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"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! This is it! We're doomed! It's over!!!" the Shaymin cried as he sank his face to the ground and shielded his head with his paws.

Sam, Alex, Axel and the other Sam wanted to remain calm, but the fact that the Mew lay in the ground motionless wasn't helping; the confident-until-now Victiny was looking as frightened as the Shaymin didn't help either.

"What's going on?!" the trainer Sam burst out after a while, not understanding a single thing yet terrified already.

"What do you mean "What's going on?"?! Don't you see? Celebi controls time! And now time is collapsing!" the Victiny yelled at them.

"What do you mean collapsing?!" Alex asked at once, starting to feel even more frightened, which apparently was still possible.

However, before the Victiny could say anything they heard a grunt and the Mew's eyes opened, "Uh... My head... Did I fall on top of a rock?"

"Mew! Are you alright?" the Shaymin sprang back to life and hurried over to him.

"Didn't I just say my head is killing me?" the Mew responded almost naturally, "On second thought I just noticed it was a stump. A very hard one that is, just what kind of trees grow around here again?"

The Victiny was starting to grow impatient, "Mew! Stop fooling with us! Are you OK? What did Celebi do to you? More importantly, what did he tell you?"

It all seemed to slowly come back to the Mew, "Oh right, Celebi... Nothing special, ordinary procedure. He just asked me how much longer. Oh wait no, he told me to hurry up, things are getting... a bit complicated."

"What do you mean?" Axel shot the question at once.

The Mew cleared its throat, but instead of speaking they heard his voice inside their heads again, "Well, you see, bringing people from outside this world is complicated and could severely affect the flow of time and the course of the events in the timeline. To avoid this, before bringing anyone in here Celebi creates a tangent, a small alternate branch, in the flow of time. Since this way nothing affects the real future we're free to do whatever we want including bringing persons from other worlds here and just sending them back after a while."

"However, this is the first time we bring two persons at the same time and that's apparently harder to do. You see, these branches of time, they're honestly unstable and just fade away after a while, usually a few hours, long enough for a person to have a quick view and be sent back. However, having two persons is speeding this up."

"Basically, Celebi was asking me how much longer and warning me this will only still be stable for about thirty more minutes. After that this could become unstable and fade away. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, nobody can know for sure with these time shifts, but it's better to play it safe isn't it?" the Mew spoke cheerfully, with no hint of danger or concern at their situation.

The Shaymin seemed in a state of utter shock, too afraid to move, but the Victiny spoke up, nervousness showing in his voice, "Alright, you heard him. Pack up your stuff and say goodbye, time to go!"

Alex and Sam nodded at once, turned over to their trainer counterparts, gave a slight gesture and hurried over to the Victiny.

"Wait, hold it, hold it," before they could tell the Mew had stepped between them.

"What is it now?" the Victiny asked, starting to lose his patience.

"Celebi said this would collapse in thirty minutes, but bringing them back can easily be done in three, five at much. The plan was having them see a full six-on six battle for real, though that's now out of the question. However, they're already here; just how long can a one-on-one match take?" the Mew grinned widely as the voice ran on their minds.

Sam and Alex just looked at him, then at each other; a look of dread on their faces as they realized what was the Mew gambling with.

Even the Victiny's face was dumbfounded, "You know what Mew? You are simply crazy if you think I will go on with that plan," he spoke seriously as he floated in place, staring at him. "And you wonder why I love you man!" he said excitedly, his scowl turned to smile

"Please tell me you're not going along with this!" the Shaymin shivered in place, starting to feel alarmed.

"Oh come on Shaymin, just how long can a quick battle take? Seriously, twenty minutes tops and that would be a slow one. These guys seem a bit more serious than that," the Victiny rolled his eyes. He then turned over to the trainers, "You are, right?"

The trainers, still too shocked to speak and not really knowing what would happen to them just nodded nervously.

The Victiny grinned, "See? I say fifteen minutes top, anyone says more? Less?" he asked looking around, as if to make a gamble.

"Let's just get this started with," the Mew said seriously, almost scolding him. "(I go for ten)," he sneakily told him telepathically.

"(You're on)," the Victiny replied mentally as well.

Sam and Axel had never agreed to this, but this was two legendaries telling them to fight; they didn't really have much of an option. They looked at each other and nodded before putting some distance between them and reaching for a Pokeball each.

"Wait!" the Shaymin interrupted as he stepped into the middle, getting a puzzled look from everyone. "Well... wouldn't it be better if these guys get to see all the Pokemon you two have? I mean... since it seems like you're already doing this anyway... and you're probably not using all of them for the battle... and these guys probably won't be back here in a while..." he said nervously, his voice shrinking more and more with every word.

The Mew floated over to him and patted him on the back, "That's actually brilliant."

"Yeah, how didn't I think of that?" the Victiny grinned excitedly.

"(I raise to fifteen minutes)," the Mew told the Victiny mentally.

"(I stay on twenty)," he replied silently as well as he looked over to the trainers and gave them a sign.

Axel was the first to nod back, "OK, Barret! Lin! Get over here!" he hollered over the distance.

***

"... And so we all came back to the base to find Tina totally freaking out and going all, "No! Get away! That thing on the wall! It's... Cursed or something!". Turns out she had never seen a mirror before!" the Linoone finished recalling, acting out the whole scene.

"What? How is that-? Seriously?" the Sneasel seemed taken back, but also trying hard not to laugh.

Shadow, Ace, Barrett and Lin had found a nice spot at the shade of a tree, not too far from their masters and their doubles. Whatever the legendaries wanted with their masters, it had become clear they weren't needed when the Shaymin saw them sneaking away and even signaled at them to go on.

The Pidgeot did allow a small chuckle, "Was she really that taken back by a mirror?"

"She ended up breaking that mirror," Barret recalled, his face serious, remembering how he had helped clean up. "Beats me. I mean, there wasn't much water on the desert she was from and the times she had seen water it had been on rivers or streams or the sea and it was never still water. I think she might have never seen her reflection before."

"Barrett, what do you mean "I think"? She hadn't! We had to explain her it was like seeing her shadow, don't you remember?"

"You really explained it that way? We should probably have started there, would have saved Tyler and I the trip for the new mirror."

"Oh yeah, you two weren't there. Could have sworn you had though, I-"

"Wait!" Shadow interrupted as her ears suddenly perked up. "Ace, master is calling for us".

The Pokemon stood still for a moment and not before long they picked up a signature whistling over the distance.

"Good ear Shadow, I could have sworn that was a Pidgey," Lin commented.

"That's the point. Do you see a lot of Pidgey around here?" Ace grinned.

Both Barrett and Lin just nodded silently, slightly taken back. Pidgey were not common on Hoenn; by using their call the trainer could call his Pokemon back without completely revealing himself. A smart move, they had definitely been on the run for a while.

Suddenly, an actual voice joined in, "Lin! Barrett!"

"That's our master. Let's go Lin," Barrett sighed; a simple call felt so common now.

***

"Where did you get all those whistles?" Alex asked as he saw Sam put away one with a carving of a Pidgey on it on a small case.

"Most of them from Slateport's seaside market. Believe it or not they're just cheap souvenirs," the trainer Sam chuckled as he put it right between the ones with a Spearrow and Starly.

"Well, I have to admit, they have some quality," the shorter trainer said as he reached for the Pokeballs on his belt, releasing a Swellow, a Shiftry, a Lanturn and a Flygon.

The non-trainer Sam examined them closely; he had seen pictures and knew their species, but seeing them in live flesh right in front of him was something different: the pictures never showed the immense size of the feathers of a Swellow, the way the white sprouts of a Shiftry's head faded to green or the way a Lanturn or a Flygon's hide was covered in small scales. "Let's see... Tyler, Hazel, Lauren and Tina, right?"

"Officially it's "Tiny," but yeah, you've got them," Axel pointed out. He then turned to the other trainer, "Sam, your turn."

The trainer said nothing as he let four Pokeballs fly into the air, revealing an Umbreon, a Sceptile, a Golduck and a Dragonite.

Alex blinked at the very size of these Pokemon: the Umbreon itself reached his waistline, the Golduck was almost taller than him, the Sceptile was about Sam's size, and finally, the Dragonite towered above him so much he had to look up just to see its head. He felt amazed, but he also had this impending sense of danger: even the smallest one of these creatures could easily eat him alive. "Wow... OK, those are... Ghost, Tucker, Jake and... Sean, right?"

"Yeah, that's them," the trainer Sam replied a bit awkwardly. Despite the explanation it was still strange to be speaking with two Axels... Or another Sam... Or having legendary Pokemon watching over them so eagerly.

Not that his Pokemon seem to mind, or Axel's on that case: the moment they recognized they ran to greet each other. It was no surprise to see his Golduck Tucker reaching over to Axel's Lanturn Lauren who just sighed and smiled warmly at his obvious attempt to flirt her. This before Axel's Swellow, Tyler, flew over to him, chirped a few cries and not before long both were laughing heartily.

His Umbreon, Ghost, wasn't known for being too sociable but when Axel's Flygon began to circle around him, a curious look on her face, bombarding him with what Sam guessed were questions he saw the Dark type slowly warm up to the situation, or at least chuckle nervously at her.

Even Sean, his Dragonite, looked over at Hazel, Axel's Shiftry, who nodded her head back at him in acknowledgement. He knew neither of them was too fond of company; this was an improvement. Apparently this wasn't enough for his Sceptile, Jake, who insisted the Dragonite and not before long the three of them had stepped closer.

Eight down, four to go; he wouldn't be at ease until Shadow, Ace, Lin and Barrett came back. For a moment he had to admit Axel's Pokemon felt as if they were his own: he was almost as worried over the missing Linoone and Blaziken as over his Pidgeot and Sneasel. Also, judging from the way Axel's team acted around his own, it would have been difficult for a stranger to tell the teams apart.

The Pokemon were taken back when they saw their master's doubles and even more when not one but three legendaries stood in front of them and explained everything. However, once the initial shock was over they seemed to take the news quite easily; he even saw Sean, the least trusting of his Pokemon, slowly getting comfortable with the non-trainer counterpart of him.

Guess he had become even less trusting than him, either that or no one around realized how delicate the situation was and how could everything end in any minute.

"Hey, you OK?" Sam didn't even notice the Victiny had come his way, or the fact that his own breathing had become harsh, or that everyone was staring at him in shock.

Suddenly, he felt what he recognized was a familiar Sneasel's claw brush against his leg, shortly followed by a wing over his shoulder. Without even looking he took a deep breath, reached his hand down and patted Shadow's head. They had made their point: he needed to calm down.

It was then that it dawned on him: Ace and Shadow were already back. He looked around and indeed noticed Lin and Barrett were back as well.

It apparently took another moment for everyone else to realize it as well.

"Breon?!"

"Nooone!!!"

Before anyone had a chance to react Lin had rushed over to Ghost, who remained still in disbelief at the sight of her for a moment before rushing over as well.

The Umbreon and the Linoone nuzzled each other's head affectively as tears of joy ran freely down Lin's face, the couple finally together after months of not having even heard of each other.

Alex couldn't help but smile at the sight of them. He had pictured this scenario several times in his head but even then seeing it with his very eyes had no comparison. Words felt rather short to explain the way their eyes met with each other, how every single gesture and movement about them seemed to express joy (Though the ears and tails seemed a dominant factor). Animals were sometimes hard to properly capture and convey in words and apparently the same applied to Pokemon.

Suddenly, much to everyone's surprise the Umbreon motioned his head over to the woods and before anyone could tell the two of them had taken off.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going? The match is about to start!" the Shaymin hollered as he went their way. "Um... Should I go after them?" he turned over to the Mew and Victiny.

The Mew's eyes glowed pink for a split second before fading back out, an awkward expression on his face, "Well... I dunno, maybe we should give them some space for now. They weren't your main choices for the match, were they?" he turned over to the trainers, slightly nervous.

Axel just chuckled, "Fine by me, Lin isn't even a fighter and... I really don't feel like getting in-between them."

"Yeah, me neither, Ghost has been looking so down lately. It's just a one-on-one anyway, right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, but keep in mind this is also an exhibition match so try to make it flashy for these guys," the Victiny added as he floated over to the non-trainers.

Axel remained thoughtful for a moment, "Well... I'm pretty sure Barrett here is dying for a rematch with Jake but... If we're trying to show something impressive... Lauren! I know you don't like fighting but what do you say? Quick match? For these guys?" he said turning to his Lanturn.

The Lanturn sighed deeply, but then turned over to him and nodded.

"That's my girl," Axel grinned as he patted Lauren's head. "How about you Sam? Who do you think is up to the match?"

Sam just raised an eyebrow, a smirk that hadn't been there before on his face, "You're really giving that away? You do realize that puts you in disadvantage, right?"

"(Ooh, things are finally heating up)," the Victiny spoke mentally, grinning widely.

"(Wait a minute, when did you get those berries?), the Mew asked mentally as well as he saw the Victiny munching on them.

"(Oh Mew, you've been teleporting longer than I have but if only you used that power the way I do... And no, I'm not sharing them, get your own!)."

"(Oh come on! You have tons of them, don't hoard them!)."

"(... Guys!)," Shaymin's mental voice struggled in. "(Ten... Minutes... Already... Pass... Still... Think... Good... Idea?)," it was obvious that he was having a hard time speaking this way, but didn't want to alarm the humans.

The trainers stepped over a few paces apart and their Pokemon slowly formed a circle around them along with the non-trainers, all of them eager for the match to start.

"(We've already come this far, why stop now? Don't worry, if I see this is starting to take too long I'll step in and put an end to it myself)," the Mew responded, sneakily making an Oran berry float away from the Victiny's hands without him noticing. "(Plus, I want to see how this ends)."

Description
"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! This is it! We're doomed! It's over!!!" the Shaymin cried as he sank his face to the ground and shielded his head with his paws.

Sam, Alex, Axel and the other Sam wanted to remain calm, but the fact that the Mew lay in the ground motionless wasn't helping; the confident-until-now Victiny was looking as frightened as the Shaymin didn't help either.

"What's going on?!" the trainer Sam burst out after a while, not understanding a single thing yet terrified already.

"What do you mean "What's going on?"?! Don't you see? Celebi controls time! And now time is collapsing!" the Victiny yelled at them.

"What do you mean collapsing?!" Alex asked at once, starting to feel even more frightened, which apparently was still possible.

However, before the Victiny could say anything they heard a grunt and the Mew's eyes opened, "Uh... My head... Did I fall on top of a rock?"

"Mew! Are you alright?" the Shaymin sprang back to life and hurried over to him.

"Didn't I just say my head is killing me?" the Mew responded almost naturally, "On second thought I just noticed it was a stump. A very hard one that is, just what kind of trees grow around here again?"

The Victiny was starting to grow impatient, "Mew! Stop fooling with us! Are you OK? What did Celebi do to you? More importantly, what did he tell you?"

It all seemed to slowly come back to the Mew, "Oh right, Celebi... Nothing special, ordinary procedure. He just asked me how much longer. Oh wait no, he told me to hurry up, things are getting... a bit complicated."

"What do you mean?" Axel shot the question at once.

The Mew cleared its throat, but instead of speaking they heard his voice inside their heads again, "Well, you see, bringing people from outside this world is complicated and could severely affect the flow of time and the course of the events in the timeline. To avoid this, before bringing anyone in here Celebi creates a tangent, a small alternate branch, in the flow of time. Since this way nothing affects the real future we're free to do whatever we want including bringing persons from other worlds here and just sending them back after a while."

"However, this is the first time we bring two persons at the same time and that's apparently harder to do. You see, these branches of time, they're honestly unstable and just fade away after a while, usually a few hours, long enough for a person to have a quick view and be sent back. However, having two persons is speeding this up."

"Basically, Celebi was asking me how much longer and warning me this will only still be stable for about thirty more minutes. After that this could become unstable and fade away. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, nobody can know for sure with these time shifts, but it's better to play it safe isn't it?" the Mew spoke cheerfully, with no hint of danger or concern at their situation.

The Shaymin seemed in a state of utter shock, too afraid to move, but the Victiny spoke up, nervousness showing in his voice, "Alright, you heard him. Pack up your stuff and say goodbye, time to go!"

Alex and Sam nodded at once, turned over to their trainer counterparts, gave a slight gesture and hurried over to the Victiny.

"Wait, hold it, hold it," before they could tell the Mew had stepped between them.

"What is it now?" the Victiny asked, starting to lose his patience.

"Celebi said this would collapse in thirty minutes, but bringing them back can easily be done in three, five at much. The plan was having them see a full six-on six battle for real, though that's now out of the question. However, they're already here; just how long can a one-on-one match take?" the Mew grinned widely as the voice ran on their minds.

Sam and Alex just looked at him, then at each other; a look of dread on their faces as they realized what was the Mew gambling with.

Even the Victiny's face was dumbfounded, "You know what Mew? You are simply crazy if you think I will go on with that plan," he spoke seriously as he floated in place, staring at him. "And you wonder why I love you man!" he said excitedly, his scowl turned to smile

"Please tell me you're not going along with this!" the Shaymin shivered in place, starting to feel alarmed.

"Oh come on Shaymin, just how long can a quick battle take? Seriously, twenty minutes tops and that would be a slow one. These guys seem a bit more serious than that," the Victiny rolled his eyes. He then turned over to the trainers, "You are, right?"

The trainers, still too shocked to speak and not really knowing what would happen to them just nodded nervously.

The Victiny grinned, "See? I say fifteen minutes top, anyone says more? Less?" he asked looking around, as if to make a gamble.

"Let's just get this started with," the Mew said seriously, almost scolding him. "(I go for ten)," he sneakily told him telepathically.

"(You're on)," the Victiny replied mentally as well.

Sam and Axel had never agreed to this, but this was two legendaries telling them to fight; they didn't really have much of an option. They looked at each other and nodded before putting some distance between them and reaching for a Pokeball each.

"Wait!" the Shaymin interrupted as he stepped into the middle, getting a puzzled look from everyone. "Well... wouldn't it be better if these guys get to see all the Pokemon you two have? I mean... since it seems like you're already doing this anyway... and you're probably not using all of them for the battle... and these guys probably won't be back here in a while..." he said nervously, his voice shrinking more and more with every word.

The Mew floated over to him and patted him on the back, "That's actually brilliant."

"Yeah, how didn't I think of that?" the Victiny grinned excitedly.

"(I raise to fifteen minutes)," the Mew told the Victiny mentally.

"(I stay on twenty)," he replied silently as well as he looked over to the trainers and gave them a sign.

Axel was the first to nod back, "OK, Barret! Lin! Get over here!" he hollered over the distance.

***

"... And so we all came back to the base to find Tina totally freaking out and going all, "No! Get away! That thing on the wall! It's... Cursed or something!". Turns out she had never seen a mirror before!" the Linoone finished recalling, acting out the whole scene.

"What? How is that-? Seriously?" the Sneasel seemed taken back, but also trying hard not to laugh.

Shadow, Ace, Barrett and Lin had found a nice spot at the shade of a tree, not too far from their masters and their doubles. Whatever the legendaries wanted with their masters, it had become clear they weren't needed when the Shaymin saw them sneaking away and even signaled at them to go on.

The Pidgeot did allow a small chuckle, "Was she really that taken back by a mirror?"

"She ended up breaking that mirror," Barret recalled, his face serious, remembering how he had helped clean up. "Beats me. I mean, there wasn't much water on the desert she was from and the times she had seen water it had been on rivers or streams or the sea and it was never still water. I think she might have never seen her reflection before."

"Barrett, what do you mean "I think"? She hadn't! We had to explain her it was like seeing her shadow, don't you remember?"

"You really explained it that way? We should probably have started there, would have saved Tyler and I the trip for the new mirror."

"Oh yeah, you two weren't there. Could have sworn you had though, I-"

"Wait!" Shadow interrupted as her ears suddenly perked up. "Ace, master is calling for us".

The Pokemon stood still for a moment and not before long they picked up a signature whistling over the distance.

"Good ear Shadow, I could have sworn that was a Pidgey," Lin commented.

"That's the point. Do you see a lot of Pidgey around here?" Ace grinned.

Both Barrett and Lin just nodded silently, slightly taken back. Pidgey were not common on Hoenn; by using their call the trainer could call his Pokemon back without completely revealing himself. A smart move, they had definitely been on the run for a while.

Suddenly, an actual voice joined in, "Lin! Barrett!"

"That's our master. Let's go Lin," Barrett sighed; a simple call felt so common now.

***

"Where did you get all those whistles?" Alex asked as he saw Sam put away one with a carving of a Pidgey on it on a small case.

"Most of them from Slateport's seaside market. Believe it or not they're just cheap souvenirs," the trainer Sam chuckled as he put it right between the ones with a Spearrow and Starly.

"Well, I have to admit, they have some quality," the shorter trainer said as he reached for the Pokeballs on his belt, releasing a Swellow, a Shiftry, a Lanturn and a Flygon.

The non-trainer Sam examined them closely; he had seen pictures and knew their species, but seeing them in live flesh right in front of him was something different: the pictures never showed the immense size of the feathers of a Swellow, the way the white sprouts of a Shiftry's head faded to green or the way a Lanturn or a Flygon's hide was covered in small scales. "Let's see... Tyler, Hazel, Lauren and Tina, right?"

"Officially it's "Tiny," but yeah, you've got them," Axel pointed out. He then turned to the other trainer, "Sam, your turn."

The trainer said nothing as he let four Pokeballs fly into the air, revealing an Umbreon, a Sceptile, a Golduck and a Dragonite.

Alex blinked at the very size of these Pokemon: the Umbreon itself reached his waistline, the Golduck was almost taller than him, the Sceptile was about Sam's size, and finally, the Dragonite towered above him so much he had to look up just to see its head. He felt amazed, but he also had this impending sense of danger: even the smallest one of these creatures could easily eat him alive. "Wow... OK, those are... Ghost, Tucker, Jake and... Sean, right?"

"Yeah, that's them," the trainer Sam replied a bit awkwardly. Despite the explanation it was still strange to be speaking with two Axels... Or another Sam... Or having legendary Pokemon watching over them so eagerly.

Not that his Pokemon seem to mind, or Axel's on that case: the moment they recognized they ran to greet each other. It was no surprise to see his Golduck Tucker reaching over to Axel's Lanturn Lauren who just sighed and smiled warmly at his obvious attempt to flirt her. This before Axel's Swellow, Tyler, flew over to him, chirped a few cries and not before long both were laughing heartily.

His Umbreon, Ghost, wasn't known for being too sociable but when Axel's Flygon began to circle around him, a curious look on her face, bombarding him with what Sam guessed were questions he saw the Dark type slowly warm up to the situation, or at least chuckle nervously at her.

Even Sean, his Dragonite, looked over at Hazel, Axel's Shiftry, who nodded her head back at him in acknowledgement. He knew neither of them was too fond of company; this was an improvement. Apparently this wasn't enough for his Sceptile, Jake, who insisted the Dragonite and not before long the three of them had stepped closer.

Eight down, four to go; he wouldn't be at ease until Shadow, Ace, Lin and Barrett came back. For a moment he had to admit Axel's Pokemon felt as if they were his own: he was almost as worried over the missing Linoone and Blaziken as over his Pidgeot and Sneasel. Also, judging from the way Axel's team acted around his own, it would have been difficult for a stranger to tell the teams apart.

The Pokemon were taken back when they saw their master's doubles and even more when not one but three legendaries stood in front of them and explained everything. However, once the initial shock was over they seemed to take the news quite easily; he even saw Sean, the least trusting of his Pokemon, slowly getting comfortable with the non-trainer counterpart of him.

Guess he had become even less trusting than him, either that or no one around realized how delicate the situation was and how could everything end in any minute.

"Hey, you OK?" Sam didn't even notice the Victiny had come his way, or the fact that his own breathing had become harsh, or that everyone was staring at him in shock.

Suddenly, he felt what he recognized was a familiar Sneasel's claw brush against his leg, shortly followed by a wing over his shoulder. Without even looking he took a deep breath, reached his hand down and patted Shadow's head. They had made their point: he needed to calm down.

It was then that it dawned on him: Ace and Shadow were already back. He looked around and indeed noticed Lin and Barrett were back as well.

It apparently took another moment for everyone else to realize it as well.

"Breon?!"

"Nooone!!!"

Before anyone had a chance to react Lin had rushed over to Ghost, who remained still in disbelief at the sight of her for a moment before rushing over as well.

The Umbreon and the Linoone nuzzled each other's head affectively as tears of joy ran freely down Lin's face, the couple finally together after months of not having even heard of each other.

Alex couldn't help but smile at the sight of them. He had pictured this scenario several times in his head but even then seeing it with his very eyes had no comparison. Words felt rather short to explain the way their eyes met with each other, how every single gesture and movement about them seemed to express joy (Though the ears and tails seemed a dominant factor). Animals were sometimes hard to properly capture and convey in words and apparently the same applied to Pokemon.

Suddenly, much to everyone's surprise the Umbreon motioned his head over to the woods and before anyone could tell the two of them had taken off.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going? The match is about to start!" the Shaymin hollered as he went their way. "Um... Should I go after them?" he turned over to the Mew and Victiny.

The Mew's eyes glowed pink for a split second before fading back out, an awkward expression on his face, "Well... I dunno, maybe we should give them some space for now. They weren't your main choices for the match, were they?" he turned over to the trainers, slightly nervous.

Axel just chuckled, "Fine by me, Lin isn't even a fighter and... I really don't feel like getting in-between them."

"Yeah, me neither, Ghost has been looking so down lately. It's just a one-on-one anyway, right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, but keep in mind this is also an exhibition match so try to make it flashy for these guys," the Victiny added as he floated over to the non-trainers.

Axel remained thoughtful for a moment, "Well... I'm pretty sure Barrett here is dying for a rematch with Jake but... If we're trying to show something impressive... Lauren! I know you don't like fighting but what do you say? Quick match? For these guys?" he said turning to his Lanturn.

The Lanturn sighed deeply, but then turned over to him and nodded.

"That's my girl," Axel grinned as he patted Lauren's head. "How about you Sam? Who do you think is up to the match?"

Sam just raised an eyebrow, a smirk that hadn't been there before on his face, "You're really giving that away? You do realize that puts you in disadvantage, right?"

"(Ooh, things are finally heating up)," the Victiny spoke mentally, grinning widely.

"(Wait a minute, when did you get those berries?), the Mew asked mentally as well as he saw the Victiny munching on them.

"(Oh Mew, you've been teleporting longer than I have but if only you used that power the way I do... And no, I'm not sharing them, get your own!)."

"(Oh come on! You have tons of them, don't hoard them!)."

"(... Guys!)," Shaymin's mental voice struggled in. "(Ten... Minutes... Already... Pass... Still... Think... Good... Idea?)," it was obvious that he was having a hard time speaking this way, but didn't want to alarm the humans.

The trainers stepped over a few paces apart and their Pokemon slowly formed a circle around them along with the non-trainers, all of them eager for the match to start.

"(We've already come this far, why stop now? Don't worry, if I see this is starting to take too long I'll step in and put an end to it myself)," the Mew responded, sneakily making an Oran berry float away from the Victiny's hands without him noticing. "(Plus, I want to see how this ends)."