Chapter 1: Crystamlir: Dark Days

	The sun beat down upon the land mercilessly and the wind that swept 
through was dusty and hot, doing little to help cool travelers off, not that 
there were any. And to make matters worse for the hot day, flames were roaring 
as they ate their meal of a small village near a forest on the east side of 
Crystalmir.
	Crystalmir was home to many new and rare Pokemon, but the last two years 
had not been good ones for the large continent. Indeed, once called Island of 
Dreams, it was now referred to by all who lived there Island of Nightmares. The 
terror of war, the thirst of drought and the hunger of famine gripped it now, 
and it seemed it would never release its hold.
	The bodies of slain Pokemon were strewn about the small village, lifeless 
and bleeding, some even mauled to the point where their internal organs lay 
within the blood, torn from their bodies at the death strike. Humans were in no 
better condition.
	"Are we done here yet?" cried a young man of about twenty to a red-cloaked 
woman of thirty or so.
	"No!" she cried. "Not until we have burned this place to the ground! You 
heard what Master Scarzam said! Now finish the job!"
	The man turned back and directed his fire Pokemon to a new target, a small 
home where a little girl and her mother had once live, their bodies now laying 
with in, throats bleeding away their life blood.
	"Why do we bother?" asked another woman cloaked in red, but her cloak was 
much shorter then the woman who had barked orders and had no hood or insignia. 
"What's so important about this small town?"
	"Why is it important?" asked the woman with the hooded cloak. "Why? 
Because it will draw out the one Master Scarzam wants dead so badly."
	"Which one? Satoshi? Shigeru? His granddaughter perhaps? Or is that 
annoying Ayesha he's after now?" asked a man who was working along side the 
short cloaked woman.
	"I don't know," the long cloak said. "All I know is the first young male 
to set up a resistance is to die."
	"Well, we already did that," snorted another man as his Pokemon burned a 
bakery.
	The long cloaked woman stalked over and waked him over the head. "Fool! 
None of these pathetic fools could ever match up to the Four Rebellion Masters!"
	"Sorry, General Pyra," the man said and sulked away with his Pokemon to 
burn what little was left.
	General Pyra sniffed and went back to the hillside to watch her men at 
work. As she watched as Pokemon came to her side. It was big, up to her 
shoulder, and didn't look happy, nor did it ever look that way. The face, narrow 
and smooth, coated with dried blood around its muzzle. It eyes were deep, deep 
red, the pupil a mere slit like a snake's. The ears were large and pointed, much 
like the of a fox and tipped with the same color as its eyes. The body was lean, 
the paws topped with glistening claws that too had the dried blood coating them, 
a mark the Pokemon was rather proud of. Its brush (word for a fox like tail) was 
long and bushy, tipped with the same color as the eyes and ears. The ears 
glinted in the sun with a ruby flame earring attached to the left hear and a 
ruby flame set in silver held by a silver chain was draped around its broad 
shoulders and neck.
	"What news, Doomhound?" Pyra asked without looking at it.
	"All is well," it responded with a deep voice.
	This was Doomhound, the next evolution of a Houndoom. Not only was it the 
top evolution of a Pokemon, but it was also the top fire Pokemon, the chosen of 
the Fire Pokemon General.
	"Did you find anything?" Pyra asked her chosen.
	"No," it responded. "But, it seems that he anticipated out movements and 
so left. He will not be here to save this village any time soon. From the scent 
he headed deeper south, but how far I don't know. I lost him a river that flowed 
south, so I'm guessing a good way, but that's not certain."
	"Come on then," Pyra snapped. "You!" A younger man looked back, his 
Charizard stopping its furious flaming to look back at its own commander. "Send 
your Pokemon to the Water Master." A smile played her lips and she exposed her 
two fangs that glinted in the flames. "There's a rebel heading her way."
	"And one in yours," hissed a voice and everyone froze.

	The water, once whispering stories and signing merrily down the stream, 
was now red with blood and hissed songs of hatred and death. The trees were 
barren of their fruits this season, when they should have been glowing red with 
apples and other citrus fruits. Even though the sun shone brightly, its warmth 
was brittle and its light did little in the way of sending nightmares back under 
the bed.
	A man, draped in a cloak of black, slogged through the water, an emerald 
pokeball glinting from a silver chain around his neck. There were eyes in the 
hood, glinting an evil green that had shards of gold and black thrown in.
	This was the one of the four Rebel Pokemon Masters, many times referred to 
as the Master of Forgotten Spring for the color of his eyes. His hands were 
gloved, but they shone in the brittle light with the sheen of blood. They eyes 
grew dim and he struggled to make it up the bank of the shallow river. The 
forest did little to conceal him, but it was all there was in way of hiding and 
so, with his last energy, he lowered himself to the ground with a thud and 
closed his eyes. His breathing evened and he began to sleep, out in the middle 
of nowhere in enemy territory. This, as people would say, was an immediate death 
sentence.
	A wind blew up from out of somewhere none could identify and played with 
the hood of the Master's cloak. In annoyance the wind took it and flung it back, 
revealing a bloody face and braided, oak tree bark brown hair.

	"Go Taichu!" the voice hissed.
	Out of an obsidian pokeball popped a large, mouse-like Pokemon. But it was 
black and red, with electrifying yellow eyes that blazed with hatred as it 
stared at Pyra and Doomhound.
	"It's the Master of the Lost Rose!" cried a young trainer. "General Pyra, 
we have to back off! I thought we would deal with one of the male Masters, not 
the Rose!"
	"To late for that fool," the voice hissed and from the shadow stepped a 
white cloaked figure, red eyes, as red as the long-gone roses of summer, glinted 
with undying hatred through the hood. "Taichu, put him out of his misery first."
	The black mouse turned its electric eyes towards the trainer and, without 
warning; a lightning bolt rained down upon them and when it retreated nothing 
was left but a burning mess of ash.
	The other trainers surrounded the figure, their Pokemon already opening 
their jaws for flamethrower attacks. The figure just smiled and with a wave of 
its hand sent a huge shockwave through the air. The trainer flew in all 
directions, many knocked out, and some landed in fires, sent to a fiery death.
	"Taichu, be a dear and finish off those other pest," the white robed 
person requested lightly. "I'll handle Pyra and Doomhound." Its Taichu nodded 
and walked casually towards the trainers, shocking them all with a look when 
they tried to attack.
	"You're very foolish," Pyra said as Doomhound moved between her and the 
advancing white cloak," to even try and attack my Doomhound and me. You'll never 
win."
	"Says you," snarled the cloaked being and drew forth another obsidian 
pokeball. "Let's go Karasu."
	Out of the pokeball sprang forth and enormous bird. It looked like a cross 
between a swam and a phoenix. The neck was long, the head refined and the 
feathers all glossy black like the pokeball it had come out of. The wings, large 
and powerful, were tipped with flame, the same for the crest the rose in a 
menacing threat when it laid eyes on Doomhound. It had tail feathers several 
meters long that melted from the glossy black feathers into roaring flames. The 
talons were dangerous, sharp and ready for the kill while the beak shone like a 
sharpened blade in the bare sunlight. Its eyes had to be its most imposing 
feature thought. They were set within its head like rubies crafted of blood and 
burned within from a flame born of hatred and a thirst for vengeance like none 
the Doomhound had seen before.
	"Karasu, is this the Pokemon you sought to destroy?" the white cloak 
asked.
	"Indeed," the bird sang in a deep, evil sounding voice.
	"Then do what you want, but Pyra is mine," the white cloak said.
	The white cloak advanced on Pyra, the two circling each other until the 
found themselves alone, their Pokemon already having moved off to tend to their 
own problems. Slowly, the two face one another, sizing the other up, waiting for 
the other to make the first move, the first mistake.
	"Can I ask you one thing before we begin?" Pyra asked. The white cloak 
waited a moment then slowly nodded its head. "Who are you?"
	The white cloak didn't respond immediately, but after a few moments a 
thin, fragile hand made its way out of the cloak and came to the hood. Drawing 
it back, the sun hit it, casting an eerie light around the elvish face.
	Pyra's eyes went wide as she stared into the face of the white cloak, a 
pretty girl with rose red eyes and hair blacker then a moonless, starless night. 
Pyra regained her composure, but she could see the girl already noted her 
discomfort. "Well, I see you have become much Ayesha Rubinia."
	"Indeed Pyra," Ayesha responded lightly. Her hand went back into her robes 
and returned with a short sword, two prongs sticking out to the side, sharpened 
like the long, metal blade in the center, like a trident almost. "But casualties 
were not the reason I came this day."
	"Really?" Pyra raised an eyebrow and drew forth her own weapon, a sword 
slightly smaller then a katana with no hilt. "Then why did you come?"
	"Why?" Ayesha responded coldly. "If it is the last thing you wish to know 
before you die then, I came back because," she stopped and licked her blade with 
a devilish smile. "I want to taste the blood of a Fire Master."
	Pyra drew her blade fully, her eyes flashing with unseen panic.

	"So, we meet again Karasu," sneered Doomhound. "And to what honor do I owe 
this visit?"
	"No honor, Doomhound," Karasu sang in its death like voice. "Only 
vengeance."
	"Oh, is this about that bird I killed for my dinner earlier this year?" he 
asked, flashing blood crusted teeth.
	The bird's eyes roared with flames and its voice sang with the song of 
death. "That was my last hope for a family. Now I am all that is left and 
you...you shall pay for it all!"
	Doomhound's switched to a snarl and he lunged. Together, he and Karasu 
meant in a flurry of razor sharp claws and talons; their cries barely the first 
cries of a bloody battle ahead.