HOME | DD

Description
Even with the failed attack of the organizations, everyone was still bustling to either round up the remaining organization stragglers or find loved ones that were still lost. Jake had a hard time finally making it to the central lobby where most of the hostages were taken from the arenas. The Gardivior, Sara, had told him that his family was there, but there were so many other people there as well looking for missing family members that Jake thought he'd become claustrophobic if he stepped into the crowd.

"Mom! Dad! Rachael! Bradley!" Jake shouted to be heard over the rest of the crowd.

He heard no response and shuffled along the outside of the swarm of worried faces, he too becoming worried for his family's safety.

"Jake!"

The sweet little voice broke through the other cries to meet Jake. He craned his head to just see the bright smiling face of his Dewott gleaming back at him. She waved her arms above her head wildly to make sure she had his attention which Jake swiftly waved back.

"He's over there, that way," Jake heard her call from the top of some kind of stand she was on.

Jake wanted to run through the waves of people but his little Dewott, Rachael, began to move toward him instead. Instantly his mother, father, and Bradley were before him with Rachael peculiarly perched atop of his father's head.

"Oh Jake, were so glad that you're alright," Jake's mother burst into tears as she gave him an Ursaring hug, "When we overheard some grunts say that they were tracking down the last few competitors, we didn't know if they had caught you. Thank Arceus you're okay, oh but your shirt is ripped, and is that blood?!"

"It's okay mom, I got out safe."

Jake's father clasped a hand on his shoulder with a broad smile, "They probably weren't able to catch my son with how great a fighter he is."

"Jake!" Rachael leapt from his father's head and latched herself around Jake's neck.

"I'm so glad you and Bradley are safe as well."

Bradley turned his head and scoffed, "I don't need your sympathy; I was fine on my own until they started fighting dirty and caught me from behind. Otherwise I would have kicked all of their asses."

"Come on Bradley," Rachael teased, "You could at least pretend like you weren't worried for Jake."

"I wasn't," Bradley cocked his head with a practiced scowl.

Rachael giggled, "Of course you weren't, teehee."

Bradley started fuming, "Come here you little gossip girl!"

Rachael ran off a little ways running in circles as the steaming Reuniclus gave chase.

"Those two seem like they're having fun," Jake's mother smiled.

"Yeah, tons of fun," Jake said sarcastically, "I'll be right back; I have to go heal the rest of my team before the lines get too long."

"Ok son, see you later," Jake's father ruffled Jake's already messy hair.

Jake quickly made it to one of the shorter lines before it too began to become crowded with other trainers awaiting their turn to have their pokemon healed. He was next in line and the Nurse Joy behind the counter gave him a hearty smile.

"Hello sir, would you like me to heal your pokemon?"

"Yes, thank you," Jake said as he handed over his six pokeballs to the outstretched arms of the Nurse Joy.

The all too familiar jingle of the healing machine rang as Jake waited for the small tune to end.

The Nurse Joy turned back around with Jake's team in hand, "Thank you for waiting, your pokemon are restored to full health."

"Thanks," Jake replaced the pokeballs back on his belt, all except one.

Jake had to push through the messy crowd again until he was on the outside. He gave the pokeball in his hand a quick toss in the air and the device burst open in a flash of light. His Blaziken, Haze, ruffled her feathers out and stretched after being in her pokeball for so long.

"Gee, about time you let me out, you know how much I hate traveling in that thing," Haze picked up her usual tone, pointing at the pokeball for a bit of emphasis.

Jake chuckled, "Sorry, we ran into a bit of a problem during the second round."

Jake explained what happened to his most trusted partner while the team was out. Haze instantly went through a couple phases of worry, anger, regret, and relieve as the tale came to a close knowing that the threat had passed and Team Sigma was gone.
"…and that's about it, oh and my parents are here, along with guess who."

"Haze!"

The Blaziken instantly recognized the sweet little voice of her girl friend, "Rachael!"

Haze caught Rachael in a midair leap and hugged her tightly.

"Haze, Haze, this scary thing happened and I didn't know what to do. All these baddies showed up and were hurting everyone."

"I know, Jake just told me. At least it's over right?" Haze replied, setting her Dewott friend down.

The two began to ramble on and gossip about all things girly and what they've been doing while the other was away.

"Great, now we have two gossip chicks that'll never shut up," Bradley pouted beside Jake's father.

"Nice to see you too Jello boy," Haze said, dripping with sarcasm.

"Well son, now that that incident is over. Shouldn't they be preparing for the next round?" Jake's father asked a certain gleam in his eye.

"Robert, they wouldn't allow this competition to continue after what just happened," Jake's mother eyed her husband with a certain glare meaning 'life isn't all about fighting'.

Jake's father immediately gave an apologetic smile to back away from the subject.

"Attention everyone, attention," the loudspeakers cut through the lobby's constant buzz, "We would like to apologize for the inconvenient delay. We would also like to ask all competitors to meet back in the competitor's lounge for round three line ups, thank you."

Jake's father regained the anxious gleam from earlier as he heard the announcement. Jake's mother on the other hand put on a face of disapproval to the development.

"Well, I better go, thanks mom and dad for coming," Jake hugged them both before nodding to Haze, "Rachael, Bradley, see you two later."

"Good luck Jake!" "…Whatever."

Already halfway to the competitor's lounge, Jake was back to his old self of thinking about what kind of challenge he would face in this new round.

"Eek, what the hell?! Haze screamed drawing Jake's attention.

Haze was covering her butt with a deep blushing scowl on her face that was directed to a sly looking Golduck that was behind her.

"Now that's gotta be an eight and a half on the firmness scale," The Golduck said smoothly, coking an eyebrow, "The name's Confusha, and baby, you ain't never wanna forget it. Now how about we take some more time to…get to know each other."

Haze was fuming by now, "How about you go screw yourself before I rip that smart Alec bill off your face."

"Ohh, feisty, I like 'em that way," Confusha growled playfully.

Though before Haze took the chance to exact her earlier threat, a female Infernape knocked the Golduck to the floor with a Mach Punch.

"Honestly, I can't leave you alone for two seconds can I," The Infernape said angrily as she dragged him away by a spike on his head.

"Oh, ouch, now now May, there's plenty of Confusha to go around sweet thang," The Golduck said between cries of pain, earning him another swift blow to the head.

"Oh, hi Jake," Ken said out breath after jogging up to the scene.

"Hey Ken, I'm guessing this one is yours?"
"*sigh* sorry about that," Ken sweat dropped as they watched May the Infernape continually pummel the Golduck when he tried to make an advance, "May, would you mind taking Confusha back to Keegan and tell him to keep an eye on him?"

"Of course master," May gave a curt bow as she dragged the pleading Golduck by a head spike again.

"Oh come on babe, I bet she would have agreed to a threesome, Augh!"

"*sigh* again, sorry about that. Confusha tends to be…overactive."

Haze huffed, "You should have just let me teach that platypus a lesson."

"For once I'll agree with you bird brain," The Azumarill by Ken's leg spoke up.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you," Haze shot a piercing glare at Mia.

"Haze," Jake called in a commanding tone.

Haze rolled her eyes and turned away, arms crossed.

"So I guess they decided to skip to round three then huh?" Ken asked, pulling the conversation in another direction.

Jake nodded, "Yeah, hope I get to finish that match with that Blade kid later on."

The loudspeakers from before sputtered and crackled back to life, drawing the two's attention, "Er, um, would competitors Ken Ryuken, Jake Everant, David Kento, and Jenni Emerald please report to the south wing of Arena A for an urgent announcement."

The speakers died out with what sounded like someone in the background laughing and faded to a bit of static.

"Weird, wonder what's going on," Jake said puzzled.

"And why only the four of us, why not all the competitors?" Ken asked with a hint of suspicion.

"We better go check it out anyways."

The duo passed a couple other competitors that were headed for the lounge along their way, not really paying much mind to them as they had their own objective.

"…So what do you think this urgent announcement is about?" Ken finally asked the burning question.

Jake shrugged, "Beats me, but something has been bothering me about this 'announcement'. It doesn't feel right, you know?"

"Geez Jake," Haze blurted, "Don't be like Dagger with his 'psychic premonition'. I bet they just want to congratulate us for saving the tournament for them."

"Hmmm, maybe, but wouldn't they do that earlier?"

Haze shrugged; just glad she wasn't stuck in a stupid pokeball.

"Hey, you two, you're Jake Everant and Ken Ryuken?" A guy called from the entrance of Arena A.

Jake recognized him as David Kento, another competitor in the tournament. He wore his trademark black trench coat, even though it was the middle of summer, torn up jeans, and plain looking yet worn out shoes. Jake's attention was still pulled to the odd looking device on his arm; it had a menacing look about it.

"Yeah, and you must be David Kento, pleased to meet you," Jake said.

"*pant, pant* sorry I'm late," An out of breath girl called after rounding the same corner Jake and Ken arrived from, "I was just talking to my sister back at the other Arena when I heard the announcement. Oh, hi Ken, David, and…Jake is it?"

"Hello," Jake nodded in return.

This was the first time Jake had met the competitor Jenni Emerald in person, she was quite beautiful for her age and he had seen her fight during the first round knowing she would be a challenge if they battled. She wore some heavily tattered and scuffed up shirt, pants, and tote bag, probably from the attack by the organizations.

"By the way, does anyone know why they made us come here?" Jenni asked after regaining her breath.

Everyone also had a puzzled look, unknowing of why they were there as well.

"Since there's nobody here, they're probably on the arena battlefield," David suggested.

"Let's check it out then," Jenni exclaimed leading the way.

The entire stadium was completely empty. The stands and battlefield still contained remainance of the attack that took place not too long ago. A few craters dotted the field itself and many sections of the stands were littered with trash that had yet to be picked up.

"So why are we here again?" Haze asked snidely.

"Uh, it doesn't seem like we're in the right place," Jenni said.

"No, the announcement said Arena A," Jake said still feeling uneasy.

"Hey! We're here, now what's this urgent announcement about?" David suddenly shouted after stepping out onto the field.

There was a small echo from David's shout, but besides that there was no reply.

"Is this some kind of stupid joke?" David asked in annoyance as he walked further onto the field.

Jenni, Jake, and Ken all walked onto the field as well taking in the extreme silence.

'Ok, now I'm really starting to get a bad feeling,' Jake thought as he scanned a section of the stands for any signs of life.

"Jake!" Haze shouted.

"Master!" Mia shouted as well.

Before they had time to react, both Jake and Ken were tackled to the ground by their pokemon without warning.

"Argh!" "Eeek!"

The simultaneous cries were coupled by resounding crashes from an unknown source. Thin films of dust swept the battlefield area as Jake recovered. He gritted his teeth, looking on to the source of the commotion. The two mechanical menaces gleamed in the overhead sun. The gigantic robots resembled more heavily armored versions of metal gears with a big red 'R' on one and a yellow 'G' on the other. Two wire cables extended from each of their shoulders and started to retract from the ground where they were shot. Each robot was now holding either Jenni or David who struggled against the iron grips of the metal claws that held them.

"Prepare for even more trouble," A Team Rocket grunt chanted through the see through cockpit of his robot.

The other grunt, a Team Galactic grunt, in the other robot spat, "Plan A, which was to take over this stinkin' tournament, totally got shot to hell by that Gardivoir and Lucario. So now we had to resort to Plan B, which was to kidnap the top four fighters and hold them for ransom. But since that didn't go as planned, looks like we have to go to Plan C; take what we have and run."

With that, the hatches on the back of the robots opened up to reveal jet packs. The jet packs fired and the robots leapt from the top of the stands were they hid and into the sky.

"Ken, we can't let them escape," Jake said, pulling out a pokeball.

"Right," Ken nodded pulling out a pokeball himself.

Jake released Ryo, his Salemence and Ken his Lucario, Titan.

"Hello Jakie, am I here to fight or are we gonna take a nice flight around skies, just you and me."

Haze rolled her eyes.

"Sorry Ryo, but we've got a bigger problem. We need to hit the skies though," Jake said seriously.

Ryo sighed to herself before taking on her serious side. Jake and Haze climbed up onto Ryo's back, while Ken stepped up onto what looked like a surfboard like platform made of aura that shot up into the sky alongside Jake and Ryo. The robots that took David and Jenni were headed east toward some heavily fogged cliffs and were almost halfway there.

'Dang those things are fast,' Jake thought as they gave chase.

"Ken, we'll have to hit them fast and hard! I'll take the one on the left; you take the one on the right!"

Ken nodded, tapping Titan on the shoulder and they zoomed forward on the aura platform.

"Let's go Ryo, no time to waste," Jake howled over the rushing wind.

"Right!"

Ryo gave a mighty flap of her wings, propelling them through the air like a bullet. Ahead of them, the grunts in the robots received a blaring alarm.

"Crap, looks like someone's following us," The Team Rocket grunt called over a mic.

The Team Galactic grunt thought quickly, "We'll split up and meet back at the rendezvous once we take care of our pursuers."

"Roger."

The robots broke off their loose formation and headed in opposite directions. Back with Jake and Ken, they witnessed the robots split up and nodded to each other and split up themselves to follow their targets. Jake was hot on the tail of the Team Rocket grunt who held Jenni in its shoulder cable.

"Listen, Ryo you have to get us close enough so we can free Jenni! Haze, as soon as we're close, you rescue Jenni, I'll distract the grunt! When Haze is clear, you take the robot out Ryo! Ready?"

"Always Jake!" "You got it!"

Ryo beat her wings up and down furiously and caught up to the robot in no time.

"Ok kiddies, time to play dodge ball, or should I sat dodge net," the grunt said and pushed a couple buttons on his control panel.

The robot's arms flipped around on its socket to face Jake, Haze, and Ryo. There were a couple loud cracks and large braided nets shot out form the robot's arms toward its pursuers.

Ryo easily dodged one net after the other and slicing through a few that came too close with a swift Dragon Claw. The robot's arms let out puffs of smoke, signaling it was out of nets.

The Team Rocket grunt banged on his control panel, "Come on, where's the turbo thrusters or the plasma cannon?! Dang it, I knew I should have read more of that owner's manual."

Ryo was now on top of the robot and kept in perfect sync with its flight.

"Haze, go!"

The Blaziken leapt down to the robot's shoulder where Jenni continued to struggle against the claw holding her. Jake leapt down to the robot as well, but landed on top of the cockpit, utterly surprising the grunt.

"Hey, get the heck off, don't you know it's unsafe to cling to a flying robot like that?!" The grunt shouted in irritation.

Jake merely raised one hand to his ear in a 'what? Can't hear you' mocking motion.

The Team Rocket grunt just became even more irritated, "Ok kiddie, don't say I didn't warn you!"

The robot was sent into a fit of wild bucks and jerks at the grunt's command, desperately trying to shake Jake off. Jake himself held on tightly as the rocking and weaving became wilder. Haze held on for her life as she carefully aimed her punches at the joints of the claw that held Jenni. With one last fire infused punch, the restraint broke free and released Jenni. Jenni wasted no time and took out a pokeball and jumped from the flailing robot.

"Togi, come on out!" Jenni cried, the pokeball releasing her Togikiss.

She gracefully landed on the flying pokemon's back.

"Jake, we're free to go!" Haze shouted.

Jake gave a comical salute to the infuriated grunt before jumping form the robot himself with Haze. Ryo glided underneath the pair and plucked them out of their freefall with ease.

"Ok Togi, time for some pay back," Jenni said, "Hit him with an Aura Sphere!"

The Togikiss happily sent the ball of aura hurtling toward the now escaping robot, hitting its mark.

"Ok Ryo, our turn now! Let's send this grunt out with a bang!"

With the robot still recovering from the first attack, Ryo screamed past the wind. She gave an intimidating roar before slashing at the robot's jet pack with a Dragon Claw attack. The mixture of fuel and sparks in the air caught each other quickly and engulfed the rest of the machine on a fiery explosion.

Just above the spectacular sight, the Team Rocket grunt could be seen soaring through the air, "You win this time punks, I'm blasting off againnnnn!!!!!*twinkle*"

Not far off another explosion erupted with the wreckage of the second robot plummeting to ground.

"Nice work you two, we did it," Jake smiled to Ryo and Haze.

---

"Man that was almost too easy," Ken said now that everyone was back at the Competitor's Lounge after they had been questioned by the police about what happened.

"Well at least now we won't have to worry about any more attacks by any organizations," Jake said, sipping on a can of soda.

"If you wanna jinx yourself go ahead," David said, leaning back against his seat trying to relax, "Thanks for the help anyways."

"Thank you," Jenni said, "So now that that's over, who's fighting who in the next round?"

'That's a good question,' Jake thought, "Let's go check the board."

They all got up and headed for the electronic board where the round three postings were at.

'Let's see what kind of challenge I get next.'

Description
Even with the failed attack of the organizations, everyone was still bustling to either round up the remaining organization stragglers or find loved ones that were still lost. Jake had a hard time finally making it to the central lobby where most of the hostages were taken from the arenas. The Gardivior, Sara, had told him that his family was there, but there were so many other people there as well looking for missing family members that Jake thought he'd become claustrophobic if he stepped into the crowd.

"Mom! Dad! Rachael! Bradley!" Jake shouted to be heard over the rest of the crowd.

He heard no response and shuffled along the outside of the swarm of worried faces, he too becoming worried for his family's safety.

"Jake!"

The sweet little voice broke through the other cries to meet Jake. He craned his head to just see the bright smiling face of his Dewott gleaming back at him. She waved her arms above her head wildly to make sure she had his attention which Jake swiftly waved back.

"He's over there, that way," Jake heard her call from the top of some kind of stand she was on.

Jake wanted to run through the waves of people but his little Dewott, Rachael, began to move toward him instead. Instantly his mother, father, and Bradley were before him with Rachael peculiarly perched atop of his father's head.

"Oh Jake, were so glad that you're alright," Jake's mother burst into tears as she gave him an Ursaring hug, "When we overheard some grunts say that they were tracking down the last few competitors, we didn't know if they had caught you. Thank Arceus you're okay, oh but your shirt is ripped, and is that blood?!"

"It's okay mom, I got out safe."

Jake's father clasped a hand on his shoulder with a broad smile, "They probably weren't able to catch my son with how great a fighter he is."

"Jake!" Rachael leapt from his father's head and latched herself around Jake's neck.

"I'm so glad you and Bradley are safe as well."

Bradley turned his head and scoffed, "I don't need your sympathy; I was fine on my own until they started fighting dirty and caught me from behind. Otherwise I would have kicked all of their asses."

"Come on Bradley," Rachael teased, "You could at least pretend like you weren't worried for Jake."

"I wasn't," Bradley cocked his head with a practiced scowl.

Rachael giggled, "Of course you weren't, teehee."

Bradley started fuming, "Come here you little gossip girl!"

Rachael ran off a little ways running in circles as the steaming Reuniclus gave chase.

"Those two seem like they're having fun," Jake's mother smiled.

"Yeah, tons of fun," Jake said sarcastically, "I'll be right back; I have to go heal the rest of my team before the lines get too long."

"Ok son, see you later," Jake's father ruffled Jake's already messy hair.

Jake quickly made it to one of the shorter lines before it too began to become crowded with other trainers awaiting their turn to have their pokemon healed. He was next in line and the Nurse Joy behind the counter gave him a hearty smile.

"Hello sir, would you like me to heal your pokemon?"

"Yes, thank you," Jake said as he handed over his six pokeballs to the outstretched arms of the Nurse Joy.

The all too familiar jingle of the healing machine rang as Jake waited for the small tune to end.

The Nurse Joy turned back around with Jake's team in hand, "Thank you for waiting, your pokemon are restored to full health."

"Thanks," Jake replaced the pokeballs back on his belt, all except one.

Jake had to push through the messy crowd again until he was on the outside. He gave the pokeball in his hand a quick toss in the air and the device burst open in a flash of light. His Blaziken, Haze, ruffled her feathers out and stretched after being in her pokeball for so long.

"Gee, about time you let me out, you know how much I hate traveling in that thing," Haze picked up her usual tone, pointing at the pokeball for a bit of emphasis.

Jake chuckled, "Sorry, we ran into a bit of a problem during the second round."

Jake explained what happened to his most trusted partner while the team was out. Haze instantly went through a couple phases of worry, anger, regret, and relieve as the tale came to a close knowing that the threat had passed and Team Sigma was gone.
"…and that's about it, oh and my parents are here, along with guess who."

"Haze!"

The Blaziken instantly recognized the sweet little voice of her girl friend, "Rachael!"

Haze caught Rachael in a midair leap and hugged her tightly.

"Haze, Haze, this scary thing happened and I didn't know what to do. All these baddies showed up and were hurting everyone."

"I know, Jake just told me. At least it's over right?" Haze replied, setting her Dewott friend down.

The two began to ramble on and gossip about all things girly and what they've been doing while the other was away.

"Great, now we have two gossip chicks that'll never shut up," Bradley pouted beside Jake's father.

"Nice to see you too Jello boy," Haze said, dripping with sarcasm.

"Well son, now that that incident is over. Shouldn't they be preparing for the next round?" Jake's father asked a certain gleam in his eye.

"Robert, they wouldn't allow this competition to continue after what just happened," Jake's mother eyed her husband with a certain glare meaning 'life isn't all about fighting'.

Jake's father immediately gave an apologetic smile to back away from the subject.

"Attention everyone, attention," the loudspeakers cut through the lobby's constant buzz, "We would like to apologize for the inconvenient delay. We would also like to ask all competitors to meet back in the competitor's lounge for round three line ups, thank you."

Jake's father regained the anxious gleam from earlier as he heard the announcement. Jake's mother on the other hand put on a face of disapproval to the development.

"Well, I better go, thanks mom and dad for coming," Jake hugged them both before nodding to Haze, "Rachael, Bradley, see you two later."

"Good luck Jake!" "…Whatever."

Already halfway to the competitor's lounge, Jake was back to his old self of thinking about what kind of challenge he would face in this new round.

"Eek, what the hell?! Haze screamed drawing Jake's attention.

Haze was covering her butt with a deep blushing scowl on her face that was directed to a sly looking Golduck that was behind her.

"Now that's gotta be an eight and a half on the firmness scale," The Golduck said smoothly, coking an eyebrow, "The name's Confusha, and baby, you ain't never wanna forget it. Now how about we take some more time to…get to know each other."

Haze was fuming by now, "How about you go screw yourself before I rip that smart Alec bill off your face."

"Ohh, feisty, I like 'em that way," Confusha growled playfully.

Though before Haze took the chance to exact her earlier threat, a female Infernape knocked the Golduck to the floor with a Mach Punch.

"Honestly, I can't leave you alone for two seconds can I," The Infernape said angrily as she dragged him away by a spike on his head.

"Oh, ouch, now now May, there's plenty of Confusha to go around sweet thang," The Golduck said between cries of pain, earning him another swift blow to the head.

"Oh, hi Jake," Ken said out breath after jogging up to the scene.

"Hey Ken, I'm guessing this one is yours?"
"*sigh* sorry about that," Ken sweat dropped as they watched May the Infernape continually pummel the Golduck when he tried to make an advance, "May, would you mind taking Confusha back to Keegan and tell him to keep an eye on him?"

"Of course master," May gave a curt bow as she dragged the pleading Golduck by a head spike again.

"Oh come on babe, I bet she would have agreed to a threesome, Augh!"

"*sigh* again, sorry about that. Confusha tends to be…overactive."

Haze huffed, "You should have just let me teach that platypus a lesson."

"For once I'll agree with you bird brain," The Azumarill by Ken's leg spoke up.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you," Haze shot a piercing glare at Mia.

"Haze," Jake called in a commanding tone.

Haze rolled her eyes and turned away, arms crossed.

"So I guess they decided to skip to round three then huh?" Ken asked, pulling the conversation in another direction.

Jake nodded, "Yeah, hope I get to finish that match with that Blade kid later on."

The loudspeakers from before sputtered and crackled back to life, drawing the two's attention, "Er, um, would competitors Ken Ryuken, Jake Everant, David Kento, and Jenni Emerald please report to the south wing of Arena A for an urgent announcement."

The speakers died out with what sounded like someone in the background laughing and faded to a bit of static.

"Weird, wonder what's going on," Jake said puzzled.

"And why only the four of us, why not all the competitors?" Ken asked with a hint of suspicion.

"We better go check it out anyways."

The duo passed a couple other competitors that were headed for the lounge along their way, not really paying much mind to them as they had their own objective.

"…So what do you think this urgent announcement is about?" Ken finally asked the burning question.

Jake shrugged, "Beats me, but something has been bothering me about this 'announcement'. It doesn't feel right, you know?"

"Geez Jake," Haze blurted, "Don't be like Dagger with his 'psychic premonition'. I bet they just want to congratulate us for saving the tournament for them."

"Hmmm, maybe, but wouldn't they do that earlier?"

Haze shrugged; just glad she wasn't stuck in a stupid pokeball.

"Hey, you two, you're Jake Everant and Ken Ryuken?" A guy called from the entrance of Arena A.

Jake recognized him as David Kento, another competitor in the tournament. He wore his trademark black trench coat, even though it was the middle of summer, torn up jeans, and plain looking yet worn out shoes. Jake's attention was still pulled to the odd looking device on his arm; it had a menacing look about it.

"Yeah, and you must be David Kento, pleased to meet you," Jake said.

"*pant, pant* sorry I'm late," An out of breath girl called after rounding the same corner Jake and Ken arrived from, "I was just talking to my sister back at the other Arena when I heard the announcement. Oh, hi Ken, David, and…Jake is it?"

"Hello," Jake nodded in return.

This was the first time Jake had met the competitor Jenni Emerald in person, she was quite beautiful for her age and he had seen her fight during the first round knowing she would be a challenge if they battled. She wore some heavily tattered and scuffed up shirt, pants, and tote bag, probably from the attack by the organizations.

"By the way, does anyone know why they made us come here?" Jenni asked after regaining her breath.

Everyone also had a puzzled look, unknowing of why they were there as well.

"Since there's nobody here, they're probably on the arena battlefield," David suggested.

"Let's check it out then," Jenni exclaimed leading the way.

The entire stadium was completely empty. The stands and battlefield still contained remainance of the attack that took place not too long ago. A few craters dotted the field itself and many sections of the stands were littered with trash that had yet to be picked up.

"So why are we here again?" Haze asked snidely.

"Uh, it doesn't seem like we're in the right place," Jenni said.

"No, the announcement said Arena A," Jake said still feeling uneasy.

"Hey! We're here, now what's this urgent announcement about?" David suddenly shouted after stepping out onto the field.

There was a small echo from David's shout, but besides that there was no reply.

"Is this some kind of stupid joke?" David asked in annoyance as he walked further onto the field.

Jenni, Jake, and Ken all walked onto the field as well taking in the extreme silence.

'Ok, now I'm really starting to get a bad feeling,' Jake thought as he scanned a section of the stands for any signs of life.

"Jake!" Haze shouted.

"Master!" Mia shouted as well.

Before they had time to react, both Jake and Ken were tackled to the ground by their pokemon without warning.

"Argh!" "Eeek!"

The simultaneous cries were coupled by resounding crashes from an unknown source. Thin films of dust swept the battlefield area as Jake recovered. He gritted his teeth, looking on to the source of the commotion. The two mechanical menaces gleamed in the overhead sun. The gigantic robots resembled more heavily armored versions of metal gears with a big red 'R' on one and a yellow 'G' on the other. Two wire cables extended from each of their shoulders and started to retract from the ground where they were shot. Each robot was now holding either Jenni or David who struggled against the iron grips of the metal claws that held them.

"Prepare for even more trouble," A Team Rocket grunt chanted through the see through cockpit of his robot.

The other grunt, a Team Galactic grunt, in the other robot spat, "Plan A, which was to take over this stinkin' tournament, totally got shot to hell by that Gardivoir and Lucario. So now we had to resort to Plan B, which was to kidnap the top four fighters and hold them for ransom. But since that didn't go as planned, looks like we have to go to Plan C; take what we have and run."

With that, the hatches on the back of the robots opened up to reveal jet packs. The jet packs fired and the robots leapt from the top of the stands were they hid and into the sky.

"Ken, we can't let them escape," Jake said, pulling out a pokeball.

"Right," Ken nodded pulling out a pokeball himself.

Jake released Ryo, his Salemence and Ken his Lucario, Titan.

"Hello Jakie, am I here to fight or are we gonna take a nice flight around skies, just you and me."

Haze rolled her eyes.

"Sorry Ryo, but we've got a bigger problem. We need to hit the skies though," Jake said seriously.

Ryo sighed to herself before taking on her serious side. Jake and Haze climbed up onto Ryo's back, while Ken stepped up onto what looked like a surfboard like platform made of aura that shot up into the sky alongside Jake and Ryo. The robots that took David and Jenni were headed east toward some heavily fogged cliffs and were almost halfway there.

'Dang those things are fast,' Jake thought as they gave chase.

"Ken, we'll have to hit them fast and hard! I'll take the one on the left; you take the one on the right!"

Ken nodded, tapping Titan on the shoulder and they zoomed forward on the aura platform.

"Let's go Ryo, no time to waste," Jake howled over the rushing wind.

"Right!"

Ryo gave a mighty flap of her wings, propelling them through the air like a bullet. Ahead of them, the grunts in the robots received a blaring alarm.

"Crap, looks like someone's following us," The Team Rocket grunt called over a mic.

The Team Galactic grunt thought quickly, "We'll split up and meet back at the rendezvous once we take care of our pursuers."

"Roger."

The robots broke off their loose formation and headed in opposite directions. Back with Jake and Ken, they witnessed the robots split up and nodded to each other and split up themselves to follow their targets. Jake was hot on the tail of the Team Rocket grunt who held Jenni in its shoulder cable.

"Listen, Ryo you have to get us close enough so we can free Jenni! Haze, as soon as we're close, you rescue Jenni, I'll distract the grunt! When Haze is clear, you take the robot out Ryo! Ready?"

"Always Jake!" "You got it!"

Ryo beat her wings up and down furiously and caught up to the robot in no time.

"Ok kiddies, time to play dodge ball, or should I sat dodge net," the grunt said and pushed a couple buttons on his control panel.

The robot's arms flipped around on its socket to face Jake, Haze, and Ryo. There were a couple loud cracks and large braided nets shot out form the robot's arms toward its pursuers.

Ryo easily dodged one net after the other and slicing through a few that came too close with a swift Dragon Claw. The robot's arms let out puffs of smoke, signaling it was out of nets.

The Team Rocket grunt banged on his control panel, "Come on, where's the turbo thrusters or the plasma cannon?! Dang it, I knew I should have read more of that owner's manual."

Ryo was now on top of the robot and kept in perfect sync with its flight.

"Haze, go!"

The Blaziken leapt down to the robot's shoulder where Jenni continued to struggle against the claw holding her. Jake leapt down to the robot as well, but landed on top of the cockpit, utterly surprising the grunt.

"Hey, get the heck off, don't you know it's unsafe to cling to a flying robot like that?!" The grunt shouted in irritation.

Jake merely raised one hand to his ear in a 'what? Can't hear you' mocking motion.

The Team Rocket grunt just became even more irritated, "Ok kiddie, don't say I didn't warn you!"

The robot was sent into a fit of wild bucks and jerks at the grunt's command, desperately trying to shake Jake off. Jake himself held on tightly as the rocking and weaving became wilder. Haze held on for her life as she carefully aimed her punches at the joints of the claw that held Jenni. With one last fire infused punch, the restraint broke free and released Jenni. Jenni wasted no time and took out a pokeball and jumped from the flailing robot.

"Togi, come on out!" Jenni cried, the pokeball releasing her Togikiss.

She gracefully landed on the flying pokemon's back.

"Jake, we're free to go!" Haze shouted.

Jake gave a comical salute to the infuriated grunt before jumping form the robot himself with Haze. Ryo glided underneath the pair and plucked them out of their freefall with ease.

"Ok Togi, time for some pay back," Jenni said, "Hit him with an Aura Sphere!"

The Togikiss happily sent the ball of aura hurtling toward the now escaping robot, hitting its mark.

"Ok Ryo, our turn now! Let's send this grunt out with a bang!"

With the robot still recovering from the first attack, Ryo screamed past the wind. She gave an intimidating roar before slashing at the robot's jet pack with a Dragon Claw attack. The mixture of fuel and sparks in the air caught each other quickly and engulfed the rest of the machine on a fiery explosion.

Just above the spectacular sight, the Team Rocket grunt could be seen soaring through the air, "You win this time punks, I'm blasting off againnnnn!!!!!*twinkle*"

Not far off another explosion erupted with the wreckage of the second robot plummeting to ground.

"Nice work you two, we did it," Jake smiled to Ryo and Haze.

---

"Man that was almost too easy," Ken said now that everyone was back at the Competitor's Lounge after they had been questioned by the police about what happened.

"Well at least now we won't have to worry about any more attacks by any organizations," Jake said, sipping on a can of soda.

"If you wanna jinx yourself go ahead," David said, leaning back against his seat trying to relax, "Thanks for the help anyways."

"Thank you," Jenni said, "So now that that's over, who's fighting who in the next round?"

'That's a good question,' Jake thought, "Let's go check the board."

They all got up and headed for the electronic board where the round three postings were at.

'Let's see what kind of challenge I get next.'