Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, the games, the manga, the anime, or anything that could be maybe owned by the Pokémon franchise. I'm not that awesome. Rats.

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Silver awoke to the loud ringing of his Pokégear. He rolled over and nearly fell off the couch he'd been sleeping on. He caught sight of a digital clock across the pitch-black room and groaned.

"Who the hell is calling me at 2:30 in the morning?" Silver grumbled, feeling around for his Pokégear. He saw the illuminated screen and exhaled his annoyance. He flipped it open and held the Pokégear up to his ear. "You'd better have a damn good reason for calling me in the middle of the night."

"Hi, sleeping beauty," Gold answered, laughing. Silver held the device a good six inches from his ear; he could still hear Gold's unusually loud voice. "Sorry I woke you."

"This is the part where you explain why you're calling after two in the morning."

"You sure are cranky when people wake you up, aren't ya, Silver?" Gold laughed again.

"I'm hanging up," Silver said.

"No, wait, wait!" Gold said quickly. "Sorry. I was wondering if you got a weird letter in the past couple days?"

Silver rolled onto his back and covered his eyes with his free hand. "You're seriously calling to ask if I've checked my mail?"

"Look, you'd call too, Silver," Gold said, more quietly. "It's. . . . Just, are you at your house?"

"Yeah," Silver answered. He'd been visiting Blue in Kanto, and had gotten back to his most-used secret base in Johto only a few hours ago. "I got here last night."

"Can you. . . . Can you just go and look through your mail? You'll know the letter if you have it," Gold requested. He sounded distressed. Now that Silver thought about it, Gold had sounded tense since the call had begun.

"I hate you," Silver informed Gold, not moving. "Can't I just wait til morning?"

"Can you just do this for me?" Gold asked. "It'll take two seconds. If it's not there, you can come over and kick my ass when it's light."

"I'll do that anyway," Silver promised. He sat up and groaned. "Remind me why you couldn't have waited to call me later?"

"You'll see," Gold answered mysteriously. Silver stood and stretched before walking to the entrance to his secret base, where he'd put the three letters he'd received while he'd been in Kanto on an end table.

"Silver, you do know you can come and stay at my place, right?" Gold said conversationally. Silver rolled his eyes. Gold made that offer about twelve times a week. "You could have an actual bed. And actual food."

"Leave it alone, Gold," Silver said. "We've had this conversation about a trillion times. And I do eat real food. Okay, mail I have. . . . Letter from Crystal, letter from you – why are you sending me mail? – and. . . Weird."

The last envelope had no return address, just 'SILVER' scrawled in all caps on the front.

"Just a letter that says your name on it, right?"

"Yeah," Silver mumbled. He dropped the letters from his friends and ripped the final envelope open and began to read, using the light from his Pokégear.

Dragon's Den

July 17th

I hope to see you there.

"What the – ?" Silver said, flipping the paper over to see if there was any more written on the back. There wasn't.

"Weird, huh?" Gold said. Silver nodded, forgetting that Gold couldn't see him. "Crystal got one too. You know if Blue or any of the others got 'em?"

"I dunno. Not while I was over there at least," Silver said slowly. He walked back to his couch and flipped a light on, which stung his eyes. "What about the Hoenn people? Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald? They get 'em?"

"Chris is gonna call Sapphire in the morning and ask."

"So you guys don't know who it's from?" Silver asked, rereading the letter.

"No idea," Gold replied. "We have guesses, but we only had the letter to go on. And that didn't give us much."

"No," Silver agreed. "It doesn't. Well, are you going to this meeting thing?"

"Chris thinks it's stupid to go. Says it could be a trap, or something."

"She's right," Silver said. "It could. But I'm going."

"I'm going with you, then," Gold said. Silver expected as much, and didn't protest.

"I'll call Blue to see if they got the letter in Kanto," Silver decided. "I'll come over when it's light out, and we can make plans. The 17th is only a few days away."

"Okay," Gold said. "See ya."

Silver hung up, and immediately speed dialed Blue. Pick up, pick up, pick up, Silver thought.

"Hello?" Blue answered tiredly.

"Blue, hi," Silver said quickly. "It's me."

"Silver?" Blue asked.

"Yeah. Sorry to call so late, I know you hate being woken up in the middle of the night, but –"

"You didn't wake me up," Blue interrupted. "I was up, and I'm with Red and Yellow at Green's place."

"Why?" Silver asked, confused, diverted from his purpose.

"Well, we all got this really weird letter. . . . I was going to call you in the morning to ask if you got one, too."

"Yeah, Gold and Chris and I all got them," Silver said. "That's why I was calling, actually."

"You did – hey!" Blue shouted. Someone had grabbed her Pokégear from her.

"Hey, Silver, it's Red," Red said very quickly. "You're going to this meeting, right?"

"Yes," Silver answered. "Gold is, too. Crystal thinks it could be a trap, though."

"So does Green," Red sighed. "But a trap for what? Team Rocket's finished, and so are those other two teams from Hoenn that Ruby and Sapphire finished off. Who could be trying to trap us?"

"I dunno. But I'm going."

"Me too, kid. I'll see you there."

- . - . - . -

On the 16th of July, all ten of the Pokédex Holders met at Gold's house in Littleroot Town. They spent the entire night arguing about whether or not they should go to Blackthorn City the next day. Ultimately, the seven Dex Holders intent on going won over the three dead-set against going. They flew the short distance from Littleroot to Blackthorn and arrived at the Dragon's Den a few minutes after nine o'clock. There was an elderly man outside the entrance who refused to let them in until they presented their letters.

They entered the gargantuan cave with trepidation. Not far inside the cave stood a tall redhead in a black cloak, leaning against a Dragonair sculpture.

"Lance!" Yellow and Silver exclaimed. Their eight friends looked at them; many of them had never seen this person before in their life. Lance smiled slightly.

"Silver, Yellow," Lance greeted, inclining his head. "It's been too long."

"It hasn't been long enough," Yellow said angrily. Her friends frowned. They'd never heard Yellow talk like this. Lance laughed softly.

"Ah, I forgot how you see me. Pure evil, yes?" Lance said dryly. Yellow glared at him. "Thank you all for coming. . . I assume you got my letters."

"You sent them?" Silver asked. "Why didn't you sign them?"

"If they'd fallen into the wrong hands, I couldn't be implicated in what's about to happen. Not before necessary," Lance sighed. "Besides, if I had signed them, Yellow wouldn't have come. Nor would many of you, I'm sure. She's quite convincing. Now, if you would. . ."

Lance led the way through the shadowy cavern. Red pulled Yellow along; it was obvious that she didn't want to follow him. The rest of the Dex Holders were whispering their speculations as they trailed after the Dragon Master. Suddenly, Lance stopped and turned to face them.

"What I am about to tell the ten of you cannot leave this cave until the time is right," Lance said in a tone of deadly quiet. "If it does, it is very likely that we will all be killed before we can help."

Less than an hour later, eleven people exited the Dragon's Den, each with a different purpose, but all determined to complete their tasks before it was too late.

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