Me: Welcome to a new year everyone!

*silence*

Me: T T. T T Why do they have to go home...

*meanwhile at a random airport in a random town in a random place*

Gardevoir: So have a safe flight, don't do anything stupid, yada yada yada...

Max: *sweatdrop* Such a nice sendoff.

Carlos: *breaking down on the ground* Where's Margaret?!

Gardevoir: She had to stay home because of the snowstorm, and I can only teleport two people at once. *hands doughnut* Here, stop crying.

Max: Wait, couldn't you just teleport back right now and-

Gardevoir: I can only teleport two people. *narrows eyes* Teleporting makes me tired.

Carlos: *whispers towards Max* Someone's grouchy...

Max: *nods as they start walking towards the terminal* I just don't think she wants to see Eon cry.

Gardevoir: *watching them go* I heard that.

Max: *smiles back* Take care of her for us!

Carlos: And be nice to Margaret!

Gardevoir: *waves with a fake smile* Yeah, ahaha, like that's gonna happen. Disclaimer: Eon doesn't own Pokemon in any way. If it wasn't obvious by now.

Chapter Ten: Yellow

Unlike my previous slumber, when I woke up, I knew I had been asleep for quite some time. Blinking my eyes, it took a minute for my vision to adjust to the bright light of the room. A machine was whirring away somewhere nearby, and, sitting up, I glanced over to see that there was indeed one against the far wall, hooked up to a Pokemon on a bed similar to mine. The memories of where I was suddenly kicked in. Gaze shooting to my hand, I stiffened slightly at the sight of the stopper-like tube inbedded in my skin. At least there wasn't the feeling of drainage coming from it anymore. However, I was rather exhausted, considering I'd just awoken from a long sleep.

My train of thought quickly moved from my own well-being to that of the Gardevoir on the other side of the room. Samantha wasn't looking any better than she had when I first arrived; if anything, the bags under her eyes seemed even darker.

"H-Hello?" I whispered softly. "Are you awake?" The machine was probably too loud for her to hear me, so I elevated my voice a little. "Samantha?"

"You don't need to be so loud! Jeez..."

I blinked in surprise as the Gardevoir slowly opened her eyes. "H-How are you doing that...?"

She sighed breathlessly. "Telepathy. Haven't you ever heard of it?"

I nodded quickly and looked away. "Do you know where we are?"

"Probably some half-assed building with a security system that I could override faster than the 'Master' could snap his fingers." The shiny tugged angrily against the tubes trailing from all over her body. "If they would just let me go." She sighed. "Then again..."

"Sam, stop it. You're just going to make more blood flow like usual."

The Pokemon paused obediently as red began welling up on her skin. Glancing up, my eyes widened when I found Melany walking through the doorway. The glass wall at the front showed that there was no one in the control room. It was just us three.

Instinctively, I pushed myself against the wall away from her, but Samantha simply rolled her eyes. "Nothing I'm not used to by now."

Melany paused and closed her eyes in admiration. "I'm still surprised at how you can talk. It's impressive."

Samantha smirked, and I blinked. "You can hear her, too?"

Melany nodded, and the Gardevoir looked over at me. "I can project my telepathy outwards to everyone like this." There was a break. "Or simply to one person like this."

I glanced over to see Melany glancing between us. The curiosity in her blue eyes made it obvious that she didn't hear our exchange.

The machine hooked to Samantha suddenly coughed and gradually came to a stop. Melany nodded and walked over to my bed. "Good. We can get started then."

I curled away from her, and she gave me a blank look before grabbing onto the edge of my bed. Maneuvering the tube in my hand through a slot in the ceiling, she slowly tugged me closer to Samantha. When the girl was within arm's length of both of us, she stopped and sat down on the floor. Before I could react, she curled her fingers gently around mine.

"W-What are you doing?" I stuttered in shock.

The blonde didn't say anything. She simply took Samantha's white hand as well and closed her eyes in concentration.

The Gardevoir could sense my hesitation. "Hey, don't worry. It's okay."

I wanted to ask how she knew, but then a strange sensation coated my nerves. It was a flood of energy, cool to the touch and utterly refreshing. I heard a sigh of content and thought it was Samantha before realizing that it had come from me.

"How are you doing this?" I asked trying to be stern.

"Isn't it obvious?" Samantha rolled her eyes. "She has powers like you."

So Blue and I's predictions had been correct. But, that meant... "Melany, um, you wouldn't happen to be from the Viridian Forest would you?"

I was offered no answers from the girl, but instead Samantha glanced over at me, blue hair swishing. "Not all miracles come from that place alone, Yellow. There are many phenomenon in this world."

And of course this did nothing to answer me either. I was stuck there mulling over the Pokemon's words until Melany finally pulled away perhaps a half hour later. All of my strength had come back thanks to her, and I could say the same for Samantha. She looked positively radiant compared to a mere thirty minutes ago. The healing powers began to disappear from my system, and as they did, her hand stayed in contact long enough for me to get a glimpse of her taste.

Melany retracted her fingers, and I clicked my mouth slightly. I wasn't sure how to describe this one. Like with Silver's, there was a certain object that went along with it. It wasn't particularly a taste, but just a sensation that had to be explained through something other than the tongue. With Silver's rain, I had almost smelled it. That clear scent of pure water that perfumes the air right before a downpour. This time, I had to use touch. Melany's taste was nearly...warm. Not the kind of heat one would receive from an oven either. No, it was more spontaneous, yet...natural. Like a...

"Sunburst," I snapped my fingers suddenly.

Melany, who had been in the middle of standing, paused. Her eyes widened instantly, and she had a little trouble getting them back to normal. "W-What?"

"Your taste," I said blushing. She probably had no idea what I was talking about. "It reminds me of the sun bursting through a blanket of clouds."

Something similar to relief flashed through her eyes before she returned to her usual smirk. "So that's one of your powers, huh?"

"Excuse me?" I blinked as she plopped down on the foot of my bed.

"I knew you could heal, read the minds of Pokemon, rapidly level up, and use a little telekinesis," Melany scoffed counting them off, "but recognition by another sense, that one really gets me. I guess it helped you find Blue, though."

I nodded slowly. "I normally get tired after using my powers, but this taste one doesn't seem to take any toll." My eyes narrowed slightly at her. "You, however, just spent half an hour healing us and don't seem fatigued at all."

Melany leaned back on her hands. "It's something you get used to when you've got little miss, 'Let's be sassy so they feel compelled to suck everything out of me at once' to take care of."

"I never asked for your help," Samantha pouted crossing her arms.

The blue-eyed girl smirked. "No, but you needed it."

The Gardevoir didn't bother to protest, and I had to stop a second. "Wait...why are you helping Samantha?"

Both of them were quiet at that, surprising to me since I thought that Melany was the enemy and Samantha would have hated her guts for holding her captive like this. Then again, I myself wasn't sure how I felt about her.

My emotions were stirred up even more when Melany suddenly took my hands. "E-Eh?"

"Shut me out," she commanded sternly.

I reeled back in surprise as her sunburst taste brought with it a calm wave of tranquility. "What do you mean?"

"I told you to learn how to control the signs," she stared at me. "I'm here to help you do so now. So, tune out my taste."

Swallowing uncertainly, I nodded and closed my eyes. It wasn't hard to find her taste, but I had some difficulty figuring out how to shut down the power. When I'd been focusing on Blue's gun wound, the panic had easily taken away her ocean tang. This time I had no idea how I was supposed to do that. I imagined that I was some sort of robot, something that couldn't feel emotions. I envisioned that sort of mechanic, automatic nature, and slowly, the warmth of the sun was replaced by the metallic dominance of a monotone body. It was a long moment before I blinked back to reality and realized that Melany had already taken her hand away.

"Not bad," she commented nodding. "We should work on your healing skills instead. You're no good if you pass out before you even seal a cut."

I got the feeling that I was supposed to feel offended. However, she was right so I wasn't. "How am I going to-what are you doing?!"

Melany paused, Venomoth already released by her side and creating a gash down her arm. "What? Never seen blood before?"

"You didn't need to be so rash and sudden," Samantha sweat-dropped.

Returning her Pokemon, Melany offered her dripping limb to me. "Go ahead. Work your magic."

Eyeing it hesitantly, I placed a single finger on her skin and let my healing powers loose. It didn't occur to me that the tap in my hand might still be on until it was already too late, but luckily I felt nothing get redirected like last time. My energy simply flowed into Melany, and her cut slowly started knitting itself back together. After a few minutes, I sat there with a slight pant and her with a fresh layer of skin.

"Hmm, good time," she credited me, "but you obviously haven't practiced much at this."

I shrugged self-consciously. "I heal a Pokemon in the forest every now and then..."

"Do you battle a lot?" The blonde raised an eyebrow. When I shook my head, she pointed a finger. "That's where you lack the experience! By reserving the fighting side of your Pokemon, you don't give yourself an opportunity to routinely practice your skills of healing them afterwards. That may be why you give into exhaustion so easily."

"B-But I don't like watching them get hurt like that," I admitted softly.

Melany's eyes narrowed a little. "Who's going to battle then? You?"

My face bared my shock. "I would never harm someone intentionally!"

"No, but sometimes you have to," Melany said sternly.

Samantha gazed at her solemnly, and I couldn't help but think of Cerise Island. I'd done what I'd had to, not because I'd wanted to hurt Lance. That was different.

We were all caught up in our thoughts when someone suddenly opened the door to the small room. Samantha's head whipped up, and Melany and I's followed suit as Drake entered with a rather grim frown. The light flashed off his black sunglasses, and I could almost hear something like a siren coming from the hallway outside the control room.

"What are you doing here?" Melany asked hastily standing up. "Aren't you supposed to be at the Ilex outpost?"

Drake walked right up until he was standing nearly a half a foot over her. "Well, Master thought it would be disruptive to install an alarm in the laboratory, and someone appears to have turned her Pokegear off so I had to come down here personally. I had stopped by the transportation site in Dark Cave to drop off a chip with the last week's collected data, but something happened to my information tablet. I figured I'd left it back at the complex so I decided to have Hypno teleport me here so I could check in on you guys." His eyes narrowed at Samantha. "I see you've been having fun with Master's pets."

Melany glanced at her Pokegear. "Alarm? Is something wrong?"

A loud explosion suddenly sounded from somewhere above the ceiling.

Drake's grimace deepened. "We've got visitors."

Silver

"That. Was. Awesome!"

"The entire wall is gone..."

"Due to the amount of fire and combustible materials in the vicinity, it was highly likely that this might happen."

Gold couldn't wipe the smirk that was stuck to his face. "And that's how you do it! Explotaro style!"

He high-fived his Typhlosion and stepped over the group of grunts that had been attempting to block our way. A siren started going off on the walls, and I glared at him. "I thought we were going for discreet here?"

Diamond nodded, glancing uncertainly at the missing wall that Pearl was still gushing over. Platinum simply gave a small shrug, and Gold rolled his eyes. "I don't think we would've gotten in and out of here without being noticed at least once! So where's the harm in having a little fun?"

Sighing, I turned as another flock of grunts started approaching from down the hall. "Let's get going!"

The Sinnoh trio quickly followed Gold and me as we sprinted down the hall. At some point we came to a four-way, and Gold turned back to Platinum. "Any ideas?"

"Why are you looking at me?" Platinum asked disdainfully.

"Because you're the smart one!" He said as if it were obvious.

Pearl held his hands up as a peace treaty. "Why don't we split up so we can search all of them?"

Gold clapped his arm. "Good thought! Let's go this way, Candycane!"

Pearl gave him a weird look as his senior tugged him along down the right path. "Candy cane?"

"Your shirt's all stripey!" Was the last thing we heard as the two ventured on.

I turned towards the left path. "I'll take this one. You guys try that last hall."

Diamond and Platinum nodded, and we each set off. The grunts that had been following us split up in the three directions, and I released Weavile to slow them down some. He had taken care of them and caught up by the time a flight of stairs came into view. The sirens overhead softened as we flew down the steps. It seemed we were going under the ground floor, and eventually a dark hallway came up. There was plenty of light; the walls were just painted black to create a gloomy atmosphere. Voices echoed faintly from ahead, and I motioned at Weavile to proceed with caution. He nodded, swiftly taking out the security camera on the ceiling without a sound. There was a door past that, hanging wide open despite the heavy lock it held. The voices were coming from there. Returning Weavile, I slipped inside what appeared to be a control room. Panels with buttons and switches took up most of the space, and the walls were simply three glass panels. Each gave view to a hospital-like area, one of which was currently occupied.

I instantly squatted down and hid in the small space beneath one of the panels.

"So you think the 'visitors' are Yellow's friends?" Came Melany's cool voice.

"It only makes sense," Drake's voice answered scornfully.

"Red-san's here?!"

I smirked. That was the voice I wanted to hear.

"No, Master's pet, I don't think it's your little Fighter." Drake sighed. "If anything, it's that redhead and his friends who infiltrated the observatory yesterday."

Melany echoed his sigh. "Yeah...that's what Silver does."

The faint sirens seemed to grow more frantic, and I heard footsteps approach. "Well we should get up there and see if we can do anything. Just lock the door and no one should get in here."

I froze as Drake suddenly appeared and headed for the exit. Luckily he hadn't noticed me, and I stiffened as a lighter set of steps came closer and stopped.

"Wait here," Melany said tersely. "I'll be back."

"You better," an unfamiliar voice responded. "Or else the plan will have been for nothing."

My eyebrows scrunched, and I made sure to stay extra still as Melany strode past. The door shut, and a lock pinged into place soon after. However, I got up and quickly undid it once she was safely gone.

"What plan?" Yellow asked curiously as I extracted myself from the shadows.

"Yeah, what plan?" I asked stepping into the room.

Two pairs of eyes locked onto me.

"S-Silver?" Yellow said in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"Who the crap's this?" Said a voice in my head.

Hitting my ear with a fist, I turned to the Gardevoir that occupied a bed on the other side of the room. "Was that you?"

"Well, hey, he's the quickest person to catch onto this telepathy business," the female voice scoffed. "Yeah, it was me. Now what are you doing here?"

I narrowed my eyes and walked up to Yellow. "I'm here to get her out."

Just as I reached a hand out for the blonde, a giant wave of energy smashed me against the wall. "No you're not."

Yellow gasped. "S-Samantha, what are you doing?"

"You can't leave yet Yellow," the Gardevoir said eerily as I struggled. Her psychic hold on me tightened. "Neither of us can yet."

"She has to!" I protested. "They'll kill her!"

Yellow froze. "They'll what?"

"And Melany's making sure that they don't," Samantha said, eyes narrowing. "It's all part of the plan."

Suddenly the machine next to her started humming to life, and her hold on me slowly shrank away. I fell to the ground coughing, and Yellow jumped off her bed to help me, going as far as the tube in her hand would allow.

"Are you alright?" She asked anxiously.

I shook her off gently. "What do you mean? What plan?"

"Yellow, don't go." Samantha's mental voice was getting softer as she lost consciousness. "Not yet...the plan..."

Gritting my teeth, I charged across the room at her. "Wait! What are you talking about?!"

Her eyes were already closing. "Don't...take her...yet..."

I huffed. "And why not?"

She grimaced. "Would you just...trust me...? Jeez..."

"Tell me," I said lowly, hoping I was getting through to her. "What is this plan?"

"...Project...1..."

My eyebrows scrunched in exasperation. "What?"

However, she was already too far gone to answer me back.

"Silver, someone's coming," Yellow said with a frown.

Turning away from the Gardevoir, I walked back to Yellow's side and gripped a Pokeball in apprehension. Figures were moving through the shadows in the control room, and when they came into the light of this one, I let my guard down. "Nice of you guys to come help."

Soul winked as she and Crystal walked in. "We were done investigating early so we thought we might as well!"

Crystal's eyes widened upon seeing Yellow. "You're okay."

Yellow nodded. "I'm just fine."

The blunette sighed in relief. "Good, now we should get out of here before we lose the chance."

I watched Yellow glance back at Samantha. "You're not actually going to stay here, are you?"

She turned back quietly. "No."

"Then we can go join the others!" Soul cheered on her way out.

Crystal grinned at Yellow and took her wrist. "Let's get you out of here, Yellow-san!"

The blonde nodded and followed her out. I took a moment to stare at the unconscious Gardevoir. From what Amber had told us, I got the feeling this was the Pokemon he was trying to protect from Team Rocket. However, if he'd been so intent on rescuing her, why did she want to stay so much? Something wasn't quite adding up here.

I was half-tempted to bring her along for Amber's sake, but then there was another explosion from above. If I didn't leave now, Gold would have the whole place crumbling down. My feet didn't hesitate to follow after the girls. If Samantha wanted to stay here, I wasn't going to stop her. Amber might have, but hey, I wasn't Amber.

As I climbed the stairs back up to the ground floor, I had to stop from running into the three girls.

"What are you guys doing?" I shouted in frustration. "We can't just stand here!"

Crystal pounded her fist on something in front of them. "You have a better idea?"

Her sharp voice made my eyebrows perk. Shouldering my way between her and Soul, I stopped suddenly. Or more like the shimmering barrier blocking the way made me stop. The four of us were enclosed in one end of the hallway with two walls on either side, this barrier, and the staircase behind us as the only way out. I clenched my teeth as I found the source of our barricade.

"So you were hiding in the control room, eh?" Melany asked over her shoulder. She was currently facing off against the three Sinnoh Dex Holders, her Huntail, Aggron, and Venomoth out to counteract Infernape, Empoleon, and Torterra respectively. Her Heracross was hanging back by her side, the one responsible for the Protect that was trapping us in the hallway. On the side of the battle, the wall had been blown apart, and past the rubble outside were Gold and the Hoenn kids battling Drake. "Must have snuck in when I wasn't looking."

"It appears that Silver-san has found Yellow-san," Platinum said as her Empoleon hit Aggron with a Metal Claw.

"Good!" Pearl shouted before telling his Infernape to use Close Combat on Huntail. "Now we just need to win!"

"But what about the Heracross?" Diamond asked. The boy shied away as his Torterra took a step back from hitting Venomoth with Wood Hammer.

Pearl smirked. "I've got that covered."

Melany raised her eyebrows, and a second later, a Diglett popped out of nowhere and ambushed her Heracross, fainting it in one shot. "Not bad."

The Protect barrier fell away, and I took a step towards Melany with the other three girls close behind. Melany, however, had a different idea. Pokeball in hand, she hit the button, and her Misdreavus appeared. I remembered it from the time she created that stone scavenger hunt and grimaced. Those Sablye had definitely not been friendly.

Melany smiled with false cheer. "Hate to crush the dreams, but..." Her Misdreavus's eyes glowed red. "Yellow has to stay with me right now."

I blinked and watched as the walls gave way to a misty terrain. The ceiling turned into a cloudy gray sky, and the fog blocked my view of anyone.

"My little girl here has been working on her illusion skills," came Melany's voice from somewhere in the fog. "Let's see you guys get out of this one."

My head whipped back and forth. "Yellow? Crystal? Soul?!"

"S-Silver!"

I turned around to see a wisp of blonde flicking around through the mist. Breaking into a run, I snatched it between my fingers before it could disappear again.

"Ow!" Yellow cried out.

"Sorry," I sweat-dropped as she turned around and her face emerged from the mist. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't lose you."

"So this is an illusion?" She asked glancing around.

I nodded. "Most likely. We need to find a way out."

Something suddenly flew by between us, and I lost my grip on her hair as we were thrown backwards.

"Silver!" She cried out anxiously.

"I'm right here!" I said jumping to my feet. "Yellow?"

There was no answer.

I raised an eyebrow. "Yellow?"

"Sorry, but I think I'll take it from here."

My teeth ground each other as out of the fog walked Drake's Skarmory. Sitting on its back was the trainer himself, Yellow dangling from one of his arms. "Put her down!"

He shook his head. "No."

I almost bit my tongue as my mouth closed again. Fists beginning to clench, I slowly walked towards him. "Look. I'm getting really tired of this whole, 'We need Yellow', 'You'll get her back later', 'Blah Blah Blah' business. It's really simple. You give us Yellow back." I quickly released Feraligatr. "Or we'll take her back."

Drake swiftly jumped off Skarmory's back with Yellow as the Pokemon blocked Feraligatr's Ice Punch with Night Slash. Seeing the opportunity, he hitched the blonde over his shoulder and ran off into the mist.

"Get back here!" I yelled after him. Sprinting so that I wouldn't lose sight of them, I release Honchcrow who quickly flew ahead to cut him off. When Drake finally came to a stop, I blocked his way back. My panting was just audible over the distant sounds of Feraligatr and Skarmory's fight. "Give her to me."

Drake's eyebrows scrunched slightly above his black sunglasses. His hand went for the TR pendent hidden beneath his silver scarf, and I watched as he tapped it three times. The emblem began flashing red, and he smirked. "Nah, I think I'll keep her for a while yet."

I flicked a hand at Honchcrow. Seeing this, Drake turned around just as the Flying type swooped down and attempted to pluck Yellow from his arm. She had her arms outstretched and ready to grab its claws when a Hypno appeared from one of Drake's Pokeballs. It swung its pendulum back and forth, a foreboding purple mist emitting from the pendent. Honchcrow was smart enough to tell that it was poisonous and fled back into the air.

His smirk growing, the redhead cocked his head at me. "Hypnosis."

My eyes widened as the Hypno locked its gaze on me. I hadn't run into very many of this kind of Pokemon, but I'd heard a rumor here and there. A lot of people said that it only took three seconds for a Hypno to put someone to sleep.

One.

Honchcrow caught onto what was happening and shot forward to protect me.

Two.

He rammed into Drake who pitched over with Yellow.

Three.

My vision darkened as Honchcrow's black feathers enveloped me like a blanket. With his Insomnia ability, I didn't have to worry about him suffering from the Hypno's attack. When he finally pulled away, I looked over my Pokemon's wing to find Drake standing back up with a limp Yellow in his arms. The Hypno was slowing down its pendulum, and I realized that its victim hadn't been me.

Drake's sunglasses had been left on the gray-scale ground, and he quickly bent over to retrieve them. He fluidly slipped them back on, but not before I'd seen his eyes. One bright yellow and the other ice blue.

I took a slight step back. "What are you?"

His black glasses offered no emotion. "You don't want to know."

Then his figure started blurring, and I saw that the Hypno was swinging its pendulum again. They were going to teleport.

"Wait!" I shouted running for them. However, by the time I was just within reach of Yellow's hand, they flickered out of sight.

The mist started clearing then. When it finally dispersed completely, Drake, Melany, and any trace of them or their Pokemon were gone.

"Dammit," I muttered clenching my fingers.

Honchcrow let out a cry, and I looked around to see that while in the illusion I had wandered outside. Everyone was staring around in confusion, and slowly they began to gather around me.

"Silvy!" Gold cried out as he approached. "Where'd Straw Hat Gal go?"

Platinum tilted her head. "You mean Yellow-san?"

Pearl crossed his arms with a frown. "That blonde girl got her didn't she?"

Crystal saw the look on my face and narrowed her eyes. "No. Drake did."

"That guy..." Gold growled raising a fist. "I swear the next time I see him-!"

Soul forced him to put his hand down in an attempt to calm the boy. Feraligatr towered behind our small group, and I glanced up into his red eyes before returning him.

"We should get going," Diamond advised as the sound of more grunts echoed from the broken walls of the complex.

Ruby and Sapphire who were in the middle of some pointless argument again paused at the noise. Emerald chastised them, and that trio went back to bickering as the rest of us started releasing our Flying types. Honchcrow was just beginning to grab my shoulders when Pearl spoke up.

"Um, we just kind of walked here," he said as the grunts' voices got closer.

"That's right," I nodded remembered how he'd ridden here on his Luxray with Diamond while Platinum had her Rapidash. "We can just double up then."

Gold grinned from atop his Togekiss down at Platinum. "I wouldn't mind giving the pretty little lady here a ride!"

Platinum's eyes widened, and I watched in slight amusement as Diamond and Pearl started bristling. Soul seemed to catch onto the atmosphere and offered the dark-haired girl a spot on her Noctowl.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy it more," she said sweat-dropping at Gold's antics.

Platinum nodded graciously. "Thank you, Soul-san."

Gold's excitement deflated before he puffed up again. "Then you get to ride with me, Pearl! Get up here, Candycane!"

The blonde stomped over to the Togekiss and climbed on. "That still doesn't even make sense!"

"You can ride with me," I told Diamond.

"Thanks!" He smiled cheerfully before boarding Honchcrow's back.

I nodded and turned to the fighting Hoenn trio. "If you guys would take a break, we're getting ready to leave."

They stiffened before turning away with crossed arms.

"Ya guys owe me one for letting you ride Pilo," Sapphire grumbled as she released her Tropius.

Emerald scoffed. "I owe you nothing!"

"And neither do I," Ruby turned his nose up as they got on behind the brunette.

And so the three dragged themselves into another debate as all the Pokemon began lifting off. Crystal was the only one without a second passenger, and I glanced her way as we started away from the complex. Her eyes were trained on Gold who was still teasing Pearl about his shirt. They were narrowed but in thought rather than suspicion. I wondered at this strange behavior before remembering that Gold had also been acting odd when we left the Pokemon Center earlier today.

I had Honchcrow angle down towards her. "Hey, did something happen?"

The blunette glanced up from her thoughts and gave me a small smile. "No, Silver."

My eyes narrowed a fraction. "You okay?"

She nodded. "Just fine."

That was the third time I'd heard that lie now, and it hadn't even been twenty-four hours.

Gardevoir: *sighs as plane flies off* Now that that's finished...

*walks away before seeing a sign saying 'Eon'*

Gardevoir: *walks over to the redhead girl holding the sign* Who are you?

(Person who's name is yet to be revealed): Do you know Eon?

Gardevoir: *narrows eyes* Maybe.

(PWNIYTBR): Well, I heard she was going to be sending off some friends today and I was hoping to catch her!

Gardevoir: *frowns* Are you a stalker?

(PWNIYTBR): Um, no.

Gardevoir: *keeps frowning* Do you intend any ill-will towards Eon?

(PWNIYTBR): If I did why would I be revealing myself to someone who knows her?

Gardevoir: *frown deepens* Are you some sort of telemarketer trying to sell her something?

(PWNIYTBR): *raises eyebrow* Do I look like I have a phone to call her with?

Gardevoir: *grins* Come with me. *grabs girl and teleports away*

...

Gardevoir: *pops back a second* Oh yea. Return and Review guys. *teleports again*