And here it is, yet another chapter. I'm sorry I'm taking so long lately, but there are other things on my mind than just this story. I will work on it as much as I can, but don't be surprised if I post some OneShots before uploading chapter 8. Another thing: I used to be ahead of the story on FF by at least two chapters, but my inactivity has caused that lead to evaporate. I want to build it back up, so it might be a while before the next chap is up. Thanks for the patience, and thanks to the people who review for putting up with me.

In this chapter, Brock finally makes his reappearance, and the plot moves on a little. Less focused on dialogue than the previous one, but dialogue remains important. To me, nothing beats dialogue. Enjoy, and don't forget to review!

Chapter 7: Parents, Plans and Confrontations

"Delia, please calm down and listen to me."

Brock sighed inwardly. For the past five minutes, he'd been on the phone with Ash's mom and during that time he had done nothing but trying to convince her that Ash and the others were okay and that she didn't have to worry. Suddenly a second line connected, this time with Norman and Caroline from the Petalburg Gym.

"Brock! Is May alright? Are you and Ash and Dawn okay?" Caroline began, just as hysterical as Delia was.

Brock didn't even get a chance to reply as a third connection opened.

"Where's Dawn? Is she alright? And the rest of you?"

This was Johanna, Dawn's mother. Now all the parents were talking at once, and while Brock was making futile attempts to answer their questions, a real conversation was impossible by the number of voices all talking at the same time.

After Ash had left in pursuit of Cyrus, Brock had made his way to the Pokémon Center, figuring that his friends would turn up there eventually. Once there, however, he had been called by Ash's mother, who had been following the Contest live on TV and, upon seeing the carnage once the smoke cleared, panicked.

Of course, May and Dawn's parents had been watching to see their daughters as well, and when Team Galactic had attacked everything had been broadcast live around the country.

Because each parent wanted to be the first to have their questions answered, they all started to raise their voices to be heard over the noise of the others.

Pretty soon, the parents were all but shouting into the phones, leaving Brock nearly buried under an avalanche of questions.

The noise was really getting on his nerves, so he used the skill he had acquired as a big brother of many siblings; a skill that had never failed him in the past because he only used it if there was no alternative.

"Will all of you please shut up for a moment!" he roared into the phone.

The silence that now followed was almost as deafening as the noise had been. None of the parents had ever heard Brock raise his voice and they were surprised to hear him do it.

"Look, what happened at the Contest was unusual, but we deal with that on a daily basis," Brock said, now calm again.

"I'm sure Ash, May and Dawn are all fine and that they will show up here soon enough," he continued, looking at each of the respective parents as he said their child's name.

"But what happened? Wasn't Ash, at least, supposed to be with you?" Delia asked.

Brock shook his head. "You know Ash; he wouldn't let a guy like Cyrus take everyone's Pokémon," he said.

He hoped that Delia wouldn't start freaking out again with the notion of Ash chasing the leader of a criminal gang.

'Who am I kidding?' Brock thought, 'Of course she's going to freak out.'

"He went after the leader of Sinnoh's biggest criminal gang?" Delia shrieked. "You have to get him back!"

"Not to interrupt, but what happened to May and Dawn?" Norman asked. He was calmer than the mothers, but Brock could see the tension in his eyes, and hear it in his voice.

"I don't know," Brock replied. "They were in the dressing rooms waiting for their turn to appeal; I haven't seen them after the attack yet. But," he added hastily before he was cut off again, "I'm sure they're both fine. Like I said, we're in these kinds of situations all the time; usually it's just not broadcast live."

"I'm afraid you're not familiar with Team Galactic," Johanna said, finally speaking up again.

Brock gave her a quizzical look. "What do you mean?"

Johanna sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them again and looked into Brock eyes. Brock could see that she was afraid, more afraid than the situation called for, perhaps. That made him anxious.

"Team Galactic's Cyrus is mad. I'm not talking evil megalomaniac; I'm talking stark raving mad. Calling him a religious zealot would be the most apt description, although his motives aren't really that religious."

She paused for a moment, and Brock waited eagerly for her to continue. The other parents, too, kept quiet, waiting for Dawn's mother to continue.

"Cyrus plans to bring about the end of the world."

Norman started to interrupt her, but Johanna shook her head and continued, "I know what you want to say. Team Aqua and Team Magma wanted to cause cataclysmic events as well, but not on this scale. Cyrus wants to gain hold of the power of Sinnoh's creators and use them to destroy and rebuild the world in his own image."

Brock and the other parents let out a gasp at this notion.

"How do you know this?" Norman nearly shouted.

"And why would he need all those Pokémon then?" Delia asked, confused.

Brock wanted to ask the same as Norman: how did Johanna know of Cyrus' plans?

"My ex-husband, Dawn's father, was a member of Team Galactic. He dropped out of it after learning of this plan, but he's been on the run ever since," Johanna said softly, tears starting to gleam in her eyes.

She gave Brock a desperate glance. "Please, don't tell her about this. She doesn't have to know, and her father never wanted anything but good for her. He's not a bad man, and I don't want her image of him tainted by this knowledge," she pleaded.

Brock nodded solemnly. "I won't tell her. Don't worry, Johanna, this secret won't leave this small group."

The other parents nodded in agreement, and Caroline said, "Don't worry. You can trust us not to tell anything."

Johanna smiled gratefully. "Thank you. That means a lot to me," she said, visibly relieved.

Ash was in a holding cell roughly the size of a walk-in closet. There was a bed and a very small bathroom area walled off with tinted glass, but that was about it. Ash lay on the bed, contemplating all the events of the past few days.

Everything had gone from being absolutely fine to being screwed up in the worst way. First his fears of Drew and May getting together, and now the threat of the world being destroyed. Could things get any worse? Of course, he'd dealt with imminent world destruction before, but it never got any easier. He started wondering why it was always him caught up in events like these. What was it about him that attracted disaster?

He sighed. That kind of philosophical thought wouldn't do him much good. He turned his attention to the matter at hand. Cyrus wanted him to betray Dialga and Palkia and make sure Cyrus got his hands on them. To get Ash to help him, he had captured Ash's friends and he would use them to blackmail Ash into doing what he wanted. Ash scoffed. Cyrus, that son of a…

"How's the cell, boy?" a voice asked from the hall.

Ash shot up from the bed and ran over to the cell door "Saturn! Let me out or you'll be sorry!" he yelled back, not bothering to answer the Galactic Commander's question.

Saturn laughed. "Right. And how exactly did you plan to escape that cell? I just came here to deliver a message from Cyrus," he said, his voice turning stone cold.

"What message?" Ash asked angrily. He knew that Saturn was right, that he couldn't break out.

"He wants to remind you once more of the predicament you're in, Ash. If you refuse to help once the twenty-four hours are over your friends will be the victims of that."

Anger boiled in Ash's blood. "Does he think I've forgotten already?" he yelled angrily. He wanted to say he'd never help Cyrus, but with friends in danger, how could he?

"No, but he wants you to know that your time is ticking away slowly but surely. Use the time you have left well, Ash. Your decision will affect your friends greatly," Saturn said.

Ash wanted to reply, but he heard footsteps removing themselves from his cell and he knew that Saturn had left him alone again.

'What could Cyrus' plan be?' Ash wondered as he lay on his back once more. 'He said that I have a connection with Pokémon through my heart…and apparently he needs that. But what will he gain from it? Why does he need me so badly?'

Ash shook his head angrily. The whole situation was too weird to easily make sense of. Having decided that figuring out Cyrus' plan could wait, his thoughts went to May. Was she alright? Had Cyrus hurt her? And what about Dawn and Brock? Was Drew with them?

More and more questions rose in Ash's mind and he started to wonder if his other friends were all being held in the same place, of if they had separate cells like him. If they were all together, and Drew was there too, would he be trying to comfort May?

'Strange that that idea still bothers me so much even now,' Ash thought with a small, rueful smile.

He sighed. Thinking those thoughts wasn't going to solve anything. He had to get out of Team Galactic's grasp and try to rescue his friends in the process. Breaking out of the cell wasn't going to happen, so he would have to find a way to trick Cyrus into letting him go. Perhaps if he pretended to cooperate…

Ash sat up, leaned against the wall, pulled his hat over his eyes and started to come up with a plan.

"Are we even going in the right direction?" Dawn asked idly as she, May and Drew made their way through the forest, looking for Team Rocket and Pikachu.

"We've been traveling in a straight line. If we were headed the right way to begin with, we're headed the right way now," Drew said, somewhat haughtily.

Dawn wanted to give him an acid response, but she knew that Piplup wouldn't let her off if she did. Even so, Drew annoyed her. It wasn't that he wasn't a nice guy or anything; he was just so infuriatingly arrogant.

'Seriously Ash, how can you be worried about this guy?' she thought.

Just then, they had to crawl through some thorny bushes and May cut her arm on a thorn.

"Ow, dammit!" she muttered.

"Are you okay? Let me take a look," Drew said, bending over to inspect her arm.

Dawn had to fight back the urge to pantomime vomiting, but May blushed a little.

"It's nothing, I'm fine," she said softly.

Drew looked into her eyes, and her blush darkened a bit.

Again Dawn wondered what May saw in Drew; he was such an ass-kisser.

("Oh please, let me say something,") Piplup begged Dawn.

Dawn shook her head. "I admit that he's a first class slime ball, but he's still a friend of May's. We have to stay nice…"

("Come on, you know you want to say something sarcastic,") Piplup said, ("Give in to it, turn to the dark side,") the Penguin Pokémon continued.

Dawn gave Piplup a surprised look. She wondered where her starter had seen Star Wars.

"Believe me, if May wasn't such a good friend I would have," she replied.

Piplup grinned. He knew that Dawn would give in to her impulses eventually.

"So Drew, why did you decide to join us anyway?" Dawn asked.

She tried to sound light-hearted, but she thought Drew might have heard some hostility in her voice.

"Why wouldn't I help friends in need?" Drew replied, flicking his hair.

'Or rather, friend, singular,' Dawn thought sarcastically. 'Wow, why am I so hostile to Drew all of a sudden? I mean, he's arrogant, but it's not like he's my enemy or anything…'

Dawn was suddenly troubled by her own thoughts, but she figured it was just fatigue getting to her.

'Or is it because he's giving Ash trouble by loving May? Maybe I just don't want him to make Ash worry…'

Dawn thought. She frowned. There wasn't really time to dwell on her worries now. They had a task to accomplish: finding Team Rocket.

("It's still troubling you, isn't it?") Piplup asked, glancing up at Dawn.

"Yeah…" she muttered in reply.

("No need to worry,") Piplup said, copying Dawn's catchphrase, ("It'll all work out eventually. Even with that dork with us.")

Dawn gave him a light smack.

"I told you not to pick on Drew," she hissed.

("Yeah, yeah, sure,") Piplup replied, rolling his eyes.

The trees became smaller and more widely spread as Team Rocket and Pikachu neared the edge of the forest. The light of the sun was losing its green glow now that there was no longer a ceiling of leaves overhead.

"Finally, the edge of the forest!" James said in a relieved voice.

"It was about time. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever end," Jessie said, glancing up at the blue sky.

("We're not through yet. We still have to find a road,") Pikachu said. He knew from past experience that the end of a forest didn't necessarily herald civilization.

"He's right! We can still be in da middle of nowhere," Meowth cautioned.

Jessie slapped him with her fan. "Shut up and be glad we're out of that forest. The whole time we were in there I felt like I was being watched by a million eyes," she said, shivering at the thought.

"Ah, there you are," a voice said.

Pikachu stiffened. That voice… The Rocket trio and Pikachu turned around to face the person who had spoken.

A man dressed like a Cacturne, hands on his hips, stood there. An evil smirk decorated his face and his green eyes exuded malevolence.

"You!" Jessie spat. Her eyes blazed with hatred for the Slateport Coordinator.

"Jessie, calm down," James said, gently pulling on her arm.

"What do you want?" Jessie growled.

Pikachu's cheeks sparked. He was inclined to send Harley flying without even listening to him, but he was curious just the same.

"I have new orders for you," Harley said. "You are to locate Ash's friends and bring them to Cyrus."

Jessie turned her head away and said, "Sorry, jackass, we're not taking orders from anyone anymore."

James nodded. "We're our own boss now," he added.

"Dat's right! Team Rocket has found a new calling!" Meowth said, raising his paw.

Harley cocked his head. "Oh? You've found the backbone to defy Cyrus?"

He grinned. "Then I suppose I might as well make you regret that."

The Rocket trio swallowed. Pikachu could sense that they were nervous, and he knew it was with good reason. For all Harley's eccentricity, he was still a powerful Coordinator.

Pikachu stepped forward. ("If you try to hurt them, I'm going to hurt you,") he said, sparking his cheeks in anticipation.

"What did he say?" Jessie asked Meowth, uncertain.

Meowth, whose eyes had widened upon hearing Pikachu, turned to Jessie and James and said, "He said dat he'd hurt Harley if he tried ta hurt us."

Harley heard Meowth's words and laughed. "How cute. Did you develop Stockholm syndrome, rodent? Did you forget that they are your enemies?" he asked mockingly.

("Team Rocket is no longer my enemy. You, on the other hand…") Pikachu replied.

Harley shrugged. Evidently, he didn't understand what Pikachu had said, but he didn't seem to care. "It doesn't matter anyway. Cacturne will make you regret defying Cyrus and Team Galactic. Cacturne, use Bullet Seed!"

Harley threw his Poké Ball and his signature Pokémon appeared, immediately starting its attack.

Pikachu blasted the seeds with his Thundershock, then leapt between the Rockets and Cacturne.

("You're fighting me, needle-head,") Pikachu challenged.

("I'm fine with everything,") Cacturne replied with a devilish grin.

("Thunderbolt!") Pikachu launched his signature move and Harley ordered Cacturne to avoid and counter with Pin Missile.

('Okay, time to pick up the pace,') Pikachu thought as he jumped into the air to avoid Cacturne's attack.

His tail began to glow, and with a summersault Pikachu brought down his Iron Tail on Cacturne, who was sent flying by the force.

The Scarecrow Pokémon crawled up, but before he could make another move, Pikachu hit him with his Volt Tackle, knocking him out.

Harley frowned angrily and recalled his Pokémon.

"Fine, have it your way," he said, annoyed.

"Just know that Cyrus won't take kindly to those who betray him," Harley continued as he walked away.

Team Rocket breathed a sigh of relief, and then turned to Pikachu.

"Thanks…I guess," Jessie said, not used to being on the same side as Pikachu.

"You saved us from another blastoff!" James cried, falling to his knees in gratitude. Then he realized how stupid he looked, coughed and got back to his feet.

("You're welcome. See, it pays to not be a criminal,") Pikachu said with a wink.

Brock sat down with a sigh. He had managed to convince his friends' parents to stay calm, and now he finally had some time to think about his next move. Knowing Ash, he wouldn't be back until Cyrus had been defeated, so his best bet was to try and find May and Dawn.

'Where should I look, though?' he thought, leaning back into the cushions of the couch.

'They could be anywhere…maybe they went after Cyrus as well,' he mused, as memories of the day's events flashed before his mind's eye.

'I should probably check out the Contest Hall first. Who knows what I might find there.'

Brock got up and walked out, headed for the Contest Hall. As he made his way there, his thoughts returned to what Johanna had said about Dawn's father. He wondered how Dawn would react if she'd find out, but he pushed the thought away. He wasn't going to tell anyone about this; that was for Johanna to take care of as she saw fit.

'I wonder what became of her father, though,' Brock thought as he continued walking. He shook his head. There were more urgent matters to attend to for now.

That's it for chapter 7. Hope to see you for chapter 8, and don't forget to review in the meantime! Thanks!