A/N: There are plenty of stories with Ash/Misty pairings. This pairing is, in my opinion, rather original. Yes, Silver really is her name. The Ash/Misty scenario wouldn't work here because of Red's abilities, talking with Pokemon and all. You don't see that everyday. Seth can't do it either. He can understand what they say, but he can't talk to them in Pokemon language, which is Red's special ability. For those who don't understand what's going on, know that this is the third of a trilogy. Read Global Warning and Global Meeting to get the idea and Pokemon Colosseum: Apparitions to fully understand Seth and Sera. That's all for my notes!
Ch 2
"Is this what we're looking for?" Jirachi asked as the group landed to rest near the Unknown Dungeon near Cerulean City. Celebi flitted about and pouted after a few minutes.
"They're late! I told Regice, Registeel and Regirock to be here already! I told them that last year and they still haven't gotten here? How rude!" she whined. Latios blinked and frowned.
"You know how slow they move. Especially when Regice is making an ice bridge from Hoenn to here." he lectured, "Now go get Mew!"
"I'll find the other legendary birds here. I've been in Kanto a few times myself." Ho-Oh added as he flapped and took off. Celebi giggled and popped out of the area. Lugia hunched down and sighed.
"At least we don't have to call in Deoxys for this. Who knows how he'd react if he knew a human was going to rank above him as a legendary?" he remarked. Jirachi looked around and poked at the back of Latios's head.
"WHAT? What do you want, you attention starved midget?" the dragon yelled, craning his head over his shoulder to glare at him.
"Can we get this done sometime this week? I'm supposed to only be awake for seven days and I'm down to three now. I have to grant some wishes before I can go back to my nap." he asked.
"There's a city right over there! Go there and grant a wish! Or better yet, grant mine and quit snoozing on my back!" Latios fumed. Jirachi shrugged.
"No prob." he remarked and immediately flitted over to plop himself on Raikou's back, "Wish granted. Wake me when they get back."
"Tarnation and Entei-fire! What's this runt doin' on my back?" Raikou growled and started bucking all around the group. Jirachi merely dug itself deeper into his fuzz and snored on. "Entei! Suicune! One of ya'll get this rugrat offa my back!"
"I think it's cute." Suicune cooed and snickered as Celebi returned with Mew and Mewtwo in tow.
"They got lost." Celebi remarked with a grin and hugged the Mew, "How's it going, girl?"
"Mewtwo took a wrong turn and wouldn't stop for directions. Thanks for the lift." Mew replied with a giggle. The clone pouted and rolled his eyes.
"I'm not asking directions from a Caterpie. It's humiliating." he grumbled.
"Once we get Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres to join us, we'll go to the Indigo Plateau and destroy the Earth Seal. With it gone, we can focus on getting Raykyoudon to choose the path of good and he can start learning how to deal with his new lifestyle." Celebi told the two Psychics, "We also have to find Rayquaza. I can open the door to his heart if he sees me, in case Cipher made him a Shadow Pokémon. I hope they didn't, Rayquaza has few happy memories to make him pure again."
"Get offa my baaaaaack!" Raikou continued to wail as the legendaries waited and pondered their next move.
"We will not surrender to the likes of you madmen!" Lance yelled angrily over the phone as Sera laughed on the screen. "Get your Pokémon away from this stadium! I'll breathe my last before I let you near our Pokémon or the Indigo Stadium!"
"Be prepared to follow through, then! My Rayquaza will tear your teams apart and the world will know my power!" she declared, "Once I have control of your stadium, everything will be under my control! It's only a matter of time before the eight gyms of this region fall under my command and the security defenses of the stadium are breached by your own activation badges!" She cut the connection and leaned back in her seat, smiling as the sky dragon circled the stadium, avoiding the beams of electricity and ice that shot into the air after it. Sera and Ein had set up base on the ruins of a building in the forests outside of Pallet Town. Gonzap flexed his fists and kept his eyes on the monitors that lined one wall, waiting for Ein's sensors to be tripped. He had taken a good number of them and, with help from members of Team Berserker, placed them all along the mountain range that separated Kanto from Johto.
"Come on. I know you're out there. Just wait till I get my hands on you again." he growled under his breath, "We got a lot to catch up on, Seth. A whole hell of a lot."
"Ein, dear, are you sure you've perfected the Shadow process on Rayquaza?" Sera asked as the scientist walked into the room with Fein following behind.
"Yes, yes. As long as it wears that visor, not even Celebi can restore it. It will allow it only to see x-ray images of its surroundings. Its programmed to highlight Seth's body if it comes into view so we can find him and converge on his location." Ein griped and looked at the screen. "Bugger! Send him somewhere else for a while! Rayquaza will do us no good if he keeps attacking that stadium! You'll risk damage to the Earth Seal!"
"Oh pooh, fine." Sera pouted and pressed a series of keys on the console beside her, then lifted a mike to her mouth, "Rayquaza! This is your mistress! Fly to Viridian City and prevent the gym leader from using weather attacks!"
Soaring over the Indigo Plateau, the long green dragon paused in its attack and cocked its head, listening to the orders coming through from the visor. It roared once and cut the air, cracking its body like a whip as it sped towards Viridian City.
Sera set the microphone down and looked over at Fein, eyebrow raised.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing something at the Silph Building? Teach them a lesson for not giving us the Master Ball technology!" she demanded. Fein bowed mockingly and walked out, grumbling under his breath about lack of appreciation for his work. "As for you, Ein; the Earth Seal. I want to know more about it. Daddy didn't tell me anything about his projects." Sera went on, glaring at him.
"Earth Seal is a machine built by the first team of Cipher scientists and researchers to control the elements that make up the Earth's weather." Ein began, settling into a seat and pulling out a binder full of old notes, "The machine was designed to harness the power of legendary Pokémon to bend nature to our command. But there were far too many legends and far too little evidence to prove if such legendaries existed. When we learned of the Pokémon Groudon and Kyogre in Hoenn, and of how their innate abilities to control certain aspects of weather were controlled, we took samples of their DNA from the scene of their battle."
"We attempted to recreate both Pokémon but the DNA was too badly fragmented to construct them separately, so we combined the DNA. The end result was a highly unstable Pokémon that died almost immediately after birth." he went on as Gonzap perked up at the blip that began to flash on one screen, "It was then that Evice had the idea of using the most stable DNA available to bridge the gaps in the strands and create a Pokémon that had the powers and abilities of both legendaries. Since we have technology to create artificial Pokémon, like Porygon and Porygon2, it was easy to recreate that process and insert human DNA into the equation. Yours, being young and still adaptable, made the perfect bridge to create our super-legendary. It was code-named Project: WSLY, after Evice's first son, Wesley Evice. He had died from an attack by a wild Pokémon that was diseased and fought like an insane beast."
"My brother had it coming, going off to Kanto to be a world-famous trainer and ending his life halfway through it." Sera spat coldly, "I suppose it was because of that Pokémon killing Wesley that Daddy decided to use Pokémon and enslave the world that destroyed his only son?"
"Probably, but getting back to the point. Once it was discovered that we could create a Pokémon that could already control two of the largest aspects of the weather, the Earth Seal was redesigned to take the Pokémon as its AI core and enhance the power to create a seal over the world. We would cut the Earth off from its own weather and can create weather of our own command." Ein finished, "Basically, we would become gods and use the Earth Seal to generate weather however we wanted, whenever we wanted, wherever we wanted."
"Yo, Brainiac, shut up and look at this! We got activity near us! Not more than ten, twenty miles off, near Tohjo Falls! It's gotta be Seth and his gang!" Gonzap yelled with a whoop. Sera sat up and grabbed her mike as Ein blinked in surprise.
"I have a brilliant idea!" she declared and opened the connection again, "Rayquaza! This is your mistress! Disregard previous orders! Your new target is coming in through the Tohjo Falls! Bring me the Snagger, alive! Do as you like with the others, but bring me Seth!"
"He's with a group of trainers, Sera! If one of them has a Master Ball and Seth gets a hold of it in the Snag Machine...!" Ein cried, leaning forward to stop her.
"Then I'll make sure his snagging days are over!" Sera laughed cruelly, "Rayquaza! When you have Seth in your grasp...!" Her eyes took on a mad light as the men stared at her in shock, "Destroy the Snag Machine on his arm!"
"Weather doesn't look so bad from here. It looks perfectly fine." Silver remarked, gazing skyward as the group walked towards Pallet Town.
"Kanto is usually pretty pleasant when it comes to the climate. Professor Oak must be waiting for us in his lab, though I'd hate to see if he's deteriorating any further since the last visit." Red went on and looked glum, "I hold a great deal of respect for the man, but his age and health are beginning to wear on him. He may not be with us for much longer. I only hope Gary is doing better."
"Where is the Power Plant located? The sooner we get the power restored, the sooner we'll be able to help oust Team Berserker's leader and finally stop Cipher." Seth remarked as Rui tagged beside him, feeling a strange shiver go up her spine. "If the track record runs true, the last Admin we'll have to deal with is Dakim and I can handle him just fine." He smiled up at Red and clenched his left fist tightly. "He won't be able to throw me and my Pokémon off balance with Earthquake anymore, not when I can use the same move against him!"
May and Brendan lagged behind, looking annoyed with the group. For most of the journey, neither of them had been treated well by Seth. Brendan's chin still sported the bandage and his head throbbed from the earlier blow to the head. May disliked being spurned so often when flirting. They looked at each other and nodded. Seth had to be taught some manners.
They spoke softly and quickly, watching the rest of the group for anyone who happened to look back at them. Afterwards, they ran up to join and winked at each other briefly.
"Rui, I never made mentions of this, but you look really nice in that jacket." Brendan remarked with a smile. Seth blinked and glanced their way in a mix of surprise and wariness. Rui blushed and smiled back.
"Um, thank you! That's nice of you to say!" she replied bashfully. Red frowned, but said nothing, continuing to lead the group towards the town.
"I was wondering if maybe, after all this is over, you would like to go out for dinner?" Brendan went on, "I know a great restaurant in Lilycove City where they serve excellent sushi and sashimi buffets." Seth stopped abruptly and stood before them, glaring angrily at the boy.
"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed as the rest of the group stopped in surprise. May smiled and darted around the startled Rui to stand before Seth.
"See? If they can go out together, so can we! We can make up for the sandbar incident back in Hoenn." she purred. Rui blinked and her mouth dropped open.
"Seth? Is that what happened back at...? Oh!" she stammered and bit her lip, eyes welling with tears as she clenched her hands into fists.
"Rui! It's not what you think! She's making everything up!" Seth began to reply, trying to keep his anger at Brendan and May from confusing him. "Anyways, you were hugging Brendan back at Ever Grande!" he added in the same hurt tone. The Hoenn trainers stepped back, grinning slightly as they watched their handiwork carry itself out.
"I hugged him to thank him for saving you!" Rui cried, "Ingrate! And you were off flirting with May while I was worried sick about you, weren't you?" Seth scowled.
"How could you think I was capable of that after everything I've done for you?" he snapped back, "And I clearly heard you call him your hero! What am I? Last year's news? I should have left you in that stupid sack in Pyrite, you ditz!"
"And I should have just left you to die in that miserable Shadow Pokémon Lab, you turncoat Snagger! I wish I never laid eyes on you! I hate you!"
"I wish I had shoved you off the UFO in The Under! And I hate you more!"
"Guys! What are you talking about? Stop it!" Silver shrieked, shocked by the heated argument between the Snagger and his partner. Red glared at the group, Pikachu scowling just as much.
"They did that on purpose." the mouse grumbled.
"No doubt they're getting back at Seth for something. Crappy way of doing it." Red growled. "Brendan, May. I want to talk with you a bit." he began to say in normal English when a loud slap sounded. He looked towards the fighting couple in shock. Silver yelped and covered her mouth, eyes wide with disbelief.
Seth stood before Rui, a stunned expression on his face. A bright red mark was already forming on his cheek as Rui stepped back from him. The slap had spoken volumes for how she was feeling at that moment and the Snagger had been completely unaware of the power of the emotions. The female Espeon and Umbreon sat nearby, watching the scene unfold with little interest. Seth said nothing, only gazed at Rui with that same confused look, then slowly took on a cold expression that spoke back just as much as the physical attack.
"You're not worth it." he murmured in a dark voice and turned on the group, walking ahead. Through her anger, Rui could see his stature and attitude returning to his old Snagger self full force. The realization of that broke through and she sobbed, dropping to her knees and covering her face. She had lost him.
The situation went downhill even further, as the roar of an enraged Pokémon filled the air. The heroes stopped suddenly and looked up, startled to see a sinewy green dragon come straight at them with a huge silver and blue visor on its head and its mouth gaping for them. They shrieked and scattered but Seth merely ignored it and marched on. What happened to them was nothing he should be concerned about, all he had to do was snag a few last Shadow Pokémon, then get the hell back to Orre and never think of this trip again.
Rui's scream of terror made him hesitate for a moment, just long enough for him to hear her cry his name and a warning before being crushed breathless in the grip of the dragon.
"Don't attack! You'll hit Seth!" Red ordered when the three other trainers grabbed for their Poké Balls.
"Ha ha ha! I knew you wouldn't hurt your dear little Snagger! That's right! Stare and do nothing! I will be queen of the world! I win! I win!" Sera's voice taunted from the visor on the Rayquaza's head as the dragon proceeded to pull the Snag Machine from Seth's arm. "Destroy it! Quickly! I don't want that machine used on you!"
"No!" Seth wailed as the Pokémon pulled the device free from him and held it in one fist. It tightened and the crowd gasped at the clearly audible crunch. With Sera still laughing, Rayquaza dropped the sparking and broken remains of the machine onto the grass and soared into the air, carrying a screaming and furious Seth with it. Rui cried louder, reaching for kidnapped Snagger, aware that the last moments they had together had been spent in a rage. Red turned his eyes on the two trainers and both Brendan and May paled considerably.
"I hope you two are content with your handiwork. I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to come back in their charge and kill you. Hell, I'd probably help out, the way I feel about you now." the older champion growled. Silver picked up the broken machine and gazed skyward helplessly.
"What do we do now?" she asked, "With Seth gone and the Snag Machine destroyed, how can we possibly stop Cipher and save the world?"