It was official. Bella Longwood now lived in a world gone mad.

The once sleepy town of Pallet had, in the space of a single night, become a veritable sea of humanity. Police had encountered quite the time trying to prevent a full-scale riot. From what she could see, no TV camera could even get a good look at the situation. There were people literally floating into the tiny town riding on planks of wood. What few Pokémon could even squeeze in were just as panicked as their human counterparts.

By now, All of Viridian was at a standstill, waiting with baited breath for what one of the pillars of the known world, yes, the esteemed professor that had succeeded previous professor Samuel Oak, would say about this crisis. Both mother and daughter shared their fixation on their living room TV.

"Ahem. May I have your attention please?"

Initially, the professor's words were barely heard amongst the frightened cacophony. One megaphone silencing by an Officer Jenny later, the murmurs died down quickly. The speaker was a tall, middle-aged man with a dark complexion and a very serious look on his face. His hazel eyes seemed to pierce through the camera itself.

"Thank you, ma'am. As you know, one of the greatest catastrophes in modern history just befell the Pokémon battle stadium in Saffron last night. As fewer of you may know, I am the very recently inducted professor of this region. Professor Albert Redwood."

The people in the crowd exchanged looks, as did Bella with her mother.

"I wish that, under better circumstances, we could've done the whole introduction song and dance, but we need something different right now. In any case, if any of you are wondering what I intend to do about this, don't worry. I've already contacted some of the best defense this region's got: our gym leaders. They've already been alerted to the problem, and if what we saw at the stadium happens again, I've given special instructions on how to handle that.

"What instructions? H-How do even know what we saw regarding those moves was real?" The voice came from a reporter within the midst of the bunch present."

To everybody's surprise, the professor glared straight the reporter, looking none too pleased. "Let's see now. Judging from the reports I've gotten, we've seen about 10 dead, approximately 2 to 3000 injured, and about 2 million in damages… outside the stadium alone. Do you really want to play this game, Fedora boy?"

The reporter just stared at him, open mouthed for a second before shutting up and backing away. Several more questions pelted the man, and he answered them without a second thought. Not a shred of hesitation was in his voice.

That's the new professor? Bella fought as she looked on in the proceedings.

"Hmm. They said that the new professor had a certain bite to him, but I guess I really didn't know what they meant by that…" Bella's mother mused quietly, mostly to herself.

The conference went on. After a few more questions, Redwood got things under control. "Look, if you want any more questions answered, I'll gladly direct you to my secretary, Valerie." He gestured to the sandy haired woman that had been wordlessly standing next to him since the conference began. While it wasn't unusual for a professor in any given region to have an army of scientists that they employed at their beck and call, it was rare for a professor to have a secretary run the numbers for them. It was an option that only Elm had made use of before he came along.

"Hello to you all." The woman said simply, bearing a light British accent. "I will be handling things on the account of Prof. Redwood here. If there's anything more you'd like to ask, please direct your queries to me."

When the woman had finished speaking, Redwood wrapped things up. "I'm well aware that these are trying times, but just as we did 20 years ago, Kanto will come back from this, stronger than ever. Rest assured, there's no need for panic. Together we will all see to it that this character ends up exactly where he belongs."

Unbeknownst to anyone else, however, the very man that now had a target on his back had been sitting pretty in his office at an undisclosed location, watching the proceedings. A smile had crept up on his features that only grew as he watched the middle-aged man rant and rave, making promises he couldn't keep.

"You know, this juice tastes just a little bit bitter. Marne, be a dear and patch me a fresh batch. Imported." He hadn't even had his eye on the TV for the last bit. He instead handed an empty wine glass to the woman in question, an elderly lady pushing her 70s. She begrudgingly took the glass.

"Now, now. Don't look at me like that." Nessler barely flinched at the disdainful glare the old woman shot back at him. "It's just juice. Not anything too difficult."

She didn't move. Instead, her countenance changed from mere disdain to a look that said-and wanted to do—horrible, horrible things. The tears going down her face weren't lost on Nessler, either.

"Marne… Look, I'm a reasonable man. You still a little… disturbed about your Farfetch'd?" His words flowed easily like a pristine riverbank, but both of them knew that he meant business. It was made clear from the very beginning of this little arrangement that Marne would like nothing more than to kill him where he stood. They both knew that it wasn't going to happen, but the mob boss was more than happy to let her dreams be dreams. He had other things to focus on that didn't involve some old hag that just happen to have a granddaughter that really had a face for TV.

A growl was her reply. She turned on her heels and left. He looked around for a second, and realizing nobody was there to look in on him, took out a Poké ball from a compartment on his belt. He stared long and hard at the quarters of what he considered his only friend. It was funny how things worked out…