how if that had been Suicune battling it would already have won this battle. Then Molly was enraged about the fact that had it been Entei, he would have already scared all the challengers away. Teddiursa had stood there staring. Volkner politely waited for the girl to resume the match again. After about ten minutes, Volkner decided he had a clock to contend with, so he ordered Luxray to take out the adorable little furball. Granted he had felt bad about it, but not bad enough to risk losing the match.

Molly had barely taken notice and randomly threw out another pokemon only to resume the argument. This time is was a minute Flaaffy. It looked slightly stressed, but it seemed that this was a norm. Volkner waited for the argument to end. It was about five minutes til the end of the allotted hour when Volkner decided it would be best if he just ended the battle. Molly had stopped her argument after finally realizing she had been defeated. She handed him a badge and offered him a place to stay. Volkner now wished that he hadn't declined that offer.

'Why is it always some sort of muddy place?' He was having misgivings about this place, after what happened the last time he was stuck in an area like this. The trees kept out almost all the light as their vines bound them together while still hanging down ominously. The blond made sure to keep Luxray out of her pokeball just in case.

There was a squelching nose as one of Volkner's legs sunk down into the rotting earth. Another shriek reverberated somewhere to his right. Then some sort of hiss. He tugged harder on his leg.

"Luxray, look through the bushes please." His Luxray's eye's glowed red, momentarily illuminating the darkness making the surroundings even more frightening. Volkner's pulse raced as he tugged even harder on his leg.

"Lux!" A bolt of yellow lightning completely lit up the surrounding forest, driving off all the lurking pokemon and temporarily blinding Volkner.

Then there was a chuckle from somewhere up above him.

"Who-who's there?" That couldn't be good. Volkner hadn't meant to sound so…scared. Though after what happened the last time. But still to stutter? Now that was dropping low, real low. He hadn't stutter since he was…

"Did you get it?" The voice was smooth and melodious. It was also accompanied by some sort of instrument being played softly. Luxray tensed prepared (hopefully) for whatever was up there.

"Who are you?" Volkner (happy that this time he managed not to stutter) tried again to pull his leg free but it only sank in deeper, dragging his right leg in along with it. The blond let out a cry of panic.

"You know, the more you pull the more it sucks you in. It's basically like quicksand." Volkner still couldn't tell where the voice was located at, but the person attached to it didn't seem to be going any great lengths to assist him.

"Thanks. Anymore great advice that doesn't really help?" Volkner glared up at the tree he thought might contain the person. The instrument (which Volkner had now decided was a guitar of some sort) was still playing.

"Yes. This isn't the route most trainers take to get to the second gym, but I suppose you aren't exactly the conventional type."

"I've been following this stupid map!" Volkner paused for a moment. "How did you know I was going to battle the second gym leader?" There was another low chuckle.

"I keep tabs on that sort of thing. Also, I wouldn't trust that map at all. The person who made it was terribly inebriated."

"You would know about that last part how?" Volkner was still trying to pull himself out of the earth with little success.

"Because…well, I believe I've stated this already. I keep tabs on that sort of thing" The strumming grew slightly louder and to more of a tune. There was a muted buzz and then something grabbed him by the shoulders. The mud made a hideous squelching sound as it relinquished its hold on the poor blond.

"Who are you…?" And with that he was unceremoniously dropped on the ground. But it was solid and fairly clean (as ground goes anyway) and Volkner almost have kissed it (almost, but not quite. That would have been his last shred of dignity flying out the window).

"The person who just saved you a lot of trouble." The man just let the amusement he was obviously feeling ripple through his voice.

"Why didn't you just do that from the start instead of sitting there talking about it?" Volkner glared at the same tree. He was sure this was where the voice was coming from.

"Lux!" Before Volkner could even get any words out he was picked off of the ground by a claw to the scruff of his neck.

"Ow, ow, ow! Put me down." Volkner reached up and struggled as Luxray gave a cry of surprise.

"What's the magic word?" There was a slight sound behind the blonde, and not coming from the tree he was glaring at. How embarrassing. Volkner glared and struggled some more, but that approach didn't seem to be getting him anywhere.

"Please?" He sighed, rolling his eyes. There was another chuckle from behind.

"Please what?" That melodious voice was almost laughing now.

"You know, you're getting a little redundant!"

"I am, really? But still, if you just say please, how am I supposed to know what you want?" The chuckling man was bound and determined to take the last little shreds of dignity from him. Volkner opened his mouth to tell him where he could shove his 'magic word' when after a light strumming of the guitar, he was dropped to dry ground once more.

"Scizor, Sciz." Volkner opened his eyes to a rather large a grinning Scizor looming over him along with a smiling white-haired male.

Sunnyshore City- Sinnoh

"So, my beautiful Maybelene, where would like to go to today?" 'Kronos' smiled widely. If he wasn't such an excellent actor…well if he wasn't, then it probably wouldn't matter anyways. She was obviously too thick to notice.

"How about 'Munchos'? It's been a while since we've been there together!" If it weren't for 'Kronos''s extreme dedication to Master Cyrus (after all he was still the top admin of the group), then he probably would have strangled the girl right then and there. 'For the love of all that's holy! We were just there for breakfast!'

"Don't you have any other favorite places you'd like to take me to?"

"Oh, yes! We can go to the snow cone shack for snow cones!" 'Kronos' looked down at his hands. In one of them was a cup containing a perfectly full snow cone. Then he glanced at her hands, seeing the exact same thing. He quirked an eyebrow wondering how drunk the pokemon association and elite four were when they let this girl in.

"'Munchos' it is…" He sighed and shook his head, wondering if her mother had dropped her down three flights of stairs then accidently dropped her again after she had walked to the top of the stairs only to repeat the process once more.

Elite Four HQ- Sinnoh

Flint sighed, glancing out the window towards Sunnyshore. On a regular day like this he would have already been dragging Volkner towards the beach. It was awfully warm outside and Volkner would be complaining about the type advantage that Flint had in their battle, just to cover for himself if he lost. That's how it always worked. Volkner preserving his pride at all cost. That was what was the most important to him. That, and battling and countless hours of working with technology. But he had lost all but the last one. Maybe now he had even lost the last one (Flint only came to this realization after Lucian informed him that he wasn't actually certified to be a mechanic).

Flint sighed again, turning his back to the window. He didn't want to see it anyway. There wouldn't be any challengers to bother him for the next month or two. It was the off season, where trainers would prepare for the upcoming season in hopes of taking the Elite Four down. Though most of the time they failed to get past Aaron. Which was really sad, because, if he remembered correctly he was on par with that one psychic trainer from Johto… The psychic trainer he had nearly killed.

Flint ran a hand through his afro only to have it get caught in a tangle. He had really screwed up his life recently. Plus the fact the he had almost lost his life when- and he swore on his life this was true- a ninja had tried to assassinate him. When he told the rest of them, they just shook their head and smiled (in Bertha's case), glared (in Cynthia's and Lucians case [though he copied her so much it was hardly unexpected]), or just rolled their eyes and didn't care (in Aaron's case). Actually now that Flint thought about it, it did make sense. Not the eye rolling (though it wasn't like that was out of the ordinary…), it was the assassination by ninja attack. That Koga dude was a ninja wasn't he? Though he didn't exactly seem to like the little purple-haired little psychic guy all that much, Flint was pretty sure if he hadn't been otherwise restrained when they met in the hospital, the fire trainer probably would be a slightly acidic puddle somewhere.

The room started to swim for a moment, drifting woozily, then heating and cooling down. Someone, no, something, brushed his consciousness. Some short of psychic power, more powerful then he'd ever felt Lucian do when he wasn't in the room. But yet somehow it was at a distance. There was a horrible stabbing pain at his right side and he collapsed to his knees, then his side, holding his head in his hands. After a moment, the psychic power apparently couldn't stay any longer and receded, and Flint was left breathing heavy and groaning on the floor.

Wilderness- Unknown Continent

This Garret person was now leading the way, since he seemed to have a pretty good idea where dry ground was and where there wasn't dry ground. He'd introduced himself after helping Volkner off the ground, apologizing for his scizor's "unkind and socially unacceptable actions".

"So, you having fun thus far?" Garret glanced back over his shoulder, blowing a strand of white hair out of his blue eyes. Volkner had no idea how he kept his white shoes, over coat, pants, shirt, and tie in such an immaculate condition given how Volkner had mud splattered over everyone of the those clothing articles.

"Ya, sure. Because I just looooove wandering around in mud! It's my favorite pastime." Volkner intoned in a not so amused voice. Garret chuckled shaking his head.

"Well, I'm sure it doesn't exactly call to mind wonderful memories."

"No, not really…Wait a second. How did you know about that? I thought only a couple people were told…" Volkner frowned at the mud. That would mean more than just a few people knew what had happened. Well, at the moment it didn't matter if they knew he was constantly falling in the mud (though there was a nagging worry about that too).

"Only a few people were told. My sister, Moonshadow, informed me of it."

"Wait your sister? You look nothing alike!" Volkner was a little dumbfounded. They didn't share any resemblance.

"Adopted. Well, not officially, I highly doubt she'd ever want my father to call her a daughter. That would be downright awful. No, I've known her since I was very young. My family was raised here."

"Well, if she's not officially your sister, then did you grow up here? When I heard her name I figured names here would be a little different, but yours is pretty normal, and so was the first gym leader's name and her…friend's name."

"Raised here doesn't necessarily mean born here. But the names here are abnormal. Those two from the gym are from Johto, and why they were allowed to come here is beyond me. But that's beside the point. The matter of names, well, it's like when you go to another country. They might speak the language, but you can't expect every culture to name their children the same way. A lot of the island cultures are this way." Volkner grunted. The silence drug on after that.

"So…what are you doing here?" Volkner finally asked.

"Looking for my other siblings. Though I have yet to have found them as you've probably gathered." Volkner grunted again.

"You have such brilliant replies. Wonderful conversationalist you are." Garret smiled as he heard another grunt from behind him, then a sudden cry of surprise followed by a loud 'oomph'. "Oops, I forgot to mention there was a hole there."

"You know what? You really suck."

Indigo Plateau- Johto

Will's head hurt again. And there was a time that he couldn't remember anything. Try as he might, he couldn't conjure up the memories of what he had done for the past hour. The last thing he remembered was how much Flint had gotten on his nerves. How he deserved to be in pain…and then nothing. Maybe he should ask Lance.

Will pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing as his head started pounding in a steady rhythm. He got shakily to his feet only to have them give out from underneath him. He fell to the floor with a loud crash.

"Will? I heard something, are you alright?" Karen glanced around, at first confused when she didn't see Will in bed. Then her eyes moved to the floor where he had collapsed. The platinum-haired woman slid to the ground next to him, dropping the clean clothes from her hands.

"Will, what happened?" Karen's eyebrows knit together in an expression of worry when a first the psychic trainer didn't make a sound. Then, Will made a disgusted noise.

"I tried to get out of bed and well…fell. I'm alright now, thank you Karen." Polite and reserved. Will was, at the moment, completely normal. She knew that soon, he would be that distant person with strange thoughts and musings. This was how it had been for the past week. She dared not to tell Koga or Lance. Koga would over react and there wasn't a thing Lance could do except worry.

"Karen, what happened?" A quiet voice came from the hallway. Karen wasn't surprised to see Koga standing there, withdrawn as ever. Why couldn't he just tell Will that he did care if he lived or died?

"Nothing! Nothing happened. I fell that's all. Clumsy as always. I'm fine now, see!" Karen glanced at him, worried. He'd always tried to please Koga, but now he shrunk away as if expecting to be hit. Koga just shook his head.

"You need to be careful. You'll hurt yourself." And with that Koga disappeared. The psychic trainer gave a sigh of…relief. He was too observant, that ninja. He would have to be dealt with sooner or later. Reverting back to his old personality would not suit him much longer.

"Will, are you alright" As if she even had to ask. With his new found psychic powers, he had her at his beck and call. Of course reverting to old Will was always dangerous, because something might slip. Slip. What a funny word. How easy it would be…

"Will! Are you alright?"

"Yes Karen, I'm more than alright." Now that he knew he could reach out far enough to…

"Well I'm glad." Will caught her eye. She looked into it for a moment, then her eyes took on a hazy look.

"Now, this is what I want you to go do…"

As Will outlined part of his intricate, yet exceedingly simple plan, there was another listener outside the door. The poison-type trainer had only just confirmed what he had expected all along. But now, the only thing to do, was to decide how he was going to use this information.

Ranger HQ- Almia

Under normal circumstances, he would be sleeping. His legs were resting on the table in front of him, grey shoes gleaming nicely, and he had rocked back on the back two legs of his chair. With his cool, easy expression, you wouldn't know who was the one who actually worked here, if it were for the handcuffs around his slim, pale wrists.

"Ice! I believe I asked you a question!" The ranger, Sven if he recalled correctly, was growing extremely irritated now.

"And I believe I told you were you could put those questions of yours." Ice just smirked. These rangers were completely ridiculous. The cowboy wannabe glared from across the table.

"Luxray, if you could show him how we handle uncooperative rangers please?" Ice just quirked and eyebrow, still smiling.

"So, what's it this time? Boring me to death with your self-righteousness or am I just going back to my room?" The electric pokemon began to gather electricity. "Oh, now that's just ranger brutality."

"Too bad you're a criminal, huh?"

"Too bad you're too much of a pansy to do it, huh?" Ice drawled in a hillbilly accent, mocking the ranger's cowboy hat.

"Oh that's it!" The ranger was about to leap over the table to (presumably) strangle him.

"Sven, no! This isn't the correct course of action to take!" Sven settled back on his heels at the disapproving voice through the intercom.

"Bad doggie. Heel. Sit. Bark. Get a life." The ranger took a deep breath.

"Sveeen." The intercom intoned. Then the punch came, crashing across the young man's cheek. Ice, much to his credit, barely winced as the ranger withdrew his hand.

"That hurt your knuckles pansy-boy?"

"Shut up. And no. No it did not." Ice just rolled his eyes.

Admitedly, kind of a lame ending...I love making fun of characters.

Oh, and if you haven't picked up by now, the funny little italics are Will's 'alternate personality'. It's kind of the embodiment of his restrained melevolence all these years. Which is pretty scary. That combined with the fact that he can warp minds and reach across continents. Ya...

Well, please review and I hope you enjoyed it!