It was the very thing they had been trying to avoid, and it finally happened.
They'd been so close. Team Galactic had left such an easy trail to follow, their grunts and their Pokemon were almost pathetically easy to defeat, and the warehouse was wide open. But too much of a good thing could only mean a trap waited for them. The commanders had wasted no time taking all their Pokemon and locking them in cells with broken warp panels.
I wonder how Dawn and Brock are doing, Ash wondered. Brock had been angry enough to punch a hole in the wall, but Dawn had been crying. He'd never seen her so scared before.
In the cell next door, Paul and Zoey argued loudly, just like they'd been doing throughout the chase. Ash rolled his eyes.
"You'd think they'd be too scared to fight at a time like this," he grumbled.
"This is my fault," Gary finally said; he'd been oddly silent ever since they were thrown in the cell. "I'm the one who said we should follow the trail and be ready to attack as soon as we got to their hideout!"
"What?" Ash blinked. "No, we were all too confident. We thought if the grunts were all stupid, the bosses would be too!"
"But it was my idea to track them in the first place!" Gary drove a fist against the wall, and Ash could swear he saw his shoulders hitch. "And now look! We're trapped here, those fiends are probably doing who knows what to our Pokemon...we should've just left it to Officer Jenny and people who know what they're doing," he said, choking a bit on the last words.
"Gary..." Ash moved over to put an arm around his shoulders. "This isn't like you. You never blame yourself for anything and I've never seen you get scared. Well, get scared and not try to hide it, anyway!"
"We've never been in this kind of trouble before," Gary muttered. Ash turned to face him, resting both hands on his shoulders.
"We're in this together, though. We all fell for a trap, we all got captured, and we're all gonna get out of here," he said. "Come on, what happened to the know-it-all Gary I used to fight with?"
Gary smiled a little, laying his hand over Ash's.
"You're forgetting I really do know it all," he chuckled weakly, leaning against the wall and pulling Ash with him. "I guess I'm just tired...maybe once we all get some sleep we'll figure out a plan to bust outta here."
"That's the spirit." Ash smiled, nestling close to Gary for warmth. "Sleep sounds good, too..." he yawned. "G'night."
Gary sighed, resting his cheek against Ash's hat. The other boy wasn't a smooth talker, but this time he seemed to know just the right thing to say. Well, a little. It didn't seem so hopeless anymore anyway.
"Thank you."