Chapter 1:
Location: Silver Town at the foot of Mount Silver
"This is preposterous!" the president yelled out, banging his fist on his glass-topped office table, sending folder after folder falling haphazardly over the parquet floor.
His assistant cringed as he simply stood near the door, further awaiting directives from him. This was the first time that Mr. Charles Goodshow had lost his temper as soon as Joshua had given him the report of the peculiar disappearances of the Gym Leaders which had happened successively.
"What in heavens' name is going on here?" Charles demanded, glaring down at the folder.
The question brought up was something even Joshua could not answer so he decided to remain quiet. He understood the president's wrath as this brought about immense consequences where none of them are positive. The Pokemon League, this year would have to be cancelled and that would in turn cause uproar by both the audience and participating trainers alike. Just then, there was a sharp tap on the door and an officer Jenny marched in, a grave look on her pale face. She was then followed by an official referee of one of the gyms, in Kanto.
Charles looked up at her. "What's the problem, Officer?"
The young woman saluted him and motioned towards the referee. "He bears witness to something that happened in the Cerulean Gym that might correlate to the other disappearances of the Leaders as well."
The president noticed that the man looked pretty shaken up. They waited patiently for him to gather his bearings before he started talking.
"He said I was a messenger. That boy had the legendary pokemon, Mew. He controlled it so easily. I've never seen anything like it in my entire life…"
"Who is he? That boy you've said?" Charles demanded sharply.
The referee shook his head. "Everything was a mask."
"That was what the previous referee of Brock's gym has also described," Joshua finally spoke up after a moment's hesitation.
Officer Jenny nodded in agreement. "Their statements also happen to coincide with one another but the perpetrator will be a huge undertaking for our officers to find."
Charles nodded slowly. "That will do, Officer Jenny. For now, please reinforce security within located towns with the Gym Leaders. I will make arrangements to call in professionals to secure the rest of our gyms."
She gave a brief nod and saluted the elderly man, before leaving together with the witness. The door closed behind their retreating backs with a polite click. Finally after a moment's pause, the older man turned to his assistant.
"Joshua, inform all the representatives. We need to deploy them as soon as possible to plan an ambush for this boy."
"At once, Mr. Goodshow," Joshua answered promptly. "And what about Lance? We have no way of locating much less even contacting him,"
Charles laced his fingers together, a thoughtful look on his face. "Yes, he is in Hoenn right now, doing some investigation there."
"So, should we contact Claire then?"
The president shook his head, no. "No, he has chosen a replacement for his period of absence."
The assistant's eyebrows rose as he stared at Charles, confused.
"And who might that be?"
"Contact Jane Cruise," Charles replied. "She will be the stand-in for Lance."
Joshua blinked, as understanding dawned in his eyes. "Right away sir. Knowing her, she's probably somewhere saving others."
Charles smiled, a fond smile.
Location: On the outskirts of Cherrygrove City
"Hand that Pichu over!" a pretty pink-haired girl yelled out. "Or there's going to be trouble."
The Furret completely agreed with its trainer and stepped forward, snarling, preparing itself for an all-out battle against these idiots in order to protect her. Even for a pokemon, it knew better than to mess with her. Furret knew that it was going to win even if they called out their own pokemon against it. It had been trained well enough, by someone like her after all.
The gang surrounded her and the other small girl to whom the Pichu belonged to. The younger girl began to cry.
"Don't worry Natasha. We'll definitely get your pokemon back for you," the older girl comforted her, squeezing her hand reassuringly.
"Oh yeah? Sweet talk coming from a little lady like you," one of them sneered. "What were you thinking trying to take us all on with only a puny Furret?"
In response to the mockery, Furret growled menacingly. It did not like to be ridicule at.
"The name is Jane and I happened to be thinking straight for your information, you idiot," she retorted nastily. "Now, give it back."
The gang member smirked, tightening his grip on the poor electric mouse causing it to squeal in pain.
"Don't you even dare!" Jane screamed. "Furret use – "
"Gengar go!"
"Eh?"
All eyes turned to the other trainer. He looked to be about twenty with brown hair and similar colored eyes, the color of delicious chocolate. He had on a lab coat over his clothes. Must be some researcher, Jane thought. She fumed. She hated to be interrupted especially if she was in a midst of a pokemon battle.
"Get that Pichu away from him!" he yelled.
Its Gengar acted upon his instructions. Boy, was it fast! Jane could hardly track its movement except a purple blur floating to and fro. By the time it appeared, was at its trainer's side with the Pichu safely tucked in his arms.
"What the hell!" the thug cursed in both shock and anger. "That's it! Venusaur, get them!"
He threw a pokéball and in a blinding flash of white light, the gigantic green giant materialized. As if on cue, the other gang members threw out their own respective pokéballs. A Nidoking, a Ninetales, a Golduck and a Persian appeared.
"Heh! Try this on for size!" he scoffed.
Instinctively, Jane shielded Natasha from them, using her body. She shot him, a chilly glare. "Cheaters. That's five against two! It's against the rules!"
He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Rules don't work with us, Jane."
Her light blue eyes narrowed into slits.
"Fine. If you want it that way, I'll do a double battle against you," Jane shot back and threw out her own pokeball. "Go!"
A Dragonair appeared from within it.
The other trainer whistled as he stepped forward, a pokéball in his hand. "Didn't know you had such strong pokemon in your arsenal, Jane. We'll do it your way then. Besides, I've been wanting to test this pokemon's strength for a long time now. Come on out, Aggron!"
The steel type pokemon roared, threateningly as it flexed its arms, towering over the other pokemon.
"Go!" the gang members instructed and each of their pokemon advanced forward.
"Stand back Natasha."
Jane wasted no time in instructing her own pokemon. "Furret jump onto Dragonair now!"
The brown pokemon leapt onto Dragonair's glossy blue body, narrowly avoiding Ninetales' flamethrower and Persian's bite.
"Furret use thunder on Ninetales, Dragonair use hyper beam on Persian!"
She glanced over at the other trainer to see how he was holding up. Miraculously, he was doing just fine even for a researcher; he seemed to know his battle techniques well. His pokemon had already knocked the Golduck unconscious and were now fighting with Venusaur and Nidoking. Jane was impressed but she needed to focus on her own battle at hand. Ninetales managed to dodge the electric attack with its agility but Dragonair's hyper beam was right on target, managing to score a direct one-hit knockout. Ninetales fired off a fire blast in the direction of Dragonair.
"Dragonair, quick use protect! Furret, iron tail now!" Jane yelled.
However, even landing the steel type move on Ninetales, the attack alone was not enough to knock it unconscious.
Ninetales was closing in on both of her pokemon, with its quick attack.
"Furret, get on top of Dragonair now!"
Once the normal-type pokemon was safely on top of her Dragonair. Jane instructed the dragon pokemon to execute a shattering earthquake attack, stopping Ninetales in its tracks as it was hurled violently into the air, from the force of it. The thugs quickly recalled back their pokemon, clearly put out by the unfavorable situation.
The head honcho made a rude noise as he backed away from them. "I'll remember this!"
With that, they turned to their heels and fled.
"Losers," Jane muttered as she called back her own pokemon. "Try picking on someone your own size."
The unknown trainer from earlier stepped forward and handed Natasha, her Pichu who was delighted to reunite with its trainer once again. Jane patted her soft head fondly. "Take good care of it, okay, Natasha?"
The young girl looked up at her and nodded, beaming. "I will. Thank you so much!"
They bid farewell when Natasha's mother arrived, looking for her daughter.
"We didn't manage a proper introduction earlier on," Jane extended her hand out. "I'm Jane Cruise. Thanks for helping me out back there."
"Gary Oak," he said with a friendly smile and a firm handshake. "Not a problem."
"You are a researcher, aren't you? You don't look local though."
Gary nodded. "Yeah, I am but I come from Pallet Town in the Kanto Region."
"That's far off though but judging from your skills in battle and your pokemon, I figured you were a trainer before, am I right?" Jane asked him, inquisitively.
The older boy looked at her and laughed. "You really have excellent observing skills. Yup, sure was. What about you?"
"I'm a local here, alright." Jane replied, shooting him a sidelong glance. "Guess you could call me a wandering pokemon trainer."
"Wandering trainer, huh?" Gary echoed, looking perplexed. "Never heard of that before."
The girl looked self-conscious and let out an awkward laugh. "Well, I'm the first of its kind then."
Just then, her pokegear rang. She flipped it open and checked the I.D.
ASSISTANT JOSHUA
Jane excused herself and left to answer the phone call.
Location: Cerulean City, Cerulean Gym
"MISTY!" Twenty-year-old Ash Ketchum yelled as he barged into his best friend's gym.
His voice echoed cacophonously throughout the entire place. The atmosphere itself was eerily silent. Everything was bathed in darkness. Although he tried the light switches, the lights did not come on. The power was out. A weird sensation passed over him as it settled uncomfortably in his stomach. It was the feeling of dread. The boy knew that something was terribly wrong. Misty always left the lights on in the Gym, no matter if it was in the day or night. After all, her sisters were water artistes who performed at the Gym on a regular basis so lights were a basic necessity. However, even after they left for a long vacation, she still left them on, a permanent habit of hers. Ever since, Brock had inexplicably pulled a vanishing act, he knew instantly that something big was happening so he went to find Misty. Apparently, he was much too late.
Turning to his buddy, Pikachu, Ash instructed it to use thunderbolt in order to supply the voltage needed to power up the lights. As the lights flashed on, Ash and Pikachu got a clear view of the Gym. A gasp escaped his throat as he stared wordlessly around, at the now ruined Gym. The entire battleground was destroyed, leaving behind only debris, floating on the water.
"Pikachu, look, it's all ruined. Misty's gone too…"
The electric mouse looked up at its trainer sadly, its pointy ears drooping. Misty was a close friend of Pikachu's as well as Brock was. Ash's agony was also its agony. Suddenly, Pikachu's ears pricked up. It had heard something moving in the water. Alerting Ash, it ran off with its trainer following closely behind.
"It's Misty's Starmie," he said as soon as he recognized the pokemon.
The reddish pink jewel in its core was blinking, signaling that the water pokemon was very weak.
"We've got to get it to the nearest Pokemon Centre, right away."
As Ash picked Starmie up into his arms and ran out of the Gym, something occurred to him. If Starmie was left behind, it might have witnessed what had happened when Misty went missing…
