A/N: Many apologies to those who waited so long for this next chapter. I hope it's still as good a quality as my previous works. I'll keep hammering away at it until all the chapters are done. If anything seems off with this chapter, please let me know so I can be aware of my writing as I continue. Thanks for your patience!


Ch 11

First omen of bad things coming had been the soft alarm of the PDA going off. Apolo lazily opened the mail and felt the corner of his mouth twitch in resentment at having yet another message from the Snagger. He was awfully perceptive, adding only another mystery to what was already an annoyingly difficult puzzle. Rather than answer the mail, he simply closed it and set the device back in its drawer. That had been earlier in the evening, sometime after he had spoken to the girls and made his proposal to Rui. The rain outside, though a nuisance to his plans of marriage, was now lulling him to sleep. Apolo set aside the work he'd been focusing on and began to make his way to his personal suite, smiling at the thought that everything he deserved would soon be within his grasp.

And then the second alarm went off and this one was nowhere near as soft and assuring as the tones of Rui's PDA. Apolo sat up in bed, disoriented, then coming awake fully with the surprised realization that one of the girls was attempting another escape. In a flash, he leaped from his sheets for the closet, scrambling for a suit and searching the room for the cologne bottle of the mesmerizing liquid. Normally, the suave businessman wouldn't have bothered with getting up to face the attempted escapees, but something about tonight seemed to urge him to personally take care of the issue.

Another alarm, this one coming from his laptop computer. It was an e-mail, from Red by the looks of it. Apolo shrugged on his coat and clicked on the file, allowing the message to load as he sought out the decanter of antitoxin and downed a shot-glass filled with the liquid. A spritzing of the special cologne later and he put his attention back on the message, ignoring for the moment the phone on his desk ringing frantically.

"'Mr. Seusur, I will be arriving shortly on Chrono Island with the package you requested. We will meet at the designated area and make the exchange as promised.'" he murmured and smiled. If the final component to dominating the four regions nearest to the Sevii Islands was about to come in, then the wedding ceremony was going to have to be pushed ahead. And though he dearly loved a sunny summer wedding, perhaps a passionate, stormy one would do just as well. At least, for his purposes.

Exiting his room and heading for the office, Apolo made the last minute touches to his ensemble, straightening his tie and smoothing out creases in his pants. He snatched up the phone, halting its annoying wailing, then held it to his ear, waiting for the report. Which girl was it now?

"Sir! Sorry to disturb you, but the girls are breaking out! They've run down several of the guards and are making their way to the Pokémon holding bay!" a harried voice blurted out. Apolo lifted an eyebrow in surprise.

"'They'? How many of the girls have escaped? And how were they able to overpower the guards?" he asked calmly.

"All four of them, sir! The one from Orre; she has Pokémon on her! She must have hidden her Poké Balls from us during the preliminary search!" the grunt explained quickly.

"Well, find them and bring them back, and be sure to take Rui's Pokémon from her this time." Apolo remarked, smoothing back his hair, "I don't want her running off on us before the wedding. Those girls are the key to gaining power over the four regions." He smiled and looked out the window at the storm. "Do what it takes to recollect my treasures. Understand?" he purred.

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Apolo murmured and hung up. He straightened his tie once more, then left his office, chuckling softly to himself.


"Neptune, Saturn, you remember Silver's Pokémon, right? Can you find them?" Rui asked hurriedly as the four girls ran down the halls. The twin Eons yipped brightly and turned for an elevator, racing straight for it and circling before the doors.

"Does this mean our Pokémon are higher or lower in the building than us?" Leaf asked in confusion. Rui nodded.

"Neptune and Saturn have been around Silver's Pokémon before, so they know her team. And if all of your Pokémon were taken away, maybe they got put together in the same place." she explained with a smile. Flannery pumped a fist into the air.

"Oh, yeah! So if we find Silver's Pokémon, we'll find all of ours, too!" she exclaimed. Silver frowned, folding her arms over her chest in thought.

"Great idea, but we can't use the elevators. If the security goons find out we're inside them, they can cut the power and trap us there." she remarked, "We should take the stairs instead." Leaf groaned as the group made their way to a second door for the stairway.

"Why couldn't this place have teleporter pads like Saffron City's Silph Co. building?" she complained. They hurried into the stairwell and looked around. Well lit and open, the flights of steps heading up and down spiralled around and made them somewhat dizzy. Rui shut her eyes and shook her head, shaking the vertigo away. Was this another reason why Seth had hated looked down from up high long ago? She opened her eyes and regained her determination, looking down at her Eons.

"Okay, girls! Which way do we go?" she asked. Neptune glowed with a soft blue aura, reaching out with her psychic powers to locate the missing Pokémon. After a bit, she padded towards the stairs heading down and barked. "Neptune says we have to head downstairs to find the floor where your Pokémon are being held!" Rui told the other trainers, "She'll stop at the door to the right place when we get there! Let's go!" The girls nodded and all hurried down the flights of steps, following the twin Eons as they leaped down the stairs in their escape route.

"Once we get our Pokémon, we're going to have to find our IDs as well!" Flannery added between huffs of air, "Our PokéDexes, Poké Gear, and whatever else you guys use to keep track of yourselves!"

"I bet those will be with that Apolo creep!" Leaf declared angrily, "My big brother said that the head bad guy always has the really important stuff you need to recover!" Silver nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that's usually how it is! When our teams are back with us, let's go show that jerk what the women of the four regions he's trying to take over can really do!" she shouted and the other girls whooped alongside her, cheering themselves on as they raced to elude security and find their Pokémon.


Seth managed to open his eyes slowly, feeling faintly groggy as he sagged in his seat. Wearily, he looked around himself through partially opened eyes, trying to get his mind to catch up with time and analyze his surroundings. Thief instincts screamed at him to get up and run, make a mad dash for the exit and boost, but his reflexes were dulled. A drug? No, this wasn't that artificial lethargy of drugs. He recognized those; he'd had enough of them to know the difference. This was something else.

Chosen power.

"Damn it." he growled through his teeth, struggling to bring himself back up to speed. Red, that bastard. He used his Chosen Master power on him, the power of the Second Soul. It was a miracle he could even move this much now; what had that guy done to him?

"Good. You're awake." the older man's voice remarked flatly, "We've arrived." Seth saw a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eyes and the strangely leaden feeling in his limbs faded away. In a flash, he was on his feet and launching himself at the mercenary in a fury, only to be dropped to the floor with another wave of his hand. "Will you calm down?!" Red snapped down at him, "I only did what I had to in order to make sure you were ready for this mission! I can't have you running around in a stupid, love-blinded panic when I need you most!"

"You didn't have to use Chosen power on me! Let me go!" the Snagger yelled furiously, struggling to get up and nearly throwing himself off balance when he found his strength suddenly returned to him. Ein sat on a nearby bed, watching the proceedings with a great deal of interest, a faintly smug grin spread on his face. Seth shot him a warning glare, then looked to the older trainer for an explanation.

"Sometimes, you're put in a position where you have to do things you don't want to, and all you can do is the best you can. I know you want to go back to Orre, but right now, there are people counting on us." Red told him seriously, "I promise, when this is done, I'll take you to Rui's home in Zirconia. You can show her parents you're fit to marry her once you've been paid for helping me."

"Fine. But I'm holding you to it." Seth growled and turned his back on the mercenary, signaling the twin Eons to his side.

"I still don't like this. He feels strange, but he's blocking most of my psychic abilities." Jupiter muttered under his breath as they exited the jet and gathered under a nearby tree to find shelter from the storm.

"I hate admitting to it, but I'm starting to think you're right about Red not being trustworthy right now." the Snagger murmured in return, "Whatever's going on, it's not on the level and if we don't find out what it is soon, we might be the ones paying for it."

"So what's the plan if he double crosses us in any way?" Pluto muttered, warily watching the older trainer and his Pikachu descend from the jet, the ramp slick with rain and the sleek shape of the plane lit up by the occasional flashes of lightning erupting overhead.

"That's the problem. I can't do anything as long as he's using Chosen power. But if you guys can move fast enough to knock him out before he tries anything..." Seth began and Jupiter grinned fiercely.

"Then you can finish off that rat of his with a blast of Raykyoudon power! Nobody messes with the best Snagger team in Orre and gets away with it!" he hissed darkly and the three of them snapped to full alertness as Red came near.

"We'll try sweeping in from the south to north, and west to east." the mercenary told Seth. He waved a hand in one direction. "Chrono Island has a strange shape to it, so we'll divide into two teams. The Pokémon will form one team and sweep the west to east sector up here, while the two of us start at the south and work our way north. We'll meet back at the jet to report our findings, if any."

The Eons immediately flared in distrust.

"He's splitting us up?!" Pluto growled and the Pikachu glared at him.

"Do you have a problem with that?" he demanded and Seth held a hand out to the twins.

"Take it easy, guys." he muttered, watching the older man warily as Red lifted an eyebrow questioningly, "Red rubs me the wrong way, but he'd never do anything that would really hurt us. This is fine. You can move around easier if I'm not there to attract attention to you, and I have the other Pokémon with me if I need to battle any thugs."

"But...!" Jupiter began to protest and winced as Seth snapped his fingers against his ear.

"We'll be fine. Just go ahead. It's only for a couple of hours." the Snagger insisted and the twins sighed in resentful defeat. Pikachu hopped down from Red's shoulder and began trotting off with them. After a moment, the mouse paused and glanced over his shoulder. A look passed between him and his trainer, and Pikachu returned to his march, suddenly looking much older and weary than before. Seth caught the expression, but kept it to himself, tightening his mouth as he turned back to the older trainer. Red merely rested a hand on his hip, a deadpan look on his face.

"Ready?" he questioned and Seth nodded.

"For anything." he replied heavily and hesitated only a moment before taking the lead. This Red noticed, though his only response to it was another lifted eyebrow. Then he fell into step and the two of them disappeared into the darkness of the night and the violent tempest ravaging the island.


Leaf looked up at the door, a faintly disgusted look on her face as the other girls stood behind her with mixed expressions of irritation and confusion.

"You have got to be kidding me! Oh, come on! Do all bad guys follow the same stupid formula for this? Is there a class somewhere in Bad Guy College that teaches this crap?!" Silver declared in exasperation, throwing one hand up in disbelief of the door's sign. It loudly proclaimed in bold, black letters 'Pokémon Storage Room' and was locked with a simple card key slot. Rui chuckled hesitantly, giving the Johto Champion a faint smile.

"Look on the bright side, Silver. At least this makes things easier for us, right?" she asked and the dark-haired girl planted both hands on her hips, lower lip jutting out indignantly.

"I was hoping for more of a challenge." she grumbled, "I wanted to use someone as a beating stick for all the crud we've been through for days and days."

"We can do that way better once we get our Pokémon back." Leaf remarked, adjusting the rim of her hat, "Then we can beat up everybody who made us stay here, including that Apolo jerk." Flannery nodded in agreement, a wide grin on her face.

"Yup! And just to show them all my appreciation for this little 'vacation', I'll set this whole building on fire!" she declared and Rui waved her hands before her, the weak smile still on her face.

"Come on now, Flannery, isn't that just a bit overboard?" she asked her, "Can't we just beat their faces into the walls and leave it at that?" The other girls looked at her, then at each other, then sighed and shrugged.

"Well, if that's all we can do to them, I guess that's okay. Besides, in a storm like this, it's really hard to set anything on fire." Silver relented. Rui smiled brightly and nodded.

"We can always come back later with Seth and ask him to use Drought." she agreed and the Hoenn Gym Leader lit up eagerly.

"Then we can set it on fire! Okay, I'm good with that! Let's grab our Pokémon and get the rest of our stuff!" she exclaimed and Rui pointed at the door with a serious expression on her face, her twin Eons jumping forward to glare at it.

"Saturn, Neptune! Double Tackle!" she cried and the Pokémon shot straight for the door, slamming against it with all their strength and popping it off the hinges like a cork. The girls rushed in and searched the room quickly, dashing to each shelf full of Poké Balls that they could find. Little cries of joy and elation filled the air as companions were rescued and released from their confines, allowed to stretch out freely for the first time in ages.

"Nice Typhlosion." Flannery commented with a smile, eyeing the Fire-type that Silver cooed over happily.

"Thanks; he's been my best friend and best partner since I first began training!" the Champion returned brightly. Rui folded her arms over her chest and gazed upward with a frown.

"Okay, now we have to get our gear back. I bet they would be stashed in Apolo's room. Top floor, right?" she remarked aloud and Silver nodded.

"Then let's gooo!" Leaf cheered and they hurried out of the room, ignoring the blares of alarms that had screamed about their intrusion the moment the door was blown away.

Getting upstairs was harder than going down. The girls still wanted to escape, and the urge to just use their Pokémon to Fly out the first window they saw was hard to ignore. On top of that, they had to contend with Apolo's guards trying to recapture them. There were several skirmishes involving the Pokémon that sent them running off in a panic, most notably from Flannery's Fire team. In some instances, though, even that wasn't available to them.

Like this one.

"Hyah!" Silver cried, kicking her leg up to knock the pistol out of the guard's hands. Leaf snatched her hat free and threw it aside, aiming to push the weapon further beyond his reach. Rui watched with wide eyes as the Johto Champion finished off the unarmed man with a powerful punch to the jaw. It wasn't without consequence, as Silver immediately yelped in pain and rubbed at her fist.

"Are you all right?" the redhead cried in alarm and the dark-haired trainer smiled sheepishly.

"I keep forgetting I'm not as strong as Red. I'll be fine, just remind me not to punch anyone else's lights out for a while." she replied laughingly.

They pressed onward, clambering up stairs as swiftly as they could to reach the top floor. Apolo's room was easily recognized by the grandiose oak doors that served as its entrance, and Leaf was all too pleased to crush it to splinters with her Venusaur.

"Frenzy Plant!" she exclaimed, pointing at the target as the giant Grass and Poison-Type unleashed its hidden power upon the doors. Rui gathered up her courage and anger and raced into the room with her friends hurrying after her.

"All right, Apolo! We're here to take back our...!" she began to yell and blinked in surprise as the dust cleared to reveal no one there. She looked around, puzzled, while Flannery, Leaf and Silver cautiously began to spread out in search of their various devices. "Wh-where did he go?" Rui murmured in a soft voice, unsure of what this change in situation meant for them.

Flannery shrugged as she passed her hands along the ornate desk and opened a drawer. Her eyes lit up and she motioned to the others.

"I found them! Here's my PokéNav!" she exclaimed and collected the device as the others hurried to join her and reclaim their belongings. While they sorted through the drawer, the Hoenn Gym Leader scanned the desktop for anything else of interest, her eyes quickly drawn to an opened e-mail left on the screen of Apolo's computer. She scanned it over, then looked puzzled.

"Hey, what's this? It's from that Red guy you guys talk about so much." she remarked to the other girls, pointing at the screen. Silver looked up in concern as she strapped her Poké Gear to her wrist. Leaf collected her PokéDex happily and turned to read the e-mail herself.

"Really? Lemme see! What did my big brother say to Apolo? I hope he told him off and stuff!" she cheered and searched the words, the Johto Champion standing by her to do the same. Leaf's expression became confused. "Huh? I don't get it. What does he mean by package?" she asked and looked up at the older trainers, "Did Apolo get my brother to deliver something for him? Was that all he wanted him to do?" Silver straightened, arms folding over her chest as she frowned in thought.

"'Mr. Seusur, I will be arriving shortly on Chrono Island with the package you requested. We will meet at the designated area and make the exchange as promised.'" she read the message aloud, "Strange. What's this all about?"

"My PDA isn't here." Rui muttered in frustration, combing through the drawer. She stood back and ran a hand through her hair, sighing harshly. "Great. Now what do I do? That PDA has the ability to track Seth down! If I don't get it back, who knows what evil could be used with that information!" She looked over at her friends as they peered at the computer and lifted an eyebrow. "Huh? Why's everyone looking at that thing for?" she asked in confusion. Silver waved her over and pointed at the screen, letting Rui read the puzzling e-mail for herself.

"This probably means he's left the building, which means we might want to do the same as well, before he comes back and finds out we busted loose." the Johto Champion remarked, "Also, if your PDA isn't here, he might be carrying it around, seeing as how it's yours and he wants to marry you. Sort of a trophy prize, if you think about it."

"Then let's get out of here and find him!" Rui demanded, "I want my PDA back and I'm not gonna marry that jerk!" Flannery threw up her hands in a sign of relief.

"Finally! We get to leave! I'm getting sick of this place every second I'm still here!" she exclaimed, "So how do we get out?" Leaf ran over to the vast windows that comprised an entire wall of Apolo's office, unlocked them and shoved them open.

"We'll fly! Or at least, use Fly!" the young trainer returned brightly, "My Pidgeot can carry us down to the ground two at a time, so you and Rui can go first!" She whipped out a Poké Ball and threw it forward, "Pidgeot! I need you!"

A flash of light erupted and, when it cleared, a huge bird with soft brown, red and golden feathers appeared before them, flapping its wings furiously to stay stable in the storm winds. It gave a cry for battle, then flapped into the office to give the girls a chance to climb onto its back. Flannery and Rui eagerly took the offer and Leaf gave another command, for the bird to Fly them down to the ground safely. The Pidgeot shot out of the office building and spiraled downwards to earth, both Flannery and Rui clutching its feathers tightly until it touched down.

Silver and Leaf looked down from above, watching as Pidgeot carried the girls to safety. The older Champion nodded grimly.

"Okay, they made it." she told Leaf, "Now, our turn." A pounding began at the door and both girls turned to look back at it in surprise.

"Oh no! They found out we didn't actually leave the building! I guess we should have done a better job at hiding all those grunts we knocked out!" Leaf cried in a panic, "Those goons are gonna bash down the door and Venusaur is still too tired from the Frenzy Plant to do much damage to their Pokémon!" Silver sighed and shook her head, pulling a set of Poké Balls from her side.

"I'll handle this!" she called back as the Pidgeot returned to pick them up, "Just get on the bird and get out of here! I'll meet you later!" Leaf stared up at her in shock, face paling. "Just go! I'm the Johto Champion! I can handle myself!" Silver snapped and Leaf yelped in fright, racing for the Pidgeot.

"Be careful! And come back right away!" she called back as she leaped onto the bird and flew out the window. Silver only grinned as she tightened the silver ribbon around her head and threw out her team of Pokémon to face the oncoming rush of guards.

"All right, boys!" she laughed as the storm rumbled and lightning flashed behind her, "LET'S DANCE!"