Chapter 10

Concussion

"You fool!"

Silver stares down Sabrina, who steps away from the computer which she just fought Ariana over.

"Do you realize what you've done?" Silver continues. "You've unleashed thousands – no, millions of Pokémon out into the wild!"

"Did you want them to suffer under the ministrations of these Rockets?" Sabrina replies. "They are down here torturing Pokémon. We can't just let them go on with it."

"By now Johto is probably half full of Pokémon," Gold says. "There were legions of them. Now we're totally screwed."

"Wait a minute," Whitney says.

She turns to Archer and Ariana. "You wanted this, didn't you?"

Both of the Rockets smile. "It's not our problem," Archer says.

"What do you mean, it's not your problem?" Whitney says. "If these Pokémon are now on the loose, how are you ever going to take over the world? They're going to be too tough a force to reckon with!"

"I think you misunderstand the situation," Archer replies. "Every last one of those Pokémon belongs to us. We engineered the PC in such a matter that we have control over every Pokémon that was there. So now, all these Pokémon will obey us – and no one else."

Whitney laughs. "That isn't possible."

But Jasmine looks nervous. "Whitney, we might be in big trouble."

Ariana then points at her computer, the same one from which Sabrina worked to release the Pokémon. "Just for demonstration purposes, let's show off our power. You guys came from the Goldenrod Gym, right?"

She then hits a few buttons. "Let's take a look at this. Come on over here, have a good look."

The six trainers walk over to the computer to see what Ariana is showing them. Whitney gasps as she sees the screen.

"No!" she cries.

The screen shows dozens of Pokémon invading the underground of her Gym, where she and Gold lived. All their possessions are being destroyed by tough Pokémon such as Rhydon and Onix.

"You stop this!" Gold yells at Ariana. "We'll battle you right here and now!"

"Against what?" Ariana replies.

The Electric Pokémon which had been tortured all walk over to Ariana and Archer. "These guys are on our side," Archer says. "If you want to fight, then take on these guys. Because they're ready to torment you, the moment you make a move."

Jasmine backs away in fear, while Gold and Silver look ready to fight. Whitney then turns to Sabrina and Liza.

"Get out of here!" she tells them. "Go get us help of some sort!"

"But who knows what they'll do to you!" Liza exclaims.

"Just go! Teleport away! Find someone or something!" Whitney yells. "Now!"

Sabrina steps over to Liza. "Come on, Liza."

"But we can't leave our friends behind!" Liza says.

"It's the only way to help them," Sabrina says. "I have an idea of who to go to for help."

"But…"

Liza finally gives in, and she and Sabrina teleport away. Gold and Silver then stare down Archer and Ariana.

"You want a fight?" Silver asks.

"I'm asking you," Archer says. "Because we've got more than enough resources to destroy you."

"Then what do you want?" Gold says. "You've destroyed our home. You're destroying the world. There's nothing left for us to give to you."

"We've got an idea…" Ariana says.


The three bird Pokémon carrying the ten trainers who agreed to work together fly over the desert of Orre, with each bird going in a different direction. The land is desolate, with only rocks and cacti to be seen. As they go along, Winona sees something in the distance.

"Over there!" she says.

Her Skarmory takes the lead and flies toward the object, but just as she does, a gust of wind at gale force hits all three birds and causes them to fly in different directions. Winona, Wallace, Flannery, and Steven land in the desert, while the two Pidgeots veer off and go separate ways.

"Ow!" Steven says, as his head hit the ground. He rushes over to Flannery and shakes her awake.

"What's the matter, my love?" Flannery asks.

Steven's eyes grow big. "That's it!" he says. "We are in love… in fact, we're married! I remember it all now!"

"So do I," Wallace says, rubbing his head.

"I think that all of us hitting our heads on the ground triggered something to set us free from whatever spell was upon us," Winona says. "I am with Wallace, and Flannery is with Steven."

"Ha! I knew it the whole time," Flannery says. "But I wanted to make him sweat it."

Steven looks aghast. "Really?" he says.

"Not really!" Flannery says. "But if you think so, then maybe…"

"Oh, stop with the mind games," Winona says. "We're in the desert now and there is nothing in sight except for some rocks. If we don't find shelter or water, we could die out here."

"How's Skarmory?" Wallace asks.

"She took a hard fall and fainted," Winona replies. "She needs a Potion or something, but we can't find anything here."

"I know what to do!" Flannery says. She sends out her Torkoal and Magcargo. "You two aren't affected by the heat. But you can go through the desert and find us something. Quick, go!"

Everyone laughs as Torkoal and Magcargo move in the slowest motion possible.

"Yeah, that ain't gonna work," Steven says. "A better choice would be Winona's Pokémon. They can fly out and try to send a signal to someone that we're stuck out here."

"Okay, I'll send out my Altaria, Pelipper, and Swellow," Winona says.

She pulls the Poké Balls out and sends the Pokémon on their way.

"There are no Pokémon in this world, except for the ones we rescued and held on to," Winona says. "But someday, we will pick the pieces up and get things back to the way they were."


Giselle, Joe, Roxanne, and Brawly are riding Giselle's Pidgeot and hanging on for dear life, as the gale force winds push the Pokémon well away from the path it was on and over toward another island.

"Where the hell are we going?" Giselle yells.

"I don't know, it's your Pokémon!" Brawly replies back.

A couple minutes later, Pidgeot crashes into the ground, and all four trainers go flying. Each one of them hits their head on the ground.

"Ouch," Giselle says. "What a time for an autumn wind."

"I'm still kind of dazed," Joe says. "Where are we?"

The four trainers look up and see the ruins of a castle, with marble pillars collapsed to the ground, and extravagant turrets lying in a pile of rubble. Roxanne walks up a little closer to the ruins, before realizing where she is.

"I knew it!" she exclaims.

"Knew what?" Giselle responds.

"I knew that Arceus would lead us to where we need to go!" Roxanne says. "Giselle, you're the chosen one. You go ahead into that castle."

Giselle barks out a laugh. "Really? I'm going to go get myself dirty because I'm the quote-unquote 'chosen one'? Please."

"You don't understand," Roxanne says. "Look at where we are."

Giselle looks all around in a circle, trying to figure out her location.

"Nope, still no clue where we're at," Giselle says.

"I thought you'd figure it out by now," Brawly says. "This is the home of the Lily of the Valley Conference. This building here was the Pokémon League building. We are in the land of Sinnoh. And the person who ruled the region in this castle was…"

"Queen Cynthia!" Joe exclaims. "Giselle, we've hit the jackpot! If we're ever going to find Cynthia, this is the place!"

Giselle giggles. "I'm sure she wanted to hang out in a destroyed building for the last ten years," she says. "I thought Winona said she was in the land of Orre? We're nowhere near there. We might as well get back on Pidgeot and fly home."

"Hold on a second," Joe says. "Pidgeot looks like he fainted. We have no way of flying back, unless you've got a Revive on you."

Giselle reaches down into her pockets, finding nothing. "Well of course I have no Revives, because there are no Poké Marts anymore and there haven't been for ten freaking years! With all Pokémon being gone from this world, there was no reason any would faint anymore. So we didn't worry about finding Revives or anything of the sort."

"But now there are thousands of Pokémon on the loose in Johto," Brawly says. "What we've got to do is search this burnt-out building. Maybe we can find something in there."

"You go right ahead," Giselle says. "I'm going to go call a taxi."

She turns away, but Joe grabs her.

"Taxi?"

"I know there are no taxis. I just want to sit and cry."

"But Giselle, listen to Roxanne. There are no such things as coincidences. You were sent here for a reason. Go into the ruins and find what we're looking for."

"And exactly what is that?"

"I don't know. But it sure as hell is a lot better than crying about it."

Giselle sighs. "Fine, then," she announces. "I'm going in."

"That's what I like to hear!" Roxanne exclaims. "Go find our salvation, chosen one."

Giselle sticks out her tongue at Roxanne, then tiptoes into the destroyed castle.


Sabrina and Liza arrive back in Saffron City, where Sabrina grabs Liza's hand and starts running.

"Where the hell are we going?" Liza shouts. "Couldn't you just have teleported there?"

"My teleportation is a little off right now," Sabrina says. "Just shut your mouth and come with me."

Sabrina guides Liza over toward a destroyed building, where she moves a big piece of wood to reveal a staircase.

"Come with me," she says.

Sabrina guides Liza down the staircase, until they find a room full of boxes.

"This is a warehouse that the Silph Company used to use," Sabrina says. "These boxes are full of Master Balls, which were meant to be put out to sale right before Judgment Day."

"How do you know?" Liza wonders.

"Because I was keen to everything going on in Saffron City as the gym leader," Sabrina says. "I knew all about this project, but I was forced to keep it secret. Then I got captured by Cynthia and all hell broke loose."

"Okay," Liza says. "But that doesn't solve the problem here. What are we going to do with all these Master Balls? We can't just throw them one by one at those thousands of Pokémon. They'll stampede us if we do."

"Liza, do you know how to levitate?" Sabrina asks.

"Levitate? Of course!"

"Then all you need to do is levitate high above the Pokémon. And we won't be throwing them one by one."

Sabrina reaches out her hand, and one of the boxes bursts open, with Master Balls rolling all over the place.

"With psychic powers, I can make these Master Balls do whatever I want."

"Let me try!" Liza says.

Liza reaches out her hand, but all she can do is make a box shake.

"This is why you needed training under me," Sabrina says.

"But I'm the Pokémon League Champion!" Liza protests.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am!"

"Just shut up and listen!" Sabrina says. "You've got to focus your mind completely on the task at hand. You can't be thinking of something else at the time."

"I see," Liza says.

She reaches out her hand again, and this time she causes the box to burst open. Master Balls go rolling out in all directions.

"Now, we take control of these Master Balls with our minds," Sabrina says. "Then we levitate high above Johto, where we launch the Master Balls all over the place, hitting as many Pokémon as we can. That's the only way we're going to stop these Pokémon from stampeding the entire land of Johto and Kanto."

"Understood," Liza says.

The two of them then start breaking the boxes open with their minds, and gaining control of as many Master Balls as possible. Sabrina gets about a thousand, while Liza gets about a hundred. They then levitate up the staircase, carrying the Master Balls psychically along with them. Finally, they reach ground level, where they float away, Master Balls in tow.

"This better work," Liza says.

"What other choice do we have?" Sabrina says. "This is our best bet."

The two float off away from Kanto and toward Johto.


Giselle takes a step inside the ruins of the Pokémon League castle. She then takes that step right back.

"Okay, I did it, there's nothing here, time to go home," she says.

"No, silly!" Roxanne says. "You've got to do it."

"Fine, then," Giselle says. "But if I get killed, you're the first person I'm going to chew out."

Giselle walks into the ruined castle, with Roxanne watching from a distance. She tiptoes her way around, not seeing anything of interest.

"All this is, is a bunch of pillars of a destroyed building," Giselle says. "Nothing to see here."

She takes a step further, then suddenly feels the floor give way beneath her.

"What the-"

She goes flying down, as if she stepped into an elevator shaft.

"-hellllllllllllllll!"

She crashes into the ground after falling about three stories. She immediately gets up, then looks down in shock.

"Wait a minute," she says. "I should have died right there. Maybe I am dead. This can't be possible. I don't even feel a single ache in my body."

She turns around, before seeing a bright, glorious light, with a human figure walking closer.

"It must be Saint Peter!" she exclaims. "He's about to call my name!"

But when the figure comes closer into sight, Giselle's joy turns to panic.

"No," she says. "It can't be…"

She takes a big gasp, as the figure completely comes into view.

"Queen Cynthia!"