After easily defeating the Dewford gym the group began to head towards the cave where Steven Stone was. As soon as they walked in Jax felt the presence of several Pokemon working in unison. Jax was happy to feel that the balance has not been shifted here yet. They continued through the cave until they reached a room with a mural of three Pokemon fighting. As soon as the group looked a bit closer Carmen ran straight to him surprising everyone.

Jax, melody, and Gary stood there as Carmen talked with him. After about an hour of waiting Carmen came skipping down with a huge smile on her face. They walked out only to be met with a young girl that everyone except Jax and his Pokemon knew. The girls of the group ran to greet the girl. Carmen introduced her to Jax saying her name was Kumori and that she and Carmen were rivals.

Kumori looked at Carmen, Melody, and Gary with a smile but once her eyes fell on Jax the smile was replaced by a straight face. Jax felt left out but he didn't know why he knew that Carmen had friends he didn't know about so why did this one feel any different. While Jax was contemplating this Kumori decided to challenge Carmen to a battle which ended in Kumori winning due to Carmen having a mental breakdown and running to the Pokemon center.

Jax decided that the best way to get to know someone is through a battle. He challenged Kumori and said that he was willing to wait until her Pokemon were in fighting condition. Kumori gave him a look of approval as she walked to the Pokemon center to get her Pokemon healed up. Jax waited patiently by the gym for her to come out.

Kumori came out of the Pokemon center about an hour later. Jax and Kumori looked at each other with determination in their eyes as the walked to a spot just north of town. It was decided that it would be a 3 on 3 battle. Kumori sent out Sapphire her shiny Ninetails so Jax decided to send out Kurama to combat it. As soon as Kurama looked to face his opponent he was shocked to see a female shiny Ninetails.

Jax commanded Kurama to use confuse Ray to confuse the opposing Ninetails. Kurama just stood there not listening to a thing going on around him as he walked towards Sapphire. Kumori was confused as to what was going on so she told Sapphire to use hypnosis to put Kurama to sleep as it began to attack until Kurama fainted.

Jax thought his next move through very carefully as he decided to send out Jozie the shiny mudkip who seemed to be disappointed in Kurama. Jozie stared at the fire type that was towering over her. This only served to fire her up even more and make her strive to beat the Pokemon her friend could not. Jozie began to move and circle around Sapphire to confuse her before firing off a water gun hitting the Ninetails dead in the back.

The Ninetails yelped in pain as it was hit but stood right back up. Angrier and began to go wild with fire and psychic attacks. Jozie dodged every attack with style and began to use mud-slap to weaken the Ninetails into submission as it fainted.

Kumori looked in awe at the sheer strategy the trainer and Pokemon used to communicate without saying a word. She wanted to test this further. She sent out her Arcanine to battle against the tiny water type. This seemed to confuse everyone except Jax. Jax told Jozie to stay on guard for anything that might happen.

Jozie didn't take her eyes off the fire type as it circled her before it unleashed a thunder fang grabbing the water type into it's jaws. Jozie began to cry out in pain as the grip got tighter. Jax told his mudkip to use water gun straight at the Arcanine's eye to get free.

Jozie concentrated as she let out her high pressure water gun. The Arcanine released it's grip on Jozie as she fell to the ground. She slowly got up and used another water gun to knock the Arcanine out. Jozie felt proud of herself that she took not one but two Pokemon out.

Kumori was intrigued as to how quickly he thought up a plan to get out of the Arcanine's jaws. She sent out her final Pokemon her mudkip which she named mudflap. Jozie was badly hurt from the previous battle but she showed no signs of giving up until her last move. Jax was concerned with her but knew she wasn't going to give up easy.

The battle between mudkips was soon under way as Jozie was moving a bit slower than she was before. Mudflap began to go on the offensive as it used a mixture of water gun and mud-slap to weaken Jozie but after the first hit from the water gun she fainted. Jax knew exactly who to use to finish this battle. He sent Dane into battle. Jax knew his brawny shroomish could get the job done.

As Dane came out of his ball angrier then usual. It seemed like he was mad at the opposing mudkip for some reason. Jax saw this and thought maybe he could use it to his advantage. Jax told him to use spore on mudkip. Dane ran towards the mudkip and tried to use spore but somehow tripped.

Mudflap walked over to check on him. The mudkip poked Dane's head seeing if he was only for him to use leech seed on the unknowing water type. Mudflap was entangled in some type of vines. Dane then began to use headbutt but the opposing mudkip began to mimic Dane and use headbutt as well they kept going at it until they both fainted.

Kumori came up and shook Jax's hand in honor of a great battle. As she left Jax brought out all his Pokemon that fought hard to get healed up. Kurama looked at the ocean in disappointment with his most recent lose. Jax walked over to him and explained that it was ok he would just need to be more vigilant next time. The shiny Ninetails looked at his trainer with hope and joy in his eyes as he stood up ready for his next challengers. Jax could only smile at the inthusiasm of the Ninetails who had just a second ago thought he was a failure. Soon after the Pokemon were healed up Carmen came back as well with a somewhat fake smile. They decided that their next stop would be slateport to deliver the parts to Captain Stern.

The group walked back to Mr. briney so they could hurry and get to slateport before the next morning. They all boarded the ship as it took off seemingly chasing the moon rise. The group sat in silence for most of the way until someone said something about Carmen's breakdown. You could see the tears in her eyes as the subject was brought up. It started a huge argument amongst the four teens. The argument went on for a few minutes but was soon ended with Gary comforting his girlfriend.

As it reached 3 in the morning only Jax and Mr. Briney were awake as they reached the beach of slateport city. Jax woke everyone but Carmen up knowing that she hates to be woken up early in the morning. They laid down a blanket as they set her down so she could rest.

Jax sat at the right edge of the shore with Asura and Kurama staring at the ocean remembering their trip in kanto all the good and bad times. Jax looked at his shoulder where the lightning bolt pattern was and remembered what happened on the route towards Celadon City.

As the sun rose and Carmen woke up and they continued on to slateport city where they saw not only the ship yard but a group of team aqua and team magma grunts lined up outside of the slateport museum. Carmen suggested we go to shipyard first. Jax looked at her with a look of confusion. Jax walked with the rest of the group to see what she had planned. As they walked in they saw a man frantically looking at a blueprint of something. The group approached the man to see what was going on with him.

Carmen tapped his shoulder after looking over his shoulder at the blueprint to which she could not read what so ever. The man was startled to see not one but four teens standing around him. Jax tried to hand him the parts from Devon Co. The man said that the parts were for the captain who was currently at the slateport museum. Jax looked at Carmen as she did the same then they both sped off to the museum only to see the line was gone. The group ran in as Jax paid the fee for every one so they would be allowed in and so they could stop the evil teams plan. The lobby was full with aqua and magma grunts. Jax told Dane to use spore on all the grunts. Dane jumped up to the highest point in the room and used spore to put all the grunts to sleep so the group could get to the top floor without meeting any resistance.

When they got to the top floor only three people were there a man and two two grunts one in red and the other in blue. Jax snuck up on the one in blue while Carmen did the same with the one in red. They each tapped on the shoulder the one they snuck up on. The grunts jumped in Surprise as they saw two teens standing behind them and two more closer to the stairs. Jax and Carmen each pulled one pokeball from their belt and told the grunts to make a bet with them. The bet would be if the grunts could beat a single Pokemon of each of the two then the teens would leave them be as well as leave all of their Pokemon with the grunts.

The grunts gave an evil grin as they agreed. Jax and Carmen threw the Pokemon they would use. Jax sent out Kurama and Carmen sent out Ben. The two shiny Ninetails came out of their balls ready to fight for their friends. The grunts sent out a Zubat and a poochyena to battle against the Ninetails duo. The battle was over quickly as all the Ben and Kurama did was use a double flamethrower. The grunts seemed to look even more frightened as the two trainer's heard voices arguing. The two looked back to see a scientist looking guy and a somewhat pirate looking guy coming up to see what was taking so long.

Kurama turned ready for another battle but was stopped by Jax. The men walked up to Jax and Carmen and examined them closely before scolding their grunts and leaving after waking up all the grunts downstairs.

Jax had a curious look on his face confused as to what just happened. No one said anything as they left the museum. Jax decided to head to a place called the trick house up ahead. Carmen and the rest of the group headed south so Melody could spend some time at the beach.

Thanks for reading this chapter of my story I will try and get chapter's out sooner but with trying to enroll in school it may be a bit of a longer wait but I will try and get new chapter's out if not every week than every two weeks I also italicized a word in here for a special reason try and find the word and message me if you have a guess as to why I did it

As always stay classy readers