Alex breathed the heaviest sigh of his life and rested his weary head on the desk in front of him as his exam paper was collected in. That had been a complete train wreck. It had been a disaster. That exam had felt like eating a cactus and then throwing it back up, spines included. The abuse had been brought to an end only by the merciful clock striking the two o'clock mark. Glancing over at the calm looking Bella made him feel even worse.

As the invigilators dismissed the students, Alex couldn't help but finding excuses for himself. His mind had been far too preoccupied with thoughts of Megan to be able to remember the secondary effect of Signal Beam. She'd been gone too long and he'd started to get really worried about her. The Darkness Warriors probably weren't exactly going to treat her well.

"How did you find it?" Lenny asked him as they trudged back to their dorm, exiting the makeshift exam hall that had been converted from the main battling arena.

"It hurt me Lenny." Alex grinned. "Right in here." He pointed to where his heart was. It hadn't taken long for the two friends to get back on good terms. Lenny explained that he'd only said that he saw something between Alex and Bella because he'd been stressed out and frustrated which made perfect sense.

"It can't have been worse than history." Lenny pointed out.

"True, but that's only because I didn't answer more than half of that paper. I don't know if it can get worse than that." Alex smiled as the pair entered their room and threw their bags down next to their respective beds.

"You coming to the common room? We're celebrating the end of exams."

"I'll be there in a second." Alex replied. Lenny nodded and left the room, leaving Alex alone. The teen groaned and slumped down on his bed, planting face first into an oddly hard object. He pulled the duvet up to investigate, finding a small black box containing a letter written in dark ink addressed to him.

Murphy,
We understand that you haven't been feeling yourself recently. We understand that you haven't been in a good mood. We understand that we are to blame for this. This clearly makes us feel bad and we'd like to make it up to you, in person if possible. Pictured below is the girl we took that you were less than happy about. Her usefulness has expired and we thought it would be nice to reunite the two of you. If you'd like this, come and find her in the sewers beneath town.
See you shortly, The Lord of Darkness.

The mentioned picture was of a redhead, looking miserable, being held by hooded figure. It was Megan, alive but not at all well. Alex let the note sink in for a moment before crumpling the letter in his clenched fist, throwing it into the ground and sprinting off, determined to right his wrongs and rescue Megan.

*

"Alex?" Lenny called out, standing outside the slightly ajar door of their room. He slowly opened it and to his surprise, his friend was nowhere to be seen. Shaking his head and sighing, Lenny turned to leave before noticing the untidy nature of Alex's bed. His blue and white striped duvet was on the floor and an odd black box sat where Alex's usual teddy bear would.

When he got closer, Lenny found the reason for state of Alex's section. A small, scrunched up piece of paper lay on the floor, which he picked up, carefully unfolded and read. Cursing under his breath after realising what Alex was headed into, Lenny rushed out of the room. If he was going to help Alex, he was going to need some backup.

*

"Get out the way!" Alex yelled as he pushed his way through the crowded streets of New Moon Island. Of course, just after the last exam, students seemed to have the town full to the brim and he was needing to force his way through. After forcing his way past some burly looking third years, he made it the lowest level and soon found a manhole cover.

"Slowking, take the cover off." He ordered, sending out his newest Pokémon, Slowking, whose jewel atop its head flashed as it used its Psychic attack to remove the iron circle, opening up a hole in the ground. Taking a deep breath, Alex climbed down a ladder into the darkness.

"Litwick, light this place up." With a candle now at his side, he could see much further along the dingy, wet, foul smelling corridor. Taking care to not slip and fall into the murky green waste beside him, Alex made his way along the sewers. Surprisingly enough, there was a passageway leading off to Alex's left which he just knew was the correct way to go. He ran down it before it widened, opened out into a small underground cavern, lit only by the Volbeat and Illumise that clung onto the damp walls.

A short distance from the entrance, ten or so cloaked figures stood in a circle, talking in a hushed whisper. Occasionally, a moist drop of liquid would splash down from the roof of the cave, disturbing the silence. This looked like every remaining Darkness Warrior had gathered and they were surrounding Megan, who was tied up. Feeling a rush of anger flow through his veins, Alex took a step forward but he was noticed by the tallest and most senior member of the group.

"Ah, Murphy, so glad of you to join us." he laughed, walking forward with his arms folded. From beneath the hood, Alex could just see the tip of a wild grey beard. "I am the Lord of Darkness or Darkness Lord if you prefer. This delightful young girl here has told us so much about you and of course we know all about your previous encounters with our organisation."

Alex paused for a moment as the Darkness Lord got close enough to look him in the eye with a pair of old, knowledgeable eyes and he wore a sly grin on his aged and wrinkly face. In a split second, Alex formulated a plan and called his attack. "Psychic!"

"Urgh!" Several voices cried as they were suddenly immobilised by Slowking who had been calmly waiting in the shadows. Surrounded by some kind of pink aura, the Darkness Warriors were unable to move for a few seconds and Alex took his opportunity, shoving past the Darkness Lord and sprinting forwards just in time to catch Megan who had fallen with nobody holding her up. His fingers quickly got to work, untying her bonds and ripping away the ropes.

"Megan." Alex whispered, softly stroking her cheek. She sat up and shuffled away from him, their brown eyes locking for a moment. She didn't exactly look pleased to see him.

"Thanks."

"Now!" cried the Darkness Lord as he got back up to his feet. From behind Alex's two Pokémon jumped a dark fox-like Pokémon which pushed them to the ground with ease, releasing the Darkness Warriors from Slowking's attack, before giving a roar that echoed all around the cave. The back wall of the cavern seemed to melt away, revealing an incredibly clear, blue lake that looked endless. With the illusion wall gone, this underground cave turned out to be gigantic.

"No, not again with you and your bloody Zoroark!" Alex yelled, throwing out a Pokéball to get Tangrowth out and ready for action. "Tangrowth, grab it!" Fed up of the fox's illusions, Alex lost his temper momentarily and Tangrowth quickly obeyed, extending its vines towards Zoroark before wrapping its huge fingers around it and slamming it into the ground repeatedly like a hammer until it was no longer conscious. Alex shouted in celebration to finally have beaten the trickster, realising far too late what was really going on.

"An excellent display that we must thank you for." The Darkness Lord laughed a deep throaty, maniacal laugh. "Now, great guardian of the lake, we give to you, the being of willpower!"

"Oh no." Alex groaned as a bright light rose up from the surface, nearly blinding him before the dazzling emanation faded, showing a small pixie floating peacefully with a cyan prism atop its head. Just like the other lake guardians, this one had a red jewel in between its two large, yellow eyes.

"Azelf is ours!" The Darkness Lord cried out as Azelf was jammed into a capsule like the others had been. Alex cursed under his breath at his own determination to save Megan. His willpower had been turned against him and he'd been tricked into being used as the being of willpower. "Bring forth the others!"

"What do you even want with them?" Alex cried.

"Why don't I show you?" The Darkness Lord grinned as two of his minions brought out two other capsules from their robes containing Mesprit and Uxie. The holders of the prisons each pressed some buttons simultaneously, causing the tubes to glow and vibrate, making a loud buzzing sound and causing yelps of pain from the captured Pokémon. Suddenly, the lake trio's jewels began to glow and from the gems came an incredible red light that filled the containers completely.

"To the lake!" The three Darkness Warriors cried. The tops of the capsules shot out what appeared to be red lightning, buzzing and crackling as it joined the capsules together in a triangle formation before it fired down into the lake. The once peaceful water started to churn, forming great waves and soon an angry whirlpool spun rapidly, the centre of which was lit by the beam of red light that was going straight into it. The crystal blue of the water changed to a sick, ominous purple and the whole world seemed to gravitate towards the lake, winds rushing for it as though it were a race.

It became clear what the whirlpool really was when a snakelike shadow emerged from it, shrieking. The dark creature flew out of the portal and got caught by the electricity, earning a cry of pain and forcing it to stop moving. With the Pokémon immobile for a moment, Alex got a better look at it. What he'd originally thought was a snake with dreadlocks seemed to transform into a creature with six legs, each rimmed with golden spikes and claws. It had large, black, wings that looked like smoke with three sharp red spikes on the tips of the wings. It was predominantly a light grey colour but its belly was lined not only with red and black stripes but also six golden ribs to match the colour of the pointed helmet around its head. When the monster finally stopped howling in pain it look at Alex with a pair of crimson eyes.

"Ha! Haha!" The Darkness Lord cackled. "Behold, the mighty Giratina!" Alex stared at the terrifying beast and gulped. He felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck. Giratina was a Pokémon of legendary power and it seemed to emanate an aura that gave Alex a sense of fear that he'd never felt before.

"Shit."