These Silver Eyes

by JustAProblem

Shoved into a world where I could be killed in the blink of an eye, shoved into a body that wasn't mine... and shoved in a situation I really would have liked a heads up on before being shoved into it. Nothing to do but tough it out and go with the flow while I navigate a world that shouldn't exist... Now if only I could find out just which version of this world I was in. Man...

5. Chapter 5: Let Sleeping Growlithes Lie

These Silver Eyes

In case you need a reminder.

Zorua - Loki

Chikorita - Gaia

Feebas - Freyja

Bagon - Ares

---

Chapter 5: Let Sleeping Growlithes Lie

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

Me being fairly well off, the fact that I was sponsored, the fact that I ran away from Kanto… My intense hatred for Team Rocket, my fear for Giovanni...

Zorua being my first pokemon.

All of it made sense now. Everything that had confused me before, had been answered with this one revelation.

Silver was the son of Giovanni…

I was this assholes kid.

Silver was Giovanni's kid?! What the hell?! What the actual fuck?!

There's just no way this could be happening to me. Not only was my dad the boss of Team Rocket, he was probably the strongest Gym Leader in the region.

It was no secret that the real strength of Gym Leaders were not accounted by the teams they used in Gym Battles.

Giovanni was no exception. While not quite on the level of the Elite 4, he was still remarkably exceptional.

He was the real deal. Every region had that Gym Leader... Claire, Wallace, Volkner, Drayden...

...Giovanni. And this was my father.

Damn.

If I knew this, I would have stayed my ass in Hoenn. Why the hell would I want to travel through the region where my mafia dad was running shit in the shadow... after I ran away from him?!

Not to mention, for him to personally come seek me out meant that he wanted me back.

Goddamnit, my other half must be so pissed at me (I would know because I'm pissed at me) for coming back to this region! It's not my fault! It's his for hoarding his memories! How was I supposed to know this piece of shit was my dad?

Why didn't I know that?! That seemed like a pretty huge revelation and yet that goddamn important detail completely alluded me until the man himself told me.

"What do you want?" I said harshly, gazing at the Flygon with a deep frown.

That would explain why I didn't want to catch a Flygon. If the utter disgust I felt for this one in particular was indication, I had personal grievances with it.

Actually, that might have explained why I didn't seem to want any ground type in general. Through all my planning of future captures, not a single ground type appealed to me and I was even talking about Pokemon my other half wouldn't have known about before the merging.

That would be a problem for the future. Ground types were useful and I did not want them.

Giovanni raised a brow and looked down at me. "It seems time away has given you quite the bark… Most impressive, son. It's a rare sight to see you standing up to me and I find myself pleased with this progress," he praised, gravely voice filled with an unknown amusement.

The way he called me son… I didn't like it one bit. Was I just some accessory for this bastard? Did he want me to become something special to stroke his ego?

My eyes narrowed. My other half may have been afraid of the man before me, but I refused to let anyone cow me into submission.

Don't you worry, me. I wouldn't let this piece of trash walk all over me no matter who he was.

For some reason a flash of disbelief coursed through my body at that.

I ignored it.

"Thanks so much dad," I sneered at him. "But you must have dirt in your ears, I asked you a question. What do you want?" I pressed, unintimidated by the middle aged man.

Flygon snarled at my tone but Giovanni merely held a hand up, immediately silencing it, and regarded me with an appraising eye.

He looked… genuinely impressed with me.

What a sickening thought.

"Perhaps it was good in hindsight, that you ran away. I was quite skeptical at first, but you managed to learn how to stand up to me and not only that, you managed to beat an Electabuzz and a Raichu with not a badge to your name…"

The gray eyes of my father gazed at me and beyond the cruelness, I couldn't tell what else was behind them.

"You're team, show me it," Giovanni suddenly said.

It was not a question.

My glare deepened drastically.

"Who the fuck do you —"

I cut myself off and took a deep breath, reminding myself that this was still the boss of Team Rocket despite being my father.

Yeah, he could fuck right off with that request. I'd tell him but showing him? Not a chance in hell I'm actually showing him my team.

"Zorua, Bayleef, Feebas, Beldum and Bagon," I said tersely. I doubted he'd do something to me in public but I wouldn't push my luck too much.

Just give him the bare minimum.

"Why are you here?" I asked warily, thinking about how I could bolt if it came down to it.

He probably wouldn't risk just dragging me back home right now. We were in public and someone would hear me struggling because I certainly wasn't going without a fight.

There's also the fact that I was real good at getting away to take into account.

Giovanni's expression gave away nothing but for a slight moment, I saw his eyes widen in interest at some of the names.

Then, they narrowed slightly.

"An impressive team, but you have no use for a Feebas. Discard it and I will give you another water type," Giovanni ordered.

I blinked in surprise, anger melting off momentarily.

Was this asshole… trying to give me advice?

Naturally, the anger came roaring back as I digested the words.

"I went through a lot of stress catching her, you're outta your goddamn mind if you think I'm getting rid of Freyja," I scowled deeply, glaring at him.

Was he going to ever answer the questions I asked? This was so fucking infuriating and I had no clue what the purpose of this visit was, especially considering he hadn't attempted to drag me away yet.

"Freyja? You've nicknamed it?" Giovanni asked in slight surprise. "I suppose your time away has made you somewhat forget my teachings..."

I tensed at that, muscles bunching up in preparation for anything.

If Giovanni noticed he didn't say anything. In the first place, he was far too relaxed for this conversation, as if he weren't speaking to his son that had ran away from home.

Every word came out of his mouth was measured and calm, refusing to reveal any of what his thoughts were.

Not to mention he never raised his voice. He really did remind me of a Godfather who ran the Mafia.

Giovanni's expression did not shift. "I admit, I'm more than impressed by the team you've managed to gather for yourself, but you're forgetting important details."

My biological father shook his head. "It matters little. I am a patient man so I don't mind teaching you again."

"To answer your questions, I'm merely here because I happened to have some business in Vermilion City and since I heard that my own son was here, I decided it wouldn't be too much trouble to come. I'd be remiss to not visit you… Rest assured, I believe every trainer must have their own journey, so I will continue to allow you to explore the region for now," Giovanni said simply.

I clenched my fist, barely holding back my rage at hearing that "for now".

"You don't get to decide the life I live. No one gets to decide the life I live except for me," I snarled in annoyance.

I had legendaries dragging me to this world for some fucked up purpose, I decided to deal with this worlds calamities even though I really didn't want to, I was putting myself in business that I had no choice but to put myself in...

Giovanni was playing a dangerous fucking game expecting me to follow his whims.

"You are my son, of course I do. You will inherit everything I own in due time," he retorted bluntly, raising a single brow at me.

"I don't want it," I bit out. It was taking everything in my power to not explode.

"You will want and have it all in time because you are my son. Naturally you will have the world when I claim it."

Half of me just wanted to agree with his words out of fear… but the other half wanted nothing more then to wipe his face into the ground right here and now.

"Eventually you will come to appreciate what I'm doing for you, Silver. I am making you strong. You yourself despise the weak. It's something we have in common… but unlike me, you despise even associating with them. You do not wish to use them."

Giovanni shook his head, as if his fucked up way of thinking was the right way to go about things.

"You share many similarities to me, but you share even more with your mother. Learn to control your temperament," he scolded.

"A journey is a great way for you to mature and see things the way you should. It's why I haven't put more effort into searching for you," Giovanni said bluntly.

"You will come back eventually and resume your role as my heir, Silver."

The way he said that… the utter assurance in his tone…

It really pissed me off.

This narcissistic fucking asshole had no idea what he just did. This absolute dumbass named my father had no clue what he just unleashed.

I can't believe that even in a world like this, the villains were prone to monologuing with absolute confidence. The nerve of this guy to confidently tell me to my face, that I'd eventually see things his way.

Oh you fucked up big time. Let it be known, I really hated when someone looked down on me, or assumed I'd do something I had no intention of doing.

If I was the old Silver maybe I would listen to him… but now?

Now we were a new person and that new person had managed to overwhelm his fear with rebellious teen fury that had a proper outlet on what to unleash it on.

Yeah, Team Rocket was done for. I'd make sure of it if it were the last thing I did.

Stupid smug arrogant prick of a father. I would have left Team Rocket alone too for the most part, I was only using Kanto to get stronger.

But now? Oh if this was anything like the games they were so fucked.

"We'll see," I said coolly, hiding my boiling rage as plans began formulating on how I was going to run this organization into the dirt.

Giovanni gazed at me once more, almost checking to see if there was anything wrong with me, before nodding in satisfaction and making his way to Flygon.

"Your mother won't admit it, but she does miss you," he offered me.

"She can go fuck herself," I said harshly, no longer fearing the consequences of my words.

I was far too incensed for that.

He chanced a glance at me in some surprise but merely smirked in amusement.

"I will relay those words to her then. Do not be surprised if she visits you."

I sneered.

"Wait a sec," I called suddenly. "Do I have any siblings?"

I was still stuck on him calling me his favorite son. There had to be a reason for that.

Giovanni actually paused at the question and a dark frown crossed his features, before vanishing as quick as it came.

"You have a younger brother the same age as you from this region. Do not ask anymore about him. He is beneath you. You may meet him on your journey but you two look nothing alike so you won't know."

With that, he beckoned Flygon and the dragon flew off with my father.

"Stupid son of a bitch," I grunted in rage, balling my fist tight and resisting the urge to smash it into a wall.

Giovanni really thought I was gonna mature and realize I was destined to eventually become the boss of Team Rocket?

He could fuck right off with that. All his words did was make me want the role even less.

In what world did Team Rocket Heir sound good to anyone? This was the organization that got smashed by a kid.

Now they were gonna lose to another one because he messed with the wrong one.

In the first place, that narcissist wouldn't give up his role to me until he died. I had no intention of staying in his shadow for the rest of his life.

He should have let me be. Now I was going to make him regret dragging me back into the mix one way or another.

Resolve set on the destruction of Team Rocket, I pondered the other topic of the discussion I had with him.

The one about my sibling.

Truthfully, the only reason I asked him that was because he called me his favorite son.

"You have a brother the same age as you."

I would bet all my money, that my brother was probably Ash Ketchum himself in this timeline. I don't know if this is how it was in every timeline where they both happen to exist but I did know that someone out there was laughing very hard at me right now.

…

I resisted the urge to scream in rage as the reality of the situation hit me and instead, punched the wall of the house I was leaning on, ignoring the cracks on it and the blood on my knuckles.

My dad was the boss of the worst criminal syndicate on the planet currently, my brother was a legendary magnet…

Now that I knew Giovanni was my father, it was easy for me to figure out who that my mom was probably that one girl in the Johto games… Archer?

No that was the guy…

Ariana, that's what it was. She practically looked like a female version of Silver so it wasn't hard to find out.

I felt my anger spike at that name, along with immense disappointment and sadness.

This fucking sucked. This was terrible. I hated this so much.

Kanto was supposed to be the region that gave me the least problems, but it looked like it was going to give me the most.

"Hey Silvy!" A chipper voice called out.

Except the chipper was very strained.

I gazed at Green with unimpressed eyes. "Oddly convenient of you to show up right now," I commented offhandedly.

Evidently, Green was a terrible liar.

She began laughing nervously at that, averting her gaze and rubbing the back of her head.

"W-What do you mean? I just got here at the scheduled time!" Green said with a shaky smile.

I snorted. "I know you saw most of that but I'll let it go for now since you're trying to act normal. C'mon, let's go and we'll discuss it later."

She nodded hastily, relief on her features before she gasped at the sight of my bloody knuckles.

"Are you alright?!" Green asked in concern, grabbing my hand and gauging the injury. "We have to get this wrapped up! Hold on I should have some bandages somewhere..."

I watched with a blank expression as she reached into her bag and pulled out a gauze, before steadily wrapping it around my hand.

Suddenly, traveling with Green wasn't a bad idea. I was hellbent on destroying Team Rocket now to secure my freedom, so using her in my war was cruel but something I had no qualms doing.

...It also made my life feel at least somewhat normal for the moment.

"This is terrible, have you ever wrapped a gauze around anything?" I said, utterly unimpressed by her work.

Green flushed red at her shoddy job. "N-No! But I'm trying!"

I sighed and let it be, shoving my injured hand in my pocket.

"Sometimes, that's all you can do, Leaf."

---

Diglett Cave, was a cave that was dug out by a practical army of Digletts.

It connected Pewter City and Vermilion City together, after the humans decided to personally put interest into the cave.

It was nice for people who didn't want to slog through Mt. Moon and cut down what would normally be a very long trip.

After some work, they made the caves traversable to human beings by renovating and adjusting it a bit.

It was very convenient and if there was one thing this world was good at, it was allowing convenience of travel on foot.

But the cave itself was very dull. Like its namesake, only Digletts and Dugtrios really inhabited the cave. Apparently any other pokemon who tried to make residence there were either driven out or killed by them.

Pretty harsh. Digletts did not mess around.

"Got a bike?" I asked Green.

She blinked and shook her head no. "No… they are a bit expensive… but I got a bike voucher while in Vermilion! This sweet old man was talking to me about his pokemon before giving me one! I can exchange it in Cerulean!"

Of course she did.

"You can use my bike for the time being then," I grunted, pulling my skates out and placing them on, before handing over my bike to her.

"R-Really?!" She asked in surprise.

I blinked at her. "Yeah, we only have two weeks. We gotta be quick about this and I don't need you slowing me down, just use it until we make it to Cerulean and you get your own."

Her eyes lit up and she nodded vigorously, accepting my black and red bike.

Then we began navigating through the cave at a pace we both agreed on.

Green and I were occasionally attacked by the Digletts and Dugtrio there, but they proved no problem to us and we progressed through about half the cave in a pretty good amount of time before deciding to take a break.

"So how much did you hear?" I asked, absentmindedly swatting the Togepi trying to steal more snacks from me.

Annoying bugger.

Green choked on her rice at that and Ivysaur brought out a vine to pat her back.

My team looked at her with unimpressed eyes, munching their specialized meals as they listened into the conversation.

Judging by the depressed expression on Freyja's face, they probably heard that conversation with Giovanni too.

I temporarily ignored the recovering Green for a moment and grabbed Freyja, much to her surprise.

"You guys heard what he said, right?" I asked softly, gazing at the defeated Feebas with a small frown.

My team nodded hesitantly. In particular, Loki had a frown like mine, recognizing exactly who I was talking to.

"I said everything I meant, Freyja. I don't care what anyone says, I captured you for a reason and I'll be damned if anyone convinces me to release you, got that?" I demanded.

"Of all the water types I could have picked, I chose you and I will not regret my decision. You gotta stop letting others get to your head because they aren't me," I chastised.

I rubbed her scales affectionately. "Ignore the haters, they'll be in awe of you soon enough, got that?"

Freyja looked up and met my stern gaze. She looked doubtful of my claims but nodded all the same and I sighed.

There was only one way to show her I was serious. I'd have to beat one of the Pewter Gym Leaders pokemon with her to boost her confidence.

Easy work. I planned on doing that regardless. Making Freyja believe in herself, was the key to evolving her so I'd make her see it herself when we won our battle.

"You done choking?" I asked Green with a raised brow. "You can stop being nervous about it."

My words did not reassure her at all. In fact, she got even more nervous.

She probably understood I preferred my secrets so my companion was justifiably wary at having been caught peeping.

"I know you're type. You'll die if you don't get the questions out," I urged, with a roll of my eyes.

I didn't really care. It's not like Giovanni mentioned anything extremely incriminating and we were talking quite low to each other.

We were in public after all. Wouldn't be great if anyone overheard us.

Green nodded reluctantly and took a deep breath.

"I didn't hear anything… but were you talking to Giovanni, the Viridian Gym leader?" She asked, unable to hide her curiosity.

I nodded. "He's my sponsor. He got me Zorua," I said bluntly.

I wasn't sure if that was true, but it probably was. I also had no intention of revealing that he was my father.

My traveling companion nodded at that, half expecting that response but her face looked troubled. "You didn't… look very happy speaking to him and well, you nearly punched a hole into the wall... you're very strong by the way," she pointed out.

I shrugged, despite the less than savory thoughts going through my head about what I wanted to do to Team Rocket.

"He has expectations for me that I have no interest in following. Unfortunately, he doesn't take no for an answer and that really pisses me off," I said darkly, clenching my fist at the thought of Giovanni.

Despite his "praise" for me, Giovanni still looked down on me. He didn't take me serious.

He called me his heir, he had high hopes for me… yet despite that, he still only saw me as some foolish kid.

I was going to make him regret that. He was going to learn the hard way how vindictive I could be.

"Ah so you wanna do your own thing, but he wants you to do something else?" Green asked curiously, an indecipherable emotion in her eyes.

"Yep," I said calmly, finishing off my bowl of rice (this was one of the few things I could actually make edible at the moment!) and placing it up.

Green polished off her own rice (I made too much and she didn't complain about the taste) and stood up.

We both began packing our respective things up in our nonsense bags and repeated the same with our Pokemon.

"So what do you want to do?" Green asked curiously, returning her team. "I guess Giovanni wants you to become a Gym Leader like him… but you don't specialize in a type so what?"

"I dunno," I grunted, returning my team. "But I want the freedom to make the decision when I finally do know what I want to do. I'm not going to let anyone chain me down with their expectations."

I dusted the remaining dirt off my pants and placed my skates back on, ready to finish this trip before afternoon hit.

Diglett Cave didn't even have anything worth having a detour. What a lame cave. At least the path was fairly linear and only took a few hours on bike/skate.

Green was gazing at me with shining eyes.

"You're so cool, Silvy!" She gushed, slinging her bag back on and climbing atop my bike.

I rolled my eyes, stamping down the slight embarrassment at that. "Shut up and ride the bike."

Green's eyes turned mischievous on the spot and I groaned in annoyance.

"Oh? Is Silvy embarrassed at a little praise?! Is it because a cute girl like me is the one praising you?! Hey, stop ignoring me! HEY WAIT UP, WHY ARE YOU SKATING SO FAST?!"

---

"I thought it would have taken way longer to make it to Pewter but you don't waste anytime, Silvy!" Green awed, looking at her clock and seeing that it was only 3 pm.

I grunted, thankful for once at my unruly hair covering my eyes because the light after leaving a fairly dark cave, was a little jarring.

When I left Rusturf Tunnel, the sun hadn't been shining both times and it was the same with Meteor Falls.

I wasn't as fortunate for Diglett Cave but my hair more than made up for it as it protected one of my eyes from the beaming sun.

Kanto wasn't as dominating in terms of weather in comparison to Hoenn.

Whatever weather state Hoenn was in, whether it was hot or raining, it made sure to impose that weather onto you. The heat was scalding, the rain was heavy and it rarely ever got cold.

Kanto was far more standard. It cycled through the weather like a normal place. It could get cold, it could get hot, it could rain, it could snow.

Sure it could get bad, but it wasn't on the level of a place like Hoenn or say, Sinnoh, which was infamously known for being frigid levels of cold.

I was not looking forward to traveling through Sinnoh. I despised the cold.

But Kanto was nice. It was hot right now but compared to Hoenn, it was practically a light breeze.

Pewter City was boring. Maybe Hoenn really had spoiled me because every city I went too in that region was just outright incredible.

Especially Fortree. I really needed to go to Fortree again. Joy had taken to sending me pictures of interesting sights in between moderating my vital status.

But Kanto was as basic as the games and that was its charm. Pewter City had a slate gray theme about it, with granite floors, an assortment of buildings and even a museum that was full of Fossils.

They're lucky I wasn't interested in any fossils. I guarantee I would have been able to commit a heist and get away with it.

Hmm, maybe if I was bored, I'd get that Old Amber. It's not like I wanted it… but an Aerodactyl was kinda cool.

Okay Silver, let's not just steal for fun. Only steal when I benefit from it and though I'd benefit from an Aerodactyl… I didn't really want one.

I'd be a good thief for now and take it easy.

"Alright, take me to the gym," I said, gazing in interest at the happenings of the city.

The people mingled about and rock types seemed to especially populate the area, as well as basic pokemon you'd encounter in the earlier routes.

As we headed towards the gym, Green chatted my ear off as usual and I listened silently, occasionally nodding at things she said, while plotting what I was planning on doing against the Gym Leader.

"I could have sworn I saw some of these people when I was battling Flint," Green muttered in interest.

"Challengers?" I muttered back, sneering at someone whose gaze I caught. "You're telling me they couldn't even beat this guy and are stuck here? Isn't this your first badge? How long ago was that?"

Green scratched her head and laughed nervously. "About… a month or two ago?"

I snorted and walked through the automatic doors.

"They should quit then. This sport isn't for them."

It was expected that not everyone was meant to do gym challenges but some people were stubborn and really thought they could do it if they kept trying.

Some lost their first few gym battles and went off to try to get a badge from another gym leader that they might have a bigger advantage against.

Others thought that they could beat the gym leader after enough tries and remained in one spot for who knows how long. Sometimes they gave up and moved on to another gym, sometimes they gave up on gym challenges in general.

Pokemon Battling was an extreme sport here and like every sport, there were those who did it casually and those who eventually did it professionally.

Gym Challenges were meant to slowly weed the casuals out. It was a fairly ruthless tactic but it made sense. People who could beat 8 Gym Leaders could earn themselves a well paying job at the league.

People who could compete in the big leagues of the Pokemon League, earned very valuable spots. It was a tantalizing offer, one that few would turn away.

But not everyone was meant to do it.

"Cruel… but not wrong," Green admitted, patting Togepi's head affectionately.

I side eyed her for a moment as I walked up to the receptionist there.

Green was very used to my less than stellar personality, probably attributed to the fact that she was friends with Blue...

But she was also unknowingly beginning to pick up on it too. Made sense, she was a kid at the end of the day and kids were easily impressionable.

Even I wasn't exempt from that. After all, despite my maturity, I still didn't see myself as anything but 12 and I was a growing… kid.

What a thought.

"Welcome to the Pewter Gym!" The receptionist smiled politely. "Would you like to schedule a gym battle?"

"Yeah," I said shortly. "Silver. One badge."

She blinked, caught off guard by the fact that I answered every question without her asking but she nodded, typing something on the keyboard.

The receptionist blinked, before her eyes went wide and she gazed back up at me.

"W-Wow, you managed to get your first badge from Surge… one day ago?!" She asked in shock, gazing at me.

"Yeah," I said blandly, ignoring the gaze of everyone in the gym and narrowing my eyes at the receptionist.

It was no secret that Surge was going around crushing everyone who challenged him. The fact that I managed to beat him without a single gym badge… was downright incredible, especially considering the fact that I was a new trainer.

Whispers were going around and I idly shoved the giggling Green, making her yelp loudly instead. Togepi let out a startled yell as well and glared at me venomously, to which I completely ignored.

The receptionist flinched at my unamused gaze and had the decency to look apologetic.

She typed on the keyboard a bit more before looking up at me with a small reserved smile.

"Your gym battle against Flint is scheduled for tomorrow at noon!" She exclaimed and I raised a brow.

"Tomorrow? A bit fast isn't it?" I muttered curiously, storing the info away.

"Not many people have matches scheduled because there is a cooldown period for battling gym leaders. If you lose, you're prohibited from battling for a few days. You have to wait," she explained to me and I nodded.

That made a lot of sense. I'd be pissed if I stomped some kid and he came back the next day to get stomped again. It'd be really annoying.

This world was surprisingly well thought out.

"So all these people already lost?" I asked, before snorting loudly at the thought.

Yeah, nothing else needed to be said. That was just embarrassing. There were a healthy amount of people in here.

Maybe Surge's method was really effective. He probably scared all the losers away because his gym had been barren.

"Guess you weren't wrong Green, you did see these people before," I smirked, making my way out of the gym with a cocky gait.

Green balked at me. "S-Silvy! Not so loud!" She hissed, but it was too late.

"Hey! Battle me!" A voice called out, causing my smirk to widen.

There was just something about being antagonistic that was really fun.

"You sure you can handle a battle?" I said derisively, looking at the fuming teen with innocent eyes. "However many losses you had against this guy is already embarrassing enough… you sure you want me to add another one?" I asked innocently.

"Silvy!" Green groaned in annoyance.

Why was he such a prick sometimes?

Now everyone in the gym looked poised to battle the duo (she didn't even do anything!) and the Pallet Town native let out a sigh.

At least they'd get some battles before the gym.

---

"Zen Headbutt, wrap it up," I instructed calmly.

Beldum followed my command to a ruthless degree, shooting forward with a psychic sheen on his steel temple.

"Oh no, dodge Gloom!" My opponent shouted frantically.

It was not to be, Gloom had been pressed the entire match by Beldum and we were finally going in for the kill.

Beldum crashed into Gloom with expert precision and sent the grass type sprawling with a pained cry.

"C'mon Gloom! Get back up!" Its trainer yelled desperately.

Gloom did not move, unconscious and blissfully unaware of its trainers calls.

"And that's that," I announced, beckoning Beldum over to my side with a pleased smirk.

I gazed at my steel type with searching eyes. "How often have you been training while we sleep?" I asked curiously, noticing how easier they were using their moves.

"Bel," Beldum intoned.

So basically everyday. It was clearly helping them out because Beldum was not as weak as it once was. It's psychic energy especially, seemed to be harnessed at an easier level.

The trainers in that gym had proven that they needed more time to battle Flint because I had not lost a single battle to them.

And they really tried too. I chose to accept one on ones against them in preparation for my battle tomorrow and it worked out exceedingly well for me.

Everyone wanted to put the arrogant prick in his place so they sent out their bests… only for them to all fail.

Even in matches where I should have had the disadvantage, I came out on top of because they simply lacked the sheer amount of knowledge I had amassed.

Turns out, my dominant half did have a lot to offer in this body. My prior knowledge did wonders with my natural abilities in battling… and these guys just didn't have what it took to make it very far in the gym circuit challenge. I couldn't afford to lose to them.

"Alright Leaf, I'm done here. It was easy but my team is probably still tired so I wanna visit a Center," I said dismissively, watching no one else step up to battle me. They all avoided eye contact and I rolled my eyes.

Props to my team for not faltering at the amount of people who wanted a piece of me. They just held their own and won their battles.

Gaia, Loki and Ares handled a majority of my battles because I didn't want to exhaust Beldum and Freyja.

Gaia would fight the ones who looked a tad more experienced and people were quickly learning that my Bayleef was the biggest menace on the team.

She was crushing it. Ever since that victory against Raichu, she had been stepping up even further and I was proud, because my team refused to let her keep the lead she suddenly gained.

If there was one thing my team and I shared, it was their competitiveness and that even translated to against each other.

They were teammates first but that didn't stop them all from trying to be the best on the team.

I loved it. I encouraged the competition.

But I digress, the trainers in this gym weren't good. Flint/Brock, were well known for being one of the easiest gyms to complete in the Kanto Gym Circuit no matter how many badges you challenged them with.

If you were stuck here… bad news.

Green sighed at my antics and nodded. "You're so mean," she pointed out.

"We established this the first day you met me," I replied with a roll of my eyes. "There's a reason I prefer to travel alone. There's a reason I didn't want to travel with you. I'm kind of a dick."

"Yeah, you are," my companion muttered, shaking her head in exasperation.

"Green?!"

We both paused at that and turned towards the voice.

It was an unassuming and short boy, with brown hair and big brown eyes.

I didn't recognize him at all. Probably not anyone important.

"Oh! Mason!" Green waved happily. "Silvy! This is Mason, he's the one I was telling you about!"

I blinked slowly and gazed at the boy my age with a bored expression. "Leaf, you probably don't realize... but you talk a shit ton. I have no idea who this is supposed to be."

She looked confused for a minute and scratched her messy brown hair. "He's one of the Oak sponsors! We got our starters at the same time!"

Ohhh. This was the one whose name I couldn't even remember.

Mason flinched at my sharp gaze and nervously gazed at his friend. "Um… Green, are you really traveling with this guy?"

Green's look of confusion came back. "Yeah, I am! Why are you so surprised about that?" she mused, cupping her chin.

I rolled my eyes. "Because of the conversation we just had… about how I'm "really mean". Let's use our heads here Leaf," I explained, utterly unimpressed with both of them.

She immediately rounded on me with an indignant glare. "That's the third time in a row you called me Leaf! It's Greeeeen! Why do you refuse to call me Green?!"

"Third time? I've never once called you Green. Your name is Leaf so that's what I call you," I smirked, pushing the insistent finger out of my face.

Then I turned towards the pallet native with a sneer. "If you wanna take her off my hands, feel free… I'm not gonna complain, but she's probably not traveling with you because for some reason, you're still in Pewter City."

Mason flinched back and I sneered.

"Instead of worrying about my business, worry about how after about two months, you probably still don't have a single badge," I said bluntly, eyes narrowed at the annoyance.

Stupid little kid, trying to infer that Green shouldn't be traveling with me.

Don't get me wrong, she absolutely shouldn't be… I even thought she should be traveling alone, but when someone stuck their nose into my business when their opinion wasn't wanted or needed, it would annoy me to no end.

So even if this kid said something I agreed with, he should have fucked off and kept it to himself.

"Silver! You're totally out of line and he's not rude like Blue," Green said firmly, staring seriously at me. "I get you don't like people being nosy, but Mason's my friend! You don't have to be so mean to him."

I stared at her in disinterest, utterly unmoved. "Whatever. I'm going to the Center and then I'm off to prepare. Feel free to catch up with your friend but I'm not interested in hearing what he has to say. I have better things to worry about."

With that, I was off.

"Wait!"

I paused and glanced back, silver eyes boring into the Mason guy with a warning look.

Mason flinched, before steeling himself.

"B-Battle me!" He demanded, clutching a Pokeball in his hands.

"...Are you sure about that?" I asked calmly.

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't battle him, Mason!" Green suggested with a nervous laugh. "He beat Blue in a battle! Silver's real tough!"

I snorted loudly.

If one thing remained universal, it was that a boy would never want himself to be embarrassed in front of a girl, especially a girl that they thought was cute.

And this Mason kid clearly had a crush on Green.

"Let's battle!" Mason said surely.

"…" I said nothing for a bit, glancing at Green with a curious eye.

Her expression was practically pleading with me to refuse the offer. She clearly knew that Mason was out of his league here and this would only end one way.

Unfortunately for Green, Mason had managed to overstep his nonexistent boundaries and I was properly annoyed that he had the audacity to battle me after watching what just took place.

"Your funeral," I shrugged. "Leaf, referee. It'll be quick then you two can catch up."

Green let out a sigh and nodded reluctantly.

"Just one on one," she requested.

"That's the plan," I replied easily. "I said I'd make it quick didn't I?"

Green sighed again.

---

"Ares," I said calmly, sending out my fierce Bagon.

"C-Charmeleon let's do this!" Mason shouted, sending out his starter with a look of determination.

The light coalesced into the middle staged evolution of Charmander and I gazed at it curiously.

Bipedal, with red scales that contrasted from the burnt orange of its evolution and first form… a long snout and a single horn on its head.

Charizard wasn't a pokemon I myself was vastly interested in. As a kid, I loved it to death but as I got older, I began to appreciate others more.

My favorite fire starter was Blaziken… but Charizard was still plenty cool.

I didn't particularly want one though. It's not something I would outright reject, but I'd pick a few fire types before I picked Charizard.

The Charmeleon before me looked as violent as its reputation stated and it's sharp blue eyes immediately locked onto Ares, who grinned fiercely at the challenge.

"Charmeleon, use Dragon Rage!" Mason ordered, pointing a finger at Bagon.

For a moment, I saw it glance back at its trainer and saw a flash of dissatisfaction cross its feature before it reluctantly followed the demand.

"Dragon Breath," I countered easily.

Ares didn't even hesitate unlike the Charmeleon, opening her mouth and belching out our current favorite move to use.

Much to Mason's surprise, Dragon Breath overpowered Dragon Rage and Charmeleon hastily moved to the right to dodge the line of dragon fire.

"Look at that, Ares," I mused. "This fake dragon thinks it can use dragon techniques better than you. Isn't that a sight?"

Ares let out a scoff, eyes narrowed at that and as if to prove Charmeleon wrong, she opened her mouth and shot out another Dragon Breath.

"Charmeleon, get out of there!" Mason shouted frantically.

Charmeleon didn't need to be told twice, scrambling to continue moving as Ares attempted to wash him in the draconic flames.

"Try Ember!" My opponent instructed.

I rolled my eyes. "Rage. Absorb it. Then use Dragon Dance. Let's wrap this up quick."

A red tint entered Ares' eyes and she easily weathered the bouts of ember coming from Charmeleon's mouth.

Then, she began doing her moving her head to a beat that only she could hear, draconic energies roiling off her body.

"Headbutt."

Mason and Charmeleon's eyes widened in disbelief, as Ares launched herself forward with a new surge of speed.

The fire type attempted to move out of the way, but my battle hungry Bagon was not having it. She swiftly closed the gap, tucked her head in and slammed the Headbutt directly into Charmeleon's sternum.

"Charmeleon!" Mason shouted in concern, watching the fire type get launched away by Ares' ridiculously tough skull. "Quick! Up and use —"

"Dragon Breath."

Mason's words died on his lips, as the powered up Dragon Breath crashed into Charmeleon's form with pinpoint accuracy.

"And that's that," I said with a roll of my eyes, listening to Ares let out a satisfied roar. "You've got stamina for days, Ares. Aren't you tired?"

"Gon!" Ares snorted, ducking her head in front of me.

I affectionately pat her skull with a small smirk and tossed a snack into her mouth.

Ares was the one I was trying to use the most because I didn't have many plans to use her in this battle… and probably not for Cerulean either.

I also didn't want to rely on Gaia too much for those. With her, I have no doubt the badges would be a breeze to get but I wasn't a brute like Green who just slammed everyone with that stupid Ivysaur.

I wanted my entire team to get experience in these gyms. Gaia would be a last resort if I was brought to one pokemon in this gym and the next.

She was a safety net for me to go a bit wild.

I bet Gaia would love to hear how much I was relying on her. She sure did love my attention.

"Alright, let's get to the center. You guys fought a lot today and we've got another one tomorrow so we'll just relax until then," I muttered, placing Ares back in her ball and standing up.

"I'm headed back, Leaf. I'm gonna chill for the rest of the day."

Green looked stunned by the sudden turn of events and nodded without really thinking about it.

"A-Alright… I'll catch up in a bit," she mumbled.

I inclined my head and made my way to the Pokemon Center, walking past the frozen Mason in the process.

This fight wasn't even slightly challenging so I lost whatever interest I had in this entire exchange. It wasn't even worth acknowledging anymore.

But still…

"Word of advice, if you ever evolve that Charmeleon into a Charizard, it's probably going to kill you. He will never acknowledge you as his trainer, Jason," I advised in a low voice, marching past the heartbroken kid.

Mason flinched horribly at my blunt words, turning wide eyes towards me but I just ignored it and continued my gait.

That wasn't even me trying to be rude. He was just a kid and no matter how antagonistic I was, I didn't think a kid deserved to die.

But at this rate, even the Charmeleon might throw caution to the wind and attack his trainer.

Certain pokemon needed to be raised different from others. That's why despite being so infamously strong, not everyone owned a dragon.

Though, maybe he wouldn't die since this was an Oak raised starter. If it were a Charmeleon from the wild, Jason would have been dead or severely injured already.

Charizard's may not be dragon types, but they didn't look like dragons for fun. Dragons were one of the most difficult types to raise because you had to be at a certain standard to earn their respect.

It varied, but I doubted much dragons would want this Jason guy as their trainer. He wasn't bad… but he wasn't good and that might be fatal in the long run.

Charizards were still prideful after all and losing against this guy repeatedly, would be a serious blow to its pride that it may never forget.

But oh well, that wasn't for me to worry about besides my one bit of advice. My dragon already deemed me worthy so I was safe up until she turned into an ultra violent Salamence.

Bah, that was for future me to worry about.

Green winced as she watched the soul crushing look on Mason's face.

That fight had been a completely one-sided affair. Not once did it look like Mason was going to win that battle and the worst part… was how dismissive Silver had been after winning.

He didn't even glance at Mason once… to her traveling companion, her fellow Pallet Town resident wasn't even worth the time.

"I'm sorry about him," Green apologized, putting a hand on Mason's shoulder and frowning slightly. "He's a bit… harsh and I wish I could say he's not all that bad… but that's not the case for everyone."

Despite his bad manners, Silver was far nicer to her, than the people they encountered.

He… valued strength quite a bit and if you were weak, he wouldn't give you an ounce of his attention, all while being as rude as possible about it.

Her friend sure was a strange one…

"Don't think too much about what he says. He's really rude and I don't think he's capable of complimenting people… you're doing great, Mason! You'll beat Flint eventually," Green reassured, patting his shoulder.

"Now, I'm gonna go tell Silvy off for being so rude all the time. It was nice seeing you again, Mason! Good luck out there!" She waved.

"Y-Yeah… you too Green!" Mason replied louder than normal, resisting the urge to cry.

That Silver guy was so mean… h-he did have what it took to be a trainer...

---

"Hey, Jas. You actually look alive today," I greeted in the comfort of my room.

"Silver!" Jasmine beamed, looking far less tired than the last time I saw her.

Good. She should only be exhausted because I was tormenting her, not because of anyone else causing her stress.

"I decided to focus on my health after our talk! I actually spoke to Champion Lance the other day about my inquiries and stressed the importance of not telling anyone."

I perked a brow at that and nodded. "What did he say?"

"Well he thanked me and when I did tell him, it's almost like I could see the gears turning in his head! I think your advice really helped and I'm sure we'll make a lot of progress!"

I nodded, pleased by that. Now that I head figured out everything I did, I would ensure that my bastard of a father regret all his decisions and take out his organization by any means possible.

I had no interest in aligning with the League to do so, but if they upped the pressure on Team Rocket, they'd make my life easier.

"Champion Lance was so impressed by your foresight, that he wanted to meet you!"

…

Huh?

"Huh?" I said dumbly, gazing at my best friend with a blank gaze.

Obviously Jasmine and I had been talking for enough time for her to pick up on some of my cues, so her happy expression immediately shifted into one of confusion and she gazed worriedly at me.

"Did you just say… Champion Lance wants to meet me?" I asked her slowly.

She nodded slowly. "He asked me how I came to this conclusion… and I told him a friend opened my eyes to that possibility."

Jasmine paused in confusion at my loud groan.

Why was she so honest? It was unreal for someone to be this nice.

"I wouldn't have minded if you took the credit, really," I sighed with a shake of my head.

"I could never! You're the one who thought of it and I'd feel terrible taking credit for something you thought of!"

I rolled my eyes. "You're too nice Jas. Seriously, I wouldn't have cared even a little…" I informed her.

Talking to Champion Lance, was the last thing I wanted. I actually didn't want that at all. I didn't want to talk to a single champion in this world.

Eh. Oh well, I would just roll with the punches then.

"You might be the only person not eager to speak to Champion Lance," Jasmine mused with a hint of exasperation and amusement.

"You know me Jas. There's no one on this planet I'm eager to speak to but you," I rolled my eyes.

Predictably, she lit up red at my compliment and began stammering.

Honestly, it was too easy.

"Did he ever mention when he wanted to meet me?" I asked curiously.

How did she even know I was in Kanto? Was little Jas keeping track of me?

I guess it was the same way Giovanni did… by keeping track of my gym battles.

Should I stop doing the Gym Challenge?

...Nah. This was a fast way to getting stronger. Not to mention, that fight with Surge was really exciting and it helped me out a ton too.

"Um, I'm not sure. He just mentioned that he wanted to meet you!"

"Helpful," I replied dryly.

Jasmine laughed a bit. "I did tell him you aren't very easy to talk to and believe it or not, I mentioned that Silver might not care about his champion status. I think that just excited him more."

I snorted at that. She really did know me very well. If she wasn't there, I wouldn't have given Lance even a second of my time, regardless of his status.

Well whatever. I'd deal with it as it came. Nothing to be done about it.

"You still haven't made any other friends? I'm not making you more confident for no reason you know," I chided.

My friend flushed at that and ducked her head. "Well… I'm fine with just you being my friend. The other Gym Leaders have noticed my changes a bit though… Whitney asked me if I wanted to hang out with her and I said yes! I'm even becoming a better battler!"

I couldn't stop the proud smile at that. "A little confidence goes a long way —"

"YOU CAN SMILE?!"

Jasmine jumped, eyes wide at the loud volume and I couldn't blame her because I must have reacted like a wild cat.

Green was gaping at me with wide eyes, somehow managing to get into my room without me noticing.

How the hell… did she actually possess innate espionage skills like me?

My Pokemon, who were lazing about, glanced at Green but at this point, they were used to her antics and continued their affairs.

"Why the hell are you screaming, Leaf?" I asked in annoyance, narrowing my eyes at her.

"Why?!" She balked. "I just saw you smile! I didn't think that was possible! Can you do it again? I wanna take a picture of it!"

I rolled my eyes. "Get outta my room, Leaf."

"Silver, who is that?" Jasmine asked suddenly, a curious look in her eye.

Green perked up at that and her mouth opened in surprise.

Without any hesitation, she rushed over and threw herself atop my bed, practically shoving her face into the camera.

It was a miracle that I hadn't yet grown tired of Green because holy shit this girl was annoying.

"You have a friend?!" Green gasped, gazing at Jasmine over the phone.

"You made a friend?!" Jasmine gasped as well, eyes lighting up at not seeing me throttle Green immediately for invading my personal space.

"Shut up," I demanded harshly, eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Leaf is not my friend. We are traveling companions."

"We so are friends!" Green disagreed immediately, beaming to Jasmine over the line. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Leaf Green, but you can call me Green! Me and Silvy have been hanging out with each other for a few days so we're totally friends!"

Unlike me, my fellow introvert Jasmine, had absolutely no problems with Green's larger than life personality and just returned a big smile herself.

Huh, guess my confidence training really was working out for her.

"Hello Green!" Jasmine greeted happily. "I'm very pleased to meet you! It might be a bit hasty of me to say, but considering we're both friends of Silver, I think we'll end up being great friends ourselves!"

"Totally! You're so nice and I don't know how you managed to become friends with Silvy!" Green beamed. "Here hold on, let's exchange numbers and we can message each other!"

"What the fuck?" I thought to myself in confusion, watching the two chat it up.

Y'know what, whatever. As long as Jasmine was making more friends… and as long as Green's attention was focused on someone else besides me.

I flicked open my Pokedex and began scrolling, zoning out the two chatting with a startling amount of skill.

"Hey wait a sec! You only said I wasn't your friend but you didn't say anything about Jas!" Green pointed out.

"Because Jasmine is my friend," I said idly as I continued scrolling through my Pokedex.

"Oh don't listen to him, Green! If Silver really didn't like you at all, you probably wouldn't even be in his room right now! He can really be quite rude…"

I groaned and shut my Pokedex.

Never mind, I was just gonna take a nap.

---

"Loki."

Loki perked up at that, gazing at Gaia, along with the rest of the team, with a curious eye.

Silver was currently asleep, managing to not make a sound even during slumber.

"What is it?" Loki asked, peering at his allies with an interested eye.

Ares stepped forward.

"You know the most about our vassal correct? Explain the contents of that conversation he had with his creator!"

Gaia sighed at how blunt Ares was. "You were with Silver for a really long time so we thought you'd know... he didn't seem very happy with that man."

"I guess even Silver has problems..." Freyja muttered in shock.

Loki frowned slightly. "I don't know if it's right for me to say everything. Silver will tell you all eventually but we've been together for a long time. He hatched me."

"That man is named Giovanni... he's given Silver a lot of problems growing up. It... turned him cruel."

And that extended to everyone, even Loki himself.

"Silver didn't use to be this nice. He was a lot angrier and didn't care about anything," Loki admitted. "He's still angry and still Silver but... he doesn't direct it to everything. Just most thing."

His team listened with raptured attention.

"I've never seen Silver as happy as he is now and I think he will get happier... but we need to make sure he doesn't go back to Giovanni," Loki said firmly.

"So that guy is really bad news..." Gaia muttered. That would explain why Silver stole her. That guy probably taught him that...

"If my vassal desires war against that man, then I will lead the charge," Ares said bluntly with a scowl. "He is not someone who will ever answer to anyone but me! I will not have him submit!"

"For once, I agree with the brute... and Silver defended me against that guy! I'll become strong and teach him a lesson," Freyja scowled.

Loki gazed at them and nodded proudly. "So we're all in agreement to stop that guy... What about you, Beldum?"

Beldum barely spared him a glance.

"Refrain from asking such ridiculous questions, trickster. My goals align with the blight, therefore I will ensure that they are not jeopardized."

That was the best he was going to get from Beldum.

At least they were all in agreement... the last thing Loki wanted, was for Silver to go back into Giovanni's hands...

He might end up like the old Silver again...

Loki's eyes narrowed at that.

He couldn't let that happen. It was his job to protect his trainer so that's what he'd do.

He'd bring him back to the Silver who had been so happy to have hatched his first pokemon.

---

I was back in the area of never ending darkness from before, but this time I had access to all my senses.

My brows furrowed, silver eyes gazing at the expanse of nothing with a tilted head.

What type of dream was this? Twice in a row?

Perhaps it was the work of a Darkrai?

But if it was a Darkrai, I wouldn't be waking up and this dream would be a nightmare... not to mention I woke up last time.

Also I don't think Darkrai had eyes that big. The last time I had this dream, two giant red eyes were peering at me right before I woke up.

Did Darkrai even have red eyes? I dunno. But I knew they weren't that big.

So whatever this was, probably not a nightmare from Darkrai. My thoughts were almost completely coherent too. I never dreamed so clearly… but then again I couldn't actually see anything.

This was so confusing. What Legendary was responsible for this bullshit?

"Hey," I called out into the dark. "If you're not gonna say anything, can you let me wake the fuck up? This place is creepy as hell and I hate being here."

Silence. No surprise, I didn't even feel a presence here.

I sighed and willed myself awake, groaning in frustration as that failed.

Just what was I dreaming of? Why was I so self aware in my dreams? Was I even dreaming?

As I mulled over the strangeness of it all, a daunting force, not unlike my previous dream and the encounter with Registeel, crashed into me…

But this felt… wrong.

Despite this being the same dream as the time in Meteor Falls. The presence in the room with me wasn't the same.

This was something… or someone different.

Was this… a different legendary? But I didn't even know who the first one was. Who the hell was this?

Before I could try and get a single hint… my thoughts were interrupted.

Forcefully.

I shut my eyes as a pressure pressed against my head and groaned in discomfort.

A feeling, not unlike when Bronzy and Beldum managed to speak to me, suddenly made itself known, before whoever was doing this established a connection to me...

While my guard was still up.

Ah son of a bitch, this was another legendary.

"How curious. Not once have I been unable to search a person's mind... yet I can only touch the surface of yours. To wield an almost impenetrable mind that not even I can glean into… Perhaps you are more."

No sooner was that random sentence said, did I forcefully wake up drenched in sweat.

Despite the prodding that had happened to my head, I felt perfectly fine up there and grunted in confusion.

Sucking in a deep breath, I grabbed my Pokedex, that went flying off my chest when I rocketed up from my sleep, and checked it for the time.

4 am… I just wanted to take a nap but I ended up sleeping for way longer than I thought…

I was still pretty tired too, I think I'm just gonna go back to sleep.

I idly reached a hand out and pet whichever of my members decided to sleep next to me today.

Before I sleep though, I guess I should think about what just happened to me.

This was second time I had a dream where I was being influenced by some Pokemon and now I could safely say (I already knew shut up) that it was definitely Legendary in nature.

But there was only one problem… the first dream and the second one…

Those were not the same legends. I was sure of it. I couldn't give proper reasoning because I didn't know how to explain it, but I know for a fact whoever just spoke to me was not the same as the wielder of the giant red eyes.

And its words…

"How curious. Not once have I been unable to search a person's mind... yet I can only touch the surface of yours. To wield an almost impenetrable mind that not even I can glean into… Perhaps you are more."

Was that a psychic type?

No I'm certain that was a psychic type. They tried to pry deeper into my mind but were met with resistance, likely by the foggy fortress...

Much like Beldum and Bronzy. I don't know if another type can do that... but the first legendary certainly didn't try to pry into my mind.

And if this was a psychic type… I had a good idea who it probably was.

The prized project of Team Rocket… Mewtwo.

Now I could be wrong and Team Rocket didn't actually have the means to make their own artificial god and this could be like Mew or some other psychic legendary… but I wasn't holding out on that.

Also there's the fact that I'm Giovanni's kid. At least this legendary made sense in the grand scheme of things.

I frowned in contemplation.

How much control did Giovanni have over Mewtwo? Was Mewtwo even apart of Team Rocket? Why was it looking into my head? Was it because I was calling out for someone in my dream?

Perhaps ol dad of mine was curious about me and made a request...

If Mewtwo was even half of what he was portrayed as by all media (seriously he was so fucking popular) things suddenly got a lot worse. Team Rocket had an actual legendary on their side… and it was likely one of the strongest legendaries that currently existed.

That was concerning. Would I still try to get rid of them?

Absolutely.

It was either deal with them now, or have Giovanni and Mewtwo come after me themselves anyways.

What a suddenly daunting thing to think of. My Father had a legendary at his command (allegedly) and he probably had no qualms using it to ensure I go back to him.

That's probably why he was letting me go on this journey of mine, Mewtwo would not have much issue looking for me. Where was it even at right now?

To be able to find and single me out in Pewter City... when Giovanni mostly resided in Viridian...

I frowned deeply. What was I going to do then? I didn't have the means to deal with a Mewtwo probably ever.

At the very least, I was given a little solace at the fact that not even Mewtwo seemed to be able to fully penetrate my mind. It seemed to be able to speak to me when I was asleep (probably because my guard lowered) but anything more seemed out of its reach.

Fascinating. This fortress in my mind was doing me wonders and I didn't even understand the details behind it.

I sighed.

So there was a high chance Mewtwo would target me soon. I still didn't know the identity of of the first legendary who showed up. My fortress was even strong enough to stop a legendary psychic from gleaning even further into my head…

I wonder if those big red eyes I saw, had a connection to my mind being so hard to look into.

Questions get answered, only to get replaced with different questions.

It was all so ridiculous.

Whatever, I'm going back to sleep —

The pokemon I was patting let out a pleased sigh and I froze at the very feminine noise of it.

I mechanically turned my head to the source of that sigh and bore witness to the sight of one Leaf Green sleeping on my bed.

She was smiling happily as she snored away. Clearly she was a fan of the patting I thought I was submitting Zorua to and I gazed at her with a disbelief that she couldn't feel at all, considering she was dead to the world.

...

Green let out a loud yelp, as a foot connected to her side and launched her off the bed.

She let out a tired groan and sat up, letting out a pained noise as the lights flicked on.

Angry silver eyes bored into her and she scratched her head at the redhead that was her friend, Silver.

"Why did you kick me?" she asked sleepily. She just wanted to go back to sleep.

Silver's eyes narrowed even further.

Green thought Silver's eyes were really cool. She never met anyone with eyes such a vivid shade of… silver (she wasn't even sure who had silver eyes!)! They looked good even with how cold he naturally seemed to be.

Green thought they looked best when he was happy… though she only just saw that. He really only looked at her with annoyance and exasperation…

Like right now.

"Why the fuck are you sleeping on the same bed as me?!" her friend snarled.

Green stopped being intimidated by that tone of his after the third time! The only thing she was really weary about was doing anything that evoked a physical response from the redhead… which normally meant touching him in some way.

He didn't like being touched very much but he was at least getting used to her!

Oh right, he asked her something.

Green rubbed her eyes and yawned. "While you were sleeping, I was talking to Jas and lost track of time. By the time we finished, I was so tired and I actually didn't uh… get my own room so I would have had to walk all the way to the front desk so I just fell asleep," she explained.

Naturally, Silver's expression didn't shift at all. Green was getting to know him pretty well because she was positive that he didn't care even a little.

"I don't care, get out. I already deal with you during the day," he groused, rubbing his really messy hair.

"We'll be sleeping! You don't gotta deal with me!" Green protested. "I used to have sleepovers with Ash and Blue all the time!"

"Go fuck yourself and have a sleepover with them then. Do I look like Ash or Blue to you?" Silver replied immediately, scowling.

"But we'll be gone in a few hours anyways," she countered tiredly. "Stop making a fuss about it! You have a big battle tomorrow!"

Whatever Silver was about to say (it was probably going to be very violent), died as the sleepy Gaia let out an annoyed noise and began waving a single vine around threateningly.

Green learned very quickly that Gaia did not like getting her sleep interrupted and Silver, despite his belligerent attitude, did not direct his rudeness towards his Pokemon.

It was night and day how he treated his team and everyone else.

So it was no surprise at all to Green, when Silver turned his gaze towards the grumpy Gaia and sighed.

"Don't touch me. Stay on your side. If you hog the covers, I'm tossing you off the bed. Oh and don't touch me," Silver said blandly, shutting the light and making his way back to the bed.

Green would have cheered triumphantly but she really was too tired so she just made her way to the bed and remained on her side.

Getting Silver to accept things was actually very easy. You just had to be insistent… but where things were not easy, was making sure you didn't overstep the boundaries he set.

That's when his belligerence felt real. Silver was actually fairly reasonable but he hid it behind a terrible attitude.

Green would know. He basically went along with everything she said despite how much he mentioned her being annoying.

Jasmine thought he was a great friend behind that tough exterior of his and Green was inclined to agree!

"Goodnight, Silver," she yawned.

"Shut up and go to sleep," he replied bluntly, facing away from her.

Green sweat a bit at that.

It was just really hard to see the nice part of him! Honest!

---

A lot more people were here to witness my battle than against Surge. It wasn't much, but they were in the stands, watching my upcoming battle with an eager look.

Some of these people looked suspiciously like the ones I battled yesterday. Even that Jason kid was there, sitting next to an eager Green with a reserved stance.

Besides them, there were at least 9 other versions of Brock there in the stalls too. Brock's parents sure were freaks. I'm surprised he's even here for this battle and not off making kid #34 with his wife.

I shrugged. Looks like everyone wanted me to lose this battle. I was quite the heel of this match, huh?

How unfortunate for them.

"You must be Silver!"

The one who said that, looked like an older version of Brock. He wasn't as tall as Surge, but still taller than me, with a set of shut eyes and a sleeveless yellow shirt that showed well kept arms.

"No shit," I said with a roll of my eyes, uninterested in inspecting him further. "Flint right? Let's make this a good battle."

Brock's father let out a hearty laugh at that. "Straight to the point and not one to mince your words either eh? Alright, let's not waste any time!"

The referee stepped up on cue and raised his hands.

"This is an official gym battle of the Pewter City Gym between the challenger, Silver of Viridian City and the Gym Leader, Flint! Each side is allowed 3 pokemon and only the challenger is allowed to swap. The match will be decided when all 3 Pokemon of one side are unable to continue!"

"As the gym leader, Flint must release first!"

Another 3 on 3 eh?

"I heard you requested it against Surge as well," Flint remarked with a kind grin, holding out a pokeball and tossing it.

The ball materialized into a sturdy looking pokemon that looked like a rhino, but it's skin was replaced by rocky plates.

A Rhyhorn...

I snorted and held out my own ball. "Aren't you all just accommodating? Though… you should have made it a 2v2, I was already going to win but now it's guaranteed," I remarked with a confident smirk.

With that, I tossed the ball and released Freyja.

A hushed whisper immediately rushed through the stadium at my choice, all confused.

No surprise. I didn't use Freyja yesterday, didn't wanna risk anything happening to her. They probably thought I was going to sweep this guy with Gaia… not an incorrect thought.

I could definitely do that... but where was the fun in that?

Flint's smile lessened a little at that, gazing at my water type with the same puzzlement as the crowd.

"Freyja, focus on my words," I instructed calmly, chilling over as my mind focused on nothing but winning this battle in the most efficient way.

My nervous Feebas gazed back at me, no doubt realizing that I had been serious when I said I was planning on winning a match with her.

"The contestants are set! Rhyhorn vs Feebas! Begin!"

"Rain Dance," I began with a focused expression.

The best way to battle with Freyja, was to be utterly composed. It was very easy for the nerves to get to her, so my calmness would seep into her and hopefully make her not panic.

"Horn Attack," Flint began.

Was that pity I heard in this old bastards voice?

Freyja summoned the customary tiny rain cloud, that hovered above her (she was getting really good at controlling it!) and at the same time, Rhyhorn rushed her position, horn poised to stab into my fish.

The name of the game, was making sure Freyja didn't get hit by Rhyhorn because if that rhino hit my poor fish, she was going to be knocked out immediately.

Unless in water, Freyja wasn't very fast… so avoiding hits wasn't easy.

That's why I was so big on her practicing her control.

"Freyja, Water Pulse on the ground in front of you. Launch yourself out of the way of the Rhyhorn," I commanded coolly.

For now, Freyja's battling relied heavily on Rain Dance. Not only did it make her water moves stronger and easier to use, it also activated her ability, Swift Swim.

Swift Swim was an ability that enhanced a pokemon's reflexes, so long as there was a sufficient amount of water on them.

The most notable, was that their speed increased dramatically.

Though Feebas wouldn't be moving much faster given her physiology… that did nothing to halt the enhanced reflexes.

Case in point, she used the rain from Rain Dance to form a small water pulse and launched it towards the ground, causing the mini explosion to launch her up out of the path of the running Rhyhorn.

The shocked gasps of everyone there, brought a satisfied smirk to my face.

What Feebas lacked in power, she would make up in control and precision. Until she became a Milotic, she would maximize the water she could use.

And when she did finally become one, she'd have all the power in the world to control and all the precision to be a truly flexible monster.

"Water Pulse, aim for the back," I instructed calmly, eyes narrowed as the Rhyhorn continued ts course.

My airborne Feebas (what a sight) turned at my command and formed another Water Pulse, this time for actual offense.

With only some hesitation, Freyja fired it off and it hit the confused Rhyhorn directly on the back.

Freyja landed on the rocky terrain at the same time Rhyhorn let out a roar of pain, feeling her confidence rise at seeing how effective her attack had been.

"Don't let your guard down. Focus," I instructed.

She nodded in determination, fully bought into my confidence at the moment.

If Flint was underestimating my Feebas before, he wasn't anymore. The smile was gone completely and his features sharpened.

"Rock Blast!" The Gym Leader barked frantically.

"Get outta there," I told her.

My calmness washed over Freyja and she followed my command far more seamlessly than before.

She once more summoned a Water Pulse and propelled herself away from the massive boulders trying to crush her.

"Hypnosis."

Rhyhorn was still in the midst of setting up another Rock Blast, before Freyja's eyes gained a slight blue sheen to them.

Much to my delight, and Flint's chagrin, Rhyhorn began sluggishly swaying. Rhyhorns were notoriously dumb so a move like Hypnosis would be a lot more effective...

Unfortunately, Freyja wasn't quite strong enough to put it fully to sleep. But just it being drowsy was fantastic for us.

Now, time to lay this to rest.

"Water Pulse. Sniper version."

Freyja let out a noise of confirmation and began to concentrate deeply.

A Water Pulse began to form, smaller than any she had formed before and I watched her shut her eyes tight to concentrate.

Flint had not been quiet during this entire exchange. He had been shouting to Rhyhorn to some success so we needed to wrap this up quickly.

"Bulldoze!" Flint replied frantically.

Finally, Freyja deemed her attack ready and I watched in satisfaction as she shot out a water pulse that was only slightly bigger than a water droplet...

But what a water droplet it was. It raced through the air at high speeds and connected squarely onto Rhyhorn's face.

The universal confusion turned into stunned silence as Rhyhorn let out a roar of pain the moment the droplet connected.

Power was nothing if you couldn't control it and my Feebas would become a master of control. If she couldn't shoot out big techniques, then we'd make the small ones hurt by concentrating as much of what little power she had.

That water pulse was so small because she concentrated all the power into it without increasing its size. It was like a bullet!

With proper control and precision, anything could be deadly... and when she did gain immense power, she'd be an actual force to be reckoned with.

But small steps. This was a marathon, not a sprint. Freyja was going to be a Milotic but for that to happen, she needed to acknowledge her worth as a Feebas and for her to acknowledge her worth as a Feebas, I had to make her worthwhile.

Only by acknowledging that I love her as Feebas, will she be able to shed her self inflicted shackles to become Milotic. At this point I didn't even care if that wasn't needed for evolution... I just wanted her to be happy with herself.

Freyja let out a squeal of pain as the ground shook beneath and launched her up with dreadful force, but Rhyhorn let out a pitiful whine and collapsed, unconscious to the world.

My Feebas gathered herself and had just enough mind to Water Pulse herself right before making contact with the ground to somewhat cushion her fall but she looked worse for wear.

Yeah taking a hit right now was not in our best interest.

"Rhyhorn is unable to battle! The winner of this match is… Feebas?!" The referee shouted in shock.

Freyja's eyes widened at that call and she gazed over at me in clear surprise.

I caught her eye and smiled smugly. "Believe me now?" I called out.

"Fee…" My Feebas said, at a loss for words, before she began nodding with tears pricking her eyes. "Fee!"

I snorted and held out my ball. "You can rest now. You took a lot of damage from that Bulldoze and you don't have the stamina to use all those moves so let the others deal with this."

Freyja nodded, relieved by my decision to pull her out of the battle because she truly was exhausted and that Bulldoze practically oneshot her.

"I'm forfeiting Freyja," I announced, returning her to the ball and pocketing it.

"The challenger has forfeited his Feebas! Please release your next Pokemon!"

Flint looked rightfully stunned by the affairs. After all, I just thrashed his Rhyhorn with a Feebas of all things.

Damn did it feel good to shut everyone up. I nearly laughed out loud at the only noise being Green's cheering.

"Surge wasn't kidding, you're really something," Flint remarked, gazing at me with his shut eyes. With just a bit more hesitation than before, he tossed out the next Pokemon.

"That win was personal. Had to prove a point," I shrugged, inspecting the next pokemon with a contemplative expression.

It was bipedal, with four arms on its round, rocky, body and it was rather short too, looking to be only 3 feet in height.

A Graveler… Weren't these Gym Leaders making me punch above my weight a bit here?

...That's not to say I didn't enjoy this. No, this was perfect actually.

"Beldum," I said confidently, releasing the steel type from the ball.

"A Beldum too?!" Flint balked in shock. What the hell was this kid's team?

Beldum, unlike Feebas, didn't look remotely bothered by the murmurs of the crowd. They just dipped into the connection between the two of us and I smirked.

It wasn't strong enough for prolonged conversation, so I was still mostly sticking to orders aloud but it would get better.

I was just pleased we were actually able to bond and there had been no negative side effects besides that first time he attempted it.

...I still didn't have an explanation for that.

"Both contestants are set! Graveler vs Beldum! Begin!"

"Iron Defense."

"Magnitude!"

Graveler jumped into the air and slammed its body onto the ground, causing the ground to begin quaking.

I couldn't tell what level it was, but judging by the slight tremors, I wouldn't put it above level 6.

Beldum's metallic skin took on a sheen and in the first place, he was kind of floating already so Magnitude didn't have much effect on him and the fact he was covered in Iron Defense, did wonders as well.

"Iron Head."

Beldum was on the move before I even finished my sentence, lunging forward to crash his metallic head into the Graveler.

"Rollout! Meet it head on!" Flint said without missing a beat.

"Rollout?" I frowned. "This must be some type of trap, right?"

Beldum sensed my slight hesitation but continued their course, preparing to deal with the trap as it came.

Graveler tucked into itself, turning into an actual boulder and with a mighty yell, began rolling towards the charging steel type.

Naturally, it failed. Beldum had been practicing Iron Head with a vengeance and it was super effective…

So where was this trap of his?

Graveler let out a roar of pain as Beldum overwhelmed his weak Rollout with the much stronger Iron Head.

"Graveler!" Flint shouted in concern, as cracks appeared across its body.

...No trap?

That's when I realized something.

Flint sucked at battling. No goddamn wonder Brock was the Gym Leader.

"Iron Head," I bit out with a scowl.

Graveler had no time to recover, as Beldum crashed into it once more with the steel energy, causing even more cracks to appear across the middle form of Geodude.

It tumbled across the ground from the blow, groaning in pain as the injuries began quickly piling up.

"Graveler! Magnitude!" Flint shouted in worry, feeling the battle slipping out of his hands by the second.

My eyes narrowed. "Iron Defense. Then finish it off with Iron Head."

Beldum followed my command easily, sheathing himself in the metallic energy, right as Graveler shakily pulled himself up, before wearily jumping into the air once more.

My discontent, turned into shock as the very gym itself began shaking from the tremors. I actually stumbled from how strong they were and the screams of the spectators were justified.

The battlefield where Beldum and Graveler were battling, had become a warzone as the ground cracked from the efforts and I steadied myself with wide eyes.

"Did this asshole actually manage to hit a level 10?" I thought in disbelief.

"Not bad! A level 8!" Flint laughed, unbothered by the effects.

"This was only level 8?!"

Magnitude was a problematic move and this Graveler needed to faint now.

"Beldum are you good?" I asked in some concern.

If not for Iron Defense, Beldum would have been done for and even with it, it still looked like they had taken quite the hellish beating.

The sheer difference in power between the Magnitude's was baffling and I had no idea it could be so destructive... Are you serious?

Fucking ground types.

Beldum shook from the power of Magnitude, the super effective tremors causing heavy damage to it but Iron Defense at least saved it from getting completely obliterated.

"Bulldoze! Don't let it get close!" Flint commanded, knowing Graveler didn't have much left in the tank.

"Iron Defense! Dodge to the right!" I instructed with a frown.

Graveler took two of its arms and slammed it into the ground, forming an orange shockwave that launched towards Beldum in a way that was impossible for them to dodge.

The Bulldoze crashed into Beldum's body and it let out a groan at that.

My eyes were narrowed in annoyance and concern as Beldum began faltering.

"Iron Head," I tried.

Flint was quick to respond. "Rollout to get away!"

Beldum attempted to crash into Graveler, but the boulder tucked its legs in and began rolling away from them at quite the impressive speeds.

"Son of a bitch," I scowled.

"Now, Magnitude again!" Flint said, intent to finish this.

Mid roll, the Graveler actually leapt into the air and crashed down into the ground again.

The tremor was weaker than the previous one, but it was still plenty strong and at this point, Beldum hadn't yet released Iron Defense so telling them to use it, was just a waste of my breath.

That's why I'd use it on something else.

The moment Graveler sprouted out of that ball shape of his I struck.

"Don't give it time to recover! Iron Head right now!" I barked to my visibly exhausted steel type.

Too many hits taken for my liking… I refused to have Beldum lose their first gym battle.

The psychic must have sensed my resolve because without any hesitation, it charged the surprised Graveler, who probably thought this match was over, and crashed directly into it with ruthless precision.

"Grav!" Graveler roared in pain, as even more cracks appeared on his body.

"Graveler!" Flint shouted in surprise. "Quick, try and use Defense Curl! Then Rollout!"

My eyes were narrowed like a predator who smelled blood. "Iron Head again. Don't let it get away from you or it's all over."

Beldum's eyes reflected my expression as it shone.

"Understood."

With that, it crashed its skull into the Graveler that attempted to curl up to get away.

Graveler let out a final pained cry, before going limp on the ground beneath it.

I was too shocked by what I just heard, to register the referee announcing my victory because Beldum just spoke to me.

Would you look at that…

"Did you just speak to me?" I asked curiously.

Beldum did not respond, utterly still after that battle…

"Magnificent."

Before they finally began to glow white.

My eyes widened dramatically and an excited pulse began to thrum through my body, as before my very eyes, Beldum began to change.

It grew in size, small but heavy body growing dramatically. Whereas before they had no limbs, two arms sprouted from its side, adorned with deathly sharp claws that helped in hunting prey and probably cutting me in half if it held a grudge.

More spikes formed on the side of its body and one more formed in between their, now two, red eyes.

Finally the glow settled and I bore witness to the Metang in all its flesh.

I didn't even realize I was grinning but even when I did, I only reduced it to a real smile.

"I didn't even know you were close to evolving," I remarked, looking completely pleased with the outcome.

A Metang! An actual Metang! That meant I was one step closer to reaching a Metagross!

"I require very little to no sleep. I spend my time training and honing my capabilities. The results were my inevitable evolution."

My eyes widened. "You can speak to me? Can I speak back without destroying your mind?" I asked curiously.

Metang floated over to my side and regarded me with those red eyes of his.

"If you are regarding the first time I attempted to bond to you… I will explain it after this match but for now, your voice is not unbearable to me. Do not return me, I would like to test my power."

I smirked with a wild glint. "Alright. One more fight."

"Understood."

"Wow!" Flint laughed, scratching his spiky head as he held out his final pokeball. "An evolution huh? That throws a bit of a wrench in the plans!"

"For you maybe," I remarked with a surge of confidence. "I always intended to win with just two!"

The Gym Leader grinned at my confidence. "You've got a lot of confidence! Reminds of a kid I fought a while ago! He had a rare pokemon too! A Larvitar of all things!"

Must have been talking about Blue. We were both fairly arrogant...

But Blue had a Larvitar? Huh, go figure. He sure put that Oak money to good use.

"Alright, time for the last one!" Flint shouted, throwing the last pokeball.

Metang and I watched the final red beam of the match coalesce into a gigantic silhouette and gazed at the snake like pokemon with searching eyes.

After seeing Jasmine's Steelix, I wasn't as intimidated as I'd probably be if I hadn't seen it but that did not change the fact that Onix was a big big pokemon.

It roared it's name and I grunted at the grating noise of rocks scratching against each other.

"Still wanna battle it?"

"A foolish question."

I actually grinned and inclined my head.

Pokemon battling was so fun.

"Both contestants are set! Onix vs Metang! Begin!"

"Rock Tomb! Cut off it's movement and don't let it close!" Flint barked.

"Don't let yourself get trapped. Keep moving and Iron Head when you get the chance!"

Metang began spinning its arms, floating across the fields at quite the impressive speeds as Onix tried to trap it in between the large boulders.

"Sand Tomb, Onix! Don't let it hit you!"

Onix conjured a whirlwind of sand but was too slow to fire it, as Metang crashed into its midsection with Iron Head.

The rock snake roared in pain, Sand Tomb wavering a bit, before it came to its senses and fired it off.

Metang instinctively wrapped itself in Iron Defense, as the sand wrapped around its body, trapping him in the clouds of dirt.

"Bulldoze!" Flint shouted.

Onix roared in affirmation and raised its tail up high to smash it down on the ground.

"Float high!"

It wasn't possible as a Beldum, considering they didn't have high psychic abilities but as Metang and Metagross, they could actually further utilize their innate magnetism to float higher than they normally did.

Case in point, Metang rumbled and floated out of both the Sand Tomb and the Bulldoze with ease.

Then, without my input, a blue shine formed in its eyes.

"I have the necessary power to attempt this now."

Onix suddenly began roaring in pain, much to everyone's confusion and the rock snake began thrashing about.

Metang was utterly merciless. While Onix trashed about, my steel type floated even higher and slammed a hellish Iron Head directly atop its skull.

The snake groaned and collapsed on the floor with a thunderous noise.

I blinked in confusion at how swift that had taken place.

"Did you just… lobotomize him?" I asked slowly.

"That is reserved for prey I intend on consuming," Metang replied, a hint of amusement in its voice as they floated over to my side.

Creepy… but kinda cool too.

"Onix is unable to battle! As a result, Metang and Silver are the winners of this match!" The referee shouted.

"WOOOO GET EM SILVER! HELL YEAH!" Green cheered, being the only one to clap for me.

I distantly noticed a Pokegear in her hand but ignored it, merely rolling my eyes at her antics.

Everyone else was stunned silent and I turned towards them, before bowing mockingly.

"I'm not like any of you. Pray on someone else's downfall or else you'll end up real disappointed," I sneered with a superior gleam, turning away from them to inspect my pokemon.

As Metang came closer to me, I peered at the evolution with fascinated eyes, idly touching its cool armor.

"Are you gonna try to kill me now?" I asked offhandedly.

"Likely not. You are fulfilling your obligations well and I've grown to appreciate something besides the monotony of my former hive," Metang replied, allowing me to inspect it.

I smirked at that, patting its head with a satisfied sigh.

"Still don't want a nickname?"

"No. I will accept one when I have become my final form."

Ah so that's what it was… Alright, that was fine with me.

"We'll talk more later, especially considering you're talking to me clearly with no signs of agony that Bronzy showed. For now, I'm returning you for inspection at the Center."

"Understood."

I returned Metang to the ball and placed it next to my others, watching Flint approach me.

"Incredible!" The Gym Leader praised. "You kids are getting even more talented as time goes by!"

I zoned him out completely.

"You suck at battling," I said bluntly, gazing at the old man with narrowed eyes. "Is that on purpose? That would have been a complete stomp if I chose to use Gaia."

Flint laughed sheepishly at that. "I'm a bit of a failed trainer but I'm still good enough to be a Gym Leader! I'm just not used to using these Pokemon! If you'd ever like to face my true team, show up again for a rematch! I've always been bad at using the loaned pokemon! My son is way better than me!"

I tilted my head at that and nodded. So Brock had likely been the Gym Leader in this timeline too… but Flint took it back.

Interesting.

"I'll think about it. Hopefully you don't rely on Magnitude luck to help your ass."

"You sure don't hold back your words!" Flint replied, handing me the Gym Badge. "Congratulations, Silver. Due to your display and skills, I hereby grant you the Boulder Badge."

I accepted the boring looking badge and opened my badge case, placing it inside with a satisfied smirk.

Not bad at all. I was doing relatively well and since I got my badge so quickly, I'd be at a good pace to Cerulean.

Good because the trip from Pewter to Cerulean was really long, especially because of Mt. Moon.

Speaking of which…

"That was amazing, Silvy!" Green cheered, rushing up to me with a huge grin and a look of excitement. "You were so cool and controlled and you had Freyja flying around like a flying type and then you totally owned him with Beldum… or Metang now! We have to battle them sometime! That'll be so fun!"

"Shut up," I said blandly. "We'll battle after Metang gets used to their body."

"Kay!"

"I knew I recognized that voice," Flint remarked, gazing at Green with a smile. "Green! You're traveling with this young man right here? I remember you were alone for a while!"

"Old man Flint!" Green beamed. "Yeah! I was alone for a while because there was no one I really wanted to travel with but then I met Silvy in Vermilion and we hit it off really easily—"

"No we didn't."

"— So we trained together and now we're traveling through Kanto too!"

"A decision I regret every single day."

"It's only been like… two days!"

Flint looked at the two starkly different children and sweatdropped. Green was a ball of energy who couldn't stay still and Silver was… the opposite.

Well, considering how talented the two were… it was good that they were traveling together. They'd elevate one another to a much higher level.

I rolled my eyes at Green. "Anything else to say, or am I free to go?" I asked the Gym Leader.

"You're free to go," Flint said with a lighthearted laugh. "It was a fun battle! You two have a bright future ahead of you!"

I scoffed. Bright future. Right.

"We're leaving Leaf. We can start preparing to leave the city now," I informed her, making my way out of the gym.

"Wow, you really waste no time!" Green replied, keeping step with me. "Alright, we can make it to Cerulean through Mt. Moon. It'll be like a week long trip but at the pace you like… I'd say we can reduce it by a few days."

"That's what we'll do," I grunted, grabbing my ringing Pokegear.

It was vibrating so damn much. What was the deal with that?

"YOU HAVE A BELDUM?"

"YOU HAVE A METANG?!"

"Why did you never tell me this! I cannot believe you, Silver! Oh I have some choice words to say to you about this! You caught a steel type and didn't even think to consult this with me? Just you wait until I see you!"

I stared blankly at the messages from Jasmine, noting that there was even more messages that she sent.

Mechanically, I turned my head towards the Green peeking over my shoulder.

"Oh… I uh, showed Jasmine your battle! She wanted to see it!" my companion laughed. "I didn't know you didn't tell her about Beldum… you should stop being so secretive all the time!"

"I'm going to kill you, Leaf," I said calmly.

She squeaked in horror and stepped back.

"We can talk about this Silvy! Silvy, you wouldn't hit such a cute girl like me right?! Oh my Mew, you totally would! I don't even know what I'm thinking!"

Green wasted no time and immediately ran away at rather admirable speeds.

She was damn fast actually.

Yeah… no.

I took off and chased the girl, intent to give her the meanest noogie on the planet because she was so goddamn annoying.

---

"I cannot believe you, Silver! I just now realized I hardly know a member of your team!"

I sighed. "My bad Jas, never occurred to me and you know how I am. I don't really mention things without being asked."

Her frown vanished and she nodded. "I realize I don't ever actually know what you're doing. I mean I kind of assumed you were in Kanto but I never actually verified with you…"

"Yeah, I was mostly just moving around and catching new teammates," I informed her. "I didn't have a set plan in mind but because I wanted to give you a good battle in the future, figured I'd start the gym challenge after being satisfied with my team."

Not the complete truth, but I couldn't just tell Jasmine I was in Hoenn now could I?

Jasmine's eyes shone at my words, just happy that she presumably inspired me in some way. "I get that! You're doing fantastic yourself! At this rate, you really are gonna be scary! A Metang?! I'm so jealous of you!" She gushed.

I chuckled. "I was surprised myself. I'll make sure to let you check them out one day."

She nodded happily, thinking of saying something but holding her tongue.

I perked a brow but my attention was dragged away by the struggling under me.

"Silvy! Get off of me fatass!"

Green got another noogie for that and squealed, trashing to attempt to get me off her.

"Fatass? Look at you cursing. You got corrupted by me way faster than Jas did. She still refuses to curse," I remarked.

"Silver, you shouldn't be so rude to Green! You've been sitting on her since before this call!" Jasmine admonished.

"Yeah I know, I've had Ares punt Togy like 5 times now," I remarked, smirking infuriatingly at the Togepi giving me the death eye.

Fun fact, Green's Togepi was a little villain in the making and she had no idea why he was like this.

Togy had steadily began growing more violent as the days passed and I actually saw the little shit attempting to steal from my bag.

That had gotten it the very first punt from Ares because she did not give a damn that he was only a few days old.

...Oh wait a minute. Did Togy… Oh, Togy totally inherited my personality didn't he?

Yeah... the stealing, violent attitude, death stare...

Poor Green. It would only get worse.

He was already causing her more stress and she had profusely apologized to many people already after his multiple failed stealing stunts.

Amateur. He had a long way to go… If he wasn't so goddamn antagonistic to me, I'd even have taught him a few things but for now, Ares and I would settle for bullying him for character development.

"Stop punting Togy!" Green protested beneath me. "He's only 6 days old! You can't be such an ass!"

"Says who?" I retorted with a smug smile.

"I'm sorry Green. No one can tell Silver anything. I'm also a victim to his twisted personality and I can only imagine how worse it is in person," Jasmine sighed, knowing it was hopeless.

Green sighed miserably. "I hate you Silvy."

"You signed up for this," I replied easily. "Alright Jas, I'll call you some other time, alright? I'm gonna chat with my team for a bit then Green and I are gonna start heading to Mt. Moon."

Since she wanted to know more but was too nice to ask me, I'd go out of my way to tell Jasmine more stuff.

Even if I didn't, her and Green got along way well so she'd tell her everything anyways.

"Okay! Bye Silver, Bye Green! Make sure you show me your gym battles from now on! I know I can watch the replays but it feels more authentic this way!"

"Sure thing," I said.

"Of course!" Green beamed.

As she hung up, I finally stood up off Green and she let out a strangled cheer, rushing away from me with frantic eyes.

"I'm gonna get away from you for a bit!" she exclaimed, patting down her black dress and rushing out of the door. "Meet back up in an hour! We'll leave before night!"

"Sure," I waved her off, no doubt smirking in an insufferable manner and sneering at the Togepi doing a very suspicious gesture that looked eerily similar to flipping someone off.

Maybe it was a good thing I didn't keep it. Having to deal with myself would have been a chore and a half.

I snorted and released my full team (Ares was already out), taking a seat on the bed of the Pokemon Center rooms and gazing at them.

Almost as soon as they all gained clarity of their surroundings, everyone locked onto Metang's form and the following noise was thunderous.

The most loud, was Ares' incredulous roar. Despite being out, she had not been listening to my conversation at all, so she was just as blindsided by Beldum's evolution as the rest of the team.

"We won our Gym Battle," I began, catching all their attention.

I ruffled around and pulled out the case to showcase the second badge and grinned in a pleased manner at Freyja and Metang.

"Freyja and Metang pulled their weight really hard this battle and I didn't even have to use Gaia," I informed them.

Gaia grumbled a bit at that but smiled affectionately, latching vines around Freyja and hoisting her up.

My Feebas' eyes widened as all eyes turned to her from the action and I felt my smile widen.

"Freyja here managed to beat a Rhyhorn one on one in combat and she only got hit once in the process!" I announced.

I bore witness to my Feebas blushing in embarrassment, at the cheers from Loki and Gaia. It even came with Gaia lifting her up and dropping her over and over again.

"What did I tell you girl?" I grinned, running a hand against her scales. "I told you, it's a marathon, not a sprint but you kept doubting me! Sure you're gonna lose some, but you're gonna win even more," I promised.

"You handled that battle like a pro. You were nervous, but you didn't let it slow you down even a little. You're getting great at using Rain Dance, you're even better at Water Pulse but we won't stop there. I'm never giving up on you, girl so fuck all the doubters, understood?"

"Bay!" Gaia agreed firmly, excitedly shaking Freyja back and forth until the Feebas began protesting.

"Fee! Fee!" she conceded helplessly, unable to escape Gaia's impossible grasp.

I would know, Gaia was a cuddler and she loved using her vines to make sure I couldn't escape. Damn sleepy menace.

Ares, stared at Freyja suspiciously and gazed back at me with a puzzled look.

"Bag?" she asked incredulously, pointing at Freyja with a disbelieving eye.

I chuckled. "Yes, Ares. Freyja managed to beat an opponent on her own. Of course she did, who do you think you're trainer is?"

Ares expression turned contemplating and she eventually nodded.

"Gon bagon," was all she said.

"The dragon with dreams of grandeur says that it's expected that her vassal can even bring the potential of trash out."

"Fee! Bas bas!" Freyja growled.

"The fish who is full of doubt says that the dragon should jump headfirst into a deep hole."

Huh… well damn. Good to know Freyja and Ares were still getting along great.

But still… I gazed at Metang with a maniacal glint in my eyes.

"Metang. Well done, you executed our plans with minimal issue and you even evolved off of it," I praised truthfully.

"I figured you would only have been able to beat the Graveler… but you caught everyone by surprise by not only taking it out… but by surgically eliminating that Onix too."

Metang remained stationary in their spot, allowing my team to once more inspect it.

"Metang," was all he said.

"The battle was sufficient. It has allowed me to verify that your claims were not false… and I find myself enjoying this new life."

"Even more than your previous one?"

"I believe answering that question will only foster the ego that you have been steadily accumulating."

I grinned and placed a hand on their cool metal body.

"Perfect," I said aloud. "Alright guys, we're not wasting anytime. We're going straight for the third badge and we should be there in a little less than a weeks time…"

My silver gaze landed directly on Loki.

"I'll be using you for this battle, Loki," I announced. "I don't know what the stipulations will be, but you're getting used no matter what, so be ready."

He was the only one on my team now who hadn't had a proper gym battle and I'd be damned if it stayed like that.

Judging by the look in his eyes, Loki understood that fact too and growled challengingly. There was a fire in his eyes and I nodded in a pleased manner.

"Whoever else I use will be flexible," I announced to them.

I could use Gaia and probably wreck shop… but where's the fun in that?

I'd still likely use her, since she had a blatant advantage that my other members didn't have but steamrolling with her wasn't how I'd do things.

"Alright, we're going in an hour. You guys are free to do whatever. I'm gonna get you guys started on some new moves because you've made good progress with your current ones," I announced.

My team all made noises of confirmation and began handling their business.

I sighed fondly at them and idly tossed everyone a snack, getting various noises of thanks, before flipping open my Pokedex.

My team was progressing fantastically and it was up to me to make sure we kept that pace.

I decided when it was time for them to add a new move to their repertoire and despite not mastering their previous moves (mastering moves was not as easy as I thought), they had displayed enough for me to add more for them.

Now which ones would I pick…

---

"Getting used to your body?"

"...It is, more difficult than I would imagine. The sudden gain of limbs, the growth in size. It will take me another day at the maximum to get used to such changes."

I snorted. Another day only?

Guess that's what being the pre-evolution of a pokemon smarter than a supercomputer did.

I couldn't wait to see him as a Metagross. That went for my whole team too.

Zoroark, Meganium, Milotic, Salamence, Metagross...

Seeing them in their final forms… That was something I looked forward to the most. Seeing them reach the apex of their respective forms... being the proud trainer of that team.

It was going to be awesome.

Speaking of which...

"How can you speak to me so clearly, Metang? A psychic spoke to me earlier before I caught you and said I have some sort of foggy fortress up here so how are you immune to it?"

Currently, I was at the outskirts of Pewter and I shared my location with Green, so she could head to my location.

Right now, I was sitting atop Metang's floating body while we conversed with each other.

Metang didn't take long at all to answer my question.

"Ah this foggy fortress… Yes, I'm aware of it. I encountered it when I first attempted to bind to you. I recall you attempting to assist me when it made its presence known," they began.

I nodded my head. "Yeah... I realized too late what binding to me could do to you... I'm just glad that it didn't seem to permanently damage you."

"Your efforts are appreciated. I do believe that if I ever try to sever the bond I have formed between the two of us, my mind will shatter beyond recognition."

"What?!" I said aloud in shock, jolting at that. What the hell did they just say?

"It is as I say. This fortress protecting your mind, has completely trapped me in. In fact, the moment I tried to pierce the fog, the shroud wrapped around me and attempted to destroy me from the inside."

What the fuck…

"How are you alive then?" I asked in shock, a nauseating feeling coursing through me at the idea that I had nearly killed one of my Pokemon.

I guess that meant I was not catching another psychic. Good thing I probably had no intention of getting one.

"The fog seems somewhat sentient. I do believe it acts on your will to some degree and thankfully, you didn't want my mind to shatter. I believe if you do not want someone to pierce your mind, they will suffer far worse than I have."

I wonder if even Mewtwo wasn't immune to these effects... after all, they claimed my mind was impenetrable...

"As for how I am able to communicate with you so easily, that is due to the psychic stores inside of you. It has given me enough power to speak to you and the Fog no longer restricts me any further."

A chill washed over me.

Psychic what now?

"Did you say psychic stores?" I asked hesitantly, dread welling up inside of me.

"That is correct. You have an abundant amount of psychic energy. Though, trying to access them is impossible because of the fog stifling it."

Silver… Silver had never once been confirmed to be a psychic. I didn't show a single sign that I was psychic.

"Metang, can you… explain the feeling of these psychic stores?" I asked hesitantly.

He did not even hesitate.

"Cold, heavy and imposing. Exactly like the fog but less supernatural in nature."

Cold, heavy and imposing… exactly like the dream I had last night.

That's… no fucking way.

Considering who my dad was… there was a way.

Suddenly, Giovanni's vested interest in me made a lot of sense.

That son of a bitch… just what exactly did he do, that I had some connection to fucking Mewtwo of all Pokemon?

Judging by the fact that Mewtwo was a clone of Mew… I was inclined to think that I maybe got injected with something I didn't want to be injected by.

What type of sick fuck experiments on his own goddamn son?!

The extents of what Giovanni had done to me… I had no idea but the more I learned, the more concerned I became about myself.

I thought it was just mental damage... Giovanni didn't seem the type to get physical with me but...

My life must have been rough, maybe it was a good thing I forgot.

And if I wasn't sure before, I was now. This foggy fortress of mine was completely separate from Mewtwo and Team Rocket in general.

This fortress was all me... and I think that actually helped me figure more things out.

"Silver, are you alright? You're pale."

I jolted at the sound of concern and gazed at the worried green eyes of Green herself.

"I'm fine," I said tersely. "Just… thinking about a nightmare I had."

Her eyes widened and she nodded sympathetically. "Normally, when I have nightmares, mom makes me feel better but now I rely on Vee!"

My mom was probably a massive bitch. I doubted I would rely on her for nightmares.

I wouldn't be surprised if I used to have nightmares and both my parents told me off for being weak.

I scowled at that.

Don't worry body of mine, I'd keep us safe from those assholes. There would be no more running away from my troubles.

Getting rid of them was a far better, and more permanent, solution.

After that, depending on how much time I had... I could probably find the one behind this fortress because I'm 90% sure it was —

"Are you sure you're alright, Silvy? We can call it a day if you want… You don't look so good," Green muttered, placing a hand on my forehead.

I swatted it off with a roll of my eyes, ignoring the way my heart warmed at her kindness.

"I'm fine, Leaf. Let's go, we can't waste time," I grunted, beckoning Metang forward.

"Do you have a problem with me sitting on you?"

"If I did, you would not be sitting on me."

"Sweet."

Green rebounded quickly and glanced jealously at me using Metang as a mount, but kept pace with us as we headed to Route 3.

"So when do you wanna stop for training?! I gotta admit, ever since you introduced me to it, I've been addicted! I love training! I say we walk for a few hours before taking a break. What do you think?"

I was too used to this word vomit machine to be affected by it anymore and nodded. "Sounds good to me."

Route 3 was quite a big route and it was only made bigger by the fact that it was connected to Route 4.

The two routes connecting, followed by traversing Mt. Moon, and then the final stretch of Route 4 afterwards…

Yeah it was going to take a few days to navigate it all.

If I didn't get a good time frame to go against the Gym, we might have to shelf the idea completely and just come back after the S.S Anne.

Depending on where the S.S Anne left us, that'd probably just be shelved for later. I didn't particularly care which order I battled the gyms in.

"What gym do you want to battle after I get this badge?" I asked Green suddenly.

She blinked at my sudden question before lighting up.

"Well…" Green began, opening up a map to show me. "Based on my team, I wanted to actually battle Erika next in Celadon! The time frame should help me train up Larvee a lot more for that battle! I would like to go through Rock Tunnel because I was interested in maybe catching something in there… but I'd also like to catch a ghost."

I nodded at that. "So you wanna go to Lavender Town through Rock Tunnel, then path to Celadon?"

She nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I'm getting confident in using Larvee but she's still a little naturally weak so I wanna help her more!"

I mulled it over and eventually nodded. "Alright. But that depends on where the S.S Anne drops us, unless you plan on skipping it."

Green frowned and nodded with my words. "Yeah, the S.S Anne kinda threw a wrench in my plans and I thought you would have too but we'll figure it out as we go. It's not very rigid but I do have an order I wanna fight the Gym Leaders in," she explained.

I raised a brow at that. "Who do you want to fight after Celadon?"

"Fuchsia," she replied immediately. "The Gym Leader is Koga, he's a poison specialist! I hear he's one of the stronger Gym Leaders of the region!"

Was that so… From what I remember, Koga joins the Elite 4, but in this world Sabrina and Giovanni were both stronger than him from Kanto and Claire was stronger than him from Johto.

Maybe they just didn't want the position? Giovanni was obvious but I didn't know much about Sabrina or Claire.

"Alright, I'm fine with that then," I shrugged, content to go with her plan. "By the way, what do you wanna evolve Vee into?" I asked suddenly.

Vee, who was buried in her hair, perked up at that and gazed in interest at being mentioned.

Green pursed her lips. "We haven't discussed too much about it. He doesn't mind any form really. It's a serious topic though so I don't want to pick a form he might hate…"

That was the thing about me owning an Eevee that I didn't really appreciate.

I had a very specific form of Eevee I'd want it to evolve to, that being Espeon and I very much disliked some of the others.

But I wouldn't deny my Eevee the chance to become a Flareon if that's what it wanted to become… Flareon may be my least favorite Eevee, but robbing it of choice would just lead to resentment.

Luckily, Green didn't seem as picky as I was so her having an Eevee, probably wasn't as disastrous as me having one.

Besides, if I caught an Eevee, I would not evolve it into Espeon. I wouldn't subject another psychic to my presence... So I guess my goal of Eevee probably didn't matter anymore.

"A wise decision. Fret not, I am the only one you shall need."

"You're fairly arrogant."

"That is called confidence. You are the arrogant one."

...Asshole.

"I think Blue is turning his Eevee into an Umbreon," Green muttered with a contemplative expression. "That's what Vee thinks at least, so we wanna avoid that form."

Ah right, Blue and Green's Eevee's were siblings that they bonded with before selecting their starter.

Makes me wonder why Vee hadn't evolved yet… perhaps it was also a power thing instead of just loving your trainer?

Guess that might apply to Freyja as well.

"Hey! Wanna battle?!"

Both Green and I paused our conversation at the voice and gazed up at the trainers in question.

It was a couple of campers. Two young kids, a boy and a girl with eager gleams.

I shrugged. "Sure, who wants to battle who?" I grunted, jumping off Metang's head.

The duo looked at my Metang with a hint of trepidation before jolting at my snapping fingers.

"O-Oh! We wanted to have a double battle!" They exclaimed. "We're trying to improve our duo skills so we figured —"

"Not interested," I denied instantly. "Have at it Green."

Green gaped at that and rounded on me. "Is the idea of having a double battle with me that repulsive to you?!"

"Yes. You can beat them both alone. Have fun."

Green stamped her feet on the ground and puffed her cheeks out. "They want to battle both of us! Let them battle both of us! It'll be good training! We can even use our weaker members!"

I raised a brow at her and snorted in amusement. "They're right there you know. You shouldn't be such a dick," I taunted.

Green spluttered and rounded on the kids, bowing profusely. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that! This guy just brings out the worst in me!"

"You know… I can see that," the camper girl sweatdropped a bit.

"Suddenly, I don't have anymore complaints about you," the camper guy told his companion.

I rolled my eyes. "Double battle right? You two vs Leaf and I?"

They nodded eagerly and I nodded after a short sight.

"Alright then," I muttered, grasping a pokeball.

Green grinned eagerly and grasped her own pokeball.

At once, we launched our balls.

"Loki."

"Larvee!"

Both our pokemon materialized at once and Green gazed at me.

"I thought we said weaker pokemon?"

"When the hell did I say that?" I mused, taking a seat on Metang again.

Loki gazed at his opponents, both the Male and Female Nidorans, with a fierce look. It was rather uncharacteristic of him but at the same time, he probably felt like he was getting left behind by the team.

I'd need to start upping his offense. Sometimes, it wasn't about teaching the best moves, but the right ones and Loki wanted to learn a move that could cause damage.

"Nidoran use Poison Sting!" Both the campers said at once.

"Agility. Get away," I ordered calmly.

"Flame Charge. Move outta there," Green instructed calmly.

Loki followed my orders instantly, slipping into the Agility with only a bit of struggle and sped away from the poisonous darts.

At the same time, Larvy shrouded itself in a fiery aura and dashed away at… what might have been impressive speeds by Larvesta standards.

Loki completely avoided the Poison Stings, while the few that connected to Larvy got burned to the point where he wouldn't be poisoned anyways.

"Get behind them. Extrasensory."

"String Shot, make sure they can't run and hold them together."

Both Nidoran's went alert, at the sight of Loki blurring past them but as they tried to whirl around, a white silken string shot around and began tying the two together.

They let out twin noises of surprise as they were forced to hug and the two poison types began struggling to remove the String Shot off of them…

But it was not to be. Due to Larvy's efforts in tying them up, it left them perfectly still and clumped to take the full brunt of the Extrasensory.

"Nido!" They both cried out, forcefully dislodged from the rope tying them together.

"Nidoran!" Both Campers cried out in shock.

Loki huffed, not satisfied with that match and trotted over to my side with a slight frown.

"W-Woah! You two are so strong!" The female camper awed.

Green smiled politely at the two and hoisted up Larvy, completely unbothered by its ridiculous heat. "We're just a bit too strong for you guys but you definitely have potential! Are you two new?" She asked gently.

The male nodded. "We haven't officially started our journey yet! We're too young! But we like to camp just outside Pewter and build up experience when we can! Nidoran are our only pokemon!"

I ran a hand through Loki's fur and ignored the conversation happening.

"The Underhanded Trickster is upset at his perceived lack of power."

"Quite the rude nickname you have for him."

"I would implore him to attempt a sneak attack on me now."

So Metang was still pissy about that… good to know.

"I get your frustrations," I murmured. "You want more power. I get that."

Loki looked a bit embarrassed that I was calling him out so freely and I merely let out a tiny snort.

"Power isn't always about raw strength, Loki," I informed him. "If you think you'll ever have more raw power than a Metagross or a Salamence, that's just naive."

My Zorua flinched but I wasn't yet finished.

"But that's why you have more options to circumvent that. If I only relied on increasing your raw power, you'd notice way sooner, how much your lacking. That's why I'm tapping into your talents. Trying to compare yourself to one of them… is like comparing a warrior to an assassin."

I ruffled his fur. "All of you have different roles on the team, remember? At the end of the day, you will be the most effective member on our team in your role. No one will be able to match you at your niche, so don't try and surpass them at theirs. I'm the one training them after all so they'll be the best at theirs too," I chastised with an amused gleam.

"That, is arrogance, Blight."

"Bite me. Also why are you calling me Blight?"

"You are one touched by things no one would desire being touched by. Your existence is unnatural."

If only Metang knew.

Loki pondered my words, before his tense stance went away and he nodded in satisfaction.

It was good dealing with a Pokemon so agreeable. I loved Freyja to death but she really wasn't making it easy for me.

"Good, your next move is gonna be a strong offensive one. We'll discuss it more later," I muttered to him, watching Green finish up her conversation with the two kids.

"Zor," he said in agreement, poking his snout against the Pokeball and returning himself.

"Keep it up you two! You've got a lot of synergy already!" Green waved at the duo heading back into Pewter.

"Thanks a bunch Green!" They waved back.

She watched them go with a fond smile and I rolled my eyes.

"Done?" I mused, as Metang began moving forward without any prompting.

"Yeah! They were nice kids!" Green beamed. "Why didn't you say anything to them?"

"No interest."

She rolled her eyes. "What a surprise."

Was that sarcasm? Was she already using it? I was impressed.

I snorted. "Let's just go. We have a lot of distance to make... Let's try making it to the Center by the end of the day."

She nodded eagerly. "Kay!" she beamed.

"Wait!"

I let out a sigh of aggravation at that and Green paused, recognition in her eyes.

"Mason!" She waved happily. "What's up?"

Mason? I thought his name was Jason…

The worst of Oak's trainers, flinched as I met his gaze and he quickly averted it, focusing on Green instead.

"Um… I have a battle with Flint in 3 days and I wanted to know if you were interested in watching it?" He asked nervously.

I rolled my eyes as Green's expression fell and she glanced back at me, noticing my utterly unwavering features.

"He's asking you Leaf, not me. I have no reason to stay here," I said blandly, looking her dead in the eye.

She flinched at that because even though Green was an incredibly nice person, she wasn't nice enough to compromise her enjoyment.

And she was going to have to learn to be less nice traveling with me. I was not interested in helping people like she were and if it got to the point where I'd be getting compromised, then I'd leave her behind.

"Sorry, Mason," she said quietly, rubbing her hair nervously. "Silver and I are on a pretty tight schedule… I'd love to watch, but we really can't stay here any longer."

"O-Oh… right," Mason mumbled, looking utterly crushed at her reply.

Green smiled awkwardly and I let out a groan of annoyance.

"Does your Charmeleon know Metal Claw?" I suddenly asked, just wanting to get out of here.

Mason jumped at my sudden question and gazed at me in shock.

"U-Um… no, he doesn't?" The boy answered hesitantly.

I scoffed. "You have 3 days, teach it Metal Claw. Rock types are slow, utilize speed to run circles around it. What other Pokemon do you have?"

"A-A Sandshrew and a Spearow," Mason replied quicker this time, gazing at me with wide eyes.

"That Sandshrew should be useful. What does it know?" I asked, flicking open my Pokedex.

"U-Umm... Defense Curl, Rollout, Fury Cutter, Poison Sting, Dig and Rapid Spin," he listed.

At least he had good memory.

I frowned. "You haven't taught it another ground type move? What the hell are you doing?"

He flinched back and I rolled my eyes.

"Teach it Bulldoze or Magnitude. Bulldoze if you want consistency, Magnitude if you're bad enough that you need to rely on luck. Stop using Dig against Flint, Magnitude does twice as much damage to it," I instructed harshly.

"Use Sandshrew and Charmeleon in your fight… and make sure you actually sit down and talk to them about the game plan instead of winging it. That Charmeleon especially, doesn't respect how bad you are but I'm sure you can earn its loyalty if you stop being so trash," I told him harshly.

"Now let's go Leaf, I'm tired of being held up. We've got a lot of distance to travel."

Green looked stunned, before a large smile split her features and she nodded.

"See ya, Mason! I know you can win this time! We'll see you later and tell me how it goes," my companion waved.

"Silvy, lemme get on Metang too!"

"No."

"But whyyy?! They won't even register me! I'm as light as a feather!"

"You never stop talking do you? Fine get on."

"Yay!"

Mason watched the duo go with a confused expression on his face.

"Did he just... give me advice?" he asked in shock.

Well... it sounded like really good advice despite how rudely it was delivered...

Maybe he should follow it...

---

Funnily enough, Metang's were actually pretty fast. By rotating it's arms backwards, they were able to speed themselves up to quite the respectable degree.

That didn't change the fact that we were still traveling such a giant route.

Due to the amount of people who stopped us for battles, Green and I postponed our training for when we entered Mt. Moon and committed to traveling the Routes instead.

We actually found quite an Ace trainer while traveling too.

Ace Trainers were the leagues foot soldiers basically. They weren't the weakest, ranking above Rangers and Gym Trainers, but they were far more numerous than both.

But against the likes of Green and I? They may as well have been Gym Leaders.

It was the first time since traveling with each other, that we actually lost. Though, we mostly expected to lose so we just did it for practice.

Still pissed me off something fierce.

"Do you normally patrol these areas?" I asked, watching the Ace trainer return their Exeggutor.

"Yeah. My schedule is really flexible but when I'm on patrol I come here," he nodded in a friendly manner, not taking our money because it was just an exhibition match.

"Alright good," I muttered. "I'll be sure to remember you… What's your name again?"

Both Chase (the Ace trainers name I learned!) and Green sweatdropped deeply.

Besides that battle though, we mostly steamrolled our opponents in our path to Mt. Moon.

There were a lot of trainers and both Green and I were using it to get our weaker mons even stronger.

The area around Pewter, were normally inhabited by newer trainers because experienced trainers hated traveling through Mt. Moon. They'd much prefer to fly or just find another route to go.

So trainers typically got the badge and just flew out of the city or went to Viridian. New trainers didn't have much choice but to eventually traverse through Mt. Moon, unless they just opted to fight Flint or the Cerulean gym much later in their journey.

Night was swiftly approaching as Green and I chatted about anything.

It said something that I was actually responding in turn... Jasmine had done nothing but sing Green's praises so I suppose that helped me warm up to her.

We were almost to the entrance of Mt. Moon and we were going to call it a night due to the Pokemon Center being stationed right next to it.

"I actually wanted to catch a Clefairy," Green admitted to me as we made the final stretch.

"Yeah?" I asked in interest. "Why didn't you?"

"Never found one!" She laughed sheepishly. "I was going to camp in there for even longer until I found one but then I had that encounter with Team Rocket and decided to just head to the next city. My team was in pretty bad shape after how much of the grunts I beat."

I sobered at that. "There were only grunts there? That's lucky of you."

Green nodded seriously, glancing at her hands with a frown. "Yeah I know… I didn't wanna push it. It didn't seem like they were doing a big scale project but if an executive was there, I might have been in a lot of trouble."

I frowned at that. For all her talents, Green was still a new trainer just like me.

She hadn't yet grown into the formidable behemoth I already envisioned her as. If she ran into an executive at this level, I doubted it'd be as easy as the games made it out to be.

That went for me too. I'd need to go about this carefully. I had been planning on taking it easy in Kanto, but seems daddy dearest forced my hand.

A stronger Team Rocket… a legendary at their beck and call…

Just another day I guess.

"Let's get some sleep," I offered, as the light of the Pokemon Center beckoned us towards it.

Traveling with Green turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I wouldn't actually involve her too much because at the end of the day, Mewtwo was Mewtwo.

"Alright!" Green beamed, finding a new surge of energy and rushing towards the Center (I returned Metang earlier to let them get some rest despite the claims that they weren't tired).

I was far more sedated, enjoying the coolness of the night and gazing into the sky with a tired sigh.

"Problem after problem," I muttered, looking directly at the full moon.

Oh well, I'd just knock them off one by one. That's all you could do.

In order to achieve the life you wanted, you needed to get rid of all obstacles that made your goal more difficult.

So I would get rid of all of them in anyway I knew how.

---

Much to my chagrin, the Pokemon Center stationed right outside Mt. Moon, had a rule that companions traveling together had to share a room.

This was to save on room considering these Centers tended to be smaller than the ones in main cities.

Thankfully, as a caveat, there were multiple beds in the room.

I yawned and idly threw my pillow at the sleeping Green's face from across the room, connecting solidly with her face.

She let out a strangled shout and I snorted tiredly.

"Rise and shine. It's morning," was all I said.

"I… think I hate you," Green muttered tiredly, pulling the pillow off her face and tossing it to the side, unintentionally hitting Vee in the process.

What followed was Green and Vee getting into a morning fight that was very good for waking everyone in the room up.

I snorted and ran a hand through Loki's fur, watching my dark fox do his stretches to wake up.

Vee and Green were the complete opposite of Loki and I when it came to mornings.

They were both terrible at waking up, compared to us who only needed a few minutes to be ready to start the day.

By the time I was ready to go, Green was finally getting out of her sleep funk so I made it my mission to wake her up at the same time as me.

Seeing how bad Green was during the morning, made me all the more appreciative at my rigid mannerisms.

"Hurry up," I grunted. "Go bathe first. You take forever so I'll do a small workout in the meantime."

"Kay," she said lazily, rolling off the bed onto her two feet. "I'll be fast. Don't eat breakfast without me."

"Yeah, yeah."

I flicked open my Pokedex, as Green grabbed essentials, and began plotting the next moves my team was going to learn.

I wasn't too worried about the Cerulean Gym because allegedly, their best battler, Misty, was no longer with them and that meant I'd be facing off against one of the "Sensational Sisters".

They were the original gym leaders, but they also appeared to hate battling.

That wasn't to say they sucked at it… they were still one of the strongest trainers in the region, but they also didn't have a passion for battling.

They much preferred to do their beauty shows or whatever and unless it was one of the higher tier badge battles, they scarcely gave in any effort.

I frowned at that. The sisters were talented, they had to be because this world was far stricter to Gym Leaders and they held the position for years.

I wonder if all three of them had their own main team. If that were the case, then they might be far more formidable then I initially gave them credit for.

Ah well, it was just a third badge battle. They probably wouldn't put too much effort into this one —

A gentle knock on the door, was soon replaced by much louder ones and both Green and I froze in what we were doing.

We exchanged a glance towards each other, confusion clear in our gazes.

"Togy steal something important?" I asked curiously.

"No chance, Saury's been making sure he behaves," Green frowned. "Did you assault someone? Ares attack someone?"

"Nah, I've been thinking too much to attack anyone," I replied, pushing myself to my feet.

I gave a hand signal to Zorua, telling him to be prepared to attack whoever was on the other side and at the same time, Green beckoned for Vee to be on guard.

"Who the fuck is it?!" I barked with narrowed eyes.

Nothing, the person on the other side was completely silent.

My eyes narrowed into something dangerous and I released Metang from the ball.

I wasn't too concerned about who was on the other side, but it never hurt to be careful.

Team Rocket wasn't bold enough to continuously attack Pokemon Centers, not with how fast an Ace Trainer would come bearing down on them.

I wonder who the hell was so interested in speaking to me.

Without hesitation, I flipped open the door and glared at the person behind it…

Or well, attempted to. I was met with a clothed chest for my efforts.

"What the fuc —" My thoughts were cut off as I realized the reason I was staring at a chest… was because the person across from me was that fucking tall.

The first thing I noted, wasn't the black shirt with the blue dragon logo on the front, nor was it the red jacket with scales on it, nor was it the carmine colored hair of his, that was a definitive worse shade than my own...

It was the actual cape.

Champion Lance, because who else could this be, cut an imposing figure, towering over me and maybe being the same or a little shorter than Lt. Surge.

I idly heard Green drop something as I gazed at the man grinning confidently at me.

"You must be Silver!" Lance boomed, holding out a giant palm for me to shake. "I've heard a lot about you from Jasmine! I've been eager to meet you!"

My stunned gaze was brought to a much shorter figure peeking from behind Lance with a nervous smile.

A nervous figure with a familiar head of brown hair.

"...I have a strong feeling you don't like surprises…" Jasmine said behind the giant of a man.

My expression went from stunned to utterly incredulous, as I locked eyes with my best friend.

"...But surprise?" She said sheepishly.

…

"What the fuck?" Green said intelligently, jaw dropping to the floor.

I couldn't blame her for that one… that was exactly what I was thinking.

"U-Um," Jasmine stammered, noticing that my silver eyes never left her person. She slowly vanished behind Lance's figure again.

"Don't worry, Jasmine!" Lance laughed, completely unaware of the millions of ways I planned on assaulting her. "I get this reaction a lot! It's nothing new!"

Jasmine peeked her head out again and squeaked as she noticed my blank gaze was still focused on her.

"Champion Lance… I don't think that's quite it," she explained, ducking behind him once more.

The champion's smile turned confused at that.

---

"Silver sends his regards."

Ariana jolted up at that in surprise, whirling around and making eye contact with Giovanni himself.

He had an amused smile on his face, as if being told a joke that only he knew the meaning of...

She wouldn't say what she thought about that look. Instead, she'd focus on what he just said.

"You ran into Silver? Where is he?" she asked.

He gazed at her and raised a brow, walking towards his office. "Concerned about him?"

Ariana had no choice but to follow after him, natural smirk on her face disappearing in favor of a frown.

"He disappeared for about 3 months and you randomly found him again. Is it not natural for me to be curious about his whereabouts?" she asked, stamping her frustration with Giovanni down.

It would do no good to show visible frustration against him.

A sleeping Persian awoke, as Giovanni entered his room and it lazily stalked towards him, purring in content as the gym leader palmed its head.

"I suppose your curiosity is warranted," he said slowly, methodically.

There was always a motive behind everything he said, always a goal. Whether it was to get information, or subtly show his power over someone.

Giovanni was a master of his words. Ariana would know and she was sure that other wench knew too.

"He is currently traversing through the Kanto region, building his power by challenging the Gym Leaders," Giovanni informed her, eyeing a document on his table and picking it up.

"That's it? You didn't bring him back?" Ariana asked, frown deepening.

"There is no need."

No need? What did he mean no need?

"Are you going to elaborate? Our son ran away on his birthday and we had no clue where he went until just now," she pressed.

Giovanni didn't even glance up at her. His eyes just continued to rove over the document he was reading.

"He is doing an exceptional job. His actions have opened my eyes and realized that journeying is a requirement to gaining more experience. He has accrued a good team and his growth is exponential. Forcefully retrieving him will only lead to further resentment. He will escape again."

"So now you want to be a good parent?" Ariana thought heinously, holding her tongue in case she said something reckless.

"You should know how capable he is. He is my son after all. Your worries are unwarranted and they detract from how effective you are. Another useless thing he inherited from you," Giovanni said coldly, placing the document down to finally regard her.

"I've deemed his status to be an acceptable one. You have a mission you need to be focusing on. This conversation is over."

Ariana resisted the urge to scream in frustration and merely sneered. There was no point going against what Giovanni said and she did have a mission to focus on.

"I nearly forgot to mention. I informed Silver that you missed him and he told me that you may go "fuck yourself"," Giovanni mentioned, looking terribly amused by the prospect.

Ariana felt a spike of rage and whirled around. "He said what?! And what did you do about this?"

Giovanni raised a brow. "Should I have done something? He said even worse things to me and I saw no need to reprimand him. I find this rebellious phase of his refreshing."

"After the mission in Vermilion, I will be paying him a visit," she said tersely, shutting the door and walking off before he could say anything.

She silently walked to her private room, white heels clacking against the smooth tile.

Finally, she shut her door and immediately punched the wall with a fierce scowl.

Ariana ignored how the reinforced walls made her fist throb and inclined her head towards the Zoroark that materialized in view.

It looked at her with a tilted head, no emotion in its predatory eyes and Ariana felt her scowl deepen.

"Your child was the reason Silver was able to escape in the first place," she pointed out.

Damn Illusion...

"Zor," Zoroark said softly.

How dare he say such a thing to her?! The audacity of —

Ariana took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

Giovanni himself should have known that raising Silver the way he had been raised was a bad idea.

Silver was his son after all and Giovanni would never accept this... but Silver clearly had her temper and he seemed to finally have grown tired of his parents treatment.

To think he actually stood up to his father... Ariana had never seen such a thing.

She frowned deeply.

After ensuring the mission in Vermilion went well, she'd find her son's whereabouts and pay him a visit.

But for now, she needed to find Lapras because her fist was bleeding.

---

The spawn of Giovanni went by the name Silver.

Mewtwo had been aware of them before, but had not bothered to pay attention to them until very recently...

Because the one named Silver was not normal.

There was no human alive that could resist Mewtwo's mental probing. Most weren't even aware that they were being probed because Mewtwo was exceptional.

But not only was this Silver resistant... he could sense that Mewtwo was there...

How interesting.

Whatever forces protected this Silver from Mewtwo's administrations... was something the psychic was not aware of.

Perhaps they should discuss with their partner about the one named Silver... Giovanni was sure to know more about his spawn.

But that was for later. For now, Mewtwo would continue to hone their capabilities and remain on standby for the mission with Vermilion.

"You don't get to decide the life I live. No one gets to decide the life I live except for me."

Those were the words the one named Silver said to his creator... the same one who was apart of Mewtwo's own creation.

The entire conversation had been on the forefront of Giovanni's mind, to the point where Mewtwo barely needed to prod him.

Perhaps he should prod Giovanni further. Seeing as they were partners, Mewtwo didn't pry into his mind but there could be exceptions made.

It's not as if Giovanni would be able to tell.

Mewtwo was exceptional. They were a master at all that they could do...

So why was Silver allowed to decide his life? Why did Giovanni allow him to wander around.

They were both creations of Giovanni, so what was the reason?

If Giovanni didn't have a sufficient answer...

Well then Mewtwo would just ask Silver himself. They had many questions for the one with the mind guarded by forces not even Mewtwo could penetrate.

---

Bonus!

Jasmine let out a nervous breath as she knocked on the door that led to the main office of Indigo Plateau.

"Come in!" a deep and boisterous voice called out to her.

She nodded to herself and gently opened the door.

Champion Lance Wataru gazed at her with a wide grin. To the left of him, in his giant room, a giant Dragonite (by the name of Siegfried) lay next to him, a tiny Dratini curled into its chest.

"Jasmine!" Lance greeted, standing up from his seat (he looked rather thankful for the distraction) and making his way to her.

She rarely looked Lance in the eye and normally found things to distract herself with on the scheduled Gym Leader meetings... but Lance was very tall... and he also rather young too.

"I think this may be the first time since you became a Gym Leader, that we spoke one on one," Lance pointed out with an amused grin. "I was beginning to think you were scared of me!"

A look of horror crossed Jasmine's features. "N-No nothing like that! I just... prefer to keep to myself and I don't want to waste your time."

Lance shook his head. "Waste my time? Don't be ridiculous! I love the distractions!" he grinned, putting a massive hand on her head and ruffling her hair.

Jasmine squeaked and ducked her head in embarrassment.

The Champion of Indigo had a look of amusement in his eyes but decided to help her out. "So what brings you here? Like I mentioned, you don't normally want to speak to anyone much so I knew this was serious."

Jasmine nodded nervously. "Well it's just..." she nervously began, taking the seat offered to her by Lance.

How was she supposed to do this again? This felt so...

"But it's just… the moment I mentioned Team Rocket… you had the most angry expression I've ever seen on your face… and I don't even think you realized."

"They've done something unforgivable to me is all."

Jasmine's expression hardened.

"Please keep this conversation between just us. I have reason to believe that there is a traitor in our midst, supplying Team Rocket information."

Lance blinked.

That... was not what he was expecting to here at all.

His expression immediately hardened because Jasmine was not the one to joke about something like this.

"That's a lofty claim to make, Jasmine. I'm sure you have reasons to be saying this," he replied seriously.

To the side, Siegfried popped open an eye.

Jasmine nodded and channeled her best Silver impression.

"We have been on the backfoot dealing with Team Rocket the whole time. We've never captured an executive. The grunts we do capture never know anything and quite frankly, we face a serious risk if we don't figure something out," she listed.

"Isn't it suspicious that the Executives only show up to places that we don't have the necessary power to stop them? Or places where we aren't aware they'll be?"

Lance frowned thoughtfully at that, expression not displaying anything.

"You're right."

Jasmine paused at how quickly he conceded.

"Everything you're saying makes sense, when I think of a traitor in our ranks," Lance admitted with a deep frown. "I never thought of it before but that makes a lot of sense."

The Champion nodded to himself before gazing at her, sharp expressions softening. "Thank you Jasmine. You opened my eyes to a new possibility... I'll take steps on how to handle this."

Jasmine nodded, relief on her features and Lance's yellow eyes peered at her.

"I'm surprised you're the one bringing up such a unique perspective to me," Lance pointed out.

"Oh that's because a close friend of mine brought it up!" Jasmine beamed, nervousness immediately forgotten.

The dragon master was rather surprised at how swiftly her mood shifted.

"A friend?" he prodded gently.

She nodded enthusiastically.

"Is this why she's been coming out of her shell more?"

Everyone had been noticing that super shy Jasmine was getting more and more outgoing. She didn't stutter every sentence and she even accepted an invitation to go hang out with Whitney!

Guess Lance figured out the reason for that. She made a new friend! What a shock! Jasmine, while a sweetheart of a child, was introverted to the core.

"Tell me about him," Lance requested with a large grin, watching how elated this person made her feel.

"Mhm! His name is Silver and he's my best friend!" she gushed as if she were talking about steel types.

That let Lance know this Silver kid was special because Jasmine only talked about Steel types like this.

"He's a new trainer. He's very rude and antisocial like me! He doesn't spend a day not tormenting me! When we first met, he didn't even want to accept my number!"

"...This is your friend?" Lance asked, a little appalled that someone as nice as Jasmine managed to get a friend like that.

"My best friend!" she corrected. "Even though he's really rude, he's actually really nice underneath it all! He's been helping me get more confident with myself!"

As she gushed over her friend, Lance listened with a smile.

"I'd like to meet him! You said he's the one who broke you out of your shell and brought up the traitor?" Lance mused.

Jasmine nodded proudly. "He's really smart! He may be new but he gives me that feeling that he's... going to be a really exceptional trainer! He beat Lt. Surge for his first badge!"

That got all of Lance's attention.

Someone beat Surge for their first badge? Was this recent? To be frank, someone with no badges wasn't supposed to be capable of beating Surge currently.

He was going hard on all manner of badges for the S.S Anne boat trip... and someone beat him with no badges?

"Jasmine!" Lance called suddenly. "I want to meet your friend!"

Jasmine jumped at that with wide eyes. "Silver? You want to meet him?" she asked in shock.

He nodded with an eager grin. "Of course! I've never heard you praise anyone like this! I'll have to arrange someone to stand in for Olivine for the time being, but once that's settled, we can go visit him!"

Jasmine blinked. "W-We?"

"Of course! You miss him, right? It's probably been a long time since the two of you saw each other," Lance smiled, patting her head. "You should get to see your friend when you want, so we'll visit him together! Besides, with what you're saying about him, you'd be great for calming him down."

She nodded. "That is true... I don't think he actually cares that you're champion... I don't think he acts differently with anyone. Silver's rude through and through."

So she'd... get to visit him?!

Jasmine beamed and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay Champion Lance! I'll take you up on your offer! I'd love to visit Silver again!"

Lance grinned, abnormally sharp fangs gleaming, and nodded. "Alright, you can stay in Indigo for the. We'll fly over there soon."

She accepted the offer gratefully. "It's good that you're bringing me! Silver can be a bit unhinged... but he at least likes me," she said.

Lance just laughed boisterously. "He's an interesting guy!"

He really was. Jasmine couldn't wait to see him?

Should she surprise him? Silver seemed like the type of person to hate surprises...

That mean she should do it! Silver always tormented her, it was time to repay the favor!

---

Chapter 5 is finished! Did you enjoy? I hope so because it would be awkward if you didn't...

From one cliffhanger ending to another... what type of monster am I becoming? I apologize... but not really haha!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer in an orderly fashion!

If you want quicker answers, you can join the discord server! The code is: discord. gg/ BFFtXAXFU7