A/N: Hallo everyone~welcome to chapter two of Training at Sevii. ^^ Thank you to all those who reviewed the last chapter and offered their opinions—speaking of which, I have some cyber cookies to give out! Let's see…Snoaz receives two cookies for correctly guessing the shipping and guessing the character…Sunnybeam gets one for correctly guessing the shipping…And aqua-dragon also receives two cookies for correctly guessing both. *Takes out a cookie plate and hands out cookies to each person* Congrats, guys. ^^ And I apologize for the delay, but life loves to get in the way of any hobbies I have. -.- Even I'm shocked that it took me over a month…Don't be surprised if this happens even more often in future, unfortunately, as school has started. Now, here's the chapter!

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Pokespecial. Wish I did, but I don't.

Gold's POV

"It's been a while, Gold…"

I stared at the blue haired guy in front of me, his arms crossed and overall looking a lot like a certain spiky haired senior I knew.

"Falkner? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, no reason," he said, smiling, "other than I heard about the circumstances leading up to your…situation."

I gaped at him. "How did you-"

"I'll explain later. For now, there are others you should meet." Turning back to the door, he yelled, "It's Gold, guys!"

Immediately, a pink pig-tailed head popped around the edge of the doorway.

"Aw, Gold? I was hoping to meet that Crystal girl…I heard she's nice, unlike the perv."

Another familiar voice. "No one asked for your opinion, Pink Haired Gal."

She scowled at me, stomping over to stand next to Falkner. "See? We haven't seen each other in who knows how many years, and see what he says to me?" She turned back to face the door. "I told you so, Jasmine."

A second gal stepped away from the door, eyes cast down. "Um, hello, Gold…I know it's been a while, and you probably won't remember me, but—"

I grinned at her. "Jasmine, Olivine City's Gym Leader. As lovely looking as ever."

Whitney snorted. "Oh, go figure you'd hit on her the minute she walks through the door."

"Listen, you—"

"Calm down, both of you," Falkner said, cutting me off. "You'd do better to be polite to our other companions."

I glanced at him, curious. "What'd you do, take all the Johto Leaders and cram 'em in an old lady's house?"

"Oh, no, the three of us are the only ones who came from Johto. Let's see…Bugsy said he wanted to attend a special, summer time only Bug Catching Contest…Morty called me to say that Eusine's dragging him along on another quest somewhere…Chuck mentioned something about helping to build a new Safari Zone near Cianwood…And Clarice is required to go to the League to represent the Gym Leaders, seeing as the rest of us are clearly busy." Whitney rolled of, ticking the names off of her fingers one by one.

"I didn't mean that literally, you know. And if that's true, then who else would agree to come to this corner of the world?" I asked, sarcastically.

"I would, for one," a man's voice said, "as would Erica here. Nice to meet you."

I turned around to see a tall guy with brown spiky hair appear from the second door, a lady in a green kimono beside him. The guy was grinning. "I remember you from the cross regional League three years ago. Gold and the video transmission, right? I'm Brock, Pewter's Gym Leader from Kanto."

The kimono gal bowed formerly. "It is nice to meet you. I am Erica, Gym Leader of Celadon City. I also remember you from the video transmission."

I shrugged. "Ah, you guys are so formal. Let it loose a little." Then I grinned. "And for the record, I had to transmit that video to save the world under stressful conditions. So sorry if I don't really recall anything of that time."

Erica giggled. "That clip wasn't exactly one you forget easily."

"Training again?" Falkner asked Brock, who nodded. "You can never have too much of a good work out."

"The man speaks the truth," Whitney said sagely, bouncing back on her heels. After a second, she looked around. "Say, where's Misty?"

Erica rolled her eyes. "Gone swimming again. I know she said she'd be back soon, but you know how she is…She probably won't be back for the rest of the day. I told her somebody might be arriving today…"

I raised an eyebrow at this. "Woah, lady, how did you guys know I was coming anyway? It's already weird enough that all of you're here…"

"Brinca put out a message to us that she'd sent for you and your friend." Jasmine said from her spot in the doorway. "We can contact each other fairly quickly, but when it comes to travel…" She shook her head, shuddering a bit. "I know my Steelix wouldn't like to cross all that water between the islands."

"Or my Onix." Brock added, "Every type has a weakness. So that's why we decided to get back to Two Island in time to meet up with you."

"Why?"

"Because we are low on time, that's why," Brinca said, walking over to the couch and sitting down. "Let's get down to business, boy. I have called you an your Crystal friend here, as well as gathered six of the Gym Leaders who were willing to assist us, in the matter of your now petrified seniors."

As she spoke, there were a variety of reactions around the group. Falkner and Whitney both looked solemn; Jasmine stared stolidly at her feet; Brock and Erica both glanced at each, then at me. I looked away, my answer to Brinca coming out harsher than I meant it to. "What about them?"

Brinca eyed me from her position on the couch. "Thanks to the efforts of Professor Oak and that cheeky country boy…We may have found a cure."

My eyes snapped back to her. "What?"

"Like I said – we may have found a cure. May. We do not have many sources to go on this – in fact, I'd like to say a major section of the data we have at the moment is based on speculation. However, if it is true-" Here she paused, turning to each of us in turn, "If it is true, it is the best chance we have of reversing the petrification."

"You never mentioned this before," Falkner said sharply, "you only told us about the petrification and what we had to do."

Brinca snorted. "Of course I wouldn't tell you. You're not the one who has to go through training in this plan."

I blinked. "Wait…Training? What're you talkin' about, Brinca?"

The elder woman looked at me, then sighed. "I would have liked to wait until after the girl got here, but I suppose we don't have a choice. Allow me to explain…"

Crystal's POV

I hated, hated being late. It messed up schedules, it was proof a person was disorganized, it only brought trouble…

…And I was late on the one event that might determine whether my friends lived as statues for the rest of their lives. Of course.

When I checked my email again after I got back to the lab, I realized that the Professor had sent me a digital ticket for the S.S. Aqua; I also noticed the ticket had expired a week ago. Deciding to save my lecture for the Professor until we were face to face, I'd hurriedly packed and left a message for Mom (if she even came back while I was gone), then released Tupeon from her Pokeball. We were out of Pallet within the hour.

In the end, though, I'd underestimated the distance between Kanto and Sevii. It was far enough to require a ship for a reason, after all, and I had to give Tupeon several Oran Berries before we arrived at One Island hours later. When I asked around, it turned out the home of the Brinca woman the Professor had mentioned was on another island, setting us back even further.

"From now on," I said to Tupeon as we flew across water toward Two Island, "I'm doing proper research on an area before I travel. That and asking the Professor to check dates properly before making any travel arrangements."

Tupeon squawked in response.

"It's kind of strange, though," I continued, adjusting the straps on my shoulders slightly, "I know the Professor can be a little messy, but he's never confused important dates before…And then there's the abruptness of that email. It felt like he wrote it in a pretty big hurry…Do you think that-"

Suddenly, I heard a distant roar somewhere behind me, just as I heard someone yell, "Look ou-!" Before something hard and square slammed into me, the force of it ripping me out of Tupeon's claws and into the sea. Bubbles floated around me, flooding my vision and burning my eyes. Water filled my nose and mouth, and I could taste the saltiness of it. Just as I wondered whether I would suffocate to death, I felt something slippery brush against my fingers. Instinctively, I grabbed onto it, feeling myself pulled forcefully upward, breaking the surface of the water seconds later.

"Oh dear Ho-Oh, are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't notice you fast enough…"

I looked up, still coughing up water, to see a girl with short red hair riding side saddle on a Starmie. As I blinked the last of the water out of my eyes, I also saw that the material I had hung onto was the fin of a Goldeen, who drew up next to the Pokemon. Reaching over, the girl helped me into a more comfortable position by putting my hands on both sides of the Goldeen, then looked over at me with bright, sparkling blue eyes. "I'm really, really sorry…It's just, I wasn't expecting anyone to be in the area, so I was having Starmie travel at full speed-"

"No, it's okay. I was the one who should have been paying attention," I said, my throat still feeling raw from coughing, and looked up. "Tupeon!"

Immediately, my white winged friend flew down from where she'd been circling above us during our conversation and hooked onto my (now wet) pack straps, flapping until I was hovering at equal height with the girl. She smiled up at Tupeon.

"That looks like a strong Xatu."

"She is," I agreed.

"But are you sure you wouldn't like a ride?" she said, gesturing at her Goldeen. "It's the least I can do for an apology."

"No, really, it's fine. Tupeon is more comfortable in the air, and it'll help to dry me off anyway," I said, taking one of my pigtails and squeezing it in a vain attempt to force some of the water out. "But if you don't mind me asking, why were you swimming all the way out here? It didn't seem like most of the residents make a hobby of it, with the ferry and all…"

"They don't. That's my particular area of expertise," the girl said, a sly smile on her face, "and I just find it quicker to swim from One to Two Island than taking the ferry."

"You're headed to Two Island?" I asked, surprised, "That's where I'm going."

"Really?" The girl looked thoughtful, tapping her chin lightly with a finger. "That reminds me…Erica did say…Hey, your name is Crystal, isn't it?"

I blinked. "How did you know?"

The red headed girl grinned. "Because I was told about your arrival by a friend of mine, and we've met before, although you may not remember. Let me reintroduce myself. I'm Misty, Gym Leader of Cerulean City."

I stared at her. "Misty? From the Mask of Ice Battle?"

"The one and only."

Okay. This was…An odd turn of events. I didn't remember much of the battle against Pryce, mainly because things had happened so fast and so much was going on. I did faintly remember, when Suicune had picked me to fight alongside him, that the girl who had been lying on the ground and had been his original partner was a girl with red hair, and later someone had told me her name was Misty. I already knew her position by name, and I'd felt honored that Suicune had chosen me after such a strong trainer. I just hadn't managed to match the name to the face.

What I did manage was to say, "Oh. Now I remember." And continue to stare at her.

Misty smiled. "Do you mind if we travel together? We're both heading to the same place, and I'd rather not have any more collisions, so…"

I shook myself out of my stupor. "Sure. That'd be great."

Now Misty grinned even more. "Last one to Two Island is a rotten Execute!" A millisecond later, Misty, her Starmie, and her Goldeen were off.

I resisted the urge to heave a sigh. Somehow, it felt like I was with Gold again. Then I smiled. Maybe that wasn't so bad.

"Come on, Tupeon, we can't lose! Full speed!"

We were off.

Ten Minutes Later

"Um, Misty, are you sure this is okay?"

Misty looked over her shoulder at me. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just…You did say you and some other people were staying here, right?"

"Yeah."

"So…I don't really think you should have blasted that front gateway, if you're a guest of the person living here…" I said, gesturing at the destruction behind me that was what was left of the long path up to the house.

Misty shrugged. "It got annoying, and we're both late as it is. I'm sure Brinca wasn't really planning anything for it, anyway."

"Still…"

"Come on, if Brinca says anything, I'll just say you were an innocent bystander trying not to get involved," Misty said, turning back around and throwing open the door. "Hey, Brinca! Look who I met up with!"

I followed her through the door, slightly embarrassed at her introduction, to see an old woman with grey buns on each side of her head sitting at a table surrounded by seven other people. I didn't know who most of them were, but I did recognize the black haired boy with a cap sitting on the couch next to the woman.

"Gold!?" I exclaimed, more shocked that he had arrived before me than his actual appearance.

Gold looked as surprised to see me as I did him. "Well well, Miss Serious being late? Now that's unexpected."

I glared at him. "There was a technical difficulty."

Gold shrugged. "Hey, I didn't say anything about your reasoning. And I'd kinda like it if you girls would stop glaring at me today."

"I wasn't glaring at you!"

"Oh, so what were you doing?"

"If you're quite finished," the grey haired woman interrupted, giving us both a look that could silence a rampaging Snorlax, "we have more important things to worry about. But before that…" She turned to Misty. "Can I ask why I heard a lot of explosions coming from outside?"

Misty side glanced to her right at a girl dressed in a kimono, then looked back at the woman. "Well…Me and Crys here both knew we were already late, and you know how annoying it is to go up that path every time, so-"

"You blew up my front lawn?" the woman demanded, her eye twitching.

"Er…Like I said, we were late! And it's not like we can't fix it later!" Misty said hastily.

"But that's still not any excuse to blast Brinca's gate." The kimono girl said, placing a hand on Misty's shoulder. "Remember, we're guests here. And you already knew about these two earlier today, so being late isn't excuse either," she added, seeing Misty open her mouth again. Then the girl turned to me. "I'm Erica, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Brinca let out a huff. "Yes yes, we're all finally together and introductions need to be made, but can't we go through the plans first?" Not waiting for an answer, she got up and gestured to the couch. "Sit. It'll be easier for me to talk standing up anyway."

Deciding it was better not to refuse, I carefully sat down on the couch, as far away from Gold as I could, and firmly crossed my legs. It'd be better, for his sake, if he didn't get any ideas. Misty also moved to stand between Erica and the girl with pink pigtails, who was giving Gold just as nasty a look as I had been giving him.

"Are we all settled? Good. Now, I've already made it clear why you're here, but I'll give a brief summary about what I've already been telling these other youngsters here," Brinca said. "Obviously, the reason Oak and I gathered you all here is because of the situation your seniors have gotten themselves in."

I tried to keep my face as still as I could. There would be no point in this if I couldn't learn self control.

"What most of you don't know is that, thanks to the efforts of the research team on Five Island, we now have the leads to a possible cure. However," she said, turning and rapping the table with her knuckles, "I can't give the details to you just yet."

"Why not?" Gold asked. "You can't expect us to just blindly follow you, not without at least some info."

"The main reason is because I myself don't really understand what it is the team has discovered," Brinca said, "which is why I intend to make a trip to Five Island tomorrow. You and the Gym Leaders are welcome to come as well, of course."

I stared at her. Gym Leaders? Did she mean that all these other people were also Gym Leaders? But now that she mentioned it…

I gave a quick glance around the room. What I hadn't realized before in the confusion I could now see-the well known faces of the Kanto and Johto Gym Leaders. In fact, I remembered most of them from the cross regional tournament three years ago.

"So now what?" the spiky haired man (I vaguely remembered his name as Brock) said, "what do you want us to do? You said you wanted us to help, but you never gave any specific details for that, either."

"Ah, now that's something I can clear up," Brinca said, pointing to a paper on the table. "Do you see that?"

We all leaned in. It was a map of Sevii, complete with harbors and Pokemon Centers.

"What about it?" I asked.

"This is going to be the main set up of your training," Brinca said.

"Why do we need to train?" Gold asked.

"That also falls under the category of what I can't answer. For now, all I've been told is that, for the necessity of our current lead, I need to train you," Brinca said, and pointed to an island labeled with the number "Two". "This is, obviously, where we currently are. Home to me, and where my house is located. Your training," - she moved her finger around the edge of the map - "will take place over all the islands, in a course I have setup. Normally, I would train you like I did your seniors, but for two reasons. One, while the research team has clarified we are on a strict schedule, we do have more time than Red, Green, and Blue did to train. As for the second reason...Well, the area where I would normally undergo training has apparently been slightly...renovated." She gave Misty a dirty look. "Each Gym Leader will train with you on a different island, under different conditions."

"Do you have that set up too?" the pink haired girl asked, "or can we make up our own training?"

"I'll leave the individual training to you," Brinca said, "But I already have the weekly course set up. Namely, it'll go like this.

On Monday, Whitney will train with you-" Here she pointed to One Island. "Tuesday Erica will take over-" she moved her finger to Three Island, "Wednesday, Brock will work with you; Thursday, Misty can do what she will; Friday will be with Falkner; Jasmine gets to train you on Saturday, and on Sunday you report back to me to show me what you've learned." Brinca said, moving her finger to Four, Five, Six, Seven, and then back to Two Island. "Of course, if the Leaders wish to change where they train, that can always be arranged."

"So since tomorrow's Monday, does that mean I get to train with them?" Whitney asked.

"Yes. But I don't want to see any broken bones!" Brinca added hastily, seeing the gleeful look on Whitney's face. I could see Gold grimace from the corner of my eye, and felt a little nervous. Was Whitney really that dangerous?

Whitney seemed to sense my anxiety, because she turned to me and said, "Don't worry, I won't kill you. It's not like I'm a sadist or anything."

"Yeah, right," Gold muttered.

"Well, if I'm a little harsh on you, Gold, you can't blame me. You have to admit you deserve it." She grinned. "I'm already looking forward to this, it'll be so much fun! I'll be upstairs planning for tomorrow if you need me." Then she turned and skipped through the door on the other side of the room.

Gold and I looked warily at each other.

Oh, this would be fun, alright.

Silver's POV

"Alright, Machops, set them down carefully."

There was a pause followed by a thud as each individual Machop set their corner of us down, placing us back onto the ground. If I could have winced, I would have. I didn't want to see my sister treated this way.

After the Machops had moved us onto a truck from our petrified location, it had become apparent that we wouldn't be going back. The truck taken us to the edge of the island, after which the Machops gathered around us and moved us onto a small carrier ship. When the ship had stopped, the Professor and the Machops had both appeared and carried us into a building and down a flight of stairs, into what appeared a dark basement. I could barely see anything from the light in the doorway.

"Alright, thank you. Let's go. They should be safe down here," the Professor said, gesturing the Machops toward the door, then following them outside. Before he closed the door, I saw him placing his hand on a small metal platform, followed by a low keening noise as the door closed.

No wonder the Professor was confident in our safety – finger print activated locks were hard to get through. I should know.

I would have sighed. Now that the door was closed, there was no light in the room, making it impossible for me to see. It looked like another dull period of waiting…

"Hey! Stop it!"

I altered my vision as best I could, scanning the limited view that I had. Despite the impending darkness, I could faintly see the outline of a small figure – no, two small figures. Both were scrambling around on the floor.

"Dang it…Look, I'm sorry for falling on you, but it's not my fault it's too dark in here for me to see!" said a voice from the larger of the two. It sounded female.

There was a squeak from near the smaller figure. A Pikachu?

"Yeah, whatever. Okay, it should be in here somewhere…" I heard more scuffling sounds as the figure moved around, apparently searching for something on the floor. "Aha! Got it!" I could see the figure hold up something rectangular. "Now to get out of here…"

Just as the mysterious figure got up and made for the door, the smaller figure moved quickly toward me and my seniors, before stopping at my feet and out of my line of vision. I heard it squeak again.

The figure paused, as though looking over one shoulder. "Oh." It approached me as well, as though following it's companion. However, it was still too dark for me to see the figure's face, despite how close we now were.

The figure reached forward, and I felt something on the top of my head. "I see…You do look like him. Of course you would. Mr.…Silver, things are going to happen. Now that I'm here…And not just me. Other, more dangerous people are going to start moving, now that this situation has finally started. Your friends will be in danger."

That caught my attention. My friends…was this person talking about me and my seniors? Or…

"Gold and Crystal…They'll need to be careful." Well, that answered that question. "I'm sorry. None of this should be happening…"

Another squeak from below me. A pat on my shoes. "Yeah, I know he's petrified. But still…Didn't they say he was conscious? Even a little?" Instinctively, I tried to blink. Who was this person? Why did they know so much?

I felt the pressure on my head leave. "But I promise. I won't let anyone get hurt. Not you…Or them." The figure turned again. "Come on. Let's go. We'll have to move fast if we want to keep up with future events." At this, the smaller figure streaked into and out of my line of vision again, seeming to collide with the other figure. I could only assume the Pokemon (if that was what it was) was clinging onto it somewhere.

The figure approached the door once more. While it was still closed, the figure didn't appear to stop, instead holding out the rectangular object once more. There was a faint beeping sound, and then the door slid smoothly open. I couldn't believe it. I was positive that the object had been a card key, but the Professor had already proven that the door was a completely different type from one that would require a card.

When the door was fully open, the light from outside slid across my face, temporarily blinding my field of vision. When it cleared and the door shut again, neither of the figures was there any longer. However, I knew I hadn't imagined those last words from the girl – the words that were the hardest for me to believe.

"Please, trust me."

A/N: Well, that's it for chapter two! (Over ten pages! It's a record! O.o) Yes, I brought the Gym Leaders back. I just think that they deserve more appearances, seeing as they hardly ever show up once their region's arc is finished. Not that they won't have their use in this story. ;D So, if any of you thought it was Falkner in the previous chappie, feel free to take a cookie from the plate I'm leaving out. ^^ And I apologize if anyone was OOC in this chapter, but I'm not entirely sure what each individual Leader's personality is (please don't kill me, Falkner, Whitney, Jasmine, Erica, Brock, and Misty fans.). And yes, there will be OC's in here, unfortunately. -.- I promise, though, they'll be few and far between, and the ones present will be VERY important. Take that figure at the end. *Evil grin* I'm actually going to bet no one will know what my reason for including that figure will be. I'm serious.

Also, for those of you who asked me to include some Oldrival/Specialshipping, then I think you might like the next chapter. Not saying why~XD

I'm always looking for constructive critism, so if you have any, send it to me, please! Well, next chapter, coming up! (Hopefully by the end of the month. -.-)