SPINNING Chapter 4: SPINNING - 04, a pokémon fanfic

A/N: I do not own Pokemon, nor any of the characters, places, etc. mentioned in this fanfiction. And I don't know how to properly write a girl's feelings.
(Proper acknowledgements will be made after the ending of the story to prevent spoilers.)

Thanks to AquilaTempestas, MismatchedSocks, lancexlyra4ever and pokefan for reviewing!

EDIT: And DIAForce, you can't just leave a ghost review without replying to my PMs! You tease! :P

EDIT2: AAAUGH, an entire scene was missing! This is terrible! What's the use of a "cheat sheet" if it doesn't even have the answers?! There, now it's fixed!

This chapter pretty much spells out everything for you, like a cheat sheet (if you couldn't figure out the identity of the culprit from the first three chapters), which means a lot of clues were jammed together to fit. Luckily it still turned out coherent(?).

Still hope you'll continue to enjoy this (late) Valentines Day fic! This chapter is the longest one yet, and was a real monster to edit.

Characters:

Lyra
The protagonist. Lyra's quite easygoing, and tends to let people lead her off in different directions or get her to do things for them, but despite this she always manages to come out on top. She has been reminiscing about her past adventures with Lance all throughout the morning. Ever since Lyra was a kid, she would engage in intense yet friendly competition with Ethan, and her sense for logical thinking is slowly and surely returning.

Ethan
Lyra's best friend of twelve years. His greatest weakness is cleaning his bedroom. Admitted to Lyra that he didn't trust Lance, and encouraged her to ask help from an additional person. Surprisingly an introvert, though much more outgoing and friendly to peers and strangers alike compared to his younger years. He also gets along with Silver amazingly well, perhaps it's because they're both intellectuals? He has known Lyra since they were kids, and her friendship means a lot to him. Other people? Not as much.

Lance
The object of Lyra's affections, and said affections are mutual. He is a cunning sadist with good publicity, successfully restraining his darker whims through sheer force of will and self-discipline, all to become the worthy clan heir he needs to be. He and Silver aren't so different deep down, in that he is willing to go great lengths to reach his goals which is why he is constantly at odds with the teenage thug. Asked Silver to join their quest for Lyra's sake, but also admitted that he'd rather not have the boy tag along if it were up to him.

Silver
Lyra's bitter rival turned token cynical friend. Suspects Morty of being the secret sender. Is on surprisingly good terms with Ethan; it's a mystery how they got along so well in the first place! Silver isn't aware of Lance's deceitful side yet; he just thinks of the older man as some stuck-up white knight-wannabe. Surprisingly, he's also well-read: just how many "ordinary" people have the entire periodic table of elements memorized like he has? His brash way of speaking noticeably fades away when he's explaining or rationalizing things.

Whitney
The bubbly Goldenrod City Gym Leader, and Lyra's friend. Is constantly astounded by both Lyra's and Lance's slightly sociopathic views on love. What was she arguing about with Morty in the employee parking lot so early in the morning? And why did she think giving Lyra a pair of handcuffs was a good idea?!

Morty
Ecruteak City's Gym Leader. Was last seen getting challenged by Silver to a Pokemon battle. Has yet to actually interact with Lyra directly.

SPINNING - 04

"With You In Time There's Nothing Else"

Find me.

That was what the card had said.

No matter how many times Lyra turned the card over and over in her hands there would be nothing else to see. It was just a plain white card with two words hand printed neatly on it in very fancy, loopy cursive lettering.

What did it really mean? Why did the mysterious sender of the card want to be found?

Find me, Lyra.

The note from the white cardboard box she found inside Ethan's room by pure coincedence had a similar sounding message, with the same penmanship. Along with the note was an unidentifiable cube that Silver had suspected to be a Black Box, a mysterious object that is supposed to make something happen, but nobody knows how it works.

Again, the secret sender expressed his wish to be found.

Find me, Lyra, at 7.15, at 7:15, at 7+15, at 715.

The third message had been flashed on public screens, in full view of everybody and yet still managed to remain a mystery. It was a complicated multi-part puzzle that even the Dragon Master had difficulty decoding. With Silver's unprecedented help, Lyra managed to catch the next cryptic message from the secret sender during a live radio broadcast of all things:

Find me, Lyra, buried deep within the gold. Use the key and set me free.

"...And that's everything that happened so far." Lyra concluded her recap of today's events with a sip of hot chocolate, which Lance had ordered for her when she had gone to the bathroom.

Silver had met up with the pair at the Wayside diner around 7:50am, just a few minutes later than he promised. He'd temporarily broke off to begin with because he 'needed to take care of some things' but Lyra couldn't get it out of him. Oh well, it wasn't as if it were all that important.

He'd sat in the booth next to the girl, ordering a honey-glazed doughnut for himself and munching away on it as she explained the situation to him for the second time. The teen said nothing during her spiel, his face devoid of any emotion - a stark contrast to the mask of irritation he usually wore. It was only when she finished did he choose to speak up, keeping his voice modulated so it didn't disturb the other customers sitting nearby.

"What's this chump going to do next? Fire a cannon ball into Battle Tower?"

"At this stage I would not be surprised if he did. His chosen methods of getting his messages across are becoming increasingly complicated. And loud." Lance was wincing as he said this.

"'Loud'?" Lyra repeated.

Lance leaned forwards. "The first messages were relatively simple cases, even though we have yet to determine how he did it. He left you a card at Ethan's front door after ringing the doorbell, and left you another clue behind a stereo. But his next riddle was made public to all the people who happened to be at the Golden Coliseum today." He paused, folding his hands together and resting them on the table. "The culprit may or may not be the reason behind the power outage as well, to trap us inside... endangering an untold number of innocents in the process. The sender then takes this one step further by having the latest message known not just to you Lyra, but to everyone who was listening to the radio at seven fifteen in the morning. His moves are getting bolder and bolder."

"So he's literally screaming 'find me' at this point." Like he's desperate to be found, Lyra added silently.

The questions she'd asked herself back at Ethan's house trickled back into her mind:

Why was she contacted? And why did this person want Lyra to find them?

Were they in trouble?

Or was it some other reason?

Did she want to find them?

That last question was easy enough to answer; she definitely wanted to find this person, that's why she was allowing herself to get lead all around Johto this way, leaving everything up to fate, diving into the unknown... while dragging Lance and now Silver along for the ride. She felt she was on the verge of attaining the last piece of evidence she needed to prove, without a doubt, that "that person" was the culprit. All she needed to do was finish this wild goose chase as soon as she could, and understand the secret sender's motive for contacting her this way-

The latest challenge she'd received was different, however.

Find me, Lyra, buried deep within the gold. Use the key and set me free.

This time her next destination hadn't been revealed upon solving the previous riddle. Not outright. Buried deep within the gold... use the key... did she need to stay in Goldenrod City perhaps? If she remembered correctly, there was a large underground warehouse that ran between the Department store basement and the underground shopping arcade. Several years ago she explored those passageways and battled Team Rocket members to save the Radio Tower director. Maybe she needed to go there again? If one interpreted the "gold" part of the riddle to be the city itself, then it was plausible.

-But if that was the case, then her theory on the identity of the secret sender was wrong, when she was sure she was right.

So where did that leave her?

Lyra raised her cup to her lips, lost in thought. Outside the window, where Main Street was decorated for an event called the Lovapalooza, she could see some uniformed men loading boxes into a white shipment truck. The logo painted on the side proclaimed in bold brown lettering: 'Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar!' She recognized it as the slogan for the cigarmaking factory that infamously avoided a $4 million lawsuit filed by some rich fourteen year old. It was widely believed that Sigmund Freud had said it originally, but there was no evidence for it. 'Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar!' meant that, sometimes there was no deeper meaning to be found, no secret to be decoded, that it was to be taken at face value alone.

...Maybe she should stop looking for hidden meanings. Maybe the next "clue" was, in fact, buried in literal piles of gold...

Her eyes widened. She nearly dropped her cup in excitement.

This was it! This was the lead she needed!

She raised her cup, toasting the shipment truck in gratitude for the inspiration as the uniformed men drove away.

Meanwhile, Lance and Silver were having a discussion on what to do next. "I think the next logical step would be to take a quick detour to the Johto Talk Radio station before attempting to decode the latest message," the Dragon Tamer proposed. "It might take a while because of the holiday, but I don't believe securing a meeting with the director is impossible."

Silver's smirk was unsettling. "It's already been taken care of."

Lance clenched his fists. "...What do you mean?"

"Was that why you didn't meet us right away? You were interrogating the radio station staff?" Lyra asked, surprise and comprehension showing itself on her face. She'd finally caught up with the conversation.

"I caught the DJ himself having a smoke behind the Tower. The wimp broke down faster than I'd ever witnessed before," Silver said smugly.

"...You scoundrel."

The glare Lance was giving Silver was frigid, and the shape and force of his words stirred the very air around him, reminding Lyra of a Hyper Beam attack that was in the process of charging itself up. One wrong move and the beam would burst out of control, leaving nothing but carnage in its wake.

Silver flinched slightly - Lance had that effect on even the most hardened types - but he quickly recovered, his facial expression and manner matching the older man's pretty well. "What? I didn't physically hurt the guy, I just scared him a bit." His voice however was as tight as a bowstring; it was a dead giveaway to what really happened when he met with the unsuspecting DJ.

"I allowed you to accompany Lyra and I; do not get innocent people involved to that extent again in the future. Mark my words, I will personally stop you if you try."

"'Allowed' me? You 'allowed' me to come, huh? Har har har, what an honor. Maybe I should've done the right and proper thing by humbly refusing. But gee, I actually wanted to help you guys catch the sicko that's baiting Pigtails with stupid word games!"

"DJ Bulldog was only doing his job! You helping Lyra find the perp does not excuse the unnecessary cruelty you've inflicted!"

"No wonder you haven't found the guy yet," snarled Silver. "Your stupid beliefs are getting in her way!"

And that, Lyra thought dryly to herself, was the sole reason for their hostility towards each other in a nutshell: Lance never wanted to get the civilians involved in his affairs because of his own strict code, while Silver was not above manipulating and threatening bystanders to improve his own circumstances. It was the classic idealist v.s. pragmatist argument with pragmatist v.s. pragmatist undertones as the two males had very different priorities. And because they both upheld their stances with stubborn conviction, butting heads with each other was inevitable.

"I'm not in anyone's way!" Lance retorted. "From the very beginning, I've been on her side and supporting her through this mess!"

Lyra could practically feel the sincerity behind those forceful words, and she nearly smiled. Lance may had a reputation among the Johto Gym Leaders as a fickle brute, but this brute was capable of being truthful where it really counted. And Lyra was relieved, because that meant the little hypothesis she was forming in her mind had a greater chance of being correct.

But there was no time for that right now. Tensions were running high at their booth. The other diner patrons sitting close by had long since noticed the boys' tiff and were now openly watching. Lyra waved her hands frantically between their faces, trying to pull their attention away from each other before it got out of hand. "Guys, stop!" She pleaded. "This whole argument is purely academic! What's done is done; we can't accuse Silver of harming the DJ because I didn't see it and neither did you, Lance, and he says he got information so it isn't a complete bust. I know it bugs you, Lance - it bugs me, too - but we'll have to figure out what to do with DJ some time later because doing anything at this point might make the situation worse."

Lance opened his mouth to say something but decided against it, and his gaze flicked to the side in defeat. Silver, suddenly weary, relaxed and leaned away from the table, slouching deeper into the leather seat. Crisis successfully averted... for the time being.

Sorry, Lance.

Lyra sighed and tried to reboot the conversation from before the point it derailed. "Silver, what did you find out from the DJ?"

"...DJ Bulldog was ordered by his superior to read the anonymous message addressed to you, when normally he would randomly choose from a collection of submitted entries. He thinks the Johto Talk Radio director was paid off."

"Paid off, huh?" She absorbed the new info for a minute. "Did he say anything else?"

The redheaded teen's answer was terse. "Nothing worth mentioning." He finished off the remaining bit of his doughnut. "...Whoever it is that's leading you all over Johto has both financial and political backing. Combine that with how shady and crazy organized everything is, I would've suspected Team Rocket, but they've already disbanded years ago."

Lance sighed. "Which just leaves every other wealthy and influential person in the region. Great. That really narrows down our suspects. And we can't forget that it could be the family or friend of this wealthy and influential person that's responsible, either."

"I still think Morty's suspicious. He's pretty influential, isn't he? Being the head of Johto History and Culture Preservation and all that."

"Morty? Suspicious?" Lance echoed Silver's words. "Why him?"

"Oh, right...," Lyra realized. "I never told you, did I? When I met Silver at the parking lot, he was the one who suggested the idea that the secret sender used Ghost-type Pokemon to hide the white cardboard box in Ethan's bedroom. Which reminds me, Silver? Could I borrow Gengar for a while? I want to test out the ghost theory before jumping to Morty-related conclusions."

"Why?"

"I have a pretty good idea who the mysterious sender is."

It wasn't a mere bluff. It was a statement backed by evidence that, admittedly, wasn't very conclusive yet because she still had to work out the kinks (the secret sender's motive, specifically) but otherwise worked out pretty well, if she did say so herself. The winds were blowing in her favor, she couldn't lose this momentum now!

"Who is it?!" Silver demanded, inciting some of the nearby patrons to look in their general direction again. He was skeptical, and with good reason. They had no suspects to speak of besides Morty, and even that particular prospect needed a lot of work. How could she have come up with a theory?

Lance on the other hand was looking rather conflicted at her bold claim. Lyra expected him to be happy for her, and she could plainly see that he was - but he also had this doubtful look in his eyes and it made her uneasy deep inside.

The Dragon Tamer's demeanor didn't stop her from giving Silver an enigmatic smile, though. "I'll explain when I finish my little experiment. Are you ready to go, guys?"

"Go... where?" Silver asked. "Back up a bit, I think I missed something."

"We need to solve the latest challenge. To do that, we need to head over to the place I believe the riddle is pointing to."

"And that place is?"

"Tohjo Falls."

"Tohjo Falls," Silver repeated, still skeptical. "And this isn't some random suggestion."

"Of course not! It's the place I believe the answer to the riddle can be found!" She declared, finishing her drink at last and firmly placing her cup on the table for emphasis.

Silver willingly slid out of the booth so Lyra could get out as well, but he didn't relent in his questioning. "And the basis for your belief? I don't mind waiting till we get to Tohjo Falls to hear your precious theory, but give me a solid reason why we should just make our merry little way to wherever you think the answer can be found."

The two teens shuffled their way out of the Wayside, eager to continue their debate. Lance silently followed after them.

"I based everything solely on the hunch that he specially tailored every challenge for me. That the real significance behind these messages is something only I can understand," Lyra replied once they were outside, aware they were drawing attention yet again, this time from the throngs of people hanging around Main Street but she was too focused on making Silver believe her to care. "All that business with your radio and the chemical elements tipped it off: he doesn't want me to fail. He wants me to succeed and find him, just like the letters all say. There would be no point otherwise... huh?"

Lyra paused. There would be no point otherwise. Why did she say that so confidently?

Because...

Because this was the correct line of thinking.

The motive.

Lyra felt herself get even more fired up than before.

The culprit's reason for sending her on a crazy chase all over Johto... she'd just taken the first step to understanding it, understanding him.

"A... hunch. Seriously? You've got me, cape-freak and your own goddamn brain to use and you bet everything on a hunch."

"I'm a Trainer, not a detective," Lyra shot back. "Logic and all that detective stuff is more up Lance's and Ethan's alley. I go with what my guts tell me, and so far I haven't regretted it!"

Silver stared Lyra down, his keen eyes searching for any hint of lies or doubt on her face. When he found none, he scratched his head. "Okay, fine. Suppose this hunch of yours is right. That doesn't sound like a fair deal," he said at last. "If he wants you to find him, then why bother with riddles and time limits? Why bother dragging out the entire affair when he could've just told you where he was so you could meet up with him? For a guy who wants to be found, he isn't making it any easier for you."

"..."

"You know what I think?" He continued. "I think he's being a complete arse taunting you and lording his intelligence over you like this! He doesn't want you to find him, it's the opposite! The wimp wants to rub in your face how much you suck at solving things, saying stuff like 'Find me', thinking that you can't! Leaving behind a paper trail of riddles that 'only you can solve'? Ha! Yeah, right! More like leaving a bunch of pointless hurdles to prove how dense you are! He's probably watching you from some hidden location, laughing at you. I wouldn't put it past him."

Lyra wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You're making him sound like some heartless monster."

"I'll stop if you show me proof that he isn't."

Proof that he wasn't cold-blooded? Did anything like that even exist? All Lyra had received from the anonymous message sender were the riddles themselves. But she didn't want to give in; giving in meant allowing her theory to fall apart. Grasping for her mental straws, she quickly said, "He sent me the messages today - on Valentines Day, of all days. Not to mention he constantly alludes to the band Boyce Avenue and their song 'Find Me', which is a love song! If that doesn't prove his intentions then nothing will!"

"Let me get this straight - you're claiming that this whole 'Find me' business is just one unnecessarily complicated love letter?" He gagged. "Is this supposed to be considered romantic for girls? Ugh, I swear I'll never understand the female mind! What's next, Stockholm Syndrome?"

"Not all girls are into that sort of thing! Women's brains aren't a single collective hivemind you can pick apart and understand on the fly, you jerk! And... and... it doesn't necessarily mean romantic love either, so there!"

"You're just contradicting yourself now! Everybody and their mother knows that Valentines Day is best known as a day for romantic love, you dolt!"

"Then maybe he meant to trick me into thinking it was about romantic love!"

"There you go, contradicting yourself again! Unless you mean to tell me that the man has split personality disorder?!"

"-Wait Silver, you're going off a tangent. Your asking for proof 'that he may or may not be heartless' is invalid." Lance, who'd been quiet this whole time suddenly spoke up, startling both teens out of their escalating dispute. "Lyra's answer was pretty good, but in no way does it disprove that the perp is insensitive; rather, it's the entire set up that implies the culprit's motives. Never ignore the heart, Silver. It's what motivates us to do things. The culprit's reasons for contacting Lyra with riddles may not make sense at first, but it will in time."

"I couldn't have said it better!" Lyra agreed empathetically.

"And the culprit's arrangement isn't as unfair as it seems. After all, you and I are helping her meet the challenges, aren't we? Nowhere was it indicated that she needed to decode the messages on her own. If we weren't allowed to help her out, and - assuming that he was 'watching us from some hidden location' like you've previously asserted - wouldn't he have done something about it? Warned us not to get involved, or even go to great lengths to separate Lyra from us? Either he'd forgotten this detail when he planned this out, which I highly doubt, or he really does want Lyra to find him, just as she said."

Silver shook his head. "...Fine, whatever. I give up. Let's just go to Tohjo Falls already. The faster we find this guy, the sooner I get to pound him in for the answers." He marched off without another word across the street, preparing to Fly on his Crobat.

Now that her verbal spar with Silver had finished, Lyra suddenly felt weary. She yawned and stretched, trying to clear her head. Beside her, Lance was also getting ready to climb onto Dragonite.

Lyra had gone to bed pretty late last night trying to coordinate the information in her Pokedex with Ethan's. That, and she woke up early today too, because her original plan had been to participate in Pokemon battles at Battle Tower, and after those plans changed she hadn't stopped moving around since. On top of that, she was still feeling pleasantly full from breakfast...

The yellow dragon Pokemon patiently stood on the sidewalk for his Trainer to get on his back. Lance paused, examined Lyra's bleary eyes and asked her kindly, "Would you like to ride on Dragonite with me again? That way, you could take a quick nap on our way to Tohjo Falls."

Lyra readily accepted his offer, and clambered onto Dragonite's back along with the Dragon Tamer so they were in the exact same position as the first time they rode together. Silver's Crobat was already soaring away into the distance; with a snort, Dragonite beat its powerful wings and rose majestically from the pavement, high above the rooftops and the curious onlookers, and zoomed after the purple bat.

"Lance..."

"Nn?"

"Sorry for burdening you with my problems and pulling you away from Battle Tower's grand reopening, and the tournament... it must've been really hard to find a last minute replacement."

Lance's voice seemed to catch on something. "I told you earlier, didn't I? You are never a burden to me. Besides, what's the point of participating if you aren't there?"

This was a lie, Lyra knew. There was nothing more important in the world to Lance than fulfilling his ambitions. Between Lyra and his grand schemes of bringing the Blackthorn dragon clan back to its former glory... Lyra would always come second. The tournament at Battle Tower's grand reopening was his big chance to connect and battle with the Dragon Tamers from other regions and establish himself as the Blackthorn heir and the strongest, and he missed this chance. Lance must be feeling some regret deep inside at this point, right? He was also one of the two Indigo League regional tournament representatives, the other one being herself-

"That's right, I forgot to ask - who ended up replacing us in the tournament?" She mumbled, her eyes already drooping from fatigue.

"Who else could take our places but ex-Champion Red and Viridian City Gym Leader Blue?"

Lyra felt that she was dreaming, but it didn't stop her from reliving this scene from her past to the fullest.

In it, she was a little girl again.

The river roared ferociously in her ears, doing its best to sweep her away and pull her under. But Lyra was a strong and skilled swimmer for a seven year old girl, and she wasn't afraid for her life. She was worried that she wouldn't reach Ethan's hardcover book in time.

...It was her fault. She wasn't watching where she was going and ended up tripping over a tree root, slamming into the boy who'd suddenly stepped right onto her path. He was surprised, but he'd still tried to catch her to keep her from falling into the river, dropping his book in the process. She was saved, but his book bounced into the angry currents instead.

Ethan's book...

Each time she'd happened to see him, the book was in his hands. He was always relaxing in the grassy hills, reading quietly to himself. He would stare sullenly at her and the other kids, solemnly at his mother whenever she spoke to him, or with respect whenever Professor Elm gave him an errand. But when he was reading, Lyra could swear that his eyes sparkled. Whatever it was he was reading, it must've been good.

She kind of wanted to talk to him because of that. It intrigued her. He intrigued her. The thoughts and feelings of the quiet boy who moved to New Bark Town from the big city intrigued her. But he never showed any interest in what she had to say... he didn't seem interested in swimming or climbing trees or any of the stuff the other boys in town liked to do. On the days he left his house to spend time outside, it would be to read and nothing else.

That hardcover book he dropped into the river was the book he'd been reading this whole time!

Lyra didn't hesitate. She jumped in after it...

"Lyra! Lyra!"

Her playmates were screaming her name over and over in terror, running along the riverbank after her but she didn't look up. Lyra's seven year old mind was focused on one thing only - she needed to get that book back for Ethan, no matter what!

How long had she been racing after the hardcover through the icy currents? One minute? Two minutes? She pushed her body as hard as she could, letting the river take her even further, closer, her fingers already reaching towards her prize-

"Bwaaa?!"

She'd accidentally taken a mouthful of cold water in the process, but she'd managed to grab the book at last!

With her remaining strength, she forced her body to tumble onto the rocky riverbank at the next curve, the book clutched tightly to her chest as she struggled to catch her breath. Her heart was thumping wildly from the rush and from the amount of effort she'd exerted; her ears and eyes stung from the water; her arms, legs and whole body were heavy and sore; a searing pain throbbed in her entire right side from the sharp stones she were currently laying on top of; to top it off she was cold and shivering and wet.

The other kids soon caught up with her, forming a tight circle around her prone form.

"Wh-what should we do?!"

"Joey went to get an adult from town with his sister!"

"Should we try to carry her back...?"

"L-look! Look! She's getting up!"

It took even more effort on her part, but Lyra had managed to bring herself to a sitting position. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to fight the dull ache of her head. Had she... accidentally hit her head against a rock during her frenzied rescue mission?

She never noticed how quiet and still the other kids became, never noticed how they parted like the Red Sea as Ethan slowly made his way over to the girl. But a couple of fallen leaves crunched beneath his shoe, prompting Lyra to look up.

Their gazes met.

"..."

The other kids fled the scene.

Lyra couldn't blame them. Ethan wasn't like the other kids, not because he didn't play with them or because he was from the city. He was different for a deeper reason, something that they felt on a more primal level, and beyond anything that a child's mind could truly comprehend. That was why no one dared to bully him - he wasn't ever outright mean to the other kids but his would-be torturers had also felt he was in a class of his own. And right now, Lyra was shaking for a whole new reason. It wasn't just the cold anymore.

She could feel the boy's dark brown eyes watching her, judging her...

"Y-your book...! I'm really sorry about what happened to your book!" Lyra blurted out. She moved to hold the book out for him to take but stopped, mortified at how the book was faring.

It was completely soaked, the pages most likely stuck together and the text faded away from the water, rendering Ethan's hardcover unreadable...

Unreadable! Oh, no!

Not only would she lose any chances she had to become his friend, he also wouldn't be able to read his beloved book anymore!

Lyra, still a little girl, had a rather simple mind. She liked it when she saw other people happy. She liked it when Ethan seemed happy, even if it weren't from playing with the other kids in town but from the book he read so often. And Ethan without his precious hardcover was just too sad a reality to accept. Lyra felt tears forming in her eyes and bravely pushed on.

"Please, l-l-let me borrow it for a while! I promise I'll fix it somehow!"

"..."

"When I think of how you must feel right now...! Please give me a chance!"

She bowed her head low, her forehead nearly touching the ground and continued to plead with the boy standing in front of her.

The sound of river's wild rushing water seemed subdued, just like everything else around them. Was it because they were so close to Tohjo Falls, or was it because wild Pokemon and nature itself alike had left the two children alone on purpose? It really did feel as if she were utterly isolated, with no one else besides Ethan in the whole world. It was a lonely feeling, and Lyra didn't like it at all.

"You don't understand how I feel."

His voice was just... empty. Completely devoid of the burning rage she was expecting.

"...?!"

Lyra jerked her head up, her gaze meeting his once again. He hadn't moved an inch this whole time.

"What... what did you say?" She croaked.

There was a moment of silence, and then the boy repeated his words.

"You don't understand how I feel."

In a cold, robotic voice he'd passed his judgment upon her. It held no real malice; it was as if he were merely making an observation about the weather or something trivial. Her inability to understand his feelings was - to him - a trivial matter. He'd expected it from the start, and was in no way surprised or disappointed.

And somehow... somehow, this was way worse than the anger she'd braced herself for.

Ethan turned around and walked away from her.

He walked away from her...

A gentle shaking sensation on her shoulder roused her from the depths of her dreams.

"...ra. Lyra. We're almost there, wake up."

Her eyes snapped open with a start, the light momentarily blinding her. "Bwa..?" Disoriented and half-asleep, she wondered why the first things she saw was the sky, the clouds and the back of Dragonite's head and started to panic because she couldn't recall what she'd been doing in the first place.

"Calm down, it'll be okay. We decided to follow your suggestion and head to Tohjo Falls, remember? Silver just made a landing, and we'll be doing the same shortly," Lance explained gently. He had his arm around her waist to prevent her from accidentally flailing herself off Dragonite while she dozed off. "Did you sleep well?"

Right... the girl was feeling pretty tired from all the traveling she did that morning, so Lance had offered to be her pillow while they flew to Tohjo Falls. She remembered now. The yellow dragon began its slow descent to earth, where Silver was already waiting far below, standing in the shade of a tree. Was someone standing next to him...? Lyra's eyes were too bleary to see. "I slept okay," Lyra said at last, yawning. "I was dreaming..." She could barely remember the details, but she was sure it had been a dream about the past.

Did coming to Tohjo Falls trigger the dream? Or was it because she'd told Lance part of the story herself at the Wayside diner? It was, after all, a very significant place to her: the place Ethan had spoken to her for the very first time, and the place they'd eventually became friends. Sort of. This was also the place they ended up in for the briefest moments during that Celebi time-travel situation... the place she'd fought Giovanni.

"A dream about what?"

"Some stuff from my childhood. Mostly about how much Ethan freaked me out back then."

The best friend of today was a far cry from the recluse city boy she'd known years ago... and she was happy about that. He really had come so far.

Lance peered at the ground below and quirked an eyebrow. "Funny, isn't that Ethan over there, with Silver?"

"Wait, what? What?!" Lyra did a double take. Far below where the couple flew Ethan's trademark hat could be clearly seen. He was really here! He was even standing next to Silver and chatting with him! In addition to his usual clothing, he was sporting basic survival gear and a wicker basket in place of his backpack. Ethan was most likely running some errand for the good professor back in New Bark. "Ethan!" Lyra hollered cheerfully at the top of her lungs. She was always happy to see him.

Both boys glanced up, and Ethan waved at her excitedly. "Heeey, Lyra!" He shouted back.

Not waiting for Dragonite to make a proper landing, she wiggled out of Lance's slackened grip and leapt to the ground-

"Lyra!" Two horrified male voice gasped at the exact same time.

-Relaxing her muscles, Lyra allowed her body to hurtle towards the earth, landing on the soft grass about two feet away from the river in a well-executed crouch.

"Ethan, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to stick around the house and keep an eye out for anything suspicious!" She demanded, standing up and dusting herself off.

The younger male sprinted towards her with all his might, blatantly ignoring her question. "Lyra, you stupid tomboy, that was too dangerous!" Ethan panted heavily when he finally reached her. "You were over fifteen feet above the ground! You could've seriously hurt yourself, you dummy! One wrong move and you could've fallen into the river!"

She frowned. "What are you freaking out like that for all of a sudden? I'm perfectly fine. It's not as if I haven't done this before."

"I'm freaking out because I just witnessed my best friend make a crazy suicidal jump from a Flying Pokemon! And whether you've done dangerous things before or not isn't the issue here! Well actually, it kind of is, especially that time with Archer but-" Ethan was about to say more, but his gaze caught something behind Lyra and he changed his mind. "-He can say it better than I can," he said instead.

She turned around. The Dragon Tamer had apparently rushed Dragonite's landing, as the yellow dragon's feet had just touched the ground. Lance hopped off his back and strode hastily over to Lyra's side.

"Lyra."

The Dragon Tamer was breathing hard, and there was an almost manic light in his eyes. Lyra was taken aback. Was he going to yell at her?

"Are you alright?"

"Oh, um, yes."

He closed his eyes and shoved his fingers through his hair in an attempt to rein in whatever emotional outburst he had so close to unleashing. This was the most uncontrolled and panicked he'd ever allowed himself to show in public, Lyra knew. And it confused her. She was used to making those kinds of jumps from Togekiss' back, there was no cause for alarm!

"Please, don't ever do that again."

"O-okay."

"Promise me."

"I... I promise."

"...Thank you."

She couldn't find it in herself to question Lance though. His facial expression and demeanor was that of someone who had come too close to losing their everything, and it... it hurt her to see him in such a state. Still, she couldn't understand why he and Ethan were freaking out over her from one little jump-

"Let's get this damn experiment of yours going already!" Silver shouted impatiently from where he'd been standing and waiting around this whole time. He was obviously the only one not too bothered by her aerial stunt. Finally, someone who still made sense to the girl! It really helped Lyra breathe a little easier. He shoved past Ethan, grabbed one of Lyra's hands and pressed a Pokeball in it. "Here's Gengar like you asked. Now get on with it!"

"Right, I will. But before I get to that-"

Silver groaned. Lyra ignored him.

"-Ethan, I repeat, what are you doing here?"

The younger male scratched his head sheepishly. "Professor Elm asked me a favor... and Dad came home."

"Ouch."

"Aaaaand nothing was stolen after all, so I got away with it! But listen Lyra, remember the Glacier Lilies we found growing in that cavern? Remember how I thought it was strange for wildflowers to grow so well in the dark like that?"

That cavern being the little chamber they'd crossed paths with Giovanni in. Lyra nodded her head, urging him to continue.

"Until today, they were just run-of-the-mill wildflowers. We always saw a bunch of them growing in the bushes around the area, so we never paid any attention to them, right? But after we got back from the pa... err... the cavern, I took a sample to the Professor, who was interested enough to run a few simple tests on it. Now there's some evidence that they contain a certain component also found in Pokemon evolution items!"

"That's... I don't know... both amazing and scary, in a way," Lyra said. "It isn't as if bringing my Pokemon over there will make them evolve, will it?"

"That's why I'm here to get some more samples." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at the basket hanging off his back. "There is a slim but promising possibility that a new clue regarding the origins of Pokemon evolution items could be gleaned from the flowers!"

Lyra was about to tease Ethan's nerdy excitement but she noticed Silver glowering out of the corner of her eye. "Well, I don't want to keep you from your work any longer. Good luck with it!"

"Thanks! You're still looking for the loon who left you those weird messages, right? Good luck to the both of us!"

Ethan grinned at Lyra and gave her a thumbs-up. He then turned around and offered Silver a grin and a thumbs-up, too.

Silver just glared even harder at the carefree teen. "I'm still angry at you for losing my radio," he snarled.

"Aw, c'mon! You found it again, didn't you?"

"No thanks to you! I'm never accepting any of your invitations ever again, you got that?!"

"Yikes..." Ethan chuckled, clearly not apologetic in the slightest. Because all's well that ends well!

And then he turned to Lance.

"..."

There was the slightest of pauses that you would've missed if you weren't paying attention, in which Ethan's super bright smile subtly changed. Lyra was paying attention, and she knew that look. She'd affectionately dubbed it the Ethan Pokerface TM when they were still in grade school.

"Look out for her."

Lance tried, but Lyra also knew the man enough to know when he had been ruffled...

He offered her best friend a small nod. "I will," he replied crisply.

"Good!"

With that, Ethan finally walked away from the 3-man group and disappeared into the entrance leading to the network of caves under Tohjo Falls, whistling a familiar cheery love song.

Silver gave Lyra a pointed look.

She put her hands up. "Okay, okay."

The release button was pressed and Gengar materialized above their heads with a little front flip.

"Gengar, are you up for a little experiment?"

Gengar grunted his approval at her.

"Great! What I'd like for you to do is to hold on to this real well..." Lyra held out the white cardboard box containing the Black Box and the 'Find me, Lyra' note inside. She glanced around, spotted a tree with a trunk that was wider than most and gestured towards it. "...and try to phase through the tree over there. Can you do that?"

He made a sound that sounded almost like a scoff and zoomed towards the tree, eager to please. Without slowing his pace, he slipped right through the surface like it didn't exist-

Smack!

-at the last possible split second the white cardboard box collided soundly against the hard trunk, slipped out of Gengar's slackened fingers and clattered to the ground.

"?!"

Three baffled humans and a Pokemon surrounded the box in an instant.

Gengar howled in dismay and clutched at Lyra's sleeve, asking forgiveness for dropping the item she'd entrusted to him. But Lyra merely smiled at him. "It's okay, Gengar. Would you like to try that again?"

Before she could finish that sentence Gengar had already scooped the cardboard box up, gripping more tightly than before. He floated to a spot he deemed worthy, about eight feet away, turned around and focused his slanted red eyes on the offending tree trunk. He charged! Three seconds later Lyra held her breath as his body easily slipped through the surface like a sword stabbing the surface of a deep lake-

SMACK!

-was it her imagination, or did the box hit the wood even harder and louder than before?

"Gaah, did the Black Box inside break?!" Lyra gasped, snatching up the abused box and checking inside. The little opaque cube seemed fine to her. There wasn't a single dent or scratch or crack. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the cardboard box itself, which was starting to look worse for the wear.

"The culprit couldn't have used a Ghost Pokemon to sneak the box inside Ethan's room," Lance stated grimly. "A Ghost-type can phase through a wall like a... well, like a ghost. But that doesn't apply to the items it's carrying."

Gengar cowered behind Silver's knees, nearly causing the redhead to trip. "No way!" He shouted defiantly. "Gengar, stop hiding and try that one more time!"

"We've already seen enough."

"Oh really?!" Silver ushered Gengar back out into the open. Lyra took this moment to smile at how far the male had come - in the past he would've abused Gengar for failing his task and acting like a chicken, but today he was gruffly but gently coaxing his Pokemon with words.

"Gengar, try phasing through the tree trunk one more time, but this time carry the box inside your mouth!" He snapped.

"What?!"

The Pokemon obeyed, his unusually long pink tongue snapping out and wrapped itself around the white box Lyra's hands, lifting it into his mouth. He moved back a good distance just like before and charged towards the tree trunk for the third time.

SMACK!

Lyra was half-expecting it on some level but she still ended up wincing from the impact. "...Lance is right, Silver. Ghosts may be able to move through solid objects but they can't alter the properties of actual solid objects. Their powers are more illusion and sensory based." She recalled Gengar into his Pokeball and returned him to his rightful Trainer.

"So how did the bastard get inside the house without disturbing anything?! Don't tell me he's the ghost!"

"Maybe came from underground, or rapelled from the roof?" Lyra suggested. When she picked up the box, she was pleasantly surprised to discover it was not covered in saliva or something equally as disgusting. It made her feel a whole lot better about putting the box back into her bag.

"Ohhh, so he's a ninja now?!"

"Err... I was kidding."

Silver smacked his forehead. "Right, I forgot. You already have an idea who it is."

"I won't keep you in the dark any longer, I promise. Follow me guys!"

Twenty yards further down the river and well past the Johto/Kanto borderline, Lyra gave a clear shout and pointed up the hill. Halfway up the slope was a one-story building sheltered by an overgrowth of plants and trees. The building was an easy to miss box, its peeling green paint designed to help blend in with the rest of the forest. Lyra had Togekiss Cut away some vines, revealing a well-hidden footpath leading right to the front door. Aside from the occasional mosquito, the entire area was the very image of mystery and natural beauty.

What was this place? Both boys could only wonder to themselves as Lyra led them up the path to the building. For a few seconds she fiddled with the combination lock that held the front door securely closed, and with a teeny satisfying click the mechanism gave and then she was beckoning them to step inside...

"AHEM! Welcome to the New Bark Town Pokemon Research facility! This laboratory is Professor Elm's brainchild, and where most of the adult townsfolk work as Professor Elm's assistants!" Lyra proclaimed proudly. "...But, that was a long time ago. So long ago, I wasn't even born yet! When the good Professor decided to pursue a different field of Pokemon research, the entire operation moved to a brand new building near the town entrance."

It didn't look like a laboratory befitting the great Professor Elm; the sunlight streaming in through the bare front windows highlighted every dustball, dirtclod and cobweb but not much else. The only notable things in the room were the long wooden table in the center of the floor, the bright yellow folder on the table's surface, and the slim bookshelf standing against the eastern wall. The smell of mold and mildew and soggy wood assaulted their nostrils.

The back of the lab was where Lyra was leading the boys now. It was actually the very first thing you would notice upon entering - specifically, the heavy steel bars that extended wall to wall, separating the front and the back of the lab.

"...I don't get it. Did Elm lock up Pokemon back here to study? He never struck me as that kind of guy." Silver quipped, trying to get a peek through the bars. The only thing he could see was a small, obvious, wooden trapdoor. "And how the hell did you find this place?"

"I didn't listen to my mom's warnings about going out too far when I was little. Ethan and I liked playing hide and seek around here; naturally, it didn't take long for us to find this place. Regarding the 'cage' door, it's the other way around: this area was designed to keep the wild Pokemon out. As you know, the lab is situated right in the middle of wild Pokemon habitats, and Professor Elm said they liked barging in uninvited. To protect themselves from the especially dangerous ones, The Professor and his assistants would run and lock the door from within the room..."

Lyra was pressing buttons on an electronic keypad located on the wall, right next to the iron bars.

"How does that still work, and how do you know so much about this place?" Lance asked.

"I came back a couple of years ago and fixed it, with Ethan's help! And Ethan's one of the lab assistants, so he knows all kinds of stuff!"

"But what do you need electricity for?"

"You'll see!"

Just on the edge of her peripheral vision she noticed that Silver was about to reach for the bars. She called out to him, effectively stopping him. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you. Unless you want a taste of the force field's pure energy."

"What?!" He spluttered.

"You didn't really think a bunch of garden-variety steel bars could keep the lab researchers safe from wild Pokemon, did you?"

"From Elm I was expecting some kind of trick, not indiscriminate electrocution."

"Not electrocution, per se, it's more like getting smacked in the face by a Hitmonchan's fist. No preliminary tingle in you elbow or anything like that. Just a world of instant pain and dizziness." There was an electronic bleep from the keypad, and something in above their heads rumbled lowly in response. Then there was the heavy, rusty scrape of steel as the cage door rose, allowing safe passage inside. Lyra grinned triumphantly. "There! I've disarmed the force field and opened the door!"

"I don't like this," Silver muttered, keeping his distance. Just in case.

"It's fine, I can go inside myself. It'll only take a second!" She assured him, stepping into the caged area. She stooped down next to the trapdoor, grasped the long brass handle and tugged. It didn't budge. "...Eh? Let me try that again." Lyra pulled as hard as she could - it didn't work. She grabbed the handle with her other hand as well and leaned back, using her natural weight to pry the door open - still, nothing.

"How is it?" Silver asked, peering at Lyra through the bars. The force field was off, but he didn't want to take any chances so he positioned himself two feet away from the cage.

"Ngh, it's harder to open than I remember!"

Lance strode in through the cage door, his cape flapping behind him and stirring up some dust. "Let me help."

Lyra scooched over so he could squat on the floor next to her, and Lance grabbed the top half of the handle while Lyra latched onto the bottom half.

"On three, we pull the door open together alright? One... two...!"

Three!

The trapdoor uttered a low, guttural groan. With Lance's and Lyra's combined strength, the trapdoor finally gave, and the couple threw it open with a BANG, stirring up even more dust in the process. Lance turned away and coughed to clear his throat before casting his attention downwards - and his mouth dropped open instantly. "Good God..." he murmured under his breath, dumbfounded at the sight: this floor compartment was a literal treasure trove of gold nuggets, both large and small. Curiously, they seemed to shine pretty well even in the dim light; if a person weren't careful, he'd become enchanted by the gold's perfect radiance...

"Hey, what's going on in there?"

Lyra smiled apologetically over her shoulder at Silver. "It's not really that important, don't worry! Need-to-know basis and all that! What really matters is that I believe I've found the next clue!"

Silver shrugged and wandered away from the cage to take a look around the dreary lab - and to investigate the folder on the table.

Lance still hadn't moved. He was pale faced, gawking at the gold like it were cursed, like it was about to rise up and devour him whole or worse. Lyra nudged him gently with her elbow and he snapped out of it, turning to face her. "...Tell me. Why is there something like this in an abandoned laboratory of all places? This... was this stolen, or perhaps a bribe?" He questioned her with a low voice. "Seeing this much gold in one place is making me anxious."

"Geez, Lance, is it that hard to imagine me saving all of this?" Lyra whispered back with mock hurt. "And besides, I didn't do it alone - this belongs to Ethan, too. Him being the first one to get to the lab and everything."

"For how long have you two been saving?"

"In my case, it was ever since I first started out on my Pokemon journey four years ago! When I found my first nugget, I thought, 'how pretty!' and I just decided to save a whole bunch of them so I could have a really shiny collection to look at and show off. I didn't find out how much they were worth at the Mart until an entire year later, eheh... that's when Ethan and I decided to combine our collections together."

Lance exhaled, shook his head in amusement and went back to staring at the contents of the trapdoor. "You really are something else, Lyra. But why didn't you sell them after finding out what they were? Having the extra funds could've really helped you out during your journey. I remember when I started out on my own journey, I had to cut back to eating once a day just so I could have enough to buy Antidotes..." He began pushing his hands through the gold nuggets, searching for anything that could've served as the next clue they needed to find. "Hmpf, these are heavier than they look."

"I have such a hard time imagining you to be poor, Lance. Especially when I look at the boots you're wearing right now." Lyra was aware that Lance's favorite footwear would cost her a whole week's worth of Pokemon battle winnings. There was also Lance's sports car, his private residence in Celadon City, and not to mention how he'd bought out the abandoned Team Rocket hideout in Mahogany Town with his own money to save the townsfolk from bankruptcy. "Isn't the Blackthorn clan rich, though? You could've gotten their support when you were starting out."

"Heh, I could have. But my family situation back then was pretty complicated. Suppose you were in my shoes, fighting against the wishes of your own parents while trying to balance training, battling, schooling and clan politicking. Said parents were doing everything they could to take you away from the clan, never expecting you to succeed, and your own grandfather giving up on the clan himself... would you have accepted handouts from them?"

"If you put it that way, I suppose I'd have been too proud to accept even a measly sandwich." Lyra laughed to soften the statement and placed a hand atop his, stopping him from digging through the piles of gold. She wasn't looking at him, but she felt he was looking at her now. Lyra kept her eyes trained on their hands. "You are the only Trainer I know who went on the League challenge while still doing schoolwork. There was nobody to take care of you when you struggled against the clan elders. You're callous and distrustful, but you disciplined yourself so you could become the heroic and selfless Dragon Master that the public adore. And you've worked your butt off to become a household name in not one, but two regions. You persevered, Lance." And I really, really admire you for that, Lyra didn't say.

"Thank you for saying that. It won't stop there, though. Once I've officially handed the title of Indigo League Champion over to you, I will take the whole Blackthorn dragon clan into my hands... and when that happens, there will be changes. It won't be long now. The Blackthorn dragon clan will become the most powerful and influential clan in the world."

Closer.

Lance was speaking to her freely about his goals, putting a part of the puzzle that was his heart together for her.

Lyra felt closer to Lance than ever before. Not just physically, but emotionally.

They've been taking a lot of steps forward together today - openly accepting and enjoying their mutual attraction, flirting, and working together as a team. She couldn't help but feel that maybe, Lance had the same intentions for their current relationship as her. If he was okay with confiding that much in her, then she could return the favor.

Lyra removed her hand from his and got down to digging through the gold herself. Lance did the same.

"I wanted to build a house around here when I was younger." She felt his eyes on her once again. "I wanted it to be a really secret, totally cool place where no one would find us and bother us, and we could spend every day doing the stuff we liked. And we'd set up really elaborate puzzle rooms for travelers to solve if they happened to stumble upon the house, and watch them from the sidelines. The house would be so unusual it'd achieve urban legend status! Our special house, the Trick House!"

"...'We'? Do you mean, with your best friend Ethan?" Lance asked. When Lyra nodded, he nodded as well. "I understand... So you combined both of your gold nugget collections together to make it happen. Heh, I'm not quite sure how much all the gold in here is worth, but I have little doubt you will achieve your dream. I do want to ask you something about that, if that's alright with you."

"Okay, shoot."

"How strongly do you feel about Ethan? Are you two so inseperable that there isn't any room for anyone else?"

Lyra finally spared him a glance. His brown eyes were unreadable, as usual, and she couldn't help but notice that he didn't ask her if she loved Ethan or not, but rather how strongly she cared about him.

As if reading her mind, Lance clarified, "It's as clear as day even to those who don't know you well: Ethan cares about you very much, and you do the same. What I want to know is, how far are you willing to go for him? Do you imagine yourself spending the rest of your life with him?"

"Ethan will always be my best friend, and I will love him for the rest of my life. He's made such an impact on my childhood I don't think it's possible to remove him from my whole life completely, even if I tried, and I wouldn't dare try. That's why, no matter where I end up in life, I want to see the Trick House built; I want us to be able to connect easily, just like we always do. I want us to have tangible proof of our relationship. So yeah, I guess that means I do want to be able to live the rest of my life with Ethan's presence still in it. Ah...ahaha, I hope I'm making sense here. I'm not saying I love love Ethan that way, but I don't love him as a brother either, it's much deeper than that. Err, it's kinda complicated-"

"I understood what you were trying to tell me, don't worry. There are people whom we meet in our lives that... we love so much it gets to a certain point where we just can't ever live without them."

Lyra felt her spine tingle with awareness. From the way Lance was still looking at her as he spoke, and the way he said the words, it was almost as if he was saying he couldn't live without her. She cleared her throat and warned him mockingly, "If Ethan heard you now he wouldn't forgive you. Since he and I are inseperable and all that."

The Dragon Tamer was caught off guard, and he laughed.

"...Let's get back to looking for the next clue before we're distracted even further."

She agreed because she didn't have anything left to say, and Lance offered nothing else. His facial expression became mostly indecipherable sans the fleeting comprehension in his brown eyes as he turned his attention back to moving gold nuggets around.

One minute later...

When her roving hand touched something thin and smooth in the top right corner of the compartment, she froze. "Lance, I think I found it," she said in her normal voice so Silver could hear. Thank goodness for that, otherwise the sudden silence between her and Lance would've become really awkward. Perhaps she had been a little too honest? "I'm going to try pulling it out!"

"Is it paper? If it is then be careful when pulling it out, Lyra."

"Paper? Hmmm..." Lyra fiddled with the object in her hands. It felt really solid, but slightly bendable, and cold to the touch. "Nope, doesn't feel like paper to me."

Behind them, Silver had finished his investigation minutes ago and had been playing games on his Pokegear the whole time. He snapped the phone shut and sighed gratefully. "Finally. What took you Slowpokes so damn long?!"

"Lance, I can't pull it out," Lyra realized. "Drat, I can't even see what I'm doing with all this stuff in my way!"

"Here, let me make it easier for you." Lance carefully plunged both of his hands deep into the pile around the general area of what Lyra found and pushed the nuggets into two uneven piles with his arms. Now the female could plainly see what her fingers had latched onto - a thin black card made of plastic, sticking out of a little niche located at the very bottom of the compartment. Was this always there before? She couldn't recall ever seeing anything like this during her previous gold stockpiling trips, not even during the earlier ones.

She took the card in her hand again and tried wiggling it back and forth.

"I see, I have to push it down, slide it forwards, then upwards..."

Lyra did just that, and in the next moment the card was free. Two small, green LED lights on either side of the card slot blinked to life-

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! THUNK!

The ear-piercing noises of iron rattling on iron filled the abandoned laboratory as the door to the cage collapsed to the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust from the impact, trapping Lance and Lyra inside. The silence that followed was thick with tension.

Silver was the first to recover. "Lyra, you dumbass. Stop messing with us and get the clue already," he deadpanned.

Like a switch that had been flipped, Lyra felt herself relax by degrees, her heart thumping quickly in her chest from shock. She gulped and tried to focus on examining the prize in her hands in the dim light. The card was about two inches wide and three inches long, similar to a credit card's size. It was indeed plastic and totally black - there was nothing discernable at a glance. No words, no mysterious message like she'd hoped. Disappointment welled up inside her.

Beside her, Lance exhaled sharply. "Lyra, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" He asked urgently, squinting at the card in her hands. When she shook her head, he gently grabbed her hand and adjusted it so that the light could reflect off the face of the card.

...There. She could see it now. Two familiar words were faintly scratched onto the card's face.

Find me.

No matter how many times Lyra turned the card over and over in her hands there would be nothing else to see.

"So we've come to a full circle, eh?" Lance remarked. "The first message you found said 'Find me', as well, didn't it? This just might be the final clue to the anonymous sender's true identity, and his location. Unless there's some other part of the message we aren't seeing, this journey might be coming to an end. It is a good thing you have a theory already, Lyra; like Silver, I'd really like to hear it from you, who you believe the culprit to be."

"Oh, I'll definitely be telling you two, I assure you."

Especially you, Lance.

"Hey! What's going on over there?!" Silver complained, interrupting their conversation. "Tell me what's happening!"

Lance glanced up. "...Lyra found the next clue, but it appears to have been booby-trapped. It is incredibly lucky for us that you remained outside, Silver; can you try opening the door from where you are?"

"It's this electric keypad that controls the door, right? Do I need a password or something?" Silver spoke, coming to a stop in front of said keypad.

Lyra stood up and moved closer to the bars, careful not to touch them just in case the force field was back on. "Yeah, you need to hit the green "enter" button and punch in the password, then hit the enter button again. The password is 'Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection'. No spaces between the words!"

All was silent for a minute except for the electronic blips of buttons getting pressed. And then...

BZZZT!

"...Well? How is it, Silver?" Lyra asked impatiently. "Remember, no spaces!"

"That's... I did exactly what you told me to do; was this supposed to happen?"

"What? What happened?"

Silver stepped away from the keypad so Lyra could get a better view of the words on keypad's display:

_INVALID KEY_

"Invalid key? What does that even-"

The words of the latest riddle flashed through her mind.

Find me, Lyra, buried deep within the gold. Use the key and set me free.

"Darn it, I didn't think the riddle was being literal to that extent!" Lyra smacked her forehead. "This never happened to me during my previous visits. The perp must've made some drastic changes around here while I was away... but how many changes?"

"We've wasted enough time, why bother with a stupid code key? Just smash your way out through the back wall," Silver suggested as if it were the most obvious solution. "Your boyfriend is standing right next to you. A couple of Hyper Beams from his Dragonite should do the trick."

Her response was instantaneous. "No way, nuh-uh! We can't do that! Absolutely not!"

"Why not?" Silver narrowed his eyes. "This is just an abandoned laboratory that nobody uses. There's no collateral damage to be had except maybe the forest outside, but if you're careful, it would be a simple matter of escaping-"

"No it's not!" Lyra insisted.

"What, is it because it's your super special secret childhood hideout or something? Puh-lease. I thought you wanted to confront the loser that had been tormenting you all morning. Or was that a lie? Ohhhh wait - you know who it is already, don't you? Is that why you're stalling?" Silver sneered. He glanced in Lance's direction. "Hmph. It doesn't matter if you love each other or what-have-you; if it turns out to be dragonbreath over there all along he'll be getting what's coming to him."

"Don't feel like you need to hold anything back for my sake," Lance growled. "You wouldn't be able to touch me otherwise."

For once, Silver ignored the older male - but only because he wasn't through with berating Lyra yet. "And if you think about it reasonably, you aren't really trapped back there like you think. You said it yourself - you're a Trainer, so start thinking and acting like one, dumbass!"

"How could you say that, Silver?! This place is more than just-!"

Lyra stilled as it dawned upon her what she was about to say to him.

...Right.

If she tried to think about it objectively, then Silver was right. She was the most powerful Trainer in the region, and standing next to her in the cage was also a strong Trainer, the current Champion himself. There was literally nothing that could stop the two of them from escaping the abandoned lab, not when the destructive power of their trusted Pokemon were at hand. All they would need to do was give the order and they'd be able to escape.

But she also felt herself struggling against that logic with every fiber of her body. The reason being that the abandoned laboratory had so much sentimental value, the very notion of trashing the place in any way was completely unacceptable to her.

Checkmate.

She was trapped.

And the one who was locking her in was Lyra herself.

In that moment she hated how tied she felt to the building, she hated how right Silver was about everything, she hated having her special place used against her by the culprit!

"Silver... try inputting the password again for me, please." Lyra wasn't looking at the redheaded teen; she had her face hidden in her hands. She couldn't look.

"..." Miraculously, Silver complied to her request easily enough. Either he felt sorry for her (highly unlikely), or he just wanted to prove his point (most likely).

BZZZT!

"...It's no use. The password you gave me isn't working. How did you trigger the trap, anyways?"

"The latest clue was scratched onto the surface of this card Lyra found at the very bottom of the floor compartment. The cage door came crashing down after she pulled it out of the slot," Lyra heard Lance explain in her place. "Now that you mention it... the secret sender must've made some altercations to the cage security system, so that the very moment the card was pulled free, the password would reset itself to something else. Silver, you are our only hope. Do you see anything out there that might give us a clue to what the new password may be?"

"No... the folder on top of the table has a couple of empty sheets of paper, and there's nothing hidden behind the bookshelf or in the shelves."

"Look again. Carvings, scratches, stickers, paint, anything suspicious you can find could be a clue. Or maybe any hidden air vents that connect the back and the front of the lab, that would be much better. Let me know if you've made any progress."

"And if I haven't found anything?"

"Keep looking then."

"...Tch. Fine."

And then Lyra heard the sound of Lance's boots tromping closer across the wooden floor to where she was, stopping somewhere on her left. "Lyra, are you alright? I won't let Silver have his way with this building, I promise. But the best way to convince him otherwise is to find another way." A warm hand rubbed her back soothingly. "Let's find that way together."

Resisting the urge to lean towards him, Lyra lifted her face from her hands and smiled at Lance determinedly. "...Yeah, you're right. I've come this far already, so there's nothing he can throw at me that I can't handle," she declared more confidently than she felt. "He didn't really trap me here - there has to be a way to get out. There has to be a solution, just like his previous riddles."

Lance stopped rubbing her back, but he did not remove his hand. His gaze was speculative once again. "Lyra, your earlier remark has got me thinking about the riddle again. The first part of the message was obviously referring to... what was hidden under the trapdoor. As you put it, the words were quite literal in this case. Can I assume that you immediately associated the words 'buried deep within the gold' with this precious collection of yours back at the Wayside? And can I also ask you what went through your mind when you pinpointed this location?"

"I just contemplated on how my favorite radio program Horizon Ten-Five was used to deliver his message to me. I really liked that program... it was easy for me to make the association once I'd been nudged in the right direction with Silver's help. So for the latest riddle, I tried thinking along those lines again - how anything important in my life could possibly be connected..."

"So, what do you think the second part of the riddle means? Could it be something also closely connected to your life?"

"I... I'm not sure, but right now I'm thinking it's directly referring to how we've been trapped in here for the moment..."

"And what is the key that can set you free?"

Lyra shook her head, her thoughts a complete mess. "I don't know."

"Then we're going to have to find it, otherwise we won't be meeting with the culprit for a very long time."

"...Yeah."

Lance gave her one last reassuring pat on the back and moved away from her. "I'm going to try and see if I can reverse the effects of the lock down from the compartment."

Lyra kind of doubted that would work, as a trap that has already been tripped could not be undone. But she didn't say anything because he at least had something to do. Besides the trapdoor, there was nothing of interest within this makeshift cage. The walls and ceiling were bare, there were no accessible windows, and the iron bars enclosing them in were more likely going to knock them out than to give way if they got too close.

On the other side of the bars, Lyra could see Silver crawling about the floor underneath the wooden table, searching for anything that could serve as a hint. Despite the rather brutal opinion he'd given her, he was also helping her look for another way out. She didn't know what his real motives were, but she felt grateful to him all the same.

She couldn't help but smile when she saw him slide across the floor on his stomach to get to the next spot - the result was that the previously dusty floor was now wiped clean... and she was willing to bet that the front of Silver's turtleneck would be as dirty as hell. If the teenage thug was a clean freak, he wouldn't be happy about it at all. Or maybe, if he were a slob like Ethan, would he simply not care and ignore the filth?

Her smile faded. She needed to get out of here as soon as possible, and without destroying anything.

It was amazing to think that scientists actually conducted their research out in the wilderness like this, in this very building, going so far as to assemble a complicated mechanism to keep the hostile wild Pokemon locked out-

"..."

Something about this cage was bothering her. What was it?

She took another look around.

Lance was squatting next to the open trapdoor, his arms buried in the gold nuggets, the dark cloth of his cape pooling around his ankles. He was probably still trying to make the mechanism work in his favor or something. Her eyes flicked to the walls - there was nothing particularly interesting about them. Silver wanted her to break down the wall to escape, but she didn't want that. She didn't want to resort to that option, ever. Lyra shifted her attention to the electronic keypad outside. The display still showed the words "invalid key".

What would the scientists have done if they had forgotten the password to the cage? How would they open the door? If she could, she would've liked to talk to one of those scientists herself. Too bad Celebi was in Ilex Forest, miles away from where she was. She could've done a little time travelling... talk to some scientists... or maybe travel back and stop her stupid self from pulling the card key out.

...Wait. She didn't need to time travel; she didn't need to speak to the scientists of the past. Why, when she was friends with Professor Elm himself?

Lyra quickly pulled out her Pokegear and dialed the professor's number. But instead of him answering her call like she'd hoped, it went to voicemail. Drat. He was probably really busy... Ethan did say they were on the verge of making a great discovery-

Oh, right! Ethan was the next best thing! Or, maybe not. He was in the middle of exploring the caverns beneath Tohjo Falls, wasn't he? Would he even get phone reception down there...? No, she had to at least try! So she hit the shortcut, speed-dialling him, praying he would pick up.

...Nope. He was out of range.

Lyra felt herself deflate. Now what was she going to do?

If only the keypad were on the inside, she could play around with it and find a way to let herself out!

...

Come to think of it... how did the scientists get out of the cage area if the door were locked and the force field activated? They wouldn't be able to reach through the bars to get at the electronic keypad. Was there an emergency switch they used, or some kind of remote control? Or a secret exit?

But there was nothing resembling a remote or switch or exit. There was only the compartment in the floor.

...

Maybe it was hidden, then?

"Togekiss, I choose you!"

Lance and Silver looked up from their respective places at the sudden cry. The Jubilee Pokemon spread his wings straight out as if stretching before waddling across the floor right up to Lyra, cooing cutely at his Trainer.

"Oi, what ever happened to Miss 'I don't want to break out using force', huh?" Silver mocked. He was about to get up on his hands and knees but remembered just in time that he was currently underneath a long, low table, so he just stayed where he was and tried crawling out instead.

"I'm doing nothing of the sort, just watch me!" Lyra made a wide sweeping gesture with her hand. "Togekiss, use Foresight on those walls!"

Togekiss began to levitate, and he slowly circled around so that his back was facing the steel bars.

"...!"

A bright blaze of red light burst forth from Togekiss' eyes. It wasn't nearly as blinding as Flash but Lyra winced and struggled to keep her eyes open all the same - she needed to confirm if her hunch was on the mark...!

"Ah! Over there!" Lance gasped.

To Lyra's delight, a second electronic keypad materialized within the cage after mere seconds of exposure to the crimson radiance, its position exactly parallel to the one on the outside. Well, she had been hoping for a hidden exit but this was progress enough in her books. Lyra gave Togekiss a big hug and scrambled over excitedly to the keypad, trying to get it to turn on by pressing random buttons. It blinked to life. Success!

Lance was by her side half a second later. "A second keypad, I see... I assume this is what the previous scientists used to unlock the door from the inside. Masterfully cloaked as well."

"I'm just really glad it works!" Lyra commented. She felt like doing a victory dance right then and there, but it would have to wait - she wasn't out of the woods yet, after all.

The newly discovered keypad hummed and buzzed.

_SYNCHRONIZING..._

"'Synchronizing'? I hope that's a good thing," Lyra quipped. Togekiss mewled beside her, echoing his Trainer's sentiment.

Silver finally got out from under the table and lurched to his feet. "So, a second keypad. Whoop-dee-doo," he said sarcastically, unconsciously dusting himself off as he went to stand as close as he could to the bars for a better look. He watched the girl press away at the buttons for a few pensive seconds before he remarked, "I hope you know what you're doing with that."

"Nope, no idea at all! I'm just winging it like how I did at the Golden Coliseum!"

The keypad on Silver's side released an electric chime at the exact same time as Lyra's keypad, startling the boy.

_TRUTH OR HAPPINESS?_

"I don't even know what's going on anymore," Silver moaned. He eyed his electronic keypad dubiously.

...Perhaps he didn't understand, but Lyra did.

And as she stared at the words on the display, reading the words silently to herself, she swore she could almost hear him saying those words to her, asking her to choose between truth and happiness.

Him, the secret sender, her opponent in this strange game he'd forced her into.

How selfish of him to make her choose between truth or happiness... Lyra felt a tiny bit mad.

She glanced up at Lance's face, not at all surprised to see how calm and collected he was about this. His facade had begun to slip mere moments before already; he probably felt that it was pointless to keep up the charade for any longer than necessary. That was fine with her. Lyra didn't want to beat around the bush, either. It was time to end this.

"If the keypads have been 'synchronized', then we most likely need the password input to be 'synchronized' as well," Lance pointed out. "So whatever you plan to type, make sure to let the other know."

"Thanks for the update, Captain Obvious," Silver leered.

Lyra cleared her throat to catch the teen's attention. "Silver, I want you to type in 'happiness' on your side. Meanwhile, I'll go for the 'truth'. And on my mark, we'll hit the enter button together, alright?"

"Hoh, but shouldn't we be using the same password? That was the whole point why the keypads coordinated with each other just now, right?"

"Life isn't about right or wrong, black or white, possible or impossible. It's about making the impossible, possible. Seeing everything in gray."

"...Did you get that from a book?" Siver chortled, punching in the word 'happiness' in his keypad anyways. "That was too good a line to come up with off the top of your head. Oh, wait a minute, you don't like reading, do you? Ethan told me all about it."

Lyra bristled with embarrassment and annoyance, practicaly jabbing her finger on the buttons on her keypad. "I admit I still have no idea what I'm doing here, okay? I admit it, so there! Now back to business: once we're ready, we hit the 'enter' button simultaneously-"

"What happens if it's the wrong answer?" Silver asked suddenly. "I think I get your train of logic. It's the 'truth' that will set you free, and it's 'happiness' that got you trapped in the first place, am I right? Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting anything deep and philosophical out of you." He ignored Lyra's pointed glare. "What if something especially bad happens, like we get electrocuted or something, or the keypads shut down and we can't use them anymore? What would we do then?"

Lyra knew what he was really asking: was she going to muster enough nerve to break out of the building by force if there was no other way?

"This has to work," she said at last. "It has to."

"...So that's your answer, huh? Well, that's fine. I was going to offer to do it for you if it bothered you that much-"

"No." This time, it was Lance who answered, earning himself yet another one of Silver's glares. "She wouldn't allow you to do it because she cares about you, and she doesn't want to be angry with what you did. She values your friendship."

"I was talking to her, not you!"

"Lyra can't just compare this place and your friendship, it's two different but very important things. You can at least understand that much, can't you?"

"..." Silver stared at the Dragon Master for a moment, shrugged and sighed as if he were tired of everything (he probably was) and placed his hand on his electric keypad. "...Ready when you are, Lyra."

Lyra's solution had worked, in a sense. Definitely not the way she'd thought it would play out.

When she and Silver pressed the 'enter' buttons, the building's electrical wiring short-circuited itself. Both keypads shut down on themselves, and the room suddenly smelled like smoke (luckily there wasn't any fire). At first, she was scared that she'd need to cause some damage after all but then her Togekiss Headbutted the iron bars in an attempt to break her Trainer out, proving that the force-field had been deactivated as well. Lance managed to lift the cage door - which was no longer locked electronically - open with Dragonite's immense strength, and they were free at last.

Silver did not want to stay in that filthy abandoned lab any longer, and the couple agreed readily enough, feeling slightly claustrophobic after the self-imposed ordeal. So after Lyra rearranged the vines camoflaging the path to the lab they retraced their previous path, all the way to the entrance of Tohjo Falls again.

"This is it guys, are you ready?" Lyra looked fired up because she was feeling fired up. It was time to show off her knowledge on the facts of the mystery! Like in the mystery novels Ethan lent her! "I'm going to explain everything!"

"...Why stand around and rattle off pointless theories? We should just ambush the man already, whoever the hell you think it is." Silver was getting agitated again, but Lyra shook her head.

"No, the denouement needs to happen right here, or there's no point! Let me ask you again, are you ready to hear the truth?!" She demanded, pointing dramatically.

Silver rolled his eyes. "We might as well get this over and done with already."

"Let's hear your truth, Lyra." Lance agreed much more cordially compared to the younger male, crossing his arms over his chest.

This wasn't a conventional detective story - there was no guarantee that the mystery could be solved, and there was always the chance that Lyra had missed some stuff or had forgotten to factor a few things into her theory. There wasn't any clear indication that the perp had left enough clues behind, either. There didn't seem to be any new clues at the abandoned laboratory save for the card key Lyra had obtained, but it was hardy incriminating. And yet Lyra had it all figured out even before they'd first arrived at Tohjo Falls...

"First, let me say this." Lyra declared. "The culprit is definitely somebody I know... and somebody who knows me well!"

The anonymously sent messages, the challenges, the people that have crossed paths with Lyra today... the only clue that had any real worth were the messages written by the secret sender's own hand. It would be child's play to compare the handwriting to that of her friends'.

"Or is it, really? Who was to say that the culprit didn't get somebody else to write the messages for him?"

"Wait, why would he go so far as to do something like that?" Silver disagreed. "Why would he risk letting the entire case blow wide open like that by showing his hand to a third party?"

"There is only one obvious reason for that. He couldn't risk tipping me off too early in the game - it's most likely that I've seen his handwriting before, and if he'd been the one to write the messages it'd be the same as hanging a sign from his neck that said 'I'm the culprit'!"

"But if he really did that then the person who wrote the messages for him would become his accomplice!"

"I'll be getting to that soon... instead, here's my next point - I definitely spoke to the culprit at least twice today!"

Thankfully Lyra hadn't come across a lot of people these past few hours. The truth becomes clearer the less suspects there are. And it was also thanks to that, Lyra had been able to determine how many people had been truthful and forthcoming with her today.

"And I can say this with full confidence... that only one person was telling me the truth the whole time," Lyra proclaimed. "This innocent person had nothing to do with the events happening around me, and had no real reason to lie to me... and the coincidences I've shared with this person were just that - coincidences. Unfortunately, everyone else has now been overshadowed with their own lies!"

The next problem was how the culprit had set everything up. This was obviously well-planned out except for a few proverbial wrenches thrown in there. The question is, which parts were planned, and which weren't? Their ordeal at the abandoned laboratory was obviously a pre-planned thing, and Lyra was willing to bet that both the blackout and Silver's radio being used in the scheme were pre-planned, too.

"I still think it was strange that Morty was at the Coliseum so early in the morning. Actually, I think it's really strange how certain people popped up today. I believe that they were involved in my predicament somehow."

"While I think it's plausible that multiple people or a group could've done this, I still think it's a bit much to have so many culprits at once, Lyra," Lance said dryly. "Too many people working on the same thing could tear the entire operation apart, it's human nature."

Lyra smiled confidently. "Uh-huh. I still think these other people were involved somehow, if not directly responsible for my morning. But you're right, though, having too many people working together on something like this is inviting trouble, and a real headache to solve. If the culprit really were multiple people, it would be cheating!"

"Cheating?"

"But of course. The culprit has always given me enough clues to work with, I just needed to keep my eyes open the whole time. He may have had some advantages, but he allowed me to have some help solving his riddles, didn't he? You were the one who pointed that out to me, Lance."

So how did the culprit set everything up? Silver had confirmed it himself with his little unprecedented recon mission, but the Radio Tower director had been paid off. So it wasn't a terribly huge stretch to assume that the culprit had both wealth and influence at his fingertips. With those kinds of resources anything was possible - the Golden Coliseum's monitors and the abandoned laboratory's new "upgrades" come to mind.

And there you have it - suspects, resources, and the one "reliable" clue disproved as the most misleading one of them all.

Lyra's stare was unwavering. "But, really... I never would've gotten around to solving the first riddle without some help..."

The first riddle was a combination of two messages - 'Find me', and 'Find me, Lyra', both of which were delivered indirectly to her. She'd been able to deduce where the culprit was leading her by thinking outside the box, associating the phrase 'Find me' with the love song that had been playing on that stereo. On her own, Lyra would never have come to that conclusion - her original plan was to wait for a new message from the culprit to tell her where he was, but thanks to the Dragon Master's help, a path had opened up to her, and the chase had begun in earnest, leaving their original plans at Battle Tower behind...

"Lance, when did you find the time to get replacements for the two of us at the Battle Tower tournament?" Lyra asked.

"Right after our phone call, of course. I am still the Champion, even if it's in name only - you may be the next in line but my name still opens a lot of doors for me. I told you that you didn't need to worry about that. I am sure that Blue and Red are doing a fantastic job in our place."

"I'm not worried about their last minute performance... but I am seriously wondering if they were 'last-minute replacements' at all to begin with."

He frowned. "Why do you say that?"

"As we left the Wayside diner, you did tell me that Red and Blue were taking part in the tournament in our place," Lyra began, "But going back to our phone conversation earlier that morning, you... you were so sweet, coming to my rescue like that. You sounded so worried over the phone, and you had really rushed as fast as you could to Ethan's house... I was really touched at the time."

"Of course I would do that. You sounded so spooked over the phone, and I got so worried... All I could really think of at the time was getting to your side as fast as I could."

Lyra bit her lip. "...And you know what's really throwing me off, Lance? I can tell you're being sincere when you say those things. But the facts still stand."

At the time Lance was about to hang up his phone, Lyra had clearly remembered the background noises from Lance's end - the crowds, the sudden silence, and the telltale sounds of his Dragonite getting off the ground. Lyra had flown about with Lance so many times now, it wasn't hard for her to remember. So if Lance really did pull some strings to get Red and Blue to act as stand-ins at Battle Tower, when did he find the time to do it? It couldn't have been right after calling Lyra and before Flying off on his Dragonite like he claimed because the time frame was too small. It couldn't have been while he was Flying because Lance himself had claimed to be Flying at higher altitudes to avoid strong winds and to get to Lyra faster - it would've been impossible to get proper steady reception up there. And if he'd done the calls after arriving at New Bark Town, it would've been too late to call for a stand-in.

"I believe you when you say you got us some replacements, because you aren't the kind of person who easily abandons his duties. Also, no matter how powerful the person, these kinds of last-minute replacements take half a day at most, especially when considering the paperwork involved. So there is only one explanation for this corundum." Lyra pointed at Lance. "You had gotten Red and Blue to act as our tournament replacements some time before today! That was part of the reason why you had no problem abandoning the tournament for me!"

Silver raised an eyebrow. "What does that prove, Sherlock?"

Lyra dropped her hand. "Absolutely nothing! On its own, at least. So far, all I've done was prove that Lance is a pretty thorough guy... and that he was lying about it."

"You're point?"

Through all of these, the culprit's plan was still too large a project to control. It involved solving riddles, travelling over long distances and even a time limit at one point. There wouldn't be any point to his hard work if Lyra happened to misinterpret some part of a riddle, or got led astray by some stupid friend who didn't know any better, or worse. Lyra, the direct recepient of the messages, needed to be in the right places at the right times for the culprit's plan to hold together. To put it in Lance's own words, the culprit was keeping an eye on her.

"You were keeping an eye on me this whole time, Lance."

"Yes, I was. I kept an eye on you because I wanted to," Lance said carefully. "I was worried about you... and I wanted you to succeed in catching the secret sender."

Lyra shook her head, amazed. "You're being sincere again. It's amazing how well you can dodge the truth by not telling the whole truth."

Silver was now giving Lance the evil eye, and he looked about as tense as a Growlithe, ready to jump and tear the older man's head off at any moment's notice.

"...So what is the 'truth', Lyra?" Lance asked gently. "What are you accusing me of?"

What are you accusing me of? That was a weirdly worded question. But Lyra's momentum was still going strong. "You were keeping an eye on me this whole time... not just because you were worried or whatever, but also because you needed me to stay on the riddles' trails. As I've said, it's because if you didn't, the whole thing would fall apart at the seams."

But that wasn't all. Lance the Dragon Master had been there for Lyra since the very beginning, wasn't he? It was thanks to Lance's guidance she managed to decode the first riddle. If he had not been there, the path she'd taken that morning wouldn't have been discovered.

"Or maybe I'm not being clear enough? My point is, those phrases 'Find me' and 'Find me, Lyra' were just that, phrases written by a third party and addressed to me. They were just meaningless things that I wouldn't have taken much stock into... but you got me thinking that they were more than that, Lance. It was because of you that the option to go to Goldenrod City became feasible!"

Lance was the one who called her first, even. He had gotten Red and Blue to take their places at the tournament some time beforehand, too... but why, exactly? Perhaps Lance had already knew that he wouldn't be able to participate today? He was the one who helped Lyra get into a puzzle-solving state of mind. He travelled with her to Goldenrod City, still guiding her every step of the way. And it nagged Lyra at the back of her mind, how Lance seemed to appear at just the right moments.

"This is my 'truth'!" Lyra declared. "Lance, you-!"

"So it was you!" Silver shouted at Lance, his hands balling into fists. He walked briskly towards the Dragon Tamer. "It was you, you son of a-!"

"Silver, wait! No!" Lyra cried. "I haven't finished-"

He ignored Lyra's pleas and tackled the older male with all of his might. Pokemon battle? What Pokemon battle? Silver wasn't going to honor the man with one, because in his own opinion he didn't deserve it!

The boys grappled with each other across the grass, punching and kicking while teetering dangerously close to the river. Lance was someone who constantly ended up in direct skirmishes with criminals who just couldn't accept a loss, so he was no stranger to getting ambushed out of the blue. But Silver was smart, agile, and nimble, and he fought like a Rocket - he was also determined and angry. There was no way in hell he'd let this sick, lying bastard get away with this alive!

Lyra tried to stop them, and with the help of her hastily released Typhlosion, managed to separate them at last-

"Rrrraaagh!"

Silver kicked out his leg at the last possible second, catching Lance right where the sun didn't shine.

"Augh?!"

Lance gasped after a five second delay, curling up from the attack to his... sun?

"Stop!"

Lyra's scream did nothing to keep Silver kicking Lance a second time in the... sun, and to her horror, Lance fell over sideways from the unbearable pain and rolled into the river with a faint splash.

She didn't think, she didn't hesitate. Lyra dropped her bag to the ground, threw off her hat and jumped in after him.

Lance hadn't been joking when he implied how dangerous the river was back at the Wayside diner. Maybe it was smaller back in Lyra's younger years, but thanks to time, natural calamities and soil erosion the river was now a hazard zone not just for the regular folks at New Bark, but even the seasoned Trainers who were on their way to challenge the Indigo League. But Lyra wasn't afraid for her life - rather, she were afraid for Lance's. No matter how good of a swimmer he turned out to be, he couldn't possibly put up a decent fight against a rampaging river immediately after receiving the brunt of Silver's Castration Kick!

Lyra swam as fast as she could, dodging every rock and low tree branch that threatened to slow her down or knock her out... oh no, Lance wouldn't have been able to dodge those either, would he? Hopefully, he'd still be conscious when she finally got to him-

"Oi!"

There was a shout from the riverbank. Lyra glanced quickly in the direction of the voice, her ears already too clogged with water to recognize who the speaker was.

"Pigtails, hold up!" Silver seemed to be shouting, running as fast as he could to keep up with the girl. Lyra's faithful Typhlosion was easily keeping pace, dashing forward using his long body like a spring. He suddenly raised his head and fired an Ember in Lyra's general direction.

"?!"

Lyra hadn't been looking where she was going; she had almost been at the mercy of a fallen log, but part of it was burned away by the Ember attack just in time so Lyra had the chance to duck underwater. When her head popped back out three seconds later, Silver was throwing one of his own Pokeballs.

"Feraligatr, hurry and help her find cape-freak!"

With a magnificent splash, the blue reptile was soon swimming just in front of Lyra, Headbutting right through any rocks and branches and logs that got in the way. Lyra reached out and grabbed the Pokemon from behind with both arms, and the two of them soon out paced Silver and Typhlosion.

She stuck her head out as far as she was able, squinting desperately at the wild currents for any sign of the man. When she spotted a familiar shock of bright red hair in the distance she let out a hopeful, incorregible cry. "Feraligatr, over there! Quick!"

SPINNING - 04

END

NEXT: THE CLIMAX!

Fic Updates:

ver. 1.0 - Uploaded the first chapter! (2/16/14)
ver. 2.1 - Fixed spelling and grammar mistakes in the first chapter; uploaded the second chapter! (2/21/14)
ver. 2.3 - Fixed spelling and grammar mistakes, and extended some scenes in the second chapter! (2/22/14)
ver. 3.4 - Uploaded the third chapter, fixed typos in the same chapter! (3/1/14)
ver. 3.5 - Fixed an embarrassing typo in the second chapter! (3/5/14)
ver. 4.8 - Uploaded the fourth chapter, fixed typos in the same chapter, edited some scenes for better flow in the third chapter! (3/17/14)
ver. 4.9 - Fixed spelling and grammar mistakes in the fourth chapter! (3/18/14)