As Gold and Lyra stepped out of the lab to embark on the task set upon them by Professor Elm, Gold noticed the redheaded boy, Silver, near the lab. When Gold went over to investigate, Silver shoved him away, very forcefully, so much so as Gold nearly lost his balance. Gold assumed Silver was merely angry about earlier.

"Hey! How dare you!" Lyra shouted angrily. "What did Gold ever do to you?"

"Our personal matters are of no concern to you, girl." Silver said, contempt clear as crystal in his voice as he said the last word.

"Excuse me?" Lyra said, clearly shocked.

"You heard me." Silver said, completely calm.

"Lyra, back off. If he's gonna be a douchebag, let him be a douchebag. What he does is none of our business, unless it's illegal. There is nothing wrong with him sitting here." Gold said.

"You may want to listen to him, Lyra, was it? Terrible name, by the way. You may want to consider calling your parents out on that one." Silver said, voice dripping with hatred.

"Why you..." Lyra began.

"Lyra, let's just go." Gold said, grabbing Lyra's arm and starting to drag her towards the town's western exit.

"That guy was a DICK!" Lyra said.

"I know, but let's keep moving and don't dwell on it."

After the rather abhorrent encounter with Silver, Lyra seemed even more annoyed than before, for now she wouldn't talk to Gold at all.

At least before she would talk to me, even though it was just snide remarks. It's getting kind of lonely without conversation. Gold thought to himself as he and Lyra walked. They had just been through Cherrygrove and were almost at their destination. Gold stopped suddenly, noticing Lyra was a few yards behind him, petting a wild pidgey.

"Lyra, hurry up, you know how some wilds can be, if it's mother is around and thinks you're a threat to her child, I don't want to know what she'll do." Gold said, looking around nervously.

"Relax. It's fine. I have Chiko with me."

"Yeah? What's Chiko gonna do against a full-grown Pidgeot? Give it a few light scratches at most. Our Pokemon are not strong enough to take it on yet, and I don't want-" Gold was cut off by a loud "PIIIIIIDGE!"

"Oh shit..." Said Gold, fear evident in his voice.

"Gold, what was that?" Lyra asked fearfully.

"That's what I was afraid of" said Gold, as a very large Pidgeot landed directly behind Lyra, very quietly, judging by that she didn't seem to hear it.

Lyra sat there, frozen, hand outstretched, the Pidgey having gotten bored with her unmoving hand and left, the Pidgeot still as well, and Gold three yards away from the both of them.

"Lyra, Gold whispered. "Get up and walk over here, very, very slowly."

Lyra obeyed, starting to get to her feet. As soon as she began walking, Pidgeot started flapping her wings wildly, knocking Lyra over again.

"Crawl over to me" Gold whispered.

"Ok. Ok. Calm down, Lyra. Keep your cool." Lyra said to herself. Why am I so terrified? I studied what to do in this sort of situation. Lyra thought.

"LYRA!" Gold shouted. Too late, Lyra noticed the Air Cutter and rolled to the side. The Air Cutter sliced deep into her arm, narrowly missing her major artery.

"AAAAGGGHHHHH!" Lyra screamed, so loud it hurt her throat. Gold ran forward towards Lyra, but a powerful Gust knocked him back.

"Go, Blaze!" Gold said. "I need you to create a distraction while I grab Lyra. Dodge any attacks that come your way. I should only need a good 30 seconds or so, got it?" The shrew Pokémon nodded. " Alright, wait til you hear me give this signal:" He whistled a simple one note tune. "Understand?" The Pokémon nodded again. "Good. Go stand behind Pidgeot." The little Cyndaquil obeyed.

Lyra had blacked out from pain by now. If Gold didn't get Lyra to someone soon, she would bleed out. Professor Oak. Professor Elm had said a man name Professor Samuel Oak was visiting Mr. Pokémon, perhaps he would be able to help; it was certainly closer than the Pokécenter was. Although there was a chance that he wasn't there, but that was a risk he'd have to take. He whistled.

Cyndaquil started off by smokescreening the area, but that was okay because Gold knew where he was going. He ran in and grabbed Lyra's good arm and slung it over his shoulder. As he ran as fast as he could, he called Blaze towards him and returned him.

The Pidgeot took off and circled over them, as though it was preparing to attack again. Lyra's unconscious body was heavy. Gold nearly dropped her several times. Her head kept lolling to the side, making it difficult for Gold to keep her balanced. But eventually, they made it to Mr. Pokémon's home. Gold knocked urgently on the door. A tall man with short blonde hair and a white shirt and jeans opened the door.

"Are you Mr. Pokémon?" Gold asked.

"No, I'm Professor Oak."

"Even better, can you help my friend? She was sliced by an Air Cutter from a wild Pidgeot. It looked pretty deep, she lost a lot of blood." said Gold.

"Sorry, the best I can do right now is sti-"

"Do it, please," Gold interrupted. "I'm begging you, do it. She is one of my few and closest friends."

"Alright, but this will be rudimentary at best, afterward we're going to have to get her to a Pokémon Center." Professor Oak said.

By the time Professor Oak had stitched up Lyra's wound, Gold had already collected Mr. Pokémon's discovery, which turned out to be an egg of a Pokémon not native to Johto. Eventually, Professor Elm arrived on Nock to pick them up. He had a very urgent look on his face

"We've got to go. You're going to have to walk back, Gold. If you see a redheaded boy, see if you can get his name. He ste the Totodile from my lab. It's an extremely rare Pokémon. It's important I get it back. I'm going to take Lyra to the Pokécenter, then head back to the lab."

"I'll keep an eye out." Gold said as he began to walk away. As soon as he was out of sight, he broke into a run. He had a feeling he knew who did it.

There was a solid thud as Gold ran into none other than Silver.

"What are you doing here, Gold?" Silver asked.

"I could ask you the same thing. Where'd you get the Pokémon?" Gold replied, noticing the shiny new Poké Ball on Silver's belt.

"That's none of your concern." Silver said cockily.

"I know you stole the Totodile from the lab. Just admit it." Gold replied calmly.

"And so what if I did?" Silver demanded.

"Then it probably mistrusts you, as it doesn't know you. The starters at the Lab were only introduced to Lyra and I. It probably doesn't even listen to you properly because of that." Gold said coolly.

"Is that a challenge?" Silver said.

Damn. Blaze may not be strong enough, Totodile's a water type, which is strong against Blaze. But if I don't take the challenge, I won't get another chance to catch him. "Yes. It is."

"Alright then. Go, Dile!" Yelled Silver, tossing the red and white sphere, releasing the tiny crocodile Pokémon.

"Go, Blaze! I'm counting on you!" Yelled Gold.

"It... It's a double knockout." said Silver.

"So it is. You fought valiantly, Blaze. Have a great rest in your Poké Ball." Gold said.

"Well, I guess it's a draw. Dile, return. You're better than I thought. But you won't be so lucky next time." Silver said snidely. Though as he walked by, Gold could have sworn he saw a genuine smile.

Once Gold arrived back in New Bark Town, he immediately made his way to the lab and entered the large white building, noticing the large hole in the glass, unnecessarily made by Silver, as the Lab was unlocked. "So, the culprit returns to the scene of the crime!" A voice sounded through the building.

Whooo! This is getting tense already, and it's only the second chapter! also, I don't know if it shows when I publish it, but if the font seems different from fanfiction's default, it's because I'm typing this in Google. Why, you ask? In case something happens to one of my drafts in fanfiction. A perfect example of this would be a short draft of the second chapter of Shadows. ( A Pokémon Ranger Shadows of Almia fic of mine, go check it out if you've got time. (Which you probably do.)) Anyways, that draft got destroyed after my laptop spontaneously restarted. Thankfully, I wasn't far. Anyways, see you next time! Also, Shadows will probably be coming out tomorrow, I was just adding a few finishing touches to this chapter, so I'm gonna keep working on this. Laters!