I enjoyed writing this Chapter as it finally brings many of it's pieces together. Things are finally heating up and setting the stage for something greater! Please read and enjoy!
Pokémon is © Nintendo and Gamefreak
Digimon is © Bandai
All Characters are © Me

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Alliance!


It wasn't until the next morning, Max woke up with a start in bed, smacking his forehead on the board above him, separating his bed from the one on top. “Ow! That's a smart way to wake up...”


He began rubbing along his head when he realized his skin or rather...SCALES were red, he felt along his ears and realized that he was still in his Guilmon form. Odd because every other time he'd transformed he reverted to his human stage when his energy depleted. He spotted Bulbasaur laying beside him, peacefully snoozing and likely dreaming. He gave the small pokemon's snout a small pat before climbing out of bed.

“Oh! So you're finally awake it seems.”

Max turned with a start, spotting the green haired trainer from the other day sitting at a work table by the window. His Bagon kept staring through the window at the sky, he knew the species had dreams of flying in the sky, and when they evolved into Salamence's they could finally realize that dream.
“Yeah...I didn't have the opportunity to ask you this yesterday but who are you?”


Bagon turned around the moment his trainer stepped out of the chair, walking over to the door and opening it quietly. “My name's Kevin. I'm from Hoenn and I have things I'd like to discuss with you. Your friends are all downstairs waiting for you to wake up so once Bulbasaur wakes you why don't you two come on down. We have a lot to talk about and catch up on.”


Max just listened, and watched as Kevin and his Bagon stepped out of the room. In Max's head he had no recollection of a Kevin during his travels, nor could he remember anyone matching his appearance back on the island, So why was this Kevin acting so familiar with him.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts when Bulbasaur started to stir in the bed. Carefully, he picked up his friend and carried him out of the room as the little guy started coming to. What Max didn't know though was Bulbasaur was having the same thoughts running through his head too, He couldn't recall who Kevin was and frankly he didn't know if they could trust him. He just wanted to protect his trainer, and hated that he wasn't able to help find Fang when he'd been captured.

Anyway, soon as they walked themselves downstairs they saw the whole group sitting at a large table. The first one to speak to the duo was Charmeleon who looked very relieved to see Max okay. “We thought you'd never wake up! Come on we saved you some toast.”


Max gave a short nod, noting that Charmeleon looked much better than he had last night and sat beside Fang, who was still wearing his clothes. “Charmeleon...Flare? How did you two get those injuries?”


Flare took a small bite out of his toast before he answered. “Well, There was this guy...He called himself Duke and well...let's just say it was a pretty hard tackle...”


Charmeleon rolled his eyes, poking his trainer with a claw then handed over a glass of orange juice over to Max. “It was the tackle that saved his life...but after Kevin saved us we ended up rousing a pack of Houndour as we all made our escape, needless to say we didn't get out of that unscathed. But Flare did manage to catch one of them.”


Max laughed, shaking his head. “How many fire types do you need Flare? You already have three.”


“Hey there aren't ever enough fire types y'know! Besides that's just the way I like it!”


Fang listened to the two laughing for a moment then smiled, glad things seemed to be back to normal. “Well you yourself said he's an exceptional trainer. Better watch out he might know something that you don't Max.”


Max blushes a bit, giving a short nod. “Yeah...but aside from that. You guys all don't seem to be surprised that I'm still in this form. I mean last time it wore off after a couple hours.”


Kevin shrugged his shoulders, taking a small sip from his glass. “Last time did you transform under your own power or did it occur from outside help?”


Fang and Max shared a look before they both answered in unison. “Pyre helped last time.”


Kevin nodded a few times, taking another sip as his Bagon snuck away a piece of toast without his trainer looking, Charmeleon gave it an eye of suspicion however. “That explains it. You were likely running off the power of his flames. Right now you're running off your own power, still I doubt you'll remain in that form for much longer than a few more hours. So after this we should probably get you some new clothes.”


Max nodded with a blush, grabbing some toast from the plate in the center of the table and munched on it. He looked at the group, surprised that everyone was acting so normal, despite his new appearance. “So then Kevin...you mentioned wanting to talk about things, and to catch up. What did you mean by that?”


“Ah...that...Well first things first. How's your grandpa doing? We tried sending him a few letters the past couple months but haven't received anything.”

“Oh...” Max looked down, trying to think of the right way to say it. “He...passed a year or so ago...heart attack. So you wouldn't have been able to send him much of anything. Are you a relative?”

Kevin sighed, rubbing his temples then looked to Max with a sad expression on his face. “I'm sorry for your loss...No he wasn't a relative of mine but he was a long time rival of my grandfather. The two of them used to travel together when they were youngling trainers like us.”


Max's eyes shot open when he heard that. “So then your grandfather was Ron Milos?”


Kevin sat back, surprised that Max heard his name before. “Your Grandpa had you study more than just Pokemon it seems... Yeah John Milos is my grandfather. Sometime after all their travels he founded the Milos corporation down in Hoenn. We're a competitor of the Devon corporation and have been studying the complexity of Pokemon evolution.”

Everyone in the group stared at Kevin at this point as he steadied himself. “My dad is the current head of the Milos Corporation and he often has me test out the devices his company develops. It's been that way for the past three years after I became a trainer I could give him real field tests on the products they'd dish out and for some time it was going well. Until a few months ago that is.”


Max blinked, he could sense the tension in the room and it broke for a fraction of a second as Bulbasaur used it's vines to grab his glass and drink from it, not that he minded. “What happened a few months ago?”


“Well...We were testing a new experimental device that would allow a Pokemon to revert to a previous evolutionary form at will. Of course it could also be used to force a Pokemon to evolve as well. Bagon here had already evolved into a Salamence at the time so we figured we'd try to turn him back to a Bagon real quick...see if the device worked as it was designed to.”


Bagon looked up, before climbing into his trainer's lap as he listened to the story being foretold. “Needless to say the experiment was a success as you can see. We managed to succeed in returning a Pokemon to a previous form of evolution. While not usually seen as a huge leap ahead, some trainers and Pokemon would prefer the way things were when they were smaller, or would prefer a smaller traveling companion when not in a battle. Just as we were about to turn Bagon back into a Salamence again however, This group...Came out of nowhere and snatched the device right from my hands. That Duke character was one of them. I don't know what they plan to do with the evolution device but it shouldn't be in the hands of thieves so I tracked them down to Johto to get it back.”


Scavenger stood up from the table, putting a couple dollars over the bill tab. “I'll go check it out alright. We'll meet up again at the next town or city from here.” He held the Map over to Fang. “Here, according to the national map here...the next city will be in Ecruteak City. You guys get here in the next couple days and we'll meet up infront of the Gym. Sound good?”


Max hovered over the table, looking at the map and nodded. “Sounds good to me...but what do you think you can do on your own Scav? And if they catch you?”

Scavenger shrugged his shoulders, holding a hand to the sword strapped to his waist. “I can take care of myself. And most of my work usually entails working in the shadows. I can stay well enough away from danger AND defend myself if needed. You can rely on me.”


Scav didn't give any of them time to argue about it and simply walked out of the door. Flare placed both of his hands behind his head as he sat back. “That guy takes everything too seriously...But you have my back if you need it Kevin. Charmeleon and I will give you a hand.”


Max looked at Fang, who just gave a short nod. “We'll help you out too, afterall! Scavenger is already on the job and you saved Flare. We'll give each other a hand and take out this organization together. How's that sound?”


Fang nodded, looking thoughtful for a moment. “He's right. We're involved if Delta and that Blackguilmon are in with Duke. So we should all stick together. Together we might just be able to take down whatever it is they're planning.”


Kevin looked kind of surprised, but all the same he nodded. “So then we'll be traveling together then. I've already collected all of my badges so I can accompany you and Max without any delays. But just in case we lose sight of each other we should probably add each others phone numbers to our pokegears.”


Kevin took out his at the same time as Max, both of them taking the others gear and added their numbers to it, After which Max joked “Good idea...Hey Fang, maybe I should buy you a poke gear as well. It might keep ya out of trouble.”


Fang blushed, nodding as he wiggled in Max's clothes. “That'd be best...I think I can build one myself though.”


Kevin laughed and clipped his pokegear to his belt for safe keeping, He looked at the plate for a moment then at Bagon. “Did you eat all of the bread that was stacked there?”


Hearing the accusing tone, Bagon felt a sweat drop down his forehead and hopped off his trainer, after which Charmeleon chased after him with a growl. “I was gonna eat some of that y'know!”


Max burst out laughing from the comment, watching the two pokemon running around in circles. He stretched out and looked at Bulbasaur for a moment. “Did you get enough to eat as well?”


Bulbasaur nodded, nibbling on the last piece that Bagon hadn't managed to grab. This caught Charmeleon's attention as he turned toward Bulbasaur. “Aww man! No food for the injured huh?” He took a deep breath, looking at Flare. “Let's go grab a burger!!”


Max snickered, translating what Charmeleon had said to Flare, the latter climbing out of the chair he was in. “Alright alright...Let's go get something for that hungry belly of yours. Sheesh I swear you could probably eat as much as Bagon did.”


“I'm sure I could too...I'm so hungry I could probably eat YOU.”


That last comment before Flare and Charmeleon walked out of the building made Max grin. “Looks like everyone’s getting into this thing...long as Charmeleon remembers RD's lesson in reformation it should be fine...”


Kevin shook his head and got up. “Well since everyone is off doing there own thing for now. Would you mind having a battle with me Max? I'd like to gauge your level of experience from your travels up to this point.”


Max nodded, as did Bulbasaur. “That's fine with us. But first uhm...How about we go pick up some new clothes for me. Fang's gonna need mine until his fur grows back.”


Kevin blinked, looking over Max then nodded. “Good point...you don't exactly know WHEN you'll return to your human form so let's get that out of the way first. I definitely don't want to see you with your privates hanging around.”


With that joke they all walked out of the pokemon Center. It didn't take them too long to find a clothing store that didn't turn Max down because of his appearance. It shocked him that most of the establishments in this city were accepting of his form. He was used to the villagers treating him like crap because of his father's appearance he was now seeing things in a fresh new way. In any case all it took them was about 10 minutes for them to find an outfit that seemed to fit Max. They found a fresh new pair of blue jeans, along with an orange shirt.

Fang looked over the new outfit and smiled. “You know what...it does look like it suits you but I think you need a little extra.”


Fang grabbed a red jacket from a clothing rack and held it against Max. “What do you think? Look good enough?”


Max Smiled, feeling along the jacket and seemed perfectly fine with it. “It looks good to me. But it seems like the Jacket is missing something too...”


Fang grinned, grabbing one of his tails and drawing the guilmon's biohazard mark on the back of the jacket and held it again. “Better? That way we can always Identify you.”


Max grinned, feeling along the mark and smiling as the ink was already dry. “I love it. Alright then, let's ring it up then!”


After they paid for the clothes, Max quickly ran into the dressing room. It took him awhile but he willed himself to transform into his human form again and quickly got to dressing himself. He stepped back out, putting on his Jacket while he walked. “Alright, Now these clothes are MUCH more comfortable than the ones I left home with.”


Fang smiled, wagging his tails around. “I bet. You don't look half bad in them either. Like they were made just for you.”


Kevin nodded, smiling. “How about we go to the national park for our battle. We can message Flare that we'll be heading that way so he can meet us after both him and Charmeleon have stuffed their faces.”


Max took out his pokegear, already starting to set up the meeting place as they walked, then it dawned on him. “Hey Fang, do you have the gift that Bang handed to you still in my pocket?”


Fang perked his ears at the mention and started digging into his pocket, he immediately handed it over to Max with a swing of his tails. “I completely forgot about that. Guess you should open it up and find out what your Uncle thought enough about you to put in there huh?”


Max shook his head, smirking. “WE should open it up and find out what OUR uncle thought enough about to put in this box.”


The two stared at each other a moment more before opening the top of the box, revealing a great ball sealed inside, wrapped up and padded. On the top part of the ball was a small stamp, as if to mark a capture. “It looks like he sent you a pokemon...but isn't Uncle Smithy from another world?”


Fang's question wasn't unfounded, Max as well as everyone on the island KNEW Smithy wasn't born in their world, or that he lived on this plane. Whenever he showed up to visit he'd open some sort of portal out of nowhere and just pop up so Fang had the right idea, just how DID he capture a pokemon if his uncle didn't even live here.


“Well Max...Why not open it and see what's inside...”

He heard Fang's suggestion and was just about too till he realized that the stamp was actually digi code, he willed his eyes to shift into his digimon ones and found himself able to read the code a bit more clearly. “Proof of boundless potential...”


Fang tilted his head, not really getting it until Max opened the pokeball, what came out of it was a small Eevee, staring up at the duo with a cute smile on it's face. “Umm which one of you is Max?”


Fang pointed over to his brother, After which the small creature bounced into Max's arms, startling both the wolf and trainer as it got comfortable in his arms. “A lion man caught me and asked me to watch over you! Said you could really use a hand!”


'yeeah...that definitely sounds like Uncle Smithy...though I'll have to thank him for the new friend.' Max sweatdropped, before laughing as he carried Eevee in his arms along with Bulbasaur ontop of his head. “Well I could! You could be just the ace I need in my team.”


'yeah right, But we did need another party member...' Bulbasaur thought to himself, extending a vine from his bulb which Eevee shook in a cheery manner.

It didn't take them too long to make it to the park, Fang acted as their guide with the town map,
And they could tell they had arrived in the park by the large fountain sitting in the center of the park. “Can I battle, Max?”


The question surprised Max but he didn't seem to mind much. “Not at all Bulbasaur. First you, then Eevee here does that sound good?”



Bulbasaur gave a short nod, satisfied with that plan then turned towards Kevin who was already getting set up with Bagon. “Alright then, a two on two then huh? Fair enough. Come on out Treecko!”


With a shout, Kevin tossed out a red pokeball, revealing a bouncing Treecko inside and indeed it WAS bouncing on it's tail as if it was a spring. It stuck a piece of straw in it's mouth and got itself into a more serious fighting stance.


Bulbasaur leapt off Max's head and right infront of the Treecko, gauging it cautiously.


Max gave a small snap of his fingers as he pointed at the Treecko “Alright partner! Let's start this battle off with a vine whip!”


As soon as Max said this, the Treecko used it's tail like a spring to bounce back just as the vines were closing in on him, managing to evade them skillfully. “Pound!”


That was all Kevin needed to say, as the very tail that sprang Treecko out of harms way came smacking right into Bulbasaur's side, knocking him down into the dirt. “Ooooh, Bulbasaur hit the ground pretty hard. Is it going to be okay?”


From the expression on Kevin's face he didn't look at all very concerned for Bulbasaur, and only grinned when the small pokemon pulled itself back up as if nothing had happened. “Well aren't you a fiesty one. A direct attack like that and you don't look winded at all.”


Bulbasaur's only response was spitting on the ground next to it. Max took a deep breath once he released his friend was okay. “It'll take a lot more than that to stop Bulbasaur.”


Both of them exchanged a quick glace at one another and then their attention was set towards their opponent. “Alright Bulbasaur! Vine whip one more time!”


Kevin just shook his head as if dissapointed by Max's lack of strategy, his Treecko bounced out of the way just like before but neither were expecting what was coming next when Bulbasaur wrapped it's vines around the tail now exposed in the air.


“Hah! You and Treecko weren't expecting that! We never do the same thing twice! Alright now Bulbasaur leech seed then toss him into the fountain!”


Bulbasaur smirked, a small seed shooting out of it's bulb and imbedding itself into the Treecko before he flung it into the water.


There was a red glow around Treecko after it splashed into the water, Bulbasaur glowing slightly from the recovery effect from his leech seed, now good as new.


“Impressive...most pokemon and trainers don't have that kind of clarity in battle. You two know each other a long time?” Kevin asked, straightening his glasses as his Treecko jumped out of the water, cringing as the draining effect of the Leech seed took hold again.


Again, Bulbasaur started glowing as Max shook his head. “Not at all. Bulbasaur only hatched a couple weeks ago. But we understand how each other feel. Bulbasaur right now is battling harder than ever because of a guilt of not being there for Fang.”


Both Fang, and Bulbasaur were stunned by those words, Fang because he had no idea Bulbasaur felt such things for him, and Bulbasaur because Max had nailed down how he was feeling with such precision that made him happy that he hatched in his arms.


“That's a pretty special relationship then. We'll have to get serious.” Kevin looked at Treecko who after taking a vine whip into the fountain, and the effects from the leech seed was already looking pretty drained. “Quick attack right now!”


Treecko gave a short nod of approval as he ran forward, charging at Bulbasaur with frightening speed. Slamming into him and knocking the bulbasaur on it's back once again before cringing as the draining effect of leech seed took a hold again, forcing the Treecko on his left knee, panting.


Bulbasaur however leaped back onto his feet after receiving more of his opponents power. With how things were going, no matter what Treecko would do it wouldn't do much good. “Alright Bulbasaur let's end this battle with a take down!”


While Treecko was still recovering from having it's energy drained, Bulbasaur came rushing in with a charge of his own and flung his own body at the opposing grass type, knocking it to the ground and knocking it out of commission, the leech seed freeing itself from it's hosts body to prevent any fatalities. “And with that the first battle is ours.”


Max was about to celebrate till he watched Bulbasaur glow again, except this time it wasn't from the effect of the leech seed but of it's own evolution!


The bulb on his back started growing upward, turning into what looked like a budding flower, with leaves starting to grow at the base of the plant and the markings across it's body starting to darken a bit to signal it's growing in evolution.


Stubby legs were the next to grow a bit, they got a couple inches taller, not much but a signifigant height difference from what he was before and once the glowing had receeded they were greeted with the appearance of a new Ivysaur.


A whistle came from Fang before his tails started wagging a mile a minute. “Looks like you aren't the only one that's evolved to combat the Darkness Max. Now Ivysaur's joined the fray!”


Ivysaur looked over himself, slightly disappointed in his evolution but he smiled up at Max. “While I would have preferred to stay a Bulbasaur...Fang's right and you're gonna need some powerful allies! So putting personal comfort aside, Let's show those guys that we mean business!”


Kevin clapped his hands after he'd put Treecko into his pokeball and smiled. “That was an amazing battle. You and Bul- I mean Ivysaur understand your fighting styles so much you both know how to adapt to your opponent, neither of you even need to give out complex commands for it either.”


Max nodded, hugging Ivysaur for a couple moments and rubbing his snout. “It's true...a trainer named John taught me awhile back before I fought Falkner that with experience I would be able to battle alongside my friends without having to shout commands. While we're not QUITE at his level we are learning as we go along.”


Kevin nodded, walking over to give Ivysaur a small rub along the growing flower on his back. “No doubt...I have a good measurement of your fighting prowess now, and I feel confident that you and I, And Flare will work well together in the coming months ahead! Still...if you want to continue our battle and give your Eevee some experience now I won't object.”


Eevee just gave a cute squeak in affirmation as it walked into the battle field.


While the battle with Eevee didn't last half as long or give the same results, it was worth the extra time in preparing his new companion on their trip ahead.


Eventually, Flare and Charmeleon came running into the park, waving to the group as they joined them. “Sorry we're late! Charmeleon ate MORE than he led me to believe he would.”


When Max caught Charmeleon picking his teeth he had a good idea what transpired and couldn't help but grin. “It's alright! Hey check out who evolved!”

Flare and Charmeleon crowded over to Ivysaur, Charmeleon naturally being the first one to congratulate him and shook his paw. “Now you can protect your trainer better! Maybe even a little more...”


Ivysaur snorted and shook his head. “I'm a plant! I don't think I'll be eating fresh living meat anytime soon.”


Just as he said that, he felt Flare poking his sides, making him grumble. “So...you got a little taller...He doesn't look all that tough to me...”


Charmeleon backed away, as did Max and the others just as Ivysaur gave Flare a good dose of stun spore, paralyzing the poor trainer. “I'm tougher than you think...” He muttered.


Kevin gave a short nod, as did Bagon after they gave Flare a paralyze heal to recover they held their hands out infront of themselves. “So then, we're a team now? What should we call ourselves?” Asked Kevin as he readjusted his glasses.


Flare grinned, he and Charmeleon setting their hands out infront of them as well. “How about Team Flare!”


Everyone, including the pokemon gave him an awkward stare, Charmeleon pinching his trainer with a pair of claws as Max laughed. “Let's NOT name ourselves after a crime syndicate... How about...the light bringers?”


Max set his hand out and Ivysaur his vine, He looked at the other four as they all seemed to like the name as it made sense.


“Light bringers huh? Has a catchy tune to it. We'll bring those crooks to the light!” Kevin proclaimed proudly with a smile.


Fang nodded, as he TOO put his paw in front of himself and the others. “I can't imagine a better name for our team. Let's show them we mean business!”


The group raised their hands in the air and cheered, before they started walking out of the park. Fang leading the way with his map so they could safely make their way to Ecruteak city.


[[To be continued]]