Wherever he was, it was raining. That much Silver could tell. Though his surroundings were murky due to his recovering vision, he could still hear pretty well. There was a tapping sound. Metal was clacking against metal as someone hummed to the ringing of the clashing objects. It was a song Silver recognized for all of the wrong reasons, one that had been hummed during Silver's past shifts at his former job. He himself lay on the floor as though he were just sleeping there. A line of rope was tied to his ankle, and the other end was anchored elsewhere. His hands were bound behind him as well.

        The sound stopped along with the humming when a phone rang. "Hello?" The voice belonged to none other than Phillip. "Don't you think I know that? Hurry up and get the plane here!" Plane? Why was a plane needed? "You weren't the one who had to fight a seven foot raging blue pokémon that had never been in the picture to begin with! That wasn't in the plan and you know it, now hurry up and get here!" Silver was starting to understand the situation. "Yeah, he's still alive for now. Why does that matter?" The short pause had Silver wanting to know what was being said on the other end of the call. "Don't worry, he'll be down for the count before you get here. Go ahead and put me down for a new target." A chill shot down Silver's spine at what those words implied. "Huh? What do you mean there aren't any more? We had a whole-"

        Silver flinched at the sound of metal clanging against metal. Whatever Phillip was talking about had to be related to Team Remnant Rocket. There weren't any other possibilities that Silver could think of. Now that he knew for sure who had truly been after him, he knew that he needed to escape and somehow put a stop to all of this.

        "Last assignment or not, I'm finishing the job. For my brother, for justice, for the Remnant." The call ended. Silver could now see clearly and saw Phillip sitting across from him on the edge of a bed. He was still holding the same metal piping that he had back on the mountain. Again he started humming and tapping the pole against the bed's metal frame. Next to him, his Lycanroc lay on the floor asleep.

        Choosing to use Phillip's unawareness to his advantage, Silver began taking in his surroundings to see how he would escape. From where he sat on the floor, he saw the rope leading to Phillip's ankle as well. Silver noticed that there was glass scattered around the room from the broken window. That same window let him see the dark skies above, and he could also tell that they weren't on ground level. Part of a treetop confirmed that. A door was open to Phillip's right, but Silver couldn't see much outside of it. Being that there was no light in the room other than the faint rays of sun, the halls remained dark and eerie. There wasn't much else to note about the small room other than than its obvious state of abandonment.

        "Done getting a good look at the place?" Silver's eyes darted to meet Phillip's gaze. "What? You really thought I didn't notice you had woken up? Don't even think about trying to run. Lycanroc will catch you, and I'll kill you right then and there." Unsure of what to do, Silver stayed still and watched the man. He didn't even want to know what this psychopath had in mind. "Well, go on. Sit up so I can speak to you properly. If you try anything, you're dead."

        "You're going to kill me anyway," Silver noted. Regardless, he did as he was told. The action had him realizing that his head injury was much worse than he thought. If he wasn't careful, he would make himself dizzy. The process itself was already hard to do considering his hands were tied behind his back. Even so, he already had a plan. He just needed the time for it to work.

        "I really thought you were a good kid, Scarlett. You remind me too much of my little brother. It really is a shame."

        "What happened to him?" Silver asked in hopes of buying himself the time that he needed.

        "As if I'd tell you. I've gone through enough of the list to know how you people think. I'll admit it, I'm a talker. You sly vulpixes always find a way to get me going, but not this time. You heard the boss. Playtime is over." Phillip stood up and brandished his pipe weapon. "I really just wanted you to be awake for this. It's the only way for you to atone afterall."

        "Wait!! Phillip, y-you don't have to do this!" Silver blurted out. "We can solve this another way!"

        "It's far too late for that," Phillip stated with a smile.

        "Just listen to me! If I remind you so much of your little brother, then shouldn't you just let me go?" Silver tried to reason. Phillip seemed to get angry at his words.

        "All of you are the same, using tricks to get out of situations. Just die already!" Phillip rushed forward to swing at him but he stopped just short of the action as a surge of electricity ran through his body. Silver didn't hesitate to snap his hands free of the ropes. He had cut through the material with a shard of glass although his hands suffered in the process. He was about to try cutting his ankle free before Phillip could recover from the shock, but Lycanroc took action thinking that Silver had attacked its trainer.

        The pokémon lunged at him and aimed its fangs for Silver's neck. Out of pure terror, Silver swiped the glass shard at Lycanroc and slashed the pokémon's eye. He cringed at the sound and the whimpering that followed as Lycanroc retreated to care for its new wound. However, his time was up.

        "You slick little bastard," Phillip hissed. "I should have known." He had taken off his coat and gotten rid of the cause of the electric shocks. Silver wasn't ready to give up though. The glass in his hand only cut his hand deeper, but it was his only form of protection at the moment.

        Just as he expected, Phillip pulled his leg back to yank on the rope tying them together. Silver pulled in the opposite direction with all his strength and severed the rope with the glass in his hand. Before he could scramble away, Phillip attacked him. No longer needing it, Silver dropped the glass shard to shield his head and kept his face low to the ground.

        "Please be nearby, (y/n)," he thought to himself as he took the rage induced assault from the crazy man trying to kill him. The tag had reacted which meant that it definitely worked. The question was whether or not (y/n) was the one that triggered it.

        Silver got his answer when a snarl was heard from the darkness of the hallway outside the room. Phillip stopped to look for whatever had made the noise. His Lycanroc had recovered from Silver's attack, but didn't seem to be adjusting to its new sight very well. Even Silver hadn't expected the yellow and black blur to fly across the room and pin Phillip to the ground. It had happened so quickly that Silver forgot that he was supposed to be trying to escape.

        "Lycanroc get this thing off me!" Phillip demanded as he tried to kick the pokémon away. Phillip's arm wound reopened as he battled the claws of this new pokémon. Lycanroc attempted to assist his trainer just as ordered, but Silver didn't stay to watch the scene any longer. He got to his feet and made a break for the door. His vision immediately betrayed him the moment he was on the move. Everything began to spin causing him to nearly collapse. He crashed to a wall just outside the room and leaned against it just long enough to get his bearings again.

        A stab of guilt tugged at his heart as he left behind whatever pokémon that had come to save him by chance, but he knew that he couldn't let the opportunity go to waste. Phillip would kill him for sure if he didn't escape now.

        Silver nearly tripped down the stairs, somehow managing to keep himself from completing toppling down the entire flight. At this point, his sight was poor due to the darkness of the building and the amount of pain he was enduring, but he managed to make his way to a door. Silver let out a sound stuck between a sigh of relief and the beginning of a sob when he felt the rain against his skin. He heard Phillip yell curses, and something quickly approached him from behind. The hand he had been using to hold on to the door frame went up to shield his face as a reflex, but he was not attacked. Instead, something rubbed against his side and wet fur brushed across his other hand.

        Silver's sight was being hindered further by the rain, so all he could make out with certainty were the same colors he had seen before. At the very least, he could see that this was the pokémon from before. It tilted its head at him and lifted itself up from all fours to just two legs.

        "You're not getting away, Scarlett!! Get back here!" Phillip was fast approaching now.

        Silver briefly looked back. Although he was freed, he was still striken with fear by the threat that Phillip still posed. The pokémon at his side, however, was not about to have any of it. The pokemon lifted Silver's arm over its shoulders and helped to carry the boy's weight so he could get going. They were still being pursued, but at least now Silver was much further away from danger.

        He couldn't make out much of the surrounding area, but he did notice that he was being led into another abandoned building. Phillip's shouts were growing distant, much to Silver's relief. Before long, Silver found himself under shelter again. The pokémon guided him to a beaten up couch and let him rest there.

        "Thank you. You saved my life," Silver thought to say. The pokémon tilted its head at him before running off into the home. "W-Wait!" Silver didn't want to be left alone here. Phillip could still find him especially since no one probably knew where he was or what had happened to him. That thought alone reignited his subsiding fear.

        The pokémon didn't return until a few minutes later. Silver had been too drained of energy to try following after the pokémon, but when it did return, he was met with a somewhat pleasant surprise. The pokemon dropped three sitrus berries into Silver's lap and proceeded to curl up on the floor next to the couch. It triggered a familiar memory, and Silver instantly knew the identity of this pokémon.

        "You remember me," Silver realized. Although he wasn't sure if the berries would help with his injuries, he accepted the gift from Zeraora anyway. Now all he had to do was get out of here, wherever here was. But his conciousness began to fade before he could think to do anything else. His adrenaline had vanished and his wounds were starting to prove how serious they really were. If he remained there for too long, he would not last.
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The book is about to start coming to an end. Are you guys ready? Until next time you splendid readers!