Darkness.
Roland walked through it, being careful not to trip on the loose rocks that littered the path. The occasional glow of a lit cigarette grew as he took each puff. It was something he had picked up again.
His pokemon were all put away: This mission required stealth and finesse. Not that his pokemon were incapable of such a thing, but fewer creatures meant fewer mistakes. Lesser chance of being seen. As Roland walked, he reflected upon the past, what he had lost... and gained.
It had all started by surprise one day. Verin, someone Roland had considered a friend, revealed his vicious intent to take control of the PWF and the world itself. A world without light was what he wanted, and he would try to achieve it by any means necessary. Even if it meant killing the creator of the PWF. Even though that attempt failed, it was just the start of this whole troublesome situation.
Verin and his lackeys who called themselves Team Nightwalker had captured Groudon, the legendary pokemon who had the ability to clear skies and let the sun shine forth. Since it could mess with Verin's plan, no better idea than to capture it and prevent it from doing what it would have inevitably done, right? The leader of Team Nightwalker was also after a specific pokemon that was already allied with another member of the PWF: Darkrai, the legendary pokemon of darkness that had allied itself with Topher Skelver, the PWF's dark type E4. Since Toph had allied himself with the PWF resistance force and not Team Nightwalker, Verin set to capture it.
Various random attacks were traded between the two sides, friends became foes. Eventually, an assault was organized against Team Nightwalker on their headquarters. Verin had captured Toph's girlfriend as bait. Roland remembered the night well: It was lead by Toph and himself, each with a different goal in mind. Toph was there to save his love, and Roland was there to capture Groudon. Now, Roland laughed softly to himself at the concept behind that: He had made a premier ball that was specifically designed to enclose around the pokeball Verin had captured Groudon in and fuse with it, making the pokemon inside his to control. Only Roland had succeeded his mission that night...
Time went by without anything from Team Nightwalker. The group disbanded, their leader disappeared. Two years of peace. All shattered in one instant.
Roland had been off at a secret location, training Groudon when the attack happened. When he returned, he found all the citizens of his city dead. Using some sort of malicious psychic power, no doubt through the aid of pokemon, someone had made all of the people within the city jump to their deaths from the rooftops. Roland returned to see the broken bodies and instantly knew who was behind the incident: Verin had returned. Roland Instantly rallied all the PWFers that he could and planned to intercept Verin's next attack. As Roland and his allies flew off to another city they had predicted the next attack would take place in, something had snapped inside Kerri's mind, presumably whatever had made her constantly witch sides in the first incident with Verin. After buying a lot of bombs and other weapons, she blew up the Raging Inferno gym. This brought about the end of the relationship when Roland found out.
Oddly enough, Verin did not attack anything else. It was a simple yet effective strike to keep people aware he was in fact still around and place fear in their hearts.
Since then, some things had happened: Toph, unable to deal with all the stress of running the region and dealing with Team Nightwalker, had passed leadership onto Roland. Roland had also passed up through the ranks to become a member of the Elite 4. Chaos, an old friend of Roland's that had recently appeared during the destruction of Roland's city, was entrusted with the control of Groudon. Roland had another legendary pokemon in mind that he wanted, which explains why he is now climbing a mountain in the middle of the night.
As Roland finished thinking about the past, he sighed softly as he stomped out his cigarette. He reached to his belt and pulled a pokeball from it. Roland was close, he could feel it. In the dim light, he could barely see it, but he didn't need to to see what it was: Another modified premier ball, this one given the guaranteed catch that a master ball offered. Roland could have just used a master ball if he wanted to, but this was all aesthetics: His first pokemon, Arcane, made his home in a premier ball. Roland had picked it specifically. Roland liked the design of the premier ball, so he used it whenever possible.
After a little more travel, Roland came upon his target: The legendary pokemon was resting. Perfect. Now he just needed a clear throw. Roland slowly and carefully climbed over the boulder he was behind for a good throw, but he was not careful enough. A pile of loose rocks at the base of the boulder got kicked over, and the noise awakened the target. With a loud shriek, the pokemon let loose a burst of flame at Roland that he almost didn't dodge before taking to the skies. In one swift move, Roland reached to his belt and released a pokemon capeable of air combat: Din, his Charizard. Though no longer a part of his gym team because of a certain nasty incident which left the pokemon crippled, it would still do the job here. Not much combat was needed, just the ability to dodge attacks and get close enough to throw the pokeball. Roland clambered onto Din's back and the pokemon took to the skies and gave chase.
The Charizard dodged blow after blow, and Roland stayed as close to Din's back as he could to avoid the massive fireballs the legendary pokemon hurled at him. Finally, Din managed to get right above the flying beast, and Roland hurled the pokeball. After being enclosed by the metal capsule, the pokemon tried to free itself, but to no avail. The pokeball fell below and hit the ground, the pokemon safe inside.
Din landed nearby, and Roland retrieved the pokeball with a smile. He had done it, the target was his. "Good job, Din," Roland said as he recalled the pokemon. He then released the legendary pokemon before him and grinned as Ho-oh stood before him in all his massive glory. The legendary bird shrieked to the sky again, then fell silent and stared at Roland. After a few seconds of this, Roland climbed onto Ho-oh's back and flew down the mountain, one step closer to being able to take out Team Nightwalker.
