Brock was in heaven. Surrounded by countless pretty Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys, all of whom were singing his praises. And no Croagunk or jealous ear-grabber in sight. They were all guiding him to a gigantic bed, and Brock was really looking forward to what was next.

He flung himself onto the bed...

And winced in pain as the bed was rock hard and ice cold. The boy woke up with a start, rubbing his very sore back.

"Ugh..." Brock groaned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Must've fallen on the floor..."

But when he looked around, he saw no sign of the bed. Or the room. Or his friends.

Suddenly very awake, Brock leapt up to his feet. He was in an empty room...no, a cell! A cell with no windows, beds, or anything else. He couldn't even see a door. Just a crack in the wall a tiny but of light filtered through.

What the hell's going on?! Brock was about to yell for help when he heard some voices coming from the crack. Voices he recognized as Anita and Marge, the two women in charge of this place. Sensing something was very wrong, Brock cautiously crept closer.

"...how long should we keep the two in there?" Anita was asking.

"A day or so. Long enough for hunger to sap their fighting strength. If their friend is any indication, these children are going to be some trouble." Marge answered matter-of-factly.

"They'll come around. Don't worry about that. And I'm sure the Missionary will take the fight right out of that dear, Ash." Anita continued in that same sickly sweet voice she used to welcome the group here. "Now, is there anything else? I have to make breakfast for the children."

Marge's voice hesitated for a second, before saying. "No. Nothing that can't wait."

"All righty then." Anita chuckled. Faint footsteps indicated that the two woman had left whatever room they were in.

Brock froze. They'd been kidnapped...imprisoned! And they didn't have their Pokemon...and he didn't have his backpack, either. A search through his jeans confirmed that they had taken his phone. He couldn't call for help. Where were Ash and Dawn?

A hundred questions went through his head. Not a single answer came to him. All he could do was shiver on the cold floor.

Pikachu woke up in a cage. He opened his eyes to see metal bars all around him, with darkness in the background. The second he saw where he was, he roared and let out a powerful thunderbolt. But it did nothing to the cage.

The next thing he tried was ramming it, but the cage was secured to the ground...no, the table it was on. Pikachu blinked the pain away and tried to get a better grip of his surroundings.

He was inside a small, dingy building. The morning light that had woken him up was coming through a nearby window. Pikachu's cage and the racks and racks of Pokeballs had been arranged around the room so nobody looking in the window would notice them.

At the end of the room, illuminated by light was a gigantic...Pikachu wasn't quite sure what that was. It looked like an oven, with a smokestack going through the ceiling, but it was big enough to hold a human. It was grey, cold and rusty, giving off a foreboding feel.

Pikachu tried shocking and ramming the cage again, but nothing worked. He couldn't get out. The Pokeballs were too far away from him to be any help. All he could do was cry for help.

Nobody heard him.

Ash's mouth had gone completely dry. Right in front of him was a creature from Kalville, one of the monsters he had created with Alessa's power. The fog, the tournament, Satos, Ed...it all came rushing back to him. The Skull Child.

He thought he'd left it behind him...but no. Was it following him? First there was Mashura and Pyramid Head, and now...he had half-expected that he'd see more of Silent Hill but...not like this...

The skull child growled. "Did you think you could just run away, Daddy?" It asked, anger in it's voice.

Ash didn't know what to say. What could he say? This thing, this manifestation of his that was supposed to be gone forever. Was it angry that Ash left it behind ? How could it be? It ceased to exist when Alessa took her power back. How did it return? Why here?! Why now?! And why was it mad at him?

"Look...I..." Ash stammered for a second, unable to come up with anything resembling an answer. "I didn't...I...I'm..." Eventually he shook his head clear and pointed to the monster blocking the doorway. "I...I need to get out of here. Can you...can you help me?"

The monster child shook his head. "No." It said in an angry tone. "I helped you already. You help yourself now."

Ash was stunned by this declaration. "What?! But I can't...I don't have my Pokemon! I don't have my..." he stammered before being interrupted.

"You don't need them! You need to find the story."

Now Ash was totally perplexed. "The...story?"

It was then Ash noticed that the monster was clutching a piece of paper in it's grubby hands. With some hesitation, the creature held up the paper for Ash to take. With some reluctance, Ash did so.

On it was a crude drawing of a woman standing next to...Ash had to squint his eyes to make it out. The crayon drawing (Ash hoped it was crayon, it was all very red) looked...like the monster that was blocking the doorway. The title read 'ThE PrIEsTEss aNd The GluTToN'.

It was blank on the other side.

Ash looked up to try and question the skull child, but it had already vanished. Looking around, Ash didn't even glimpse the creature darting away. It was just...gone. Vanished. But the Glutton was still there, rumbling like a hungry tiger.

Despite the situation, Ash couldn't help but groan. So he had to search this entire place for the rest of the story? This gigantic prison, with countless rooms and passageways, and he needed to find a few sheets if paper if he was going to escape?

"Where do I...where do I even start?" Ash muttered to himself, looking at the map.

At the beginning of the lesson.

Ash jumped. That voice again! He'd definitely heard it this time. But once again, nobody was in sight. Nothing in the hall but him and the Glutton...and Ash somehow doubted that thing was the one who talked.

Ash decided to step away from the creature, not wanting to stay too close to it. It seemed immobile, but Ash couldn't shake the feeling that it could leap at him and devour him whole in a second. That it was just waiting.

Where the lesson begins? Clearly, that was the only hint he was going to get. Ash looked at the map, trying to decipher that clue. Lesson, lesson...wait, didn't Marge say Adrian needed to relearn his lessons? Is there a room for that? Maybe that's what it meant.

Considering the map for some time, Ash noticed a room labeled 'classroom'. That was as good a place as any to start. From the look of it, it was on this floor...Ash figured out the direction to take and started walking.

I'm getting out of here, Ash told himself. I'm gonna get out. Pikachu, Brock, Dawn, be okay. Stay okay. I'm coming. It's going to be okay. I'm gonna get everybody out of here. I just need to...I just...

Arceus help me…