Hey guys. I just wanted to apologize for the whole week delay for this chapter. School has just started for me, so now I'm balancing both school and a job. I'll be even more busy than usual, so I have to work extra hard to make time for Fanfiction. I will try my best to continue on with my weekend updates, but the chapters are going to get considerably shorter from here on. Again, I'm sorry. :\

Happy reading for this chapter and I hope you all will still review!

Chipolata: I don't blame you for thinking that he's bipolar lol. Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Disclaimer: I own nothing that is affiliated with Pokémon. Every pokémon in this chapter is capable of the moves that it uses as proven by the information provided on Serebii.

Chapter 11

A voice comes onto the intercom after Nurse Joy's and surprises everyone. It has obviously been altered so I can't decide if it belongs to someone I know or not.

"If any of you three plans on saving Nurse Joy then you'd better start making your way down to the lobby now," it says with an eerie chuckle. "She may not last very long."

My mouth falls agape just as the intercom switches off. I try to make eye contact with either Alec or Drew, but the houndoom bounds towards us before any of us can blink.

Blaziken leaps over our heads to intercept the pokémon just as Drew and Alec step in front of me, their PokéBalls enlarged and ready in their hands.

"Go, Samurott!" Alec calls as he throws his PokéBall forward.

Drew wordlessly follows suit by releasing his absol.

The two pokémon materialize in the hallway and bound forward to join Blaziken. She backflips away to avoid Houndoom's Iron Tail attack just as Samurott speeds ahead of her in the form of Aqua Jet. Unfortunately, Houndoom manages to leap out of the way in time.

"Samurott, Hydro Cannon!" Alec commands immediately.

Samurott swiftly skids to a stop and turns around to face Houndoom again. He rears his head back before launching forth his attack, which successfully hits his mark. Absol follows up with an Aerial Ace and Blaziken adds on to the assault with a Hyper Beam.

Houndoom lets out a loud roar of pain as both attacks hit, but it manages to recover quickly.

A door clicks from beside me as someone steps out from their room. I turn to see the woman from the front of the line in the lobby standing in the doorway with a jolteon. She lets out a shriek as her jolteon shrinks in fear against her leg.

Houndoom snarls and attempts to run towards them, but Blaziken tackles it before it can. The pokémon writhes beneath her as she slams a Sky Uppercut into its jaw.

"Stay in your room!" I yell at the woman.

Her eyes widen at the scene before her and she hastily slams the door shut.

Houndoom suddenly blasts a Hyper Beam in Blaziken's face, throwing her off of it and slamming her into the nearest wall. Samurott barely manages to fire his Water Pulse attack at the Houndoom in time to keep it from attacking Blaziken again.

"Blaziken, return!" I call, and quickly withdraw my pokémon into her PokéBall before she suffers more damage.

Suddenly, a screech sounds from behind the woman's door. A brief moment later, the door breaks down and Jolteon steps out, leaving its trainer lying unconscious on the fallen floor. My mouth falls open in horror at its new large size as it glares at me with its pupil-less eyes.

The voice from before comes back onto the intercom.

"Two against two is a much fairer match now, isn't it? About time we evened out the playing field," it chuckles.

Jolteon growls and charges toward me. Drew pulls me out of the way just as Absol throws himself into the electric-type.

"Are you okay?" he asks, his voice urgent with concern.

I can only nod at him.

He responds by gripping me tighter before calling out a command for Absol.

"Absol, Shadow Ball!" he exclaims.

Absol unleashes the attack as Drew commands and Jolteon counters with one of its own. Smoke erupts from where the two attacks collide and temporarily obstructs our view of Jolteon. Absol braces himself as Drew pulls me even closer into himself.

But then a vine wraps around my ankle and yanks me from Drew's hold. I let out a scream as I hit the floor with a painful slam and my body is yanked across the carpet.

"May!" both Drew and Alec cry out.

Jolteon takes a snap at me as I am pulled right through its legs. It tries to chase after me after it narrowly misses my head, but Absol takes it down before it can. The vine continues to pull me right past the two pokémon at a fierce speed. I look at the end of the hallway to find that I am being pulled by a horrifying victreebel, whose gaping mouth is wide open and ready.

"Woops, now where did that one come from?" the voice on the intercom chuckles.

I find myself wishing that I hadn't returned Blaziken to her PokéBall.

The distance between me and the victreebel is quickly drawing to a close. I splay my hands out and try to dig my nails into the carpet to try and stop myself, but it is of no use. The tips of my fingernails break off and stinging pain shoots down my arm instead.

But I don't give up. I keep clawing at the ground, hoping to at least slow myself down enough to reach for my PokéBall.

Then I notice the armoire against the wall that I am rapidly approaching. With a sudden surge of adrenaline, I throw myself as far as possible to the side and reach for a leg of the armoire. My hands grasp around it, successfully bringing me to a stop.

I feel a hard tug on my leg as Victreebel cries out in anger from the end of the hallway. I ignore its tugging and focus on trying to reach for my PokéBall. But when another tug from the grass-type nearly makes me lose my grip on the armoire leg, I can't help it—I actually growl at the pokémon. The sound angrily slips from my mouth as I yank my knee up to my chin, trying to pry my ankle from the victreebel's grasp as I make one last fumble for my PokéBall.

Relief floods me when I finally close my hand around it.

"Blaziken, Flamethrower!" I call out as I throw my PokéBall into the air.

Blaziken appears in the hallway and immediately fires a Flamethrower at Victreebel. It lets out an ear-splitting shriek and its vine releases its grip around my ankle. The instant return of control in my leg shocks me so much that I have to stumble to my feet.

After I judge the damage that Blaziken's Flamethrower did to the victreebel, I throw a PokéBall at it. To my relief, it's a successful capture and I hesitantly go to retrieve the PokéBall.

"May!" Alec calls from behind me, and I turn to see him jogging down the hallway with his samurott close behind him.

I go to meet him halfway and note the lack of Jolteon and Houndoom in the hallway.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he frantically inquires, gripping my forearms when we reach each other.

"I'm fine. How about you?" I insist. "What happened to the pokémon?"

"I caught the houndoom and Drew returned the jolteon to its PokéBall. He's helping its trainer back into her room now as we speak."

I nod at Alec as I turn my head slightly towards Blaziken.

"Blaziken, let's go help Drew," I tell her.

She nods and leads the way to the room that Drew is in. He is just exiting the room when we arrive at the doorway.

"May," he instantly breathes out in relief although his eyes are still smoldered with concern. "Thank Arceus you're alright."

"Same with you, right?" I ask as I appraise him, while resisting the urge to grip his arms like Alec did mine.

There is an instant softening of his features after I ask him the question, and I find my stomach fluttering. He nods to me and bores into my eyes with his, but his gaze is too intense so I glance over his shoulder into the room.

"Is she alright?" I inquire, referring to the unconscious woman in the bed.

"Yeah, she's fine. She's just unconscious, that's all, but I'm keeping her jolteon just in case."

"Then let's get her door back on its hinges and go back down to the lobby," Alec inserts. "We still have to find Nurse Joy."

Neither Drew or I object to his sentiment.

With Blaziken's help, the three of us place the fallen door back on its hinges. We do our best to ensure that it is secure enough to hopefully keep predators from entering the room. After the task is complete, we hurry to the elevator in order to avoid having to use the stairs. Alec and Drew return their pokémon to make room in the elevator as we ride it back down to the lobby to find Nurse Joy.

Once the elevator doors open, we find that the lobby is completely barren. Not a single person or pokémon is in sight, but Drew and Alec send out their flygon and chandelure to scout the area. Blaziken stays close with us as we carefully step out toward the healing station.

All the blood drains from my face when I see a pool of blood on the ground behind the counter. But Nurse Joy is nowhere to be seen.

"Where is she?" I mutter as I turn around to scan the lobby. "Where the hell is she?"

The voice on the intercom suddenly returns, breathing out the same chilling chuckle.

"Disappointed?" it asks. "If you want to save Nurse Joy, make your way to the top of the building. She'll be waiting...just not for too long."

And then the intercom switches off.

Author's Note: I hope this chapter was eventful enough to make up for the shortage in length. I can't promise that the next chapter will be any longer, but I'll keep rattling my brain for suspenseful scenes to write for you guys to keep you all entertained. Once again, I am sorry for the delay, but I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review! I will try my best to get the next chapter up on time this weekend. :)