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...

8. Chapter 8: Odd Happenings

These Silver Eyes

Chapter 8: Odd Happenings

"Right, I'll do that. If I don't show up in the next 3 minutes. Leave."

Green looked at the message, a look of dread on her face as a terrible knot formed in her stomach.

"Green? Where are you going?!" Crystal shouted in horror, watching as the girl suddenly dashed in a direction that would lead deeper into the ship.

The Pallet trainer completely ignored her, eyes wild in fear as she stumbled forward.

Silver was in trouble. Silver was in a lot of trouble and she needed to help him.

An explosion rocked the ship and sent Green tumbling.

Pain erupted through her body and she let out a cry, as her head crashed into the railing and the girl tentatively pulled herself up blinking away the tears to the best of her abilities.

"Green!" Gold yelled in concern, catching up to her and grasping the girl. "Shit! You're bleeding! Are you okay?!"

Green blinked sluggishly. "Silvy needs my help. I have to go help him!" she said, tasting something metallic on her tongue.

Crystal opened the girls mouth and winced at seeing blood pooling.

"Green we need to get you out of here," she said slowly.

"NO!" Green shouted, pushing them off of her. "I need to... I have to go help Silvy! He's in trouble!"

She took a single step and fell flat to the floor, unable to stand straight due to how dizzy she currently felt.

Gold clenched his jaw and quickly came to a decision.

He grabbed Green and began heading to the railing of the ship.

"C'mon Crys the ships about to blow," he whispered urgently to her.

Unfortunately, Green heard him.

"What?! No! I'm not going anywhere without Silvy!" Green said immediately, struggling in his grip with all her might.

Gold grunted as he tried with all his might to hold back Green but the girl was seriously strong.

"Green the ships about to blow!" he said, watching as she wildly connected with his jaw without any hesitation.

He instinctively moved one hand to his face at the hit and Green took the chance to escape his grasp.

"I don't care! Silvy needs my help!" Green said frantically, poised to run deeper into the ship.

Gold was not letting that happen.

He immediately tackled the girl and brought her to the floor.

"Do you think Silver wants you to risk yourself like this?!" He asked seriously. "There's no way I'm gonna let you risk your life like this. We need to jump ship now and worry about Silver afterwards."

But Green wasn't listening to him. She was growing steadily more hysterical, struggling intensely in his grasp and Gold feared that she'd hurt herself further just to get out of it.

A flash of light caused a momentary lull and Gold watched in slight trepidation as Green's giant Ivysaur materialized.

"S-Saury! Get him off me!" Green demanded urgently.

They were wasting time! She had to help him! Green had to help Silvy —

Green watched with a shocked expression as Saury wrapped a vine around her, effortlessly lifting both her and Gold up.

With another vine, he grabbed a Pokeball and handed it to Crystal, gazing at the girl with intent.

Crystal quickly understood what he was getting at and grabbed the Pokeball, before releasing Lapee into the sea.

"S-Saury?" Green whispered in disbelief.

"Ivysaur," Saury said quietly, dropping the two into the ocean.

He looked towards Crystal once more, handing her a final pokeball and she nodded hesitantly, returning the Ivysaur into the ball and taking a deep breath —

Before jumping into the cold ocean below.

She winced at the impact but quickly surfaced to the top, latching onto the Lapras and hastily pulling herself out of the freezing waters.

"Lap," Lapras said softly, gazing empathetically at the betrayed Green being dragged out of the water by Gold.

Green turned back towards the ship with wide eyes, watching as a blast of cold and heavy energy obliterated the S.S Anne where it stood stationary.

"No way..." Gold said in disbelief, paling at the rush of power that washed over him.

Crystal shuddered. "T-Team Rocket really have the means to do this...?" she whispered in terror.

In just the blink of an eye... the S.S Anne had... it was just gone.

What was that? Who was that?

A choked sob interrupted the two and they turned towards the utterly stricken Green, tears flowing down her eyes.

"S-SILVY!" she screamed in a panic. "No! We have to find him! We have to!"

Gold said nothing, clenching his jaw as he guiltily turned away from the frantic girl.

There were some boats and pokemon sailing away so he could take some solace in the fact that some people managed to get away but...

The S.S Anne still had so many people and pokemon on it... just how many got caught in that blast?

He saw Crystal shuddering and grabbed her hand, watching as she tightened the grip without any hesitation. She hadn't torn her eyes off the sobbing Green and he saw tears forming in his best friends eyes too.

"Lapee," he whispered. "Could you... do a few rounds? Maybe we'll find Silver."

Lapee had a crestfallen expression on her normally smiling face and nodded, swimming through the ocean.

Green continued to wail curling into Crystal. His best friend was always one to cry easy so he wasn't surprised at all to see her quietly weeping as well.

"Should we have looked for him?" Gold thought, clenching his fist.

No... it couldn't have been the right call. They wouldn't have been able to find him in time and make it off the ship.

But it felt really shitty. Gold made the correct call to abandon ship but... but it felt like he made the wrong call.

As Lapee somberly swam, Gold vigilantly looked for anyone that might have needed help.

He hadn't found anyone yet but that was probably because of all these ludicrously strong pokemon showing up out of nowhere.

Gold warily gazed at the sight of a flurry of flying figures dashing through the air and close to the water.

That wariness turned into horror at seeing a gargantuan Gyarados burst out near them.

It gazed over at them, sparing them a glance and Gold could immediately tell that this was not a normal Gyarados.

The Gyarados rumbled, sending vibrations through his bones and Gold realized it could probably eat him and Lapee whole.

He heard about Gyarados. Everyone heard about Gyarados. It was one of the most famously aggressive pokemon that wasn't an outright dragon.

Gyarados were rare for a reason. No one wanted to deal with a wild Gyarados. One bad move could have them levelling a city for the fun of it.

Thankfully for Gold, the sentiment of Gyarados being rare seemed to hold true because this Gyarados had an assortment of people on its back.

He let out a sigh of relief as the Gyarados eyed them for only a second longer, before snorting and turning in a direction, swimming off with the large amount of coughing people on its back.

"I-I shouldn't have let him go on his own," Green sobbed.

"...I'm sorry, Green," Crystal whispered quietly. "But we couldn't let you get hurt anymore! You took a serious blow to the head! Silver would be furious if he realized you sacrificed your life for him."

"But who's gonna be there for him when no one wants to save him?!" Green wailed.

Crystal frowned sadly at that. Green's anguish was mixing with the concussion she was likely suffering and it made her completely inconsolable.

She gnawed on her lip in concern, before a thought came to her.

"Green do you have your Pokegear with you?" she asked hesitantly, glancing worriedly at the blood matting her outfit and hands.

Green needed medical attention and badly. Crystal had already wrapped a gauze around her head but a Nurse Joy would be far better in diagnosing her.

Those big and sad green eyes stared up at her, looking slightly unfocused and Green took a worrying amount of time to answer her question.

"I... yeah I have it?" she eventually replied.

"Do you have Silver's location? Maybe we can find him like that," Crystal pressed.

Seeing the hopeful look in Green's eyes, truly made Crystal hope that this worked.

It was no wonder Silver wanted to protect her...

Green fumbled around, shivering slightly as she attempted to locate her Pokegear, before locating it and grasping it in her soaked hands.

Her brows furrowed in frustration as she tried to get it to work and Crystal mercifully took it out of her hand.

Green watched in anticipation as Crystal made it to contacts, not having to scroll due to Silvy being a favorite contact.

Crystal clicked the name that said "Silvy :D!" and focused on his location.

Despite looking at the same device, Green was too dizzy to make out what it was telling her.

"..." Crystal let out a sigh of relief. "It says he's in Vermillion City."

"He's okay?" Green whispered.

"I think so," Crystal muttered right back.

Green heard that and let out a relieved sob, sagging into Crystal and clutching her like her life depended on it.

The sound of flapping interrupted the group and Crystal hesitantly looked up, going pale at seeing a gigantic Charizard in the flesh.

"I thought it was strange that there was a Lapras idling by the area that Gyarados didn't recognize..." the figure atop the Charizard muttered.

Green perked up at that, turning a hazy gaze towards the Charizard.

"Green, it's good to know that you're safe," Lance said. He had a tense expression on his face, as his team continued soaring through the area, scouring for any survivors.

"L-Lance," Green whispered. "You're here!"

Gold's jaw dropped a bit at that, gazing at the champion of Indigo with wide eyes.

Lance's brows furrowed at that. "Yeah, it was thanks to Silver... were you looking for him?" he asked in some concern, noticing the bloodied gauze around her head, the soaked outfit, and the heavy sniffles.

Green nodded. "Mhm," she mumbled. "He was... still on the ship when it exploded I think."

The Champion's tense expression never let up, eyes flitting out to the sea.

"Silver's safe and accounted for. My companion brought him over to Vermillion because of his injuries," he said eventually. "You should be doing the same, Green. You look like you're suffering from a concussion."

Green nodded hesitantly. "Can I see him?"

"After you get checked up," Lance said firmly. "Altaria, bring them to the Center in Vermillion. We'll stay here and continue searching."

The Altaria sang its understanding and flew closer to the trio.

As they climbed the beautiful dragon, Green returned Lapee to her ball and practically fell asleep the moment she made contact with the cotton.

Lance frowned at that and turned towards Gold and Crystal. "Thank you..."

"Crystal and this is Gold," Crystal introduced to the champion, stumbling over her words a bit.

"Crystal and Gold. Thank you," Lance said with a small frown. "Green would have ignored her injuries if it was up to her."

"I get it though," Gold said quietly. "She's worried about her friend... I'd be just as reckless if Crys was in trouble."

Lance's weary features made way for a small smile. "We all would... but it's always nice when another presence can reign you in," he said.

"Get some rest yourselves, kids. You look tired. I'll handle the rest."

With that, Lance was off.

Crystal and Gold watched him go with expressions of awe.

"He's cool," Gold said bluntly.

"Yeah..." Crystal nodded.

"Taria!" Altaria agreed.

---

"How's it looking?" Lance asked Lorelei grimly, landing next to her.

Lorelei remained silent. "I've set out a search to continue conducting any rescues. We deployed both rescue pokemon and ships but... we aren't holding out hope for any further survivors."

Lance had a frown on his face. "There isn't even any shipwreck. I thought the person was hysterical... but they told me one second the ship was there and the next, a wave of power washed over it and completely eradicated it."

"I did find it strange that we didn't encounter any wreckage of the sorts... not to mention we seemed to have shown up only moments after the ship was destroyed. How did we miss that?" Lorelei wondered in concern.

What did Team Rocket do?

"Forget that for now... we need to verify the survivors," Lance sighed, running a hand through his spikes.

Lorelei nodded. "There were 5000 trainers and civilians alike on that ship, excluding their pokemon. So far, we've only accounted for approximately 1,500."

Lance said nothing at that.

1,500 survivors... on a ship with that many people. That wasn't even counting the pokemon or the Rockets.

"To think it could have been even less if I didn't receive that message," Lance frowned.

So many lives lost and for what? What was even the point of Team Rocket doing such a thing?

"Lance you look exhausted," Lorelei said worriedly. "You must get some rest."

Lance sighed wearily. "Later. There's many things I have to do. I promise I'll get some rest, but you should go spend time with your nephew."

The ice trainer glanced at him in surprise. "You knew?"

"Why do you think I said you'd be interested in him?" Lance replied, climbing atop his Charizard once more. "I'm going to meet with the psychics and see if they can detect anyone. Any extra life will make this trip worth it."

Without waiting for a response, Charizard spread his wings and took off into the night sky again.

Lorelei watched the young champion fly off with a frown.

"He's running himself ragged," she sighed, raking a hand through her hair.

This was a mess. There were no signs that Team Rocket were going to attack the S.S Anne and even if they were... how were they capable of succeeding?

Her team was still out there, searching for any signs of life but by now... if they didn't find anyone then that meant —

Lorelei banished such thoughts.

She would go join Lance in the search for now. He was right. Even one extra life saved would make the trip worth it.

---

The first thing I noted, was that it was cold.

I did not like being cold.

The second thing I noted, was that I was in a bed and it smelled suspiciously like the products you'd find in a hospital.

I did not like the hospital.

The third thing I noted, and the most important, was that there was a presence hovering me while I slept…

I did not like being hovered. I especially didn't like waking up to someone hovering me. In fact, I hated the fact that someone was so close to me while I was asleep.

...Ugh.

I groaned and my eyes fluttered open, shutting them on instinct as the bright light threatened to blind me.

Why the hell was it so goddamn bright?!

"Thirsty?"

I grunted in affirmation, nodding thankfully, with my eyes still shut, as a cup was placed in my hand.

The moment the water made its way past my lips, I let out a sigh of relief and downed the whole thing at record speeds.

"Slow down, you'll choke. You just woke up after all."

"Nagging me as soon as I wake up is something I really like so thanks for that," I said sarcastically, slowly opening my eyes to regard the mysterious voice.

What greeted me was a whole lot of red. Red eyes stared at me, behind a frame of simple yet expensive looking glasses.

Atop their head was a frame of red hair that was styled in a slight ponytail, still leaving a good amount of it free.

She was wearing a sleeveless black shirt, and had a purple mini skirt on…

"Who the hell is this hot lady and why is she hovering me?" I blinked slowly, still in the process of waking up.

Good looking or not, I didn't need anyone being this close to me. Who the hell did this lady think she was?

Next to her, dozing off, was a pale blue and white fox with flowing fur. Its coat shined with care and I briefly admired how pristine the Alolan Ninetales looked.

An Alolan Ninetales? Wait a second...

Seeing the ice type finally reminded me of who the person in the room with me was and I frowned in confusion.

"Elite 4 Lorelei," I said blandly, rubbing my head and scowling in outrage at feeling a wrap around my skull.

"Just Lorelei is fine," she said, gazing at me with an expression I couldn't identify.

She was startlingly close to me, chair practically right next to my bed, as she shut a book she had been reading.

I absentmindedly made to rip my bandages off, but tossed that idea in favor of glaring at the woman who moved my hand away.

"Stop that. Tampering with them will do no good. You need them," she reprimanded quietly.

"Don't touch me," I bit out with a scowl, moving my hand back to my bandages in clear defiance.

She frowned disapprovingly at me but dropped it for now.

"Do you remember anything?" she asked instead.

Remember anything?

I frowned and gained a pondering expression.

Last I remember, I was on the S.S Anne… and then —

Mewtwo.

I jolted violently as all the memories came flooding back and bit back a snarl of rage.

Those filthy fucking bastards Team Rocket! They actually went and attacked the S.S Anne?!

And they used Mewtwo to destroy it! So they really were willing to use Mewtwo to do their bidding...

Why were they taking so long to make a concrete move? What was the point of this?! They had such a powerful legend at their beck and call but they weren't making an immediate move to dominate the region?

This wasn't like Aqua or Magma or any other team that were pursuing a legendary.

Team Rocket already had theirs. What the hell were they doing?

Those bastards really didn't care about anyone's lives…

Wait.

"Green," I said urgently. "Is Green okay?" I asked with a tinge of concern.

That little idiot was the type to wait for me to show up before leaving. She would ignore the dire state of the ship so long as I didn't show up.

That's why I told her to leave. I knew she wouldn't otherwise.

Goddamnit if she died waiting for me… If that happened —

"Green is fine. She suffered a head blow but it wasn't anything too dangerous."

I sighed at that, falling back against my bed as relief flooded my body.

"What about my team?" I questioned with a frown.

"Green is watching them. They were restless but calmed down at the sight of her, so to distract them both we killed two birds with one stone," she replied.

I peered at Lorelei.

She was a good speaker. Professional to the core, with no inflection in her voice. It's like she knew the perfect answer to everything I was going to ask —

"I'm Elite Four Lorelei and I'm… your aunt. My sisters name is Ariana… she's your mother, right?"

I jolted violently and gazed at her with wild eyes.

"You," I whispered in realization. "You're the one who saved my life," I pointed out.

Lorelei nodded, a neutral expression on her face as she gauged my reaction.

"...And you said you're my Aunt."

Another nod.

"…"

I let out a tired sigh.

"Fuck me."

Just great. I was related to Elite 4 Lorelei. Goddamnit.

If there was one thing I was asking for, it was definitely a high ranking relative with a lot of sway over the region.

That's definitely what a criminal like me needed.

Yay.

"I would appreciate if you refrained from using such crass language," Lorelei requested firmly, expression cracking somewhat.

It sounded like a request… but she said it in a way that made it come off as a demand.

"I would appreciate if you fucked off with that. Don't bother trying to order me around. I don't care who you are," I grunted, utterly unintimidated by her.

I saw her twitch slightly, clearly displeased by that and she adjusted her glasses slightly.

"Deplorable behavior... We'll deal with that at a later time," she muttered to herself, composing herself at my rather foul language.

I watched my aunt stare at me, before both our attention was grabbed by the sight of the Ninetales waking up.

It stretched regally and trotted up to Lorelei, allowing its trainer to run a hand through its fur.

"How are you feeling?" she asked me gently.

"…" I stared at her for a moment, pondering the circumstances and completely ignoring her question.

If she was uncomfortable, she didn't show it. My fellow redhead just stared back at me, posture ramrod straight.

"When can I leave?" I asked bluntly.

"Not anytime soon. You had glass shards in your head that had to be carefully removed. We're going to ensure you are perfectly fine, not suffering any concussions, internal bleeding… etc," she listed.

I scowled in dissatisfaction.

"How long have I been here?" I asked instead.

"A full day. I rushed you to the Pokemon Center due to your injuries combined with the fact that you were submerged underwater for an extended period of time."

Damn she was efficient. She wasted no time answering my questions.

"Any lasting injuries?"

"None. How did you get that scar on your chest?" Lorelei asked immediately.

I stared at her with narrowed eyes, remaining silent.

She had a lot of gall to ask such a personal question so quickly. My supposed aunt sure was bold.

Lorelei didn't let my silence phase her. "Are you truly Ariana's… son?"

Nothing. I just continued to stare at her with my distrusting gaze.

Lorelei gazed at me, nonplussed by my silence and eventually sighed.

"...I know my reputation with the people. I'm cold, professional and seemingly stuck up. Lance and Karen frequently call me a "hardass" at times and though I disagree, I won't deny that I may give off such an image..."

I shifted uncomfortably at the tone she was taking.

"...But may I request that I speak to you as just a curious woman named Lorelei? Could you forget the Elite 4 title just for this conversation?" she asked me earnestly.

"I understand… you have reason to be wary around me… but I've recently found out after 12 years, that I may have a nephew and… I'd like to know more about him if possible," she began softly.

I frowned at the sincerity of her tone and sighed.

"I nearly got killed by a wild pokemon, that's how I got this scar… and yeah I'm her kid but don't ask me where she is because I dunno," I muttered.

To no one's surprise, Lorelei looked horrified at the part where I mentioned I almost died.

"Are you alright? If you managed to gain a scar then it must have been a serious injury," she said in blatant concern.

"I'm fine. Don't even notice it anymore," I replied calmly, shuffling uncomfortably.

Why couldn't I get out of here sooner? This place was way too stifling.

My discomfort only grew as Lorelei, a woman who I didn't even know I was related to until now, continued to gaze at me with worry in her eyes.

This was weird.

Lorelei looked as if she wanted to question me some more about my life, but must have thought better of it.

Smart. I wouldn't have answered her at all.

"If you don't mind, Silver... I'd appreciate if we could..." she trailed off, stumbling a bit over her words.

I raised a brow at that.

"How can I put this..." she tried, not sounding too sure of how to properly articulate herself.

That was pretty funny. The moment she wasn't speaking business, Lorelei was quite the awkward talker.

Must have been because she was speaking to her nephew who she didn't know.

"You want to connect with me," I finished her train of thought.

"Yes. Connect. I'd like to connect with you," Lorelei nodded in agreement.

"No."

She looked stunned at that.

"No?"

I sighed and shook my head.

"Thanks. You saved my life," I said earnestly, meaning it. "If it weren't for you, I probably would have died so I'm actually grateful for that…"

I fixed my gaze on her with my unnerving gaze and frowned at her.

"...But I don't want to connect with someone because of a person I don't even like."

Lorelei went completely silent, gazing at me with wide eyes.

"The fact of the matter is, you only want to connect because of your relations with my mom. I get that because you two are sisters, you feel obligated to form a bond with me… but you don't have to force yourself to do that and I'm not interested in that," I grunted with a shake of my head.

"My mom and I don't have a good relationship. You don't have to feel obligated for something I'm not thinking about," I waved her off, shutting my eyes and laying back down.

It was a nice gesture, but wholly unnecessary. I had given up on the idea of having useful family members so Lorelei, no matter how formidable, had no reason to do this.

"Ariana and I never had the best relationship growing up."

I paused at that, opening my eyes and locking gazes with my aunt

"She and I were polar opposites you see," Lorelei began, a faraway look in her eyes. "She was hotheaded, had a temper and foul most of the time. A troublemaker is what my parents called her," she informed me.

I resisted the urge to snort. She sounded like me.

"I was quiet and studious, always tucking my head low and focusing on the future," Lorelei said bluntly. "Ariana liked to call me the golden child. She resented me for it."

I gazed at her in mild interest.

"I looked up to her you know? She's my older sister… she was cool, was never afraid to speak her mind and did things her way, regardless of her envy. Most of all, she never let anyone bully me for how I chose to live my life. She used to say "only I'm allowed to bully Leilei," as she beat up the other kids."

Lorelei sighed. "But we were kids and deep down… a child always wants their parents acknowledgment."

I said nothing at that, merely resisting the urge to scoff.

Yeah right.

"Eventually, Ariana was eligible to gain a starter and she left with a Lapras and Murkrow… I never saw her so happy to be gone."

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested about this tale so I didn't bother interrupting her.

"I was 10 at the time, so Ariana had a two year headstart on me. When I first started my journey I made up my mind to find her and try to mend our fractured relationship," she revealed.

"She didn't contact any of us for those entire two years. It hurt and I didn't really get why she refused to contact us as kids," Lorelei sighed.

"You didn't realize you were the golden child?" I asked her with a raised brow.

She shook her head. "I didn't realize they were neglecting her… how could I? It took me a bit more years of traveling to realize what went on but I think by then, Ariana let her grudge go. We eventually met up again. She had traveled through some different regions at that point and was a notably strong trainer."

There was fondness in her voice. Lorelei truly did have fond memories of my horrible mother…

"And then it all went downhill… and it was my fault."

I tilted my head at that.

"How so?" I asked, far too invested in this tale to just stop listening.

I wonder if it was because it was about my mother...

"...When I was 16, I entered the Indigo League. I had been traveling for a few years at this point. My strength had grown immeasurably. I had an affinity with Ice and Water types and my team was formidable so I figured I could join," Lorelei said softly. "It was the tournament I was going to use to put myself forward as a candidate of the Elite 4… and can you believe that Ariana happened to join this tournament too?" she asked me with a frown.

"…" I could take a guess where this was going.

"It was awful timing. We didn't discuss it or anything. Both of us were surprised to see each other. We battled our way through the bracket… and we met in the finals…"

"It wasn't close. I… won and I only lost three pokemon in the process… and that was the biggest mistake I could have ever made."

Lorelei shuddered softly, prompting Ninetales to sink further into her.

"I knew I was talented. I was even recognized and trained by Gym Leader Pryce. That tournament wasn't one I expected to struggle with at all… I knew I was going to win… but," she trailed off.

"I was a fool. I knew my older sister envied me but she managed to move past that… and I dragged her right back down to that pit. I never felt more guilt, than seeing her face after the end of that battle…"

Lorelei actually looked sad at that moment. "She looked at me without any emotion at all. There was no hint. No happiness, sadness, anger... just nothing. An important milestone for me… was turned into such a disaster because of that. I haven't seen her since. She disappeared off the face of the planet afterwards."

Ah. So that's how it was. My mom got her soul crushed by her little sister.

Unfortunate. Some parents sucked. Ariana's parents sucked and Ariana herself sucked.

I guess I also had to suffer the consequences of that.

Hooray.

"I know you think I'm doing this out of obligation… but I want to at least get to know one family member… and I'd enjoy it if we were on good terms," Lorelei said truthfully, gazing at me with an earnest expression.

"…"

Well, she did save my life.

"Alright, what do you wanna do?" I asked simply.

Lorelei stared at me, before a small smile adorned her face.

"How about we just have a conversation and take it from there? I'd like to know more about you," she requested.

I snorted. "Sure. I'm not a pleasant person to have a conversation with though."

"I'm aware. We'll be fixing that."

"I'd like to see you try."

---

Lorelei was kind of a stickler. She twitched at my foul language, attempted to correct me on multiple occasions when I used said foul language and dearly looked like she wanted to reprimand me for using that foul language.

Unfortunately, I was very unintimidated by most people and Lorelei was no exception so cowing me into submission, with the stern aura of an Ice Queen, was not something she could do.

Once she seemed to resign to that fact, she just took the time to learn anything she could about me…

Which to be fair, wasn't much but even if I wanted to tell her stuff… it's not like I had the memory for it.

"That reminds me," Lorelei muttered, pulling a file from who knows where. "Forgive me for appearing too worried but… I did some research when trying to learn more about you and I noticed some things."

She missed the way I stiffened.

"You started your journey approximately four months ago, but unlike most trainers, it took you nearly two months to challenge a Gym Leader, all while amassing a team beyond just the Zorua you began with."

"She's dangerously smart," I noted with a frown.

"Now normally, I would commend you for this. Not many trainers would take the time to find their team first, train them and then battle the Gym Leaders but I noticed something alarming..." Lorelei frowned.

Alarming? Was it the team I had amassed?

"...You didn't use a single Pokemon Center up until you arrived to Vermilion City."

…

Fuck.

Pokemon Center trips were logged?! What in the fuck do you mean they were logged?!

But she said I didn't go to one up until Vermilion City… that wasn't true. I went to one in Hoenn —

Joy.

Did… Joy not record my trips at the Hoenn Pokemon Center? No that wasn't quite right…

Did she clear them? But why would she do that?

Was it… because she thought my family situation was that bad?

"Are you in danger, Silver? Were you trying to stay hidden?" Lorelei asked me softly, resting a single hand on my arm.

I sucked in a breath at the cool (a byproduct of being an ice type trainer I imagine) touch and ripped my arm away from her.

"Don't touch me," I scowled.

Lorelei made no reaction to my action. She just continued to stare at me with those bright red eyes of hers.

"Silver. With your assistance, You single-handedly saved hundreds, no thousands of lives at the S.S Anne. You were one of the first to take initiative and you helped us put some control over a catastrophe."

I shifted uncomfortably at that detail.

"And despite all you did, you nearly died. If not for how fast I rushed you to the Center, you would have needed stitches at the minimum…"

Lorelei gazed at me with visible concern.

"And in spite of all I just said, you hardly look phased by these things. You aren't panicking at being in the hospital, you haven't asked further about the injuries you sustained… I'm worried. Forgive me for coming off as condescending, but these aren't normal reactions for a child," she admitted with a frown.

"Your first mistake was comparing me to what you've seen before. Don't bother doing that, I'm not like anyone," I said with a sigh, leaning back as I mulled over this unexpected situation.

Having an overprotective aunt, who happened to notice all these details, made my life way more stressful.

"My danger is the same as every other trainers," I informed her with a scowl. "Team Rocket is all our issues, so of course I wanted to fuck them over. If I didn't, we would have just died."

"And I won't let that happen," Lorelei said protectively. "If you're ever in trouble, Silver… please don't hesitate to give me a call. I'll be there as quick as I can."

She really was hellbent on maintaining a relationship with me…

A normal family member sounded…

"Whatever," I grunted, handing my Pokegear over to her.

Lorelei looked startled by my action, before she realized what I was doing. A small smile made its way to her face and she delicately took it out of my hand.

"I hope you don't use this to try to reconnect with my mom," I said gruffly.

"This isn't about reconnecting with Ariana. This is about reconnecting with you."

...

If she wanted to get close with her family, who was I to deny her that?

And… it was nice in a way for someone to be interested in me for something as simple as being family.

It's not like I planned on acknowledging my other family members. At least Lorelei was normal.

And she saved my life. I didn't want to owe her for that. This seemed like a good form of payback. Since she saved my life, I'd allow her to do what she wanted and find a spot in it.

As my aunt put her number on my phone… I distantly realized that all my plans of staying hidden had gone completely haywire.

The champion had my number, my aunt was apart of the Elite 4, I was traveling with the main character of Kanto… and I had an assortment of people invested in my journey.

Before I could properly begin my process of edgy teen brooding, a rapid set of footsteps stamped towards my door and pushed it open without hesitation.

I jolted a bit in shock at that, eyes sharpening in alertness but at seeing how relaxed Lorelei's Ninetales was, I simmered down a bit…

And that simmering down allowed way for… relief because Leaf Green was crying and tear stricken but she was alive and I didn't end up getting her killed.

"SILVY!" Green sobbed in relief, launching herself across the room. "I'm so happy you're alive! I-I thought you were… I thought something so bad happened to you and it m-made me so saaaad!" she cried, squeezing me with all her might.

I exhaled at that, unable to muster up a snide response because… because those were genuine tears of terror for my well-being.

And I was relieved she wasn't dead either.

"Idiot… I thought you would have tried staying behind until you saw me," I replied quietly, returning the hug with a relieved sigh. "I thought you waiting for me, would have gotten you caught in that explosion. If you died because of that…" I trailed off.

Green withered in guilt. "I did… I tried waiting for you. I was going to wait until you showed up but Gold and Crystal forced me to jump ship," she admitted, trembling in my grip.

"Good," I said firmly. "Don't ever prioritize me over yourself, Leaf. If your life is in danger, make sure you get to safety. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

Green flinched at that, gazing at me with wide teary eyes. There was something there that I couldn't identify and it confused me for a moment.

"...Your life is important too, Silvy. Make sure you also prioritize yourself," she returned with a sniff.

I stared at her dumbly for a bit, before I snorted.

"Idiot. That was never in doubt. I wanna stay alive y'know?" I asked rhetorically.

She looked immensely relieved at that for some reason.

"Good," she said firmly, tightening the hug on me.

I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of concern at seeing how hard she was shuddering.

For all the ways I called her annoying and bothered her… I didn't want anything terrible happening to Green. I especially didn't want it happening on my behalf.

Green was annoying. But she was an earnest and cheerful girl who was just trying to have a journey and become strong.

I sighed at put a hand firmly to her head, patting her and getting an even harder tremble.

"I need to get even stronger," I thought with a dark frown.

I didn't realize Green had the exact same thought as me.

"How'd you get this?" I asked, moving her hair out of the way to inspect the bandages wrapped around her head.

"I hit my head on the railing after an explosion hit the ship," she replied.

I frowned at that. "Was this after I told you to leave?"

"..." Green said nothing at all, averting her gaze.

"Did you try to keep looking for me after taking a blow to the head?" I pressed.

The silence was all the answer I needed.

I sighed. "Green," I said patiently.

She stiffened at the use of her name and glanced at me like a child about to get scolded.

Well she was, so it was a pretty good look.

"I appreciate that," I told her first and foremost. "I appreciate that my wellbeing is important to you... but don't think I'll be happy if something happens to you because you were stuck worrying about me," I chastised.

"That'll actually piss me off more than anything. I meant it when I said prioritize yourself. I understand that you were afraid... but you can't be that irrational next time."

Green nodded glumly. "Sorry," she mumbled.

I sighed. "Don't be. You tried to do what you thought was right. It was just to a fault."

I pat her head at that with a small smile. "Thanks Leaf, you're a good friend."

You would think I gave her the world at that simple statement. If you looked hard enough, you'd see literal stars forming in her eyes as my traveling companion beamed at me.

"Of course Silvy!"

"I'm going to go check up on some things," Lorelei said, reminding us of her presence.

A red dust of mortification covered Green's cheeks and she bowed to the smiling Elite 4.

There was a proud look in her eyes as she gazed at us both and I turned away from her, not liking the way it made my stomach turn.

"S-Sorry, Elite 4 Lorelei. I didn't mean to interrupt you two. You must have been talking about something important and it was really rude of me to barge in," she stammered in embarrassment.

Lorelei idly shifted her ponytail behind her shoulder and waved Green off. "Don't worry, Green. I've been hogging my nephew for more than enough time. I don't blame you for wanting to see him," she smiled gently.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to read the reports on this… disaster to put lightly. Silver, later on you will likely be getting questioned so that we can verify your perspective on the event that took place. If you don't feel like speaking to the Officer Jenny, I can conduct the interview."

I gazed at her and nodded. "Sure. I'd prefer to speak to you if I have to speak to someone."

Lorelei looked pleased at that and made her way out of the room, Ninetales following her dutifully.

As she quietly shut the door, Green finally picked her jaw off the floor.

"D-Did Elite 4 Lorelei just call you her nephew?" Green asked me dumbly.

"Yeah… apparently she's my aunt," I replied idly, watching her take Lorelei's seat and (somehow) pull herself closer to my bed.

"W-Wow! That's insane! Elite 4 Lorelei is really mysterious you know?! I never would have thought you of all people would be related to her!" Green gaped.

"I know right? I was just as shocked as you," I snorted.

It was just my luck that my mother was a criminal and my aunt was apart of the Elite 4.

Wonder how that meeting would go down if they ever met again.

"You just found out Elite 4 Lorelei is your auntie and you don't even look fazed! I'd be screaming to the world! Lorelei is really famous!" she exclaimed.

I gazed at her with a pondering expression and decided… Green deserved a bit of trust.

"Being honest, I do care a bit," I told her with a sigh, crashing my head back into my pillow. "It's just… I don't really have a good relationship with my parents. Family isn't really something I've been thinking of so to be blindsided by someone that's making the effort..."

Green sobered up at that and nodded in sympathetically. "You… aren't letting your hopes up?"

I frowned at that. "Sorta… but she wants to be a proper aunt and I won't deny her that. Besides, she can be useful to us."

Green couldn't stop from sweating. "You're twisted Silvy… but I get you!"

I nodded with a smug smirk. "So how's my team? Are they okay?" I asked in concern.

My companion sighed. "They're fine. They really want to see you and now that you can accept visitors, I'll bring them over. They… really love you, you know? Gaia and Freyja were crying and have been spending time with Lapee. Loki and Ares have been sparring nonstop with Saury and Vee to take their mind off things… it's been hectic."

I frowned at that. "I want to see them soon. I gotta make sure they know I'm fine."

Green nodded and shot up. "I'll go get them! I've been taking care of them in your stead… hopefully you don't mind!"

"It's fine if you went through my bag to do that," I waved off. "You were using it for my team so I don't mind… is my bag alright? Anything destroyed?"

She shook her head. "Your bag is waterproof and you sealed it shut! Nothing was damaged in the process and I made sure to keep it away from anyone who might have pried through!" she explained to me.

I blinked before an appreciative expression made its way to my face. "Good job, Leaf."

She beamed. "Call me Green!"

"No."

"I hate you!"

I chuckled at the fact that she said that with the same beaming expression.

"I'll go get your team now! Don't move an inch, I'll tell the nurse if you do!" she threatened, rushing out of the room with a wave.

I watched her go and sighed.

Lately, Green's presence had been a lot more welcomed by me. She caught on to my mannerisms and life very easily and our synergy had reached a state that made her… a lot more trustworthy.

She was… a damn good friend.

---

I let out a wheezing laugh, as nearly my whole team bombarded me with affections.

Gaia and Freyja were crying and I hastily put a reassuring hand on them both in hopes of calming them down.

Somehow, Ares managed to get up here and I watched her rub that hard shell against me, careful to not crush me under her new weight.

"It's okay guys, I'm alright," I soothed fondly.

It was always shocking, seeing how much my team cared for me.

I… liked it.

Gaia whimpered in relief and I sighed at that, wiping her tears gingerly.

"I wanted to thank all of you for protecting me," I addressed them suddenly, making them perk up. "Seriously, you guys did amazing for how sudden that was sprung on us."

"All of you saved my life in one way or another and I'm grateful to you all so thank you," I said earnestly.

"And that includes you Freyja."

Freyja perked up at that, watching in awe as I wiped away her tears with a small smile.

"All of you did amazing… but despite all your setbacks, despite your self imposed status as the weakest on the team… you were still strong enough to give me the strength to survive. If it weren't for you, I don't know if I woulda had the resolve to keep going."

My team knew how thankful I was to them… but Freyja was the type to always downplay her involvement.

But Freyja didn't understand that she played a huge part in motivating me to get out of that crushing water.

If I didn't see her trying her hardest to save me. If I didn't see my so called weak little fish trying her best to get me out of that water, terror in her eyes at the thought of losing me, I don't know if I'd still be here.

"You're a hero, Freyja. Never forget that you saved my life," I smiled earnestly at her.

Freyja teared up at that and nodded at my words, leaning into my touch with a happy cry.

"It was a bit bumpy, but I'm no doubt alive because of all of you and I won't forget that," I said earnestly. "This is just another hitch in the road. But we'll get so strong, that we'll pave new roads and patch up all the hitches in them."

Ares rumbled in agreement and I smiled.

"So what's the plan Leaf?" I asked her conversationally.

She was gazing at me in awe, a fire in her eyes at my words. "Since we're in Vermilion, I was thinking of heading to Lavender through Route 11, then we can just head north through Route 12!"

I pondered that, eventually nodding.

I forgot that since there was no convenient obstructions like a massive sleeping Snorlax, heading through Lavender like this was probably significantly faster than the Rock Tunnel route.

"Fine by me. I'm guessing you wanna fill out your last slot with a ghost?" I asked curiously.

Green nodded enthusiastically. "Ghosts are tricky and hard to command but if you can manage to get one under your control, it's super beneficial in the long run!"

I found myself nodding with her. "Maybe I'll look into catching one myself. If I see one that I like, I'll give it a go."

"We've got a plan! We'll head out as soon as you're recovered!" Green beamed, pushing herself up. "After Lavender, we can go to Celadon through Saffron or the underground road!"

I nodded at that with a curious expression. "That's a good plan. Alright then."

She shot me a thumbs up, before turning it into a wave. "Alright, I'm gonna go get some sleep! Now that I know you're okay, I can get some real sleep! My head kinda hurts!"

I waved her off. "Sure thing, good night Leaf."

"Night Silvy!"

I watched her go and a yawn left my mouth.

"I'm a little tired myself and I missed you guys so everyone find a spot and I'm going to sleep," I grunted, closing my eyes.

With that, I fell asleep immediately. A pleased sigh left my mouth at the warmth of my team and fell into a dreamless slumber.

---

I awoke to more visitors.

This time, it was Gold and Crystal who decided to visit me.

"Sup," Gold nodded.

"Hey, Silver!" Crystal greeted enthusiastically, placing some flowers next to my bed.

I blinked at the kind action and nodded in greeting at the two.

"Hey," I said simply. "Didn't expect to see you guys, thought you would have moved on by now."

Gold raised a brow. "You serious? After what you did, there's no way we would feel good just leaving you behind."

Crystal nodded immediately. "You saved our lives, Silver! You kept a calm head and properly guided us on the right way to handle the situation!"

I grunted. "I just did what I needed to do to make the situation salvageable. If anything, I should be thanking you for making sure Leaf didn't kill herself waiting for me."

Gold snorted. "She was really about to. I understand her worry though… I woulda done the same for Crys! But I know Crys would be pissed if I risked myself for her and I know you'd be the same way, so I had to get her outta there."

"She looked so heartbroken… I'm glad to see her smiling again," Crystal said softly.

"Tell me about it! She socked me in the jaw and I still feel it," Gold complained, not seriously offended by it.

That got a snort out of me. Green was picking up a lot of my mannerisms.

"I'll apologize on her behalf," I said begrudgingly. "And stop looking so guilty," I demanded, glaring at Gold.

Gold flinched back. "You could tell?" he said sheepishly.

"Course I can. You wear your heart on your sleeve," I scoffed. "If you're guilty at making the decision to leave me behind, don't be. It was the right one. Sometimes you gotta make tough decisions."

Gold frowned at that. "But it sucks. It felt like... it felt like both options ended with me losing."

I sighed. "Sometimes you run into situations like that. Pick the one where you lose the least. That's what a leader does."

"...Being a leader must be hard," Gold muttered, fiddling with his quiff as a contemplative expression took over.

"It's never easy," I replied truthfully.

Crystal gazed at me with a searching gaze, those bright blue eyes looking for something.

Eventually she smiled. "You're smart, Silver."

"I know," I replied with a snort.

"We just wanted to see that you were alright before continuing our journey," Crystal informed me. "We're gonna head south to Fuchsia City now. We want to see what the Safari Zone has to offer!"

The Safari Zone…

"Smart. You two could use a new member or two," I nodded. "You'll need to become as strong as possible, if you plan on calling yourselves my rival."

Both Gold and Crystal's eyes shone competitively at that.

"You and Green are way stronger than we expected but you aren't unbeatable! Next time, we'll beat you both!" Crystal exclaimed passionately.

"Fires me up just thinking about the day I win a battle against you two!" Gold grinned eagerly.

I snorted. "Whatever you say."

Pleasantries over, the duo waved goodbye and left to continue their own journey.

Fuchsia eh? That was opposite of Green and I, so it'd be a long while before we met again.

I wonder how their teams would look next time I saw them...

Hopefully it was formidable. They were probably on Team Rocket's radar now so they'd have to be careful.

---

A gentle knock on the door interrupted my bored scrolling and I glanced at the door.

"Fuck off," I said idly, turning back down to my Pokegear as I ran a hand through Loki's fur. Gaia was snoozing across my legs, effectively trapping me (she did it on purpose) and despite the fact that I could punt her light ass to the other side of the room, I was obviously not going to do that.

I didn't even blink as my door opened anyways.

"They told me you'd say something like that. I was told if you said it, I could just come in anyways."

I blinked at that, gazing up in some confusion at the unknown voice.

It was a girl. Definitely not one I recognized and she looked absolutely nothing like any main character.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked curiously, gauging her appearance.

She had on some shorts and a form fitting shirt underneath an open jacket. If I had to guess I'd say she was like, 17?

A trainer by the looks of it. She was definitely dressed like one.

"Silver, right?" she asked. "I'm Maria. I'm no one special or anything like that... but you saved my life back on the S.S Anne."

I stiffened at that. "Look. I really am not looking to take credit for that, so there's no need to come all the way over here to thank me," I waved her off.

"You stopped me from getting assaulted," she informed me.

I blinked and peered at her. "Huh?"

Black hair, brown eyes, somewhat pretty but ultimately unrecognizable.

Yeah this was just a completely random person. When the hell did we meet —

"Oh," I said in realization. "You're the girl with 7 badges. The one who was dressed in her underwear."

I remember now. She was the one that dumbass rocket was getting feisty over.

I snorted as she blushed in embarrassment.

"Please don't bring that up. I'm just here to thank you," she mumbled.

"If that's all you came here to do, you were better off just continuing your journey," I waved her off.

Maria rolled her eyes. "Green was right. You really are an ass."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah I know. Now is that all you wanted?"

The random girl sighed. "Look, I'm trying to thank you for something that's really important to me. You really got me out of a tough spot and if you didn't take out that Rocket... I saw what happened to the ship. There's no way I would have survived if you didn't wake me up."

I frowned at that. "I was just making sure scum like that didn't get away with doing whatever they wanted. Stooping to levels like that isn't something anyone should be cool with," I said truthfully.

That Rocket mentioned wanting to have some fun, right before I smashed my foot into his nuts. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he had been intending on doing.

"And I wanted to thank you for that," she said earnestly, smiling at me.

I grunted. "Whatever. Don't expect someone to always be there to bail you out."

She rolled her eyes. "You're exhausting to talk to and it's only been like 3 minutes."

"That's how I feel when someone opens their mouth around me," I replied with a sneer. "Now get out. My hospitality limit has been reached and I'm already pissed that I'm cooped up in here."

Maria rolled her eyes. "You're so grumpy. You remind me of a feisty Liepard."

I blinked at that. Was that her way of calling me a cat?

"Alright alright, I'll head out now," she said stretching slightly and turning towards the door.

"Oh and before I forget..."

I watched warily as she approached me. I may have been cooped to this bed but I was very willing to kick the shit outta her if she tried anything.

I blinked in utter confusion as she leaned and kissed me on the cheek.

Huh?

"That's thanks for saving me... and don't say "I guess" when someone mentions a girl's looks next time. That's offensive," she said cheekily.

"See ya Silver, try not to be so exhausting next time. You're a cute kid so you'd be more popular that way. If we ever run into each other again, I'll try to properly repay you," Maria waved.

I blinked in confusion.

"Is she fucking stupid?" I mused. "Why would I want to be more popular? I already know I'm good looking."

"Bay," Gaia growled warningly, glaring daggers at the spot the girl was at.

I sighed deeply and pat Gaia to placate her. "Who the hell kisses someone randomly like that? Does she think this is some romantic movie?"

Whatever. This is why I hated interacting with people and I especially hated interacting with randoms.

---

You know, it was dawning on me how many people cared for me, when Jasmine burst into my room with tears in her eyes.

My shy and dainty best friend, launched herself across the room and directly onto my bed.

I let out a way too familiar sounding grunt, as Jasmine crushed me in a hug, practically smushing me back onto the bed.

"Jasmine?" I said in clear surprise, returning the hug to the best of my ability as she sobbed atop me. "What are you doing back in Kanto?"

"What am I doing back in Kanto?!" Jasmine shouted tearfully, glaring at me with all the fury of a chipmunk. "Do you think I wouldn't visit my best friend in the hospital?! Gym Leader be damned! I would have visited you no matter what anyone said!"

Green and I blinked in shock at her use of foul language, before Jasmine's fierce expression immediately melted and her tears renewed.

She grabbed the yelping Green and dragged her into the hug, just letting her tears soak the both of us.

"I-I'm so glad you two are okay!" she cried, squeezing us. "When I heard that the S.S Anne was attacked, I began to fear the worst and then… and then Champion Lance told me you were in the hospital!"

I sighed and ran a soothing hand through her neat hair.

Jasmine whimpered. "I-I can't believe Team Rocket would attack you guys. I promise I'll make them regret all their decisions! They better hope I never see any of them or Rusty is going to have lunch!" she swore.

"It's alright Jas," I soothed.

"We're fine now!" Green agreed, hugging our distraught friend. "They'll pay for this, alright?"

Jasmine nodded in our grasp, sniffing and wiping her tears away.

"Let's stop being sad," I said with a shake of my head, reaching for my bag. "Here, I got you a gift."

Jasmine sniffed, not removing herself from the bed and watching with wide eyes as I pulled out a small Steelix plush, followed by a giant one of a Piplup.

"I won a bunch of these on the ship and saved these two for you."

My best friend gasped, mouth opening wide in, franky adorable, awe as she tentatively accepted the two gifts and I watched as the tears in her eyes renewed.

"T-This is my first time receiving a gift from a friend!" Jasmine cried, wiping her eyes unsuccessfully as she grinned at me. "Thank you Silver!"

I sighed. "Sometimes I think you abuse how adorable you can be sometimes," I pointed out.

Jasmine flushed red immediately, before yelping as she was bombarded by an army of plush.

"Here Jas! You can have some from me too!" Green beamed. "You never got a gift from a friend?"

"N-No?" Jasmine mumbled in confusion, struggling to contain all the plush she suddenly got.

"Alright! From now on we'll get you all the gifts you could think of!"

Jasmine's mouth opened at that, gazing helplessly at me and sighing in resignation as I simply flashed her a smug smirk.

"Have you got any new team members?" I asked curiously.

Jasmine perked up at that and nodded enthusiastically.

"I did actually! I got two new pokemon after you started giving me such useful advice! I have no idea how you know so much by I finally got the Ferroseed I mentioned to you and I'm in the process of securing a Tinkatink for more power!" she exclaimed happily.

Ferroseed... now that was an awesome damn choice. I very much approved of that one.

I flicked open my pokedex to gaze at the one named Tinkatink.

I only took a single glance at the first form of Jasmine's upcoming pokemon before I immediately came to a conclusion.

"It's literally you in Pokemon form."

Green perked up, glanced over Jasmine's shoulder, gazed at the picture and burst out into laughter.

"H-Holy shit it really is you!" she cackled, getting an amused huff out of me.

Jasmine looked mortified at our observations. "T-That's so rude of you two to say! I've been getting better because of you both!"

I nodded. "Yeah you've already evolved into Tinkatuff. They're almost menaces but not quite yet… we just gotta turn you into a Tinkaton. These little fellas are demons," I said, looking completely impressed by the final form of Jasmine's fairy.

Tinkaton? This little girl was a real monster.

I approved tremendously.

"Wow, so doesn't that make you her trainer?!" Green pointed out. "You're the reason she's slowly becoming a menace after all!"

I nodded with a pondering expression. "That makes a lot of sense to me. What do you think, Jas?"

Jas looked at us with a horrified expression. "You two are horrible… I can't even peacefully visit you," she said with a defeated sigh.

I chuckled at that. "So I guess you can't stay for too long right? How long do you have?"

"Just a day. I'll be leaving before night hits… I just wanted to make sure you two were okay," Jasmine said with a relieved smile, diligently placing all the plushies she got into her bag.

Knowing her, she was going to set them all up as soon as she got home and then send us a picture of it.

"Alright, we can chat. Just the 3 of us then!" Green beamed.

I nodded in agreement, watching as Jasmine slowly but surely realized she had been squeezing me atop my bed practically the whole time.

As I watched Green begin teasing the red faced Jasmine, I felt strangely light.

These two were my friends. It was surreal to think about but yes, I had friends and they meant a lot to me…

I couldn't let Mewtwo and Team Rocket succeed. I had to stop them in anyway I knew how…

And that meant I needed to get strong.

But would I ever be strong enough to stop a legendary? I don't even think Lance could stop Mewtwo…

My eyes narrowed slightly, running through a bunch of plans… before coming to an epiphany.

This could either work, or end up being really fucking dumb.

But hey, it was either that or I get captured…

Alright yeah, I'd try to make this plan work. If it worked, perfect. If it didn't, I was probably going to die.

Oh well. It was a last resort kind of thing anyways. Actually, if I thought about it, I had a couple of last resorts. Surely one of them was bound to work?

Only time would tell.

"Silvy! Jas and I are gonna go get some food! You must be tired of all the hospital stuff so we'll get you some too!"

I blinked at that, focusing once more on Jasmine and Green and noticing that they were both staring at me with those innocent expressions of theirs.

"Tell me about it. Something actually good please. I'd kill for a burger," I agreed with them, watching as they both got off my bed and patted themselves.

"Kay! We'll be right back!" Green beamed.

Jasmine smiled and waved, before the two departed.

Yeah… I'd protect them both. These were my friends and that innocence may have been something I didn't have… but they didn't have to lose theirs.

I sighed.

So this was what it was like to care for people. Knowing that you could handle things in a smarter fashion, but being unable to because it wasn't just you that mattered anymore.

It… was as nice of a feeling as it was terrible.

Truly a double edged sword.

---

"You look like you're in a bad mood."

I glared at Lance as soon as he said that. "Speak for yourself. I've been healed for a few days now. You look like shit."

Lance tried to hide his exhaustion by laughing at my comment but I narrowed my eyes at him, peering at those bags under his striking yellow gaze.

"It's been a hectic few days. I would have visited you sooner, but there were a lot of things I needed to do," Lance informed me, ruffling a giant hand on my head and withdrawing before I could bite it.

I straightened up slightly, at seeing my aunt appear from behind the giant champion.

"Bad?" I asked, nodding towards Lorelei and watching as her serious expression, made way for a tiny smile.

Lance's easy expression vanished for a moment. "It's been a mess, but this is far better than the alternative… and that's thanks to you, Silver."

I blinked.

"We received various testimonies on your involvement in the S.S Anne," Lance revealed to me with a tired smile. "One even said you stopped them from even getting assaulted. That one really stuck with me."

"Not only that, I spoke to Green and she told me you were the first one aware that Team Rocket was on the ship, utilizing her and two other capable trainers to bring eyes on their involvement. You kept a cool head and immediately messaged me, ensuring a call went through as well so that I had a higher chance to see it... but not saying anything to compromise your position."

I shifted uncomfortably as his sharp gaze landed on me.

"It's no exaggeration to say that you spearheaded the rescue of so many people and helped largely thwart whatever Team Rocket wanted to do so I'd like to thank you as Champion of Indigo. You did your part masterfully and I'm truly thankful for that," Lance said, bowing towards me in a display that I knew was completely out of character for the proud dragon in human flesh.

"…Stop that," I grunted, looking away from him. "I just did whatever was going to give me and Green the best chance of survival."

"And that decision impacted thousands of innocents," Lorelei said softly. "The casualties were numerous… but you helped save many people. That is an achievement worth acknowledging and we cannot thank you enough."

…

This was awkward. I didn't want such praise.

"Whatever…" I muttered. "You have questions for me?"

Lorelei nodded and stepped forward, taking reign of the conversation.

"Could you tell us your perspective of the events that transpired on the S.S Anne?" Lorelei asked, releasing a Jynx from the pokeball.

I gazed at the humanoid pokemon with an interested gaze, resisting the urge to snort as it used its abilities to bring out a clipboard.

It looked at me for a brief moment and I felt a slight tingle, before Jynx recoiled back harshly.

My brows furrowed at that and Lorelei chanced a glance at her pokemon in some confusion.

Perhaps it was the type of pokemon, because Jynx seemed to have reacted a lot worse than Bronzy did... in fact Bronzy seemed to be the one with the best reaction to me to date.

I frowned.

"I woke up in the middle of the night randomly. I decided to leave my room for a bit and when I opened the door, there was a Rocket trying to break into Green's room. Naturally, I reacted not great to that and dispatched of him, before dragging his unconscious body into my room."

Lorelei interrupted me for a moment. "You dispatched of him? How so?" she asked curiously.

I gazed at her. "I grabbed his head and slammed it into a wall. Then I stomped on his face twice," I replied truthfully.

Lorelei pursed her lips at my violent words, while Lance smirked idly.

"After knocking him unconscious, I messaged Champion Lance and called him for good measure so he could see. Then I stripped him of his clothes and donned on Team Rocket's attire."

"Why?" Lorelei asked, not liking the conclusion she came to.

"To pose as them and move around more freely," I grunted. "It was an easy solution that Loki, my Zorua, made easier. I knew I couldn't do this alone, so I called Green and two of my other… friends. Their names are Gold and Crystal."

Both of them nodded in recognition at the names and I continued.

"I informed them of the situation and instructed the three of them to meet up with each other and wake up anyone they could. Meanwhile, I would pose as Team Rocket and disrupt them as much as possible."

"That's incredibly reckless," Lorelei chastised, losing the professional air slightly in place of concern. "You could have been hurt."

"I was hurt," I said dryly. "I disrupted about 5 groups of rockets. After saving a girl who was about to be assaulted, I was blindsided by one of them and they smashed some sort of glass onto my head."

Both Lorelei and Lance clenched their fist at that.

"That would explain the head wounds, concussion and glass bits," Lorelei frowned deeply.

"My team heard the scuffle and they… dealt with the rocket who did that," I grunted. "They saved my life. After patching me up, I was planning on heading to Green's location, but then the ship blew up and a hole got ripped where I was running, before I fell into the ocean."

The memory was still rather fresh and I shuddered at the chilling water that had grabbed me from all directions.

"I thought I was gonna die," I admitted with a small sigh. "While swimming, I could see everything. I could see all the pokemon staring curiously at the mayhem taking place. I saw the Tentacruel wondering if it was worth it to use me as food. I saw the Magikarps and Golden swimming away… and I saw my Feebas trying her hardest to save my life."

Lance's brows furrowed at that.

"Afterwards, I saw a figure reaching out for me and I grabbed it. And then I saw you and you introduced yourself as my aunt to a person that just got out of a life threatening situation," I said dryly.

Lorelei had the decency to cough slightly, turning away from that and I snorted in amusement, watching as Jynx finished writing it all down.

"Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, Silver… now I just have one more. Are you aware of what could have destroyed the ship?"

…

"A pokemon probably," I said with a frown. "I don't know what it was, but a pokemon definitely destroyed the ship."

They did not need to know about Mewtwo. League moral needed to be high and knowing there was a Legendary they very likely couldn't defeat, would only be a net negative.

I'd have to be the one to deal with that…

"I see…" Lorelei mused. "Right. Thank you again, Silver."

"No problem Ms. Aunt," I grunted. "Now when am I free to go?"

"I'd appreciate if you referred to me in a less sarcastic tone," Lorelei pressed, accepting the notes out of Jynx's hand.

"No can, Ms. Aunt," I replied.

Lance snorted. "You've actually been clear for a while now but they'll let you go tomorrow. I just told them not to release you before I got to interview you because you would have left beforehand."

I scowled fiercely. "Fuck off you shit champion! Stop holding me back or else I'll stomp your nuts out!"

Lorelei frowned deeply at my tone and language."Silver —"

Lance chuckled. "You need to stay still a bit. You remind me of a worse version of myself in terms of recklessness. Sometimes it's nice to take things easy."

I scoffed.

"Lance is not wrong. Pacing yourself is important Silver. You're intelligent and you use that intelligence to fuel your reckless actions… please also use it to regulate yourself," Lorelei requested.

"...And use it to gain better manners," she added, stressing this one the most.

"I'll think about it but probably not," I informed her, gauging my aunt.

"That reminds me," Lance suddenly said, gazing at me with suspicious eyes. "Your Shelgon."

I blinked. "Yeah, caught me by surprise too. Why's she so big? You have any idea?"

Lance pursed his lips. "It's likely because of something called the Alpha Phenomena."

Alpha Phenomena? What was that?

"You've seen Green's Ivysaur, right?" Lance asked curiously.

I nodded. "Yeah hard to miss Saury."

"That's because he's an Alpha Pokemon. They're bigger than the average pokemon and stronger too."

"It's a very recessive gene," Lorelei added. "You won't just find an Alpha Pokemon in the wild."

"That would also explain why Ares has the recessive ability," Lance muttered.

Oh.

Ohhhh.

That's why Ares' mom refused to let her go!

Oh shit I was an even bigger criminal than I thought! Ares was an actual psycho for seeking me out though, I doubted she knew all the details.

I'd say I was lucky, but I nearly died getting this damn Shelgon and Green got an Alpha as her starter!

"What's in the egg?" I asked Lance suddenly.

Lance snorted in amusement. "Curious about it huh? I was going to offer up a different egg, but we received that one as a gift instead. It's a pokemon from a faraway region... you're smart so you might have heard of it but no harm if you haven't," he told me.

I furrowed my brows.

I didn't really want an egg of a pokemon whose identity I didn't know but it's not like I was starving for a 6th pokemon.

"So you won't tell me what it is?" I asked.

"Nope."

Asshole. Whatever.

"Are you two heading back to Indigo?" I asked instead.

"We've dispatched forces to help Vermilion deal with the aftermath and Surge has taken a personal interest in this," Lorelei informed me.

"He's as pissed about this as we are," Lance sighed with a firm frown. "If you hear anything more about Team Rocket —"

"Do not hesitate to call me. I will be there as quick as possible," Lorelei finished his statement.

"Will do," I replied easily.

"And… don't be afraid to message me for miscellaneous things… I truly don't mind," Lorelei tried to say as normally as possible.

Unfortunately it wasn't normal.

I snorted in amusement. "Alright, aunt. I'll keep that in mind. Now go get back to your duties."

They both nodded and I watched them depart. Lance's confident steps, followed by Lorelei's quiet waltz.

She glanced back one last time at me, opened her mouth, then closed it and shuffled out of the room.

Weirdo. If you wanted to say something… just say it —

I blinked as my pokegear began vibrating and gazed at the device.

"Please be careful… and I meant it when I said don't be afraid to message me. I'd be happy to speak to you about anything."

I snorted out loud.

My aunt was such a dork.

---

After telling Green to meet up with me tomorrow morning, I studied out of boredom and messaged the contacts on my phone to pass the time.

Joy was the most surprised about that detail, not being aware that I was in the hospital until I told her.

"You're in the hospital? What for?" she had asked.

"Boat ride got attacked by Team Rocket."

There had been a brief silence at that as she digested that info. No doubt she was searching up any and all info about the attack on the S.S Anne now.

Hoenn and Kanto were fairly close to each other. Not nearly as close as Kanto and Johto, or Johto and Sinnoh… but close enough where some info would definitely leak over there.

"I heard about that. You were on that boat?"

"Yep. Got clocked in the head with glass. Luckily didn't need any stitches."

"Fuck. That's not good at all. At least you lived. Team Rocket is getting far too bold and it's concerning."

"Tell me about it… that reminds me. Did you wipe my records after I used your center?"

"Yeah. I did. You won't tell me if I'm right, but I'm pretty sure you're being targeted by someone so I just wiped your records to make sure they didn't know you came to Hoenn. It worked out well considering you didn't use a single other Center over here."

"…Thanks, I appreciate that. Whenever I come back to Hoenn, I'll drop by and visit."

"Whatever you say kid."

"Who are you talking to?"

I didn't bother looking up from my phone. "None of your damn business," I muttered instinctively.

…

I froze.

Whose voice was that?

My gaze sharpened and I swiftly looked up—

Only to freeze once more, this time in horror.

A pretty face with sharp features glared down at me. Red eyes and red hair dominated the person's appearance…

But what stood out the most, was how similar this person's red hair was to mine… down to even the style.

There were some key differences. My hair had a spikier tint to it compared to her smoothness… but both the ends of our hair flared out at our shoulders.

The key differences of our hair, seemed to be in the fact that I had bangs that bothered my eye, while she didn't… and that annoying cowlick of mine, that stuck straight up, had nothing on the evolved form of hers.

Well damn, I really was my mothers child.

"I do hope that wasn't my sister you were messaging," Ariana grit out, wearing a casual white shirt, along with long black pants.

There was no sign she was apart of Team Rocket right now. She just looked like an angry mother.

…

I was trapped in a hospital room, with my mother who was an executive of Team Rocket and she looked pretty pissed at me…

She was dangerous… Ariana was a talented trainer and judging by Lorelei's words, she was very formidable...

"How the fuck did you get in here?" I scowled.

...But none of that would ever matter to me because my mother was a bitch.

Unlike Giovanni, my mother didn't regard my words with thin amusement.

No my mother was very clearly ignorant enough to match my energy.

Guess I know who I got that from.

"How the fuck did I get in here?! How the FUCK DID I GET IN HERE?!" She hissed, waving her hand.

I watched in surprise, as a Zoroark materialized from thin air. It stared down at me with recognition in its eyes and I sneered at it.

It barely reacted.

"I got in here, the same way you got out, you brat!"

She wasn't bothering to hide her shouting and I couldn't help but notice not a single person was coming in to check the noise…

But of course that was cleared up as I saw a Gardevoir of all things materialize as well, eyes glowing with purple psychic energy.

It turned its gaze towards me for a moment and I watched as it flinched back horribly, energy faltering for a brief minute, but it shook its head and gazed away from me, keeping the room soundproof.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Silver?!" Ariana shouted at me with fury in her eyes. "What is this?! What are you trying to prove?!"

I glared at her, stamping down my fury as Loki released himself from the pokeball.

Zoroark perked up at that and it's eyes gained a slight spark in them.

At the same time, Ariana glanced down at her belt in annoyance and released a Ninetails who was gazing at Loki with recognition as well.

…

Wait, the Zoroark was pretty self explanatory… but was Ninetales Loki's other parent?

That would make sense. Loki did have Extrasensory...

What a terrible situation to be in. It was time to prepare for the worst.

Though, I had no intention of backing down for even a second.

I sneered at my mother, noticing the way Loki never faltered in the face of his parents. They were horribly stronger than us right now but despite that, we both glared at them.

"What do I think I'm doing? What am I trying to prove?" I snarled, rocketing off my bed and glaring at her.

Ariana was taller than me so I had to glare up at her but I didn't let that stop me at all.

She looked taken aback by my aggression, eyes widening in surprise slightly but I ignored it because this woman evoked so much more crushing emotions out of me than Giovanni, that it was nauseous.

This woman didn't make me feel angry because of their expectations. She didn't fill me with fury at her abuse.

No, my anger and rage stemmed from an intense disappointment in the woman who claimed to be my mother.

So I let that side take over.

"Since when the fuck do you care about what I'm doing?! All of a sudden, you're some caring and prime example of a good mother?! Give me a fucking break!" I shouted at her.

Ariana took a step back at the raw fury in my gaze, mouth opening in shock.

"The only thing you give a fuck about, is making sure daddy dearest doesn't throw you away like yesterday's trash isn't that right? You'll do anything to keep him satisfied as long as you're safe!" I spat venomously.

"You're so damn pathetic! All that matters is that you stay on his good side, even throwing your own son to the side and now that I'm fed up that both my fucking parents suck, you want to suddenly care about me and wonder what I'm doing?!"

" Why don't you just fuck off and leave me alone?!" I roared at my mother, eyes blazing with pent up fury.

Ariana said nothing.

"When I needed you, you did nothing. Stop acting like my mother. You failed your job and you know why you failed? Because you're weak," I hissed.

"You're too weak to stand up for yourself. You're too weak to have your own voice. You're too weak to do what you want to do and you're too damn weak to even put up a fight against your sister. It's no wonder you crawled into some ditch and went into hiding —"

SMACK.

I abruptly stopped speaking, as a hand connected firmly with my cheek.

There was a hot rage in Ariana's eyes and she looked at me with a fierce scowl.

"Don't you ever speak to your mother like that again," she hissed at me. "You have no idea what I've been through and you'd dare belittle me like this? You'd mention my damn sister around me?!"

"I don't have to explain my actions to you. Pack up your things. We're going home. This way, you won't have to throw yourself in situations that will get you killed."

I said nothing for a while, merely taking the time to register that yes, my mother just slapped me across the cheek.

I tentatively put a hand to my cheek, feeling the stinging sensation.

But despite that, I didn't feel all angry.

No, I just felt my resolve tighten.

"Do you want to know something?" I asked, eerily calm as I turned my boiling silver eyes onto her. "You're the reason I hate weaklings."

Ariana's eyes flew open in a rage. "Did you not just hear anything I said —"

"You're the one who taught me what it meant to be weak and I hate that feeling more than anything. You stand there and look proud of yourself for submitting to a stronger force. Now, you're trying to keep me weak with you and I won't let that happen," I swore to myself.

"You can take me back if you want. I will run away again. Imprison me for as long as you'd like, I'll find a way to escape… and if it comes down to it, I'll take you out to earn my freedom. You've denied me long enough, I won't be denied anymore."

---

Ariana shuddered.

Yes… she shuddered. Ariana shuddered because currently, in this very moment, her 12 year old son looked far more unnerving than Giovanni did…

Hell currently, her son looked even more unnerving then that Mewtwo.

His silver eyes bored into her with a chilling amount of ice, no hint of emotion on his face as he spoke his resolve to her.

His eyes had always been a unique point about him. He had inherited practically everything from her but those silver eyes of his...

That was all him. It wasn't grey like Giovanni's eyes were... that was something unique to Silver and right now it was —

They were unnerving, narrowed in a way that reminded her of an intelligent predator. He reminded her of a feline, patiently waiting for her to make one wrong move before he could sink his claws into her.

There was no emotion on his face, even with the red mark on his cheek and he just continued to stare at her.

Distantly, she realized that Gardevoir was utterly terrified of her son and it was then Ariana had to wonder, just what had happened to Silver.

Gardevoir had always been somewhat wary around him but this far exceeded that...

What happened? What had happened to Silver? This wasn't the son she remembered...

You've denied me long enough, I won't be denied anymore.

"I'm just… trying to protect you," Ariana said quietly, breaking eye contact with her son.

"You failed. I don't want your protection."

"You saw what happened on the ship! You nearly died because I wasn't there to watch you," she pressed.

"Even when you were watching me, I never felt safe. Besides it was your organization that almost killed me," he said coldly.

Ariana scowled, ignoring how the first sentence made her feel. "It wouldn't have been like that if you just stayed with us. Just come with me! I'll make sure nothing happens to you!"

"You think I believe that? Do you really think for even a second, that I think you'll keep me safe?" Silver asked in genuine curiosity.

She hated the way her stomach was currently twisting. He truly had no faith in her at all. Not even an ounce.

"I... I admit that I've made some mistakes in the past but things are different now," she tried. She didn't even know what she was saying anymore.

"Different... right. If things are different, then you wouldn't be here trying to force me to come back home," he bit out.

"Zor," his Zorua said in determination.

Ariana's expression nearly cracked as frustration built up. She was seconds away from dragging him home, warnings be damned.

"Don't you understand, Silver?! This isn't some game! Why are you trying so hard to go against Giovanni?!"

"Because I get to decide how I live. No one else. I don't want to meet his expectations because his expectations don't align with what I want to do."

…

"You plan on becoming our enemy, don't you?" Ariana said in realization.

Giovanni... if Giovanni realized what Silver intended on doing, he wouldn't be so amused by this entire thing.

Silver knew that. He knew what Giovanni could do but yet he still intended to go against him just to earn his freedom.

"…" Her son said nothing.

He was serious. He truly was hellbent on taking out Team Rocket.

How on earth was her son ever going to do that?

Giovanni thought this was some teenage rebellion but Ariana knew otherwise. She knew the moment she looked into the eyes of her only child, that this was no joke to Silver.

This was his goal and nothing was going to stop him.

Not her. Not Giovanni… and not even Mewtwo.

Did Silver even know about Mewtwo? Did he not realize how futile it was?

"When you fail, don't think I'll be able to protect you from Giovanni," she whispered.

"You never protected me before. Why do you suddenly think I have expectations for you? I don't need you," he said calmly.

Ariana ignored the stabbing in her chest that had been getting stronger as the conversation went.

His words didn't feel good to listen to. They felt downright awful. Even worse than the disappointment in her parents voice.

I don't need you.

"Foolish boy. Do whatever you want then," she said bitterly.

Her son raised a brow. "You don't plan on taking me back?" he asked incredulously.

"What's the point? You're stubborn. You'll just constantly find a way to escape. Only a crushing defeat will reign someone like you in," she said.

Silver snorted. "I'm not you. One loss won't make me give up all hope. I'm tired of being a caged prisoner. I'll fight to my last breath and if that fails, then I'll die."

Ariana clenched her fist.

Die? He would accept his death? What was this madness that he was spewing? How could he look his own mother in his eyes and tell her he'd rather accept death then go back with her?

How did he think something like that would make her feel? No one would ever want to hear that, especially a mother from her son.

She was someone who admired strength. Ariana respected strength and knew when to submit to it…

So why wasn't Silver the same? Was it because he didn't see the monstrosity known as Mewtwo?

Giovanni was far ahead of her in strength, so naturally she submitted to his power…

Why wasn't Silver doing the same?

"You're the reason I hate weaklings."

…

Was it because she was weak? But she was far stronger than Silver was...

What wasn't she understanding?

"Refrain from ever speaking to me like this again. This is the only time I'll let such a thing slide. Do it again, and I'll remind you who birthed you," she promised.

He just continued staring at her, idly scratching at the bandages wrapped around his head and reminding Ariana that he had gotten injured under a mission she was in charge of.

She really could just capture him, consequences be damned. It's not like he could stop her. Silver's team was full of babies in comparison to her.

But Ariana did not because Ariana knew that for multiple reasons, doing such a thing would be one of the biggest mistakes she could do.

Silver was… someone who desired freedom from his stifling parents.

It sounded disturbingly similar to her and once Ariana tasted freedom, she had forgotten about her stifling household.

It wouldn't be… right of her to deny him what she herself sought at one point in her life.

And a small part of Ariana, one that she would never admit existed, didn't want the relationship she had with her son to be unsalvageable.

"I won't tell Giovanni what you plan on doing but he will find out eventually," she said stiffly, beckoning her team over to her side.

"Thank you so much," he said sarcastically.

They both watched as Zoroark and Ninetales approached the little Zorua, before the duo each licked apart of his fur.

"Zor!" Loki barked indignantly, recoiling away from them and shooting them a steady glare, maintaining his protective position in front of Silver the entire time.

Ariana stifled her jealousy at her own pokemon and returned them, right before Gardevoir's eyes began glowing and they teleported away.

---

I watched my mother disappear with a stormy expression, stifling the vindictive satisfaction down at tearing into her.

Now that I wasn't pissed to high hell, I could admit that my mother's reaction to my words was fairly uncharacteristic.

It's not like I knew Ariana well, but I doubt she'd have stopped at a single slap. I definitely inherited my temperament from her and I can confidently say I wouldn't stop there.

In fact, I'm surprised that I was still in my bed and not being forcefully teleported away with her.

…

It was weird.

"That was weird, right Loki?" I asked him absentmindedly, rubbing my cheek.

"Zor," Loki nodded in agreement.

"...Wanna go to sleep?" I asked.

"...Zor," Loki nodded once more.

I sighed and grabbed him, pulling him close and shutting my eyes.

I'd think about this at a later date.

---

As soon as I woke up, I gathered everything I needed to go, almost flipped off the nurse who wanted to do one final checkup and met up with the ever patient Green in the reception hall.

"Finally! We can get our journey started again!" Green beamed, hugging me in joy at seeing me cleared.

I grunted and let her hug me, dragging her body out of the center in the process. "Let's not waste anytime. I can't believe I got held up there for so long."

Green giggled at my displeasure. "That's okay, Silvy! We made pretty good progress anyways! We can just go to Lavender really quickly, then go straight to Celadon!"

I grunted. "Yeah."

Green remembered something and rummaged in her bag, pulling out my egg and handing it over.

"I almost forgot! I was taking care of the egg while you were in there. Hope you don't mind! I just made sure nothing too dangerous happened to it!"

I accepted it easily and nodded. "You're too good of a person, Leaf."

She blushed in embarrassment and rubbed the back of her messy head. "Aww don't say stuff like that! You're gonna end up embarrassing me!"

I huffed in amusement, taking in the morning air with a soft sigh.

"G-Green? S-Silver?"

…

One fucking second of peace. That's all I ask for.

Just one second.

"Mason!" Green cheered, clapping happily. "How are you?!"

Mason blushed bashfully and rubbed the back of his head. "I've been… pretty good! I got two badges now!"

"Seriously?!" Green exclaimed, looking genuinely joyful at hearing that.

"Y-Yeah! I caught an Oddish on the way to Cerulean and I studied what I could teach him! He really helped me out in winning! How about you guys... I um, heard about what happened with the S.S Anne," he muttered.

Green's smile dimmed. "It's a good thing you weren't on there. It was a mess," she said somberly.

Mason flinched back. "S-Sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. I'm just really glad you two are okay!"

I zoned out the conversation and sighed.

The S.S Anne was a talking point everywhere you went. I'm sure it was even being spoken about in other regions.

It was one of the most disastrous events in recent years after all. Thousands dead, ship completely destroyed and culprits still on the loose...

Team Rocket was very quickly being recognized as a global threat. I wouldn't be surprised if other regions began aggressively pushing to intervene. Doubt was being thrown Lance's way on if he could truly handle this by himself.

For all his strength, Lance was still very young. It was obvious that the older generation would think him not capable of such a thing.

Ungrateful. That's what they were. They should be glad that Lance was the one running the region cause if it were me, I'd pull a petty move and just leave.

"S-Silver! I wanted to thank you and Green for helping me figure out how to improve!"

I blinked and zoned back into the conversation.

"Huh?" I grunted in confusion, tilting my head. "What I do?"

Green giggled. "Silvy! You gave him advice! Don't you remember?"

"No."

Green stopped laughing at my serious answer. She instead stared at me with a slack jaw.

"T-That's okay!" Mason laughed nervously, gazing at me.

The short boy reminded me of a mouse. He was jittery and nervous all the time. Maybe losing so much had ruined his childish confidence.

"You might not remember but I do! You told me what I needed to do to and I won my first rematch against Flint since! T-Then I didn't even need to battle the Cerulean gym again because I began strategizing! I've even been winning more battles!" he exclaimed.

I stared at the genuine joy in the kids eyes and nodded. "Not bad."

He nodded eagerly, looking at me with sparkling eyes. "A-And the best part is, I think Charmeleon is actually beginning to respect me a bit! We haven't lost a battle in so long!"

"Cool," I shrugged. "Now you don't have to be afraid of being maimed in your sleep."

"S-Silvy!"

"I'm telling the truth."

"D-Do you two have any advice against Surge?" Mason asked curiously. "I heard he's uh… really strong."

I sighed.

"What's your team?" I asked blandly.

"U-Uh… Charmeleon, Sandshrew, Fearow and Oddish!"

"That Sandshrew should be close to evolution. I'd suggest achieving that before you think about battling him. His Raichu will eat you alive otherwise. If Oddish is close to evolving, work on that too," I said gruffly.

Mason nodded along with my words eagerly, hanging onto everything with a level that was making me very uncomfortable.

"A-Alright! Thanks guys! I'll let you know how my battle goes when it happens!" he exclaimed, scampering off to the center with haste.

"See ya Mason!" Green waved happily.

"Bye Green! Bye Silver!"

I watched him go with a befuddled expression.

"The fuck?" I mused.

"You're like his mentor now!" Green beamed in joy.

"Shut the hell up. Let's go," I scoffed, marching off towards Route 11. "We've got distance to make."

"Kay!"

---

Route 11 and 12 were pretty peaceful routes. Kanto, when not being mugged by a band of villains, was really just a vibe of a region.

Our trip was pretty uneventful through Route 11. The events of the S.S Anne left the area around Vermilion rather quiet.

It was odd seeing the routes so subdued and quiet. Even the pokemon seemed to sense the solemn air and kept to themselves.

Despite Lance and Lorelei claiming I saved a lot of lives… many died all the same. Not everyone had a way to escape.

The S.S Anne was a giant ship that could fit thousands of people on it and the group I directed was only 4 strong…

It would be naive to think I saved everyone, especially considering Mewtwo probably obliterated the ship.

Many more people lived than if I hadn't intervened… but many people died regardless.

"Did Ash and his friends survive?" I asked randomly.

Green jumped, looking puzzled at my question before nodding her head as she remembered the instructions I had given her.

"They did… Brock was one of the first people we managed to wake up and he helped ward off so many Rockets! His team was amazing! I didn't think the rockets were expecting someone as strong as him to be on the ship but he single-handedly kept so many at bay!"

I nodded at that.

It was good that they managed to secure Brock's help. With him, it would have been easy to regroup and defeat the Rockets.

We continued through Route 11, only encountering 2 other trainers that didn't have the energy to battle us.

It was peaceful. I took the time to release Gaia and Loki and they kept pace with us as the sun slowly move through the sky.

Vee was snoozing away in his nearly permanent residence of Green's hair, almost fully blending in with it, while Togee sat on her shoulder, arrogantly leading her with his tiny fingers.

I caught him shooting me a few looks of horror occasionally but I hadn't bothered him in a while so they confused me mostly.

We walked in a peaceful silence, only making noises of slight interest as we entered the bridge that made up Route 12.

It was fascinating. Lavender and Vermilion were directly connected by one massive bridge that occasionally connected to plots of land.

Without the creation of the bridge, it would take a significantly longer time to reach not only Lavender, but Fuchsia as well…

Kanto was really good with that. It made getting to every one of the normally difficult cities, more convenient to reach.

"Silvy can we talk?"

I paused at that and nodded, gazing at Green with a curious expression.

She looked nervous and beckoned me to a more private area where we could take a small break. We had been at it for about an hour so a break wasn't out of the norm, but we could normally go longer.

Must have been something important she wanted to talk about.

"What's up?" I asked her with narrowed eyes.

My companion sighed and steeled herself.

"I was going to wait a bit before telling you this but… I figured if I just told you now, it would help in the long run…"

I raised a brow.

"I-I know everything about you um stealing Gaia from the lab and… being apart of Team Rocket," she whispered.

"B-Bay?!" Gaia spluttered in horror, eyes going wide at the reveal.

Loki went stiff in my grasp.

I went stock still, body freezing over completely.

"A-And I know that Giovanni is also probably apart of Team Rocket too…"

"…" My face turned expressionless at that and Green gazed nervously at me.

That… was not what I was expecting at all.

Fuck. This entire time I was trying to shield her from the truth so she could claim ignorance but she ended up knowing anyways.

"Guessing you listened into the conversation with Gold and Crystal?" I asked with a frown.

She followed us? How? I didn't even feel her.

Her skills in stealth were better than I gave her credit for.

Green nodded hesitantly. "I-I won't tell anyone!" she suddenly blurted.

I paused at that. "You won't?" I asked dumbly.

"No way! You're my friend Silvy!" she scowled. "I-I was a little hurt when I found out but then I realized you were dealing with so many things!"

"You're not a bad person at all Silvy! I've been traveling with you long enough to know that you have a reason for everything and… and you really are my friend and I don't want anything bad to happen to you. If I tell anyone what you did, something bad will happen to you and I might never see you again," she whispered.

I watched as the girl began shivering slightly.

"I-I already thought I lost you during the boat ride and I realized... that I don't want that to ever happen."

I blinked in shock as a warm feeling coursed through my body.

"So even though you're a criminal… I won't say anything because you want to free yourself and Gaia is happy that you took her and I'm happy that you're my friend… so I'm gonna be selfish," she finished with a small breath.

"The only thing I ask, is that you trust me and let me help you deal with Team Rocket."

…

I stared at my companion with an inscrutable expression and mulled over her words.

"Okay," I said eventually.

Green looked surprised at that. "Really?!"

I nodded. "I don't know if you realize, but I'm a criminal and you just said you won't tell anyone. I'm not really in a position to say no to you."

"You're… my friend, Leaf and we're already traveling together so yeah, I'll accept your help."

Green grinned.

"But you have to listen to everything I say when we're dealing with them. If you don't, I'd rather you just report me."

"I'll listen! You can trust me Silvy!" she assured.

Trust…

I smiled sardonically. "Don't regret that, Green. I'm a criminal after all."

"You're the only other person who knows Giovanni is in Team Rocket," I informed her with a frown. "Considering you haven't revealed it to anyone yet, you probably realize why I haven't done it."

"Because you're apart of them too. Forcefully," Green deduced intelligently.

Don't let her mannerisms fool you. Green was a smart girl and she had probably come to her own conclusions with the info she had been storing about me.

I nodded. "Yeah. For my own sake, I have to take them out without anyone else figuring that out. I don't wanna go to prison."

Green frowned at that and nodded. "We could leave anonymous tips in the future. It doesn't have to be known who is working on taking them out."

"Food for thought," I mused with a sigh. "We'll talk more in a more private area. Let's continue for now."

Green nodded and dusted herself off, before we both continued our path to Lavender.

"Togee was stolen by the way. You might not wanna reveal that."

…

…

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

"TOGEPI?!"

---

Green took to being an unintentional accomplice fairly well. She panicked a bit after learning that I stole Togee's egg (may as well be honest with her) but surprisingly, she decided that there was no way she was ever going to give the Togepi up.

"It's not like Togee wants to leave me a-and I don't wanna give him up!" Green explained.

"Tog! Tog tog epi!" he ranted, clutching her dress protectively as he stared at me in a mixture of horror and respect.

"If you don't say anything, I won't. We'll come up with a coverup on how you got that egg," I said truthfully.

She nodded hesitantly and I felt a little bad at the stress on her face.

Green was a goody two shoes. She probably had no idea how to react to this information.

"Don't worry. If anything ever goes wrong, I'll take the full fall," I grunted. "You aren't going down with me. Not my style to shift the blame to someone else."

"Neither of us are going down," Green said firmly, as we walked along the bridge. "It's like… keeping a secret!"

...

"...My mom is going to kill me if she ever finds this out," she moaned sadly, holding her head.

"You unfortunately, have no one to blame but yourself," I shrugged. "No one told you to be so insistent with me."

"Shut up! How was I supposed to know you were a criminal?!" she hissed.

"My bad temper, my refusal to let you look into my bag, how secretive I was… should I go on?"

"...No, I think I get the point," Green sighed in defeat.

I sighed too. "Just claim ignorance if you ever get caught. I'll reinforce the idea that you had no idea."

Green just stared at me, expression unknown to me before she reluctantly nodded.

"I won't tattle on you. I'm serious!"

"I appreciate that Leaf. Now let's keep going, we should be there soon," I said with a shake of my head.

"...Silvy, are we still friends?" Green asked tentatively. "I don't want you to think you have to do this… if you really want me to, we can go our separate ways and I'll never tell anyone a thing."

I paused at that and turned towards her.

"Don't be stupid. You're on Team Rocket's shit list anyways. You may as well keep traveling with me and we can both give em hell," I grunted.

Green looked stunned by my response, before she grinned brightly and nodded vigorously.

"C'mon! Let's keep moving!" she urged, rushing forward with purposeful steps.

"Stop rushing you idiot. You're going to —"

"A-AH!"

Splash.

"—Fall," I finished with a sigh.

She was so hopeless.

---

Green had taken to walking with Larvee to dry herself off after her trip into the water and I grunted, unamused by the fact that I had to save the dumbass.

I dunno why. Not only did she have Lapee, Green knew how to swim. But she looked way too helpless floundering about.

"Sorry," she mumbled, squeezing her hair and getting another fountain of water to drop out.

Vee, Togee and I just glared at her, all a victim to her stupid antics.

Larvee tilted her head in confusion at why we were all glaring at her trainer.

"We're almost there," I scowled, marching forward as I saw a massive tower in the distance.

It was tall as hell, being the only thing visible so far in the swiftly approaching city and in unison, Green and I upped our pace.

We entered the Checkpoint Gate that was littered all over the Kanto and Johto regions, nodded to the guard there and made our way to the exit.

Gloomy. Depressing as fuck.

Those were the first words I thought of, when I took in the sights of Lavender Town.

This place was dull as hell.

"We're leaving as soon as we finish with the tower," I grunted.

"Agreed," Green nodded, fully supporting my decision. "What happened here? I know Lavender town is… not the most lively place but this is way worse than I was expecting."

"Dunno," I frowned. "Wanna go to the Center?"

"Nah. I think we'll just camp out in Route 8 after we finish our business here," Green said immediately.

"Sounds good to me," I snorted in agreement.

With that, the two of us headed straight to Pokemon Tower.

---

"I wonder if I'll find a Gastly! A really cool ghost type is Froslass! Get it? Because it's Ice type! Oh but I'd really love a Mimikyu! They're so cute," Green said to me, looking excited at the prospect of a sixth member.

I listened to her rambling with one ear, shaking my head in exasperation.

"What about you Silvy? If you were to catch a ghost type, what would it be?" she asked curiously, turning towards me.

I hummed, letting the cool air of Pokemon Tower brush against me.

If Lavender was depressing to be in, this place was the reason why because it was goddamn stifling how gloomy it all was.

"A Chandelure," I said truthfully. "If I could catch any ghost, it would be Chandelure, Aegislash or Trevenant. Dusknoir would be cool as well."

"Wow! Unique picks for sure," Green awed, flicking open her pokedex to go look at each of them. "They all look really cool!"

"Right?" I agreed, ignoring all the graves around me and pushing up the stairs.

"You know that's something I realized about you! You're fairly picky huh?" Green asked.

I mulled it over and nodded. "Yeah. I don't really chuck a ball at anything, regardless of how strong it is."

"You just catch what you like!" Green beamed.

"Yup," I agreed.

The two of us perked up as a Duskull mulled about.

Green's eyes widened in excitement but before she could even contemplate the idea of catching it, the thing jolted, let out a screech and vanished.

…

Green's smile turned strained. "That was the fourth one, Silvy."

"Yeah."

"Not only are we barely running into any ghosts… the few we run into immediately bolt it."

"Astute observation."

"I can't help but notice the same thing happens with psychic types."

"Seriously, you're a lot smarter than I give you credit for."

I watched Green's smile twitch and shrugged helplessly.

Funny story... from the moment Green and I entered Pokemon Tower, famous to most of the ghosts that inhabited Kanto, we ran into a staggering… three (four now!) ghosts.

And all four of those ghosts took one look at our group and bolted.

I had the strangest inkling they were avoiding me.

"Split up?" I suggested.

There was no way she was going to catch a ghost while I was traveling with her. Best to let her attempt to find one while alone. She didn't have many answers to ghost types but I believed in her ability to deal with them.

She nodded with far too much speed for my liking and I grunted in amusement.

"I'm going up 1 floor at a time! Just make sure you aren't on the same floor as me! Bye and stay safe!" Green urged, rushing off without any hesitation.

I tilted my head and nodded, watching her go.

Guess I'd just head to the last floor and work backwards until we met up. She should have caught something by then.

I turned towards the elevator and pressed it, stepping inside and heading straight to the top of the building.

As I arrived to floor 6 (Allegedly there were 7 floors but the elevator didn't go to 7), I stepped out and into the deep fog.

I grunted, nonplussed by the strange air and made my way through the floor.

Not a ghost in sight… seems like Green's observations were true and I was being avoided by ghost types.

Can't say I'm surprised. Crystal's Misdreavus took a real long time to get used to me and still not getting fully used to it.

Ah well. Just another on a long list of issues that I had.

Floor 6 was filled to the brim with gravestones. There were a few people about, each expressing themselves differently in front of a grave but all sharing the anguish that made me uncomfortable.

It was depressing. I could see all manner of pokemons in here and all of them were expressing their sorrow.

From the family with the Vivillon and Butterfree, to the man sobbing while a somber Machoke lay a palm on his shoulder.

I quietly brushed past them, not staring at the Tangela offering emotional support to a distraught older woman.

This was making me uncomfortable. I didn't really wanna be here anymore.

"I wonder if they'll be adding more graves for the people and pokemon of the S.S Anne? I wonder who here lost someone from the S.S Anne," I thought without really putting much stock into it.

Frowning at the rather dark thought, I shook my head to ward them off and continued making my way through the tower.

As I walked, the fog seemed to deepen, but strangely enough, it wasn't really hampering my vision. It brushed against me, almost seeming to grasp at me at times, before recoiling away.

I paused and raised a brow, as the fog began condensing further and further the deeper I went.

It got heavier and heavier and right as I made it to the entrance of the final floor that couldn't be reached by elevator, I stopped.

My eyes narrowed slightly and I idly released Loki from his ball, as something began manifesting in front of me.

It was a pokemon, that much was obvious, with a black body. Green flames surrounded the creature's thin body and its bone weapon, as gray eyes stared at me.

An Alolan Marowak? Weird. I guess it made sense for that to be the ghost of Lavender over a normal Marowak. I didn't know the specifics about it but I didn't care enough to question it.

It was staring at Loki and I warily, set in a defensive stance. The creature looked wise beyond its years, making me wonder how old it actually was.

"Leave this place."

I blinked.

"Huh?" I asked, looking around slowly for the voice that said that and eventually focusing on the Marowak again. "Was that you? You can communicate with me?" I asked slowly.

"Correct. I am the guardian of this tower and you are disrupting its peace. Forces that should not reside here have touched you."

Hm…

"Will you kill me otherwise?" I asked, already set on heading back. I had no belief that I could beat this Marowak. Something about it screamed too strong to stop by the average trainer.

"No. I refuse to touch one like you."

I grunted at that and shrugged. "Whatever. I'll go. Not like I'm here for any reason," I muttered.

Was it weird that an Alolan Marowak was speaking to me? Yeah. But honestly, I was too far past giving a fuck to question it.

I had more things to worry about then this. The most interesting thing about it, was its confirmation that I was the one disrupting the ghosts… and that it had no intention of doing anything physical to stop me from doing so.

Ghosts came in different personalities but many ghosts were not afraid to use their abilities to get their way. If Marowak saw me as a threat, I'm very sure the guardian of the tower would eliminate me…

After all, I heard that at an earlier time Team Rocket came by and this Marowak (if it truly was the guardian) right here was the one who dealt with it.

Yet it refused to attack me.

It was obvious why, right?

Because deep down it feared me and wanted nothing to do with whatever was protecting me.

Whether it was this Foggy Fortress or Mewtwo's dormant psychic energies inside me… something was scaring and causing the ghosts to act out of turn and even this ancient Marowak wasn't immune to such a thing.

So I would leave. It's not like I was here for a mandatory reason. I doubted I'd find a Litwick or Honedge in here so my desire for a ghost wasn't that high.

Maybe I'd find a Duskull but they'd definitely not wanna approach me.

Ah well. Ghosts were cool but if they couldn't function well around me, kinda defeated the purpose of catching one.

"I'm actually gonna wait in the center. Without any ghosts its kinda boring."

"Kay! In that case, get a room for us to hang until it's time to go! I battled Blue earlier!"

"Kicked his teeth in?"

"Hell yeah I did! It was actually disappointingly easy..."

"Good. It should be easy."

I pocketed my device and headed straight to the elevator again, making my way down to the first floor and exiting the building.

I could almost hear every ghost exhale in relief the moment I stepped out the building and I snorted at that.

Psychics avoided me, ghosts avoided me… I already had Metang but how the hell was I going to ever catch a ghost?

Oh well. Nothing to do but go with the flow.

I absentmindedly headed to the Pokemon Center to reserve a room momentarily.

Best to just get my own space until Green was done. It was about midday so depending on when she finished we could probably travel some more.

As I was about to enter the double doors, it opened preemptively and I deftly moved to the left to avoid the body speeding out, thanking myself once more for having incredible reaction time.

"Watch where you're going, dipshit," I grunted.

"Eat a dick, dumbass," the voice snarled.

I paused and tilted my head.

At the same time, the offender froze and turned towards me.

"Ah, if it isn't the Oak boy," I said in realization, gazing at Blue with an uninterested gaze. "No wonder you were in such a rush. Green just told me you got slammed by her."

Blue glared at me heatedly, confirming my thoughts without saying a word and I snorted.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he growled lowly.

"I decided that stalking you after all your failures was too good to pass up," I said dryly, rolling my eyes at his sour attitude. "Do you think the world revolves around you? We just unfortunately happened to run into each other."

Seems like my day had been too boring, so they decided to throw this guy in it…

Funny. Too bad I didn't care. I wasn't in the mood to antagonize this guy any further.

I brushed past him with a sigh. I had been fairly moody lately and I blamed it on my encounter with Ariana.

"Hey. You were on the S.S Anne right?"

I paused at that and turned towards the frowning Oak.

"What of it?" I asked.

"..." he said nothing, looking highly uncomfortable.

I grunted at him. "Both your friends are fine. That Ash kid survived too," I informed him.

"That's not why I wanted to know!" Blue scowled.

"Sure," I sighed, raking a hand through my hair. "Now if that's all, I'll be heading off, Oak boy."

"Stop calling me that!" Blue barked, glaring at me with fury.

I barely spared him a glance.

"Nah, I don't think I'll do that. You threw a fit when I called you Gary Oak so now I'm calling you whatever the hell I want. I don't care about your family issues," I grunted. "If you have such a problem, you can gladly battle and put me in my place... but based on what Leaf said, I doubt you'll be much of a challenge."

He scowled, gazing at his pokeballs once more before shaking his head.

"Don't talk like you know anything about me. I don't have family issues."

"And I can't kick your ass in 10 different regions. I'm also capable of lying you see? Much better than you at least," I retorted dryly.

"Look. I don't really care about your issues and I definitely don't care about you. You're Leaf's friend, not mine so you can stop trying to initiate a conversation with me every chance you get," I told him boredly.

Blue looked more puzzled than confused at that.

"You don't care about my name?" he asked.

"I would punch you with a smile on my face. I could have sworn our first meeting made that clear."

"...But I'm an Oak. Why don't you care?" Blue frowned at that.

"Fuck. It's unreal how much of an ego you have. I thought I was bad," I sighed. "I don't give a shit about your grandpa dumbass. Why would I give a shit about you?"

Blue stared at me, those bright blue eyes of his glinting with a surprising amount of intelligence.

It looked like he was using said intelligence to piece together some type of puzzle.

I snorted and decided this conversation was no longer worth my time.

I felt his eyes on my back as I disappeared into the center.

Guess it made sense that he was surprised. Professor Oak was one of the few people who you could claim to be more famous than the Champions.

That most likely extended to the Oak boy too...

Oh well, I didn't give a fuck if Cynthia herself appeared in front of me. She would be just another person.

---

"Silvyyyy!"

My raised brow turned into a grunt as a figure leapt atop me.

"Get off me fatass!" I growled, struggling with the excited girl.

"Hahaha! Nope!" she beamed, shoving a pokeball in my face. "I caught a new member!"

"Great, get the fuck off of me!" I demanded, hoisting her up and tossing her off the bed.

She deftly landed on her feet, flailing slightly as she lost her balance before triumphantly standing straight.

"Tada!" she beamed, thrusting both her arms into the air.

I stared unimpressed at her impressive display of athleticism, dusting myself off..

Green was grinning ear to ear as she bustled about the room, practically dancing on her feet.

I huffed and sat on the edge of the bed, glaring at her all the while.

"What the hell did you catch that made you this excited?" I grunted.

"I don't know!"

I blinked at the answer.

"You don't?" I asked with a raised brow.

It had taken Green another hour to show up and I had taken the time to read up on a few more recipes that Jasmine sent me.

I planned on making stir fried rice today, I was pretty good at making rice already… may as well add some more flavor to it.

"The pokedex told me what it was, but I've never seen it before in my life!" Green grinned.

Without needing more prodding, my companion released her newest capture.

I stared at Green's capture with a tilted head, inspecting it thoroughly.

It was a tiny creature that looked like a reptile or an amphibian, with a dark green head, yellow eyes and pink gills. Two horns adorned it, that were dipped in pink and it's serpentine body had two long front limbs.

My eyes narrowed suspiciously as I rummaged through my memory to identify this thing.

I distantly remember seeing something like this but I don't know where…

"I just got finished battling Blue and then I was going to explore a bit more… then I noticed something was stalking me! I battled a Gastly and even though I considered catching it, I decided against it and kept looking! That's when this little guy came out!"

I nodded.

"Turns out, he's been getting bullied by the ghosts around the tower for being too weak! He saw how I battled and wanted to battle me so then we battled a bit and when I won, I captured him!" she beamed, holding up the little tangible ghost like it were a prize.

"His name is Dree! He's a Dreepy!"

A Dreepy…

Oh!

My mouth opened slightly.

I knew what a Dreepy was! When I was doing all that research on the other regions, it was one of the pokemon native to the Galar region that caught my attention!

Why? Because it's final evolution, Dragapult, was awesome, that's why!

I was also 90% sure that it was the pseudo legendary of the Galar region. It had three forms, it started off ridiculously weak and it evolved into the apex predator of its region, much like Dragonite, Salamence, Garchomp, Hydreigon... you get the point.

Wait… Green just got a massive capture just now didn't she? From what I remember reading, Dragapults used their absurd speed to hunt and battle.

Not only that, it was a ghost type. Trying to hit one of these little shits was a task and a half.

I stared at the Dreepy in blatant interest. The same Dreepy who was currently gazing at me like I were death itself.

"He joined you because he wants to be stronger?" I asked.

"Yep! He's tired of being a pushover so I'm gonna help him become strong!" she beamed.

I blinked at that and turned my gaze towards the terrified Dreepy once more.

"Do you realize what you just caught?" I asked with an impressed brow, recalculating Green's strength at full power with this new addition.

It was looking fun. Green's strength with just this single capture, catapulted into something that excited me quite a bit.

To think she'd get her hands on a Pseudo Legendary as well.

"That pokemon is spoken about in the same vein as Dragonite, Salamence and Metagross you know?" I pointed out. "It evolves into something called a Dragapult and they're real monsters. The apex predators of the Galar region."

Dreepy's blatant horror vanished a bit at my words and his eyes gained a shine to them at my praise.

"Wow!" Green awed. "I knew you'd know something! Hell yeah! You hear that Dree? Stick with me and you're gonna be real strong!" she assured.

Dree nodded enthusiastically, before looking at me once more.

I snorted.

"Green, remember how we mutually agreed that I was scaring off the ghosts?" I suddenly asked.

Green nodded in confusion.

"Did you ever stop to think that the ghosts you capture might… suffer the same issue?"

…

Green blinked slowly and gazed at Dree, before a horrified gleam entered her eyes.

"How are you like this?! Turn it off!" she demanded, glaring at me as she protectively held the Dreepy.

"Turn what off?!" I demanded with a scowl.

"You know what! What is it anyways?! You can scare off psychics and ghost types! Are you a Zoroark in disguise?! Are you Loki's dad?!"

"Are you a dumbass?!"

---

"So you don't actually know the specifics behind why you can scare them off?" Green asked tentatively.

I frowned and nodded. "Team Rocket probably did something to me. I don't know the specifics but that might play a hand in it."

It might have been a little risky to tell Green this stuff but I might have been more desperate for a person to trust then I realized.

Besides, she knew that I was apart of Team Rocket for at least a week before she told me and still managed to place that much faith into me.

I should repay the favor a bit.

Green's eyes gained a worried tint. "Is that why they're targeting you? They… t-they experimented on you?"

I nodded with a severe frown. "Possibly… actually, that reminds me of something."

I suddenly stood up.

Something very peculiar just sprung up in my mind.

Something that I could only attribute to my great memory stealing stuff from my old world when it came to this world.

It was such a minute detail too…

"So Green, you already know I'm a criminal right?" I said lowly.

Green suddenly gained a wary look on her face.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Well, I'm about to go potentially do something less than legal. I suggest you don't leave this room in case my actions turn... bad," I warned her.

She balked at me.

"W-What?!" she asked in horror.

I didn't reply further. "Be ready to evacuate the city. I'll shoot you a message."

"W-Wait just a damn minute Silvy, what do you think you're about to do?!"

"I'll tell you after I finish."

"N-NO! HOLD ON I'M COMING WITH YOU!"

---

Knock Knock.

I idly waved at the curious Cubone behind the gated field and threw a treat towards the excited Growlithe, Green nervously glanced at me.

She had no idea why I was knocking on the door to a random person's house.

Considering I told her I was about to do something less than legal, she was probably jumping to some wild conclusions.

Well, I did give her the chance to stay at the center.

If I was truly right about this, things were going to get fairly intense.

Then again, I could always be wrong.

"Just let me do the talking," I said calmly. "It'll either be a big misunderstanding, or I'll have a lead."

Green nodded hesitantly, clutching my arm nervously.

Since Green was here, I was not going to go guns blazing immediately and instead, I'd poke and prod instead…

But as the person on the other side opened the door, I watched with a neutral expression as they immediately zeroed in on me… only to play it off by gazing at Green next.

Gotcha bastard. This was going to be good.

"Oh, why it's been so long since I've had visitors so young!" Mr. Fuji greeted us with a kindly smile.

I flashed a disarming smile myself, no hint of recognition in my eyes… because I truly didn't recognize him at all.

Which is why this performance was all the better. I know you Mr. Fuji… I just don't know you.

"Hello!" I greeted cheerfully (I ignored the wave of horror emitting from Green at my display) and watched as he minutely relaxed. "We heard that you care for abandoned and orphaned pokemon. I was just curious about how you do such a thing just in case I ever encounter a new teammate who happens to be suffering from those circumstances," I stated kindly.

Mr. Fuji's beady eyes widened slightly at that.

"Why of course! I'd be glad to give you two young ones advice!" he agreed, smiling at the two of us and beckoning us in.

I nodded towards the stunned Green and stepped inside the building with her in tow.

She shot me a questioning look as the man faced away from us and I gazed at her.

"Just let me handle this. Act natural," I mouthed to her.

The poor girl looked terrified. This was why I didn't want to bring her here.

Ah well, she was insistent on following me. I'd shield her as much as I could but there was only so much I could hide from her.

But still... I sighed and grabbed her hand for just a split second and squeezed reassuringly, watching as she jumped slightly.

She gazed at my hand in awe and I watched as some of the fear actually melted away.

My companion smiled at me and I nodded, releasing my grip and focusing ahead once more.

"Are you interested in taking in abandoned pokemon?" Fuji asked us.

"Yeah," I nodded easily. "So many Pokemon have been abandoned for reasons out of their control, you know? I want to try to help them. It's only right. Sure they might be difficult… but you just need a little patience."

"I couldn't agree more!" Fuji stated with a smile on his face, radiating joy at my words.

"Yep. It's better late than never… I wanted to know though. Did you always care for abandoned pokemon or was there a reason that made you decide on this?" I asked curiously.

Fuji jolted a bit at that and I hastily put a single hand out to reassure him, internally sneering at him.

"Oh if it's something private there's no need to tell me! It's just, the reason I decided to start this road of mine is because I stopped an abandoned pokemon from getting too badly experimented on… just looking at it… I can't believe anyone would do such a thing. It's being cared for now because I wasn't qualified to do so, but I vowed to try to learn how to help them out."

The too innocent look in my eyes was missed by Fuji but immediately noted by Green and I watched as the realization hit her… before her expression darkened slightly.

Fuji must have thought I was too young to be making such implications because he just smiled thinly at me, trying to hide his nervousness as my comments began striking closer and closer to home.

"Many people have such good things to say about you though!" I clapped, abruptly changing the subject. "They told me if I wanted to learn how to care for abandoned pokemon, I should come speak to you! Your name precedes you!"

"I'm just an old man trying to make the world a better place, little by little," he said quietly.

"Really? That's why you have those pokemon out in the field right?" I asked.

"That's correct. It's good to give them sunlight and let them enjoy the outside. Lavender can be oppressive but there is some light in it if you just look at it!"

"Finding light in even the darkest of things..." I mused, mulling over the words.

"Yes. It's much like caring for difficult pokemon. You just have to be patient and find the holes," he explained to me.

"Oh! So is that why you worked with Team Rocket to create Mewtwo? Did you think there was light in them?" I smiled innocently, saying the statement like it were apart of everyday conversation.

I said it so casually, that it took Fuji a full second to register the weight of my words but when he did…

Oh when he did, I watched him go pale in horror.

"I guess whatever you did to me was apart of that too, right?" I asked him with a raised brow. "That's why the moment you saw me, you looked away right? That's why even now, you've yet to make eye contact with me… right?"

"I… I beg your pardon?" Fuji asked, trying to play dumb.

I sighed and released Metang from their ball.

"Dr. Fuji let's not play dumb," I said coldly, dropping all pretenses as Metang's eyes began glowing. "I know who you are and you know who I am. Now you're going to answer some questions for me or I'm going to ruin your life. I promise you can believe me when I say that."

There were no pokemon in here. All his abandoned pokemon were currently out in the fields so that meant it was just the three of us and Green and I's teams.

Not like they could have stopped me anyways.

"Don't try and bullshit me either. A single lie is all it takes for it all to come crashing down," I said harshly, eyes narrowed in a cold and calculated fashion.

I hid my anger very well. I remembered my meeting with my mother well. She had looked far more unnerved when I wasn't displaying any emotion.

Clearly it was a universal thing.

"You've built a nice and peaceful life after your horrific past. It would be a shame if you couldn't enjoy it anymore," I said idly.

"Tang," Metang droned, red eyes boring into Fuji.

At the sight of two intimidating eyes boring into him, Fuji broke fairly quickly.

"I just want to live a peaceful life now… I don't ever intend on going back to the person I used to be," he said pleadingly.

"Answer my questions then. You think I give a shit about what you're doing now?" I raised a brow, unmoved.

He glanced at my ruthless expression and let out a weary sigh.

"What… would you like to know?"

"Your affiliation with Team Rocket for one. Talk about it," I grunted, leaning against a wall as my gaze bore into him.

There was no sign that I was bothered by this conversation. I looked completely in control of the situation.

Green's sympathy was gone, a firm scowl on her face. If she felt bad before, it was all gone at hearing that he had affiliated with Team Rocket.

"…A long time ago, I was… employed by Team Rocket. They took notice of my skills as a scientist and commissioned me for a project," Fuji began in resignation.

"My task varied… I was meant to experiment on many pokemon… but my main mission was the creation of an artificial legendary along with cloning," he explained.

"He does not lie," Metang informed me.

"Why did you accept? Cloning is highly illegal. You could be put in jail for the rest of your short life," I grunted with narrowed eyes.

"...I wanted to bring my daughter back and as a result, I heavily studied cloning. That's why they took notice of me… because they wanted me to make a clone of Mew," he explained.

Green's eyes widened in horror. "Mew?!" she hissed. "Is that why you said Mewtwo? Did they successfully clone Mew?" she asked me in a quiet whisper.

I briskly nodded my head.

"You only succeeded in cloning Mewtwo?" I asked calmly, unbothered by the man's heartbreak at reliving painful memories.

"No… I created a copy of a Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle as well… the pokemon were able to survive through sheer virtue of being a pokemon but my daughter died," he admitted.

I stared coldly at him. "I see… and where did you operate exactly?"

"...It was a mansion."

"Everything he says is true. You may continue with the interrogation."

"Perfect."

"What did you do to me?" I asked with narrowed eyes. "You and your other scientists buddy. You did something to me. Tell me. Now."

Fuji's gaze jolted up and he gazed at me with wide eyes.

"I didn't…"

"Now's not the time to express regret!" I barked, silencing the old man. "You'll tell me what you did to me or else."

He quickly gave up on explaining at my merciless gaze, merely bowing his head.

"...I was not the one tasked with overseeing your progress. I only saw you occasionally… but from my understanding, we were instructed with injecting the cells of Mewtwo inside of you. I merely extracted those cells before giving them away."

…

"What…?" Green said in horror. She glanced at me in horror and I had a carefully blank expression on my face.

"Why?" I asked coolly.

"I'm not aware of the reason why. It was not my jurisdiction," Fuji replied.

"So which scientist's jurisdiction was it?" I pressed with narrowed eyes.

Fuji gazed at me in shock.

"I can't… I can't say. It's not my place. Besides, if this information gets out… they'll… I'll be in danger," he said shakily.

I hummed curiously.

"So a friend of yours. If I had to guess, they're someone still around and rather notable too," I informed him.

There was a look of horror on his face at my accurate assessment.

"Dr. Fuji. I don't think you understand the situation," I informed him, reaching into my pocket.

Before his eyes, I pulled out my Pokedex and smiled thinly, pressing a button on the device.

"…A long time ago, I was… employed by Team Rocket. They took notice of my skills as a scientist and commissioned me for a project. My task varied… I was meant to experiment on many pokemon… but my main mission was the creation of an artificial legendary along with cloning."

I watched in satisfaction as the color drained from Fuji's face.

"Voice capturing mechanism. Very useful," I said idly, pausing the recording. "State of the art. It's main purpose was to capture the cries of a pokemon or the ramblings of a researcher."

I smiled, no compassion at all in it.

"The most danger you're in right now, is and always will be because of me," I stressed coldly, pocketing my Pokedex. "Your life is now in my hands. Now, you'll tell me the name of who it was or the league will have a field day extracting the information from you themselves."

It was at that moment, that Fuji must have fully realized that I was no ordinary boy. Despite knowing I was experimented on and injected with Mewtwo's cells, he still thought there was a smidgen of innocence in me.

He truly must have believed in that new philosophy of his in seeing the light in the darkest places...

But there wasn't an innocent left in me. I didn't give a damn about anything coming out of this guy's mouth, unless it was answers to the questions I had.

And I would get my answers one way or another.

"…" Fuji. "I'm sorry, but I cannot give up a friend. At the very least, this warpath of yours can be focused on all but them."

…

I stared at him and shrugged helplessly. "Oh well, not much we can do about that. I'm sure Gym Leader Blaine will appreciate the fact that you went down without tarnishing his reputation. I'll see if he does the same in regards to you."

You could hear a pin drop at the silence that overtook us.

Green was staring at me with wide, horrified eyes, and Fuji was doing the exact same.

I smirked sardonically.

My knowledge on the happenings of the anime may not have been that good, but everything else? I was very knowledgeable about that type of stuff.

All Fuji needed to do for me, was confirm that he worked in the Pokemon Mansion in Cinnabar and I would have the answer to the question I was truly searching for.

Who did this to me?

I had a hunch it was Blaine but I could not go on theory alone. This was a different universe after all. It would do no good to track down such a famous Gym Leader and begin grilling him about what he could have potentially done to me.

"B-But how do you know that…?" Fuji asked in horror, not even bothering to mask his shock.

"One more question," I said, ignoring him completely. "Did you give yourself anyway to stop Mewtwo?"

Fuji was too clouded in shock to hide his answer and he merely shook his head numbly.

I sucked my teeth at that. "Figured. Alright, we're done here," I said, nodding towards Green.

Green was looking at me and Fuji repeatedly, before focusing on me and nodding tentatively.

"Please... I just. I just wanted to save my daughter," he said brokenly, gazing at me pleadingly. "I never intended for any of this..."

I said nothing, staring at the tears forming in the old man's eyes with a tilted head.

Then, I slowly walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, leaning in to whisper into his ears.

"I don't give a fuck about your daughter. Stop bringing her up like I care," I muttered cruelly.

With that, I pat the stunned man's shoulder and stepped back, turning away from him and making my way to the door.

"If anyone asks, we don't know each other. If I find out you said anything before I speak to Blaine… You and him are gonna be in for a bad time," I pulled out my Pokedex and waved it, before shoving it in my pocket.

"Thanks for your time, Dr. Fuji. Stick to caring for abandoned pokemon. You never know how much longer you'll be able to do it."

"You're... you're a monster," he sobbed in defeat.

Green whirled and glared at him with all the fury in the world but I simply looked back at him with a cold glint on my apathetic face.

"Monster... I wonder if that's what you called me while experimenting on me. I'm just the product of an environment that you participated in. You created two monsters, now reap the consequences of being a fucking idiot," I sneered.

With that, I left the building of the man whose soul I just crushed and blackmailed.

Should have picked better business and he shouldn't have fucked with me.

Right before I closed the door, I heard the old man let out a louder sob and watched as the Growlithe let out a bark of concern.

Monster huh? I wonder if he considered himself a monster for committing the atrocities he did.

I wonder if he called Mewtwo a monster right before handing it over to Team Rocket.

Fucking dumbass. Now I had to go and clean up his mess.

---

Green and I were camped out in Route 8, both contributing to the meal we were about to eat and operating mostly in silence.

"This is good. We're getting better at cooking," Green said idly, munching the stir fried rice with a delighted expression.

"Mhm," I nodded in agreement.

We continued eating in silence.

"So…"

Yep, there we go.

"...You really were experimented on… by Team Rocket?" she asked tentatively, gazing at me with sorrow in her gaze.

I grunted, stamping down my disgust at her pity.

"I don't remember anything but yeah," I frowned. "The specifics are a bit of a shock to me as well but not much we can do about it."

So I was implanted with Mewtwo's cells. Much like how Mewtwo was implanted with Mew's cells.

What did that mean for me? What were the specifics behind that?

Did that mean I had the ability to use psychic abilities? How strong would they be?

To find out more of what happened to me, I'd need to find and speak to Blaine.

If he refused to comply, well that recording was going to help me out quite a bit. Gym Leader Blaine was a recluse. People hardly saw him but despite that, he was well renowned across the world.

If I leaked this information, there would be an uproar. With how dire of states Kanto was already in, that might be a tipping point.

But I really didn't give a damn. I needed every resource possible to push me towards stopping Mewtwo and Team Rocket.

The power of blackmail was something special. A world as naive as this would never see it coming.

"So Team Rocket have access to a Legendary pokemon inspired by Mew?" Green said in horror.

"Yeah," I said idly.

"...Was that what destroyed the S.S Anne?" she asked tentatively.

I nodded. "I felt it. That's why I woke up. That's also probably why I was too tired to battle you."

Green said nothing, biting her lip as she thought about all she heard.

"So… you have the cells of a legendary clone inside of you," she mumbled.

"Sounds about right. What? Wanna capture me?" I asked in amusement.

Green giggled slightly at that and tried to sober up at the weight of my past.

"No! It's just… wow, I didn't know your past…"

"Sucked?" I finished.

"Yeah... not to mention that thing with Blaine. You're telling me that both Blaine and Giovanni have ties with Team Rocket?" she mumbled, nervously rubbing her arms.

"It's crazy to think about," I sighed. "You alright? I didn't really intend on overwhelming you with all this info."

"I'm... probably gonna have trouble sleeping tonight," she admitted. "But I'm still with you 100%! All I can think about is how sad I felt thinking you were dead and... I never wanna feel that again," she admitted.

I stared at her in surprise, before sighing with a small smile.

"You can sleep in my tent tonight if that'll help," I told her.

"How can you be so relaxed about this?" Green asked with a sad frown.

I sighed and leaned back slightly, petting Loki's fur as he burrowed into me.

"I've done enough moaning and bitching about the unfortunate reality that is my life. All that's left, is for me to take action," I said truthfully. "If you want something done, you've gotta do it yourself so instead of crying, I'll focus my anger on getting back at everyone who wronged me," I swore.

Green nodded after a moment, looking properly moved by my words. "I'll help you in anyway I know how! That's seriously messed up… we're both only 12 so to think it happened to you when you were even younger… that's not right at all! It pisses me off just thinking about it!"

It was pretty fucked up. Green would probably be even more furious if she found out Giovanni was my dad…

But that wasn't something I planned on revealing ever. Giovanni would have to disappear without that information getting out.

The two of us had been traveling through Route 8 for the remainder of the day, having left Fuji's house during the evening and immediately departing the city after the interrogation.

We had been walking mostly in silence, accepting any battles and winning them handily until it was time to take a break for the day.

It had taken about two hours of walking so by the time tomorrow hit, we'd only need another hour or two to make it to Saffron, which we'd cut through to make it to Celadon.

We could have cut through that underground road that led straight to the outskirts of Celadon, but Green wanted to enjoy the city sights of the largest city in Kanto.

As a result, we'd cut through Saffron early tomorrow morning and head straight to Celadon.

It would be early morning so not many people would be awake hopefully. It would be pretty good for us to walk through and just enjoy the sight.

We polished the rest of our meal off, allowed our team to finish theirs as well and decided to get some sleep.

"I will keep watch. Rest."

"Thank you, Metang."

"Let's go to sleep, Leaf," I grunted, getting my tent ready.

"Kay! Goodnight, Silvy!"

"Goodnight."

With that, I stamped out the fire and went to bed.

---

Route 8 was peaceful in the early morning. Besides the fact that I kicked a delinquent in the nuts for trying to intimidate us, it was pretty relaxing.

We ate some breakfast, did some light training and paced ourselves through the relatively small route.

"I can't believe you kicked that guy in his special spot," Green whispered in horror.

"He kept trying to intimidate us. When I get intimidated I attack people," I said dryly.

"How do you always have a smart response for everything?" she muttered.

"The key is in the question you asked. "Smart" response," I emphasized.

She shook her head with a tiny giggle.

The two of us continued to converse about mundane things, just enjoying the temporary melancholy of the quiet route.

I did enjoy traveling in the early morning. It was always so peaceful. The sun was mostly at the right temperature, the breeze wasn't erring too hard to one side.

Now that the trip with S.S Anne was done... now that I was finished with Hoenn, I realized that I didn't have to rush through the region as frantically as I was doing before.

Green and I could take our time traveling the region now and amassing our strength. We could dedicate more time to training our bodies, training our pokemon etc. We could allocate more time towards stuff like that and sure, it'd make the trips in the routes longer but you couldn't rush becoming the strongest.

I could certainly speed up the process, but actually pacing myself was important.

Though, that didn't quite apply here considering Route 8 wasn't really a big route. We made it to Saffron fairly quickly despite not being in a rush.

I imagine our path from Celadon to Fuschia was going to take a really long time. That was a really big route and at our slowed down pace, I imagine it'd take at least a month to reach Fuchsia.

Saffron City was enormous in every sense of the word. It was a complete metropolitan city, with tall buildings everywhere, completely paved streets and of course, the most famous company in all of Kanto and Johto…

Silph Co.

Even in a city full of tall buildings, Silph Co. headquarters stood out starkly from the rest. It was a real skyscraper of a building, colors dominated by a yellow and blue.

It was tallll.

"When we come back we should explore it. I heard they frequently allow visitors," Green said to me, rubbing her eyes as she resisted the urge to yawn.

"Sure," I said absentmindedly, keeping a single eye on her to make sure she didn't fall over from tiredness.

We didn't need to stock up on any provisions, having stocked up quite a bit in Vermilion, and Celadon was right there anyways. It would take us probably another hour or two to get there.

Saffron was very close to Celadon, Cerulean, Lavender and Vermilion. You could use it to make it to any of them at a pretty reasonable pace. That was another reason the city was so wealthy. It connected to all the other hotspot cities.

It was typically the quickest, standard, route to take. There were things like underground roads as well but most people who didn't own bikes didn't go such routes.

Honestly, it was really surprising that a city as big as this one, was largely empty. Normally, time of day wouldn't affect the bustle of such a city but no… it was quiet and peaceful as Green and I quickly moved through it.

"So remind me again why you don't wanna battle Sabrina right now?" I asked, not quite caring about the request but still wanting to know why.

"Sabrina is one of the strongest gym leaders in both Kanto and Johto period!" Green gushed, momentarily forgetting how tired she was. "If she wasn't so set on staying as the Saffron City Gym Leader, they say she could have easily made a case to join the Elite 4!"

"That seems to be the case for a lot of the Kanto gym leaders," I said dryly.

Green nodded. "Well, the Johto League is… kinda newer than the Kanto League and the Gym Leaders there are really young compared to other circuits!"

Jasmine told me the same thing. Her, Bugsy, Falkner and Whitney were all around the age range of 16 – 18, while Morty and Claire were a tad older, then you had Chuck and Pryce who were middle aged and ancient respectively.

In comparison, all the Kanto Gym Leaders were quite a bit older than them. The youngest were the Sensational Sisters who were all 17, then there was Erika who was 20 and finally Sabrina, whose age was unknown but she definitely was in her mid 20s.

"So you want to face Sabrina later on so that we can get a tougher fight?" I mused.

Green nodded enthusiastically. "6 – 8 badge gym battles are the real deal! I actually wanted to battle her seventh, but Cinnabar is way too inconvenient to go to without messing up our pace completely!" she explained.

Not to mention, our sudden business with Blaine. Battling him 7th was important for us as well because we'd be quite a bit stronger...

Naturally, that wouldn't help much if he used his real team to burn us alive but we could definitely buy more time to raise suspicions if it came to that.

"If that is the reason you wish to battle me sixth, then you may visit again after collecting all 8 badges. I will give you the battle you seek."

Green and I paused at that, gazing at the person who said that.

I snorted as my companion let out a strangled squeal of excitement.

Guess we knew who her favorite Gym Leader was.

Sabrina was a beautiful woman, with long black hair that had shorter layers around her face and small eyes that were reddish-purple in nature. She wore a red and black dress that was fairly small, though it didn't matter because the parts that would be exposed were covered by black leggings along with red boots.

If I were a lesser human being, I'd whistle. But fortunately, I wasn't a freak.

"S-Sabrina!" Green gaped in awe. "Wow! I'm such a big fan! One of my dreams is to battle and —"

"Crush me?" Sabrina finished her sentence, expression as serious as all the rumors about her said it was.

Green's cheeks burned red. "Well, I wasn't gonna say that outloud but… uh yeah, I wanna crush you!" she exclaimed.

If Sabrina was offended by that, she didn't show it. She just continued to gaze at Green with those strange eyes of hers.

"You are strong, Leaf Green. I look forward to our battle in the near future," was all she said.

Considering Sabrina didn't compliment anyone, it was fairly justifiable that Green was over the moon at such a statement.

Good for her, it was about damn time someone showed my rival some love and not me…

Though, I may have spoken too soon because Sabrina finally turned her gaze towards me and I watched as her expressionless face transformed…

Into wariness. I imagine if she were anyone else, that would be outright fear.

Good on Sabrina for not being super expressive.

"So you are the abomination," she said with an actual frown on her face.

Nevermind. I was going to kick her fucking teeth in.

I sighed. I guess it was expected that someone as intune with psychic energies as Sabrina, would be bothered by me.

At least she was looking at me with thinly veiled disgust.

"What," I said flatly, not even bothering to make it sound like a question. "Just say what you wanna say and let me move on with my life. Be warned that if you say something else that's offensive you may get attacked."

"S-Silvy!" Green hissed, immediately pushing me behind her with an astonished look. "You can't assault a Gym Leader! She's a Gym Leader!"

"Wanna test how much how I care about that?"

"...N-No."

Sabrina seemed to realize that she was making an out of turn face and quickly schooled herself.

"You are the one who has been interfering with my abilities," she stated matter of factly.

"Oh I bet," I grunted. "Lemme guess. It was bad, but the moment I stepped in the city, it got worse?"

Her silence was probably as close to confirmation as I was going to get.

"I feel myself growing steadily unwell in your presence," Sabrina stated bluntly, getting disturbingly close to me.

I let out a strangled grunt, leaning back at the abrupt action.

"Get the fuck away from me you freak!" I shouted, instinctively shoving her away.

Sabrina's eyes widened at the action and I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if no one ever made human contact with her because she flailed about and fell flat on her butt in a rather uncouth display.

"Oh my Mew," Green moaned miserably, hiding her face behind her hands. "Silvy you just shoved Sabrina. I don't think anyone has ever even touched her."

"Did you miss the part where she got so close to me, I could feel her cold ass breath?!" I asked incredulously. "One wrong move and that freak would have kissed me!"

Green opened her mouth and shut it.

"You know... that's actually a fair point. Are you alright, Sabrina?" she asked in concern, gazing at the Gym Leader with wide eyes.

Honestly, yeah she looked kind of terrible. Her cheeks were steadily flushing over as well, though it didn't appear that she noticed. The woman didn't even get off the floor, just staring at me with glowing eyes.

"You should probably get away from me," I told her warily, watching in real time as her condition worsened.

The last thing I wanted, was to be charged for causing Gym Leader Sabrina to get horribly sick.

Psychic pokemon were already unable to stand my presence. I didn't even want to think of what I'd do to a psychic human.

"Um Sabrina… you don't look too good," Green pointed out with a worry. "Maybe you should go lay down."

Sabrina ignored us both.

"What... are you?" she eventually asked.

"Seriously, go home," I said warily, ready to bolt out of the city.

I did not like the way Sabrina was looking at me at all. This was seriously concerning.

She was just staring at me. It almost looked as if she were in her own world —

I stood stock still as I felt an almost tentative prodding in my head.

Was she a dumbass?! What the hell did she think she was doing?!

To no one's surprise at all (except for everyone besides me I guess), Sabrina jolted back as my mind forcefully repelled her and I watched as her condition grew even worse.

By now, I was already grabbing Green in preparation to run off because Sabrina's nose was goddamn bleeding.

Yeah that's right, the Saffron Gym Leader was suffering from a nosebleed.

Woops.

Was she some type of freak? Why exactly was she subjecting herself to this?!

"Such a repulsive presence. I've never encountered such a thing," she muttered to herself, not even seeming to notice the blood.

Green let out a panicked gasp and grabbed a napkin, rushing forward to wipe at the woman's nose as she continued muttering to herself.

Oh... now I get it.

Sabrina really was a freak.

My existence was an anomaly to Sabrina and as someone who was so in tune with her psychic energy, my repelling mind fascinated her. It was probably doubly so since my existence was one that hampered her very own.

As one of the few psychics in the world (the alleged best human psychic as well), it was probably unheard of for Sabrina to find someone stranger than her…

Especially when that stranger entity was making her existence miserable.

Oh my god. Sabrina was basically a pampered princess who was used to having things go her way. My existence was antithesis to that and she was trying to figure out why that was.

Finally, my presence seemed to become too much for the gym leader because Sabrina forcefully banished the glow from her eyes and unsuccessfully tried to get rid of the flush staining her cheeks permanently.

She wordlessly accepted the napkin out of Green's hand and neutrally wiped the blood away.

I was impressed that she was able to do that with such a straight face.

An Alakazam materialized by her side and I watched as she shook her head at its questioning gaze.

The woman turned her gaze back towards me and I narrowed my eyes as an almost threatening gleam entered those reddish eyes of hers.

"Ala," Alakazam said calmly, wrapping Sabrina in a psychic sheen.

The powerful looking psychic seemed to be communicating with her and eventually, she nodded.

Our eyes never left the other. It remained like that for far too long before Sabrina finally turned away.

Without so much as another word to me, she vanished in her own version of Teleport.

That was cool as fuck.

"That was so strange," Green muttered. "Do you think she maybe got drunk on… yknow?"

I thought about it and shrugged. "Who knows. I'm willing to bet she's a freak who just gets fascinated by strange things that don't normally happen to her. Also, she nearly attacked me there."

Green mulled it over. "She... she did?! Wow... she was staring at you for a really long time."

"She has the gall to call me an abomination. She should be glad that I don't leak pictures of her blushing with a nosebleed. Wonder what the world would think of that."

"...When did you take a picture of her."

I showed her the picture. Out of context, it really did make her look like a giant pervert.

Green looked stunned at the image.

"Silvy, Sabrina was my favorite gym leader... w-why did you just do this to me?"

"If that's your reaction, imagine hers when we meet again and I show this picture."

"You might actually be a monster."

---

Our strange encounter with Sabrina was the only thing that happened to us on our trek to Celadon that was out of the norm.

...But that encounter was really weird. Sabrina must have lowkey been quite the morbid person deep down. It was clear that she couldn't stand to be close to me but that only seemed to ignite her curiosity.

Hah. She was probably spoiled deep down and wasn't used to being denied something.

Either that, or that curiosity must have correlated with why she was so damn good with psychic abilities. Psychics were curious by nature, fueled by their boundless thirst for knowledge. Things that confused them, only made them want to understand why they were confused.

Sabrina was likely no different.

Oh well.

"Wow! From one huge city to another!" Green awed, admiring the sights of Celadon with wide eyes.

I nodded in agreement and admired the city, taken a bit more by this place then with Saffron.

Saffron was full on metropolitan. It was a city that was completely overtaken by humans with almost nothing showing in the nature aspect. It was by far the most similar city to something I'd run into back where I used to live.

Celadon was kinda similar but they seemed to respect nature far more than their neighbor. The buildings were as tall as Saffron's and the streets were paved as well but they still made way for a plethora of foliage, grass, trees etc. There were even fountains and small ponds.

It was a nice balance. Unlike Saffron, it looked like they just built Celadon in the middle of a forest and only got rid of the necessary trees to do so, leaving the rest of nature alone.

It was pretty neat.

Such a shame that I was going to commit the most heinous of crimes while in this city.

"Green, let's quickly go set up our gym appointment," I muttered to her.

She sensed something in my tone (wow I was actually getting really proud of her) and nodded. "Business to do after?"

"Depending on what I find, yeah," I nodded.

Green hummed at that and nodded in agreement.

If there was one thing I liked about Green, it's that she was always willing to follow my lead.

"How good are you at stealth?" I asked randomly.

She blinked warily. "I've never tested it… why?"

I pursed my lips at that. "After we get our matches scheduled, we'll test it."

"...Why, Silvy?"

"Don't worry, I can already tell that you're a natural. You managed to spy on me after all."

"You seriously need to answer my question!"

"…"

"Why did I agree to this?"

"Because you're an earnest idiot who's bad at knowing when to bow out."

"OH SO YOU'LL ANSWER THAT ONE?!"

---

"Who the fuck spilled their box of perfume, combined it with 30 other perfumes and then added Gloom shit to it?" I grunted immediately, furrowing my nose.

"I think Gym Leader Erika runs a side business manufacturing perfume," Green commented.

"What does she manufacture it with? Muk ass?" I asked with a scowl. "I feel my sense of smell dying as we speak, how strong is this shit for it to reach over here?" I grunted.

It probably could have smelt good, if there wasn't a million different concoctions combining and assaulting my nose.

"Let's just get our matches scheduled," I grunted, marching towards the woman at the reception desk and making a point to pinch my nose shut.

She was currently giving me the stink eye and I immediately glared at her.

"We gotta problem?" I snarled in annoyance, releasing my nose just to say that sentence. No chance was I ever gonna come off as nasally to anyone.

She flinched at my ferocious glare and Green sighed tiredly, stepping in front of me.

"We're here to schedule a gym battle. I'm Leaf Green, three badges. This is Silver, three badges," she said with a strained smile.

The receptionist took her eyes off me hastily and nodded at Green's words, typing something quickly with manicured fingers.

"3 days from now, you both will be scheduled to battle Erika in a 4 badge gym battle. Are these conditions okay?" she asked as professionally as possible.

"Yep!" Green chirped, already dragging me out of the building. "3 days? Alright! We'll be there! Thank you so much!"

With that we departed.

"You are so foul," she sighed as soon as the door shut.

"Like that gym," I replied. "Alright, we got 3 days. It's time for me to tell you what we're going to do."

Green perked up at that and gazed at me with wide eyes.

"What is it?" she whispered a little eagerly.

"Infiltration," I muttered. "The Game Corner. I'm pretty sure it's a base for Team Rocket. When night hits, we're gonna infiltrate and sabotage them. By the time we're done, it'll be completely outed and they'll take a massive hit."

Her eyes widened at that and I put a hand out.

"You don't gotta come with," I informed her seriously. "I'm totally fine doing this alone but I figured I'd tell you since you want me to trust you... and I want to trust you."

I was being genuine here, despite how manipulative my words would normally come off. I actually didn't mind if she came with me or not.

I would actually prefer if she didn't come because this was risky business.

"W-Well… as long as they're bad guys, I guess I don't mind," Green muttered, steeling herself. "In for a penny, in for a pound!"

I stared at her. "Seriously, Leaf… you don't have to force yourself to do this. You're uncomfortable as hell."

"Yeah I am… it's kinda scary but... it's scarier leaving you alone," she admitted quietly. "B-Besides! I'm also a little excited! I've never done anything so bad!"

Exciting? Was little Green enjoying the thrill of being a rebel?

Based on my observations, she did have the talent necessary to be a great thief like me so if she found it thrilling, then I guess I couldn't judge her.

All I could do was ensure she didn't get caught.

"Alright, let's go find a secluded area. We'll do light training with our teams while I test out how good you are."

Green nodded, understanding the implications of what being bad probably meant.

She really was trying her best to not be a liability all for the sake of helping me out.

She… was a good friend.

---

"Nervous?" I mused in the dark of night.

"Yes. I don't wanna mess this up," Green muttered in her black outfit. The dress was gone, replaced by a skin concealing pants and shirt combo.

Faraway from what she normally would wear but good for hiding her identity.

"You won't fail," I reassured. "I tested you and you passed with flying colors. If you keep it up, you'll be just as good as me."

She lit up at my truthful compliment and grabbed the mask I threw towards her. It was white, with a set of eyes and a mouth on it that showed none of her features.

Her brown hair was a little impossible to hide so I adjusted by dying it black and tying it into a long ponytail that I needed to brush down.

"The dye wears off with some water so don't worry," I muttered.

"I'm more shocked that you know how to tie my hair into such a neat ponytail!" Green exclaimed in a whisper, tentatively touching her hair with wide eyes.

I grunted at the random skill I seemed to have. "Besides the fact that we're going to sabotage Team Rocket, we're gonna get stronger too."

Green blinked. "We are?"

I nodded with a smirk and we began moving.

"Where are we about to infiltrate, Leaf?" I asked.

"The Celadon Game Corner that's secretly a Team Rocket hideout," Green replied automatically, remembering because I drilled the plan into her head repeatedly while we trained.

I nodded my head. "But just because it's a Team Rocket hideout, doesn't stop it from being a Game Corner."

Green blinked, before her eyes widened in realization.

"Oh!" she whispered. "You want to steal some goods from Team Rocket and the Game Corner?!"

"Yup," I popped the p, gazing at the still open game corner with an inquisitive gaze.

The Game Corner was open 24/7 so there was never a perfect time to infiltrate it.

That didn't mean there weren't better times though.

I placed my mask on and put up my hoodie.

"An anonymous message is going to be picked up by the Celadon Police Force in about an hour and thirty minutes and that's when they'll probably come to investigate. We should be done in an hour at the minimum," I informed Green, tapping a window experimentally.

Without any prompting, Loki's eyes began glowing purple and at the same time, cracks began appearing all over the glass.

Gaia's vines slowly snaked out and nudged a single panel of the glass, catching it before it could crash into the floor.

She repeated the same with every piece until there was nothing left and I shot her a thankful smile.

"Thanks girl," I muttered gently.

"Bay," she whispered, batting her head against me.

"Wow," Green and Vee awed at our action.

"I'll go first," I muttered to her, returning Gaia.

I placed my thick gloved palm on the edge, ignoring the shards of glass and I leapt into the room.

I made no noise as I landed on the floor and blew out a cold breath.

It was chilly tonight.

We weren't in the main building of the game corner. The prize corner of the casino was a whole different structure that was attached to the actual game corner to the right of it.

As such, it was quite a bit emptier and at this time of day? Nearly midnight? Yeah the only one in here, were probably the folks who were in charge of transactions.

The little room I was in, was empty. There were items strewn about. A bag splayed haphazardly on a bench and I inspected it for any goods.

My eyes narrowed as I reached into the bag and pulled out a knife, inspecting it with calculating eyes.

Weapons were quite rare in this world and the more dangerous, the harder it was to secure them.

It was actually a very healthy way to go about things. Even simple weapons like this were quite the hassle to get.

This wasn't some kitchen knife too. This looked like an actual dagger.

Hm. It looked dangerously sharp too. I wonder if it was made with pokemon parts.

I slipped it into my pocket and took the time to inspect the rest of the room.

This must have been the break room for their staff.

Green quietly stepped up next to me and I gazed at her.

"Three people," I put three fingers up, taking wads of cash out of their bags and putting it in my own.

"Two boys, one girl."

Green's brows furrowed at that.

"What do we do?" she whispered..

I smiled and reached into my bag.

Green's curiosity, turned into one horror as I pulled out a baseball bat.

I wasn't kidding when I said weapons were hard to get. Since they were difficult... it was time for me to get innovative.

"Where did you get that?!" she gaped at me.

"I'm going to use it on them."

"That is not what I asked you!"

Before I could make good on my words to assault the disguised rockets, Green put her hands out and stopped me.

Slowly, she released Saury from his ball and beckoned towards her serious and gigantic Ivysaur.

I blinked, absentmindedly tossing a sweet snack towards the Ivysaur.

All of Green and I's pokemon had been caught up on everything so they were all briefed on this mission.

We were naturally not going to use some but the chance was always there so they were alert.

"Saury, sleep powder as soon as we exit this room. There should be three people out there. Don't even let them scream," she whispered to him.

I blinked at that and nodded.

That was fine too.

I placed my bat back into my bag… for now and followed Green and Saury out of the room.

There were three bored adults there. One was dozing off, the other was scrolling through their phone and the last was filing their nails…

None even noticed they were slowly inhaling the powerful sleep powder from Saury until they all fell asleep, thudding to the floor.

"Nice," I grunted, not bothering in tying them up. Saury's powders were very potent and on a human, they were sleeping for the rest of the night.

Green was looking at the unconscious bodies with wide eyes.

"I can deal with incapacitating the Rockets," she whispered to me, a strange glint in her eyes.

I huffed in amusement at that and nodded, before walking up to the counter.

Much to my delight, discs were littered all in front of me and I smirked wildly at the expensive pricing of them.

To my slight confusion though, there were no pokemon being sold.

"They got rid of that years ago," Green answered my question. "Game Corners aren't really… thought highly of. It promotes bad things you know? Selling and keeping pokemon didn't give it a better light and it put a stigma that was frowned upon… so they shelved the idea and just limited it to TMs only."

Ah when it came down to it, it was always morals.

That sucked. I was hoping to get a Porygon or a Scyther from these idiots.

Hm… alright then. I'd just take the TMs as a consolation prize. At the very least they didn't appear to be changed and the best part?

All permanent.

Ice Beam, Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Flamethrower… wow I felt spoiled here taking all this good stuff. All they needed was Earthquake and Protect and I'd have been golden.

"They're permanent so we can just share these," I grunted. "Better this way to avoid raising suspicion. We're done here now, let's go to the actual Game Corner."

Green was a little slack jawed, looking at all the expensive TMs I was storing in my case and then she gazed at me.

"Ready?" I grunted.

"Y-Yeah!" Green said, dipping back into the break room with me so we could exit the Prize Corner.

"Last chance to back out," I warned her. "There's probably going to be actual Rockets in there and they'll want to hurt us."

"I've got your back, Silvy," Green said firmly. "We're in this together until we take them all out and set you free."

Set me free…

I pat her on the head. "I'll make sure nothing happens to you. Would hate to explain to your mom that you died," I snorted, tapping Loki with one hand and grabbing Green with the other.

Green squeaked and then watched in fascination, as my first pokemon began exuding black energy, that wrapped around the both of us until we looked like a nondescript adult couple.

Loki's illusions were impressive, but they had limits for the little Zorua. Things like camouflage/invisibility were a tad harder for him over something like masking us as other people but for it to be effective on both Green and I, we needed to remain close and keep contact.

Less area to cover. Very nice all around.

"Be calm," I muttered to her, watching as Vee jumped into her disguised shirt to stay hidden.

Holding her hand showed me how nervous she was. My companion was squeezing it tightly as we weaved through the late night addicts, who had their eyes glued to the slots.

All ages were allowed inside the game corner but near midnight, it was mostly adults that remained…

And those adults were extremely addicted. They didn't even spare Green and I a glance as we marched past them. I wrinkled my nose a bit at the stench and shook my head.

Some things changed, others did not. Degenerates existed in all manner of worlds and gambling addictions were universal.

My eyes were narrowed slightly. I didn't know the exact location of where their hideout would be but I could take a wild guess and say it was in some secluded area in the far back.

The corner was way bigger, but the layout in general, was very similar to the games… so I turned into a corridor that suspiciously led to nothing, effortlessly moved a poster to the side and pressed a very nondescript (no really, this wasn't sarcasm at allll) button.

A tiny rumbling occurred before Green and I's eyes and we watched as the floor made way for a set of stairs.

Ridiculous. But I guess if you wanted to stay hidden, this was the way to go about things.

I chanced a glance back to make sure we weren't being tailed and then I headed down the stairway after confirming that the coast was clear.

"So there really is a secret base down here," Green muttered quietly.

"Yeah," I grunted with a frown, watching as our disguises wore off. "Be as quiet as possible, I'll lead."

She nodded and adjusted her mask slightly, falling in line behind me.

Neither of us made a sound, as we navigated the underground facility. It was cold in here and there wasn't a soul in sight currently...

I pursed my lips after pushing open a door and paused at seeing an empty seat on the other side.

Someone was supposed to be guarding here but they weren't…

Footsteps alerted us to the arrival of said person and my eyes went sharp.

"Maaaaan this shift fucking sucks," the grunt complained, idly scratching his pants as he lazily sat down. "Why the fuck do I always get stuck with this shift? It's not like anyone actually knows where this is. But here I am, with no one to fucking talk to while the other guys get to fuck off and do whatever. Couldn't I at least get Ana to keep me company? Nope."

He never noticed two sets of eyes glaring at him. He definitely didn't notice the violent rage in the catlike silver gaze that was me.

I wasted no time leaping off the roof I was perched against, slamming both my feet onto the unsuspecting guy's back.

I heard a wheeze of agony escape his mouth, before vines swiftly wrapped around him and shut him up.

My mask protected me from the aroma of Saury's Sleep Powder quite well and we shot each other a nod of respect.

Green's strongest pokemon was a real trooper. He was utterly unfazed by his set of orders and just carried them out with a chilling efficiency.

"Oof," Green said quietly, landing on the floor with a slightly unbalanced stance.

I idly pulled her up and gazed coldly at the body, before stripping the man of anything he could use as a way to get out.

I left his outfit on though, so he could be easily identified. The big R wasn't doing him any favors.

"Should I have Saury tie him up?" Green asked curiously.

"No. Sleep Powder is enough. Harder to identify what put him in this state and he'll be unconscious for a long time," I denied, pushing another door open and stepping into a massive hallway.

I confidently walked through like I owned the place, never making a sound and making sure Loki would alert me of any sounds. His hearing was much better than mine and I trusted him wholeheartedly.

"You're so calm," Green whispered, trailing me. She wasn't as confident as I was but that was to be expected.

It was still much better than I expected someone as nervous as her to be. That was another reason I was taking the lead, so that she could calm her nerves by looking at me.

Loki twitched slightly and I immediately ducked into a corridor, Green hastily following me.

I put up two fingers and released Gaia from her ball.

No sooner did I do that, did two rocket grunts appear from around a corner of the corridor to the left.

"It's cold as balls in here man," the man complained.

"You wanna take that complaint up with Proton? Let's see if you win the roulette and leave the room with only one limb," the woman offered.

I paused at that and frowned.

As they walked past us, both Gaia and Saury lashed out with their vines, immediately immobilizing and dragging them into this little pocket with us.

They weren't even allowed to scream due to the vines wrapping tight around their mouths.

"Don't knock them unconscious yet," I grunted, watching as the two rockets struggled fruitlessly.

I effortlessly stomped on the fingers of the one attempting to nudge her pokeball and watched as she squealed under the muffle of Gaia's vines.

Green winced slightly but I was ruthless.

"None of that," I chastised coldly. "If you value those limbs that you talked about, you'll answer some of my questions."

To stress my point, I pulled out my bat and aimed it at the man's leg.

"You're going to nod for yes, shake for no. If I feel like you're lying, I'm going to smash a limb. When I run out of limbs, you should get very afraid," I warned them.

They almost looked like they didn't believe I was capable of something like that and I scoffed.

What was with these idiots underestimating me because I was a kid? I was fully disguised. I could have just been a short adult.

"Squeeze tighter, Gaia," I grunted.

I couldn't stop the well of satisfaction at seeing the sheer panic in their eyes, as Gaia began squeezing tighter and tighter.

"Don't think I have any sympathy for you, Team Rocket. Especially not after that stunt you pulled with the ship," I said coldly, nudging my bat against the man's skull hard enough to make it bounce off the wall behind him. "You kill, steal, assault… you're scum of the world so I will break every one of your limbs if you don't comply. Got that?"

They both nodded eagerly, fear in their eyes.

Good. I'm glad they were complying. I really didn't fancy scarring Green here more than she likely already was.

I spared a glance towards her and she gazed back at me, eyes almost certainly wide behind that mask, but nodded shakily at my unspoken question.

"I'm okay for now. They've done worse," she whispered quiet enough for only me to hear.

A liar. That's what she was.

I sighed and ignored it for now because this was important for our plans.

"Is Executive Proton in this building right now?" I asked calmly.

Hesitance.

My eyes narrowed and I stood poised with my bat.

"Mmmm!" the man nodded hastily.

"Is he overseeing a big project?"

A shake of their heads and I pursed my lips.

"So he's just visiting?"

A nod.

"What rotten luck."

Funnily enough, they nodded sagely at that.

Proton was unhinged. Don't ask me how I knew that, I just did. He was very easily the most unstable of the Executives and had the worst temper to boot.

We needed to approach this differently.

"You guys hold pokemon hostage here right?" I asked coldly.

A hesitant nod.

I nodded towards Saury and briefly had him remove his vines from the girls lips.

Why? Because she was more likely to care about her looks of course. I had a bat aimed directly at her skull so she understood exactly what was going to happen if she screamed.

The female rocket was gazing at me like I was about to kill her and I merely nudged the bat against her to have her understand that I was not messing around.

"Where do you keep them?" I asked lowly. "I want full instructions of how to get there. Don't speak louder than necessary or you can kiss your pretty face goodbye."

She nodded fearfully. "A-A-All the pokemon are in the same room. It's to keep stock of them easier… they're behind cages. You just have to make it to the third floor and you'll f-find them."

Green glared at the duo and I nodded in satisfaction, before Saury immediately put them to sleep.

"New plan," I grunted to Green.

---

Green and I continued stealthily moving through the Rocket hideout, taking out Rocket after Rocket in our silent rampage.

Most didn't even get the chance to battle us, we captured and slept them easily. That was better for us because we needed to conserve our energy as much as possible.

I was a little confused that none of them had their pokemon out, but the few rockets we did battle made it clear why.

Those were not pokemon that could just be left out. Most were drugged to oblivion and it made Green more and more furious with the rockets for so callously abusing their pokemon.

We rid them of their pokemon and just left them somewhere for the investigators to pick up their pokeballs. With any luck, they'd be sent somewhere for rehabilitation so that they could get whatever junk was in their system flushed.

But I suppose there was one benefit to seeing those pokemon and that benefit was riling Green up something fierce.

A more motivated Green, meant a more confident Green and as we traversed I began to worry less and less for her… enough for me to divulge a new set of actions.

"Hold it right there you little shit."

I stopped at that and cursed my luck, before turning to face the voice of the perpetrator.

He was of average height, with a black hat that hid a full head teal hair. There was a smile on his face, but his equally teal eyes reflected the fury he was currently feeling.

"I was wondering why I was barely running into any grunts. Turns out we got a little cheeky fucking Rattata scampering around," Proton grunted in feigned amusement.

My masked face revealed nothing to him, but I was eyeing the 6 pokeballs on his waist warily.

"Mask on… body hidden… are you some type of vigilante?" Proton asked incredulously, smiling twitching a bit. "Are you a fucking freedom fighter? Who the hell do you think you are?!"

I said nothing.

Proton snarled in annoyance. "Don't think you can go around interrupting my work. Team Rocket doesn't like anyone sticking their nose in our business! You won't expect any mercy from me!"

Nothing. I didn't say a word.

Proton's waning patience snapped in half.

"Quiet type huh? Let's see how quiet you are when I'm ripping out the information of who you are!"

Proton threw his pokeball out and I watched warily as a Weezing popped out.

It was an ugly thing, with two spherical heads that were connected by a tube with yet another sphere on it. It's eyes, both sets, were half lidded as it immediately honed in on me.

Without any hesitation, I turned on a heel and ran for my life.

Proton's eyes bugged in rage. "OH NO YOU FUCKING DON'T! AFTER THAT LITTLE SHIT! DON'T TEAR THEM TO PIECES YET!"

The sound of another pokeball opening, showed a Crobat with bloodthirsty eyes that flitted off after me, turning the corner as well at incredible speeds.

Proton was hot on his pokemon's heels, eyes bulging in his rage as he stormed off with the Weezing.

I watched him go with a lazy expression, sitting atop the cage of a fuming Nidoqueen.

"That's the guy that's captured you all huh?" I asked her quietly, allowing the illusion to melt off of me.

One really neat thing about Loki's illusions, was that he could control it a certain distance.

It would increase when he evolved, but the moment that illusion of me had turned the corner, it dissolved. Proton would very likely thing I teleported away or was way faster than led to believe.

So I had some time.

Nidoqueen growled in affirmation at my question.

"Don't you worry girl, I'll free you all from your cages, then you can get all the revenge you want," I smiled thinly, right as Green poked her head into the room.

"You just have to promise not to hurt me… and be careful. That guy is pretty strong… so just cause a lot of chaos until the people come to save you."

I leapt off the cage and looked the Nidoqueen in her eyes, stamping down my innate dislike for ground types.

Of all the drugged and caged pokemon, this one seemed to be the most coherent… so I watched her nod in affirmation, respect in her gaze.

"Found the key?" I asked Green with a small and smug smirk.

"Yeah, the plan worked perfectly. You distracted the executive and gave me time to find the keys to the cages," Green said, showing off a ring of keys.

Once learning that Proton was here, I had to adjust my plans a little. I didn't have a set goal here, I was just trying to fuck them over…

But trying to fuck over Team Rocket with an executive nearby was a death wish.

So do we leave?

Fuck no.

We continue with the mission but just adjust how we go about it. We just needed to do one last thing before heading out and there was bound to be good things to loot.

Cue, distracting Proton so that Green could raid his room and steal anything valuable.

"Got anything else besides the keys?" I asked curiously, going through the process of unlocking every single cage, starting with Nidoqueen.

The poison type rumbled as she stepped out and I gazed warily at her… but she snorted and nodded respectfully at me, trudging past me and heading directly towards a cage full of Nidoran, Nidorinos and Nidorinas.

"Yeah," Green nodded. "I got a lot of loot, we can split it half after its all said and done. They had a lot of money too."

I shot an impressed look at her, clinking open the cage of a Machoke.

I was mostly freeing the Pokemon that looked coherent. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't trust those drugged up ones to not attack me. When the investigators came they'd deal with it.

"I'm proud of you," I said truthfully, returning the bow that the Machoke shot me.

"I can't believe the first time I hear a compliment from you, it's because I've become your partner in crime… literally," Green sighed, also bowing.

Machoke raised its head and I watched its reptilian face scour the crowd of caged pokemon, before walking up to a cage and ripping it open with its bare hands, allowing a coherent Medicham to slowly walk out.

"Thank you," I said truthfully, shooting a nod of respect as Machoke began assessing who was safe enough to release. "Help will be on the way to get the ones who can't fend themselves, so play it safe," I announced to them.

I absentmindedly opened the cage of a terrified Teddiursa and watched it shrink into the cage.

"Hey, I'm not here to hurt you," I reassured with a disarming smile. "You're free to go now. You can escape."

The Teddiursa nodded hesitantly and tentatively walked out the cage, gazing at me with caution.

"Right, we've stayed here long enough," I grunted, turning away from the free army. "The police should be getting their message soon, so that means it's time to go."

Green nodded in agreement. "We did good. We just have to make sure this place gets found out."

"I've got that handled," I grunted, turning on a dime and rushing out of the room. "Try not to kill anyone not wearing an R on their shirt! They want to help heal you! Hurting them will only be bad for you all in the long run! Comply with the allies!" I barked to the freed pokemon.

I didn't wait to see if the Pokemon registered my words because I was already sprinting with Green.

Proton seemed like a dumbass but by now, he was sure to realize that something was amiss and I very much doubted the pokemon were going to be quiet.

Right on cue, we heard the pokemon begin roaring in fury and that motivated me to get far away from that noise.

"Our missions complete, it's time to get far away from here," I mumbled to her as we ran.

"Yeah!" she nodded. "This was… scary and crazy but it was also kinda really thrilling!"

"Yeah?" I mused, wondering if her adrenaline pumped the way mine did in the middle of something dangerous. To me, the high of committing such a high stakes heist, was a little intoxicating.

Judging by the little gleam in Green's eyes… she was more like her manga counterpart than I thought. I knew they had a lot of similarities but this was a surprise.

…

My eyes widened and without any hesitation, I gripped Green and lunged forward.

"O-Ow!" Green shouted in shock, tumbling with me and clutching her side in shock as her outfit shredded slightly.

I placed her behind me as we caught our footing and snarled in annoyance.

We both watched watched as a tiny ghost materialized behind us. It was bipedal with sharp claws, dripping in some blood, and sharp teeth, with gemstone like eyes and a red gem in its chest.

Sableye… didn't think he'd have this pokemon in his possession.

"You really thought I was gonna let you get away?!" Proton hissed furiously, a Toxicroak at his side that leered at us, lip curling in anticipation.

The executive looked pissed as hell, eyes smoldering with murder in his eyes.

I pursed my lips as Crobat flitted into view and banished any thoughts of successfully escaping.

Crobat's were far far too fast for the human to react to. To be honest, if you were alone with a Crobat, you were already dead and only living as long as it wanted you too.

The fact that Proton of all people had a Crobat meant the two actually had a bond with each other... which meant that it was almost equally as violent as he was.

"You're fucked," Proton promised violently, gritting his teeth. "You think I can't stop that little rebellion down there? You think I'm afraid of a few wild pokemon? Once I deal with you, it'll be nothing for me."

"…" I pondered the situation. "Maybe you should be more weary of those wild pokemon."

Proton raised a brow, but his eyes widened in shock as the ground underneath him began shaking.

Toxicroak only had a moment to react as a horn attempted to gore through Proton. It leapt into action, parrying the horn with that long red claw on its arm.

Nidoqueen snarled violently, and the very world around us began shaking as it no doubt used Earthquake.

Toxicroak's defense was short lived, as a Sandslash burst from the ground and a torrent of flames, courtesy of a Rapidash, attempted to bathe the rest of Proton's team.

"Run!" I barked, dragging Green and pushing her ahead.

I watched as the crowd of rampaging pokemon grew larger and larger and decided that the commotion was probably going to get picked up on soon.

It was really time to get out of here. Proton was a spiteful piece of shit —

"Oof," I grunted, as I got tackled to the ground. I landed face first on the floor and felt cracks make its way to my mask. Bits began falling off and I hissed in pain.

"I don't give a fuck what happens, I'm taking you out."

I could practically feel the spit hitting the back of my neck with how hard Proton was frothing at the mouth.

I hissed as a foot crashed into my ribs and flipped me over, meeting the angry teal eyes of Proton and Crobat.

"You caused me a lot of damn problems you shitty little brat," he hissed, crouching lowly to regard me. "Now let's see who you are behind this mask —"

I spit a wad of blood through the cracks of my mask and aimed directly towards his eyes without any hesitation.

"AGH!" Proton shouted, clawing at his face as the spit struck true. As his grip loosened on me, I lunged forward with wild eyes and stabbed the dagger into his side without any hesitation.

My theory of it being made of some pokemon material was looking more and more true because it sunk into him with way too much ease.

I ignored the urge to wince, eyes unnaturally focused as I glared hatefully at the stupid fucking group that blew up the S.S Anne.

"ARGHHHHH!" Proton howled in agony, clutching the gushing spot as I ruthlessly ripped out the blade.

At the same time, a baseball bat connected directly with Proton's head and I felt myself getting dragged from underneath him.

"Cro!" Crobat hissed, instinctively turning towards Proton in visible concern.

The slight distraction allowed Saury, who was wrapped in an illusion, to wrap a flurry of vines around the giant bat. I noticed a slight sheen to them and realized they were seeped in Sleep Powder.

The makeshift chloroform rag performed its job admirably, because even the much stronger Crobat was unable to resist. Soon, it fell asleep and Saury discarded it to the side with a grunt.

Loki was atop the Ivysaur, glaring fiercely at both Proton and Crobat and showing me exactly how the giant Ivysaur managed to sneak up on them.

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Green stammered, pulling me up and rushing with me. She was holding my baseball bat and it was obvious who had used it to get me out of that predicament.

"I'm fine," I huffed, clutching my side slightly. "Thank you, Loki, Leaf and Saury. That was a sticky situation that I was in and you guys got me out of it."

"Of course! I promised that I'd have your back, now let's go!" Green urged, tugging my hand forward. "Loki can you wrap us in an illusion again? We'll need to be invisible this time so we can leave without being questioned."

Loki nodded and got to work quickly.

I took a deep breath and stood up straight, as his illusion washed over us and we began swiftly marching towards the exit because Loki wouldn't be able to keep this up for too long.

As we made it back to the actual game corner. The noise from down here wasn't quite reaching them but I know that earthquake must have been felt… so I just slapped a sign on a wall with a big ass arrow (Green began sweating slightly at that) and we got the hell up outta there.

There was a noise of confusion and a wave of anxiety from the few addicted gamblers in there and I watched as they contemplated leaving this place, or continuing with slots.

Sickening. I already knew what my decision was.

As Green and I made our way out of the Game Corner, we turned on a dime and rushed off, heading directly to the forests of Route 7.

The both of us collapsed next to each other with twin sighs, releasing our entire team n the process.

"Bay," Gaia muttered, approaching me and inspecting my wounds. She began glowing slightly and I sighed as the pain dulled into something much more tolerable.

"Come here Green," I grunted, beckoning her over.

Green blinked and rolled a single time, closing the distance immediately.

She let out a strangled shriek as I lifted her shirt halfway, revealing 3 gashes on her side.

"Sableye got you," I frowned. "Does it hurt bad?"

"K-Kinda," she stammered, fidgeting under my intense gaze.

I sighed.

"Loki, could you channel some dark type energy on it? It should help get rid of some of the potential ghost energy that entered her system."

Loki nodded and deftly leapt next to us, placing a gentle paw on her wounds and using a harmless amount of dark energy.

Then, Gaia wrapped her vines around the wound and began glowing, channeling a Heal Pulse and making the wound close up.

"A little better?" I asked.

"Much," she replied thankfully.

"Wanna go to a Center?" I muttered.

She shook her head. "I'm okay! If we go now, we might become suspects. It really does feel way better now," she grinned reassuringly.

I watched Gaia remove her vines and gazed at the spot where she got wounded, nodding slightly at not seeing it scar over.

I idly pulled a Full Restore out of my bag and sprayed once on the spot, getting a surprised hiss out of her.

"There we go," I nodded in satisfaction.

Green rubbed the spot slightly and gazed at me, before smiling.

"I can't believe we did that," she gasped, hugging Togee with an awed expression.

"What? Did you enjoy it?" I asked, groaning slightly as I tentatively peeled my black coat off.

Proton kicked me pretty damn hard. It wasn't enough to break bone thankfully, but it was definitely going to bruise.

"Don't tell anyone… but it… was kinda fun. You know, before that executive showed up," Green admitted in a mumble, running a hand through Vee's fur.

"Good. You did great today," I informed her, watching as Gaia hawked in on my bruised ribs and immediately got started again.

What a gem.

"Really?! I'm glad. I was really hoping I didn't let you down," she said quietly.

"You didn't. You did the opposite. I'm honestly surprised a goody two shoes like you was willing to do this and you did it to an impressive degree too."

Green stuck her tongue out at me. "S-Shut up! I can be a little rebellious!"

"Yeah you proved me wrong. I can't believe you used my bat before me," I sighed despondently.

"You really wanna use the bat," Green said dryly. "...I can kinda see why."

I snorted and it erupted into a small chuckle.

Green giggled as well and we both laughed at the bizarreness of the situation.

It was ridiculous to think about, but that's what made it so funny.

Eventually we settled down and Green sobered up slightly.

"So what do we do now?" she asked in concern.

"Wanna camp out for the night? Or do you wanna waltz back to the Center? I've already got an excuse lined up for that option so."

With the exposure of the Game Corner, there was a solid chance that the city would be in a bit of an uproar. So Green and I's alibi would be that we had been training off route and set up camp/or slept in the center right after.

"Let's camp!" Green decided immediately.

I nodded. "Wanna sleep in my tent again? It's much comfier," I added.

Her eyes widened and she nodded eagerly. "Yeah! It'll be fun! Another sleepover!"

I simply snorted and got my tent ready… only to go alert as a rustling noise suddenly hit my ears.

At once, everyone in the clearing went alert and I narrowed my eyes.

I beckoned with my arm for them all to be ready to start blasting.

Green mirrored my movement and all of our pokemon got ready…

Only to stop in confusion at seeing what stepped through.

It was a bipedal pokemon that was covered in orange-brown fur while looking very ursine in nature. It had a light brown muzzle with a tiny black nose and small black eyes that had white irises.

To top it all off, there was a crescent moon marking on its face.

The Teddiursa shuddered in terror, beginning to nervously lick its paws as it noticed all the eyes on it. It looked as if it wanted to bolt at any given moment and I tilted my head.

"A Teddiursa?" I muttered in confusion, waving my hand slightly to tell my team to ease up.

"Wait, is this the one from the Rocket Base?" Green asked in confusion. "Wow! Did you follow us all the way over here?! How did you do that?!"

Teddiursa flinched and nodded tentatively at the question, before pointing at its nose.

It tracked us by scent? It managed to pick our scent in all that mayhem and follow us here?

Well, it was a bear I guess. Stood to reason that a super powered bear would have fantastic sense of smell.

I blinked. "Why would you do that?" I asked bluntly.

"If you had stayed there, you woulda got rescued by the Officer Jenny's and the rest of the police force," I grunted.

"Teddi…" Teddiursa mumbled after a moment.

"It does not trust humans," Metang translated.

"You don't trust humans?" I asked with a raised brow.

Teddiursa nodded reluctantly. "Ted Teddi ursa," it explained.

"Humans took both its mother and it from their home and transformed her into a mindless beast. They seemed to have experimented on the little cub as well."

I scowled at that.

"That's fucked," I frowned.

"What's wrong?" Green asked me.

"The Teddiursa and it's mother were both experimented on. Team Rocket turned its mom into a mindless monster…"

Green gasped in horror. "That's horrible… the poor thing," she said sadly, gazing at the Teddiursa with pity.

"But I don't get it. You don't trust humans, you were set free and you had the skills to escape the Game Corner without being detected," I pointed out.

Teddiursa shrunk a bit at my piercing gaze.

"You don't have to trust humans anymore. You're free. Just go live in the forests now. Why are you here?" I asked bluntly.

By this point, Teddiursa was now licking both its paws as its nervousness began to climb higher.

"T-Teddiursa," it stammered.

"While it does not trust all humans. It… admires and respects you in particular. From my point of view, it has latched onto you because you saved it."

I blinked.

It latched onto me?

"You like me?" I asked the little thing curiously.

"Ursa!" Teddiursa exclaimed eagerly, black eyes looking up at me.

"It hopes to be as brave as you some day. I do believe it wants to join us."

I figured but just to be sure…

"You wanna join me?" I asked the little fella, crouching down directly in front of Teddiursa.

"Teddiursa!" Teddiursa nodded happily.

"Despite not trusting a single human, for good reason too, you mustered up the courage to approach two humans and you wanna join one of them..." I mused.

This little fella didn't trust any human. It got experimented on. It practically lost its mother to those same humans…

Yet it still had the courage to approach me, a human to ask for my help.

It was like looking at a pokemon version of myself… except Teddiursa was way braver than it gave itself credit for because it had the strength to willingly put its trust into someone.

I… was still working on that.

I never even once thought about catching a Teddiursa. Like it hadn't passed my mind a single time… it just wasn't a pokemon I cared about…

But how could I sit here and deny this guy a chance to join me? It's not like I was starving for a sixth pokemon… it's not like I knew who was going to go there.

Why not them? Besides, don't I originally have an Ursaring? Might as well have at least one matching member.

Most pokemon held in captivity, normally suffered once they actually made it out in the wild anyways. Unless trained, it was unwise to release them because they'd lag behind their natural counterparts.

Heh. Look at that. Looks like I didn't completely lie to Dr. Fuji. I really was rescuing a pokemon from being experimented on.

Maybe Mewtwo's cells had given me precognitive abilities.

Wasn't that a thought?

"Alright Teddiursa, you're in luck. I've been needing a sixth and I've also been pretty indecisive about it so I think you'll make a fine addition to the party," I smirked sardonically, holding a Luxury Ball for him.

"Tap the button and you'll be apart of the team. Once you do this, you'll have a whole new life to look forward to," I told them.

"It'll be hard. I won't lie. I have high expectations for my team members and I have high expectations for myself… and you'll have to match that. But, I can promise you that if you stick it out, it'll all be worth it. You won't be a coward, you won't be weak… and you'll be able to avenge your mother," I swore to them.

Teddiursa looked captivated by my words, eyes shining in awe, as its paws fell limply to its side.

Then, it raised one of those wet little paws and tapped on the Luxury Ball without any hesitation.

I watched as it was sucked into the ball, not even struggling once before signifying a successful capture.

I gazed at the ball with a contemplative expression.

A Teddiursa…

"Well guys, looks like we have our sixth member," I informed my team. "Be nice to them, alright? They seem a little shy so we'll be patient."

Gaia, Loki and Freyja all showed their support to the newest member, while Metang said nothing and Ares rumbled.

"So long as it has its uses, I will not complain. The same goes for the dragon who's trapped in its shell."

I grunted at that.

"That… was so inspiring!" Green beamed. "Now we both have 6 members! Oh but technically you have 7! The egg!"

I blinked.

Oh shit. Right, I had the egg.

"I'm going to have a team of 7 soon. Don't tell anyone."

Green blinked. "Oh right… you have nowhere to put extra pokemon."

I nodded and stood up, dusting myself off and groaning as I stretched out the kinks in my body. "Yeah I don't. Not for the foreseeable future at least. I'll be caught dead before I send a member of my team to Viridian so I'll have to illegally go over the limit."

She nodded sympathetically. "And it would be suspicious if you requested a new area… alright, that makes sense."

I smirked at her. "Thanks, Leaf… now let's go to sleep. I'm pretty tired."

"Kay Silvy!"

---

Proton let out a gasp of agony, as he was suddenly enveloped in a sheen and transported out of the Game Corner.

His side was bleeding heavily after getting fucking stabbed and he was still furiously wiping at the blood in his eyes.

"Proton."

Proton froze at that and hesitantly opened his stinging eyes.

What he saw, made a chill go down his spine.

All the Executives were staring down at him currently. From Petrel's lackadaisical smirk, Jesse and James pensive expression, Ariana's unimpressed sneer and Archer's irritated glare.

But all of that paled in comparison to the figure in the middle, sitting rigidly in his seat as his grey eyes coldly bore into him.

"I believe an explanation is required," Archer stepped forward immediately. "How is it, that the Game Corner has been compromised the one time you were tasked with going there."

Petrel put a hand into his ear lazily. "Yeah man, that base meant a lot to me. I'm normally the one who's watching over it you know? How'd you mess that up?"

"Brutes are only good for one thing," Ariana snarled, mood foul for reasons unknown to anyone.

Jesse and James said nothing, awkwardly watching the affairs.

Proton snarled. "There was someone sneaking around! Someone who knew about the hideout! They were working right under my nose and ended up freeing all those damn pokemon. When I get my hands on them... I'll make them regret crossing Team Rocket!"

"When?"

A tense silence washed over everyone at that and every single agent gazed at the mostly silent Giovanni.

One could almost be led to believe that he hadn't said anything in the first place but it was impossible to miss their bosses voice.

"The Game Corner supplied us with almost 43% of our funds," Giovanni listed idly, expression not betraying anything. "It is the driving force in allowing us to have a steady income and in just one day, that steady income has ceased to exist."

"Not only that, underneath the Game Corner, was a hideout that was used to test and restrain countless of pokemon. Pokemon that we eventually planned on selling for an even greater profit, or using for ourself."

Proton began shuddering.

"You understand correct, Executive Proton? To experiment and test, we naturally need supplies. Those supplies are expensive. We no longer have access to the supplies in the Game Corner," Giovanni stated matter of factly.

Horror dawned on his face.

"Now you understand," Giovanni praised quietly. "We did not just lose the Game Corner. We lost many, many resources that we used there. It's not as if I placed all my eggs into a singular basket, but some baskets are more important than others and because of you, I lost one of my baskets."

"So explain to me your side of things, Executive Proton."

Proton crumbled immediately. "T-There were two of them! Both short! They had disguises on! They were running around the base and dispatching all of our members! I never saw it coming! When I caught one of them, they stabbed me! I didn't expect it so they got away."

He bowed his head to the floor pleadingly. "Forgive me sir. I'll work to rectify this mistake immediately! I'll find those bastards and bring them in!"

Ariana scoffed silently, while the other Executives remained silent.

Giovanni said nothing as well, just gazing at the man with a neutral expression.

"Tell me then Proton. What pokemon did those trainers have?"

Proton nodded vigorously and mulled the question over —

He went pale.

W-What pokemon did they have? Surely there was one he spotted right?

Was it that Nidoqueen...? The Rapidash?

Wait... wait.

"Well?" Giovanni raised a brow.

"I... I didn't quite see any of them," he explained.

"...I see," Giovanni nodded. "Very well, Proton. Did you glean their appearance? Any bit of evidence that might lead us to finding out who caused this?"

"T-They were disguised. I nearly broke one of their masks... right! They both had white masks on!" Proton explained desperately.

"Masks. Your best piece of evidence... is that they wore masks?" Giovanni asked.

If Proton was of sound mind, he would have mentioned a key detail. He would have mentioned that one of the two had spat their blood on him.

But Proton was not of sound mind.

"Just give me a chance Boss Giovanni! One more!" Proton begged. "I promise I'll find them. I'll get them back for the glory of Team Rocket!"

Giovanni nodded at his request.

"And how do you expect to do that?" he asked suddenly.

"I'll head out right now! I won't rest until I find them! There was two of them and one of me, yet they ran away from me the entire time! My team has to be stronger than theirs—"

"What team, Proton?"

Proton went still.

He hesitantly reached for his belt and shook as 6 empty pokeballs greeted him.

"They've been captured. Taken by the League," Giovanni supplied helpfully. "You released every single member of your team, didn't catch a single good hint on who the perpetrator was and compromised one of our most important locations."

It was then Proton noticed.

Giovanni stopped adding the Executive title in front of his name.

"I believe you misunderstand something, Proton," Giovanni informed him. "I did not rescue you because of your value. I rescued you because you hold valuable secrets."

"But your use has clearly run out. Executive Archer. Petrel."

Two hands suddenly gripped Proton and the man shakily looked back to see a Dusclops staring at him, pulsing red eye glowing ominously.

"Sorry man, no hard feelings but you kinda screwed us big time," Petrel shrugged helplessly.

His shadow cackled unapologetically, grinning maliciously as two red eyes gazed at him.

At the same time, the sound of a pokeball opening alerted Proton to a new presence and he gazed in horror, at the sight of Archer's Bisharp.

"Pathetic. It's truly a shame that we've allowed you to sully our names for this long," Archer scoffed.

"Escort him out of the room if you would. Afterwards, continue the missions you've been assigned," Giovanni said calmly, leaning back into his seat.

Proton's eyes widened in terror. "No sir wait! Please! Give me another chance! Please!"

"You boast the highest amount of failed missions among the Executives. You have garnered the least of the grunts loyalty and earned the most of their fear. You are the only Executive with a bounty on your head. You are nothing but a Primeape, aimed at structures to break. Unfortunately, you have broken mine," Giovanni stated boredly.

"I grow tired of this conversation. Escort him out."

"You can't do this to me! Stop! Let me go! After everything I've done for Team Rocket?! I shed blood, sweat and tears for this organization! I did everything in the honor of Team Rocket! You can't — SOMEONE HELP ME! PLEASE! ANYONE?!"

Giovanni's face never even twitched. He merely ran a hand through his pet Persian, eyes roving over a document lying on his table.

"Executive Jesse and James."

The two jumped straight at that, eyes finally leaving the door that Proton had been dragged through.

"Excellent job. You are to resume your mission as you see fit," Giovanni said, not even looking at them. "Your efforts have been noted."

"Y-Yes Sir!" They saluted shakily. Not wasting anymore time, the duo swiftly departed.

Ariana followed suit. The woman made to take a step out of the meeting room—

"I've allowed you to brood long enough. Inform me of the meeting between you and Silver. That's very clearly the reason you are this belligerent."

—Before stopping at his voice. Ariana bristled and turned around mechanically.

"The meeting didn't go as planned," she grit out. "Clearly you undersold just how belligerent he became."

"Is that so?" Giovanni mused. "In that case, there must be a reason as to why you didn't bring him back with you. You are not the type to sit idly by as someone verbally tears into you."

"You must know so much about me," Ariana sneered, fury building at his accurate assessment. "I will collect him at another given time. He's doing well for himself and taking him now, will only lead to resentment."

"That is what I said," Giovanni informed her.

"I know that's what you fucking said!" she barked in annoyance, whirling around for him. "I merely saw it fit as his mother to pay him a visit. I haven't seen him in months after all."

"So you did miss him."

Ariana scowled and marched out of the room, ending the conversation without saying a thing.

Now she felt better for not telling that damned annoying bastard what Silver planned on doing.

Smug know it all huh? Figure that out —

Ariana went pale.

"You plan on becoming our enemy, don't you?"

No. Surely not.

Surely the one who had raided the Game Corner wasn't...

...

For the first time since Proton had been transported into the room, Ariana began to feel uneasy.

Surely it wasn't Silver that had ruined the Game Corner, was it?

How did he even know there was a secret base in the Game Corner? That wasn't possible! Giovanni gave explicit orders to never inform Silver of the happenings of Team Rocket until he was of age. He couldn't have possibly known about that base!

So if it really was him, how could he have known?

How had he been able to outmaneuver Proton so masterfully, to the point where the man didn't even know a single pokemon he used?

...The Zorua. That's how.

"Oh no. He was even more serious that I imagined," Ariana thought in horror.

This wasn't something small. This wasn't stopping some grunts. Giovanni would want the blood of whoever destroyed the Game Corner.

What would he do if he found out it was their son?

...

Ariana nearly bit her tongue with her inner musings.

This sudden situation was not one she had ever expected to be put into.

Silver was recklessly serious about freeing himself from Team Rocket's clutches. The same little boy who used to be so clingy, was now gazing at his mother like she was a stranger, while working to tear down everything his father worked towards.

What would happen if Giovanni sent Mewtwo after the perpetrator? Surely it wouldn't take the legendary but a second to find out.

"A second is an understatement of my power, human."

Ariana felt a chill crawl down her spine at that baritone voice.

"Y-You know?!" she asked in horror.

"It hardly required focus. Such was the volume of your thoughts."

Oh no. If Mewtwo knew then... what did that mean for Silver?

"You need not worry. Such miniscule affairs mean nothing to me. This familial matter is something that you humans may deal with. They have very little to do me."

With that, the psychic's voice vanished and Ariana held her head as a strong headache bloomed.

Mewtwo was aware of Silver's involvement...

No wait. Mewtwo had always been aware of Silver's involvement. Yet Giovanni had no idea of their son's involvement in either events.

A cold bead of sweat formed on the woman's face as she came to a horrific realization.

Mewtwo had secrets and some of those secrets involved their son.

Silver wasn't the only one in his rebellious stage, there was a Legendary who had just entered one too.

---

Hello hello hello! Here's the chapter and I hope you enjoyed! It was really fun to write and would you look at that, only a little shorter than last chapter!

Lotsa stuff went on! Lotsa stuff went down! Losta stuff happened! Wooo! Next chapter will also be pretty fun!

Oh, can't forget the shameless discord plug! Here ya go discord. gg/BFFtXAXFU7

That's all. As always, I do appreciate the love and support and hate too. It's all so fun to experience!

Thank you and look forward to the next chapter!