Jace and Creidi settled next to the calm waters of a Lake Perdita. They had flown all day but hadn’t made it to Diamond Town. According to the pokedex they probably wouldn’t get there until late tomorrow. The lake was nice. The water was crystal clear, and had several Magikarp and Goldeen swimming around in it.

"So Jace, you want to collect fire wood or set up the tents?" Creidi asked cheerfully. Unlike Jace, she loved to camp.

"Fire wood I guess." Jace sighed. She hated camping. She hated firewood and she hated tents, but firewood was the lesser of the two evils.

Creidi looked after her as she disappeared into the woods, before releasing her pokemon. Suicune wasted no time in diving headfirst into the water. Raikou lay down by the water to watch his mate at her games with the fish. Articorn and Radianz took to the sky and started to play on the wind. Arcanine and Espeon took a quiet drink from the lake. Finally Astral and Houndoom started a game of tag and had everyone playing with in five minutes. Creidi even joined after she finished with the two tents.

After half an hour of playing Creidi and her pokemon lay in a heap in the grass. Astral was lying on Creidi’s stomach and, in an attempt to get her playing again, was licking her face. It was the first time Creidi realized how much her star wolf had grown. When Creidi had found her, she was about the size of a vulpix kit and easily carried. Now she was almost the size of houndoom. Her puppyish appearance was giving way to the sleek body of a wolf. Her fur was thickening, especially around her neck, chest, and tail. Her over sized paws and ears seemed to be more in proportion with the rest of her body. Her short muzzle was elongating and her pink nose was turning black. The most notable difference however, was the forming of a white four-point star on her forehead. Radianz had also grown and, at 40 ft, was rapidly nearing his maximum length of 50 ft.

Creidi put her hands behind her head and looked up to the sky. Closing her eyes she listened to the sounds around her and idly began to wonder what was taking Jace so long.

"Git Up!!!!!!!" a male voice yelled. Creidi’s eyes snapped open and she looked around. About ten feet away was a man. He was dressed in torn, dirty, brown cloths and no shoes. He had leaves tangled into is shoulder length, grungy beard and hair. In his hands was a surprisingly new rifle.

"I said GIT UP!!!!" he yelled again. Creidi carefully climbed to her feet, she didn’t want to provoke this strange old hermit and she defiantly didn’t want to be shot. Around her, her pokemon took defensive positions and began to growl. "What is youes doin here at my lake?" he snapped.

"I didn’t know it belonged to you." Creidi said, trying to sound as unthreatening as possible, "My friend and were just going to camp here for the night…"

"Ies didn’t give youes no permission to camp by my lake, or play in my grass, or swim in my water, or burn my wood. And shut those mongrels up before Ies puts some holes in them!"

"We didn’t know we needed your permission." Creidi said as she made a motion to silence her pokemon. In her head she prayed Jace was ok.

"Do youes know what I does to trespassers?"

"Umm…no." Creidi said weakly, a knot forming in her throat.

"Ies exterminate um." He said raising his gun and cocking it, Creidi gulped. Out of the sky a pitch and white bird dove, snatched the gun from the man’s hands, and flew back in to the woods the gun in it’s talons. Creidi’s pokemon wasted not time in pinning the man to the ground as Jace stepped out of the forest with the firearm in her hand and Gyrfalcon on her shoulder.

"Am I ever happy to see you." Creidi said with a sigh of relief.

"Same here. Are you all right?" Jace replied with genuine concern in her voice but a mincing gleam in her eyes.

"Yeah, thanks to you. But how did you know?" Creidi asked as she dug a length of rope from her stuff.

"Well," Jace began as Creidi tied up the man and she held him at gun/ pokemon point, "After I left you, I went into the forest to find some wood. I didn’t want to startle and ekans or something and get bit, so I turn on my pokedex’s radio. One of the first things I noticed is that there was hardly any wood, not much more then the occasional small branch. As I walked a report on the radio caught my ear. Basically it was for trainers traveling between Topaz and Diamond to be careful of an escaped convict. I didn’t give it too much thought; I mean we’re flying, what are the odds. About ten or so minutes after that I came across a campsite. At first I thought I could get some experience points, but then I got this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Next thing I know, I’m racing through the trees with my pokemon trying desperately to keep up. That’s when I saw you." She concluded as Creidi tied the last knot and pulled off the fake beard and wig. The man had mop top brown hair underneath,

"So what are we going to do with him?" Creidi asked, having a dangerous criminal, even one that was tied up, near by wasn’t her idea of a good time.

"I was hoping you had that part." Jace confessed as she sat down, but kept the gun on the man.

"Well even if he isn’t the person the police are looking for, he did threaten me with a gun and should be turned in any way." Creidi mused. What else could they do?

"And if he is, there is probably a big reward for his capture." Jace said with an all- too- familiar gleam in her eye.

"And that is what is truly important, isn’t it Jace?" Creidi said with a small smile.

"Yap!" Jace replied. Creidi rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"If you think you’re taking me in you have another thing coming!" The man snapped in a voice very different from the one he had had just used.

"Oh, really." Jace said sounding very amused, "And what exactly are going to do about it. You’re tied up, I have your gun, we out number you two to one, and between us we have sixteen pokemon. Please tell me what you plan to do?" There wasn’t a trace of fear in her voice .

"Jace haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘Never piss off the criminally insane’?" Creidi cooed as she leaned against Arcanine and her other pokemon snuggled up to her.

"I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’m going to get out of these ropes and blow your heads off just like I did to the last 10 trainers that were here. And I still have all their pokemon…"

"Back at your camp." Jace finished her cocky voice never wavering. This guy wasn’t as scary as he thought her was, "I saw it, remember? Speaking of which," She said beginning to empty her and Creidi’s packs, "Pidgeot, take these and retrieve all the pokeballs, food, supplies, whatever might be useful from his camp." Pidgeot nodded and flew off.

"Jace that’s stealing." Creidi reminded her.

"So, if he did what he said he did ("You’d better believe it" he snapped.), then all that stuff would go to waste out here and the pokemon would starve." Jace pointed out. Creidi couldn’t argue with that.

An hour later Pidgeot returned. In his talons he was carrying a tent cloth like a loot bag. And indeed that was what it was. Pidgeot released it so that the four corners fell in different directions and revealed its contents. Inside was about 80 pokeballs of different colors, several bags of dried food, a handful of potions, and several personal effects.

"What’s this?" Creidi asked holding up a gold locket. The man put on a cocky smile.

"That I got from a very beautiful young trainer. She was a very…giving young lady. Are you as giving?" he ran his tough over his upper lip. Creidi’s eyes got big and the blood ran to her cheeks.

"That’s enough out of you!" Jace snapped. No one talked to her friends like that. She ripped a large piece of fabric from the tent cloth and stuffed it in his mouth. The night that followed was a long one. Jace and Creidi had to take turns watching their prisoner. Their pokemon took the shifts with them so to make it more bearable. The next morning they fixed breakfast in complete silence, gathered their things, and took to the air. Gyrfalcon carried the ‘sac’ pidgeot had gathered last night, Radianz had the honor of carrying the prisoner, Creidi was astride Articorn, Jace (gun in hand) rode Pidgeot, and all available pokemon were out to keep an eye on the captive. The ride took most of the day, even though they didn’t stop for lunch. The town of Diamond slowly came into view in the late afternoon light.

"Let’s find a police station and get rid of this guy." Creidi announced as they came in.

"Locate Police Station." Jace ordered her pokedex, after a moment she added, "There that two story blue building." She pointed. The girls came in for a landing amid the stares of many people and officers. Creidi was beginning to get the feeling that the site of a dragon, several birds, a pegasus, and two girls was probably out of the ordinary.

"I demand to know what is going on here!" an officer Jenny said stepping forward. The girls related the story of the previous night for all to hear. Then they handed over the man, the gun, and the items they had recovered from his camp.

"The Jewel League owes you a great debt of gratitude. We have been after Maenad Manfred for over a year. The fact that you were able to capture him so easily is truly amazing." Creidi made a face at the statement, "I’m going to send word of this straight to the head of the Jewel League and personally see to it that you are both amply rewarded." Officer Jenny said with a salute before turning on her heels and marching into the station.

"Amply Rewarded! I like the sound of that." Jace cooed with stares in her eyes.

"Come on, Jace." Creidi said turning and walking her down the street, "Let’s go find a place to stay."

************************************************************

"I hate camping." Jace complained again.

"So you have told me." Creidi replied the exasperation she felt coming out in her voice.

The next day the girls had gone shopping. Besides refilling their supplies they also each bought a 12-inch dagger. The knives were more to calm Creidi’s nerves then any thing else. The run in with Manfred had left her a bit shaken, and the girls had decided that they should have a way to defend themselves. Guns were too much trouble, not to mention expensive, so they got daggers, complete with leather holders that hung from their belts.

After their shopping trip they had returned to their green and tan hotel room to find their invitation to the gym waiting for them. The map chips had shown the forest for a 20-mile radius of the city as the gym location. That was all three days ago.

"Could you be a little more specific!!!!" Jace yelled at her pokedex. She was beginning to understand Creidi’s dislike for computers.

"Yelling at it wouldn’t help." Creidi reminded her. Thought the site amused her to no end.

"But it makes me fell better." Jace protested. Creidi shook her head and smiled.

"Oh come on Jace, it’s not like this excursion has been a total lose." Creidi reminded her. It was true. The forest was crawling with pokemon, especially eevee. Both girls already had enough to have one of each evolution and then some. The girls had also caught a number of grass types, and while neither had a great affection for grass pokemon, they didn’t hesitate to add then to their collections. Creidi had also caught her own Gyrfalcon, it had more black then Jace’s but was still mostly white. In addition to all the captures Jace’s Quilava had evolved into a Typhosen and Gyrfalcon had become a Gyrdrake. Gyrdrake was a snow-white Chinese style dragon about 35 ft long. The feathers around his head and spikes on its tail were ebony, as were the ridges of it back and the claws the tipped its short stocky arms and legs. Its eyes were crystal blue.

"I just want to find the gym." Jace snorted.

"Well, maybe today is the day." Creidi said pulling her pack onto her shoulders.

"Always the optimist aren’t we, Creidi." Jace said, a sly smile creeping onto her face. Creidi only smiled in response as they began to head north. The woods around here weren’t as overgrown as the rest of the woods in Jewel League.

"So," Jace said more to break the silence then any thing else, "What kind of pokemon do you think this gym will use?"

"Well," Creidi said thoughtfully, "There were the ice types on the mountain, fire in the volcano, and flying on the cloud; so I’d bet that, sense we’re in the woods, this gym will probably use grass types."

"So do we use ice, solar, or fire against him?" She asked. Jace had full confidence that they could trounce any old grass type the leader could throw at them.

"Ever heard that pride comes before the fall?" Creidi answered. She had just as much confidence in their pokemon as Jace did, but she saw no need in acting cocky about it. "And to answer your question, he’ll probably be expecting fire so that’s out. Leaving Solar or Ice." Then a thought crossed her mind that made a Jace like smile creep across her face. "What if we use the dragons?"

"Radianz and Gyrdrake…" Jace mused as her smile matched Creidi, "What could stand against a solar and an ice dragon." She paused, "I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!" Creidi laughed at her companion’s dance. They continued to discuss their strategy in hushed voices as they walked. It wasn’t until the sound of a battle coming from up a head that they stopped to see what was going on.

They entered a large open sky clearing just in time to see a large Venusaur pummel a Flareon with its solar beam. A downhearted female trainer scooped up her eon and walked away with tears in her eyes. A man in his late twenties recalled the Venusaur and turned to Jace and Creidi. He was dressed completely in cameo, he had short cut black hair and green eyes.

"How does a two on one battle sound to you ladies." He said with a cocky smile.

"You got it." Both girls said pulling out a pokeball each.

"I choose Meganium, Hidden Power." The guy yelled in a voice that could already taste victory

"Go Gyrdrake!"

"Go Radianz!" All three pokemon appeared at once and the plant dinosaur shot out a blast of … water? The blast hit the two dragons squarely in the face. Both dragons looked a bit surprised but not as much as the boy, who stared open mouthed at the two dragons.

"Ok Radianz, Solar Flare!"

"Gyrdrake, Blizzard!" The blasts of ice and golden fire consumed the grass type. Meganium couldn’t stand up to the twin attack. The boy recalled his pokemon and began to dig in to his pockets. He crossed the space in just a few steps and handed each girl a small stack of notes and a flower shaped pin carved from diamond, before turning to leave.

"What’s this?" Jace asked holding up the pin. The boy stopped and looked at her.

"I must have forgotten to introduce myself." He said with a smile, "I’m Ceres of the Diamond Town gym and that’s my badge."

"That was an awful easy gym battle." Creidi noted. She didn’t want to find out later that they had been cheated. In response the boy dug around in his pockets some more then came up with a laminated card that he handed to Creidi. The card had a small, driver license quality, picture of Ceres along with a bunch of numbers and a list of pokemon (all grass types). Across the card was water marked with official seal of the Jewel League.

"I’m used to trainers coming to challenge me with fire types, so I taught all my pokemon a water type hidden power. I wasn’t prepared for two dragons. Jace and Creidi, I solute you." And he did. Then after a pause he added, "I believe Officer Jenny wanted to see you before you leave."