[Pokémon] I'll call you Silver! [PG-13, PokeSpec]

[IanDonyer]

I'LL CALL YOU
SILVER​

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is going to be much more widespread than the original, so I'll say it. Yes, the original. I did a version of this before a couple months ago back when my interest in writing was at its newborn stages on ffnet. The story got much more positive feedback than any other story of mine even to this day; yet my inner editor hates it. There's so much more that could be done with it. So, as a side-project for my fits of Writer's Block for Sinnoh Stories: The Legend of Volkner (previously known as Great Favor – Volkner's story). If you've yet to read it and like this first chapter, give it a look because it IS still my main project.

Note that this is set in a sort of alternate timeline, starting right before the Sevii Islands saga.Also, forgive the brevity - I felt it best to cut it off here.​

Enjoy reading -

[[Chapter 1: Gift]]

If there was a word to describe Silver at this place in time, it would have been "desperate", though not at all in a humorous way. If he were to summarize himself though, he would have said "just fine".

But he knew it not to be true. He only held one thought on his mind for all of the day in recent times, but one who knew it would have had to admit it was logical; when one was happy for someone else it was simply how they felt.

"So, Blue..." he muttered. "I'm happy for you. Really. I wanted to give you this. Made personally by me." He then extended an empty hand, glaring at himself – with a self-consciousness he would normally never let show – in the mirror. He let loose a sigh. "Just not good enough!" he exalted, and turned around. He supposed he shouldn't be trying this just yet. After all, he hadn't even started on the gift.

Procrastination was a weakness of his when he was nervous. And when the situation wasn't life threatening and all. Now he had left himself with precisely three days to finish a week-long job, but he supposed the forces of his love would pull him through.

Brotherly love, of course. He wouldn't dare become romantically involved with her; he wasn't interested in it. Because brother-to-sister was all it would ever be.

He sat down at the chair close by the mirror and placed his hand upon the sewing machine, sliding the cloth underneath. He sighed once more as he thought back to the past they shared together; how he had met her and just what he had gone through with her. What gave them their unbreakable bond.


****

cold... so... cold...

****

He was done for the day. His hands ached, despite their experience in physical activity; he had been working for hours, too lost in his own thoughts to even notice it. He hadn't even noticed the pain in his hands until he got to the point of unbearable. It was like he'd just gone on autopilot: the skirt was now done. He shook his hands as if it would help but, as he knew, it didn't. He was to go to bed now.

****

The icy darkness enveloped him as he lay there limp, having long ago given up the struggle for his freedom. He knew his tiny body would be unable to wrench itself away from the firm grasp of the gigantic bird's claws because of his previous efforts; it only led him with a pain in his arm as talons dug into it slightly. He knew that the Masked Man was on top of the bird, leaving the air frozen with a sorrowful malice.

A mist took over the area and soon he was in another place.

His knees hit the ground with a soft thud, causing him to cry out. His entire body trembled as the holes in the knees of his pants caused his bare skin to touch ice, and in no metaphorical way. This was a literal frozen water on the floor. A chuckle occurred behind him, and he felt his hair be grasped by a frigid hand. Another one slammed down a metallic object on his face which he recognized through the eye-holes to be a mask.

He heard another voice.

"... Who is he?"

It was obviously female. It sounded a lot like his mama, innocent and soothing to him. It was like he had known her all his life and it had been two seconds since he even realized she was present.

****

Another lift into the skies of dreamland occurred. This time, he was opening his eyes to a dark room with a blurry vision. His body was moist with sweat and he came to the realization he was moaning. Then the blurred vision cleared away and Silver was in his own room again, something that would normally comfort him but instead disturbed him. He had a short nightmare with an enigmatic ending, and that was all he could recall.

He sat up and slid his legs to the side, slowly rising out of his bed. He cared not that he was naked from the waist up; it mattered not, as no one was around to see his thin chest, evidence of puberty evident in the hairs in between his nipples and the slight bulge of muscle all around. He reached up and smoothed out of his ragged red hair.

He walked out of the bedroom and began sewing again. His hands hurt, but he wouldn't stop 'till the shirt was done too.

****

Three days passed. His hands still hurt a bit from the extensive work he had put into the sewing, but pain was something he was used to. He had to endure it an awful lot.

****

No.. don't hurt me, please...

****

Now he was ready. It was the time of his life he viewed most important, to finally have done something to show his appreciation for her and the gifts she had given him. None were physical gifts either. She knew him better than that, to think material possessions mattered to him. He would be happy with nothing, and for most of his life he hadn't had anything.

Anything but her.

He supposed he was obsessed with her. To himself, he would gladly admit it. What person wouldn't be obsessed with her? She possessed a unique grace, an elegance to her movements and beauty in her body and soul. A wonderful girl who had done nothing but give to him.

He was going to give back.

****

He finished up the buttoning of his jacket, a black one with a red line down the center, one of those that you buttoned up by pressing one button with an extension into another with a depression. His ragged hair was smoothed out to the best appearance possible. As usual, he wore jeans. The only difference in his attire was the bag slung over his shoulder. He smiled briefly as he reached into his pocket and thrust forth his arm, pressing a thumb to the button on the ball in hand to send forth a ray of light which materialized into a black bird, its amber irises focusing on him. It seemed to understand, but Silver spoke commands either way.

"Murkrow. To Blue's house."

He hung onto the yellow talons of the bird, an experience all too familiar to him – only in his memory did he hang onto anything bigger, and in this he had wanted to drop.

****

One hour on the dot had passed, then Silver lowered Murkrow to the ground with a slight tug. He shook his hands once more like it would help the pain, then returned Murkrow with a press of the button in the center of the ball. He stuffed it in his pocket, and went to knock on the door.

With the force of his knock, he came to realize the door had been swiftly shut; leaving it barely closed, and the force made the door open. A sudden pang of doubt entered his mind then – she couldn't have left already, could she have? Her cruise was tomorrow. Nervously, he pressed on further, deciding he could take the embarrassment and possible anger from her if he walked in on something.

The lights were all turned off in the house. Its normally sea blue wallpaper was almost pitch black in the morning time's lack of illumination. Suddenly, his eyes focused upon a small splotch that made his heart begin to beat in his throat; even in the darkness he could tell that the wallpaper had a small splotch that stained it crimson. It was dried blood.

"Blue?" he called out, his voice a bit shaky. "Hello?"

He was in that house for about ten more minutes before he came upon the clue that set his fear in motion. He let loose a horrified, rasping gasp as he walked into Blue's room in desperation, noticing almost immediately in the bare light given by the window above the table which it sat upon... that cold metallic mask.

"... no," he whispered. "... no, no, NO!"

He turned around and walked out of the room, an icy chill sending itself down his spine.

 

[IanDonyer]

Author's Note: I have too many ideas for this. MUST WORK ON VOLKNER'S STORY- GRAGGGH.

I'LL CALL YOU
SILVER
​

[[Chapter 2: Brawl]]

"Aw, is poor baby Silver upset?" a voice crooned to him as he stood in the hallways of Blue's home. "We knew you'd come here, you know. What little brother would be able to resist himself?"

Silver, despite his upset state of mind, suddenly found himself grinning. The voice was all too familiar to him, and his suspicions of its origins were confirmed by the mocking talk that it taunted him with. A nostalgic feeling of hatred rushed over him then.

"You know me well," he said through quivering breath. "It's been too long, Karen."

"Feisty," she snapped at him, as she walked forward from behind him. The dreadful nostalgia was multiplied as she met his eyesight; as always, tall with a head of flowing blue hair, though she wore a more mature looking outfit of a yellow sleeveless shirt and a pair of light blue jeans.

"All the more to use on you," Silver retorted. He sneered at her, trying his hardest to be somewhat intimidating. "Unless I get some information from you."

"Oh?" Karen taunted. She had a bit of a sneer of her own, obviously not at all frightened by the currently seething boy in front of her. "What makes you think I know anything?"

Silver reached into his pocket and pulled out a Pokeball, pressing it forward just inches from face, thumb over the metal button in the center. "Because you do, and you'll tell me if you know what's good for you."

Karen stepped back and snapped a similar sphere off her belt, thrusting it forward to be a few inches apart from Silver's own. Both suddenly felt the need to smile, as they knew that things would not be ending peacefully this morning.

"Poor baby Silver. You wanna start a fight with your big sister?" she asked, and that mocking tone of voice threw Silver over the edge. He pressed the button on the ball's center and Karen followed suit just seconds later, two flashes of red light entering the air.

The two had lept a distance apart to avoid being hit by anything, and once the light cleared Silver stood next to a large brown mass of fur, a circle in the color of a moon's yellow glow. Its menacing eyes focused upon the Pokemon which Karen had sent out.

"An Ursaring, huh? Leparda, let's see how we can beat this big and ugly beast."

The Pokemon was something that Silver had never seen before. A strange and foreign looking creature, it was sleek with purple fur covering the upper half of its body – it stood on all fours – while yellow fur went from its jaw to its belly, as well as a pattern over the back of it. A berry of unidentifiable origin from the distance sat inbetween its teeth.

"Confused, Silver? That's right, you've never been to Unova, have you? It's a Lepardas, a native of the region. Let's see how well you fare against something so odd to you."

Leparda the Lepardas growled cutely, slowly pacing in front of Ursaring. Ursaring seemed unaffected by the act, and simply stared at Silver, waiting for a command. This wait was short lived, however, as Silver pointed to the creature and scoffed.

"Just because you have something foreign doesn't mean I can't beat it," he exclaimed. "Ursaring, use Slash!"

Leparda leaped backward just in time, the sound of Ursaring's claws breaking the sound barrier combining with the sound of shattering marble flooring as the attack missed its target. The opposing Pokemon was quick, and in that instant Silver knew this was not going to be a walk in the park.

A couple seconds passed without physical action.

"Speedy little bugger," Silver thought.

"I've improved a lot since we last saw each other," Karen said. "And I'm just about sure you've improved none."

"Oh yeah?" Silver retorted. "Let's see about that. Ursaring, Faint Attack!"

This time, Ursaring did not try for a swipe: instead, he leaped forward and grabbed Leparda in a necklock, pulling himself up to his feet and thrusting his arm forward, releasing the cat but not at all letting it free from pain. Quite the contrary, Ursaring then thrust his knee upward and slammed it into the jaw of Leparda, causing her teeth to gnash together forcefully and to swallow the berry clenched in between them.

Karen saw this and smiled. "... Big mistake."

Silver stared at her for a couple moments, as Leparda seemed to struggle to pick herself up off the ground. Then, as she got to her feet, Silver realized the error of his strategy. His heart raced at a rate he was now convinced would cause it to explode.

Leparda darted around Ursaring in the blink of an eye. Within another, a quick bite was issue to the leg of the bear Pokemon, causing him to roar out in pain. Yet another blink and a second bite was delivered to the other leg.

Ursaring's knees buckled beneath him and he fell to the ground, obviously having difficulty bringing himself to stand.

"What the..." Silver said, an awestruck tone to his voice.

Karen's smile widened at Silver's bewilderment, and out of pity, she brought herself to explain. "Leparda has an ability, like any other Pokemon out there.
It's called Unburden. When she's sent out holding an item, and it's consumed, her speed is boosted massively – and she was already a fast little thing, wasn't she?"

A sudden pang of fear rushed through Silver's bloodstream. He would have to figure out a way to beat this Pokemon, and fast – or it could mean his life.

"Ursaring! Can you stand up?" Silver asked.

Ursaring tried to push himself to his feet, and succeeded, only to fall down again just seconds later. It was obvious he would be fighting from the floor if he were to fight at all, and that was a risk Silver couldn't afford. He quickly returned the downed bear Pokemon, and sent forth his next – a split second decision, but speed needed to be countered with speed, thus this was an obvious choice as his fastest team member.

"Sneasel, let's go! Ice Shard!"

A split second after his materialization, Sneasel comprehended his order and carried it out dutifully. He placed his clawed hands in front of him, moisture in the air freezing bit by bit at a quick rate until a chunk of frozen ice floated there. Suddenly it bolted forward, and smashed right... into the wall where Leparda had stood.

A direct miss. The ice ball shattered, sending fragments of hard ice outward everywhere, embedding itself into the walls, protrusions of white in the blue wallpaper.

"Did you really think you could hit Leparda with that, Silver? You're worse than I thought!" Karen said, cackling.

Silver responded by motioning for Sneasel to come close. The black creature zipped over to him. Silver knelt down and whispered into the ear of his Pokemon. Sneasel smiled and nodded, before leaping up and making a quick swipe in the direction of Leparda.

In response, the Lepardas leaped as well, dodging the attempted attack – whatever that may have been – and touching down with a soft thud, a sickening elegance in her movements only a creature like her could have achieved.

"Step one," Silver said, and as he spoke, a bright flash filled the room – the thudding sound had not been Leparda, it seemed. It was the Pokeball that
Sneasel had tossed, and as the light faded, Leparda let out a cry of surprise as a pair of brown arms wrapped themselves around her figure.

"Pinned down," Silver said. "And now for step two: Beat Up, Sneasel."

At that command, Sneasel was joined by three other flashes of light, more thuds hitting the ground as Pokeballs emptied of their contents fell to the ground. In front of the pinned down Leparda, stood four Pokemon:

Sneasel, who leaped up to one of the ice shards in the wall and pulled it out, thrusting it down into the back of the opponent, not quite impaling her but nonetheless penetrating her skin. She flailed around in pain, as blood flowed from the wound.

Feraligatr, the blue bipedal alligator, who was turned around – his tail suddenly dripping wet with water, which slammed down like a sledgehammer next to the site of the wound, avoiding an impalement but causing a few ribs to break. An Aqua Tail attack.

Kingdra, bouncing on his curled tail, spewing the wounded spots with high-pressure blasts of water. Water Gun, only irritating the wounds more – it was obvious that Leparda was now only swimming around in the world of semiconsciousness.

And then Murkrow, who finished the job by diving into Leparda's stomach full-force, causing another few ribs to break upon contact. The job was done, and Leparda was lucky enough to only have been knocked unconscious from the pain. Silver wouldn't be surprised if the Lepardas would never be able to battle as well for the rest of her life.

Karen scowled, as five flashes of red light burst through the home as all the Pokemon that were out were now being returned. Silver bent over to pick up the five of his six Pokeballs that were now on the ground.

"Shame I couldn't have sent out Gyarados for even MORE damage," Silver taunted – and Karen audibly growled then, obviously enraged by the defeat of her Pokemon. She was not about to give up yet, though.

"I'm not at all done, Silver!" she screeched. "You know I have more Pokemon! Go, Umbreon!"

The battle was coming to a close soon, Silver expected. Umbreon was her starting Pokemon, given to her by their "father" as she seemed so intent
upon referring to him as sometimes, when they were children.

It was a tiny little creature that moved on all fours, rings like hollowed out moons dotting its leathery skin. A cute little mewl emerged its lips, and although a normal person would smile at the adorable facade, Silver knew better; he had been around the little demon long enough.

"Okay then," Silver responded. "As many as you have, I'll fight through 'em! Time to fight, Feraligatr!"

Silver tossed forward his arm, and from the ball clenched in his hand fired forward the familiar white flash of light, materializing into the bipedal alligator creature. It let loose a battle growl, clasping its hands together.

"Umbreon, Confuse Ray!" Karen cried out, pointing at Feraligatr with a shaking finger, showing Umbreon his target: it looked as though she wanted to move it to the side, just enough so that it would make the target Silver instead.

But Umbreon knew not her wants and instead followed what she gave him, opening his mouth as wide as he possibly could. The rings on his skin began to glow, energy flowing from them and toward his throat, a pulsating ray of purple energy now floating to Feraligatr.

It was as if the alligator was paralyzed, completely unresponsive to the floating ray except for in his eyes. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated.

"Feraligatr! Ignore it and hit it with Ice Punch!" Silver commanded, but to no avail – all of a sudden, Feraligatr lifted up a hand and punched itself right in the face with a fist that moved at quick speeds, ignoring the laws of air resistance to instead cause the hand to become enveloped in ice. "... Crap."

And the word crap summarized the situation pretty well. As the icy fist connected, the ice seemed to travel over the body of Feraligatr, making him what Karen now referred to him as through stifled giggles.

"... Pah... ahaha... a Fe... a Feraligatrsicle..." she said.

"Quiet, you!" Silver demanded, frustrated, while returning Feraligatr to his Pokeball. He had no items to heal the Pokemon with, so it was all he could do, unfortunately. He had three Pokemon he could use inside this house, and four in total – the last a final resort, as even releasing it would probably destroy the home they were inside. "Go, Kingdra!"

From the ball came a bouncing mass of blue scales, a tube-like mouth extending from a face which had piercing black eyes. His stomach was not blue, but instead covered by yellow scales.

"Umbreon, Confuse Ray again!" Karen demanded, and the process repeated itself – the rings on Umbreon's skin glowed, and from the mouth of the creature came a pulsating purple ray. But this time around, it didn't seem to have an effect; Kingdra was too busy doing something else to notice it.

It was a strange set of movements, compromised of things like a flipping of its tube-like mouth, bouncing from side to side and even falling down to the floor and hopping up again. As the movements occurred, the purple ray connected with Kingdra's skin, but the blue coloration of it multiplied and almost like a forcefield it reflected it, letting it pass through the ceiling and out into the sky.

"Confused?" Silver said, mocking a line from Karen that had been said earlier.

"Oh, that's right, you don't own any dragon types. Of course you wouldn't know. Your attack doesn't hit things that it doesn't captivate, does it? Kingdra just used Dragon Dance to distract itself. Now, Waterfall!"

With a sudden grace, Kingdra turned himself around and leaped into the air, firing a jet of water from his mouth in order to propel himself higher into the air – then turned his head upward and fired it at the ceiling, cracking it to the bare edge of instability, and in the process forcing himself down toward the ground, a full-force connection into Karen's Umbreon. In an instant, Umbreon was out like a light.

"... Anything else, Karen?" Silver asked.

Karen stuttered out an answer. "... N-no. But like hell I'll be telling you a-ah-anything!"

Suddenly, the girl returned her Pokemon, thrust the ball into her pocket and beat feet. Silver followed her in her footsteps, returning Kingdra and giving chase, his heart pounding fast in his chest. This was his only possible outlet for information. He would rather die than let her get away.

By the time he got outside, Karen had released her last remaining Pokemon, a Honchkrow, and was grabbing onto its talons. The bird Pokemon spread its wings and began to fly, but Silver ran toward the two and jumped, grabbing onto Karen's leg.

Now the two flew high in the sky, Karen shaking her leg furiously, Silver hanging on for dear life.

"Let go!" Karen cried.

"No! You... will.. tell me what you know!" Silver responded – and in the breathe it took to say it, he lost his grip and began to fall.

He looked up to watch the two get away at high speeds, and his heart fell as he knew he couldn't give chase – oh, that was right, he wouldn't be able to give chase even if he did have running speed like that. He was going to be a mass of splattered human in the grass in a few moments.

He closed his eyes and awaited the end.

 

[IanDonyer]

---

I'LL CALL YOU
SILVER

[[Chapter 3: Training]]

Author's Note: Hoo-wee, in this chapter we get a totally new character. Warning to those with virgin eyes, this new character swears. A lot. If you can't handle it, turn your ass back right now ya ****in' crybaby- GET OUT OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTES MAGGIE.​

When Silver opened his eyes, he realized that he was not in free fall any longer; in fact, he was not falling at all. But he still felt himself to be mid-air, and that caused him to be confused – another layer of mind-clouding sensation to the fear he had been feeling for the past several moments.

"Are you ****ing stupid?"

It was then he realized what he was standing on: he'd heard of the battle strategy before, but he had never seen it in action until today. In front of him was a massive green creature, flapping its wings to stay afloat. Bug eyes stared at him intently. On top of the creature, which Silver believed to be called a "Flygon", were two more objects: the thing that had saved him – a Mr. Mime that had formed a barrier around him – , and a human female.

She stared at him with oceanic blue eyes, black hair reaching down to her shoulders. Her upper body, the only portion Silver could see of her, was donned in a black sleeveless shirt and a red vest, a "U" printed upon the right breast of the vest.

"She- you don't understand..." Silver tried to explain, only to find himself cut off.

"I understand well enough, idiot," she said. "You risked your life for something that probably wasn't going to happen. Barrierre, bring him over here."

Silver watched as Barrierre the Mr. Mime waved his slim hands, and he felt the psychic field beneath him shift forward until the tiny little sphere he was stuck in now stood directly beside Flygon and the mysterious woman.

"I'm UNBHA," she stated matter of factly. As if she were expecting him to know what the flying feathers that was – or as if she were expecting him to give a damn. Karen was getting away, and this girl had a mode of aerial transportation probably much faster than Murkrow could ever be. "You're Silver, aren't you?"

"... What's it to you?" he asked coldly.

"I ****ing told you, bastard. I'm UNBHA- oh, that's right, you're natively Kantonian, aren't you?" she muttered. Her already temperamental attitude seemed to be spiked further by the fact that she had to explain something apparently so simple to an ignorant Kantonian such as himself. "It's Unova National Bounty Hunters Association. I'm a bounty hunter, and you're going to help me get my catch."

"I'm busy-"

"Yeah, I know. My catch IS your target, just for your information." she snarled, before thrusting her arm out and sending out another Pokemon, a ugly little creature with a blue body, two huge wings and a spiked tail. The spikes and its head were both a bloody red. The sphere around Silver suddenly disappeared, and he fell onto the creature's back. "Keep up with us, Crims."

"Now have some ****in' patience, will ya? I hate bastards that are rude like you. We're gonna fly down to camp and I'll explain it all to ya then," she muttered. And so Silver would be quiet for now, letting himself be absorbed into his own thoughts and memories.

***

… YOU KNOW NOTHING OF US …
WE HAUNT YOUR NIGHTMARES
… WE ARE THE ONES WHO WILL MAKE YOU A HOLLOW LIFELESS SHELL
AND TAKE YOU TO THE GRAVE ON THE WINGS OF A BLACK BIRD
HER BREAST ABLAZE WITH THOUGHTS OF MALICE

***

Silver jolted awake, letting loose a howl of fright off of a source which he knew nothing of. He remembered he had a nightmare and that was it; perhaps the staring, obviously annoyed, woman in front of him would have some answers on that part. Probably not.

"Lazy bones is awake, is he?" she said. "Good. You were tossing and turning ever since you fell asleep on Crims-"

"I fell asleep?! Crap, crap, where is Karen?!" he screamed, leaping up to his feet only to fall down once again. A sigh echoed through his ears, and he now remembered the situation he was in. He sat up, glaring at her.

"Let him go, Nattie."

The Pokemon which had snagged him to force him down uncoiled its green vine-like arm from his leg and returned it toward its top-like, spiky body.

"Now, Silver – you up to listenin' to me, or do you wanna take another ****in' nap?" she muttered.

"A nap would be-"

"Too bad. Listen up and listen good. First of all, my name is Margaret Panthe, and I'm from the Unova region. As I've told you, I'm a bounty hunter. I'm here to hunt a Unovan Criminal who's escaped to here – to initiate the restating of Neo Team Rocket into a Johtovian position of power. I figured it best to fight her alongside someone who knows the Neo Team Rocket heads better than me."

"... Karen, Shum, Cart, and Will?"

"And Blue, Silver. This woman, called Raven, is regathering all of the Masked Children."

"... Which means she wanted me too?" Silver asked.

"Yep. But you beat the person meant to bring you to her. Karen. Now, what she's +doing to regather them, we don't know. We imagine the four you mentioned joined of their own free will, but Blue is a bit of a strange case, considering the past shared between you two. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah," Silver responded. A bit of confusion was evident in his voice. "But I can tell you one thing, Margaret-"

"Go ahead and call me Maggie. Easier to say."

"Yeah, Maggie – you chose the right guy to fight with on this. I could give less of a damn about the rest. But if it means saving Blue, I'm more than willing to die."

"Good, because you might do just that."

"You think so?"

"I know so. This girl has avoided twenty years of capture for a reason."

"Twenty years?!"

"Yep. She's been wanted for twenty years, ever since a murder in Unova of a mister 'Derick Belle'."

"... Jeez."

"Now, what's going to happen is that we're going to need to train," Maggie said. "Because Derick Belle was the champion of the Unova Pokemon League, and widely regarded as the strongest trainer of Unovan History. If Raven was able to take him down that long ago, I'd hate to think how good she is now."

"... Right," Silver said. "Whenever you want to start."

"Tomorrow. You may have gotten a nice little nap, but I've seen about three days without sleep. Now, let's eat and then get some rest – we'll need it. Tomorrow is gonna be pretty ****ed up."

"Just the way I like things," Silver responded with a smirk.

***

On the wings of a black bird, Silver soared through the skies until he felt the compelling need to leep down off of it. He landed with a soft thud into his memories.

"A good girl is one who listens to her father," the man crooned. "I love you dearly, my child. And this will hurt me much more than it will hurt you."

"Liar!" Silver suddenly screamed, and the man glared down toward him. Silver had done the unthinkable here, and ripped off his mask to show his hatred of this terrifying man who was now dragging off his best friend toward the kitchen, where she would be beaten in front of her brothers and sisters to prove a point. It seemed Silver would soon join her, but he would prefer that.

"Silver! B-be quiet..." Blue whimpered, fear evident in her voice. Concern. "He'll hit you too..."

"I don't care! I'm not gonna stand back against this anymore! Go, Sneasel!" Silver said, tossing his arm forward only to have it met by the frigid touch of the Masked Man he knew and hated.

"Rebellion?! How dare you, you impotent child! Fine! If you want to play heroics, I'll beat you within an inch of your life in exchange for Blue! Blue, watch and learn the true costs of this foolishness!" the Masked Man roared in fury.

"Silver, no! T-take me instead, p-puh-please-" Blue protested.

"Silver has already made his decision! He'll take the beating for his good friend, now won't he?"

Silver simply nodded, a braveness evident about him. He could tell simply from the aura exerted by the Masked Man that he intended to wipe that smugness away and replace it with obedience.

"Good boy. Now we will go – Blue, follow."

The Masked Man dragged Silver through the door, not letting him walk on his own; inflicting pain even now, only as a teaser for what Silver knew to be drawing close. A fear burst through his veins, but he dared not show it – for the pain would be worth it.

For Blue.

And then he found himself leaping up again, facing the black bird face to face. The Raven, with her bloody red eyes, held Blue clasped in her beak. She struggled with what seemed to be all of her might to move away, but her labor was fruitless – and so was the reaching forward Silver did with his hand, as he seemed to be pulled away, taunted by just having his fingers inches from the beak of the bird so that he would be able to help the love of his life.

The two of them dropped into another memory.

"Promise me," Silver said, his hands on Blue's shoulders. The darkness of the night enveloped them, and he could barely see her in front of him. But he could feel her shaky breath, her trembling figure and he knew she could feel the same things from him. The two children were close to the breaking point. "That you'll die before you go back with him."

"Silver, let's not talk about that-" Blue tried to say, but Silver cut her off with a stern voice that took quite a bit of effort to muster.

"Promise! Please, Blue..."

"... Will you too?"

"Yes," Silver said. "I'd rather die than go back with him."

"... Then me too."

They had escaped from his grasp and both of them were determined they would never go back.

Then he was lifted up once more, and he did not see The Raven this time, but continued to lift until he ascended out of his dreams.

***

The first rays of the morning sun met his eyes as they slowly peeled open. He pulled himself out of his sleeping bag and up to his feet, slipping the past the still sleeping bounty hunter next to him and toward a more open area. He yawned and looked toward the sky.

"Eat first, Silver. You'll need the energy." Maggie said, sitting up in her own sleeping bag. "Glad to see yer eager, though..."

Silver threw a glance over his shoulder at her, and then turned back and nodded. He let a smile cross his lips.

"More eager than I've ever been in my life."

***

Author's Ending Notes: Yay for relatively uneventful chapters! These are always fun to write, believe it or not. Anyways, we get the introduction of a totally new character this chapter, as well as the introduction of our antagonist – a Unovan fugitive called Raven. Who is she? What does she want with the Masked Children? WHAT WILL SILVER HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? FIND OUT NEXT TIME, ON...

DRAGON BALL Z

U-uh, I mean...

I'LL CALL YOU
SILVER​

Next time:

"Oh, really? You're a lot better than I thought you'd be. Ya still need some work, though..."

"Well isn't that what we're training for?"

"Good point..."

"... Duh."​