*Risk's POV*

We should be almost there... But... I don't think I can go on for much longer... I thought, my stomach growling and my throat parched. We had been travelling for a few hours' time, and we had more than a few close run-ins with multiple hostile desert-dwelling Pokemon. Night had fallen, and Cedric was still pulling cactus thorns out of his side from when a horde of angry Cacturne tried to skewer us earlier. Although the combined fire of Charizard and Felix was enough to scare them off, we still took a beating from the constant needling. Thus, as a result, most of our group was completely drained by the time Felix shouted,

"I see it. Look, the forest is right over there!"

My feet coarse from walking on hot sand all day, I was relieved to finally see a more opportune place to camp for the night.

"Come on, we only have... A dozen or so yards to go! We're almost there!"

...

*Vivid Rainforest, B1F*

When my feet finally touched the wet soil of the rainforest, it was the best feeling I had all day. The slight moisture practically massaged my sand-caked soles, and I quickly set to setting up a decent-sized shelter of leaves for us to sleep in.

It's not the pinnacle of comfort... I thought, but survival was first priority right now. I beckoned for the others to come inside, but, after everyone had crowded inside, I realized my error- not all of us would be able to fit.

Felix nodded when he saw my crestfallen face,

"It's OK, buddy. I'll just keep watch outside. Your Leafeon friend seemed pretty paranoid about coming back here, so a little surveillance could settle his nerves a little."

As much as I knew Felix needed his sleep, if he was willing to keep watch for us, I wasn't about to say "No."

After all, there could still be anything lurking in this forest...

Finally, I consented and tried to get some sleep on the cold dirt floor of the makeshift bunker.

...

...

When I woke up, I immediately looked around in surprise.

"What?! Where are we?!"

Felix came over and tapped me on the shoulder,

"We just needed to relocate. I heard some hissing in the distance, so I woke up Alakazam, and he just teleported everyone to this new spot. The hissing stopped shortly after, and I think we're right near the tree that Blade marked out on that map."

So that's why my back aches so much right now... I thought, but I wasn't about to let Felix know that.

The rest of the team was already up and about- Photon and Cedric were tending a fire they had started, Alpha and Beta were taking turns plucking Berries and Apples for subsequent journeys, and Team ACT was discussing something behind a tree.

But where's Riku? I looked around for the Shaymin, but I didn't find him. Then, I looked at Felix again- Riku was currently sitting on his head, laughing like he'd never had this much fun in his entire life. However, the happenings immediately stopped when a loud,

"Ssssss..." reverberated through the trees.

My heart sped up, and my eyes grew wide.

No! That thing is dead! Sliced open by Virizion! I tried to reassure myself that I was just imagining the snake hiss, when I had the horrible realization,

If that little Pokemon we saw with Serperior was its child... It must evolved into another Serperior! And it's probably not too happy about its mother dying...

"Get going! We need to get out of here, NOW!" I shouted, as loud as I could. The rest of the team wasted no time in repacking and running into the distance.

Without hesitation, I followed the others, the soft rumbling of the snake's voice echoing behind me.

*Vivid Rainforest, B5F*

Finally, the noise of the snake hissing died down, and I took another look at my map. I pointed to a tree about three yards to our right,

"There, it should be this one! Can you see a way in, anyone?"

I didn't get a response, so I tried again.

"Anyone?" I asked, a little louder this time. Alakazam immediately put a finger to my lips and mouthed,

"Don't make a sound."

I was about to ask why when I heard it- the reason everyone went quiet,

"Sssss...."

It's right here! I can't tell where, but it's practically on top of us. Wait a minute...

"Scatter!" I yelled, as the snake leapt from the canopy above us to the ground.

The Serperior was obviously not amused that I read its trap so easily,
"Ssso... You think you're getting away from me that easssily?! Not after what you did to her- I... I sssaw her with my own two eyesss! What you ruthlesss brutesss did to her! And now," the snake laughed,

"It'sss my turn!"

Before I could even blink, the Pokemon lunged toward me, fangs bared, but it didn't get far before a certain ally we had just found intercepted the attack. Felix grabbed onto the side of the Serperior's head with his hooked claws and pulled, tearing off a large chunk of skin in the same motion. The Serperior seethed in anger,

"Why you little..."

I approached the snake, ready for combat, but Felix just looked at me and said, calmly,

"This is my battle- my destiny. Please, let me live it out!"

He turned back to the snake,

"Now where was I? Oh yes, I remember your mother well- the vile vixen that almost killed Sophia... After the wounds she sustained from that snake, I swore that day that I would get my revenge on your slithering kind!" Felix's face portrayed nothing but pure anger towards the Serperior.

"And, now, why don't I start with you!" he shouted, opening his mouth and launching an immensely hot fireball directly at the snake.

The attacked struck the Serperior directly under the head, instantly charring the skin to a dull black color. She hissed back at him.

"Why don't you try messsing with sssomeone your own sssize? You don't have a chance againssst the true rulersss of thisss foressst!" she said, lunging at the Flygon, mouth open wide. Before Felix could move out of the way, her tail caught him off guard, and he fell to the ground in front of her waiting jaw.

"You sssee? You can't win! You ssshould have quit when you had the chance! And now, for my troublesss..." the snake opened her enormous mouth and encompassed the Flygon.

"That's what you think, you serpentine demon!" Felix roared from inside her mouth.

"Look up, because you're not going to like what you see!"

Begrudgingly, the Serperior turned her head toward the sky, her mouth still bloated from Felix being inside it. Oddly, she didn't swallow him immediately. I wondered why,

Luckily or unluckily, perhaps she's just new at the whole "predator" thing...

Then, I looked up, myself, and I saw what Felix was talking about- just in time to see a miniature comet fall from the sky and slam into the Serperior, forcing the Flygon out of her mouth and pinning her head to the ground under the massive rock. She gasped for air for a few minutes, the rest of her body struggling to move the boulder. Finally, the snake ceased its movement, and I tried to feel its Aura.

It's...

"Dead," Felix finished my thought for me.

"Sophia, if only you could see this... Neither that snake, nor her child, will ever harm you again." He looked up to the sky, teary-eyed.

Well, there's no other time I can ask about this... I thought, approaching the Flygon and asking,

"Sophia? The very same one that was Photon and Cedric's Trainer?"

"Those two names..." Felix pondered.

"They do sound very familiar- I had a feeling I'd seen them once or twice before. They were in her house the one time I got to visit where she lived..."

"Only once? Weren't you her Pokemon? Why could you only visit her once?" I asked him, sure that I had struck a nerve of some sort.

"Well..." he began, as Team ACT began to walk into the distance.

"Come, Crusaders," Alakazam said.

"We have deduced that this tree holds nothing useful for us- let us keep searching for this entrance."

Felix looked at me and said,

"It's a long story. I'll tell you while we walk..."

*Flashback- Sophia and the Snake- Thirteen Years Ago (Felix)*

"I stood up and yawned. Yesterday hadn't been incredibly interesting, and, today, I felt like something exciting just had to happen. Little did I know that I would be right...

Anyway, I quickly scanned my surroundings- the grasslands that I loved to call 'home.' Numerous Pokemon darted in and out of the colorful flora, and I could see a few small Pidgey pecking at the grass. Obviously, they were looking for something.

I turned my head to the sky and couldn't help feeling alive. The sun wasn't too hot or too cold, and I took the time to sharpen my claws on a nearby boulder. Then, I heard a loud scream pierce the morning air,

'Photon! Cedric! Someone! Help me! There's... There's a...'

I didn't need to hear the rest of the plea for help to spring into action. Although I didn't know who 'Photon' or 'Cedric' were, I knew I had to help whoever cried out in terror.

Without another thought, I left the prairie and entered into the forest with reckless abandon. I tripped a few times in my haste, and an Aipom smacked me in the face with a branch, but I didn't stop running. I couldn't stop, I knew that much.

After about five minutes, the girl cried out again,

'It... It's... Hey, let go of me!'

The declaration was much closer this time, and I soon crashed through the underbrush to find a girl, struggling to remove her leg from the mouth of the largest green snake I had ever seen.

'Ssstay ssstill, you insssolent little girl! A sssnake needsss to eat, after all!' the Pokemon cooed.

'No, get off of me! Someone! Help me!'

She began to cry, as the snake enveloped her other leg in its mouth.

It's now or never! I thought, although I was blatantly terrified of the monster.

'Put her down! She didn't do anything to you!' I cried, stepping into the Serperior's view in the same motion.

'What'sss thisss?' the snake hissed.

'Another meal for me? Well, if you're ssso kind to ssstay. Jussst let me finish with thisss one!' The Pokemon turned its head to the sky, and was trying to suck the poor girl farther and farther into her mouth. I may not have known the girl, but I knew that it would be morally wrong to let her die.

'Never! You're not getting a meal out of her, or out of anything else here!' I shouted in rage, leaping at the snake and grabbing it by the head. The snake roared in pain as my claws sank deep into its skin. It released the girl and recoiled sharply when I followed up with a punch right to its nose.

'Why you little...' The snake started to say, but a cry of pain from another Pokemon in the distance caused it to turn its head.

'Another cry for help, hmm?' the snake sneered.

'I'm willing to bet that dinner'll be easier than the one here... You can have the girl- I don't feeling like wasting my energy on you,' it said, quietly slithering off into the underbrush.

When I had deemed that the Serperior was far enough away, I ran to the girl's side to help her. She had a few puncture wounds on her left thigh from her struggling against the snake's fangs, but, thankfully, the rest of her was unharmed.

The girl looked up at me when I approached, her right hand nervously combing through her brown hair. She stood up, and, now, I could see that she was a little over four feet tall. Her small green eyes blinked in surprise,

'I... I...' She tried to regain herself, but her eyes widened when her mind actually registered my presence there.

'You're not going to hurt me, too, are you?' she asked, slowly backing away from me.

I held out my hand in greeting,

'It's OK, I'm not going to hurt you,' I said, trying as best as I could to pronounce the human words correctly. Luckily, she understood me, as the girl walked over to me, tentatively clasping my hand with hers. Then, she looked at her pants and scraped some mud off the forest floor that she used as a seal around her wounds,

'I hope Grandma doesn't notice the teeth marks when she washes these... Anyway, I... I'm Sophia... What's your name?!'

'I'm... Felix,' I said, feeling a little nervous talking to her. I couldn't really tell what she was thinking, but I eventually decided that she wasn't the violent type of human that I'd heard about from other Pokemon.

'Follow me,' she said, smiling slightly. Her few freckles shone in the sunlight.

'I have a buddy that'd love to see you! Come on, let's go!'

Off she skipped into the forest, and I couldn't help but follow her. After all, this would probably be my only chance to make friends with a human.

A few minutes later, Sophia stopped in front of a red bricked structure. She flung open a piece of wood and stepped inside. I didn't see her for a while, but I heard her say,

'Come look at this, Cedric. I found someone that I think could be your friend!'

She soon stepped outside with a small brown Pokemon in her arms. It peeked its fuzzy head out from under her left arm, but, when it saw me, it let out a cry of terror and hid its head in her arms once again.

'Oh, Cedric...' Sophia mumbled to herself.

'You're just scared of everything, aren't you? How am I supposed to find you a friend if you don't want to make one?!'

The Eevee made a short whimpering sound, and the girl sighed,

'I'm really sorry, Felix. I just don't think Cedric is fond of Pokemon that he doesn't know very well...'

She stopped, mid-sentence, when we both heard footsteps from inside. Sophia whispered to me,

"Hide! Quick!"

I leapt into the nearby bushes, and Cedric immediately hid inside the bag on her back, curling himself up into a ball small enough to not be noticed. From my hiding spot, I watched an older woman step out of the building. She was obviously alarmed about the commotion outside,

'Sophia?! Don't tell me you're playing with your Pokemon friends again! Haven't I told you how dangerous those creatures are to a little girl like you?'

Sophia shrugged her shoulders in reply,

'Grandma, I'm just fine. Nothing weird is going on. I'm just doing some... Umm... Homework?'

I knew she was lying, but the older woman believed her without a second thought,

'Alright, Dear. Just come get me if you need any help. I'll be making dinner," she said, going back inside the 'house' and shutting the 'door' behind her.

Sophia turned back to me,

'You can come out. She's gone now.'

'Who's gone?' I asked, but I knew the answer as soon as the question left my mouth.

'My grandma,' she said wistfully.

'She doesn't really like Pokemon very much, so I have to keep hiding them every time she comes to check on me. She thinks all of them are out to kill me, but I know that only some of them will do that... But if Grandma ever found out about Cedric...' She trailed off.

'I'm really sorry, Felix, but I don't think I can hide you as easily as Cedric fits in my backpack. I can come to the forest every so often if I don't have homework, but, for now, I think this is goodbye. I can't express how much I'll miss seeing my savior, but I just can't think of a way to make this work...' She started to cry, and I placed a hand on her shoulder.

'There's no need to cry, Sophia. I'm content with seeing you on your way, still alive and well.'

That made her smile, but her face fell when her grandmother called from inside the house,

'Dinner's ready, Sophia!'

Sophia looked crestfallen,

'Well, I'll miss you, Felix. Bye!' She hugged me one last time before answering her grandmother's voice with a resounding,

'Coming!' and disappearing back into her house..."

"You were that Flygon?!" Cedric asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.

Felix nodded, but, before he could continue his story, a massive tree rose out of the ground in front of us. When the tree had risen to about fifty feet tall, the green leaves and bark parted to reveal a dark cavern, leading into the ground. I realized it was an entrance- the entrance to Von Spectre's lair.

"Well, we've come this far! Let's finish what we started!" I shouted towards the sky.

My battle cry was soon answered by the others in the group, and we charged into the darkness, ready for anything that infernal marionette had planned for us. Well, almost anything. Anything but what actually happened.