3. Chapter III: Leaf Fire (1/2)

a/n: i'm back! sorry for the long wait, i've been cele

ating the holidays. a very belated merry christmas and a happy new year to everyone. i also had midterms this past week which are now over, thankfully. and a late happy birthday for shadow-cat-pokemon. this chapter's for you! check out her art on deviantart, she's amazing!

once again, this is a crossover fanfic between pokémon and kingdom hearts. i will be using elements from both the pokémon special manga books, the pokémon anime and the pokémon games. please keep that in mind while reading. i hope you all enjoy :3

main pairings: lea x isa, rokushi, naminé x repliku. there may be vaniven and kairi x ienzo later on as well.

full summary: lea is a trainer out for adventure and on the run from a criminal gang. xion is a young healer who loves and cares for pokémon. roxas is a pokémon

eeder and competes in contests which is everything xion is against. ven is a lab assistant who prefers staying in the lab to fieldwork. vanitas is a wild ruffian and thief who loves observing pokémon in the wild. kairi is a trainer and thief who loves trading pokémon and making deals. ienzo is a boy who is very sickly, but has a close connection to pokémon and can talk to them and calm them. and isa, the grandson of professor oak, just wanted a normal life! instead he found himself caught up in a huge adventure that spanned across the regions of the pokémon universe...and it's all that redhead's fault! the fighter, the healer, the

eeder, the researcher, the conqueror, the evolver, the calmer and the trainer...all eight are needed to save the regions of kanto, johto and hoenn from destruction!

mary dermia - thank you for the review. you were spot on with the pokémon roxas will have xd as for the others, you will just have to wait and see ;d you had some good suggestions for pokémon teams, though, so i'll take them into consideration :3 i'm glad you are enjoying the story so far.

no gears (lea) - as always, thanks for all the support. all your questions will be answered, i promise ;) and don't worry, i'll see to lea getting that meowth, because he's gonna need all the poké he can get. thanks, and i'm glad to hear you like it.

xion: purplepantherxvi does not own anything! onto the story :3

intro iii

"as much as i dislike saying it, i need you." xigbar frowned at the man in the shadows. the two were in a dark chamber. in the back of the room, a man was sitting on a chair, his face obscured in the darkness.

"really? the great xiggy needs me?" the voice exclaimed, laughing. "well, this is a first."

"you're still no better than a dusk." xigbar scoffed. "but this...mission...requires someone like you. i wouldn't consider that a compliment, just so you know."

"i'm honored to be chosen for this mission, xiggy!" the voice chuckled. "so, what is it you need me to do? nothing too hard, i hope."

"i need you to..." he was cut off as the doors to the room flew open.

"number ii!" a dusk cried, running into the chamber and panting heavily.

"one moment, i'm finishing a meeting! you should know better than to disrupt me!" xigbar roared back at the dusk who cowered before his superior.

"i'm sorry, number ii. but it's an emergency! one of our men spotted the boys! and they're with a girl now, too."

"excellent." xigbar smiled, and turned to the figure. "it's your time to shine. i'll send you the details of your mission later, okay? and be sure not to hurt anyone too badly...i know how you can get."

"i'll keep that warning in mind, number ii. though i find it funny, seeing as you're the one who was willing to destroy a forest to try and get that lea kid." the voice mused.

"exactly." xigbar grinned. "i want to be the one to do the job." with that, he vanished into a dark portal, leaving behind the shaking dusk and the dark figure.

"no fair xiggy! you have to share." the voice whined, then smiled. "oh well, i'm curious to see what these orders of yours are...it could be fun, right? plus i wanted to see what those kids you're obsessed with are like..."

chapter 3: leaf fire

"where are we going?" xion asked as the trio. the three were walking down route 2 after leaving viridian forest and bidding farewell to xion's friends.

"pewter city!" lea exclaimed, smiling. isa looked at him, a look of surprise on his face.

"isn't that where one of the pokémon gyms are?" isa asked. "aren't those places where you can test your strength against a powerful trainer?"

"yep!" lea smiled. "after watching you battle, we really need to get you some serious training isa, or the organization'll kick our butts." he turned to look down at xion. "hey little girl-"

"it's xion!" she cried, slapping him.

"ow!" he rubbed his face. "how are your pokémon in battle, if those little things can even fight?" he asked, looking down at bulbasaur and caterpie who were held snugly in the arms of their trainer, sorry, friend as she called herself.

"oh...i-i don't like to fight much..." xion said, blushing and looking down. "but ivy can use synthesis and heal!" she smiled.

"ivy? your bulbasaur?" isa asked.

"uh-huh!" xion nodded happily. "ivy and kitty!"

"weird...you nickname your pokémon..." lea muttered, earning a glare from isa and a slap from ivy the bulbasaur.

"you even taught your pokémon to slap me..." he muttered, glaring at the little green pokémon who stared back at him.

"it's perfectly normal to call my friends by their names!" she yelled at lea, then frowned as if puzzled. "and why are you staring at ivy like that?"

"alright, settle down." lea smiled, ruffling her hair to her annoyance and acting as if he hadn't just gotten into a staring contest with a pokémon. "look, kid. if you're gonna join us on our journey, you're gonna need to learn to fight, got it memorized?"

"fine..." she muttered, then perked up. "what makes you think i can't fight?"

"weren't you the one who just said you couldn't?" lea exclaimed, ducking another slap from the girl's bulbasaur. "jeez, cut that out!"

"i challenge you to a pokémon battle!" xion cried, setting her pokémon down and pointing at him with her index finger phoenix wright-style. "i will prove my usefulness to you, and you will be forced to

ing me along on your adventure!"

"whatever...i'll even only use my two weaker pokémon to give you an advantage." lea sighed. "alright, go growlithe!"

"go kitty!" xion cried, and the caterpie leaped to action. the little caterpillar looked up at the puppy pokémon who nudged the little green creature with its nose. it nipped the growlithe on the nose causing it to howl in pain and shoot a dirty look at lea.

"what?" the redhead grumbled. "don't tell me you're mad at me, too. okay, growlithe, use...hey, isa! where are you going?" yelled lea, noticing the bluenette hadn't said much this chapter.

"i'm getting some popcorn. this should be interesting." stated isa, munching on a bowl of popcorn.

"where did you get that?" lea demanded as xion took a handful from the bowl and fed it to her pokémon.

"in a random pokéball lying around. anyway, carry on with the battle." isa waved, shooing lea away from the bowl. "i want to see you defeated."

"you seriously think i'm gonna be beaten by a little girl with a grass and a bug pokémon?" lea exclaimed. "after all we've been through. after all the great things i've done!"

"you destroyed my town..."

"and the forest my friends and i share!" xion piped up.

"i thought we weren't blaming me for that anymore!" lea shot back. "this is getting us nowhere..." he grumbled. "growlithe, ember!"

"kitty, stringshot." xion commanded. a thin string shot from the caterpie's mouth, but was quickly charred by the ember.

"now growlithe, use bite!" the small puppy leapt on kitty, baring its fangs. the caterpie quickly ducked however, dodging the blow. growlithe turned to attack again, but found it couldn't move.

"what?" lea demanded, looking at growlithe. "growlithe, what's wrong? get up!" the puppy pokémon struggled to move, but couldn't. "grr..." he turned to glare at xion who just smiled innocently back. "alright, growlithe, ember!"

a flame shot from the pokémon's mouth. it was unable to reach kitty, however, who was sitting on a rock by xion. lea turned back to look at growlithe before looking back at xion.

"what's going on?" he demanded.

"string." xion answered happily.

"string...?" lea asked.

"while you were busy trying to bite caterpie, it used stringshot to immobilize growlithe." isa explained from his seat nearby. "the string is keeping growlithe from moving."

"well, then we'll just use ember and burn it off! growlithe, ember!" lea commanded, grinning. the puppy shot a flame from its mouth, but yelped as the flame just ended up burning it. (2)

"stringshot prevents growlithe from moving. and if you try and burn or rip the stringshot, you'll only hurt growlithe." xion explained, walking over to growlithe and patting its head before removing the string from around it. "i know you would never endanger your friend, and so you're unable to do anything about the string. that way, growlithe can't attack kitty, so kitty doesn't have to fight growlithe."

"that's crazy!" lea cried, shaking his head. "you can't win pokémon battles by immobilizing the other pokémon!"

"i'll admit it's a smart strategy." isa interrupted. "but xion, why not attack and defeat your opponent?"

"'cause then growlithe would be hurt!" xion exclaimed. "and we can't have that, right? this way, kitty doesn't have to fight and nobody has to be hurt. she can just immobilize the organization's pokémon, and since they care for them, they won't attempt to rip off the string and hurt their friends in the process."

"xion...it doesn't work that way..." lea muttered, looking down.

"huh?" xion asked. "why not? it worked fine! i won, right? growlithe can't fight! and isn't winning making the other team unable to fight?"

"look! unlike me and most normal people, the organization doesn't care for pokémon as friends!" lea shouted. "they do terrible things to pokémon! they use them to do bad acts and hurt others!"

"b-but...even if they're using pokémon for wrong things, doesn't mean they don't care for them, right..." xion whimpered, looking up at lea. he refused to meet her gaze.

"the organization...if you used that trick on them...they wouldn't care if their pokémon had to rip off their skin along with the string. they don't care who they hurt, pokémon or person, to achieve their goal. they torture pokémon, experiment on them, all to make them stronger and more powerful."

"stop it!" xion screamed, covering her ears and collapsing. "that's impossible!" tears streamed down her face. "no matter how evil...no matter...lance said that even the worst people still love pokémon! that's what unites us all! nobody could do that to our friends! nobody!"

"isa, do something!" cried lea, looking down at xion.

"i-this is your fault!" isa shot back. "what am i supposed to do?"

"something!" lea exclaimed, flailing his arms. "get her to stop crying!"

"it's your fault she's crying in the first place!" isa yelled. "why did you go and tell her all that? she's just a kid!"

"what was i supposed to do, lie? like your family did to you?" lea demanded. isa snapped his head up and lunged at the older boy.

"hey, stop fighting!" a man's voice cried, and the two boys turned to look. a dirty blond haired man ran in, wearing a black cloak. he pulled the two away from each other. "look, fighting's bad." the man smiled, laughing. "especially if you're fighting with your friends."