Prelude Chapter 3: Crystalmir, Dark Continent of War

	The sun was bathing the ground red as the four people rode down the narrow 
path through a large forest. Two were on Rapidashes and the other two were on 
Blackashes, but the ones of Rapidashes seemed more calm then the two on 
Blackashes. They looked around nervously as they realized the forest was
coming to an end and the path was widening, enough for them to ride two abreast 
now.
	Taichu was sitting on the rump of Ayesha's Blackash, seeming to have a 
delightful conversation with Pikachu and Umbreon. Sivitri kept silent, sitting 
on her Blackash rigidly, palms sweaty. Ayesha seemed calmer, for her eyes and 
outside appearance betrayed nothing of her thoughts, but on the inside her mind
fumbled through the thick fog that were her thoughts.
	Taichu looked toward its mistress and squeaked softly. "It's nothing, 
Taichu." Ayesha did not turn to look at it, but then again, her voice was not 
reassuring.
	"What's wrong?" Shigeru asked Ayesha as they came into a section of road 
that was wide enough for them to ride four abreast.
	"Nothing," Ayesha said. "Come. We need to hurry." She spurred her Blackash 
to go faster and once more Satoshi and Shigeru had to gallop hard and fast to 
catch up to the cantering Blackash.
	They soon reached Vermillion City. The people bustled out of their way 
hurriedly as the group cantered past, heading straight for the docks. Many 
people shouted in indignation at the four, but stopped as they saw who was 
riding and what they were riding.
	At the last minute, as they were about to canter down the ramp of a dock, 
the Blackashes wheeled to their left and cantered off in that direction, sending 
people scattering. Satoshi and Shigeru found it was all they could do to stay on 
as their own Rapidashes fought to keep up with the hard pace the Blackashes set.
They cantered straight for some time, ending up on a dusty road and eventually 
coming to an abandoned bay.
	"Why did we come here?" asked Satoshi as they dismounted and called the 
Pokemon into their pokeballs.
	"Our rides are here," Sivitri said in response.
	"What?" Shigeru asked. "But I thought we would ride a cruise ship to 
Crystalmir."
	"Don't be stupid," snapped Ayesha. "A cruise ship is far to obvious. No, I 
got a friend to arrange another mode of transportation. Taichu."
	Taichu came forward and, sucking in so much air they thought it his chest 
would explode, it wailed at the top of its lungs, but it was a musical wail and 
they were sort of sad when it ended, although they had a headache.
	The water frothed when the song like call ended and from the depths sprang 
forth two huge Pokemon, blue and white birds with majestic eyes that held all 
sort of knowledge.
	"Lugia? Silver?" Satoshi gasped. The two birds nodded and chortled as 
Pikachu called a cheerful hello.
	"I see you know these two then," Ayesha smiled. "They come to a secluded 
cove once every two years and we managed to make friends with them. So they 
agreed to help us. Silver seemed most eager when he heard your name."
	"Uh, yeah, Satoshi gulped.
	Silver and Lugia folded their wings and lowered their heads so that the 
four might climb on. Sivitri went to Silver along with Satoshi while Ayesha and 
Shigeru paired up on Lugia. Ayesha clicked with her tongue and the two Pokemon 
took off, heading out over the endless sky of blue.

	"So, why did Sivitri's grandfather even begin this war?" Shigeru asked.
	Ayesha was slow to respond. "He began it because he wanted to rule all 
Pokemon. In the begging, it seemed as if his plans were working. Everything on 
Crystalmir was in ruin. The bodies of Pokemon and humans alike, turning 
Crystalmir into a graveyard. But, unbeknownst to Sol'kanar, my grandmother, Halo
Rubinia, had been gathering a force she called the League Force. When she felt 
the time was right she led her followers up from the depths of Crystalmir and 
attacks Sol'kanar. The battle was bloody and vicious, resulting in a weeklong 
battle that never ended, day or night until the final day...when my grandmother 
sacrificed her life to kill Sol'kanar. My father was boy then and when he saw 
what his mother did he never forgave her or Sol'kanar. And so, he left and met 
my mother. My mother was to stuck up to even bother with Crystalmir anymore and 
my father found nothing there that would bring him prophet so he didn't bother
either when I came to him for help. My final decision was to come to you two."
	"So, if Sol'kanar is dead, then how is the one starting this war once 
more?" asked Shigeru.
	"He's dead...in body. But he preserved some of his mind in a complex 
computer program that was the highest mark of intelligence of his age. Someone 
found it and now is acting on his orders that were preprogrammed into the 
computer file," Ayesha explained.
	"So, how do we destroy him then?" Shigeru pressed. "And even if we destroy 
the computer, what good will it do against a person who is intent on following 
in his footsteps?"
	Ayesha closed her eyes as a breeze blew up momentarily and turned to face 
him. They gleamed darkly. "Because it is not him we are going to destroy...it is 
his Pokemon."
	Shigeru was silent and Lugia flew on, but it was with a heavy heart and 
heavy wings.

	"Silver! Fly over to Lugia! Quick!" cried Satoshi as Silver grazed the 
sea, his wings folded beside
him like a torpedo.
	"Why?" Sivitri asked him.
	"Why?" Satoshi responded and pointed to the left of them. "Take a look at 
that."
	Sivitri looked and added her own urgent pleas to Satoshi's. Clouds, dark 
and ominous, were rolling towards them at a high speed. They could already see 
the lightning smashing the sea, but no thunder reached their ears.
	"What is it?" called Shigeru.
	"Storm to the left!" called Satoshi. "Coming fast! We need to get out of 
its path!"
	"We can't or else we'll fall terribly off course!" Ayesha retorted. "I'm 
sure Lugia and Silver can handle the storm!" She looked down at Lugia who had 
taken its own look at the storm. With a soft whistle it shook its head.
	"See?!" Sivitri cried. "We need to go off course or we'll probably die in 
that storm! Which one? Our lives or off course?!"
	Ayesha looked at the storm again and nodded. "Off course. Lugia, to the 
right - top speed."
	The two birds wheeled to the right and began to flap their wings harder in 
an effort to outdistance the storm, but that only seemed to enrage it and it 
only came on faster. Lightning struck more often now, as if searching for 
something, but still no thunder tolled.
	Lugia and Silver noticed as well and tried to go even faster, but it 
seemed the storm expected this and its own speed increased.
	"This isn't a natural storm!" called Sivitri. "You don't think...?"
	"Oh yes!" Ayesha called. "It's no doubt the work of him!"
	"Then we'll never escape it!" cried Sivitri.
	Ayesha gritted her teeth. "Lugia, Silver - dive!"
	"What?!" Satoshi, Shigeru and Sivitri cried, but it was too late. Lugia 
and Silver took the command and plunged into the sea.

	"Thanks, Blastoise," groaned Shigeru as he and his turtle Pokemon broke 
the surface of the sea.
	He looked around, perplexed. Only an hour before the sea had been tumbling 
and tossing about like nothing you have ever seen. The waves were huge and every 
time Shigeru came up for air another wave would come up and force him down once 
more or lightning would come down and he would plunge under,
noting that the lightning only struck the surface of the water.
	It was only now, an hour later and he and Blastoise were stranded out in 
the sea that the storm had gone away as quickly as it had come. He saw now why 
Ayesha had told Lugia and Silver to dive. It would save the Pokemon and it was 
also the one act that saved them before the first lightning bolt lashed out to
strike them.
	Weakly Shigeru fumbled and brought one pokeball. "Go Pidgeot."
	The large bird Pokemon popped out of the pokeball, its feathers ruffled 
from the electrical charge his pokeballs probably got from the lightning.
	"Go and see if you can find land anywhere," he said between coughs.
	The bird screeched and went to do as told. Blastoise continued to swim 
lazily in a straight line, slowly, so as to char its master too much. A half 
hour later Pidgeot returned and with good news. By the sound of it and by the 
water Blastoise sprayed from its pumps, a sign it was happy, there was land 
nearby and people too.
	Shigeru managed to crawl father up onto Blastoise's shell. He patted its 
back and with a grunt, Blastoise began to swim after Pidgeot. Shigeru was fast 
asleep when he felt the wing of his Pidgeot gently stroking him. His eyes 
cracked open and as he looked around all he wanted to do was close them again 
and wish it was all a nightmare he would wake up from.

	"Pi," Pikachu said as it nuzzled Satoshi's face in an effort to get the 
unconscious boy to wake up.
	A low groan escaped Satoshi's lips and his eyes cracked open, but barely. 
Pikachu nudged him again, encourage by the fact Satoshi was at least awake. 
Satoshi, with an enormous amount of effort, pushed himself to his knees and 
looked around half dazed. He pitched forward and looked up once more,
hoping he had only imagined it.
	He hadn't. He had been thrown onto the beach of a tiny seaside village, 
but it was deserted and inhabitable. They whole thing lay in ruins, smoke still 
curling from some of the burned down houses. Blood covered the sand, turning it 
red, a stain that not even the sea could remove.
	Pokemon lay all around the area, either whole or in tatters. The villagers 
where in no better shape, many of them burned and they had once been bleeding, 
now dead and stiff.
	"This can't be Crystalmir, can it?" Satoshi croaked.
	Pikachu nodded sadly and pointed to a sign. It read: Welcome to 
Crystalmir, Island of Dreams. Satoshi shook his head and went to the sign, 
stumbling several times.
	"Pikachu...destroy this sign," he said.
	Pikachu obviously didn't understand why, but did as told. The sign fell 
the ground, charred and smoking like the rest of the village.
	"This is not 'Island of Dreams'," Satoshi gasped. He paused, looking 
around and catching his breath. "It is and Island of Nightmares."

	"Sir, we have confirmed that the four trainers were dumped into the sea 
and two have reached the Island," said a man draped in red with the insignia of 
fire sewn into it.
	"Who are they?" asked a voice, deep and threatening from the shadows.
	"Sir, it is the two Pokemon Master, Satoshi and Shigeru," the man replied 
crisply.
	The voice was silent for a moment then laughed, long and evilly. "So long 
as the other two aren't alive then we have nothing to fear. Let them live. They 
can't do much harm without the other two."
	"Sir!" the man said and marched out, closing the chamber door behind him.
	A pair of red eyes glowed within the darkness the man had been addressing. 
"See Granddaughter? My dream is coming true and you can do nothing to stop it!"
	Outside, as the man walked away from the chambers, he shivered in his 
cloak as the laughter of the shadow with the chamber reached his ear. He 
regained his composure though and marched on down the corridor.