A/N: There's really no excuse as to why this chapter took so long to be posted, and on a cliffhanger too! I've had this chapter half-written for months but just couldn't find a way to finish it off until now. But here it is! Don't give up! I'm back at it!

14

Pikachu

Telling us to relax was hardly something we could do. This man, the new leader of Team Rocket, seemed far crueler than Giovanni had ever been. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would go on and spit out all their plans to us even if he didn't have the upper hand. Unfortunately for us, however, he did have the upper hand. More than a few lives were in danger, and I doubted this man even cared about his subordinates if he was willing to blow the place up.

Red's eyes narrowed on Archer, both hands were in fists so tight, I could've sworn I could see his knuckles through his fingerless gloves. Archer didn't seem to care about that, nor did he care if Blastoise's two large cannons were focused on his head or the furious sparks that danced from my cheeks. However, he only addressed Red as his look darkened with anger. "Oh, with that look you look like a killer." He laughed and then shrugged as he relaxed more in his seat. He lowered his offered handshake when Red refused to take it. "You'd have made a good Rocket Executive, we really could have used someone like you on our side."

Red said nothing. I briefly remembered the previous day, which Reunclius hadn't found anything at all—nothing out of the ordinary, no bombs, nada. Were we just looking in the wrong places? Did they push through security in the middle of the night? But I could see the little switch and knew that I could just easily knock it out of his hands however Red made no motion for Blastoise and I to attack just yet. Maybe if I just used enough electricity it would fry the system and let us safely remove whatever bombs could be in the area. Perhaps he had questions first.

Archer sniffed, scratching his nose without a care in the world. "So what will you do? Are you going to stop little old me to get this remote or are you going to behave and watch the match?"

Red eyed the remote that he held close to him, but none of us were blind to the pokeballs he had on his own waist. Archer could easily just click a button and release whatever pokemon he had and start a battle. If we did battle and even won, we would most definitely attract unwanted attention and it would just cause a panic when people realized who this man was. Once a panic would start, then I'm pretty sure however many Rocket grunts there were would just take control of the situation and we'd just put more people in danger.

My trainer still had his hands in tight, frustrated fists and looked at the cheering crowd as White smiled and Serperior panted but proudly held his head high after defeating Rosa's Golurk. I knew he wouldn't do anything when he finally looked away, gritted his teeth together and finally the fists of fury were relaxed and his shoulders slacked slightly with defeat.

Archer smirked, knowing he had won. "Relax, champion, no one will get hurt if you just listen to me. Besides, all I want to do is talk." He then turned the sharp eyes towards myself and Blastoise. "Return your blastoise. The pikachu can stay out if you wish, I've not seen you return it unless it's injured in a battle."

Blastoise started to growl, but he looked at Red and said nothing to either of us as he kept his two cannons trained on the blue haired man. He didn't want to go back and I didn't blame him, I felt the same way. Our trainer made no move to grab our pokeballs, though, and frowned as Archer gave a quiet sigh. "So stubborn." He held up the little stick of doom with the red button of destruction. "Would you rather see everything gone? Do as I say."

Red spared a glance towards the battle below and reluctantly grabbed Blastoise's pokeball and returned him.

Archer pretended to look disappointed once the pokeball was clipped onto my trainer's belt. With that man, though, I didn't know if he really was disappointed. "Honestly, it would just be easier to get rid of all of you here and now, since most of the world's strongest trainers are right here in this very stadium."

I flicked my ears as I heard Serperior use a powerful move—I assumed it was Frenzy Plant with the way people were cheering White on. "I really, really hate you," I said out loud over the resulting crashing noise even without a translator around.

"What do you want?" Red demanded, ignoring his comment. He hated being controlled just as much as I did, perhaps more.

"The Shadow Triad told you most of it already. At least, what Team Plasma wants. Their goal is simple and ideal—they want Unova to be theirs. So we of Team Rocket decided to reform and join them even if Giovanni refuses."

Red glowered at him and both of us were only slightly relieved to hear that Giovanni was telling the truth for once. I frowned and flicked my eyes up at Red; his mouth was in a thin line, eyes blazing with hatred as he stared at the man. But since Team Rocket joined Team Plasma, wouldn't that just make Team Rocket their henchmen? If Ghetsis was leading them through this, what point was Archer being here? Was a human's greed really that great? I briefly wondered if Giovanni was on their side again.

I watched as Archer sat up. "We are painting a bigger picture. What Team Rocket wants is something much more than just Unova. Why not aim for the world? It may seem like a cliché goal but governed by a single organization instead of hundreds, this world will be brought to better heights and a new age! Even you have to admit that Team Rocket's technology is far superior to most."

Red didn't say a word since we knew it was true, we had experienced it first hand. They were the ones who had invented the warp panels, after all. Silph Co. had unknowingly bought that idea from Team Rocket and Sabrina herself had installed some into her own gym. They had so many scientists on their side as well, they were the first ones who created pokemon and learned how to bring extinct pokemon back to life, for Arceus' sake!

"What we lack in power, we make up for in our own knowledge. Ghetsis saw that as well. They had a very smart man with them as well—a scientist named Colress—that had a few of his own inventions that we're now delving into as well. The man's work is commendable. Anyway, we need you to stay out of the way, you seem to have a knack of getting in people's ways."

I gritted my teeth together again. We haven't even done anything yet! I paused. There it was, yet. We haven't done anything yet. And Archer knew it. He was going to try and keep us out of the way, wasn't he? Well, I hate to say it but they were taking better precautions.

He paused when the door opened suddenly and revealed a panting man trying to catch his breath. "Archer! There's a kid going around and beating all of us with an overpowered Typhlosion! We think he may be headed this way!" he said loudly. "We need to get out of here, he's going to be here soon!"

Ethan? How in Arceus' name did he figure out that Team Rocket was here? I felt some hope rise through my own anger; despite the Johto champion being the most annoying person on the face of this planet, he was dependable and a very powerful trainer and on top of that, Archer didn't seem to have any plans about how to deal with him. He could even help us get out of this mess and perhaps we could clock in overtime and get rid of Team Rocket here.

There was a brief moment of silence and Archer stood, walking towards the door and paused. "I'd like to finish this conversation, and I'm sure you want to as well, Champion. So I'll give you two choices." He held up one finger. "You can come with me or," he rose a second finger, "you can stay here. However, if you stay, I cannot guarantee the safety of the people in this stadium." He lowered his arm, hands behind his back calmly.

Red suppressed an angered grunt, looked towards the battle and White but then gritted his teeth and walked for the door while I followed closely at his heels. I noticed that even though Archer took the lead, there were three other men waiting for us at the end of the hall to lead the way downstairs.

We made our way all the way to the back door without any interruptions, which seemed to please Archer as he ordered the guards to keep an eye out for Ethan, but not to bother fighting him. Not even a few seconds later, I heard pounding feet and spotted the boy trying to catch his breath the moment he stepped foot into the hall. His golden eyes widened when he saw Archer and Red. "Hey!" he snapped, while Typhlosion was right in front of him and preparing himself for a battle.

Archer didn't seem to care. "Good morning, Ethan," he replied simply. He turned, heading for the door. "If you don't want people to die, I suggest you stay there. Red and I haven't finished our conversation."

I hissed at him just for the sake of hissing and heard Typhlosion snarl as well. "What is he talking about?" he asked me.

Ethan shook his head, hands in fists. "I knew you were here when I tried to go to Red's box to watch the rest of the match there. Few of your goonies put up a good fight, and at least I caught up to you before you could leave."

"Good for you," Archer drawled. He turned his head to Red, who glared as well but paused to think. Finally when he smirked, he stepped to the side for a clear path from Red to Ethan. "Hand your pokeballs to Ethan. Pikachu stays with him."

Ethan's eyes snapped wide open, and I felt my heart skip a beat as Red hesitated with a hand on the pokeballs on his waist. "What are you talking about? He's not going to do that!"

"Men will go to the extremes to protect those he loves," Archer replied calmly.

Ethan grunted and even I knew if Red did that and went with them, he'd be completely defenseless against them! If I knew this, he knew as well!

I had no idea what Red was thinking in that moment, I couldn't read his face or even his eyes. He'd gone and done the magic trick he did to spectators: he made himself emotionless. I ran in front of him, shaking my head rapidly. "You can't possibly agree to that! Red, don't you know what that means!" I shouted at him, fully understanding that Red had no clue what I was saying to him. I'm sure he got the gist of it even as he lowered his eyes, red irises glassed over.

Ethan froze when Red ignored me and walked to him, putting the pokeballs into his hands. "What!? Red, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" he whispered harshly.

Red frowned, shaking his head. "Look for the bombs," he uttered quietly to him as Archer turned to a guard, telling them to get a car started. He looked at me and nodded once to tell me to stay with Ethan. Reluctantly, I was forced to obey; we couldn't risk anyone else getting caught up in this mess.

I stood beside Ethan as he turned around, and Lance's voice popped into my head from an early morning talk: "I don't want you doing anything reckless."

Sorry, Lance. Looks like Red completely ignored your advice and was doing something completely and totally reckless.

Ethan could barely control his shock as Red went back to Archer as a guard opened the door. "Good-bye, Ethan."

"Wait—Red! Stop! Don't go with them!" he shouted but he was ignored even as Red climbed in the back with the other two guards, one on either side of him. Archer opened the front passenger door and climbed inside, nodding once to the first grunt already at the wheel. "Red! Arceus damn it—Red! That idiot!"

I ran with Ethan outside just as the car drove off, though it was already disappearing around the corner. "Archer, stop!" he shouted. "Get back here!" By the time we reached the corner, the car was long gone. In his frustration, he kicked the concrete wall and I doubted he could feel the pain in his foot as a result; the adrenaline had effectively numbed him. "Arceus damn it, Red! Why did you have to go and make things so difficult!? You stupid son of a miltank!"

Typhlosion and I remained silent and looked up at Ethan as he continued to shout obscenities, not even caring if anyone else heard him. I was briefly glad that Red didn't react like that in his own anger. When he finally stopped shouting at the world, he hesitated to look at the pokeballs in his arms. "Red told me to find the bombs," he finally said quietly. I nodded and Typhlosion said nothing, watching his trainer as he took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. "So that's what we'll do. We'll find the bombs. Pikachu, we'll get Red back, I promise." He put Red's pokeballs into his pocket and waved for us two to follow him. "Come on, let's go find Lance first. He knows how to disable explosives… I think."

I heard Typhlosion sigh. "Always jumping to conclusions," he mumbled but followed the boy regardless.

"Red should have already alerted Mew and Mewtwo, so even if Lance doesn't know how to disable them, they can teleport them far, far away," I told him. Typhlosion seemed relieved to hear this and nodded.

"Good."

"Whatever Red has in mind, he must've told them not to help us. They could have easily stopped Archer and none of this would have happened," I muttered, mostly to myself.

Typhlosion grunted as we followed Ethan back inside. "From experience, Red probably has something up his sleeve. That's probably why he let them take him away so easily. We'll just have to wait and see why."

I didn't like it, but I knew he was right. Red was clever and brave, but just as Lance suspected, he was also incredibly reckless. I just hoped he didn't get hurt because of it… or worse.

We made our way up to the other side of the arena to the other box as fast as our legs could take us. Ethan was completely out of breath, but so was Typhlosion. They had, after all, fought their way down to where we had been and I wasn't surprised they were tired. Ethan opened the door to the box as fast as he could and made an annoyed sound when our caped savior wasn't there. "Do you know where Lance is?" he asked Dawn.

The girl blinked, looking curious. "Lance? No idea, maybe you can check the hotel and see if he's there. Why?" She turned around in her seat to face him but waited for the answer patiently.

"Arceus damn it," Ethan muttered and I saw him struggle not to nervously pace.

Brendan sat up. "Is everything okay, Ethan?" he asked. Kecleon also looked concerned, looking between all of us.

"Pikachu? What are you doing with Ethan? Where's Red?" he asked.

Brendan frowned in worry when Ethan didn't reply to either question for a while. "Why is Pikachu with you? Where's Red?" It's almost like the two could read their minds and ask the same questions at the same time.

Ethan took a breath. "I don't know," he replied quietly.

Brendan stirred uncomfortably but he looked concerned. "What do you mean you don't know?" he asked, standing up.

He held his hands in fists, much like Red had done earlier today. "I mean Team Rocket is here, they planted bombs somewhere, Lance isn't here to help me disarm them and Archer took Red to Arceus knows where!" Ethan replied sharply and quickly, causing Brendan to flinch.

"Ethan, calm down," Dawn said gently and went to him. She put a hand on his shoulder, which seemed to effectively keep his attention on her. She kept her eyes on him and even though he was taller and physically stronger than her, she had a presence that couldn't be ignored and had a leader's air surrounding her and Ethan couldn't even unlock his own eyes from hers. Perhaps this wasn't her first time calming an angry boy before. Calmly she said, "Go find Lance. I'll tell Cynthia what happened, she and Lucario can find those bombs. Brendan, you wait here and tell White and Rosa what happened, they will probably want to come too. Meet me at the front gate when you find them. Ethan, after you get Lance, you have to come back here, your match is next against Calem. I will inform the officials that you may be a little late."

Ethan narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "No! I am not battling someone when Red is in danger! He's risking his life right now and you want me to go out there and do a show?"

Despite his temper, she nodded and removed her hand. "Yes, I need you to put up a show. However, it is not a show to the spectators here. It's a show to Team Rocket."

Even I was confused and I looked at Typhlosion and Kecleon. That confusion calmed the golden-eyed champion drastically as he closed his mouth in a tight frown. "A show to Team Rocket?" Brendan muttered.

Dawn nodded again, turning to him. "Yes. If they see that the battles are still going on, they'll think they have won and no one gets hurt, right? After the battles, you come and find us. Sound like a plan?"

Ethan didn't seem to like it but he grumbled something and nodded. "Pikachu, go with them. You'll be more help with them than me," he said softly.

I whole-heartedly agreed. I went to Dawn and Brendan's feet, watching Ethan hand Red's pokeballs to Brendan. "If you find Red before my match is over, give these back to him," he said, much quieter this time, and quite possibly the most serious I'd ever seen the human.

I watched him run off and Dawn looked at me. "Pikachu, stay with Brendan." I nodded and watched her leave as Brendan sighed, looking down as Rosa sent out another Unovian pokemon.

"What a right mess we're all in now, Pikachu," he said and sat down, looking at White. I jumped into the seat beside him, looking up at him. "We all know about Red and White. What is she going to say?" He involuntarily shuddered. "I don't want to face her wrath."

I knew he was trying to shed a little light on the situation, but I couldn't help but ignore him and he didn't seem to care as he leaned back in the seat, closed his eyes and rubbed them with his right hand, his left draped over his stomach. We were both worried and even though I knew Red had something planned, I couldn't help but be scared for him. He'd never been taken like this before and I couldn't imagine what he was feeling at the current moment, whether he was scared, confident or even a mixture of those plus more. The only times we'd ever been separated was if we were in a pokemon center or if he wandered off into the wilderness but if anything did happen to him, I didn't think I'd ever be able to forgive myself.

With my own long and drawn-out sigh, I curled up into a tight little ball on the seat beside Brendan in our lonely box that overlooked the arena and mentally cursed the world for bringing my trainer such horrible luck within the past few days.

Despite the growing cheers, the announcer's voice and loud explosions, neither of us could pay any more attention to the battle going on below.

X-X-X

I don't know how much time passed, but Brendan had picked me up when I didn't move and I realized then I really was down in the dumps, the guilt beginning to rack up. Brendan had had been calling my name for a little bit before resorting to lifting me from the chair, but he quickly dropped me when my cheeks threatened to shock him. "Sorry," he immediately apologized. But when he looked up I had to follow his gaze.

Coming inside were Ethan and Lance, both looking grim. "It would be best if you went to go help Dawn find Red, Brendan," Lance said. I could barely hear him mumble something about someone not listening to him and I smiled a little when I knew he was talking about Red. "Ethan, you go get ready for your battle, it's about to begin." Ethan nodded and quickly walked off.

Lance then turned to me and patted my head with a hand. "Don't you worry, Pikachu. Once we get Red back we can both yell at him together."

I nodded. "He needs to get some sense knocked into his head anyway," I told him even as Lance stood back up.

"Brendan, don't tell anyone about what happened. We don't want to cause a major panic understand? I'm going to go and search for anything, you just go meet Dawn."

Brendan nodded and picked me up to begin running down the stairs to reach the front door in silence. I knew the battle was ending and we heard the final explosion, that last clash between two different pokemon, through the concrete walls leading down to the first floor.

We met a delighted White down on the first floor just before we passed the stairs that led downstairs into the battler's waiting rooms after her battle and just like Brendan and Dawn were, she was confused when she saw me without my own trainer. "Where's Red? I have to tell him I'm moving onto the next round!" she said with a big smile. I knew we were about to wipe it off her face and I felt guilty about it, but when she saw Brendan didn't smile back and I didn't give her a greeting, she slowly lost the smile to replace it with a worried frown. "Brendan? Where is Red?"

Brendan shifted uneasily on his feet, clearly not liking to be the one to give her the news. It didn't help that Rosa showed up, and even though she didn't seem to be as happy as White did, she smiled at us anyhow with a wave. "Hey, guys!" she greeted and paused when she didn't get a response at first. "Are you guys okay?"

"No idea," White muttered and Rosa blinked before looking at Brendan and I. "They haven't said anything and Red isn't here."

Brendan sighed and looked nervous all over again. "Well for starters, Team Rocket is here."

Both Unova trainers looked shocked. "Here?!" they cried in unison.

He nodded. "Two: there's bombs somewhere around here."

"I thought we scoured the place the other day! Not even Reunclius found any!" Rosa said and White nodded in agreement.

"I know." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Last but not least…" He glanced at White. "They took Red."

White stopped breathing and Rosa's eyes widened with surprise. "What?" White whispered, looking paler than before. "They did what?"

Brendan sighed, pinching his nose. "You heard me. Dawn is looking for Cynthia so she could help disarm the bombs and Lance is already looking around."

White looked at Rosa and then down at me as I chirped at her, trying to look as apologetic as I could and was surprised when she simply picked me up from Brendan's arms. I winced slightly at how tight she was holding me but with one look at her worried face, I knew better than to object. Brendan turned around. "Dawn seems to have a plan. Let's meet her now."

By the time we reached the front gate, I could already see Dawn waiting for us just outside of the stadium in the sun. We reached her in no time and Dawn looked at me without another greeting. "Pikachu, did you see which way they took Red?" she asked.

I nodded and squirmed out of White's arms, waving a paw to get the humans to follow me. As soon as we passed the other side of the stadium, I pointed down the road the car had disappeared to. "Pi," I said out loud.

Dawn nodded then looked at Brendan as he turned to the two Unova natives. "Where does that lead to?" he asked.

"Well, lots of places," Rosa started. "If they go straight, there's a bunch of restaurants, there's a few hotels there and there is a cold storage site if they turn left before the road ends."

"Or if they turn right," White added, "Then Clay Tunnel is that way."

Rosa pulled out her Xtranseiver. "I'll call Nate and ask where he and the others are at now."

White nodded and as Rosa pressed a few buttons on the device on her wrist, I glanced up as Dawn turned towards us. "So wherever they are at, we can look in other places. I don't want us to be separated any more than we already are," White said.

"Agreed," Dawn and Brendan both said.

"Hey, Nate," Rosa suddenly said.

"Oh, hi, Rosa," Nate's voice answered. Unsurprisingly, we could see his face on the other screen but there was very little lighting indicating he was in a cave. "We're at Clay Tunnel now, can't talk too much, in the middle of a battle. What's up?"

A battle? "We kind of ran into a small problem… erm… make that a big—no, huge problem."

Nate looked confused and grunted to himself. "Yeah, we did, too." He looked away from the device. "Eelektross, Charge Beam!"

White blinked. "What kind of problem?" she asked. "Who are you battling?"

"The kind of problem if we fight against these pokemon, we'll probably lose without Zekrom on our side kind of problem." He grunted, covering his face from dust that had suddenly risen from an explosion.

The four humans with me looked between each other then finally turned back to the screen as Nate ordered another attack. "Meaning what?" Brendan asked. I noticed Dawn look confused at the names but she said nothing about it.

"Meaning there's a Suicune here that's on their side!" came Blue's voice. He took the device from Nate and pointed at himself so we could see his face and I could faintly hear Black yelling attacks as well. This must have been one battle I wish I could take part in. "Somehow, Team Rocket caught the three legendary dogs, and they're putting up one hell of a fight. Entei is down and Raikou is almost there with it."

"We think they're using Colress' old machine again," Nate added.

"Well, you won't like this other news either," Brendan mumbled.

Blue blinked. "What news?" He flicked his eyes up, keeping an eye on his own battle.

Dawn stepped forward, noticing the others look between each other. If Brendan had been nervous about White's reaction, they didn't want to see Blue's. "Team Rocket captured Red."

Blue was silent with shock. "They did what?!" he finally exploded.

"Who did what now?" Nate's voice asked.

Dawn's face kept calm. "We are going to go look for him."

"A man named Archer took him. Brendan has Red's pokemon. He's completely vulnerable!" White added.

"How the hell did Archer catch Red? What in Arceus' name are they thinking?"

"Huh?" Nate's startled voice said. "How did they manage that?"

"But wait, it gets better: they planted bombs in the stadium," Rosa said.

"Bombs?!" Black's voice shouted. "This just keeps getting better, doesn't it?"

I sighed. It really did keep getting better and better.

Blue shook his head. "I thought there weren't any—!"

Dawn interrupted him. "Cynthia and Lance are looking for them to disarm them. Ethan will join either you or us after his battle against Calem. I'm sure you can beat those pokemon, but make sure you keep an eye out for a car that could be headed your way. We'll go to the Cold Storage and look for them there."

"A car. Very detailed, thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Blue grunted and rolled his eyes then handed the Xtranseiver back to Nate, who looked far more worried now. "If Team Rocket is with us, then maybe Archer is taking Red to see Team Plasma. I don't know why they would do that, though."

Rosa nodded. "We'll figure out when we get there."

"Arceus, whatever Red is thinking, it's as stupid as a magikarp!" Blue snapped from somewhere beside Nate.

I nodded my head, completely agreeing.

"Be careful. We'll meet up tonight," White added and Rosa disconnected the call.

X-X-X

The four humans and I quickly made our way through town and scoured the streets. I couldn't see the same car that had driven off with my trainer, but as we jogged our way towards the ports, I noticed there weren't as many humans or pokemon working. One dockworker that was there said that most of the other workers were at the tournament and that he hadn't seen a car pull up at any time, nor any mysterious figures showing up.

White rubbed her head and looked at Rosa as the girl frowned in thought. "Rosa?" she asked curiously, catching the rest of our attentions.

Rosa glanced up. "There could be another place." She turned around and pointed to a hill with a house hidden behind a few trees. "That is the Plasma house. The original Team Plasma saw their many mistakes and tried returning all the pokemon they had stolen to their rightful trainers, but since they left, it's all but abandoned right now. That'd be a perfect place, right?"

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Dawn asked with a sigh.

Brendan led the way. "Let's go then!" he said and started running with the girls and I following quickly.

It was quiet as we trudged our way through the muddy hill and half way up, I could barely see the roof of the older house come into view and by the time we got closer, I could see a familiar car in the back. It looked like it had been there for maybe an hour or so by now. I glanced up at White, pointing at it. She followed my finger and frowned silently to herself. "That's the car, isn't it?" she asked quietly.

I nodded.

"Well, Rosa, you're right. They're here," Brendan said and Rosa didn't answer, only smiling briefly. "Let's be quiet from here on out, who knows if they can see us now or not." Just like that, each of us tip-toed our way onto the porch.

Of course, the thick curtains were drawn and we could see nothing through them and despite the look of the run-down wall, I could only barely hear voices from inside. I couldn't make them out, but I could hear Archer's voice along with another that I didn't recognize. White crouched down with the other three; none of them didn't want to even risk the chance of being seen through a closed window. I tugged on her hand and she glanced at me when I held up two fingers. "Pi pika." "Two inside."

At first she was confused but after a small game of charades she understood, giving a nod. "There's at least two other people inside," she whispered.

"Not including the grunts that went with Archer," Brendan added.

"So five, plus Red," Dawn muttered.

"Six," Rosa replied.

"Glad you guys can do math," White added sarcastically. She looked around. "There has to be a side door or something."

"If they parked in the back, I'm sure there's a door back there," Brendan said and got back up to his feet but stayed low. "I'll go double check. I'll be right back."

When he left, White nervously scratched my head, much like the way Red would. I glanced up at her, beginning to notice the small things about her—her nervous habits were almost exactly like Red's. Not that I minded, a good head scratch often calmed me down, too. Brendan returned shortly, waving for us to follow him. "There's a side door and a back door. Which one should we go through first?"

Dawn glanced at White. "Side door?"

"Side door," she confirmed.

"Let's get to it then," Brendan answered and followed Rosa to the side door.

Once we rounded the corner, White looked at the door, slowly opening it just enough so she could see inside. The room was empty, but it was dark and a washing machine was running beside a dryer. We stepped inside of the laundry room and Dawn closed the door as quietly as she could behind her. "So what should we call this?" she whispered with a smile.

"Huh?" Brendan answered, confused. I tilted my head as well with curiosity.

"This is like a secret mission you see in the movies. We could call it… Operation: Save a Date."

White's face turned a bright pink as Rosa stifled a giggle. I had to hold my mouth shut with a paw to keep myself from laughing out loud and I could almost hear Espeon's voice saying, "OSAD is underway!" Dawn seemed to be doing the same thing as she held both hands over her mouth. "Now isn't the time for that!" she snapped silently.

She opened the door out of the laundry room and headed into the hall. By now I could hear Archer's voice more clearly now, along with the other mystery voice. "…ago. He's not willing to do anything that would risk the lives of other people," Archer said. "It's how I could convince him to come with us."

"Such a noble cause… One day, however, it'll only get you killed," said the second ominous voice.

There was a feminine laugh. "But we won't hurt your pretty little face," she said.

I could hear Red grunt instead and turned to look up at White. Her face had paled considerably—clearly she knew who the second man was and when I turned my head, I could see that Rosa was just the same way. Brendan noticed as well and he looked concerned. "White? Rosa? Are you two all right?"

Rosa nodded. "Yes. But I didn't think he'd be here as well," she answered.

Dawn glanced at me and I shrugged. "Who? You know him?" she asked.

White nodded as well, taking a breath as she walked forward slowly, keeping an eye out for the guards that hadn't yet noticed our presence. Briefly I wondered if they were even inside. "Yes. I know him. I could recognize that voice anywhere." She glanced at us as we made our way from the hall and towards a more open room. "That is Ghetsis, former leader of Team Plasma."

"Intruders? This isn't some sight-seeing spot, kids," a deep voice suddenly said from the couch in the living room.

The girls plus Brendan all flinched as a member of the Shadow Triad stood from his seat while a second was silently leaning against a wall while the third was not there and I couldn't help but remember my thoughts from earlier.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

X-X-X

A/N: Time for some review responses!

Pokefan02: Your review made me literally lol when I first read it. Hopefully this didn't disappoint!

tadkins: I don't really have a favorite champion, I really like all of them. But my top three are Red, Blue and Steven.

WolfShadow96: Nah, even he needs help sometimes ;)

RandomReview: I did warn everyone in the beginning that most of the chapters will be in Pikachu's POV. The only two I haven't written yet are Venusaur and Snorlax, they will both come later.

catlover2976: Hey look! I updated! XD

fluffpenguin: Well, we'll just have to wait and see, huh? :P