Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Chapter 2: Fight and Flight

Cold bonds of hateful energy bound him as the void-like creatures chased him; the emptiness giving away exactly where they were, and drowning out the crisp feeling of night. A ball of negative energy flew towards him, but the terrain was kind to him, with plenty of obstacles to use.

A stone shower was followed by a moment of intense concentration; creaking soon following as a tree his width tumbled down, forcing the void to shift and move. Neither got hit, but it gave him enough time to move away. A steep hill put more distance between him and his pursuers, and yet again, he tried to Teleport. The chains rattled, strained by time and distance, but held.

The wind carried a snarling sound and hateful emotions, echoing in the night, coming from ahead of him. They were answered by the two chasing Pokémon, and he shifted his path immediately, veering towards the moon, wishing he could call upon its power as others could.

He ducked out of reflex, a frigid orb sailing over him from where he had been heading, and a snarl-bark filled with hatred; promising pain, called out towards the others. It made him put on a burst of speed, moving as fast as he physically and psychically could. Rocks reacted to his desire, expelled towards the void, but there were no following whines or yelps.

A human nearby caught his attention, presence muted, but satisfaction still radiating like a beacon, causing anger to rise within. He grasped the emotion, sculpting it with his atypical desire to maim, and a lance of agony and suffering lanced out to where he had detected the Trainer.

Shrieks of anguish rent the air, and for a moment, the void faltered; a welcome pause that was used immediately. A psychically-aided jump over a small stream precluded a lash backwards, soaking the soil on the other bank. Yet, a fourth creature of void joined the night, and he had to skirt into a bush, extremities catching on thorns. The chains passed by harmlessly, but he was granted a glimpse of the ground ahead: open, unprotected. No escape possible.

That was not an option. Another jump, this time into a tree, shuffling around the large trunk to put it between him and the others, and he started to gather one last attempt for a Teleport.

A spiral of void passed by close enough that it could be touched, shaking his concentration, but he would not waver. He had to get away. Capture was death. He would not share that fate. Not if he had anything to say about it.

He released the internal pressure, feeling the chains tug, give, and shatter, and void vanished in an instant. Its absence was welcome, until the hole it left was filled by an avalanche of intense fatigue and cold familiarity.

Knees hit cold rock; empathy sensing one singular emotion in the steel-plated room. Never had he been here in flesh, yet he had been here in spirit. Unbidden, recollection surged, lifting him on emotions foreign yet as familiar as if his own. Grim satisfaction and anger, shifting into surprise and worry whirling within as a phantom voice called out. Worry slowly drowned everything, until it vanished in an immortalised moment, and everything along with it.

Terror and horror, entwining in knots spreading everywhere. Murmurings; blind, wishful, useless. An agonised reply, and dawning realisation spreading the strangling entangling vines.

Helplessness, apology, release.

A heart riven.

"Brother..."

The world vanished in blinding light.

~~§~~§~~

With a quick swipe, Danny brushed the sweat from his brow, happy that he had given in to the barber's suggestion of cutting his hair so it wouldn't fall in his eyes if he didn't style it somehow. Today was such a day, after he'd overslept and nearly ended up late for his day at the laboratory.

It was average November weather for Hoenn, but the sun reflecting off of aggron's plates and the working above his head for the ones in the Steel-type's neck meant it was tiring work to rub the cloth even with the small box he was using as a stool to stand on. Aggron couldn't bend over either, because it'd make the plates shift so that parts of them were hidden underneath others. "That's all of it, I think. How's it feel, aggron?"

The gentle rumble told him enough, allowing him to hop off the stool as aggron ambled away, joining the rest of his team. Helioptile immediately clambered onto the Steel-type, while dusclops made the journey towards their Trainer. The Pokémon had decided amongst themselves who would go when, and they'd pretty much collectively decided to leave the most annoying ones for last. First aggron, who was huge – swampert was a lot easier because all Danny had to do for that was to turn the hose on his starter – then dusclops, who had the whole Ghost-type thing, and then last of all would be froslass, who was both Ghost and Ice.

He loved them dearly, but he did feel they were pulling one over him right now.

"Need some help?" Max asked from behind him, and Danny turned around to see the shorter teenager grin at him, a soft brush in his gloved hand from where he'd just finished with manectric. "You've got a bigger team and the harder Pokémon to clean," he answered Danny's unasked question. "And saving the best for last, I see."

"Their decision, not mine," Danny said as he put a hand on dusclops, steering her towards Max. "You do dusclops. That brush should work."

"Anything else?" Max asked, and Danny shook no. "'kay then."

A few minutes later, as Danny gently rubbed cold gel into froslass's back, he saw Max stand back for a moment, blowing on his fingers. "What is it?"

Max looked up. "I don't know," he said, walking to dusclops's side as he did so. "Touching dusclops just feels weird. Weirder than it did last time."

Ghost-types always felt a bit strange to the touch, and of the ones they had, dusclops was the strangest. Froslass's low body temperature was far more pressing than her Ghostly part when taking care of her, and doublade could be very tangible when he felt like it. They'd guessed that was because he was part-Steel.

Yet, at the same time, Danny had a feeling it wasn't the regular strange sensation. Max was used to that, and Danny hadn't felt that much of a difference whenever he cared for dusclops. "When was the last time anyway?"

"Couple days before Geosenge." Max resumed the grooming, and Danny did so as well. "Maybe it was something yveltal and xerneas did. It's not like we understand everything about Pokémon, and Legendaries are worse."

Out of nowhere, an idea appeared in Danny's mind, fully formed and all, but he put it on hold while carefully tracing gel around froslass's eye sockets. "You know how it works froslass. Keep the cold in check for about half an hour so the gel works its magic," he told the floating Ice-type, giving her a wry grin. She wasn't always as diligent in sticking to the half hour rule as she was capable of being. "And no asking swampert to cool you down either. This brand is ruined by water."

"You'd think they'd invent something like that," Max said from his kneeling position, before pausing to adjust the brush as he reached the inside of dusclops's legs, "that would work while freezing. Ice is rare, sure, but..."

"There actually aren't that many that use this," Danny replied. "All just Ice-type Pokémon, froslass, Alolan sandshrew but not sandslash, sneasel and weavile, and amaura and aurorus. That's something like twenty Pokémon, and rarer ones to boot." He checked on his Pokémon, seeing all of them laze around, and he quickly told one of them to do something while Max's sight was blocked. He quickly moved towards dusclops as well. "I was using something that works on some of the Water-Ice hybrids, but one of Wulfric's Trainers recommended this."

"You have all the difficult Pokémon to care for," Max told him, looking fairly smug as he handed the brush back. "I just need a brush for half my Pokémon. Salamence is..." The younger teenager broke off suddenly, looking for something. Danny quickly tapped his foot twice, and a moment later, Max stopped looking, visibly relaxing. "Salamence is going to be a pain once shelgon evolves, though."

"Huh?"

"Dragonskin is resistant to the common elements, right?" Max started, and Danny gave him a slow nod. "Guess what water is, even if it isn't an attack. It isn't a problem for some other Dragon-types, like the dragonite family. They're comfortable enough in water, but salamence and garchomp? They're not."

"Garchomp would be worse. That rough skin it has," Danny offered, remembering the one time he touched Professor Sycamore's Mega-capable Pokémon. "Is that something else you'd change if going back in time? Making me not see bagon's Egg?"

"Hell no!"

The two boys broke into laughter for a bit, and afterwards, Danny decided now was not the right time to ask Max about what drapion had just revealed. "You want to do one big group picture with all of our Pokémon?"

"I thought we were already doing that?"

Danny shook his head. "No. Well, yeah," he amended quickly. "But that's just me and my Pokémon, and you and yours. I meant all twenty-seven of our Pokémon and the two of us." He smiled, seeing Max understand. "Just need to find someone to use the camera, but since your father is coming over in… Ten minutes or so?" He glanced at his watch, seeing it was just over twenty past eleven. "Close enough."

"Hope your camera's got a big enough lens to get all of our Pokémon in then," Max said, but Danny could tell the idea was one Max loved. "I'll go first. You go do your photography things to your camera."

Twenty minutes later, they had their pictures – ones that would probably end up in living rooms by the end of the weekend. Max's was simple to make: the smallest Pokémon he had were easy to put on another Pokémon for contrast and visibility. Swinub ended up hitching a ride atop shelgon, baltoy could levitate, and espurr was light enough to hold fast to one of sceptile's seed pods on his back. Max sat in front of all of them, legs folded over one another, sort of flanked by manectric and shelgon, with sceptile directly behind him.

By contrast, Danny had to deal with klefki being positively tiny and a lot of his Pokémon taking up a lot of room on the ground. Drapion, aggron, and swampert all needed a lot of ground to stand on. Then he had to think about making sure ferroseed was visible – aggron carrying it wouldn't work. Swampert ended up cradling the Grass-type. Helioptile clambered onto drapion, and masquerain perched on aggron's left shoulder spike. Loudred and dusclops ended up standing in front of aggron and swampert, which did leave Danny with no place to sit himself until Norman – who had just arrived – came up with the idea of having him sit on aggron's other shoulder.

That said and done, the twenty-nine soon busied themselves with figuring out a good way for their mass picture. The Gym Leader suggested that they have manectric and aggron Mega Evolve for the picture – something Max did eagerly and Danny did dutifully. It definitely made cracking an honest smile harder as a result of the bond, but it worked in the end. Both starters, both teenagers, and both Megas were front and centre in this one, with the other Pokémon fanning outward.

"I'm afraid to say we can't do two Full Battles," Norman said after all Pokémon had been returned to their pokéballs and put in small baskets to carry around. "Some professional battler came asking for a battle just before I left, and I need to save at least a few for that. Four's the maximum per battle."

"Four is fine," Max said, before his eyes lit up with an idea. "How about we do four one-on-one battles then. You know Danny, like we had against Clemont."

"How did those work?"

"You start like normal, but whoever won the battle had to choose their Pokémon first for round two," Max explained. "If it was a tie, send them out at the same time again. If you won more than the other, you got the badge."

The Gym Leader seemed to mull his son's words over, nodding and smiling at the end. "An interesting format. Maybe I should use it for eighth badge battles."

"What do you normally use for that?" Danny asked, wondering. He'd seen a few battles, and Max had described a lot more, but he didn't remember what Norman's version of it was.

"Triples," Norman and Max both replied, the older giving his son a look that basically spelled out 'really?' afterwards. "The idea for the format should work, but let's just send out Pokémon at the same time."

Both Danny and Max were okay with that, and after a short walk to a slightly flatter and more out of the way piece of land – and alerting Professor Birch where they were so he wouldn't drive through a battle – Max and Norman faced each other while Danny was on the sidelines for this round.

And as he saw Max's xatu be met with a sleek persian, he sat back, and prepared to enjoy the showdown between father and son.

An hour or so later, Danny closed his eyes as Solarbeam met dusclops's Protect; the attack and defence colliding to create a bright spectacle that threatened to blind him. Even through his closed eyelids, however, he could see the moment Protect broke; the Grass-type attack hitting dusclops and probably knocking her out in the process.

It was so, and Danny returned his Ghost-type before casting a look at the sawsbuck used by his opponent. He was heaving, the red leaves on his antlers moving with every hasty breath, and the brown fur was mat from where Will-O-Wisps and Fire Punches had connected. Dusclops had put up a good fight, though sadly, not good enough, making the totality of the battle a draw.

"And I thought I was clever, leaving slaking to face you instead of my son," his opponent said as they met up on a hill to the side, where Max was already waiting with a pair of water bottles. Danny and Norman both gratefully accepted it, taking a moment to drink. "Beaten by a klefki of all things. Cory is never going to let me heard the end of that."

Both teenagers laughed at the older man's expense. Klefki had won the second battle, after girafarig had defeated loudred, and before diggersby had won a fierce fight with a vigoroth. "The bigger they are," Max said, smiling widely. "Isn't that what you taught me?"

"And I don't regret a moment of it," Norman answered easily, his free hand tousling Max's hair. The younger teen let it happen. "But you became this strong all on your own. 'Motivated' by people like Team Flare," the Gym Leader said with a flash of sour on his face, "but I wager that without it, you'd still be great Trainers." He suddenly put a finger to Max's wristband. "Why didn't you use these, though?"

"We did one on ones," Max replied, uncovering the Key Stone in the leather. "Haven't seen too many Mega battles, but every time, the Mega took at least one Pokémon out. Wouldn't be fair."

Danny quickly added a nod when Norman turned towards him. It was close enough to what he had reasoned. "Aren't there rules about it? Wulfric only used a Mega because Max used one, and Korrina used just Mega lucario."

Norman sat down, patting the ground beside him, and the teenagers followed suit. "That's all fine for Gym Battles, but this is not one. I want to see your full strength." The grin that appeared looked a bit forced, entirely too much like Max's. "You keep finding yourself in trouble, and this'd make me sleep a bit better at night."

Max visibly bit down on his first instinct to reply, Danny saw. "Sorry Dad."

"Only about making me worry, I bet," the adult observed. "I heard you on Sunday and earlier. You're about as not sorry as you can be about trying to save whatever it is you want to save." A swift glance to Max, and Danny saw his best friend ready to reply, except he also saw a hand raise in the corner of his vision. "Don't deny it, and don't apologise about being who you are, Max. Your mother and I are proud of the man you're becoming, despite you picking fight over flight more than we'd like."

It had been far too long since Danny saw Max truly embarrassed, he realised as his friend turned a red to rival Keith's hair. Some time during Kalos, that had fallen by the wayside, except for a few small blushes here and there. "Thanks Dad," Max said softly, at length.

"I know Gregory and Elizabeth think the same of you, Danny," Norman said, and Danny nodded in reply. "And they've probably told you already."

"Dad tried to quote some play, but Mum forced him to say it outright," Danny said, remembering the conversation of the night before. "That's why our punishments are so light, aren't they?"

Norman laughed heartily. "Say that after you've done your days there. Working in a hospital isn't easy, and maybe this'll show you a thing or two," he said after he was done, smiling gently, but failing to make Danny's blush disappear completely.

"Why there?" Max wondered, his blush mostly vanished. "I don't understand why you went for the hospital in particular. Except for Jane's parents," he added quickly. "But you could've had us do some kind of presentation to all schools about how dangerous Pokémon can be. That's what you were most worried about, right?"

The Gym Leader's mutter was just underneath Danny's hearing. "You know I can't tell you why we chose what we did, Max," Norman said afterwards, sounding like it was an argument he was used to making. "It'd defeat the purpose..."

"… of the punishment. Yes Dad," Max finished with a roll of his eyes.

"Speaking of punishment… What did my poor greenhouse door do to deserve being slammed like that?"

Danny raised an eyebrow as he turned to Max. He hadn't heard anything about this from his friend, which meant it probably happened only the night before, after coming home from the newest superhero film.

"I'm sorry about that, Dad."

"I'm sure you are, son," Norman replied softly, putting a hand on Max's shoulder, only for Max to shake it off. "I just want to know what happened. You know it's better to talk about things like this."

"May was..." Max started, before letting out a sigh, fidgeting with his wristband. "She said a few things… It was a bit too private, okay? And she was really rude about it."

Danny briefly thought about what could've set Max off like that, and realised that there was only one real option. He kept his silence, instead looking to see what Norman thought. The Gym Leader looked a bit torn, but eventually nodded. "Alright," he said softly. "It's just that your sister hasn't made you that angry in a long time, if I'm not mistaken. Honestly, your mother and I had hoped you'd outgrown it."

"Sorry to disappoint," Max retorted bitterly, seemingly before his brain caught up. "Uh..."

"It's okay," Norman replied. "I know you've been holding comments back, but you're a teenager. You can't do it to all of them." He tapped Max's head thrice, using just one finger. "Your brain's not wired that way. We won't love you any less for it. We're not old enough that we forgot our own adolescence, you know."

"Could've fooled me," Max said, not even bothering to try and look innocent like he'd normally do for that kind of comment. Danny enjoyed the wicked grin on his friend's face – it was loads better than mopey Max.

"I walked right into that one," Norman said, shaking his head and also not bothering to hide his amusement. "But… I know you're growing up, and that you haven't hugged me since before you left for Kalos, but… For old times' sake?"

"Sure."

The hug was the right kind of sickeningly sweet, but Danny wasn't tempted to go for the camera in a nearby bag. Some moments just couldn't be captured.

~~§~~§~~

Petalburg loomed in the distance, growing noticeably as the salamence sped through the air. His rider checked a watch strapped around the outside of his warm clothing with a minute adjustment of his wrist. The journey had taken the better part of two and a half hours, and Reginald hoped he would arrive in time.

One of his operatives had risked discovery, contacting him around sunrise with news that had the Gym Leader dumbfounded, and he was going to have to have words with the two he was collecting now.

Somehow, their identity had become known to the authorities, who would likely be sending police over to arrest them. The operative had done everything in their power to delay the inevitable, feigning a crash of the internal network, but it was his job to fix that as well. He could not delay for too long, and the time that had passed since then was coming up on the estimates of how far his efforts could reach.

If one of them was in custody already, Reginald would have to leave them, and he would rather not do that.

A soft press on the salamence's skin told the Dragon-type to descend, heading towards the fairly affluent area both boys' parents lived in. The Birch boy lived closer to his current path, with fewer options for escape to boot. That would be his first stop, and palkia willing, both teenagers were actually home.

People looked up towards him as they saw the Pokémon flying overhead, but Reginald ignored them and any cries as salamence flew about forty feet off the ground, higher than any building in the area, but low enough to be able to spot small details, and soon the house he had been looking for came into view. Even more luckily, the teenager, now sporting chalk-white hair, was playing outside with the family growlithe, lazily throwing something.

The Fire-type gave a warning bark, prompting Birch to turn around just in time for the salamence to land on the street. "Birch," Reginald shot as he threw two Great Balls at the teenager, who caught both of them on seeming instinct. "You're wanted. Get your pack, give it to noivern, and then get out on salamence. She'll know where to take you. You have ten minutes."

"What?"

Reginald clamped down on his annoyance, instead jumping off and crossing the short distance with quick paces. "Listen to me," he said, leaning in and hoping he was able to impress the gravity of the situation on the teen. "If you stay here for half an hour, at most, you will then spend the remainder of your teenage years inside a cell." A bit of exaggeration, perhaps, but he was not in the mood. He paused, and finally, frightened understanding dawned. "Pack, leave. Salamence knows where to go." He got back on his Pokémon. "Is Maple at home?"

The teenager nodded, seemingly still struggling with the statements Reginald had made, but a tug on his jeans from the growlithe forced him into motion, heading inside. The Gym Leader wished he could oversee the evacuation, but he had another place to be, and there was no time to waste.

Salamence took to the air again, heading towards the home of Reginald's colleague. He hoped that there wouldn't be any problems: Norman was a tough battler with convictions that would see him defend his family if he suspected foul play, but his Gym was also well-travelled. With any luck, there was a challenger to temporarily distract from the vanishing of his son.

Something to his left caught his eye: a simple monochromatic off-white lorry that rolled to a halt, parking on the side of a residential street. It was perfectly everyday fare out in mainland cities, except there was no immediate movement around it, ruling out the idea that it was a moving company or even someone irresponsibly parking their work vehicle in front of their home.

He wasn't given to cursing, but now, Reginald muttered a few choice words under his breath; words his sister would have his head for if he ever uttered them in the presence of her sons. There was no doubt in his mind that it was the very same lorry that Lance had spoken of six days before in their meeting.

He itched with the desire to go up to the lorry and crack it open, find out how exactly the signal was being broadcast, but he had a duty, not only to Maple, but also to Lance, who was borderline fond of the teenagers that had stopped so much at such a young age.

Neither Maple teen was visible outside the house, but the flashes of light inside the Gym announced a battle sure as anything. Once more, salamence landed, Reginald dismounting the Dragon-type. He hurried over to the front door and rang the bell before turning his back on the door, continuously looking down the street for any police who were making their move. He didn't exactly have a lot of Pokémon who could fight. He needed three of them to make his get-away with Maple – two at worst if salamence could pull double duty for at least the first twenty miles.

The door opened, and it was his quarry, surprise and shock warring inside the short teen. "The hell?"

"You're wanted," Reginald said in reply, even as he released two Pokémon on the Maple lawn: a flygon for carrying and a dragonite for flight. "Get your pack, now. You have five – shit!" he suddenly cursed as a crackling sound emanated from his coat pocket. He didn't need to look at what was in there to know what had happened. The strange energy that caused Pokémon to go berserk had just appeared, causing the meter to provide auditory feedback. "Grab it, don't use Psychic-types!"

This teenager obeyed, leaving Reginald to look at the street. Citizens were starting to mull around salamence; the Dragon giving off enough of a dangerous aura that nobody would dare come close, but the witnesses were a liability.

A brief whistle and salamence flung his wings out, looking dangerous, but avoiding any injury to bystanders. It caused them to step back, and a few started moving on under the intense glare the Dragon-type was giving them.

Quicker than Reginald had held possible, the teenager returned, pack half slung across his back and all, one hand rubbing his temple for a moment as he came down the stairs. "Is Danny..."

The question was obvious. "Yes, he is," Reginald said as his head swivelled back to the street. A police siren suddenly blared, the van screeching to a halt. "Get on dragonite!" the Gym Leader yelled, heading for his own salamence. He heard the teenager call for flygon to grab the pack; a clang of something telling Reginald that it had been dropped to the ground.

Salamence threw a jet of Flamethrower down the street, laying down a protective barrier of flame as people around shrieked and fled. A powerful wingbeat in his back told Reginald that Maple had already mounted dragonite and taken off. He wasted no time in telling salamence to do the same as he kept an eye on the wall of fire, hoping that there would be no Pokémon attacks coming through it.

None came, and moments later, they were an easy hundred feet in the air, immediately heading due west and accelerating to get out of range of any long-ranged Pokémon attacks that the Petalburg police might have had with them. The speeds and distance between the flying Pokémon gave Reginald no chance of talking to the youngest unofficial G-men operative, and a glance backwards told him nothing either. From a distance, he got the impression that there was a determined expression etched onto the boy's face, but that was no guarantee for his true state.

They met up with the other salamence and noivern not too far outside of Petalburg, Birch looking a tad queasy as his ride slowed down to keep pace with the other Pokémon. He heard indistinct yelling from one boy to the other, words lost in the whipping of the air around them, and it seemed that they both understood that as well, instead saving their breath as they headed out over the sea.

The weather turned worse up ahead, and Reginald adjusted their course, He knew where to go, and suspected that the weather there was as okay as November weather could be. Taking a slightly longer route to get there was no problem; he had no intention of flying through rain if he could help it. Pneumonia would be of no help to any of them.

If the teenagers were of a mind to complain, they didn't do so. There was a bit of unease on the side of Birch, even an hour into the flight, but Maple clearly seemed to be adept at flying on a dragonite, loosening his grip and trusting the dragonite to keep him safe. Reginald marvelled at the ability of a thirteen year old to trust an unknown Pokémon like that, going at easily ninety miles an hour, several hundred feet in the air, on what was probably one of his first times flying on a Pokémon. The Gym Leader had read the profiles and had been given an overview of what Ketchum had been up to in Hoenn years back from the rapidash's mouth, but that hadn't led him to expect this.

Maple would be the easier one to convince of the reality of the new situation: that all of them were wanted, and would likely have to engage in long talks with government officials wherever they would end up officially. Couch it in terms the teenager could understand, with the experience of being followed by those Team Rocket members as a close-enough-analogy, and he would understand without too much of an issue.

Birch was the wildcard, and Reginald did not like those one iota. It had been why he had been initially against the inclusion, despite Lance making very strong arguments about expectations, the ostensible passivity of the mission, and the fact that they had been involved before. In his years of experience, most people under eighteen – and males were worse at this, he fully realised – lacked a sense of discretion and thought only in the immediate sense, and he had feared for operational security.

The only time they had broken it had been when it had become utterly untenable not to do so.

Thoughts of how to best approach the subject occupied most of the Dragon-type Trainer's thoughts until he finally saw what he had been looking for: an uninhabited island with a distinct half-crescent, half-hammer shape, and a ship that had dropped anchor where the shallows started. He steered salamence down, noticing the four other Dragons following suit, landing on the rocky point and finding what he was looking for immediately. "This is Kingship, over."

"You were noticed, Kingship," came the correct reply, and Reginald felt tension leave his body. "I'll alert the captain. Be seeing you on board."

By this time, the teenagers had landed as well, immediately dismounting and reacting rather differently. Maple seemed to be okay, if in need of some stretching, but Birch had immediately sat down, relieved to be on solid ground again.

The Gym Leader cleared his throat, gathering their attention. "You are liable to have questions, but I would ask that you hold them for a little while," he told them. "It has been a long flight, more so for you who are not used to it, and it is nearing noon. We should partake in lunch before discussing that which has occurred, is occurring, and will occur.."

He gave them room to reply, but instead, Maple resolutely walked past him. "Is that Drake's ship?"

Either it was a lucky guess, or a good memory. Reginald cared not which. "She is. The S.S. Brian, Drake's pride and joy for as long as the two of you have been alive combined," he indulged them. "She is to be our home away from home for the foreseeable future."

"Why did they want to arrest us?" Birch said, having walked up and gazing at the ship as well. "It's huge."

"You have been uncovered as having participated in storming and destroying the facility in the Aso Mountains." At that, Maple tensed, and Reginald doubted it had to do with the reminder of a reviled place. "Do you possess any idea how that might have happened?"

As it turned out, they did.

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

Petalburg Police are looking for the whereabouts of Daniel Birch, 13, and Max Maple, 13, who were last seen fleeing from their homes on the back of several Dragon-type Pokémon, heading out over the sea to the west of Petalburg. Their flight happened at approximately 9:40am on November 22. Both Trainers are wanted in connection to the destruction of a research facility in July of last year.

Birch is approximately 5'8'', with recently-dyed white hair that is often styled with spikes. Maple is 5'3'' with dark blue hair that is worn down to his shoulders. Both are accomplished Trainers with a variety of well-trained and potentially dangerous Pokémon. If seen, do not approach, but contact the police at the regular non-emergency number.