They came to Route 12 the next morning, which was a planky-town built upon wooden boards, stretching out over the waters beyond the forests of Route 11. Ryan and Logan bought some breakfast at a shack in the middle of the route (known affectionately as 'The Salt of My Eye'), which was situated on a small island located between the northern and southern sections of the plank bridge. After their bellies had been filled, they got directions to Lavender Town and set off down the road.

Up north, where the island met the wooden bridge, Ryan spied a brown-haired boy running about in the sand, which was quite odd, since he was fully clothed. He was waving his cell phone around, and Ryan was sure the boy was Snapchatting like this was 1999. The boy was far-off, messing about on the beach, but Ryan thought he found the trainer familiar. Before he could run up to get a closer look, out of nowhere, a tall muscled woman in nothing but a thin two-piece bikini came running over, picked the boy up, and ran off. Ryan saw the boy scream with delight and raise his hands to the sky, as if he was thanking Pokégod.

"That was odd." Ryan's voice barely rose above the crashing of the waves. Salt was heavy in the air.

"Yeah, I wonder why that woman wasn't acting her age," Logan yawned.

Further ahead, the two came to a gate on the water, which was guarded by a man that didn't look a day over 95. He swayed and braced himself against the side of the gate. It would only take a small wave to take him out. He looks more fragile than my dad's leg lamp. The man was covered in age spots, and his white, wispy hair had almost completely fallen out. What remained on his scalp seemed to blend in with his light skin. He wore a fisherman's outfit, with overalls, rubber boots, and he was holding several fishing rods; he had a nametag on his chest that read: 'Hi, my name is Old Man Jenkins'. When he saw Ryan and Logan approaching him, he opened his mouth, sucked in a gasp of air, and licked his lips.

"Uh, hi," Ryan began. "We're trying to get to Lavender Town. Is this the way?"

"Y-y-y-y-yes…" Old Man Jenkins answered hoarsely. "B-b-b-but… to g-get th-th-through… you have to b-b-buy a rod."

"Aw come on, we barely have any money," Ryan complained. "Can't you just let us through? This is extortion, man!"

The man sucked in a large gulp of air. "B-b-buy… my s-s-s-super rod or g-go h-home…" He licked his lips and looked very proud of himself. I should just push him into the water, Ryan thought. If only we didn't live in a society…

"How much are they?" Logan asked?

"Th-th-three hundred… P-p-poké Dollars…"

"Really?" Logan stepped forward and pulled something from his backpack. "This fishing rod I got in Vermillion City only cost me a hundred!" His was a nice red fishing rod, all contracted and shiny. The old man's face lit up and his eyes began to water like bowls of hot and sour soup.

"M-my word! Y-y-y-you love fishing!"

Logan smiled and nodded.

"Two h-h-hundred then. N-not a penny less, eh!"

"Deal."

Ryan stepped up and handed the man two hundred Poké Dollars as well. "Ach!" the old man squealed. "Y-y-you don't love f-fishing l-like th-that boy."

"I do too."

"Show me your rod." Ryan frowned and shook his head. "Th-three hundred then!"

"Fine. Here you go." Ryan handed away much of the remainder of his money for a long blue rod. Why does it always seem like I'm running out of money between gyms? This Pokémon journey sure is a ripoff.

The elderly gentleman waddled up to the gate, shook it a couple times, then scratched his head. "Must've le-left the keys in the sh-sh-shack…"

"We can go get them for you," Logan offered. The old man waved him off and then began to hobble back down the road, back to 'The Salt in Your Eye'.

"This is gonna take forever!" Ryan complained, taking off his backpack to sit on the wood, his feet dangling over the churning waters below. "That guy's a conman. He made us buy his stupid rods to get through because no one would do that otherwise. I bet his business is in shambles."

"I thought he was nice," Logan beamed. "He gave me a discount." That just made Ryan more angry, but before he could say anything else, Logan unclamped his super rod, put a hook and bait on its tip, and threw it into the water. "Come on, let's fish. You're right about one thing, Ryan. It's going to be a long time before he gets back."

So Ryan did. About two hours and endless fruitless reel-ins and lost baits later, Ryan caught his first Pokémon by fishing - a nice little Poliwag. "Poliwag, the Tadpole Pokémon. The direction of the spiral on the belly differs by area. It is more adept at swimming than walking," Dex spoke once it was over.

"Alright," Ryan yelled. "I caught a wicked cool Pokémon!"

Logan himself looked like he had caught a Tentacool, and he was finding a Poké Ball for it. "Hate to break it to you Ryan, but that's a pretty common Pokémon. I bet all of the people who fish over here have a million Poliwags."

Ryan's triumph crashed and burned faster than Buddy Holly. "Aw man," he said, his shoulders slinking forward. "Why do you always have to be a downer, Logan?"

But before Logan could reply, up came the slow-moving man, known to Ryan only as the super rod swindler, who was probably of the sea, and in the boy's humble opinion, quite ready to return to it.

"Got some sweet lemonade," Old Man Jenkins boasted with a sly grin. "A-a-anyone w-want any?"

Ryan's eyes lit up. He loved sweet things. "I do!"

The old man laughed, which soon descended into a fit of coughing. He sounded like he had smoked every day of the past seventy years with those lungs. "Hahaaaaachaaach! W-w-well y-you can't ha-have any! It's mine!"

The man jerked the cup back as Ryan went for it, and in so doing, he too lost the lemonade, as it fell into the sea below. I have never been happier in my life, Ryan thought.

Old Man Jenkins didn't seem to mind losing his lemonade, even if it was probably the last glass he would ever have hope of drinking. He ushered the boys over to the gate and unlocked it for them. Once they were through, he slammed it shut and shouted, "T-t-tell your friends! Old M-man J-j-j-jenkins sells the b-best super rods in K-kanto!"

Yeah, I'll tell all my friends. I'll tell them all how much of a con artist you are. But the good news is, you probably won't be around the next time any of us come down the route. Up ahead, the planky bridge met the shore, and a deep and foreboding forest awaited them. On a sign just outside of the forest the words 'Lavender Town Ahead' were written. And on the corner of the sign, Ryan saw a bit of graffiti that he thought was shaped in the Team Rocket logo, but it was so small and sloppy, he couldn't be sure. Either way, Ryan was now one step closer to getting the ghost Pokémon he knew he would need to help him defeat Sabrina. Just a little bit farther, he assured himself, and before I know it, I'll be in Celadon City with Rahul and Alex.

The fog rolled in like a chain smoker spontaneously combusting in an armchair. Lavender Town was a small town, smaller than what Ryan was used to; and he thought it looked even smaller in the dimming light of the evening. He was a city boy, so seeing a little settlement enclosed on all sides by the forest, with very few buildings, aside from the very tall one in the center of town, was quite off-putting.

"You ever been here before?" he asked Logan.

"No, never! I always thought this place was too spooky."

Ryan sighed and led them up the path to the town's entrance. There, they were met by a man who looked like he had just seen a ghost. His eyes were bugging out of his head, his hair was roughed-up, and he was running about in circles. When he saw the two boys, he cried out:

"Welcome to Lavender Town! I'm integral peasant #37!"

"Hi," Logan said.

"Don't go in there. Turn around and go home! Never set foot in that haunted place!" the man warned them as spittle flew from his mouth in majestic arcs. "It's a terrible, gruesome, frightful place! Never go to Lavender Town, that's what I always tell them! They should burn it to the ground, I say! Get me some wood! Wood! Don't go in there, ah!"

"Why not?" Ryan asked.

"It's pandemonium… Team Rocket… came in… took everything over… the ghosts… the horror… the horror…"

The man fell down to the dirt, assumed a fetal position and started muttering to himself.

"We're looking for a ghost Pokémon to challenge the Saffron City Gym Leader," Ryan explained. "Any idea where we could find one?"

"Flee!" the man screeched. "I'm only human; don't let them take my soul!"

"Alright, let's go," Ryan said, stepping over the man. Logan followed him into the town.

He wasn't wrong, Ryan admitted, observing Lavender Town from the inside. People were running about, some shrieking, some yelling. Pokémon battles between residents and Team Rocket lackeys clothed all in black were spreading across the streets. There were shrill screams seemingly emanating from the skyscraper of a tower in the distance. Streetlights flickered. Confetti flew through the air. A spotlight seemed to be waving back and forth in the distance. Ryan saw an Officer Jenny chasing two Team Rocket acolytes, with her Growlithe at her side.

"Looks like we got here just in time," Ryan said, turning to Logan.

Logan's eyes were wide and he was shivering. "We should find a place to sleep and look for a ghost in the morning!"

"Don't be a scaredy-pants," Ryan scolded. "Everyone knows you can only find ghosts at night."

"Oh please, I'm scared of ghosts! I don't want to do this!"

"Then hide behind me. It's me who needs to catch the ghost Pokémon anyways."

"O-okay…"

"I wonder what Team Rocket is doing here…" Probably nothing good. After we foiled their plot in Pewter City, I'm sure they're up to something devious.

Further into town, the fighting and screaming got thicker, as did the smoke. Ryan realized something was burning. There's a serious battle going on here. It's not like when we fought them. Where did all of these Team Rocket jerks come from anyways? I thought Team Rocket was decaying…

"You there!" came a voice, high and cold as a banshee. Ryan spun around and Logan groaned in fright. Up to them ran a woman, covered in a thick purple velvet coat. Her skin was a deathly white, and her black hair reached nearly down to her knees. She wore a purple bandana and black-and-white fingerless gloves. She was old… in her thirties or forties, maybe. In her hand was a Poké Ball. "Are you two with Team Rocket?"

The boys shook their heads meekly. They gaped at the woman, who is, shall we say, full of figure. Despite the heavy coat, certain aspects of her physique were very much apparent to the naked eye. Nice bod, Ryan thought. Just what I like.

"Oh, then what are you doing here?" she asked, slightly taken aback.

"I'm here to capture a ghost Pokémon before my battle against Sabrina in the Saffron City Gym!" Ryan declared. He felt his ears go red after he saw how the woman stared at him.

"Now's not a good time for that. We're under attack. Team Rocket is trying to capture all of the ghost Pokémon in Lavender Town," the woman explained. "Can you help us stop them?"

"I guess."

"Great! I'm Sydney by the way," the woman said, putting out a hand. Ryan shook it and felt a tingling finger spiral up from his fingertips to his breast. He and Logan told her their names too. "Most of them are located around the Pokémon Tower," Sydney said, not noticing. She pointed at the huge megalithic structure just ahead of them. "It's crawling with Team Rocket trainers. And they're shooting that beacon in the sky, see? It's flashing something up into the air, and it's been doing that for the past few days. I'm not sure what they're trying to do with that, but we have to stop them."

"I'm on the case!" Ryan said. Maybe she'll like me if I show her how strong my Pokémon are. He started to run forward when Sydney grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back.

"Whoa cowboy. We can't just rush in. There's too many trainers and Pokémon!"

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Ryan gave the woman his best puppy-dog eyes, but she didn't seem to take the hint.

"We're going to sneak around and hit them from behind. And to do that… we're going to have to go underground. I was going to do this myself… but three of us will be better."

"Underground?" Logan squeaked.

"We're going to take the old sewer system under the Pokémon Tower and come out just behind it. Then we can hit them before they know what's going on."

"Alright! Let's go!" Ryan once again went to run off when Sydney grabbed him and pulled him back.

"I need a leash for you," she chuckled. Yes please, thought Ryan. "Anyways, before we go down into the sewer, you two will need to wear these," she said, pulling two devices out of her large coat. Ryan was disappointed to see that her figure became much smaller with those things out of the coat. She handed one to Ryan and one to Logan. They were a type of head goggles, it seemed to Ryan. "Silph Scopes," Sydney explained. "You can see in the dark with these. And you can see ghosts too, but that's not really important for our mission."

"Ghosts?" Logan sounded like he was about to faint.

"Suck it up," Ryan whispered, punching Logan in the shoulder. "Come on, we have to help this woman. Be a man, dude!"

"I don't want to be a man," Logan complained miserably.

Nonetheless, he put his scope on his head, just as Ryan did, and they followed Sydney to the sewer entrance. It was through a manhole, past a Team Rocket girl's Zubat battling a trainer's Oddish. Into the darkness, the three plunged, but instantly, the lights flickered on, and they could see. It was a green, night-vision sight, but it was good enough. This is cool, thought Ryan. It's like we're superheroes! He scanned the area, and saw that it was quite a narrow tube, going one way. He could see that Sydney, who was already ahead of them, also had a Silph Scope, and she still held her Poké Ball in her hand.

As they walked on, the sounds of battle above ground could be heard with distant thuds and shouts. It's like we're drifting through a dream down here. We're out of the chaos. But Ryan was not comforted. He felt like something, or someone, was watching him, but no matter how many times he peered around, he saw nothing. She said these goggles would pick up ghosts, so nothing could be watching me… right? He dared not say anything to Logan for fear of putting the poor shivering boy into a coma.

After a short walk, the sewer system widened into a larger tunnel. Up here, Ryan could see supply boxes, all with the Team Rocket logo on them, scattered about. "Team Rocket was using this path as well. I'm not sure why, or even how they knew about it. But they shouldn't have anyone down here now. Not with the battling going on above ground. We should be okay."

"Yeah, it'll be fine," Ryan agreed, patting Logan on the shoulder.

As they moved further on, the smell got worse. My lungs are burning, he realized. But I should have expected as much with this being a sewer and all. Logan and Sydney didn't so much as mention the smell, so Ryan toughed it out. It would be terrible if Sydney heard me complain. She has to know that I'm a strong and fearless Pokémon Master.

Logan screamed soon after, his voice echoing thrice before fading out down the tunnels behind them. And he had good reason to scream, too, for Ryan's own yell caught in his throat before he could vocalize it. Ahead of them was a procession - nay, a conglomeration - of Pokémon. Yet, these were not normal Pokémon. They were ghosts. They drifted about solemnly and rhythmically, in lines too long to count. Many of the lines proceeded and receded into the brick walls on either side of the tunnel. He saw Psyducks, Magmars, Charmeleons, Butterfrees, Meowths, Cubones… and a countless number of other types of Pokémon.

"Th-they're ghosts!" said Logan in a hushed town. "They're the walking dead!"

"No, we are the walking dead!" Ryan tried to tell Logan, but the aspiring Pokémon Breeder wasn't listening.

"We ain't them," Sydney said from ahead. "They won't hurt you. Just ignore them, and they will ignore you. We're under the Pokémon Tower now. This used to be the old basement area. A lot of Pokémon ghosts come here to rest once they have passed on. It's not our place to disturb them."

They may be ghosts, but these aren't ghost Pokémon. Yet again, Ryan felt a chill on the back of his neck, like he was being watched. He craned his head and peered into the darkness, piercing all nooks and crannies with his Silph Scope, but he saw nothing. Nothing. This can't be nothing. There's something out here. There's something hunting us.

Around the next corner, torchlight greeted the trio. Standing above a bridge over sewage waters was a Team Rocket man. He wore their blacks well, but he had no cap on, revealing his shaggy, bearded face. He was an older man, a grizzled veteran. Silently he shook his head and bowed in front of his opponents. Then, he took out a Poké Ball and threw it.

"Stand back. I have this one," Sydney assured the boys. She stepped up and threw a Poké Ball of her own. Out from the man's ball came an Arbok, a fearsome snake Pokémon, while out from Sydney's came a Golbat, who soared above her quarry.

"Who's going to win?" Ryan asked Logan, and perhaps the ghosts walking numbly behind them. All Logan could do was bury his head in his hands and mumble out a curse word.

Ryan took a Poké Ball of his own into his hand. If it comes down to it, I can battle too. But I should save my buddies until the real fighting gets underway. I want them to be fresh. So he stayed back and watched. And then, a cold chill fell over Ryan again. He took out Dex this time and pointed the device in all directions. "Ghost Pokémon are in vapor form. No additional information available," it offered helpfully.

"Great."

"Do you feel that?" Logan whispered. "It's here. There's a ghost right here!"

Ryan nodded. Their breaths were frosting now. Ahead of them, Sydney's Golbat landed a critical Leech Seed attack on the Arbok. Seeing himself humiliated in defeat, the Team Rocket veteran let out a yell of frustration that echoed through the chamber and then grabbed his nose before jumping feet first into the sewerage river, just to be whisked away.

"Wait… why did he do that?" Ryan asked.

Sydney shook her head in disbelief. "Forget it. We're close. We need to move on."

Ryan and Logan followed the purple-adorned woman across the bridge, but as Ryan brought up the rear, he suddenly tripped and nearly fell into the water below him. He felt coldness spread across his body, as if something dead had touched him. Logan reacted just in time to catch Ryan and prevent the boy from going the way of the Team Rocket veteran. There was a sound of chains echoing through the tunnel, followed by a long, insidious giggle.

Ryan stood to face his foe; a Haunter hovered on the other side of the bridge, smiling and bobbing, his teeth bared. "Haunter, the Gas Pokémon," Dex droned. "By licking, it saps the victim's life. It causes shaking that won't stop until the victim's demise."

"Leave us!" Sydney yelled at the Pokémon. "We are just passing through. We mean you no trouble. Please… let us pass!"

"No," Ryan said, his teeth gritted in concentration. "He's mine."

Charmeleon flew from his ball and landed on the middle of the bridge. The smell was becoming overbearing. Ryan's eyes were brimming with tears at the stench of it all. Yet, he could not flee. I need this Pokémon. I won't get another chance like this.

"Fire Blast, Aegon."

"Char!"

The Charmeleon sprayed orange-yellow flames at the ghost Pokémon, briefly illuminating the area. The Haunter took the attack dead on, and when the smoke cleared, it coughed, grinned again, and rushed forward, licking the Charmeleon from his neck up to his head. That got Aegon really scared, and he began to yelp uncontrollably.

"Easy boy," Ryan assured him. "You're okay. That Haunter can't take another Fire Blast, I know it!"

"Meleon?"

"Do it! Do it now!"

A second burst of flames hit the Haunter, this time causing it to sag to the ground. It wasn't grinning anymore. It was frowning and yelling 'Haunter, haunt!', but Ryan wasn't listening. He took a Great Ball out of his pack. The Haunter used its next move to put Aegon to sleep, for clearly a third Fire Blast would have sent it back to the netherworld. That's fine, Ryan thought. I'm not trying to beat him. I'm trying to catch him.

The first Great Ball hit Haunter, sucked him in, and spit him back out a moment later. Haunter used his powers to pick the ball up and throw it into the sewer. Then he licked Charmeleon again. Ryan threw a second Great Ball, and the same thing happened.

"Kid, we don't have time for this," Sydney's voice rang behind. "Catch the Haunter or follow me. I'm not waiting any longer."

She called me kid. He felt his ears going red again. Ryan sighed and felt for the Ultra Ball - the last Ultra Ball he had. This was one of the ones he had gotten before setting out on his journey. It had been in his father's stash, which he had taken. He felt guilty about doing so now, but at the time… all he had felt was hope. And it hadn't helped that his mother had seemingly egged him on. Regardless, now he held the last of his father's unused Poké Balls. And there's not a better Pokémon to catch with it.

Haunter faced down this Poké Ball as confidently as he had faced down the others. Yet when it hit him, it sucked him with such force, that his smile turned into shock in the blink of an eye. And then, the Ultra Ball fell to the stone floor, wiggled a few times, and lay still. I caught a Haunter.

Ryan beamed. He looked for the other two to congratulate him, but Logan was too busy looking this way and that to prevent any ghosts from sneaking up on him, and Sydney, though she had watched the fight, seemed unimpressed. "Can we go now?" was all she said.

"Yeah…" Aren't you proud of me? Wasn't that impressive? I caught a ghost Pokémon! Most trainers never do that in their entire lives! Sydney appeared to him to be most difficult to please, but that only made him want her more.

They came to a ladder, a little ways past the bridge, that led up into a home.

"This is where Team Rocket came through," Sydney spoke. "They used this house as their staging area before taking over the Pokémon Tower."

Up the ladder they climbed, making their way unannounced and surely uninvited into the home. Inside, all was quiet and all was still. There were more Team Rocket crates up here, and a ton of Poké Balls covered the tables (Ryan and Logan pocketed quite a few of them). As they moved silently through the house, Ryan saw that pictures lined the hallway walls. On them were always three people - a mother, a father, and a girl. As they moved towards the door, the pictures went back in time. And Ryan saw that the girl's dour look eased up as the years turned backwards. The younger she got, the happier she seemed, until, when the pictures showed her to be only five or six, she was positively beaming in every one of them. That face is familiar, Ryan knew.

He spoke softly, "I know why they used this house as their staging area."

Sydney wasn't listening. "They caught us completely off-guard. We had no idea they were here until they swarmed the tower. And then it was over. For a while at least."

She opened the front door, and they all began to run. The tower was right there. Team Rocket was in front of them, facing the other way. There were dozens of them, fighting natives and trainers Sydney had no doubted recruited to help her take back Lavender Town. Now that they were out of the sewers, Logan seemed to be less scared. He ran with the buxom woman, a Poké Ball in each hand. When they reached Team Rocket, Sydney said, "I'll lead the attack. We need to regroup with the others. Push through with all of your Pokémon!"

Logan did what he was told. His two Eevees, his Ditto, his Scyther, his Squirtle, and his Chansey all came shooting out of their Poké Balls. Sydney's team consisted of a Golbat, two Gengars, a Haunter, an Arbok, and a Nidoqueen. The two charged the Team Rocket members, but Ryan didn't join them. Something isn't right. He didn't know what it was; just a feeling deep in his throat. He knew that this plan made no sense. Why would Team Rocket attack the Pokémon Tower like that to get all the ghost Pokémon? They would be better served to use stealth tactics, to go into the tower from the sewer tunnel. Sydney said the tunnel ran under the tower, so why didn't they sneak in from there? They were making a show on purpose. This is all a distraction.

Ahead, Gilly was leading the acolytes. Sydney pointed to him, and his Pokémon soon engaged hers in battle. It was swift and total defeat for The Extreme Supreme. Where's that girl? The one with the purple hair…

Ryan didn't follow the others into the battle. He went looking for Jessica instead. Running around the side of the Pokémon Tower, he found himself face-to-face with a beacon waving two beams of light at the sky. It was a massive machine, running on a generator and spewing noxious gas into the night sky. What is this for? Ryan moved over to it, and that was when he saw her.

She was delicate as a flower, draped in moonlight, facing away from him. She's so depressingly beautiful. Her Haunter was patrolling around her, and he noticed Ryan before she did. Jessica was shouting into a walkie-talkie, saying, "Hold them back! I just need a little more time. I need to put it to sleep. What?! How did you lose all of your Pokémon, Gilly? Ugh…! You're so useless sometimes!"

She threw her walkie-talkie into the dirt and turned around. Her Haunter was barking, and it did not take her long to understand why.

"So we meet again."

"Give up, you can't win," Ryan boasted. "I beat you last time, and my Pokémon are way stronger now."

She laughed humorlessly and then turned away from him to inspect her device. "You're too late. We got what we came for."

"Oh yeah?! What was that? Were you trying to steal fossils again?"

"No," she smiled. "This time, we got the real thing." She bent down for her walkie-talkie. Ignoring Ryan again, she shouted into it, "All Team Rocket personnel, fall back to rally point alpha. The prize has been captured. We're leaving now. If you stay behind, don't expect anyone to come back for you. Jessica out."

"What's the prize?" Ryan fingered a Poké Ball, and then threw it. Out came Thurnax, his noble Dragonite.

"None of your business." Now Jessica's voice had an edge to it.

"You're not getting away."

"I am too."

"Thurnax, take the Haunter out."

"Haunter, return," Jessica commanded. Her hair blew in the wind. "Slowbro, go." She sighed, "You make this so hard on yourself. It would be so much easier if you just walked away right now. Don't you find it boring playing the hero all the time?"

Now it was Ryan's turn to laugh. "My Dragonite is better than any Pokémon you have; I guarantee it."

"Blizzard, Slowbro."

"Hyber Beam, Thurnax!"

The Hyper Beam hit first, doing terrible damage. The Slowbro was knocked off its feet and impacted into a crater three feet deep. Yet, the Hyper Beam had not caused the Pokémon to faint, which was disastrous. Now she gets two free hits on Thurnax. The first was, of course a Blizzard, which did super effective damage - even Ryan knew that. The second time, Jessica commanded her Slowbro to use a Blizzard again, and this time, Thurnax was encased in ice.

"Frozen?! No fair! There's like a 10% chance of that happening!" Ryan complained.

"Life's not fair. Now get out of my way before I have you frozen too."

Ryan reached for another Poké Ball, but that was when all of the able-bodied Team Rocket soldiers came running around the corner. There were dozens of them, and they were being chased by Sydney and the other trainers and residents, but it didn't seem to perturb them.

"Here," Jessica pointed to a medium-sized cage behind the corner of the Pokémon Tower. "Wait, I just need to get Haunter to put it to sleep first."

"There's no time, Jessica! We have to gooooo!" Gilly's voice came high and whiney, and Ryan saw him run up to his superior officer from amidst the chaos of black and red.

"Hey, we're not done here!" Ryan tried to shout, but his voice was lost in the confusion.

"Fine. Take it as it is. It won't matter, I guess. Let's go! Quickly! Whatever you do, don't drop it!" Jessica commanded.

Several grunts rushed forward and picked the cage up between them. They held it on their shoulders and then marched off towards the forest, Jessica leading them. She sure acts like a leader, at least. From behind, the final holding line of Team Rocket members were losing their battles against the trainers. It would soon be over. But they had already won, Ryan knew. Whatever they wanted, they already got it. And no one but me realizes that. He would have stopped them if he could have. But with four Pokémon, and dozens of enemies to face, it was an impossible task. In the frenetic energy of Team Rocket's exodus, there had been no good way for him to even challenge Jessica again. He could only stand there and watch them go, furious at his own powerlessness.

The cage moved by in a blur; it was a tightly-bound box, with metal sheets covering most of the bars. But one space in the back of it had a small opening. From there, Ryan saw the Pokémon inside. It had blue fur and a thin, curved figure. Its eyes were large and blank and innocent. They stared at Ryan for a moment, pleading. He could only stare back until the darkness of the forest swallowed the cage whole.

A cold chill fell over the teal-haired trainer. He had no idea what kind of Pokémon that was. He didn't know any blue-furred Pokémon, especially not ones with such curved faces and huge eyes. Is this some kind of secret ghost Pokémon? Some new experiment? A newly-discovered species? He had not the faintest clue. The Team Rocket lackeys ran past him, and he felt the wind they generated whip across his body. He took all of it without moving. Once they were gone, the sound died down. Many of the trainers and residents came to the area to inspect it, to see what had happened, but there was nothing there that gave them any idea what was going on.

"What did they take?" Sydney asked breathlessly as she came running over to Ryan.

He shrugged. "It was a Pokémon, but I don't know what kind."

She shook her head angrily. "We should go after them. They don't have many Pokémon left to defend themselves. If we can just track them down…"

"It's the middle of the night! They're out there deep in the forest! Better luck finding a needle in a haystack if you ask me!" one resident shouted.

A confused, frustrated air clung around the group. They had won; they had beaten back Team Rocket. But that's just what Team Rocket wanted.

Sydney thanked Ryan for his help, and the two said goodbye. He tried to hug her, but she wasn't interested. Soon, the residents and other trainers had dispersed too, many of them returning to their homes or hotel rooms to get some much-needed sleep. Others went to the Poké Center to heal their Pokémon, while other still set off into the night, either to try some stupidly courageous scheme to track down the Team Rocket gang, or to continue on with their journey. It didn't take long for it to just be Ryan and Logan again. Trash littered the ground, and a fire still raged in the distance. The air tasted of smoke, so bitter and empty.

"Well that was something, wasn't it?" Logan asked, trying to break the silence.

"We'll stay here the night, then go to Saffron tomorrow," Ryan said. "I will get the badge tomorrow so we can get to Celadon as soon as possible. Alex and Rahul must already be waiting for me there. But I can't keep them waiting much longer."

"Okay. But shouldn't we stay here a few more days? You know, in case Team Rocket comes back."

"They're not coming back."

"I wonder what they could be after."

Me too. Ryan raised his head to the sky, where starlight flickered weakly from gaps in the fog and smoke. He noticed that the light of the beacon was still flashing back and forth. Curiosity sprung up in his chest at that moment, so Ryan walked over to the machine to get a better look at it. He couldn't see what image it was projecting at the sky. Why would it be pointed at the sky, or all places? Who could see it from up there?

With Logan's help, he kicked the beacon over on its side, positioning it to shine its light on the brick walls of the Pokémon Tower. There, a light, unmistakable and vivid, shone. It displayed a mirage Pokémon, that was for sure. It had pink fur, a tail, and was quite slight of frame. Its eyes reminded Ryan of the creature he had seen in that cage. But that's wrong, he thought. The one I saw had blue fur, not pink fur.

"Dex, what am I looking at?"

"There is no Pokémon here."

"I know that. It's a picture of a Pokémon being projected out from that beacon thing. Which Pokémon is it? I'm not familiar with it."

"Scanning…" Dex said, before going silent.

"What do you think?" Ryan asked Logan.

Logan shrugged. "Never seen anything like it, personally."

"Pokémon ID match found," Dex spoke after a long pause.

"Which Pokémon is it?" Ryan asked.

The Pokédex sang with excitement, "Oh great master, it looks like you have found Mew, the Legendary Pokémon. Well done. Great job!"