Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon

Okay, in this chapter, I'm trying to move it along. Good news is that the chapter is long. Also I have FINALLY put an OC in here. Can you figure out who it is? lol.

Enjoy and Happy New Years for those who celebrate it.

Chapter 49:

"Are you kidding?!" one of the secretaries said after the chairman said that line, "Illegal organization?! That is a pretty huge accusation on Galactic Enterprise." There were several murmurs through the group but the chairman didn't respond and the secretary continued his speech. "That company started only a few years ago and is now one of the largest in this region. It provides breaking technology researches for others and it has the largest space program. Are you telling me that this company purposely blew up one of its storage facility for something illegal?"

Gardenia couldn't help but agree with this man. Since when does the chairman make such huge claim in less than 24 hours? Where is the proof? Gardenia looked across the room. Everybody else was agreeing with the man. Roark had his head propped up against his arm. He had a small frown on his face. His eyes seemed to be more concern on why is there an illegal organization rather than whether there is one. When he caught Gardenia's eye, Roark gave a sly grin and wink, causing Gardenia to quickly advert her eyes back to the chairman who didn't seem to be faze by the secretary's rude comment.

"I understand your dismay at what I said, but I didn't say anything about Galactic being involved," the chairman gave a stern glare at the secretary who immediately fell silent and embarrassed for not listening carefully. "I assure you, I have proof of an illegal organization from a very reliable source," the chairman said after he wiped his glasses with his white handkerchief. "She contacted me a while ago and notified me her findings. And I trust her judgment 100%." Gardenia perked up. The chairman rarely trusted anyone that easily. It must be someone very important for him to declare such a statement.

The room suddenly dimmed and a projection screen came down. Immediately a picture of the inside of the burned building appeared. There was nothing except ashes and several scorched up desks. However, there were some weird amount of science stuff like broken and melted test tubes and such. But the most horrifying thing in Gardenia's child like eyes, were the white bones covered in dirt.

"There are many chemicals in that building and according to our investigators; most of the chemicals are for labs and research, not for a simple storage facility." There were several mummers of skeptical remarks, but the chairman continued. "Many people over the years have reported their Pokemon stolen. Apparently, all of them have been found in the Galactic Veilstone Building. However, there are some remnants of discarded Pokemon corpses that seemed to be experimented on." Now the entire group didn't try to hide their surprise. Their eyes were wide eye and their mouths were almost hanging out.

Gardenia had her mouth wide open too. Experiments?! There was a SLAM sound and Gardenia realized that Roark and had stood up in indignation and pounded his hands against the table. Through his glasses, Roark's eyes were burning with anger as he stared at the chairman.

"Are you telling me that Pokemon were illegally tested on and NO ONE figured it out?!" Roark demanded angrily, "What kind of committee is this to just realize it now?!" Now there was a roar of anger from the rest of the group. Gardenia cringed at the hostility around her. The chairman, however, looked stonily at the committee before him.

"Gym Leader Roark!" one of the elderly ladies said in indignation, "Watch your tongue! You do not go and accuse us for not doing our job!"

"HAVE YOU?!" Roark growled angrily, not looking like he'll back down, "Pokemon had been disappearing and no one even bother to investigate it?! How would you feel if it was your Pokemon?! Or do you not care?!"

"How dare you-"

"Enough!" The chairman demanded and the whole group quieted down. The chairman waited for a moment before speaking in a firm but calm tone to the furious gym leader. "Roark, sit. You do not question or accuse about the committee's duty. You too are on this committee and these are your coworkers. Speak with respect." Roark stared angrily at the chairman before sliding back to his seat. Gardenia sighed in relief at the chairman's intervention.

"We didn't take this too seriously as we should have. There are many reports of disappearing Pokemon but they weren't all simultaneous. Therefore we didn't expect much and as a result failed to do what we should've been able to prevent. I merely want to inform you so that you can be alert of the situation," the chairman paused for a moment and stared at Gardenia, who was shock at the attention she was suddenly getting.

"Gardenia, this situation happened in your town. I need you to understand the grave possibility that the media and many townsfolk will not be pleased if the news gets out." Gardenia nodded. She needs to keep this news as discreet as possible. The chairman continued on. "As I said before, we do not know who this organization is. I will have another meeting with the other Gym Leaders about this as well. My staff will discuss what to do in our next meeting together. You are all dismissed." With that the lights came back on and the projection screen moved up. The chairman grabbed his paper and left the room through the door on the left of his side.

Immediately, everyone else started to shift in their seat as they too got up. Gardenia sighed as she put her head down on the table. What a day… She opened one of her sleepy eyes and noticed how many people were giving Roark a cold shoulder. He continued to sit in his chair, pouting like a little child. When most of the people left, Gardenia rose and followed everybody out of the large doors, leaving Roark the last person in the room. She paused for a moment, wondering if she should stay behind but decided against it.

These people here were giving a cold shoulder to her as well as though they thought that she was against them as well. Gardenia was about to retrace her steps when she realized that everybody else was going another direction. The elevators!

Remember the elevators… Gardenia thought as she continued to trail behind everybody else. However, by the time she got to the elevators, everybody was in it and it was already full. Gardenia had no choice but to wait for the next one. She watched the numbers above indicating which floor the elevator was on. Suddenly, someone grabbed her behind by the green cape.

"EEKKK!" Gardenia screeched as she jerked away. It was a ghost that haunted this building! Waiting for its chance to strike a lone Gym Leader who is waiting by the –

"Hey, it's me," Roark said, "Boy, you're sure a jumpy Skitty." Gardenia turned away so that Roark couldn't see her "I almost had a heart-attack" face.

"What do you want?" Gardenia asked. Roark paused for a moment before saying –

"Why aren't you taking the stairs?" Gardenia stared strangely at the question. "You always were a bumbling fool who do things without thinking. I was betting that you were going to try walking down forty stories again." Roark grinned at his joke. Gardenia pouted and turned away.

"What's your point? Why do you even care?" Gardenia asked. Roark shrugged and said, "Well, I've been on elevators too many times on my job, you know, mining and stuff. I was thinking maybe we both could take the stairs. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to." Gardenia didn't say anything and walked toward the door that led to the stairs.

"Now, where are you going?" Roark asked in a teasing voice.

"This elevator is taking too long," Gardenia defended her reason before she started to climb down the stairs. Roark followed in pursuit. Gardenia didn't like the silence, excluding the echoing noise of their feet as they thundered down the stairs, between them and had to say something.

"You know, you should try to calm down when you're in a meeting," Gardenia said, "Yelling and screaming isn't going to help. Why couldn't you act more professional?"

"What are you, my dad?" Roark asked as he sighed, "I don't need another lecture about how young and incompetent I am. Besides why do you even care?"

"Because," Gardenia said, "You represent the Gym Leaders and whatever negative images you give off reflects on the whole group."

"Oh?" Roark raised his eyebrows and grinned, "And how about you at that Gym Leader convention a couple years ago? You spent hours pulling on a door when you were supposed to push. Or how about when you tripped going up the stairs? Or, this is my favorite, you screaming so loud when during the meeting, you saw a Ghastly that all the windows shattered?" He ticked the events off of his finger like a list.

"Wha?" Gardenia sputtered, turning redder by the second, "How did you -?"

"Candice and Fantina know how to gossip very well," Roark grinned. Gardenia glared and groaned. Those two really know how to talk. "Seriously, you shouldn't be talking when you do a whole bunch of embarrassing stuff too. In fact, everyone does."

"Shut up!" Gardenia said as she tried to walk away by jumping down the stair steps. But by doing so, she tripped and almost fell head first to the ground.

"Whoa!" Roark said, surprised by Gardenia's anger, "Easy!" He grabbed her by the hand to stop her. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to make you so mad."

"Whatever," Gardenia muttered as she pushed away Roark without saying thanks. Roark hung back as Gardenia continued down the stairs. Finally, Gardenia yelled loud enough for Roark to hear. "Wait till I tell Byron about what happened today!" Roark immediately flinched, his face full of fear.

"WHAT?! NO! Wait! Don't tell him! He'll kill me!" Roark rushed after Gardenia. "Gardenia PLEASE!"

"Please, take care of my child." Dawn stared at Rad who was holding the egg like a proud father ready for his newborn.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Dawn said, not believing her ear. Rad realized that what he said sounded a bit wrong.

"I mean, will you take care of this egg for me? Its owner can't take care of it so I figured that I'll give it to you guys, since you have more time than a bike shop guy like me." Rad presented the container with the egg inside to Dawn's arms.

"Ummm, I don't really know anything about taking care of a Pokemon… I don't think I can take care of it," Dawn muttered, trying to push it back.

"Dawn! Check out these bikes!" Damion called out as he tried to test one of them out. He was trying out a very nice red mountain bike. "Lucas come on, try them out." Lucas shook his head and looked as though the bikes hanging from the ceiling were going to crash down.

"What's the matter Lucas?!" Damion yelled, "Why can't you act normal?!" He got off of the bike he was riding on, but tripped over it. Damion landed on the table, causing it to crack and break and spilling tea everywhere. Lucas slipped on the tea when he was trying to dodge shards from the teapot and crashed into the bookshelves where books came raining down. Bam! Crash! Swoop! Boom! In the end, Rad's shop was nothing more but a huge mess. Dawn could still hear the dripping sound from the tea as it fell to the ground.

"Uhhhhh, opps?" Damion said as he looked at the mess around him. Lucas was groaning from the injury on his head when the books fell on him. Rad looked like he was going to explode with anger when Dawn, thankfully, intervene.

"I'll take the egg, three bikes, and pay for the damage if you let us off without screaming," Dawn said. Rad took a deep stressed out breath and counted to ten before he spoke in a strain but calm voice.

"Deal."

"You are dead," Dawn said as she pushed her new pink bike out of the shop. She had a small brown basket in the front where her egg was now placed. She was glaring at Damion who was trying to advert his eyes away from Dawn's deadly stare.

"I said I was sorry. What's the big deal?" Damion grumbled as he got on his orange bike. Lucas was hanging back watching Dawn and Damion as they got on their bikes. "Lucas," Damion said, waiting for his friend to get on his blue bike, "What are you waiting for? We need to get to the mountain fast before nightfall."

Lucas stared at the ground as though trying to figure out what to say.

"Ummmm, how do you ride this thing you call bike?"

"Are you serious?!" Damion groaned as he placed his head against the handlebars, "We're going to have to waste our time teaching him how to ride a bike? The future must really suck if a kid doesn't even know what a bike is." They were now on the white bike ramp course field. It slopped down all the way to the end. The course is high in the air, supported by strong steel beams. On the bottom there was a light mist, but Damion could make out the grassy field and a small river cutting through. This would only need to take ten minutes to cross but with Lucas… Too bad there is a rule saying that no walking, only bike riding in this area.

"Don't complain!" Dawn snapped, though she too felt a bit exasperated. Lucas isn't a fast learner and by the time he gets the hang of it…

"Am I doing this right?" Lucas said as he sat on the bike's seat. His feet were on their tippy toe and touched the ground to balance him. He was holding on the handle bars for his dear life. He was literally shaking from head to bike to toe.

"Great," Dawn said, trying to be encouraging, "Now take your feet off and put them on the pedals." Lucas raised his feet to touch the pedal and then BAM! He fell to the ground. Dawn groaned and both she and Damion got off their bike to help him up.

"Sorry," Lucas said. Despite the nasty fall, he gave a grin and slowly tried to get back up and try again. "I'll try again." Despite his upbeat attitude, Lucas' hands were slightly shaking. Dawn and Damion surrounded Lucas, just in case he fell again. This took about twenty times and each one ended Lucas crashing down on either Damion or Dawn. Finally, on the twentieth first time, Lucas managed to balance his bike. He looked shock but slowly grinned. "I… I did it!"

"Finally," Damion sighed in relief, "I thought I was going to be bruised to death before this happened. His entire arm had small cuts and bruises. Dawn grinned as well, panting slightly as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead.

"Okay, try to pedal slowly and we'll catch up with you," Dawn said. Lucas nodded and took a deep breath. He slowly started to pedal. Damion made sure that Lucas was out of ear shot when he turned to Dawn.

"Dawn, what do you think about Lucas' story?" Damion asked. Dawn turned to face Damion and frowned.

"I don't know. It sounds more like a story…" Dawn got on her bike, "But… Lucas doesn't seem the type that would lie at least not something this big…" Damion fell silent as he too got on his bike.

"I… really want to believe him, but at the same time… I don't know…" Damion frowned as he stared at the ramp before him.

"AH!" Dawn said, "We forgot to teach him something!"

"What is that?" Damion asked confused at the sudden change in topic.

"How to stop."

"LUCAS!" Damion yelled as he pedaled as fast as he can down the road, "HANG ON! PEDAL BACKWARDS!" Lucas was riding like crazy, going in zigzag formation. Lucas tried to pedal backwards but the bike didn't seem to stop and was gaining more speed as it speed down the hill. Soon Lucas lost control and was about to hit the side of the bike course and fly out. "Dawn! DO SOMETHING!"

"AIPOM!" Dawn yelled, throwing her Pokeball to Lucas. The monkey Pokemon managed to land on Lucas' back just in time before the bike crashed into the ramp. Dawn's Aipom grabbed tightly to the side of the ramp with its tail as Lucas dangled with his bike, hanging only by Aipom's arm. "Don't let go!" Dawn demanded as they both speed to Lucas, but Aipom's grip around Lucas was weakening and he slipped down to the bottom.

"Staravia!" Damion called out and the Pokemon swooped down after Lucas and his bike.

"LUCAS!" Dawn screamed as she looked over the bridge, but the mist was blocking her view as to whether or not Staravia made it. "We have to get down there." Aipom gave a sad look at its failure to hold on to Lucas. It climbed up onto Dawn's shoulder.

"I'm going to kill that kid when I find him," Damion groaned, "Come on, let's get out of here and go down and find him.

Lucas was falling… slowly. His chest was glowing with a soft green light and it seemed to be defying gravity for him. He had already fainted from the sudden crash. Finally, he landed softly on the large patch of grass and slept peacefully. The glowing slowly faded and soon darkness fell. The water from the river close to him was bubbling slowly along the rocks.

Slowly there was a rustling sound and a strange about two feet tall shadow pushed the grass away to find Lucas in front of it. It had a large blue green dorsal fin on its head and two large beady eyes. Its mouth was as large as its stomach and seemed to be deciding whether or not to eat the sleeping Lucas. On its red belly was a large scar going from left to right.

"Gahhhhhhh."

Author's Notes

Well now, this should be interesting.

A couple of people thought RoarkXGardenia is cute so I gave it a try. I don't think it worked though... poor Roark. lol.

Also, who is ready for the 5th Generation of Pokemon? As one of the older generation, lol, I think I will never catch up with the names of these thousands of Pokemon. Seriously, how many more are there? But I'm looking forward to the new Ranger game in the anime.

And of course, I can't wait for HGSS manga. Just less than one month to go.

let's thank my reviewers before I go.

...

thank you

Pikana

RWT

Light-Sakura

Furryfur

hydro-serpent58

roxas24

gg121 (thanks for the review.)

Hoshi (Ah, compusha sick. I've been there. And who said anything about ending it? This is not over, not by a long shot! I mean, we haven't even gotten to any of the shipping. Oh, darn, I need to write some of that. lol. thanks for the review.)

SsX-77

FirewolfJackson

PeachyKeenx088

Jarkes

JellySpoons

...

Thanks all for reviewing and hopefully I'll be able to update faster. Thank you for your patience.

See you in the next chapter.

-JapanDreamer