I have to say that I'm very pleased with myself for getting this out so comparatively early, especially considering how much action we have going on in this chapter. Let the post-explosion aftermath begin!

Seto woke up coughing plaster dust from his lungs, unable to see anything. Coughing again, Seto did his best to call Roland's name. He could barely hear himself. Trying again, Seto loudly gasped, "Roland!" His voice still didn't carry very far. He heard crashing from the floor above and Seto was forced to cover his head as best he could as more plaster and larger objects fell through the ceiling and into…whatever room he was in.

The bomb or whatever it was had gone off several feet in front of Seto and to the right. From the little Seto remembered after the blast, he and Roland had both been blown through at least one wall, maybe two, perhaps more. He had no clue what had happened to the members of his escort that were waiting by the elevator.

He tried to get up on his hands and knees but something was pinning him down. He struggled and tried to pull himself out from whatever it was. When he found he couldn't free himself he once more called for Roland and received no answer.

Something was wrong with the back of his head too he was starting to realize. Even if there had been enough light to see by (there wasn't any at all), Seto had the feeling he wouldn't be able to focus his eyes very well if at all. When Seto felt a deeper darkness closing in on him again, he had only a moment to wonder if it was a concussion responsible for his sudden need to sleep.

Sometime later Seto was woken by the sound of fluttering from above followed by a small ruckus as something landed in the rubble surrounding him.

"Farfetch'd, Farfetch'd."

With Kaiba Corporation being a Pokémon-focused company, there were many jobs that were filled by Pokémon. Lickitungs were installed in the mail room, Electabuzzes in the basement were used as back-up generators (though they weren't doing their job right now when they were needed), and Farfetch'ds were used as messengers and carriers throughout the company departments, so chances were high that this particular Farfetch'd was friendly.

"Hey," Seto called. It felt like his throat was coated in grime.

"Far?" It sounded like the duck-like creature was wandering over in his general direction. "Far?" it queried again.

"Over here," Seto managed to get out. Suddenly he felt the bird's leek stalk poking him in the cheek. "Suitcase. Find my suitcase and bring it to me," he ordered. He'd been carrying all of his Pokémon that weren't stationed at the house in their pokéballs, and those pokéballs were in that suitcase which had gone flying from his hand somewhere in his flight across the hall and through the walls.

"Fetch'd!" the Farfetch'd squawked and made a movement that Seto thought might have been a salute with its leek.

As the Farfetch'd went about its actually rather important mission Seto did his best to continue to work his way out from under what he'd decided was the desk from the office above with miscellaneous bits of the building piled on top of it. It wasn't just his head that was hurting anymore, though that particular pain wasn't nearly as harsh as it once was, but also a large portion of his back where he figured the desk had struck on impact.

Seto had managed to pull himself out as far as his hips when a dim glow started humming form the lights. One Electabuzz at least was still operational. By the light it was able to provide the building with, Seto could see that it was in fact a desk pinning him. It had fallen through when the upper floor had collapsed due to a lack of supporting walls below it. The blast itself hadn't reached quite this far, but projectiles from it (Seto for one) had done quite the job smashing their way through every obstacle in their path. No wall was left untouched and only a few were still standing. Seto could potentially see all the way to the other side of the building if the lights would come back on all the way.

Seto ignored the destruction for now and was finally able to extricate himself from under the heavy desk when the Farfetch'd returned, dragging a dented and scratched, but whole, silver-colored suitcase behind it.

Seto gave a grunt of acknowledgement to the Pokémon before taking the case off its hands. Flipping open the locks and throwing the case open, Seto saw that all the pokéballs had been left unharmed and felt an odd rush of relief tumble through him. But he had no time for pondering that now. He called his Gengar out of its pokéball.

The ghost-type Pokémon was not wearing its trademark sinister grin when it erupted from its confines, but looked over the ruined area with a sober, almost distraught expression. When it finally returned its attention to its trainer, Seto had only three words for it: "Search and destroy."

The Gengar nodded with its entire body and then dove literally into the shadows. Seto had no doubt that Team Rocket, for whom else could it be, had at least one person if not several watching and relaying the events at the KC headquarters back to Gozaburo. Seto wouldn't feel bad at all when his Gengar caught up with the bastards, not after what they'd done.

He'd turned back to the Farfetch'd and just told it to try to find any other survivors when the walkie-talkie he'd also placed in the briefcase started beeping. He needed to warn Mokuba what was coming because there was no doubt that Team Rocket wouldn't be taking advantage of this moment of surprise and chaos. When he keyed in the code all he heard was a furious clicking and hiss-spitting before Joey Wheeler's voice came over through the static-filled lines.

"Guys, what's happening out there!" he shouted.

Static.

Yugi's voice came over the wavelengths next. "Yami, I'm sending Pidgey to help you—"

"No, don't! He's too young. I—" Yami was cut off.

"Yam—!" Yugi was cut off as well.

"Guys!" Wheeler yelled again.

"Power's gone out in the house," Mokuba was next to detail the dismantling of the security at home.

"Same at the breeding grounds," Tea broke in. Seto could hear the crying of baby Pokémon in the background as she spoke. "We've still got back-up power, though."

"Just stick to the plan, Tea," Professor Oak reassured in his most calming voice. The effect was shattered, however, when he ever so politely asked Joey to send any Pokémon that he could possibly spare. It seemed that Wheeler was the only one not under attack or in some sort of peril.

Joey responded, "Gah! The only ones I have that could make it in time are Mankey and Golbat."

"So, send them." A bit more urgency had slipped into Prof. Oak's voice as he said this.

"I can't! My Golbat's too fat to fly and Mankey won't listen to anyone but me!"

Seto was going to kill Wheeler for being so useless at such a time as this! That was if Team Rocket didn't get to him first.

So Yugi and Yami were under attack at the south wall, the house and KEBG had both lost main power with Mokuba, Tea, and Solomon stuck inside their respective buildings, Prof. Oak was under attack at the northern boundary, along the forest line, Wheeler was doing absolutely nothing to help out at the lake. That accounted for everyone except—

"Tristan, are you okay? Tristan!" Joey asked, which was apparently the only thing he could do.

…No answer was received until the sound of shrieking tires and metal grating against metal was heard followed by more static.


Seto soon found out that not everything had escaped without damage in his suitcase. The walkie-talkie could tune in to the others' signals just fine but was completely unable to broadcast. Seto had futilely yelled his little brother's name into the mic and had begun to think that perhaps something had happened to Mokuba until he'd tried to get Wheeler's attention, since he knew he was still all right, but had still not been given an answer. Seto already knew that the phone services for the house would be taken down, but he'd tried to get in contact with Mokuba that way as well only to get a busy signal again and again and again. The only way to check to him was to get back to the Kaiba Estate and do it in person.

There was no time to check for any other survivors. Seto carefully picked his way through the debris, eventually finding his way to the area where the Electrode had gone off. A giant circle had been carved out of the building's innards, extending in several yards all around. He worked his way around it, being careful to not to get to close, both to avoid having anything else fall on him and to keep from falling through the weak floor. Seto had to shove another desk out of the way of it, but he found the door leading to the amazingly undamaged emergency staircase.

He tried his best to hustle but after a few flights he was finding himself getting dizzy and was forced to take a break. By the time Seto felt he could go on some weird sounds were coming from lower in the stairwell. Seto risked looking over the edge and was nearly smacked in the face by the two Gengars that were flying up the stairs while simultaneously trying to rip each other to shreds. One of them had to be Seto's.

"Gengar!" he shouted up at the two flying purple shapes. There was no point; they'd already gone too far.

Seto continued down the stairs. He'd need to get another look at the other Gengar before he came to any conclusive decision, but if it had a scar across the area where its nose should be, then Seto knew that Gengar. It was Gozaburo's.

Goddamnit! Seto thought, speeding up his pace as much as he could, clinging to the railing when he felt the vertigo coming on.

He tripped down the last few stairs and fell full-tilt through the door that led into the far end of lobby.

The first thing he noticed was the horrid smell that pervaded the area. It made his headache all the worse. The second thing he noticed was the dozens of bodies that were on the ground surrounding the front entrance where a cloud of spores was slowly dispersing. From the dim glow in the building and a couple of streetlights outside, Seto could just make out the Parasect responsible. But it looked like his Gengar had done its job before being attacked, the Parasect being a crumpled mass incapable of doing any more damage.

Seto staggered across the room to the nearest collapsed person, keeping his sleeve in front of his nose so as to keep anything else from contaminating his lungs. It was a member of the security detail that was supposed to be guarding the breeding grounds and house tonight. Looking around he saw that almost everyone there was one of the handpicked team he'd assembled to protect the estate. He crouched down and felt the man's pulse. It was still beating strong.

"Yeah, they're alive."

Seto jolted to his feet, nearly toppling over in the process. "Keith," he spat once he was upright.

Even with the gas mask covering his face and his sunglasses missing for once, the ever-present bandana and the cruel, brash gleam in his eyes was enough to identify him.

"Nice to see you again, too, Seto," Keith purred, his voice muffled and his eyes squinting with dark mirth. "My compliments to your Gengar. He took out Squicker before I even had a chance to give the old man's Gengar's pokéball a roll. Don't worry though, it should take care of yours pretty quick, and then it will be your turn to experience what my Parasect felt." Bandit Keith's voice had gotten progressively, dangerously low as he'd spoken.

Even though he hated it, Seto knew what he had to do. The Pokémon that he had with him, other than Gengar, were all in the suitcase. He didn't know what Pokémon Keith had (he seemed to remember a particularly violent Pikachu that Keith had stolen and made his own the last time they saw each other) or whether they were already out or not, if they were hiding in the abundant shadows. By the time he got his case open and a pokéball in his hand, he could have been attacked who knows how many times. He cursed to himself for not having a pokéball ready to go. The only option he had at the moment was a very simple one: To run. And he did.

Turning on his heel, Seto sprinted as best as he could back to the emergency stairwell.

"Magnemite!" Bandit Keith yelled.

The Pokémon dropped from the ceiling and almost landed on Seto as he ran under it. But the Magnemite's goal wasn't to attack him. When Seto reached the metal door and tried to haul it open, it resisted him. The Magnemite was keeping it shut with magnetism, changing its charge so as to match that of the door.

"No!" Seto couldn't help but shout. He heard Keith laughing in the background.

The Magnemite was closing in on Seto, one of its magnets extended with a blue current of electricity moving between the two prongs, much like a taser. Seto reacted purely on instinct, grabbing up his suitcase with both hands, and swung, bashing the Magnemite in one of its many eyes. The Pokémon went flying and Seto's suitcase broke apart, scattering bits of itself, the walkie-talkie, and his pokéballs across the floor. One of the pokéballs burst open and out came Seto's Cloyster.

"Tackle it!" Seto screamed, pointing at the still-stunned Magnemite. His Cloyster didn't hesitate, rushing the Magnemite, catching it on its spikes and ramming into and through the lobby's wall. Seto didn't waste any time watching, instead grabbing the remaining pokéballs and the walkie-talkie and high-tailing it towards the door to the stairs.

The further he got from the remaining spores the better his head felt and by the time he made it to underground garage he felt almost normal again. A lot of the dust had finally left his lungs as well, and down here, nearer to the area the Electabuzzes were stationed, the lights were a bit brighter. He was starting to feel like he had a chance as he made his first few steps into the garage when he was nearly clothes-lined by a Machoke. He managed to duck just in time to avoid the muscled arm stuck out in his path by the Pokémon he hadn't seen hiding in the shadow of a cement pillar.

He wanted to keep running and find a car, but he knew there was no way that he could out-distance the Pokémon and, just from a brief glance around the garage, he could see that most of the cars were worthless, their hoods and the engines beneath them having been pummeled by the Machoke. 'Pummeled' was the best word too, since now Seto remember Keith having to come into possession of a Machop while a Blaster at the Kaiba Estate and naming the wretched creature Pummeler from its tendency to punch everything he was introduced to. He vaguely remember how Keith would coo to it encouragingly as it had done such.

He wasn't cooing anymore when he came down the stairs after Seto, ripped off his gas mask, and shrieked, "Get him, Pummeler!"

Seto still had his Gyarados and Nidorino in their pokéballs. Gyarados would be able to take them both Machoke and Bandit Keith out quickly enough, but there wasn't enough room for him. And there was no way he was letting his Nidorino out. The only thing it could serve as would be a distraction and only a momentary one at that. But maybe he could poison them! He just needed enough time to be able to sneak up on them. Seto could provide that.

Taking up his Nidorino's pokéball he threw it under a car off to the side as he continued to run and then dove under a car himself. It was a tight fit, but not for long. The Machoke caught up with him and didn't even bother getting him out or following him. Pummeler just picked up the car and threw it off of him. Seto scrabbled and rolled under another ruined car and the process repeated again and again.

He heard Keith cursing all the while, damning the time wasted, and then Keith suddenly yelled, "Pummeler, look out!"

But Nidorino had already shot his venomous spines into the Machoke by the time the beast turned around. Seto was halfway under the next car when the Machoke went down to one knee and then finally crashed flat on its face. Perhaps his Nidorino wasn't as worthless as he'd always considered it to be. It had carried out Seto's wishes perfectly without Seto actually having to tell him. Seto wormed his way out of the car and gave his Pokémon a grateful look as it trudged in his direction. When it got nearer, he briefly rubbed it on its snout with his knuckles. "Good boy," he said to the Nidorino for the first time ever since he'd caught it as a Nidoran.

The Nidorino nibbled his fingers affectionately in return, seeming to relax as well as become more attentive from the sudden positive attention. It was able to notice way before Seto the Raticate creeping up on him with its giant front teeth bared and itching to sink them in his neck. The Nidorino leaped and landed on the Raticate who began screeching. The two rolled around on the ground as Seto came to the decision that he need to incapacitate Keith now.

At the moment the Blaster was blocked from sight by a pillar. Leaping to his feet, Seto began to make his way around it, not feeling as if he had the time to waste in blind-siding him, chosing to instead face him head-on.

A bullet glanced off the pillar as Seto rounded it and pure reflex had Seto diving back behind it as another shot sounded off.

"You're ruining everything, Seto!" Keith screamed, firing again. "You've always been ruining everything for me. The Blasters could have gone so much farther if I'd had a higher position, but you had to pull that stunt with that goddamn Spearow of yours and I spent the week in a closet, losing your father's faith in me every second that I couldn't get out. I still have scars from your Spearow attacking me, you know!"

"You deserve them!" Seto couldn't help from shouting back. "They were nothing in comparison to what you did to it when you caught him. You're going to rot in hell for that!"

"Shut up!" He fired off two more rounds that skittered off the pillar. He sounded closer.

The elevators were across from where Seto was hiding. If he could force the doors open he might be able to climb down the cables to the next floor of the garage where his cars were, but he would also be putting himself at risk of being shot by Keith with the angle change. His Nidorino was still fighting with the Raticate in the shadows, so there was no help coming from that area just yet. There was still no room for his Gyarados. He wished his Fearow was with him. It would be a wonderful thing to take Keith out for good with that particular Pokémon of his. But he was at home, keeping watch over everything from above.

Seto was just getting ready to run for the elevator (what other choice did he have?), when weird sounds starting coming from behind the doors, crashing, a sudden loud snap, and sliding metal. The sounds of the elevator car falling down the shaft to the basement. Seto couldn't run there now when Bandit Keith had his attention there. What was he going to—?

The doors blasted out from the inside and Seto's Cloyster burst onto the scene. Keith fired and the Cloyster closed its shell over its face. The bullet just ricocheted off its shell.

"Shit! I'm not done with you, Seto," Keith promised before he turned tail and ran. Cloyster couldn't go after him with its shell covering its eyes without Seto directing it, which would mean he could have to expose himself to the possibility of being shot.

Keith started laughing as he came to a halt a fair way away. "I may not be able to shoot you, Seto, but I can shoot your Nidorino." Seto stopped breathing. No. But Nidorino was still fighting with Keith's Pokémon. Seto could hear it. He couldn't destroy Seto's Pokémon without destroying his own, right?

"Sorry, Chomper." There was his answer. Keith didn't even sound like he meant it.

Seto was ready to throw himself out from behind the pillar to attract Keith's fire himself when he realized that there were two red eyes staring up at him from where his shadow would be if the pillar's didn't block it out.

"Gengar?" he whispered. The ghost-type Pokémon rose up and there was no scar across its nose. It was Seto's.

"Stop him, Gengar," he ground out. He wasn't about to lose one of his Pokémon to that bastard Blaster.

The Gengar was gone and Keith was screaming before Seto had time to register his Pokémon's absence.

I guess it's Keith who's going to be experiencing what his Parasect felt.


Tristan had been sent to man the front gates of the Kaiba Estate. He didn't know why he'd been asked to come along. Everything had made a lot more sense when Kaiba had made it clear they were only a token force until his real security team owed up, but still. When a guy is scared of his own Pokémon, a person is not inclined to ask them to use them to fend off others' much more bloodthirsty Pokémon.

He knew that everyone else had out at least one or two Pokémon to help assist them, but he'd decided to keep his in his pokéballs. They weren't going to be much use either way. Unfortunately, now he had nothing to amuse or even distract himself with, so, despite the seriousness of the situation, he felt his mind wandering. First he thought a little about why he couldn't actually be inside the gates at the guard post set up there. Then, he thought about why everyone was where they were anyway. Shouldn't more people be in the house or in the breeding grounds? Why have Joey by a lake of all places? After that there was a little spike of panic when he heard the walkie-talkie beeping followed by amusement when Joey admitted to being creeped out by ripples. How scary! After that he just sat on the grass, pulling up the leaves one by one to try to amuse himself. All he could see was the road stretching out on either side far into the distance, party followed by the wall which gave out to forest in one direction and grasslands in the other. More forest was across the asphalt.

Occasionally he would see movement in or between the trees and it always turned out to be a Pokémon. Most of them looked wild. No wonder why Kaiba is such a good trainer, Tristan thought. He has all these Pokémon for the taking right outside his front door. But, now that he thought about it, Kaiba actually didn't have all that many Pokémon that would be found in regions like this, so that blew his theory to hell.

As he pulled the grass up, Tristan eventually had to move a bit beyond his original position so as to not tear up too much in one area. He doubted that Kaiba would notice or even care if his yard had a bald spot in it, especially not a tiny one, but he'd really prefer not to get one of Kaiba's famous chewing-outs. Just hearing about them was enough from Duke and Prof. Oak.

Eventually he found some grass that he couldn't pull up no matter how much he tried. It simply wouldn't come free of the soil. Finally, out of sheer boredom and frustration, Tristan shoved both of his hands deep into the "grass" and pulled up.

"What the hell?"

He'd found one of the entrances to the Kaiba Estate's tunnel system.

Tristan may not be the smartest guy, but he wasn't a total moron either. This must have been the reason that he and the others were so specifically placed, to keep Team Rocket from using these tunnels as easy access points. Kaiba really should have told them. Prof. Oak was probably in on it, too, now that Tristan thought about it. When they'd been divvying up the positions at the breeding grounds, both Kaiba and Prof. Oak insisted that the older man be given that particular spot to patrol. Something about the tunnel there must be important in some way that only the two of them knew about. Mokuba too since he had nodded solemnly when Prof. Oak was assigned to that area.

There may or may not be a good reason for Kaiba not informing them of what exactly they were guarding, but Tristan had to make a decision in regards to whether or not to tell the others and he believed that, in this particular case, power was knowledge.

He heard the cars speeding along the road as he was keying in the code to make the walkie-talkie operational. The cars were going too fast and too recklessly Tristan could now see in the distance down the dark road. With hardly a thought, Tristan dove into the tunnel, dropping the walkie-talkie and not realizing for several seconds that if the tunnel itself were their destination he was screwed. Leaving the only form of communication he had above, Tristan worked his way down the ladder that was bolted to the side of the cement tunnel and moved back several feet so that he could still hear what was going on but would also have ample time to run if he heard the vehicles stop.

But, they didn't stop. Tristan heard them approach, hardly lessening their speed at all, heard the tires screech, and then heard the sound of the first car bashing through the front gates full force. The other cars followed and quickly the sound of their passing faded into the background.

Tristan was slow to leave the tunnel, but he eventually did. Four different sets of skid marks covered the road. The two halves of the gate were swinging uselessly on their hinges, twisted and indented from the force of the car hitting them where they met. Tristan saw tire tracks that completely ignored the winding drive and simply took off across the grass, tearing up the sod in a way that made what Tristan did while he was waiting for something to happen seem like child's play, which it had been.

After a moment of shock where he took it all in, Tristan rushed to find his walkie-talkie. This was it. Team rocket was several hours early, but here they were. Where was Kaiba? They needed him and the security he'd promised he'd bring right now. He was the only one who knew that those people were even here. That put more urgency in his quest to find the walkie-talkie.

He did find it, but not in the state he'd left it. One of the cars, maybe more had run over it in their mad dash into the estate. It was a flattened mix of metal and plastic in the grass near the tunnel entrance.

Tristan was debating whether to use the tunnel or to run straight up to the house (which no longer had its lights on anywhere that he could see), and he didn't hear the next car pull up.

"What happened?" Tristan spun around and there was Duke, leaning out of the driver's window, a look that showed both alarm as well as an odd sense of control over the situation on his face.

"Team Rocket, they're here," Tristan told him, rushing over and ducking into the passenger seat, hesitating a moment when he found a Charmander already sitting there before picking it up and gently moving it to the back as it growled indignantly, his fear of Pokémon momentarily forgotten. "Hurry, we have to get up to the house or the breeding grounds and help them out."

Duke shook his head as he whipped out a cell phone. "I have a better idea." He took off down the road at full speed while saying into the phone, "Sir, this is Agent Devlin, we need everybody out at the Kaiba Estate right now. Gozaburo and Team Rocket finally made their move."

Thanks for reading! Really didn't expect that last portion to be from Tristan's point-of-view, but sometimes you just have to go where the story takes you. And I know that I said Eevee would be getting her little moment here, but that scene has been moved to the next chapter and instead we got to see Seto appreciating his Nidorino a bit more. Not the trade people may have wanted, but it's taking us to a place where it will become a little easier for Seto to accept Eevee down the road.