Here's a short interlude before tomorrow's chapter. Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.

"Who did this?" I could hear the anger in Lance's voice. He wasn't alone in this though. Kanto had erupted into chaos, and as a native, I felt more than a fair amount of anger at the situation. A dead Gym leader. Not of old age or anything so simple.

A gym leader dead at the hands of wild pokemon. There wasn't a worse time for something like this to happen. The people's faith in the league was already at all-time lows. I could already see the headlines. 'If even a gym leader isn't safe, how can we be' the headlines would proudly proclaim. They'd ignore the fact that we lived in the safest times known to mad. They'd ignore that the league had managed to prevent dozens of similar attacks in the last decade. They'd ignore all that to point at a freak occurrence.

"Who? Lance, my boy, it was the pokemon" The President spoke out in that titter of his. Charles Goodshow was an idiot. A statement like that showcased his stupidity to everyone in the room. Not like we hadn't already been aware of it. It was obvious that this wasn't a regular pokemon attack.

Hundreds of magnemites gathered in the same place? Seeking a common purpose? It was impossible. All my research on the species confirmed it. They could form swarms but never in numbers like that, and never with more than one Magnezone. The attack was reported to have involved over ten of the infernal things.

"Ace trainers have been dispatched. So far, they have not managed to find anything, but I have no doubts that we will receive a report within the week." Koga's voice spoke out. He never shouted but his self-assured tone ensured he was heard loud and clear.

"That isn't enough." Lance was seething. The boy could battle with the best of the best, but he had close to zero control over his emotions. Maybe a layman wouldn't recognise his failings, but here in a meeting with experienced politicians, he might as well be screaming his anger for us to hear.

"Apart from who, a good question would also be how" Sandor, the cerulean gym leader spoke next. A reasonable man in most situations. His only failings were his daughters. Bright trainers, but with more interest in performing for crowds than doing anything useful with their talents.

"That is something I find myself curious about. To think that hundreds of pokemon could be corralled and guided for such an attack. A truly scary thought." Koga spoke again. He was clearly rattled. I'd never heard him speak more than once in one of these meetings. The rest of us shared looks as we considered his words. Whoever organized the attack on Vermillion could do the same to a different city. To any of our cities.

"Moving on from that train of thought, what will be happening to Vermillion?" Erica finally felt the need to speak. The girl raised a good point though. Vermillion just lost a gym leader and Surge didn't have any clear heirs.

"One of his gym trainers has taken control of the gym for now. The question is if we confirm him as the new gym leader, or if we send someone else to fill the role" Koga again with the answers. His command over the ace trainers was useful for situations like this. Even if I hadn't supported his appointment, he performed his duties exceptionally well.

"Who is this gym trainer?" I asked. Gym trainers rarely ever became gym leaders in turn, and there was good reason for that. Trainers who became gym trainers were often those who had hit plateaus in their strength and sought stable employment.

"Zolt. An eight-badge trainer. He completed the circuit five years ago and has participated in the league conference twice. He was eliminated before reaching the top 16 on both those instances."

Unimpressive. That highlighted everything wrong with the gym trainer program. It was useless for building truly impressive trainers.

"He doesn't have the required pedigree to hold the position. Why are we considering this?" There had to be some reason he was even allowed to take charge of the city in the meantime.

"Vermillion just suffered a tragedy. Zolt is a familiar face to the populace. He would be more useful for establishing order in the city than any imposition the league makes"

"This doesn't mean we should grant him one of the most revered positions in our society. Gym leaders are bastions of the league. A gym leader must be strong, above all else. His strength must be beyond impeachment."

"We've heard your views on the matter, Lorelei. I would ordinarily agree with you, but this situation would present an exception to the matter. Vermillion is in a precarious situation. All in favour of granting him the position of Interim gym leader?" I watched as the screens lit up green. Fucking Goodshow. He made a good point, I recognised that but where would it end?

We of the Sevii Islands have seen where a weak gym leader can take a society. It's not pretty. Kanto would learn though. Eventually. I clicked the red button on my desk to show my protest, even though it was a token effort. Lance abstained as he usually did. I'm sure he stopped paying attention the moment we told him we didn't have a target for him to go fight. Fucking brute.

Goodshow ended the meeting after we finalised the rewards that would be given to the trainers that stepped up to ward off the attack. I felt 5,000 pokes to be an excessive reward for doing their duty but I was, once again, overruled on the matter.

A/N; Thanks for reading. Good news for those who wanted to join us on the pa-atreon page but couldn't out of fear of being double-charged. Pa-atreon now allows subscription payments (you basically only get charged on the day you register, and every thirty days after that, instead of being charged on that day and then on the first of the month. Sick, right?) We're already halfway done with chapter 31 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you can. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.