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[ In this chapter and some future chapters Greninja will be referred to as Satoshi in certain dialogues and the thoughts of certain characters. But will retain the name Greninja outside of these instances. Hope this helps prevent confusion, enjoy]
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"MATT, GET YOUR BUTT OUTTA BED AND OPEN THE SHOP!" Matt's mother barked from their kitchen. This was the third time she'd called for him this morning and he had still yet to respond. She waited a moment to see if he would at least move this time but when she heard nothing she knew it was time to bust out the last resort.

"Maria dear, see if you can't wake up your brother."

"Do you care how I go about it?" A look of mischievous excitement danced in the young girl's eyes.

Her mother sighed, "As long as he can still move, yes."

"Eehehe!" She cried wickedly as she scurried towards the stairs.

As she began to climb her mother put an end to her devilish joy by informing her that Matt had to be able to move on his own.

"Ugh, fine! (Spoilsport)"

Maria then climbed the remaining stairs but before she made her way to her brother's room she grabbed a bag off one of her bedposts. Before entering she knocked twice and waited half a second for a reply. When none came she grinned wickedly and slipped silently into Matt's room. In the dark she could just make out the silhouette of his body curled up on his bed, moving up and down each time he breathed. Instead of approaching him immediately she ventured towards his closet. Inside she found a number of jackets, some old and mostly patches while others were in somewhat better conditions.

It was one of the old patchy jackets that she decided to take along with a hoodie he had "folded" and stored on the closet floor. With these items in hand, she made her way to the end of his bed. Along the way she grabbed a touch lamp, he had left unplugged and dragged it with her. She then placed the hoodie over the lamp, making sure that the hood wasn't fully covering the bulb and the jacket over that. She repositioned the jacket so it appeared to be filled out and leaning over his bed. Once that was done she reached into her bag and produced a smiling white theater mask and, very carefully, positioned it inside the hood in a way that gave it shape and hid the lamp's bulb.

Satisfied with her set up, Maria plugged in the lamp, dropped to the floor, and slid under Matt's bed. It was a tight fit given the amount of junk he had stored under there but after pushing a bunch of "action figures" aside, Maria had enough room to get to work. She once again reached into her bag of tricks, this time producing a handful of legos, a tube of glue, two joy buzzers, and a microphone. She placed two drops of glue on each lego before arranging them in front of Matt's bed.

Once the legos were in place she sealed up the glue and placed the joy buzzers on the back of her hands before powering up the microphone. Grinning devilishly she began her grand plan.

"Maaatt. Maaatt," She whispered. The mic picked up her soft voice but instead of amplifying it as a normal microphone would, this mic warped her words to sound ghoulish and as if she were moving around the room. She continued to whisper into her mic until she heard her brother groan. She grinned and began to steadily increase her volume until she was just below normal conversation levels. As her voice grew louder Matt began to stir more and more until he uttered an incoherent unintelligible blurb of noise, an unfortunate mistake.

The moment he spoke Maria went quiet. She remained so for five seconds as she readied herself for the next stage in her plan. Then with great enthusiasm, she began to shake his bed and shout his name into the mic. Her actions shocked Matt into sitting bolt right and shouting, "who's there?" To which Maria responded by tapping his lamp and growling "Your worst nightmare!"

The lamp light up and illuminated the mask and clothes Maria had placed over it, creating a menacing figure looming out of the darkness.

Maria worked hard to suppress her laughter as she heard her brother's shrill scream echo throughout his room. But when he fell off his bed as he scrambled to get away from her creation, Maria lost it and let loose howls of laughter as he struggled to escape from the lego trap she had left for him.

"Maria! You've got five seconds to explain yourself!" He bellowed as he ripped a lego off of his face.

Maria forced herself to stop laughing long enough to look at Matt with an emotionless expression and utter into her mic, "Mom says to wake up and that you have to open the shop."

"So you decided this was the best way to get me up!?"

"...No, but Mom said I couldn't do that way."

"Ugh! Get out here- Aaah!" He recoiled as Maria shocked him with her joy buzzers.

"There's more where that came from!"

"I-Ugh. Just leave okay."

"I'll leave after you're gone."

"What? No, your leaving now-Agh! Fine! I'm going!"

As Matt made his way towards his door his sister called out, "Hey, Matt... Goodmorning." To which he in all manner of maturity, whit and sophistication replied, "Mehh," and shut the door behind him.

"Well look whose up, and in one piece no less," his mother sassed from the bottom of the steps.

Matt mumbled a response but insisted he said nothing when his mother asked what he'd uttered.

"That's what I though. Now, I need you to watch the shop until I get back. I left you the keys on the counter and there's an apple next to it if you're hungry."

"Alright, I'll take care of it. When do you think you'll be back?"

"Mmm. Probably three hours or so, so around Eight."

"... It's Five in the morning?"

"Yes and I'm very busy so I need you to be too. Chop chop."

Matt sighed and made his way to the keys, "Yes, ma'am."

As he left his house he couldn't help but chuckle as he heard his mother arguing with his sister about going to school. "Karma sis, karma."

He walked a block under the light of street lamps to a street lined with various businesses of all kinds. Carpenters, plumbers, fast food, restaurants, movie stores, Arcades, family businesses, and hybrid stores, if it was a business it was on this street. Matt yawned as he strolled down the pavement. He saw a that few stores were still open, mostly the fast food, and felt a twinge of pity for the employees who got stuck with the night shift.

Between a mattress store and a vehicle rental shop, Matt found his destination and after fumbling with the keys for a few seconds made his way into his Mom's book cafe. He opened the door and heard the simple bell attached ring as he stepped through. It was dark when he entered and he could only see what the street lamps could illuminate through the glass. It wasn't much but enough, enough for him to see a shadowy shape that seemed out of place amongst the rows of books. Sure it must be a trick of the light he tried to flip on the lights and expose it as nothing more than his mind imagining things. But when he flipped the switch the lights didn't turn on.

"T-thats strange," he thought, "Maybe the breakers got a short. I should go fix it." But he remained where he stood, unable to will himself forward.

Logic told him it was nothing more than his imagination, there was nothing to this shadowy blob, just a trick of the light. He should just go and fix the breaker.

But instinct told him otherwise. He felt as if it were watching him, waiting for him to turn away, to lower his guard, to be vulnerable. If he were to move so would it, and then he never would again.

So he remained still, watching the shadow from the safety of the street light knowing that sooner or later one of them was going to have to make a move.

Minutes passed as he continued to stare at the shadow, neither he nor it making a move. As he neared the tenth minute of his staring match with the blob, Matt heard a familiar voice approaching from down the street. He smiled at the rich sound of her voice and let his eyes drift towards the street, hoping to see his friend approaching. Until he remembered the shadow.

Quickly focusing his attention back to the shadow he made a bone-chilling discovery that made him extremely glad he had trusted his instincts. For while the shadow was still there it was now a foot closer and most definitely was looking at him.

His body felt like a wound up spring. He knew he had to move soon, he had no choice. His friend was certain to come in as she always did and when that happened he was certain the shadow would attack.

"I could charge it now," he thought, "maybe I can hold it off until she gets help... But it might be able to overpower me and then it would go after her to erase any witnesses." His heart ached at the thought of that.

"No, I can't let that happen. Maybe I can reason with it..." he looked at the shadow hopefully but saw nothing but malice in its darkness, "or not. I guess that takes distracting it off the table too."

He heard her voice growing closer. His window of opportunity was almost closed.

"I might be able to back out of here and lock it in." He remembered how much distance it covered in the half second he'd looked away and knew that slow and steady wouldn't win this race. No, he needed to move quickly, catch it off guard, his survival and possibly her life rested in the decision he made.

Her voice was close enough that he could hear some of what she was saying. It sounded like she was giving someone a tour of the city, she kept pointing out stores telling her companion fun facts about the building and owners.

Matt felt a twang of guilt and jealousy when he realized she had a companion. Guilt due to him holding another persons life in his hands without knowing how to save them. And jealousy because she had never even considered giving him a tour of the city.

"Sure I live here but she knows way more about the area than me. And besides I love spending time with her, I wouldn't even care if we- AH, Focus! I need to make a decision!"

Her voice was only a few seconds away when the shadow decided to speak.

"So what's it going to be kid?" Its voice was emotionless yet commanded a darkness that seeped fear into Matt's bones.

Matt, utterly at a loss for words, could only make a squeaking noise. With a disgruntled sigh the shadow elaborated on his question

"What're ya gonna do. Run? Or Fight."

"W-what?"

"Tick-Tock kid, your friend is nearly here. Make a choice... I'll wait."

"I..."

"Tick," The word struck Matt like wet cement, clinging to his limbs and keeping him from moving.

"I-I'm.."

"Tock," More cement.

He felt himself growing heavier.

"Tick."

The shadows began ebbing closer.

"Tock."

He could hear his heart beating fiercely in his chest, threatening to break free.

"Tick."

The shadows face was coming into view, a white mask looming over him...

"Tock."

The face of Death.

Ding! The bell rang, it's sharp sound cutting through the fog clouding his mind. In that brief moment of clarity he knew exactly what he had to do. Matt saw the shadow prepare to pounce. But that didn't matter he was already moving, turning towards his friend.

"Hey Matt, why's it so dark-"

"LIDYA GET DOWN!" He shouted as he tried to tackle her out the door.

He had almost reached her when he felt a burning in his right shoulder and a force pulling him backward through the air. As he was being dragged back he was forced to watch Lidya's face go through a change of confusion, a second of surprise, and honest to Arceus horror.

But despite the pain in his shoulder, the certainty of his death, and the look of horror on Lydia's face, what hurt Matt the most was how he had been too slow to save her. If he had been just a second faster or a bit more decisive perhaps they might have lived. But now the shadow was going to kill them both and there was nothing he could do about it.

He fell to the floor with a hard thud and a rattling of a chain. The burning in his shoulder made way for a mountain of pain and the feeling of blood slowly seeping out of his body. He didn't dare look at his shoulder and was afraid to look at what the shadow was doing now that he was out of the way. But he managed to find the courage to lift his head just in time to see the shadow flee across the room, pursued by a blur of blue and white.

Confusion and curiosity washed over him and together managed to block out his injury long enough for him to watch the fight. The shadow appeared to be on the defensive. It had dropped a length of chain that lead to Matts shoulder, and whatever weapon was embedded there, in favor of two silvery daggers each about a foot in length. The blades would dart about the shadow, jumping out in an attempt to land a hit or repulse a blow only to retract a second later be they successful or not.

For the most part they were not, as the blazing white short swords used by their foe moved with such ferocity and hunger that it was a wonder the shadow had not been completely overwhelmed, yet. The wielder of the white blades moved with spirit to match his blade work. And, oddly enough, Matt could swear that this swordsman, despite the situation they were in, was enjoying himself.

Even when his opponent managed to break through his offense line and force him backwards, the white swordsman continued to have a certain elation about this fight. His joy almost akin to how a survivor after weeks of eating nothing but bland food might feel upon finding sour fruit. Not overzealous due to it being sour, but certainly happy to finally have any kind of flavor after such a long period without.

Their battle kept on, and Matt who had been watching for the past two minutes continued to observe in awe. The two seemed to almost be dancing, moving to and fro in a way he'd never seen before. At least he'd never seen it done in person before. The only combat experience he'd had was from watching matches on late night television. But his Tv screen couldn't hold a candle to this live performance. He was completely captivated by their fight.

"MATT!" Lydia shouted drawing his attention away from the fight.

She had run to him and was kneeling next to him, eyes filled with concern as she tried to get his attention. She seemed to be saying something to him but he was too dazed to hear properly. He managed to understand her asking him if he was alright but couldn't hear what she said next. He thought it might be this is gonna hurt because in the next second he felt a lot of pain as she removed whatever was in his shoulder.

His blood began flowing more freely now that the object had been removed. A glance at the floor revealed that object to be a strange curved blade attached to a chain. It seemed to be grinning up at him from a shallow pool of red, almost as if to taunt him.

"Matt!" Lydia called again, her voice pulling him up from the slog of his thoughts.

"Y-yeah?" He stuttered as he shook the rest of his daze away, "What's up?"

"We need to get outta here, you're bleeding a lot and we're making it harder for Satoshi to keep whoever that is from getting to us."

Matt looked at the battle again and realized what Lydia was talking about. Every few seconds the shadow would pull back and attempt to get to him and Lydia, forcing Greninja to intercept and go on the defensive. Eventually one of them was bound to slip up, and either the shadow or Matt, or Lydia, were going to get hurt.  At this point they were a liability and it was in everyone's best interest if they fled.

"Alright let's go!" Matt rose to his feet, one hand gripping his wound as firmly as he could to slow the blood flow.

He began to follow Lydia out when his foot bumped the weapon that the shadow had abandoned. He looked at it briefly before picking it up out of pure instinct, he had a feeling it would prove useful. Weapon in hand he carried himself out the exit only to come to a fumbling stop as the long chain caught itself on something.

"Matt!? What are you doing, we gotta go!"

"Hang on the chains stuck."

"Just leave it, you don't need it."

"But it could be useful."

"Really?! Because so far all it's done is injure you and get itself stuck on a bookshelf!"

Two cries of alarm followed by the shattering of glass sounded behind them. Turning his head Matt saw both Rory and the shadow sprawled out on the street with a sizable hole in the stores window behind them.

Matt looked back at Lydia to say something about the usefulness of his new possession but when she reminded him that he still had one good shoulder, he decided to settle for a smug grin instead.

His moment of superiority was quick to fade though as both Pokémon rose from the street, brushed glass off themselves, and prepared to continue their dance. Greninja had lost concentration when he fell through the window and no longer had his short swords to oppose the shadow figures daggers. However he didn't seem concerned by this fact and waited to see what his opponent was going to do.

A shift in his opponents dagger revealed enough to Greninja where he began to shift his body in preparation for the attack aimed at Matt. But before either of them could make a move whistles pierced the street.

"HALT! POLICE!"

Three red Pokémon who held a striking similarity to knights rushed towards them. But where knights armor was all plates and surfaces, these Pokémon had steel blades sprouting from their body. Two crescent metal ribs extending from their middle and lower torsos and a yellow and iron tipped axe head rested atop each shiny red helmet. They all also had a five inch blade on both of their iron gauntlet hands and belts with radios, handcuffs and other utilities strapped to their waist.

As the officers approached the shadow figure growled as it sheathed it's weapons. "Looks like playtime's over. But don't worry kiddo, I'll be back."

The shadow began to move backwards only to stop to give Greninja a warning after he began following him.

"Listen buddy, I don't know who you are or what you think you're doing but if I were you I'd keep my distance. From me and them."

"Not gonna happened," Greninja growled. He stared to craft some Shurikens when the shadow intervened.

"Ah ah ah. Wouldn't do that with the cops watching."

"What? Why would- AHH!" Greninja howled as a pop ripped through the street and a small round object grazed his side.

"Catch you later, kiddo," The shadow said as it  dropped an object to the ground that released a thick smoke.

The officers arrived shortly after only for the smoke to clear and the shadow figure to be nowhere to be found. They took quick stock of the situation and knew that pursuit of the criminal would be pointless and instead they focused on what they could do. Two of them moved to aid Greninja and Matt while their partner called in the situation.

"Dispatch, this is Officer Renalds. 11-41. Responding to a 10-67, arrived to a 10-17 at Ruth's cafe on 3rd and West. Two injured, one is a 257 the other a 658. Requesting backup, over."

"10-4, Renalds. Ambulance and assistance on route. Eta two minutes. Hold scene until arrival. 10-45, Over."

"Acknowledged, dispatch. Both cognitive. 658 appears stable, but 257 is possible 10-45B."

"10-4, ambulance given priority. Hold tight."

"Rodger that." Officer Renalds returned his radio to his belt and approached Lydia. "Scuse me miss but did you see how this happened?"

"Yes. Are they going to be alright?"

"Don't worry help is on the way. But while we're waiting would you mind giving me a your account of what happened."

"...Sure," she said hesitantly. She seemed strangely uneasy about giving a statement.

"Thank you, now," Officer Renalds produced a pencil and pad from his belt, "please give me your name, contact information and recount to the best of your knowledge what occurred.

She sighed, "Alright. My name is Lydia Jay Finch. I live at-"

"Hold up. What's your name again?"

Lydia shifted uncomfortably and repeated her name. "Lydia Jay Finch, sir."

Officer Renalds glanced at his partners who stared back at at him with laughter in their eyes. "One moment, miss Finch."

He removed his radio and walked a little ways away as he called in.

"Dispatch, please advise I am conducting a 11-10 from a Lydia Jay Finch, over."

The radio was silent for nearly a minute only to crackle to life with a new voice over it.

"Negative Officer. Await pickup for return to station with Miss Finch and the 658. Detain them until arrival back at station. Their statements will be taken there. Understood."

"Yes, sir! And what about the 257?"

"They'll be transported to the station once released from medical. That is all."

The radio went silent and Officer Renalds walked back to Lydia to detain her.

"Miss I'm going to have to ask you to come in to give a statement."

"Yeah I thought that might happen. You mind if I wait with my friends?"

"Not at all, they'll be joining you soon anyways."

"Oh, alright. Thanks."

Lydia and Officer Renalds approached the four Pokémon. Lydia squatted down next to her friends while Renalds spoke with his colleagues. Lydia noticed that Greninja had a small bandage on the left lower side of his torso, where he was nicked by the small projectile. He didn't seem very phased by his injury and it appeared to be minuscule, which was not the case for Matt.

His wound was obviously a nasty one. Despite the bandages and compression on his shoulder blood could be seen oozing through, layering the white cloth with an ugly red.

Lydia tried to make small talk but Matt didn't seem in the mood for it.

"What do they want?" He grumbled.

"Apparently answers. They're taking all of us in to give statements about what happened."

Matt was silent fora few seconds. "So what do you want me to tell them?"

"The truth obviously." She replied flustered.

"And what would that be?"

"We were attacked by a crazed lunatic who ran off after injuring you two!"

"... And what about your friend- Satoshi? Was it Satoshi? Right. What about Satoshi's help'?"

"That's on a need to know basis. And the police don't need to know!"

"Mmm. Ok."

"Hey! Don't give me that look! You know why they don't need to know!"

"Well I don't," Greninja complained. "Why are you covering for me?"

"Because you're my friend," Lydia replied innocently.

"Haha. But why do you need to cover for me?"

Lydia remained silent and looked away so Matt, knowing why she chose silence, decided to explain for her.

"In Arkos the practice of Pokémon moves, attacks, powers or whatever you call it is forbidden under National Law without government approval."

"What! That's ridiculous, they can't do that."

"They can and have for over six hundred years."

"Woah. Are you serious? How? Why? Who would enforce something like that?"

Lydia turned to him with ice in her eyes. "Bureaucrat lap dogs who think of nothing but serving their masters will and enforcing the 'tradition' that has kept Arkos from 'being riddled with crime'. People who believe that no change is necessary and that everything is hunky dory!"

"... In other words her brother," Matt whispered as Lydia glared at the rising Sun.

"Wait, Roy is a bureaucrat lap dog?"

"What? No. Her other brother, Jones."

As if speaking the devils' name two police cars and an ambulance arrived at the scene. The paramedics took Matt away to receive treatment, while Lydia and Greninja were led into the back of one of the police cars.

"Welcome aboard," their driver greeted them kindly, though there seemed to be some form of pity in his friendly words. "Captain Finch is expecting you at the station."

"I'm sure he is," Lydia replied sourly. "You'd best buckle up, Satoshi, it's gonna be a rough trip."

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Hello again my faithful readers, it's good to see you all again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm terribly sorry for the wait but after the ending from my last chapter I found myself climbing a writers block boulder. Thankfully I love rocks so it was easy to figure out.

Anyways onto this chapter! I wanted to make note that I did some research for the codes the Officer Renalds and Dispatch were using so if you were to type in the code into let's say a google question about police codes you'd be able to figure out what the codes meant. Though I believe most of them can be understood through context if you don't understand I'm more than happy to tell you what the code means.

Also what did you guys think of how I started this chapter (aside from the blurb in brackets of course). I'd love to hear your thoughts about Matt and any of my other characters. And if you notice anything you thought was noteworthy or  if you had any opinions or thoughts about characters or events please let me know, I'm always looking to improve my writing and your feedback is invaluable to me.

Anyways thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time. 😁