It was full two and a half weeks before Moon got out of the pokecenter hospital. When she did get out she found that the whole of Goldenrod City was celebrating the return of the stolen pokemon. There were races, pokemon battles, and many other contests going one all over and around the city.

Moon entered Articolt in 12 different races; of which he won 6, placed 4, and showed in the rest. (For those of you who aren’t horse people that is first, second, and third respectively) Volcanine tied for first with a large male Charizard in a long distance FlameThrower contest. Daystar got awards for being the most unique and rarest pokemon. Moon her self won around 20 pokemon battles, and lost only 5.

Articolt was really enjoying running the races and had just talk Moon into entering him in his 13^th when the celebration was broken up by Officer Jenny came over the PA system with a grim announcement.

"I, along with my sisters and cosines, regret to inform you that some how Team Rocket has stolen all the gym leaders pokemon in both Kanto and Johto. The Leaders are offering an undisclosed reward to any one who can retrieve the pokemon, but they can give no clues to were Team Rocket and taken them." The sound of the PA clicking off sounded like a clap of lighting in the stunned silence of the crowd.

Then after a moment more of silence the trainers began to talk again.

"What do they expect us to do…"

"Where do we start…."

"Any one who could get those pokemon back would probably already have a ton of badges…"

"How about the Ilex Forest…"

The celebration quickly dispersed, all unfinished contests forgotten. Many of the trainers, now more confident with their returned pokemon, returned to the Ilex Forest to attack the Rocket’s camp there. The rest of the trainers took to searching in all the other direction. Moon moved off with the other trainers her course taking her north. Once away from the other trainers Moon released Shadowulf.

"I think the Rockets are on the island you told me about. How do I get there?"

"First we go to the Lake of Rage." He said solemnly, "I will carry you, it will be fastest that way." Moon climb on his back, he was smaller then Articolt or Volcanine but still large enough for her to ride easily. The Beast of Darkness took off into the woods. Moon leaned low on his back to avoid low hanging branches.

About a half mile into the woods Shadowulf hit a game trail and began to follow it northeast. The trail had been cleared of low branches by passing pokemon; this allowed Moon to sit up more.

"How do you know about the island? Are you on the council?" moon asked as they went.

"No," Shadowulf replied, "But my Grandmother is. She told me the story, though she has never been there herself."

They camped away from the game trail. Moon knew that the Lake of Rage was a two-week walk from Goldenrod, but by her estimation they were about a fourth of the way to the lake, thanks to Shadowulf’s speed and short cut.

The next day they were off again, moving on the game trail. Nothing of particular interest happened; they saw no pokemon, no trainers, or even a hint of any the town they were passing. By the time night fell they had made it to Mahogany Town. Moon got a hotel room for the night, and she explained to the rest of her pokemon what was going on.

She struck out the on Articolt the next morning. The 5 miles north from Mahogany flew past in half an hour. Once at the destination Moon released Shadowulf.

"Were to now?"

"Go to the Northwest corner of the lake. There you will find the stream that feeds the lake. Follow it to its origin. Beware of the serpent ones." Moon returned him to his ball and headed in the direction he had instructed at a trot. She didn’t know what the serpent ones were, but she was sure she didn’t want know either.

It took her half an hour to find the stream Shadowulf spoke of. She turned Articolt up to follow it when the water at the stream’s mouth began to boil. With a sudden explosion of water and an enraged roar a water dragon burst forth, 15ft into the air. The creature reminded Moon of Daystar except; it was blue-green in color; thinner for better water movement; lacked hind legs, wings, and horns; and its tail was flattened out like a Sea Snake’s.

Moon fished her pokedex from her pocket and pointed it at the creature.

"Beep: Leviathan: the water dragon. Very little is known of this pokemon. None have ever been captured alive. Beep."

Moon’s desire to be a master took over. She slide off Articolt’s back and prepared a Lureball.

"Articolt Blizzard!" Moon ordered. Articolt replied by rearing back and shooting a huge snow flurry at the dragon. Leviathan roared in rage and pain. In retaliation the water dragon bit at the horse.

"Now Permafrost!" Articolt’s horn began to glow a bright white-blue. The water around Leviathan suddenly shot strait up and froze, solidifying the dragon in ice. Leviathan thrashed violently in an attempt to break free. The effort was unsuccessful and only caused the monster more damage. In frustration Leviathan shot an well-aimed Hyper Beam at Articolt. The beam meet its mark head on, sending Articolt sprawling.

The ice horse was quick to get up and, without orders, shot another Blizzard at its opponent. The dragon’s weakness to ice finally caught up to it. Moon threw the Lureball at the dragon. The ball struck its mark and sucked it in. The ball landed in the grass and began to shake. It shook once…twice…the ball burst open. Instinctively Moon threw another ball. Once…twice…thrice…ping!

Moon happily scooped the ball off the ground and watched as it vanished. She gave Articolt some potion and mounted him.

Once again they began to move up the stream. They moved along a path that looked as if it was once well traveled but had now fallen into disrepair. At times the path was so over grown that they had to walk in the water.

Two hours later Moon and Articolt came to a large beaver dam. Behind it was another lake. Moon released Shadowulf.

"What now, Shadow?"

"If you flew up you could see that this lake is shaped like a Persian in a fighting stance, complete with its tail curled around Council Island." he said pointing to a far way island to their left. Moon looked at the island, to her there was nothing unusual about it.

With Shadowulf trotting along side her, Moon directed Articolt to the point were they were as close to the island as they could get.

"It looks like an ordinary island to me." Moon said as she stared hard across the water.

"Well trust me, it isn’t." Shadowulf said dryly.

"It can’t be all that hard to get on the island. I mean if the Rockets can do it, any one can." Shadowulf gave her a stern look.

"Do not take this lightly, or it will be your death."

"Well let’s get looking." Moon released the rest of her pokemon. Between the seven of them they searched the entire perimeter of the lake. But not site or smell turned up any clues.

Moon did not risk a fire that night; instead she lay close to Volcanine for warmth and protection.

It was one of these nights a week later that Moon got her brake in the mystery. She lay, fast asleep, next to Volcanine late one night when the large canine nudged her awake. As soon as Moon opened her eyes Volcanine lead her to a place were she could see two rockets standing and talking. Moon couldn’t hear what they were saying, but watched as momentarily one of the rockets pressed his hand against the wall of a short cliff. To her astonishment a door on the cliff opened inwardly, the rockets went in, and the door closed behind them.

Moon rushed to the cliff after the rockets had vanished. For the first time Moon noticed that the cliff had runes in its face. The 8 runes were set in a circular pattern that was 3-4 feet in diameter. Moon ran her hand across the surface of the rocks, feeling for a knob or dimple or any other indication of an opening device.

"What do you think Volcanine?" Moon asked.

"The rockets said a strange rhyme: Two in front, Two behind, What you seek is in the middle." Volcanine replied. Moon considered the rhyme as she stared at the runes, but no inspiration came. Frustrated, Moon returned to camp.

Moon spent the entire next day pondering and puzzling the runes and the riddle. She drew a copy of the circle in the dirt. First Moon tried to crossing off the first two and last two runes, but that left four in the middle. Next thing she tried was to push in the middle of the circle. This, not only didn’t work, but also left the first two parts of the riddle unanswered. She tried many other things after these but none got her any closer to a conclusion.

It was late in the day, and Moon was drawing idle in the dirt with a stick. At some point she had written the word ‘rocket’.

"How’s it going?" Shadowulf asked stepping up in front of her.

"Not good." Moon said as she looked down. Then she saw it ‘CK’. "What you seek is in the middle." Moon whispered.

"What?" Shadowulf asked.

"CK- the two middle letters in rocket!"

"So what?"

"Well if my guess is correct…" Moon began, but before she finished she moved to her drawing of the runes in the dirt. Beginning at the top of the circle, she moved clockwise saying the alphabet as she went. Every time she came to a letter in the word rocket she wrote it next to the appropriate rune. Just as she expected the letters C and K landed together. They sat next to the third rune.

"How did you know?" Asked espeon.

"I didn’t," Moon replied, "I got lucky."

Moon had packed up her camp in hurriedly the next morning. Per Volcanine and Shadowulf’s advise she was going during the day because no rockets had been seen in the light. Despite this fact Moon moved stealthily to the ring of runes. She took a quick look around to make sure on one was looking then gently pressed her hand on the appropriate rune.

As it had for the rockets the stone door opened inwardly. With another quick look around Moon stepped in. Before she could change her mind the door slammed shut behind her. Moon stood alone in the dark for several minutes waiting for her eyes to adjust. Slowly a light at the end of the tunnel came into view, and Moon headed towards it.

It felt like she had walked for hours, but the exit didn’t get any nearer. She could tell by touching the walls that the tunnel was too small for Volcanine or Articolt. She called out Shadowulf. Moon had to lie flat on his back to ride him. With Shadowulf’s fleetness the tunnel was cleared in another two hours. Moon would wonder for many years to come how long that tunnel was, but for now she was just glad to be out.

The first think Moon noticed outside the tunnel was that the trees still had green leaves. On the other side of the tunnel it was well into fall and leaves lettered the ground.

The trees on the island were like none she had ever seen. The bark was silver-gray, the leaves were the size of her hand and the most beautiful green she had ever seen, finally ever tree was brilliantly decorated with a verity of hard wood fruits. The grass was thick, lush, and dotted with tiny gold flowers. Near the exit to the tunnel was a shallow stream. Moon looked into the happily bubbling water and saw the bottom was lined with smooth, clear blue stones.

"This place is beautiful!" Moon exclaimed.

"Yes, it is. But let us focus on more important things." Shadowulf replied and began to move off at a trot. He took her several miles to the south side of the island. There they came to a high cliff with many landings jutting out from it. "Hang on." Shadowulf warned. Moon responded by tightly gripping onto Shadowulf’s fur. With a mighty leap Shadowulf jumped from landing to landing up the cliff face. He finally came to a halt on a particularly large landing some 35ft up. "Here we are." Shadowulf said calmly.

"Where is Here?" Moon asked, feeling a little nauseated by the climb.

"It was one of the caves that the council use as shelter during the meetings." He paused, "Someone should scout and see were the rockets are camped." Moon released Thundar.

"Scout the island and report back, but be careful of those winds." Moon instructed him. Thundar nodded and flew off.

An hour later Thundar reported back.

"The Rocket’s are camped on the far side of the island. There are three living huts and one storage hut."

"Thank you Thundar. Now…most rockets only carry 4 pokemon at any given time and travel and live in pairs. So that means…" she did the math quickly in her head, "there are probably 24 pokemon with them. Those are 4 to 1 odds." Her voice trailed off.

"I assume a direct attack is out of the question." Shadowulf said.

"Very much so Shadow. This will have to be a swift strike or a solo thief."

"What do you want to do?" he asked. Moon thought before answering.

"We will rest the rest of the night, and I will check out the camp for my self in the morning."

Early the next morning Shadowulf carried Moon to the campsite per Thundar’s directions. The first thing Moon noticed was the lack of guards.

"I guess they relaxed security because they didn’t expect any one to find them here." Moon said to the wolf.

"Perhaps," Shadowulf replied, "But I still think we should watch the camp for a few days."

"Why wait? I can do it now and they won’t even know the difference."

"Patience is a virtue, Moon." He said sternly.

"And opportunity only knocks once, Shadow." She said in a mock of his tone. Shadowulf gave her a disapproving look before going into his pokeball.

Moon took one more quick look around before dashing to the door of the storage hut. Once inside Moon noticed that it was nothing like the one in Ilex Forest. In Ilex the walls had been lined with pokeballs. Here there was only one ball stand in the center of the room. Moon didn’t hesitate; she quickly minimized all the balls and put them in her pack. As fast as she could, Moon darted from the hut, leaving the door open.

She hadn’t gone ten steps, when the door slammed shut behind her. Moon froze. She turned around and confirmed her fear. All the rockets in the camp emerged from behind the hut. To make matters worse they were lead by Adrienne.

"Well, well, well, look who it is. My old buddy Moon Star. By the way, that reminds me, don’t you owe me a pokemon? In fact why don’t you just hand them all over."

"I’d rather die!"

"That can be arranged." She paused, "What’s wrong? Surprised you got caught? What do you think we are, Stupid!"

"Actually…Yes!" Moon retorted.

"For your information, as soon as you opened that door you set off a silent alarm. Now hand over the pokemon!"

Moon slowly unclipped a ball from her belt. Then in one quick movement she released Articolt, jumped on, and took off at light speed.

"GET HER!!!" Adrienne yelled to the other rockets. They obeyed without hesitation.

Moon looked over her shoulder. The rockets were pursuing her; some on horse back, some in the air. Looking forward Moon didn’t recognize the terrain. It was very open with only sparse shrubbery.

"Articolt, give it your all." She called to her horse. Articolt responded by increasing his speed to the max. The world rushed past at 150 mph. She could hear the thundering of his hooves, and the wind rushing past. Articolt darted left and right around the shrubs. Still the rockets stayed right on her heels. Looking forward again Moon saw the worst possible thing, a cliff. Articolt made a noise of distress.

"I trust you." Moon said, her voice coming over the wind as only a whisper. Moments later Articolt leapt off the cliff. Moon clung to the reins and shut her eyes as they began to fall. Through her eyelids Moon saw a bright light. A minute later she felt and upward jolt. Opening her eyes she saw they were flying! Articolt had evolved into Articorn!

She turned back to the island and the rockets and released Thundar and Daystar to brake the flying ranks.

"Thundar, Thunder! Daystar, Solar Flare! Articorn, Blizzard!" The combinations of ice, solar, and thunder techniques grounded the flying types. The pokemon on the ground shot their long-range attacks at Moon and her pokemon, but they were out of reach. They were also unable to follow Moon as she guided her pokemon over a thick forest.

"So now what?" Moon asked as she leaned back into Volcanine’s thick fur.

"We need to find a way off the island" said Shadowulf simply.

"We can’t take the cave we used to get on, obviously the rockets will be guarding it." Volcanine said.

"One of us could fly you off, my lady." Daystar said.

"I’ll do it! Let me! I like Flying!" Articorn said as he bounded around the cave. Moon was happy to see that evolution had not curbed his enthusiasm in the least.

"That won’t work. Have you forgotten the winds?" Shadowulf said in his dead serious voice.

"Maybe the creature on the mountain can help." Thundar said from the mouth.

"Creature on the Mountain?" Moon asked.

"Yes, I saw it when you sent me on patrol. It is neither bird nor beast, yet it is both."

"Take Me."

Thundar landed on a ledge just below the summit. She returned the thunderbird and climbed the last 10 feet.

Slowly and carefully Moon peered over the edge of the flattened summit. The creature that peered back at her was like something out of mythology. A lion like body the color of bronze that faded into feathered head, chest, and wings of an eagle. It looked at her with large, golden, cat like eye. It’s wicked yellow-orange beak and ebony claws shone in the sun. It stared at her with an unflinching gaze, but it didn’t appear aggressive, yet.

"Umm…hi." Moon said nervously.

"Who are you?" replied the creature in a light English ascent.

"I’m Moon, Moon Star. I’m a pokemon trainer. Who are you?"

"I’m Nightstrike a Griphon. Are you here to catch me?" He said his eyes narrowing.

"No. I’m here to ask you something." Griphon stared at her for a minute then lowered his head and lifted her up next to him.

"What do you ask?"

"How do I stop the wind so I can get off the island."

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

"I create the wind, I will let you off. But answer me this. How did you get on the island to start with?"

"I came through a cave made by the rockets, but now they’re guarding it. Why do you create the wind."

"To keep the councils off. Though I doubt you know who they are."

"I have a Shadowulf and a Radianz. I know their story. Why do you want to keep the councils off?"

"Because even though my species is rare, powerful, and even has legendary statue we were not allowed on ether council."

"Why?"

"Because they say we are neither bird nor beast and there for cannot be accepted on either." Moon started to speak again, but before she could a Pidgeot with a rocket in tow appeared over the summit.

"Your coming with me!" the rocket demanded, then spying the Griphon he added, "Both of you!" Nightstrike was not impressed. With a snap he opened his wings, then with a single powerful pump he sent the Pidgeot and its master smashing into the mountain. Moon quickly returned the pidgeot to its ball and stuffed all the rocket’s pokeballs into her pocket.

"What are you doing?" Griphon asked.

"The pokemon was only doing as it was told. It does not deserve the fate of its master."

"You are kind. Maybe you can help me."

"How?" Moon asked, coming to stand eye to eye with the Griphon.

"Let me talk privately with your Shadowulf." Moon did has he asked.

The two legends talked quietly while Moon looked around the top of the Mountain idly. Finally Shadowulf came to her side.

"Come. He will take care of the rockets and let us leave the island, but then I have something I must do." Moon nodded, returned him and released Articorn.

"Thank you Nightstrike." She said as she mounted. He nodded to her and she was off. Once on the main land Moon released Shadowulf.

"I will return to you when my mission is complete."

"Be careful!" Moon called after him as he disappeared into the flora.