"That girl?" Silver repeated, "In two places? At once?" The bridge's shadow and his father's words swirled around him, both parts cold and concrete. "Have you lost your mind, old man?"

Giovanni raised a hand and leaned against a bridge beam. "I'm not going mad," he said, his drowned appearance suggesting otherwise. "Wait." He gritted his teeth. "There was that strange pokemon alongside her." Water beaded off his coat, splattering the road. "Could it possibly be the protector of the forest?"

A memory snapped against Silver's mind, like a twig. It was the peculiar thing Lyra's mother said about Lyra's jailbreak three years prior—about how time stopped as a mysterious force let the girl escape: "It sounded like the work of the forest's protector. The protector… As mystifying as it sounds, it's probably just a pokemon, right?"

Silver almost bit his lip off as he inferred what this all meant: So at some point, Lyra stumbled-upon a time-traveling legendary pokemon? Legendaries were like the scattered buried treasure of this world. Finding one guaranteed greatness one way or another. But a time-manipulating legendary? The idea of his rival running back and forth on the timeline unbeknownst to all was freaking sick. Her past mentions of it struck him all at once. Lyra's the time traveler, he realized, ALL ALONG?

Against all odds, Silver's brain was working today.

"Don't try to hide it," Giovanni said, stepping forward. "Who was that girl just now?"

Silver trembled. "What?" he ejected, once again conscious of his perverted attack on his rival twenty minutes prior. He covered his mouth and went two shades redder. "D-did you see?!..." He looked away and was suddenly very awkward at the thought that anyone was watching them—specially doing those things. Upon remembering them, in vivid detail, Silver devolved into a mess of fuzzy, brightly-hued emotions.

Giovanni shook water from his hat. "Lyra, was it?" he asked, putting his hat back on. He chuckled at his son's inward screech. "If she's yours, why was she with that other boy?"

Silver's mushy aura transformed into a harsh blizzard. "She's no one's," he snapped. "She's my rival!" And at this, his emotional blizzard devolved into a blackened sandstorm. Now he'd gone and depressed himself.

"Well then! Such a sensitive response means you're dragging your feet. The FUTURE her had someone else in it. Get yourself together, seems you're inheriting my problems..."

Silver stiffened his neck, recessed his mandibles, and assumed one of his most horrendous thug-grimaces to date. "I don't need that kind of advice from YOU, you gutless, philandering, deadbeat old incontinent TURD." Silver then stared Giovanni down, obviously trying to start something.

Dread-lines spread across Giovanni's face as a rumbling erupted from deep inside him. Bones crackled, his eyes popped, and his muscles knotted from his collarbone to his brow. This was his answer to his son's challenge. It was an even more unspeakably-awful thug face.

Gasping, Silver fought back, refusing to be one-upped. He cringed and brought forth every visible muscle in his skull. In response, Giovanni assumed his final form: every fold in his skin bent inward and multiplied by ten. In no time at all, he was covered in an uncountable horde of furious wrinkles. This wasn't even his final form!

Silver tried, but he just couldn't muster a comeback. His skin was far too youthful.

"You shitty old man!" Silver screamed, defiant at his defeat in this effed-up staring contest. "You looking for a FIGHT?"

Giovanni resumed normalcy and almost a sense of calm. "To be honest," he said, taking off his hat again like he just couldn't make up his puddled mind, "I AM looking for a fight."

Silver's screwy face fell flat. "What?"

"You rival utterly crushed me in battle. Afterward, I acted in a regrettable manner, and it seems I let your friends see my deepest desperation." Giovanni grasped at his soggy coat as if reaching for his intestines. "But your rival... she headbutted me out of the darkness!"

Silver froze and managed to erase his pupils for dramatic effect. HEADBUTTED? he thought. Out of the darkness? No... wouldn't that only put you further into it? He pondered this further, but not far enough to fully imagine his father's meeting with Lyra. It was impossible. No... the darkness must've looped back in on itself… He could only picture her headbutting Giovanni right off a pier or into a ravine.

It would explain why the old fool was standing there like a soppy dish rag.

"She knocked me back into my right mind," Giovanni went on to say, "and that's when she told me... that you had already surpassed me in strength!"

Not only did Silver's pupils fail to return, but a permanent shadow was therein stamped across his forehead. Silver turned away and curled over. Me? he thought. Stronger than Giovanni? Lyra… even if you said so, that's impossible! Silver ripped at his hair. Dad was a Gym Leader! And not only that, but the eighth one in Kanto! Qualified for the position by beating the Elite Four! He even had a brief stint as Champion!

If only Silver knew that the same also applied to his personal nemesis, Lance.

Sweat released from Silver's pores as he pleaded with Lyra in thought: I STOLE badges just to keep up with you, and I don't think I EVER managed to KO anyone in your stupid team! So what's with your stupid vote of confidence?!

"She told me," Giovanni continued, "that despite my cowardice, you were waiting! And that I had to make a choice for the best possible future." Giovanni gazed into his hat and then at Silver. "Is that future yours, boy?"

Silver's foot slid—but then he caught himself and turned back around. He stood straight, finally believing in Lyra's judgment. Surely, after beating both father and son, she knew best.

"That's right," Silver said, breaking through his cowardice with the faith he knew his rival had in him—which in turn gave him strength, "fight me, old man!"

Dust slammed over the road, peeking out from the bridge's shadow where father and son summoned their comrades to battle. Silver sent out Golbat, whose massive wings stretched for the open. Giovanni's Nidoking roared, shaking the earth with his voice.

Light and air oscillated around Golbat's Confuse Ray, buffering Nidoking back but not long enough.

Giovanni shouted. Raising his arms, Nidoking pulled through his confusion and radiated bright. His Focus Energy swept the asphalt clean, punching a crater underneath him. Silver yelled out and Golbat whipped his wings, grazing Nidoking with an Air Cutter attack.

Nidoking stumbled. With a shake, he snorted and his eyes cleared.

"It snapped out of its confusion," Silver spat, clenching his fists. "Golbat, get ready!"

"Is this your level? You barely managed a scratch!" Giovanni roared and pointed skyward. "Shadow Claw!"

With a tail swing, Nidoking flipped-in unexpectedly close and fast, slashing Golbat with a claw burning in demon flame. Golbat screeched seconds later, no longer able to bear the pain of the critical hit.

Silver puffed. "You have yet to see our true level," he said, knowing that Golbat was still battle-worthy, "Confuse Ray!"

Sparks whirled; the mind-scrambling technique swamped Nidoking once more, reducing the monster to a trampling mess. Giovanni swore!

Silver switched out Golbat for Sneasel as Nidoking face-planted into the ground on his own accord.

"Get over it and get up!" Giovanni went off at Nidoking.

Silver switched out Golbat for Sneasel.

Sneasel landed from his mid-air release in grace. Silver called out: "Faint Attack!"

With both claws hooked, Sneasel spun forward, disappearing in an after-image and—moments later—cuffing Nidoking at near-invisible speeds. Near-invisible, until their eyes met.

Taking the attack head-on, Nidoking smirked and dipped one of his horns closer, dragging and injecting a noxious goo into Sneasel's arm.

"Sneasel!" Silver yelled as the pokemon landed back on the field and went pale.

"Nidoking's Poison Point," Giovanni said, self-assured, "poisoned Sneasel." He pointed at Silver. "Your Sneasel doesn't have much beyond its physical attack and speed, does it?"

Silver hissed. "That's more than Sneasel needs to pull you along, fool."

Giovanni chuckled before raising his hand. "Nidoking, Double Kick!"

Silver lurched, fearing for his teammate. No good, he thought, Sneasel can't take ANY fighting moves at this level gap! He watched desperately as Sneasel hunched, unaware of his impending defeat.

Nidoking lumbered forward, his tail flicking with a violent mind of its own. Luckily, the goddess of battle sneezed and Nidoking hurt itself in confusion. His tail slapped into his own face.

Frustration shook Giovanni once more. As he ordered Nidoking to repeat his attack, Silver switched Sneasel out for Golbat.

"Golbat," Silver called, "you can do it!"

Warping to where Sneasel once was, Golbat foresaw Nidoking's attack. Golbat's toes clamped into the asphalt instinctively as Nidoking's knees flew at him. Nidoking's big feet extended and wailed on Golbat—twice—dragging him down the road and out from under the bridge. Cement powdered and belched out on all sides. In the airblown grit, Golbat remained standing, bearing his wounds and surviving by a mere breadth despite his last round's injury.

Giovanni scowled.

Moved by Golbat's endurance, Silver let out uproarious laughter. "Golbat, you know what this means?" he asked, triumphant in his pokemon's resilience. "Levels mean nothing to you, you're a GOD." He devolved into further madness in order to unleash his teammate's full potential.

Golbat grinned with a fiendish overbite.

"Of course," Silver went on, "you'll have to further demonstrate your greatness to show these FOOLS what we even mean." Silver pointed high, signaling for Golbat to give it his best. "Unleash your special attack!"

"What?!" Giovanni spat, his mind running through the moves for such low-leveled Golbat. "There's no such thing!"

Silver chuckled and glowered. "A thing is a mere construct of reality. Reality is a restraint of your true limit! It's time I finally believe in the path we've blindly followed."

Giovanni was baffled. "What are you even saying?!"

Energy ignited in Golbat's eyes as he felt Silver's trust flood his wings with speed and power.

"Thousand-wave," Silver called, "Air Cutter Guillotine…!"

Golbat oscillated his wings back and forth a thousand times, and with such speed, it all appeared as one slow time-lapsed movement. Layers of motion built, and with light brimming, Golbat released his attack. A blade of air spliced down the middle of the road, its pressure walloping Nidoking back all the way. The ear-splitting payoff embedded Nidoking into the barricade wall.

"C-critical hit!" Giovanni bellowed, unable to believe such ferocity. Crumbling off the wall, Nidoking groaned and landed on his knees before face-planting into the asphalt. Nidoking fainted. Being a seasoned pro, Giovanni shook off this incredible defeat and sent out Nidoqueen without delay.

Silver recalled Golbat and rifled through his teammates with purpose. "I won't lose," he told himself. "We won't lose!" He sent out Haunter, who cackled onto the field and shot Nidoqueen with a Confuse Ray. It connected with success.

Giovanni was amused. "Using a ruse from the Team Rocket playbook, are we?" he asked, making a psychological play himself. "Nidoqueen, Crunch!"

Silver was unmoved. "My strategy is different," he said, "because we're not buying time for some 'boss' to show up. We plan to actually win, one on one." He sprang backwards as Nidoqueen charged at him; she dove into the asphalt in confusion. "Just a little more, Haunter, you're the only one who can do this. Curse!"

Haunter reached his claws into another realm and procured a nail from the depths of hell. Driving it through his core, it vanished, unleashing its terror. Nidoqueen quivered from the ensuing curse, clawing at her neck as if she'd been stabbed there as well.

Giovanni roared for her to attack again: "Crunch!"

Silver readied to switch. I can't let Haunter take that or he's out, he thought, already knowing their luck was spreading thin. Feraligatr will have to take it from here!

Laughing at what he'd done, Haunter was siphoned back into his pokeball and Feraligatr was thrown onto the battlefield in his place. Raising himself from where he landed, Feraligatr arched his gleaming blue back and belched out a battle cry.

Nidoqueen shook her needle-plated arms and turned a strained eye to Feraligatr. She charged through her confusion. Fangs bared, she barreled-in close and ripped into Feraligatr until he grappled her off and slid away.

Feraligatr took a chunk of damage, but he's still standing, Silver though, somewhat relieved. "That's the strength we can always count on," he said. "You'll get in the next hit!"

The curse hurt Nidoqueen and she blanched, struck by its lingering effects.

"Water Gun!" Silver yelled. Feraligatr tilted his head back and gurgled, then spewing out an impressive fountain of water at his foe. Nidoqueen was knocked askew on her heels, her eyes still spinning in confusion.

With a small snort, Nidoqueen's expression eased. She snapped out of her confusion.

"Well look at that! The free pass ends here," Giovanni said, letting out all his laughter. "Nidoqueen! Earth Power!"

Nidoqueen raised a clenched paw and hammered it down upon the asphalt, rending a shock wave throughout its surface; the seismic shift stretched deep underground. She lifted her claws and soon enough, the earth burbled and shook at her command.

Feraligatr and Silver struggled to balance. "What the?" Silver spat, dodging as chunks of tar began blowing-up around them. Molten lava was spewing from the underground and blitzing Feraligatr with high-speed chunks of solid earth. Feraligatr groaned, tail flicking as he struggled to withstand the tide. By the time it was over, he was barely hanging onto consciousness.

"Feraligatr," Silver let out, knowing he was at his limit.

Nidoqueen once again succumbed to her curse but it wasn't enough to end it. "One more should be more than enough," Giovanni said. "Earth Power!"

Silver clicked his tongue and in a split-second decision, Feraligatr was pulled from the field and Haunter sent out in his place. The earth tore open once more and Haunter flew above the molten-powered rubble, avoiding Nidoqueen's ground-type attack with his special ability—Levitate.

"It doesn't affect Haunter..." Giovanni observed aloud, gripping his hat. "That was a quick one! But you're right back where you started. Nidoqueen—" He was cut short by the sound of Nidoqueen tanking from her curse.

Nidoqueen fainted.

"That's right," Silver said, smirking-back petty laughter. "We're back where we started."

Giovanni hissed and sent out Honchkrow. Black feathers scattered as Honchkrow trilled a magnificent caw and flapped onto the battlefield.

Silver sent out Magnemite. Before he could let it move, however, Honchkrow sized-up Magnemite with a discerning eye and powered-up with a Nasty Plot.

Magnemite sharped its gaze and amped-up, zapping its foe with Spark.

Honchkrow was paralyzed! "Dark Pulse!" Giovanni called, but Honchkrow was unable to move. "Grrr..."

"Are you frustrated?" Silver asked. "Well Magnemite isn't done with you yet." He stood behind Magnemite with confidence. "Supersonic!"

Vibrating its magnets, Magnemite hit Honchkrow with pounding speaker static.

Flying off-course, Honchkrow was bent to confusion.

"You!" Giovanni yelled. He roused Honchkrow to use Dark Pulse again but Honchkrow was unable to move.

Silver felt his heart lift in an emotional wave. "I've seen the outcome in your moves, Magnemite, I know exactly where you can take it from here!"

Feeling that same emotional wave, Magnemite struck with a plasma-plumed Spark. Critical hit! Honchkrow screeched.

Giovanni went off at his paralyzed Honchkrow: "Dark Pulse! No! What are you doing?" Honchkrow had managed to tangle his foot up over his wing and hurt himself in confusion.

Magnemite whirred in close and fried Honchkrow again.

As Honchkrow untangled his foot, he snapped out of his confusion. However, he was tied-up by his paralysis.

Silver withdrew Magnemite and sent out Sneasel. "The enemy's weak," Silver said. "Get him!" He leaned in tensely as Sneasel prowled for an opening. "Icy Wind!"

Giovanni lowered his glare. "Quit wasting time!" he said. "Dark Pulse!"

As Honchkrow flitted through his paralysis, he attacked out of desperation. Dark energy rippled forth around Honchkrow and sprung out on all sides—buffeting Sneasel in a volley of dimensional wavelets.

Sneasel was conked off his feet. Rolling, he stood slowly and growled, ears back and body severely scuffed. He belched a mighty cold front and pelted his foe with rigid frost.

Honchkrow dive-bombed from the air. He fainted!

"Unstoppable," Silver said. "No one can keep you down." He congratulated Sneasel in earnest—only to witness Sneasel puke-up the gravy giblets he'd gobbled down for breakfast. "UGH." Silver flinched, thoroughly disgusted. "And no one can keep your stomach down, either..."

Unfortunately, Sneasel was still hurt from being poisoned.

Even more unfortunately, Silver already made his own diagnosis. "This is it, Sneasel. I'm switching you," he said, "from canned food to raw!" This was a decision he'd discussed with Sneasel before but, distressingly, not a vet.

Sneasel lurched. "Snea…!" he argued. Anything but his delicious grilled meats!

"You're constantly cat-barfing, I have no other option!" Silver was bent on becoming a health freak.

Sneasel was so overcome with stress that he crouched and assumed a mounded shape—a position much like a pinched meat loaf formed and baked in a pan. This was Sneasel's shape of intestinal pain!

"Sneasel"—Silver exploded, panicked by Sneasel's complex form—"you're bakemeating again!"

As Giovanni watched the scene before him, he somberly selected his last pokemon. Is this really my son? he wondered, distanced from the lively teen before him. Giovanni closed his eyes, only able to see the small, gloomy boy from years past. It's only been three years, but he's—Giovanni pitched his last monster into battle—my son, Silver, has already changed so much.

Height. Outlook. Bearing and personality. Silver had evolved, and that impressionable child who once looked-up to Giovanni in awe was now lost to time's raging passage.

No, it wasn't just time's fault.

A horrible feeling rose from the depths of Giovanni's gut.

"What is this?!" Giovanni exclaimed, unable to parse or direct his overflowing disappointment. He could only see the round face of that child who'd cursed him on that road back in Kanto. That child, the son he'd abandoned in a moment of weakness—continued to scream those words at him: I don't want to understand you! I will never become someone like you. A coward when you're alone…

I will become a stronger man… All by myself!

Giovanni could no longer hide from the regret of that day three years ago. Back then, when he finally came to his senses, it was too late.

Three years ago.

Giovanni went back for his son; he went back to Kanto Route 22 and found the road empty. He searched along the Viridian mountainsides and even wandered into the wilderness. There, at the boundary of humanity, he learned from an old mountain hermit that a child had gone into the dense Blue Forest all by himself. The child: a gloomy young boy with red hair.

The Blue Forest was an uncharted area that spread across the expanse of Mt. Silver's northern basin. It was said that those who went there did so in order to die. After all, it was a forest that no one ever came out of alive.

Three years ago, Giovanni pushed his way into the Blue Forest and lost half his team to the horrors of the wild. Violent Ursaring beat his team to the brink of death and the giant Stantler there distorted reality and made paths loop back on themselves. Unseen pokemon attacked at night, maiming and dragging off Giovanni's pokemon vanguard.

Unable to endure the wild for more than a week, Giovanni blacked out and found himself back where he started. Defeated, he returned to the Kanto route where he'd abandoned his son. Like the coward his son exposed him as, he hid away in a cave in the nearby Tohjo Falls, waiting and disintegrating.

For three years, Giovanni lived in the shame and guilt of losing not only his pride and lofty place in the world, but also his son.

How did his son ever make it out of that forest alone?

How was his son still so far out of reach?

Giovanni—once a king among criminals—tried to fathom the harrowing road his child took and it left him shuddering. How could he ever dare to understand the boy now?

"It's happening again," Giovanni went on, unable to cope with the realization that time's relentless passage had completely passed him by. "This can't be! You are a dozen levels lower than me and decades behind me! How have you grown so much? You're still just a kid!" Giovanni tried denying the days he'd lost but their ghosts spun around him and vanished, forcing him to accept reality. His son was still alive, changed, but long dead in a sense. Giovanni knew it back then but now it hit him. Everything he'd once prided himself in was truly gone.

"Am I just some kid to you?" Silver said, closing his eyes. "Hmph. Fine." He huffed. "Even still, I can't lose." He withdrew Sneasel, content on forcing victory through sheer willpower alone. "I can't allow myself to lose, because… I believe in my rival in the future"—he threw out his next fighter, his voice raising as he remembering Giovanni's message from Lyra—"who believes in the me today!"

Golbat spread his wings wide as he appeared, reinforcing those senseless words.

Giovanni grinned against the complicated emotions knotting in his throat. "Then our final round will determine where we stand," he said, standing beside his last monster, Kangaskhan. Giovanni raised an arm in judgement. "I came here today to find out one thing... Whether you'll stand with me or against me!"

"This again? Don't delude yourself." Silver shook. "I've stood against you the entire time. Haven't you figured it out yet?" Silver looked upon his father with contempt—that familiar face of scorn, Giovanni recognized, was not unlike that of the boy's true mother. "All the opposition Team Rocket has faced in recent days..." Silver crossed his arms and gloated. "It was all me and my rival. I'm smashing your foothold!" He sent Golbat onward. "Confuse Ray!"

Giovanni gritted his teeth. "Sucker Punch!"

Kicking her powerful legs, Kangaskhan leapt off the ground and flew clear past Golbat, only to stomp down and spring back around. Eye-to-eye, she slammed Golbat's jaw with an unexpected left hook. Golbat tumbled and rolled down the way, his eyes glassy as he teetered on the edge of fainting. Twitching, he raised himself up by a wing ad blasted his foe with a shimmering ray.

Kangaskhan was confused! "For the last time!" Giovanni snapped, exasperated by Silver's constant abuse of status effects.

"That's right. You've put us forward! We're almost there," Silver said, plotting their moves by an impossible narrow margin. "Air Cutter!"

Golbat fought with his remaining spirit and dealt one more wind blade to his foe. Repelled but still raring, Kangaskhan shook her confusion and hit Golbat with another Sucker Punch. Golbat fainted.

Silver unleashed Haunter. "You're the only one who can do this. One more trap." Silver closed his eyes. "With you, we can win this in four rounds." He watched Haunter in determination. "Curse!" Haunter stuck himself and laid a curse on Kangaskhan. This last act wiped Haunter from the battle.

Giovanni chuffed at his son. "In four rounds you say?" Giovanni repeated. "That's exactly how many pokemon you had left." He sneered. "Now it's three."

"Magnemite, you're next!" Silver didn't care what anyone said—this was his decision. To win!

"Outrage!"

Kangaskhan shelved her ongoing confusion, a flame igniting in her eyes. Shredding up the exposed earth with her fury, that fury built into a physical force and trounced Magnemite. Magnemite fainted in one hit, though Kangaskhan was still left quivering from her curse.

Silver withdrew Magnemite and sent Sneasel out. "You're our wild card, the missing factor we need," Silver told Sneasel, psyching him up. "I have just one thing to ask you. Do you want barbeque tonight?"

Sneasel's starry eyes flashed as he nodded. Delicious bribery! It seemed he forgot all about his poison status!

"Then get ready to cut and grill. Fury Swipes!"

With a gleam, Sneasel unsheathed his claws and pounced. He flogged Kangaskhan with his impressive mid-air hooks—getting in a full five hits before landing on two feet. He slid off-course from the momentum, doubling-over from his lingering poisoning.

As Kangaskhan was huffing, her health less than half, Giovanni's coolness melted and he identified the sum of his son's calculations.

"You... that's what this has become!" Giovanni garbled, his mind finally recognizing how both Haunter's Curse and Sneasel's last hit had set Kangakshan on a short timer. "You think you can outlast me? We only need two more moves!"

With her built Outrage, Kangaskhan went charging.

"It's done," Silver promised, watching as Sneasel was taken out by Kangaskhan's dirt-rending charge.

Though Kangaskhan was the victor, the curse rounded her closer towards the edge.

Silver held Feraligatr's pokeball high and scowled at Giovanni. "One round left," Silver said, calling out his companion. Feraligatr slammed down and let out a roar.

Giovanni clenched his teeth. "I still have time! We still have one moment left... Kangaskhan!" He sent her lumbering forth.

Silver clicked his tongue. "A moment too late." Silver didn't need to say anything more.

Feraligatr hunkered down on his haunches and Kangaskhan's nostrils' flared. The final round had commenced. As Kangaskhan came at him, Feraligatr struck her with an open-palm and spun around. Tail walloped hide. With a shriek, Kangaskan was batted sky-high, the air whistling as she sailed for outer space.

Giovanni's mouth fell open. In only three years time, he realized, my son has amounted to my entire lifetime...

Kangaskhan drove down from orbit and crash landed, fainted. The pavement caved to her shape.

Giovanni was all out of pokemon.

"Well," Silver said, running a hand through his hair—quite pleased with his victory. "How about that."

Giovanni already knew it. He'd lost.

~To be continued~