Disclaimer: I do not own or have any association with Pokémon. This is fanwork and I do not profit from it.

The next morning found our group at the Pokémon Festival in Castelia's central park. It was crowded, to say the least, which made it difficult to get around in a wheelchair. Most people were nice enough to let me through, though, which Cara took advantage of. She always got us to the front of the crowd during performances and was plotting on how to cut lines before Alise flew over to her shoulder and smacked her face for almost pushing me off a ledge.

There were Spheals juggling balls and Walrein juggling Spheals, top Pokémon coordinators holding display battles on stages, clowns on unicycles with Mr. Mimes, and fishermen trying to con little kids into buying Magikarp.

"Hey, look, an Evolution Shop!" Cara exclaimed, pointing at a tent with a painting of an Eevee on the front. Cara nearly smashed me through a few bystanders in the way before Devan grabbed her.

"If you want to keep pushing him, then please don't kill anyone while doing so," he said, and she slowed down. Alise gratefully chirped at Devan.

"Um, excuse me for asking," I said as Cara continued to muscle her way over there, "but what's an Evolution Shop?"

"They sell items that make certain Pokémon evolve," Devan explained in between apologies to kids who almost got run over by my wheelchair. "Eevees are their mascot, because, well, Eevee is the Evolution Pokémon. Cara, watch where you're going, please."

The inside of the tent was cool and crowded. Counters and glass cases were everywhere, showing off stones, cloths, incenses, and oddly shaped claws, scales and fangs.

"Can I help you?" someone asked, and we looked over to see a tall woman standing behind a cash register. There was an Eevee on her head, and a Leafeon sleeping in her arm. A Vaporeon that had previously been trying to balance on her shoulder shot off to greet us as soon as she spoke.

The scaly creature crashed into my lap, and I yelped in pain when it rubbed its head against my wounded side. I gently tried to push it off; it decided to lick my hand instead.

"Someone's affectionate," Devan muttered, watching the Vaporeon carefully crawl up and around my neck.

"Oh, don't worry. He's like that around everyone," the woman said, hurrying over. "Are you alright?"

I nodded, trying not to flinch from the cold radiating off the water Pokémon.

"Anyways," Cara said loudly, "I was wondering if you had a Shiny Stone."

"What do you need a Shiny Stone for?" Devan asked incredulously. Cara ignored him.

"It doesn't have to be one of those purified ones, just one that can at least start evolution," she explained.

The woman nodded. "The Shiny Stones are over this way. Rain, leave the poor boy's cast alone," she said scoldingly. The Vaporeon perked up at the mention of its name's and withdrew from my arm. It decided that it was time to return to its owner, and hopped back onto her shoulder. "My name's Abbi, by the way. This is Moss the Leafeon and the Eevee on my head is Coal. He's going to be a Flareon one day," she explained proudly. The Eevee mewed in agreement and sat up a bit taller, eying us with contempt.

"Cool," Devan said. "Do you have any others with you?"

Abbi nodded. "I left most of them at home, but I also have Volt, who's also an Eevee, with me. I had to put him in the back room though. He's Rain's brother, and the two act just alike, except for the fact that Volt's a bit more hyper."

"Perfect for a Jolteon then," Cara said, nodding. "I have one. His name's Needle."

Abbi frowned. "Well, he's not… He doesn't really want to evolve into one, even though being a Jolteon matches his personality perfectly. And plus, I have Spark, who was my first Eevee. I'm not quite sure what to do with him, honestly."

"That's too bad," Devan said. "Can we see him?"

"Um, sure. Here's the Shiny Stones, by the way. The ones on the far end are P40,000 and completely purified, and the ones down here can go as low as P7,500. They can start evolution, but it'll take up to three years for the full change to take place. The ones down there take a week," Abbi said, and Cara happily went about examining them. "Let me go get Volt," she told us, and ran back to the counter, Eevees still in hand.

Moments later the furriest Eevee I had ever seen sped across the room, leapt onto Devan's head, and then launched himself onto my lap. Volt studied me for a moment before nudging my un-injured hand and letting out what almost sounded like a purr when I started petting him. Alise angrily chirped at him and climbed down into my lap. She tried pushing him off of him, and the much bigger Volt wrapped his tail around her and pulled her up against him. He licked her head a few times before happily resting his head against my chest.

Alise chirped angrily again and pecked his side, but Volt ignored her.

Meanwhile, Abbi went off to assist Cara, who was asking about various paying plans.

"Well, I've never heard of a Pokémon against evolving," Devan said, crouching down to see Volt better. "Nor have I ever seen an Eevee with that long of fur. Sheesh, haven't you ever seen a groomer?"

Volt yapped and licked his hand as Devan reached out to pet him.

"You're a friendly little guy, at le-" Devan was cut off by the ground suddenly shaking. Alise chirped and leapt up to my head just as something smashed into the side of the tent, causing it to collapse.

I shrieked and flew out of my wheelchair, momentarily putting weight on my bad foot before rolling under a table as red vinyl fell over everything. Volt and Alise appeared next to me moments later, with Alise staring alertly outside from her perch on my arm.

Devan eventually crawled into our mini-shelter, and I figured that Cara and Abbi had hidden somewhere else.

Which just left…

"Ambrosii!" I shouted, suddenly panicking. There was no way the Sigilyph could fit under any table in the room, and I doubt he could've escaped in time. I started to push my way out into the collapsed remains of the tent.

"Wait!" Devan called, grabbing my cast. I winced as he pulled me back. "Ambrosii can take care of himself. Trust me, psychics, especially fast ones like him, can handle this. He probably has enough power to keep himself safe for a while. We need to find Cara."

I sat back down, awkwardly shifting my injured leg as to not hurt it more.

"She's probably underneath the table across from us if she made it out in time," he continued, "along with Abbi. I need to make sure though, and the last thing I need is for you to go hurt yourself even worse. Stay right here, okay?"

He disappeared to the left underneath the mass of red vinyl as I sat quietly with Volt and Alise, feeling useless and helpless.

A while later Devan reappeared with a sobbing Cara behind him, and a green mass that was hissing and screeching for all it was worth. A closer look revealed it was Moss the Leafeon. Devan had something in his arms too. It looked like a giant fluffy Eevee with red fur.

Devan opened his mouth to speak but Cara cut him off.

"She didn't stand a chance," she cried. "A-a display case, the tallest one, came crashing down when she wasn't expecting it and suddenly her n-neck snapped." Cara hiccuped and clutched Moss, who was still howling his head off, to her chest. "I… Coal tried to push it off of her but with the weight of the tent it just got worse and she couldn't move, and I grabbed Moss and dove under the table. R-Rain's still alive, but barely. I c-couldn't touch him, he was so bloody and in so much pain and-"

Devan gently pulled her too him as I stared in shock.

"Calm down," he whispered and gently unwrapped her arms from the Leafeon, who ran off to the edge of the tent and glared daggers at us. He then set the red Eevee on the ground and stared at it woefully. An awkward silence settled in.

"That's Volt."

I blinked.

"The display case that fell had one of each stone in it, and Volt happened to crash land into a fire stone. Um, he's obviously not done evolving, but… uh… there's no turning back now. He probably would've died if his mind hadn't shut down and went into evolution mode."

Devan sighed as Cara gripped his shirt and sobbed harder. He whispered something to her and she nodded and wiped her eyes before crawling over to the far edge of the table and pushing her way through the vinyl.

"I need you to watch over Volt while I go get Rain," he ordered, and I nodded dumbly, wondering how all of this happened so fast. I scooted my way over to the evolving Eevee as Devan disappeared.

I would've thought Volt was dead if not for the slight heaving of his chest as he breathed. His already-long fur had grown out more, and had a reddish tint to it. He felt feverishly warm, and his ears were larger than before. It looked like someone had bleached his neck and tail, and his mouth, which was cracked open with a small stream of blood pouring onto the ground, had sharp fangs. His eyes were squeezed shut as if he was in great pain.

And he wasn't even done yet.

However, what he was going through was dwarfed when Devan surface with Rain. I could hardly look at the Vaporeon, whose skin was bruised a deep shade of purple, tail missing its fin, ruff shredded to pieces, and nose smashed and covered with blood. One of his legs was bent in the wrong direction, and his canine teeth had dug pools of blood in his lower lip.

"Now what?" I asked, looking away from the two Pokémon.

"We get ourselves down to the end of the table and wait for Cara," Devan said. "But I don't know how that's going to work for you. You can't crawl and you can't roll." He sighed and shook his head. "Maybe I can carry you somehow. Let me just get the Pokémon down there and then we'll work something out."

I numbly nodded and watched as he awkwardly rested Volt over his neck and pulled Rain to his chest with one arm and maneuvered his way away from me. Moss followed eventually, closely monitoring the two Eevee brothers.

Cara appeared as he neared the edge, and threw a bunch of Potions at him and told him to stay put. He quickly obeyed and she left. What felt like hours later she returned with a box and handed it to him before power-crawling down to me. Mascara lined tear tracks on her face from earlier, and she was shaking, but she wasted no time in pulling me onto her back and getting me over to where Devan and the Eevees were. My injured arm and leg hurt, and I felt the gauze on my side get wet indicating the wound was reopened, but I got down there fast enough.

"Cara, you should've been more careful," Devan scolded, setting down Rain in favor of examining me.

"Then you should've gotten him yourself," she snapped, but her heart wasn't in it. She studied the Vaporeon with an unreadable expression on her face. "You know," she said after a while, "he kinda looks like you did after swimming through Mt. Moon. With all the blood and bones and stuff." Her face turned slightly green.

"I wasn't that bad," I said.

"No, you were worse," Cara said in a rather small voice for someone usually so loud and bossy. "Much worse. Dear Mew, how did you survive?"

I shrugged and silence filled the air once again. Devan was the one to break it again as he gently peeled the gauze wrap off my side and replace it with the stuff Cara found.

"So, what's happening outside?"

"Chaos. There's a fleet of fliers out there, with Dragon-types in the lead followed by Staraptors and Unfezents and a few Pidgeots. Dodrio and Rapidash carried people over land. It's some sort of army out there or something-all wearing black and red suits, armed to the teeth. Taking all the Pokémon they can and their trainers. Arceus, Devan, I don't know what they want to do with them, but it's barbaric. They're putting the people in these cages, cages, and subduing the Pokémon with whatever they can. And when they resist-sweet Mew, they sic Pokémon on them. Pokémon on humans." Cara looked pretty shaken. "Blood everywhere. I-you know I can't stand all that gore! I beelined for the nurse stand and grabbed what I could. I tried not to look around, I'm sorry, but I can't handle it."

Devan frowned. "Did you see anyone escaping?"

"I didn't look around," Cara repeated, trembling.

He finished re-bandaging me and started spraying Potions onto Rain. "I'll see what's going on after I get this little one taken care of. But for now, we have no choice but to wait."

"Wait? But…" Dread fell through my stomach like a rock. "Ambrosii's probably out there. We can't let them take him!"

Devan sighed. "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about that. I can't release any of my Pokémon to search for him without risking losing them as well. Hopefully he's in the tent somewhere; we can get to him after all this chaos is over."

"I can't just do that!" I cried. "There's got to be something!"

Cara watched me carefully, her face still a mask of fear and disgust from seeing what happened outside.

"You can try to reach out to him mentally. Devan said before that Ambrosii communicated with him using telepathy," she suggested, and I nodded, slightly panicked.

I wasn't really sure how to do that, but I remembered what it felt like before when Ambrosii sent pictures and stories over to me. At first it was as if his mind had invaded mine, forcing images and voices into it, but gradually it turned into our minds simply connecting.

I thought about connecting with him again, and relaxed as I searched for his consciousness. There were other psychic-types in the vicinity, apparently, as I heard voices calling out for names I didn't recognize. Eventually I found him, though. His stoic, warrior mind was analyzing the situation he was in, which was-

"He was knocked onto the ground with a display case pinning his right wing to the floor, and he can't feel his tail thing, but the upper half of his body is underneath a table," I reported, and returned to the situation I was in currently. "He's safe for now." Devan nodded as he turned his attentions to Volt.

"We'll retrieve him once this is over, then," he said calmly. "It looks like Volt's in pretty good condition, other than the normal pain from evolving. He cut the inside of his mouth up, though, but any injuries he sustained before getting in contact with the fire stone must've healed pretty quickly from the evolution."

I nodded. "What happened to Coal?"

"I don't know. When I went to retrieve Rain he was gone," Devan explained.

I tried to listen to what was happening outside, but the walls of the tent were thick enough that I could only hear the dull roar of screams and Pokémon stampeding.

"Well, I'll be right back," Devan announced and cautiously crawled down to the end of the table and pushed his way outside. Cara pulled her knees to her chest and stared after him.

"He's a lunatic," she declared. "An absolute lunatic."

I wasn't sure what to say, so I remained quiet.

"I get that he's supposed to be one of the top trainers in Unova or whatever, but he's an idiot if he thinks he can go out there and get a good grasp of what's going on and return completely unharmed."

Light flooded into the tent and Cara looked up.

"Oh good, he's not as stupid as I thought," she said, but it wasn't Devan who appeared.

It was a Growlithe with a scowl I didn't think such an adorable puppy could pull off. A black band was wrapped around his front paw, and his tail was raised alertly. I paled as it growled.

"Nevermind," Cara said weakly as someone followed it into our hideout. It was a man wearing a black cap and suit with a red "R" printed onto the front of it. He had a headset that he was rapidly speaking into as he approached us. Alise chirped indignantly when the Growlithe reached us and smacked her off of me. She fearlessly whacked it in the face with her wing and climbed on its neck before ferociously pecking it.

The fire Pokémon thrashed about, but Alise held fast, digging her talons deep into its fur. The man ignored the battle and instead went directly after me and Cara. I tried scooting backwards, but he pulled a Pokeball from his waist and let out an Arbok. It glared at me, and I felt myself lock up as it drew closer, hissing. Its eyes were full of hate and anger.

Instead of killing me, though, it sunk its fangs into my shirt collar and dragged me backwards. Alise immediately left the Growlithe, who was looking rather beaten up, and turned into a whirlwind of attacks on the giant snake. I could do nothing but watch as the Arbok easily knocked her out with a flick of its tail. Another one of the cobras appeared and Cara screamed as it rounded on her. The Growlithe was recalled and we were dragged away.

Outside was, as Cara said before, absolute chaos. People kicked and screamed as the men in black suits dragged them into wire cages. A Dragonite hovered overhead, bearing a black band around its leg and holding a bag with the other, which Pokeballs were constantly deposited into. A fleet of black and white birds flew overhead, tranquilized Pokémon in their clutches.

I was eventually tossed into a cage, and would've screamed in pain if I wasn't completely paralyzed. I watched as a man slammed the door to it and placed Cara in one next to me.

I laid there and watched for what felt like hours as the intruders pillaged the festival, stealing everything they possibly could. Devan was eventually caught, but I could do nothing as they stripped him of his Pokémon and threw him into a cage. He didn't seem to be paralyzed, though. Moss, Alise, Rain and Volt were also recovered from the remains of the tent, but I didn't see Ambrosii.

I tried reaching out with my mind again, but almost immediately thousands of psychic voices descended on me.

"Stay still, Carrier, and don't reach out!"

"Keep your thoughts to yourself! We can't lose you!"

"You're protected for now. Return to your own mind before the Rocket psychics find you!"

"Quiet!"

I shakily returned to myself, feeling confused and useless. I needed to know where Ambrosii was, and apparently the other psychics didn't want me to search for him.

Just as the sun was starting to set-I had spent all day in that stupid cage-the people were apparently satisfied with what they found and they all climbed aboard massive birds. There were probably about seventy cages of people which were picked up as well, and I spotted more Dragonites with bags of Pokeballs as we took off. Apparently they couldn't recall some of the Pokémon, which remained fainted or asleep in the claws of Flygon.

My stomach dropped when I spotted Moss, Volt and Rain squished together with dragon claws digging into their sides. Alise was carefully nestled into Volt's ever-growing bushy fur, and even though she was obviously fainted, it was good to see her with a Pokémon she'd recognize, even if she didn't particularly like the Eevee.

Slowly the world grew darker, until the only light came from the flashlights the people in black had on them, and I fell asleep.

I woke up on a plank of wood with a crappy pillow stuffed under my head and Devan hovering over me, concern etched into his features. He sighed with relief as I sleepily sat up, and Cara appeared moments later.

"I told you he was going to be okay," she told Devan, lightly slapping his arm. "After all, I turned out alright, didn't I? I woke up earlier than he did without you hovering over me like a Kangaskahn with a sick child."

Devan scowled at her, his face turning pink. "Well sorry, but you're not the one who nearly drowned in Mt. Moon."

"Um," I interjected as Cara opened her mouth to retort, "Yeah, I'm fine, Devan, but where are we?" Looking around revealed that we were in a room with probably five other people, two of which were still asleep.

"I have no idea," he said, shrugging. "I just woke up here and everyone else was still asleep."

"More than likely underground in Lavender," a man said, and we turned to see one of the other people sitting in the corner, a deep frown adorning his narrow face. "The town used to be a maximum-security prison, once upon a time. It was shut down eventually and they built a town over it and turned the aboveground part of the prison into the Pokémon Tower. There's still cells down here, that people were planning on eventually using to extend the cemetery, but then Zager just bought the whole thing a week ago and I wouldn't be surprised if he's the one keeping us down here."

"Zager?" I asked. "Like, Dr. Zager? From Pewter?"

The man nodded. "Yeah. There's something seriously wrong with that guy."

"Why'd he buy it?"

"Didn't you watch the news? He's some nutjob who wants to turn it into a massive science lab. The entire region was in uproar, but damn, that guy's got money, and he bought it anyways. Protests shot up all over the place, but he tossed another couple million bucks at them and they shut up," he explained. "Seems he wants it to be more like a prison than a lab, though."

"Not like anyone has the money anymore to protest," someone else spoke up. A woman with short black hair and an elegant dress rested her head against the wall. "I hate to say anything bad about Kanto, but everything's heading downhill. Stocks are dropping, businesses are dying, the league's running out of money. I haven't received a paycheck in months."

Cara studied her in surprise. "Leader Erika?"

"Yes," the woman said, looking rather sad. "Though I don't really have much to lead anymore. I left the gym for a while to see the festival, and left before they came in. When I reached my gym, the entire thing had burned down. The only Pokémon left alive are my young Bulbasaur and Roserade, who went with me to the festival, and now they're gone."

"Damn," the remaining man said. "They burned down a gym? That takes guts."

"That takes cruelty and heartlessness," Erika corrected. "And cowardice, to do it when I wasn't there to protect everyone.

Devan awkwardly sat down next to me, and Cara huffed before sitting on the floor.

"We were in the Evolution Tent, and when it collapsed, the owner was murdered and I think one of her Eevee died trying to save her," Cara said. "We were lucky to make it under the table, but another Eevee of hers, one highly intent on not evolving, came in contact with a Fire Stone. Her Vaporeon was nearly killed and we had to wrestle her Leafeon from her body."

"Abbi died?" Erika asked quietly.

"A display case fell onto her and snapped her neck," Cara explained, and I noticed her face turn slightly green.

Erika sighed. "She was a good person. May she rest in peace."

The two others came around and everyone introduced themselves. The man who had initially explained that we were in Lavender town was Alfred, and the man who had said that it took guts to burn down a gym was Burt. The two people who woke up were Linda and Henry.

"Well, any idea what we do now?" Burt asked.

"Discuss escape," Linda suggested.

Alfred shook his head. "It's maximum security. We are in a cement room with the only way in or out being a door directly above us. It's only unlockable from above. I would say go for the vents, but the way it's designed is that there's a lot of them, just all really small. We would need Pokémon strong enough to break through the door if we wanted to escape."

"Then we discuss who the hell brought us here and what they want with us," Linda said, leaning back and crossing her arms.

"Well, like I said before, it's more than likely connected to Zager, because he bought the Pokémon Tower and the property under it a week ago," Alfred said, tucking a strand of brown hair behind his ear. He looked and acted like the type of person to wear glasses, and I figured he must've lost them when abducted. "But I don't know what he'd want with the people at the Pokémon festival. I don't know much about him other than he worked in Pewter for a while, is a lunatic, and bought this estate. And he's some sort of doctor."

"He has connections with Giovanni," I offered, and everyone turned to me.

"How do you know this?" Burt asked. "I didn't see it on the news or anything."

"I'm a mailboy. I got assigned to Zager, Giovanni, and a few people I've never met. Butch and Cassidy and Domino or something like that," I explained. "Um, and also, they sent some stuff to Professor Oak, too."

"What'd they send?" Devan asked, and I nearly jumped as I realized how close he was. I awkwardly scooted a few inches away.

"Erm, a couple letters and a package. Oak sent a box to Giovanni before, like right before the whole Dratini abuse case started," I said. "This was all quite a while ago."

"Well, that's a start," Burt said gruffly. "But I don't see what that has to do with us being trapped here."

Alfred glared at him for a second. "If we had more information, it would have a lot more to do with us being trapped here. In fact, this is quite helpful if you really think about it. Henry, you said you were a stock broker, correct?"

Henry, an old frail man who had previously remained silent, nodded. "Yeah."

"How's the market doing?"

"Companies are going broke every day. People are losing tons of money," he said and shrugged. "I was a stock broker. I went into retirement as just about everyone else got laid off. The market's about to crash. Any day now it's all gonna end."

"That has absolutely nothing to do with-" Burt began, but Cara, who sat next to him, smacked him over the head.

"Shut up and listen," she demanded.

"And Erika, any news of what's been happening lately with the league?" Alfred continued.

"I haven't been paid in three months, and Lance has recently fallen ill," she said. "The next conference is cancelled until we can receive more funding, and Johto's not offering much help."

"And Zager appears out of nowhere last week with over a billion dollars to buy out the Pokémon Tower," Alfred repeated. "Nobody could resist the offer because the town, no, the entire government, needed the money. Where did he get it all?"

"He didn't seem rich before," I said. "He lived in a little trailer thing and looked like he spent the night out in a thunderstorm."

"The package you delivered to Giovanni from Professor Oak-was it about the right size to hold the Pokeballs for the Dratini?"

"Yeah."

Alfred nodded, looking rather deep in thought.

"Dratini aren't cheap," Linda added. "Giovanni would have to have quite a bit of cash to buy a few of those."

"But Professor Oak's probably failing financially too," Devan added. "He might've sold them on the cheap to get at least a little bit of money."

"What's Lance sick with?" Alfred interrupted.

"I don't know. I offered to help-grass Pokémon can be good with healing-but the Elites said that they didn't think it'd make much of a difference. Nobody's been informed of his symptoms. This was about two weeks ago when we first heard," Erika said.

Something suddenly clanged overhead, and we all looked up as the iron trapdoor above us was opened. I hadn't realized how dim the room was until light suddenly flood in.

"Which one's got the psychics all upset?" someone demanded from up above. The silhouette of a head appeared.

"The two sitting on the bed," he said. "C'mon, you two, right there, get over here!"

Devan stared up at them blankly. "And how do you propose we get out of this room? We don't have wings."

The man muttered something and reappeared moments later with a ladder. Burt immediately tried to go for it, but Linda shoved him back.

"Not now," she whispered as Devan and I clambered up to freedom.

Of course, the feeling didn't last long as they cuffed our wrists and blindfolded us before marching us down what I assumed to be a hallway.


A/N: Okay, so here's the deal; I have started working on one of the other stories in the series, Musician, but I won't post it until Mailboy is finished. I won't work on Musician a whole lot, but I hope to have the first few chapters done by the end of Mailboy. In the meantime, I'm also posting a story called "Mailboy Holidays" which is just a bunch of mini-stories to go along with Mailboy. Originally I considered adding the stories in Mailboy Holidays in here as interludes, but decided against it. As I still am a beginner when it comes to writing, I wanted some way to practice different styles of writing and decided to do so in Mailboy Holidays, so I didn't think it'd be fitting to put it here. Mailboy Holidays should turn out fairly interesting though, and it'll help expand on the background of characters. I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look at it. More stories will be added to it as we reach more holidays or season changes or whatever I find somewhat interesting.

So yeah. As usual, please let me know what I can do to improve my writing and what I'm doing well. I've been keeping all of your suggestions in mind when writing, but I feel like Mailboy hasn't been turning out as well as it should, so just keep giving me advice and I'll keep trying to improve.