Page Six

	Nina gets ready to approach the defeated trainer when Ash suddenly drops
Pikachu. As the Pokemon lands on the ground, the female trainer notices that the electric
type has turned back into a Black Pokemon. All of a sudden, it feels as if Avery is on fire
causing Nina to drop her own Pokemon. Something mentally hits Skripter, as the trainer
turns back to see Magik changing into a Black Pokemon like the rest. 
	Ash reaches over to pick his Pokemon back up asking, “What’s the matter,
Pikachu?” The trainer’s hand is hit by a spark from Pikachu’s aura nearly burning it clean
off. 
	Nina looks desperately to Skripter questioning, “What’s wrong with them?” All
the while, the Black Pokemon power-up more and more, burning their auras at an
incredible rate.
	The older trainer kneels in front of his Katsumi asking, “Magik. What is it?”
	The Black Pokemon holds its head firm while barely muttering, “Too Much At
Once! Can’t Control It! It’s Eating Me Up From The Inside Out!”
	All three Pokemon howl in pain when their auras extinguish. The Black power
that filled their bodies billows out of them as jet black smoke. 
	Ash is the first to grab his Pokemon asking, “Pikachu! Are you okay?”
	“-pika...”
	Nina picks up Avery too, turning back to see if Magik is fine as well. The
Katsumi is slumped lifeless on the ground, and Skripter is still petrified like he were still
seeing Magik power-up.
	“Uh... Skripter. Is Magik okay? What’s wrong?” the female trainer queries.
	Still staring into space, the trainer replies, “It’s so immense! Can’t you feel it?”
	Nina eyes grow wide as she senses the new evil presence. Both trainers look up
to see that the cloud that flowed out of their Pokemon has materialized into some kind of
flying fiend. 
	The beast has a human like structure, but it is covered with black feathers, its
head is that of a bird, its hands and feet bear talons, and it has huge wings. The dark robe
it wears flaps in the wind brought on by its large wings, and black Crobat flow all around
him. The monster glares down at all the trainers and Pokemon with searing white eyes.
	“What is that?” Nina hardly manages to say.

	The demon takes up the question answering, “I am Karasuman, the legendary
dark Pokemon.”
	“Karasuman?” Skripter asks.
	“Yes, I am the harvester of People and Pokemon alike. Some time ago my dark
power was confined into the Black Power-Up, but even that could not hold me forever.
Not long ago, I would have narrowly escaped if it weren’t for the efforts of one Katsumi
known as Artemis. But now I have been given a second chance. Your petty bickering,
greed, and fighting has given me the strength to escape. A new dark age will again
descend upon the world!”
	Ash still holds Pikachu close to himself as he concludes, “Karasuman was just
using me. Just using us to get free...”
	The dark Pokemon points solemnly at Nina stating, “You. I would have gotten
free much sooner, but you have caused me the most delays.”
	Ash swiftly puts his Pokemon down and runs towards the other trainer.
	“Crunch,” the fiend states as a single black scythe is thrown down.
	The young trainer jumps in front of Nina to shield her as the attack comes
quickly down. Right before it hits, Pikachu jumps in between the attack and his trainer. A
loud “Crunch” rings out as the electric type takes the full force of the blow.
	Ash falls to his knees letting his Pokemon drop into his arms. The Pokemon just
lies there silent and unresponding. Ash cries out, “NO!! I Can’t Lose You Again,
Pikachu!!”
	At the same time, Avery runs up yelling, ”You Monster!!” It throws its
forepaws to one side building up its Lunar Crusher.
	Karasuman’s large green aura shows itself as he concentrates it into a single
attack. After landing on a nearby rooftop, the energy build up from the beast’s attack
cracks the walls of the building causing some of its bricks to fall to the street below. The
fiend simply states, “This is the end. I’m going to kill you all now.”
	Before starting the energy blast, Nina’s Pokemon powers up into Shin-Avery for
an increased Lunar Crusher.
	Overhead, the dark Pokemon lets the handful of green energy go saying,
“Shadow Ball.”
	Right after, the white Katsumi lets it own attack go with a loud, “Rowr!” The
feline’s energy wave connects with the palm sized attack, and it instantly inflates to the
size of the building that Karasuman is standing. Now Avery’s attack looks like a piece of
thread compared to the huge Shadow Ball.
	Nina’s Pokemon stands there firm with both paws forward trying to deflect the
attack, but it slowly inches further and further. The fiend stands similarly on top of the
building laughing lowly at the Pokemon below. All the while, his palm is held shaking
forward pushing his attack down with dark power. 
	Magik arrives at Avery’s left side powering up into a Shin-Katsumi as well. With
a short delay, Skripter’s Pokemon throws both paws forward yelling, “Raging
Destroyer!” The attack connects with the Shadow Ball, but it only slows down the
destructive force’s decent.
	The white feline gives out an almost surprised, ”Magik!”
	Karasuman laughs even louder with his attack slowly descending on his victims. 
	Ash’s attention is brought back as his Pikachu fidgets in his arms. The little
yellow Pokemon gives out a low, ”avery... magik...”
	Concentrating as hard as he can, Skripter’s Pokemon thinks to himself, “I need...
more power...”
	Next to him, the white Katsumi thinks, “If only we had some more help.”
	It is then, that everyone’s ears pick up someone saying, “Don’t give up on
yourselves!”
	Behind the pair of Katsumi, Nina’s eyes grow wide as she says in a hushed tone,
“Father.”
	Another voice says strongly, “Use all the power you’ve got! Be strong! You can
beat him!”
	Magik fights the urge to look back as he says, “Artemis.”
	Rob Mare walks up just in front of the two trainers, as his white Katsumi walks
past him, stopping between the pair of Katsumi. The feline bursts into a blue Shin
power-up with no real effort while slowly putting both paws to one side.
	Artemis builds up an attack similar to Avery and Magik’s while Karasuman looks
down in surprise only saying, “Artemis!”
	The feline shoots both paws forward with a loud, “Phoenix Clash!” The attack
that Magik and Avery were using looks like it doubles in width, but the huge Shadow
Ball only appears to stop.
	Rob yells to the Pokemon, “Magik, you can do better! Avery, you, too!” 
	The Shadow Ball sits just above the group as Artemis tells his companions, “You
can’t let Karasuman defeat you!” You can beat him without me!” After that, the attack
slowly begins to go back.
	The dark Pokemon starts laughing again as he shoots off another smaller Shadow
Ball at his own causing its base to hit the street. Now the attack is mere meters from the
group threatening to swallow them all.
	Just a ways off, Ash yells, “Pikachu!” as his Pokemon breaks free from his
trainer’s grasp. 
	The electric type builds up one final attack thinking, “Isn’t there anything we
can do to stop him?” Ash’s Pokemon lets out a single Thunderbolt to the opposite
side of the Shadow Ball missing the attack entirely. The small yellow Pokemon faints to
the asphalt street thinking, ”Why can’t we make this end?”
	Karasuman shoots off another three Shadow Balls at his own when they are
intersected by Pikachu’s Thunderbolt.
	Right away, Artemis yells, “NOW!!”
	After a piercing, “ROWR!” the three Katsumi increase their attack doubling the
now huge beam. The new energy drills into the Shadow Ball shattering it to pieces. 
	The dark Pokemon yells, “No!!” while shooting out more individual Shadow
Balls at the oncoming attack. Each blast hits the energy wave but does not slow it down
one bit. In one final effort, Karasuman wraps himself in a Barrier stopping the attack for
a moment before it overwhelms him shooting him off into the night sky. 
	Everyone hears the fiend yell, “Damn You All!” before the last of his body is
burned into dust in the Earth’s atmosphere. The group looks on at the last of the energy
beam as it twinkles in the sky before disappearing into space.
	Avery and Magik turn back into normal Katsumi with everyone giving a sigh of
relief. It is then, that the trainers begin looking around when they notice that Rob and
Artemis are gone.
	Nina looks back at the sky saying to herself, “Dad, you saved us.”
	Just as Ash walks up with his fainted Pikachu, Skripter and Magik begin to leave.
Soon, Tracy and Misty find the two trainers as the Pokemon watcher comments, “After
all of the commotion we came to find you right away .”
	The group of trainers begins to walk away with Ash telling them, “It’s probably
best that you didn’t find us until it was over.”
	Still walking in the opposite direction, Skripter says lowly, “Well, Nina, I guess
we’ll settle the score some other time.”
	It looks like Nina has buried the hatchet, and has decided to go along with
the group again. The small band of trainers has lost a lot of time. Now it is back to
Johto and its eight badges in order to compete in the Johto League. It is hard to say
who will come out on top.