Hello! Back in with another chapter!

School is coming to a close for me, so updates may start to come more frequently. I'm not going to be able to get on for most of June and July, though, so there may be some days that I won't update. Well, a lot of days when I won't update.

Anyway, onto the chapter!

Chapter 17 - Down Time, part 2

"Two Pokemon are missing?"

The Haunter in front of the purple-haired, young woman nodded. The action made it look like his entire body was bobbing up and down. "Two of Joshua's team - an Alakazam and a Gengar. They've been gone for a while now, but there've been rumors of one of 'em poppin' up every once in a while."

Sabrina frowned. "Do what you can to find them, Cackle. We need everyone we can find to help in...whatever it is Professor Birch is planning."

Cackle nodded again, then turned and flew into the rows of Pokemon huts, leaving the Psychic Gym Leader to rub one of her temples while a look of annoyance came across her face.

"An Alakazam and a Gengar," Sabrina muttered. She closed a purple eye. "Why is it that the oddest pairings are the ones that end up disappearing?"

"I've got an idea as to where they are hiding."

The Kanto Trainer's head turned, and she caught sight of a white Pokemon with green arms and a red, spike-like object coming out of his chest.

"A Gallade using telepathy?" Sabrina asked, frowning.

"Joshua calls me Gawain," the Gallade replied, giving a bow to the Psychic Trainer. "Alak and Gangrene spoke of wishing for a faster life, so they moved to another place." The look on the Psychic/Fighting-Type was clearly one of mischief, the exact opposite of what was expected of his kind.

Sabrina frowned. When the Gallade quickly glanced up at the cave ceiling, her eyes widened. "You mean they're -"

"Correct. However, they are not members of his forces." Noticing the cautious look Sabrina was giving him, Gawain added, "Gangrene stopped by when the Exploration team returned, looking for information. I approached her and learned where they were hiding and what they had been doing."

"She trusts you that much? I didn't think Ghost-Types had much stock in physical Pokemon from other Regions."

"We have worked together on many things, including this." Gawain took a step forward and whispered the next sentence aloud with only a telepathic echo.

"They hope to plan and start a rebellion."

Sabrina eyed Gawain, curiosity on her face. "Have you told anyone else about this?"

Gawain shook his head. "Gangrene prefers to keep things secret, and I'm one of the few she trusts to keep my mouth shut or spread word to certain Pokemon and humans. She knows Birch is going to need a plan of attack with her input, whether he likes it or not."

The Gym Leader nodded. "I'll make sure the professors are aware of this. If your friend comes to visit, I want an update on the situation as soon as possible."

"Of course, my lady."

With that, the Gallade bowed and left.

Cackle flew to his Trainer's side, panting slightly and looking somewhat exhausted.

"Not a trace of either of 'em," he reported unhappily.

Sabrina nodded in acknowledgement, gaining a calm expression. "A Gallade told me where they're hiding; we've got nothing to worry about them." She eyed the Haunter. "Come on; we should get to the main square. I heard they're planning something special for dinner tonight."

The Ghost/Poison-Type became interested, his exhausted facade gone in an instant.

"This should be good," Cackle remarked, grinning wickedly.

"No tricks at dinner, Cackle. I thought we'd already talked about this."

"Aww, come on, Sabrina! Just one?" The Haunter gave a pleading expression that looked more like a grinning grimace.

"No; Morty is still mad about that last one."

The Haunter gained a pouting expression and drooped. He muttered, "I've got a lot of pranking stuff that've collecting dust. I've gotta use 'em."

"Too bad." Sabrina allotted herself a slight smile. "Maybe later, when we actually have someone we mutually dislike in our line of sight."

Haunter gained a hopeful expression. "Like Sydney?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of the one who has made our lives miserable."

Cackle's grin widened, and he let loose a loud laugh that clearly sounded like his name. "Oh! Good one!"

As the two of them arrived in the area the Trainers called "the Square" - because most of their activities took place there and it was surrounded by the other buildings in a square shape - Red approached them, his Pikachu on his shoulder and Vee, his Espeon, trotting along to his left.

"Hey, Sabrina," the Kanto Champion greeted. "Finished already?"

"You're surprised?" the Psychic retorted calmly. "You needn't be."

The Trainer chuckled. "Professor Oak said there were hundreds upon thousands of each Type and species of Pokemon, so we figured that it would take some time before all of them were accounted for." Red eyed the Haunter. "You wouldn't happen to be the Haunter my little brother met, would you?"

Cackle nodded. "Cackle the Jokester, at your service," he stated with a mock bow, a grin on his face.

"I thought you specialized in Psychic-Types," the Pikachu remarked, cocking his head.

"Ash brought him to me and brought me out of one of my moods, Pika," Sabrina explained. "It's thanks to him that I don't have them anymore."

Red looked surprised, and he raised the edge of his baseball cap. "Really? I didn't even think you had moods."

"I started having them after you made a permanent home out of Mt. Silver."

"Oh." Red glanced down at Vee. "We missed a lot when we were up there."

"You really think so?" the Espeon retorted with sarcasm, a smirk on the Pokemon's face. "Come on, Red, let's get to where the food is."

The Kanto Champion smirked. "I'm all for that."

He gave Sabrina a quick wave, then ran for the long table that had been set out and covered in food. As soon as he, Vee, and Pika got there, they were quickly joined by the rest of Red's team - a Venasaur, a Poliwrath, and an Areodactyl.

"He's really something," Liza remarked as she and her twin brother, Tate, came in from the Fields with their Lunatone and Solrock - Lunar and Solar, respectively.

"To think, that someone could live on a mountain for over three years without going mad from no human contact," Tate added, nodding. The shock of blue hair on his head bounced slightly. "At least, no contact from us."

Liza nodded. "The other world Trainers challenged him often while he was up there..."

"...giving him the type of training we have experienced, as well."

"But not at the magnitude he has."

Sabrina eyed the twins. The knowledge of their telepathic connection wasn't knew to her; she had conversed with them before.

However, she also knew what most people didn't: the Gym Leaders of Mossdeep had a network of Psychic Pokemon so extensive, the two knew exactly how many of the Avatar Trainers actually appeared here in the forms of the mute holograms and trained up the Pokemon in the area. Surprisingly, that number wasn't as large as some of the Pokemon and Trainers of this world had originally thought.

"I suppose that you two are done, as well?" Sabrina inquired, turning to face the blue-haired psychics.

Liza nodded. "All of the Lunatone -"

" - and Solrock -" Tate interrupted.

"- are accounted for," Liza finished. She turned to look at the Square, where the Trainers and Pokemon were beginning to gather, then back at Sabrina. "We'd better get over there, before they eat everything -"

"- and leave us with nothing," Tate added.

With that, the two Hoenn Gym Leaders ran into the crowd and disappeared from Sabrina's sight.

As Sabrina was making her way towards the food herself, Vapor and Raichu were conversing with a female Glaceon named Glacier and a male Raichu named Sparkler - two Pokemon that were a part of a team that Khrista's group was somewhat familiar with, but not as much as Joshua's.

"So, you're trained by the Avatar who's calling herself Mist?" Vapor asked, cocking his head to one side.

The Glaceon nodded. "Mist is a bit of an interesting Trainer, compared to you guys. The PokeDex really wasn't all that important to her, I think."

Sparkler nodded in agreement. "Yeah. She was more like one of those Trainers who caught Pokemon she liked and used them instead of catching one of everything." He cocked his head to one side thoughtfully. "Maybe she saw it as a waste?"

"I doubt you'll know until you meet her," Raichu spoke up.

Glacier snorted, sending ice crystals flying out of her nose. They quickly dissipated as the Ice-Type responded to Raichu's statement.

"If we'll ever meet her. There's a lot going on that's keeping us from seeing the light of day, you know."

Vapor nodded grimly, his mermaid tail twitching at the thought. "And our Trainers aren't the only ones up there, either. I can't help but wonder what ours are going through right now."

"I can tell you that."

The group of four Pokemon looked up in surprise at the Gengar floating a few feet above them.

Glacier's ears collapsed onto the back of her head as her icy eyes narrowed. "And you are?"

"Gangrene."

The four landlocked Pokemon looked at each other again as the Gengar floated over to one of the bowls of Pokemon food that was sitting nearby. Gangrene plopped herself down next to the bowl and popped a couple pellets into her mouth.

"Your Trainers are a bit busy with mine, and I decided to drop by to see what you guys were up to," the Ghost/Poison-Type added.

Vapor's ears perked up in interest. "What do you mean by that?"

"And aren't you supposed to not be here?" Glacier asked suspiciously, frowning. "I mean, no one's heard from you or Alak since before -"

"That's because we left to live elsewhere," Gangrene interrupted calmly. "We wanted a change of scenery. Is that a problem?"

"Where are you now?" Raichu asked, cocking her head to one side as she looked at the Pokemon. When Gangrene didn't return the gaze and instead looked down at the bowl, the Electric-Type let out a gasp and demanded, "You and Alak have been living up there, haven't you?"

"Up where?" Gangrene asked innocently, looking back at Raichu and smirking.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Raichu barked. "I know a fellow trickster when I see one! You're hiding out in the skyscraper, aren't you?"

Sparkler, Glacier, and Vapor exchanged glances of shock and surprise upon hearing Raichu's outburst. Then they looked back at Gangrene, who hadn't looked away from the Electric Mouse.

The Gengar held up her paws. "You got me. We've been hanging out around here."

Raichu nodded, her aggressive stance fading. "I thought so. So you're hanging around our Trainers?"

"No point in denying it."

"How is Mist doing?" Glacier asked, her ears shooting back up as she gained a hopeful expression. "She is all right, isn't she?"

"Mist is fine," Gangrene replied calmly. "Khrista, too. Alak is working with Khrista on something at the moment, so I came down here in order to see what you guys are up to."

"How'd you get back down here if you're living up there?" Glacier asked, frowning.

"Teleportation, my dear Glaceon. How else?"

"Oh." The Ice-Type had a blank look on her face.

Raichu chuckled. "Gangrene has always been an odd Pokemon, according to what I've heard and seen. She's learned odd stuff and does odd stuff." Khrista's Electric-Type turned to look at the Ghost. "Speaking of doing odd stuff, what are Alak and Khrista working on?"

Gangrene grinned wickedly. "Our own start to the rebellion."

The four Pokemon in front of the Gengar were instantly struck speechless.

"It's true," Gangrene continued. "Joshua helped Khrista escape from the clutches of Team Galactic, although she remains in the building. Alak and I have been hiding her from prying eyes while Josh goes around and puts the pieces of our plan together. We're going to put it into motion when you attack the building, whenever that is."

Vapor frowned upon hearing this. "Joshua is the planning what they can do, but he's still being watched by Team Galactic? How does that make any sense?"

Gangrene shrugged. "I don't question him, but there's a lot of stuff he still doesn't know anything about. Or us. If you guys come up with anything, we're going to have to know what's going on in Birch's crazy head."

"Only if you can tell us what's going on up there," Vapor replied, pointing his mermaid tail up at the cave ceiling. "Is there anything that's going on up there that we should know about?"

Gangrene's grin faded, and she gained a grim look as she gave a nod. "Yeah. There are a couple Trainers that Khrista recognized up there. Most of them were Avatars, but there's one kid who you guys probably know."

"Who?" Sparkler asked.

"Silver's up there."

The four Pokemon stiffened and looked at each other upon hearing the news.

"Silver?" Glacier repeated, looking somewhat fearful. "I remember hearing about him from somewhere. He's one of the Dex Holders in Jhoto, isn't he?"

Sparkler nodded. "Yeah. The Rocket kid."

"He helped us some time ago," Raichu spoke up, looking concerned. "I was wondering where that red-headed Trainer disappeared off to."

"Obviously, he got caught," Gangrene stated in clipped tones. "He's probably under the same spell-thingy that the Avatars are, too."

"He's been under a spell before," Vapor stated. He looked across the Square to a group of Trainers who were standing near Red, who was waving his arms wildly above the air and grinning. Nearby, Blue was standing with his arms crossed over his chest and shaking his head.

"Red and the others were trapped in stone during the time Hoenn was going crazy," the Vaporeon continued, looking back at the other Pokemon. "Silver was aware of everything that was going on the whole time. If he's under a spell now, he probably knows what it is that's going on around him."

"Do you think the others might?" Glacier asked. "The Avatars, I mean."

"I should think so."

Gangrene frowned slightly. "It is possible, isn't it?" she murmured. Her eyes widened momentarily. "I've got to get going. Alak will want to know more of what's going on down here, and he and Khrista are most likely down by now."

She rose into the air, gave the three Pokemon a quick wave, then vanished.

I had loads of fun writing out Gangrene and Cackle's characters. I've always seen their line as the most tricksterous ever since that episode with Ash and Lavender Town. And then there's Rotom and all the others, of course...

See you guys next time!