A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It's what keeps me writing. I'm sorry the last chapter took so long to write. School does that to you.

I haven't done a very good job of responding to reviewer comments, so I'll try to do that now.

Negrek: Yes. Oh yes. We've got conspiracies galore brewing here—all of them about to coincide with Dylan, Lily, and Sky.

Redemmo: Interesting idea, but I think Lily's probably just going to stay a normal girl. At least—almost normal...

Van Skylion: I might have said this before, but I'd love to collaborate sometime, after I finish with The End Days.

And now, ze storie.

Throughout fiction, and sometimes history, there have been countless moments when something earth-shattering began with a relatively small thing. A peasant glances in a window and sees something that sparks a war. A king cuts his finger and bleeds to death, leaving a kingdom in chaos. A poet writes a verse that begins a rebellion.

One such moment happened as the moonlight glinted off of the small red and white sphere.

When Dylan and Sky saw the Pokéball the Rocket was clutching, they stood paralyzed by shock for a moment. As the scruffy-looking Rocket pressed the release button on the ball, Dylan and Sky simply stared, paralyzed by the idea that a criminal possessed a Pokémon—one of the most powerful weapons in the world.

They might have stayed frozen as the Magnemite paralyzed them with loops of electricity and the Rockets dragged them off. Team Rocket might have stood unopposed, with their secret never revealed until it was too late. They might have succeeded in their mad goal, and a hundred years of death and terror might have resulted.

This could very well have happened, except that two months ago a car repairman had sneezed.

When he sneezed, he was momentarily distracted from his work, and he forgot a few turns of a screwdriver.

The car had worked fine until the day before, when the brakes had jammed momentarily, and the car had clipped a dog.

The dog, not dead but with a severe limp that bordered on being crippling, had slunk away into an alley. It had lain there, unable to walk away, until the moment a cat walked into the alley.

The dog, injured and angry, had snapped at the cat.

And the cat yowled just as the Rocket was releasing his Pokémon.

The sound snapped Dylan out of his paralysis. He realized that he was not defenseless, and he grabbed the Geodude's Pokéball from the pocket of his jeans. The Rocket gaped incredulously as Dylan drew it out and pressed the glowing red button.

Two brilliant flashes lit up the darkened street for a moment.

Through the afterimage of the light, Dylan saw Geodude sitting calmly in front of something that looked like a pinball with one eye and a pair of horseshoe magnets sticking out to the sides. It hovered about five feet off the ground, making a low humming noise that made Dylan feel as though someone's nails were scraping on a blackboard.

The Rocket weighed up the two Pokémon for a second.

Taking advantage of his indecision, Dylan said, "Defense Curl, Geodude." The Rock Pokémon wrapped its arms around itself and crunched into a smaller shape. The Rocket apparently made a decision, because he held up a hand to his companions, telling them to wait for something. "Magnemite, Thundershock!" he said. The magnets on either side of the floating thing crackled with electricity. "Geodude, Tackle!" said Dylan quickly. Geodude went into a somersault, rolling towards the Magnemite. It slammed its hands onto the ground, propelling it up and towards the other Pokémon. Just as it jumped, the Magnemite made a harsh crackling noise, and a chain of electricity leapt from its magnets to Geodude. Geodude plowed into the Magnemite at about forty miles an hour.

The Magnemite reeled in the air for a moment, but collected itself. "Again," said Dylan to Geodude. "Magnemite, Thundershock," the Rocket said. Another arc of electricity leaped from the Magnemite to Geodude. Dylan winced, but when he looked again, Geodude didn't appear to have even noticed that it had been attacked. It tackled the Magnemite again. Dylan was scared stiff at the prospect of losing, but the battle seemed to be going quite well. The Magnemite's two attacks hadn't bothered Geodude in the slightest, while the Magnemite was looking distinctly wobbly, and its metal skin was looking slightly scratched and battered.

"Tackle," ordered Dylan again.

For all his dazed look, the Rocket was not a fool. He could see that Thundershock was ineffective against Geodude, so he changed tactics. "Tackle," he told his Pokémon.

The two Pokémon collided in midair. Geodude still appeared unfazed. The Magnemite was not so lucky. It was not hovering perfectly steadily anymore. It wobbled in midair, and there was a large dent in its metal hide.

The Rocket looked worried now. He signaled to his companions as Dylan ordered another Tackle. Geodude slammed its heavy body into the Magnemite again, bearing the smaller Pokémon to the ground.

The Magnemite floated up again, but it didn't seem to be doing it consciously. It was not really hovering anymore, but performing a loop over and over in the air. The Rocket recalled it.

Dylan felt a glow of pride for his Geodude and happiness at the victory.

The glow faded when a Pokémon appeared in front of each of the other two Rockets.

One of them looked like a Pokéball with eyes, and was making a crackling noise like radio static. Dylan knew that it was a Voltorb, another Electric Pokémon. The other looked like a puddle of greenish-purple slime, except that it had two eyes and a pair of pseudopod-like appendages that looked vaguely like arms. A mouth opened near the top of the thing's head-lump. It made a disgusting squelching noise.

"Voltorb, Screech!" said the female Rocket. The thin, ratty-looking one said, "Grimer, Pound."

The Voltorb made a noise like microphone feedback. Geodude winced and slumped over a little bit. The Grimer, meanwhile, extended one of its appendages farther than any normal arm could reach, and slammed Geodude with all its might.

Dylan couldn't think of anything to do except order another Tackle. Geodude slammed into the Grimer.

The Rockets ordered another Screech/Pound combination. Geodude was obviously weakening.

"Come on, Geodude, you can do this," he said. In reality, he was not so sure. Geodude slammed the Grimer again. The Poison Pokémon looked like it would be finished off by one more Tackle.

But there was no way Geodude could take on the Voltorb afterwards.

The Skinny guy seemed to realize that his Grimer was almost finished. He sneered. "Grimer, Poison Gas." The Grimer weakly lifted its "head". Opening its mouth, it expelled a cloud of green gas right into Geodude's face.

The effect of the poison was immediate. Geodude's muscles slackened, and its eyes took on a glazed, feverish look. Dylan knew that the poison wasn't lethal, at least to another Pokémon, but it would render Geodude completely unable to battle in a very short time, especially weakened as the Rock Pokémon already was.

"Tackle!" cried Dylan desperately. Geodude managed to slam itself into the Grimer. The slimy creature lost all semblance of shape. It oozed into a puddle of slime, without any recognizable head or arms, just a pair of eyes in a lump of goo. The skinny Rocket recalled it.

Geodude turned to face the Voltorb.

And slumped over unconscious, the poison's work finished.

Trembling, Dylan recalled his Pokémon. The Rockets grinned. "Now, why don't you just come with us," said the sleepy-looking one.

"No," said Sky, stepping forward.

The Rocket scowled. "Stay out of this, brat." Sky faced him defiantly. "Dylan isn't going with you," he said. "We can yell loud enough to wake up the whole street. You won't get away with this."

The Rocket smirked. "Oh, you'll wake up the street. And just what, exactly, will the street be able to do against a Pokémon? Voltorb isn't even weakened. Your Geodude didn't touch it once."

He looked thoughtfully at Sky. "Joanne. Why don't you start with this one? Maybe it'll help persuade the Imena brat." The creepy-looking girl smiled and said, "Voltorb. Get the redhead." She grinned even wider. "Make it slow."

The Voltorb rolled towards Sky, crackling menacingly. It didn't look very imposing for one of the most dangerous weapons in the world. But in a very short time, it would end Sky's life.

Dylan cast about wildly for an idea. They couldn't run—despite their rolling way of motion, Voltorb were among the fastest Pokémon known to man. They couldn't fight it—it could probably paralyze them effortlessly with the electricity sparking through its body.

The sensation that had been nagging Dylan all day reappeared—like there was something just out the corner of his eye, or like there was a grain of sand in it. But this time, it didn't go away when he rubbed his eyes. In fact, it was growing stronger by the second. There seemed to be a clump of fog or something in front of them. But not something that obscured vision; it was more like it was impossible to look directly at it.

The Voltorb sensed it too, and stopped rolling, looking uncertainly at the clump of weird fog that hung in the air. The fog was rapidly condensing. Within a few seconds, it had become a cloud of purple and black smoke.

Smoke with a face floating in the center.

"Specter!" cried Sky. Specter turned to give Sky an affectionate smile. Then he turned back to the Voltorb.

There was no affection in his gaze now.

Specter seemed to swell, radiating outwards and filling the empty space. Although he didn't seem to actually be growing in size, it was as if there was a presence around him that was swelling as if to fill the whole world. The Voltorb's crackling noises stopped. It was shaking with apparent terror.

For that matter, the Rockets weren't looking very happy either.

Sky, on the other hand, was overjoyed. "What are you doing here?" he asked Specter happily. Specter turned briefly to send a quick mental image that went to both Sky and Dylan—an image of Sky defending Specter against what appeared to be a vast, malevolent shadow.

"That day in the Tower," Dylan murmured. "You saved his life." But Sky wasn't listening.

He was training his Pokémon.

"Specter, Lick!" he ordered, pointing a finger at the Voltorb as if accusing it of some terrible crime. Specter was only too happy to obey. He flicked his tongue, shooting a gob of venomous spit at the Electric Pokémon.

Before it could hit, the Voltorb exploded into glowing red dots that swirled into its Pokéball like water going down a drain. The Lick attack spattered onto the dirt.

The three Rockets fled into the night.

Specter turned to Sky. In his mind, Sky could see Specter hunting down the terrified Rockets in the dark, paralyzing them one by one and bringing them back to Sky.

Sky shook his head. "No," he said. "Now, we should probably go see what's going on at Dylan's house." Dylan realized that he his family had gone right out of his head as he and Geodude were battling the Rockets. Now he suddenly was gripped by worry. His family was in danger.

Maybe mortal danger.

They approached the front door and Dylan carefully tried the knob, but it was locked. He looked underneath the Welcome mat, but the Rockets had apparently found the key that was normally kept there.

For a moment, they stood there, unsure what to do next. Then Dylan realized. "Specter!" he said. "Can you go through the door, and search the house?"

Specter just hovered for a moment. Then, he floated forward and passed silently through the locked door.

Dylan sighed and sat down on the doorstep. Sky watched curiously as his friend twitched impatiently.

"I can't stand waiting like this!" Dylan said. "What if Specter comes back and says my family is dead?"

"He won't," Sky said. "Don't worry. Team Rocket might be crooks, but they would never go so far as to murder someone. If that happened, they'd be in a lot more trouble than just for petty theft."

"Why should they be scared about getting in trouble?" asked Dylan. "They have Pokémon! What can the police do about that?"

Sky didn't have an answer.

Specter floated through the darkened living room. He had searched the house thoroughly, and now all that remained was the basement. He floated through the floor, and hovered a few feet above the floor of the basement.

The darkness whispered to him. He did not have night vision—that was the province of Umbreon and its ilk—but he was a creature of the dark. The night knew him and welcomed him.

Anything he wanted to know, it told him.

There were no people in this house. The currents of shadow washed over his face and he read them like echolocation. He drifted through the rooms of the basement, but every one was the same.

Empty.

He floated up again, through the basement ceiling. This time he was in the kitchen. He started to float back out the door, but he stopped. There was something on the table—something he had missed before. He floated over, tasting the darkness around it.

It was a folded piece of paper. Specter extended a tendril of his wispy body and wrapped it around the square of paper. He lifted it off the table to examine it.

Suddenly, a yell shattered the silence. His mind registered it, breaking it down into its various components.

It was his master's voice. The primary emotion tracer in it was surprise, tinged with a shade of anger. Underlying this was the purple sound of fear. Ghost Pokémon knew fear very well. They were very good at identifying it.

This process took about a thousandth of a second. Then Specter made a decision. The human that had saved his life—one of the only three humans that had done him kindness in his very long lifetime—was in danger. Specter would help him.

He shot in the direction of the sound with eerie speed.

As he went, he listened to the shadows.

Sky was trying to convince Dylan that his family was fine when a whirling blade nearly took his head off.

He yelled, throwing himself onto the ground and pulling Dylan down with him. He rolled over and looked in the direction the attack had come from. He caught a glimpse of a round shape before a voice said "Flash." A sudden eruption of light blinded him. His pupils, expanded to their fullest in the darkness, had received the full force of the Flash attack.

He groped blindly through a haze of dancing purple spots. He heard a hiss that he recognized as Specter, and a man's voice making a noise of surprise. He felt around for something to hold onto, waiting for his vision to clear.

Then he felt something grab his arm. "Run!" said Dylan's voice from somewhere around his left ear. Sky ran, tugged along by Dylan. As they raced through the night, Sky could hear the noises of someone pursuing. His vision was clearing, and he could see square shapes that he figured were houses.

The breathing of whoever was pursuing them was growing harsh and labored, and finally Sky could hear it growing fainter as they outdistanced whoever it was. Finally, Dylan stopped running. Sky rubbed his eyes frantically, and his vision started to return. He looked up and realized that they were standing in front of is house.

"What do we do now?" he asked Dylan.

"We go inside and ask Specter what he found in my house."

Sky looked around and realized that Specter had followed them. The Ghost Pokémon was hovering in the shadow of a streetlamp, its eyes staring inscrutably out of its invisible head.

Sky turned around to see Dylan walking up his driveway. He hurried after him. They walked into Sky's kitchen.

"Where's your dad?" said Dylan. Sky looked at the refrigerator, where his father always left a note if he went somewhere. There was a Post-it on the fridge. Sky walked over and pulled it off.

Sky: Have gone over to the Andros house for drinks. Will be back by 10:30. Don't stay up too late.

Dad

"He's over at Lily's," Sky said. He sat down at the kitchen table. "Okay Specter, what'd you find?" The Gastly drifted over to him and looked deep into his eyes. Sky saw a mental image of Specter going through the whole house, but finding no one.

"There wasn't anybody there," said Sky. Dylan was starting to look really frantic.

"Where are they?" he moaned.

Sky tried to calm him down. "Hey, look, at least Specter didn't find them dead, okay? No news is good news." Specter floated over to them. Sky looked up at him. "What is it, Specter?"

The Ghost Pokémon dropped a folded piece of paper onto the table between them. Dylan reached out and picked it up.

"It's a note," he said, unfolding it. "It's my father's handwriting." He read it aloud. "Dylan,

Don't worry. We're OK. TR will not kill us. I know why they want us. Get out of
Lavender. U r in danger too. Possibly your friends as well. U and the Androses and Sky and his dad must get out. Do not come back. Notify Indigo. Love You, Dad."

"He wants us to get help," said Dylan. "He wants us to leave."

"Well," said Sky, "I guess we better head over to Lily's house, then." Dylan looked at him as if we were crazy. "We can't leave! We have to find them!"

"Dylan," said Sky, "Think about it. I know you're worried about your family, but there's nothing we can do. Team Rocket is hunting you down, with Pokémon. The police in Lavender can't help either. There's no way they can do anything against Pokémon."

Dylan shook his head. "I can't just leave them here! I have to find my family!"

Sky sighed. "And I thought you were the rational one." He walked to the door. "Well, good luck!"

"What?" said Dylan. "Where are you going?" Sky turned.

"To help my family, of course," he said. "You read your dad's note. My dad is in danger, and so is Lily's family. If they have to leave town, they'll need me. Without Specter, they'll never survive the journey to Cerulean." He paused a moment. "Actually, with just one Pokémon for protection, they still might not."

Dylan thought for a moment. Finally, he reached into his pocket and brought out Geodude's Pokéball. He held it out to Sky. "Here," he said. "Two Pokémon ought to do it."

Sky shook his head. "Dylan, if you're determined to go up against Team Rocket, I can't stop you. But for my family's sake, I can't help you." He paused. "I also can't take your Pokémon."

Dylan looked at him for a second. He thought about what Sky was saying. It made sense, but he didn't want to listen. His family had been captured by criminals! How could he run away to Cerulean and leave them in danger?

"Look," said Sky, "I'm not suggesting that you just leave. But we have to get my dad and Lily's family out of Lavender. We can train our Pokémon on the way, because now they're not strong enough to go against the Rockets. But we'll come back with stronger Pokémon and help your family. Your dad said that Team Rocket won't kill them, and the Rockets aren't going anywhere. They'll be here when we come back."

Dylan looked at the floor. He knew that Sky was right, but leaving his family felt so wrong. How could his father be sure that the Rockets wouldn't kill them?

"All right," he said, returning Geodude's ball to his pocket. "You go get your family. I need to go back to my house."

Sky wrinkled his forehead, confused. "Why?"

"I need the trainer stuff I got along with Geodude," said Dylan. "Especially the Antidote. Geodude needs to rest and get back his strength, but he can't with that Grimer's poison in his system."

"Okay," Sky said. "We'll come pick you up by your house after I get the others to leave tow."

"How about I meet you by the gate instead?" said Dylan. "I don't like the idea of spending too much time at my house. The Rockets could come back any time, so I'd rather just get the stuff and get out."

"Fine," said Sky, heading for the door. "See you in a few." Dylan followed him out and headed back the way they had came, while Sky headed for Lily's house.

Dylan reached his house a minute later. He knew the door was locked, so he headed around the back. There was a porch sticking out from the back of the house, with an old wooden ladder going up to it. Dylan climbed up to the porch and opened one of the windows. He crawled in, looking around himself in the darkened hallway.

He walked down the hall to his room, pushing open the door. On his desk where he had left it was the box his grandfather had left for him. He started to take it, then realized he wouldn't be able to carry it around with him very easily.

Dylan walked over to the closet and rooted around inside, looking for his backpack. He pulled it out and walked back over to his desk.

He started to load up his backpack, taking a mental inventory as he did so. Ten potions, five burn heals, five paralyze heals, and ten antidotes. There was also a field guide on Pokémon and a white box with SURVIVAL KIT stamped across the cover.

Underneath all of that were five empty Pokéballs. Dylan started to leave them, but stopped. You never knew what you might need, he thought, slipping them into the backpack along with the other stuff.

Then he stuffed in a few changes of clothes and a pocketknife. Shouldering the pack, he went back out through the window, closed it, and began to climb back down the ladder.

Sky knocked on the door to Lily's house. He heard a voice inside say "Get that, would you?" He heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the door. Lily opened it.

"Hey Sky," she said. "What is it?"

How can she always tell when there's something wrong? "Um, that's gonna take a little bit of explaining," said Sky. "Can I come in? I need to tell you something important."

"Sure," said Lily, giving him a funny look. "Where's Dylan?"

"He's at his house," said Sky, stepping inside. "Actually, that's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about."

They walked into the kitchen. Sitting down at the table, Lily said, "So what is it?"

Sky told her.

She looked at him, wide-eyed. "My parents will never believe this."

Sky sighed with relief. "You believe me?" She laughed. "If you think I can't tell when you're lying and when you're telling the truth, you've been out in the sun too long. I've known you long enough."

"Okay," said Sky. "First step is to tell our parents. You gotta go ask to talk to them. I'll tell my dad."

"No," said Lily. "We should tell them together."

Sky was confused. "Why?"

"Because they'll want to hear it from you. They won't listen if I say 'Sky told me...'. They'll want to hear you tell it."

So they went it to the living room, and Sky explained everything.

"Sky, I don't want to call you a liar but...." Lily's dad looked embarrassed. "This isn't some kind of a joke, is it?"

Sky tried to think how to answer.

Fortunately, he was spared from that necessity when a spinning, star-shaped blade crashed through the huge patio window and lodged above the mantle. "Get down!" Sky yelled, throwing himself onto the floor.

A female voice spoke from outside. "Don't do anything stupid. That was a Swift attack. It can kill you from out here if you twitch. Cover won't help." Sky recognized the voice. It belonged to the female Rocket who had the Voltorb.

"Now, tell us where Dylan Imena is."

Sky lifted his head a tiny fraction. "If you followed me here, then you know where Dylan is."

"I didn't follow you. When you two outran us by the Imena hose, I decided that this would be the next place you two would go. But now I see that Dylan is not here. So tell me where he is."

"No," said Sky. They knew we would come here? How much do these people know about us?

He heard the teenage girl giving a command in a low voice to the Voltorb. Another one of the projectiles spun through the window and stuck into the floor a quarter of an inch from Sky's father's neck.

"If I told Voltorb to move that a little closer," said the woman's voice, "It would be very painful."

Sky tried to think. He knew that if Specter could battle the Voltorb, he could win, or at least buy time to get away. The problem was that if he told Specter to attack, the girl would simply have her Voltorb kill them all with Swift. That wouldn't affect Specter, but that would hardly be a comfort to Sky if he was dead.

"Specter," he breathed as loudly as he dared. Slowly, Specter materialized in front of him.

"If you don't give me an answer soon," said the girl, "I'm going to have to start injuring your friends."

"What will you do with Dylan?" asked Sky, stalling for time. Meanwhile, staring into Specter's eyes, he visualized what he wanted the Gastly to do. Specter began to fade out.

"Don't ask pointless questions," said the girl. "Answer me."

"Not until you tell me what you'll do to Dylan," said Sky, praying for Specter to hurry.

"Do you really want to find out what it feels like to be hit by a Swift attack?" said the girl.

"Wait!" said Sky, trying to sound desperate. "I'll tell you!"

"Good," she said. "Now, whe—" she seemed to choke off, sounding as though something was hampering her senses and words.

Having a Gastly wrapped invisibly around your head would do that to you, Sky thought to himself. He heard the Voltorb move closer to its owner, the crackling noise it made taking on a different frequency.

Now, thought Sky. He pushed himself to his feet and jumped through the window, covering his face with his hands. He ignored the tiny cuts all over his arms and kicked out hard at the Voltorb, which was turning around to see the source of the noise.

The tiny Pokémon went flying with the force of the kick. Sky heard it smack into the side of a building.

Meanwhile, the girl Rocket had dug her hands into Specter's semisolid flesh and pulled him off of her head. Sky ran at her, hoping to tackle her, but he heard Specter hiss a warning. Another Swift attack whirled out of the night from the direction Sky had kicked the Voltorb. Sky tried to twist his body out of the way, but the projectile still made a gash along his side. "Specter, use Lick attack on it!" he gasped.

As the Voltorb rolled closer, Specter spat a gob of venom at it. It spattered over the round Pokémon, which turned to deal with this new threat.

The female Rocket warily moved behind her Voltorb. Sky called out to the people inside. "Hide! Get out of range of this thing!"

The Rocket narrowed her eyes in anger. "Get those people! Swift attack!" she snarled. "Specter, Lick!" cried Sky desperately.

The poisonous saliva hit the Electric Pokémon in the eye. It was knocked back a little, the Swift going wild. Sky grabbed the Voltorb and threw it directly at the Rocket's face. He felt a shock like touching a doorknob, only much worse. His hand felt weak and he couldn't get the muscles in it to respond.

The Rocket, however, was in much worse shape. Her face was paralyzed, and she was incapable of giving orders to her Pokémon. Sky could see the effects slowly spreading along her body as the Voltorb sat on her face, waiting for her to tell it what to do. Sky laughed and took the Voltorb's Pokéball from her pocket, recalling the Pokémon.

He walked back to the house, calling for the others. The kitchen door unlocked, and they slowly walked out.

"It's okay," said Sky. "She's not going to be a problem for a while."

Sky's father was staring wide-eyed. "Let's get out of this town," he said. "Right now."

Ten minutes later, they had finished loading up the car with what they thought thy might need. Sky asked Lily if they had a camping tent anywhere. "One sec," she said, walking down into the basement. She returned with a large bag for a collapsible tent.

"It's a five-man," she said. Sky took it from her—it was surprisingly light—and took it out to the car. "Tell Lily we're ready to go," said Mr. Andros.

Sky went back into the house and called for Lily. "Coming!" came her voice from upstairs. She ran downstairs with her school backpack on.

They got into the Andros' minivan. It was cramped with seven people packed into it, but they didn't have much choice. Dylan was waiting by the gate to the electric fence when they pulled up. He clambered in, sitting in between Sky and Lily in the back.

They drove out of Lavender City, heading for Cerulean.

None of them saw the two pairs of eyes that watched them leave.