"Damn them to hell!"

Harry winced as he heard something shatter rather violently in the room to his right, a bellow that would have put Azog to shame filling the air before another series of bangs and crashes created a cacophony of sound that managed to get through even the sealed door. Said door even shook as something rather heavy smashed into it and Harry took a step back before the racket focused once more on the stone walls. A part of him though was glad that Jack wasn't visible while the other part of his brain quaked all the same. It was terrifying to hear him behaving more like a beast than a man because it spoke to what could be waiting for himself if he continued on learning how to be a Speaker, bonding with his Pokémon. Even then, as Harry looked down at his hands, he could feel that he wasn't quite what he had been weeks earlier. That he was different; altered, twisted and changed into something else, something less than human. How many times could one merge with a Pokémon before they could no longer be considered more human than anything else?

And then he felt a deep shame as he glanced over at Hedwig because it was so cynical and small minded to assume that it was the Pokémon part of Jack that was having him vent his anger as he was. What was to say that it wasn't his human side that was driving him to rant and roar and destroy all he could get his hands on? Perhaps it was the pieces of him that were from Mumik and Smaug and Azog that allowed him to keep some manner of control?

'Or does it even matter?' Harry thought to himself. 'I've met Pokémon that are calm and Pokémon that are brash. I've dealt with people who are vile and sick and who are beacons of peace. Perhaps none of it matters and it is just the person, no matter how much of them is truly 'human', that matters.'

"He's taking it well," Sirius said dryly from where he sat, the rest of the group gathered in the Hall of Speakers while Jack raged in the closed off room, barricaded and sealed by Lugia himself. After seeing the news reports about the Fall of Little Surrey all thought of continuing Harry's Pokémon challenge died a quick death and the group had sat down to process what had happened, with only Jack snarling he needed privacy and storming away without another word. Jonas was sitting in a corner with his eyes shut, it clear that he was meditating, while Lance was the exact opposite of the calm and collected Kenway brother. Lance was calling everyone he could, trying to take control of the situation before it went head over tits as he paced about the room. "He'll sleep well tonight," Sirius said as Jack let out another scream of frustration.

"I don't see how this is funny in the slightest," Clair snapped, pausing in her pacing long enough to shoot an icy glare Sirius' way. When Sirius didn't so much as flinch under her glare she turned her attention back to the doorway, concern warring with frustration in her eyes. "Not funny at all.

"It's a little funny," Sirius argued. "I mean, I've seen toddlers react better."

"Toddlers aren't usually informed that Voldemort and his madmen framed them for genocide."

Harry huffed and leaned against a wall, folding his arms over his chest. "Normally he just tries to kills things."

"I think that is how this mess got started, pup."

Tonks, who was sitting on the ground leaning against Remus' legs, raised her hand. "To be fair, can you really call it genocide? I mean, everyone on Little Surrey was pretty much white so-wow, does that make me racist? Because that sounded pretty racist."

Remus looked down at her from his chosen perch, "Genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or region. Little Surrey was its own region. And if you consider their personal beliefs were so radical from ours they could be considered an ethic group as well. They have been separate for several centuries and developed their own culture and, one could argue, their beliefs have become a near religion. That's why they were able to claim Harry after his parents died."

"Good, so we know that Jack was framed for genocide and not murder," Lance said with a roll of his eyes as he hung up his dex, having just gotten off the phone with Drayden. "What the hell do we do now?"

"We can't sit around," Clair said firmly. "We have to go and take the fight to Voldemort. Make sure that everyone knows that this wasn't the Sons. That this wasn't Jack."

"Arceus be damned, Voldemort is a clever bastard," Jonas muttered.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow at that. Ever since the news had broken she'd been sharpening her bracer blades, getting them to razor sharpness. The soon-to-be gym leader had not taken kindly to her father's reputation being dragged through the mud and it was only Lugia's command that she sit and calm down that kept her from rushing out and attacking the first opponent she could find. She set down the whet stone and looked at her uncle carefully. "You sound like you admire him."

"Not who he is or what he did... but I can tip my hat to the cunning bastard." Harry and Jasmine just stared at him and Jonas huffed. "If you can't learn to at least respect your enemies' strengths then you are doomed to fail. We respected Kanto's ability to marshal their forces and their superior firepower and training; they didn't respect us and thought us a rag-tag group that they could put down in a few days. That we would crumble and that all they needed to do was put up a token resistance. They were wrong. They fell. Your own Voldemort clearly respected the strength of the likes of Dumbledore and James and Lily. He was cautious. He was careful for the most part, only getting bold when he had almost complete control of Avalon. He almost won, after all. Only lost because on the cusp of victory he underestimated your mother, Harry, and she made him pay for that mistake. Has he done things a touch differently we wouldn't be having this conversation." Jonas shrugged. "I respect what Voldemort did here. He's used Jack's own threats and the persona he created to protect his family and turned it back onto us. He's made our strength our weakness. That's cunning. That deserves some respect." He shut his eyes once more. "Now we need to figure out how to do the same to him."

"And how do you suggest that?" Tonks asked. "Because frankly, where I am sitting, we are fu... er, really in trouble."

"Thank you," Clair said with ice in her words.

"What, for her not cursing?" Jasmine asked. "Mum, I've heard the word f-"

"Voldemort nearly won the last war because of complacency," Harry finally said, drawing attention from his girlfriend and onto him. "The old families were willing to just let him do what he wanted because they hoped that if they just rolled over like a Growlithe then he wouldn't hurt them."

"Or they liked what he was selling," Remus stated darkly. "The idea that there were Old Families and 'Newbloods'-" he spat out the insulting term in disgust, "and that Pokémon should only belong to those of high birth appealed to those families who had watched their power diminish as the years have gone on. It used to be that a poor family might be lucky to have a Normal type that they found in the woods that they could use to bring in wood or guard the house. Maybe a farmer might be able to breed some Miltanks. A sailor might have a flying type or a water type. But that was it. The Old Families... they had the powerful Pokémon, the ones that could be bred and trained and used in battle and for glory."

"And keeping the peons down," Sirius grunted. "The Blacks didn't keep Empoleons around because they wanted companions."

"But as our society evolved and technology made life easier families were able to focus their attention towards their Pokémon and making them better as well as finding new ones… powerful ones. They were able to help their kids too. You didn't need to have twenty kids just to keep the farm going... you could have one or two and save enough so they could be educated. And as technology grew suddenly a servant didn't need to stay a servant anymore. No need to remain on an estate like your father and his father before him, serving some great family. You could tackle the world on your own. The Old Families didn't like that as not only did they lose a workforce that was willing to work on the cheap but also saw their power begin to evaporate away. Easer to control someone when their only choices to avoid starving were to dig ditches, beg, work on their back-pardon my language- or work for an Old Family. If the Family wanted you to dress a certain way... well, you did it and were happy you had food and a roof over your head. Hell, you thanked them for it. But as people began to make it on their own they found they didn't have to listen to what the Old Families said... well... the Old Families just became people with big houses, looking at paintings of their forefathers and longing for what had come before.

"They longed for the old days, of the power that came with lording their status over others. The likes of Lucius Malfoy and the Parkinsons and such look at the world of their forefathers with longing even as the rest of us shudder at their barbaric ways and thank the heavens we have moved past that. They try to dress it up as something elegant and wonderful but it was just a way for them to control the world. Voldemort offered them a chance to have that again. So they were more than happy to help out or at minimum look the other way."

"What about those that weren't the Old Families? The new generations of Pokemon traiers?" Jasmine asked. "Why did they lie down and take what Voldemort and Team Nocturne sent their way? Why didn't they fight back?'

"Fear, mostly. Blindness too. What is the old saying? 'First they rounded up the priests and I said nothing'?"

Lance shook his head though. "No offense, Remus, but it's a cultural thing too." He gestured at Clair and Jasmine. "They are Johto-born and raised. So am I. It's in our blood to fight back... why we've always been seen as rougher than the other regions. Kanto has it too but it's more refined. Still, when Team Rocket showed up enough of them rose up to tell them to get the hell out. Giovanni didn't get the foothold Voldemort did."

"Not another speech about how Kanto is misunderstood, Uncle Lance," Jasmine complained.

"No, just stating that Johtoians like to fight. To their benefit and to their folly. It's why Voldemort's ruse is working so well. No one would have believed a Kantoian army did that to Little Surrey. Nor a Sinnohian. Johto is reckless at times with our anger and it makes us do stupid things and that stereotype more often than not plays out as true."

"You were talking about Avalon though," Harry pointed out, trying to move the conversation back to their main point.

"Right," Lance said. "Avalon sees the release of raw emotions as beneath them, of something of low birth. Only thugs and hooligans rant and rage or cry and sob. 'Stiff upper lip' and all that. The more noble families put on airs and the lower classes try to emulate them."

"And what? That means they just let Team Nocturne do whatever they wanted?"

"If it meant that they might be spared? Yes. Better to just go along with their lives, not draw attention to themselves. Hope things get better. Short term goals."

Sirius sighed. "Afraid that is pretty true, pup. The first people Voldemort and his Admins targeted were the rabble rousers and the trouble makers. The independent thinkers. The leaders that would stand up and say no. There is a reason why your parents got so much attention. Same with Neville's folks. They were the ones that managed to survive the first purges." He paused, considering his words carefully. "I mean no offense to Molly Weasley as she is a kind woman but... there is a reason why her brothers were killed and she was spared."

"...she was willing to look the other way," Harry finished.

"Not because she wanted to but because her brothers being killed off showed her what could happen to her. She was young then, with a life ahead of her. So much to live for. And when she saw what happens when you fight back… it was easy to look the other way. And when she finally did decide that the line was crossed and she couldn't live with waiting it was too late. It's the same for a lot of people. I fought because I didn't want to live in a world that Voldemort was making. Others didn't because they just wanted to live, period. I don't blame them."

"I do," Jonas said firmly. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

"I like another quote better!" a voice called out, all the rest turning towards the entry way. "Demons run when a good man goes to war!"

"Luna!" Harry shouted, leaping up and hugging the blonde, the young woman returning the embrace with just as much strength.

"No hugs for the rest of us?" Ginny teased, Luna and Harry shifting so that Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny could all entire, the friends gathering around Harry. Their voices mixed together as they all began talking at once, Barty Crouch Jr. watching with a bemused look on his face as he walked over and shook Lance's hand.

"Looker," Clair said with a nod.

"Barty here, Mrs. Kenway." The former Battle Instructor walked over and joined the group. "I hope you don't mind but I gathered up the rest of this lot and brought them all here... with a bit of help." He jerked his thumb towards Lugia, the massive legendary bursting through one of the waterfalls the moment Barty said his name and landing beside the adults. "I figured Mr. Potter could use his friends."

Clair though merely narrowed her eyes. "You can claim to be Barty all you wish but I know that you will always be Looker."

"And that's a bad thing?" Barty asked innocently.

"Only for those standing against you."

"Lucky for you that you're not!" He clapped his hands several times, signaling for Harry and his friends to quiet down. "Now then! We have some trouble to deal with and it does no good to avoid the problem so let's tackle it head on. To summarize: Voldemort has not only razed Little Surrey but he's pinned it all on Jack and the Sons."

"So Surrey... it is gone?" Harry asked, licking his lips. While he had never planned on stepping foot on that island again and blamed the government of that region for keeping him away from Avalon and Remus that didn't mean he wanted them to be wiped out like that. Because while the Dursleys had hurt him... he wasn't naïve enough to believe there weren't good people who'd lived on the island. Good people that were now dead. In his name.

Barty sighed. "I'm afraid so, Mr. Potter. Reports are coming in that 'The Sons of Johto' killed every man, woman, and child on the island. None were spared."

"Bastards," Tonks hissed. clenching her fist.

"Right they are but it does no good for us to merely rage," Barty said. "We need a plan. We need to figure out how we counter this and keep them from further tarnishing the Sons' name."

"And we need to figure out how to deal with Voldemort before he does this again," Lance said.

The door to the room Jack had barricaded himself in swung open and the Father of Johto stepped out, rubbing his bloodied knuckles. His eyes were read and his skin had a grayish tint to it but his jaw was clenched hard and his mouth was twisted in a snarl.

"We get back to basics," Jack said sternly.

"Huh?" Neville said, not getting what Jack was getting at.

The Father of Johto began to pace waving his arms about. "I'd forgotten our origins. Our roots. Let victory make me stupid. Jonas, how did you claim the Ghost?"

His brother frowned, not quite getting what his brother was hinting at. "I staged a midnight raid on the landing strip where they were completing it. Took it right from them before they even realized my team was there."

"And how did we get onto Sevii? Not how we attacked it... how did we get on the island and free mom and dad?"

"We went in, small numbers, and hit hard and quick."

Jack nodded and pointed at Sirius. "How did I finally kill Koga?"

Sirius, realizing what Jack was trying to get at, nodded quickly. "Sneaked in, infiltrated the town with your best undercover operatives, and then hit at a moment of weakness." He'd been one of the fighters that Jack had assigned to sneak into the War Rally crowd and wait until Jack's signal before attacking. It had been nerve racking but also thrilling to mingle with the people that were on the opposite side of the war.

"I was stupid in the graveyard after the final task. I was showy. I was rash. And now Voldemort is mimicking that. Little Surrey fits right in with what I did in the graveyard... but that isn't me. That isn't the Sons. We need to get back to our roots."

Luna quickly nodded. "You got too big, too noisy. Time to step back into the shadows!"

Jack jabbed a finger at her. "Damn straight, Luna. Voldemort used my modus operandi as a weapon against me... now I will do the same to him. He's spent the last few years in the darkness, slinking and sliding and plotting and I will do the same. I will go dark, let the world thing I've barricaded myself away in Olivine Pointe... when in reality I will put out every feeler I have, call in every favor, and hunt him down like the dog he is. I am not a leader or a king… I am a TRACKER… and I will follow the foul stench of his admins. Not him, not yet. I will hunt down all those that give him strength and remove them, one by one, like a chess master pulling pawns and rooks from the board. And then I will find where he's made his nest… and I will kill the bastard."

"And I supposed if a certain new Co-Headmaster were to divert attention from your occasional absences..." Lance said, Jack merely grinning and slapping his best friend on the shoulder.

"And if a known target for the paparazzi opens up her gym and begins to draw attention towards herself..." Jasmine said, rubbing her hands together, a grin on her face. "You move to the shadows… and I become a sun so bright that they have to stare… and be blinded."

Jonas nodded slowly. "A grand hunt… I like it. I'm in."

"What about us though?" Harry asked, gesturing towards himself and his friends. "What can we do?"

Lugia cleared his throat. "I believe, Mr. Potter, that your focus lies elsewhere. Namely... home."

"Home... Avalon?" Harry turned towards the Legendary. "We should go back to Avalon?"

"What is needed is to draw all eyes away from what our hunters will be doing and bring attention to the areas where we want it," Lugia rumbled. "And what would draw more attention than Harry Potter returning to Hogwarts after his disappearance?"

Harry opened his mouth to complain, to argue that there were better uses of his time than sitting in class and dealing with Draco Malfoy and being on the Gryffindor Gauntlet team... only to snap his jaw shut and truly consider what Lugia was suggesting. "Half of Avalon loves me and sees me as their savior because of something my mum did. The other half think me at best a braggart and at worst a threat to their way of life and their master. But they all focus on me."

"They are still reporting on you," Neville chimed in. "When Barty and I visited Avalon for a week to visit my uncle all the papers were still wondering where you were. Not on the front page but there were articles. No one knows where you went… Fudge is covering up all he can about the graveyard, fearing that if he lets slip you sided with Jack Avalon will revolt against him, see him as the minister that drove Harry Potter away."

"That witch Rita Skeeter is still dishing gossip on you," Hermione grunted; she hadn't been pleased by some of the stories Skeeter had written about her friends. Why anyone would believe Ron was a secret crime boss and she and Draco were having a torrid love affair she'd never know. And she certainly didn't want to see Draco in leather pants, as Rita claimed.

Ron clapped his hand on his friend's shoulder. "I know you hate being the center of attention but for once this might work out well for us."

Remus cleared his throat. "But would Dumbledore even let Harry back in Hogwarts? We made it pretty clear where we stood at the end of the Fourth Task. The rest of Avalon might not know what happened but he and the Hogwarts staff does. Severus will be on our side, and I think McGonagall and Flitwick might shift our way but we don't know. The rest of you might be easy enough but Harry-"

"I could impress them with the Dance of Joy until they agree to let Harry back in!" Luna offered, her pokeballs opening up to reveal Luna Jr, Neville Jr, Whomper, Mickey, and Linus... all of them wearing weird body armor with wide shoulder pads. Luna instantly struck a pose, as did the others. "Tokusentai! Tokusentai! Tokusentai!"

Remus just stared. "...right, might take more than that."

"Oh, I could hack some records..." Ginny said with glee. "Would be nice to do something easy for a change."

It was Sirius though who cut her off. "no no... you guys are thinking like warriors and spies. No, there is a way to get Harry back into Hogwarts and get the ministry off our backs."

"And how is that?" Harry asked.

Sirius rubbed his hands together with utter glee. "By thinking like a Marauder and pranking all of Avalon, of course!"

~MC~MC~MC~

Author's Notes: So this chapter dealt with the fallout of Voldemort's attack and almost begins shifting pieces into place. Jack is going underground to quietly hunt down Voldemort, so those claiming I was going to kick Harry away to focus just on the Sons… that was never the plan. Jack is an ally and a teacher but Harry WILL be the focus. The Pack are going to aid him and we'll go long stretches of this book with their numbers not being seen at all.

The next chapter is interesting as, perhaps because I was editing A Crack of Thunder while I was writing it, I decided to go the Game of Thrones route and shift POV to another character. We've almost exclusively followed Harry save for a few chapters here or there and this will be a chance to see another side to the conflict… and catch up with a character we haven't seen since the beginning of Grand Trainer Tournament.

If you haven't already make sure you follow me on Twitter at TheRealMr_Chaos

Finally, I have a plot bunny based on a graphic I made of the Mr. Chaos Fanfic Starter Pack.

Basicaly, I did as a joke in that graphic that you take two wildly different franchises and fuse them together and you get one of my stories. And the graphic had The Walking Dead and Yu-Gi-Oh… and then I wondered "Well, what if that was a story, how would it go?"

And I came up with a plot bunny.

I would place the story just after the events of Battle City, maybe after the Kaiba Cup if you wanted to include characters from that. Before the Memory Arc, basically, so you have the Pharaoh. Anyway, Yugi would get in an accident, just like Rick Grimes, and the Pharaoh would bring Yugi into the puzzle, to allow him to heal and the magic of the puzzle would protect him. Problem is when he wakes up in the hospital… the Zombie Apocalypse has happened. After that we'd shift away from The Walking Dead though and explore Yugi and the Pharaoh in the world.

The biggest appeal, for me, would be to have Yugi/Pharaoh team up with characters that aren't part of his group and see him interact with other duelists (though there would be no duels in this). I would have Yugi arrive home to find his grandfather dying of a bite and that would be the first person he and the Pharaoh have to put down when he turns. After that Yugi would try and find his friends but team up with different characters. If it were me I'd make the first person he'd team up with be Rex Raptor. Rex would have matured during the Walker Crisis and would be this badass Walker slayer who is working to help others as he couldn't save his parents. Next I'd have Yugi meet up with Mai, who barricaded herself in her apartment with supplies and has lost her confidence due to her seeing the horrors of the Walkers. Yugi would help her gain back her strength and maybe even they would become a couple.

As for Seto Kaiba when Yugi finally finds him he's in rough shape. Mokuba was gravely injured by Walkers and Seto's left arm was bitten, forcing him to hack it off. He would use Kaiba Corp tech to replace it. He also downloaded Mokuba into the Kaibacorp VR system, just like with Noah, and placed Mokuba in a floating Dueling Drone Robot, who serves as his companion. Kaiba is trying to find a cure and this has led him to focus only on that, to the point that he is letting himself get worn down.

Finally, for a really strange group member, I'd have Dox of the Paradox brothers. Para was turned and Dox keeps his head in a basket on his back, using Para as an early Walker detection device.

There would be characters that wouldn't be evil, per say, but wouldn't be part of Yugi's group. Like Mako has created a floating island kingdom and while he is kind to those that live there he is harsh to outsiders as he won't risk infection.

As for Big Bads, if I were writing it, I'd make of all people Tea one of the biggest villains. I'd have it that she, early on in the disaster, took over a Mall and secured it for the people and basically became a cult leader, preaching that the Pharaoh would save them… but as time went on she went mad, seeing herself as an Egyptian Queen waiting for her king (the Pharaoh) to come and help her rule. She'd have the God Cards above the throne she made and when Yugi/The Pharaoh showed disgust with her actions it would lead to a war.

As for other characters it would be up to you. I could see the Spirit of the Millennium Ring either treating this as the greatest thing ever… or hating it as it is a threat to his goals and thus teaming up with Yugi's group to try and stop it. Marik would seal the Tombkeepers away to protect them, the dead bodies hiding their scent. Joey went mad when Serentiy died and he keeps her jawless Walker body locked in the Kaiba Corp tower where he is squatting. Tristan managed to get on a boat and headed to the Duelist Kingdom Island and he and Pegasus are working to try and figure out an answer with Weevil being a member of their group. Things like that