Chapter Three: Cipher Admin – Pink Surprise

A/N: Yes, Lovrina is back. :D She's still a little ditsy, and could probably compete with Jessie for hair length alone…that's an idea, now…

Also, I figured it was time for Ash and friends to really meet the most evilest organization in the world, yep. The grammar mistake is intentional :).

This chapter is named after the only PokeBlock in the world that can fill up a Munchlax. No wonder that one in Gale of Darkness keeps stealing Michael's PokeSnacks…

Random crap – I don't like it when people use chat-speak. Usually, it takes me longer to read things that include it, which I find annoying. It's much better for people if they get into the habit of typing out the full word. And less of an eyesore for me.


Later in the night, Michael found that all of them had fallen asleep where they sat from their long discussion from last night. While in another context the thought might have been funny, he was just too tired to bother with it. Going to bed at one in the morning was not something he practiced regularly. Now, it was barely five.

He sighed. Now that they knew about him, would they turn on him? Turn him into this region's Officer Jenny, perhaps? The thought was not at all comforting, and he didn't really know enough about them to trust them to remain silent.

He got up and started to head to the bathroom. It was still too early to do anything, such as eat a large breakfast.

At least Jovi won't do something like that, he thought in an effort to console himself. However, even that sentiment died before any comforting sensation could sink in.

He reached the bathroom, and eyed his likeness in the mirror. His reflection looked tired, as it well might. He'd dealt with too much stress during his short life, and only now were the signs beginning to show.

As the linkage for his previous major thought hit, he gripped the sides of the sink until his fingers began to protest at the pressure.

He hadn't told her why or how their father had died. He had been seven at the time, and their father had been killed within a block of their house. Jovi had been asleep, but Michael hadn't. He'd heard screaming, and, in the stupidity of that age, merely gone to his mother for reassurance that it was just a nightmare. She told him as much, though she had looked strained, and told him to go back to bed.

It hadn't been.

In hindsight, though, if he had gone out to investigate, he might not be alive today. Cipher wasn't exactly famed for compassion in any form.

He supposed that that was why he was chosen to use the Snag Machine. Enough suppressed hate had gathered in him to kill any mercy he might have felt when he Snagged a Cipher peon's Shadow Pokemon, and it was a sort of indirect revenge.

If they took his father, he'd take away their power.

Despite confronting the Cipher boss on Citadark Isle, he never brought up what drove him to take them down at any cost. Even his own life.

He knew, somehow, that Greevil had nothing to do with his father's death, and that had spared the man from a rather brutal beating. He also knew that Nascour, or perhaps even Evice, had had a hand in everything, but he was beyond worrying about it now.

He was a long way from them, from most problems he was familiar with. If that was so, why was he so miserable?

Brock had reacted badly to the reality of Orre, as he had expected. But after Michael explained everything, he was surprised to find that the older boy had been more sympathetic than anything.

Ash, May, and Max had been downright stunned. Clearly, they were too inexperienced to think of Pokemon thievery as ever being a widespread crime. Michael had, however, seen the old papers from the rest of the regions. They had once had problems like that until each region's Elite Four had come into their own and squashed the criminals out of society.

It would have worked out fine, if Orre had had an Elite Four of its own. Orre's Mt. Battle leaders were as close as they could get, but with all ten concentrated in one place, it was hopeless.

All he wanted now was… and there his mind drew a blank.

He didn't really have much of a reason to keep going on with Snagging, or even being a Pokemon trainer at all. He'd never felt like competing for Gym badges (he wasn't very competitive), or battling at all unless he needed to achieve something. He hadn't favored Contests, since they were really only judging how flashy a Pokemon could be, and the idea of a being a Breeder seemed out of the question in Orre.

He felt so…useless.

What was the purpose of a Snagger without an evil organization to take down? With his luck, those morons from last night were just remnants of the group he'd taken out. After retrieving the last of the Shadow Pokemon from them, his point in this would be over.

Michael sighed again, regarding his haggard reflection with no expression on his face.

"With any luck, the world will never need someone like me after this."

It wasn't the best conclusion he could have come up with, but for now, it would have to do.


However, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong with him.

When Jovi saw her brother come out of the bathroom down the first hall, she pretended to be asleep. She could guess where his train of thought had led him. The lost, old look on his face had been hint enough.

Jovi sighed inwardly. Clearly, he was well into one of those 'moods' again. He wouldn't come out of it for weeks if she didn't help.

Michael really was too hard on himself. Before their father had died, he'd been very pleasant and even a bit of a pushover. For a while afterwards, he had been even more insecure than some of the Shadow Pokemon he spent time trying to heal. Then, after taking down Cipher, he'd been so deep into a bout of depression that he'd locked himself in his room for almost a day.

Now, she thought she knew why.

Michael had never talked about his journey to her, or to their mother. Whenever it came up, he'd abruptly leave the room with a hastily made excuse, and disappear for hours. Jovi had thought that he'd just been tired.

Now she knew better. Michael must have been scared, terrified, of how close he'd come to leaving them forever. He'd almost joined the ranks of the many that'd died trying to stall or destroy Cipher.

At that thought, Jovi almost cried. She'd come within a hair of losing her big brother, and she'd never have known if he hadn't said as much.

She remembered how quiet he'd been, how his eyes used to darken whenever he looked at Professor Crane, their mom, or her. He seemed to be trying to fix the image of them, happy and carefree, in his mind so he could fight whatever horrors his mind could conjure.

He did have nightmares. Despite them being in different rooms, she could tell. They came so often that she was regularly awake in the wee hours of the morning, trying to will him peace for the night. It almost never worked.

Worst of all, she couldn't do a thing to help.

But last night had seemed special. He hadn't even twitched, and his breathing was even once he'd nodded off for the night.

Maybe the answer to Michael's hidden demons were these four travelers, who'd had the courtesy not to judge to quickly, and to give her big brother a chance.

Her eyes were shut in feigned sleep, so she only felt her brother settle down near her, ready to wait out the rest of the night.

He tried so hard, only to feel as though he'd failed. Jovi wished she could end that feeling for him, but she knew that she couldn't. He'd have to figure that out for himself, she admitted sadly to herself.

Her acting skills, Jovi was proud to admit, were much better than average. As Michael moved onto the floor with his blanket and mat (snatched from a large pile near Nurse Joy's front counter), Jovi let her hand drift out and settle on his shoulder.

Michael didn't brush it off, and it wasn't long before peaceful slumber took hold of her brother once more. When he didn't stir or whimper in his sleep for several minutes, Jovi allowed herself to drift off as well.

The entire night passed without her removing her hand.


When May woke up at around ten, she almost jumped off of the couch she'd been so comfortably curled on. Instead, she stared at the two siblings sleeping across from her.

Jovi was curled in the corner of a section of the couch. Her blue hair was messy and one of the buns had dismantled itself, and her mouth was slightly open as she lay there on her side. One of her arms was dangling off the edge of the couch, and May followed it with her eyes.

Michael was lying on the ground next to Jovi, and her hand was resting on his shoulder. His headband was off, and so was his yellow vest, as well as the Snag Machine. He looked like he hadn't moved an inch since whenever he'd fallen asleep, and finally seemed not to be stressed at all.

At that moment, Jovi's eyes snapped open.

The younger girl simply looked at May, her eyes not saying anything. May abruptly felt self-conscious and began digging around for her bandanna.

"Be quiet please," Jovi whispered. "He doesn't get a lot of sleep."

May nodded, though she was still very confused. Why didn't Michael get a lot of sleep?

Jovi slowly retracted her hand from her brother's shoulder, and sat up. Her blue jacket was lying across the back of the couch, and her shoes were about a foot or two away, but she made no move to retrieve either.

As silent as could be, the two girls padded across the linoleum to the bathrooms.

"Jovi, why-?" she started, holding up a finger to emphasize her point.

Jovi cut her off, surprising May with her forcefulness. "Jovi knows that no matter how Michael acts, he was scared, very scared. Big brother fought one of the meanest, strongest Pokemon trainers in the whole wide world. Then, as soon as he wins by pushing himself to the limit, some bad man says that they should kill him."

May froze, her jaw hanging a ways below her upper one. To face that kind of thing, at that age…it was like a concept out of a corny action movie.

Jovi's blue eyes darkened. "Jovi almost lost two very important people to Cipher. Jovi will do everything needed to make sure Jovi does not lose big brother, understand?"

"I…" How was she supposed to respond to that?

"Jovi knows that Cipher will never stop coming after big brother, as long as they have the numbers and power," the blue-haired girl murmured, turning away. "Because of that, Jovi will follow him and keep him safe."

May found very pertinent questions somewhere underneath all the fuzz from a long sleep. "How can you do that? What makes you so sure they'll keep coming?"

As the two continued on to the bathroom, they could distinctively hear the sounds of the boys rousing. Jovi appeared not to notice. Instead, her attention was still on May.

"Jovi knows that Cipher will always look for the Snag Machine." Jovi whirled around, and May was almost scared of the shorter girl for a minute. "They don't have one, and Team Snagem was gone five years ago. They also…they will want to get back at him for beating them. Jovi will never let them hurt big brother again."

May felt relieved when Ash bumbled into the conversation, breaking the tense mood.

"What're you two talking about?" he asked, clueless as usual.

"Jovi is hungry!" the blue-haired girl broke in loudly, not giving May a chance to say anything.

Ash blinked groggily at her, then brightened at the suggestion of getting food. May inwardly groaned – trust men to think with their stomachs. "Yeah, so am I. Wanna get something?"

Jovi tapped her shin thoughtfully, as if running through all the memories of restaurants she'd seen in the past several days. "Jovi wants pancakes."

It took the two about five seconds to narrow down where they wanted to go. Then they were gone in a whirl of blue.

That left everyone else standing in the commons with identical blank expressions on their faces.

"Is she usually like that?" Max asked Michael confusedly.

Michael nodded, sighing. "When we were younger, she was always sneaking off to Professor Kaminko's house, sometimes to bother him and others to bother Chobin. Usually, I was the one who had to go get her back."

"Who's Professor Kaminko? Is he famous in Orre, like Professor Oak is here?" May asked, scratching her bandanna-less head. She yawned, and then so did Brock.

Michael looked faintly embarrassed. "Actually, he's not famous at all. I only know he even exists because Jovi introduced him when we were six. Instead of the 'for the good of mankind and Pokemon' things you'd expect, he makes a lot of just plain stupid stuff."

Brock seemed to blink. "Like what?"

"Among other things, special sandals designed to make your feet hurt, a light bulb that uses double the energy of normal ones and an energy-saving refrigerator that turns off whenever you close the door." Michael rattled off with a grin, absently looking for his headband. It has to be around here somewhere… "Chobin's his devoted apprentice, who's a lot like a groupie, now that I think of it." At their surprise, he shrugged and added, "Orre gets whatever weird people the other regions don't want, I think."

Michael finally found his headband, under about five inches of who-knows-what that seemed to be a common part of the life of travelers – no organizational skills.

He didn't really react to their sudden, uproarious laughter; he looked at the three of them as if they were crazy, and continued the search for his vest, which was also missing. Eventually, he gave it up as a lost cause (they were too messy for their own good) and just put on the Snag Machine.

"Won't that look a bit odd?" May burst out, unable to hold her opinion any longer.

Michael paused for a second. Just one. "No more than it usually does."

Fashion sense aside, those goons from the previous knight could be a sign that there were still Shadow Pokemon out there. He made a mental note to E-Mail Nett about an updated Shadow List. Though he had to admit, the Snag Machine would stick out more.

Max snorted. "You look like you're wearing a high-tech baseball mitt."

"Maybe," the redhead considered with a wry grin, "but I'll take the risk."

There was a bit more nagging, which Michael failed to take seriously, and eventually, the four of them left the Pokemon center. However, Michael, for one, was not stupid enough to leave his Pokemon here unattended. In exchange for practically telling the four his life's story, they had given him a rather rushed (though exceptionally detailed) account of what they'd been through over the last few months, years, days, or whatever.

It seemed as though his new friends' fears of Pokemon thieves were well-founded. During their long and involved retelling, with contributions from everyone, Michael learned that the three he'd seen before were Team Rocket, representatives of a bigger group of Pokemon thieves.

Fortunately, the three – Jessie, James, and Meowth – were more bumbling idiots than anything, and screwed up even more experienced Pokemon thieves' plans. Explained how they'd crashed their balloon.

After a bit, the remaining quartet shuffled out the door to find the other two.

It wasn't really hard.

Like usual, Jovi had chosen a place so saturated with sugary food that it was a wonder the place hadn't been eaten yet. It was a pastry bakery crossed with a restaurant. It was a dentist's worst nightmare.

"Of course…" Michael muttered, eyes pulsing painfully at the pink-and-white tiled floor as they strode in. "Leave it to Jovi to pick a place like this."

Abruptly, there was a sound that was a lot like an alarm. To say that it was loud was no understatement, but it certainly didn't help that it had a high, irritating pitch. Michael pressed his hands over his ears in an attempt to stifle it, eyes slamming shut in pain.

When he opened them, he realized that storm of people were pressing past him, past the door, and towards City Hall.

His eyes darkened at the thought that it might have been the city's natural disaster alarm.

Noting that Jovi was only a bit ahead of him, having gone on without once considering who was around her, he followed.


Michael didn't really have to look all that far. The main crowd was barely a meter away from the lighthouse, which apparently doubled as a meeting point during cautionary alerts. He found Brock, May, and Max straggling in one part of the mass, while Ash and Jovi were rediscovered on the other side.

Once they were all together, they looked up at the mayor of Slateport City, a portly man with a suit that just had to be made-to-order, and with a large, obviously fake toupee. Michael wondered, in a detached sort of way, how this idiot had managed to become a mayor of any city beyond a population of two.

He mostly tuned out the mayor's speech – it didn't really concern him all that much, and he didn't like hearing politicians talk. Their double-language was as clear to him as words in a picture book, so he was more than a little disgusted when he listened to them.

"– and because of the recent activity of the criminal league Cipher," Michael's head snapped up and he paid attention at this, "the Pokemon Contest Grand Festival has been postponed until further notice, as well as the Ever Grande City Pokemon League."

The cries of the dissenters in the crowd were just deafening. It certainly didn't help that both May and Ash were in that group and were screaming in his ear.

Even as Michael clapped his hands to his ears to stifle the sound, he was aware of two other people fast approaching their little group. One was taller than Brock. He had purple hair and green eyes. His fashion sense was apparently a minor, mostly dead part of his brain. What other kind of idiot would wear a Cacturne outfit? Michael wasn't even sure that that person was a man.

The second, however, was recognized with despair. It was that guy, Drew, who had a hitherto-unknown crush on May. He clearly hadn't changed at all from yesterday, aside from the downright thunderous scowl he wore. Better not mess with him today, Michael thought anxiously.

He couldn't really see why everyone was so worked up over a few cancelled events. What was the big deal of not carrying out a Pokemon Contest in favor of protecting everyone's Pokemon? It was just that sort of attitude that would get him in trouble if he didn't try figuring things out, and soon.

"Well, May, it seems as though I won't have the pleasure of beating you in the Grande Festival now," the tall guy said in a strangely high voice.

May growled. "We'll just see about that, Harley! I could beat you anytime, anywhere!"

Before things could escalate, Michael waved his hands in a 'calm down' motion. "There's no reason to fight over something like that, May." He eyed Drew with a speculative look. The green-haired Coordinator was still giving him the evil eye. There had to be some reason why he was so angry at him.

Acting on a hunch, he sidestepped a few paces away from May and turned his back on her, apparently looking for something. He was right, it seemed; Drew stopped glaring at him, if only slightly.

Michael smiled inwardly – he didn't like anyone that way just yet. He would prefer someone who wasn't so excitable. Though he had to admit that May was a nice enough girl, she was a bit too hyper for someone as serious as him to tolerate for long. Besides, she seemed to think of Drew the same way he thought of her, though neither was brave enough to admit it.

So it looked like, for now, that he would have to deal with being unattached to anyone short of his family.

It was a good thing that he wasn't spacing like the rest of them were. Michael felt an unnatural chill in the air long before the others did. He turned back to his friends, instantly concerned. Drew noticed next, his jade eyes snapping up to lock with Michael's near-identical ones.

Michael made no obvious move, but he had already recognized the sensation as the aura of a Shadow Pokemon. After Snagging so many of them from Cipher, he had gained the ability to sense their presence, since there was something wholly unnerving about it. A Shadow Pokemon's aura radiated sorrow and sometimes anger, but mostly dull, blank hopelessness. It was one of those feelings that made one want to comfort whoever broadcasted it. Unless, of course, you were on the receiving end of a Shadow attack.

Then you were only interested in fleeing with your extremities intact.

Without breaking the staring contest with Drew, Michael's right hand went to his belt. He pulled off two Pokeballs, and gave a low whistle.

Jovi froze. She slowly changed her gaze from May's face to Michael's, and noticed the two Pokeballs he had out.

His sister took a huge breath and shouted, "There's a sale in the marketplace! The Energy Guru is selling his products for half-price!"

That cleared out the crowd. Within minutes, the only people still standing in front of the lighthouse were Michael, Jovi, their little entourage, and the very confused mayor. The latter soon left, too.

Harley, the one with the Cacturne outfit, walked up to Jovi, a look of mock surprise and suspicion on his face. "Now, honey, why did you go and do that? It's not very nice to lie." The guy's tone was so sneering that it made Michael's ears hurt, but he had more important things to focus on.

"But Jovi wasn't lying." Jovi replied, looking confused as she furrowed her brow like a child born to deceit. "Energy Guru is selling Proteins and Zincs and stuff for half-price."

Quite suddenly, Harley was gone, too. Everyone was pretty sure they could still see the little dust cloud he'd left behind. He didn't particularly mind that Drew had stayed; he seemed to have a decent head on his shoulders and some discretion.

"Finally," drawled a voice that Michael found eccentrically familiar. "The distractions are gone."

Hovering out from behind the lighthouse, piloting a UFO-like craft, was a person Michael had wished he'd never have to see again.

The pink pigtails were completely unmistakable, especially since they hung to the girl's knees. Her light green eyes were lined with heavy black mascara, and her eye shadow was a sickly color, just a shade lighter than the eyes themselves. Her outfit was the same uniform as any of the lower female Cipher Admins – a light blue and white dress with boots so high that they doubled as socks and pants.

The perky, sadistic, yet completely bubblebrained evil scientist otherwise known as Lovrina – Michael's second (and by far the most irritating) opponent within Cipher – was giving him her best glare.

Michael wasn't cowed. He's defeated her twice – once to Snag her Shadow Delcatty, and again to get her Farfetch'd and Altaria, which was in his party at the moment. This wouldn't end any differently. He would beat her again, no matter how much he wished he'd never have to Snag another Pokemon again.


"Hey, it's the twerps." Meowth remarked to his teammates from his vantage point inside the lighthouse. "That redhead twerp's still with them." Team Rocket had taken to calling Ash and his friends by nicknames, none of which were used in the singular term very often. It was always 'twerps'. Ash was the only one who got the title of the singular 'twerp'. May got 'girl twerp' as a title.

Now there were two more twerps – the 'redhead twerp' and that 'blue twerp'.

In addition, the weird lady in the UFO with pink hair was bothering them. As was their way, Team Rocket simply could not allow a chance to steal Pikachu pass idly by.

Meowth grinned and called to his teammates, who were sleeping a few feet away, "Hey, Jessie, James! Twerps sighted at twelve o'clock!" Which they weren't, since Meowth had never really bothered to figure out which times on a clock meant what.

Instantly, his teammates were up and alert, though looking in the wrong direction. "Your other twelve!"

Jessie huffed and both of them spun around as asked.

Sure enough, it was indeed the twerps (plus one green-haired guy that they couldn't name) facing off against the woman with the pink hair.

Jessie's face split into the freaky smile that her two friends had dubbed "Evil Plotting in Progress". Very little that got in Jessie's way when she wore that look was going to get off unscathed. Well, the twerps were exceptions to that rule.

Meowth watched the ensuing battle with interest – if there was going to be an opportunity to get Pikachu, they were going to be there to seize it.


"So, you're back." Michael remarked coolly, his gaze gone flat and his tone emotionless. He hadn't called out either of his chosen Pokemon – tradition dictated that the challenger released his Pokemon first. Besides, Lovrina was irritating for another reason; she always insisted on ladies first, even though she was about as far from ladylike as such things go.

Lovrina smirked coyly, though her charms were so poor that they didn't even affect Brock. Then she let her internal, eternal whining break through. "No thanks to you, you naughty little boy. Oh, you mean, nasty boy, you don't know how hard I worked on our XD001 Shadow! It was supposed to be impossible to Purify, but you cheated and found a way around it! How very rude."

"The concept of Shadow Pokemon has no reason to exist. They were created to serves as broken-willed tools. I'm rather surprised that you were so foolish to believe that that sort of taint would last very long against the light." Michael gave her a frankly dubious look, with one eyebrow raised in mockery.

At this, Lovrina's look of death returned, and her lips twisted into an undeniably corrupted smirk, one that Michael couldn't remember ever seeing before. He felt his stress level skyrocket. Lovrina had never been a pushover, but she had been the first Cipher Admin he'd fought against. There was a certain degree of caution that was even more needed now, especially since she seemed to have been doing something to her attitude.

"You would know that very well, wouldn't you?" she said in that sickeningly insinuating tone. Michael froze, for once actually hearing real malice and sanity in her voice. "Ever wonder why you never could seem to get along properly with anyone since your father was killed? Ever wonder why you never could feel the peace that was all around you?"

To tell the truth, he had dwelled on it for a time. After that incident, he never had been able to see the full joy in much of anything, nor could he get close to people that he hadn't met before. He'd been alone, mostly, and while Jovi and their mother had tried to help him, there wasn't really anything they could do.

"Michael, look out!" At the sound of Ash's voice, Michael's gaze snapped up from the ground. Instead of seeing Lovrina, as expected, he found himself facing a very aggressive Vileplume and an Absol that did not look like it would object to pulling him apart. It took all of a tenth of a second for Michael to come to the conclusion that dodging was a very, very good idea.

He threw himself out of harm's way, but it would only take a moment for Lovrina's Pokemon to recover from their fall and attack again. Even as he landed on his backside on the cement, he was pulling out the Pokeballs he'd selected earlier and tossing them at the opposition.

Materializing in a burst of white light were a Shadow Lapras and his Shadow Scyther. There was some chance that Lovrina's two Pokemon were Shadows, but he would he preferred it if they weren't. There was simply too much to deal with at once.

Just then, the Aura Reader on his ear went off. It seemed that they were, in fact, Shadows. Looking through the tiny screen, he assessed their levels, types, and obvious weaknesses.

So absorbed was he in contemplating his next move that he forgot how much damage the opposing Shadows could do. As soon as they had regained their bearings, they had rushed Michael's pair too soon for them to react. Sure, Scyther might be able to counterattack in time, but Lapras was much too slow.

She could be hurt, or worse.

At that instant, a massive bolt of electricity, along with a shower of pick flower petals and a blast of spiral-shaped fire engulfed the Absol and the Vileplume. Michael's eyes shot to his side, where he saw Jovi and Ash coordinating their lightning strikes while May and Drew used their Contest attacks to stave off the opponent.

I'm not alone. I don't need to bear the stress alone. Michael grinned; cliché as the thought was, it gave him hope, and enough sense to start charging the two Ultra Balls he needed.

As soon as the smoke from the attacks cleared, Michael flung one of the balls at the Vileplume, who was rather…crispy, for lack of a better term. As soon as he saw the capture's success through, he chucked the second at the Absol. It too was a perfect catch. There was only one problem with this entire arrangement.

Lovrina had fled in the commotion, and now Michael was no closer to getting his answers than he had ever been. What had all that blabbering been about? Vaguely, he heard May and the others assuring Drew of Michael's trustworthiness, though he remained unconvinced.

Brock broke off from them, and joined Michael's search of the skies. "What was that about?" he asked. From his relaxed stance, the taller boy had evidently forgiven him for whatever it was that he had done.

"I know her from fighting Cipher, but I don't know what she wants." Michael shook his head, feeling crushing despair for the first time since his confrontation with Team Snagem at the S.S. Libra's wreck. Now what was he supposed to do? It was true that he still had the Snag Machine and everyone was intact, but…he was still a kid. How could anyone be expected to deal with his father's killers more than once in their life?

There was a long pause between the two, even as the background noises of May and Drew arguing had begun to escalate.

"I can see why you needed to save the Shadow Pokemon by any means possible, though I don't approve of the method." Brock said finally. Michael nodded numbly. He wasn't really paying attention anymore. Though it was still before noon, he wasn't really in the mood to do much of anything anymore.

After a time of not bothering to fill the silence, which wasn't really silent, all things considered, Drew finally decided to confront Michael directly. There hadn't been much to the demand: just a very simple, to-the-point request to speak in private.

Michael decided that he could come to like this other boy, though there was a question of how long they'd get along.


Drew was very, very concerned. It was true that he was a fairly independent and strong-willed person, since he rarely conformed to anything if he could help it. He had been traveling on his own for two solid years after receiving his Roselia as a gift. He trusted his own judgment above all else, except for one little thing.

He liked May. He would never, ever be able to trust his own decision on that particular topic, and was far too stubborn to ask for someone else's opinion. However, today had been a perfect example of his uncompromising personality. This new guy, Michael was clearly a strange person steeped in secrets, though he was a little more like a puzzle box with its key locked inside.

It wasn't that he didn't have any secrets; heck, he had more than the average politician, it was rather like he didn't have any answers, either. Like someone else had stolen his answer sheet.

Upon meeting Michael for the first time, back in Kingler's, Drew had developed a degree of dislike for the boy that was just barely exceeded by his loathing for Harley. He was also a very honest person – Drew would admit that he was jealous of the apparent new object of May's affections.

It was true that Drew was very critical by nature, but he couldn't help but feel as if, on that first meeting, he had missed the point entirely. Michael hadn't been rude or snobbish, just indifferent. From what the pink-haired monster had suggested, it seemed as if the supposed jerk he'd come off as was just because he didn't really know how to act around people.

Drew finally stopped walking when they'd turned the next street corner, which was strangely deserted.

"You wanted to talk?" the redhead asked finally. Drew gave him a long look, and he fell silent.

The green-haired boy had a feeling that Michael was almost as quiet as any mute. He rarely revealed his feelings, Drew surmised, and was still keeping them bottled up until he exploded or something.

Drew wasn't stupid by any means. Even when May had only been telling him how Michael had reacted to the Cipher people earlier, he got the distinct impression that there was a lot of rage behind his façade of nonchalance. A lot of rage that could be released at the drop of a hat, or rather, a Pokeball.

After the tense quiet, Drew inquired, "Who are you?"

That took the other boy by surprise. However, Michael smiled soon after and replied softly, "A lot more than even I know, apparently. I'm sorry, but I can't give you much of an answer when I don't have a clue what it is anymore.

"Up until today, I thought I was Michael of Orre, born in Phenac City to a renowned Pokemon researcher and his wife. At age seven, my father was killed not a block from my house, and while the murderer's affiliation was known, no one would tell me what had happened. When I turned twelve, my friends and family at the Pokemon HQ Lab completed their version of the criminal organization Team Snagem's Snag Machine. I was instructed on the basics, and told to go off and help stop the second-generation Cipher, which consisted of trainers like Lovrina who wanted power.

"I did better than they asked, but…" Michael paused, and then continued to tell Drew of his adventure in Orre while he had fought Cipher. He'd discovered that his father had been murdered by a person who was no longer active in that organization (Drew could only imagine how crushing that must have felt), that his entire world had once been plagued by the sorry creatures known as Shadow Pokemon who had been forced to become such against their will, and that his family was about as for from safe as could be unless he did everything in his power to take them down.

In all, it helped Drew gain a new perspective on this person that he had once thought of as his greatest competition for May's heart. Michael wasn't interested in May, since she simply wasn't his type, but he did want to make sure she was safe, as he would want for any person who wasn't directly involved with Cipher.

Eventually, the discussion was over, and Drew knew that he would need to reevaluate this boy, who had been through too much to possibly despise. He would help Michael, he decided right then and there.

It wasn't as if he had anything better to do, with the Grand Festival cancelled.


A/N: I'm very, very, very sorry about the long wait, but I definitely made this chapter longer! Over six thousand words went into this, so I hope this makes up for the delay.

Ah, who am I kidding? Four months is ridiculous! I will most definitely work harder to not have this happen again, okay?

Thanks for everyone who's stuck with me this far.

Lang Noi, signing out.