Chapter 11: Of White and Witches

With Yellow

Yellow and White's intense Pokemon battle had ended up being Jessica and Dody tackling each other until both Pokemon looked worn out. Neither looked much stronger, but Yellow hoped that they'd gained some invisible strength of someone sort.

"Do you feel stronger?" White asked Jessica hopefully. A little, Yellow heard, though out loud it sounded like, "Deeeeer."

"What do you suppose that means?" White mumbled. Yellow bit her tongue so she wouldn't accidentally say that she knew exactly what it meant.

"What are you guys doing?" Red asked walking over to the two girls.

"We were training," Yellow said. "Or trying to." Yellow then noticed the Ivysaur walking next to Red. "Wasn't he a Bulbasaur?"

"Yeah! Gold challenged me to a battle and Saur evolved!"

Red was always so enthusiastic talking about his Pokemon and Yellow enjoyed listening to it. Of all the others she found herself drawn the most to Red, but she knew nothing could ever come of it. After all, he didn't know her secret, and when he did he'd want nothing to do with her.

Yellow saw a shadow creep across the ground and looked up. White noticed and followed her gaze. "What is that?" White asked. There was something moving across the sky. It looked like a flock of birds, but on closer examination Yellow could see it was a bunch of Zubat. And they were carrying black clad people.

"Team Rocket," Red said. "You two stay here!" He yelled as he ran back towards the others, Saur hot on his heels.

"We should help!" White said.

"I want to too, but neither of us is any good at battling," Yellow pointed out. "We'd be in the way."

The two had gone aways off to train, but they could see the wagons and saw the others battling. Lyra was getting swarmed which didn't surprise Yellow. They must be after the cards, but their friends were better than the grunts and seemed to be holding their own. The two were so focused on the fight they'd didn't notice someone come up behind them. The grunt grabbed White roughly and held a blade to her neck.

"This is how it's going to go," the man said. You're going over there and getting the artifact or you friend dies."

Yellow looked into the man's eyes and saw the eyes of a killer. He would really do it. "I'll get it!" Yellow said, backing slowly towards the wagon. She didn't want to give them what they wanted, but there was no way she was letting White die. As she backed up, she saw Jessica moving. The Pokemon charged the man. Several things happened then. He dropped White, who fell and the man's hand slipped. The knife hit Jessica.

"Jessica!" White screamed.

Anger filled Yellow and she felt her power emerging. "Dody!" Yellow yelled pointing at the man. The Doduo, much stronger than it had been only seconds previously, charged the man as Yellow ran to the injured Pokemon. Jessica was bleeding a lot. Too much. The knife had gone deep.

White ran over. "Is she...is she going to be okay?"

She wasn't. Jessica wouldn't be able to heal on her own and there was no way to get medical supplies, not with the grunts everywhere. There was only one way to save her. Yellow touched Jessica gently, taking her head into her hands. Yellow channelled the healing energy she'd been born with into the injured Pokemon.

White gasped with shock as the wounds on the Pokemon disappeared before her eyes. "How did you do that?" White asked quietly. "Are you a...are you a witch?"

Was she? Yellow wasn't really sure. "Maybe," Yellow decided on.

White looked at her and in her eyes was the expression Yellow was all too familiar with. Horror. White grabbed newly healed Jessica and ran to the others leaving Yellow by herself. It seemed she always ended up that way.

With White

Yellow was a witch. This knowledge disturbed White to no end. All this time, she'd been living with a witch! She sprinted towards the wagons, because at that moment she was genuinely more afraid of Yellow than of the Team Rocket grunts.

By the time White got back to the wagons the grunts there had been defeated and were all running for their lives.

"Oh, White," Black greeted. "You alright? You seem spooked."

"I - it's - Yellow's a witch!" White blurted.

Her statement was met by silence, then several of the members burst out laughing (notably Gold and Emerald).

"She's a witch?" Gold laughed. "Good one."

"I'm serious!" White exclaimed. "Jessica - she got stabbed. And Yellow healed her!"

"What with her mind?" Crys asked skeptically.

"Yes!"

The group stared at her in varying degrees of disbelief. "Yellow can't be a witch," Gold said. "Witches are supposed to be warty and gross. Yellow's not a babe, but she isn't a hag either." This statement earned him a punch from Crys that knocked him over.

"Yellow's nice," Red said. "Even if she is a witch. Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters!" Emerald said. "Witches are evil, everyone knows that!"

"It is a prevalent theme in a lot of literature," Black added.

"I'm with Red on this one," Crys said. "Nothing I've ever seen of Yellow leads me to believe she's evil. I don't care what powers she has."

"She healed your Pokemon right, so doesn't that make her a nice witch?" Dia asked.

"There are no nice witches," Pearl said. "Magic is evil and it kills things."

"People kill things," Crys said. "Magic is a tool, nothing more."

"Where is Yellow anyway?" Red asked White.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I ran away."

"She's not coming back on her own," Lyra said. "If we want her with us we need to go get her."

"You seem oddly unfazed by all this," Pearl said accusingly.

"I knew," Lyra replied.

"What?" This was said by several members of the group.

"She told me when we were looking for supplies. The Pokemon told her what the crime teams are looking for."

"She can understand Pokemon too?" Emerald exclaimed.

"We need a vote," Lyra interrupted. "Is she with us, or are we leaving her behind? I'm for her staying."

"I want Yellow to stay," Red added instantly.

"She should stay," Crys agreed.

"Leave her," Emerald said.

"We don't need a witch with us," Pearl said. "Leave her."

"Leave her," White said, feeling suddenly guilty. All Yellow had done was help and now she was voting to leave her alone in the wilderness. Well, technically she'd done that already.

"Let her stay," Wally said. White wasn't sure what the boy really thought about the issue. He hadn't said anything earlier and his expression was unreadable.

"She should leave," Platina said. She looked sad and White understood how she felt. But she'd been raised to believe witches were the enemy, they all had. So if Yellow had magic she must be evil. Even if it wasn't apparent yet. That didn't stop White's guilt though.

Dia looked at Platina and Pearl with a conflicted expression and finally said, "I think she should stay." Pearl glared at him but Platina didn't seem angry.

The only two people who had yet to vote were Gold and Black. It could still go either way.

"Well?" Crys asked.

"Stay," Gold finally said.

"That's a majority," Lyra said. "I'll go get her."

"No," Red countered. "Let me. I know where she is. Or where she was anyway."

White watched Red walk towards the girl White had condemned and wondered at how much of a better person than her he was.

"We're letting her stay?" Pearl said with aggravation. "She could kill us in our sleep."

"If she were going to do that she would've already," Crys defended.

"Why are you so for this?" Emerald asked. "Red I get he's pathetically nice, but you're not! I thought you'd have more sense than to let a witch walk among us."

"People shouldn't be judged for things they can't help," Crys replied. "At the orphanage all those kids were mistreated and judged for things that they couldn't help. If Lord Elm hadn't taken you in where do you think you'd be right now?"

"That's different," Emerald snapped.

"Uh, please stop fighting," White begged.

"You're the one who brought it up in the first place," Pearl retorted.

"No, White is correct," Platina interrupted. "We have voted already and unless any of you plan to leave, we are stuck together. We should get along."

"I don't want to get along with a witch," Pearl grumbled.

"Then don't talk to her," Crys replied. "There are enough of us that you can just avoid her easily enough."

"But what if she sets me on fire?"

"She can't do that," Lyra said.

Dia and Wally watched the proceeding sadly. The group that had been getting along so well was now fracturing.

With Red

Red had been taught that witches were evil. Practically everyone in every kingdom was taught that, but he couldn't believe, not for one second, that Yellow was evil. He'd never seen her do anything even remotely mean spirited, even when she was well within her rights to (Blue had kidnapped her after all). No, in the end, Red didn't care if she had magic, Yellow was a good person.

Yellow was sitting where she and White had been training earlier, staring at the ground as if it could solve her problems.

"Yellow," Red greeted gently. The girl jumped and stared at him in shock.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "White told you, didn't she? You aren't going to kill me are you?"

"What?! No I'm not going to kill you! We voted and we decided that you can keep traveling with us. If you want to that is."

"Really? I...I can stay? And you're okay with that?"

"Yeah. I don't care if you're a witch. I know you Yellow, and you're not a bad person."

Yellow's eyes became a bit misty and she suddenly stood and hugged Red. "Thank you," she said quietly into his chest.

Once Yellow seemed to have calmed down a bit Red led her back towards the wagons, all the while wondering how many people, upon discovering the truth, had completely rejected her.

"Why are you bringing me back?" Yellow asked quietly.

"Like I said, we voted and the majority decided that you being a witch didn't matter." Red understood why some people voted to leave Yellow - a prejudice one has been taught by birth is hard to overcome - but Red couldn't help but be angry with them.

"It was close wasn't it," Yellow observed. She seemed to take his silence as an affirmative. "I shouldn't go back, I'll just cause problems."

"At this point it doesn't matter. We've all picked sides, you not being there won't make things easier, but maybe it will show them that they're wrong. About you, about witches."

"...I'm not sure I actually am a witch," Yellow mused. "I can't do anything I've read witches can do. Everything I can do helps Pokemon in some way, or helps me understand them."

"So you think you're...something. else?"

"I don't know."

"Well I don't care what you are," Red declared. "I'll still like you."

Yellow blushed, but smiled.

"I like you too," Yellow replied, so quietly Red probably wasn't supposed to hear. Red grinned which went unnoticed by Yellow who was studying the grass.

Red sobered when they reached the others. "Stay behind me," he told Yellow.

"Oh, the witch is here," Emerald said. Crys immediately went to Red's side in front of Yellow and glared at Emerald. She opened her mouth but Yellow grabbed her arm and shook her head.

The atmosphere was very uncomfortable and Red wasn't sure what to do about it. The group was split now, but the others would soon realize that Yellow was harmless. He hoped so anyway.

"Make sure the witch stays away from our side."

"She has a name," Crys snapped.

"What do you mean, 'your side'?" Red asked.

"We decided the people who are okay with...that will stay in the front wagons and the rest will stay in the back," Pearl explained.

"So go to the front."

Deciding fighting the decision would make things worse, Red, Yellow and Crys walked away from the others to the front wagons. Lyra came after them followed by Wally. The others all stayed put. Dia didn't surprise Red, he would of course stay with Platina, though he imagined things would be strained for him for a while. Gold though...

Crys turned and stared at the black haired boy. "You voted for her to stay, are you coming?"

Gold just stared at the ground. It was the first time Red had ever seen the other boy at a loss for words. "Come on Yellow," Crys said dragging the blonde girl by the arm.

When they got to the front wagon Yellow apologized. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come back."

"You haven't done anything wrong!" Crys defended. "This is how people always are. At the orphanage people always treated us as if it were our fault we were in that situation, but it wasn't. And it isn't your fault that you were born with some weird power. I don't get why Gold and Emerald are being so awful about it. They were both orphans too!"

"But, they're nobles aren't they?" Wally asked.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Everyone is taught that witches are evil," Wally explained. "But noble families, we take it a step further. It's not just that magic is bad, it's that everything that is bad comes from magic. I don't believe it, but it can be difficult to change your mind about something that you've always considered to be true."

Crys didn't seem appeased by this, but she didn't say anything.

"Don't worry Yellow," Lyra said to the downhearted girl. "I'm sure they'll come around!" Red wasn't so sure, but he wasn't going to say anything.

"Thanks Lyra," Yellow murmured.

With Gold

Gold still wasn't sure what to think. Yellow was a witch. She didn't line up with any of his images of witches or any of the drawings he'd seen in books (which generally depicted people with lots of warts and crazy hair). He didn't think she was evil either. If, yesterday someone had asked him who the least threatening person in the group was, he would have said Yellow. But now, now Gold wasn't so sure. He certainly wanted to believe that Yellow was good, but Lord Elm had taught him that witches (and wizards) were pure evil. Soulless even. So was Elm lying to him? Or maybe Elm really didn't know better. Or the third possibility, simultaneously the most horrific and the most relieving, Yellow was evil and was simply an amazing actress. He honestly wasn't sure which one he wanted to be true. He didn't want Yellow to be evil, but it would make things a lot easier if she was.

He said yes because he didn't want Yellow to die, but that wasn't Gold's only reason. The real reason he'd said yes to her staying was because he didn't want Crys to hate him. But he still, he still just couldn't bring himself to stay in the same place as Yellow. What if Lord Elm was right? What if Yellow was evil? But, Crys was staying with her, Gold realized. So if it turned out that Yellow really was a danger, then Crys would be in trouble. Realizing this, Gold got up and suddenly sprinted to the front wagons.

"Gold, what are you doing?" Emerald yelled after him. Gold ignored him.

When he got to the front wagons, he was greeted by Crys glaring at him. "What do you want Gold?" She asked.

"I want to stay up here," he said.

"I was under the impression that you think Yellow is dangerous."

"Yeah, she could be a danger to you!"

"I don't need your protection," Crys snapped. "Especially not from Yellow!"

"But-"

"No, if you think she's dangerous, then go back."

Gold stared at Crys, not sure what to do. He didn't want to fight with her, he never really had before. They'd bickered of course, but they hadn't really fought about important things. At the end of the day Gold always knew that if it mattered, Crys would have his back. But now? Now he wasn't so sure.

With Crys

Crys watched Gold walk back to the others with a heavy heart. She didn't really want to send him away, but she wasn't going to force Yellow to spend time with someone who would stare at her as if she were some sort of monster the whole time. And really, more than that, Crys was just disappointed. She'd thought Gold would see past prejudices and see Yellow for who she was, but he didn't. Emerald didn't either, which disappointed her, but not nearly as much. The reason was obvious to Crys no matter how much she tried to bury it: She liked Gold, more than as a friend. But if he couldn't see past Yellow, would he see past her station? After all, she was only a maid, and Gold was a noble. It wasn't quite the same thing, but it was similar enough for Crys to worry about.

"I'm sorry," Yellow apologized again when Crys got in the wagon.

"It isn't your fault Yellow."

"Yes it is. I knew this would happen. I should have left earlier."

"It isn't your fault," Crys repeated. "You haven't done anything wrong. In fact, you saved White's Deerling! She should be thanking you, not trying to cast you out."

"Everyone is like that," Yellow said. "It's not their fault either."

"Well they'd better see the truth soon," Crys grumbled. "Or I am going to seriously hurt someone."

"Don't do that on my account," Yellow pleaded. And that was it really, how could the others possibly believe this girl could be evil? This girl who even still cared about the ones who wanted to abandon her.

Red and Wally appeared in the wagon. "Lyra and Black are driving," announced Red. "We've apparently decided that the two drivers will be one from each team so to speak. That way we're sure no one will get left behind." Yellow just looked sad.

"Hey Wally, why are you with us?" Crys wondered. "The other nobles all don't want anything to do with her, even Gold and he voted yes."

"I've been sickly my whole life," Wally explained. "Some people think I'm cursed, and some of those people think I should die because of that. I understand first hand that our peoples' prejudices against magic are unreasonable and I don't think people should be sentenced until they've actually done something wrong."

"Thank you," Yellow said quietly. Wally smiled at the girl and the two shared a moment of kinship.

With Silver

Silver hoped they were getting close, they had been flying for over an hour now. But there was no way of telling how far the teleport took them. Silver knew it couldn't be too incredibly far away - teleports have limits, but Silver wasn't familiar enough with teleports to know how far it is they could have gone.

"Are we there yet?" Sapphire asked.

"No!" Ruby yelled. "If we were we would have stopped!"

Silver tuned them out. He'd given up trying to stop them after the first three arguments. Those two were truly terrible to be around. Silver missed Blue and her easy company. Blue would have some sort of scheme that would keep those two loudmouths quiet, unfortunately Silver was not quite in sync with Blue enough to know what that plan would be or how to enact it. So he waited and hoped that they would see Blue soon and that when they found her, she'd do something about his annoying hangers on.

With Blue

Following the grunt was almost excruciatingly boring. The sticky paint worked like a charm, so all they had to do was follow the path of little blue blobs. Blue had amused herself at first by getting Jiggly to fly in slightly erratic patterns, which made Green make some truly picture-worthy faces. Unfortunately he'd caught onto her game fairly quickly and now no matter what Jiggly did he remained annoyingly expressionless.

They flew over mountains and over rivers, Janine scouting ahead every so often to make sure their quarry was still close and to refresh the sticky paint.

"How far is this guy going?" Green wondered.

"I think we've left Johto," Janine replied.

"Hoenn?" Blue asked.

"I think so," Janine said.

"So he's probably not a member of Team Rocket then," Green said, though his tone was unsurprised.

"Hoenn has its own criminal teams, doesn't it?" Blue asked. "Maybe he's with one of them."

"That's possible," Janine agreed. "But I don't know what he was doing at the Rocket base."

"Maybe the group in Hoenn is after the artifacts as well," Koga suggested.

"I think we'll find out soon," Blue said. "He's slowing down." Blue pointed at the paint trail. The drips were getting closer together implying that the Golbat was slowing down. This meant that the man as probably going to stop soon, either for a break or for his destination. Blue hoped it was the latter. Tracking someone was exciting for the first few minutes, then quickly grew boring.

As they grew closer, Blue could faintly see the grunt in the distance, he was approaching a mountain. Then his Golbat swooped down towards it. "That must be his destination," Blue said. "We should hit the ground before we get there so we can sneak in."

"Agreed," said Janine. They flew for a few more minutes and then had their Pokemon veer off course and drop them a bit away from where the grunt had landed. The rocky landscape was not nearly as good as the forest for sneaking, but Blue could make due. The group returned all the Pokemon and crept forwards. The man was speaking to someone at the door, but they were too far away for Blue to make it out. The man was let inside, but the man at the door remained. A door guard, Blue assumed.

"We should wait and see if we can get an opening," Janine whispered.

"What if we can't?" Green asked.

"Then we bust our way in," Blue replied.

They sat quietly and waited and found that when the guard changed, there was a brief opening where one man went inside before another came out. Unfortunately, they weren't sure when then guard would shift again so they were stuck waiting out this guard's shift so they could get the timing right.

"This is taking too long," Green grumbled.

"Be patient," Blue replied.

Eventually the man turned towards the door and the group prepared to make their move. Then a Tropius appeared and smashed into the mountainside.

A few minutes earlier

With Sapphire

Sapphire, Ruby and Silver had been following the trail of light for quite some time now and Sapphire could feel Pilo getting tired.

"We better get there soon," Sapphire grumbled. "Pilo can't take much more of this."

"Neither can I," Ruby said.

"Who cares about you?" Sapphire asked.

"Shut up," Silver's voice cut across the air between them. "We're getting close."

Sapphire glanced at Silver and noticed that the light, which had been pointing slightly downward before, was now sharply declining.

"We're almost on top of em'!" Sapphire said excitedly.

"We should land," Silver said and he directed his Murkrow to land on a flattish part of the mountain.

"Land Pilo!" Sapphire commanded. Pilo heard the command, but was so exhausted that when he tried to veer off course, he was able to turn but not able to change his course quickly enough and ended up smashing into the mountain. Sapphire held onto Pilo desperately, but Ruby was knocked aside.

"Ruby!" Sapphire yelled and she let go of Pilo to try to help the falling boy. She managed to grab his hand and with her other she got a hold of Pilo's tail. The Tropius had managed to right itself, but it was still sliding down the mountain. When it noticed its trainer's predicament it managed to sweep its tail over to a ledge on the mountain leaving Sapphire and Ruby safely on solid ground.

After a dazed moment, Sapphire ran to the edge and returned Pilo before he could take anymore damage from the fall. Sapphire then fell backwards in relief. "We made it!" She yelled.

Ruby just stared in shocked silence, completely unmoving. "Come on," Sapphire said encouragingly. "It wasn't that bad!"

"You saved me," Ruby finally said. "Thank you."

Sapphire felt a blush rising at his surprisingly sincere words and fought it down. Before she could respond (and she was sure she would have thought of something cool and clever to say) Blue's head appeared above them, staring down from a higher ledge.

"You two know how to make an entrance," she said.

"Yep!" Sapphire said confidently.

"Get up here," Blue said. Sapphire looked at the jagged rock wall between them and decided she'd rather not climb that. Blue noticed and turned to speak with someone behind her. Then two Crobat appeared and lifted Sapphire and Ruby up to the others. Sapphire noted that Silver was there and seemed no worse for wear so he had probably avoided the falling Tropius.

"We were going to sneak in, but since you announced our presence I guess we'll just bust in," Blue said.

"My specialty," Sapphire said excitedly.

"Uh, who are these people?" asked a woman in ninja gear.

"Oh! Right, Janine, Janine's dad ("Koga," he grumbled), and Falker, this is Sapphire, Ruby and Silver," Blue introduced.

"Where are we?" Ruby asked, evidently recovered from his scare.

"Dunno," Blue said. "We were following this guy and he came here. But we're wasting time, come on!" She led and the others followed, some more confused that others.

"How did you even find us?" Green asked as they ran.

"It turns out that Platina has this magic ring," Sapphire said. "And then Lyra could use it and we were tracking you. But then this other guy came and took it and Silver went after 'em and I went after Silver and Ruby's here for some reason." She paused to take a breath. "Then Silver caught the guy and grabbed the ring and it turned out he could use it too and we came here and now we're here!"

"...What?" Green said.

"It's a long story," Ruby said diplomatically. "We can explain later."

"Magic ring huh," Blue mused. "I wonder how much it's worth."

"Of course that's the part you'd care about," Green muttered.

By this point they'd reached the door, which was slightly difficult to reach now because of the debris in front of it. Sapphire and Green moved some of the larger rocks and they were about to try the door when it flew open. They quickly jumped out of the way as several men and women (all dressed in red) came running out. It was clearly an evacuation.

"Oops," Sapphire said. "I guess this is our fault."

"Our?" Ruby repeated. "This is your fault! I had nothing to do with it!"

"Pilo's not used to carryin' more than just me," Sapphire countered. "So it is your fault."

"Stop arguing and let's see if there's anything left in there for us to see."

By the time the group had gotten inside, it was devoid of people. They had all either run back out the front door or flown out the roof entrance. Sapphire hadn't seen that before, so there was probably some mechanism inside which opened the top of the mountain. Which Sapphire thought was incredibly cool.

While the people had all left, there was still stuff laying around. The important things had presumably been taken, but there wasn't time for them to grab everything.

"Team Magma," Green read holding a small book.

"What is that?" Blue asked, sidling over to Green to get a closer look.

Green shrugged. "It looks like some sort of handbook."

"Team Magma is a crime organization in Hoenn," Sapphire said. "It and Team Aqua are the major threats here."

"And you know this why?" Ruby wondered.

"We studied the criminal organizations of all the kingdoms. Just because they aren't a threat to Kanto now doesn't mean they never will be."

"Smart," Blue commented.

"Look at this," Janine said. She had been rooting through a desk and held up a stack of papers she'd found inside.

Blue took the top one and read it aloud. "Necklace, acquired. Staff, acquired. Crystal, acquired. Ring, in possession of Platina Berlitz! These people are after Platina!"

"Keep reading," Janine suggested.

"Cape, in possession of Steven Stone. Cards, in the possession of Lyra of the Fortune Gypsies."

"What are all those?" Sapphire wondered.

"I think they're artifacts from the seer kingdom," Janine said. "Lyra's cards are certainly magic."

"So is Platina's ring," Ruby added. "But Silver has that right now, so their paper's wrong."

"The necklace," Green said. "There's a necklace in my family that is passed down and People said it had powers. Daisy had it when she disappeared."

"So these people did take your family!" Blue exclaimed.

"It's possible," Green said.

"We need to find Lyra," Koga said. "She's in danger."

"We can use the ring," Ruby suggested, looking pointedly at Silver.

"I don't know how to work it," he said.

"But you used it to bring us here!" Sapphire exclaimed.

"Lyra mentioned her cards have some sort of mental component," Janine cut in. "I'd probably have a better chance of finding her because I've known her longer."

"Worth a try," Blue said, gesturing at Silver to hand the ring over. He did so but Sapphire could see the reluctance in his eyes.

Janine set the ring in the palm of her hand and said, "Okay. Lyra. I want to go to Lyra...please?" And then, as if the word 'please' really was magic, the thin thread of magic Sapphire was getting used to appeared.

"Alrighty," Blue said. "Let's go back to Lyra."

"What about the other Oaks?" Sapphire asked. "We still don't know where they are."

"We know that whoever is after Lyra's artifact is the same group as the one who took my family. When they come for her we can get information out of them," Green said.

"Let's go then!" Sapphire exclaimed. "Uh, but Pilo is tired and can't carry anyone for a while."

"No problem!" Blue exclaimed. "Jiggly is more than capable of carrying several people!"

"Jiggly?" Ruby said. "As in a Jigglypuff? And you want me to fly on it?"

"Yep!" Blue replied. "It's perfectly safe!"

"I think I'll wait for Pilo to recover," Sapphire said.

"There's no need," Falkner commented. "I have several flying Pokemon." He released four Pokemon, a Pidgeot, a Skarmlry, a Noctowl and a Staraptor.

"You had extra flying Pokemon?" Green asked. "And you let me fly over here on that pink thing!"

"You agreed to fly on it so I didn't see any point in offering one of my Pokemon."

Green was giving off a murderous aura as everyone mounted flying (or normal-type) Pokemon and they set off, Janine leading the way with the ring on her finger.