Another Day Of Training

"VICTORIA, ASSIST!" A voice called.

Almost immediately, another Purrloin ran up to the grunt, swiftly climbing up to the grunt's face and unleashing a gush of fire. The cat didn't wait for another second before jumping backwards, landing on the ground near the other Purrloin as she braced herself for whatever the vile human had up his sleeve.

Nyx caught up to her Purrloin, her Shroomish right beside her as she glared at the grunt. "You! Hand over what you stole from Drake!" She said.

The grunt's face was black from the ash of the attack and wiped it off. He growled and made his answer by sending out a hippopotas that seemed a bit darker than usual and had glazed over eyes. The hippopotas's ability summoned a sandstorm. The storm hit the Davin and the Tranquil out of the sky and into a tree where they clung to the roots, trying to shield themselves from the sand. The ground pokemon then sent a sand attack at the trainer and her pokemon before running at them with a tackle attack. The hippopotus obeyed the man's every command without hesitation or even a word. The man carried a purple crystal around his neck, he had two of them. One was glowing, as if it were active.

Nyx tried to cover her eyes as the sandstorm overwhelmed the battle field. Victoria ran behind her trainer, attempting to shield herself from the sand. The sunny rays of what was a clear sky were blocked out by the raging storm, sending sand everywhere.

Oliver decided to take the battle. He didn't like how this Hippopotas was acting so odd and obedient to such an evil human, and assumed it was because of those evil crystals. He was going to free the pokemon, even if he had to do it on his own. He dodged the sand-attack, but in exchange got hit by the large pokemon's Tackle. He gave a cry, getting send backwards. He unleashed his spores, trying to inflict the pokemon before suddenly sending a beam of energy-absorbing light at the Hippopotas, the beam rushing toward the ground pokemon as it was in close range.

The hippopotas was put to sleep by the spores, and since it was asleep it couldn't dodge the attack. It was hit by the absorb attack and slept soundly. The grunt was enraged by this, he screamed at his hippopotas to wake up. His screams fell on deaf ears, as the hippopotas couldn't hear him over the storm and was too deep in it's sleep to wake up so suddenly. It seemed like the pokemon was enjoying the trip to the dreamworld, but the look was false, there was no mind or soul to go to the dreamworld.

Oliver hurriedly climbed up on the Hippopotas, about to use another Absorb. He stopped, noticing an opening on the large pokemon's back. Gulping, he jumped up and sent a beam of absorbing light, hoping to somehow knock the pokemon out of its controlled state.

Nyx squinted, seeing her Shroomish battling the Hippopotas. She struggled, but managed to speak an order to her hiding Purrloin. "Vic...toria! Go... and get... the crystal!" She said, her voice just barely audible in the storm. The Purrloin managed a nod, before running to the sidelines of the battle field, barely visible in the raging storm. Wincing because of the harsh conditions, She ran, sneaking past the grunt. She jumped, climbing up the human's back before clawing at the man's neck to distract him as her tail hooked onto the two crystals on his neck, attempting to pull them off.

The grunt noticed the purrloin, since he had nothing else to focus on while his hippopotas was asleep. He separated the crystals from the purrloin and had the purrloin by the tail. He tossed it like a sack of potatoes back at it's trainer. The grunt held onto the crystals in his clenched fist, the glowing one in his hand and the dark one safely tucked inside the zipper of his pocket.

The hippopotas woke and felt the shroomish on it's back. It took damage from the absorb, and used sand attack, expelling sand from the hole and making it erupt like a geyser into the air. The hippopotas used tackle, obeying the grunt's every order.

Victoria screeched, luckily being caught by Nyx before she collided with the ground. She sat up and glared daggers at the grunt, the urge to scratch his eyes out was overwhelming. Nyx, however, knew that the effort was futile at the moment. She had to wait for a blind spot to ambush and knock out the grunt.

Oliver gave a screech, being sent into the air by the sudden gushing sand-attack. He looked down, seeing the Hippopotas running and preparing to use Tackle the moment he reached the ground. He braced himself, not realizing that he had just released a mist of paralysis-inducing power down at the Hippopotas. He gave a cry, being sent to the ground by the Tackle. He shook, struggling onto his feet as the storm raged on. He send another beam of absorb at the large pokemon, still refusing to give up.

The Hippopotas took damage and was paralyzed. The grunt gritted his teeth and recalled the Hippopotas, "Fine! I'll just beat you using that stupid Ranger's pokemon!" The grunt put away the Hippopotas's crystal and brought out the other, it glowed brightly as he sent out a pokeball. The sand storm disappeared and revealed a blue figure kneeling down. The figure stood up, revealing a Lucario. The lucario had a glazed look in one eye but a lively look in the other, it didn't seem to move at all, "WHAT!?" the grunt exclaimed, "Why isn't the process done yet!? He can't do anything when he's only half stolen!" the grunt said aloud accidentally. His surprise had caused him to drop the lucario's crystal.

Nyx's eyes widened at the sight of the Lucario. No, this was her chance! "Victoria! NOW!" Immediately, the cat pokemon jumped from her trainer's arms, running towards the grunt with all the speed she could muster. The purple blur dashed through the battle field, heading towards the fallen crystal.

Oliver reacted as his comrade began dashing through the field. He ran to the grunt, preparing to sent a Stun Spore to his face to prevent him from interfering. To the Shroomish's surprise, he instead shot a few seeds at the human. The seeds exploded into bright vines, threatening to grip the grunt's chest with its life-sucking properties.

The grunt was attacked by the small pokemon. He cried out in pain and tossed items on the ground, "Here take them!" he cried. "Just leave me alone!" he ripped out the vines and ran, taking his hippopotas crystal with him along with the hippopotas pokeball. He left behind a ranger badge, Ranger ID card, Lucario's pokeball, and Lucario's crystal. The lucario continued to stand where he was, a distant look in his eyes, he suddenly returned to his pokeball when he realized that there was nobody to command him.

Nyx watched as the grunt fled, feeling disappointed that she couldn't free the Hippopotas. She sighed, walking over to the items and picking them up. She looked at the Lucario's pokeball and crystal, hoping that Drake knew how to help the poor pokemon from its state. She looked at her two pokemon, a smile on her face. "Both of you did amazingly well. I'm proud of you two."

The two seemed pleased about the comment. Oliver happily jumping in place while Victoria simply gave a smile, as if to say 'I know you are'. The two pokemon followed their trainer as they searched for Drake's Purrloin and Tranquill, hoping to return these items as soon as possible.

Davin and the tranquil had walked over to the lucarios pokeball and pawed at it, wanting to see their teammate well again. The tranquil took to the air, promising to lead the way back to the wounded ranger. The purrloin seemed down though, it's tail sank to the floor as it worried about it's trainer's reaction to finding out about his first partner's enslavement.

The Purrloin and the tranquill led the way to Drake, who was waiting with his Umbreon and houndoom to keep him company, "Did you find him? Did you find my lucario?" he asked, asking more about his lucario than his badge and ID.

Nyx gave a nervous chuckle. "Haha, calm down Drake. I have all of them, just like I said." She gave the items to the Pokemon ranger, feeling a bit of doubt at the thought of the ranger finding out what happened to his Lucario. "There's one problem though. Your Lucario is about half-way turned into those soulless things. I got the crystal though, do you know how to give him back his soul?" She asked.

Her Purrloin and Shroomish sat nearby the other pokemon, with Oliver bombarding them with worried questions as Victoria simply groomed herself. The Purrloin seemed confident, after all, the Lucario was only half turned. She had done her job, and so she had no other worries.

Drake had a dark flicker in his eyes, an enraged look. He wanted to hunt down that grunt and toss him in the electric chair himself. He took the crystal politely and dropped it on the ground. Without another word he stepped on it, there was a crushing glass sound then light flashed from under his shoe. After a moment, the Lucario's pokeball opened. The lucario opened it's eyes and looked at Drake, suddenly the Lucario had pounced on top of him, giving him a hug. Thats when all the other pokemon decided to dog pile him. "Yeah, Thanks!" he laughed from under the pile. He reached into his pocket and brought out some items, "Here, have these as a reward." he had given the trainer a potion, a greatball, along with a sitris berry. After he thanked her again, he gathered his pokemon and left to return to the pokemon center.

Nyx watched as the crystal was shattered, about to yell as she assumed that the trainer had just broken the pokemon's soul or something. Her words drowned before they were released when the Lucario came back out, and soon the ranger was dog piled by his own pokemon. She gave a sigh of relief, seeing that everything was fine. She accepted the items, saying goodbye to Drake as he left.

When the ranger left, the young trainer looked over to her pokemon, a grin on her face. "Hey. I think we're ready to go training in the Wayward Caves." And upon those words, the trio left the route.