Finally, after almost a year, I got around to updating this.

Originally this chapter was going to be much, much longer, but it turned out that the original chapter could be broken into about two or three chapters (meaning faster updates) and because Kimiko Heroux is really busy with her goal of completing Wherever You Will Go by the end of summer / before she goes to collage, that was what was best. I'll mostly take it over, as there are certain shorter parts that Kimiko will be able to help with and that she wants to write, like a scene for the next chapter.

I'm not sure when this will get updated again, but I'll make sure it isn't nearly a year again.

Eusine lied awake for what felt like hours, trying to force himself to fall asleep. Ever since he had gotten back he'd been aching all over and had a headache coming on, and the pain he felt hadn't even slightly eased, even though he had taken several different pills for it. He pulled the multiple layers of blankets closer, shaping them around his figure, shivering despite the raging fever plaguing him. He was catching influenza or something, he figured.

He called out hoarsely, his voice splitting even before it left his lips, for whom or what he wasn't quite sure. His concentration had gone to the point where it had taken him a while just to remember to set his Pokeballs on the bedside table, and even that seemed to take a lot of effort. He shivered even more now. Another blanket would help… He sat up slowly and immediately sank back down from the headache causing his lingering disorientation, confusion, and now dizziness to intensify enough that it made him a little sick to the stomach.

The aches instantly spiked to pain as his headache turned into a pounding migraine, the pain coursing in sync with his rapid, in-ear heartbeat. His breathing became difficult, feeling as though his lungs were being constricted and his windpipe inflaming like the hottest coals suddenly coated them. Everything began to blur together as his eyes started to turn from their usual blue to a violet, deepening into a vibrant burgundy, and then to a deep, swirling crimson.
*

"… and that's how you successfully burn ramen noodles in boiling water," Kimiko concluded, putting a triumphant expression on her lips as if telling her little story put her up to a slightly higher pedestal than mere moments before, "which is why Ron isn't allowed to cook." And with that said, began to chatter on absentmindedly. "But you should try some of my cooking sometime, Kris. I make a pretty mean curry. You can put that stuff in anything to give it a little pizzazz. Once I sprinkled an itty bitty pinch on a doughnut, and man, that was awesome! …Until the aftertaste kicked in."

Kris barely lifted her head in a nod with her eyes narrowed in a combination of both drowsiness and disinterest, not really paying attention to her friend's little rant. Not even an hour ago Eusine had gone to his room and his off-kilter behavior had worried her. She couldn't get the image of his face out of her head, that look he had when handing her the Clear Bell and telling her to hold onto it for him. Her question came out before she even knew she had opened her mouth, "Are you sure he's okay?"

It took a moment for Kimiko to realize exactly what the girl was talking about, and after that was figured out, the answer came quick and without a single hesitation, "Of course he is. The stalked just realized it was being stalked by a stalker, and because of that latest defeat of our favorite little maniac, he went to his room to sulk is all. You gotta admit, he does put on quite the show when he's in a pouty mood with all his dramatics."

Kris shook her head, her bright eyes full of doubt in her senior's words. "I don't think so…" She righted herself in her seat and retained her mouth's troubled shape. "Something just didn't seem right about him. Did you see that look in his eyes? Like his mind was… drifting off or something."

"Maybe he was just tired like he said or getting sick and all that shizz. He's been Ice Beamed so many times, I'd be surprised this is the first time he's caught a cold." Kimiko crossed her arms across her chest with a brief huff and leaned back on the back two legs of her chair, her own legs folded one over the other. Her brown hair flopped over her shoulder sloppily, but her golden-hued eyes were sharp and aware. "You're reading too far into it; I wouldn't worry about it too much, Shorty."

"But…" Kris held up the Clear Bell, for once not focused on the fact she'd just been called one of her pet peeve nicknames that Kimiko was oh-so nice to award her. Her eyes moved with its motion suspended on the chain she had put on it. "He gave me this."

Her senior shrugged indifferently, trying to justify Eusine's motives as simply as she could think of, "He just wants it on a chain so it can be a pendant, so he won't go lose it and splat against a Crystal Barrier again. You know, like—" She was cut off abruptly when Eusine's screaming echoed down the hallway. Her head snapped in the direction of his room; that sound he made split both Trainers' nerves in half, sending them off the edge of naïveté into much more than wariness.

Kris's eyes widened and she ran towards the room, calling her friend's name over the deafening sound of her heartbeat flooding her ears. She rattled the doorknob, finding it locked. Thuds and sounds of various things being broken, torn, and snapped could be heard from inside the room, mixing in a horrid synchrony with Eusine's cries that seemed to be morphing into something animal-like growls. Shattering glass came next, and then an unnerving silence.

"Eusine?" Kris squeaked, getting no response, the possibility her voice wouldn't be heard through the door aside. Her anxiety was gnawing at her and it was all-too evident in her voice, especially as more moments passed. "Eusine?!" She jiggled the knob in her fingers, pushing on the wooden door by sidestepping into it with her shoulder. A polite person would've said she was too small to do much damage, but others would be more upfront and say that she was just plain weak.

"Let me handle that," Kimiko showed off a snaggle-toothed grin, cracking her knuckles like she was about to enter the ring against her mortal enemy and duke it out (of which she really would've enjoyed doing if she was given the chance). "Turn around and close your eyes."

The smaller girl merely looked at her in perplexity, decided it was best not to ask, and then complied. She couldn't really distinguish the interesting sounds she heard until her senior's voice tell her, sounding very cheery, "Okay, you can look now!" Her expression matched her tone, but Kris didn't exactly know why, as it didn't seem like she had done anything to the door. She opened her mouth to question, but Kimiko replied, cutting her off before she could start, "The world must never know how I break into people's houses!"

And at that moment, just as she turned to open the door, it swung open slowly, creaking as it did so. The older girl stared in clear horror, turned back to Kris, then back to the door, and then back to Kris, putting on an obviously fake smile as she said, "Well, that's interesting!"

When they entered, the room was completely and utterly trashed, littered with broken wood, torn cloth, and other objects that couldn't be identified, some of which probably was better off not identified anyway. Kris's face paled like a bed sheet when she peeked out the broken window and noticed a deep crimson marred on the shards of glass on the grass below the place where the man obviously made his exit. She felt her head spinning and bile trying to make its way up her throat. The sight of blood never agreed with her, and laying her eyes on it heeded her with the need to sit down with her head between her knees.

"It isn't that bad," Kimiko said, obviously not bothered by the destroyed room that encased her, "he's just gonna have to pay for the window now. At least when we find him and drag him back here." She turned and noticed her junior looking like she was gonna pass out, moaning like a zombie. "Dude, I swear, if you puke, I am not gonna clean that up."

Kris just peeked up at her and probably would've had narrowed eyes if the world would've stopped spinning long enough for her to do so. Her senior gave her a halfway sympathetic frown before proceeding to continue to investigate the room again with analytic eyes, meanwhile muttering to herself, "Either Eusine has some serious temper issues or something has gone horribly, horribly wrong…" She furrowed her brows, calculating within her head. "Maybe that data I found has something to do with it."

This revelation caused her to perk up. Pulling out her PokeGear, she looked to Kris and said, "I'll be back in a bit, Shorty. I gotta make a phone call."

"Are the results in?" Ventus swirled around in the office chair he'd sank his butt into a while back, bored out of his mind. As the leader of a rising organization full of evil plots and such, of course he had nothing better to do than nag Terra as she attempted to go about her work. And when every time he asked, he received a negative response that only assisted to build up his current attitude. Sticking his pendant between his teeth as he received that same depressing answer he'd gotten the previous gazillion times he'd questioned, he let out that childish whine that he was all-too good at, "Oh, but why not?"

Terra internally groaned, pulling her fingers through her bangs as if it was a secret method of relieving that distinct urge to spork the eyes out of something. A something that happened to be an albino spinning around in an office chair like a maniac. "Because," she began acidly, her lime green eyes narrowed, "It needs to be stable. If it is not stable, it won't work and the Subject may be…" She paused to think of proper wording, and with that pause, came a bit more calmness in her voice. "…wasted. Until it stabilizes, we can't receive any accurate results."

Despite his overall, outwardly immature demeanor, Ventus knew very well what his lead scientist was saying. Under that rather bipolar exterior was an intelligent, level mind (well…maybe level isn't quite the right word) that had created the Quintessence and built it up into what it was. That genius side of him rarely showed, however, aside from those moments that seemed to pass in the very blink of an eye. In those moments, mirroring the likeness of this one, his eyes grew stoic and solid like ice and his face was aligned with perfect composure. "And what of Subject Alpha245?"

The brown-haired woman knew he wasn't going to like the response, but decided to give it anyway, since it really didn't matter how bored he was. They couldn't make their plans go any faster no matter how much he whined. "Pyro assigned himself the task of guarding the sector. He told me he would report back when significant progress has been made." She watched his expression turn to a mixture between a glower and a pout, but before he could begin to throw a tantrum or something because of his sheer impatience, the mood was quickly interrupted by a positive-sounding beeping of one of the many computers. She read the streams of data flowing on the nearest screen, nodded to herself, and pressed a small button.

The button caused a small hatch to open and a narrow vial to elevate upwards from inside it. Inside was a peculiarly-colored liquid, swirling within itself. When Terra took the vial in her hand, she felt it to be horribly cold, but when she handed it to Ventus, he didn't seem bothered by it. Or possibly, he was just too caught up in the excitement that he wouldn't have to be bored anymore. "Be careful with that," she advised sharply just as he began tossing it up into the air and catching it. "And make sure you report when you secure the next Subject."

He caught it from a throw that nearly hit the ceiling (while spinning madly in the office chair) and beamed brightly at her like a little boy on Christmas morning. "Oh, don't be such a worry wart! I'm always careful!" He jumped up from his chair and made his way over to the elevator. He could hear the familiar hum of it coming down (which would always precede the ding! of its arrival—his favorite sound), but when that little ding! sounded and the door slid open, he was all but smiling.

Standing before him—rather, towering over him—was a stoic man that surpassed him in both height and having intimidation effect. The cloak worn by many of the Quintessence members was across his shoulders and the emblem of second-in-command shone on his chest over his heart. The stare Ventus knew ever-so well was aimed down in his direction. An equally-daunting Raichu stood at his side.

At this moment Ventus seemed to have forgotten exactly why he gave him that high position in his team. He was quick to thrust the vial behind his back and throw on a great big—and fake—grin. "Why hello, Blaze!" He wasn't certain why his voice rose up so many octaves, but he cleared his throat and forced it to drop back down. "Back early, I see!" It took him this long to realize that there was a younger man standing behind the symbol of intimidation before him. "Aww, did you make a new little friend?"

Blaze only tightened his hard stare from there, his voice crisp with emotion's absence, "This is Steel, our promising recruit from Hoenn." He side-stepped slightly to give Ventus a full view of the member, so he was able to see the tall, slender yet muscular form, the pale blue eyes hard-set within a narrow face, and bluish-silver hair gelled in a semi-organized, semi-spiked manner of that man that couldn't have been in more than his mid-twenties. "I have put him in charge of Division Five."

Ventus didn't argue with the decision. Rather, he was highly distracted with the man codenamed Steel, as recognition hit him. He scanned the man up and down, trying to place where he had seen that familiar face. Nothing coming to him, he just grinned. "We've hit a shortage of Steel Trainers, so it's good to have you aboard! Just remember I'm the captain of this ship! And now this captain really must be going. Tootles, Steely!" He sauntered on past them and into the elevator. As he clicked the Up button and the door began to slide shut, Blaze's eyes remained vigilantly trained to him.

An Espeon gracefully back-flipped high into the air, evading a Shadow Ball with its agility and small form. The small, golden stars from a Swift floated about it, each creating a sort of psychic field. It was effective in both protecting against attacks and helping Espeon get more height in its jumps from the concocted "anti-gravity" effect. The Pokemon landed nimbly on its feet, darting towards the Exeggutor with its tail set aglow, an Iron Tail attack. Unfortunately, its speed wasn't as great as it was without the psychic field. It slowed to a halt at the telepathic command of its Trainer.

Its Trainer, in turn, walked up to the small, fennec-fox-like Psychic-type. He scratched it behind its long ears, much to its enjoyment of which it openly exhibited on its countenance. A small smile appeared on the Trainer's face at this as he looked down at his Eevee evolution. Behind the mask he wore, his violet-hued eyes that matched his neatly-arranged hair were shining, pleased with the rate that his Pokemon was learning new techniques.

"You're developing well, but a faster opponent would have attacked by then. I can't let that happen to you." He recalled the Exeggutor that had been battling, sending a Kadabra out for its turn. Espeon rubbed its head against his leg lovingly and walked a distance away into its place, waiting for the opponent's attack. The training session was a repeat of the last, but this time Espeon was putting it all on the line, its Psybeam being released with full force and ripping up the battlefield. The last time it did this... The Trainer relaxed when it succeeded in landing a perfect hit, unlike the last time when he nearly lost against Kimiko.

His thoughts flashed back to that battle. Just the mere images that returned to his mind's eye sent back all of those conflicting emotions that had entangled themselves around him during that battle, those feelings that threatened to choke and suffocate him with every moment that passed during the seemingly endless struggle between his Espeon and Kimiko's Glaceon. Those heart-stopping seconds when it appeared one Eevee evolution was going to fall, but brought itself back up to land yet another blow on its opponent.

Both Pokemon immediately halted, looking in different directions. Espeon's ears twitched and it got into a fighting stance, calling out to Kadabra. Karabra backed away, recalling itself back to the safety of its Pokeball. A soft rainbow beam flew towards Espeon, the Pokemon jumping out of the way and using Swift. A sound that crossed between a growl and a howl rang out and a large Pokemon leaped into the clearing; it having the appearance of a Suicune only much more muscular and feral. The first thing Will really noted about it (like with all dogs he feared) were its sharp claws, especially, its fangs.

It wanted to eat him, he was sure of it. Espeon used Psybeam, though the attack was slower than the Suicune running forward and ramming into it, lashing its tails to throw it. It used Bubble Beam, knocking the injured Espeon back as the purple Pokemon Pokemon launched another Psybeam. Will caught his Pokemon, holding it tightly. Having it use Morning Sun would take some time, more than enough for the mutant to kill it and him. That left only one choice while it was confused: Run.

Blaze in an OC that belongs to BlazeTheMovieFan from YouTube.