"When is this going to end?" Riven groaned quietly, glancing ahead to the other three. He looked at the female flyer with slight irritation. When she says it does, unfortunately.

Gale mingled with Seab and Amy, incessantly going on and on about flying, breeding, and other pointless subjects they deemed were fun. He only stared in dull disinterest and silence as they blabbered, growing bored rather quickly, resorting to counting his steps just to entertain himself.

At this point, the group was simply walking aimlessly around the festival grounds as nothing more than an excuse to talk. While counting his steps, Riven started noting the stands he had passed before.

56. Pokemon face painting area.

"Yeah! You really have to know how to use the air curr-"

"-wow! That's so-"

124. Games.

"Well, it's really cold there and the gym is-"

"Red hair? Awesome!"

207. Food stands. Pastries. Not bad. Pecha berry cake, delicious.

Growing tired of counting his steps, he dug through his bag for his holo caster and dialed Ben, seeing as there was practically nothing else to do apart from listen to the other three's chatter. With luck, the backpacker would pick up and allow him to retain some of his steadily dwindling sanity. Without luck, he'd keep counting his footsteps until he decided to stab something repeatedly or smash his forehead against a wall multiple times until his cranium shattered.

A voice came through the device few rings later, extremely surprised. "Yo! You called me! That's a miracle in itself. What's the occasion? You never call me."

Maybe because every time I try calling, it goes straight to voicemail? "I, uh, need something to do. Anything. Bored out of my skull here." Cringe worthy excuse, despite being wholly true.

"You're bored dialing me? Really?"

"Just a bit?" Riven replied sheepishly.

"Jeez. Am I worth that little as a friend?"

"You seem to think that value was high in the first place."

Ben chuckled, he could almost see Gray's tiny smirk in his head. "Ass. So, where are you? Lots of noise in the background. Kind of hard to make out what you're saying." It actually sounded like a bunch of kids and laughter, probably a large crowd. Maybe he was in a town square?

Riven cupped a hand over the device and turned in a circle, glancing at all the scurrying children and pokemon, as well as the vibrant colors of the stands; the decorations full of reds, pinks, and blues. "I'm at a festival right now. Meteor Falls, lot of people. Kids. Games. Pretty good cake. A little cloudy, nice breeze out."

"You have fun?" Ben sputtered. "Whoa." He made an explosion noise over the phone, as if his mind had exploded into a million tiny pieces. "Is that even possible?"

A deep scowl formed on Riven's face. "Hanging up now."

"Wait! I was just joking!"

Riven huffed loudly. "Why does everyone assume I think fun isn't allowed? I'm not a statue that just so happens to be alive, you know. Contrary to popular belief, I do, in fact, feel joy. And smile when appropriate."

Appropriate being never? Ben mused mentally. "Might be because you look ten shades of pissed all the time? You kind off give off the vibe."

Riven sighed, more or less a half growl than anything.

"Relating to that, how's it going with the ladies, by the way?" Ben asked curiously. "You drowning in skirts yet?" He was mocking him of course, the dude was about as blunt as a dropped hammer, and as tactful as a raging Fearow.

"You know that girl I told you about?"

"Some blonde, was it?" Ben guessed, vaguely remembering a tidbit about a blonde with a temper and something or other.

"Well, I met her again," Riven said calmly.

Ben scratched his head. It didn't sound proud, the way a good alpha male would be after an encounter like that. Then again, this was Gray. That guy's way of speaking was about as expressive as his name. Maybe he was a robot. Who knew?

"And?" Ben edged him on, already forming a smug smile. His hope for the gloomy trainer began to rise, like a blooming flower in the spring. "Did you score yet? Get down and di-"

Riven cut him off. "It was fantastic, I assure you."

"Oh?" Ben insisted. "Like what? Did you get it-"

"I got punched in the mouth, chewed up over something unsavory and her Grovyle nearly decapitated me," Riven deadpanned. "Absolutely riveting experience."

Nevermind. The blooming flower might as well have been eviscerated, lit on fire, and dumped in a tank of acid. You could practically paint walls with the sarcasm in that last statement. "Man. I didn't think you could screw up that bad. I mean, I did but wow." Ben cracked into a wry grin, holding laughter back as hard as he could.

"Stop mocking me. And wipe that shit-eating grin off your face."

Ben gasped. "How did you know that? I was trying my best to hide it. That's it. You are a hex maniac!" Gray liked dark colors, hex maniacs liked dark colors. They were serious and a little creepy, so was he! Therefore, Ben figured that he was undeniably a hex maniac. Maybe had some weird psychic powers thrown in there too. "No wonder you scare people and small pokemon."

Riven gripped the bridge of his nose. Hold up hand. Shove into face. "I heard Sharpedo think of human meat as a delicacy," he said flatly. "Do you want to test that?"

A nervous chuckle. "Erm- for what exactly?"

"Science."

Gray? A scientist? That was pure unbridled nightmare fuel. "That's not funny."

"I think it's brilliant." A deliberate pause. "And a little hilarious. Watching you flail around…."

Yeesh. Why was he friends with this guy again? "Your sense of humor could kill a child… or three."

Riven snorted, "Roxanne told me the same thing. All of her students are still alive." Sure, it was as black as a bottomless pit but he blamed his time knee deep in bodies and blood for that. Humor helped make things a little more bearable. Anything that helped remedy the nightmares and despair was welcome, or else he'd have gone insane a long time ago. More than he was anyway, which by today's standards, was absolutely zubat-shit insane.

Yeah… that isn't spine chilling at all. "You're creepy and she's the, uh, Rustboro gym leader right?"

"Correct."

"She's pretty cute, to be honest …" Ben immediately flinched, almost picturing Gray's best look of disapproval.

Riven frowned. "Don't you have a 'girlfriend' whatever they call them? Won't she get jealous if she heard you say that? That's what couples do right?" At least that's what Riven overheard from passing conversations in the pokemon centers he'd been in. Although, he knew to take whatever preteens said about relationships with a sea of salt.

"We're not five. Besides, Madelyne isn't here right now. Well, she's at work. Slateport bank. Stressful job. Poor girl comes back half dead every day."

"Don't you have a job too?"

"I actually got out an hour ago. I work in the museum. Pretty solid pay for such easy work." He paused. "What about you? Do jobs still sneer at you?" Ben briefly entertained the thought of Gray working in a pokemart, greeting customers with a smile- and swiftly banished the ludicrous image from his mind forever. If that guy ever met a snotty customer, he'd probably feed them their teeth. He bristles like a sandslash above ground, with the same amount of paranoia.

"Sneer? Hmph. Soon they'll pick up weapons," Riven mentioned wryly."That… hasn't changed. I've been beating trainers for money but… they're getting pretty tough. I need to find a steady income source, sometimes the money just isn't there. Or it's too risky."

Yup. He was still shit out of luck. There was an alternative though. Ben thought it over, weighing pros and cons. "Hmmmm. You do have pokemon…. I guess...maybe. Could work out. Seems fitting…" Ben rambled to himself, barely audible over the phone.

"Ben?" Riven called out. "You there?"

"Still here. Anyway, I wouldn't advise this to just anyone, especially not like 99.99% of most trainers since there's an extremely negative view associated with it, but it seems to be more of your element." Ben lowered his voice, and looked around the restaurant he was in to make sure no one was hearing him. "You can try merc work," he pointed out, a hushed whisper.

Some trainers, if a miniscule amount- with military experience, usually- did become mercenaries; while the ones without military experience usually worked for professors that studied pokemon. After all, many with romantic thoughts of becoming champion never even made it past Victory road. They never did say it would be easy. There's only one champion and four Elite Four. And those positions don't have a high turnover rate. Unless your region happens to be Sinnoh…

"Merc work?"

"Mercenary work." There was a small 'oh', over the line. "But yeah, you can try that. Amazing pay, but incredibly dangerous, and your employers may not be… the best of people, so to speak." In fact, he had no idea what most mercenaries actually did, he only assumed shady things. And violence, lots of violence.

Riven's interest seemed to increase slightly. "Define… incredibly dangerous."

"My god. You've turned into an ace trainer. I feared this would happen."

"Details or Sharpedo," Riven said casually.

"Wow, you're serious." Ben whistled lowly. "Uh, let's see… if you get caught by the authorities, you're essentially fucked. And people may just want to rid you of your life should you mess up. Forcefully. But that goes without saying."

Riven briefly thought about authorities, trouble, and people wanting to kill him. He shrugged. Nothing new. If they weren't trying to kill him, he'd be concerned. Very concerned indeed.

"As for location, I heard LaRousse is a good place to start. You wouldn't expect mercs to run around in a place all neat and nice like that, but you'd be surprised. As for what they typically do- well, that depends if you're fine with lots of violence. But I probably don't even have to ask do I?"

The line was silent for a moment. "Ben, how does a backpacker and mountain explorer know all this?" Riven asked, voice laced with paranoia. The facts just didn't line up. "And why do you think I'm fit for the task?"

A hearty laugh came through."I talk to people. Listen to them. A skill that comes in handy. You really should try it sometime. And you showed me the swords. You do things others don't. I could take a picture of you, frame it, and post a caption saying: mercenary material- and everyone would believe me. Yet, you wonder why people think you're a hardass? You really need to smile more, it's glaringly obvious."

"I've been trying!" The exasperated trainer huffed. "It's just- hard. Being nice… to people. Smiling. It doesn't feel real." Smiling for no apparent reason was a waste of energy. All for "image?" Such future nonsense.

"That's just the way it is. I don't know where you came from, truly, or why it's perfectly fine to be stone faced serious all the time but you're in Hoenn now. It's peaceful and has good weather. Smile!" Ben replied, somewhat understanding. The people in Littleroot were extremely friendly, Gray was not. Started his journey there, perhaps, but he must have come from somewhere else. There was no way someone like that grew up in sweet old Littleroot.

Riven bit the inside of his cheek and reluctantly accepted the fact."All right, fine. I'll head to LaRousse one of these days. Thanks for the advice, and for allowing me to keep my sanity."

"Sure thing."

"Bye."

"Wait!"

Huh? "What?"

"This… uh, might be a strange question but, by any chance… did you find anything in the cave?"

That was a strange question. "What cave?"

"The one back in Dewford? Anything, I don't know, shiny? At all?"

Riven hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should tell Ben. He wanted that to stay hidden, in case someone came after his contacts for information. There was the fact that he wanted to know what it did before he told anyone apart from Steven about it; it could be dangerous. Will might have gotten lucky. Someone else might not be so fortunate."Nothing… why?"

Overcautious, perhaps. But what Ben didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Ah, okay."

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, that's all. You never know what kind of interesting things you might find in a cave. Anyway, I'll see you later, lady killer!" Ben hung up, leaving the young trainer fairly confused.

Huh. If that wasn't extremely suspicious, Riven would hug a Muk. He shook his head and slipped the thought into the back of his mind, choosing instead to think about the other things Ben had told him.

Possible military related work... The thought vaguely enticed him; having something similar to what he did then would probably do him good. However, he didn't want to work for someone whose name he didn't even know. Hired swords ran a dangerous life. Even more so than soldiers. At least in the military, no one tried to stab you in the back when things didn't work out. His paranoia was bad as is, he didn't need any more to add onto that.

But it's an option, he admitted truthfully. At least consider it if things go wrong. Then again, around him, when did they ever not?

Focusing his attention back to his group, he noticed he had fallen behind, and jogged to catch up to them. They were huddled in a crowd around the platform area, where the festival organizers were giving some sort of speech. Riven assumed the man in the middle was Drake. He waded through some of the crowd, stopping next to a familiar brunette who was trying to see over the crowd.

"What's this about?" He whispered into Gale's ear, who jumped at his sudden appearance.

Turning tamato red again, she jabbed him in the stomach, pushing him back slightly.

"Gah."

"Don't do that!" She scolded. His breath against her ear had felt extremely weird. Granted, it was the only way to actually speak to anyone in the crowd's noise, but still, it made her shiver. She breathed to calm herself down. "Drake's going to introduce the dance event, I think."

"Dance. Event." Riven echoed, catching the same mischievous glee he'd seen on Baron's face far too many times. The same look that always preceeded something that would either hurt or embarrass him. Often both.

Oh no. You are not thinking what I think you are.

"Partnered," Gale mentioned sweetly, gently swirling her index finger, knowing he would rather jump off a cliff than dance.

"Partnered. Dance." He repeated once more, upper lip twitching in disdain.

The brunette smiled widely, giving him a look capable of rendering most men defenseless. Why did just thinking about saying no to her feel like he had cut an arm off?

Argh. Must be the eyes. "No. Even if your smile could melt glaciers, I'm not doing it. I've already paid a hefty amount to bring you here, I am not going to dance." Crossed his arms and glared at her. He would rather jump off a cliff. Or rush into a cave without any repels.

Actually, that last one he probably wouldn't try again, because zubats.

Her smile stretched even wider. "I'll fly you to Petalburg for free." She stood on her tiptoes, getting closer to his face, with the same smile.

Bait. Bait. Bait. Not falling for it.

Riven shook his head furiously. "I'm going back to the stand with the pecha berry cake," he said quickly. Hastily turned on his heel to rush back, but was stopped by a hand, pulling him back by his hood.

Amy stood behind him, holding onto the hood tightly. "Oh, no you don't. You're not escaping this one. I want to see you dance, or die of laughter seeing you try. Dance with the lady, it's only natural for a gentleman to do so," she said, grinning from ear to ear. "I guess you're the polar opposite of gentleman, but you get the idea."

Riven looked back at Seab, like a growlithe puppy that had been caught shredding the sofas, and about to be punished.

That pleading look. Poor guy, Seab mused. "Hey, egg here. You're on your own." Mouthed "good luck", as the girls dragged the guy over. He knew he didn't want to be in Riven's position. They're going to step all over him.

Sitting on a bench, he watched in amusement as Riven was basically dragged along the platform by the girls, all the while looking completely miserable. It was even more hilarious some time later as the older boy shuffled his way back to the bench where Seab was sitting, looking like he was about to hit the floor and pass out.

"How was it?" The younger boy teased. He didn't really need an answer, from what he'd seen of the older trainer's performance.

"Ugh… don't remind me. My feet feel like they're going to break," Riven groaned, moving his foot in circles.

The Sinnohan burst into snickers. "No offense, but you really suck at partnered dancing." It looked less like dancing and more like human mop. "They were practically using you to clean the floor."

Riven chuckled and waved a hand. "None taken. That's the reason why they let me go. Good thing too, I don't think I would've lasted much longer." He looked back at the stage, seeing Gale and Amy dancing with each other, laughing joyously. "At least they're having fun."

"Yeah." Seab noticed the way the other trainer stared at the two; oddly observant and reflective at the same time. The two watched in silence as the dancers kept going, smiling and generally just having a blast.

"You're from Sinnoh?" Riven asked out of the blue, still looking at the platform. "Heard you talking about it with the two evil females over there."

"Uh, yeah." Seab confirmed, shifting the egg in his hands. "Snowpoint City."

"It's that city that's icy and snowy all year, right?" Riven assumed. It did have snow in its name, it only made sense. Unless it was misleading. "A friend of mine mentioned it briefly."

"That's right," Seab nodded. "It's always cold or chilly, and it's really quiet. Well, it used to be…"

"Used to be?"

"Before… a couple years ago." A solemn, downcast look came over the blue-haired boy's face.

"The Sinnoh incident, was it?" Riven acknowledged. He'd heard about it from Steven and numerous other people, but they never actually got into details. "People keep talking about it but never seem to have the decency to explain anything." Pretty infuriating, to be honest.

"Most people don't know the full story." Seab shook his head. "I don't even know the full story. I was like nine or ten. The only thing I remember was our teacher not showing up anymore. Then there was a funeral. Then… came everything else."

Riven raised a brow. "Who was your teacher?"

"The gym leader," he said quietly.

"Ah. How did he die?" A blunt and insensitive question, but dead was dead. If it was taboo to speak about the dead, how could anyone move on? He missed Nemos and all his other comrades, but they were gone. He accepted that already.

"It was a she. Nice too. Everyone liked her. But she got caught in a fight between a trainer and a really violent pokemon. She… didn't make it," he said solemnly. "She was the first gym leader fatality..."

Riven's eyes widened. "You mean to say, there were more gym leader deaths?" Surely, that was no accident. Gym leaders might hold back often, but in a real fight? They were no pushovers. Flannery had completely changed outside of the gym, holding back several pokemon, even with type disadvantages. That easy gym leader thing was nothing but a ruse to give trainers inspiration; at least the earlier gyms. The leaders were good. And in real battle, they weren't afraid to show it.

"Three others died. And a lot of trainers. So many…" He made himself breathe, and continued, "pokemon centers got more and more empty, and these crazy trainers starting doing horrible things. It was really scary. The officials were useless, the champion was gone. Everything sucked. The few gym leaders left resorted to picking out experienced trainers and eventually, things got resolved. But not without a lot more people dying."

Riven bit his lip. That sounds like every day in my world, but this time is different. These people didn't grow up in a war… "Is that why you hesitated to become a trainer at ten? You were at the correct age then, right?"

"Yeah. Most parents refused to let their kids start out, after reports of young trainers dying everywhere. My mom was willing to sit on me until the crisis blew over. At its worst, my parents thought about moving. Somewhere safer- like Hoenn." He looked up at the sky and the clouds. "I always wanted to see what summer was like. Snow gets dull when you see it every day."

"Hoenn has a little too much summer, if you ask me." Riven smiled faintly. He exhaled a quiet, controlled breath. "At least that passed. Hopefully, it doesn't happen again." He knew he'd probably eat those words soon enough; life had a nasty knack for… unpleasant surprises. "But the world seems to be trying its best to prove me wrong," he said, looking at his hands.

Seab turned his attention to Riven, who looked melancholic- and guilty. "It wasn't your fault. The media… just makes things look bad," he reassured."You were just doing your job, right?"

"I wish I could believe that," Riven murmured, low enough to be drowned out by the music and the crowd. That twisted pleasure. Bloodlust. It wasn't him; it was darker, alien. It was the very same feeling from Lavaridge and Forina. The most terrifying part was how it felt. Good. Damned good.

He clawed his hands and shook away the chill of the thought.

Seab stayed silent, leaving the other boy to his own thoughts. Petalburg was much more recent, and now he was on a region's watchlist. It was one thing to be caught up in the crisis, it was another to be the crisis.

Averting his eyes away from the platform for a brief moment, he noticed many of the organizers speaking to one another. More came. It was hard to notice with the music and the people on the dance platform, but Seab had good sight.

Standing up, the teenager jabbed a finger into the air, "look, over there."

Riven broke out of his thoughts and looked in the direction of the finger. Festival organizers. Frantic. On edge. Running, not walking. "What are they doing?" Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"I'm not sure. But I've seen it before."

"Where?"

Seab glanced at him, deliberately silent.

Riven nodded grimly in response. He noted what the younger boy hadn't said and put two and two together. "Shit. They're trying not to raise mass hysteria," Riven murmured, voice grave. "This is going to suck."

Both trainers gulped, feeling a lump form in their throats.

Seab shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "But there's nothing out here." There were no pokemon in the immediate area, outside of the trainer pokemon. And people had to pay to get in the actual festival.

Riven watched as one of the organizers whispered something into Drake's ear, prompting the elite four member to drop whatever he was doing and rush back with some of the organizers elsewhere. The worst things happen when you least expect them."If it's enough to scare an elite four… I don't think we want to know."

The two exchanged glances and looked back to the stage, crowded with oblivious people.

Riven clenched his jaw, a feeling of dread washing over him. "I just wish we never find out."

Unfortunately, the universe never did favor him.

Two festival organizers rushed up to Drake, struggling for breath. They waited a few moments for their breathing to level out and eyed the surrounding area. "We have a situation, sir."

Drake raised a grey brow and scanned around, seeing a few wandering eyes. "Lean in and tell me, we don't want to alert any people to anything that could cause panic."

The man leaned in and whispered, "Distress call… rangers. Trouble. Utmost urgency." He pulled away, looking back at the dragon master.

Drake appeared heavily perplexed."Rangers? Why would they be calling here?" This was a festival, not a damn regional official office. He was an Elite Four member, sure, but that was no excuse. Couldn't they find someone else? He was busy.

"Sir, they're trained to call the nearest authority, that being you," one of the organizational staff at his side explained. "And…" He shifted uncomfortably, and his lips became a thin line. "This is a code 2A."

Drake's brows climbed, and nodded. "You three, let's go. Back to the organizational building. We'll discuss things there, there are people watching us," he said warily, noting two curious trainers observing them from a nearby bench.

Code 2A… but why?

"Sir, you've arrived." A female official announced. "We tried to notify you as fast as possible, the rang-"

"Yelena, what's the meaning of this?" Drake asked. "I hope this isn't a prank."

The official shook her head."Rangers don't prank. As the others probably told you, we received a transmission from a ranger outpost not far from here, outpost MF1- distress code being 2A. Here." She pointed a finger on a map, towards the northwestern edge of Hoenn, right at the heart of…

Drake's eyes widened, worry replacing the steady calm of an experienced ship captain and battler. Needless to say, it unnerved everyone in the room. "Are you sure? That's…"

"Incredibly close. And as for the validity, it certainly didn't come from the outpost in Fallarbor, we checked." She moved her finger a slight bit southeast. "This is us, we're only a few miles out. A flying type could easily get there. Or here."

A phone rang, and Drake picked it up on the first ring.

"Is this ranger outpost MF1?" Drake asked desperately. "Answer!"

"Yes, sir! This is head ranger Kilic. We sent a distress signal a few minutes ago, requesting assistance," the ranger answered. "There just aren't enough of us to contain the situation. It's getting worse."

Drake shook his head. "We can't send you anything. There are only two other officials here with me, we're overseeing the dragon festival!"

"Festival? Excuse my language, but damn, this is so fucked! This has never happened before and we have no idea what in the hell we're supposed to do! We need back up or things are going to get ugly."

"Calm down, Kilic. Tell me what's going on." Drake demanded.

A ragged breath. "No disrespect sir, but I don't think I have to answer that. Protocol dictates that outpost MF1 is only to transmit a distress call when one: the outpost is overrun, or two: there is a pokemon related emergency." He exhaled deeply, desperately willing down nerves. "There's only one pokemon on the MF1 watch list."

Drake swallowed, hard. "No, no. They're not supposed to do that. It's not in their nature!" Meteor Falls had been peaceful, even throughout the Magma and Aqua crisis. Not once did the pokemon there act up. Why today? Why now?

"This is happening, sir! This is not a hypothetical situation!" The ranger continued, "we sent two rangers to scout the area. They haven't come back and the cries are getting worse. They're beyond pissed off."

The elite four took off his hat and scratched his head, wiping nervous sweat. "How long ago did this start?

"About ten minutes ago, all at once. You could hear the roars from anywhere in the falls. Yesterday is when there was the most commotion though. Explosions. Electricity. Everything!"

Drake tried to piece things together, but it was as if they handed him random pieces of a jigsaw puzzle with mismatching edges. Nothing fit."But… that doesn't make any sense." Proud pokemon like that never joined forces and attacked in unison. Never. It wasn't in their nature to do so. He would know, considering he had spent a majority of his life with such creatures. "What could get them riled up enough?"

"The eggs," said one of the booth keepers, voice almost a whisper.

"The what?"

"The eggs," he repeated. "It's the eggs!" His eyes shifted back and forth between the dragon master and the other two officials. "A trainer noted that they were unusually big. Too big for smaller children. I also noticed the difference from last year's branch of eggs. And the markings… they're completely different."

Drake turned to organizer Hayel, "You're were in charge of the pokemon eggs, where did you get them? Did you have a hand in this?"

Hayel seemed to shrink in the presence of the elite four member. "N-no! I placed the order f-from the usual company! Except this time, the eggs were extremely cheap! I thought it was too good to be true, until I met the delivery guy and he showed me the real deal."

Official Yelena glared at him. "What did he look like? And when were the eggs delivered?"

"Blonde hair, blue eyes, short hair. Kind of put me on edge, something just felt off about him." Hayel lifted his gaze slowly up to match Drake's. "They were delivered… yesterday, I think. No, it definitely was yesterday."

A sharp intake of breath was heard throughout the room, the only sound in the room coming from a ceiling fan overhead.

Drake turned to Yelena. "Call that company! I want to know what eggs were actually shipped. And who the hell this delivery man is. This ain't good." To say it wasn't good was an understatement. This was absolutely terrible.

Two minutes later, Yelena set the phone down, hand trembling slightly.

"What did they say?"

She swallowed. "Yesterday, the truck delivering the eggs was hijacked. The original Horsea eggs were stolen, but the truck still made the delivery. And they don't have an employee by that description. The order of the eggs amounted to nearly fifty."

"I counted fifty eggs yesterday," Hayel said, placing a hand over his mouth.

Everyone paled, including Drake.

"Those… are Bagon eggs? Fifty of them?!" A nervous organizer croaked. "B-but why? Why would hijackers replace them with expensive bagon eggs?"

Drake growled, low and fierce. "Who said they bought them? They were stolen from the Salamence dens themselves. Whoever they were, their intention was to purposely anger them. Mothers are fiercely protective of their eggs, and will chase down anyone who takes them. Usually, taking one or two doesn't do much. Daring trainers have done it before, myself included, when I was younger and able. All of them however…" Taunting dragons? What's the point? Suicide?

"DRAKE! SIR!" Kilic yelled.

"Boy! Calm down!" Drake ordered. "This isn't time for pan-"

"They're moving out!" He cried desperately. "Oh my god. Oh my god! DON'T LET THEM SEE YOU! CHRIS! GET INSIDE!" A loud blast was heard as wood splintered and cracked.

"KILIC! HOW MANY ARE THERE!" Screams. "HOW MANY!"

Several explosions followed. Then someone picked up the phone.

The ranger's voice was shaky, and full of pain. His breaths were shallow, as if he couldn't get enough air to breathe. The ranger was sobbing.

"Kilic, is that you?"

"N-no. Kilic's dead."

Drake wanted to curse. Badly. "How many of them, ranger?"

"All of them."

The line went silent as flames crashed down once again.

Amy and Gale left the dance stage to go meet up with the boys. They were just… sitting there, thinking hard about something, like they were pondering the meaning of life.

The blonde walked up in front of them, and waved a hand. It's like they're in a trance. "Hey." She snapped her fingers, breaking them out of their thoughts.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Pretty deep in thought there," she said. Not unusual for Seab, he always seemed to prefer thinking over talking. And well, Riven was Riven. Never said much apart from sarcastic quips anyway, even when she first met him. Still, they should be having fun! Although, Rivy here already had his fair share, which was still hilarious.

Seab nodded. "Yeah, it's just- we just saw some of the festival organizers all jumpy and nervous. Didn't seem right." Of course, organizers were almost always stressed in order to keep things running smoothly, but this felt different and familiar at the same time, and not in a good way.

Gale tilted her head to the side. "That's odd. Nothing seems out of place."

Riven chuckled darkly. "It never does. Trust me. You'd never expect an assassination attempt in broad daylight after a contest, would you?" His smirk fell. "Things are going to get hectic."

Amy exchanged looks with Gale, then with Seab. "I don't think I like your definition of 'hectic' very much…" His definition of hectic sounded awfully closer to "shitstorm" than crazy.

That was when they saw organizational staff scrambling, sprinting in every which way. Drake came into view, yelling orders at the top of his lungs. He flung pokeballs out of his coat, releasing his team.

All four of them watched the commotion, and a sinking feeling completely changed the mood.

"What the hell is going on?" Amy asked, green eyes wide. "Drake is freaking out. Drake. Is. Freaking. Out." It wasn't any old panicking official with a shred of authoritative power. This was Drake. The second strongest in the region, behind the champion. And he was panicking. She had to admit, it was making her worry too.

"Astute observation." Riven said dryly- and shot up, scanning the area, looking for any threats. Suspicious people, weapons, unfriendly pokemon. Anything. Something had to be bothering them, he wanted to know what it was, so that he could run as far away as possible, dig a hole, and pull it in after him.

"I'll going to go ask," Amy said, running ahead to one of the frantic organizers.

She returned less than a minute later, slightly irritated.

Riven raised a brow. "Let me guess, he told you everything that's happening in a calm, collected manner?" He said sarcastically.

Amy scowled.

Seab bit his lip. "We can't rely on them. They won't tell us a thing, 'to not cause panic'. As if that has ever fucking helped anyone!" He said harshly, uncharacteristically angry. "We need to do this ourselves."

"That's all good, but… we aren't Sherlock Holmes, Seab." Gale gave him a weak smile. "Even if we tried, what could we possibly find?"

Everyone stood silent. Even Amy. Gale had a point. They weren't going to magically find clues to the puzzle and figure out what was going on. And if the organizers refused to tell them anything, they wouldn't get anywhere, no matter how hard they tried.

A woman in an official uniform headed towards them, face grave and pale.

"You four! Get inside one of the booths and bring as many people there as you can! Make sure nothing can see you from the skies! Got it?" She commanded, putting on her best authoritative voice.

Amy stepped forward. "What's going on? And why are we going to hide?" Hiding from the sky? What?

"Don't argue with me, young lady! As an official, I am ordering you to do it! This is for your safety, please understand." The woman dipped her head and ran off.

Riven pulled the blonde back. "Let's listen to her, we don't need officials breathing down our necks." God knows I don't. Lavaridge was enough. He practically owed the champion for that. Chances are he wouldn't forget it any time soon. Steven certainly won't.

Amy reluctantly stepped back and went with the others to a nearby booth, where other people and trainers were gathering. The center was cleared out, providing ample space to sit and stand. They organized several people inside and told them to sit tight, and not panic.

She exhaled, patience wearing thin. Don't panic. Yeah, right. Why of course, having an Elite Four in distress and then herding people up like Mareep without telling them anything wasn't going to make anyone in their right minds panic. So perfectly reasonable! Don't freak out because you shouldn't freak out. Stupid officials.

A younger trainer tugged on her sleeve- about eleven or twelve years of age- and asked, "do you know what we're here for?"

Amy smiled, "I don't know for sure. Sorry."

"Okay…" He had a mudkip beside him, who seemed far more busy trying to bury itself in the dirt than pay any mind to what was going on.

She clenched a fist and wrestled with the thought of acting.

Minutes later, concerned trainers and festival goers began to ask questions. They also noticed the more experienced trainers and dragon tamers weren't with them. They were running around with the organizers, with every pokemon out of their balls. They were poised, ready. As if preparing for something.

The calm before the storm.

Riven instinctively brushed Haona's pokeball with his fingers. He nearly took it off his belt, before steadily pulling away his hand. I don't want to use her yet. She still needs time, but her disaster prediction would come in handy right about now. He turned to the side, to see Gale eyeing his hand.

"Jumpy, aren't you?"

He chuckled faintly. "You're not? Look at those dragon tamers, they're waiting for something. I don't want to get caught by surprise and regret it. I was thinking about using my absol as a warning device but… I'm not sure that would be kind to her."

Gale cocked her head. "Why is that?"

"She was there, remember?"

Oh, right. The poachers. She nodded, bringing her out to fight before she was ready to face it again would be unkind. Rather thoughtful of him. Some trainers don't even pretend to care about their pokemon's feelings. "I see. Well, I guess we'll have to find out. Or if we're lucky, we won't," Gale said calmly.

"You're surprisingly level-headed," Riven mentioned. She looked completely peaceful, in contrast to himself, whose body was practically flaring with alert signals, ready to fight or run away as fast as he could.

"Really? Because I'm pretty nervous right now." She showed him a slightly shaky hand. "All these people are making me nervous. I guess it's just the atmosphere. As a flyer, you have to be really calm, because if you mess up, it can mean the end. That's what my dad said all the time. He did some pretty crazy things to teach me control."

I think I need some of that. "Like what?

"He threw me off his Pidgeot and told me not to scream, only then he would go get me," she said levelly, a slight smile on her face. "It was scary at first, but then it felt pretty good."

Maybe I don't need that.

"Crazy runs in the family then?"

She put on a half-smile. "I can revoke that free ride to Petalburg, you know." She wouldn't though, out of sympathy for that embarrassing attempt to dance on his part. He tried, at least. And it was fun, maybe not for Riven but it sure was fun for her.

"I mean, uh," He met her gaze, and gave up. "Damn." Meekly, he apologized.

Gale laughed and poked him in the stomach again. "Dork!"

"Can you please not-"

A volley of roars rang throughout the air, cutting through any and all chatter like a hot knife. Children didn't dare move. Even the dragon trainers remained fixed to their positions. The roars got closer, sending chills down the spines of every human and pokemon on the ground.

Seab looked around, seeing peeks of the sky. "What. Was. That?"

As the roars came closer and more pronounced, everyone began to panic, some even started to cry. Desperate people jumped over the booth desk and took off running. The organizers tried to calm the crowd, but there were simply too many people. In the midst of the panic, Riven remained anchored to the floor, eyes wide, skin pale; he looked like he had seen a ghost.

Gale and Amy shook him, snapping their fingers to get him to respond.

"Riven!"

"Is he broken?"

"I don't know!"

Then, Riven opened his mouth, wetting dry lips. "Those roars. Shit. Shit. Shit," he whispered under his breath. He knew that roar. He knew it all too well. After facing one of those, he couldn't ever forget it. That battle cry wasn't, I'm-in-charge. It was, I'm-going-to-obliterate-you-from-existence.

Amy looked bewildered. "You know what pokemon is making that noise?"

Riven's fingers felt like water and his spine felt like it had turned into a fine mush. "That's not just one pokemon," he said ominously. "And I know precisely which one that roar belongs to. And let me tell you, it's out for blood." He clapped a hand to his head in disbelief and nervously ran fingers through his hair.

Seab swallowed. "Which pokemon is it?" he asked, fearing the confirmation to his hunch. If he was right… they weren't in a good situation at all.

"Salamence," Riven affirmed. "Which means, a lot of those people out there are going to die if they don't find cover soon. Those were a lot of roars." Not one, or two, or three- maybe ten, fifteen, twenty of them? Either way, those were fully grown wild Salamence. Not many things made him want to throw everything down and head for cover. A pissed off dragon? Definitely one of those things.

Seab, Amy, Gale, and everyone else still in the booth with him seemed to shut down.

That's when the first explosions were heard. The hollering of orders from trainers were heard, and the jets of fire began to rain down. Across from them, they saw a Garchomp hurling rocks and shooting blue flames out of its mouth, supported by a Golduck shooting ice beams into the air.

Within a minute, the sky and earth became a battleground. Booths and tents were being set on fire and some unfortunate people were caught in the crossfire. The screaming is what got to Riven.

Memories and pain slammed back into him, and he huddled into a corner of the booth, holding his head in his hands. No, not right now. Not now. Can't. Have to stay calm. It passed! This is different! Cold sweat. Shaking hands. Need to breathe! He gulped for air and slowed his breathing, fighting tooth and nail not to succumb to memories of the past. But the fire and the screams made it so hard…

Amy closed her hands into fists, and nearly vaulted over the booth table when Riven fought through the memories, shot up, coiled an arm around her waist, and planted her back inside.

"What the fuck are you doing!" She yelled angrily.

Keep calm. Control. "What are you doing?" He shot back, eyes narrowed.

"I'm going to go help the other trainers! There's too many Salamence for them to handle! They need help!"

Riven shook his head, ignoring the piercing migraine he was getting. "With what? Your Mareep and a Swablu? Veer is useless against them."

"Mila's an Altaria now. And Jak is a Flaffy," Amy clarified. "Mila can help, she knows dragonbreath."

"And how long ago did she evolve?"

"Three weeks ago."

Riven stared. "You plan to take on several, fully grown, experienced dragons- with a newly evolved Altaria and a Flaffy? What a fantastic idea. Did you make sure to pick out what color of burial urn you wanted? Because there's no way you're coming back from that unless you're a pile of ash."

The blonde slashed the air with her hand. "Let me go!" She said fiercely. "I'm doing what needs to be done! That was your excuse! You did what you had to then, and so am I! I have to do this!"

Riven gripped her shoulders before she could take off again. "That's different!" The situation was leagues different than what he had done. Those were people. These were dragons. That could breathe fire and fly.

"Of course it is. You don't think I can do this, do you?"

"That's not what- dammit, Amy." He paused, picking his words carefully. "In Forina, I ran from a Salamence on Gale's Pidgeot. I narrowly got away, but not without being launched into a tree by a hyper beam, which absolutely leveled a section of the forest. Don't even mention the rest that got set on fire. Emile couldn't even outrun it. That was one dragon, Amy. One." He looked up, peeking up towards the sky, seeing familiar red and blue fighting it out with the other trainers' own dragons. Shot a finger in the air. "There are about thirty or more up there. I don't want to be the one to tell Irene that her daughter is dead." He held her firmly as she struggled. "Don't. Do. That. To me."

"But we have to do something!" Amy pleaded. "We can't just stand around while people die!"

"Maybe so! But if you just rush off like an idiot, I will have Baron fetch you, bring you back, and sit on you until you see sense," Riven warned. "I can't believe I'm even saying this but- if you're going to be a hero, don't be a stupid one." Risking your life for someone else's was already a brainless move, having no plan while doing so made things that much worse.

"He's right," Seab added sternly. "You can't just charge in there thunderbolts blazing, Amy. We need a plan or we aren't going to save anybody."

The blonde shot a heated glare to the Sinnohan, and relaxed. "Do you have a plan then?"

"No. But we need to see what we've got to work with first. We can come up with a strategy from there," he explained, unfazed. "As it stands, the only pokemon of remote use in my team is Grumpy. Ren is weak to flying and fire, and Comet couldn't do anything against a dragon if he tried."

"I have Mila and Jak."

"Dragonbreath and more electric support, yeah. You, Riven?" He asked.

The black-haired trainer thought about his team. "My Combusken won't be of any use. I have an Absol too. Apart from that, I have a Gallade with thunderbolt and a Castform who knows powder snow."

"Does your Absol know ice beam?"

"Yeah, but I doubt she'll be able to hit anything with it. She can only use it ten times before she has to rest. I wouldn't count on it too much, flying types are hard to hit normally, and Salamence are faster than most," Riven reasoned.

"I can help too," Gale announced, determined.

"What? No. Both of your pokemon are flying types. They'd get killed easily, whether it be dragon claw or dragonbreath. And having Emile out right now? Not a good idea. You saw how paranoid he was in Forina." If he saw the amount of red wings up there, the bird would probably die of shock.

Gale's determined look fell. "Oh…"

Riven put a hand on her shoulder, and shook her slightly. "Stay safe, leave this to… us." He still had some difficulty acknowledging that what they were planning to do was extremely and utterly stupid, as well as in vehement opposition to his personal code of survival. "You're a flyer, not a trainer. You should stay back."

She sighed, and nodded.

He turned back to the others. "Still, even if we combined all of our attacks, our pokemon can't possibly make a dent in more than a few dragons before they get winded. Especially with few type advantages to exploit. It'd be like trying to break a wooden door with your fist." You could probably make some progress, or you'd break your hand trying. Either way, it was going to hurt.

Seab grimaced, thinking. Ice blue eyes were cold and calculating.

Riven noticed the boy's face, knowing that dozens of scenarios and plans were circling around in his mind, evaluating what would work and what wouldn't. He couldn't help but shudder. A tactician's look. That's what that is. My father looked like that whenever he made plans. You're a little genius aren't you? Maybe there's hope after all.

"Riven, does your Castform know rain dance?"

Raised a black brow. "Of course, but water is just going to tickle them."

"That's what you think." The blue-haired boy smirked, and turned back to Amy. "You remember what they said in school?"

"About what?"

"Rain dance and lightning. When it's out-" He cut himself off, allowing her to finish.

The point clicked in Amy's mind, and the blonde broke out into a determined grin. "-thunder never misses." The combination was well known, but difficult to pull off in a conventional battle. But this wasn't a conventional battle.

Riven remained skeptical. "A thunder powerful enough to hit all the dragons at once? Is that what you're getting at? It might just work, but your pokemon would have to be at the champion level or hell, even legendary to pull that off." There was no way Jak or Grumpy could do that.

Seab flashed a wry smile."You ever heard of lightning rod? It's an interesting ability. But first, we're going to need some help."

He called out to the other trainers, and began discussing the plan.

A/N

Also, you may notice a bit of references to a certain popular fanfiction about a certain trainer and a numel starter. This is sort of a fanwork of a fanwork, and I probably won't use any of that author's characters out of respect, only allusions to events that occurred in the story. Hint: It's the second most reviewed story for the pokemon section and starts with a letter P(also on my favorites list) and is by a certain Digital Skitty. I highly recommend you read that first, or you will be very, very lost. It's a great read too!

The plot will began to rear its head much more from now on. Or so I think. Could be I'm writing as I go along or I actually know what I'm doing. Mystery, really.

Anyway, sorry if this released a little later than anticipated. Midterms are delightful and learning calculus on your own again is 5068708078695868974695% fun.

Sarcasm aside, thank you for taking time out of your day to read. Favorite/follow/review at your own leisure. Oh yeah, almost forgot. Happy Halloween everyone!