Ryan, determined to help his friends in any way, shape or form that he could, chased his friends and cousins up into the heart of the Syndicate Stronghold. As he entered the dark and foreboding building, he surveyed the situation for any specific signs of what lay ahead for him. He glanced at the balcony above him and suspected that would no doubt lead him to the Syndicate's main Administrators, including Elezar and Cassius, but he knew better than to go after them. He knew he would have to find either the generator rooms or the dungeons, as this was where he expected to find the ArcResistance Team or possibly Addison.

I guess I should start with the Generator Room, he thought to himself. If we can shut down the power in the building, we should be able to help the Police Force enter the building on their own. Four of the Syndicate Administrators had been soundly defeated, thanks to their combined efforts. But eight more still remained, including some Ryan wasn't sure he had heard of before. He was certain that the others would be more than capable of defeating them, though he also recalled how Lizzie had succumbed to the injuries she had endured after only the first few parts of the battle. And the others have also endured significant injuries during the Taghwan Hall burning, including Mike. And if they began to crumble, the burden of besting their foes would fall to him and Giselle, and though she had saved him during the confrontation with Hunter, he did not trust her. What am I saying? Mike can flatten them on his own. He wasn't showing any signs of weakness. Right?

Ryan made his way down a long tunnel that led to an elevator. He got into the elevator and descended into what he hoped would be either the Generator Room, Cassius's Lab or the Dungeon. Either way, he hoped he would find something or someone he could help when the elevator reached it's predetermined sublevel. Ryan patiently waited until the lift finally reached it's destination and he fingered one of the Poké Balls on his side. The time for action was now. The door opened and Ryan proceeded. He found himself on a catwalk overlooking a room filled from top to bottom with scientific gadgets and other such things that his young mind did not yet know, or would ever. But below him, he did find some familiar faces. Dylan, Amber, Corey and Tommy were looking around at Cassius's lab with great curiosity.

"This place is incredible" Dylan said, looking at one of the Brand Machines Cassius had invented. "If only this could have been used for good instead of evil."

Amber shuddered at the idea of the thinking that the devices Cassius had invented being used for anything good. "I disagree. Weapons like this have no place in our world. And people like Cassius deserve nothing but our anger and scorn."

"Well" Corey said as he looked over some of Cassius's work, "we don't have many other choices. We need to see just how deep this thing goes. Especially with all of the work that we've gotten from Professor Pines."

"I'll say" Tommy agreed. "And we need to keep the Syndicate from hurting anyone ever again."

"You may not have to wait that long" Ryan called to them. The four looked up and happily waved to him. As he made his way down to his friends, he looked around to ensure that all of them are safe. "Looks like you guys have made it in safe and sound."

"Mike sent us down here to shut down the generators" Dylan told him.

"And see if we can find anything else of use" Tommy added.

"Any luck finding them?" Ryan asked.

"About as much as you'd think" Amber answered sarcastically. "What about you?"

"I had a bit of a reunion of sorts with some old friends in the Syndicate" Ryan explained.

Tommy looked over. "You mean Lily and Lena?"

"And Archer" Ryan pointed out. "They tried to fight me three on one, but I got some help from Lizzie and Julia."

"Professor Julia Pines?" Amber asked happily. "What was she doing here?"

"She's the Champion's girlfriend, after all. I'd be shocked if she didn't come."

"So" Corey pondered, "that's four Syndicate Admins down. How many left to go?"

"Eight" Ryan answered quickly. "Though I suspect Michael and he others will drop those numbers quickly."

"Then, why are we even here?" Dylan asked. "The hard work is done for us."

"Are you dense?" Amber snapped at him. "We need to shut down the branding machines before anyone else gets hurt!"

"Okay, I'm sorry" Dylan replied as sharply. "Sheesh. But where do we begin?"

Ryan looked around. Any one of these machines could be the ones they were looking for and there wasn't a real way they could figure out how things worked without trying them. He looked at one of the branding machines and saw the moon stone his captors had tried to use to brand him with. He walked over towards it and picked up the brand, at first intent on trying to figure out exactly what made it affect him as much as it did. But, as if instinctively, he began to think of all the people this brand had made suffer. Michael, Addison, Holly and who knows who else might have been. With both hands, he took the brand and smashed it into the ground, shattering the stone into more than a hundred pieces. But with his fury still unquenched, he continued to smash away at the stone, until Amber and Tommy came over to stop him. Ryan shook himself out of his fury.

"Are you alright?" Amber asked, still clinging to his arm.

"I'm fine. Why?"

"You don't look fine" Tommy told him worriedly. "Your-your eyes."

Amber gasped. "They're almost red!"

Ryan shook himself, hoping it would revert his eyes back to normal. "Trust me. I'm fine."

Amber and Tommy finally let go of him, but the two continued to keep an eye on him as he investigated each and every machine alongside Dylan and Corey. Upon finding what could only have been Cassius's computer, Corey tried to see if he could get into it without logging in, but frowned when he found out it was heavily security monitored.

"You'd think that Cassius would have been arrogant enough to not want a password" he said.

"Jocelyn was leaking information from the computers to Professor Pines" Amber told him. "Odds are, these security measures are new."

"Do we need the computer to get one of these machines working?" Dylan asked.

Corey shrugged. "Possibly. Why?"

"Because I think I found something worthwhile." The ArcResistance leader pointed towards a machine that could essentially manufacture Poké Balls essentially from scratch. "The Syndicate must have been keeping this bad boy on the back burners for a special assignment."

"See what you can do" Corey told him. "I'm going to see if I can break into this computer."

"Uh, guys?" Tommy called to the group. "I just found a bunch of those red stone things!"

"Those stones?" Ryan asked as he made his way over towards the room Tommy had been looking into. There was a huge crate full of the Crimson Stones the Syndicate had plucked off the face of the moon and used in their experiments. Ryan could feel himself slipping into a deeper rage, but did his best not to be near the stones and removed himself from this situation. "Do you have another one of those bomb things?"

"Oooh oooh oooh!" Amber cried out. "Can I use this one?"

Corey shrugged. "Just be careful, Amber. I only have a few of these." He handed her an ES Device as well as the detonator. Amber then hurried her way over to where Tommy was standing and threw the ES Device into the crate of Crimson Stones and shut the door. She then jacked up the ES Device's power up to maximum and took Tommy and Ryan away. Then, the trio sat and watched as Amber pressed the button. There was a small explosion, which caused the doors that sealed the room to fall down. The room was bathed in small fires and the destroyed Crimson Stones, which had been completely shattered into dust.

"Well, that was invigorating" Amber said happily.

Tommy cheered. "That means there aren't anymore of these left!"

"I'd imagine Cassius has a few hidden away in case of emergencies" Ryan cautioned the boy's optimism.

"Well" Amber said cheerfully. "At least this gives us one less thing to worry about."

"THERE YOU RODENTS ARE!" a hoarse voice called to the group. Ryan and the others turned towards where Ryan had been seen and saw another man looming over them. The man was hefty, with a receding hairline and a piping cigar in his mouth. It was Walter O'Hara.

{Meanwhile}

Michael, Cameron, Chris, Mark and Giselle continued up into the Syndicate Base and found themselves in a mysterious room with four spiraled staircases leading into four separate doors. Each door was painted a color: one red, one yellow, one green and one blue. And at the end of the room moving ahead was a massive door with four electronically sealed locks, bearing the same colors as the doors that led on alternate staircases.

"A puzzle" Chris reacted coolly. "This should be simple."

"A five year old should be able to figure it out" Giselle snapped, as she made her way towards the main door and rested herself on it.

"Good to know you're still keen on not helping" Cameron retorted.

"If I wanted the opinion of someone weaker than me" Giselle sneered, "I would have stayed in prison."

Michael stepped in between them. "Relax. We're on the same side. And Giselle gets the first crack at Elezar." Cameron growled, but accepted being restrained. Michael looked towards the four doorways and came to an obvious conclusion. "I expect they won't just let us open the doors to proceed. There's going to be a Syndicate Admin guarding each of these doors, isn't there?"

Giselle nodded. "And unless you defeat all four of them, this door behind me will stay locked. It's magnetically sealed, too. No Dragon Fire will blast threw it. Nor will any of that kid's weird little electro-device things. This one requires all strength."

Michael looked above each of the doorways. There was an letter above each of the doorways. Above the Blue Doorway was a "C", above the Green Doorway was a "V", above the Yellow Doorway was a "N" and above the Red Doorway was the letter "M". Michael noticed that the "M" was shaped weirdly, as if it were already being used as an insignia of some kind. He reached into his pocket and found the device that Courtney had given to him what felt like ages ago. It too, bore the same "M", which stood for Team Magma.

"Well, who's getting who?" Mark asked.

"Leave Courtney to me" Michael said bitterly, as he made his way towards the Red Door.

"Wouldn't Courtney be in the 'C' Room?" Chris asked.

"The 'M' above this door stands for Team Magma" Michael informed his cousin. "Courtney is behind this one. I suspect the Blue Door leads to Claude."

"And Claude is mine!" Cameron declared, brushing past her brother and walking up the steps towards the doorway of the former ally of James Kingston and Balthazar Aced. "I have a score to settle with him!" She bitterly ascended the steps at the same time as Michael

Chris looked towards the two remaining doors. "I guess I'll take Victor."

Mark nodded. "Alright. Then I'll battle Nadine. Good luck guys." And with that, the four trainers continued towards their destinies, while Giselle sat and awaited the results.

{Meanwhile}

Ryan watched with bitter disgust as the disgraced former Talk Show Host stood over him and his friends, his cigar dropping ashes everywhere. The hefty old man stepped down towards them, derision in his eyes. "Somehow, I just knew you would be here!"

"Walter?" Amber cried out.

Dylan rushed over to Ryan's side. "I thought I heard the decaying voice of a beached Waillord!"

"Make all the jokes you punks want!" Walter snarled. "It won't help you after I'm through with you!"

Tommy glared at him. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, after what you did!"

"After all the nasty lies you said about Michael" Ryan growled, "you're lucky I don't beat you down right now!"

"Oh" Dylan snickered, "this ogre has done far worse than that in his lifetime!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Walter. "How about tricking all of Arcana into trying to go and fight the Syndicate, only to lure them into the trap of Branding!"

"You know" Walter scowled as he threw his now collapsing cigar out of his hands, "this is why I think brats like you ought to be born and sent right to military school until you reach the age of adulthood. So you'll learn some manners and respect for your elders!"

"Why should we give a snake oil salesman like you respect?" Amber countered.

"Probably because I get to decide if you kids get branded now or later!" he grinned.

"In your dreams" Tommy laughed. "We just blew up all of the Crimson Stones on this base. There won't be anymore Crimson Stone experiments for you guys!"

Walter growled. "Keep your yap shut before I give you a beating!"

Ryan stepped in front of his friends. "Try me!"

"Didn't your Mom ever tell you punks to respect your superiors?" Walter scowled.

Ryan laughed. "Bullies like you aren't worth respecting. And after I've clobbered you, I'm going to go help my cousins take care of the rest of you bullies!"

"Tough words, boy!" Walter O'Hara grumbled. "Let's see if you can back them up!" The old man reached into his suit jacket and pulled out two Poké Balls. "Go, Exploud! Go! Weezing!" From out of the two Poké Balls appeared a thick toxic spheres conjoined together and a loud purple monster that appeared to have craters coming out of it's head.

Ryan shrugged. "Fine. Go! Achilles!" He sent out his Gallade, who faced both opponents without hesitation.

"Bring out your second!" Walter demanded.

Ryan shrugged. "I don't think I need a second one yet."

"Why you-"

"Achilles! Use Psycho Cut on the Weezing!" In a flash, the Gallade sliced at the Weezing with a ruthlessly powerful Psychic Attack, which easily bested the Weesing in one shot.

"How in the-"

"Achilles!" Ryan called again. "Use Close Combat on the Exploud!" In a series of ferocious combos, the Gallade took out the Exploud in one shot as well, chipping Walter down to little more than a crumpled and weakening old man. Ryan looked at him with supreme confidence in his eyes. "Had enough?"

"We're just getting started!" Walter insisted. "Go! Whiscash! Go! Krokorok!" From out of the next two Poké Balls appeared a giant blue catfish creature with thin whiskers and a brown and black reptilian creature that appeared to be wearing sunshades of some kind. Walter was about to have his next few Pokémon attack, but Ryan was all over him again.

"Achilles! Use Leaf Blade on both Pokémon! NOW!" The Gallade's arms shined and transformed into viciously sharp leaves and sliced through both the Whiscash and the Krokorok in one attack.

Walter was speechless. "I-I-"

"It's over, Walter" Dylan insisted while filming Ryan's trouncing of the weakest Syndicate Admin. "You've lost!"

Walter fell to his knees and recalled his Pokémon. "I just-I cannot believe it! There's no way I could lose to a brat like you!"

Ryan walked up to him. "You did. But you should pull yourself together. It's sad seeing an old man like you whimper around like a child!"

Walter did not move. "No. I couldn't have lost!"

"You let your own greed and desire for fame and glory corrupt you" Ryan told him.

"You don't know a thing about me, you Kingston punk!" Walter snarled.

"Oh, but I think I do" Ryan insisted. "Your criticism of my cousin, while sometimes flagrantly wrong, I suspect did once come from a genuine and honest place."

Amber and Dylan looked to each other in surprise. "Uh, Ryan? It's Walter. He's pure evil!"

"I know you think that, Amber" Ryan told her, "but I think he's not."

"What does a little punk like you know?" Walter growled.

"This 'little punk' just showed you more mercy than you deserve, Walter" Ryan snapped. "I bet you long ago really wanted to be a good reporter and a good journalist. But you let the money and influence Elezar gave you corrupt you. And now, you've betrayed everything you stood for as well as the viewers who looked up to and supported you. What would they say to you now, when they see you helping the guy who is terrorizing Arcana?"

Walter had no answer to him. He simply sat there and reflected on the choices he had made in his life.

"My advice to you" Ryan continued, "would be to head down to the Beach Head and surrender yourself."

"Surrender?" Walter asked, this time more softly.

"The Syndicate probably won't see much use in keeping you around, much longer" Ryan pointed out. "And if you head back somewhere in this place to hide, either the Syndicate or Michael will flush you out. The only thing left for you to do is surrender to the Kingstons or the Arcana Police Force and cooperate with them, in the hopes that your prison sentence isn't for the rest of your life."

Walter gulped, but slowly rose to his feet and to the amazement of the ArcResistance team, their greatest foe simply walked back where he came. He paused when he reached the railing. "Syndicate Mind. All as one word. Capitalize the 's' and the ''m'." With that, Walter left up the elevator.

Amber and Dylan looked at each other, completely perplexed by what had just unfolded. "Did...did Walter O'Hara just surrender?"

"He did more than just that" Corey called over. "We're in!"

"What?" Tommy cried as he sprinted over to where Corey was by the computer.

"Walter just gave me Cassius's password! We now have access to the entire Syndicate Database!"

"Who would have thought Walter had a conscious?" Dylan remarked.

"Ryan?" Amber asked admiringly. "How did you know?"

"An old friend taught me not to judge others by their appearance" Ryan explained. "She was referring to Pokémon, but I think it applies to all people. Walter may have done really bad things, but that doesn't mean he's pure evil. He was just blinded by power, like all adults seem to be in some way."

"Well, in any case" Corey continued, "we can access everything that Cassius had in these computers!"

"Good" Amber cheered. "Start erasing it. Then, we can set off one of those ES things in here and-"

"Hold on" Ryan called to the group. "What about that Poké Ball creating machine?"

"What about it?"

Dylan smacked his head. "Of course. We were just going to talk about that!" Dylan went through what he had learned from the email dump all of them had received from Julia and Amanda. "There was something in here that was weird. Something about a Poké Ball that could snatch up any Pokémon without fail."

"How is that possible?" Amber asked. "That would be too powerful."

Corey looked at them as if the two had multiple heads. "You guys mean the Master Ball?"

Dylan and Amber both flung the same dense glance at him. "The Master Ball?" they asked in unison.

Corey sighed. "The Master Ball. It was a top secret project that a company in Kanto was working on. Officially, they failed to achieve this goal."

"And unofficially?" Amber asked.

"There are ten Master Balls in the world, right now" the most bookish ArcResistance member explained. "But the blueprints for it vanished after the ten copies were made. At least, they were missing until now. Hunter apparently had access to them, but we don't know if he ever made any from them."

"I think we should test out the blueprints in the machine" Ryan suggested. "Then, if it works, we can destroy those blueprints and give that Master Ball to Michael for safekeeping."

"Good idea" Tommy agreed.

{Meanwhile}

On the Observation Deck, Elezar and The Grand Master oversaw their plans, with Elezar beginning to feel a little panicked. The Leader of the Syndicate had not expected nearly half of his fellow leaders of their enterprise to have been bested so quickly.

"Archer. Hunter. Lily. Lena. Walter. That leaves only seven of us left, and Michael hasn't even been in direct action against one of them yet."

Perhaps you have once again underestimated your opponents, Elezar.

"We need the Guardians to hold the line!" Elezar snapped.

No, you do. It has become increasingly clear to me that you completely lack your father's problem solving capabilities.

Elezar shook his head at the darkness. "Not yet. I just need to rethink my strategies!"

Michael Kingston and his team are already in the Base. It will not take them long to dispatch of your precious little team that's protecting you.

"Perhaps then, you could provide us with some time?" Elezar asked. "It would be of great service to our cause if you were to."

You expect me to act as a shield for you?

"No" Elezar insisted. "Just to cause a temporary distraction."

The Grand Master was silent for a moment before answering. Fine. I shall assist you here, but only because I am amusing myself to your wretched pleas for help. I will support the cause of the Syndicate. But this is the last time I shall help you. If your defenses do not hold, see that you don't blame me! The Grand Master's eyes shined a piercing blue.

{Meanwhile}

"I can assure you, Lord Elezar" Nadine said proudly as she conversed with him and the rest of the Syndicate Admins via a communication link, "that I will not allow these imps to trespass in our domain for a moment longer. I will expel them with all of my power."

"Which is limited to begin with" Matthew snapped in the call. "This isn't some kid you have to abduct, Nadine. You're going up against one of The Elite Four."

"And what should I care?" Nadine declared. "They can be beaten just like any other ordinary trainer."

"Use caution" Elezar warned her. "They may not be invincible, but they might as well be."

Nadine looked behind her and heard the doorway to her domain open. "It's showtime." With that, she ended the call and turned her attention back towards whoever was coming her way. "You have a lot of nerve coming here by your lonesome, Mark!"

"What can I say" Mark said as he reached the main level of Nadine's chamber. "I was born with nerves of steel."

"Oh really?" Nadine growled. "Then I guess you ought to show me how strong you truly are."

Mark reached for a Poké Ball on his belt. "I guess I don't have a choice. Go! Pikachu!"

"Go Parasect!" Nadine sent out her infamous sleep-inducing Pokémon to combat Mark's small electric Pokémon. The two Pokémon glared at each other as their battle commenced.

{Meanwhile}

The Poké Ball Creator shook wildly while it tried to formulate the recipe for the Master Ball. At first, Ryan and his friends were afraid they had broken the machine, but once it calmed down, they realized that this was just how much power it needed to perfect the Master Ball. After a minute of the machine calming down, a bell went off to signal that the ball had been crafted.

"Let's see how it worked" Amber said, hurrying over towards the opening out of the machine. As she and the others approached, they looked in awe at the Master Ball. It was certainly different from a Poké Ball. For one thing, it was a deep shade of amethyst and was singled out by a boisterous 'M' in the middle of the ball, to show that it was the supreme version of the capsules used to snare Pokémon.

"This is it" Dylan said. "The Master Ball." He went to go and grab it, but Amber smacked his hand. "Ow!"

"We didn't make it for you, Dylan!" Amber snapped. "We made it to make sure it works. And now, I think we should destroy these blueprints."

"Are you kidding?" Tommy asked. "Do you realize how-"

"How dangerous these things are in the wrong hands?" Amber finished sternly. "This isn't a game, Tommy. These could mean that criminals would use these to successfully steal other trainer's Pokémon without much of a hassle." She shook her head insistently. "No. We have to destroy these blueprints before anymore Master Balls can be made."

"But-"

"Amber's right" Ryan told his friend. "Imagine if some thief just decided they were going to steal one of your Pokémon. With a Master Ball, they couldn't be refused."

Tommy sighed. "I guess you're right."

Amber came over to Ryan and offered him the Master Ball. "Take this to Michael. I know he will have the right idea of how to deal with this."

Ryan nodded. "Of course."

Tommy rushed over to Ryan's side. "Let me come with you. I want to help save Addy!"

Ryan shook his head. "No can do, Tommy. This fight is only going to get harder from here. Stick with these guys and when you're finished, head out to join the other Gym Leaders and Arcana Police Force members." With that, Ryan made his way back up after where Walter had fled to, but not before his friends called back to him.

"Ryan!" Dylan shouted. "Take 'em down!"

"Show those goons what being a hero is all about!" Corey added.

"We're all rooting for you" Amber threw in.

"Take Matthew down!" Tommy cheered.

Ryan nodded to all four of them and made his way back towards the elevator. They can take care of the generators and what's left to do around here. Now, all I want to do is find Addison, crush Matthew and make sure all of my friends are okay. Ryan triggered the elevator to take him back up and took a deep breath to brace himself for whatever came next as the doors closed behind him.