Welcome to the second installation of Natural Disturbances! All of Nick's review-questions-answers are in the Author's Notes, by the way.

Prominent Pairings of This Chapter:
AshxGary
DrewxMay
BrendanxMay

Newly Introduced Main to Side Human Characters in This Chapter (Order of Appearance):
Ash Ketchum
Gary Oak

Well let's tarry not, here is the second chapter!

Pallet Town, Kanto

Ashton Red Ketchum awoke with a start. He did not know what exactly it was that woke him, nor did he have time to muffle the high-pitched shriek that escaped his mouth as a sharp rap on his window startled him. Turning around as he saw a particular auburn-haired teenager grinning cheekily at him, sitting on a Pidgeot, the sixteen-year-old would-be Pokemon Master closed his eyes in embarrassment.

Not only had his rival witnessed him in his matching (and in Ash's opinion, rather fetching) light turquoise pajama, but also saw Ash scream like a girl. It then occurred to him that his mother, Dawn, and his nefarious—but slightly better now—Sinnoh competitor, Paul, might have been awakened by the sound, but the boy had no time to contemplate anything as Gary Oak once again rapped on his window.

Giving up, Ash straightened himself to a standing position, messy jet black hair sticking up at ridiculous angles. His Pikachu, once quietly asleep on the ground, also jerked awake, sparks flaring from its red cheeks; but realizing that Team Rocket was not trying to kidnap it on one of their many futile quests, the electric mouse Pokemon relaxed. The Pikachu was not to drift back into slumber, though; its Trainer had opened the window and hissed at Gary, "What do you want?"

"So much for a 'hello' after two years," Gary smirked his most infamous smirk, and Ash wondered if their relationship had dwindled back to the 'you sucks' of early teenage. "And I'm very glad to see you too." Gary added sarcastically. Ash noticed that his rival's voice had dropped by an octave or two, and the black-haired Trainer began feeling embarrassed of his own voice, which most certainly did not qualify as deep—no, oftentimes he'd emit high-pitched squeaks for no reason. Ash wanted a voice like Gary's, but after he realized he thought this, quickly shook the thought away.

"Seriously, why wake me up at"—Ash glanced at the analog clock hanging on top of the wall opposite the window, and then his mouth dropped open—"4: 30 in the morning?! I usually sleep till ten!"

"That's wonderful, Ashy-boy," Gary said delicately, causing Ash's face to redden, not only with embarrassment, but at the fact that Gary's face, as angular as it had been, had accentuated so that Gary became considerably hotter than before. "Anyways, Sleeping Beauty,"—Ash's face continued to redden—"I'm here to challenge you to a battle."

"Wha—? Oh, fine then." Ash snapped, motioning to his Pikachu, who happily jumped onto its Trainer's right shoulder. Grabbing his belt of Pokeballs from his bedside table, without even thinking about it, the black-haired Trainer leapt through the window and landed, two floors below, on the grassy lawn.

"Very smooth, future Pokemon Master," Gary said thickly, hopping gracefully off of his Pidgeot's back as he descended and Ash twitched pitifully on the ground, face pressed into the dirt. The auburn-haired Trainer grabbed Ash by the elbows and lifted him up, Ash rising easily and marveling at Gary's strength—if it were the former to pick up the latter, Ash knew he'd probably just wait for Gary to stand up himself. Although, when Gary's hands actually grabbed Ash's arms, however benevolent the contact had been Ash found himself straightening up without any of his rival's assistance and his face increasing to an even brighter red; Ash wondered why.

It was rather dark, and the sun had not yet rose. The air was slightly damp with the beads of water clinging onto each strand of grass. The humidity only helped amplify Ash's own red-facedness, but Gary did not seem to notice and Ash was grateful that Gary had not taken this as an opportunity to further humiliate Ash.

"Anyways, let's make this a double battle, what says you?" Gary asked, twirling a Pokeball in mid-air. Ash was able to see Gary in his entirety; his auburn-haired rival was simply wearing a white T-shirt with a Pokeball print on it and ripped jeans that seemed to add to his ruggedness; the black-haired Pokemon Trainer also noticed that Gary had grown by a good inch or two, and now seemed to tower above Ash, who had not grown at all, and instead had retained large amounts of boyishness. The 'Z' shaped marks on his cheeks had not faded, a relic of his childhood and a rather painful scar he did not like to tell anyone about.

"Um, yeah, sure," Ash replied, clumsily hurrying backwards to clear space. He reached for two random Pokeballs on his belt and flung them into the air. His Staraptor and Torterra emerged, crying valiantly; the former strutted around the place and the latter growled deeply.

Gary, the obviously smoother of the two, flipped out two Pokemon—kissing each Pokeball quickly for good luck, and suddenly Ash angry at this exuberant display, or was it an inexplicable jealousy, the black-haired Trainer did not know— that appeared in liquid-like jets of red. A humanoid fox-like Pokemon formed; Ash gasped ridiculously loudly and caused Gary to raise an eyebrow at him; and then a dark feline figure exploded out of one Pokeball, rings of glowing yellow dotting its body in various places.

"A—A—LUCARIO?!" Ash demanded, feeling his head grow faint and hearing his Pikachu utter a small 'chuu' in comfort. Gary looked at his rival with concern, but seemed to realize he was revealing care for Ash and masked it with a patronizing expression.

"They're rare and admittedly, hard to get your hands on." Gary said, tossing his head proudly so that his auburn hair rippled in the precious little light that there was, oddly attractive and at the same time, ridiculously infuriating, in Ash's opinion. "And only the best of the best can boast that they've succeeded in properly Training one—so naturally, I can."

"Hey!" Ash said lamely, not quite knowing what else to say. In fact, he only said that because he didn't quite know what else to say—inside, he was boiling with jealousy and admiration for his rival.

Gary seemed to suppress the impulse to take advantage of Ash's languid comeback, if it even qualified as one. Instead, Gary opened his mouth and commanded fluidly, "Lucario, 'Dragon Pulse'! Umbreon, 'Shadow Ball'!"

The Aura Pokemon closed his eyes in concentration, a cobalt sphere forming between its took stretched palms. The Umbreon took it to forming a black orb, crackling with dark energy, in front of her slightly unhinged mouth.

Ash would not allow Gary to so easily defeat him, not after six years of Training and learning to become the world's greatest Pokemon Master. "Torterra, 'Razor Leaf'! Staraptor, 'Aerial Ace' on Lucario to dodge 'Dragon Pulse'!" The level of excitement in his voice rose as his Pokemon obeyed without hesitation; green, speedily rotating leaves blasted out of the turtle-like Pokemon's back, headed straight towards Gary's Lucario and Umbreon and the Staraptor swiftly wheeled into the air to avoid a navy blue pulse of energy that shot out of Lucario's outspread palms.

Gary looked a little annoyed as his Lucario's attack missed and Staraptor slash shamelessly into his Lucario's backside, causing the fox-like Pokemon to stagger backwards in pain, but regain his composure quickly. Meanwhile, Umbreon's attack had finished charging and it hurled towards Ash's Torterra, destroying any Razor Leaves that might have been flying Gary's Team's way at the time and striking the turtle-like Pokemon straight in the face.

Torterra skidded backwards and Staraptor promptly flew back to his Teammate's side as Ash both swelled with pride and cringed with indignity. Gary didn't seem to really mind Lucario's damage suffered from the 'Aerial Ace', and was only a little too proud of his Umbreon's 'Shadow Ball''s accuracy.

"All right! Staraptor, 'Peck' Umbreon! Torterra, 'Synthesize'!" Ash ordered hurriedly. His Torterra tentatively lifted its stout head to the sun, absorbing energy, but Gary's Lucario would not stand for it and swiftly rammed into the turtle-like Pokemon with a powerful 'Brick Break' attack as the Torterra kicked up red dust and skidded backwards once again. His Staraptor, undeterred by its Teammate's poor state, careened through the air to repeatedly peck the Dark-typed Pokemon on the head.

Umbreon's yellow rings glowed with annoyance, and as Staraptor pulled away, the feline Pokemon attacked with an 'Iron Tail' attack—Ash opened his mouth to bark a dodge, but he did not have enough time. The Moonlight Pokemon slammed ruthlessly into the Predator Pokemon with a glowing white tail, and then leapt back as his tail faded back to its usual raven color and the Staraptor staggered through the air, landing on the ground a few meters later.

Ash cringed as both of his Pokemon suffered reckonable damage, but shouted encouragingly, "Don't worry, Torterra and Staraptor! We're going to win this match! Let's try that again!"

Gary merely smirked as Ash's Torterra wobbled to its short feet and tried reenergizing itself once again, and once again was put off by another well-aimed 'Brick Break' attack from the Aura Pokemon. The auburn-haired Trainer's Umbreon, too, was better prepared; as Ash's Staraptor stuck out its beak to peck the Moonlight Pokemon's head again, the Umbreon swiftly leapt to the side and flipped into the air, metallic tail once again slamming into the Predator Pokemon's left wing.

"Why don't you just give up, Ashy-boy?" Gary asked mockingly, running his right hand through his spiky hair. Ash turned red again, and was about to shout back, 'Never!'—but before he could do that, both of his Pokemon had collapsed onto the ground, obviously unconscious.

The black-haired Trainer could only concede defeat and silently return his Pokemon, his shoulders sagging. Gary took it to exuberantly returning his own Pokemon, making a show of twirling each Pokeball on his right index finger before flipping them back on his belt. Ash hesitantly looked up, only to have his spirits once again extinguished by the wide smirk on Gary's face.

"Need I say it, I win." Gary said, tilting his head upwards proudly. Ash could only glower pathetically, while Pikachu 'chuued' in comfort.

An awkward silence ensued as the two former rivals stared at each other, neither not quite knowing what to do. At last Ash offered meekly, "Shall we take a walk?" while feebly indicating the gradually rising sun.

The auburn-haired Trainer was a little bewildered by this request—the corners of his mouth twitched in surprise, but he soon masked his surprise with a stern fatigue and nodded. Ash's Pikachu remained silence as its Trainer and its Trainer's rival walked down the stone-strewn path that led from Pallet Town into the unmarked wilderness of the first route—which, since Pallet Town's inhabitants grew out of battling wild Rattata and Pidgey for experience, had grown considerably feral, although the electric mouse would squeak at an occasional blur of unexpected purple.

The sunrise cast an odd sort of orange glow to everything—Ash chanced a glance at Gary, only to notice that his rival's fair skin seemed to have become tanner over the two years they had not seen each other, although not quite as dark as Ash's alabaster skin, and the black-haired Trainer concluded that this was due to travel in Sinnoh. Having traveled in the 'land of lakes' himself for quite some time, Ash only knew too well that the sun there was more than a little heavy, but Dawn had insisted on slathering sun screen on everyone, partially in an effort to preserve her own milky-white skin, which was ridiculously fair for someone of Japanese descent, Ash thought, and then he began to wonder just what he was thinking about.

"Ash." Gary said unexpectedly as the two stopped before a lake that blocked their path, while reaching for another Pokeball clipped on his leather belt. Ash looked up in puzzlement, and Pikachu did the same.

"What?" Ash asked, flinching as his voice squeaked.

Gary did not seem to have noticed however, and merely asked, a dull flush creeping onto his skin—and Ash asked himself, ' Gary, blushing?!'—"Do you, er, I mean, have you ever had a, um, girlfriend?"

"What?" Ash asked again, taken very much aback. At first he was so shocked by this question that he didn't even know what to say; but then, after realizing the inquiry's true contents, answered, "Um, no…" The black-haired Trainer then immediately wondered if this was unusual—that he, a boy of sixteen, had never had any sort of romantic relationship with anyone before. Unless he counted the time that girl from the encounter with Lugia practically pressed herself on him—Ash had completely forgotten her name, blaming it of course on his failing memory, but the whole experience was enough to make him shudder. God, he hadn't even liked her! It was just so creepy!

Upon recollection, the black-haired Trainer decided that he had never really liked somebody before, or if he did, he couldn't tell, seeing as he had nothing else to compare it to, although he did feel a little flustered in some certain people's presences. Though he did not know if that qualified as anything more than slight infatuation—and then with horror, realized that he had felt just that way towards Gary before, and even Paul, but this train of thought crashed abruptly as Gary said, "Me neither."

There was another pause as Ash struggled to recover the tattered remains of his last thoughts, but failing to do so, merely added to the conversation unhelpfully, "Do you think it's… like… normal? I mean, I've never felt like… looking for a girlfriend… exactly… even though… I thought… I mean… I thought you always had one." The black-haired Trainer sincerely hoped he did not reveal worry in his tone of voice, although he was proven very much wrong by the strange look Gary spared him.

"Um, yeah, I guess it's… normal." Gary said somewhat lamely, then said after a brief bit of consideration, "Gramps is always pressuring me to, though. Get a girlfriend, I mean."

"Seriously, Gary, you've never had one?" Ash asked incredulously. He thought he detected a pink tinge on his rival's face, but then the side of his cheek that was visible to Ash was covered as the auburn-haired Trainer threw a Pokeball into the air that released the large silhouette of a shelled Pokemon.

"No." Gary replied, his voice betraying nothing, hinting at nothing, and for some reason, Ash desperately wanted to believe it to be the truth, yet there was something, a nagging thought, that refused to subside, and so the black-haired Trainer blurted it out before thinking twice.

"But you had all those weird cheerleading fangirls!" Ash said loudly, startling a pair of nearby Spearow and causing them to hastily take flight. Gary jumped onto his Blastoise's back, who was at the moment bobbing up and down quietly.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't really like them, just the attention, you know?" Gary said. It then suddenly occurred to Ash just how suspiciously nice Gary was acting after that brief bit of gloating, but he decided that the guy was just trying to be kind. The black-haired Trainer, however, would not stand that his rival was already in the lake and he was not.

Ash, too, hurled out a Pokemon; his recently evolved Crawdaunt splashed into the water noisily. The crab-like Pokemon, very much contrary to its deceptively menacing appearance, happily flailed about in the water, eager for a chance to test out its heightened senses, but was stopped when Ash hurriedly leapt onto the Crawdaunt's slippery dark tangerine back, clutching at the shoulders of his Pokemon to prevent sliding off of it.

Gary watched with a bemused expression as his Blastoise snorted loudly in disapproval and Pikachu cringed as its Trainer tried to gain leverage, and finally succeeded, but just barely. Then, as if acting on a silent agreement, the two teenagers began sliding across the surface of the water, Gary standing suavely on his Pokemon's dome-shaped light brown shell and Ash clutching onto his Crawdaunt so tightly that it almost daunted the water-and-dark-typed Pokemon's speed.

Blastoise and Crawdaunt, regardless of any extra factors, seemed to be well matched in speed; Gary, sensing a possible competition, urged his turtle-like Pokemon forwards, so that now they were roughly half a yard in front of Ash and his Crawdaunt (and of course, his Pikachu). Ash did not know this was to ignite another contest between them, but his Crawdaunt knew very well—or simply could not stand someone or something faster than himself—and too raised his speed, so that they were now almost neck-to-neck.

"Crawdaunt! Not too fast!" Ash gasped, nearly choking on water. Pikachu seemed to enjoy the speed, though—being a relatively fast Pokemon himself, the electrical mouse had never had many chances to enjoy riding on something faster than him. At the end of the small but long lake, both water-typed Pokemon swerved violently and started zooming back to the 'starting line'. The black-haired Trainer tightened his vice grip on his Crawdaunt's two shoulders, now almost parallel with the water's surface.

However, being a recently evolved Pokemon nonetheless, the crab-like Pokemon lost balance and toppled over magnificently into the water. The Crawdaunt surfaced easily, but Ash took a few seconds to manage to burst out of the water, both him and his Pikachu—who was still clutching onto Ash's left shoulder determinedly. The black-haired Trainer's cap had been knocked astray in the whole process, and as Ash flailed around wildly looking for it, Gary said, "Here."

Ash glanced up, only to see his rival hold his well-drenched baseball cap in his hand, twirling it tauntingly on his right forefinger. He lunged wildly for his rightful possession, but Gary had already sped off on his Blastoise, heading for the shore which they had just left.

"Git." The black-haired Trainer grumbled as he clambered onto his Crawdaunt's back, now ever so acute to any falling hint. However, the crab-like Pokemon did not fail Ash again, and they soon reached the shore.

Before Ash could open his mouth to demand his cap back—it was his favorite cap, too— Gary had already put it on his head, flattening it down so that his messy, uncombed black hair was subdued somewhat. Ash glanced at Gary who was smirking satisfactorily at him; the former patted his own head and discovered to his pleasant surprise that Gary had already dried it, perhaps with a light fire-type attack from own of his Pokemon.

Nevertheless, Ash could hardly believe that the same person who had dried his hat was now speeding off on his Arcanine, calling to Ash over his shoulder, "Last one to Pallet Town's a rotten egg!"

Petalburg, Hoenn

Drew Rosalind awoke with a start, somewhat unaware of his surroundings but wary all the same. Then he realized that he was in May's house—he had politely requested to board the night there, hardly thinking that the white-haired boy or that boy with the odd green-yellow hair would allow him to stay his night at their house. Of course, Drew could be rather charming when he wanted to be, and so, of course, Caroline had agreed, much to May's shock and light disdain, although Drew knew that she was struggling to mask some other emotion.

It was a good thing that the Maples' had an extra room, else Drew was pretty sure that he would be sleeping on the couch or on a lame makeshift bed, which would severely hurt his beauty—er, he meant 'sleep'. Nevertheless, the green-haired Trainer was grateful for this, and out of curiosity he checked the small digital clock next to the bed, which read '7: 00'.

Quite obvious was the fact that Drew's wakening was on time; he purposefully trained himself to wake up every morning at seven, although he was kind of surprised that he managed to still wake up at seven o'clock since the last time he slept was in the Slateport Contest Hall—incidentally, where he got Ash's message via the means of his Pokenav beeping its face off.

The green-haired Trainer promptly lifted himself off of the bed and pushed open the door, intent on brushing his teeth and maybe a light manicure. However, when he pulled open the bathroom door he discovered to his surprise and to a certain extent, delight, that May was already in there.

The May in question was taking off her clothes, evidently for the shower, and thankfully for her she did not strip too far and had heard when Drew so unceremoniously entered. In fact, she had only shed her normal red collared vest, revealing the long white shirt underneath.

Perhaps someone else might have apologized and stumbled awkwardly out, but Drew Rosalind was not one for such things. Instead, he smirked and said, "You know, I always thought that white shirt part sticking out underneath your vest was a skirt."

May gasped in horror as she quickly grabbed her red vest from the hamper, clutching it protectively over her chest and edging towards the door, at an apparent loss for words. Drew recognized this as one of her many poor 'defenses'; and he could have shattered it very easily, although he just let it pass this time—temporarily, at least.

"May, May, May," Drew said, sighing and waggling a finger at May, who was now barely four inches away from himself, and the green-haired Trainer was quite aware of this, "Of all the people I know, you are the only one who I thought did not take a shower in the morning."

This time, May answered, although her retort was not the best. "Well… I don't… but today I thought I'd change." She then blushed, as if realizing how lame her reply was.

"I see." Drew said tantalizingly, leaning on the bathroom door to make way for May to pass had she chosen to. Instead she stood rooted to the spot, and as jade eyes met sapphire, Drew discovered with a jolt that she appeared worried, even fearful. In spite of himself, the green-haired Trainer asked, "What's wrong, May?"

May sighed before seeming to decide to trust her disreputable rival. "Well… it's just that… seeing Brendan and Wally"—Drew's mind clicked with recognition, then with distaste as he remembered the hotheaded white-haired Trainer—"after… what, four, five years?... has gotten me thinking…"

"About what?" Drew urged, almost palpably eager to know.

"Just… about. You know. Changing and stuff." May finished languidly, flopping the left strand of hair that protruded from under her red bandana. Drew did not know quite what to say, but then May had asked, "Do you think I've changed since we first met?"

Drew pondered the question for a few seconds, then answered meticulously, "Yes. But all for the better."

"Good." May said, a radiant smile on her face—one that Drew was absolutely positive was genuine, and one that almost caused himself to smile as well.

West of Petalburg Gym, Petalburg, Hoenn

Brendan Birch had always admired, envied, or even feared those, whether they be Trainer, Coordinator, or Breeder, greater than himself. For this reason, he was consecutively intimidated by his mentor and master, (although Brendan felt a little iffy applying the latter term) Wallace. Yes. The Wallace. The Master-ranked Coordinator—in the times before they merged all Pokemon Contest categories and added in the battles at the end, not to mention the dancing and visual categories—former Gym Leader of Sootopolis, which was, and still is, the toughest gym to defeat in all of Hoenn, and current Champion of Hoenn.

Such a figure surely attracted many seeking tutorage from the seemingly undefeatable Wallace. Brendan knew himself that it was hard—and at times, nearly impossible—to impress the aqua-haired Champion. After all, a Champion is not crowned for nothing. He reflected back to five years ago, when he was still a bumbling greenhorn Trainer, of hoping to tackle the Contests and perhaps scrape a win or two for himself.

Back then, Brendan was most definitely not the strongest nor the coolest, and probably not the smartest. However, at the sight, the utterly breathtaking sight, of Wallace's Luvdisc performing an impeccable 'Rain Dance' technique, that Brendan himself later declared to be 'flying up and painting the skies' in an attempt to flatter Wallace, followed by the most ethereal 'Water Pulse' in the Slateport Contest Hall, Brendan decided that he was to be both a Trainer and Coordinator.

The white-haired Trainer only had eyes for the best—he had been very selective in choosing the perfect starter Pokemon, and decided on one of his father's many Mudkips, and not only then. He would randomly catch Pokemon not in his Pokedex, and had their strength or speed or defenses been unsatisfactorily, he gently released them. In this case, Brendan was extremely determined to get to be Wallace's—and only Wallace—pupil.

Expectedly, the blue-haired Champion rejected Brendan's first proposal—and also expectedly, the stubborn white-haired Trainer persisted. In one extreme case, Brendan had gotten onto his knees and begged, tears streaming down his face and being utterly humiliated by a large crowd that had gathered. Upon reflection, Brendan decided that his behavior was rather embarrassing, and that Wallace was completely vindicated in wanting to shake Brendan off of his leg. So the then-Gym Leader had challenged Brendan, very reluctantly, to a Pokemon battle in an attempt to shake off the spectators and Brendan.

Wallace, Brendan thought, thought wrong if he wished to dissipate the crowd—instead, only more on-watchers came to watch the battle between Wallace's Seaking and Brendan's Nuzleaf. Brendan lost after a heated fight, but he certainly gave the battle his best and it was then, the white-haired Trainer determined, as Brendan picked up his Pokemon and murmured warm and encouraging words to it, that Wallace had decided to choose Brendan as a pupil.

As the fifteen-year-old Brendan watched a flock of Wingull pass by the Winters' house, the white-haired Trainer felt slightly cold and shifted around under his bed covers. Then, deciding that he was too awake, threw off Wally's spare blanket and changed quickly, pulling on his outfit of short-sleeved black, red-Pokeball printed jacket and three-quarters gray-black pants. He also grabbed his emerald white-Pokeball print headband—how he was obsessed with Pokeball prints—and pushed it onto his forehead.

After pulling on dandelion fingerless gloves and slinging his bottle-green single-strapped backpack and Pokeball belt over his torso and around his waist, the white-haired Trainer carefully stepped outside Wally's front door, mentally thanking his friend for letting him stay the night instead of traveling all the way back to Littleroot.

The white-haired Trainer silently breathed in the crisp, fresh spring air, then remembered something. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a UV 65 sun block lotion bottle, and, squeezing out a large globule of light yellow cream, slathered it all over his pale and supple skin.

"Can't forget this," Brendan thought to himself, tucking his sun block back inside his green backpack, and glanced around himself. He decided he might as well head over to the Pokemon Center to rearrange his Team, since there was nothing else to do and Brendan was willing to bet his Pokeblock Case that May was not awake—but little did he know, she was.

Striding through the transparent red sliding doors of the Pokemon Center, Brendan made his way promptly to the sleek blue PC standing solitarily in the corner of the Center, and pressed a large red button in the center below the screen. The Computer flickered to life, and Brendan quickly punched in his username—which was his given name—and his password.

A list of options sprung up, reading in order: "Pokemon In Box," "Call Someone", and "Item Storage." Brendan easily selected the first one, carefully alighting his finger on the screen, which flashed white and then changed into rows upon rows of Pokemon sprites.

Brendan plopped his Aggron's and Shiftry's Pokeballs onto the platform that jutted out from the side of the PC and had a funnel-shaped device hanging over it, also leading to inside the Computer. After pressing a large button that read 'Confirm' on the screen, the funnel began whirring and the two Pokeballs were sucked inside the funnel—a few moments later, his Aggron and Shiftry's sprites appeared in one of the many rows on the screen. Brendan glanced at his belt and decided he still had three spaces left, and so selected his Gallade, Dragonite, and Ninetails.

The three respective Pokeballs fell out of the funnel in due time, and Brendan carefully clipped them onto his belt. Then, re-donning his bag, he walked out of the Pokemon Center, not quite knowing what to do next.

Rocket Game Corner, Viridian City, Kanto

"It is done." The scientist said, rubbing fatigue away from his spectacles-wearing eyes. The giant green dragon, contained behind the pane of thick glass, was subdued—no longer was it thrashing wildly against its container, trying to break free, but now it was lying soundlessly on the ground, coiled up like a huge snake. The somewhat humanoid purple figure, too, had stopped levitating and instead had fallen onto the ground, although a serene expression was on its angular face.

Giovanni looked, very much pleased, at Rayquaza and Mewtwo, twiddling his thumbs in anticipation as two of the scientists entered through the pane of glass by means of a warp panel. Each scientist clutched an odd instrument in their hands, as if designed to be placed on something. The two men proceeded to carefully adjust the two band-like instruments on the dragon and psychic Pokemon's heads, checking the position cautiously to make sure it was absolutely perfect.

They hurriedly rushed back through the pane of glass, using the warp panels again, and watched silently as the Sky Lord and Clone Pokemon rose up to their full heights—the former screeching gutturally and the latter glowing lavender.

Team Rocket's leader smiled to himself, pushing on his own face a pair of dark sunglasses, and reached for several dozen more customizable band instruments, tucking them into a resizable backpack. He then took several remote-like devices from the table everyone was standing at, and taking one of these, punched in a few buttons and lifted the controller to his mouth, uttering a single word, "Come."

The serpentine Pokemon hurled itself through the panel of glass, shattering it instantly, and the purple Pokemon drifted slowly afterwards, its dark amethyst tail barely trailing the ground. The scientists shrieked out loud, for this was not going according to plan, but the Team Rocket Leader would not listen to their cries. Instead he whispered into the controller, "Mewtwo, destroy."

The Clone Pokemon's eyes glowed a formidable red, and a huge explosion shook the entire underground laboratory, causing all of the scientists to immediately dissolve into the air; in other words, it killed them instantaneously. Giovanni smirked and said to himself and the controller, "Now, let's leave this place."

He jumped onto Rayquaza's back, walking shakily up to the regal Pokemon's car-sized head, and whispered an unheard order into the controller again. Rayquaza understood, and blasted out of the ceiling, Mewtwo following close behind. The sight of the green dragon shocked many gamblers in the Game Corner, and chaos ensued inside the gambling attraction, but Giovanni did not stay there long enough to witness this, for he had burst through another ceiling—headed straight for the Indigo Power Plant.

A/N:
That concludes the second chapter! —beams— Which should not have taken so long to write… even though it's probably not that long… been like, what, a week:P

Well answering Nick's review questions, and here I am a little iffy about since I don't know whether he was kidding or not, but I'll take it at face value anyways:

1. This fanfic is about, well, Giovanni really and his crazy attempt to take over the world which I really shouldn't elaborate on 'cause that will spoil the plot.. 0o Should be pretty long.

2. It starts off (kind of) in Pallet Town and then later travels to Johto, then Hoenn, and maybe Sinnoh (not quite sure about the last one.) This takes place in the anime timeline, since more people care about that than any other timeline, shortly after Ash completes the Sinnoh League (which isn't complete yet so I'm taking a few shrewd guesses and would like critique on realism.)

3. Each character's age is revealed somewhere throughout the fanfiction, but the main characters' ages are no less than fourteen and no older than seventeen (with the exception of Brock, Wallace, and Steven, of course.) There is however Max and an OC, both of which are eleven and ten, respectively. :P This question has got me thinking, and I think I'll post the ages of characters that have shown up already in the A/N from now, unless this decision meets rejection.

4. Basically all the important game and anime characters are in this fanfic… I'm trying to incorporate all of the un-Animeized important game characters in here in any case… xD (For example, Brendan and that Silver-guy (from Johto, I only know his Pokemon Special Manga name)). Oh, and Giovanni, of course.

5. May is the anime version and Brendan is a cross between all three versions of him: game, Special Manga, and anime.

Hope this answers your questions… and for those of you curious as to what the questions were in the first place, just check the review page.

So anyways, about that age indicator, I've decided not to use it. :P You should be able to figure it out yourself. Anyways, Max and an OC are the only characters under the age of 14 in this fic.

And this concludes the author's notes! Review review!