The Mountain of Ho-oh! – Retrieve the Shards!

by Brandon Ntuli

A young trainer named Mercury was leaving his home town of Rainfall with his first Pokémon, Riolu…
“Right, five Pokéballs in my belt, let’s go get some Pokémon!” said Mercury happily as he started looking for Pokémon to catch.
“Riolu! Rio rio Riolu!” came the chirp from his Pokémon friend.
“What is it, Riolu?” gasped Mercury. They both looked up and high up was an enormous mountain and on top of that mountain were two Pokémon looking right back at them. One was a giant bird with rainbow wings and just behind the rainbow Pokémon was a very strange-looking Pokémon that just disappeared as soon as it noticed Mercury and Riolu looking at it.
“What was that Pokémon?” asked Mercury, to nobody in particular.
“I believe that was an undiscovered Pokémon, very, very rare,” replied a girl who had overheard Mercury.
“Who are you?” wondered Mercury…
“I’m Saskia, an overheard Trainer!” replied the girl.
Mercury carried on, “And you know what that odd Pokémon was?”
“Not exactly. I do know that the Pokémon is extremely rare and is said to leave a special shard known as the Rainbow Shard if you track it.”
“The Rainbow Shard?” enquired a bemused Mercury.
“Yes, the Rainbow Shard is an ancient item that makes any Pokémon holding it much more powerful!” Saskia filled Mercury in.
Mercury was getting very excited about finding the Rainbow Shard. “Let’s go to the top of that mountain and find the shard!” he shouted. And the three of them set off on the long trek to the top.

Later that day Mercury, Saskia and Riolu reached the top of the mountain and had seen the Rainbow Shard, but the big rainbow Pokémon was guarding it, making taking the item very difficult – even though the Pokémon was asleep! As the Pokémon woke up, Mercury and Saskia got ready to battle this giant Pokémon and take their prize.
“What Pokémon is that?” queried Mercury.
“I believe its called Ho-oh” Saskia quickly replied. Mercury got out his Pokédex to check the stats of this monster…
“Ho-oh, the rainbow bird Pokémon, it is said to have created three ancient Pokémon that restored peace to an old village”, Mercury read out from the Pokédex. “Wow, this Pokémon must be pretty powerful then!”
The two Trainers prepared for battle and then sent their first Pokémon cascading from the safety of their Pokéballs…
“Riolu, you’re up!” shouted Mercury.
“Go, Piloswine!” commanded Saskia.
“Riolu! Use Focus Blast!” came the shout from Mercury.
“Riolu!!!” screamed Riolu as the Pokémon let rip with its special move.
“Piloswine! Blizzard” was Saskia’s choice of move.
“Swiiiiiiiine!!!” screamed Piloswine as it did precisely what its
Trainer commanded.
“Gyaaahh!!!” shrieked the Ho-oh as it unleashed its Sacred Fire attack and created a huge explosion that clashed with the attacks of Riolu
and Piloswine…

The smoke eventually cleared and the battle had ended – Ho-oh had flown away!
“Where’s the Rainbow Shard?” asked Mercury.
“Ri-ri-riolu!!!” said Riolu as he noticed a glow in the distance. Riolu had found the Rainbow Shard and as the pocket monster picked up the item, Piloswine noticed yet another gem, the Aura Shard nearby…
“It’s the Aura Shard!” exclaimed Saskia as she started looking towards Riolu. “Piloswine, you found this?” Piloswine smiled and looked happy because it knew it had found something good! “Piloswine, this is great! Thanks a lot, you can now return to your Pokéball.”
“That Aura Shard will help you a lot more than the Rainbow Shard, but I wonder what Pokémon left it behind?” Mercury said as Saskia examined the new shard item.
“Who knows what kind of Pokémon left it behind, but I bet it was a pretty good one”, the girl Trainer mused.

As the heroes left the mountain and headed of for the next town, they looked at the shards and thought, “Y’know what? This could be the beginning of a great adventure for the two of us!”

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
Explorers of the Underworld

by Anja Parker, age 11, London

“Arghh!!” groaned Torterra as he fell back from Walrein’s Ice Fang attack. Just then, Infernape quickly countered with his Close Combat attack while Torterra was recovering, and brought the battle to an end.

“Another narrow defeat,” muttered Empoleon. They continued through the dark dungeon that was located in the underworld. The team knew that there were more strong Pokémon to defeat, however they did not know that Weavile, who was a spy working for the dungeon boss Giratina, was watching them from overhead.

Empoleon was trailing behind the others when Weavile swept down and in a flash, kidnapped Empoleon! Eventually, after a few battles, the remainder of the team noticed that something was not right. When they realized that Empoleon was not in their presence, Infernape and Torterra instantly started to shout…
“EMPOLEON – COME BACK HERE!” at the top of their voices. Suddenly, Weavile appeared with an unconscious, captured Empoleon.
“Since you’re all too weak for your own good, you can have your friend back!” he taunted.
With that, he hurled Empoleon at them and vanished in an instant. Empoleon landed with a crash on top of his team, and they all regained consciousness within a short time.

“Come on! we still have to find Weavile and Giratina,” commanded Infernape.

After some time they reached the end of the dungeon. Weavile was there, however he did not flinch at their presence, the Pokémon only chuckled. Then Giratina appeared as quick as Weavile could have ever done.
“This is not only the end of the dungeon, but the end of you too!” he growled in a deep voice.
Instantly, an earthquake took place and realising they had no choice, Infernape, Empoleon, and Torterra used their escape ropes and fled from the terrible disaster.

As for Giratina, he is believed to have been destroyed. However, Weavile still managed to escape and abandoned his master.

The Siege of Psychic City

by Conor Ardill, age 12, Bangor

One day Kadabra was walking around the great forest outside Psychic City. Kadabra being the Deputy Leader of Team Psychic, not to mention Deputy Mayor of Psychic City, was getting his morning exercise when he saw an evil sight. He saw the evil criminal Deoxys. Deoxys had lots of cages full of Pokémon, but, worst of all, Deoxys had chained Rayquaza down. Kadabra got very angry and blasted a psybeam into Deoxys’ crystal.
Deoxys fell over on the ground unconscious. Rayquaza, by this time, was screaming his head off with rage. Kadabra ignored him and freed all the other Pokémon first, before coming up to Rayquaza and using a Psychic attack to break the chains.
“Thank you very much,” said Rayquaza, “Hey, aren’t you part of a rescue team? As a ‘thank you’, can I join?”
Kadabra, obviously surprised by this remark, flipped open a comlink on his arm and said into it, “Abra, Rayquaza wants to join our team!”
“Roger that Kadabra – let him join!” replied an excited voice. When Kadabra turned round, Rayquaza was powering up his Hyper Beam and aiming at Deoxys.
“NO, NO, NO, that’s not our way – we must take him to jail!”
“Sorry, I was just really angry at him for chaining me up,” said Rayquaza. “Come on, let’s go to Psychic City and get you a Rescue Badge,” the Pokémon said with a sigh.
Together they walked back to Psychic City, with Rayquaza carrying Deoxys. Kadabra could freely shout orders into his comlink to get the City ready for Rayquaza’s arrival. When they finally arrived at Psychic City, Rayquaza gazed up at the huge walls that were taller than him. “How can Humans not see this?” he wondered. Using his Psychic Powers, Kadabra could hear Rayquaza’s thoughts and so answered them…
“It’s protected with a Psychic Shield so that humans can’t see it and come in and capture us, although there are some humans that know of its location, such as my trainer. He’s the leader of Team Trainer,” Kadabra said in a proud voice.
“Who’s Team Trainer?” asked Rayquaza.
“Well, they are a massive group who battle against Team Rocket and other evil teams. Team Trainer is a good team, though, and provides its Pokémon with places to live such as Psychic City when they are not using them to battle. I’m here quite a lot because my trainer has close ties with the Saffron City Gym Leader. He even fills in for her when she’s not in. He might even be taking over the Gym soon – because of this there is a portal between the Gym and Psychic City for Pokémon only.” A horn then sounded. “Oh no! It’s Deoxys’ army – they must know we have him!” They ran through into the City. Already-armoured fighting-type Pokémon were running up the stairs to the top of the wall. Also, a lot of Pokémon were pouring out of a huge building. Rayquaza was about to ask what the place was but he saw a sign saying ‘Psychic College – Where Pokémon learn to use their Psychic Powers’.
Rayquaza looked around… Kadabra had disappeared. “Oh well, I better get Deoxys to jail and join the battle,” thought Rayquaza.
Meanwhile, Kadabra was on top of the walls shouting orders to the troops when a Pidgeot landed beside him and told him “their army consists mainly of Dark Pokémon. It’s going to be hard stopping them.” From this Kadabra knew this wasn’t going to be a battle, it was going to be a siege. Kadabra then shouted to Pidgeot, “Send word of this to my cousin Kadabra in the Underground City. We need his help – tell him he must come!”
With that Pidgeot took off and the Dark Pokémon army came into sight. “Catapults!” shouted Kadabra. A catapult hurled hundreds of Gravelrock into the enemy’s battle lines. Then things turned sour for Kadabra… about one hundred Dark Charizards took off and headed for the City. The Psychic College students threw blasts of Psychic energy at them, taking out about half of the force, the rest managed to land and knocked waves of Hitmonlees and Hitmonchans that were trying to repel them off the wall. Kadabra took out two Dark Charizards before engaging with the leader of the Dark Pokémon army, who was a Dark Charizard.
Kadabra dodged waves of Flamethrowers before using Confusion. Kadabra then used
two Psychic attacks and a Megapunch to knock the Dark Charizard off the wall, but even though their leader was defeated, the Dark Pokémon army kept on fighting and had now broken the gate, only to be met by the students of the Psychic College. A fierce battle occurred between them and although Psychic should beat Fighting Pokémon easily, the Dark Hitmonlees and Dark Hitmonchans were half Dark. After a while the students started to fall back. Kadabra noticed this and ran down to help them. The students had a morale boost when their leader joined, but this was short-lived, as more Dark Pokémon charged into the City, but then they stopped.
Kadabra looked around. Kyorge, Groudon and Rayquaza all were in Team Psychic and all were charging up their Hyper Beams. All the Hyper Beams were cast at the same time – this had a devastating effect on the Dark Pokémon army. Many fainted and many ran. The ones that ran were pursued by Kadabra and his army then another horn sounded – it was the Underground City army. Knowing that they were finished, the reminder of the Dark Pokémon army surrendered.
Two days later, when all the Dark Pokémon had been arrested and were being turned back into normal Pokémon, the heads of Team Psychic met to discuss what should happen to Deoxys. An hour later, Kadabra told the Pokémon of Psychic City that Deoxys would be sent to Team Trainer and would never see Psychic City or any other Team Psychic cities again. After the battle, Rayquaza decided to live in Psychic City with Kyorge and Groudon who he became friends with, but he became best friends with Kadabra, who promoted him to a Captain in the Psychic City army.

The Space Candle

by Matthew Andrews, aged 12, Holton-Beckering

It was cold. It was always cold. And dark. It was always dark. Nothing moved. It was silent. It was always silent. Nothing had happened here for 5,000 years. That was about to change.
Two red eyes appeared, shining like blood in the pitch dark. Six legs shifted. Two wings unfurled from a stretching back, blacker than the darkness surrounding them. A mouth opened, and a piercing screech exploded from it. The first noise in 5,000 years echoed through The Distortion World. The Pokémon in the real world below had no idea what was about to happen. The creature reared up and screamed again. Giratina was awake!

“Remind me why we have to go to this dumb party?” My little brother was always complaining.
“It’s not a party Riolu, it’s the Space Festival. When Palkia made space, he put a candle in our forest to keep it right. We have to relight the candle every 100 years or space will fall apart!”
“If you say so…”
Elder Charizard always says tell the story from start to finish so I’ll try that. Basically, I’m Lucario. I live in The Forest with my (annoying) little brother Riolu, my friend Milotic, the town elder, Charizard, and loads of other Pokémon, from Abra to Zangoose. The Space Candle is the most important thing in the forest, and our story begins with me and Riolu heading off to the relighting ceremony.

The mud was really thick underfoot, the bug Pokémon were driving me mad with their buzzing, and if Riolu jumped in one more puddle I was going to whack him into next year. Not really ideal conditions for a festival but the weather can’t be helped. If only a forest Pokémon knew Sunny Day…
Soon we made it to a clearing with the Space Candle in the middle. I spotted Milotic in the lake beside the clearing and ran off to join her. Riolu ran off, probably to jump in more puddles. All the Pokémon were gathering in the clearing, and as darkness fell, Elder Charizard stepped forward.
“Forest Pokémon!” the crowd fell silent, “I will now relight the Candle of Space, and then the celebrations will begin!”
He stepped forward and charged up his Fire Blast. I wonder what would happen if the town elder was a water Pokémon… anyway, on with the story. Charizard prepared to shoot his fire at the flickering candle, when a tremendous crack sounded and the clearing filled with smoke.
When the smoke cleared, the crowd gasped as they saw Giratina stood over Charizard. Charizard fired at Giratina but Giratina dodged and returned with a Shadow Claw. As Charizard’s limp body smashed into the dirt, there was another crack and Palkia appeared, prompting more gasps.
“Yeah, ’coz one mythical Pokémon wasn’t good enough for us,” whispered Milotic. I found that it is possible to giggle while watching your town elder get battered by an insane legendary Pokémon and gave Milotic a gentle nudge. Meanwhile Giratina and Palkia were facing off. Palkia smashed Giratina with a Spacial Rend, but Giratina dodged it with Shadow Force and popped out to hit Palkia with the attack. Palkia looked dazed and Giratina’s next Shadow Claw sent him spiralling into the trees, knocked out.
Giratina paraded round the watching Pokémon, as if daring someone to fight him. I noticed the candle looked dangerously close to going out and prayed for a miracle. Maybe Dialga, the Lord of Time would appear. Or maybe he wouldn’t. Then the candle blinked out.
I think that might be what made me act, or maybe I just hated watching Giratina beat people down. The trees were already stretched out of shape, the grass was rippling and the lake water was twisting into spirals and curves. I felt my muscles tense and, not knowing what I was doing, I let rip with my Extreme Speed attack and smashed into Giratina. He was caught off balance and I thought, “If he’s going to kill me anyway I might as well give him something to remember me by.”
As Giratina regained his balance I shot my signature Aura Sphere into his face and followed up with a double kick, but as he reeled his claw hit me and sent me flying into the lake. He walked up to me and readied the Shadow Claw that had knocked out Charizard and Palkia, but at that moment an Ice Beam hit him in the head. I saw all the forest Pokémon fire all sorts of different types of attack at him. Pinned down under everything from Fire Blast to String Shot to Hydro Pump to Gust, Giratina could only try to block the attacks as Palkia sent him a Spacial Rend, sending him crashing into the dirt.
“LONG OVERDUE,” roared Palkia, smashing a Water Pulse into Giratina, then giving him an Aqua Tail for good measure. “GET BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG, GIRATINA!”

Palkia grabbed Giratina and Giratina glowed for a minute before disappearing back into The Distortion World. Palkia turned round and said, “THANK YOU, POKÉMON OF THE FOREST,” then there was a flash and Palkia was gone as well.
There was a crackle and everyone turned to see the candle back alight. Charizard stood illuminated in the glow from its flame. As everyone ran up to the elder, I slumped on the grass and looked up, and maybe it was just a coincidence, but in the sky there were only three constellations. Giratina and Palkia stood facing each other. And the other one? Well let’s just say it looked a little like yours truly…

In issue 68 of the monthly Pokémon World magazine we ran a competition to become a Pokémon Ambassador! It involved writing a story about a favourite Pokémon, and doing drawings to go with it. Well, this is the winning entry from Jenna Crosbie!

TAKING A DIP
Mudkip groaned. He had dropped his Pokéagent Spy Glasses into the pond. Not again! He needed them for the spy meeting this afternoon! “Oh well. I shall have to go and get them,” he grumbled, and dived into the pond.

He switched to breathing water and swam slowly down, deeper and deeper into the murky depths of the pond. Soon he caught a glint of light in the corner of his eye, just like the sun reflecting off his glasses. Cautiously, he swam towards it.
Sure enough, there were his glasses. Mudkip sighed with relief. “Phew!” he cried, as he blew off some of the sand that had coated the glasses. Then he noticed something else. A bottle with a crumpled piece of paper inside was wedged firmly between two jagged rocks.
“Wow – the Spy Agency would be impressed with that,” grinned Mudkip, his eyes shining, “It could be important!”
So Mudkip set to work pulling out the bottle. It was a lot harder than it looked. No matter how much he tugged at it, it wouldn’t budge. Finally he was so fed up that he felt like leaving! But instead he slipped on his Spy Glasses for extra confidence and gave an almighty HEAVE! The bottle moved a tiny amount.
“Well, if that’s how you want it…” Mudkip growled. His fury gave him a sudden burst of strength. In fact, his anger made him twice as strong and in one gigantic pull he managed to get the bottle free. Excitedly, he dashed to the surface and hauled the cork out of the bottle. Mudkip gasped – it was a treasure map. A real treasure map!

LATE AGAIN
Captain Umbreon sighed. Everyone had come to the meeting except Mudkip. “Where is he?” he murmured, tapping impatiently on his desk. Just then, a rather soggy-looking Mudkip burst into the room holding a roll of crumpled paper.
“Sorry I’m late, sir,” he panted, “but I have a good excuse this time – look!” He unrolled the map for all to see.
“My goodness, a treasure map!” exclaimed Captain Umbreon. “I never thought I’d say this, but well done Mudkip!” he grinned, taking the map from Mudkip who was still dripping with pond water.
Mudkip spluttered, “We must find the treasure sir, or someone could find it before us and…” he trailed off.
“And what?” replied the Captain, raising an eyebrow.
“And… erm… I don’t know, but please sir, please can I go and search for it?” Mudkip begged. He desperately wanted to go on a proper spy mission and become a proper member of the Pokémon Spy Agency. Captain Umbreon smiled.
“Prepare a team. Mudkip will be taking two friends on a little mission tomorrow morning,” he announced. Mudkip glowed with happiness.
“Yippee!” he cried, jumping for joy. “I choose, erm… oh, I know… Flareon – and Aipom will be coming too.”
“Very well. Go and pack your bags, and wipe the sand off your Spy Glasses. Honestly, how did that get there?” replied Captain Umbreon kindly, but Mudkip was already out of the door and zooming off to pack his things.

A ROCKET ENCOUNTER
Soon they were off. Mudkip, Aipom and Flareon. Some of the newest member of the Pokémon Spy Agency (or PSA for short), and some of the youngest, too. Young, though they were, they were off on a big adventure that would, although they didn’t know it yet, be the highlight of their lives.
Suddenly Mudkip stopped. He could hear voices! Slowly the three Pokéagents crouched down and peered through some bushes. Mudkip could barely believe his eyes. It was the three troublemakers who had tried to steal from the Spy Agency!
“Team Rocket,” he whispered, narrowing his eyes angrily. He could just about hear their voices.
“Oooh! All we need now is the Diamond and Pearl Bracelet to control the world – I can’t wait!” Mudkip presumed the voice was Jessie because of the high-pitched tone. “With it we can control Dialga and Palkia!” the second voice was deeper, so Mudkip thought it must be James.
“Meowth! That’s right!” came the third voice. You can guess who this was! Then there was a bit of sniggering and footsteps as Team Rocket walked off.
The three friends were left speechless. “We’ve got to stop them!” cried Aipom, jumping to his feet.
“Looks like we’ll have to abandon this mission,” said Mudkip sadly.
“Or maybe not,” announced Flareon, who had begun typing something on her laptop, “Look at this, you two.” The Pokéagents gathered round. On the screen was a large amount of writing, some formulae and numbers.
“Erm – a translation from science language please, Flareon,” said a rather confused Aipom.
“Well, basically, the Diamond and Pearl Bracelet that Team Rocket want could be something to do with this map,” Mudkip smiled, “I’ve got an idea,” he grinned cleverly.

OFF THE SCENT
A few hours later the team were in a busy town square. “Hey Aipom!” Mudkip shouted, “I think I’ve found a treasure map!” he smiled to himself. If shouting this didn’t catch Team Rocket’s attention then the next thing he had planned would, “It says something about a Diamond and Pearl Bracelet!”
Just as Mudkip had expected, the three ice cream sellers nearby dropped their disguises and revealed Team Rocket uniforms and the team slowly approached Mudkip.
“What was that?” asked Meowth innocently.
“Oh, just this ’ere treasure map. You can have it for ten Pokédollars if you like. It was in this bottle on the street. I expect it’s nothing.” shrugged Mudkip, holding up the map.
“Okay, here’s your ten Pokédollars kid, now give us the map or else,” Meowth snarled. Mudkip pretended to look scared. He took the money, it was fake, of course.
“H, h, here y, y, you g, g, go mister.” he said powerlessly. Meowth smirked and walked off. Mudkip smiled and walked off in the opposite direction.
“Hey guys!” Mudkip called to the others.
“It worked?” Aipom asked.
“Yup,” replied Mudkip, holding up the real map, “they took the fake. They’ll end up walking straight to a police station!” Everyone laughed.
“We’d better get searching, who knows how long it could take to reach the treasure,” Flareon advised. The agents nodded and soon they were on their way again.

CAVE EXPLORING
On the journey following the map Mudkip got more and more excited about what they might find. Was there more than the bracelet? What if they found something even better? He couldn’t stop wondering, nor could Aipom or Flareon. They were all hoping to find something very different. Mudkip wanted a game for his Nintendo DS, Aipom wanted a huge Diamond and Flareon wanted a sparkling pearl. But as the days went on and there was no sign of any of the landmarks on the map, the agents began to wonder if they were lost. Suddenly Aipom, who was up a tree looking around, spotted something.
“Look, a cave! I can see a cave!” he shouted.
Mudkip checked the map, “It says that the treasure is in a cave, let’s go and check it out.” he said glumly. It was about the tenth cave they had come across that week. He yawned, but walked towards it anyway. Aipom seemed disappointed.
“You don’t think it is, do you?” he asked Mudkip.
“Is what?” Mudkip asked, clearly very puzzled.
“The treasure cave. The cave on the map.”
At Aipom’s upset voice, Mudkip put on his biggest fake grin, “Of course I do!” he beamed, “It’s just that I’m tired out,” he yawned hugely and falsely.
Aipom scampered down the tree. “Really?” he asked.
“Really.” Mudkip lied back.
“Aww, Mudkip you’re the best.” smiled Aipom. “Look, we’re there.” Sure enough, they were standing in the entrance of a huge, deep, black cave.
“Wow!” exclaimed Flareon.
The three agents tiptoed into the vast cave. Water trickled from the walls and shadows sneaked behind the three terrified spies as they crept further and further into the darkness. The only light came from the lantern that Flareon had lit with her tail. Mudkip shivered, and not from the cold.
Soon they entered a colossal cavern. To Mudkip’s surprise there was electric lighting on the walls and ceiling. On the ground were rows of small, flat stone slabs, each with a letter on it. “I don’t get it. This makes no sense. Looks, there’s a ‘H’ on that one, and there’s an ‘I’, but they are the only letters I recognise,” frowned Mudkip.
Flareon was already looking it up on her laptop, “This isn’t English writing, it’s old Pokémon cave script.”
Aipom suddenly pointed to a boulder, “Look! More writing!”
Flareon walked over, “According to this…” she pointed at the laptop, “…the writing on the boulder says…

One word true,
Another rejected.
Only the answer,
Shall be selected.
To solve the riddle,
Step on the stones.
Get it wrong?
Crunch go your bones.
To get it right,
Look with your eyes.
Roll me away,
To receive your prize.

WORKING IT ALL OUT
The three friends were silent for a moment. Aipom, who loved puzzles, realised what to do. “Okay, basically we’ve got to roll away this boulder, read a riddle and step on the letters
of the answer in the right order to get to the other side of the cavern and get the Bracelet.
Flareon nodded, but Mudkip didn’t understand. “So,” he asked, “If the answer was, uh, chicken, then we have to step on letter ‘C’, then ‘H’, then ‘I’…”
“Yep, you got it!” interrupted Aipom, who was already trying to push the boulder away, “C’mon you guys, a little help would be nice!”
With everyone pushing the boulder rolled away quite quickly and soon it had rolled on to a large round rock on the floor. This triggered another boulder to roll across the entrance to the cavern!
“On great, now we’re trapped!” moaned Aipom, but Mudkip was looking where the boulder has been. “I think this is the riddle!” he called.
Flareon translated was it said, “The one thing you cannot escape…”
Unexpectedly, the lights went out.
Mudkip began to see things before himself, “What… guys? I, I…” he said down, then lay down, then blacked out!
As things began to get brighter Mudkip could make out two Pokémon. “I am Dialga,” said one.
“I am Palkia,” said the other, “Free us – it is your destiny, you cannot escape it!” The Pokémon faded and Mudkip woke up. The first thing he saw was two faces – Aipom and Flareon. “I know the answer,” Mudkip said quietly.
“What?” asked Aipom softly.
Mudkip got up and trod on the nearby stone with ‘D’ on it. He found to his astonishment that he could read the old Pokémon script. Next came an ‘E’, then ‘S’, ‘T’, ‘I’, ‘N’ and ‘Y’. Mudkip had stepped to the other side of the cavern. The lights flickered back on and the boulder rolled aside. The Pokémon friends were no longer trapped. There in the entrance stood Team Rocket. They were drenched to the skin, covered in bruises and Meowth had a black eye.
“Talk about extreme weather – what a downpour!” cried James.
“Yes, and my hair’s ruined. I am soaked, it’s bucketing it down!” added Jessie.
“Yow!” cried Meowth, “My eye
really hurts!”
Aipom folded his arms, “You three definitely smell much better after a shower!” he spat.
“Yeah! You stink at everything!” Flareon shouted.
“Except being losers,” mumbled Aipom to himself.
Mudkip took the bracelet from the stand. Everyone stared at him. Two huge statues of Dialga and Palkia rose from under the ground. Mudkip took a deep breath and pulled the bracelet in half. The statues went from grey to coloured. From rock to skin. From dead to alive. From trapped to free. The two legendary Pokémon flew around in delight. A twist, a turn, a forward roll, a backflip – all in the air.
Dialga flew down to Mudkip.
“How ever can we repay you?” the Pokémon asked.
“Well, there is one thing…” grinned Mudkip. Then he told them his plan.

“Yee-hah!” cried Mudkip, Aipom and Flareon as they rode on Dialga’s back, “We can fly!”
Down below Team Rocket scowled, “We wanna fly too!” they shouted.
“Okay!” bellowed Palkia, aiming a powerful beam at Team Rocket. They flew into the air.
“Aaarrrgghh!” cried James, Jessie and Meowth together! Mudkip laughed.
“Where next?” asked Palkia.
“Home, sweet, home!” grinned Mudkip happily. In the distance Team Rocket screamed, “We’re blasting off again!”

PRIZE GIVING
“And the next medal goes to… Aipom!” announced Captain Umbreon, “…for bravery. And here I have a medal for… Flareon.” The Captain was proudly passing around prizes. “And now to… Dialga and Palkia!” there was much cheering and clapping as the four Pokémon received their medals, but Mudkip looked on quite sad – had he been overlooked at the Pokémon Spy Agency again?
“Hush, please,” shouted Umbreon, “now for some sad news. I, Captain Umbreon, leader of the Pokémon Spy Agency, am retiring.” The hall fell so silent you could have heard a feather floating to the ground. “So I need to find a new captain. Someone who does what is right, who is loyal and well behaved,” announced the old Captain. “I choose you, Mudkip!” A huge cheer arose as Mudkip stood before the PSA as their new leader.

It was the best day of Mudkip’s life!

THE END

Hi Pokémon World readers!
My name is Jenna Crosbie, I am 11 years old and I live on the Isle of Wight. My favourite Pokémon are Mudkip, Flareon and Aipom. I got the idea of a Pokémon Spy Agency when I was in class one day and I thought it would be good to put in a book. I hope you enjoy the story!
Jenna Crosbie, Pokémon Ambassador