Hey y'all! Here's the next chapter to this.

Yes, I am villainous and shall NOT tell you what happened to Silver! #cackle
Soon… very soon… #evil witch

"What?" Gary was the first to react. Even though Misty had only known him a day, she hadn't seen him that serious as long as she'd known him and didn't expect to have.

"Bikes… we were on bikes…" Drew was still breathing hard.
"He almost ran over a girl… Braked and fell. And his arm is bent all weirdly."

"Come on. Take us to him." Gary nodded solemnly, motioning for the others to follow. "Where are we going?"

"Corner of Independence Parkway and Covert Road."

"All right. Let's go." Drew and Gary walked out of the hangar, closely trailed by Ash, Barry, and Dawn.

/Beg pardon, but shouldn't they at least take a first-aid kit?/ Flame noticed.
\Had the same thought.\

Misty reached for the case on the wall at the same time as Paul.
"You, too?" He asked. Misty started a bit, surprised he was talking to her instead of sulking.

"Yeah. Please, they could have at least thought about a first-aid kit."

"They're all airheads." He remarked flatly, but not without a little joke in his voice.
/So… him and Dawn, hmm?/
\Shut UP. No WAY…\
/You like him?/
\No.\ Misty was very categorical. \It's just that he hates Dawn probably as much as Barry.\
/What about that Ash kid? Kinda cute, isn't he?/
\NO!\
/Gotcha!/ Flame sing-songed.
\…Flame?\
/Yes, dear?/\Shut up.\
/Misty and Ketchum, sitting in a tree…/

By that time, Paul had grabbed the suitcase and run ahead. Misty took his lead and took off after them.

It was a long run, and Misty was surprised by in how good shape she was, all things considered. Her sneakers pounded the pavement rhythmically, and she caught up to the others easily. She passed Dawn, who had fallen behind, and matched Ash's stride. She would have overtaken him easily, had it not been for the outfit that Dawn had forced her into. The skirt threatened to flap out around her hips with every step she took.
/Every step that you take, every move that you make…/
\Need I ask where you know that from?\
/I don't ask where you learned your songs, honey, how should I know?/

Drew had reached the site first and was waiting for them. There was indeed Cilan, and next to him a pretty girl with a Middle-Eastern look to her face, as well as the longest hair Misty had ever seen, so black it seemed purple.

Cil was sitting under a tree, and the unknown girl was holding one of his arms carefully, keeping up a steady banter that was probably meant to distract him. Even from a distance, Misty could see that it didn't look good. As she neared the spot, she could see that it was swollen and turning purple.

With a sudden jerk, the girl, who had before remained immobile, gave the arm a twist. Cilan gave a strangled shout, but then looked at her, surprised.

"It was dislocated." She explained nonchalantly, seemingly unaware of the small crowd that had gathered around them.
"There. Doesn't hurt as much now, does it?"
She then reached toward the wrap cover-skirt she was wearing over a sort of one-piece gymnastics suit with sleeves and pants, and tore it off unceremoniously to make an improvised sling.
"You'll be fine now, until the ambulance comes."

She finally seemed to notice the others, if only to say: "You, with the red hair."
Misty almost reacted instinctively, but stopped herself just in time as she realized the girl was talking to Gary.

"Call 911, would you? Yes, I know you have a cell phone, or else you wouldn't have headphones."
Despite being a good several inches shorter than Misty, and almost a foot below Gary, her tone was authoritative enough that he immediately pulled out the device.
"I'm Iris." She finally introduced herself, sticking her hand out to Misty.

"…Misty." She shook it, before gesturing to the others.
"Ash, Paul, Gary, Drew, Dawn… Dawn? Where's Dawn?"

"'S that her?" Iris asked, suddenly pausing to listen, one hand poised over her ear. Misty herself didn't hear anything until a while later.

Shouts of "no! Give it here!" and "I saw it FIRST!" floated to her ears.
Iris quickly reacted. "You, baseball cap, Sonic the Hedgehog, and paige cut, go check it out." Paul brushed off being called 'paige cut' with just a small 'hmph' and a crossing of his arms. Gary just gave her an odd look when he realized she was referring to him as Sonic.
/Who put HER in charge? Go take charge, gurl! It's your time to shine!/
\In case you haven't noticed, this Iris knows how to set an arm and what to do in a crisis.\
/She could be useful./
\Shut up.\

"Misty and you, brother-person, you two stay here."

"Cousin." Drew corrected automatically.

"Yeah? Okay. I'm Iris, and you're… Dahri, right?"

"Drew." He corrected with a shrug.

"Sorry. Drew, that's an uncommon name, isn't it? I've never met another Drew."
When Misty listened to her speech, she could barely make out a hint of an accent to her tone, just enough to give it a pleasing melodic lilt.

"Because Dahri isn't?" Drew countered, and a flush of, in Misty's opinion, irrational embarrassment quickly flashed over Iris' face.

"Yeah… of course it is. I guess I just haven't met a Drew either." She finished with a sort of apologetic smile.

"Sure." Drew shrugged. "Cil, are you okay, brah?"

"…I'll be fine." Misty noticed that he shot Iris a look at that, which Flame didn't fail to notice and comment on.
/Looks like we have another little couple on our hands./
\Don't be ridiculous. None of us even knows Iris. She could be his sister for all we know.\
/Ooh, not with the look he was giving her, sweetie./
\I never knew I had a romantic side.\
/I'll add that to the things you call me. Condescending, insane, somewhat masochistic, insane, narcissistic, insane, witty, insane, and now romantic./
\Good for you\
/Did I mention insane…?/

"Your arm was only badly sprained and dislocated, not fractured, but it would still be best if you went to the emergency room." Iris remarked.
"But that's the second time I've heard him call you your brother."

"What… brah? I call everyone brah." Drew shrugged. "Trust me, I am most certainly not one of his brothers."

"Yeah? Do tell." Iris smiled. "It isn't like we have anything else to do."

"It's not much of a story." Cilan shrugged, but there was a sad look in his eyes. "I'm a triplet, actually- Cress and Chili Greene were… are my older twin brothers. Drew has one older brother, his name is Harmonia but he goes by N.
…I know, weird names are sort of a family tradition."

"Harmonia isn't a weird name." Iris protested. "My mother's name was Harmonia."

"…Whatever." Drew took over. "It's not a fun story. Cil and I got sent to a camp of some sort. I don't even remember what it was all about."

"I do." Cilan laughed faintly. "It was a boot camp, remember? Our families were convinced that we spent too much time, quote-on-quote, 'being artsy.'"

"…Yeah. Anyway," Drew sighed.
"I really don't remember what happened. That was five or six years ago. I was ten, and Cilan was twelve. Both our families were sort of rich, so we could afford all kinds of things, but we never really kept in touch with extended family. Because of that, Cil and I hadn't known each other before that camp. It was the worst summer of my life." Drew forced a laugh here.
"But I made a best friend."

Cilan nodded. "I remember that my ever-more-athletic brothers were supposed to pick us up or something when camp ended. But they were my age, and so N had to drive them. He was maybe eighteen then?"

"Seventeen." Drew corrected. "We were seven years apart."

"…And they took the train from Iridia." Iridia was THE richest borough of them all, even more exclusive than Via Bona. If someone lived in Iridia, he had to either inherit a house and fortune, be CEO of some government-funded company, or make money on the black market.

"But there was some sort of an accident. To this day, I have no idea what happened to them afterwards. But there was some sort of explosion, and Drew and I were left with no place to go. Our families probably thought we were on the train, or didn't care enough to look for us, because nobody came. Waste of money, I assume." Cilan said the last part with a bitter tinge to his voice.

Iris looked at him silently, then simply placed a hand on his good shoulder without a word.

"We were sent to an orphanage for an indefinite amount of time. Some poor aunt from Lancaster finally appeared to take us in for a bit when I was starting high school. The 'a bit' ended up being 'until today.' I guess we should be thankful."

Iris nodded, still silent.

When Misty listened to their story, she began to realize that life in Via Bona wasn't as perfect as she'd imagined it.
\Being rich never ends well, does it?\
/You just now noticed? The rich and the powerful. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Aurum potestas est. Gold is power./ For the first time in a long time, Misty found herself actually listening to Flame's voice of relative reason.

/The insane are usually the most intelligent, you know./
\You must be a genius.\

Now, you have to know that most of Misty's and Flame's conversations didn't happen in real-time. They passed in a rapid-fire flash of thoughts that she only deciphered after she thought them. It was all very action-reaction, really.

"How 'bout you, Iris?" Drew asked. "We told you our stories, why don't you tell us yours?"

Iris shrugged, and her face turned a brilliant scarlet as she refused to meet Cilan's eyes.
"You don't know me, that's for sure. You could say I'm a gift of the dragons. My name is Iris. Iris means 'gift,' and my last name-"
She was obviously talking about her name to distract the general attention from who she actually was. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that the sirens which had been wailing in the difference finally turned out to be the requested ambulance. Iris stopped talking with obvious relief, and instead gently helped Cilan stand up.

Misty didn't see any further as she and Drew were swept up in the commotion and bid come along with. It took a long time for her to realize that Iris had taken advantage of the distraction and disappeared.
/Slippery little thing. She could DEFINITELY be useful to us./

Misty didn't pay Flame much attention. She was too busy joining in explaining what exactly had happened to the men in white.
"I wasn't there, I didn't see it happen… I'm Misty… Ketchum, Misty Ketchum…"

It finally struck her: she was going to have to go to the hospital with Drew and Cilan. Where there was about a thousand officials who could recognize her.
And she would have to officially and consistently be Misty Ketchum from Via Bona.

/Good luck, darling. You're gonna need it./

Short and not too good, I know. But please review so I can write some more!

#Offers cookies and sad Silver fluff