Chapter 10:

"How badly do these guys want you Dianne?!" A burst of flames flew over Reid's head as he sprinted down the road. The gang was doing their best to keep up, but Team Magma was hot on their trail. They had been over the past two days. So far, they'd had only a couple hours of sleep and the effects of it were more than evident. Dark circles under their eyes, lightheadedness, Reid had even thrown up at one point. All the side effects from their sleep deprivation was also being paired with the wounds they'd all gotten for various encounters with Team Magma members. Sia got more burns on top of his previous ones, Philly had been knocked out a couple times and was sure to have gotten a concussion. Worst of all, Zeit had gotten paralyzed from a stun spore attack and could hardly float anymore because of it. The funny thing about that was it wasn't even Team Magma that had done that. A wild shroomish did it when he floated over its head. So along with sore legs and whatever other status had been afflicted on all of them, needless to say they were tired.

They continued to huff as they ran down the gravel road. More fire attacks whizzed by as they took a bend around a corner in the path. Reid noticed that Wally and Cami weren't in front of him anymore, but noticed that they had turned and started running into the foliage to his right and he pulled Dianne in the direction the others were running. Wally and the others dove into a thick bush and Reid and Dianne followed. Everyone was basically in pile. A heaving, sweaty pile. They held their breath as they heard the squad of Magma members pass by. Once they couldn't hear the sounds of boots on gravel, they got out of the bush and sat in a group behind it.

"Can we," Cami coughed, spitting out a leaf from bush, "can we take a minute breather?"

"I agree," Wally heaved as he collapsed backwards. "My legs haven't hurt this much since,"

"EVER!" Cami yelled as she fell forward.

"You think Zeit's doing okay since he got paralyzed?" Reid asked as he glanced over Zeit's pokeball.

"He's fine," Cami wailed. "Please just pass me some water."

Reid opened his pack as he placed Zeit's ball back on his belt. As he took out his bottle, he noticed that he only had about a third left. He offered it to her anyway. The pain of being thirsty wasn't as bad as a Cami that had something to complain about. She gratefully took the bottle and chugged every last drop. Wally was doing the same with his bottle, offering the last of it to Dianne after he'd had his fill.

"How much longer until we make it to Rustboro?" Cami gulped as she handed Reid back his bottle.

"It should be like, a few hours at most," Wally said as he sat back up. "Considering we ran a lot these past couple nights, we've definitely closed a lot of distance."

"And what time is it?" Reid asked as Wally checked his watch.

"Five thirteen."

"God why's it gotta be so early?!" Cami complained.

"Relax, we're not that far away. So when we make it to Rustboro in these next couple hours, then where should we take you Dianne?"

"I've got to get out of the region, it's not safe for me here. So the airport is where I need to go. It should be safe enough there anyway with all the security they have. Those Magma grunts wouldn't dare make a move there."

"If you say so," Cami grunted as she laid back.

"Get up, we can't sleep now," Reid complained but with no response. "Cami…"

Wally leaned over and prodded her. He looked back to Reid, "She's out cold man."

Reid sighed as he leaned back, "She at least didn't crush the eggs did she?"

Wally checked back at her again and shook his head. Well that was a relief.

"Alright, twenty minutes of rest. I'll keep an eye on things around here. Sia should be strong enough to fight if it comes to that. You guys get some sleep."

Dianne had no objections as she took off her coat and used it as a makeshift pillow. Wally glanced over to Reid and he gave an approving nod. Accepting Reid's offer, Wally laid down against a tree and instantly fell into a deep sleep.

Reid took out Sia's ball and released him. Sia was instantly in a defensive state and had a faint aura surrounding him.

"Relax, we're just keeping guard. Team Magma passed by us."

Sia eased himself a bit hearing that. He looked over the group of people that were asleep and back to Reid.

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Cause I'm keeping guard. That's why."

"But you look so tired. Let me keep guard for you."

"Yeah that's not happening," Reid laughed as he pulled Sia into his lap. "Somebody's gotta be awake to boss you around.

Sia playfully slapped Reid with his tail, but immediately regretted doing so. The pain from burns shot through his body. Reid rubbed his back trying to help Sia through the pain.

"We'll get that healed up as soon as we get to Rustboro okay?" He nodded gratefully as he layed back in Reid's lap.

"So how long are you gonna let them sleep?"

"An hour. I told them twenty minutes but they really need it."

"How long till we get to Rustboro?"

"Wally thinks it should only be a couple hours until we get there.

"Oh thank goodness" Sia sighed obviously relieved from the statement.

"Yeah. You can sleep some more if you want. I'll wake you if something happens."

"I can stay awake. I want to hear about some of the things that have happened so far. How have Zeit and Philly been doing through this?"

"Well," Reid rubbed the back of his head and looked over Zeit's ball, "Zeit got paralyzed from a Shroomish and We think Philly has a concussion."

"Geez, what happened to Philly?"

"He got hit in the head by a dark pulse attack. He started saying a lot of weird stuff after we got away from them. He was tipsy too, so that's probably not a good sign either."

"Yeesh."

"I couldn't word it any better than that."

They sat around for awhile, not saying anything. After a couple minutes Sia had fallen asleep but Reid wasn't going to do anything about it. He needed just as much sleep as Cami or Wally did. Even if he was sleeping in his pokeball, he needed him to be as strong as he could be in case something went down. And going back on the past couple days. It was probably likely that they were going to get attacked again. It was all very tiring. And hurting. Everything was so sore. Why was everything turning black?

Reid jolted up though when he heard the sound of boots crunching gravel. Sia was awake too and instantly knew what was going on. They held their breath as the people just a dozen feet away were having a conversation.

"You have any luck finding her?"

"None. It's like she just disappeared."

Two men. It was obvious who they were talking about too. They were talking about Dianne. Reid's arm started to heat up and noticed Sia was forming an aura around him again.

"If you see or hear anything, report back to me. Admin Omar wants any info on this situation."

"Roger."

The two men walked off again, the crunching of gravel grew more distant until it was silent again.

"That was close," Sia exhaled.

"No kidding. I thought Wally's snoring was going to give us away."

They both glanced over to Wally, who on que let out a massive snore almost to acknowledge what they'd said. Sia and Reid both both chuckled, lightening the already dreadful mood a bit. Cami groaned a bit and turned in her sleep. They both covered their mouths and let out as many silent snickers as they could. It was nice to have a laugh like that, especially in these past couple days. It was something they needed.

"So how long was I out?" Sia asked as he turned back to Reid.

"I think like an hour or so? I don't have a watch so I'm just shooting in the dark."

"You let me sleep for an hour?!"

"Yeah, now go wake up the others. I can barely feel my legs."

Sia slugged up and walked over to the others and started prodding around. Dianne woke up instantly once Sia poked her. Wally took a second to get up, but Cami was the worst. It took Reid yelling into her ear for her to even start to wake up. It was an uphill battle of one eyelid at a time.

Wally glanced down to his watch and noticed what time it was. He angrily walked over to Reid, and shoved his watch into Reid's face. Reid let out a chuckle and pushed Wally to the side as he gathered his things.

"So a couple more hours right?"

"Yup," Wally answered as he wiped some dirt off his pants.

"Are we going to run?" Cami whined as they they started to push out of the foliage.

"No," Reid answered to her relief. "We heard the squad move back up the path about ten minutes ago, so they've lost our trail.

"Thank god. My legs are so sore."

"And I'm tired," Reid countered, "Now let's get a move on."

The group started to walk down the path again but they were feeling a bit more at ease. Everyone except Sia though, who seemed to be very tense.

"Hey Sia, you want to go back into your pokeball?" Reid asked only to get a shake in response.

It was fairly silent for a good chunk of time, the only sounds were those that were coming from the forest around them. A couple pokemon shouted their cries, trees were rustling in the breeze, and there was even the distant sound of a creek trickling. It was all so, tranquil. For some odd reason though, Reid couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in his stomach.

"WE'RE FREE!" Cami yelled as they broke through the treeline with Rustboro in visible sight. Reid's smile was so wide at this point, he felt like a kid on christmas morning. Everybody took off running in the direction of the city. The airport was even within sight too. It was such a lovely sight it was. Heck, even Wally had shed a tear at the sight of the airport.

In only a matter of minutes, they were at the front doors of the airport. A few people were giving them odd looks, like they were crazy or something, but they didn't know what they had all gone through in the last couple days. They burst through the doors and were all hit with a blast of ice cold air that felt so unbelievably good after being a sweaty mess for so long.

"Are you folks alright?!"

Reid looked up to see one of the airport's security guards had come to their side. "We're a bit worn to say the least," Reid laughed as he leaned up against a wall

"Hey kid, you doing okay?"

"I could use some water," Reid laughed as he slid down the airport wall with his vision starting to fade, "I could go for a nap too." A crowd started to form around him and his friends. More airport security was coming their way, as well as more people. Some woman with bright red hair was patting him, asking him questions, but none of her words registered. He could only make out the cries of the people around him as his vision faded to black.

"So, I see you've failed to capture Dianne and the," The Magma admin took another deep breath as he stared over the squad of Magma members lead by Rokko, "children."

"Sir there's still a chance they're hiding out in the forest!"

"Oh really? So why's it that I heard on the police scanner that there's a group of three children who were found at the Rustboro airport with FUCKING DIANNE MARSHAL!"

"I-I"

"You failed is what you did." The Magma admin pulled out his pistol and shoved it against Rokko's face. "You got any family Rokko?"

"Ga-"

"Cause I'm gonna kill em' and put them in the same grave as you!"

A gunshot rang out through the forest and Rokko fell to the ground.

Reid's eyes flickered open to a blinding white light. And beeping. What was with this beeping? It was really damn annoying to be honest. Reid struggled up and looked around the room. Why the heck was he in a hospital bed?

"So you're finally awake?"

"Wha-" Reid looked over to where the voice had come from across the room. A slightly chunky, older man with white hair and an equally white lab coat approached him.

"You've been out for quite some time young man. Now tell me why is it that you were delivered to me half dead?"

"I was dying?!" The man chuckled at his remarks as he walked over to Reid's bed.

"Well, you were very dehydrated and were so sleep deprived that you've been unconscious for-" The man rolled up his coat and glanced at his watch "Let's just say you've been out for about a day now."

"It's Saturday?"

"One A.M. Saturday morning, yes."

Reid started to get up, grunting as his stiff muscles screamed from every area of his body. His head started pounding and Reid rubbed it, trying to ease some of the pain. The man in white was ahead of the game and passed Reid a tray that had multiple bottles of pills and a large bottle of water. Where he'd pulled it from was a mystery.

"Tylenol, antibiotics, and a few others for the extreme dehydration you had."

Reid just nodded, took the pills that were handed to him, and chugged what was probably a liter of water.

"I'll write how and when you need to take these pills. They are to be taken at certain periods of the day. And that must be done daily for the next week or so. Got it?"

Reid nodded and continued to drain the bottle of all its fluids.

"So, back to this mornings burning question," Reid looked back over to the man, "why were you in the shape you were in?"

Reid took the bottle out of his mouth and placed it on the tray next to his bedside. "Well, let's just say I've spent the last two days doing nothing but run."

"And you've been running with a stump like that?"

Reid looked down to his stump and noticed that there was weird spots and it was slightly darker than the skin around his leg.

"The hell is-"

"It's a mild form of trench foot. I've only ever seen it once before in my entire career. You sweated so much these past couple days that you've actually given yourself trench foot."

"Son of a- is it bad?"

"Like I said it's only mild. Just take these antibiotics, and avoid doing excessive amounts of exercise and you'll be fine."

Reid let out a sigh of relief and fell back into his bed. "By the way, how are my friends doing?"

The doctor chuckled a bit and sat in the chair next to Reid's bed. "Well that green haired fellow is fine. We just gave him some water and he passed out on the couch outside your room. As for your girlfriend, she had a serious case of sleep deprivation and is still sleeping in one of the rooms on this level."

"Okay one, not my girlfriend. Two, is she okay? She's not hurt or anything?"

"Just need a lot of sleep like you did. I think she should be waking up anytime now."

"What about my pokemon?"

"They were put into immediate care upon arrival. I think that Ralts had it the worst though. He has a pretty severe concussion."

"We thought he did. He's not too hurt is he?"

"He'll be a bit tipsy these next couple days, but other than that he'll recover fine."

"That's a relief. What about the eggs? They aren't damaged are they?"

"They're in pristine condition."

Another sigh of relief. There was just one more person to take into account. "And Dianne? Did she make it out okay?"

"Ah yes, Ms. Marshall left earlier yesterday. She called the hospital to pass on the message that she was headed to Kalos and that she was alright."

"Thank goodness," Reid crashed back into his bed "Now what about me? Am I okay, other than my le-stump?"

"Your stump will be fine. Don't worry about it too much. Oh, but I'll tell you that it will hurt quite badly once those painkillers wear off. But you can always take more pills so don't worry. Just don't overdose. Just two tablets every six hours you hear?"

Reid nodded and looked around the room a bit more. "Other than that though, I'm fine?"

"Good enough health to do whatever you want. Again though, I stress not doing any extreme exercise."

"You don't have to worry about doing it," Reid laughed as he got up again and started to get out of his bed. It was then he noticed he didn't have any of his clothes on aside from the hospital gown that had a very drafty back side. "Uhh-"

"Why don't I bring you a change of clothes?" The doctor laughed as he got up and walked out the door leaving Reid alone. Reid looked around the room he'd woken up in. It looked just like the room he'd woken up last time when his leg had...yeah... Looking around a bit more he noticed a painting was on the wall. It was just some painting of pokemon playing around in a brook, but it was cute.

There was a knock at the door and the doctor entered holding Reid's backpack. "Now I haven't gone through your things but I do believe that, being a trainer you have at least one set of clothes to change into."

Reid nodded and the man handed over his backpack. Reid sat back down on the hospital bed and removed his prosthetic. The bumps on his stump gave him another shiver of displeasure. He opened his bag and pulled out a new jacket. It essentially the same as the last one, only this time it was a scarlet and silver instead of dark gray. He'd actually been meaning to wear it lately. Other than that it was the same as before. Blue jeans, gray t-shirt, black socks, and scarlet boxers.

Reid struggled into his jeans as he had been for the past week. That was one of the things he was still trying to get used to after losing his leg. He had to admit, out all the things he'd taken for granted with having his leg, putting on clothes easily sure was something that hadn't ever come to mind. After he'd changed into the rest of his clothes, he packed up the pills he'd been given, handed the hospital gown back to the doctor and made his way to the door of his room.

"So hey, where are my pokemon at?"

"If you head down the hallway, and down the staircase at the right, the pokemon center is right there."

"So this is a combined hospital then?"

"Correct."

"Well isn't that handy."

Reid waved the doctor off and walked out the door. Much to his surprise, Wally was asleep in a chair just outside the room.

"The doc wasn't lying was he?" Reid chuckled as he made his way over to Wally. "Hey Wally, wake up man."

Wally groaned and turned in the chair. Reid let out a sigh and slugged Wally's shoulder and he jolted awake.

"Wha?!"

Wally looked around the hall and noticed Reid standing above him with a smug grin.

"Well looks like somebody's feeling better."

"Yeah, I guess I just needed some sleep. By the way, I heard Philly had a pretty bad concussion. Is he doing okay?"

Wally eyed the ground and didn't speak. The answer to that question was probably a no.

"It's something they said might be permanent, but they don't know right now."

"Don't worry, Philly will be fine. He always is."

"Yeah."

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?"

They both turned and looked down the hallway to see Cami was walking their way. She was thankfully wearing her usual clothes and not that hospital gown that exposed so much. Reid didn't think he could handle something like that.

"Oh hey Cami," Wally waved as she walked over to them. She gently set her backpack against the wall, the eggs still carefully wrapped in clothes and blankets. "You feeling better?"

"Like I could take on an army!" She hopped around and started throwing punches at fake targets.

Reid looked over to Wally who gave him the same look of confusion.

"Well anyways," Reid spoke up grabbing Cami's attention, "It's Saturday morning, and that means we only have one day to train with our pokemon before the tournament starts. What do you guys want to do?"

"I don't have any pokemon so I guess I'm useless." Cami groaned.

"Well that's not true," Wally grabbed Cami's attention, "Just use Zeit and battle against Sia. It'd be like if you had your own pokemon. It'd be good practice you know."

"What about Zeit's ball though?" Cami asked.

"We'll just have Reid set it to zero and tell Zeit to listen to you. Easy as that."

Cami just nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me. Reid, are you cool with that?"

"Yeah it's not a problem. Zeit may be a different story, but I bet he'd be excited to battle somebody that isn't a Magma goon. But, my main question is how are we going to do any of that right now? It's one in the morning."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Wally stopped and thought for a minute, "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there?"

Reid let out a deep sigh and started walking down the hallway towards the pokemon section of the hospital. Cami and Wally grabbed their things and caught up with Reid as he started to climb down the stairs in the way the doctor had said too. After walking down another long hallway, they found the reception desk to the pokemon portion of the hospital.

The woman behind the desk looked up, noticing the gang was approaching her desk. "Welcome to the Rustboro City Pokemon Center. Are you checking in your pokemon or withdrawing them?"

"We all have some pokemon to pick up," Wally spoke as he leaned on the counter. "I'm here to pick up my Ralts and Reid is here to pick up his Treecko and Beldum."

"Alright then, please show me your trainer ID's and I'll go retrieve them."

Reid and Wally both handed the woman their ID's. Once she'd scanned them and confirmed which pokemon to get, she got up and went into one of the doors that was behind her desk. After a few silent minutes of waiting, the woman came back carrying a tray with three pokeballs on it. Wally grabbed Philly's ball and Reid grabbed the remaining two. They waved goodbye to the receptionist and headed for the front door of the hospital.

They walked a bit down the hall before Reid and Wally let out Sia, Zeit, and Philly. They all burst onto the hospital floor in a burst of white light. Sia appeared with a happy grin that rivaled Philly's. Zeit was silent, but bobbed around in his typical manner.

Philly hopped onto Wally's shoulder, with a bit of stumble in his move though. That was something that they'd all have to keep an eye on. Sia happily jumped into Reid's arms, and began to crawl around him like the day they'd met. Reid noticed that Sia had a lot of scars along his body and a lot of mismatched colors on his tail. Reid assumed the burns from the past couple days and the lack of proper treatment were probably the cause. Although Sia didn't seem too bothered by it, it was definitely something that Reid felt guilty about.

"So, how was your guy's sleep?" Sia asked as he perched up on Reid's shoulder.

"A day of sleep was definitely what I needed," Cami laughed as she leaned against Zeit, who easily supported her weight.

"I definitely needed it," Wally chuckled as Philly continued to climb around on his shoulders. It was more of a worried chuckle as Philly struggled in some parts of the maneuvers, but it was nice to see him in better shape. Well, better shape than the days prior.

"How about you Zeit?" Reid asked, grabbing the attention of the armrest across the hall. "You get your movement back after that stun spore?"

"Most if not all of it. I am in near perfect condition."

"Great to hear buddy," Reid smiled as he looked back up to Sia who, like usual, was messing up his hair. "So you guys think you're up to do some actual training?"

Both of their heads turned at the mention of those words. Zeit so much so that Cami had actually lost her balance and nearly fell over. Excitement was beaming out of Sia's eyes, but the same couldn't be said for Zeit who seemed to be a bit nervous at the idea of it.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Reid smiled getting a better look from Zeit.

"I shall fight if it's what's needed of me."

Reid gave a nod to him. It wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for, but he'd take it. They needed to train since the tournament was a little more than twenty-four hours away. Aside from the occasional wild encounters that they'd had along the way to Rustboro, they hadn't actually had much official training time.

"I'm ready to fight too!"

The group looked over to Philly, who was getting riled up on Wally's head. They all gave concerned looks but it was Wally who took initiative.

"Philly, you can't. You've got a concussion and you need to heal for a bit okay?"

Philly didn't take too kindly to that and began lightly beating against Wally's head.

"You said we would be in the tournament!"

"Philly see what you're doing? You wouldn't normally do this. You never throw fits. You have to heal for the next couple of days okay?"

Philly instantly realized what was going on and hung his head in shame as he sat down onto Wally's shoulder, obviously depressed about the situation.

"Don't feel down buddy, we're gonna beat Roxane remember? Just you and me!"

That seemed to cheer him up a bit. At least they wouldn't have to deal with a depressed pokemon at the moment.

"So back to the idea of training, with it being one in the morning and all, where should we go to practice? I'm sure all the practice fields are closed at this time of night," Wally asked.

Everyone silently thought for a few moments before Cami got up and headed back to the pokemon center section of the hospital.

"Hey Cami, where are you-"

"Back to the receptionist Reid. I'm sure if anybody knows where we could go, it'd be her."

Reid and Wally exchanged glances as Cami walked off, but it did make some sense so they followed her back to the receptionist. They all reentered the waiting room and headed for the receptionist's desk.

The woman behind the desk looked up from her computer noticing that the group from earlier was approaching her.

"Is there something else I can help you with?"

"Yeah," Cami answered as she walked up to the desk, "do you have any idea where a practice area would be open at this time?"

The woman though for a bit, typed something into her computer and looked back to the group.

"The only place I know of that has any open training area's would be the airports. It's not too far from here either. If you take a taxi you'll be there in five minutes tops."

"Sounds great, thanks." With that Cami grabbed the guys' arm and drug them out of the room.

"Cami," Reid grunted as he shook free from her grip, "I can walk you know!"

"I know, but you walk too slow." She let go of both the guys who both rubbed their arms, trying to regain some feeling in them. "Oh don't be such drama queens. Get up here!"

They both raced up to Cami, tense to try and avoid any other dragging situation. It was then Cami shoved open the doors of the hospital and they all burst outside. It was fairly cool, but then again it was one and there was no sun to speak of. That didn't mean it was dark though, far from it actually. The city streets were lit up like a christmas tree. Many of the surrounding skyscrapers had dozens of lights beaming from different rooms. Street lights and neon were everywhere and lit the sidewalks in various shades of bright colors. A couple dozen cars were driving down the roads, some of them being fancy new models. There were even a good chunk of people walking around.

"Seems pretty busy for one in the morning." Wally gazed, taking in the scenes.

"Well, Rustboro is the city that never sleeps," Reid laughed.

"Hey we've got a goal in mind you two," Cami barked grabbing the two's attention. Philly, Sia, and Zeit continued to take in the scenes though. They didn't really have much to worry about in the case of Cami at this point. "Now flag down a taxi so we can go practice."

Wally and Reid both gave a confused look to each other. Reid had never signaled for a taxi and he didn't think that Wally had either. So Reid did the only thing he knew about signaling a taxi and stuck his thumb up and started yelling at the top of his lungs. It was both embarrassing and humiliating, but finally after a minute of yelling, a solid black taxi pulled up along the curb. Reid recalled Zeit and Sia while Wally just held onto Philly and they all piled in.

"So where you kids headed to this early in the morning?" The man in front asked as he turned to face the group.

"Rustboro Interregional," Cami answered as the man nodded and pulled back into the street.

"So what are you all doing up so early?" The man asked as he drove down the road.

The group looked at each other, wondering what they should say to their driver.

"We were uh-," Wally stuttered as he tried to think of something to say.

"Picking up our pokemon who just got done being healed." Cami barged in.

Well that wasn't the whole truth, but it was enough to satisfy the driver. The rest of the drive back to the airport was uneventful. Nobody really talked and the drive himself seemed fairly reserved. Not that Reid or anybody else was complaining. A few minutes passed by and they finally arrived at the airport. The driver looked at his watch and counted up the fare which came out to ten ref, which Wally ended up paying for.

They walked to the entrance and the front doors automatically opened. As they walked in they were all hit with a fairly strong blast of cold air. A few other people were hanging around the entrance as well. Most of them had suitcases and were talking on cell phones. They all started walking down the long hallway towards an information counter where a middle aged woman was sitting behind a counter, reading a magazine.

"Umm, excuse me," Wally asked grabbing the woman's attention.

"Yes?" She looked up from her magazine, slightly annoyed.

"Where are your guy's practice rooms at?"

The woman pointed to the right, down a long hallway. They all thanked her, whether she had deserved it or not, and headed down the next hallway. It was a long walk down the hall seeing as how the practice rooms were all the way down the hallway. That was a nice thing though, they all needed to stretch their legs again after the day long nap they'd all had. Finally they'd reached the practice rooms and walked into one of the three rooms. Inside they found a large, probably acre sized arena.

"Geez, this place is huge for being at an airport," Cami gasped as she looked around the arena.

"And to think there are two more of them," Wally laughed.

"Yeah it's pretty cool they have this," Reid said as he admired the room. As he looked around he noticed a sign next to them with a cart of collars. Reid split off from the group and inspected the sign and noticed the cart was filled with limiters. "Hey guys, I think we have to use these limiters over here," Reid shouted over to them. They came over to him and looked at the sign the confirmed what he'd said.

"Look here too," Wally pointed out, "It says we can only have two pokemon out at a time."

"Well that makes sense, they probably don't want some chaotic battle royale going on around at the airport," Cami stated. To be fair it was a good point.

"So who want's to go first?" Wally asked and everybody started eyeing each other.

"How about," Reid thought out loud, "How about I battle Cami. You can use Zeit and I'll use Sia."

"Sounds fine to me," Cami shrugged as she grabbed the pokeball from Reid's belt.

"Here why don't you let me explain it to him," Cami shrugged again as she tossed Zeit's ball back to Reid. Reid let out Zeit, who emerged in a flash of light on the ground. Well, in the ground. He was so heavy he'd slightly sunk into the dirt. Zeit opened his eye and started to hover up looking at the scene around him.

"Are we going to be training now master?"

"Oh my goodness-," Reid sighed, "Yes we are. Now this might be a bit confusing but I'm going to be giving orders to Sia, and you're going to be taking orders from Cami, okay?"

"Not a problem," Zeit answered as he started to hover around the group in usual fashion.

"Well that was easier than expected. Okay, so just listen to all of Cami's orders alright? Don't give her a hard time or anything okay?"

"Understood master."

"Please stop," Reid sighed as he reached for Sia's ball and released him. Sia appeared on the ground standing high, ready for the showdown. "Okay Sia, did you catch all of that?" Reid asked and Sia nodded as he hopped onto Reid's shoulder. "Alright. I guess that settles that. Oh wait, before I forget," Reid went to the limiter cart and pulled out two collars and placed got ready to place it on Sia. "Same deal as last time okay?"

"Go ahead," Sia braced himself as Reid put the collar on. Sia shook slightly as he adjusted to the collars limit.

Reid set Sia down and went over to Zeit, who was finishing the talk about what the collar was for. "You ready Zeit?"

"Yes ma- Reid, I am ready."

Reid grinned at the correction. Focusing back on the task at hand though, Reid strapped the collar onto Zeit, who immediately dropped into the ground. Reid jumped back just in time to not get his good foot crushed underneath the weight of Zeit. "Geez, Zeit are you okay?"

There was a faint, psychedelic groan that echoed throughout the arena, but Reid knew it was just Zeit adjusting to the limit the collar was having on him.

"I'm okay," Zeit groaned again. He did his best to hover again, and the group backed up away from him as to not get squashed by his weight.

"You sure?" Reid asked, and Zeit bobbed in acknowledgement.

"Alrighty then," Cami said as she pulled Zeit towards the back corner of the arena. "We'll tell you when we're ready!" She yelled back to Reid.

"She sure is charismatic," Wally laughed as he picked up Sia and handed him over to Reid.

"That's an understatement," Reid groaned as he placed Sia on his shoulder. "So hey Wally, we need you to ref for us, can you do that?"

"No prob man. Anyways, go kick Cami's butt. She doesn't have anything on you got that?"

"Strategy wise I think your right," Reid chuckled as he glanced over to the corner Cami and Zeit were huddled up in. They were clearly trying to make it look like they had a plan of action, but knowing her she'd probably just end up rushing in at him. "Alright Wally, Sia and I are going to our corner. Just give us a couple minutes and make sure to stay safe while the battle goes down."

"Sure thing man. You stay safe too man." With that Wally ran off towards the middle and Reid and Sia ran over to their side of the field. Once the got to their side, they huddled up and started talking strategy.

"So Sia, how much energy is that thing draining from you?"

Sia threw a few quick punches and looked back up to Reid, "A pretty good chunk. I'm much slower than I usually am."

"Then I'm guessing that Zeit is probably feeling the same." Reid looked back over at Cami and Zeit seeing that they were both still in a huddle. "Well, seeing as how Zeit can only use take down, you will probably have the edge."

"Plus I have a dark type move that's super effective against Zeit, so that will help."

"Yeah, that too."

"Heeeeey!" They both looked up from their group and noticed that Cami was waving her arms back and forth, quite dramatically too. "You guys done yet?"

"Shut up, we've been waiting on you!" Reid yelled which seemed to anger her.

"We've been done for five minutes now! Get your ass in gear!" Cami shouted with a raised fist.

Reid deadpanned and looked back to Sia who was laughing up a storm.

"So, you ready?" Reid asked as Sia hopped onto the battlefield.

Sia glanced back, a confident grin taking over his face, "More than ever!"

Reid looked back to Cami across the arena who was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Ready when you are!" Reid shouted. Cami waved him off and looked over to Wally who was standing near the entrance of the arena.

"Start this match anytime now!" Cami yelled over to him.

"Alright then. On my mark you guys!" Wally shouted holding his arm up.

Every part of Reid's attention was focused on Cami and Zeit. He didn't think Cami really had anything planned out other than a bum rush at Sia. Even though that was all Zeit could do at this point in his life, he couldn't help but feel like she had something up her sleeve. Cami had a look to match as well. Everything from her evil smile to the confident aura surrounding her showed him she had something planned. Whatever it was, he knew th-

"Begin!"

"Zeit, take down!" Cami shouted and Zeit boomed across the field.

Even with the limiter zeit still closed the distance between Sia in just a couple seconds. Sia had somehow managed to dodge out of the way of Zeit's attack. Zeit though, had a hard time stopping his attack and bulleted past Reid shot right into the wall, embedding himself in it.

Everybody's eyes locked onto Zeit's motionless body as he laid still in the wall.

Reid slowly walked over to where his pokemon was at in the wall. Zeit made no attempt at all to get out of the wall and Reid could only hear low psychedelic groan as he approached him.

"Zeit, buddy you okay?" Reid asked as he planted a hand on his back.

"Master please," Zeit groaned as he slowly started to slide out of the wall, "Just get this chapter posted soon."

Zeit plopped onto the ground, sinking into the dirt once again. Reid noticed at the front of his body there was a fairly large dent. A dent that could not be healthy for him. Not that his ramblings were something healthy either, but that would be brought up some other time.

"Hey umm, I think we should postpone this," Reid shouted as he returned Zeit to his pokeball.

Cami and Wally were both quickly on his side of the field and rushed over to him.

"Is Zeit okay?" Cami asked, clearly worried about Zeit.

"He's got a big dent in him. Definitely is going to need a visit to the pokemon center," Reid let out a sigh as he placed Zeit's ball back on his belt. "What exactly was your plan there?" Reid asked with a raised tone.

"Bum rush," Cami blushed as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Christ...I knew I was overthinking this whole thing."

Reid looked back at the exit of the arena and started walking towards it.

"Hey, where are you going?" Cami asked, only getting an annoyed scowl in reply.

"Reid," Wally called out yet again grabbing his attention, "Okay so umm, I can tell you're fairly annoyed by all this."

"And?" Reid asked somewhat impatiently as the others caught up with him.

"Well if you want, we can take Zeit back and you can stay and train with Sia."

Reid thought it over as Sia rejoined them.

"We do need to train Reid," Sia said as he hopped onto Reid. "The tournament is tomorrow you know."

"Yeah I know Sia," Reid groaned as he pushed Sia's paws out of his hair. "I guess we could stay for a little while and meet up with you guys a bit after we train."

"Sound like a plan," Wally said as he took the pokeball Reid handed him.

"Just make sure he doesn't flip out or something whenever you let him out okay? He was rambling again."

"What was it this time?" Cami asked as she twiddled her fingers.

"Getting a chapter posted. Whatever the hell that means."

"Does your pokemon have an obsession with writing or something?"

"You're asking the wrong guy Wally."

Wally shrugged as he and Cami walked out of the arena leaving just Reid and Sia alone.

"So how are we going to train?" Sia asked as he pulled at Reid's hair.

"No freaking clue man," Reid sighed taking a look around the arena. "Nothing to train with or against."

Reid thought about it for a little while, only to be pulled out of his train of thought by the tug of Sia pulling at his hair.

"Ow, dude c'mon not so hard."

"Sorry. You think of anything yet?"

"Dude I got nothing."

Sia was silent for a few moments, clearly with something on his mind. "You want to fight me?"

"Eh?"

"I can just fight you. I'll hold back my attacks if you want me to."

Reid chuckled as he patted Sia's tail, "I'd rather not end up like Zeit, Sia."

"Point made."

They both looked around the arena in silence, nothing really to do and no way to practice. Reid wasn't exactly sure what Wally and Cami had had in mind for him and Sia to do really.

"Hey Sia," Reid called up grabbing his attention, "You want to go get something to drink?"

"That sounds great," Sia nodded as they both started to walk about the airport.

As they continued to walk, Reid noticed there was a ridiculous amount of restaurants that were sheltered away throughout the hall. There were bars, fast food chains, even fancy sit down restaurants. One of the bars in particular stood out to him. It wasn't special in any way really, in fact it seemed sort of dull, but compared to the crazy colors and designs of all the other bars and restaurants the tameness was what was calling to him. He pulled out a stool and sat down in front of the bar.

"What'll it be?" The bartender asked him as he continued to polish a shot glass.

"Whiskey please."

The Bartender nodded and poured him a quick shot of Captain Briney.

"Hey, uh is your Treecko-"

"Yes, and it's a long story," Reid guy answered the guy next to him but Sia immediately reprimanded him with a slap on the head.

"Oh-I'm sorry for bothering y-"

"It's not a problem," Sia chirped getting a surprised look from the stranger. "We've just had a really long day is all,"

Reid took his drink and he downed it in one swift gulp. "That and I get that question a lot." Reid turned and extended his hand to the stranger. "Reid York. How's it goin?"

"Ash Ketchum. And it's been a long day for me too." Ash chuckled as he shook his hand.

Instantly, Reid's eyes widened and had a very serious look. He studied Ash over, looking at his hair, clothes, and then finally stopped at the pikachu on his shoulders. "Oh god you're Ash Ketchum."

AN: One year. It's been a whole god damned year. Jesus. So much has changed. My life has completely flipped upside down and rightside up in such a short amount of time that it'd be a chapter all its own. I could have had this out so long ago, it was 98% done for well over a year...I'm just glad to be back though. Sorry for the wait. More to come. I hope.