Chapter 13

"Piplup, spotlight!" the shout from the blue-haired girl, Dawn, broke Shadow from his reminiscent thoughts, turning to watch in slight disbelief as the blue penguin burst from her ball.

He didn't bother to even try and contain his laugh this time, drawing the three trainers' attention away from Luxray and onto him, not that they could see him through the foliage.

"Who's there?" Ash shouted, his newly recovered pikachu adding his own voice to his trainer's call. Shadow pushed off the branch he was resting against, landing neatly on the ground. Luxray blurred into motion as he stopped beside his trainer, drawing himself up to loom intimidatingly over the humans.

Shadow sneered in contempt at the Piplup, before turning to her trainer, "I can't believe you wanted my Luxray to fight a water type, much less the first evolution of a starter. I let the fight continue cuz I thought the guy with the pikachu might actually be strong, but after seeing the company he keeps, I rescind that statement." With an annoyed huff, he turned around, beckoning Luxray to follow with a nod as he walked away from them.

At least, that was the plan. "Hey! Don't talk to Dawn like that!" Ash yelled, stepping forward. Shadow sighed and turned around, eyeing the raven with an uninterested air.

"Yeah? Let's quit the chit-chat. Just say what you're gonna do about it, or shut up and don't make a fool of yourself."

"Let's have a battle! If I win, you apologize to Dawn!" Ash shouted, Pikachu's cheeks sparking as the mouse bared his fangs.

Shadow's orange eyes scanned the trainer in front of him before flicking to the Pikachu on his shoulder, "Fine," he sighed, "I guess I am curious as to how strong you are."

His eyes darted to Luxray and the pokemon immediately understood, positioning himself in front of his trainer. "Let's see if you can actually land a hit on Luxray this time."

Ash frowned and his brows furrowed, looking deep in thought as he withdrew a pokeball from his belt and hurled it onto the field, "Torterra, I choose you!"

The continent pokemon burst from the ball, shaking the earth as his weight smashed into the ground and he released a loud roar. A gleam of interest and excitement lit up Shadow's eyes as he smirked, "looks like you do have a brain after all."

Anger sparked in Ash's eyes and his mouth opened, but before he impulsively shouted something, Shadow spoke, eyes narrowing in deadly concentration, "Luxray crunch!"

The lion blurred forward, a startling contrast to the eerie stillness of before, and pushed off the ground, fangs glowing a dark, menacing color as he closed in on Torterra.

"Torterra, razor leaf!" A wave of leaves materialized and shot towards the incoming pokemon. Without a word from his trainer, the glow from the crunch disappeared as electricity gathered in his open maw and rocketed towards the leaves, incinerating them on contact and powering through to smash Torterra on the top of the head.

Torterra roared, claws digging into the ground as the charge beam slowly dissipated and he shook his head fiercely to rid himself of the slight dizziness.

"Torterra! You okay?" The pokemon grunted, glaring at the luxray across from him as his trainer shouted another order, "Alright Torterra! Get 'im with earthquake!"

The continent pokemon reared up, power gathering in his forelegs, but right as he was about to unleash a devastating attack to the electric pokemon, glowing silver blades whipped toward Torterra, creating an immense cloud of dust to explode upon impact.

Shadow raised his arm to ward off the smoke, a scowl set firmly on his face at the similarity of his current situation to when he first met the champion. A light nudge from his side brought his orange eyes to rest on the gleam-eyes pokemon standing confidently to his side, a sight that softened his harsh look.

His eyes turned back to the main scene as the unmistakable cry of a Staraptor filled the air and the dust was quickly blown away by his powerful wings.

Standing between him and the three trainers were two humans, one with red hair, one with blue, with a Dustox and a Meowth between them, the cat holding a lumpy sack between his paws. But his eyes were drawn to something else. The bold, striking capital R on the front of each of their shirts.

He frowned and his brows furrowed, what were they doing here? As the three started with their over-the-top speech, his eyes strayed to the meowth, or more specifically, his cargo. The bag jerked suddenly as its occupant moved, a little blue snout sticking its way out of the hole in the top.

When the little dragon was almost out, the meowth noticed, stopping his little rhyme to wrestle the Gible back in the bag as the land shark pokemon thrashed in his grip, letting out several sharp cries. Gible's onyx black eyes landed on Shadow, and the boy flinched at the pure, unadulterated terror residing there.

Their eyes locked and then his orange eyes dilated suddenly as the protective draconic urge flared inside him, a trait shared with him by his guardian.

They would pay.