Gary had grown up in comfort. Whilst he may not have been the first to publicly acknowledge such a fact, his experiences travelling and seeing the way that other people suffered and struggled just to meet the next meal had opened his eyes to how privileged he had been, despite everything.

Yet despite said privilege, waking up in his first class suite aboard the SS Anne showed him that whilst he may have grown up in comfort, he still had a long way to go before reaching luxury.

A knock at the door forced him into actually moving. He had already woken early, showered, gotten dressed and then had elected to sit on the bed whilst scrolling through his pokédex. His pokédex had been quickly forgotten as he had almost melted into the bed, and before he knew it a whole hour had passed.

Whilst it was a first class cabin, it was still a cabin aboard a ship. The room was smaller than his bedroom back home, though this came with a corner sofa that was more comfortable than any bed - barring the one they had provided him with - he had ever slept in. The television screen opposite was almost the length of the wall, and it came with a refrigerated pull-out drawer beneath it. The wall beside the sofa could be pressed and it would open out to reveal a pantry filled with more snacks than Gary knew what to do with.

Part of him wanted nothing more than to just stay in his room and never leave.

Another knock on his door reminded him that Silver was waiting.

More importantly, so was breakfast.

Gary opened the door and tried not to laugh at how awkward Silver looked. His black shirt was lined with golden trimming, and the tie he was wearing was the same shade of red as his hair. He looked altogether done with the pretense of dressing up.

"Aw, look at him scrubbing up. Got a date?" Gary asked, smirking.

"Yeah, your mom said she'd put out if I wore a tie."

Gary felt the smirk drop off his face. "My mom's dead, jackass." He tried to hide behind a smile. "But sure, go desecrate the dead. I'll visit you in prison just to watch the biggest guy in there decide you're his new plaything."

They were silent for what felt like an eternity. Gary stared over Silver's shoulder, watching the ocean waves through the porthole windows behind him. The bright white walls had quilted wallpaper, and a plush red carpet that looked more comfortable than the pokémon centre beds most trainers spent the majority of their lives in.

"Sorry," Silver said. The colour had risen in his cheeks and the moment Gary looked at him, Silver quickly looked away, hiding his face behind a curtain of hair. "I forgot."

"It's cool," Gary said quickly. "Been a while since someone used a 'your mom' joke on me. I'd kinda gotten used to being able to throw that at people and never deal with the return."

At that, Silver laughed.

"What?" Gary grunted. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Silver said, smiling. "You'll understand when you're older."

"Oh whatever," Gary hissed. "You're like two years older than me, if that. Stop trying to pretend like you're some wise sage, and let's go get food, seeing as someone didn't want to go on his own."

"Place as pretentious as this?" Silver said, gesturing to the corridor as Gary left his room and began to lead them to the canteen. "They're going to have twelve different forks for each meal. I needed someone appropriately stuffy to make sure I didn't get my eyeballs carved out with a dessert spoon because I didn't understand how to leave my knife and fork on my plate."

"Stuffy? I'll show you stuffy." Gary sighed and shoved him at the wall. Silver moved a step, losing his balance for just a second before recovering his footing. "Asshole. We go on one little near-death adventure together and suddenly you think you've got a free pass."

"That adventure started with a weezing nearly choking us to death, had us running from an arbok that you stepped on, and let's not forget the victreebel that tried to eat us in our sleep."

"Oh whatever," Gary said. He stopped in front of the glass doors to the canteen and waved his first-class ticket at the steward waiting outside. Silver did the same and the waiter bowed before letting them in.

The canteen was a dining hall that was bigger than most gym's battlefields. The middle of the room was a large square kitchen that was constantly preparing hot food ready for the buffet. A long, rectangular table was on either side of the kitchen, the one on the left filled with breads, cereals and fruits, whilst the one on the right of the kitchen was lined with more drinks and desserts than Gary could identify.

"You weren't complaining when I got us these tickets," Gary said, smirking in Silver's direction.

"Whatever," Silver said, though the smile on his face was impossible to hide. "I'm not sitting anywhere but in the corner. And I'm taking the wall seat."

"As you wish, princess." Gary bowed theatrically and laughed when he looked up to find that he was alone. It was hardly surprising - Silver was many things, and predictable was one of them. That said, Gary still found it endlessly entertaining to needle all his pressure points and see what would cause the volcanic eruption.

With Silver having already decided to grab food, Gary followed suit. He loaded his plate up with as much food as it could possibly hold before catching Silver's eye over the croissants. He gestured to a lone table in the northwestern corner, with a perfect view out onto the endless expanse of the ocean.

Gary made his way to the table, loudly eating a jam-filled pastry. He sat heavily on the chair, waved the nearest waiter over and made his demands for green tea and leaned back to enjoy the view.

Really, it had been a stroke of luck that his grandpa had managed to get the tickets. He had been meaning to visit, but work had taken priority - as it always did.

Part of Gary wished that he was there with him, if for no other reason than to bask in his company again. It was hard for Gary to admit out loud, but he missed him. He missed Daisy too, but it seemed like his remaining family had plans that rarely seemed to include him.

He felt the shadow drop over him and frowned when no tea appeared in front of him, and the seat opposite remained in place.

"Okay, who let the creepers out?" Gary sighed as he looked up. Seeing Ritchie stood in front of him, looking equal parts embarrassed and flustered, Gary blew a raspberry as he rolled his eyes. "Well, Ritchie Ersatz. Wouldn't have expected to see someone like you here. You got something to say, or you just gonna stand there gaping like a magikarp until our food gets cold?"

"Yes - I mean, no," Ritchie said quickly, rapidly getting visibly flustered. "I saw you and I wanted to ask if it was okay to join you. Sit with you, for breakfast, I mean… I don't know anyone here, and you're the only person I've seen that I know."

"Jeez, you're like a kicked growlithe, aren't you?" Gary kicked out the chair opposite him. "Come on then, Charity Gary is open for conversation. My buddy's going to be coming along soon, so don't be all freaked out when there's someone else here."

"I'll be fine," Ritchie said, though the moment Silver started moving to their table, Gary noticed the way Ritchie looked like a deerling caught in the headlights.

"Turns out you're not the only charity case they let onto the ship," Gary said, smirking at Silver. "This is Ritchie. He's another one of the trainers Grandpa gave out starter pokémon to. Ritchie, this is Silver. We're travelling together."

"Hi," Ritchie said, swallowing nervously. "It's nice to meet you."

Silver just grunted as he pulled up his chair. It was as nice as he was ever going to get.

"So how'd you get a ticket for this cruise?" Gary asked. "Last I heard people were selling their kids to get a spot."

"I uh, long story," Ritchie said. "Short version is that I helped out Bill, and he gave me these tickets as thanks."

"Bill?" Gary's mind raced at what felt like a mile a minute as he tried to think of anyone that may have been able to both qualify for luxury passes on the , and be able to give them away without a moment's thought. "Bill as in William Hamilton? The dude who single-handedly rewrote the entire world's scripts for pokémon transportation and storage?"

"Uh, yeah," Ritchie said. He looked incredibly uncomfortable, which only made Gary more curious. "That's him."

"Damn," Gary said. "Didn't think he was the kinda guy to make you touch your toes for a reward."

Ritchie's face reddened, even as Silver hid a smirk behind a croissant. "You know Gary," Ritchie said, his voice shaking, "I wouldn't joke about that kind of thing if I were you. What would you say if it turned out something like that had happened? What if someone you knew or cared about had gone through something like that? Would it still be just a joke to you? Or is it all fun and games to you because the idea of someone getting something through human decency and without having to destroy their own moral fibres is such a foreign concept in your small, narcissistic world?"

"Then they're just weak," Silver sneered. "Bad things happen to those too weak to defend themselves."

"Wow," Ritchie said. "You know what? I think I'll go find a table filled with people with actual empathy. You two soulless husks can sit here in the corner and continue feeding off each other's misery. You're perfect for each other."

Silver scoffed as Ritchie grabbed his breakfast tray and stormed off. "Just like I thought: weak."

"Yeah," Gary sneered. "Beat he didn't even get a gym badge from old Surge yet. Both of us got ours like it was a piece of cake."

He bit into the apple and made certain he was smiling at the way it crunched. Inwardly, however, he was beginning to think the exact opposite. Ritchie was always meek, timid even. It had to be the first time he had ever stood up to Gary, and over a joke, no less. He disagreed privately with Silver's viewpoint too - sometimes bad shit happened to people, regardless of how strong or weak they were. Actually voicing that disagreement was something else altogether, though. He knew that would start an actual argument between the two of them and for some strange reason, he found himself wanting to keep travelling with Silver.

"Speaking of weak," Gary said, "we should probably head down to the battle deck and see who they're offering up for the chopping block against us." He sighed theatrically. "Preliminaries are a hassle and waste of time, but I guess we can't expect the world to know who we are and throw the red carpet down at our feet just yet."

Ever the pragmatist, Gary grabbed his uneaten pastries and fruit and swept them into his bag. Silver had callously made a mess of his whole plate, as if to make life as difficult as possible for the poor server who had to clean up after him. His napkin had been left in his drink and the handles of his cutlery were buried under the untouched puddles of sauce he had drenched his food in.

They fell into silence as they made their way from the canteen to the escalators. Whilst Silver apparently considered it an easy silence, Gary's mind was frantic with doubt. Silver out in the wilds and Silver around other people were like two separate people inhabiting one body. Gary found himself wondering just what Silver truly thought of him. Their travels together so far had left Gary without a doubt that Silver could be trusted with his life, although his attitude towards other people made Gary wonder if there was an expiry date on their friendship that he was currently unaware of.

He was drawn out his thoughts when they reached the lowest level of the ship. It was an open battlefield that was easily twice the usual size of any gym battleground. Surrounding the battlefield were rows upon rows of freshly painted metal benches, though Gary saw that the VIP sections had their own padded, reclinable seats. Chandeliers hung low from the ceiling and despite how hard Gary looked, he saw no mechanisms to have them retreat out of harm's way. It meant that either they were unused to dealing with strong combatants, or that they thought their structure was secure.

As much as Gary wanted to prove them wrong, it would also mean possibly sinking the ship. Since Donnie was his only aquatic pokémon - and still a squirtle at that - he decided it would be best to err on the side of caution.

"I expected more people," Silver sneered. Gary followed his gaze to see that there were only two people waiting beside the battleground, both of whom were garbed in impossibly white clothes. The man was tall, his pristine white uniform almost skin tight against the obvious chest and arm muscles he had worked hard for. The large golden buttons ran all the way down from his neck to the end of the jacket and the golden trim framed both the jacket and the trousers. His dark brown hair was gelled rigidly into place, though as they approached Gary felt like his smile was unnatural, that this was a man used to scowling.

The woman by his side wore the exact same uniform, though she also wore a rainbow cravat and spotless white gloves. Her hair was mostly hidden behind the white sailor's cap she wore, but what Gary could see was a bright, eye-catching blonde.

"Here to register for the preliminary battles?" asked the woman. There was something about her that was familiar, but nothing else came to mind. Gary tried to stare at her without making it obvious, before he quickly nodded and pulled out his pokédex.

"Hell yeah," he said. "Show me who's ass I'm kicking and I'll make them wish they'd never been born."

"First thing's first," the woman said. She pulled a portable scanner from her pocket and gestured for Gary's pokédex. "You're only allowed to register the pokémon you have on your person for this tournament. Now we're out at sea, we don't have the long-range capacity for swapping out any others. Can I scan your team?"

"Sure," Gary said, handing her his pokédex. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see that Silver had handed over a pokédex of his own. Gary managed to keep his jaw from dropping before his mind caught up. Though Silver had yet to admit as much, Gary knew that he was Giovanni's son, just from putting together the rumours and tales he had heard from Pallet's many, many busybodies. The fact that Silver had the exact model of pokédex that Gary could remember his grandfather sending a copy of to Giovanni sealed any doubts in Gary's mind.

"All done," the woman said, handing Gary back his pokédex. "Now, if you'll follow me to the battlefield, we'll start the preliminary match."

"Awesome," Gary said. "Who's the sucker that I'm beating into the ground?"

The woman smiled as she reached into a sleeve and pulled free a poké ball. "Don't be so certain you'll be winning anything."

Gary glanced over his shoulder to see that the man had also revealed himself to be Silver's opponent. "So what, we're meant to just dodge attacks coming from behind us too?"

The woman laughed. For some reason it made the hairs on Gary's arms stand on end. "Don't be silly. The porygon barriers are capable of splitting the battlefield into two for this. We've done it plenty of times already this morning. Oh and also-" a smile graced her face, "-you won't be beating me. The name's Nicki, kid. I'll be your first and only battle in this tournament. Granbull, you're up!"

Of everything Gary could have predicted going up against, a granbull was not on the list. He expected something easy, like any other tournament qualifier.

The granbull sneered as it dropped down to all fours and blew a hot breath from its mouth. As it shook itself Gary saw the way its lilac fur caught the light. It had thick, scarred muscles barely hidden beneath the fur. Its two large teeth both had chips at the very top, and the scarring on its forepaws told Gary that this pokémon had seen more than its fair share of fights.

He was nervous and excited all at the same moment. If something like that was his qualifying opponent, it just meant that whoever they battled in the tournament itself would be pretty damn powerful.

Gary went over his options before settling on the only one of his pokémon capable of defeating it. "Prince, let's do this!"

Gary's scyther appeared in a flash of light. Crossing its scythed arms in front of its chest, the pokémon snarled and cut the air. The granbull reacted by seemingly raising an eyebrow.

"Prince," Gary said quickly. His scyther stopped halfway through sharpening its blades in the granbull's direction to give him a flat look. "Focus energy, then quick attack!"

Prince spread his arms, snarling. Gary watched the way the granbull and Nickie both watched them with the same, disconcertingly flat expression.

As Prince launched himself forwards, Nickie screamed, "Shadow punch!"

The granbull moved with a speed that surprised Gary. It met Prince's charge with a fist wreathed in grey flames. There was a crunch as it slammed its fist into Prince's skull and suddenly the scyther went tumbling head over tail backwards.

"Damn it!" Gary hissed. Prince bounced back to his feet and beat his wings, filling the room with a high pitched droning sound. "Fine," he growled. As much as he wanted to glance behind him and see how Silver was doing, this was his fight. He heard the meaty sound of flesh hitting flesh behind him and tried to tune it out.

"Agility!"

Gary smirked as Prince began to blur. Regardless of who their opponent was, his pokémon was a scyther, and he was Gary Oak. They had survived travelling through the danger areas outside of safe, traditional routes. They were going to be Champions and change the world.

No glorified ship stewardess was going to change that.

"Steel wing!"

Prince vanished in a flicker of motion. Gary could barely keep up with him. He watched as the pokémon appeared to teleport across the battlefield. Whenever he appeared for long enough, Gary saw the way the light bounced off the pokémon's wings.

With a cry, Prince appeared behind the granbull and slammed into the pokémon in a full-body tackle. He spun as he collided, using the momentum to slam his iron-hard wings into the pokémon.

The granbull hissed at the blow, but remained standing. A cry of, "Shadow fire!" prompted its mouth to fill with black, frothing flames. It spewed them out at such speed that even Prince barely managed to escape in time. The flames ate their way across the floor of the battleground, spreading slowly, almost bubbling across the floor.

Prince was starting to look like he was itching to start slicing. He ran his blades over each other and crouched, ready for the next command.

"Fine," Gary snarled. "We had a plan for this anyway. Fury cutter and run - keep it on its toes!"

"Grab it," Nicki threw back.

Prince flickered before Gary's eyes. He appeared behind the granbull and brought his blades down its back. As it spun, snarling at him, he flickered out of view again, to appear behind it once more. The granbull, snarling, spun around and grabbed one of Prince's scythers in its meaty, thick paws. Gary saw the way Prince's blade cut into its paw, yet nothing in the granbull's face indicated it felt it. Instead the pokémon launched Prince across the battlefield with a one-armed throw and roared with enough force to make even Gary take a step backwards.

"Not so confident are you now, kid?" Nicki taunted.

"Screw you, old lady."

"Old?!" the woman shrieked. "Why you little - granbull, tear his stupid bug to pieces! Make it so no one ever puts it back together again!"

The granbull launched itself forwards with a speed that took Gary by surprise. He barely had enough time to call out for a double team before it was upon Prince. His scyther split into two, then three and finally four copies before they swarmed around the pokémon.

The granbull snarled as its mouth filled with black flames once more. The scythers spun in place, sucking the wind away from the pokémon. Its flames leaked from its mouth and were carried away by the winds.

Black fire swirled around the scythers. A command from Gary and they all funneled into one and barrelled straight at the granbull. The force of the blast knocked the pokémon off its feet. It tumbled through the air upside-down before landing heavily on its front.

"While it's down, steel wing again!"

"Oh no you don't you little - fire blast! Burn that asswipe's bug to ash!"

Prince was already charging in. Gary saw the fires beginning in the granbull's mouth. There was sweat budding on the pokémon's head from the heat of the flames.

"Endure, quickly!" Gary cried.

Red and orange fire burst free of the granbull's mouth. With how close Prince was, the attack had no time to even form its signature shape. Instead it exploded against his pokémon with a sound that left Gary's ears ringing. His pokémon disappeared beneath a blaze of flames. The granbull was swept away by the raging fires.

Gary had to blink away the spots in his eyes. He opened them to find that the granbull was flat on its back, breathing heavily but not moving. Prince had dropped to a knee. His carapace was blackened and burned. Pieces of his chest were flaking off, exposing the raw skin beneath.

The granbull started to get to its feet and Gary's stomach dropped. It managed to get to its knees, snarl at them both before falling on its face.

"Useless," Gary heard Nicki say as she called back the pokémon. "Just you wait I'll-" she looked up and seemed to recollect herself when she saw Gary staring at her. "Well done," she said, after clearing her throat. "It seems you managed to beat me and have progressed through the preliminaries."

Gary said nothing as he recalled his pokémon. He glanced over his shoulder to see Silver recalling his sneasel. His own opponent had no pokémon on his side either, so Gary assumed that Silver had won his battle too.

"The tournament starts tonight," Nicki continued. "Take your pokémon upstairs to be healed. Make sure you're at the best of your game, because tonight is going to launch battles of a lifetime."

-O-O-O-

Gary sighed as he tried to relax on the SS Anne's uppermost deck. The sun was setting over the horizon, basking sea and sky both in an ethereal orange glow. There was a slight chill coming to the air, but Gary was still warm, even sat outside in a t-shirt and shorts.

He checked his pokédex for the time. They would be hosting a commemorative dinner to announce the winners of the preliminary rounds and detailing who would be facing who in the next round of the SS Anne's tournament.

Gary took another sip of his soda and did his best not to think about it. Something had changed and made his heart no longer seem fully committed to it. He had no idea what was wrong, or even where to begin figuring out what the problem was.

Loathe as he was to admit any faults, he knew that sometimes the only way to progress was to ask for help.

Surprisingly enough, it seemed that fate had the same idea. The moment he pulled his phone out of his pocket, it had already lit up and began ringing.

"Daisy?" Gary said, answering the video call. By the looks of things she was in her salon back in Pallet - he recognised the pseudo-scientific posters on the wall behind her, outlining chakras on a badly drawn cross-section of an eevee. "I was just about to call you."

"Great minds think alike," she said, smiling. "Except yours isn't a great mind."

There was something off about her tone, and Gary noticed it immediately. Her long, curly brown hair was pulled back and tucked beneath a red bandanna, though a strand had broken free and was curling down in front of her face. He noticed the bags underneath her bright blue eyes and the split in her lip that looked like it came about from her chewing on it too frequently.

"Funny, Sis," Gary said. "But serious talk time I guess; what's up? I'm on the SS Anne and I think we're near Porta Vista, so if you're about to tell me that they're being attacked by a giant sea slug I'm calling shenanigans and finding a way off this boat."

"Find a balloon," she said, "all that hot air you chat has to come in use somehow." She sighed as she twirled the loose strand of hair and moved it from her face. "So before I tell you, I just want to say that everything's fine and you don't need to panic."

Naturally, that only made Gary sit up straight and his breath catch in his throat. "Daisy, what's wrong? Is Gramps okay? Do I need to come home?"

"Gramps is fine," she said. "I just got off the phone with him. It's about your friends. Misty and Holly, and Ash too. They got roped into doing a job for Surge and whatever they went up against seemed to be too strong for them. They're in Surge's private hospital now, but they're alright, nothing life-threatening."

'Shit," Gary hissed. "Okay, that's fine, that's fine," he said, standing. "I'll get back there and I'll check up on them, and then I'll-"

"Gary!" Daisy said forcefully. She shook her head. "They're fine. Ash is awake, apparently. From what Gramps said, Misty's got a broken wrist and Holly had an asthma-fuelled panic attack. They were with Brock as well, apparently he's travelling with them now too. Anyway," she said, shrugging, "Gramps told me to pass on the message to you. They're fine, just maybe don't be an asshole when you speak to them next. Gramps didn't tell me what caused it, and then he rushed off the call because he was meant to be getting a courier with samples soon or something."

"They're okay," Gary said, more to himself than to Daisy. "Alright." He sighed and forced himself to sit back down on the sun lounger. "They are okay, aren't they? You're not just saying that to make sure I don't go getting myself into trouble?"

"Gary," Daisy said, "if they were in trouble I'd have taken you there myself. Now what's wrong, why did you want to call me? Not that I'm unhappy to chat to my baby brother, but you usually only call when you need something."

"Yeah," he said. He rubbed the back of his head as he reached for his soda with his other hand, keeping the phone balanced between his legs. "Maybe. I don't know?" He shook his head and placed his soda back down on the table beside him. "I'm just… not myself, I guess? There was a battle earlier and it was tougher than I thought, but that's not it. I… I don't know how to put it into words, Daisy. I made a joke and that upset Ritchie, then Silver seems way more hardcore than I thought and -"

"Nothing's working out the way you planned?" Daisy finished, a knowing smile on her face. "Gary, stop thinking that you can plan for every eventuality. You're only going to beat yourself up. As for the rest… I get it. We're Oaks. Like it or not, we have Gramps' legacy to try and live up to. Everyone treats us differently because of it, and when we're not able to crush our opponents as easily as some of his pokémon can, it's hard not to get down on ourselves.

"You can't change the world overnight, Gary. The best advice I can give you is what seems to work for me. Give yourself weekly and monthly goals. Break the big things down into smaller, easier to manage things. And trust your gut. If you feel like you need to apologise for something, do it. If you think you need to call someone an asshole for being an asshole, do it. People are much more than our first expectations of them, and if they don't want to be educated on why their behaviour is shitty, nothing says you still have to be friends with them. Some people can be amazing trainers, but terrible people, and vice versa. You get better at it with age, but eventually you learn how to surround yourself with the people that can simultaneously challenge you, have your back and make you a better version of yourself, just by being around them." She shrugged. "Hopefully some of that helps?"

"I think?" Gary said. If he was being honest, it was starting to make his head hurt. There was a dull throbbing at the back of his head that he could feel slowly growing stronger. "I dunno, maybe I just need to sleep a little. It's been pretty full-on since Mount Moon and I just-"

Screaming.

Gary's blood turned to ice. The sound seemed to carry on the wind before abruptly being cut off. The ship rumbled beneath him. He heard the sound of a distinctly large and angry pokémon before there was the sound of glass shattering. A stream of hot, blue flames erupted out of the side of the ship, piercing into the sky.

"Daisy, I gotta go," Gary said, ending the call before she could object. He jumped back to his feet and raced barefoot towards the stairs, sliding his phone into his pocket as he went.

He darted back to the main deck, taking the white marble stairs two at a time. Gary threw himself into the double oak doors that led back into the ship and took a moment to take a deep breath.

He opened the doors and found chaos waiting for him.

The lights were flickering. Soot and burn marks raced up the walls in random, errant patterns. The carpet had been torn to pieces in places, soaked in others. He saw a thick metal door hanging sideways, balancing precariously on its hinges.

"Shadow," Gary said, calling forth his eevee. In a shower of light and sparkles, his silver eevee appeared by his side, hackles raised. "Stay close," Gary said.

Gary took off running again. The screaming sounds had stopped. The lights sparked and burst above his head. He swore as the corridor was basked in darkness.

The emergency lights went on, bathing everything in a sickly, grey glow.

A hypno looked down its long nose at them.

"Fuck!" Gary hissed. He tripped on his own feet in his haste to stop before he ran into the pokémon. "What're you-?"

The hypno raised its pendulum at them. It swung. A visible wave of energy rippled through the air. The walls of the corridor crumpled like paper in its wake. Gary screamed and rolled backwards. Shadow snarled as he raced forwards. The hypno sent a wave of energy at him. Shadow leaped off the floor and landed on the wall. He kept his momentum going and charged forwards, crying out as he jumped into the air and spun.

A ball of swirling, grey energy appeared in his mouth. It seemed to suck all the oxygen out of the air. The hypno looked up at it with wide eyes.

Moments before it hit, the hypno vanished from view. The shadowball slammed into the rippling walls and made their movement stop.

"Fuck," Gary said, his hand over his thundering heart. He glanced around for the hypno. Saw nothing. The sickly grey lights seemed to be getting dimmer.

He heard screaming down the corridor.

"Screw this," Gary muttered. He raced towards the noise. He saw a metal door to his left, rent open by three large claw marks. There was something like blood on the ground. He raced past it before he could fully process what he was seeing. His stomach had turned. Shadow was racing in front of him, fur stood on end.

Gary rounded the corner into the closest economy suite. The grey lights began to flicker. At the very end of the corridor, the hypno was waiting. Its pendulum swung ominously. Each swing shut off another light. One by one the lights in the corridor turned off, making their way closer and closer to them.

"Hell no," Gary said. He raced for the first door on his right. It was locked tight. He threw himself at it and succeeded in only hurting his shoulder.

He spun around to try and run. The corridor twirled and twisted before his very eyes. He looked back at the way he came and saw only a mirror image of the way forwards.

He turned again and saw the darkness was almost on them. The hypno's pendulum crackled with white light that illuminated its face from below.

"Shadow, break this damn door down!" Gary screamed. His eevee rocketed forwards, landing against the door with a crunching impact that made Gary's teeth vibrate. The door buckled, but held firm.

Another light went off. There was only one left in front of him. Gary's heart was racing. He looked up just as it plunged into darkness.

The light above him went out.

Everything was silent.

Then something grabbed him from behind.

He hit something hard. The wind rushed out of his lungs. Gary rolled across the floor and felt glass bite into his arm. He looked over and squinted in the dark. There was a window behind him. There was a door to his side, on the floor beside him.

He heard Shadow bark. His head swam. He tried to stand. It felt like something was holding him in place.

Oh shit, he thought.

The floor beneath him was the wall. He heard it groan under a wave of psychic energy. A piece broke off above him, sailed off into the evening sky. The wind whipped into the corridor, howling. The sparse sunlight illuminated a sight that would haunt Gary's dreams for years to come.

The hypno's eyes were black, emotionless voids. They seemed to burn with inky black flames. It was looking at him with a primal hunger that froze him to the spot.

Shadow snarled. The hypno's attention was drawn away for just a second. The hold on Gary loosened.

Gary threw himself forwards, tackling the pokémon. It hissed as Gary touched it. Its skin felt far too hot, like it was burning from the inside. Gary rolled across the ground and hoped it was the floor.

Shadow howled. The sound seemed to echo through the corridor and bounce off the walls. Gary felt all the hairs on his body stand up. The hypno unleashed a psychic wave that threw him off his feet. He landed heavily and heard something above him creak. Some miracle made him move.

A chandelier smashed into the ground where Gary just was. He was sprayed with broken glass. He felt it dig into his arms, open up new wounds. They were stinging, almost impossible to ignore.

"Shadow!" Gary screamed into the darkness. "Where are you?"

The hypno answered with another psychic wave that knocked Gary off his feet once more. He cried out as his back slammed into a hard, flat surface. His leg twitched and suddenly the world spun.

He span on the spot, faster and faster until the hypno let him drop. Gary struggled back to his feet. He tasted blood. His head was spinning. It was hard to keep his balance.

He saw the hypno's shadow looming over him, closing in for the kill.

Shadow howled. The darkness in the corridor crawled away. It raced towards his eevee in a maelstrom of swirling blackness. The hypno hissed as its cover was taken away. It turned and swung its pendulum. A wave of purple energy hurtled towards the black hurricane, melting away the paint on the walls in its wake.

There was a flash of light from within the darkness. Shadow's cries grew deeper and louder. All at once the darkness raced out to meet the psychic wave. A dozen tendrils of darkness rocketed down the corridor. It took only two to snuff out the psychic wave. A third wrapped itself around Gary. He felt himself pulled through the shadows to safety.

He heard the hypno's shrieks of pain. Gary turned around and kept his eyes closed. He dared only to open them when the screaming stopped.

He saw a pale, unconscious hypno laying in a pool of black ichor. Stood atop it was a glistening black umbreon. The corridor was bathed in a brilliant blue glow from the sapphire rings on its fur.

"Shadow," Gary whispered.

Shadow nodded. He flicked his tail and the lights in the corridor returned to their eerie grey emergency routine. Gary's mouth was suddenly dry. He nodded as he swallowed and tried to focus.

"I wish we had time to celebrate pal," Gary said. "We'll do that when we're off this death trap."

Shadow as by his side in an instant. Gary raced down the rest of the corridor, barely able to think. He needed to get closer to whatever the hypno was stopping him from finding. He had to find out what was happening, who was doing this, if-

The wall to his right exploded. It was only Shadow's reflexes that let him grab Gary and drag him out of the way in time.

A raticate stood on shaking legs in the rubble. Beneath it was a magnemite, buzzing in low, pained sounds.

There was a scream that sounded like it was getting closer. The raticate leaped into the air just as someone was thrown out of the hole in the wall. Gary saw a flash of red hair as the person tumbled backwards before finally slamming into the rubble.

"Silver!" Gary cried. He went to race to his side before the raticate placed itself between them. Gary glanced into the room Silver had just been thrown out of. He saw buffet tables that had been upturned. More than one person was lying prone in and amongst the spilled food.

Gary noticed the pokémon fighting first. Only after did he notice that the waiters and waitresses were no longer wearing their sailor's uniforms. All of them were garbed in black, form-fitting outfits that looked like they were padded against all manner of attacks.

In that moment, Gary truly hated himself for being the 'never notices the staff' stereotype of privilege.

"Shadow, deal with it!" Gary said. He waited for his pokémon to leap forwards and tackle the raticate before he rushed to Silver's side. He forced himself past Silver's feeble attempts of fighting him off as he helped him to his feet. Silver's words were a jumbled, incoherent mess. Gary heard something about weakness as he grabbed Silver's arm and wrapped it around his shoulders.

Shadow snarled as the raticate bounced across the floor in front of them. He leaped forwards, spun in the air and slammed him silver, shining tail into the raticate's jaw. Something crunched before the raticate was sent flying backwards.

"That yours?" Gary asked, pointing at the magnemite. At Silver's nod, Gary took the poké ball from his hand and recalled his pokémon for him. "Right, payback time on whoever turned you into a baseball?"

What was the dining hall had been transformed into a bloody battlefield. Gary's breath caught in his throat when he took in just how bad things were. The chandeliers were broken, if not completely destroyed. There was a machoke and a waiter facedown in a large seashell punch fountain that was still pouring down over them. The floor was marred by tiny potholes. The windows were broken, and the doors seemed to have been broken from the inside in an attempt to get out.

"They're stealing pokémon," Silver grunted. "The whole tournament… was a set up. All to take the most powerful from us."

Gary snarled. He looked up and saw the blonde woman he had fought in his supposed qualifying match. She was directing her granbull, who was holding its own against no less than four other pokémon. At her back was the man Gary had seen her with previously, though now Gary could see that his hair was a violent shade of green. Both of them wore black one-piece suits, though their bone-white gloves and boots reached up to their elbows and knees.

Gary was struck with an overwhelming sensation of cold. Shadow snarled. His rings lit up, bathing them in a sapphire glow.

Something in Gary's shadow shrieked. Gary leaped in the air. There was a hissing sound from beneath the ground. Gary saw the way his shadow seemed to split in two and race away.

The shadows coalesced into a sableye. It twitched as it looked at them, before opening its mouth and revealing rows upon impossible rows of razor-sharp teeth.

"Sparky, take it down!"

There was a crack of thunder as their only warning. Gary just about had time to throw an arm in front of his eyes before he heard the sableye's shrieks. The world seemed to light up, even through his closed eyes.

When Gary opened his eyes again, there was a pikachu standing protectively in front of them. The sableye fell to the ground, twitching as sparks ran over its body.

Silver's weight seemed to half. Gary looked over to see Ritchie taking Silver's other arm and placing it over his shoulders. "Glad to see you're alive," he said. "I thought that might have killed you."

Silver bared his teeth as he laughed. "Take a lot more than that to-" he started coughing, deep, painful sounds that made Gary worry. "I'm not going down that easy."

"Good," Ritchie said. He looked forward to where the green-haired man was approaching them. The sableye was vanishing in a flash of red. "Because I think we've got more battles left yet."

"You know kid," the man said. He stretched his neck and even from a distance, Gary heard the way it popped. "You're turning out to be a lot more trouble than you're worth." He glanced over his shoulder. "Cass! Stop playing with your food. Time's-a-wastin'!"

The woman's granbull slammed its fists into the ground. Waves of black energy spilled forth and knocked the four unfortunate pokémon that were trying to fight it off their feet. Gary heard their cries just before they were thrown into a seashell water fountain. It broke as what looked like a tauros with an afro was thrown into it.

"Secure them," the woman said, gesturing with a hand. Gary's eyes widened as ropes dropped from the ceiling and more people in black suits descended. They threw black poké balls at the pokémon and Gary watched as they disappeared in a purple-black flash.

Their trainers cried out in protest. Gary heard the crackle of electricity before they screamed as the stun batons were thrust into their sides.

"Stop!" Ritchie cried. "Enough!"

The man threw back his head and laughed. "Enough? Kid, the party starts and stops when Team Rocket says so. And right now, it's saying that you and your buddies aren't worth the air you're breathing."

Gary's heart felt like it stopped. He saw the way the woman was smirking at him. She had called herself Nicki earlier and Gary had all but forgotten that he found her even remotely familiar. She was the same woman who had nearly killed him back in Mount Moon. If his grandpa had shown up even moments later, Gary doubted he would still be breathing.

The woman seemed to read his mind. "Grandaddy isn't here to save you this time, rich kid. Oh and I won't be holding back."

Gary cursed under his breath. "Either of you got any heavy hitters left?"

Silver shook his head. "They took out Hunter almost straight away. He's strong, but still just a sneasel. They overwhelmed him with a machoke." He grunted a laugh as he looked at the one Gary had seen previously. "At least karma came to find it."

"I've only got Sparky left," Ritchie said. His pikachu was growling, electricity sparkling wildly from his cheeks. Shadow loomed over him protectively, cloaking the smaller pokémon in his own aura of darkness. "What do we do?"

"Stall," Gary said. "We search for an opening and then we run. It's-"

There was a screeching siren that cut through his words and chilled him to his core. Its screams filled all three of them with visible dread.

"Well," the green-haired man said, "I guess that's all we've got time for today."

Gary heard the roars outside. His heart was racing. His throat was dry.

The siren's wailing was cut off as an explosion rocked the ship and knocked them all off balance. What glass that was left in the walls shattered. Plaster crumbled from the ceiling. Gary saw the storms raging outside and in the middle of all of them, saw the briefest glimpse of a serpentine body stretching out from the ocean's surface.

"Hey kid," the woman called out, looking at Gary. She had a smile on her face that did nothing for his frayed nerves. "Count yourself lucky - you're getting to experience what killed your parents first-hand."

She vanished in a flash of light, but her cackle seemed to remain. The man had already vanished by the time Gary reacted, stumbling forwards dumbly, screaming at them but not making any sound.

"Gary!" Silver hissed. "We've got to move."

Richie was pale. Sweat was beading on his forehead. He was staring out the windows, towards where the angry sea titans were waiting. "Angry," he whispered. "So angry."

An explosion rocked the ship again. It threw them all to their feet. Wind howled. The air pulled them towards the outside. Gary heard the keening of the ship before it rocked sideways. There was a pressure in his head, an uncertainty in his balance.

The ship keened again before it rocked to one side and stayed there. The tables started to move, following the angle of the floor.

"We're sinking," Gary realised. "We've got to get out of here!" He grabbed Ulric's poké ball and called the abra out. "Buddy, we need a way out of here. The ship's sinking, we need to-"

The ship was hit by another explosion. The world seemed to turn upside down. Tables fell from the floor and hurtled towards them. Gary screamed as they hurtled towards him.

There was a flash of light, then a sudden coldness to the air. Cold, hard steel was beneath Gary's bare feet. He fell on his back and felt the air leave his lungs.

He threw himself to his feet and gripped on the nearby rail. They were on the top deck of the SS Anne. Ulric managed to grunt something before falling backwards, his nose gushing blood. Gary recalled him moments before helping Silver back to his feet. Shadow bumped against Gary's leg with a soft growl.

Ritchie looked mesmerised by the storm swirling around them. Lightning flashed, illuminating the serpentine figures in the distance. Gary counted at least ten.

"They're so angry," Ritchie whispered.

There was a sudden deathly silence to the air. Gary's hair felt like it was standing on end. Shadow's ears pinned back against his skull. He saw Ritchie's pikachu arch like a cornered cat.

A high pitched whine cut through the silence. Gary felt the explosion steal his footing just as the blinding flash of light stole his sight. He tumbled through the air, blind and lost. He just had enough time to grab Donnie's poké ball before something slammed against his back and head. He dimly registered everything being wet and someone screaming his name, then everything was lost to darkness.