Raphael was like his brother and he got along well enough with Sonia...but the two of them grated on his nerves sometimes. It was like they were a Zangoose and a Seviper, always at each other's throats and Mal was ready to jump off a cliff with the way those two kept at it. Sonia being Psychic wasn't a problem with him, but it wasn't helping the apparent problem those two had with each other. And no one could really control their thoughts, but Raphael definitely had a tendency to be really passionate, so he could imagine that it would probably be a nightmare to Sonia's senses.

When he thought going on this journey with them would probably be an issue, but one that would probably be overcome over the day they traveled with each other and got to know each other...he hadn't realized how far of an understatement and improbability that actually was.

He was doing his best to be the peacemaker and bridge, but they were making it beyond difficult.

And to be truthful, they probably would have already rushed passed Route 1 if the two of they hadn't been difficult. As a Psychic and a reticent one at that, Sonia was mostly keeping to herself and her Zorua. Felix and he interacted with Raphael, and they were doing their best to keep his mind off of things.

The traveling along Route 1, if slow, was going peaceful enough. But then trouble started and Mal wasn't sure or happy when suddenly four Team Rockets members came out of nowhere and attacked them. It was very chaotic and while Sonia was fighting against a more experienced Psychic and Raphael had been against the other female of the group, while he and Felix were up against the two guys of the Team Rocket group.

Neither he nor Felix were doing well. They were so out of sync and weren't meshing well because they weren't familiar enough with each other and their battling styles to work out in a tag team battle. This Fred and Grant, despite their normal appearances, were actually quite good at battling and apparently knew each other very well and were comfortable battling together.

Which left Mal and Felix like sitting Psyduck, especially when Felix began freaking out and breaking into Buizel speak and making Mal confused and antsy, trying to translate him and mostly failing.

Mal didn't know to be glad or worried when a huge blast sounded nearby and all of a sudden Sonia was there and had stumbled towards them, looking like a wreck. Then she was looking worriedly around for Zorua and all of them, especially Mal because his medical training made it all too easy to quickly analyze and see what could be wrong with the small pokémon. And after an anxious discussion which he'd figured out what she wanted to do and was going to attempt even before Raphael made her tell them, he'd gently clasped her hand and the rest of them followed suit as she was then teleporting them all away from there. He remembered the look on her face, panicked and scared, which didn't relieve him when he again noticed Zorua in her arms and saw up close just how much damage the pokémon apparently had taken. Vaguely, he heard Raphael throwing up and Felix was dry heaving heavily. His own nausea derived from the teleportation was horrible, but he took deep, even breaths.

Easily seeing Sonia wasn't capable of moving quickly and steadily on her own, he grabbed hold of her, and made sure Zorua was securely held as he helped them to the Pokémon Center, of which he looked around quickly and made a fast deduction that they were now in Viridian City. They'd made it inside and Nurse Joy came rushing towards them.

"Nurse Joy, we were attacked on Route 1. Circumstances between us and the assailants caused this Zorua to be hurt beyond battling standards," Mal told the nurse, not sure if he should just blurt out about Sonia's Psychic status.

"I've got it," Nurse Joy gestured for a Chansey to come over with a stretcher. Sonia managed to shakily put Zorua on it, before she herself collapsed. "Oh dear! If you need to, bring her to one of the rooms upstairs, sweetie."

Mal nodded distractedly, noticing Raphael and Felix had finally come in as he picked Sonia.

"Is she okay?" Felix asked worriedly.

"I think she expended herself," Mal told them quietly.

Raphael stayed silent, glancing nervously at Sonia's unconscious figure and still a bit queasy looking.

"I'll go bring her up," Mal told them next. "You guys get your pokémon checked on and settled in."

He started towards the stairs that would lead to where the rooms on the upper floor were. Finding an empty room, he laid her onto the bed, and one of her pokéballs lit up and a Sawk came out.

"Sawk, Sawk?" He narrowed his eyes at Mal.

"She's used up a lot of energy," Mal told him. "We're in the Pokémon Center in Viridian City. Can you watch her?"

"Sawk!"

Mal nodded and left them there, making sure the room's door was marked 'occupied.' He then headed down, to check in with the other two and make sure his own pokémon were looked at. Still, he worried about Zorua's health and wasn't bothered by the fact they'd probably have to stay around Viridian City rather idly longer than they probably would have had to otherwise. As long as Zorua was healing and started to feel better and Sonia had also recuperated, Mal didn't care that they weren't moving forward.

So after the initial stop to Nurse Joy, after she was done with Sonia's Zorua (He had managed to have his Blissey give her an egg to help keep her stable, but he hadn't been able to figure out the full extent of what was wrong with her along with Nurse Joy; a few more tests would be needed, as well as use of some of the Center's machines), Nurse Joy also finished a checkup on Raphael's pokémon and Felix's pokémon. Teddi and Su Lin had their own checkups and a quick assessment showed they would be fine after a day's rest. And to make sure they would be completely alright, Nurse Joy recommended they were left behind. Mal was reluctant to do so, but he knew it was best if they rested.

"Be on your best behavior, alright?" he murmured.

They nuzzled his hands in reassurance as he pet them, and he let them settle back down on their temporary beds to rest. Finding that he was passing by Zorua's bed, Mal went over to stop by Zorua's side.

"Hey, you," he quietly greeted, since Zorua looked bored being stuck in bed. She yipped at him with a small grin, which made Mal feel like grinning back. "Get better quickly, okay? I'm actually starting to miss your pranks on Raphael. Don't tell him that though."

She made a snickering sound, and Mal gave a small wave before walking quick strides out of there. He met up with Felix and Raphael, trading serious looks with each other, and the three of them made the solemn and tense trek to the police station. Mal's head was overloaded on all sorts of thoughts about what had happened, and eventually he'd been so lost in thought that he hadn't even noticed that they had made it to the police station and had already entered.

The three of them were so lost on what to say or do, and looked around the place where so many were bustling around and not paying them any mind. For a moment, Mal saw the desk clerk and opened his mouth to tell the others that maybe they should go there, when –

"Please, we need help!" Raphael shouted, and Mal looked at his friend in dazed alarm. "We... We've been attacked!"

Raphael's face was pale, with sweat gathering at his temples and sliding down the sides of his face in anxiety. His body was shaking and Mal realized his best friend had been more than shaken by the encounter with the Team Rocket agents.

Felix, too, didn't look too well. The normally bright and cheery boy's mouth was slack-jawed and his pupils dilated, and he was swaying slightly. Mal could only guess how he himself looked like. Not too good either.

And with the attention on them, Raphael began talking a mile a minute, with Felix jumping in and babbling about the attack. Mal, too, started stuttering something out, but he couldn't fully get anything remotely understandable to pass his lips. He was frustrated and disappointed in himself right then.

A woman with green hair and a police uniform approached them.

"Calm down, boys," Officer Jenny said. "Nothing will happen with the lot of you babbling and exhausted like that."

Raphael calmed slightly.

Officer Jenny smiled. "Great start. Are you three okay? You all look... Well, like you've been attacked."

While Raphael and Felix said their answers, Mal ended up having to use his inhaler as he felt an attack coming on. Stress made his asthma act up sometimes.

He let Raphael do their introductions, but things went hectic when Felix suddenly blurted out that they were attacked by Team Rocket. All of a sudden, before Mal could really take a moment to process it, he realized they'd been shoved into a back room and he had a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows mixed in, and a blanket around him. A quick glance around showed him that the others, along with their pokémon, also had the same things.

He wasn't looking forward to the next hour or so in the station.

~*~*~

Mal found himself, after having a tense and serious talk with Raphael, following Officer Jenny into the interview room. Felix had gone in just before him, so Raphael would be after Mal.

"Please sit here, Mr. Thrones," Officer Jenny told him gently, directing towards a chair. Instead of sitting on the other side, she brought the chair closer to him and sat by. It made him wonder how Felix and she were sitting moments before.

"This is just for recording purposes and so we can review your testimonies later," she held up a recorder. "Do you mind?"

"I give you my permission," he nodded politely, observing everything intently.

"Please state your name." She set down the recorder and pressed the record button.

"Malcolm Thrones," he said, waiting for her to continue.

"Interview for Malcolm Thrones on case no. 1476547. Mr. Thrones has expressed his permission in being interviewed and the recording of interview for analysis and review of the reported crime. Mr. Thrones, under oath and in line with the law, do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?"

"I do swear," Mal said nervously.

He then was put through a grueling session of questions, answering whatever he could for the officer and trying to recall every detail that he could. When it was over, Mal found himself exhausted and worn out. When he was led out, he could only give Raphael a small smile as his friend passed him so that he could be interviewed next.

He went to take a seat and barely acknowledged Felix, before he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. It didn't take much for him to pass out for a bit.

~*~*~

After the whole police station visit, Mal split off from the three after they went back to the Pokémon Center and checked on their pokémon again. When Raphael and Felix headed out for something, Mal made a round to check on Zorua and Sonia, finding out for himself that Sonia was still unconscious and Zorua had gone to sleep.

Deciding to explore the city, as he traveled out of the Pokémon Center and walked around for a bit, he noted that it was similar to Celadon City and was much more bustling with activity than Pallet Town had. It was a busy time of the day too, so he wasn't surprised to see people up and about.

He walked towards the gym, intending to check it out, though he'd had to ask directions for the place as he'd never been there before. However, someone walked passed him and held onto a newspaper, and suddenly an idea flashed through his head.

Viridian City was the place of the crash. Of where Leaf had died...

This place would have the articles that he may not have been able to read and get his hands on. He could actually find and visit the actual crash site.

He turned around and made a mad dash back towards the Pokémon Center. He burst through the doors, and was disappointed not to see Nurse Joy immediately in sight. Hoping she might be in the back, he hurried his way there and saw her talking to her Chansey.

"Nurse Joy? Can I ask something?" Mal hesitantly called out.

Nurse Joy turned to him, surprised at his sudden entrance.

"Mal, right? Is something the matter?" she gave him a friendly smile.

Mal stayed quiet for a moment, before finally asking her. "There was a girl who died in this city –"

"Are you talking about Leaf?" Nurse Joy took him aback by the quick answer, and by replying with the right girl before he could offer any other details. Nurse Joy's smile lessened, but never disappeared. "She was such a bright girl..."

Mal looked down. He took a deep breath, before looking back up at Nurse Joy.

"Is there any way I would be able to look into her...Perhaps a place they keep old articles or something..." he tried to keep it vague, not wanting to announce that he was looking into her death or anything.

He also refrained from saying she was his cousin. After Blue, even with Oak's words, he was hesitant to call her his cousin in front of others, when he was sure others would ridicule him and tell him she wasn't really, because he hadn't even met her.

Nurse Joy frowned in thought. "Well, there's the Viridian Archives. It's five blocks from here, so you'll have quite a walk. It'll be pretty easy to find, as it's next to and connected to the Viridian City Public Library."

Mal's eyes lit up. What a goldmine. This was exactly what he needed.

"Thank you, Nurse Joy! I'll be back later," he called out, already on the move after a quick bow.

He was tempted to check in with Su Lin and Teddi, but he knew he would want to bring them and they would stubbornly argue to come, if they met up right now. Even Teddi, who was usually calm and quiet about things, would probably be spurred to act and try to get him to bring them along.

However, only just a block away from the Viridian Archives, he saw two shadows moving behind him as he turned his head, and saw his two pokémon looking right back at him.

"You two should have stayed back at the Center," he admonished.

"Pan Pan," "Urse," both of them gave him hard stares.

Mal sighed and bent down and scooped them into his arms, letting them easily climb up onto his shoulders.

"Pan-Urse!" they echoed into his ear, their voices blending.

"Yes, yes. I love you guys, too."

Mal rolled his eyes and continued his way, making it in no time to the Archives with Teddi and Su Lin both distracting him and making the time go by faster.

Once there, he had to pay a small fee to go into the part of the Archives he specifically needed to go. There, he was set up with a private area and then was given a catalogue. He was confused and at a lost as to how to use it and navigate the place as well, but he took his time and eventually began to figure it out.

"Alright you two, let's split up and find these articles," Mal told them, and he had them go to an area of the private section each.

It took a bit, but soon enough Mal had gathered a lot of old articles. He reached for the first one, reading the title curiously.

Team Rocket Hostile Takeover at Saffron Repelled by Pokémon Trainer!

He remembered something of that back then, but he'd still been a young child and had yet to realize Leaf was his cousin. Later on, when he'd talked to Lance, his mentor had casually, but very vaguely, mentioned something happening at this company building in Saffron years back, but Lance hadn't elaborated and Mal hadn't thought to ask or be too interested.

Now that he knew his cousin had been involved, as he skimmed the article, he wished he'd asked more of what had happened and what Lance knew or what he could reveal. Maybe if he'd even met Leaf...

Mal rubbed at his tired eyes, trying to slow down his thinking. He was getting all these thoughts into his head and they were all crowding in. It made it hard for him to think straight.

He did his best to continue on, reaching articles about Leaf's other accomplishments on paper, like the Game Corner in Celadon City being outed as a Rocket hideout, Team Rocket's operations in Mt. Moon being halted...

Then he reached the load of articles about Leaf's defeat of Team Rocket. He was in awe and felt proud of his cousin, and couldn't believe such a thing had happened and that Leaf had been the cause of it. However, he knew that these days, there were rumors of Team Rocket moving around again, and those people they'd just met were likely suspects and made his hair raise.

He only hoped it wasn't true.

There was strangely not a lot of available articles about the crash. He was frustrated about that and wanted to know why, so he went back to the catalogue and typed in the keywords exactly, which finally came up with a bunch of articles. He clicked on them to see where they were located in that area, only to be confounded by the blocked access sign that came up each time.

When he looked for the reason why, he read that they were 'locked' information and required specific permission. Why did they need permission and what did it mean by 'specific'?

He went to the main area of the Archives, the slightly brighter but still dimmed lights making him blink his eyes and try to adjust to the light. The area he'd been in had been mostly dark, so he felt a bit disoriented with the change.

"Excuse me, sir," he asked the main archivist. "There were articles I wished to look at, but the catalogue said they were locked. I'm supposed to get specific permission, so I was wondering if I may ask you for it?"

The main archivist looked dutifully surprised by this information.

"I'm sorry, but I don't give out permission for these sorts of things. The only way any of our information gets locked up and becomes classified, is when one or more of the City Council members locks it up."

Su Lin and Teddi, having felt Mal's mounting frustration, nudged their noses against his legs in comfort.

"Thanks," he muttered to the archivist. "Is there at least any way to find out who locked it up?"

"Generally, the person's initials are in the description part of the blocked page, but otherwise no," the man told him apologetically.

Mal nodded distractedly at him, before returning back to his room, where Su Lin tugged at his pant leg and pulled him back to the table with the electronic catalogue. There, he pressed the link again, bringing up the 'classified' page, and he searched for the initials.

After the message on the page, right on the bottom were two elegantly scrawled letters.

GR

Mal stared at them for a moment, mostly ingraining the G in his head. It was written in the same way 'G' had been in those private letters to his cousin.

Who and why?

Who was 'G', and why had he locked all of this information up? Why had he seemed so close to his cousin? Why did he write all those words, those specific words in those letters to her?

If, as hinted, G was such an important person in that city, why had he taken time to talk to a small-town girl like Leaf? Was being 'Hero' of Kanto such a big deal that a city council member would reach out to Leaf? Or was there something more?

Frustrated at the lack of information, Mal set the catalogue down. He'd wanted to be in Viridian for a chance to find out some answers, only to come away with just more questions.

The least he could have gotten was where the crash site was, and he couldn't have even gotten that.

"Damn it," Mal cradled his head in his hands. "Why is this becoming such a mystery?"

His pokémon companions gave him comforting nuzzles, and Mal tried to smile back at them. Picking them up, he cuddled them to him as he flipped through the last of the articles he had there. All of them were just conspiracy theories of Leaf after her death, mainly of who was involved or of her real status of her life.

He actually scoffed at the theories of Team Rocket being involved, aiming for revenge against her. Mal was stubborn about and had practically heard from the horse's mouth that Blue drove that car and had aimed it towards the other car.

Team Rocket had plausibility, but Mal was sure he knew the truth.

And seeing other articles besmirching or at least pointing a finger at Blue, even in subtle ways, had him smirking in satisfaction.

He looked forward to the day he would bring that jerk down. He wouldn't quit until he'd put that man down from his pedestal, and taken away his precious title.

On the other hand, Mal tried his best to not pay too much attention to the articles that wanted to say that Leaf could be alive. He didn't want to bring up his hopes, nor of that of his father's.

But if Leaf was alive, living somewhere with no memory...

Mal couldn't help daydreaming about finding her in some city, lost and alone, and then bringing her back home and everything being fine and everyone happy.

He really wished that could be true, and he had a feeling he would never be able to forget these conspiracies ever and he'd be searching hopelessly in every city for his cousin.