I am running through these chapters like crazy!! But it's because this month I've been very inspired so I have to let this out or I'll explode! Anyways here ya go

RD is ©  Rainbowdragon
All other character's © to me.
Pokémon is © Gamefreak and Nintendo
Digimon is © Bandai

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A friends final gift


Max stepped out of the Safari zone, he had two slots available in his party and thanks to this visit he managed to fill in one of his empty slots, polishing the ball of his new companion. "Alright...we're back to five pokemon again. Still no sign of a sixth though." He mumbled to himself.

"Good! We've been locked up in Cianwood for the last couple days and lost some ground. I think we should focus on gathering the remaining three gym badges so we can get to the league." Fang pointed out, ears perked up as he looked over the regional map.

"Are you sure you should even be moving to the next gym so soon? I mean you just got everyone out of the pokemon center a FEW days ago." RD commented, having decided to stay with the group after what happened.

"Good point but if we wait too long we'll never be able to catch up to Jesse and figure everything out. I think the closest gym to Cianwood would be...Flare's." Max turned in Flare's direction, as did Fang and Kevin.

Both Charmeleon and Flare sweatdropped when their island was brought up. "First off...it's my dad's gym. Secondly do we HAVE to go that way? Can't we...y'know...go to Olivine and battle Jasmine?"

Max crossed his arms, shaking his head but was careful not to make too big a motion with Ivysaur resting atop him. "The word around the pokemon center is that the Olivine city gym is being renovated so they aren't open at the moment. That leaves your dad. What's the problem I mean you said the island isn't THAT far off from Cianwood."

Flare and Charmeleon gave each other a look, then clenched their teeth as Flare called out his pair of Charizards. "Fine...Just, don't be surprised if this is the last time either of you see us."

Bagon couldn't help but snicker on Kevin's shoulder. "I think someones afraid of their dad. You neglected to check up on him eh?"

The question Bagon presented wasn't directed solely at Flare so much as it was towards Charmeleon who hung his head low, nodding.

Max caught this, as well as the conversation between Bagon and Charmeleon while they were getting situated on the two Charizards but made no effort to translate the two's chat. "It can't be that bad...can it Flare?"

At this point, once everyone was on board the two Charizards they took flight, the vast ocean swinging past them as they left the island of Cianwood behind. Trainers swimming with their pokemon were passed by in moments as were a herd of Seal that were leaping out of the water and splashing back into it. "weird I thought Seals were only in the arctic areas of Kanto and Johto..."

"Hey! Wait for me!" RD shouted out, keeping pace with the two dragons. "You could have given me some warning before just CHARGING OFF"

Max sweatdropped, nodding to RD in an apologetic manner. "Sorry about that...Just wanting to get to the next Gym as soon as possible Y'know?"

Kevin shrugged, looking over his shoulder to take a look, but by the time he checked, they had already passed the herd of water types. "Well it's pretty chilly nowadays. It's not too far of a stretch for them to be enjoying the outside air rather than caves."

The shivering Max felt against his back coming from fang was a testiment to that, the poor guy was still more or less naked without his fur. Though it WAS finally starting to grow in patches, it wouldn't be too long till Fang could walk around without Max's old baggy clothes weighing him down.

"Heh...know what...I think you could use a hoodie!" Max teased the wolf who just splayed his ears and growled playfully at his brother.

Max grinned all the more before turning his head to their destination, after ten minutes of a rather dull flight he could make out the sillouette of a rather large island, heck as they got closer he could see that it pretty much dwarfed Cianwood city. "Flare that...That CAN'T be your dad's island! You said it was small!"

Flare rolled his eyes. "It's small to ME at least. I grew up on the place and went through every cave, trench and tunnel that is on the island. But yeah that's it. We need such a large space due to the population of Charmander and it's evolutions. Where do you think the professors get the starting pokemon for trainers to make their choice. We supply the many different professors with Charmander."

Rolling his eyes, RainbowDragon just yawned as they approached the island, his belly grumbling. "You call this small I call this a country..."

Max looked on, as they neared the Island he could make out more of it's ecosystem in more detail. The sandy beaches were flooded with many Charmander, some of them even playing ball in the shallow water having no fear of coming predators do to a net that he could see was situated around the borders of the beach. Further up along the island it became more ridged with cliffs and hilltops, the Charmeleon were in this vicinity, some of them were plucking berries from bushes and offering them to their friends while others were wrestling for training.

"Hey Flare...I don't see any Charizards, don't you use them for shipping purposes?" Fang blurted out, noting that in the center of the island was a huge mountain that towered thousands of feet and would have taken HOURS if not a full DAY to get to the peak. Statues made out of stone decorated the base of the mountain as if to protect it's magnificence. Once they made it to the peak, several Charizards could be seen fighting amongst each other in a form of training similar to the Charmeleon just before. Whatever Charizard's weren't in combat were sleeping five story building that stood at the center of the mountain itself. It looked like a japanese style castle from their perspective.

"All of the Charizards live up on the mountain! Most stay in the house though which doubles as the gym!" Flare shouted out, before giving the two Charizards flying them to land infront of the castle structure.

Fang gave him a sour glare as he started climbing off the Charizard he was riding atop of* "No need to yell. I could hear you just fine."

With a blush, Flare nodded, making sure everyone was off safely before calling the two dragons into their balls. "Sorry about that...Well...I guess you guys will need a tour of this castle...you'll get lost if you're not careful." Charmeleon stood motionless, it took Flare's tugging of his arm to snap the little guy out of it. "comeon bud...we should get through this before we lose our nerve..."

Max could sense and see Charmeleon's nervousness, and to be honest it surprised him since Charmeleon was usually the calm and collected one of the duo and started wondering just what kind of person Flare's dad might possibly be.

The group stepped into the building, which as far as they could see from within, the walls were covered in stone. A counter measure against the many charizards housed within it maybe? But even so the pokedex entry makes it clear that Charizards fire could melt THROUGH stone so it had to have some other purpose than to just keep the building from going ablaze. Several support pillers dotted the building, given it's size that was understandable but nothing inside of the building really shouted royalty, it looked as plain a house as you'd expect from a caveman.

"Flare, I don't get it, why have the place decorated so nicely outside then have it plain in here?" Max asked quietly, noting all of the looks of Charizards poking out of their individual rooms.

Flare lead Max and the group up a flight of stairs, scratching his cheek as he tried to explain. "Well...Charizards stay in here like I told you. And we all know Charizards love to battle it's in their blood! Now what do you think would happen if we had a couch or a television just sitting around...or a bunch of decorations to make this place look a little nicer?"

The realization kicked Max, and he blushed for not realizing it. "It would be ruined...Charizards are instinctually driven to battle and they wouldn't care what was damaged in the process of their match."

"Right! NOW we do have some nice things...but their in an underground bunker so we can protect our shipments. I can take you to it in a bit, but first we should probably go see our fathers..." Flare shivered for a moment and looked like he was just about ready to hightail it out of there!

"Wait you said FATHERS...Does that mean your dad's partner is Charmeleon's..." When both Flare and Charmeleon nodded their heads he just about understood completely. "Hoo boy...now I can understand your nervousness...Given how tempermental Charizards can b-"

Charmeleon had leapt at Max quickly, putting a clawed paw over his mouth. "Shhhh! Don't say that here! you want my dad to chew you out?! I swear...he's the most terrifying Charizard you'll ever meet! So please don't get on his bad side..."

Max sweatdropped, listening to Charmeleon list out the qualities of his dad and gave a short nod, only then did Charmeleon remove his paw, but he didn't let off of Max so the blonde haired trainer had to carry the shivering reptile the rest of the way up.

It took them the better part of ten minutes to finish scaling the staircases but in the end the finally made it to the top floor. Fang and Kevin were gasping for breath by the time they made it to the top which just made Max laugh. "Comeon guys...it wasn't THAT hard a climb was it?"

Fang, slowly pulling himself up, growled up to his brother, grasping at his jacket to pull himself back up and nodded. "Forgive me for not having been born on an island and spending most of my days hiking up the mountains!"

Kevin nodded all the same, Max helping the poor guy up as he stretched out. "Hey...it's not my fault I didn't grow up with technology you know. What else was I supposed to do but go mountain climbing?" Max asked with a tongue sticking out, what he didn't expect though was for Fang to grab and pull on his tongue "Ah!"

"Watch it. I've already been inside of Chaos remember that? I know your anatomy inside and out." Fang chided, finally catching his breath.

MAx blushed, pulling his tongue back in with a nod. "True but that just means you know I have the same stomach capacity as him." He grinned, watching Flare staring at the door at the end of the hall. "That where they usually stay?"

Flare nodded, taking a big gulp of air as he pulled on his shirt, it was no secret that the Firecracker Trainer suddenly turned into a nervous wreck but he was visably sweating profusely. "Alright...Uhm...guys whatever you do be as polite as you can. PLEASE!" He begged, opening the door as if expecting something awful to come out the other side.

Max found it a little melodramatic that Flare would be so terrified, though when he peeked into the room he found it to be pretty plain. It was large enough, big enough for a pokemon battle but it didn't seem all that special. Working at a singular desk was a rather well toned, and tanned man roughly over 6'5 , checking and rechecking various documents and labeling them for shipping, he had the same flaming red hair as Flare but his was much more refined, the man had combed in in a fashion that made it look like he was sporting a Pyroar's mane. Standing beside him was an equally impressive looking Charizard, It was easy enough to tell that all the statues Max had seen before hand were sculptures of this one dragon whose left eye was scarred over, it looked like he still retained the use of his eye albiet very poorly.

"Flare! I've been worried sick about you, you haven't called for days and we even sent a scouting team to check up on you!" The chisled man bellowed, setting his papers aside and walking over to Flare.

"S-sorry! Things kinda came up...I finished all of my deliveries though!" He tried defending himself, yelping as the man pulled on his ear.

"That's beside the point! You need to check in so that I know you're safe!" The man's eyes softened up slightly. "What would I have done if something happened to you. You're the only son I have and you're still very young. Anything could have happened!"

The Charizard stepped forward as well, grabbing Charmeleon's horn at his back and growling in his ear. "Where were you?! We'd been calling you guys for days! It's up to you to make sure Flare listens and answers our calls! Besides you're supposed to remind him too!"

"OWWW! Papa..." Charmeleon whined out, rubbing his head as a tear drop dangled from his eyes, relieved once his father let go. "We were busy...We were helping our friend with his problems..."

Flare shut his eyes, yelping as he heard his dad's yelling before feeling the warm embrace of his father, he returned the gesture with a sob. "I'm sorry dad...My friend Max was in a heap of trouble so I helped him out, I've been traveling with him to go to the pokemon league."

Max stood straight at the mention of his name and knew just as the man's gaze fell on him he was going to get some talking to as well. "S-sir please forgive me...I didn't mean to get him involved...I'll just go."

"Nonsense!" The man grabbed Max's shoulder, a bright grin on his face. "As irritated as I am for my boy not calling in to tell me he's safe, I'm more thankful that he came to a trainer in need. Tell me...what's your last name? Oh...That's completely rude of me I should introduce MYSELF first now shouldn't I?" The man cleared his throat, the mane around his neck rumbling as he did so. "My name is Rex Bellows."

When Rex offered him a hand to shake, Max took it cautiously as he looked into the mans eyes now clearly seem in the same hue of yellow that Flare's had been. "N-Nice to meet you sir. My name is Max Smithy. I come from a small island off the coast near New bark town."

After exchanging pleasant greetings, Rex knelt down to look Max eye to eye. "Smithy? Funny thing, a Smithy came to me just the other day. He was a big grisly looking lion. Gnarly scars all across his body, some of them fresh."

Max's mouth opened in a perfect 'O' when he realized who Rex was talking about. "Was he about...6'8...and wearing a pair of steel gauntlets around both paws?"

Rex nodded, walking back to his desk. "Yeah that's him. He said I should deliver something to you...and was honestly waiting for my son to get back so we could deliver it. I never expected him to bring YOU to me."

Rex waving Max forward was all the boy had to see for him to follow Rex to his work desk. "You don't have it in the bunker below with the rest of the stuff sir?"

"Hmmm...so my son told you about the underground room we store our shipments. Honestly that Smithy fellow asked me to rush this delivery so I kept it on me, I figured if it's something he was absolutely desperate to have sent to you so quickly without any info on where you might be it must be important." After Rex finished ranting, he managed to pull out a small box, wrapped up in the same fashion the one Eevee was locked in had been. "Here you go, Since I didn't necessarily have to SHIP it to you, I'm handing it to you free of charge. I assume you also came here to battle right?"

Max nodded, looking at Rex with a smile and a bow before opening the box right there, Inside was a glowing blue orb. it looked marveling, as if it was calling out to him then out of nowhere, the blue orb jumped out of it's casing and into Max's open mouth, at which he swallowed out of reflex. "Ack! I didn't mean to do tha-" He let his sentance hang there as he suddenly konked out right then and there.

"Max! Not again!" Fang cried, rushing to his brothers side and pushing at him. "This happened on the way to the Union Cave...It's another vision!"

When Max awoke, he found himself back on the island he was raised on, in Leo's bar where he was cleaning a couple of empty glasses from some of his patrons. "Leo? Why am I here..." Max asked the Leomon hybrid, unsure of himself or where he was.

"You're inside yourself Max, this is your inner consciousness. One that you entered after swallowing that blue orb." Leo stated flatly, placing the glasses in a sink and filling a clean one with orange juice and slide it over the counter towards Max.

"So then...none of this is real? It's just a figment of my imagination?" He took a sip of the drink and smiled, even if this was JUST a dream, it felt good to have his favorite beverage.

That was when Leo's voice took a more serious tone. "No, this is certainly real in the real world and your inner world. The reason I'm here IN IT in the first place is because I'm essentially dead. The blue orb you swallowed, was my soul restructured by your uncle to enable me to aid you. At this point all that I am now, all that was left of me after death has been ingested by you, to unite with your own being."

Max spat out the juice, he didn't comprehend much of it, only that Leo had called himself a spirit. "What do you mean you died?! Stop playing jokes."

Leo shook his head and pointed to the glass of orange juice, Max looked into his reflection and soon caught a glimpse of Duke's Darkness dart shoot through Leo's heart, after which he had been converted to a string of code to float up in the air. "I left one of my digicores with Smithy as a countermeasure. From in here I can be of more use to you, and help you defeat the Darkness."

Leo filled a glass with wine and took a small sip. "Smithy turned me into a weapon gem...It's created from the leftover data of fallen digimon. You swallowing my soul was the first step. What happens next well...that depends on when you call me into being. I could become a sword...a shield, I could even become a pokeball depending on what your body chooses to manifest me as once it's processed me."

Max set his drink down, the reality of things setting in hard, the last time he had a vision like this was when Pyre had invaded his dreams...now from what Leo said he knew it to be true. "So then...I've lost TWO people that are close to me..."

"No, Not lost." Leo finished his drink, cleaning it thoroughly now. "I'll be with you forever. This was the choice I made, I couldn't get to you in time to protect you so now I can protect you from the inside." He walked around the counter and wrapped his arms around Max in a comforting hug. "Did I ever tell you the story about this bar? My dad built it from the ground up, and when he passed I ended up inheriting it. Imagine a 12 year old boy running a bar eh? Well I was thinking...Bang will be taking over the family buisiness from here on out. Maybe when you're old enough you can take over for him, once you've had your fair share of adventuring."

Max shivered, then burst into tears as he hugged Leo tight, he couldn't find happiness in knowing that his friend was gone from the world, but he could find solace that a piece of him would exist through HIM.

Leo held Max there for awhile, purring to comfort the small boy before kneeling infront of him. "This Duke...be weary of his attacks, It was designed to be more effective towards people like us, for Hybrids and people who can't regularly die. From in here I'll be able to train you in a way Pyre could not and in doing so you'll never lose another mentor."

When Max came to in the real world, he was sitting on a large bed, obviously it had to be Rex's bed since it was a king sized bed, everyone was standing right beside him, relief on their faces that Max was awake again.

"Max! You're awake!" Fang grabbed hold of Max, hugging him tightly with his tails wagging just behind him. "What was the vision this time? Do we have a lead on where we need to go next?"

Max just gave Fang a blank stare, thinking about the things that Leo had spoke to him about back in his inner consciousness"Yeah, We save Jesse, Duke and the others the plan hasn't changed." When Max looked around he caught a glance at Rex and stood up carefully. "I'm ready to battle when you are!"

Fang helped Max up, looking concerned for his best friend and brother then looked at RD who was at Max's other side. "What made you decide to stick around Dragon? Can't keep away from your favorite snack?"

RD just helped Max get on his feet after that he stepped back a moment. "Say whatever you want, I'm involved now and I kinda got him into Vore to begin with so I should be around to make sure he doesn't go overboard. Besides haven't I proven myself trustworthy?!"

"You're right, I apologize I guess I'm just defensive of my brother..." Fang's ears splayed, almost submissively.

RD shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I guess seeing a man eating dragon WOULD cast suspicion...but I'm one of the good ones. besides even if I do eat Max he's willing to it and I always bring him back." RD turned to Max, who was blushing as soon as the dragon made that comment and faced Rex. "So...about that battle..."

Max nodded in agreement, stretching and walking towards Rex. "Right, about the battle, so can you lead us to the gym sir?"

(To be continued)