It was too good to be true. Cynthia had known in her heart that the five minutes of peace and quiet she'd been having wouldn't last. There had been a brief moment in her life when she'd had no paperwork, no students visiting her soon that she'd need to worry about and above all she had no stress. Obviously, her moment of bliss was cut short.

"Bzzt - Some students to see you Headmistress." Jenkins said through the intercom.

"Give me one minute Jenkins." Cynthia sighed. She pushed herself up so that she sat straight in her chair, wiped the tiredness out from her eyes and put on her usual smile. After exactly sixty seconds, four students walked through the open door of her office.

"Miss." Alex Murphy said, nodding at her. She'd seen him plenty of times already this year due to his... less than satisfactory grades. The other three students she wasn't so well acquainted with. She knew Arabella Hughes fairly well for the complete opposite reasons to Alex and she could just about remember the names of the others, Lucy and Megan.

"Hello again Alex." she smiled. "What brings you back uninvited so late in the evening?"

"Something... strange." Alex said after a pause. "Someone strange."

"Sounds interesting." Cynthia said, her curiosity instantly captured. "Please, tell me more."

"Well we were having a practice battle for doubles-"

"Which we were winning!" Megan pointed out.

"Yes but the battle was cut short so it doesn't count as a loss!" Alex defended. Now Cynthia remembered where she'd learned Megan's name. From what she understood, Megan and Alex were a hot headed couple, often the centre of gossip around the school.

"So you're still technically undefeated?" Cynthia asked.

"Yes. Definitely." Alex said firmly. In all of their meetings, Alex always brought up the fact that grades didn't matter as long as he never lost a battle. As cocky as he sounded when he said it, Cynthia had to admit he had a point.

"Anyways, the battle was cut short?"

"Yeah, there was this guy who was sneaking around behind our dorm."

"An intruder?" Cynthia gasped, suddenly worried about a security breach on the island.

"And this guy was really weird." Alex continued. "Like, he was very secretive about what he was doing and then out of the blue he just attacked us."

"Are you all alright?"

"Oh, we're fine, I beat him pretty easily." Alex said, sounding as arrogant as possible. "Then we handed him over to the island police."

"So whatever he was doing isn't a problem anymore?"

"Well, that's the thing. He kept on screaming 'You cannot defeat the Darkness Warriors!' over and over. The guy was nuts!"

"What did you just say?" Cynthia said quickly, her skin turning pale.

"I said he was nuts."

"No, what did the man say?"

"You cannot defeat the Darkness Warriors." Alex said slowly. Cynthia breathed a deep, deep breath. She sat back in her chair and scratched her chin. This was by far the worst news she'd heard in all her years of being Headmistress.

"You're absolutely certain?" she whispered.

"Yeah." Alex nodded. He looked puzzled.

"Well, thank you for letting me know." Cynthia said quietly. "In a few days, I'll send a message around the school after I've seen this man and questioned him. Until then, stay away from any strangers. Do you understand?"

"But he wasn't even all that great at battling, I thrashed him!" Alex insisted.

"Was he battling your Pokémon or was he attacking you personally?" Cynthia asked. Alex's face told her the answer she expected. "Ok then, off you go to bed now!"

After ushering the four students out of her office she began pacing. The Darkness Warriors were back. She didn't know how but they were back. The school and maybe even the world was currently in grave danger and only five people even knew about it. What were they after? This island held many secrets and they must have discovered one of them. Her next call of action would be to question the captive Darkness Warrior to find out what their true motives were. It wouldn't be easy to get information out of him but it was imperative that she did. The Darkness Warriors were back and one way or another, she was going to stop them.

*

"You almost died?" Lenny exclaimed after hearing the story from Alex's perspective the next day.

"Pretty much." Alex agreed. "If it hadn't been for my quick thinking, good reflexes, battling talents and general all round awesomeness the girls would've been toast."

"Alex, that is bullshit and you know it." Megan scoffed. "You couldn't even beat me and Luce in a double battle."

"I was just about to turn it around!" Alex protested.

"Of course you were." She smiled, kissing him on the cheek and shaking her head a little.

"Anyways, Cynthia warned us to be wary of strangers." Alex informed Lenny.

"So let me guess. You're going to try and find these Darkness Warriors and take them on." Lenny said, his tone of voice sounding resigned as if he knew it was pointless to argue otherwise.

"Lenny, you know I'd never do something so reckless!" Alex said sarcastically. "I'm going to go out and catch a Pokémon to defend myself with if any more of these Darkness Warriors show up."

"That's actually a decent idea." Lenny admitted.

"I know, I'm full of great ideas." Alex grinned. "You coming with me?"

"Sure, but I don't think I'll actually catch anything. I want to focus on training up my current Pokémon before catching a something new."

"Fair enough." Alex shrugged. "See you later Megs!"

"Have fun!" Megan said as the pair of friends set off for the red brick bridge. As they walked towards the forest, Alex decided that it was time for a long overdue talk.

"So how've things been going?" He asked.

"Alright, I guess." Lenny said. "I haven't failed any tests in a while."

"You know that's not what I'm talking about." Alex said, crossing the river and reaching the edge of the forest.

"You wanna know about my Dad."

"Yeah. Spoken to him recently?"

"No." Lenny replied quickly. "I haven't had anything to say to him. No good grades to report, no exceptional battles that I've won. I'm just an average student."

"Don't say things like that." Alex said. "You know you're better than at least half the year when it comes to battling. You were the only one in the entire tournament to even come close to beating Edward."

"Until you actually beat him." Lenny pointed out.

"Yeah but that's not the point." Alex sighed.

"So what is the point?"

"The point is, you have a Dad who expects very highly of you. You've gotta try and make him proud. In his mind, no news is bad news so when I'm done catching my new Pokémon get on the phone and have a good long talk with him, alright?"

"Alright. Thanks Alex."

"And that concludes another episode of relationship advice with Alex." Alex grinned. "Tune in next week where Lenny will learn how to grow a pair and ask out that girl he sits next to in Science."

"One step at a time Alex." Lenny chuckled to himself. With Alex's good deed for the day done, he went back to focusing on catching a Pokémon. Whilst talking with Lenny, he'd seen several wild Pokémon that could fit his team but nothing had truly caught his eye.

With the weather taking a slightly warmer turn lately, most of the ice types which had been all over the island recently had started to disappear. Maybe Pokémon migrated to and from the island frequently and that was why there was such a diverse range of Pokémon that could be found here. Lost in his thoughts, Alex nearly stepped on a sleeping Vanillite which ran away before he could even consider battling it. In the end, it was the wild Pokémon that found him.

He'd been beginning to think that today just wouldn't be the day for finding a cool Pokémon when suddenly it hit him. Literally. In hindsight, taking a short break underneath a tree was a bad idea as a small but surprisingly heavy object fell from a branch, landing right on Alex's head with a thud. Instinctively, he raised his hand to his head as he yelped in pain but his hand never met his head. Instead, his fingers were blocked by whatever had fallen from the tree which soon became an issue as he couldn't retract his fingers from the odd tangled mess on his head.

He pulled it away, attempting to rip his hands from his mysterious attacker. It turned out to be a murky blue spaghetti monster with red flipper feet and big expressionless eyes. The odd creature squealed and raised a vine, slapping Alex across his cheek.

"You little buggar!" Alex cried out, untangling himself and throwing the Pokémon to the ground. Now that he wasn't so flustered, he recognised the Pokémon. It was a Tangela and technically speaking it wasn't made of spaghetti, it was a messy conglomeration of vines. "Litwick, let's catch this thing!"

"Litwick!" Alex's little candle cried as it was sent into action.

"Will-O-Wisp!" Alex ordered. The feisty pile of vines was far too slow to avoid the balls of fire that Litwick spat, burning the wild Tangela. Despite this, its spirit didn't seem to be phased as the Tangela suddenly attacked, extending several vines like arms to reach out and grab Litwick before launching it up into the air and hurling it down to the ground.

"Whoa!" Lenny cried, who had been watching the whole fight. "That thing looks pretty tough Alex, it could be a great asset to your team."

"My thoughts exactly." Alex nodded. "Litwick use Shadow Ball!" Litwick picked itself off the floor and fired off a ball that was devoid of light at its enemy which struck it in the chest, sending it flying backwards into a nearby tree. Just before impact, the Tangela reacted, using its vines to wrap around the tree and slingshot itself right back at Litwick.

"Look out!" Lenny yelled. Alex had prematurely gotten an empty Pokéball at the ready and had not anticipated the Tangela to continue to fight back. As such, he was caught completely off guard by the response and Litwick was firmly struck by the resilient plant. Fortunately, landing on an open flame hadn't done his opponent much good as it appeared to have taken massive damage from its own attack.

"Pokéball go!" Alex cried as he hurled his empty Pokéball at the Tangela. Its annoying resistance was finally brought to an end as the Pokéball engulfed its prey, shook a couple of times and gave the usual dink. Alex punched the air and gritted his teeth. That battle had been way too troublesome for just a wild Pokémon. Maybe he was starting to lose his touch a little.

"Nice work." Lenny breathed. Clearly, the tension of the battle had affected his friend.

"Never in doubt my friend, never in doubt." Alex grinned. Lenny laughed and shook his head. "Now can I go after the Darkness Warriors?"

"No!"