Chapter Ten: Panic Attack

A/N: …please don't kill me.

Anyway, on to the chapter that's been killing me worse than the previous one.

Also, the rating's been bumped up because this is going get a lot worse before it gets better.

If anyone cares, the Silver featured in this fic is actually a strange mix of the manga version and the game one. But he didn't use Jimmy as a character development point.

They were going home.

Wes kept his eyes closed as the kids took turns using his Xatu's teleportation abilities to go wherever they were needed. It wasn't as though his Xatu—who he had caught three years ago in the Ruins of Alph and had taken all over the world when his Skarmory was worn out—couldn't manage using the ability as many times as needed, but inwardly he winced. He wasn't stupid; he knew that somehow this had to do with Cipher's resurgence, but he had no idea what their exact angle was now. The only thing precaution he could reasonably take was to get all of their PokéGear and PokéNav contact information—he couldn't justify telling them not to go home, not when all of them were in a state of shock like this. Doing this to a bunch of kids…when Wes got his hands on the leaders of the new Cipher, there would be hell to pay.

But the pattern was too strange, even for the old Cipher. They had never been the type for terrorism via explosives, and neither had any of the other criminal organizations Wes had encountered since then. Oh, sure, he'd blown up Team Snagem's base with as much dynamite as he could find on short notice, but that was just him. Where was the Shadow Pokémon involvement? So far, he'd seen several, but these attacks didn't seem to be Cipher's way of doing things.

Wes sighed mentally. Management shift. That was the only explanation he could think of. The ringleaders of the first Shadow Incident are still in prison…right? Evice was, at least, but there wasn't much anyone could do to an old man like him. He was probably five years from dropping dead anyway. Nascour vanished somewhere in the system within two months, so he'd probably be out if only because the Elite Fours have other issues like the resurrection of Groudon and Kyogre to think about.

As for the lower-ranking Cipher administrators like Venus, Ein, and Dakim, though… They never were arrested. I beat them three times each and all they ever had to do was pay up to the manager of the Under Colosseum. So, they were probably going to go with what worked. That most likely meant that they had found a new employer.

Shadow Incident Number Two had involved almost none of the same people, which was, at least in Wes's opinion, a very bad thing. Either it meant that Greevil had been an independent schemer and had randomly decided that trying to take over Orre was a good way to spend his fortune, or there had been a few more elements of the old Cipher that Wes had overlooked.

Either way, nothing was adding up to form even a reasonable facsimile of a positive picture.

Well, it could the Team Rocket influence, Wes thought. But, thinking about it, it seemed almost more likely that that new gang—what were they called again…Team Galactic?—would be more influential there. He was looking for conspiracies where they didn't exist. A stupid name, but now that he thought of it the other group was supposed to be a bunch of thugs with a leader who happened to think the ends justified the means, whatever the ends were supposed to be. Still, he'd heard about the Lake Valor incident, and it unnerved him.

And somehow, all of it added up to the most ambitious and immediately destructive scheme yet. Wes sighed and tried to think. What was their motive? It suited low-level flunkies in most of the organizations to do something so blatantly destructive, but if this was an upper-management plot… He was getting ahead of himself. Just worry about getting the kids home safe. Even if you don't like most of them, and you wish the Rockets would go jump in quicksand and die, you're supposed to be the responsible adult. That was why they gave you the advanced trainer's license.

Granted, their only other option was to concede that an unregistered thug had plowed through the Champion's team while in a crappy temper, but it was the fact that he had one, regardless, that counted.

"Mr. Wes?" The Snagger opened his eyes and looked down at the blue-haired girl with the buns, who was poking his folded arms.

"What is it?" he asked, glancing over to where her brother was practically catatonic. The idea that his mother and many of the people he knew were horribly injured or dead…the kid hadn't taken it well at all.

"Jovi is worried about big brother," she said, looking at the same redhead and then back to Wes.

"He'll be okay," Wes lied—he didn't know Michael well enough to be sure, and it didn't really look like it, but he saw no reason to scare the girl further. "Just give him time."

Jovi looked between them again. Then, with tears in her eyes, she said softly, "Jovi doesn't think we have that long."

Wes blinked—what had the girl said?—but she was already joining her brother in line for Xatu's teleportation service. He decided not to say anything about it.

"Wes? What's wrong?" Rui asked as she walked over, spotting the look on his face.

"Nothing," he replied immediately. Then he thought it over and added, "At least, nothing more than normal."

"What does that mean?" Rui demanded crossly.

Wes sighed—there was never any point to lying to her, was there?—and admitted as he saw the odd pair of siblings teleport away, "I think there might be more to this than we know, Rui. And," he added, remembering the frantic phone call with Silver, "we should probably go home, too."

"Silver's okay, isn't he?" Rui asked quietly as the Rocket trio tried to describe to Xatu exactly where they wanted to go. Xatu apparently had no idea what they were talking about and shook her green head apologetically.

"Yes, he's fine, but…" Wes frowned.

Rui sighed, knowing their gray-eyed guest as well as Wes did. "He'll head to New Bark Town to help out. Even if he has to ride Crobat to get there."

Wes nodded. "Ever since we picked him up, he's been trying to put himself together as someone else. You saw how he acted once that wanted poster made its way to Blackthorn. He's going to do anything to change the past."

Rui sighed. "…Including destroying his future. Feraligatr likes him, his whole team likes him, we like him…but it just isn't enough, is it?"

"I guess not. Let's go home." I hope just having their numbers is enough. There's too much widespread destruction for us to protect all of them—and anyway they wouldn't agree to it. And there's no way I would be able to keep a bunch of kids away from their families at a time like this and still be able to look at myself in the mirror ever again.

Eventually, the Rockets seemed to come to a consensus with Xatu on where to head to next. Wes thought he heard the words "Pallet Town," but he couldn't be sure.

Even though it wasn't the first time she'd teleported somewhere, this was by far the most unpleasant journey. May felt like someone had tried to stretch her like a noodle and then toss whatever was left into open air. Maybe that was why she landed on her face—flailing like an idiot while teleporting meant that she was in the air upside-down when they landed.

"Owie…" May mumbled, rubbing her poor nose as she sat up.

"Are you going to get moving?" Drew's voice was a surprise and she looked up, blinking. The smirk was still there, but there was an edge of something else in his voice. She dismissed it and got to her feet.

Max was nearby, straightening out his glasses as he tried to stop the world from spinning. "That hurt."

May let him grab her hand as he tried to get his balance back, looking around at the city they'd landed in. Xatu was perched on a nearby streetlight, motionless. Looking past the huge green bird, though, May could see a plume of smoke rising in the distance. "Where are we?" she asked no one in particular.

After a few seconds, Drew said, "Well, this is the northern part of Littleroot Town." He tapped her shoulder and pointed in the opposite direction from the smoke. "And Petalburg City is that way."

May started. "What, you think I'm just going to go home after this? Professor Birch is my friend! I can't just leave him like—mmmph!" She was cut off on her rant by Drew covering her mouth.

The intensity in his green eyes was the only thing keeping her from slapping him instantly. She still would, if this wasn't important, but that could wait. Quietly, he said, "Look, May, I know you want to help. But unless you have any Water-type Pokémon with you, you're just going to be someone else the rescuers have to worry about. Just go home and make sure your parents know you're okay."

Oh, she was not going to let him get away with patronizing her like that. May pushed him away, snapping, "You don't have any Water-types either, Drew. How are you going to do anything against a disaster like that?"

"I'll be fine." Drew said. He held up a pair of Pokéballs. "Flygon can use Sandstorm, and Masquerain can use Bubblebeam. I'll be able to help."

"So will I." May replied, unyielding. "Maybe Professor Birch is more my dad's old friend than mine, but I'm not going to leave anyone I care about to die! That's not the kind of person I am."

Max exchanged glances with Xatu as May and Drew each tried to force the other to back down. "What do you think?"

Xatu teleported away with a little blip of white light.

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me…" Max muttered. This wasn't getting them anywhere. He looked downhill, toward the plume of smoke and where the streams of people were fleeing from. Okay, here I go. He ran down the hill.

About a second later, May gave a startled shriek and chased after him, Drew in tow.

By the time they arrived, the emergency work near the Pokémon HQ Lab was already underway. Paramedics and firefighters swarmed the building with Chansey, Graveler, Machoke, and a dozen different Water-Types of all stripes. Jovi ran past a pair of Poliwhirl who were assisting two firefighters and a Houndour in locating the injured and dead, followed by her brother. Michael was nearly knocked down by a Machop that was carrying buckets of sand to and fro, but the sibling pair ran on.

The Lab was a wreck. The roof, the glass front windows, the sidewalk…everything was either in pieces or on fire. Jovi didn't have any idea how anyone could have survived the initial blast, when the metal would have been flying at deadly speed in all directions, or the fireball that the news said came right after…

They were stopped by a policewoman who had a Growlithe at her side. "What are you kids doing here? This is a restricted area! Didn't you see the yellow tape?"

Michael said nothing, staring past her. Jovi found herself in the uncomfortable position of explaining things before they both got thrown out of the area, but she couldn't find the words and her brother was in no condition to start talking to anyone now.

"Jovi!" Her head whipped around just as the policewoman with blue hair was about to call for someone to get them out of the restricted zone.

She hadn't expected to see this face, not even the ever-present swirly glasses. But then, she'd never been happier for it. The silly, over-stressed assistant was one of her closest friends. "Chobin!" And behind him, she would never forget that broomstick-style hairdo. "Professor Kaminko!"

The policewoman turned to the soot-streaked old man and his beleaguered assistant, still holding onto Jovi and Michael's shoulders. "You know these two kids, Professor?"

The crazy (or as he preferred to think of it, differently sane) professor nodded. "These two are Michael and Jovi. They live here." He indicated the children.

"Okay…" the policewoman began, but before she could say anything else Michael pulled himself out of her grip and ran past all of the adults. "Hey!"

Jovi saw it too. She bit the policewoman and dashed after her brother, even though the Growlithe and Chobin's Sunflora followed and she could hear shouting behind them. People and Pokémon alike scattered before them in such disarray that the Growlithe was unable to follow. The Sunflora, however, slipped through the crowd easily and caught up with the two children just as they were scrambling toward a particular ambulance.

They made it just as two EMTs, assisted by a Machamp, were loading the gurney. The two men were more than a little surprised to basically be attacked by two kids who looked like they were younger than thirteen, both clinging the contraption. The Machamp tried to nudge both of them away so the medics could get the injured patient inside the ambulance, but neither would budge.

"Michael, Jovi. That's enough."

Jovi looked up, feeling the gentle pressure of a hand on her shoulder. "But…but it's Mommy…"

Professor Krane nodded, his glasses broken and his forehead bleeding on top of the rest of his injuries. He was badly hurt, just like the rest, but he was conscious. He could walk. That was enough—Orre didn't have the facilities to handle this many injured people. Krane was on his own for a while.

Still, he allowed Jovi to hug him fiercely and he gently pried Michael away from the gurney his mother was strapped to, allowing both of them to cry into his soot- and bloodstained labcoat. "It'll be all right…" They were all exhausted. Krane could tell just from looking that Jovi was going to have nightmares for months, and he knew that Michael would be lucky to ever be able to put this behind him.

Despite that, and how the world looked like it was coming to an end, Krane just held onto the two children who had become like his own, praying that it would get better somehow.

As the policewoman appeared again and both Chobin and Professor Kaminko finally managed to fight their way through the crowd, Krane had already mostly calmed Michael and Jovi back down to their normal mood. Almost. Michael's bones seemed to have gone to jelly and Krane held the boy carefully, afraid that if he let go the redhead would finally have the breakdown he was long since due for.

"Professor Krane, what about the Pokémon?" Jovi asked, rubbing some of her tears away.

Krane grimaced. "Some of them were caught in the blast. Pokémon Center staff are arriving every second for them."

"But…" Jovi began.

"We'll all be meeting up in Gateon Port." Krane said firmly. "As far as I know, none of them are dead."

Jovi looked back—there were body bags being lined up near a pile of rubble that seemed stable enough. Some of them were too small to be human. She decided not to ask about them.

"Is Mommy going to be okay?" Jovi asked, wrapping her arms around Krane's neck again. Chobin and Kaminko were there, and the policewoman's Growlithe was sitting nearby even as Sunflora's leaves surrounded all of them, but Jovi didn't care. Michael was hiding his face against Krane's collar, and he hadn't spoken to anyone since the news report. Mommy was going to the hospital. Krane was hurt, any number of the people she'd grown up with and had seen every day were missing, and the Pokémon she'd come to know and love…all of it could be gone.

Jovi threw herself at Krane and Chobin and Kaminko and her big brother—they were parts of her old life she could still touch. They were still there.

That would have to be enough.

"He's gone." Wes said grimly, walking into the house he shared with Rui and their semi-permanent houseguests. Xatu had managed to teleport them almost on their own doorstep—she had even teleported Wes's bike again. Thanking the bird, they got down the business rapidly once they were inside. The dishes had been left half-done, the door's deadbolt unsecured, and most of the Pokémon were still running around the wooded property. Silver had left in a hurry. Heck, half of the windows were still open.

"We need to catch up to him." Rui murmured, immediately running to the bathroom to see if the first-aid supplies were where she had left them.

Wes looked around the darkened house, listening to Rui's scrambling in the background, and walked out to the back porch. He called out Cyrus and Jericho silently, sending them out to inform the other Pokémon about his return, and then walked toward the guest cabin they'd managed to build before their disastrous encounter with Cipher on that mountain road.

Unsurprisingly, their second guest was gone as well. Wes sighed and set about searching the property and talking to all of his Pokémon again. He needed to get his bearings again before heading off on a rescue mission. Silver was liable to get himself killed, but their other guest knew better. He was old enough to look after himself, especially with that Flygon and Ninjask pair of his.

"Where's the other guy?" Rui asked as Wes came back, trailing two dozen Pokémon of all types and sizes and dripping Pokémon drool.

"Gone. I guess he decided it was safer to skip town." Wes muttered, walking over to the sink to wash his face off. "Did you find any gauze or ointments or anything?"

Rui shook her head. "Silver must have taken them."

"Well, at least we know he thought about it a little before running off." Wes remarked, toweling his face dry with the kitchen washcloth. There wasn't enough time for more. He clicked his tongue and there was a series of flaps and the sound of rattling windows. When the couple looked outside, Wes's Skarmory and Rui's Altaria were waiting on the road.

Wes and Rui closed their house up against would-be burglars, set Medicham and Absol as heads of the household, and left by Flying-Type for New Bark Town.

09090

Ash and Brock landed about a block from Professor Oak's lab and took off running. People were running everywhere, panicking and fleeing with their children and their possessions out of fear of another attack, and Ash couldn't blame them. With Pikachu at his side and Forretress at Brock's, they were going to help no matter what. Running away was for other people.

About a minute later, Jessie, James, and Meowth all showed up exactly where Brock and Ash had just left.

"This is bad news for us," Meowth said, looking around at all the panicking people and at the smoke and rubble everywhere. But then, when wasn't it?

He had a point. They weren't good guys, exactly, but they definitely weren't bad guys anymore. Good guys were supposed to save the day, but Jessie and James both knew as well as Meowth did that they weren't exactly strong trainers, either. Seviper, Dustox, Cacnea and Chimecho…no, they were no powerhouses, not like the ones the twerps and those other trainers were carrying around.

"If we're going to be good guys, we should probably go all the way." James remarked, starting off in the direction they remembered led to Professor Oak's lab.

Jessie scoffed, though she followed nonetheless. "What have the 'good guys' ever done for us?"

Meowth thought about it. There was a long, long list, most of which basically translated to "they blew us up," but maybe it was time to try and work for a different ending. They'd already agreed that there was no going back from here; no way were they heading back to the boss or Team Rocket with what they knew. It made all of them sick, just like when they'd been to the Lake of Rage so long ago and seen those rage-powered Pokémon Cassidy and Butch had been using. Meowth had thought about the strange devices, and what it would feel like if they were used on him.

Yeah…not good. He'd had nightmares for a week after that.

Meowth held up a paw to forestall any further argument—once upon a time he would have slashed both their faces to get them to shut up, but no more—and as his closest friends kept arguing despite that, he heard James say, "What else should we do?"

"I don't know—run?" Jessie suggested—while she'd been open to the idea of leaving Team Rocket when James had told the both of them what the boss's new partners were going to do, there was a bit of leap from "getting out before something bad happens" to "sticking our own necks out for the twerps."

She had a point, too. Meowth was torn—Jessie and James were his best (and it seemed that sometimes they were his only friends…) and he hated being stuck between them with no real opinion. They'd competed with the twerps in nearly everything for what felt like years, from Pokémon Contests to PokéRinger competitions to just straight-up battles of all stripes. In a way, they were closer to the twerps than they were to nearly anyone else outside of their group. On the other hand, most of the interaction between the two groups ended with explosions.

"Maybe…" Meowth began, drawing their attention with a nasty claw-prick for each of them, "maybe we could wait a bit." He rubbed his chin with his paw. "Y'think maybe we should do something a little less dangerous—maybe coordinating stuff?"

Jessie and James blinked.

"Not like contests," Meowth added hastily. "Like…well, that sunglasses guy was pretty upset when that stuff showed up on the TV, and he had to get all the twerps' numbers, right? We even got his, and he was madder at us than anyone until the explosions." He'd kind of looked like he was going to eat them alive, actually. For a while.

"Your point is…?" Jessie urged, a look of anticipation on her face.

"Well, what I'm saying is that I think we could get in his good books—a guy with Raikou, Entei, and Suicune can't not be loaded, right?—by keeping track of the twerps for him." Meowth pointed at the PokéGear that the group had, admittedly, stolen some time ago from a store in Goldenrod. Jessie always had it, but they didn't usually use it because the boss had never liked being called on something so open to eavesdroppers.

"So, you want us to watch the twerps for him." Jessie said carefully as James stood back and watched them. "And report things, like how they're doing and what's going on?"

"Yeah, I think so."

James glanced at Jessie, who shrugged. Pulling out a pair of their binoculars, complete with distance tracking and night vision, he said, "Works for me. Let's go find a hill."

This place is a mess. Silver thought as he clung to Crobat's back.

Silver hadn't been to New Bark Town in ages, since he'd stolen his future Feraligatr from Elm's lab back when he was just starting out. The town had been previously growing—he didn't remember seeing quite so many stores last time—but now the plume of smoke emanating from what had been Professor Elm's lab was showing just how much things had changed. Crobat and Silver both started coughing—besides making for difficult flying because of the way the thermals twisted in knots around it, the column of smoke was also making it very hard to breathe.

"Crobat, it's time to land." Silver told the huge purple bat. Too much smoke, too much wind, not enough time…

The bat grunted in acknowledgment and started to beat all four of his wings rapidly. And then they fell, like a lightning bolt lancing from the sky. Silver had to maintain a death grip on his bat's back to make sure he didn't slip off and go crashing to his death.

Crobat jerked wildly and spun in midair. Silver saw stars for a minute, and it took him a little longer than that to realize that someone was trying to attack him with Swift. He looked down.

…Is that a Typhlosion? Silver abruptly told his internal monologue to can it when a blast of water nearly clipped Crobat's side and knocked them out of the sky. Crobat made an abrupt turn, spinning ninety degrees practically on a midair dime, and zoomed across the town at roof level.

Silver looked back over his shoulder, past the explosions, and saw a five-way trainer battle taking place. Milotic, Bellossum, Steelix, and Aggron were on one side, while the other had a Meganium, a Feraligatr, and a Typhlosion. Of those using the evolved starter Pokémon of Johto, Silver only recognized one. Of the two female trainers who were using Pokémon from other regions, Silver recognized neither. However, given that the entire square was surrounded by strange people wearing weird helmets and looking a lot like the average criminal group (that wasn't Team Rocket), the redhead decided that it would be a lot saner to play it safe and join up on the younger trainers' side, mostly because he knew that they (or, at least the boy he actually could remember) would never join up with a criminal syndicate. Besides, his disdain for Team Rocket and its rip-offs hadn't come close to dissipating yet.

Silver sighed and tapped Crobat's shoulder, making the bat slow down for a moment. "We'd better go back there and help them out."

Crobat made a noise that sounded a bit like a sigh of his own, then spun in midair and sped back toward the battle. Crobat, moving at roof level, tore through the streets and sky like a bullet. Silver had to flatten himself against his Pokémon's back or get torn off by the wind.

Crobat gave a hiss and Silver took it as his cue to get off now, trusting his bat completely. It paid off—less than a second after Silver let go and rolled to a painful stop in a bush, Crobat hit the Bellossum at full speed and launched it through the wall of a house.

"Crobat, Double Team!" Silver found himself shouting, clambering to his feet with difficulty while pulling out a pair of Pokéballs. Crobat needed backup.

As if to confirm his suspicion, the Milotic's Ice Beam blasted right through one of the afterimages. The Aggron was already starting to use Hyper Beam…

The Steel-type was fast. Silver was faster. His Pokémon team was like lightning. "Sneasel, take it out with Brick Break! Gengar, Night Shade!"

Appearing in a pair of identical bursts of white light, the jet-black Ice-type and giggling purple ghost immediately went on the offensive—they were used to their trainer's need for speed and the rapid nature of his orders. They'd trained for this.

Gengar brought his tiny hands together and went through the charge-and-release routine for the black energy ball in less than a second. Sneasel flat-out vanished as soon as he hit the ground, and all the poor Aggron and Steelix pair could see was a pair of oncoming shadows.

Meanwhile, Gengar exploded from the smoke that had marked the Bellossum's impromptu visit to someone's house, dodging tendrils of pure black energy.

"Shadow Pokémon." Silver jumped back just before a jet of water from the Milotic was about to punch him through the pavement. Even so, huge chunks of the street were gouged out by the power behind it.

"Stay still, you stupid little brat!" snapped one of the enemy trainers, and Silver looked up.

…Is that supposed to be a man? was all he could think at that moment. They sure don't make villains like they used to.

"You!" said one of the boys he'd come to give back-up to. Silver glanced back—yeah, same dorky hat, same weird puffy shorts, and the same blazing blue eyes. He couldn't put a name to the face, however.

"Yeah, me!" Silver shouted back anyway. He mentally switched gears to "conversation with people" mode. "You, with the Torchic haircut! Get your Meganium to take out that stupid Milotic!"

"My hair does not look like a Torchic!" snapped the boy with grayish-blond hair. Silver just gave him a shrug. "Meganium, use Petal Dance!"

As the swirling pink petals surged toward the water worm and Milotic was thrown back, Silver was trying to pay attention to too many things at once. Sure, Crobat and Sneasel were perfectly capable of battling without him watching and ordering their every move, but he didn't like the idea of leaving them to face Shadow Pokémon on their own.

A blast of noxious breath that made a nearby fire hydrant explode abruptly made Silver change priorities—the confirmed Shadow Steelix was very pointedly looking at him. It was already taking a deep breath to attack again.

Silver gulped. But he still had a job to do, and it looked like getting killed by Dragonbreath was about to become just another hazard.

"Wani-Wani, Protect!" the girl was screaming as the second bolt lanced down at Silver and he threw himself flat in preparation for the pain.

Then there was a Feraligatr in the way, holding its huge arms above Silver's head and blocking the blast and making it discharge harmlessly against the energy field surrounding them both. The Water-type snarled, yellow eyes locked on the suddenly timid Steel-type that had tried to kill him in the first place.

The blue-haired girl was there suddenly, ordering a rapid sequence of attacks like only a Coordinator could. She hauled Silver back to his feet, shouting, "Wani-Wani, Waterfall!"

The Feraligatr shot forward and smashed into the Aggron like a speeding truck, knocking them both into a storefront. Everyone could hear the Feraligatr smacking the Aggron around the shop with Brick Break until it was ricocheting around inside.

Thankfully, the blunette's boys were also getting their act together.

"Typhlosion, aim for the Bellossum with Flamethrower!" shouted the one in the hat, just before an attack Silver recognized as Shadow Rave blasted a hole in the street next to him. It might have flat-out killed him if the one with the Torchic haircut hadn't yanked him out of the way at the last second.

That was how they were—the Johto boys together in their anger and Silver and the blue-haired girl united by circumstance—when the enemy finally started to gloat.

There were two men on the UFO-like craft—the weird girly-looking from before and a new, bulkier man with the look of someone who spent more time in the gym than in uniform.

"Good effort, brats!" Team Rocket. Had to be. The huge red R gave it away. But they were supposed to be gone! "You've managed to set us back for a while, but don't think you've won yet!"

Silver looked around the square at the assembled criminals. None of them had their Pokémon out. Only the four Shadow Pokémon—Steelix, Aggron, Milotic, and Bellossum—stood to face them directly. And yet, with only that much opposition, Silver knew they were cornered. The grunts would undoubtedly keep any of them from leaving, and yet Silver was sure he'd be able to defeat all of the Shadow Pokémon with only a little help.

Stalemate.

"I wonder…" he muttered. His smile suddenly broadened and Silver saw malice in both his eyes and the expression of the silver-haired (wo)man beside her. "You don't seem to be the one we're looking for, boy. But maybe Giovanni would appreciate another redhead to occupy his time until we catch this Michael of Orre?"

Silver froze. None of the other Johto trainers seemed to know what was going on, and Silver had no idea what the crazy woman was talking about. But he knew that if either he or this "Michael of Orre" kid got caught by this new group, they were as good as dead.

"How about you come down here and say that!" shouted the boy with the hat.

It's just going to get a lot worse if they do. Silver thought. He paused. Sorry Wes, Rui. But I have to do this. I'm not going back. Then, "Crobat, use Hyper Beam!"

The bat didn't hesitate. The UFO exploded.

The video-in-video of the attack on New Bark Town made a blipping sound as it vanished. There was silence in the office for a long moment.

They had made a severe miscalculation.

"Tell me," Giovanni's voice was flat and cold as he looked at the men on the screen. Ardos and Nascour stared back, not at all cowed. "When were you two going to deign to inform me that you were willing to kill my son to get this boy?"

Meanwhile, Michael and Jovi of Orre sat by their mother's hospital bed. Michael slept, leaning on the mattress in such a way that Jovi knew he would have a sore back in the morning.

Jovi sat vigil over her brother and her mother, silently perched on a chair. Larvitar sat nearby, red eyes bright in the darkness.

And they only had the gentle beeping of the heart monitor to lull them to sleep.

A/N: Yes, this is going to get spectacularly ugly. Why do you ask? :p

Also, although Silver was the only named character to get in a fight this chapter, everyone else will get their turn in the next one.